On The Border
Over this Memorial Day weekend I had my first chance to digest the liberal Jewish defense of President Obama’s recent position on the Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative. It starts with their belief that Israel is doomed.
It was approximately 2 weeks ago that President Obama stated in a speech at the State Department “We believe that the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps so secure and recognized borders are established for both states.” This one line from a speech that most Americans were in agreement induced anger and concern both in Israel and the U.S. A bi-partisan Congress welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel who gave a rousing speech in Israel’s defense. President Obama’s statement concerning Israel’s return to its 1967 borders created a bright line between those American Jews who continue to support President Obama and who constitute an overwhelming majority and those Jews who see in this President a person who has no intention of maintaining America’s historical support for Israel his soaring rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.
In warfare, the greatest enemy of victory is wishful thinking. And if there is any criticism to which President Obama is vulnerable, giving him the benefit of good faith, it is just that. Truth be told many military strategists contend that the current borders of Israel are less defensible than those of 1967. Moreover as long as Israel depends upon the U.S. or any third party country for its defense it will always be insecure. The liberal Jewish view of Israel is unacceptable because it assumes that Israel is not a viable nation no matter what its borders. And for those Jews that accept Israel’s existence based on the assumption that Israel will always have the U.S. prepared to rush munitions to the battlefield or help create costly sophisticated missile defense systems is simply wishful thinking. The time has come for Israel and its people to address the realities of existence. Defend yourself.
The Rights Of Egyptians And Americans
Filed under: Courts, Elections, Health Care, International Reflections, National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary
It is a tale of two countries. While the institutions of one country are incapable of addressing the pressing demands of its people for freedom, the institutions of another are so strong that one Federal judge in some remote part of the country has the power to overturn the most comprehensive and consequential legislation passed by Congress in nearly a century.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
Today perhaps as many as a million people will peacefully converge in Cairo, Egypt to demand that its president resign from office because he has abused his power. The president has remained in office under an emergency decree, which he established, for 30 years which removed the power of the institution of the judiciary, among others, established to protect the people from his abuse.
Yesterday, in this country, a Federal judge found in favor of 26 states that the Federal government abused its power by demanding that the people shall forever be mandated to purchase health insurance in clear violation of our Constitution. Because our institutions are so strong there is little need for the people to enter into the streets. However they do just that, every once in while I suppose just to show that they can. Not only are we blessed with strong institutions but we trust them to carry out what all Americans have agreed to abide by and with respect to our representatives to uphold, the Constitution of the United States.. Notwithstanding that Americans generally agree that our federal government is one of limited, enumerated powers – there are those that seem to hold that there are no limits at all on what the federal government can do as long as it is justified on some alleged humanitarian basis. Our president, President Obama is clearly one these people.
As our televisions and internet announce to us the struggle of a people nearly half a world away to free themselves of an oppressive and autocratic tyrant here in this country the people struggle to make certain that our government remains in our control, restricted by our institutions, and yes even if the President of the United States disagrees with us. Our Constitution does not begin with the words, “I, the President of the United States…” but rather with “We the People of the United States.” And so shall it be.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Hard Times Ahead For Socialist Left
Filed under: National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary
As Republicans take over the House of Representatives in Washington and many of the state capitals and legislatures throughout the country the American people will be witnessing fundamental changes in government policy on a scale that they haven’t experienced since the 1930’s. But are the American people prepared to for the resulting pushback of the Socialist/Democrat minority?
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
Already there is talk of a government shutdown when the issue of expanding the debt ceiling soon comes before this Congressional session. The last time this threat of a government shutdown occurred was in 1994. But then the American people abandoned the Republicans and blamed them for being unnecessarily obstinate and churlish. President Clinton at the time was thought to be a one term president, especially after a similar Republican takeover of Congress. But the American people blinked, Republicans failed to meet the budget challenge and President Clinton was re-elected in 1996. Will this time be any different? I think it will.
This time Socialist/Democrats will be fighting not only against Republicans but against an American people who believe they have been hoodwinked. In 2008 the American people thought they were voting against the unwillingness of the ruling party, the Republicans, to address some very serious issues facing the country: health care, social security and an ever mounting overpowering debt. To top it off the American people were furious with a government mortgage policy, which they blamed on the incumbent party that literally brought our economy to a standstill. The policies and legislation of the 111th Congress, totally controlled by the Socialist wing of the Democratic Party along and a Socialist and inexperienced president expanded the countries debt trillions of dollars and with no plan to reduce it. Deficits are now predicted as far as the eye can see. This time Republicans will have, as Sarah Palin would say, “Momma Grisly” on their side.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Socialism Has Hit The Internet, Now A Regulatory Crisis
Socialism is a stealth ideology. The reason is quite simple: Unless you belong to the privileged classes its tenets are inconsistent with freedom and individual liberty and those that who proselytize it know this.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
Yesterday the Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 2, that’s 3 Democrats to 2 Republicans to impose a massive regulatory scheme upon those that provide internet services throughout the country. Supporters call it Net-Neutrality. Just think, 3 people, that’s right 3, in a country of 3 hundred million decided to control probably its most dynamic and ubiquitous industry. And it was carried out not in the halls of our federally elected officials, 300 hundred of whom signed a letter opposing the Commission’s proposed regulations but by an agency, fairly small compared to say the Department of Labor or the IRS and which few Americans even know about.
And what is more troubling many argue that by voting to impose these regulations upon this industry they will address problems that don’t even exist. If that isn’t Socialism, what is? How did this happen? To answer that question all you have to do is look at the supporters of these regulations and you will find a Rogues Gallery of those who believe in socialism as the preferred form of government. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal lists the usual suspects: MoveOn.org, Bill Moyers’s Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, George Soro’s Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation and Free Press run by a Robert McChesney professor of communications at the University of Illinois. He is an admitted Socialist. Mr. McChesney is quoted as saying that “any serious effort to reform the media system [read "internet"] would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself.”
What with an admitted socialist president in office and probably the most liberal congress since the founding of our nation it will take a generation to get this country back on its free market and individual liberty tracks. However in the last 2 years Congress’s stealth socialism has been revealed and this last November the American people threw the bums out. In 2012 President Obama will be next no matter how he triangulates and no matter the economy or the unemployment rate. Stealth socialism at least for most of America is a dead letter.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Obama’s Fed Pay Freeze
Filed under: National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, U.S. Economics
This week, lo and behold, President Obama announced a 2 year pay freeze for civilian federal workers. Notwithstanding the freeze will save only 5 billion dollars over two years in which a deficit of over 1 trillion dollars will be generated it represents something far more important for the economic health of this country.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
State public debt throughout the country right now is over 2 trillion dollars much of which represents underfunded public sector pension plans. Moreover public sector employees receive 30% to 40% more in wages than workers in the private sector. Of course the chances of being laid off from a public sector job is almost non-existent when compared to the lay-off rates with that of private sector employees.
Notwithstanding, unions representing Federal employees have expressed outrage that their members’ salaries will not increase during this severe downturn in the economy. This, while the unemployment rate is edging up to 10% most of which represents private sector employees. Taxpayers are catching on even those private sector employees who are members of unions. The concept of union solidarity between private sector and public sector members is quickly vanishing. This summer, for example, the Democratic Congress approved a 600 million dollar payment to state governments to keep public sector employees working while private sector taxpayers foot the bill.
It seems President Obama is also catching on even though perhaps at great political risk. The “shellacking” the President took this November seems to be having an effect but he better be careful. The liberal left can be very unforgiving at the county dance but the President’s strategy seems to be sweet-talking those independent voters. You know those that “brung” him.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
The Effects Of A Socialist Union Rule
We are constantly warned that if we don’t stop the taxing and spending of the last 4 years we are going to turn into France. However if you truly want to see what a progressive-socialist America will look like look to Argentina.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
It has been over a 100 years that the progressive-socialist movement has attempted to capture the American psyche. That attempt can be traced from the Sixteenth Amendment wherein Congress was given the power to tax income, to the Great Depression, to the Great Society. We are now eating the bitter fruit of this monstrous tree. But what has been recently revealed as the true nature of this poisonous economic and social philosophy is something that even those who promoted its adoption never quite anticipated. And that is the cancerous growth of public employee unions and their deleterious effect on the public fisc. Throughout the country our state budgets are breaking the back of the middle class taxpayer due to the increase in the number of our public employees and the extraordinary growth of their pensions and wages. Recently government obligations are exceeding 40% of GNP. What happens to a government when vast numbers of organized citizens rely upon it for their wages and pensions. We are seeing that now in Argentina.
Argentina is a country subject to one party rule, the party of Juan Peron which is controlled by, you guessed it, a public employee national union. This union provides the goons that when new taxes are considered to be legislated and then paid by those in the private sector…they get legislated and they get paid. America hasn’t gotten their yet but when public sector unions in this country are able to tax their members and use this money to make contributions to politicians who then pass laws to increase the wages and pensions of those very public employees we are not too far behind.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Jonathan Last and “America’s One-Child Policy”
Filed under: Health Care, Social Commentary, U.S. Economics
Jonathan Last and "America’s One-Child Policy": Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadImagine the United States being at war for 40 years by which time we lost 50% of our population. But worse, that the average age of the population that survived was 65.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
Now I am no statistician and I don’t know all the statistical proof to describe America’s population 40 years from now. But of one thing I am certain: What with the increase of women entering higher education resulting in having children at a later age, the easy availability of abortion and contraception, the increase of the cost of child care, including that of higher education and the desire of young people to participate in a consumer society and therefore unwilling to take on the burdens of one child no less 2 will result in a population catastrophe.
Catastrophe? Come on Roger, aren’t you laying it on pretty thick? Well not according to Jonathan Last in his recent article in the Weekly Standard entitled “America’s One-Child Policy.” He describes a series of population concerns experienced throughout the world in which the United States is not immune. For example, will there be enough young people to pay for the government entitlements of Social Security and Medicare assuming the current eligibility age? By the year 2020 two people will be paying for one person on Social Security. By the year 2040 it will be one person performing that function. Further, will the United States have a sufficient number of young people to carry out our worldwide commitments or worse a sufficient number of young people just to defend the nation? And will we have a sufficient number of workers to pay for a viable army, navy or air force? And lastly, will we have enough workers to begin to tackle the 67 trillion dollar debt looming over the horizon and coming at us like a tsunami?
Does anyone in listening distance believe that the Republican Congress that seems certain to become an historical fact on January 1, 2011 is prepared to address the problems of a shrinking population? I certainly don’t think so.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
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