Freedom Line Blog

There’s an interesting column in Foreign Policy I commend to anyone trying to make sense out of the realignment going on in the Democratic and Republican parties.  With former president George W. Bush firmly entrenched in the public’s mind as a neoconservative nation-builder, President Barack Obama did what most political opponents do – adopt the opposite strategy.

Thus, we’ve got a Commander-in-Chief who looks and sounds a lot like former president George H. W. Bush, the highest ranking member of the foreign policy “realist” school.  To my lights, foreign policy realism is shorthand for “The world is a really dangerous place run by a lot of bad people.  Since there’s nothing we can do to change it we might as well make nice with some of the friendlier dictators.”

Perhaps that notion is correct; at least in general.  Such a view of the world helps explain why President Obama can’t seem to summon his emotions when pro-democracy marchers are killed in the streets of Tehran.  Bad people do bad things, but hey; it could be worse.

But while Jacob Heilbrunn’s Foreign Policy article does a nice job of recounting the ebb and flow of Realism’s popularity with Republicans, he seems to miss a more obvious point about the kind of politician who would be attracted to the philosophy.  Consider the presidents Heilbrunn identifies as fans: Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, and now Barack Obama.  Their commonality?  Each president is motivated by pessimism about the world around him.

Eisenhower’s most memorable speech was his farewell address warning about a military-industrial complex.  Nixon had enemies’ lists.  Bush didn’t see the value of “the vision thing” and preferred to talk shop with elites instead of connecting with everyday citizens.  And then there’s Obama.  He might be the most negatively-oriented president we’ve had since Nixon.  The reason America needs “Hope” and “Change” is because everything is currently broken.  Besides, who are Americans to lecture the world on morals when it’s so obvious to Progressive faculty members that the United States is probably at fault for their problems?

Foreign policy realism may be a necessary corrective to neoconservative empire-building, but realism’s lack of popularity doesn’t mean it is right; just that if offers an unsatisfying view of the world.

In the video below Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is out stumping for his Roadmap for America’s Future, a comprehensive reform plan that actually focuses on reforming existing government policies and programs; not creating new ones.  Early on he addresses the observation that politicians who put out detailed plans get criticized, and sometimes lose their jobs.  Ryan would rather take the chance that commonsense people are ready to have a real discussion about getting America’s fiscal house in order.

May the 2010 midterm elections bring more people like Paul Ryan to Congress.

Seemingly, there is no end to the vitriol – subtle and otherwise – that leftist filmmakers are able to conjure up for movies about conservative political leaders.  In the latter half of his presidency George W. Bush was the depicted as a mentally unstable frat boy in the movie W and as an assassination target in Death of a President.

Now, Britain’s most consequential (and best) statesman since Winston Churchill will be portrayed as suffering from dementia while regretting her political career.  Not content to let former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s legacy be ignored by nearly all leaders in modern British politics, the people behind the film The Iron Lady are getting Meryl Streep to help create a storyline that isn’t true.  Yes, Thatcher is declining mentally, and I’m sure she regrets the fact that her party lacked the courage to maintain her defense of free markets and traditional British culture.  But that’s a far cry from regretting the very ideas that made her successful.

Is this kind of character assassination the only kind of creativity the film industry is capable of anymore when it comes to political figures?  If so, where’s the movie about an elderly version of Bill Clinton recounting all his life’s missed opportunities and wasted moments of self-indulgence?  Where is the TV mini-series about the epic match-up of egos between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama?  They could call it The Plastic Lady v. The Gen-X Candidate.  The series could explore all the psychological problems propelling the main characters to forsake healthy family relationships and a normal life for the chance to run everyone else’s.

But maybe those stories would be too boring.  After all, there’d be almost no suspense.

For now, I’ll sit back and hope that Streep’s Iron Lady is at least as insightful as Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Elizabeth II in The Queen.  As Mirren’s Academy Award for Best Actress demonstrates, even Oscar likes a performance that advances more than just a political agenda.

Following a meeting with business groups earlier today on  the issue of job creation, House Minority Leader John Boehner floated one of the best ideas suggested this year:  A one-year moratorium on all new federal regulations.

“I think having a moratorium on new federal regulations is a great idea,” Boehner told reporters.  “[I]f the American people knew there was going to be a moratorium in effect for a year that the federal government wasn’t going to issue thousands more regulations, it would give them some breathing room.”

Now that’s a Stimulus Plan we can all support!

This should be a period of robust cyclical recovery from the past recession, but we received yet another troubling sign from the Federal Reserve yesterday. For the month of June 2010, American manufacturers utilized only 71.4% of productive capacity, down from 71.7% utilization in June.

What this means is that instead of cranking up and increasing velocity, manufacturers decelerated from May to June.  Moreover, this 72% capacity utilization compares with the post-war historical average of 81%.  Translation:  there exists a lot of slack in our economy at a time when we should be expanding.  This news comes on the heels of reports that American companies are hoarding a record $2 trillion rather than spending it on expansion or job creation, and adds to the sense that Obamanomics are subduing our recovery, not stimulating it.

In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino discusses the Obama Administration’s politically-motivated response to the oil spill in the Gulf and its cozy relationship with BP.

This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out.  Below is a summary of its contents:

Senik:  The Public Pension Time Bomb: Coming Soon to a State Near You
Lee:  Obama’s BP Spill Commission Places Partisanship Above Progress
Ellis:  Does Britain’s Coalition Government Show the Way to Enact the Tea Party’s Agenda?
Lee:  If Liberals Ban Capital Punishment, Next They’ll Target Life Imprisonment
Release:  CFIF Files Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of Illinois’ Campaign Finance Law

Freedom Minute Video:  Gulf Oil Spill – From Hope to Audacity
Podcast:  Interview with Florida State Representative Matt Gaetz on BP Oil Spill
Jester’s Courtroom:  They’re Not Fruit?

Editorial Cartoons:  Latest Cartoons of Michael Ramirez
Quiz:  Question of the Week
Notable Quotes:  Quotes of the Week

If you are not already signed up to receive CFIF’s Liberty Update by e-mail, sign up here.

In an interview with CFIF’s Renee Giachino, Florida State Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Ft. Walton Beach) discusses the federal government’s slow response to the BP oil spill, the need for a special session of the Florida legislature and the spill’s implications for the country’s energy policy.

Listen to the interview here.

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez on President Obama’s plummeting poll numbers.

National Reivew’s Victor Davis Hanson joins the call to get Eric Holder out of the Attorney General’s office with a parade of horribles similar to CFIF’s position.  With all the evils confronting American law enforcement – a drug-fueled Mexican civil war, human trafficking, and terrorist threats from naturalized citizens like Faisal Shahzad – it is stunning to think that the nation’s top prosecutor can’t seem to see his job as anything other than the highest profile assignment desk of the ACLU.

Hopefully, it won’t take an avoidable tragedy to convince President Barack Obama that Holder is a national liability as long as stays at his post.

If only the indicted former Illinois governor could have passed on the chance to be first elected official to do business with the Obama White House political machine he too might be just another “coincidence” in need of rationalizing.  At first, Blagojevich seemed to be a bad Sopranos version of a big state governor.  The hair, leather jackets, and the boyishly insincere claims of innocence made it easy to dismiss him as a buffoon unskilled in the art of negotiating political favors.  (FBI tapes of him dropping f-bombs while daydreaming about running a nonprofit or a cabinet department didn’t help either.)

Then came revelations that Democratic Senate candidates Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania and Andrew Romanoff of Colorado were offered varying types of political compensation not to run against Obama’s preferred incumbents.  Now it sounds as if Arlen Specter – the party switching moderate Sestak defeated – is signaling he’d like a sweetheart deal after Keystone State voters refused to renew his contract.

Sources tell ABC News that Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, has informed the White House that he would like to consider remaining in public service after his Senate term ends at the end of this session, and White House officials are keeping an open mind about possible job openings for him.

So, THAT’S the difference!  Blago should have “informed” the White House that “he would like to consider” increasing his public service to include Washington, D.C. – perhaps after the governor nominated President Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to fill his Senate seat.

Hey, distinctions are helpful.  They’re also dubious if the following report from ABC News is true about Specter’s motivation:

Some who know Specter say he’s eager to go out with a bang — to have a more majestic career-ender — and not to be known in perpetuity as a party switcher, an inquisitor of Anita Hill, or as a leading advocate on the Warren Commission of the single-bullet theory.

William F. Buckley, Jr. famously said that he’d rather be governed by the first 400 names in the Boston phonebook than by the Harvard faculty.

Every so often, however, the phone book and the faculty actually agree.  According to a new Bloomberg poll, a remarkable 73% of respondents oppose our supposed philosopher-king Barack Obama’s drilling moratorium.  What makes this remarkable is that approximately three-quarters of the American public, which very rarely seems to find consensus on anything these days, just doesn’t buy Obama’s constant drumbeat of scapegoating the oil industry, “deregulation” or the previous administration.  What makes this even more remarkable, however, is that Obama’s own appointed “experts” agree with everyday citizens.  As noted in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, the hyper-partisan investigatory panel selected by Obama himself expresses skepticism toward his moratorium.

Add the fact that two separate courts have rejected the Obama Administration’s ill-advised moratorium, which is jeopardizing even more jobs in that hard-hit region, and we’re approaching unanimity against the self-professed “bridge-builder” Obama.

Would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad is many things – traitor to America, attempted mass murderer – but ABC News might be spinning news of his reluctance to kill himself a bit too far.

“Times Square Bomber Wimped Out on Suicide” screams that outlet’s headline.  Of course, I clicked on it.  Apparently, Shahzad’s handlers with the Taliban released a prerecorded tape of Shahzad in full terrorist mode proclaiming jihad to be an obligation on all Muslims.  That he used a series of timers to ensure he’d be clear of the death toll his bomb-laden van would bring is then juxtaposed to highlight his hypocrisy.

I for one am glad Shahzad “wimped out” instead of making sure his plans were carried out to the letter.  Put another way, would ABC News be trumpeting his follow through if he’d stayed to detonate the bomb personally?

Ridicule can be effective, but not when it motivates the next Faisal Shahzad to finish a job everyone should be too afraid to complete.

Loyal readers may recall CFIF profiled then-candidate Charles Djou’s special election campaign for Hawaii’s first congressional district.  Since winning the seat in May Djou has gone from a hard-working underdog to a targeted incumbent working hard to get reelected in the heavily Democrat district.

During his two months in office, Djou voted against the Democrats’ overhaul of the financial industry, for the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and praised President Barack Obama on the floor of the House for pursuing a trade agreement with South Korea.

If Djou pulls out a win in November, he’ll continue the Aloha State’s history of not voting out an incumbent member of Congress.  Faced with the prospect of the alternative, conservatives everywhere should be praying for at least two more years of Charles Djou in Congress.

It certainly looks that way. Back when he was Speaker of the Florida House, Rubio pioneered “idearaisers” — a format where he solicited the best public policy ideas from citizens of the Sunshine State. The result was a book entitled 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future. All of those 100 ideas were passed by the Florida House, and, by Rubio’s accounting, 57 are now Florida law.

Now on the hustings as a U.S. Senate candidate, Rubio has now unveiled “23 Simple Ways To Create Jobs, Grow Our Economy And Help The Gulf Coast Recover.” You can read the full list via the link, but here are a couple of the choicer items:

 Fundamentally Reform The U.S. Tax Code. The current tax code hinders economic growth. Too many years of special interest lobbying and class warfare politics have cemented it as anti-family, anti-jobs and anti-competitive. The U.S. should have a tax system that is simpler, fairer and promotes economic growth.  We should start moving toward being able to pay our taxes with a single rate on paper the size of a postcard.

Make Claims Checks Tax Exempt. The Gulf Oil Spill Relief Fund is designed to help those whose economic well-being and revenue has been impacted. Similar to legislation after September 11, the federal government should act immediately so that Floridians and the people of the Gulf Coast receive a full gross relief check. BP should cover any tax losses.

See Rubio talking about the linkage between ideas and action below:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D – Nevada), who foolishly said in 2007 “this war is lost” just as the surge was winning in Iraq, just had another one of those “he didn’t really just say that, did he?” moments.

A local reporter raised the issue of high unemployment in Nevada’s hard-hit construction sector, noting that construction companies often find it easier to hire illegal aliens.  To this, Reid bizarrely replied, “any information you have in that regard is absolutely without foundation.”  The reporter then cited a Pew Hispanic Center study showing that 17% of construction workers are illegal aliens, to which Reid replied even more absurdly, “that may be someplace, but it’s not here in Nevada.”

As noted in the following Fox News video, however, the Pew Center confirms that Nevada actually suffers the highest percentage of unauthorized immigrants in the workforce.

Is it any wonder that Reid’s son avoids using the family surname in his own political race for Nevada governor?

Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and David Vitter (R-LA) today introduced an amendment that would prohibit the Obama Administration, including the Department of Justice and other federal agencies, from participating in lawsuits seeking to invalidate Arizona’s tough new immigration law.

In announcing the introduction of the amendment, Senator DeMint stated:

States like Arizona shouldn’t be prosecuted for protecting their citizens when the federal government fails to do so.  The federal government is rewarding illegal behavior and encouraging many more to enter our nation illegally when they refuse to enforce our laws. States along the border are facing kidnappings, drug trafficking, human trafficking and gang violence and they have a duty to keep their residents safe. Instead of suing states for doing his job, the President should get serious and stop holding border security hostage to pass amnesty and score points with his liberal base.”

Senator Vitter, who is chairman of the U.S. Senate Border Security Caucus, commented:

The state of Arizona is simply taking responsibility for a problem that the federal government has neglected for years, but Washington’s only response is to oppose these new enforcement efforts and take them to court.  The Obama administration should not use taxpayers’ money to pay for these lawsuits that the American people overwhelmingly oppose.”

According to a statement released by Senator DeMint’s office, the “amendment (#4464) could be voted on next week as part of the debate on the small business bill on the Senate floor.”

Below is one of the latest cartoons from Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

In response to the uncertainty created by the Obama Administration’s foolish drilling moratorium, which has now been overturned by two separate courts, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. announced that it will shift its Ocean Endeavor operation to Egypt.  As The Wall Street Journal noted, “when it comes to a showdown between jobs and ideology, the Obama Administration never fails to choose the latter.”

The Ocean Endeavor contract was worth $100 million, and its loss will cost “a great deal” of American jobs.  Even Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana found herself forced to break with the Obama Administration, noting that the offshore drilling industry safely operates approximately 42,000 other wells and employs innumerable Gulf citizens both directly and indirectly.  Sadly, Obama once again seems to be stimulating the far-left activist community, but not the American economy or job climate.

Below is one of the latest cartoons from Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.