Freedom Line Blog

It appears that Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is ready to formally commence its invasion of one of the few frontiers that it has not yet commandeered – the Internet.  After months of concerned anticipation and speculation, the Wall Street Journal reports that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will officially propose codification of “Net Neutrality” rules that have heretofore remained unadopted.  He will rationalize his takeover initiative in a speech this coming Monday, according to the report.

So what is wrong with “Net Neutrality?”  Very simply, it isn’t “neutrality” at all.  Rather, it means that the federal government will impose its corrosive presence into the Internet, which has remained the most vibrant and innovative sphere of contemporary American life precisely because the federal government has kept out.  “Net Neutrality” will reverse that.  In this age, continued Internet innovation demands flexibility and freedom on the part of Internet service providers to experiment with different delivery and pricing models to prevent increasing gridlock and maintain consumer quality.  By imposing a one-size-fits-all business model upon private entities, however, federal bureaucrats will stifle that flexibility and freedom to operate and experiment with different models.  Ultimately, continued Internet innovation and consumer quality will be the casualty.

After all, what sectors has the federal government improved after imposing its heavy hand?

Perhaps the best manner of illustrating “Net Neutrality” is that it is the Fairness Doctrine of the Internet.

We don’t need the federal government controlling our healthcare, we don’t need it controlling our airwaves and we certainly don’t need it controlling the Internet.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who has chosen not to run for a third term, may or may not decide to run for President.  While articulate and attractive, Pawlenty needs what all politicians need who have not long lived on the national political stage – name identification and recognition in his own party.

So what do those geniuses at the Democratic National Committee do?   Well, they’ve got this new “Call ’em Out” program, the purpose of which seems to be to attack people who have criticized ObamaCare.  Their first target?  Tim Pawlenty.

Hey, Maude, the Dems are attacking someone named Tim Pawlenty.

Yeah, Harvey, Tim Pawlenty opposes ObamaCare.

Well, don’t we oppose ObamaCare, Maude?

Of course we do, Harvey.  Most Americans do.

Well, that Pawlenty fellow seems okay by me.  Maybe we could have him over here for one of those coffees, introduce him to the neighbors, give him some money or something.  Good to know he’s one of us.

Actually, yesterday was Constitution Day but given the current environment in Washington, every day should be Constitution Day.

Here is the Constitution in a neat toy, Wordle.  It is a bit surprising that the word “President” is so prominently mentioned since Article II is considerably shorter than Article I.  Since the founders were especially suspicious of a strong executive, one would think our commander-in-chief would not be so frequently mentioned.

But, amendments 12 (amending electoral college), 20 (shortening lame duck period), 22 (limiting office-holder to two terms), 23 (residents in D.C. can cast presidential ballot) and 25 (presidential succession) all deal with the President.

The word “thereof” also seems frequent, likely a relic of 18th Century rhetoric.

Washington Examiner – Democrats Abandon ACORN
Washington Post – Republicans Denounce Pelosi
The Hill – FCC Chief Gets Net Neutrality Support
CBO – Economic Effects of Greenhouse Gas Legislation

Political Wire – McDonnell Leads Deeds
WSJ – Stimulus: Round 2
Chris Cillizza – A Resurgent Republican Party?
Arnold Kling – Biggest Health Care Reform Lie
Politico – Left and Right Plot on Baucus Bill

Federal Debt: $11.823 trillion

Today’s revelation that the Obama Administration is pulling missile defense out of Poland and the Czech Republic reflects a complete ignorance of (or apathy towards) the point that I made in yesterday’s post — that the Western commitment to collective security in Eastern Europe has made the continent (and the world) a safer and freer place.

It also reflects a total strategic miscalculation. The oldest con in international diplomacy is to get an adversary to give up something tangible today for an abstract promise tomorrow (see “Land for Peace”). The notion that Russia will be of more assistance in sanctioning the Iranians (and the broader idea that sanctions will have any serious effect) ignores a question that the self-proclaimed realists in the Obama Administration have somehow overlooked. Why is it in Russia’s interest to play ball when they’re currently getting major concessions from the U.S. at no cost?

Though it’s been overshadowed by the healthcare debate, the last month or so of the Obama Administration has been its absolute worst for foreign policy. We’ve agreed to one-on-one talks with North Korea (with the laughable goal of getting back to the six party talks — you know, the ones we had before we agreed to one-on-one talks?), decided to pursue prosecutions of CIA interrogators, announced that Iran likely already has the ability to build nuclear weapons, seen the White House put political pressure on General McChrystal to keep from requesting more troops in Afghanistan, and imposed a foolish tire tariff that’s threatening a trade war with China.

The President can get away with Jimmy Carteresque policies for a lot longer than Jimmy Carter ever could because Obama has considerably more political gifts. But in the end, politics (particularly the presidency) is always about performance. This will not end well for Obama or the country.

Andrew Breitbart’s BIGGOVERNMENT.COM, which first aired the undercover ACORN videos, just reported that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to discontinue all federal funding to ACORN.  The vote was 345 to 75.

Now, where are the Governors?  So far, only Pawlenty and Schwarzenegger have done the right thing.

Kudos to James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, who made the videos (with still more to come, apparently) and to Breitbart for demonstrating that we don’t need no stinking mainstream media no more.

We went up the mountain, actually a small hill, to see the Political Guru.   He said:  “Politicians who can’t – or won’t – see the forests for the racists had better move to the desert.”   We came down the mountain, more enlightened than most politicians.

Remember when you were told that Iran was two, five, ten years away from being able to make nukes?

Well, here’s the lead from an Associated Press story filed only an hour or so ago: 

Experts at the world’s top atomic watchdog are in agreement that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead, according to a secret report seen by The Associated Press.”

Remember when President Obama canceled our Eastern European-based Missile Defense Shield Program?  That would have been earlier this morning.

I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw…I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco.  This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and…I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made.” — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, September 17, 2009 (Real Clear Politics Video)

Hey lady, has it occurred to you to curb your enthusiasm for legislation that many Americans believe curtails their freedom, is spending them and their children into bankruptcy and diminishes the national security of the country?  Oh, and by the way, should we review some of your language of the past months?  No, we think most people remember.

Professor Greg Mankiw on the CBO’s “neutral” cost estimate for the Senate’s new health care bill:

In other words, the plan would reduce the deficit if it were carried out as written, but there is good reason based on historical experience to be skeptical that it would be.

Let me try to put CBO’s point in a more familiar setting: Your friend Joe, who says he wants to lose weight, asks you for an extra slice of pie after dinner. Naturally, you are doubtful about the wisdom of the request.

“Ahem, Joe,” you whisper, “Aren’t there a lot of calories in that?”

“Yes,” he says, “but the pie is part of a larger plan. I am committed not only to eating that slice of pie but also to going to the gym every day for the next week and spending at least half a hour on the treadmill. The exercise will more than work off those extra calories.”

“But that’s what you said last week, when you asked for an extra piece of cake. And you never made it to the gym.”

“Yes, I know,” Joe replies ruefully, “but this time I really mean it….Can you please pass the pie?”

WSJ – U.S. Shelves Missile Shield
Political Wire – Presidential Jinx in VA?
Boston Globe – Senator Dukakis?
Cato Institute – More Evidence of U.S. Socialism

Washington Post – ACORN and Democrats
Rep. Latta – ObamaCare is “Big Government”
WSJ – Tea Parties Continue to Protest … Metro
Steny Hoyer – House Schedule

Federal Debt: $11.819 trillion

A reader sent me a link to this confused piece by Andrew Sullivan over at his Daily Dish blog on the Atlantic.

Sullivan — whose career in recent years has consisted of trying to find the most erudite style in which to whine — fixates on the revelation that Margaret Thatcher feared the implications of a reunified Germany and a disbanded Warsaw Pact in the wake of the Cold War’s end.

As Sullivan rightly notes, this was a rare example of the Iron Lady embracing foreign policy “realism”: the notion that states act only in a narrowly-defined sense of self-interest that is true regardless of regime type and ideology. And — though I rarely have cause to say it — Thatcher was wrong about this one. After two decades of peaceful German reunification, we have empirical proof that the catalyst for German expansionism was the nature of the regime and not the fact of German nationhood. While the former Warsaw Pact countries have been decidedly less stable, there is no question that the spread of liberal democracy throughout Eastern Europe and the Caucasus (along with the expansion of NATO) has made the world a freer, safer place in the years since the Berlin Wall came down.

What’s so peculiar about Sullivan’s take is his snide conclusion: “… what’s interesting is to see Thatcher, a neocon idol, acting in such brutally realist fashion. Toryism, even Thatcherism, is not neoconservatism, is it?” Well, in this instance, no, they’re clearly at loggerheads. But Sullivan, who seems to think he can win arguments these days simply by invoking “neoconservatism” as a pejorative, seems blithely unaware of the implications of his argument.

If neoconservatism stands athwart Sullivan’s lionized realism, does that mean he longs for a still-partitioned Germany and an expanded Soviet orbit? And if so, isn’t that a bit of a jog to go on just because you hate neoconservatives?

Following the release of the bunker-busting ACORN videos, more than 130 House Republicans sent a letter to President Obama yesterday urging that the Federal Government cut off all funding to and sever all ties with ACORN. 

Dear Mr. President:

We write to you today in the wake of new reports of potentially criminal activity involving associates of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to respectfully request that you use your authority to publicly disclose and terminate all federal funding to ACORN and its affiliates.  It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law.  Immediate action is necessary to ensure that no additional tax dollars are directed to ACORN.  Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers’ money.

Congressional pressure, coupled with the impact of recent media reports, prompted the U.S. Census Bureau on September 11 to end its partnership with ACORN.  We support this decision by the Census Bureau, and believe it is vital that all other federal agencies with ties to ACORN follow the Census Bureau’s example by severing all ties to ACORN and its affiliates, whether those ties consist of partnerships or the awarding of federal funds, including federal funds distributed through state and local governments from federal block grants.

This is a matter of common sense and respect for taxpayer dollars.  Last year, millions of Americans were outraged to learn their tax dollars were being used to subsidize an organization linked to multiple instances of voter registration fraud and other illicit activity.  An analysis of federal data by the Office of the Republican Leader determined that ACORN has received more than $53 million in direct funding from the federal government since 1994, and has likely received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants.

The Census Bureau has made the commendable decision to sever ties with ACORN, and it is now critical that all remaining federal entities with ties to ACORN do the same.  We ask that you use your authority to ensure that all federal funding of ACORN is publicly disclosed and terminated immediately.  To facilitate this effort, the Republican staff of the Oversight Committee has compiled a complete list of the corporations that form the ACORN Council, and we would be pleased to share it with you and members of your administration.

We thank you for your attention to this request.

View the letter, with signatures, here.

Kudos to Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

CNSNews.com is reporting that Pawlenty sent a letter today to the director of the Minnesota Commission of Management and Budget with orders to stop all state funding to ACORN. 

The report reads, in part: 

“The letter cites recent reports of questionable behavior and potentially illegal activity by ACORN and states that they are of great concern to the governor and underscores the recent vote by the U.S. Senate to ban federal funding to ACORN, which also reflects those concerns,” Pawlenty spokesman Alex Carey told CNSNews.com.
 
In the letter, the governor directs Hanson to stop all state funding to ACORN, unless the state is legally obligated to continue funding. No precise dollar amount is available, Carey said.
 
“In addition, the letter directs” the commission “to conduct a thorough review of the state’s relationship with ACORN and to report back to the governor with his findings,” he said.

Read the full CNSNews.com report here.

The bill contains 204 instances of the word tax(es), 36 occurrences of the word fine(s), 26 instances of the word shall, and 69 occurrences of the word must.  This version of the visualization omits the “current law” language in the bill.

Click here for the full visualization.

According to a new IBD/TIPP survey of 1,376 randomly selected practicing physicians from across the country, a whopping 45% of doctors “would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement” if the health care “reform” plan being pushed by Congress and the President passes.

Here are some other highlights of the survey, according to Investors Business Daily:

• Two-thirds, or 65%, of doctors say they oppose the proposed government expansion plan. This contradicts the administration’s claims that doctors are part of an “unprecedented coalition” supporting a medical overhaul.

• More than seven in 10 doctors, or 71% — the most lopsided response in the poll — answered “no” when asked if they believed “the government can cover 47 million more people and that it will cost less money and the quality of care will be better.”

Here is a nifty visualization (by frequency of words) of Senator Baucus’ “America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009.”

The Tax that Isn’t a Tax Because President Obama Isn’t a Liar, and Even if He Were, He Wouldn’t Lie About Something Like Taxes on the Middle Class, Except to Stop Global Warming, Which May or May Not Be Real, Depending On Who Is Lying About that

Declan McCullagh reports at cbsnews.com:

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

“A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says that the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year.  At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.”

The documents were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Forget the Peabody and the Pulitzer and all those other awards that journalists love to pass back and forth among themselves for, like, getting a leaked document, word-processing it up and then going to lunch.

James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles – who made the brilliant undercover ACORN videos – aren’t likely to get any of those.  What they are likely to get is the sense of accomplishment in doing the job that journalists and government officials would not or could not do:  they have begun to unravel an enterprise that has for decades wrapped its slimy tentacles around the underbelly of this country and squeezed the dead presidents from the hands of unwilling private interests and more-than-willing government agencies.

How ACORN must have reveled in the election of a live president, one of their own.  The estimated $53 million (at least) that the organization has received in federal grants since 1994 would be pocket change compared to what ACORN could reap with a special friend in the White House.

The work of O’Keefe and Giles may provide the push to end that.  If the videos (from Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn and California) individually are devastating, releasing them one by one (and we have no idea how many more they have) is sheer genius.  Likewise, the sneering, dismissive reaction of the mainstream media – running off more viewers, readers, subscribers and influence than could have been imagined a decade ago – is sheer idiocy.

It can only be hoped that the off-the-scale radioactivity that now emanates from ACORN will be enough to move the Congress and the President to quickly deny all federal funding and to order a full-scale investigation of all past practices.

But even that will not be enough, because ACORN has many aliases in its subsidiaries and affiliates, and much of its income comes from state and local governments, and those tentacles also must be severed.