A Letter to South Carolina

Dear Voters of South Carolina,

You have a very important weekend ahead of you.  The eyes of the United States will be on you this weekend.  You will cast your votes to help select the GOP nominee who will hopefully defeat President Obama.  I think the best candidate to do that is Newt Gingrich.

Is Newt perfect? No, not even close.  No one is.  There have been a lot of articles written about Newt’s personal life going back to the Clinton years.  As Thomas Sowell has written, “If Newt Gingrich were being nominated for sainthood, many of us would vote very differently from the way we would vote if he were being nominated for a political office.”

Gingrich isn’t the perfect candidate.  He’s not the most conservative politician in the United States.  However, he is at least as conservative as the other candidates.  He also has an impressive list of accomplishments.  I think most political observers would say he is the smartest person in the room among the presidential candidates from both parties.  He deserves credit for engineering the Republican take over of the 1990′s.  He deserves credit for the “budget surplus’s” and the welfare reform of the Clinton years.  I think he is more knowledgeable on domestic and international issues.

A general election would stack up Newt’s record against the President’s record. If you boil President Obama’s record down two or three issues, they’re 1) Obamacare, 2) a terrible economy, and 3) an abysmal foreign policy.  On issue 2 and 3, I honestly believe the GOP candidates that are left will all be a great improvement over the current president.  That leaves Obamacare.

If Mitt Romney is the GOP nominee, then Obamacare is entirely off the table.  ”Romney-care” from Massachusetts  share’s many similarities with Obamacare.  The White House is going to say in a general election that they based Obamacare on Romneycare.  Mitt Romney has failed to distance himself from his Massachusetts health care plan, and has defended his plan over and over.  The American people deserve a debate on Obamacare, and the president deserves to be held accountable for his health care plan, one way or another.

Newt Gingrich isn’t a good candidate for sainthood.  He is a great candidate for President.  He should be your choice for the GOP primary.

War is All Hell

The U.S. Marine Corps is launching an internal investigation into the culture of the Corps in response to a video that purportedly shows troops urinating on the corpses of suspected Taliban fighters, a Marine official told ABC News today.

The probe will attempt to answer the question “What happened in the Marine Corps that this happened?” according to the official.

–Lee Ferran, ABC News

There has been a lot of criticism of the 4  U.S. Marine’s accused of urinating on Taliban corpses.  I would like to spend a little time trying to put this into perspective.  I don’t condone this behavior, but I don’t necessarily condemn it either.  This is a war, and this happened on the battlefield.  Theoretically, these Marines killed these same fighters.  I think that may have bothered the Taliban fighters more.

Let’s also remember that while these Marines are being condemned, I don’t remember any condemnation coming from Afghanistan or the Taliban when Al-Quedea members beheaded Daniel Pearl on video, then released the video for everyone in the world to see.  The Wikipedia entry describing the video of Pearl’s death says that at the end:

A few more images are shown near the image of Pearl’s head. The last 90 seconds of the video show the list of demands scrolling, superimposed on an image of Pearl’s severed head being held by the hair.

Which of these behaviors sounds more barbaric to you?

During World War II, Marines fighting the Japanese often took golden teeth as souvenirs.  Some Marines took Japanese skulls.  They would boil the flesh off, then mail the skull home to family and loved ones.  There is an image online from Life Magazine that shows a lady looking at a skull her boyfriend sent her from overseas.   This practice was so common that it was discussed in magazines and newspapers during the time.  President Roosevelt is reported to have had a Japanese skull on the White House desk that was presented to him by a soldier.

We can always look for more ways to make war humane.  At the end of the day, War is all Hell.  These Marines may have crossed a line we don’t like, but both former Marines, and the enemy these kids are fighting have done much, much worse.

Has President Obama Violated the Constitution?

While you were following the Iowa caucus and preparing for the New Hampshire primary, you may have missed a big news story.  President Obama has made four recess appointments.  One appointment is to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three are to the Labor Relations Board.  There are plenty of stories that argue whether these individuals are or are not qualified.  Their qualifications aren’t the story.   The President made these “recess appointments” while the Senate was actually in session, making their appointment unconstitutional.

U.S. A Today has an op-ed piece defending the President’s action.   U. S. A. Today believes that the Republicans are just being obstructionists.  They argues that the Senate was “technically” in secession, but they weren’t really in session.  So while the President may have technically violated the Constitution, it doesn’t really matter.

I think this argument stretches credibility.  Presidents are allowed to make recess appointments. Many have done it, some have done it a lot.  However a President can’t make a recess appointment if the Senate is in session.  The Senate is charged with confirming Presidential appointments under the Constitution as a check and balance on the Executive branch.

The editors at U. S. A. Today are arguing that the Senate was only “a little” in session, so it’s ok for the President to make a recess appointment.  This is like being “a little” pregnant.  Either the Senate is or isn’t in session.  In this case, the Senate was in a “pro forma” session.  That means a member comes to the Senate floor, gavels in a session, waits a minute or two (or longer), then gavels the session closed.  Its a parliamentary trick that both Republicans and Democrats have used before for a number of different reasons.  However, according to the rules of the Senate, this is a “session” and affects the Senate just as any other session might.  The President has violated the U. S. Constitution.  U. S. A. Today defends this action:

But from a common-sense standpoint, you’d think there is already enough hypocrisy in Washington without pretending that an empty Senate chamber where no business is conducted is really “in session.”

Congress created the consumer protection bureau in 2010. The agency opened its doors in July. Obviously, it should have a leader. Sometimes, the government simply has to get going and do its job, no matter how badly obstructionists prefer gridlock.

While I agree that there is enough hypocrisy in Washington already, I don’t think this qualifies as such.  The amount of business that is or isn’t being done doesn’t determine whether the Senate is in session or not.  And while the editors of U. S. A. Today may agree with the President because they feel like the government is doing its job, they are wrong.  The President swore to protect and defend the Constitution.  That’s his job.  Breaking it whenever it suits him and the editors of U.S.A. Today isn’t.

Welcome to 2012 and the Presidential Race!

I hope you and your family had a safe holiday.  I also hope you are ready for the official kick off of the 2012 Presidential race!

As I write this, I am watching Fox News’ coverage of the Iowa caucus.  Up until tonight, all of the media coverage has been on campaign happenings, and polls.  Now those will still be covered, but the real will also be some real voting to affect candidates.  As the weeks start to pass this year,there will be more and more of these caucus and primaries.  We are going to finally see something other than polls!

I am lookingforward to the primary and thepresidential race.  I am sure it will be exciting, and I wonder how many people will actually be able to pick the Republican nominee after tonight.  I do feel comfortable making this prediction: the top three winners will stay in the race, the next three will stay in the race, the rest may not.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you and your family have a safe and Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!