On The Right Side

by Tom Sears

  Also, some of the potential solutions they have are just plain crazy. Cheryl Crow wants us all to use just one square of toilet tissue when we use the bathroom!

  A mayor in the town of Great Barrington, Mass. wants us to turn off all Christmas lights (oops, he said holiday lights) by 10 p.m. Does that equal the carbon emissions from the Hollywood celebrities’ private jets flying into Aspen for the weekend?

  We’re also supposed to raise a cow and have our own garden. It would be fun to see everyone in a NYC apartment with a garden in the living room and a cow in the spare bedroom. Just remember, common sense and practicality don’t get in the way of these “thinkers.” A great book to read is “Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years” by S. Fred Singer. In it, he points out that the science in Gore’s movie is shoddy at best and then proceeds to back up his claims.

  The global warming advocates and their sophisticated models “can’t explain the Medieval Warm Period from 900-1300 and then the Little Ice Age from 1500 – 1800, to say nothing of the countless number of cooling and warming cycles before these two examples.

  Then there is a great BBC documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle. It might still be on YouTube, but it has been on TV and is now on DVD. Maybe all the schools that had their students watch Gore’s movie should get to watch this DVD.

  I should touch briefly on the emotional strategy that is used when their facts are weak. Everything has been blamed on global warming. Wildfires, Darfur (!), dying polar bears. Barbara Boxer said global warming was to blame for a poor 14-year-old boy who died from “an infection caused after swimming in Lake Havasu” (warmer water you see). Who needs facts?

  And because their findings and defenses are weak, they don’t allow any debate. They claim consensus. These reasons are always used when an argument can be convincingly attacked.

  So listen people. Use common sense. Don’t believe all the catastrophic things that might happen. Remember, they have been wrong many times before and will be wrong many more times in the future.

  Just remember, you have lots of prominent scientists on your side. You don’t have to go on any guilt trip. Be a good steward of the planet, but what you are doing now has in no way a significant impact on global warming. Man is not to blame for global warming.

  Today is Big, But Not the End

  As you are reading this column, we are in the middle of Super Tuesday primaries; and although important, the races will still be competitive after the day has concluded and the results are known.

  I will, sadly, miss voting in the New York primary as I am stuck (?) out in sunny California, presently watching the Giants win. Yes!

  The Los Angeles Times has publically backed Obama (no surprise there) and John McCain on the Republican side (no surprise there, either).

  Considering all the other liberal Republican supporters he now has backing him, I don’t see how he can possibly call himself a conservative. The media are also giving him a free ride and will jump for joy if he beats out the two other principle candidates for the party’s nomination.

  If we’re lucky, the three candidates will split the delegate count. This will hopefully mean that McCain won’t be able to go into the Republican convention with a majority of delegates, and we can have a brokered convention. Anything can happen then.

  Fortunately, we might have history on our side. In the past 120 years, only two candidates went directly from the Senate to president: Warren Harding and John Kennedy.

  During that same period, we have had seven governors elected. The only two past governors still in the race are both Republicans.

  So who do we have left standing going into Super Tuesday? On the Democrats’ side we have Obama and Hillary Clinton. Obama’s experience includes an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000 and a mere three years as a U.S. Senator. The only thing he has to offer voters is being a great orator with no real vision of substance.

  I’m getting tired of his promising hope, hope, hope and nothing else. Maybe that’s all he has to offer.

  Hillary? The candidate of experience? What experience for heaven’s sake? Being a First Lady is admirable (at least the position is) but what does that have to do with qualifying you to lead the most powerful country the world has ever known? The only experience she has is knowing how to do whatever is necessary to win.

  Forget ethics and appropriate behavior. The only thing the Clintons know how to do is sling mud, tell lies (especially about Obama) and make borderline racist remarks.

  At least Bill has dropped out of the campaign picture for the time being after his own inappropriate racist remarks surfaced. Even by the Clinton rule book his behavior has been reprehensible.

  And if Hillary has enough blind loyalists to win, how would you like to be her vice president? Bill will be her unofficial VP, and her running mate will be selected simply to get her the most votes and then be shoved aside. Do you really think Al Gore was the real vice president under hubby Bill’s reign?

  The only experience edge Hillary has over Barack is four more years in the Senate (for a total of seven). Even in those seven years, she has shown absolutely no evidence of leadership.

  What has she done of any significance legislatively? All she has done is moan and groan about the Bush administration and play the partisanship game to perfection.

  Lastly, you have to compare the Republican and Democrat campaigns and debates. The Republicans have been generally nothing but issue and idea oriented, respectfully pointing out their differences as candidates.

  Unfortunately, in the last debate McCain and Mitt Romney departed from that strategy and cheapened themselves as a result.

  But they didn’t come close to the bitterness and hatred displayed consistently

  by the then-three-remaining Democrat candidates, except for last Thursday’s lovefest debate between the last two.

  The admiration they showed for one another almost brought tears to my eyes. Of course, their pollsters pointed out that their behavior was turning voters off, hence their changed behavior.

  CNN has also been tossing softballs questions to the Democrats, allowing them to skirt around significant domestic issues with their responses.

  I’ll talk about the Republican side of things in the future since it might be inappropriate for me to do so now, my being on the ballot as a delegate for Mike Huckabee.

  However, I will say this, leaving Mike Huckabee out of my comments. If it does eventually come down to a two-man competition between McCain and Romney, there is only one clear choice.

  McCain would be a disaster for the party and the country, and Romney would be the clear choice for the conservative base (if Huckabee isn’t there in the end).

  Democrats’ Mess Only Helps GOP

  Although I am disappointed with the way the Republican race is going, I am in absolute glee when I see what is happening on the Democrat side.

  Obama is clearly on a roll and Clinton is getting worried. Without Michigan and Florida delegates counted, he is leading with 1,112 regular and 158 superdelegates for a total of 1,270. Clinton, on the other hand, has only 979 regular delegates and 234 superdelegates in her favor.

  Everybody is getting anxious, but there are still about 1,279 delegates and 17 states remaining with votes to be cast. There are also about 400 super delegates left, who will probably decide the eventual outcome during the Democrat Convention this August.

  Superdelegates are simply elected officials or party leaders who can vote any way they want, and Hillary has the edge there.

  You’ll soon be seeing the old tried-and-true dirty politics coming out on the “win at any cost” Clinton team. Already, they are starting to campaign for the Florida and Michigan delegates to be counted. No wonder. She was the only one on the ticket in Michigan, and there was no campaigning in Florida. In Florida, she only got 50 percent of the vote and Obama received 33 percent. It was about the same in Michigan where Hillary got 55 percent of the vote, proudly beating out t
he uncommitted vote, which received 40 percent.

  Florida and Michigan have 27 and 17 delegates, respectively. With these tallies (and also the superdelegates that would then be allowed) included, Hillary would lead by about 63. And yes, every delegate is going to count big time in this race.

  Also, the Clintons are going to go after the superdelegates aggressively. You can bet that Billy boy is going to be out there calling in favors, as well as his (and her) attack dogs such as Lanny Davis and James Carville.

  Originally, superdelegates were those insiders who were never pledged to one candidate and were supposed to have the power to veto what they considered to be a bad decision by the voters. This strategy is right up the Clintons’ alley. Get a minority to nix the desires of the majority when the majority’s wishes aren’t favorable.

  As a matter of fact, I hope this happens. That will cause such an uproar in the Democrat party, and many moderate Dems and most of the independents will vote Republican. They are tired of Slick Willy’s deplorable actions and will vote accordingly.

  So, that takes care of Hillary. What about Obama? You know, the Rev. Jackson without the rhyming. His speeches, although very well presented, are all fluff and no substance.

  He will get ripped apart in the debates if our nominee demands answers rather than cute lines. His oratorical skills will take him only so far. He must address the issues that people care about as well as his plans for solving them.

  Finally, what about an Obama/Clinton or a Clinton/Obama ticket? First of all, Hillary will certainly not take a second seat to anyone. She has been drooling to be top dog ever since she got a taste of White House power. She will never accept the offer if one is made.

  Secondly, Clinton will never select Obama as a running mate, and I doubt he would accept anyway. He is young and knows he has another shot coming and probably doesn’t want to be associated with Clinton’s dirty garbage (oops, laundry).

  Either way, any nominee or combination of the two will make it very easy for the Republicans to keep the White House. My only worry is Obama heading the party’s ticket and who his vice presidential pick could be.

  There are a lot of highly popular Dems out there, and this would help keep the moderates voting Democrat as well as draw a majority of Independents. Obama will already have the ultra libs committed.

  Whatever happens, we Republicans can sit back and enjoy the show. The campaigns of our candidates have been, for the most part, issue oriented, civil, and lacking the rancor of the Democrats debates. Even though there have been disagreements on issues on our side, there is respect for each other and the other’s ideas.

  The Democrat primaries of today and March 4 represent six states and 565 more delegates. Let’s just hope that after that, the race on the Democrat side is just as muddled as it is now. I’m looking forward to the Clintons’ book of dirty tricks to come out again. This time, responsible people won’t put up with it.

  Sympathy for Money Borrowers Unnecessary

  The sky is falling! The sky is falling! What to do, what to do? So goes the mantra of the Bush Administration, all the presidential candidates (except Huckabee) and both houses of Congress, especially those individuals running for re-election.

  I am talking about the current subprime, adjustable rate mortgage “crisis.” The solution is simple. Just follow the advice of Harvard Professor Gregory Mankiw, who was a former chair of the Council of Economics and do “absolutely nothing.” This is a free-market system and will be solved within this system. Sure the economy is going to burp once or twice, and emotionally there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, so what?

  Even though the politicians and the bureaucrats are counting on your sympathy and compassion for those poor, innocent, naïve borrowers who were defrauded by those big old, mean lenders, don’t let yourself get drawn in.

  The real problem is a mix of falling housing prices, greedy lenders making bad business decisions, rising interest rates, easy credit granting policies, and impatient borrowers not willing to live within their means.

  It is certainly not solely the fault of the big, bad mortgage companies. Sure, they lent money to people who couldn’t pay back the loans, but everyone thought the housing boom would go on forever.

  Thus the banks would be covered with property worth more than the mortgage; and the lender, if the payments could not be met, could simply sell the home, pay off the loan and walk away with some equity in his pockets.

  The last thing we need is for the federal government to come up with a solution, but that is exactly what it is trying to do. One proposal is for the Federal Housing Administration to refinance these risky mortgages for the low rate of 1 percent. The Bush Administration is for giving defaulters an additional 30 days before foreclosure proceedings begin. Hillary trumps that by suggesting a 90 day reprieve from foreclosure and also wants to freeze the rates of these mortgages for 5 years. These are only a few of the solutions being offered. Unfortunately, of the 535 members of Congress, not a single one is a trained economist.

  However, as congressmen, they should all know these efforts would be unconstitutional. These mortgages represent private contracts between borrower and lender. What right does the government have to just jump in and change the terms?

  It is up to these two parties to solve the issues of refinancing, providing moratoriums or initiating foreclosure steps.

  Yes, the lenders got greedy and made poor business decisions. They are the ones who will have to absorb the losses and be careful not to make the same mistakes again.

  Economics 101 and the law of supply and demand apply here. The mortgage companies, not wanting to be in the housing business, are simply going to have to keep lowering the prices of the homes until there are willing buyers - perhaps investors or young couples who have been saving responsibly and are looking forward to their first homes.

  Now, regarding the borrowers. They aren’t necessarily the innocent victims the media makes them out to be. Many banks claim that these borrowers are at fault by intentionally misstating incomes or lying about net assets. This was done so often that phrases have been coined for this behavior: “liar’s loans” or “no doc loans.” These borrowers simply got in over their heads and will have to adjust their lifestyles accordingly. Renting might be an option.

  Also, some borrowers are pretty nonchalant in their behavior. Michelle Malkin gives an example in one of her columns of a story that was in the Los Angeles Times. It was about Californians simply living in their homes for 12 months, awaiting foreclosure, saving their mortgage payments, and then just walking away. Does Washington really want to come to the rescue of these people?

  Whatever the solution eventually turns out to be, hard working, patient taxpayers who handle their finances responsibly shouldn’t have to pay with their taxes to bail out people who made irresponsible decisions.

  An economics professor at Temple University pointed out that 96 percent of all mortgages are being paid on a timely basis. He further points out that only 2 percent to 3 percent of all mortgage loans are in foreclosure and that the delinquency rates were higher in the 1980s than they are now.

  Should the government come to the rescue of people taking irresponsible risks at the expense of responsible citizens? I hope these responsible citizens who represent the vast majority of the electorate will make their dissatisfaction known in the voting booth.

  Pelosi’s Acts Bordering On Treason

  Shameful. Just when you thought the Democrat controlled House couldn’t sink any lower in being a do-nothing, incompetent Congress, nearing a historical single digit public approval rating, it has proceeded in accomplishing just that. The ever startled looking Nancy Pelosi has allowed the Protect America Act of 2007 to expire.

  Her defiance and blocking maneuvers are inexcusable, and I would say bordering on treason.

  Here is a horror story that is sure to be repeated if action is not taken now. Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn pointed out in an article that three
U.S. troops were kidnapped in Iraq last year and a search-and-save mission was immediately undertaken. “Within hours, a new source of information was discovered that required electronic surveillance of phone conversations,” he wrote. Because of existing laws, it took more than 10 hours to get permission to proceed. Later, one of the soldiers was found floating in the Euphrates River, and the terrorists claimed to have executed the

  other two.

  The Protect America Act, if in place at that time, would have allowed our forces to act immediately on the information. Do you think the 10 hours of delay may have saved the soldiers lives? I do.

  By preventing the Protect America Act to be extended, the ever shocked looking Pelosi will be solely responsible for tragedies like the above happening again. Ms Pelosi, the blood of these possible future tragedies will be directly related to your inaction. How could any patriotic American allow something like this to happen?

  The bill to extend the act’s provisions was handily passed by the Senate by a

  vote of 68 to 29. It came to a standstill when the bill reached the House.

  Nancy knew that the bill would pass with bipartisan support if it were brought to the floor, so she simply did not allow that to happen. She also lied about her reasons for doing so. As per the Congress Daily publication, aides said the reason for not bringing the bill to the floor was “a very tight floor schedule.”

  Yet, as the article pointed out, the House found time to pass a bill labeled H.R. 1143, which was all about approving a lease agreement between the Interior Department and a luxury beach resort that is located in the Virgin Islands. Remember, the House had more than six months to responsibly debate the matter.