Where Do You Stay, Congressman Markey?

I'm from Washington. .
I mean Medford, er Malden!

Congressman Edward Markey (D-Medford) has announced that he will run for US Senate should senior US Senator John Kerry be confirmed for Secretary of State.

Former US Senator Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) has announced that Markey's residency remains in question. Although he lists Malden as his home address, his constituents claim that they do not see him all that much. Markey has some explaining to do, since residency matters just as much as political advocacy and individual integrity.

So, where does Congressman Markey belong? Where do his interests lie? As some voters would say on the street, "Where does he stay?" In Woburn, Wrentham, or Washington D.C.?

In Woburn, WR Grace, Beatrice Foods, and Unifirst faced a heavy lawsuit for allegedly contaminating the groundwater. A record number of leukemia cases erupted in the Woburn area. The high-profile environmental and health case became a book and later a movie called "A Civil Action." What actions did he take to deal with the contamination of the water supply in the region? The legacy of tainted water lingers to this day.

As mentioned before, Wrentham is home of Scott Brown, the junior Senator who shot ahead from trailing by double-digits to winning the Senate Seat previously occupied by the deceased Ted "Chappaquiddick" Kennedy. Brown is well-known and well-placed in his constituency. What about Markey in Medford or Malden?

Then there's Washington D.C., where it appears that Markey has found his mark, the same credentials of Washington insider and out-of-touch pol which should lead Massachusetts voters to reconsider giving him any respect, let alone a six-year term in the US Senate.

After thirty-six years in office, what has Edward Markey done for his country or for his state or even his district? His signature legislation, Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade, passed on the narrowest of margins. Cap and Trade is an environmental Ponzi Scheme which benefits bureaucrats, but hurts businesses, increases fuel costs, and actually creates more pollution. Even the green activistc Annie Leonard disputed the reputed merits of "Cap and Trade" and vocally opposed its implementation.
In June 2009, the day that the Waxman-Markey bill came to the House floor, then-minority leader John Boehner outlined that the projected Cap and Trade program would cost the nation millions of jobs while pushing businesses out of business or overseas. Thankfully, Waxman-Markey died in the Democratically-controlled Senate, where foresight about the fate of industry and commerce took precedence over the environmental extremism of Markey and his "Cap and Trade" bill.

Recently, Congressman Markey has stood contrary to the best interests of the nation to vote with his Party against helping his constituents and the country. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) JOB Act would expedite immigrants who have earned advanced degrees in American universities to receive their VISAs more quickly, but the "Malden" Congressman voted "No!". Markey voted against the "No More Solyndras" Act, which would have prevented further waste and fraud with tax payer dollars for green tech companies. Nineteen companies with federal subsidies have failed in the last two years, with Solyndra alone taking down $500 million following its inevitable bankruptcy. All in the name of politics and game-scoring, Markey even voted against the Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act, a bill which would have streamlined bureaucratic hurdles and advanced the interests of burdened small businesses. From immigration to federal dollars to small businesses, Markey has missed the mark and should not leave his mark in the US Senate.

Now, unfortunately "Republican" has become something of a "bad word" to Bay State residents. Yet Massachusetts was the first state to send an African-American and Republican to the US Senate: Edward Brooke. A moderate just like Scott Brown, Brooke supporter civil rights as well as limited government, charging that the Republican Party needed to guard their hearts as well as lead with their heads. He established a political base and rapport with Massachusetts voters. He resisted the national GOP party lines when they strayed from the better interests of the Bay State. He even refused to endorse Barry Goldwater in 1964 because of the Arizona Senator's "extreme views." He went on to represent his home state for two terms. His legacy should inspire voters to carry on his legacy and reelect Scott Brown, another grassroots and independent voice for the Commonwealth, as opposed to a mouth-piece and rubber stamp for Washington waste.

Should Senator John Kerry advance to become Secretary of State, Massachusetts voters should reject "Misses-the-Markey" and re-elect Scott Brown to the US Senate. As for Congressman Markey, one can only ask: "Where do you stay, Markey?"

About "Fiscal Cliff Notes"

There was an election on November 6th, yet the majority of voters granted the same group of groping grand-standers another grab at power. Instead of “great men”, voters chose more grinding through gridlock. Congressmen grill each other with growls for months, then grab each other at the last minute and grimace and groan over raising taxes instead of cutting spending.




The whole debt, spending, cut and paste drama is just a grimy, grating joke. Grr!



If voters want Congress to go from “gridlock” to “great”, they need to blame themselves for why things have grown the way they have grown. Our representatives are doing exactly what they were sent to do. They reflect the mindset of voters who elected them to cut spending, but not their spending. Moreover, just like putting off study for an exam or practice for a speech, Congressmen are acting from an impulse endemic to humanity: do as little as possible, and get as much in return. It is human nature to wait until the last minute to do something that no one wants to do.



Ghandi could not broker Congressional comity. Hoover might make arrests (or wear a dress?). Free-market economist Milton Friedman offered this advice: “Get the wrong people to do the right things.” Voters have to tell our leaders what to do. Fiscal cliffs, debt ceilings, limits to the uncivil, partisan gridlock: A Cliff’s Notes perusal of Walden may suggest that we refuse to pay our taxes. Perhaps civil disobedience will force reform.

Pat Toomey: "Over the Fiscal Cliff We Go!"

US Senator
Pat Toomey (R-PA)

Senator Pat Toomey is the President of "The Club For Growth".

He ran against the recently deceased US Senator Arlen Specter in the 2004 Pennsylvania Senate Primary. Then President George W. Bush endorsed the moderate-liberal incumbent who then became a Democrat in 2009. This same Democrat lost his own primary battle in 2010, in which one attack ad featured him repeating "I switched parties so that I could get reelected." Toomey took the GOP nomination and the victory, along with the rest of the Tea Party caucus which wiped out Democratic gains from 2006 and 2008 in the House.

Pat Toomey is a serious conservative. He refuses to play games, he understands the fiscal mess that this country is facing, and he wants the President and the Democratic Congress to do something about it.

On "Morning Joe", Toomey commented all the tax increases in the world would not solve the debt problem in the United States. Although he voted for the fiscal cliff deal at the stroke of midnight 2012, he has shifted gears demanding cuts or no deals.

Blunt yet clear, Toomey asserted to the "Morning Joe" Round table that the Republicans in Congress should be willing to force a government shut down over the debt ceiling if the President and his Democratic colleagues refuse to cut massive spending. Mark Halperin, one of the guest commentators on the show with Joe Scarborough, chomped down on this blunt suggestion: "If you let the government shut down, then markets will be in chaos and we will face a debt downgrade."

Toomey was unmoved. If that's the leverage that Republicans must use in order to get the federal government to cut spending, then the Republicans must take that course of action, he responded.

Debt cannot define a nation. A nation indebted today will be indicted tomorrow by its children and grandchildren. Thomas Jefferson volleyed nothing but condemnation at any nation which would tolerate leveraging nothing but debt against our future:

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."

Thomas Jefferson went so far as to propose an Amendment to the Constitution which would forbid debt.

Right now, if every American had to chip in in order to pay the current national debt, every one of us would owe $50,000. In Greece, which currently ranks as the most indebted nation in the world, every citizen owes $30,000.

The spending spree must stop. The federal government cannot continue to borrow money from foreign creditors who at any time can forgo lines of credit. This program of indebtedness cannot last. Senator Toomey's proposal may sound incoherent and insane, yet if risking default is the only way to cut spending, reform entitlements, and simplify the taxcode, then federal government departments across the nation should brace for a shot-down in the near future.

Welcome Back, Senator Kirk

US Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL)

After twelve months out of the public eye, Senator Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) has returned to Congress.

Kirk's win in 2010 was another stunning rebuke to the Obama juggernaut. Like Massachusetts' senator Scott Brown, his success in a blue state can help resurrect the GOP in urban, liberal regions where limited government has turned off voters only because of its connection with states' rights at the expense of the citizen. Limited government and fiscal discipline is a value which Democrats and Republican alike must embrace, and US Senator Kirk can help bridge that gap.

"I'm here, where's the beer?" Kirk shouted at his well-received return to Washington.

The Republican Party Establishment must outline the proper set of policies which will allow the Party to maintain a big tent without tearing down the country with debts, deficits, and spending which are not just creating conflicts within the GOP, but could tear the very fabric of this country.

Mark Kirk may not make all the votes which every Republican supporter likes, but his presence in the Senate is crucial, now more than ever.

Welcome back, Mark!

Making Ourselves Less -- Not Focusing on Our Feelings or Thoughts

What does it mean to magnify the Lord?

It means that we "satifisy ourselves" with His mercy (Psalm 90: 14).

The issue is not about "seeing" with our eyes, because God is invisible to our physical senses, for what is invisible is eternal (2 Corinthians 4: 18).

We are called to see with the eyes of our understanding, our complete minds, all that Christ Jesus has given us, has done for us:

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power." (Ephesians 1: 17-19)

Paul later prays that Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith, that we would be grounded in God's love and see it from every angle. This love is not a feeling, nor is this "love" something that we do, but rather the love that God demonstrated for us at the Cross:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)

It means that we keep receving the Work which He did for us at the Cross (Romans 5: 17)

When Lot magnified the Lord and His mercy, not only did he escape from Sodom and Gomorrah, but he fled to a tiny town named Zoar, which was protected from the fiery wrath of God because of Lot's presence (Genesis 19: 19-24).

The more that we take in the totally of all that Jesus did for us, that we make Him a bigger sacrifice for all our sins, for our past to make it a glorious future (Colossians 2: 13), that He is outside of time making the most of all our troubles (Psalm 106: 48), that we cast more and more of our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5: 6-7), the more that He is magnified.

When we receive that Jesus Christ put away all the sins of the world, not just ours, but also the sins of the Israelites which were condemned at length in page after page of the

When we acknowledge the presence of sin in our lives, yet we yield our bodies to God the Father, when we allow every thought to brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, then we allow Him to be magnified.

Nothing of ourselves, and all of Christ. He is our life (Colossians 3: 3-4), and through Him we receive the righteousness of God in Him who loved us and gave His life for us (Galatains 2: 20-21)

Thomas: The GOP Hunting Dogs Are a-Quacking

California syndicated columnist Thomas Elias has witnessed the “purpling” of California. Now the state is as “blue” as the Pacific Ocean, or as blue as a corpse, depending on the decisions that our leaders make in Sacramento. Whether the fate and future of the state and its people (dwindling fast) will stick around is another matter altogether. The Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters described “The Fishhook” which the California Republican Party relied on for decades in spite of the liberal hegemony of Los Angeles and San Francisco. This fishhook started in the Central Valley, through the Inland Empire, and continued into Orange and San Diego Counties. The hook has been taken down, with the line and sinker.

Hispanics voters are turning to the left, and African-American voters, aside from the infrequent visit of Mitt Romney to South Los Angeles, have never met a Republican candidate for office. All seems lost, and Elias is convinced that Republicans are entrenched in their ideology, that they cannot shift to make sense to a liberalized, left-leaning electorate.

Elias is wrong, and like the first prophet Elijah, it’s time for him to jump on a fiery chariot and leave the political discussions to those who know and believe that better things are coming. The second prophet Elisha brought grace and hope to an evil world.  The second prophet brings dead men to life (like the GOP, despute Elias' cynicism); splits the Jordan with the same mantle (the dividing of the Democratic Party over school reform and public sector unions); and sends the two she-bears to tear up the bratty kids (the legislators who do not serve their state or the voters).

This year, the Sacramento legislature is two-thirds blue, with a Democrat in every statewide office. I do not know whether Elias wants to bark with joy or meow with sorrow, but more Californians are grieving or leaving. What was the first proposal from this “empowered” legislature? Attempt to triple the car tax. Everybody yelled. Oregon residents pay one-fifth of our car tax, and the license lasts for two years. No wonder so many Californians are leaving. Now Sacramento Democrats want to rescind Prop 13 provisions for businesses. As if the state of California does not need to give more reasons to get rid of job creators and economic growth. Governor Jerry Brown wants to reformulate the state tax dollars for education toward struggling schools. Giving bad schools more money does not make them better schools, but makes bureaucrats richer and less accountable.

If Sacramento wants to save money, they could start by stopping the tax hikes on everyone. That’s a Republican idea. Just because a majority of voters supported Prop 30 in 2012 does not mean it was their first or their best choice. If leaders in the state Capital were willing to put aside their political careers and care about the future of the state, then they would make the necessary cuts and spend less of our tax dollars. That’s another Republican concept.

As for bad schools, a voucher program would allow parents to choose where they send their kids. Not once has a Democrat proposed freeing up parents to choose where they enroll their students. Just last years, “Students First” filed a lawsuit against the state of California, the state superintendent of schools, the governor, and John Deasy, the superintendent of Los Angeles Unified. Instead of going to court, let kids go to the school of their choice. That is a Republican idea.

The prison population in this state will diminish slightly because the voters passed a revision of “Three Strikes”, a provision which was meant to incarcerate only violent repeat offenders. Less crime and less government is a Republican idea, not a Democratic one, since more often than not Democrats expand government and by extension expand corruption (Rod Blagojevich, anyone?)

How about decriminalizing controlled substances. Republican Ron Paul advanced this argument in 2012, and he got a lot of praise. Junior Senator Rand Paul has pressed a similar notion, defederalization, which would empower the states  as the primary enforcer of the drug laws, and permit the states to rescinding them, as Colorado and Washington have already done. On his final visit on “News Conference”, Republican Congressman David Dreier (R-San Dimas) made his last-minute, small “L” libertarian pledge that our nation, our state must rethink these draconian drug laws. They aid gang violence, they fund terrorists and drug cartels, they abet public corruption, yet drug abuse and death abide evermore with us. Portugal decriminalized, and the drug usage and crime rate plummeted. Imagine the dramatic reduction in crime, incarceration, and costly prison care-taking without these drug laws.

While Elias barks about a troubled California Republican Party, the Democratic Party will take all the blame for the next two years, since the Republicans will not be able to block any bills, whether good or bad. They can offer reasonable proposals, reach out to all voters, and then offer a vision of this state which rewards profit, punishes incompetence, and leaves everyone alone, including the dogs that quack.

Paul Ryan -- Ayn Would Run

Congressman Paul Ryan voted for the "Satan Sandwich" fiscal cliff deal, along with Majority Leader John Boehner and one third of the GOP delegation.

Perhaps the Republican Party should give up on being the Party of Limited Government, since the spending spree is still running free in Washington.

While red states across the country are cutting taxes and spending, while blues states are sinking into the blue of bankruptcy never to return, Washington remains the hodge-podge of dysfunction which never ends, which never changes, which never goes anywhere but around and around in the same wilderness of spend now, save never.

Let's face it. Without independent executive power, representative democracy will not pull up the stomach and standard to cut the spending and gut the budget on which a growing number of Americans are dependent.

Now Mr. Paul Ryan, the Ayn Rand acolyte of Balanced Budgets and Medicare Vouchers, has stepped in line with the GOP establishment to pass the revenue increases without any cuts. The same House Speaker that pushed passed the Hastert Rule has also pushed aside extra funds for states still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

Paul Ryan, what has it all come to? Was this why you studied Objectivism with such subjective relish? Your budgets were boutiful, yet your latest vote, just disgraceful. You claimed to come to Washington to "make the hard choices". The hard choice would have pushed aside any deal which did not include spending cuts.

Corbett Appeals NCAA Punishment for Penn State

The culture (or cult?) of college sports pushed head coach Joe "Joe Pa" Paterno and his assisting staff to turn a deaf ear to a number of allegations, now substantiated, that assistant head coach Jerry Sandusky was molesting young boys on and near the Penn State campus.

When the revelation of these horrific crimes came to light, "Joe Pa" was summarily fired and the University leadership received a heavy rebuke, a massive fine, and a comprehensive repudiation of every which the Penn State Nittany Lions took in from 1998 to the Present.

That punishment went way too far. As often happens when leadership fails to lead and the supervisors want to show "good faith", the consequences exceed the proper scope of the crime, and more people, often innocent and ignorant, end up getting hurt. Cancelling every Penn State victory over the past fourteen years will not restore or remit the pain and suffering inflicted on those young
victims, but that punishment ends up doing greater harm to those who had nothing to do wit the molestations in the first place.

I commend Governor Tom Corbett for stepping up and taking on the NCAA for their over-punishment of Penn State.

Joe Paterno knew too much and did not do enough. The Penn State community knew too little, and so Sandusky did way too much. The students who study and learn and play football, along with the entire campus, should notbeen so punished for the wrongs of the few coaches who saw what they saw, yet said nothing. Beyond that, the state of Pennsylvania and the taxpayers of the Keystone State should not be punished because of the venality or cowardice of a few Penn State personnel who did nothing.

Instead of repudiating a decade of wins, A "death penalty" for one year would have been appropriate. This forced Sabbath would have allowed the school community-- students , the staff, and the sports program -- to sort things out, figure out the school's values, and discern why there were so many lapses in leadership and moral probity. Should a university be so intensely defined by the billion-dollar football industry. Was the University wise in erecting a commemorative statue of "JoePa" long before he had retired? That monument forced on Paterno and the school a legacy which they have to live up to, a standard which leads many to compromise their character for the sake of fame.

Governor Corbett should also investigate leasing out Penn State into a public-private partnership. With private leadership in place, the profit motive would engage protection for all students along with accountability for professors, coaches, and administrators. All too often, public institutions sweep allegations of molestation under the rug, while private firms, fearing the loss of money as well as men, will root out perversion more intently. The Boy Scouts did a more thorough job, although not enough, in protecting children from perverts than state institutions like public schools.

In the wake of the Penn State-Jerry Sandusky scandal, let us hope that the real perpetrators get punished and the students, staff, and football players who were doing what they do best -- learn and play -- do not get roped up in the consequences.

Not Persuasion, GOP -- Announce!

Among conservatives and Republican circles, there is a lot of talk about "persuasion" or "getting the word out" on conservative ideas.

I have a better idea: just tell everyone that free markets work, and state control does not.

The facts speak for themselves. Since President Obama enacted "Obamacare", health care costs have gone up, while access has gone down, and now the citizens of the United States are hurting under more taxes.

I sent a blog post about the rich paying "their fair share" to Washington State, and the Patch.com network spread the post to all the statewide Patch networks. The debate was impressive. Most people have "no clue" about the damage of government interventions, and most people are not going to read "Townhall.com" or visit Fox News to get the other side.

University outreach is a must. Texas Congressman Ron Paul had the strongest following among the youth vote, a growing number of whom are tolerant on social issues yet virulent about the spending spree which is bankrupting the present and ruining their future. I still recall meeting with one young voter in Venice a few months ago, who told me that he decided to become a Republican, despite the overwhelming animosity that young conservatives face on college campuses these days. The professors condemn any ideas which make nothing of the isolated intellect and require a man to look outside of himself to respect the over-arching systems of trade which exceed the capacities of man to design, implement, or control.

Dinesh D'Souza, the author of Lettters to a Young Conservative, shocked his campus peers with the help of right-leaning academics who modified Buckley Brainchild "National Review" and modified it to the college level, skewering inane, unwary academics and left-wing interest groups with pitch, wit, and well-placed sarcasm. One vulgar example. While campus interests wanted to open a club which promoted the "gay agenda", D'Souza and friends drew up their own club proposal: "The Bestiality club". Horses and dogs, run and hide! By pushing the limits of moral relativism to a relavity unknown limit, D'Souza and friends made an open mockery of the Inter Club Council at Dartmouth. Their request was rejected, incidentally enough.

At the outset, the young have a bias toward understanding things chiefly from their own point of view, one which stems from the adolscent revelations of "right and wrong" clashing in a world filled with varying and vying notions of "right and wrong" which most people talk about yet fail to live up to. Like the young Rory Collins from the Disney Movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", the age of adolscence does not immediately lend itself to "believing", i. e. accepting as true realities which cannot be perceived right away.

Beyond persuasion, the mere announcement that Republicans want to lower taxes for all convinces more people than most realize. One minority student in a government class told me that he had thought that Republicans are "the bad guys". When he learned that in general Democrats want to grow the government and expand the tax burden, he was shocked. When they get a whiff of the truth, most students open their minds to accept a conservative point of view. If more young people talked to the business owners down the street, they might learn a thing or two about the long-term yet unseen damage that comes from taxing "the rich."

The young vote, the minority vote, they all want to know the truth, and the GOP can tell them the truth. If someone goes there, then they will come. The Republican leadership has not made a move.
 House Speaker Boehner, like too many people in the GOP Establishment, just does not get it. Most people are not sold on the benefits of the free market. Too often, students in substandard public schools or overcrowded colleges are taking in mincy, chinty pablum about the "evils" of capitalism. After more than a decade of being bombarded with the "badness" of supply, demand, and the supernatural order of markets and trade, small wonder that most kids graduate with no understanding of businesses, economics, or the impropriety of state intervention.

Not persuasion, but announcement. Our young people need and deserve to know the "Good News" about free markets which make free people, about the power of forces, trends, and cultural realities which transcend or thoughts and feelings, which define us more stably and ably than the musing of Ivy League academics. They spend all of their time thinking about how the "world should work", and they end up "should-ing" all over themselves, their students, and the professionals in training which they send out into a world which does not play by artificial constructs or postmodern mendacities.

Horvath's Errors on "Socialized Medicine"

John Horvath offered a "compromised" understanding of "socialized medicine", which can never be "done right". Some British citizens praise the National Health Service, yet they also carry private insurance. Many citizens condemn the program because of rationing followed by an emerging two-tier system: wealthier patients pay more to get immediate care. Hospitals face chronic shortages because governments allocate funds poorly for unknown demands. Healthcare professionals quit for better compensation in private hospitals. Cuba's "good" clinics serve only political elites. Canadians often visit black market medical communities, or else they enter their names into a "family physician lottery" one a month. Lastly, British, Canadian, and Swedish patients wait months or years for "elective surgeries", or they seek medical attention in countries with less "socialized" care, i.e. The United States.

"Socialized medicine" is neither. "It's free, but you have to wait," sums it up best. We should not emulate them at all.