Edwards violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, the
government alleges, by encouraging two wealthy supporters to fork
over more than $900,000 that was used to cover up his affair with a
campaign aide who bore him a child.
The charge is, in essence, that Edwards violated the Seventh
Commandment...It is dressed up, however, in the language of one of
those many federal criminal statutes that are vague enough to cover
a vast swath of human conduct
Leftist
criticisms
of libertarianism have surged lately, a phenomenon
warranting explanation.
We libertarians could justifiably find it all quite
confusing. For
decades we have thought our battle a largely losing one,
at least
in the short term. We are a tiny, relatively powerless
minority.
The state has raged on, expanding in virtually every
direction,
for my entire lifetime and that of my parents’. Yet nearly
every
week our beloved philosophy of non-aggression is subject
to some
progressive’s relatively widely read hatchet job. On the
surface,
it appears at least as misdirected as the rightwing
hysteria about
Marxists during the Cold War. But at least Marxism was the
supposed
tenet of the Soviet Union, a regime with thousands of
nukes ready
to launch. Why all this concern about little ol’ us?
We could go
through all these critiques line by line and expose the
many factual
errors and gross misinterpretations, whether disingenuous
or unintentional.
But it might be more worthwhile to ask, Why all this focus
on the
supposed demonic threat of libertarianism in the first
place?
It was not
too long ago that the Slate’s Jacob
Weisberg declared the end of libertarianism. Time of
death?
The financial collapse, which proved our "ideology makes
no
sense." Not three years later, the same web publication is
exposing "the
liberty
scam": "With libertarianism everywhere, it's hard
to remember that as recently as the 1970s, it was nowhere
to be
found."
News Link • Transportation 06-29-2011 • Katherine Bagley
via PopSci.com
Outfitted with a 1500cc engine, a
watertight cockpit and six
dolphin-like fins, the Innespace Seabreacher redefines personal
watercraft. The 17-foot vessel can reach 50 mph on flat water, cruise
beneath the surface, and launch 18 feet into the air. It’s also got an
iPod-compatible sound system and a digital periscope. Summer may never
be the same. Check out this video of the Seabreacher X
in action:
Tail Fin
The Seabreacher’s top rear fin
acts like a car spoiler. When the
craft is underwater, aiming its water jet toward the tail fin produces
drag that pushes the craft’s rear downward and the nose upward,
launching the vessel out of the water.
Water Jet
A single jet controls propulsion
and steering. Drivers aim it with
two foot pedals in the cockpit. Pointing the stream left or right
initiates a turn; directing it down pops the tail up and aims the
craft’s nose down for a dive. Read Full Story
It is the skyrocketing $14.3 trillion national debt.
It is why in
poll after poll
a majority of Americans oppose raising the debt ceiling without
significant spending cuts attached. They understand intuitively that
once a nation’s debt gets so large that it couldn’t possibly be paid
back if it had to be, that nation is effectively bankrupt.
That is the tipping point where default and restructuring of the debt
becomes the only viable option, the only path to salvation. Sadly,
the U.S. is rapidly approaching this position.
Could the debt ever be paid?
Currently, the U.S. is paying about 3 percent interest on the $14.3
trillion debt, or $430 billion of gross interest payments every year.
If we had to repay everything over the next 30 years, principal and
interest owed would amount to $908 billion out of revenue every year.
That’s 41.7 percent of this year’s $2.174 trillion projected tax
collections.
Is that affordable? Would repayment even be possible today? Perhaps
just barely. The benchmark total debt service ratio for mortgage
lenders is 40 percent. Anything above that, and a prospective borrower
would not qualify for a loan. So even today, Uncle Sam would not
qualify for a home mortgage.
What is clear is that by this analysis, over time repayment becomes
increasingly improbable, if not impossible. By the government’s own
numbers, the debt service ratio will continue to rise this decade. Even
under the rosiest scenario, America will be broke within the next 10
years.
By 2021, when the debt rises to $26.346 trillion according to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), that office projects interest
rates will have returned to their historical norm of 5 percent. Then
annual gross interest payments will be $1.317 trillion. If we attempted
to begin repayment then, principal and interest owed would amount to
$2.195 trillion, or 45.5 percent of the projected $4.820
trillion in tax receipts projected for that year.
What struck me as illegitimate, however, was the attempt by Committee
Chairman Bingaman to spout the party line in his opening remarks and
try to tie in the occurrence of wildfires with climate change and global
warming.
There he made specific reference to a recently published document by
the National Academy of Sciences entitled, “America’s
Climate Choices” as evidence that global warming is affecting
wildfire frequency and severity.
As it was specifically mentioned in the hearing, the report is worth
taking a look at because it
is a blueprint for Big Government intervention to head off the supposed
dire consequences of Global Warming: “The significant risks that
climate change poses to human society and the environment provide a
strong motivation to move ahead with substantial response efforts.
Current efforts of local, state, and private sector actors are
important, but not likely to yield progress comparable to what could be
achieved with the addition of strong federal policies…”
And yes, the report does have some things to say about forest fires.
As an impact of global climate change it claims that, “The frequency
of large wildfires and the length of the fire season have increased
substantially in both the western United States and Alaska.”
Get full story here.
By Rick Manning As
originally published at The Daily Caller.
Last week I previewed the new documentary that chronicles how Sarah
Palin became the person that the left and political insiders from both
parties most hate and fear.
The documentary, defiantly titled “The Undefeated,” is striking in a
number of respects.
It reminds viewers of the almost overwhelming level of vitriol,
derision and hate directed at someone who is dismissed as lacking in
intellect and ability. There can be no doubt that if anyone on the right
engaged in a similar array of death threats, attacks on a politician’s
children and coordinated, acid-tongued message-points against a
liberal public figure, the U.S. attorney general’s hate crimes unit
would be dispatched and MSNBC, CNN and The Huffington Post would be
inflamed with indignation.
But the hate directed at Governor Palin is only a backdrop that
reveals her inner toughness, determination and courage against seemingly
insurmountable odds.
In Alaska, Palin unseated an entrenched mayor in Wasilla, and then
went on to uproot a culture of corruption in Juneau that engulfed the
Republican governor and other state officials.
Sarah Palin, the woman who made “drill, baby, drill” a catch-phrase,
fought the oil companies to force them to drill the oil and natural gas
on the public lands that they leased from the state. Palin also put in
place the framework for a natural gas pipeline that will deliver this
clean, abundant fuel to the lower 48 states for generations. Quite a
record of success for someone who is satirized as being nothing more
than a bubble-headed bimbo.
Get full story here.
It
was quite a week for governors on both sides of the Hudson.
First,
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo achieved one of his most important goals when
the New York Legislature mustered the votes needed to approve a same-sex
marriage bill, which he promptly signed into law. Less than seven days later,
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie scored a major victory of his own when the
New Jersey Legislature passed a landmark measure reforming the state’s public pension
and benefit system, which he signed promptly into law.
Cuomo
and Christie are different governors from different states and different
parties, and the goals they achieved this past week addressed vastly different
issues. Still, there are a few similarities in the circumstances surrounding
each governor’s success.
Both
bills passed after hard-fought battles; both issues had been priorities for the
two governors, and previous attempts to legalize same sex marriage in New York
and to significantly reform public pensions and benefits in New Jersey had
failed.
As
with any major initiative, several factors were responsible for the successes
Cuomo and Christie achieved last week. These include their strong personalities,
changing attitudes on social issues, and the current fiscal crunch which is
forcing cuts in government services and programs.
But
for two governors who have prided themselves on changing the status quo in
their respective states, it was old fashioned politics – money and power – that
played a critical role in getting the job done.
As
New York Times reporter Michael
Barbaro explained in his account of the strategy
behind Cuomo’s success with the same sex marriage bill, the New York Governor’s
work with “a group of super-rich
Republican donors”
helped deliver the votes needed to pass the measure. According to Barbaro, the GOP
donors “had the influence and
the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they
supported the marriage measure” and ultimately provided $1 million to a lobbying
campaign in support of the bill.
In
New Jersey, an alliance between the Governor and powerbrokers from the opposing
political party also proved critical in getting pension and benefit reform
through the Legislature.
Republican
lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill, but since Democrats hold majorities
in both the state Senate and Assembly, the measure would not have passed
without support from a handful of Democrats. By and large, the Democrats who
supported the bill are closely aligned with Steve Adubato Sr., a powerful North
Jersey Democratic leader, and George Norcross, who wields substantial power and
influence in South Jersey Democratic circles. As The Record’s Charles Stile wrote in a column about the
pension bill, Christie has “carefully cultivated” Adubato and Norcross, turning
them into “de facto get-out-the-vote ward leaders for
the Republican governor's agenda.”
Additional
evidence of the unusual dynamics between the Republican governor and Democratic
powerbrokers was on display later in the week when the state Senate failed to
provide ample votes to block Christie’s proposal to transfer operation on New
Jersey Network (NJN) to WNET. Republicans sided with the Governor and voted
against blocking the plan, but again a few Democratic votes were needed, and
again they came from a familiar group of lawmakers. “On the public employee
benefits and public television votes this past week, just about all of the
Democratic defections can be linked to the Norcross and Adubato camps,” Salon news editor Steve Kornacki wrote after the NJN
vote took place.
The
whirlwind pace of politics, which last week produced historic action in New
York and New Jersey, is about to slow down for the summer. It will be an
opportune time for Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie to revel in the success of
some major achievements in their relatively brief gubernatorial careers. But
one of the ironic side effects of their successes has been to make the
political bosses in their states even more powerful.
#
# #
Richard A. Lee is
Communications Director of the Hall
Institute. A former State House reporter and Deputy Communications
Director for the Governor, he also teaches courses in media, politics and
government at Rutgers University, where he is completing work on a Ph.D. in
media studies. Read more of Rich’s columns at richleeonline and follow him
on Twitter.
