HALF-FULL REPORT 07/22/11

No doubt who’s the HFR Hero of the Week this week, is there?  Who else but Congressman Allen West (R-FL)?

This guy is becoming the essence of pro-American cool.  Pretty soon Allen West jokes will replace Chuck Norris jokes, like "Some people wear Superman pajamas – Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas," or "Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack – his heart isn’t foolish enough to attack him."  Insert Allen’s name in these.

On Tuesday (7/19) in response to an attack on him by hyper-lib, hyper-obnoxious Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL, whose district adjoins West’s, and is also the current Chair of the Democrat National Committee) on the House floor, West wrote her a letter that has long been deserved.  Here’s the money quote:

"Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up."

He concluded with:

"You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!"

This has given Dems the vapors, especially women Dems who are shrieking "sexist!" because West doesn’t cut Debbie any slack just because she’s a woman. Feminists demand equality but hate it when they get it.  Dem demands that West apologize are thunderous, to which West is responding with a shrug.

There’s "not a chance" of an apology, he told Fox, "I stand by what I said."  The video interview in the link above is worth watching in entire.

At last we have a Republican with major stones, who understands the best defense is a go-for-the-jugular offense, that the way to win is to put your opponent on the defensive, and to stand your ground with no apology.  GO ALLEN!

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Say, isn’t this debt ceiling fiasco working out great – at least so far?  Thanks to the Tea Party Freshmen in the House, Boehner can’t cut a deal that raises taxes – while the Dems, being intransigent spendaholics (as Jack Kelly calls them), won’t agree to a deal that doesn’t.

Boehner is reported to be deeply depressed that the freshmen won’t let him sell out, while the Dems are mouth-frothing angry.  Can’t beat that combo.

So there’s still a chance we may get the best deal of all – no deal at all.  Then it will be up to guys like West to force Zero into spending current revenues on the most "essential services" like debt service, Social Security/Medicare, and military pay – and triaging what’s left over.

It’s 11 days between today and August 2.  What happens between now and then depends on the Tea Party Pubs holding fast.  Wish them Godspeed.

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If we finally get the fight we’ve always wanted – a triage fight over which government programs you let die in order to save others – it will be the first chance to do so in our lifetimes. 

Zero, note, has already laid down a marker, choosing food stamps over defense spending.  Welfare over national security (although it must be admitted there is enormous bloat in the Pentagon’s budget -e.g., the Navy has a lot more admirals than it has ships).

Where are our markers?  The first should obviously be the death of ObamaCare, lock, stock, and Stimulus death panel barrel.  But this will be the world’s most target-rich environment, so what’s beyond that?

Charles Krauthammer today (7/22) proposed what he calls the Half-Trillion Plan:  a short-term raise of the debt ceiling lasting five months in exchange for $500 billion in actual real spending cuts in FY2012 – no fairy dust.

Although he never specifies any particular cuts nor mentions any names, it’s no coincidence that his "half-trillion" plan matches the FY2012 budget proposed by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).

Paul’s budget cuts out $500 billion from FY2012, outright eliminating the entire Departments of Energy, Education, Commerce, and Housing & Urban Development.  This is the triage blueprint.

Yet cutting spending is only half the solution to our economic woes.  The other half is cutting regulation, the gigantic morass of federal agency regulations.  The scores of thousands of them in the Federal Register are termed "administrative laws" – which is a constitutional oxymoron.

Only the legislative branch of the US government – Congress – has the constitutional authority to pass laws.  It is the job of the administrative or executive branch to administer or execute the laws passed by Congress and signed by the president.  It is the job of the judicial branch to judge the constitutional legality of these laws.

Conservatives get rightly outraged when moonbat liberal judges "legislate from the bench," creating laws they have no constitutional right to.  We need to get equally outraged at federal agencies doing the same.

The excuse Congress uses for the abandonment of its legislative powers to unelected bureaucrats is called delegation – whereby Congress "delegates" its power to them.  The only way to liberate ourselves from bureaucratic tyranny is to demand that Congress end its delegation policy.

This can be done by Congress passing what Jim Lacy, Professor of Strategic Studies at the Marine Corps War College, calls a No Vote – No Regulation Act.  He explains:

"After passing a new law, Congress can no longer be permitted to hand the regulatory implementation of it off to a faceless government agency, and by doing so wash its hands of the outcome of its laws. Instead, every regulation must be presented to Congress before it takes effect. Congress must vote to approve or disapprove every regulation within 90 or so days of its submission by the regulatory body. No vote, no regulation.

"Moreover, any regulation that has a projected economic impact (positive or negative) of over $100 million must be voted on individually and not be included as part of a regulatory bundle. I would go even further and require that every regulation already in place that has an economic impact of over $100 million must also receive Congress’s blessing within a year or be rescinded."

Ending delegation with No Vote – No Regulation should be the next great cause of the Tea Parties.

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Now for some good news on the international scene.

Whatever doubt that Hugo Chavez is dying of cancer was removed by his return to Cuba for chemo.  Today (7/22) he had to deny he’s dying – which means he is.  The sooner the better.

Another clear sign he’s a goner is that his protégés in both Peru – Ollanta Humala – and Bolivia – Evo Morales – are running fast away from him and his Marxist policies.  Both have recently raced off to ask Brazil’s Lula for advice on how to open their markets.

Humala as a result is now backing down on his promise to nationalize (that means steal) the mining companies keeping the Peruvian economy afloat.  Morales is doing the same.  No Venezuelan sugar daddy to provide bribe money keeping people happy means both these guys have to actually improve their economies.

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Rating agencies are being denounced by spendaholic governments, like ours or in Europe, for telling the downgrading truth about them.  Today (7/22), Moody’s told the truth about Bulgaria – resulting in an upgrade.

Moody’s raised Bulgaria’s credit rating from Baa3 to Baa2 with a stable outlook, citing positive fiscal prospects, budget deficit under 3% of GDP and an ability to withstand "regional instability," i.e. the Greek debacle.

This followed yesterday’s (7/21) announcement by Bulgarian Finance Minister Simon Diankov that Bulgaria is postponing indefinitely plans to join the Eurozone, "until we know what we’re joining” and opined that countries like Bulgaria and Estonia can teach some Western European countries who "have already forgotten what financial restructuring and budget discipline mean."

Dinkov might consider coming to Washington to teach this to Geithner and Zero.

We’ll be having another exploration of opportunities in Bulgaria for TTPers in September.  Hope you can join us.

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Speaking of joining us… both the date and place are set for Rendezvous XI:  October 7-9 at the Key Bridge Marriott in Washington DC. 

A Rendezvous is a semi-annual TTP Family Reunion.  So plan to have big fun with your TTP family members.  I’ll see you there.

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Sorry this HFR is a bit late coming out today as I’m on the road.  But I can’t go until I turn you on to an outstanding post in the TTP Forum by Mitch Rapp, Sovereign Life: A Freedom Seeker’s Toolkit.  Thanks, Mitch!