HALF-FULL REPORT 01/28/11

Wasn’t that just the greatest State of the Union speech ever?  All that pent-up expectation that Zero was going to channel Bill Clinton as The Comeback Kid pivoting off the humiliation of facing a newly-elected Republican Majority to join them in declaring "The era of big government is over" – well, he certainly burst that balloon, didn’t he?

What a turkey of a talk – so bad it may be right up there with Jimmy Carter’s "malaise" speech.  It’s being ridiculed as his Sputnik Speech for his stupid "Sputnik moment" shtick, and his WTF Speech for his witless "Winning The Future" slogan that deserved the acronym everyone knows has another meaning.

The HFR prefers to entitle Zero’s 2011 SOTU – in honor of his paean to "solar shingles" as an example of "tomorrow’s energy" as opposed to "yesterday’s energy" of filthy hydrocarbons – as his Solar On A Shingle Speech.

Even better, he phoned it in.  It was a going-through-the-motions, desultory, listless performance with no fire.  "I struggled to keep my eyes open, Jack," one Congressman told me.  "He droned on and on, blathering about what he wants when he knows there’s not the slightest chance we’ll vote it.  He even said he wants us to revive the dead DREAM Act!  What a space cadet… we’re all calling him President Sputnik now."

Another Congressista chimed in.  "The speech taught us something really important – that he has learned nothing, that he can’t change like Clinton was able to.  It’s not a matter of brains, although Clinton is much smarter.  He simply doesn’t have the emotional ability to question his socialist belief system – it’s hard-wired into his personal identity.  Which means he’s taking himself out of the game."

Their conclusion is that Daniel Henniger of the Wall Street Journal is right:  this is A Presidency To Nowhere.

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The star of the week is certainly not our solar-on-a-shingle president.  Rather, it’s Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who, as Chairman of the House Budget Committee, gave an astoundingly good Republican response.  You really should read the entire speech. Here’s a taste:

"We believe, as our founders did, that ‘the pursuit of happiness’ depends upon individual liberty, and individual liberty requires limited government.

"Limited government also means effective government. When government takes on too many tasks, it usually doesn’t do any of them very well. It’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high.

"We believe a renewed commitment to limited government will unshackle our economy and create millions of new jobs and opportunities for all people, of every background, to succeed and prosper. Under this approach, the spirit of initiative – not political clout – determines who succeeds."

Ryan left Zero in the dust.  Want to watch him do it?

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You’re watching a changing of the GOP guard.  Compare Ryan to a member of the old GOP guard, Newt Gingrich.  Desperately still trying to be relevant, his headline story this week was:  Gingrich Calls For Replacing EPA.

After correctly criticizing the EPA as an expensive bureaucracy that does nothing but issue regulations and block innovations, he advocates something truly moronic:  replace one bureaucracy with another one.  He wants to change the EPA into the ESA, the "Environment Solution Agency."  I kid you not.

He’s not on drugs and he doesn’t have Alzheimer’s.  He’s just obsolete and won’t admit it.

Nobody showed Newt just how obsolete he is better that the HFR Hero of the Week (along with Paul Ryan) – Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. 

On Tuesday, January 25, with impeccable timing just hours before Zero’s SOTU, he introduced S. 162 – The Cut Federal Spending Act of 2011.  Be careful when you read it, folks – it’s orgasmic.

Rand Paul, with a lot of support from his colleagues, wants to cut $500 billion in federal spending this year.  This is not some across-the-board slash – this is targeting specific programs and departments.  Some examples:

Agriculture Dept:          30% cut of $42.5 billion

Commerce Dept:          54% cut of $5.3 billion

Education Dept:            83% cut of $78 billion (eliminates entire budget save for Pell Grants)

Energy Dept:                100% cut of $44 billion (eliminates entire dept., national security activities regarding nuclear weapons transferred to DoD)

Health & Human Services:  26% cut of $26.5 billion (includes a budget cut of 62% for the FDA, and eliminates all 1,645 HHS free health care clinics for illegal aliens)

Homeland Security:       43% cut of $23.7 billion (includes 40% budget cut for TSA)

Housing & Urban Development:  100% cut of $53 billion (entirely eliminated)

Interior Dept.                78% cut of $10.9 billion (includes elimination of Bureau of Indian Affairs)

Justice Dept.                 28% cut of $9 billion

State Dept.                   71% cut of $20.3 billion

Transportation Dept:     49% cut of $42.8 billion (includes elimination of all Amtrak subsidies)

EPA:                            29% cut of $3.2 billion

There’s lots more. You can read Rand’s explanation of them here. There are some puzzles.  The Labor Dept., for example, gets only a 2% cut and fascist thug bureaucracies like OSHA are untouched.  But it’s a start.  As Jim DeMint joked, "Why only $500 billion, Rand?  That’s only one third of our $1.5 trillion deficit this year!"

Thought you’d never see massive, gargantuan cuts – real cuts, not reductions in projected increases – in federal spending?  It’s coming, and soon.

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Can we talk about mind over matter?  It’s emerging as a most marvelous political development. 

It’s amazing how many conservative websites or pundits on tv/radio let moonbats in the Enemedia or Congress rattle their cages and get them all upset.

Jim Moran (D-VA), the biggest jerk in Congress, compares Republican voters on Nov. 2^nd to Southerners who started the Civil War to protect slavery.  Chrissie Mathews calls Michele Bachmann a "balloon head" on national television.  Every day brings another outrage and conservative pundits work themselves into a lather.

It’s time to call a halt to this.  There’s a famous scene in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead when the villain, Ellsworth Toohey, asks the hero, Howard Roark, what he thinks of him.  Toohey has made it his life’s purpose to destroy Roark.  Yet Roark looks at Toohey with surprise at the question, and answers, "Why, I don’t think of you at all."

So – we need to look upon foaming moonbats in the Enemedia or Congress with this attitude of mind over matter regarding what they do or say.  That is, we no longer mind, because they no longer matter.

Who cares what Jim Moran says about anything now?  He’s a powerless schmuck in the House minority.  Why give him the time of day?

Who cares what Chrissie Mathews says anymore?  Who’s paying attention?  Certainly not the guys who now run Congress.

Fox News provided an instructive example of mind over matter this week.  Yesterday (1/27), an outfit called Jewish Funds for Justice took out a $100,000 full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with a letter, signed by 400 Rabbis, addressed to Rupert Murdoch demanding he "sanction Glenn Beck."

Before noon, a Fox spokesman dismissed the ad with:  "This group is a George Soros backed left-wing political organization that has been trying to engage Glenn Beck primarily for publicity purposes."  Murdoch himself has no comment at all.  Beck laughed at George Soros’ paid rabbis wearing "tin foil hats."

No more getting under our skins, Lefties.  We don’t mind ‘cause you don’t matter.

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Now let’s take a look at what’s happening in Virginia.

What’s allowed the Democrats to metastasize the federal government beyond its constitutional limits more than any thing else is the misuse of the word "regulate" in the Commerce Cause.  Ever since the ludicrous Wickard v. Filburn decision in 1942, the Feds regulate everything in our lives under the excuse of "affecting interstate commerce"  (See Roscoe and Roberts from July 2005).

On Wednesday (1/26), the Virginia House of Delegates voted 65-33 to pass the Virginia Intrastate Commerce Act.  Here’s the key section:

All goods produced or manufactured, whether commercially or privately, within the boundaries of the Commonwealth that are held, maintained, or retained within the boundaries of the Commonwealth shall not be deemed to have traveled in interstate commerce and shall not be subject to federal law, federal regulation, or the authority of the Congress of the United States under its constitutional power to regulate commerce.

The bill must now pass the State Senate.  It’s Democrat-controlled, 22-18 – but those 22 Dems are up for re-election this November (yes, this year), so it’s likely a number of them will be persuaded to vote yes.  Gov. Bob McDonnell can’t wait to sign it.

Other states are going to quickly follow Virginia‘s lead, and at last we’ll have a full-on straight challenge by the states to the New Deal tortured interpretation of the Commerce Clause. 

Thousands of federal laws and tens of thousands of federal regulations are dependent for their legality upon this interpretation and the Wickard precedent.  Junk the interpretation and both the precedent and all those laws and regulations are junked. 

The stakes are very large.  Six of the 22 state senate Dems are first-termers.  Virginia Tea Partyers:  start putting pressure now on all 22, and especially those six (John Miller, Ralph Northam, Don McEachin, Chap Petersen, Dave Marsden, and George Barker).  The payoff for getting five of them to vote yes on the Intrastate Commerce Act is enormous.

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Next month, I’m going to be in Africa – to places like Somaliland, Eritrea, Southern Sudan, and Ethiopia.  My wife Rebel has decided this would be an excellent time for her to do something cool herself.

Cool but warm.  With this crazy freezing snowy winter, she wants to escape to a beautiful sunny place (not Africa, thank you) and hold the 1^st International Women’s Retreat exclusively for TTP women.  It will be from February 24^th to March 1^st in Lisbon, Portugal.

Rebel chose Portugal because it is one of her favorite countries. Great food, great wine, great weather, friendly people  – plus there’s an easy non-stop daily flight from Newark. 

For decades Rebel has taught workshops around a personal process for women to design and realign their lives. Here’s what she wants to share:

"Each woman receives a Designing Your Life coursebook when she enrolls.  In advance, she can choose one area of her life to focus on and enhance.  Many women underestimate the lasting value of taking a retreat – it can be absolutely reinvigorating and uplifting.  In this beautiful environment, women can meet and enjoy relaxing with like-minded fellow TTPer women.  You will return with new friends and a refreshed outlook."  

Those of you who’ve been lucky enough to meet Rebel at a Rendezvous know how wonderful she is – and how she has an almost magical rapport with other women.  This is the first program TTP has done just for the ladies of TTP.   I know everyone with her will have a marvelous time in Lisbon while I’m trying not to get malaria in Africa.

Let her know if you’d like more info at [email protected]

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A week from this Sunday, February 6^th, America will celebrate the centennial of the birth of the greatest American of the 20^th century, Ronald Reagan.  You can’t do better to start the celebration than by reading this touching tribute to him by his daughter Patti, Grace Under Fire.

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It’s been a terrific week.  Why not have some fun before we end this HFR.  Can you imagine John Wayne jitterbugging?  Well, here he is, in the Fighting Seabees: