Listening Left

It is deep summer here in MN, temps in the 90s, no rain, lots of outdoors work and play, so I have been “listening like an average American” to the standard left media and have some thoughts.

If one even just watches the mainline media (closely), a veritable barrage of good news is streaming by, but since it only shows up for a second, and there is never any commentary on it (at least the good news), it is very easy to miss.

· 8 straight quarters of growth above 3%, first time since mid-80s. If there was a Democrat in the WH, this alone would be enough for media happy snoopy dance. As it is, buried on page 4-5 one day, and then the funeral dirge plays on.

· The CBO deficit projection for fiscal year ’04-’05 is down to well under $350 billion and may be under $325 http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/08/budget.deficit.ap/index.html

Contrast this with a Washington Post headline of January
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35029-2005Jan25.html that stated it would be $427 Billion. There has been a lot of media and democrat hand wringing about how unrealistic the Bush campaign promise to cut the deficit in half was without the all-purpose media solution on massive tax increases. Expect the story of a lower deficit to see minimal coverage with many caveats about “the numbers being bad”. Next time you see a negative number; see if they tell you about the potential that “the number is bad”. Wonder why that is?

· Unemployment hit 5.0% in June, the lowest since 2001. http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/08/news/economy/jobs_june/

One of the reasons that it truly is sad to have a Republican in the White House is that we never get to enjoy any good news. If we had a Democrat in there, it would be wonderful happy times.

The good news of free market capitalism isn’t just for the USA though. Thomas Freidman had an Op-Ed last week where he pointed out that Ireland, the perennial land of famine and poverty is now the 2^nd highest GDP per capita in Europe. Why? In the early ‘90s they looked at what was working and created a business friendly environment … cut corporate taxes, high individual rates, and reduces socialist kinds of rules that prevented business flexibility, on the “liberal side”, they made even secondary education essentially free to those that were willing to maintain grades. Now Dell, IBM, Motorola, and a host of other business has come to Ireland, while Germany, France, and those in Europe that maintain a socialist bent, slip ever lower. 

As a side effect, it is a lot harder to recruit bombers in a growing economy … people are more interested in living a better life than in blowing it up. The media generally likes to ignore these sorts of facts … the right kinds of decisions might be reached, more people would move up the income ladder and vote Republican … oops, I guess that has already happened. Well, they can try to slow it down at least!

Here in MN the media is intent on blaming Pawlenty for the State shutdown, which was the Democrat strategy from the beginning. One article that you will never read in the local media is that the Governor is part of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH … interestingly, they don’t write legislation, they sign it, and Pawlenty never vetoed a bill during the special session. Which means … drum roll please … that the legislation never got out of the legislature! Let’s see, there are two branches in the legislature, the House (Republican), and the Senate (Democrat). For some odd reason though, this startling fact never made the media, and all we heard about was “Pawlenty’s No New Taxes Pledge”.

There are few things that the media hates more than some limit on taxation, even when a God forsaken Midwestern state with a horrible climate, no mountains, and a bad business climate. However, we do a great job of taxation and always manage to make the top 5. From a liberal POV, high taxes on their own mean a great quality of life … as long as someone else is paying them.

The MN Democrats prevented any bonding bill from passing in ’04, and they were rewarded by picking up 13 seats in the House. Nationally they are obstructing well enough so that a UN Ambassador can’t even be approved. It remains to see if they will be rewarded at the ballot box for their efforts, but if they are one can only guess that even the dense Republicans will learn that obstruction pays and at least give it a ham handed try. Oh how the media will yell at that tactic, but I may be just wishful thinking, look at the Supreme Court.

The Democrats successfully Borked Robert Bork and prevented his confirmation, they carried out their high tech lynching on Clarence Thomas and he squeaked out a confirmation. 

We now hear the opening whine salvos of “Bush didn’t get enough of a majority to appoint anyone conservative”. Clinton NEVER got any majority at all (43% in ’93, 49% in ’96), and yet Ruth Bader Ginsberg sailed through 96-3. What would someone that is as far right as Ginsberg is left believe? I don’t think we can find anyone anywhere in the judicial system that comes close … an equivalent conservative judge would have to believe that Roe should be overturned ASAP, affirmative action / Gay Marriage / restrictions on the Ten Commandments and a host of other things would be constitutional abominations that would need to be fixed immediately. I’m not sure such a candidate exists, but if they did the media and the left would go to filibuster and manufacturing personal charges against the person for certain. 

Yet, the foolish Republicans let Ginsberg sail through AFTER Bork and Thomas. Did they think that the Democrats and the media would give them credit for civility? Of course not, it is the Republicans that have “destroyed the tone” in Washington, and Bush ought to appoint a liberal to “prevent a fight”.

I got a chance to listen to a little of “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross on MPR this evening as I journeyed home from a Church board meeting, and was rewarded with some great humor for my efforts. She was interviewing a Marine reserve Doctor that is head of some University Medical school as well as having served in Iraq. She did her best to try to get him to say something bad about the politics, the efforts, ANYTHING to do with the war, but he remained dedicated to the service, dedicated to the soldiers, and not willing to take any political bait.

She finally got down to a question like “Well, the war in Iraq is a very unpopular war, do you feel that has reflected badly on you as you have returned?”. He had served at the time of (not in) Vietnam, and responded that his experience to the contrary was that they had a lot of support, people sending them letters, treats, helping their families, and telling them how much they appreciated their efforts when they got home. That was the end of the interview, her disappointment was palpable.

It is a great country. He goes to war to fight for the freedom of a tax subsidized woman whose high moments are if someone with Tourettes syndrome comes on and says something inappropriate or she can giggle about gay sex with a guest. If the Muslims that she respects and loves to talk positively about (as opposed to disgusting closed-minded Christians) ever were in charge, they would take her out and cut her head off,  with some unfriendly treatment on the way to getting to see her headless body from a "unique perspective" for her 2-7 seconds of remaining consciousness that science postulates a severed head "enjoys" (providing her head falls in a "lucky" perspective).

How out of touch with reality can a reporter be to think she will get the better of a 30+ year military veteran, Medical Doctor, and head of a University Medical center? She was completely out of her league, but apparently her obliviousness knows no bounds as seems to be the case for most of the mass media.