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U.S. taxpayers will pay $6.1 billion for a new fleet of 23 presidential helicopters. According to the Washington Post (July 28), each of the new aircraft will have twice the cabin space as the existing ones and, for the first time, have kitchen and bathroom facilities. The imperial presidency continues to grow.
Kent Snyder
"Paul's Stand on Israel is So Courageous" by Bruce Niebuhr of Galveston, Texas
The Daily News of Galveston County, 07/27/08
"Power Grab" by Steve Breen, The Union-Tribune
07/27/06
"Unrelated as they may seem, the dismal 23 percent public approval of Congress' performance and the American Bar Association's stinging denunciation of President Bush's flagrant indifference toward law have a lot in common."
Pat Murphy, Idaho Mountain Express, 07/26/06
"Congress Sets Aside Up To $100M A Year To Promote Marriage" 07/21/06
"The Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom must not depend upon the whim of IRS bureaucrats. Religious institutions cannot freely preach their beliefs if they must fear that the government will accuse them of 'politics.'" We cannot allow churches to be silenced any more than we can allow political dissent in general to be silenced. Free societies always have strong, independent institutions that are not afraid to challenge and criticize the government."
Congressman Ron Paul's Weekly Column, 07/24/06
"Buckley: Bush Not A True Conservative" 07/22/06
"All government spending represents a tax. The inflation tax, while largely ignored, hurts middle-class and low-income Americans the most."
Congressman Ron Pau's Weekly Column, 07/17/06
"The Hazelton, Pa., City Council approved an ordinance Thursday night designed to make the city among the most hostile places in the United States for illegal immigrants to live or work."
CBS News, 07/14/06
A recent editorial in The Facts, a newspaper in Brazoria County, Texas, says, "At its core, it is an administration that has shown complete disrespect and disregard for the core values laid out in our Constitution by acting unilaterally in its operation of the government, undermining personal freedoms and skirting the law at every opportunity."
"Administration's credibility the real issue" 06/29/06
"Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Bill Owens reached a deal Monday on what both sides called the toughest immigration reform package in the country."
Denver Post, 07/11/06
Last Friday, the House Republicans passed a resolution attacking the media for daring to inform the public about the government's efforts to spy on them. Early this year, the GOP House leadership pushed a bill through the House outlawing "price gouging." Now they are attacking the press.
First economic crimes, now attacks on the media for displeasing the State. Maybe GOP really stands for Grand Old Politburo.
Richard Wilkins
Well...one would think Osama bin Laden had been captured since the C.I.A.'s special unit charged with capturing or killing him was recently disbanded. But bin Laden has not been captured. So why was that special search unit closed?
The former head of the C.I.A.'s special bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, was interviewed two days ago on WTOP radio. WTOP is the major news station in Washington, D.C.
During the interview, Mr. Scheuer said the bin Laden unit gave President Clinton eight chances to kill bin Laden and two chances to capture him. He also said that every major al Qaeda figure who has been captured between 1995 and 2006 was identified by that special unit. He characterized the group as the single most successful counter-terrorism unit the U.S. government has ever had.
So why then was this highly successful counter-terrorism unit recently disbanded, even though Osama bin Laden is still at large?
The four-minute interview with Mr. Scheuer is well worth hearing.
WTOP Archive: "CIA Closes Bin Laden Search Unit" 07/04/06
Related Article: "CIA disbands Bin Laden unit" 07/04/06
Kent Snyder
"So began the harnessing, for the general good, of the fact that human beings are moved, usually and powerfully, by self-interest. So began the unleashing of American energies through freedom -- voluntarism rather than coercion. So began America."
George F. Will, 07/4/06
Recently, the U.S. House voted to give line-item veto power to the president. This would alter the separation of powers by making the president into a super legislator. It would also give the president another tool to "convince" reluctant legislators to vote for presidential priorities, such as future expansions of the welfare state or new legislation giving the president new powers to spy on Americans.
This new grant of executive power was justified as necessary to crack down on pork spending, yet many members of Congress who voted for the line-item veto have been voting against Liberty Caucus member Jeff Flake's efforts to remove some of the more egregious pork projects from the appropriations bills. In other words, these House members would rather give the president new power than responsibly exercise their own constitutional power to reduce spending.
Richard Wilkins
"When we cut the size of government, our taxes will fall. When we reduce the power of the federal bureaucracy, the cost of government will plummet. And when we firmly fix our eyes, undistracted, on the principles of liberty, Americans truly will be free. That should be our new declaration."
Congressman Ron Paul's Weekly Column, 07/03/06
