Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 16, 2010

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LEFT/RIGHT

Mountain Views News Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Last Thrashing of Dying Dinosaurs

GREG Welborn

HOWARD Hays 

As I See It

 

 We’ve seen it a thousand times in horror movies 
and suspense thrillers. When something dies, it 
usually dies slowly with a last gasp of thrashing 
about as it tries to cling to life. Inevitably, as the 
audience always realizes, the monster is dying, 
and everyone knows it except the dying monster. 
Such is the case with liberal economic theory, 
represented by the philosophy, pronouncements 
and actions of the current administration. 
Everyone realizes that the policies of the last 22 
months of the Obama administration have failed, 
that liberal theory is dead as a doorknob, except 
liberal themselves.

 How do we really know that liberal economic 
theory is dying? By the fact that every Democrat 
running for office in the mid-term elections has 
turned to personal attacks rather than debate 
the issues or defend the actions taken by the 
administration and the congress – both controlled 
by the liberal majority. Consider where we are 
today.

 The September jobs report showed that another 
400,000 people have filed for unemployment.

 More people are now in poverty than since the 
Census Bureau began keeping these records.

 Foreclosures hit an all time high in August.

 Unemployment is up to 9.6% 32 months after 
the recession began. The longest previous period 
since WWII was 16 months.

 The country has been flooded with new money 
from the Fed, yet banks and Fortune 500 America 
sit on wads of cash, rather than invest or loan it 
out, because they are nervous about the future.

 As bad as things are for the “average” American, 
they are even worse for African Americans. 
Unemployment among this group stands at 16%. 

 As if these statistics didn’t tell the entire story, we 
have the video image of Velma Hart, an African 
American who has steadfastly defended this 
president, telling him in public, “I am exhausted 
of defending you, defending your administration, 
defending the mantle of change that I voted for, 
and deeply disappointed with where we are right 
now.”

 But perhaps the most telling of all symptoms is 
the fact that Democrats have resorted to accusing 
the Republicans of accepting “foreign” money 
without one scintilla of evidence. As they say in 
law school, if the law isn’t on your side, pound the 
facts; if the facts aren’t on your side, pound the 
opposition. All that’s left is to try to demonize 
the Republicans. Even the most stalwart of liberal 
defenders, CBS anchor Bob Schieffer, criticized 
White House Senior Advisor, David Axelrod, 
by asking if this was the best he could do –to 
make up an accusation about where campaign 
contributions were coming from.

 The reality, as most Americans have figured 
out by now, is that the Obama administration 
and the Liberal Congress have only their jealous 
ideology to inspire them in how to handle the 
current economic crisis. In the midst of the most 
stubborn recession we’ve had since the Great 
Depression, with unemployment climbing again 
and GDP trending down, the administration and 
Congress have proposed across-the-board tax 
increases to punish the rich but which will

 actually affect every single 
American in one form or 
another. 

If they have their way:

 Capital gains taxes will 
increase 60%, and new 
investments won’t be made,

 Income taxes will increase 
on the most productive citizens by 20%, and

 Small businessmen and farmers who try to 
pass on a legacy to their kids will see their assets 
taxed 55% after the capital gains and income taxes 
mentioned above are already created.

 And we wonder why nobody is willing to 
invest in starting a new business, opening a new 
branch or hiring more people to try to grow 
their business. When you tax the rich or the 
entrepreneur, ultimately you tax the blue collar 
worker. 

 The only debate we’re having now is how bad the 
democratic blood bath is going to be. Americans 
are not stupid. In fact, they are among the most 
reasonable, educated and dedicated citizens on 
the planet. They may not vote in all elections 
or on all issues in any given election, but that’s 
because they usually trust either their current 
elected representative or their neighbor who 
knows more about the issue than they do. But 
every poll shows that they are going to vote on 
November 2nd, and they are going to vote with a 
consistency that will bring shock and awe to those 
who are in power, who are content to allow taxes 
to further destroy this great economy.

 Liberals have gone so far over the edge of 
reasonableness that their political lives are 
destroyed. They are dying. They have only the 
remainder of this term (through January 2nd) and 
they will be either tossed from office or relegated 
to such minority status that they’ll be lucky if they 
are allowed a key to the executive washroom. 
Like the dying dinosaurs of old, they have enough 
energy in them only to thrash about as life ekes 
out of their political bodies. There is no way to 
debate the issues or offer a reasonable solution for 
what ails the country, which their policies caused. 
All they can do is trump up spurious personal 
attacks against the opposition in hopes of staving 
off the inevitable.

 So when we hear about the next personal 
scandal of some Republican or Tea Party 
candidate, bear in mind that the sound is only that 
of the dinosaurs who refuse to accept the fact that 
time and life are passing them by. This election 
is a referendum on Liberal thought, philosophy 
and policies, and the devastating results which 
inevitably follow their implementation. The new 
era is at hand, and soon the dinosaurs will be but 
a distant flicker in our collective memories.

 About the author: Gregory J. Welborn is a 
freelance writer and has spoken to several civic 
and religious organizations on cultural and moral 
issues. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his 
wife and 3 children and is active in the community. 
He can be reached at gregwelborn@earthlink.net.


An erudite columnist noted 
last year that the U.S. Supreme 
Court would be taking up the 
Citizens United vs FEC matter 
early in its upcoming term, 
presciently surmising "The 
timing . . .suggests the Court 
wants to hand down its decision before the 2010 
campaign season heats up." (Check out "As I See 
It" in the mtnviewsnews.com Archive from July 
11, 2009.)

 Another bit of prescience came 150 years earlier, 
when President Lincoln wrote in 1864, " . . . 
corporations have been enthroned and an era 
of corruption in high places will follow . . . until 
all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the 
Republic is destroyed."

 The Court itself dealt with the issue on numerous 
occasions, notably in 2000 when, under Chief 
Justice William Rehnquist, it ruled the State of 
Michigan's restrictions on corporate political 
donations " . . . are justified by a compelling state 
interest: preventing corruption or the appearance 
of corruption in the political arena by reducing 
the threat that huge corporate treasuries, which 
are amassed with the aid of favorable state laws 
and have little or no correlation to the public's 
support for the corporation's political ideas, will 
be used to influence unfairly election outcomes."

 Five years later, Rehnquist was replaced by one of 
his former law clerks, who promised during his 
confirmation hearings to abstain from "judicial 
activism" and instead act like "an umpire calling 
balls and strikes".

Chief Justice John Roberts broke that promise 
with the Citizens United case. Rather than 
ruling on the narrow issue of banning the airing 
of an anti - Hillary Clinton "documentary" 
within thirty days of an election, he took the 
opportunity to overturn a hundred years of 
precedent protecting the integrity of our elections 
by equating corporations with "persons" and 
money with "speech".

 There was consolation that Congress would be 
able to plug some loopholes, such as ensuring 
no matter how much money is poured into a 
campaign, at least We the People should be 
entitled to know where the money's coming 
from. "Independent expenditure" committees 
(the preferred vehicle for corporate largesse) 
would become as transparent as Political Action 
Committees under the DISCLOSE Act. Not 
surprisingly, Senate Republicans made sure that 
Act would never come up for a vote.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce couldn't be 
happier, as suspicions of illegal foreign funding 
of U.S. elections, courtesy of the Chamber, won't 
go away. At first they tried to divert attention to 
the relatively small amounts gathered in their 
"AmCham" affiliates overseas, but now we know 
of the huge sums solicited and going directly into 
the very 501(c)(6) entity used to fund the $75-80 
million in attack ads this campaign cycle (about 
twice what was spent two years ago). 

 How do they keep foreign and domestic money 
separate? "We are not obligated to discuss our 
internal procedures." How do we know foreign 
money isn't going into attack ads? We'll just have 
to take their word for it. As presidential advisor 
David Axelrod said on FACE THE NATION last 
week, “If the Chamber opens up its books and 
says ‘here’s where our political money’s coming 
from,’ then we’ll know. But until they do that, all 
we have is their assertion.”

 Here in California, the Chamber has already 
spent over $800,000, primarily in attacking 
Sen. Barbara Boxer and promoting such talking 
points as blaming unemployment and the 
economic downturn in the Central Valley on 
the Endangered Species Act. Sean Hannity was 
trotted out to offer his expertise on Central Valley 
water issues.

 The Chamber is heavily invested in at least 
eight other senate races throughout the country, 
along with keeping up its lobbying activities in 
Washington (where it failed earlier this year in 
blocking passage of Wall Street reform). In 2009 
alone, the Chamber spent $144 million buying off 
Congress - twice the amount spent the year prior. 
As Chamber head Thomas Donahue observed, 
"People seem to listen to you more when you've 
got a bagful of cash."

Sen. Boxer (along with Sen. Harry Reid and 
other prominent Senate Democrats) is also 
being targeted by American Crossroads and 
Crossroads GPS, creations of Karl Rove which 
came about largely thanks to the Citizens United 
decision. Led by Republican Party and Chamber 
of Commerce veterans, the groups have already 
raised $32 million - and plan to spend $52 million 
by election day. 

When Barack Obama ran in 2008, much was 
made of the internet-driven campaign funded 
by citizens sending in their $20, $50 and $100 
contributions. That was before Citizens United. 
Karl Rove's groups, according to limited disclosed 
records, show contributions from individuals 
and corporate interests able to write checks for a 
few hundred thousand to over a million dollars.

 It's not surprising that the ads being financed 
aren't extolling the backgrounds, records of 
accomplishment, or ideas of the preferred 
candidates. Nor will you find any promoting 
notions of "compromise" or a more cooperative, 
productive environment in Washington. Rather, 
it's the demonizing of opponents with false 
charges - secure in the knowledge the authors 
and funders of those ads will never be held 
accountable. 

 We see a slew of candidates more suited for 
caricature on Saturday Night Live than making 
decisions on our future. They aren't being sent to 
Washington to work for the nation's interest, but 
to block the efforts of those who are.

It's not that we didn't see it coming. Four Supreme 
Court Justices did, with Justice John Paul Stevens 
writing in his dissent last January: " . . . the Court’s 
opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense 
of the American people, who have recognized a 
need to prevent corporations from undermining 
self-government since the founding, and who 
have fought against the distinctive corrupting 
potential of corporate electioneering since the 
days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to 
repudiate that common sense. While American 
democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority 
of this Court would have thought its flaws 
included a dearth of corporate money in politics."

CALIFORNIA GENERAL ELECTION 2010 

A Word From The Editor: The Mountain Views News will continue in its tradition of providing readers with as much unbiased information as possible regarding the issues and candidates on the General 
Election Ballot in November. The series will run for the next seven weeks and will include coverage of all Propositions, The U. S. Senate Race, The California Governor’s Race, all other Statewide races, and the 
California Legislative Races. Please remember that the opinions of ALL columnists are not necessarily the position of the paper, but rather, those of the individual author. Those opinions will NOT be a part 
of our General Election Coverage. The official position of the Mountain Views and its’ Editorial Advisors will be clearly stated prior to the election. We do encourage readers, however, to submit their views as 
Letters To The Editor. The more we communicate with each other, the more informed our decisions will be. -Susan Henderson, Publisher/Editor Mountain Views News

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 26

Includes Sierra Madre, Arcadia, Monrovia, and parts of Altadena and Pasadena 
(partial lising)

RUSS WARNER 

Democratic

PO BOX 8070

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA 91701

(909) 560-4952 (Business)

(909) 560-4952 (Residence)

WEBSITE: www.warnerforcongress.com

E-MAIL: russ@warnerforcongress.com

Businessman/Book Publisher

DAVID DREIER* 

Republican

PO BOX 505

UPLAND, CA 91785

(626) 914-3050 (Business)

(626) 914-3050 (Residence)

(626) 914-3702 (FAX)

WEBSITE: www.daviddreier.org

E-MAIL: info@daviddreier.org

*United States Representative

DAVID L. MILLER 

American Independent

417-B W FOOTHILL BLVD #313

 GLENDORA, CA 91741

 (626) 523-1847 (Business)

 (626) 523-1847 (Residence)

 WEBSITE: 
davidmillerforcongress2010.com

 E-MAIL: 

 info@davidmillerforcongress2010.com

 Small Business Owner

RANDALL WEISSBUCH 

Libertarian

1292 OAKGLEN AVE

ARCADIA, CA 91006-2432

(626) 357-4358 (Business)

(626) 827-4357 (Residence)

(626) 357-4358 (FAX)

E-MAIL: rgw1776@gmail.com

Physician

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 29

Includes parts of Pasadena and Altadena (partial listing)

ADAM B. SCHIFF* 

Democratic

15 S RAYMOND AVE STE 204

PASADENA, CA 91105

(626) 583-8581 (Business)

(626) 583-8581 (Residence)

(626) 583-8591 (FAX)

WEBSITE: www.schiff4congress.com

E-MAIL: adam_schiff@sbcglobal.net

*United States Representative, 29th District

JOHN P. COLBERT 

Republican

556 S FAIR OAKS AVE STE 101 BOX 335

PASADENA, CA 91105

(626) 398-6456 (Business)

(626) 398-6456 (Residence)

(626) 628-1778 (FAX)

WEBSITE: www.colbert2010.com

E-MAIL: john@colbert2010.com

Independent Businessman/Entrepreneur

WILLIAM P. CUSHING 

Libertarian

1126 N CENTRAL AVE #306

GLENDALE, CA 91202

(818) 243-9903 (Business)

(818) 243-9903 (Residence)

WEBSITE: cushing4congress.com

E-MAIL: cushing4congress@yahoo.com

College English Instructor