Sunday with Ferris

Back Channels: A RINO TipToe:

In March, it seemed the pro-union legislation known as “card check” was dead – thanks in part to Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Before that, Specter had been coy about the Employee Free Choice Act. He’d voted to allow a debate on the measure in 2007, without commenting on the substance. In March, he had two main concerns: (1) card check, where workers sign cards to indicate support for a union instead of holding a secret-ballot election, and (2) the potential harm of increasing costs to businesses in a recession.

Well, the recession continues, but card check lives – thanks in part to Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.).

Specter and five other colleagues are trying to craft a compromise that would appeal to moderate senators. The New York Times says they are even considering dropping the card-check provision.

Majority Leader Harry Reid had predicted the bill would be back. He said in March, “Anyone who thinks they’re burying card check because of Specter’s statement in an effort to avoid a primary in Pennsylvania should not think this legislation is going to go away.”

Then, the issue was the GOP primary and a rematch against Pat Toomey, who almost beat Specter in 2004. At that point, Specter was trying to appeal to conservatives.

But a month later he switched parties, and now needs labor support because of the expected primary challenge from U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak of Delaware County.

The Dems are looking at a choice between a politician that switches party to suit his own career or a politician that has not lived up to Dems low expectations. In January 2008, local Dem organizations picketed outside Sestak’s Office – and the Sheepdogs were there to counter their displeasure.

Sunday with Ferris

Back Channels: Imagine: Reading a bill before passing it.

In 1776, the rallying cry was, “No taxation without representation.”

Today, it could be, “No taxation without totally clueless representation.”

That’s what Americans got on June 26, when the House voted 219-212 for the “cap-and-tax” energy bill, as the Republicans refer to it. The bill ran more than 1,000 pages, and before members had time to digest that tome, 300 pages of amendments were added after midnight. When Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) started to read the additions, bill cosponsor Henry A. Waxman (D., Calif.) objected. He was rebuffed. There are no time limits for comments by House leaders.

“When you file a 300-page amendment at 3:09 a.m., the American people have a right to know what’s in this bill,” Boehner said.

Whether this bill will lessen greenhouse-gas emissions – as Democrats hope – or kill countless jobs – as Republicans predict – or ever pass the Senate, remains to be seen. But the House vote did raise a question that cuts across party and ideology:

How can lawmakers vote on something so important without a thorough understanding of what’s in it?

Can you imagine that this would be a topic of issue in Congress? How did Congress acquire this destructive habit?

Sunday with Ferris

Back Channels: Remember the Victim and Kin

Whether you are off to church this morning or just relaxing at home, please take a moment to offer a prayer or good thoughts for Pvt. William Long and his family.

This is good advice, we need to reflect on this life cut short by an act of terrorism.

Blue Collar Republican has done the job the media refuses in investigating the mosque and its followers – you need to read this report and ask who is protecting us from these people?

Sunday with Ferris

Back Channels: In Minnesota, a possible N.J. blueprint

A republican with a proven blueprint to cut waste and balance budgets without raising taxes. This is the alternative the Obama Dems claim does not exist. There is a better way to protect our economy than raising taxes or spending our way out of debt:

“But Pawlenty has always advocated fiscal responsibility, even when Republicans in Washington were faltering on that issue. When Pawlenty was first elected governor in 2002, Minnesota faced a $4.5 billion deficit. He helped turn that into a $2.2 billion surplus without raising taxes.

But the fiscal conservative is also a bit of a populist, so he might not fit any of the Sunday talk-show molds being espoused for the GOP. Pawlenty has urged Republicans to reach out, become “the party of Sam’s Club, not just the country club.” This son of a truck driver is comfortable pushing education reform, a clean environment, and energy independence. To lower health-care costs, he backed the importation of prescription drugs from Canada, even though the Bush White House insisted the drugs couldn’t be proved safe. Pawlenty famously replied, “Show me the dead Canadians.”

And now, amid the worst fiscal crisis in decades, Pawlenty again rejects business as usual. Instead, he will try to do the responsible thing that governors and lawmakers from Trenton to Harrisburg to Sacramento have deemed impossible: cut the budget – not just reduce the growth of spending – without raising taxes.

It may seem radical to some, but Pawlenty is merely applying the same budgeting principle to government that families use every day: If there’s less income, you cut spending. The focus is on what you have to have, rather than what’s nice to have, as former presidential candidate Mitt Romney put it in his endorsement last week of Christopher J. Christie, the front-runner in the GOP primary for New Jersey governor.”

FYI: the Republicans have a far better approach for healthcare reform “Patients Choice Act” than the dubious, one size fits no one, proposed by the Obama administration.

Sunday with Ferris

A Blue State Revolt?

This edition of Back Channels serves up good reasons to closely watch the New Jersey Governor primary race:

Clearly, there’s a disagreement on this point and others, but both Christie and Lonegan are arguing from right of center on how to best cut taxes to spur economic growth. The GOP primary winner is going to be a conservative. The question then becomes, in the Age of Obama, is such a distinction the kiss of death?

Not necessarily. Christie has consistently led the increasingly unpopular Corzine in head-to-head polls. The lead is troubling enough, the New York Times reports, that the Democratic Governors Association plans to help Corzine, who gave the group $100,000 in 2007. The group will run ads designed to boost Lonegan, who is seen as the weaker general-election candidate.

So Lonegan isn’t the only one feeling threatened by Christie’s conservative message.

With good reason. Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, suggests that New Jersey has all the ingredients of what could be “the beginnings of a blue-state tax rebellion.” Enormous debt. An inability to cut spending. Budget holes that even federal stimulus money can’t fill. And an expectation that “the rich” can be taxed enough to make up the difference.

But here’s the rub. Most of those considered “rich” aren’t living off trust funds. They are often struggling two-income households. One earner might now be out of work. Savings have been depleted. What was once affordable – a hefty mortgage and private school or college tuitions – is now a burden. They supported the president and might want to help in a time of crisis. But President Obama isn’t the only one who wants to raise their taxes. Corzine does, too. And that’s before the bills come due for all the new spending on education, health care, and the environment. Before the shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare have been addressed. “The rich” will be hit up again and again, but even they can’t pay for it all.

“If Democrats expand their definition of rich they will create problems for themselves,” Franc says. “This will first show up in the blue states, because that’s where the money is.”

Check out the two Republican candidates for Govenor of New Jersey:

Chris Christie

Steve Lonegan

New Jersey and Pennsylvania elections are shaping up to be the defining elections for the GOP and conservatism. It is clear the change people voted for in November is not panning out. The question arises, do the voters continue down this road of out of control spending or chose better options in the coming election cycles?

Sunday with Ferris

Holy Cowburgers, Batman!

Harrisburg seems poised to make state government more accountable and transparent.

Yes, that’s right. Harrisburg. Accountable. Transparent. All in one sentence.

Just like the Governor of Alaska put the State’s checkbook online, a freshman State Representative, Jim Christiana-R, is proposing the same for Pennsylvania.

State Rep. Jim Christiana was seeking cosponsors for a similar measure in the House last week. (He had 83, including six Democrats, as of Wednesday.) Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Gov. Rendell, said: “It sounds like the right thing to do.”

Sounds like? The money managed by the State Government is owned by the taxpayers in Pennsylvania. Since it is our money given in trust to Pennsylvania, we are entitled to know how the state government is handling our property. The buck stops here!

Sunday with Ferris

Back Channels: A distraction: The real shock to the conscience should be 9/11, not the efforts – however harsh – to prevent such attacks in the future.

The phrase acts as a reality check, forcing one’s thoughts back to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and the mass murder of almost 3,000 people: The innocents who had their throats slit by hijackers. The men and women who burned to death. Those who plunged to their deaths from the World Trade Center to escape the inferno.

That was a shock to my conscience.

I compare that with KSM’s being subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, including reportedly being waterboarded 183 times – roughly one session for every 16 victims of 9/11.

Sorry, but I cannot work my conscience into being shocked for him, even though I suspect such a judgment will result in some form of eternal damnation.

You know what, I’ll save a seat for you Kevin. If this is what it takes to prevent mass murder on our shores, so be it. Simply put; when intelligence agencies are hamstrung by political witch hunts, civilians are the ones who pay the ugly price. I’d like to introduce you to someone who was paid that price: David Reed Gamboa-Brandhorst

Sunday with Ferris

Back Channels: Likely Challenger Sees Chance against Specter

Kevin scores a home run with his interview with Toomey.

My concern is of the Pa GOP setting itself up for failure. Recall in 2006 when the base lashed against Santorum’s support of Specter which in turn lead to Casey defeating Santorum. Are we setting ourselves up for another Dem that adds no value to the state – ala – Casey?

Sunday with Ferris

Photo taken at the screening of Media Malpractice at the National Press Club

Back Channels: Media’s Swoon over Obama.

Campaign ’08 has hit the big screen.

In a sense, it’s a love story. The heartthrob is the Kennedyesque young senator from Illinois, with the supporting cast composed of the many media suitors who came a-courtin’.

There’s Chris and his thrilled leg. Oh-so-serious Anderson and his plaint about distractions vs. real issues. The TV reporter who declares a Rev. Jeremiah Wright-free zone so the candidate will feel more comfortable. The swooning ladies of The View. And the superest, specialist guest star of them all: Oprah!

The documentary – Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted – is part tragedy and part romantic comedy, as the above-named suitors and others trip all over themselves making excuses for their guy.

Filmmaker and Philly-area native John Ziegler isn’t the only one who noticed the media’s infatuation with Barack Obama. A Rasmussen poll released on Election Day showed that 51 percent of voters thought reporters tried to help Obama win. But Ziegler was on to the issue long before Nov. 4. The filmmaker’s “crystallizing moment” was the coverage of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his racially inflammatory sermons.

“That showed how ridiculously in the tank the media were going to be for Barack Obama,” Ziegler says. “It was just a flat-out joke.”

You mean this media, John?

Kudos to Kevin Ferris for having the mettle to write about Media Malpractice. It takes a certain strength of character to step back and examine the actions of the media during the past election cycle. Even more so when it is your chosen profession. Perhaps Kevin should hand out copies of ‘Better‘ along with this article to his fellow journalists at the Inquirer. They need all the help they can get!

I found a great video of John Zeigler talking about the media’s reaction to his film. He jokes about having enough material from the reception his film received to make a Media Malpractice 2 – only I don’t believe he was joking.

The photo below was taken in the Ladies loo at the National Press Club. Yes, my camera goes everywhere. With the media abandoning their professional principles, who is minding this cradle of liberty?

Pssst…I AM.

Sunday with Ferris

Back Channels is Back!! I was told by my sources that the Tabacon Hot Springs had a recuperative affect on the author. He is back with a gift for his readers: Rules For Radicals:

“In the stimulus debate, the GOP out-organized the onetime community organizer.

Sure, this was a flawed bill, with a priority not on stimulus, but on richly rewarding special interests loyal to Democrats. Republicans got that. More important, so did the public.

Still, the Republicans were outnumbered in Congress and supposedly out-messaged by the Great Communicator in the White House. It didn’t matter. They did a better job of organizing their community and communicating.

The standards for organizing were set by Saul D. Alinsky, who began his work in the slums near Chicago’s stockyards in 1939. Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation was the granddaddy of many subsequent groups, such as ACORN and the Developing Community Project, which hired a young Barack Obama in the 1980s.”

Without consulting Alinsky’s guide, yet employing similar principles, a pro victory organization in West Chester (Chester County Victory Movement) successfully turned the tide of public opinion and support on an insidious anti-war, anti-peace group (Chester County Peace Movement). With this remarkable success in West Chester, can we now rename the primer “Rules for Conservatives“?