Dear President Obama . . .

December 27, 2009

Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama:

The Declaration of Independence clearly states, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…”

The history of the Obama administration and 111th Congress is one of stark partisan politics, total lack of transparency, back room political deals giving some states illegal tax breaks over other states, a quadrupling of our annual deficit and a $12 trillion dollar debt all in the first year of your administration. You claim to have inherited a bad economy; on the contrary, you, as a Senator, and your fellow Democrats helped create a bad economy.

The legacy of the Democrat health care bill reeks with the stench of bribery and corruption, with votes purchased with Medicaid cost buy-offs. Included in the bill is a reduction of physician payments by 21.5% to lower the total cost of the bill, yet in a separate bill Senate Democrats restored physician reimbursements: absolute dishonesty on the part of Democrats.

In addition, numerous Democrats in Congress have engaged in criminal behavior that has been aided and abetted by incompetent and dishonest ethics committees controlled by the Democratic leadership.

Your powers to govern are derived from “the Consent of the Governed.” I withdraw my consent to be governed by such a corrupt administration and Congress.


Sincerely,

/s/ Richard D. Brinkley


c: Senator Jon Kyl
Senator John McCain
Senator Harry Reid
Representative Nancy Pelosi
Representative Gabrielle Giffords

Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues 25 – Max Baucus’ Nomination Fails to Pass Proverbial Sniff Test

Max Baucus came under intense scrutiny after news broke that he had nominated his girlfriend and state director, Melodee Hanes, for the $149,000-a-year job as Montana's U.S. attorney earlier this year, while keeping their relationship secret. Hanes in March withdrew as a candidate. That occurred only after a Missoulian reporter and two editors asked some hard questions about whether Baucus and Hanes were having a relationship and whether he had recommended her for the job.She later withdrew her name, citing “other opportunities.”

Baucas not only kept his romantic relationship hidden during his paraour’s nomination but also he claimed objectivity by nominating Melodee Hanes along with two others for the U.S. Attorney post. Baucas also failed to inform his fellow Montana Senator Jon Testor, who interviewed all three nominees.

Ethically, Max Baucas’ nomination of his girl friend failed the proverbial sniff test. In addition, in participating in this ruse, his girl fried, Melodee Hanes, an attorney, also participated in an unethical act.

The citizens of Montana are fortunate to not have Melodee Hanes as their U.S. Attorney. Now, they need to remove Max Baucas from office.

The Day Climate Science Died

Dr. Roy Spencer and other leading climate scientists (“‘Cap and Trade’ or ‘Cap and Tax,’” American Commentaries, 6/28/09) must feel vindicated at the news revealing that a group of scientists in England and America conspired to manufacture “global warming” as a world wide menace. Unfortunately for the “good” climate scientists, climate science died at East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit.

It is now known, thanks to an unidentified whistle blower, that thousands of emails and documents, now posted online, support the fact that radical left climate researchers have been tampering scientific evidence to show a non-existent trend in global warming. The evidence of the global warming scam has been in the hands of the so-called main stream media for over a month but they refused to report it, thus contributing to a cover-up of what can be described as a crime against humanity.

In the absence of the so-called main stream media, bloggers and climate change skeptics analyzed the data and found convincing evidence that Climate Research Unit scientists manipulated data to not only falsify but also outright counterfeit data to support global warming. These same scientists cooperatively worked to hide their crimes from external auditors and deleted information to avoid freedom of information requests (a violation of the law). They also conspired to keep contrary opinions from being published in respected journals and United Nations reports, while denying the legitimacy of skeptics because they were not published in these same journals and reports.

Who are these so-called radical left scientists? Doctor Phil Jones of the Climate Research Unit, who has been forced to step down from his position until the completion of an independent review. Doctors Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley and Malcolm Hughes of Pennsylvania State University, who authored the fabricated “hockey stick” graph that falsely abolished the medieval warm period. Keith Briffa, another Hockey-Team leader, whose temperature graphs, derived from tree ring data from Yamal, Russia, were cited by the IPCC as supporting evidence of Mann-Bradley-Hhughes assertion of unprecedented 20th-century warming.

“The whistleblower’s data file reveals that there is very close collusion indeed between key figures in the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and in both NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. Members of all of these entities in the scientific establishment are also members of the Team. They co-ordinate their results, and they co-ordinate how they present their results, and they co-ordinate how, between them, they control or seek to control – to a remarkable extent – the entire process of the UN’s climate panel, as well as the process of publication of learned papers in scientific journals, and even the appointment of reviewers and editors.”

It is clear that those radical left community has perpetrated a political fraud on humanity in the name of science. As a result, climate science is dead as is ‘global warming.” Not only the corrupt scientists involved but also those like Al Gore and other dishonest politicians pushing a radical left change in society based on fabricated data for the sole purpose of dictatorial political control have been discredited.

The people in the East Anglia Climate Research Unit profited in the amount of $20 million in research grants. Al Gore has made millions from his fraudulent propaganda film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” The so-called “Cap and Trade” bill passed by the House would have cost Americans hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes and increased energy prices. The dishonesty of the radical left is palpable. Even Al Gore has backed out of a speaking engagement in Copenhagen. Why? He can’t stand being questioned about the global warming scam.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s cynical Endangerment Finding in April that green house gas emissions qualify as an air pollutant and this false finding is the basis for a draconian increase in regulations and regulatory bureaucracies is based on a so-called “precautionary approach.” Let’s remember that “the defining characteristic of a green house gas is that it is relatively transparent to visible light from the sun but can absorb portions of thermal radiation . . . That said, the main green house substances in the earth’s atmosphere are water vapor and high clouds.” It’s apparent that the EPA’s conclusion is not only “precautionary,” it doesn’t even come close to being called science.

CO2 emissions are not pollutants, they are plant food. Plants take in CO2 and emit oxygen. This is another balancing act brought to us by nature. We need the plants to keep taking in CO2 emissions so we can have more oxygen. Wind and rain circle the globe to cool hot spots. We don’t need radical left bureaucrats, scientists and ex-politicians to take away our liberty through the fraudulent science of global warming or climate change.

The day that global warming was exposed as fraudulent is the day climate science died.

Mistakes of the Great Depression Repeated by Radical Left in Government

The unemployment rate dropped by two tenths of one percent and President Obama claimed victory. This shows just how clueless he is when it concerns his understanding of basic economics. Add to the mix that 300,000 people just stopped looking for work and the two tenths of one per cent drop becomes a rounding error.

A broader measure of employment, which includes people who are working part time when they want full-time jobs and those who've stopped looking for jobs but want to work, shows unemployment or underutilization over 17 percent.

In June of this year, on Meet the Press, that great economist slow Joe Biden admitted that Obama’s stimulus plan was a failure. Biden further admitted that the administration had guessed wrong. Guessed wrong? This was the stimulus package to keep unemployment below 8 percent. This was the stimulus plan that would “save,” a statistic that cannot be measured, or create 3.5 million jobs. Twelve months later, four million people are unemployed with three million of those due to the failure of Obama’s so-called stimulus.

Now even Democrats on Capitol Hill are showing increasing anxiety as voters are angry over the lack of jobs. Obama is now holding seminars on how to create jobs! Obama has never had to meet a payroll. He has not created a job. In fact, the only real job he held was as a community activist, which still begs the question.

I have had to meet payrolls. I have created jobs. I’ve worked in small business to large corporations. The reason why jobs are not being created is due to the uncertainty about the economy in general and the never ending tax increases in particular. No responsible business person is going to start hiring when the economy is being changed from a capitalist to a socialist base with the attendant transfer of wealth from those who create jobs to those who parasitically suck the life blood of the country without providing added value to society.

Take the health care bills in Congress. The Senate bill alone, if passed, will cost $2.5 trillion over ten years, with most of the cost borne by the top 50 percent of income earners. For those making $250,000 or more, they can look forward to tax increases over the next ten years of $338 billion (expiration of the Bush tax cuts), $179 billion (elimination of itemized deductions), and $118 billion (capital gains tax hike). And, of course, there is a special surcharge tax in the health bills attacking those who make more than $250,000. This totals over $3.1 trillion over ten years.

Businesses also face draconian tax increases that will destroy jobs faster the Obama’s so-called stimulus bill. Business taxes total $353 billion over ten years. Taken together, the Democrats are imposing over $3.4 trillion in new taxes over the next ten years, all to be paid by the top 50% of income earners. Why would any sane person believe that now is the time to create jobs? Why would any sane person want to spend more of personal funds instead of hunkering down and protecting his or her family?



This is the state of the economy Obama has manufactured for all Americans. Obama and Timothy Geitner, Treasury Secretary, repeatedly say they inherited a bad economy. Not true. Obama helped create a bad economy as Senator. In fact, Democrats, who controlled Congress in President Bush’s last two years, when the financial meltdown occurred, can rightfully be assigned blame (“Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues 7 – Democrats behind the Mortgage Meltdown,” American Commentaries, 9/26/08).

Henry Morganthau, Treasury Secretary under Franklin Rooselvelt, admitted, “"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot [emphasis mine]!"

As Andrew B. Wilson wrote in his Wall Street Journal article, “As the root cause of a great deal of mismanagement and inefficiency, government was responsible for a lost decade of economic growth.” What brought the United States out of the Great Depression was World War II.

So-called radical left politicians whose recipe for recovery today is a repeat of the New Deal should remember that America's biggest industrial collapse occurred in 1937, eight years after the 1929 stock market crash and nearly five years into the New Deal. In 1939, after a decade of frantic federal spending -- President Herbert Hoover increased it more than 50 percent between 1929 and the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt -- unemployment was 17.2 percent.

Furthermore, Hoover's 1932 increase in the top income tax rate, from 25 percent to 63 percent, was unhelpful. And FDR's hyperkinetic New Deal created uncertainties that paralyzed private-sector decision making. Does this sound familiar? Barack Obama’s failed stimulus bill along with a health care takeover of 20 per cent of the economy will not improve the economy. It will continue to destroy jobs. As the economy progressively gets worse, the true definition of “progressive”, Obama will call for even larger takeovers of the economy.

We have our job cut out for us next year.

Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues 24 – Congressman Mollohan’s Mysterious Wealth

In 2000, Congressman Mollohan, D-WV, owned assets of less than $500,000 generating income of approximately $80,000. In 2008, Mollohan owned assets ranging from $7 million to $29 million with liabilities totaling $2 million to over $7 million. In 2006, Mollohan was forced to file two dozen corrections to his past six financial disclosure documents. Ninety-five per cent of Mollohan’s assets are in real estate. Congressman Mollohan was able to increase his assets by a factor of 14 to 58 over his 2000 asset value on an annual salary of about $174,000.

CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) lists Mollohan as one of Congress’ fifteen most corrupt members. CREW’s website documents:

“Over the past ten plus years, Rep. Mollohan has earmarked $369 million in federal grants to his district for 254 separate programs. Between 1997 and 2006, $250 million of that total was directed to five nonprofit organizations that were created by Rep. Mollohan and staffed by his friends. During the same period, top-paid employees, board members and contractors of these organizations gave at least $397,122 to Rep. Mollohan’s campaign and political action committees. . . If Rep. Mollohan accepted campaign donations in direct exchange for earmarking federal funds to the nonprofits run by these donors he may have committed bribery and honest services fraud in violation [of] House rules prohibiting dispensing special favors and engaging in conduct that does not reflect creditably on the House.”

Congressman Mollohan has been chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that controls the $65 billion budget of the Justice Department. . . at the same time he has been under investigation by the Justice Department. This is clearly a conflict of interest. The Congressman should have stepped down and Nancy Pelosi failure to remove Mollohan is clear a breach of ethics on her part. Interestingly, Pelosi urged Mollohan to give up his seat on the House ethics committee. He did relinquish his seat.

CREW documentation also shows that ethics staff members were asked by the Justice Department to not move forward on the Mollohan inquiry “at this time,” an indication that the Justice department has an ongoing criminal investigation regarding Congressman Alan Mollohan.

Obama Bows to His Base, Surrenders Afghanistan

President Barack Obama, in announcing his long awaited strategy at West Point, also revealed his plan for the future surrender of Afghanistan to Al Quaeda and the Taliban: United States troops will begin leaving by July 2011. By making this announcement, Obama has essentially told Al Quaeda and the Taliban what counter strategy they should pursue.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Obama of dithering over his decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan. The three month delay from receiving General McChrystal’s assessment to making his decision was revealing of Obama’s thinking. During this period, 116 U.S. troops died. In October alone, 58 U.S. casualties died, making October the deadliest month in the eight year war. A true leader, a true Commander-in-Chief does not needlessly waste the lives of his military. While Obama dithered, our military suffered 116 needless deaths.

When General McChrystal provided President Obama his assessment in August 2009, the General identified three troop options with associated mission risk levels: first, an additional 20,000 troops that would run a high risk of failure; second an additional 80,000 troops representing a low risk option; and three, an additional 40,000 troops representing a medium risk option. General McChyrstal also stated that under-resourcing the military will result in failure. President Obama’s strategy fits snuggly between high risk of failure and a medium risk.

President Obama outlined four goals of his strategy: first, deny Al Quaeda a safe-haven; second, the 30,000 additional troops he is sending to Afghanistan are not expected to defeat the enemy but only to reverse the momentum of previous years; third, strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s Security Forces and government so they can join the fight; and four, create the conditions to transfer responsibility for the war to the Afghanistan people. Oh, and do it all in eighteen months because that’s when we’re leaving.

This is not a strategy for success but for failure. Troop strength is far too low to even reverse the momentum of previous years. Obama has told the enemy when we’re leaving so they can adjust their strategy accordingly. And there isn’t a whole lot that can be accomplished in 18 months. How many more American lives will be sacrificed by a clueless President incapable of making hard decisions?

As I stated in a prior article (“President Obama Owns the War on Terror in Afghanistan,” American Commentaries, 9/8/09), “It is clear that liberals and the radical left will always turn their backs on our troops. It is clear that liberals and the radical left, of the Democratic Party, cannot be trusted with the welfare of our troops or the security of our nation. When the day comes that the liberals and radical left abandon our troops and Afghanistan, the sacrifice of our troops will have had no meaning.”

The radical left and liberals of the Democratic Party betrayed us in Vietnam. I know. I was there. And they are starting to betray our troops in Afghanistan with a no-win strategy.

Stupidity or Treachery?

President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have the guaranteed conviction of Khalid Sheik Mohammed in the civilian trial to be held in New York City. This can only mean the “fix” is in: the trial is rigged. Obama and Holder have undermined the very concept of fairness they profess to uphold. There is no way this trial can viewed as fair. It also means the defendants and the American people can only receive a fair trial through a military commission.

Or it means the Obama and Holder are willing to lose the case by (1) attacking President Bush’s policies in court, (2) exposing and identifying CIA operatives in court, and (3) exposing intelligence community interrogation techniques. It is apparent Obama and Holder are willing to risk thousands of American lives in New York to play out this political strategy.

Obama and Holder desperately want to expose the so-called torture of Mohammed by water-boarding. Why? To subject the United States to further embarrassment in a public forum. The problem is water-boarding was legal when performed on Mohammed. It was made illegal only by Obama’s executive order, not to outlaw the procedure, but to officially bash the Bush administration.

Unfortunately for Obama, “torture” is defined as “the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information.” Water-boarding does not rise to the level of this definition. Yes, water-boarding makes one feel that he is drowning but the creating the sensation of drowning is not “inflicting excruciating pain.” Our own military special operations personnel undergo water-boarding as part of their training! Is Obama implying that we “torture” our own troops? Obama’s politicization of water-boarding was a cynical, sinister political act to attack United States intelligence community policies and operatives.

Moving the trial from the setting of a military tribunal to a civilian setting in New York City is also a cynical, sinister political act: it provides the defendants the ability to file discovery motions that will identify CIA operatives, methods and sources. It is an act of treachery by Eric Holder.

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who as a judge presided over the first attack on the World Trade Center, attended a recent Federal Society’s National Lawyers Convention, described the move, as “a decision I consider not only unwise, but based on a refusal to face the fact that what we are involved with here is a war with people who follow a religiously-based ideology that calls on them to kill us, and to return instead to the mindset that prevailed before Sept. 11 that acts like the first World Trade Center bombing, the attacks on our embassies in Africa and other such acts can and should be treated as conventional crimes and tried in conventional courts.”

Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas, is quoted as saying that if anything goes awry at the trial resulting in the suspects not receiving a guilty verdict President Obama would be booted out of office in 2012. Continuing, Governor Huckabee said, “God help us if they get off on a technicality because of the way the evidence was gathered, I would tell you not only is the Obama administration finished, I think the Democratic Party is finished . . . I think it's absurd,” he added, "and I think the Obama administration will be as much on trial as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."
And this is the only good news arising from this sordid mess.