Power Shift for Israel

There’s an old saying in politics- Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line. This is really instructive given what’s going on now in Israel.

At the time of this writing, Israel is engaged in a full assault on Gaza. They are bombing enemy targets and planning a ground invasion of 10,000 troops in the coming days. Thousands of soldiers are being called-up for the campaign. It’s the worst fighting since 1948, when Israel first became a nation.

International leaders are calling for a return to the cease fire that had been in place over the last six months. Of course, Hamas has not been honoring that agreement. They have launched thousands of rockets into Israel throughout 2008, and have been increasing their attacks since mid-December. Now they have declared a third Intifada. It seems, only when Israel responds in self-defense do we see the world call for a truce! Should this new counter-offensive come as a surprise? Not if you’ve been paying attention.

Republicans rallied around their candidate this year begrudgingly. McCain was not the idealistic candidate for Conservative principles, but then again, Conservatives are not overly idealistic. They go into elections with both eyes open and vote pragmatically for the lesser of two evils.

Democrats, on the other hand, “fall in love.” Unfortunately, love is often blind. There’s nothing wrong with imagining a better future, but “hope” and “change” without specifics doesn’t make for good, practical policy in an evil world.

Jesse Jackson said the most important “change” we would see from Obama is in the Middle East. Obama’s church embraced the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, made “diplomatic trips” to Qaddafi’s Libya and printed Hamas propaganda in their church bulletins! Leaders in Iran praised and endorsed Obama while Israel clearly preferred McCain in all of their polls. But, if you’re in love with your candidate and you have a fawning media,
it’s easy to get confused.

Samantha Power has been an advisor to Obama since 2005. She left the campaign last March after calling Hillary a “monster.” Despite that credential in her favor, she represents a “change” in the wrong direction for America’s foreign policy. A couple of weeks ago she was brought back to join Obama’s transition team. She will be advising Obama on appointments and strategic policy. Power’s views, if implemented, would mark the first time America has turned its back on Israel. This is something very serious for those who believe in the biblical admonition regarding the treatment of God’s “chosen” nation. There have been numerous times over the years where America’s vote in the UN was the only thing preventing the world from ganging-up on Israel.

Power, unbelievably, has expressed doubts about Iran’s nuclear threat. In addition, she conveniently ignores Iran’s stated policy of genocide towards
Israel. “Wiping Israel off the map” and declaring Israel a “rotting corpse” are not serious threats in Power’s view. She believes the U.S. should send forces to the Middle East, not to protect Israel, but to impose a settlement favorable to the Palestinians currently governed by Hamas terrorists. She also supports giving billions in aid to bolster the Palestinian military. Her advocacy, known as the Walt-Mearsheimer view, discounts Israel’s own security assessments.

Power has referred to the “long-standing structural and conceptual problems in U.S. foreign policy” as being too unilateral and too dependent upon the Israel lobby. Similar to the opinions of George Soros and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Power believes Israel is guilty of war crimes. Sound familiar? It should. The same language has been used by the Left to condemn the war in Iraq. Power believes that it was the Israel lobby that provoked us into that war. Thus, all geopolitical sins reduce to a simplistic, anti-Semitic foundation for Power and company.

The Bush administration issued a statement declaring Hamas the villain in this latest round of violence. The policy wonks soon to take office with Obama, however, take a contradictory view!

Could this have been predicted? Yes. Israel is naturally acting in her best interest of self-preservation. It is clear, the geopolitical landscape will be shifting with Obama and Israel is taking precautions now to prepare for the worst. Those who view the world with a rational expectation of human frailties understand it. Those who naively believe in fairy tales of utopian fantasies, never will. Too bad we have to live now with the consequences of the latter. (Send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)

Twas The Night Before Christmas in Iraq

Back in 1882, Clement Clarke Moore, wrote the famous poem, The Night Before Christmas. Throughout the years, it has become a tradition in many families to read the poem every Christmas season along with watching Christmas Vacation and It’s a Wonderful Life.

Last year, I received another poem from a dear friend, referred to as a Different Christmas Poem whose author is unknown. This poem described a dream that a gentleman had regarding a soldier standing guard outside his home on a snowy night on Christmas Eve.

The poems had me contemplating about our brave men and women in uniform in Iraq and wondering what they will be doing on Christmas Eve. What will their spouses and children be doing that night while their loved ones are so far away?

How does it feel to be 5,000 miles from home sacrificing everything for a country whose Congressional leaders do not support your mission and call you invaders and murderers?

With boots on the ground in Iraq, liberal leaders, like Sen. Harry Reid, Democrat-Nevada, have provided propaganda to Al-Qaeda by saying, “The war is lost.” Rep. John Murtha, Democrat-Pennsylvania, emboldened our enemies by saying, “U.S. Marines killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat-California, demoralized our troops by calling the war, “A grotesque mistake.” Senator and President-elect Obama said our troops are “air raiding villages and killing civilians.”

Thanks for the support and, by the way, have you heard? The surge worked. London’s Sunday Times called it ‘the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.’

Our country has never invaded another country to rule it, only to free it. On Normandy Beach in 2002, President Bush noted that since the U.S. Civil War in the 1860's, "our nation's battles have all been far from home. In all those victories, American soldiers came to liberate, not to conquer. The only land we claim as our own are the resting places of our men and women."

So, this year, while I was putting my ACLU and global warming ornaments on my “holiday” tree, I came up with another poem regarding our soldiers who are truly the best of the best. It consolidates parts of both poems to make them pertinent to the present-day crisis our armed forces, which are in harm’s way, face everyday and I named it, Twas The Night Before Christmas in Iraq:

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through my home, not a sound could I hear, not even the phone.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

I flipped on the TV and saw a soldier standing there.

It was a young man, perhaps a Marine, with a desert in the background, it was a lonely scene.

And I thought, ‘He’s so far from home and should be on leave, He should be here with his family on Christmas Eve.’

Then the soldier said, “It’s really all right,

I’m over here by choice; I’m here every night.

It’s my duty to stand, at the front of the line,

That separates all of you, from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask, or beg or implore me,

I’m proud to stand here, like my fathers before me.

Grandpa died at Pearl Harbor one December, then he said, “That’s a Christmas, Grandma always remembers.”

“My dad stood his watch, in the jungles of Nam,

And now it’s my turn, and so here I am.

I’ve not seen my own son, in more than a while,

My wife sends me pictures; he’s sure got her smile.”

Then he bent and carefully, pulled from his bag,

The red, white and blue, an American flag,

He said, “I can live through the heat, and being alone,

Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand firm at the front, against any and all,

To ensure for all time, that this flag will not fall.”

I wondered how I could repay him, for all he’s done, for being away from his wife, his home and his son?

Then I saw in his eye, a tear that held no regret,

“Just pray for us every day, and never forget.”

For when we come home, it will be payment enough,

To know we mattered to you, as you mattered to us.”

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,

Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul; the other for your freedom.

Dennis Powers

Send your comments to DennisHPowers@Comcast.net or mail them to POB 179, Jacksboro, TN 37757.

All I Want for Christmas is a Senate Seat

There is one for sale in Illinois - if the price is right. From Gov. Rod Blagojevich to Tony Resko to Rev. Jeremiah Wright to Father Michael Pflegor to William Ayers, the Chicago cesspool of politics is very deep.

One peculiar thing is that Chicagoan President-Elect Obama knows little about them, what they have been saying or what they have been doing. He, who is said to be one of the most intelligent politicians ever, is completely oblivious to what has been happening in Chicago, or his church for that matter, for the past 20 years. Or, is he?

Chicago is the place where the dead are still allowed to vote and where Al Capone coined the phrase, “vote early and vote often.” Chicago is also the place where politics are so corrupt that Blagojevich said he wasn’t going to quit and doesn’t think he has done anything wrong!

I remember one belligerent Democrat Congressman, Dan Rostenkowski, who ran Chicago’s political machine and was brought down in 1994 for paying “ghost” employees, who at this time of the season, could have been named the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

The scandal involving the ghost employees, along with trading postage stamps at the Capitol Hill post office for cash (which is like someone working at the bank stealing ink pens), put him in jail for 15 months before he was pardoned by Clinton.

And it’s not just the Democrats in Illinois. The previous Republican governor, George Ryan, who had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for issuing a moratorium on executions, was convicted on corruption charges in 2006.

Apparently, Gov. Ryan had failed to issue a moratorium on selling drivers licenses to unqualified truck drivers and tried to make a few bucks on the side.

I don’t even think an author on Oprah’s Book Club, with a new fiction novel, could chronicle the events that have transpired in the political landscape of Illinois this year. It would be too far-fetched, even for the fiction section.

Incidents like these tend to give politicians a bad reputation when, actually, there are many we can trust. What often happens is that someone runs for office with good intentions and ideas, but gets caught up in the corruption of the political machines.

Others go into office with the intention of using the office for their own personal gain. Gov. Blagojevich is one of these. His $1M price tag on a Senate seat which pays $164,000 per year, is his way of saying to the taxpayers, ‘The only reason politicians run for office is to pillage and plunder the government coffers and assist their friends and family.”

I think all politicians have constituents requesting jobs for themselves and their family members or they want some government handout program, but most politicians can distinguish between right and wrong.

Obama recently said, “We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."

Apparently, the guys from Chicago just don’t get it. It looks like we are moving from Chicago-style politics to a one-world government with no stop in-between. I’ve got news for the new president - I’m going to drive an SUV if I want, eat as much as my doctor will allow, keep my thermostat on 72 and I could care less what other countries think.

All Conservatives want from those who govern is for them to vote and legislate according to the Constitution and the best interests of the people for whom they represent. We don’t want a job, a pardon or a bailout and we sure don’t want a bunch of politicians in office who think it is acceptable to use our tax dollars for their benefit.

In many campaigns, the character of the candidate often comes into question, and after seeing the corruption in politics, it should be apparent that we need to elect men and women of faith and integrity.

As Ben Franklin said, “I have lived sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” Character matters.

Send your comments to DennisHPowers@Comcast.net or mail them to POB 179, Jacksboro, TN 37757.

Red State Rural Regulators

Early in the 18th century a group of farmers in North Carolina established a political identity for themselves that has become the ideology of today’s Red State voters. They were the Regulators of Orange County. They would be known today as values voters espousing the political orthodoxy of the rural and suburban middle class. They fought the corrupt elite as well as the ruffians who were not being properly restrained by the government. In other words, they were conservative populists who favored “law and order” and opposed political graft and over taxation. Later, they would found the first, Independent, self-government on the Continent at Watuaga. Colin Powell would probably consider them a threat to the electoral process! Why? In a CNN interview to air this weekend, Powell takes on modern day Regulator Sarah Palin as too traditional and too conservative for the future of the Republican Party.

Who is he kidding? What makes this Obama-supporter an authority on Republican politics? When it was rumored that he might run for president a few years ago, he willingly described himself as a “Rockefeller Republican.” Nelson Rockefeller represented everything that was elitist, corrupt, and WRONG with the Northeast, Liberal Republican establishment. As Gov. Palin might say, they were not on the side of the People. It took Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan to transform the party away from this country club mindset. Why on earth would anyone want to go back to those days? It’s interesting to note, Powell testified as a character witness for the corrupt and disgraced Senator of Alaska, Ted Stevens. Stevens was part of that corrupt establishment that Palin courageously confronted and defeated.

America has always exemplified the idealism of rural life. It breeds a tough self-reliance and love for freedom that tyrants find difficult to tame. There’s a populist ring to this middle class perspective. It extols a pastoral life that captures all of the best attributes of America’s rugged Individualism. From the original Pilgrims, who were Religious separatists, to the pilgrims in the John Wayne movies, American culture has been uniquely defined by the iconic, fierce Independence honed in the legendary Backcountry. From Daniel Boone to Sarah Palin, this common-folk, social structure has preserved our liberty. This is the reason Americans always root for the underdog…not the Rockefellers!

Colin Powell is a prophet from a different perspective. He warns the Republicans that they should take a “hard look” at themselves. He doesn’t like Gov. Palin’s rhetoric about “small towns.” Powell was offended by the implication that his New York upbringing was somehow not good enough. He points out that America is trending towards a more metropolitan, multicultural majority and has no future opportunities for those who wish to continue “shouting” about small town values! I would remind Mr. Powell that not all African Americans, Hispanics and Asians live in big cities! You don’t have to be white to appreciate rural life.

Colin Powell is free to choose his style of Liberal politics dominated by Big City machines like Gov. Blogojevich, but true Conservatives prefer something different.

Since the beginning of time, the wilderness and the countryside have proven to be powerful symbols for innocence, virtue and strength. By contrast, cities have been the places most associated with corruption, deception and the vanity of groupthink that leads to tyrannical power.

Gov. Palin has nothing to apologize for! Her statements regarding small towns echo the proud sentiments of an ideal, pastoral aesthetic. It seems rather rude and presumptuous of Powell to challenge her on this issue, but then again, there are a lot of people out there who have trouble with Gov. Palin’s convictions. Just last week someone tried to burn down her church in Wasilla. Over a million dollars in damage resulted from this hate crime. Pastor Larry Kroon answered the attack with a simple, rural, small town admonition: “choose faith, live with hope and keep caring about people.” To that I say Amen, and which way do I go to get out of town? (send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757.)

Look For the Union Label!

Is it not lawful for an employer to do what he wishes with what is his own?

This question comes from a parable found in Matthew 20 concerning the Kingdom of God as Jesus compares it to a vineyard. The lesson involves a landowner who hires workers at different times during the day and winds up paying them all the same. Those who had worked longer complained, saying it wasn’t fair that they should be paid the same amount of someone who worked less. Jesus explained that these workers had, after all, “agreed” to work for the price they were paid, and that it wasn’t any of their business what the landowner was doing with his money regarding the other workers!

Jesus used this example, underscoring the importance of property rights and individual sovereignty, to teach about God’s prerogative regarding the inclusion of the Gentiles in His plan for humanity. Freedom to act relates directly to ownership. Ultimately, “to act freely” is an inherent function of “ownership.” They are two sides of the same coin and can’t be separated without devaluing the currency of both.

The United Auto Workers union, (UAW), has failed to understand this principle, and as a result, the Big Three auto companies now stand on the precipice of bankruptcy. A sacrifice of over three million jobs and $400 billion in annual output is at risk. Executives from Ford, Chrysler and GM are now lobbying Congress for a $50 billion bailout. They may get it from the union-friendly Democrats who have long been deep in the pockets of the UAW. The question to ask is: will it be worth it?

Unions are organized, ostensibly, to empower labor to make better agreements with management. There was a time when the “checks and balances” of Big Labor were useful in helping to offset the corrupt, monopolistic practices of managers who regularly breached the terms and responsibilities of their agreements. Today, however, we see the balance has shifted too far the other way. A third party in this equation, the Free Consumer, is now exercising his power to nullify these outdated agreements by choosing to buy elsewhere. Neither management nor labor wins when the produce spoils from consumer neglect.

Management, in a free, capitalist market, exists to satisfy customers. In the car industry, the Big Three are failing to meet this standard because competitors are producing better products at cheaper prices. Ford, Chrysler and GM must add $2,300 to the cost of each car just to pay for the Union concessions of health care, pensions and other benefits. There is more expense for health care in each car than there is for steel. When added together, the average wage for the Big Three assembly line worker is $73.21 per hour compared to just $44.20 per hour for Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The Big Three are losing, on average, $1,000 per car sold, whereas Honda, Nissan and Toyota average a pre-tax profit of $1,300. The bottom line difference is the UAW. They have overstepped their bounds of ownership and have frustrated the right of management to operate freely and successfully in the competitive marketplace. Perhaps the worst example of the abuses of the UAW is the Jobs Bank. This is a program where Management is compelled to pay workers not to work. As incredible as it sounds, this policy is meant to compensate those who have lost their jobs due to technological progress or plant restructuring. In some cases, these non-workers enjoy gold-plated health plans with no deductibles!

The UAW doesn’t stop there. They consistently lobby against Free Trade agreements that would open foreign markets to the cars, one would assume, they want to sell. UAW President Ron Gettlefinger seems committed to this suicide by working to preserve the bloated benefits of nearly one million retired UAW workers.

The Democrats will likely find a way to bailout this mismanaged affair while excusing all of the abuses of Labor. They will reward this failure at taxpayer and consumer expense. They will extend more favors to the unions with the Employee Free Choice Act, or the “Card-check” bill as it is known. This legislation will prohibit secret balloting for union initiatives, thus allowing voter intimidation to manipulate employees into supporting unions.

Going against the lawful dictates of free choice is never worth the final expense. No amount of bailout or government intervention can abolish the truth that spans human history. Throwing good money after bad is never a wise choice, whether your business is a vineyard or a Volkswagen. (send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)