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November 5, 2011

Will Newt Gingrich Win the Republican Nomination?

By Selwyn Duke

If slow and steady really does win the race, Newt Gingrich could well end up being the Republican nominee for president.

Thus far, this campaign season has been defined by flash-in-the-pan fortunes. Michele Bachmann was first out of the blocks and won the Iowa straw poll, but this seemed much like a house of straw when Texas governor Rick Perry entered the fray and became her Big Bad Wolf. But then he blew his own house down with a series of disastrous debate performances, allowing the Cain Train to pull into the station. This brings us to where we are now, with Herman Cain holding on to a slim lead over Mitt Romney – with a lot of voters still undecided. And should the bold businessman’s stock crash, where will a plurality of his support go?

The answer may surprise you. If polling is any indication, it’s not Tea Party caucus chairman Michele Bachmann or staunch states-rights standard bearer Rick Perry.

It’s Newt Gingrich.

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November 3, 2011

The Tax Plan that’s Better than Cain’s, Perry’s or Gingrich’s

By Selwyn Duke

Bold tax reform is front and center this campaign season. First Herman Cain made waves and poll headway with his 9-9-9 tax plan, which involves national 9-percent taxes on personal and corporate income and a 9-percent national sales tax. Now Rick Perry has followed suit with a 20-percent flat-tax plan, and Newt Gingrich has gone 5 better, with a 15-percent flat proposal. And these ideas certainly haven’t fallen flat: tax reform is immensely popular among the Republican base.

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October 31, 2011

The Myth of Fascism

By Selwyn Duke

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “History is a series of agreed-upon myths.” I’m not quite that cynical, but our history books do sometimes seem more like mythology than reality. In fact, in school we don’t even call the subject “history” anymore but “social studies” (socialist studies?). Yes, the victors write the history, and it’s pretty easy to see who has been winning the culture war for the last 100-odd years.

“You’re a fascist!”

It’s an accusation so common that I can only paraphrase Helter Skelter figure Charles Manson’s remarks about being “crazy” and say, there was a time when being a fascist meant something; nowadays everybody’s a fascist. Why, even the Online Etymology Dictionary, a source not generally known for hyperbole or any discernable sense of humor, has the following statement under the entry “fascism”: “1922, originally used in English 1920 in its Italian form (see fascist). Applied to similar groups in Germany from 1923; applied to everyone since the rise of the Internet.” Unfortunately, though, the term’s sloppy application didn’t start with the virtual world. It started with virtual history.

Read the rest here.
October 27, 2011

Imagine if the 2008 Obama Had Listened to the 2004 Obama…
October 26, 2011

FBI Warns Criminal Gangs Infiltrating U.S. Military

By Selwyn Duke

A troubling FBI assessment has found that criminal gangs are not only expanding in U.S. cities and towns, but also where they could perhaps undermine national security most: the U.S. military. Reporting on the matter, ABC News writes:

While FBI and law enforcement officials do not have estimates on the number of gang members in the military[,] officials have seen gangs in 100 jurisdictions in the U.S. and overseas with 53 different gangs who are in every branch of the military.

“Gang recruitment of active duty military personnel constitutes a significant criminal threat to the U.S. military,” the threat assessment noted. “NGIC [National Gang Intelligence Center] reporting indicates that law enforcement officials in at least 100 jurisdictions have come into contact with, detained, or arrested an active duty or former military gang member within the past three years.”

Read the rest here.
October 26, 2011

Herman Cain Gets into Trouble on Abortion

By Selwyn Duke

In an interview this past Wednesday with CNN’s Piers Morgan, presidential contender Herman Cain was asked about abortion — and his answer got him in hot water. Cain said that he believes life begins at conception and, consistent with that reality, that he considers abortion wrong in all situations, including rape and incest. So far, so good. But then, upon being challenged on the rape-and-incest point by Morgan, he had the following to say about the government’s role in the matter:

No, it comes down to is, it’s not the government’s role — or anybody else’s role — to make that decision [about abortion]. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you’re not talking about that big a number. So what I’m saying is, it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician. Not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive decision.

… The government shouldn’t be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to a social decision that they need to make.

Read the rest here.
October 24, 2011

Clinton’s Cackling at Cain Takes the Cake

By Selwyn Duke

Upon watching footage of Hillary Clinton mocking Herman Cain in Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s presence, one could wonder: would she really want to stack her accomplishments up against Cain’s?

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October 22, 2011

Forget the Wall Street Protesters: Why We Should Hate “Capitalism”

By Selwyn Duke

Okay, you can lift your lower jaw off the floor. I haven’t joined the dark side: My problem isn’t economic but lexical. I do hate capitalism — the term.

As you know, in the eyes of many, “capitalism” has become both a four-letter word and the target of such. For example, New York Magazine questioned a group of Wall Street protesters on October 2 and found that 37 percent believed capitalism was “inherently immoral.” If you find this unremarkable for Woodstock-meets-Wall Street rabble, consider a 2009 Rasmussen poll showing that “only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.” Yes, our schools have done their job magnificently. Unfortunately, it’s a job that doesn’t exactly align with the interests of America.

Yet the problem isn’t entirely substance — it’s also style. Proving that there really is something in a word, another 2009 Rasmussen poll found that “just 35% of American voters believe that a free market economy is the same as a capitalist economy.” What this indicates is that if Americans were asked if a “free market’ were better than socialism, more than 53 percent would say yes. Clearly, “capitalism” needs a good marketing team and a rebranding.

Read the rest here.
October 22, 2011

Political Persecution in Maricopa County

By Selwyn Duke

When we think of political persecution, places such as Tiananmen Square may come to mind. Increasingly, however, this tool of tyranny is coming to our shores – and it is not made in China. It is, in the case I’ll discuss today, made in Maricopa County.

Every avid news reader knows about the battles between Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the federal government; Leviathan has targeted him because of his principled stand against illegal immigration. What is not quite as well known, however, is that the sheriff and his supporters – most notably, former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas – have long been battling a corrupt local political machine bent on thwarting the rule of law and benefitting itself. Not surprisingly, as in the film Walking Tall, Arpaio’s and Thomas’ attempt to end local corruption has come at a price: The State Bar of Arizona (SBA) has begun prosecuting Thomas and two of his deputies in a move that reeks of political retaliation.

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October 17, 2011

Destroying the Republic “for the Children”

By Selwyn Duke

We’ve all heard about the tactic of using children as human shields, as practiced by Saddam Hussein, the Taliban and others. The idea is that you place civilians — preferably women and children — at military targets to reduce the chances that your enemy will attack and so that, if he does, he’ll look like a heartless miscreant who targets the least among us. Morally, it’s the least of tactics.

Yet while we Westerners have made the practice illegal under the Geneva Convention, it’s not unknown in the United States — in our political battles. In the 1990s especially, it became common to claim that all and sundry must support a given statist policy “for the children.” As an example, when Republican-backed welfare reform was instituted, Ted Kennedy called it “legislative child abuse.” And when President G.W. Bush threatened to veto an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 2007, Democrats brought children to a press conference on the matter and later had a 12-year-old SCHIP recipient read a heartstring-tugging Democrat radio address about the program.

The latest use of this tactic was by Texas Governor Rick Perry in the Florida Republican debate when he invoked the welfare of the children to justify his granting in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens. And while imprudently using the word “heartless” to describe the idea’s opponents didn’t help his presidential fortunes, the tactic certainly helps the cause of illegality. Why, virtually every measure proposed to combat invasion U.S.A. is supposedly off limits because it hurts children, who are innocents and here through no fault of their own.

Read the rest here.