LFTC - Letter From The Capitol

Prague Treaty 2010 & Prague 1973: Russian Reprise

While the US was negotiating the SALT II arms accord with the former Soviet Union, between the May 1972 signing of SALT I in Moscow and the June 1979 signing of SALT II in Vienna, the Kremlin had anything but peace in mind.  Moscow today may plan similar surprises....

ObamaCare: Stalking Horse for VAT Taxation

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says we must live "like good Europeans" as ObamaCare stifles choice & raises costs.  Which may explain why Fidel Castro called ObamaCare "a true miracle" and compared it to Cuba's CastroCare....

Candidate Obama & Israel: What Senator Obama Said in June 2008

Barack Obama's June 4, 2008 AIPAC speech was his first address after clinching the nomination.  After an emotional tribute to Israel and his connection to the Jewish State, he got to substance.  President Obama would not recognize his senatorial incarnation today....

Obama's New Mideast War: Target Israel

President Obama reportedly has made no fewer than 13 demands upon Israel for concessions to jump start peace talks with the Palestinians, including release of 1,000 terrorist prisoners held in Israeli jails.  It gets even worse, as Obama's New Mideast War heats up....

Dubai Assassination: More Unanswered Questions

Intelligence maven Edward Jay Epstein's latest WSJ op-ed raises fascinating questions about the Dubai hit on a Hamas chief for which the world blames Israel.  EJE offers more reasons to doubt that Israel did it.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

Prague Arms Treaty of 2010: The Gathering Nuclear Storm

Last Friday President Obama heralded the new strategic arms treaty to be signed April 8 in Prague.  It contains dangers the President appears not to grasp, that argue for rejection by the Senate....

North Korea: Regime Crisis Coming?

The Times of London reports that "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il is on kidney dialysis and has not recovered fully from his 2008 stroke.  The Washington Post reports on rising resistance within North Korea to the regime's tyranny....

Will Boob Bomb Bamboozle TSA Boobs?

Fox news reported Friday that radical Isamist surgeons are implanting PETN explosive inside plastic pouches inserted as breast implants in Muslim women or as buttock implants in Muslim men.  In such form the PETN is virtually undetectable with current airport scanning technology.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

My Article Today: "Survival First, Lawfare Second"

My article, "Survival First, Lawfare Second: The Perils of Suicide-Pact Legalism" was published today in The American Spectator.

Canaries in Financial Coal Mine

One wonders if the news that the Social Security payout this year will for the first time exceed revenues, five years earlier than previously announced, was kept under wraps until after the health care vote.  Michael Barone notes that for the first time US Treasury bonds are selling at lower prices than other high-grade bonds, reflecting lack of faith in the federal credit outlook.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Economy, Conservative Politics

General Petraeus Exonerated re Israel, Obama Guilty

Max Boot explains how General Petraeus was misquoted re Israel; he does NOT think Israeli policy causes jihadists to shoot our soldiers.  The Times Online UK reports the no-class snub President Obama gave Israeli PM Netanyahu, refusing dinner, and worse....

ObamaCare & Caring for Allies

Peggy Noonan slams the President for slighting best pal Australia in eloquent & scathing terms....

ObamaCare's Europeanization of America

Mark Steyn encapsulates how ObamaCare will Europeanize America.  In four brilliant online pages he explains how first attitudes change, then stagnation sets in, and then a civilization dies not by murder but by suicide.  Europe got away with this because it had America's protection.  Our decline will leave the West without a protector, as others rise.  We have thee years to stop this.  If Obama wins a second term, our decline will become irreversible.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Conservative Politics

ObamaCare: Crazy Senate Amendments Democrats Had to Swallow!

WSJ pundit Kimberly Strassel explains the crazy amendments--e.g., a ban on providing erectile dysfunction drugs for convicted sex offenders!--Democrats voted down in order to prevent violations of reconciliation rules, which would send the bill to the House.  Worse for Ds, the bill got sent to the House anyway, after two adverse parliamentary rulings.  Savor Strassels' clunker list!!!!

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Conservative Politics

Palin Power: Pecuniary not Presidency

Sarah Palin aims to get $1M to $1.5M per episode for her reality show on Alaska.  She likely will get it.  And equally likely she'll decline to run for the Presidency as her world gets increasingly pleasant, on her own terms.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Conservative Politics

Terror Watch Update

The Lockerbie bomber released on humanitarian grounds in August 2009, ostensibly with 3 months to live, is alive and possibly getting better.  A judge has ordered a top al-Qaeda recruiter freed from Guantanamo; he recruited four 9/11 plotters, including 3 of the 4 pilots who crashed the planes that day.  Weekly Standard articles portray al-Qaeda Bar leader Michael Ratner and Justice Dept. lawyers targeting the CIA.  Andy McCarthy's 2-pager explains why judges ignore national security in their rulings.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

Nuclear Arms Debacle

Defense News reports that in early April the US & Russia will sign a new arms pact.  It will reportedly: (1) reduce offensive warheads from 2,000 to 1,500 - 1,675; (2) link missile defense deployments to Moscow's approval; (3) be signed in Prague.  Disaster is a kind word....

EMP Threat: Real or Imaginary?

In "The Bogeyman Bomb" national security writer Sharon Weinberger calls the EMP threat illusory.  The article contains other critical links.  Peter Fry, a staffer with the EMP Commission, rebuts the "bogeymen" thesis.  Fry is part of a group, EMPact America, that focuses on EMP issues.  EMP is taken seriously by Russia, China & Iran; on the insurance principle we should follow suit.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Control, WMD, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

Carrier Operations: Survival at Sea

Take a little time to watch Part I (10:00) & Part II (10:00) of carrier pilots trying to land in heaving seas and and then at night.  Riveting footage of America's Finest.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Foreign Policy

Will Inconvenient Icelandic Truth Put Global Warming on Ice?

Two volcanoes on Iceland are making signs of a major eruption.  Prior episodes at times had significant climate cooling impact, as in the late 18th century.  Al Gore may discover a Truly Inconvenient Truth.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Economy, Climate Change, Conservative Politics

Our ObamaCare Future

This short piece on Britain's National Health Service says it all: Under the current Labor Government cost is up 60 percent, output up 4 percent and doctors do what the government tells them in return for higher wages.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Economy, Conservative Politics

Israeli PM Netanyahu: Israel = New Jersey!

Monday night Israeli PM Netanyahu answered Hillary from the podium at the AIPAC conference (video link--approx. 45 min.).  Much of what he said was routine albeit true: the many efforts Israel has made for peace, the many steps Palestinians have taken to frustrate the chance for peace.  Then he said something all Americans should know....

Obama's Mideast: Scorpions on the Rise

Mideast maven Barry Rubin's JPost column encapsulates the emerging Mideast: Iran & Syria getting stronger, America & Israel getting weaker, Palestinian peace prospects, already near zero, vanishing.  Team Obama is utterly oblivious, believing Palestinians the key to peace.  Hillary Clinton's delusions....

ObamaCare's $700B Hidden Costs

A former CBO chief shows why ObamaCare's deficit-impact numbers do not add up.  Costs not counted, artificially shifted, double-counted, program costs that will never be made, read it and gnash your teeth.  Already the White House is signaling Democrats that the promised $500B Medicare cuts will not happen.  New Gingrich captures the perfect quote describing how Democrats run the Hill....

ObamaCare's Bumper-Sticker: "Let 16,500 IRS Agents Set America Free!"

Paul Ryan (4:38) frames the larger ObamaCare issue: the American Idea under attack.  George Will sees Obama's real agenda....

Does ObamaCare Care for the Constitution?

Can ObamaCare + Pelosi Procedure (which may be used later, though was dropped here) pass Constitutional muster?

Judge Andrew Napolitano analyzes whether ObamaCare exceeds the federal government's Constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.  States are already filing suits to block ObamaCare, citing intrusion on powers reserved for the States under the Tenth Amendment.  Article I Section 8 spells out specific enumerated powers of Congress--17 in all, plus a catch-all Necessary & Proper Clause allowing Congress to do whatever is necessary to carry out its 17 specific powers.  The third of the 17 powers given Congress is: "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

Judge Napolitano frames the issue:

Last week, I asked South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, where in the Constitution it authorizes the federal government to regulate the delivery of health care. He replied: "There's nothing in the Constitution that says that the federal government has anything to do with most of the stuff we do." Then he shot back: "How about [you] show me where in the Constitution it prohibits the federal government from doing this?"

Rep. Clyburn, like many of his colleagues, seems to have conveniently forgotten that the federal government has only specific enumerated powers. He also seems to have overlooked the Ninth and 10th Amendments, which limit Congress's powers only to those granted in the Constitution.

One of those powers—the power "to regulate" interstate commerce—is the favorite hook on which Congress hangs its hat in order to justify the regulation of anything it wants to control.

He then differentiates health care from commerce, after discussing an egregious 1942 Supreme Court case in paragraphs I urge LFTC readers to read:

The practice of medicine consists of the delivery of intimate services to the human body. In almost all instances, the delivery of medical services occurs in one place and does not move across interstate lines. One goes to a physician not to engage in commercial activity, as the Framers of the Constitution understood, but to improve one's health. And the practice of medicine, much like public school safety, has been regulated by states for the past century.

The same Congress that wants to tell family farmers what to grow in their backyards has declined "to keep regular" the commercial sale of insurance policies. It has permitted all 50 states to erect the type of barriers that the Commerce Clause was written precisely to tear down. Insurers are barred from selling policies to people in another state.

That's right: Congress refuses to keep commerce regular when the commercial activity is the sale of insurance, but claims it can regulate the removal of a person's appendix because that constitutes interstate commerce.

The good Judge said last week on Fox that Constitutional rights are ours by virtue of our humanity, whereas health care is a collection of goods & services that we purchase, and thus is not the subject of Constitutional rights.  Liberals like Clyburn, alas, harbor the same contempt for this distinction that they do for the Tenth Amendment.  Many federal judges, sadly, agree with Clyburn.

Law professor Michael McConnell sets the "Slaughter Rule" against the Constitution's Congressional voting requirement.  Article I Section 7 provides, in pertinent part:

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively....

McConnell explained what now has passed the House:

....the Senate version of the health-care bill (the one that contains the special deals, "Cadillac" insurance plan taxes, and abortion coverage) and an amendatory bill making changes in the Senate bill. The House will likely adopt a "self-executing" rule that "deems" passage of the amendatory bill as enactment of the Senate bill, without an actual vote on the latter.

This enables the House to enact the Senate bill while appearing only to approve changes to it. The underlying Senate bill would then go to the president for signature, and the amendatory bill would go to the Senate for consideration under reconciliation procedures (meaning no filibuster).

What's the problem?  For McConnell:

This approach appears unconstitutional. Article I, Section 7 clearly states that bills cannot be presented to the president for signature unless they have been approved by both houses of Congress in the same form. If the House approves the Senate bill in the same legislation by which it approves changes to the Senate bill, it will fail that requirement.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D., N.Y.), chair of the House Rules Committee and prime mover behind this approach, has released a letter from Yale Law School's Jack Balkin asserting that a "rule which consolidates a vote on a bill and accompanying amendments, or, as in this case, a reconciliation measure and an amended bill, is within the House's powers under Article I, Section 5, Clause 2."

But that does not actually address the point at issue. No one doubts that the House can consolidate two bills in a single measure; the question is whether, having done so, it may then hive the resulting bill into two parts, treating one part as an enrolled bill ready for presidential signature and the other part as a House bill ready for senatorial consideration. That seems inconsistent with the principle that the president may sign only bills in the exact form that they have passed both houses. A combination of two bills is not in "the same form" as either bill separately.

The Supreme Court has spoken twice on bill enrollment issues.  The first case is Field v. Clark (1892).  The second case is United States v. Munoz-Flores (1990).  McConnell discusses both of them near the end of his op-ed, and the details are murky.  But other arguments will be made by liberal Democrats.

Did the Other Party do this 36 times?  Even if so, this is Constitutionally irrelevant, as violations of the Constitution do not become lawful by repetition.  But this assertion about the GOP Congresses is, apparently, not the case.  The GOP did something different:.  McConnell explains that the "deem" rule was used to incorporate amendments into existing bills that were then passed by both houses in identical form and sent to the President for signature.  That is not what Pelosi & chums did here:

Defenders of the Democratic strategy say that a self-executing rule has been used many times before by both parties. But never in this way. Most of the time a self-executing rule is used to incorporate amendments into a pending bill without actual votes on the amendments, where the bill is then subject to a final vote by the House and Senate. That usage may be a dodge around House rules, but it does not violate the Constitution. I am not aware of any instance where a self-executing rule has been used to send one bill to the president for signature and another to the Senate for consideration by means of a single vote.

Self-executing rules have also been used to increase the debt ceiling by virtue of adopting a budget resolution. That procedure is questionable, but because budget resolutions are not laws, this usage does not have the feature of using one vote to send a bill to the president and at the same time to send a different bill to the Senate. There may have been other questionable uses of self-executing rules, but not often enough or in prominent enough cases to establish a precedent that would overcome serious constitutional challenge.

Comes now the Senate, whose official Parliamentarian is the Clerk of the Senate, under Senate Rule 7B.  The Parliamentarian office exists in both Chambers--is likely, the New York Times reports, to play a prominent role when ObamaCare goes to the Senate and "reconciliation" procedure is applied.  Article I Section 3 makes the Vice-President the presiding office of the Senate, but votes only to break a tie.  But the VP has another, albeit rarely used role--according to a former GOP-appointed Senate Parliamentarian, Robert Dove: the VP can overrule the Senate Parliamentarian, because his rulings are regarded as merely advisory.

Note as a matter of history that unlike with ObamaCare the two main entitlement programs that were enacted generations ago passed the House by huge majorities: Medicare passed the House 313-115 in 1965, and Social Security passed the House 372-33.

A law professor summarizes the Constitutional arguments against ObamaCare.  Will the federal courts act to overturn ObamaCare?  This is a dicey proposition.  Courts dislike politically toxic cases.  When the Supremes effectively decided the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election, they were savaged by Democrats & their media allies.  They will look, if they can, to stay out of this one.

Bottom Line. A good case can be made that ObamaCare in substance violates the Commerce Clause & Tenth Amendment limits.  And a good case can be made that Pelosi Procedure violates Article I Section 7.  (As for the VP overruling the Senate Parliamentarian, this clearly is a matter of Senatorial procedure that courts will not touch.)  Put simply, courts do not always act, even when good cases are presented asking them to do so.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Supreme Court, Conservative Politics

ObamaCare: The Societal Stakes

WSJ pundit Kimberley Strassel details Pelosi's sordid plays to get 219 votes, while a WSJ editorial frames the choice in American health care at stake.  In a nutshell: "The vote is really about who commands the country's medical resources."  It is a classic either/or choice....

Israel Caves to Diplomatic Blackmail

SecState Clinton called "useful & productive" Israeli PM Netanyahu's proposals to end the crisis caused by Clinnton's public airing of her private phone call a week earlier, one day after Joe Biden accepted the PM's apology.  But Clinton intends to extract more blood from Israel for the crisis she, at the President's behest, caused....

Jerusalem: Inconvenient Truths About Congress & Palestinian Goals

Seth Lipsky's recent Jerusalem WSJ op-ed recounts history President Obama either disdains or does not know.  In 1996 newly-elected Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress and, as recounted by Lipsky said, of Jerusalem....

ObamaCare's Cavalcade of Lies

NRO's Ramesh Ponnuru lists a cavalcade of lies told by ObamaCare's Democratic sponsors.  Economist Thomas Sowell sees Madoff-style fraud in ObamaCare budget numbers.  Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth sees Obama thug-ally & SEIU chief Andy Stern wanting more health care industry union members to shore up pension fund shortfalls via a Ponzi-scheme cash influx.....

IRAN's Latest Nuclear Offer & Russia's Nuclear News

Iran's latest nuclear fuel exchange offer is to ship 1,200 kilograms of its estimated 2,065-kilogram stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia for enrichment to the 19.75 percent medical fuel level, in a single package rather than small installments per earlier Iran offers.  With SecState Hillary "Reset" Clinton in Moscow, Tsar Vlad the Bad announced that Iran's Russian-built nuclear plant will open this June.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Control, WMD, Foreign Policy, UN, Conservative Politics

The War for Jerusalem

A Jerusalem Post article identifies the true source of the latest Palestinian outburst: religion, not housing.  Which makes true peace between Arabs & Israelis a near impossibility....

Terror Trials: The Ultimate Best Answer

Two top legal scholars offer the ultimate best answer as to what to do with detainee trials: do not try detainees at all.  The scholars are hardly right-wingers: one is from the moderately liberal Brookings Institution & the other wrote a book critical of Bush/Cheney terror policies.  Here's why they are right....

Eco-Terror: Piping Plovers, Sniping Bureaucrats

What do piping plovers have to do with the rich?  Try last weekend's storm and the Hamptons, Long Island.

The Chief Justice on Oral Argument

CNN interviewed Chief Justice John Roberts on the use of oral argument before the Supreme Court and got a crisp, informative answer (2:22):

The immediately preceding Chief Justice, William Rehnquist, held a different view....

IRAN: New Pals, New Timeline Too?

Iran signed a $7.6B gas pipeline deal with Pakistan, gas to flow in mid-2015.  Iran continues to serve as a regional "facilitation hub" for al-Qaeda.  But Iran's nuclear program, much aided by Russia & China, may be slowing down due to technical snags--Gen. Petraeus says 2011 is earliest nuclear Iran date.

IRAQ: Bremer's Jihadist Legacy

The New York Times reports on how thug/pro-Iran cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Shia followers in Iraq emerged stronger after the elections.  Credit L. Paul Bremer, who in his disastrous proconsul tenure insisted on a European-style national list system instead of US-style local-based elections.  Proportional representation aids splinter parties, in the Mideast often anti-US terrorist/radical.

ObamaCare: Pelosi's Procedural Polka

BY NOW EVERY LFTC READER HAS SEEN & HEARD THE PROCEDURAL PLAYING AROUND BY WHICH NANCY PELOSI PLANS TO HOLD A VOTE WITHOUT, WELL, HOLDING A VOTE, ETC.  THE BYZANTINE MANEUVERS ARE SUMMARIZED PERFECTLY BY JAMES TARANTO IN HIS 3/17 BEST OF THE WEB POSTING....

Israel: Palin Nails Obama

Sarah Palin called for a "reset" in US-Israel relations.  Her three crisp paragraphs perfectly capture the absurdity of Obama's position: placate allies, ignore Israel's prior retreats and induce Arabs to await more.  For a foreign policy novice she gets it.  It gets worse....

China's Coming Challenge

The Project 2049 Institute, an Asia-Pacific think tank, has several papers detailing China's advanced weapons programs, covering nuclear, convention and space weapons.  Lots to read and lots to worry about.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Control, WMD, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

Corporate Debt Bomb

Ready for the latest "bomb"?  The New York Times reports that corporate debt is on the brink....

Blue Angels Aloft! F-35 Adrift?

Enjoy this fabulous Blue Angels HD video (4:50)!

Meanwhile, Defense news reports that on April 1 (fittingly) the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter will exceed the 50 percent cost overrun Congressional budgetary benchmark from its revised per-plane cost baseline of $70M.  This is not unusual, even for successful programs, but the JSF was sold primarily not on its performance but its presumed cost savings.  Congress got an earful on the mess last week, with the Navy & Air force looking at big fighter shortfalls.  meanwhile, 16 percent of the F/A-18 Hornet models A thru D have been grounded by mechanical problems.

Which suggests that we should sell an export model of the F-22 Raptor to three close allies who desire to buy it: Japan, Israel & Australia.  This would keep the F-22 production line open, in case the JSF comes a cropper.

Bottom Line.  Definitely grand Blue Angels, but the F-35 is clearly less so.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Foreign Policy

IRAN: Jaywalking Into June

Global security Newswire reports that France sees the earliest month for a vote on stiffer UN sanctions to be June.  The Hindustan Times reports that Iran arrested 30 people alleged to by spying with our CIA, ISO information on Iranian nuclear scientists.  The Washington Post reports that Pakistani nuclear father A. Q. Khan has disclosed help he gave Iran's program (lots).  But Iran failed to buy $10B of A-bombs from Pakistan.  The silver lining in a darkening (mushroom) cloud....

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Control, WMD, Foreign Policy, UN, Conservative Politics

Israel: The Petraeus & Iran Factors

Behind Team Obama's rage against Israel is a briefing General David Petraeus gave CENTCOM two months ago, reports Foreign Policy Magazine.  It augurs for a deepening conflict in US-Israeli relations....

Venezuela: Murder He Wrote

Venezuela's murder rate, after 11 years of Hugo Chavez, is skyrocketing.  Its nationwide 2009 murder rate of 54 per 100,000 is second in South America to El Salvador's 70; its Caracas toll of 140 per 100,000 is second south of Tio Sam's border to Mexico's Cuidad Juarez.  This is about 15,100 murders for the country & 3,100 for Caracas.

Apply these murder tares to America, at 309M 11 times Venezuela's 28M population and to Caracas, at 2.1M 3-1/2 times Washington, DC's 600,000 population.  You would get for the US 166,100 murders and for DC 885 murders.  In fact, America had 16,124 murders in the first 8 months of  2009 and DC about 140.  Thus Venezuela's murder rate is about 7 times ours, and for Caracas v. DC its rate is about 6 times ours.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, National Security, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

Israel: Worst Crisis Since 1975?

Israel's Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, has called the current crisis between the US & Israel the worst since 1975.  The Jeruslaem Post reports also what a top American Jewish leader said, that captures the essence of the outrage perpetrated by the White House....

IRAN: Surrender in the Obama Air?

The New York Times reports that a nuclear strategy debate reminiscent of the 1966 debate within the Johnson administration re China is taking place in this administration re Iran.  Sounds like surrender....

ObamaCare's Fate?

This clip (4:50) may tell the story of how ObamaCare plays out.  Enjoy, and pray it proves true!!!!

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Conservative Politics

Israel: Obama Picks Another Fight With an Ally

The new settlements to be built in Jerusalem, whose serendipitous announcement surprised Israeli PM Netanyahu (local officials set the timing), are located in what even under the Clinton - Barak 2000 peace plan within the confines of Israel.  Netanyahu expressed regret to VP Biden, and when Biden departed Thursday the matter appeared to be closed.  WRONG!....

Al-Qaeda Bar: More Grisly Details

This WSJ op-ed details just how certain lawyers are waging "Lawfare" against the US of A, in the guise of representing our Constitutional traditions.  SMUGGLING IN CONTRABAND, BAITING GUARDS, ENDANGERING GUARDS & OUR SOLDIERS, THE LIST IS STOMACH-TURNING.  Saturday's WSJ Editorial Report aired a lively debate on the subject.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics,