The next time someone asks you to explain “the politics of personal destruction,” use this example: Video surfaces of a United States Congressman attacking a college student, grabbing him by the wrist, neck, and body, and assaulting another student’s camera.  The U.S. Representative refuses to immediately release the first student despite the student’s repeated pleas.  You are an official of that Congressman’s political party.  How do you respond?  You attack the publisher of a website that released the video.  Behold, from Politico’s Ben Smith:

A national Democratic Party official e-mailed around a set of talking points about an hour ago, under the subject heading, “Etheridge Gotcha Video Background.”

Democrats are seeking to raise questions about the video, which first appeared on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government, because of what’s widely viewed as the media’s mishandling of the ACORN story, which emerged without context from edited videos. In particular, party officials say the video was likely taken by a tracker for the Republican Party, which would explain the effort taken to conceal his identity.

From the talking points:

Push hard w/ blogs the lack of credibility inherent to anything Breitbart does/posts, given its role in the debunked ACORN videos:

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From New Jersey’s Daily Record:

The Obama Administration handed out more than $400 million in awards to federal employees last year, up by more than $80 million from the prior year, according to new government data.

The biggest winners were air traffic controllers and top managers in Washington, a review of fiscal year 2009 salary reports from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management showed.

OPM’s data, obtained by the Asbury Park Press through a freedom of information request, account for 1.3 million employees, or about 65 percent of the federal civilian work force.

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U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) released the following statement on the viral video which appeared on the internet today:

“I have seen the video posted on several blogs. I deeply and profoundly regret my reaction and I apologize to all involved. Throughout my many years of service to the people of North Carolina, I have always tried to treat people from all viewpoints with respect. No matter how intrusive and partisan our politics can become, this does not justify a poor response. I have and I will always work to promote a civil public discourse.”

Rep. Bob Etheridge (NC-02)

When one watches Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) pushing a camera, grabbing a college student by the arm, collaring him around the neck, and finally hugging him to his body in order to threaten him for information about his identity, one thing becomes absolutely clear: this guy is a moron.

Well, something else also becomes clear: Etheridge is guilty of criminal assault under Washington D.C. law. DC Criminal Code §22-404(a)(1) dictates, “Whoever unlawfully assaults, or threatens another in a menacing manner, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or be imprisoned not more than 180 days, or both.” Generally, assault requires four elements: (1) ability to carry out a threat (i.e. Stephen Hawking threatening you with a personal kick to the jaw would probably not constitute assault); (2) an unlawful attempt (the perp actually has to try to do something); (3) to commit a violent injury; (4) upon someone else (you can’t assault yourself – duh).

All of the elements are clearly fulfilled here. The movement toward hitting the camera, the attempt to grab the student, the attempt to collar the student, the achievement of those goals – all constitute simple assault. One of the most common defenses to assault is consent – if you’re an S&M freak, for example, you’re going to have trouble claiming assault. But in this case, the kid is telling the Congressman to let him go, and actually threatens to sue him. The Congressman doesn’t comply. And he doesn’t get immunity just because he’s a Congressman – Congressional immunity only applies to speech during Congressional debate, not to grabbing students by their necks. If it did, Teddy Kennedy would have had to worry a whole hell of a lot less during his profligate lifetime.

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There are certain professions that carry an implicit mandate, one that goes beyond performing the required duties of that profession.  A social contract exists in these specialized lines of works that requires the performer to place the needs to those he serves above his own.  Police officers, soldiers, and firemen are three such professions.  There is a fourth, but this profession’s mandate has been corrupted by union greed and politics.

I speak of the Teacher, especially the teacher of the American high school and university.

The mandate of the Teacher is simple:  to educate.  The simplest, purest form of the Teacher can be found in my book Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow. For 35 years, Edwin Barlow taught mathematics at his beloved Horace Greeley High School in New York. Thousands of students passed through his classroom. Yet when he died, he remained as much a cipher as the day he arrived, for he deliberately shrouded his life in rumor and mystery.

One of the many reasons why he kept his life secret was simple:  he only wanted to be remembered as an educator.  He only wanted his students to carry his classroom (and life) lessons into the world.  Every interaction he ever had with a student always had an underlying agenda: teach that student something, about anything.  He did so with a purity of intent unmatched by the greatest philanthropists of our time.  He did so wielding a demanding, humorous, profound, and frightening persona.  His classes were not merely invitations to learn, they were command performances.   At a time in their lives when teenagers are more concerned with physical appearance, he demanded that they respect their minds.

I should know.   I was one of his students.   In over twenty years of the American educational system, I never encountered another instructor like him.   Oh sure, I had plenty of notable teachers who made a difference in my life.  None of them, though, provided me with an education in life, as well as their formal topic.  None of them had the impact Mister Barlow did.  And none of them cared as little about personal remuneration as Mister Barlow did.  He chose the esthetic life, gave away much of his salary to charity each year, and didn’t give a hoot about the union.

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Barack Obama’s infamous phrase “Just words.  Just speeches” keeps ringing in my ears.  While the U.S. economy crumbles and the world teeters toward war, the President busies himself with words and speeches (not to mention photo ops and vacations and parties).  Appalling, yes.  Surprising, no.  To quote Yogi Berra: “This is like deja vu all over again.”

Today’s leaders of the Democratic Party are not at all progressive.  In fact, their ideology is regressive – a throwback to an ideology popular in the 1920s and 30s and 40s.  Their vision is that people they consider the “ignorant many” should be governed by people who see themselves as the “enlightened few.”

At the core of this socialist outlook on life is what Friedrich Hayek called “the fatal conceit.”  That’s a person assuming that, if he were given unlimited power, then everything would be perfect.  He projects that government employees would act on his behalf.   He sees government employees as a proxy for his own egotistical fantasies.

A faceless bureaucracy is too impersonal, however, for some socialists, who prefer a proxy with a face.  These people prefer to focus their aspirations on a charismatic leader, who attracts hordes of followers, all dreaming that the great leader would, in fact, impose their own will on society, if only He were in charge of everything!

Relieved of the burden of having to think for themselves, these fanatics can easily find their political passions unrestrained by reason.  This fascist mentality can produce the thuggish brutality of a Benito Mussolini regime.

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Last year, when Tea Party activists almost derailed ObamaCare, the White House and its comrades in the House of Labor knew they had to somehow neutralize Americans who voiced opposition to their agenda. Ever since President Obama dispatched his soldiers to take on concerned Americans at townhall meetings last year, unions have tried to downplay their culpability in targeting tea party activists. But the targeting has not stopped. In fact, it seems like a new assault takes place every month.

In February, the union campaign against the Tea Party movement was publicly exposed.  In fact, the union-backed website TheTeaPartyisOver.org openly states  that “Patriot Majority is also putting together a tracking program of Tea Party activity nationwide to monitor outbreaks of actual violence, threats of violence or other types of extremism.” [Emphasis added.]

In March, Teamster boss James P. Hoffa took aim at Tea Party activists accusing them of being ‘manipulated’ and ‘misdirected.’

In April, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced a bill that eviscerates the First Amendment called the DISCLOSE Act.  The DISCLOSE Act is another attempt by the union-controlled Democrat Party to shill for its big union bosses.

As Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) noted here on Big Government, ”the White House and their allies on Capitol Hill see honest criticism as a threat to forcing their big government, liberal agenda through Congress.”  While the DISCLOSE Act provides exemptions for traditional news media, Reason’s Bradley Smith and Jeffrey Patch point out:

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Maybe it is my Catholic upbringing, but I’ve always been cursed with a bit too much empathy. It is often difficult to witness people bearing the full weight of the consequences of their decisions, even when it is richly deserved. (And, in the case of House Democrats few have ever been more deserving of reaping everything they’ve sown.) We’re human, after all, and witnessing people on the cusp of realizing that they’ve lost everything can be difficult.

Last week, Democrat Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-NC2) attended a fundraiser headlined by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He was asked by some students on the street whether he supported the “Obama Agenda.” He didn’t take it well.

Expect more of this. The hard, progressive left captured the Democrat majority in Congress and forced them to enact a fantasy grab-bag of legislation that is increasingly unpopular with the American public. We’re on the cusp of a deeper recession, millions of unemployed Americans have no prospect for work, taxes are about to spike higher and we’ve maxed out the national credit card. The Democrats were given a chance to run government and they’ve only succeeded in running it into the ground.

So, yeah, Democrats who are up for reelection this November are a bit testy.

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Today, in 1775, the Continental Congress established the Continental Army, creating the U.S. Army. The shift from a grass-roots, militia based military to a professionally trained army was essential for victory in the Revolution. The lessons for today are obvious.

The 17th Amendment is stupid:

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years….

But let me start at the beginning.  Article I § 3 cl. 1 of the Constitution originally established the election of Senators through the state legislatures.  The Federalist #62 laid out numerous arguments for the Constitutional framework of the Senate and its method of selection.

The senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent of information and stability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages….

Years later, Alexis de Tocqueville made some observations about the Senate in “Democracy in America.”

The Senate is composed of eloquent advocates, distinguished generals, wise magistrates, and statesmen of note, whose arguments would do honor to the most remarkable parliamentary debates of Europe.

We went from great statesmen like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John Calhoun prior to the 17th Amendment, to that of Al Franken.

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From today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Despite record high membership and dues, and years of unparalleled clout in state capitols, public-sector unions find themselves on the defensive, desperately trying to hold onto past gains in the face of a skeptical press and angry voters. So far has the zeitgeist shifted against them that on one recent weekend, government employees were the butt of a “Saturday Night Live” skit, and the next day, a New York Times Magazine cover article proclaimed “The Teachers’ Unions’ Last Stand.”

Public unions’ traditional strength – the ability to finance their members’ rising pay and benefits through tax increases – has become a liability. Although private-sector unions always have had to worry that consumers will resist rising prices for their goods, public sector unions have benefited from the fact that taxpayers can’t choose – they are, in effect, “captive consumers.”

At some point, however, voters turn resentful as they sense that:

– They are underwriting, through their taxes, a level of salary and benefits for government employment that is better than what they and their families have.

– Government services, from schools to the Department of Motor Vehicles, are not good enough – not for the citizen individually nor the public generally – to justify the high and escalating cost.

We are at that point.

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Deflation is a concept many Americans have a tough time understanding.  They do understand the concept of Social Security.  As Federal budget deficits soaring, the public is being barraged by late night advertisements to buy gold as an inflationary hedge.  Unfortunately, the deflationary environment we are facing today is the biggest threat to the Social Security check Joe the Plumber is counting on for retirement.

The definition of deflation as a decrease in the general prices of goods and services may be simple, but a Google search for articles on deflation generates 3.5 million “hits”, versus a whopping 354 million “hits” for inflation.  This demonstrates that Americans are 100 to 1 more knowledgeable of inflation!

There have only been three bouts of deflation in the United States since its founding over 200 years ago. The first was the recession of 1836, when the currency in the United States contracted by about 30%.  The second was after 1865, when the Nation returned to a gold standard by retiring paper money printed during the Civil War.  The third period was the Great Depression, when prices and output fell by 25% from 1928 to 1933.  Very few Americans are familiar with the specifics of what happened during these periods, but they know it was a bad time for the “common man.”

Social Security was established during the Great Depression and continues to be the most important income stream for America’s seniors.  A large majority of the 16 million people over age 65 rely on Social Security for at least half of their income.  One-third of this group relies on Social Security for over 90% of their income.  Most retirees have come to rely on the annual cost-of-living increases in their check to make their life better.  In a deflationary environment we are facing today, few recipients are prepared for their check to actually shrink.

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This past April, an undated photo of two slave children was found at a moving sale in Charlotte, North Carolina, accompanied by a document detailing the sale of  “John” for $1,150 in 1854.  (John is presumably one of the children).  The photo was purchased by collector Keya Morgan for $30,000.  As a father of a little boy, this photograph reaches out to me in a distinctly personal level for I cannot imagine ever being separated from my child and the unbearable anguish I would suffer having him literally sold out from under me and taken away never to be seen again…left always to wonder about the son I lost to the horrors that was American slavery.  The two forlorn children in this photo stare back at us through the chasm of time. They are the ghosts of an ugly national past.  The victims of a monstrous injustice that would take the violent deaths of 620,000 Americans to rectify.

Still, I am struck by the breathtakingly steep arc of moral ascendency we have seen in this great country since the horrible bloodlettings that occurred on the battlefields of Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania and over six thousand others to determine once and for all what kind of country we would become.

That we have gone from a nation in which three million fellow Americans were held as slaves literally in chains and shackles, with no more legal rights than a goat, to a country that elects a Black man to the highest and most powerful office in the land says much about who we are as a people.

There will be those on the left who will predictably use the upcoming Independence Day holiday to highlight the hypocrisy of the Declaration we celebrate.  They will mock the document of a slave state that had the brazenness to announce to the world our vision of a better nation founded in the conviction that such basic human rights as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness come not from governments or royals, but from a higher power than ourselves: Divine Providence.

But these cynics will miss the point.

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With the South Carolina Democrat Senate nomination going to no-job, no-money, living-at-home-with-mom Alvin Greene, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is now calling for an investigation, hinting that Greene may even be a ‘Republican plant’.

There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary. I don’t know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone’s plant.

While we applaud Congressman Clyburn’s attempt to maintain the integrity of the political process, where the hell was he last week…?

Stung by a series of inquiries, nearly half the members of the Congressional Black Caucus want to scale back the aggressive ethics procedures that Democrats trumpeted after gaining control of Congress.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and 19 fellow black lawmakers in the all-Democratic caucus quietly introduced a resolution last week that would restrict the powers of the new independent Office of Congressional Ethics. The office, formed by Congress in 2008, is run by a panel of private citizens.

The message from Clyburn and others seems to be they want clean candidates coming in, who can get as dirty as they want later (and there will be no investigations to worry about).

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We talk Turkey with Claire Berlinski, baseball with Ursula Hennessey, and California and national politics with Mike Murphy. Plus we answer member questions and ponder a certain candidate’s future. All this and more on this week’s Ricochet Podcast. Join the conversation at Ricochet.com or write us at podcast@ricochet.com.

Run Down:
00:40  No bull, it’s Claire Berlinksi live from Istanbul
22:20 Rob, Peter, and Claire discuss the  South Carolina politics, Sarah Palin, and the elections results from around the country.
26:57  Ursula Hennessey joins to discuss her family, the non-perfect game, and why we should care about the World Cup.
1:05:20  Mike Murphy on Meg Whitman’s landslide victory, Republican prospects for the fall, and the future of our favorite Democratic politician.
1:25:20 Wrap Up

If we are to stop the march of this nation towards socialism, it is imperative that we understand and educate our fellow citizens as to what socialism is like.  This need not be limited to distant readings of history books about the gulags in Russia.  Indeed we get a very gripping modern-day reminder of the horrors of socialism from a recent article in the New York Times on North Korea.

The piece begins:

YANJI, China — Like many North Koreans, the construction worker lived in penury. His state employer had not paid him for so long that he had forgotten his salary. Indeed, he paid his boss to be listed as a dummy worker so that he could leave his work site. Then he and his wife could scrape out a living selling small bags of detergent on the black market.

It hardly seemed that life could get worse. And then, one Saturday afternoon last November, his sister burst into his apartment in Chongjin with shocking news: the North Korean government had decided to drastically devalue the nation’s currency. The family’s life savings, about $1,560, had been reduced to about $30.

Last month the construction worker sat in a safe house in this bustling northern Chinese city, lamenting years of useless sacrifice. Vegetables for his parents, his wife’s asthma medicine, the navy track suit his 15-year-old daughter craved — all were forsworn on the theory that, even in North Korea, the future was worth saving for.

“Ai!” he exclaimed, cursing between sobs. “How we worked to save that money! Thinking about it makes me go crazy.”

Such is the horrifically arbitrary nature of communist regimes.  With the swift stroke of a pen the fruits of one’s labors can be reduced to nothing overnight.

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Even most native speakers of English don’t realize how many of our commonest clichés—phrases you hear verbatim in venues as diverse as a gabfest on The View, an Elvis Presley song, or a political debate in Wolf Blitzer’s urgently-named “The Situation Room”—were actually invented by 18^th and 19^th-century British poets.

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” Marv Albert on ESPN describing a triple play? Not exactly. It’s the justly famous first line of John Keats’ pastoral poem Endymion (1818) about a shepherd lad loved by the moon goddess Selene. “Fools rush in.” Elvis, right? The first three words, maybe. But the entire pearl—”Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”—actually hails from Alexander Pope’s brilliant 1711 poetic treatise An Essay on Criticism. And who first warned us “A little learning is a dangerous thing?” Einstein? George Washington? Sorry. Pope, once again. From the very same poem—and to think he was only 23 when he scribbled these sterling epigrams that stubbornly cling to our lips nearly 300 years later.

But what about that ubiquitous ornithological metaphor we all bandy about so freely? You know—the albatross, inextricably wrapped around some poor wretch’s hapless neck? Surely dead bird imagery is too macabre, too contemporary to have crawled out of some centuries-old British poem—right?

Not if the poet is the opium-addicted mystic Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the poem is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798). With his surreal tale, Coleridge unwittingly gave us the perfect proxy for President Obama, entangled in his own personal albatross—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

When Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010, with the stroke of a pen he became the doomed sailor in Coleridge’s supernatural, foreboding poem. Little did the President know at the time that his pen was the equivalent of the cross-bow with which Coleridge’s mariner killed the fated albatross. (Word to the wise: be careful what you lobby for. Word to the foolish: ignore the word to the wise.)

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From today’s Politico:

As the greatest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history has played out on Obama’s watch, the environmental movement has essentially given him a pass — all but refusing to unleash any vocal criticism against the president even as the public has grown more frustrated by Obama’s performance.

About a dozen environmental groups took out a full page ad in the Washington Post Tuesday – not to fault Obama over the ecological catastrophe but to thank him for putting on hold an Alaska drilling project. “We deeply appreciate your decision. . .,” the ad says to Obama.

“President Obama is the best environmental president we’ve had since Teddy Roosevelt,” Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope told the Bangor Daily News last week. “He obviously did not take the crisis in the Minerals Management Service adequately seriously, that’s clear. But his agencies have done a phenomenally good job.”

Some say there’s little doubt that if a spill like the one in the Gulf took place on former President George W. Bush’s watch, environmental groups would have unleashed an unsparing fury on the Republican in the White House. For their liberal ally, Obama, they seem willing to hold their tongues.

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