The Seattle Times has an op-ed in its paper which probably qualifies as the most asinine piece of opinion writing of 2007. So far. That it's penned by Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott should come as no surprise. This time he's shilling for HR 808, a bill promoted by an advocacy group called "The Peace Alliance".
What HR 808 does is create yet another layer of federal bureaucracy by rolling up totally disparate governmental entities like prisons, schools, law enforcement and charities into one all inclusive "Department of Peace".
Apparently it's quite a deal. For $8 billion dollars a year - the price of 5,479,452 mocha non-fat chai lattes a day - it will create a Peace Academy to train civilian peacekeepers and the U.S. military in "the latest nonviolent conflict resolution strategies and approaches". (I always thought Peace Academy was that movie with Steve Guttenberg but apparently not). So when a VBED navigated by a pair of Farsi speaking men comes rolling up onto a Marine convoy, the soldiers are supposed find common ground with the insurgents instead of lighting 'em up with a "Ma Duece".
As a model for this new agency, The Jimster cites the Environmental Protection Agency as an example in avoiding "top-heavy bureaucratic organization"...
The goal is to "reduce domestic and international violence and enhance the security and health of all Americans".
Once this legislation is passed the world will all be drinking free bubble-ubb and eating that rainbow stew. Kim Jon-il will halt his nuclear ambitions. Islamic fundamentalists will stop sawing the heads off of journalists. Iran will cease sending weapons and soldiers across its border to kill U.S. military personnel and Iraqi civilians as it's been doing since 2004. After all, what if they had a jihad and nobody came?
It's unknown at the moment the rationale for this bill. Good money has it that after - yet again - downing a few too many potables Jimmy Boy wandered over to his 45 collection and gave the flipside to "Cold Turkey" a few too many spins. Trust me, The Plastic Ono Band and demon rum just don't mix.
Joking aside, McDermott is a senior leader in the Democratic congressional majority back in D.C. He serves on Ways and Means, the most powerful committee in the House of Representatives. One would think with a couple teensy transportation projects like the Viaduct and 520 Floating Bridge in his district, Jimbo would be expending his political capital bringing highway dollars back to this state.
It is always a source of amazement to me that the citizens of a great city, my hometown of Seattle insist on putting this guy into office. Short of a lethal pathogen spread by Fair Trade Coffee it's fully understood that a Republican will never be elected in WA-07. But why not put someone at least quasi-capable in D.C. like Congressman Norm Dicks?
Instead the region is blessed with wonderful analytical insights like this.
"I believe a Department of Peace represents the ideals on which this country was founded."
It's always shocking to me the level of historical ignorance expressed by an elected official; or their paid flaks which this case might be. If one had any doubt about what the Founding Father's views were about the roles of the federal government and what duties they were meant to perform take a look at the biography of Henry Knox. He was the nation's first Secretary of War and he led the War Department under George Washington.
HR808 is the type of grammar school hokum you'd expect to come from a freshman state senator in the 45th Legislative District. Expect further federal legislation coming from McDermott's office declaring that ponies are pretty and a study on the mimimum number of hugs needed to be given each day to make someone feel special. (3)
In his Seattle Times article today, McDermott says "I can't think of a better time, or a greater need, for America to act as a force for good at home and around the world."
America is already acting as the greatest force for good in the world - taking the lead in battling terrorism, encouraging the spread of liberty and freedom as the antidote to Islamic fascism, defending the fledging democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq, and standing with our solid democratic ally in Israel.
McDermott plays the "blame America" game, and his opposition to victory against terrorism is disgraceful. He's one of the most extreme, most far left members of congress - one of the few who voted against condemning Hamas and Hezbollah for their terrorist attacks on Israel; one of a select few singled out for commendation by Al-Jazeera; one of the first congressmen to decide it was wrong to go into Afghanistan; a friend of Fidel Castro; and an apologist for the efforts of the Iranian dictatorship to acquire nuclear weapons.
If McDermott were truly for peace, he would aim his complaint not at America, but at Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, and Iran.
In his article, McDermott claims that "the security concerns of the United States are best served by diplomacy and cooperation." Certainly, "diplomacy" has its efficacy, and "cooperation" is a valid concept, but McDermott misses the point.
We are in one of those times where we are faced with a brutal enemy that will not be moved diplomacy and cooperation.
In 1776, the American colonists won their independence from the British monarchy by revolution, not by diplomacy and cooperation.
In 1865, the Union, led by President Lincoln, defeated Dixie and ended the slavery system by victory in civil war, not by diplomacy and cooperation.
In 1945, the United States and the Allied Powers defeated German Nazism, Italian Fascism, and Japanese Imperialism by victory in war, not by diplomacy and cooperation.
When times for a victory strategy, the misguided McDermott calls for an exit strategy - defeat, failure, weakness, retreat. He is a good example of the far left defeatism that marks the Democratic Party's approach to the war on terrorism.
This specific proposal, of course, won't get very far, and it likely will remain merely a propaganda and rhetorical device.
But together with other ill-considered defeatist efforts of the Democratic Party - trying to cut funding for our troops; trying to impose a timeline for withdrawal; trying to micromanage military decisions - they will lead the American people to reject the Democrats in the 2008 elections.
Posted by: Steve Beren on February 26, 2007 04:46 PMPlease don't stoop to use the lexicon of the left. "Shill" is their word - leave it with them! It no meaing outside of their marxist propaganda.
The 7th deserves him.
Posted by: Hinton on February 26, 2007 06:12 PMMcDermott's picture is more bizarre than Tokyo Rose Ami Goodwin, of Democracy Never fame.
Posted by: Shogun: safe in witness protection on February 26, 2007 07:16 PMOur beloved Dems are showing the world the definition of loony.
I see Darcy, Jim, Greg, Ron and Maria (to name a few) sitting around the "prep" island in some $250k kitchen remodel, done by illegals on the cheap, drinking French whine (spelling intended), lamenting about how they just want to improve the world for the poor and disenfranchised.
Disgusting.
Posted by: Chris on February 26, 2007 07:27 PMI guess the moral of the story is - without money, there is no peace.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on February 26, 2007 08:20 PMthey were quietly cleaning chalkboards, tidying up the desks & kissing up to the teachers. now, they are called legislators. lessons missed. but came back to haunt them in adult life.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on February 26, 2007 08:22 PM"The necessary consequence of a man's right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative."
"If some "pacifist" society renounced the retaliatory use of force, it would be left helplessly at the mercy of the first thug who decided to be immoral. Such a society would achieve the opposite of its intention: instead of abolishing evil, it would encourage and reward it."
If McDermott is for it, I'm agin' it!
Posted by: Clean House on February 26, 2007 09:09 PMBut what really bothers me about this Blue Wave is what it's doing to the future quality of literature in this country. The market for high-quality parody is being completely displaced by news reports, which didn't used to be particularly entertaining. How is an aspiring young parodist supposed to compete against the deadpan reporting of a reality gone stark raving mad? Oh, you can complain all you want about how we've punched the button on the express elevator to Hell, but the real tragedy is that we won't have any good fiction to read on the way down.
Posted by: TB on February 26, 2007 10:30 PMThis sounds like something out of the LDS/San Francisco Flower Children's handbook. Unbelieveable and here I thought this was 2007, not 1960. Did I say San Francisco.... Sorry, I forgot that Seattle is an annex of San Francisco
H.R.808
Title: To establish a Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
Sponsor: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] (introduced 2/5/2007) Cosponsors (59)
Latest Major Action: 2/5/2007 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, the Judiciary, and Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
McDermott is one of the 59 cosponsors
Library of Congress, Thomas Search Text Bill or Bills by Sponsor
Bill Summary & Status Search And you can use this link to search previous Congresses
Posted by: Janet on February 26, 2007 11:18 PMPlease (Peace) tell us all about your peace plan and let me know there that has ever worked. LOL fool.......
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on February 27, 2007 06:40 AMI see, you don't want to waste time on a lost cause? Maybe that reason is why no names run against McD. Give Steve some legs and see what happens.
Posted by: swatter on February 27, 2007 06:58 AMOh - except for freeing the slaves. Sorry.
Oops - and liberating Europe. Sorry again.
Uh - and achieving our independence from the King of England. My mistake.
But other than that, war is very bad. OK? OK. Give peace a chance. Khumbaya.
Don't get me started on chai.
I was a Russian major in college, and chai -- чай in Cyrillic -- was just the Russian word for plain old tea. The idea of flavoring tea, calling it by a foreign word, and then charging two buck a cup, is a total ripoff to me.
Posted by: Ted S on February 27, 2007 12:56 PM@33: Are you against capitalism? It's good to be smart and not buy $2 tea, but don't knock the businesses that are smart enough to make profits off the dupes!
Posted by: Seattle Con on February 27, 2007 01:11 PMTee it up, Mr. Appeasement.
Posted by: Rey Smith on February 28, 2007 09:07 AMhe, like blogger 'David Mathews,' loves to live here (and not move to an 'eligntened' foreign land) while coughing up all the Evil-America-it's-all-our-fault hairballs.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on February 28, 2007 10:17 AM38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
The Communist Takeover Of America - 45 Declared Goals
From Greg Swank
12-4-2
You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As you read this, 39 years later, you should be shocked by the events that have played themselves out. I first ran across this list 3 years ago but was unable to attain a copy and it has bothered me ever since. Recently, Jeff Rense posted it on his site and I would like to thank him for doing so. http://www.rense.com
Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 10, 1963 .
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]