Once again, the government (state of Rhode Island this time) is poor at picking winners. Every private venture capital firm passed, but the state said, where do I sign?!?
Monthly Archives: August 2012
I only have one question
Why does one need a Federal permit (or any permit) to set off a few fireworks at his son’s bar mitzvah?
Filed under Big Government
Ugly politicization of Medal of Honor
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) has been on a crusade to award the Medal of Honor posthumously to Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who, despite having been shot in the head, threw his body over a grenade to save the lives of the Marines fighting with him in Iraq. The Pentagon has a presumably rigorous process to determine who receives this medal, but Rep. Hunter, abetted by Sgt. Peralta’s media-savvy family and the media themselves, has declared that, in his opinion, the decision reached through professional analysis of eyewitness testimony, medical reports, and the Pentagon’s standards was not correct.
No one should doubt (or has doubted) Sgt. Peralta’s heroism or patriotism, nor the sacrifice made by himself and his family. The Department of Defense awarded him the Navy Cross, the second-highest decoration available.
But his family has astonishingly refused to accept the medal. Rep. Hunter, perhaps grandstanding to demonstrate his support for the men and women in uniform and to illustrate his tireless support for a home-state constituent, has repeatedly pressed Secretary Panetta and robustly taken his viewpoint to the press. Columnist Ruben Navarrette even questioned how Latinos could support President Obama so strongly when he denied this honor to one of their own.
You won’t find this blogger blindly defending decisions made by government bureaucracies, nor denying that Congress has the responsibility to vigorously oversee executive agencies’ actions, but the armchair evaluation of the merits and politicization of this case by Rep. Hunter, Sgt. Peralta’s family, and the media strikes us as quite unsavory.
Filed under Politics
Could Huma Abedin get a security clearance?
Some sanity from Jeffrey Lord and Andrew McCarthy over the perfectly legitimate questions that Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Louis Gohmert (Tex.), Trent Franks (Ariz.), Thomas Rooney (Fla.), and Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.) are asking about the latest liberal pin-up girl Huma Abedin. Male Republican members of Congress were too busy falling over themselves in showing how chivalrous they are in sucking up to Abedin to consider the actual facts raised. We do not have proof that her ties to Islamist opponents of America, combined with her access to sensitive information and influence on the secretary of state, represent a risk to our national security, but we certainly have probable cause to ask questions.
Abedin checks the boxes to be untouchably politically correct—pretty, exotic, female, liberal, and glamorous (OMG! She’s been featured in Vogue!). If she weren’t, could she get a U.S. government security clearance?
(Neither could her boss’s boss, President Obama, what with his admitted drug use, foreign ties, and association with radicals, if he were a mere bureaucrat and not an elected or politically appointed official.)
Filed under Politics
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