United Liberty

In The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History, Norman Mailer shares his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam who marched from the battle front to the front lines of the anti-war protests. En route to social protest, Mailer leads his readers through vivid pickets, meetings, drum circles, jail cells and flashbacks; one circle feeds into another until even the most banal skeptics find themselves charmed by this classic in the genre of nonfiction novels.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) wants to regulate salaries of workers from banks and financial institutions that received TARP money:

I’m not an expert on South American politics, only having seen a few movies and read a couple books. I couldn’t possibly have valid views compared to those who live there or have family there. However, many of the aspects of the neo-communist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and the ethno-nationalist Bolivian leader Evo Morales strongly parallel the uglier nationalist and communist political phenomena of the twentieth century.

It doesn’t appear that I am alone in my concerns. A recent Atlantic Monthly article quotes a Bolivian columnist who compares Morales to the infamous Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe:

I swing back and forth between being happy and chagrined to see Republicans acting like Republicans again, but when I see a quote like this from Newt Gingrich, my first thought is “Say what?”

Gingrich thrashed Republicans for allowing increased spending during the Bush administration and for not doing enough to block President Barack Obama’s early initiatives.

“Remember, everything Obama’s doing, Bush started last year,” Gingrich said. “If you’re going to talk about big spending, the mistakes of the Bush administration last year are fully as bad as the mistakes of Obama’s first two, three months.”

Newt, we’re thrilled to have you on the right side, but you supported the TARP bailout.

Yes, you read that right:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed today that President Barack Obama will respond in writing to four questions submitted by HIGH TIMES magazine “in order to clarify the official marijuana policy” of the federal government.

“The President does not, at this time, support the legalization of marijuana,” Gibbs asserted, in accepting HIGH TIMES’ request for an email interview. “But he does recognize that many Americans are interested in the issue, based on change.gov and other online forums, and he wishes to engage all sides on this debate.”

As you may already know, there will be nationwide protests on April 15th, Tax Day, to protest spending and tax hikes by the Obama Administration. These protests, referred to as Tea Parties, have taken place nearly every week since Friday, February 27th (yours truly attended the Atlanta Tea Party and was interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Fox News about the events) and have been gaining notoriety and slowly more people are attending. The protest here in Atlanta had around 300 people, not bad for a cold, rainy day.

I am shocked, just shocked, that the Obama Administration would place supporters in the crowd to ask questions during his digital townhall:

President Obama has promised to change the way the government does business, but in at least one respect he is taking a page from the Bush playbook, stocking his town hall Thursday with supporters whose soft — though far from planted — questions provided openings to discuss his preferred message of the day.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi isn’t fairing well in opinion polls:

Sixty percent (60%) of U.S. voters now have an unfavorable opinion of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, including 42% Very Unfavorable, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. A growing number of her doubters seem to be fellow Democrats.

George Will makes the case against the constitutionality of TARP:

Since the New Deal era, few laws have been invalidated on the ground that they improperly delegated legislative powers. And Chief Justice John Marshall did say that the “precise boundary” of the power to “make” or the power to “execute” the law “is a subject of delicate and difficult inquiry.” Still, surely sometimes the judiciary must adjudicate such boundary disputes.