Jane Chastain : Politically Direct

“Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” Mark Twain

Does a leopard change its spots?  Does a tiger change its strips?

Newt Gingrich is what you might call a striped leopard or a spotted tiger.  When it comes to what some see as the impending doom of climate change, the former speaker of the House is trying to have it both ways.

On December 20, at a campaign stop in Iowa, he looked more like a deer than a leopard or tiger –  a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.   When confronted by a woman who expressed concern about a chapter on climate change being written for his post election book on the environment by climate change apologist Katherine Hayhoe, Newt began backpedaling. “That’s not going to be in the book,” he said.  “We didn’t know that they were doing that, and we told them to kill it.”

Ah, the proverbial “we.”  Who are/is the we?  The book’s editor, some unknown puppeteer who is out of sight pulling all the strings or Gingrich himself?  Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most familiar comic strips in history has Peanut’s character Lucy holding the football for gullible Charlie Brown. It has been repeated again and again. We all know what is going to happen. At the very last moment Lucy will pull the football out of the way and Charlie Brown, with his full force behind the kick, goes sprawling.

It’s all very funny. Why does Charlie keep falling for Lucy’s promise that she will never, ever do this again? Still we laugh. We can’t seem to get enough of it. Why? Because it mirrors real life.

We the people are Charlie Brown, Congress is Lucy and our ballooning national debt is the football. Read the rest of this entry »

If we learn anything from the Solyndra debacle it’s that the government should not be in the business of making loans, period!

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is now investigating the allegations of improper dealings between the White House and the failed energy company. Taxpayers would be better served if Congress simply would vote to end all government-backed loan programs.

Fat chance! These government-backed projects represent a mother-lode of campaign contributions for both political parties. Read the rest of this entry »

In ancient times, it was not unusual to kill a messenger who brought bad news.  Many of the great prophets in the Bible suffered unspeakable treatment and even death.  Tradition has it that the prophet Isaiah was sawn in half.

These dedicated men of old were desperately trying to warn their countrymen to keep them from  a horrible fate but few listened, especially those who had the power to change things.  Most rulers simply surrounded themselves with “yes” men.    Little has changed.

King Obama, who had never run so much as a lemonade stand, has surrounded himself with tax cheats and economic “yes” men like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who admitted that he has “never had a real job.”  The same holds true for most other members of his royal court.  The notable exception is his chief of staff, Bill Daley, the token businessman — a sop to “diversity.” Read the rest of this entry »

If you still believe there is no such thing as a free lunch, you haven’t been to school lately.  On any given school day 31.6 million children sit down to a hot meal in the school cafeteria.  Sixty-three percent of those meals are free, or virtually free.

Furthermore, many of those same children show up for a free breakfast.  In addition, many schools have expanded their day to include help with home work and supervised play time and, what do you know?  It’s now time for dinner which calls for another free meal.   And, let us not forget free snacks.   If liberals get their way, there will be no need for children to go home anymore.  All that is left are school sleep-overs and, voila, the door to the “nanny state” slams shut.  Parents will be obsolete, except for the breeding and incubation process.   Read the rest of this entry »