American Republic Online

Obama has requested that the Justice Department intervene in an ad directed towards him:

 Any request by any political campaign that federal officials intervene to stop the airing of legitimate political opinion ought to throw up red flags to everybody who cares about protecting the First Amendment.

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The following comes from the Wall Street Journal:

Good news out of Iraq is becoming almost a daily event: In just the past week, we learned that U.S. combat fatalities (five) dropped in July to a low for the war, that key leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq have fled to the Pakistani hinterland, that troop deployments will soon be cut to 12 months from 15, and that Washington and Baghdad are close to concluding a status-of-forces agreement.

Now this: Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad’s Green Zone as recently as April. Coupled with the near-total defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, this means the U.S. no longer faces any significant organized military foe in the country. It also marks a major setback for Iran, which had used the Mahdi Army as one of its primary vehicles for extending its influence in Iraq…

In many respects, the story of the Mahdi Army’s decline follows the same pattern as al Qaeda’s: Not only was it routed militarily, it also made itself noxious to the very Shiite population it purported to represent and defend. It enforced its heavy-handed religious edicts, coupled with mob-like extortion tactics, wherever it assumed effective control. The overwhelming Shiite rejection of this brand of politics is another piece of good news from Iraq, as it means that Iraqis will not tolerate Iranian-style theocratic rule. It is also an indication that Iraqi politics is developing in a healthy way. (emphasis added)

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Nancy Pelosi’s response to House debate domestic drilling for oil on Friday was to turn off the lights & cameras and send everyone home.  The Republicans want to debate the merits of drilling for some of the over 100,000,000,000 barrels of oil sitting discovered, but untouched under federal lands and coastal waters.  The Democrats lacking any real response to such a suggestion opted for a 5 week vacation to avoid the issue.

The unfortunate “secret” is that the Democrats don’t want gas prices to come down.  Either because A) price shock at the pump will encourage ecological ends or because B) they feel that gas prices will be blamed on Bush (and not on the Congress that was elected with reducing fuel costs as a political promise) which will help Obama in November.

Despite the lack of session, several Republicans are making a stand on the floor of the House again today.  Approximatly 30 Republicans will hold an Energy Debate for “as long as it takes” to get Pelosi to start official bipartisan debate.

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Just a friendly reality check for those believing the lie that Bush’s tax cuts helped the rich and hurt the poor.  Sorry, the numbers don’t lie. We know, sometimes the truth hurts… the liberal world view.

Washington is teeing up “the rich” for a big tax hike next year, as a way to make them “pay their fair share.” Well, the latest IRS data have arrived on who paid what share of income taxes in 2006, and it’s going to be hard for the rich to pay any more than they already do. The data show that the 2003 Bush tax cuts caused what may be the biggest increase in tax payments by the rich in American history.

The nearby chart shows that the top 1% of taxpayers, those who earn above $388,806, paid 40% of all income taxes in 2006, the highest share in at least 40 years. The top 10% in income, those earning more than $108,904, paid 71%. Barack Obama says he’s going to cut taxes for those at the bottom, but that’s also going to be a challenge because Americans with an income below the median paid a record low 2.9% of all income taxes, while the top 50% paid 97.1%. Perhaps he thinks half the country should pay all the taxes to support the other half.

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