Huckabee Was Correct and America Needs Such Principled Leadership

There is currently a move underway to discredit Mike Huckabee over the rightful pardoning of a then 16 year old who had been sentenced to 108 years on robbery charges. I make this statement as someone who fully supports the death penalty for murderers and for child rapists, but also as someone who recognizes that getting tough on crime means fostering sensible rehabilitation, not turning first time offenders into violent career criminals.

Yes, Governor Huckabee pardoned more people than most governors do. That’s because Gov. Huckabee isn’t thoughtless, callous or cruel and recognizes that public service actually entails service to the public. Sentencing a 16 year old to months of hard labor generally serves as the greatest deterrent (except in cases of murder and the like). By contrast, sentencing a teen to years in prison has almost inevitably bred nothing more than a violent menace to society.

Yes, out of hundreds of deserved pardons granted by Gov. Huckabee, a few bad apples reemerged. That does not negate from the fact that hundreds of deserving people were spared the unbelievably inhumane (except in cases where society must be saved) punishment of life imprisonment. It also means that those who had been sentenced to prison sentences long enough to rob them of hope were now spared. This, in turn, prevented many from falling for radical Islamic recruitment, as thousands of inmates have each year precisely because long, harsh sentences have robbed them of hope and filled them with despair, and eventually with anger.

As I explained in an article over a year ago, in a column titled “America’s Greatest Terror Threat – A Threat From Within and Its Easy Solution,” there is an alternative to prison that would effectively deter crime instead of promoting it, fix our roads and public works and actually add to the budget of law enforcement while saving the public money and ensuring public safety. It would also provide stability to thousands of low income families, removing a key factor for the expansion of crime. Most of all, it would end the recruitment by terror cells of their most vulnerable populace. Huckabee seems to understand this, and understands that adopting such a system is key to saving American society.

To those who disagree, not because they have any argument of substance to offer, but because they attacked Huckabee since he first entered the national stage, purely out of spite for his openness about religion (going so far as to attack him for outlawing price gouging in the wake of natural disasters): Not only are you advocating the furtherance of a reckless policy ripe for a national disaster, you are also harming your own cause.

A Huckabee/Forbes ticket would not only be the strongest one that the GOP can put forward for 2012. Aside from uniting both sides of the party and appealing to a broad spectrum of voters who value Huckabee’s compassion and his sensible economic leadership, coupled with Steve Forbes’ expertise, it would also be the best ticket to govern the country. Huckabee’s commutation of a 16 year old’s life sentence proves this, unless hindsight were in fact 20/20.

Huckabee understands economic issues. He was a successful governor and, at the time of his retirement from public office, was one of the longest serving in America. He’s eminently qualified for the presidency. But what makes him a good leader is his sense of fairness and balanced compassion. Commuting a 108 year sentence for robbery that was handed down to a youth who was 16 at the time of his crimes is an example of fairness, and of nothing else.

Our Military and Our Nation Deserve Better

11/12/09

Having just celebrated Veterans Day, when we pay tribute those who defend our nation and our safety, we need to reflect on what we are doing and how we are treating those who serve. The brave men and women of our Armed Forces, their families – parents, grandparents, children, brothers and sisters who join in their sacrifices, deserve our prayers on a daily basis. They deserve our support and encouragement and it is our national responsibility to look out for their best interests, first and foremost – and always.

In light of the outrageous terror attack at Fort Hood, we must embolden ourselves and strengthen our efforts against terror. Ignoring the dangers faced by our nation does not make them go away. On the contrary, we must use common sense principles to safeguard this nation.

Surveillance of our shores is the most important part of a sound national security plan. Our shores are truly the front line in the War on Terror. And yes, we must call it a “War on Terror,” for to distort its name is to lose sight of reality at a time of incredible peril.

Veterans and our military embody what it means to provide effective response to challenge. And it is in our resolve to stand up for the needs and rights of our soldiers through which we show our determination to do our part in meeting that challenge.

When those entrusted with positions of civilian leadership refer to the attack at Fort Hood as the act of an “alleged shooter,” the effect is that we seem callous and naive in the face of terror, which is exactly the wrong message to send to those who wish us harm. Our nation and our military deserve better. They deserve much better.

Failure to recognize the attack at Fort Hood as one of terror certainly sends the wrong message. The alleged mass murderer was found to have made statements in support of terror. His attempts to connect with al Qaeda were confirmed through computer forensics. Action, not failure to act – together with help from Above – is the only way to respond with effectiveness.

If leaders on the national level can do nothing more than give “shout outs” to their favorite doctors in the face of crisis, then the many voices that are the people of the United States of America need to arise and fill the tremendous void in leadership that exists at the top. If they act callous, we can and must show our appreciation and resolve more than ever.

Through resolve and proactive leadership we can do our part to secure a safe nation. Now is not the time for foolish disregard. Now is a time that demands leadership from each and every one of us.

This, above all, is the lesson to take with us as we end the commemoration of yet another Veterans Day: To react with effectiveness and certainty in the face of any obstacle, to go outside of one’s field of comfort in order to benefit others, and to appreciate the great service of the men and women of our Armed Forces.

With that in mind, one extremely worthy group that truly assists veterans who need it most is found at http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/. The Wounded Warrior Project is a tremendous source for good and embodies the spirit of American leadership in helping others and in offering gratitude to our soldiers.

May the tremendous folly in Washington, DC be replaced with the steadfast resolve of a caring and resilient nation.

Arizona - A Conservative Awakening

From the 1950s throughout the 1970s, Arizona was synonymous with conservatism. While this hasn’t been the case for decades since, a new group of leaders, together with a new generation of leadership, is quickly restoring Arizona’s prominence within the conservative movement.

First and foremost, the new change is led by Arizona’s new governor, Jan Brewer. Brewer is among the most competent chief executives anywhere in the nation and one who is most in touch with the needs of the electorate. The strong record of fairness and achievement that she garnered as a legislator over her 26 years in public service is surpassed only by her proactive leadership and the original, yet common sense, solutions that she brings to the table on various issues across the board.

Brewer is exactly what we need in government: a small business owner who has consistently brought an array of common sense solutions to the forefront. In the early 90s, she was among the first legislators in the nation to recognize the harmful effects of violent music lyrics on teenagers (such as increased delinquency, truancy, substance abuse, etc.), as she proposed proactive measures to limit their availability to those under 18.

Jan Brewer’s reputation for fairness was first noticed as far back as 1988. When Arizona was in middle of impeaching then Gov. Evan Mecham, Brewer blasted his performance while arguing against impeachment. Her unique style was not appreciated by those less discerning, but her reputation for making thoughtful decisions and of being an effective advocate for the positions she chose to advance was established.

Brewer’s common sense approach made her a national leader in election reform. As Arizona Secretary of State, she revamped the state’s entire voting system, streamlining it to be fair, effective and transparent. Even the minor steps that she took, such as moving primaries up a week, helped assure a fairer counting of ballots and gave officials time to properly address and rectify election challenges.

As governor, Brewer has made several bold moves. One of her first was to drop Planned Parenthood (the former eugenics based society, first named the “American Birth Control League,” whose workers still coerce indecisive minors into having abortions – as many of its former workers have personally attested) from a state sponsored health fair. Brewer has also recognized the valuable work that pro-family organizations play in society, such as the Center for Arizona Policy. She is living up to her reputation of putting children first, while also restoring that same level of common sense to the economic realm by keeping taxes low and encouraging new business to come to the state.

That is not the end of the story. While a new and vibrant governor sits at the helm of the state’s power base, conservatism is furthered by the unending and heroic efforts of emerging Arizonan leaders within the movement.

One of these up and coming leaders is someone I met first hand when he was sent to Florida to direct a countywide McCain office - Clint Van Wuffen. One of the GOP’s best organizers, Van Wuffen was quickly catapulted from volunteer, to office director, to county director and by midway through the campaign, was touring the nation and founding groups such as Bikers for McCain as an official member of the McCain-Palin team.

Van Wuffen is a down the line common sense conservative who can defend and articulate his views with sincerity. He’s a hard worker who’s well organized and is an inspiring leader, one who people want to work with. Most importantly, he’s exceptionally community minded and has recently founded the Hope Animal Foundation to assist owners with medical expenses for their sick pets.

With leaders like Governor Brewer and Clint Van Wuffen, Arizona seems poised to once again be a bastion of conservative leadership. And the kind of leaders that Arizona is turning out isn’t just good for Arizona. They’re good for America.

Florida House candidate defends Ulmer, Merwin

Florida House candidate Yomin Postelnik defends Jim Ulmer and Edwin Merwin against malicious slander. See http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2009/10/20/news/doc4ade50c4c131d107943298.txt

Corrine Brown for President

Democrat tricks would be comical, if they weren’t so blatantly farcical.

At this time in our nation’s history, we need people with ingenuity. So when a congresswoman with little name recognition decides to run for US Senate while simultaneously running for reelection to her House seat, that kind of creative thinking is worth noticing. Sure she dropped out after amassing hundreds of thousands in campaign funds, but you’ve just got to applaud that outside of the box thinking, the kind of thinking that makes sane people pause the nation over.

Still, one cannot help but wonder why Corrine Brown has stopped there. Running for US House and Senate simultaneously allowed her to skirt campaign contribution limits. But a run for the presidency would open up new doors altogether. And judging by Obama’s rating trend, at the end of the day she’d at least come in ahead of the incumbent. I can hear Hillary’s 2012 campaign cry already: “No way, no how, no crazy congresswoman.”

Back to her Senate bid. Did the scheme work? Well, to quote the Florida Times Union’s reporter David Hunt: “The possible Senate run did build some fundraising momentum. Spokesman David Heller said Brown generated about $445,000 in the last quarter. The money was split between her congressional and Senate exploratory funds, but can all be used to finance the House campaign.”

The odds of Corrine Brown being elected to the US Senate, even before she quit the race, were about as good as mine are of being the keynote speaker at an event hosted by the ACLU. She’s not foolish enough to give up her House seat for a long shot run and never started any of the mechanics that would have indicated a serious run for Senate. All of this was nothing more than a creative way to raise more funds for her House campaign - and the American people deserves better.

Take into account all of the above. Then factor in the following: Corrine Brown’s district is one of the poorest in Florida. Her lackluster record in Congress has produced precious little for the people of her district.

Fortunately, there is a solution for her district. It’s just not Corrine Brown.

While Brown was off ostensibly running for both House and Senate (yes, for the purposes of brevity we dare to leave out President, Queen of England and Heiress to Napoleon), someone else managed to launch a campaign to actually take care of the needs of her district. In a welcome change to the politics as usual that until now has been offered as the only choice to the people of her district, that person is proposing real solutions. And he is none other than common sense conservative Mike Yost.

Mike Yost is a man whose caliber we haven’t seen the likes of since Dick Armey. He proposes real solutions for real people. He’s a principled moral and economic conservative who also believes in common sense national security. More importantly, he’s got great ideas and is running for all of the right reasons.

I asked Mike Yost what he thinks of Corrine Brown’s shenanigans. Being that he was the first to expose them, his answer was “not much.” But we did have a conversation that touched on every indepth economic subject, as well as a detailed discussion of the problems facing his district. After a few minutes of conversation, it was clear that Yost is among the most informed and intelligent candidates that the GOP has today and that he possesses a true desire to better life in his district for his soon to be constituents.

Can he win? You’d better believe it!

Demographics have shifted significantly since the District was last redrawn in 2002. Moreover, because his district is economically depressed, the people of the district want solutions. Yost is taking the fight to Brown as no one ever has before. If you want to see his extensive platform and thought provoking updates, visit www.yostforcongress.com.

Then if you want to see what he’s up against and why close to nothing has ever been done under Corrine Brown’s watch, view this most eloquent speech given by Brown from the House floor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N2uQ7Fg_Uk. Perhaps it could be the start of an inaugural speech should she indeed decide to run for president (and should Obama’s education plans take hold, upping the prospects for her electoral victory).

Lastly, I do not want readers to think that I’m being in any way facetious in my endorsement of Corrine Brown for President or in the title of this article. I just mean it in a different way than most readers will have understood.

Corrine Brown would be a vast improvement to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and I readily endorse her for President of same. Incompetent is infinitely better than ruthless and the same can be said of many other countries, all of which would be far better off with Corrine as their president. But the people of Florida’s Congressional District 3 have a better choice. And they deserve Mike Yost.

In Defense of Chairmen Merwin and Ulmer

Two Republican county chairmen in South Carolina wrote an op-ed in support of one of our greatest Senators, Senator Jim DeMint. In their op-ed, they innocently used the argument of the frugality purportedly displayed by some Jews as a role model for sound economic policy. Their choice of words was open to misinterpretation, but their well meaning and intentions were not.

Democrats pounced on one line in the op-ed and even a great Jewish conservative organization, afraid of what this would do to Republican recruitment, wrongly chastised the writers. To be fair, the organization stated that the intentions behind the op-ed seemed fine, but that the wording was problematic. The trouble is, it’s only problematic if you grow up among Jews and know that saying “the Jews who became wealthy” sounds like a slur based on the way it’s been used by those who are less than friendly. These two gentlemen were using Jewish frugality as a compliment, as was clear from the context of their remark.

Democrats are always quick to pounce on any misconstrued line that they can use to portray the party as racist. Republicans need to simply speak the truth. The statement that should have been issued would be one that praises the intent of the county chairs and then explains that a better choice of words could have been used, while pointing out that in their region the meaning of their words was purely complimentary. Attack Democrat scandalmongers, not well meaning conservative op-ed writers.

As a party, we should be less concerned with the hissy fits of Democrats, who know all too well that the more they act out, the greater the reaction they will get. We should be more concerned with defending good party leaders and, when needed, privately training them to avoid unnecessary albeit well meaning remarks that are open to misinterpretation.

The basis of societal harmony demands that when people inadvertently use language that can be construed in a negative light, they be afforded the courtesy of being told as much privately. They can then be asked to issue a clarification. In similar vein, Chairmen Merwin and Ulmer should have been asked to issue a clarification, not have been made the subject of a press release.

I agree that the line “There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves” is a poor choice of words. But I think that this is only obvious to people who’ve grown up in areas where many Jews live and who understand that the same line has been used as an insult.

Furthermore, as the first visibly observant Jewish candidate for state office in my state, as someone who served as a director of the Ten Commandments Commission and who has fought for Judeo-Christian values, allow me to make the following clear: The same liberal Democrats who are quick to yell “anti-Semite” are the same people who’ve attempted to sell out both American and Jewish security in order to curry favor with the world’s “intelligentsia” (a misnomer if ever there were one). By contrast, the Republican Party has stood for the inalienable rights of all people since its founding right through to this day. Republican intent trumps Democrat pandering hands down, no contest, TKO.

Messrs. Merwin and Ulmer are fine people and I’m proud, not ashamed, to be in same the party as they are. When we start parsing words instead of measuring intentions, we all have a problem.



Yomin Postelnik
Candidate for Florida House of Representatives
Republican Committeeman and Conservative Writer

Gaddafi / Biden 2012

In 2003, Gaddafi agreed to cooperate with the President of the United States. So how nice it was of Barack Obama to return the favor and now agree so wholeheartedly with Gaddafi.

Obama’s moral relativism is at best shockingly and dangerously naïve. At worst, it’s something far more nefarious. But the problem is that this bankrupt philosophy has become a hallmark of liberalism and of today’s “Democratic” Party.

Moral relativism equates killers and mass murderers like Stalin with those who oppose such brutalities. It equates the burglar with the homeowner trying to defend his family and totalitarianism with those who patriotically resist it. The end result is one of cowardice in the face of evil and the development of a hazy world outlook where fact and fiction are mixed in a way that makes Alice’s Wonderland look sane, orderly and appealing. Indeed, such is the view of most Democrats.

So let’s make this clear. America, a nation that has fought against tyranny the world over has nothing to apologize for (other than for electing people like Obama). Sure, many things are far from perfect, but liberals never address real societal problems. They leave real leadership to conservative Republicans while they moan and groan and publicly defame their own nation on the international stage.

And while we’re at it, your attack on Israel was shameful as well, Mr. Obama. It’s reminiscent of how you treat allies like Great Britain. (Or did you think there was anything statesmanlike about unceremoniously turfing the Churchill bust in their Prime Minister’s face along with a package of DVDs that don’t work in the UK and then following up that class act by giving the Queen an iPod?) It smacks of how you treated Honduras after members of that nation’s ruling party saw fit to remove a thug who had usurped their constitution. All in all, your actions are shameful, they’re disgraceful and you should resign.

But to set the record straight after your outburst at the UN, let me say this much:

Just as America has nothing to apologize for, so too Israel, a country that has taken more precautions to protect the lives of civilians on the other side than any other and who has never started a single one of the wars that were brought upon it, has nothing to apologize for.

Yes, Israel won an increased amount of land in 1967. But Israel did not start that battle. They won it after they were aggressively surrounded by enemies on all sides who were very openly set on Israel’s destruction.

If the battle in Israel were a battle between Chicagoans and people from Detroit; if one side never made an aggressive move while the other side had openly targeted women and children, may G-d protect everyone, the side who justice and decency was on would be clear to all. It is also noteworthy that every discussion of regional peace has been about nothing more than how much Israel would give versus how much its enemies would stop attacking it should they receive something. And each time that Israel gave land, terrorists were emboldened. Netanyahu is right when he says that promoting mutual business, not dangerous land concessions, is the only possible road for peace in the Middle East.

Yet the strange thing is that in Israel, both the right as well as much of the left have come to understand that the only way to stand up to terror is to, well, stand up to it. That’s why Netanyahu and Ehud Barak were able to form a coalition. The only one who doesn’t get it is Tzipi Livni, who to her credit, is doing whatever she can to dispel the notion that all Jews are smart.

And who is harmed by Obama’s outbursts and insanely foolish worldview? America - because in today’s world, America cannot show weakness. Such an attitude invites contempt and emboldens our enemies.

The night that Obama was elected, people at the local McCain party turned to me and asked in a very concerned manner, “what about Israel?” I answered that Israel understands terror. Much of America does not and therefore I worry for its safety. We cannot take our eye off the ball and that weakness in the face of terror would only harm America, may G-d protect this land and our allies.

Let me be clear. While Obama and Biden may be the most naïve of fools ever to occupy our nation’s highest offices (with the possible exception of one peanut farmer who shall remain clueless), the American people know better and will demand a swift reaction against anyone who seeks to harm this nation. I’m just worried about the message that Obama is sending, not about our national resolve.

Obama and his gang have behaved like reckless school children with the US finances. No one with even a rudimentary understanding of history would have order the printing of a trillion US dollars, causing China, Russia and others to start a stampede against our currency. In foreign affairs Obama is seen as simply one of the group, not as the leader of the free world. His leadership is as shameful as his worldview is ridiculous and the sad fact is that his harmful outlook is shared by most of his party.

So what’s next for Democrats? A Gaddafi/Clinton ticket in 2012? Sounds like the next logical progression of a morally bankrupt and ideologically idiotic party. But then whatever would they do with Joe Biden? Not to worry. Perhaps Barney Frank needs a new congressional page.