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Veterans Day Profile: Point Man, Roger Helle

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

“I’m Sgt. Helle’s brother. How is he?” asked Roger’s twin brother, Ron, also an E-5, USMC. “I’m sorry son, but your brother is going to die,” the physician responded tersely. That was July 1970, China Beach, Vietnam.

My friend Roger Helle was 17 years old when he joined the Marine Corps. The product of a broken home
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=537 , he was very insecure and hoped becoming a Marine would provide him the confidence he lacked.

In February 1966, five months into his first 13-month tour in Vietnam, Roger’s unit was searching for Viet Cong around Gia Le. Roger had walked point for patrols during the previous four months and had been shot once, so his intuition about the enemy’s presence was acutely tuned.

On a night mission to a small fishing village reportedly occupied by VC, Roger and 12 other Marines were moving down a trail lined with dense bamboo. His squad leader had taken Roger’s position as point man, and Roger’s instinct told him the squad was moving too fast along the trail. So urgent was his sense that something was wrong that he wanted to call out, but did not want to betray their position.

In an instant, gunfire erupted and a series of “daisy-chain” explosions propelled Roger and two other Marines over the vegetation into an adjacent rice paddy. As he slowly recovered from the shock of the concussion generated by the explosions, he could see green tracers from VC weapons cutting up and down the trail.

The ambush was over as quickly as it began, and more than 60 VC emerged like ghosts from the bamboo, killed the wounded Marines on the trail, collected their weapons and disappeared.

As Roger regained his senses, he pulled the other two Marines in the water to the edge of the rice paddy. He then pawed around in the muddy water for his M-14, and crawled back onto the trail to check for survivors among the ten remaining Marines — among his friends. The squad leader had taken 29 rounds. There were no survivors.

Roger recovered a radio under one of the dead, crawled back to the water’s edge with the wounded Marines, and called base camp with their coordinates. Within a half hour, Chinooks arrived with quick reaction squads to recover the injured and dead.

The two Marines Roger pulled from the water were evacuated to Da Nang, but died en route.

Roger was the sole survivor of that horrific ambush. There was no consolation for the “survivor’s guilt” he experienced — not the anger, not the nightmares — not for years.

In July 1970, two tours, two Purple Hearts and numerous other decorations later, Roger Helle, now a sergeant and platoon leader for a “killer team,” was walking point on a mission back to a village to destroy earthen tunnels used by the VC for escape and evasion.

Normally, a platoon leader would not take the point position in front of his men; if he was wounded or killed, it could threaten the continuity and survivability of the whole platoon. However, suffering four years of guilt after relinquishing his position on point and losing his entire squad, Roger was not about to ask one of his guys to walk point for what he considered a “mop-up” mission.

Their packs overloaded with C-4 explosives to destroy the VC tunnels, Roger’s platoon took frequent breaks. After one stop, he crossed a field about 50 yards ahead of his platoon to check for booby traps. While scanning the area, he sensed a glint of something in his peripheral vision, coming through the air. A grenade bounced off his leg — and a second later, exploded under his feet, violently impelling him backward and then to the ground.
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Roger recounts that the detonation “felt like thousands of volts of electricity surging through my body.” After hitting the ground, he says, “My body would not respond to what my mind wanted it to do.”

Amazingly, he managed to stagger to his feet and wipe enough blood from his eyes to see an enemy soldier, about ten yards in front of him, point his weapon and fire. As the rifle recoiled, two rounds hit Roger, spinning him around and knocking him face down to the ground. As he rolled back toward the light of the sky, he could make out the silhouette of that NVA soldier standing above him. Their eyes met as the enemy thrust his bayonet into Roger’s abdomen.

Just a few seconds, and an eternity, had elapsed.

Roger’s platoon had instinctively hit the ground after the grenade detonated, but six of his men rose up in time to see the NVA soldier over their platoon leader. They fired on the enemy as he withdrew his bayonet, and he dropped a few feet from Roger.

Roger was riddled with shrapnel from the grenade, hit with two rifle rounds and bayoneted. Worse yet, the shrapnel had detonated one of the phosphorus grenades in his demolition bag. His clothing and body were on fire. He managed to get out of his burning flack jacket, but the pain racked his body.

At that moment, Roger says, “I was tired of the killing, tired of losing friends, tired of trying to make sense of the war and my life. I just wanted to die and have all this suffering be over.”

Roger was evacuated to the 95th EVAC Hospital, China Beach, where he underwent numerous surgeries. After six days at death’s door, he regained consciousness long enough to recognize a familiar voice on the ward — that of his brother Ron, asking a physician if Roger was there.

After telling Ron that his brother was going to die, a nurse led him to Roger’s bedside. Ron stood over Roger for a minute, trying to recognize what was left of his brother, and then started to sob, falling to the end of Roger’s bed in grief.

“Your brother is going to die.” The finality of those words were sinking in, as Ron wept, compelling Roger to pray, “God, if there really is a God... if you let me live, I’ll do anything you want.” With that, he fell unconscious again.

In the days that followed, Ron (who also had three Purple Hearts and later received the Navy Cross for jumping on a grenade to protect other Marines) never left the side of his brother. Roger saw many injured men brought into that ward and could only watch as life drained from their bodies. Miraculously, Roger’s condition improved. The road to recovery was long and hard, but 31 operations later, including four to reconstruct his face, recover he did.

Along the way, Roger met his Savior and fulfilled his promise to God — and he has served in full-time ministry since 1978. Indeed, in a war with no victors and replete with death, Roger found victory over death through Christ. He also met and married his wife and ministry partner, Shirley, and they now have two children and three grandchildren.

Today, some 37 years later, Roger appears as robust as a Patriot’s linebacker. He leads a challenging but successful discipleship to young people
http://www.teen-challenge.com/index.htm  in the grip of life-controlling addictions. “Life is a gift from God,” says Roger. “What we do with it can be our gift to God.”

Roger’s ministry to others also includes 16 trips back to Vietnam since 1989, where he and “Vets with a Mission”
http://www.vwam.com/  have helped to build orphanages, clinics and hospitals for rural peasants ignored by their Communist government and they have supplied them with millions of dollars of donated medical supplies.

This Christian Soldier http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=566  understands well the counsel of Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 — “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal.” His third book, “A time to kill and a time to heal,” takes its inspiration from that passage, as does Roger.
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Regarding Vietnam and the current war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Roger is characteristically candid: “I have never regretted a minute of my service in Vietnam. That’s because I did not see the war the way the media portrayed it. I saw it through the eyes of the people that I lived with, the people of Vietnam who wanted to live free in peace.”

He continues, “As The Patriot noted years ago in its analysis of the media’s Vietnam war coverage, ‘General Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnam’s most decorated military leader, wrote in retrospect that if not for the disunity created by John Kerry
http://johnkerry-08.com/ , Jane Fonda  http://PatriotPost.US/news/hanoijane.asp  and their ilk, and promoted by the U.S. media, Hanoi would have ultimately surrendered’.”

Roger adds, “Vietnam will not be a failure if we learn the lessons of that conflict. Politicians cannot run the war — the generals must lead and lead well. The majority of people in Iraq and Afghanistan
http://PatriotPost.US/papers/#anchor23  want peace and freedom, but the media’s portrayal of that critical conflict is just as prejudiced as it was during Vietnam — maybe more so. The Left, with the media’s help, may force the same scenario in Iraq that they forced in Vietnam, with the same consequences for the entire region. The vast majority of our Armed Forces in the region both understand and support our mission.”

To Roger, and to all fellow Patriots who have served our nation with courage and great sacrifice, we offer our heartfelt gratitude. You have honored your oath to “support and defend... so help me God,”
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=321  as do those on the front line in the war with Jihadistan
http://PatriotPost.US/papers/primer01.asp  today. You have kept the flame of liberty, lit by our Founders, burning bright for future generations.

In 1918, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marked the cessation of World War I hostilities. This date is now designated in honor of our veterans, and a focal point for national observance is the placing of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
http://PatriotPost.US/news/arlington.asp  in Arlington National Cemetery.

Today, nearly 24 million (eight percent) of our countrymen are veterans. Of those, 33 percent served in Vietnam, 18 percent in the Gulf War, 14 percent in WWII and 13 percent in Korea. About three percent served in Iraq and Afghanistan and other counter-terrorism theaters. More than 25 percent of those veterans suffer some disability.

Please pause with us at 1100 EST this Sunday to pray for all our veterans.
   
News from the Swamp: Mukasey confirmed

The Senate on Thursday approved the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for attorney general, 53-40, succeeding Alberto Gonzales, who resigned on 30 September. On Tuesday, Judiciary Committee Democrats Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Chuck Schumer (NY) all but assured Mukasey’s confirmation by joining all of that committee’s Republicans in approval, despite the fact that other Democrats tried to derail the nomination for Mukasey’s refusal to issue a blanket statement condemning as torture the interrogation technique known as waterboarding. While Mukasey did say that waterboarding is “repugnant,” he refused to issue judgment until he was privy to classified information regarding its actual use. Wait until the facts are in and then make a judgment — no wonder the Democrats were so angry.

Also this week, leftist protesters gathered outside Justice Department headquarters to protest the Mukasey nomination by waterboarding a volunteer in the street. James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal observed, “By the time of this demonstration, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein had already announced their support for Mukasey, which means his confirmation was assured. It is preposterous to call this procedure ‘torture’ when people are willing to undergo it merely in order to make a futile political gesture.” Futile indeed. Judge Mukasey is now U.S. attorney general.
   
In the House: We’ll have a gay old time

The House approved the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on Wednesday by a vote of 235-184. The bill offers “broad protections” against discrimination by employers against the gender disoriented
http://PatriotPost.US/papers/03-32.asp . Thirty-five Republicans voted for it, while 25 Democrats voted against it because it didn’t go far enough — language was removed offering protection to “transsexuals” and “transgendered,” which is somewhat of a distinction without a difference.
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ENDA offers exemptions for religious groups, including church-run hospitals, but even with the bill’s narrow scope and exemptions, we can only begin to imagine the flood of lawsuits arising from these new forms of discrimination. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, “ENDA — which would restrict religious freedom and open the door to excessive litigation — is modeled closely after state employment non-discrimination laws currently being misused by activist judges to impose same-sex marriage and civil union laws on states.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) will introduce a companion bill in the Senate, but President Bush has promised a veto.
   
In the Senate: Farm subsidies

The Senate began debate this week on a 80-billion agricultural bill that has something for everyone, except those searching for common sense. The House passed a 86-billion version last summer, and the Senate version is being debated not just by the farm states, but also unions, immigration advocates and energy lobbyists. Amendments were proposed to protect immigrant workers, thought to be vital to agricultural production, and ethanol producers, who refuse to accept that corn-based ethanol will continue to drive up food prices without providing the supposed benefits of energy independence. Republicans have no reason to support this legislation because its needless subsidies run counter to the GOP’s free-market, small-government ideology. Democrats should be against it because it funnels well over two-thirds of the subsidies to large corporate farms while leaving small family operations devoid of financial support. Yet both parties are falling over themselves to add more pork to the bill. Why? It’s all about the votes, of course, which often requires bringing home the bacon.
   
On the Hill: Going green at taxpayer expense

Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to make the Capitol “green” by the end of 2008, and, in the spirit of her environmental craze, Daniel Beard, the House’s chief administrative officer, offered 9,000 in taxpayer money this week for the government to buy carbon offsets on the Chicago Climate Exchange. Even environmental groups are dubious about the effect of carbon offsets, which are basically shares that environmentally compliant companies sell to less environmentally savvy groups, like the U.S. Capitol, which relies on a coal-burning plant that is unlikely to be shut down anytime soon. There is no proof that these offsets are having any net positive impact on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, but since when has proof of functionality stopped Congress from wasting taxpayer money?
   
New & notable legislation

Speaking of spending, House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) stated that President Bush is making the “wrong moral choice” in setting fiscal priorities. Obey apparently would rather raise taxes on the “rich” and reduce spending to defeat terrorists in Iraq so that money can be wasted on extravagant social programs that will raise the deficit and ultimately do nothing to settle domestic issues like healthcare and shoring up the nation’s infrastructure. Meanwhile, the federal deficit reached trillion for the first time this week. Deficit spending and entitlements now equal 75,000 for every American. Some morality.

The House passed a 71-billion defense budget 400-15 this week, though it conveniently omits the President’s requested 96 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Outlays include .3 billion for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and .9 billion for the Navy’s DD(X) destroyer and the new Virginia class attack submarine.

Congress overrode President Bush’s veto of the 3-billion water-resources bill this week. The original House and Senate water bills carried a price tag of 4 billion and 5 billion, respectively, to cover the cost of wetland and coastal restoration in Louisiana, restoration of the Florida Everglades and other projects. The conference version of the bill jumped to 3 billion through an overload of earmarks.

Reps. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) have proposed the Taxpayer Choice Act as a counter to New York Demo Rep. Charles Rangel’s billion-dollar tax bill
http://archive.PatriotPost.US/pub/07-44_Digest/page-4.php  disguised as a relief of the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax. The GOP proposal would repeal the AMT and replace it with two rates: 25 percent on income above 00,000 and ten percent for incomes below 00,000, with families having their first 0,000 of income tax free. Individuals could still file in the traditional manner, even though their cherished deductions are unlikely to get them a better deal than the Choice Act can offer.
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Campaign watch: Ron Paul’s big day

GOP candidates take note: Rep. Ron Paul’s
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=550  presidential bid received a shot in the arm this week as he brought in a record .2 million on line in one day from more than 37,000 donors. “It is amazing, it’s even surprising to me,” Paul said. “[That] fundraising was all done on the Internet and it was all done spontaneously, so something significant must be going on out there in the countryside.” Indeed it is significant — no one focuses on the Constitution as much as Dr. Paul, and that is quite refreshing. Unfortunately, it is his out-of-Iraq-now approach that steps on too many Republican toes. And then there are his supporters, who, as GOPUSA’s Bobby Eberle puts it, “bombard discussion boards, spam web sites, flood online polls, and behave in a manner that puts their candidate in an extremely bad light.” You know who you are. Still, kudos to Paul for running an efficient and surprisingly successful campaign. If nothing more, he is changing the debate for the better.
   
From the Left: Clinton records still private

Hillary Clinton has no problem chastising the Bush administration for not releasing records about Vice President Cheney’s 2001 energy-committee meetings or Justice Department records related to the firing of U.S. prosecutors. However, when asked to make public the records from her 1993 healthcare task force or her husband’s 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary falls back to the same old tricks. The conservative group Judicial Watch has filed suit against the National Archives and Records Administration to release the documents it is holding that pertain to Hillary’s healthcare work during her co-administration. She claimed that all records were already made public, which it turns out is — whaddya you know? — a bold-faced lie. True to form, Clinton claims that she is being unduly criticized. Her Democrat opponents for the presidential nomination are finally beginning to ask questions about the issue, wondering why she insists on keeping the material from the public if she claims to have nothing to hide.
   
Around the nation: Election results are in

Several elections played out around the nation on Tuesday. One of the highlights was Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Haley Barbour winning re-election with 58 percent of the vote. Barbour managed the recovery after Hurricane Katrina well. On the other side of the coin, scandal-plagued Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky lost his re-election bid in a landslide. Fletcher was Kentucky’s first Republican governor in more than 30 years, but he turned out to be a poor one. He quickly became embroiled in a scandal involving partisan hiring for jobs protected by a merit system. Fletcher refused to step aside before the primary, somehow pulled out a primary win and proceeded to lose the general election to a washed-up Democrat who had been out of office for 20 years.

In Virginia, Democrats took over the state senate for the first time in a decade, highlighting a trend in the state. Virginia has a Democrat governor and elected a Democrat U.S. senator last year. Former Gov. Mark Warner is in strong position to pick off another Republican seat next year. Democrats are hoping to pick up the state in the presidential election as well — a feat not accomplished since 1964.

In other election news, Utah voters rejected a voucher plan for education that would give 00 to ,000 (depending on income) to children for private school. Similar voucher-program votes have been held ten times — all ten failed. In New Jersey, a proposal to borrow 50 million over ten years to fund stem-cell research was also defeated. New Jersey’s fiscal house is in such disarray that voters decided that enough is enough... for now.
   
Warfront with Jihadistan: The good news

“American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia [sic], the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the ‘surge’ to depart as planned,” reports The New York Times. (Yes, they still insist on designating al-Qa’ida as “in Mesopotamia” — a deliberate obfuscation.) This news is huge. The words “routed,” “every neighborhood” and “as planned” are huge. The Times apparently missed the significance of their own words, however, placing this story on page A19.
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Not only that, but casualties in Iraq were at near-historic lows in October. Coalition casualties are down for the fifth straight month, and October saw the lowest number of Iraqi civilian deaths in all of 2007, despite fears of an al-Qa’ida attack spree during Ramadan. Sunni tribes continue to work with the Coalition against al-Qa’ida, and local Iraqis throughout the country increasingly are providing the Coalition with the kind of information critical to a counter-insurgency campaign. In short, the surge continues to work, even if the mainstream media refuse to report it. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) called the war “lost” and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SCHIP) says, “There’s not light at the end of the tunnel.”

In other news, State Department Foreign Service Officers have been in a tizzy since they learned last week that they might be sent to Iraq. Some 200 State Department workers have been informed that they are candidates for deployment to Iraq, which one likened to “basically a death sentence. Who will raise our children if we are dead or wounded?” For whatever reason, we don’t recall Capt. Douglas Zembiec (USMC), Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith (U.S. Army) or Lt. Michael Murphy (U.S. Navy) voicing those sentiments when volunteering for combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Finally, from the Department of Absurdity: Iran this week proposed a plan to “restore stability” to Iraq, which included, among other steps, the integration of militias into the security forces. Last time we checked, integration of militias into the security forces was a big part of the problem. Other absurdities: CENTCOM’s Public Affairs spokesman, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, said Tuesday, “We hope to confirm... that Iran has honored its pledge that the flow of munitions and other lethal aid has stopped.” In the meantime, we at The Patriot hope to confirm that Lucy has honored her pledge not to pull the football away as Charlie Brown tries to kick it, that OJ honors his pledge to find the real killer and Paris Hilton honors her pledge to straighten up and fly right.
   
Our ally, Pakistan

Turmoil erupted in Pakistan this past week, as President Pervez Musharraf imposed “emergency rule,” suspended the constitution and cancelled January’s parliamentary elections. While Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the fight against Jihadistan
http://PatriotPost.US/papers/primer01.asp , justified his actions on the grounds that he is battling a rising militancy in Pakistan, his moves appear to be more self-serving, as a top adviser said that Musharraf acted only after a Pakistani Supreme Court judge informed the government that the court would rule against Musharraf’s effort to remain as president. During the week, dozens of protests, many led by lawyers angered by the attacks on the judiciary and urged on by one of the country’s top judges, have been quickly and brutally put down.

The U.S. , seeking to advance democracy in the area, took a dim view of Musharraf’s actions, expressing diplomatic outrage. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the White House would review its 50-million-a-month assistance program to Pakistan. After some personal arm-twisting by President Bush on Wednesday, Musharraf, who came to power via a coup, said that Pakistan’s parliamentary elections would be held by mid-February, but his emergency rule will continue.

Because Musharraf has been a key ally in the war, Washington’s options in this situation may be limited. The fact that Pakistan is an Islamic nuclear power also makes the situation extremely dangerous. While Musharraf must not be allowed to stage what is essentially a second coup, neither can the jihadis be allowed to rise to power in Pakistan nor get their hands on nuclear weapons.
   
Homeland Security front: Missile defense success

The Missile Defense Agency conducted yet another successful test of the defense system this week, taking out two short-range ballistic missiles simultaneously. The two missiles were launched from Hawaii, while the interceptors were launched from the USS Lake Erie, destroying the missiles 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean. The crew of the Lake Erie was not given the time of the missile launch but responded on alert. There have now been 11 successful tests of the Aegis sea-based part of the missile-defense system. Despite this success, congressional Democrats cut 5 million for an interceptor site in Poland from the defense budget. They did leave .7 billion for the program overall, but it is clear that national defense is not a priority for Democrats. Then again, that’s been clear for about 40 years now.
   
Military readiness: The Eagle has (crash-) landed

The Air Force grounded its fleet of 688 aging F-15C Eagles last Friday, immediately following a crash in Missouri in which one of the venerable air-superiority fighters apparently disintegrated in mid-air (the pilot safely ejected). Yes, that’s right: disintegrated — as in, “U.S. counter-air capability is ‘disintegrating’.” Lest this point be overlooked, grounding what had been the world’s most capable air-combat fleet is no trivial matter. What gives? Well, for one, try the fact that as awesome as it is, the F-15C’s basic airframe is over 30 years old. Couple that with constant “G”-your-lips-off air-to-air maneuvering, and you begin to get an idea of the toll taken on these birds over the past decades.
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Enter the F-22. A weapon system so advanced that our only fear is that it might become “self aware,” the Raptor is equipped with what amounts to an “I-wish-you-were-dead” fire-control system. The pilot simply hammers down on the trigger and the target — whether in the air or on the ground — magically disappears. That’s the good news. The bad news: Democrats, the usual enemies of the military. Thus far, the Democrat-controlled Congress has seen fit to fund only 183 F-22s through 2011, less than half the number the Air Force has requested to ensure air dominance for the foreseeable future against threats like China and Russia, neither of which seems inclined to limit its own production. Here’s hoping for substantial Republican congressional wins in 2008 — lest our remaining U.S. military forces face similar “disintegration.”
   
Profiles of valor: Marine Corps Sgt. Archie

The Marines based in the Anbar Province near Fallujah were used to constant assault from enemy forces. 1st Sgt. Paul T. Archie was leading the Weapons Company of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines from Camp Lejuene when the base came under fire. This time, Archie knew that the attack wasn’t the norm. When the base began to take increasingly aggressive mortar rounds, Archie set up defense posts along the rooftops and ordered Humvees to defend the roads leading to the base, successfully blocking a suicide bomber in a dump truck. Throughout the heavy one-hour assault, Archie personally made sure that each Marine was fully equipped and that insurgents were properly identified to avoid civilian casualties. Two injured Marines were evacuated thanks to Archie’s diligence. No Marine lives were lost.

Archie led at least 200 missions during his team’s seven-month tour. For his notable leadership, Archie was awarded the Bronze Star with the combat “V” for valor.
   
The birth of the U.S. Marine Corps

On 10 November 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved to create two battalions of Continental Marines for the War of Independence from Britain. In 1798, President John Adams signed the Act establishing the United States Marine Corps. The 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, General John A. Lejeune, issued Marine Corps Order No. 47, Series 1921, directing that on 10 November every year, in honor of the Corps’ birthday, the Order’s summary of the history, mission and tradition of the Corps be read to every command. Happy Birthday, Marines!

We at The Patriot offer our thanks for a job well done. For those interested in great items bearing the Marine Corps’ insignia, please visit The Patriot Shop
http://PatriotShop.US/index.php?cPath=40 . Semper Fi!
   
A strong economy? Not according to the MSM

If you were to believe the reports from the network news anchors and the pundits on CNN, MSNBC and in The New York Times, the American economy is headed back to the 1930s. The truth is significantly different. Last week’s employment report noted an increase of 166,000 non-farm payroll jobs. Employment overall has expanded for 50 months in a row, adding more than 8.5 million jobs to the economy. Despite the sub-prime mortgage mess, and oil reaching nearly 00 a barrel, the U.S. economy expanded by 3.9 percent last quarter. Shall we go on? Well, let’s see, inflation is growing slower than at any time since the 1960s. The deficit is down to 1.2 percent of GDP, its lowest level in five years. Per capita GDP has risen 12.7 percent since 2001 when President Bush took office and proposed those evil tax cuts. Still, the point is, as long as a Republican occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the economy will be dutifully reported to be in the tank. If a Democrat wins in 2008, look for the economy to recover miraculously around February 2009.
   
Oregon rejects punitive tax for healthcare

Oregon, one of the bluest of blue states, saw its voters reject Measure 50 on Tuesday by a 60-40 margin. The measure would have provided state-subsidized health insurance for children of families with household income of up to 2,000 annually. Funding this behemoth would be an equally gargantuan cigarette-tax increase of sh.84 per pack on top of the current tax of .18 per pack.

The whining quickly commenced as supporters decried the spending of the tobacco industry. Democrat Gov. Ted Kulongoski said, “What happened was, the tobacco industry bought the election.” Of course there will be no analysis of the in-kind contributions that the proponents of Measure 50 received. While the media has begrudgingly acknowledged that Gov. Kulongoski injected 00,000 from his political-action committee in support of the measure, nobody has analyzed the ability of a sitting governor to incorporate support for the measure in every public appearance during the campaign. Likewise, no one will analyze the in-kind contributions of local media as they report tear-jerking human-interest stories on chronically ill children who would benefit from the health program.
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Regulatory Commissars: Banning smoking at home

The nanny state continues to grow. It didn’t stop with banning smoking in publicly owned buildings or schools. Many cities and states have banned smoking in privately owned restaurants and now health-advocacy groups have declared the home as their final frontier, and they’re making progress. The complaints are perfectly understandable. Lots of people don’t like living next door to apartments that house smokers. In response, several large real-estate companies have banned smoking in their own buildings. We hasten to add that this is perfectly fine — in fact, it gives apartment-seeking non-smokers a good choice. However, it’s an entirely different matter when the government forces owners to ban smoking. This year two California cities did just that.

Why does the government feel the need to step in? In short, because anti-discrimination laws have made it illegal in some cases for apartment-complex owners to ban smoking. We’re not making this up. As usual, the government caused the very problem it’s trying to fix. The real solution — also, as usual — is found in freedom.
   
Changing the face of the Big Three

With the labor deal finalized earlier this week by the United Auto Workers union and Ford, all of the Big Three insured labor peace until 2011. This contentious round of negotiations resulted in sweeping role changes for both parties involved.

Forced to address a huge disparity in healthcare costs to its Asian rivals, automakers managed to shift the day-to-day cost of health care onto the unions in return for billions invested into a fund designed to handle claim costs. Another concession won by Detroit was a two-tier wage system that allowed automakers to pay newer hires a lower wage than the former union scale; in exchange the UAW won moratoriums on outsourcing and assurances that particular products would be built in specific plants.

One thing not changing is the call by the unions for a single-payer healthcare system, particularly as they assume the administrative burden of paying claims to current and retired workers and their families. Whether that policy will blow up on the UAW before the next round of negotiations remains to be seen, but the changes allow the Big Three to concentrate more on the products they actually make and not services to perform.
   
Frontiers of Junk Science: ‘Today’ in the arctic

You may want to sit down for this... The news media are going out of their way this week to present a liberally biased survey of global warming. MSNBC is hosting a “green week” and the “Today” show’s Matt Lauer was reporting from Greenland in an effort to call attention to this issue. Ironically enough, however, Lauer admitted that he was freezing. Also for the show, Al Roker traveled to Quito, Ecuador, and Ann Curry went to Antarctica, a place that has no record of warming. These junkets generated nearly 25 tons of CO2 according to the carbon calculator on Al Gore’s
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=520  doomsday website. Also according to Gore, the average person creates 7.5 tons of CO2... per year. The “Today” show also, of course, interviewed Al Gore during “green week,” but Gore actually criticized the media for presenting both sides of the global-warming debate. “It’s the old ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’ approach. There are still people who believe the earth is flat,” he said, “[but] you don’t search out for someone who believes the earth is flat and give them equal time.” He couldn’t have been serious... could he?
   
Smithsonian looks down its nose at million

The Smithsonian Institution has put on hold a -million donation intended for a Web site about the world’s oceans because it comes from an association of more than 400 oil and natural-gas corporations, bogeymen of the global-warming-alarmist set. Two members of the museum complex’s Board of Regents balked at the sponsorship agreement with The American Petroleum Institutes — committee chair Roger Sant (formerly of the World Wildlife Foundation) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) expressed concerns that the money would harm the Smithsonian’s 9-million “Ocean Initiative” showcase. “I want to be sure that the sponsor’s behavior is consistent with the message we’re trying to deliver,” said Sant, who is, incidentally, the project’s largest benefactor. “It is a question mark given the record of oil spills in the past two decades... I think it is in everyone’s mind that oceans and oil are not consistent.” The issue is tabled until their next meeting slated for 19 November.
   
’Non Compos Mentis’: Leftist TV ratings

In yet another stellar example of uncompromising journalistic integrity and objectivity, The New York Times recently utilized its self-bestowed power of omniscience to assert that MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann “has... come tantalizingly close to surpassing the ratings of the host he describes as his nemesis, Bill O’Reilly, on Fox News.” The revelation flew under the banner headline, “Cable Channel Nods to Ratings and Leans Left.”

In the piece, The Times contends that MSNBC is little more than a victim of public sentiment moving left. Apparently, as viewers have become increasingly critical of the current White House leadership, MSNBC has been “[r]iding a ratings wave from... Olbermann[’s]... program... which takes strong issue with the Bush administration.” To catch the perfect wave, The Times notes, “MSNBC is increasingly seeking to showcase its nighttime lineup as a welcome haven for viewers of a similar mind.”

No doubt The Times would like nothing more than a mass leftward swing of American opinion, but the paper made a grave error by citing statistics that, spun or not, belie its own claim. Turns out the “tantalizingly close” viewer numbers are 773,000 for Olbermann compared with nearly three times that number for O’Reilly. Word of advice for The Times (and all the liberal media for that matter): If you’re going lie about something, don’t include the facts. They have an inconvenient way of exposing the truth.
   
Village Academic Curriculum: NY schools

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued what he called a “wake-up call” to the city’s public schools when it was announced this week that 50 of them had received a failing grade under the city’s new rating scale. Bloomberg has hinted at removing principals or even closing the doors of the failing schools. “Is this a wake-up call for the people who work there? You betcha,” he said, noting that students in the failing schools would be given the option to transfer elsewhere.

The new rating system has stirred controversy among both parents and educators due to its emphasis on student improvement. The system bases 55 percent of a school’s rating on individual-student improvement, which means a school with a history of performing above-average on standardized tests could be penalized for its lack of significant improvement. The result was that some schools with stellar reputations earned low scores, while some low-performing schools earned high scores because students showed significant improvement on standardized tests over the previous year. Seems to us that the scale might take long-term performance into account. Better run that idea by the teachers’ union first, though.

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Oh STOP!  My sides are aching!