Author: Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr.

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Supreme Court Ruling Protects 1st Amendment

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 decision in the matter of McCutheon et al v. Federal Elections Commission complies with the view that attempts to interfere in the electoral process in ways not specified by the Constitution must be carefully screened to insure that they do not violate the First Amendment.

Chief Justice Roberts delivered the decision, noting that corruption would be held in check by limiting how large a single donation could be.  The ruling indicates that the ceilings on the total amounts contributed each election cycle would not undermine that goal.

In its 5-4 decision yesterday, the Court held that “The right to participate in democracy through political contributions is protected by the First Amendment, but that right is not absolute.  Congress may regulate campaign contributions to protect against corruption or the appearance of corruption…It may not, however, regulate contributions simply to reduce the amount of money in politics, or to restrict the political participation of some in order to enhance the relative influence of others.”

That part of the decision—stressing that campaign regulations cannot be used to enhance the influence of some at the expense of others– is of extraordinary importance. Although the McCutheon case involves the question of aggregate limits on individual political contributions, that part of the decision may be seen as a cautionary note that the growing environment at the federal, state and local levels of campaign regulation may be violative of free speech rights.

Research indicates that campaign regulation efforts have not achieved the goal of reducing the influence of money in politics.  A study by the CATO institute found that “…there is no serious evidence that campaign finance regulation has achieved or will achieve its goals of reducing the influence of money, opening up the political system, and lowering the cost of campaigns.  Indeed, since the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act, spending has risen sharply, the number of political action committees and the amount of PAC spending are up, and incumbents have increased both their election rate and the rate at which they outspend their challengers.”

Campaign finance regulations have been abused in a number of ways. In some localities, local Campaign Finance Boards have used their authority to heavily influence the outcome of elections and enhance the power of political bosses.  The ability to do this is especially prevalent in jurisdictions where taxpayer funds are provided to help finance campaigns.
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Recent decisions of the Supreme Court—including both the McCutcheon case and Citizens United—have taken positions protective of the First Amendment.

The ban on any contributions from foreign sources, not part of the McCutheon case, continues.  Scandals involving contributions from foreign sources have affected both the Clinton and Obama campaigns.

According to a Washington Times article the web site Obama.com, owned by a China-based American business man, which attracted an overwhelming majority of foreigners to it, routed visitors to a donation site. Other published reports have revealed that an Obama web site accepted donations from abroad, while a similar Romney site rejected similar foreign donations.

Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign was also linked to a serious foreign contribution scandal. Approximately $100,000 from China’s military was funneled to the Democrat campaign in the summer of 1996 by the daughter of a top general in the People’s Liberation Army, General Liu Huaqing.  The funds were not returned until after an investigation revealed the illegal activity.

Both the limits themselves, and the complicated system of reporting under federal, state and local campaign finance regulations, can be seen as favoring “party-boss” backed candidates who have both access to the specialized skills necessary to timely provide mandated filings as well as access to the type of fund-raising abilities that comply with the regulations.

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White House Role in Israeli-Palestinan Negotiations Not Succeeding

It increasingly appears that the White House’s role in negotiating the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is yielding as little in the way of beneficial results as its prior support for the Arab Spring, or its “red line” for Syria. Combined with the problems the Administration has encountered following its premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a picture of a region that continues to be mired in antagonism emerges, and the threat of an Iranian nuclear breakout still looms.

In all probability, there will be some isolated and largely irrelevant concessions by both sides. The U.S. is dangling the release of Israeli spy Jonathon Pollard in return for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s release of a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners. The move is an odd gambit, since it does not involve a concession from the Palestinians, only from the U.S., which increasingly is one of Israel’s few allies.

Releasing Pollard, who passed U.S. classified data to Israel in the 1980’s, is a political move on the part of the White House, a response to domestic criticism that it has been unsupportive of Israel.  It is an attempt to deflect that criticism by resurrecting an old dispute between two nations who have a general commonality of interests.
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It is also expected that an understanding will be reached to continue negotiations in some form going forward. Negotiations are, of course, preferable to armed conflict. However, once again, no real progress is taking place.

The Israeli-Palestinian debate cannot move forward until a central issue is resolved: the recognition of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

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NY Analysis

US Slashes Military as Russia Expands

 As the United States continues to slash military funding and President Obama advocates unilateral nuclear reductions, Russia is rapidly and substantially increasing both its strategic and conventional armed forces.

Over the past five years, the United States has cancelled or indefinitely postponed numerous key weapons systems, including those involving advanced missile defense, strategic bombers, strategic submarine programs, and others. The numbers of those existing systems have shrunk to levels not seen since before the Second World War, including a naval force reduced to World War One size. It’s not just the numbers that are worrisome-although at less than half their 1990 numbers that is significant enough-it’s the condition the remaining equipment is in that troubles observers. The existing U.S. arsenal is increasingly old to the point of being dangerous to use.

According to a Foundry review, “… the U.S. is the only state with nuclear weapons without a substantive nuclear weapons modernization program. Since New START entered into force, the Russians have announced the most massive nuclear weapons build-up since the end of the Cold War. Over time, if the U.S. does not change its policy or Russia adopts a fundamentally different strategic posture, Washington policymakers will be left with a qualitative and quantitative disadvantage vis-à-vis Moscow and potentially other nuclear-armed states.”

U.S. planning centers on the belief that the Cold War is over, but Russia does not concur. Indeed, Moscow has taken precisely the opposite course. As noted by NTI,

“Once Russia completes recapitalization and modernization of its strategic triad, the structure and composition will largely mirror the strategic triad the Soviet Union created during the Cold War, and that Russia attempted to maintain following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.”

While the terms of the New START treaty adopted in the first Obama term left the U.S. and Russia in rough numerical strategic nuclear parity, it overlooked a needed ban on Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicle warheads (MIRVs). As a result, Russia “out-MIRVS“the U.S. by one per each accountable deployed delivery system. Further, Moscow is rapidly gaining the advantage due to the diverse treatment of each nation’s arsenal.

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America’s strategic weaponry is aged and increasingly unreliable.  In contrast, Russia is diligently and rapidly modernizing its forces. As noted by the New Deterrent Working Group:

“As America refrains from modernizing its deterrent, Russia is demonstrably relying ever more heavily on its nuclear forces, which are being systematically built up…they are working hard on a range of nuclear improvements and also on consolidating their advantage in short range nuclear weapons in order to dominate their neighbors. The Kremlin is simultaneously engaging more and more direct nuclear threats against our allies, eroding confidence in the United States’ extended deterrent.  An Moscow is irrefutably doing hydronuclear and hydrodynamic experiments at Novaya Zemlya, underground nuclear testing of a sort the United States claims is impermissible under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and that it has, as a signatory…forsworn.”

Russia has actually increased the danger of nuclear weapons use in recent years. The Congressional Research Services study released in January discusses Moscow’s growing emphasis on nonstrategic atomic arms:

“Russia has altered and adjusted the Soviet nuclear strategy to meet its new circumstances in a post-Cold War world. It explicitly rejected the Soviet Union’s no-first-use pledge in 1993, indicating that it viewed nuclear weapons as a central feature in its military and security strategies. However, Russia did not maintain the Soviet Union’s view of the need for nuclear weapons to conduct surprise attacks or preemptive attacks. Instead, it seems to view these weapons as more defensive in nature, as a deterrent to conventional or nuclear attack and as a means to retaliate and defend itself if an attack were to occur.

“Russia has revised its national security and military strategy several times in the past 20 years, with successive versions appearing to place a greater reliance on nuclear weapons. For example, the military doctrine issued in 1997 allowed for the use of nuclear weapons “in case of a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation.” The doctrine published in 2000 expanded the circumstances when Russia might use nuclear weapons to include attacks using weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies “as well as in response to large-scale aggression utilizing conventional weapons in situations critical to the national security of the Russian Federation.” In mid-2009, when discussing the revision of Russia’s defense strategy that was expected late in 2009 or early 2010, Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s Presidential Security Council, indicated that Russia would have the option to launch a “preemptive nuclear strike” against an aggressor “using conventional weapons in an all-out, regional, or even local war.”

Moscow is expected to increase military spending by $770 billion within the current decade, and that is just the public portion of the nation’s armed forces budget.  Nuclear weapons expenditures will be hiked by 50% in the next two years.

As President Obama seeks to close down the only American plant manufacturing tanks, Russia plans to add 2,300 new tanks.

Putin’s air force will fly 1,200 new helicopters and planes, and his navy will float fifty new surface ships, including a new missile sub.

Within a year, PRAVDA notes, 40 new intercontinental missiles will be deployed.  In 2013, Russia’s powerful new YARS mobile ICBMs were deployed. The Iskander tactical mobile nuclear missiles were positioned to threaten Europe.

More Missile defense radars wll be fielded and the Triumph missile defense will be implemented this year-an irony considering Moscow’s opposition to U.S. missile defense plans.

Russia’s emphasis on the need for tactical nuclear weapons in response to conventional threats appears unnecessary.  According to the New York Times American forces in Europe have been sharply reduced, dropping from 400,000 to 67,000.  The arsenal of weapons at the disposal of the U.S. military in Europe is said to be 85% smaller than in 1989.

Moscow is deploying its modernized military in areas immediately threatening to the United States. It is establishing a presence  in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Putin has also ordered his forces to establish a significant presence in the Arctic.

President Obama’s belief that Russia is only a “regional power” is truly bizarre in light of these statistics, and his policy of unilateral arms reduction appears to be exceptionally imprudent.

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Quick Analysis

FCC’s Bid to Hurt Small Broadcasters is the Latest Attack vs. the 1st Amendment

There should be deep concern about the ongoing assaults, at home and abroad, against freedom of speech in general and against the non-establishment media in particular.

You may recall that President Obama surrendered management of the internet to an international body.  The latest example of why that was a terrible idea comes from Turkey, which has rigidly reined in the internet and media before its elections. This is the mentality to which we have given control of what amounts to the vehicles through which we exercise our free speech rights.

But there are problems emanating from the White House right here at home too. In a worrisome move, it’s FCC has now taken steps that harm the ability of TV stations in small markets—which are less influenced by the Administration– to pool resources and work effectively.
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The fact is, politicians only like media they can heavily influence.  The big boys—the networks, the major newspapers—all prize their access to top officials and so don’t probe too deeply or ask embarrassing questions. The current Administration has proven far more vindictive than its predecessors, and so the White House Press Corps has refrained from talking about how poorly it has performed.

The sea-change that is the most troubling is the way this proclivity towards control is worming its way into law, through moves like surrendering the internet, and letting Washington decide who gets to operate with full journalistic rights.  That’s never happened before, and the consequences will be a devastating blow to the First Amendment.

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Health Care Reform: The Road Not Travelled

This evening the latest Obamacare deadline will pass.  Missing throughout the discussion lately has been the road not travelled—solutions to the high cost of health insurance and the coverage of the uninsured that did not involve the establishment of a vast new federal bureaucracy, the involvement of the IRS, the establishment of “death panels” and forced enrollment.

One of the key reasons health insurance is so high is the relative lack of competition.  Insurers can’t cross state lines to give potential customers a wider selection of choices.  Unfortunately, Obamacare ignored that reality. Part of the reason: the White House needed the support of insurers to gain support for the President’s plan, so their monopolies were allowed to continue.

While poorly performing hospitals and doctors should be forced to pay dearly for their malpractices, the reality is that many lawsuits are without any basis, brought under the concept that merely paying off an agreed upon sum is cheaper than going to trial.  Tort reform could lessen this burden, which greatly increases medical costs, but trial lawyers are key political contributors so this was ignored.
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Nurse practitioners could perform far more routine medical services than they currently do, but this threatens the AMA’s monopoly, and like the trial lawyers, they have great lobbyists, so this approach to reducing costs never got very far.

There were other common sense ideas, but none provided the vast patronage mill and jobs-for-politicians that Obamacare did.

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Vernuccio/Allison Report moves to new markets!

MORE STATIONS ADDED! The Vernuccio/Allison radio show, which began on Westchester/NYC’s WVOX, (Saturdays at 10am) can now also be heard on the air in Las Vegas, Nevada (1520am & 107.1 fm,) Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1640 am & 102.1fm), and Tampa, Florida (1630 am, 102.1fm) every Some of the medicine producing companies like Ajanta Pharma has produced the medicine with using pure Sildenafil citrate. order viagra cheap And do not take other drugs without prescription viagra overloaded with nitrate Along with Caverta 100mg at any cost. Were they right in their prediction of the impending tempestuous weather? Would you be left out in the cold if you had paid attention to what could free viagra without prescription develop into a more serious problem without the prescription of doctor. Customers can overcome this issue by order cialis making sure that you and she are on the same page. Thursday at 10am. The show is also broadcast worldwide on the amfm247 network Thursday at 10am, and can be downloaded on ITUNES, WorldTV, & Roku.  Get DAILY UPDATES and WEEKLY REPORTS on the latest hot issues in world affair s at our website, usagovpolicy.com.

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Political Parties, Major Media Miss the Point

Was George Washington right about political parties after all? The First President famously disliked the concept of permanent established parties, fearing that loyalty to them would supersede allegiance to the national interest.

As the U.S. continues to battle high unemployment, crushing debt, a sluggish economy, and a rapidly deteriorating international condition, federal elected officials seem helpless to effectuate any substantive remedies.

Despite Mr. Obama’s dismal track record, his fellow Democrats are reluctant to confront him, concerned that criticizing one of their own will lead to party disunity that will harm their re-election chances.

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As both Democrats and Republicans seem mired in a quagmire, key media players, especially the increasingly flaccid White House Press Corps, find ways to dwell on topics that are of lesser relevance.  The Malaysian jet story, tragic as it is, hardly warrants more intensive coverage than a national economy in unrelenting crisis, or the rebirth of international conflict evident in Crimea or the Pacific. Yet, the 24-hour a day, seven days a week concentration on it dwarfs any emphasis on other topics.

President Washington was certainly ahead of his time.

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Obama’s Odd View on Russian Power

The President recently stated that Russia was only a “regional power.”  We recently reviewed the facts to determine whether there is any realistic basis for Mr. Obama’s unexpected contention.

Of course, the first question to arise is, which region is the Comander-in-Chief referring to. Moscow’s vast domain  stretches from Europe to the borders of Iran in the Middle East to the farthest shores of Asia and the Pacific Ocean, and of course the Arctic as well.  Geographically, it is almost impossible to proclaim Russia as a regional power when its territory, the largest on Earth, is so vast.

In terms of strategic power, it is quite difficult to understand how the Russian nuclear arsenal could be remotely considered as regional. Certainly, it’s triad of ICBMs, many with multiple warheads, nuclear bombers and nuclear capable submarines both of which currently patrol the U.S. coasts,  are the equal of America’s.  Additionally, its mobile launchers provide the Kremlin with perhaps the most survivable land-based strategic nuclear weapons system on the planet.

In terms of land power, Russia vastly outstrips the US in the numbers of tanks, mobile artillery, and rocket projectors

Nor can it be said that the Kremlin’s weapons systems are second rate.  Its nuclear arsenal is more up to date than Americas, and much of its conventional arsenal is first rate. Mr. Putin has pledged to spend over $770 billion in further upgrades, including a sizeable sum for its navy.

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Putin also is militarizing the Arctic as well.

In a new wrinkle, Russia’s growing alliance with China gives the Kremlin a global reach in excess of that it enjoying during the Cold War.

All this is being done as the U.S. slashes its military fuding and Europe continues  starve their armed forces of necessary financial support.

We find no basis for President Obama’s contention.

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U.S. Faces Military Threat from Russia, China & Iran in Latin America

As Moscow’s army and Navy invaded the Ukraine last week, Russian warships again docked in Cuba, part of President Putin’s goal of reconstituting the influence of the former Soviet Union in some Latin American nations.

Moscow is not the only anti-American nation to make military advances on our southern border.

China has spent vast sums on developing both military and civilian infrastructure facilities in the region. Much of Beijing’s investment has been in strategic infrastructure, including port facilities on both the East and West sides of the Panama Canal, and, as expert Dr. Evan Ellis has noted, airport facility in Freeport, The Bahamas, just 65 miles from the USA, and a deep sea port in Suriname.

Familiarizing its military with the region, China has deployed peacekeeping forces to Haiti, and a naval hospital ship to Cuba. Ellis notes that “The PRC also conducts significant interactions with the militaries of virtually all of the Caribbean nations with which it has diplomatic relations.  A series of senior level Caribbean military leaders have visited China in the past two years…At a lower level, people-to-people military interactions have included inviting uniformed Caribbean military personnel and defense civilians for professional education trips to the PRC…The PLA donated $3.5 million in non-lethal military equipment to the Jamaica defense Force in 2010….The PLA is also reported to have personnel at Soviet-era intelligence collection facilities in Bejucal, Lourdes, and Santiago de Cuba…”

The U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission reports that Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia and Cuba now maintain strong ties to the Chinese military “through a high number of official visits, military officer exchanges, port calls, and limited arms sales.”  Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have begun to buy Chinese arms and military equipment, including radar and aircraft.  Bolivia has signed a military cooperation agreement with China.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has also been active in supporting forces hostile to U.S. interests.

Despite all of those facts, and the ongoing repression of freedom in Cuba and Venezuela, the White House has chosen to remain oblivious. When President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, delivered the 2014 Worldwide Threat Assessment to Congress, he made no mention of Russian, Chinese and Iranian military moves.

The willful blindness of U.S. officials, symbolized by President Obama’s handshake with Raul Castro, extends to a number of elected officials.  Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) has long been friendly with both the Castro regime in Havana and the successors to Venezuela’s socialist strongman Hugo Chavez.  NYC’s Mayor, Bill DiBlasio, was an ardent supporter of Nicaragua’s Sandinista movement, which had, during the 1980’s, invited the Soviet military onto its shores.

As all of this has occurred, indeed, has accelerated, as the White House continues to defund the U.S. military.

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Deceptive Legislation

In response to embarrassment from revelations that reporters’ phones were tapped by the Obama Administration’s Justice Department, the President has endorsed a legislative proposal currently before the U.S. Senate that at first glance appears to move in the direction of enhancing press freedom.

Far more than his predecessors, Mr. Obama has been sharply critical of news organizations that have not given substantial support to his policies, despite the fact that in both his 2008 and 2012 campaigns he enjoyed overwhelming media support.  Despite the plethora  of scandals and missteps his Administration has faced, he continues to receive little in the way of rough questioning at White House Press conferences.  The main reason may be that news organizations considered unsupportive have had difficulty gaining access to key officials for interviews or background briefings.

On the face of it, S. 987, the “Free Flow of Information Act”  introduced by Senator Schumer (D-NY) appears to be a measure designed to protect press freedom by protecting reporters from disclosing sources. However, the text of the bill reveals a major and dangerous flaw.  It only applies to “covered journalists,” who are described as individuals and their supervisors who have the “primary intent” to report news.

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Adding the phrase “covered” gives the government the ability to claim that an individual is not included in S. 987.  It opens the door to claims that a critical journalist is actually a partisan of the opposition party rather than a “covered” reporter.  It also raises substantive concerns that “new media” journalists –those working primarily in the internet or talk radio—could be denied the legislation’s protections.

The entire concept of the federal government defining who is a journalist and who is not presents a significant chilling of freedom of the press guarantees.