Tag Archives: US Politics

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Toward a New Nationalism

from radio talker Michael Savage:

“I have said that the only thing that can save America from this drift towards internationalism is my slogan ‘borders, language, culture’ and a new nationalist party.

Now, it almost happened with the Tea Party, but it was decimated by the unions and others.

First the Tea Party was attacked by the Congressional Black Caucus, who lied about them.

Then the Democratic Party went after the Tea Party.

The very essence of America is the Tea Party. And yet they were cast as the enemies of America. Socialists completely lied about them.

Most liberals are afraid of nationalism. They always come to the same conclusion: that nationalism will lead to Hitler.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Nationalism can lead to pride and survival.

The ideal nationalist party will have a strict firewall, never going over the line into racism. That’s important.

If I had the time left on earth, I would start this nationalist party. It would take approximately 10 years to have an effect on the country.

I don’t know if America has that much time.

The Chief concurs!

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Romney support figures poleaxed not polled

Sampling errors seen skewing polls Obama’s way
Not much of a surprise here…various commentators have drilled into polls to take prior note of this. It’s nice to have it consolidated, along with a good graphical chart to illustrate the point:

. Photo Credit:Twitter

Ever since the arguably skewed CNN poll of a few weeks back, conservative voters have been looking at the methodology of polling companies with an increasing amount of skepticism. The fact that most polls have used a model that tries to mimic the voter turnout in 2008, when Democrats beat Republican turnout by 7 points (as opposed to presidential elections like 2004, where turnout between the two parties was relatively even), has not improved this state of affairs. …

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An “F” grade in MY H.S. class!

Obama warns ‘unelected’ Supreme Court against striking down health law

President Obama, employing his strongest language to date on the Supreme Court review of the federal health care overhaul, cautioned the court Monday against overturning the law — while repeatedly saying he’s “confident” it will be upheld….The president, adopting what he described as the language of conservatives who fret about judicial activism, questioned how an “unelected group of people” could overturn a law approved by Congress

The Supreme Court is merely “an unelected group of people”?! Well, yes, that’s the way the Constitution sets it up, the last time I looked. Article II Section 2, and Article III section 1. Of course if one has the view that anything that limits the grandiose sweep of executive power is a mere archaism that should be ignored at will, then this WOULD be annoying. (Tough rocks, B.O. – you’re not First General Party Secretary, or Reichsfuhrer…at least not yet!)

AS for the bit about “judicial activism”…there is also a fundamental error in that also.  “Judicial activism” is extending the Constitution to say or do something that is beyond the bounds of what is Constitutionally stated as being a part of the powers granted to the government.  It is NOT, as in the present case, applying the standard of the Constitution to determine whether an act at issue is constitutionally granted.  As the prez goes on with his pseudo-reasoning he then states:

“I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said.

At BEST this is wildly disingenuous; at worst he’s totally immersed in some form of governmental psychosis where his view of the reality of constitutional review, established in the early days of the republic by Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison 5 US 137 (1803). Laws have been overturned on average of about every 16 months or so since then…not QUITE unprecedented OR extraordinary.

…and Obama claims to have been a constitutional scholar? Really?

If he came up with today’s comment as a submission in a H.S. history or government class that I was teaching, it would earn an “F” grade, for having missed the whole main point that applies in this situation.

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Common Sense in 2012!

Sen. DeMint: “We don’t have shared goals with the Democrats”

Simple and to the point!

Here’s Sen. Jim DeMint talking with bloggers after opening CPAC. During his speech he said cautioned Republicans in Congress on compromising with Democrats.

“Compromise works well in this world when you have shared goals,” he said. “We don’t have shared goals with the Democrats.”

“Elementary my dear Watson!”

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View from Across the Pond

Barack Obama is trying to make the US a more socialist state

Anotehr nugget dredged (not Drudged!) up from Airstrip One (the UK in Orwellspeak)

What was it everybody used to say about the United States? Look at what’s happening over there and you will see our future. Whatever Americans are doing now, we will be catching up with them in another 10 years or so. In popular culture or political rhetoric, America led the fashion and we tagged along behind.

Well, so much for that. Barack Obama is now putting the United States squarely a decade behind Britain. Listening to the President’s State of the Union message last week was like a surreal visit to our own recent past: there were, almost word for word, all those interminable Gordon Brown Budgets that preached “fairness” while listing endless new ways in which central government would intervene in every form of economic activity.

Later, in a television interview, Mr Obama described his programme of using higher taxes on the wealthy to bankroll new government spending as “a recipe for a fair, sound approach to deficit reduction and rebuilding this country”. To which we who come from the future can only shout, “No‑o-o, go back! Don’t come down this road!”

After running through a number of the gory details, the
The United States is a country that was invented to allow people to be free of domination or persecution by the state. Its constitution and political institutions are specifically designed to prevent the federal government from oppressing the rights, or undermining the sense of responsibility, of the individual citizen. If it ceases to stand by that principle, then it will suffer a catastrophic loss of purpose and identity.

This gal over in the U.K. has it nailed! Now, why can’t the LibDonks see it?

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GOP Primary Notes

Understatement alert! — A number of things to take note of in the current episode of the GOP Presidential Sweepstakes:

Newt goes nuclear: Gingrich slams ‘pro-abortion, pro gun-control, pro tax-increase moderate’ Mitt Romney

When asked by Jake Tapper of ABC News on the This Week programme whether Romney had the character to be president, Gingrich said that his opponent had a “very serious problem” in this area and “would not be where he is today” (presumably Gingrich meant leading in the polls) “if he had told the truth”.

This reminds me…what’s that concept from psych? Oh, yeah…PROJECTION. Look it up.

There’s a lot more political stuff out there of course…Buchanan’s disparaging view of Newt during the Reagan era, the polls continuing to strengthen for Romney while slipping for Newt, etc.

For what it’s worth, the Chief has had enough of Newt. After recently completing a US History Master’s program, with probably 20% to 25% of the time dealing with the rise, implementation, and often disastrous results (which we are STILL fighting off) of what is referred to as “the progressive movement”, which morphed over time into what is more often called liberalism (or worse), the Chief is firmly convinced that less of this is more. That is to say that less progressive liberalism (MUCH less!) will result inevitably in more: more economic growth, more jobs, etc. So, where does Newt come in on all of this?

In his own words (speaking from his own background and understanding as an historian):

“But I want to say a second about the UN because I’m a big fan of Franklin Roosevelt’s. I’m frankly a fan of Woodrow Wilson’s and I think what they were trying to accomplish was terribly important.”

Second: “I come out of the Theodore Roosevelt LaFollette progressive tradition.”

Third: “And I do want to pick up directly on what Dick Gephardt said because he said it right. And no Republican here should kid themselves about it. The greatest leaders in fighting for an integrated America in the 20th century were in the Democratic Party. The fact is that it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who gave hope to a nation that was in despair and could have slid into dictatorship. And the fact is every Republican has much to learn from studying what the Democrats did right.”

Finally, the supreme disingenuous irony of Newt attacking Mitt’s character. Hmmmmm. Character. Hmmmmm. What was that bit in the discussions when Newt was in his Congressional prime, back in the days of Bubba Clinton…? Oh yeah…CHARACTER COUNTS.

Newt largely sidestepped that one, both in his political life (with his observed reticence at the time to actively lead the charge against Clinton’s behaviors and evasions). This is not, of course to say that Newt lacks character. He has plenty, but a lot of it is negative, especially when contrasted with Romney’s lack of moral or ethical lapse.

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Nixon White House Redivivus?

Chronicle responds after Obama Administration punishes reporter for using multimedia, then claims they didn’t

In a pants-on-fire moment, the White House press office today denied anyone there had issued threats to remove Carla Marinucci and possibly other Hearst reporters from the press pool covering the President in the Bay Area.

Chronicle editor Ward Bushee called the press office on its fib:

Sadly, we expected the White House to respond in this manner based on our experiences yesterday. It is not a truthful response. It follows a day of off-the-record exchanges with key people in the White House communications office who told us they would remove our reporter, then threatened retaliation to Chronicle and Hearst reporters if we reported on the ban, and then recanted to say our reporter might not be removed after all.

The Chronicle’s report is accurate.

The Chief recently had occasion to read Stanley Kutler’s Wars of Watergate, his comprehensive examination of the Nixon White House’s relations with the press (and everyone else for that matter!), which was legendarily sub-optimal. Looks like B.O. and Carney, his appropriately named press shill are continuing that sorry tradition.

Of all the Presidents his worshipful lib/prog fan club would have expected B.O. to emulate, one has to wonder whether the one and only “Tricky Dick” was their first choice! Just wondering…

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Donkey Party Leader Dumps on Democracy

Nancy Pelosi: ‘Elections Shouldn’t Matter as Much as They Do’

Amazing! You couldn’t make this up!

Perhaps it’s sour grapes, or perhaps it’s a recent reawakening, but in a speech by Nancy Pelosi at Tufts University earlier this week, the former speaker of the House had some advice for her Republican colleagues in particular and some reflections on elections in general:… “But the fact is that elections shouldn’t matter as much as they do.”

The application of logic dictates then that she feels that vox populi is something overrated and worthy of fear. Curious that she’s in a party that labels itself “Democratic”.

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First Hat in the Ring

Tim Pawlenty becomes first Republican to launch Presidential campaign

Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor has become the first bona fide Republican candidate to launch a campaign for the party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

Mr Pawlenty has methodically moved toward a national campaign since announcing in 2009 that he would not seek a third term. Struggling for name recognition against better-known probable opponents, Mr Pawlenty announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee, which in recent times has served as the signal for entering a primary campaign.

Chief’s first reaction: ho-hum.

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Wisconsin Unions, Donks Lose Fight

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining

The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans outmaneuvered the chamber’s missing Democrats and approved an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide.

The piece goes on to report on the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth of the usual collection of unions, and their at times thuggish activists and supporters.

Oh, the cruelty of it all! They will now be restricted in their bargaining rights and reduced to the status of another large group of oppressed and beaten down public employees: US federal workers. Oh cruel world!

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Calling a Spade, a Spade

The Chief recently finished reading and doing a critical historical review of a book by journalist Nicholas Lemann titled The Promised Land, which included among other things a detailed account of political maneuvering of Byzantine complexity involved with the invention and implementation of the so-called War on Poverty of the 60’s and 70’s. Lemann’s examination happened to focus particularly on the effects of this on the social and political condition of Chicago.

In spite of Saul Alinsky proteges being given healthy doses of Federal funds for their “Community Action Organizations”, the expected miraculous transformation of ghetto conditions failed to materialize….People didn’t hang around to enjoy and develop their ghetto neighborhoods: they beat feet out of there as soon as they possibly could escape to better areas. So much for social engineering!

It’s interesting to note some of the Chicago problems detailed by Lemann are currently being showcased in The Chicago Code, a new Fox cop show set in Chicago.

All of this taken together with the current and continuing exchange of ideas and people between the administration and Chicago (most recently with B.O.’s former Chief of Staff moving into the office in Chicago City Hall formerly occupied by Mayor Daley), brings to mind an interesting set of coincidences to consider.

Overall, it ain’t a pretty picture, but the scene reinforces the recent description of the administrative status-quo:

Bachmann Stands by ‘Gangster Government’ Description

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) refused Sunday to retreat from her characterization of the Obama administration as a “gangster government.”

The House Tea Party Caucus founder said, “I don’t take back my statement on gangster government,” a phrase she used at a tea party gathering in April. “I think that there have been actions that have been taken by this government that I think are corrupt,” she said during her appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Chief concurs.

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FCC Regs Rejection Pending

First, the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee is acting to undo the FCC’s sidestep around the courts to impose so-called “net neutrality” rules.

House Panel to Vote on ‘Disapproving’ Net Neutrality

The congressional assault on network neutrality regulations adopted by the Democratic-led Federal Communications Commission in December continues Wednesday, when the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee votes on a “resolution of disapproval” designed to derail the requirements, which prohibit the blocking or degrading of online competitors.

So, what’s so bad about this? Imagine you build a railroad, so you can make some money delivering freight to the locations along your line. A would-be competitor decides this is unfair, since his delivery via truck is much more expensive, and not as efficient. So…should he be given the right to use YOUR line to deliver HIS freight, with exactly the same cost and priority as you do? That could be called “freight neutrality”…sort of reminds me of something out of Atlas Shrugged, when stated in those terms.’

When put in terms of the interned, it becomes “Net Neutrality”, additional regulation of the most free and open part of the economy, which will inevitably result in degradation of the net, as elaborated on by House Speaker Boehner commenting on the same issue, as well as the problem of the ballooning national debt:

Boehner rips bid to regulate Internet
Debt likened to Sputnik threat

House Speaker John A. Boehner lashed out against efforts to regulate Internet traffic before an audience of evangelical Christian media leaders and pointedly responded to President Obama by comparing the challenge of the burgeoning national debt to the Sputnik-era space race.

In a speech to religious broadcasters that received a sustained ovation at his conclusion, he said free expression is under attack by a power structure in Washington populated with regulators who have never set foot inside a radio station or a television studio.

“We see this threat in how the FCC is creeping further into the free market by trying to regulate the Internet,” Mr. Boehner said. “The last thing we need, in my view, is the FCC serving as Internet traffic controller, and potentially running roughshod over local broadcasters who have been serving their communities with free content for decades,”

Sounds about right, as does this:

But, the Ohio Republican warned, one threat “dwarfs others in terms of the danger it poses to freedom and our children’s future.”

“You may recall President Obama, in his State of the Union address, talking about a ‘Sputnik moment,’ the moment that shocks our generation into getting serious. In my view, America’s ‘Sputnik moment’ is our shocking national debt,” he said.

Boehner also commented on another fundamental communication issue that has been under some discussion recently:

Mr. Boehner also inveighed against any effort to reinstate the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” whose 1987 elimination led to the rise of a vibrant talk-radio industry.

“Our new majority is committed to seeing that the government does not reinstate the Fairness Doctrine,” he said.

Mr. Boehner said Rep. Greg Walden, Oregon Republican, “has teamed up with another former broadcaster, Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana, to introduce legislation to help keep the airwaves free. I expect the House to act on this measure as well.”

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S138 Tabled, Hopefully to R.I.P.

SB 138 is designed to implement something described as a method of selecting the President of the US by popular vote via a weirdly designed mechanism to by-pass amending  the Constitution.

The rationale for this is to be more “democratic”.   Humbug!

There were, and are sound reasons NOT to run our national system as a democracy.  I noted comments earlier on this from Madville Times, as well as on SD Politics, but was distracted from commenting byvarious  meteorological and mechanical events.  It is NOT fun to work on machines without a heated environment when the weather is what the weather was, but I digress.

My own feeling is that this sort of thing is not particularly of benefit.  The constitutional system was designed to be a non-democratic federal republic.  The stake-holders were the states, as well as the people.  The states had their place at the federal table by selecting the senators in the state legislators. (Personally, I think the 17th Amendment is well worth repealing, not that I expect to ever see it happen.)   The people had their input via the directly elected representatives.  The electoral college was a scheme to prevent the more populous states from automatically running rough-shod over the smaller states in the selection of the president.

The most frequently heard complaint about the current electoral college is that it can allow a failure in the Divine Commandment of Vox Populi, Vox Deus, as occurred most recently in 1980, and in a few cases before.  So what?  We survived the experience in good order.  The last time I checked last November the republic was still functional!

I have real trouble seeing how a popularization of the presidential vote can be of any benefit to small states.  I note that Cory cites an example of enabling concentration of funds in the large cities as being a possible GOP advantage, but frankly I don’t see it.  It doesn’t matter HOW much the GOP spends in L.A., Boston, New York, ‘Frisco, etc….they are probably not going to do very well, at least in the inner cities.  (The last time I visited the old home town of St. Louis, 24 of 28 city aldermen were of the Donkey persuasion.)  What would be more likely to happen with a popular vote scheme would be for the Donks to ignore the core cities, and rural areas, and pump THEIR funds into the suburbs to swing enough votes to make a difference.  The GOP would of necessity be forced into the same pattern to avoid being totally swamped.  In both cases, places like ND, SD, WY, MT, etc. would become virtually invisible in presidential elections if the prize automatically went to the pop-vote winner, which could be swung relatively easily by the larger urban areas.  (Farm vote?  We don’t need no steenkin’ farm vote!)

And the problem with that is…?  What is the guarantee to prevent a “democratic” majority for selecting an individual or party with a dedication to running rough over a minority’s interests, up to and including their right to do things like worship, or even live, to cite a couple of commonly denied things.  It behooves one who genuflects before the altar of democracy to recall that such luminaries of humanitarian civilization as Mussolini, Hitler, Ahmadinejad, or even Slobodan Milosevich were all elected!  Also, the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip more recently selected the wanna-be genocidalists of Hamas as their favored rulers.  But hey, that’s all OK if it’s “democratic”, right?

Wrong!  That’s why the designers of our republic’s constitution wisely (IMHO) hobbled the free-exercise of democracy.

(By the way, with the news as it’s been lately, it might be worth recalling just why they denied the vote to the District of Columbia.  It’s the same reason that D.C.’s street plot had all those circles with radiating streets:  cannon strategically placed could easily sweep the streets of rioters! (Look up the effects of the Roman and Byzantine mobs on their imperial politics.)

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SOTU Snapshot Reaction

A part of  John von Neumann‘s diverse contributions to knowledge is the proposition that information is significant to the extent that it is unusual.

By that standard, B.O.’s second SOTU address has very little real significance, except to serve as a political stalking horse  for multiple factions that both oppose and support him.

Apparently the Chief’s evaluation is shared to some extent, by MSNBC !?

Personally, I much preferred the answer from Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

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Donks: Shut Up or Put Up!

Here’s a thought for Dusty Harry and the rest of the Senate Donks:

House GOP dares Senate to vote on a bill to repeal ‘Obamacare’

House Republicans already are looking past Wednesday’s expected vote to repeal Democrats’ health care law, going so far as to dare Senate Democrats to bring the bill up for a vote in their chamber.

“If Harry Reid is so confident that the repeal vote should die in the Senate then he should bring it up for a vote if he’s so confident he’s got the votes,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, told reporters, laying down a challenge to Mr. Reid, the Nevada Democrat who controls the Senate schedule.

Uf the Senate votes it down, c’est la vie…that’s politics…but one starts to wonder whether or not Reid is really confident that his own partisans, especially those up for election in 2012 will hang tough. Either way, the outcome of a Senate vote would be instructive on one level or another.

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Eyeball to Eyeball on $$ Bill – Donks Blink!

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill

Democrats controlling the Senate have abandoned a 1,924-page catchall spending measure that’s laced with homestate pet projects known as earmarks and that would have provided another $158 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nevada Democrat Harry Reid gave up on the nearly $1.3 trillion bill after several Republicans who had been thinking of voting for the bill pulled back their support.

GOP leader Mitch McConnell threw his weight against the bill in recent days, saying it was in his words “unbelievable” that Democrats would try to muscle through in just a few days legislation that usually takes months to debate.

Reid said he would work with McConnell to produce a short-term funding bill to keep the government running into early next year.

This came after McConnell offered a 1 page continuing resolution in place of Dusty Harry’s $1.3T fiscal cluster-____:

McConnell: Dems Using “Christmas Break As An Inducement” To Pass Omnibus

See the linked video for McConnell’s statement on this.

“I would hope that it would make sense on a bipartisan basis, this one-page continuing resolution on Feb 18th as an alternative to this 2,000-page monstrosity that spends a half a billion dollars a page,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

One would like to say that Dusty Harry Reid finally accidentally stumbled across a figment of reason, but more realistically he caught a vision of gathering pitchforks and torches, and came to a belated realization of what it was that happened on the first Tuesday of last month.

This HAD to happen…otherwise the whole next year’s budget, including funding of Obamacare would have been locked in, and seriously handicapped the reform efforts of the incoming Congress, thus effectively overturning the whole point of the last election’s results.

Merry Christmas!

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GOP South Looks Sort of Like South Dakota

Democratic South finally falls

Once upon a time, the South was known as the “Solid South” for the Donkey Party and “yellow-dog Democrats” kept it that way. (The name came from a proudly stated determination that they would vote for a yellow dog, if it was on the Democratic ballot.)

Times have changed, and this report on the current situation shows a real similarity between what’s happening in the south and the current condition of party politics in SOUTH Dakota.

For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since. After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region — the party’s ranks in Dixie have thinned even further.

THe gory details of what’s happening in Dixie have some resemblance to events in SD:

In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South.

Hmmm. Nygaard’s jump in the SD Senate comes readily to mind.

The realignment in the South has resulted in more similarity to SD – with the GOP in control of both houses of the legislatures…in many cases for the first time since the post-Civil War reconstruction ended in the 1870’s.

The losses and party switching, one former Southern Democratic governor noted, “leave us with little bench for upcoming and future elections. There’s little reason to be optimistic in my region,…We can opportunistically pick up statewides every now and then, but building a sustainable party program isn’t in the cards.

Looks like the situation of the SD Donkeys at this point. While the benefits of a vigorous “loyal opposition” certainly are worth talking about…there is no entitlement for any party to hold power, win elections, etc. At some point, a pattern of overwhelming defeat HAS to be a big clue that there is a lack of situational awareness, and that there is a major disconnect between the afflicted party and the voters.

If any party continues to advocate and stand for policies and principles that the sovereign voters decide they want no part of, then what else could be expected than a pattern of electoral defeat and political stagnation. In the here and now, as long as the Democratic Party continues, like a stubborn donkey to adhere to the failed liberal-progressive paradigm, they will continue their slide, and IMHO, will deserve nothing more.

Meanwhile, if the Republicans assume they now have a license to play “politics as usual” and turn away from principles, they can easily end up in the same political dust-bin as the Democrats. Time will tell.

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Some Notes from Across the Pond, and More

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First a thought about the Tea Party from The London Telegraph in this excerpt from a James Delingpole post:

Liberty is not a pick and mix free-for-all in which you think government should ban the things you don’t like and encourage you things you do like: that’s how Libtards think. Libertarianism – and the Tea Party is nothing if its principles are not, at root, libertarian ones – is about recognising that having to put up with behaviour you don’t necessarily approve of is a far lesser evil than having the government messily and expensively intervene to regulate it.

And this isn’t an argument for anarchy. There are still plenty of ways society can make known its disapproval of certain “immoral” practices, such as through the traditional method of stigma. Libertarianism doesn’t mean doing what the hell you like and letting everyone else go hang themselves. It’s about doing whatever the hell you like so long as it doesn’t harm others. (Property rights, for example, would remain sacrosanct).

Maybe this technically isn’t directly from the Brits, but it is the Brit Samizdata blog quoting the American Richard Viguerie:

Some have asked how the Tea Party movement hopes to pressure Republican leaders or influence the party. That’s the wrong way to look at it. The goal is not to pressure Republican leaders but to become the Republican leaders. The goal is not to influence the party but to become the party.

That led to another Viguerie comment

“Voters have given Republicans one more chance to get it right,” Richard A. Viguerie said today. “They are on probation, and if they mess up again, they won’t get another chance.”

“The last time the Republicans were in charge, they became the party of big spending, Big Government, and Big Business. They abandoned the philosophy of Ronald Reagan and cozied up to lobbyists and special interests. And they paid a price at the polls.

“This year, the Democrats under President Obama and Speaker Pelosi drove millions of voters right back into the arms of the Republicans. But if Republicans return to their bad habits – if they start working for K Street instead of Main Street – they will pay a terrible price. Tea Party voters and conservatives will turn them out in the 2012 primaries.

“People will say: Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, and the Republican Party is dead,” Viguerie said.

The Chief would add the observation that there was once a political party called the Federalists. A bit later in history there was one called the Whigs. Both died and went away. The Republicans are still able to profit from those examples.

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B.O. Continues to Show Poor Situational Awareness

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Obama acknowledges his message didn’t get through

This is SO wrong! (Explanation follows.)

President Barack Obama is acknowledging in the wake of this week’s election rout that he hasn’t been able to successfully promote his economic-rescue message to anxious Americans.

Obama says in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he “stopped paying attention” to the leadership style he displayed during his run for the presidency.

Typical liberalism: style trumps substance darned near every time!

Obama also said he recognizes now that “leadership is not just legislation,”…

Real world translation: B.S. isn’t the same as reality.

,,,and that “it’s a matter of persuading people. And giving them confidence and bringing them together. And setting a tone….

LIncoln said something about this…oh yeah, the bit about not fooling all the people all the time!

And making an argument that people can understand.”

Real message: “You stupid people are just too dense to appreciate and accept the sheer genius of the Obamunist fundamental transformation that I’M trying to bless you with.”

“And I think that – we haven’t always been successful at that,…”

DUH! Lipstick on a pig still gives you a pig.

…he said. “And I take personal responsibility for that. And it’s something that I’ve got to examine closely as I go forward.”

One starts to doubt that there is the ability for enough “examination” to break through and achieve some accurate situational awareness: We GOT it, B.O! Your message came through loud and CLEAR, and we DO understand it…but we’re not buying it, at all, at all!

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Post-Election Notes

SD Headers:
GOP SWEEPS STATEWIDE RACES
NOEM SPEEDS PAST SANDLIN! (heh heh heh!)
DEMS’ RANKS at PIERRE DEPLETED

Not a happy day for the Donkey Party in South Dakota when Cory looking for a bright spot notes the earthshaking event that Indy candidate Marking got more votes in Kristi’s home county than he did in Herseth-Sandlin’s. (Otherwise, his comments about Marking were pretty good, give credit where credit’s due!)

The turnout was good for a mid-termer…mostly 60-70% range or thereabouts, of course some lower and some higher…still, not too bad. I had occasion to look at the Missouri results for comparison…their turnout was in the 30-50% range mostly, and they also had some serious Congressional, and a Senatorial race. A good one for SD’s voters!

The one personal sour twinge was that the Chief would have liked to have seen dairyman Jim Gilkerson make it in District 4…have known him and his family for some time…he would have made a positive contribution in the legislature.

Nationally, the Donk’s consolation is our curse, that we still have to put up with Dingey Harry Reid, to go along with Barbara Boxhead…er…Boxer, and Patty “Lady in Tennis Shoes” Murray. I know–with the left coast being tilted so much that it’s now filled up with the loose nuts, Nevada is getting the overflow!

Another MAJOR benefit of the national outcome is less free Botox(r) commercials (otherwise known as Pelosi “pressers”) from the Capitol. That’s a major blessing in and of itself, above and beyond the obvious improvement in the composition of the House.

Now the heavy lifting starts, to start to repair the damage inflicted by almost two years of Obamunism (as well as from the RINO progressives).

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Back to Basics…

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Bachmann wants Constitution class

For the Tea Party soldiers worried that the young upstarts they’re poised to send to Congress will lose their constitutional druthers once they get to Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann has a message: Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes.

Bachmann spokesman Sergio Gor says, “It was something she’s always wanted to do. There’s so many folks that come to Capitol Hill to discuss obscure and mundane topics, but no one coming regularly to discuss bill of rights or the role of government.”

Bachmann won’t be teaching the classes, Gor says, but will help organize sessions with constitutional scholars, experts, and judges likely to be held in one of the committee rooms on the Capitol Hill complex. The classes will be open to any members — not just freshman — looking to continue their study of America’s founding documents. They will not be open, however, to staff or members of the press, and the list of speakers won’t be made public.

This is much needed in a day when the (hopefully soon to be ex-)House Speaker reacts with scorn to a reporter who had the temerity to ask her about the constitutionality of a proposed bill.

Uncategorized

November 3rd Political Contest

Stopping Sarah Palin
There have been some ferocious denials today about it. Many would-be 2012 candidates have denounced it, etc.

Here are the facts: there is a significant, though small contingent of heavily anti-Palin forces at the upper echelons of the Establishment GOP in Washington….

…here is what you need to know about these same people: they largely despise the tea party movement. They loath Jim DeMint too, but view Palin as easier to pick on. They think the issues being advanced by small government types are ridiculous. They do not like Sarah Palin because they think (a) she is not very bright and (b) she is not ‘grounded’ in the ways of the political world of Washington.

In reality, these people loath Sarah Palin because she is standing up to them, the policies these people have long advocated and Palin opposes have contributed to the mess we are in, and Sarah Palin and the candidates she is backing have largely been kicking their asses to kingdom come.

Between those attacking Palin and Palin, I’m with Palin.
The Chief heartily concurs!

Uncategorized

Pelosi, NRA & Herseth-Sandlin

Cory over at Madville Times, and on the KELO Blog is crowing about the NRA endorsing Stephanie’s re-election. It would be one thing if he thought that this was a positive thing, but the reality is somewhat less (or more, depending on viewpoint) than this.

I know it’s tough to make the leap, but really Cory, no one has given the NRA, or for that matter the GOP itself the right to confer an imprimatur of political orthodoxy for the conservative/libertarian movement. Therefore, exercising my own reformationist judgment, the NRA has proven itself unworthy of support and membership. With my membership up this fall, it will become a thing of the past, in favor of the Gun Owners of America, which is more consistent in it’s analysis of political ramifications, like the support that H-S has faithfully rendered for the Speakership Regime of SanFran Nan Pelosi. That, in and of itself is, IMHO, enough to render Herseth-Sandlin unsatisfactory as South Dakota’s sole Congressional member.

In spite of Cory’s crowing about the NRA endorsement (to attempt to give us a bad moment), and his moaning at other times about H-S making SOME votes that his progressive/liberal sensibility finds distasteful, note that in spite of such occasional discomfort, something, including presumably the prospect of continued support for Pelosi, leads Cory to continue to support H-S’s re-election, in spite of his expressed unhappiness.

For similar reasons, if one opposes the continuation of the Pelosi order of business in the House, then there is no reason to vote for H-S, no matter what occasional gestures she makes towards traditional South Dakota values.

So, Will You be Voting for Nancy Pelosi?

In light of all the recent news about Democrat candidates running as John Birchers, I felt is was finally time to call their bluff. We are in a very good position to take back the House, but there is some polling evidence that some of the red district blue dog frauds are still hanging in there. Keep in mind that there are 70 Dems in R rated districts. A handful of them are doing relatively well because they try to block out their party label, run against the liberal platform, attack their Republican opponent from the right, or tout endorsements from the NRA and Chamber of Commerce.

I think we need to start a campaign to call the offices of these clowns and demand that they go on record whether they would vote for Pelosi or Hoyer to be Speaker….We are sick of these frauds who trash Pelosi at home, but then vote for the liberal leadership, committee chairmen, and Democrat Rules Committee members who ensure passage of all the legislation that they claim to detest. However, if we can get them on record as declining to take a stand (that’s what most will do) we can help their opponents expose their fraudulent claims of being conservative.

From another source, this video shows H-S dodging this issue during an appearance. (H/T to South Dakota War College)

That above header hits the nail on the head. IMHO, that’s a key point to keep in mind when voting, whether early or on election day. Personally, I would no more vote for Pelosi than I would B.O., or for that matter, Herseth-Sandlin.

Uncategorized

Presidential Disingenuity

This is the latest example of B.O.’s continuing disingenuous criticism of Republican “obstructionism”. Frankly the Chief is really tired of hearing this sort of attack…like the GOP should roll-over and rubber stamp whatever he proclaims as being The Truth.

Obama: GOP Holding Tax Cuts “Hostage”
President Urges Congress to Approve Extension of Middle Class Tax Cuts from Bush Era for Families Making Less Than $250,000

President Obama is applauding two Republican senators who voted for a small business bill and says he’d welcome that kind of cooperation on the divisive issue of extending tax cuts for the middle class.

Mr. Obama thanked Republicans George Voinovich of Ohio and George LeMieux of Florida for voting to move the bill closer to final passage. Speaking in the Rose Garden after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Mr. Obama urged lawmakers to approve an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for middle class families making less than $250,000 a year.

After praising these two Republocratic Demmicans for being properly submissive to the proclaimed will of The One, B.O. went on with one of his favorite complaints against the opposition:

Mr. Obama says Republicans should stop holding those tax cuts “hostage.”

This was originally, and continues to be one of the most puzzling political statements one can ever encounter. Let’s do some simple arithmetic.

The House of Representatives currently contains 434 members (with one vacant seat). This is comprised of 256 Democrats, and 178 Republicans. The Senate seats are currently held by 57 Democrats, 41 Republicans, and 2 Independents. Even without using a calculator or computer, it is readily apparent that there are significantly more Democrats than Republicans in both houses.

After careful examination of my trusty pocket Constitution, I see nothing there that prevents majority rule from operating in either of the houses of Congress. If President B.O.’s halo of political glory is not enough to persuade even his own party members from supporting his often ill-conceived legislative and policy initiatives, then what reason does he have to blame the GOP? All he needs to do is to have his partisan legislative satraps drum up enough loyal Democrats and he would be able to pass anything he wanted…oh, yeah, enough loyal Democrats to support his agenda…not any more.

In the case at hand the bone of contention concerns whether or not to kill the so-called Bush tax-cuts, which is worth commenting on in itself:

“They want to hold these middle class tax cuts hostage until they get an additional tax cut for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans,” Mr. Obama said. “We simply can’t afford that.”

This statement, on its face, is false. According to B.O. he so called wealthy are those with $250K or more of income. While the Chief concedes that that certainly seems to be greatly more than he has had the chance to appreciate in his life, it must be recognized that a significant number of small businesses that are not incorporated are included in this group, and pay income tax on their legal BUSINESS as legal INDIVIDUALS.

Given the continued stubborn lack of employment to respond as predicted to the massive Keynesian bout of trillion dollar stimuli, throwing a de facto tax increase onto these small businesses, that historically create the most jobs, is the LAST thing needed to help relieve unemployment. Also of dubious veracity is the shot about affording this tax cut, ignoring the dynamic that repeatedly increases net government revenue as marginal tax rates are reduced…but why quibble with reality, when there’s an need for some way invent another political stick to flail the opposition in response to diving poll numbers and fading electoral hopes.

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Thoughts to Consider

“I’m 63 and I’m Tired” by Robert A. Hall

This was received from an e-mail correspondent. A bit of checking verified the source and provenance. Although it’s been out there for a while, IMHO this is unfortunately a pretty good summary of a lot of what’s going on these days, so I offer it for your possible edification:

I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fund-raising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off?  I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our

troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.

Uncategorized

al Arabiya Boss: No Ground Zero Mosque

The Majority of Muslims Do Not Want or Need a Mosque Near Ground Zero

SUMMARY:

In an August 16, 2010 column in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, ‘Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, Al-Arabiya TV director-general and the paper’s former editor, criticized President Obama for supporting the construction of the Cordoba House mosque at Ground Zero in New York. He stated that it would be unwise to construct a mosque at that location, saying that no practicing Muslims live in the area, and that the mosque would become a focal point for both the supporters of terrorism and the champions of Islamophobia. Therefore, he argued, it would be preferable for Obama to throw his support behind issues that are of real concern for the Muslims, such as promoting Middle East peace.

For the full text of these remarks, follow the above link to the translation.

One must suppose that even NBC/MSNBC/Mayor Bloomberg would refrain from accusing al-Rashed of being prejudiced against Islam.

In light of B.O.’s quasi-endorsement of the project, his position is demonstrated to be beyond reason.

This being the case, the interesting question is what motivates his continued devotion to poking the American people in the eye on this issue (along with many other previous ones).

Obamunism

Obamacare Blues

Health Care Law
63% Favor Repeal of National Health Care Plan

Support for Obamacare continues to slip:

Support for repeal of the new national health care plan has jumped to its highest level ever. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of U.S. voters now favor repeal of the plan passed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by President Obama in March.

Prior to today, weekly polling had shown support for repeal ranging from 54% to 58%. Currently, just 32% oppose repeal.

The new findings include 46% who Strongly Favor repeal of the health care bill and 25% who Strongly Oppose it.

While opposition to the bill has remained as consistent since its passage as it was beforehand, this marks the first time that support for repeal has climbed into the 60s. It will be interesting to see whether this marks a brief bounce or indicates a trend of growing opposition.

What happened to all those assertions from ObamaPelosiReid that once the bill passed and people knew what was in it that it would magically become popular? Oooops!

Obamunism

Ron Paul v. B.O.?

Rasmussen poll results:

Election 2012: Barack Obama 42%, Ron Paul 41%

Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is – virtually dead even.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

There are other details of poll results in the article that are also interesting.
Ron Paul? Hmmmm. Looks like a bit of backlash to Obamunism.