Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Just When I Start To Think It Might Not Be SOOO Bad
The Obama Administration starts to look scary to me again in the future as we learn more scraps hidden under the rug about his past --
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmFhYzIzMGQ1Y2FlMTA4N2M1N2VmZWUzM2Y4ZmNmYmI=
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDFkMGE2MmM1M2Q5MmY0ZmExMzUxMWRhZGJmMTAyOGY=
Yeah, yeah, it's National Review. Conservative rag. Right. Does that mean these quotes and speeches didn't happen?
Right.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmFhYzIzMGQ1Y2FlMTA4N2M1N2VmZWUzM2Y4ZmNmYmI=
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDFkMGE2MmM1M2Q5MmY0ZmExMzUxMWRhZGJmMTAyOGY=
Yeah, yeah, it's National Review. Conservative rag. Right. Does that mean these quotes and speeches didn't happen?
Right.
Say Whaaaaat?
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/10/25/no-way-out
Don't miss clicking on the chart, to see the facts up close and personal.
Don't miss clicking on the chart, to see the facts up close and personal.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
One. Two.
One --
http://www.cny.org/archive/eg/eg102308.htm
Two has been scrubbed off the internet for copyright reasons, but you can get the gist of it here --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas
http://www.cny.org/archive/eg/eg102308.htm
Two has been scrubbed off the internet for copyright reasons, but you can get the gist of it here --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas
Columbia Is the Key
. . . but no one seems to want to turn the knob and look behind that door:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjY4YzdhMDBkZGQ3ZmU2MTUzYjdkMzc5ZjUzYmViZWM=
I don't worry about the first two years of an Obama presidency as much as i do the last two . . .
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjY4YzdhMDBkZGQ3ZmU2MTUzYjdkMzc5ZjUzYmViZWM=
I don't worry about the first two years of an Obama presidency as much as i do the last two . . .
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Community Capitalism
Town-hall discussions
The ideas in “Community Capitalism: Lessons from Kalamazoo and Beyond” will be discussed in three town-hall discussions at the Career and Technology Education Centers, 150 Price Road, Newark.
The forums will be:
• 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11
• 4 p.m. Nov. 18
• 7 p.m. Nov. 19
The ideas in “Community Capitalism: Lessons from Kalamazoo and Beyond” will be discussed in three town-hall discussions at the Career and Technology Education Centers, 150 Price Road, Newark.
The forums will be:
• 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11
• 4 p.m. Nov. 18
• 7 p.m. Nov. 19
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
David Brooks on Patio Man, Revisited
Patio Man Revisited
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/opinion/21brooks.html
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: October 20, 2008
Patio Man is surprised at how much the bankruptcy of Sharper Image has upset him. In the vast expanse of teenage clothing stores at the mall, Sharper Image at least offered him a moment of interest and delight. The store allowed him to indulge his curiosity in noise-canceling headphones, indoor putting greens and overly expensive toy cars. Now it seems that might all come to an end, and he will have to adjust to life without. He is adjusting to a lot of changes these days.
For all the talk of plumbers and investment bankers, populists and elitists, Patio Man is still at the epicenter of national politics. He is the quintessential suburban American, the service economy worker, the guy who wears khakis to work each day, with the security badge on the belt clip around his waist.
He lives in northern Virginia, along the I-4 corridor near Orlando, Fla., in or near Columbus, Ohio, along the Front Range of Colorado, in the converging megalopolis between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and in many other places.
He has a house — worth less and less — in a relatively new development. He’s holding off on the new car. He’s trying not to look at his retirement account balance. But he’s happy with the new street-scape shopping area where he and his family can stroll before a movie.
If you wanted to pick words to capture Patio Man’s political ideals, they would be responsibility, respectability and order. Patio Man moved to his home because he wanted an orderly place where he could raise his kids. His ideal neighborhood is Mayberry with BlackBerries.
He doesn’t expect much of government. He believes that he is responsible for his own economic destiny. But he does expect government to provide him with a background level of order.
In times of turmoil, he has gravitated toward the party that could restore his sense of order. In the 1970s, crime and social breakdown seemed like the biggest threats to order, and he gravitated to the G.O.P. In the late 1990s, Republican revolutionaries seemed to bring instability, and he softened on Clinton. Then terrorism threatened his equilibrium and he helped re-elect Bush. Then, post-Iraq and post-Katrina, administrative incompetence led him a bit the other way.
Now disorder has come from an unexpected direction, not from foreign enemies or domestic zealotry but from a society-wide contagion of financial risk-taking. Government programs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seduced people into homes they could not afford. Private bankers took on too much risk with too little capital. Consumers, including Patio Man himself, racked up an enormous personal debt.
The effects threaten everything he has achieved. There are foreclosures in his neighborhood. Like all taxpayers, he’s been asked to backstop Wall Street’s losses. He braces for recession.
How is Patio Man responding?
On one level, the changes are surprisingly modest. There have been no big changes in how Americans describe their political philosophies. Somewhere between 40 percent and 49 percent still call themselves conservative, and about half as many call themselves liberal. Distrust of government is still high. Ronald Brownstein of the National Journal compared today’s poll results, group by group, with past election results. Especially for those over 30, the stability of the preferences is more striking than the changes.
But deeper down, there are some shifts in values. Americans, including suburban Americans, are less socially conservative. They are more aware of the gap between rich and poor. They are more open to government action to reduce poverty.
But, most of all, there is a tropism toward order and stability.
Some liberals think they are headed for an age of liberal dominance and government expansion. “If Obama offers a big, budget-busting program next year, it will more likely be seen as fair than irresponsible,” Jonathan Alter writes in Newsweek.
But the shift in public opinion is not from right to left, or from anti-government to pro-government, it’s from risk to caution, from disorder to consolidation.
There is a deep current of bourgeois culture running through American suburbia. It is not right wing, but it is conservative: a distrust of those far away; a belief in convention and respectability; and a strong reaction against anything that threatens to undermine the stability of the established order.
Democrats have done well in suburbia recently because they have run the kind of candidates who seem like the safer choice — socially moderate, pragmatic and fiscally hawkish. They, or any party, will run astray if they threaten the mood of chastened sobriety that has swept over the subdivisions.
Patio Man wants change. But this is no time for more risk or more debt. Debt in the future is no solution to the debt racked up in the past. This is a back-to-basics moment, a return to safety and the fundamentals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/opinion/21brooks.html
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: October 20, 2008
Patio Man is surprised at how much the bankruptcy of Sharper Image has upset him. In the vast expanse of teenage clothing stores at the mall, Sharper Image at least offered him a moment of interest and delight. The store allowed him to indulge his curiosity in noise-canceling headphones, indoor putting greens and overly expensive toy cars. Now it seems that might all come to an end, and he will have to adjust to life without. He is adjusting to a lot of changes these days.
For all the talk of plumbers and investment bankers, populists and elitists, Patio Man is still at the epicenter of national politics. He is the quintessential suburban American, the service economy worker, the guy who wears khakis to work each day, with the security badge on the belt clip around his waist.
He lives in northern Virginia, along the I-4 corridor near Orlando, Fla., in or near Columbus, Ohio, along the Front Range of Colorado, in the converging megalopolis between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and in many other places.
He has a house — worth less and less — in a relatively new development. He’s holding off on the new car. He’s trying not to look at his retirement account balance. But he’s happy with the new street-scape shopping area where he and his family can stroll before a movie.
If you wanted to pick words to capture Patio Man’s political ideals, they would be responsibility, respectability and order. Patio Man moved to his home because he wanted an orderly place where he could raise his kids. His ideal neighborhood is Mayberry with BlackBerries.
He doesn’t expect much of government. He believes that he is responsible for his own economic destiny. But he does expect government to provide him with a background level of order.
In times of turmoil, he has gravitated toward the party that could restore his sense of order. In the 1970s, crime and social breakdown seemed like the biggest threats to order, and he gravitated to the G.O.P. In the late 1990s, Republican revolutionaries seemed to bring instability, and he softened on Clinton. Then terrorism threatened his equilibrium and he helped re-elect Bush. Then, post-Iraq and post-Katrina, administrative incompetence led him a bit the other way.
Now disorder has come from an unexpected direction, not from foreign enemies or domestic zealotry but from a society-wide contagion of financial risk-taking. Government programs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seduced people into homes they could not afford. Private bankers took on too much risk with too little capital. Consumers, including Patio Man himself, racked up an enormous personal debt.
The effects threaten everything he has achieved. There are foreclosures in his neighborhood. Like all taxpayers, he’s been asked to backstop Wall Street’s losses. He braces for recession.
How is Patio Man responding?
On one level, the changes are surprisingly modest. There have been no big changes in how Americans describe their political philosophies. Somewhere between 40 percent and 49 percent still call themselves conservative, and about half as many call themselves liberal. Distrust of government is still high. Ronald Brownstein of the National Journal compared today’s poll results, group by group, with past election results. Especially for those over 30, the stability of the preferences is more striking than the changes.
But deeper down, there are some shifts in values. Americans, including suburban Americans, are less socially conservative. They are more aware of the gap between rich and poor. They are more open to government action to reduce poverty.
But, most of all, there is a tropism toward order and stability.
Some liberals think they are headed for an age of liberal dominance and government expansion. “If Obama offers a big, budget-busting program next year, it will more likely be seen as fair than irresponsible,” Jonathan Alter writes in Newsweek.
But the shift in public opinion is not from right to left, or from anti-government to pro-government, it’s from risk to caution, from disorder to consolidation.
There is a deep current of bourgeois culture running through American suburbia. It is not right wing, but it is conservative: a distrust of those far away; a belief in convention and respectability; and a strong reaction against anything that threatens to undermine the stability of the established order.
Democrats have done well in suburbia recently because they have run the kind of candidates who seem like the safer choice — socially moderate, pragmatic and fiscally hawkish. They, or any party, will run astray if they threaten the mood of chastened sobriety that has swept over the subdivisions.
Patio Man wants change. But this is no time for more risk or more debt. Debt in the future is no solution to the debt racked up in the past. This is a back-to-basics moment, a return to safety and the fundamentals.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Whooops.
And from my WV experience, i coulda toldja this would happen:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081017/ap_on_re_us/child_health_hawaii
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081017/ap_on_re_us/child_health_hawaii
Thursday, October 16, 2008
You Go, Joe!
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/810160418
So read the Toledo view of the guy who helps to point out -- when you say, as Joe the Senator does, that the top 5% need to be OK with paying more taxes, you miss two things. First, 45% of US households pay no income tax (see earlier post with WSJ link), and in that top 5% are both Warren Buffet, who certainly can afford to pay a bit more, and Joe the Plumber at a total business income of $250-275,000, which is a small business with maybe four employees, and is the engine for much of the job creation in Ohio and the nation as a whole.
Plus, when the top 5% is already paying over 75% of income tax revenue, let's understand who we're talking about. If Joe the Plumber can't hire a new apprentice plumber, that's a missing step up that minimum wage increases and EITC payouts and "stimulus packages" don't replace.
You go, Joe! (The Plumber, not the Senator.)
So read the Toledo view of the guy who helps to point out -- when you say, as Joe the Senator does, that the top 5% need to be OK with paying more taxes, you miss two things. First, 45% of US households pay no income tax (see earlier post with WSJ link), and in that top 5% are both Warren Buffet, who certainly can afford to pay a bit more, and Joe the Plumber at a total business income of $250-275,000, which is a small business with maybe four employees, and is the engine for much of the job creation in Ohio and the nation as a whole.
Plus, when the top 5% is already paying over 75% of income tax revenue, let's understand who we're talking about. If Joe the Plumber can't hire a new apprentice plumber, that's a missing step up that minimum wage increases and EITC payouts and "stimulus packages" don't replace.
You go, Joe! (The Plumber, not the Senator.)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
95% Banana Syrup
It would be nice to get to ask Joe Biden about the 95% BS he and his running mate are selling, but since there's no give-and-take at Obama-Biden rallies, unlike McCain-Palin events (where folks can get all horrified by the voices of average Americans who, it should be said, need no "whipping up" to be frustrated and angry at Washington maneuverings), no one will hear answers to these points --
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html
Iraq Journal
This is part V, but it should give you a solid taste (and might make you want to read the first four installments!) --
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTAwZjVjZTAxZWM5ODNiMjQwMzIyZmUwOTIwMjQ0NGI=
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTAwZjVjZTAxZWM5ODNiMjQwMzIyZmUwOTIwMjQ0NGI=
Monday, October 13, 2008
You May Think You Know Computer Basics
. . . but this article taught me a thing or two, and i'm not saying what, it's almost that embarrassing:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/?ei=5070&emc=eta1
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/?ei=5070&emc=eta1
Where We Can All Agree
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-klempner/a-conversation-with-tracy_b_91799.html
Work still going on, with roots and shoots weaving into Granville, Ohio; "Mountains Beyond Mountains" is well worth a read. A quote:
MK: To put it in more popular terms, we could say that he knows his purpose, and that his purpose is morally irreproachable. In the book, it's pretty clear that he gets the most satisfaction from doctoring, even if -- and perhaps especially if -- he has to hike a long ways to get to a patient, or even to chase a patient into a field to get him to take his medicine.
TK: Yes, Farmer gets enormous pleasure from being a doctor, and a lot of that is the altruistic impulse, which some people don't think exists. But they're wrong.
I once had a conversation with a psychiatrist friend of mine who stated flatly that altruism doesn't exist. So I said, "All right. What if I agreed with you? You would still have to acknowledge that there is a difference between that kind of selfishness that leads to slaughtering six million Jews and the kind of selfishness that leads a doctor to save millions of lives." She couldn't argue that.
But I do believe altruism exists, and you can see it in him. Maybe in the long run in some psychological way it's self-serving, but I don't really care. It was very beautiful to see -- it really was. Everyone who watches him with his patients always finds it moving.
He also loves animals, and he loves to grow things, and he's enormously knowledgeable about reptiles and lizards. So what's that about? This is a person who is really in love with the world and who, in proportion, is offended by the horrible flaws in it.
MK: What about the millions of materially affluent Americans who don't really have any purpose in life, who can't imagine that the work they are doing makes any kind of meaningful contribution, who have to live every day with, as you put it, ambivalence? Would Farmer recognize that this too comprises a variety of poverty, albeit spiritual poverty?
TK: I think Farmer is aware of the soullessness of our culture, and, in fact, he's given a way out for a fairly large and growing number of people: He does all the work, all we have to do is make a donation. Then we can all feel better. (laughter)
Work still going on, with roots and shoots weaving into Granville, Ohio; "Mountains Beyond Mountains" is well worth a read. A quote:
MK: To put it in more popular terms, we could say that he knows his purpose, and that his purpose is morally irreproachable. In the book, it's pretty clear that he gets the most satisfaction from doctoring, even if -- and perhaps especially if -- he has to hike a long ways to get to a patient, or even to chase a patient into a field to get him to take his medicine.
TK: Yes, Farmer gets enormous pleasure from being a doctor, and a lot of that is the altruistic impulse, which some people don't think exists. But they're wrong.
I once had a conversation with a psychiatrist friend of mine who stated flatly that altruism doesn't exist. So I said, "All right. What if I agreed with you? You would still have to acknowledge that there is a difference between that kind of selfishness that leads to slaughtering six million Jews and the kind of selfishness that leads a doctor to save millions of lives." She couldn't argue that.
But I do believe altruism exists, and you can see it in him. Maybe in the long run in some psychological way it's self-serving, but I don't really care. It was very beautiful to see -- it really was. Everyone who watches him with his patients always finds it moving.
He also loves animals, and he loves to grow things, and he's enormously knowledgeable about reptiles and lizards. So what's that about? This is a person who is really in love with the world and who, in proportion, is offended by the horrible flaws in it.
MK: What about the millions of materially affluent Americans who don't really have any purpose in life, who can't imagine that the work they are doing makes any kind of meaningful contribution, who have to live every day with, as you put it, ambivalence? Would Farmer recognize that this too comprises a variety of poverty, albeit spiritual poverty?
TK: I think Farmer is aware of the soullessness of our culture, and, in fact, he's given a way out for a fairly large and growing number of people: He does all the work, all we have to do is make a donation. Then we can all feel better. (laughter)
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Unhinged Ragemongers?
Not on the McCain side, but (horrors) with The One Who Will Restore Balance To The Force -- http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/12/crush-the-obamedia-narrative-look-whos-gripped-by-insane-rage/
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Read It Skeptically
This article I was skeptical about, until I started reading. And reading. And became convinced, at least as far as you can know this sort of thing for sure . . .
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/who_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/who_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Interesting - Not Definitive, But Interesting
http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/10/can-democrats-reduce-abortion.html
This kind of thinking will be important over the next four years, since i tend to be in general agreement with this early am post at National Review Online (Oct. 8) --
Mood [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
This is a fuller elucidation of what a lot of people are e-mailing me:
Kathryn, love your articles, you seem to have the pulse of the country much more than most. McCain kissed it away tonight. Without some unforeseen event, he will lose by about 6-8 points and assure a Democratic majority in the Congress and the Senate, although I still think the Republicans will hold onto about 42 seats or so in the Senate, although with Snowe and others, I’m not sure that means much. However, he has created the future and maybe that was his role in everything. The same way that Ford created Reagan by allowing Carter to win with his bad debate performance, I think McCain has created our future with Palin. Her instincts and idealogy with 4 more years of experience coupled with an Obama Administration (ala Carter) will lead to a conservative revival which hopefully, at 43 years old, will be the last one that I have to experience in my life. The next 4 years are going to be brutal, although hopefully, the Democrats will overreach during the first two years and usher in Republicans to the House and Senate that understand the mistakes of the past and start acting like Republicans. With Gov. Jindall, Gov. Palin and Gov. Romney (who I voted for in the primary in Georgia, because I saw this coming, and I loved Gov. Romney’s message), the Republicans will be reborn. We, as a party, need to say never again to moderate, old Senators, or even VP’s (see Dole, McCain and Bush 1) and start putting forward young, energetic and idea driven governors. They have executive experience, ideas and the ability to communicate the ideals that make our party great. I hate that we have to go through the next 4 years with Obama at the helm. We will be tested severely by every adversary we have in the world and Obama’s instinct to talk and negotiate above every other action will serve us terribly.
My family and I will suffer serious financial hardship over the next 4 years. Obama has no understanding of those of us who work 80 hour weeks, spend countless nights away from our families to provide a good life for them and aren’t some notorious CEO’s ( could that guy from Lehman be a bigger idiot?).Gov. Romney’s speech at CPAC and Gov. Palin in this campaign are the only two people that I have seen that speak to us who bust our backsides to support our family, don’t want Government to give us anything and understand what we are all about.
It is time for the younger conservatives to rise up, take control of our party and start expelling the idiots like Stevens from Alaska, that think giving money away should keep us in power forever. It is better to say to Snowe and Specter and the others, thanks, but we will stay in the minority for awhile and let liberals show you what their policies mean rather than cater to you and let moderates destroy our party again. To many people have forgotten what unbridled liberalism means (ala Carter again). While we tried to label Clinton with that, he totally understood that liberalism would destroy him, and after the first two years governed from the center to save his own hide. While he did nothing spectacular, he ended up being an OK President because of this.
I had incredible arguments with my friends that McCain was this person and I don’t think I ever saw a worse debate performance with so much on the line than tonight. After about 30 minutes, I looked at my wife and asked if McCain could call in a reliever and send in Palin from the pen. I do believe we will be a better party because of this. We will go back to thinking about our beliefs. We will go back to learning how to argue and get our point across with a hostile press and a mocking Democratic party. I have always believed that with a liberal press that we, as conservatives, have learned to think more and argue our beliefs better than the liberals, who are so used to being fawned over with their class warfare arguments and have become lazy. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes McCain has made. He got so used to being fawned upon because he was ripping Republicans so much of the time, that he didn’t become prepared to argue his positions and I’m not really sure he had a belief in his positions outside of foreign policy, which sadly, are right on.
I think Gov. Palin realized early on what was going on and has prepared herself accordingly. After a couple of interviews, she knew what the game was and retooled herself to deal with them. Something the mainstream media and the liberals don’t understand about her was that she was a pretty good athlete. What these people don’t get is that these kind of athletes don’t like to lose. They may get their backsides kicked, but they realize it, identify the weaknesses and then correct it and get better. She is going to be an absolute force in 4 years. She is going to get the street cred now for being better than McCain during this election. She is going to bone up the next few months and be a counterweight to all of the Obama policies during the next 4 years. Reporters are going to beat a path to her door in Alaska She is the future of the Republican Party and at 48 or so in 4 years, will be the conservative change we need which will emphasize conservative principles along with the ideal that power obtained by compromising your principles is not power worth obtaining. Her responsibility argument at the debate scored the highest among the dials of independent voters. To say, go ahead and pursue happiness (hello, an argument in the Constitution), but I will protect your rewards and keep both Government and Business from screwing you will be an absolutely winning argument. This is the sense I get from her. I wrote Kathleen Parker and said I thought she was way to quick to jump the gun for Gov. Palin to exit the campaign.My point was, we, as normal Americans, want somebody who understands us, has good instincts and can learn from his or her mistakes and get better. I think Gov. Palin fits this bill. In all honesty, I think Gov. Romney (with Gov. Palin’s instincts) and Gov. Jindall also have this ability and I am encouraged that the future of the Republican party is in great hands. for her response to all of his policies and she is going to shine more and more.
I think Rush had it extremely right and I have been advocating the same thing with my friends and associates. This is 1976 pretty much over again. The country is depressed, things are bad and the Republicans (ala Nixon and Ford) are getting blamed for it all over again, and truthfully, they have some culpability again. Obama will be an absolute disaster as Carter was. They both believe that negotiating with enemies will prove you are the better person and we, as a country, will suffer for it. They believe that government will solve any economic problems and history will show once again, as it always has, that government will cause many more problems than it will solve. Our problem currently isn’t deregulation (see the problems that Sarbanes-Oxley has caused), but the lack oversight of current laws. This is the one area that I agreed with McCain was that Christopher Cox should go, along with(my own suggestion) Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Hank Paulson. These are the best and brightest and they let this meltdown happen? All of these people like Bush, McCain, etc. seemed to know what the danger of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were and they didn’t raise a bigger alarm bell? Reagan might have had policy differences that he tried to get around like the Contras, but he understood when government policies were causing the problem and although he suffered a recession in the first couple years, he knew his policies were the right course. I hope Gov. Palin, Gov. Jindlall or whoever in 2012 understand this also.
As in the past, Republicans will get better and prevail again. Gov. Palin, Jindall, Romney and others are a shining light in our party. We can only hope that they will provide a Reaganusque leadership to our party. It is our responsibility, as conservatives, to never let the Delays, Hasterts, Doles, etc. lead our party again. We must demand accountability and conservative principles. We can disagree on a number of issues, but we must never let those who believe that government can spend the money better than those who make the money, ever in power in our party again.
I have always believed that half a loaf (Dole, McCain, etc.) was better than no loaf at all. Now I have changed my mind. What good has been President Bush’s agreeing to No Child Left Behind with Sen. Kennedy? Or Sen. McCain’s to McCain Feingold? Or Sen. McCain’s to McCain/Kennedy on immigration? What, I believe, is the problem here, is that when the American public says they want bipartisianship, is that they really don’t, they just aren’t convinced of either side’s argument and they get tired of both sides trashing the other side, instead of arguing the merits of their side.
Thank you Kathryn once again for your great articles. I’m not sure you will agree with what I wrote, but it has been written with incredible passion. I am one of those who gets teary eyed when I hear the National Anthem at the Indy 500 or a Braves game (grew up in Indiana, live in Atlanta). I think back to Michael Moore who mocked George Bush in 2004 about wanting to send his daughters to Iraq and respect Gov. Palin and Gov. Biden beyond belief for supporting their sons who are in Iraq and who don’t really know if they will see them again. It was the one part of VP debate that I actually was totally in sync with Sen. Biden, loving my 5 year old as I do. Please keep up your great articles the next 4 years, keep the faith, and know there are millions of people out here who read your articles, think about them and respond to them. Conservative principles never change, but like all things, they need to be thought about, argued better and always refreshed. We may yet consider Sen. McCain a conservative hero, not for his own ideas, but for who he led us to, in Gov. Palin. At least we can hope so...
* * *
[Lopez again] I'm not there. I still have the fight in me. You know why? Tuesday night: What Barack Obama said about 9/11 encapsulated it for me. As Gov. Palin might put it: He just doesn't get it. "A lot of you remember the tragedy of 9/11." Were there five-year-olds in the room there I missed? We all remember, Senator. And tragedy? Maybe we should elect the head of the Red Cross commander-in-chief.
10/08 03:04 AM
This kind of thinking will be important over the next four years, since i tend to be in general agreement with this early am post at National Review Online (Oct. 8) --
Mood [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
This is a fuller elucidation of what a lot of people are e-mailing me:
Kathryn, love your articles, you seem to have the pulse of the country much more than most. McCain kissed it away tonight. Without some unforeseen event, he will lose by about 6-8 points and assure a Democratic majority in the Congress and the Senate, although I still think the Republicans will hold onto about 42 seats or so in the Senate, although with Snowe and others, I’m not sure that means much. However, he has created the future and maybe that was his role in everything. The same way that Ford created Reagan by allowing Carter to win with his bad debate performance, I think McCain has created our future with Palin. Her instincts and idealogy with 4 more years of experience coupled with an Obama Administration (ala Carter) will lead to a conservative revival which hopefully, at 43 years old, will be the last one that I have to experience in my life. The next 4 years are going to be brutal, although hopefully, the Democrats will overreach during the first two years and usher in Republicans to the House and Senate that understand the mistakes of the past and start acting like Republicans. With Gov. Jindall, Gov. Palin and Gov. Romney (who I voted for in the primary in Georgia, because I saw this coming, and I loved Gov. Romney’s message), the Republicans will be reborn. We, as a party, need to say never again to moderate, old Senators, or even VP’s (see Dole, McCain and Bush 1) and start putting forward young, energetic and idea driven governors. They have executive experience, ideas and the ability to communicate the ideals that make our party great. I hate that we have to go through the next 4 years with Obama at the helm. We will be tested severely by every adversary we have in the world and Obama’s instinct to talk and negotiate above every other action will serve us terribly.
My family and I will suffer serious financial hardship over the next 4 years. Obama has no understanding of those of us who work 80 hour weeks, spend countless nights away from our families to provide a good life for them and aren’t some notorious CEO’s ( could that guy from Lehman be a bigger idiot?).Gov. Romney’s speech at CPAC and Gov. Palin in this campaign are the only two people that I have seen that speak to us who bust our backsides to support our family, don’t want Government to give us anything and understand what we are all about.
It is time for the younger conservatives to rise up, take control of our party and start expelling the idiots like Stevens from Alaska, that think giving money away should keep us in power forever. It is better to say to Snowe and Specter and the others, thanks, but we will stay in the minority for awhile and let liberals show you what their policies mean rather than cater to you and let moderates destroy our party again. To many people have forgotten what unbridled liberalism means (ala Carter again). While we tried to label Clinton with that, he totally understood that liberalism would destroy him, and after the first two years governed from the center to save his own hide. While he did nothing spectacular, he ended up being an OK President because of this.
I had incredible arguments with my friends that McCain was this person and I don’t think I ever saw a worse debate performance with so much on the line than tonight. After about 30 minutes, I looked at my wife and asked if McCain could call in a reliever and send in Palin from the pen. I do believe we will be a better party because of this. We will go back to thinking about our beliefs. We will go back to learning how to argue and get our point across with a hostile press and a mocking Democratic party. I have always believed that with a liberal press that we, as conservatives, have learned to think more and argue our beliefs better than the liberals, who are so used to being fawned over with their class warfare arguments and have become lazy. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes McCain has made. He got so used to being fawned upon because he was ripping Republicans so much of the time, that he didn’t become prepared to argue his positions and I’m not really sure he had a belief in his positions outside of foreign policy, which sadly, are right on.
I think Gov. Palin realized early on what was going on and has prepared herself accordingly. After a couple of interviews, she knew what the game was and retooled herself to deal with them. Something the mainstream media and the liberals don’t understand about her was that she was a pretty good athlete. What these people don’t get is that these kind of athletes don’t like to lose. They may get their backsides kicked, but they realize it, identify the weaknesses and then correct it and get better. She is going to be an absolute force in 4 years. She is going to get the street cred now for being better than McCain during this election. She is going to bone up the next few months and be a counterweight to all of the Obama policies during the next 4 years. Reporters are going to beat a path to her door in Alaska She is the future of the Republican Party and at 48 or so in 4 years, will be the conservative change we need which will emphasize conservative principles along with the ideal that power obtained by compromising your principles is not power worth obtaining. Her responsibility argument at the debate scored the highest among the dials of independent voters. To say, go ahead and pursue happiness (hello, an argument in the Constitution), but I will protect your rewards and keep both Government and Business from screwing you will be an absolutely winning argument. This is the sense I get from her. I wrote Kathleen Parker and said I thought she was way to quick to jump the gun for Gov. Palin to exit the campaign.My point was, we, as normal Americans, want somebody who understands us, has good instincts and can learn from his or her mistakes and get better. I think Gov. Palin fits this bill. In all honesty, I think Gov. Romney (with Gov. Palin’s instincts) and Gov. Jindall also have this ability and I am encouraged that the future of the Republican party is in great hands. for her response to all of his policies and she is going to shine more and more.
I think Rush had it extremely right and I have been advocating the same thing with my friends and associates. This is 1976 pretty much over again. The country is depressed, things are bad and the Republicans (ala Nixon and Ford) are getting blamed for it all over again, and truthfully, they have some culpability again. Obama will be an absolute disaster as Carter was. They both believe that negotiating with enemies will prove you are the better person and we, as a country, will suffer for it. They believe that government will solve any economic problems and history will show once again, as it always has, that government will cause many more problems than it will solve. Our problem currently isn’t deregulation (see the problems that Sarbanes-Oxley has caused), but the lack oversight of current laws. This is the one area that I agreed with McCain was that Christopher Cox should go, along with(my own suggestion) Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Hank Paulson. These are the best and brightest and they let this meltdown happen? All of these people like Bush, McCain, etc. seemed to know what the danger of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were and they didn’t raise a bigger alarm bell? Reagan might have had policy differences that he tried to get around like the Contras, but he understood when government policies were causing the problem and although he suffered a recession in the first couple years, he knew his policies were the right course. I hope Gov. Palin, Gov. Jindlall or whoever in 2012 understand this also.
As in the past, Republicans will get better and prevail again. Gov. Palin, Jindall, Romney and others are a shining light in our party. We can only hope that they will provide a Reaganusque leadership to our party. It is our responsibility, as conservatives, to never let the Delays, Hasterts, Doles, etc. lead our party again. We must demand accountability and conservative principles. We can disagree on a number of issues, but we must never let those who believe that government can spend the money better than those who make the money, ever in power in our party again.
I have always believed that half a loaf (Dole, McCain, etc.) was better than no loaf at all. Now I have changed my mind. What good has been President Bush’s agreeing to No Child Left Behind with Sen. Kennedy? Or Sen. McCain’s to McCain Feingold? Or Sen. McCain’s to McCain/Kennedy on immigration? What, I believe, is the problem here, is that when the American public says they want bipartisianship, is that they really don’t, they just aren’t convinced of either side’s argument and they get tired of both sides trashing the other side, instead of arguing the merits of their side.
Thank you Kathryn once again for your great articles. I’m not sure you will agree with what I wrote, but it has been written with incredible passion. I am one of those who gets teary eyed when I hear the National Anthem at the Indy 500 or a Braves game (grew up in Indiana, live in Atlanta). I think back to Michael Moore who mocked George Bush in 2004 about wanting to send his daughters to Iraq and respect Gov. Palin and Gov. Biden beyond belief for supporting their sons who are in Iraq and who don’t really know if they will see them again. It was the one part of VP debate that I actually was totally in sync with Sen. Biden, loving my 5 year old as I do. Please keep up your great articles the next 4 years, keep the faith, and know there are millions of people out here who read your articles, think about them and respond to them. Conservative principles never change, but like all things, they need to be thought about, argued better and always refreshed. We may yet consider Sen. McCain a conservative hero, not for his own ideas, but for who he led us to, in Gov. Palin. At least we can hope so...
* * *
[Lopez again] I'm not there. I still have the fight in me. You know why? Tuesday night: What Barack Obama said about 9/11 encapsulated it for me. As Gov. Palin might put it: He just doesn't get it. "A lot of you remember the tragedy of 9/11." Were there five-year-olds in the room there I missed? We all remember, Senator. And tragedy? Maybe we should elect the head of the Red Cross commander-in-chief.
10/08 03:04 AM
Friday, October 3, 2008
A Story That Could Be Anywhere
And sounds like stuff we work with every day here in central Ohio --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/us/03omaha.html?em=&pagewanted=all
Very much worth a read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/us/03omaha.html?em=&pagewanted=all
Very much worth a read.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Oh, Really
I've lost track of how many people have e-mailed and commented to me that "Sarah Palin attended five colleges!" with the breathless assumption undergirding the exclamation point that she must, therefore, be a dim bulb.
Best overview of the point -- http://www.slate.com/id/2201332/
Once again, i only like her better for reading Tim Noah's mean-spirited snark. I took six and a half years to graduate, from a land grant state school (Purdue, to which you can readily compare U of Idaho at Moscow). I didn't end up spending stretches back at home taking courses at local colleges, but i also didn't live in a state that was thousands of miles away from the bulk of the US, either. Between a sojourn into the Marine Corps and living on friends' sofas while working an odd set of jobs i never entirely withdrew from Purdue, playing "beat the reaper" with the bursar's office, and racking up some ghastly semesters, grade wise, while also picking up my share of A's in some challenging courses. A reporter would have a field day with my transcripts, just as they're having fun with the Hawaii-Idaho-Alaska-Idaho peregrinations of the young Sarah Palin.
Oh, and Obama hasn't released squat from his college transcripts, Occidental, Columbia, or Harvard Law.
Capper -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/01/AR2008100103437_pf.html
Best overview of the point -- http://www.slate.com/id/2201332/
Once again, i only like her better for reading Tim Noah's mean-spirited snark. I took six and a half years to graduate, from a land grant state school (Purdue, to which you can readily compare U of Idaho at Moscow). I didn't end up spending stretches back at home taking courses at local colleges, but i also didn't live in a state that was thousands of miles away from the bulk of the US, either. Between a sojourn into the Marine Corps and living on friends' sofas while working an odd set of jobs i never entirely withdrew from Purdue, playing "beat the reaper" with the bursar's office, and racking up some ghastly semesters, grade wise, while also picking up my share of A's in some challenging courses. A reporter would have a field day with my transcripts, just as they're having fun with the Hawaii-Idaho-Alaska-Idaho peregrinations of the young Sarah Palin.
Oh, and Obama hasn't released squat from his college transcripts, Occidental, Columbia, or Harvard Law.
Capper -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/01/AR2008100103437_pf.html
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Ayup.
I'm not a huge Dave Ramsey fan, but in this 3 point plan i agree with every word --
http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/fed_bailout/3_steps_to_change_the_nations_future_10928.htmlc?ictid=sml
http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/fed_bailout/3_steps_to_change_the_nations_future_10928.htmlc?ictid=sml
How'd we get here (here being Wall St. & Washington)
. . . almost eleven minutes, but worth it with the sound turned down a bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_597487
If you aren't sure about the basis of that (but you can look up everything the maker of the video/PP said), try this set of C-SPAN clips --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_597487
If you aren't sure about the basis of that (but you can look up everything the maker of the video/PP said), try this set of C-SPAN clips --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related
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