America is a pro-life country

http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/More-Americans-Pro-Life-Than-Pro-Choice-First-Time.aspx

The stat I found most interesting? Women are more pro-life than men are.

Really?

A flu broke out in Mexico because Kathleen Sebelius's corrupt ass is not the yet of DHHS?

Really?

Did the Tea Parties work?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/20/obama.cabinet.cuts/index.html

I think, at least superficially, they did.

Bitch move Barry, bitch move.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Jesus-Missing-From-Obamas-Georgetown-Speech.html

Apparently the President had Georgetown black out the IHS with a piece of plywood when he was speaking there. I find our new President to be so classless, so careless, so.....pedestrian.

BTW, Georgetown, grow a pair.

Americans are nice people

I forgot my wallet yesterday so I had to go up to some guy I see on the train from time to time and say "Hey mister, can I barrow 4 bucks?". With just about no expectation that he would see his money again (he will) he gave me the money. I had to print something out in the University library but didn't have my card and it was really important so I went up to a computer bank of strangers, held up my arms and said "people! I really need the money to print this". Instantly some guy in the front row who I have never seen before and never will again says "I got this" and handed me the money. A friend paid for lunch and another friend paid for the bus fare. I'm glad I was born in such a prosperous, generous place.

Has he really picked yet?

Not that I've given it too much though, but what possible advantage is there to waiting this long? By now potential candidates have built up followings that are about to be disappointed, home states and districts have gotten excited. I see opportunity cost in this play and no gain.

I don't think Obama has made up his mind yet.

Who is this T. Boone Pickens Cat?

I saw some other bloggers with links to his energy plan and had seen a few adds on TV but never really paid any attention to him. I always planned on looking into this later and I've had a little time and was he just met with both Barak Obama and John McCain.

I must say, I am skeptical.

I like the idea of wind farms in the Midwest and I really like the notion of not relying on foreign countries for our energy needs. But this veers toward socialism. The premise of Pickens Plan is that we'll spend around $1 Billion in tax money to fund wind farm and then use the natural gas we usually expend to get energy in many cities and use that for transportation. It is the $1 Billion that bothers me.

The reason that private companies didn't already build windmills all across the US (even with the already existing generous government subsidies) is that they're just not worth it. Spending $1 Billion to drop what? 20% of our demand for foreign oil? I think thats a bad deal.

The New Democratic Party Platform - Are They Bitter Or Do They Just Like Losing Elections?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/09/democrats-debate-party-platform/

The dems restructured their party platform to set themselves further away from the majority opinion on two of my favorite domestic issues - guns and abortion.

On the guns side the dems promised to give the assault weapons ban another go - while I admit naming it the "assault weapons ban" did buy them some traction in the past the bill is widely (rightly, in my opinion) viewed as a failure and with the power and popularity gun groups the AWB is dead for good. All this will do is make things hard on western democrats who have (in many cases successfully) been working to changing the image of the democratic party as anti-gun.

On the abortion front the dems removed the "rare" from the "safe, legal and rare" bit. What idiots! What ground will this possibly gain you? Will planned parenthood write the DNC a slightly bigger check this year? The opinion of the country has shifted toward a generally pro-life stance. In areas like late-term abortion and the use of abortion as birth-control the nation is solidly opposed. Even people who don't want Roe v. Wade overturned say it would be nice to see fewer abortions every year. The democrats have increasing numbers of pro-life politicians - look at Senator Casey out of PA.

Why would a party go about alienating America like this? There is no benefit here - people who want to ban guns and the few strange people who think we should aim for more abortions in this country already support the democratic party. What the hell are these people thinking? With fumbles like this I am feeling more and more optimistic about the republicans in the fall.

Man that was a fun Primary!

No matter who you were backing you have to admit – that was pretty awesome. But now to the business end – Conservatives – are you feeling lucky?

The Democratic party had two options; a moderate liberal and a rather extremist liberal. If they had gone with Hillary they would have had a better shot at the 2008 election, the 2012 election and so on but they would have advanced the leftist agenda less. Barack’s Socialism will be unpopular and if he somehow manages to capture the 2008 election he will be packing his bags by 2012, but how much damage can he get done by then?

Barack will play poorly in the polls and if elected will pave the way for a very conservative president in 2012 (it takes a Carter to get a Reagan) but in those 4 years a lot could happen.

So, in the long run are we better off with the moderation of McCain right now or would we be better off with Reagan part II trying to undue 4 years of Socialism in 2012?

Shopping for a Third Party Candidate in 08 – Part II

As was expressed here, I am interested in the delicate act of protest voting and wanted to advise all of my friends on the right who could not bring themselves to vote for John McCain. Of the candidates that have a shot in this election John McCain is by far the least bad, I support him and think there are plenty of reasons you should too. If McCain is either clearly going to win or clearly going to lose Delaware and my presidential vote wouldn’t make a difference anyway I may vote third party. Out of curiosity I also wanted to see who else was out there. Right now, this is the field;

Libertarians – The most promising place for my vote right now, the Libertarians emerged from their convention having nominated a Barr/Root ticket. I really like the looks of Barr and I’m glad to see that Root has clearly specified he does not believe abortion is a federal issue. I’d still like to know more about Barr, particularly where he stands on illegal immigration but he has a pretty solid record from Congress. Right now this is probably where my protest vote is going.

Constitutionalists – Nominated a fellow named Chuck Baldwin. Don’t know too much about Chuck but it looks like he would be a solid anti-illegal immigration, lower-taxes, shrink the government vote if Barr doesn’t pan out for some reason.

Prohibitionists – When you’ve finally had enough of politics. Not sure if they’ll be on the ballot in Delaware.

Ralph Nader – got 2,000 votes from DE in 2004, he’ll probably be on the ballot again this year.

Greens – seem set to nominate Cynthia McKinney, she may very well be to the left of Arden.

Mike Gravel! – Alas, the dream has died. After finishing fourth at the Libertarian National Convention Gravel does not appear to be further pursuing a presidential run.

There are a couple other Third Parties but it is unlikely they will make it onto the ballot in Delaware. Nationwide, if you’ve got a problem with McCain send a clear message to Republican leadership with a vote for Barr or Baldwin.

This is Obscene

http://www.citizenlink.org/clspecialalert/A000007545.cfm

I'm not even sure what to file this under, maybe "Gay Marriage"? Yeah, thats it, from now on there will be a "Gay Marriage" label.

Shame on you Colorado.

California Marriage Overturning

In this nation, there is a thin line between Constitutional Democracy and a 9-man dictatorship. On May 15th, California stepped over that line.

Hilary has taken the lead in the popular vote

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_vote_count.html

At this rate, even if she loses the nomination she will have gotten the most votes.

Impression of the 2008 Delaware Republican Convention

Over all, not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

-Terry Strine had to go and he did
-There will be no real primary in September
-I am really really excited about the possibility of Charlie Copeland for Lt. Governor
-I think we have a good shot at picking up the Insurance Commissioner spot
-Bill Lee for Governor: Because I told you so

I realize much in Delaware state-wide politics will depend on trends in nation-wide politics but I think the Delaware GOP retardedly managed to do most of what they could to make things go well in the fall. I think we have a strong candidate for Insurance Commissioner (an open seat with 3 democrats fighting each other for their nomination) which is important because in 8 years the Insurance Commissioner will probably advance to something else. Bill Lee stands a legitimate chance at governor and the state would be better for it. Finally, I can not stress how excited I am about Copeland. We all have liberal friends who listen to us from time to time, if you think any of them are capable for voting for 1 republican this fall, ask them to vote for Charlie Copeland.

South Dakota might pass an anti-abortion amendment

Just so you know

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWL61UvZduHAuiks5nwrxf-VjVSg

things are looking good.



(I love The Mount Rushmore State)

What do you do with a Generation of Young Men without Fathers who have grown up Idolizing Womanizing Criminals?

Have them watch Ax Men....

The History Channel put on a new show where they just follow some guys in Oregon around during the logging season and it may be the most positive thing going on in American culture right now. This is a picture of rough, honest men in lean times working in a rough yet rewarding profession with no margin for bullshit. And the views are just down right beautiful - this show takes place in the towering, still wild Cascade Mountains and with men who still fight for their wages and are prepared to fight for anything else dear to them. These men embody the American spirit which has sulked away from much of our cities and suburbs.

So why do I think a show embracing this type of masculinity is so great? Keep in mind, American manlyness (which has been in decline for many years) has positive virtues, virtues which I believe greatly benefit this country - crime and dishonesty are unmanly, running out on your wife and kids is unmanly, being economically unproductive is unmanly, allowing the government to take away an inch of your freedom is unmanly, being a 30 year old man living in your mother's basement is decidedly unmanly (the so-called "child-man").

The best cost-free move our government could make right now would be to put 1 episode of this show on in ever 8th grade civics class - what womanizing rap star could hold a light to these men?


If you can, check out an episode. (And if you are a man, just try to tell me you didn't want to be a lumberjack afterward. )

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dg-eiDT5EeM&feature=related

Shopping for a Third Party Candidate in 08 - Part I.

There are only really 3 people who have a chance at claiming our nation's presidency, and of those people John McCain is far and away the best, I pray he wins and I'll probably be voting for him.

I say probably because if it looks like McCain is either clearly going to win, or clearly not going to win Delaware I'm going to throw up the protest vote. I like McCain but I am weary of him on some issues, particularly illegal immigration and I think it is not illogical to fear that McCain could shift the Republican party a few notches to the left. But protest voting is tricky - people have to understand that it is protest.

Some of my more conservative friends have suggested that we all need to vote for the democrats in 2008 to show the Republican party that we're not happy with their moderate candidates. I think that's silly - how do we expect the Republican party is going to get that message? Are they going to look at a Hillary win and say "Wow! The conservative voter is disgruntled with us and voted for the opposition out of spite, we'd better select more conservative candidates"? No, they're going to say "Wow! People really like Hillary".



I did a little shopping (mind you, it was on wikipedia) to look for a third party candidate that would send the message I want to send ("hey Republican party, I'm still open to voting for you but in the future put up someone who is a little more libertarian and will enforce our immigration laws") and I think I found a decent one. Out of the Libertarian Party we have Wayne Allyn Root - reduced government spending, increased personal liberties and responsibilities, strong international stance though weak on social issues like abortion.

There are also a few other decent candidates up for the Libertarian primary, as well as up for the Constitution Party and as a last option I've got the Prohibition Party. Under no circumstances will I be voting for either of the democrats or any of the Greens, Communists or Socialists.



So to recap - of the realistic options on the table I'm backing McCain and will only vote third party if the margins are far enough away that a vote for McCain will be pointless. If you plan on a protest vote against McCain for motivations similar to mine I ask that rather than just voting for the dem you vote for a candidate like Root who will send a relatively clear and productive message to the GOP.



On a related note - Mike Gravel is running for the Libertarian Party's nomination, and while that isn't funny his campaign ad is - http://youtube.com/watch?v=bA2LgJviH9w
I hope all the crazies vote for him

I was really hoping stuff like this would wait until after the democratic primary

Hillary was caught clearly, clearly lying about her experiences in Yugoslavia but I’m not sure it will damage her campaign all that much. While this will invariably do a little long term damage to her I think she’ll still take PA and I think if Obama’s campaign sputters toward the end (which it very well might) she still has a good shot at the nomination.

BTW, check out the video, just playing this over and over again on TV would be a slam dunk campaign, I hope Giuliani challenges her in NY and uses it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8BfNqhV5hg4

Obama's "Dean Scream"?

Say Howard Dean and most Americans will think back to that high-pitched "YeaAHah!!!" he boomed for all of West Des Moines, and indeed, the world, to hear. That was defiantly the moment his chance at the Democratic Nomination took a dive, but I don't believe that was the reason.

People didn't really like Dean all that much; his positions on many areas were bordering on communism, his supporters were creepy and potentially unreliable, he wanted to make national fights out of local issues, he probably wasn't all that viable in a race against a determined Republican president, he didn't know much about international relations and he came off as a bit of a jerk to a lot of people. Wow that was a long sentence, but those were the real, complex reasons behind Dean's downfall. The scream was just the moment, something undeniably tangible that people could easily point to rather than explain all those other reasons that Dean didn't sit well in their guts.

Obama gave a pretty good speech this week, maybe even a great speech. It told us what we should all already know - some ethnic groups in America don't get along all that well and there are sometimes legitimate reasons behind this ill will. Mr. Obama doesn't really have any particular solution for this problem but never the less honestly talking about race in America doesn't hurt anything. So why are people, particularly democrats, reacting to this speech badly? Some will say its racism but those people are silly, any objective analysis says Obama's racial makeup has decidedly aided his campaign. I think this was Obama's Dean Scream Moment.

Obama is in many ways a Democratic candidate flawed in the same ways (though not to the same extent) as Dean was. He has an army of young volunteers who while enthusiastic are often not only poorly informed but also not registered to vote and will probably be made mince meat of by the efficient RNC cadres. His positions are not just left of center, economically they're left of left of left. He has no foreign policy experience. He too is looking to make federal issues out of state decisions. Above all else the Obama campaign of propelled by a naive optimism that more and more democratic leaders are seeing could be less effective than the tried and true Clinton machine.

I thought Obama's speech was at worst empty rhetoric, certainly there was noting bad about it but this opinion is not shared by many influential democratic bellwethers.

After February 4th there was a long stretch when all that was in the news was this unprobable swath of Obama victories which built momentum and enthusiasm. But that is over now, the voters and the Democratic party have a month and a half to sit back and as if they really want a state senator from south Chicago to be running the most powerful nation mankind has ever seen.

Obama is still in this, but after this speech I predict a chilling effect. I think donations will slow, the media will be more critical, he will get rocked in Pennsylvania, Indiana will not look good for him.

Hillary sucks at offence

Though it is not yet do or die time for Hillary it is game time and she is not playing well. Hillary is now behind Barack by 16 points nationally and by 100 delegates, she is now officially the underdog and that gives her the right to go on the attack, and she should, but she sucks at it.

Hillary’s attacks are heavy-handed and are making her look worse than her opponent; During a recent debate she mocked Barack’s “change you can believe in” by saying he is “chance you can Xerox” – weak burn Hillary – the dude who originally made that statement encouraged Barack to use it and her slogan doesn’t rhyme with the old one. And there are so many better things to mock Obama about! If he gets it McCain is going to rip into him – why can’t Hillary? This recent photo is a great example – if it is from their camp it should have been released in a way that it couldn’t have been traced, if it wasn’t their camp they should call Obama dishonest turning the guilt on him (and getting more people to look at that goofy photo).

Hillary’s campaign staff was shaken up two weeks ago, I suspect the original members were appointed more for political reasons than performance as they have been replaced with more fiscally conservative old-hands. After these recent blundering excursions into negative-land she might want to shake up some more of that staff.