Month: November 2006

2 Comments Posted on Conservatives, Editorials, Republicans

many unhappy returns

short and sweet recap at this point in the game: democrats win the house, senate still undecided, shepard smith is yelling at somebody for some reason.

this was a defeat for republicans, not for conservatism. the american people didn’t give the democrats a mandate for higher taxes, possible impeachment hearings, more moderate judges, amnesty for illegals, or a policy closer to surrender in the war in iraq. they simply believed that the republicans had not met their expectations, so they decided to give the democrats an opportunity to do a better job governing. i just hope that we won’t be sorry that this choice was made.

philip klein:

We will hear a lot of reasons for why Republicans lost this year. We will hear that they lost because of an unpopular war, an unpopular president, a culture of corruption, a traditional anti-incumbent six-year itch and a dispirited base. But one thing is for sure. Republicans did not lose on a platform of limiting the size and scope of government.

Just as this election wasn’t a defeat for conservatism, it wasn’t a victory for liberalism. Democrats intentionally avoided a publicized “Contract With America”-style platform advancing a progressive agenda in favor of making the campaign a referendum on President Bush. The closest thing they had to a platform, “A New Direction for America,” was not a sweeping ideological document, but a laundry list of initiatives such as making college tuition tax-deductible, raising the minimum wage, and negotiating drug prices. Though a Democratic majority will likely roll back President Bush’s tax cuts, they didn’t advertise that in the “fiscal discipline” section of their platform. (It is a testament to how enamored Republicans became with big government that they enabled Democrats to run as the party of fiscal discipline.)

it is what it is. the democrats now control congress. the republicans need to learn that they don’t ever have a blank check from their base to abuse the trust they were given on issues that we care deeply about. i voted for republicans this time, because i thought that the bigger picture (terrorism, iraq) was more important than our concerns about spending and illegal immigration. (i also wasn’t convinced that the democrats would be an improvement in these areas.)

we can’t go to canada. there are few conservative havens in the world. so we need to stay engaged…now more than ever. we can’t give up fighting for what we believe, because the stakes are too high. keep calling. keep writing and emailing your representatives, no matter what their party affliation is. keep your eyes open.

tags: , ,

Posted on Democracy, Random Musings

don’t vote

don’t vote (or vote for a democrat) if:

  • you want charlie rangel putting more of your money into the government’s pockets.
  • you believe that the whole country should be punished for perceived republican sins.
  • you actually believe that democrats would cut spending while ADDING more new government programs.
  • you want president bush’s judicial appointment picks to be D.O.A. (no alito or roberts types allowed if the dems are in charge)
  • you want to see less progress made on illegal immigration. (what we have isn’t perfect, but it’s more than we would get under the democrats, who totally agree with bush on this one issue.)
  • you are convinced that the democrats have a better way to protect us from future terrorist attacks, which is so much more “tough” and “smart” than what we are doing now.
  • you think that the civil rights of terrorists are more important than the lives of american citizens.
  • you consider ideological purity the most important quality in your candidate, and don’t care where he or she stands on any other issue you care about. just remember what happened to lieberman in the primary in connecticut. is that the outcome you want for this election?
  • you are determined to let the polls and the punditocracy determine the outcome of this election.

if none of this describes the way you feel, you know what to do. it is always better to get most of what you want, instead of getting NONE of what you want. vote your conscience, but keep the big picture in mind.

tags: , ,

Posted on Iraq

justice for saddam

saddam is no longer president of iraq. that’s a good thing. he will die for his crimes. that’s also good. it’s a positive development for iraq, for its people, and for iraq’s continued evolution toward a more democratic and free society. what the iraqis also need to move forward is a strong political leader they can rally around, and they need to have confidence that the government will be fair to all the religious groups in iraq. we can send in the heavy machinery and our awesome military to police everything, but that won’t be enough to sustain iraq long-term.there are diplomatic and political obstacles to that stablization, and one of those is probably prime minister maliki himself. the iraqis need to have a strong political leader who is credible not only with the international community, but also with the majority of iraqis. i’m not sure maliki’s that guy. he still has a little time to prove himself. the important thing is whether the iraqis trust him to capably run the country.

a few roadblocks to the stablization of iraq are still to be cleared. training the iraqi police is an important part of the process, but it’s not the only goal we need to accomplish before leaving iraq. access to basic services (food, water, and electricity) is still a problem in iraq. that’s one thing that fuels discontent, and the insurgents know this as well as their opposition does. we need to find a way to reduce support for the insurgency by the average iraqi, or there will never be a resolution to this conflict.

i know the left in this country is tired of hearing that their “principled opposition” to the war in iraq is having a determental impact on events in iraq. it’s becoming harder and harder to declare that statement a absurd exaggeration by the republicans or neo-cons, or whoever the designated “iraq apologist” is this week. the military can take care of its own morale. they will be professional and do their jobs as well as they would have without criticism from the anti-war left. our concern should be that the iraqi people will lose faith that america will see this through, and in fact, that’s already beginning to happen. as a result of all this war waffling, we are seeing that iraqis are unsure whether they can trust us. that is, i believe, another reason why some iraqis would rather trust insurgents than the united states or their own government. there is recent history that would cause them to question our resolve in iraq, but the stakes are too high to pull out right now.

there are serious consequences we will have to face if we do not succeed in stablizing iraq, so i hope that we can find a better plan to do that than the one we have.

tags: ,

Posted on Democrats, Liberals

still not funny

john kerry is even less credible as a comedian than he was as a presidential candidate…and by the way, his ’08 campaign should now officially be over. watch the tears from republicans all across america at this turn of events. or not.

the alleged actual joke(from ace of spades):

It’s great to be here with college students. I can’t overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.

well…that’s much better, isn’t it? that certainly wouldn’t be offensive to anyone. still not funny. call jon stewart. get some better material, senator. thanks so much.

even when kerry apologizes, he still ends up sounding condescending and arrogant. he thinks the american people are stupid also. he thinks we have short memories. how else could he in good conscience produce an apology like this?

from johnkerry.com:

As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop.

I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended.

It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues. I will continue to fight for a change of course to provide real security for our country, and a winning strategy for our troops.

poor misunderstood john kerry. he is merely a victim of “those right-wing nuts” and all those people who weren’t smart enough to understand what he meant by that statement. his problem is that not only do we understand what he meant, we passionately disagree with it. we remember his past statements, and discredit his explanations, because THIS IS what john kerry believes about our military.

then there’s this from hugh hewitt at townhall: john kerry had two different positions on a volunteer army. he was for it before he was against it. when he opposed it, he claimed that it would be “dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to ‘the perpetuation of war crimes”. i suppose that was a botched joke too, senator? maybe we just misunderstood him again.

john kerry’s primary mistake is simply telling us what he really thinks. this is the guy who could have been our president. his record isn’t a creation of the vast right wing conspiracy. he believes what he said, and he’s apologizing because he got caught being honest (and because the democrats made him do it).

Technorati Tags: , ,

1 Comment Posted on '08 Election, Democrats, Liberals

kerry says something stupid

You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

john kerry

this isn’t the first time john kerry has been accused of saying something negative about our military. that’s why he’s not getting the benefit of the doubt here. there are some democrats who buy the explanation that he was attempting to insult the president instead of our military men and women serving in iraq. john kerry says that it was a “botched joke”. if that’s the case, his speechwriters should know better. john kerry is incapable of being funny. he is also politically clueless. whether he was talking about the president or about the military, it’s still a reckless thing to say, especially when nothing is guaranteed for democrats this november.

this isn’t 2004. kerry missed his opportunity to defend himself, and he can’t get it back by trying to justify what he said. it’s not just “right-wing nut jobs” condemning what kerry said, unless you count john mccain, harold ford jr. and HILLARY CLINTON in that group. hillary only said that kerry’s remarks were “inappropriate”, but that’s strong enough language for her, i guess. kerry made a mistake. he should admit it and apologize.

if he still thinks he can be the ’08 democratic nominee, he is deluding himself. move on, senator kerry. do us a favor. do the democrats a favor. go on a nice long vacation.

related:

What Did John Kerry Do?— Hugh Hewitt
Kerry, Kerry Quite Contrary–Jonah Goldberg
Why Kerry’s crack matters— Michael Medved

tags: , ,