Sorry for the light posting…think I might have caught the annual office cold. Posting will resume after I get rid of it. 🙂
more fun cartoons
Another new project for the original Mac genius? Why not? Let the Big 3 fail.
obama poll
Priorities… (h/t: ogre)
terrorists strike in india
Those expecting the terrorists to give the upcoming Obama administration a break better wake up. For these goons, it doesn’t matter who the President of the United States is. They will continue to do what they do, and we must be ready to protect our country and to defend our allies when they need us.
The Times of India is reporting:
Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city’s most high-profile targets — the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard — killing at least 80 and sending more than 900 to hospital, according to latest reports.
The Deccan Mujahideen is claiming responsibility for the attacks.
Make no mistake about it — Vice President-elect Biden was absolutely right. Barack Obama will be tested early and often at the beginning of his Presidency. We must all pray that President-elect Obama and his security team get the right information and have the right strategy to keep us safe and to keep attacks like this from happening here in America.
where we are
Most of the current leaders of the Republican Party are creatures of Washington who are completely out of touch with the values of the state parties and their grassroots foot soldiers. We dont have problem-solvers. We have problem creators. While nothing can be done about advancing limited government and fiscal discipline while in the minority, our leaders have decided that no compromise is too great to make in the game of winning elections. This is a mistake. This mindset leads to a Republican Party perfectly willing to stand by while corruptocrats like Ted Stevens run for re-election just because they dont want to lose that seat to a Democrat. This mindset leads to nominees like John McCain. We must draw the line of compromise somewhere.
We cannot and must not make excuses or compromises when it comes to corruption. I would rather lose a million seats in Congress than for us to continue to lose credibility as a Party. Social conservatives arent killing the Party. Corrupt members of Congress are killing this Party. Fiscally irresponsible members of Congress and requesters of massive amounts of pork are killing this Party. In order to fix the problem, we have to correctly diagnose it. This is something that the leaders of our Party have failed to do. That’s why we have been losing elections.
There is a school of thought in the Republican Party today that our party needs to move further to the left in order to attract moderate and independent voters. Hasn’t this past election proved the ineffectiveness of a strategy like this? Look at our nominee, John McCain, whose nomination was propelled by the support of Democrats who voted in all those open primaries and by the media (his former base) . The same argument made for McCain was also made for Rudy Giuliani namely, that Republicans could get those independents and moderates by nominating someone more like them than the scary social conservatives we tend to nominate. Wow. What an awesome strategy that was. If we continue to water down the conservative message to get these elusive voters, we will keep losing. Our party leadership doesn’t seem to understand this. We hoped that they would get a clue after 2006. No such luck. They are continuing to follow the same failed strategy that gets us the same results every election.
sanford to the feds: no thanks
I love this guy. Send him to D.C.
Governor Sanford says — we don’t want your money, feds:
In 2008 bailouts became the first resort. Over the past year the federal government has committed itself to $2.3 trillion (including the tax rebate “stimulus” checks of last February) to “improve” the economy. I don’t see how another $150 billion now will make a difference in a global slowdown. We’ve already unloaded truckloads of sugar in a vain attempt to sweeten a lake. Tossing in a Twinkie will not make the difference.
However, there is something Congress can do: free states from federal mandates. South Carolina will spend about $425 million next year meeting federal unfunded mandates. The increase in the minimum wage alone will cost the state $2.6 million and meeting Homeland Security’s REAL ID requirements will cost $8.9 million.
Based on what I saw in Washington, the bailout train is being loaded up. Taxpayers will have to speak up now to change its freight, tab or departure.
Everybody wants a free lunch. It’s hard for governors to turn down money from the feds, especially because, as Governor Sanford says, there are plenty of federal mandates that state governments are responsible for implementing even if they have to pay for them out of their own state budgets. I applaud Sanford for continuing to do the right thing, and for standing up for the taxpayers of this state. We need more Republicans like him at the federal level. I suspect this will be a tough goal to reach, because the Democrats will be given another chance to prove that this Congress will not be as worthless as the last one was. The national Republican party has some work to do to regain the trust of the country, and it can start with its own membership.
As long as Republicans refuse to learn from 2006 and 2008, continue to bury their heads in the sand, and continue to reshuffle the deck chairs of the SS GOP to put the same people who gave us John McCain in charge of our next election campaign, WE WILL CONTINUE TO LOSE ELECTIONS.
More on this in a future post…
making stuff up
You know that story about Sarah Palin not knowing that Africa is a continent? Total fabrication. Even the New York Times admits it. Credit the New York Times for finally reporting the correct story, but the damage has already been done. The truth doesn’t matter when the media has a reputation to destroy, and they have done their worst to Sarah Palin. While my fellow conservatives have sometimes overemphasized the liberal slant of news coverage, during this election the media did choose sides, and their side won. Can’t these guys enjoy the victory for awhile and attempt this “post-partisan” love-in we were all promised by President-elect Obama? The election is over. Let’s move on from the Sarah Palin wars and talk about this great new President-elect, ok?
As always…it’s too much to ask of them.
aftermath
The time has already come for assessing blame and naming those at fault for the McCain loss. It didn’t take long for anonymous McCain staffers to trash Sarah Palin (without having the guts to put their names on the allegations). That takes real courage, doesn’t it? The debate isn’t over Sarah Palin’s qualifications or knowledge of foreign affairs. That one’s been lost, because even though most of us like her, we know her limitations as a VP candidate. This is about these anonymous McCain people blaming her for their failures.
I want to know who these people are and how much influence they had in whatever vetting process took place before Palin’s selection. If they were involved in her selection, believing that she wasn’t ready for the job, and yet telling McCain to pick her anyway, that’s political malpractice. It could just be that McCain ignored those people to pick Sarah, and they don’t want to be blamed for what many people see as a bad choice by McCain. Whatever scenario you want to believe, it doesn’t reflect the McCain campaign in a positive light.
One mistake that was made in the Palin selection was that the McCain campaign had to spend valuable campaign time defending Sarah’s record and qualifications — time that could have been spent defining McCain’s own message. The goal was to make the case for himself and explain why Barack Obama would be a risky choice for America. Even with the pick of Governor Palin, and the diversion it may have caused in the campaign, there were clear opportunities for John McCain to make that case, and he wasn’t able to do it. That’s not Sarah Palin’s fault.
It was going to be an uphill battle against Barack Obama, even if Republicans had a candidate a majority of us could support. The results shouldn’t surprise anybody, taking into account the current President’s unpopularity and the damaged Republican brand over the past 8 years. But it would have been a worse loss without Governor Palin on the ticket. She energized the base and got McCain more Republican votes than he would have gotten with any other pick. She deserves credit for that, and most of the blame for a mismanaged McCain effort should go to his campaign team, not to her.
history
Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama. It’s truly a historic achievement, and I’m proud of my country for finally breaking this barrier that has been in place for a very long time. He ran a great campaign, and he was able to blunt all the Republican arguments against him without much effort. There will be more said about the missed opportunities by the McCain campaign, and many second-guessers will analyze the failures of that campaign for years to come.
Barack…we have given you an opportunity to lead this nation. Don’t change it too much.
The United States of America is still a great country. That greatness stems from the hard work and dedication of our citizens. Our strength has always been in our people and in our awesome military. We can take comfort in the fact that America’s success or failure is not determined by our politicians. Each and every one of us can and will make adjustments to our lives based on political realities, but it’s even more important that we keep fighting. I intend to hold our next President accountable, and for the sake of this country, I want him to make the right decisions in domestic and foreign policy. That’s what country first should mean — putting our country before any political party advantage. Many tough decisions will have to be made in the next 4 years, and it is in America’s best interest that President-elect Obama makes the right decisions.
Today we give Barack credit for making history. Tomorrow we get to work fighting him on policy issues.
for entertainment purposes only
Oh no… Obama is so much like Bush!!! This link to similarities between President Bush and Barack Obama’s rhetoric / record is posted merely for the expected leftist meltdown it would cause. Of course, the writer also notes when Obama has changed his position to mirror that of the Bush administration. Good stuff. For the record, I do not expect a third Bush term from Barack Obama. That’s much less likely than getting some policy mind melds from fierce opponents President Bush and Senator McCain.
Happy Election Eve, everyone. Go vote for McCain tomorrow.