Posted on Random Musings

i don’t get it

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) won’t seek re-election to the Senate.

Looks like the Democrat juggernaut is running into a few problems on its way to liberal utopia.  It’s not just Republican obstructionists or tea partiers getting in the way of the Democrat agenda.  Some Democrats, like Evan Bayh, object to the focus of this administration being on cap-and-trade and health care instead of jobs and the economy.  Not all of those Dems are willing to take on their party openly, so there’s still enough votes in Congress to do some serious damage, but the growing vocal opposition from members of their own party has to be a serious concern for the majority party going forward and into the midterms this year.

It amuses me to read speculation that Senator Bayh is thinking about running for President again.  He has tried this before, without much success, if I remember his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it presidential campaign accurately. Guess I must have missed the awesome groundswell of public support that would make him believe he has a better shot in 2012 or 2016 than he did in his first run for the Oval Office.   Anything’s possible in politics…except Evan Bayh becoming President of the United States.

I don’t understand why party elitists insist the moderates are the key to electoral success.  They don’t stand for anything.  They are just as likely to vote against you as they are to vote with you.   There are numerous examples of this happening with both parties.   At least with those who call themselves conservatives or liberals, you generally know where they stand.   In this case, Pelosi, Reid, and company are alienating the moderates from the Democratic party because of their insistence on pushing an unpopular agenda.   I applaud this.    Let’s keep this flawed strategy going, Dems.  You are doing an excellent job.

Posted on Democrats, George W. Bush, Iraq, Liberals

not likely

Our lovable Vice President Joe Biden talking to Larry King:

I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

I spent — I’ve been there 17 times now. I go about every two months — three months. I know every one of the major players in all of the segments of that society. It’s impressed me. I’ve been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.

I’m obviously blinded by my anti-Obama bias, because it’s not clear to me how this administration gets credit for Iraq.

I would say that the credit for that should go to President Bush, just like the credit / blame for deficits, the stimulus, the bailouts,  and every struggle that our new President has to deal with right now.   Didn’t President Obama run for president as an anti-war candidate?  Why yes.  Didn’t VP Biden propose that Iraq be divided up into three partitions to keep the peace there? Yes again. It takes an incredible amount of nerve for this administration to attempt this argument when President Obama has opposed the war from the beginning.   But it could just be VP Biden talking out of school, as he is often prone to do…

Fair is fair.  If everything previous to the Obama administration is Bush’s fault (and Iraq is part of that), then any success there should be credited not to President Obama, but to his predecessor.

Now, that said — if Iraq becomes a stable ally to the United States, and a useful partner in that dangerous region of the world, ultimately I don’t care who gets the credit.   The end game is far more important to me than political points for Republicans or Democrats.

Posted on Conservatives, Editorials, Republicans

can’t we all just get along?

Well..NO.

There are principles worth fighting for in all these debates.  There are battles worth taking on here with health care, the future direction of our military, and how to create a business-friendly climate for the creation of much-needed jobs — all these need to have solid policy prescriptions.  When we feel that our concerns are not being addressed by the President and Congress, it is our responsibility and our obligation as citizens to speak out and demand alternatives.  It’s not about demonizing anyone or name-calling.  It’s about stopping bad policy before it’s too late to change course.   There are those who would say that unity is the ultimate goal and bipartisanship is the ideal objective in our politics.  I believe that America is strong enough to handle differences in opinion, no matter how passionately felt on either side.   We don’t get a stronger America by embracing groupthink merely to get along with our liberal / conservative friends and colleagues.

Some issues cannot be open to compromise if we care about the future of this great country.  Health care is one of those issues.   Giving government more control over that part of the private sector,  whether it is through excessive regulation or partial nationalization,  is a horrible idea.  Our battle is not with our fellow Americans.  The battle, my friends, is with the entrenched Washington insiders playing games with the federal budget and trying to force policies on us that will continue to damage our economy.   If that makes me someone who is mean, evil, and (oh no!) not compassionate, then I wear the badge with honor and distinction, and ask my fellow conservative malcontents to do the same.

Disagree?  Feel free to comment.

Posted on Democrats, George W. Bush, Liberals

well…yeah

What Alan Bock said in the OC Register:

It’s not that there isn’t a good deal of truth in such criticisms of the ways of a “Washington” he invoked more as an epithet than a place. But at what point does a president of the United States take responsibility for his part in feeding the atmosphere of distrust?

Barack Obama has been president for a little more than a year, during which time his party has had a theoretically filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (a rare occurrence) and a substantial majority in the House. During that time he has engaged in a goodly share of partisan sniping while making only empty gestures toward the will-o-the-wisp of bipartisan cooperation. He’s the ultimate insider. Yet he took no responsibility for the poisonous atmosphere in Washington, trying to make believe that he is still quite above it all.

Yep.  You can only convincingly run against Washington when you aren’t part of its culture of failure.  That’s part of the reason for Scott Brown’s success in Massachusetts.  At some point  — and God only knows when this will happen — the statute of limitations on blaming Bush will run out and President Obama will have to take responsibility for his own actions.  Until then, we all must suffer through complex explanations of why the consequences of Democrat / Obama policies are all Bush’s fault.  Yay.

It’s going to be a very long three years…

Posted on War on Terror

not good

From AEI (h/t The Corner):

News has surfaced that the Yemeni government intends to build a terrorist rehabilitation center with an $11 million grant from the United States within the next three months.  Reuters reported on January 27, 2010 that the terrorist rehabilitation center will house Yemeni detainees returning from Guantanamo Bay.[1] Currently, Guantanamo Bay is home to 91 Yemeni detainees.  Yemen is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – the al Qaeda franchise that deployed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to conduct the Christmas Day attack in the skies over Michigan.  Recent experience with the better-funded Saudi rehabilitation program and the Yemeni security forces raises serious questions about the reliability of any such Yemeni effort.

I’ll try to remain calm.   $11 million grant out of US taxpayer pockets — headed to Yemen.  To “rehabilitate” terrorists.  As that sage John McEnroe often said… YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!  Previous posts have questioned the success of the Saudi program.  There isn’t a track record of former terrorists to point to in Saudi Arabia that would suggest that our tax dollars would be well spent in other countries duplicating this program, and especially in Yemen, which has become another terrorist haven.  This madness must stop.

Posted on Random Musings

brown wins

Congratulations to Senator-elect Brown.  Nice win in one of the bluest of blue states in the nation.  Who would have thought that Massachusetts of all states would possibly save us from ObamaCare?  Amazing.

With that said,  this is another case of a generally unappealing Democratic candidate, who demonstrated how out of touch she was with the people she was seeking to represent, and lost as a result of that.  This election does suggest a growing distrust of the Democrats and the Washington agenda.  That’s an encouraging sign going into the next election.  But can Republicans take advantage of this opportunity?

Posted on Random Musings

non- political slightly deep thoughts

1) Jay Leno must have incriminating pics of NBC execs. I can think of no other reason why NBC is picking Leno over Conan, especially because they were the ones who chose Leno’s successor in the first place. And BTW, I think Conan is an obnoxious frat boy with annoying hair, but once NBC picked Conan, one would think they would want to keep him. Very strange drama here.

2) Same with Lane Kiffin and his hire by USC. What was SC thinking there? A guy who went 7-6 at Tennessee? That’s the guy who’s going to continue Carroll’s success at USC? Really?

Posted on War on Terror

terrorist rehab – massive fail

ABC News (h/t Cliff May, NRO):

The leader of the al Qaeda group that claimed responsibility for trying to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day was released from the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorists on the condition that he be sent to a terrorist rehab center in Saudi Arabia.  The rehabilitation of terrorist Said Ali al-Shihri was an obvious failure and it now raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s plan to send another 100 Yemeni prisoners from Gitmo to Saudi rehab camps in an effort to empty the Gitmo prison and close it down.

You don’t say.  I’m shocked, shocked, that terrorist rehab based in Saudi Arabia gets these results.  I wonder what their 12 steps are.