Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Friday, September 23, 2011

Yawn, Another Republican Debate. Color Me Underwhelmed



Well Fox news and Google paired up to give us another Republican debate last night.  I’m told that sales of whips and chains fell drastically on Thursday because S&M perverts figured out that a better form of torture was on Fox News.  Why is it that in the run up to what is arguably the most important presidential election in our history, after all the town hall activity, outrage at Washington’s disregard of the will of the people, Tea Party protests, unconstitutional intrusions into our lives by an out of control federal government and a President that is an obvious Marxist or more probably a Stalinist, we can’t seem to come up with a field of candidates for the Republican nomination that are inspirational?  Oh some have a little excitement potential, (see Herman Cain) but none are real standouts.
Rick Perry continues to prove me right as watching him in a debate is like observing Forrest Gump discuss quantum physics with Albert Einstein.  The look on his face is painful to watch as his wooden gears up there grind and smoke as you picture a thought bubble above his head with “thinkin is purty hard” written in it.  I would say he is an embarrassment to the state of Texas if that slot had not already been filled by Sheila Jackson Lee and another contender for the Republican nom named Ron Paul.  At one point Perry sputtered out a string of unintelligible verbiage that had the audience thinking “Wow, I didn’t know he spoke fluent Klingon”. 

Of course Mittens continues to inspire me…………… to stick my head in the oven.  While Romney has learned how to at least answer most of the questions correctly, past statements make you wonder how sincere those answers are.  He looks good, but that is what drew people to Barry Obama, I expect a little substance from our candidate.  And am I the only one that looks at Romney and gets a mental picture of Joe Isuzu?  
Michelle Bachmann, I can’t say anything mean about the lady.  Not for southern chivalrous reasons because IMHO if a woman gets into politics she should suffer the same slings and arrows as a man.  I am not going to give you a pass just because you look good in a pair of pumps.  I mean, really, I don’t cut Ron Paul any slack for that.  No, I think Mrs. Bachmann is on the right side of every issue and I have no doubts about her sincerity.  I just don’t think she is quite smart enough for the top job.  And she has a habit of putting herself in hot water over spur of the moment comments.  As the Republican nominee the media microscope will amplify all those little goofs like a Fender amp trying to make her look like a loony tune. 

Probably my favorite out of the current crop of contenders is Herman Cain.  And unlike all those independent voters in 2008 I don’t like him for the color of his skin, I like him for the content of his character.  I agree with him on most issues and am a big fan of his 9,9,9 plan.  However he does not stand a chance because the media ignores him more than Ron Paul.  He just can’t get the coverage from them mostly because the left wing media gets the vapors thinking about the GOP running a real black man against their half black messiah.
Newt is impossible for me to figure out.  The man knows history, understands all the things that are destroying our republic, has a common sense response to almost all issues when ask, but has continually used poor judgment in the past on personal and political issues.  I like him, always have.  But don’t trust him any further than I can throw him.   I think he was a good Republican once, but Nancy Pelosi hopped off her broom and turned him into a Slimy Newt.

Santorum I just don’t know enough about.  And based on the way he was ignored last night I doubt I ever will.
Huntsman, Johnson and Paul I won’t even dignify with comment other than they should get out of the race now.  I am tired of the background noise. 
So, while we have a pretty large field right now, there are some major holes in it.  I don’t know how we can fill those and come up with a good candidate, you know, someone that will drive passion into the race, somebody that will shake things up, somebody that the left is really scared of, someone who will excite the base……….  No Idea………. Drawing a blank……… Nope nothing…….









Saturday, September 17, 2011

All About the Message

Ever hear a conservative talk about appealing to the middle?  I know, we have all heard it ad-nauseam.  So desperate are some to coax the all-so-important independents to our side in an election that they figuratively and literally will sell their souls to do it.  Every time we on the right talk about a candidate or a position this subject seems to rear its ugly head.  The result is that we end up settling for a candidate that is a squish at best and a moderate democrat in all but name at worst. (see John McCain)  Or a party platform that is as weak kneed as  Pee Wee Herman in a cage match with The Rock.
  
The puzzling part of this philosophy is that there is very little if any historical data to back its effectiveness.  In fact quite the opposite is true.  Ronald Reagan ran as a staunch conservative, the likes of which had not been seen in this country since Barry Goldwater.  He won in a landslide with 489 to 49 electoral votes over Jimmy Carter.  The margin was 50.7% to Carter’s 41.0% and that was with an Independent candidate in the race named John B. Anderson who only garnered 6.6%.  I guess about 34% out of the 40% Independents in this country weren’t so hot on their own guy there.  Hmmmm……
In his re-election after his first term in which he took the unprecedented step of actually doing much of what he promised during his campaign, and proving that he was, in fact, a “gasp” principled conservative, he won by an even larger margin against Walter Mondale.  In that election he won every state in the union except Minnesota which was Mondale’s home state.  That’s right, even the bluest of blue states like Massachusetts and Hawaii voted for this president’s real version of hope and change.

Riding on his coattails in 1988 his vice president George Herbert Walker Bush was elected to the top job.  Bush’s first two years were spectacular and led into the first Gulf War.  The first time since Vietnam that  this country had sent large numbers of troops into a conflict.  And the military under proper leadership, performed brilliantly in the most overwhelming victory between armed combatants the world had ever seen.  Bush’s popularity soared, eclipsing even his predecessor the great  Ronaldus Magnus.  During the campaign for his first term Bush famously made the statement “Read my lips, No New Taxes!”  But in a response to the democrats desperate attempt at creating an issue to beat him over the head with, Bush decided to renege on that earlier promise in a “by-partisan” attempt to address the federal debt.  (A debt by the way that was a whopping 3.2 trillion dollars vs the 14+ trillion the democrats don’t seem too concerned about today)   The result of this squishy reversal of principle by Bush was the fastest tumble in popularity ever seen in this country.  Bush’s approval rating tumbled from near 90% at the end of the Gulf War to the low 30’s.  Enter Billy Jeff and eight years of the oval office resembling a Hooters restaurant more than the seat of power. 


George Bush Jr. ran for the office in 2000, promising not a more conservative stance than the standard, but a new brand designed by Karl Rove to appeal to independents called “Compassionate Conservatism”  which was about as conservative as  Rosie O’Donnell is another June Clever. (although I do understand that she is worried about the beaver, but I digress.)  Bush the younger’s opponent was a real brain surgeon, the vice president under Bill Clinton, Al Gore.  The guy who stated that he had invented the internet, walked into Monticello with Bubba Clinton during a pre-inaugural visit and while looking at busts of George Washington, Ben Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette asked “And who are these people”.  Even democrats disliked the guy, but because he was the vice presidential incumbent, he got the nomination.  Bush should have beaten him by a landslide; instead “compassionate conservatism” won the day in the closest election in the country’s history. 


Four years later the democrats fielded another gem of a candidate.  The most liberal member of the Senate, John (Lurch) Kerry.  The guy was a walking punch line.  The volumes of material on this idiot was amazing, and even Bert or Ernie could have spanked him in an election.  Yet Bush barely eeked  out another victory.  
Enter the 2008 election season.  Send the kids, heart patients and pregnant women out of the room, this one is scary.  The democrats ran a blank slate, while there was appeal in the first black (or half black) man to gain the nomination of one of the two major parties, the lack of executive experience on this guy was astounding.  My pet collie has more credentials for office than Barack Hussein Obama did.  And the republicans put up a guy that made George Bush seem like Mark Levin.  John McCain was a war hero and no doubt a patriot.  But his policies ran right down the middle of the political spectrum.  That combined with his decision not to attack Obama on his record (or lack thereof), caused the crisis this nation finds itself faced with now.
On the other hand, witness the special election in New York’s 9th congressional district to replace Anthony (insert joke of choice here) Weiner.  A heavily Jewish district that has elected democrats to that seat for the past 88 years, this is the same seat that was once held by none other than Schmucky Shumer.  Geraldine Ferraro also held this seat, so this is not exactly a conservative bastion.  The democrats ran a Jewish member of the New York State Assembly named David Weprin for the seat.  The republicans ran a very conservative Roman Catholic fellow with no real political background by the name of Bob Turner.  This should have been a slam dunk for the democrat, there were even 1000 democrat operatives hauling voters to the polls.  Turner had the audacity to run for public office in this very democratic district on a platform that was loudly anti-abortion, he called for the abolishment of the EPA, and to cut funding for the Department of Education in half.  Why this Nazi even wants to eliminate the capital gains tax and end all government subsidies.  He must be a racist.  I bet he even eats babies for breakfast……  So after the democrat kicked his butt ………….  WHAT?........ HE WON?????  How can that be???????  Perhaps, just perhaps, a strong, unapologetic, conservative stance on issues can win.  Even in a heavily left of center area of the country. 
 
We have always argued that we win in the arena of ideas.  If the debate is honest and the conservative view is direct and does not allow the Alinsky machine in the press to set the narrative or label them, we will win every time.  In the past few decades when the democrats or the press level an unfair attack on conservatives they have ducked their head and slinked off to their corner.  Ronald Reagan refused to allow them to label him.  He got in their face, showed character and principle and espoused conservative values proudly proclaiming their benefits from the treetops.
 
We should all keep these things in mind while considering our next presidential candidate.  Otherwise we may well slide over the cliff toward becoming a third world nation.        







Sunday, September 4, 2011

Labor Day, America’s May Day.


Most of us think of Labor Day as that date that marks the end of the summer season when we all get one last day of BBQ and beer consumption prior to the chill in the air that is sure to come.  What many do not know is the real history of the holiday and what it represents other than the day you can no longer wear white in society circles.  Primarily Labor Day is America’s version of International Workers Day or May Day.  
In the late 19th century Karl Marx’s writings were gaining a lot of attention and his ideas embraced by many early progressives all over the world.  One place they really caught on was in the labor movement.  One fellow that was especially enamored with Marx was a German Immigrant in Chicago by the name of August Spies.  Spies was a member of the socialist workers party and a well known anarchist.  On May 4th 1886 he gave a rousing speech to a large crowd of striking workers at a rally in Haymarket Square.  Later that night as tensions (and no doubt alcohol) began getting out of control, one of his fellow anarchists threw a pipe bomb into the crowd of police officers there to disperse the crowd.  The ensuing battle was known as the HayMarket Massacre.  During the melee about 60 officers were wounded and an unknown number of civilians.  Eight policemen and at least four workers were killed.
Unions and Socialists and the combination thereof around the world were outraged by the incident and by 1890 Socialist groups in France (of course) called for demonstrations on May first of each year to commemorate the event.  By 1894 the commemoration had spread to socialist unions all over the world including the United States.  Union leaders in the states pushed for a federal holiday to be created to officially pay tribute to the incident.  One of those union leaders by the name of Eugene V. Debs, leader of the American Railway Union, led a nationwide strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894.  Debs was a democrat at the time but later joined the American Socialist Party (hmmmm) and ran for president several times.  He instructed his members to refuse to hook up or handle Pullman cars nationwide and 125,000 railroad workers did just that.  Since Pullman cars made up a large part of the railroad fleet at the time, virtually every single railroad in the country ground to a halt.  Finally since the strike interfered with the delivery of the US mail, president Grover Cleveland sent in federal marshals and 12,000 troops to break up the strike.  Of course violence broke out and thirteen strikers were killed and fifty seven wounded before the strike was broken. 
 
Later, in order to “mend fences” with organized labor and help defuse the situation Grover Cleveland pushed though a bill to identify Labor Day as an official federal holiday.  This date coincided with a annual celebration conducted each year by the Central Labor Union of New York and ended the calls for an official recognition of May Day in the United States.
   So, on this Labor Day, while you enjoy your beer and BBQ, remember that you are enjoying your day off work because the United States of America chose to embrace a socialist holiday.  Enjoy.       




Saturday, September 3, 2011

Project Much?

Democrats do, anytime you want to know what a democrat is guilty of, just listen to what he or she accuses you  of.  Dictionary.com defines “projection” as “The attribution of one’s own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naïve or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt.”  The only part of that definition that does not apply to democrats is the “naïve or unconscious” part.  They know exactly what they are doing and have gotten very good at getting the feeble minded groups that make up their voting blocks to buy it.  
Let’s start with racism.  Every democrat under the sun uses that brand to mark his or her political opponent at least a dozen times a week.  So much so in fact that the ploy is rapidly losing its effectiveness  at shutting down debate.  Oh it worked well for a long time, so much so that the modern liberal has a hard time giving up on the practice.  And since they don’t learn very fast, I expect that tactic to remain in the socialist playbook for some time to come.  But let’s examine just a few facts about democrats and racism.  First, history, to hear the left tell it every single slave owner in the old antebellum south was a Reagan Republican right wing hater.  The fact is that virtually all of them were democrats.  And it was democrats that started and filled the ranks of the KKK.  During the 60’s democrats as a party opposed any and all civil rights legislation.  Today democrats have a vested interest in keeping blacks poor and in victim status, and for some reason that escapes me, that keeps them coming to the polls and casting votes for democrats.  And every single thing they have done to supposedly “help” black folks in this country has had the opposite effect.  I could write a book on this subject alone, but the bottom line is that in the blackest areas of the country, where democrats have been in control for decades and had virtually unlimited funds to apply toward helping the local population, black people are poorer and less likely to succeed than ever before.  Even Rainman could improve the lot of black Americans with the resources they have had, “definitely need to cut local business and property taxes to attract new companies, definitely, uh-oh, uh-oh, time for Wapner”   

The left also continually screams that we on the right don’t care about the education of our children.   So lets’ look at some facts.  Every single time the right has suggested “real” improvements in our educational system, school system accountability, merit based pay for teachers, school vouchers  and curriculum changes that go back to teaching time proven basics, the left has opposed those changes and in an ironic schizophrenic rage declared that we want to destroy the minds of our younger generation.   They, on the other hand, propose only that we continue to dump billions more dollars into a failed system that props up teacher unions and the status quo.  Because every dollar of taxpayer money we pump into the teacher unions means more money donated by them to the campaign war chests of the DNC.  You want to know how much the left cares about children?  They care enough to protect  a practice that murders millions of them every year in the womb, that’s how much.  Saying that democrats are all about the children is like saying Adolf Hitler was all about building synagogues.
One of my favorites is the democrat claim that Republicans are in the pocket of big business.  They make this claim because of the occasional desire on the part of some Republicans to roll back or restrict regulation and corporate taxes that drive industry overseas.  The democrats on the other hand are actually in the pocket of big business providing favors for corporate lobbyists and bailouts for big businesses that don’t even need them.  Just to insure that they get that fat check for the campaign war chest and a nice little cushy consulting or lobbyist job that pays millions when the voters of that particular district finally wise up and eject them from the capital.  Ever wonder how someone like Harry Reid can go to Washington without two red cents to rub together and end up being one of the richest people in the political class?  It’s because he sells influence.  Don’t get me wrong, both sides are guilty of this, but the democrats are especially rotten on the issue.  This is why we must declare war on the political class in this country.  It is the only way this process will end.  But the left not only is in the pocket of big business, they are in there with both hands.
Of course the communists often talk about the corruption on the right.  This has to be the most laughable complaint they have about the right.  Nazi Pelosi declared upon assuming her throne as Speaker of the House and Wicked Witch of the West in 2007 that the era of corruption in congress was over and she was going to “drain the swamp”.  One of those Washington snakes must have plugged up that drain because she ended up presiding over the most corrupt bunch of democrats in the history of that institution.  (and that is really saying something)  We were to uncover case after case of democrats on the take, not paying taxes, not declaring income, receiving illegal gifts, breaking their own house rules and even perversion.  Nancy’s house democrats made Bernie Madoff look like a saint.  Them calling republicans corrupt was like Pamela Anderson calling Mother Teresa a slut.   
So the next time you hear a democrat make a claim that we are outlaws, better check the post office wall for their picture.


h/t Sultry Beauty