This time George Bush is the victim, not the perpetrator.
Barack Obama's presidential victory was awesome. And the shock in the White House was palpable. Americans repudiated the folly, brutality and incompetence of the Dubya years. This is a moment of history to relish. The stakes were as high as the Berlin Wall, and the election outcome may come to rank alongside that iconic fall.
But when the church bells stop ringing, let's have a reality check. General Euphoria is not a reliable Commander in Chief. It is too easy to get lost in admiration, joy and a sense of triumph over a barbarous regime's end. We will all have to come down to earth with a bump, and disillusion may come more swiftly than people might wish. The portents of disenchantment a real ready visible.
While Gordon Brown jostles with French president Nicolas Sarkozy to be first to shake Obama's hand, powerful men in the shadows are naming their price for a special relationship with the black man in the White House. The price is high, it is military and it is non-negotiable.
Only hours before voters went to the polls, Obama's aides briefed British reporters. The new president will play hardball. There will be no honeymoon in transatlantic relations. Europe will be expected to end the anti-Americanism of the Bush years and "pull its weight". Britain gets to ride point for Nato in the Afghan war.
President Obama will demand that Brown commits an extra 3,000 British troops to fight the Taliban next year, when our forces are pulled out of Iraq. This is on top of the 8,000-plus already in theatre, in a war that has lasted longer than the first World War and which does not offer a "decisive military victory", according to Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, our most senior commander in Afghanistan.
Britain's massively increased military commitment is seen as a key element in a US "surge" of troops, similar to the operation credited with bringing peace of sorts to Iraq. But Colonel Tim Collins, the respected Iraq war veteran, says there is "no capacity or appetite to take part in that surge" among our top brass. No? So what shall we tell the President?
He will not easily take 'No' for an answer. And that's when we will see whether the Obama-Brown relationship is something new, progressive and mutually beneficial - or simply a re-run of Bush-Blair. Back in the poodle parlour!
In their jihad against al-Qaeda, American forces are gradually extending the war into Pakistan. There are more than a million Asian Britons with family ties there. If the price of pleasing Obama is riots in Bradford and Blackburn, it is too high.
#1
Europe's foolish embrace of Obama will now be rewarded with a US president who sees Muslim immigrants to Europe more favorably than Europeans. Europe is now the enemy.
#2
Europe will be expected to end the anti-Americanism of the Bush years and "pull its weight". Britain gets to ride point for Nato in the Afghan war.
I wish.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/07/2008 8:22 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Setting aside the moronic Mirror editorialising, what's threatened here is mostly good for Britain and Europe. Britain has neglected its military strength for decades and is at the moment over-stretched. There shouldn't be any slackening after an Iraq withdrawal which would allow Labour to have another hack at it. As for Europe, those cheapskate freeloaders haven't paid their way for decades.
If people riot in Bradford and Blackburn we'll all know where we stand. Let Labour's bleeding hearts try to apologise for that.
#7
One of the good things to come out of having a typical third world autocrat in the White House, is that Europe will find out how much their own hyper liberal lifestyle owed to the the "primitive barbarians" of USA. One might say that Europe is like a rebellious adolescent, now leaving his parents home for the first time. Good luck boys & girls trying to live on your own.
#8
Chirac's ilk's cherished multi-polar world is probably on its way as the US consigns itself to a period of insularity, shrinking economy and reduced military influence overseas. It's what they wished for. I'm sure Europe find Putin, the Sheiks and China delightfully benign...
#9
Brutal and barbaric? There's more of that nuanced, precisely analytical, and coolly rational language that our betters in the "creative" class are so well known for. But pay me no mind, I'm still trying to figure out what was so bad about Nixon.
Posted by: Some One Not The One ||
11/07/2008 16:44 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I do believe that a lot of people are going to look back on the Bush years with nostalgia before the next presidential election in 2012.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/07/2008 19:49 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I do believe that a lot of people are going to look back on the Bush years with nostalgia before the next presidential election in 2012.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/07/2008 19:49 Comments ||
Top||
The word among GOP insiders here in Georgia is that Newt Gingrich is considering throwing his name in the hat to be the next Chairman for the RNC.
As Georgia Republican Leadership meet today to plan for the expected run-off of Saxby Chambliss against Jim Martin, my sources tell me Gingrich is having meetings to discuss his own race.
Newt is best known for leading the charge for the Contract with America. It is this famed Contract that has been credited for the Republican take-over of the US House and Senate in 1994. It is also well believed among traditional Republicans that it has been the abandonment of this contract by elected Republicans that has lead to their downfall.
I think Newt has a rare, true leadership ability to make things happen, and speak clearly on the principles of conservatism. He isnt perfect, but Im all for him taking this position. It would be a step in the right direction.
#1
I admire and respect Newt for his intelligence and his commitment to conservative principles. While far from perfect, his ability to clearly and effectively communicate the benefits of conservative governance for all Americans is needed now more than ever.
It took only 36 hours for President-elect Barack Obama to take the off ramp from the Change We Can Believe In Highway and slam his foot on the gas in the express lanes of the Chicago Way.
Because with his first official act, Obama selected a Chicago Daley machine guy for his chief of staff, U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Tomczak).
So much for transcending politics as we know it, eh? . . .
Among Chicago politicians, the Emanuel announcement was treated with enthusiasm. But it was enthusiasm of the political salivary gland at the prospect of federal pork and leverage. . . .
As they say in Chicago, they can smell the meat a'cooking ...
Washington media types talk about him as a Clinton guy, but Emanuel is really a Chicago City Hall guy. At City Hall, the unwritten rule is we don't want nobody nobody sent. The guy who sent Emanuel to then-candidate Bill Clinton in 1991 is named Daley. Bill Daley, the mayor's brother.
Loyal readers know why I put the (D-Tomczak) at the end of Emanuel's name. It refers to the corrupt Daley administration Water Department boss, Donald Tomczak, now in federal prison in Duluth, Minn. He sits there because he was convicted of bribery. Emanuel didn't have anything to do with that. But he was a political beneficiary of Tomczak and the Chicago Way.
Two years ago, at the federal trial of Mayor Daley's patronage chiefs--who were eventually convicted for building an illegal political army of city patronage workers to maintain the mayor's control on Chicago--Tomczak was a key witness.
And he testified that he was ordered to put his political regiments on the streets in 2002 to elect Emanuel and defeat a liberal Democratic grass-roots candidate. The mayor put hundreds of political hacks on the city payroll stumping for Emanuel back then. Tomczak controlled them. They were afraid not to work the precincts. It was the only way for them to get promotions.
Emanuel was elected. So if there wasn't a Tomczak, putting the army out for Emanuel, then Emanuel wouldn't have been in Congress. Emanuel really can't stand it when I mention Tomczak, and he has told me so, personally. He's entitled.
"You're right," he said in a newsroom confrontation a few years ago. "You keep mentioning him in connection with me in your column. That bothers me because I'm more than that."
I agree. He's an able political infighter, and if you were in a fight, you'd probably want Emanuel with you. He's smart and ruthless, and he knows politics. Perhaps that's why Obama chose him. But it's not reform.
The 5th District will now need a new congressman. That decision will be made by another Emanuel ally who never gets the proper credit from the Washington media: the prince of Rush Street and Aruba, state Sen. James DeLeo (D-How You Doin?).
DeLeo is the Democratic state central committeeman of Emanuel's district. He has known Obama and Emanuel for years. He's also been quite busy lately, worried about reports that the FBI is interested in his activities, from leasing luxury cars like Bentleys and Jaguars, to billboard companies, and his longtime relationship with newly indicted Republican power broker William Cellini.
But I called his office anyway, to ask whom he would choose to succeed Emanuel in the U.S. House and whether he'll consult the new White House chief of staff on a replacement.
"He's not available," said his secretary.
Is Jimmy in Aruba at the casino?
"No," she said.
Is he on vacation, getting a suntan?
"No," she said. "He's in town. I'll take a message."
I'm still waiting for the call. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
11/07/2008 11:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What an amazing period in American politics. I personally didnt vote for Obama but am truly inspired by the positivity and global reaction resulting from his election, at least so far. His energy is addicting and his demeanor inspiring. I think Rahm Emanuel will do a phenomenal job as Obamas chief of staffs. Hes hard nosed, stubborn, and wont take no for an answer.
Obamas story is truly American. Id wish to dive into Obamas mind and discover his motives and internal dialog. To go through a year of campaigning is very difficult, but to go through a year of campaigning and deliver a speech like he did that is truly inspirational. Im excited about to see how he really attacks global warming and the energy crisis.
Whats also fascinating is looking at the dynamic of who voted, how they voted, and what drove them to vote. Obamas campaign created a wave of energy that grew bigger and bigger as his campaign moved forward, engulfing (in a good way) each supporter and supercharging them. How did they do this? It all started with a vision. Obamas vision, planted deep within his mind, began to take root almost 2 years ago today. The power of his vision can teach every American citizen about how to accomplish goals using the powers of visualization and intention.
I looked into this vision questing further and found that many super-successful people have been using vision boards to help focus their mind and accomplish their dreams. A vision board is a collage of images pasted on a board that represent your desired outcomes, your goals, and dreams. By studying your vision board, your brain gains clarity on what is important to your success, the things you MUST accomplish.
Posted by: Large Sluque1680 ||
11/07/2008 13:34 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Where can I find a photo of Emmanuel in a leotard, or tutu?
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
11/07/2008 13:37 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Far out. Can you send me some of whatever you're on?
#7
"What an amazing period in American politics. I personally didnt vote for Obama but am truly inspired by the positivity and global reaction resulting from his election, at least so far. His energy is addicting and his demeanor inspiring. I think Rahm Emanuel will do a phenomenal job as Obamas chief of staffs. Hes hard nosed, stubborn, and wont take no for an answer. "
HEY....THAT WAS POSTED ON OUR BLOG HOOSIERS FOR FAIR TAXATION TOO! THE EXACT SAME THING!
OBAMA's campaign publicists are all over the net already searching out anything negative on Obama's cheat of staff
#8
I think Large Sluque just won Snark of the Day. That was meant to be satirical, right? I'd hate to think that someone would write such mush-brained rubbish and actually mean it.
#1
Yep, it's gonna be a bitch for them to actually have to solve problems instead of whining (or hitting the "present" button), especially with "allies" like the Kos Kiddies and MoveOn.
#2
They get about one to two years most of still getting away with blaming the Trunks [who will stupidly not fight back to point out that its been a Donk Congress for two years already - all of course in the name of 'bi-partisanship']. However, expect the scorpion to remain a scorpion.
#3
I also expect the avg American w/the 30 sec attention span will be pissed when the Obamamessiah can't deliver the goodies in 18 months.
I remember Bush saying the WoT would be a long hard slog. Apparently very few of my fellow countrymen remember the same. (the posters on this site not withstanding) I attribute that to our present culture and to the lying traitorous MSM who have actively distorted just about everything W has ever said.
#4
I think the dhimocrats will be blaming Bush for at least the next 4 years.
However, I agree with broadhead. They won't get more than 2 years of traction out of it and will over react and be tyrannical once they really start getting called to task.
#5
Funny you should mention that. We were just talking about it here at work. The concensus was he gets maybe 2 years of blaming Bush. After that, he's a piñata.
#6
And he can't put Michelle and Joe in a cave for two years. The MSM has to get circulation up or face extinction. They'll throw The One under the bus faster than he did Rev. Wright.
Ironically, the one thing that can save him is an attack from the Islamonazis. Like FDR he will be a disaster domestically, but a good war will save him. And he'd have the MSM behind him in propagandizing the home front because they are true believers in his socialist policies, and may b e rescued by them.
#7
One year of ass kissing only. If 2009 goes as badly as I expect, the dizzy bastards that gave leadership to the Dummos will be rethinking their lot in life. What will be amusing will be to watch Rahm run roughshod over Stretch Face. He already doesn't think too fondly of the fool. Watch Chicago politics gone national. She thinks she's tough. We'll find out.
Across the nation, not just in red states, citizens are arming themselves in preparation to defend themselves, their families and their constitutional rights in the wake of the media abetted, illegally funded, ballot box stuffed election this week.
The arming continues here, here, here, here, here and here. I can personally attest to this happening in New York. Ruger is even offering an Inaugural Special on high capacity Mini-14 magazines.
Many feel the outlook is bleak. The most radically leftist candidate ever has been elected president. Ordinary folks have seen the lack of serious inquiry by the main stream media into any aspect of his background. They see the direction the democrat party intends to take the country. Nationalization of the financial system, seizure of IRAs and 401ks, imposition of censorship on the few available conservative communications mediums, establishment of an internal security police force, indoctrination of our youth, revocation of our second amendment rights, the list goes on and on.
Read the whole thing at the link.
Posted by: DanNY ||
11/07/2008 09:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We'll see. If the republicans cave and start not filibustering the bills for this, I might stock up more myself. I think the chance for a Civil War is greater than what it was, but still under the 15% mark.
We'll know more as Obama moves into the White House.
#2
Sen. Robert Toombs... Gentlemen of The General Assembly, 13 Nov 60. An extract thereof.
The instant the Government was organized, at the very first Congress, the Northern States evinced a general desire and purpose to use it for their own benefit, and to pervert its powers for sectional advantage, and they have steadily pursued that policy to this day.
They demanded a monopoly of the business of ship-building, and got a prohibition against the sale of foreign ships to citizens of the United States, which exists to this day. Even the fishermen of Massachusetts and New England demand and receive from the public treasury about half a million of dollars per annum as a pure bounty on their business of catching codfish.
The North, at the very first Congress, demanded and received bounties under the name of protection, for every trade, craft, and calling which they pursue, and there is not an artisan in brass, or iron, or wood, or weaver, or spinner in wool or cotton, or a calicomaker, or iron-master, or a coal-owner, in all of the Northern or Middle States, who has not received what he calls the protection of his government on his industry to the extent of from fifteen to two hundred per cent from the year 1791 to this day.
They will not strike a blow, or stretch a muscle, without bounties from the government. No wonder they cry aloud for the glorious Union; they have the same reason for praising it, that craftsmen of Ephesus had for shouting, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," whom all Asia and the world worshipped.
With these vast advantages, ordinary and extraordinary, one would have supposed the North would have been content, and would have at least respected the security and tranquility of such obedient and profitable brethren; but such is not human nature. They despised the patient victims of their avarice, and they very soon began a war upon our political rights and social institutions, marked by every act of perfidy and treachery which could add a darker hue to such a warfare.
#3
Anyone remember the ATF and such agencies going after the "whites" in south GA and Florida swamps in the late 80's early 90's instead of pursuing Bin Laden and the likes .. This is what they where preparing for. Bet alot of ppl wished they had left them alone now.
Posted by: chris ||
11/07/2008 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Pfft. Toombs was an asshole.
I may be buying a gun for the first time in my life, but I won't be joining a 'militia'. Most of the chucklefucks you find in those groups either didn't vote, or voted for some worthless, crazed third party candidate.
Ugh. Trying to make the best of things, trying to hope for the least worst possible outcome.
At least the markets are indulging in a little dead-cat-bouncing today.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/07/2008 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
#7
If you were concerned about having weapons of self defense and the ammunition to feed them, you should have been thinking about that some time ago. Also you need the training to utilize these tools properly and safely.
Proactive, not reactive. Sun Tzu. Read him.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/07/2008 13:35 Comments ||
Top||
#8
A good crossbow, a strong slingshot, and the ability to create nasty surprises from just about anything are far more effective than any rifle. Rifles and pistols make noise. Crack someone's skull with a medium-sized rock (or half-inch ball bearings, which do a SUPER job), and all you hear is a dull thump as the victim falls. You have to be close - 12-25 feet - to be effective. If you need to stop someone farther away, a 150-lb crossbow firing plain wooden darts with fire-hardened points and common-bird fletches can reach out 50-150 yards and kill. I haven't killed anything with a crossbow in 20+ years, but the skills are still there. I probably do need some practice - guess I'd better hit the "range" before the snow's too deep.
The problem with trying to take over the United States is the same one our congresscritters have when they try to apply European-style culture on us - we're just too da$$$d big. There is no European country we can be compared with, and even trying to compare the US with ALL of Europe doesn't work. In Europe, it's difficult to drive 500 miles and not cross at least one national boundary. We have areas where towns are 20-30 MILES apart. There are few places in Europe where there isn't a town every 10 KILOMETERS - or less. Europeans tend to bunch up in cities, Americans tend to spread out in suburbs and rural areas. Just as it proved too difficult for the Germans to adequately manage even part of Russia, it would be all but impossible for the government of the United States to control more than small areas of this nation. Obama may talk all he wants, but the reality of the situation is against him.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/07/2008 20:08 Comments ||
Top||
. . . The finks turned to Newsweek and Fox News to spread petty rumors about Palins intellect and character. The magazine peddled anecdotes from sources horrified that Palin greeted top advisers at her hotel room gasp! wearing nothing but a towel and wet hair. Fox News reporter Carl Cameron breathlessly reported that his unnamed McCain sources told him Palin lacked a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate because, they claimed, she didnt know which countries were parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement and didnt understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself.
Lets assume for a moment that the McCain rumormongers are telling the truth about Palin (and I dont believe they are). Who would it damn more: Palin, or McCain and his vetters, who greenlighted her for the vice-presidential nomination? Dont need a fancy Ivy League degree to figure that one out.
In introducing her to America, McCain praised her independence and backbone: She stands up for whats right, and she doesnt let anyone tell her to sit down. The inside snipers are now roasting her for that very attribute redefined as going rogue because she had the nerve to try to schedule media interviews on her own. The nerve of her!
Palins response to the campaign fragging? At a late Wednesday night airport press conference in Anchorage, immediately upon landing home after the election defeat, she smiled cheerfully. The Alaska governor shrugged off the foolish things said by the McCain saboteurs, and simply said, Its politics. Its rough and tumble and youve got to have a thick skin just like Ive got.
Hollywood savaged Palin. Journalists mocked her. Liberal blogs slimed her. Opponents cursed her, Photoshopped her, hacked her e-mail, hanged her in effigy, called her bigot, Bible-thumper and bimbo, and attacked her husband and children. But nothing Palin endured during the election season compares to the treatment shes receiving from these backstabbing blabbermouths who worked on the same campaign she poured herself into over the last three months.
Sarah Palin worked her heart out. She energized tens of thousands to come out when they would have otherwise stayed home. She touched countless families. I didnt agree with everything she said on the campaign trail. But she vigorously defended the Second Amendment and the sanctity of life more eloquently in practice than any of the educated conservative aristocracy. And she did it all with a tirelessness and an infectious optimism that defied the shameless, bottomless attempts by elites in both parties to bring her and her family down.
Liberty needs a virtuous people to survive; self-governance requires virtuous leaders. Knowledgeability is a necessary trait in political life, but it is not sufficient. The elitist critics of Palin, so blindly enamored of Barack Obamas ability to hold forth for hours on theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, ignored the Founding Fathers counsel: Character counts. In times of adversity and crisis, it counts more than IQ points, instant trivia recall and bloviation skills. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
11/07/2008 08:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sarah Palin is absolutely wonderful. The question is whether we, as a nation, deserve to have such a good candidate. The answer to that question right now isn't known.
#2
With anyone other than Palin on the ticket, the election would have been the blowout that everyone was predicting and these carping weasels would have been drowned in the Democrat tsunami. Hopefully their identities will be noted and their new careers in the fast food industry dutifully chronicled.
#3
I can speak from personal experience that many who I deal with during the course of our activism were less than enthusiastic with John McCain, myself included and many veterans among that number.
Sarah Palin joining the ticket was the one thing that allowed me to cajole most of them back into the fight. She was the Hope in this election. A hope for a rebirth of conservatism.
That hope has been delayed, but it is not dead. I wouldn't blame her if she decides not to subject herself and her family to more abuse by the media in the future, but I wouldn't bet that she will take that route. I think she is a fighter. I think we will see more of her again soon.
Posted by: DanNY ||
11/07/2008 9:09 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Its politics. Its rough and tumble and youve got to have a thick skin just like Ive got.
She'll be just fine. I think she learned a lot then last few months. Like somebody said yesterday, politics is blood sport. And you better play it that way.
#6
A Romney supporter, I once said I would vote for Hillary before I would McCain because of his stance on immigration. Palin Power gave me hope. I think McCain's out-of-touch handlers were jealous of her appeal to Joe the Plumbers.
#7
Palin more closely represents the original concept of political leadership envisioned by our Founders. Unfortunately our country no longer much represents the concept of our Founders.
#8
If I were to knock on Governor Palin's hotel room door and she were to come to the door wearing nothing but a towel and wet hair, I expect my thought processes would go something like this:
Stage 1: Yes! Yesssss! The atheists are wrong. There is a God, and he wants us to be happy! He hath shown me a vision of Heaven--
Stage 2: You fool! Stop looking! Avert your eyes, AVERT YOUR EYES! I hope Todd didn't see me looking at her like that, he'll kill me! I really hope she can't read minds! I humbly ask the intercession of St. Dismas, patron saint of prisoners and the condemned, . . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
11/07/2008 13:08 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Wel-l-l, POPULAR HOLLYWEIRD STEREOTYPES > in most of the 'Wood's History, African-AMericans have tended to be closely linked wid various types of pan-societal negative controversies, and base criminal andor corruptive, pervertive influences.
* POST-ELECTION > IT STRONGLY APPEARS THAT POTUS-ELECT OBAMA + NEW ADMIN WILL BE NO EXCEPTION, AS PER MYRIAD MSM-NET NEWS ARTICLES ON AMER'S LOOMING ECONOMIC AND GEOPOL PROBS = WOES DISRUPTIONS + CHAOSES AFTER JAN. 2009 THRU 2012.
You know, I realized there is a hell of a difference in the reactions to a loss - and their philosophical roots, and how that relates to the Palin bashing going on by McCain's staff and the "establishment" effete elites.
Notice we real conservatives are all discussing how we can fix the GOP - what's wrong, the mistakes that were made, and how we need to return to our root principles, and looking at the things the other side did right (like fund raising, internet, and campaigning for the mail-in voters not just election day voters). And we are also asking how we can oppose Obama without damaging the nation.
Compare this to the liberals in 2004 - screaming about "Bush Hitler", etc, and blaming everybody but themselves and their poor candidate. Wanting to LOSE a war in order to gain political power - putting the nation and its military at risk in their lust for power.
That's because Conservatives believe that Man is flawed, and we need to expect mistakes, learn from the errors, and correct them. Our basic principles give us *faith* that no matter how bad things get, we have our principles and faith to fall back on. We realize our principles, timeless, tested and proven, will last and will eventually help us correct ourselves so long as *we* step up to the task. It is up to the individual to do so and be accountable for himself, and to himself.
Compare that to the liberals who believe Man is perfectible, and all they need to do is find the right system to impose, and believe all the slogans, and have the power force people to obey it. If there is a failure it is not the fault of the candidate or the system, since they both "work" by theory, the candidate believes in all the right things and therefore its not his fault, and the rules were all made by smart people and therefore are infallible so failure is not their fault.
Therefore it is always someone else fault, someone malevolent who has decided to oppose them and deliberately mess things up -- be it 9/11 or Bushhitler's Halliburton war for Big Oil, or evil handgun owner or pro-lifers. So the liberals need to find the evil opposition instead of admitting and correcting the mistakes they made themselves -- and if they cannot find the evil, they will manufacture it out od thin air and fantasy. Furthermore, since the enemy is by definition evil since they are a threat to the perfection of their smart people's system, that enemy must be punished or destroyed -- and for the good of the many, any and all means of destroying the individual are acceptable.
They believe their brains or social status means they will always be correct and the rest of the population, those outside the country club and elites universities are simpletons and little people, who must shut up and obey their betters.
For them to admit that the individual is fallible and the system possibly mistaken, means their core philosophy is wrong - something they cannot accept. If man is not perfectible or the system is flawed, then they have failed and must accept that no system exists which will bring about their utopia -- the penultimate nightmare for the elitists: they are exposed as being no better and no different than all those "little people" they want to order around. Even worse for them, THEY are responsible for the consequences of their actions. So its far easier to blame someone else, no matter how psychotic they become in the process.
Given that basic philosophical outlook, the actions of the McCain staff are very revealing. They are the actions of liberals, of "system" people who think they are smarter than anyone else and should be obeyed. They fail to admit that McCain made major errors, their campaign was flawed strategically (never made a case for a real reason to vote FOR him) , tactically (did not go after opponents flaws, waited too late and lost all the early voters, took welfare instead of raising own funds and got outspent 7:1) and philosophically (based on "bipartisanship" mush that never stood for much of anything).
McCain's campaign is acting like a pack of liberals.
McCain's staffers and the rot they display show them to be quite clearly members of the latter case, the liberal way of behaving. Sarah Palin represents a mortal threat to those types with the hand-me-down high society and snobbery, so they will try to destroy her and anyone like here by any means they have at hand. They have no principles to restrain them, so lying and other things like that are not beyond the pale for them. So McCain's staff joins the George Will snobbery pile-opn, and their accomplices in the liberal press are more than willing to help.
Now for the situation at hand:
I have had enough of defending Bush's stupidity for 8 years (open borders, Harriet Myers for Supreme court, his cronyism at FEMA, Chertoff as DHS, etc). I doubt I could stomach 4 years of defending a jerk like McCain who has liberals all around him - and who is now philosophically fellating Reid and Senate Dems like a spineless toady.
Now that I see McCain's fecklessness for what it is when it comes to stopping this hatchet job, and the complicity of the Manhattan cocktail party elite and the DC establishment, and of McCain's staff providing the hatchet men, well, lets say my eyes are wide open now.
The mendacious and two-faced behavior on the part of the McCain campaign staff and McCain's gutless and disingenuous behavior makes me GLAD McCain lost.
Before you start with a rebuttal, that does not mean I am glad Obama won, that is undeniably bad for the nation as well - but McCain has shown such character flaws recently that he would probably have been nearly as bad.
Yes I said it - I am GLAD McCain lost. The breaking point for me when it comes to McCain, was that when push comes to shove, that when it came time to stand up and stop this crap his staff is doing to Gov Palin... McCain has turned out to be just another pantywaist. He did nothing when it came time to stand up for principled behavior, and for core conservative principles. John McCain is after all just another Beltway politician, and in the end, behaving like a typical liberal politician; McCain is simply another 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag.
Mr McCain, as a fellow veteran, I respect your service 40 years ago. But whether this inaction of yours is abject cowardice or calculated inaction, you've burned all the respect that you have earned.
Mr McCain, stop before you decay into a senatorial Murtha. Go before you complete the demolition of your rep. Leave before we kick you in the ass to get you out of the way.
#1
As for the rest of you: Time to Get Up or Give Up.
If you decide to Give Up, then stay the hell out of our way. I and others are going to fight to take the GOP from the Manhattan-DC/Beltway elites who have wrecked it, and put Principles First, root out the rot, and remake the GOP into something Reagan, not Rockefeller, would recognize.
#4
"I doubt I could stomach 4 years of defending a jerk like McCain who has liberals all around him - and who is now philosophically fellating Reid and Senate Dems like a spineless toady."
#6
Well stated, OS. That silly old asshole gave me severe stomach cramps. Now to hear Chuckie Schoooomer kissing his ass to get him to vote Demo, as is his wont, just makes me puke. This old fool is senile and ought to head home to do some more barbeques. He's not fit for anything else. We Pubs lost the election the minute he became the nominee. We had to vote against Obambi, that's all. Running dead dogs like Dole and McPain are the death of the Pub Party.
What makes this more interesting is that it is from a Chinese site, written by the assistant president of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations - whatever that is.
#1
And.... remember this? Talk about testing in the infancy of the presidency....
Bush Turns up the Heat to Secure Release of Spy Crew
Tuesday, 10 April 2001
President George Bush has renewed US warnings to China that relations could be damaged if Beijing continued to hold the crew of the American reconnaissance plane.
And then..... Bush 'pleased' with China's decision to free air crew U.S. President George W. Bush said Wednesday he is ''pleased'' with China's decision to release 24 Americans detained in China following the April 1 collision of their reconnaissance plane with a Chinese jet fighter.
''I am pleased to be able to tell the American people that plans are under way to bring home our 24 American servicemen and women from Hainan Island,'' Bush said.
A chartered Continental Airlines Boeing 737 left Guam Thursday morning bound for Hainan to pick up the crew members.
After arriving in Guam, the air crew was scheduled to fly to Hawaii by military aircraft for debriefing by the U.S. military. After the debriefing, which could take two or three days, the crew would to be flown to their home base in Washington State.
#2
Today over 100,000 American military members remain in Iraq and there is no sign the war will end any time soon.
When there are fewer casualties in Iraq than murders in Chicago, I think we can say either the war is over in Iraq or the war is out of control in Chicago [or both].
#3
Depends on who you ask, ain't it? I guess some people around here noticed that my own opinion---unworthy as it may be---on the subject of George II and his girl Friday (or, as I sometimes think Miz Dr Professor Rice and her sock puppet) are, somewhat, less enthusiastic.
#4
I think history will treat him well on the foreign policy front. Mistakes were made but the grand sweep went in the right direction and Al Queda was unmanned. Certain things were miffed (Israeli issues) but nobody has gotten them right and the work in Africa was huge despite the fact that nobody but Africans and a couple of Paddy Pop stars noticed.
Let me expand on my Rahm Emanuel theory, and it's fascinating the way Obama did this. Obama publicly says, "I'm going to offer the gig of chief of staff to Rahm Emanuel." Now, a lot of people don't understand why it's a big deal whoever the chief of staff is. The chief of staff sets the ideological tone in the White House. You don't get to see the president without the approval of the chief of staff. The chief of staff is who really deals with all the staff. Some of the staff will occasionally be invited into the Oval Office to share their ideas or whatever with Obama, but the chief of staff will always be in there along with the -- if there is one... Bush had a chief of staff all the time and he also had Rove in there. The chief of staff with Obama is probably going to see to it that there isn't a Rove in the Obama White House.
There will be a Rove, but he'll be in his office and he'll communicate with Obama via memo, through the chief of staff. Now, the chief of staff, this is one of the most partisan Democrats around. He is a thug Democrat. He takes no prisoners. He has no desire to get along with anybody on the other side or traitorous leftists. If he thinks liberals are traitoring him out, he'll go after them, too. That's what it is. This, by the way, argues against this whole notion that so many doofuses on our side are now saying that there's going to be a "centrist" Obama. There's no way! The appointment of Emanuel alone dispels the notion that there's anything centrist about this. But, two things. Now, some are going to disagree with me about this because Rahm Emanuel also worked in the Clinton White House, and Clinton tried to sell out Israel a number of times.
You know, Arafat was the number one guest in Clinton's White House (other than the women) and so people think, "Well, Emanuel was there, and it didn't matter. It didn't matter to Emanuel that Clinton was trying to sell out Israel." I think this is a little bit different because with Obama, let's be honest. There are a lot of people in the Muslim world who think -- and this is not me saying this. Don't associate me with this, but we know this to be true. There are a lot of Muslims around the world who believe that they finally got one of theirs in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama. They think that they've got somebody. They know he's a radical leftist, and they think he's at least sympathetic, because they, too, are downtrodden (they think) like African-Americans in this country are downtrodden.
So they think they've got a sympathetic figure, at least, in the White House. Somebody who is not going to have it in for terrorism as much as George W. Bush did. Somebody who isn't going to be as prone to use force. They think all of this. Now all of a sudden he names as his consiglieri, as his enforcer, his capo di tutti: Rahm Emanuel. Rahm Emanuel is all the other things I said, plus he's Jewish. Now, this sends a signal to the Arab world that conflicts with what they believe. They probably are going to give it some time here, but my guess is, my theory -- and I could be wrong about this, but my theory -- is that we also know in the Muslim world that... I forget the word for it. They have a word for Muslims who flee the faith and join some other religion.
Of course, they put out fatwas on them like Salman Rushdie and this sort of thing. I think it's entirely possible that when all is said and done, these people in the Islamic, Muslim world who think they've got a simpatico in the White House end up hating his guts. They're going to end up hating his guts. They're going to think that he's a sellout. They're going to think that he abandoned them. They're going to think that he somehow has sold them out. Not personally, but in their strict code of conduct with their religion and so forth. If that is the case -- and it's a big "if" and it's just my theorem. But if it's a big case, if it's true, then the Arab world might get even angrier at us than they already are. (laughing) So we shall see, ladies and gentlemen. We shall see.
#3
There is talk of them instituting some kind of draft. Such a move will cost the Democrats the youth vote. There are also fractures regarding blacks and gays because of the way the black turnout out helped to end the chance of gay marriage. I suspect if Emanuel is too leftist they will scare off other members of the liberal coalition.
#6
WORLD MIL FORUM POSTERS' THREADS > BARACK OBAMA IS AN ILLUMINATI + RAHM EMMANUEL IS A AMERICAN ISRAELI JEW WHOM SERVED IN THE ISRAELI ARMY AND IS A "HARDORE MEMBER" OF THE JEWISH MAFIA UNDERWORLD [lost finger].
PRIME Minister Gilanis (or are they President Zardaris?) ministers are a bit like Snow Whites dwarfs, Santa Clauss reindeer and Disneys Dalmatians: you know theres a lot of em but, try as you might, you really cant name them all. Theres Dopey and Dasher and Chew and Sherry and Zehri and only this is certain: they are all Happy.
Though, unlike the fictional characters, our ministers are not quite so cuddly. Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, PPP MNA from Jacobabad, is the man now responsible for the education of Pakistans children. His record is stellar. He is a veteran PPP leader, an LLB from SM Law College and an MA from the University of Karachi. Oh, and he was allegedly involved in a small matter of handing over five girls the youngest was two, the oldest six to settle a decade-old karo-kari feud in his area. Good ol Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered his arrest in 2007. Bijarani points out though that he was subsequently cleared by a lower court.
Theres more good news for women. Senator Mir Israrullah Zehri, a Balochistan National Party (Awami) man who caused a furore recently by defending karo-kari as a tribal custom, has been rewarded with a ministry. To accommodate Zehri, postal services has been spun off from the communications ministry. So there you have it: Senator Mir Israrullah Zehri, minister for postal services. Women, beware: the confidentiality of your letters is now at risk.
Why not just give Zehri womens development? The MQM has the answer: [T]he ministry like woman development [sic] is of no importance, an unnamed senior party leader told a local paper. Given the choice between no ministry and womens development, the MQM chose the former. Serving the people apparently does not include women.
But theres hope in Muzaffargarh. From there hail two new ministers, embodying the best of a secular, democratic dispensation. Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, NA-180, last made news in March when he was caught enjoying a late-night party at the Cat House in Islamabad. At least Jatoi prefers the company of women; three Russians and three Chinese were amongst the 20 women detained in the raid on the house.
And Jatois neighbour over in NA-177 is Hina Rabbani Khar, enlightened moderation personified. Our latest minister of state for finance and economic affairs is the envy of all ministers. She has an inherited constituency, so she can pick and choose who she wants to work with. The two-time MNA is already a two-time loyalist.
But at least she does not change her governance interests: Khar likes the economy. From parliamentary secretary to minister of state in the PML-Q dispensation and special assistant to the prime minister and back again to minister of state in the PPP one, Khar has stayed focused on economic affairs. And why not, for who better to explain to the IMF the mess were in than someone who had a front-row seat to the shenanigans that got us here?
My favourite though is Farzana Raja, who has used the chairmanship of the Benazir Income Support Programme to acquire for herself ministerial status. The poor have become a status symbol. Perhaps as the next step in self-aggrandisement Minister Raja can have a bus load of BISP beneficiaries follow her flag-flying car. They can tumble out on demand, ready to sing Rajas praises at opportune moments. Six months of that and she may be ready to be canonised.
And all this before Round 3, when the MQM and JUI-F will be brought on board which they must before the Senate elections in March. And there still remains the possibility of the PML-Q, forward bloc or the whole lot of them, hopping on board.
At least we now know where a slice of that IMF bailout will go. The 55-plus cabinet is creeping up to the 75-odd ministers of Shaukat Aziz and the 65-odd of BBs second stint. Good luck trying to get precise numbers. Farzana Rajas abound: ministers who arent quite ministers but have ministerial status. Its all very confusing, unless you happen to be a beneficiary in which case you are of course Happy.
It is easy to get carried away though. The cabinet has been plucked from politicians of the Class of 2008, a wily lot. The fact that the cabinet isnt smaller points to another factor at play: survival is informing the choices of Zardari or Gilani (whoever the cabinet really belongs to).
But whats good for Zardaris survival is not necessarily good for our survival. The real problem isnt size but performance. Try naming half a dozen ministers from the pre-expansion set-up. Visibility does not equate to performance, as the Mohammad Ali Durranis and Wasi Zafars of the last government proved, but after 12 years in the wilderness surely we can expect some ministers to be ready to unveil their plans. Where have they been all these months?
And if not some performance by every minister, then how about a decent performance by some ministers? Again, the most active members of the cabinet are unelected: Rehman Malik and Shaukat Tareen. For every 20 ideas they come up with, 19 may be nonsensical. But better to be 1 from 20 than 0 from 0.
And if not a decent performance by some ministers, then how about righting constitutional imbalances? Again, given the nature of our politics it would be unfair to expect Zardari to do anything about it before March when Senate elections will be held and much of the PML-Q and MMA deadwood will be cleared out. But if March comes and goes?
And if not constitutional readjustments then how about the law at the micro level: the lower courts, the police and public prosecutors? Set them free from political interference. Let them get on with the business of protecting the people; hobbled as the institutions are they can still make a difference.
And if not the micro level then what? Where does it stop? At what point do you give up, resigned to watching opportunities slip by yet again. This cabinet can yet become a footnote to this government if Zardari wants. All he has to do is think. Think big, think small. And then act. Not in our name but in our interests.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/07/2008 14:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
From Jewish World Review. Editorial by Caroline Glick.
With Senator Barack Obama's victory in the US presidential race, the stakes have been raised for Israel's February 10 general elections. It's called, "yer on yer own, now."
Whatever the incoming Obama administration's position on Israel may be, it will not be more supportive of the country than the Bush administration has been. And over the past year, the supportive Bush administration has decided not to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and not to support an Israeli effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Which is not necessarily a supportive position, if you get my subtlety.
If Israel's next prime minister intends to prevent Iran from acquiring the means to implement its stated aim of destroying Israel, he or she must be prepared to stand up to America. Indeed, the greatest diplomatic challenge he or she will likely face will be standing up to a popular new President Obama, supported by large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and the overwhelming majority of American Jewish voters. Stay away from the Bus.
Over the past few days, the two contenders for premiership Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu have demonstrated their starkly contrasting views of how to deal with a potentially hostile administration in Washington. Reacting to Obama's electoral victory on Wednesday, Livni made clear that from her perspective, the best way to deal with an unfriendly White House is to preemptively surrender Israel's national interests. That is, the Olmert Strategy. Highly successful. Rockets into Israel. Hang in there.
In her words, Israel's election results "must reflect the country's interest in advancing the peace process, otherwise the international community, headed by the US, will try and push us in this direction." The peace process is a code word for appeasement, in this case.
For their part, Netanyahu and Likud have shown that if defending Israel's national interests requires a confrontation with Washington, they will not shy away from it. Last week, Netanyahu's surrogate MK Yuval Steinitz informed both US presidential campaigns that in the event that outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledges to surrender the Golan Heights to Syria, a Likud-led government will not respect his pledge. Giving away your strategic position on a promise not a good idea.
Livni understands that she cannot win the election by preaching preemptive surrender. And so she and her colleagues are ardently seeking to change the subject. They recognize that for Livni to win, she must persuade the public that she is not the hard-core leftist she has governed as for the past five years, but a centrist. She has been doing two things to accomplish this goal. She is seeking to distinguish herself from Labor and Meretz while still maintaining her leftist support base. And she is trying to convince voters that Likud is not a credible alternative. She should hire Obama's handlers. They can spin anything.
Distinguishing herself from Labor and Meretz while keeping faith with the Left, has been tricky for Livni, because it requires her to constantly contradict herself. She must make clear that she supports an Israeli retreat to the 1949 armistice lines and abdicates responsibility for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to the US and Europe, while appearing to reject the 1949 armistice lines and accepting that given the stakes, Israel is ultimately responsible for preventing Iran from going nuclear.
Unable to renounce policies she herself has advanced and indeed invented, Livni has opted simply to refuse to disclose her positions to the public. She refuses to tell us what she has offered the Palestinians in her negotiations with Ahmed Qurei, or how she intends to deal with Syria and Iran, claiming unconvincingly that telling us what she stands for will damage Israel's national interests. Sounds like our open Congress on the bailout bill.
Much to Livni's dismay, the public is already certain that she is a leftist. Consequently, her greatest challenge is convincing centrists who lean Right that they cannot support Likud. To persuade them that Likud is unworthy, she seeks to define Likud as a party of extremists, hell-bent on destroying Israel's reputation in Europe and the US and killing all hope of peace. Divert attention to you by throwing buckets of sh*t on the other guy.
To demonize Likud, Livni and her colleagues operate on two tracks simultaneously. First and most importantly, they have instigated violent confrontations with the hardcore fringe of the ideological Right. These confrontations serve to convince the public that the far-right fringe constitutes a threat to the state. Second, they seek to create a public perception of Likud as the sponsor of the hardcore fringe. By accomplishing this they will persuade the public that Likud itself is a threat to the country. Dictators do that, too.
On October 25 the government ordered the police and the IDF to carry out a surprise, middle-of-the-night expulsion of well-known right-wing hardliner Noam Federman and his family from their home in Kiryat Arba and with demolishing their house. According to eyewitness accounts, the police used excessive violence against the surprised family and their nine children. Nice PR move. Could radicalize the middle of the roaders and come back in her face.
As could have been anticipated, the Federmans and their hot-headed, radical friends were enraged by the unprovoked onslaught against them. And as expected, Federman's supporters reacted by making offensive statements about the police and the IDF.
The government pounced on these statements in a bid to castigate the far right, (of which Federman and his supporters comprise a small faction), as the greatest threat facing the country. Cabinet ministers were warned that these hard-line activists may try to assassinate them, attack IDF forces, or commit terror attacks against Arabs. Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced he will enact draconian measures against the far right in a bid to strip its activists of their civil rights and demoralize their followers. (In the meantime, the torching of a yeshiva in Acre and a synagogue in Ramle by Israeli Arabs went unnoted by the cabinet.) So the whole thing helps the Paleostinians by weakening Israel.
Presenting Federman and his colleagues as a strategic threat to the country will not suffice to bring victory to Livni. She must also link Likud and its leader to these far-right "enemies of the people." To this end, Livni and her colleagues accuse Likud of rejecting "peace." Likud's extremism, Livni argues, is demonstrated by the fact that "extremists" like former science minister Benny Begin and former housing minister Effi Eitam are joining its ranks.
Livni's strategy of projecting herself as a moderate by criminalizing the Right and claiming that there is no distinction between Likud and far-right activists is a reenactment of Olmert's strategy for winning the 2006 general elections. In February 2006 Olmert sought to define the Right in general and Likud specifically as a coalition of extremists by provoking violence between security forces and the far-right when he ordered the destruction of a number of homes in Amona. Hundreds of policemen and border guards were deployed to Amona where they essentially carried out a pogrom against hundreds of children and teenagers who were at the scene to defend the homes from destruction.
Initially, the events at Amona were misrepresented to the public as an example of right-wing fanaticism and violence against security forces. Due to the media's open collusion with Olmert, it was only after the elections that the public learned the full extent of the police's premeditated brutality. In the meantime, Olmert invented a convenient right-wing bogeyman with which to scare the public and demonize Likud.
Olmert's Amona strategy, which Livni seeks to implement today, advances the political fortunes of the Left in three ways. First, it directly promotes the fiction that Israel's chief enemy is the Right and so induces the public to feel uncomfortable supporting Likud.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the Amona strategy deflects public attention from Israel's real enemies -- Iran and its Palestinian, Lebanese and Syria proxies -- against which Kadima has taken no effective action. In 2006, the government's pogrom at Amona removed Hamas's electoral victory in the January 2006 PA elections from the top of the news coverage. Hamas's electoral triumph had laid bare the folly of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza the previous summer and demonstrated that Kadima's entire electoral platform, based on repeating that withdrawal in Judea and Samaria, was a recipe for disaster and war.
Today, with banner headlines decrying the right-wing menace filling the front pages of the papers, news of Hamas's transformation of Gaza into a new Hizbullah-stan, replete with concrete bunkers built with concrete supplied by Israel, is relegated to the back pages.
In 2006, Likud was in no position to counter the Amona strategy. It had just sustained a near-mortal blow when Ariel Sharon bolted Likud to form Kadima. But now the tables have turned. Today it is Kadima that is in shambles. Sharon has been forgotten. Olmert resigned in disgrace. Livni failed to form a government.
Today Likud can discredit Livni's self-characterizations as a moderate by pointing to her far-left record as Foreign Minister. Netanyahu can reject her characterization of Likud as a far-right party by showcasing leftists like Uzi Dayan, Dan Meridor and Assaf Hefetz who are flocking to the party together with rightists like Benny Begin and Effi Eitam. Likud, he can say credibly, is not a fringe party - but a big-tent center-right governing party which welcomes all patriotic Israelis.
If Livni's Amona strategy fails her, she will be forced to discuss her plans to preemptively surrender to the US, the Palestinians, Syria and Iran. And for Livni, a debate about her actual plans and current policies is a recipe for defeat.
In certain respects, Livni's embrace of Olmert's Amona strategy towards the Right and her attempt to hide her far-left policies while presenting herself as a new sort of clean politician and engine of political renewal, echoes the strategy that Obama employed with such success in his bid for the White House. Like Obama, Livni wishes to convince the public to support her by not telling us who she is and what she intends to do, sufficing instead with her claim to be different from the other guys.
It is far from clear that Livni will be able to pull off an Obama-like victory. She lacks Obama's charisma. Unlike Obama, she has a public record of far-left governance and policy failure going into the election. And unlike Senator John McCain, Israelis trust Netanyahu more than they trust Livni to protect the country's economy. Moreover, Obama benefited from the public support that the Democratic Party enjoyed after eight years of Republican control of the White House. In contrast, between its failed leadership in the war with Hizbullah and the corruption probes and criminal convictions of its leaders, Livni's Kadima is the discredited incumbent party. But still, all is not lost for Livni. Like Obama, she enjoys the full support of the media in her bid to power. In the past, media collusion has repeatedly sufficed to bring leftists posing as centrists to power.
With all that is at stake in these elections, it must be hoped that Livni's Amona strategy will fail her. Facing Iran on the one hand and a potentially hostile Obama administration on the other, Israel requires a leader like Netanyahu who understands that if preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons means bucking heads with Obama, so be it. Israel is at a crossroads. I hope to God that she survives.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/07/2008 12:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
The technical problem is that the so call draft is simply the selective activation of the federal militia [males 17-45] which is defined and empowered by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and enacted under Title 10 USC subsection para. 311. There is no Constitutional provision for any other work/duty/labor imposed upon the citizenry that can avoid the 13th Amendment. Of course when he gets the courts to ignore the 13th like they ignore the 14th [equal before the law regardless of color, race, etc], he can also throw in an override of the 22nd Amendment so he can join Hugo as President for Life(c).
. . . The closer Sheridan came to the battle, the more cheerful and animated his defeated men became. Encountering a small group of them, Little Phil would stand in the saddle, and give a jaunty salute as if to congratulate them on a great victory, rather than another humiliating defeat.
The result was electric, if not universal. Amid the cheering, one infantry colonel whose descendants perhaps would go on to become campaign advisors stood in Sheridans path and begged him not to go on.
The armys whipped! he cried.
You are, but the army isnt, growled Sheridan, who then put the spurs to a horse whos back was taller than he was and rode to the scene of the disaster, shouting, About face, boys! We are going back to our camps! We are going to lick them out of their boots!
His men were not beaten. They just needed leadership. . . .
Battles dont always go that way. But sometimes they do. It depends on whether the individual soldier still has any fight in him.
It has been a source of delight for me these past few days to see nothing but evidence of this, all across our defeated lines. Nowhere have I heard a shred of defeatism or despair. On the contrary. In point of fact, the magnanimity and graciousness I have seen in defeat in so many places on the right tells me that this is an eager and seasoned army, one able to look defeat in the face and own up to the errors in tactics and strategy that got us there. And nowhere do I see a call to abandon our core principles and sue for terms, but rather that our loss was caused precisely by our abandonment of the issues which we hold dear and which have served us so well on battlefields past.
So consider this, my fellows in arms: On Tuesday, the Left armed with the most attractive, eloquent, young, hip, and charismatic candidate I have seen with my adult eyes, a candidate shielded by a media so overtly that it can never be such a shield again, who appeared after eight years of a historically unpopular President, in the midst of two undefended wars and at the time of the worst financial crisis since the Depression and whose praises were sung by every movie, television, and musical icon without pause or challenge for 20 months . . . who ran against the oldest nominee in the countrys history, against a campaign rent with internal disarray and determined not to attack in the one area where attack could have succeeded, and who was out-spent no less than seven-to-one in a cycle where not a single debate question was unfavorable to his opponent that historic victory, that perfect storm of opportunity . . .
Yielded a result of 53 percent.
Folks, we are going to lick these people out of their boots.
There is much to do. That a man with such overt Marxist ideas and such a history of association with virulent anti-Americans can be elected president should make it crystal clear to each of us just how far we have let fall the moral tone of this Republic. The great lesson from Ronald Reagan was simply that we can and must gently educate as well as campaign, and explain our ideas with smiles on our faces and real joy in our hearts. For unlike the far-left radical who gained the presidency on Tuesday, we start with 150 million of the most free and intelligent and hard-working people in the history of the Earth at our backs, with a philosophy that unlike theirs, which has resulted in 100 million dead in unmarked graves has liberated and enriched more people and created more joy than any nation or combination of nations in our history.
And then we will begin, with a confident and happy heart, to examine how we have failed the American people in regard to making clear the moral and philosophical underpinnings of our philosophy. For anyone that fully understands these philosophies, presented calmly and with wit and humility, will come to our side and never leave.
We have tried, and failed. Tomorrow we will try again.
How can we lose, my friends? How can we lose, unless we give up?
Posted by: Mike ||
11/07/2008 12:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
John Kass, Chicago Tribune
DeLeo is the Democratic state central committeeman of Emanuel's district. He has known Obama and Emanuel for years. He's also been quite busy lately, worried about reports that the FBI is interested in his activities, from leasing luxury cars like Bentleys and Jaguars, to billboard companies, and his longtime relationship with newly indicted Republican power broker William Cellini.
You know, I realized there is a hell of a difference in the reactions to a loss - and their philosophical roots, and how that relates to the Palin bashing going on by McCain's staff and the "establishment" effete elites.
Given that basic philosophical outlook, the actions of the McCain staff are very revealing. They are the actions of liberals, of "system" people who think they are smarter than anyone else and should be obeyed. They fail to admit that McCain made major errors, their campaign was flawed strategically (never made a case for a real reason to vote FOR him) , tactically (did not go after opponents flaws, waited too late and lost all the early voters, took welfare instead of raising own funds and got outspent 7:1) and philosophically (based on "bipartisanship" mush that never stood for much of anything). 
Yes I said it - I am GLAD McCain lost. The breaking point for me when it comes to McCain, was that when push comes to shove, that when it came time to stand up and stop this crap his staff is doing to Gov Palin... McCain has turned out to be just another pantywaist. He did nothing when it came time to stand up for principled behavior, and for core conservative principles. John McCain is after all just another Beltway politician, and in the end, behaving like a typical liberal politician; McCain is simply another 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. 
