Boston – 1/16/10

Threnoddy B. Forbisher, Chairman of the small but politically influential Boston Republican Order of Wicked Neanderthals (BROWNs) acknowledged today to undercover operatives of GM’s Place that Martha Coakley was a plant.

Forbisher stated that the BROWN’s began to look for a plant in 2004 after Coakley stated that she would run for John Kerry’s seat if Kerry won he 2004 Presidential race.  “We knew,” said Forbisher, “that anyone who honestly thought that Kerry had a chance to be elected could be convinced to run for Teddy Kennedy’s seat in the event that Kennedy should retire.  Unfortunately, we had no idea that Kennedy would die of brain cancer, but Coakley was still our gal.”

Forbisher also acknowledged that members of the BROWNs began in early 2005 to send e-mails and letters to Coakley addressed to “Senator” M. Coakley hoping to cement the idea into her head.  Forbisher told our operative also, that the a few SPROUTs even sent her emails stating that Curt Schillings was a Yankee’s fan.  “I personally didn’t think that one would work,” said Forbisher, “nobody who is anybody in Boston, let alone in Massachusetts is stupid enough to believe that.”

Acknowledging that the BROWNs were initially worried that Coakley had such a large lead in the race, Forbisher and his crew felt that her tendency to shove her foot into her mouth would be the decisive issue.  “Coakley scared us at first,” said Forbisher, “but we knew that the same person that defended the prosecution of the innocent Amirault family, even after it was obvious that they were unjustly accused and falsely convicted really couldn’t help but step on her…uh, well, step on her reputation.”

Forbisher stated that as of now, three days before the crucial election it really looks like “Coakley is toast.”

Cross posted at GM’s Place and WideAwakes

CIT Group, one of those too big to fail?  Infused with 2.3 billion dollars of taxpayer money?

Yeah!

The Obama Stimulus … Too Big! And its failing!

XPosted at GM’s Place

… You’ll fall for anything.  And so it goes in the political arena today with the liberal end of the spectrum pontificating with pie-in-the-sky ideals on poverty, abortion, transfers of wealth, taxing only the rich and other “inartful” dodges of truth!  The wife of the presumptive Democrat nominee Michelle Obama asks today’s college students to go into teaching, nursing, social work and forgo the riches that come with sayyyy a $320 K a year job with the University of Chicago’s Hospital.  Of course, if you do become a teacher or nurse or social worker, the opportunities to buy $600.00 earrings doesn’t come around very often.  In a country where the Democrats have blocked energy exploration and the building of nuclear reactors for decades and even Teddy Kennedy has blocked bills for years and damn sure isn’t going to allow windmills in his back yard we are whining about the cost of … you guessed it, energy!  When Phil Gramm says that we MUST do something positive and that we are NOT in a recession and the facts on the ground say that we are in a slow-down, that there are problems, and we gotta quit the whining, what happens, but a bunch of folk including John McCain friggin WHINE about it. 

Two days ago I regretfully closed down my blog “GM’s Corner” but 4 years of battling was enough and a change is needed.  A time to recharge my batteries.  While I decide what to do with http://gmroper.mu.nu, I’ll continue to be here from time to time to support Jim and Doug’s baby Reclaim Conservatism.   But I can tell you this folks, most citizens of this great country don’t stand for anything unless they are slapped in the face by something like Pearl Harbor or 9/11.  We, collectively, are a bunch of whiners for sure and we are falling for the snake oil salesman like no body’s business.  If we don’t begin to reclaim conservatism, imagine what it will be like for your child and grand child and for damn sure you won’t be around to see it, but for your great grand child and your great-great grandchild.

My first grandchild will be born at the end of this year, I don’t want my grand-baby to grow up in a second rate socialist country.  Join me.  Join Jim and Doug, fight back, and fight back hard.  When some one says raise taxes, remind them that lower taxes have increased government receipts, not the other way around.  When someone says universal health care, remind them that the Soviet Union had that.  When someone says “for the little guy” remind them that 4 of the top five wealthiest Senators are Democrats.  When some one says “culture of corruption” remind them of the current crop running the House and the Senate.

You better get off your collective butts folk and get working, if the liberals take over, there may not be enough to reclaim. 

Earlier General Wesley Clark, retired and former candidate for President made some remarks about who might be qualified for president.  Of course, everybody knows that Clark was being a surrogate for Obama and Obama’s attempts to lessen the allure of John McCain’s military service since Obama has none.  But Clark seems to have stepped over the line when he said “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.” That raises an interesting question:  What would Clark have said about the military and other exploits of other presidents?

Wesley Clark on George Washington:  “I don’t think crossing the Delaware River standing up in a boat in the middle of winter qualifies Washington to be president.”

Wesley Clark on John Adams:  “I don’t think being a diplomat in France and Holland during our bloody revolution qualifies Adams to be president.”

Wesley Clark on Thomas Jefferson:  “I don’t think writing the Declaration of Independence qualifies Jefferson to be president.”

Wesley Clark on Abraham Lincoln:  “I don’t think splitting logs in Illinois qualifies Lincoln to be president.”

Wesley Clark on Ulysses Grant:  “I don’t think accepting Lee’s Sword at Appomattox qualifies Grant to be president.” 

Wesley Clark on Teddy Roosevelt:  “I don’t think riding up San Juan Hill with a bunch of washed out cowboys qualifies Roosevelt to be president.”

Wesley Clark on Franklin Roosevelt:  “I don’t think getting polio and riding around in a wheel chair qualifies Roosevelt to be president.”

Wesley Clark on Ike Eisenhower:  “I don’t think sitting on a battleship while our brave soldiers invaded Normandy qualifies Eisenhower to be president.”

Wesley Clark on John Kennedy:  “I don’t think letting a Japanese Destroyer ram your PT boat, sinking it, qualifies Kennedy to be president.” 

Clark seems to have thought that having no substantial experience qualifies Obama to be president, and certainly he thought that being the fired military commander of NATO qualified him to be president. 

Cross posted at GM’s Corner

In August of 1963, a muggy, sweltering day, a Senior at Mt. Vernon High School stood by the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.  The student was only one of many many thousands that day, gathered in the hopes that some day there would be peace between white and black Americans.  That student was me, and I was less than a month from my 17th Birthday. 

As a 6th grader I witnessed the hostility and hatred of my fellow whites when Central High School in Little Rock was integrated.  I cringed when called “nigger-lover” by some of my school mates who had never gone to school with blacks or ever associated with them or maybe even never knew one.  You see, I grew up in the Army, my dad was a career officer and the Military had been integrated by President Truman in 1948.  Integration was all I knew and I had no problems with it.

But, I digress, I stood with the thousands and listened to the tenor voice of Martin Luther King.  As his voice rang out, this phrase in particular struck me, as it still does 45 years later:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Judged by the content of their character.  What a concept that is, when at the time, so many were judged by the color of their skin, the region they came from or the god that they worshiped, should not be judged by these things, but by their character.

And so we have arrived at today, having been through tumult, asassinations, riots and slow but positive growth, to a point where African Americans are elected by solid majorities to office in the south, where the bastions of hatred have been ground down, but unfortunately, where there are also those who would keep the races apart (Jessie, Al, are you reading this?) and those who depend on anger and hostility to keep their names in light.

We have had African Americans as Secretary of State, as Generals and Admirals, as Presidents of large Corporations, and now, a black American is running for President of the United States and it looks like he will get the nomination from the Democrat Party.  Yet, in my opinion, the content of their character is still important.

Barack Obama proclaimed he would pull out of Iraq immediately, and now he says he won’t.  He said that he would be using public financing for his race, and now he won’t.  He has said that NAFTA was anathema, and now all of a sudden, it isn’t.  He has attended a church where some of the most vile racist comments made from a pulpit have rung forth, and now he says that wasn’t the Jeremiah Wright he knew.  He has associated with, and benefited from associations with an admitted but unconvicted urban terrorist.  He has manipulated opposition off of the ballot in order to win elections.  And he has said, in spite of no one making this association BUT him, that the opposition will play the race card. 

The content of his character has been weighed.

And has been found wanting!

xposted at GM’s Corner

In 1962 and 63, my awareness of politics went overnight from “yawn” to “what the hell does congress think they are doing.  The overnight cause was a single reading in one fell swoop of Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative, a fairly short book given to me by a High School buddy along with a copy of Ian Fleming’s “Dr. No.”  Both books had an influence, one a 4 year old spy novel that titillated a young man’s imagination, the other, a political statement that more than 45 years later still reverberates in the political halls.  Well, it did until the Republican party lost it’s way!

 In mid-May of this year, my friend Doug Ross published GOP 2.0, Rebooting the Republican Party with a number of priorities that need to become our “ironclad” signature:

STRENGTHEN NATIONAL DEFENSE – increase the size, capability and efficiency of our Armed Forces, bringing back our defense spending to historical levels as percentage of GDP.

GAIN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE – open up ANWR and the OCS to exploration; aggressively pursue nuclear energy and green technologies; and incent private industry to aggressively pursue clean, renewable energy sources.

SECURE THE BORDERS – build physical barriers immediately as a precursor to an overarching, sensible immigration policy. If the boat’s sinking, you plug the holes first.

DEATH TO EARMARKS – zero tolerance for earmarks.

DEATH TO CORRUPTION – zero tolerance for corruption.

ENGLISH AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE – national unity requires a national language. That language is English.

IMPLEMENT FLAT TAX OR FAIR TAX – simplify the tax system by eradicating a tax code gone mad.

REDUCE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT – provide “whistle-blower-style” awards for reducing the size of government and task the IRS (which will no longer have to worry about enforcing the tax code) with achieving the reduction goals on an annual basis

SPUR HEALTHCARE COMPETITION – Address health-care deficiencies – with competitive, free-market solutions, not Government largesse.

ADDRESS ENTITLEMENTS – engage a bipartisan consortium to create a multi-million dollar competition to incent teams from private industry and academia to create solutions for our social security and Medicare liabilities.

This should not be a platform. It should be a promise — an ironclad commitment — to voters

If you ask most voters (well, except those smitten with The Obamamessiah and maybe a lot of them too) you will find that the majority of Americans are concerned with exactly those subjects (if asked in an honest straightforward manner.) 

Unfortunately, those are not questions that will be asked, in fact, most “news” sources are more than happy to trumpet the liberal/progressive line.  And therein lies the rub.  The MSM, being profoundly liberal for the most part has no truck with conservative positions and the Republican party as currently constituted has abandoned conservatism for Democrat Lite, hewing themselves to big programs, big spending, big pork-barral projects and a refusal to stand up for conservative principles.  In fact, with a very few exceptions, the majority of Republicans have thrown off their conservative cloaks, cloaks they were elected under, and donned the regalia of typical tax and spend Democrats.

If conservatism is to become resurgent, we must start from the ground up.  Look for and find local persons willing to run on a conservative platform and willing to tell the truth to the American people.  Look for and support those that are willing to sign on to Republican Party 2.0 and accept nothing less from your elected representatives.  Send them e-mails, letters, and postcards.  Tell them that you are fed up, and you aren’t going to take it anymore. 

You have nothing to lose but your country!

Cross posted at GM’s Corner

Breaking News:

(CNN) — Barack Obama resigned Saturday from his Chicago church — where controversial sermons by his former pastor and other ministers had created repeated political headaches for the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign confirmed Saturday.

Gee, I wonder why?  Do you suppose that the light shone on that little bastion of anger, angst, and acrimony might have had something to do with it?  Nah, couldn’t be!

John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  Empty suits, empty heads.  Each has policies that are incompatable either with a free market or with a constitutional democracy, certainly this one. Yet, each has adherents that all but deify their choice for president, and many complain that Obama has indeed been deified into the “Obamessiah.”  

And why not.  We have gone from being a nation that prided itself on its ability to foster rugged individualism and strength of character, not as existed in fiction but in real life, to being a nation that gripes about any little hardship, where a parent hasn’t the guts to say no to a child lest they mess up that child’s psyche and a nation that sees nothing wrong with thier particular congressmen larding out pork merely to get re-elected.  What is in it for me seems to be the catchword.

And the empty suits are promiseing everything from health insurance (under the false rubric of “health care crisis”).  Too, pandering with governmental largesse has increased exponentially since Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”  We have thrown trillions at “social” problems and today many/most of those problems are as bad today, if not indeed worse, than they were when we started tossing cash instead of really looking at the problem in terms of why aren’t some doing the very things that could help them.

In many ways, the victimization of America and Americans has brought this about.  Being bullied?  Institute a costly anti-bullying effort.  Loose at tag?  Easy, ban competitive games on the playground less some tyke’s feelings get hurt.  Little Johnny can’t read?  Fine, rather than teach Johnny phonics, start up a multi billion dollar reading certification program and guess what… spend all that money and now Johnny, and Susie and LaVonne, and La Tasha and Juan and Omar and Yin and Yung can’t read. 

Recent reports that the government wastes money to the tune of 300 billion dollars a year.  Now, I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem to be chump change to me.  Thats a lot of bucks.  But will anyone do anything about it?  Nope, what we’ll get is Senators, Congressmen and aspirants to the throne telling us that they’ll cut waste if only we elect them.  And the waste continues, and the beat goes on, and the beat goes on.

If conservatism is to survive, we must change from politicians in their empty suits promising the electorate everything from “a chicken in every pot” to relief from signing a bad mortage contract and the rest of us rescuing those too stupid to buy a house they can really afford. 

Can this be done, you bet, and the answer lies in you, my fellow conservatives.  We have to shame those in congress that spend like there is no tomorrow.  Want an example?  Mitch McConnel added a tax break for race horse owners that will amount to 126 million dollars over 10 years.  Max Baucus got a million dollars for a sheep and goat industry improvement center. 

Empty suit McCain promises to veto legislation with earmarks.  Yet, like Obama’s health care for children and Hillary’s healthcare for everyone the details are not forth coming and the devil is in the details.

Shaming the government is no easy task.  Those barely making it in today’s economy pay little or no income tax, Those making a huge amount of money find ways to avoid income tax.  Fair tax and flat tax and all the other iterations of tax policy not withstanding, it ain’t gonna happen.  How about this idea.  Push for a law that states that everyone must mail in a check or money order each pay period containing their state and federal income taxes, their contribution to Social Security and any other taxes pro-rated to their pay schedule.  Those that take home $1000.00 with federal withholding will like it far less when their check is for $1250.00 and they have to mail in a check or moneyorder every payday for $250.00.  We used to all pay our own way, now we find ways to make it easier and the result is the empty suits promising us everything under the sun just to get elected. And we let them.  In fact, we encourage them.

Obama has promised change. Yet, he doesn’t say how that change will improve things.  McCain promises to save 100 billion in earmarks, then doesn’t have a plan that will do so nor do most folk find 100 billion in earmarks in any given tax year.  Hillary promises leadership from day one.  Yet, from day one she has run an inept campaign and want’s the nomination handed to her.

Empty suits.  And if we buy it, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

 Cross posted at GM’s Corner

The Mainstream Media is trumpeting a massive defeat for the Republican Party. Of course, this is in part an attempt by the MSM to influence that outcome by setting up expectations. Adding to the predictions has been a lackadaisical performance by the Republicans. Did I say “lackadaisical?” change that to “unbelievably poor” performance by the Republicans.

Republicans were swept into power in 1994 on a platform of the Contract with America. A modest contract that promised reform:

• FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
• SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
• THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
• FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
• FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
• SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
• SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
• EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

So, how did they do. Well, congress is still privileged, waste and fraud run rampant and has been increased since the Democrats took back the reigns of power in ’06. In fact, the election of a majority of Liberal Democrats and their fellows has altered the process. The current House and House Leadership is rife with incompetence and self serving rules. In fact, it can be said that this is literally a “do nothing” congress.

Given the above I am convinced that conservatives must act, must act swiftly and must act strongly if they are to have any effect on the outcome of the coming election and on future elections.

Future elections I hear you say? What future if the Democrats win all three branches of government. And that is precisely the kind of rhetoric that has cost the conservative movement in the past and will continue to nail it in the future.

The problem, as I see it, is that we are playing with the Democrat’s rules. This has to stop if we are to have any chance at electing our own. We can’t run against diversity and multiculturalism, we have to run for merit and selection based on criteria blind to color and culture, religion and national origin. We can’t run against spending, we have to run for fiscal responsibility and the debt that our children will owe. We can’t run against surrender to the terrorists, we have to run for a strong military with a strong, forceful foreign policy that very clearly repeats Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Our enemies must know that we will not hesitate to use the stick when words fail. And we must get across to the world that we will have no patience with delay and deceit; Taqiyya be damned. If someone says they will do something, we will damn well expect it to be done without any unnecessary delay.

This stance of conservative principles has no chance in a strictly partisan environment with the populace seemingly leaning towards Democrats. But there is hope on the horizon, why not work to elect conservative Republicans AND Democrats? Conservatives don’t have to belong to a party, they can be independent, and should be… we are likely the largest single group of voters out there, when we get out and vote. Thus, if neither party can take us for granted, we can push for conservative nominee’s of both parties and get them elected. I suspect that if the majority of congress critters Congressmen and Senators don’t pay attention to us for two very major reasons. First, Democrats don’t pay attention to conservatives for the most part because they know we typically vote Republican. Secondly, Republicans don’t pay attention to conservatives for the most part because they know we typically vote Republican. That has to stop.

Many is the pundit that has observed that the black vote goes 90% to Democrats and the Democrats pay attention only at election time. More than one (pundit) has noted that if the Blacks withheld their vote, even once, than both Parties would scramble for the Black vote.

I propose not that we withhold our vote, but that we concentrate on finding solid conservative leaders regardless of which party and push like hell to get them elected. Only when both political parties realize that conservatism is a force to be reckoned with will we be again paid attention to.

And, if I need to say it, it is not our conservative values that have to be sold, those values are held by the majority of Americans. It’s not like we have to push unrealistic ideas such as crippling our economy to lower so called greenhouse gasses.

One or two election cycles with solid conservative leaders running should be enough to tip the scales. But this will require blood, sweat and tears. We have to sell the idea that our platform is the best for American interests. We have to push for more oil drilling and nuclear energy and jab a stick in the eyes of the OPEC nations. We have to show America how earmarks hurt them and how most current members of congress care about one thing and one thing only, getting their fat butts re-elected. We need tax reform such as perhaps ending withholding so that every body has to send a check to the IRS every payday. When people have to write their own checks every month the country will rise up against reckless earmarks and extravagant spending.

In short, we need a new way of looking at the the big picture. Are we Conservatives first, or are we Democrats and Republicans first and we’ll compromise on the rest. I suggest we Reclaim Conservatism from the Republican party and launch an all out political battle to elect true conservatives to office. Get them going after our vote and most of our troubles will be significantly reduced, or fade away.

Cross Posted @ GM’s Corner

This is about Democrats, and I’m not necessarily a Republican since the party left me and hundreds of thousands of other conservatives some time ago. In 1994 we conservatives elected, by dint of hard work, a new congress based on the principles explained in the Contract with America only to watch the elected Republicans gradually morph into Democrats Lite. 

Democrats, believing that they have placed the Republican party to the left of center, with a Presidential Nominee that many acknowledge as a pure RINO, truly think that now it is time to elect their own in what they hope will be a decade of socialist spending, socialist governing and socialist mandates which by definition will reduce personal freedom in favor of the nanny state.

Recently, Mr. Obama flat out stated that he was intending to reduce the size of cars we drive and the amount of food we eat as well as the amount of energy we use so as to placate the rest of the world.  Oh, he didn’t say that in those words, what he said was: 

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.”

Senator, this is not a zero sum game.  If I eat two chicken sandwiches at the local restaurant that doesn’t mean that someone somewhere can’t eat one.  We are 3% of the world’s population, if we only consumed 3% of the worlds energy, the world wouldn’t take up the slack, the world would be without a bulwark of democracy.  The world would be rife with disease that our scientists have created cures for, the world economy would first falter then collapse and tyrants worldwide would enslave millions.

America stands for something!  Our constitution and system of checks and balances are unique.  Our peoples the freeist and you don’t see other countries at the top of the list where people want to immigrate to.  And the reason for this Senator, is that America stands for something.

Republicans used to stand for something also; fiscal restraint, personal responsibility, solid values tested in the crucible of freedom and the rights of the individual greater than the rights any other individual in any country.  We have no kings, no emperors, we have a freely elected President who should reflect the values of the country as envisioned by the founding fathers.    

Somehow, we lost our way and we (you and I) have to get it back.  If we play the same zero sum games that the Democrats do, we become Democrats.  Our resolve must be to rebuild the values that conservatism as enunciated by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan once stood for.  We must start at the precinct level and not play their game, but our own.  We must build from the precinct to the district to the county to the state. 

America survived Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.  We survived William Clinton, 9/11, hurricane Katrina and we will survive this as well, but only if we hold up our heads, pledge our hearts and give 101% to the cause of freedom.