Month: June 2009

It is Time to Restore Public Morality

Mark Noonan

And no issue is better to start on than the Sanford issue:

What a public relations nightmare Mark Sanford’s revelations about his affair present to the GOP.

But I suggest that we not concern ourselves with public relations, or with sympathy for Sanford. And we should certainly not follow the path taken by Democrats, whose betrayed wives, like Elizabeth Edwards, go on a book tour or try to rationalize their husband’s affairs, as Hillary Clinton did.

Sanford’s affair proves that one’s personal life — contrary to the claims of the “Clinton lied but no one died” contingent — does affect one’s ability to govern. Sanford’s disastrous press conference revealed that he is a man still torn between his mistress and his wife. That as a governor he could take off for Argentina and place his state in jeopardy proves that the emotional turmoil of an extramarital affair clouds one’s thinking and actions. It gives the lie to the claim that one’s personal life has nothing to do with job performance. It proves that politicians’ personal lives should be the subject of scrutiny. Only a conscienceless person could carry on an affair without it clouding his thinking. Of course, there are the sociopaths, but we don’t want them in office either.

It is tremendously useful that it was Sanford – an strongly conservative man – who shall be our poster-boy for the revivification of American political morality. By stating clearly that we want Sanford to resign – or will gin up a primary opponent, should he seek office under the GOP banner – we will lay down the marker: our side believes, correctly, that there is no difference between private and public morality. You cannot be an honest governor and a dishonest husband – you are either honorable, or you’re not, and there’s an end on it.

For too long throughout our society we have tolerated boorish, immoral and disgusting behavior from the Powerful – from arts to politics to business, there is really no sin we haven’t passed on in silence. A business man divorces his wife of 30 years to marry a young girl – we don’t do anything. An actor is caught cheating on his wife – we don’t do anything. A President is caught having adulterous sex with a subordinate – we don’t do anything. Oh, there is a lot of fireworks in these things – but nothing is actually done.

We don’t force the miscreants out of public life. We don’t force them to confront their crimes. We don’t make them pay the price of their oath-breaking. Complete social ostracism is the only means of protecting society against predators who would use their power and position to gratify their lusts. Put a man at risk of losing everything, and he’ll be a lot more wary about risking it all…cost him nothing or, indeed, give him a de-facto reward for infidelity, and the levee is down, in comes a flood of immorality.

Sanford must go. Ensign must go. The GOP should extract pledges from its candidates that they will never break an oath – and if they do, they’ll immediately resign all positions. At the bare minimum, a politician should be forced to keep his word – and if we demand it, they’ll do it.

Col. Obama, Our Great Guiding Light

Mark Noonan

L. E. Ikenga nails Obama right down to the ground:

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama’s skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa.

Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism. I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various foreign “isms”, instead of looking homeward for repair of societies that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who serve foreign ideas.

Read the whole thing.

Phrase of the Day

Mark Noonan

A word of caution about all those “czars” and other extra-constitutional actions of President Obama:

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins. – William Pitt

Global Warming Update

Mark Noonan

I done told and I done told you:

Natural forces as opposed to human activity are largely responsible for temperature fluctuations, according to a new study the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released today as Congress prepares to vote on global warming legislation.

Internal email messages show the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suppressed the report and silenced the author because the scientific evidence did not square with the Obama administration’s agenda of regulating carbon dioxide, CEI claims. The EPA has become overly reliant upon outdated information from the United Nations and has ignored major new scientific developments, the censored study concludes.

“While we hoped that the EPA would release the final report, we’re tired of waiting for this agency to become transparent, even though its administrator has been talking transparency, since she took office,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman.

New scientific data highlighted in the report shows that ocean cycles and solar cycles are probably the most important factors behind temperature fluctuations. Moreover, satellite information now indicates there is little chance of endangerment from greenhouse gases, according to the report.

Some of the major developments overlooked by EPA official include a continued decline in global temperatures, an emerging consensus that hurricanes will not be more frequent or intense and new studies that demonstrate water vapor will have a moderating influence on temperature.

Going forward, CEI has called upon the EPA to independently analyze the science and to become more transparent in its own reporting.

We can see why this was suppressed – the vote yesterday in the House would have swung overwhelmingly against if an official report came out last week or so showing that the whole concept of anthropogenic global warming is invalid. Al Gore is wrong, liberals – I know, I know; its hard to believe that a hack politician with no science training at all could be wrong on something like global warming, but there it is. I’m sure that Al Gore will get right on it and revise his “consensus”.

It is full steam ahead into liberal-land, boys and girls…and the fact that none of the problems liberalism proposes to fix actually exist doesn’t penetrate the liberal mind. They’re going to fix it, anyway. We’ll be many years undoing the damage Obama and his Democrats are creating.

Commenting on Blogs for Victory

Mark Noonan

It is, as all blogs will say, a privilege, not a right. While we here at Blogs for Victory encourage vigorous debate, there are some things beyond the pale. Among these things is to link to or quote from any racist website – doesn’t matter the variety of racism, don’t link to it or quote from it. Ever. Not even to illustrate a point. If you are in doubt as to whether the website you wish to link to or quote from is racist, err on the side of caution and don’t link/quote. Alluding to a racist website is ok – such as “you know, like Phelps’ website”, or some such.

I’ve spent a lot of time changing obscenities to “expletive deleted”: its annoying. Yes, I know that even in one of my recent entries, I used an obscenity: author’s privilege. Its entirely unfair and arbitrary. Deal with it – long time readers know that I’m even chary with the use of mild oaths. Once again, obscenities are not to be used. Don’t try my patience on this, anymore.

On topic, on topic, on topic. If you think we’ve missed a good topic, then send us an email.

Be tattle tales – Matt and I are busy guys with a lot on our plates. We love this blog and blogging, but we don’t have endless time to spend on it. You see something you feel is wrong, e mail us – don’t use the comments for this; just e mail us. E mail us two or three times if we seem unresponsive. But, also, give us a couple days – we do research complaints to see if they are (a) valid and (b) really requiring the stern and disliked action of banning.

The main thing we want to have here is a place where conservatism is vigorously advanced and liberals are allowed to dash themselves to rhetorical pieces against the rock of Truth. We want you to have fun and learn a thing or two, and that is what we want, as well.

Twitter Updates for 2009-06-26

Matt Margolis

Representative Conyers, Resign

Mark Noonan

Geesh:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying “powers that be” put the kibosh on the idea.

Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, earlier bucked his party leaders by calling for hearings on accusations the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) has committed crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.

“The powers that be decided against it,” Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times.

You are the “powers that be”, you fool – either investigate fearlessly, or get out. We need men and women with courage in Congress, not the likes of you.

Do Your Patriotic Duty

Mark Noonan

As noted in NRO’s The Corner:

The stink surrounding the Pelosi-Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax bill has become vomit-inducing overnight. Representative Waxman has decided to replace the 1091-page bill with a 300-page bill that will be debated for no longer than three hours today. So your elected representatives will have virtually no time to debate the merits of an economy-spanning bill they will not have had time to read. Speaker Pelosi and her sidekick Waxman are displaying nothing more than complete contempt for the democratic process.

If you’re as utterly disgusted by this as I am, you can send a message to Pelosi and her cronies by telling your Congressmen to vote against this bill. You can e-mail them, call them (202-225-3121), or text the National Taxpayers Union on 54608 and they will help.

Get busy.

UPDATE: House Minority Leader Boehner is reading all 300 pages inserted last night…hurrah for Boehner! Good man!

UPDATE II: Passage may depend on vote of Stoner-American caucus.

UPDATE III: Well, Nancy and her fellow fascists managed to shove it through – but only with 219 votes. This will not stand.

Representatives Bono-Mack (R-CA), Castle (R-DE), Kirk (R-IL), Lance (R-NJ), LoBiondo (R-NJ), McHugh (R-NY), Reichert (R-WA), Smith (R-NJ) – you should switch to Independent or Democrat to save us the trouble of forcing you out of the party; to vote for this soak-the-poor, fascist nonsense puts you beyond the pale.