If the economy is improving, then why do State revenues continue to collapse?

I feel safer, already – Sarkozy and Obama teaming up to deal with Iran. Kinda like sending the Boy Scouts in to clear out a biker gang. I think we’ve rather missed our chance in dealing with Iran – there was a window of opportunity when sanctions/blockade/targeted aerial attacks in escalation could have done the trick. Now, all we seem to be going for is some rather toothless sanctions – and at a time when even military operations might not deter the Mullahs. We might be heading for a long, terrorist-violence-filled Cold War, or the necessity of full-scale war to deal with this.

Steele to survive Stripper-Gate. Which does make sense, given he had nothing to do with it.

A rancher is murdered – probably by illegal aliens. The guy was one of those who, in an act of pure, Christian mercy, would aid those poor souls struggling across the desert. Just one more innocent man murdered because our political class – slaves to ideology – refuse to secure the border. How many more rapes, robberies and murders along the border will the liberals require before we’re allowed to enforce our immigration laws?

Telegraphing our punches: should we really be saying that the Kandahar offensive will start in June? Shouldn’t that be a bit of a military secret?

Scientists discovering the secrets of the Big Bang. Or destroying the Earth. Or, just perhaps, playing around with big toys which will really tell us nothing we really need to know. Reuters reports, you decide. What are the practical applications of a “mini-Big Bang”, anyways?

Hammering Romney over his support for socialized medicine in Massachusetts. That will be a very steep hill for Romney to climb as he seeks the 2012 GOP nomination. I figure it will eventually kill his chances – but we shall see.

Former governor Ehrlich will challenge the Democrat who beat him in 2006:

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he will try to reclaim his former job as governor, hoping to benefit from a national anti-incumbent sentiment that emerged since the last presidential election and has deepened during the health care debate.

If victorious, Ehrlich, a Republican, would become the first politician in modern Maryland history to win a rematch after losing as an incumbent governor. Ehrlich was defeated by Democrat Martin O’Malley in 2006, the only sitting governor ousted by voters that year. Ehrlich, 52, has been contemplating a rematch with O’Malley for months, and said he was encouraged by the mood of voters he encountered during recent travels.

“There’s a real sense of concern about the direction our state is taking,” Ehrlich said in a conference call with reporters, adding that he plans to launch his campaign April 7 in Rockville, followed by a stop in Baltimore County.

He won in the big GOP year of 2002, lost in the big Democrat year of 2006 – now its 2010, and it may end up being a GOP year, again. Maryland is, of course, an overwhelmingly Democrat State – and thus it is horribly mis-governed, wracked by corruption and wallowing in a fiscal morass.

Now, in any given year, none of that would matter. Democrats are used to doing what they’re told and if they’re told to re-elect the people who caused all the problems, then that is what they’ll do. Normally. But 2010 isn’t a normal year.

The mask is finally off the corrupt government system – and Democrats are the government, plain and simple. It could be, at long last, that time when people reject permanently the party of government.

Pulling no punches:

The GOP needs to continue to oppose Obama on every front, vocally and without fear. It needs to offer market-based solutions to liberalism’s command-and-control economy. And it needs to do what some of us have been doing since the beginning of this administration, which is to say and to show that Barack Obama is the most radical president we have ever laid eyes on. Republicans need to point out, with the intellectual force and personal charm that characterized Mr. Reagan, that Mr. Obama is a threat to the things we most cherish, the principles our country was founded on, and the documents that gave birth to this country.

If some might have found this indictment overstated and melodramatic a year ago, that is no longer true. America has lived under Obama for 14 months now, and that experience has been a harsh teacher. We now know what we are dealing with. And the American people, in growing numbers, want to hit the reset button. Out of this a conservative victory will emerge — and a new political era will dawn.

It does seem to be working – don’t attack Obama, the man, but relentlessly attack everything he’s doing. He’s a nice guy. He’s good looking. His daughters are his crowing glory. Nothing much to hit at there, even if one wishes to eschew being a gentleman. But on what he does, there is room and to spare to hit hard and keep on hitting.

ObamaCare. Cap and Trade. Card Check. Iranian nuclear weapons. Insults to Israel. Corporate bail outs. Unemployment. Pork spending. This is a target-rich environment – and a list of particulars which can be used to appeal right across from conservative Republican to libertarian Independent to disaffected Democrat.

We have the materials ready to hand – we can craft a message and campaign which will score us an immense victory in November and set the stage for an even larger victory in 2012. Have we the courage to do it? Time will tell – but I really think we’re on to something.

A great man:

Jaime Escalante, the math teacher who transformed a tough East Los Angeles high school and inspired the movie “Stand and Deliver,” died Tuesday. He was 79.

Escalante died at his son’s home near Sacramento, after battling bladder cancer for several years, family friend Keith Miller said.

An immigrant from Bolivia, he transformed Garfield High School by motivating struggling students to excel at advanced math and science. The school had more advanced placement calculus students than all but four other public high schools in the country.

God bless you, Mr. Escalante.

Michael Barone notes:

When Republican Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri announced that he would not run for reelection, his seat seemed ripe for a Democratic pickup. Barack Obama had just narrowly missed carrying Missouri by 3,903 votes, Democrat Jay Nixon had just been elected governor, Democrat Clair McCaskill had defeated incumbent Republican Senator Jim Talent in 2006 and Democrats had a ready-made candidate in Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, daughter of the late Governor Mel Carnahan and of former Senator Jean Carnahan…

In addition, the lead Republican candidate, 7th district Congressman Roy Blunt, at first seemed to be burdened with disadvantages: he spent 14 years in Washington as a congressman, much of it as part of the Republican leadership, he is married to a Washington lobbyist and his son Matt Blunt left the governorship in 2008 after one term with a low job rating. But in the four public polls conducted this year, Blunt has led Carnahan by a 47%-41% margin. In the most recent, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, he leads 45%-41%–despite the fact that his favorables/unfavorables are perfectly dreadful (25%-41%) and much lower than Carnahan’s (38%-43%). So what’s going on? Reaction to “President Obama’s health care plan” is hugely negative: only 37% support it and 54% oppose it…

That is just astounding. The Democrat talking point remains “now that its passed, Republicans will be toast if they run against it”. Perhaps something like that would have worked 20 or 25 years ago – when the Democrats could rely upon the MSM to hammer home the message. And when people weren’t quite as disgusted with government as they are, today.

Now, however, things have changed. All a Republican has to do to get thunderous applause is announce he will work to repeal ObamaCare – not “healthcare” and not “healthcare reform” – ObamaCare. That is the key – the people don’t want this bill passed by this Congress and signed by this President. Democrats can yammer on endlessly about how wonderful the bill is but the fact remains that the way in which it was done has assured its unpopularity no matter what is in it.

And as we learn what is in it, it seems like its full of holes, doesn’t even cover the basic Democrat promises about and appears to have been written by insurance company lobbyists. Its a toxic stew, and Democrats may very much rue it by November.

Dropping like a rock – and taking Obama with it:

The One’s bounce has already started to fade but the numbers for the bill itself were an open question since Gallup’s shocker last week showing a surge of support to 49/40. Momentary spike due to glowing media coverage of the historic historicness of passage? Or a sustained rise as Americans reconcile themselves psychologically to their horrific new boondoggle?

An answer, perhaps:

In the poll, 50% call passage of the bill “a bad thing” and 47% say it was “a good thing.” That’s at odds with the findings of a one-day USA TODAY Poll taken a week ago — a day after the U.S. House approved the legislation — in which a 49%-40% plurality called the bill “a good thing.”…

The failure of the new law to get even plurality support is especially sobering for House Democrats from competitive congressional districts who heeded pleas from the White House and congressional leaders to vote “yes.” The legislation passed 219-212, with just three votes to spare…

Further in to the article is Gallup’s latest on the “generic ballot” question. To nutshell it – if the election were held today, Democrats would lose about 60 seats. It looks like all ObamaCare has done is give a temporary boost to Democrats among Democrats while also lighting a massive fire under GOPers and Independents to oppose not just ObamaCare, but the entire Democrat agenda.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen has Obama back on a -14 in the strongly approve/strongly disapprove metric.

Now, don’t cocky, Republicans – its a looong way to November and the Democrats will pull out all the stops. Get ready for the political battle of a life time.

Frank Rich decides that we really don’t mind ObamaCare – but we don’t like the fact that Obama is black:

If Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play.

One does begin to wonder: are they really that stupid, or is it that they money-bags writing the checks are just insisting upon such hackneyed, party-line views? I mean, come on.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, two of the people causing the most excitement in grass-roots conservatism are the hispanic Marco Rubio and the black Allen West. And, as we reported, there are a very large number of black Americans seeking GOP office here in 2010.

Some of my neighbors are black. My department manager is black. My boss is a woman (and she voted for Obama!). I have gay friends. My parish priest is from south Asia. If I’m out to save White America, then I’m a bit late. And yet a pinhead like Rich is telling his readers that I’m motivated by fear of “the other”.

Stupid. They’ll never learn. We’ll just have to beat them, very badly, and then reform the country so they don’t matter, at all.

The news:

I BLAME THE DEMOCRATS’ INFLAMMATORY EXTREMIST RHETORIC: Man Arrested For Eric Cantor Death Threat. With an anti-semitic angle: “Leboon’s video also makes reference to Cantor’s Judaism – Cantor last week said he has received anti-Semitic threats in the past.”…

…I should also mention that he was a Democratic Party donor. “Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show that Leboon had made two, separate donations to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign.” Fair’s, fair, right? But I’ll bet this won’t get headlined on CNN.

Given liberal rhetoric, Obama should be forced to apologize for this. I mean, if we conservatives are going to be held responsible for all actions of anyone who can even in the remotest degree be connected to us, then it is logical that the liberal’s leader should bear responsibility for kook actions of his own donors.

Demonstrated over at Pajamas Media where they link to photo essays of both the TEA Party in Searchlight, and an anti-war rally a week earlier in Los Angeles.

In one – pictures of happy, patriotic Americans – in the other, nasty, bigoted leftists. And I mean, those leftists are nasty – imagine, for a moment, if someone in Searchlight had carried a sign urging, say, that black Americans being sterilized. Can you just envision the firestorm? Well, over in lefty land, that is what one sign urged to be done to Jews. Things which are just beyond the pale for conservatives are par for the course on the left.

Which side do you want to be on?

This is getting to be obscenely anti-American:

…Commerce Secretary Gary Locke took to the White House blog to write that while ObamaCare is great for business, “In the last few days, though, we have seen a couple of companies imply that reform will raise costs for them.” In a Thursday interview on CNBC, Mr. Locke said “for them to come out, I think is premature and irresponsible.”

Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment “appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.”

In other words, shoot the messenger…

Waxman, a hidebound pinko, is incensed that anyone dare say that ObamaCare – all 2,700 pages of which, I’ll bet, Waxman has read little or none – won’t do what Obama/DNC talking points say it will do. These businesses are, you see?, straying from the party line and no “progressive” can ever tolerate such things.

Why is there a TEA Party movement? Because of things like this. Our liberals don’t get it – they have talked themselves in to believing that it is health care, in itself, that we are opposed to. Not like that at all – what has got people so incensed that tens of thousands of them will show up in the middle of nowhere for a rally is the arrogance and corruption of government.

Waxman, in a normal, decent Congress, would be expelled for daring to issue such a threat. How dare this little fascist threaten to haul people before committees as if they are criminals because they say things Waxman disagrees with! This is an outrage – and our liberals won’t even see what is upsetting about it.

November is coming – and that is when we start to clear out these cretins who disgrace our government and nation.