You know, Barry, it might just be time to cool it on the parties:

The White House is the place to be on Wednesdays.

Since the presidency changed hands less than six weeks ago, a burst of entertaining has taken hold of the iconic, white-columned home of America’s head of state. Much of it comes on Wednesdays.

The stately East Room, where portraits of George and Martha Washington adorn the walls, was transformed into a concert hall as President Barack Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the nation’s highest award for pop music on Wednesday.

A week before that, the foot-stomping sounds of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a female a cappella group, filled the East Room for a Black History Month program first lady Michelle Obama held for nearly 200 sixth- and seventh-graders from around the city.

Cocktails were sipped during at least three such receptions to date, all held on Wednesdays.

Bookending the midweek activity were a Super Bowl party for select Democratic and Republican lawmakers and a dinner for governors, the new administration’s first black-tie affair. It was capped with a performance by the 1970s pop group Earth, Wind and Fire. And a conga line.

People are losing their jobs, losing their savings, losing their homes…and Obama is having a conga line. Not just stupid, its also grossly insensitive.

Obama nominates pro-abortion Governor Sebelius:

On Saturday February 28, 2009, the Obama Administration announced that on Monday the President will nominate Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This President removed limitations on abortion by overturning the Mexico City Policy and recently announced he will remove the conscience protections for pro-life medical practitioners.

It appears that the release of news was timed to occur on the same day that “Catholics United”, a group which works in concert with “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good”, launched its new web site entitled “Catholics for Sebelius”. On that advocacy site this group stretches accuracy beyond anything they have done before. They argue that this Governor who has been told by her Bishop, Joseph Naumann, to refrain from presenting herself for Holy Communion until she takes “the necessary steps for amendment of her life which would include a public repudiation of her previous efforts and actions in support of laws and policies sanctioning abortion” is an acceptable choice for Catholics. One is welcomed to this site with these words “Catholics across the nation are rallying behind the nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Here you’ll find information about Gov. Sibelius’ record on issues important to Catholics, and an opportunity to register your support for her nomination.”

Let me begin with words from Francis Cardinal George which expose the error behind this organization’s claim: “Catholic Social thought is built upon the foundational truth that every single human life has an inherent human dignity and must be respected and protected. The unborn child, who is alive and is a member of the human family, cannot defend himself or herself. Good law defends the defenseless. Our present laws permit unborn children to be privately killed. Laws that place unborn children outside the protection of law destroy both the children killed and the common good, which is the controlling principle of Catholic social teaching. One cannot favor the legal status quo on abortion and also be working for the common good.”

The creation of the “astroturf” netroots for Sebelius indicates that Obama and Co are determined to confuse the issue of Catholic social teaching in 2012 as much – or more – than they did in 2008. It was a very clever, very cynical campaign for Catholic support in 2008 – pretend that one is not a pro-abortion fanatic and work the rest of Catholic social teaching for all its worth, and have one or two Catholics willing to sell out be your front men. It worked – Obama secured a majority of Catholic votes in 2008, reversing what happened in 2004 and possibly ensuring himself election to the Presidency of the United States (its not completely clear if Catholics, voting as they did in 2004, would have turned the election to McCain – but it sure would have been a heck of a lot closer, if they had).

On the day after the election as we Catholics reviewed the exit poll data, we were dismayed that we had failed so miserably to impart the truth about Obama’s de-facto pro-abortionism. But we also figured out quickly where we had failed – we hadn’t been as clear as possible that Catholic social teaching requires as its base an absolute defense of human life from conception until natural death. Wise to the ways of Obama, we’re not going to make the same mistake in 2012 – but now we see that Obama determined to try a repeat, and Governor Sebelius is going to be built up as an orthodox Catholic in Obamaniac talking points so that opposition to her – and, by extension, Obama – appears to contravene Church teaching.

Nothing doing – we’re out of the gate early, and we’re not going to let anyone forget that Governor Sebelius, far from being a stalwart for Catholic social teaching, is actually an excommunicate Catholic and member of the Culture of Death and until she repents, she can’t be properly considered worthy of Catholic political support.

Day after day, it gets clearer that a) Obama doesn’t have a clue and b) isn’t committed to protected this country…

Washington has told Moscow that Russian help in resolving Iran’s nuclear program would make its missile shield plans for Europe unnecessary, a Russian daily said on Monday, citing White House sources.

U.S. President Barack Obama made the proposal on Iran in a letter to his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, Kommersant said, referring to unidentified U.S. officials.

Nixing our missile shield based on the good will of Russia and Iran?

Like one of George Romero’s zombies, it just never dies – and here’s why:

…why are Keynes’ thoroughly debunked notions still in vogue? …

This question appears at first a lot harder to answer. …

I believe there are two answers. First, a dumbed-down American populace, trained to believe that economic theory is deadly dull and of no practical use, tends to cover their ears when such stuff is discussed.

But the second reason is far more obvious. Imagine any of our egotistical and money- and power-hungry members of Congress or chief executives (of either party) today announcing, “Gee, this economic downturn sure is a misery. Too bad there’s nothing the central government can do but to slash spending till our budget is in surplus so Washington is no longer crowding out private borrowers, meantime putting us back on the silver standard and shutting down the Federal Reserve. So all you lobbyists here to plead for special favors just might as well go home. Store’s closed.”

What? Give up the greatest excuse since Hitler and Tojo for enacting every pork barrel spending spree they can imagine? Are you crazy?!

Instead, what passes for “change” in Washington today are a chief executive and a Congress so desperate to place the heir-apparent to the guys who got us into this mess — Timothy Geithner, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — in charge of their government monetary policy, that they avert their eyes and imitate Sgt. Schultz (“I see Nuh-think!”) when it turns out their guy failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in personal income taxes.

If we really want to change things, then we have to cut spending down to the basics for survival and safety and then kill any regulation which burdens the tasks of making, mining and growing things. We go down Obama’s road, and we’ll just be more broke at the end of it than we are now. Meanwhile, if we go Obama-lite in a new, improved centrist-loving GOP, then we’ll just arrive at complete national bankruptcy a little later and pure Obamunism would have us do. We need conservatism – pure, fresh conservatism, from top to bottom.

Los Angeles goes down the tubes:

Los Angeles could face nearly a $1-billion shortfall by 2010 because of a mammoth bailout needed for the city’s employee pension funds, which have seen investments tank in the spiraling national recession, according to a city budget report released Friday.

The grim forecast of a $983-million budget gap came as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa already was considering widespread city layoffs and deep cuts to services because of the worsening financial crisis. The mayor is also exploring whether to privatize the Los Angeles Zoo and leasing city parking garages and meters, which could raise hundreds of millions of dollars. The total budget this year is $7 billion.

I feel bad for Los Angeles – I lived there back in the 80’s, before liberals outlawed fun and I moved to more relaxed areas of the country. But Los Angeles is getting precisely what it asked for: by electing an endless string of big-spending uber-liberals and capping it off with Villaraigosa – a kook left race hustler from waaaay back – the people of Los Angeles have no one but themselves to blame for their predicament. Sitting on a beach with some of the most valuable real-estate in the world, Los Angeles demonstrates that if liberals were placed in charge of the Saraha Desert, there would eventually be a shortage of sand.

Memo to Obama: Don’t take on people who, well, are Democrats, if you want to avoid ethical troubles:

Buildings sprang up as donations rained down on Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion

The man who is President Obama’s newly minted urban czar pocketed thousands of dollars in campaign cash from city developers whose projects he approved or funded with taxpayers’ money, a Daily News probe found.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion often received contributions just before or after he sponsored money for projects or approved important zoning changes, records show.

Most donations were organized and well-timed.

In one case, a developer became a Carrion fund-raiser two months before the borough president signed off on his project, raising more than $6,000 in campaign cash.

In another, eight Boricua College officials came up with $8,000 on the same day for Carrion three weeks before the school filed plans to build a new tower. Carrion ultimately approved the project and sponsored millions in taxpayer funds for it.

Carrion resigned as borough president effective Sunday and begins his new job as director of the White House Office on Urban Policy Monday.

Uh, Barry, old bean – you know those Chicago city government types who are corrupt as the day is long? Pretty much same/same when dealing with New York city government types. You think Carrion got himself to be borough president for his health? Because he wanted to help the downtrodden? Big city Democrats/corrupt creeps, its all the same.

And, liberals: these are the sort of people you want to put in charge of health care, education, energy development. They will be just as corrupt in their new guises as they were in their old jobs – in fact, this is a dream come true for Carrion…now he’s not just taking a payoff for a measly building in one city: now he gets to play with all of urban America to work the system for his personal benefit.

Victor Davis Hanson points the finger at the right culprit for the conservative defeat 2006-08:

Conservatives created Barack Obama and his vision of the Europeanization of America, and so have themselves to blame for the current recessional, as the present as we have known it fades into the past..

Let me explain. Yes, I know that the 2000-01 recession, Hurricane Katrina, two wars, and a $1 trillion hit after 9/11 made fiscal discipline hard. But being a conservative in America these days is hard—and one gets very little leeway or second chances. Not disowning a Ted Stevens and instead pointing to a Charles Rangel or John Murtha or William Jefferson is fatal for a conservative. We expect such things from a promiscuous spender, but cannot tolerate it from a professed budget hawk. (emphasis added)

Not just these days, but all the time. It is always hard to be the conservative – conservatism is a defense of hard, you-can’t-get-out-of-it, must-do-the-right-thing-even-if-it-hurts, Truth. Who do you want as your friend: the guy who says you have to mow the lawn before you head to the beach, or the guy who lets you off the hook for lawn mowing? Sure, we know the lawn has to be mowed, but its such a nice day…we conservatives are the people who throw the cold water of truth and responsibility on to the blazing fires of liberal hopes and dreams. Makes for a tricky bit of politics.

Hanson goes on through the linked article to talk about what, exactly, we messed up on and I highly recommend reading the whole thing. What I’d like to do is put my two cents in on what we might do in order to advance conservatism in such a manner as regains power.

At bottom, as I’ve said before, conservatism is a defense of Judeo-Christian civilization. This is what conservatism arose to defend – once liberalism started to question the basics of our civilization (the existence of God, the existence of revealed morality, the worth of inherited traditions, etc, etc, etc) in the so-called “Enlightenment”, conservatism arose to defend the basics against this assault. It is a curiosity of politics that liberalism, as a thing, pre-dates conservatism. There was no need for a conservative defense of what everyone accepted as the basics – there were political arguments, but they were about how to apply the basics to current conditions, not over whether the basics were true, or not. Liberalism changed all that, and we’ve been engaged in this battle ever since.

And in this battle we have won at times, and we have lost at times – but over the past 100 years its been mostly plain ruination of Judeo-Christian civilization. This is because conservatism, round about the turn of the last century, ceased to be a defense of eternal verities and became a rear-guard action seeking to merely slow down liberalism’s advancement. As liberalism advance from foolish lie to absurd lie, conservatism became more interested in just ameliorating the effects of the absurd lie, rather than going after the foolish which underpinned the absurd. Reagan, Thatcher and a few others attempted to arrest this continual ratchet to the left and even try to turn it back a bit, but they ended up being, at best, only partially (and temporarily) successful. Faced with the heavy lifting of turning back liberalism, Reagan, Thatcher et al were weakened by conservatives who didn’t understand that liberalism, in and of itself, is the problem and/or who simply didn’t want to do the hard task of advancing conservatism – its seems nice to be liked, and a lot of conservatives just didn’t want to bother doing things which would get them insulted in gross terms.

There is a curious bit of good fortune we’ve now run into – it is Judeo-Christian civilization which is now the revolutionary threat to the established order. Especially as President Obama seeks to remake America in a completely liberal image, it is our views which assert a radical change to society is necessary for justice and peace to be established. In losing the fight to maintain Judeo-Christian ideals as central to our civilization we have now placed such ideals in the exact position they were when they first became the rather earth-shaking idea – ie, we’re back now, in a sense, to the 2nd century, attempting to convince a world gone mad with a degenerate paganism that we offer the only real solution to the problem. The thing about the revolutionary is that there is an inherent romance about being on the outside, battling desperately for a cause.

What is Obama doing? Propping up the status quo – he’s going to bail out the banks which are part of the problem, bail out the mega-corporations which are part of the problem, bail out the unions which are part of the problem, protect the political ruling class which is part of the problem…and all to the cheers a pagan popular culture which also part of the problem. Obama just promises to do more of what messed us up to begin with – and as it all falls apart, and it will, that will be our opportunity to show that its all bad, and all of it has to go and be replaced by what we offer – sobriety, solidarity, hard work, thrift and self-sacrifice. A world with, perhaps, a lot less glamor, but with a lot more happiness and peace.

A drunken, diseased society will soon be entirely out of options and casting about for a life line – we offer it. Or, more accurately, we can offer it. We can offer, that is, pure conservatism – purified from its liberal accretions, no longer trying to be “less of the same” and no longer concerned with the insults which will be hurled at it. We can offer solid families rather than loose collections of individuals, genuine work as opposed to corporate/bureaucratic paper shuffling, charity rather than welfare, service rather than dependency, art rather than obscenity. Or we can try to trim our sails and become “liberal-lite” – well dressed and well-mannered tax collectors and military defenders of a dying people.

The choice is ours.

If he seeks re-election next year and manages to secure the GOP nomination, the Democrat will win:

A new statewide poll shows 53 percent of Pennsylvanians — and 66 percent of Republicans — want someone to replace Sen. Arlen Specter.

Asked whether they think Specter, a Philadelphia Republican, has done his job well enough to win re-election or whether they’d prefer a “new person” in that job, registered voters by a 53-38 percent margin said it’s time to give someone else a chance, according to the poll by Susquehanna Polling and Research. Eight percent were undecided.

The numbers might reflect Specter’s vote as one of three Republican senators who enabled passage of President Obama’s $787 billion federal stimulus package, said James Lee, president of Harrisburg-based Susquehanna polling. But they reflect long-standing dissatisfaction among Republican conservatives with Specter’s record, he said.

It is almost certain that Specter will draw a GOP challenger on the right – and, heck, such challenger may be more “center” than “right” and still gain a lot of conservative base support for the primary. The GOP rank and file is tired of these Republicans who always manage to justify cutting the GOP off at the knees when it really matters. Its not worth having whatever number of GOPers we have in the Senate if on the crucial issues they are going to side with the liberal Democrats – better fewer GOPers committed to GOP ideals than more GOPers willing to chuck it all in the toilet in return for dinner party invitations and glowing editorials in the New York Times.

The best thing for the GOP is for Specter to lose a primary fight – even if our candidate is subsequently defeated, a defeat of Specter in the primary will be a signal to all week kneed GOPers that there is a price to be paid for giving Democrats “bi-partisan” cover for their liberal agenda. We are not the party of liberalism – we are the party of conservatism. When push comes to shove – and a trillion dollars is about to be wasted – it is time for all GOPers to adhere rigidly to conservative principle. Specter doesn’t understand thing, and thus Specter Must Go.

The news story:

Twenty-nine percent of Republicans questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they are most likely to support Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. Right behind the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, and well within the poll’s 4.5 percent sampling error, is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Twenty-six percent of those questioned say they are most likely backing the former, and possibly future, Republican presidential candidate.

Twenty-one percent of Republicans polled say they most likely would support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, another GOP hopeful from the last campaign who may put his hat into the ring again.

Nine percent say they would probably back Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who is considered a rising star in the GOP.

Here’s the most important thing in the poll:

“Among GOP men, the same pattern emerges — no clear advantage for Palin, Huckabee or Romney,” says Holland. “But among Republican women, it’s a different story. Palin has a 10-point edge among Republican women, winning 32 percent support among them to 22 percent for Huckabee and 20 percent for Romney. With the sampling error, that’s not enough to say for sure that Palin is in the lead, but it does indicate that if the primaries were held tomorrow, Palin would have a good chance of being the favorite among GOP women.”

As readers of this blog know, I’m a booster of Bobby Jindal for 2012 – I think he’s the very best we’ve got and that he would be a great President. On the other hand, Choice Number Two for me is Sarah Palin – she doesn’t have the stupendous background of Bobby Jindal but she has core, conservative principles…and she also has political magnetism of a high order and that, I think, will eventually determine the winner of the GOP nominating process in 2012.

Being a conservative Republican, I know a fair number of conservative, Republican women and it seems to me that devotion to Sarah Palin is high amongst such women. They love her, plain and simple – because she’s so clearly one of them. All those MSM/left attacks on her? Just made such women love Palin even more. Its going to be very hard for any other GOPer to cobble together such a strong base of support – while Jindal, Romney, Huckabee, et al battle it out for GOP men, Palin may walk away with GOP women and take the nomination rather early in the process.

Of course, this all depends on who actually runs in 2012…lots of GOP toes in the water right now, but conditions in 2012 are unknown and unknowable at this point.

Consummate Broadcaster Paul Harvey, dead at 90 years old:

He was a broadcast legend; the early and great pioneer in the Conservative broadcast movement.

Although Mr. Paul Harvey has been working for ABC for 50 years, I became aware of him first as a teenager listening to him during the early 1970s on WGN-AM radio in Chicago. I grew up in the neighborhood of Roosevelt and Harlem in Berwyn, Illinois, just a number of blocks away from his home in Oak Park. His dulcitone voice, his trademark inflection and pregnant pauses immediately drew in the listener and made them a part of his world for 15 minutes a day, 6 days a week. Mr. Harvey was a “broadcaster’s broadcaster.” Oh, there were broadcasters, who would “announce” the news; and then there was Paul, who didn’t merely announce the news; he drew you in to his living room, discussed it with you; not as a reporter, but as a confidant. Harvey commanded attention, respect, and instant credibility. His inimitable style became a personal inspiration to me as a 21-year entering the field of broadcasting in my early years as a commercial writer, producer, and voice-over talent.

Part of my duties as the lowest on the totem pole of a staff of four writers for WAXX/WAYY was to sit at the board of WAYY, tape Paul Harvey at 10:30am on the trusty Magnacord reel-to-reel; and at noon, sharp, pause the radio’s automation system, and air the show. As the Paul Harvey “News and Comments” program would play, it would be my duty to listen for his declaration of “Page Three!” This was the cue to stop the tape and to run the only available local spot commercial, cue the tape past the PSA (public service announcement) and have the remainder of the show ready to run at the end of the 60 second spot. At the end of the program, it was my time to shine on real-live radio, as I would make the following announcment, “You have been listening to Paul Harvey News & Comments on Am-1150, WAYY; brought to you by Arrowhead Lodge; the time is 12:15pm, temperature is 54 degrees!” (My parents, who lived 70 miles away in Auburndale, Wisconsin, would listen every day. It was their way of knowing that their kid was still alright).

At any rate, Paul Harvey was a guiding force in my delivery as a commercial voiceover talent; in not simply “announcing” a product, but rather in bringing a listener in and capturing his or her attention and imaginaton via expression and voice dynamics.

Though Paul Harvey was not a far-right conservative, he was the closest thing to being conservative that could be found at the time on any medium. In the days when the “Fairness” Doctrine was in its heyday, and the espousing of conservative values was nearly unheard of, Harvey’s voice was an early guidepost that would eventually guide my thinking toward conservative values. His unshakeable optimism made you feel great about being an American, even during the malaise of the Ford and Carter years. And to this day I can remember the minute and could almost hear him speak word for word of the great things that would come about at the dawn of the Reagan Revolution, as I was making my way on Highway 124 from Chicago to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, for my first radio gig.

I have a collection of old radios; every night I am lulled to sleep by bluetooth headphones as my smart phone is streaming Antioch Radio. No doubt that TV programs and movies are grand; but nothing can beat the theatre of the mind and personalization of experience proffered by the radio medium.

For this reason, and to this day I remain a rabid fan of radio; and I can attribute my devotion to it directly to Mr. Paul Harvey.

Closed-circuit to Mr. Paul Harvey– Well done, sir! Well done!