Don Surber notes the problem with being civil to liberals:

For a decade, from the election of Bush 43 forward, the Left has lied and cheated as it tried to return to power. Al Gore made a mockery out of the American electoral system by being a spoilsport over Florida, which Bush indeed won by 537 votes. Dan Rather forged a document to try to derail Bush’s re-election. Twice Democrats stole U.S. (senate seats) from the Republicans. After voting to support the war to get by the 2002 election, many Democrats quickly soured on the war. The profane protests were cheered by liberals who mis-attributed “dissent is the highest form of patriotism”to Thomas Jefferson; the words belong to the late historian Howard Zinn.

Once in power, liberals were the opposite of gracious.

For two years now, I have been called ignorant, racist, angry and violent by the left. The very foul-mouthed protesters of Bush dare to now label my words as “hate speech.”…

All of us, even minor, little bloggers like me, have felt this – liberals calling us every name in the book and blaming us for all ills. Heck, guys, I’ve had liberals try to find a picture of my house so they can post it on the web – and the doubly bad thing about that is they found a different Mark Noonan’s house and posted it! (Seems there are a lot of Mark Noonans out there – apparently, I come in six packs…joking aside, one should be careful as to which Mark Noonan has been found; it may not be me, so have a care in your stalking, liberals). Matt was once roughed up by union thugs, a liberal radio host once opined that I should be beaten up. On and on it goes, day after day without a let up – just pure evil being directed against all conservatives. After all this, we’re supposed to be civil?

Well, truth be told, yes, we are – that is, those of us who are Jewish or Christian are required by our religious beliefs to turn the other cheek and be patient…and the worse the other side gets, the nicer we’re supposed to be. Its not fair – but the point is not just to provide an example to these foaming-at-the-mouth liberals, but also to protect our own souls. If we went off giving tit for tat with the left, we’d be putting ourselves at eternal risk.

But it is difficult. It is hard for me to work up sympathy for liberals when they say untrue things about me, or about conservatism in general. The American Catholic has a video up of liberal twitter posts in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting – it is not safe for family viewing; though if you’ve a mind to really see what liberals think about conservatives, it is invaluable. We are to mortify even the least desire to pay them out in their own coin…but in day to day terms, no one should look for any particular conservative to spend a lot of effort trying to be nice to liberals.

If we do wish to have a civil debate, then it will have to be liberals first stopping their nastiness, and then apologizing for what they have done. No matter how many times we conservatives bury the hatchet and try to make nice, it won’t work because the liberals will just call us nasty names, again, the next day. I’m going to try and do my part – in fact, I already do my part. Time and time again I re-draft my posts to try and soften the blow. I can’t lie – which would be the only way to make liberalism out as something worthwhile – but I probably re-write passages and sentences several times a week for the sake of civility. I’ve yet to see any such efforts on the part of liberals – and I doubt much I ever will. The conflict is too fundamental for that, and the side which is advocating for wrong things won’t be able to pretty themselves up for the battle.

Governor Sandoval of Nevada proposes a State constitutional amendment to allow for school choice. I am delighted – and go on at length about why this is so.

Yet another food crisis warning.

Ron Reagan takes one, last stab at insulting his father and all he stood for.

Susannah York, RIP. Played Sir Thomas More’s daughter in one of the best Catholic movies, ever, A Man for All Seasons.

A review of Governor Moonbeam’s chances of suckering Californians in to voting for tax increases.

Poll: 75% want some sort of change to ObamaCare. The GOP is on rock-solid political ground with “repeal and replace”.

Sarah Palin’s secret messages to us raving nutters in the TEA Party.

The New York Times has an interesting analysis of all the rapid changes occurring in the Arab world – from Hezbollah making a play for full power in Lebanon to the revolutionary ferment in Tunisia to pending partition of Sudan as non-Moslems break away from their Moslem oppressors, things seem to be pretty rocky for the establishment. But does this really signal a fundamental shift?

It could – but it could also wind up being a shift for the worse. There are threats in Sudan and if the south breaks away, the Sudanese government will go full on in to Sharia law, which will make life next to impossible for the remaining non-Moslem minority in the northern part of the country. Tunisia is considered the most westernized nation in the Arab world, but will the mass of Tunisians – now that their dictator has fled – really want to keep open the resorts for European tourists, or will they opt for a more hard-line Islamism? If Hezbollah gains full mastery of Lebanon – thus, de-facto, making it a colony of Iran – will this mean renewed war with Israel?

In all these things, American policy will be hobbled by the that our President and Administration understand nothing of Islamism and are all to apt to fall for the asinine view that our support for Israel causes Arabs to hate us (no one really knows how the Arabs feel about us – not being able to vote in real elections, there is no way to tell if manifestations of anti-American sentiment reflect popular views, or are manufactured by tyrannical regimes trying to deflect anger).

In the main, my view is that the more real voting there is in the Arab world, the better for us – while we can see duplications of Gaza in this (ie, Islamist fanatics winning a fair vote and then going on to mess everything up), my bet is that we’ll more often see duplications of Iraq…sure, a bit of anti-American polemics; sure, a bit of anti-Israeli bluster from politicians on the make; but, mostly, as freely elected politicians need to get re-elected, they concentrate on domestic reforms. But I am also deeply concerned for non-Moslem minorities – especially my Christian brothers and sisters. I don’t trust my fellow Christians to Moslem rule – even democratic Moslem rule. There is just too long a history of Moslems being cruel and spiteful towards Christians they rule over; I want, at the least, autonomy for all Christian communities in the Arab world – with a preference for outright independence, when that can be managed.

When walls come tumbling down a lot of things can be let in – light, reason and peace; but it can also let in war, oppression and fanaticism. We do need to craft a very careful policy where we can guide the new forces in channels conducive to liberty and peace…but since we have an Administration which doesn’t understand liberty while also not understanding Islam, I doubt we’ll get such a policy. We may, after all is said and done, do no more than go along for the ride…and hope that the Arab world is not riding towards disaster.

This is what you get when government runs your health care:

Britain’s most senior accident and emergency doctor told The Sunday Telegraph that four weeks of intense pressures had left casualty departments “overwhelmed” with patients.

He said desperately sick people had been left for hours waiting on trolleys, with even those requiring intensive care enduring long delays.

Dozens of NHS units have cancelled surgery and clinics for outpatients. At least 10 major centres issued “black alerts” — the highest emergency warning — meaning they were at breaking point, forcing patients to be sent elsewhere…

…John Heyworth… expressed anger about the failure of Government and the NHS to develop sufficient contingency plans, given that a flu outbreak was widely anticipated following the swine flu pandemic in 2009…

I can understand that anger, but if anyone tries to tell me they’re surprised about this, I’ll laugh at them. Where, to a government bureaucrat, is the upside to being prepared for a flu pandemic? Think about it – if you lay in supplies and get things carefully organized for such an event, then all you’ve done is expend resources for patients. And what if the crisis doesn’t happen? How are you going to justify all that expense when it proves ultimately un-necessary? Always best to bank on best case scenarios and count on crisis management to get you through the rough patches, even if they cost the taxpayers 10 times as much as preparation would have.

Any NHS administrator knows that his primary clients are elected officials who want to keep costs down (and thus would ask questions about expenditures for things which only might happen) and union leaders (patient health or more pay and benefits for the union workers; where do you think a union boss will come down?) – it was natural that nothing would be done about the prospect of lots of people getting sick. To a national health system, patients are simply an annoyance – and an expensive annoyance, in to the bargain. They complain, they take up space, you have to deal with awkward questions when you’ve left a clamp inside a patient’s body after surgery – nothing but a bother. And if you do try to please those people (who are, after all, going to die eventually, right?), then you’ve got less money for pay hikes, new construction and all the things which will actually make your job go smoother.

And that is the way it is, my fellow Americans – and it is the way Obama and his Democrats want to have it. Because they really believe that a faceless bureaucrat can make things better for people. Why they believe this is another story, and seems to revolve around a lack of common-sense among our self-described “reality-based community”. Be that as it may, we must repeal and replace – unless we want to have British level care come to the United States.

So much for MSM/liberal/RINO commentary that Palin’s response to Tuscon killed her political career:

A new national study among 1,437 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and Independents revealed that Americans indicated that Sarah Palin was more sincere and believable after viewing her speech in response to the shootings in Tucson.

The study was conducted during January 13-14 by HCD Research and reported on its MediaCurves.com® website, to obtain Americans’ perceptions of Sarah Palin after viewing a video of a speech she gave in response to the shootings in Tucson…

The poll does show that Palin has a long way to go in overcoming the effects of slander – more than two years of relentless lies about her have taken their toll – but this poll does show that people can be reached. Just as in the case of Reagan, people hate the image projected by the MSM, liberals and frightened RINOs, but they warm up fast to the actual person.

We’ll see how this works out over the next two years…

From MSNBC:

A Tucson mass shooting victim was taken into custody Saturday after yelling “you’re dead” at a Tea Party spokesman during the taping of an ABC-TV town hall event hosted by Christianne Amanpour.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Office said J. Eric Fuller, 63, was involuntarily committed to an undisclosed medical facility, NBC News reported. The Associated Press said he was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation…

You can understand Fuller being upset over what happened. Getting wounded, even if only slightly, during a horrific crime can put a person in a strange state of mind. But the fact that he threatened a TEA Party activist, when the TEA Party had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting, indicates that Fuller, in his anger, has been taken in by the slanderous liberal and MSM propaganda about responsibility for the Tuscon massacre.

Here’s a chance for a tone down of the rhetoric which might have a positive effect – if the liberals and the MSM will kindly stop lying about the right, that would be helpful.

From MSNBC:

Strained by rising demand and battered by bad weather, the global food supply chain is stretched to the limit, sending prices soaring and sparking concerns about a repeat of food riots last seen three years ago.

Signs of the strain can be found from Australia to Argentina, Canada to Russia.

On Friday, Tunisia’s president fled the country after trying to quell deadly riots in the North African country by slashing prices on food staples…

Once upon a time the United States could easily make up the difference – but a huge amount of our food production is going to perfectly useless ethanol (thanks, Greens!) and a lot of our land lies fallow because of government regulations preventing farming (either subsidies not to grow, or asinine things like shutting down California’s central valley to save a dratted guppy). Make, mine, grow – that is what the economy is all about…and we’re doing none of these things.

Actually saw a pinhead on TV explain that Americans will never manufacture again and our whole future is based upon “innovation”. Innovation of what? If we’re not making anything, what is the innovation for? Improved processes so China’s factories can better supply us with cheap, consumer goods? We’re awash with idiocy in our nation and around the world…and guess who is going to pay the highest price? The poor of the world who already spend half or more of their income on food, which is now shooting up in price.

We simply must change – we must become rational people, again.

From Jammie Wearing Fool:

Sadly, there are still the the diehard, far left relics who think it would be a good idea to pay more taxes to reduce the monstrous deficits racked up by Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Upside: It’s only 9% of the public.

A new CBS News poll finds that Americans strongly prefer cutting spending to raising taxes to reduce the federal deficit. While 77 percent prefer to cut spending, just nine percent call for raising taxes. Another nine percent want to do both…

My dirty, little secret here – I’m ok with some tax increases in order to close the gap. Not before we’ve done at least a 25%, across the board reduction of non-defense, discretionary spending (I’m ok with a 10% cut to Defense, but I don’t want to go lower than that…tight defense budgets lead to military disaster at later dates…if you ever get in to a mood to cut defense, read an account of what happened on Bataan); but, still, the debt is so entirely crushing that even the added burden of taxes is worthwhile in order to avoid the complete collapse we’re heading for. It should also be mentioned that the taxes I’d like to increase would hit the real rich – ie, the bankrolls of billionaire liberals who fund the left wing attempt to jack up taxes on the middle class. Sorry, Soros, but it is time to pay the piper for all the financial manipulation you’ve engaged in…

Be that as it may, this poll shows very clearly that the American people see through the Big Government scam. Its not that people necessarily want everything cut to heck and gone, but that they do realize two things:

1. There is a huge amount of waste built in to government and so people with courage and honesty could cut the budgets in all areas quite a lot without causing the least bit of harm to anyone who actually needs help.

2. If you give the government more in taxes there is a very strong chance the government will just waste that money, too…better, then, to have a round of stiff budget cuts before anyone talks up new taxes (this is much like the illegal immigration debate – we can eventually have at least some amnesty for part of the illegal population…but the people aren’t going to let the government do that until after the people are convinced that the border is secure).

As we head in to the budget debates – and especially the upcoming debate on raising the debt ceiling – Democrats will try to cast all cuts as cuts to grannies health care and juniors education. They’ll pull out all the stops to try and scare people off from budget cuts – and the MSM will be right there helping Democrats spread their message. We will have to fight back on this – we can still lose the debate if we just sit there and do nothing. As we cut, we must demonstrate why we’re cutting – citing corruption, fraud, waste, duplication and sheer idiocy time and time again to justify the need to cut. The good news here is that the Democrats are increasingly discredited, the MSM is losing viewers day by day, and the New Media is here to keep the people informed…and will be keeping a people already in favor of cuts informed about the battle to get the cuts they want.

And if we can win this battle, then we’ll win all down the line. We’ve never successfully cut the budget in the sense of having government actually spend less one year than it did in a previous year. If we can to this, even once, and show that the nation won’t fall apart if government spends a bit less, then we’ll have a snowball effect in our favor…the more we cut, the better the chance we’ll be able to cut more in the future…eventually balancing the budget, and then swinging the axe to de-fund the left (first, balance budget to save America from collapse…then, de-fund the left in order to prevent a repeat of the current disaster; it all works together, but first things, first).

On the GOP – from the Tennessean:

Tennessee tea party activists took to the halls of the state legislature Wednesday, warning Republican leaders not to misinterpret the results of the November election as a sign of implicit tea party support…

…Activists were on the Hill to let GOP lawmakers know the tea party’s next step in Tennessee is to influence legislation and to hold Republicans “accountable” on a variety of policy measures, including fighting federal health-care reform.

“That’s precisely why we are here, to hold our elected officials accountable,” tea party organizer Ben Cunningham said. “That’s what we’re all about.”…

This is the crucial Part II of this effort – once we get them in to office, we must keep intense pressure on them to make sure they do what they promised us in the campaign. We worked very hard to elect quite a lot of Republicans around the nation in 2010 and we want our payoff for the work – reduced budgets, lowered taxes, less government involvement in our lives. And if we don’t get it, we’ll make the GOP pay for it.

Contrast this to the supine nature of the Democrat rank-and-file. They do as they’re told and don’t dare set up grass roots efforts without leadership permission. The secret of American success is the engagement of regular, every day folks in the political process. For far too long we held our leaders in awe – as if they were some special class of people smarter than we are and deserving of power. I think we on the right have now learned our lesson – it remains to be seen if those on the left ever will.

From Politico:

…a billion dollar presidential re-election bid is unlikely to be launched or sustained for long exclusively with small donors. Even in 2008, Obama’s eye-popping online giving was matched with larger donations generated by roughly 700 big and small bundlers.

Rebuilding that half of his financial operation is critical to his prospects and talk of it dates back to before the midterms when the president hosted a string of late summer DNC fundraisers…

I still have my doubts that Obama really got all that much in small donations in 2008 – just too many stories of untraceable donations, including some which did appear to originate overseas (you know, illegal fund raising…its a Democrat thing). But Obama is looking for a big increase over his 2008 total of $750 million – and I wonder just where he’ll get it from?

Because he will get it. Make no mistake about it – Obama and his Democrats aren’t about to lose in 2012 for lack of funds, nor will they allow anything as piddling as US law to hold them back. Whatever is needed will be raised by whatever means prove necessary. For Obama and his Democrats it is really simple: if they win, they’ll see to it no one is ever prosecuted for breaking the law. If they lose, they count on GOPers to not bother going after them for breaking the law. There is nothing to hold Democrats back from illegal fund raising other than the sterling moral qualities we have grown accustomed to seeing in them…

2012 will be the most expensive, longest and most nasty political election in history. The whole ball of wax is at stake – if Obama and his Democrats lose, then they can count on being out of power for the balance of this decade, and perhaps far longer. So get ready for the fight.