A harsh but correct statement about Obama:
Obama and Co very much want to fool Christians, again. He managed the trick in 2008 – and not just with Catholics, as Obama did relatively well among self-identified Evangelicals, as well. As the video states, Obama is counting on our ignorance – on the ignorance of Christians, themselves – in order to sucker us to vote for him. My view: in 2012, our theme song will be “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.
Provided the lies and distortions of the Obama regime and the liberal media don’t win out as they did in 2008, we can all look forward to an actual adult administration and a Romney Presidency. So what can we expect? Well to begin with, we can expect a return to decency, where success is applauded, America is not apologized for, and people are once again judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. We can expect a return to work for welfare, allowing states to enforce the federal immigration law, and a repeal of the presidential “dream act” decree. And speaking of repeal, I think we can expect a repeal of Obamacare provided that conservatives win the Senate, which is crucial. I hope we can also expect a reform of medicare and serious conversation about, if not a reform of the antiquated tax code, which is desperately needed to lower the tax burden on the middle class and eliminate the tax shelters and loop holes for those in the upper income brackets, all of which originate from lobbyists and special interests. Keep the tax code simple and easy to enforce. I think, or at least hope that we can also expect a lower corporate tax rate which will encourage corporations to come back to America and once again employ with the confidence that the tax and regulatory environment will not be too burdensome. And lastly I hope that Romney will allow those corporations to repatriate their off shore funds with a one time tax holiday, which should inject nearly $2 trillion into the economy and would be the best stimulus ever.
Add to this a concerted effort to develop our natural energy resources, and we can expect much lower annual deficits, if not a balanced budget within a few years. Consumer confidence would explode and government dependency would decrease as people found gainful employment and the dignity of providing for themselves. America would once again be that shining city in the hill.
“A government big enough to give you everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have….”
This quote is often mistakenly attributed to Thomas Jefferson. In fact it was uttered on the floor of Congress by Gerald Ford in an address to a joint session of Congress on August 12, 1974, 3 days after he had assumed the Presidency following Richard Nixon’s resignation.
In the previous thread, Jeremiah posted this marvelous quote from Ronald Reagan:
I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.
The same bit of research that revealed the Gerald Ford quote also revealed that Reagan’s words did, indeed, paraphrase a famous quote from Thomas Jefferson:
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” – Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, Paris, 27 May 1788
Contrary to the portrait his critics attempt to paint, Reagan was a wise and intelligent man, the closest thing America has seen to a visionary in the mold of the Founders in my lifetime, and anyone who doubts that should read his personal journals. I would add to what he said that prosperity and liberty go hand in hand. Since America is made up of immigrants from numerous other countries, none of which is as prosperous as we are, it can only be that our system of government allows a level of individual freedom that promotes a prosperous economy more than any other country. Now, right before our eyes, we’re seeing one man and a small oligarchy of radical Leftist cronies attempt to “fundamentally transform” that successful model into just another country. As long as we have the freedom to vote, such men will never stay in power long.
There’s a good chance that none of us on this blog has ever suffered under the tyranny of a dictatorship or totalitarian government. If any have, I’d love for them to come forward and describe what it was like. In his GOP convention speech, Marco Rubio noted, in reference to the policies of the current administration, “these are tired and old big government ideas. Ideas that people come to America to get away from. Ideas that threaten to make America more like the rest of the world, instead of helping the world become more like America.”
The freedom that we have and for which we’ve expended great quantities of blood and treasure for others to have around the world is, historically speaking, not the norm. It’s why the founding of this country has often been described as The Great American Experiment. Not since Rome had a country attempted to embark on a course that would allow ordinary citizens to govern themselves.
Now some are going so far as to suggest that the current occupant of the White House is the one who wants to continue that experiment, to expand liberty to new horizons:
America’s story is one of constantly tackling the big—the biggest—problems, ahead of everyone else, with very little to guide us but those founding principles that nag at our conscience. And each time we’ve made progress, extending civil rights to more and more people, it’s been because that old spirit of taking a gamble, of performing the ultimate experiment, took over and led us to the right decision.
As we think today about what divides Americans, I think it boils down to the fact that some Americans no longer want to experiment. They want to close the lab down. We’ve gone far enough into the unknown, making it known, they say; now let’s stop—let’s even go backward. We were wrong to conduct some of our experiments in liberty, and that’s the source of all our problems. Gay people shouldn’t be treated equally. Black people shouldn’t run the country. Women shouldn’t hold high office. Muslims shouldn’t be granted habeas corpus.
Whenever one of those Americans talks about the problem with our country today, they talk about how we should be like we once were, back when white people who defined marriage as one man-one woman and were Protestant veterans built this nation. They feel they are losing their birthright, their legacy.
But those Americans are wrong. What their ancestors really were was scientists. Experimenters. Radicals who always considered the impossible possible. To define those ancestral Americans as merely white or straight or Christian strips them of their most stunning feature, their near-supernatural qualities of optimism and defiance and willingness to go into the unknown and make it their home, to make the amazing the norm. They defied the status quo. That’s how they built America.
Americans who want to end the experiment are few, but boisterous. They clamor at the national microphone. But Americans who know that there is no America without the experiment will keep at it, and they will persevere. Barack Obama is such an American, and his election is proof that the lab is still open, and that America in general will always be at the drawing board, expanding its concept of liberty and justice and equality until we finally fulfill the founding principles that created this nation so long ago.
I have to confess, when I read this essay, my first reaction was, clearly I and the vast majority of Conservatives have missed something if this is true. Perhaps we’re wrong, and this writer is correct. Perhaps one or more of our resident Progressives can make a case for Obama being the great experimenter in expanding liberty.
Discuss all aspects of the campaign here but, also, did Romney do what he needed to do? Was the RNC a success?
UPDATE: Well, I think Mrs. O should make nice and allow Mrs. R in early to measure for drapes in the Oval Office…
Twitchy has the latest string of liberal hated – calls for Anny Romney to die, or kill herself…and kill her husband, too. There is more to see at Instapundit where there is a thread about how people who are conservative but work in “liberal” professions are afraid to have their colleagues learn of their views…because everyone knows that if you’re surrounded by liberals and don’t toe the line, they’ll make you pay for it.
Remember that “new tone” bullsh**? Yeah; me, neither.
It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a Global Warming update, and it appears that we failed to act soon enough, and now we’re all going to drown.
There are no comparisons to be made. This is not like war or plague or a stockmarket crash. We are ill-equipped, historically and psychologically, to understand it, which is one of the reasons why so many refuse to accept that it is happening.
What we are seeing, here and now, is the transformation of the atmospheric physics of this planet. Three weeks before the likely minimum, the melting of Arctic sea ice has already broken the record set in 2007. The daily rate of loss is now 50% higher than it was that year. The daily sense of loss – of the world we loved and knew – cannot be quantified so easily.
The Arctic has been warming roughly twice as quickly as the rest of the northern hemisphere. This is partly because climate breakdown there is self-perpetuating. As the ice melts, for example, exposing the darker sea beneath, heat that would previously have been reflected back into space is absorbed.
This great dissolution, of ice and certainties, is happening so much faster than most climate scientists predicted that one of them reports: “It feels as if everything I’ve learned has become obsolete.” In its last assessment, published in 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted that “in some projections, Arctic late-summer sea ice disappears almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st century”. These were the most extreme forecasts in the panel’s range. Some scientists now forecast that the disappearance of Arctic sea-ice in late summer could occur in this decade or the next.
As I’ve warned repeatedly, but to little effect, the IPCC’s assessments tend to be conservative. This is unsurprising when you see how many people have to approve them before they are published. There have been a few occasions – such as its estimate of the speed at which glaciers would be lost in the Himalayas – on which the panel has overstated the case. But it looks as if these will be greatly outnumbered by the occasions on which the panel has understated it.
The melting disperses another belief: that the temperate parts of the world – where most of the rich nations are located – will be hit last and least, while the poorer nations will be hit first and worst. New knowledge of the way in which the destruction of the Arctic sea ice affects northern Europe and North America suggests that this is no longer true. A paper published earlier this year in Geophysical Research Letters shows that Arctic warming is likely to be responsible for the extremes now hammering the once-temperate nations.
I’m really sorry we didn’t listen to our obviously wiser Liberals while we still had time to do something. And even though it’s probably too late, I’d be interested in hearing from our resident Progressives, after the well-deserved I-told ya-so’s, just exactly what we should or could have done to avoid the impending climate Armageddon. A big mea culpa is all I have to offer at this point. I don’t even think we need to bother with the election in November. I mean, what does it matter in the overall scheme of things?
I was very much impressed by Mrs. Romney’s speech – didn’t know that they had started that far down the economic totem poll. Which, by the way, just shows the decency of Mitt Romney: his life is not a talking point. This is in stark contrast to Obama who has scripted himself to obtain maximum personal advantage from whatever situation he’s in.
Christie’s speech was also very good – a challenge to America to hear the truth and act upon it. As a theme for the campaign, it is right on the money. I do believe that the broad majority is done with the old politics and is ready for the revolution. That Mitt might lead it is weird, but no stranger than the fact that we elected an exactly unqualified man as President in 2008.
What do you think of it all?
UPDATE: “Mr. President, I’m here to tell you that the American people are awake, and we’re not buying what you’re selling in 2012.” See the Mia Love video – if she wins her House seat, then she’s the next TEA Party political rock star.
UPDATE II: Forgive me if I’m wrong, but methinks that was Rice’s “I’m going to run for governor of California in 2014” speech…
UPDATE III: A Democracy Corps poll with a D+6 advantage shows Romney up by 15 points among Independents. Hot Air has the story.
UPDATE IV: With all the GOPalooza going on if you feel the need for some quality, Obama Time, then Suitably Flip has the torture implement ready.
Liberals of all varieties have gone completely off the rails as of late. From Ellen Barkin, to Samuel Jackson, to elected representatives Nina Turner and Harry Reid, to the entire MSNBC network, liberals have lost their minds. They have become the most deceitful, hateful and vitriolic people on the planet, and I hope the American voter is taking notice. Contrast that with people like Romney, Ryan, & Rubio who are stand up gentleman and choose to argue on policy not personality. Folks, it is time that conservatives bring back civility, common sense, and American exceptionalism. Even though these words were spoken more than 30 years ago, they ring truer today than ever before. The great American that spoke this wisdom that we should heed today was Ronald Wilson Reagan:
I implore everyone, especially the liberals, to watch and absorb this message. This is the type of leader we need now, and the type of leader that I pray and hope Romney will be, because the democratic party and the progressives have not only failed on that front but more importantly they are abdicating their responsibilities of governance.
With the shocking rise of “green on blue” attacks in Afghanistan – incidents where Afghans trained and armed by us murder our troops in cold blood – it is time (probably way past time) to completely re-assess our goals in this war. Long time readers will remember that my basic premise for supporting the war was a conviction on my part that the average, everyday Muslim pretty much wanted what the average, everyday non-Muslim wanted: peace and prosperity and a bright future for the children. Given this premise, I felt that if we could get in to several Muslim countries and overthrow their corrupt, cruel governments and give the Muslims a genuine choice, they would choose correctly. I do believe, ultimately, that this is the correct view – but given the nature of American politics with our liberals determined that any use of military force is wrong, it is not practical for the United States to pursue it. Liberals gum up the works – war is a brutal, hard business and part of the process is killing and humiliating people. Liberals insist that we never humiliate and kill only in impossible conditions. The liberals have won, again; just as they won on the Vietnam issue. Congratulations, liberals!
Given our inability to properly fight the war, the fall of old tyrannies in the Muslim world has eventuated not in a hoped-for improvement, but an increase of barbarism. Our weakness – insisted upon by liberals – has led to a convincing propaganda line for the Islamists: “see, we beat these weakling Americans; follow us to Islamic glory”. The upshot of our failure is a dramatic and disgusting rise of Islamist barbarism – more and more Muslims murdered and oppressed but, also, non-Muslims subjected to ever more horrific torments. In the past week I’ve read stories of a Christian doctor nearly beaten to death because he took a drink of water during Ramadan (forbidden during the day to Muslims, but the guy wasn’t a Muslim) and of a 12 year old Christian girl who is under threat of the death penalty because a Muslim boy she refused to sleep with cooked up a blasphemy charge against her. That is just two drops in a hideous ocean of persecution. I see no way forward at the moment for our military to secure what would be American victory – we’ve tied ourselves in to too many knots, we’ve handed the Islamists too many trump cards and we’ve entirely lost the momentum of victory we once had. Obama will just stumble along in his blind, ignorant way – what Romney will do remains unknown. My view is that it is time to withdraw as swiftly as possible – taking with us any Muslims who want to live a civilized life, but getting out in the shortest possible time with the least amount of fuss.
After we do get out, this is going to get a heck of a lot worse before it gets any better. Sorry, liberals, but the reason the Islamists act as they do is not in response to our actions but in service of their Islamist goals – they are hate-filled, greedy, corrupt barbarians. They are just like that and will remain like that until killed. Already Islamists in Libya are destroying works of art deemed un-Islamic while in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood government starts to implement Islamism…and none of us know what horrors will emerge in the post-Assad regime of Syrian. The Taliban will likely come back to power in Afghanistan (probably invited in to power by Karzai who seems these days mostly interested in preserving himself in power, cost what it might). The mullahs of Iran continue to flex their muscle. In the final analysis as Islamism grows and gets a tighter grip on the Muslim world we can expect an eventual attempt to attack us here at home. Actually, a lot of attempts. Most will be thwarted. Eventually, they will get through and we’ll have some sort of replay of 9/11.
And then the war will resume – and when it does (not if, but when – its as certain as night following day) then it is to be hoped that we’ll do it differently. In hindsight, the primary failure of the Bush war policy was a failure to attack all of Islamism at once. On September 12th he should have asked a joint session of Congress for declarations of war on Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan – take on the whole problem and not try to treat it as a series of separate, country-by-country events; the Islamists don’t view the Muslim countries as in any way legitimate and so neither should we. By so doing we would have unified all Islamists against us, except for the fact that they already were…but we would have had the great advantage of being able to attack all of them at once as well as raising an army large enough to physically conquer the entirely of Islamist territory thus preventing one Islamist area from supporting Islamist insurgency in an American-controlled area (which was our problem in Iraq and is now our problem in Afghanistan). If the Islamists attack us at home again, that is what we must do (though we can now add Egypt to the list of nations to declare war on as they have gone Islamist): declare war on them all, fight them all, kill and humiliate them all. That is the way wars are fought and won – and by doing it in such a manner we’d prevent liberalism from gumming it up (we’d be moving too fast on too many fronts without any apparent stagnation to allow liberalism to make its absurd case against war).
That will be as it will – but the main thing for now is to get out. Unless we want to pour in 100,000 more troops and start exterminating Islamists in great, big bloody batches, I don’t want our soldiers to remain in Afghanistan. They’ve done magnificent work and almost made even Obama’s slipshod policy a success. But there’s nothing for it, now: Obama won’t do what is necessary to win and it is unlikely that Romney will be able to, either. If troops can’t fight for victory, better to not fight at all. Bring them home.
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