Blogs For Victory

Very interesting poll from KSL:

When Hatch is put up against possible Republican challengers he falls behind both former governor John Huntsman, Jr. and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah:

* 48 percent support Huntsman, who hasn’t said what his plans are for the 2012 election

* 23 percent support Chaffetz, who has hinted he might run

* 21 percent support Hatch, who says he’s definitely running again

* 7 percent said they favor someone else

* 1 percent said they don’t know

In addition to that, Hatch polls a weak 48% to 41% against his possible Democrat opponent. Clearly, the GOP base is not enthused about Senator Hatch – the TEA Party does not view him as someone worth keeping. Why is this so?

Because Hatch has been in office too long, has cut too many deals with Democrats over the years, has spent too much time expressing his esteem for liberal Democrats in the Senate – and while we’re in a revolutionary ferment in our politics, that just isn’t good enough…certainly not good enough for a reliably conservative State like Utah. Quite honestly, it is time for Hatch to retire – to gracefully exit from the scene and allow someone new to carry things forward. The fact that he’s unwilling to do this just shows how out of touch he’s become.

We’ll see how this plays out – Utah conservatives knocked off a political dinosaur in 2010 and may be able to do it in 2012. If Hatch does wish to survive – primary and general – then he’d better start adhering to a much more robust conservative worldview in his actions.

So reports Hot Air:

The Joementum’s been steadily slowing since Gore put him on the ticket and now he’s all but unelectable even in a deep blue state. No official word yet on his plans, but this site claims to have heard through the grapevine that he’s bowing out tomorrow and Politico’s now hearing the same.

Look at it this way: When he speaks at the next Republican convention in 2012, he won’t have to hold back…

It wouldn’t surprise me – the only way I can see Lieberman even possibly winning in 2012 is if he switched to the GOP…and doing that means he immediately loses his seniority and his chairmanships…and has no assurance of getting them back, even if the GOP wins a Senate majority in 2012. It might just be time to retire from the scene for Joe Lieberman – no place for a moderate in the Democrat party, any more…

As the House GOP gears up to vote on ObamaCare repeal, the MSM gets its DNC marching orders and, willy-nilly, produces polls showing that the GOP shouldn’t repeal. But, as noted over at NRO, the polls are worthless:

…the AP poll, which shows that 40 percent of adults support Obamacare and 41 percent oppose it. In November, the last time the AP polled this question, 38 percent supported Obamacare and 47 percent opposed it. But the sample in November was very different: 38 percent Republican and 39 percent Democrat. The sample in January wasn’t so balanced, with 42 percent of the responders Democrat and 36 percent Republican…

…The Marist poll finds that 35 percent of registered voters would like Obamacare changed so that it could do more, 13 percent would like it to do less, and 30 percent would prefer the law be fully repealed. But again, the numbers aren’t equal: 35 percent of those polled were Democrat, and 28 percent Republican. Exit polls for the 2010 election found equal numbers of Democrat and Republican voters, both parties represented by about 36 percent of voters respectively…

The polls are also, apparently, badly worded and don’t take in to account what the GOP plan really is – to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with reform more in tune with popular demands for health care reform (selling insurance across State lines, that sort of thing). It is a sign of increasing desperation on the part of the Democrats and their MSM allies that they’d stoop to such bogus polls to try and skew the debate. It must be kept in mind what liberals most fear – ObamaCare being repealed in the House and then a GOP-2112 Democrat coalition forcing a repeal vote in the Senate. The last thing Democrats want is for Obama to have to veto a repeal – they don’t want Obama to carry this horrifically unpopular legislation in to 2012 with him being the only person who prevented common-sense modifications to a deeply flawed health care reform.

We’ve got them boxed in on this provided the House actually votes to repeal – after that, Democrats can either kill it in the Senate, or force Obama to veto it. In either case, Democrats will then carry the onus of not only passing the bad bill, but blocking all efforts – some of them to be manifestly bi-partisan – to replace (or at least modify) health care reform with something more palatable to the people. For the first time in a long time, the GOP is firmly in control of events…all we need is a bit of courage of our convictions, and the rest will fall in to place.

Well, this will get our liberals foaming at the mouth – from USA Today:

Former vice president Dick Cheney, back in the public eye after a major heart operation, predicts that President Obama will be a one-term president because of health care and other big government programs.

In an interview to air Tuesday on NBC’s Today show, Cheney cited Obama’s “overall approach to expanding the size of government, expanding the deficit, and giving more and more authority and power to the government over the private sector.”…

It is to be hoped so, and Cheney is an astute observer of American politics – but, also, don’t get cocky, Republicans. Obama will spend a billion dollars on his re-election effort and short of murder, there isn’t anything Democrats won’t do to hold on to the White House. Any incumbent President is hard to beat – even Carter put up a strong fight against Reagan, and Carter had absolutely nothing going for him as 1980 dawned.

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.