Blogs For Victory

Its a neat trick, if you can pull it off – and it’ll work like a charm on liberals from Mark Steyn over at NRO:

What’s a columnist to do? It’s getting a little old to blame Bush for the horrors of the Bush presidency. So why not blame Bush for the horrors of the Obama presidency? As a sympathetic Jacob Weisberg sees it, the understandable urge to be the unBush has sent the Obama pendulum swinging way off the charts:

Obama, who did not have much global expertise before coming to office, molded his approach around his predecessor’s errors. Bush’s naive idealism and unilateralism encouraged Obama’s realism and multilateralism. Bush’s boycott of North Korea, Cuba, and Iran fed Obama’s eagerness to engage pragmatically with those tyrannies…

In so doing, Obama now faces an inverted set of hazards: getting overcommitted in Afghanistan, putting too much faith in the United Nations, accommodating dictators instead of standing up to them. Most alarmingly, given all that his predecessor did to discredit them, Obama has failed to stand up for the broader ideas of democracy promotion and humanitarian intervention. Surely if not for Bush, Obama’s instinct after the Iranian election would have been to identify with those risking their lives to free their country, not to get back to his attempt at dialogue with Ahmadinejad(emphasis added).

So Bush is to blame for Obama kissing up to the mullahs? Brilliant! Who knew such a sober foreign-policy “realist” surrounded by the brightest minds of his generation could be so easily unhinged?

For those slow on the uptake (liberals): what the man is saying is that if Bush had used Obama-like policies, then Obama would have been positioned to oppose the Iranian mullahs using Bush-like policies. But because of “hope and change” Obama was forced – you see? – into foreign policy Carterism.

These people are getting desperate – and stupid.

Actually, poem of the day – in this case, just the first part of Lepanto:

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,

And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,

It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;

It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;

For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.

They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,

They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,

And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,

And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.

The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;

The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;

From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,

And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,

Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,

Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,

The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,

The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,

That once went singing southward when all the world was young.

In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,

Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.

Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,

Don John of Austria is going to the war,

Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold

In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,

Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,

Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.

Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,

Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,

Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.

Love-light of Spain–hurrah!

Death-light of Africa!

Don John of Austria

Is riding to the sea. – G K Chesterton

Some times, it doesn’t seem to be an accurate description:

Pakistani special forces have taken control of the town of Gojra (Punjab) after yesterday’s bloody episode in which at least 8 people – including 4 women and a child of 7 years – were burned alive and 20 others wounded.

At least 50 houses of Christians were burned and destroyed and thousands of faithful fled to escape execution. Relatives of the victims refuse to take care of dead bodies and do not want funerals until the culprits are arrested. Some of the killed have been identified: Hamed Masih, 50, Asia Bibi, 20; Asifa Bibi, 19, Imam Bibi, 22; Musa 7; Akhlas Masih, 40, Parveen, 50.

At least 3 thousand Muslims, after they have were incited by local religious authorities, marched to the Christian village Gojra founded 50 years ago. Groups of young Muslims – perhaps from the Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahabaha – with their faces covered started to shoot wildly. The villagers fled, but some were trapped and were killed by the uncontrollable fire unleashed by the mob.

The accusation which sparked the massacre? Some mullah claimed that a Christian had burned pages of the Koran. Things like this make one wish there were some of that old, Crusader spirit left alive in our stunted, morally weak society.

How are we to make peace with such as these? What could we do to satisfy them? How many Obama apologies for America would do the trick?

If the government which screwed it up gets shut down:

As a government shutdown loomed, residents of Alabama’s most populous county lined up Friday to renew their car registrations and settle their tax bills.

By Monday, at least a quarter of the county’s 3,600 employees will be on unpaid leave and many county offices will be closed or cutting back hours.

The county, with 640,000 residents, has been on the brink of filing the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy for the past year due to a sewer bond fiasco that remains unresolved. Then things got worse: A judge ruled the county’s occupational tax is illegal and courts refused to let the county spend the revenue from it while officials appeal.

I know, I know – we’re all supposed to be worried about police and fire and I hope that someone over there is ensuring that the cops are able to show up for work…but in “renew their car registrations” we can see what is wrong with government: we have employees working to note that the car you owned last year is still owned by you. A perfect example of useless, make-work government. I agree in registering cars – but once I register it, it should be presumed to be in my possession until someone says otherwise.

I want us to have government after government shut down – and see how easily life goes without bureaucrats hovering over our every move.

This time from South to North:

After three decades as a home to pigeons rather than parishioners, a 175-year-old stone church with Presbyterian roots is once again filled with song on a warm Sunday morning. This time around, however, the brand of faith carries a new tune, one that would be more familiar in Mississippi than Vermont.

Hallelujah religion is a-rising in Yankee country. As liberal congregations die in a secularizing region, conservative churches with roots outside New England are replacing them with a passionate brand of faith that emphasizes saving souls – even in a land where many think there’s nothing to be saved from.

Before worship at Capstone Baptist Church here in North Bennington, 10 adults lay hands on electrician Don Betit and pray for healing from an ankle injury. Then, after 40 minutes of preaching, Pastor Phillip Steadman invites the hurting and newly committed to come forward for an altar call. During intercessory prayers, worship leader Lewis Brown prays for speedy salvation among unbelieving loved ones, “before it’s too late.”

In eight years, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has more than doubled its Vermont church count, from 17 to 37.

Better if they were going Catholic, of course, but anywhere that proclaims Christ as Lord is better than no where, at all. Main thing is that people are leaving the cold, rotting corpse of secular liberalism and turning back towards God.

Gotta make a liberal shiver with fear – or, better, realize he’s got it wrong.

Our prayers for his swift recovery:

The state’s senior U.S. senator, Christopher Dodd, has been heavily criticized for months, suffering from poor poll numbers and questions about discount mortgages he received.

The criticisms stopped Friday, when the 65-year-old Democrat announced he’s been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer and will have surgery soon.

Two of Dodd’s potential Republican rivals in the 2010 election issued get well wishes, saying he was in their families’ prayers. And Chris Healy, chairman of the state Republicans and a vocal critic, was one of the first to e-mail reporters a statement wishing Dodd “the very best in his treatment and rehabilitation.”

“There’s certain things that are political, and there are certain things that are personal,” Healy said when asked about his statement. “I think the more we respect that line, maybe people’s image of the political class might improve.”

Indeed – there are many out there who can use lessons in public decency. Somehow, when I read this story, I thought of Sarah Palin and how she’s fared with her critics, even about her most personal life.

The people are very, very upset over this leftist boondoggle, and you can watch the whole thing on You Tube.

Just say no! To Obamacare, that is.

As if anyone – other than kool-aid drinking Obamaniacs – thought this wouldn’t happen:

President Barack Obama’s treasury secretary said Sunday he cannot rule out higher taxes to help tame an exploding budget deficit, and his chief economic adviser would not dismiss raising them on middle-class Americans as part of a health care overhaul.

As the White House sought to balance campaign (lies) with governing, officials appeared willing to extend unemployment benefits. With former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan saying he is “pretty sure we’ve already seen the bottom” of the recession, Obama aides sought to defend the economic stimulus and calm a jittery public.(Ed. Note: report edited to make it accurate in all respects)

You see, “the rich” don’t have as much money as liberal hate-mongers want you to think. This is because “the rich” don’t include people like Soros, Gates, Rockefeller and Kerry – “the rich” are actually just upper middle class people who either have some very valuable skill (like being a doctor) or who have built up a business. They might have a net worth in the millions of dollars, but they are not rich in the sense of having fabulous wealth which allows them to eschew work. The rich who do have that sort of wealth are off limits to liberals – mostly because these rich are liberals and tend to donate vast sums of money to trendy, liberal causes.

And so, “the rich” don’t have the bags of swag necessary to fund Obamunism while the real rich can’t be taxed – where do you get the money? Where liberals always get the money, when push comes to shove: From the middle class.

We on our side knew that Obama was either lying through his teeth or was a complete fool when he said in 2008 he wouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class. This is no surprise at all. Its par for the course – it is an example of the way liberals operate: relentlessly dishonest.

So, you see, I’m not the only person who figures that if we don’t create wealth, we can’t get rich:

…Whatever the politics, no new stimulus should be considered unless it deals with the fundamental illness undermining the country’s long-term economic prospects. Such a stimulus would address the country’s essential problem: persistent overconsumption amid underproduction…

…Though some parts of the stimulus, such as extending health and unemployment benefits, were clearly justified, the whole program never sought to address the roughly $800 billion annual imbalance between American consumption and production.

Instead, we have witnessed a grab bag of political handouts — Chicago machine politics on a grand scale — designed to placate key Democratic constituencies. Most have gone to what my old teacher Michael Harrington described as “the social-industrial complex” consisting of the education industry, social service providers and the various government bureaucracies…

…no matter how much the conservatives complain, Obamanomics most likely will end up with results remarkably like those of Bushonomics: more consumption, less production, expanding public debt, asset inflation on Wall Street and a slowly declining middle-class standard of living. The only real difference will lie in who gets to rob the public — instead of pharmaceutical and oil companies, we get Gorite “renewable” energy traders and well-connected “green” venture capitalists.

Americans need to place a pox on both these flawed models. We need a totally new approach that focuses on key productivity-enhancing investments such as improved transportation infrastructure — new roads, bridges, ports and waterways to meet the demands of an expanded economy for a growing population. We should be looking at modern equivalents of the New Deal electrification program, the GI Bill, the Eisenhower highway and the space program.

Bravo! Nice to know that I’m not alone. Making, mining and growing things – if we’re not doing that, then whatever else we’re doing, growing the economy isn’t it. And Joel Kotkin sees something my fellow conservatives are a bit blind about – we can, indeed, spend some government money to help the economy. The difference between Kotkin (and myself) and the Obamaniacs is in the realization that shoveling money at failed banks, failed car companies and ACORN just won’t stimulate anything. All it does is pay off supporters and mask failure.

The reason I’m convinced that we are heading for a massive economic collapse – something which will make the financial meltdown of 2008 seem tame – is because we’re not building any wealth which would allow us to deal with the horrifically bad debts we’re saddled with. Debts never, in a sense, go away. Even if you stop paying them, they are still a cost on the economy as a whole – and our debts, public and private, are both massive and non-performing (as they say in the financial industry). We owe vast sums and we’re not getting anything in return for the debt – and all Obama is doing is piling on more debt without taking any steps to do anything for the economy.

We can get away with Obamunism for a while – but eventually, the bill is presented for payment. With China in actually worse financial shape than we are, I expect the bill to arrive in March, or thereabouts. It’ll come like a bolt out of the blue to all who haven’t paid attention – there will have been one or two quarters of alleged economic growth and everyone will be patting Obama on the back and even conservatives will be waxing lyrical about the resilient American economy. And then we’ll all be completely broke and absolutely bewildered. Well, nearly all of us: I won’t be.

As I drove out to Laughlin, Nevada the other day, I saw in a rock formation by the side of the road made up of green rocks – indicating a large copper deposit right on the surface. And there it was – vast wealth, just sitting there by the side of the road, a few miles outside Harry Reid’s home town of Searchlight, and nothing was being done with it. Meanwhile, the United States imported $7.8 billion in copper in 2007. Its raining soup out there, and we’re not even looking for a bowl. Anyone want to bet that the reason why we’re not exploiting the resource is because of non-economic programs and pressures? Lets put it this way – anyone want to bet that US taxes and regulations have convinced the “money” behind copper that we might as well buy from foreign sources which are not subject to American control?

This incident started up a whole train of thought in me – in case you haven’t noticed, at your local hardware store probably a majority of the tools for sale are made in China. Does someone want to tell me that the United States cannot make a wrench more efficiently than slave labor in China does? I realize that our money twits are just interested in quarterly profit margins and thus its not a matter of “can’t compete” but “why compete when we can buy from them and still get big bonuses?” – but why do we, and our government, go along with this idiocy?

I’m not advocating protectionism – I’m just pointing out the fact that if we wanted to, we could darn well make our own tools, at a lower retail cost and with higher quality, than can be done in China and then shipped thousands of miles to the United States. There’s no way you can convince me that a modern, efficient tool factory in Tonopah, NV, will be undersold in Las Vegas, NV by an inefficient tool factory in Shanghai, China. China can probably outsell us in Korea, but not in Nevada. If we put our mind to it and cease and desist these idiot restrictions on the use of our own resources (in land, materials and labor) we can compete with anyone – and, given a choice, which of us would by the $2.99 Chinese hammer when there is a $2.89 US hammer right next to it? To be sure, the Chinese can (and already do) “dump” products on us below production cost – but wise trade action can swiftly detect and deter such actions.

If we want to stimulate the economy, we can – by shelling out money to start up new factories, open new mines and bring more of our arable land under cultivation. Yes, “green” jobs are ok, too – anything which lessens our dependence on foreign oil is a good thing, but you’re not going to create 3.5% GDP growth just by making wind farms. We need to do for our selves – and in so doing, we’ll make wealth and keep it at home. That wealth kept at home would be used to discharge our debts and provide the seed for further wealth creation. “Shovel ready” infrastructure also has its worth – but much better to make new infrastructure which would make American transportation more efficient. Why our are freight trains still crawling along on tracks designed 100 years ago, pulled by 60 year old locomotive technology? Why aren’t there plans for high speed rail lines to go right down the center of our interstate highway system?

Making, mining, growing: this is the key to economic success. Obama doesn’t see it. Most conservatives don’t see it. I do – and I’m going to run with it.

I hope I eventually earn this complaint – and this wisdom in answering the complaint:

They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves. – Calvin Coolidge