The Republicans are still the best option

Since the 2006 midterm election we have heard things from the Left like, "elections have consequences" and "don't preach about fiscal responsibility when Bush grew the debt greater than any president since FDR". And they're right on both counts.

The fact is that the Republicans screwed up royally. They were more concerned about maintaining a semblance of power so that they betrayed the fiscal responsibility that got them elected in the first place. And I still say to this day that the Democrats didn't win the 2006 and 2008 elections; the Republicans lost. In fact, you could say that they went out of their way to lose.

But this is a new year. The new congress and the president have been in control for a little over a month and things are worse now than they were before. The stock market continues to decline because investors are worried about the socialist moves that the new government has begun to put in place. And the only answer that the Democrats offer is more government spending, more regulation and higher taxes on the high achievers--the ones that provide most of the jobs in this country. The thing that the Republicans warned against has come to pass. So now what do we do?

The only thing to do is reelect the Republicans in 2010. They aren't perfect but hopefully they have been sufficiently chastised that they will not make the same mistakes again. We should redouble our efforts to show that the Democrat plans are not only counterproductive, but are in fact harmful. We should take the high road and not issue juvenile personal attacks. We should modernize, not hip hop-ize the party. We should use the same techniques (i.e. internet video, blogging, email campaigns, etc.) as the Dems, without stooping to the same type of false accusations and mindless repetition of talking points. We have the facts on our side. It's time that we use modern campaigning techniques and technologies to get our message out.

And once we are back in control we need to put the party's feet to the fire to make sure that they don't make the mistakes of the past or come up with new mistakes that they can make. This is too important.

We also need a special 10th amendment commission to explore ways to return power to the states. The size and power of the federal government are truly unconstitutional. We must challenge the big government types on this. They claim that they are supporting and defending the Constitution but they do the exact opposite of what they say.

Winning in 2010 is going to be harder because the Left has decided to politicize the census by putting it under the control of the White House. They are also bantering about the atrociously name "Fairness Doctrine". And some of the higher taxes on the job providers that I mentioned earlier won't go into effect until 2011. That means that even if we win in 2010, by the time we take control of the congress these oppressive taxes will start to ruin the economy even further.

Personally I would like to see a more libertarian form of government. But truthfully the Libertarian Party doesn't stand much chance of winning a national election campaign. There are still too many people in this county that want a nanny government to take care of them, than want liberty. The Republicans aren't the perfect choice but they are still the best option that we have. The more we can move the party toward constructivist, libertarian policies the better the county will be for it.

The Left savages Jindal

I was just reading a Politico article about the Chris Mathews "faux pas" last night. For those that don't know it, just before the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address last night, someone from the MSNBC news crew was overheard saying, "Oh god". Since Keith Olberman was on the panel everyone assumed that it was him. However, it was later revealed that it was in fact Obama's lap dog, Chris Matthews.

Now I don't care really what Matthews or Olberman say. Both of them have been salivating ever since Obama gave his speech at the 2004 Democrat National Convention. Any day now I expect one of them to collapse in rapture over their president.

What made me angry was the responses by the commentators on the Politico article. Most could not get ablove childish remarks about Jindal's personal appearance. They claimed that he was trying to ape the appearance of president by having the walk-out of the Louisiana govenor's mansion. They also made remarks about how thin and stiff he was.

Now let us not forget that Obama was doing the same thing before after the election, but before he was actually sworn into office. Remember the "Office of the President-elect" shield that he would have on his podium when he made a speech? There is no such thing as the "Office of President-elect" but the Dems are all government educated so you can't really expect much. And even before the election he and his handlers were doing everything they could with their marketing skills to make the neophyte politician look presidential. We even had the famous redesign of the presidential seal that was leaked from the campaign.

And Obama is thin and stiff, despsite what Entertainment Tonight and the other admirers tell ad nauseam. But I have gone out of my way since I started this blog to not make personal attacks (i.e. attacks on the personal appearance) on the Democrats. Now I make no bones about the fact that they are misguided and in many cases they have no common sense. But to make fun of someone because of their appearance is just juvenile. And it's the kind of thing that they used to argue against Republican candidates when they would say things like, "Americans are tired of personal attacks".

We Conservatives know that it will be a long four years. But we should do what the Dems keep saying that they are going to do. We should stand above personal attacks, and attack them on their policies. After all, there's plenty to attack.

The sorry state of the Union

I didn't watch the State of the Union address last night. That means one down, three to go. The thing about the SOU is that you really know what the president is going to say beforehand especially in this day and age of 24-hour news and the internet. And quite frankly President Obama has nothing to say that I want to hear. The only reason anybody wants to see it is to bask in the warm glow of the Dem chosen one.

Today I was watching CNBC and I saw Rep. Spencer Bacchus from my state, Alabama. He said something that is going to become a battle cry for Conservatives for the next four years.

"The government never solved anything by throwing more money at it."

We have known this for years. Look at the government school system. Every time we get a liberal president and congress we see the budget for government education explode. And every time it's like throwing money down a bottomless hole. It makes liberals think good about themselves and it placates some voters. But when everything is said and done it's just a useless waste of time. It always will be as long as teacher's unions are allowed to set policy.

Another example is the nation's infrastructure. When tax money goes to states and local communities, ostensibly to improve roads, bridges and levees, politicians, conservative and liberal alike, spend that money on pet projects. There was the instance in New Orleans where the local government spent infrastructure money meant for the levees on a fountain. A few years later Hurricane Katrina slammed into NO and the rest is history.

Just a few years ago there was the bridge collapse that was caused by stress fatigue and age. The money that should have been spent repairing that preexisting bridge was instead spent on building new structures just so politicians could get their names placed on them. And again people died.

In other words you have to change what you are doing to improve, not just throw money at it.

Al Sharpton causes a cold day in hell (new cartoon)

A possible future if Al Sharpton learns to not be offended by every little thing. Satan won't like it too much.

The new "octomom" delivers (new cartoon)

Well most of you have heard of the welfare mom that recently had octuplets, bringing her brood to fourteen. Now that the imperial congress has passed the new stimulus bill and along with all of the other liberal spending that's going on, we now have a new "octomom": the federal government.

NY Post chimpanzee cartoon

I have seen the NY Post cartoon with the chimpanzee that was shot dead by capitol police. The caption reads, "They'll have to find someone else to right the next stimulus bill". Now there seems to be something of a stink surrounding the cartoon because some politicians and people who call themselves community leaders are upset. They claim that the image is a blatant, racist attack of President Obama.

As a cartoonist and a libertarian I want to yell "Freedom of speech!". However, as a discerning reader I want to say, "What in the name of all that is holy were you thinking?".

In this day and age when people get their knickers in a bunch any time someone looks at them funny, it seems to me that some self-censoring might have been in order. Though I know that the cartoonist was trying to play off of the recent incident of the rampaging chimpanzee by comparing the new stimulus bill as rampaging pork, his execution was tenuous at best. And what concerns me more is that the Post's editorial staff didn't vet the piece more carefully.

All that being said, the fact is that the people most vocally "outraged" over the cartoon, are always outraged about something. They have no moral high ground. They have been "calling wolf" for decades and people no longer really listen to them. These self-proclaimed "leaders" wouldn't have anything to do if it wasn't for complaining. They would shrivel up and die. So I'm calling BS on their moral outrage.

SOURCE: AP story

Atlas Screwed

With the massive debt that Obama's stimulus bill will incur, someone has to shoulder the burden.

All bank transactions now in Swedish

I read that Lindsey Graham and Alan Greenspan are supporting a move to a "Swedish model" for our banks. This means nationalization of the struggling banks in this country.

My question is this: "Does this mean we get a free member of the Swedish bikini team with each new account opening?" Because that's basically all the Swedish ever gave us. Well that and the Nobel Prize and we all see how valuable that is.

Uncle Obama Wants Your Free Will

This is something I did for one of my Cafe Press designs. It's based on the famous World War I recruiting poster by James Montgomery Flagg.

Roland Burris: Typical Democrat

This stuff just keeps getting better and better. I mean for eight years the Dems kept telling us that the Republicans were the source of all the country's woes and that the Republicans had created a "swamp" (Nancy Pelosi) in the Congress. Well it seems that the party of the jackass can't even get out of the starting gate without creating a swamp of their own.

Roland Burris, the man appointed by Rod "The Rug" Blagojevich to fill the Senate seat vacated by OB when he was elected to the presidentcy, has just been found to be exactly what the Republicans and even some Dems warned against: just another corrupt Chicago politician who pays to play.

I found a Washington Post article from "The Fix" (perfect name for a Dem shill) that illuminates some of the fears that the Dems are suffering from less than a month after they forced this yahoo on the citizens of Illinois.

The beauty of this is that the Dems can no longer blame the Republicans for their problems. They seem to have no trouble creating their own.

SOURCE: Washington Post "The Fix" article

Wow, has it been that long?

I knew that it had been a while since I updated ye olde blog, but man it's been over two months. At first it was the holidays. Then last month I became a statistic when I got laid off at work. Woof. This year has already started out just splendidly. Well, I guess I can expect Emperor Obama's stimulus to pick me right up. Notice, however, that I am not holding my breath.

Anyhoo, I hope to get back on a regular schedule. I no longer work as a security guard so I am finally making the leap into my chosen field: graphic arts. I have a degree in graphic design and painting but because of family responsibilities and fear of rejection I spent my postgraduate years continuing in the securty guard business. Now I believe that the Lord is pushing me along and closing that door, so that this new door can be opened. So if any of you cares, please keep me and my family in your prayers.

So between working on my portfolio and commissions and my own personal art, I should be able to keep this up to date more often.

Big man Rahm

Rahm Emanuel, former congressman from Chicago and current chief of staff for Barack Obama, has found himself in the middle of the “ Hot Rod” Blagojevich saga. There is speculation amongst the MSM that he is the Obama staffer that spoke with the governor's office regarding the appointment of a replacement for Obama's Senate seat.

In tapes that the FBI released earlier this week Blagojevich is heard angrily demanding that the Obama camp pay-to-play if they wanted Obama's friend to be appointed to the Senate. He claimed that the seat is a valuable thing and that if they wanted Valerie Jarrett to be the next senator from Illinois that they should either pay money to his campaign fund or give him a high-level appointment.

Emanuel was confronted at Chicago City Hall, where he was listening to his children perform with their school. Instead of answering the question like a good servant of the people should, he hid behind his children. As the Chicago Sun-Times put it regarding Emanuel's evasion:

Emanuel was uncharacteristically absent from Obama’s news conference this morning. He was spotted two hours later in the lobby of Chicago’s City Hall. He was there to listen to his two children performing in a concert with their school, Anshe Emet.

A Sun-Times reporter pressed him to comment about whether he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint.

“You’re wasting your time,” Emanuel said. “I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Don't do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”

Asked, “Can’t you do both?” Emanuel replied, “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father,” and he pushed the reporter’s digital recorder away.

You're a real big man there, Rahm.

Props go to Drudge for the heads up.

SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times article

Obama the Centrist?

The Obama campaign ran on leftist principles, much to the delight of the moonbats in the Democrat Party. However, now that he is president-elect, he seems to be moving toward the Center. The so-called Progressives (read: Communists) in the Democrat Party are upset that the most liberal Senator in the country may govern from the center of the aisle.

This is not a problem unique to the Dems however. Republicans have had their problems with candidates that run as Conservatives but rule as Centrists. But this proves the axiom that says that the majority of the electorate are Center-right. The Daily Kos and the MoveOn crowd on the Left and the talk radio shows and Pat Buchanans on the Right, do not represent the majority of the American people. If a candidate could get past the primaries without having to pander to the extremes of either party, we might have a real revolution in politics.

This is the prime reason we need an independent candidate. The party system in this country has done nothing but harm it. As I've mentioned before in this blog, I used to call myself a Republican. But I could see that standing on the party line was not always where I wanted to be. I still hold to many of the planks in the Republican platform, but I know that there are some things—probably many things—on which we can compromise

Unfortunately, Obama has shown that not only was he running to the Left during the campaign, he also legislated from the Left when he was in the Senate. The idea that he will actually govern from the Center once he takes the oath of office stretches credulity, in spite of his choices for leadership positions in his administration.

But stranger things have happened.

SOURCE: Politico story

Pay to play

Unless you were hiding under a rock for the past twenty-four hours, you probably know that Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich—a Democrat—was arrested yesterday. Among other things, he is accused of trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's recently vacated Senate seat. Now this is classic Chicago politics. It's “ pay-to-play”.

Probably the most interesting things about the indictment are the tapes. The governor was being wire-tapped by the FBI from October through the election. The thing is, he knew that he was being taped. And yet he continued to act as if he were bullet-proof.

The lead investigator went to great lengths yesterday to point out that there was no evidence—at least in the tapes sited in the indictment—that Obama knew that Blagojevich was asking for favors from the transition team in return for appointing one of Obama's aides to the Senate seat.

However, some missteps from the Obama camp lead me to believe that there is more going on here than the FBI is willing to admit. For one thing David Axelrod, Obama's senior advisor said that the president-elect had been in contact with the governor about possible choices for the Senate appointment. But yesterday Obama said that he had not been contacted by the governor.

I think that it's clear that the squeaky clean exterior of Barack Obama is slowly, but surely, coming off.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Blagojevich story

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune Axelrod story

Global government

The Drudge Report had a link to an interesting article in the Financial Times today. It's about that old chestnut that doesn't seem to die in the hearts and minds of liberals everywhere: global government.

With a globalist like Obama on his way to the White House I can understand why there are people who think that this might happen soon. He is definitely someone that is going to need watching.

SOURCE: Financial Times article

Pearl Harbor Day: A date that will live in infamy

Remember.

Moonpie over Mobile

I have a local story that illustrates a national problem. In Mobile, Alabama, Councilman Fred Richardson--a Democrat no less--has decided that the city needs a large object to lower from the top of our largest building ala-New York's Times Square ball.

But this won't be made of Waterford crystal. Oh no. It will be a giant moonpie.

"A moonpie", you say. "What's that?"

Well gather round kiddies and I'll tell you. A moonpie is a confection that appears once a year (usually) around these parts for the annual Mardi Gras celebration. The banana and the vanilla varieties are pretty good, but personally the chocolate takes like something that the parade horses leave behind.

But I digress. The point of this little missive is that in a time of recession and economic uncertainty, terrorist attacks and a liberal majority in Congress and Obama in the White House, this is just what we need. Major cities, several states, the auto industry and every Tom, Dick and Harry around is traveling to Washington, D.C. with their hand out to get bailout money. Yeah, we really need to spend good money on a giant googaw that will only be used once a year. Then it will probably sit there like a giant diaphragm so that all the visitors to our area can say that they saw the world's largest contraceptive.

The unnecessary spending is bad enough. Now the entire city will look like a trailer park at Christmas.

Well, Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez. And let's hope that the bloody thing doesn't fall on someone (unless it's the city council, of course).

The wolf stalks you

The federal government is a ravening wolf. It seeks out the producers in our country and seizes them by the jugular. If you don't pay due deference to it the wolf will rip out your throat. and there are people in the government--politicians, bureaucrats and functionaries—and those outside it, who stoke the blood lust of the beast.

The government has no remorse. When it attacks a person or business it doesn't care that they were trying to do the right thing, but simply misplaced a decimal or failed to file on time. Once it smells blood and fear it comes for its prey and no one can do anything to stop it. Some of its prey choose to end their own lives rather than let the wolf devour them alive.

We live in a time in our republic where the wants and desires of those people that the wolf's keepers determine are “needs”, overrule the needs, wants and desires of those that earned their wealth. Class and wealth envy are the sticks that the keepers use to stir up the wolf's pups. When the pups start whining and baying at the moon, Momma Wolf leaps in to “save” them.

It doesn't matter to these people how much of the country's gross domestic product that wolf consumes. It matters to them only that the “pups” are taken care of, whether they need it or not. But it's not only about caring for the pups. It's about controlling the pack.

With tax policy the keepers wave sticks and carrots at the prey to entice them into the trap. If you make too much they will tax you by a larger percentage of your income than someone that doesn't make as much. Then they will turn around and use your money to dangle as a carrot in front of those that don't make as much.

The keepers only want the wolf to grow up big and strong. They don't care whether they take the pay of honest workers for frivolous, and even unconstitutional things. So long as they stay in control and the wolf stays happy.

Capitol visitor boondoggle

The U.S. Capitol Visitor Center has finally been completed. The original estimate was for $265 million. The final tally was $621 million. That's $356 million over budget. Now don't you just love government. Fifty-two percent of you must; you voted for Obama and the Democrats.

SOURCE: CNN.com article

$53,000,000,000,000

$53,000,000,000,000. That's the current estimated amount of the U.S. Government's unfunded liability. That's Social Security, Medicare, etc. That's a lot of zeros my friends.

That's a lot of money.