The Gipper:
“There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the Founding Fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system.” —Ronald Reagan
Yep. No bias here. No political correctness in this rag. Nope. Move along. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Yes the Terrorists are Winning
“After more than 7 years since 9/11, we can now issue a verdict: Islamic terrorists have won our hearts and minds. Let’s thank those who made it happen: the U.S. government, European governments and the mainstream media. It’s time to stop placating or being intimidated by Islamic front groups who masquerade as civil rights groups. In 2007, the perversity of [this] was demonstrated when the FBI released its annual 2007 hate crime reports. Of the total 1,628 victims of anti-religious hate crimes, 69.2% were Jewish and 8.7% were Muslim. Yet by my still unfinished account, there were at least 40 times more stories last year about Islamophobia than about anti-Semitism. The Mumbai massacre was a heavily planned plot carried out by Islamic terrorists. Period. Memo to Obama: Until the onus of responsibility is put on Islamic ‘civil rights’ groups that want to ban free speech and claim that anyone who uses the term Islamic terrorist is a racist, there is no hope of winning the battle.” –Executive Director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism Steven Emerson
Taking the Obaminable One at his word. That’s right. I will watch you like a hawk Mr. Obama.
Obama: “. . .Take Me at My Word.”
President-elect Obama says that legal gun owners have nothing to fear. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
As gun sales shoot up around the country, President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that gun-owning Americans do not need to rush out and stock up before he is sworn in next month.
“I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment,” Obama said at a news conference. “Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven’t indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word.”
Ah, Barack, we are taking you at your word. During the campaign you clearly stated that you would bring back the phony “assault weapons” ban. That was Bill Clinton’s legislation that prohibited the sale of some of the most popular sporting rifles being sold. That ban was based upon cosmetic features such as having a pistol grip or a folding stock. Operationally, these banned rifles functioned the same as any other semi-automatics.
Stumbled on this over at Ace of Spades. Good points.
There sure doesn’t seem to be any rest for weary Senate Republican strategists, who are trying to plot a comeback in 2010 for their party after two consecutive miserable election cycles.
They can take some consolation in the fact that the GOP will not have the kind of steeply slanted playing field it had to deal with this year. In the flip side of the party’s successes in its better times of 2002, the Republicans ended up defending 23 seats to the Democrats’ 12. That would have made it hard for them to hold their ground, even if the overall political atmosphere had not been so toxic.
The slate of regularly scheduled 2010 races gives the Republicans another defensive chore, though it was not nearly as big: 19 Republican-held seats are scheduled to be up that year to 15 Democratic-held seats. Special elections will narrow the margin further, to 19-17, because of picks President-elect Barack Obama has made for his White House team from among his former Democratic Senate colleagues.
Part of the reason for the Democrats’ dominance is that they hold a lot of Senate seats in Republican territory– Montana, the Dakotas, even blood-red Kansas. I’m not sure exactly what it takes to convince the electorate that no matter how “moderate” or “conservative” a Democratic Senator may talk, he will vote the party line in all the crucial votes, but we have to break through on this message.
The usual trick is to vote with the party on the real vote, usually a vote to close or continue debate (that is, to end or sustain a filibuster), and then vote the constituents’ interests on the merits. But by then it’s a foregone conclusion — like scoring a touchdown in the last 30 seconds of a game when you’re down by 35. Meaningless and cosmetic.
The GOP needs to educate the public on the power of procedural votes which are really the determinative votes on most contested matters, and then drive that message home.
Truth, Lies and In Between 