Archive for November, 2008

Minority Leadership

Posted by: Jason | November 7th, 2008 · 11:52 AM

We’ve endorsed Michele Bachmann for higher positions in our recent posting about the future of the GOP congress, but it seems the only whispers of a challenge to Boner would come from the up-and-coming Republican from the state of Wisconsin, Paul Ryan. In the event that this be the only challenge to Boner, we obviously support it.

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Michele for Minority Leader

Posted by: Jason | · 12:08 AM

(image: washingtontimes)

Take a long hard look at this photo and decide which face you’d prefer representing the revival of the Republican message during the first crucial years of the Obama Administration.

Boner must go. Bachmann must lead (unless another worthy contender arises). The GOP leadership in the House has failed us. It is time for new leadership.

Today, Roy Blunt was honorable enough to know this, as he stepped down from his position as Minority Whip. His seat will no doubt be replaced by a fresh face in Rep. Eric Cantor of the important state of Virginia.

Boner has decided that he does not want to leave, so it is up to us to tell him to. It is also up to us to realize that the future of the GOP depends on the vibrant inclusion of people other than white males, and mainly women (who make up 51% of the voting public) into positions of leadership.

Make two phone calls right now. Call Michele Bachmann’s office, encouraging her to turn an impressive reelection into a new run for leadership within the Republican House, and call John Boehner’s office, demanding he step down after two landslide defeats under his watch.

It is not hard. You call, you speak your mind to the secretary, and you hang up. If enough of us speak out, we can change things. Just ask Harriet Miers.

Michele Bachmann’s office: (202) 225-2331

John Boehner’s office: (800) 582-1001

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The Obama Hangover: Reasons We Suck Today

Posted by: Jason | November 5th, 2008 · 10:56 AM

Congratulations America! You were all just collectively duped by the most elaborate marketing charade in modern history.

Excusing myself this morning from a lengthy statement on how utterly retarded it is that Barack Obama will be our 44th President of the United States, I’d rather prefer to catalog a short list of grievances and notes I’ve thought of instead.

1. John McCain’s only real accomplishment in this election was his selection of a fresh-faced, charismatic, executive-minded, and core principle-lead woman in Governor Sarah Palin for his vice presidential running mate. If anything is to be said about 2008, I thank the senator for advancing the opportunity of a rising star at 44 years. Women are the key to the GOP’s future success now, and it’s time we start placing more of them in positions of power.

2. In good news… Barack Obama barely won Indiana and North Carolina. In bad news, a guy like Barack Obama has no business winning the states of Indiana and North Carolina. Wake up guys.

3. Screw McCain’s gracious concession speech! It was indicative of a man who’s spent far too long worrying about helping his political opponents than advancing the causes that actually empower Americans to be more prosperous. Couldn’t someone of pulled the plug in favor of Sarah Palin, who may have given us all a reason to believe in the continuing advancement of less government and personal freedom again?

4. I’m just gonna come out and say it… Does anyone else seem to have a problem with black voters going 95% for Obama? Wouldn’t we have a problem if this were reversed, and if 95% of white voters had gone for John McCain? Of course, we’d have been racists to the media last night, had the white vote turned a mere 5 points from the polls. But 95% on the other side? No problems there. Never in my life, in modern times especially, have I seen such a double standard of blatant racial discrimination as has come from the black vote this election (as if other elections are far better). History of the campaign aside, it strikes me as fanatical and downright sad that the black community in America has absolutely zero political discourse among itself. Its staggering numbers are almost Nazi-like in devotion to party, and this election aside, we ought to start confronting that issue as a nation.

5. Interesting news within the popular vote. Both winning candidates over the last 4 years, Bush and Obama, received 62 million votes. John Kerry lost by 3 million votes with 59 million in 2004. John McCain received 55 Million votes last night, 4 million fewer than Kerry. Republicans did not turn out for John McCain this year.

6. Note to Republicans: Moderates do NOT win elections. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, there has never been a great moderate leader in the history of the world. And for those of you who have championed the notion that men such as John McCain would fair better in places like Pennsylvania and New Jersey, I’ll invite you to examine how those standings went down, not up this year, with a McCain candidacy. You cannot effectively argue a viewpoint if you do so from a watered-down perspective.

7. The opposition begins, right now. It’s time to get back to being conservative again. No more McCains speaking on our behalf. No more listening to moderate boobs such as Michael Smerconish who crave leaders like Tom Ridge to run for office. No more re-nominating of Washington hacks like John Boehner and Roy Blunt to positions of leadership within the party. I stand here in demand of Michelle Bachmann and John Shadegg as the new House leadership, as well as John Ensign in the senate. This party changes, right now. We didn’t learn in 2006, we must in 2008. Further, how friggen awesome is Michelle Bachmann? National Democrats spent millions against her in that Minnesota (of all places) race, for daring to question her future president Obama. She won re-election last night. A bright star within a dim evening.

8. Seriously… is Barack Obama not the most arrogant son-of-a-bitch to ever come down the pike? What is with this guy and self-serving, massive Hugo Chavez style rallies? Who seriously makes a campaign stop in Berlin, Germany? How does someone, who just four years ago being an irrelevant state senator from Illinois, have the audacity to act as if he’s going to not only fix the nation, but heal the world? Forget the virtue of being humbled by the Lord in such an office as high as the presidency, this man purposely markets his image a messiah of sorts, presuming to “himself” that he is a great man. I cringe at what this fellow would do if he could.

9. What was up with Michelle Obama’s dress last night? Ick. Bad stuff.

10. I’m really going to miss Brit Hume as an anchor. Escaping the giddiness of the other cable networks last night as they popped the champaign over their undeniable candidate, it was nice to hear a reasonable account of the election season, and the man who’s about to become our next president. I had a particular moment of choice last night. In some closing remarks about the launching of new leaders into American history, Hume suggested that Ronald Reagan had three new major ideas as part of his platform in 1980, such as the outright defeat of global Communism. He turns to ask politely of Juan Williams, “can you think of a new idea we might talk about in future analysis of this election as one which Obama had given to us as new?”. Juan Williams pauses, stares into blank, and suggests he couldn’t think of anything off hand.

And that my Republican friends is why we’re not to worry about this election defeat, hard as losing may be. Through all the brilliant marketing, the lavish campaign contributions which reached record levels (not just from small donors as Obama puts it), the self-transformation from radical Chicago to main street America, media help, and the ease of running against the most unpopular president in recent history, this man, Barack Obama, is no Ronald Reagan in terms of deep ideological philosophy and sound policy consideration, nor does he command a movement of Americans around anything other than the fictional story, the idea if you will, of Barack Obama the agent of transformation. His mere election seemed to be the goal. Hope and change are not issues which major movements are built on, and our new president will find in time that there are countless problems in the world to deal with. Problems, which I believe, he may be ill-equipped to solve.

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A Side Note…

Posted by: Jason | · 6:07 AM

As disappointing as this election was, I can’t help but add an extra side note to my comments this morning, a bit of encouragement to the history of the moment.

Quiet plainly however, I can’t help but deny my thought that it’s a dear shame that the man who was selected in history to be our first black president was Senator Barack Obama, someone whose roots and motivations I’ve questioned from the beginning. But, history is history, and all things happen for a reason.

For the sake of America, and not necessarily one man, electing our first black president, indeed considering his roots, is a testament to how tolerant and open American society is. There should be no doubt from this day forward over the decency in motives of the average man or woman living her.

When I hear the celebrations this morning, talking of the history, I can’t help but think “see, I told you so” in my own mind to those who would have never believed we’d see this day.

Of course, I’d say, we would have seen this day where we’d of elected our first black president (or someone of any other race or religion for that matter). Because average Americans don’t look to race, but look to circumstances, personalities, and ideas in their decision for president.

So historically, it is a day worth celebrating, because it is a day of validation for the American people. This indeed remains the greatest nation on earth.

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The Eve Of Obama and Why I Voted McCain

Posted by: Jason | November 3rd, 2008 · 7:24 PM

I have no illusions about what’s to happen this evening. Reasonable sense suggests that Barack Obama will become the 44th President-Elect of the United States of America. Polling aside… politics is a cyclical art form and the inevitable defeat of Republicanism is heavy in the air.

But I like to think of my vote for John McCain today, however irrelevant, in terms of how Charles Krauthammer described his support in a recent column; I’m proudly going down with the McCain ship. Thinking about my vote in those terms, there’s something honorable in pulling that lever for whom I did today, for several reasons.

John McCain is a bipartisan man. For all our talk of yearning as a society for leaders that “bring us together” and who “work with others to get things done”, is there a man in Washington whose record better embodies that stable image than John McCain’s? Time and time again, on major issues, this is a man who has reached out to Democrats, at the expense of Republican hostility and the chancing of his own political future, to do what he thought was right. His opponent, who likes to talk of working across the aisle, has no such record nor can hardly echo that claim with any honesty.

John McCain has spent his entire life serving his country. From his time as a young man at Annapolis, to his serving in the Vietnam War, to his heroic years spent as a captive POW, to his command of one of the largest squadrons in the Navy, to his long and esteemed career as one of Washington’s most bipartisan legislators (when such things are rare), this is a man who walks the walk when it comes to public service. Can his opponent claim such a thing, having never worn the uniform or having never made a sacrifice in his life which wasn’t politically calculated or motivated by personal ambition?

John McCain is an honorable man who, through his good record of public service, deserves the merit of serving as president. Say what you will about these last eight years under George W. Bush, does our collective anger towards an aloof and often incompetent president warrant what amounts to the punishment of all Americans by giving them the most radical, left-wing, and inexperienced president ever elected? What exactly can John McCain’s opponent hang his hat on this year other than claiming he’s “change”, or that his opponent’s entire life of devotion to country can be summed up into the simple message of “Bush’s third term”, trumpeted by a media which favors his election? With all due respect to the confident senator from Illinois, your minuscule record and ill achievements don’t hold a candle in the wind to the man you’ll presumably declare victory over tonight.

John McCain is an accomplished man who has bargained at the table with results. Disagree I may on a host of issues he’s involved himself in such as tobacco reform, immigration reform, campaign finance reform, cap and trade laws with regard to climate change, rejecting the Bush tax cuts, or judicial compromise, John McCain has been at the forefront of executing real legislation that has effected real Americans. Can his opponent name one bill of significant worth, a single bill for that matter, which he’s ever championed through the senate during his three short years of stepping-stone experience there? Can he name a single time he’s gone against the winds of his own party? Or, in noticing his 97% party-line voting record thus far in Washington, are we to assume McCain’s opponent will catch some bipartisan flu once he’s backed by the strength of an all-Democrat lead congress next year?

John McCain is right on the issues. Why should our complaints of the Bush presidency, whose results may indeed be the measure of the man and not the vision, equate to the suggestion that higher taxes, a weaker foreign policy, and a greater societal moral decay be the answer that rights the wrong? Shrouded by a cloud of mythical fiction, as if to suggest the nation can merely hope its way into the future, nothing John McCain’s opponent has mentioned thus far will solve an ounce of America’s problems, but will only further them. On economics, he supports lesser trade and higher taxes in the face of a recession, as if to mimic the policies of Herbert Hoover before the Great Depression. On defense, he has been gravely wrong on the major conflicts of the campaign season, from Russia’s aggression of Georgia to his undeniable disbelief in the surge policy which is winning the Iraq War. He furthers this irresponsible agenda by his willingness to meet with rogue dictators and tyrants without precondition. On health care, education, and a whole host of other relevant domestic issues, McCain’s opponent looks to Socialism for the answer, seeking to empower the federal government, not the people, to make our decisions for us. President Bush’s obvious failures aside, ask yourself if you believe the politics of Jimmy Carter are the responsible remedy for these past eight years.

Finally, John McCain doesn’t have to answer for his past associations. I believe that a man’s character, and in particular, a man’s judgment through his past affiliations in life, are a testament to his being considered for the presidency. But how can the fortunes of a man such as John McCain’s opponent, who spent twenty years hearing the wrath and hatred of a racist demagogue from the pews of his church, be wisely considered by a public who claims to champion civil rights and racial harmony? Likewise, we should be offended, not encouraged, by a man who having just lived through the tragedy of 9/11, found it acceptable to collaborate politically on boards with an associate who once bombed the pentagon himself. Through our individual opinions, are we so selfish as a nation today in overlooking such a devastating reality? What a gross insult to those who met their fates at the pentagon years ago on that horrible day! In the days of our grandfathers, men such as these would be shunned from the political stage for associating themselves with such traitors. Rather today, we elect them president, and grow mystified by their enchanting personal qualities and their engaging speeches.

It’s no secret that I have never fully embraced the candidacy of John McCain for President. Time and time again, in his long senatorial record in Washington, he has compromised my personal causes in search of favor with Democrats who I’ve fervently disagreed.

He has made a living of embracing the ideas of the left, often times at the cost of alienating his own core constituency within the Republican Party. It’s practically routine, in fact, as a political study, on a given day to curse the name of John McCain over his stance in the latest congressional battle.

Likewise, if politics is indeed the art of compromise, and thus sometimes the art of loss, than it appears I will be compromising much of my own interests in the year of 2008 as the tally roles in tonight, whichever way those results turn.

But make no mistake about it, through whichever disagreements I may have with his past political compromises, John McCain is the better man of the two who seek the White House, worthy not only of my vote but of my utter respect. He has proven through his deeds and experiences that he warrants the title, Mr. President. And despite the enormous political accomplishment on the part of his opponent this season, something I admit as unbelievable before, I cannot give the same respect to the man, who I view as manipulative of his past, calculated in his short-lived career, overly-ambitious for his own reputation as opposed to in deep consideration for the progress of his country, and who clearly intends to steer this nation towards a course far from our constitution and political traditions, but towards the path of European Socialism.

If we’re to talk of service, of real issues, and of the general judgment that’s needed to command such a position as president, then there is no question which man is more deserving of the office he seeks. My cause may loose the battle this evening, but the belief in my supporting the right one lives on for the greater war of ideas ahead.

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