Wednesday, January 9. 2008
 A fine man, but maybe a sucker for every passing political fad and fashion?
Please convince me that he isn't.
Mitt Romney is a damned good, capable man but, for whatever reasons, he did not catch fire. I'd say he's out in this kindergarten game of musical chairs. I'd like to see him somewhere in the government - but far away from the subject of medical insurance. And I'd say John McCain, who I like as a person but many of whose views I strongly disagree with, is back in the game. I yearn for the old days of the smoke-filled rooms. But at least I can still ignite a Cuban stogie up here in my own little library, while hoping for the death of Fidel.
From an alert reader: Whatsa matter, don't you read your own webpage? From Maggie's Farm recently:
Come on. You don't really think that woman is not going to win the democratic primaries, do you? If you were immortal and omniscient you wouldn't have enough power or time to ferret out all the cul-de-sacs of influence, fellow travelers, yes-men installed like ticks in government and NGO sinecures, and just plain access to money her and her husband have all over this planet. The emo kids, afraid that George Bush was listening to Al Qaeda phonecalls because he secretly wanted to find their stash of doobies, don't understand that rules are for Republicans. Hillary just goes down the hall and opens the file cabinets and plops a pile of FBI files on some toad's desk. They're not kidding around, and never have been. And they've been at it thirty years. There'll be a live boy or a dead girl or a horse's head in everybody's bed the minute they pull even with her in the polls, and they'll never even know where it's coming from. Not exactly.
The press, currently infatuated with the most liberal version of a democrat and the most unelectable version of a Republican, will get over unrequited Obama love right quick and fall behind Hillary,right after she's through having people mention that her Democratic opponents are crackhead madrassah psychos and have love children behind their noble cancer-ridden wife's back. And that's where Ron Paul! comes in.
Her husband never really won an election, you know. You can go on any Internet opinion playpen and hear all about how popular Bill is --and was -- but he never even cracked 50% of the vote on his re-election. Hillary's in the same boat. It's likely she'd have a hard time getting half the vote, even though 45% of the electorate is in the bag for a Democrat. Hello, Ross Perot! It's hard being right all the time, but we must try to bear up under the strain of it.
 Those NH polls sure had me fooled. From Rick Moran:
I have been following politics for 35 years and cannot recall such a universal, all encompassing and ultimately, totally overblown media frenzy about a candidate that turned out to be so extraordinarily wrong. There’s a lesson there for us somewhere but frankly, I am too stunned to see it at the moment. Political pros were even swept up in Obamania and fell victim to being in love with the sound of their own voices pouring superlatives and encomiums on the senator from Illinois.
and In addition to women, Hillary captured the over 55 vote and those who make less than $50,000 a year. The significance of her victory in those groups cannot be lost on Obama. Oldsters vote in greater numbers than any other age group. And those who make under 50 grand a year vote Democratic in large numbers.
Does this mean we don't have to keep hearing about "change"? Here's Jules on "change": CNN notes key issues of “hope” and “change.” I hope things don’t change too much, because while there is always a lot of tinkering around the edges that might improve this situation or that, this remains one of the wealthiest nations in the world, providing all its citizens and a lot of non-citizens opportunities to advance themselves unmatched anywhere else in the world; the nation most seriously committed to the social welfare of all by means other than burdensome, motivation-killing socialism; the nation most seriously committed, having bled and paid heavily on this score, to equality and protection for all in matters of race and religion; and whether the rest of the free world likes to admit it or not, it relies on us to ensure its security. The “hope” and “change” mantras in such a privileged country frankly sound like adolescent whining.
Image: Thanks, Buddy
Tuesday, January 8. 2008
It's thin for a guy his age, compared to most people I know. It is not apparent that he ever had a real job in the real world - but neither did Bill Clinton: WaPo. Narcissists hate to compete in the real world, because they might not win. On the other hand, few people who really do things go into politics. They seem to be the exceptions. More on his background at American Thinker.
Quoted from New Hampshire's Libertarian Leanings: What has become of the American middle class? George Will provides some insight. Economist Stephen Rose, defining the middle class as households with annual incomes between $30,000 and $100,000, says a smaller percentage of Americans are in that category than in 1979 -- because the percentage of Americans earning more than $100,000 has doubled, from 12 to 24, while the percentage earning less than $30,000 is unchanged. "So," Rose says, "the entire 'decline' of the middle class came from people moving up the income ladder." Even as housing values declined in 2007, the net worth of households increased.
Apparently, the disappearing middle class is disappearing because they are getting richer. Or perhaps I should say, we are getting richer.
I recently stumbled upon this essay, Taking Liberty, by the one-time Clinton official William Galston. He is trying to make the case that liberals and leftists should not abandon the words "freedom" and "liberty" (which he notes that they have done). A quote: Liberals seldom talk about Social Security or other programs in terms of freedom. But they should. George W. Bush certainly does. In his second inaugural address, Bush accepted the validity of Roosevelt's concept of Four Freedoms. But he went on to contend that in today's circumstances, his brand of conservatism--his so-called "ownership society"--offers more effective means to traditional New Deal ends: "By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear." In essence, the president was saying that his solution to Social Security's fiscal problems would provide seniors with the freedom from want and fear they had come to expect, but with two additional liberties: freedom of choice, and freedom from government dependence.
I find his arguments highly debatable, particularly in the way in which he conflates personal freedoms (eg the option of retirement) with political freedom from state power and coercion. Read the whole thing.
This "change" mantra is a joke. Change what, exactly? I think it's kinda like American Idol (which I have never seen): change the face on the TV. Vote 'em off the screen. Roger on Making Change.
Quoted from Shrinkwrapped: Barak Obama is a fairly conventional, mainstream Democratic liberal, albeit without the rage, while Mike Huckabee appears to be a fairly conventional Republican populist, also without the rage and with a more overt religious patina than the present occupant of the White House. Both appear to be offering the Federal government as the ultimate protector against the vicissitudes of modern life and the dispenser of largesse to favored constituencies; neither, at least yet, offers much of a paradigm shift. (I do not count Huckabee's "fair tax" since any proposal attacked by liberals and conservatives alike is unlikely to be enacted by a Democratic Congress for a Republican President.) My sense is that Obama and Huckabee are running for Parent in Chief of an anxious and regressed nation. Yesterday on FNS, Brit Hume pointed out the contrast between the high percentage of Americans who tell pollsters that they are personally doing well and the equally large majority who report that America is on the wrong track. Making sense of this apparent paradox is difficult, but allow me to make the attempt.
Read the whole thing.
Monday, January 7. 2008
The Defense Department's report on the current military and political state of Iraq. Obsidian Wings
This is astonishing news - that people are actually talking about it. Her national polls are tanking. They say she will be running out of money, too. What was the foundation for her campaign, with all of its trappings of inevitability? Is it possible that very few Dems ever really found her an attractive candidate? And why on earth did she ever let her husband campaign for her? That is dumb dumb dumb: as somebody noted somewhere, we never saw Dennis Thatcher campaigning for Maggie. Update: Many, like Blue Crab, smell a rat.
 I was born in Boston. I've lived in Massachusetts for the vast majority of my life. I don't want to live here any more. Mitt Romney has surrendered me to my enemies. It's foolish to blame it on him, perhaps; his successor, Deval Patrick, stays up late every night thinking of things I detest. But Romney's face is on this Massachusetts Universal Medical Insurance Requirement. I don't have health insurance. I haven't had any health insurance for about four years. I had health insurance for four years prior to that. Before that, I didn't have health insurance for twenty years. I've never had dental insurance. Health insurance is a misnomer. Insurance is designed to safeguard you from ruination if unexpected things happen. People call that "catastrophic health insurance" nowadays. They call prepaying for all sorts of tangentially medical-related things "health insurance," but it's really more like a retainer or a club. Massachusetts wouldn't allow me to insure myself or my family. They still don't, really. I should be able to insure my family of four for a few hundred dollars a month against catastrophe, while I pay 100% of everyday doctor bills out of pocket. It's illegal here now, as it was illegal here before. Very wealthy people use tax-subsidized employee benefit money for all sorts of things that have no business being called "Health," and the legislature mandates that all these sorts of extraneous, frivolous, and even criminal things must be covered by any insurance offered in this state. I tried to get insurance before the state mandated it. It cost over $1100 dollars a month, and it had deductibles that we would never conceivably meet, So we just ended up paying on the nail for everything anyway. I let the insurance lapse, and saved the money to pay my doctor bills.
Continue reading "Hey Mitt Romney: Pound Sand"
Fred Barnes: They can't handle the truth: The Dems and the Surge (thanks, Sissy). I believe that they do know the truth, but that they think that it is not politically expedient to acknowledge it right now.
Sunday, January 6. 2008
Fred is against amnesty for illegals. I would be in favor of amnesty if it also included all other laws... maybe set a year aside in which no laws will be enforced? Fred is the grown-up heavyweight, but... A very brief clip:
Saturday, January 5. 2008
Overcoming Bias discusses biases in the system. A quote: In this recent entry, Eliezer discussed what might be called the "pork-barrel paradox" in politics, that even when there is public support for reducing the size of government, the political constituency for individual programs can be strong enough to keep them all going. He also points out that the occupations represented in Congress don't match the country at large, and maybe don't match what we really need. (To briefly quote myself, I'm willing to believe that the country's 890,000 lawyers are being overrepresented, but what about the 114,000 biologists? A few of these in Congress might advance the understanding of public health. And then there are the 290,000 civil engineers--I'd like to have a few of them around also. I'd also like some of the 280,000 child care workers and 620,000 pre-K and kindegarten teachers to give their insight on deliberations on family policy. And the 1.1 million police officers and 340,000 prison guards will have their own perspectives on justice issues.)
Read the whole thing.
Readers know that Obama's politics are about as far from ours as anyone's (plus I think he is naive as hell) and that we would therefore never consider voting for him, but one must admit that he is not only an appealing fellow - he is good at this game. He has it all over the seemingly soul-less, cagey, condescending and contrived Hillary Clinton personality-du-jour in natural sales and marketing talent. Ambitious as he is, he displays more heart than raw ambition and calculation. A tough opponent, I think, and a potential winner if his lively spirit can defeat the grim Clinton Machine. If I worked for the Clintons today, I would be worried. Here's his impressive (yet mostly empty) "Thank you Iowa" speech:
Brit blogger Lionheart says he is a wanted man. h/t, Gates. More comments from Tangled Web. If this story is true, I would suggest to the Brit police that they reconsider who the enemies of their society might really be.
Friday, January 4. 2008
I can't extract a quote from this Kimball essay, because it's all of a piece. Just read it if you are curious about the future of Conservatism.
From Ann Coulter: I've seen so few mentions of Kwanzaa this year, I was going to declare my campaign a success, but I see that President Bush issued another absurd Kwanzaa message this year, referring to millions of African-Americans gathering to celebrate Kwanzaa. I believe more African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks. It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI. In what was probably ultimately a foolish gamble, during the madness of the '60s the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the organization, the better. Using that criterion, Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. In the annals of the American '60s, Karenga was the Father Gapon, stooge of the czarist police. Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution. Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves. United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names. (That was a big help to the black community: How many boys named "Jamal" currently sit on death row?) Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear.
Read the whole thing.
This bit came in over my transom from parts unknown: In a news conference Deanna Favre announced she will be the starting QB for the Packers this coming Sunday. Deanna asserts that she is qualified to be starting QB because she has spent the past 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Packers. During this period of time she became familiar with the definition of a corner blitz, and is now completely comfortable with other terminology of the Packers offense. A survey of Packers fans shows that 50% of those polled supported the move. Idiotic? Well, Hillary Clinton makes the same claims as to why she is qualified to be President and 50% of Democrats polled agreed. She has never run a City, County, or State. When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has 8 years in the White House, Dick Morris stated "so has the pastry chef".
 From Radosh's glowing NY Sun review of Goldberg's Liberal Fascism:
Readers will learn that the very term "liberal fascism" came from the pen of H.G. Wells, the famed socialist author who delivered a speech at Oxford University in 1932 that included hosannas to both Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. "I am asking," Wells told the students, "for a Liberal Fascisti, for enlightened Nazis." Democracy, he argued, had to be replaced with new forms of government that would save mankind, producing a "'Phoenix Rebirth' of liberalism" that would be called "Liberal Fascism." Like the activism, experimentation, and discipline that made the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany new dynamic societies, the West too could reach such a plateau by adopting the new soft fascism that suited it best.
And all of it run by him and his friends, no doubt.
Thursday, January 3. 2008
In my opinion, the most important result is that a black guy can run for president and hold his own with anybody else. This pleases me but does not surprise me in the least, even in as white-bread a state as Iowa. I'd now call this the Post-Obama Era for race relations in the US - an era in which victimhood has definitively lost whatever remaining persuasiveness it had. Obama did not run as a black man: he ran as a man.
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