The UN Gives Us the Finger
Here’s something to ponder this afternoon…
While the rest of us sane and rational people are concerning ourselves with the possibility of a global recession thanks to the new era of globalization, what is the almighty United Nations doing?
Well, they’re telling the world to “be bold” on climate change despite the economic recession.
Let me translate that for you into normal people speak:
“Screw the global economy and the people who are being devastated by the combined effects of a global recession and skyrocketing energy prices thanks to global warming mandates. Oh, and even though the global warming mandates are further driving the recession, don’t let that stop you from forcing them down people’s throats. It’s for the greater good.”
Yet, all the while Mr. I’m worth $100 million thanks to global warming hysteria, Al Gore, is lining his pockets even further as he seeks a $100 million IPO for his new trendy media outlet, Current.
So remember. You and I mean NOTHING. We’re pond scum. We’re nowhere near as important as global warming, carbon credits, Al Gore or the UN.
It really makes you feel warm and loved, doesn’t it?
I think I’m going to go throw up now.
Betrayed!
What in the hell is going on in the Republican party? Whether locally or nationally, it seems that no matter which way I turn our GOP elected officials are going mad and turning against all things Conservative.
Is it simply that “win at all costs” illness that seems to be permeating the party these days, or is it something else? I would like to take these people by the shoulders and shake them until they give me a legitimate (and reasonable) answer, but I think I would be doing a whole lot of shaking and I just don’t have the time to devote to such fruitless pursuits. After all, our freedoms are going to hell in a hand basket, and I just couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t fight back.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t still feel that pinch of betrayal whenever one of my elected Republican officials turns their back on principle and jumps on a nasty bandwagon, especially when you can tell that their political positions are based primarily on personal feelings or agendas. This is the sort of pathetic pandering that we have come to expect from the Democrats out there, but I have been severely disillusioned into thinking that the GOP was above that sort of thing. I guess I was wrong. I guess the will to win at all costs is too powerful to ignore.
Once again, this headache stems back to smoking bans, and despite the fact that my state Senator is a Republican (and has been known to be a decent enough Republican so far) she has decided to jump on the SS bandwagon and betray all of us who have given time, money and effort into her campaign. I’m sorry, but this is very revealing incident that sums up my last several weeks of GOP-critical posting into a microcosmic real-world example. Along with global warming, I am finding that smoking bans make for an outstanding litmus test as to somebody’s principles, and if they choose the agenda of personal politics and public opinion over the principles of limited government conservatism and personal liberties, I simply cannot see them as anything other than a turncoat.
Personally, I wish there were a way that we could fire these people (preferably out of a cannon, into the sun) and replace them with people who put principle first… But instead we’re stuck with them as they parade around their districts setting back our efforts to maintain at least the status quo on freedom and do more damage as they brainwash the masses. Damn if that isn’t hard to fight against when you’re just “little people” like us…
But fight we do, and once again I am going to beg and plead for support from you people out there. Anybody in Wisconsin who is willing to help, please let me (or Joey) know and we will hook you up with information… And as soon as we find a source of funding, we will be sending stickers, posters and other things to hand out to people around the state who are willing to spearhead their areas.
This may be a slap in the face to us, but at least we new know that we cannot even rely on our Republican legislators to help us out, so grassroots disruption is going to be the name of the game.
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
Cross Posted To Ban the Ban Wisconsin
Ban Damage: Chicago
Much to my dismay, one of the casualties of the no exceptions ban that the SS (that’s Stop Smoking troopers) enacted in Illinois is the good life lifestyle.
For fourteen years, Cigar Aficionado has held a cigar event in Chicago. The one night event was simply an opportunity for people who enjoy the little things to get together and enjoy a couple of cigars, have a few drinks and enjoy the company of others. As an avid cigar smoker and subscriber to the good life mantra, I was planning on attending the event this coming April.
However, the SS had other plans, and the event has been shut down since the lawyers have concluded that there is no legal way for them to have the event.
Is this really a health issue, or is the SS just waging a selfish campaign against the people they loathe?
Damage done. Event canceled. Another unnecessary casualty in a senseless war.
Read the Cigar Aficionado article
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
Cross Posted To Ban the Ban Wisconsin
Pro Patria, Fighting Under a New Banner
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Right?
I can’t say that I am at all surprised that Fred Thompson has withdrawn his bid for the White House. I am, however, surprised as to why. I have bitched, moaned, whined and complained to no end about the lack of GOP and media support for Fred. I have stumped for him as a Conservative and a man who was unwavering in his commitment to ideals. I took a stand over the fact that Fred put ideals over political games – even if that hurt him in the eyes of the mainstream media.
But when push came to shove, the support from the people just wasn’t there, and that is what surprised me. I don’t blame Fred for dropping out. If the people don’t care enough about ideals to give him the support he needed, then why keep trying? It’s a lot like beating a dead horse. Eventually you have to concede that in today’s era of politics, if you aren’t a rockstar you aren’t anything. Ideals just can’t stand up against the “American Idol” generation.
I have been a harsh critic of the GOP as of late, and that will not stop until the party corrects their wayward ways; however I am concerned about more than just the party this time. I am concerned about the power of popularity over principle. The demise of Fred reveals a problem that extends beyond just the lack of solid backing from the GOP. It exposes the fact that American politics has turned into a game show, which may explain why the campaign season started so absurdly early this time. The candidates at the top have figured out that the way to win the hearts of the masses is to woo them with glam.
Ideals? Principles? What are those?
I’m just waiting for Bob Barker to moderate a debate. I can see it now, as Bob waves his notorious little microphone around as the smiling candidates come running down the aisle to the beat of flashing lights and theme music.
The crowd cheers and the candidate flashes a hideous smile.
Does that about sum up the 2008 presidential race?
It’s asinine to say that Fred should have played the game if he expected to win. If being a Type-A media hound isn’t in your nature, why should you fake it just to woo voters? Doesn’t a little bit of honesty and principle value mean anything any longer? If flashing a smile and strumming a guitar on a late-night talk show is what you use to win the voters over, I’m not really sure that I want that guy in the White House. Remember Bill Clinton? He was hip and cool and jammed on his sax too. And what did we get from him? Honesty, integrity and strong values are descriptors that just don’t come up with old Slick Willy, I can tell you that much.
But since I know that too much demoralization will do more harm than good, we (I) can only lament the loss of Fred for so long before sucking it up and moving on. We’re still in the middle of a crossroads political battle here, and there are some people who simply cannot win as far as I am concerned.
I know that many people would want (or expect) me to turn to Ron Paul after this, but I simply cannot. Why? Because I think his foreign policy proposals, while admittedly bold and admirable, are far too unrealistic for this Hawkish Veteran. There are many elements of Ron Paul’s platform that I do like, but I simply cannot get behind somebody who’s ideas on foreign policy are so naive – no matter how idealistic they are. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t fault Paul’s supporters for their support. Being a hawk when it comes to foreign policy isn’t for everybody, and I have to admit that if I weren’t a Veteran and fiercely opinionated when it comes to our dealings abroad, I would be right beside you in the Ron Paul camp.
But alas, it is just not in the cards, and I am turning to my number two man. At one time I jabbered on about a Fred/Romney ticket. Well, with Fred out of the running, that means my support goes to Mitt Romney. I have weighed him as a candidate, and while he doesn’t stack up to Fred Thompson, very few ever will and Mitt Romney comes the closest out of all of them. I have always liked what he says, and the only reason he wasn’t my immediate number one choice was his inconsistent past. So do we allow people the right to change their ways? Yes, of course. People can change and grow, but I guess there is always the question as to how well they will hold up their new views. I like consistency, which is why Fred was my man. But, it’s time to take Mr. Romney at his word and hope for the best.
So here we go, once more through the breach dear friends. The fight is far from over, and even though we’re marching under a new banner, Pro Patria is ready to go in with guns blazing.
Republican? I Thought I Knew
Is it ironic that this past weekend held two different political landmarks for us Conservative First people?
Perhaps.
First off, we got a massive slap to the face in South Carolina. Not only did Fred take third place, he took third behind the two worst offenders of the bunch. The thought of McCain taking first place makes the bile rise a bit, since if you look at his words and actions they don’t vary a whole lot from Clinton’s… But Clinton is at least being honest about who she is (well, relatively anyway).
Second off, we passed the one-year mark (1/20/2008) which means that we have just one more year of the Bush administration.
So what does this mean to us?
It would seem that we are at a crossroads here. On one hand, we are risking going down a path of more of the same. On the other hand, we are risking a Democrat in the White House, which is worse than “more of the same,” although not by much.
Perhaps we haven’t been clear. What is a Republican? Most average people would tell you that a Republican is stiff, wearing a tie and a starched shirt, tyrannical, selfish, religious, fascist, environment-hating, pale-skinned creeps.
Well, I sport a number of tattoos, earrings, usually somewhat messy hair, bowling shirts and blue jeans… I’m not particularly religious, tyrannical, fascist or stiff. I can be selfish at times, but who isn’t? I am simply more interested in freedom than tyranny. The fact of the matter is that I think that I am fairly representative of the new Conservatives out there while the traditional definition of a Republican is much more appropriately applied to the liberals (or at least the center-left crowd) out there than to us.
When I look at the current Republican “club,” and the Republicans that have stood at the helm of this Country for the past seven years, I don’t see the Conservative base. I see a group that has moved to the center or center-left but still sports an elephant on their lapel. I have spent a long time considering it absolute blasphemy, but I’m starting to accept the reality of the situation. The fact of the matter is that the slick and polished Republican base is breaking with the freedom-first Conservative base and luring the moderate voters out there into some sort of a muddled conglomeration of Republican and Democrat values – none of which mix well together.
The Bush administration has really mixed things up over the past seven years. This new breed of so-called “Compassionate Conservatives” is a dangerous bunch of politicians, because they lure moderate Conservatives with tax cuts and occasional vetoes of brutal liberal legislation… But they then lure moderate Liberals with big government and social liberalism. This gives them a powerful voter base right in the middle, and even though it alienates us Conservatives, it wins elections so there is no real incentive to return to a right-of-center platform.
Can we handle four or eight more years of the status quo? An overall victory for McCain or Huckabee will be a crushing blow to all of the firm Conservatives out there, but a victory for the dems will be a disastrous blow for America as a whole. So where does that leave us?
Personally, I have (had?) great hopes for Fred. If the GOP heads gave a damn about [real] Conservatives, they would have told the turncoats where to stick it and rallied behind Fred and encouraged more Conservatives to run on the Republican ticket. But the GOP seems more concerned with getting elected than showing any loyalty to Conservatism, and we are more likely to be treated with spite for not showing blind support for the party than for questioning the logic behind this insanity.
I do not blame Bush or the Bush administration for any of this. They are simply players in a bigger game. The Bush family is part of the GOP club and the club takes care of their own. George W. Bush is who he is. He has not steered the party the wrong direction. It was already going the wrong direction and he just helped maintain the status quo here. He wasn’t elected to be the next Ronald Reagan; he was elected to be George W Bush, and he did an outstanding job of doing just that. Over the past seven years, there has never been any doubt that George W Bush was steering the boat. Should we have expected anything else?
But this comes right back to the original question. Do we want more of the same? A McCain or Huckabee White House will be exactly what we expect it to be. There should be no delusions about it. President Bush will hand over the keys on 1/20/2009 to somebody who will do a great job of holding the status quo for another term or two. We’re in one hell of a pickle here, because we’re literally caught between a rock and a hard place since the only real change that we’re being offered is a liberal nightmare via a vote for one of the Democrat wingnuts out there.
As I said before, Fred offered a good shot at real (and realistic) change for the Republican party, but that glimmer of hope is starting to flicker a bit… And I don’t want to hear a thing about Ron Paul because his foreign policy stance scares the hell out of me and his idea of change isn’t nearly as realistic as Fred’s. So at what point do the Conservatives simply stand against the status quo and demand real change or threaten to cut their ties as the Republican party maintains their center-left stance?
I think that time will be soon, because I don’t know if we can survive another round of the same old thing.
Johansson Makes Pro Patria’s A-List
Ordinarily I would have no reason to post about “babes” on this blog. I’m just a classy guy like that. But once in a while I am taken by something that somebody does, and as such I feel the need to post on it. It just so happens that this time it is a woman who has propelled herself to the top of Pro Patria’s “A-List” thanks to her comendable actions…
From Stars and Stripes (via military.com):
Scarlett Johansson to Headline USO Tour
“Servicemembers deployed to the Middle East can’t be there in person to catch Scarlett Johansson strutting along the red carpet at her latest movie premier in the States. But at least some of those serving around the Persian Gulf region will have one of the hottest actresses around come to them, thanks to an upcoming USO tour.“
I can’t express enough gratitude towards people like Scarlett who give their time and energy to brighten things up for some of our deployed servicemembers. You want a “great American?” Here she is.
Fred Speaks on the Corrupt Government
If you had any doubts regarding Fred’s attitude towards the current government standard, this short exchange during one of his campaign stops in South Carolina should change your mind. Ask yourself, is this the kind of man we want to lead us? Absolutely.
Thompson: Yes, sir.
Man: Fred, I drove over 500 miles to see you.
Thompson: Bless your heart. Let’s give this man a hand. (Applause, cheers)
Man: I came over Finch Mountain in a snowstorm. (Pause) May I call you Fred?
Thompson: Absolutely.
Man: That’s okay until January and I can call you Mr. President. (Laughter, more applause). Now, I’ve got a question.
Thompson: Yes sir
Man: (Pause) I’m looking for a tall man who will stand tall for America. (Pause.) Who will cut the ears off of earmarks! (Pause.) Stop dead illegal immigration! (Pause.) And pull the teeth of activist judges…
Thompson: Yep.
Man: … who take your house to build 7-Eleven! (Pause, then louder) And I want to know if you’ve got a Jim Bowie knife and a good strong pair (pause) of Channellock pliers! (Laughter, even more applause, calls of “That’s right!” and “Hear, hear!”)
Something tells me Mitt Romney doesn’t field a whole lot of questions like that.
Thompson, for his part, answered with Southern-fried aplomb. “Did you ever see the movie ‘Walking Tall’?” he said, referring to the 1973 action flick about Buford Pusser, a Tennessee sheriff who single-handedly rid his town of crime and corruption. “You know the ax handle that old Buford used to carry? I got me one of them. I knew Buford Pusser. His daughter gave me one of those ax handles and I still got it. I thought about it many, many times. There’s a lot you can do with that.”
A Global Warming Weekend
For those who don’t know cold… Or for those who are dumb enough to believe in global warming…
Here is the forecast here where I live for the next three days:
Friday: low -19f, high +3f
Saturday: low -19f, high -3f
Sunday: low -12f, high -1f
Oh, and using the NOAA wind chill index for those days, we’re looking at lows areound -45f.
So I swear, if I hear anybody bitch about global warming or try to tell me that we need to bring down the temperature to save the polar bears, I’m going to make the bastard sit naked out in my back yard for the weekend.
Invasion of the Partysnatchers
Ok, cue eerie Twilight Zone music for a moment and let’s think about this bizarro world we’re dealing with at the moment.
Where’s my party? I see them. They are sporting elephants. They vote for the (R). But who are these people? This is not the GOP as we knew it. This is either an intergalactic conspiracy to replace the Grand Old Party with harmonious zombie aliens, or something much more sinister is going on.
Why do I say this? To be honest, it’s the only explanation I can think of as to how it is that the party has gotten so wayward. Every day I hear Republicans talking the talk, but they don’t seem to have any idea what they are talking about – and they most certainly are not walking the walk. All one has to do is listen to any segment of the Sean Hannity show on any given day to understand what I am saying. Nothing against Sean, he runs a good show, but his concept of “any Republican is better than a Democrat” is not helping the cause. Not just that, but his – and his callers’ – excessive abuse of the Reagan name is concerning. Do people even remember who Reagan was or what he stood for?
I about vomited when I heard a caller on Hannity the other day start speaking, with great passion I might add, about how Huckabee is the Ronald Reagan for today. I have heard many people over the past weeks say such things, but to hear this woman speak so passionatly as she likened Huck to The Gipper made me physically ill.
As a self-proclaimed Conservative, Hannity should have quickly and efficiently corrected this woman and dispelled her delusional mantra… But he didn’t. Why? I can assume one of two things:
1- He believes it too, which means he has no idea what he’s talking about either and he is part of the problem when it comes to the GOP’s recent straying.
2- He just doesn’t care because if thinking that somebody is like Reagan will mean a vote for a Republican, well then it’s better than a vote for a Democrat… Which is also contributing to the problem.
Either way, we’ve got a big problem on our hands. Improper invocations of Ronald Reagan and wayward talkshow hosts aside, look at what we’re dealing with here:
- Iowa Caucus – Huckabee, a pro-life liberal
- New Hampshire Primary – McCain, a pro-life liberal with hawkish tendencies
- Michigan Primary – Romney, probably the best of the bunch but still questionable at best and I just don’t see him as the limited government Conservative
I know that the GOP seems to think that it needs to support its own regardless of what they do or say, but it’s just not true. The party heads should make it clear that if somebody is going to run as a center-left candidate, they are not going to do so on the GOP ticket and they should stump for those the candidates who are running on a true Conservative platform. As such, the GOP should be fielding Fred Thompson and probably Mitt Romney as viable Republican candidates and telling the others to put an (I) or a (D) next to their name and run on a different ticket.
I’m not usually a listener of Rush (namely because he is on while I am at work), but I certainly respect his opinions, and even he is questioning the direction the the Republican party is moving in… And those who listen to Jason Lewis (and if you don’t I would highly advise checking him out) know that he is probably going to have an aneurysm before this election is over thanks to the wayward ways of the Republican party.
I guess now would be the time to start asking if the GOP can save itself or if this will be the last general election that pits the Republican party as the Conservative party. We may see the GOP become the centerist party and a new Conservative party form between them and the libertarians (you know, where the Republicans should be).
If the GOP continues to leave the Conservatives behind in their quest for votes and wins, there may not be a Conservative base that they can turn to after 2008 is wrapped up. After all, I have to loyalty to a party that has no loyalty to me; and I would reckon that I am not the only one that feels that way.
We took George Bush’s big budget, big government compassionate brand of Republicanism for eight years as we watched the GOP shed almost all vestiges of Conservatism. Don’t think that we will continue to back the party just because they call themselves the Conservative party.
