Category Archives: Politics

Media, Pensacola, Politics, Uncategorized

What Recession?

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Who better to comment on the financial misdeeds of President Bush (who he affectionately calls the ‘shrub’) than Air America Radio investor and talk show host Mike Papantonio?

According to Papantonio, Bush has this economy in ‘a full-blown recession.’ Actually, he is hoping the economy goes into a recession, or at the very least convince you that the economy actually is in a full-blown recession.

Probably not as good a record as say, Air America Radio, but here are some facts about our economy that the rabid left either ignores or lies about.

Since losing 4 million jobs after the combined effects of the Clinton recession that Bush inherited, and the attacks on 9/11, and devastating hurricanes, that snake-bit president has presided over 54 months of continuous job growth, creating over 8.3 million jobs since August 2003.

Despite all the catastrophic spending the economy of this country has so-far withstood (war and hurricanes), deficit spending is below 1.5% of GDP. That’s lower than the average of the last 40 years.

In true liberal fashion, this significant bit of dishonesty with smoke and mirrors is this statement that we are in “a full-blown recession”. The lesson here is simply this. The economy is still growing. Only in liberalspeak can they both be happening at the same time.

This claim of a recession employs the flawed liberal logic that an increase is a cut. Even the left-leaning Christian Science Monitor has to admit that the economy has grown by “1.4 percent for the calendar year, whereas the economy normally posts growth of 3 percent or so.” In other words, because it did not GROW as much as it has in the past (another fact Papantonio ignores), it must be a full-blown recession.

The unemployment rate was 5 percent in December. This is below the average of each of the past four decades. Of course this must be bad news.

Real after-tax personal income per person has increased over $2,800 – or 9.6 percent – during this snake-bit administration. The truth is the poor are actually getting richer.

And, if you are happy with the price of gas and food nowadays, you can thank the environmentalist movement, and wimpy politicians who won’t stand up to them, for preventing us from using our own resources while making the problem worse with bio-fuels.

related links: Pensacola News Journal | Christian Science Monitor | The White House | Bureau of Economic Analysis

2008 Election, Media, Politics, War On Terror

Are These Real Democrat Flip-Flops?

Sure looks like it to me. And, let me catch my breath that this comes from the Washington Post. The WaPo lists 5 each from Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton.

For example . . .

Special interests In January, the Obama campaign described union contributions to the campaigns of Clinton and John Edwards as “special interest” money. Obama changed his tune as he began gathering his own union endorsements. He now refers respectfully to unions as the representatives of “working people” and says he is “thrilled” by their support.

and

NAFTA In a January 2004 news conference, Clinton said she thought that “on balance [NAFTA] has been good for New York and good for America.” She now says she has “long been a critic of the shortcomings of NAFTA” and advocates a “time out” from similar trade agreements.

Interesting that the title of the piece is ‘Top Obama Flip-Flops’ when there are five each on Obama and Clinton. So who ever accused the WaPo of being fair and balanced anyway?

related links: Top Obama Flip-Flops | Democrats Equally Adept at Shifting Positions

h/t Hip Hop Republican

2008 Election, Media, Politics

McCain’s Troubles, Are McCain’s Troubles

A level of media attention is being focused on commentators on the political Right like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter (How’s that for a ticket?), assigning blame to them for, allegedly, hurting the candidacy of John McCain. That, and the notion that people like Rush are driven to criticize McCain because McCain doesn’t tow his line. Both just a bit preposterous.

The issue isn’t that McCain doesn’t run in lock-step with conservatives. The issue with Rush and Ann, including myself, is that McCain and others (including the President) continue to say McCain is a conservative when, on the whole, he is not. It is dishonest to label him a conservative while appealing for conservatives’ votes.

“Right-wing pundits hurting McCain”

I don’t see it as the pundits are hurting McCain. What is happening here is the pundits are exposing McCain’s record. In that vein, I see it as McCain hurting himself. Hurting himself in two ways. First by his stance on the following: Gitmo, rights for enemy combatants, gang of fourteen, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, voted against tax cuts before he would (presumably) vote for their extension, for starters. And second, by telling us and anyone who would listen, that he is a conservative.

Making the pundits to be the reason, instead of McCain himself, for hurting McCain is to miss or ignore all of the above.

He’d still be better for this country than either of the democrat wannabes. But it is his ‘reaching out,’ to further liberal principles, that is causing McCain’s troubles. Continue reading McCain’s Troubles, Are McCain’s Troubles →

2008 Election, Media, Politics, Uncategorized

McCain History, Switching Political Party

It ended up not happening, but in 2001, a few weeks before Jumping Jim Jeffords killed the republican majority by changing his party affiliation to Independent, Sen. John McCain considered switching parties when John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist, made overtures to key democrats.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.

Sen. McCain was testing the waters in 2001, and, by his voting and legislative record, has been building that liberal ‘base’ ever since.

If you are looking for a conservative to lead the party, this is just another thing to consider, and ignored by the mainstream media, on how conservative Senator McCain really is. Switching political party does not sound like something a ‘conservative’ would even entertain.

related link: Democrats say McCain nearly abandoned GOP

2008 Election, Politics, Uncategorized

Is McCain Conservative Because He Says He Is?

For weeks now, Sen. John McCain is taking every opportunity to tell anyone who will listen how he is a political conservative. His campaign will say it. If you have to tell someone that you are conservative then you are not a conservative.

After getting the endorsement of Gov. Schwarzenegger, CNN fawns over the moderate direction of the Republican party, citing Giuliani and Schwarzenegger as evidence that McCain is attracting moderates like them.

“McCain’s gains have come primarily among liberal and moderate Republicans as well as GOP voters under the age of 50,” Holland said. “Among liberals and moderates, McCain’s support doubled from 25 percent to 50 percent in the last two weeks. McCain also gained 29 points among GOP voters under 50 years old.”

We are witness to the intentional re-branding of the republican party.  Where liberal and moderate republicans are called conservative, and conservatives are the ‘far right’ and ‘out of the mainstream.’ Just a small group to be marginalized.

‘There are people out there that talk about reaching across the aisle, but he has shown the action, over and over again,’ Schwarzenegger said.

McCain does more than reach across the aisle Governor. John McCain sits in their seat on major issues most dear to conservatives. Is that what conservatives do? Do conservatives just adopt liberal ideals in order to get along or are they guided by principles much larger than any political party?

His fellow Arizonans don’t think he is conservative.

“We do not consider him a conservative at all,” says Rob Haney, a Republican Party chairman in McCain’s home district. The candidate’s bus, the Straight Talk Express, should be renamed, Haney says: “We call it the Forked Tongue Express around here. He’ll lie about anything.”

related link: Recent John McCain History

2008 Election, Politics

It’s McCain’s To Lose Now

Florida is just chock full of surprises. After yesterday’s primary election, it looks like ‘the GOP primary electorate isn’t very conservative.’ Looks are deceiving. Dick Morris’s take on it is about right . . .

The GOP primary electorate isn’t very conservative.

Asked how they’d characterize their own ideology, only 27 percent of Florida GOP voters said they were “very conservative.” They backed Mitt Romney by 44 percent to 20 percent. Another 34 percent said they were “somewhat conservative,” and they broke even between Romney and McCain 33-32. A further 38 percent said they were “moderate” or “liberal” – and they backed McCain by 44-22. So it is not so much that McCain converted conservatives, but that Romney ran out of them – there weren’t enough of them to give him the Florida delegation.

Politics

Make Stimulus Permanent, Lower Taxes

It’s interesting to see a bi-partisan move to put money (ahem, OUR money) back into Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Secretary of the Treasrythe economy by sending checks for hundreds of dollars to millions of people totaling $150 billion. The same thing can be accomplished with lowering taxes. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. discusses the ‘stimulus’ package. . .

Yesterday, I joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader John Boehner to unveil a bipartisan legislative package that has two main elements – one-year individual tax relief so that working Americans have more money to spend, and one-year tax incentives for businesses to invest and grow. Together, the legislation will inject about $150 billion into the economy in 2008, creating over half a million additional jobs by the end of this year.

Specifically, working Americans who have earned income of $3,000 or more will be eligible for a minimum rebate of $300 for an individual or $600 for a couple filing jointly. Based on the amount of federal income taxes paid, that rebate rises as high as $600 for an individual and $1,200 for a couple filing jointly.

In addition to the individual rebate, families will receive an additional $300 per child credit. The individual rebate and the child credit phase out starting at $75,000 in income for individuals or $150,000 in family income.

I’d say the best way to stimulate the economy isn’t to give the money back, but to not take it, or not take so much, in the first place. You want to stimulate the economy, you leave the money where it will do the most good, in the hands of the people who earned it.

It is a leap to assume that this means that the democrat presidential aspirants, or Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are now in favor of tax cuts so I won’t even suggest it. Their M.O. is to take the money first, then spend it where it will get them the most votes, regardless of the consequences to the economy and regardless to whether the money spent was effective.

related links: Ask The White House, Henry M. Paulson, Jr. | Washington Post

2008 Election, Immigration, Judiciary, Media, Politics, Uncategorized, War On Terror

Recent John McCain History

Have you noticed how the media seems to have selected a Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain? It is also apparent that you should not know the John McCain of last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. If the media thought that it was important, they would have told you by now. This man is no conservative. And if he is the media’s choice, then that should be a clue that he is not where the republican party needs to be going.

Aside from the several McCain positions that Ann Coulter illuminates below, I can add two more things he did, and does, to her list of why I don’t want the Senator to be President. It has nothing to do with his position on the war on terror and defense, except for his position on waterboarding, Club Gitmo, and constitutional protections for the Club Gitmo enemy combatants.

One is his little coup in the Senate known as the gang of fourteen. Designed to intervene in judicial appointments, and prevent the ‘nuclear option’ concerning them. Effectively obstructing the Executive branch in judicial appointments and nominations. Politically speaking, McCain is left of Arlen Specter for crying out loud. And the other thing that turns me off about McCain is that he hardly knows the Reagan he speaks of if he is willing to subjugate conservative principles to the furtherance of liberal principles in order to ‘enlarge’ the party just to get votes. Otherwise known as the end of the republican party as we know it. And you know the media is down with that.

Ann Coulter writes . . .

John McCain is Bob Dole minus the charm, conservatism and youth. Like McCain, pollsters assured us that Dole was the most “electable” Republican. Unlike McCain, Dole didn’t lie all the time while claiming to engage in Straight Talk.

Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination after enthusiastically promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, Social Security credit for illegal aliens, criminal trials for terrorists, stem-cell research on human embryos, crackpot global warming legislation and free speech-crushing campaign-finance laws.

I might lie too, if I had opposed the Bush tax cuts, a marriage amendment to the Constitution, waterboarding terrorists and drilling in Alaska.

I’m beginning to see why he is the media’s choice. It’s not by accident that Sen. John McCain is the democrat’s favorite republican.

link: Ann Coulter

2008 Election, Media, Politics, Race Relations

Huckabee To Pick Up Black Endorsement

This will be good news for the Huckabee campaign. Rev. Bill Owens, founder of the Coalition of African American Pastors, is expected to be endorsing Mike Huckabee’s run for president tomorrow, the official observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

In an interview with an AP reporter yesterday, Rev. Owens said this about Huckabee . . .

He has actually done what he talks about when it comes to the African-American community, rather than just pandering.

His observation of Huckabee (R-AR) walking the walk really matters to what families in communities are hoping for.

related link: Huckabee to pick up black endorsement

h/t Sunnydale