PhotoPresident Bush is still the boss (okay Barney is).  Just a little FYI for Her Royal Majesty Nancy I.

Last night I noticed something with the little red kitten.  He was incapable of following the pale sandy colored sibling back to their little lair.  He kept bumping into the bureau as I tried push him under it for din-din.  The little calico could be a people cat, but I’m just not sure about the others.

 

Important things first.  The Braves have announced their Spring Training Schedule and tickets go on sale on Sat!  Murph is up for HOF membership - again!  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote him in.  Dale Murphy is probably one of the last good guys to play.  I got to know him his rookie season during spring training.  The Hall of Fame announcements will be made next Tuesday.  And what about Jim Rice?  He deserves to be there, also! 

 

AJ Strata on the Libby trial. How do you give a man back his life and his good name?

 

In a perfect example of the arrogance of the Dem majority, Charlie Rangel has kicked the VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES out of his Capitol Hill office.    We are defiantly seeing a new spirit in the Congress.  Isn’t it nice to have a Mom as Speaker of the House?  I guess women who don’t have children are just chopped liver.  I am just glad the Dems are bring a civil, bipartisan tone back to DC, aren't you?

 

One of my very favorite movies is Operation Petticoat (Cary Grant at his most charming).  There is a line Cary Grant uses in it.  I’m not sure of the exact quote but he tells the character played by Dick Sergeant that the actions of the character played by Tony Curtis are like a stripper, “You don’t understand how it happens, but just enjoy it while it is going on” – or something to that effect.  I think this is the way we Republicans need to approach the impending train wreck that is the Dem control of Congress.   Their arrogance is just so much fun.    Read Right Wing Guy’s take on it.

 

Then, when one considers the fact that the dimwit independent American voter wanted ‘change’ and a more bi-partisan vote in Washington and voted for a change – well are they going to want ‘change in 2008?   Novak on ‘conservative’ Dems who must walk a tightrope.  These new Dems who defeated ‘Republicans’ did so as ‘conservative.  If they vote with the Dems and against the ‘values voter’ who was looking for a ‘change’ what is going to happen?  All is not sweetness and light, trust me.

 

From today’s Political Diary:

“…Nancy Pelosi has made clear she plans to steamroller through her first 100 days in power, enacting wish-list items for various Democratic constituency groups while Republicans watch from the sidelines. Meanwhile, her party is already working on how to keep the Democratic majority through the next elections. Ms. Pelosi appears to have decided that a crucial step will be winning the gratitude of her party's incoming freshmen, many them more conservative and less partisan than Ms. Pelosi and her fellow Democratic veterans. She has instructed her aides to make a top priority of helping out a dozen new members who were elected in districts where President Bush did well in 2004 or where incumbent Republicans were picked off only because they were weakened by scandal. One member of this "Retention Club" is Tim Walz, who ousted six-term GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota. Mr. Walz has been telling reporters that he has already been advised by party leaders to start raising money for his re-election campaign now.  The 12 freshman members of Ms. Pelosi's Retention Club are almost enough to account for the balance of power in the House. As one of her first acts as speaker, Ms. Pelosi will hand these pivotal new members coveted seats on the financial services, transportation and other committees, putting them in a stronger position to rake in campaign donations and shovel out federal dollars to their districts.”

 

Now, is the above is true, then the GOP needs to start recruiting good, and I mean GOOD candidates to take these newly elected Dems and some vulnerable ones out in 2008.  We need to start NOW.  Yes the battle for the White House is important, but the battle to retake the House and Senate is also important.  We need good candidates now, who can set themselves up, now as alternatives to the DEMS and make themselves known in their districts.  Trust me, I know this works.  We need to get good alternative candidates acting like they OWN their districts and do the Steve Pierce/Bill Richardson thing of appearing on every local radio/TV talk show in their districts, regularly. 

 

And the Republicans in the House need to shut up, behave, and act like adults. The Republican Party needs to start playing the PR game, wisely.  We were doing well for awhile, then just coasted on what was arrogantly perceived to be a forever majority.  There are times with Republicans are just plain stupid.  I can say this because I’ve belly-ached off and on about it – well I refuse to admit how many years or it will peg my age.  When are we going to get smart and do something to fight to retake the House and Senate?  We simply cannot wait for the Dems to defeat themselves.  If, as the American Thinker piece listed below is correct, we need to get out and fight.

 

How long are the American people going to be led around through the nose by the MSM?  And how long is it going to be before people start asking two questions:  Is their coverage of the War and politics designed to destroy the US or GWB or is it treason? 

 

In a perfect example of how the Dems are going to bring accountability back into Congress.  William Jefferson was given a standing ovation during the meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

 

Strata on Litvinenko. 

 

It is very important to remember the mission of Absolute Zero, fighting pedophiles.  If we can’t protect our children, we aren’t much good, are we?    The site is run by Christopher Brocius over at The Cowboy Code.   Chris is a good guy even if he is related to – yep actually related to – Curly Bill Brocius!  Can you believe it?  If you’ve not seen Powers Booth’s over the top portrayal of CB in Tombstone, you need to do so.  His blog is the Conservative Cowboy.

 

It’s like this, if you have been following the saga of the break-away-Episcopal parishes in Virginia, this is really going to get  your attention.  From what the WPost says, a goodly number of the people who voted to breakaway aren’t ‘Episcopalians’.  I know we collect from everyone’s cast-offs who see a better way to do things, but really….  Thanks to Fr. Jake Stops the World.

 

Lindsey must be doing something right.  The Daily Kos is targeting him for removal in 2008. 

 

More news from Somalia.     Our guys are after them.    And a NYPost editorial Somali Islamists demonstrating in Minneapolis.    Wizbang on how Islamists want to take over life in the UK.  (Over my dead body)  Read the Counter-Terror blog about Iran’s dealings in Iraq.   Is a terror attack on the Capitol inevitable?  Read Blog Lizards today.  Malkin has an excellent wrap-up today on the Jamil Hussein issue.    So does Hot Air.  Then there’s the one about the Yemeni prince hanging with Al Qaeda in Iraq.  Strata on his death.  Guess we are to blame.  Oh,  you hear the one about Mullah Omar not knowing where OBL is?

 

 Curt from Flopping Aces   wrote a piece for American Thinker today.    It is terribly important and references this Ellison decision to use “Jefferson’s Koran”.  When Jefferson visited with a leading Islamic diplomat, he was told the primary duty of Islam was to make war on the unbeliever.  If this is the case, and Ellison is doing what he is doing, how the heck can he honestly take the oath of office to defend the US?  Is he more loyal to Islam than the United States of America?  I don’t give a rip what religion he is, all I want to know is how he will defend the US.  From what I am seeing, it doesn’t look promising.  And, what do we make of the ‘commandment’ that lying for Islam is acceptable.  Contrast that to “Thou Shalt Not bare false witness – lie.” From what I gather Curt is on his way to Iraq with Malkin.  Traveler’s prayers go with them, even though I am green with envy.  (I want to see the archaeological sites).   Captain Ed, over at Captain’s Quarters brings up an excellent point.  If we keep supporting the UN, are we, as a nation, duplicitous in their atrocities?

 

The Catfight that is the Democrat leadership in DC.  By the time Hil and Nancy get finished, they are going to set the role of women in elected government back to the stone ages.  “… After calling herself "the most powerful woman in America," Mrs. Pelosi flexed her right muscle like a weight lifter to much applause at an event yesterday titled a "women's tea." 

 

Yet another Medici murder. 

 

FTC fines manufacturers of some weight loss pills. 

 

And more on the Chicago O’Hara UFO incident.  This is perhaps the best write-up I’ve seen to date, and it comes from a UFO publication.  Bottom line here – the ‘UFO’ pros see it as a certain type of cloud formation.  They also mention that aviation professionals are considered some of the worst observers around.  Interesting. 

 

The Pelosi plan. 

 

Yesterday I mentioned we basically have a tied Senate, which probably explains Dirty Harry’s ‘bipartisanship’ today.  I found this little snip in the WPost, exactly what I’ve been saying… 

 

 

”The Elephant in the Room

As the new Democratic Senate gets sworn in today, the big question is whether Sen. Tim Johnson's serious medical condition will affect the party's fragile majority.  His office made it clear yesterday that the South Dakota Democrat's recovery from a brain hemorrhage will be slow and that he will not be voting anytime soon. He spent his 60th birthday last week in the intensive-care unit of George Washington University Hospital, where he has been in critical condition since emergency brain surgery Dec. 13.  He has not spoken since the surgery, said a spokesman, and he remains on a ventilator at night. Johnson is up for reelection in two years, but until then no authority can remove him from office.  "One vote really shouldn't matter if senators keep their pledge and work in a bipartisan manner," said Jim Manley, spokesman for incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.).  Julianne Fisher, a spokesman for Johnson, said his staff has sought guidance from Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), who was out for seven months in 1988 after surgery for two brain aneurysms. Biden's office offered this first piece of advice to Johnson's staff: Stop sending out mail in the senator's name. “

 

Peter Wood’s fascinating NRO piece about libertarians.  I think he pegs it exactly when he says libertarians are puffed up with their own importance.  Perfect zinger.  “…libertarians vastly overrate their own numbers and their electoral importance…”

 

“…Libertarian Sarcasm
Which brings me back to Brink Lindsey and the possibility of a libertarian-liberal “fusion.” Libertarians come to the table with emotions too. Resentment over the “big government” turn in the Republican party and dismay over the increasing influence of “values conservatives” are apparent. Libertarians by and large see themselves as highly rational and committed to a principled calculation of where they should stand on a given issue. But as anyone who has ever touched a libertarian nerve can testify, libertarians also tend to be argumentative, sarcastic, and rude. Perhaps that is the influence of Ayn Rand, or maybe it comes from the conviction that libertarians see the pure light of rationality but are doomed to be ruled by their purblind inferiors….”

 

And in the same vein, an article in The American Thinker castigates conservatives.

 

“…Finally, I think conservatives do not always appreciate that the purpose of the Republican Party is to win elections.  This means that the Republican Party must respond to changes in public opinion, even if those changes are in tension with the party's longstanding positions.  Thus, as the country moves left, the Republican Party will become more liberal (albeit less liberal than the Democratic Party), if it wants to remain politically competitive.  This is the genesis of "compassionate conservatism."  Compassionate conservatism is a political program intended to enhance the electoral chances of the Republican Party by reconciling the goals of the modern welfare-regulatory state (e.g., poverty alleviation, environmental protection) - which are taken as politically sacrosanct - with certain "conservative" (i.e., free market and faith-based) means.  Even assuming that a compassionate conservative agenda is necessary for the Republican Party to be competitive in national or state-wide elections, the long-term effect of compassionate conservatism is to strengthen, not weaken, the liberal welfare-regulatory state, which in the end will overpower such conservative half-measures.

 

The bottom line is that, as a political party, the Republican Party can play only a limited role in any project to spread conservatism among the American people.  At best, the Republican Party can act as a brake on the worst excesses of the Democratic Party.  But in the absence of a transcendental leader like Ronald Reagan, it has little ability to move public opinion back towards the conservative side of the political spectrum. 

 

Significantly, liberals invest much less of their ideological energy in the Democratic Party than conservatives do in the Republican Party.  For liberals, their ideological work is being done every day by reporters, teachers, movie stars, activist judges, and left-wing interest groups like the ACLU.  A presidential campaign once every four years in which the Republican candidate mouths some conservative platitudes is hardly sufficient to counter these forces.  Conservatives need to develop other vehicles, besides the Republican Party, for getting their message out to the American people….”                                   

 

PRIMARIES 2008:  TNR on Wal-Mart, Obama & Hil.   With Romney it isn’t his religion it is his flip-flopping!  The Pink Flamingo has picked up a number of new readers.  I think the following piece is quite important since Romney announced his exploratory yesterday, I think it is time for a Faith in the Sound redux about Romney destroying the Mass GOP. Read GOP Bloggers on the other side of McCain.  Powerline on McCain.     The Giuliani team.  Does anyone else think some of the snipping about Giuliani maybe not being serious about running is a little patronizing and designed to denigrate him?    Hedgehog on why McCain is not tough enough. Overview of campaign on Race42008.    The Edwards Strategy.