Savage Republican

Minnesota has given the country many dysfunctional artists. Bob Dylan, Jessican Lang, Winona Ryder, Al Franken, Prince – but none are more “blue state” than is Mr. Prairie Home Companion himself, Mr. Garrison Keillor. Now what I am about to admit is tatamount to sacrilege in this state…..I just don’t get PHC! Never have, never will – sorry neighbors…it must be the Chicago in me. What I do get, though, is Mr. Keillor’s hostility to “Redstaters”. Which is why I found this article in today’s NY Sun to be of interest. Actually, the headline caught my eye “Bernard-Henri Levy Offers Riposte to Garrison Keillor”. For those (like me) who need a refresher – riposte is defined as “A fencers quick return thrust” or “a retaliatory verbal sally”.

“I loved this country before I wrote this book – I love it even more now,” Mr. Levy said. “Maybe an American couldn’t write this book – it takes a foreigner. Yes, to be a foreigner does mean that something of the country’s spirit escapes you. But you approach America with a fresh, candid eye that sometimes a native prefers not to possess. I am a friend of America, and like all friends I speak frankly and with an open heart. I came without a screen in front of my eyes, without prejudices, without an agenda.”
That remark seemed to be a riposte to Garrison Keillor’s scathing front page review Sunday in the New York Times Book Review.

The article then goes on to rebuke most of Keillor’s review of his book “American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville” . I have to admit, I would have never read Mr. Bernard Henri’s book if I hadn’t read this article first. Now I think I will have to order it and see what it was he said that got Mr. Keillor so worked up. I think it will be enlightening reading. Read the response to the review yourself and see what I mean.

MDE reports today on yet another embarassment out of the Colleen Rowley camp. Someone at the Rowley campaign thought that it would be “cute” to photoshop the picture of Congressman John Kline (retired Marine representing the 2nd Congressional District of Minnesota) into a studio stock picture of Werner Klemperer who played Col Wilhelm Klink on the old 1960’s sit-com Hogan’s Heros.

Here is the Werner Klemperer photo:

Here is the Kline version:

















Now I am not going to claim that no one has evern photoshopped a Democrat into a photo of someone/something else, but I don’t think that Rep John Murtha (for example) has been photoshopped into a “Nazi” photo and certainly not by his opponent on their campaign website/weblog!

MDE is right when he suggests that this goes beyond the pale! To mock the service of a decorated Marine, with 25 years of service, is indeed unconsionable, but it shows you just how badly things are going for the Rowley campaign when they can’t even attempt to touch the issues, they just have to go for the Nazi card.

Much has been made (in recent Presidential) elections about voter “fraud” in Ohio (where the Diebold voting machines were supposedly hacked) and Florida (the infamous butterfly ballot). However, one form of voter fraud gets little attention, and it deserves the most for it is the easiest to do.

Last March, Representative Joe Hoppe (R-34B)of Chaska introduced a bill to address this type of fraud. The bill, HF # 1494, requires individuals who are eligible to vote to provide a photo ID to the election judges as proof of residence/ID. This is the type of bill that has been proposed in other states in order to stop some of the rampant voter fraud as we saw in Milwaukee and Washington state, where people were bussed from precinct to precinct in order to case multiple votes for candidates. This bill needs scrutiny and support.

This bears scrutiny in that there is little in the bill (so far) to say how the act will be enforced and that is important. It bears support because the integrity of our elections is vital to the health of our country. We saw (in the last 2 elections) the acrimony that has been rampant in the country due to the “alleged” inconsistencies in Ohio and Florida. An electorial process that is free from tampering is essential. I hope you will all contact your state legislators and ask that they support HF #1494.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean was on Fox News Sunday (transcript not yet available) this morning. As usual, Chairman Dean didn’t disappoint.

DEAN: It is possible that some of Jack Abramoff’s clients may have decided on their own to give Democrats some money. The key is . . .
WALLACE: I’m sorry. Did you say that you’re sure that Abramoff didn’t direct them to give that money?
DEAN: No, what I said was that it is possible that some Democrats got money from someone he [represented]. What I’m saying is that Abramoff may not have directed some of this money to Democrats.
WALLACE: In fact, he did. We have evidence of that.
DEAN: But the point is not one Democrat either knew it or acted on it. Nobody got anything out of the Democrats from Jack Abramoff. No Democrat delivered anything and there’s no accusation and no investigation that any Democrat ever delivered anything to Jack Abramoff. And that’s not true of the Republicans.
WALLACE: So if we find – and we have to wrap this up – so if we find that there were some Democrats who wrote letters on behalf of some of the Indian tribes that Abramoff represented, then what do you say, sir?
DEAN: That’s a big problem. And those Democrats are in trouble. And they should be in trouble. [END EXCERPT]

Oh where to begin, where to begin…..How about in November, when the AP first reported this:

Reid “sent a letter to (Secretary of Interior Gail) Norton on March 5, 2002,” the AP said. “The next day, the Coushattas (Tribe) issued a $5,000 check to Reid’s tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second tribe represented by Abramoff sent an additional $5,000 to Reid’s group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004.”

Regarding the Chairman’s claim that “there’s no accusation or no investigation” into Democratic connections to Abramoff…as I noted here on January 11, law enforcement officials have already said that they are looking into 5 lawmakers in the initial phase of the investigation, including Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) (along with 3 Republican legislators).

Facts are funny, stubborn things Chairman Dean and (unfortunately for you) they are not in your favor.

I came across this NYTimes op-ed today. It is stunning in oh so many ways. Rather than try to describe it, I’ll just dive in with the quotes.

“Whether or not we can regard Sept. 11 as history, I would like to raise two historical questions about the terrorist attacks of that horrific day. My goal is not to offer definitive answers but rather to invite a serious debate about whether Sept. 11 deserves the historical significance it has achieved.”

WTF?!?!?! Whether or not we can regard 9/11 as history???? As opposed to what? Fantasy? A really bad dream maybe? Or Pearl Harbor deja vu????? Just what ARE the choices here?

“My first question: where does Sept. 11 rank in the grand sweep of American history as a threat to national security? By my calculations it does not make the top tier of the list, which requires the threat to pose a serious challenge to the survival of the American republic.
Here is my version of the top tier: the War for Independence, where defeat meant no United States of America; the War of 1812, when the national capital was burned to the ground; the Civil War, which threatened the survival of the Union; World War II, which represented a totalitarian threat to democracy and capitalism; the cold war, most specifically the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, which made nuclear annihilation a distinct possibility.”

First question Professor, just what do you think radical Islam is if not a totalitarian threat to democracy and capitalism? Daniel Pipes, in his book “Radical Islam Reaches America”, lays out in plain language just how the radical Islamist threat is equal (if not greater) to the totalitarian threat of Nazism and Fascism. We loose this war and again, no United States of America. The War of 1812 was not just about one city being burned, we were warding off a bully that wanted to strip this country of it’s sovereignty, JUST LIKE TODAY ..only THEN there were a lot less casualties. In the War of 1812, there were a total of 2,260 Americans killed in action. We lost more American lives on 9/11 alone! As far as property damage goes, comparing like dollars for like, it will cost more to rebuild the World Trade Center property alone than it cost to rebuild all of Washington DC after the War of 1812. Now let’s look at WWII – specifically the attacks on Pearl Harbor (again comparing like for like). When the Japanese attacked the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, 3,581 military personnel and 108 civilians were either killed or injured. Again, this pales in comparison to the number of civilians killed or injured during the 9/11 attacks.

My list of precedents for the Patriot Act and government wiretapping of American citizens would include the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, which allowed the federal government to close newspapers and deport foreigners during the “quasi-war” with France; the denial of habeas corpus during the Civil War, which permitted the pre-emptive arrest of suspected Southern sympathizers; the Red Scare of 1919, which emboldened the attorney general to round up leftist critics in the wake of the Russian Revolution; the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, which was justified on the grounds that their ancestry made them potential threats to national security; the McCarthy scare of the early 1950’s, which used cold war anxieties to pursue a witch hunt against putative Communists in government, universities and the film industry.
In retrospect, none of these domestic responses to perceived national security threats looks justifiable. Every history textbook I know describes them as lamentable, excessive, even embarrassing. Some very distinguished American presidents, including John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, succumbed to quite genuine and widespread popular fears.

Lamentable, yes. Excessive, maybe. Embarassing….would you really consider protecting the lives of innocent civilians to be embarassing?

There is an old saying, perhaps Professor Ellis has heard it once or twice before….he who refuses to learn from history is doomed to repeat it. While the good Professor may think that we should “evolve” from the past, once thing is certain. There are those who are always going to try to subjugate others. Negotiations will not work with these people. They do not play by the rules so we have to “stoop” to their level. It is a matter of survival for us and our children.

Thus saith the inmates running the Democratic asylum. John Kerry makes a call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos (and they say Alito is out of touch with Mainstreet America?) and then posts about it in his Daily KOS Diary (H/T Residual Forces). Not to be outdone, Senator Ted Kennedy has started his own Kos Diary (HT Michelle Malkin ). Minnesota DFLers, posting on Democratic Underground (link not working) are urging Senator Dayton to support Senator Kerry’s filibuster (H/T SD63 blog). Even Mother Sheehan has gotten into the act – threatening to run against Senator Diane Feinstein in the primaries if she does not support the filibuster drive (she did this while traveling in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez…how does she do it?).

Whether it is stepping away from the filibuster or Rep. John Murtha, Democrats who face the reality of running for re-election in a red or purple state are being hammered by the lefty blogs (who think that they are running the show just because “their man” is DNC Chair). However…

“The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections,” said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. “The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left.”

Good luck there Steve. The Kos Kidz are already lining up to take pot shots at you and anyone else in the DNC if you are not kow-towing to their demands.

Don’t get complacent Republicans. Don’t fall into the trap of running “against” the fever swamp on the left. You will never get elected (or re-elected) running against something (just ask John Kerry or Al Gore in a couple of years). You have to show the voters what you stand FOR! Just because the Dems are in turmoil is no reason for you to sit back and assume you will win. You still need to show the voters why you are a preferable alternative to whatever the fever swamp offers.

I found this in today’s “paper of record”. The author was the US Ambassador (Clinton appointee) to France from 1997 to 2001. He feels that it would raise our stock with Europe if we were to completely do away with the death penalty.

“Outlawed by every member of the European Union, the death penalty was, and is, viewed in Europe as a throwback to the Middle Ages. When we require European support on security issues — Iran’s nuclear program; the war in Iraq; North Korea’s bomb; relations with China and Russia; the Middle East peace process — our job is made more difficult by the intensity of popular opposition in Europe to our policy.”

Why is it when Europe wants us to bail them out of a jam (usually of their own making but I digress) they have to tie strings to our help? They wanted us to stay out of the negotiations with Iran and we did and now that Iran has gone nuclear it is all of a sudden our problem? I fully realize that, like it or not, we live in a “global community” but the global community will not guarantee our rights and as soon as we start running our country based on what “Europe wants” our sovereignty is gone!

Seems President Bush is reluctant to bail out the ailing US auto industry. Good. He says that he wants the markets to work. Good again. Both speak well to limited government and the Constitutional limits placed on the Presidency (the vaunted Article 2 you hear about concerns the President and the limitations of his office). It also re-enforces the 10th Amendment (Amendment X for all you who wish to know).
I just would like to know where this bail out concern was when he proposed and signed the horrendous Medicare Prescription Drug Act. No market forces there. And only about 2MM seniors may ever have need of it as nearly 80% of all seniors are covered by a private insurance that they are also happy with.
And yet , Bush says that he is willing to re-train the auto workers- despite mountains of evidence that government training programs don’t work and never have. Never mind that they are also illegal under that same pesky 10th Amendment.

All during the Alito hearings, we kept hearing (and are still hearing today in the open Senate remarks), how Judge Alito is not acceptable as a Supreme Court Justice because he consistently rules “against the little guy” or that he only rules “for the administration”. However, 2 stories today seem to show that these accusations are being thrown at the “wrong side”.

First story is from my hometown of Chicago. The Democratic Mayor and City Council decided that it was best for the “little guy” to ban Wal-Mart from building in the economically struggling Chatham neighborhood. Alderman Howard Brookins was pushing to get the project built in his neighborhood, where the estimated $3m in annual sales taxes (at this one store) could do mountains of good for his ward.

“”I always tell people I’m not for Wal-Mart, but I am for that project coming into the city and to my ward. We can’t beat them,”

Eighteen months ago, Ald. Brookins negotiated with Wal-Mart to get them to build on the abandoned Ryerson Steel Plant. However, because the City turned down Wal-Mart’s application, they built in Evergreen Park, one block outside of the city of Chicago. Now Evergreen Park is getting the tax dollars, the 325 jobs (a vast majority of the 25,000 job applicants had City of Chicago addresses) and $35,000 in corporate donations to the local hospital, library and other village entities.

The second was this WSJ story which recounts Wal-Mart’s reaction to the new Maryland law that requires all businesses that employ over 10,000 people to spend 8% of their total profits on health care.

“Unfortunately, in Somerset, the new law looks more like a body blow than a “swipe.” The rural county is Maryland’s poorest, with per capita personal income 46% below the state average and a poverty rate 130% above it. Somerset’s enduring problem is weak labor demand that greatly limits its 25,250 residents’ economic opportunities.”

Somerset County Maryland was going to get 800 jobs from a planned Wal-Mart distribution center. Since the “Fair Share Health Care Act” went into effect, Wal-Mary has pulled back from the proposal to build that distribution center. The possible effects of the distribution center on the local Somerset economy are staggering:

“• The center’s 800 employees would have created an additional 282 jobs among “upstream” suppliers and “downstream” retailers and service establishments; all told, the center would have boosted county employment by 14% and private-sector employment by 20%.
• Total annual employee compensation in Somerset would have risen by $46.5 million, or 19%.
• Annual output (or “gross county product”) would have risen by $128.3 million, or 19%.
• State and local tax receipts would have increased by $19.2 million annually; this would include $8.5 million in property taxes, $5.6 million in sales taxes, and $1.4 million in personal income taxes.”

So you tell me…..just who is “for the little guy”? Judging by the stories above, it is certainly not the big city Democrats. The only ones these folks are looking out for are themselves and their big union friends.

In 2000, exit polls showed that Al Gore won Florida. When the counting was done, George Bush won. Last night, when we went to bed, the stories were “Exit polls show Fatah winning, but Hamas picking up seats” and yet when the counting was done, Hamas had won resoundingly!

When is the legacy media going to give up it’s reliance on “exit polling”? That kind of polling is unreliable AT BEST! The more that the legacy media relies on exit polling, the more people are going to quit paying attention to the legacy media. It’s really that simple.