Savage Republican

I’m a member of GOCRA/CCRN (Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance/Conceal Carry Reform Now). We are the people that after many years, got the Minnesota Personal Protection Act passed. Now, I cringe at the thought that I need to seek and curry the favor of the government to allow me to protect myself.
Whenever I heard and hear the anti-gun Nazis (and I use the term purposefully) I frequently hear their refrain “All we’re asking for are reasonable controls and laws.” Now never mind that after each and every rights destroying gun control law, they still pick up the refrain for just a few more “reasonable” laws. They are never satisfied. Evil never is.
So, I thought of a rather clever, albeit facetious comeback-“Every evil action started as an evil thought. And with the incredible sway of Big Media, perhaps we need “reasonable” restrictions on the 1st Amendment. Nothing radical, just reasonable.”
And it occurred to me yesterday that I got my facetious wish-McCain/Feingold.
“Our troubles would be doubled if only half our wishes were granted.” – Mark Twain

This ties in to my post here regarding the spine (and the lack thereof) of the Republican leadership in Washington DC.

Newsmax is reporting (today) on this Cato Institute report on Presidential spending. The report focuses on discretionary spending (non-entitlement spending). The increase in discretionary spending rose 48.5% in the first term of President Bush’s tenure! In each of his first three submitted budgets, President Bush requested increases in non defense spending well above baseline levels. According to this Cato Institute report, President Bush’s non-defense discretionary spending increased 20.8% in his first three years in office. This data belies the claims of the administrations critics that say that President Bush has “gutted” spending….

Which leads to this wonderful piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. Dick Armey (former House Majority leader) writes what should be required reading for every elected Republican official. He writes about the palpable disatisfaction that the Republican base has with the elected leadership – from the President on down!

“In all my years in politics, I’ve never sensed such anger and frustration from our volunteers–those who do the hard work of door-to-door mobilization that Republican candidates depend on to get elected. Across the nation, wherever I go to speak with them, their refrain is the same: “I can’t tell a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats.”

It is refreshing to see that some Republicans are seeing this! I mean the base has been screaming about this for the last 3 years now!

“Our base rightly expects Republicans to govern by the principles–lower taxes, less government and more freedom–that got them elected. “

Another “well DUH” moment!!!!! But here is the money quote:

“What will happen to Republicans if these freedom-loving, grassroots activists don’t show up for work next fall?”

This is a question that Ken Mehlman and every state GOP chair across the natioin needs to ask themselves. Then once they answer, they need to start hammering those candidates that are running for election or re-election! The base will NOT support candidates that do not live (and vote) by the basic tenants of the Republican Party platform. Compromise is one thing, capitulation is another. The party faithful will not abide capitulation.

Candidates – ignore the base at your peril. For if you are not there for the base, the base will not be there for you!

As I was perusing Prairie Pravda (Stribune) this morning, missing the Republican State Central Committee meeting, I came across this headline “Estate paid a whopper tax: $112 Million” (That’s $112,000,000) ( www.startribune.com/stories/462/5761059.html ). Seems James Binger’s estate paid this amount to the state (and seemingly ANOTHER large amount to the feds). The article goes on to quote his granddaughter referring to this amount AND the current state revenue surplus. Hhmmmm… The government takes it when you earn it, when you spend it, when you save it, when you invest it. And when you die. Will they EVER leave us alone ?
Now, am I even remotely near Mr.Binger’s level of earthly wealth? Nah. At least not yet.
But, I still see this as an absolutely shameful circumstance of the collectivist mentality of the empirical government and its supporters.
Mention this article about the Binger estate to people you know and see if they suddenly become the harpies of class envy and the collectivists by what they say in reply.
And BTW, if they do reply that he had so much money, etc, remember that one of the tenets of Marx’s Communist Manifesto was the abolition of the rights of inheritance, meaning a death tax of 100%.
So, ask your friends, after their comments, how much of a communist they are?
Oh, and another point in the Manifesto? A progressive income tax.
Ask your friends if the rich pay their fair share of taxes…and see if your friends are at least 20% communist.
And perhaps you.

The CIA is back in the news….only if you do not get your news from the “usual suspects”. Cliff Kincaid over at Accuracy in Media reports on a November 3 Washington Post article (written by Jim Hoagland) about the CIA’s plot against President Bush. Now this is something the President’s supporters have long suspected, but to have it confirmed….

“The hidden management of the criminal justice process and the news media practiced by spooks in Wilson-Rove-Libbygate is nothing short of brilliant. So you were right to fear the agency. Where else do you think the one-page crime report that triggered the investigation and then the pressure-building leaks disclosing its existence came from?”

So you were right to fear the agency…..shades of J. Edgar Hoover….

Hoagland also declared, “One lesson available in this story is that amateurs are no match for the CIA in disinformation campaigns. The spies are far better at operating in the shadows than you politicians will ever be. They have a license to dissemble.”
Let us translate this statement. Hoagland is saying that the CIA lied about the Wilson affair and used it to undermine the Bush Administration, and that the Bush Administration was no match for the liars at the CIA.

There you have it dear readers….the CIA lied about the Wilson affair in order to undermine the Bush Administration. This explains the howls out of the “intelligence community” when Porter Goss came to town. Hopefully he can undo the damage done by a rogue agency that was out of control.

UPDATE and BUMP: – the gentlemen over at Powerline brought this article to our attention today. In it the author details the many CIA “leaks” to the New York Times that lead to the whole “Bush Lied” meme that the left has been hammering the President with. John (at Powerline) rightly concludes that it is time to put the Plame precedent to good use. Let’s appoint a special prosecutor to look into the CIA leaks of classified information and prosecute those responsible for the leaks!

I need to thank Savage Republican (and a mutual friend) for this one.
He emailed me in a follow-up to my posting “And a pox on your Bill of Rights, I say” or “Papers please” below and let me know of an incident that has Federal ramifications.

Deborah Davis was on her way to work, minding her own business when in a scene out of “The Great Escape” a “security” agent (if ever an oxymoron, this is it) boarded the bus and proceeded to demand that every passenger show ID. Mrs. Davis, having done nothing wrong and a very typical American (even to having a son fighting in Iraq) refused to show ID. Federal agents were called in and she was arrested! And now faces federal charges.
Now, this raises a whole bunch of questions. I will assume that the bus is a government project. Where does a “security” guard get off asking for ID? Especially from all passengers and not suspecting anything? And since when are the Feds to have a say here? I have little or no doubt that there’s a law that allows the Feds to intervene. After all, if it’s illegal (federally) for me to sell and you to buy an orange that’s 3 1/8 in. in diameter, why not this?

Read more here: www.papersplease.org/davis/

Oh, and do NOT give me the phrase “You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.” Any idea where that phrase came from? It was used by the Gestapo in Hitler’s Germany.

Much has been made (in recent months) of “slips” in national intelligenc, mostly from our friends on the left. That is what makes this story hysterical. According to this interview, John Fund from the Wall Street Journal reports that Senator Harry Reid made a stunning revelation on TV last week. He reported the demise of one Osama bin Laden! Yes readers, Senator Reid announced to the world that Osama bin Laden died in the Pakistan earthquake. Now I, for one, would be very happy if this were indeed the case, but one has to wonder just where Sen. Reid got that information. After all, this has not been reported in any of the major news outlets and let’s face it, the death of the world’s most wanted man, would be headline news for days! IF (and this is a big if readers) bin Laden is dead, the only place that Senator Reid would have heard that would have been through confidential (Pentagon most likely) sources. IF bin Laden is dead, why would we not trumpet it from the towers? Several reasons, first and foremost is that this has probably not been confirmed. Why does confirmation matter? Mr. Fund himself said it best when he said “…if it’s not true, and Harry Reid goes and claims it, what are the terrorists going to do? That undermines U.S. credibility. They laugh at us. We become the laughing stock of the Arab world, because our officials keep fatasizing about terrorists dying, when they’re not. “

Now many people are asking “wouldn’t this be considered treason?” The short and sweet answer is not really. While what Senator Reid fits the dictionary defination of treason (a treachery or betrayal of trust) it does not fit the governmental defination that gets you thrown into the penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth Kansas. What this would and should do is to get Senator Reid’s security clearance revoked. Considering that Senator Reid felt so strongly about security (when it came to pre-war intelligence) that he was “forced” to send the Senate into a closed session, I find it stunningly stupid of him to have done this.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter is in the news this week, but not for doing his job in DC. No, instead he is looking into the Terrell Owens situation because he thinks that Owens was being treated “unfairly” according to this report from Newsradio KYW in Philadelphia. For those of you who are not familiar with football, Terrell Owens is the supremely talented and troubled wide receiver from the Philadelphia Eagles who was suspended from the team for multiple discipline problems. On November 18, an independent arbitration team sided for the Eagles, saying that the team was within their rights to suspend Owens for the season.

The American people are “madder than hell” at you Senator Specter. After President Bush’s re-election, many (like Laura Ingraham and a large portion of the Republican base) wanted a new Judiciary chairman and others (like Hugh Hewitt) argued that you would do the right thing, now that the election was done. Well here we are 11 months into the second term and what have we gotten??? We are still have judicial nominees (like Sam Alito) languishing in Committee, we have the renewal of the Patriot Act still waiting for action and meanwhile you are trying to play power games with the NFL.

Senator Specter, Mr. Owens is an adult. He knew (or should have known) that there were consequences to his actions. He knew that insulting his team-mates and coaches in the manner that he did would draw the ire of said coaches and team-mates. The NFL arbitrator has spoken…the team has acted well within the boundaries of the contract and the suspension has been upheld. Instead of interfering in the NFL’s business, why don’t you get back to doing the nations business and get these nominees before the committee and on the bench. You promised the President and your promised the country a speedy process, it is far past time for you to deliver on that promise!

I belong to many on-line discussion groups (including this one and if you are a conservative and you like to have fun while exchanging vital information you need to be here). On one of these discussion groups (a debate group for Republicans and Democrats) I had an epiphany.

The discussion started when one of our members (a retired Army Ranger) returned to the group after an extended absense. We have 2 newer members in the group who are your typical liberal….you know “I support the troops bring them home now..Bush lied us into the war…Bush is a moron…” you know the kind. Well one of the libs, in their usual snarky way, asked “where have you been lately that you can’t read a newspaper?” I answered that he (the Ranger) had been in Iraq defending his (the liberal) the right to snipe about how bad the military is. Which lead to the lib remarking “well he’s not going to like me then is he???” That led to the epiphany! The Dems love to rag on our military and then they wonder why the military does not like them. I posted this in response to his question (names have been removed to protect the guilty and the innocent)…

If you think that ____ is not going to like you because of your stance on the war, you are probably correct…more importantly consider this. _____ is just one soldier – one of many that believes in the mission and believes in what their Commander-In-Chief is doing in Iraq. _____ and the hundred + thousand others over there have a perspective on this that you and I will NEVER have because we have not been in theatre. Of the 150,000 or so troops in theatre, the vast majority believe that their mission is right and just.

So when you and the rest of the anti-war left talk about how this is an illegitamate war, that we have no business being over there, that we were “lied” into the war and that the best way to support the troops is to abandon the mission and bring them home “now!” how do you think those troops are going to react to you and those claims????

Just something I would like you to ponder…..

I think that this is something we should ALL ask the anti-war left to ponder. If you think that this war is a mistake etc, do you really expect the troops to “like” you and appreciate your “efforts on their behalf” when they believe in the mission at hand?

Ah yes. the response to the cry “We’ve got to do SOMETHING
www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/28/D8E5RPBO5.html
To hell with the 1st and 4th Amendment, this will strike pure fear into the hearts of terrorists!
And the quote of note from the article?
“But at the same time, we don’t want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears.”

After months of not writing, I found something that prompted me to put fingers to keyboard.
During the Terry Schiavo case, I posted here for the first time. I put in a picture of a 10 year old boy, Joshua Heldreth, being arrested for attempting to bring Terry a glass of water www.savagerepublican.com/www/archive/2005_03_20_archive.php “God’s Winnowing Floor”).
Well, it’s come to my attention that Master Heldreth has had his day in court. This young scofflaw was ordered to serve 25 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to Hospice House Woodside for his egregious behavior.
Here is his letter : www.operationsaveamerica.org/articles/articles/Joshua%20Apology.pdf
Perhaps I should hold out hope for the future…as long as there are children like Joshua around and about.
Oh, and by the way, Joshua is Hebrew for “he saves”. The Greek translation for Joshua is pronounced “Jesus”.
God does have a sense of irony.