Savage Republican

I have mentioned before, I am the parent of a wonderful child. Due to the grace of God, my family has never been in a position of severe want. Yes, we have (like everyone else) hit some rough spots, but never to the extent of needing to steal for food. That leads us to this…

I was sent a link to this website today. It purportedly shows what happened to an 8 year old boy that was caught stealing a loaf of bread in Iran. Now, if I had been the one to catch the child, I would have probably would have given the child the bread. Seeing anyone that hungry would drive me to act to alleviate that hunger. However, in the world of Sha’ria law, the proper punishment for thievery is to cut off a hand. Given what I saw in those pictures today, I can’t decide which would have been more humane….cutting off a child’s hand or running over his arm with a JEEP!

Now a commenter to the site in question did state that he was Iranian and that he had seen that on a TV report before and that the child was not being “punished” per se, the adults were making money off of the child doing that!!! The treatment that child received was barbaric and if it was something that was called for by a “religion” then that religion is barbaric. If it was being done to make money off of that child it is even more barbaric and the adults involved should be punished. Sadly, I feel that will not happen.

How a society treats it’s most vulnerable, the elderly and the children, says a lot about them and this speaks volumnes about Iran. If the rest of the Middle East is like this (and I know people who have been there and they say that it is) then it just solidifies all the more in my mind, the need for regime change through out the entire region.

When will someone say “ENOUGH” when it comes to going after the families of public figures? During the Vice Presidential debates last year, Senator John Edwards decided that it was germaine to the debate to mention that Vice President Cheney’s daughter, Mary, was a lesbian. The Republicans cried “foul” and the Kerry/Edwards campaign defended the remarks. After John Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court, Democrats and their willing accomplices in the legacy media felt obligated to try to dig into the adoption records of his two children. Now comes this bit of sleaze out of our favorite fishwrap.

Apparently, Doug Grow thinks that the Republicans are against providing support for developmentally disabled people and so it is hypocritical of the Republican State Party Chair to utilize said support. I would challenge Mr. Grow to find me any plank in the Republican Party Platform that says that. Yes, the Minnesota Republican Party platform calls for smaller government and for watching our state budget so that the state can indeed pay for “essential services”, but there is NOTHING in the platform that says that aid to developmentally disabled children and their families is a NON essential service.

“But isn’t there a conflict between Carey, the leader of a party so resistant to government spending, and Carey, the parent of a child who benefits from public spending?” Grow asks. “But most of us aren’t in Carey’s shoes. We don’t lead political movements so resistant to public spending.” Grow states. One very big problem, Mr. Grow……Republicans are against WASTEFUL SPENDING. Are you stating that conservatives think that this is wasteful spending????? Chairman Carey says it best when he says “Government by nature is not bad, it’s abuse that’s bad. It’s waste that’s bad.”

Autism is one of those afflictions that breaks the hearts of the families involved. I have a relative who has Down’s Syndrome and Autism. It is frustrating for everyone in the family because we know that our loved one is in there somewhere and we just don’t know how to get him out. To attack a public figure for getting state help for that loved one is unconscionable.

When are we, as a civilized people going to stand up to people like Mr. Edwards and Mr. Grow and say “THIS WILL NOT STAND!” When are we going to say to them that bringing an 8 year old, disabled child into this discussion is completely and utterly unacceptable! When will we stand up and defend our children from this kind of sleaze?

(Hat tip to Doug over at Bogus Gold)

Disagreement among friends is expected. It can be good and reaffirming or it can be bad and destructive depending on how it is handled. My dear friends Savage Republican, Amendment X and I have disagreed on the Miers nomination and how it was handled. However, we handled our disagreement in a constructive manner – each respecting the others view points, even if we don’t agree with it. As such, even though we disagree on this single issue (there are probably more waiting in the wings guys) we agree on the main principles that brought us together in the first place and thus – life is good.

How will things turn out for the Republican Party post Harriet Miers? My friend Savage Republican is correct – the Dems WILL oppose any nominee that President Bush puts forward, just for pure, unadulterated spite! I may not be feeling as gloomy as I was when I posted this last night, but I am still troubled. I believe that we handed the Dems a victory by not allowing a candidate, flawed though she may have been, to come before committee. I agree with Savage Republican’s assertion that we Republicans should demand excellence from our candidates, but I am a bit of a pragmitist in that I do not feel that it is in our best interests to hand the enemy ammunition with which to fight us and I firmly believe that we did just that, in denying Harriet Miers at least a chance to appear before committee before dismissing her candidacy. We put a lot of stress on the demand that “every judicial candidate DESERVES an up or down vote” during the last election and yet, when faced with a candidate we didn’t like, we did the very same thing that we hammered the opposition on.

I do honestly hope that I am wrong here. I would dearly LOVE to be wrong here, but everything that I am hearing out of the echo chamber on the left says I am right. PLEASE GOD, help the President pick another John Roberts type nominee. Someone with a track record but someone knowledgeable enough in the law to put all litmus test questions off with the same grace and aplomb that Chief Justince Roberts did. I pray there is someone out there that can pull this off. For the sake of the country.

Once again we find disagreement here.
The reason I was upset with Meirs was besides the lack of qualifications – politically it was stupid.
No matter who the President nominates the dems will oppose.
So to submit someone like Meirs who was a stealth candidate with no record, still dems came out and said they did not like her.

They are Democrats – So to think that by picking someone who will please them, they will get confirmed is politically dumb.

So the President should nominate the best candidate – Let the Dems go on record for a filibuster and then the Senate can do what they should have done back before the gang of Seven derailed the constitution – That is force a vote on the Rules and confirm over the Filibuster.

And if he picks a constitutionally Sound Judge, he will have the backing of all the conservatives that supported him in the last election.

Historical Note:
Wanted to point out how wise our founding fathers were.
One of the complaints about the current nominee is that she was chosen not as much for her judicial skills but for her connections to the President.
If she had continued foward, she should and been allowed an up or down vote, and nothing I have heard or seen would have disqualified her from service (The complaint is not the she was not qualified, just that there were lots of others much more qualified).
But back to the founding fathers, they also knew that the confirmation makes it a much more open process and as was written in Federalist Paper #76 – A President would be reluctant to put forth a candidate based on personal relationship for fear of public admonishment.
This is exactly what happened.
The President put forth a candidate who did not have the sort of legal reputation and dedication to the constitution that was desired by those who elected the President. We let him know and he did what the founding fathers envisioned.
If only the Senate were as dedicated to the constituion as both Harriet Miers and the President are.

As an final thought – the fact that she removed her nomination, shows that Harriet Miers does have respect to the consitution –
If only she had said more and done more actions like this in her past she might have been a good candidate.

Yeah, Harriet Miers was not the best pick. I think Savage Republican called her a B+ pick and I would probably concur. However, because not enough was known about her, I was willing to wait for the hearings….well now we will not get that chance. Because Ms. Miers removed her name from contention for the Supreme Court, we have handed the Dems a victory. The talking points (from Terry MacAuliff to Harry Reid to Joe Trippe to Pat Leahy) are already saying that the “radical right has scuttled this candidate!” They are already setting the stage that the next candidate had better be a “moderate” (aka pro-abortion) or they will be considered to be too extreme and thus a candidate for filibuster! Because of this little tantrum, WE are going to be seen as extreme and out of the mainstream!!!!!

I know that I was in the minority opinion on the Miers nomination, but I feel safe in predicting this. WHOEVER the President puts forth, regardless of their stellar qualifications and prior experience in front of the Senate Judiciary committee, will be considered to be extreme and unacceptable! Please understand, I have never been accused of being a pessimist. Quite the opposite is true – I have been accused of being an obnoxious optimist. However, we Republicans have set the next candidate up for failure. Period, end of discussion. Enjoy your victory now, all of you anti-Miers conservatives, because it is going to be short-lived. Regardless of who the next candidate is and no matter how qualified, the angry left is going to shoot them down. The only candidate that they will confirm will end up being to the LEFT of Justice O’Connor……

Now I have no problems poking fun at one another. A friend of mine showed me a card the other day that had me howling….it was a take off of a poster of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” with President Bush photoshopped in. It was a clever piece of work.

Al Franken has a new book out. While that may not be newsworthy in and of itself, what Al is doing to promote the book that is. Michelle Malkin brings our attention to this little promotional gem (see high bandwidth and low bandwidth versions). Now as I said earlier, I have no problems poking fun at one another however there is nothing “fun” about staging an “attack” on someone who disagrees with you. Imagine, if you will, that Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or (God forbid) Ann Coulter had staged a fake attack on a liberal……Can you hear the howls of outrage from the left?

What ever happened to civil discourse? What ever happened to respectful discussion of the issues of the day? Does Mr. Franken really think that this kind of “discourse” will add to the “worlds greatest deliberative body”???? How does this promote the best interests of Minnesota or the United States????? I dearly hope and pray that our esteemed friends in the DFL reject this publicity stunt disguised as a run for office. We certainly deserve better than this….

Earlier this week, the unthinkable happened. A sitting Senator (Senator Tom Coburn from Okalhoma) had the audacity to propose an amendment to a spending bill that called for certain “earmarked” dollars to be redirected from their assigned projects and sent to Louisiana and Alabama to help pay for the promised relief from Hurricane Katrina. Projects such as the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska and a sculpture garden in Washington state would loose their funding (this year anyway) in order to rebuild the Twin Spans in New Orleans and rebuilt infrastructure in Mississippi. Very sound, logical thinking to me, however, it did not appear that way to 82 of the Gentleman from Oklahoma’s colleagues, including our soon to be senior Senator – Norm Coleman! Now I understand that Senator Coleman at one time was a Democrat, but he ran for his seat as a fiscal and social conservative and in this post 9/11 world, with multiple natural disasters and a war to pay for, what was he thinking voting against this?

I’ll tell you what he was thinking – he (along with the 81 others who voted against the Coburn Amendment) was more concerned about “congressional courtesy” – the act of supporting another Senator’s pet “pork” project so that some day in the future, (s)he supports yours in turn! While this kind of “thought” is great for sitting Senators and Congressmen (who can go home and brag about how much federal money they brought home) it is lousy for the American people that they are supposed to be looking out for!

Instead of being commended for making the “tough” proposals, Senator Coburn was vilified by his colleagues.

“I come to warn the Senate, if you want a wounded bull on the floor of the Senate, pass this amendment,” a red-faced Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) snorted. “I stood here and watched Senator Allen teach the Senate lesson after lesson after something was done to Alabama that he didn’t like. I don’t threaten people; I promise people.” That’s right – a supposed “conservative” is threatening his fellow senators if they dare to vote against his pet pork project!

and

“If the Senator from Oklahoma wants to look for a culprit for the fiscal situation in this country, he should look into the billions and billions of dollars in tax cuts that have been granted to multimillionaires in this country, and he should look at additional tax cuts his party wants to implement in future years if he wants to find incredible savings,” Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) lectured. That’s right dear reader – rather than temporarily suspend pork spending, Senator Murray would rather rescind YOUR TAX CUTS!!!!! Then she threw out this threat…“What is good for the goose is good for the gander. And I tell my colleagues, if we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next.”

Meanwhile, Senator Coburn is concerned about projects, such as one in Rhode Island where $220,000 is going to toward a $2.2 million animal shelter when “…we are spending $200,000 for the construction of an animal shelter when we cannot even shelter the people properly in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.”

We need more Senators like Senator Coburn. It is time for ALL savage Republicans to stand up for fiscal sanity and restraint. Contact Senator Coburn and let him know that you appreciate his looking out for your hard earned dollars. Then put your sitting Senators on notice. Contact them and let them know that they need to do what is right for the country first. If it means putting a pet project back home on hold, so be it…

Senator Coleman – pay attention to what your base is saying! You will need our help in two very short years when you are up for re-election. Ignoring the disgruntled base will not get you sent back to DC in 2008……

OK – this can go a number of directions I know, but I think that this poll over at Minnesota Public Radio is the most telling one I have seen. It asks (I am deadly serious here) which one of the Constitutionally granted rights they are most willing to give up to the government! That’s right gentle reader, our friends on the left are willing to give up their God granted, Constitutional rights. Not surprisingly, according to the poll 40.2% of my fellow Minnesotans would be perfectly happy to surrender their right to bear arms. While that result does not surprise me, it certainly frightens and saddens me at the same time. The right of the citizenry to keep and bear arms is going to be the right that protects the other rights from the over-reaching arm of an out of control government who is bent on usuruping the rights of the people!

So there you have it, dear readers….our friends on the left are happy to give away their rights while those of us on the right are not willing to give up a single one! For we on the right know, that the day the citizens give up any one of these God given rights (to the government) the rest will fall in short order! The people of Minnesota need to wake up to the fact that government is not our friends and that the best government is the one that governs least!

I rarely listen to the Rush Limbaugh program anymore. I prefer the calm, quiet reasonings of the Dennis Prager show which is on at the same time in our area. However, this article in today’s Wall Street Journal is a real gem! It articulates in clear, concise terms why we are proud to be Republicans. It also ties in nicely with this post by my friend and fellow blogger Savage Republican.

“The Miers nomination shows the strength of the conservative movement. This is no “crackup.” It’s a crackdown. We conservatives are unified in our objectives. And we are organized to advance them. The purpose of the Miers debate is to ensure that we are doing the very best we can to move the nation in the right direction. And when all is said and done, we will be even stronger and more focused on our agenda and defeating those who obstruct it, just in time for 2006 and 2008. Lest anyone forget, for several years before the 1980 election, we had knockdown battles within the GOP. The result: Ronald Reagan won two massive landslides.”

Yes, Rush is right and so is my friend Savage Republican. We do expect perfection from ourselves and our elected leadership. Bravo gentlemen for a couple of well thought out pieces.

“The Democratic Party today is split over the war and a host of cultural issues, such as same-sex marriage and partial birth abortion. It wants to raise taxes, but dares not say so. It can’t decide what message to convey to the American people or how to convey it. And even its once- reliable allies in the big media aren’t as influential in promoting the party and its agenda as they were in the past. The new media–talk radio, the Internet and cable TV–not only have a growing following, but have helped expose the bias and falsehoods of the big-media, e.g., Dan Rather, CBS News and the forged National Guard documents. Hence, circulation and audience is down, and dropping. “

In this quote, Rush also ties into another article I read today. While this article says it in a little harsher manner than I would, as a parent I do understand and appreciate the analogy. The Democratic Party is acting like a bunch of spoiled, petulant children. Spoiled, petulant children should not be allowed to run the country. We need adults to run the country, because the country faces grown up problems. Which is why I come back to a post I made here. For the sake of the country, the adults need to get our arguments done and then move on so that in 2006, we do not turn the governance of the country over to the spoiled, petulant children.

Apparently, Chairman Howard Dean was in my own backyard (H/T Republican Minnesota)on Saturday and I missed it. I am depressed, because if I had known that the Chairman was going to be so close, I would have prepared an appropriate welcome for him – maybe even cooked him lunch – so that I could thank him for all of his hard work on behalf of the Republican, er, Democratic Party. Thankfully we have the Star Tribune on hand to tell us all about the Chairman’s visit.

“Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Saturday that the party intends to target the seats now held by U.S. Reps. Mark Kennedy and John Kline.”

I am so glad that we have the Star Tribune around to hand us that news flash. The Scott County DFL has only been saying that for the last 6-8 months that I know of.

“He pointed to the problems of White House adviser Karl Rove, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas. DeLay has been indicted on campaign finance law violations.
Rove and Frist are under investigation in unrelated matters.
“The Republican Party is bankrupt of ideas and bankrupt of morality,” Dean said, tying in Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty because of the resignation of his campaign treasurer, Ron Esau, whose mortgage company was found to have “misled and deceived” homeowners.”

I should have warned you about that last one. How hysterical is that? The party that brought the VietNam war into the 2004 election is saying that the Republicans are bankrupt of ideas???? I won’t touch the morally bankrupt statement at all because both sides are equally guilty of moral bankruptcy – neither party has the lock on moral bankruptcy.

“Dean, however, said the Democrats will campaign on the issues of a “real national defense policy” based on truth, job creation tied to renewable energy, health insurance for every American, and strong public education.”

John Kerry kept telling us about this mythical “plan” that the Democrats have for “real national defense” etc but I have yet to see any plan put forth? Have you????

“The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux, which run the casino, are based in Prior Lake, in Kline’s Second District. Responding to Dean, Republican Carey asked sarcastically, “Has Coleen Rowley actually found out where the Second District is? She’s been globe-trotting all around the country.”

Now that quote is funny – true but funny all the same. It would be nice if Coleen would start campaigning in the district she wants to represent….

In all seriousness – this visit was sponsored by the latest 527 to join the DNC stable. It is high time to repeal McCain Feingold and get rid of 527’s once and for all.

I want to close with a presonal note to Chairman Dean. Next time you are in Scott County – please stop by the Lady Logicians house. I promise you a wonderful lunch, served with a side of what Scott County is all about!