Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

Prophetic words from The Onion: JANUARY 2001.

An excerpt:

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.

ANYTHING SOUND FAMILIAR? Thank you, Bill Cook, for sennding this to me. And remember, The Onion is a parody publication.

Infighting, Jumping Ship, and Dead Horses

I'm beating a dead horse here, (Ross Douthat uses the same phrase in a link I just found as I returned to this to edit before posting), but I'm at a loss for why party loyalty trumps reason. I have no problem admitting that Joe Biden does no one any favors a good 10% of the time he opens his mouth (o.k., 50% of the time). But the fact remains that he is a good man, who made a commitment to his boys and stuck to it, through their entire childhood. He and John McCain have been very close friends for years, and he has tremendous respect for his foreign policy knowledge and experience. It is utterly disturbing the vitreous hate that is coming from the hangers on to the McCain/Palin campaign.

Everyone has a right to their beliefs; but to say that questioning your candidate is blasphemy is the makings of a fine dictatorship. While Andrew Sullivan is whole-heartedly behind Senator Obama, (I encourage you to read the linked piece of his) Daniel Larison, at American Conservative Magazine, is most definitely NOT. But he, in my opinion, is correct in pointing out that the GOP is not what it once was; fiscal conservancy, reduced government, strong military. It has become the captive of the "neocons', the far Christian right. But the current party has strayed from that; but better to hear that from a committed conservative:
Daniel Larison:
Having defended and enabled Mr. Bush for years, many of the recent ship-jumpers and critics of Palin finally declared that enough was enough, while some conservatives who have had more problems with the administration have decided that what is needed is more party loyalty and sycophancy focused now on Palin instead of Bush. When it is pointed out that this is self-defeating and actually makes more “purist” conservative arguments more politically irrelevant than ever, there is a flood of anathemas. (click here for full article)

I came back to this after reading a post from Ross Douthat. He does not think that conservatives/Republicans should vote for Barack Obama our of a jumping on the bandwagon mentality, but rather, decries the infighting that is going on, which IS MY POINT.
Ross Douthat: (click here for full post)
The bigger point (and I know I'm a broken record here) is this. Whatever direction you think conservatism should be going in from here on out, the absolute worst thing the members of a losing political movement can do - if they ever want to win again, at least - is attempt to pre-emptively close off debate about the movement's future. Conservatives need to have arguments, not promise excommunications, or else pretty soon there won't be very much worth arguing over.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2008.... CONT.

"Oh.... SNAP", as I just heard this referred to.
Michelle Malkin, self described Conservative Journalist, who just yesterday posted a story about the "false narrative" created by Obama supporters, making fun of the supposed "mobs", saying, Oooh, it's "scaaaary", and Oh "Please.". WELL, today, here's what she has to say, in her post entitled: "SIGH: McCain and his friends at....... ACORN." She says:

"If you want to know why see-sawing John McCain has had to be goaded, prodded, begged, and dragged into spotlighting Barack Obama’s radical ACORN roots, here’s your answer:

Turns out John McCain had no problem calling ACORN members his friends during his ill-fated illegal alien shamnesty crusade.

Ugh."

NOW, in yesterday's post, where she is particularly furious with conservatives and Republicans speaking out against McCain's perceived endorsement of the hate fueled campaign rallies, she does show quite a few TERRIBLE things that have been posted; said, etc. about McCain, Palin, and even Bush. I "rebuke", "reject", and all of the other proper words that should be used to distance oneself from many of these things. I do NOT think that a horribly inappropriate bumper sticker or photo "collage" is the same as incendiary riot inciting comments of "terrorist", "kill him", etc. Particularly when those statements are not IMMEDIATELY disowned. SEE MY COMMENT FOR MORE...

SARAH PALIN NEEDS TO EXPLAIN.
The New York Times is publishing a story this Sunday, 10/12/08, (by Frank Rich, the cartoon to the right by Barry Blitt), about Race & the campaigns.
WHY WOULD PALIN USE A QUOTE FROM A RACIST, ANTI-SEMITE?
The speech was written by Matthew Scully, Sr. speech writer for George W. Bush. The quote, about small-town America, was attributed to a "writer". The quote was from a "writer", Westbrook Pegler. I do not think that Ms. Palin knew whom she was quoting, but what would the motivation be to use a quote from someone so divisive? Pegler called for the murder of Robert Kennedy; here RFK, Jr. reacts to the VP acceptance speech containing the small town quote from Pegler. This unfortunately makes me think that there has been a more sinister and caluclated plan by the McCain campaign operatives to subversively propogate this message of fear and racism. How sad.
10:44pm
Click HERE for video of Sarah, Willow & Piper dropping the puck at a Philly Flyers hockey game tonight. Judge for yourself; most are saying they were booed; and Fox reported thatPalin announced at an earlier rally that she was putting Piper in a Flyers jersey because "How dare they boo Piper!"

Dick Cheney Speaks About The Bush Administration's High Priority Of Wildlife Conservation

Is there a different Bush adminstration somewhere?

White Privilege

Found this on the Rod Dreher's "Crunchy Con" site after the last post. Much like what David sent me the other day; very good points.

A good excerpt (click title for full post)

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.