I’ve joined Red State’s letter to President Bush asking him not to join in the fascist propaganda work that is the 2008 gathering of the Olympic games.
One thing about fantasy baseball: If Jake Peavy throws a complete game to beat the Dodgers, and I have him, then the pain of the loss is mitigated by the pleasure of getting all those points.
Sacramento Democrats are looking to sneak in a tax increase by abusing a technicality of the California Constitution. Normally, all tax increases require two-thirds of each house of the legislature, which means in practice Republicans can and do veto tax increases.
However now Assemblyman Charles Calderon, Democrat of Los Angeles, wants to amend the state sales tax law in a way that he says will require Apple’s customers to pay sales taxes on all iTunes downloads, applying state sales taxes on a service instead of a tangible good for the first time.
Because this proposal redefines and expands an existing term in the state lawbooks, rather than creating a tax increase, Calderon and other tax-hungry Democrats claim that only a simple majority is required, which means the tax hike can sail through the Democratic-controlled legislature without a single Republican vote.
Anything to swipe a buck from our pockets. That’s the Democratic Party way.
After all this time, and all the anticipation, Ron Paul has finally made peace with his compatriots, and made his endorsement.
What’s that? John McCain? Oh my, no. Ron Paul is still running for President, and trying to steal other candidates’ pledged delegates. Even though he’s perfectly happy to take the endorsement of a party his campaign claims is not “viable” (ibid.), he won’t step up and acknowledge the victory of the man who earned enough pledged delegates to assure a first ballot GOP victory, and who will be leading us to November.
No, Ron Paul won’t endorse the man who has earned the endorsement of the Republican Party’s voters, but he will and has endorsed the John Birch Society. Yes, that John Birch Society. The one that accused President Eisenhower of being a Communist. The one that William F. Buckley, whom many of us remember today, rightly threw out of the conservative movement.
Ron Paul endorsed them, and removed all doubt of his position with respect to the conservative movement. Quoting a release sent out via email by JBS PR Manager Bill Hahn:
Dr. Paul stated, “The John Birch Society is a great patriotic organization featuring an educational program solidly based on constitutional principles. I congratulate the Society in this, its 50th year. I wish them continued success and endorse their untiring efforts to foster ‘less government, more responsibility … and with God’s help … a better world.'”
Dr. Paul has also agreed to be the keynote speaker at the Society’s 50th anniversary celebration, Oct. 2-5, in Appleton.
What kind of group is it that Ron Paul is “endorsing,” as Hahn says, wishes success for, and will speak to? Conspiracy nuts. That’s all they are. They were when they envisioned Ike as a secret Red, and they are when they claim that “just four years from now… the United States may cease to exist as an independent political entity” due to the North American Union machinations oft he Council on Foreign Relations.
Yes, it’s from there that all those nuts come and start ranting about NAU roads and highways taking over America. And Ron Paul values their “educational program!”
More importantly, this is a group that puts the lie to Ron Paul’s statements in the debates. He told Carl Cameron in the January 10 debate that while he refuses to denounce the 9/11 truthers and respects their freedom to have their views, he does not agree with them. It was a pretty weasely answer for a Constitution-thumper who talks simply of civil liberties and an isolationist foreign policy. However now that camera is off, all eyes looking at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, he goes and endorses the JBS, when they’re one of the bigger truther societies around.
Just look at this DVD they are selling. In fact, it’s one of their “featured products” at the John Birch Society. 9/11 Press For Truth by Ray Nowosielski, using work by Paul Thompson, claims to present ” some of the most glaring discrepancies, lies, and coverups concerning the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.” And what kind of “coverups” do they expose? Let’s list a few: the story that some Israelis were warned of the attacks, WTC7 building alarm issues, and alleged oddities in the President’s schedule that day.
The whole site reads like someone who believes the attack to be an inside job: “(9:03 a.m.-9:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001: President Bush Enters Classroom Photo-Op, Still Claims to Think WTC Crash Is Accidental.” Claims? Claims? Does anyone in touch with reality actually think that President Bush knew more about these attacks than he let on? Seriously?
But alright, that’s just a DVD that the John Birch Society is selling. What about their own magazine, The New American? Do a search for “9/11” and you get an article entitled “Able Danger” and 9/11 Foreknowledge that concludes with these lines:
It is a pattern that reflects not incompetence or “lack of coordination” but something much worse. It is a pattern of conscious, purposeful action aimed at thwarting those who are tasked with defending America in the “war on terror.” It is a pattern that is being carried out by policymakers at the highest levels of our government, and it is time to ask why.
My friends, this is the effort of “education” that Ron Paul cheers. This is where Ron Paul is at home: among the kooks and nuts. And this isn’t just a fluke, either. In Pressing for the Truth on 9/11, the Birchers cheer 9/11 Press for Truth as they continue to suggest the US Government to be in league with Al Qaeda:
The 9/11 families are still demanding to know what really happened and why? Ditto for other unexplained (and seemingly inexplicable) subsequent events such as the repeated “escapes” of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan — apparently courtesy of the governments of Pakistan and the United States. 9/11 Press for Truth presents interviews with Gary Berntsen, the CIA’s field commander in charge of Operation Jawbreaker, the agency’s hunt for bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora. Berntsen and others have charged that bin Laden and large convoys of his followers were repeatedly allowed to get away when they were about to be taken by U.S. forces. When the Taliban and al-Qaeda legions were trapped by U.S. forces in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in November 2001, the Pakistani government sent in planes to airlift the terrorists to safety in Pakistan, with the apparent blessing of the U.S. government.
The time has come to stop distinguishing Ron Paul from his tin foil hatted supporters. He is not above them, he is of them. He agrees with them, he joins them in their gatherings, and he cheers them in their spreading of nutty conspiracy theories. This is the real Ron Paul.
Do we want this in our party? I say no. On today, the memorial day of William F. Buckley, we should excuse Paul from our political movement once and for all, just as he threw out the Birchers once upon a time.
Haven’t watched much sports the last few days, barely played any Smash Brothers or Metroid, and haven’t really seen any news to react to.
Plus I’m hard at work on a project, heh.
Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times put forward a highly unconventional idea today: He suggests that John McCain bypassed an uncooperative press corps during the primary season by reaching out directly to the right on the Internet, and rode that support to victory.
Can he be serious? After all, the common sense viewpoint is that the Senator has spent the last decade making allies on television and in the newspapers, honing a Maverick™ image to make him the favorite Republican of the mainstream press. Patrick Hynes, who does Internet outreach for the campaign, seems to think it made no difference once McCain fell in the polls, says Dinan:
“During the unpleasantness, whenever Senator McCain put himself in front of reporters, the question was always, ‘How much did you raise today, when are you dropping out,’ ” said Patrick Hynes, a conservative blogger who Mr. McCain hired in 2006.
So how did he deal with that and get his message out? Hynes continues in the Dinan report:
“And then we’d put him on the phone with bloggers, and they’d want to talk about Iraq, and pork and chasing down al Qaeda.”
For the campaign, it came down to deploying the campaign’s best asset — Mr. McCain himself — in a forum where he can excel.
Mr. Hynes said the back-and-forth with bloggers took “a great deal of sting out of the criticisms” over immigration, Mr. McCain’s push for campaign-finance changes and other areas where conservatives have registered their discontent with the senator, who has secured enough delegates to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
In short, John McCain did what we all talked about Fred Thompson doing, and what the hot names on the left are best known for. He reached out to us, made us an important part of his strategy, and gave us access. We in turn gave him a fair shot, and he did not waste it.
The idea that McCain’s strength is directly with the base, rather than with the press, runs directly counter to his reputation, but everything Hynes and Dinan say here, I can vouch for firsthand. I myself participated in one of the McCain calls. Listening to him did lead me to re-evaluate him and drop my opposition to his candidacy.
Now I’m nobody, but if several writers on several well-read sites all had similar changes of heart, that would explain why McCain came out of nowhere to notch the wins he did. He didn’t win with Democrats. He won with people who heard his message under the mainstream press radar.
Won’t it be nice to have a communicator in the White House again?
Nothing like starting out the season by shutting out the Giants!
The Cuss-o-meter says that while the average site has 9% cussing, my site has 0.1%, less than 99% of the others who took the test.
Good for me, heh.
‘Bash’ at Pat Dollard says that he will never bow to threats and take down his copy of Geert Wilders’ Fitna, and it sounds like he has the guns to back that up.