Islam in Paris. Worth Seeing

Defund NPR

NPR should never have been on the government teat. In paring down government it is one of the low-hanging fruit. It's disgusting that it wasn't done under Reagan or Bush 41 or Bush 43. I consider this to be one of the tests of the so-called new Republican leadership: "get rid of NPR, defund it." It is not the role of government to support a radio station.

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Article I, Section 8

NPR repeatedly states that government funding is a small percentage of their budget. Well that's good, it won't be difficult to replace the funding.

As a "radical", "extremist" fascist   right-winger   tea-partier classical liberal I would also defund the CPB. It's not that I find fault with CPB or its politics it's that, as a proper extremist, I like to be consistent. IF it's not the government's role to fund TV stations then that applies to ALL publicly funded TV stations.

To clarify, it's not because of NPR's politics, or the firing of Juan Williams, or the idiotic statement of Vivian Schiller that Juan Williams should have kept his feelings about Muslims between himself and "his psychiatrist or his publicist:" it's because funding of radio stations is not the role of government.

The Juan Williams fiasco brings NPR to the forefront and makes this a convenient time to, once again, push for its defunding.

UPDATE: 10/25/2010

An interesting point is raised by Seth Lipsky in his article The Real Case for Defunding NPR

My quarrel with government subsidies to NPR—via grants from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting—is that they cast a chill over the markets in which private entrepreneurs seek to raise capital for what might be called highbrow journalism. It is hard to quantify this. But it is a conclusion that I have reached after more than two decades spent seeking to raise capital for privately-owned publications competing in this arena.

More than once I have been interrupted, while singing the song of quality journalism to a potential investor, to be asked, "Isn't this already being done by public broadcasting?"

This is one more of the many reasons that we shouldn't have government funding of NPR. But the core of the issue is that this isn't something that government should be doing.

Allen West (FL-22) has a lead.

There has been no public polling data on Allen West since August. The Sunshine State News/VSS poll -- unfortunately not a well-known polling outfit -- has Allen West up over incumbant Ron Klein 47-43.

I'm crossing my fingers that West wins. What a phenominal turnaround that will be for this district, exchanging a Health Care, Cap and Trade, statist for Allan West, a free-market, military hero; and another inductee to the Conservative Black Caucus, joining Tim Scott (SC-1) who is an almost guaranteed winner for his seat.

Donna Brazile, in yet another article, Brazile: Republicans Aren’t Enthusiastic, Just Mad shows the total lack of understanding by the left about their opposition.

But let’s dispose of some myths. The country is not “disgusted” with Democratic policies, as some media commentators wish we would believe. For instance, strong majorities favor a Medicare-style national health plan, even if they have to pay more for insurance, and even if the question is phrased with an insurance industry bias, according to a Harris Interactive poll.

And yet the unifying factor in the Tea Party movement, that which unites Social Conservatives and Libertarians is the overreaching of government involvement in society as epitomized by the Health Care bill. Are there pockets, or even large sections of Americans, who are in favor of socialized medicine? Yes. But they're not enthused by the bill that was passed and the opponents of the bill are demanding that this monstrous legislation be repealed. In my opinion, if the Republican Party, does not defund and work to its repeal there is a real possibility that the Republican Party, as we now know it, will be gone in one or two more election cycles.

Is there really an enthusiasm gap between Democratic and Republican voters this election cycle?

Well, that all depends on what you mean by “enthusiasm” and what you mean by “gap.”

...[Y]ou don’t draw the kinds of crowds President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton have been drawing if there’s a lack of enthusiasm.

Nobody says there isn't ANY enthusiasm on the left, only that it pales in comparison to the coalition that has formed to oppose the statist policies put forth by Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress.

“What about all those angry tea partiers, though?” you ask. The key word is “angry.” Angry people aren’t enthusiastic; they’re just angry. And once the object of that anger is gone, there’s not much left, except perhaps more undirected anger.

Tea-party anger is not enthusiasm for Republicans or Republican policies — the only folks more disliked than incumbents are those inside the tea-party movement itself. Polls show a majority of Americans don’t align themselves with the tea party. A late August CBS poll, for example, found that 54 percent did not support the movement.

You're right, once the object of their anger is gone: the health care bill, cap and trade, take-over of industries, excessive taxation is gone - then the anger will dissipate. You mention that 54 percent did not approve of the movement and forget that 46 percent do favor a strong movement that is very Libertarian, very much for limited government, very much for rolling back government excesses, very much for a re-reading of the constitution and limiting the Federal government to those stated powers.

This is an extraordinary shift and you're missing it.

Finally you quote an article from the Huffington Post and say that:

Democrats create jobs, the American way.

Which way is that Donna? Since when is creating government jobs, and having people live off of government largesse the American way?

Don't Party Like It's 1773, Yet!

Once again the Stupid TeaBaggers' hero Sarah Palin puts her foot in her mouth. As Markos Moulitsas puts it Sarah is "so smart." And, as Gwen Ifill so succinctly puts it "party like it 1773! ummm." How is it possible that this dolt, this Tea Party idiot, Sarah Palin, doesn't know that the Declaration of Independence took place in 1776!?

Maybe it's because the actual "Tea Party" took place on December 16th, 1773 and Sarah Palin was referring to that event and not the Declaration of Independence. Maybe, horror of horrors, Palin isn't as stupid as you portray her to be.

Weren't the left the ones that were mocking the Tea Party movement for not knowing their history and deprecating the very use of the phrase Tea Party? I've dealt with the appropriateness of the term, Tea Party, in an earlier post so I won't go over it again.

I'm not a Republican, but I am aligning myself with them in this election, and hope that come the night of November 2 we're partying as if it was 1894. (The election of November 6, 1894 saw a massive realignment in US politics. Interestingly enough, the Republicans of 1894 were for government intervention in the economy in ways that the somewhat free-market Democrats were not.)

You can see Sarah Palin's speech regarding "partying like it's 1773" at The Right Scoop

From Liberal to Socialist

It's time that people see the connection between Liberal/Socialist ideals and their results.

If we follow Nancy Pelosi and the Progressive Caucus with ideas such as is espoused below we will quickly turn into another failed European Socialist State.

These ideas by Nancy Pelosi:

"We're talking about addressing the disparity of income where the wealthy people continue to get wealthier and some other people are falling out of the middle class when we want to bring many more people into the middle class. But that disparity is not just about wages alone, that disparity is about ownership and equity. It's all about fairness in our country.

SEE VIDEO ON REAL CLEAR POLITICS

lead to a society that responds like this:




These riots are coming from a society that doesn't want to accept that there is no money for all the government give-aways. They come back with the standard retort: tax the rich and then everything will be alright. All this because the Sarkozy government plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 with full pension at becoming active at 67 instead of 65.

Or how about this from Greece, for just about the same reason:



And you have comments such as

Greek people are not attacking anyone, we are defending ourselves from poverty, slavery and free market. It's easy to condemn when you are sitting in a couch.

[youtube.com: shinobi1311991]

"Slavery and the Free Market." Wow!!!

Well, if freedom equals slavery and slavery equals Freedom, then certainly it's not a stretch to equate liberalism with socialism.

2010 Election Predictions

It's getting down to the wire and time to start firming up predictions. I find it hard to believe that labor is going to be more energized in this election than they were in 2008. I think it is ridiculous to imagine that the Rock the Vote crowd, and the general Black population is going to be anywhere as enthused this year as they were two years ago.

There was a scary cult-of-personality aspect to the Obama run; that cult has definately run its course and has not matched expectations. When expectations are set in close to Biblical terms all you can do is go down.

While I'm not a Republican, in this election I am rooting for a Tsunami, a clean wipe out of Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats. Unfortunately there will not be a rooting out of this Socialist plague from our shores. There are too many socialists in America and at the end of the day there will still be 60-70+ member of the Progressive Caucus still in power.

And yet I have hope that the Democrats have over-reached; that Obama's experience as a community organizer, while effective at getting into the Oval Office, has not proved sufficient in pursuading others to his cause. Further Obama's lack of political experience shows in his inability to gracefully deal with political opponents or even the mildest of criticism.

His political skills, or lack thereof, will determine if he is a one-term president or if, in 2012, he can triangulate by warning people against one-party rule and extol the virtues of a split government.

As far as predictions: I would put the floor at a gain of 55 seats by the Republicans in the House, 8 in the Senate and 8 Governor's Mansions. I have no estimate for State Houses and Senates but would be surprised if the Republicans did not get a clear majority of both.

I think it is most likely that Republicans will get 65+ seats in the House, 9 in the Senate and 10 Governors Mansions.

My hope is much, much more but I think there are too many committed socialists and fellow-travellers for that to happen.