November 27, 2012

Explainer

I'm still too busy to post but it's given me some time to think about some great posting ideas.  Meanwhile, here's an explainer for all the things you need to understand about why Republicans fared so poorly in the 2012 election.

For low information voters who have been swayed by the far left and the mainstream media, this is it:


November 25, 2012

The Walken Dead

I'm travelling yet again today but at least it's a same day turnaround.  In the meantime, here's some zombie humor for your Thanksgiving Weekend.

NOTE: Some language.

November 24, 2012

Instructive Links - oppression edition

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I've been travelling this week and unable to blog. There's so much to blog about but my energy level is still a bit low.  Fear not, there are well over 100 million blogs out there, and there are at least 80 or so blogs that frequently provide gold. I've got links to a few of them today.

Oppression is a bad thing.  Liberals live by it.  In their defense, many do so unknowingly. Covert oppression in the form of political correctness and groupthink, fostered by a same-songbook media - from the news to movies to other venues like public education - covert oppression exists all around us.  Overt oppression is harder to find in America, though it does exist, mostly at a governmental level.  Neither is good.


Here's some links to some good blog reading this weekend, with a focus on the perils of oppressive societies.

Saturday Learning Series - Crony Capitalism Corruption

From Mises TV, there's a great series of lectures, panels and talks from Mises University, several of which are great explanations or arguments around sound economic policy.

This video explains how crony capitalism corrupts the free market.  There's a truly important distinction between free market capitalism and the distortion of capitalism when crony capitalism perverts the free market into much of what we see happening today.  Such distorted capitalism holds no moral or operational superiority over socialism.  It is a flawed system that bends itself ever more towards either socialism or oligopoly - neither of which serve the general public in the way the Invisible Hand can.

November 20, 2012

Blog Update - Travelling

I'll be out West for work purposes for the rest of this week so blogging will likely experience an interruption.  I'll be back Saturday.  Maybe by then Hamas will have calmed down, enough fraudulent ballots will have been discovered to invalidate Obama's election victory and Obama will have approved the Keystone pipeline.

Then again, maybe not.

November 19, 2012

Chief Justice Roberts

A quick thought on Chief Justice Roberts, post election:  I wonder how he's feeling now about that decision to side with the liberals on the Supreme Court to uphold Obamacare as Constitutional.

Secondarily, how soon until conservatives turn on him as a complete sellout?  My guess is it'll happen as soon as some of those 2000+ pages of provisions start to kick in.

November 18, 2012

Gay Activist vs. Muslim Religious Freedom

This is where multiculturalism will lead America. Take a hint. Somewhere in Canada, a judge's head is going to explode trying to resolve this one.  Progressive liberalism run amok

Free Stuff vs. Self Discipline

Why government largess is bad in one picture.


November 17, 2012

Obama's Middle East Policy - Does It Exist?

With Israel using an Iron Dome to halt the rainfall of missiles into Tel Aviv, and Egypt seemingly set to step in on the side of Hamas, with Iran so close to nuclear capability, one has to wonder if president Obama not only slept through the 3 a.m. phone call, he may have slept through the entire foreign policy portion of his presidency.  Obama's Middle East policy does not exist, everything he's done so far has been static isolated, flat-footed reaction to events moving at a pace he can't cope with.

The real question isn't whether Obama has a Middle East policy, but rather whether he can develop one before events in the region get out of hand.  Actually, I'm being overly harsh; the president has stated some policy on the Middle East.  What's missing, is strategy.

Saturday Learning Series Mini Episode - Media

A quick episode from Reason TV on media manipulation.  This isn't something that's an eye-opener for conservatives but there are still some very interesting details in the video because of the perspective of Ryan Holiday.

November 15, 2012

Lesson 3 - Ignore some stuff

Having just said I'd wait on posting lessons learned from the Obama re-election and Romney loss, I'm back posting a lesson learned.  This one seems like further reflection probably won't alter it too much, so I figured I'd go ahead and share it now.

I haven't written about the David Petreaus scandal stuff despite the fact that there may be national implications to it. One of the reasons is that every issue does not not carry the same weight with the electorate. No matter how much the issue is pushed forward, the electorate may see it as unimportant or perhaps driven by hyper-partisan efforts.  In the bigger picture, it doesn't help the cause in a meaningful way.

Since it does not move the needle, it is not worth the effort they way some other issue that can move the national mood or really is worth the fight.

November 14, 2012

Premature conclusions

A post about why I'm not posting.  Sorta.

One of the advantages of being so busy with my day job is that I haven't been able to post my post-election thoughts.  It may be a good thing.  The reason that is an advantage is because there's a rush to judgement by winners and losers alike.  Some of those initial conclusions are heat-of-the-moment incorrect conclusions.  Taking time to reflect gives us time to really consider the validity of the conclusions.  

I've got a dozen half-finished posts that are parked waiting for completion.  But I wrote them quickly as the thoughts came to mind.  A bit of aging brings some opportunity to reflect on their validity.  That's not a bad thing.  The last election I waited months before I posted a series on what the McCain campaign did wrong.  The luxury of time,  provided greater opportunity to coalesce my thoughts into a sensible (at least I think so) coherent discussion.

Another advantage is that the thoughts don't get lost in the cacophony of post-election opinion.  There's so much opinion out there right now about what Republicans should be doing, or not doing, in light of Romney's loss.  Much of it might be absolutely correct, but it doesn't matter if the correct course gets lost in the noise.  

The conclusions will come, and hopefully be better for the wait.

November 12, 2012

Lesson 2: Crusaders vs. Mercenaries

Maybe it's a Brave New World we are living in, one where government encroachment on liberty will continue unabated, with ever-increasing speed. A few years ago I asked whether all roads led to socialism and whether a nanny state was inevitable. Throw crony capitalism and now the idea of co-opetition into the mix and the answer seems increasingly to be 'yes'. The previously unthinkable notion that big government and super-corporations would collude among themselves to ensure that they money flowed only where they wanted it to flow, seems now not only plausible but normal. Those who are crusaders for liberty and against socialism have an uphill climb to make

November 10, 2012

Saturday Learning Series Returns

The Saturday Learning Series was on hiatus for a few weeks leading up to the presidential election.  It will be making a full return next week.  In the meantime here's a documentary about the coming real financial crisis. Believe it or not, it's something to think about.  It might even scare you.

It's called Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis.

Obama isn't supposed to lead

He's supposed to represent the people of America.  Zo points out why he won.

November 9, 2012

Lesson 1: Compensating for an enthusiasm gap





One of the lessons to be learned from the re-election of president Obama is the fact that an uninspired vote counts as much as a vote from someone who would crawl across broken glass to cast a vote for their candidate. If the vote is cast, it counts, period.

That should come as no surprise. If this was a base turnout election, the Republican candidate relied on enthusiasm to drive voters to the polls. The enthusiasm was there. The problem for Republicans is that even though the Democrats enthusiasm curve may now have peaked at 'meh' rather than tingles up the leg, they still turned out.

November 8, 2012

Let's not panic

So there are conservatives ready to throw in the towel - in some quarters.  In order to win, the rationale goes, they need to promise more free stuff than the Democrats.  Or else, they weren't conservative enough in the election cycle.  Others have argued that it's over for conservatism.  The trending demographics - the browning of America as they've called it (not my words) - means that conservatism is on a slow downward trend.  Oh wait, that one is from liberals.  See how liberalism sneaks in on you?

There's a million prescriptions to cure the problem.  There's a million reasons to panic. Don't.  Let's not panic.  There's no need, and panic rarely ever leads to a good decision and a good outcome.

Before I get too far, let me just note that there's an important point below about John Boehner worth sticking around for.


November 7, 2012

WTF America? You just woke up with a national alcohol induced tattoo.

Face palm.
So many things to say, and nothing to say. One is tempted to say sayonara America, you've signed your own death warrant. But no. The country may be continuing on the wrong path but it hasn't reached the end of  that path just yet. Giving up now would be an act of both betrayal and cowardice.

There are things that can still be done and need to be done. The fiscal cliff did not fly away on a unicorn. Obamacare needs more exceptions (i.e. Everyone).

Republicans and conservatives and libertarians ALL need to re-think things. What went wrong? It needs to be answered. How do we de-hypnotize the electorate? Why didn't the GOP win the senate? What did Romney do wrong? What did the Tea Party do wrong? What should the GOP in Congress do now? And what about all the what-ifs - how close did we really come to sending Obama packing? What does this mean for the Supreme Court? So many questions that all boil down to one.

How do we save America from itself? Unfortunately a re-run of the soul searching from 2008 means that the last 4 years were mostly wasted time.

But I for one intend to re-tackle those hard questions one by one. The nickel-plated lining for me is that I will have plenty to write about for some time to come.

November 6, 2012

Obama T-0.

T minus zero on Obama's first term (less the lame duck portion).  If Republican and conservative prognostications hold, Obama is toast. But are they right?  Is this it for the failed Obama presidency or will the "dog-ate-my-homework" president get an extension?

Nothing is certain.  I've got butterflies in my stomach since the national polling has tightened over the last stretch and actually show Obama ahead in the RCP average.  The partisan skew of the polls doesn't matter - nerves are on edge.  I started this blog 4 years ago in response to the Obama win in 2008 (actually a little earlier, but the win prompted me to dedicate a lot of effort to it).  I've consciously been a conservative since 1980, when I was still a kid.  Seeing Obama win against a weak Republican opponent, though was an immediate alarm bell and spurred me into action.  It's not clear that I've made any difference at all.

The one certainty is that conservatives need to GO VOTE today.  

For so many on the right, the last four years have been a failure. Rush Limbaugh wanted Obama to fail.  He didn't fail get his policies in place, but he did fail the country. The only way conservatives can get America to course-correct is to vote.

I'll be on Twitter tonight commenting on what's happening.  See you there.

November 5, 2012

Is it nail biting time?

With less than 24 hours until the polls open, it's nail-biting time for conservatives.  Despite the knowledge that the polls are oversampling Democrats and our heads telling us that the left will be the ones in shock tomorrow night, we still can't bring ourselves to believe that Romney should win.  The left meanwhile is walking around in a self-deluded cloudy air of confidence that they have it in the bag.  Romney is toast.

Frankly, I'd rather be biting my nails than be that deluded.  I'm biting my nails (figuratively only) because I worry that on the right, maybe we are the ones who are deluded.  Maybe all those skewed polls are right.  That ultimately I think works in our favor for getting those on the fence intensity voters out for Romney.  Obama voters if they swallow that team Obama bravado may feel less a sense of urgency to vote.

While I think in my head, Romney should win big, my doubt is keeping me nervous.

Here are a few quick thoughts on possible outcomes from the election.

-if Romney wins the popular vote and Obama wins the electoral college, I WILL NOT demand a removal of the electoral college.  It was put in place for a reason by the founders and it's not about "electors" it's about the notion of the contests in 50 states having 50 meaningful races.

-if Obama loses we'll see everything from racism to Hurricane Sandy blamed.  It won't be Obama's fault in any way shape or form - according to the left.

-if Obama wins, a lot of people on the right will be tempted to give up and look for another country to be the champion of freedom and opportunity.  Don't.  No such beast exists.

-if Romney loses, conservative voters will have a lot of work to do, not least of which is figuring out a better way to select an electable candidate.  Reagans don't come along often, we can't wait for one to magically appear.  That's a recipe for more failure.

November 4, 2012

Voraciously reading the news

Over the weekend I've been reading everything I can find to see if I could find some sort of clue as to what the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election might be.  I've seen a lot but not enough to definitively say what to expect on election night.

Meanwhile I looked at my blog stats today and I noticed a run-up of readership that start about 6 months ago has continued - up to November 1st when there was a sudden, dramatic drop off in readership.  It's hard to explain.  I don't think I've said anything to offend my readership.  I can only conclude that given the proximity to the election either (1) readers of political content are focusing on the big sites right now (2) internet readership is down the last few days or (3) Google is skewing searches away from conservative websites, or at least mine.

I think it may be a combination of factors, but just like the election, chalk it up to something I can't quite figure out with certainty right now.

Arizona Senate: Jeff Flake

Arizona needs good representation.

November 3, 2012

Red Rocks - both a place, and a political truth

Saw this on Barracuda Brigade just now, and thought sharing it might help in some small way.  

And if it doesn't help Mitt Romney, it might help Kid Rock.

Red Rocks has hosted a lot of concerts over the years.  In political parlance, red does indeed rock.  Blue states can...well, never mind.

Conservatism is CALLING. Please share.

A great 7 minute inspirational video that should help drive you out to vote.  Share it with someone you know.

It's got some Reagan, some principled notions and a lot of factual summary of the Obama presidency.

Predicting the Election Outcome

This is really a weird year in terms of convergence of views on the outcome of the presidential election.  Polls are all over the place - from the differences between sample skews to the differences between the state polls and national polls, the lack of consistency points to a wide range of potential outcomes.  I've never looked at an election with as much optimism and trepidation at the same time.


Aspartame Endorsements

Over the last week or so, I've been posting a number of "endorsements" for Republican senate candidates in races that are polling as tight races.  I've put endorsements in quotes because I'm not sure that relaying their messages with a quick sentence or phrase added by me really is an endorsement.  It's more like spreading the word.  Their words, more precisely.  I've stated my reason for doing it in the past - it's not about pure conservatism, it's about a Republican senate.

The country is going to need a Republican senate to undo the damage of four years of president Obama and two years of an unfettered Pelosi-Reid onslaught on liberty and common sense.  I'm under no illusion that each of these so-called endorsements is for a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, in fact some are clearly RINOs, and not my cup of Tea.  For example back in 2010, I volunteered and did get out the vote calling for Scott Brown in Massachusetts even though he's pretty weakly conservative.  Since going on record as opposing Obamacare and promising to be the filibuster vote in the Senate, he's gone soft on a number of issues conservatives, myself included, aren't exactly thrilled about.

De-politicizing Hurricane Sandy

Twice I've posted about the political ramifications of Hurricane Sandy.  It makes sense, since this is a political blog.  Trying to look at it with a dispassionate eye is at times more difficult than others though.  

Of course there are political ramifications to a hurricane, whether it be so close to an election or not.  Ask George W. Bush about Katrina if you need convincing.  But the real impact of a hurricane is not political, it is on a personal level.  People can lose family, friends and property.  People can go without food, water and shelter as a result of a hurricane.  Hurricane Sandy has now caused over 100 deaths.  It has done considerable damage to cities like New York and disrupted life for probably millions of people.

Florida Senate: Connie Mack

Way better than Bill Nelson.

November 2, 2012

Massachusetts Senate: Scott Brown

Warren is the worst possible political class candidate of the entire cycle. She doesn't deserve to win anything.


November 1, 2012

Wisconsin Senate: Tommy Thompson

Because debt sucks.

Sore winners, 'sorer' losers

Remember back in 2008 and early 2009 when the Obama euphoria hadn't cooled? Progressives and liberals were all giddy with hope and change. As were those only slightly engaged in politics and were caught up in the hype.  They won, they believed the world was their (free) oyster.

That euphoria, that tingle down the leg, didn't really last very long. Sure, the left was still in love with Obama but you could see mean-spiritedness creeping back in to the way they interacted with their political opponents. They won, but they were angry - perhaps because they had been forced to endure 8 years of Bush, or maybe they are just angry people. You could see it in the "I won" comment from the president when he wanted them to sit in the back seat and shut-up. Republicans were along for the recovery ride and had no say. You could see the utter lack of attempts at bi-partisanship from the president and Democrats in Congress and the Senate on every issue from 209 through 2010. Afterwards you could see they engaged the GOP in Congress only because they were forced to do so. And when they did it, they did it with shrill ads about Paul Ryan pushing grandma off the cliff.

Connecticut Senate: Linda McMahon

Because she knows how to fight. Connecticut

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