Hillary and money seem to be like oil and water - they don’t mix unless you shake really, really hard.
Her campaign is 10.3 million dollars in debt. I wonder what she would do with the US treasury.
Just saying.
I was commenting over at Cobb, and my post was taking on Homeric proportions so I thought I would post here and link.
The conversation related to Cobb’s post: Black Church vs Black Politics: The Double Duty Dilemma here is my comment.
Great analysis, Cobb.
I oppose Senator Obama and am aggressively critical of Dr. Wright. Yet I am glad to see the good Senator is able to draw the line with his pastor of many years on this issue.
There is an inexplicable dichotomy for me here. I have spent a lot of time in military history and noted the painful steps toward some sort of cohesion between races. Books like “Blood for Dignity” (David Colley) pose the possibility that “patriotism” is a strained idea to non-whites in America. On the other hand, I am fiercely patriotic, coming from a long line of American warriors. I also think we should be a nation which recognizes great hope for our collective selves despite our obvious - and sometimes not so obvious - individual differences.
I am satisfied with Senator Obama’s actions for what they represent - a political answer to a political problem. For me the bar is low. While the issue of race, gender, and the equitable distribution of opportunity is intertwined in policy, I am not expecting more than a placeholder for them in the presidential race. It will suffice for now.
My hope is the ice has been broken enough to allow for some substantive activity on those topics in the next several years. That this is the one great outcome of an election cycle where the policy differences between Americans was perhaps the lesser topic. This maybe delusional - but let’s wait and see. What that activity would look like, I haven’t a clue. Hopefully, I will be intelligent enough to see it when it happens.
UPDATE: Cobb mentions that the African American Church is not a new thing in America, and to jump on this now is a bit shallow or opportunistic for those looking for some reason to oppose Barak Obama aside from his policy. He’s absolutely correct. Cobb further submits that Rev. Wright - as a preacher in the African- American Church receiving this kind of focus, also begs that the same kind of focus be placed on the other African-American Church pastors back to MLK. Here is where I disagree.
Martin Luther King Jr. was actively involved in ending apartheid in America. He castigated those who would maintain such a way of life. He was suspicious (rightly) of the government and said so. He was openly hostile to anyone who would maintain that racial equality was anything less than inalienable. I have listened to many of Dr. King’s speeches and have never heard anything to the effect of “God Damn America”.
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I am doing some business travel this week - spending time in the cold hitting the Midwest. I had forgotten the ear-biting cold that sub-zero temperatures bring, but it is something I will remember for a month or two now. I think it is going to be something Hillary feels as well - I will tell you why.
There are not dramatic differences between the politics of Hillary and the Politics of Barak. Small nuances to most democrats, who are generally ambivalent toward the thing that solidifies most Republicans - the war. So, the choice seems to be who believes what I believe and who is going to be a good representative to the international community. These are not my words - it’s what I hear. A lot of it is the exact same reason Hillary feels she needs to have little emotional moments. He is genuinely personable and she is genuinely not.
In the airports, shuttles, rental agencies, hotel lobbies, diners, everywhere you go - What I see is Barak Obama has sold a lot of books lately. Buying a book and reading it in public is a commitment to my way of thinking. It is more of a surety than investigating someone you might like to know more about. You don’t do that in public.
I am not a fan of this guy’s politics and this is not an endorsement. I am just calling this the way I see it. People are intrigued with Barak, they want to know who he is.
Hillary should be very concerned by what I see.
More accurately, the question is - Who is responsible - legal obligated - to protect you from crime?
The state? The City, County? Federal government? The answer might surprise you.
The “state” - meaning the government at large is under no obligation whatsoever to protect you or your property. There is precedence for this going back to the 1960’s.
Bowers v DeVito resulted in the following judgment:
…the Constitution tells the state to leave people alone. It does not obligate the federal or state government to provide any services – even so elementary a service as providing law and order.
The ramifications of this case go into a lot of different areas - areas more libertarians would really appreciate - but I am going straight to Second Amendment rights. You see, the leftists who are trying to take your guns away from you in the name of peace are always pointing to the police as a reason why citizens should not be armed. However, the government has no obligation to protect you.
Here is a simple example - you go to court and get an order of protection against another individual. Now, if they find your defenseless, cold, dead body in your house and it become known that this person your were “protected” from by the order did the deed, can your estate expect damages of any kind from your estate? Of course not, right? Why? Because the government does not have to protect you.
Here is another example - If you go to the police station and say that a certain person is stalking you and you need to be protected from them, what is the most likely reaction? Unless a specific threat has been made that you can prove, nothing happens. You go get an order of protection.
Now, if the state is under no obligation to protect you, who must? You - using the right to keep and bear arms in order to “secure a free state”. You see, it is actually your obligation to protect the government (since the government is of the people, it makes sense), not the other way around.
We’ll talk about politics and maybe have a segment on bacon. Who knows.
Romney’s exit from the race for nomination signals the end of the primaries, as the different facets of the party coalesce behind the Republican nominee. The conservatives are left out in the cold, but many of them will see it as their duty to support the Republican nominee as a part of party politics.
Romney’s exit also signals my return to furthering the debate about the issues in the context of liberal vs. conservative beliefs.
We have a great deal of work ahead of us on issues, such as abortion, the economy, illegal immigration and immigration policy reform, tort reform, energy, education, and preserving our right to bear arms (and returning our gun rights). Those battles will have to be fought regardless of who ends up in the White House.
The work of the electorate is never done, so please continue to read and participate. Please continue to listen to our weekly talk show. Hopefully, we are touching political passion points for you, and not just shouting into a dark room.
Folks like me who won’t support John McCain are being dubbed “Suicide Voters”. The people who call us this assume that voters owe something to the party, in spite of their political beliefs. This is, of course, a myopic view of politics. It assumes the party gives political power to voters in the same way some people think the government gives citizens their rights.
Jimmie, at The Sundries Shack has coined a phrase which much more accurately describes our view as voters. We are Maverick Voters.
We have sustained this party for decades, and will do so again. So many are looking at 2008 as a singular event - discounting both history and the future. Whether John McCain or Hillary Obama are president, the political landscape is going to shift to the left, unless the congress itself is changed. People are so focused on the executive as our only way to be free of leftist policy - well that is not tenable anymore. Fight the fight elsewhere.
Yes, I realize these are primary elections we are involved in right now. I also realize that a candidate does not a presidential ticket make. But, I am already a partisan to conservatism and federalism, so I don’t heart Huckabee. This is not a media-driven choice for me. I have reviewed the records of all of the candidates - their money is where their votes are.
This is why I placed a Fred decal on my website - his record is clear and his statements correspond with his record. Don’t take my word for it - please. Go to FactCheck.org and see which of the candidates are manipulating their message and which are not.
Mike Huckabee is not a conservative - being an evangelical does not make him a conservative. Rather, he holds some conservative views relating to culture and social issues. What you will notice is a Buster Keaton like lean to the right - this trend starts about June 2007. This is around the same time the polling started on Huckabee.
So - let us look at Huckabee’s policy stances on the issues - you’ll see the trend I am talking about. I am discussing comparisons, not what I think is right or wrong. Huckabee has changed his stance on many issues once he started getting polling data. He is not a leader, he’s a poll follower.
Last night, Fred said what has been on our minds. Huckabee is not a Conservative.
Oh - and then there is that endorsement from Human Events.
The 2008 presidential election is the most unusual and most important in many years. It’s been more than five decades since such a race didn’t feature an incumbent President or Vice President. Since World War II, America has not had a presidential election at a time when the stakes were higher. Conservatives have to win this election, and to do so, we have to identify a candidate around whom we all can rally.
So, you have the National Right to Life endorsement. Then, while everyone else is on stage making proclamations about their own “Reaganism”, Reagan’s news source does it for Fred. Stop supporting these baubles and get behind the only real conservative in the race.
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