IN MEMORIAM: MILTON FRIEDMAN

Milton Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the past century and winner of a 1976 Nobel Prize, died today of heart failure at a San Francisco-area hospital, aged 94. Friedman preached free enterprise in the face of government regulation and advocated monetary policy that called for steady growth in money supply. How his ideas were implemented by governments and central banks and how Friedman helped popularise them made him perhaps the world's best-known economist, Gary Becker, who won the 1992 Nobel Prize for economics, said today. "If you had to ask people across the world to name an economist, by far his name would be the most common,'' Becker said. "He could express the most complicated economic ideas in the most simple language.''

Brooklyn-born Friedman's ideas played a pivotal role in informing the governing philosophies of world leaders like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US President Ronald Reagan. "Milton Friedman revived the economics of liberty, when it had been all but forgotten. He was an intellectual freedom fighter. Never was there a less dismal practitioner of 'the dismal science' (economics),'' Thatcher said in a statement.

"I am deeply saddened at the passing of Milton Friedman,'' former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said. "He had been a fixture in my life both professionally and personally for a half century. My world will not be the same.'' St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole, another noted monetarist, said much of modern central bank thinking stemmed from Friedman's work. Poole said Friedman's most important contribution was to bring theoretical economic thinking to bear on a range of public policy issues.

Friedman's ideas on public policy were seized by Reagan, who shared Friedman's interest in low taxes and less regulation, said Martin Anderson, a Hoover Institution fellow and former domestic and economic policy adviser to Reagan. "You look at what Reagan did, it was what Milton had been advocating for a long time,'' Anderson said. "What Milton did was to confirm what he (Reagan) thought and make it more confident, and that became 'Reaganomics.'''

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recruited Friedman as an adviser after becoming governor, said in a statement, "`When I was first exposed to his powerful writings about money, free markets and individual freedom, it was like getting hit by a thunderbolt. "I wound up giving copies of his books and 'Free to Choose' videos to hundreds of my friends and acquaintances.''

More here

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ELSEWHERE

More government waste: "Hundreds of modular homes purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for people left homeless by hurricanes Katrina and Rita were damaged beyond repair while in storage because they were not properly protected, according to a government report. Units worth a total ranging from $3 million to $4 million will have to be written off, Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner writes in a report to FEMA Director R. David Paulison. Most of the homes were at an Army depot in Texarkana, Texas, where intense heat and rain had destroyed tarps covering the units. Cardboard containers holding toilets and fittings had deteriorated in the weather and caused the frames and wood of some components to warp, Skinner wrote".

AZ: Maverick dairyman fights lobbyists, lawmakers: "Long before he discovered a way to sell milk for far less than his competitors, before he enraged the multibillon-dollar dairy industry so much that Congress passed a law to stop him, Hein Hettinga clipped cow hooves for a living. It was menial work. But it put him on a career path that, in time, would lead him to found Yuma-based Sarah Farms, one of the largest and most innovative private dairy operations in the country. Now, 12 years after building his dairy business into a proverbial cash cow, Hettinga finds himself waging war against big-dairy lobbyists, high-profile lawmakers and the federal government."

Woman kicked off flight for breast-feeding baby: "A woman has complained that she was kicked off an airplane about to leave Burlington airport because she was breast-feeding her baby. A complaint against two airlines was filed with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, although Executive Director Robert Appel said he was barred by state law from confirming the complaint. He did say state law allows a mother to breast-feed in public. Elizabeth Boepple, a lawyer hired by 27-year-old mother Emily Gillette, confirmed that Gillette filed the complaint late last week against Delta Air Lines and Freedom Airlines. Freedom was operating the Delta commuter flight between Burlington and New York City. A Freedom spokesman said Gillette was asked to leave the flight after she declined a flight attendant's offer of a blanket."

Pathetic Canadian public broadcaster: The CBC’s television news coverage of the United States is consistently marked by emotional criticism, rather than a rational consideration of US policy based on Canadian national interests, according to The Canadian "Garrison Mentality" and Anti-Americanism at the CBC released today by The Fraser Institute. This anti-American bias at the CBC is the consequence of a “garrison mentality” that has systematically informed the broadcaster’s coverage of the US. Garrison mentality was a term coined by Canadian literary critic, Northrop Frye. He used it to describe a uniquely Canadian tendency reflected in our early literature, a tendency, as he put it, to “huddle together, stiffening our meager cultural defenses and projecting all our hostilities outward.” “The anti-Americanism of the CBC, we argue, is a faithful reflection of the garrison mentality evoked by Frye,” said Professor Barry Cooper, co-author of the paper ... In total there were 2,383 statements inside the 225 stories that referred to America or the United States on CBC in 2002. As with most news coverage, the largest number of statements was neutral; they constituted 49.1 percent of the attention. Thirty-four percent of the attention to America or the United States was negative, over double the 15.4 percent positive descriptors. Only 1.6 percent of the statements were considered ambiguous.

No cut and run? "The election of Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Democrat of Maryland, as House majority leader staves off, at least for the moment, the threat of a Democratic Congress cutting funding for the war in Iraq. Mr. Hoyer, who has signed three leadership letters to President Bush calling for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, beat out Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, who wants to set a date for an American exit and send the troops elsewhere in the Middle East. Last night, both the Democrats and the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, Al From, said the Appropriations Committee would not cut funding for American forces, as the party did in 1974 to help end the Vietnam War.

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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'Blue Dog' Democrats Seek Larger Role

For a dozen years, the Democratic conservatives known as Blue Dogs have been baying at the moon, ignored by Republicans and tolerated by their more liberal Democratic colleagues. Now, these House lawmakers say that is about to change.

Republicans "did not lose their seats to liberal Democrats" in last weeks elections, said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. "Republicans lost their seats to Blue Dog Democrats." "We'll have a lot to say about what passes and what doesn't" when the 110th Congress convenes in January with Democrats in control for the first time in 12 years, said Ross, new communications director for the caucus.

With the addition of nine newly elected freshmen, the Blue Dogs claim 44 members, nearly 20 percent of the incoming Democratic majority. They will be led by Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., and include Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., in line to become the next Agriculture Committee chairman.

The Blue Dogs were formed in 1994 after Republicans swept the long-entrenched Democrats from power. They tend to be social conservatives on such issues as abortion. But their big issue is fiscal discipline - balancing the budget and reducing the federal debt.

More here

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Brookes News Update

Democrats, taxes and the US economy : Now that the Democrats have won both houses I think we can count on the leftwing Media Party to start reporting on the Bush boom as soon as it figures out a way to credit the Dems for the economic recovery and full employment
Storm clouds gather over the Australian economy as the money supply increases: Australia has been running a reckless monetary policy for about 10 years. From March 1996, when Howard once his first election, to August this year bank deposits rose by 133 per cent and M1 by 105 per cent. Since October last year bank deposits rose by 9 per cent and M1 by 8 per cent. Monetary figures like these can only bring grief
Boris, Bill and Monica: trouble ahead for Hillary?: Did the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service use Bill Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky to extort from him billions of dollars from American taxpayers to save the Russian economy from financial collapse? If so, will this destroy Hillarys presidential ambitions?
Rupert Murdoch just doesnt get the message: Murdoch, the man who complained about the emergence of neo-socialism, is cosying up to Hillary Clinton a politician that embodies those things he affects to despise
Why the Democrats accept lies : The Modern Liberal marches down the streets of San Francisco cheering on Hezbollah not because theyre rationally, morally and intellectually thought through the terrorist groups motives and actions but simply because it is an opportunity to attack the Jews
Christian socialism v economic reality: Christian socialists are just as ignorant as other secular socialists when it comes to the market place and capitalism. To read this lot you would think the world was on the verge of destruction and that the exploited masses are clothed in rags
Malcolm Fraser's ignorance and the Soviet collapse: Malcolm Fraser has become a ridiculous figure, strutting about the public arena, parading intellectual pretensions that he sadly mistakes for serious thought, becoming the despair of thoughtful and informed opinion, the but of jokes of the malicious and a source of propaganda for the ignorant and self-serving

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ELSEWHERE

Doug Ross has a very good fisking of the lunatic Democrat strategy for "Energy independence"

Islamic fruitcake works in British immigration office: "A senior member of the Islamist group Hizb ut- Tahrir is working as a computer technician at the Home Office, despite calls by Tony Blair for the group to be banned. The activist, named as Abid Javaid, is said to be an official at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon, one of the department's most sensitive branches. Shortly after the July 7 bombing attacks, the Prime Minister included the group in a list of those he planned to proscribe, but it has not been among those banned. An investigation by the BBC Two programme Newsnight also claimed that the group preached hatred to young men using staged videos of persecution of Muslims. Newsnight said that Hizb ut-Tahrir targeted disaffected youngsters, particularly the unemployed and members of gangs in South London, and encouraged them to attack non-believers - a claim denied by the group's spokesman, Abdul Wahid, on the programme... The Home Office refused to confirm whether Mr Javaid worked at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate but added: "All Home Office civil servants are expected to abide by Home Office rules governing their conduct and are subject to the Civil Service Code."

Arafat's stolen billions: "Two years after Arafat's funeral, an international scavenger hunt continues for the revolutionary leader's far-flung riches. A motley assortment of investigators ranging from Israel's security establishment to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which now rules in Ramallah, maintain an ongoing interest in every lost stash. "The only man who knows the whole story is dead," says a senior Israeli military intelligence official who agreed to answer questions on condition of anonymity. "But the deeper you go into it, the more it stinks."

Al Qaeda "nothing to do" with Iraq? "Al Qaeda recently issued a statement that it has 12,000 fighters in Iraq. If we were not accomplishing important strategic goals there, why would al Qaeda be deploying so much of its resources to Iraq? It would be nice to know everything, like the folks at the Times, Seymour Hersh, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and the long list of left-biased journalists and academics. Unfortunately, they are unschooled bufoons with respect to this question, and their views are, well, dumb."

Nuke attack on Britain: "British intelligence officials believe that al-Qaida is determined to attack the UK with a nuclear weapon, it emerged yesterday. The announcement, from an officially organised Foreign Office counter-terrorism briefing for the media, was the latest in a series of bleak assessments by senior officials and ministers about the terrorist threat facing Britain. UK officials have detected "an awful lot of chatter" on jihadi websites expressing the desire to acquire chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons. Asked whether there was any doubt that al-Qaida was trying to gain the technology to attack the west, including the UK, with a nuclear weapon, a senior Foreign Office counter-terrorism official said: "No doubt at all."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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THE LYING JIMMY CARTER -- and his crosseyed hatred of Israel

Excerpt from a review of Carter's latest book

But it is when he gets to the 2003 Road Map that Carter is at his most egregious. Carter states the Palestinians "accepted the road map in its entirety" (page 159), that Palestinian leaders had "accepted all provisions of the Quartet's Roadmap for Peace" (page 173), that there was "no doubt" Abbas was "dedicated" to a "peace agreement in accordance with the Roadmap" (page 173), and that Abbas "has publicly endorsed [the Road Map] without equivocation" (page 187). He attributes the failure of the Road Map to Israeli "caveats." Surely Carter is aware that the Palestinians had, under Phase I of the Road Map, an immediate obligation-not contingent on any Israeli action-to begin

"sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure."

And surely Carter is aware that Abbas bragged to the Palestinian Legislative Council on September 6, 2003 that he had in fact refused to carry out that obligation, and had repeatedly ignored American and Israeli entreaties to meet the Palestinian obligation he had accepted "without reservation." Abbas' speech can easily be retrieved using Google, but it is nowhere mentioned in Carter's book.

And finally, Carter is obviously aware that in August 2005, notwithstanding the Palestinian failure, Israel exceeded its own Phase I obligations-which required only that Israel "dismantle settlement outposts erected since March 2001" and freeze settlement activity-by uprooting all 21 of its longstanding settlements in Gaza (and four more in the West Bank) in their entirety, in order to give the Palestinians a chance to demonstrate their readiness to "live side by side in peace and security" and resume the Road Map.

For this, Israel reaped more than 1,000 rockets from Gaza since August 2005, and tunnels and attacks across an international border, from an area in which no Jews remained. This, too, is ignored in Carter's book. He complains instead that Gaza has its own "separation barrier" that can be "penetrated only by Israeli-controlled checkpoints" (the same way that the international border of most other countries of the world can "only" be "penetrated").

Carter's discussion of the Israeli West Bank security barrier-built as a last resort against years of mass murder bombers targeting Israeli civilians, and in the face of a complete and continuous Palestinian refusal to meet its Phase I Road Map obligation-is never other than pejorative. He uses various terms-the "segregation wall," the "imprisonment wall," the "encircling barrier . . . imposing a system of . . . apartheid," the "huge dividing wall"-that are simply Palestinian talking points, not an attempt at serious discussion. He makes no effort to describe the conditions that produced the barrier, and does not even fairly state the Israeli position regarding it.

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ELSEWHERE

GWB's new Iraq adviser has a track record of failure: "As chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Soviet desk during the early 1980s, Gates shared the consensus academic view that the Soviet economy was strong and stable. A prosperous Russia, he reckoned, would respond rationally to management by carrot and stick. Fortunately for the United States, then-CIA director William Casey recruited outsiders such as journalist Herbert E Meyer, and listened to them rather than to Gates... Baker, Gates and their Iraq Study Group will report to President Bush next week. Judging from press leaks and the public record, they will propose a ghastly misevaluation of Iran, identical in character to their misevaluation of the Soviet Union a generation ago. As widely reported, they will propose to "engage Iran"; but for what object should Iran be engaged? .... In other words, the Bush administration's threats against Tehran are not a response to Iran's nuclear ambitions, but rather the cause of Iran's nuclear ambitions, according to the sages of the Carter and the Bush Sr administrations. It is a peculiarly self-referential argument, but not a new one, for that is just how the "realists" viewed the Soviet Union in 1981."

Big cars to be hit hard in London: "Drivers of gas-guzzling cars may have to pay 25 pounds a day to enter London's enlarged congestion charge zone, under plans by Ken Livingstone to tackle climate change. The Mayor of London is proposing an emissions-based congestion charge fee that will penalise drivers of the highest-polluting vehicles, including many 4x4s and luxury saloons. The new 25 pound rate would apply to cars rated in band G for vehicle excise duty, which covers those emitting more than 225g of carbon dioxide per kilometre..... Owners of fuel-inefficient cars in Richmond upon Thames, southwest London, are already facing a tripling in the cost of parking permits to œ300, under proposals put forward by the local council."

Futile attempt to make British bureaucrats work: "Being told to clear your desk used to be synonymous with dismissal. But civil servants have been asked to remove photographs, food and mobile phones in an attempt to improve efficiency. Under an edict sent to Revenue & Customs staff in tax offices, desks have to be tidy, clean and free from clutter to promote "efficient business processing". The so-called Lean programme, designed to improve productivity in government offices, has provoked a work-to-rule among 14,000 civil servants. An internal memo from a senior manager in North Wales outlining the process evoked claims from the Public and Commercial Services Union that the organisation was trying to "dehumanise" working conditions."

Arabs preserve Frenchness??? "Abdellah Fatih owns a corner shop in a Paris suburb where he says that he sells "everything from condoms to whisky, with a warm welcome for my customers". The ebullient Mr Fatih was born in Morocco and emigrated to France in the 1980s. He has come to represent a core ingredient of the French identity that President Chirac is striving to preserve - the small, local shopkeeper. Although Mr Chirac has performed many about-turns during a tortuous career, he has been steadfast in his determination to halt the decline of village stores and urban corner shops, announcing tax cuts yesterday for "micro-businesses". His campaign may at last be paying off, thanks largely to the immigrant families who are now the guardians of this particular aspect of Frenchness. After falling from 125,000 to 28,500 between 1970 and 2000, the number of grocers in France has stabilised and appears to be rising again as Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian families invest in what Mr Fatih describes as a "business with a future".

Getting tough on terrorism? "Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday, opening a new legal front in the fight over the rights of detainees. In court documents filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., the Justice Department said a new anti-terrorism law being used to hold detainees in Guantanamo Bay also applies to foreigners captured and held in the United States."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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THE AMERICA-HATERS WHO WANT AMERICA TO LOSE

TNR's Lawrence Kaplan put forth a wonderful piece, back in fall 2003, on the willingness of the American people to endure military casualties in the pursuit of victory. It is a commonplace that this willingness is shallow in the post-Second World War era: Americans simply do not wish to suffer, and do not have the senses of patriotism, pride, and honor that buffered such suffering for earlier generations. It is true, I think, that these qualities are less evident now than they were in the past. The ability of a society to see through grinding conflicts like the Philippines Insurrection or the Boer War augers well for its future, lest it lose the mere capacity to conquer, and be susceptible to humiliation by any small power with no advantage save mental fortitude. It is indeed difficult to imagine now the methods that transformed the Philippines for us, and South Africa for the British, from bitter foe to steadfast friend being applied in Iraq. Would that they were. But patriotism, pride, and honor are nonetheless still present in the American character. It is the American political class that lacks them in corresponding measure.

Kaplan's essay, reprinted here, invokes two military debacles of the recent past: Beirut in 1983, and Mogadishu in 1993. Each featured a shocking toll of Americans killed in spectacular fashion, and each saw a swift American withdrawal thereafter. The respective retreats were justified by the political leadership on the grounds that the American people had thereby turned against the mission. Kaplan demolishes this rationale, noting that in each case, American popular support for decisive action rose in the aftermath of the respective tragedies, collapsing only after the political leadership decided to withdraw. This pattern is shown to hold true even against the mythos of Vietnam: Americans turned away from that cause not because of the toll in young men, but because they lost their belief in the political leadership's will or ability to win.

The present war in Iraq is no different. Americans voted against the Republicans last week in large part because of their disgust with its course and conduct. They have every right to be appalled -- the war has indeed been mismanaged from the beginning, and the political party responsible for that must pay a price. But they did not vote for defeat. The flameout of antiwar left-wing darling Ned Lamont in solidly blue Connecticut is evidence enough for that. Americans wanted Republicans out of power, and that is not synonymous with -- nor a metaphor for -- Americans out of Iraq.

Pitiably, the Democrats who benefitted from voter discontent are now empowered to misinterpret it to their own disadvantage and dishonor. Last March, I wrote on the Democratic ploy of the "Fighting Dems" -- Democratic veterans put forth to mislead voters about that party's competence and grasp in military affairs. I noted that most of these veterans did not believe in a retreat from Iraq; and I noted that the Democratic party at large surely did. Now that the Democrats have the Congress, they are showing their true colors: stories from the New York Times and Reuters tell us that they are pressing for a retreat from the battlefield under the euphemism of "redeployment." Instead of using their newfound power to seek ways to win, they will use it to seek ways to run. This is entirely unsurprising. Given the opportunity to take a bad situation and transform it into outright defeat, they are seizing it with both hands.

There is a silver lining from a partisan standpoint: Republicans, having tarnished their national-security credentials over the past six years, may burnish them by reminding Americans of the Democrats' propensity for doing far worse. But one would rather have the country do well, even at the expense of partisan advantage. The wish for wartime victory is, of course, a basic desire of the patriot of any party. It is a wish that the Democrats at large do not have, and its absence tells us all we need to know about them and theirs. A pity that those who will suffer the most will not be them, but the foreign lands and peoples whom we may shortly abandon.

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ELSEWHERE

How "sweatshops" help the poor: "One of the oldest myths about capitalism is the notion that factories that offer the poor higher wages to lure them off the streets (and away from lives of begging, stealing, prostitution, or worse) or away fom back-breaking farm labor somehow impoverishes and exploits them. They are said to work in 'sweatshops' for 'subsistence wages.' That was the claim made by socialists and unionists in the early days of the industrial revolution, and it is still made today by the same category of malcontents -- usually by people who have never themselves performed manual labor and experienced breaking a sweat while working."

Can one respect the police? "It began with the Orange County ordinance authorizing police to stop teens from smoking in public places. One of my children asked me, who are these people to tell them whether they may smoke? Isn't that the job of parents? Don't the cops have kidnappers, rapists, murderers, and robbers to deal with? Is it really their role in our lives to order us to stop smoking? I really couldn't argue with the logic here. It isn't the proper task of the police to tell us whether to smoke cigarettes or dope or whatever, for that matter. The police of a free society are supposed to be peace officers, not parents or nannies or even schoolmarms. I did mention that what the police do is follow orders given to them by the politicians and bureaucrats but my kids reminded me that this is the excuse German soldiers used when they were asked about enforcing the tyrannical rules of the Nazis."

Boston voting reform? "Secretary of State William F. Galvin declared yesterday that he will seize control of the Boston Election Department because the city has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to conduct fair and smooth elections. The extraordinary move followed reports that the city ran out of ballots Tuesday at about 30 precincts in Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and East Boston, heavily minority areas where voters turned out in droves to support Deval L. Patrick for governor. City officials acknowledged they have a policy of distributing only enough ballots for 50 percent of registered voters at each polling place and then delivering more ballots from City Hall as they are needed."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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IT WAS A GOP, NOT A CONSERVATIVE LOSS

By Jeff Jacoby

Two months after Germany's surrender in World War II, British voters dumped the Conservative prime minister who had led the nation to victory -- Winston Churchill -- and replaced him with Clement Attlee, whose Labor Party had won the election in a landslide. Embittered by his defeat, Churchill spurned King George's offer of a knighthood. "I could not accept the Order of the Garter from my sovereign," he said, "when I have received the order of the boot from his people."

Last week, American voters gave Republicans the order of the boot, stripping them of at least 29 seats in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate, and once again making Democrats the kings of Capitol Hill. It was the GOP's worst showing in decades, and since Tuesday analysts galore have been reading the entrails. It is easy to be wise after the event. But consider the judgment rendered by one of the keenest minds in American politics, who explained nearly a week *before* the election why Republican candidates were about to take a beating:

"The reason we are at this moment," former president Bill Clinton told a group of Democratic donors on Nov. 1, "is that they do not represent faithfully the Republicans and the more conservative independents in the country. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here tonight. This is a sweeping, deep, big thing." According to the nation's most popular Democrat, in other words, Republicans were about to be punished for having abandoned their Republican principles. Voters were going to demote the GOP not because its agenda had grown too conservative -- but because it hadn't been conservative enough. Exactly.

Nov. 7 was a debacle for Republicans, not conservatives. Democrats gained power in Washington, but around the country there was no shortage of evidence that the nation's tectonic shift to the right is still ongoing. For example, another seven states approved constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage; only in Arizona was a marriage amendment narrowly defeated. The backlash against the Supreme Court's disgraceful 2005 Kelo v. New London decision continued as well, with voters in 10 states adopting new laws to protect property owners from eminent domain abuse.

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was at once a brilliant conservative victory and a humiliating Republican defeat. By an impressive 16-point margin, Michigan voters said no to racial and gender preferences in state employment, education, and public contracting. But the Republican Party, which had joined with Democrats, big business, and the activist left in opposing the initiative, reaped no political benefit. The GOP had jettisoned its party's colorblind creed in the hope of dampening Democratic turnout. In the end, Democrats swept the Senate and governor's races anyway, while the civil-rights initiative that Republicans should have endorsed sailed to a 58-42 win.

The next speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is a San Francisco liberal of the first water, but many of her party's incoming freshmen campaigned as avowed conservatives. Indiana Democrat Brad Ellsworth, for example, described himself as anti abortion, pro-traditional marriage, "a hunter who supports the Second Amendment," and a "local sheriff" who would fight "to protect our kids from violence and filth on TV and the Internet." He and other "blue-dog" conservatives will be tugging the new Democratic majority to the right, while the defeat of liberal Republicans like Connecticut's Nancy Johnson and Iowa's Jim Leach means that the Republican minority in the 110th Congress will move to the right as well.

Voters were fed up with Republicans, and they had every reason to be. In 1994, the GOP swept to power on its "Contract with America" -- a principled platform of fiscal restraint, smaller government, individual responsibility, and cleaner politics. A dozen years later, the contract forgotten, the GOP had become an embarrassment -- a party of soaring federal budgets, gluttonous farm and highway bills, and earmarks from here to eternity. Instead of permanent tax relief and Social Security reform, the Republicans delivered a vast new drug entitlement and the McCain-Feingold crackdown on political expression. Worst of all, the party that had held itself out as the antidote to Democratic corruption now reeked of its own scandals. Week by week, the parade of sleazy Republicans seemed to lengthen -- Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham. Voters finally had enough. Exit polls nationwide found that it was corruption and scandal, far more than the unpopular war in Iraq, that voters had in mind on election day.

Churchill's political career didn't end in 1945. He came back from his defeat, and Republicans can come back, too. "We did not just lose our majority," one GOP representative said the other day. "We lost our way." When they're ready to find it again, re-reading the Contract with America would make a good start. As Bill Clinton could tell them, the electorate likes Republicans best when they live up to their Republican ideals.

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ELSEWHERE

Who gets it; who doesn't: "I suppose that's part of the conundrum we face when the allegedly limited government party abandons its principles, when they only option is to vote for the party that has no allegiance to limited government at all. You're hoping to send a message, to remind Republicans that if they betray their principles, they'll be out of power. And you're hoping they'll rediscover those principles while they're in the minority. Unfortunately, there's always the possibility that they'll misinterpret the message, that they'll see their ouster from power as a sign that they haven't spent enough, that they haven't grown government enough. That seems to be where Bush is headed. You don't 'work with Democrats on entitlements' with an eye toward eliminating or reducing them. 'I'm willing to work with Democrats on entitlements' means you'll be negotiating only the rate at which they'll grow and multiply."

Crooked black to get top job?: "With majority status in the 'people's house' comes a share in responsibility for the security of the Republic. This is why we are so concerned about a shadow which darkens presumptive Speaker Pelosi's triumphant morning, a shadow which will only grow longer if she allows it to begin appearing prominently in the media coverage of the global war on terrorism, metastasizing into her first 'intelligence failure' even before she takes the gavel from outgoing Speaker Hastert. That is the shadow of Alcee Lamar Hastings, the reelected Democratic Representative from Florida's 23rd District."

Risk of liberal domination: "In the Chris Matthews-immoderated Florida gubernatorial debate between Republican Charlie Crist and Democrat Jim Davis, Matthews asked Davis if he is a liberal. Davis dodged. Matthews pointed out that Davis' congressional voting record is 90 percent liberal. Davis weaved. After a failed third attempt, Matthews snapped that he would take the answer as yes. It is intriguing to note that only liberal politicians and criminals make a steadfast habit of denying who they are."

Chris Brand has just done a new lot of posts on his usual themes of race, IQ and political correctness -- with particular emphasis on the British scene.

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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A GOOD SUMMARY FROM MURDOCH

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch said he has no regrets about supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq and asserted that the American death toll in the conflict was insignificant from a historical perspective. Speaking to reporters at a conference in Tokyo, the News Corp. chief said: "The death toll, certainly of Americans there, by the terms of any previous war are quite minute. "Of course no one likes any death toll, but the war now, at the moment, it's certainly trying to prevent a civil war and to prevent Iraqis from killing each other."

More than 2,830 American troops have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and thousands of others have been wounded. "I believe it was right to go there," Murdoch insisted in remarks reported by the Times of India. "I believe that certainly the execution that has followed that has included many mistakes. But that's easy to say after the event. "It's much easier to criticize the conduct of the war today in the media than it was in previous wars. I'm sure there were great mistakes made in the past, too."

Source

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MINIMUM WAGE NONSENSE REVIVES

How to create unemployment in one easy lesson

A hike in the national minimum wage seems all but certain to become one of the first fruits of the Democrats' victories this week. Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive Speaker of the House, has pledged to raise the minimum by over $2, to $7.25 from $5.15. And President Bush has already signaled he'd go along. At the state level, six states not only approved minimum wage hikes in referendums this week but indexed the minimum to inflation going forward. We hope Mr. Bush fights off any attempt at federal indexation and insists on a provision to protect small business.

Raising the minimum wage has been a hardy perennial of the left for decades now. What is striking is the degree to which is has come to be seen as an economic free lunch. Even some reputedly unbiased economists have started to tout the view that raising the minimum wage has no discernible effect on job creation.

But if this were true, they'd be calling for a $10, $20 or even $50-an-hour minimum wage. They're not, and neither is Nancy Pelosi. That's because the law of demand is one of the most dependable precepts of economics. It says that when the price of something goes up, demand for it goes down. An employee's wages are the price the employer pays for his services, so raising their wages means forcing employers to pay more for workers. The price goes up and there is downward pressure on demand for workers. Other things being equal, jobs are lost

More here

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California: Republican voters didn't show up at the polls

Disillusionment with the GOP shows

California's Republican voters stayed home in droves on election day, as preliminary figures show voter turnout falling well below the state average in some of the most reliably GOP parts of the state. Although the final totals won't be known for weeks, election day turnout in Fresno, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and SanDiego counties, which all have Republican pluralities, ran as much as 10 percentage points below the state's 44 percent average turnout. "The turnout in Republican counties was low compared to the turnout in counties where Democrats hold the edge,'' said Patrick Dorinson, a spokesman for the state Republican Party. "The conservative Republican base didn't show up.''

Without that anticipated flood of votes from places such as Orange County and the Inland Empire, Tuesday was a long night for most of the statewide Republican candidates not named Arnold Schwarzenegger. "It came as a surprise,'' admitted Stan Devereaux, a spokesman for Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, who lost the lieutenant governor's race to Democratic Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. "We kept looking at the returns through the night and thought we had a chance, but when the returns (from Republican counties) came in, we didn't get the turnout we expected.''

Of course, there were exceptions. Schwarzenegger easily won re-election over Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides, and Republican businessman Steve Poizner, who put more than $9 million of his own money into the campaign for insurance commissioner, rolled over Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. According to exit polls, Schwarzenegger attracted 93 percent of the Republican votes, 59 percent of independent voters, and a strong 22 percent of Democratic votes. "Angelides' collapse was a huge contributing factor to Schwarzenegger's victory,'' said Kevin Spillane, a GOP consultant. The governor "not only got near-unanimous support from Republicans, but drew a huge crossover vote from independents and Democrats.''

But Schwarzenegger did little campaigning for the other candidates on the GOP ticket, which meant those Republicans had to depend on their traditional strategy of running up big enough margins in the conservative parts of the state to overcome the flood of Democratic votes in Los Angeles County and the Bay Area. But with the 34 percent turnout in Riverside County and only 37 percent in Orange County, those Republican candidates couldn't find enough votes. "Our people just chose to stay home,'' said Beth Miller, a spokeswoman for Republican Bruce McPherson, who lost his job as secretary of state to Democratic state Sen. Debra Bowen of Marina Del Rey (Los Angeles County), 48 percent to 44 percent. "Republican turnout definitely had an effect on our race.''

More here

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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WHY THE GOP LOSS? (1)

Comments from Mike Tremoglie:

One reason is that, while the national electorate has become increasingly more conservative, Republicans in the northeastern part of the United States remain liberal. Indeed, they have not even tried to introduce conservative ideas or institutions in the corridor from Maine to Maryland. This is especially true in the big cities of Philadelphia and Boston, which is counterintuitive when one considers Rudy Giuliani implemented conservative law enforcement ideas into New York City that proved to be extremely popular.

Yet, the Republican powers that be - i.e. Karl Rove - consider the Middle Atlantic and Northeast intractable warrens of liberalism. Not surprising considering he is from Texas. The two most egregious examples of this foolishness are the recent campaign strategies for Senate in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island and the congressional districts in suburban Philadelphia. All of the Republican candidates lost to conservative, or quasi-conservative, Democrats in a Clintonian election strategy.

Pundits will say incumbent Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum lost because of his conservatism. Not true. Santorum is the same conservative who won a congressional election and two senatorial elections. No, it wasn't Santorum's conservatism; it was his perceived betrayal of conservatives. Santorum was instructed in 2004, by Rove, to campaign for an incumbent liberal Republican Senator against a conservative candidate in the primary (this liberal Republican did not return the favor by the way). This alienated a whole segment of Republican voters. They felt betrayed by Santorum. These voters refused to vote for him, proclaiming that Republicans needed to be taught a lesson about abusing their conservative base. Meanwhile, the Democrats nominated a quasi-conservative opposite Santorum.

Similarly, Rove miscalculated in Rhode Island where he backed the uber liberal Republican Lincoln Chafee in the primary instead of the more conservative candidate. Chafee is so liberal, he did not even vote for Bush in 2004. Republican voters in Rhode Island were less than enamored with the liberal Chafee's shenanigans. A Democrat was elected - a former state Attorney General who can claim conservative credentials because of his law enforcement background.

Some will say this is not true. They will say these losses are a referendum on Iraq. Not so. If this were true, how do they explain that - former Democrat, now Independent, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman - who is pro-war, and who lost his primary election to an antiwar candidate, was elected? How do they explain that antiwar candidates Linc Chafee and Marge Duckworth (albeit she is from Ohio) - a double amputee Iraqi war veteran - also were not elected.

No, Republicans in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are weary of those they call RINO's (Republicans In Name Only). They want more conservative candidates. They also want honest candidates. One comment on a conservative Web site illustrates this, "This election was a refutation of Bush/Rove Rino policy - they had better think long and hard about supporting policies which are opposite of the core conservatives."

The Democrats understand this, which is why they anointed a retired military veteran to run opposite Curt Weldon for the district outside of Philadelphia. Weldon, is a conservative considered to be corrupt.

It is a mystery why Northeastern Republicans are reluctant to proffer conservative ideas. Yet, they need only realize that most of the Democrats who replaced Republican incumbents were conservatives. If one were to list statements on the issues by certain Republican candidates side by side with some Democrats, you would have a tough time telling who was the conservative and who was the liberal. Perhaps it is because the Northeastern Republican leadership is liberal. This is quite possible, considering the preponderance of liberal cultural institutions - books, newspapers, theaters - in the northeast. This is particularly true in the big cities.

The popular culture influences opinions. There are conservative books and newspapers springing up in the Northeast. Republicans just need to patronize them. Even Republicans needed to be educated or reminded of conservative thought. One cannot survive by Limbaugh alone. Maybe this election is a wake-up call for Northeastern Republicans. The Democrats have created their own monster. They succeeded in getting almost 20 conservatives elected to the House and Senate. Yet, the party leadership is extremely liberal. It will be interesting to see how these to factions will reconcile. Meanwhile, all those Republicans who voted for conservative Democrats better watch every vote of the Representative or Senator they helped elect.

Source

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WHY THE GOP LOSS? (2)

Comments from Pat Toomey:

The war in Iraq, President Bush's sagging approval numbers, and a series of scandals are widely considered the major culprits behind Republican losses in the House and Senate yesterday. This analysis is correct, but is incomplete. Abandonment of the principle of limited government must be added to the litany of serious Republican missteps.

A poll commissioned by the Club for Growth in 15 key districts shows surprisingly severe damage to this aspect of the GOP brand (to see a summary of the results, see here). And it's little wonder. From the last Farm Bill to the Prescription Drug entitlement to McCain-Feingold to runaway spending, Republicans in Washington stopped being the party of limited government sometime ago. And the American people noticed.

Once they lost their less-government, fiscal-discipline branding, Washington Republicans lost a big reason for their majority status. The survey we conducted two nights before the election shows that voters in swing districts no longer believed that Republicans stood for limited government and fiscal discipline. And those same voters overwhelmingly threw the Republicans out of office, and with them their majority.

We surveyed 800 very likely voters across the 15 Republican-held districts we thought most likely to switch parties. We excluded those districts plagued by personal scandals. Since most of the fifteen seats did in fact switch from Republican to Democrat, clearly these were battleground districts.

We asked voters if they thought that, over the last four years, "the size and cost of the Federal Government has gone up, gone down, or stayed about the same?" Seventy-three percent recognized that it has gone up. And whom do you think they blame? We asked voters whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement: "The Republican Party used to be the Party of economic growth, fiscal discipline, and limited government, but in recent years, too many Republicans in Washington have become just like the big spenders that they used to oppose." An amazing 66 percent of the respondents agreed with that statement.

We asked which party is doing a better job "eliminating wasteful spending." The Democrats led 39 percent to 25 percent. Which party is "the party of big government?" The Republicans, by an 11 point margin. All of this is a big part of the reason the Republican party lost. Republicans squandered one of the very few valuable brands it established in voters' minds over many years. And voters care about fiscal discipline and lower taxes.

More here

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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Brookes News Update

US economy's imbalances : Loose monetary policy result in the accumulation of large-scale imbalances. The longer the central bank persists in expanding the money supply the greater will be the imbalances. This is why the US economy must eventually go into recession
Does the high level of debt pose a threat to US economy? : The real threat to the US economy is not the high level of debt as such but credit that is not backed by real savings. Also, the fall in the money stock that precedes price deflation and an economic slump is actually triggered by the previous loose monetary policies
Can America afford Democrats like Senator Chris Dodd? : Do Americans actually realise how important to their safety the impending mid-term elections are. For instance, lets take a look at Christopher Dodd, Democratic Senator from Connecticut
Conservative Rupert Murdoch endorses Hillary Clinton : The New York Post has endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Senate over a solid conservative, John Spencer. Its another sign that Post owner Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation is also the parent of the Fox News Channel, is moving to the left
New York honors Fidel Castro with a statue : Ill be surprised if Charles Rangel isnt keynote speaker at the Central Park celebration for the Stalinist/racist Castro who jailed and tortured black political prisoners longer than Apartheid South Africa, and who kidnaps his subjects and rents them out for 3 pennies an hour
What would the Democrats do if they controlled Congress?: The Republican Study Committee (RSC) recently put together an interesting document which highlights activities that normally fly under the radar screen of the media.
Minimum wage fever breaks out again : Imposing an effective minimum wage rate on the labour market prices marginal workers out of jobs and into poverty. But dont expect our smart-aleck lefty journos to write that one up
Whats really scary this Halloween : Then theres the biggest money-waster the failure to teach children the difference between right and wrong. The fancy name for this problem is moral relativism. A concept thats preached in the mainstream media everyday

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ELSEWHERE

I have just put up a book review here by an Australian friend who is politically middle of the road. The book is Conservative comebacks to Liberal Lies -- by Gregg Jackson. If I had reviewed the book myself, I would have said much in praise of it but I thought it more informative to find out whether or not it is the sort of book that we could recommend to someone whom we want to talk out of Leftist thinking. It would seem from the review that the book is aimed at American conservatives only.

The result of being soft on crime: "More criminals are returning to a life of crime within months of serving sentences than when Labour came to power, according to official figures published yesterday. Despite millions of pounds being spent to help offenders go straight, more than 57 per cent of adult offenders are convicted of another crime within two years of ending their sentence or starting a community penalty. When Labour came to power, intent on ending the "revolving door" syndrome in which offenders are constantly in and out of jail or repeatedly given community sentences, the figure was 53.1 per cent. However, the reoffending rate is now even worse, with two-thirds of men back in jail within two years of walking out of the prison gates."

Germany has not changed much: "A huge new synagogue, Europe's largest Jewish centre, was opened in the heart of Munich yesterday to mark the 68th anniversary of Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass - when Nazis went on an anti-Semitic rampage across Germany. The cube-shaped building is an act of defiance at a time when anti-Semitic sentiment is again beginning to bubble below the surface. Neo-Nazis plotted unsuccessfully to blow up the foundation stone of the new synagogue, and bureaucrats dragged their feet for decades before agreeing to give the prime site to the Jewish community... A survey published by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a social justice charity, demonstrates how controversial the new centre will be among Germans: 39 per cent of those questioned say that the country is being dangerously swamped by foreigners, 18 per cent that the influence of Jews is too great while 15 per cent want a strong leader, literally a Fuehrer. There is deeper anti-Semitism and xenophobia in western Germany than in the east. Most commentators had assumed that the former communist east was the most vulnerable to racism. "It is shocking how far Nazi prejudices have simply been taken over," said the newspaper Die Welt."

Corruption named as key issue by voters in exit polls: "By a wide margin, Americans who voted Tuesday in the midterm election say they disapprove of the war in Iraq. But when asked which issue was extremely important to their vote, more voters said corruption and ethics in government than any other issue, including the war, according to national exit polls. A large majority of voters also disapproved of how Congress and President Bush are doing their jobs."

Are Republicans and Democrats really that different?: "During election week in the U.S., the Bureaucrash Activist Network is releasing a video every day that pits the Democrats against Republicans that is in the style of the popular 'Get a Mac' ads by Apple. We aren't trying to sell a product -- just the idea that both major political parties have more in common than they want voters to realize. They both want your money and more power at the expense of your freedom."

Property theft in America: "Do you live in a blighted home in a blighted neighborhood? You might without even knowing it. But don't worry, your local politicians will be happy to tell you -- as soon as some land developer decides your neighborhood would be a great place to build swankier homes or shops. Don't want to leave your home? Tough luck."

Renewing the contract: "In assessing last night's results it is important to note that it was not a defeat for conservatism; it was a defeat for Republicanism, or at least, what Republicanism has come to represent. In the past 12 years, Republicans went from the party that promised 'the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money' to the party of the Bridge to Nowhere; it took control of Congress on a pledge to 'end its cycle of scandal and disgrace' and went down in defeat as the party of Tom DeLay and Mark Foley. Having abandoned its core principles, the Republican Party had nothing to run on this year, so its campaign strategy centered on attacking Nancy Pelosi -- a questionable tactic given that, according to some polls, more than half of the country had never even heard of her."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS BACK

They wear cowboy boots, chew tobacco, love hunting, hate abortion, want less government spending - and some voted for Ronald Reagan. Now they are headed to Congress as Democrats. Although the Democrats' victory was above all an overwhelming repudiation of the conflict in Iraq, it was also built on the back of moderate, often conservative candidates recruited to compete in traditionally Republican territory.

When Congress returns in January, both the House and Senate will see something of an ideological shift, with an influx of freshmen Democrats who, while unified in their opposition to the war, are well to the right of the party's current caucus on cultural issues. Their success reflects a resurgence of "Blue Dog" Democrats - socially conservative but generally economic populists - across the Midwest, and a bold new strategy to target the Republican-leaning West and South West - states such as Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico - as a way of winning back the White House in 2008.

If Jon Tester, the Democrat's Senate candidate in Montana, wins his race against Conrad Burns - he declared victory last night but votes were still being counted - the chamber will have a Democrat who is an anti-abortion, pro-gun, three-generation farmer with a buzz cut, three missing fingers on his left hand and no big fan of Hillary Clinton.

Jim Webb, the Democrat favoured to win a probable recount in the Virginia Senate race, was Reagan's Navy Secretary. A social conservative, he hates liberals and likes guns so much he gave one to his son at the age of 8. He champions, as he puts it, "Southern redneck culture". A decorated Vietnam veteran, he converted to the Democrats only over his opposition to the Iraq war.

Bob Casey, who soundly defeated the Republican Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania's Senate race, is also anti-abortion. Like many of the new Democrats, he ran a profoundly populist protectionist economic message which attracted many blue-collar "Reagan Democrats" back to the party in the Midwest, where job losses and economic pessimism combined with Iraq to make the region one of the bleakest landscapes for Republicans yesterday. Heath Shuler, a former quarterback for the Washington Redskins, was once courted by the Republicans as a possible congressional candidate. He is anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-free trade - and is now the Democrat representative for the North Carolina 11th District.

In Indiana, a state overwhelmingly won by President Bush in 2004, three Republicans in the House of Representatives lost seats. All faced conservative Democrats. One, Brad Ellsworth, a county sheriff, is a social conservative who signed a no-tax-rise pledge during the campaign. Joe Donnelly was another cultural conservative winner in Indiana.

In Colorado, Democrats continued their push into the West with victory in the state's gubernatorial contest, meaning the party now has a sweep of western governors stretching from Canada to Mexico, through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. In Kentucky, John Yarmuth, a former Republican candidate running as a Democrat, beat Anne Northup, a five-term veteran. Democrats also picked up an open seat in Republican Arizona and even unseated a Republican incumbent in Kansas - where Mr Bush won 62 per cent of the vote in 2004.

These new Democrats represent what Rahm Emanuel, the congressman who masterminded its takeover of the House, described as the future of the party, and the key to its presidential hopes. The growing belief of many Democrat strategists is that the South - the party's base until the 1960s, but now solidly Republican - is beyond their reach, and that the future lies in targeting the Midwest and West with moderate candidates. That theory was bolstered by the defeat in Tennessee of Harold Ford. Despite running as a conservative on nearly every issue - even immigration - the black former congressman could not prevail in the one Southern senate seat in play.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Anti-Illegal win: "Arizona voters resoundingly passed three anti-illegal-immigrant ballot measures Tuesday and established English as the state’s official language. The landslide victory all four passed by about 3-to-1 ratios statewide sends a message that the state won’t tolerate illegal immigration, said proponent Don Goldwater. "The people of Arizona have said, ’Enough,’ and that they want this issue taken care of," said Goldwater, a gubernatorial candidate who lost in the Republican primary in September. "If the federal government won’t stand up, then by God, the state of Arizona will." Election night proved a sad outcome for immigrant advocates who carried out a grassroots campaign of rallies, fliers and news conferences to try to defeat the measures".

Comment from Boortz: "One thing is certain. The Republicans worked very hard for this defeat. They've earned every lost seat. The Republican majority that was sent packing yesterday bore little resemblance to the Republican majority that rode to power 12 years ago. In 1994 we were promised less government. Over the next 12 years the Republicans more than doubled the size of the government. We were promised control over runaway spending. In the last six years discretionary spending has doubled. We were promised fiscal responsibility. We got a bridge to nowhere in Alaska. We were promised the elimination of the Department of Education. After all, educational achievement had been on a steady decline since education was federalized under this Department. In no time at all the Republicans doubled funding for the Department of Education. In the meanwhile America continues to slip on the international scorecard of educational achievement. The Republicans, in full control of the government, couldn't even manage to stop the Mexican invasion. How many Hispanics invaded our country across the Mexican / American border in the last 12 years? Twelve million? Twenty? Funny, but I don't remember pressing 1 for English in 1994."

FBI looking for congressional sting opportunities: "The new chief of the FBI's Criminal Division, which is swamped with public corruption cases, says the bureau is ramping up its ability to catch crooked politicians and might run an undercover sting on Congress. Assistant FBI Director James Burrus called the bureau's public corruption program 'a sleeping giant that we've awoken' and predicted the nation will see continued emphasis in that area 'for many, many, many years to come.'"

All eyes on Roberts court as it takes on abortion: "The morning after the closely fought midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear its first major abortion case in six years. The hot-button issue has been debated for years among social and religious activists, voters and judges themselves. At issue in Wednesday's arguments is the constitutionality of a federal law banning a specific late-term procedure its critics call 'partial-birth' abortion."

Why we should worry more about vote fraud: "An election system that is less than transparent is one that's open to conspiracy theories and fear of fraud, whether or not fraud is actually present. And I've heard quite a few other Democrats echoing Pelosi -- and quite a few Republicans speculating that a Democratic Congress will ride in on a wave of votes from dead people and illegal immigrants. That sort of thinking seems much more common among respectable members of both parties than it was a few years ago, and I think there's reason to fear it's getting worse."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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MIDTERM ELECTION COMMENT BY HUGH HEWITT

I have to assume that the Dems will get the Senate as well as the House, though Conrad Burns may be able to pull off an upset, in which case I hope the GOP in the Senate reject the silly rules they agreed to the last time the body was 50/50. They got no cooperation from Dems over the past two years, and if by good luck and the Veep's vote they have the majority, they have got to begin to use it.

The long and short of this bad but not horrific night was that majorities must act like majorities. The public cares little for the "traditions" of the Senate or the way the appropriations process used to work. It demands results. Handed a large majority, the GOP frittered it away. The chief fritterer was Senator McCain and his Gang of 14 and Kennedy-McCain immigration bill, supplemented by a last minute throw down that prevented the NSA bill from progressing or the key judicial nominations from receiving a vote. His accomplice in that master stroke was Senator Graham. Together they cost their friend Mike DeWine his seat in the Senate, and all their Republican colleagues their chairmanships. Senator McCain should rethink his presidential run. Amid the ruins of the GOP's majority there is a clear culprit.

A second loser was Bill Frist. To be the Majority Leader of a majority that did not lead is lethal to his presidential ambitions. Like Senator McCain, it would be easier on everyone if he just exited the stage.

President Bush will not flag in the pursuit of the war, and Senator Santorum is now available for a seat on the SCOTUS should one become available. GOP senators will have the chance to select leadership equal to the new world of politics which, as the past two years have demonstrated, does not reward timidity.

House Republicans as well have to rebuild from the ground up and with an eye on those members best equipped to debate the almost certain overreaches of the Democratic majority. From the first day of the new Congress it is going to be a partisan slugfest or a GOP dismemberment. The GOP must find the fighters with talent and promote them. The anti-illegal immigration absolutists got their heads handed to them. As the fence goes up, their rhetoric must go down --dramatically.

But there is good news as well. Hillary's path back to the White House is much more difficult with her party in the majority in the House, and much much more difficult if the Senate falls to Harry Reid's command as well. Clarity as to her party's fecklessness will be back within the first six months, and the GOP frontrunners --Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney-- do not have to serve in the almost certain to be paralyzed Senate.

The Beltway-Manhattan media elite is now stuck "covering" Democratic majorities. Sure, they will go easy on them, but it is much more difficult to cover for a majority than a minority. And it is a wonderful day for new media, especially talk radio. For two years we have had to defend the Congressional gang that couldn't shoot straight. Now we get to play offense. I am concerned for the country that the Democrats have won, but the Republicans are indeed going to find this sojourn in the minority a potentially very good thing. If the GOP adopts and refines the tactics the Democrats have used for the past four years all will be well two years hence, and perhaps even better than well.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

I rarely post on my Scripture blog these days but I have just put up there a useful article that rebuts some of the twisting of scripture that Leftists occasionally indulge in. I have done some similar rebutting myself here

CNN as biased as Al Jazeera: "The Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government met with the families of fallen U.S. soldiers today and he had a message for the news media: your coverage of the Iraq war is terribly biased. "CNN International and Al Jazeera are equally bad in their coverage of the situation in Iraq," said Nerchivan Barzani, Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan. "When I was in the United States recently and read the negative news in the Washington Post, New York Times and in the network TV broadcasts, I even wondered if things had gotten so bad since I had left that I shouldn't return," said Prime Minister Barzani."

Hotel yanks CNN; says network is pro-terrorist : "Guests at one local hotel who switch on the TV in search of the latest news no longer have CNN as an option. The Stoney Creek Inn, 1100 Imperial Ave., in Rothschild has dropped the 24-hour news channels CNN and CNN Headline News from its basic cable offerings. Tony Magro, 76, of Barrington, Ill., stayed at the inn Monday night and said he was told by a receptionist that the hotel chain's corporate office had issued a letter calling for the removal of the channels because CNN aids terrorists.... James Thompson, owner and chief executive officer of Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp., made the decision to remove the channels, according to the inn's corporate office in Des Moines, Iowa"

Communist Party supporting Dems: "The Nov. 7 midterm elections are less than six weeks away. The stakes have never been so high: Control of the House and Senate and governorships nationwide. A recent poll shows that 75 percent of voters are disgusted by the Republican majority House and Senate, the highest disapproval rate since 1994. They are frustrated at Bush's endless Iraq war, by Republican cronyism and corruption, tax giveaways to the rich, cutbacks in vital services, and criminal negligence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina." A last-minute pitch by the Democratic National Committee for a sweep in tomorrow's midterm congressional elections? No. It's an official appeal by the National Board of the Communist Party USA on behalf of Democrats."

Massive Voter Registration Fraud by "Progressive" Organization: "Last Thursday a federal grand jury in Kansas City indicted four persons working for the group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, accusing them of submitting more than 15,000 voter registration forms with fictitious names, phony signatures and bogus addresses. ACORN is a liberal advocacy group that claims to speak for the poor and minorities - running these voter registration drives no doubt to prime the pump for an Election Day voter turnout operation that includes multiple voting by the same people at different precincts in a state with a tightly contested Senate race."

Racist attacks on black conservative: "Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican. Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log. Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report -- the only Republican candidate so targeted." Martin Luther King's dream that one day skin colour would not matter is obviously not shared by today's Left

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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