Redstate

Posted at 6:24pm on May 16, 2008 $5.00 to start cleaning up the GOP or stop complaining.

By Erick

Just $5.00. That's what's needed.

RedState endorsed Sean Parnell in his bid to unseat Don Young.

But it's going to take money to do it. Don Young has been milking gobs of money from every dirty person he can.

Sean Parnell needs our help.

$5.00, people. $5.00 to beat Don Young.

Give up that trip to Starbuck. Give the cost of your double carmel latte to Scott Parnell. Give up that trip to McDonalds. Give the cost of your quarter pounder value meal to Scott Parnell.

You people bitch about the party losing its way all the freaking time. I do too.

It's time to put up or shut up. If we're not willing to give to people like Scott Parnell, well then we get what we deserve -- the party of Don Young instead of the party of Ronald Reagan.

$5.00 to clean house. If you can't give $5.00, stop complaining about the state of the party.

By the way, I gave $100.00. You can give more than $5.00 if you want to.

Posted in 2008 | Alaska | Don Young | Scott Parnell — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:00pm on May 16, 2008 Stop The Funeral

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Not to be catatonically sanguine about the fate of the GOP, but however much I agree with the general tenor of this piece by Peggy Noonan, there is something unsettling about its "we're all gonna die!" tone. If I had a nickel for every time a political party had been pronounced as having shuffled off its mortal coil . . . well . . . let's just say that I might finally be in a position to turn my beloved Bears into serious Super Bowl contenders. In the meantime, let's remember that political tides shift and change rather rapidly and today's near-extinct party has an interesting tendency to become tomorrow's sociopolitical dynamo.

Again, this is not to say that the GOP does not have very real problems. It does. The brand needs serious reworking, morale on the Hill and throughout the party in general needs a boost of major proportions and the leadership needs to be changed. But even at their weakest, major political parties have vast amounts of reserve strength and energy that allows them to wait out the bad times. Sure, there are parties that go the way of the dinosaur, but these are rather rare events. More often than not, remarkable comebacks are the story of the day.

And yes, Republicans will actually have to work for that comeback. The good news for the GOP, however, is that contra what might be gleaned from some pundits, that work--if done right and diligently--will likely not be in vain.

Posted in Republicans | The Future Of The GOP — Comments (26)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:29pm on May 16, 2008 Join us for drinks at Bullfeathers

By Soren Dayton

Join a bunch of Redstate readers and writers at Bullfeathers in Washington, DC at 6:30. Bullfeathers is a bar 1 block south of the Capitol South metro.

The special occasion is the graduating from college of California Yankee's son and a number of Redstaters in Washington this summer.

Posted in Drinking Freely | Special Events | Washington — Comments (39) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:19pm on May 16, 2008 Friday Open Thread: Top Ten List

Top Ten Reasons for Voting for Obama

By absentee

I wrote earlier this week about the new Obamacan ad being run by MoveOn.org. Today TMRB.tv has a new vid mocking the ad (click here to reveal it below:)

Words words words. We have them in abundance. But what of reasons?

So here is today's top ten list.


Hint: click on the linked text to reveal even more sound reasoning!!!

Number 10: HOPE!!11!!1!!!!

Number 9: CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whew, breath .. short ... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Number 8: Waffles!

Number 7: Bowling!

Number 6: Bowling for Waffles!
Pay attention Fox Network, I smell a celebrity edition featuring John Kerry and Flavor Flav!)

Oh, it only gets "better" ....

Posted in Archived | Barack Obama is like Jesus but cooler | Humor | top ten — Comments (15)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:11am on May 16, 2008 Bearers of False Witness and the False Witnesses They Bear

The Al Franken Ignorance Tale

By Erick

You may think that’s an odd title for a blog post about comedian and Senate candidate Al Franken, but those are his words. In his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Franken attempts to paint anyone who disagrees with him as a liar or worse. Ironically enough, this book has put the failed radio host on a path of lies and deceit, due to his failure to pay for workers’ compensation while the book was being written and researched.

Franken’s defense…ignorance. While this may apply to Franken in most cases, it is a hard sell in this instance. In order to believe Franken’s claims of ignorance on his corporate governance problems you must believe totally disregarding reality:

•     Franken claims he never knew about his New York problems because he moved to Minnesota in April of 2005. To believe this you must also believe these additional Franken claims:

1.       Franken never received, or knew about, any of the dozen notices sent to him by the state of New York regarding his failure to pay worker’s compensation insurance

2.       Franken never received any notices or heard from the collection agency hired by the state of New York to collect the workers’ compensation insurance premiums Franken failed to pay

•    To believe Franken’s claims of ignorance you must ignore the following facts:

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Al Franken | Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them | Minnesota | Norm Coleman — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:53am on May 16, 2008 Present Instead of No

By Erick

Having blasted the House GOP this week, let me praise them today.

They got fed up with the Democrats playing games with the lives of our troops. The Democrats, in pushing their war supplemental, highlighted their real priorities. In order, they were tax increases on the entrepreneurial class, spending on liberal social programs, tying the hands of the Commander-in-Chief, and screwing the war criminals in Iraq troops.

The GOP did the only thing left they could do -- they refused to participate in the game. Instead of even voting no, they voted present. It had a lot of people scratching their heads, but these people paid attention and asked why.

And, again, the answer is simple: the Democrats are playing games with the lives of our soldiers in harm's way. They do not want to fund the troops, but they know they have to. So they are trying to fund everything else first and daring the President to veto the funding.

He will. He should. And the GOP continues to be the party that stands up for the troops. Here's Roy Blunt on the matter:

the bottom line on this week's bill was it was never designed to fund the troops. The Democrats knew that this would not be a bill signed into law. It was designed to be a package that used the troops to do other spending that they know they can't get done without the troops.

Republican members voted present on that section of the bill. We then demonstrated we had the veto-sustaining strength that everybody knew we had on the other two sections of the bill.

Posted in Congress | John Boehner | Playing Games with the Troops | Present | War — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:43am on May 16, 2008 You need to remember that you're in the Fishbowl now, Barry.

For however much longer you last.

By Moe Lane

Everything you do, everything you say, everywhere you go, there's somebody with a tricorder taking it all in. And then it goes onto Youtube. And then people write about it, often with mean-spirited titles like "Obama's sniper tale? When he stood up to Detroit's 'cold' shoulder." And then it goes on the Internet. Not always in that order, but it goes out.

You are never off the record. You are never safely among friends. You are never able to just assume that something will just slide on by. And nothing that you do or say will ever go away.

Ever.

Have a nice day!

Moe Lane

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Detroit — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:24am on May 16, 2008 How Astute of You to Notice that, California Supreme Court

Value Judgments are for Voters, Hmmkay?

By Leon H Wolf

I spent a little time last night reading the California Supreme Court's opinion (.pdf) in the gay marriage case. To be honest, I didn't make it all the way through (it's quite lengthy - 172 pages, in fact), primarily because I found the money shot relatively early on. You see, one of the arguments raised by the State was, "Look, Supreme Court, the way the law is set up here in California, gay couples already get all the civil benefits of marriage. Literally the only thing they are denied is the right to use the word 'married.' Therefore, there's absolutely no potential harm that comes to gay people based on the way the law is set up." This argument elicited the following response from the court:

Second, retaining the traditional definition of marriage and affording same-sex couples only a separate and differently named family relationship will, as a realistic matter, impose appreciable harm on same-sex couples and their children, because denying such couples access to the familiar and highly favored designation of marriage is likely to cast doubt on whether the official family relationship of same-sex couples enjoys dignity equal to that of opposite-sex couples. Third, because of the widespread disparagement that gay individuals historically have faced, it is all the more probable that excluding same-sex couples from the legal institution of marriage is likely to be viewed as reflecting an official view that their committed relationships are of lesser stature than the comparable relationships of opposite-sex couples.

More below...

Posted in Culture | Judicial Activism — Comments (65)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:07am on May 16, 2008 The Politico and Sensationalism

By Erick

"McCain adviser ousted in conflict uproar," reads the Politico headline. That may make for a great headline, but neither it nor the sensationalism in the story are accurate.

Craig Shirley, a friend who helps RedState with PR work (hey, they should have mentioned us too), has done work with Stop Her Now, that our own Kevin Holtsberry is involved in. The Obama campaign no doubt pushed this story on the Politico, which as an organization seems more susceptible than any other media organization save the New York Times for candidate generated stories, and the Politico gladly went with the sensationalism.

Actually, Craig was asked by the McCain campaign if he wanted to continue working with the campaign or with Stop-Him-Now. Craig chose, not the campaign.

Likewise, Stop-Him-Now is not one of those shadowy 527 organizations, but an internet website that FEC regulations do not apply to. Stop Her Now was a 527, but certainly not shadowy. It only existed on the net and largely went unnoticed by the press until the guns turned on Jesus Obama.

Add this to the Politico file.

Oh, and pay attention little lefties:

RedState -------------> Craig Shirley-------------> Stop-Him-Now------------->Kevin Holtsberry ---------------> RedState

What a web we weave.

Posted in 2008 | Craig Shirley | Politico — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:45am on May 16, 2008 Can WaPo editors read?

By Soren Dayton

The Washington Post should either fire their editors or send them to remedial education. They should be ashamed that they let this garbage get printed.

Despite his reputation in the media as a charming maverick, McCain has shown that he is also happy to use Nixon-style dirty campaign tactics. By charging recently that Hamas is rooting for an Obama victory,

McCain isn't "charging". A senior Hamas leader said that "actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election [...] and he has a vision to change America." Why isn't that the story, rather than a distortion of McCain's statement?

This clown James Rubin continues:

I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

"Deal with" is not the same as "unconditional" talks at the level of heads of state. The President of Iran says that Israel should be destroyed and their weapons are being used to kill American soldiers. Indeed, yesterday on the blogger call McCain pointed out that Ryan Crocker regularly interacts with Iranians in Baghdad.

How could the Washington Post's editors let this garbage get printed in their paper? Are they illiterate or just biased beyond belief?

Posted in 2008 | Hamas | James Rubin | John McCain | liberal media bias — Comments (25) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:29am on May 16, 2008 Imperialism

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

As if any more evidence was needed to show that Hugo Chavez means to destabilize the region:

High-ranking officials in Venezuela offered to help Colombian guerrillas obtain surface-to-air missiles meant to change the balance of power in their war with the Colombian government, according to internal rebel documents.

Venezuelan officials served as middlemen with Australian arms dealers and agreed to help the rebel commanders travel to the Middle East to receive missile training, according to files on computer hard drives seized by Colombian authorities and shown to The Washington Post. In interviews, Colombian officials said they have no evidence that the guerrillas obtained the antiaircraft missiles but added that Venezuelan authorities appear to have provided light arms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The disclosures have already started to reverberate in the Bush administration and among Latin America policymakers on Capitol Hill, where a small group of Republicans has proposed classifying Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States, as a state sponsor of terrorism. The United States and Europe long ago blacklisted the rebel organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as a terrorist group.

Posted in Foreign Affairs | Hugo Chavez | Venezuela — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:46pm on May 15, 2008 And Now a Word for Folks Who Use the Word "McAmnesty" On a Regular Basis.

By Leon H Wolf

You know the guy who's likely to win the Democratic Presidential Nomination? He's planning some action on immigration if he wins the election. You know what he's planning to do? If you guessed "build a really big wall and deport lots of people," you're so, so very close to being correct:

Barack Obama is easily winning the African American vote, but to woo Latinos, where he is running 3-to-1 behind rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he is taking a giant risk: spotlighting his support for the red-hot issue of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

It's a huge issue for Latinos, who want them. It's also a huge issue for the general electorate, which most vehemently does not. Obama's stand could come back to haunt him not only in a general election, but with other voters in states such as California, where driver's licenses for illegal immigrants helped undo former Gov. Gray Davis.

* * *

"Barack Obama has not backed down" on driver's licenses for undocumented people, said Federico Peña, a former Clinton administration Cabinet member and Denver mayor now supporting Obama. "I think when the Latino community hears Barack's position on such an important and controversial issue, they'll understand that his heart and his intellect is with Latino community."

You know, I understand that McCain is not acceptable to you on this issue. I get that. But the decision to not vote does not occur in a vacuum - if McCain does not win, someone else will. And he's got plans you're probably not going to like.

Posted in Immigration | McCain | Obamafiles — Comments (35)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:42pm on May 15, 2008 Putting Bush's Words In Context: Barack Obama, Neville Chamberlain, and the Art of Appeasement

By Erick

Posted in 2008 | appeasement | Barack Obama | George Bush | Neville Chamberlain | War — Comments (98)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:24pm on May 15, 2008 SENATE TRIES TO SNEAK IMMIGRATION REFORMS THROUGH

By RS Insider

It looks like the Democrats and amnesty-loving Republicans slipped the AG Jobs bill into the Senate emergency supplemental appropriations bill during committee markup today. This bill relates to giving amnesty to illegal aliens who work as migrant workers.

Early intelligence reports that it probably has provisions similar to the last AG Jobs bill that was considered – including amnesty provisions. It was supposedly a Feinstein/ Craig amendment and was accepted with a vote of 17 – 12.

If Harry Reid offers this version of the supplemental as a substitute to the House version, he will block out all other senators from any opportunity to strip this Ag Jobs provision, which will ultimately keep potential amnesty provisions in the war funding bill.

Your Senator's number is (202) 224-3121.

[UPDATE:] A source tells me that the GOP leadership is scrambling to stop this and that this was not done with the GOP leadership's blessing. The House GOP leadership is preparing to fight too.

Posted in Ag Jobs | Amnesty | Immigration — Comments (19)/ Email this page » / Read More »