AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

It may be good for the business and our economy, but most of ours goes straight into the circular file.

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Forgetting Sarah Palin
by Ann Coulter
07/08/2009

Sarah Palin has deeply disappointed her enemies. People who hate her guts feel she's really let them down by resigning.

She's like the ex-girlfriend they're SO over, never want to see again, have already forgotten about -- really, it's O-ver -- but they just can't stop talking about her.

Liberal: Ha, ha ... Sarah who? She's over, she's toast, a future Trivial Pursuit answer, nothing more.

Normal person: Whatever. How about the North Korean missiles?

Liberal: Can you believe she just resigned the governorship like that? What a quitter!

Normal person: Speaking of quitting, how's work?

Liberal: Did you hear she might get a TV show? There's no way Sarah Palin's getting a TV show! No way! I can't believe stupid Sarah Palin could get her own stupid TV show now. Well, I'm sure not gonna watch it -- that's for sure!

Normal person: Have you seen all the Michael Jackson coverage on TV?

Liberal: How does she think she can run for president in 2012 if she can't finish her term as governor of a Podunk state? She's finished.

Normal person: OK, then! You won't have to vote for her.

Liberal: I was never going to vote for her! But now I'm not going to vote for her twice. And I will never watch her TV show. I am so over her.

Reporters had already written their stories on Palin's press conference -- "rambling!" "incoherent!" -- before she even stepped to the podium.

Whatever you think of Palin, her argument for resigning was the opposite of "rambling" and "incoherent."

Palin's basketball analogy couldn't have been clearer, even to prissy liberal pundits who get uncomfortable when the subject turns to sports: She decided to destroy the other team's game plan, which has been to obsessively focus on her, by resigning.

This is particularly apt here -- she's passing the ball to a fantastic right-wing lieutenant governor, who shares her principles but doesn't set off the left's neuroses.

This is better for him, better for the state, better for the conservative program and better for Palin personally, whose family is sick of all the crap. Now she can make a lot of money and promote conservatism on a national stage.

It certainly won't be held against Palin by people who don't already loathe her. (On the other hand, her approval ratings among people who think she's worse than Hitler are down to 48 percent.)

With the left frenetically filing ethics complaint after ethics complaint against Palin, costing her state millions of dollars and her personally half a million dollars, citizens of Alaska must be asking, "Can we please have our state back?"

But to read the news reports -- which actually were rambling and incoherent -- you would think Palin was speaking in tongues.

The truth is liberals are furious they won't have Sarah Palin to kick around anymore -- at least not with Palin's hands tied behind her back by her public office.

Something tells me Keith Olbermann isn't going to be pulling any big numbers this summer attacking Eric Cantor and Michele Bachmann. I don't anticipate any sudden outbreaks of "Mitch McConnell Derangement Syndrome."

Soon we'll only hear about Keith when his creepy e-mails using his mother's death to hit on chicks start making the rounds again. (Tip to Keith: When a girl refuses to give you her phone number, her assistant's phone number or her personal e-mail address, and only gives you her assistant's e-mail address, you're not halfway in the sack.)

Bonus: If Olbermann gets canceled as a result of Palin's resignation, that will put her in a really good position for 2012.

But instead of being honest and saying, "Oh well, it was a good ride while it lasted," liberal chatterers indignantly demand: "Is this not the greatest betrayal a public servant ever committed against the people?"

On one hand, liberals are enraged at the heinousness of Mark Sanford -- whom they didn't vote for -- for not resigning and, on the other, they're enraged at Palin -- whom they also didn't vote for -- for resigning.

The peculiarly venomous hatred of Palin is driven by women of the left and their whipped consorts. All that needs to happen is for a feminist to overhear two Nation readers saying, "I hate to admit it, but Palin is kind of hot" and ...

WHAT??????????? YOU CALL THAT HOT? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW WE'VE GOT A MEGA-SUPER HOTTIE IN DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. AND NEED I REMIND YOU AGAIN OF THE RAW SEX APPEAL OF RACHEL MADDOW?

Democrats are a party of women, and nothing drives them off their gourds like a beautiful Christian conservative. (How much money has that other beautiful born-again, Carrie Prejean, been forced to spend on lawyers to respond to liberal hysteria?)

So the motives are clear, but the money is not. Who is paying the rent for the losers filing all these frivolous complaints against Palin?

At least when Richard Mellon Scaife was funding investigations of Bill Clinton, we knew who Scaife was, he was an American citizen, and his money was accessible to U.S. tax authorities and not stashed in offshore accounts like a certain Hungarian Nazi-collaborator I can name.

How about some modern-day Scaife investigate the investigators?
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32635

A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER WILLIAMS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2009

Senate Slavery Apology

Last month, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 26 "Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans." The resolution ends with: "Disclaimer. -- Nothing in this resolution (a) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or (b) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States." That means Congress apologizes but is not going to pay reparations, as least for now.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have expressed concerns about the disclaimer, thinking that it's an attempt to stave off reparations claims from the descendants of slaves. Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said her organization is studying the language of the resolution and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, said "putting in a disclaimer takes away from the meaning of an apology. A number of us are prepared to vote against it in its present form. There are several members of the Progressive Caucus who feel the same way."

It goes without saying that slavery was a gross violation of human rights. Justice would demand that all the perpetrators -- that includes slave owners, and African and Arab slave sellers -- make compensatory reparation payments to victims. Since slaves, slave owners and slave sellers are no longer with us, such compensation is beyond our reach and a matter to be settled in the world beyond.

Absent from the reparations debate is: Who pays? Don't say the government because the government doesn't have any money that it doesn't first take from some American. So which Americans owe black people what? Reparations advocates don't want that question asked but let's you and I.

Are the millions of Europeans, Asians, and Latin Americans who immigrated to the U.S. in the 20th century responsible for slavery and should they be forced to cough up reparations money? What about descendants of Northern whites who fought and died in the name of freeing slaves? Should they cough up reparations money for black Americans? What about non-slave-owning Southern whites, a majority of whites; should they be made to pay reparations? And, by the way, would President Obama, whose father is Kenyan and mother white, be eligible for a reparations payment?

On black people's side of the ledger, thorny issues also arise. Some blacks purchased other blacks as a means to free family members. But other blacks owned slaves for the same reason whites owned slaves -- to work farms or plantations. Are descendants of these blacks eligible and deserving of reparations? There is no way that Europeans could have captured millions of Africans. They had African and Arab help. Should Congress haul representatives of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Muslim states before them and demand they compensate American blacks because of their ancestors' involvement in capturing and selling slaves?

Reparations advocates make the foolish unchallenged pronouncement that United States became rich on the backs of free black labor. That's utter nonsense. Slavery has never had a very good record of producing wealth. Think about it. Slavery was all over the South. Buying into the reparations nonsense, you'd have to conclude that the antebellum South was rich and the slave-starved North was poor. The truth of the matter is just the opposite. In fact, the poorest states and regions of our country were places where slavery flourished: Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia while the richest states and regions were those where slavery was absent: Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.

The Senate apology is nothing more than political theater but it could be a slick way to get the camel's nose into the tent for future reparations. If the senators are motivated by white guilt, I have the cure. About 15 years ago I wrote a "Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to All Persons of European Descent" that is available at: www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/gift.html
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/09/SenateSlaveryApology.htm

Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to
All Persons of European Descent

Whereas, Europeans kept my forebears in bondage some three centuries toiling without pay,

Whereas, Europeans ignored the human rights pledges of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution,

Whereas, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments meant little more than empty words,

Therefore, Americans of European ancestry are guilty of great crimes against my ancestors and their progeny.

But, in the recognition Europeans themselves have been victims of various and sundry human rights violations to wit: the Norman Conquest, the Irish Potato Famine, Decline of the Hapsburg Dynasty, Napoleonic and Czarist adventurism, and gratuitous insults and speculations about the intelligence of Europeans of Polish descent,

I, Walter E. Williams, do declare full and general amnesty and pardon to all persons of European ancestry, for both their own grievances, and those of their forebears, against my people.

Therefore, from this day forward Americans of European ancestry can stand straight and proud knowing they are without guilt and thus obliged not to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry.

Walter E. Williams, Gracious and Generous Grantor
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/gift.html

Quote:

Forgetting Sarah Palin
by Ann Coulter
07/08/2009

[snip]

...what we need to do to regain the confidence of the Conservative base...

Extreme Makeover, Conservative Edition
(By Robin of Berkeley, American Thinker, July 8, 2009)

As you might know by now, I'm in recent recovery from lifelong liberalism. Part of my program is confessing my sins. In my articles, I try to be as candid and honest as I can (which is great therapy, though, at times, I feel like I'm on one of those reality shows where you folks are chilling with a cold beer and saying, "Does she have any idea what a jerk she's been?" and, "Oh my God, does her face scream Botox or what?")

Well, you know, I deserve it. I was leftist for so many years, and I thought and said so many idiotic things that a little gentle ribbing is good for the soul (remember, the operative word is "gentle"). And I was a hypocrite. I preached forgiveness and kindness toward all, except conservatives. I prided myself on being a spiritually evolved being who refrained from stereotyping and discrimination. And yet I was engaged in prejudice against a whole group of people.

Well I've renounced it all, and feel like the world's biggest ignoramus. A meatball, blockhead, sap, twit, peabrain, chowderhead, dipstick, dolt, and dumb cluck (I consulted my thesaurus for help here). But part of the reason why I was a class A fool was because I had been fooled. I saw all the Michael Moore movies and heard Michael Parenti speak, and bought books by Chomsky and Zinn, and listened to left of left KPFA radio, and did everything I was supposed to. My father raised me to despise conservatives, so there you go. I was brainwashed.

But if you think I'm the rare bird, sorry Charley. Almost every liberal in the Blue States feels the same mindless malice toward the Right. (I imagine that in the Red States, liberals have to behave themselves because they're in the minority and, frankly, you people are armed.) Even my moderate Democratic friends from outside California regard conservatives with venom. Whipped up by rage at the Man and US Imperialism planted in the recesses of their brains by the far Left, liberals blame all wars, racism, recession, urban violence, poverty, even athlete's foot and hemorrhoids, on those satanic conservatives.

How well do you know your average liberal? To determine your LI (Liberal IQ), I have devised the following quiz. See if you can answer the following like a Blue State liberal.

1. The cause(s) of global warming is:
a. C02 emissions.
b. Rush Limbaugh's hot air
c. George W. Bush.
d. All of the above.

2. The biggest threat facing the US today is:
a. North Korea
b. Iran
c. Home grown radical Islam.
d. Talk Radio.

3. We joined the Allies during WWII because of:
a. Hitler
b. Japanese Emperor Hirohito
c. Pearl Harbor
d. A Right Wing Conspiracy

4. Before I go to sleep at night I give thanks to:
a. Jesus.
b. The Hebrew God.
c. Allah.
d. Lama Obama.

5. These are a few of my favorite things:
a. Pledging to help Obama change the world.
b. Giving spare change to the victims of US hegemony.
c. Wishing bodily harm on George Bush and Sarah Palin.
d. All of the above.

If you selected D, congratulations! You have excellent LI. That's the good news; the bad news is that you are up to speed and know that there are countless people out there who despise conservatives.

Given the current climate, I didn't exactly pick the greatest time in the world to switch parties. I'm living surrounded by leftists, and hear trash talk every single day. Liberals are amazingly creative at peppering their daily chitchat with attacks on conservatives ("Hello, I'd like a decaf mocha, and didn't George Bush destroy this country?") If I responded the way I'd like to, I'd lose my livelihood and risk my life.

Instead, to cope with the constant barrage, I've perfected a beatific Mona Lisa smile: a half smile that reveals nothing. It's not an enthusiastic, perky full-smile nor is it a pejorative smirk or scowl. My Mona Lisa creates a momentary confusion in the other ("What is that odd look on Robin's face -- is she agreeing, disagreeing, or does she have gas?") just long enough for me to hop right in and change the subject. For instance, when a colleague said to me, "Obama is doing such great things to get us out of the recession which those disgusting Republicans got us into," my knee jerk reaction was to get in his face, but instead I bit off a little piece of tongue while doing my Mona Lisa personal best.

So, friends, we have a bit of a PR nightmare on our hands. In my opinion, conservatives need to mix things up a bit and get the word out that we are not the offspring of Lucifer. Perhaps a big tent, an end to infighting, and a sense of humor will help. Here is my small contribution to this political face lift, an Extreme Makeover, Conservative Edition: Robin's top ten list. Please post some of your own to keep the positive energy (as we say in Berkeley) going.

Robin's Top Ten List of Why Conservatism Rocks:
(Actually there are more than ten -- there were too many to limit it!)
16. We have lovely Miss Carrie Prejean; they have Missing Link Janeane Garofalo.
15. Cool men of Steele: Shelby and Michael.
14. Conservative guys will beat the crap out of our assailant; liberal men will offer him money for food.
13. Can remove sign, "When it's yellow, let it mellow; when it's brown, flush it down," and flush toilet with impunity. (Yes, actual sign seen in Berkeley.)
12. Higher resale value on my car: No angry bumper stickers!
11. Now we can rail against the Man (which they are, even if they deny it)
10. Replaced mean Sean (Penn) with clean Sean (Hannity).
9. Talk Radio!
8. No need to queue up for latest Michael Moore movie.
7. We have God; they have trolls.
6. Being part of sexy, countercultural, free thinking new movement.
5. My work ethic has already improved. (It's true!)
4. Bye bye tie dye!
3. American Thinker.
2. Happiness is a warm gun.
1. No Obama, No Trauma.

Foxfyre wrote:

...what we need to do to regain the confidence of the Conservative base...

IMHO, two things need to happen for the Conservative base to regain confidence:

1. Adopt The FairTax Plan as their own and push for it to become the law of the land.

2. Adopt more of what The Libertarian party stands for.

H2O MAN wrote:

Foxfyre wrote:

...what we need to do to regain the confidence of the Conservative base...

IMHO, two things need to happen for the Conservative base to regain confidence:

1. Adopt The FairTax Plan as their own and push for it to become the law of the land.

2. Adopt more of what The Libertarian party stands for.

You'd be alienating the social conservatives by adopting more of what the libertarian party stands for societally speaking.

Hmm, H2 Oboy wants to legalize hard drugs.