Black Democrats Support Steele

by S.A. Miller and Jon Ward - October 31, 2006 - The Washington Times

Former Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry and five fellow black Democrats on the county council excoriated their party yesterday and endorsed Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, a Republican, for U.S. Senate.

"The [Democratic] Party acts as though when they want our opinion, they'll give it to us. It's not going to be like that anymore," said Mr. Curry, who in 1994 became the county's first black executive and remains influential in the mostly black and heavily Democratic county.

The most important line in the article is the following quote:
"There's a revolution going on here," said Jerry McLaurin, a county developer and Steele supporter who attended the announcement. "This is going to radiate throughout the county like an explosion."

I wonder how long it will be before Democrats in the Inner Banks start to see similar defections?

Why You Must Vote And Volunteer

by Doug Wilson - October 30th, 2006 - Townhall.com

Don’t look now, but November 7th is approaching fast. For Democrats it can’t come soon enough; they’ve got the lead and merely want to run out the clock before clinching victory. For Republicans it’s more complicated; they’re behind and need to engineer a dramatic comeback in order to save one or both houses of Congress. How did we get here? Well, barely two years removed from earning a mandate from voters in 2004, the Republican Party has squandered its political capital by overseeing record (and reckless) levels of federal spending, by engaging in—or being associated with—unethical behavior, and by failing to achieve a signature legislative victory, such as overhauling Social Security. This veritable witch’s brew of mishaps and failures got us to the point where, in late October, we’re fighting an uphill battle to maintain Republican majorities.

[snip]

But the time for intra-party criticism has passed. Now it’s time to close ranks and work hard for the next few weeks to do all that we can to retain control of both houses of Congress. Unfortunately there are many Republican voters who fail to see the merits of such a decision. Instead, they think like a friend of mine—a long time GOP leader who served in the Nixon White House—who says he hopes the Republicans lose both the House and the Senate. Why? “To teach them a lesson,” he says.

It is typical of the main stream media that they are unable to make sense of the lack of enthusiasm for George W. Bush. His low poll ratings are not driven by a monolithic group of people who are unhappy with him all for the same reasons. There are two groups who dislike George Bush. The press never explains this.

Liberals and socialists are opposed to him because he generally embraces free enterprise, which they despise. They hate him for that, and as secularists they are opposed to all wars for the well known reality that to them, nothing is worth dying for. If you don't believe in God or an afterlife, war is anethema. They are not opposed to killing. They will kill in a minute any conservative. They just don't want any war that risks their death for something like patriotism

Conservatives are opposed to George W. Bush because he has so mismanged his administration. At a time when his job as President was to maintain support for the war and our troops, he decided his own ego driven desire to be "the man" who reformed social security was more important. His campaign on social security, his support for a number of other social welfare issues, his lack of fiscal discipline, his dismissal of anyone who did not support his amnesty campaign as "vigilantes" and his general failure to keep people informed of what good we were doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, has lost him the support of conservatives.

The two groups have nothing in common. The problem is that the main stream media has been pounding Republicans for everything, and many Republicans have decided that since Bush and the Republican congress do little that represents our values, they may sit out the election. We did that back in 1992 and we got 8 years of Clinton.

The question you must ask yourself, "do we want that again?" Do we want to return to the days of Clinton tax hikes? Much of the illusion of the Clinton years is due to the phenomonen of 1994, when the largest single turn around in our history produced a Republican congress that fixed welfare. That plus the amazing productivity increases driven by the Internet gave us a period when the normal consequences of democratic control did not apply.

There is nothing on the horizon that will allow that kind of luck again.

Nuclear war is more likely now than during the years of the cold war. The next group to get nuclear weapons will be the islamofascists. Unlike the Soviets, they are ready and willing to die for their religion. They will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons when they get them.

If we lose the congress, the probability that Tel Aviv and Washington will see nuclear bombs exploding, becomes much more likely and much sooner.

You must vote, vote Republican, and volunteer, volunteer Republican, and do it now. There is only one week to go.

Raped or Represented

An Open Letter to Black Americans

by Harry R. Jackson, Jr. - October 25th, 2006 - Townhall.com

For the last few years, I have had a mental image of many of our popular black leaders shuffling into smoke-filled back rooms and receiving “twenty pieces of silver” in exchange for the black community’s vote. Gone are the days of piety and personal purity that could have created a moral avalanche in our country. No one has the moral authority or spiritual clout to prick the conscience of either the black community or our nation. Our so-called “leaders” have become rich and famous, while many young black men and women die prematurely from drugs, languish in generational poverty, and suffer in an environment that allows gang violence. It’s time to stop the madness!

The question of how conseravtives in the black community can in good conscience continue to support the Democratic Party is one of the most interesting questions in our current political dialog.

Here in the Inner Banks it is an irony that blacks and whites cannot even put together a successful inter-racial prayer breakfast. That most people of both races are not "racists" is deemed not important. The belief is that those inviduals are held hostage to the few who still harbor racism.

At the breakfast a couple of weeks ago, the consensus among white ministers was the on-going failure of the breakfast was because of that problem. The ministers who wanted to come would be attacked by vocal elements in their church who were racist and so they stayed away.

The black ministers were of the opinion that because they still experienced racism, the white community had to clean up its act before they were ready to go out on a limb and promote the breakfast in their churches, or come themselves. That essentially argues that racism must be eliminated totally before blacks will trust any whites.

So that is where we are. The reality of the failure of the prayer breakfast above is reflected in some of our problems with government in this area, especially in our schools. Our children are getting a lousy education, and yet the only solution proposed is to throw more money at the problem. If you point out that more than enough money is being spent to teach our kids, you are called a racist. Politically there is only one party in my county, the Democratic Party. As in most places with single party rule, this has led to poor results. Luckily this has only screwed up our schools at this point.

This article by Harry R. Jackson, Jr. should be read by every black person in the Inner Banks who wants to see progress. Single party rule must end in our area. If conservative blacks do not make a change, there will be no future for more and more of our children . . . of all races. What chance is there this will happen? I tried to get one back friend to read this article and he dismissed it after reading the title. He is not a racist. I believe that in my heart. And yet he will not admit the failure of the Democrat Party to represent his views is a problem he should even consider.

I want to be an optimist, but it is hard to be one sometimes!

The Rape Of Europe

by Paul Belien - October 25, 2006 - The Brussels Journal

The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now.

[snip]

“If faith collapses, civilization goes with it,” says Bethell. That is the real cause of the closing of civilization in Europe. Islamization is simply the consequence. The very word Islam means “submission” and the secularists have submitted already."

I am optimistic that this submissive spirit will be resisted here in America. The battle is joined right now with the secularists of America, the democratic party, however the tide is in our favor. There is great anxiety over the coming elections. However even if the forces which support fighting the islamofascists lose this round it will be a temporary victory laid at the feet of George W. Bush's desire to reform Social Security. Bush forgot there was a war and wasted valuable political capital on pushing that proposal instead of keeping the citizens focused on the war.

In the long run though, more attacks will remind the people we are at war, and even Bush's strategic mistake will be unimportant. The major instinct in America is to fight. A battle may be lost but we will win the war.

Our Black Brothers!

by Armstrong Williams - October 23rd, 2006 - Townhall.com

Not long ago I attended a high school basketball game between local DC rivals. I was absolutely amazed at the level of intensity in which these young men played. Both teams, made up of all young black males, possessed a strong desire to win and the level at which they competed demonstrated that it was this desire to be victorious that pushed them all to respect and learn the game.

Both teams ran complicated plays, perfectly executed the directions of the coach and never seemed to tire. When one of the young men made a bad decision, he was immediately admonished by the coach who exclaimed: "you are better than that!" Nodding his head, as if to show he agreed with the coach's statement, the young man refocused and played flawless basketball for the rest of the game.

I left this game not only impressed, but full of hope. Here were 24 young black men competing at an incredibly high level; a group that is often stigmatized as being lazy, unmanageable, slow learners and undisciplined.

Expectations. Due to liberal racism and sexism the biggest problem in America today is expectations. Black amles are expected to be good athletes and poor in the classroom and they live up to those expectations. White males are expected to be poor athletes and good students and they live up to those expectations. However white males are told white females are better.

I have a friend whose young son has asthma. She tells him repeatedly that he is a klutz and can't be good at basketball. I played the game. I spent one half hour with the kid and he learned how to shoot well enough he hit two baskets in that day's game. He had never hit a basket before. He is a quick learner and has good motor skills. I suspect he is a better athlete than I ever was. He will probably never be a good athlete because the discipline to strive and practice requires a belief in yourself that he will never be given. He is white.

Because he is a male, this same white child is told by today's culture that girls are better students. As a result, we are now faced with a crisis in our culture that white males are failing in school as well as athletics.

Black kids in our area are given the belief that they cannot be the best in school and they don't try. I wonder what Condoleeza Rice would have accomplished if her parents had told her she could not be good in school? Black males are told like white males that girls are better in school.

I cannot imagine how any black male child overcomes the pressure to focus on athletics and succeed in school. In truth most can't.

Expectations. They are destroying our nation.

Mr. Compassionate Conservatism

by Naomi Schaffer Riley - October 21st, 2006 - Wall Street Journal (Opinion Journal)

Amid the cut and thrust of the midterm elections, two questions have frothed up within the recesses of the GOP--almost as an arcane distraction from the squalid business of holding on to House and Senate: Has compassionate conservatism worked? And should Republicans try it again?

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey has made his position plain. In a recent open letter from his organization, Freedomworks, he assailed some leaders of the religious right, suggesting that if Republicans lose in November it would be because they have abandoned the principle of limited government in favor of embracing government for supposedly conservative ends.

This is a very important part of the current political dialog. The coalition of supporters which made George W. Bush President are primarily composed of those who bought into the concept of compassionate conservatism along with the group known as neoconservatives. Both are idealists. In this article Ms Riley describes some of the views of Michael Gerson, a speechwriter for George Bush who was key in helping Bush create the compassionate conservative movement.

I think an important question for both compassionate conseravatives and neoconservatives, "what is the proper role of government?" The result of their efforts so far has been (like the efforts of liberals before them) to expand the size and power of government. They have thus done more evil than good in many cases. It is the basis of the attacks from paleo conservatives like Pat Buchanan. It is even the basis of the attack of many liberals who can see the evil being done by goverment in the name of compassionate conservatism but who never could see the evil they caused. Ironic, no?

George Bush has NEVER vetoed any bill except a couple of bills that had provisions to fund embryonic stem cell efforts. There has never been any attempt to control or limit goverment. As noted, an ironic twist has been that liberals have assailed Bush efforts to expand government, simultaneously saying they are not enough and yet too much of the wrong kind of government (though they have never given any specifics about what they mean by "wrong kind" leaving me with the suspicion that it is simply political posturing).

A question that I would like addressed by the parts of both groups (compassionate conservatives and neoconservatives) that are in Washington is whether they do not need some rational form of limitation on their desire to expand government? The religious right is a major element of the compassionate conservative movement. It seems to me they have set aside their belief in the moral goals of the church by the simple step of embracing government forcing people to be good by law. Does Jesus or God really support having the state make it a legal requirement to be moral? Has the church really abandoned the concept of free will in its desire to see morality be a matter of persuasion rather than a requirment of law?

Laws are enforced by the gun. Compassionate conservatives and neoconservatives need to embrace a clarification of their governing philosphy which returns to limited government as a key element. Otherwise they will wind up as evil and tyrannical as liberals.

An Enslaved State Where Private Life Is Abolished

by Christopher Hitchens - October 10th, 2006 - The Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

Not even in the lowest moments of the Third Reich, or of the gulag, or of Mao's "Great Leap Forward" was there a time when all the subjects of the system were actually enslaved.

In North Korea, every person is property and is owned by a small and mad family with hereditary power. Every minute of every day, as far as regimentation can assure the fact, is spent in absolute subjection and serfdom.

The private life has been entirely abolished. One tries to avoid cliche, and I did my best on a visit to this terrifying country in the year 2000, but George Orwell's 1984 was published at about the time that Kim Il-Sung set up his system, and it really is as if he got hold of an early copy of the novel and used it as a blueprint ("Hmmm - good book. Let's see if we can make it work").

Christopher Hitchens is a man who believes in personal freedom. It is what drives much of his best writing. However it is ironic that the people he most identifies with, liberals, have become so anti-American that he is a rare voice on the liberal side who still touts freedom as a part of the liberal lexicon. Today the elimination of free-enterprise is such a compelling issue that they have actually stopped condemning even such states as North Korea.

I have seen recent articles which try to excuse the attempt to get nuclear weapons by North Korea as George Bush's fault. That the efforts preceed his election by 6 or 7 years makes no difference. The left has lost its way.

Mike Tyson Campaigns For Michael Steele

Staff - October 18th, 2006 - MSNBC

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is promoting his return to the ring, but he's campaigning for Maryland U.S. Senate candidate Michael Steele at the same time.

In Strongsville, Ohio Tuesday, Tyson wore a white and blue Steele for U.S. Senate T-shirt and said he used to believe black Republicans were "sellouts."

The 40-year-old Tyson said "We have to open our eyes more."

Interesting. Steele is a great candidate and a strong Republican. Socially conservative. Fiscally more conservative than some in the party, but not on the far right. He is a great personal success story and sells himself well. This race should be interesting. The long term strategy of Republicans to reach out to the huge conservative constituency in the African-American community is even more interesting.

Ron Toppin Campaigns Hard

During Campaign 2006, Ron Toppin, Candidate for North Carolina Senate District #1, has proved himself one of the hardest working campaigners I have ever seen. I had met Ron at a couple of his campaign efforts and watched him work. During those events he would talk about other activities he had done on the same day. I wanted to see how he kept up this pace at multiple events, so at my request he let me accompany him on an entire day of campaigning.

The day started early on Saturday morning when we met before 6:30 AM in Plymouth. Our first stop was to be the parade for the Scuppernong River Festival in Columbia North Carolina.

Arriving Early To Meet The Parade Workers

Courthouse Was Being Prepared As Bandstand

Crowds Start To Gather As Parade Time Draws Near

Not The Typical Parade Lineup

The Parade Was Led By The United States And North Carolina Flags

The Uncle Sam Figure Strode Tall

Veterans Groups Rode In Honor

High School ROTC Marching Platoon

The First Of A Long Line Of Fire Engines From Local Fire Brigages

The National Park Service Advertised Red Wolves

The First Of Several Bands

The Cub Scouts Marched Proudly

The Entire Event, Ron Kept Working The Crowd And Handing Out Campaign Literature

Columbia Is Farming Country

There Is Always A Corvette In Every Parade

Drummers Kept The Beat

The Red Hat Ladies Were Having A Blast

After The Parade The Crowd Flooded Main Street

Ron Was One Of Several Politicians Who Were Out Talking With Voters

The next event on the agenda for Ron was the Camden County Mini Carnival on behalf of Pat Duckworth For Sheriff.

Pat Duckworth, Candidate for Sheriff of Camden County, sponsored a a Free Public Mini Carnival to attract kids and their parents to his campaign event. It was a huge success, partly because of the absolutely beautiful fall day when it was held Saturday.

The sponsoring candidate, Pat Duckworth is a 25 year veteran of the Portsmouth police department who is currently serving on the Camden County Board of Adjustments. He is also a Vietnam veteran having served in the Air Force.

The kids did not pay much attention to the campaign part of the event, but many of the parents were quite interested to talk with Pat about his candidacy.

Pat Duckworth Greets Parents At The Kids Mini Carnival

The Crowd Sprawled Everywhere Over The Park And Playground Area

Judicial Candidate John Flora Helped Out Serving Cotton Candy

Senate Candidate Ron Toppin Helped Out Making Hot Dogs

It was a great day and clearly the kids had a blast. Some of them went home stuffed on the free hot dogs, snow cones, cotton candy, pop corn and drinks.

As he did at the parade, Ron worked the crowd, greeting people and handing out his campaign platform. Between working to hand out hotdogs and meeting people, he seemed to never take a break.

The day finally concluded with a stop in Currituck County. Ron had dinner at the Shawboro Ruritan Club Prime Rib Dinner Fund Raiser. After dinner he spent another long session greeting people and handing out flyers, talking with people about the issues and their concerns.

Greeting People At The Shawboro Ruritan Club Prime Rib Dinner

With that over, we drove back to Plymouth where Ron dropped me off at my car. Ron then headed out for a more work on some campaign ads that he had to do at his house.

His campaign efforts are truly amazing.

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P., And The Religion Of Perpetual Outrage

By Michelle Malkin - September 15, 2006 07:30 AM - Michelle Malkin (blog)

She refused to candycoat her criticisms of Islam. She refused to submit to jihadi thugs. Her books, her life, her rage and her reason serve as fiery inspirations in an era of flinching dhimmitude.

I missed her death. I am not sure I am not glad I missed it. Death comes to us all but it is figures like Oriana Fallaci that makes that reality truly sad. I wish I had known her. She was an outstanding person whose work truly changed the word. Her books were an articulate statement of the best of what makes man different from the animals. Her hatred for fascism was well known. She understood the difference between good and evil. How ironic that the evil people in the islamofascism movement (along with her enemies in the democratic party) could find no other insult to hurl than to call HER a fascist. When that happened it made me grin. It is said that when they called her that she also grinned. When your enemies are so toungue tied they get things completely wrong what else can you do?

May God bless her . . . . and comfort her family and friends.

Snooker's Grille Used For Campaign Stop In 2008 Race!

2008 already? Yes. Bob Crumley, conservative candidate for Attorney General in 2008 was at Snooker's Grille this morning to talk with people about his campaign. Mr. Crumley subheads his campaign brochures with "Experienced Conservative Leadership for Attorney General". Mr. Crumley graduated from Appalachian State University and Wake Forest Law School.

Snooker's Grille On Main Street In Edenton

A long time resident of Asherboro North Carolina, Mr. Crumley has been an attorney, businessman and realtor in that area. He served as Randolph County Manager and Randolph County Attorney before opening his own law firm in 1989. He now has law offices all across the state of North Carolina.

There Was A Nice Turnout For The Early Morning Event

He at least is creative, spending a portion of his time speaking this morning about the possibility of North Carolina suing Mexico for their failure to live up to NAFTA.

Bob Crumley Running For Attorney General Addresses Chowan County Crowd

He is a very articulate man and could well be our next Attorney General. We appreciated him coming to our area to talk about the state's problems and his view of solutions.

Bill Clinton's New Glow Job

by Ann Coulter - October 11th, 2006 - Human Events Online

Current New Mexico governor and former Clinton administration official Bill Richardson has been on tour, bragging about the groundbreaking Clinton administration negotiations with North Korea -- keeping his fingers crossed that no one has access to news from 1994.

[snip]

Under the terms of the "agreed framework," we gave North Korea all sorts of bribes --more than $5 billion worth of oil, two nuclear reactors and lots of high technology. In return, they took the bribes and kept building nukes. This wasn't difficult, inasmuch as the 1994 deal permitted the North Koreans to evade weapons inspectors for the next five years.

Yes. That last line really is correct. Bill Clinton signed a deal that agreed we would not even try to see if North Korea complied with the deal until after they had the $5 billion we were giving them. Then and only then would we check to see if they had done anything to live up to their end. Needless to say, they had not. In fact they spent the $5 billion building up their nuclear program.

It is honest to say that Bill Clinton made sure that North Korea had nuclear weapons since he funded their program. Thanks Bill.

The Best Are Killed In Every Generation

by Dennis Prager - October 10, 2006 - Townhall.com

If you are debating whether to be optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's future, here is a point to consider: In every generation, especially in the last century, vast numbers of good people -- often the best people -- have been murdered by the worst people.

This article can certainly give you the blues. More than anything else, the thought of how many decent people in the democratic party actually buy into the concept that being antiwar makes them superior, depresses me.

There is evil in the world. Moral relativism, the idea that we cannot be "judgemental", allows for evil to flourish. In the current world that is the truly sad indictment of those on the left. They allow evil to flourish. It should go on a few of their tombstones.

Mass Venezuela Opposition Rally

by Greg Morsbach - October 8th, 2006 - BBC News, Caracas

Tens of thousands of people have marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in support of the main opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales.

Mr Rosales will face President Hugo Chavez in December's presidential poll.

The march, which filled the main avenues of the city centre, was the biggest opposition rally Venezuela has seen since early 2004.

Check out this article. What is amazing is that there has been no coverage of this mass opposition on any of the MSM sites or newspapers. There is a great deal of "opposition" among U.S. Newspaper reporters to anything that does not support Chavez, since he is the socialist candidate. That should tell you a lot about the bias of America's news reporters.

New Orleans Mayor Endorses Lawmaker Under FBI Probe

by Russell McCulley - October 7th, 2006 - Reuters

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A U.S. congressman from Louisiana, under investigation by the FBI after they found $90,000 in cash in his freezer, was endorsed by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Saturday and vowed that allegations of bribery would not hurt his re-election campaign.

"I have been effective, and I will continue to be," Democratic Rep. William Jefferson said as he opened his campaign for re-election in November 7 congressional election.

As this weekend comes to a close I am still struggling with how to comment on politics and yet not comment on a certain gay individual who resigned from congress to avoid being lambasted by his colleagues and allow his colleagues to be accused of gay bashing. The result was of course that his colleagues were lambasted for not gay bashing but for gay coddling. Is this a great country or what? If you are a Republican you are wrong no matter what you do.

While at the same time noted New Orleans Democrat Ray Nagin, the master of hurricane organization who pointed out how incompetent the federal government is during Katrina, has endorsed the highly ethical democrat congressional representative who is being persecuted by the Republicans for getting caught with $90,000 of bribes in his freezer. This gets no play at all.

No matter how the election next month comes out, you have to admire a political party that controls the press like the democrats do. The MSM remain their lap dogs, even when they are out of power.

Reason Departs

And Other Hopelessness

by Curly Morris - October 6th, 2006 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

The court began their new session this week without Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to ever be appointed to the Supreme Court who resigned in January after 25 years on the bench.


Although a Republican appointee, O'Connor maintained the role of swing voter for most of her tenure, frustrating many conservatives with her unwillingness to endorse judicial decisions that suggested permanency and infinite discretion.

O'Connor believed that the role of the Supreme Court was to give marching orders to the lower courts and allow the law to evolve alongside future jurisprudents.

Do you know what "suggested permanency and infinite discretion" means in the above paragraph? Can you define what the process "to evolve alongside future jurisprudents" means? I have a problem with Curly's writing when he uses these flowery and grandiose phrases that have no specific relevance to his thesis. Curly has another problem as well. He has a pattern of making quite specific statements that are totally wrong. A few examples in this editorial.

There were just enough conservatives on the Supreme Court in the 2000 elections to intervene and affect in the results of the presidency.

There were two Supreme Court rulings in that election.

One ruling voted on by 7 to 2 said that the Florida Supreme Court could not overturn a lower court ruling in favor of the Florida Secretary of State that had declared George Bush the winner based on vote counts turned in by predominantly democratic party officials. The Florida Supreme Court wanted to nullify the vote counts, write new rules, and have a third recount of votes based on these new rules which were not in effect at the time the election was held. Even two liberals concurred in this decision to stop the Florida Supreme Court.

The second ruling voted on by 5 to 4 said that the U.S. Supreme Court could not also nullify the Florida Secretary of State victory in the lower court ruling, and set up its own new set of rules to determine the outcome of a recount. This left the vote counts as they were determined by the elected officials in Florida, and supported by the Florida Trial Court.

Since at least two of the people who voted with the majority in this 5 to 4 vote are considered moderates, O'Connor and Kennedy, it is false of Curly to claim this was a "conservative" decision.

In April 2003, Bush declared that the United States had achieved victory in Iraq and that the war was over.

Curly, this is a lie. What George Bush said was that the crew of one aircraft carrier had done a good job during the war and had accomplished its mission. In that speech, Bush repeatedly said the war was NOT over, and much was left to do. Since that day, democrats have lied and claimed that Bush declared America's "Mission Accomplished" though this was never said and not even implied. Not only not implied, repeatedly denied. You are either lying now, or really really stupid, one or the other.

As far as Osama Bin Laden is concerned, I am much annoyed that we do not have him. However the reason is because of the difficulty of managing our relationship with Musharraf of Pakistan. The intelligence community of that country backs Bin Laden, and if we push Musharraf too hard it will not mean that we capture Bin Laden, but could quickly mean that Musharraf is toppled. If all you want to do is attack the Bush administration, it is easy to simplify the problem the way you have. That doesn't mean you are right.

Curly, your opinions here are wrong . . . but the most important thing to point out is how rarely your opinions are backed up by the facts. As noted, some are simply lies.

The Second-greatest Republican Who Ever Lived

August 14th, 2006
by Michael Zak

Forgetting the Grand Old Party’s heritage of civil rights achievement is what costs Republicans the political initiative. To illustrate, unknown to most Republicans today is the second-greatest Republican ever, who died on this day back in 1868.

Born in Vermont, Thaddeus Stevens moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he helped establish the state’s Republican Party in 1855. Three years later, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, soon becoming an outspoken abolitionist as well as effective legislator. In 1860, he was re-elected with 96% of the vote.

The firm backing of his constituents was all the more remarkable considering that he was as married to a black woman, Lydia Smith, as a white man could be in those days. Only four years ago was it discovered that Stevens had built in his backyard a secret hiding place for slaves escaping via the Underground Railroad.

When President Lincoln was sworn in, the federal government had only $3 million on hand. In those days, the House Ways and Means Committee handled both appropriations (Ways) and taxation (Means), making its chairman, Thaddeus Stevens, the most powerful Member of Congress. Though the position had not yet been established, Stevens also served unofficially as Majority Leader.

During the special session of July and August 1861, Stevens bulldozed right over parliamentary obstacles thrown up by obstructionist Democrats, having the Speaker of the House, whom he had hand-picked, call the House into special session so that the rules could be suspended. He then made sure the President received the necessary funding for the war effort.

Rep. Stevens led the charge for passage of the Pacific Railroad Act, the Land-Grant College Act, and the National Banking Act. He also was instrumental in establishing the first national currency, the greenback. Way ahead of his time, Stevens championed the rights of Native Americans and Chinese immigrants. And, it was Thaddeus Stevens who proposed that each family of emancipated slaves receive 40 acres and a mule.

After Confederate rebels burned down his iron foundry, wiping him out financially, friends gave him $100,000, but Stevens donated the money to charity, saying “We must all expect to suffer by this wicked war.” Not just an idealist, he was a very witty guy. Hearing that a Republican congressman intended to duel a Democrat with a bowie knife, Stevens suggested that a dung fork would be more appropriate.

History books written by rebel-sympathizing Democrat professors have burdened modern Americans with a distorted image of Thaddeus Stevens and other Republicans radically opposed to slavery. It is an absurd myth that the Radical Republicans were bent on vengeance against the defeated Confederates. In fact, Stevens adamantly opposed treason trials for any defeated Confederates. He even volunteered to defend Jefferson Davis in court should he ever be put on trial. In any event, there would have been no rebel punished whom President Lincoln or President Johnson could not have pardoned.

In early 1866, Democrat President Andrew Johnson helped defeat Stevens’ bill for black suffrage in the District of Columbia. Stevens then oversaw the drafting of the 14th Amendment and introduced it into Congress. His fight to pass the amendment, though eventually successful, was difficult since not one Democrat in the House or Senate voted for it.

Overlooked by so many history books written by Democrat professors is the fact that the former rebels were almost completely in charge of the South for the first two years after Appomattox. Not until March 1867 were Republicans able to dissolve the neo-Confederate state governments, when Republicans overrode President Johnson’s veto of Thaddeus Stevens’ Reconstruction Act. In an inadvertent tribute to the heroic Republican, caricatures of Stevens and Lydia Smith are the villains of that pro-Ku Klux Klan movie, Birth of a Nation.

At death’s door and no longer able to walk, the 76- year old Stevens managed the prosecution at the impeachment trial of President Johnson. Just before his death, Stevens helped convince a reluctant House of Representatives to appropriate the money to pay for the purchase of Alaska.
Thaddeus Stevens died in Washington, DC with Lydia Smith at his bedside.

An honor guard of black Union army veterans stood at attention while his body lay in state in the Capitol. In an unprecedented tribute to their beloved leader, Republican nominated him for another term, and in death he would win a nearly unanimous victory. Some 20,000 people, half being freedmen (former slaves) from the South, attended his funeral in Lancaster, where he had insisted on being buried in a racially-integrated cemetery and with the epitaph “Equality of Man before his Creator.”

A chaplain delivered this eulogy: “God give to Vermont another son; Lancaster, another citizen; Pennsylvania, another statesman; the country, another patriot; the poor, another friend; the freedmen, another advocate; the race, another benefactor; and the world, another man like Thaddeus Stevens.” Amen.

The Republican Party should stop throwing away political capital, because the more we Republicans know about the history of our Party, the more the Democrats will worry about the future of theirs.


Michael Zak’s article, also published in Townhall.com, is adapted from his book Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of the GOP from the civil rights perspective. His e-mail address is Grand_Old_Partisan@hotmail.com.

Hooray For DDT's Life-saving Comeback

by John Stossel - October 4th, 2006 - Townhall.com

After more than 30 years and tens of millions dead -- mostly children -- the World Health Organization (WHO) has ended its ban on DDT. DDT is the most effective anti-mosquito, anti-malaria pesticide known. But thanks to the worldwide environmental movement and politically correct bureaucrats in the United States and at the United Nations, the use of this benign chemical has been discouraged in Africa and elsewhere, permitting killer mosquitoes to spread death.

A few quotes from this article are truly important:

Tons of DDT were sprayed on food and people. Despite this overuse, there was no surge in cancer or any other human injury.

[snip]

. . . environmental hysteria led to DDT's suppression in Africa, where its use had been dramatically reducing deaths. American foreign aid could be used to finance ineffective alternative anti-malaria methods, but not DDT. Within a short time, the mosquitoes and malaria reappeared, and deaths skyrocketed. Tens of millions of people have died in that time.


[snip]


DDT advocates pointed out that the ban amounted to mass murder. But they could not move the rich white environmental dogmatists who reflexively condemn all kinds of chemicals, and presumably lost no sleep when millions of poor African children died.

[snip]

"The scientific and programmatic evidence clearly supports this reassessment," said Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, WHO assistant director-general for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. "DDT presents no health risk when used properly."

[snip]

"It might be easy for some to dismiss the past 43 years of eco-hysteria over DDT with a simple 'never mind,' except for the blood of millions of people dripping from the hands of the WWF [World Wildlife Fund], Greenpeace, Rachel Carson, Environmental Defense Fund, and other junk science-fueled opponents of DDT."

The question remains. What accountability is there for all the lies spread by the extremist environmental lobby?

At Gitmo, Detainees Get La-Z-Boys, Pastries

by Mark Steyn - October 1st, 2006 - Chicago Sun Times

"This is not just a bad bill," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "This is truly a dangerous bill." And it's not just a dangerous bill. It's also "unconstitutional" and "unconscionable" and represents the loss of the nation's "moral compass."

Wow! That's quite a lot for a humble bill on military trials for terrorist (OK, "alleged terrorist") detainees. But Vermont's lefty colossus wasn't done yet in his excoriation of the Bush administration. "Even they cannot dismiss the practices at Guantanamo as the actions of a few bad people," he continued. "Before they just did it quietly, and against the law, on their own say-so, but now they are obtaining license to engage in additional harsh techniques that the rest of the world will see as abusive, as cruel, as degrading and even as torture."

I am among the great number of people who believe the anti-American, anti-war, anti-free enterprise socialists that control the democratic party have lost their minds.

Before you get all wound up about me calling democrats anti-American and denouncing me for excessive rhetoric, let me ask you how you would feel if I called you "unconscionable", commiting actions "against the law" and insisted that you were knowingly "torturing" prisoners? The accusations coming from the left wingers in the democratic party are outrageous. Calling them anti-American as a response is reasonable and cannot be characterized as excessive . . . unless you think that only left wingers get to participate in the public dialog. If you check out some of the "speech codes" left wingers have implemented at our nation's colleges you would find "democrats" DO NOT think conservatives should be allowed to participate in public dialog. They feel conservatives should be silenced.

It is in fact like the amusing liberals who are going around America saying that our government killed the people on 9/11 and "will not let anyone say that." They claim anyone who says it will be killed. And yet they advertise large rallys where they say it repeatedly and never once try and explain how it is they are still alive if what they say is to be believed.

Democratic party leadership is saying and doing things that are against America. They are making outrageous unfounded charges the order of the day. And then when their actions are described as anti-American they go ballistic. They claim that criticizing them as anti-American is unacceptable because "constitutional" free speech means that they can say anything and it cannot be criticized.

Those on the right do not have "free speech" since anything that we say is "hate speech" and not protected.

I suppose if democrats win in November they will free all the detainees and get back America's good name. You know, the good name that allowed all the unanswered attacks that happened during the 30 years before 9/11 when attack after attack was tolerated and democrats treated it as a law enforcment problem and not war. If that had worked 9/11 would not have happened. But 9/11 did happen. Even Clinton's childish temper tantrum does not change that.