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No thanks, John, you've done enough

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Politico--John McCain's mission: A GOP makeover:

Fresh from a humbling loss in last year’s presidential election, Sen. John McCain is working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image.

McCain is recruiting candidates, raising money for them and hitting the campaign trail on their behalf. He’s taken sides in competitive House, Senate and gubernatorial primaries and introduced his preferred candidates to his top donors.

I held my nose and voted for you last November, for all the good it did, John. You have not convinced me you actually understand the fundamental concepts of liberty and republican government, and I will never again compromise that fundamental requirement for a Presidential candidate. You have proved yourself to be far too willing to compromise my liberty for your own ends. I still remember McCain-Feingold, John. I voted for you despite that. That was a mistake.

The only good thing you did in the entire campaign was bring up Sarah Palin to be your running mate. I think that, unlike you, John, Palin understands liberty and republican government. You, John, gave us the current cult of personality that's systematically taking this country apart and re-assembling it in the image of the worst of the European democratic-socialist model.

I am sure that wasn't your intent, John, but unlike a Democrat, I judge people on results, not on intent.

Why we're losing Afghanistan

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MIchael Yon, writing in the Washington Times:

We are losing popular support. Confidence in the Afghan and coalition governments is plummeting. Loss of human terrain is evident. Conditions are building for an avalanche. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the military commander in Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates are aware of the rumbling, and so today we are bound by rules of engagement that appear insensible.

We must curb civilian losses at expense to ourselves. I believe the reasoning is sound and will share those increased dangers. Erosion of popular support seems reversible. There still is considerable good will from the Afghan population, but bomb by bomb we can blow it. We have breathing room if we work with wise alacrity. I sense a favorable shift in our operations occurring under Gen. McChrystal.

Enemies are strengthening. Attacks are dramatically increasing in frequency and efficacy. We are being out-governed by tribes and historical social structures. These structures are - and will be for the foreseeable future - the most powerful influence upon and within the political terrain. "Democracy" does not grow on land where most people don't vote. The most remarkable item I saw during the Aug. 20 elections was the machine-gun ambush we walked into.

The coalition is weakening. While the U.S. has gotten serious, the organism called NATO is a jellyfish for which the United States is both sea and prevailing wind. The disappointing effort from many partners is best exemplified by the partners who are pushing hardest: The British are fine examples.

There's more. Go and read it. Then go check out Yon's web site.

Stimulus plans don't work

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That's what two Harvard economists, Robert J. Barro and Charles J. Redlick report in the Wall Street Journal.

The bottom line is this: The available empirical evidence does not support the idea that spending multipliers typically exceed one, and thus spending stimulus programs will likely raise GDP by less than the increase in government spending. Defense-spending multipliers exceeding one likely apply only at very high unemployment rates, and nondefense multipliers are probably smaller. However, there is empirical support for the proposition that tax rate reductions will increase real GDP.

In other words, in the real world, tax cuts are the correct policy response to an economic slowdown. Non-defense "stimulus" spending doesn't work. Defense-related stimulus spending works, but only when the unemployment rate is "very high."

Obama and the Democrats have wasted our time and money. Bigtime.

John Stossel piles on:

In January, the administration's economic models warned that unemployment would hit 9 percent next year if its $787 billion "stimulus" wasn't passed. Passing it would keep the jobless rate under 8 percent before it begins to fall.

Well, the packaged passed-and unemployment in August rose to 9.7 percent.

Oops.

OK, economic forecasters make mistakes. Fair enough. But neither the administration experts nor President Obama will acknowledge that their models and strategy are flawed. Instead, they spin the numbers and proclaim success, insisting that the plan is working even though unemployment is higher than they said it would be.

The Democrats: Dead wrong on the economy. What else are they dead wrong about?

My Old School--is bigger

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South Dakota State University's headcount enrollment grows to 12,376. The FTE (full-time equivalent) enrollment (that is, the number of credit hours taken divided by a full-time student's course load) is 10,197, the first time that number has cracked 10,000.

Here's the report (PDF).

Differences

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Seen on Free Republic:

If a conservative doesn't like guns, they don't buy one. If a liberal doesn't like guns, then no one should have one.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, they don't eat meat. If a liberal is vegetarian, they want to ban all meat products for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy. A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is homosexual, they quietly enjoy their life. If a liberal is homosexual, they loudly demand legislated respect.

If a black man or Hispanic is conservative, they see themselves as independently successful. Their liberal counterparts see themselves as victims in need of government protection.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A liberal wants all churches to be silenced and God removed from public view..

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A liberal demands that his neighbors pay for his.


My only quibble is the continuing acquiescence with the hijacking by authoritarians of the word "liberal."

Votevets is an astroturf organization

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The American Legion takes a swing at Votevets, and connects. Actually, not so much a single swing, but a complete take-behind-the-woodshed verbal beating:

Although Votevets claims to be the “leading progressive, pro-military organization of veterans” they are not actually a veterans organization as defined by Congress and set forth by the IRS. Even VoteVets themselves have admitted that only about 5 percent of their members are veterans of the GWOT. And even those are somewhat suspect. In fact, as Mothax discussed in his stolen valor piece, at least two VoteVets spokespeople used in television commercials have been proven to have either made up their military records entirely (Rick Duncan/ Strandlof) or vastly inflated their experiences (Josh Lansdale.) While every organization is capable of being infiltrated by phonies, it is unconscionable that an organization would use a guy in TV commercials who claimed to have had a finger shot off and a plate in his head when simple visual inspection revealed no scars.

Unlike The American Legion which operates from a resolution format where the priorities and positions of the organization are dictated by grassroots’ members, no one knows how VoteVets determines their positions. Take for instance their current campaign on behalf of the “Card Check” bill which would do away with secret balloting in Union votes. What is the basis for taking a position on this bill which seemingly doesn’t actually deal with veterans issues?


The rampant and widespread abuse of the Federal 503(c) non-partisan, non-profit tax-exempt status by Democrat/progressive front groups like ACORN and VoteVets is one of the biggest yet-to-be-fully-told stories of naked corruption in the country--if not the world today.

U.S. Out Of Berkeley

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No Blood For Ph.Ds.

The chancellor and vice-chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley make their case for sticking their snouts even deeper into the Federal money trough:


Specifically, the federal government should create a hybrid model in which a limited number of our great public research and teaching universities receive basic operating support from the federal government and their respective state governments. Washington might initially choose a representative set of schools, perhaps based on their research achievements, their success in graduating students, commitment to public service and their record in having a student body that is broadly representative of society.


Hey, there's an idea! Take a "limited number" of self-described "great" public universities--you know, the ones who make inordinate amounts of money from their big-time football programs while generating screed after screed in "peer-reviewed journals" attacking the very liberal foundations of the society which has created them--and throw a lot more money at them. My money. Your money.

What about those public universities that are not judged by such worthies as Robert J. Birgenau and Frank D. Yeary, Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley? Does anybody really think that South Dakota State University (to name one at random) will make the cut and sit at the same table as the Lords of Berkeley and the Big 10?

Dear Mr. Birgenau and Mr. Yeary:

You have plenty of money to do what you're supposed to do. Get your hand out of my pocket in Lee's Summit, Missouri, get back to your campus and teach students more about freedom and liberty, calculus and chemistry, honor, honest work and responsibility, and less about class struggle, intolerant "diversity," post-modernist deconstruction of "what they really meant" and pseudo-scientific environmentalist dogma. Thanks.

Accessories after the fact

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It's outrage time.

The parade of Hollywood luminaries to rally to convicted child-rapist Roman Polanski tells you everything you really need to know about them. They have no morals beyond running with and viciously defending their particular pack. If you're in, they will defend you no matter how loathsome you are. If you're out, they'll attack you, no matter how virtuous you are.

But what about you, dear reader?

Do you really want to support people who side with a pedophile/rapist against his victim?

I'm afraid that you do that every time you watch a TV show or movie made by these people in Hollywood.

Or do you agree with these people that drugging and raping a 13 year old girls, and then skipping out on the justice system is good and appropriate behavior? Because that's what Roman Polanski did. He got a 13-year-old girl drunk. Then he slipped her barbituates. Then he took her clothes off. Then he arranged her limp, naked body in front of him. Then he raped her. Then he ran after he pled guilty, but before the judge pronounced his sentence.

This is an either-or issue. Either you support the rapist and his friends, or you don't.

I suggest "don't."

Has Palin been hanging out at the American Enterprise Institute?

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Or maybe just reading their white papers?

I ask because of this paragraph in Palin's speech in Hong Kong:


Think about it. How many books and articles have been written about the dangers of India’s rise? Almost as large as China – and soon to be more populous – virtually no one worries about the security implications of India becoming a great power – just as a century ago the then-preeminent power, Great Britain, worried little about the rise of America to great power status. My point is that the more politically open and just China is, the more Chinese citizens of every ethnicity will settle disputes in courts rather than on the streets. The more open it is, the less we will be concerned about its military build-up and intentions. The more transparent China is, the more likely it is they we will find a true and lasting friendship based on shared values as well as interests.
Now tonight, Justin Logan posts at Cato@Liberty about those dastardly "neocons" at the American Enterprise Institute, one of which is Daniel Blumenthal, who wrote:

China is not the only country that is rising. So is India. But we do not worry about India’s rise. That is because India is a democracy. Almost everything it does is transparent to us. We share liberal values with India, including the desire to strengthen the post-World War II liberal international order of open trade and investment and the general desire among democracies to settle internal and external disputes peacefully and democratically. The fact that China is not a democracy matters greatly as it rises. It makes its rise more disruptive as countries have to divine its intentions and observe the gap between its rhetorical policy of a “Peaceful Rise” and some of its actions that are inconsistent with a peaceful rise.


Great minds think alike? Palin has been studying up? Or, since she gave the speech on September 23 and Blumenthal posted his essay on September 25, is he cribbing from her?

Weird, isn't it?

UPDATE: Ah, I see that Blumenthal is in fact one of Palin's advisers. Makes sense then.