2008-What a long, strange year it's been

Cross Posted at The Lonely Conservative

Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals and moderates can all agree that 2008 was an interesting year, to say the least. Who would have thought the New York Football Giants would have bested the New England Patriots in the Superbowl? If you thought that would be the strangest thing to happen this year you don’t follow politics too closely.

2008 kicked off in the midst of the Presidential primary season. Democrats bickered over who cared more about the impoverished and who wanted our troops out of Iraq sooner. Republicans went back and forth, each claiming to be the most conservative, while Republican voters kept wondering how they could channel Ronald Reagan.

It was all but assumed that Hillary Clinton would be the nominee of the Democratic Party while the Republican field was wide open. Mike Huckabee did well with Christians and John McCain did well with Democrats and the New York Times. Some Romney supporters were screaming “It’s the economy stupid!” and “Never nominate the candidate endorsed by the New York Times!” but much to their chagrin, Charlie Crist spoke, John McCain became the Republican nominee and Rudy Giulianni’s Florida vacation came to an abrupt end.

In the mean time New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was brought down by a hooker. Hillary Clinton was fighting for her life against Barack Obama and the Main Stream Media throughout the spring. She vowed to take things all the way to the convention, and who could blame her? She was going up against a rival who began his presidential campaign almost immediately after being elected to his first term as a US Senator. But just as John McCain was the media’s darling before going up against the New Messiah, Hillary and her supporters finally understood what conservatives have complained about for years. There is media bias! Poor Hillary couldn’t catch a break, and Bubba didn’t help. The media helped propel Barack Obama to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Gas prices soared over the summer while the Democrats and John McCain railed against the obscene profits of oil companies. Showing how little he knows about the economy, Barack Obama swore he would fund his goodies with a windfall profits tax on the evil oil companies. Republicans spent the summer wishing for a primary do-over.

The junior senator from Illinois travelled abroad over the summer where he announced we are all citizens of the world and under his leadership America will soon become a beautiful collectivist utopia. Thousands of German concert goers cheered The One while listening to a free rock concert and swilling beer.

John McCain kept a low profile until the end of August when he announced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. The world was stunned while conservative rejoiced! Maybe John McCain did have a conservative bone in his body! They finally had something other than his heroic war record to cheer about. Conservatives found a reason to go to the polls in November and wouldn’t even have to be drunk to do so! John McCain actually pulled ahead of Barack Obama in the polls.

McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin was so brilliant that the left was enraged and the media went into a frenzy. Reporters and investigators were air-dropped into Palin’s home town of Wasilla, Alaska to dissect every aspect of the woman’s life. They spent more time digging into Sarah Palin’s past in a week than they did to Barack Obama in two years. Feminists loathed her for not aborting her baby when she learned the child would have Down’s Syndrome.

Yes, Sarah Palin was a conservative dream. A really middle class American who put her money where her mouth is and didn’t just talk the talk. Unfortunately for Palin, she had to go on television and defend John McCain’s record in her early interviews. That would be a hard, if not impossible task for any good conservative. The networks’ editing of her answers didn’t help either. But Sarah Palin didn’t let it stop her. She wasn’t there to please Washington’s elite media.

Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as a running mate really wasn’t a joke and the two went on the stump together. Gaffe after gaffe were ignored by the adoring media, while every aspect of Sarah Palin’s life was put under a microscope. Barack Obama’s “God D*mn America” pastor was ignored but it was reported that Sarah Palin speaks in tongues. Going to 57 US states was suddenly not impossible, yet a corruption-fighting, self-made governor with an 80% approval rating inexplicably became a liability.

The media’s love for their Chosen One grew deeper with each passing day. One famous commentator admitted on live television to a thrilling physical reaction when the debonnaire democrat spoke. This love affair was a sight to behold. William Shakespeare himself couldn’t have conjured up such complete devotion.

After the government rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the resulting failure of Lehman Brothers, John McCain failed to defend his and President Bush’s proven record of urging more oversight of Fannie and Freddie. Instead he blamed the whole mess on greed. Then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson appeared on TV to announce that if we the people didn’t immediately hand over nearly a trillion dollars to him that the economy would immediately collapse.

The strategy of manufactured crisis was coming to fruition right before our eyes and Republicans played right into their hands. President Bush suddenly befriended Democrats even though they persisted in calling him names. John McCain announced he was suspending his campaign until an economic rescue bill agreement could be reached in Washington. He called on Barack Obama to join him. Barack Obama and his staff had high fives all around in celebration of their upcoming victory.

Mr. McCain went to Washington and did…..absolutely nothing! He didn’t insist on an immediate reduction in capital gains taxes to keep capital flowing into the US economy. He didn’t insist on suspending mark to market accounting rules which would have eased the balance sheets of our financial institutions. Heavens no! Had he done that he may have appeared to be conservative. The maverick whose campaign theme was “I am not George W. Bush” went along with George W. Bush and sidekick Hank Paulson like a devoted puppy.

70% of the public was against the rescue plan, so naturally it passed with bipartisan support, save for a few lonely conservative republicans and moderate democrats. The economy immediately went into a tailspin and Americans watched their life savings disappear into thin air. John McCain continued to blast greed while Barack Obama’s poll numbers went up.

Barack Obama kept at it, blaming the economic crisis on the failed economic policies of the past eight years. He and the media forgot all about Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid. The drum beat from the Democrats and the media played on and on. It was the Republican’s fault and so what if Fannie and Freddie gave more money to Obama and the Democrats than anyone else? So what if Democrats were complicit in the failure of the GSE’s or made statements that caused a bank to fail and the entire US insurance industry to take a one day stock loss of 30% and up. The public had no need to know that useless information. Heck, they didn’t even know that Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress since 2006.

Yes, it was a good year to be a Democrat. Had it been reported that Republicans failed to stop the Democrats, perhaps things would have turned out differently, but alas, it was not to be.

Then Mr. Obama showed up in the yard of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher who had the nerve to ask him a question. The media and the left went after Joe the Plumber with a vengeance not seen since Sarah Palin hit the campaign trail. They had to work overtime in their attempts to destroy and discredit two conservatives at the same time. Even coastal conservative elites with ivy league degrees joined the chorus against Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. (Let’s hope those “conservatives” are enjoying the DC cocktail party circuit!)

How dare these two regular people show up and act all normal, middle class and conservative!? What happened to the big tent? The elites even turned on their own moderate maverick John McCain when he started pretending to be conservative. Granted, he was sending mixed messages, like calling Barack Obama a socialist and in the next breath promising to bailout delinquent homeowners. But hey, he was convinced by the media and Colin Powell that Americans only like liberals.

A few maverick reporters had the nerve to ask some tough questions of Obama and Biden. Let’s just say they learned their lesson. Newspaper journalists whose editors failed to endorse Barack Obama were kicked off his campaign plane. They learned their lesson, too. But Obama promised a new transparency in government. As expected, the media lapped it up.

Sarah Palin finally broke free of the McCain campaign’s bubble of suppression at the same time Joe Biden was put in the corner after one too many gaffes. There are only so many ”paying higher taxes is patriotic” statements a politician can make before the voters start to catch on.

Conservatives flocked to McCain rallies to see Sarah Palin. Despite McCain’s mixed messages it seemed there was hope for his campaign.
The stock market rallied just before the election, only to suffer deep losses after the results came in. Job losses in November soared higher than we’ve seen in a generation. Nobody can figure out what investors and business owners know that the media doesn’t.


Barack Hussein Obama will be sworn in as the next President of the United States. The world now knows what most conservatives believed all along, that America is not a hateful racist country that would never vote for a black man who is willing to throw family members and life long friends under the proverbial bus when it suits him. Gay Americans aren’t convinced we’re now a nice nation, but again, sometimes supporters have to be thrown under the bus in the name of unity and hopeandchange.

President elect Obama wasted no time in putting together his new team. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich also got busy trying to sell Obama’s senate seat to the highest bidder. So busy, in fact, that the poor fellow didn’t even have time to visit his barber. Democrats across the land stepped out of character to denounce a fellow Democrat caught up in scandal.

Americans were surprised again when Barack Obama announced he would appoint Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the next Secretary of State. They weren’t surprised that nobody’s concerned about former President Bill Clinton’s funny money dealings with foreigners. No, they were surprised at Caroline Kennedy’s unexpected desire to be appointed to Hillary’s senate seat. But hey, now that we’ve elected the most inexperienced candidate for President the sky’s the limit. So what if she hasn’t held a full time job, she’s a Kennedy!

We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out. The accidental governor of New York, David Paterson has bigger things to worry about. He’s presiding over an enormous budget deficit (unless you compare it to California) and wants to raise taxes on everything from iPods to malt liquor. He’s convinced that new and creative taxes will lure new business to New York State. He should just wait until Obama takes office and then stand in line with his hand out.

Bailouts continue with more to come in 2009. The Bush administration caved in to the UAW, oops…the auto companies, giving about $17 billion to GM and Chrysler to tide them over until the real Santa Claus comes to town in January. And it isn’t just the auto companies who can expect to be stimulated by the stimuli promised by our President elect. He promises to create 3 million jobs by taking money out of the private sector (aka - taxation) and “investing” it in technologies that aren’t profitable for the private sector. Let’s hope it works, since he also said he would bankrupt the coal industry. (Be sure to save your energy bills from 2008, just for the sake of nostalgia.)

Despite scientific evidence that solar activity causes our climate to change, Mr. Obama has promised to spend…oops again…invest billions of taxpayer dollars to combat man made global warming. This after the coldest fall we’ve seen in a number of years. But scientists be damned! Carbon is bad and we must stop it! We’ll have to figure out how to make plants grow without carbon at a later date, after we figure out how to pay for the trillions of dollars we need to spend eliminating carbon and ”saving” our economy.

Things aren’t all bad for conservatives. The surge in Iraq produced results beyond even Barack Obama’s wildest dreams. There are so few Republicans left conservatives no longer have to spend much time defending them. Gas prices are lower now than we’ve seen in years. (Enjoy it while it lasts as any hopes of increased domestic oil production are dashed.) And with any luck Joe Biden will receive enough media coverage to offer some comic relief for the next few years, we’re sure going to need it.

Happy New Year!

Community Organizing: Seizing Power, Creating Socialism

Cross-posted by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

[transcription of above] Our final goal is the destruction of imperialism, the seizure of power, and the creation of socialism. Our strategy for this stage of the struggle is to organize the oppressed people of the imperial nation itself to join the colonies in the attack on imperialism. The process of attacking and weakening imperialism involves defeat of all kinds of national chauvinism and arrogance; this precondition to our fight for socialism.

The above from Prairie Fire - written by William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn

Zomblog has copies of a rare Weather Underground newspaper known as Osawatomie. Published in 1975 as William Ayers and Bernardine Dohn were hiding from authorities, and as Zomblog put it:

"transitioning from terrorism..."

to inside work for the revolution...what we now know was a plan to overthrow the government of the United States, tells us what community organizing is all about, and it's all about the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis.

If you are beyond weary of hearing about William Ayers' connection to Barack Obama, Zomblog makes THE point, and I'll use it here, because it cannot be said better:

Ayers was not simply protesting "against" the Vietnam War. Firstly, he wasn't against war in principle, he was agitating for the victory of the communist forces in Vietnam. In other words: He wasn't against the war, he was against our side in the war. This is spelled out in great detail in Prairie Fire. Secondly, and more significantly, the Vietnam War was only one of many issues cited by the Weather Undergound as the justifications for their violent acts. As you will see below, in various quotes from Prairie Fire and in their own list of their violent actions (and in additional impartial documentary links), Ayers and the Weather Underground enumerated dozens of different grievances as the rationales for their bombings -- their overarching goal being to inspire a violent mass uprising against the United States government in order to establish a communist "dictatorship of the proletariat," in Ayers' own words.

The plan was to overturn the government by "creativity and AUDACITY."
The following from Osawatomie:

[transcript]… the system itself is inhuman, and socialism is a real alternative; the energy crisis is the fault of Rockefeller and the oil companies, not the Arab people; unemployment is caused by capitalism not “illegal aliens” stealing jobs; war in Indochina or the Mideast is part of the problem, not the solution; political and social action can change things.

[transcript of above] Organizers must be intimately aware of every problem and each injustice, and they must show that underneath each particular problem lies another problem, and another and another until you reach the system of imperialism itself. The system is designed to create problems for poor, Third World and working-class people. Organizers need to find small solutions to small problems and great solutions to great problems. Our solutions should be drastic.

We need to build a successful struggle, strong organization and a winning revolutionary party. This is a process, which will not emerge full-blown from our minds. It will emerge and change and grow from practice. We know where to begin.

It is with all this in mind that we have created OSAWATOMIE, the revolutionary voice of the Weather Underground Organization.

The following from Ayers and Dohrn's book, Prairie Fire (more at Zomblog):

William Ayers is a communist. But don't take my word for it. He said so himself:

[transcript of above] We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years.

[Zomblog] And not some nicey-nice peace-and-love kind of communist. Through his group the Weather Underground, Ayers was planning to "seize power" in a violent communist takeover of the United States:

[transcript of above] We need a revolutionary communist praty in order to lead the struggle, give coherence and direction to the fight, seize power and build the new society.

Manufactured Crisis:

[transcript of above] Our job is to tap the discontent seething in many sectors of the population, to find allies everywhere people are hungry or angry, to mobilize poor and working people against imperialism.

You've heard by now that Prarie Fire was dedicated to U.S. "political prisoners,"...one of those deemed a "political prisoner" is Sirhan Sirhan - the murderer of Robert F. Kennedy. Here it is, scanned directly from the book:

Visit Zombietime.com for more.

National Security: The Lost Political Issue

By guest columnist, Charles E. Sowell

As we close in on the presidential election of 2008, it is becoming more and more evident to many Americans, particularly those who truly understand history, that the fate of America and western civilization may literally hang in the balance. At this point in time Americans have a lot to be concerned with, but it should be apparent that the two most critical concerns facing this country are national security and the economy. Most recently, as a result of the current economic crisis, we have heard very little about national security, despite the fact that we are still engaged in a fierce war with the same group of extremists that attacked us more than 7 years ago. It is time for America to reawaken to the fact that if we do not have national security, we will not have an economy to worry about!

I will leave it to the historians to conclude whether the invasion of Iraq at that unique point in time was the right or wrong decision for America, but from that point forward, it is hard for me to understand the logic of Senator Obama on many foreign policy/national security issues. I am constantly amazed at what appears to be his naiveté on many of these issues. As part of his very elite educational training, did he not study history? Even more amazing to me is that it appears that the majority of the American public has also bought into his guile and glib style over his negligible substance. Past electoral concerns of malaise and apathy seem to pale in comparison to the current naivety of so many Americans, particularly the young, many of whom have not yet had enough life experience, much less understanding of history, to keep from falling under the spell of the first snake oil salesman that comes along.

Senator Obama is a very eloquent orator, and his affable manner and good looks give him the ability to be very persuasive. But when you break down his foreign policy into simple logic, it just doesn’t fly. If Senator Obama’s prior opposition to the surge in Iraq had been successful, America might now be out of that country, but we would have left in defeat and either Al Qaeda or Iran would have quickly moved into the vacuum, providing another base for extremists ready to resume further atrocities against America and the rest of the world. Had we allowed that to happen, we would have also been looked upon by the rest of the world as an unreliable paper tiger for decades to come. Russia, China, and any other strong adversary would be taking advantage of us at every opportunity. Like it or not, defeat in Iraq is not an option.

Senator Obama’s current insistence on establishing a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq is also nothing short of pure folly. A smart and determined enemy only has to await the withdrawal of our troops before resuming the fight with an all out effort, with a realistic hope by then that the American public will no longer have the will to rejoin the fight. If you want to win a football game, you don’t broadcast to your opponent the timing of the snap of the ball.

Perhaps the most illustrative example of Senator Obama’s naivety is his self expressed willingness to sit down and negotiate with any adversary without any preconditions. Anyone who knows anything about the art of negotiation understands, first and foremost, that you negotiate only with an adversary that has the authority to negotiate (someone who has the ability to execute the results of that negotiation). Sitting down with someone like Ahmadinejad would not only be a waste of time, but would be foolhardy at best. Any good negotiator also knows that every negotiating session is always preceded by posturing, position measuring (preconditions), and having in mind specific objectives for outcome. Just “sitting down to talk” for the novice negotiator could be a recipe for disaster.

At this critical time it is important for Americans to recognize that proven experience and seasoned knowledge are what we need to lead America out of our current difficulties, not an idealistic member of the intellectually elite. As it has been said by many others before me, this is not a time for on the job training.

Technorati Tags: 2008,national election,presidential election,Obama,foreign policy,national security,timetable for the withdrawal,Iraq,Ahmadinejad,negotiations

Trackposted to third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The Pink Flamingo, Democrat=Socialist, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

McCain Still Doesn’t Get it and Huckabee Never Did

Ok, so I’m a political junkie and I admit that I’ve watched every Democratic and Republican debate. As much as I enjoyed Hillary’s “hurt feelings” on the CBS debate Saturday night, and as much as I wonder why I only fall asleep during Obama’s vapidly “unifying” change for the sake of change chants, I have to admit that all the substance was on the Republican side.

Oh and yes I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that all of the Democratic candidates said, in one way or another, that they would use Bush’s unilateral preemptive strike policy under the right set of circumstances thus validating the Bush doctrine.

Charlie Gibson to Obama (ABC news transcript)

GIBSON: I'm going to go the others in a moment, but what you just outlined is essentially the Bush doctrine. We can attack if we want to, no matter the sovereignty of the Pakistanis.

The Fox GOP forum Sunday night (sans Ron Paul) was enlightening for one reason: Immigration. McCain demonstrated that he still doesn’t get it with regard to his continued defending of the de-facto Amnesty Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, and Huckabee is still defending his lenient Arkansas immigration policies. Huckabee and Giuliani don’t want to turn the children of illegals out on the street.

Huckabee and Giuliani said that once children of illegals are in the U.S., they can’t be turned out on the street. Both men defended their respective decisions to keep kids of illegals in school to prevent bigger problems. Both men also offered their prescriptions for reducing the growth of illegals in this country.

Only two Republican candidates are firmly against Amnesty or de-facto Amnesty for illegal immigrants in their stated policies: Thompson and Romney.

I believe it is imperative to remind all conservatives of the primary issue that brought Congress to its knees this past year – Immigration. Illegal immigration ignited the passion of all conservatives against the Comprehensive Immigration Bill (which McCain sponsored). Even now, as much as the Democrats have fought it, immigration must be on the front burner in the national elections. Every other issue can be co-opted by the Democrats but not the fight against illegal immigration.

If we keep illegal immigration on the front burner a Republican will win in November.

Any of the Republican candidates now running are far more in line with our conservative values than these Socialists who still call themselves Democrats. But Giuliani and Huckabee are still much too liberal in their views.

The focus group following Sunday night’s Fox GOP Forum showed Thompson the big loser. Why? The New Hampshire folks have bought into the lie that he’s lazy. They don’t like his cadence of speech. He didn’t inject himself enough into the conversation. If they had listened to what he actually said, he was the only candidate to bring some hard honesty into the debate concerning Social Security and immigration. Downer!!!

So, if Romney eventually wins the Republican nomination Evangelicals have a big choice to make. If they vote against him because they don’t like his religion, or if they just boycott and refuse to vote, they will have to face the fact that they have sold their children’s future down the river into the moral relativism and leftist socialism that now dominates the Democratic Party and all of their candidates.

By the way, Charlie Gibson asked no questions of the Democratic candidates concerning immigration. That policy must change!!!

Digg It!


**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email stiknstein-at-gmail-dot-com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Big Dog's Weblog, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, Conservative Cat, The World According to Carl, Global American Discourse, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, and Stageleft, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.