Shot fired

Chris Sanders of TEP alerts us to the re-opening of a front in the culture war.  Sen. Stanley (R – Memphis) has reintroduced his bill outlawing adoption by cohabitating couples living outside of marriage.  Clearly, this is an anti-gay measure he’s trying to dress up in pro-family clothes – that don’t fit.

He starts his bill with the following declaration:

The public policy of this state is to favor marriage, as defined by the constitution and laws of this state, over unmarried sexual cohabitation. It is also the public policy of this state to place children into adoptive families that provide the most stable familial relationships for that child and will foster an appreciation for the policies of this state that favor marriage over unmarried cohabitation. The general assembly specifically finds that it is not in a child’s best interest to be adopted by a person who is cohabitating in a sexual relationship that is not a legally valid and binding marriage under the constitution and laws of this state.

So, let’s review.  The State wants children to be adopted into stable families.  Here are some possible arrangements:

1. straight, married couple
2. straight, unmarried couple
3. straight, unmarried single person
4. gay, unmarried couple
5. gay, unmarried single person

Under Sen. Stanley’s bill, 1, 3 and 5 could still adopt.  I’m not sure if he has noticed, but 3 and 5 aren’t families that involve married couples.  Apparently, Sen. Stanley believes it is better to be adopted by someone who is single than someone who is in a relationship.  And, it’s better for a child to be left in indefinite foster care, often punctuated by frequent moves, than to be placed in a home without a marriage license.

Also, as Aunt B ably points out, this sentence is more than a little creepy:

It is also the public policy of this state to place children into adoptive families that . . . will foster an appreciation for the policies of this state . . ..

Sen. Stanley wants families that are goverrnment approved and families that approve of government.

Note:  The opinions expressed herein are strictly my own and do not in anyway reflect the opinions of my employer.

 

2012

As a conservative/libertarian, I generally find that the Republican party’s positions are closer to my own than those of the Democrat party.  If Republican are defined as being small government, strong defense, low taxes and traditional values, I would agree with them on the first 3 out of those 4.  George Bush helped move the party pretty far from the principle of small government.  And, supporting so-called “traditional values” conflicts the goal of having small government.  It’s takes quite a bit of government resources to wage the drug war, police people’s sex lives and keep teh gays out of the local library books.

Since the Democrats seek and even more expansive government that takes over health care, requires public service from everyone, desires increased taxes to make things more “fair”, willfully obstructs business and economic growth through nanny-state rules and ill-advised environmental regulations, among other things, I just can’t support their agenda.  In addition, suggesting that the party that brought us DOMA and DADT, is better on gay issues is simply not plausible.

Thus, I would very much like to see Republicans return to their core values (except one) and return to greater power in this country.  To do so, the Republicans must do certain things:

1. Organize better.  The GOP used to be known as the party with the better organization on the ground.  But, they failed to adapt to modern realities, especially the internet.  Barack Obama mastered the use of vast email databases, online fund raising and interacting with blogs.  McCain’s campaign showed some skill with the quickly produced YouTube video, but it wasn’t enough.
2. Get a younger candidate and one who is more eloquent.  Palin was actually pretty good on the stump.  With  more practice and preparation, she could do better in interviews.  Bobby Jindal seems to have a pretty good media sense about him.  I’m sure there are others.
3. Get a damn message.  McCain shifted message throughout the campaign and offered nothing that would stick.  “Hope and change” was an empty and meaningless message, but timely and effective.  The Republican vision (the pre-Bush Republican vision) can be explained.  Reagan did it and largely stuck to it.  People know that government workers aren’t smarter and shouldn’t be allowed to run their lives.  People know that if they have to send more money to the government,  they have less to spend.  People understand that a weak military can’t defend the country or help our allies.  People understand that myriad and byzantine rules are expensive and difficult for businesses to comply with.  People still yearn to be free, including free from their own government telling them how to live their lives.

Barack Obama will be running again in four years.  In the mean time, Republicans need to stick to their principles, be the loyal – not lunatic – opposition and be able to say four years from now that they have cleaned up their act while the Democrats are still taking and misspending their money and weakening this country.  I’m only moderately hopeful.

 

Palin, Africa and NAFTA

C’mon folks.  Before anyone believes the bullshit about Gov. Palin thinking that Africa is a country and not a continent and not knowing what countries are in NAFTA, just stop and think for a second.  Those allegations simply aren’t plausible.  No functioning adult who so much as watched the Olympics could not know that Africa is a continent.  And, as governor of the state with the nation’s longest border with Canada and with large amounts of goods and people moving across that border, it just isn’t possible that she didn’t know what countries are in NAFTA (that’s Canada and Mexico along with the U.S. if you don’t know).

These allegations are coming out because some inside the McCain camp don’t like that Sarah Palin realized that she was being mishandled at the beginning and insisted on doing some things her own way.  Couple that with the fact that McCain lost, and that these staffers don’t want to blame themselves or their boss and you end up with a need for a scapegoat.  Countless people around Gov. Palin have attested to her intelligence and insightfulness.  This is just silly, sour grapes.

As for the shopping spree, it doesn’t make sense either.  Large amounts of expense clothes aren’t Palin’s style.  She and her husband make enough money between their two careers to buy decent clothes, yet chose to dress modestly.  Nordstrom has a store in Anchorage. (I’ve shopped in  it.)  If she had this sort of taste, she could have exercised it before now.  (Yes, I know that Anchorage is not the capitol of Alaska.)

 

The next four years

This morning we awaken to an election day all but certain to end in victory for Barack Obama.  Two years ago, the certainty for today was that Hillary Clinton would be receiving the congratulatory call at the end of the evening from the vanquished Republican.  Sen. Obama had entered the race most likely to build upon the name recognition that he had achieved from his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, with his eye set upon a future campaign and a future victory.  A combination of factors, including a superior campaign organization,  a well timed but vacuous promise of Hope and Change, a national press so eager to defeat a Republican that they would utterly fail to discharge their duty to fairly and evenly find and report the news, a Republican candidate who refused to point the finger of blame for the economic disaster we are enduring at the Democrats responsible and who further refused to discuss the effect of sitting for 20 years under the hate-America-first preaching of the Black Liberation Theologist Rev. Wright and who refused to  discuss Sen. Obama’s antipathy for Second Amendment rights have, among other things, brought us to this point.

Somehow, the United States of America, the nation which became the greatest on earth based on principles of personal, economic and political freedoms is turning to a man who believes that all of those should be curtailed and limited because freedom produces inequality.  He ignores the benefits of inequality – the incentive to self-improve and the trickle down of economic improvement.  Freedom and prosperity are partners.  One cannot advance too far beyond the other.

But, we cannot change the inevitable.  Today, I will be at my local polling place at 8:00 a.m. to cast my vote.  I hope that it and all legally cast votes are counted fairly.  They won’t be.  Voter fraud and election machine errors will mar this election, creating a clinghold for those who will spend years shouting that their candidate was unfairly deprived of the office he deserved.  Unfortunately, some of those wll be right.  Having a black man, or more accurately a half black man, in the White House will fire up the hate groups.  As much as i oppose his policies and decry his vision of America, I fervently hope he remains safe and healthy throughout his tenure.  America does not need tragedy and the race war that his assassination would bring.  And while I would wish my political opponents from the stage, I do not wish them dead.

The economy will improve, but it will take a year or two.  The military will be weakened.  Our ability and desire to bring freedom to millions around the world will wane.  Government will expand.  Health care will become more and more a government function leading to a decrease in quality and to unnecessary rationing.  Taxes and regulation will strangle businesses and stymy economic progress in ways reminiscent of overburdened European economies, economies now trying to throw off those limitations and grow free again.  The nation will not get the needed energy plan that exploits currently available resources while pursuing new forms and sources of energy.  Instead, we will leave oil in the ground and refuse to build new nuclear energy plants in hopes that some as yet unknown fuel will power our future.

Gay rights will continue their halting steps forward, not because of support from the administration but because attitudes change.  As gay people become more visible in daily life, we become less of a threat and more accepted.  Straights will reaize that we are more like them than they previously thought and we will change from an oddity to neighbors and co-workers and friends.

I wish I could be more optimistic.  I wish I could believe that freedom and prosperity will flourish and democracy and capitalism will spread.  Even more so, I wish that Barack Obama wanted those things.  He doesn’t.

 

What??!!!! The middle paid less taxes under Bush??!!??? How come nobody told me?!!!!

From the Congressional Joint Economic Committee:

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data show that the total effective federal tax rate of the middle fifth of households declined after 2001 to its lowest levels since at least 1979, Congressman Jim Saxton, ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, said today. Under the 2001 and 2003 tax relief legislation, the income tax as a share of income for the middle fifth also has fallen to its lowest levels in decades.

H/T The Corner.

 

How’s that Rep. Frank?

The Democrat leadership brings a bill to the House floor where Democrats have a majority, 40% of Democrats in the House vote against it and it the Republican’s fault that the bill failed?

 

Battle of the bracelets! Smackdown! (or not)

Watched the debate to night as the only McCain supporter in a room of 8 gay and 2 straight Obama supporters.  Everybody was bored about an hour into it.  We all agreed that the candidates positions didn’t seem all that different.  The Obama supporters agreed that he did as well or worse than they expected.   I thought McCain did better than I expected.  He never mentioned the effort of Republicans in 2003 to reform Fannie and Freddie that the Democrats blocked.  That would have been a point scored.

The low point was the battle of the bracelets.  We all wanted Tim Gunn to appear and say “Make it work!”

Following the debate,  we had a civil discussion about political positions and different views of the world.  It was surprisingly pleasant.

Winner?  Neither candidate won and neither lost.  I’d call it a draw.

 

Delayed? Makes sense. Suspended? Not so much.

John McCain’s request to delay the first debate makes a bit of sense to me.  The Democrats have made it clear that they won’t vote for a bailout unless the Republicans are also on board.  They don’t want to spend that kind of big bucks and take that level of risk by themselves.  The Republicans aren’t going to want to come up with a plan that their nominee doesn’t support.  That leaves the whole thing in Sen. McCain’s lap.

Since the economic situation needs immediate attention and the debate is Friday night, a delay seems reasonable.  Objections that plans are made and money has been spent to put this event on just don’t measure up to the necessity of addressing the economy.  In addition, the first debate is about foreign policy.  With the focus on finances, it would seem out of place.  And, undoubtedly both candidates would be trying to interject domestic economics into every foreign policy question.

On the other hand, from what I’ve read, Sen. McCain has said he will also suspend other campaign activities such as advertising.  That just looks like a gimmick.  Having his team continue to assemble and air or print ads would not interfere with his meetings in D.C.

By the way, I predict that Sen. Obama (a/k/a The Messiah) will be anointed as our nation’s deliverer from all evil – including its citizens – on January 20, 2009.

 

She looked like she was having fun

Clearly, Sarah Palin was enjoying herself tonight.  I have no doubt that she will relish the campaign trail and will not quake in the face of the Democrats and their allies in the main stream media.

To those launching sexist attacks suggesting she can’t handle being a mom and a vice presidential candidate, I’d suggest that she can play the attack dog v.p. candidate while not chipping a nail or forgetting to feed her children.

The biggest problem with her speech is that it was probably better than McCain’s will be.

 

Gov. Palin

Earlier, she may have shown how to field dress a moose.  Tonight, she showed how  to field dress Democrats.