Charter Member of the Sub-Media

September 08, 2008

Amusing « Politics As Usual »

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. The writer has zero grounding in anything approaching reality. It's a collection of unsupported assertions designed to explain away the fact that the Democrats' platform is not supported by even a plurality of citizens, and is slowly losing support.

Thank you for your time.

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posted by Nathan on 07:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Re: Unforced Errors « Politics As Usual »

Something occurred to me today at work. I wasn't 100% clear in my post about the Democrats unforced error.

See, I don't think the flags getting left behind say anything about Democratic Party patriotism, or Obama's ability to lead.

But while I won't go so far as to say "perception is reality", I will insist that perception matters.

Like it or not, Democrats have a perception problem.

There is a perception that Democrats don't love America for what it is, they love it for what it could be. There is a perception that when America is attacked by terrorists or criticized by Europeans, Democrats (and/or liberals) respond by wondering what we did wrong, rather than thinking maybe we're resented because we're right and a great nation. There is a perception that Democrats think Europe and socialism are just swell, and they want to make the US exactly like Belgium and/or Sweden.

Republicans take advantage of this perception to make Democrats appear less patriotic.

Democrats often make things easier on Republicans who want to do that. Such as refusing to wear a flag lapel pin after 9/11 (or even now) because it might be perceived as too jingoistic. They come up with terms like "flyover country." They make disparaging cracks about non-urban dwellers who "cling" to guns and religion.

Democrats forget two things:
1) Due to the balance between population and geography built into our Constitution (brilliantly, by the way), Montana and Wyoming have just as many Senators as California and New York.
2) There isn't quite enough population in the urban areas like San Francisco, Seattle/Portland, Chicago, New York, and D.C. to get elected President. So Democrats condescend to and disparage the people they need to win elections. They claim to be the party of the "little guy", the worker, the lower income...but only as long as they vote and are not heard.

How else do you explain liberal and/or Democrat disdain (if not hatred) for Wal-Mart? That's the middle-class store of choice.

So the flag thing was an error, plain and simple. Call it an error of not making a smart decision in dealing with unused flags. I think it far more likely that it was an error of someone not paying attention to details, or fulfilling their responsibility.

Because all spin aside, they flags were "in and around" trash dumpsters, and they sat there for one week and one day before anyone even picked them up. There's no possible way that can be considered theft, or dishonest.

Now, is it right that this hurts public perception of Democrats? [shrug]
As was pointed out, one under-emphasized aspect of a political campaign is it demonstrates the organizational and performance skills of your administration.

Like it or not, the American flag (and these were good-quality, cloth flags here) is seen as an extremely important symbol of the United States to a huge number of its citizens. Being careless of it would be like someone tearing up all your family pictures, and then saying, "Eh, it's nothing! I didn't hurt your family! Those pictures don't represent your family in any way, it's just pixels on paper! What, are you some yokel who thinks photographs capture your soul or something?!?!? What a rube!"

But in any case, like it or not (again), perception does matter. This was a blunder. Democrats are attempting to minimize the damage with spin, but I don't think it was very effective. And it was not a blunder that was caused by trying to do anything to Republicans, or prevent Republicans from gaining ground or anything. It was a complete mistake.

Now, for balance, I'll point out something I don't like much:
Misrepresenting truth.

Go read that. I saw the original transcript, and Obama isn't trying to shift the battle to a basketball court. He was asked a question by someone in the audience, and I thought that in that sort of context, his answer was very good, very human, and not arrogant at all.

Look, people, there's enough stupid stuff going on, like Obama and his campaign ignoring Sarah Palin's successes as governor of the largest single geographical space in the US to label her as just being a mayor of a small town. She actually accomplished quite a bit as Alaska's governor, whereas Obama has spent most of his Senate career to date campaigning for President. When he hasn't been campaigning, he's been avoiding taking any stand that could hurt him politically (and that goes back to his Illinois congressional days).

So do we really need to distort what Obama said about basketball? No.

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posted by Nathan on 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 07, 2008

September 06, 2008

HUGE Unforced Error by the Democrats (UPDATED) « Politics As Usual »

Democratic convention flags found in trash:
dncc-flags.jpg


If this catches on, it will undermine all the work Obama and Democrat politicians have done to try and convince people they love America.

In the comments, Mr Lady points to one possible explanation. Plausible, but not definitive, as I explain in my reaction.

But if you go back to the original link, and follow the links there, you find this:

The person claims the majority of the bags with flags in them were near the trash, on a dock, and would have been thrown away. The person thinks it was probably an “oversight” by the Democrats rather than any nefarious plot against the flag. But the person doesn’t believe anyone was coming to get them: “The flags were there for a week and a day and no one came looking for them.”

Caution, someone may try to claim these pictures are of the flags. Nope. It's the flags in the picture I posted.

Now, I'm sure it is an oversight, not a planned dis of the nation's symbol.

However, as I say in the comments, my military experience makes me take such symbols very seriously, and there is no more important symbol of the United States than the flag. Seriously.

It probably doesn't matter as much to enough of the rest of the US to make a difference, though.

Again, it will be interesting to see how it plays out...and if it even gets mentioned by Newsweek, CNN, the NYTimes; and if so, what spin gets put on it by them.

My business is making assessments of what is really going on behind foreign govt smokescreens. And in this case, if the Republicans stole the flags, I expect to see theft charges made. Failure to make any charges will be a strong (though not definitive) indication that the flags were going to be thrown out.

Final Update:
From the Hot Air post's comments:

Remember we’re not just electing one person or two, we’re choosing an administration. The people that Obama associates with will be giving positions of authority and power over us in the new administration. We have to judge not just Obama’s actions, we also have to judge the actions of those around him.

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posted by Nathan on 10:23 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

September 04, 2008

And Another Thing! « Politics As Usual »

The truth is slowly becoming clear to all:

All Republicans have to do is win the conservative vote to win the Presidential election.

Republicans no longer have to court Democrats to get enough.

We are now pretty much at least a 51% conservative (not Republican, mind you) nation. Maybe higher.

That's what all the churn about Palin is about. McCain got the conservatives on his side, and will win the Presidency now (barring a major miscue that allows the Democrat-supporting media to de-legitimize* either or both Republican nominees, a la Dan Quayle).

Read More "And Another Thing!" »

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posted by Nathan on 10:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
More Palin Reactions « Politics As Usual »

Someone mentioned Hillary Clinton's, "No way. No How. No McCain."

That reminded me of how horribly wooden Clinton is. I know some say she gave a good speech the other night, but in my opinion, she is a horrible speaker. Atrocious.

That line, for example, sounded like a high school drama class attempt to act. By a freshman.

And, not her fault, but her voice really stinks. It tends to rasp and grate, so you can tell she got a voice coach. But now, when she pitches her voice to carry (like she did in that line), she drones.

Bob Dole was a bad speaker with a bad voice, too. George W. Bush is a bad speaker with a pretty decent voice. The point is, you have to just speak and let the microphone do the work. Clinton can't, or won't (because of how bad her voice sounds when she speaks normally). It sucks that we demand certain aspects from our elected officials that don't have a direct relationship to governance, but Hillary Clinton lacks this key aspect. She'll never be POTUS.

Palin, on the other hand, is a good (not great) natural speaker. She has a nice voice, and she let the microphone work for her.

Here's another good roundup of Palin driving left-leaning pundits nuts.

Two related things have also struck me:
1) Lefties are deriding every Republican speech and ad as attacks and smears and negative.
2) A very, very few lefties are saying they are disgusted with their side's sudden vicious, hypocritical, and apparently sexist attacks on Palin.

Well, as has been said many times, this is nothing new.
It goes back to McCain's military service meaning nothing, but Kerry's making him a better choice for the job than Bush, after Clinton's lack of service meant nothing when Clinton was running against the elder Bush and Dole. It goes back to ignoring Senator Byrd's history as a racist (among many others), yet never relinquishing attacks against Strom Thurmond and Trent Lott as racist (among many others). It goes back to denouncing Rice, Powell, Steele, and Thomas (among many others) as not really being black, simply because they are Republican (-leaning). It goes back to abandoning the self-descriptive of "progressive" for the world "liberal" when people figured out what progressive meant, then abandoning "liberal" when people figured out it meant the same thing as "progressive" (trying to fool people with words). It goes back to playing the same word games over abortion, too.

Simply put, Democrats want power. They don't care how they get it, really. They will use all sorts of concealing terms and word games to hide who they are and what they stand for, they promise all sorts of magic dreams to single issue voters to build support, they make extravagant promises of government assistance and pork to buy votes, all so that they can enact an (elitist) agenda they know that the majority of the US will not, and would not ever, agree to. To be fair, they truly believe that once enacted, a majority of Americans will be pleased with the result...but they have no qualms about using any verbal or political tactic to get the votes to enact it over the current objections of the majority.

So attacking Palin because she is an effective conservative spokesman is par for the course.

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posted by Nathan on 09:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
My Thoughts on Sarah Palin « Politics As Usual »

Man, there's just too much to link in order to make my points.

So let me just say this:

Republicans are not as sexist as left-leaning pundits think we are. Palin is popular because she has conservative credentials. It has very little to do with her gender (although some feminist-leaning Republicans are certainly into that aspect). She would have been a great pick, regardless of her gender.

See, I don't know about Democrats, but Republicans I know actually pay pretty close attention to politics. Democrats, in trying to be Big Tent (so as to get more votes, I think), have lots and lots and lots and lots of single-issue voters who don't pay attention to the needs of other single-issue voters. Blacks and Hispanics hate each other politically. We just saw the rift between feminists and blacks play out between Obama and Clinton, right? Abortion on demand is just a silly concept to the gay rights groups. If Democrats have a unifying theme, it is that they represent the assumptions and condescension (although often not the actual needs) of urban, upper-middle class whites.

Here's a good example of the Democrat prejudice at work. He absolutely doesn't get Republicans. That's not really a bad thing for us, of course. We get lots and lots and lots of mileage from left-leaning pundits not understanding how we think and why we vote. Which results in lots of Cargo Cult-like aping of conservative stances like the "Strong and Tough" pretense a few years back, and the Kerry War Hero bid that directly lost the last election.

See, conservatives (and to be honest, there is only an indirect connection between conservative voters and Republican politicians) have a unifying political concept that underlies everything we vote for:

Individualism. We believe in individual responsibility, individual accomplishments, individual failures, getting to enjoy the fruits of your individual successes and paying the price for your individual failures. That means we tend to reject identity politics that looks only at group identifiers like gender or skin color. As a result, even though we do/say things that left-leaning pundits/voters can only understand as racism, we are actually far less racist than Democrats. We see people as people. We reject Obama as being an inexperienced smooth-talker, regardless of his race. We reject Hillary Clinton as a shrill scold, regardless of her gender. We believe things like, if one person can succeed from bad circumstances, anyone can. We believe in teaching to fish, not giving a lifetime of fishes. We do not believe, like Democrats apparently do, that identity is destiny.

Another thing that Palin's performance and reception shows me is that Democrats are in big trouble, politically. Conservativism is growing in power and acceptance. Please note, conservativism, not the Republican Party. Like I said, there is only an indirect connection between the two.

In fact, there wasn't a single conservative in the field for the Republicans this election cycle. The closest was Fred Thompson, who wasn't really a conservative, but adopted the mantle of Champion of Conservative Values, with the intent to use his acting/speaking ability to articulate our political views.
Heck, as much as I like and support him, George W. Bush isn't really a conservative. He is a conservative on foreign policy issues, but doesn't get much credit for it because he can't articulate why he makes the decisions he does.

In any case, Sarah Palin represents a true "pro-life, pro-personal gun ownership, spending cuts, increased energy production, personal-responsibility, self-growth, truly representing your constituents" political philosophy. She's going to be very successful in the Republican party because of it, and it will drive Democrats nuts.

Just like it says here and here.

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posted by Nathan on 09:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 26, 2008

Liberals and Democracy « Politics As Usual »

Some liberals apparently hate it with a passion.

It's not the right type of democracy, you see.

Democracy is only allowed when it affirms liberal tropes, not when it denies them.

Ireland and the working class of Europe has already experienced this with the EU "Constitution".

Sure, it's not all liberal elites who do this, or support this, or even feel this way.

But: lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. Liberals always lecture conservatives on people we reject who nonetheless claim to be conservatives as if they represent the entire conservative movement. Liberals don't even attempt to denounce this sort of anti-democracy detailed in the link, from what I've seen.

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posted by Nathan on 08:12 AM | Comments (1643) | TrackBack (0)

July 25, 2008

Dems and the Public Trough « Politics As Usual »

I have believed, for quite some time now, that the driving force behind Democratic Party politicians’ eagerness for social programs was a thinly-veiled vote-buying scheme.

After some thought, it hit me the other day that for a non-insignificant (although perhaps not even reaching a plurality) portion of Democratic Party elites, the true intention is that if you provide money, you can attach strings. Thus, feeding the populace from the public trough becomes yet another way of controlling the unwashed masses.

For me, from now on, the “D” stands for “Domestication”.

Read More "Dems and the Public Trough" »

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posted by Nathan on 07:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 03, 2008

...And the Next Thing You Know, We're France! « Politics As Usual »

What Tony said.

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posted by Nathan on 10:51 PM | Comments (40) | TrackBack (0)

June 02, 2008

More Evidence Dems are... « Politics As Usual »

...liars.
...basing their national strategy around deception.
...care more about faking appearances than winning on issues.
...believe pretending to be conservative is a winning strategy.

Read Ann Althouse's response to Ezra Klein's rambling, then take your pick of the above ending choices.

"All of the above" is a valid choice, too.

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posted by Nathan on 06:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 30, 2008

Politics and the State of the Union « Politics As Usual »

I dunno.
At this point, I don't think I care much anymore.

Democrats have fully and openly demonstrated their complete childishness and lack of integrity as a national party and as national-level politicians. With the rise of the internet, they aren't even hiding it any more. Then again, when caught, they flat-out deny it and are never punished for their prevarications. The fact that so many people still vote for Democrats makes me figuratively ill.

Republicans should win every single election in a landslide.

Sure, congressional Republicans have openly demonstrated they are greedy and willing to compete with Democrats for buying votes.

But the nation and many states clearly become more lawless, more chaotic, and less strong economically whenever Democrats take control.

It's obvious, people!

Then again, even as much as the Democrats willfully ignore the Constitution, I'm confident the pendulum will swing and we will someday have a nation of sensible, rational conservatives once more.

I'm old and crotchety enough to not worry about it anymore. The nation may be going to hell in a handbag, or it might not. In any case, things will come around. It probably felt much like this back in the 1920s, too, if not worse. The nation made it through okay.

Heck, maybe I'll find myself on a political path that will end with me helping bring about the change for a more rational nation, more rational legal code, and more rational voting populace.

In any case, I'm going to keep on doing what I'm supposed to and not get overwrought about stuff.

I think I'm really getting the hang of the Duty/Responsibility stuff.

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posted by Nathan on 10:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 18, 2008

Eh « Politics As Usual »

This is why I'm not that worried about a Dem majority in Congress.

The country is finally coming around to the conservative point of view on most issues (taxation, health care, guns, and the conservative view is even gaining ground on abortion issues).

I don't care which party pushes conservative issues, as long as conservative issues are pushed.

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posted by Nathan on 05:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 05, 2008

Too Obvious for the GOP to Use, Apparently « Politics As Usual »

Everyone's blaming President Bush for the economic downturn.

I know it's easier to blame one person than to blame a group, but it seems obvious to me:
We had an excellent economy until the first part of 2007, and then things started to go badly.

What happened in early 2007?

We sat the new members of Congress! To include handing leadership of both the House and Senate to the Democrats.

There's your economic downturn right there.

They did nothing good. They failed to reign in earmarks. They did nothing to improve our energy situation. Had they implemented just half of the energy policy President Bush recommended, we'd be in far better shape than we are now.

The 2008 Economy: When Democratic Party Policies Came Home to Roost.

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posted by Nathan on 01:46 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)

April 11, 2008

Funny Video (updated) « Politics As Usual »

Hot Air's got a funny cartoon up, but I can't watch it because I'm at work. So I'm posting it here so I won't forget to check it out when I get off work.

Oh, and sharing it with all my non-Hot Air readers, for what it's worth.

UPDATE:
Eh. It really wasn't that funny. This isn't the video you are looking for. Move along.

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posted by Nathan on 08:38 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 19, 2008

Sunday Racist « Politics As Usual »

You know, I don't actually consider it that bad that Obama had an ongoing professional relationship with Pastor Wright even after Wright stirred up anti-white and anti-American anger/hatred.

There are so many people who go to church without letting any of it penetrate, so why should Barack be any different than, say, a President hearing several times a year that he shouldn't commit adultery?

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posted by Nathan on 01:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 18, 2008

Obama's Speech on Race « Politics As Usual »

I don't really have anything to say about it, I just want to get in on that sweet, sweet blog traffic.

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posted by Nathan on 07:58 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 12, 2008

The Real Political Upset This Presidential Election Cycle « Politics As Usual »

A Senator will actually win the Presidency this fall.

The last 3 elections, I told people: the one with the most executive experience will win; it's held true since 1984 (if you consider 1 term as Governer to be greater than two terms as VP, and I do; and if you consider Bush I's other executive experience before becoming VP, and I do).