op ed review 2/28
A record-breaking gathering of more than 10,000 exuberant conservatives from around the country headed home after a rollicking three-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the nation's capital. Their excitement, enthusiasm and hopes for a conservative tsunami in this fall's midterm elections were palpable in panel discussions, organizing meetings and social gatherings.
Glenn Beck remarks closed the 2010 CPAC. Beck's message was one of warning and hope; a history lesson and sermon all rolled into one. ''...Progressivism is the cancer of
Conservative radio host Mark Levin criticized Glenn Beck’s CPAC speech attacking Republicans. Beck trashed the GOP as being “addicted to spending” during the keynote speech and has been a major advocate of the tea party movement, even suggesting the formation of third party of grassroots conservative activists. But on his show Monday night, Levin called on Beck to “stop dividing us” and suggested he "stop acting like a clown.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33353.html
Ann Coulter knocked ‘em dead. Delivering a comic routine that delighted the audience, Coulter took shots at every Democrat from the Obamas to the late Ted Kennedy. Coulter said that since President Obama was elected, "For the first time in my life, I'm sometimes not proud of my country," rousing cheers from the crowd.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/20/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6226648.shtml
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a victory in the annual CPAC presidential straw poll.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/20/conservatives.meeting/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee ripped into CPAC calling it increasingly "more Libertarian and less Republican over the last few years, one of the reasons why I didn't go this year."
http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2010/feb/22/acu-responds-huckabee-attack-cpac/
President Obama’s approval rating now stands at minus nineteen.
A
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/21/s/
“Harry Joe crunches the numbers and, based on the generic balloting right now, says the House is all but gone for the Democrats: Even in the best case scenario for the Democrats, it would seem that holding the House would be very, very difficult.”
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/measuring-the-coming-gop-tsunami
A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll. Fifty-six percent say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.
On the eve of the Obama administration's most aggressive push yet to pass a national health care plan, a 50-year-old audio recording of former President Ronald Reagan speaking out against "socialized medicine" has become a huge YouTube sensation. Nearly 1 million viewers have watched the video, in which the late president, speaking before he became
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs
A gay marriage law has forced the Archdiocese of Washington DC to pull out of adoption and fostering. Rather than be forced to put foster and adopted children in same-sex homes, the Archdiocese has announced it is ending its adoption and foster care service after 80 years.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000761.shtml
The U.S. Air Force admits that the chaplain's office at Andrews Air Force Base retracted an invitation to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins--a former Marine officer--to speak at a prayer luncheon held at the base on Thursday after the conservative leader criticized President Obama’s efforts to end “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell"--the military policy on homosexuality.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/61957
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday, the Army’s top command did not give the same enthusiastic endorsement to rescinding the Pentagon’s ban on gays in the military that was sounded by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier this month.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33358.html
The House Democratic leadership stopped a vote Thursday night on the $50 billion classified intelligence budget after Republicans mounted a campaign against one of its provisions that would have imposed fines and prison terms on intelligence officers who engaged in “degrading” treatment of terrorist detainees. The provision was introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA)
President Obama's decision to kill the
Three quarters of Washingtonians think it should take a 2/3 majority of the legislature to raise taxes.
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=ad7e51a1-a6d4-415f-be78-ab0246a3a467&c=28
Transit agencies in the
Great moments in socialized medicine: The Canadian Premier of
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h0QC7bditrEb3wYz_6_b-gsGGDxA
Jay Leno will be reclaiming "The Tonight Show" with help from Sarah Palin next week when he returns as host of NBC's late-night show. Palin is scheduled for Tuesday, along with Olympic snowboarder Shaun White.
“A bent to conservatism and family makes Hispanics a promising pool of votes for Republicans…more than half of Texas Hispanics call themselves conservative…”
Rush Limbaugh remains the top dog in talk radio, followed by Hannity, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage.
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Harold Witkov 2/21
Back in the sixties, there was a television espionage series called
My fellow conservative, there is an election this November, and I have a political mission for you. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to convince at least one person in your life whom you know to be a die-hard Democrat to vote Republican.
Although this mission will not prove as exciting as a
Background briefing:
I recently attended a two-day business meeting in which, not to my surprise, liberal business associates hopelessly outnumbered me. Ready to do battle with them in the field of political argument, I waited for them to start trashing the "obstructionist Republicans," which they did, and then I launched my own counteroffensive. I must admit that I had no success. Looking to change strategy, I later sought to continue the heated debating in one-on-one discourses. Sometimes, I felt I made real headway, particularly talking about Democrat runaway spending, a topic some could admit discomfort with, and then things would unravel because I went "too far." Evidently, I crossed an invisible line of credibility by defending FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin's intelligence, and by suggesting that the great Barack Obama may indeed be purposely trying to ruin our economy in his quest to remake
After returning home from the business meeting, I reassessed the political arguments and battles I had engaged in, what I said and what I should have said, and then came my epiphany. My grandfather was a salesman, my father was a salesman, and for the past thirty years, I too have been in sales. Had I not learned anything? Never in my life had I made a sale or heard a family story about a sale that was built around argument. Never had I made a sale by losing my cool, by sarcasm, by telling a potential buyer that his value system was out of whack, or that he was wholly misinformed. Obviously, the same rules should apply to the peddling of political thought. If I am to sell someone on a political idea, I need to treat him as I would a prospective buyer, employing utmost courtesy, listening skills, and by sticking to message.
Your instructions:
We are at war with Barack Obama and his political far left agenda. Barack Obama is not up for reelection until 2012. Since we cannot vote him out of office until then, the next best thing we can do is defeat his allies, the Democrats, this November. Part of our approach to defeating the Democrats at the ballot box should include chipping away at the Democrat base. The good news is this is not a mission impossible. If you follow the instructions below, you will find it far easier to get a dedicated Democrat to change his vote than to get him to change his political belief system.
This "get a Democrat to vote Republican mission" will be achieved never through arguing and heated debate, but instead by smart salesmanship skills directed at Barack Obama's Achilles heel: the economy. While talking politics with a liberal, it is your mission to redirect the political discourse to the economy. You must keep hammering away (ever so politely) at the obvious. Spending trillions of dollars we do not have can only lead to unparalleled runaway inflation or fiscal collapse. Printing money with nothing to stand behind it is monetary madness, as is the growing debt to the Chinese, as is the burgeoning deficit. This spending spree of Congress and the Democrats has to end before it is too late. Health care for everyone might sound nice, but providing health insurance to thirty million uninsured Americans sounds more like a budget-buster than a deficit-reducer. And remember, my fellow conservative, that when shining the light of truth on Democrat economics, you should always employ the word unprecedented: unprecedented deficit, unprecedented borrowing, unprecedented spending, unprecedented unemployment since the Great Depression, and unprecedented bailouts.
So let your liberal sister-in-law
"I appreciate and respect your point of view, but if this kind of spending through the roof continues by the Democrats, all the moral issues you espouse will go by the wayside. If this country goes bankrupt, as it surely is on course to, your good intentions in voting will be the equivalent of rearranging furniture on the Titanic. You might find this difficult to believe, but I am scared to death, and I am thinking about your children as well as my own. We are talking about the financial meltdown of
My fellow conservative, I understand that some of us are not cut out for this mission. We are not all meant for undercover work. You may believe that to hold one's tongue is a sign of weakness, and that fair Lady Sarah Palin needs her honor defended with the throwing down of the gauntlet when necessary. I appreciate the sentiment. You are excused from this mission, and you may withdraw with head held high. For those willing to accept this political mission, however, I trust that you can take it from here. Good luck.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/your_political_mission_should.html
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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"A mere three days before President Obama's supposedly bipartisan health-care summit, the White House [Monday] released a new blueprint that Democrats say they will ram through Congress with or without Republican support. So after election defeats in
-The Wall Street Journal
"The president says he doesn't want to make a theatrical production of it, but since the president himself is a theatrical production, it's difficult to see how the great health care summit can be anything but……The Democratic task at hand is to animate a corpse with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and who wants to volunteer for that? But Mr. Obama is determined to prop it up for a vote."
-Wesley Pruden
"[Barack Obama failed to sell a health care reform plan to American voters] because the utter implausibility of its central promise -- expanded coverage at lower cost -- led voters to conclude that it would lead ultimately to more government, more taxes and more debt."
-Charles Krauthammer
"This is a perfect snapshot of the West at twilight. On the one hand, governments of developed nations microregulate every aspect of your life in the interests of 'keeping you safe.' ... On the other hand, when it comes to 'keeping you safe' from real threats, such as a millenarian theocracy that claims universal jurisdiction,
-Mark Steyn
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GLOBALONEY
Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/21/sea-level-geoscience-retract-siddall
A senator wants an investigation of the false climate testimony before Congress and wants Al Gore to reappear. The illegalities may involve more than just lying to Congress. Ranking Republican James Inhofe told EPA head Lisa Jackson that man-induced climate change was a "hoax" concocted by ideologically motivated researchers who "cooked the science."
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522120
At one time some would call them "deniers." The more generous called them "skeptics." But now, increasingly, it appears that they can be called something else: sane.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/time_to_turn_up_the_heat_on_th.html
Snow Moving towards
http://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/stories/More-Snow-Expected-Tonight-84994822.html
Al Gore's Nine Lies
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522005
George Will: “A religion is what the faith in catastrophic man-made global warming has become. It is now a tissue of assertions impervious to evidence, assertions that everything, including a historic blizzard, supposedly confirms and nothing, not even the absence of warming, can falsify.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021903046.html
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BOOKS
“The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran” by Robert Spencer. Spencer unveils the mysteries lying behind this powerful book, guiding readers through the controversies surrounding the Koran's origins and its most contentious passages. Stripping out the obsolete debates, Spencer focuses on the Koran's decrees toward Jews, Christians, and other Infidels, explaining how they were viewed in Muhammad's time, what they've supposedly done wrong, and most important, what the Koran has in store for them.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
Astroturf on the left: Visitors at radio.barackobama.com are provided with a phone number of a conservative talk radio show, and a list of health care talking points.
Barbra Streisand says “Elections Should be Won -- Not Bought”, but has given over $600,000 to political causes.
How’s this for chutzpah: "After a decade of profligacy, the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don't walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility. It's easy to get up in front of the cameras and rant against exploding deficits. What's hard is actually getting deficits under control. But that's what we must do. Like families across the country, we have to take responsibility for every dollar we spend."
-Barack Obama
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ARTICLES
Michael Barone: “You are victims. You are helpless against the wiles of big corporations and insurance companies and you need protection. You need the government to take over and do things you cannot do for yourself. That is the thinking of what David Brooks calls "the educated class" that favors the Democrats' health care bills. Members of this elite spout tales of woe of people denied coverage or care with the implication that there but for the grace of government go you. So sign on and the government will take care of everything…”
The
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/20373
“Keeping You Safe:
http://article.nationalreview.com/425573/keeping-you-safe/mark-steyn
“While our attention was elsewhere, the Democratic Party (and Rep Jim McDermott) launched a disgraceful sneak attack against our intelligence professionals. The Democrats attempted to subject anyone who interrogates a terrorist in a less than gentle manner--for example, by "exploiting the phobias of the individual," to 15 years' imprisonment.”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/02/025690.php
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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Must see smackdown: The Dallas Tea Party answers MSNBCs Keith Olbermann.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMdPTpOyUk4
The Rube Goldberg Machine contest 2010. National Finals are at
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WISE WORDS
"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians."
-Benjamin Disraeli
"The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish."
-Frederic Bastiat
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7:26 AM
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