Obasms and the Obama Threat Matrix

As a counterpart to the term Rush Limbaugh coined eons ago, "Gorbasm", let me coin the term "Obasm", as that expression of adulation the Obamedia and the liberal global elites express over Obama's every word and deed. An example is this Canadian columnist saying in the wake of the election: "Proud to be American once again ... Americans are about to get their country back, and so am I."

Obama makes the liberal MSM swoon precisely because he is simpatico to every instinct of the liberal intelligensia, not just in the US, but in Europe as well. Harvard Law equals "smart" to them, being multiculturally progressives equals "worldly", and managing to be a black man who conveys tele-prompted platitudes of 60s liberalism equals "statesman".

Now that Obama has made some actual governing moves, his administration, still a vague and fuzzy future, is starting to take shape. The appointment of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State will confirm it. Obama's Clinton-retread appointments, and his mix of 'moderates' (i.e., what the media calls moderates but who are liberals who are not ideological hard leftists) and more liberal members is signalling a more conventional administration that some of the progressives might have hoped for. Obama has time and time again now, starting with his VP and the selection committee, gone with DC insiders, Democrat heavy hitters (Clinton, Richardson), and bureaucrats steeped in Government. For good or ill, this will make his administration more partisan (no Republicans thus far), conventionally experienced, and less "change"-like than his campaign conveyed. Meet the new boss, not much different from the Bush-Clinton-Bush era old boss, and with many of the same players intact.

Yet for conservatives, that only amplifies the threat, because in fact the serious left-liberal advances in the Clinton administration was in the quiet destruction of good administrative policy and its replacement with encroaching liberalism. Obama will seem to be restraining the left, but in fact he will be merely throttling it to enable a sustainable pace of advance, like a governor on a steam engine.

I have used the phrase "Obama threat matrix" as a shorthand for the specific actions the Obama administration and Democrat Congress would take to advance left-liberalism. In fact, the "Obama threat matrix" is precisely the threat of mainstream liberalism. It is precisely what make the liberal intelligensia swoon that makes me concerned. The focus of this "Obama threat matrix" will be the legislation that comes up in the Democratic Congress: CO2 regulation, ending the union secret ballot, amnesty for illegal aliens, higher taxes, budget busting stimulus spending bondoggles, etc.

What people really think of spending on alternative energy

In the same election that voted for Obama by double digits, California voters voted down two ballot questions:
Proposition 7 would have required utilities to generate 40 percent of
their power from renewable energy by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025.
Yes 3,294,158 35.1%
No 6,102,907 64.9%
Proposition 10 would have created $5 billion in general obligation bonds to help
consumers and others purchase certain high fuel economy or alternative fuel vehicles,
and to fund research into alternative fuel technology.
Yes 3,742,997 40.1%
No 5,581,303 59.9%

Romney says No to Big Three Bailout

Romney says Big Three automakers need real change, not a bailout. His point that the bailout will stop real transformation in the US carmakers is correct. The cost structures won't get fixed by a bailout. Only a bankruptcy that allows them to tear up the UAW contracts will do that. So the bailout is really a bailout of the UAW's overpaid union members.

How Obama got elected

This is a most informative series of video-taped interviews that show the effect of the media in keeping the voters ignorant, and the knowledge level of Obama supporters:

http://www.howobamagotelected.com/

Stupid voters can't fill out a paper ballot properly, and they get to decide who's the Senator for Minnesota. Scary.

No More Texas Drivers Licenses for Illegal Aliens

Illegal aliens no longer getting a free ride from DPS:

Maria has a Texas driver's license, which she got after coming here 16 years ago on a temporary visa. The visa expired long ago, meaning she is no longer in the country legally. Maria renewed her license anyway, because the Texas Department of Public Safety did not require that she prove her visa was still valid. (Maria — not her real name — and other unauthorized immigrants spoke to the American-Statesman on condition of anonymity.)

The DPS says it does not know how many noncitizens with expired visas renewed their licenses over the years, but it stopped the practice in May.

Now, under a regulation that took effect Oct. 1 in the name of national security, the state has tightened its license policy more by requiring foreign nationals to prove they are lawfully here before they can get an original, renewal or duplicate driver's license or ID card.

Good, follow the law; this is change we can believe in. One of those things - you write a Statesman article about illegal immigration, you get 300 comments.

Show me state election tips

How to win an election, notes from a Missouri state race.

The social conservative roots of libertarianism

American Spectator calls it "Defining Libertarianism down". It's a snarky commentary on a Reason article that curiously is declaring victory for libertarians in the midst of possibly the greatest retrenchment towards socialism and biggest expansion of Governmental power expansion since, er, the New Deal; after all, they are all making 1930s analogies. The snark is well-deserved, since the advance of freedom is basically premised on the advance of prosperity, the advance of individualism, and cultural trends that Bork called "slouching towards Gomorrah". The glorification misses the Elephantine Government in the room. Global UN Government; larger Federal powers; no abatement of socialism; education that is worse than ever. As AmSpec put it:

This means that when Obama-Daschle bring socialized medicine to America, I'll still get to order a chai latte and update my Facebook status to read: "We're screwed!"

As one key indicator of the tin-ear of libertarian self-congratulations, the Reason article celebrated the legal abortion-on-demand as one of those 'liberating' experiences that signalled the advance of libertarianism: By the end of the 1970s, the Civil Aeronautics Board was in the dustbin of history, sharing much-deserved space with price controls, the reserve clause, and back-alley abortions.

So in their book, liberty is advanced by denying the most fundamental right - life - to the most helpless of humanity, the unborn. Well, doesn't that beat all. Get thee to a declaration of independence, libertarians!

I've come to understand that (l)Libertarians who go around hating social conservatives are like teenagers who diss their parents. Thirty years later, they will find out that they are actually rebelling against the roots of who they really are. I was a teenaged libertarian once, thanks to a well-timed reading of Ayn Rand and others, but as I grew and matured, I understood that freedom unmoored from its foundational moral roots is like a house built on sand. (Matthew 7:26 in case you didn't know.)

The common complaint from the libertarian side, in discussions about the Republican party, is to get rid of the social conservatives and to view them not as ideological siblings, but as something entirely different, an alien and hostile force. For example, this comment was made at AmSpec on line:

"In fact, Republicans today, especially at AmSpec, seem to relish the cultural conservatism of the religious right."

And why not!?! The most reliable conservatives in Congress are invariably also social conservative Christian members. Check the pedigree of men like Tancredo, Coburn, etc. The Catholic church is standing up for the one fundamental and un-compromisable right - the right to life - while the Libertarian Party wallows the pitiable folly of 'choice' to kill humans.
The church also was instrumental in standing up against Communist rule in Poland, helping Solidarity, and thereby putting the cracks in the Soviet empire that made it crumble.

Meanwhile, here is what 30 years of Libertarian Party activism has wrought: Liberal Democrats winning some close elections they would have lost and NOTHING ELSE.

The Natural Law, a concept that grew out of Christian philosophy, is the moral foundation of liberty. Christian underpinnings of conservatism inform us that man is a creature of God and life is sacred, that there is a higher authority besides Government, that there is a right and a wrong and a difference between the two, that the ends do not justify the means, that rules/laws must be followed ("render unto Caesar"), etc.

Libertarians are right to love freedom, but are wrong to disavow the ancestral values and moral temperment that birthed that concept and gave it shape. The roots of libertarianism are social conservative roots and the soil it grew in was Christian soil.

Bailout Blues

From Blue-dot-Blues:

Total to date, including the Citi bailout, is $4.6165 trillion.

Numbers from Bianco Research:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
  
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
  
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
  
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
  
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
  
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
  
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
  
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
  
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
  

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

Commentary on these numbers from Red County.com.

2008 results and 2010 state-level preview

Redstate - the case for focussing on 2010 state elections, points out the redistricting that is at stake and where we need to win. Texas Statehouse is one place where that is needed. It has a county-level map of the 2008 results.

Obama Threat Watch - Strategizing a response

what's the best way for the GOP to start off on the right public policy footing beginning January 20th, 2009?

The above question was asked on NextRight by Matt Moon. He thought the answer is a shadow cabinet. I disagree.

What we need is a UNIFIED CONGRESSIONAL OPPOSITION EFFORT. We need a rallying point where the Republicans choose which battles to fight to slow down Obama's socialism as a unified 'loyal opposition'. That means that in effect we have a Congressionally-led party. Bad as that sounds, since that's like herding cats, the Dole-Gingrich combo in 1993-1994 did just that and it WORKED. It stopped some (but not all) bills and it led to success in 1994. Why and how did it work? Simple - we were able to say NO to bills that we exposed as flawed and became unpopular.

We can only have an impact via - filibuster, persuasion of blue dogs, and legislative slow-down efforts. Getting the public on board and highlighting key issues is how to get back in the game. Drill here drill now was a good model for this.

Here's a simple fact: A $1 TRILLION deficit will NOT be popular with the people. It just wont. Shoving all the Obama spending , and piling on with cap-and-trade ... that will be a disaster. The Obama/Schumer/Democrat stimulus bill will be an earmark and pork barrell extravaganza. We need to be ready for it.

There is no need to 'formalize' any 'shadow govt' that takes us down the path of presumption that we had with Obama's 'vero possumus' stuff. In fact, it is better not to have a specific target, since unlike a parliamentary system, such a 'shadow govt' would be a non-real entity. On the other hand, the 2012 contenders should be 'on call' for being a voice of the Party and the RNC should make multiple such personality the KEY PR FOLKS. Fred Thompson, Jindhal, Romney, Palin, Sanford, other governors.

OUR FOCUS SHOULD BE ON CONGRESSIONAL EFFORTS, since we are voiceless in the executive branch, and our only leverage is to slow down congressional action or temper the bills. IN ALL SUCH CASES WE NEED TO HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE.

1. A GOP STIMULUS ALTERNATIVE TO NEW DEAL 2.0

2. A GOP ALTERNATIVE TO AMNESTY

3. A GOP ALTERNATIVE TO UAW BAILOUT

4. GOP ALTERNATIVE TO CAP-N-TRADE (this one is easy; the earth is cooling right now; simply say "The earth is cooling, and so is the economy; rather than rush into new regulations, let us wait 24 monts or a mere 2 years and then debate and discuss this further; now is not the time to shackle the economy for an uncertain risk that seems to be less real every day.")

etc.

Matt makes a point about UNIFIED MESSAGING. It's well taken. We need RNC, and the House and Senate leaders and top Governors to be on the 'same page' on items and preaching the same themes.

Obama Threat Watch - Amnesty

Obama's Amnesty will be first up:

Q: Will there be as much of a fight on immigration as last time?

A: We've got McCain and we've got a few others. I don't expect much of a fight at all. Now health care is going to be difficult. That's a very complicated issue. We debated at great length immigration. People understand the issues very well. We have not debated health care, so that's going to take a lot more time to do.

Reichstag Fire Socialism

I will surely be blogging more about how Obama's socialism is getting implemented on the backs of a concocted and exaggerated crisis. Yes, the recession we are entering will be a serious one. But, no, nothing the Obama team plans to enact will in any way alleviate or forestall this necessary economic adjustment.
The claims that this is worst crisis since the Great Depression is hogwash. The only risks for a comparacle scenario will play out if Government over-involvement is repeated as it was then.

Spengler calls them "One Trick Wizards". My cynicism is well intact with Spengler's reminder of how poorly Obama's 'brain trust' has figured things out:

Has Brooks checked the markets? The cleverest people in the United States, the Ivy-pedigreed investment bankers, have fouled their own nests as well as their own net worth, and persuaded the taxpayers to bail them out. If these are the best and the brightest of 2008, America is in very deep trouble.

The plans for $700 billion to make or save 2.5 million jobs? IBD says it doesn't add up:

If Obama just manages to hit the post-World War II average, there would be 3 million more jobs by 2011.

What's more, Obama's promise doesn't keep pace with projected growth in the labor force. The BLS projects that roughly 2.6 million new workers will enter the labor pool over the next two years.

If that's the case, Obama's plan would leave the unemployment rate slightly higher in 2011 than it is now. Moreover, Obama's stimulus plan could eventually total $700 billion, the Washington Post reports. So, as former Council of Economic Advisers chief Gregory Mankiw notes, each job Obama "creates" will cost $280,000.

There is a 'cargo cult science' mentality to all the funny games they will play to justify the Government's wasteful and pointless spending of money it doesn't have, to fund programs that don't work, to show progress that would be greater if only Government got out of the way.

Quote of the Day: Frederick Douglass

“I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.” -Frederick Douglass

The Eyes of Texas are upon Independence

I saw this on a message board, and it was too thought-provoking not to share. Texas could be an independent nation, and would probably get along JUST FINE without the many additional burdens the Federal Government places on us. Food for thought as we contemplate surviving the Obama-nation!

Please note that Texas is the only state with a legal right to secede from the Union . (Reference the Texas-American Annexation Treaty of 1848.)

We Texans love y'all, but we'll probably have to take action since B. Hussein Obama won the election. We'll miss you too.
Here is what can happen:
#1: Barack Hussein Obama becomes President of the United States , Texas immediately secedes from the Union .
#2: George W. Bush will become the President of the Republic of Texas .
So what does Texas have to do to survive as a Republic?
1. NASA is just south of Houston , Texas . We will control the space industry.
2. We refine over 85% of the gasoline in the United States .
3. Defense Industry--we have over 65% of it. The term "Don't mess with Texas ," will take on a whole new meaning.
4. Oil - we can supply all the oil that the Republic of Texas will need for the next 300 years. Yankee states? Sorry about that.
5. Natural Gas - again we have all we need and it's too bad about those Northern States. John Kerry will have to figure out a way to keep them warm....
6. Computer Industry - we currently lead the nation in producing computer chips and communications--small companies like Texas Instruments, Dell Computer, EDS, Raytheon, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Intel, AMD, Atmel, Applied Materials, Ball Miconductor, Dallas Semiconductor, Delphi, Nortel, Alcatel, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
7. Medical Care - We have the largest research centers for cancer research, the best burn centers and the top trauma units in the world, as well as other large health centers. Dallas has some of the best hospitals in the United States .
8. We have enough colleges to keep us going: University of Texas , Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Rice, SMU, University of Houston , Baylor, UNT ( University of North Texas ), Texas Women's University, etc. Ivy grows better in the South anyway.
9. We have a ready supply of workers. We could just open the border when we need some more.
10. We have essential control of the paper industry, plastics, insurance, etc.
11. In case of a foreign invasion, we have the Texas National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard. We don't have an Army, but since everybody down here has at least six rifles and a pile of ammo, we can raise an Army in 24 hours if we need one. If the situation really gets bad, we can always call the Department of Public Safety and ask them to send over Chuck Norris and a couple of Texas Rangers.
12. We are totally self-sufficient in beef, poultry, hogs, and several types of grain, fruit and vegetables, and let's not forget seafood from the Gulf. Also, everybody down here knows how to cook them so that they taste good. Don't need any food.
This just names a few of the items that will keep the Republic of Texas in good shape. There isn't a thing out there that we need and don't have.
Now to the rest of the United States under President Obama:
Since you won't have the refineries to get gas for your cars, only President Obama will be able to drive around in his big 9 mpg SUV. The rest of the United States will have to walk or ride bikes.
You won't have any TV as the Space Center in Houston will cut off satellite communications.
You won't have any natural gas to heat your homes, but since Mr. Obama has predicted global warming, you will not need the gas as long as you survive the 2000 years it will take to get enough heat from Global Warming.
Signed, The People of Texas
P.S. This is not a threatening letter - just a note to give you something to think about!
SLEEP WELL TONIGHT THE EYES OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOU!!
One Nation Under God

Rebuild the Party Website

Click here to check out the new "Rebuild the Party" website.

(CLICK HERE)

There are now nearly 6,000 grassroots Republicans endorsing the plan to rebuild the Republican Party. Join us!!

The Campus Goosesteps to the Left

Mein Kampus is about leftwing indoctrination in college courses:

Is Mein Kampus a more descriptive term for many colleges in America today? Once politically correct thinking was limited to those disciplines which deal directly with politics. Today biologists must have politically correct views on Darwinism, geologists must have politically correct views on global warming, and criminal justice professors must have politically correct views on President Bush.

Bennett to GOP: Lets go to work

Bill Bennett interview has a lot of good insight.

RedState update

Wisconsin Democrats screw taxpayers and pay off the teachers unions by removing an instrument of fiscal responsbility.

Stop Obama's CO2 Regulations Now.

Pete Sessions is new NRCC Chair, will recruit more.

Obama's Socialized Health System Will Kill Conservatism

A scary article on how the Obama's nationalization of healthcare could cause a realignment of voters: How Tom Daschle Might Kill Conservatism:

Passing Obamacare would be like performing exactly the opposite function of turning people into investors. Whereas the Investor Class is more conservative than the rest of America, creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, who first found that wonderful Markowitz quote, puts it succinctly in a recent blog post: "Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival."

Stopping Obama's Socialism has the 'fierce urgency of now'.

Obama the elitist hypocrite

Obama will be spending $57,884 to send his children to elite private schools. He voted against school choice for the poor people of DC in failed public schools but wont send his own children to public schools. He will blather on about the need for better education but is so in hock to the teacher's unions that he blocks real reform that can save the children.

Yet he won't let his kids be subject to the system that he inflicts on families too poor to choose an alternative. This is the kind of elitist out-of-touch behavior that leads to politicians not understanding nor caring for the real needs of real Americans.