Wie Gates?

Victor Davis Hanson on yet another decidedly wise Obama appointment (man those last five words were weird to type):

The Gates reappointment is welcome news, given that he has provided stable, sober leadership during two wars, and overseen dramatic improvement with the Petraeus surge. Gates’s stellar academic record and years of government service probably make him on paper one of the most qualified government servants in American history. He has proven tough in firing people who were caught in scandal or free-lanced to the media, and has been outspoken when necessary.

Politically it makes sense that for a year or two Obama won’t have to worry that a wartime liberal secretary might embarrass an incoming Democratic administration (cf. the ill-starred Les Aspin and controversies over homosexuals in the military, bottoms-up-review, no tanks for Somalia, etc., and, then cf., the Clintonian face-saving scramble to find a centrist professional like Perry and then a Republican moderate replacement like Sen. Cohen).

That said, one wonders if, while these centrist appointments please moderates and conservatives (given the possibility of something much harder left), in aggregate they will undermine the hope and change mantra.

You see we are now moving well beyond the tentacles of the Clinton octopus (Emanuel, Podesta, Holder (?), etc) and even the promise to reach across the aisle and appointment a Chuck Hagel-like anti-Bush maverick — and instead are entering Bush territory itself. And that raises questions beyond “adjustments” seen during the campaign on everything from drilling and coal to campaign financing and NAFTA.

Rightly or wrongly Gates is the custodian of existing Bush U.S. military/defense policy (despite earlier positions on Iran not that much different from Obama’s advocacy of engagement without preconditions) and that touches upon everything from staying in Iraq until 2011 in accordance with the Petraeus withdrawal plan; keeping Guantanamo open a bit longer; being tough on Russian aggression in Georgia; homeland-security provisions; movement ahead on missile defense (cf. the Obama campaign video on that); present policy toward Iran; Predator strikes in Pakistan; and on and on — many of which policies candidate hope-and-change Obama in the past has strongly denounced.

Imagine Candidate Obama announcing in August, “And if I am elected President I promise to enact hope and change with Ron Emanuel as my chief of staff, John Podesta as my transition chairman, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Larry Summers as my chief White House economic adviser, and Bob Gates as my secretary of Defense.”

Bottom line: very good appointment

Swiped from NRO's The Corner

The Fountainhead

Author/Philosopher Ayn Rand is something of a controversial icon among libertarians and conservatives. Rand's Objectivist school of thought, with its emphasis on rugged (perhaps ruthless) individualism, laissez faire capitalism, and man's personal happiness as a moral end, has had as significant an impact on some in the modern conservative movement as the late, great William F. Buckley. (Ironically, or perhaps not, Buckley's National Review mocked Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged when it was first published. Whittaker Chambers's review included the now-famous: "from almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: "To a gas chamber — go!")

Rand summed up Objectivism as "in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." Anything that detracts from man achieving his highest is immoral. This can include anything from personal cowardice to planning committees to government intrusion. To Rand it was natural that the objectivist pursuit could only occur in a society based on the principles of lassez faire capitalism and minimal government intrusion. It is not suprising that she held this view when one considers the events of her life: Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Rand was twelve years old at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917. She lived under Soviet opression until she was fortunate enough to obtain a travel visa to the United States in 1926. Shortly after her arrival, Rand defected and adopted America as her home.

The fountainhead portrays this battle between objectivism and totalitarianism in very stark terms. On the one hand, You have Howard Roark, the living embodiment of Objectivism, who comes across as much a force of nature as a man, the essence of will personified -- the book begins with Roark's expulsion from architecture school. When the dean asks Roark whom he supposes will "let him" build his buildings, Roark responds "that's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?"

On the other side of the battle stands Ellsworth Toohey, who desires to quash a man's spirit and therefore to rule him. (Toohey makes it his primary ambition to destroy Roark from the moment he lays eyes on him).

Both men are ardent atheists, Toohey being the archetypal communist and Roark viewing mankind at its full potential as godlike. The conclusions that both men draw from their atheism are perverse in their distinct ways. Roark's crowning achivement is a temple that he builds to humanity, for the worship of humanity. Toohey wants to drive all hope or sense of exceptionalism from humanity in order to control it.

Toohey is the obvious villain, Lenineqsue if not Stalinesque: "I shall rule...Make a man feel small. Make him feel guilty. Kill his aspiration and his integrity...His soul gives up self respect. You've got him and he'll obey...Kill his capacity to recognize greatness or to achieve it. Great men can't be ruled. We don't want any great men...Don't allow men to be happy...Happy men are free men...If you get caught at some crucial point and somebody tells you that your doctrine doesn't make sense, you tell him...that he must not try to think, he must feel...Can you rule a thinking man? We don't want any thinking men."

Roark is clearly meant as the hero by Rand, but his worldview and its practice lead to outcomes that can also be troublesome if not repugnant. As his defense in the climatic trial at the end of the novel, Roark delivers a lengthy manifesto which contends that "the first right on earth is the right of the ego. man's first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the persons of others. His moral obligation is to do what he wishes, provided his work does not depend primarily on other men. This includes the whole sphere of his creative faculty, his thinking, his work. But it does not include the sphere of the gangster, the altruist and the dictator." Perhaps not the dictator, but there is room for the sexual predator. Roark rapes the female protagonist Dominique Francon. Rand attempts to mitigate this by suggesting that a woman as strong as Francon has to be be dominated by a superman like Roark in order to be satisfied (Rand later said it was "rape by engraved invitation."); the reason he is standing trial is because he has blown up a partially completed high rise building. His reason, for which he feels fully justified, is because other architects have modified his original designs.

While Roark's relentless individualism can be at times refreshing, the Objectivism which he embodies must necessarily be repugnant to the Christian, for it is worship of the self.

Obama's Brain Trust

EJ Dionne on the PE's money guys [HT HH]

Like most conservatives, I'm relieved that the President-elect didn't appoint the presidents of various chapters of the American Communist Party (I'm kidding, potentially). Like most conservatives, I'm trying to put on a happy face about the incoming administration and breathing a sigh of relief with every appointment that could reasonably said to be pragmatic on the part of the President-elect. When it comes to money matters, the PE seems to recognize the need for people who know what they're doing. These appointments also suggest that he is coming to terms with the fact that he is not going to be able to raise taxes, at least for now.

I do not expect this administration to be nearly so "pragmatic" when it comes to judicial appointments, freedom for faith based organizations to act according to the mandates of their individual consciences, or stare decisis on partial birth abortion; in fact, I expect hell on earth. But at least when it comes to the economy, be it illumination, persuasion by others, or awareness of the ticking time bomb about to land in his lap, he is showing startlingly good judgement.

Plus, appointing a guy to your team who managed to get himself fired from Harvard is pretty cool.

They share nothing more a home state, as it should be.

Jonah Goldberg on why we don't want Obama to be another Lincoln.

Jonah Goldberg, with a typical example of the sort of staid, cerebral, profound-if-not-sublime responses that conservative points of view elicit from the left.

Great Moment In "The Office"

I think I literally spat out my drink when I saw this the first time.

Why we shouldn't bail out the "Big 3"

George Will nails it.

It seems we as a nation are on the verge of a fork in the road, each path being one way. The sign on the leftward fork reads "Socialism," the rightward, "Capitalism."

We just shilled out $700 Billion (our rather, our Lord Protectors just shilled it out on our behalf) to bail out the mortgage industry. One of the reasons this made me extremely queasy was because I knew that the bankers would turn out to be just the first party in line. I was virtually certain that the auto industry would be next. And here they are. Who might follow after them? Well, let's see, what other industry is perpetually in the red and has previously been a beneficiary of Uncle Sam? Hint: their products have wings.

A newly emboldened, possibly soon-to-be-a-supermajority democratic party has already made some noise about gaining a controlling interest in the Big 3. They already own more of the mortgage industry than they used to. Will future bailouts come at the price of state ownership?

It may hurt in the short term (it may be agonizing in fact) but I think for the long term health of our country, ie, to avoid the slippery slope toward increased government involvement (and ownership), we have to take a stand and let these industries weather the storm on their own--even if it means filing for bankruptcy. As Will points out, this could have long lasting positive consequences (In the case of the auto industry, ridding itself of untenable union concessions).

The Architect...

Gives the GOP some (at times encouraging) food for thought about the road ahead.

Money quote:

Then there were those who didn't show up. There were 4.1 million fewer Republicans voting this year than in 2004. Some missing Republicans had turned independent or Democratic for this election. But most simply stayed home. Ironically for a campaign that featured probably the last Vietnam veteran to run for president, 2.7 million fewer veterans voted. There were also 4.1 million fewer voters who attend religious services more than once a week. Americans aren't suddenly going to church less; something was missing from the campaign to draw out the more religiously observant.

Translation: pick a conservative, not a RINO, next time around.

"He Gave Up His Life For His Dog."

So reads the headlines in today's Sun Times, in a manner meant to convey heroic altruism rather than tragic stupidity.

Over the last few years I've observed the progressively unhealthy elevation of animals toward a place of equality with human beings in our society. The latest example.

Commie Cars?

The lurch toward socialism continues. Dems now want an ownership stake in the Big 3.

Your state-sanctioned hybrid handles like a dream, does she not, comrade?

Drudge reports:

"Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration... Developing... "

I guess it is possible to win big on election night and still be a bunch of losers. Don't these losers have anything better to do?

Professor Hanson

Throws in his two cents on what the Obama victory doesn't mean.

Veterans Day

To all veterans, and all who serve or have served in the Armed Forces, happy Veterans Day.

To the USMC, happy belated birthday.

PJ Sez...

It's a virtual guarantee that I'm going to disagree with much of what PJ O'Rourke has to say on any given post. But it's also a guarantee that I'm going to laugh and find some food for thought.

"We blew it"

I concur that a big chunk of the pain that we're experiencing today is a result of conservatives morphing into big-government "get alongers" instead of stepping up and being the grown-up party. Conservatives chose to be the "cool" parents who let the kids and their friends drink at home instead of breaking up the kegger and grouding the little punks for a month.

...and I'll get on my knees and praaaaaaaay...
We won't get fooled again

What's 2 Trillion Among Friends?

Unbeflippin'lievable

Oh well, Barney Frank says it's okay, and that should make it all better. It's not like Frank has been the largest receipient of contributions from the companies that are getting bailed out or anything. Oh wait, yes he is.

I wonder who received the second largest amount in contributions. Didn't he just win an election or something?

Oh well. We can all rest assured that our government is much more responsible with our money than we are. I feel better about socialized medicine already.

Just a thought...

I don't know if his transition team has gotten around to thinking about this, but if the President-elect is serious about bringing the country together, "reaching across the aisle" and all that, a classy gesture would be to ask Rick Warren to deliver the prayer at his inauguration.

RAGE!

Rush is talking right now about how when people on the right disagree with Obama, it's not dissent, it's "rage." He's dead right. Thou shalt not disagree with The One, to do so is evidence of rage. Your state sponsored orderlies will be along shortly to usher you to your mandatory anger management therapy. Remember, it's only because we care.

After the 2004 election, a new expression, "post-election traumatic stress disorder," was coined to describe the massive depression that swept Blue State America. Jonathan Chait coined the term "Bush Hatred" in a column about how much he literally hates George W. Bush (the right renamed the term "Chaitred). Liberals literally needed therapy. There were loud promises (woefully unkept) of mass migrations to Canada. Red-state America was bitterly dubbed "Jesusland" by the left. I remember how in the runup to the '04 election (shades of things to come) Chris Matthews absolutely lost his mind and started screaming at Michelle Malkin for an entire segment because she wrote, of all things, a book about Liberals who lose their minds. It was the liberals who expressed rage. It was the liberals who expressed contempt. It was the liberals who screamed and sobbed like bedwetting little girls (okay, they did that at the Obama victory party too). The right does not respond with rage when their candidate (in this case, Sarah Palin) loses. In the words of Ol'Blue Eyes, we "pick [ourselves] up, dust [ourselves] off, and start all over again. This obsession the left (with it's proud history of racism, eugenics, internment and silencing of debate) has with branding the right as "full of rage" or hatred, is so laughable, it's almost cute.

I remember having a conversation with some relatives of mine (well, really I wasn't really part of the converation, I just sat there listening in silent fascination) about Rush. One person who will remain unidentified commented that Rush was obviously so incredibly talented, but yet "so full of hate" that he couldn't bring himself to listen to Rush's show. I didn't bother to ask where that assumption came from. Apparently, that "truth" was supposed to be self evident.

Redwall

As heartrending as it can be that my sons are growing up on me (my oldest just turned eight! Who said he could do that?), each phase still contains new joys and memories. I took my sons on their first camping trip earlier this year, and many more will follow, of that you may be certain. I'm forcing them (and there was much kicking and screaming) to learn to play the guitar. I'm actually able to tackle them now when we play football. We can study history together (and grieve Presidential elections gone bad together). We can watch the Star Wars trilogies together. We can lightsaber duel together, and I've got the welts on my knuckles to prove it. And we're able to read longer books, that don't involve pictures, together.

We just started reading Redwall. I've never heard an ill word breathed about this series, which I myself have never read. I'm hoping we all enjoy it.

The Fountainhead

So one of the things on my "haven't gotten around to yet" list is in the process of being checked off. I'm reading an Ayn Rand novel. I had planned to comment/review/critique/whathaveyou at the end but there was one quote that was so magnificent I just couldn't let it go.

A description of social workers assembled to hear a speech:

...a flat sheet of faces, faces lecherously eager with the sense of their own virtue...

Love it.

Blueprint For The Future

Booyah.

The party needs to concentrate on the next generation of young conservatives, toot sweet. I'm very encouraged that the strategists are concentrating on names like Palin, Jindal, and Pawlenty. The era of the RINOs, culminating in the downfall of John McCain, is over. It had darned well better be if this party ever wants to win again.

As a reminder of what a winning strategy looks like, I reprint here that li'l ol' document that 14 years ago led to a GOP pickup of a mere 54 House and 8 Senate seats:

REPUBLICAN CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives.
That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.

This year's election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:


FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.
Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses. (Bill Text) (Description)

2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT: An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in- sentencing, "good faith" exclusionary rule exemptions, effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social spending from this summer's "crime" bill to fund prison construction and additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools. (Bill Text) (Description)

3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. (Bill Text) (Description)

4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT: Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society. (Bill Text) (Description)

5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief. (Bill Text) (Description)

6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT: No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world. (Bill Text) (Description)

7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT: Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years. (Bill Text) (Description)

8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. (Bill Text) (Description)

9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT: "Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation. (Bill Text) (Description)

10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Description)

Further, we will instruct the House Budget Committee to report to the floor and we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation described above, to ensure that the Federal budget deficit will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills.

Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.

Danny Gatton

Alright, time to cheer the heck up. The late, profoundly great Danny Gatton:


I have no idea how he gets sound out of that guitar holding a towel.

A Time For Choosing

The GOP must respond to this stunning electoral defeat by getting up and getting to work immediately. They must seek out and cultivate candidates who are at once charismatic, inspiring, scandal free, and who can connect with a wide swath of voters while at the same time holding true to traditional conservative values. As an archetype, might I suggest for the short list...


Bill the Cat.

Alternately...

The cast of the Gigglesnort Hotel.

The Illinois GOP

So I showed up at Lake County GOP headquarters in Libertyville at 6:30 yesterday morning. No one was there. I went to Starbucks for my free coffee and came back around 7, at which time the lone staffer was there to unlock the door. No one else was there. (One other person showed up 10 minutes or so later). I said, "put me to work." They had me drive around to various polling places to make sure the McCain and Greenberg signs hadn't been taken down. Okay, fine.

I get back to to headquarters about 11:00am, and in addition to a few old guys standing around doing nothing, there were maybe 4 or 5 people in the back calling voters using their own cell phones. (When I volunteered in 2004, not only were there people out the yingyang, but there was a bank of dedicated land lines for making calls.) Not having a cell phone on me, I was asked to drive over to a Kirk campaign location in Vernon Hills to help them out (I later learned that the few people making calls at GOP headquarters were actually Kirk volunteers). The Kirk campaign call center had more people than they knew what to do with. However, I was able to make myself useful by driving a sweet, 93-year-old lady to the polls. I asked the Kirk staffer who gave me the assignment if I should talk to her about voting GOP. He basically said nah, she's already for Kirk and the other races don't matter. This stunned me, but I didn't say anything else about it.

When I got back to the Kirk call center around 1 pm, they debated sending me to another call center in Northbook, but that location too was fully stocked with volunteers and in fact, idle helpers were being sent back to the Vernon Hills location. So I told the Kirk staffer that I was going to go back to GOP headquarters to see if I could be of further assistance.

Upon arrival back in Libertyville I took the office's sole available landline and sat down to make some calls. Upon reading the script, I realized that headquarters also was exclusively focusing on Congressman Mark Kirk. The script didn't contain any exhortation to get out and vote for McCain, or for Steve Greenberg, the challenger in my district. No, in addition to having a number of his own dedicated call centers, Congressmen Kirk also had GOP headquarters making calls exclusively for him.

So, I sat there and "got out the vote" for Kirk until about 5pm. I'm glad that Kirk maintained his crucial Congressional seat. But why was there no effort focused on any other Congressional district? Greenberg, apparently, was expected to go it alone. So it seems was Sauerberg, who was running to unseat Dick Durbin. Why was I the only volunteer on the premises when the office opened? What were those guys standing about doing nothing actually doing? Why was there no phone bank, why were we not exhorting voters to vote for McCain/Palin? I don't get it. There's no Lake County GOP blog, no electronic campaign, no nothing. What I sensed was serious disorganization and serious defeatism in this party.

Okay, then

Before I comment further, a few brief words of gratitude toward those without whom the outcome of this particular Presidential election would not have been possible:

First, to former Illinois Senator Peter Fitzgerald: If you sir had not wussed out and decided against seeking re-election, Barack Obama most likely would not have become the junior senator from my home state, and would most likely not be my President-elect. So thanks just a whole bunch for that.

Second, to the Republican primary voters who for reasons ranging from anti-Mormon bigotry to willful stupidity decided to stand behind Mike "let's put people with AIDS in concentration camps" Huckabee: Good work. Without you, John McCain, the unelectable scourge of his own party, never would have made it as far as he did. Thanks for giving John those few months of false hope, and the rest of us that persistent sinking feeling in our gut. We'll never forget you, and the way you denied the party nominiation to Mitt Romney, the only man who ever stood a ghost of a chance.

Okay, just needed to get that off my chest. Moving right along, the good and bad about this election (I already commented on the ugly):

The Good:

Our country did just elect its first black President. However you slice it, that is a historic achievement and should (but won't) shut the mouths of all the fools who said that America was too racist to do such a thing. I wish it hadn't been this man in particular (I seem to recall hearing something once about content of character mattering more than color of skin...), but America has done it. For better or for worse, Barack Obama is a living refutation of any idiot who says that my country is just a bunch of ignorant racists.

The next four years will provide me with an enormous opportunity to grow in my faith.

Taking a 93 year old woman who had just recovered from knee surgery to her polling place was the highlight of my day.

The Democrats were not able to gain a filibuster-proof majority. Although that may be a moot point. Remember how conservatives were all crowing about the "nuclear option" after the '04 election? The difference was, republicans were too wimpy to use it. Not so the democrats.

Exceptional voter turnout. The people turned out en masse to make their voices heard. That is a good thing. I don't like the choices they made, but they have spoken, this is how Democracy works, and we take the good with the bad.

An opportunity for conservatives to show their character. When conservatives' candidates lose an election, as many did yesterday, conservatives don't cry like girls, enroll in therapy, apologize to the world (which, considering that we're the only western nation in recent memory not to move to the right, might be tempting for some), scream about disenfranchisement, or talk about moving to Canada (which is one of the nations that just moved rightward). We get off our butts, dust ourselves off, and get back in the debate.

A clearer understanding of what it takes to win. McCain Feingold is a joke. Limiting yourself on campaign contributions is a joke. President Obama has clarified for the world the kind of money you need to raise in order to win an election (though unlike him, our guys should try to do it legally), and reminded us in Axelrod that a campaign needs a mastermind. McCain's campaign had no Karl Rove. No Lee Atwater. And he needed one big time.

The Bad:

Where to start. Massive numbers of ultra left wing judges, appointed to positions for life, who will by fiat overrule any state that attempts to define marriage as one man-one woman, or that attempts to restrict or ban abortion within its borders, who will allow for greater persecution of faith based organizations, who will continue to remove any mention of God from the public square in the misguided name of "separation of church and state,"; An Obama-Reid-Pelosi troika that will unleash draconian global warming legislation, tax increases, a renewed ban on offshore/ANWR drilling, and who will attempt to silence free speech via a re-introduction of the "fairness doctrine"; A President who is a friend to unrepentant terrorists and hate spewing "holy men," whose campaign has just committed massive donor fraud, who has said he will bankrupt the coal industry, "spread the wealth around," raise electric bills, and wouldn't mind $8.00 per gallon gasoline, who couldn't bring himself to defend babies that have survived botched abortions, and indeed, views such babies as "punishments."

Finally, in lieu of "the ugly," I give you "the depressing": The get out the vote effort for the Illinois Republican Party. What a sad, sad, unfunny joke. I'll comment on what I witnessed when volunteering yesterday in another post.

Ain't said much lately

Haven't blogged much lately. What's to write? Everyone's got it covered. Barry planning to take down the coal industry is just more of the same--and by same I mean "crazy."

It's too close to call. I've said many times that I refuse to believe polls because they are dishonest and designed to depress, and they've worked. A lot of conservatives are depressed and fearful--and the race is too close to call. So why the depression?

Barry may well win tomorrow and have a supermajority of Dems behind him come January. But I'm not going to have to look at myself in the mirror and say I did nothing. Tomorrow, I'll be at my local GOP headquarters, volunteering.

If by some miracle somebody I don't know stumbles across this blog and leans right: do something. Get out there. Volunteer, talk to your neighbors. This election will be based on turnout and nothing else. Turn out.