If John McCain gets the party nomination, we are going to have a Democrat in the White House on January 20th, 2009. It’s that simple.

McCain has held conservatives and conservative principles in disdain as his evolution to left-of-center politics reaches its peak. He wants your vote now.

The Republican frontrunner for president, Sen. John McCain, promoted his conservative bona fides on Face The Nation, while also admitting that, should he win the GOP nomination, he would likely not win the general election without the backing of the party’s conservative base.

Guess what? I am not supporting, nor voting for the Mav. I would rather spend my energy working to get the right people into Congress. that’s where the battles are going to be fought. This Pyhrric victory syndrome we Republicans are engaged in is ridiculous.

There is a lot of weak tea rhetoric going out right now:

• Our duty as Republicans - we owe it to our party to vote for McCain no matter what
• McCain is better than the other two
• We can vote for McCain without violating our principles
• Four years of a Democrat in the White House will ruin the nation
• We should separate ourselves from the issues and just vote along party lines

Let me tell you - that’s crap. It is outright hackery.

• You want to know what we owe our party? The strength of our Republican principles.
• McCain is not better than the other two - he is unpredictable, which makes him much more dangerous. That is why they call him the Maverick, right? Politically, that’s what they are referring to.
• You cannot vote for someone who denounces your principles, and calls you foolish for having them, without having abandoned them. It is delusional to think that your vote does not directly correspond to your beliefs. That is a play right out of the John Kerry play book.
• Four years of a Democrat in the White House can be harmful to our ideas of government - if we abdicate the congress to the left as well. Work hard to support solid Republicans with solid voting records to the front line positions in the Senate and House. That is where the judicial nominations battles will be fought. That is where the health care battles will be fought.
• The party lines have been blurred beyond recognition by the likes of John McCain. With it, many of our pundits are dithering and quibbling about how “we gotta win”. There is no win in the White House this fall - triage this race and you will see what the choices are.

I am voting for Romney in the primary elections because I believe he is more open to input from constituents. I am not thrilled to do so, but I am beyond looking for political purity here. However, let me offer a prediction:

John McCain will get the Republican Nomination - and he will then choose Joe Lieberman as his running mate. This solidifies several things for him:

• “Proves” he can work across party lines
• Garners a lot of Democrat votes in key states
• Levels the polls playing field and throws the current statistical models out the window.
• Removes his need for conservatives in order to win in November.
• Creates the one scenario that neither Hillary, nor Obama can defeat with the relative ease the pundits think this race is going to exude

RNC, you are on notice. Strap a two-by-four to your back while you un-screw the motivations of Republican policy and recover your spine. We’re done with the status quo and not giving a dime until you get back on target of smaller government, individual freedom, less spending, and the sanctity of life. Call us together, when you are ready to talk.

I told you, there will be a Democrat in the White House in November. The question is whether or not that person is registered as a Democrat.

No Pundit Intended

There will be a lot of pundits criticizing Fred Thompson for a “lackluster campaign”. I won’t be one of them.

I hope Jim Geraghty’s source on Fred Thompson is correct.

Interesting how Democratic political debates and leftist blogs have the same tone.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a still new minister in the Montgomery area, when asked to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association and lead the black community of Montgomery in a boycott of city buses. Blacks were not able to sit closer than the 5th row and were required to give up their seats to white persons.

Yes, I realize these are primary elections we are involved in right now. I also realize that a candidate does not a presidential ticket make. But, I am already a partisan to conservatism and federalism, so I don’t heart Huckabee. This is not a media-driven choice for me. I have reviewed the records of all of the candidates - their money is where their votes are.

This is why I placed a Fred decal on my website - his record is clear and his statements correspond with his record. Don’t take my word for it - please. Go to FactCheck.org and see which of the candidates are manipulating their message and which are not.

Mike Huckabee is not a conservative - being an evangelical does not make him a conservative. Rather, he holds some conservative views relating to culture and social issues. What you will notice is a Buster Keaton like lean to the right - this trend starts about June 2007. This is around the same time the polling started on Huckabee.

So - let us look at Huckabee’s policy stances on the issues - you’ll see the trend I am talking about. I am discussing comparisons, not what I think is right or wrong. Huckabee has changed his stance on many issues once he started getting polling data. He is not a leader, he’s a poll follower.

First, some Federal Spending ideas from Mike Huckabee regarding the bloated Human Services Budget

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, often pronounced “TAN-if”) is the July 1, 1997, successor to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, providing cash assistance to indigent American families with dependent children through the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It is the United States’ federal assistance program commonly known as “welfare”. Before 1996, eligibility was determined simply by entitlement. Now, states are given grants to run their own programs.

• More federal funding of IDEA for disabled education. (Mar 2000)
• Maintain TANF block grants. (Apr 2000)
• Maintain federal Social Services Block Grant funding. (Sep 2001)
• Maintain flexibility & funding levels for TANF block grants. (Sep 2001)
• More federal funding for Low-income energy assistance. (Sep 2001)
• Supports TANF grants to states. (Aug 2001)

that right, more federal funding for low income families.

Now on to the trend.

Crime and Prisons - multiple flip-flops here.

• More drug courts & rehab, instead of incarceration. (Sep 2007)
• People naturally selfish; only God or punishment prevent it. (Jun 2007)
• Defends death penalty biblically as well as politically. (Jun 2007)
• Supports drug courts for non-violent drug offendors. (Jan 2007)
• Supports death penalty, but only reluctantly. (Jan 2007)
• Drug education fails; drug punishment works. (Jun 2007)
• Build more prisons, and privatize their management. (Nov 2002)
• Stricter penalties for drug-related crimes. (Nov 2002)
• Supports flexible federal block grants for crime programs. (Sep 2001)
• Treatment for drug use instead of incarceration. (Jan 2001)
• Tougher juvenile crime penalties; but let states set them. (Aug 1999)

Energy

• Comprehensive plan for energy independence within ten years. (Jan 2008)
• Energy independence: let Saudis keep their oil & their sand. (Nov 2007)
• Ethanol & biofuels are part of future energy. (Oct 2007)
• Kyoto was a mistake, but “Earth in the Balance” is not. (Jan 2007) (EITB = Al Gore)
• Shouldn’t limit oil production while increasing consumption. (Jan 2007)
• Explore ways to harness nuclear power. (Jan 2007)
• Promote alternative fuel technology. (Nov 2002)
• Voluntary partnerships reduce greenhouse gases economically. (Aug 2000)
• Kyoto Treaty must include reductions by all countries. (Aug 2000)
• More funding to develop domestic energy supplies. (Sep 2001)

Foreign Policy - Flip Flop on Israel; wrong on Foreign Policy

• Change tone of Bush’s arrogant bunker mentality. (Jan 2008)
• Protect US sovereignty, but earn respect abroad. (Dec 2007)
• Israel should not give up West Bank or Golan Heights. (Nov 2007)
• Not yet ready for two-state solution for Israel & Palestine. (Nov 2007)
• It’s not OK in Pakistan; bin Laden is hiding there. (Oct 2007)
• Genocide in Darfur matched by infanticide of the unborn. (Sep 2007)
• We answer to our Constitution, not to international law. (Sep 2007)
• Don’t pressure Israel to give up land for promise of peace. (Sep 2007)
• Not the job of the US to export our form of government. (Aug 2007)
• Support Israel as strategic ally, but respect Palestine. (Jan 2007)

Government

• Allow DC residents to vote on getting Representatives. (Sep 2007)
• Attacking others’ integrity reflects people’s own immorality. (Jun 2007)
• Supports term limits for state legislators. (Nov 2002)
• Limit campaign contributions, but no public funding. (Nov 2002)
• Not more government, but more efficient government. (Jan 2001)
• Disclose political gifts, but don’t prohibit them. (Oct 2000)
• Negative campaigning works with some voters but not with God. (Oct 2000)
• Term limits counter election skewed laws toward incumbents. (Nov 1992)
• Change House terms to 4 years, to avoid constant campaigning. (Nov 1992)

Terrorism

• Support moderate modern evil over Al-Qaeda’s medieval evil. (Jan 2008)
• Fight terrorism by increasing spending on armed forces & CIA. (Jan 2008)
• Opposes waterboarding; close Guantanamo as a bad symbol. (Dec 2007)
• Guantanamo prisoners are treated very well. (Jun 2007)
• Better to make mistakes at Guantanamo to protect Americans. (Jun 2007)
• Strength is more effective deterrent to war than weakness. (Jan 2007)

Immigration

• FactCheck: Yes, supported scholarships for AR illegal aliens. (Dec 2007)
• Pathway to citizenship must start at back of line, out of US. (Dec 2007)
• Send illegals home so all in US can hold their heads high. (Dec 2007)
• FactCheck: AR college bill accepted illegals after 3 years. (Nov 2007)
• Focus on demand: penalize employers of illegal immigrants. (Sep 2007)
• People are angry at government for failing to track illegals. (Sep 2007)
• Problems with McCain-Kennedy: credibility; secrecy; spending. (Jun 2007)
• Allow in professionals as legal immigrants, but seal border. (Jun 2007)
• Change rule barring immigrants from running for president. (May 2007)
• Path to citizenship if illegals admit guilt & pay fine. (Jan 2007)
• Import farm workers from Mexico. (Sep 2001)

Taxes

• FactCheck: FairTax would not eliminate IRS; just change role. (Nov 2007)
• FairTax is 23%; Bush’s study missed prebate & other aspects. (Nov 2007)
• FairTax eliminates all taxes on productivity & saving. (Sep 2007)
• Gut this incredibly complex and arcane tax code. (Aug 2007)
• Attacked as tax-and-spend by several anti-tax groups. (Aug 2007)
• Tax system penalizes productivity; needs complete overhaul. (Aug 2007)
• FairTax puts Going-Out-of-Business sign on IRS. (May 2007)
• FactCheck: FairTax requires 34% sales tax +$600B entitlement. (May 2007)
• Flatter, fairer, finite, family friendly overhaul: Fair Tax. (May 2007)
• Wouldn’t propose new taxes, but won’t pledge against taxes. (Jan 2007)
• Supports national flat tax to keep up with globalization. (Jan 2007)
• Remove the poorest taxpayers from the tax rolls. (Jan 2001)
• No tax increase under any circumstances. (Nov 1992)
• No national sales tax or VAT. (Feb 2000)

Technology and Government

• Apply broadcast indecency rules to cable networks. (Sep 2007)
• Spend on our infrastructure instead of other countries’. (Aug 2007)
• More bible; less blogs; more music; less network TV. (Jan 2007)
• Supports Internet sales tax. (Nov 2002)
• Arkansas becoming a leader in e-government. (Jan 2001)
• Level playing field for Main Street vs. Internet sales tax. (Aug 2001)

War

Iraq War: we invaded an imaginary country based on poor info. (Jan 2008)
Know your enemy: jihadists would destroy civilization. (Jan 2008)
Supports Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force. (Jan 2008)
Re-establish diplomatic ties to Iran, so we can move forward. (Jan 2008)
Attack Iran’s nukes even if Congress says no. (Oct 2007)
Many don’t comprehend the threat: they want our obliteration. (Sep 2007)
We bought Iraq because we broke it; responsibility to honor. (Sep 2007)
Iraqi government disappointing, but we can’t up & pull out. (Jun 2007)
We needed 300,000 troops to win Iraq; must finish the job. (May 2007)
Don’t judge Iraq war while we’re in the middle of the war. (May 2007)
Iraq war has made us overlook domestic agenda. (Jan 2007)
Opposing Bush’s troop surge is a dangerous position. (Jan 2007)
Deal with terrorism as a joint federal-state responsibility. (Feb 2001)

Crazy stuff

• Unions more prominent to fight high CEO salaries. (Oct 2007)
• Impeach judges for barring legislature prayers to Jesus. (Sep 2007)
• Attack Iran’s nukes even if Congress says no. (Oct 2007)
• Outlaw candidates speaking negatively about other candidates without approval (Jan 2008)
• Federal funds & state involvement in fatherhood initiatives. (Aug 2001)

On several issues, Mike Huckabee contradicts himself about the time he started polling in the presidential campaign. The earlier in time you go, the less “conservative” Mike looks.

No Pundit Intended

This is an amazing statistic because it should be much closer to 100%.

 In the poll, conducted in January, respondents gave the ultra nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Russia’s Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov a 1% chance of victory. 21% of respondents said they could see no likely winner.

Other politicians mentioned in the survey - Democratic Party leader Andrei Bogdanov and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov - were seen as likely winners by less than 1% of respondents.

53% of respondents said Medvedev would be able to handle his potential presidential duties, saying that he was “educated, cool-headed, fair, and hardworking.” Three other presidential candidates, Zhirinovsky, Zyuganov, and Kasyanov received 11%, 9% and 4%, respectively, in this category of the poll.

With Putin’s popularity, Medvedev would have to do something ridiculously stupid to lose the race.

No Pundit Intended

Subtitle: Another MSM Misdirection

 NORTH COUNTY– The president of the MEChA club at Palomar College has been deported to Mexico, immigration officials said Wednesday.

Paola Oropeza, 22, was arrested Jan. 8 by a fugitive operations team with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the department in San Diego.

So, we have an illegal alien working as an activist for not only illegal immigration, but the re-capture of the “lost territories of Mexico” (Southwestern United States), who is also a student in a college of the country he hates.

ICE deported him (drum roll, please) to Tijuana.  Which means he’ll be back in an hour or two.

And what does the “journalist” have to say about MeChA?

MEChA, or Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, is a Latino student group with chapters in high schools and colleges. It focuses on empowerment through education as well as political, cultural and social awareness.

Bunk - Aztlan refers to the territory the US “stole” from Mexico. MeChA is about revolution against the United States.

No Pundit Intended

This should be seen as the Kremlin further flexing its muscle toward Europe.

Gazprom set to take over Serbian oil and gas company

The European Commission is worried about energy giant Gazprom’s regional expansion because it is ready to buy a controlling stake worth a billion euros in Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), or the Petroleum Industry of Serbia, the largest state-owned national oil and gas company.
Experts said the deal would be closed during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Serbia on January 18.
Other customers were deterred because of the minority stake’s $550 million price, the need for additional investment and other prohibitive barriers.
Troika Dialog analyst, Valery Nesterov, said the Serbian company now offered more attractive terms for would-be investors.
Serbian authorities decided that a strategic investor would first buy a minority stake, and that majority stakes would subsequently be sold and top managers hired.
Nesterov said Gazprom had made the most attractive offer, and one that Belgrade could not refuse because otherwise it risked losing a promising gas project.
Gazprom will pay 400 million euros for a 51% stake in NIS and will invest the remaining 600 million euros into corporate development. The energy giant also promised to assist in the construction of the 400-km South Stream gas pipeline system worth $800 million, due to pass through Serbia.
Moreover, Gazprom offered strategic partnership in building a gas reservoir in Banatski Dvor, Serbia.
Timur Khairullin, an analyst with the Antanta Capital brokerage, said politicians and corporate officials had virtually coordinated the deal, and that Serbia’s Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladan Dinkic who had previously claimed that the NIS stake was worth 2 billion euros, would resign from a commission examining the bilateral contract.
Commenting on the European Commission’s nervous reaction, Khairullin said any company had the right to sell their assets to anyone, and that its objections seemed far-fetched.
Nesterov said Gazprom had recently eliminated gas shortages in Greece and Turkey after Iran curtailed gas exports. The company did this by pumping more gas along the Blue Stream pipeline linking Russia and Turkey via the Black Sea.
“Instead of trying to create artificial competition for Gazprom, the European Commission should adopt a more constructive stand,” Nesterov said.

Here are some things to consider:

Oil:

• 45% of EU oil imports originate from the Middle East;
• by 2030, 90% of EU oil consumption will have to be covered by imports

Gas:

• 40% of EU gas imports originate from Russia (30% Algeria, 25% Norway);
• By 2030, over 60% of EU gas imports are expected to come from Russia with overall external dependency expected to reach 80%.

Coal:

• By 2030, 66% of EU needs is expected to be covered by imports.

Russia does not need to join the EU - the EU will be at the Kremlin’s feet.

 Peta's Virginia office has been rather busy - euthanizing animals. In 2006, only 12 animals were placed for adoption. The organization took in 3,061 "companion animals" in 2006, of which it killed 2,981, according to official reports filed with Virginia's state veterinarian. . 

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An official report from People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), submitted nine months after a Virginia government agency's deadline, shows that the animal rights group put to death more than 97 percent of the dogs, cats, and other pets it took in for adoption in 2006. During that year, the well-known animal rights group managed to find adoptive homes for just 12 pets. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is calling on PETA to either end its hypocritical angel-of-death program, or stop its senseless condemnation of Americans who believe it's perfectly ethical to use animals for food, clothing, and critical medical research.

Average euthanasia rate for humane societies = 35%

Average euthanasia rate for PETA = 97%

Being a militant, hypocritical puppy killer = priceless

No Pundit Intended

I know some of my opinions about Russian policies and the over-bearing nature of Russian government organizations are met with angst from people I respect - People who also know Russia. However, it is difficult to argue the perception of instability in Russia, when the current government takes archetypal soviet actions.

Beslan - 396 people killed, many of them school children held hostage in a 3 day siege. I remember it well. I helped raise funds for the victims.

The investigation was a sham - cloaked in secrecy. The survivors and families of the victims have never received satisfaction as to what occurred there. But, here is how they are treated.
From Siberian Light

True, under Russian law, such criticism of the President is technically illegal - the law was amended in 2006 to bring public slander of a government official within the legal definition of extremism,

But has anyone considered whether this prosecution is actually in the public interest? How will the Russian public be served by prosecuting a protest group led by greiving mothers?

Surely (and assuming that Putin isn’t complicit), the most sensible way forward for the Russian authorities is to accept that grief causes mothers who have lost their children to lash out, and accept this as a natural expression of their anguish?

Instead, by prosecuting these mothers as extremists all Russia does is trivialize its, and the world’s, ongoing struggle against real terrorists.

The Voice of Beslan published a letter in 2005, for which they will now be prosecuted.

addressed to "Everyone sympathetic to Beslan's tragedy" and posted on the group's web site, says "none of the acts of terrorism that occurred during Putin's presidency has been investigated properly" and that Putin has become "the guarantor for the terrorists" by not punishing senior officials for the botched Beslan rescue operation. More than 330 people died, most as special forces tried to rescue them during the final chaotic hours of the 2004 hostage taking at the Beslan school.

"We are surprised to find out that our right to demand a fair investigation of the Beslan tragedy has been declared extremist," Voice of Beslan founder Ella Kesayeva said by telephone from Vladikavkaz.

Kesayeva, whose daughter survived the attack, said she had been summoned to appear in a Nazran court on Monday. She said she had asked prosecutors to move the case to Vladikavkaz, where the Voice of Beslan was registered before it was disbanded by North Ossetia's Supreme Court last month in a separate lawsuit.

Vladislav Svetostov, a spokesman for a Nazran prosecutor, declined to comment about the extremist case ahead of the hearings. He defended the complaint, though, saying prosecutors in all regions are supposed to monitor the media to make sure that nothing illegal is published.

The Voice of Beslan was formed as a nongovernmental organization to raise awareness about the attack two years ago. Kesayeva led the group until the North Ossetian court upheld a lawsuit by another NGO with the same name last month.

Kesayeva accused the authorities of using the latest lawsuit to try to silence critical Beslan residents.

Many of these family members of vicitms and victims themselves also stood in 2004, blocking highways in North Ossetia - Alania to try to get attention for the need for investigations into what sparked the battle at Number One School. The Russian authorities in the region responded unfavorably then too.

I too don't indict Putin on this issue directly, however he cannot possibly be deaf to this . It makes no sense that the event which was galvanizing with respect to Russia's stance on terrorism has no attention from him. He appointed the commission which pushed this under the carpet. This is a federal issue.

As for the treatment of the Mothers of Beslan, well I condemn that. Their children paid the ultimate price for Russia's war in Chechnya - Russia's war on terror. They deserve better.