This diary arose out of a conversation I had with Erick on Twitter. Erick tweeted about the RedState Morning Briefing, and I decided to thank him for doing it. While that wasn’t the end of the discussion, I’d like to carry my remarks a bit further on a medium more suited to long discussions.

Unlike most people my age, I’m a bit of a new and political junkie. Since I have to deal with attending your typically Liberal college campus (yes, they’re Liberal even here in the South), I like to make sure that I am well equipped to combat the latest Liberal lies and talking points. Now, I rarely ever have time to peruse my favorite conservative news sites and blogs (of which RedState is my favorite) be tween when I wake up and when I go to class in the mornings, so I have to look for the major events and headlines. Thankfully, RedState’s Morning Briefing provides just such a news feed to fit what I need.

I’ve been getting the Morning Briefing since not long after it was started, and I love reading it on RedState every morning. It succinctly sums up all I need to know about what’s going in politics, and it provides this information in one convenient place. Now that you’ve moved it to a special daily e-mail newsletter at Redstatemb.com, I’ve signed up for that, too. Even beyond it’s initial use as an update for the previous days news and stories, I have found it serves as a nice “Index” of sorts for the days stories that I can refer back to when needed. By clinking on the links in the briefing, I can go to original post here on RedState.

Erick, I realize it takes a lot of work just to run this site, and I realize that you could just as easily be doing other things with your life than providing us with the Morning Briefing. However, you still put the time in to bring it to us every morning during the week, and I just wanted to thank you for doing that. It is a fine service that helps me confront and defeat what the Liberal lies and indoctrination from the teachers and students here at my university.

So, if you can’t tell by now, go ahead and subscribe to the RedState Morning Briefing if you haven’t. Don’t let all of Erick and the other contributors’ hard work go to waste! I promise you won’t regret it.

I gave the link earlier in this post, but here it is again for those of you interested: http://www.redstatemb.com/.

If any of you happen to be in New York CIty today, for whatever reason, take a stroll over to the Empire State Building. If you don’t have a chance to be in the city, pay attention to the news if you can. You may notice something…different about its lighting scheme. It’s not always red and yellow, is it?

No, it isn’t.

The reason it happens to be red and yellow is that, for some reason, officials in New York City have decided to celebrate the founding of Communist China.

I was shocked when I read about this, but sadly, I am not making this up:

New York’s iconic Empire State Building will light up red and yellow Wednesday in honor of the 60th anniversary of communist China.

The Chinese consul, Peng Keyu, and other officials will take part in the lighting ceremony which will bathe the skyscraper in the colors of the People’s Republic until Thursday, Empire State Building representatives said in a statement.

This should make no sense to Americans. Why on Earth are we celebrating the founding of Communist China. The ideas at the core of Communist China’s founding are diametrically opposed to the ideas at the core of America’s founding. Remember, of course, that these are the same people who continue their oppressive rule over Tibet; who cracked down on the Tiananmen Square protests all those years ago; continue to oppress various religions (including Chinese Christians); censor the press, speech, the internet, etc.; refuse to recognize the democratic Taiwan; and so on.

Why on Earth are we celebrating this?

It would be interesting to see how many times the building has been bathed in the colors of countries whose ideas and philosophy happen to be more in line with ours. Israel, for example.

I must echo the people over at the Minority Report and request that you conact the representatives of the Empire State Building. You can do so by calling (212) 736-3100, or by using the contact form on the building’s website here.

Some of you may remember a few days back how Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) had said that he was willing to introduce a bipartisan healthcare bill to Senate, but if he couldn’t assemble such a coalition he was willing to go it alone with just the Democrats.

Well, guess what? He did:

Sen. Max Baucus’ decision to release his long-awaited health care overhaul bill with no Republicans on board dims the chances for a bipartisan compromise on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman insisted Tuesday that he’ll keep negotiating with the three Republicans and two fellow Democrats who’ve been in closed-door talks with him for months on the bill he was to reveal Wednesday. Baucus, D-Mont., said he hopes that by the time the committee votes on the bill, as early as next week, Republicans will be there.

But for now, despite numerous gestures to Republicans, Baucus has fallen short in his quest to assemble a coalition of senators from both parties behind his proposal. Obama also hoped for bipartisan support behind plans for reshaping the nation’s $2.5 trillion health care system to hold down costs and cover the uninsured.

In true Democratic fashion, Senator Baucus has essentially given his Republican colleagues the middle finger and decided to go ahead without their input. It is now official, this IS the Democrats’ healthcare plan. This is their debacle. Without any Republican support, they are the ones responsible for it.

But, going back to the excerpt I quoted, let me just point out how big of a pile of crap Sen. Baucus’ assertion that Republicans have not offered their point of view is. There have been, contrary to Sen. Baucus and the Obama administration’s assertions, numerous attempts from the Republicans to get their ideas into the legislation. In fact, between both the House and the Senate, Republicans have offered up 800 amendments and other pieces of legislation to get their point of view incorporated into the healthcare reform debate. The problem? All of them, yes, all 800 of them, have been shot down:

“The thing that’s killing me is that those very members on the Republican side have over the course of the last five months offered some 800 amendments and individual pieces of legislation to the — to the president and to (House Speaker) Nancy (Pelosi) and Harry Reid, to say, ‘Hey, this is our contribution.’ Every last piece has been rejected,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.

On Wednesday night, Obama told a nationally televised audience watching his speech to a joint session of Congress that he will listen to a “serious set of proposals” on health care.

Well, Mr. Obama, and you, too, Sen. Baucus, there are several serious proposals that have been offered up, the only trouble is you haven’t listened to them, despite your assertions. In fact, you have done everything you can to shut opposing plans and points of view out of the debate, despite your paeans to bipartisanship.

What we Republicans and conservatives can hope for now is that a) no Republicans defect to the other side when the final Democrats-only bill is offered up for a vote and b) the Democrats continue to destroy themselves through their infighting, which has been well demonstrated here, over this bill.

We must make sure that they own this bill now.

The Liberal media has sunk to ridiculous levels this time in an attempt to smear Rep. Joe Wilson, of “YOU LIE!” fame. The shocking bombshell? He took some caffeine pills a few years ago. Yes, apparently this worthy controversy these days. As The Hill reports:

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who shouted “you lie!” at President Obama during his Wednesday night address to Congress, admitted to regularly consuming caffeine pills in 2007.

It is unclear if Wilson still takes NoDoz, a brand of pill that contains 200 milligrams of caffeine a pop. By comparison, a seven ounce cup of drip coffee contains 115 to 175 milligrams of caffeine.

For those of you unable to handle the Liberal BS, might I refer you to the Jawa Report’s or Newsbusters‘ accounts instead?

Really? Is this how far we’ve sunk? I can only say “Big deal!” in response to this. I’m a college student. Does the MSM understand how much caffeine I ingest on a daily basis? I drink so much Coke (the legal kind, mind you) and related products as to make the amount of caffeine in NoDoz pale in comparison.

As Newsbusters pointed out, I was almost certain that this article was from the Onion as opposed to a relatively respected source like the Hill. Is the Liberal Media so desperate to create a scandal around this new conservative hero that this is what passes for controversy? Desperate indeed. Normally, it’s things like a marital affair or some sort of ethical problem that gets the scandal label. Evidently Rep. Wilson doesn’t have any of this, so this will have to do. At least the substance Joe Wilson was taking is legal, unlike the substances various and sundry Democrats have been caught taking (including our own President).

If you support Joe Wilson, let him know.

The trip home from college for the three-day Labor Day weekend allows me to do many things. It gives me a chance to spend some time with my family, catch up with old friends, attend a football game at my old high school….

It also gives me a chance to catch up on the local political scene.

I have written about David Scott’s farcical August in the past. Well, I was looking through one of the local papers from last week when to my eyes did appear yet another story on David Scott’s quest to avoid and dodge his constituents.

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Hello everyone! I haven’t been on as much the last few days because I’ve been busy moving back into a college dorm, but things are settled down now.

Anyways, over at NRO’s The Corner, Victor Davis Hanson has given us yet another piece of his brilliance with three observations on Obama and how both he and his supporters use the race card.

As we could have predicted, the reason, according to many Liberals, that we disagree with Obama so much is because he is black and somehow the thought of him accomplishing something threatens us white people. They say this not just in hopes of inciting racial hatred, but also because the same faults that were associated with previous Liberal standard bearers cannot be associated with him so easily. Unlike Clinton or Edwards, he appears to have his sexual impulses under control; unlike Gore and Kerry, Obama is quite articulate while at the same time coming off as intelligent and thoughtful (though it should be noted that there is a difference between seeming so and actually being so); and unlike Dean, Obama, at least in public, has his temper under control. He is therefore an almost perfect representative of Liberalism. Seemingly unable to comprehend that people might actually be able to disagree with his policies on principle, the Liberals assert that our disapproval of his actions stems from some deep-seated racial hatred or envy.

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He’s already written a superb couple of columns about why Obamacare is sinking and why Obama is retreating from it.

Now, he’s got a couple of novel ideas on how we can begin the reform of our healthcare system. He gives us these in his latest piece at the Washington Post.

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Promoted from diaries - Moe Lane.

Very rarely do I get to actually talk about my own hometown in a discussion on national politics. Very rarely are the goings on of Douglasville significant enough to merit a mention beyond the local papers.

However, that rant by Representative David Scott was one of the exceptions to the rule. As someone who spends a good portion of his year in that district, I can tell you that his little tantrum wasn’t the only time that Scott has behaved in ways unbecoming of one granted the public trust that comes with being a Congressman. There’s a similar incident where someone showed up at his house to discuss the healthcare issue with him:

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President Barack Obama, I am writing this to let you know that I am the mob.

You see those people crowding in front of courthouses, in the streets, and in public spaces in towns and cities across the country as part of the Tea Party movement? That’s me. You see those people daring to hold their Senators, Congressmen and Women, and other public officials accountable for their position on your healthcare bill? That’s me.

You may call it astroturfing, but I think you and I both know that’s it’s the real deal. Your attempts to socialize healthcare, your constant apologies for America, and your tax-and-spend ways, among other things, are making all sorts of Americans across this great country angry. This is the grassroots in action, and no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to impugn or discredit us, we will not be stopped.

I am the mob.

I know you may never read this, but I think it’s important for you to know why this has happened.

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I’m going to state what I think has become obvious to many of us over the last few weeks. The recent decision by those in the media to bring the “birther” controversy to the forefront of national discussion is not because the Right somehow wishes it so because of the Left’s continuing obsession with it.

There are numerous reasons why the Left is obsessed with it. The first one is because it allows them to discredit their opponents on the Right as mere extremists who are not worthy of listening to. They know that they cannot win in an honest debate, so they assault our intellectual integrity instead. It matter not that we do not actually believe such a conspiracy, we are guilty by association.

James Kircher has written an absolutely superb opinion piece on this subject at the NY Daily News. He points out:

It is not Obama’s right-wing opponents, however, who are devoting the most attention to this obscure, Internet-driven “movement,” if one can even use that label to describe such a paranoid groupuscule. Rather, it’s liberals, bent on portraying their conservative opponents as extremists - and changing the subject to help a President under increasing scrutiny for the substance of his policies - who are driving this story.

They are scared that we conservatives are actually winning the debate, so they bring this previously obscure and internet-confined issue to the forefront because it is much easier to call your opponent crazy than it is to actually debate them.

The other reason why they are trumpeting this issue so loudly is because it can be used to divide us. They know that those of us on the right who do not believe such a conspiracy theory would rather it merely go away quietly. They are hoping to exploit this by distracting the Right with its own internal quarrels so that we will be too busy to counter their agenda.

The next lie the left is trying to spread about the birther movement is that officials in the Republican party are somehow behold to it. As Kircher points out, the Left has tried numerous times to get Republican congressmen to say they believe in the theory, and each time, they have no success. He says:

Making the rounds in the propagation of this meme is a deceptively edited video produced by far-left Web site FireDogLake, in which an interviewer chases Republican congressmen around the Capitol asking if they believe Obama is a natural-born citizen. Some respond in the affirmative while others ignore the questioner, and it is this latter handful that liberals have proffered as evidence that the GOP is “fearful” of disparaging its “birther base.”

But the refusal of Republican congressmen to answer questions from a Michael Moore wanna-be is understandable; public figures are frequently accosted on the street by crazy people and amateur propagandists wielding cameras. In fact, it was later revealed that one of the supposedly fearful Republicans running from the camera’s glare was a Democrat late for a vote.

Don’t tell that to the birther-obsessed left. “The video makes clear that the Republican Party is captive to their conspiracy theory-mongering base all the way up to the top,” wrote left-wing blogger Jane Hamsher. It shows no such thing of course…

Later on, Kircher goes on to point out something I said earlier, calling your opponent names is much easier than actually debating them:

Far from seeing these charges as any sort of real threat to Obama’s legitimacy, liberals report every outburst of the birther brigades with glee - because they derive maximum political benefit from stirring up the story as long as possible. Why debate the intricacies of a massive overhaul of the nation’s health care system when you can conflate principled conservative critics of the program with a bunch of nutty conspiracy theorists?

They understand as well as we do that this, in truth, has no real chance of discrediting Obama or his legacy, but they propagate it because it serves their Machiavellian purposes, namely by intellectually discrediting and dividing us when we have better things to focus on.

I don’t know if any of you have heard of this yet, but for those of you looking to help our returning veterans who have been wounded in the war on terror, here is one way.

FOX News ran a story about a man named Irwin Stovroff, a distinguished WWII vet himself, who is running something called “Vets Helping Heroes,” which is an organization dedicated to getting those wounded vets a guide dog to help them in their daily lives.

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The RedState Gathering over the weekend gave me time to reflect on just how fortunate I am to be a member of a site like this. I don’t post all that much, but I’m always reading what you guys have to say. From the Front Pagers down to the diaries written by everyone else, I do my best to read as many of them as I can.

I’ve been here for 2 years and 10 months, if the info my account gives me is right, but it really doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. I guess time really flies when you’re having fun. I’ve seen many great posts and posters come and go. I’ve seen the transition to the new site and all the kinks that came with it.

I still remember how I came here…

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With Obama’s intent of drawing moral equivalence between us and our enemies, the need for moral clarity in the War on Terror becomes even more necessary. Despite the insistence of those on the Left to the contrary, there is a right side and there is a wrong side in this fight, and we have to understand this. Furthermore, we Americans have to understand that we cannot fight a war, any war, mind you, half heartedly. We have to be committed to winning it. We have to take it seriously. That is what so many on the Left, apparently including many in the Obama administration, fail to understand.

A while back, I had the fortune of coming across an absolutely superb essay by Ralph Peters that he had written for the Journal of International Security Affairs called Wishful Thinking and Indecisive Wars outlining precisely what I am talking about. The essay is far too long for me to post here in its entirety, but I do wish to discuss it with you. I’m only quoting the most interesting passages from the work, but I highly recommend you read it all if you have the time.

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Unsurprisingly, John McCain is unsure on how to vote on Sotomayor’s confirmation.

From Yahoo! News:

Sen. John McCain says he is still on the fence when it comes to voting for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

McCain says he is examining Sotomayor’s record as an appeals court judge to decide whether she understands the limits to judicial power. He voted against her when she was nominated to the appeals court.

I’m still holding out hope that he’ll see the light, but it IS McCain after all.

I know that those of the moderate and moderate-to-Liberal persuasion in our party might not understand it, but it should be abundantly clear. Sotomayor is not fit for the Supreme Court. Her views on race, affirmative action, and the Second Amendment, to say nothing of the rest of her views, are unbecoming of one who ought to be sitting in a seat on our country’s highest court. All judges, but especially those on the Supreme Court, ought to be committed to respecting and defending the Constitution. She does not.

Even fellow Republican Senator Charles Grassley, no bastion of conservatism himself, will not be voting for her. What makes this all the more amazing is the fact that he has voted in favor of confirming all 12 Supreme Court nominees put before him during his long tenure on the Senate, saying:

“I’m not convinced that Judge Sotomayor will protect important Constitutional rights, nor am I convinced that she will refrain from creating new rights under the Constitution…I’m not convinced that Judge Sotomayor understands the proper role of a judge in our system of checks and balances, and I’m not convinced that she will not allow her own personal beliefs and preferences to dictate the outcome of cases before her.”

Senator McCain, for once in my life, I find myself saying what I previously thought unsayable: Please, Senator McCain, listen to Senator Grassley!

Another part from the original article that disturbs me is this:

The Arizona Republican says the prospect of Sotomayor becoming the first Hispanic on the high court is part of the discussion, and calls her a great American success story.

Look, I understand that her personal story is nice and all, but it is largely irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Her personal story may sound nice, but if her views are unfit of a Supreme Court justice, then SHE is unfit to become a Supreme Court Justice.

Senator McCain, please vote against Sotomayor, and while you’re at it, tell your friend Lindsey Graham to oppose her as well, I know he has a habit of listening to you.

Well, like so many others here, I had the fortune of going to the RedState Gathering in Atlanta this weekend. Since I live in Douglasville during the summer, it was but a short trip intown for me, so I drove to both days of the conference.

I was very lucky to get there, as I, like many college students, have very little money. I was only able to attend after managing to convince my Mom that she, too, would enjoy this (I did need a ride after all), so a special thanks goes out to her for putting up with me and sacrificing her weekend (her last before the teachers in Cobb County have to report back to work) for the conference.

I enjoyed getting the chance to hear so many great conservatives speak. Michael Williams, Roy Blunt, Pat Toomey, and Marco Rubio will make excellent senators who will be great representatives of their people and advocates of the conservative cause, and Nikki Haley and Karen Handel will make great governors of their states. As a Georgian, I am looking forward to the prospect of having Karen Handel as my next governor.

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Doubtless all of you here are well aware of the “beer summit” that took place the other day. However, I’m not entirely sure if all of you saw a certain photo that speaks volumes as to the character of Sergeant Crowley.

You can find the image at the White House’s official blog here (I wonder how long it will be up there, though?).

The American Thinker had something interesting to say on the subject:

I am stunned that the official White House Blog published this picture and that it is in the public domain. The body language is most revealing.

Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?

And they are right. Sgt. Crowley had no reason to help Dr. Gates. After all, wasn’t it Gates who had insulted both him and his family? Furthermore, isn’t Obama supposed to be the emphatic one here (after all, it’s a trait that only Democrats are supposed to have because they “feel your pain”!) for inviting them down in the first place in the hopes of reaching some sort of understanding that never came to fruition?

But, in this unusually candid photo, the truth comes out. Obama keeps on walking paying no heed to Gates, and it is Crowley, who has been demonized throughout this entire incident, who is left to help the man.

I can’t help but think back upon a certain photo I saw of President Bush and Senator Robert Byrd.

President Bush had no reason to even want to help Senator Byrd, who had spent much of his time in the Senate railing against the Bush administration, particularly on the war in Iraq, yet he helped the old man regardless.

Note the difference between the two Presidents. Furthermore, note how both Bush and Crowley helped men who didn’t deserve it, at least not from them.

Character isn’t about who you are when you know the spotlight is on you, it’s about who you are when it isn’t, or when you THINK it isn’t.

Promoted to front page by Robert A. Hahn

I’m going to join in on the Veepstakes speculation here with something that someone pointed out to me.

Could McCain’s VP be Gov. Pawlenty?

An interesting article from Yahoo New has this to say:

Read it below the fold…

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Now, as all of us here know by now, a small group of Republicans (one certainly wishes it was bigger group) have been gathering in the House chamber since the recess to protest the decision by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to have Congress go into recess without attempt to solve the energy crisis, and if the Republican Cloakroom website is any indicator (and it by all means should be), they will continue to do so.

Since then, many of my fellow Republicans and conservatives have been trying to get the White House and the McCain campaign to respond to this.

Well, we have some good news on one of those fronts. As I logged onto to You Tube, I was greeted by a pleasant piece of news, a video of McCain calling on Congress doing just that.

The video is below the fold.

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With the Leftward bent that most of the music industry has, it’s difficult for a Republican candidate to find a good theme song for their campaign–remember what happened when Reagan tried to use Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”? Meanwhile, it’s noticeably easier for Democrats to find one for their campaign, like Bill Clinton’s use of Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)”.

But the good news for John McCain is that he might not have to look much longer for an official theme song for his campaign, thanks to John Rich, one half of the country duo “Big n’ Rich”.

Today, he unveiled a song he wrote specifically for John McCain called “Raisin’ McCain”.

Jump with me below the fold for the lyrics.

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I thought someone else here would beat me to it, but apparently not.

Anyways, we all knew it was a matter of time before something like this happened. It seems like you can blame just about anything on the magical theory (read: religion) of global warming and twist and contort it to say just about anything about it, its effects, and who all it hurts the most.

And you can now add black people to the list of things harmed by global warming, or at least according to Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC).

Jump with me below the fold to see what the esteemed member of Congress, and I use “esteemed” in the most generous possible of terms, has to say…

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