I know the political reason for Obama wanting DC to have house representation, and consequently why we would not want that, but what are the underlting premises that justify them not having some sort of representation in federal government?

I am pinned down by some nasty liberals that I would love to give a constitutional answer to, and provide whatever collateral reasoning available.

Thank you gentleman!

Contact info including facsimile for the Senate GOP backstabbers are here.

House members’ e-mail addresses here or here.

And of course the phone numbers they won’t answer for the dirty 4 are;

Collins (202) 224-2523
Snowe (202) 224-5344
Voinovich (202) 224-3353
Specter (202) 224-4254

I have to agree with Patrick Rufini here, it is time to engage the left on our terms…

Let me first state that I don’t particularly care who writes for the New York Times op-ed page, and think all the handwringing about who will replace Bill Kristol is a collosal waste of time for conservatives. I long ago stopped reading the editorial pages, and rely mostly on RSS and the news section for my daily fill of politics. If I ever want opinion, which is a rarer and rarer thing in a media environment that prizes raw information, I read the smart blogs on highly relevant topics, like Marginal Revolution.

I have a great deal of respect for Bill Kristol and David Brooks (or for that matter, Charles Krauthammer and George Will), but they play a very defined role in the process — which is to represent a safe flavor of Beltway-centric conservatism that is acceptable within the Acela corridor. I appreciate that someone has to play this role, but by engaging in this parlor game, we are playing with fire: feeding the left’s desire to elevate a narrow elite of Times-worthy conservative pundits whose job it is to hold the braying Coulterite masses in check.

We shouldn’t play this game. Either we engage the liberal media on our terms or on none at all. The Times needs someone who is as far to the right, in as hard-edged and partisan a way, as Paul Krugman is to the left. The fact that strident left-wing voices one step voice up from Kos appear on the op-ed page is not considered a problem, so why shouldn’t the same be true on the right? Perhaps it would be better if both sides’ columnists were as reasonable and fair-minded as Brooks and Kristol. But if the Times continues to select liberal columnists who are locked and loaded for bear, we should accept nothing less for the right. To wit, the Times should pick Rush Limbaugh or a comparable full spectrum heartland conservative who defended Palin. Someone who would shock the Upper East Side, not reinforce its worldview in subtle ways. If not Rush, then Steyn or Lileks or someone with the intestinal fortitude for a fight.

Have you sensed what’s happening, it’s going on all around us as we speak. What was once the party of old white guys is rapidly becoming the party of, well you might be surprised as The LibertarianRepublican Blog’s Eric Dondero points out;

Lefty politics are no longer the fringe and no matter if the voters knew it or not they carved lefty politics into stone. Bill Ayers became the system he once fought against. Sure, they still wear the earring and say “fuck” a lot to maintain street-cred among the academics, but now rock has taken sides — it is for the establishment. Same with journalism, the university and pop-culture. The left has become a cliché. They’re not “Arrested Development” they’re “Golden Girls” with a soul patch. Snore.

Now that the art nerds and punks just became the football jocks and prom queens, a new rebel is emerging from the wilderness. They are the new anti-establishment. One minority force bands together against every other branch of government swallowed by the Democrat octopus. The last evidence of a check or balance against the popular people are now the Conservative Republicans.

We’re the new rebellion against the majority juggernaut that doesn’t take kindly to dissent. Make a fist and show them what happens when they tell you what to think, feel and believe… Give the people back the money they earned, fight terror, keep your hands off free speech on the radio and enable job creators to make more jobs. Until then, screw your hope and screw your change.

Looks like being a constitutionalist is cool again!

One of my favorite posters, John,  over at Swords Crossed posted a diary with a link to a recording of Hayek on a 1975 Meet The Press Show, so I wanted you all to have the chance to hear it, amazing how relevant his words are today!

Peter Boettk Writes;

This is F.A. Hayek in 1975 on Meet the Press. If you have never listened to a Mises.org podcast before, you must listen to this. I heard this Friday and I’ve been haunted by it ever since. A number of points stand out to me.

1) Hayek is amazing here. He holds the line. He is patient and explains very well. He refuses to relent. The core of his message is rooted in the Austrian view of cycles, and this interview demonstrates that he never stepped away from it, despite some far-flung claims.

2) The line of questioning he endures is hilariously naive and idiotic. We think we have a Keynesian problem now; it’s clear that these people really believe that policy makers can manipulate the economy like a machine, trading off unemployment for inflation and back again, with no trouble. So they hit Hayek for his supposed personal opinion that unemployment is better than inflation, as if the trade off is direct and easy to manipulate. How far we’ve come!

3. In light of the present crises, and the appalling ignorance of the present generation of policy makers of any historical understanding, it is so helpful to remember that we’ve been down this road before, and done all the wrong things before. Forget learning from history. The present generation does even know enough history to learn anything from it. So this interview really makes it clear what has come before.

Finally, all hail Professor Hayek. He really did a wonderful service back then. He has much to teach us 35 years later!

Promoted from diaries. While we normally insist on some sort of commentary to this sort of thing, really: what else can you actually say here that isn’t already flipping obvious? – Moe Lane

The House is our only hope. We should rise up and stop this Bill again!

Here was his point…

The original strategy was to emphasis the whole name “Barack Hussein Obama”, with even extra emphasis on the middle name. The name sounds foreign (it is) which makes the person attached to that name unamerican.

This “Barry” stuff totally undermines that strategy. Barry is that guy down the street who helps the old lady mow her lawn. Barry is the popular football player at the high school.

I don’t get it. Perhaps our conservative/Republican friends could explain it to us.

To which my reply was…

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I have not seen this on Fox TV, but did see it on their website?

It seems like such a significant story too? Instead they’re talking about troopergate, and BS like that?

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”

“However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open.” Zebari says.

Though Obama claims the US presence is “illegal,” he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the “weakened Bush administration,” Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.

While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a “realistic withdrawal date.” They declined.

Here is the story.

First, why does anybody watch, let alone go on The View?

Today John McCain did just that, and in a conversation regarding abortion, said he would prefer to have Roe overturned and let the States make that decision. How radical huh, only if you are Whoopi Goldberg and see an originalist view of the Constitution, that radical document us pesky conservatives would like to see respected, as a step towards slavery?

And why didn’t JM just straighten her out right there instead of coddling her? That was a golden opportunity to unveil the lefts pathetic attempts to remove logic and reason, and replace them with indiscriminate thinking, the very thinking that makes differentiating the truth from the false impossible for liberals!

Just when you think you’ve heard and seen enough for one election cycle, POOF, Joe Biden decides to spice things up a little.

SEN. BIDEN: No. The surge helped make that–what made is possible in Anbar province is they did what I’d suggested two and a half years ago: gave local control. They turned over and they said to the Sunnis in Anbar province, “We promise you, don’t worry, you’re not going to have any Shia in here. There’s going to be no national forces in here. We’re going to train your forces to help you fight al-Qaeda.” And that you–what you had was the awakening. The awakening was not an awakening by us, it was an awakening of the Sunnis in Anbar province willing to fight.

Ace of Spades has good a take on it.

On Fox recently Tom Ridge or Gingrich or one of those guys said, as he was comparing Barry and Gov. Palin’s resume’s, that among other things of course that she was the CIC of a “nuclear” Alaskan National Guard.

Now I have seen this, and see the missile defense system link, but is there indeed a connection?

Does Sarah Palin have responsibility as the CIC with regard to installations or oversight of Nukes?

Thank you in advance for any help!

I was stunned when I came across this over at “Capital Gains and Games” today!

So, it is true, when in the past we lost control of Congress via certified elections, we didn’t really lose control, we were outright fired! We failed to do what Conservatives do, control spending and limit government.

Ok, so we all know that.

But now there are two driving issues on voters minds, the economy & the war.

Up until two years ago we enjoyed the most high performance economy in Americas history, home ownership (I know we’ll address that in a sec), job creation, low interest, the dollar was healthy, new businesses being created, etc…

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n/t

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On Friday http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/baghdad-zoo.htmthat were donated by a North Carolina animal sanctuary despite protests by animal rights activists.

The tigers — a male and a female named Riley and Hope — frolicked with red and blue balls in a wading pool and playfully wrestled with each other in their cage, while U.S. soldiers and journalists snapped pictures and delighted Iraqis strolled by.

The animals, which were donated by the North Carolina-based Conservators’ Center, arrived Monday after being flown to Baghdad from the United States in a $66,000 trip funded by the U.S. Embassy and transported to the zoo by the U.S. military.

“This is a good day for the tigers, the zoo and the people of Iraq,” zoo director Adel Salman Mousa said at a news conference at the park in central Baghdad.

The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

Well, the book publisher Random House has bought into the fear and loathing bit with respect to the relationship between Islam and the MSM.

The publishing giant just canceled plans to publish the book “The Jewel of Medina,” by first time novelist Sherry Jones, fearing it may “incite acts of violence”. An eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled.

The novel traces the life of A’isha from her engagement to Mohammad, when she was six, until the prophet’s death.
Ms. Jones said that she was shocked to learn that the publication would be postponed indefinitely. She added, “I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammad … I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder.”

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I saw this picture in an article, and it occurred to me, who are we to suggest he is presumptuous or an elitist?

Can you get any more inference in one photograph?

Then I saw this next picture…

And wondered if I could try out for the role of Barack Obama in the next shoot!LOL!