http://www.redstate.com/socrates Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:49:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Fighting hard against stagnation in the Federal budget deficit, President Obama has commissioned a blue-ribbon panel to recommend ways a commission could study some recommendations for raising taxes. “Let me be clear: this commission I’m commissioning is not about me,” Mr. Obama said, surprising the audience with his candor. “I take ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2010/02/19/president-obama-creates-deficit-commission/ It should be non-controversial to say it, but I don't think it will be.  We do not have to find a candidate for president in 2012. In the first place, it's too early even to talk about 2012.  Focus on 2010, and putting small-government candidates in office. What we have to do, ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2010/02/18/we-do-not-have-to-find-a-candidate-for-2012/ Republicans across the country hailed a move by the White House to end its self-imposed media blackout. An administration press secretary close to the issue made the announcement off the record in response to widespread Tea Party disappointment with the President. “The President only made 411 speeches in his first year,” said ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2010/02/16/white-house-to-end-self-imposed-media-blackout/ According to Politico, the President was the clear winner of a confrontation with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY): The Senate confirmed a huge group of administration nominees on Thursday, following a tense exchange between President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell was reportedly convinced by the president's ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2010/02/12/mcconnell-didnt-blink-he-was-just-sleeping/ In a media conference call Wednesday, Illinois GOP Chair Pat Brady called the opposition to US Senate candidate Rep. Mark Kirk a 'fringe movement.' This outrageous claim shows how out of touch with the American people the Republican Party leadership has become. Pat Brady must resign as head of the ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2010/01/21/illinois-republican-chairman-says-base-is-a-fringe-movement/ Imagine for a moment that were the White House. Imagine that all of the hospitals in Washington, DC were destroyed by an earthquake. Imagine, just for a bit, that the earthquake had killed tens of thousands of your countrymen. Now imagine learning that someone went on television and said this: Pat Robertson on ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2010/01/13/i-denounce-pat-robertson/ The story of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and his manifestly racist comments has stirred up quite a bit of controversy, but most of it has focused on the wrong aspects.  The poor focus is a partly a result of the liberal media echo chamber, but also from conservative ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2010/01/12/barack-obama-gracious-marxist-speak-not-for-me/ There are several fundamental problems with the way the United States Transportation Safety Administration combats terrorism.  These have their roots in fighting the war for the freedom of mankind as a public relations problem.  Too often we take a security theater approach, apparently in an effort to reassure the public ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/12/28/seven-things-wrong-with-the-anti-terrorism-policies-of-the-tsa/ Having received the opinions of all the stakeholders in the debate about what to do in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama dithered for three months and came up with the worst possible course of action. We should take no solace in the preordained historical fact that he will be known as ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/12/01/obamas-afghanistan-policy-is-the-worst-one-possible/ Via a sympathetic Reuters reporter, President Barack Obama wants us to believe he is worried about the budget deficit: "It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/11/21/not-even-wrong/ Republicans in Illinois have had a large field to study in the primary campaign for United States Senator.  With the departure of Dr. Eric Wallace, it appears that for conservatives one candidate is standing out above the others, Hinsdale businessman Patrick Hughes. Writing at Illinois Review, Sam Pierce says: Yesterday evening I ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/11/15/illinois-conservatives-favoring-patrick-hughes-for-senate/ Major Nidal Hasan, if he did what he is accused of doing, is a traitor and a war criminal, not a terrorist. A terrorist is a civilian who commits or threatens an act of harm against a civilian target in pursuit of political goals. That definition doesn't differ much from many of ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/11/10/major-nidal-hasan-is-not-a-terrorist/ It has been widely reported that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) gave Deirdre ("Dede") Scozzafava (R-WFP) $900,000 for her abortive campaign in NY-23. It's also worth noting that the Republican National Committee gave her at least $5000 as late as October 19. But considering the way that money was ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/11/04/the-27-million-lesson/ Sometimes you only know you're on the wrong road when it leads someplace the right one wouldn't go. Logicians call that process reductio ad absurdum -- the reduction to absurdity. For instance, this thing with eating your dog. In the Marines I was stationed for a time in Korea. On ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/10/23/reductio-ad-absurdum-when-to-know-you-are-wrong/ It is sometimes said that the Republican Party is the Party of No. That is to be avoided.  We should instead be the Party of Not Just No, But (Mabel, Grab My Pitchfork) No. There are many problems in our world today, and many more problems on our sister planet, Washington, PC. On ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/10/17/the-party-of-not-just-no/ I was nervous about the towering height to which Barack Obama has been raised by his followers. I had this awful feeling that Something Bad was going to happen. It's the way myths go.  I thought Mr. Obama's followers were going to crash from their messianic high, and when they did, ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/10/15/folks-i-was-nervous-now-im-not/ Americans are in pain. We are in pain because we are being told by the government, the media, and the whiners of society, that the government must rescue us from every calamity, every uncertainty, and keep the pain away. Yet we know, deep in our hearts, what seems to be a ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/10/07/no-pain-no-gain/ On the Wednesday edition of the Rush Limbaugh Show, a mom named Susan from Glendale, California called with the most awesome rant I have heard in quite a while.  You can read the transcript, but you really have to hear the audio to appreciate her level of frustration with the ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/10/01/what-susan-can-do/ All of the backlash, the Tea Parties, the town hall meetings, the rise in the right-leaning blogosphere are all about one thing. Barack Obama and his fellow marxists* in Washington want to take the thing from us. We even want them to have it. But we are determined that ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/09/30/see-heres-the-thing/ Q: Will ObamaCare use a death panel to decide who lives and who dies? A: There are no death panels. Q: It's true that they do not exist, currently.  That is how we'd like to keep it.  Does ObamaCare contain them? A: The bills before Congress to reform our health care system do ... http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2009/09/29/the-inescapability-of-death-panels/