Is it possible to recall a draft campaign?

In February of this year, in response to a discussion about the "no-confidence" war policy vote, a few of us on the John Adams Blog floated a "draft Festivus for Congress" movement. This admittedly under-the-radar movement was begun in the hopes that a tough-talking colleague would release his full arsenal of rhetorical weapons from the constraints self-imposed by party hackdom and devote his considerable talent to making political life miserable for his incumbent RINO Congressman.



It is with deep regret, in the wake of his ill-advised, "Ron Paul--Nutcase? . . ." posting that I must now renounce all ties to the "draft Festivus for Congress" movement, and acknowledge that Festivus is too impaired by the disease of hackdom to function effectively as a voice of righteous conservative indignation. Perhaps Festivus' RINO Congressman can mine his connections in the mental-health recovery community and secure a spot for him at a rehab clinic.



Ron Paul may not have the "take-charge" attitude and commanding physical presence deemed necessary for national campaigns in the soundbite era, and one can disagree with some of his tactical decisions when it comes to advancing conservative and libertarian objectives. Heck, I would go so far as to acknowledge that one could disagree with some of his objectives and still claim to be a conservative. However, to call this accomplished physician, veteran, family man, and elected public official a "nutcase" is to dismiss and marginalize him in a way that could only please the left-leaning establishment media and unscrupulous political operatives.



Ron Paul is guilty of letting more fringe characters support him, and of allowing a base of support that is so decentralized he can't possibly maintain total control of his message. Nevertheless, as long he does not lend support to the fringe characters' least-defensible claims, I find a departure from the dumb-it-down, race-toward-the-middle strategy refreshing. The cavalier disregard for civil liberties displayed by Guiliani, the capitulation by McCain to the open-borders and global-warming zealots, and the streak of opportunism that attracts power-hungry operatives like Vin Weber to Romney should be far more disconcerting to principled conservatives than anything Ron Paul has ever done.



Go to the writings and speeches of Ron Paul compiled throughout his years in Congress and you will find recurring evidence of an articulate, idiosyncratic conservatism quite detached from momentary passions, yet equipped to respond to the worst of them. I thought that's what the JAS asks of its adherents.

Ron Paul - Nutcase? We report, you decide...

... or, more accurately, Capt. Ed Morrissey reports, you decide. Now I don't doubt that we'll find some way to explain away these statements as mere misinterpretation and mischaracterization by a liberal press, and perhaps that's true. But it is additional input into the equation for those vast numbers of people, be they measured by Gallup or not, who are considering becoming Paulites.

Gallup Poll and Ron Paul

Ron Paul scored 0.0 in the latest Gallup poll. I guess that means the paullites do not answer their phones.

Experienced

As everyone knows, Barack Obama at this point has a serious chance of winning the Democratic nomination. Besides being one of the most liberal Senators in the United States Senate, Barack Obama could also be the most inexperienced Presidential nominee in modern times. Barack has zero management or administrative experience and currently has three years as a U.S. Senator and four as a state Senator. Looking back over the last 100 years, I cannot think of a more inexperienced nominee and certainly not a President.

Here is a sample list of Presidents and their executive and legislative experience:

Obama - US Senator 3 years, State Senator 4 years.
Bush - 6 years Gov of Texas. managing Partner Texas Rangers 5 years
Clinton - 10 years Gov of Arkansas
Bush Sr. - Vice Pres 8 years. Former business manager, congressman
Reagan - 8 years Gov California
Carter - 4 years Gov of Georgia, State Senator 6 years, successful farmer
Ford - VP 2 yrs, 24 years US House, minority leader 8 yrs
Nixon - VP 8 years, Senator and House 6 years
Johnson - VP 3 yrs US Senate 23 years 6 as majority leader
Kennedy - Senate 7 years, US House 6 years, War hero.

I could go on and on.....

I suppose TR had little political experience other than NY gov for two years and VP for a year, but he held all kind of exeuctive titles, such as asst secretary of the Navy, President of the NYC Board of Police, US Civil Service Commission (OPM), and was a war hero to boot. Sorry Barack, you are no TR.

In fact the last person of such inexperience to hold the office was Abe Lincoln. The problem with that comparison is that Abe Lincoln is Abe Lincoln. No sane person would attempt to compare themselves to Abe Lincoln - a self educated man who worked his way up in life through strenuous manual labor. Sorry Barack, you are no Abe Lincoln either.

Does it matter.....

Stuck on Stupid

Many say that the Republican party is becoming irrelevant. Much of this started in the 2006 election cycle with all of the so called "principled conservatives." You know the ones - those who said that we needed a good thumping to teach ourselves a lesson. You know the ones - those who refused to vote for Republicans and instead wasted their vote on the Constitution Party or stayed at home mired in pessimism. Now, after a good thumping, we are about to get amnesty passed for illegal aliens by the new Democratic Congress, and we got tax increase after tax increase passed by the state house and state Senate. Yeah... we are sure learning our lesson. Now these idiots are saying stuff like... "I'll never vote for a Republican again if this immigration bill passes." Whoa.... didn't they say we needed a good thumping? This immigration bill would be headed for defeat if it wasn't for our principled idiot conservatives who said we needed a good thumping. Now they complain that it might pass. What were they thinking? Instead of waking up, these principled idiots remain STUCK ON STUPID.

We just had Pawlenty, the "sell-out" none of these principled conservatives said was worth voting for, just veto a slew of tax increases. Yeah, tax increases. Remember in Minnesota, unlike the Feds, you need to raise taxes to spend money to create bigger government. But the stuck on stupids, they think..... maybe if government gets too big, then there will be a revolution and we will get the small government we want... STUPID STUPID...STUCK ON STUPID.

Thank god some Democrats voted for Pawlenty.

That New Immigration Bill

I don't know what to make of the new immigration bill. Unlike many conservatives I don't find myself invested in opposition to "amnesty." The current bill as proposed sounds like amnesty. Any crime which is forgiven with a less penalty than is just for the crime is considered amnesty. In this case, the penalty for being illegal should at the very least be deportation. Thus, any penalty that requires something less is amnesty.

Nevertheless, amnesty is a tradition in this country. We gave amnesty to the supporters of the crown during the Revolution. We gave amnesty to half a million rebel soldiers in 1865. The penalty for them was death. Robert E. Lee spit on his oath to this country. He should have been hung along with his entire army. Yet, we granted him amnesty. In fact the radicals in Congress despised Lincoln for his amnesty plan. Today we hail Lincoln for his compassion and credit him for keeping the union together.

I am not opposed to some sort of amnesty, however, the key to any immigration bill needs to be enforcement. Plan 1 is to stop any more illegal immigration. We can do this by building a wall, forcing local police to bust illegals, and putting employers in prison for hiring illegals. Regarding the illegals that are here I say we give them amnesty. I say we give them 3 months to register. After that they have 5 years to learn fluent English, not commit any crimes, and pass the citizenship test. If they accomplish this, they get a green card. If not, they and any of their dependents, including children born here, are immediately deported.

Is Ron Paul Right?

In the debate this week ron Paul argued that it was our presence in the middle east that caused 9-11. The Scribbler (a supporter of Paul) cited this article below in the The Nation arguing that Paul is no kook, Paul is right.

Is Paul right?

Of course he is. America has spread its tenticles all over the world pissing off everyone. We are in the middle east because we buy millions of barrels of oil from the middle east. We are in Europe and everywhere else because we sell billions of goods abroad. Sure, we could withdraw from the world. We could stop trading, but then our standard of living could drop 50%. As President, Ron Paul would have to explain why 20% unemployment was worth a withdraw....

Hmm....

Look On Hannity's Face . . . Priceless

This is just a 25 second clip, so have no fear. Worth every second.

Open thread for Ron Paul Debate discussion

That sound you would have heard as Ron Paul gave his "we asked for it" response to the 9/11 question would have been the air being let out of the Ron Paul campaign, if there was any air in it to begin with.

His response showed an utter lack of political skill. The nation simply will not accept a candidate that holds those feelings and is so willing to state them.

Buh-bye. Please fly with us again.

Why Fred Thompson will be the next President (if he runs)

This is classic. It was put together in response to a challenge from Michael Moore to a debate on health care in and around Moore's trip to Cuba.

The cigar, the leather chair, the attitude and the not-so-subtle slam. This guy is good.

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=611

Londanistan

Hitchens writes on Londanistan.

It's interesting that it should be authors from Muslim backgrounds—Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, the broadcaster and co-author of the Policy Exchange report Munira Mirza—who are issuing the warnings. For the British mainstream, multiculturalism has been the official civic religion for so long that any criticism of any minority group has become the equivalent of profanity. And Islamic extremists have long understood that they need only suggest a racial bias—or a hint of the newly invented and meaningless term "Islamophobia"—in order to make the British cough and shuffle with embarrassment.

Outstanding.

Spam

I just received the below post on one of my rarely used email accounts. It's amazing that Kumarudeen was able to find me. Incredible! I already have some other accounts in motion, so I thought I would post this one here in case anyone is interested - but keep it close to the vest. It's time to give up your day job folks! Good Luck.


Hello friend,

I am contacting you from Africa. My name is Kumarudeen Yusuf. I work with the African Development bank group, Nigeria main branch, as foreign operations manager. Please do not get upset as to how I got your contact. I got your email contact from the Internet. Isincerely advise that you calm down to read belowproposal thoroughly and thereafter decide if we can dothe business together. It is no setup or one of thesehoaxes from Africa. This is a real deal and I meanevery word I speak here.

A UK citizen, Mr. Norman Anderson (from Aberdeen) hasbeen a customer of my bank since 1988. He opened adomiciliary account with us in June 1988. The saidbank account, which is at the moment in dormant, is inUK pounds sterling and has credit balance of 19.3Mpounds. Last transaction carried on the account datesback to September 15, 1999. I have been the accountowner¢s confidant and account officer until above datewhen he was last seen in the bank. And since this timeMr. Anderson has not been to the bank nor sent incheque for clearing. This became a source of worry tome and prompted my personal investigation as towhereabouts and business activity of this customer.Result of my investigation revealed that he was intooil bunkering and operated within West and CentralAfrica sub-regions. Further investigation proved thathe was one of the victims of November 1999 raid ofillegal oil bunkering merchants in Malabo Island ofEquatorial Guinea. However, I continued myinvestigation and further discovered that a UKtelephone number mentioned in our bank informationform, which he filled when the said bank account wasestablished, belong to a hotel in London. This is aclear indication that he probably has fed my bank withfalse information to protect his illegal oil deals. Ihave not disclosed these findings to anyone elseexcept this message to you.

After a careful study of the account file andavailable data to me, I have packaged a good deal asfollows; and will wish to carry it out with you.My Dear Friend, the deal here is that the money inthis account will be approved and remitted to anyforeigner who shows up as relation to Mr Andersonprovided such person has correct information to theaccount. I have such needed information and will handit over to you as soon as we commence the transaction.I will source all necessary documents and forward themto you for direct submission to the bank. With myposition as the foreign operations manager we willquietly remove this money from the bank withouthitches. I don¢t have any problem in regularizing allnecessary documents and transferring the creditbalance of the said account to your nominated bankaccount in overseas, but the problem is trust. I havespent months in trying to get an overseas reliablecontact. It is worthy to note that people areunreliable these days and even derive joy in tellinglies. On this ground I request your unreserved butsincere cooperation devoid of greed in carrying outthis transaction so that no one amongst both of usshall defraud each other at the end. I am prepared tosplit at 60%---40% for you, provided that mine (60%)will be intact at the end.reply me on my private email, (kumaru_17@yahoo.co.in) Awaits for your expected co-operation.

Best regards,Kumarudeen

I can't make this stuff up.

From Greenie Watch:

On the morning of April 8, Charlotte, North Carolina, experienced a low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the coldest temperature ever recorded in Charlotte for the month of April. But if you think record cold weather is going to falsify global warming, you're hopelessly naive. On April 11, a Purdue professor told the Christian Science Monitor that "this is what you might expect of global warming," because global warming "isn't necessarily always a warmer climate, but a more variable climate." In other words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming. I can't make this stuff up.

Global warming is like a religious war. Conversion is only possible through defeat.

Our government.

This comment was made by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law professor, this week tesifying before the Senate Finance Committee.

[t]he costs are staggering. In 2002, a full-day program in a pre-kindergarten offered by the Chicago public school district costs $6,500 a year -- more than the cost of a year's tuition at the University of Illinois.

Warren's comments were made to argue that the government needs to fund these programs because they are too expensive for average families to pay. Warren's whole speech was an argument that today's middle class family is hurting and the government needs to spend money to help them.

Still, $6500 for a pre-school program. What do they do there, go on field trips to Europe?

Milestone Reached: "Petabyte" Read

My eyes just now, for the first time, encountered the word "petabytes." It was only, what, nine or ten years ago that I first heard the word "terabyte," that directly from Vance Opperman who was discussing the newly available TerraServer (long before Google Earth was around), and just 12 years since I purchased my own gigabyte hard drive personal computer.

I don't know why I haven't encountered the word before -- I knew it existed, but not by what name. Now that it has been presented me ("How Much Does the Internet Weigh?" Discover Magazine, June 2007), I have looked up "exabyte," "zettabyte," even "yobibyte," leaving me little to look forward to in the next few years.

So how much does the internet weigh? Averaging forty petabytes in traffic per day, and considering that only about half of the capacitors are charged (the 1's) each with about 40,000 electrons, a total day's traffic weighs around 0.2 millonths of an ounce.

Addendum:

Same issue, different article, Discover asks "Does Time Exist?" It goes on to ponder that even if time exists (once we are able to prove Wheeler-Dewitt to reconcile quantum theory with general relativity, we likely will find time does not exist), there is no law forcing it to only move forward. Theoretically, time should be able to move backwards, into the past. Yet it doesn't. Or does it? I reference my June 2007 issue of Discover, and it is early May. Hmmm.

Debate Discussion

I thought I'd open up a thread for those who care to comment on the debate last night. The resolution "We were a religious nation" passed by I believe 10-7. I voted on the losing side.

My favorite moment? Late in the evening right before the vote was called, after many fine speeches parsing the nature and meaning of "were", "religious" and "nation", someone piped up from the back of the room "But we haven't debated the meaning of the word 'we'". A classic, and perfectly timed.

A new tradition was also begun by the Chairman. He asked those voting in favor of the resolution to move to his right, and those voting against to move to their right. A brilliant move in my opinion, as in a conservative debating society, none of us should be asked to move to the left.

Many thanks to Chuck Shreffler for his very fine lecture prior to the debate.

JAS DEBATE MAY 9

The John Adams Society

Roger L. Belfay, Chairman
John J. Pope, Secretary
Larry Colson, Chief Whip
Marianne Stebbins, Chancellor


May 2007

"… bad examples to youth are more rare in America, which must be a comfortable consideration to parents. To this may be truly added, that serious religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practiced. Atheism is unknown there; infidelity rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country, without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an atheist or an infidel." – Benjamin Franklin, September 1782


RELIGION WAS THE BEDROCK OF OUR FREEDOM. As a nation affording freedom of worship, the door was open to freedoms in general. Free commerce was thereby an offshoot and with it the Puritan regimen of colonial America led to a general prosperity and the ability to enjoy more freedom. Not that the founders had much choice about religion in the new country. A great number of remote little despotisms had long evolved in the colonies with rigid religious orthodoxies of their own by 1776. Several colonies were explicitly Christian. These would never join together as a nation under any authority other than that of themselves. Thus, just the common thread of deism would be expressed by the founders in the US Constitution.

Now that individual reasoning has fallen aback the liberal agenda as implemented by many of our public institutions and much of the media, our First Amendment freedoms are stretched and distorted. Only in a non-religious/un-free nation would the high court of one of its states rule that a private charity must cover birth control in its health care plan despite the charity’s moral opposition. But, does anyone notice or think about it? While the vast majority of Americans consider themselves Christian, what seems to crowd most minds nowadays is not godliness, but mesmerization by one electronic medium or another.

ON THE OTHER HAND, we were never a religious nation to begin with. Article VI of The US Constitution states: "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or Public Trust under the United States." And The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” People came to America for religious freedom, often fleeing religious persecution elsewhere. Naturally, Christianity flourished because the Christian’s notions of salvation by free will are congruent with America’s freedom. It is a paradox that, unlike in most of Europe where religion was imposed and secularization prevailed, America’s religious liberty led to a resistance to secularization. Only with a secular government are a variety of religions free to coexist and only through freedom do individuals experience the glory of God to become in their hearts religious.

The Chairman, much appreciating the old time religion via HDTV, calls for a debate:

RESOLVED: WE WERE A RELIGIOUS NATION

The Debate will be held on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at the University Club, 420 Summit Avenue, in Saint Paul. The debate will begin at half past seven p.m., following a lecture at six o'clock by Chuck Shreffler. While there is no dress code for attendance, gentlemen who wish to speak must wear a tie; ladies should adhere to a similar sartorial standard. For those gentlemen who arrive tieless yet wish to speak, fret not: the Purveyor of Ties will keep on hand at least one of his quite remarkable ties for just such an eventuality. Questions about debate caucus procedures or about the John Adams Society itself may be directed to the Chairman at 651-222-2782 or the Secretary at 952-486-8059.

www.johnadamssociety.org

Lileks and The Strib

Last year I paid $264 to subscribe to the Minneapolis StarTribune. There are two reasons for this

1) My wife insists. She believes a literate household must subscribe to a newspaper. It is a good example for the kids.

2) I like the comics. I pay $264 per year to read Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine. Get Fuzzy alone is worth twice that. (I should really post an ode on the pure genius that is Get Fuzzy.) (Yes, I know I can get them on the internet.) And I do read almost every other comic as well. Aren't you worried about the girls in France in Judge Parker?

I can't be the only one on the verge of canceling. The Strib lost almost 5% of its readership in the last year alone. And classified ads are simply disappearing thanks to Craigslist. So they are in deep doodoo.

Their strategy? 1) Fire 250 people, 50 of them in the newsroom which is now under 400 people, so that's over 12.5% of the newsroom staff.

2) Tell all the columnists they are now potentially demoted to beat reporters. They have already done this to Lileks. I suspect that they can't fire them due to union restrictions, so they are trying to simply get them to quit.

Hugh Hewitt is up in arms about Lileks. I love Lileks and read his Bleat everyday, but I'm not sure how I feel about this. The fact is, I hardly ever read Lilek's Strib column since it wasn't the best format for him. His Screeds are the best (and the only thing he doesn't have archived on his site yet).

So this is my question: (Yes, long rambling post with supposedly no point, but there is one and here it is)

Everything I like about Lileks seems to make him no money (his Bleats and Screeds) whereas everything I don't enjoy is how he actually earns (or earned) his money (his Strib column and his books). Likewise, I don't think any local paper has figured out a way to actually make money from their online edition.

So here it is: Is there any way to actually make money from this Internet doohickey (other than porn)?

ABCnews: The Ron Paul Effect

ABCnews today, besieged by Ron Paul supporters, grudgingly acknowledges the "Ron Paul Effect" in this story.

With strong support among libertarians who are unhappy with the top-tier Republican contenders, Paul has a robust online presence.

His MySpace profile boasts nearly 12,000 "friends." Today, his name ranks in the Top 10 among blog search terms at Technorati.com, behind Paris Hilton but ahead of Mario Lopez.

(Correction: Ron Paul is now running ahead of Paris Hilton at #5. They also left out that Ron Paul's website is running three times the traffic of Rudy or Romney (see chart), or that he is #1 on YouTube today.)

Digg.com was buzzing over the weekend as ABCnews first left Paul off their online debate poll, and then out of a debate coverage story. Email addresses and VP cell phone numbers were passed around, with reports of ABC receptionists getting a little peeved at the response. (A recent sampling of Digg stories by Scribbler's "Digg friends" can be accessed here.)

ABC is clearly not happy about having to admit that Ron Paul has support, but we're just happy to know that the MSM cannot completely ignore us.

Any wonder why Ron Paul responded Thursday night to "Do you trust the mainstream media?" with, "Some of them. But I trust the Internet a lot more."

Romney!

Romney did a great job last night. Why should we not support Romney?

Enough with Serious Discussion - What about Hankies

I was randomly reminded the other day about handkerchiefs and the fact that many people used to use them often and the fact that I have not seen one used for years. The whole concept seems kind of gross - blowing your nose into a hanky and then shoving it back into your pocket. I recall my dad used to use a hanky. He had a stack of them in one of his drawers and would grab a new one each day. Wife said her father also carried around a hanky. At some point my dad stopped using a hanky, but I do not recall when or why....

These days you never see hankies, except for show. I did an internet search for the demise of the handkerchief, but there wasn't much out there - just a few others making the same observation. So what happened to it... was it the advent of cheap and comfortable tissues? Maybe... however I wonder if my dad shoves a personal tissue pack each day in his pocket. Somehow I don't think so. Maybe people just don't sneeze as much as they used to. Maybe the demise of the hanky is due to better over the counter cold medicines?

Today I heard about a University in England measuring how fast people walk in various cities around the world. They found that people in Singapore walked the fastest - New York was No. 8 on the list. If a University can find funding for such a worthless study, they should be able to find out what happen to the hanky.

I Can't Believe It's Really Here!

Today's the day! We've been waiting for months, and it's here! Today!

Like me, you all have been getting ready, talking excitedly with neighbors, blogging and Digging, running spreadsheets to score public statements for degrees of neoconism vs libertarianism, setting up databases to compare voting records vs campaign positions, the usual stuff. And tonight at 7 p.m. CDT, the GOP presidential candidates will each mount the Reagan Library stage, some with high hopes, some with dread, some with good hair, to face their adversaries. Some of the ten contenders have been heavily coached. Some will wonder who they are and why they are there. One that I know probably hasn't rehearsed at all. And all will be on display for the most avid political junkies, like puppies in a store window saying, "pick me, pick me."

Ah, 'tis the culmination of a long-awaited event, more exciting than Christmas to a seven-year-old, and I don't have cable.

Hypnoanesthesia? No thanks

The publication for a Minnesota chapter of a group to which I belong arrived today, and while I was flipping through I spotted this eighth-of-a-page notice:

Volunteers Needed. The (BBC) is seeking volunteers who would be willing to undergo their scheduled surgery with hypnosis as their primary anesthesia. If interested, contact member Bill Xxxxx, hypnoanesthesiologist, at (952) 555-xxxx. Bill's services are at no charge for this study.

The last time I went to a gathering of this group, Bill Xxxxx, hypnoanesthesiologist, cornered me at the bar and whipped out the bloody pictures of his last surgery for which he administered his own hypnoanesthesia. (Most people show off their kids.) Having my wits about me, I launched an incendiary political routine and he stormed off.

Also in this publication are the new members, one being -- I will try to obfuscate google out of concern for the person's privacy -- "$ u b r a m a n i a n _M. _$ u r y a n a r a y a n a n" from the northwestern metro. I'd hate to ask what the "M" stands for.