The Middle is Always Evil

Breaking:

Free republic is reporting the possibility of an Obama team connection to Blago-gate; apparently, when Blagojevich asked if Obama could push some clout around to get his wife placed on a paid corporate board, Advisor A responded that he, “thinks he could,” and that a “President-elect can do almost anything he sets his mind to.” The indictment names Rahm Emmanuel specifically as an advisor to the president elect; could he be Advisor A?

No matter who it is, the Obama team has been implicated; Obama now admits that a two hour long conference call took place between his team and the Blago-team about the Senate seat, and he has declined to out and out deny any wrong doing. He has, however, expressed “confidence” that there was none. This thing is obviously only beginning to unravel…

Unions have been a blight on the American economy for over a century, stunting the productivity of the individual man, swallowing him in the dark blanket of collectivism. In recent years, the effect of unionization has been shown to have the worst outcome in the field of education. Unions stifle the development of children by bogging down taxpayers funds with money for expensive healthcare for union teachers– as well as other bits of nonsense. In Grand Rapids Michigan, one group, the Education Action Group, has stood up to the bullying tactics of Union bosses and employees; check out their video below explaining their fight.

Barack Obama supporters are starting to creep me out in a serious way. You know the ones; chanting his name, crying during his speeches, fainting during his speeches, screaming “I love you!” as he passes.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. had this to say about Obama’s Nomination clinch:

“I cried all night. I’m going to be crying for the next four years,” he said. “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history. … The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.” (italics mine)

Michael Morse, a teen columnist for TeenLink, a newspaper aimed at young people in South Florida, went to an Obama rally and shared his experience:

The crowd immediately ceased the roar when Obama approached the mic, eager to hear whatever the man has to say… I can’t believe the man whose speeches I watch on YouTube everyday is so close to me. His speeches give an aura of immortality that belies the fact that he’s a living breathing human.

Its very upsetting to hear this kind of thing from someone my age; it bears a frightening similarity to Hitler’s level of popularity in Nazi Germany, where he was elevated to a sort of demi-god status. This is especially concerning, considering Obama’s support for compulsory national service for American high-school, middle-school and college-age students, which is (if you accept my earlier analogy) more than a little similar the imfamous Hitler Youth, Hitler’s version of compulsory national service.

Obama’s supporters seem to have forgotten that Barack Obama is just a man– and less than a man, hes just a politician. Worse still, he isn’t even a good politician. Its been said over and over again, but Obama is all fluff and no substance. One struggles to find anything material on his webpage, aside from one, large PDF ominously titled, “THE BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE” (caps his, not mine).

Time columnist Joe Klein knows what I’m talking about:

Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is.

Have you seen Obama’s website? Its creepy! On the main part of the site there’s a Kids for Obama page, where kids are given 10 ways in which they can get involved, encouraging children to host Obama-themed sleepovers and parties, to get a pen pal to talk to about Obama, among other things. If you sign up, you can set up your own little facebook right there on his homepage, give all your information, and join other Obamunists to celebrate his birthday, hold Obama-themed spa parties, book clubs, and any other kind of get-together you could think of– all in Obama’s holy name.

Worst of all, though, is Camp Obama, a four day training camp paid for by the Obama campaign, which teaches Obama supporters to learn more about how Barack Obama is a great and wise leader.

Hitler and Barack Obama have too much in common for me to not feel uneasy going into election season. Gun control, socialized healthcare, compulsory national service, an anti-market economic position, all on top of a creepy, cult-like leader worship by supporters. Thats five too many similarities.

You hear a lot of complaining about lobbyists these days. But just what is a lobbyist? One who practices Lobbyism, of course!

A lobbyist is one who is in the practice of influencing legislators with money on the behalf of special interest groups that have a stake in an issue. This holds true for any issue that you could name: pro-gun lobbies, like the NRA, and anti-gun lobbies, like the Brady Campaign. With over 3,500 different lobbies in the United States, each representing a different issue, its no wonder that some people question the amount of influence the individual person has over their representative in congress.

Not Hillary Clinton:

This comment pissed a lot of people off, but is she right? Do lobbyists represent everyday Americans? Barack 0bama responded to her, saying that certain lobbies, like ones that push big pharmaceutical companies, have more money, and therefore an inordinate amount of influence over legislators.

Okay, so…

“Lobbyists contribute meaningfully to the democratic process by representing the interests of everyday Americans!”

vs.

“Lobbyists put an outrageous amount of power into the hands of corporations, and give them the ability to dictate public policy!”

As usual, people have completely missed the point. Lobbies are entirely superfluous and unnecessary because their existence is based on the premise that whoever has the most influence wins. This is a hopelessly pragmatic way of looking at politics, reducing it to nothing more than gang warfare. It isn’t about who has the most influence, its about whats right and wrong. So how do we eliminate this kind of biggest-gang-wins mentality from Washington politics? By going after government, of course!

If we reduce the power of government itself, there will be no need for lobbies at all. For example: instead of worrying about lobbyists because we’re afraid that corporations will use them to pressure legislators into giving them corporate welfare, how about we eliminate congress’ power to grant corporate welfare in the first place? Worried about tariff lobbyists pushing Congress into imposing heavy duties on imports? Take away the government’s ability to regulate tariffs, and that concern disappears.

The same could apply for campaign finance reform. There should be no limit at all on how much an individual (or group of individuals) can give to a political campaign. Its their money, they earned it; let them give it to whomever they choose for whatever reason they choose. But first, take away the power of politicians to regulate or interfere with the economy. Corporations will then have no incentive to donate exorbitant amounts of money to a politician.

Everything that is now regulated by the government can be regulated more effectively and cheaper by the market; or as an Objectivist might call it: the facts of reality.

How about this:

Congress shall make no law restricting the freedom of trade or association between individuals.

Something like that.

Word around the blogosphere is that John McCain is considering choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for his Vice Presidential Nominee.

Here’s her picture:

Yes!

Lets hope McCain can get something right…

(sorry to Laura in Alaska for posting a fake pic. This one is legit.)

“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”

-Barry Goldwater

The reason we cannot win this war is simple; it results from our inability to name our enemy. Thus far, we’ve called it a war on terrorism.

But terrorism is a tactic; the United States cannot win a war on a tactic. In World War II, we did not fight a war on Kamikaze pilots; we did not fight a war on blitzkriegs; we fought fascism and totalitarianism– ideologies. In the Cold War, we did not fight a war on espionage; we fought Communism– an ideology. You see, a tactic implies a tactician; a tactician with certain motives, beliefs, and goals.

But for some reason, we are unable to state the motives, beliefs, and goals of our enemy. We are unable to do so much as name him. This is the direct result of our low moral self esteem. There is such a cult of moral grayness in the west that any proclamation of moral superiority is immediately taken to be naive and immoral. Didn’t you know that whats wrong to you may not be wrong to someone else? The only people worse than those who preach this tripe are those who know it to be misguided but appease the people preaching it anyway. It is these kinds of people that are running the war. Instead of standing up and proclaiming moral superiority over the enemy, Islamic Fundamentalism, they appease the liberal intellectuals and call it a War on Terrorism.

I couldn’t invent a better example of such appeasement than this. A US military sniper was using the Qur’an for target practice; the wrong people found out, and he got arrested. Not only was he arrested, but George Bush officially apologized, and

U.S. military commanders in Iraq held a ceremony to formally apologize and presented a new copy of the Qur’an to tribal leaders in the area where the incident took place.

When your military commanders are presenting tribal leaders with a copy of the book that inspired the death of nearly 3,000 of your fellow citizens as an apology for an act of desecration taken against that same book, you’ve lost the war that you’re fighting, and you aren’t going to win.

If we are unable, as a country, to proclaim our moral superiority over Islamic Totalitarianism, then we can’t win, and we should end the war and come home.