Redstate

Posted at 3:33pm on Jul. 4, 2008 A Day For Traitors and Treasonists

By haystack

[image via WikiMedia]

Our founding Fathers, 56 of them God rest their souls, were traitors in their time and were considered by their fellow Englishmen back then to be the most evil amongst good men...but what was derived from their high crimes of treason stands before us today as the greatest nation in the history of mankind. This fact deserves nothing less than a hushed silence of reverence and respect; you crush a man under your heels long enough and he will rise up against you. After many years of having to suffer the tyranny of their government, on this day 232 years ago our forefathers flipped off a King, and set about bringing sanity to an insane world.

Consider these words in contrast with the lessons of history our current Congress (and the cavalier nature of their impositions on our lives) either never learned or have clearly forgotten:

[A]ll experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

This Independence day I am especially reminded of these words as I look around at the collective state of our Republic.

More below the fold...

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Posted at 12:43pm on Jul. 4, 2008 Today is worthy of celebration

By Erick

It may surprise you as it surprised me. There are some people, largely those who lean toward the libertarian view on life, who will not celebrate this day as our Independence Day. They say we are no longer an independent people and this day is not worth celebrating. In their effort to shock people with their near atheist view of American exceptionalism, they profoundly miss the point.

I tend to agree with them. We have embraced a national government at the expense of ourselves and our states. For this very reason, we should celebrate this day all the more.

232 years ago, a group of men pledged their lives, their fortune, and their honor to rebel against a tyrant who refused to recognize them as free people subject to the laws of the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was a very conservative revolution — the men wanted to be recognized as free men like the other British subjects on the island and, when not so recognized, threw off the shackles of tyranny that these free men might be free.

Those who believe we are no longer free fail to recognize that we are no longer free through our own actions. We have, collectively, chosen actions to make us less free. Those who believe we are no longer free should therefore highlight the example of our founders more so than any other group.

Today is not the day to proclaim our Independence Day no longer has any meaning. Today is the day to celebrate our Independence Day to show what might be yet again if a free people chose again to be free of the shackles of a federal government that increasingly seeks to make a free people again dependent.

A Christian in the midst of those who have thrown off the faith has a duty to proclaim the gospel even louder and pray even harder for the lost. One committed to the first principles of this nation has a similar duty when surrounded by those who have forgotten those first principles. And just as Easter and Christmas are the two high holy days for the Christian, Independence Day and Constitution Day should be viewed the same by those disenchanted by our present lack of every day independence.

So celebrate and rejoice. Today is the day a free people rose up and restored their freedom through independence.

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Posted at 5:32am on Jul. 3, 2008 An additional note on Rush Limbaugh, the $400 million man.

By Erick

I am writing this at 4:45 a.m. For the last week and a half, I've been getting up while the majority of you are comfortably in bed and hosting a three hour radio program from 6am to 9am here in Macon, Georgia. The channel, AM940 WMAC, is the Rush Limbaugh station in the Middle Georgia area.

I have always had profound respect for what Rush Limbaugh does. Those who hate him and are most critical of him, I have found, are often those who have never listened to more than an hour of his show. While passionately and uncompromisingly conservative, Rush is also a great entertainer.

After this last week and a half on the radio, I have even more respect for Rush than I did. You try speaking for 120 minutes non-stop off the top of your head with no written script in front of you (3 hours with 40 minutes of talk per hour). Try also to make sure you are engaging, entertaining, and have necessary information at instant recall to be informative. It's a damnably difficult thing to do.

Naturally today, the left is up in arms over Rush's deal. I am too. For what Rush Limbaugh does, Clear Channel got him cheap. It's easy to throw stones at the man, but it is virtually impossible to duplicate what he does.

Tony Snow has always been my favorite guest host for Rush. In the past year, however, I think Jason Lewis is my favorite. Both Jason and Tony are witty, very conversational, highly informative, and pleasant to listen to. Jason Lewis, in particular, has an impressive knowledge of economic and financial data ready at the recall to explain most any subject for any caller. Neither of them, however, are comparable to Rush in style, humor, or engagement with the listener.

As I head out this morning with IV of caffine, I have my well prepared stack of stuff, made all the easier because of what my day job is here at RedState — I'm constantly sifting information. The feedback I've gotten has been very positive. I will aspire to do what Rush does on the radio as well as Rush does it, but I also know that I never will reach his level. He is unique. And $400 million is a small price to pay for a man who does something better than anyone else on earth and who single handedly revitalized a dying medium.

And yes, I do make sure both of our children, though one is still comfortably in the womb, get their daily dose of Rush. After all, according to the New York Times, Rush Limbaugh listeners are smarter than NPR listeners and also 99% less pretentious.

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Posted at 10:25pm on Jul. 2, 2008 On service.

By Patrick Murdock

Senator Obama said today:

"Loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it."

"We need your service right now, at this moment — our moment — in history."

Senator Obama, I always find such comments interesting because it seems to say that most of us civilians are not involved in any service to our country - that civilians are not making any sacrifices in their lives to make our country better and to help others. And that the only legitimate service is one where you are employed in some program or service operated by the Federal, State or local government.

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Posted at 10:07am on Jul. 2, 2008 Congratulations Rush Limbaugh

By Erick

This is outstanding news. Expect the left to redouble their efforts to revive the Fairness Doctrine.

And isn't it interesting to note that Rush Limbaugh is thriving and the left just can't get their act together on talk radio? I've always suspected that is because the people who listen to talk radio are people going to jobs or on the road for work; in other words, people who tend to contribute to society instead of taking from society and those people are generally conservative.

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Posted at 10:31pm on Jul. 1, 2008 Environmentalist wackos are sooooo predictable

By bs

As a resident of the St. Louis metropolitan area, I am very familiar with floods, their impact, and the history of major flood events in the area. I've lived through major floods in 1973, 1982, 1993, and now in 2008. I've seen the area build up and businesses move into the valleys and riverfronts around the metro area and along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers all around St. Louis. I've even studied hydrology and meteorology in college prior to changing majors from meteorology to computer science. So I become rather amused to read the "experts" write about such topics in the media.

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Posted at 12:55pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Open Thread Please?

By itrytobenice

As I am seeing a dearth of open threads and am unable to create an entire diary out of any of my thoughts, could I please call this an open thread?

I will contribute the first few comments [which are none worthy of an entire diary on their own.]

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Posted at 6:07pm on Jun. 29, 2008 The Submitted Without Comment Sunday Open Thread

Except for "This is pretty cool," of course.

By Moe Lane

Via Where The Hell Is Matt?

Open thread.

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Posted at 1:20am on Jun. 28, 2008 I Don’t Fully Grasp What They Are Doing But I Sure Don’t Think It’s Called Speculating

By ntrepid

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster: SPECULATE … 2 : to assume a business risk in hope of a gain…

THE SHORT VERSION:

It seems to me that many in the media are choosing their words very carefully so as to make truthful claims that “it’s not the speculators” but in a way that really doesn’t seem to be saying “free market forces are in play” with today’s oil situation.

It may just be me and my ever increasing cynical perception of all things media but statements from even usually trusted personalities are coming across with a near-Clintonian vibe these days and I don’t like it one bit.

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Posted at 10:54pm on Jun. 27, 2008 It's a pity that this didn't make the actual New York Times editorial page...

...but baby steps, I guess.

By Moe Lane

The below is an excerpt from The Board (via Glenn Reynolds), which looks like it's a blog where the NYT's editorial staff can sound off with relative impunity. It's... not too bad, actually. Pretty strongly liberal, but at least this one has decent spelling - and they're willing to say the occasional nice thing about a Republican.

And, shockingly, no Name! That! Party!:

About that Mortgage, Senator . . .
By The Editorial Board

Call it the curse of the Friends of Angelo.

Senators are lining up like lemmings to avoid it. They are suddenly volunteering disclosure of their personal mortgage loan terms to avoid being tainted by the V.I.P. mortgage scandal that has descended on Congress.

[snip]

It turns out that the chieftain of Countrywide — which is smack in the middle of the mortgage mess — extended privileged borrowing status to two Senators, Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota. Both Senators deny any ethical violations.

Read the whole thing: it's a darn sight more independent-minded than the actual newspaper it's ostensibly attached to, not to mention more interesting. And you get the feeling that whoever wrote this post is perhaps not entirely distraught that the housing bill is being held up right now...

Posted in Chris Dodd | Countrywide | Kent Conrad | Miscellanea | new york times — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:14pm on Jun. 26, 2008 Rapidly Losing The Netroots

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

I used to think that it would not be fruitful to quote or link to Glenn Greenwald. But I was wrong. The man is a veritable canary in the coalmine for anyone interested in checking out the state of the netroots.

Today's post indicates the depths to which the netroots have been betrayed by their allies in political office and in the mainstream media. Not only are people like Barack Obama cowering--and yes, that is the right word--in response to netroot calls to resist the FISA reforms that are currently on the table, but pro-Obama forces in the media are enabling the cowering (while entirely disregarding their previous statements against FISA reforms) and they are turning a deaf ear to netroot concerns regarding the legislation. Shows how much the netroots matter, nyet? If Greenwald and his allies were half the political force they once might have thought they were, at the very least, the mainstream media would have done a better job of reflecting netroot concerns on an issue as important and as emotional as FISA legislation. But no--the netroots are completely and entirely thrown under the bus on this issue. Their anger, outrage, objections, concerns and arguments are utterly and completely meaningless as far as Obama, the Democratic political establishment and the mainstream media are concerned.

The only time the netroots will regain even a patina of respectability in the eyes of Democratic politicians and any of their enablers in the mainstream media is when people like Barack Obama need money. Then the sweet-talking will come hot and heavy and the netroots will be told over and over and over just how important and needed and wanted and loved they are.

But when it comes time to discuss and shape policy, they will be banished to the little kids' table.

Must be humiliating. Oh yes. Yes, it must.

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Posted at 12:28pm on Jun. 26, 2008 What really matters.

By Darin H

I want to share some news with everyone - I'm going to be a dad. This will be our first child. I'm so excited! And yes, a bit scared. My adorable wife Erica is about 9 weeks along (due Jan 27th) and she just had her first Ultrasound a couple of days ago:

S/he is just about the size of a grape right now, but you can hear the heart beating away already! In the picture, the head is on the left and the rest of the body is on the right (that's one big headed kid!). We have a while until we find out what the sex will be, and have a few trips planned that we won't be able to take for a bit after the baby is born.

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Posted at 5:53pm on Jun. 25, 2008 Patty B, Bat Crazy

By Alberta

Some of you may know that I am no fan of Pat Buchanan. I think the guy hates Jews, to be blunt about it. But besides my little bias, which may or may not be true (hey I dont personally know him, he may in fact love Jews), his policy positions are, I find, a little backwards, and by that I mean isolationist. Which is fine, this is America and all that.

Pat recently released a book, the crux of it being about Churchill being a terrible leader, who cost Britain her overseas empire (all in a stupidly juvenile attempt to SAVE THE FREE WORLD).

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Posted at 9:06am on Jun. 25, 2008 Reason #483 Why We Need Smaller Government

By Blue Collar Muse

So, I got this letter late last week from the IRS. The only thing worse would have been to hear Mike Wallace and the "60 Minutes" crew were filming on my front lawn. Come to think of it, even that may not be worse ...

The letter was computer generated, thanking me for my recent correspondence with them. It said they had not responded yet as they had not finished preparing a "complete response" and that it would be forthcoming within 45 days. It reminded me the installment agreement I agreed to for payment of my taxes was still in effect and I should still make my scheduled payments. It even helpfully included an 800# I could call if I had any questions.

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