Kudos to all who have held firm by demanding the absolute best we can get in this budget/debt ceiling argument.  I must admit I blinked before some here in that I gave Boehner the credit of possibly having a plan, while most here were already planning to throw him out of power.  Those that continued to demand our leadership ask for more and more were right to do so.  I did not cotton to the vicious attacks, because I thought they were not needed.  I thought constructive commentary about how we wanted more and we trusted our leadership to do the right thing was the order of the day.  In the end, that is a matter of taste, it still matters, but the results matter more.

What does concern me is that some on the right don’t seem to get what we are trying to achieve.  Or more correctly, it seems that some want to “achieve” something quite different than what most Republicans are after.  It seems that some are more interested in burning down the party and starting over  AGAIN, see 2010, rather than seizing control from the statist-socialist, class warfare minions.  I believe this to be true because some seem to want to take down guys named John and Mitch MORE than they want to defeat Harry and Nancy, not to mention Barrack.

A recent dialogue on this site consisted of people poo pooing the fact that the Kos Kidz are not happy with the potential deals in Congress.  The running theme was that “Kos Kidz are dumb” and in no way like us.  But if we refuse to accept ANYTHING that can pass the democrat Senate and presidency, are we not acting just like the Kos Kidz?  If we are always angry and can’t ever take even a partial win, we as a political entity will be marginalized.

Look at the history of warfare; for example, the Civil War.  Many here are interested in Civil War history so they should be able to follow what I am saying.  How many battles were there when one army failed to achieve all it could have achieved?  Gettysburg is the most famous example, but I think EVERY major battle can be counted.  There were always screw ups, delays, disagreements, etc that caused the loser to fail to win, or the “victor” to fail to end the war in on the battlefield.  Why was this?  It happened because people who dedicated their lives to support one side still failed to act in coordination, and in to act in a timely manner.  Or to say it better, they failed to exploit their enemy’s weakness to the fullest.

The time to debate what we are fighting for is PRIOR  to the beginning of hostilities.  Once the battle has begun, the goal is to win, period.  In this present political battle, we have the goal of winning the Senate and presidency so that our people might reduce the size and scope of government.  At the moment the democrat dream of taxing the rich to pay for more government is on the ropes, even their leaders are retreating on the idea.  The once worshiped Obama is suffering in the polls and his spell over many Americans has been broken.  Obamanomics has been a proven failure, it is even seen by the average joe as a malignancy and anti-American.  We have conservative Republicans already running to defeat Obama, the battle has been engaged.

I think we need to stop focusing so much on internal fights and start focusing on defeating our political opponents.  We can primary our own ’til the day is done, but that might just give us a few more Angle’s, and lose us the Senate and presidency.  It is time we realize that it is a good thing the Kos Kidz are angry and we should do our utmost to not resemble them in any way.  Don’t tell the left they are wrong to be angry at The One, encourage their anger, encourage their divisiveness.   When your have broken through your enemies lines, you are supposed to TURN THE GUNS ON THEM, not fire the guns pointed at your own men!

In my humble opinion, the time is coming when we need to start fighting the battle against our true opponents.  We need to make them disorganized, we need to make them weak.  If we cleanse our leadership and still fail to gain power, we will have failed, not just the party, but the country we all say we are trying to save.

The Federal Holiday today is George Washington’s Birthday, it is NOT “presidents day”.  It does not matter how many times Fox News says it is presidents day, it is still not the case.  Here is a link to the Federal holiday calendar.

<a href=”http://www.opm.gov/Operating_Status_Schedules/fedhol/2011.asp”>”Federal Holiday Calendar”</>

I believe that almost everyone calls it Presidents Day is a conspiracy of monkey see monkey do.  Every year I hear less and less about George Washington and more and more about “President’s Day”.   Yet the fact remains that the Federal holiday is George Washington’s birthday and my state’s holiday is George Washington Day.  Technically the holiday does not fall on our first presidents actual birthday, which is February 22nd because Congress passed a law making most federal holidays fall on a Monday, in this case the third Monday of February.

Some say the origin of “president’s day” was by northerners who thought Abraham Lincoln was getting shortchanged.  I guess this became a North vs. South thing; which is odd to me because one would think we all should revere The Father of our Country.  And it is true that some mostly northern states recognize a “president’s day” holiday.   But many other states celebrate only George Washington’s Birthday.  I would be all for a national holiday celebrating Lincoln, surely he is deserving of remembrance.    If people who think today is president’s day realized the original intent in some northern states was to celebrate both Washington and Lincoln, things woud not be so bad, but this is not the case.

What this fake presidents day national holiday has become is a way to diminish George Washington, and in a way, even Lincoln.  These men are diminished when their greatness is compared equally to Chester A. Arthur, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama.  There was a time not long ago when this was done on purpose.  Nixon pompously was the one to first suggest all presidents should be revered on this day.  But I will say one last time, this was NEVER an official federal holiday.  Now I think people just hear the term President’s Day so often on newscasts and by retail stores trying to make up another excuse for a sale, that people start to believe it must be true, I mean everyone calls it that.

Please people, don’t let them steal our history!  There was only one George Washington; “first in peace, first in war, and first in the eyes of his countrymen”.  If you care to see whether your state celebrates the Great Washington, look it up online, I know even Massachusetts does.  If you are unlucky enough to live in a state that does not celebrate Washington on this day, at least know your nation does, or at least it is supposed to!

We have seen so many diaries about what it is to be a conservative lately.  We have libertarian-conservatives, social-conservatives, false-conservatives, and even just conservatives typing reams about the subject.  Some of us have been here for years chatting politics, yet still arguing about who is conservative, where people stand, etc.

I have an idea that might at least give the group some insight into each others philosophies, we can take a political test or two and give our results.  If we all take the same tests, and have different results, then we actually will have something substantive to discuss.  One problem with the debates lately is that it is true that “words mean things”; but it is also true that people can interpret words differently.  For example, I can honestly say I am a “libetarian-conservative” in one debate, and I can honestly say I am a “small-government social con” in another.  I know I am telling it like it is in both cases, it is just the context of the discussion that changes the nomenclature.

So, if anyone else is game, I suggest we take some online political quizzes and show our results.  I know there are some good quizzes out there and most are dreck.  The one I find quite informative is the political compass quizz.  This quizz is located here

http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

My test results were economic l/R 6.50 and libertarian/authoritarian -0.92

I know there some other really good political placement quizzes out there, one I took was better than political compass, but I can’t find it right now.  I took a few others and they all said the same thing, I am a conservative Republican, shocker.

I suggest people take the political compass test and post their results.  Also, if you have a link to a good quizz, meaning accurate and relevant, post it and we can take that one too.  At least I will take it and post my results.

How did we get into this mess?  A quick historical background is in order.  It was 1994 and the Democrats finally lost control of their birthright; control of the US House of Representatives and the Senate.  This was no normal election loss, this was a palace coup, this was not supposed to happen.  Even when Reagan was in charge, he had to deal with the Democrat owned Congress, it was theirs.  What caused caused this?  Clinton cited the assault weapons ban, and for once he was right.  People were sick of big government, they wanted their freedoms back.

This was the hay day of the NRA’s power.  The NRA did not vote these Democrats out, but they sure as hell scared them to death.  There was no question what lobby the left feared most; and grudgingly respected, it was the NRA.  So at this point the “professional Democrats”, the ones that care more about strategy and DC jobs decided their party needed to relax a bit on their gun hysteria.  Democrats did not change their views on guns, they just decided that they were tired of getting hit over the head by the NRA.  So slowly, the gun issue dropped down their board of must do’s.

In 2001, in came a new “conservative” administration.   But it slowly dawned on gun rights groups that this administration was not very Second Amendment friendly.  Bush was not the enemy of the 2A, but he did not seem to care much about it either.  The president from Texas said he would sign an extension of the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban.  In addition, his administration did nothing to advance gun rights other than some housekeeping legislation about suing gun manufacturers.  In fact, the Bush administration ignored the pleas from his constituents to spread the 2A to our nation’s parks.

In the end, the Republicans lost the presidency, they lost the House,  they lost the Senate.  At this point it is likely the NRA powers started to wonder whom they could count on.  Should the NRA rely only on Republicans that did not do much and could lose power so easily and so completely?  Or should they reach out to the chastened Democrats and try to build a permanent majority of politicos that at least would claim to support the Second Amendment?

I think at this time the NRA decided it was time to become a kinder, gentler organization.  They could use their rankings and endorsements to ingratiate themselves with moderates and ward off potential enemies.  Certainly this would be a smart way to stay relevant?  This would not be considered weakness of course.

In the NRA’s weakness, the moderates and liberals saw their chance.  If the NRA wanted to be their friends, they would become friends; but at a price.  The price was the end of the NRA’s power to damage Democrats at the polls.  In fact, why not just let a bunch of moderates like Chris Cox just change the NRA from the inside in order to neuter the scary dog?

The NRA today is like the dog that caught the car but now doesn’t know what to do next.  They have finally gone mainstream, they finally don’t have to rely on conservatives only, some of whom like Bush, didn’t really care about increasing gun freedoms anyway.  But the price of this broader appeal is an NRA in name only.  The organization can claim “victories” and Democrat “pro gun votes”, but these are small issues, almost afterthoughts.  The federal, state, and local governments still have tens of thousands of infringements on the books, byzantine rules that would make the health reform law blush.  But does the NRA fight to get rid of this stuff?  The answer is no.

So now we have the formally fearsome bete noir of the Democrat party entrenched within the state, but with no fangs, and very little purpose.  Charles Degaulle once said, “France would not be true to itself if it was not involved in some great enterprise”.  I say to the NRA, be true to yourself, summon the passion of Charlton Heston, and get involved in some great enterprise!!

After years of prodding, the Bush Administration finally is taking away the ban on the Second Amendment in National Parks!  Several gun organizations, lead by the Virginia Citizens Defense League www.vcdl.org have been pushing and lobbying for this change for years.  For some reason the Bush administration has finally done the right thing.  In the very near future, concealed handgun permit holders will be able to carry in National Parks located in states that recognize their permits.  This is huge, the National Park System is basically run by a bunch of hippies, and they all fought against this change.  Even the Park Rangers did not want “regular people” to have the right to self defense.

You will here crowing from the NRA, but trust me, they joined up at the end, this was lead by the Virginia Citizens Defense Leauge that sent a petition for rule making to the Department of the Interior years ago.  The VCDL was joined by a large number of pro 2A groups representing over 1 million members.  They also were instrumental in getting DEMOCRAT Jim Webb on board.  In fact, 50 US Senators wrote to the Bush Administration in support of the Second Amendment, 9 were Demos.

One might think this is a small thing, but it is not, millions and millions of acres of our country are now respecting the Constitution!  In fact, many people have been unknowingly breaking the law by driving on highways run by the National Park Service.  For Example, if you drive on the GW Parkway in VA, you were breaking the law if you had a concealed handgun, even though Virginia gave you the permit.  There are countless other examples but now the times are a changin’.  There have been all kinds of criminal drug activity and assaults in National parks, but anyone who wanted to visit hand to leave their Constitutional rights behind, finally that has come to and end.

Let me be clear, this rule change states that if you have a right to carry concealed in the state the National Park is located, then you know have a right to carrry concealed in that park.  There is some issue with federal buildings still, so it is up to you to know the law.  Also, this change will not go into affect until a month after it is published in the Federal Registry, this should mean it goes into affect some time in January, again, keep up with the law if you are affected by this.

here are some more links for info

here is the AP report, including whining from the left http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUNS_NATIONAL_PARKS?SITE=VTBEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

here is the DOI Press Release http://www.doi.gov/news/08_News_Releases/120508.html

again, it is up to you to know the law, but this is a major win, the only one I can think of during the Bush administration, other than the failure (Thank God) to renew the Clinton Gun Ban but that was done by Tom Delay not Bush.

Why don’t we as a community focus on an effort to fund Bill Russell’s campaign against the Marine hating, redneck hating, moonbat extraodinaire Jack Murtha? The nutroots are always raising money to defeat our friends, I think it is about time we do likewise. It is easy to talk, but we are preaching to the converted here. I have been a part of 2A groups that have made positive changes in less than 24 hours simply because they stood together and DID SOMETHING!

I have already explained that Russell is an Iraq War Vet and is a conservative Republican. We all know that Murtha gave aide and comfort to our enemies by calling our Marines cold blooded murderers. He also called his own constituentcy racist rednecks. Yet still, particularly with possible voter fraud, this life long Congresman will be re-elected if we as a group do not act. The loss of Murtha would be a dagger in the heart of the left wing nutroots. Need I say more?

here is a link to donate to Russell, any amount will matter this is a Congressional race

btw. I am not involved in the Russell campaign and do not live in PA. We have a shot at taking down the worst of the worst, is that not worth a few clams?

This is an insurgent open thread. I really don’t have a diary to write that I would be proud of, but I have a few comments. If anyone else wants to make comments without “hijacking” a diary, go right ahead.

1) I have a serious complaint about RedState Vista..er I mean 2.0 It seems the member posts do not refresh unless I close RedState and reopen it. But, if I close RS, I must log in again with password etc. See what I am getting at? Am I alone in this? Is there a fix for this?

2) Dang, I missed to opening of SNL, I am guessing that is when Palin went on. How did she do?

3) I can not believe McCain went on Letterman and apologized, that was really a bad idea. Letterman has become a hard left hack, with less intelligence than a hack. This was a really, really unflattering thing done by a hero.

Well that is about it, if anyone wants to comment on my comments, or say whatever, here ya go.

Maybe I do not frequent the right sites, or maybe my eyesight is not as good these days, but I don’t seem to see any coordinated McCain funding drives on Conservative Websites, including RedState. The enthusiasm gap has been discussed for a long time during this campaign. They had the lead early and for a long time, then we got it back with Palin, and now since the financial “crisis” (opportunity for me) they have it back.

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I have to rewrite this diary because I lost the long text after rebooting for the third time. I have attempted to sign in and post probably 30 times tonight. I no longer have the interest to go into the detail of my last attempt so I will keep this short and sour.

As far as I am concerned, Redstate 3.0 is a collosal failure. The site is unusable because it is so hard to log in, so hard to post, and so hard to have a conversation/debate. There have been countless posts on the problems with the new site, and even more posts defending the “hard work” of the designer. What it comes down to is this site is no longer reliable and is NOT “the place for important Republicans to post”.

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I have to rewrite this diary because I lost the long text after rebooting for the third time. I have attempted to sign in and post probably 30 times tonight. I no longer have the interest to go into the detail of my last attempt so I will keep this short and sour.

As far as I am concerned, Redstate 3.0 is a collosal failure. The site is unusable because it is so hard to log in, so hard to post, and so hard to have a conversation/debate. There have been countless posts on the problems with the new site, and even more posts defending the “hard work” of the designer. What it comes down to is this site is no longer reliable and is NOT “the place for important Republicans to post”.

Read More →