WASTED OPPORTUNITIES
I haven't written about the shutdown, but I haven't written much about the debate around the shutdown itself.
In a way I said everything that I had to say about this back in 2010 after the midterm elections.
1. Creating Jobs Through Deregulation - While Obama pushes more phony job creation programs through regulation and spending, the Republicans have to focus on creating jobs through deregulation, by getting government off the back of the small businessman and the freelancer. That means not just opposing the next wave of the Obama agenda, but also creating tangible reforms that will mean less paperwork, less fees and fewer regulations for American small businesses to worry about. If the Republican congress can push a program that will actually make a difference at the ground level, then they will have won some key allies, particularly among independent voters.
2. Repeal Positively - It's great that Boehner is talking about repealing ObamaCare, but while it's important to do that, and jettison as much of Obama's agenda as possible-- but it is also vital not to be defined by it. For the first two years being the Party of No was a successful strategy, but a sizable amount of voters expect more than just vetoes or repeals. Being the Party of No while in the opposition was important, but being the Party of No while dominating the House is poor strategy. During the next election, it will be important for Republicans to remind the public, not just that they repealed what Obama did in his first two years, but how they followed a roadmap for restoring America.
The GOP failed to show that their victories had any tangible benefits except roadblocking some of Obama's agenda. That's enough for some support as a balance of power. And that's what the GOP Congress has become. It's why we are where we are, with both sides struggling to shift the balance of power.
The public doesn't particularly like either side and while a lot of that is due to the media-entertainment complex doing its things, the Republicans haven't done much about it.
Gingrich understood that you had to win through clear messaging about a positive agenda. For all his faults, there really isn't anyone who understands that and is ready to take a leadership role doing it.
The thing to understand about Obama is that he has nothing to lose. He's not a senator or a congressman. He doesn't follow any laws unless he chooses to. And he can always do anything he wants by pushing it forward unless it's wildly unpopular.
That was why he had to back off Syria. ObamaCare is unpopular. It's not however Bomb Syria unpopular. It's not wildly unpopular with everyone. But it could be.
The strongest messaging on ObamaCare came from the Tea Party before those midterm elections. Ted Cruz has been trying to get some of that spirit back. But it's not enough. And while opposition from a citizen's group is respected, opposition from an elected party whose members get paid government salaries is measured not just by what they don't do, but what they do.
Right now everyone knows that the Republican Party is against ObamaCare. There is much less sense of what they are for. And that gap is filled by SNL routines, celebrity tweets, media rants and biased journalism. (Killing kids, oppressing the poor, hating black people, etc.) But to some extent, it's the failure of the Republican Congress to define itself in the way that Gingrich was able to that is to blame. If you don't define yourself, you will be defined.
Republican opposition to ObamaCare would be far more effective if the public didn't just know what the GOP is against, but also what it's for. And what it has accomplished.
That last element is the important one. The Republican Congress has been boxed in by the incomplete victories of 2010. Obama is not boxed in because he does what he wants. That lets him point to a list of "accomplishments" while the Republicans are dismissed as obstructionists.
Too many opportunities have been wasted. And this is another one of them.
SAVING THE BROTHERHOOD
The successful counterrevolutions against Muslim Brotherhood rule may have actually salvaged its reputation.
Had the Brotherhood gone down in complete economic disaster, it would have been obvious that it was not only brutal and tyrannical, but also incompetent at everything except setting up front organizations and infiltrating other movements. Instead the Brotherhood has been able to play the victim. Instead of being seen as a failure, it has reinvented brutal power-hungry thugs like Morsi as revolutionary martyrs.
Imagine if the Bolsheviks had been forced out in the 1920s. Millions of lives would have been saved, but Stalin would have been remembered as a political martyr, instead of as a monster.
When The Arab Spring Died
Biden Thanks NPS Worker for “Her Service” Blocking Vets from WW2 Memorial
UNCAIR
CAIR’s critics, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a feminist and ex-Muslim, are smeared with out of context quotes.
CAIR’s Islamophobia report claims that Ayaan Hirsi Ali “asserted that Breivik ‘had no other choice but to use violence’ because his ‘views were censored.’” The very Think Progress source that CAIR footnotes the quote with however shows her saying, “He says, he had no other choice but to use violence.”
The omission is important. Ayaan Hirsi Ali isn’t giving her own view; she’s quoting Breivik while calling him abhorrent, but warning that silencing people is not the answer.
CAIR might do well to consider the fate of its Muslim Brotherhood parent organization. All the Muslim Brotherhood’s lies couldn’t keep the Egyptian people from waking to what it truly stood for. Does CAIR really believe that what didn’t even work in Egypt will somehow work in America?
CAIR’s Islamophobia Meltdown
Bill de Blasio, Supporter of Anti-Semitic Communist Terrorists, Claims Republican Opponent is Extremist
POPULATION BOOM
A population larger than Iowa City will be “coming to America”. The Boston Marathon Bombers of tomorrow have to start somewhere.
Barack Obama has determined that up to 70,000 refugees will be admitted to the U.S. during fiscal year 2014.
In his memorandum for Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday, Obama said his decision is “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”
Obama to Bring 70,000 Refugees to America in 2014
HIJAB JIHAD FAIL
Obama Inc’s pet EEOC personnel have scored victories in their Hijab Jihad against Disney and Abercrombie and Fitch. But now they have suffered a setback.
The EEOC’s witness on behalf of the Hijab was apparently John Esposito, the director of Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center.
Esposito is funded by Saudi money and Saudi Arabia has been aggressively pushing the Hijab Jihad against women abroad.
Saudi Arabia’s religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Obama Inc’s Claim that Hijab Ban is Discriminatory
CULT OF DEATH
The story of Nancy Verhelst is the story of the failure of modern Western civilization. It begins with a liberal society providing deformative “transgender” surgery and ends with the society providing euthanasia.
Nancy was rejected by her mother. Instead of dealing with that problem, the establishment instead perversely decided to address the lack of a mother’s love by mutilating a grown woman into some warped creature that would only loosely resemble a man, but could never be a man, to meet the wishes of a mother who hated her.
And when Nancy continued suffering. There was another solution. Death.
Transgender Woman who Tried to Turn Herself Into a Man After Rejection by Mother Kills Herself
“I Am Not a Criminal” Senator Harry Reid says as Illegal Campaign Donor is Jailed
Nixon’s “I am not a crook” is listed as one of the top 10 unfortunate political quotes. Senator Reid’s “I am not a criminal” may shortly join that list.
On Monday, Harry Reid’s close friend and donor, Harvey Whittemore was sentenced to two years in prison for funneling more than $130,000 in illegal campaign funds to Sen. Harry Reid’s re-election committee in 2007. He received three felony convictions, his sentence includes $100,00 in fines and 100 community service hours. Whittemore was a former Nevada power broker and named the most powerful lobbyist in Nevada who worked for gambling, alcohol and tobacco industries. His nickname was the “64th legislator”.
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Reid and Whittemore go way back; four of Reid’s sons were hired by the law firm in which Harvey Whittemore was a senior partner. Sen. Reid and Whittemore were involved in very big land deals, including federal legislation to help the development of Coyote Springs.
So Senator Reid decided that this was the perfect time to defend his character.
The Nevada Democrat also defended his role in fighting Republican attempts to water down Obamacare as a condition to keeping the government open, responding directly to a National Review piece that called him the “villain of villains.”
“When I read this yesterday, I thought, no one likes to be called a villain,” Reid said, reading aloud definitions of the word that mean “uncouth,” “scoundrel” or “criminal.” “I am not a criminal. I am not a scoundrel. So they better get a different definition of me.”
NOW IT CAN BE TOLD
The official Syrian RTV agency says that Syria is the last obstacle for Jews to finally take over the world.
“The pre-war on Syria, and the current war on Syria, is World War III.”
"To those who think this is just a conspiracy theory I invite them to read the Torah and the Talmud and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and specifically to read the policies included in the book of Isaiah 16: [sic - it is 17:] 1.
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
3. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.
Syria Claims It’s the Only Thing Stopping a Jewish Takeover of the Planet
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