Tuesday, September 13, 2005
I hate to point this out, people
But for those on the left and the right who are complaining about the principle of stare decisis as regards Roe v. Wade, I would ask how well established the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson was.
The doctrine of “separate but equal” in that case was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 7-1 majority, and it was not until 58 years later than the Supreme Court reversed itself with a unanimous 9-0 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Longevity does not guarantee a good decision. Neither does precedent. Democrats may be in for a harsh lesson or three.
Cross-posted at RTFTLC
LAST THING FOR THE DAY…..
What liberal bias?
Look at this URL: http://www.cnn.com/#hellfrezesover
Look at the page it links to.
Nothing to see here....move along.
UPDATE: Sorry...it has been changed, but I have saved the page on my other computer. Send me a comment request, and I will send it to you.
OK….another little test….
Will Andrew Sullivan react well to Bush taking responsibility? Here are the odds:
4% chance that he will look favorably on Bush taking responsibility.
96% chance that Sully will say, “It’s not enough...” or something similar.
There is a 75% chance that, no matter what he says, the subject of gay marriage or Abu Ghraib will come up.
Now, remember, Mike Brown is GONE, and Bush is saying that he is the one responsible if the federal response was too slow. Let’s see if Andrew Sullivan, who says he doesn’t dislike Bush, gives the man any credit.
Can we review something?
This is an opinion piece...not any links to articles, or anything....so take it as such.
Let’s look at the world for a moment....
We are in a world war, with troops 10,000 miles away, fighting terrorists who will trap bombs to themselves in order to gain glory.
We have liberated 45,000,000 people from tyrannical governments in the course of this war, and allowed them the right of self-determination.
We have just been hit with a hurricane that utterly crippled 50,000 square miles of industrially productive coastline.
In the last six years, we have dropped into recession, been bombed, put 250,000 soldiers overseas in a war, been character-assassinated by every islamofascist and leftist group on the planet for having the gumption to defend ourselves and proactively remove terrorist sanctuaries (Compare and contrast Sudan and Afghanistan....where would you rather be?).
We have seen the largest political upheaval since the 1960’s, fueled by anger over the Presidential Election of 2000, and fired by the prosecution of a war that we did not start. We have seen the left in this country do everything, tasteful and not, in order to harm or ruin the right.
We have seen lies told as truths, clearly forged documents presented as fact, actual events ignored in order to forward character assassination, and all other sorts of political and personal attacks against Christianity, traditional values, conservatism, and the War on Terror.
We have witnessed our President compared to mass murderers, to dictators, and to evil men. We have heard him insulted for his intellect, his looks, his children, his hobbies, and his physical fitness, in a way that no other American President has been. With no illegalities or improprieties in his person or governance, we have seen him picked apart, blamed where he had little say-so, and alienated from the media and the populace.
The say-so of communists, anarchists, socialists, avowed terrorists, and Islamists has gotten more coverage and respect than that of the President.
Social engineers, like Andrew Sullivan, have blamed the President for everything from prisoner abuse to the failure of gay marriage in popular elections. College professors have called him an idiot, wished him dead, and compared people that support him to Nazis.
Some people call him isolated. I call him blockaded.
When his message gets out, it is understood and agreed with. When he explained why we were going to war, America rallied, even against the wishes of the media and the left. When he spoke at his convention, millions decided to change their vote. In fact, millions more voted for him then did in the last election.....not because of Karl Rove, but because of his optimistic message.
However, because of the ability of another hated President (Reagan), the press harasses this man. They refuse to air his press conferences in full, they antagonize his press secretary, they openly question his motives in the guise of long-winded questions, and they print articles that blatantly misconstrue events in order to reduce his popularity and standing. They work, with the left, and all those who oppose his ideas and ideals, to shout him down.
I agree that he is not a true conservative....I will agree that he surrounds himself with people that think and act like him. However, if people claim that he isn’t good with the economy, they are not seeing the truth. If they say he is a failure at foreign policy, they haven’t seen Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and the Ukraine. If they say the world opposes us, they haven’t noticed that each and every government that opposes what we are trying to do is totalitarian, socialist, communist, or Islamist, and that the governments that favor what we are doing are free, or were, in the recent past, controlled by dictatorial governments. The people that oppose the President’s ideas are those who have always opposed America....pro-dictator, anti-capitalist, pro-terrorist, pro-Islamist, pro-socialist/communist. Why is that so hard to see?
This president isn’t adequate....he has charged ahead. Things go on that he knows about and authorizes that we have no idea about. Battles are being fought in nations far away, but he is watching. He is a war-time President that people are holding to a standard that can only be realized in peacetime. And, even to those standards, with all things considered, he has done well.
So, he goes on, blamed for 600-mile wide storms, given responsibility for planeloads of innocents slaughtered by madmen, charged with not having omnipotent knowledge of weapons the size of my computer that can kill thousands, and not given credit for liberating millions, forestalling any number of terrorist attacks on our nation, and turning a reactive, deadly foreign policy (embassies, ships, planes, buildings being destroyed) into a proactive one based on strength.
Know that the weaknesses in our policy are produced by the media broadcasts, and problems in Iraq are fermented by anti-American interests. It isn’t the fault of the man in the Oval Office that people loot Iraqi museums or New Orleans retail stores. It isn’t his doing that prisoners are hazed, or that hurricanes strike populated areas. It isn’t his decision that tech-bubbles fail, or that buildings are hit with airliners. However, he has had to deal with all of that, and I pray that history looks at him with the dispassionate accord that these times require, but utterly lack.
I hope that the man in the office is viewed through the window pane of our times, seen for what he did to make ours a better country, and ours a better world.
I am glad, and we are blessed to have him. Through all his faults, he has stayed the course. Though he has not the ability to voice it as we would like, he has been true to his country, to himself, to his faith, and his beliefs in the promise and strength of our nation. We are worth fighting for. We are worth defending, and so is liberty. We are able to right our economy without paying the government to do it for us. We are responsible for our own actions. We can return local governments to primacy.
Is he perfect? Nope. But, no-one is.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Getting it out there while I can
My regulars will remember that I work elections here in California, and I have repeated many times that once I get the appointment letter, I am required to be neutral on any of the issues raised during that election.
Well, I got a call yesterday from the Registrar’s Office to arrange for my training date. (We have to go through refresher training for each and every election.) She happened to mention that my letter would be sent out in a few days, so I’m going to go over the issues while I still can.
This is a Special Election, called for by the Governor, and with petitions signed by a minimum number of registered voters State-wide. Those signatures were counted and (after a court battle) approved, and the date for the election set on November 8th.