Tidbits

Written : Feb. 17, Mar. 15, 24, 31, 2009

On Feb. 4, 2009, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) implied the new stimulus bill would cause all our public schools to have solar panels installed. I say let’s remember her statement on the topic, and verify her prediction when the time comes. Anyone taking bets as to whether the oh, so fair and unbiased mainstream media will ever call her on it – or, will we only hear about it on talk radio, “Hannity”, and on “The O’Reilly Factor”?

On “Fox News Sunday” on Feb. 15, 2009, Chris Wallace pressed David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, about the “Fairness Doctrine”. It was funny to watch Axelrod squirm and try to wiggle his way out. His answer was, “I'm going to leave that issue to Julius Genachowski, our new head of the FCC, to — and the president to discuss. So I don't have an answer for you now.” So, either they’ll abandon the issue, or Axelrod was so aware of the volatility of the subject that he was afraid to answer the question directly.

On Feb. 24, 2009, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) asked Ben Bernancke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve), “Do you breathe a sigh of relief that we didn’t privatize social security?” Now, I disagree with the term “privatization”, but wouldn’t it be a super idea to do it now, while the market is depressed? What bargains are out there! Actually, the Bush plan would not have allowed older people to participate, but rather the very young, or folks in their twenties. They would have had a long time for the market to recover, roughly 40-45 years. Historically, our markets have always rebounded. Why did some politicians distort and misrepresent such a fine plan?

Keywords: Conservatism, Conservative, blog, politics, political, David Axelrod, Ben Bernancke, Mark Cohen, Mark A. Cohen, Mad Money, silencing dissent.

Keyword Phrases: “conservative blog”, “liberal and conservative”, “conservative and liberal”, “republican blog”, “From the Left to the Right”, “Chris Wallace”, “David Axelrod”, “Ben Bernancke”, “Mark Cohen”, “Mark A. Cohen”, “silencing dissent”

The Conservative Glass Ceiling

Written : Mar. 15 & 24, 2009

The conservative media is finally starting to make a little progress. While John Aravosis (see Americablog.com) recently said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” that Sean Hannity is “irrelevant”, Hannity has already been mentioned this past year on several Sunday mainstream media talk shows, including many editions of George Stephanopolous’ show, “This Week”, on ABC. Hold the presses, Stephanopolous must have actually spoken with Hannity, at least once! Our new president empowered Sean by challenging him a couple of times when Barack Obama was but a mere mortal (when he was a candidate). Hannity made it into sentence number two (#2) in Newsweek’s cover story on Feb. 16, 2009! Liberals recently publicized Rush Limbaugh and his radio show. If you’re a liberal, please pay attention and listen (to Rush and Sean) carefully, calmly, and with an open mind.

Hugh Hewitt makes occasional appearances on CSPAN’s “Washington Journal”, Laura Ingraham fills in for Bill O’Reilly on FOX, Bill Bennett makes some of his stands on CNN. Wait; is that the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich whom I’ve seen on many of the faltering Sunday TV talk shows lately? Many mainstream demagogues even condescend to acknowledge Ann Coulter occasionally. It’s nowhere near equal yet, but things are definitely getting better for us.

Fellow conservatives, unlike it was in past years, Bill O’Reilly’s huge ratings and hefty book sales are getting him interviews on a multitude of mainstream media programs, such as “The View”. They still treat him like dirt, but at least he’s being noticed more often! Call out the cavalry; full steam ahead. At least we’re getting there. When the president’s “spend the USA into oblivion” plan falls apart later this year, we may pull even in “popular opinion” with the party whose logo is a donkey…

Keywords: Conservatism, Conservative, blog, politics, political, President Obama, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, conservative media, opposition media, Howard Kurtz, Reliable Sources, This Week, George Stephanopolous.

Keyword Phrases: “conservative blog”, “liberal and conservative”, “conservative and liberal”, “republican blog”, “From the Left to the Right”, “President Obama”, “Sean Hannity”, “Rush Limbaugh”, “Bill O’Reilly”, “conservative media”, “opposition media”, “Howard Kurtz”, “Reliable Sources”, “This Week”, “George Stephanopolous”.

Cramer!

Written : Mar. 12, 2009

Jim Cramer, the guy who entertained us with his antics on CNBC’s show “Mad Money”, recommended stocks to us the past few years. If you took his advice I’m sure you were satisfied some of the time and depressed at other times. He was enjoyable to watch. Sometimes he made us laugh, and sometimes he was too frantic, but he was always interesting. Everyone loved him, including the media because I’ve recently discovered, he has always been a liberal Democrat.

The interesting thing this past week was that Cramer dared contradict President Obama by saying that he was “causing the greatest destruction of wealth I have ever seen by a president”. I read he even compared Obama to Vladimir Lenin. So what? But the White House and the liberal media have no tolerance for any dissent. They now want to destroy the man since he’s been “disobedient”! They’re starting to question Jim Cramer’s ethics. How despicable. Do we now have a totalitarian state? Is this now a dictatorship? It’s starting to seem so, especially in Cramer’s case.

Jon Stewart (yes, the comedian) was only the first to angrily suggest that Jim Cramer, a fellow TV show host, actually had something to do with causing the financial crisis we’re now experiencing. Barney Frank, the House of Representative’s Financial Services Committee Chairman, one of many politicians who as late as 2004 defended the running of Fannie May and Freddie Mac, is not one who caused regular folks to lose value in their 401K’s. They are blaming Jim Cramer instead! Just watch, they’ll try to sue or criminally indict Cramer and/or have him fired from his TV show! Punishment for criticizing the President! But it’s not conservatives who are attempting to silence a critic!

Keywords: Conservatism, Conservative, blog, politics, political, social, economic, socio-economic, Cramer, Jim Cramer, Mark Cohen, Mark A. Cohen, Mad Money, silencing dissent.

Keyword Phrases: “conservative blog”, “liberal and conservative”, “conservative and liberal”, “republican blog”, “From the Left to the Right”, “economic”, “Cramer”, “Jim Cramer”, “Mad Money”, “Mark Cohen”, “Mark A. Cohen”, “silencing dissent”

You Might Be a Conservative If…

Written : Mar. 9-10, 2009

I was once on the left side of the political aisle, but I wasn’t always sure why. I dared to question liberals as well as conservatives. In so doing, I learned much and eventually changed my mind politically. Perhaps you are left of center but are starting to question current liberal philosophy. It’s possible you’re really a closet conservative as I was, and although there is no ultimate test, here are a few items by which you can test that theory:

You might be a conservative if you…

1. Want everyone to succeed, not just a select few.

2. Don’t like to classify people into groups.

3. Don’t describe or point out anyone’s physical appearance, race, or status to others.

4. Think it’s unfair to be punished for your current or future successes.

5. Think it’s unfair to punish others for their current or future successes.

6. Don’t see yourself as a victim.

7. Are proud of many of America’s past achievements.

You might be a conservative if you believe that…

8. Laws are worthless if they are not enforced.

9. America’s best days still are ahead of her.

10. Success is earned and is not a right.

11. ”The women’s movement” should support all women regardless of their politics.

12. Lower taxes can help individuals and businesses and therefore can help the economy.

13. Higher taxes can hurt individuals and businesses and therefore can harm the economy.

14. The people who make this country work are not the enemy.

15. People’s lives / families can be destroyed by welfare.

16. Socialism and Communism have never lifted masses of people out of poverty.

17. Labor unions were once necessary but today they are corrupt and can be more harmful than good.

You just might be a conservative if…

18. You’re not jealous of anyone else’s success.

19. You don’t understand why and think it’s generally unfair that hard working people like yourself who pay their mortgages on time are not being rewarded and why people who do not pay their mortgages are.

20. You think there’s no incentive for hard work if everyone is paid the same wage.

21. You know that America’s not perfect, yet you think it’s the best country in the world. In addition, you believe Americans are not better than anyone else.

22. When you see a “glass ceiling” you don’t complain much about it, and you strive even harder to succeed.

23. You think that “service to others” is a noble idea and is something you should strive to accomplish.

Keywords: Conservatism, Conservative, blog, politics, political, social, racism, race, race discussion, women’s rights.

Keyword Phrases: “conservative blog”, “liberal and conservative”, “conservative and liberal”, “republican blog”, “From the Left to the Right”, “racial stereotypes”, “Mark Cohen”, “Mark A. Cohen, discussing race”, “the women’s movement”.

Race – Up for Discussion or Not?

Written : Mar. 3, 2009

Juan Williams is probably the fairest of the liberal pundits appearing on TV today. He actually has ideas of merit and substance and I respect him because he has the guts to engage conservatives without the usual anger or demagoguery. Sometimes I even agree with him. On Fox News Sunday on Feb. 29 I believe, Mr. Williams implied that black leaders are sometimes two-faced about having an honest discussion about race. He said that the attitude where Jesse Jackson suggests that Barack Obama ought to be castrated for saying that Black fathers should be more responsible makes it harder to have an open discussion about race. He has it right.

Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) says that the Republican governors who are saying that they will not accept the current stimulus package money are being racist. As I understand it, he thinks that those governors are governors of states in the south with relatively high black populations and therefore to deliberately not help blacks, they are denying their entire states the aid. To me that’s a completely unreasonable explanation. The governors are resisting because they believe the stimulus bill will not help their states’ economies. There may be other political reasons for their refusal, but let’s be honest, it has nothing to do with race.

In 2002, Trent Lott (R-TN), former Senator and congressman, was accused of being a racist and was forced to resign when he praised Sen. Strom Thurmond at Thurmond’s 100th birthday celebration. Thurmond had segregationist views in his early career and never publicly renounced them. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton imitated the black accent in a speech a couple of years ago. She said the House of Representatives was run “like a plantation”. She slipped into a jive accent when she added, “and you know what I’m talkin’ about!” Many were angered by her remarks. Talk show host Don Imus was thrown off his show in 2007 for kidding around about race. He’s not poor, and I’m not defending his remarks here, but he surely lost his job after black leaders rallied for his dismissal. Many accused him of being a racist. A N.Y. Post cartoonist and his editor are now being asked to resign their jobs after a cartoon ran that may have been interpreted by some as comparing our president to a chimpanzee. There are others who say the cartoon references the Feb. 17, 2009 story of a chimp that had gone crazy and mauled a woman in upstate N.Y. Who knows what the cartoonist actually meant? I think that going after people’s jobs is the wrong way to fix any issue. Let’s sit down and discuss it instead.

The U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder recently said that we are a nation of cowards for not discussing race. Personally, I have no problem with discussing race in an open manner - verbally. But, really, how can whites be expected to discuss race openly, especially on television, when the risk is so immense when they talk about it? Wow, one slip up and you could be fired. On the same show last week, Fox News Sunday, conservative commentator and anchor Bret Hume added, “Who in their right mind would discuss race under those circumstances?” As Mr. Williams is, Mr. Hume’s right, too, but I wish the atmosphere was such that we could discuss race openly without fear of recrimination for what may be said.

Keywords: Conservatism, Conservative, blog, politics, political, social, racism, race, race discussion

Keyword Phrases: “conservative blog”, “liberal and conservative”, “conservative and liberal”, “republican blog”, “From the Left to the Right”, “racial stereotypes”, “Mark Cohen”, “Mark A. Cohen, discussing race”