Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 12 November 2006

I gave a list of things that left me feeling disenfranchised

Nice you have feelings. Please stop confusing them for facts. You were left feeling just the way Mike Savage told you to feel. So why don't you go ask his heros the Democrats, the people he gave his campaign contributions to, what they are going to do to empower your Conservative feelings?

Yeah, we should listen to McCain and NOT listen to the Generals on the ground. General Abazid told him to his face this "More boots on the ground" chant of his is stupid.

But that right, the FReeper Generals thing we should listen to the politicians in DC with their self serving rhetoric rather the the guys actually on the ground.

Yeah. McCain is so "Conservative" he has done nothing to curb Spending and is the author of such anti Conservative bills as CFR and the Torture Amendment.

Too late to try and do the right thing now John McCain. WE Republicans KNOW you and your always obstructionist behavior the last 6 years are THE MAJOR reason why we lost Nov 7th.

"Public Integrity?" There is a great idea. Create a new bureaucracy to do the job the current bureaucracy has prove itself totally incompetent to do.

Yeah. Why don't you go ask your Democrat heros you worked so hard to elect what they are going to do to advance your "Conservative root values".

Why don't you go ask them what happens now to the Federal Spending databse the Republicans were building so ordinary citizen could track who spent what on whom.

Same deal again. What part of your "Conservative values" do you think the Democrats are going to enact?

So your threw away all this for what? Self validation of your always angry emotions? The delusion that you can now kid yourself that "Savage was right"? That your the petulant temper tantrums of the 100%ers managed to smash a political glass that was 70% full so they could take joy in the 100% of NOTHING they will now get?

Go ask your Democrat heros how much of this they are going to let stand

HERE is a list of what Bush and the GOP have got done.

Abortion & Traditional Values

1. Banned Partial Birth Abortion — by far the most significant roll-back of abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade.
2. Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy.
> 3. By Executive Order (EO), reversed Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act.
4. By EO, prohibited federal funds for international family planning groups that provide abortions and related services.
5. Upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals.
6. Made $33 million available for abstinence education programs in 2004.
7. Supports the Defense of Marriage Act — and a Constitutional amendment saying marriage is between one man and one woman.
8. Requires states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents.
9. Requires districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools.
10. Requires schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption (reintroducing discipline into classrooms).
11. Signed the Teacher Protection Act, which protects teachers from lawsuits related to student discipline.
12. Expanded the role of faith-based and community organizations in after-school programs.

Budget, Taxes & Economy

1. Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history.
2. Supports permanent elimination of the death tax.
3. Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession, and deeply shocked as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
4. Is seeking legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority.
5. In process of permanently eliminating IRS marriage penalty.
6. Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people.
7. Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.
8. Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules would have shut down every home business in America.
9. Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.
10. Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains.
11. Signed trade promotion authority.
12. Reduced and is working to ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family farms and ranches.
13. Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States.
14. Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes.
15. Provided $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from home.
16. Created a fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled.
17. Increased the annual contribution limit on Education IRA's from $500 to $2,000 per child.
18. Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit and provide $1 billion over five years to increase the credit to $10,000.
19. Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans. 20. Reduced H1B visas from a high of 195,000 per year to 66,000 per year.

Character & Conduct as President

1. Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the presidency. \
2. Has reintroduced the mention of God and faith into public discourse.
3. Handled himself with enormous courage, dignity, grace, determination, and leadership in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings and anthrax attacks. He almost single-handedly held this country together during those searing days:

* Just three days after the attacks, in his address at the National Cathedral, the President reassured the nation when he said: "War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing."

* On Friday, September 14, 2001, President Bush visited Ground Zero. Standing on a crushed and burned fire engine atop the smoldering pile at Ground Zero, he put his arm around a retired firefighter who had volunteered to help, and began speaking to the crowd. Rescue workers shouted that they could not hear him. Someone handed him a small American flag and bullhorn. The President spontaneously shouted: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." The crowd roared with cheers and chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Then he raised that American flag and rallied a nation:

Education & Employment Training

1. Signed the No Child Left Behind Act, delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations). The very liberal California Teachers union is currently running radio ads against the accountability provisions of this Act.
2. Announced "Jobs for the 21st Century," a comprehensive plan to better prepare workers for jobs in the new millennium by strengthening post-secondary education and job training, and by improving high school education.
3. Is working to provide vouchers to low-income students in persistently failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools. (Blocked in the Senate.)
4. Requires annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight.
5. Requires states to participate in the National Assessment of Education Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for academic performance.
6. Requires school-by-school accountability report cards.
7. Established a $2.4 billion fund to help states implement teacher accountability systems.
8. Increased funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program, which recruits former military personnel to to become teachers.

Environment & Energy

1. Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.
2. Submitted a comprehensive Energy Plan (awaits Congressional action). The plan works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.
3. Established a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation initiatives.
4. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
5. Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary cleanup of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.
6. Part of national forests cleanup: Restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges), and removed the need for an Environmental Impact Statement before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.
7. Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California.
8. Provided matching grants for state programs that help private landowners protect rare species.

Defense & Foreign Policy

1. Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom.
2. Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured.
3. Leader by leader and member by member, al Qaida is being hunted down in dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaida leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The detentions or deaths of senior al Qaida leaders, including Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the War on Terror.
4. Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed.
5. Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network.
6. Initiated a comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, and which accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE capabilities were critical in the 21st Century.
7. Killed the old US/Soviet Union ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses.
8. Has been one of the strongest, if not THE strongest friend Israel has ever hand in the U.S. presidency.
9. Part of the coalition for an Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace," along with Great Britain, Russia and the EU.
10. Pushed through THREE raises for our military. Increased military pay by more than $1 billion a year.
11. Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia.
12. Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia, and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.
13. Prohibited putting U.S. troops under U.N. command.
14. Paid back UN dues only in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of the costs.
15. Earmarked at least 20 percent of the Defense procurement budget for next-generation weaponry.
16. Increased defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion from fiscal 2002 to 2006.
17. Ordered a comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy.
18. Ordered a review of overseas deployments.
19. Ordered renovation of military housing. The military has already upgraded about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000 additional homes this year.
20. Is working to tighten restrictions on military-technology exports. 21. Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed.
21. Pushed thru Congress the 1st Military Death benefit raise in decades. Rasied the grant for survivors of military personal killed in the line of duty from a pitful $10,000 to over $100,000. Globalization & Internationalism

1. Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become another League of Nations (in other words, showed the UN to be completely irrelevant).
2. Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court.
3. Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e., the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty).
* 4. The only President since the founding of the UN to essentially tell that organization it is irrelevant. He said: "The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations, and a threat to peace. Iraq has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance. All the world now faces a test, and the United Nations a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" We all know the outcome and the answer.
5. Told the Congress and the world, "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."

Government Reform

1. Improved government efficiency by putting hundreds of thousands of jobs put up for bid. This weakens public-sector unions and cuts undeserved pay raises.
2. Initiated review of all federal agencies with the goal of eliminating federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of the federal government while increasing private sector jobs.
3. Led the most extensive reorganization the Federal bureaucracy in over 50 years: After 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
* 4. Ordered each agency to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with fewer managers.
5. Converted federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever possible so that the contractor has measurable performance goals.

Health

1. Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free.
2. Double the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.
3. Signed Medicare Reform, which includes: * A 10-year privatization option. * Prescription drug benefits: Prior to this reform, Medicare paid for extended hospital stays for ulcer surgery, for example, at a cost of about $28,000 per patient. Yet Medicare would not pay for the drugs that eliminate the cause of most ulcers, drugs that cost about $500 a year. Now, drug coverage under Medicare will allow seniors to replace more expensive surgeries and hospitalizations with less expensive prescription medicine. * More health care choices: As President Bush stated, "…when seniors have the ability to make choices, health care plans within Medicare will have to compete for their business by offering higher quality service [at lower cost]. For the seniors of America, more choices and more control will mean better health care. These are the kinds of health care options we give to the members of Congress and federal employees. What's good for members of Congress is also good for seniors.
* New Health Savings Accounts: Effective January 1, 2004, Americans can set aside up to $4,500 every year, tax free, to save for medical expenses. Depending on your tax bracket, that means you'll save between 10 to 35 percent on any costs covered by money in your account. Every year, the money not spent would stay in the account and gain interest tax-free, just like an IRA. These accounts will be good for small business owners, and employees. More businesses can focus on covering workers for major medical problems, such as hospitalization for an injury or illness. At the same time, employees and their families will use these accounts to cover doctors visits, or lab tests, or other smaller costs. Some employers will contribute to employee health accounts. This will help more American families get the health care they need at the price they can afford.

Homeland Security, Border Enforcement & Immigration

1. *See Government Reform above. Under President Bush's leadership, America has made an unprecedented commitment to homeland security.
2. Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first 10 ABM silos in Alaska so that America will have a defense against North Korean nukes. Has ordered national and theater ballistic missile defenses to be deployed by 2004.
3. Announced a 9.7% increase in government-wide homeland security funding in his FY 2005 budget, nearly tripling the FY 2001 levels (excluding the Department of Defense and Project BioShield).
4. Before DHS was created, there were inspectors from three different agencies of the Federal Government and Border Patrol officers protecting our borders. Through DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) now consolidates all border activities into a single agency to create "one face at the border." This not only better secures the borders of the United States, but it also eliminates many of the inefficiencies that occurred under the old system. With over 18,000 CBP inspectors and 11,000 Border Patrol agents, CBP has 29,000 uniformed officers on our borders.
5. The Border Patrol is continuing installation of monitoring devices along the borders to detect illegal activity.
6. Launched Operation Tarmac to investigate businesses and workers in the secure areas of domestic airports and ensure immigration law compliance. Since 9/11, DHS has audited 3,640 businesses, examined 259,037 employee records, arrested 1,030 unauthorized workers, and participated in the criminal indictment of 774 individuals.
7. Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has conducted more than 124,000 port security patrols, 13,000 air patrols, boarded more than 92,000 vessels, interdicted over 14,000 individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally, and created and maintained more than 90 Maritime Security Zones.
8. Announced the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), an internet-based system that is improving America's ability to track and monitor foreign students and exchange visitors. Over 870,000 students are registered in SEVIS. Of 285 completed field investigations, 71 aliens were arrested.
9. This week, the US-VISIT program began to digitally collect biometric identifiers to record the entry and exit of aliens who travel into the U.S on a visa. Together with the standard information, this new program will confirm compliance with visa and immigration policies.
10. Eliminated INS bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability. 11. Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization.
12. Signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal aliens.
13. Established a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications.
14. Information regarding nearly 100% of all containerized cargo is carefully screened by DHS before it arrives in the United States. Higher risk shipments are physically inspected for terrorist weapons and contraband prior to being released from the port of entry. Advanced technologies are being deployed to identify warning signs of chemical, biological, or radiological attacks. Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of first responders across America have been trained to recognize and respond to the effects of a WMD attack.

Judiciary & Tort Reform

1. Is urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits.
2. Killed the liberal ABA's unconstitutional role in vetting federal judges. The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not the ABA.
3. Is nominating strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.
4. Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims.

Politics

1. His leadership resulted in Republican gains in the House and Senate, solidifying Republican control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.

2. Signed an EO enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision regarding union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes.

3.Has prosecuted 527 corrupt Union bosses in an effort to reform the rampant corruption in the Labor Unions.

Second Amendment

1. Ordered Attorney General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, and is NOT a Leftist-imagined "collective" right.
2. Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit.
3. Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers. 4. *See Globalization & Internationalism.

Traditional Values, Compassion & Volunteerism

1. Endorses and promotes "The Responsibility Era." President Bush often speaks of the necessity of personal responsibility and civic volunteerism. He said, "In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else — to one in which every single American understands that he or she is responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself."
2. Started the USA Freedom Corps, the most comprehensive clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever offered. For the first time in history, Americans can enter geographic information about where they want to get involved, such as state or zip code, as well as areas of interest ranging from education to the environment, and they can access volunteer opportunities offered by more than 50,000 organizations across the country and around the world.
3. Established the The White House Office and the Centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiative — located in seven Federal agencies. The faith-based initiative supports the essential work of these important organizations. The goal is to make sure that grassroots leaders can compete on an equal footing for federal dollars, receive greater private support, and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. Work focuses on at-risk youth, ex-offenders, the homeless and hungry, substance abusers, those with HIV/AIDS, and welfare-to-work families.
4. The White House released a guidebook fully describing the Administration's belief that faith-based groups have a Constitutionally-protected right to maintain their religious identity through hiring — even when Federal funds are involved.
5. Issued an EO implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based facilities when possible.
6. Increased funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices to assist them.
7. Revised the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent subsidies to disabled people, permitting them to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance down payments on homes. HUD has started pilot programs in 11 states.
8. Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men, women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa.
9. Heeding the words of our own Declaration of Independence, the president laid out the non-negotiable demands of human dignity for all people everywhere. On January 29, 2002, he said, "No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." As stated by the President, they are a virtual manifesto of conservative principles:

* Equal Justice
* Freedom of Speech
* Limited Government Power
* Private Property Rights
* Religious Tolerance
* Respect for Women
* Rule of Law

List authored by Freeper Southack

Candor why don't you wander over to the Democrats and ask them how much of your Conservative agenda they will do for you?

You are NOT intrested in the least in advancing the Conservative agenda. You just want to stick knives in people for NOT doing ONLY 100% of ONLY what YOU want the second you decide you want it. You are so feverishly seeking an imposible political purity that you fail to realize you NEVER do anything to fight the Democrats on any issue.

Want to help the Conservative Movement? Get off our side. Go spend the next two years sticking your knives in the Democrats back for us, they way you did it to us for them.

NOTHING in life is ever going to be perfect. The Republicans gave you $1.2 Billion for a Border Fence. Why don't you go ask your heros the Democrats what they are going to do when that money is all spent.

Remember that. The Always Obstructionist John McCain and his Senate Clown posse are the MAJOR reason for the Nov 7th result. Pretty hard to convince people the Republicans are on your side when the agenda issues that matter most to them go NO WHERE because a Senator of your own party would rather play politics then get things done.

Very good on Iraq if you simply ignore all the statements of every military Commander in Iraq and mindlessly parrot the Dincos propaganda lines as spewed by John McCain. Gen Abizaid basically told John McCain and the rest of the DC Media-Politcal complex they are idiots on Iraq in todays US Senate Hearings.

It would be wise if the Weekly Standard, the Freeper Armchair Generals and the other assorted Junk Media Dinocons would be silent and actually LEARN the facts on Iraq rather the parrot the dogmas of people in DC who have NO idea how to win a Counter Insurgency

Funny seems Joe Leiberman is also an Idiot on Iraq. Seems the US Senate thinks it knows better how to mange the Iraq war then the Professional Military. I suggest the Senators simply do as Gen Abizaid hinted to them today.

Want to "fix" Iraq? Sit down, shut up and get out of our way.

Same challenge to you.

Why don't you take what ever single issue matters the most to you and go ask your new Democrat Congress what THEY are going to do to advance your Conservative agenda.

But that right. For "Conservatives" it more about dogmatic purity then actually moving the ball down the field.

Pretty tough to win a battle when 40% of your squad spends all it's time shooting it own allies in the back

Yeah pretty tough to get your message out when the Leftist junk Media spends all its time screaming "the GOP sucks" and the "Conservative" media spends all it's time screaming "You are right, the GOP does suck."

Pretty tough to win a battle when 40% of your squad spends all it's time shooting it's own in the back.

Well I take back the suggestion that Newt is our answer. If he said this about Rummy it indicates he is more interested in playing suck up to the DC Media Political establishment then telling them the truth.

Not so. Perception is everything.

What? Just a little bit ago you were telling us "Conservative Principals" is all that matters. So which is it?

Sunday Top 10 List.

10. A.Hun. #80 We, as conservatives, may never have the opportunity we had after the 2004 election. Instead of standing with our moderate/conservative coalition, everyone went off on a tangent. Every talking head found something to bash Bush on, suddenly he wasn't conservative enough on every issue for some conservatives. There were plenty of warnings on FR about what the consequence of such an approach would have. Oh well...we were in a minority for forty years and the nation survived.

9. Miss Marple. #982 Coulter is right about the victim strategy the Rats use, but there has to be a better way to combat this than rushing headlong into an attack on these supposedly sacrosanct spokespeople. Some of the things I think that would help is defusing the "authority" of these people early, before they get famous and have amassed a war chest. That means when they first show up on a talk show, someone needs to make an effort to appear as soon as possible to refute them. This refutation has to NOT be belligerent, but rather sympathetic. Things like "I understand why Miss X feels that way, but here is why her idea can't work. I really wish it could, because I hate to see anyone suffer." It is disastrous to ignore these people (like Cindy Sheehan) because they simply get more well-known over time and eventually begin to be seen by the public as authorities on whatever they are griping about. And lastly, much as it pains me to say this, as long as the democrats can drag out victims for whatever issue they want to push, we should have people we can use to refute them. We did have some people refute Cindy (parents of soldiers who died in Iraq) but she had the stage by herself for far too long. I don't like the idea of recruiting our own victims, but I don't know how else we will be able to refute them otherwise

8. Peach. #107 Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is expected to take over as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and The (Calif.) Daily Journal reports that Leahy is drafting a bill to undo portions of the new law in an effort to restore habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants. In 1996, Clinton signed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act which makes it more difficult for murder defendants to have their habeas corpus appeals heard in federal court. So American citizens (albeit murderers) will have a difficult time having their habeas corpus appeals heard, but terrorists will be granted the RIGHT! If we all don't call our elected officials about this, we're just part of the Silent Majority that got us in this position in the first place.

7. Chiller. #118. I suspect the timing was Rummy's call. As soon as he knew Dems won the Senate, Rummy knew he'd be going through two years of congressional hearings. He may be required to testify but I suspect he'll tell 'em to stuff it.

6. Johnny 7 # 435. No perhaps about it... they make a BIG difference. The New Media doesn't report news... it comments/corrects the news the DBM spins/reports. When the DBM decides to spin or even CREATE ALL OF ITS NEWS... New Media is simply out-gunned and it becomes a simple game of media-saturation

5. Anita. #117 Saw this interesting item. Senator-Elect Webb's Surprises for the Moonbat Base He started off by mentioning that "tomorrow is an extremely important day for America," and the crowd went wild, thinking he was talking about taking power. But of course, he launched into his praise of the Marine Corps, and the crowd cheered a little less loudly. Then he thanked all the brave veterans and brave men still fighting, and the crowd cheered a little less loudly again. Then he mentioned that he received a call from Sen. Allen, and the crowd went nuts again. Then he mentioned how pleasant and dignified Allen was, and the crowd grew quiet. Then he said he was having lunch next week with Allen -- and the crowd was dead silent. Finally he told the audience that they should all thank Sen./Gov. Allen for his many years of dedicated service to the people of Virginia -- and you could almost hear the people gathered looking at each other asking, "What the $#@! did we just do?"It was priceless. (Worth Reading in full.)

4 Samantha/Kabar. I am giving a tie for 4th because Samantha and Kabar had a really instructive exchange. Both have a valuable insight to add to the battle of 2008. One side sees the political glass half full the other sees it half empty. We need both. If we assume the battle is all ready won, we will not wage the fight effectively, if we assume the battle is all ready lost, we will not fight at all. We need to balance these two sides of the Conservative Movement to win.

3. Seattle Conservative: Princess Links proves ones again why she is one of the best. # 491 I would, too. All I can think of is that she was considered a bit of a centrist, especially on nat'l sec and has supported Bush on that; and Pelosi dislikes her (my guess is that Boxer and Hill do, too). Though, I believe her change started after she won the primary (IIRC it was a harder fight than expected). A couple of possibilities for Pelosi and others disliking her: Her name was supposedly on the list as a possible for Nat'l Intelligence Director: Click here. She was mentioned as a possible candidate for Sen when DiFi retires: Harman positioned to run statewide (DiFi's successor?) The Hill ^ | 10/21/05 | Peter Savodnik Posted on 10/21/2005 10:16:51 AM PDT by NormsRevenge Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) insists she has no plans to run statewide anytime soon, but it’s conventional wisdom in Washington and California that her centrist voting record and leadership spot on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence make her a prime candidate to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1506729/posts Democrat Harman defends Bush (program essential to security, disclosure damaged intelligence) NewsBusters ^ | December 21, 2005 | Brent Baker Posted on 12/21/2005 7:45:35 PM PST by Names Ash Housewares Click here

2.Phsstpok. If this is Phsstpok in action when he is recovering from eye surgery, I look forward to watching him when he is 100%. #1018 We could do it on a blog or on a series of blogs, maybe state by state. We could get volunteers to keep up with specific people. There's 535 members of congress so that would be not an overwhelming task. I bet we have somebody in almost every House district and I'm certain we have to have someone from every state. A searchable database would certainly be the best approach. Maybe one of the political blogs, such as RedState or TownHall, that offer free space would be willing to work with us to set this up.

#1015Were I living in Connecticut I would have voted for Lieberman as the best choice, regardless of his party. Had I been of voting age in NY when Daniel Patrick Moynihan was our Senator I probably would have voted for him, even though he was as liberal and partisan as just about any Democrat ever. But he also had the benefit of being fundamentally honest and exceptionally insightful about issues like liberal welfare policies destroying black families. By the way, while looking up something completely unrelated I came across these great Churchill quotes: I refuse to remain impartial between the fire brigade and the fire. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.I think these are particularly appropriate to our current situation.

1. Alas Babylon! The post speaks for itself. No one else even came close this week.

#1 !!!!!!IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!! I will not point fingers at anyone on our side for our loss on Tuesday, because I really don’t think we are to blame. I thought we would do better, frankly, but it appears we just couldn't get it over the goal line before time ran out. In many cases, the victory/defeat line was only a few thousand votes apart. It’s not like we got a thumping, thrashing, or butt-kick. The only thing is how it will effect our country. That has a lot of us concerned more than how it happened. In any case, you know who I blame…The drive by media. Their bias has been well documented on this thread. My wife and I were talking about it on the drive home from work. Neither of us could think of a way--beyond what we're doing (on this thread, for example)--to counter the media. We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing for 8 years—only harder!!! So folks, here is my challenge for the Sunday Morning thread for the next two years: We need to be reporters on the reporters. We need to document their lies, distortions, smears, half-truths and omissions. We need to howl in their faces, and call them on it each and every time. Will you join me? I’m going to find a comprehensive media email list (someone has compiled and posted it before) to start sending out emails to the Sunday screaming faces with word-for-word transcriptions of what they said, and why it is biased. In the past I’ve sat here and typed about Tim Russert’s biased, hunched-over-questioning; this time I’m going to tell HIM about it. Timmy, you are on notice! Every frown, every hunch, every pudgy-fingered grasping your talking points memo while you interrogate Republicans will be documented and you will be called on it!!!! (Insert John Belushi scream and flips out of chair, papers flying)