BackyardConservative's blog

China Watch

2008-09-17T06:10:56-05:00

China really can't help being in the news. It's a huge country and has more people than any other country in the world. The Middle Kingdom has looked inward much of its existence, but is now a major trader. Marco Polo and the Silk Road was the starting point for me in learning about it, beyond the made in China label of the last half century or so.

The world looked on in awe at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It was a hopeful beginning, though clouded by the arrest of human rights advocates, religious figures and bloggers. China is still a communist country, and its dictators make dictatorial decisions. Who could not be outraged by those old men telling a little girl in front of the world that she had a beautiful voice but was not pretty enough to show her face for the honor of China?

Before the Olympics the world witnessed the unbearable horror of parent after parent losing their only child in the collapse of school after school during the earthquake in Sichuan. Why did this happen so systematically? Why do you think? Because the schools were approved and built by corrupt officials.

This is a country with no recourse for a wrong.

When the government controls everything no one is responsible.

Last week we received news of the collapse of a polluted holding area, poised over a village:

The accident occurred around 8 am on Monday in a warehouse holding waste ore
dregs of the Tashan Mine in Xiangfen County, Linfen City, which was soaked by torrential rain.

But rough terrain, poor telecommunications and continuous rainfall hampered the rescue effort.

The mud-rock flow also destroyed a three-story office building, a market and
some villagers' houses in the valley.

Witness said the flow roared down the valley and washed away the market and the houses in a few minutes.

The specific number of the people trapped underneath the rubble is still under investigation.

We have since learned people died:

The
governor of Shanxi resigned as the death toll from a mudslide triggered by the collapse of an illegal mining dump in the northern Chinese province rose to 254, official media have reported.

Meng Xuenong became governor only eight months ago - a rehabilitation that came five years after he was sacked as mayor of Beijing over the handling of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak.

Gee, where will they rehabilitate him next?

Could this have happened here? Not anything this blatant, no. And why not? Because we are an open society, a democracy, and people would have noticed and raised holy hell about it. But the likelihood of it happening in the first place is much less. I think it has to do with morality and individual responsibility and worth being given more respect in this country. And human life.

Now this week starts with the story that 2 babies have died, so far, of contaminated infant formula.

I suppose we should be thankful things have improved since the exposure of China's dying rooms, but exposure was delayed by an official cover-up during the Olympics. It cost at least 2 babies their lives.

Americans study and work in China, and many Chinese have emigrated here. China is an issue this election season. We will doubtless keep trading, but we need to keep watch as well.

Contributing Editor Anne Leary also blogs at BackyardConservative and UNCoRRELATED

Liberal Chauvinist Pigs

2008-09-10T00:04:41-05:00

Since Alaska Governor Sarah Palin became the choice to round out the
GOP ticket for Sen. John McCain, there's been a firestorm of reaction, much of it ecstatic, much of it appalling. What we have witnessed is shocking and disheartening to those of us in our 50's and older who thought we had laid major sexism to rest in the 80's. We did see new evidence of this in the mainstream media's treatment of Hillary Clinton, but I thought it was just as much an issue of most of the media being biased--come on, you know they were starstruck--toward Barack Obama. As far as the liberal blogosphere, I think it had to do with their relative youth--let's face it, they're a foul-mouthed majority male bunch. And after all, we conservatives are used to being given the back of the mainstream media's hand.

But the vile character assassination of Sarah Palin has reached a fever pitch. And now Barack Obama is piling on. Monday he patted Palin on the head, much as he did Hillary in the primary. Yesterday, in Lebanon, Virginia, Barack Obama went overt:

"That's not change," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said of what Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is offering.
"You know, you can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said, "but it's still a pig."

The crowd rose and applauded, some of them no doubt thinking he may have been alluding to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's ad lib during her vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last week, "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."

A pig. Lipstick on a pig. And the crowd laughed. They laughed. What should we call this swinish, misogynist behavior?

Maybe he just can't help himself. Does the expression male chauvinist pig come to mind? But this isn't just a slip of a tongue-- it's a pattern. It's deliberate:

Obama made a sexualized attack on Palin, comparing her to a pig. This is exactly the same sort of thing that he did in the primary. Earlier in the cycle I noted:

Jake Tapper first noted this when Obama said that Hillary was "taking out the claws." At the same time he noted that Obama would use "[l]anguage such as 'when she's feeling down' 'periodically' she 'launches attacks.'" Tapper noted that a number of female reporters and bloggers picked up on this. Later Obama complained that Hillary was "throwing the China" at him. Again, Tapper heard the dog whistle. Tapper noted that this "feeds into the 'harridan' caricature of Clinton."

This is the stuff that alienated Hillary Clinton voters.

This is the supposed post-partisan uniter Barack Obama, all Hope and Change, these are his supporters. And his running mate, Joe Biden, says Sarah Palin's candidacy is a step back for women, as if we couldn't assess her for ourselves.

Let's look at how the mainstream media has been treating working mom Sarah Palin. No credible person, blogger or otherwise, can honestly say she hasn't been attacked as a working mom.
And it's a double standard. If you're a conservative woman you're supposed to stay home and stay in the kitchen, is that it? Your parenting skills can be questioned, while smug liberal media moms get a pass-- they're some of the ones saying it.

How about the liberal blogs, now practically joined at the hip with the supposedly objective press. Arianna thinks Sarah's a distracting Trojan moose(!?), stay classy Arianna. And a successful conservative woman with more executive experience than Barack Obama is a distraction? Leftist Salon says she's a dominatrix. Salon also compares her to Muslim fundamentalists, comparing her Christianity to the terrorist organization Hamas. This is deeply offensive, and the positions Cole cites are smears of her beliefs. Check her record, please, stop the smears.

Madonna or whore --the way women have been controlled and demeaned for centuries. And this is all coming from so-called "progressives". HotAir:

I find this fortnight of reaction utterly fascinating. When challenged by a strong, self-made woman, what has the mainstream media done? They have painted her as:

A hick

A slut

A bubble-headed beauty queen

A bad mother

[snip]
Some of us scoffed at the notion that Hillary Clinton got victimized by a sexist media. I’d say that the profession is doing its level best to cinch that reputation with its unhinged attacks on Palin. In the end, though, this is much more about them than it is about Palin, and it’s pretty disturbing.

Now they are going after her special needs baby.

In contrast to these pure slime excuse for men, Todd Palin. And a message to mothers.

The Anchoress sums it up.

And I say--Liberal Chauvinist Pigs. The rest of us are riled up. Casting pearls before swine.

They will rue the day.

UPDATE: It's clearly an agreed upon tactic and imagery. The Politico:

Democratic Congressman Russ Carnahan on Tuesday – introducing Joe Biden at a campaign event – ripped into Palin’s record and punctuated it with this snarky jab. “There’s no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick,” he said. Later in the day, Obama used a variation of the lipstick line, though he was clearly talking about the McCain-Palin reform rhetoric. "You can put lipstick on a pig," he said. "It's still a pig."

UPDATE: Remember this?

And this. And Alice Palmer.

Contributing Editor Anne Leary also blogs at BackyardConservative and UNCoRRELATED

The Power of Palin

2008-09-04T15:59:06-05:00

Huge TV viewing numbers last night for Gov. Sarah Palin, amazingly nearly matching Barack Obama's tally and far outstripping the viewership for Vice President Joe Biden, who is after all her opponent. Sarah Palin is not running for president. And only six networks carried Palin's speech, vs. 10 for Obama, so her numbers are even more impressive. She apparently also dealt smoothly with teleprompter problems-- I certainly didn't notice when she ad-libbed:

Several of the drafts were scribbled on, so one aide gave Palin a wrinkled, folded copy out of his pocket.

Officials said Palin responded in mom-like fashion, concluding, “Well, I suppose I could put a book on it and smooth it out a little. “

During one part of her speech, she couldn’t see the teleprompter because signs were blocking it. That was when she ad-libbed a line about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull — “lipstick.”

This yielded one of the best lines of the night and evoked huge applause and laughter.

Palin has already achieved superstar status in the political world, and interestingly, even prior to her phenomenal speech last night she was closing the gap in the polls on the experience match-up, especially with independent voters. Rasmussen:

Democrats and Republicans agree on their willingness to vote for a woman for president and the belief that a woman candidate will be elected in the next 10 years. But they split on predictable partisan lines when Clinton and Palin are introduced into the equation.

In the head-to-head match-up, 87% of Democrats support Clinton, while 85% of GOP voters support Palin. Unaffiliated voters go for Clinton 48% to 39%.

It's the power of Palin, and it's just the beginning of the general election campaign.

Souvenirs and Stash

2008-09-04T14:56:35-05:00

It was time to emerge from the blogfog and snap up some RNC convention souvenirs before the delegates stream in tonight for the main McCain event. First a pix of my stash, including my special press pass and buttons and newly acquired pink McCain-Palin T-shirt. An enterprising McCain supporter and restaurant owner was handing out Taco Salads for McCain T's and buttons, and the MSNBC intern finally figured out we were Morning Joe fans, not the other guys, and gave us a card on a stick with his pix.I wandered over to the souvenir shop where they were just opening up. Here's Libby from Texas: Nice tie. Beanie babies anyone?

Morning Coffee at Xcel

2008-09-04T14:22:58-05:00

Morning coffee in the square just outside the Excel Center. MSNBC was broadcasting there and I watched John Harwood, CNBC's chief political correspondent being interviewed on air. I actually watch CNBC quite a bit but not Olbermann's crew. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) was fit in for MSNBC's little bit of balance. Past security, on the way in to file this first post, I nearly tripped over a bundle of Roll Call newspapers outside the booth of a Japanese newspaper. Harwood happened to be passing by and steadied me so I didn't fall flat. So I've had my first brush with celebrity of the day:) (I did see the NY Times' David Brooks yesterday in Radio Row and went over to shake his hand, then turned to the man next to him, not wanting to be rude you see, and said you look familiar. He laughed and said he was Alex Castellanos. (GOP media guru, CNN commentator)

It was a late night, an early morning. Sarah Palin took the place by storm last night with humor and some tough love for America. She connected with conventioneers, and her down to earth, common sense judgment in tackling problems as Alaska's governor will wear well with Americans. Palin defined herself as someone who has worked hard and worked her way up, successful at every level, and achieving as much in two years as governor as many have yet to achieve in a full term. Gov. Palin ousted unethical players of both parties, cut spending, rebated fuel taxes, and achieved bipartisan approval of a project that had languished for 30 years--"the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history", "a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence". In one of her best lines of the night, Gov. Palin directly addressed Barack Obama:

I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better.

When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

Unlike Barack Obama who has no executive experience other than running his own campaign, Sarah Palin is a decisive and confident executive, and it showed in her speech last night. Before sitting down to write this I went down to the floor, delegate-free. I saw them put the podium in place for tonight, in the closest they could get to a town-meeting friendly format. The McCain straight talk express poised for prime time tonight, with key swing states Michigan, Missouri and Ohio right up
front. (And Oregon in play?)

Sarah is one of us

2008-09-03T20:08:09-05:00

All day today the talk was this is Sarah's night. This morning I spoke with a woman from Minnesota. She said, everyone around here knows someone like Sarah, and like Sarah's family. And yes, that makes her success all the more remarkable. Yesterday I met a woman from New Hampshire, she said even the Hillary supporters she knows are enthused about Sarah, and independent women like her style--a mom, a professional and someone who doesn't put up with bullying. Another said she was really steamed at the media double standard--so now working moms are to be despised, now that they're Republicans? So now, women candidates are asked personal questions about how they care for their family no one would ever dare ask a man? For my part, I don't go looking for sexism but this is it. We women can't stand for this, no matter what our political beliefs. Sadly, some women in the media are the worst offenders.

As recently as the fall of 2007 Newsweek ran a very complimentary profile on Sarah, so let's look at what they said unclouded by all the current partisanship as exemplified above. (Um, isn't the media supposed to be objective? Just asking.) The article lauds women executives and approvingly pairs her with Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona. Now if Gov. Napolitano had been chosen the Dem nominee, does anyone think the media would be suggesting she was unqualified for the job? Newsweek led with Palin as a superstar, a superwoman. But now she's just the mayor of a small town, as the Obama campaign first referred to her. And had Barack Obama chosen Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as his Vice President, who also has been governor for two years, does anyone think he would be portrayed as unqualified for the job? Has anyone asked Barack Obama whether he shouldn't be at home taking care of his young girls?

What else did Newsweek say?:

New research shows that voters give female governors significantly higher marks than their male counterparts on such qualities as honesty, cooperation and caring—as well as toughness. And at a time when the national debate has become poisonously partisan, governors like Napolitano, 49, and Palin, 43, are making their mark with a pragmatic, postpartisan approach to solving problems, a style that works especially well with the large numbers of independent voters in their respective states.

So how about some honesty from the press? How about some minimal standards of fairness and decency? Newsweek in 2007:

It's no coincidence that two of the nation's most popular women governors come from frontier states (Arizona and Alaska were the 48th and 49th, respectively, to join the Union) without established social
orders that tend to block women from power.

"When voters perceive things are bad, they expect a woman candidate to come in and create change," says Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. "Voters give them license not to fit the mold."

How about letting Sarah Palin speak for herself? And let the American people decide.

Sarah is one of us.

RNC Platform: You Decide!

2008-09-03T17:10:17-05:00

This morning bloggers had the opportunity to hear about the grassroots upswell which helped shape the Republican platform. California Congressman Kevin McCarthy headed up an effort which invited and received over 11,000 email and numerous YouTube submissions, including a few original songs. Ooookaaay...sounds like something I might do. (As former Congressman Sonny Bono said on at least one occasion, I feel a song coming on.) But this gave the platform an immediacy and energy that was unprecedented.

Normally the proceedings would have been on the air on C-Span, but with the conventions back to back this year following the Olympics, there was no opportunity. So you can view the platform online here.

According to McCarthy, interestingly, the Democrats' platform was released before their townhall feedback period was completed. Hmm.

McCarthy highlighted one key contrast--the Democrats mention the world exploration in their platform only once--in conjunction with outer space.
The Republican platform has a major focus on one of the top issues for voters this year, with gas priced at $4 per gallon in some parts of the country. Americans know drilling here makes sense, the concept is not alien to them. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Americans know energy security is national security and the Republicans, in their 5th week on the House floor, are trying to get the Democrats to agree to pass an Energy Bill that would incorporate conservation, alternative fuels, nuclear power and drilling here, drilling on our outer continental shelf, drilling now. They call it the all of the above energy plan and all they want is a fair and open debate and a straight up or down vote. Democrats are in control of Congress now and they need to deliver for the American people on energy.

Right now America's lack of a realistic energy policy is like that annoying song in your head that never ends--stop the (Pelosi) pain at the pump NOW!

Sarah's Shoes!

2008-09-03T16:00:55-05:00

Fausta and I found each other and are blogging elbow to elbow. We just got back from a press conference, but while I write that up, get the scoop on Sarah's killer red shoes!

It's Called Democracy

2008-09-03T15:45:11-05:00

Yes, there have been protests in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I haven't seen too many where I've been, as I have mostly been inside the convention center blogging and tracking down people. But as Kim Pearson noted on Monday I did tangentially observe a few demonstrators here and there. Initial reports were of not much other than peaceful demonstrations, which we can all appreciate. Since then, though, there have been reports on the local news and in the local papers of concrete blogs being thrown off interstate bridges to hit delegate buses. This morning at the RedState/Google bloggers breakfast I ran into Lady Logician, a local who blogs for True North. Here's a video of that. As many of you know, that could kill. Any time you drop something heavy off a height it has murderous force.

That said, let us give each side some slack. As Lady Logician pointed out to me this morning, which tracks our experience of most demonstrations, there is a majority segment of peaceful demonstrators, and a small group of anarchists, etc. bent on violence and destruction. Any group that hides their faces is not primed to be neighborly. As far as the police go, they are trying to keep the peace. They are trying to let people exercise their right of free speech while not endangering the civil liberties of others. The reports of bleach being thrown by protesters on the Connecticut delegation, which I saw on the news this morning, and which Lady Logician confirms, are no joke. This included a woman in her 80's who had to be rescued by a hazmat team.

I asked Lady L why we saw more of this in St. Paul than in Denver. She said she thought the main reason was that in Denver the protesters were purposely kept further from the convention center--(I would add it was a decision by the city of Denver, led by a Democrat mayor). Lady L pointed out that the mayor of St. Paul, also a Democrat, wanted to accommodate the protesters.

And this is the very mixed result. It's called democracy.

RNC Interview: Blogger Skye at Midnight Blue

2008-09-03T13:33:51-05:00

Yesterday morning at the RedState/Google Blogger Brunch I met a great woman
blogger from Philadelphia, Skye at Midnight Blue. She's a powerhouse
photo journalist and has been blogging since 1999. Some of you may know
her at BlogHer as Skye posts from time to time. Skye managed to get on
the convention floor last night, don't ask how, and filed this.
A self-described conservative Democrat, here's our conversation about
how she got started political blogging and what keeps her going. This is part one. I'll update the rest when we get it.:

Part two:

Minnesota Nice

2008-09-02T21:02:42-05:00

There's an expression in this part of the heartland, it's called Minnesota Nice. You might say Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is Minnesota Nice herself. From her remarks tonight on the convention floor. You might call it a warm-up:

Minnesota Nice may be our state's special brand, but the desire to be of service to our fellow man is part of the American DNA.

As Americans we're hard-wired for compassion, to open up our arms, our hearts, and our wallets to lend a helping hand

For
my husband, Marcus, and I, and for our five children, service took the
form of opening our home to welcome 23 foster children.

Pretty humbling stuff.

The Buzz at Xcel

2008-09-02T16:36:19-05:00

About as celebrity as you get at the GOP, fresh from a brunch with Sen. Fred Thompson, who is going Hollywood again after his foray into presidential politics, just past security I sighted actor Jon Voight being interviewed yet again. Of course I snapped a pix and he was gracious enough to shake a few hands, including mine.

Last night First Lady Laura Bush and Cindy McCain spoke to encourage the delegates to donate to victims Hurricane Gustav. Tomorrow and Thursday volunteers will gather to assemble comfort packages to send to the Gulf states. This proud lady from Washington State sported her McCain sailor-style hat, a Women for McCain on the purse of another.

In his remarks to rightie bloggers this morning, Sen. Fred Thompson said he was "absolutely excited" about the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin and lauded her as "the kind of public servant we all claim we want--an outsider, outside the beltway who will stand up to either side and be successful". Sen. Thompson will address the convention tonight, as will Sen. Joe Lieberman, former Democrat now Independent and a very good friend of Sen. McCain. President Bush will speak via satellite due to his ongoing concern about Hurricane Gustav and the aftermath.

GOP Convention: Women as Leaders

2008-09-02T07:17:54-05:00

Women are a swing vote this year, so I managed to get over to the Lifetime Networks Young Women's Leadership Summit, part of their everywomancounts campaign. They were in Denver last week and the bus rolled in to St. Paul yesterday. I took a short video (my first, it worked!, shown below) and captured part of Rep. Marsha Blackburn's talk. Blackburn has been in Alaska and Iraq and had a few observations about leadership, and Gov. Sarah Palin. First up though, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a swing state in 2008, spoke to the winning 16-22 year olds about becoming a future frontrunner. Capito was chairman of the women's caucus in Congress, which sees its greatest number of women serving this session. She said it's not harder for women to get elected, as a woman it's usually an advantage, giving a nod to the historic candidacy of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker.

Capito believes women more family oriented, and on the caucus they went right to bipartisan issues. When she was chairwoman they looked at sexual assault in the military, international sexual trafficking, and global patterns of disease. Capito addressed the vice presidential candidacy of Gov. Sarah Palin, "Sen. Clinton showed a woman can be qualified and ready" and she is, "proud we have a woman on our side to represent our ticket". She felt it was important to start at the city council or county commission level, get involved in a campaign and build up a network.

After she spoke one of the questions--how do you get your voice heard when you have disagreements? Rep. Capito smiled and said you may have some disagreements, but in the end you're reflecting back what your constituents elected you to do.

Here's the video of Rep. Marsha Blackburn.

Sarah is the Fresh Air

2008-09-01T00:06:33-05:00

Some Democrats are saying Sarah Palin's a token, but she's not a token to me. She's not a token to those who voted her into office time after time, first to the city council, then as mayor, and now governor of Alaska.

Sarah's not a token to millions across America who volunteer countless hours to community groups and local government, along with raising their children.

Sarah's not a token to working moms. In one example, when she moved into the governor's mansion Palin let the personal chef go--she said she and her family can make their own meals, a step to preserve her family life despite her responsibilities, and a can-do attitude we can all admire.

Sarah's not a token to Second Amendment Sisters who know the police can't be everywhere and want to defend themselves--in urban and rural areas alike.

Sarah's not a token to feminists for life, taking the responsibility to bring up her Down Syndrome baby.

Sarah's not a token to those of us who are disgusted with corrupt government, where pay to play is the norm. Where we have failed in Illinois, Palin has succeeded in Alaska. (no thanks to Barack Obama who embraced business as usual in his corrupt home state at every opportunity, where Democrats hold every major office) She's a David against the Goliath of entrenched interests.

Sarah's not a token to porkbusters around the country, underscoring Sen. McCain's maverick message to the powers that be of both parties--stop the wasteful spending, no more earmarks that put legislators' and their cronies' priorities ahead of the people's. And you gotta love a governor who put her predecessor's jet up on eBay for auction.

Sarah's not a token to those who appreciate real bipartisan efforts. Alaskans had been trying to get agreement on the path of a pipeline to bring oil the the continental US for 30 years--she got it done, at a time when Americans are forking over $4.00 a gallon for gas. She has a real record of executive leadership, not a phony one, not an evasive one.

Sarah Palin is not a token. If her name were Stan she'd still be a force. Her being a woman is a plus. And it's historic, even Hillary has graciously acknowledged that, as has Geraldine Ferraro, and she has acknowledged them. Her high approval ratings reflect that she has touched and impressed many all around the country.

Those on the left who profoundly demean her in this way demean all women by assuming the only reason she would be chosen is because of gender. That is the kind of empty, divisive politics the country is tired of. Disagree on the issues, fine. A lot of us ladies agree with her a lot. But make no mistake, Sarah Palin is a trailblazer. She didn't get where she is with a boost by virtue of being someone's wife, or coming from a political family. She earned a scholarship to college and has worked hard all her life.

Sarah is the fresh air the country needs. She is the real emblem of hope and change, and joins Sen. McCain in his bid to reform Washington and get things done for the country.

P.S. Here's to the first dude!:):

Like my husband — up here they refer to him as the "first dude," not the first gentleman. And Todd... And he is such a dude. He's a four-time winner of the Iron Dog snow machine race, which is the the world's longest and they say toughest snow machine race, 2,000 miles across Alaska. A whole new chapter here when Todd is asked to do things like — and he graciously complies and he has a good time doing it — hosting, as he did a couple of weeks ago down in Juneau, our capital city, the former first ladies tea party. And he does just great at things like that, as well as working in oil fields, with snow machines and in commercial fishing.

P.P.S. The supposed scandal debunked. Read it all, but here's an excerpt:

Trooper Wooten was under investigation more than a year before Palin put in her two cents. After being sworn in as governor, the investigation concluded--five days suspension.

The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable, and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession,” Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in March 1, 2006, letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After the union protested it, the suspension was reduced to five days.
She warned that if he messed up again, he’d be fired.

P.P.S. Who's behind the anti-Palin smear site? And Kos stoops to new lows.

A Conservative View of the DNC

2008-08-27T09:47:46-05:00

Recreate '68. A few protesters descended on Denver this year to relive the radical glory days of the 1968 Democrat convention in Chicago. I didn't live in Chicago then, but in a small town in Wisconsin, and as a young teenager I was a Democrat, raised as one, and a supporter of peace candidate for president Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. So what does '68 mean to me? It means barely 10 years later I was a Reagan Republican.

When I look at the antiwar protesters of today who want us to abandon the Iraqi people, just as they are on the verge of building a peaceful new future with the help of our troops, I remember what happened in the 70's when a Democrat Congress cut off funding to Vietnam and scores who had put their trust in us died in the aftermath, there and in the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

Barack Obama's early and longstanding Chicago political ally, domestic terrorist Bill Ayers was one of the '68 radicals who wanted to kill the pigs and trashed the city. A spoiled child of privilege then and now, Ayers today is unrepentant about the bombs that were meant for public servants in the Capitol, but killed his girlfriend instead. On Sept. 11th, 2001 his new book was reviewed in the NY Times. He had no regrets and said we should have bombed more.

When I note all the Chicago politicos who spoke Monday night before Michelle I am reminded of Barack's corrupt moneyman and convicted felon Tony Rezko, just one of many crooked Democrats from this failed state. Oh, and brother can you spare a dime?

When I listen to Nancy Pelosi, who wants to "save the planet", I am reminded of my time as a summer intern for Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-WI), the founder of Earth Day in 1972, when I thought there was a neat little government solution for every problem, real or imagined. Earth Day was a good idea but environmentalists went way overboard in restrictions on our way of life. We do live in a cleaner, greener USA as we have conserved and improved our technology over the past 30 some years. But unless we want to revert to caves we need to do more --drill here, drill now to relieve the pressure on gas prices caused by no drilling and no refineries for over 30 years. We need to develop not only alternatives but also nuclear energy to ensure our energy independence and national security. I find it hard to forgive Nancy Pelosifor jetting off on her book tour rather than passing an energy bill for Americans. And I applaud the blogger who discovered NASA's errors--global temperatures have actually been cooling the last few years.

When I watched Hillary talk about her achievements last night I never would have thought at the beginning of this campaign that I would feel I shared in them. I don't agree with her at all on policy, but her determination, smarts and sheer guts earned my admiration. It was the best speech of the convention by far. She has come a long way since the disaster of her take over your life health care plan back in Bill's era. I happen to think Sen. John McCain is the visionary on that issue (the WSJ calls him a radical--the kind of radical I can handle:) with a workable reform that gives families affordable, secure and portable health care, not dependent on their job. And I look forward to Sen. Clinton working with President McCain, who has an actual track record of working across the aisle in bipartisan fashion, to achieve a breakthrough on the issue:) Americans could do with some peace of mind about their health.

I look forward to the roll call tonight, and Barack's speech tomorrow. Join us! in St. Paul next week.

Contributing Editor Anne Leary also blogs at BackyardConservative and UNCoRRELATED