Flagstaff's blog
Posted at 6:12pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Charles Krauthammer is Finally Wrong About Something
By Flagstaff
On the Fox News Special Report yesterday afternoon, speaking about gasoline independence, Charles Krauthammer said,
...I would give the Democrats, liberals, a bone on this. One Senator has proposed a reduction in the speed limit. I would be in favor of that. It'll save about 60 cents a gallon in driving at high speeds; it can be almost a dollar a gallon. It'll have a significant impact on reduction of consumption, and it'll have a minor impact on convenience. It's worth it. It's a crisis and we ought to do everything. If Republicans and Democrats give each other what the other wants we could really have a plan.
(my emphasis added)
Please read more
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Posted at 5:18pm on Jul. 6, 2008 The Insincere Flip-Flop
By Flagstaff
I have been asking myself just what it is that makes us call some position shifts "flip-flops" while others are not so disrespected. Most of it is because "they flip-flop" while "we reconsider." But it's really more than that. And when the subject comes up, we want to convince the uncommitted that "our guy's" recent change of mind is because he's thoughtful, he’s had new insight into the issue, and now he's got it right. It wasn't just a pander to some political group he'd like to add to his base.
To do this takes a couple of steps.
Please read more.
Posted in 2008 — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:30pm on Jun. 30, 2008 "They're God's Children."--John McCain
By Flagstaff
John McCain made a statement today, again trying to formulate a coherent position on the illegal immigration problem. It still doesn't wash.
He is still looking at it in terms of "they're God's children," instead of "a tidal wave of illegal immigration from a single third-world country will wreck our economy while it devastates our society and culture."
Mr. McCain needs to look at the economic side of the equation in addition to its human welfare and even its law-enforcement and ethical aspects.
Posted in Immigration — Comments (68) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:03pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Atlantic Yards: A Chance to Mitigate "Kelo"? [Updated]
By Flagstaff
The Atlantic Yards case in Brooklyn could be a chance for the Supreme Court to mitigate Kelo, or it could be just another brick in the wall separating the Constitution from the People it is supposed to protect.
Private individual homeowners are being evicted to allow a rich private developer to build high-tax, high-rise apartments, high- and low-priced housing, etc.
We shall see if the Supremes find some distiction between this case and Kelo, or if they grant the original homeowners a part of the profits (that would be a way to make it more fair), or if they just discard them as a minor inconvenience as they did Susette Kelo, et al.
Find more below.
UPDATE
The Court sniffed and looked away.
From Fox Business News:
In declining to hear the case, the Supreme Court affirmed the State of New York's right to use eminent domain relating to Atlantic Yards. Today's development follows prior defeats for project opponents on the use of eminent domain at both the District Court and Court of Appeals levels.
Posted in Law — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:55pm on Jun. 2, 2008 Nancy Pelosi and the Friendly Press
By Flagstaff
From News Busters today, I gleaned this bit of information:
In an 80-minute interview with the MSM last Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a peculiar statement that wasn't reported by anybody at the meeting.
Whatever the military success and progress that may have been made, the surge didn't accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians -- they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities -- the Iranians.
Please read more
Posted in Breaking News — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:48am on May 25, 2008 A Different Perspective On a Third Party
By Flagstaff
Frequently, the idea of a third party bid for the Presidency is run up the flagpole. If it gets any attention at all, it’s of the kind that says, “Get that thing down. It’s just going to divide our votes and hand victory to the Democrats.” The Democrats think the same thing about the Ralph Nader forays into politics, but don’t seem inclined to admit it, probably because he’s unlikely to get enough votes to matter this time around.
As I tend to do when I’m driving, I turned the thing around in my head a time or two last week. Here’s what fell out when I stopped:
Posted in Republicans — Comments (64) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 6:35pm on May 10, 2008 The Unspoken Problem with the McCain Presidency
By Flagstaff
It isn’t just the issues on which John McCain is off the Conservative reservation that generate angst among the other members of the tribe.
After all, he is undoubtedly better on all those issues than his opponent will be.
The Problem is that the Republican Party will certainly accept every vote for McCain as support for all those mistaken positions—illegal immigration, Guantanamo Bay internment, interrogation of prisoners, “reaching across the aisle.” And McCain himself has given no indication that he won’t come to the same conclusion.
That’s why we have such anxiety as we reluctantly acknowledge the necessity to support McCain this year. And there's no reason to believe that the anxiety will go away.
Posted in Elections — Comments (42) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:58pm on Mar. 19, 2008 Super Delegates? Rubber-Stamp Delegates!
By Flagstaff
In his story, "New Lefty Polls:...," Mark Kilmer includes this quote of Doug Wilder from Face the Nation:
"If the majority of the American people" voting in the Democratic primaries and caucuses back either Obama or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "and if the superdelegates intervene to get in the way of it and say, 'Oh no, we're going to determine what's best,' there will be chaos at the convention," Wilder said.
Wilder may be exactly right, but it's the unavoidable result of creating the Unelected Delegates in the first place without considering the Law of Unintended Consequences. It's also typical of a party that thrives on "feelings" rather than reality.
Please read more
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Posted at 2:48am on Mar. 13, 2008 Was Geraldine Ferraro Correct, Politically?
By Flagstaff
March 11, 2008 7:30 AM
Clinton campaign finance committee member, former vice presidential candidate, and former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-NY, told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Ca., that, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position...."--ABCNews.com
If my title meant, "politically correct," the answer is "Of course not." But If it meant simply "correct about the politics," the answer might be different.
More below
Posted in Breaking News — Comments (80) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:33am on Mar. 3, 2008 Maybe There is Hope for Us Yet
By Flagstaff
I thought you might like to know--
We were at the Heard Museum in Phoenix on Saturday for their 50th Annual Indian Fair and Market. There are about 500 exhibitor artists, so it's a big thing, as you may know. I was talking to an artist friend at his booth at about 10 o'clock. Lots of people were milling around, looking at the art and shopping.
They also had performances by Indian dance groups in the outdoor amphitheater. Anyway, the first performers must have been ready to start, although from where we happened to be they weren't visible. To initiate the festivities, someone began an a cappella rendition of The Star Spangled Banner over the PA system.
As he began, I said a few more words, then I turned to listen to the singer. At the same time, my friend, who had been sitting, stood up. We simply stood and listened. So did some other people. As the anthem continued, I noticed that more and more people stopped their activities and turned as we did to face the area where the music was coming from. Not everybody, of course. We weren't technically in the area of the singer, he wasn't very loud, and we couldn't even see the flag, which I assume was being raised. But by the time he finished singing, there were very few people doing anything but standing to honor our flag and our country. Then, we all went about our business.
It was just a few quiet moments, but it was pretty nice to see that we haven't all forgotten what we were taught in kindergarten.
Posted in Culture — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 6:08pm on Jan. 18, 2008 An incomplete comparison of Fred Thompson and John McCain.
By Flagstaff
This is a somewhat amended copy of a response to Leverkuhn's most recent blog, "John McCain for President." He is pro-McCain, I am pro-Fred Thompson. He has paraphrased some of McCain's comments, and provided some criticism of Fred. The bold, direct quotes, unless otherwise attributed, signify his, not McCain's words, but they're accurate distillations of McCain's ideas.
"Fred Thompson is a genuine conservative with a practical, level-headed approach to policy-making that I find refreshing, but he has run his campaign with all the energy and enthusiasm of an actor auditioning for a role he knows he doesn’t want." -- Leverkuhn
Posted in Republicans — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:27pm on Nov. 8, 2007 Fame is Fleeting. On the Olbermann Show, It Comes in 40-second Increments.
By Flagstaff
Still, I guess I now have about fourteen minutes and twenty seconds of Fame left.
Gee, a gen-yew-wine bigshot STAR like Keith Olbermann reads my stuff and is upset enough to respond? Unbelievable. (I’m shaking my head slightly here, in dismay.) He must be really thin-skinned. I mean, REALLY. I'm honored, even if I did finish only third on his list.
Surely, he’s trolling for new viewers in some out-of-the-box places. I’m just sorry I missed the show (as I missed all 837 previous shows except the one on that debate night).
I am well aware that the magnanimous thing to do would be to just ignore the flyspeck on my screen--as millions of others have done since he went to MSNBC--but those of us over here on the “lunatic fringe” don’t know the meaning of the word. Literally. We can barely spell it.
Please read on.
Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:14pm on Oct. 31, 2007 Our Dog Ate the Chocolate or This Would Have Been More Timely
By Flagstaff
Observations on the 10/30/2007 Democrat debate:
Feel free to add your own or to provide corrections—I had a hard time concentrating after John Edwards was asked a question regarding Hillary Clinton’s alleged double-talk. He answered with double-talk of his own and nobody seemed to notice.
The most “Presidential” presences on the dais were Joe Biden and Chris Dodd. Now that’s a sad state of affairs. They were wrong, but in a Presidential way. Too bad they almost outpoint Chuck Schumer on the smarmy scale, with a high “eewww” factor to boot.
The Liberal Press seems to have decided that Hillary is in fact NOT the best nominee to defeat the unknown Republican. It’s unclear to me which of the other Democrats will get their support, but I think the movement has begun to dislodge her deathlike grip on the nomination. (This follows my prediction of about a week ago that she wouldn’t be the nominee.)
John Edwards took exception to Hillary’s take on the driver’s license flap in New York, but he didn’t try to answer the question himself. I don’t believe he was alone in that failing.
Where was the question about the “ticking time bomb” and torture? Is it only an issue for Republicans?
Ron Paul, er, Dennis Kucinich had the best line of the night after the spat between John Edwards and “Who-can-remember” accusing each other of being immoral, unethical, and ugly because they took money from special-interest groups. “I’m not going to get in the middle of that. I think they’re both right.”
Didn't MSNBC know that Halloween is on October thirty-first?
MSNBC should register as a lobbying organization, based on the performance of Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann after the debate. I believe I heard Matthews using the personal pronouns “we” and “they” when referring to Democrats and Republicans. I can hear his response to that now—“Aw, come on, you know what I meant. It’s just a sort of shorthand! (spray/splatter)” Olbermann is just way out of his league, to be kind.
Posted in 2008 — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:43pm on Sep. 12, 2007 Maybe the Constitution Is a Living Document
By Flagstaff
After listening to all the arguments about how the Patriot Act violates our Constitutional rights, I have concluded that our Liberal friends may be right about one thing. Sort of.
Not that judges should take it upon themselves to re-write the Constitution wholesale.
Not that there are emanations and penumbras that need to be taken into account.
No. They may be right that the Constitution needs to be applied within the context of modern society. That is, while the concepts and ideals set forth within the Constitution are still as valid as ever, their literal application has hamstrung us in protecting ourselves against the perils of modern life.
Please read on.
Posted in History — Comments (15) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:37pm on Jun. 16, 2007 NPR Shows its Bias Again.
By Flagstaff
I just heard an NPR report from Georgia that "for some Republicans, like (name forgotten), no bill that allows illegal immigrants to remain in the country will pass muster," or words to that effect. Then, a quote from the same (name forgotten), and he says nothing about that at all. And there was no mention of the possibility that many of us are open to limited amnesty once the border is secured, but not before.
Please continue.
Posted in Immigration — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Read More »
