Redstate

Posted at 6:08pm on Feb. 16, 2008 Social Security and the Baby Boomers

By philippe

After the failure to reform Social Security a few years ago, the baby boomers and everyone else are a few years closer to retirement with no fix to the system in sight. I would like to propose a small change which would be widely acceptable and may help to some degree. In short, income earned after the age of full benefits is tax exempt if the person has never collected Social Security benefits.

Posted in Archived — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:53pm on Feb. 4, 2007 A Cure for Compassionate Conservatism

By philippe

Compassionate conservatism has been criticized heavily from both sides over the last six years. Liberals see it as lacking the compassion, and conservatives as lacking the conservatism. Often both are right, since it has been implemented incredibly poorly, but the criticism and the implementation suffer from a failure to understand the idea. I got to hear Marvin Olasky in person describe the compassion side about as follows: We are a rich country, if the entitlement system was best for people, we could do it, but over the last couple decades we have seen that this system is definitely not for their best. Local control, faith-based initiatives, and private charities often do much better than the federal government at combating poverty and need.

Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:39pm on Nov. 7, 2006 Vote for Kean!

By philippe

I started voting in Texas, and moved to New Jersey a couple of years ago. Needless to say, the move was politically depressing. Standing in the voting booth today, however, it felt really good to vote for Kean for a couple of reasons. The first has been obvious since Corzine made his nomination and needs no explanation. Over the campaign, though, Kean has shown himself to be much more than Not Menendez, and I would be happy to see him a Senator apart from any details of this race itself.

Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:49am on Oct. 6, 2006 Democrat economy raises fortunes of working class

By philippe

Posted October 6, 2008
Washington, DC -(AP)- It is difficult to believe that just two years ago, this country was languishing in the sixth year of Bush economic doldrums. Unemployment, low wages, poor chances of advancement out of starting jobs, poor benefits in the few jobs that were created, the list goes on. After almost two years now of Democratic control of Congress, the economy has clearly turned the corner. Larry Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia, explains that "from 2000-2006, Congress was dominated by divisions and partisanship, with a few vocal congressmen from so-called 'red states' preventing any reasonable compromise on economic issues, but since the 2006 midterms, the new leadership has managed to reach consensus and move the country forward." The first and most courageous step taken by the new leadership was to persevere through a vicious smear campaign funded by the wealthiest taxpayers and large corporations and end the irresponsible Bush tax policy. Paul Krugman points out that "In 2003, the top 1% of incomes actually had almost a 17% income share in the old Bush economy. Thanks to his tax cut for their benefit, they were able to avoid paying their fair share for six years."

Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:33am on Sep. 14, 2006 Arnold and Chafee in 2004

By philippe

A comment in another thread complained that Schwarzenegger was worse than Chafee. Now I don't want to stir up more about Chafee, since we need to get behind him now. But I wanted to defend Arnold some. Remember the convention in 2004? His passionate portrayal and explanation of what it means to be a Republican? By speaking in such a way, he was sending a strong message of support for Bush. On the other hand, we remember what Chafee said about Bush leading up to the election. But the focus now is not on Chafee, but on the Republican party, and I think with a lot of work to do in the next few weeks, it is good to read back through parts of Arnold's speech:

Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:24am on Aug. 8, 2006 Consequences of CT-Senate race

By philippe

Most of us are agreed that a Lamont victory will hurt the Democrats over the next few election cycles by continuing the party's sprint towards the far anti-war left. Republicans have been running on the fact that they are better on national security than Democrats, a clear statement that a majority of voters nationally have agreed with in past cycles. A Lamont victory, coupled with his comments about Middle-Eastern diplomacy that have been well-documented on this site in several articles, will solidify this argument, and possibly allow Republican wins elsewhere in the nation in 2006, 2008 and beyond just based on national security.

Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:04am on Jan. 23, 2006 March for Life

By philippe

It is 5 something, I guess almost 6, and I am about to head down to DC for the March to Life today.  I will probably see a lot of you there today, I just won't realize it, the wonders of the Internet.  So keep warm, keep dry out there, I'm looking forward to it.  Have a great day.

Posted in User Blogs — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:58am on Nov. 23, 2005 Questions about Withdrawal Resolutions

By philippe

This may have already been discussed on this site, but research is picking up as a second year grad student, and my RedState reading has suffered.  I still read all of RedHot, and the front page articles, but only a few diaries and very little of the back and forth discussions that I really enjoyed reading over the summer.  So sorry if this has already been beaten to death.  

A timetable with dates/deadlines for withdrawal is obviously harmful.  This has been discussed thoroughly.

At the same time, however, I would love to see frequent statements from the President about the positive steps being made.  Iraqi troops are being trained, political involvement is increasing, etc...  I think he needs to be more specific about what we are doing there, because the lack of information is causing a lot of people to turn against the war effort, it seems.  Unfortunately, just repeating "stay the course, stay the course," while true, loses its effect when the course is not very clear.  Our mission needs to be made clear, as to what progress we need to see before we would withdraw.  It is not a matter of picking a date, but a state of progress in Iraq.  Saying when they can defend themselves is vague to the point of uselessness.  

This diary was prompted by a dinner conversation tonight with other grad students, mostly international students.  We had been discussing empires, and someone brought up the US.  I pointed out the differences from the traditional view of empire, and they said that Iraq is much closer to the old kind of empire.  Basically, the claim that we will stay and control the country as long as we want, for our benefit.  This is not true, but it is an easily believed point in much of the world.

So finally the point of the diary.  What would it hurt to have a resolution in the Senate that if the new Iraqi government ever asked us to withdraw, we would comply?  This would be a strong counter to the claims both in this country and abroad, and could possibly focus more Sunni energy on politics than insurrection.  The resolution would clarify that we have turned over sovereignty, and reiterate that we are not creating a puppet state.

The first objection that comes to my mind is that it puts too much pressure on the Iraqi government.  They know that to survive, they need us in the short run.  We provide security, and protect them as they get their government up on its feet.  The problem is that there will be strong periodic waves of anti-America passion in the population, in favor of a withdrawal.  A resolution so clearly stated by the US would cause this sentiment to target the Iraqi government rather than us, who may be the only ones strong enough to stand up to it right now.  This could make requesting withdrawal the foremost issue in each election, which would be tough for the more reasonable parties.

There are positives and negatives in such a resolution.  Which do you think outweighs the other?  I would tend to favor the resolution, as it gives more legitimacy to the Iraqi government in the eyes of the world, and encourages political involvement, but I do see the negatives.

For the record, I am completely against any specific dates for a scheduled withdrawal, or any resolution that would show weakness to the insurrection.

Posted in User Blogs — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:04pm on Sep. 30, 2005 McCain on Life Issues

By philippe

The foremost reason that I am in the Republican party is that I am pro-life.  Other issues are important, but this one keeps me solidly Republican.  With that in mind, my enthusiasm would be much lower in 2008 if the nominee were pro-choice.  There has been a lot of talk on this site about Giuliani, McCain, Romney, etc..., with McCain usually taking a beating.  If you look at his pro-life scorecard over at NRLC, http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/bio/keyvotes/?id=192 , it is more than satisfactory.  Taking away the votes on campaign finance reform, which is not the point of this post, McCain has a nearly perfect voting record on life issues.  I oppose him on CFR, and used to be completely against his nomination, but maybe I have been reading Adam too much over the last few months.  Why do people on this site, who like me have advocacy for life as their foremost issue, prefer openly pro-choice candidates to a candidate who has been on the correct side of almost every life issue.  I acknowledge there are doubts about how vigorously he would uphold the pro-life position as President.  However, why support another candidate about whom there are not only doubts, but certainty.  Kerry's campaign of "Look Ma, I'm a moderate!" didn't work because people examined his voting record.  Let's show the same courtesy to McCain, and acknowledge that when it comes to his votes, he has been a strong ally to the pro-life side.

Posted in User Blogs — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Read More »