Content by tcgeol
Posted at 4:37pm on Feb. 29, 2008 Huck's speech and Obama supporters
By tcgeol
Although I am definitely leaning toward McCain, Mike Huckabee came to Texas A&M today and I decided to go hear him. The auditorium was packed and there were about 1500 people out in the hallway watching on tv (including me). He apparently has a huge following here in Aggieland and for good reason. The man is an excellent speaker - he gave a great speech, and he knew how to connect with the students. Playing the bass guitar with a local band and the presence of Chuck Norris were a considerable help in that area. He talked about the Fair Tax, which sounded like an excellent and reasonable proposal from him. After listening, if I didn't already realize the problems with the repeal of the 16th Amendment and the prebate debacle, I would be supporting it. Huck discussed leadership, Texas history, and the Founding Fathers and their intentions for government. Those of you who haven't heard him live and look down on those hicks or Christians who support him may be suprised. I can't support him - I have altogether too many problems with him, but I can see why others do. He still needs to work on his math, though. He is still talking about a brokered convention and we all know that just ain't gonna happen.
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Posted at 5:06pm on Feb. 1, 2008 Vote or don't vote - but never for Hillary (or Obama)
By tcgeol
This has been a very divisive primary, and has lead to strong feelings and words running rampant. A lot of us have said things that I truly hope that we will back away from once the primary is over and things have cooled down a little. This is perfectly understandable and natural, since our candidates were, in many ways, very different from each other, and not what would normally be considered typically conservative in the cases of Giuliani, McCain, and Huckabee (maybe Romney). Each of them appealed to a different type of person and there really weren’t any, except for possibly Thompson, who could have united the party in any significant way. Hunter and Thompson were my top choices and both are gone. Romney was next, and he will have to perform better than expected on Tuesday to stay in the race. Everyone is supporting their candidate and attacking the others. A certain amount of this is necessary and healthy, but at some point this has to come to an end.
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Posted at 6:56pm on Dec. 14, 2007 Five Ways to Cut Government
By tcgeol
I am getting sick of primary threads, so I just wanted to post this as a diversion. We can all agree that the federal government is too big, bloated, and wasteful. It might be interesting and educational to see what you all found unnecessary or unconstitutional. If you could cut up to five departments, agencies, programs, etc from the federal government, what would you cut and why?
I would eliminate:
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Posted at 2:41pm on Nov. 2, 2007 Huckabee: Impressive but no thanks
By tcgeol
I have heard a lot about Huckabee recently, but hadn't gotten to actually see or hear him. He appeared on Charlie Rose (a show that I never watch) and I really had a chance to hear him discuss policy.
He definitely has good points. I liked his delivery and standards and would agree with him theologically for the most part. He mentioned several times that education should not be controlled by the federal government. He had a good Second Amendment stance. I believe he is an honest man and would still be so as a politician. So, not all bad.
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Posted at 4:27pm on Jul. 16, 2007 Washington D.C. decides to appeal Parker
By tcgeol
Hopefully this isn't repetitive, but I didn't see this anywhere else. D.C. officials have decided to appeal the Parker decision (http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2007/07/second_amendmen.h...). They had been given a stay to be able to appeal and the decision was announced this morning. The deadline is early August, so they had to decide quickly. Parker was a great decison - Silberman really tore apart anti-RKBA arguments - and I can't see how SCOTUS could rule against it, but with the Supreme Court, you just never know. If they decide to grant cert, the prospects do worry me a bit. I think that Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito will be all right. There are some conflicting reports from a few of the liberals on their opinions on the Second Amendment. There have been rumors that SCOTUS has been torpedoing any cases in order to prevent a collective rights ruling, and I don't know that enough has changed to make a difference. The only other case that comes close was Miller, and Miller really is more on the pro-individual rights side, even though the left likes to portray otherwise. If Miller's co-defendent hadn't died and they had had a lawyer, Miller probably would have been an enormous victory and the NFA might have been overturned or at least modified.
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Posted at 8:37pm on Jun. 12, 2007 Convince me - Giuliani and Gun Control
By tcgeol
There are a lot of people on this site who I admire that like Giuliani. Although it is evident that I am not his biggest fan, gun control is the biggest reason why. We have debated his abortion stance till the cows come home, but he is pretty clear on his position as it relates to life. His stance on abortion is a problem for me, but his stance on gun control is the real deal-breaker right now. The same goes for Romney as well, but he has not pushed an agenda relating to RKBA like Giuliani.
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Posted at 1:51pm on May 4, 2007 Origin Theories and Politics
By tcgeol
In the thread on the Republican presidential debate, we had a small discussion on evolution and creation. There seemed to be interest in the topic, so I decided to post on it, and its relation to politics. I am not starting this in order to actually debate creation and evolution, but to explain something about science and then briefly consider how it relates to this site. Note: It is not my intention to offend anyone or insult anyone’s position on this issue. Whether you are an evolutionist or creationist, if you are a conservative/constitutionalist, I am proud to work with you.
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Posted at 5:25pm on Mar. 7, 2007 Republican Candidates and the Second Amendment
By tcgeol
One of the primary issues that drives me and many others to the Republican party is the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Firearms are one of my interests, so that naturally influences my thinking, but only to an extent. The correlation between an armed people and a free people is too important to ignore, and has always been the driving force behind our defense of RKBA.
In the past, the Democrats have always been the party of gun-grabbers and so have never been popular among supporters of the Second Amendment. The 1934 NFA, the 1968 Gun Control Act the 1994 gun ban, the Brady Bill all have been proposed and passed by Democrats. The Republicans have gained an enormous amount of support from this group - a case in point being that our regaining control of the House in 1994 was in no small part due to the passage of the gun ban in the 1994 Crime Bill. This support is being lost, though, because it is known that the current front-runners for the Republicans are not friendly to pro-gunners.
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Posted at 4:43pm on Mar. 5, 2007 Federal Involvement in Education
By tcgeol
Nathan Nelson had an interesting blog on government involvement in higher education in "Higher Education: A Conservative Solution." Since that covered higher education, I wanted to mention K-12 education in general. The Republican platform used to call for the elimination of the Department of Education, but now no one seems to want to touch it. We had NCLB pushed by President Bush and many Republicans, much to my and many other conservative's dismay. I have not yet been convince that there is any Constitutional justification for any federal control of public education. State control might be legitimate in some cases, but I would be wary of even that.
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Posted at 6:46pm on Feb. 14, 2007 Giuliani and McCain - What to do?
By tcgeol
I have been reading Redstate for a number of months and have learned an enormous amount about current events from the esteemed bloggers here, but I never thought about joining until I joined the Redstate group on Facebook. I know that I do not begin to approach the level of political knowledge that most of you have, and I thank you all for providing a comparative beginner the opportunity to learn and take part.
There has been an overwhelming surge in the support of Giuliani recently, it seems, in the whole conservative movement, and I wish that I could join in.