Redstate

Posted at 11:52am on Jul. 3, 2008 Ah, bias

By Neil Stevens

The AP today starts a report today beating the drums of doom:

Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.

Do you think that under a Democrat, the reporting would have been the other way around, perhaps going like so?

The unemployment rate held steady in June, remaining at 5.5 percent, underscoring the economy's resilience against reports that employers cut payrolls by 62,000, marking the sixth straight month of recorded losses.

Maybe.

Posted at 6:20pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Mercosur Demands Lebensraum

By Neil Stevens

The South American trade union demands that its people know no boundaries, according to the BBC:

The EU laws, due to come into force in 2010, could see illegal immigrants held for up to 18 months and face a five-year ban on re-entry if expelled.

....In a joint declaration, [Mercosur leaders] rejected "every effort to criminalise irregular migration and the adoption of restrictive immigration policies, in particular against the most vulnerable sectors of society, women and children".

They used to call this sort of thing an invasion, sending your people across national boundaries and demanding full rights to that territory. If the EU caves on this, I bet Hitler would be kicking himself right now. He might have had Poland without a fight had he just demanded an end to "restrictive immigration policies."

Posted in European Union | Foreign Affairs | Godwin's Law | illegal immigration | Immigration | Lebensraum | Mercosur — Comments (11) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:53pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Jindal Vetoes Pay Raise

By Neil Stevens

Governor Jindal has vetoed the legislative pay raise sparking so much controversy around him.

I'll say this for him: when he changes positions, he's listening to the right people and going the right way. Since I've been watching him I've been aware of three significant shifts: He went from a Yes to NV on the SCHIP veto override in the House, he came around on a personal tax cut in Louisiana, and now this.

Posted at 7:02pm on Jun. 29, 2008 Club for Growth is not gunning for Governor Jindal

By Neil Stevens

Whilst the leftosphere borders on Civil War over the failure of Democratic leaders, Senator Obama included, to defeat the President's wishes on FISA and war funding, we on the right have had our own debate over our own rising star's first real conflict.

Yes, of course, I mean Governor Jindal and the legislative pay hike. Some on the right are up in arms, angry that given the opportunity to draw the line, gather the people behind him, and face down the intransigent legislators, he's turned it down, deciding it wasn't the fight to take.

Personally it doesn't bother me but then again, I'm not all that opposed to professional legislators, being an opponent of term limits as well. If all that Jindal had to trade off to get sweeping ethical reform in Louisiana, was a clean pay raise for the lowest paid legislators in the country, then I thought that was reasonable. So I was shocked to hear that there's actually a recall effort starting against the Governor.

Club for Growth was less shocked, though, and therein lay a controversy here at Red State.

Read on...

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Club for Growth | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (70)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:09am on Jun. 28, 2008 A question we all know the answer to

By Neil Stevens

Are all the people who support publicly-funded abortions on the grounds that the Supreme Court declared abortion a right, now going to support publicly-funded handguns on the grounds that the Supreme Court affirmed gun ownership as an indivdiual right?

Posted at 10:35am on Jun. 25, 2008 Phoenix has a good Sheriff, Part LXVII

By Neil Stevens

A few years back, dominant NBA basketball center Shaquille O'Neal took all the training he needed to become a Sheriff's deputy, and served as one while playing for the Miami Heat. He did work where his unusual size and notoriety would not hinder the job, which meant much Internet-based work. But sometimes his size and strength would come in handy on planned operations, so he'd come along and help.

It was good for Shaq, good for the county, and good for the community. Everyone gained, so naturally when Shaq was traded to the Phoenix Suns, he entered into the same kind of relationship with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Shaq wrecked it all this week, though.

Read on...

Posted in Arizona | Joe Arpaio | Kobe Bryant | Law | Phoenix | Shaquille O'Neal — Comments (39) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:30pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Congratulations Godfather

The New Democratic takeover crashes on

By Neil Stevens

Today, on the day of another Neocon Democratic victory, I must congratulate Godfather Jerome Armstrong. He and his new Democratic leadership clique have accomplished so much for Neocons recently, that he must be so proud of these accomplishments of the Howard Dean era of the Democratic party:

• Continuing war funding
• Agreeing on Telecom FISA immunity
• Thwarting Presidential and Vice Presidential impeachment

Yes, there is that as-yet failure to nominate Hillary Clinton, but it's quite a record. And yet, the great Vis Numar does not rest on his laurels, oh no. He's pressing on and continuing to set the Neocon agenda within the Gate-Crashed Democratic Party:

Congressional Dems should adopt the position [of promoting drilling for oil in America's coastal waters], include some safeguards, and alongside billions in funding for finding alternative fuel solutions, make it part of a long-term solution.... [T]he ideological purity position of there being an environmental/aesthetic argument against it is exactly the position the Republicans want us to adopt.

Armstrong, Moulitsas, and Dean have done so well in reshaping the Democratic party into one not merely able to follow Republican orders in Congress as a pliable minority, but to take the lead and implement the core pieces of the moderate Neocon agenda as the majority. All those centrist Democrats that the Netroots were told to get elected are truly paying off in crushing the radical left's say in the Democratic agenda. Winning over moderate Republicans must come before ideological purity, no matter how many Republican positions are adopted.

So for today I salute you, Vis Numar, as the triumphant enemy of my enemy.

Posted in Democrats | drill here | Neocons | New Democrats | oil | The Great Netroots Betrayal | vis numar — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:40pm on Jun. 15, 2008 We interrupt 2008's Drums of Doom with some context

By Neil Stevens

Over at Next Right, Patrick Ruffini points out what's been influencing the polls and which of those influences are going away:

So, we saw an initial round of polling showing Mitch McConnell trailing in Kentucky and Elizabeth Dole up within the margin in North Carolina and John Cornyn only up by 4 in Texas.

And today?

Dole leads by 14. Cornyn is up by 17. Gordon Smith, who has to be on anyone's list of beatable Republican incumbents leads Jeff Merkley by 9 in Oregon, an Obama +8 state.

I'm not saying things aren't tough, particularly in the Senate. But I would argue there is a chance for more of a "normal" year than a repeat wave, which would be an historical aberration.

Emphasis added.

Posted at 1:18am on Jun. 4, 2008 Real eminent domain reform losing in California

By Neil Stevens

The most recent returns show bad news in the California primary election. Proposition 98, the Howard Jarvis property rights initiative, is losing while the pro-eminent-domain, fake reform Proposition 99 is winning.

So we'll get a little protection, but not much. How disappointing.