Stories by Neil Stevens
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 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 1:30pm on Jun. 3, 2008 Questioning the map-changing Democratic wave
Everything is brand new, just like last time
By Neil Stevens
Were the 2006 Congressional defeats the foreshocks of a map-shifting earthquake in the 2008 election, or were they just the same thing that normally happens in the sixth year of a Presidency?
I have examined the last seven sixth year midterm elections (Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy/Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush) and the losses the President's party lost in both houses of the Congress, and I'm unconvinced that there was anything to learn long-term from the last election.
Read on for the details...
Posted in 1938 | 1958 | 1966 | 1974 | 1986 | 1998 | 2006 | Congress | Elections | Incumbency | Year Six — Comments (26)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:42pm on Jun. 1, 2008 Why to sign up for the Action Alert E-mails
This is what Barry Goldwater was talking about
By Neil Stevens
Constant readers may have noticed a quote I had in my comment signature here at Red State:
If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work. -- Barry Goldwater
I'm pleased to say that between Red State 3.0's approaching launch, and the current availability of the Action Alerts, it truly is time to get to work.
Read on for the why and how...
Posted in Action Alert | Miscellanea | Red State — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:58am on May 27, 2008 President Bush and Speaker Pelosi take a swipe at free market medicine
The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act misses the point of insurance
By Neil Stevens
Via Slashdot Science (so it's a week old), President Bush signed the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act into law on the 22nd. This bill would prevent the proper assessment of medical risk based on improving medical technology, increasing the costs of medical insurance for all Americans, which of course shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what insurance is.
To be fair, though, there was only one vote in the House against this bill, and none at all in the Senate, so this silliness extends beyond the Presidency and to our entire caucuses in the Congress.
Read on...
Posted in Health care | Medical Insurance | Missing the Point | Policy — Comments (80)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:45pm on May 3, 2008 Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse in California [Updated]
My view: Yes on 98, No on 99
By Neil Stevens
The fight continues to protect Californians from the abuses of civil liberties authorized by the Supreme Court in Kelo v. New London. Proponents of our civil rights against theft of property have placed on the June ballot Proposition 98. Unlike the last Proposition 98, which began our disastrous budget problems by placing hard lower limits on school spending growth, this one is from the good guys. The new Proposition 98 is a proposed state Constitutional amendment that would place sweeping restrictions on eminent domain abuse statewide, and ensure that "just compensation" is provided even when the takings occur.
However, the forces of big government are not quick to give up. Corrupt city and county governments have in turn put on the ballot Proposition 99, another proposed amendment. Masquerading as an anti-eminent domain law, Proposition 99 would not even have helped in the Kelo case, so narrow are the limits on government set.
Read on... Updated below the fold
Posted in Arnold Schwarzenegger | California | Eminent Domain | girly man | Kelo v. New London | State Politics — Comments (11)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:20pm on May 2, 2008 Senator Schumer's Own Open Thread
By Neil Stevens
Caption this if you please. Open thread.
Posted in Chuck Schumer | Miscellanea | Open Thread — Comments (79)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:29am on Apr. 5, 2008 Ron Paul Finally Endorses
On a day we honor WFB's memory, let us carry on his work
By Neil Stevens
After all this time, and all the anticipation, Ron Paul has finally made peace with his compatriots, and made his endorsement.
What's that? John McCain? Oh my, no. Ron Paul is still running for President, and trying to steal other candidates' pledged delegates. Even though he's perfectly happy to take the endorsement of a party his campaign claims is not "viable" (ibid.), he won't step up and acknowledge the victory of the man who earned enough pledged delegates to assure a first ballot GOP victory, and who will be leading us to November.
No, Ron Paul won't endorse the man who has earned the endorsement of the Republican Party's voters, but he will and has endorsed the John Birch Society. Yes, that John Birch Society. The one that accused President Eisenhower of being a Communist. The one that William F. Buckley, whom many of us remember today, rightly threw out of the conservative movement.
Ron Paul endorsed them, and removed all doubt of his position with respect to the conservative movement.
Read on...
Posted in 2008 | Ron Paul | The John Birch Society | Tin Foil As Fashion and Inflation Hedge | William F. Buckley Jr. — Comments (67)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:04pm on Apr. 1, 2008 Must See: John McCain's New Ad
The campaign that's never going to let you down
By Neil Stevens
Posted in 2008 | John McCain — Comments (41)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:49pm on Mar. 31, 2008 John McCain: Mainstream Press Bypass Candidate?
By Neil Stevens
Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times put forward a highly unconventional idea today: He suggests that John McCain bypassed an uncooperative press corps during the primary season by reaching out directly to the right on the Internet, and rode that support to victory.
Can he be serious? After all, the common sense viewpoint is that the Senator has spent the last decade making allies on television and in the newspapers, honing a Maverick™ image to make him the favorite Republican of the mainstream press. Patrick Hynes, who does Internet outreach for the campaign, seems to think it made no difference once McCain fell in the polls, says Dinan:
"During the unpleasantness, whenever Senator McCain put himself in front of reporters, the question was always, 'How much did you raise today, when are you dropping out,' " said Patrick Hynes, a conservative blogger who Mr. McCain hired in 2006.
So how did he deal with that and get his message out?
Read on...