Rudy has gone . . . to the Dark Side

This is a painful post to write, but one I must if I want to be intellectually honest with my readers. My first choice for the Republican Presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has dropped out of the race. How I wish I could stop right there. But I can't. Rudy has taken the unfortunate further step of endorsing . . . wait for it . . . John McCain.

It's like a nightmare that you can't wake up from. Things just keep getting worse. My only hope now is that Mitt Romney will beat the McCainiac on Super Tuesday. What an awful state of affairs for the Republican Party.

Florida votes for . . . McCain? Really???

Here are some of McCain's Greatest Hits:

• Member of the Keating Five
• Co-leader of the Gang of 14
• McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform
• McCain-Kennedy Amnesty for Illegals Act
• McCain-Lieberman Greenhouse Gas Act
• McCain-Anything, which most assuredly represents a compromise of Conservative principles
• Voted against the Bush tax cuts - twice

This man represents the epitome of RINO behavior. Make no mistake, if McCain wins the Republican nomination, we will have a Democrat in the White House in 2009. No other way around it. Too many Republicans and Conservatives will simply not vote for McCain. How do we stop him?

What should we do about the "I don't want to be held responsible for my actions" crisis?

Here's the scene in Cleveland, Ohio.

At 9422 Chagrin Street, a hand-scrawled sign attached to a window indicates someone lives there: "Please Used."

After three rings of the bell, Sarah Evans, 60, opens the door with a mixture of curiosity and alarm.

She says she is one of the last people left on the street. And she is on the verge of losing this two-bedroom house in which she has lived for more than 30 years because she simply cannot afford her monthly payments.

It is a complicated story. She refinanced in 2003, but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate.

She stopped making payments in 2006 and shows her unpaid bills totaling 24,000 dollars.

Her bank is in the midst of eviction procedures.

As well it should be. I am quite certain that, if Mrs. Light Bulb and I were to fall $24,000 behind in our mortgage payments, it wouldn't take over a year for our bank to evict us from our home. I'd guess six months at most.

But why did this happen in the first place? According to the fourth paragraph, "it's a complicated story." Really? How complicated can a refinance be? From the same paragraph:

She refinanced in 2003, but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate.

Did not realize? Let's translate that into reality, shall we? "Ms. Evans did not read the document she signed." And so, instead of living up to the agreement to which she legally committed herself, she has decided to purposefully become delinquent in her mortgage payments. And just who is to blame for this?

For county treasurer Jim Rokakis, the greed of the banks is to blame for this man-made disaster.

"All you needed was a pulse to buy a house. Some loans were written with no money down, no proof of buyer's incomes. They did not even check what people were saying. Most of those folks were jobless," he said in an interview.

"Shaker Heights was the perfect storm: poor folks, unemployed and a desire to get a piece of the American Dream."

Ah yes, the greed of the banks. Because, you know, the banks came into town and held a gun to the head of each home owner and made them refinance their fixed rate mortgages into adjustable rate mortgages. Those nasty banks.

I gotta tell you, I'm sick to death of hearing about these cases. I do have compassion for these people; losing your home must be an awful, awful thing. But if they want to find someone to blame, they need to look in the mirror. For most of us, purchasing a home is the single biggest financial transaction we will ever make in our lives. If you and I don't read every single word on every single page of our mortgage agreements, shame on us.

What should we do about the "I don't want to be held responsible for my actions" crisis? As Michelle Malkin says, "Suck. It. Up."

What a crock of stimulus

Via Michelle Malkin, this excerpt from The Examiner explains "stimulus" Washington style:

If somebody grabbed your wallet and then handed you back a $20 bill, would you be grateful? Realizing the money was yours to begin with, you would probably call the cops rather than thank the thief.

President Bush’s latest gimmick to stimulate the economy by giving back to taxpayers $800 of their own money is the Washington equivalent of the “generous” thief. The biggest fairy tale in Washington isn’t Barack Obama’s voting record on the war in Iraq, but the notion peddled by Republicans and Democrats alike that the government has a big pot of its own money that it generously gives to people by “injecting” it into the economy as a stimulus.

In fact, government has only our money or money it borrows from lenders. The problem is it costs the government a major portion of every dollar it takes from us in collecting it and paying the interest on dollars it borrows. Why not just let us keep our money in the first place?

Want real economic stimulus? Make the 2003 tax cuts permanent. And slash government spending by 5%, just five percent. I've heard it said before: "any manager who can't cut their budget by 10% should be fired." Of course, government isn't the real world, so we'll set their goal at half that, just to make it easy on them.

Want to jump-start home buying? Reduce property taxes. Let people know that when they find a house they think they can afford, the taxes added on to their mortgage payment won't make the house unaffordable.

Want to reduce the price of oil? Have a big oil company announce that they're increasing production/supply or, God forbid, that they're going to start drilling in ANWR.

The worst part is that Republicans in Congress have gone along with the Defeat-ocrats in all this. Neil Cavuto was right: the Defeat-ocrats have truly won the day.

Obama's Clinton Education

Please read this excellent commentary from the Wall Street Journal.

One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled that Bubba grin and said, "You gotta do what you gotta do."

We're reminded of that story listening to Barack Obama protest his treatment by the now ex-President Clinton on behalf of his wanna-be-President wife. "You know the former President, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Mr. Obama told a TV interviewer. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts — whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas."

Now he knows how the rest of us feel.

The Illinois Senator is still a young man, but not so young as to have missed the 1990s. He nonetheless seems to be awakening slowly to what everyone else already knows about the Clintons, which is that they will say and do whatever they "gotta" say or do to win. Listen closely to Mr. Obama, and you can almost hear the echoes of Bob Dole at the end of the 1996 campaign asking, "Where's the outrage?"

You have to admit, the Clintons are exceptionally skilled at triangulation. We even saw it at the Defeat-ocrats last debate. Senator Obama spoke about lies that Bill was telling. Mrs. Clinton's response? "He's not here."

She could have also said "he's everywhere but here." It's very cunning to have your chief attack dog not be an official member of your campaign and able to go and speak anywhere on your behalf with the full expectation of media coverage. After all, who wouldn't cover a former President's speeches? From there, it's an all-too-easy bait-and-switch.

"Did you hear what Bill said?"

"Yes, I did. But he's not running. Her Vileness is."

Let's see how long they get away with it. With the media behind them, my guess is a long, long time.

Life is still precious

Today was March for Life day, the unfortunate anniversary of the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision.

What can be done in a society that no longer values life? We who know the truth about abortion should firmly and lovingly speak up about it. We should ask forgiveness as a nation for the millions of children who have been killed as a result of this decision. And yes, we should do all we can to get elected to the Presidency a man who will appoint Supreme Court justices who will interpret the law and not create their own horrifying laws.

As an awful bookend to the day comes news that actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York City apartment of an apparent "accidental" overdose. What a shame. His career was most likely about to take off with his upcoming portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. He leaves behind a daughter whose mother was not worth marrying for some reason. Stardom, money, a child, all at age 28. All I can think of is...

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

— Matthew 16:26

Answer: nothing.

Ten years ago today

It was just ten short years ago today that we began to learn just how much William Jefferson Blythe Clinton would choose to tarnish the office of President.

On the evening of Saturday January 17, 1998, the internet gossip merchant Matt Drudge posted a story that opened the most sensational scandal season in the history of the American presidency. He reported that Newsweek magazine had killed a story about President Clinton’s sexual relationship with a former intern. The next day he had her name: Monica Lewinsky.

The mainstream media were slow to catch up, but by the following Tuesday they were reporting that Clinton was being investigated for encouraging others to lie to cover up the affair.

For the next year the story dominated the headlines as Clinton was investigated, impeached and eventually found not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours in a Senate trial.

And now another Clinton seeks the same office, the "enabler" you might call her.

She [Kathleen Willey] believes that Clinton is a sex addict and Hillary is an enabler. “Rather than address the problem, it’s this ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’. Rather than give him an ultimatum and kick him out and say you are not coming back until you get well, she has enabled his behaviour and it hasn’t stopped.

Really, how much public humiliation can one woman stand?”

She goes as far as to call Hillary Clinton “evil” for what she believes was her role in trying to destroy the credibility of the women who claimed sexual relationships with her husband. “A lot of women out there are voting for the first time and are excited about voting for a woman. This country is certainly ready to be run by a woman. Just not this woman.”

From her lips to the voters' ears.

If you can fake sincerity...

...you can get a lot of New Hampshire voters on your side.

And here's her spouse at Ron Brown's funeral:

These people will say anything and do anything in order to get elected.

Ron Paul is "the Pee-Wee Herman of the Republican Party"

Yet another hat tip to the PowerLine brainiacs. And, I promise, my last Ron Paul post.

Some years ago, after popular children's television performer Pee-Wee Herman was arrested in a pornographic movie house, a friend commented that he wasn't surprised, as he'd always felt there was something "off" with respect to Herman. In hindsight, that wasn't too tough a call. I had a similar reaction to James Kirchick's revelations about Ron Paul.

...

It seemed obvious to me during the debates that Ron Paul is not just a principled, if quixotic, libertarian. Like Pee-Wee Herman, he is visibly "off." Paul's newsletters reveal him as prone to hatred and fond of conspiracy theories. So, in practice, he is much more like an internet liberal than a libertarian of the Steve Forbes or Cato Institute ilk. This is, of course, exactly how he came across in the presidential debates.

Read the Kirchick report. 'Nuff said.

Further proof that New Hampshire leans left

John McCain has won the New Hampshire Republican primary.

I don't get it. A man who voted FOR amnesty. A man who co-authored the bill to abridge our free speech rights in election seasons. A Gang of 14 member. This is so obvious a case of a wolf in sheep's clothing that I can't comprehend anyone being fooled by such behavior. Apparently, such incomprehensibleness exists in great supply in the Granite State.

Thanks for nothing, New Hampshire.

And Her Vileness has won the Democratic primary.

Oh, I get this one. Stick with what works. Eight years of Clintonian rule did such wonders for our country, for our standing in the eyes of Muslin terrorists, for the Oval Office carpet. Support the candidate who wants as many babies as possible killed in their mothers' wombs. Vote for Healthcare supplied by your local Department of Motor Vehicles office.

Makes perfect sense.

Both beatables won in Iowa

BAD - Huckabee won. He is not a conservative, bad on immigration, bad on fiscal responsibility, bad on the war. He will be easily beatable in November if he gets the nomination. It will be a replay of the 2006 elections. People voted in 2004 for representatives they thought were conservative, but when those representatives got into office they behaved like liberals instead. So when 2006 came around the people went ahead and voted for liberals thinking, "why should I vote for a conservative to be liberal when I can vote for a liberal to be liberal."

GOOD - Obama won. He is very beatable in November. He has yet to be asked a question about his record. When those questions are asked (by someone other than Her Vileness), the public will see him for the socialist he is.

GREAT - Her Vileness lost. The candidate of inevitability is no longer inevitable. And she's down by 10 in New Hampshire.

Happy New Year 2008!

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

— James 4:13-15

Father God, lead me to your will in 2008.