Category Archives: Republicans

UPDATED: Hopeless Politics (Alarming Poll)

Democracy, Elections, Politics, Republicans, Ron Paul

I scanned a few headlines for coverage of Ron Paul’s showing in yesterday’s Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri presidential contests, but could find no mention of the man who placed second in Minnesota. Skim this New York Times page. The Congressman from Texas is absent from the report. (And some have argued with me over the utter corruption and cretinism of the American media, although, given that the lead doesn’t even contain the contested states, I suspect that idicoracy more than ideology is at play here). Finally, while Rick Santorum swept these states, they “were essentially nonbinding straw polls.”

Buried on the PBS News Hour’s page is one line to the effect that “Texas Congressman Ron Paul finished second in Minnesota, third in Missouri and last in Colorado.” No more.

The matter of low turnout interests me more. “One of the big losers was GOP turnout, which was down in every state, compared to four years ago,” observes The Guardian. “The ratio of turnout from 2012 to 2008 in both counties were in the bottom quarter of all counties in Iowa. Had turnout in either county been at the same level relative to 2008 as the average county, Romney’s less-than-100 vote loss would have been turned into a win.”

Perhaps voters who poured their heart and soul into Tea-Party politics have prefigured that the nature of American politics is such that even if their candidate wins, nothing will change in their lives or in the politics. It is amazing that in the face of hopelessness—growing economic misery commensurate with the assurances of trillions more in debt—the only shot across the bow comes from the confused and revolting Occupy Wall Street Movement. Or “Freak Street.”

Promises by the presidential contender to repeal all the unconstitutional legislation the incumbent has passed are just that: promises that can never be fulfilled. The fact that presidents come and go and leave in their wake such devastation—essentially trashing the office and the country—demonstrates the reality of power without limitation. Since the Constitution is a dead letter, the political process consists in each faction passing its unconstitutional infractions into law, as the other gang guarantees repeal.

“The Democratic and Republican parties each operates as a necessary counterweight in a partnership designed to keep the pendulum of power swinging in perpetuity from the one set of colluding quislings to the other, and back.”—ILANA (January 15, 2010)

“No sooner do the Republicans come to power, than they move to the left. When they get their turn, Democrats shuffle to the right. At some point, McCain reaches across the aisle and the creeps converge.”—ILANA (January 15, 2010)

UPDATE: (Feb. 9): “Obama would defeat all of the four Republicans if the election were held today, but Ron Paul fares the best against the incumbent. Obama leads Paul 44 percent to 40 percent, with 16 percent undecided,” says a “WND/WENZEL POLL.”

TELL ME the generic Republican isn’t stupid:

“In every case except the match-up against Ron Paul, more than 20 percent of Republican voters said they are more likely to support Obama than the Republican challenger. And Ron Paul is close, as 19 percent of Republicans said they are more likely to support Obama than Paul.”

A hopeless polity.

UPDATED: Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy Bellicosity (Sununu Stumping for Romney)

Debt, Elections, Foreign Policy, Military, Republicans

In his Florida victory speech, Mitt Romney promised: “I will insist on a military so powerful no one would ever think of challenging it. President Obama has adopted a policy of appeasement and apology. I will speak out for those seeking freedom and I will stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends around the world.”

Romney offered a permutation of the promise in the Nevada victory speech, Saturday, February 4, where he took 49.4% of the vote (14,535 votes).

President Obama is shrinking our military and hollowing out our national defense. I will insist on a military so powerful that no one would ever think of challenging it. President Obama believes America’s role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. I believe the 21st century will be and must be an American century.

Romney understands business, not economics. One needs an understanding of the natural laws of economics to comprehend the extent of the economic malaise that afflicts the US. “The defining characteristic of the Unites States is debt—public and private. America is a debtor nation,” I wrote in “Republicans, Repent!” Course correction is unlikely for a country, America, that is now the biggest debtor nation in the world.

His foreign policy bellicosity aside, Romney is sincere when he says that “the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not our destiny.” Sincere, pleasant, presidential, but hopelessly delusional about the feasibility of course-correction. (Consider: The Tea Party Congress has done precious little to correct course, except to get comfortable on the Hill.)

UPDATE: John Sununu was on FoxBussiess today promising that Mitt Romney would add 100,000 men and women to the Navy to beef it up. That is the definition of insanity. To accuse OBama of gutting the American military qualifies too.

Sununu, who is stumping for Romney, does have a good idea, though, of who New Gingrich is:

“When Newt Gingrich talks about big ideas, I take ‘big’ as being a synonym for cockamamie because half the stuff he comes up with is unrealistic and undoable at a time when we’re dealing with huge budget deficits, when we are expressing concerns about $15 trillion, $16 trillion debt. He is talking about a trillion dollar program to go to the moon. There are appropriate times to have ideas that are new and different. This is not a time to spend a billion dollars going to the moon. Most of the ideas he has are designed to be self-aggrandizing.”

UPDATE II: No Country For Throwaway Americans (Meet Maurice, Homeless Physicist & Electrical Eng.)

Education, IMMIGRATION, Labor, Law, Multiculturalism, Outsourcing, Republicans

At a time when very many highly qualified American engineers cannot find work, and at least one such talent, featured below, is living on the streets—Tea Party traitor Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), distinguished himself last year by passing the “Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act.”

“In one of last year’s most disappointing moments,” writes Joe Guzzardi of VDARE.COM, “the House overwhelmingly passed (389-15) H.R. 3012, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act that would eliminate the annual per-country caps on employer-sponsored green cards.”

“Skilled labor—from roughly everywhere—displaces educated Americans, disproportionately white and Asian Americans.(See Ed Rubenstein on immigration and college graduates.) Some of those lose their homes, some commit suicide, and we’ve published an article by a writer, Simon Krejsa, who was living in a homeless shelter.” (VDARE.COM)

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chaffetz (R-Utah), is another regular “freedom fighter,” who parks his pampered ass, as a “good friend of the show,” at FoxNews’ “Freedom Watch.” (See “Closing The Door On Closed, Cloistered American Media.”)

Increased legal immigration in the middle of an unemployment crisis! Now that’s patriotism!

Meet Maurice Johnson, “an unemployed, homeless Boston man who has a Masters Degrees in Plasma Physics from Dartmouth College and in Electrical Engineering and acoustics from Purdue University. Johnson’s resume includes a 10 year career at Lockheed Aerospace & Aerodyne Research Corp.” (Link)

H-1B Hogs Swindling ‘Average’ Americans explains that, in America’s labyrinthine visa system, “The O-1 visa is the visa reserved for individuals with extraordinary abilities. More significantly, there is no cap on the number of O-1 visa entrants allowed. Access to this limited pool of talent is unlimited. My point vis-à-vis the O-1 visa is this: The primary H-1B hogs—Infosys (and another eight, sister Indian firms), Microsoft, and Intel—are forever claiming that they are desperate for talent. But, in reality, they have unlimited access to individuals with unique abilities through the open-ended O-1 visa program—that is if they really wanted it.”

The primary H-1B hogs don’t want for extraordinary talent, available via the unlimited 0-1 Visa; what these corporate pigs want is a multicultural workforce with which to replace Americans. My contacts within the bowels of this Beast are forever telling me about Human Resources directives to “hire someone who does not look like YOU, Honky!” (Not quite in those words, but you get the drift.) Don’t ask me why, but creating a Tower of Babel of a work force is what the much-heralded multinationals live for. Diversity is no strength—it contributes nothing but misery in the workplace.

But boy, is it de rigueur.

UPDATE I (Feb. 6): This guy could be teaching America’s stupid kids math and science, but the unions that run the gulag of public education do not allow entry to highly qualified individuals with higher degrees, unless they are “reeducated.” The upshot of union stranglehold is that union-certified, borderline-retarded women (mostly) with education degrees are teaching math. They might be able to cover the two examples in the textbook, but cannot instill what they lack: an understanding of this most crucial subject. There are plenty engineers and scientists (some retired), to whom math is second nature, who could bring American kids up to the level, if allowed.

UPDATE II (Feb. 7): “Is President Obama Right About Engineers?: Significant Numbers Unemployed or Underemployed,” courtesy of The Center for Immigration Studies.

UPDATED: LaHood Is Still In The Egyptian Hood

America, Barack Obama, Bush, Democracy, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Islam, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Russia

Egypt’s road to majoritarian politics—which is what America demands for that country—is stalled at the military dictatorship stage. The latter is probably preferable to a people’s republic governed by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist al-Nour Party, which won the ballot in the newly installed democracy. [BBC]

It is a fact—and three of the Republican presidential candidates will applaud it—that America runs community agitators across the world. These Republican- and Democratic Party Saul Alinskys (neoconservatives and neoliberals) work to incite democracy and undermine order. This has obtained with respect to both Bush, Obama (who are, to all intent and purposes, non-identical, evil ideological twins), and before them.

Could Egypt’s leader, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, be hip to the ill-effects of American community organizing abroad? Egyptian authorities have stopped Sam LaHood from leaving Egypt.

In addition to being the son of Ray LaHood, the secretary of transportation and a former Republican congressman from Illinois, LaHood heads the International Republican Institute, an American-backed democracy-building group. (Neocon meddlers.)

He is “one of six Americans working for the Republican Institute or its sister organization, the National Democratic Institute.” Obama had a fit. Ditto the Republicans. LaHood’s their operative.

Representative Frank R. Wolf, a Republican from Virginia who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said the Egyptian government continued to flout American efforts and to undermine democratic rights. “This is out of control,” Mr. Wolf said on Thursday. “If the administration follows the law, there’s no way they can continue the aid.”

(NYT)

A tug of war between Washington and Cairo over American aid for Egyptian human rights and democracy-building groups goes back to the era of former President Hosni Mubarak. To maintain control over organizations that might pose potential challenges to his government, Mr. Mubarak required nonprofit groups to obtain licenses, which were almost never issued.
Instead, the generals have echoed the Mubarak government’s refrain that any unrest was the work of “foreign hands.” Often, the military-led government has pointed specifically at Washington, suggesting that the United States was financing Egyptian groups behind the frequent turmoil in the streets.

(NYT)

And the aforementioned Generals may have a point. Ask the Ukraine (“Orange” Revolution), Georgia (“Rose”), Lebanon (“Cedar”), Kyrgizstan (“Tulip”), etc. Attempts to foment revolution are probably underway in Belarus, Russia, Iran, Syria (pending).

UPDATE (Jan. 30): “The God that Failed,” via Nebojsa Malic:

Parallel to the open warfare, the Empire continues its cloak-and-dagger efforts to subvert target states through “color revolutions.” The latest target is Russia, where questionable claims of electoral fraud have been used as a pretext for the “White” revolution – planned, organized and financed by Washington.
The troubles with these faux-revolutions are many. One of the most pernicious, of course, is that they undermine the very concept of democracy as a system of government by consent. In the virtual world of the Empire (and its EU extension), only those that serve and obey are “democrats,” regardless of what they actually believe and how many votes they get at the polls. As Philip Cunliffe observed several years ago in Serbia, “what counts as democracy is what the EU decides is democratic, and the democrats are those who are anointed by the international community, regardless of who actually receives the votes.”
It is bad enough that the Empire made democracy a religion, and a false one at that. Now it is going around the world subverting that very religion, leaving millions of cheated, angry people in its wake. Worse yet, the tendrils of this approach are showing up at home, from street protests to party primaries.