Archive for the ‘Republican Party’ Category

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Close the the National Drug Intelligence Center

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor and House Minority Leader John Boehner released a set of budget cuts on Thursday including closing the National Drug Intelligence Center. This should be the first in many steps in scaling back the drug war. The Republican leaders pointed out that the National Drug Intelligence Center unnecessarily duplicates the work of other agencies. Closing the NDIC will save $44 million the first year and $220 million over five years. President Bush unsuccessfully tried to close this boondoggle.

Republicans are probably just proposing closing the NDIC to poke at John Murtha since the Center is located in his district. The reason it is being closed should not matter. Bad policies should be ended.

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Posted in House of Representatives, Republican Party, war on drugs | No Comments »

Ron Paul on Freedom Watch

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Ron Paul appeared on yesterday’s Freedom Watch with Andrew Napolitano. Freedom Watch is a web only news show hosted by former Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Ron Paul is right we should have allowed GM to go bankrupt months ago. Keeping GM alive these several months was just a waste of money but then maybe it is cheaper than unemployment insurance for all those workers. Ron Paul is right to say that the Republican Party has given up the right to provide opposition to these bailouts by supporting them when George Bush was in power.

The argument often made in favor of why Republicans supported the bailouts is that we were in an emergency and something had to be done. Yes, we were in a bad situation but there is little evidence that government action has helped to solve the crisis. The Government always uses emergencies as an excuse to take on more power and do things that the people would not normally approve of.

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Posted in economy, Fox News, George W. Bush, Republican Party, Ron Paul | No Comments »

Rand Paul for Senate

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Rand Paul, Ron Paul’s son, announced on The Rachel Maddow show that he is forming an exploratory comittee to run for the United States Senate.

Rand Paul has owned his own business, performing eye surgery in Bowling Green, KY, for 18 years. He is also the founder of the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, an organization that performs eye exams and surgery for less fortunate patients.

Rand Paul is also the founder of the Kentucky Taxpayers United (KTU) in 1994. KTU rates the state legislature’s tax honesty and helps promote the Americans for Tax Reform taxpayer pledge, to oppose any and all marginal income tax increases and any reduction in tax deductions.

Rand Paul has a large amount of experience working with his father Ron Paul on his 1988 Presidential Campaign.

Rand Paul sounds very much like his father politically. The issues section of his website has sections on guns, bailouts, inflation, taxes and debt, national defense, privacy and liberty, soveirgnty, veterans, home schooling, veterans and energy innovation. Many of his positions are expressed in a libertarian direction similar to his father Ron Paul. The only section on his website that is the section on sovereignty which expresses to much fear of international organizations. His website focuses a lot on government spending which is an out of control problem right now.

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Posted in Kentucky, Libertarian, Republican Party, Ron Paul, Senate | No Comments »

Arlen Specter Bolts the GOP

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Arlen Specter, Senator from Pennsylvania, has announced he is about to jump ship from the Republican Party to become a member of the Democratic Party. It seems a large part of the reason Arlen Specter left the Republican Party was because he was being challenged in the Republican primary by Pat Toomey and his Club for Growth posse.

This will make the Democrats reach the magic number of 60. 60 is a magic number because if the Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate they will theoretically be able to end a filibuster by getting a cloture vote at any time. Democrats will not always stick together on the party line so the 60 votes does not automatically mean the Democrats will be pushing through their agenda. Arlen Specter’s switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party clearly does increase the Democrats’ membership in the Senate by 1.69% which certainly helps the Democrats.

Update:Video from Notes From A Different Kitchen

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Posted in Democratic Party, Pennsylvania, Republican Party, Senate | No Comments »

Aborting Roe v. Wade

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Micheal Steele has had a rocky start as chairman of the RNC. First, he accurately describes Rush Limbaugh and then Steele apologizes to Rush making himself extremely weak. Now, Michael Steele has mad a very confusing statement on abortion to GQ:

How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your Catholic faith but by the fact that you were adopted?

Oh, a lot. Absolutely. I see the power of life in that—I mean, and the power of choice! The thing to keep in mind about it… Uh, you know, I think as a country we get off on these misguided conversations that throw around terms that really misrepresent truth.

Explain that.

The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life, or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.

Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?

Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.

You do?

Yeah. Absolutely.

Are you saying you don’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade?

I think Roe v. Wade—as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter.

Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?

The states should make that choice. That’s what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.

Now on the face of it Michael Steele’s viewpoint is very confusing and does not make much sense the first time you hear it. What Micheal Steele is trying to say is that Roe v. Wade is bad law and states should choose whether or not abortion should be legal. This is the “pro-abortion” position of allowing abortions everywhere. This is also not the religious Christian Republican Party morality position of calling for a Constitutional amendment banning
all abortions under any conditions. States like New York and Massachusetts are not going to ban abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

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Posted in abortion, Micheal Steele, Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh | No Comments »

He Started It

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Barack Obama has pointed out to journalists that “it wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement -– the prescription drug plan — without a source of funding.” As Micheal Tanner of Cato puts it “He Has a Point.” Many Republicans in Congress, as well as some conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh, have been extremely hypocritical in attacking spending now that Obama is in power and not causing a stir when Bush was in charge.

This does not excuse the bad behavior. If big spending was bad when Bush was in power, big spending is bad now. In many ways, the Democrats often sound like two kids quarreling tattling “He started it” to excuse bad behavior.

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Posted in Barack Obama, budget, Democrats, economy, Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh | 1 Comment »

Offshore Drilling. Maybe Later?

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Before the economy collapsed in the fall, Republicans were planning on using offshore drilling as a political issue against the Democrats. It was going to be the perfect issue for the Republicans where they would have an actionable policy that the Democrats refused to go along with despite the wishes of the majority of the American people. The Republicans went so far as to choose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin based almost entirely on her support of oil drilling culminating in her catchphrase of “Drill Baby Drill.”

But the Democrats did not extend the offshore drilling ban. I am still not sure if the ban was not extended because the Democrats were not organized enough to renew the ban or if they realized it was bad politics and policy.

Now it appears that Barack Obama is at least putting into practice a delay of offshore drilling for 6 months. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar put out a statement saying that the administration wanted to extend the time for “review” on offshore drilling which is just a Washington D.C. of saying delay. Ken Salazar does give legitimate reasons which he may be sincere about including studying the uses of other forms of alternative energy and reconsidering the royalty rates on offshore drilling.

Obama should be prepared for the Republicans to use this against him. The Republicans will not turn down a political issue artificially causing oil prices to be higher.

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Posted in Alaska, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, offshore drilling, oil, Republican Party, Sarah Palin | No Comments »

John McCain Goes With Inexperience

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Less than 24 hours after Barack Obama finished making his acceptance speech, John McCain shifted all the media coverage by choosing Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, as his Vice-Presidential running mate.

From a timing standpoint this was a smart move because the media was concentrating on McCain’s speculation for Vice President rather than on Obama’s speaking skills.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a good choice from her record. She has been Governor of Alaska for two years which is a bit of a welfare state. Palin has tried to clean up corruption in Alaska. She supports increased domestic drilling including drilling in ANWR which is further than John McCain is willing to go on the issue.

Strategically, it seems pretty clear that Sarah Palin is partly a quota pick. A governor,with two years experience of a small strong-Republican state would have been chosen without the rise of Hillary Clinton. In fact, Sarah Palin made reference to Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro during her speech earlier this week. Sarah Palin’s lack of inexperience may actually be a plus for Obama because each time a Democrat or the media points it out it will point to Obama’s lack of experience.

Will this choice pick up Hillary Clinton voters? Probably not but it will excite the Republican Party base.

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Posted in Alaska, campaign, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, politics, Presidential Election, Republican Party, Sarah Palin | No Comments »

Bob Barr May Be Running For President

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Bob Barr told antiwar.com on Wednesday that he is very seriously considering running for President.

“There’s been a tremendous expressed to me both directly and indirectly on the Internet. I take that support very seriously, and I think it also reflects a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current candidates and the current two-party system. So it is something, to be honest with you, that I’m looking very seriously at,” Bob Barr told AntiWar Radio.

Bob Barr is a former Republican Congressmen from Georgia who joined the Libertarian Party in late 2006. Bob Barr was a strong drug warrior in office but it seems clear his position on the issue has changed somewhat since he has lobbied for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Bob Barr is my favorite of the likely Libertarian Candidates to run for President.

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Posted in 2008, Bob Barr, Libertarian Party, Presidential Election, Republican Party, war on drugs | No Comments »

Ron Paul Way Ahead In Primary Poll

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Hawkish Republican blogs like Instapundit have repeatedly claimed that Ron Paul is facing a tough time in his primary challenge from Friendswood City Councilman Chris Peden.

It appears Ron Paul looks likely to receive an electoral victory, if the latest poll from Public Policy Polling is to believed. According to Public Policy Polling’s latest poll Ron Paul has 69% of the support with Chris Peden only receiving 30%.

Chris Peden has been hoping that his campaign would be successful by focusing on the Iraq war where Ron Paul has been a staunch opponent but it seems this tactic has not been successful as Paul leads 64-27 among voters who said Iraq was their biggest concern.

Here’s the details for all you policy wonks:
PPP surveyed 468 likely Republican primary voters on February 27th. The survey’s
margin of errors is +/-4.7%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and
weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

Source: Ballot Access News

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Posted in 2008, Republican Party, Ron Paul | 2 Comments »

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