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Terry

Location: Pensacola, FL
Age: 37

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Please, for the love of God, let's not do this sort of crap!

For years, liberals have bemoaned the fact thatwe lacked the think tanks and foundations of the right. We've had no Eagle Forum, no Heritage Foundation, no AEI or the like and the only organizations which do lean our way seem to do so reluctantly. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Brookings Institution.)

But one only has to glance at the current state of political affairs to see that's a good thing. Look at the current crop of youngish Republican "thought leaders" and tell me who among them could get the American people to follow them--Jonah Goldberg? Rich Lowry? Michael Goldfarb? Kathryn Lopez? I think not. The reason conservatives are so out of favor right now is that they have raised an entire generation of conservative thinkers inside the dark dens of Republican Sinecureland. It doesn't take Gregor Mendel to tell you that this inbreeding has led to the sorriest lot of hothouse flowers you'll ever see.

This point is driven home this week with the death of William F. Buckley. Buckley made mistakes, certainly, but he was a man who founded a magazine, fought in a war and was, no doubt, a true intellectual. He made his own way on the strength of his intelligence and spirit and not the think tank connections of his parents.

Can you imagine John Podhoretz or Bill Kristol living a Buckleyesque life if it weren't for their famous daddies? Hell, no. Kristol would be working in some law firm writing contracts and Pohoretz would probably be selling insurance. Or cars. Or subscriptions door-to-door.

The right is going to be hurting for a long time because of their successes in creating perfect little environments for the restating of the same old thoughts and the assembly of anti-everything automatons. We need to learn from their failures, not replicate them.

Posted at March 4, 2008 3:37 PM in response to The Conservative Youth Factory
Must it be pointed out that the first act a leader must take is to convince others to follow him? That's just about the first thing I was taught as a Navy (and, later, Army) NCO.

"Inspire. Its original meaning was to 'breathe or blow upon or into.' The word was derived from the Latin spiritus, which means 'breath, courage, vigor, the soul' as well as from the Ecclesiastical Latin spirare, meaning 'to blow, breathe.' How apt! When you think of how leaders inspire, it is as if they are 'blowing life into' their people to give courage and vigor to their souls...Hope is the outcome of inspiration.

"Hope is not something you wish for; it must be earned through example and courage. It emerges from a unity of spirit and purpose. Sun Tzu, the ancient military strategist, addressed the need for a commander and his army to be one with the Tao,/i>. As he explained in the Art of War, 'Tao is what causes the people to have ths same purpose as their superior. Thus they can die with him, live with him and not deceive him.' The reason for such unity was a shared set of values. It was the commander's responsibility to earn the respect of his soldiers so that they would follow him into battle if war were necessary."

-From Great Motivation Secrets of Great Leaders by John Baldoni

Posted at February 20, 2008 4:04 PM in response to Source: Obama On Track To Raise More Than $36 Million In February
John McCain is now an official flip-flopping bastard.
One of the evening's most emotional exchanges came in response to a question from Andrew Jones, a college student from Seattle.

"Recently, Sen. McCain has come out strongly against using waterboarding as an instrument of interrogation," Jones said.

"My question for the rest of you is, considering that Mr. McCain is the only one with any firsthand knowledge on the subject, how can those of you sharing the stage with him disagree with his position?" he said.

"I oppose torture," Romney said. "I would not be in favor of torture in any way, shape or form."

Prompted by the moderator as to whether waterboarding was torture, Romney said "as a presidential candidate, I don't think it's wise for us to describe specifically which measures we would and would not use."

McCain's response was passionate: "Well, governor, I'm astonished that you haven't found out what waterboarding is."

"I know what waterboarding is, Senator," Romney said.

"Then I am astonished that you would think such a torture would be inflicted on anyone in our — who we held captive and anyone could believe that that's not torture. It's in violation of the Geneva Convention," McCain said.Douchebag.

Posted at February 20, 2008 3:51 PM in response to McCain: Bush Should Veto Anti-Torture Bill
You do know this post was satire, right?

Right?

Posted at June 11, 2007 12:34 PM in response to Liberal Propaganda Watch: Murderous Vehicles
HOWEVER...The catalytic convertor, the real villain that nearly killed AJ, is designed to reduce pollution, so...

Posted at June 11, 2007 12:33 PM in response to Liberal Propaganda Watch: Murderous Vehicles
Hey! You know what would be really neat? An example of a time when a blog which garners a significant number of hits went after a reporter undeservedly! You can't support a point by just saying, "Read the liberal/left blogs."

The truth is, from the Chris Matthews' obsession with the logistics of the Clintons' marriage to the Obama's-a-secret-Muslim weirdness, there's a lot of crappy coverage of our guys. Do you really not remember the "Bush is a straight-shooter and Gore is a weird liar" storylines of the 2000 election?

I have no problem with our side being smacked down when they deserve it. On my blog, I wondered why Sandy Berger is free after pocketing classified documents and I don't know a single lefty blogger who has supported William Jefferson like the right did its many crooks. So saying that we, like the right, always blame the messenger is straight up horsecrap.

To recap: 1) Document your claims. 2) Don't write horsecrap.

Thank you.

Posted at June 7, 2007 8:21 AM in response to Dems Emulate GOP Style: Any And All Attacks on Democrats are "Media Bias"
Good God this is a stupid article. The "Dems" didn't promise to complete a 100 Hour agenda. That was just the House and they achieved their goal.

Posted at April 16, 2007 11:47 AM in response to The Hundred Hour Bull
Brother, as someone who runs a blog which is, mostly, a "F**K that guy!" blog, I don't have any problem with that sort of rhetoric. Hell, I'm heartened that it's become more common on the left, where, at least, you usually get good, solid reasons for the f**king. The right's been fighting bareknuckled for years with mostly b.s.--Clinton murder accusations anyone?--the least we can do is get ticked when the truth has been ignored.

What's interesting, though, is the separation between blogs which write primly and those which write coarsely mostly exists on the left. On the right, the Malkins and LGFs are respected pretty much uniformly despite their willingness to bring out the tough stuff.

Posted at January 17, 2007 4:02 PM in response to Netroots Movement? Response to Bowers
Actually, the real dichotomy in blogging is between blogs which write that "Rep. So-and-so recently said x, despite his previous statement which..." and blogs that write "F**k that guy!"

Posted at January 17, 2007 8:39 AM in response to Netroots Movement? Response to Bowers
Many more can be found here.

Note that many of these people are leaders in the Republican party, then tell me again how it's the Democrats' fault.
Posted at October 5, 2006 6:46 AM in response to It's All The Liberals' Fault. Or Maybe George Soros. Yeah, That's It, George Soros