PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag democrats

While Democrats and Republicans on the Hill continue their “Yeah but now I’m against it” routine, Texas Congressman Ron Paul doesn’t have to issue any apologies. He was always against the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and he’s running for president. ()() This time he's running as a Republican.

Don't Be MIA on Election Day You might not be in the military, but you can certainly still fight for freedom, right here on our own shores. How? By voting! With the culture wars at full tilt, it is somewhat surprising that expected voter turn out is forecasted as low as 35 percent. This is particularly troubling since Democrats only need to pick up six seats to gain a majority in the 100-seat Senate. They need only 15 seats out of the 435-seat House to achieve their first majority since being swept out of power in 1994. To not vote is simply a vote for the opposition. As British statesman Edmund Burke once said, ''Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.''

Democrats can't not be crazy. They will instantly set to work enacting a national gay-marriage law, impeachment hearings, slavery reparations and a series of new federal felonies for abortion clinic protesters. The only way to get Democrats to focus on terrorists would be to convince them that the terrorists are interfering with a woman's right to choose or that commercial jetliners exploding in midair are a threat to America's wetlands.

As a national uproar continues over comments by Sen. John Kerry suggesting American troops were lazy and not bright, President Bush is hammering Kerry and fellow Democrats for their lack of strategy for winning the war in Iraq, while troops themselves are mocking Kerry. In a photo circulating the Internet today, soldiers were shown holding a banner with intentional misspellings reading: "Halp Us Jon Carry – We R Stuck Hear N Irak."

It couldn't be a more bizarre political scene; just look at the various positions being taken. The Democrats are howling, demanding the head of a gay Republican congressman on a platter – together with everyone else's in the Republican leadership. The congressman, Mark Foley, checked himself into a rehab clinic, and soon the Democrats were hotly denying that Foley had an addiction problem, noting that nobody ever saw him drink. I am certainly not defending Foley. I would be calling for his head even without the allegations the boy was underage. But the whole specter of the Democrats demanding the heads of the Republican leadership over moral issues that the Democrats defend as a matter of policy is, to say the least, bizarre. Maybe otherworldly in the depth and breadth of their hypocrisy.

At least liberals are finally exhibiting a moral compass about something. I am sure that they'd be equally outraged if Rep. Mark Foley were a Democrat. The object lesson of Foley's inappropriate e-mails to male pages is that when a Republican congressman is caught in a sex scandal, he immediately resigns and crawls off into a hole in abject embarrassment. Democrats get snippy. Foley didn't claim he was the victim of a "witch hunt." He didn't whine that he was a put-upon "gay American." He didn't stay in Congress and haughtily rebuke his critics. He didn't run for re-election. He certainly didn't claim he was "saving the Constitution."

The Democrats finally have their issue. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned his seat in the House of Representatives on Friday, September 29, after news leaked that he had sexually harassed an underage male Congressional page. Foley repeatedly e-mailed and instant messaged the page, revoltingly asking him to undress, to measure his genitals with a ruler, to list details regarding frequency and method of masturbation, and to tell Foley when he was aroused. "[I'd] love to slip [your shorts] off you and [grab] the one-eyed snake," Foley messaged the teen.

Democrats don't oppose the war on terrorism because they hate Bush: They hate Bush because he is fighting the war on terrorism. They would hate him for fighting terrorists even if he had a "D" after his name. They would hate Bernie Sanders if he were fighting a war on terrorism. In the past three decades, there have been more legitimate sightings of Bigfoot than of "Scoop Jackson Democrats."

Senate Democrats late Thursday refused to accept a bill raising the nation's minimum wage because the bill also would have eliminated the "death tax" on estates up to $5 million. Republicans needed 60 votes to cut off debate and bring the bill to a vote -- but in the end, they managed to muster only 56 votes. Furious Democrats called it "sham" legislation and they accused Republicans of "trickery."

In July of 2004, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) wrote to UNC-Chapel Hill, explaining for the second time in less than two years that constitutionally protected freedom of association is meaningless if a group cannot exclude people who do not share the beliefs of the group. This is both basic common sense and clearly established law. The College Democrats can exclude Republicans, the college environmental club can exclude students who hate environmentalism, and the college chess club can exclude members who hate the game and wish to see it abolished. In other words, if you form a group in order to express commonly held ideas or ideals, of course you can exclude those who disagree.

I would be more interested in what the Democrats had to say about high gas prices if these were not the same people who refused to let us drill for oil in Alaska, imposed massive restrictions on building new refineries, and who shut down the development of nuclear power in this country decades ago. But it's too much having to watch Democrats wail about the awful calamity to poor working families of having to pay high gas prices.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leading critic in Congress of open borders, blasted the decision today by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to compromise on immigration reform and offer the possibility of citizenship to an estimated 10 million people who entered the country illegally through 2004.

Critics of the Bush administration have promoted video of an Aug. 28, 2005, teleconference between emergency management officials and the president as proof that the White House was warned that levees around New Orleans would likely fail against Hurricane Katrina. But a closer examination of the recording and transcript shows no mention that the Crescent City's levees would be breached.

The hissy fit thrown by the national media appears to be working. Just like spoiled children, the media’s temper tantrum over the lack of information flowing directly to them regarding Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident has now started to yield results. Democrats, media members, and even some Republicans are beginning to criticize the vice president. Get real! Iran is enriching uranium, and the only concern in Washington appears to be the hurt feelings of left-wing journalists.

Liberal Democrats waged an eleventh-hour attempt Monday to block Samuel Alito's Supreme Court confirmation, arguing that he would tilt the high court further to the right.

Kennedy was the architect of an unprecedented tactic: using filibusters to polarize the Senate along party lines thus denying the confirmation of qualified conservative judges. In Bush's first term the Senate Democrats used that tactic successfully against at least 10 nominees for judgeships on circuit courts.

The Democrats are trying to "reframe" their message to make people think they believe abortion is wrong. I think this is going to be a hard sell if they plan to continue ferociously defending abortion-on-demand right up until the moment the baby's head is through the birth canal.

Democrats opposed the Abolitionist. Democrats supported slavery and fought and gave their lives to expand it. Democrats supported and passed the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 & 1854. Democrats supported and passed the Missouri Compromise to protect slavery. Democrats supported and passed the Kansas Nebraska Act to expand slavery.

Were Americans to be honestly polled about which national issues they consider to be of primary importance to the future of the country, terrorism, illegal immigration, and private property rights would likely rank at the top. And on at least two of these issues, the official stances of Republicans and Democrats cannot be contrasted more starkly. As usual, the Democrats are on the wrong side.

If there is one thing to be learned from the confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court, it’s that liberal Democrats will waste no opportunity to grandstand for their far left-wing even if that means being misleading with the facts, unprofessional with the questioning, and hypocritical with the insinuations. Case in point is liberal moonbat Ted Kennedy who blasted Judge Alito for being a member of an “exclusive” club of Princeton alumni without mentioning that he is a member of an “exclusive” all-male Harvard club.

Abramoff is described as a "GOP-connected lobbyist" even though Harry Reid (D-Nevada), the highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Congress, has been implicated in the brewing scandal. Other Democrats, including Tom Daschle, Bryon Dorgan, and Dick Gebhart, appear to have enhanced cash-flow positions as a result of relationships with the disgraced Abramoff.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said yesterday that almost all Senate Democrats have accepted money from scandal-plagued lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his associates or his Indian tribe clients. "I think Democrats might want to be a little bit careful before they start pointing fingers," said Sean Spicer, spokesman for the House Republican Conference. "This is something that has ensnared both parties."

Congress can't usurp the president's power to spy on America's enemies. In the continuing saga of the surveillance "scandal," with some congressional Democrats denouncing President Bush as a lawbreaker and even suggesting that impeachment hearings may be in order, it is important to step back and put things in historical context. First of all, the Founding Fathers knew from experience that Congress could not keep secrets. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin and his four colleagues on the Committee of Secret Correspondence unanimously concluded that they could not tell the Continental Congress about covert assistance being provided by France to the American Revolution, because "we find by fatal experience that Congress consists of too many members to keep secrets."

So apparently Bush authorized the NSA to listen in on phone calls to and from numbers with known terrorists ties. Great. It was about time. Why is this controversial? I come home and the Democrats and the press are acting like Bush declared himself dictator-for-life and had Alan Dershowitz publicly executed. This episode got me thinking, and in the spirit of the year-in-review round-ups everyone likes to do in December, I would like to present: Media Manufactured Scandals — the Year that Was:

Prepare your mind and body for a trip into the Twilight Zone. Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives said yesterday that the Democrats will offer no unified position on Iraq in 2006. Despite claims by Democrats and the media that the Bush administration has no plan, Pelosi said that differing opinions within her party regarding Iraq are “a sign of strength.”