The following comes from Brian over at Plunderbund.
Inspired by Andrew Sullivan’s amusing open letter to Osama about coloring his beard, I worked up this quick photochop with the Gimp.
I would have started messing with the text on the box art, but dammit - I said this was quick.
My initial thoughts from tonight’s first post-Labor Day presidential GOP debate is that John McCain looked and sounded better than he has in years (and thus was the winner, hands down). The senator from Arizona had the spark that made him so attractive in 2000. Maybe it was the New Hampshire audience, maybe it was the underdog and falling status of his campaign, or maybe, just maybe he stopped listening to all of those folks (or more likely there’s nobody for him to listen to because he can’t pay them) and decided to stop following the script and start being himself. Whatever, he won and I hope to see what it looks like if (and when) he and FRED square off in the future.
What else?
Did anybody catch the laugh track in tonight’s audio EVERY time Ron Paul was asked a question? I couldn’t tell if it was an audience member or one of the candidates, but it was brilliant! Everytime Paul was asked a question you could strongly hear a laugh in the background. Finally, a way to qualify the weenie and his campaign.
The only other thing I have to say about tonight comes in my previous post. Mike Huckabee gets it on Iraq, I just wish somebody else would.
Just another reason why Mike Huckabee is the GOP candidate that steals every debate with his folksy way of relating his position on tough issues. When asked about whether or not we should pull our troops out of Iraq, the former Arkansas governor told a story about how as a child his mother would harp on him to be careful about what he touched while shopping at the local store, “remember if you break it, you bought it,” was what mother Huckabee would tell her son when they were in the vicinity of something costly on a store’s shelf.
Tonight in the GOP presidential debate (yes for the first time I saw something less than a CPC - Competitive Press Conference, and more of a debate) from New Hampshire that’s how Huckabee explained why the USA must stay the course Iraq. In essence. it’s our mess, and it’s our responsibility to clean it up. When Texas congressman Ron Paul challenged him by saying that it was a minority that took us into this war and it’s their responsibility not ours, Huckabeee wasted no time in knocking him down by stating that the minority was elected by the majority and thus it is our responsibility to fulfill the commitments they’ve made - that’s what being an American is all about.
Governor Huckabee’s position so closely mirrors how I feel about Iraq that he had me applauding at my TV. Wow, somebody gets it. As I said in this post:
Even though I was against the war in Iraq before it started, I’ve been a supporter of our efforts there since for one simple reason, we created this mess and it’s our responsibility to fix it. Democrats are as culpable in this quagmire as are Republicans. Both parties voted to authorize the President to go into Iraq. Nobody held a gun to their heads, they voted and he acted. Unfortunately now, nobody (except for folks like Joe Lieberman, John McCain and the President) has the stones to stick it out. And how are Joe, John and George treated by the general public? Pariahs at best, and criminals at worst. Simply because they believe it is our responsibility to clean up after ourselves.
Add Governor Huckabee to the list of those who realize it’s our responsibility to clean up after ourselves.
Go Mike Go!
Vote no on extending the Cuyahoga County Port Authority’s funding…
According to the CuyCo Board of Elections, the following issue ballot language will be associated with the port’s tax renewal levy:
CLEVELAND-CUYAHOGA COUNTY PORT AUTHORITY (1436 Precincts)
PROPOSED TAX LEVY (RENEWAL)
A renewal of an existing levy to constitute a tax for the benefit of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County
Port Authority for the purpose of providing funds necessary for the Port Authority Budget, at a rate not
exceeding 0.13 Mill for each one dollar of valuation, which amount to $0.013 for each one hundred
dollars of valuation, for five years.
No issue number has been assigned yet, but I was just thinking after the port’s brothers in arms at the Board of County Commissioners and numerous elected mayors decided that it was OK to stick us with another unaffordable sales tax increase maybe we could just cut just off the tap (or at least restrict it’s flow).
Sure I know that all of the people “in the know” will tell you that such a move would “be disasterous for economic development in our county” (yeah like stopping them from using their eminent domian authority to screw people out of their property… how’d you like your tax dollars getting pissed away on that Flats case in which hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent to try to illegally take property and in the end the owners got what they wanted, but only after a costly trial went nowhere - except into your wallets and pocketbooks).
But since idiots like me don’t know any better, well… maybe it would make them stand up and take notice that the status quo just won’t fly any more.
Thoughts?
Showing that he’s serious about seeking the U.S. Senate seat for Virginia being vacated by John Warner at the end of this term, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore took another step toward his campaign to assume Warner’s seat - today Gilmore launched his new website - the Gilmore Patriots Committee.
From the site’s welcome message:
“The Gilmore Patriots Committee (GPC) is a Virginia State Political Committee whose goals are to promote the conservative philosophy and values of the Republican Party and to support the election and re-election of Republicans to office at the state and local level.”
As always, this page’s best wishes are with the governor. Here’s hoping that he’ll soon add Senator to his list of titles.
Especially when you’re the mayor of the city in which it occurs.
Apparently to Inaction Frank Jackson - mayor of the 4th (yeah we’re number 4!) poorest city in America (which makes you rich in 90% of the rest of the world), when someone dies at the hands of another it’s seldom personal - except for yesterday. From the fishwrap:
“When reporters asked Jackson why he has devoted special attention to this murder case above others, the mayor said only that it was personal and declined to elaborate.”
The mayor’s spokeswoman later clarified that the mayor was taking personal interest in this case only because, “he happened to know the child’s mother.”
I know that I’m being overly harsh on the man who’s helped to make the most of us the least of us, and I even admit to taking the comments of his spokeswoman out of context - but I don’t care.
Every time somebody dies in this city, it’s personal to me and all of us who made the conscious decision to help this city by living here. It’s time this mayor gets a grip and brings in more cops, shows less tolerance of those who don’t obey the rules, and leads vocally as well as literally.
The leadership through aloofness and inaction must come to an end. The cheerleader of silence needs to get active and it already may be too late. Unless he does something REAL - we’re all going to be taking it more and more personally.
Today long-time U.S. Senator from Virginia John Warner announced that he will not seek another term in the upper house of the federal legislature. The announcement lends credence to the potential for a Senate campaign on the part of my former presidential favorite Jim Gilmore.
Stay tuned…
… they just move around a lot.
This from today’s CQ Politics says that none of the campaigners were willing to spend a night out on the streets of DC.
Who can blame them, they might have to use a public restroom - and you know what can happen there (especially when Senators and Congressmen are around).
My man Jim Gilmore has kept himself busy since his wise decision to step out of the GOP presidential nomination race earlier this summer. He’s been blogging at the VirginiaPatriot and criss-crossing his home state gathering support and feedback as he considers mounting a campaign should long-time Senator John Warner join many incumbent Republicans who have chosen to make this current term the last hurrah.
Now news that Gilmore (and Congressman Tom Davis who also covets the job) won’t have to wait much longer to find out if they’ll need to start raising dough and campaigning in earnest against oft-mentioned Democratic opponent Mark Warner.
Having both been governors of Virginia (the state does not allow consecutive terms by their executive) a race between Gilmore and Warner would be an interesting pairing.
h/t to Joe Amschlinger for sending over the link about the Warner announcement
