Right Faith thinks that the GOP will give birth to a third party in 2008:

In 2008, Republicans will be vulnerable to the attacks of fiscal and social hypocrisy while Democrats will be tied to the champions of secular progressivists. The Presidential election in 2008 will be the year of the third-party candidate.

Gone are the days of fiscal conservatism. Congressional Republican have rejected conservative economics in favor of pork and soaring deficits. They failed to make permanent the Bush tax cuts, inflation is up, and they can’t muster enough votes to cut the growth in spending from 7.3% to 7.0%. Fiscal conservatism in the Republican Party is beginning to look like a fairy tale: a long, long time ago in a land far, far away. One begins to wonder if the term “fiscal conservatism” was not so much a principled position as much as it was a stand against the Democrat-controlled purse strings for the 40 years prior to the Reagan administration.

Meanwhile, legislative leaders in the GOP are waning on issues close to the heart of social conservatives such as the marriage amendment; they are slow in rejecting embryonic stem-cell research and hate-crimes legislation. Republican leader and Virginia Representative Tom Davis manifested to social conservatives a lack of integrity by suggesting a negative political consequence to the moral issue of abortion. Regardless of his intent, to publicly consider the political consequences of morally right decisions is translated by social conservatives: “fake and unprincipled.” Political calculations were at the heart of President Bush’s stealth nomination of Harriet Meirs; social conservatives responded and it cost him dearly.

On the other hand, Democrats have pigeon-holed their agenda through the incremental placation of their wacky, far-left base over the past 5 years and, losing all touch with reality, now look like phony ideologues to the average American. It would take a revolution in the Democrat party occurring through the replacement of Dean, Durbin, Reid, Kennedy, Bayh, and Biden, for this to occur. While Hillary will have stiff competition, she will probably win the Democratic nomination; but, assuming this, not even she will be able to separate herself from, or her need for the support of, Hollywood, the ACLU, George Soros, and Michael Moore.

If Republicans lose in 2008 to Clinton, it’s not going to be because of Clinton’s moderate positions; it will be because they have alienated either fiscal or social conservatives. The primary question (pun completely intended) for Republicans to consider is which nominee eliminates the foothold of a third-party candidate?

Read more of this very insightful observation about the failings of our party to adhere to its principles. Once we stray from our basic principles we will go down in flames.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been talking about a new $50 Billion bond issue to fund infrastructure rehabilitiation in the State of California. Steve Frank of California Political News asks the question, “Can we afford it?”

“There is talk about a proposed $50 billion bond issue. The money will be spent for roads, schools, harbors, high speed transportation and water projects. Before we determine to vote for this we need to have a complete understanding of the proposal, the full impact.

In 2002 Bill Simon, the GOP nominee for Governor did a survey and found, at that time, that the minimum cost of repairing and building the California infrastructure was $180 billion. So, the $50 billion is just a stop gap measure.

For instance–I could make the $50 billion into almost $75 billion without a dime added to the $50 billion cost. Just get rid of prevailing wage and Davis-Bacon, union monopoly measures meant to pay off goons for not striking or disrupting government business. Then, as Senator Ackerman has pointed out, the high speed rail project is a worthless boondoggle. Do we really need to build a system that is not cost effective and doesn’t solve any problems, while at the same time road projects, like fixing the 101 in the south and the 50 and 80 in the north, would go a long way to helping end gridlock.

We need a coordinated plan, not one that is piecemeal. What about toll roads? School classrooms? We have more than we need. We could get class size down to 20 per class, give every teacher a 15% pay raise and still have money left over, without building another school. How? By enforcing our Federal immigration laws. In 1990, 15 years ago, LA Unified School District estimated they had 125,000 illegal aliens in the classrooms..on a base of 700,000 students. We don’t need more schools, we need law enforcement.

Political leadership needs to come to the people of California voters with a full scale program. Of course, this is only the start of the debate. I am sure the Governor and the Democrats in Sacramento know they need to promote this as a full scale program, not just throwing money to the wind, to pay off the unions–again.

The deficit this year is $7 billion with a possible $12 billion next year. We can’t afford new programs or interest on more debt. The results of the election show that politicians want to spend more money, not cut wasteful programs. And the voters bought it. That is the reality. California, with the next budget and the passage of massive bond measures will bring our economy to a halt and make us a Third World state. Nissan is about to leave California because of the high cost of living and tax policy. By leaving they won’t have to spend productive money on phony “Don’t sexually harass” training for managers. Instead the managers will have the time to build a better car and how to sell them. No wonder Nissan is leaving. Personally, I would fire any CEO that expanded in California, if they could build elsewhere.

One key fact has come out of the Special Election, the voters trust NO one in Sacramento. If the Governor and the Democrats go forward with this plan, they will have to show this is not just another payoff to special interests, that this will actually be done in a cost effective manner and that it will solve some of the problems–gridlock, law enforcement, prioritize education spending, etc.

Now is the time to speak up–write letters to the editor, call talk radio. Lets get the budget of California in order, pay off the over $50 billion debt we already have, make the current dollars go further, before we decide to spend money we don’t have.

This is FRANK DISCUSSION NOT LECTURE FOR CONSERVATIVES. This is your opportunity to be heard by the media, elected officials and activists. Do not email me with your comments. Post them directly on the web site at www.capoliticalnews.com. Go to the topic, which is in blue, click on it, go to the bottom, read the other comments and write, then post your own. Join the debate.

Thanks.

Steve Frank”

John Leo thinks we are all becoming victims. In this article he cites the ten top victim stories of 2005. Excerpt:

Children of witches are victimized by Halloween. Coming to class dressed as a witch on Halloween is a violation of “equitable schools policies,” according to the Toronto district school board. The board said it feared “traumatic shock” if children treat “the Christian sexist demonization of pagan religious beliefs as ‘fun.’ “

British Muslims are victimized by Piglet and piggy banks. Novelty pig calendars, toys, and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet have been banned in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, out of deference to Muslim sensibilities.

Students are victimized by the disappearance of low weekend prices in bars. Pressured by the University of Wisconsin and a federal campaign against binge drinking, 24 bars near the Madison campus agreed to end cut-rate weekend prices. Three students and a Minneapolis law firm failed to convince a Wisconsin circuit judge that this represented conspiracy and price fixing. But they are suing again in federal court. Legal costs to the bar owners so far: $250,000.

Read the whole article about people unwilling to assume responsibility for their lives and assuming a “victim” mentality.

WND reports that talk show host, Rusty Humphries, conducted an interview with seven gun-toting members of the Islamic terrorist group, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, led by Ala Sanakreh, the Al Aqsa leader in the area. You can read the whole interview here, but I wanted to include some excerpts to show you what these guys really believe. They are not saying this for the interviewer, they really believe this stuff:

Humphries: I have studied history and the Temple Mount … was that not built by King Herod for the Jews?

Unnamed Terrorist #1: In what period of history?

Humphries: You had the first temple built by King Solomon, the second temple built by King Herod …

Unnamed Terrorist #1: We would rather not enter into this religious debate because we can’t hurt one’s religion. Some Jews say that they were promised by God to have the state of Israel – this is nonsense, and God never promised them. They falsified history.

Humphries: So the Bible is not correct then?

Unnamed Terrorist #1: I have historical proof the Bible and the New Testament were falsified.

Humphries: I was in the City of David yesterday and went down to the water and the tunnels but does that not prove that King David existed?

Unnamed Terrorist #1: I do not know the answer, I do not know the answer.

Monica Lewinsky an Israeli agent? AIDS/homosexuality killed Arafat?

Humphries: I have heard this rumor: Jews sent Monica Lewinsky to Bill Clinton so they could run the country? True or false?

Sanakreh: Of course.

Humphries: That is true?

Sanakreh: Yes. OK.

Humphries: Did Jews send the planes to the World Trade Center to start that war against Muslims in America?

Unnamed Terrorist #2: 5,000 Israelis that were in the World Trade Center were evacuated.

Humphries: OK, so the answer to that is yes?

Unnamed Terrorist #2: Yes, and we heard that the Israelis told the U.S. that something will take place in a few hours the day of the attacks.

Humphries: Yasser Arafat died because of poisoning or natural causes?

Sanakreh: The president died of poison.

Humphries: Now I have heard that it is possible, it’s one of those things that people said, that he died of homosexuality and AIDS.

Sanakreh: This is not true! If someone says this we will cut his head!

According to an article at World Net Daily, Muslims from India have gone on an anti-Christian rampage.

They came in buses to the small village of Sangla Hill in the Nankana district of Punjab in India.

Some 2,000 organized Muslims first vandalized three churches, a nuns’ convent, two Catholic schools, the houses of a Protestant pastor and a Catholic priest, a girls’ hostel and some Christian homes, according to Asia News.

Then they burned them to the ground, while about 450 Christian families fled yesterday. They have not returned.

The Justice and Peace Commission accuses the police of “criminal negligence” because they did not intervene.

Lawrence John Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore Archdiocese and chairman of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, said “the attack seems to have been planned and organized as the attackers were brought to the site in buses and instigated to commit violence and arson. It gave our people a lot of fear and anxiety but we hope the government will do something.”

The violence began 10 a.m. Saturday and was apparently motivated by the latest blasphemy case. On Friday, a Christian, Yousaf Masih, allegedly burned some copies of the Koran and disappeared. One of his brothers, Salim Masih was arrested the day before. The Commission of Justice and Peace in Lahore ruled that the blasphemy accusations were false and stemmed from the accusers having a financial dispute with the families they accused.

Saqib Sohail Bhatti, a Christian in Sangla Hill, explained Masih is an illiterate who would not even be able to distinguish the Koran from any other book.

Muslim clerical leaders yesterday called their flocks to gather outside the Jamia Madni Masjid central mosque where they urged them to attack the Christians. In fiery speeches, the leaders provoked the mob to set to fire each and every Christian place of worship.

The angry mob started with Masih’s house and then turned on the house of his brother. Then they headed for the Presbyterian Church, setting ablaze the building, books and the house of the local pastor, Tajamal Perveiz. Then they turned on the Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit and the adjacent convent as well as the home of the Father Semson Dilawar, the parish priest.

The crowd of some 2,000 Muslims also caused severe damage to the Saint Anthony schools, destroying furniture, records, laboratories and the library.

The Church of the Salvation Army was also damaged.

A Christian member of Parliament, Akram Gill, accused police of sitting on their hands during the rampage.

He telephoned for help but got none. Anwar Sohail, who also witnessed the incidents, told Asia News that “police were there when the mob came to attack the Catholic Church but they fled away and let the protesters enter the Church.”

Hat tip: Stop the ACLU

In other news, “Twenty slain as soldiers, Muslim extremists battle in Philippines.”

As many as 20 people are believed to have been killed as fighting between soldiers and members of an Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militant group went into its third day in the southern Philippines on Sunday.

Heavy rains were hampering the military’s pursuit of members of the Abu Sayyaf on the outskirts of the town of Indanan in the southern island of Jolo, said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, who heads an anti-terror task force on the island.

Aleo said the total number of soldiers killed had risen to four, with 21 others wounded.

Intelligence reports and radio intercepts revealed that 16 Abu Sayyaf members had been killed, although soldiers had only recovered three bodies, Aleo said.

The Abu Sayyaf, a feared Muslim outlaw group, has also received extra support from additional armed guerrillas as the troops advanced, Aleo said.

Fighting broke out on Friday when Abu Sayyaf members attacked a military patrol in Indanan.

Aleo said his soldiers discovered that the rebels had been forcing residents in outlying areas to leave their homes, for an as yet unknown reason. Troops had been sent to help the forced evacuees.

The Abu Sayyaf is a group of Muslim militants who have staged various kidnapping and bombing attacks against Christians and foreigners in this largely Roman Catholic nation.

It has been linked by both Washington and Manila to the Al-Qaeda network.

Hat tip: LGF

Palestinian Demography –
Squandering US Policymakers and Taxpayers
by Yoram Ettinger
yoramtex@netvision.net.il

Grossly erroneous demographic assumptions underline US policy on the Palestinian issue and US contributions to Palestinian-related international organizations and to the Palestinian Authority.

2.5MN Palestinians reside in Gaza (1.1MN) and Judea & Samaria (1.4MN), and not 3.8MN, as contended by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). The latter is a 1998 projection, and not a tangible figure. It has been embraced by the UN, the Department of State and by the CIA without scrutiny.

Corroboration of the 2.5MN figure was concluded with the Palestinian Ministries of Health and Education, the PA Election Commission and Jordan’s Bureau of Statistics, which sharply depart from the PCBS projection. For example:

a) 325,000 Overseas Palestinians are included in the projection, according to the PCBS web site, and according to a March 1998 statement by the PCBS director.

b) 210,000 Jerusalem Arabs, who benefit from Israel’s social security, are doubly-counted (as Israeli Arabs by Israel and as West Bankers by the PA).

c) 238,000 Palestinian Babies have never been born (1997-2003), when comparing the PCBS projection to the documented births by the Palestinian Ministry of Health (from midwives to clinics and hospitals deliveries).

d) 310,000 Deduction from Projection. Rather than 236,000 projected net positive migration there was an actual 74,000 net negative migration (1997-2003).

e) 105,000 Palestinians received Israeli ID cards via marriage (since Oslo 1993) and are doubly-counted (by the PA as well).

f) The 59%:41% Jewish majority west of the Jordan River (including Gaza) is more sustainable in 2004 (systematic decline in Arab population growth) than it was in 1967 (initial rise in Arab population growth). It could be upset by a significant net positive Palestinian migration, which has not occurred since the early 1940s.

The aforementioned data, scrutinized by leading DC demographers, is based on a January 2005 study, led by Ben Zimmerman of LA, which will be shortly published (www.pademographics.com).

Jack Kelly, the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, writes an article that hits the proverbial nail on the head.

It’s harder to ignore the elephant in the living room when the elephant is setting fire to it.

The elephant in France — whose name begins with the dreaded M-word journalists dare not mention — hasn’t been allowed in the living room. He’s been locked in the shed out back.

This gives liberals an excuse to blame the rioting in France — which has finally died down after two weeks — on the standard liberal villains, poverty and racism.

But if racism is a cause of the rioting, poverty isn’t. As Theodore Dalrymple noted in a prescient article in the City Journal three years ago (“The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris”), those whom the media choose to describe as “French youths” have cell phones, cars, boom boxes, gold chains around their necks. “They enjoy a far higher standard of living than they would in the countries of their parents’ or grandparents’ origin, even if they labored there 14 hours a day.”

His article is all about the fact that liberal solutions won’t work and haven’t worked in France.

For the children of immigrants to have the same opportunities in France they do in the United States, taxes must be cut, regulations slashed, the minimum wage reduced, trade restrictions eased, labor unions weakened. But no politician in France would dare propose such remedies.

So there is a search for less controversial ones. “We are victims of our architecture,” Guillaume Permentier told the Washington Post’s Jim Hoagland, referring to the high-rise ghettos designed by the Stalinist architect Le Corbusier.

Looking everywhere but at the elephant gives liberals an illusion of control. A problem “caused” by ugly buildings can be cured by prettier buildings, with skateboard parks to calm the passions of “disaffected youths.”

The elephant isn’t really there, the media assure us. “The violence in France has not taken on religious overtones,” said The New York Times. “Islamic ideology and leaders play no role in the disturbances,” said The Washington Post.

But the “disaffected youth” shout “Allahu Akbar” as they toss Molotov cocktails into churches and synagogues. They talk of turning Paris into “Baghdad on the Seine.”(emphasis added)

He concludes his article with an insightful, cutting, but highly accurate statement:

Going up in smoke along with thousands of Peugeots are liberal illusions. Multiculturalism is social poison. Toleration of intolerance isn’t sophistication, it’s suicide. Work, not welfare, is the key to social integration. Making excuses for violence begets more violence.

We cannot corral the rampaging elephant until we see the elephant for what he is. Liberals prefer blindness.

How refreshing to have a journalist “tell it like it is.”

Read the whole article