Yup, that’s “pressure” alright. Any time a republican asks anyone a question, it’s tantamount to waterboarding. *WHEW*…glad she made it out alive.

(sarcasm, in case one wondered)

“she didn’t want questions about it to “distract anyone from my qualifications and record.”

Can’t be distracted by what isn’t there.

Well, I can see what the next “big thing” will be, is telling people you’re a community organizer. It worked for Obamba, why not his distantly connected half brother?

Nobody knows who George is, he hasn’t done anything significant, but piddling stuff like that didn’t stop Obama from becoming president, so George is bound to have a best seller on his hands.

I did question my Republican-ness with the Terri Schiavo thing. I was so angry that the government came to a standstill over the very private decision her husband had made. I nearly re-registered, but then decided even when disagreeing with that one issue, I am still more of a Republican than anything else.

Honestly, a Republican candidate’s stand on abortion or gay rights isn’t enough to turn me off or on. For me, being a Republican means being responsible for myself, and in turn, I can help make my country better. I feel politicians MUST justify the expense of every dime they spend. Personally I’d love to be able to check a box at tax time that directs my funds to things I believe in—a strong, competent and well-outfitted defense, taking care of our veterans, repairing and maintaining infrastructure that benefit many people (none of this special interest crap!), securing the borders, funding medical research. I’m not for giving money to special interest crap like ACORN or the National Endowment for the Arts (if it’s not self-supporting, do we really need it?). I’m really not for socialized medicine either … having worked in health care, I am POSITIVE that government has NO PLACE deciding things for doctors and nurses! There is already too much meddling.

In my mind, being a Republican means being responsible. My belief in fiscal responsibility is what makes me a Republican. I am not hands-off enough to be a Libertarian—I like having the police around and since I’m not a criminal, I appreciate their visibility.

I could never be a politician because I did inhale in the 1970s.

I’m a law and order type (you’ll really read some interesting stuff by little old me at the Trials and Tribulations blog), and I very much believe that the federal government does need to be involved in some things (defense, roads and highways and other infrastructure) but not others (education—the needs from state-to-state are so different, there is no way a one size fits all approach works here. Best left to the individual states). Also, government is not the teat that nourishes the deadbeats!

I certainly don’t take abortion lightly but I also know there is a higher power and ultimately He will let each of us know which of our actions in this life are truly heinous enough to keep us out of Heaven.”

I’m curious to hear if you have a hard time being ‘moderate.’ I have the good fortune of being a rank-and-file Republican. The Repubs got gross & slimy and profligate about spending — which was why I (confession!) voted for Gore and Kerry after seeing how much spending was promised in W’s 2000 campaign — but in terms of what they are supposed to stand for, I’m almost embarrassed by how perfectly partisan I am. I took a questionnaire and the results indicated that I was more right-wing than 99.4% of the United States population! I’m pro-life, pro-gun, etc, etc. I just don’t mind very much if gays who are already living together feel the need to have a wedding. I also do simple math and figure out that if all the women who got abortions chose to have them, a large number would need to find homes to adopt their babies, and then you have millions of male-male and female-female couples who make loads of money and want to raise kids. So why not save babies from abortion by relaxing about the gay stuff? Other than that one issue, though, I always end up in line with the party platform.

It seems like being moderate would be harder because people like me must put so much pressure on you and lay such terrible guilt trips to get you to be what we consider ‘loyal.’ Do you ever feel like defecting to the (ahem) “other” party (which shall remain nameless)?

[I held my nose and voted against George Bush twice, simply because I hated his irresponsible spending. Now after having seen the Democratic regime in action, I realize how good Bush was compared to others!]

I’m a law and order type (you’ll really read some interesting stuff by little old me at the Trials and Tribulations blog), and I very much believe that the federal government does need to be involved in some things (defense, roads and highways and other infrastructure) but not others (education—the needs from state-to-state are so different, there is no way a one size fits all approach works here. Best left to the individual states). Also, government is not the teat that nourishes the deadbeats!

I certainly don’t take abortion lightly but I also know there is a higher power and ultimately He will let each of us know which of our actions in this life are truly heinous enough to keep us out of Heaven.

I don’t believe anyone chooses to be homosexual either. I grew up around several young men who later came out—I knew they were tormented by having to date girls long before they really understood what was happening to them and who they were. Being gay or lesbian is a difficult path, and I have yet to meet a homosexual who has tried to recruit me.

I cannot say the same things about Democrats LOL

I agree with your thoughts on McCain and Palin. Face it, those two are “just plain folk” like all of us here. No special handling, just hard work and dedication to this country. Never a sense of “what’s in it for me?” from either candidate. But that message certainly was lost …

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I am a bit random and ADD in my thoughts …

I’ve been saying for a long time that all REpubs need to do, to build a permanent majority, is stay true to their basic principles but go easy on wedge issues like gay marriage; i.e., don’t pander to groups like gays & Latinos, but don’t overtly alienate them either, and they’ll come into the tent because they are conservatives at hear.

I think if McCain & Palin had been more aggressive and exposed Obama’s basic views on budget, defense, and family values more explicitly, while showing how moderate they were on gay rights and Latino issues, they could have won the election. But these are all lessons for the next cycle.

Most Hispanics, as Sanchez points out, support border security and oppose amnesty, but they don’t like being held up as scapegoats either. Sanchez is good b/c she shows how the democrats blow a few comments from Repubs like Tancredo out of proportion.

I will check out Tom Campbell. I didn’t think of trying to encourage Leslie Sanchez to run for Lt. Governor. I wonder how people can start a buzz about them. Good thinking!

About Latino politics, you’re right, that too many Hispanic (usually Democrats) public figures try to figure out a way to get our votes by appealing to us as Hispanics, instead of speaking to us as people. On that I agree with Rush Limbaugh. There will always be some La Raza kooks who project their own issues onto white people and blame “gringos” for everything. When they show up in my classes, I take a few months to slowly wear away at them until they learn to let go of their anger and understand that white people face all the issues they face, except for racism. It’s a hard process but I do my best. I’m up against the overwhelming tide in the academy, though, of people inciting Latino students into racial extremism because it boosts enrollments and in some cases fattens their scholarship funds.

Leslie Sanchez looks like she could be a very intriguing candidate for Lt. Governor, and hopefully she would pursue the governorship eventually. Her work on the border security and immigration legislation certainly is an asset in the political climate of this state.

Not meaning to sound like a bigot, but I can easily support a candidate such as Ms. Sanchez whose attitude is she wants to serve the people—not only “her” people. Nothing bugs me more than a Hispanic candidate (or person in a leadership role) saying “I am going to help people like me.” I worked for one of those—she hired a less qualified Latina for a full-time public relations position simply because she chooses to keep Latinas around her—white people are the devil! Even though she’s American-born, she identifies herself as Salvadoran, and calls El Salvador “home.”

And face it, pretty much any Republican is a far better option than mayors Newsom, Villagrosa or (former SF mayor) Senator DiFi.

But the thing that bugs me about this writer’s tone above, is this: Who said greed is good? Who anointed David Brooks as a mainstream conservative? Who do you know that endorses a breezy lifestyle of carefree affluence and reckless consumerism?

Leftists construct the ultimate Straw Men, the Straw Man on Steroids — this compendium of everything rotten about themselves, which they project outward through fantasy. Someone I know from UW Madison had coffee with me back in January and gave me this basic shtick above, saying, “we’ve had decades of the Republican ‘greed is good’ attitude and now we need a change.” And I say, “huh”? His wealthy Marin County mom helps him out with rent on an apartment overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and he’s jaunted around the world several times over without ever feeling the need to secure a full-time job. Supposedly he’s writing books. Meanwhile, I’ve supported a family of three on one professor’s salary and I live in a tiny 2-BR in the middle of the porn capital of America, the San Fernando Valley. Yet he’s the Dem and I’m the Republican; he’s wasted thousands upon thousands of dollars, while I walk to work to save money on gas, even in LA.

This whole narrative is so darn phony! The outrage over other people profligate spending is just some neurotic atonement for their own softness of spirit, laziness, and cupidity. If they could just concede that they feel bad about their *own* spending disasters, it wouldn’t be so bad. But inevitably they project contradictory evils onto conservatives: In their fantasy world, we’re both fanatically Christian yet we’re the ones driving air-conditioned SUVs with gun racks on our way to enjoy an overpriced lobster at Sizzler’s, a lap dance, and open house for a new gated community of McMansions.

So now, in their fantasy world, we have to pay for them to get out of this mess. Only, we can’t, because they have more stuff than we do.

Obama Half Brother Working on Book

Another Obama relative has a book deal.

A memoir by George Obama, the president’s half brother and a resident of Huruma, Kenya, will be published by Simon & Schuster in January 2010. George Obama, 27, shares the same father with his famous, older half sibling, although George and Barack Obama — 20 years apart in age — did not grow up together and did not meet as children.

George is the youngest of the senior Obama’s seven children and was born six months before his father died.

Little is known about George Obama. The book, tentatively titled “Homeland” and to be written with author-journalist Damien Lewis, will tell of George Obama’s fall into crime and poverty as a teenager and his eventual embrace of community organizing — a passion shared by the president — and of advocacy for the poor, an identification so strong that he chooses to live among them.

“Even had George Obama not been our President’s half brother, his story is moving and inspirational,” David Rosenthal, Simon & Schuster publisher and executive vice president, said in a statement Sunday. “It is an object lesson in survival, selflessness and courage.”

…

Other Obama relatives are working on books, including a half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng; and the brother of first lady Michelle Obama, Craig Robinson. Duke University Press is releasing the doctoral dissertation of the president’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995.

…

http://news.aol.com/article/ob.....ook/526552