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H/T: Blogs for Hillary

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My soon to be voting age son gripes and complains that all politicians are wealthy blowhards and just once he’d like to see the average guy with a brain win the election.

The problem is - in this country, the average guy doesn’t have the money it takes to run for the White House. A recent Daily News article reveals that going into this election phase, this country could be looking at the first billion dollar race in history with a $100 million dollar enterance fee.

“Things have gotten so out of hand that Toner estimated a prospective candidate needs to raise $100 million by the end of this year just to be “taken seriously.” ~ Federal Election Commissioner Michael Toner

So, parents, stop telling your children that anyone in this country could grow up to be the Presdient of the United States - because it’s not true.

And children, start looking for other things to aspire to - - unless you’ve got the case, there’s no way you’re getting into that particular club.

Though, in this day and age of the internet - I would love a nice, moderate, reasonable, level-headed business person to come along and make a run and use the internet to gain grassroots support and PR and smash the whole ‘priviledged and monied’ private club to pieces.

Tags: white house, president, presidential election, elections, political campaigns, potus, election 2008

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How about this phrase:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…~US Constitution - Amendment 1

I’m not entirely sure that Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota is feeling the love from a religious tolerant America, especially when he let it be known that he would be carrying a copy of the Koran to his swearing in ceremony.

He caught a LOT of flack:

…conservative pundit Dennis Prager called it “an act of hubris … that undermines American civilization.”

Undermines? Allowing a citizen of this country to practice his chosen religious beliefs is undermining American civilization? Because he is Muslim? Muslims don’t follow the bible. They follow the Koran. Where is the problem here?

Further, Prager stated this on his radio talk show:

“Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.”

Take a look at the religions that follow the Bible. Is Prager suggesting that only those that practice religion taught from the Bible are the only people suited to serve in the US Government? Does this not smack of an establishment of religion? “..America is interested in only one book, The Bible…” Prager says.

I beg to differ. America is a melting pot of cultures and religions - to infer that the Bible is the ONLY book that America is interested in is ludicrous, and goes against exactly what this country stands for - - freedom. Is Prager anti-freedom?

I know if I were elected into public office - there would be no bible at my swearing in ceremony. There would be no Koran, either. There would be no piece of religious literature, whatsoever. I’m an atheist. If the American public saw fit to elect me to public office - they would have to deal with the fact that I would practice no religious traditions, period.

The people of Minnesota saw fit to elect a Muslim to office. Along with that comes the tolerance for his religious practices and beliefs. End of story.

Furthermore - in Congress, newly elected representatives are not required to place their hand on ANY book. They raise their right hands and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. No book required.

Upholding the Constitution means to support it. That means to support freedom of religion. It means upholding the principle of religious freedom for all citizens in this country.

That means allowing a Congressman to carry the Koran, if he so chooses. Period.

Some Presidents choose to be sworn into office by placing their hand on the Bible and uttering, “…so help me god”.. - but that is a matter of choice, not law. President John Quincy Adams took the oath on a law book including the Constitution. President Theodore Roosevelt didn’t use a book.

What this reflects, more than religious intolerance, is the growing anti-Muslim feelings with some citizens in this country today. From the folks that paint all Muslims with the same brush. From the close-minded individuals who cannot view the difference between the fanatical faction of Muslims (i.e. Al Qaeda) to the moderate, peaceful members of the Muslim faith.

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s we had fanatics bomb abortion clinics in the name of god and religion. Did we paint all Christians with the same brush, at the time? Should we? Of course not, silly.

So, why is Prager so afraid of religious tolerance? He voices his fears in his own words:

“I’m afraid we are becoming a diverse, secular society without any roots, and this is symbolically an example of that,” he says. “The Bible is the repository of our values, not the Constitution … and I’m asking him to honor that and include the Bible along with the Koran.“

Why should Ellison honor the Bible? It is a book he holds no belief in, doesn’t follow or teach its practices and isn’t the book of HIS religion.

What I always find very ironic about folks who begin speaking of America’s Christian roots - - I’m afraid if we look back 200 years into this country’s roots - we would find some decidedly un-Christian practices, values and beliefs.

The collective ‘we’ likes to forget those parts of our history when they speak of the values this country was founded on. We conveniently forget the genocide of American Indians, those human beings who were here first, remember? We conveniently forget the enslaving of human beings because of their skin color. We conveniently forget the burning of women at the stake because of intolerance and fear. Our country was founded on a lot of things - I don’t believe Christianity was it.

Let’s learn from our history, also let’s not sugarcoat our history or revise it to suit the picture of America we want to paint, rather than the picture of America that really is - for without understanding our history, we cannot understand today and we run the very real risk of repeating our same mistakes.

Tags: Religion, Freedom of Religion, Religious Freedom, Tolerance, Religious tolerance, Freedom, Keith Ellison, Muslim, Muslim American, Minnesota, Congreesman Keith Ellison, Dennis Prager, bible, koran, constitution, us constitution

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Basically - you have to be against abortion and against gay marriage in order to be a serious Republican candidate, according to Dick Armey:

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Abortion is a litmus test for many conservatives - and surely, if conservatives continue to remain one-issue voters, they can prepare themselves for more Democrat victories in the future. What exactly has Bush’s sterling pro-life stance gotten the party? Abortion is a personal choice.

Comparing abortion to the issues facing our national security - it’s a no brainer, for me. Of course that is easy for me to say, I’m pro choice. However, if the Republican party continues to insist on being a one issue party on the topic of abortion - they will continue to stay in the minority. There are just far more serious and urgent matters at hand in this day and age - and abortion ain’t it. Rudy’s stance on abortion is not going to hurt him - that’s my opinion.

“The check has not been deposited. The Twin Towers Fund has not accepted it.
~ Rudy Giuliani“

Rudy Giulliani does not suffer fools gladly. I was proud of him back in 2001 with they way he handled New York City, post-9/11. I was even more proud of him a month after that terrible event when he rejected a $10M gift from a Saudi Prince - donated in the name of disaster relief. After the Saudi Prince, Alwaleed, suggested that it was America’s foreign policy that led to the 9/11 attacks and offered advice to the American government that America should “re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.” - Giulliani had this to say, in response:

“To suggest that there’s a justification for [the terrorist attacks] only invites this happening in the future, it is highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous. And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism. So I think not only are those statements wrong, they’re part of the problem“

What impresses me more is how he managed to get elected twice in New York City with all the liberal media against him and how he cleaned up what was a total cesspool of a city essentially by the force of his own personality and perseverence.

I firmly believe that elections are won in the middle - which is why the Moderates and Independents broke for the Dems in this past election. While its WAY too early in this race to be choosing a horse - I’m inclined to keep my eye on Rudy and watch how his candidacy emerges. He may just be the candidate to migrate the GOP towards the middle, where it belongs - and away from the fringe where it currently sits. The road to hell is paved with the good intentions of politicians and the folks they stepped on to get there.

Call it a gut feeling - but I am of the opinion that Rudy Giuliani would be global jihad’s worst nightmare. To me, that trumps about any other issue out there today.

On a side note - - I’m just musing here a little bit - - I’m thinking of the possibilities of a Rudy Giuliani/Zell Miller run on an Independent ticket. Hey, a former GOP girl can dream, can’t she?

Related Posts in blogs

Blogs For Rudi (or is it Rudy?) - The White House, CNN and the Weekly Standard call him Rudi - The NY city gov. site and Wikipedia call him Rudy - which is it?

Run, Rudy, run! - Majikthise: Rudy winning the nomination in ‘08 would be the single biggest step towards social democracy in the US in our lifetimes.

Giuliani ‘08? - RedState: This is pretty surprising. Rudy had given all indications that we he was going to take his sweet ol’ time making a decision. Instead, he’s out of the gate, and early

Breaking: Rudy Giuliani Sets up Exploratory Committee for Possible Presidential Run - WizBang: I like Rudy Giuliani. I like Mitt Romney as well, if not more, but I’m thrilled that Rudy is seriously interested in running. He’ll make a fantastic candidate.

More Evidence That The Country Is In A Centrist Mood - Decision ‘08: Some very interesting results from a post-election poll by Newsweek:

Giuliani takes first ‘08 step..Hot On The Heals Of McCain - Right Voices: What are your thoughts on Rudy? In the Straw polls I have seen, he and Newt are in the top…

Leadership: Rudolph W. Giuliani - Through much of his tenure as mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani was a controversial figure whose personal weaknesses often overshadowed his political strengths. After September 11, however, the world focused on Giuliani’s ability to lead with courage and controlled emotion. In LEADERSHIP, Giuliani demonstrates through vivid, practical examples how he used an aggressive, hands-on management style to deal with everything from petty crime to terrorism.

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When I was finally standing in a voting booth last week with a ballot in hand I just couldn’t bring myself to vote Republican

The Libertarian Party website

Libertarianism.com - A one-stop, quick and clear introduction to the Libertarian philosophy.

The CATO Institute - a respected Libertarian think tank.

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This, from Al-Muhaji, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, “The American people have put their feet on the right path by … realizing their president’s betrayal in supporting Israel,” the terror leader said. “So they voted for something reasonable in the last elections.”

While the Democrats are partying and celebrating their victory from this past Tuesday - they should also be taking a hard look at the perception of their own party. They’ve got terrorist factions celebrating their win - what message does that send?

You’ve got some serious PR problems when you have the leader of al-Qaida in your corner, celebrating with you from the far corners of the Middle East.

Tags: terrorism, terrorist, al-qaida, iraq, iran, democrats, liberal, elections

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I needed a case of barf bags just to get through it! Who exactly did they think they were fooling?

The very same day as the Blue-Tie love fest, you’ve got this from Congressman Waxman:

“I’m going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over everything,” Waxman said Friday, three days after his party’s capture of Congress put him in line to chair the panel. “The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose.”

The man was practically drooling. Hell, I think he was drooling.

Have we learned nothing from the Clinton era? How much time wasted? How much money wasted? How trivial we must have appeared to the rest of the world as the collective “We” revelled in every single dirty detail about blow jobs in the back hallways of the White House.

The Dems have an axe to grind - we get it. We get that they want revenge. We get that they have an agenda - - we know that the next two years will be a huge waste of time during a time, that history will most likely prove, we don’t have the precious time to waste.

This time - - right here, right now.. today would be the absolute best time for the Democrats to stand up and stop the cycle of madness and partisan politics and PROVE that they really want to be the party of progress and change. Do you think it will happen? No, it won’t. The Democrats have a rare moment in time to show that they want to move forward with agendas that are BEST for this country and its people. I realize the temptation to sharpen the donkey axe on the elephant stone is great… HUGE and hard to resist - - but for crying out loud - resist already! Stop the madness!

I know - I’m optimistic. I always have been. My father once told me that was one of my best attributes and one of my greatest character flaws.

I’m not giving Bush, or his Administration a pass. This is not to say that this Administration is squeaky clean and that there aren’t issues that do need to be investigated in order to understand how and why certain things happened - however, in a day and age where you have the head of MI5, just today, revealing just how scary the terrorist threat is becoming in the West - - you have this Waxman monkey STILL musing about the controversy over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name!

Obsess, much?

Ironic that Pelosi and Reid sit in the Oval Office insisting that they are progressively looking FORWARD, when the rest of their party is looking backward, standing in a pool of self-indulgent drool.

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“A lot of people look at the Republican Congress and say the problem is they only took half measures of which McCain wanted to do in full measure,” said former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon, who worked on the 2004 campaign.

He said McCain had been a “leader for years” in those areas.

“All the relevant issues in the Congress now — spending reform, ethics reform — are issues that John McCain has been talking about for a long time,” he said.

This will be the first Presidential race in 80 years where no President, or Vice President, is running for election - the playing field is wide open.

Also on the short list (growing longer every day) is Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa.

Tags: President, White House, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, Tom Vilsack, Presidential Campaign

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