Progressives Need a Lesson in Proper Rhetorical Use (and History)

Revisionist ideas of what a 'war criminal' is usually come from the "Progressives" on the left. Typically, Liberals decry any kind of violence and hold sanctity of life holier than all else (except for freedom to abort, but that's another post). Anyone who even hints that some people, because of their actions against our country, do not deserve the judicial privileges American citizens enjoy are hounded and bothered, even at their homes. Mind you, this is not because the person has done anything illegal, they simply have voiced opinions that are not consistent with the "Progressives'" ideas of what is right.

Hyperbole and sophistry are familiar territory for Liberals. Thus it is easy for them to label any slight as a "war crime." However, when you look at the facts of a situation, you will usually see a much different perspective. For instance, this Pajamas TV video relating to the "war crime" of using nuclear weapons on Japan. The facts look at little different than those expressed by John Stewart on his comedy show.

Hat Tip - Hot Air

Understanding the Other Side

This article in the Hot Air Green Room points out some things conservative-thinking people need to keep in mind as they discuss politics with some of their left leaning friends. Of particular note is the descriptive paragraph close to the end of the essay, where the author lists the different types of Liberals and their particular motivation.

Important in all of this is the assumption the conservative "champions both the moral and practical superiority of liberty and individualism." This is opposition to liberals, who support more government "because they need to believe that someone out there knows what they're doing" (emphasis in original) and they want this person to tell them what to do.

Read the whole article.

Controlling the Discussion

As a follow up to Wednesday's discussion about how science is limited by government funding, this video looks at how the Left seeks to silence discussion or opposition to their viewpoints. We call this 'political correctness.'  

When the evidence doesn't support their views, the Left seems to fall back on "Shut up." Anthropogenic global warming in question? Shut up. Obama's bail out program isn't awesome? Shut up. Lower capital gains tax rates will bring in more revenue? Shut up.

Instead of saying shut up, I propose we have a real discussion with real evidence based on real numbers and historical facts. 

Is Anyone Really Vetting in the Obama Administration?

So, let me get this straight. Obama's last few nominations have trouble paying their taxes. Now, it's a bit more than taxes. We have a possible National Intelligence Council chief with, get this, financial ties to foreign governments.

Mind you, these are governments that really aren't friendly to the United States. My question is, why can't the Obama administration find qualified people?

Maybe the administration can't find clean people because they always associate with the wrong crowd.

Hat Tip Hot Air

The Wall Street Journal's Take on Obama

After reading this article and this article from the Wall Street Journal, it seems our fears about the Obama BS package are justified.

The first article notes that the economy has continued to slip, and even accelerated its slide, with the announcement of the new BS economic plan. Maybe that's because investors read the Congressional Budget Office report stating the stimulus doesn't spend the money fast enough to make a difference and may stunt future growth. It's enough to scare me off from buying anything new, and I live in a 2 income household.

The second article appears to be rather dry, giving statistic after statistic about how the crashing stock market means we have a 20% chance of a depression. However, the last paragraph is very telling. The author reports he believes the economy will recover "despite" the spending past, not because of it.

My big question is, who are the Democrats in Washington listening to? It's certainly not the expert economists and it's not their constituents. I'll say before what I've said in the past, the Democrats used the recession as an excuse to push through a HUGE amount of earmarked spending they know wouldn't have gotten through otherwise.

I'm so mad, I want to cuss.

Not Learning from History, Hope We Don’t Repeat It

Obama is all rhetoric and no substance. He talks a good game, mentioning words like "bipartisanship" and "job creation." Unfortunately, his actions don't follow his words. He constantly ignores history when it does not agree with his point of view.

Now he's trying to push through a bloated spending bill disguised as a stimulus package, with almost HALF of the spending happening 2 years from now or more. Spending that far out CANNOT jump start the budget. Even John McCain, who supported the first failed bailout, learned that this spending bill will not be able to dig America out. In addition, everyone knows that the new "temporary" programs put in place by this bill would become another piece of the entrenched Federal bureaucracy.

Now, if we look at what Obama wants to do to help “create jobs” in America, we will realize his policies sound very familiar. These policies include public works and more big government spending, to the tune of over $800 BILLION. In addition, it includes such stupid measures as requirements to “buy American” requirements that have caused more problems in the past than they helped.

As anyone who is a student of history can see, this didn’t work then and it won’t work now. Let's hope Obama and lawmakers realize this before it's too late.

Who Supports Hamas?

Not the people who have to live with them. These are stories of people who have been taken advantage of. Hamas was supposed to help them have a better life. Instead, Hamas uses their children, their women and their elderly as human shields against Israeli bombs.

So, who really supports Hamas. We have "intellectuals" from New York, Ireland, and other countries outside of Gaza as the main supporters. These people have absolutely no idea of the real reasons the Israelis have to strike in populated areas. As this author states, "Almost no one on the Left has any understanding of militant Islam. Their politics is a politics of gesture, where wearing a keffiyeh is cool but understanding its symbolism is too much effort even for intellectuals."

I say stop pointing fingers at the defender and point the blame with the Hamas terrorists, where it rightly belongs.

Where is their vaunted 'tolerance?'

Sad that a simple shirt can cause this kind of reaction. Of course, there are plenty of us who have seen similar reactions from these tolerant people. We could have warned her to be careful about standing out, especially when standing up to the Liberal Left. After all, these are the people who would want to overturn the vote of the majority, and are willing to use threatening tactics, even stooping to attacking an old woman, to get their message of "inclusion" across.

Maybe it's because Liberals just don't get Conservatives (10 paragraphs up from the bottom) that they have such a hard time treating Conservatives like normal people.