What's the Difference Between Sarah Palin and a Terrorist?

Terrorists get better press.

Don't Change the Subject, Please

Ever since the passage of the unpopular Health Care and American Bankruptcy Bill last week, the mainstream news media have been having a case of the vapors over right-wing "violence."  While, doubtless, there are kooks in any political movement, some of us more cynical types believe this is a manufactured issue.  The Democrats want desperately to change the subject:  so, please stop talking about Congress' dragging America one giant step closer to Soviet Union-style economics, and let's talk about more pressing concerns, such as, well, those dangerously violent conservatives. And mean. And unhinged. And violent. Did we already say that? And violent.

Of course, Republican violence has apparently been a problem for some time. In this little known incident at the 2008 Democratic Party Convention in Denver, for example, anti-Democratic protesters threw bricks through the windows of charter buses -- sending some people to the hospital -- and dropped bags of sand off of overpasses and onto vehicles passing by. It seems strange nobody heard of this, doesn't it?

Well, not so strange really. It happened, alright. Except it happened not at the Democratic Convention in Denver, but at the Republican Convention in St. Paul. The protesters were not anti-Democratic, but anti-Republican. John Hinderaker writes about it here.

Funny how the narrative shapes the news, isn't it?

There's an Awful Lot of Quit in the GOP

I have been proud of the way the Republican Party has stood tall in a stiff wind and tried to block Obamacare.  So imagine my chagrin at coming across the following remark from Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas (from National Review's The Corner):

"There is non-controversial stuff here like the preexisting conditions exclusion and those sorts of things," the Texas Republican said. "Now we are not interested in repealing that. And that is frankly a distraction."

What the GOP will work to repeal, Cornyn explained, are provisions that result in "tax increases on middle class families," language that forced "an increase in the premium costs for people who have insurance now" and the "cuts to Medicare" included in the legislation.

So here's my message to Sen. Cornyn:  If you are not interested in repealing the entire bill, then I am not interested in voting for an entire Republican, nor am I interested in writing the Republican Party an entire check.  The polls show that 58% of Americans oppose this bill.  If the GOP can't turn that mandate into anything, then what good are they?  I'll stay home on the first Tuesday in November and drink martinis.  How's that for a distraction, Sen. Cornyn?

We are here today, at this tragic place in history, because too many Republicans thought they could get cozy with liberal initiatives.  America doesn't need two liberal parties; one is more than enough.

Update (3/25/2010):  I see that Sen. Cornyn got the message.  It's amazing what you can get from a Republican when you watch him constantly and have him cornered.