Why we fight, or, I will not shrug

By Cris Pace

“Mr. Rearden,” said Francisco, his voice solemnly calm, “if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders-what would you tell him to do?”
“I . . . don’t know. What . . . could he do? What would you tell him?”

To keep doing what he knew in his heart to be right, no matter the cost, no matter the struggle.

So in amongst all the stupid idiots claiming that Romney didn’t win because he wasn’t conservative enough (yes, because his economics were more conservative than Reagan’s, his foreign policy was as conservative as Reagan’s and like Reagan he seemed to have a certain libertarian streak for social issues at the federal level…no, not conservative at all) and all the bickering over “demographics are destiny” (possibly the stupidest line I’ve ever heard), I heard a very bleak assessment by Dennis Miler:

I like a country where people bust their tuckus, and I think this country’s gone a long way towards becoming more of a European model. And I would say, once again, read the book, Amity Shlaes’ book, The Forgotten Man. If you are out there now making $45,000 a year, busting your hump, being away from your family because it’s in your hard drive to do the ‘right thing’– the ‘right thing’ changed in this country yesterday. You can get close to that from the government. And I’m telling you, when Nancy Pelosi said ‘kids take some time off, read a book, learn an instrument’ well listen it’s not always about kids, sometimes it’s about these hard working guys out there who I feel sorry for. And I would tell them, get in the hand out line, don’t get in the hand down line anymore—it doesn’t make sense.

I understand where Miller is coming from…all too well. That’s what is so disheartening about this election is that 62 million people voted to ensure that the 300 million in this nation will continue to suffer, continue to struggle, continue to lose what they have made and continue to work for what must seem to no avail. And damn them and their shortsighted grasping evil ways. They voted in a tyrant that will hurt the people of this nation and the world. And it just hurts to see that there is nothing we can do about it right now.

But Miller is wrong; the right thing did not change on Election Day.

The right thing before the election and after is to do what is right. And it will never be right to take something that has been stolen from another person. It will never be right not do everything in your power to make your life, your family’s life and the world around you better through whatever means you have.

I understand what Miller is saying, and I understand why he feels that way. But I cannot give up. It is just not in my nature. I was pretty depressed on Tuesday night and I even briefly took a longer than usual look at all those emails I get with offers to teach overseas (they were still not tempting enough). But what got me through were two things. The first was my faith in the universe that everything happens for a reason and that eventually everything will work out as it should—even if there are periods of extreme pain and suffering.

The second were two quotes.

The first was from one of my preferred British politicians, Tony Blair:

That’s what we’re fighting for. And it’s a battle worth fighting.
And I know it’s hard on America, and in some small corner of this vast country, out in Nevada or Idaho or these places I’ve never been to, but always wanted to go…
I know out there there’s a guy getting on with his life, perfectly happily, minding his own business, saying to you, the political leaders of this country, “Why me? And why us? And why America?”
And the only answer is, “Because destiny put you in this place in history, in this moment in time, and the task is yours to do.”

The quote may have originally been about the war in Iraq, but the sentiment is still true. There is right and there is wrong. There are policies that promote liberty and there are those that promote tyranny. It doesn’t matter if you want the fight or not, if the fight is there and you recognize right from wrong then “destiny put you in this place in history, in this moment in time, and the task is yours to do.”

But what if I just let some else do it?

And that’s where the second quote comes in, from one of the greatest movies ever made: Casablanca.

When asked why we fight, the character of Victor Laszlo gives the perfect answer.

Rick: Don’t you sometimes wonder if it’s worth all this? I mean what you’re fighting for.
Victor Laszlo: You might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we’ll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die.

There is right and there is wrong. Good and evil. And every step Obama has made has been in the absolute wrong direction, and I have no faith he’s going to change course. (If he did, hell I’d support him—but I’m not so stupid as to think for one second he will). And thus whatever limited power I have through this blog, through my interactions with others; I have to use to push against this man and the ideology he represents.

Capitalism.  Liberty.  The Individual.  What is Right, and Good, and True, and Just.  America.  These are things worth fighting for, regardless of whether we win or not.  The fight holds its own virtue and is never in vain, for even if we don’t win this battle, or the next, or the next we provide the groundwork for the next person to pick up where we left off.

I’m not terribly convinced I’m going to win this fight in the short run. A miracle could always happen, but only a fool bets on them. But we do what is right because it is right, not because we are assured of winning. Yes there are times to make tactical retreats (which I think everyone forgets Atlas Shrugged was supposed to be, but Rand in her ever inefficient way hammered the let them have what they want point and forgot to hammer harder the point of we need to do this to have a chance to actually win in the long run) but that does not mean give up. So despite the taunting of some trolls, and despite Miller’s depressed statement. I will still be my workaholic self, because to be anything less would not be true to myself and for me would be unethical. And I will continue to use this blog and any other means I can find to advocate for what I believe to be true. Now I’m also going to divert a lot of the energy I’ve put into the blog for the last year into other projects I have neglected…
…but I will not shrug. And I hope I am not the only one.

See more of Cris Pace at The Conservative New Ager here.............. http://conservativenewager.wordpress.com/

Romney: The Man of Near Infinite Empathy and Compassion

 By Cris Pace

Mitt does not like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point.–Ann Romney

So the continuing attacks on Romney are just getting more and more egregious.

In the last few days I’ve seen Romney called a fanatic and shameful for actually saying America should be defended and respected…and I’m apparently a fanatic for defending this belief as well. But then again apparently any defense of Romney is my “salivating” over him without using any intelligent thought. (This while the left ignores all of Obama’s flaws and slobbers over him.)

But apparently to some of those who support government any defense of the free market or American Exceptionalism is fanaticism and a call for genocide. Back here in reality it’s a defense of virtue, facts, and what works.

So just to annoy them, and I would recommend all my readers do the same in their personal lives (just for fun), let’s point out the numerous qualities that make Romney the kind of person I want to vote for.

Now I prefer intelligence and common sense in my candidates, but there seems to be a large call for a candidate with empathy. Now everyone but a sociopath* has empathy but some exude and act on it better than others***. Mitt Romney is apparently not one of these people who exudes a “I feel your pain” feeling on camera (I can however tell you from personal experience that he’s very charismatic and likable when you’re ten feet from him, but again that shouldn’t necessarily be a reason to vote for him). However, since liberals are hitting him as being a cold and vicious heathen for not exuding this empathetic claptrap on TV let’s look at his actual behavior to determine if this is a man who acts with charity and compassion to others.

This is the man who would give a struggling family $250,000 because he heard they needed help. 

This is the man who has saved a drowning family.

This is the man who shut down his company, possibly loosing thousands if not millions in the process, so that he could direct his company’s full attention on finding and saving the daughter of a friend

This is a man who gives millions in charity, giving more than what is tax deductible

A man who is so uninterested in money he gives up his salary as governor (about half a million over 4 years) and who took no salary for the work he did to save the Olympics.

A man who takes time to comfort the sick and needy, to care for those who feel they are in darkness and who need help.

And there are EVEN MORE STORIES HERE…
You know what, you can say a lot about Romney? You can say that, “Oh he has money, he can afford to be that generous”…true…but what about the people the left defends endlessly like tax evader Warren Buffett***. The fact is that he has earned his money and then does what few of us ever have the chance to do, and what few of those who have the chance ever actually do, use it to gain happiness by helping others. I guess you could claim that ALL these people are lying, but that would be fairly petty. You can claim that compassion and empathy and charity aren’t everything…I would agree, but do you really want to have an argument about intelligence and policy when your candidate is Obama?

But you can’t claim that Romney is not a man of extreme empathy, extreme compassion, and extreme charity.

Any attack on this man’s character is just silly.

*I could name some politicians, but I’ll be polite.
**I believe the word for exuding empathy is charlatan.
***If you bring up Romney’s tax returns, you’re an idiot. There is not a single iota of evidence to suggest Romney has cheated on his taxes or hid money. It is a fact on the other hand that Buffet and half the cabinet are avoiding paying their taxes.

See more of Cris Pace at The Conservative New Ager here..... 

 http://conservativenewager.wordpress.com/

Romney is going to Win–Another look at the Electoral College: A look from mid-September

By Cris Pace

I wanted to hold off on this, it’s the same look at statistics that utterly bore me, but Republicans are proving to be the biggest worriers in the world.

But I can’t entirely blame them.

You have half brained radio talk show hosts spouting doom and gloom for Romney and the Republican party without anything to back it up (Levin, Ingram, Limbaugh, Bruce…yeah I mean you guys, I know your mentally challenged boys Santorum and Newt didn’t win, but shut up, you clearly are not the voice of the future of this party, just admit it and leave).

You have CNN oversampling Democrats to give Obama a 6 point lead…of course when you correct for the skewing Romney has an 8 point lead. 

In that same poll Romney had a 14 point lead with independents. 

You have an ABC/Washington Post Poll that only gave Obama a 10 point lead with Democrats over Republicans (look at the last question on the poll).  And even with oversampling Democrats they could only come up with Obama leading Romney by 1 point.  Worse yet, Obama only has a 5 point lead among women (I’m sure if we hadn’t over sampled that lead would drop into the margin of error).

You have simple facts, like the fact that Obama couldn’t fill an entire stadium so they had to move it inside.  Which tells me that enthusiasm is down, way down.

Or the economics model that’s been right every time since 1980 predicts a Romney win. 

You have steadily worsening economic numbers.  Least of which is that Moody’s is about to downgrade us again.  Obama may try to blame the Republicans for that, but the fact is that Americans, for better or worse, believe that the buck stops in the Oval Office (and this time they would be right in blaming a president for economic disaster).

Now here are some things to consider right now.  The polls for this week will show a slight bounce, but it’s called a bounce for a reason, it will come down.  All of Obama’s bases are pissed at him for one reason or another and they are not likely to come out for him in the numbers they did in 2008.  Further you must keep in mind, as Dick Morris keeps pointing out, the undecided voters always, always, always break two-thirds for the challenger.

Now according to Rasmussen (the most accurate polling firm in 2008 ) at the height of the bounce Obama is up only by 2 points in swing states. wo points.  Two measly points is his bounce in swing states.  Here’s Rasmussen’s Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.  I hate to say this but Romney is probably not winning Pennsylvania or Colorado.  If you took those two out of the swing state category, it’s probably a tie.  At best for Obama, tie…and that’s before the undecideds break for Mitt.

Not to mention the fact that Romney has already destroyed 9 points of Obama’s lead in swing states from 2008. 

Oh and have I forgotten to mention that Obama has managed to keep this only tied when he’s been burning through cash all summer, and Romney hasn’t started to dip into that huge war chest.  Now not every undecided voter is dumb, but those who are effected by ads more than research, well they’re also an ADD kind of bunch, and they’ll be more swayed by the ads in September and October (the months Romney will have lots of cash and Obama is broke) than the ads Barry ran back in the middle of summer.

Okay so let’s go state by state.  (I’m going to skip the charts, I find them boring….I will put them in if someone has a request for them*…but I think my previous looks will tell you that I am not going off the reservation for the sake of it).

Okay according to Real Clear Politics today (9/11) the count is 221 Electoral College votes for Obama, 191 for Romney and 128 up for grabs.  The undecided states are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

So let’s get the easiest ones out of the way.  Romney is up 10 points in a Civitas poll in North Carolina and up 5 points in Rasmussen (hey, even in the ultra biased PPP Obama is up only up 1 point).  North Carolina and its 15 electoral votes will go Romney.

Obama 221-Romney 206

Virginia also has Romney up in the RCP average with a 6 point undecided, which will split Romney.  So Virginia and its 13 votes goes Romney.

Obama 221-Romney 219

If you can either just run the data pulling the undecideds to Romney or you can just ignored the skewed polls, but either way the fact is that Florida is going red.  Romney plus 29 votes

Romney 248-Obama 221

Now unless I see new data that says otherwise, I don’t think Colorado is going to the Republicans.  Same with New Hampshire and Nevada.  (Now Romney I think could win these, but I want to be somewhat conservative here).

Romney 248-Obama 240

So we’re down to Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio.

Now RCP has Obama slightly ahead in Iowa, but that’s because of two very biased polls.  The Rasmussen numbers have Romney ahead.  I trust Rasmussen more than the hacks at PPP.  Iowa goes Romney.

Romney 254-Obama 240

Now the polls, taken at the height of Obama’s bounce show Obama up in Wisconsin and Ohio. However, if you look at both the long term nature of those polls, plus biased nature of the polls that are coming in I believe both are going to Romney by a slight margin.  You can disagree but I think its Romney’s to lose.  At the moment Michigan still seems out of Romney’s reach.

Final number

Romney 282-256

Now in 2 weeks there will be a lot more polls and the bounce will be over.  I believe once that happens I’ll probably move 2-3 states into Romney’s side.

Also I’m going to predict right now a 52-53 seat majority in the Senate for the Republicans in 2013.  (Again if you really want me to break that down I will).

The fact is that this election is going to the GOP.  Pomp and circumstance won’t give people jobs…”hope and change” won’t get them off food stamp…and rank arrogance will not pay off the debt.  America can only be fooled for so long before we give up charlatans for substance.

If you are one of those Republicans who still is unsure about my analysis, then get out there and do something!  Make sure you’ve donated money and time to the campaigns you support (in fact do that even if you’re sure he’s going to win do that…I think we would all like the biggest majorities we can in the House and Senate). Talk to people you know, if you know fence sitters talk to them, take them to see 2016, reason with them and try to get them to vote Romney.  If you know die hard liberals talk to them too…I would suggest either the “the Obama faction is going to destroy your party, you need him to lose big if you’re going to ever have a comeback” approach…or if they’re in the anti-war crowd talk them into voting for Gary Johnson or do a write in for Paul.

We’re going to win.  That much I am certain of…but if you’re not you need to do everything you can to help.

* who is not a troll

See more of Cris Pace here at  The Conservative New Ager here ....................... http://conservativenewager.wordpress.com/

Highlights from Day 1 at the Republican National Convention

By Cris Pace

High points and low.

The low: That we had to start a day late.  That Paulbot threw yet another childish hissy fit (who cares they’re all liberals anyway). That a lot of our elected officials (McDonnell and Walker come to mind) are about as exciting as watching grass grow (even if they’re making sense in what they say).

The High:

Our next first lady

Gov. Christie tells it like it is

The great Mia Love

Sen Ayotte (she’s a little dull, but she’s clearly fighting off a cold)

SeeADVERTISEMENT

See more of Cris Pace here............... http://conservativenewager.wordpress.com/

A new look at the Electoral College

By Cris Pace       

So some of my conservative friends are getting worried that Romney’s chances are looking down. This is not the case. Not only is Romney up but it’s beginning to look like Romney only has to avoid making a major blunder, pick a solid VP and just tie in the debates and he will win easily (all three are pretty easy) as the person who seems to be working the hardest to get Romney elected turns out to be Obama’s mouth (with Bill Clinton coming in a close second).

But there are things that are making some conservatives nervous like the recent Bloomberg poll that shows Obama up 13 points. This is a fascinating poll if you get into the details. Unlike every other likely voter poll which shows Romney ahead or a least tied, Bloomberg exists in its own special universe where Obama is untouchable. Every expert on polling says that while Obama does well with minorities, women, those 29 and younger, the uneducated and poor, every expert (right and left) agrees that turnout of these groups will be down from their record 2008 numbers across the board. Now it’s hard to get exact numbers, but it appears the Bloomberg people seem to think that the African-American vote will increase by a point and the Hispanic vote will increase by 4 points, also the 18-29 vote will go up by about 3 points…and the rest of their “likely voter” model also looks off based on common sense but I couldn’t find accurate data to refute it…but no matter how you look at it grossly oversampling groups you know are disproportionately supporting Obama makes the entire methodology seem questionable at best. Especially when more states have Voter ID laws and are clearly the voter rolls of solidly Democratic illegal and undead voters.


Liberals are getting desperate.


Why are they getting desperate? Because the Electoral College numbers are not good for Obama.


But, but, but Obama is ahead in the Electoral College right now you say?


According to RealClearPolitics the average of their polls leave Obama with 227 votes, Romney with 170 and 147 undecided. But that’s not the whole story.

As of 6/25 (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/2012_elections_electoral_college_map.html)


As Dick Morris has been saying for months, historically the undecided vote always breaks two-to-one in favor of the challenger (Romney). So when you calculate that fact in then Romney picks up another 79 electoral votes brining Romney up to 249 votes (with another 29 votes within one point of difference)

But this still is not the complete story as these averages include registered voter polls as well as likely voter polls which we all know are biased toward Democrats. But rather than pick out all the registered voter polls I’m going to focus on three states Colorado, Missouri and Michigan and remove the registered voter polls from the Democratic polling firm PPP which is without a doubt one of the worst polling firms in existence, as I have pointed out before.




When you take out PPP’s grossly questionable numbers all three states and their 35 votes go to Romney…total of 284 votes (or 14 more than he needs).

Plus this still leaves Wisconsin, which just gave the death knell to public sector unions, within 1 point…and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan is in the lead for VP…do you think that might swing it by a 1%?

Right now this is more or less what the country would look like if the vote was held today (6/25)


Yes that still leaves it very close for Romney in a lot of states. But when you factor in the likely death of Obamacare coming up, a massive scandal that is Fast & Furious, more statements like “The private sector is doing fine” and other such implosions do you really think Obama is going to be able to raise his numbers? Do you really think Mitt’s constant, factual, and strong attacks on Obama won’t gain him some more points?


It’s not a done deal so much so that Romney can just go back to his California home and just surf for the rest of the summer…but right now the odds are in Romney’s favor and if he doesn’t drop the ball, come January, Obama will be evicted from the people’s house and real recovery can begin.

See more of Cris Pace here ....................... http://conservativenewager.wordpress.com/

Bowing to the Kremlin

Why Obama's "hot mic" diplomacy is endangering America. 

By Mitt Romney

Sometimes it's the unguarded moments that are the most revealing of all. President Obama just had such a moment at the summit in South Korea. "This is my last election," Obama told Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, in an exchange that was inadvertently picked up by microphones. "After my election I have more flexibility."

 But flexibility to do what? The president mentioned missile defense to Medvedev as one area where the Kremlin should expect more flexibility. This is alarming. 

It is not an accident that Mr. Medvedev is now busy attacking me. The Russians clearly prefer to do business with the current incumbent of the White House.

And it is not hard to understand why. The record shows that President Obama has already been pliant on missile defense and other areas of nuclear security. Without extracting meaningful concessions from Russia, he abandoned our missile defense sites in Poland. He granted Russia new limits on our nuclear arsenal. He capitulated to Russia's demand that a United Nations resolution on the Iranian nuclear-weapons program exclude crippling sanctions.

Moscow has rewarded these gifts with nothing but obstructionism at the United Nations on a whole raft of issues. It has continued to arm the regime of Syria's vicious dictator and blocked multilateral efforts to stop the ongoing carnage there. Across the board, it has been a thorn in our side on questions vital to America's national security. For three years, the sum total of President Obama's policy toward Russia has been: "We give, Russia gets."

Russian intransigence has elicited no push-back from the White House. Indeed, as the conversation in South Korea shows, President Obama appears determined to ingratiate himself with the Kremlin. This, unfortunately, seems to be the real meaning of his "reset" policy. An outstanding example is the personal phone call that Barack Obama made to Vladimir Putin from Air Force One congratulating the Russian leader on his election as Russia's next president.

The call followed a declaration from the State Department that "the United States congratulates the Russian people on the completion of the Presidential elections." Given that the Russian elections were widely seen to have been compromised by fraud and intimidation, these words made a mockery of America's commitment to democracy and human rights. They undercut all those in Russia who are risking so much to struggle for the universal rights that we ourselves enjoy. They are a shameful betrayal of our country's first principles.

President Obama's conversation with Dmitry Medvedev raises questions not only about his policy toward Russia, but his entire foreign policy.

Would post-election "flexibility" lead him to reach out once again to the Iranian regime
"without preconditions"? Would it lead him to resume pressuring Israel into making unilateral concessions to the Palestinians? Would it permit him to take an even softer line, if that is imaginable, toward the authoritarian regimes of the Castro brothers and Hugo Chávez? Would he further shrink our Navy and Air Force below the already-too-low force numbers currently planned? Would he pour more money into United Nations bodies that have recognized a Palestinian state and seem to spend an inordinate amount of their time and energy denouncing Israel?

In a self-governing country like ours, the people have a right to know what kinds of decisions are being taken in their name. The American people deserve candor. They also deserve a foreign policy founded upon our enduring principles and a recognition of our exceptional place in the world.

That is not what they are getting now. Unfortunately, what they are getting is a sad replay of Jimmy Carter's bungling at a moment when the United States needs the backbone and courage of a Ronald Reagan. In his dealings with the Kremlin, as in his dealings with the rest of the world, President Obama has demonstrated breathtaking weakness -- and given the word "flexibility" a new and ominous meaning.