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 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/

I hate Obama Conspiracy Theories

By Cris Pace


Maybe it’s a reaction against my teen years where I was utterly infatuated with the X-files and all ideas that surrounded it, or maybe it’s because those plot lines made more sense than some of the crap I’m hearing now, but I find Obama conspiracy theories pointless and stupid.

Let’s run through some of them…

“Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”…and some men are just blithering idiots…Obama is in this latter category.

He was born in Kenya…he could have been born on Mars; it is still not a worse point than the fact that this man has not done a single thing to help improve the economy.  Yes economies go up and down on their own and Congresses and Presidents don’t have absolute control over them, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are certain things that could have been done to reduce the severity of this recession,Obama did none of them.  And even if he wasn’t eligible to run for the presidency, this absolute failure of leadership is a far greater damning point than a mere technicality.

That Barrack Obama Sr. isn’t really is his father…he could be the son of Hitler and it would still not negate the fact that every action by this president has hurt the economy.  Every thing he has done with the economy has been to hurt it in the short run and hurt it in the long run.  Now he could have done even worse things, but I don’t think he is doing it because he wants to ruin the economy, he and his people are just that dumb.  And

If only Obama wanted to earn a million dollars.

incompetence of that level should never have been let in the White House, let alone re-elected, to hell with who is parents are.

That he’s really a Muslim…he could be a Satanist, it doesn’t change the fact that in reality the only thing he really does believe in is himself.  The man has an ego that makes Caligula, Napoleon and Mao put together look humble.  He puts portraits of himself all over the White House, he puts himself in every president’s biography, he acts like he is unbeatable and he never deigns to actually talk to people in Congress.  He has written 2 biographies and he is not yet 60 or accomplished anything of value.  I don’t care what religion he professes, the only god he believes in is himself.  And while I don’t trust people with low self-esteem, megalomaniacal narcissists are even more worrisome and definitely should not be allowed into positions of power.

Every person in this picture is an idiot. Only one of them isn’t bright enough to actually leave a mark on history for good or ill. Guess which one.

That and Rev. Jeremiah Wright planned a massive socialist take over…or maybe it was a take over by blacks…or maybe by zombies for all I care…or whoever was in his past that you want to critique…none of that compares to the insanity of his current associations.  A corrupt hack as Attorney General, a jackbooted fascist as Homeland Security Secretary, an incompetent twit in HHS, a tax evading moron in Treasury, and two of the worst Supreme Court Justices ever…need I go on?  This man has an inability to surround himself with qualified people.  No president has ever possessed the experience and intelligence to know everything about every part of the government, but some presidents do possess the ability to find qualified people who, in turn, have the qualifications to run their section of the government.  Obama has failed on every point (I mean the most qualified person he has is Hillary, how sad is that?)…and this is far more important than which church he went to for years.

As dumb as he is, and as much as I loathe him, I still don’t think he rises to this level of evil.

That Obama is seeking to make the US subservient to the UN  and is going to sign treaties that will eliminate the Constitution…uh-huh…the UN and what army?  I think Obama’s idiocy on foreign policy, his stupidity in declaring the war on terror over, his supporting every Islamic government he can (not because he’s a Muslim, but because he’s an idiot who wants to not appear as being anti-Muslim…please tell me how that’s working in America’s favor), his destroying the military readiness are all more important than whoever make believe conspiracies you can think of.

That he’s really the Manchurian Candidate, planted by George Soros years ago…ummm….if he was going to make a play for absolute control, wouldn’t he have done so by now?  I mean by the time the opposition has a leader to rally around any fascist type takeover becomes near impossible.  This is kind of why most dictators quickly kill all their opposition…right now the right could unite around Romney, Ryan, Christie or a few others.  If there was a plan to take over it’s the worst plan of all time…and more importantly I think Obama’s actual disregard and ignorance of the Constitution, as shown by his fiat rule by executive order, and his gross misunderstanding of state’s rights and limited government, are far more dangerous than any supposed communist plan.

That Obama has a gay lover…oh, like I care…there have been what four maybe five presidents in the last hundred  who haven’t had a mistress or two, and it has no bearing on whether they were a good president or not.  I’d worry more about his failure to uphold his Oath of Office more than whether or not he’s upholding his wedding vows.

He’s not bright enough to plot Armageddon.

That’s he planning a takeover of the government, ruin the economy, declare permanent marshal law, suspend elections, disband Congress, a coup d’état, yaddah yaddah yaddah…this one has to be my favorite.  So I am supposed to believe that a man of unspeakable arrogance and astounding stupidity is simultaneously a villainous mastermind of such caliber that he makes Lex Luthor and Ernst Stavro Blofeld look like amateurs, that he has planned a coup and kept all the major details secret within a government so bloated and useless it can’t keep any of its departments in line.  Yeah, no contradiction there.  Or that a military that is not doing much to hide it’s abject dislike for Obama is going to sit by and let him take over…and that there is a gun for almost every man, woman and child in this country which pretty much prevents government takeover.  You know, I’ll worry more about his absolute inability to balance a budget or even recognize that the growing debt is a problem.  Obama is not a villainous mastermind bent on world conquest, he’s a buffoon well in over his head and wouldn’t know where to begin if he wanted to take over (as evidenced by his laughable campaign).

The fact of this matter is that this man’s character, intelligence and actions as president are all you need to convict him of being unfit to serve one term, let alone two.

So why is a certain part of the right so obsessed with Obama conspiracy theories and scandals when we could crucify this jackass a dozen times over on real issues.  Well I think the answer is Palin Derangement Syndrome.  Palin Derangement Syndrome?  The habit of the media to obsess about Palin to the point where they will make crap up about her when just ignoring her would be better? Yes that.  PDS is caused in fact by two things. The first one is that Palin supporters are following a dimwitted unprincipled narcissist who is good at creating a cult of personality among morons who don’t care for facts but love meaningless platitudes from a cult leader.  The second is that Obama supporters are following a dimwitted unprincipled narcissist who is good at creating a cult of personality among morons who don’t care for facts but love meaningless platitudes from a cult leader.  Both sides aren’t quite competent enough to trade in facts (for instance, liberals could have ripped Palin apart with conservatives for her saying in the VP debate that the solution to education problems was to throw more money at it, but as facts elude them they’d rather trade in questionable personal attacks)…the same applies to those who trade in conspiracy theories against Obama, they’re not the brightest bulbs in the box.  Both parties have them.  (Although you’ll notice that while they were strong enough to catapult Obama over the more qualified Clinton, they were not powerful enough to elevate their beloved Santorum.)  If you put Obama and Palin in a room and they didn’t have their cults or personality backing them, the appropriate soundtrack to this moment would be “Dueling Banjoes”…but since they do have their respective cults mindlessly following them “O Fortuna” might be a more appropriate set piece.

So they attack our Cult leader with obsessive drivel, and our idiots attack their Cult leader with obsessive drivel.

Meanwhile if we don’t want to look like a bunch of buffoons, want to win the independents, and really want Obama out of office.  Let’s be honest here, Obama has only ever won two elections.  A Senate race against Alan Keyes and a Presidential race against John McCain.  Quite frankly you could have run sock puppets against Keyes and McCain and they would have won.  We’ve got a great candidate this time, let’s not ruin it by sounding like a bunch of dimwitted Democrats more concerned with rumor and conspiracies than with reality and facts.

Focus on the issues.  Focus on the failures of the last 4 years.  Focus on Romney’s superb record of intelligence and leadership.

Focus on those three things and we win.  Focus on birth certificates and ancient friendships and outdated statements and we lose.  I’d like to win this time as we can’t afford another 4 years of this dimwitted jackass.

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

Sadly the comic book character is more 

competent than Obama