Tribute to President Reagan

Razor Sharp Claws has links to a great collection of Reagan's speeches from throughout his political career. He inherited the presidency from a president who let Americans stay hostage to a radical, lunatic country for more than a year and gave us a recession with double digit inflation (I remember when home loans were at 14%).

The hostages were freed at the very beginning of Reagan's presidency. This was almost surely due to fear on the Iranian's part that this president would actually do something about it. Subsequently, inflation was brought under control. However, the most important achievement was the defeat of Soviet and eastern European communism. Some may say that the cost of this was too high, but in the long run we came out of it into an economic boom that lasted until the end of the 20th century. Reagan's presidency set the stage for prosperity of the 90's and I truly believe we would have experienced this boom under almost any subsequent president.

Bill Clinton reversed many of Reagan's policies, ignored the terrorist attacks that occurred under his administration, and left us weak when the un-ignorable 9/11 attack occurred. Neither George H. W. Bush or Bill Clinton had the resolve to fight terrorism head on as President George W. Bush has.

Pray that we have the strength to stay the course this time.

The Latest Poll

Soon to be announced all over the liberal, mainstream media, the latest MSNBC live poll shows that 86% of people polled think the President should be impeached. Of course, the poll is self-described as "un-scientific" and the questions are unbelievably biased, but -- what the hell -- it's a poll, so it must be true.

Other polls don't seem to jive with this. The President's approval rating has been improving steadily towards 50% (from low of 39%) even as these supposedly earth shattering revelations have been coming to light. Most people in the U.S. have nothing to hide, don't make international calls to suspected terrorists, and are glad that we haven't had any more attacks since 9/11.

I personally, don't feel that either my rights and my privacy have been violated. Anyone who thinks things are that horrible here should move elsewhere. I've noticed that none of the celebrities who said they would leave if Bush got elected, actually did. They probably realized that other countries do a lot more spying on their own citizens than the U.S.

For the pessimists out there: Lighten up, think about the positives once in a while and...

Have a Happy New Year!

A Potential New Republican?

Fox News reports Disgruntled Dems Consider Challenge to Lieberman. Maybe it's time for Joe Lieberman to switch parties. Overall, he would probably make a better Republican than, say, Olympia Snowe or maybe even John McCain.

Passions flared after Lieberman's recent trip to Iraq. Upon his return, the three-term senator pointed to what he views as progress on the ground there and suggested that Democrats should avoid harsh criticisms of President Bush's Iraq policy.

What a delicious thought: Not only a leading Democratic Senator, but an former vice presidential candidate to boot moving to the Republican side of the aisle.

Is Asia beating the U.S. in the engineering race?

Recent news stories would indicate that China and India are graduating many more engineers than America is. Stories suggest that they will soon pass us by and turn us into a 3rd world economy. However, in a recent report in the Christian Science Monitor is discussed by Brian Schwarz of The American Thinker.

In The "engineering gap" we see that numbers as commonly reported are misleading. China includes 2 and 3 year degrees (it took me five) and also includes occupations, such as auto mechanics, that aren't even close to being considered engineering in the United States. My apologies to any mechanics reading this; my cars wouldn't run without you!

And in India, I've read several stories elsewhere (sorry, no links) that indicate that they are beginning to have a talent crunch of their own and that it won't be too many years before their salaries rival those in America. At that point talent and innovation (whoever's) will win out -- as it should in the free market.

For now, the U.S. is still the leading technology innovator in the world. And despite the disparities in the numbers, American born and trained engineers have that good ol' Yankee spirit of independence and innovation that should keep us out front for years to come.

All it takes is magic...

Paul at Power Line discusses the "magic" (follow this link) that the Democrats seem to think is all that's necessary to make everything in the world perfect. Key "spells" for success include higher taxes and more regulations to improve the economy and total appeasement of terrorists to save us from their hate and more attacks.

Maybe Santa Claus can leave it under the christmas tree for them. Oops. No, these are politically incorrect Christian symbols... better luck next year.

Progress in Iraq... election congratulations

Flash report to the media and doubting liberals: It looks like it's working!

Here's the comment I made to the IRAQ THE MODEL comment section on Mohammed's recent upbeat post about the events and mood following the most recent elections:

Mohammed,

The turnout and apparent results are very encouraging. You have every right to be proud and to enjoy fruits of what appears to be another successful step on Iraq’s road to democracy. The publicly stated willingness to work together by some who had
previously demanded, “I want it all my way” is a sign of maturity that is sadly lacking in many of the public figures here in the USA.

So far, the sacrifices of ALL who have worked and fought for your chance at a new beginning should feel that it has been worth it. There is much hard work left before anyone can claim complete success, but as I said at the beginning it is very encouraging.

It may not all work out quite as well as we hope; -- it seldom does in the real world -- but I am optimistic. Throughout history evil, tyranny, and oppression have lost in the long run. They serve no moral or social good, serving only the greed and cruelty of the oppressors. For those who would lump America in this category, I can only say “Step back for a moment from your ideology and take an objective look at American history”. It’s certainly not all rosy and good, but in sum, the good far outweighs the
bad.

Best wishes!
Mr. dcat

It's getting tougher for Democrats and the media to excuse all their negativity as the real news from Iraq gets better and better!

Who’s Guilty Of Worse Crimes?

If you watch or read most the mainstream media, they would rather hang Representative Tom DeLay for alleged campaign finance irregularities than Saddam Hussein for mass murder, torture, and more general crimes against humanity than just about anyone since Hitler. See Michelle Malkin for a summary of the first day media coverage of Saddam’s trial.

How anyone can seriously characterize Saddam Hussein as a victim, is beyond me. But a lot of people seem to be very worried about his rights. I don’t see how anybody can seriously care about his rights when he denied so many people theirs.

At the same time, you can tell by the tone of the coverage of Tom DeLay’s indictment, the New York Times & Co. would love nothing better to see him hanged.

It’s amazing that the liberals and media don’t see the blatancy of their own hypocracy. Eventually the American people are going to notice (if they haven’t already) who the liberal’s and media’s “heros” are.

Earthquake! Who will help?

A devastating earthquake hit Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan Saturday. Over 20,000 people are already reported dead in Pakistan. President Bush has already personally offered American assistance and money to help in the recovery from this horrible disaster. Before long, major web sites will be posting links on how we can donate in the relief effort and once again the American people will step up and make personal donations to the Red Cross and other relief agencies.

Other countries will give also, of course... And I congratulate them on their generosity. But, it will be the United States and the American people who lead the way. I haven't seen the statistics, but I'd be willing to bet that private citizens in America gave more of their own money to help after last December's tsunami than most (if not all) governments outside our own.

We don't do it out of guilt. We don't do for personal gain. We do it because we know that helping others in their time of need is the right thing to do.

The Democratic Party: Are They Still Americans?

Former President Clinton has broken with tradition and openly criticized his successor, President George W. Bush on multiply fronts. See Power Line. This is a sad day for America, but it has been growing since President Bush’s first victory against Al Gore. The Democratic Party would rather see the United States humiliated and ridiculed under a Republican president than succeed at home and in the world in general.

The hypocrisy of their position on Iraq has always galled me (if a Democrat had done it, they and the media would be praising every success). The people of Iraq lived for more than 30 years under a murderous, terrorist supporting dictator; and to claim that we shouldn’t have ousted and ultimately captured Saddam simply because we never found 50 tons of nerve gas or some other WMDs is petty beyond belief.

Democrats presume to compare Iraq to Vietnam. This is absurd! The war in Vietnam was a purported effort to stem the rise of Communism. The North Vietnamese were fully supported, supplied, and financed by the U.S.S.R and the Chinese Communists. It began, and was escalated by the way, under two Democratic administrations (Kennedy and Johnson). The continuation of the war in Iraq (and most of the ongoing destruction) is being supported by dictatorial states (Syria, Iran, etc) and nationless terrorists (Al-Queda).

Democrats (and the mainstream media) fault the President for what hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans as if he commanded the hurricane’s very creation and path. The fact that local authorities at both the local and state level ignored his pleas for action is of little consequence in their minds. They would blame the recent tsunami on him too, if they could figure out how.

How anyone can hold their head up and claim to be proud to be a Democrat in light of all this is beyond me.

Slow Learner

Tuesday the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, finally authorized the forced evacuation of remaining citizens from the waterlogged city. This was the course of action that the President urged both the mayor and the governor of Louisiana before Katrina hit.

Better late than never, I guess. If they hurry, maybe they can get the people out before they get the water out.