Publius' Forum http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum The Best Conservative News and Commentary on the web! Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:10:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 en WE HAVE A NEW ADDRESS!! http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/13/we-have-a-new-address/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/13/we-have-a-new-address/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:48:59 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/13/we-have-a-new-address/ PUBLIUS’ FORUM FANS

WE’VE MOVED

I am proud to announce we have gotten our own domain address. Please visit the new site and be sure and bookmark it as all new entries will be made at the new site:

http://www.publiusforum.com/

Please come on over and let’s celebrate the future of Publius Forum at the new address.

]]> http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/13/we-have-a-new-address/feed/ The Lincoln We Need http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-lincoln-we-need/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-lincoln-we-need/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:11:48 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-lincoln-we-need/ -By Warner Todd Huston

These last 20 or so years has seen a bifurcated treatment of Abraham Lincoln. There are the enthusiasts and hagiographers that still revere him as the best that America has to offer — the proverbial great emancipator, Father Abraham. Then there is a second stream, enthusiasts of another sort, viewing the Civil War president in the opposite manner. That second group are the Lincoln haters. Those such as Thomas DiLorenzo, the sort that calls Lincoln a criminal and despot, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the sort that castigates Honest Abe as an unremitting racist, have been joined by a small group of Lincoln detractors trying to convince America that Lincoln is to be discounted, even hated by history.

So, which Lincoln is the Lincoln? Is he the Lincoln of “the great emancipator” or the Lincoln of the “great despot” and which Lincoln is the one we as Americans should know?

In truth he is all and neither of the two views in current, popular memory. He is neither the vision of the Constitution destroying, negro hating man the detractors wish to foster, nor the spotless demi-god that the hagiographers want to claim as theirs. Yes he did single things that pulled out of context to the whole of the man are both racist and despotic. He was a man, flawed and imperfect to be sure, but he was also one so singularly radical and ahead of his time that I believe we should lean towards reverence as opposed to despising the 16th president.

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]]> http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-lincoln-we-need/feed/ Obama Dirt Digger’s Brand New Gig http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/obama-dirt-diggers-brand-new-gig/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/obama-dirt-diggers-brand-new-gig/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:09:28 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/obama-dirt-diggers-brand-new-gig/ -By Warner Todd Huston

Back in 2007, many media outlets and their co-conspirators on the left were aghast that George W. Bush would try to place an “opposition researcher” for the GOP into the U.S. attorney general’s office in Arkansas. In high dudgeon, these folks claimed that Bush was “politicizing” the White House counsel and pinned it all on the evil Karl Rove. Bush’s appointment was scuttled to satisfy critics. But, now Obama is doing the same thing — only in a worse form — and the same media and lefty critics are oddly silent.

Barack Obama has been fond of saying that his so-called stimulus bill has “shovel ready jobs” built into it. This would be jobs ready to go, make-work style things of little lasting worth that are reminiscent of FDR’s feels-goodism of the New Deal. Regardless of what Obama really means about any association between shovels and jobs he certainly has at least one shovel-evoking job made up of whole cloth and manned by a likely suspect. I am talking here about Obama’s new job for his dirt digger in residence, the newly minted job of “White House counsel research director.”

It’s a grand title for dirt digger, but there you have it.

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]]> http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/obama-dirt-diggers-brand-new-gig/feed/ Now You’re a Racist if you Don’t Support Unions? http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/now-youre-a-racist-if-you-dont-support-unions/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/now-youre-a-racist-if-you-dont-support-unions/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:08:00 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/now-youre-a-racist-if-you-dont-support-unions/ -By Warner Todd Huston

Union shill Ron Gettelfinger wants you to know that if you don’t support unions you are a racist. That’s right. If you don’t want the undemocratic card check bill to pass Congress you are exactly like the negro hanging, civil rights denying, Jim Crow enforcers of the 1950s.

In one of the most disgusting examples of moral equivalence I’ve seen for a long time — at least one not appearing on such low-born sites such as the DailyKos or Huffington Post — Gettelfinger committed the anti-intellectual outrage of positing that hanging black men in the 1950’s is “just like” voting against a bill that would take away the right of prospective union members to be allowed to vote their conscience in secret as all votes in a democracy are traditionally cast.

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]]> http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/now-youre-a-racist-if-you-dont-support-unions/feed/ The Value Of Propaganda http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-value-of-propaganda/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-value-of-propaganda/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:00:34 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-value-of-propaganda/ -By Dan Scott

President Obama went on the road this week to sell his supposed economic rescue bill and naturally talked up the need for the bill. What was fascinating were the Orwellian like claims he used and the stark terms of catastrophe if we don’t do as he demands. He made demonstrably false claims like there is no pork in this bill and he did so with a straight face. It seems pork is not pork if Obama says it’s not. His entire case rested on the premise, “we must do something, doing nothing is not an option.” The premise is also false since the CBO scored the bill as totally ineffective in the long run and in fact harmful to the economy as it would reduce, not increase economic output over the years of it’s implementation. President Obama would have you believe there aren’t any alternatives to the one that is on the table, a demonstrable falsehood. The GOP alternative is half the price with twice the results and even Obama’s own economic advisor admits to it.

Setting aside the reasons for President Obama’s false statements, whether that be of sheer incompetence and ignorance of economics or his willingness to say anything to sell something to which he stakes his name (ego) or if he has a hidden agenda of malice, it is the tactics in which he and his associates uses that should be at issue. Making demonstrably false claims by public officials is a violation of the public trust no matter how well intentioned (political direction) and rationalized (fear) they may be. The MSM is also complicit in supporting this never-ending stream of misstatements. Lying, misrepresenting or deceiving is not an act of Transparency.
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]]> http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/the-value-of-propaganda/feed/ Flight 93 Update http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/flight-93-update-18/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/flight-93-update-18/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:21:57 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/flight-93-update-18/ Memorial Project officials insist that it was the passengers and crew, not the terrorists, who broke the peace on 9/11

Blogburst logo, petition

The official explanation for the Crescent of Embrace design is that the path of Flight 93 breaks the circle, turning it into the giant crescent. They call it the Circle of Embrace now, but the Memorial Project’s own website acknowledges that the circle is still broken:
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]]> http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/12/flight-93-update-18/feed/ After Generations, CNN Suddenly Discovers That ‘Alaska families struggle to survive’ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/11/after-generations-cnn-suddenly-discovers-that-alaska-families-struggle-to-survive/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/11/after-generations-cnn-suddenly-discovers-that-alaska-families-struggle-to-survive/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:11:30 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/11/after-generations-cnn-suddenly-discovers-that-alaska-families-struggle-to-survive/ -By Warner Todd Huston

The winter in Alaska has been a particularly harsh one this year. The early winter piled on top of economic hard times has caused some troubles for native people and those that live in remote areas in Alaska. But this is not a new tale of woe, it IS Alaska, after all. While nothing to entirely dismiss, one wonders, why CNN suddenly found this story so compelling? Could it be that they want to portray Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as just as harsh as the winter?

Native peoples and their neighbors in Alaska have been surviving for generations in the same manner. They hunt, fish, and store foods in the summer to survive the harshness of winter, and since becoming a state, they marshal their money to buy fuel and other items brought to them by American ingenuity. Not an easy life, but a life they are used to nonetheless. It hasn’t really changed much for a long time in that remote part of the world. Yet, despite the sameness of it all, suddenly CNN finds Alaskans are “struggling to survive.”

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]]> http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/11/after-generations-cnn-suddenly-discovers-that-alaska-families-struggle-to-survive/feed/ Unions are Inherently UnAmerican — Teachers Union Rips Off Members http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/11/unions-are-inherently-unamerican-teachers-union-rips-off-members/ http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/11/unions-are-inherently-unamerican-teachers-union-rips-off-members/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:09:35 +0000 Publius http://conservablogs.com/publiusforum/2009/02/11/unions-are-inherently-unamerican-teachers-union-rips-off-members/ -By Warner Todd Huston

Imagine a fast food place that makes you buy a cheeseburger when you want a chicken sandwich. Oh, they don’t mind if you buy the chicken sandwich, too, mind you, but you are forced to purchase a cheeseburger every time you walk through the doors whether you want it or not. Seems a bit like a rip off, not to mention unAmerican, to force you to buy something you don’t want, doesn’t it? Well, this is unionism. Only unions prevent you from even having a job in your chosen profession in the first place to have the cash to buy your chicken sandwich unless you follow their rules. That’s forced labor for other’s benefit.

We used to call that a form of enslavement… now it’s called union membership.

Case in point, teachers unions and teacher’s support for California’s Proposition 8 — the sanctity of marriage law now embroiling California in such turmoil.

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