Blue Collar Muse

In 218 BC, Hannibal took on Rome with cutting edge tech, including elephants.

Today, “elephants” are large, slow moving, easy, tempting targets.

Why, then, try to salvage the GOP?

The GOP and G.W.Bush claim to be Conservative. But the gap between GOP and Liberals is narrowing considerably.

Record deficits, increasing Government employment, Government bailouts resulting from bad Government policies without any Government hearings during a Lame Duck administration are NOT Conservative.

These things appall Conservatives but both McCain and Obama approve of recent Government bailouts. How is this change or maverick?

McCain promised no more bailouts not all that long ago.  But he’s supporting AIG, carmakers and more?  Big Gov vs Bigger Govt is not a good choice.

Doing bad things like the other guys - just slower and not as egregiously! This is a lousy platform for GOP candidates.

There are other options.  And it’s me, Bob Barr!  I will not be apart of the Bizarro world tactics and policies of GOP in Washington.

In Superman’s Bizarro world, everything was opposites.  Up was down, in was out - weird!  But this is the policy of the GOP today.

For instance, buying up bad mortgages with taxpayer dollars is what got us in trouble in the first place. Why do it again?

We need MORE regulation?  The most regulated arena of the Economy IS investments.  That failed and we need MORE regulation to fix it?

Strip away the self congratulatory rhetoric and we find, increased spending, more regulation, less transparency from the GOP.

But at the end of the day, if GOP is elected, it will be a victory of the status quo.  Turning to the guys who broke it and trusting them to fix themselves.

If we don’t stop it this election cycle, we may not have another chance to fix it.

Regarding Obama SCOTUS picks as reason to reject Barr and vote for McCain BB asks what about other great GOP picks like Souter?

Plus, McCain bills self as a maverick, outside the fold.  After McCain-Feingold would JM appoint Justices to overturn his signature legislation?

Perot got huge numbers of votes but not a single electoral vote. He still moved the GOP to the Right.

Much of the later legislative successes of the Right depended on Perot’s influence on the process by running even without winning.

Participation in campaign debates is not about message and voter information. Even inclusion of Perot was more about control of race, not information.

Popularity: 43% [?]

If you’ve ever loved a list of quotes that rocks your world with the philosophy it espouses but breaks your heart with the shortness of its length, despair no longer. Eric Odom has put together The Ultimate Libertarian Quote List at his blog. Or as I’m sure it will come to be known in the years ahead, the MOALQ.

My favorite (about half way down the list) is from P. J. O’Rourke,

We’re told cars are wasteful. Wasteful of what? Oil did a lot of good sitting in the ground for millions of years. We’re told cars should be replaced with mass transportation. But it’s hard to reach the drive through window at McDonald’s from a speeding train. And we’re told cars cause pollution. A hundred years ago city streets were ankle deep in horse excrement. What kind of pollution do you want? Would you rather die of cancer at eighty or typhoid fever at nine?

Take a half hour and enjoy the rest of the quotes.

Blue

Popularity: 25% [?]