Silver State Libertarian Leanings

I had an email conversation with Sharron Angle the other day about a property tax initiative, and she introduced me to the NVRA. They are calling themselves “The Republican Wing of the Republican Party”. I like what they have to say, many of the same values that we at NICPAC stand for. Their objectives from their website:

 To be a responsible Republican voice

To educate voters

To be a force for constructive
legislative action

To seek out and support good
Republican candidates

To review the performance
of elected officials

To sponsor conservative public forums

To increase Republican voter registration

I highly reccomend you go there and check it out.

Looks like we are down to two options for the Republican nominee, Romney and McCain. I’m not exactly excited about either, but if I had to choose, it would be Romney. From the title, you know there is a but coming right?

Well, here it is. Of all the issues that will be presented to the next president, there is one that scares the hell out of me; socialized medicine, regardless of what the democrats call it. If we assume for a minute that the dems remain in control of the both the house and senate, I am pretty certain they will draft some sort of a socialized medicine bill. To be honest, I’m scared to dealth Romney would sign it, based on his history.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of bills McCain could sign that would be ugly. I think most of the boneheaded things McCain would do would be reversable. Socialized medicine would not, at least not easily. As our history has shown, regardless of how bad an entitelment is, they never get taken away once the are given out. Correct me if you think I’m wrong here.

The incident has popped up in the news again today, and as a former Sailor, I want give some insight on Naval procedures and common practice. I will say though, as a Sailor who spent his days and nights in an engine room, I don’t have all the answers to what happens above decks in a senario like this. Here is what I do know.

There is nothing unusual about a local navy coming out to meet our ships as we travel past their waters. The process is called shadowing and it is quite common. The reason being, international waters stretch 12 miles from the shore. With current technology, at twelve miles out, missles could reasonably reach the coast in about a minute or even less. That wouldn’t give us much time to prepare for an attack. So it is very common to shaddow ships as they pass to be prepared for something of that nature before that 12 mile limit.

Here’s what is not common and cause for alarm: 

1. The initial failure to identify themselves
2. The speed with which they are approaching
3. The proximity to our vesels
4. The irratic movement
5. The threatening radio transmissions

Now again, I spent my time in the engine room so I don’t claim to be expert on exactly how this process should work, but I can give you the overview. Normally, the shadowing boats would identify themselves and their intentions immediately upon approach. They would approach in a steady and controlled fashion, and a vessel of that size would have maintained a distance that looked like a dot on the horizon. I can’t tell you how far that would be, I can just tell you what I have seen. So all of the first 4 points are cause for alarm.

Now for the 5th point. It is being reported that the threatening transmissions may be a radio prankster. I would say to the msm, they put way too much weight on the transmissions. There is no doubt the radio transmission played a roll in this incident. However, if my first four points had followed normally procedure, the radio transmissions would have seemed very out of place and would have caused much less alarm.

With the report of this incident, we are being told there have been several others like it. The liberals and the blame America first crowd are all jumping to the conclusion that the Bush administration is making a case for war since this is the first time we have heard about it. My opinion is that the report is a matter of CYA. Had those boats come much closer, we would have open fire, and rightfully so. It’s much better to start talking about it now, incase we are forced to fire at some point, rather than have to go back and talk about how many times it happened before.

If you look just one post below this, or you were at one time a reader of this blog, you will know that I have been MIA for quite some time. Without dragging my personal issues out on the web, I have been battling a sleeping disorder and have been short on the energy and motivation to blog. With about a month now on some medication, I am awake and ready to go. Enough about me.

Let’s talk about why I am supporting Fred Thompson. It can be summed up on two words. Limited government. Thompson and Ron Paul are the only two limited governement Republicans on the ticket. With Paul being a card carrying member of the “blame America first” crowd, he’s out of the question for me.

McCain can toot his limited goverment horn all day long, but McCain/Fiengold speaks louder than any words that come out of his mouth. Thompson supported McCain/Fiengold initially, now he only supports parts of it. Truthfully, that really kinda gets the bile bubbling up in the back of my throat, but I’m not a single issue voter.

McCain didn’t support the Bush Tax cuts, Romney’s stance on everything changes day to day but he raised fees in Massachusettes by $500 million,  and Huckabee raised taxes 21 times.

Thompson also happens to be the only candidate (besides Paul) that has firmly and consistently supported the second ammendment.

On issues not related to limitted government, he is the only candidate that has firmly and consistently supported an unborn child’s right to life. He was endorsed by the National Right to Life Comittee. He’s been attacked at times for stating that the final decision should be made on the state level. Some religious conservatives have their panties in a bunch over that. I know, it’s scary to think that a moral decision should be made on the state level, as the constitution intends.

Thompson is also the only candidate that opposed the Bush/McCain amnesty bill from the begining. Huckabee, Romney, and Giuliani are now dancing all around their past stances to try and look tough on immigration, but Thompson has been on tough from day one.

Finally, Thompson has the ability to communicate clearly and honestly with America, which is something this country badly needs. Vote Fred Thompson in ‘08.

Patrick Buchanan has a must read on Townhall.com today. The first part of the article talks about the Clinton/Obama spat. I really couldn’t care less about that. The second part gets to the heart of the Bush administrations diplomatic failures.

During World War II and the Cold War, FDR and Harry Truman met with Josef Stalin. Ike invited the “Butcher of Budapest” for a 10-day tour of the United States and tete-a-tete at Camp David. JFK met Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna — after he declared, “We will bury you.” Richard Nixon went to China and toasted the tyrant responsible for the deaths of thousands of GIs in Korea and greatest mass murderer of the last century, Mao Zedong.

I am currently in the process of reading the Reagan Diaries. There are many life leasons anyone could learn from a man like President Reagan. The current group of Republican politicians on any national stage should be at the top of the list. They looooove to envoke the WWRD (what would Reagan do) rhetoric, but I don’t think they really know.

During the cold war, Reagan met with Gorbachev on multilple occasions. Reagan’s strategy was never to ignore the USSR and hope they’ll go away. You see, negotiations don’t have to be nice. You can sit accross the negotiating table from the Iranian president and tell him if he doesn’t comply we’ll turn his country into a glass factory.

The other major diplomatic lesson to be learned from President Reagan is leaving your opponent a dignified way out. President Bush and our Republican legislators have forgotten how to do that. When Reagan had his opponents (be it other nations or the democrats) on the ropes, he toiled over how to allow them a face saving way out the situation. He worked hard to make sure he won the battle, but his opponents didn’t have to lose. Nobody likes to lose.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m all for calling a spade a spade. I liked President Bush’s axis of evil idea, but where was the out? Iran has really never been given a way off that list with their pride in tact.

I’m not advocating we “make nice” with our enemies that are killing our troops, but it’s really time we re-think our middle school strategies of diplomacy. “I’m not talking to you” and “say uncle” just aren’t cutting it. There is such a thing as aggressive finess.

In typical social conservative, neo-con fashion, Jim Gibbons has said that he would like to see brothels outlawed and he would sign the legislation if it crossed his desk.

First, let me say I have a serious moral objection to prostituion; which is why I don’t participate in it. What a concept right? If you don’t like something you don’t have to participate in it? I also object to in your face temptation of such an immoral act. We don’t have that problem though. We don’t have brothels in downtown Reno, Carson, Sparks, or Vegas. In fact, I can’t even tell you where a brothel is. I don’t want my kids to grow up seeing brothels on every corner thinking it’s okay to engage in. But again, we don’t have that problem.

So why, if one adult wants to drive to the boondocks to pay another adult for sex, is that any of the government’s business?

Stealing copper wire and tubing is not exactly a new crime, but with the rising cost of metal, it has become a more popular one in recent years. Now the RGJ is reporting that stealing copper has become a favorite income for meth heads.

 Part of a nationwide trend, methamphetamine addicts who steal copper wiring to sell continue to plague the Truckee Meadows and Northern Nevada, authorities said.

So what’s the DEA doing about this problem? Raiding LA cannabis clubs.

Federal agents raided 10 marijuana clinics Wednesday, the same day city leaders introduced a measure calling for an end to the crackdown on the dispensaries allowed under state law.

Outstanding. We have lunatics wacked out of their minds on a drug that steals your soul, and they are running around stealing money right out of our pockets. But those guys are pretty tough to catch. So instead, the rocket scientists at the DEA decide the most productive thing they can do with their time is chase down the sitting duck cannabis club.

So let’s see. We could either chase down theives and thugs or stop sick people from getting a plant that makes them sit at home and do nothing. I am really starting to believe the war on drugs is nothing more than a hoax to grow the size of government. These cannabis club busts are nothing more than a plaque to hang on the wall at the DEA to prove they actually do something. It still allows them to do damn near nothing cause there is not much real police work involved in busting somebody that’s listed in the phone book.

According to the RGJ Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and Richardson are coming to Nevada for a debate that’s not really a debate.

Let me say, while I understand their reasons for excluding the others, I think it’s a mistake. While their campaigns may be irrelevant, sometimes the fringe candidates are the most important ones.

Take Ron Paul for example. I don’t much like the guy and he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of winning this thing. He is, however, a very limited government kinda guy. Adding him to any debate keeps the rest of the field on their toes if they want to wear that “limited government” badge. Ron Paul forces the entire discourse of a Republican debate to move in a limited government direction.

On the Democrat side, look at Joe Biden. He put the smack down on the unrealistic cut and run stratagies from Iraq. I don’t advocate pulling out of Iraq any time soon. However, if I were forced to swallow that strategy, I would trust Biden more than any of the dems (except maybe Clinton) to get it done right. Biden occasionally adds some realizism to the unrealistic world the left lives in.

Often times the impact a candidate has on a race has less to do with the number of votes they get and more to do with how they change the debate.

PETA has said they are going to “converge” on NFL offices to demand that Vick be suspended, even though he has not yet been convicted of anything. Beautiful.

Dogfighting is a coward’s blood sport that deserves harsh punishment, no matter how famous the alleged perpetrators are

I hate to say this, but for once I actually agree with PETA’s statement above. That still doesn’t change the fact that Vick deserves a trial before he is punished. Commissioner Goodell has proven with cases like Pac Man Jones that he’s not willing to give these a guy a free pass on their behavior.

Commissioner Goodell is also determined “to exercise patience, something Duke did not do when three of its players were indicted and the school cancelled its lacrosse season.” Imagine that. Giving someone a fair trial instead of convicting them in the court of public opinion. What a novel idea.

I am quite confident, given Commissioner Goodell’s track record, he will do the right thing if Vick is found guilty. Maybe PETA needs to review the Duke case to better undestand why we have due process.

The MSM has been joyful to say the least to report weekly that Republicans are jumping ship from the President’s Iraq war strategy. What seems to be escaping the dems and the MSM is that, while some R’s are jumping ship, most aren’t advocating the cut and run strategy of the left.

With the failure to understand that, the dems have once again pushed legislation through the house to in an attempt to force the President to pull out. The entire thing is a waste of time and paper, because even if the Senate passes it, the President will veto, and it doesn’t appear they have the votes to override the veto.

So here we are. To be honest, I kinda like this loop the dems are stuck in. As long as they are obsessed with passing legislation that will be vetoed, they are not doing a real damage, like forcing amnesty down our throats.

Here’s the kicker. If the left took the time to more properly understand the position of the R’s that are breaking from the President, we make get some decent legislation. We may get some ideas on how to change direction without turning tail and running. There may be some good ideas in congress on how to help the Iraqi governement fix some of it’s corruption issues. Instead, we are stuck with most of the left stuck supporting cut and run no mater what, and many on the right supporting the same strategy that isn’t working over and over again.

We seem to be stuck in two dimensions of a very multi-dimensional issue; to continue to band our heads against a wall, or to run screaming from that wall and hand the wall a victory. When will it be time to put aside partisan politics to try to find a window or a door in that wall? There have to be more than two solutions to Iraq. Ugh. Some days I really hate politics.