Now For A Few Words From The Opposition...

Well, here it is my 4th day on this Blog, and I’ve hit writers block. Actually I have a lot of things I want to write about, but since I’ve dug at my liberal friends the last couple of days – and because I don’t want this site to just be a “dump on the liberals” site (even though most of the liberal sites I read are “dump on the conservative” sites) – I want to make sure that I am fair and balanced and that I stick it to the other side as well.

Actually, that’s not a fair characterization of what I want this site to be. Most Blogs, especially political blogs, are a mixture of opinion and fact. One of my goals is to try to do my best to make sure that the facts are correct. As far as the opinions, hey, you’re on your own. And I’m going to do my best to not be hypocritical. For example, recently Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana admitted seeing a prostitute. Now if I were to say that it shouldn’t matter, that it was between two consenting adults, AND THEN somewhere down the line a Democratic Senator gets busted for the same thing – and I call for his head – then I would be a hypocrite, and I need to be called on it.

However, if I were to argue against government-run healthcare, and you were to argue for it, that would be a debate of OPINIONS. And I fully welcome any debate regarding my opinion. I will give you the best argument I have for something, you will give me the best argument against it (or vice-versa), and hopefully we can both learn from each other. Will I change your mind, or you change mine? Maybe, but probably not. However, the bottom line is that hopefully we will both be better informed.

With that said, lets give a nod to the other side of the aisle today.

A) First, a big JEER to National Review Online columnist John Derbyshire, for comments he made in an article titled “Aztlan North”. Derbyshire comment that in Storm Lake Iowa he had heard a couple of times the remark that in this little corner of rural Iowa, the student body in the schools is half Hispanic. Derbyshire commented “Say what you like, that is truly an invasion. Why on earth are we letting this happen?”

Responding to Derbyshire's post on The Corner, NRO editor Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote: "Um, Derb .... I have no idea the situation as to their immigration status, but if that population consists of legal immigrants who speak English ... I'm not moved to invasion outrage." Derbyshire replied: "I can't agree, Kathryn. Legal or illegal, this is asking for trouble," later adding, "If we must have mass immigration, can we please return to the fine old American tradition of taking people from (A) lots of different places, none of which are (B1) contiguous to our territory and (B2) make historical claims -- propagated, for instance, in their school textbooks -- on that territory?"

Now I know when discussing race issues, sometimes people say things that are, well,… clumsy. This is not one of those times. While I like the National Review, even though I don’t always agree with everything they write, this is too much. This man is an ignorant idiot, and the National Review will damage their reputation if they keep him on staff.

B) Kudos to Barack Obama for finally starting to stand up to Hillary Clinton. Readers familiar with my comments on redhogdiary.com know that I actually kind of like Obama, and I truly hopes he gets the nomination. Heck, he might even get my vote.

However, I feel that Obama, along with all of the other Democratic candidates, have let Clinton set the tone on this campaign, and they are slow to take her to task on her history and comments. Personally, if I were a candidate Clinton would be the one I would want to run against because there is so much you can use against this woman.

Anyway, Barack is FINALLY starting to stand up to Hillary. Last Friday Obama noted that when he said in July he would meet with the leaders of Iran and other countries that have strained relations with the U.S., without setting any conditions, Clinton called his stance "irresponsible and frankly naive."

Questioned Thursday by a voter in New Hampshire, Clinton said twice that she would negotiate with Iran "with no conditions." "I would engage in negotiations with Iran, with no conditions, because we don't really understand how Iran works. We think we do, from the outside, but I think that is misleading," she said.

Obama said Friday, "So I'm not sure if any of us knows exactly where she is standing on this issue. But I can tell you this _ when I am President of the United States, the American people and the world will always know where I stand."

Okay, it’s not the harshest criticism I’ve ever heard, but it’s a start. However, with less than three months to go before the Iowa Primaries, and with Clinton leading Obama 29% to 22% in Iowa (and a whopping 51% to 21% nationally) I hope it isn’t too little too late.

C) And finally, Kudos to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. You may know that Harry recently went after Rush Limbaugh for comments that were taken out of context regarding Rush’s use of the term “Phony Soldiers.” Reid claimed Rush was referring to any soldier that was critical of the war, when in fact Rush was attacking ACTUAL Phony Soldiers – people that claimed to have been in the military but weren’t.

Anyhow, Reid crafted a letter condemning Limbaugh, and said letter was signed by 41 senators (including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (hey, that may cost him that Kudos I just gave him)) and sent it to Mark Mays of Clear Channel Communications, Rush Limbaugh's syndication partner.

Well, the letter ended up in Limbaugh’s hands, and it is currently up for bid on eBay. As of this writing (9:00pm Pacific Time), it is up to 1.2 MILLION dollars. That’s right, 1.2 MILLION dollars. All of the proceeds from this sale will be donated to The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation, a registered charity which provides financial assistance to the children of fallen Marines and federal law enforcement officers.

So thank you Harry for your (not-so-direct) support of this fine organization. It is greatly appreciated.

And while I said I was going to limit my Kudos to the left side of the aisle today, let me throw a quick one out to Rush who has promised to match the winning bid. That means at least 2.4 million to The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation – and with 13 hours to go before the auction ends it could go even higher (it went up $400,000 in the last hour alone.) Hurry up and get your bid in soon.