Conservative Commentary Evolves - Click The Link!

Evolution is a political debate of its own. However, in real life things evolve and hopefully it is always for better. Conservative Commentary has evolved into a new partnership and a new focus.

I started this blog a couple of years ago...I guess almost three years, as an online journal of sorts and a place to discuss things politic. As the opening header says it was never a place for action or scholarly discussions. It was an open forum to express opinions. Sometimes those were researched, most were not, but it was my escape from the news cycle.

I should thank many people for keeping me company here. Many are no longer around, some stop in occasionally, and some have just plain dropped off the radar.

The Beltway Bastard: A good friend in blogland, and he has disappeared from the web. If you read this then I expect an email.

Nicho: One of the first people who found us here, and he got frustrated with what he percieved as a party line. Nicho, I wish you well.

Jenn: More about Jenn later. But she is one who kept me posting when I didn't feel like it because I signed on to check her place and then, since I was signed in, might as well make a fool of myself.

Rockync and Swampcracker and Ecophotos: I know where all three of them are, but they have engaged in being good sports here and have kept me company with some interesting discussions.

There are others I have forgotten for the moment, and others with whom I still converse.

I mentioned evolution, and more about Jenn. An idea that has tickled the brain housing group for a while has finally transpired. In the days leading to the Presidential election of '08, I realized that I was bored with blogging and needed something fresh. After the election, and having visited a new friends blog, I decided to act on my old idea. I sent Jenn an email, proposed a joint effort, and she said yes! So the next day we worked together to get it set up, and with her magic we published the blog the very next morning. That was only six days ago and things are working out well! This collaboarative effort has turned into more than we originally talked about, and now we have a team of four bloggers, and something much different than my blog here - a mission! It is more mature, more focused, more informational, and the quality of writing is far better than you will find here.

Thank you friends, for you visits and discussions over the years. If you are a regular I know you have already moved to the new house, but if not, go right now to Conservativeconvictions.blogspot.com.

Help us out and tell your friends, subscribe to it, email it, and visit often and post often. We want voices....voices sounding off as one to get a message across.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

My Fellow Americans,

I come to you today as an agent of change. This past Tuesday America spoke loudly for change. And made histopry in doing so. Forget the politics for a few moments. Sometimes change is good, sometimes bad. Sometimes we resist change just because it is different. Sometimes we welcome it because it is exciting. In these uncertain times we need change that gives us confidence! We need change that allows us to forge a resolve in the fires of strength and wisdom, certainty of purpose and an understanding of the world in which we live.

I have also called for change within the GOP, although it isn’t a new cry from me as I have been doing it for years. America wants change, and so they shall have it. Conservative Commentary has long been dedicated to speaking from the conservative perspective. I am happy to announce an exciting change in the blogosphere, and it is a change that will pave the way for a new conservative movement within the GOP.

Conservative Commentary has always been my place to talk about the things that interest me. Politics, Auburn football, my kids….but today we begin a new era! Beginning today, while not reaching my hand across the aisle, I have reached out the hand of friendship to begin a new partnership.

Jenn, the Conservative Chic who resides in the Palace For A Princess, and I have formed a partnership and today begin a joint effort in a new place dedicated to defining and demanding a return to conservative principles in the Grand Old Party.

Our new place is Conservative Convictions, and can be found at .www.conservativeconvictions.blogspot.com If you have bookmarked either of our blogs, please add this new combined blog to your list.

I have followed Jenn since her first day in the blogworld and have always enjoyed reading her work and pondering her pespective. She writes from a very personal view and exhibits a great deal of passion in writing about those things that capture her attention and imagination. We have communicated directly over the past couple of years and between us there is a natural connection, commonality of thought, similarity in family, and in our discussion about this effort everything fell into place in a short time.

So change is here! I hope that you will find this a place of great interest, good debate, friendship, and solid conservatism. As always, your contributions as encouraged and welcomed regardless of where you sit on the political line! As we move forward, there will be modifications and changes as we work through small details, but drop in often!

Jenn will retain her blog at Palace For A Princess.

BIG NEWS COMING SOON!

There is some exciting news for Conservative Commentary, and I am thrilled to make an announcement very soon....working out some details....Stay tuned!

What Now?

Before I begin my diatribe against the GOP, I want to offer my perspective on last night and my personal standing with President-elect Obama.

If you take out the specific policies and philosophies of the players, last night was an amazing event. A black person was elected leader of the free world in a country that is consistently raked across the coals by her own citizens for being evil in regard to racism. I hope that this brings the nation to a new realization about race, and racism. I hope this new realization is the truth of the matter as I have known it for decades. Racism in this country is not, and has not been for some time, what you hear in the media and from the Rainbow Coalition and NAACP.

I say that because I was born in Montgomery, Alabama. My mother was raised in Montgomery literally on a section of street between the Governor’s mansion and Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. King was pastor. She lived there during the bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins, the Selma to Montgomery march, and the violence of the movement. I have lived in the south my entire life, with the exception of a relatively brief period in St. Louis when I was young and my trips in the military. I currently live in a suburb of Birmingham, home of Bull Conner and the 16th Street Baptist Church where bombings killed black children.

I was a deputy sheriff with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. There are people who worked there in the late 1990s who participated in some of the incomprehensible acts against protestors. There are those in the city who won’t call the police to this day because of their experiences as youth. Montgomery is a city that is divided along what many say are racial lines. Whites move east and blacks move east into the subdivisions abandoned by whites. The lines are more economic than racial. Montgomery is home to the largest Air Force training base. Much of the citizenship is comprised of retired Air Force personnel.

Race was not a factor last night, except for the segment of the black population that voted FOR a race. Were it not for enormous numbers of white dems, Obama would not have been elected. Obama won the state of Mississippi! That is the home of more institutionalized racism in our nation than any other one state. I hope that we can put some of the racial politics behind us now. (As an aside - Jesse Jackson was in tears at the Obama rally. Was he crying from happiness for Obama and black America, or because Obama was taking Jackson’s place on stage?)

I think Obama had an incredible presence last night during his acceptance speech. It was amazing to see the crowd and the way they respond to him. His speech was a summation of his campaign – hope and energy and affirmation. McCain conceded in the manner befitting his character, very gracious and supportive and complimentary of Obama. I couldn’t help but wonder last night where that John McCain had been for the last 12 months. Had his presence and persona been at the debates, it might be a different story. Regardless, Obama will be my President. He will receive my support and prayers. He will encounter my political dissent on issues at times, but we will all work for a better, stronger America.

So what does the GOP need to do for the next four years? We need to do exactly as I have been saying for about the last eight years. We need to return to our conservative principles and find new faces and personalities. We need to govern, and lead, and grow out of the moderate mold. We spent so much time trying to get in power before 1994, and then after we won we acted like the war was over! We stopped doing what we had done to achieve power, and it didn’t take long to lose it. We became exactly what we fought against – selfish, short sighted, power hungry, negligent, sluggish, and lazy. Instead of concentrating of working to make progress and solidify America, we spent our years trying to hold on to our power by being moderate.

We need new faces. Palin is hot, energetic, Reaganesque in her politics and philosophy, and not ready for the top billing on the ticket. I hope Rove works his magic and gets her ready for something in 2012. Aside from her, we have to find young energetic people. We have to refuse the coronation of the person who has earned their turn at the nomination as determined by the establishment. We have to insist that the party revert back to 1980 thinking and add to the mix 21st century methods.

We need conservatism. People want to feel safe and secure in their leaders. They want their society to be valuable, and valued. They want the title of American to mean strength, and good will. Power, and discretion. Wealth, and charity. Self-reliance, yet compassion. Marriage should mean something. Religion has a place in society, just as it has every society since the beginning of time. War has a place, as does diplomacy.

Finally, the GOP needs to listen to the base of the party. Some will say that the conservative values of Reagan and the Moral Majority have passed. That those people should be shunned from our party. The opposite is true. Those people have seen the strong party of 1984 and 1994 walk away from their beliefs and ideas. They have been left behind as we try to look good in polls. They have seen us try to be friends with Brutus.

Conservatives have work to do. In the next four years we should work with President Obama in good will and good faith. We should work toward finding those areas where we can agree. We should move forward as one in actions that strengthen America. In those many areas where there can be no agreement, we must fight every step of the way and let the citizenry decide the final outcome of the issue. We must rebuild the GOP to be what it is supposed to be, and forget polls and elections.

We must start within our house, and not worry about what is happening across the street.

Highlighted Blog: The Swash Zone

Octopus has been a recent visitor here and we have engaged in some discussion and a very different perspective. His blog is a team effort with five(?) writers. While it is definitively a left leaning place, the conversations are of substance. I am adding it to my blogroll, and in my links.

The Swashzone

Are We Ahead Of Schedule?

The video portion of this is irrelevant. Listen to the audio; it is about 2 1/2 minuts long. It is Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture talking about his encounter with Kruschev, and how his words are coming true and America will one day succumb to communism.

This Needs To Be Out To Everyone, And Fast

To all those people who hate those who make more than $250,000 because you are green with envy, did you think you were safe? Did you think you would get something and sit back and watch those who spend three times as much money as you get screwed? You know, the guy who can afford the Hummer that your dad/brother/son/husband sold him? Now he can get the shaft and might not be able to buy one. Of course, if no one is buying them, then there isn't a need for Hummer salesmen. If we aren't selling them, then we don't need a truck driver to get them to dealerships. If dealerships don't have sales, then there is no need for people to change the oil in cars that don't get bought, so the autoshop at Wal-Mart doesn't need those guys. And since no one is selling or buying them, we don't need anyone to make them, so the 4,000 people at the factory are laid off. If the factory closes, then we don't need people to cut the grass at the factory or clean the floors, electricians to make changes, human resources to support the workers, maintenance men to change lightbulbs, or painters to keep the place new and fresh.

So while you are miserable because someone has more than you, and because you want to government to equalize the playing field, you have put 6,000 people out of work because of your envy. What did you just do to the economy? How do you think you will get your handout if 6,000 people aren't working, and standing in line with you?

So we need to drop that 250K threshold to $150K, or at least that's what Biden said a week ago.

Couple that with the announcement today that Obama advisors are creating a plan to lower economic expectations, despite the hope and change he has been selling. Now it seems that the magic number is $120,000 according to Obama. Apparently, $120,000 is the upper limit of the middle class and only those who make below that number get a tax cut. Where do you fall on the income line? Do you feel so safe now? Listen to this clip from Governor Bill Richardson, telling us what the Obama number is for his tax plan.

Trying a Few Things Today, Please Be Patient

Trying a few new things like a new comments tool from JS-Kit, and a few modifications to the general site. Its been a while since we did any renovations around here.

A couple of posts have come and gone, but I am working to fix it. There was a glitch and I thought I had lost the thousands of comments since inception.

Anyway, be patient and I will straighten it out as soon as I work through it.

"Hope" and "Change" Are Both Fleeting And Disingenuous

The advisors for Obama are crafting plans to lower expectations for change if his deception of the masses is successful next Tuesday.

It seems that his tax policies and his economic agenda are not appropriate to the economic situation that America is facing at the moment. Any surprise there?

One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, "so there's not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair."

The aide said that Obama himself was the first to realize that expectations risked being inflated.

In an interview with a Colorado radio station, Obama appeared to be engaged already in expectation lowering. Asked about his goals for the first hundred days, he said he would need more time to tackle such big and costly issues as health care reform, global warming and Iraq.

"The first hundred days is going to be important, but it's probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference," he said. He has also been reminding crowds in recent days how "hard" it will be to achieve his goals, and that it will take time.

It seems as if Obama knows damn well that his plans cannot be achieved. Unfortunately, he has spent the last year deceiving those who don't apply reason, just emotion and rhetoric.

A strong economy demands that people are successful. Not the government deciding who should receive handouts, either individual or corporate. Those who earn a living and who aim for excellence should keep what they eran, not have the government distribute it to those who do not hae the drive or the skill sets to accomplish the same.

If the Obama campaign says that it needs three years to get it together, why is anyone voting for him?

You MUST Watch This Video

It is two minutes long, and worth every second. An Iraqi war vet explains why he is supporting John McCain for President. A vet myself, I teared at the end.