First Principles

I wish this debate had happened sooner.  Although it definitely helped that there were fewer candidates on stage – it’s not an accident that fewer candidates and no absurd timeclock led to a far more substantive debate than we’ve seen in the past. I haven’t seen a lot of the post-debate spin from other people [...]

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The liberal Nevada View had a post in support of President Obama’s “American Jobs Act,” arguing that it’s going to be especially good for Nevada.  That’s not in and of itself isn’t surprising.  But when I read it, I had to wonder – if it’s so good for Nevada, why hasn’t a single member of [...]

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I have to work for a living, so I couldn’t make it home in time to do a real live blog.  But here’s almost live reaction via my DVR, with listed times Eastern.

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I couldn’t live blog tonight, as I had a class to teach.  But I listened to most of it on the radio, and watched the rest on DVR when I got home. I wish the entire nation could have seen Governor Sandoval’s speech last night, in order to contrast it with this one.  Sandoval gave [...]

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True social conservatism, that is – not Big Government nanny-statism in the name of the Lord. Last week, various tea party movement activists from around the country sent a letter to GOP leaders asking them to back off the social issues and focus on deficits and spending.  I agree with them to a point, but [...]

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Two years ago, on the eve of another historical election, I wrote about my hopes for the election results and the next several years.  I said that my desires, in order of preference, were 1) that John McCain won, and was successful, 2) that Barack Obama won, and was successful, or, failing those two outcomes, [...]

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Today I came across this very interesting – and relevant – article in the City Journal about how California’s public employee unions have contributed mightily to the Golden State’s economic destruction. [W]hat was once the most prosperous state now suffers from an unemployment rate far steeper than the nation’s and a flood of firms and [...]

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Well, no big surprises.  He made the same promises that he made a year ago, and the only difference is that now we can be even more sure he won’t keep any of them. The big takeaway from me on this was just how unserious this speech was. 

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Last night the Young Republicans co-sponsored Reno’s first First Friday event, and local activist and candidate for State Senate (Washoe 4) Todd “Taxpayer” Bailey was on hand with his podcast equipment.  Here’s his cast, with my interview at the begining: First Friday Podcast Thanks, Todd! The next First Friday is – of course – the [...]

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Today when I got home from work, the following pre-recorded message was on my answering machine: Hello.  This is a message from Accountable America. Why is the recession and increased unemployment dragging on?  We need to ask our Congressman Dean Heller.  He voted against spending money to put America back to work.  Congressman Heller voted [...]

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Obama has declared the program a “success.” But what does that mean?  Consider: Congress authorized $1 Billion for the program, and expected it to last until November.  It didn’t make it past the first week of August.  This is an important thing to consider when considering the President’s own spending and deficit projections. That first [...]

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I just got home from Reno’s Tea Party, and it was great fun.  What better way to spend America’s Birthday than to talk and think and debate and celebrate the founding ideas of the United States! There was certainly anger in evidence, and rightfully so.  But that was a small undercurrent in what (to my [...]

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I recently bought a new car.  I test drove an Accord I really liked, but knowing I needed to be careful not to get sucked in (and having a smarter-than-me wife who reins me in), I told them I wanted to go test drive some other brands of cars.  The saleswoman said, “That’s fine – [...]

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According to Bloomberg, Microsoft will ship jobs overseas if Obama’s tax plan passes. Well, duh. The successful entrepreneurs who made up the panel discussion at which this warning (for that’s what it was) was delivered also estimated that the values of those companies that stay in the US (along with their ability to pay good [...]

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Six years ago, the Democratic governor had overspent and over-borrowed and overextended entitlements in his State, and predictably, had broken the back of its finances.  In the resulting circus of a recall election (which I admit being very excited about) complete with porn stars and midgets, only one serious candidate emerged who proposed conservative solutions [...]

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What do you call it when a gift is forced on you, “for your own good” as well as the good of your family and neighbors? And then what happens when you try to give that gift back, and aren’t allowed to? What happens when the response to the attempt to give that gift back [...]

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Via Instapundit, this chart is just downright scary.  And it shows how you can tell a multi-billion dollar lie by hiding it in the literal truth. Barack Obama said again tonight that he intends to half the deficit by the end of his first term, and this chart makes clear that this is the literal [...]

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In President Obama’s speech Tuesday night, he complained on several occasions about his “inherited deficit.”  I heard him do it again this morning.  It was a classless dig and unnecessary to say, but beyond the rudeness it of course was true, at least to a point.  George Bush spent too much money on social entitlements [...]

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Via House of Eratosthenes, best summation of a Non-State of the Union State of the Union speech ever:

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Apparently, the Culture of Dependence isn’t just something Obama wants Americans to take part in with regard to their own government.  Now the Secretary of State is begging China to buy up more and more of our country, so we can be dependent on and at the mercy of a rising foreign power.  Brilliant! In [...]

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