Sibby Online

James Dobson threatens six senators

From the Washington Times:

Colorado Springs, CO, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Evangelical leader James C. Dobson is threatening six Democratic senators if they block conservative appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The founder of the Focus on the Family organization is sending a letter to more than 1 million supporters promising "a battle of enormous proportions from sea to shining sea" if President Bush fails to appoint "strict constructionist" jurists -- or if Democrats filibuster such nominees, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Dobson's letter recalls successful conservative efforts to defeat Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the Senate minority leader who led Democrats in using the filibuster to block 10 of Bush's judicial nominees.

He singled out six Democrats up for re-election next year: Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Bill Nelson of Florida.

2004, the year of the angry left

The Boston Globe has a column by Jeff Jacoby titled, "More liberal hate speech". Excerpt:

So began another year in which liberals engaged in, and mostly got away with, grotesque slanders and slurs about conservatives -- the kind of poisonous rhetoric that should be beyond the pale in a decent society. Once again, too many on the left -- not crackpots from the fringe, but mainstream players and pundits -- chose to demonize conservatives as monsters rather than debate their ideas on the merits.

As in years past, Republicans were almost routinely associated with Nazi Germany. Former Vice President Al Gore referred to GOP activists as "brown shirts." Newsday columnist Hugh Pearson likened the Republican National Convention to the "Nazi rallies held in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler." Linda Ronstadt said that the Republican victory on Election Day meant "we've got a new bunch of Hitlers." Chuck Turner, a Boston city councilor, smeared National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as "a tool of white leaders," like "a Jewish person working for Hitler."

Let’s not forget the column by Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader, that referred to Hitler:

If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog.

This comment started a firestorm in the blogosphere and was brought out again in December by the Wall Street Journal:

Patrick Lalley, the Argus Leader's assistant managing editor, acknowledges that the blogs had an impact on how his paper covered the Senate race. They certainly got under the skin of some of the paper's executives. Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader, called some of the bloggers work "crap" and said they represented an organized effort by conservatives to discredit his paper. In July, he explained to readers that "true believers of one stripe or another, no longer content to merely bore spouses and neighbors with their nutty opinions, can now spew forth on their own blogs, thereby playing a pivotal role in creating the polarized climate that dominates debate on nearly every national issue. If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog."

I don’t know why we got under Beck’s skin so much. I even gave Randell a present. Here is what Beck said about my kind gesture a week after his Hitler comment:

Honoring the creation of this newspaper's first Web log - blog, in Internet parlance - Steve from Mitchell showed up the other day to present yours truly with my very own blog T-shirt.

The front of the bright green shirt, which I plan to wear proudly in the privacy of my own home, is emblazoned with the words "Dakota Blog Alliance."

On the back are several Web addresses (example: www. idespiseeveryonewhodoesntagreewithme.com), and this quote, purporting to be from Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.: "Only the paranoid survive.''

My first instinct was to doubt the veracity of the quote, but I managed to trace it to an October 2001 article in the Argus Leader in which Daschle, speaking about efforts to turn the old Homestake gold mine in Lead into a national laboratory, said: "There is a saying that only the paranoid survive. We will continue to stay paranoid until it is ribbon-cutting time.''

Although Webster's defines paranoia as a "mental disorder marked by delusions,'' one presumes the senator used the word back then to describe the kind of brazen, over-the-top political vigilance that sometimes is called for to see a public issue or project through.

The word crept into Daschle's language again in an August 2003 campaign swing through South Dakota. Referring to the difficulty of persuading Republican voters to cross over to vote for him in 2004, Daschle said: "Only the paranoid survive.''

In retrospect, one is hard-pressed to evaluate whether the senator was joking or meant what he said, but one thing seems clear: The bloggers have picked up the sound bite.

And it won't go away soon.

So what happened, Daschle must not have been paranoid enough. Or perhaps the Dakota Blog Alliance was successful in exposing Daschle’s 'delusions' about being a pro-gun, pro-life, tax cutting conservative.

The Argus Leader blog also did not survive the year. I will never forget 2004.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. I am up early to go deer hunting. The Argus Leader has this report on the issue of deer hunting:

A weather forecast with little snow means a wildlife forecast with lots of deer.

So starting today, state game managers are hoping hunters will help reduce that abundant deer population. That would bring the herd closer to a balance of males and females and more in line with the food supply and could reduce the number of car accidents involving deer.

Part of the solution is a nine-day hunting season for antlerless deer that begins today. Last year was the first year for such a season, which led to a 24 percent increase in the doe harvest East River and a 41 percent increase West River, said Ted Benzon of the state Game, Fish and Parks Department in Rapid City.

The department also made it easier to get a hunting license for antlerless deer, extended the regular hunting season by a week in December and converted all unused deer tags to antlerless tags after the regular season ended on Dec. 5.

Benzon said many hunters had the intended reaction: "Might as well harvest a doe."

"In order to get control of our herd, we'd have to harvest 35 to 40 percent of the female population, and we're not doing that," he said. It has been more like 25 or 30 percent for the past few years.

That's mostly because bucks are much more coveted: 88 percent of hunters who buy licenses that allow them to shoot any deer shoot a buck.

Winter weather normally reduces the deer population, but the past seven winters have been mild.

That leaves hunters as the only option.

"I'd rather see them shot and eaten than killed off by a car," said Greg Goodman, a deer hunter and employee at Scheels All Sports. He plans to fill the second of his two deer tags on land north of Pierre in January, although he would rather be hunting bucks.

"It's not near as exciting, but it is a lot of fun in the late season because the does are pretty wary," he said.

The last word for 2004

This is my last post for 2004. As I sip on a couple of bourbon & waters, I may go over the top a little. I doubt that 2005 will be as important as 2004. After all, we got rid of the biggest embarrassment to South Dakota since George McGovern…Tom Daschle.

To those readers on the left: I am sorry if you are offended by my words, but I am passionate about my beliefs. I appreciate those of you who have emailed me in 2004 and I hope to hear more from you in 2005. There are Democrats who speak to me almost daily. Although we disagree, I love them more than any other (except my family). I thank you for helping me grow during 2004. I hope you will help me continue my maturation in 2005.

The left is the problem

The left seems to think that America is hated due to us conservaitives. The Washington Times has a report titled, "U.S. pop culture seen as plague" that points the problem back at the left:

The chance that a young Middle Easterner will see expressions of freedom in American culture is, to Mr. Bork's mind, dim. Because he thinks most of what Hollywood exports is "trash."

Capitalism versus Socialism

NewsMax has a report on the amount of contributions to victims of the tsunamis:

Among the biggest corporate givers are Pfizer Inc., which is donating $10 million in cash and $25 million worth of drugs to relief agencies; The Coca-Cola Co., which is donating $10 million; Exxon Mobil Corp., which is giving $5 million; and Citigroup Inc., which is contributing $3 million. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $3 million.

Pharmaceutical and health-care products companies were among the biggest givers.

Merck & Co. Inc. is giving $3 million in cash while Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories Inc. are each donating $2 million; each of the three are also sending drugs and other health care supplies to the region. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is donating $1 million in cash and $4 million in antibiotics and antifungal drugs. Roche Group and GlaxoSmithKline PLC were also planning to donate supplies and/or cash.

Nike Inc., American Express Co., General Electric Co. and First Data Corp. are each giving $1 million.

For some corporations with operations in the countries struggling with the disaster, their far-flung enterprises are serving as quick supply routes for aid.

Drug makers with offices or plants in the region sent employees out with antibiotics, nutritional supplements, infant formula, baby food and other supplies. Employees of companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Inc. and Marriott International Inc. hotels in the region are delivering bottled water, food and other supplies.

``They're sending whatever they can, as fast as they can,'' said Elaine Palmer, spokeswoman for PepsiCo, which rushed out Aquafina bottled water from one of its Indian bottlers and plans to contribute a minimum of $1 million to the relief effort.

So how much has Michael Moore given to the cause?

Unexpected Tsunami Heroes: Bloggers

From Human Events:

Bloggers providing relief information and sharing vivid photographs are playing a significant role in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated several South Asian countries.

Almost immediately after the tsunami struck Sunday, bloggers began covering the event like a news story, offering graphic details of what happened. Mainstream media outlets have picked up on the reports, too. The New York Times wrote, "For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs."

Saving Social Security

Devvy Kidd has an interesting column titled, "Social Security can't be saved". She starts out with a lie from the left:

There is a lot of buzz these days about "saving" Social Security. For decades, presidents have been feeding the American people the same old drivel about saving Social Security, the "sacred cow" of politics. For the past 40 years, presidents have declared their intention to save and reform Social Security, i.e., Bill Clinton's State of the Union addresses always carried practically the same sentences: "... we must agree to a bipartisan process to preserve (save) Social Security" (1997); "... we must save Social Security for the 21st century" (1998); "... we must save Social Security for the 21st century" (1999).

I have argued that liberals are actually socialists, but Kidd takes the argument to the next level by saying liberals are actually communists:

Unfortunately, the American people didn't heed the warnings when FDR rammed through Social Security and his "New Deal."

"The New Deal will bring the Communist Party within striking distance of overthrow of the American form of government," (1935) Arthur Henning, Chicago Tribune.

"The New Deal is to America what the early phase of Nazism was to Germany," (1935) Mark Sullivan, Buffalo Evening News.

Ironically, in the same year, Feb. 7 to be exact, John D. Rockefeller was printed by the Department of Justice to kick off a public campaign for a national fingerprint registration law.

In 1932, William Z. Foster, then chairman of the Communist Party USA, authored a book titled, "Toward Soviet America." On page 281, Foster states that in order to Sovietize America, there would have to be social insurance against unemployment, an old-age insurance (Social Security), free medical services as well as socialized housing. Three years later, Social Security was up and running and the rest has fallen neatly into line to meet communist goals in America.

The solution is not going to happen over night. But Kidd is promoting an idea that is more aggressive than Bush’s partial privatization:

First, learn the facts about Social Security and what the law actually says. Then demand Congress and Bush implement the only solution that will work and in the long run will best serve the American people by getting government out of our lives and stop telling us when we can retire, when we can't and how we will save for our own retirement. That isn't government's job, it is a personal responsibility for a self-determined, independent people.

This won't happen until millions of Americans demand a final solution and not decades more of the same old political slogans about "saving Social Security."

Marxism versus Thou shall not covet

The Democrats still don’t get it. Many people are feed up with the class warfare that they use to implement their hidden agenda of socialism. For Example, Chad Schuldt, paid Daschle campaign staffer, has a rant about the government’s Medicare problem. The system is running the course of a typical socialized medical system…rationing. So instead of negotiating prescription drug prices through the government, the GOP thought best to pass a plan that invoked competition to control prices. Here is Schuldt’s classic class warfare argument regarding these two issues:

The GOP solution? Deny health care to the poorest in society, but continue to pay outrageous prices to wealthy corporations. I wonder what Jesus would think of this?

Perhaps the Ninth Commandment…Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house. Meaning:

We are to fear and love God so that we do not desire to get our neighbor's possessions by scheming or by pretending to have a right to them, but always help him keep what is his.

In a free market enterprise system, competition takes care of "outrageous prices". If you can’t afford to pay a fair price for goods and services, is it moral to have the government covet thy neighbor’s possessions so you do not have to pay for your own way in life?

Tom Daschle frequently attacked drug companies, and I am not surprised to see one of his hired guns continue the legacy. So look at what Pfizer, one of those so-called greedy, evil, and wealthy drug companies just did:

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, is donating $35 million to victims of the weekend's earthquake and tsunamis in Asia, matching the aid the U.S. government has said it will provide.

The company said in a statement today it will provide $10 million in cash to relief groups and $25 million more in products, including its Zithromax, Zyvox and Diflucan anti-infectives.

I wonder what Jesus would think of this? I wonder how much Michael Moore has given to the cause?

An how about this post by a South Dakota Democrat county chairman:

So Long, Bishop!

After defeating Tom Daschle, spending millions on questionable projects (like the Broomtree pheasant hunting area near Irene), weeding out liberal priests and oppressing old nuns who weren't kneeling (because their knees hurt too much), we're so sad to see Bishop Robert Carlson leave.

Luckily Carlson is heading to a place where he can make a difference. Michigan, a blue state, could swing either way in 2008. Carlson will bring his signature "It's a sin to vote for a pro-choice candidate" audio tapes to play in all the churches of his diocese.

Mike Rounds and the bishop have been friends for several years, but I'm guessing even Mike is happy to see Carlson go. Nobody wants to be a hand puppet.

Yes, it looks a couple of South Dakota Democrats are attacking Governor Rounds via sarcastic attacks toward a Catholic Bishop and a divisive class warfare argument with religion as its basis. The future looks bright for South Dakota Republicans, unless the South Dakota Democrat Party reins in these kids who have taken the far-left college indoctrination hook, line, and sinker.

South Dakota saved the Supreme Court

On election night as the defeat of Tom Daschle became more and more evident, my first thought was that we saved the Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal has a column by James Taranto that explains why:

With only 45 senators (including Vermont's Jim Jeffords), they would need the support of six Republicans to vote down a nominee. A minority could filibuster to block a vote (unless Republicans change the rules), but five Democratic defections would vitiate that tactic. Tom Daschle's filibustering of low-profile appellate court nominees is one reason he is about to become an ex-senator, and that lesson surely hasn't been lost on his red-state colleagues.