Just a few hours ago, Rush Limbaugh was hospitalized in serious condition with chest pains.

We don't always agree with Rush 100% here, but it is undeniable that he has been instrumental in getting our opinions heard on the Right.

We offer him the best of get well wishes and our prayers.

RWR

Update: Democratic Underground wackos are already celebrating.

Over at RWN, Warner Todd Huston posted yesterday essentially that the biggest mistake the Tea Party movement could make would be to vote for candidates who were not endorsed by the Republican Party. It's not what he said, but it IS what he meant.

I took issue with this stuff in the comments - not in a confrontational manner, but in what I hope will be considered a thoughtful one. I started with my very predictable thesis:

The biggest mistake Tea partiers can make is to allow Republicans to convince us that voting for their guy, regardless of how stupid an idea it is (e.g. McCain 2008), is the way to go.

I went on to suggest that the Republican Party could gain the overwhelming majority of Tea Party support by simply adopting the Federalist Party Platform as their own and standing by it.

I then responded to a commenter as follows:

If I am faced with voting for a Tea Party representative, a RINO (because there are no Conservative Republicans left -- at least ones with a backbone) or a liberal, I will vote for the Tea Party person. Voting for any of the remaining group of persons is like voting for one in the same!
Posted by BRwoman

The Republicans have never really been the party of the Constitution. At least not in my lifetime. They've merely been the party of what I call "capitalist progressivism", which isn't much better than "communist progressivism", "socialist progressivism", or "fascist progressivism" (some combination of which is what our current administration is delivering). We Tea Partiers are trying to force those in Washington to REJECT PROGRESSIVISM. This sketch from "The Electric Company" sums it up pretty well. Truth be told, WE have been the ones that have been "Republican In Name Only" all along. WE are the ones who have tried for so long to get the party to be something more appropriate, only to have our efforts rejected and ridiculed by the Party at every turn.

In reality, WE are the RINOs. McCain et. al. are the mainstream Republicans. We can try to take over the Republican Party if we like, but we must keep in mind that we cannot "take back" what we truly never had to begin with.

RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com

After reinforcing other comments about the obvious, I responded as follows to an exerpt from a comment left by Warner himself:

The FACT is the Whig Party was never a strong party and only existed because of the vacuum of a real, viable second party able to face the Democrats.

The same can be said of the Republicans today.

RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com

When I made the comment, I was thinking along the lines of how weak the Republican Party is today. The fact is that the Republican Party only exists, in Warner's words, because of the vacuum of a real. viable second party able to face the Democrats - and they don't even do that very well.

But when has the Republican Party ever been powerful? The Civil War? The Cold War? Both of these situations were presided over by GREAT MEN, who did make mistakes, but with their OWN PERSONAL POWER were able to drag the party along in their image at the time. Who REALLY stood up and freed the slaves? The Republican Party or Abraham Lincoln? Who REALLY brought the Soviet Union to its knees? The Republican Party or Ronald Reagan? The Republicans have only been powerful when powerful men were at the helm. It is, at best, a coat-tails party. If they can get a true leader to run, then they will simply ride his coat-tails into the Nation's Capitol. Hopefully, he's still a great leader when he gets there. Gingrich had a chance to prove himself a leader in this fashion, but failed. Had he succeeded, the Republican Party would have enjoyed success. Why? Because they would have ridden in on his coat-tails.

That is why my comments vis a vis Doug Hoffman wound up being so powerful. Hoffman was nowhere near a perfect candidate, yet he was so much better than either of the two big-government cronies offered in his district, he basically caused the Republican to step aside - and, of course, she endorsed the Democrat, who was much closer to her beliefs than Hoffman was:

The closest the Tea Party folks have come to major change based on donations was with the recent candidacy of Doug Hoffman in New York's 23rd and if you'll remember it was a failed effort.

Didn't fail by much, and only failed because of the Republican Party's foolishness in choosing a leftist progressive who was further to the left than the Democrat for the office.

With the Party's support from the getgo, the outcome WOULD have been different, and the Republicans would have gained some largely undeserved confidence for those Tea Partiers who think that taking over the Republican Party is the way to go.

The Hoffman candidacy should be considered a wake-up call for everyone with an eye for our Nation's capitol: The Tea Party movement brought down Dede Scozzafava. It can bring the rest of you down with her.

RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com

The point of my comment was, of course, that the Republican Party was as much to blame for the Democrat heading to Washington as anyone else, and that the Tea Party movement has the power not only to expose the Republicans' true third-party status, but to defeat the Democrats as well. A renewed sense of patriotism and reverence for the Founders vision is all it will really take. All this talk about why this or that socialist program won't work is a waste of time and effort. The real issue is that these things are inconsistent with what America is SUPPOSED to be, and that there are clear statements and laws to support that position that the socialists don't have at their backs.

In my earlier comment, I let the Republicans know what they needed to do (embrace federalism and abandon progressivism) to win the Tea Party movement into their ranks. The problem is that there is very little evidence that they will do so any day soon. If the Republican Party wants to exist in five to ten years, they had better heed my warnings today. Warner Todd Huston said himself that the Republicans' money was a big reason to try that avenue. There are lots of former donors to the Republican Party who will support the Tea Party movement. Many have stopped donating to the Party for the reasons stated here. Contrary to what many "conservatives" will tell you, the Tea Partiers are holding all of the cards right now, and Democrat and Republican alike must take heed.

RWR

Cross-posted at The Second American Revolution.

HAHAHA Yeah right, Janet.

And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked.

Bitch, "the system" didn't do shit.

The passengers subdued the terrorist and disabled him. That's not your precious "system" working. It's the closest thing to the Second Amendment you morons have left us with - courageous Americans who aren't afraid to defend themselves, even when faced with the threat of a lawsuit for doing so. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action.

The real appropriate action would have been to feed the fucker some hot lead. Whether that lead came from a passenger or crew member shouldn't have been an issue.

This is why my opinion on the Patriot Act has changed. If just one person in that cabin were armed other than the terrorist, it wouldn't have taken a bunch of passengers to subdue him. If that one person and others in the cabin were POTENTIALLY armed, he might not have considered this act of war in the first place.

That is what the Second Amendment is SUPPOSED to protect.

RWR

Just taking a moment out of busy preparations for a SERIOUS FEAST to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

This year, there were no Christmas Day church gigs, so I've been spending the time with my kids and helping to prepare for the feast. We're expecting a busy day, including a visit from my nutty cousin. We saw her yesterday, but didn't make a big deal out of "Climategate". I don't imagine we will today, either. It's just too funny for us and embarrassing for them to bring it up on such a wonderfully festive day. We get more than enough laughter watching her eat tofu instead of turkey!

What a blast! I hope all of you enjoy your day as much as I stand to!

RWR

Michelle Malkin is reporting that Senator DeMint is attempting to get a vote regarding the constitutionality of DemCare.

I only wish both Malkin and DeMint would have hadthe foresight to push this issue at the beginning of the process, when it could have done some good.

RWR

Update:This vote was on the purchase mandate, not the whole concept. Turns out DeMint is a bit of a wimp on the issue. Of course the Donks voted it down. I guess per Nancy Pelosi ... "Are you serious?"

Yes. Mrs. Pelosi. We are serious. - RWR

The last few days have been a bit hectic here. Hopefully the next few will be better. With Christmas fast approaching, I doubt that, but there's always hope (and change hahaha).

After the New Year (or possibly before), you may see some changes in the patterns here at the RWRepublic, including poet frequency and a possible drop in traffic (if you follow that). I have tentatively accepted a position that will probably keep me off-blog for most of the daytime hours that I have lately been using for research and commenting (commenting at other blogs helps drive traffic here). It's not great money, and there's a long drive involved (that doesn't really bother me that much - Sage will tell you that we both had long drives to the building in which we worked together when we met - where we were grossly underpaid), but it is a pretty awesome long-term opportunity that can still put a pretty good dent in the debts that have accumulated over the last several months of unemployment (and lack of income).

Traffic has been great lately. The goal of 1,000 monthly visits has been met and exceeded every month since it's been set - in fact this will likely be the fourth month that will have approached double that (at post time, there are 60 hits to go to 1500 for the month, and there's over a week to go). Traffic isn't why I blog, as you all know, but it would be a lie to say it's not part of the hobby. As traffic increases, the opportunity to monetize increases with it; and that is always something to consider, especially if there's a chance to make extra money with a blog that I already have. Unfortunately, the engine that has largely driven that increase in traffic over the last four months has been comments in the blogosphere, which may not be as useful once the new job starts.

Hopefully, the loyal readership that's come on will continue to be here, and maybe encourage some friends to come by. I'll do what I can to keep things rolling - this blog had 1,000 hits per month through my entire last job (which was a 2-month contract), and the same problems existed there.

The main thing is that, barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be back to work very soon. That is never a bad thing. So maybe traffic cools down a bit - it's not like I'm going away.

The libs aren't THAT lucky!

RWR

In the second most devastating blizzard in recorded history, my home is buried under about 2 ft. of snow RIGHT NOW. Some global warming would do me very nicely, thank you very much. It's unfortunately not happening.

I imagine Sage is dealing with some deep white powder up in the mountains of New Hampshire as well. I'm sure some global warming would serve him quite nicely. It's not.

Of course, snow is rare in Denmark, yet the very week the global warming nutjobs schedule their precious conference, it's under its own record snowfall - in the first mid-December snow in over a decade. Global warming might have made the conference more pleasant. It didn't.

Poetic justice, if you ask me.

RWR

Cliff Lee
Pitcher Extrordinaire

In one of the stupidest deals imaginable, the Philadelphia Phillies have traded the best pitcher they have had since Steve Carlton. If they wanted Roy Halladay, fine. Trading away the only pitcher on their staff to win a World Series game this past season should NOT have been an option.

I was skeptical of the trade that brought Lee to Philly, to be honest, but the man made a believer out of me. His cool personality and humble attitude turned out to be one of the team's finest assets. There was absolutely no reason to deny Cliff Lee the opportunity to finish out his career at Citizens Bank Park. Has Reuben Amaro contracted Ed Wade disease?

I sense this trade will wind up biting him in the ass.

Go Sharks!

RWR

As I was driving home from the airport today, the ever-so-memorable clip from the Electric Company came to mind:

CAPTAIN: A cup of coffee and a sweet roll.

WAITRESS: We're out of sweet rolls.

CAPTAIN: A glass of milk and a sweet roll.

WAITRESS: We are out of sweet rolls.

CAPTAIN: Iced tea and a sweet roll.

WAITRESS: We are out of sweet rolls.

CAPTAIN: Orange juice and a sweet roll?

WAITRESS (Frustrated and angry): WE ARE OUT OF SWEET ROLLS!!!

CAPTAIN: Okay, then I'll just have a sweet roll.

Kind of made me think about what the US government offers us today. The conversation would probably go something like this:

GOVERNMENT: We'll give you socialist progressivism.

PEOPLE: We don't want progressivism.

GOVERNMENT: Fascist progressivism.

PEOPLE: We do not want progressivism.

GOVERNMENT: Capitalist progressivism.

PEOPLE: We do not want progressivism.

GOVERNMENT: Communist progressivism?

PEOPLE (Frustrated and angry): WE DO NOT WANT PROGRESSIVISM!!!

GOVERNMENT: Okay, then we'll just give you progressivism.

Wake up Washington, DC. We're coming for you.

RWR

Last week, I blogged about a poll that showed that the Tea Party movement is largely a conservative movement that would beat the Republican Party in a three-way race, further confirming my assertion that the Republicans are the "third party", and not us Federalists et. al. I would like to revisit that poll today.

The important stuff in the poll amounted to this:

If the election were held today, which party's candidate would you support?

Generic:

Democrat: 36%
Tea Party: 23%
Republican: 18%
Undecided: 22%

Independent voters:

Tea Party: 33%
Undecided: 30%
Democrat: 25%
Republican: 12%

Republican voters:

Republican: 39%
Tea Party: 33%

There's more, but you get the idea. The only demographic that Republicans did any better than third place here was when you went specifically to Republican voters. Is this party washed up or what?

The Tea Party voter is, let's be honest, generally either a Republican or someone to the right thereof. Republicans try to tell you that since we Tea Party people, whether you call us Federalists, Conservatives, Constitutionites, Libertarians, or whatever, are more closely aligned with them than the Democrats, then we should vote for their guy, even though our ideology and beliefs are more both more popular and more constitutional (read that legal) than theirs. If the Republican Party truly wants to survive their current loss of power, wouldn't the smart thing for them to do be to embrace Tea Party-friendly ways, Tea Party-friendly candidates, and a Tea Party-friendly platform? I would sure think so.

Instead they have counted us out, essentially calling us hardheads who would rather see a less liberal candidate lose than have the opportunity to push forward with a less liberal agenda. Well of them I ask, how is that McCain vote working out for you today? Sure, McCain spoke out against this government healthcare crap, but only because HIS version of government healthcare is off the table - oh, and to shut him up, the Donks have put amnesty back onto the table. Are we having fun yet? I sure am.

Why am I having fun while liberals (including Republicans like John McCain) work so hard to tear down the America that the Founding Fathers so sacrificed for? Well hold you head up and smile. It's the Tea Party movement. Had McCain won in 2008, I doubt there would be much of a Tea Party movement, and if there were, it would be quiet. It's hard to come out very strongly against an official that you cast a vote for. In many ways, Barack Obama is one of the best things ever to happen to the United States of America. Look around you. How many people are now interested in the Constitution and what it actually says?

America is about to make a HUGE comeback, with or without the Republicans and Democrats. The Tea Party movement will be dictating the course of history for the foreseeable future. This is where I think the Republican Party has a chance to save their party. Instead of insisting that we go along with their platform and plans, the Republican Party should see the Tea Party movement's power and SIGN ON TO ITS platforms and plans. Abandon big government Republicanism and become the party of the Constitution.

Given who's calling the shots at this juncture, I seriously doubt the Republicans will do this, but if any kind of survival instincts kick in, it is highly plausible. The problem as I see it is that the Republicans have seen this polling data as well, and are still tasting the insides of the Donks' rectums all over Washington, DC. You would think losing the White House to an avowed socialist and having to face the Tea Partiers every day would give them pause. Still, it's something for us to consider if they do come around.

RWR

Well ... sort of.

There are still a couple of elements I want to get back, mainly the red band that always separated the header and the rest of the page and (much more importantly) the random quotes that has been the hallmark of the spontaneity of the RWRepublic.

Comments are, however, up and running. I have picked up the "IntenseDebate" commenting system to replace Haloscan. A couple of things here:

1. To get to the comments, the best way to go is to click the title of the post, which will take you to a page with the post at the top and comments for that post at the bottom. You can also click on the "Comments" link if there is one, but that will give you a plain comment window instead of showing you the post. From there you just do what you've always done, for the most part. IntenseDebate does offer some additional functionality, but if all you want to do is what you've always done, you will do just fine.

2. IntenseDebate does visibly slow down page loading time. It's not a huge deal, but sometimes you sometimes may want to hit your "refresh" button if it seems to have locked up. I have usually found this to help.

3. Sometimes your comment will be held for moderation. I have not yet reviewed ID's moderation rules or looked at how I could adjust them, but unless you really piss me off or something, you will not have a problem with getting your comments approved so please don't sweat it.

4. Comment length limits are shorter than Haloscan's. You still get a lot of room, but don't be afraid to put up a "Continued" comment if you so wish.

5. There is no simple importation mechanism to bring the old comments over. I have backed them up and will gradually see to it that they are added to their respective posts. Comments brought over from Haloscan will have a timestamp added to them in the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS. If you see "-5:00" appended to the end, you can safely ignore it.

Hopefully ID doesn't aspire to pulling a similar stunt to the course of action chosen by Haloscan. It really pissed me off that they gave no notice whatsoever so that people could make proper preparations to change services if they saw fit. It's not that their price is unreasonable, I just can't afford it right now in my current state of employment (which could be improving very soon - knock on wood).

Please let me know about any concerns you have with the new comment system.

RWR

Haloscan is discontinuing its free comment service, and the free comment services available do not support "Classic Blogger", which is causing me to at least temporarily take down the kick-ass template I've been using.

For the time being, please do not leave any comments on this blog. The comments have already been backed up, and anything you put here WILL BE LOST, as I will be moving forward with a new comment service and upgrading the template in the hopes that I will be able to re-establish some semblance of the old one.

Please check back often so that you will know when the upgrades are complete.

RWR

Update: As you can see, much of the page is back. However, there are still some issues:

1. Clicking the title is not necessarily a permalink as before. It may take you to a link relevant to the post. (Resolved - Clicking the title will always give you the permalink now.)

2. There isn't always a comment link on each post. To comment, you will need to click on the permalink, which isn't always there. (Resolved.)

3. Some of the graphics and cool stuff is gone - hopefully temporarily. I can't see the RWRepublic without our trusty random quotes! (Most graphics are back, save one that I really liked (the red band below the header. Random quotes are sadly still an issue.)

4. To comment, click the title for the permalink, and the comment box will be below the post.

5. It looks like I'm going to have to transfer all of the comments from the last five years by hand - grrr. Unfortunately, they weren't backed up in chronological order so it will be a sporadic kind of process. On transferred comments, I will bring over the timestamps as well and include them inside the comments.

Time to set the cross-hairs. Get the tar and feathers ready. U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon opened her mouth today and promptly slid her tongue deeply into the rectum of ACORN:

Gershon said in her ruling that ACORN had raised a "fundamental issue of separation of powers. They have been singled out by Congress for punishment that directly and immediately affects their ability to continue to obtain federal funding, in the absence of any judicial, or even administrative, process adjudicating guilt."

No word on which article and section of the Constitution allowed ACORN to receive the money in the first place.

Rope. Tree. Judge.

Some assembly required.

RWR

Yet another terrorist has assumed room temperature, courtesy of the United States military. You go Barack (yes ... he gets credit - remember when he does good stuff he gets credit and when he screws the pooch he gets an earful)!

[Saleh al-Somali] was engaged in plotting throughout the world, which, given his role, probably included planning attacks against the United States and Europe. He took strategic guidance from Al Qaeda's top leadership and translated it into operational blueprints for prospective terrorist attacks.

Unfortunately, a picture of the scumbag wasn't available.

RWR

The New Jersey Senate delayed a vote today on "gay marriage" - because the votes for passage weren't there.

This is a positive step. New Jerseyans do not want this, so it's important that it isn't foisted upon us. Of course, there are a few points that need to be addressed, as noted in the piece:

In testimony Monday, gay and lesbian couples said they had been denied access to their partners in hospitals and benefits such as health insurance under civil unions.

The solution here isn't to pervert the institution of marriage, but to address the concerns regarding access to hospital patients and health benefits. I am not gay, nor do I ever intend to be, but I have been denied access to a hospitalized friend on the basis that I was not related or married to him. This particular situation actually required me to have access to my friend, but I was denied for the same reasons these people are being denied the same. People should be able to name ANYONE on their insurance policies as long as they are willing to pay the premium. Patients should be the ones to determine who their visitors get to be when they are hospitalized instead of some hospital policy that narrowly defines such eligibility. This does not have to be an issue for gay people, as all people are affected by these things.

As for being able to marry whomever you want, gay people already have the same rights to marriage as the rest of us. They simply must choose as a spouse a member of the opposite gender just like the rest of us. We all have rules in life that we must live under that we don't like (65 miles per hour? Please.). This is no different.

RWR

More proof that I'm right about the Republicans and the TeaParty movement.

It's now merely a question of exactly how to set up the new party. I say we put all out heads together and make it happen. If the Republicans decide to GENUINELY change, I can see us "Teabaggers" running with them, but the chances of that happening are slim to none, and slim is busy frantically packing his bags.

RWR

Most people here know that my position on Sarah Palin is hopeful but with serious skepticism and pessimism. She just hasn't proven herself as a conservative at all, and her eagerness to jump onto the McCain bus, only to be thrown under it in an all too predictable fashion, merely made all of this worse.

Still, she does have a great personality and a sense of humor that could eventually bring her around. Regardless of what you think of Sarah (Sage, this means you hahaha), you have to laugh at this one ...

As for the president, Palin joked that she was looking at a magazine cover of Obama and Chinese president Hu Jinato during an airplane flight. A nearby passenger stated, "Hu's the Communist," she related.

And, Palin said, "I thought he was asking a question."

If this woman comes forth with a truly conservative agenda (which is unlikely), she's got a shot at winning the presidency. Sadly, I don't see her cult following as being anywhere near as charismatic or enthusiastic as Obama's. She will have to come forth with the kind of agenda the Tea Partiers will like if she's even to have a chance. One thing she does have going for her: both Democrats and mainstream Republicans hate her guts. While that's clearly not enough, it's got to count for something.

I'll believe it when I see it. At any rate, the quote is hilarious and spot on.

RWR

It is an essential, natural right, that a man shall quietly enjoy, and have the sole disposal of his own property. ... The Utopian schemes of leveling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable, as those which vest all property in the Crown, are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government unconstitutional. Now, what property can the colonists be conceived to have, if their money be granted away by others, without their consent?

- Samuel Adams, January 12, 1768

I was assailed yet again today at MichelleMalkin.com.

I wonder if these Republicans know that when they expect everyone to toe their party line, they look just like the Democrats they say they want to defeat.

We all counted you out a long time ago, RWR. You are just a noisemaker trying to bleed off conservatives from the real struggle to keep our country from sinking further into the pit.

No one is counting on you. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution. You always will be part of the problem. If a candidate you liked ever got close to mattering, you would turn on him.

We can count on you for that.

First of all, there are a whole lotta questions that have to be asked of Sarah Palin before anyone can establish her as "conservative", yet you and others blindly line up behind her as if she's some kind of god(dess). Sorry bub. We already have that now, and it sucks.

The people who are the problem are those who continue to blindly follow a political party that has never espoused their ideas and beliefs. Reagan was elected despite the Republicans, not with their support. What’s worse is that the "in" thing for Republicans is to pretend they are the new Reagan. These people are trying to "take back" a political party they never had in the first place. They are more than happy to support a government "healthcare plan" as long as it isn't created by Democrats. Never mind that government meddling in such matters is illegal – inconvenient little tidbit there, huh?

If/when Republicans choose to run acceptable candidates, I will support them. Christie was pretty close for a New Jerseyan, and I did vote for him, but there is a lot of work to do in convincing people that the Constitution must be followed. Once that happens, Republicans and Democrats had better wise up or they will either be taken over by conservatives such as yourself or replaced with factions true to the Founders' vision such as those I support.

You need people like me, Roland; and you need us a lot more than we need you. Your decision to be content to support liberals simply because they're less liberal than the Donks merely plays into the Donks' hands. You need people like me to force the debate to the right because people like you don’t have the courage to do it. For proof, try to name one legislator in DC that you would support who has opposed healthcare reform (or the stimulus – or the bailouts) on the basis that the Constitution forbids its passage. This is both the simplest and strongest argument against these intolerable acts, and I haven't heard anyone standing on them.

No, my good friend, your LOTE position is the problem. I understand it very well, since I used to hold it myself. The day will come when you will recognize this. In the meantime, it would be wise for you to stop demonizing me by calling me a "noisemaker" and "part of the problem". All you're doing is adding to the nasty taste of the crow you’re going to have to eat later.

RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com

Actually, I have heard people standing on the Constitution. The problem remains that they have been town-hall and tea party attendees. It's time to elect some of these people. If the Republican Party and its members want my vote, they will have to present appropriate candidates. End of story.

RWR

I don't need to listen to him read his speech tonight.

I don't need to know what he (or anyone else, for that matter) has to say.

Ask yourself this simple question:

Is Barack Hussein Obama in a position of any sort of credibility when it comes to enumerating a "war strategy"?

If you answer it honestly, you're in the same boat I am ...

RWR

h/t: Grouchy Old Cripple

Update: For a good laugh, check out this thread at DU!