Early Voting

Julie and I early voted this afternoon for my boss, Governor Rick Perry. Below is the text of an email that I received from someone else who works for the Governor, explaining why it is important to vote for him in this primary as well as for Justice Eva Guzman.

Early voting is underway. You can vote early through next Friday. The Primary is Tuesday, March 2nd. I encourage you to vote early. Having been involved in the political process for close to 30 years now, I can think of no time in the history of our country and our state that it is more important for you to choose the right leaders. I know that you are all encountering your own issues with this current economy, and there is a lot of uncertainty, and in many cases fear, of what the future holds. I know that you will find it no surprise that I am encouraging you to vote for our current Governor, Rick Perry. I’m not going to give you the political reasons – you can see those on the tv ads that are currently running. I am asking you to support him because he has done a great job leading this state during very difficult times. Things are tough on many Texans right now, but it could be a lot worse if steps had not been taken prior to this current downturn to have Texas in a strong position to weather the storm. Those decisions did not happen by accident. I have had the privilege to see our Governor at work behind the scenes. I know how much he loves this state and the people of this state. He is seasoned and has made the tough decisions that have needed to be made, many times knowing that he would take the political hit. He does not govern by opinion polls or from the influence of special interests. He isn’t looking for the endorsement of newspapers. He represents the businesses and people who work hard every day – The folks like you and me who don’t ask anything from government other than to let us keep as much of our hard earned salaries and business profits as possible to support ourselves, our familes, and help in our communities.

He is not very popular with the current administration in Washington DC. He is taking strong stands every day to protect Texas and her people from what some in the federal government would do to our state, if not challenged. The threats are real and too numerous to discuss in one short email. This is not the time to elect someone who would need time for on-the-job training. The people in office who would pass laws to hurt our state would not give someone a grace period. I would be happy to answer questions or direct you to sources who can answer your questions.

I would also like to encourage you to vote for Justice Eva Guzman for the Texas Supreme Court. The Governor just recently appointed her to the seat she holds on the Court. Justice Guzman is known throughout legal circles as a strict constructionist with an unmatched work ethic. She is a principled, conservative judge. As an associate justice on the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston, she ruled on thousands of civil and criminal appeals, and authored hundreds of published opinions. She was recently recognized by the Hispanic National Bar Association as Latina Judge of the Year and as 2009 Judge of the Year by the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas Foundation. She has also been named Appellate Judge of the Year by P.O.L.I.C.E. Inc. and the Houston Police Officers Union. She has an incredible personal history that I would be happy to share with you. For all of my female friends, you would love to hear about her story and journey to end up making history as the first Hispanic female to serve on the Supreme Court of Texas.

Thanks to each of you for your indulgence as I have shared my opinions with you.

I have met Justice Guzman on several occasions and I have spoken with her at length and in depth about her judicial philosophy as a principled conservative Judge. She is a proven hard worker on the 14th Court of Appeals and I encourage everyone to vote for her in the primary and general election in her race for place 9 on the Texas Supreme Court.

from yesterday’s campaign stop in Austin

james cameron’s intent

let’s ask the man what he intended with Avatar. my emphasis added below.

the director with his star Zoe Saldana said that  “Avatar” — with its depiction of mineral exploitation on a distant planet and a cadre of trigger-happy mercenaries charged with instituting a scorched earth policy — is very much a political film.

But he rejected comments by critics that the film is un-American even if it is an allegory for American military forays.

“I’ve heard people say this film is un-American, while part of being an American is having the freedom to have dissenting ideas,” Cameron said, prompting loud applause from a capacity crowd at the ArcLight Hollywood.

“This movie reflects that we are living through war,” Cameron added. “There are boots on the ground, troops who I personally believe were sent there under false pretenses, so I hope this will be part of opening our eyes.”

Conservative commentators such as John Podhoretz and John Nolte have blasted the film in recent weeks. In “The Weekly Standard,” for instance, Podhoretz wrote, “The conclusion does ask the audience to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency. So it is a deep expression of anti-Americanism– kind of.”

….

The director said:  “I don’t know if there is a political agenda exactly, but as an artist I felt a need to say something about what I saw around me. I think we all need to take stewardship of our planet.”

“I think everyone should be a tree hugger,” Cameron added.

In creating the long limbed, blue skinned Na’vi, the aliens that lives in commune with the lush naturescape on the fictional planet Pandora, the director said he was attempting to create a race that was aspirational.

“The Na’vi represent the better aspects of human nature, and the human characters in the film demonstrate the more venal aspects of human nature,” Cameron said.

So it appears that James Cameron was trying to do what he appeared to be trying to do and that he was intending to make the statement that he appeared to be intending to make.

HT to Hot Air.

UPDATE:

Cameron tells Entertainment Weekly he is also fine with his movie being a recruiting tool for eco-terrorists. he “believes” in eco-terrorism. (maybe he was joking? maybe?)

EW asked Cameron to respond to some of the criticisms aimed at “Avatar.” Check out how he responded to this one:

EW: “Avatar” is the perfect eco-terrorism recruiting tool.”

JC: Good, good. I like that one. I consider that a positive review. I believe in ecoterrorism.”

retrospective on O’s first year

Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthammer wrote pieces this week about Barack Obama’s first year as president and their view of what went wrong. Why did such a popular president crash so far in the polls so soon?

Here is a small part of Ms. Noonan’s article that I think gets to the nub of it:

The people are here, and he is there. The popularity of his health care plan is very low, at 35% support. Someone on television the other day noted it is as low as George Bush’s popularity ratings in 2008.

Yet—and this is the key part—the president does not seem to see or hear. He does not respond. He is not supple, able to hear reservations and see opposition and change tack. He has a grim determination to bull this thing through. He negotiates each day with Congress, not with the people. But the people hate Congress! Has he not noticed?

and here is the part where Mr. Krauthammer just nails it:

At first, health care reform was sustained politically by Obama’s own popularity. But then gravity took hold, and Obamacare’s profound unpopularity dragged him down with it. After 29 speeches and a fortune in squandered political capital, it still will not sell.

The health care drive is the most important reason Obama has sunk to 46 percent. But this reflects something larger. In the end, what matters is not the persona but the agenda. In a country where politics is fought between the 40-yard lines, Obama has insisted on pushing hard for the 30. And the American people — disorganized and unled but nonetheless agitated and mobilized — have put up a stout defense somewhere just left of midfield.

anyway, go read them and see if you agree or not.

perfect book at the perfect time

on a secular economic and political note, Jonah Goldberg’s book Liberal Fascism is celebrating its two year anniversary today.

What a perfect book for today’s political climate. A fairly easy to read but still quite serious and unvarnished look at the historical antecedents for the progressives currently empowered in Washington D.C.

If you haven’t read it yet, you must do so. Available in whatever format you consume books.

hardcover
kindle
audio
paperback.

just get it and read/listen to it. you will be glad you did.

more like this please

Chris Isaak knows his limitations. this is one of the best answers I have heard in a while.

Maybe you could draw on your student council experience to help sort out the enormous budget crisis in California. Any remedy for it? I don’t think we want a remedy for it. The less the government has to spend, the better off we’ll be. But I should say that I, and the rest of entertainers, don’t know a god-durned nothing about policies. We’re too busy self-aggrandizing to come up with any solutions. It’s amazing how many entertainers can find time between adopting children to tell you how to live your life.

I get so sick of all the pretty people looking down their noses at the rest of us.

Bully for Chris Isaak. I am headed over to iTunes to buy Wicked Game or something.

Hat tip to Christian Toto

new polling on abortion

these are some very interesting numbers.

A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion and 42% “pro-choice.” This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

…..
The May 2009 survey documents comparable changes in public views about the legality of abortion. In answer to a question providing three options for the extent to which abortion should be legal, about as many Americans now say the procedure should be illegal in all circumstances (23%) as say it should be legal under any circumstances (22%). This contrasts with the last four years, when Gallup found a strong tilt of public attitudes in favor of unrestricted abortion.

at the link above, there is a lot more information as well as pretty charts.

“shut up!” they argued

“shut up” is never a good argument.

Roe v. Wade @36 part 2

further to Ed Whelan’s point below regarding the effect of Roe v. Wade in bypassing democratic processes, here is Father Neuhaus’ article regarding this awful anniversary.

These are the issues addressed in a remarkable new book out this month from Princeton University Press, The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right, by Jon Shields, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. The book is by no means a pro-life tract. It is an excruciatingly careful study, studded with the expected graphs and statistical data—but not to the point of spoiling its readability—in the service of probing the curious permutations in contemporary political alignments.

The Port Huron Statement issued by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1962 called for a participatory democracy in which, through protest and agitation, the “power structure” of the society would be transformed by bringing moral rather than merely procedural questions to the center of political life. Almost fifty years later, Shields notes, “some 45 percent of respondents in the Citizens Participation Survey who reported participating in a national protest did so because of abortion. What is more, nearly three quarters of all abortion-issue protesters are pro-life, an unsurprising fact given that the pro-life movement is challenging rather than defending the current policy regime. Meanwhile, all other social issues, including pornography, gay rights, school prayer, and sex education, account for only 3 percent of all national protest activity.”

…

The pro-life movement is a movement for change, indeed for what some view as the radical change of eliminating the unlimited abortion license. “Meanwhile,” writes Shields, “the pro-choice movement is a conservative movement defending the status quo. Pro-choicers have little to gain from engaging their opponents and from the deliberative norms that facilitate persuasion.” And, of course, they have the establishment media massively on their side. The head of New York State Right to Life explained to Shields that “a major part of her work is simply trying to convince journalists that pro-life activists are ‘normal.’ It is hard to imagine a pro-choice leader describing her work that way.”

emphasis added.

by the way, a book I read a couple of years ago demonstrates how effectively the pro life side has utilized the necessity of having to use “deliberative norms that facilitate persuasion.” Ramesh Ponnuru has masted the art. I highly recommend his book to anyone interested in seeing a tightly argued comprehensive defense of life.

for political junkies

for political junkies, this website is just too much fun. A great way to waste time on a holiday.

a useful reminder

here is a useful reminder from Stephen Nichols. He is returning to the same theme that I pointed out here.

Stephen says in part:

Now back to the Red and Blue divide. What will it take? It will take a view of the comprehensiveness of the gospel that keep us from the temptation to hitch our wagon to a political party of political ideology–whether it be on the right or one the left. Until we get past that we’ll make divides in the body of Christ where there should be none. The “we” I’m talking about here is not the “we” of Americans. I’m talking about the “we” of the visible manifestation of the body Christ within the boundaries of the United Sates.
……
So to answer some potential objectors. I’m all for engaging issues, and some issues, pro-life, do matter more than others. But when will we realize that political parties represent ideologies that have far more in them than a few issues that we (rightfully) care about? To hitch our wagon to a political party, and sometimes we attribute messianic qualities to these parties and their candidates, is not the right direction for the church.

much more at the link. don’t miss his conclusion.

you don’t replace something with nothing

As I have said before several times and as I will keep saying as long as I am allowed, you don’t replace something with nothing. A post-christian, post-modern culture is not one of rational empirical scientific harmony. It is one of superstition, paranoia and worship of men.

present case in point Maggie Mertens of Smith College, who penned, “I will follow Him” Obama as My Personal Jesus.

here is the beginning. Pay close attention to the parts I bolded below.

Obama is my homeboy. And I’m not saying that because he’s black – I’m saying that in reference to those Urban Outfitters t-shirts from a couple years ago that said, “Jesus is my homeboy.” Yes, I just said it. Obama is my Jesus.

While you may be overtly religious and find this to be idol-worshipping, or may be overtly politically correct and just know that everything in that sentence could be found offensive, I’m afraid it’s true anyway.

As with many spiritual enlightenments, mine came in the middle of a bleak, hopeless period of my life. The innocent, idealistic world of politics that had shaped my childhood, the one that taught me how the president is a good guy, one who makes you feel safe, gives a speech on TV every once in a while and one you’d feel honored to shake hands with, had been slowly whittled into a deep rooted cynicism to anything politically related.

The crush of the Bush victory over Gore was only the first mar on my previously consummate ideal of the American administration. And the tragedies just kept continuing: Bush’s response to the Sept.11 attacks, the invasion of Iraq, the tax cuts for the rich, the downward spiral continued squashing my scant hope that the political world and state of our country could be saved.

Then I found my miracle. Stumbling through my hopeless world, afraid to turn to anyone with my political questions of morality, my concerns about the afterlife of the country I called home, a voice spoke to me.

emphasis added.

What do you do with religious fervor like this? For a mere mortal politician? Imagine how people like Ms. Mertens will react if Obama loses the election. Imagine how they will react if he wins and when he inevitably proves himself to be a mere human politician with all of the foibles and weaknesses inherent to the genre. What will people like Ms. Mertens do when the oceans don’t stop rising and people keep fighting and poor people still don’t have enough food and so on and so on? will they be disillusioned? will they double down on a bad bet by believing it is the evil satanic republicans at fault?

Seriously, where does this kind of thing go? Does anybody except me find the whole phenomenon fraught with menacing possibility? In case you don’t see the menace, I will let Maggie Mertens make it explicit for you with her concluding paragraph.

I’ve officially been saved, and soon, whether they like it or not, the rest of the country will be too. I will follow him, all the way to the White House, and I’ll be standing there in our nation’s capital in January 2009, when Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States of America. In the name of Obama, Amen.

Whether you like it or not…. Whether the rest of the country likes it or not….. You will be saved. In spite of yourself. Hope you like the experience.

of Palin and Pipelines

The editors of the Washington Post have noticed that Sarah Palin proved palpable political prowess with her work on the natural gas pipeline project. (the Wall Street Journal had already noticed this project.)

their conclusion:

But it is also a sign that Ms. Palin’s outflanking of the oil companies injected some competition and urgency into a process that was previously stalled. Perhaps her Democratic opponent for the governorship in 2006, who campaigned on similar ideas, would have achieved these results. Nevertheless, Ms. Palin actually did.

Hat tip to Jennifer Rubin who adds three excellent points and then this:

“What this suggests is there is indeed a story yet to be told — one of savvy political skills and accomplishment. Provided she successfully navigates her media encounters and the VP debate, she may be even more popular by Election Day as voters learn who the real Palin is.”

The contrast

By contrast, to the actual reform accomplishments made at great risk by Sarah Palin referenced in the post below, here is what Mr. Obama (in his own words) says about his own accomplishments and experience.

transcript courtesy of Hot Air:

AC: Some Republican critics say, you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this [Hurricane Gustav]. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state like Alaska. What’s your response?

BO: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years. Uh, and certainly, in terms of, uh, the legislation that I’ve passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina, uh, of how we handle emergency management. The fact that, uh, many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place, uh, as we speak indicates to extent to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.

Notice that Mr. Obama misses the whole Governor of the State of Alaska thing? Notice how all he has to reference is the act of running for president itself as executive experience? how has that worked out? in a huge year of built-in advantages for Dems, he is even in the polls after spending more money than any candidate in history. Makes me wonder if this is the experience he ought to be touting.

Additional response of Mr. Obama yesterday.

“We’re not going to be bullied, we’re not going to be smeared, we’re not going to be lied about,” Obama said. “I don’t believe in coming in second.”

Sounds kind of desperate doesn’t he? is he being bullied by a 44 year old former mayor of “wasilly”?

Sarah Palin

Tim Challies has a political post up. He is right that this has been the most entertaining political campaign ever. The primaries were awesome and the general election is positioned at this point to go to the wire.

Challies focus is on the phenomenon that is Sarah Palin. This sentence crystallizes what we have been seeing so far. “People on the Loony Left know they hate Palin but they are struggling with how to hate her.”

here is the summary, but go read the rest. It is typical Challies; thoughtful, well written with lots of links.

And I firmly agree with Amy and Mohler and Kotter. While Christians do want to maintain the focus on the family we have to be careful about stating categorically that a woman has no business running for Vice President. Palin’s decision is one to be made with her family and with counsel from her local church. Beyond that we, as Christians, have to trust her judgment in this kind of disputable matter. Far be it from us to declare that she cannot do both and that she cannot do both with excellence.

To what have we come?

Joseph Bottum has a sobering post up at the First Things blog. It contains some quite shockingly frank admissions from radical leftist commenters at Daily Kos. Here is one of them, but go read the other one which is even worse as well as Joseph’s conclusion.

I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to destroy the Republican Party as it exists today as well as everything it stands for.
If health insurance for all, an end to the Iraq War, an end to torture and illegal wiretapping, and a sane energy policy can be obtained at the price of destroying one teenage girl, her family, and the surrendering our self-respect I see that as a cheap trade.
Go talk about nobility of purpose to those 4,000+ dead American soldiers in Iraq.

what he said

and now for a change of pace.

Mark Steyn has nailed the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama in six short parts.

this is the one I liked, but go read them all:

Third, real people don’t define “experience” as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. …. Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain’t run nothin’ but his mouth. She’s done the stuff he’s merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party’s corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign’s thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night).

and I can’t resist this bit either:

Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn’t just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won’t need the usual stage-managed “hunting” trip to reassure gun owners: she’s lived the Second Amendment all her life.

the election

Stephen Nichols has some excellent advice for Christ followers in the United States during this election year. The whole short post is worth your time. His first point is to dial down the rhetoric a notch, here are his last two points:

Number two. Let’s not make the presidency, the office, into an idol, thinking of it in either messianic or apocalyptic terms. Isaiah gives a healthier perspective on the nations. If it was true of Assyria, it’s likely true of the USA.

Number three. Let’s not be guilty of sloth. Winning elections doesn’t actually get us very far, neither does blogging about them, for that matter. The real work of being a Christian in culture and working toward a civil society is a bit more complicated and demanding. We do, however, like to take the easy way out.

The point is that we need to be salt and light to this world every day right where we live. Our kingdom is not of this world and our king will still be on the throne November 5.

Of course the election is important, but it is not the most important thing. Not even close.

transitions

transitioning a conversation to the gospel requires the intention to do so and the opportunity. Joe Thorn has a list of eight topics from which the gospel is an easy leap. There are more in the comments.

Here are the first three to get you started.

1. Corruption, evil and sin.
Conversations about corruption and evil are pretty common in my experience. Murderer’s go unpunished, children are exploited, racism continues on in more polite forms, mayors are busted smoking crack, etc. These conversations can naturally connect to the biblical issues of justice, judgment, forgiveness and redemption.
Transitions examples: “Even when the unrighteous escape justice in the courts, God says he will not let sin go unpunished…”
“My personal desire for vengeance is often quited by God’s assurance of justice…”
“In the end, I find that though I am guilty of different sins, I am just as guilty as…”

2. Community.
This is a great conversation to have in the suburbs. Everyone wants it, but many are at a loss how to build it. Zoning laws have essentially destroyed the development of real, workable, walkable, communities. Conversations about community naturally lend themselves to the reality that we are made for community, that God himself dwells in eternal community (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), and that a central component of God’s saving work is the establishment of a community, a family, made up of every tribe, tongue and nation.
Transition example: “Part of why I am so passionate about the development of authentic community is because of how the Bible portrays the need for it. We are created by God to live in real community…”

3. Politics.
In “my suburbia” it’s 49% Republican and 51% Democrat. We’re split down the middle, and yet I often hear and have political discussions with practical strangers. Political discussions are a great opportunity to relate the second greatest commandment (love for neighbor) to the management of power.
Transition example: “I regret that Christians are often seen as a voting block of the Republican party. The truth is, the command to love God and our neighbors points to a way that is not entirely in line with any political party…”

Hat tip Ramblin Pastor Man.

creepy

A fellow has posted a list of the top ten things that creep him out about Barack Obama.

number 8 on the list is the one that has just been amazing to me watching this campaign, it seriously creeps me out:

8. It creeps me out that the press seems hypnotized by this guy. Grown men and women blubbering like babes when talking about how exciting he is, how mesmerizing he is when he speaks. It’s as if “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” has come to life and the pods have been placed in every newsroom in America. It isn’t just Crissy Mathews and MSNBC. It’s news anchors at CNN, reporters for Time and Newsweek, editorial writers at WaPo and the New York Times. Big media is in the tank for this guy in a big way. They have thrown off all semblance of fairness (never mind objectivity) and just don’t care that people know they are in Obama’s corner. They can’t be shamed into changing. They evidently won’t be deflected from doing their best to elect Obama.

This kind of thing causes the hairs on the back of my neck to prick up – like walking through a graveyard at midnight. It is just plain creepy – no other word for it.

For instance there was the guy who wrote this editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle. Was he joking? Is he embarrassed for himself at all?

Poor Hillary recognized this and fought as hard as she could to bust his hammerlock on the media’s affections, but without success.

hat tip to Jennifer Rubin