George Will takes on King George

Read it. It shows that not all of us conservatives bow at the altar of concentrations of power. In fact some of us would like to tell Dick Cheney where he might want to shove his unitary executive theory.

He quotes James Madison here."Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things be proper or safe judges whether a war ought to be commenced, continued, or concluded. They are barred from the latter functions by a great principle in free government, analogous to that which separates the sword from the purse, or the power of executing from the power of enacting laws."
Mr. Bush asserts that we have to stay in Iraq because thats what the Generals say. "We have to let them finish the job." As if thats an argument against withdrawal. Anyway, thanks to George Will for showing us that one of the main authors of the constitution disagrees. No doubt Bush will continue to hide behind the military who dont make policy, but have the duty to support the orders of their Commander in Chief. Why can't he defend his own policy without trodding out victims?

Media bias against Sarkozy

Heres some "Journalism" from the AP's Elaine Ganley.

Just in case your too lazy to click and read, Ill give you the lead. A Russian boy suffers head injuries after falling from a window while trying to elude police. A North African man slips from a window ledge and fractures his leg while fleeing officers. A Chinese woman lies in a coma after plunging from a window during a police check.

You wanna bring up these instances, fine thats completetely fair. But you'll find that Ganley never puts these instances into context. She goes on to list several complaints she can quote aginst Sarkozy's crackdown. We are left with opinions from Socialist Party officials and union bigwigs.

Maybe Ganley can talk to the citizens in the Paris suburbs who are having their cars burned and enduring riot like conditions. We know many of the perpetrators are illegal immigrants. If someone is in the country illegaly and gets injured running from the police, its not anyone elses fault but their own. Heres one guy who agrees with me. It aint Jaques Chirac.

Gordon Brown's Brilliant Move

Gordon Brown's rendezvous with Lady Thatcher would make Machiavelli proud. His praise of her as a "conviction politician" and his recent comment of hanging her portrait in 10 Downing Street will deliver a good punch to David Cameron's nascent Conservative Party.

Going right for the bait, Cameron flack Rob Wilson said "Whilst some of my weak-minded colleagues are fair game for Mr Brown, Baroness Thatcher at 81 - we know she's frail, we know she's lonely, and she does have difficulty, without going into too much detail, with her memory," What a tosser.

Conservative party supporters are a seperate entity than Cameron's Conservatives. (By that I mean the way the leadership of the party is not neccesarily, and in fact is not, in fact a representation of the Party's grassroots.) Although I have noticed that the Tories want rid of the Labour Government no matter how pathetic and incoherent their Tories are, Cameron keeps poking the eye of the Traditionalist base of the Conservative Party. To patronize Baroness Thatcher the way they did will only flare up these tensions. It will create infighting that will dominate the media cycle taking Cameron off his message.

If you ask me, Cameron has had some really good moments lately. His support for getting rid of the marriage penalty, his recent BBC interview, his focus on crime using the term "broken society" and promising a "bare-knuckled fight" over Gordon Brown's cuts to the NHS, were all very positive politically. Oh, and dont forget him going after Gordo for lying about the EU referendum. But then he always does something to, well... screw himself over. Why would you ever propose a tax hike on alchohol in England? Talk about electoral suicide. Why offset your proposed tax cuts with "green taxes"? I admire Dave's effort to retake the environmental mantle from Labour, but why not do something progressive and offer tax cuts for behavior that cuts down on pollution? That could be completely unique and a policy model for the rest of the world! ugh.

A journalist frien of mine once said "politics is a guessing game". How insightful is that? Gordon kissed Maggie's ring and generated a few negative press releases from the Unions. But he has capitol to spend. Cameron doesn't. Brown guessed right. He got Team Cameron to criticize Thatcher. Brown 1 Cameron 0.