Jeff Ellis: It's Impossible To Start A Fire If You Have No Desire To Burn

Obamacare

Democrats and liberals everywhere seem to be celebrating right now as Barack Obama's health care plan becomes the law of the land.

Democrats used to celebrate slavery too.

Perhaps not coincidentally, this is what Obamacare essentially is.

Democrats used to claim that Africans needed to be kept in bondage because they were not capable of thinking for themselves or making their own decisions.

Now, they tell us that Americans need Obamacare for exactly the same reason.

What American truly needs is a homegrown Guy Fawkes.

Barack Obama: The God That Failed

It would appear that Barack Obama's health care plan might finally be passed by the U.S. House tomorrow.

No worries though.

As destructive as Obamacare has the potential to be, the ultimate victims will be Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.

Obama, as is his style, has been running around the country giving angry speeches and making a lot of histrionic comments about thousands of citizens dying slow and painful deaths.  Listening to Obama is a bit like listening to the speeches at a middle school speech tournament.  As opposed to actually saying anything, he simply states that its bad when people die and who is going to disagree with that?

How do we prevent people from dying?

We just do whatever Barack Obama says.

One can only look forward to the future when countless Obama partisans will either find themselves disillusioned with their God or spending all of their time trying to explain away the actual results of the Obama presidency.

After only a year in the White House, Barack Obama has perfectly positioned himself to replace Marxism as the God that failed.

Sen. Zuckerman?

Mort Zuckerman for the U.S. Senate?

Sure, why not?

True Enemies

Tuesday of this week, I voted in the Texas Republican Primary.  As I previously said I would do, I voted for Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor.

So, of course, Hutchison went on to be rather easily defeated by Rick Perry, who won the Republican nomination with 53% of the vote and rather easily avoided the run-off that many of us assumed the primary would lead to.

Perry will face Democrat Bill White in November.

As for Hutchison, she lost the primary not because she ran a bad campaign or because people didn't feel she'd be a good governor.  She lost the primary because, night after night, the evening news identified her as "SENATOR Kay Bailey Hutchison" as opposed to "Citizen Kay Bailey Hutchison."

After just one year of Barack Obama's new "activist" government, the people are speaking again and again.  Whether they're electing Scott Brown in Massachusetts or rejecting Hutchison in Texas, the people are saying that they don't want a thing to do with this government or anyone (regardless of party) who has spent any amount of time as a member of it.

As a Libertarian, this should make me happy.

However, I fear that we're running the risk of becoming so knee-jerk in our rejection of all professional politicians that we're letting the few good ones (like Sen. Hutchison) get lost in the frenzy.

As we continue to fight our intrusive, out-of-touch, and corrupt government, let us not forget who the true enemy of freedom is.  The true enemy of freedom is not the American government.  The true enemy of freedom is Barack Obama's government.

Let us not forget that all politicians started out as citizens.  And as the citizens continue to make their voice heard, they are transforming into politicians themselves.

Sometimes, the professional citizen is a hundred times more dangerous than the professional politician.

Hutchison For Governor

Tomorrow is primary day here in Texas.  For the first time in recent memory, the Republicans are the ones with an interesting primary while the Democrats have already anointed their candidate for governor.

That anointed Democrat would be Bill White, the former Mayor of Houston.  Despite being a somewhat colorless campaigner, White is probably the strongest Democratic candidate since the days of Anne Richards.  Texas remains a Republican state but Bill White will be a formidable candidate and he could easily defy the conventional wisdom by winning in November.

As for the Republicans, there are three candidates to choose from.  These three have spent the past year attacking each other and basically giving White a whole lot of ammunition to use against whoever comes out of the primary with the nomination.

Those three Republicans are the incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Debra Medina.  Originally, I was planning on voting for Medina but then Medina had to go and question whether or not the U.S. government was somehow responsible for 9-11. 

So, after a lot of thought, I've decided to support Sen. Hutchison.  No, she's not as a conservative as Perry and, unlike Perry, she won't be spoken of as a presidential contender in 2012 if she wins in November.  However, this does not change the fact that it's hard to deny that Hutchison would be a better governor.  Both Perry and Hutchison have proven, far too often in the past, to be willing to compromise on their stated conservatives principles.  However, Hutchison at least compromises in the open.  Whereas Perry, far too often, hides his compromises behind a bunch of fiery yet ultimately empty rhetoric.

Add to that, Hutchison would simply be a stronger candidate against Bill White in November.  Compared to Perry, Bill White's blandness is almost reassuring.  However, when compared to Hutchison, White's just a boring man affiliated with a philosophically bankrupt national party.

For these reasons, this blog endorses Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor.

Et Tu, Medina?

Here I was all set to endorse Debra Medina's grassroots campaign for governor of Texas and then she had to go on the Glenn Beck show and suggest that the government was in some way behind the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

While her rivals attacked, Medina released a statement stating that she is not a 9-11 truther.

Maybe she's not and it is true that all Medina said was that "good questions have been raised."  That's not exactly an endorsement of the theory but it's not a dismissal either.

Quite frankly, I'm not buying it.  The thing with 9-11 conspiracy theories is that most people either believe them or they don't.  The "questions" that the theories raise are the type that can only be considered relevant if you've already convinced yourself of the answers.

I truly wanted to vote for Debra Medina in the upcoming Republican primary.

However, I can now say that while I may vote for either Rick Perry or Kay Bailey Hutchison, I will not be voting for Debra Medina.

The Second Act of Rodney King

Today, as I was getting ready to go see The Book of Eli, I happened to catch the 1st 10 minutes of a court tv show.  The plaintiff, in the case, was Rodney King.  By way of introducing himself to the judge, King said, "I am the same Rodney King who was beaten in Los Angeles."  Just in case we had forgotten or were too young to remember, King brought along a DVD containing the infamous footage of him being beaten in Los Angeles. 

"At the time (of the beating,)" the TV Judge asked, "were you on any drugs?"

"Yes," King replied, "and today, by the Grace of God, I am sober."

The TV audience broke into lukewarm applause.

It turned out that the case was somehow connected to King's current career as a "celebrity boxer."

Life remains odd.

Indiana and Illinois

Breaking new from Illinois: Democratic Lt. Governor nominee steps down amid charges that he 1) abused steroids in the past and 2) tried to kill his girlfriend.

What the Hell have the politicians in Illinois been drinking?

Between this, Rod Blagojevich (who will be on the new edition of the Celebrity Apprentice in March), and the antics of the Chicago thugs that are currently in the White House, Illinois is running the risk of replacing Louisiana as America's own little third world nation.

Perhaps that's why Republican Mark Kirk appears to be poised to win President Obama's old seat in the U.S. Senate in November.

Meanwhile, right next door in Indiana, some pundits think that the previously untouchable U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh might face some trouble in the upcoming elections.

Considering how popular Bayh has been in the past (and that previously conservative Indiana pretty much rejected the Republicans in both 2006 and 2008), Republicans have to be salivating at the thought of knocking him off in 2010.  Certainly, if Bayh did lose, it would be almost entirely due to the fact that he's a member of Barack Obama's Democratic Party.

It would also bring to mind what happened in 1980 when Evan's father, Birch Bayh (who, like Evan, entered politics at a young age and had obvious presidential ambitions), was defeated by future Vice President J. Danforth Quayle.

Strangely enough, the front-runner for the Republican nomination right now is Dan Coats, the man who succeeded Quayle after the Bush/Quayle ticket won the 1988 presidential election.

That said, one has to wonder if -- in this year when the grassroots are angry and professional politicians are about as popular as child molesters -- Dan Coats is really as a strong a primary candidate as many pundits are observing.

2010 seems poised to be the Year of the Political Upset and Coats is joining a primary field that already has four candidates in it. 

The main risk for Republicans in Indiana is that the nomination will be won by former U.S. Rep. John Hostettler, who lost his seat in 2006 and who has a reputation for being something of a odd duck.  While Hostettler has never been all that impressive, he is the type of angry politician who -- much like George Wallace or Barack Obama in the past -- is uniquely suited to capitalize on misguided anger.  He also is a candidate who could probably be counted on to blow a rare chance to knock Evan Bayh out of the U.S. Senate.

Voters in Indiana have a chance to "send 'em a message."  Strangely enough, the best way to send that message might be by voting for a professional politician.

Revenge of the Demon Sheep

One reason I love even-numbered election years is that they give us things like the "Demon Sheep" ad.

Check it out.

Personally, I love it.

The Death of The Supermajority

Scott Brown was sworn in as the new Senator from Massachusetts today.  Brown's won his seat in the biggest upset of the 21st century so far.  Brown, of course, is a Republican and, by taking the oath of office today, he ended the short but noisy era of the Democratic Party's so-called "Supermajority."

In other words, it was a good day.