Newt in 2012?

I have to say, I'd love it. Aside from his meanderings on the subject of global warming, Newt is amazing. Baggage? Yes, but the MSM is going to attempt to knee-cap any conservative in the race, so why not bring out the big gun?

Newt/Palin or Newt/Jindal... yes, please!

Here's the story from Novak:

... It would be a rocky road for Gingrich to the nomination, much less the presidency, but there are no other serious candidates inside the party at the moment.

It is clear that Republicans are unanimous in trying to avoid a repeat of what happened this year, and there is a surprising consensus that McCain was going in the wrong direction and was the wrong candidate.

What one GOP critic calls Gingrich's "unlimited energy supply" must be overcome by anyone opposing him. Several old Republican hands feel that Gingrich in 2012 is no more outrageous than Ronald Reagan was in 1980.

What is certain is that Gingrich has the desire and the will. He has a deep-seated ambition. He had not even settled into the House speaker's chair in 1995 when he confessed to me his presidential desires for 1996. That was not to be, but he never abandoned the personal dream and is ready to pursue it now.

Here's Newt's site called American Solutions. Also, here's Newt.org.

UPDATE: Yes, this is a good idea!

Looking for Conservative Leadership in Congress?

Start with Jim DeMint. The junior senator from South Carolina has stepped up as a true conservative hero. I've had a number of posts recently that focussed on the great work that Sen. DeMint is doing. Here's another one with some of his comments from CPAC last week.

Senator DeMint answers whether or not the GOP is still lost:

A year ago we were coming off a stinging defeat at the polls. There was a strong debate within the Party about why we lost so badly. Some argued that the electoral rebuke was a direct result of the war in Iraq, which at the time was not going well. Many who made this argument felt that there were no other significant factors in our loss. In other words, they felt that absent the war in Iraq, the Republican Party would have been just fine and therefore we should change nothing about our Party and just hope for good news in Iraq.

Others, like those of us on this panel, argued that there was something much bigger going on. We argued that the Party had forsaken the principles on which it was founded. We looked around and we saw the seeds of our own destruction all around us.

Skyrocketing federal spending, unprecedented growth in the size of government, a failure to address the looming entitlement crisis and the shameless proliferation of congressional earmarks were all hallmarks of Republican rule in Washington. It was no wonder that we lost.

One reason I think we are still lost is that those of us who saw these warning signs ahead of time have still not convinced a majority of our colleagues to see things our way. That said, we are making some progress.

Many of us here have paid special attention to the congressional earmarking process this year because we believe that it has been a root cause of our downfall. After all, if Republicans cannot be responsible with the little things like earmarks, how are we going to address the big problems facing the nation?

...

But it isn’t just on the fiscal front that we have fallen short. Conservatives believe that the Republican Party succeeds as a coalition. We believe in the three-legged stool of limited government, national defense and traditional American values. We need to get back to that third leg of the stool.

Since the 1970s evangelicals and faith-based voters have cast their lot with the Republican Party. These voters, of which I am one, have put their trust in the Republican Party to do everything in its power to end the legalized killing of the unborn. They have trusted us to defend the sanctity of marriage. And, just as important, they have trusted us to preserve the basic family unit, because they understand that strong families make strong nations.

Without a proper emphasis on the role of the family in our society, we are missing a huge part of the puzzle. It is families that instill character in our young ones. It is families that provide stability and structure as children grow into active citizens.

Now, many voters are looking around and feeling a cultural slide. They are feeling again under attack from forces that they cannot control. Whether it be the elites in academia who preach absolute moral equivalence or the mainstreamers in Hollywood pedaling a degrading product, folks are feeling as if they are under assault. Conservatives need to do a better job of leading in this regard.

...

I still have an unshakeable belief that at their core, the American people are conservative. The problem in Washington, and in our Party in particular, is that we have stopped listening. As conservatives, I believe it is important that we remain optimistic about the future of the country and our Party.

Remember, President Lincoln understood that he could win the Civil War while losing every battle. He and Grant understood that in the end it was a game of numbers. Not only was their cause Just and True, it was backed by numbers.

Our cause today is Just and True and we have the numbers to make it happen. We just need to stay focused on our principles and remain persistent. Our beliefs are sufficient to lead this country and our Party as we go forward.

Preach on my brother!

Bonus video: Newt at CPAC - A Conservative Declaration of Independence

Thanksgiving links...

Start with Mark Alexander at the Patriot Post. Then check out their Family Thanksgiving Quiz with your kids.

Then check out Newt Gingrich discussing how to Make Thanksgiving Meaningful Again.

Robert Huchinson talks about The Biblical Roots of Thanksgiving.

Jennifer Rubin says we have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Ken Connor wonders if Americans really understand to whom they should be thankful.

Michelle Malkin says before Thanksgiving brings out the worst in you, stop before you gripe.

Archbishop Charles Chaput thinks this is a time for acknowledging our dependence on God.

Ollie North is thankful for people like John Bolton who expose the U.N.

God bless you all... have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving.

Hyping an atheist fantasy movie for kids just in time for Christmas... (updated)

Brent Bozell writes about The Christmas-Crushing Movie:

... The media have played happily along in disguising Pullman's religion-bashing. On NBC's "Today," weatherman Al Roker delighted in making "The Golden Compass" the fall book selection of "Al's Book Club for Kids." Pullman appeared on NBC to deny that he was really promoting atheism. He touted letting the reader decide what the author intended, in a "democracy of reading." The closest he came to atheism was saying the book championed "open-minded intellectual curiosity." If that sounds like a transparent dodge, it certainly was. He told the students asking questions to think of the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the menace in Pullman's trilogy isn't called the Caliphate, and its hideous monsters aren't mullahs. They are cardinals and priests, and the heroes are an atheist former nun and two rebellious gay male angels.

The atheists may be angry that the movie waters down Pullman's anti-religious message, but they can take comfort in the fact that many parents (and grandparents and even godparents) will, sadly, buy the hype over this movie and buy this trilogy of vicious anti-religious books for the young readers in their lives. To the Christian book buyer, beware: Instead of celebrating God's son born in the flesh, you'll be celebrating God being killed so that man can advance to true consciousness. ...

Read it all.

Also, Newt Gingrich discusses The (Anti-Religious) Bigotry of the Elites:

... Of course, when it comes to official anti-religious bigotry, not all religions are equal.

Did you know that, while religious images are under assault across the nation, in nine Western states the courts have ruled it constitutional for public schools to require a three-week course on the Islamic faith -- a course in which all junior-high students are mandated to pretend they are Muslims and offer prayers to Allah?

This is the same court, mind you, that infamously ruled (in the case brought by atheist activist Michael Newdow) that it is unconstitutional for students to mention "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. ...

Check out Newt's new movie called Rediscovering God in America.

Update: Pastor Paul Edwards has an interesting take on the movie:

... Our response should not be to merely paint Pullman as a liar and deceiver, denying that the Church he depicts exists. On the contrary, we should agree, at least in part, with Pullman that such a Church has existed—and still exists—but that it is not the genuine Church, as Pullman leads his readers to believe.

If “The Golden Compass” is a lie passing itself off as truth, is the appropriate course for us to run from it, to bury our heads in the cultural sand, pretending that, if ignored, challenges to the faith aren’t real? Would you deem it a valid response if your college freshman merely ran from the challenges to her faith she can expect from her atheistic philosophy professor? If not, why would you encourage your children to run from the challenges to their faith implicit in Pullman’s trilogy?

It seems to me the proper response from those who are convinced of the truth ought to be to engage error, not run from it. Rather than fearing our children might read a book or see a film that challenges their faith, such a scenario presents us with an opportunity to teach them to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.

We should be willing to read the books and see the movie with our children (of the appropriate age and level of maturity), engaging the difficult issues raised by Pullman, and allowing the True Compass, the Word of God, to guide us into all truth—to bring to light the hidden things of darkness. If true followers of Jesus Christ boycott “The Golden Compass” we run the risk of validating Pullman’s thesis that Christians suppress and control, rather than engage in open and honest debate in a vibrant, passionate and intelligent defense of the faith.

Why not counter Pullman by being a living demonstration of the Church he fails to portray in his trilogy rather than validating him by being exactly what he says we are?

Great points.

Polling data: America's Most Widely Held Views

I am a huge fan of Newt Gingrich. I hope he get's traction with the change initiatives he's promoting.

From Newt's American Solutions comes America’s Red, White and Blue Platforms: (read here)

96% It is important for the President and Congress to address the issue of social security in the next few years.

95% We have an obligation to be good stewards of God’s creation for future generations.

94% Children should be allowed a moment of silence to pray to themselves in public school if they desire.

93% Al Qaeda poses a very serious threat for the United States.

93% In the worker visa program, each worker should take an oath to obey the United States law, and to be deported if the worker commits a crime while in the United States.

93% It is important to acknowledge today that the reference to God in the Declaration of Independence – that we are endowed by our Creator with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

92% Our focus should clearly be to provide long-term solutions instead of short-term fixes.

91% We should dramatically increase our investment in math and science education.

91% We should hold city governments to the same standards for cleaning waste water as are applied to the private industry.

90% We favor a law that allows public school children to take a moment of silence for prayer if they desire.

90% We approve of a Christmas tree or a Menorah being placed on public property during the holiday season.

90% We should give tax credits to homeowners and builders who incorporate alternative energy sources in their homes, like solar, wind, and geothermal energy.

Click here for video of Newt speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on November 6th.

You may also want to check out Newt's new movie called Rediscovering God in America.

I am genuinely afraid that this political system will not react until we lose a city...

Newt is right. Please click the image to watch the video from CNN:

More from Newt on winning the war at home at the Iowa straw poll from Ames:

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s national prayer from D-Day, the sixth of June, 1944 on its anniversary, the sixth of June 2007...

Newt has made promoting this fantastic speech a personal project.

Here's an intro from Newt that's worth starting with.

Listen to the speech here.

Here's the text:

“My Fellow Americans:

“Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

“And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

“Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

“They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

“They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

“For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

“And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

“Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

“Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

“And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

“And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

“Thy will be done, Almighty God.

“Amen.

Wow. It's amazing how far we have fallen into the paralysis of political correctness since then. Can you imagine this prayer from a President today? What would today's ACLU have said?

Watch Jim DeMint reading the speech on the Senate floor:

A New Form of Evil...

If you missed it, LGF had the story.

(Image to the right from Michael Yon's online gallery)

Why America Has Not Won Iraq War, from one of my favorites - Dennis Prager:

...If America had to fight an insurgency directed solely against us and coalition forces -- even including suicide bombers -- we would surely have succeeded. No one, right, left or center, could imagine a group of people so evil, so devoid of the most elementary and universal concepts of morality, that they would target their own people, especially the most vulnerable, for murder.

---

Even without all the mistakes
made by the Bush administration...
it could not have foreseen this
new form of evil we are witnessing in Iraq.

---

That is why we have not yet prevailed in Iraq. Even without all the mistakes made by the Bush administration - and what political or military leadership has not made many errors in prosecuting a war? - it could not have foreseen this new form of evil we are witnessing in Iraq.

That is why we have not won.

There are respectable arguments to be made against America's initially going into Iraq. But intellectually honest opponents of the war have to acknowledge that no one could anticipate an "insurgency" that included people leaving children in a car and then blowing them up.

Well-said.

Newt discussed this story also in his latest column called The Reality of Evil and the Men and Women of Munich, and I couldn't agree more that it's important that we say it: our enemies are evil:

The news report came about mid-week. Maybe you saw it.

The Associated Press reported that terrorists in Iraq have passed an unthinkable threshold: They used two children to disguise a car bomb.

The car was waved through a checkpoint by American soldiers who could not imagine that children would be in a car filled with explosives. When the terrorists got to their target, they got out of the car and ran. They left the children behind in the car, and then blew it up.

There is a word for people who put children in a car to be blown up. The word is evil.

How 'bout a Thompson/Gingrich ticket in '08?

Newt's 'Action Agenda to Promote the English Language'...

It's time to put English first.

What can we do to make English the language of government and civic discourse? Three action items top the list:

1. President Bush should end multilingualism in federal documents. The requirement that federal documents be printed in different languages was created by executive order. President Bush should repeal this executive order.

2. Make English the language of U.S. citizenship. Return to English language ballots, to a focus on English language literacy as a prerequisite of citizenship, and to an insistence that U.S. dual citizens vote only in the United States and give up voting in their birth nations. These were principles widely understood and accepted for most of American history, and they enabled us to absorb millions of immigrants and assimilate them and their children into an American civilization.

3. Replace bilingual education with intensive English instruction. We should have a National Program for Intensive English Instruction that would provide highly intensive English and U.S. history and civics training for new immigrants so that they can have the practical skills to become successful U.S. citizens.

It's the Right Thing to Do.

Amen Mr. Gingrich. At least Australia is moving in the right direction.

Read it all at Human Events.

Newt Gingrich has more important things to do than run for President...

Newt announces his new organization - American Solutions:

I went home to Atlanta this week to speak at the Buckhead Coalition, a group of Georgia business men and women and community leaders. I saw friends, supporters and even a few political rivals who I've known for decades. It was a wonderful homecoming.

More than a few people asked me whether or not I'm running for President. My answer is always the same: My focus right now is not on the presidency.

I know this answer confuses the political consultants and reporters who preoccupy themselves over the minutiae of the presidential campaign horse race. But for now, I'm not focused on Nov. 4, 2008. I'm focused on Sept. 27, 2007. Because on that day - the 13th anniversary of the unveiling of the Contract With America - the new organization that I've founded, American Solutions, will do something more urgently needed than presidential posturing.

On September 27, American Solutions will reach out across the country to all 511,000-plus elected office holders in America, their staff, and the citizens who are serving or seeking to serve in these offices. Our goal is to create a wave of change that meets America's challenges, seizes our opportunities and builds a better future for all Americans.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like enough to keep anyone busy for the next seven months. And it sounds a lot better than spending that time watching the polls, endlessly fundraising and otherwise navigating the trivial and tortuous two-year march that we have made of our presidential election process. ...

---

Our goal is to create a wave of change

---

... American Solutions will highlight how American virtues, habits and principles that we know work can help address the challenges that confront our country. It is simply a matter of applying what we already know works.

This Level of Change Cannot be Created From the Oval Office

So we have our work cut out for us. We will spend the next seven months developing an entire new generation of solutions, making sure they are understandable to the American people and that they are supportable by the American people.

Then, on September 27, we will use the power of the Internet to start to make these solutions available to every candidate from both parties in every elected office in the country.

The goals we have set for American Solutions are a lot more difficult and less conventional than running for President. But I believe they are also a lot more important.

If we can move the entire system - if we can have school board members committed to incentives, hospital board members exploiting new technology, and state legislators who understand how to bring market principles to public problems - this country can and will fix itself. This is a level of change that cannot be created from the Oval Office. This level of change has to be brought about by people who care at the local level and want to do common-sense, practical things to make life better for their communities.

Our hope is to reach out across the country and create such a wave of change on a nonpartisan basis that anybody of any background who wants to use science, who wants to use the power of productivity, who wants to revitalize American virtues that work, has the tools to do so and to help others realize their potential as well.

If we can do that, we won't need to fear economic competition from China or India. We won't even need to fear the threats to our survival from rogue dictatorships and their varying alliances with the irreconcilable wing of Islam. And we won't be waiting on Washington politicians to solve our problems.

The liberated energies of 300 million Americans are a dramatically more potent force for good then anyone's force for evil. And I can't think of a more important way to spend the next seven months than helping unleashing that potential. I hope you'll join our effort at American Solutions where you can make a difference.

Newt is stepping up in a big way. Let whatever baggage you perceive him to have go... the man is on a mission, and his message is strong, thoughtful and right.

Paul Weyrich recently discussed Newt's Philosophy:

...Gingrich's issue-driven philosophy, which brought the Republicans to power for the first time in 40 years, was and remains the right way to go. I mention all of this because Gingrich, while not running for President, is pushing various issues and issue clusters, which are right on.

I don't know how Gingrich would perform if he were elected to the highest office in the land but these days he is responsible in that each time I read one of his policy initiatives I want to stand up and cheer. ...

Cheer for Newt. Read more about his ideas to win the future.

Newt, on 2007 being a year for 'getting something done for a change'...

Newt was on Meet the Press this past Sunday. Here's a snippet:

MR. RUSSERT: Are you concerned, however, that with carte blanche, that the government could move in and say, "This mosque is closed, this Web site is shut down"?

FMR. REP. GINGRICH: No. You have -- you have more censorship in the McCain-Feingold bill, which blocks the right of free speech about American campaigns than you have from the FBI closing down jihadists. We've already limited the 1st Amendment right of free speech by a set of rules that are stunningly absurd. In California, you can raise soft money to run negative commercials attacking your opponent through the state party and you cannot raise soft money to run a positive commercial on behalf of your own candidate. That's California state law. It's stunningly stupid and a clear infringement of free speech.

---

[A] Supreme Court justice once said...
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact."

---

So we've had a 30-year period of saying it's OK to infringe free speech as long as it's about politics. But now if you want to be a jihadist, and you want to go kill people, well who are we to say that's morally wrong? I think that's suicidal. I'm using the word deliberately. A country -- a Supreme Court justice once said "The Constitution is not a suicide pact." This country has every right to defend itself, and you saw the same thing recently on this U.S. Airlines provocation, where you had six people go way out of their way to cause trouble, and then claim they were infringed upon. And I think, frankly, the President should invite that U.S. Airlines crew to the White House and thank them, because we ought to set a standard that if you're provocative about killing people, we're not going to show you any mercy.

Amen.

Gingrich/Santorum in '08!

Here's his latest "Winning the Future" article called 2007: A Year of Solutions and Dialogue. 2008: A Year of Ambition and Debate:

... There's one more critical element I plan to bring to our year of solutions and dialogue: the values at the heart of the American tradition.

Four hundred years ago next May, a people arrived in North American believing their rights come from God, and that with hard work, a belief in the future and a willingness to work together, they could create a better world for their children and grandchildren.

If we have that same courage to combine American culture -- free-market principles, the work ethic and the values of American civilization that have allowed us to prosper for 400 years -- with all the opportunities afforded by dramatically accelerating scientific and technological change, I believe we can have American solutions for virtually every challenge we're faced with. I hope you'll join me.

I'm there!

Newt Gingrich Plans Massive Outreach to Renew GOP... (updated)

NewsMax has the story:

The Georgia Republican is spearheading a program called "American Solutions for Winning the Future” in an effort to revitalize the GOP with Ronald Reagan conservatism. ...

Newt is the only visionary I see out there that can pull this off... stay tuned!

Update/Related: Newt discusses the real meaning of Thanksgiving.

Upadate #2: Newt on Searching for Victory in Iraq

'Why I'm running to be the next House minority leader'...

Because Republicans must follow Reagan's vision... by Rep. Mike Pence:

In 1995, House Republicans wrote the following in one of their first governing documents:

America stands at a crossroads. Down one path lies more and more debt and the continued degradation of the Federal Government and the people it is intended to serve. Down the other lies the restoration of the American dream...we choose the second of these roads.

We are once again at a historic crossroads in the nation's future.

The result of last week's election means that America is poised to go down the other path--the wrong one.

Our Minority must stand in the gap and point the path to the other road. We must be a light in the darkness. I brought a weathered pocket copy of the Ten Commandments with me this morning. The card is yellow from nearly twenty years of use. As I was preparing to speak, my eyes fell on a passage I had not noticed before. Exodus 20:20 reads, "Do not be afraid for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you."

Men and women of the Republican conference, Providence has come to test us and I know we will pass this test. We will do the work the American people elect Republicans to do; defend our nation, defend our treasury and defend our values with all we've got.

In the words of the founder of our Republican Party, "with malice toward none and charity toward all," I ask for your support for Minority Leader of the 110th Congress.

Alas... not to be. Establishment candidates beat conservatives... stupid is as stupid does. The GOP just doesn't get it.

Also, 10 reasons not to support Rep. John Boehner, and an open memorandum to House Republicans from Newt Gingrich.

Newt on the UN...

... and on the words of dictators preparing for war.

... and on "Winning the Future":

An issue of threat assessment...

Tony Blankley nails it:

... All those critics who say we should change our foreign policies because we are causing the Islamists to attack us are - whether they use the term or not - arguing to appease aggressors by changing ourselves in conformity with the aggressor's desires.

The politically correct crowd who say we should change the way we talk, think and behave, change our surveillance of Muslims, even here in America, because it offends Islamist sensibilities - wish to gain safety by appeasing the violent and offended Islamists.

These arguments are not immoral or cowardly. If we could vouchsafe America from the danger of nuclear, biological and other mass slaughters of millions of our citizens, it would be reckless not to carefully consider such appeasements.

This is an issue of threat assessment. The appeasers don't see the threat as so great. Thus they think we are overreacting and even adding to the problem.

---

The appeasers don't see the
threat as so great.
Thus they think we are overreacting
and even adding to the problem.

---

But for President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Tony Blair, Australian Prime Minister Howard and (considerably lower on the food chain) me and millions of others, we are convinced that no amount of appeasement of the terrorists' desires will make us safer.

As I wrote in my book last year ("The West's Last Chance"), just as Hitler's Nazis, the radical Islamists are irreconcilable and unlimited in their goals. And, they are expanding their reach into the broad grass roots of Islam throughout the world (including in Europe and the United States).

A maximum effort to extirpate the malignancy is the only and best defense for our way of life.

I'm not against the appeasers because they are immoral or cowardly. I merely disagree with them because I believe that, like Neville Chamberlain, they underestimate the threat, and are thus dangerously wrong.

Damn that's good.

Newt is also on the money... with five big facts that we must confront on this fifth anniversary.

1: The Threat Is Mortal, Direct and Immediate.

2: The Threat Is Global and Involves Increasing Cooperation Among an Emerging Anti-American Coalition

3: Our Enemies Are Increasingly Confident and Clear in Their Statements of What They Intend to Do to Defeat Us

4: Despite These Clear Facts There Is Great Confusion Among our Elites and in the News Media and, Therefore, Among the American People

5: If the Threat Is Truly This Great, Then We Have to Confront the Fact That Much More Must be Done if We Are to Win

'The American Eleven: A Values-Led Plan for Victory in November'

Newt's 11 Ways to Say: "We're Not Nancy Pelosi":

... A Republican majority in the House that spent the next two months on these eleven issues would go a long way toward clarifying the choice between the San Francisco values of Nancy Pelosi and those of a GOP majority. This refreshing approach would reject the "incumbentitis" of relying on pork-barrel spending for reelection and return to the basic populist conservative values which gave us a majority in the first place.

These 11 issues are all clear and all doable.

1. Make English the Official Language of Government.
   
2. Control the Borders.
   
3. Keep God in the Pledge.
   
4. Require a Voter ID Card.
   
5. Repeal the Death Tax, for Good.
   
6. Restore Property Rights.
   
7. Achieve Sustainable Energy Independence.
   
8. Control Spending and Balance the Budget.
   
9. Tie Education Funding to Teacher Accountability.
   
10. Defend America From the Irreconcilable Wing of Islam.
    
11. Focus on Iran and North Korea.

All the details... here.

I'm with Newt.

What's wrong with McCain and Giuliani?

John Hawkins takes his shots:

The Conservative Case Against Rudy Giuliani

... Despite all of his charisma and the wonderful leadership he showed after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani is not a Reagan Republican. To the contrary, Giuliani is another Christie Todd Whitman, another Arlen Specter, another Olympia Snowe. He's a throwback to the "bad old days" before Reagan, when the GOP was run by moderate Country Club Republicans who considered conservatives to be extremists. Trying to revive that failed strategy again is likely to lead to a Democratic President in 2008 and numerous setbacks for the Republican Party.

The Conservative Case Against John McCain

... That should give you a pretty good idea of what some of McCain's biggest flaws are, but what you've seen so far is by no means a comprehensive list. Keep in mind that McCain opposed Bush's attempt to protect marriage by enshrining it in the Constitution, committed adultery in his first marriage, attacked the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, endangered the lives of all Americans by handcuffing our military interrogators, had a meltdown over a boxing commission...you can go on and on like this.

The long and short of it is that John McCain is a deeply flawed candidate who's unlikely to capture the Republican nomination, unlikely to win the presidency, and is unlikely to be a good President even if he somehow makes it to the White House.

Hard to see how the DemNom won't be either Hil or Al. Money matters, and they've got barrels of it. Although I'd guess that Warner will emerge very strong.

So what do we do? Allen is done. Newt would be great, but could he overcome the baggage? Romney? For God's sake, don't even mention Frist. How about Jeb, just for fun. :) Can you imagine?

Serious Wishful thinking here.

More polls, polls, polls.

Our Top-10 National To-do list:

1. Develop and actively push a U.N. resolution requiring Iran and Syria to pay for the cost to rebuild Lebanon. Their sponsorship of Hezbollah, if not their command to Hezbollah, started this war.
   
   
2. Investigate and prosecute as needed, active leaders in the CAIR organization and others like it here in the United States.
   
   
3. Release ANWR and coastal FL and CA to oil drilling.
   
   
4. Proactively destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities and strike Iran as needed to remove them as a threat.
   
   
5. Invest into development of a process to extract oil from oil shale.
   
   
6. Set term limits in Congress.
   
   
7. Increase annual Senate salaries to $2M and annual House salaries to $1M.
   
   
8. Begin building new nuclear energy facilities.
   
   
9. Develop and actively push a U.N. resolution requiring all Iranian and Syrian citizens to immediately vacate southern Lebanon.
   
   
10. Actively encourage states to provide state college tuition for any interested soldier returning from serving in combat overseas.

Newt for President.

AllahPundit kicks ass.

Winning the Argument About the Third World War, by Newt Gingrich

Newt's latest...here:

One week ago, on NBC's "Meet the Press," I described the scale of terrorist attacks and plots, world conflicts, and the hostile declarations by rogue states and their pursuit of nuclear weapons as an emerging Third World War. In the intervening week I have taken advantage of a number of opportunities to set out in detail why I believe it is so important that America confront this reality.

One skeptic I encountered - at least initially - was Matt Lauer, co-host of NBC's "Today Show."

Lauer began our interview with a quote from an academic who claims that America has no option other than to force Israel into an immediate cease-fire with the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas terrorist alliance that is attacking it on two fronts.

I responded by saying why I believe this is exactly the wrong option. The fact is that the members of the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas alliance have no interest in negotiation. The Iranian dictator has announced his intention to defeat America and wipe Israel off the map. Hezbollah and Hamas are similarly dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared on April 9, 2000, "The Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities," and further argued, "Anyone who reads the Koran and the holy writings of the monotheistic religions sees what they did to the prophets, and what acts of madness and slaughter the Jews carried out throughout history ... Anyone who reads these texts cannot think of co-existence with them, of peace with them, or about accepting their presence, not only in Palestine of 1948 but even in a small village in Palestine, because they are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment."

And then I used an analogy to dealing with such people that seemed to hit home. I said to Matt: "When we were faced with this in World War II, Matt, we didn't say, 'Let's negotiate with Adolph Hitler. I'm sure we can find reasonable grounds for only having half of a Holocaust.'

"We said Hitler's regime was evil, that we had to have total victory, and we were very clear about that."

I'm all-in for Newt.

-Home-

Some great quotes...

...from today's Patriot Post:

"The world is a dangerous place to live—not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
—Albert Einstein

"The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be."
—Socrates

"Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past."
—Tyron Edwards

"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."
—Voltaire

"No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion."
—Carrie Chapman Catt

"There is a terrible lot of us who don't think that we come from a monkey, but if there are some people who think that they do, why, it's not our business to rob them of what little pleasure they might get out of imagining it."
—Will Rogers

"Everything our leaders do must be judged by whether it helps or hurts us in defeating terrorists and their state sponsors."
—Newt Gingrich

"It would be dangerous to be in a world without partners. But it would be more dangerous to see friendship where none exists."
—Tony Blankley

"The Increasing Complexity of Everything is good for liberalism (government should be vital, large, demand and bestow much) and not conservatism (government should be smaller, less powerful, less demanding of the treasure and liberty of the citizenry). When everything is a big complicated morass, regular normal people, voters, constituents, become intellectually disheartened. They can also lose sight of core principles."
—Peggy Noonan

"[Sen. Joe] Lieberman isn't only pro-war, he's seen as pro-Bush—a far greater sin... Hatred of Bush drives—or poisons—almost everything in liberal politics now."
—Jonah Goldberg

"Americans in Iraq have found 500 sarin- and mustard-gas-filled artillery shells, live botulinum toxin, cyanide salt, and nearly two tons of uranium... Without threatening intelligence contacts and techniques, the ever-bashful Bush administration owes it to American taxpayers and our Coalition allies to unveil everything it safely can about what we really have found in Iraq."
—Deroy Murdock

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
—Supreme Court Justice William Douglas

"[M]uch of the media treats statements by terrorists and their supporters as true and any denials of wrongdoing by American troops as false and 'a coverup.' These are the same liberal media people who claim to be 'honoring our troops' when they hype every casualty and make a big production of each landmark death, such as the 1000th American killed in Iraq and then the 2000th... We all need to understand the fraudulence of the claim that these media liberals who have been against the military for decades and who have missed no opportunity to smear the military in Iraq are now in the forefront of 'honoring' our troops by rubbing our noses in their deaths, day in and day out. Troops who have won medals for bravery in battle—including one soldier who won a Congressional Medal of Honor at the cost of his life—go unmentioned in most of the mainstream media that is focused on our troops as casualties that they can exploit... Every newspaper and every television commentator has a right to criticize any aspect of the war in Iraq or anywhere else. But when they claim to be reporting the news, that does not mean filtering out whatever goes against their editorial views and hyping unsubstantiated claims that discredit the troops."
—Thomas Sowell

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