J's Cafe Nette

Archive for May 14th, 2007

It must be nice to be employed by the taxpayer to conduct endless hearings which are based on nothing more than the simple premise of right from wrong.

When I registered to vote I did so knowing I had the absolute right to do so and when my ballot was cast it was in good faith. Today we are graced with this from the WaPo explaining to us that the GOP and more specifically Karl Rove was behind the firing of the US Attorneys due to lack of investigation of voter fraud.

While this revelation is not new it certainly goes to the validity of these hearings. Karl Rove is a Senior Advisor to the President and the Commander in Chief can fire for any reason one or all of the US attorneys. How sad this obsession with any “gotcha” whether justified or unjustified, that it would allow grown men and women to conduct themselves in such a juvenille fashion.

Here is a portion of the article.

Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.

Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud — Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.

Notice the name Karl Rove twice in these two paragraphs and as you read further you will see it five more times. Seems strange to me that we now condemn individuals for doing the job which we as taxpayers finance. Last I looked, what Mr. Rove was doing is what advisers do..investigate and advise.

Attorney General Gonzales got it right in my book when he testified before the Judiciary Committee:

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales reflected the prevailing GOP view when he testified last week before the House Judiciary Committee, saying that the Justice Department has “an obligation” to prosecute voter fraud.

“[T]his notion that somehow voter fraud is a dirty word, I don’t understand it, because you’re talking about people stealing votes, canceling out legitimate votes,” Gonzales said.

If in fact the reason behind these firings is lack of investigation and prosecution of voter fraud then I for one applaud the decision loudly..if it was because of the way a particular attorney parted his hair then I say the President has that right.

Perhaps if some Republicans who acted in a less than courageous manner in their criticisms in this matter would have stepped up to defend the President and the Attorney General, this issue would have disappeared as have so many others. This is not a Congressional oversight issue it is an inherent right of the holder of the Office of the President of the United States, and a fair and honest election is the right of all citizens in this country.

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The midterm elections that swept congressional Democrats into power sparked fresh obituaries for the religious right.

Are the obituary writers correct? Is the traditional-values movement declining? Has the nation had enough of “moralizing busybodies,” as Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter put it, influencing policy?

[...]

According to analysts on the left and right, the traditional-values movement isn’t dead or even dying. In fact, four of its largest groups — Family Research Council Action, Focus on the Family Action, American Values and Alliance Defense Fund — are planning their second “values voters summit” in October.

All 2008 presidential candidates have been invited to the event, which should rival the groups’ first summit, which drew more than 1,700 people in September. That gathering was similar in size to the “Road to Victory” Christian Coalition of America conferences of the 1990s.

This year’s values summit will focus on issues such as the sanctity of life, marriage, religious freedom, bioethics, immigration reform, health care, radical Islam, judicial activism, geopolitics, national security, Hollywood and the press.

Christians and social conservatives are “motivated by issues,” not partisan politics, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins explained at a press breakfast last month sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “They have a clear sense of right and wrong, and when they see wrong, they want to correct it.”

Many traditional-values activists think that the 2006 midterm elections were a wake-up call for their movement and that they must do some retrenching and rethinking of its strategies. Major topics of conversation include changes in the movement’s leadership and leadership style; greater outreach to minorities, women, youth and religious voters; and, at least some traditional-values leaders say, political independence.

“The traditionalists have to make their case more clearly and strongly,” said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute at the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group. “They also can’t be dependent on one political party. They have to be independent. That’s how you have political clout.”

The traditional values groups are going to make the Republicans work as hard for their vote as the Democrats and are not going to be taken for granted anymore.

Follow this three-part series at the Washington Times beginning today.

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And I’m one of them. I think he is what he seems to be, his partying days are over since he remarried and had children, and he’s a great communicator. Now if he’ll just announce…

Several leading Christian conservatives say they will rally to former Sen. Fred Thompson, who they expect to announce “in a matter of weeks” that he will seek the Republican nomination for president next year.

“It’s not ‘if’ but ‘when,’ he will announce,” one Protestant evangelical leader says of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering for position in the 2008 race.

A prominent Roman Catholic social conservative says the three Republicans who have raised the most money and have led the polls — former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — fall short of social conservatives’ expectations, but Mr. Thompson doesn’t. “He’s right on the issues … He’s better than all of the above.”

Both the Protestant and Catholic activist, like other Christian conservatives, spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity.

They say their support for Mr. Thompson is shared by like-minded conservatives, though the sentiment is not unanimous in their circles. Many born-again Christians are said to be skeptical of Mr. Giuliani’s views on abortion and same-sex “marriage,” of Mr. Romney’s change of position on abortion and of his Mormon religious faith, and of Mr. McCain’s advocacy of campaign-finance reforms that restrict speech and issues-advocacy ads.

Run, Fred, Run! If not I’ll have to hold my nose and vote for someone else.

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Laura Lee Donoho shares an email received from her son serving in Iraq which shows history certainly does repeat itself. Here’s a little peek but please go read the entire piece.

We ventured to remark, several months ago, that the Administration had shown its entire incompetency to conduct the present war. We regret to be compelled to reiterate this opinion, but the sad experience of every day has not only confirmed it, but demands, in the name of our beloved Union, that the Press of the country speak out and spare not.

It is undeniable that every move our army has made has been a blunder, our naval expeditions proved failures, and our battles resulted in defeats;with the exception of the brilliant little affair at Drainsville–the only bright spot in the dark and bloody panorama before us.

Read on…

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From Right Wing News we get this quote on the Governor of Kansas and her attempt to blame the Bush administration for not helping during the recent tornado:

Here’s a quote from a New York Times article on the attempt of Kathleen Sebelius to blame George Bush for her slow and incompetent response to a tornado in Kansas,

As State Senator Donald Betts Jr., Democrat of Wichita, put it: “We should have had National Guard troops there right after the tornado hit, securing the place, pulling up debris, to make sure that if there was still life, people could have been saved. The response time was too slow, and it’s becoming a trend. We saw this after Katrina, and it’s like history repeating itself.”

Now comes the observation of a Kansas resident courtesy of American Thinker: Read the rest of this entry »

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