Say Anything Blog

Warning: Put Coffee Down

The FBI is joining the Bush administration’s War on Porn. And it’s looking for a few good agents.

Early last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of “the Director.”

...

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography—not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults

The parodies , ..

Washington Post..

While House Republicans reacted to stinging rejection from America’s voters by refusing to change leadership, their Senate counterparts have tried to use their closing weeks in power to enact a last burst of pork-barrel spending. But that effort was stalled last week by independent-minded Republican senators, spearheaded by two abrasive freshmen and one longtime hair shirt. Before Congress recessed Friday for Thanksgiving, the GOP leadership appeared to capitulate.

The freshmen, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint, campaigning in 2004 in Oklahoma and South Carolina, promised not to fall in line with GOP leaders. Fulfilling that pledge allied them with the long-termer John McCain. They have been backed by Jeff Sessions of Alabama and another freshman, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire. In the lame-duck session’s first week, they played Horatio at the Bridge by combining to block a pork-filled omnibus spending bill.

The bipartisan dismay the dissenters have caused cannot be exaggerated. Hard-working staffers are beside themselves that their lame-duck feast of pork is being thwarted. K Street lobbyists are frustrated that they are being deprived of a vehicle for their special-interest amendments.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran wanted President Bush, in Asia on a trade mission, to phone DeMint and ask him to stop blocking the agriculture appropriations bill. It did not happen, and the Republican leaders mournfully agreed to the cost-cutting resolution. An irate House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, who has taken pride in passing his committee’s bills on schedule and filled with earmarks, called the outcome an “absolute disaster and catastrophe.”

Among senators wailing that their pet projects are being derailed, none has been louder than Democrat Kent Conrad, who will be Budget Committee chairman in the new Congress. A self-described fiscal conservative (because he wants tax increases), Conrad submitted 41 proposals busting the Bush budget in 2005 alone. He was so distraught last week that the agriculture money bill blocked by DeMint contained $4.9 billion in additional emergency relief that he threatened to stop any money bills from passing in the lame-duck session. He did not follow through with this program of actually closing the government

.
...

hehe

..
Here are seven myths rapidly gaining acceptance among conservatives, liberals or both:

— Republican losses were in keeping with typical setbacks for a party holding the White House in the sixth year of a presidency. Conservatives reassure themselves that the “six-year itch” has cost the party in power roughly 30 seats on average since World War II, so this year’s losses aren’t remarkable. But as liberal blogger Kevin Drum points out, most of the big “itches” came prior to the past 20 years when gerrymandering got more sophisticated. Reagan lost only five seats in his sixth year, and Clinton only five (although he had already suffered a wipeout in 1994). For Democrats to win 29 seats despite all the advantages of incumbency enjoyed by the GOP is a big deal.

— The conservative base, discouraged by the GOP’s doctrinal impurity, didn’t show up at the polls. This is the bedtime story conservatives are telling themselves to show that whatever ails the party will be cured simply by becoming more conservative. In 2004, however, conservatives were 34 percent of the electorate and liberals 21 percent. In 2006, the numbers were almost indistinguishable — conservatives were 32 percent of the electorate and liberals 20 percent. The GOP didn’t lose the election with its base, but with independents, who broke against them 57 percent to 39 percent.

..
— The election was a great victory for conservative and moderate Democrats. If Democratic leaders gave their candidates leeway to take socially conservative positions, this year’s new crop of Democrats still isn’t a departure from the party’s overwhelming liberalism. A few attention-grabbing, successful Democratic House candidates, Health Shuler of North Carolina and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, are truly conservative. But only about five of the 29 Democratic winners in the House can be considered social conservatives. They will be lonely.
..

I found the following comment/analysis/assessment in this thread over at Redstate.com so interesting, I thought I should share it with people here. 

...
Some conservatives seem to think simply following the policies they advocate will result in winning. Libertarians and social conservatives both seem to believe that their ideas are popular enough to win elections if politicians would just have the guts to stand for something. Well, President Bush has certainly stuck to his guns on a number of issues (the war, immigration, tax cuts, education, etc.)but that hasn’t made him popular.

What makes it complicated is that “moderates” and “centrists” are different across the country and even within regions. Some moderates dislike overly-zealous conservatism both economic and social. Others tend toward cultural conservatism but have a strong tendency towards economic populism (minimum wage, more school funding, etc.) Establishment Republicans and grass roots conservatives seem to be at each other’s throats these days but both blocks are needed in many states to win elections.

Yes, small but effective government is something that can unify the GOP but agreement on individual policies are much more difficult. I also think it is significant that many economic conservatives are supply siders but the public at large is much more prone to economic populism and even protectionism. Economic libertarianism seems very rare in the public at large from my perspective but are populaar online.

Yes, we need to rededicate ourselves to our principles but we also need leaders who can effectively communicate why these ideas are best for all Americans. We also need better candidates and campaigns so that we strategically re-build a regionally diverse majority. Good policy isn’t always universally popular.
...

[comment #14]

I think its somewhat of what Mary Matalin meant with "Dressing Conservatism Up Like Britney Spears" comment.

He’s a Democrat..

"Our duty in the Minority is to communicate a forceful vision of limited government, traditional values and reform that will propel our party back into the Majority in 2008.”

here

..GOP voters yesterday wanted to vote a straight Republican ticket but "nobody could find a straight Republican."

Pence Declares:

I am running for Republican leader because I believe that we did not just lose our Majority—we lost our way. We are in the wilderness because we walked away from the limited government principles that minted the Republican Congress.

update:

another hell yeah, ..

Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) announces candidacy for Min. Whip

..Shadegg is a good governing principles man

In Praise of Evangelicals

. The Republican party lost desicevely DESPITE having gotten its base to the polls.

. The Republicans have an effective but overated GOTV Program.

. The Democrats have an effective GOTV program.

. There’s a new Carl Rove in town; his name is Rhanm Schumer.

. Relative to the Speaker Hastert Congress, the Speaker Pelosi Congress will have a very low bar to climb.

. Even to the last momments, the Republican party was giving issuies to the Democrats: Legislate something definitive against the damn robocalls.

. Independents yesterday: I’m here.

So it seems, according to this story on Fox News:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The leader of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, resigned Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man in monthly trysts over the past three years.

..

Mike Jones, 49, of Denver told The Associated Press he decided to go public with his allegations because of the political fight. Jones, who said he is gay, said he was upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

“It made me angry that here’s someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex,"said Jones, who added that he isn’t working for any political group.

Jones, whose allegations were first aired on KHOW-AM radio in Denver, claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. Jones also said Haggard snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.

Haggard and his attorney, Martin Nussbaum, did not return calls Thursday night from the AP.

Jones said that he had advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and that a man who called himself Art contacted him. Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard.

He said that he last had sex with Haggard in August and that he did not warn him before making his allegations this week.

Jones said he has voice mail messages from Haggard, as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash, though he declined to make any of it available to the AP.

“There’s some stuff on there (the voice mails) that’s pretty damning,"he said.

...Ed “Any White Guy” Schrock almost to the letter.

Sadi Arabia Iran Offering Cash to Travel Agents for American Tourists

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has said it would offer cash incentives to travel agencies to encourage Western tourists to visit the country, giving a premium for Americans , the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday.

...

“Iran’s tourism department will pay US$20 per person to those who attract European or American tourists to the country,” the agency quoted Mohammed Sharif Malakzadeh, deputy head of the department, as saying.

Visitors from other countries would earn travel agents US$10 a tourist, Malakzadeh said.

a few lucky winner will get a free tour of our nuclear reactors and a sample of our enrich plutonium to take back home as a souvenir . the fine prints:..CIA agents and Jews need not apply.