“One day he is a conservative, the next a moderate, and another day he is the great compromiser. He has no core on economic issues.”
Lloyd Morton commenting on John McCain
The Wall Street Journal
I don’t much like the Republican Party. Rather, I dislike the Republicans less than I dislike the Democrats, but not by much. I believe I’ve said before that the Republicans are really just “discount Democrats.” The only idea they seem to have is to do what the Democrats are proposing, but claiming they can do it for less money.
In many ways, the Republicans are worse than the Democrats. At least the Democrats want to raise taxes to pay for some of their crazy schemes. The Republicans, having no leadership and no way to out-vote the Democrats, agree to go along with them as long as the money comes from borrowing rather than raising taxes. This way, the Republicans can claim to be ‘fiscal conservatives’ when what they’ve really done is pass the cost of the latest congressional spending spree off on our children and grandchildren.
The country is at a critical juncture. The voters who put Obama into office are disgusted and disillusioned. Democratic presidential hopefuls already are salivating at the prospect of the 2012 Iowa caucus and the early primaries. Not since Lyndon Johnson has a sitting president been staring at humiliation and repudiation by his own party in the way Mr. Obama is right now. Johnson saw, as they say, the handwriting on the wall and chose not even to run for re-election. Obama isn’t that smart, but he’s in for a hell of a battle just to win his own party’s endorsement, much less get re-elected.
But, isn’t this story about John McCain?
Well, yes it is. McCain is the de facto leader of a leaderless party. He’s 73 years old, uninspired and uninspiring. For the first time since the Reagan era, the Republicans have a chance to offer meaningful alternatives to the usual Democratic palaver. But, to do so, they’re going to have to clean house. Get rid of the old guys and bring in some young blood—men and women who have embraced the Constitution and have viable ideas. And I’m not talking about vacuous beauty pageant winners.
McCain is already embroiled in what could be a tough primary, running against J.D. Hayworth, a much younger Republican who is articulate and opposed to big government. Hayworth also is taking a strong stand on illegal immigration. Like it or not, both of these issues are very much on the minds of voters in both parties. And voters in both parties are fed up with politicians who are “in favor of this or that” but on the other hand “are concerned about underlying issues” and “can’t overlook the contributions of this or that constituency” and “the importance of the safety net” and on and on. Politicians don’t even speak in rhetoric any more—just meaningless slogans.
John McCain can save the Republican Party from permanent irrelevance by calling all congressional Republicans over the age of 50 together and saying,
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am retiring from politics and I suggest you do the same. It is time for us to save the Republican Party, as well as our Republic, by turning the reigns of government over a younger generation. Our youth face increasingly bleak prospects and it is our fault—both Republicans and Democrats.
“Through our ineptitude and well-meaning but untutored intervention we have destroyed one of the best public education systems in the world. We have exported our children’s jobs to other countries, not so much because labor is cheaper overseas but because employers in much of the world don’t have to contend with the onerous requirements of OSHA, EPA, EEOC and the rest of the regulators we have empowered to watch over our dwindling production base.
“We are watching Europe decline because of inept immigration policies, low domestic birth rates, expensive social programs, excessive regulation, and government violations of basic rights of privacy. And what are we doing? We’re doing the same thing and somehow think we won’t wind up with the same problems.
Scott Brown and John McCain - To his credit, Senator McCain was one of the few Republicans to voice support for Brown and campaign for him.
“Our children are not fools, although we increasingly force them to live as if they were. Married, a house, a job, children by the time you’re 25? If any of you think those basic expectations of our generation are available for your children or grandchildren, you are woefully out of touch.
“Not only do we have 10% unemployment in this country; we have an additional 17% underemployment—mostly among those of our children who managed to survive our schools and still can’t find meaningful work.
“Our children are sick of watching us kowtow to senior citizens. Our children are sick of watching us spend their money. Our children are sick of living in their parents’ basements. That’s why they voted for Obama and his Hope and Change gang. As you can well imagine, they are now depressed, disillusioned, and disgusted beyond comprehension.
“It is time for the Republican party to repudiate the status quo. And we can best do so by stepping aside and handing a still-viable Republican Party over to a new generation with new ideas. We must do this soon. As did Ross Perot in the 90’s, the Tea Party is going to draw its support from the conservatives who should be part of our base. They are not part of our base right now because we have betrayed them at every turn in order to get re-elected and selfishly put the security of our jobs and our personal comforts ahead of our duties to the Republic.
“A few unemployed septuagenarian Republican politicians won’t make a blip in this country’s jobless numbers but it could do wonders for re-energizing the United States and particularly our young, who are going to spend a lot more time suffering or benefiting from our mistakes or strokes of brilliance than will we.
“It is time for us to step aside.”
“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans…”
John F. Kennedy
Inaugural Speech
January 20, 1961
For the first time in thirty years, construction of new nuclear commercial power reactors is about to commence in the United States. It’s long, long overdue. Here we are, wringing our hands over greenhouse gases, dependence on foreign oil, instability in the Middle East, and so on, yet god forbid we should build a nuke.
Posted by Lloyd Williams 
The Pederasts of Ireland
February 18, 2010"Oooh, Father O'Malley, look! Cub Scouts."
In March 2006, the Commission of Investigation into Child Abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese was ordered to select a representative sample of complaints or allegations of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy between 1975 and 2004.
They had no shortage of cases from which to choose. Over 100 priests were alleged to have committed child sexual abuse over a 30-year period. The commission worked for over four years, investigating 46 of the priests. These 46 were alleged to have sexually abused at least 320 children.
The story is outrageous, offensive, and pathetic but it needs telling.
In the United States, sexual abuse by Catholic priests has become the fodder of stand-up comedians. The number of cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the United States runs into the thousands. Settlements of lawsuits are rumored to have cost the church over a billion dollars, bankrupting some American dioceses.
The story in Ireland has taken longer to develop but events there are, perhaps, even more sinister than those in the United States. The Republic of Ireland contains about 4 ½ million people, 87% of whom are (or, in some cases, were) Roman Catholics.
The abuse stories had been circulating quietly for years but, until the Commission published its report in 2009, few were aware of the extent of the problem. Few, except church insiders, who worked diligently for thirty years to keep the story quiet. Four archbishops of Dublin: John Charles McQuaid, who died in 1973; Dermot Ryan, who died in 1984; Kevin McNamara, who died in 1987; and Cardinal Desmond Connell, who retired in 2004 knew about the abuse but did little or nothing about it.
"Schweinehund! Do you heff any idea how much ziss iss going to cost us?"
According to the Commission report, high-ranking ecclesiastics were concerned only with “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets.”
The Commission released its report in November 2009, causing the Pope to meet in December with “senior Irish bishops.” No doubt, the lead item on the Papal agenda was damage control. According to The Guardian, “Four bishops [out of 24] have offered their resignations, but only one has been accepted, amid squabbles between the bishops over degrees of culpability.” Guilty, not guilty, ashamed or embarrassed, these guys apparently are not going to give up their cushy jobs without a fight.
"We should have worn our beanies. When he sticks these hats up our asses, it's gonna fuckin' hurt."
The best part of the story happened just a few days ago when all 24 Irish bishops were called to the Vatican. Each bishop was called separately before the Pope and given exactly seven minutes to explain his conduct. I think the smart ones took the Sgt. Shultz (Hogan’s Heroes) approach and said, “I zee nussing, I know nussing.” This approach would have to resonate somewhat with a German Pope. Transcripts of the interviews with these ecclesiastical nimrods would make great reading but, odds are, we won’t be seeing them.
This entire matter is of obvious deep concern to His Holiness. In December, he promised that he would write a pastoral letter on the matter to the Irish faithful. Publication of the letter has now been delayed until spring. There is an apparent shortage of stamps in the Vatican.
"Vee heff vays uff dealing wiss you. Perhaps ziss titanium sunflower or vatever it is up your ass vill change your story."