In a comment to a recent post, reader Paul expressed one of the standard (but inaccurate) criticisms leveled against the Republican Party:

In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away their rights) 

Many of those who offer this opinion have never talked (for any extended period of time) with a Republican, have never attended a Republican gathering and have rarely (if at all) read essays, Op-eds or blog posts where Republicans talk about their overarching political philosophy or the policy proposals they advocate.  They get their news about us from the MSM and left-wing blogs.

 It’s amazing how misinformed these critics are about the object of their derision.

While there is abundant evidence from the current Congress of Democratic legislation which would push their ideology on others, limiting our liberty and regulating the way we build our homes, run our businesses, purchase our health insurance and interact with others in the marketplace, I wonder if Paul (and others who offer the same criticism of the GOP he does) can he (or others who share his viewpoint) can cite actual legislation Republicans have proposed which would “push” our beliefs on others?

Legislation that they have pushed with as much vigor as the Democratic President and congressional leadership has pushed their statist agenda?

He wants to keep the issue alive as a distraction from his agenda.

The better to smear Republicans.

Similar to the point I made over the weekend about most of the health care debate missing the point, that it should be about individual liberty, not about cost savings or sad-sack stories about people in need (a point, of course, even better made by Mark Steyn in the NRO piece to which I linked), there’s an analagous dissonance when it comes to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Today we find that the Midwest may be receiving some of the detainees from GITMO, and that’s starting to rile the locals in flyover country. Naturally, folks there (and anywhere they’re given the chance to respond, if asked) don’t care for terrorists living in their midst, even if under “maximum security”. This concern is given even greater weight when we look at what some incarcerated terrorists are trying to do.

But the story becomes even more chilling (and bizarre) when we read that the “Justice Department has identified about 80 detainees who could be charged and prosecuted, either in military or federal criminal courts.”

CHARGED?

For those paying attention, this seems odd. These “detainees” are NOT criminals. They are NOT being held on criminal warrants or accusations of crimes. They are COMBATANTS (illegal, at that) in a war that is currently ongoing. They are not being held at Guantanamo Bay because they are awaiting trial for allegedly committing crimes. They were not “harshly interrogated” to elicit confessions to be used against them in a trial. They are active fighters in a war. War, people, WAR.

Japanese and Germans captured during WWII were not put on trial until AFTER the war, and at that time, it was for war crimes. Those prisoners were not given trials while the war was going on for some sort of crime. They weren’t afforded rights of the accused, because they weren’t being held as accused. They were being detained to keep them off the battle field.

As much as the Left wishes this weren’t a war, they’re wrong. And their confusion over the situation is truly confounding. It’s often said that these people at GITMO “aren’t your petty theives.” They didn’t simply steal a car or even beat someone up. When we argue from that standpoint, we’re conceding the biggest point of all: Not that their supposed “crimes” are more abhorrent than a common crook, but that any supposed “crimes” have anything at all to do with why they’re there.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the crazy one, ya know?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

Again, I’m preaching to the choir, I know. Anybody who reads this blog regularly won’t be surprised to find that Barack Obama’s plan all along has been to Stalinize the entire health care industry, and he’s lying through his tobacco-stained teeth when he says it isn’t. Hell, even the lurkers and “little letter” people who swoop in to show their ignorance can’t really deny it. Well, they try sometimes, but now, thanks to Breitbart and an industrious YouTuber, we have the following montage:

It’s too bad I don’t have cable here at HQ. I’d love to see this on ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN. I’m sure they’re all running it at the top of the hour tonight, no?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

In a Western society, when someone commits a barbaric act, emergency services rush to the scene of the crime to try to save as many people as possible while the police and other investigative organizations start to seek out clues and sift through evidence in order to to determine the cause of the crime and to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrator.

In the wake of the attack Saturday on a gay and lesbian center in Tel Aviv, that is exactly what Israeli organizations and authorities have been doing.  Even officials at the highest levels of Israeli government have responded, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu considering it during his weekly cabinet meeting and the Israeli Knesset committing to address the issue “when the legislature convenes [today] for an already-scheduled special recess session.”

Sending “condolences to the families of the two people killed in the attack and wish[ing] the wounded a speedy recovery,” Netanyahu decried the massacre:

I unequivocally condemn the shocking murder. . . . I have spoken with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and stand by the police in searching for and finding the killer. We will bring him to justice and will prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. . . . 

I say to the Israeli people: We are a democratic country, we are a country of tolerance, a country of laws, and we must respect every person, whoever and wherever he is.

It is good to see the leader of a nation speak out so swiftly and unequivocally about these murders.  Let us hope his blunt talk leads to the quick apprehension of the killer and his speedy prosecution.

So should all leaders react, publicly showing respect for the dignity of each individual, regardless his background, regardless what aspects of his (or her) character cause him to differ from the social norm. 

Also to note is the number of Israeli officials who called this a terror attack–which it was.

Both Glenn and Michelle (in her Buzzworthy column) linked posts addressing comments Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made recently about the budget.

Suggesting that the government may have to raise taxes on the middle class, Geithner contended that to “bring these deficits down” requires “some very hard choices.”  Why can’t the Administration make such hard choices by cutting government spending even if that means defying the various interest groups which helped secure the President’s election last fall.

As “Jefferson,” commenting to Michael Silence’s blog (linked by Glenn) wrote:   “if I want to lower my annual widescreen plasma TV outlays, I don’t negotiate a volume deal with my local electronics retailer, I just stop buying them.”

Congressional Republicans lost their majority, in large part, because they refused to make the hard choices voters elected them to make, to stand up to interest groups and lobbyists and hold the line on government spending.  Democrats did well these past two election cycles in large measure because the people had lost confidence in Republicans’ abilities to make such choices.

Now, we see Democrats refusing to make such choices and contending that their only “choice” is to make a very hard choice, Obama’s campaign promise notwithstanding, and raise taxes on the middle class.

Will we ever elect politicians who choose to cut spending?