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Intellectual Conservative PoliticsIowa.com Weekly Weblog No Runny Eggs
This is the personal weblog of Aakash Raut, established Sept. 2002. It will cover current affairs, worldwide & national topics, local & university events, and provide insight and commentary on contemporary issues and the news from his perspective. Enjoy! --------------- ARCHIVES Sept 2002 - Now -------------
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Friday, March 26, 2004
It has been one week since the one year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, and I was planning some entries for this... One of those entries is below. Right now, I have to do some things here at school, and have to prepare for the annual convention of the Illinois College Republican Federation; we are leaving for the convention, in Chicago, tomorrow morning. I'll try to have some more stuff up here soon. Thanks. There has been a great deal of debate about the issue of how well - or how bad - the situation in Iraq has been going, and about how the media has been covering this situation, and about how the Iraqi people view our government's policies in their country. There has been a lot of criticism - from supporters of the war - at the media coverage of the Iraq situation; they have alleged that the media coverage has been biased, and excessively negative, and that that had been responsible for the decline in public support for the war last fall. (Due to the capture of Saddam Hussein in December, the public's support of the Iraq war shot back up; it has since then been going back and forth.) In a guest blog entry at 'Deux Ego,' I addressed the issue of the alleged bias in media coverage of the war, and the claim that the liberal media was giving a negative slant to the Iraq war situation: The Front Line: http://pieterfriedrich.com/blog/entries/00000230.htm As I pointed out in a blog entry below, many liberals supported this war, including some in the media. And as I have pointed out before (like in the above-mentioned guest blog entry), some of the negative media coverage of the Iraq war situation has come from conservative media sources, not just from the liberal media. Anyway, with regard to the Iraq war situation, many of the supporters of this operation have been claiming that things are going relatively well, and that the claims of chaos and catastrophe in post-war Iraq are overblown. Many opponents of the war, however, and even some supporters of it, have been pointing out the major problems that have been occuring in Iraq, and have been claiming that this is a bad situation that our leaders have gotten us into. With the situation in Iraq, there are indeed positive reports coming in - from our soldiers, from American civilians who have traveled there to examine the situation, and from some reporters and press reports as well. But just as many people have talked about, written about, and chosen to emphasize the good things that are happening in that part of the world, there are those soldiers, American civilians, and reporters who have been giving accounts of the negative things going on there as well. And it can become very difficult for those of us back here to know exactly what is going on, and to be able to discern where the truth really lies. Oftentimes, the truth lies in between varying and conflicting accounts of a situation like this. A lot of people have been commenting on, and posting at their sites, letters from our soldiers, and from other Americans, who are in Iraq. There has also been a lot of discussion and debate about the attitude of the Iraqis towards our soldiers, our country, and our people. Awhile back, I saw an entry at the site of the great blogger Andrew Olmsted, a supporter of the Iraq war, and a military veteran (or perhaps he's still in the service; I don't know). This entry contained a report from a soldier in Iraq, which gives an overview of the conditions there, including an account of the attitude of the Iraqis. I think that that entry of Andrew's that I saw was this one, from November 2nd: http://andrewolmsted.com/MT/archives/000288.html That entry contains a report from the serviceman, with a commentary by Andrew. The report contains observations regarding the security situation in Iraq, the standard of living and economic conditions of the Iraqis, the Iraqis' attitudes towards Americans, and other aspects of the post-war situation. This entry is from some months ago, but it is very good, and maybe a lot of it is still relevant today. Friday, March 19, 2004
It's been awhile since I've done an entry like this... Recent opinion pieces about the war: (from the Right) U.S. Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX): - Iraq: One Year Later - Praise the Troops, Not the War Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski: - Assessing the Bush Doctrine Experiment, One Year Later Joe Galloway, Knight-Ridder, Military.com: - Hate War, but Love the American Warrior "It is good that the American people are not blaming their soldiers for the failures of political leadership." William S. Lind, Free Congress Foundation, Military.com - Why They Throw Rocks - The Beginning of Phase Three Arnaud de Borchgrave, Washington Times, UPI: - Iraq power grab - What did Musharraf know? Paul Craig Roberts: - 9/11 Incongruities: Why Stop With Clarke’s 911 Revelations? (Also see this annotated version) Thomas Gale Moore: - The Iraq War: Is the United States Better Off? Robert Higgs: - Taking Stock One Year After the U.S. Invasion of Iraq Ivan Eland, CATO Institute, Independent Institute: - Mayhem in Madrid Vince Page, Constitution Party of Texas: - Pre-emption Does Not Equal Democracy Jude Wanniski, Polyconomics: - Anniversary of an Unnecessary War Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Updates:
Check out the Illinois Leader for the latest in post-primary election news and views, and other topics... It is our state's premier conservative web publication. The following are some Illinois bloggers, who have some material up about the election, and about our current political situation: - The Chicago Report - Jeff Trigg - Greg Blankenship - Peoria Pundit - ArchPundit - Song of the Suburbs - Eric Zorn Here are some other websites: - ILSenate.com - Modern Vertebrate - Eric Zorn Also check out Illinois Issues, the magazine published by my university, the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS). The primary election is over, and I did not do posts about the primary contest for U.S. Senate... Nonetheless, I have two posts below, on two of the Republican candidates for this position. Many Republicans, at least here in Sangamon County, did not vote on the primary. There were several reasons for this, but one unfortunate motive behind the non-voting in this year's GOP primary had to with the issue of state and city jobs in Illinois. In our state, a voter's party affiliation is determined by which primary he or she votes in. It is known that many public sector employers check to see what party's ballot their potential or current employees took. This is an unfortunate aspect of the primary system in Illinois. One of the good candidates for U.S. Senate was State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, who spoke at one of our College Republicans meetings (unfortunately, there were only seven CRs who were in attendance there; we didn't know that he was going to speak). As I noted below, I had been backing conservative candidate John Cox for U.S. Senate, but unfortunatley, he withdrew from the race, and endorsed Rauschenberger. The Illinois Leader, our state's premier conservative web publication, also endorsed him, following their "Survivor"-style candidate series. When State Senator Rauschenberger spoke at our College Republicans meeting, I had mentioned that, when I went a recent officers' meeting of the ICRF (which I mentioned in this Jan. 19th blog entry), he had a representative speaking for his campaign there, who also distributed some campaign materials, and I got the impression that Mr. Rauschenberger was an independent and principled conservative, who was willing to stand up for his viewpoints, and not just toe the party line. (I admire that very much in people - both elected officials and bloggers.) I asked Mr. Rauschenberger about this, and he confirmed this quality of his, although he also made clear that he does believe in using some pragmatism - in order to work with others, and get things done. He mentioned that he has, in the past, had disagreements with Illinois Republican Party leaders, such as our former governors, George Ryan and Jim Edgar. I asked him if, while he had been willing to take principled stands against policies that he disagreed with, even if they came from our state Republican Party leaders, if he would also be willing to do so with regard to our national Republican Party leaders, including President Bush. I mentioned that a lot of conservatives have been frustrated with the profligacy in spending from this administration... I asked Mr. Rauschenberger if he would be willing to oppose policies of the Bush administration, if he disagreed with them. He responded affirmatively, pointing out that he has been opposing the "No Child Left Behind" program - he had a nice phrase for it, which I don't recall exactly, but he is Right on on this issue. Here is a discussion thread about this from the Illinois Leader discussion boards. (Unfortunately, the Leader chose to recently reverse the order of its message board postings, so that the initial post in the thread is now the bottom-most, and the more recent ones are on top. I wish that they would put it back the way it used to be, with the thread-starting post on the top. If you want to read the initial post in that thread, scroll down to the bottom.) Or, you can read it here... Here is the initial post in this discussion thread, followed by some of the others: Message by Britney
(The comments there about "milkman" were referring to Jim Oberweis, the Republican candidate who has been criticizing President Bush's proposed amnesty for illegal aliens.) Here are some articles about these issues: Jan. 30, 2004: GOP Senate rivals back away from Bush Feb. 1, 2004: Immigration, Bush proposal divides Republican Senate candidates Mr. Rauschenberger or former State. Rep. Jonathan Wright were likely the best candidates for this U.S. Senate seat. In the 2002 elections for U.S. Senate in Illinois, I was backing John Cox, who was running then against Jim Oberweis and Jim Durkin, the latter of whom ended up being the nominee, and ended up losing to incumbent Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (it was Durbin vs. Durkin). Both Mr. Cox and Mr. Oberweis were running this time around in the GOP Senate primary, and I was backing Cox, but he withdrew from the race. In 2002, Oberweis was not very strong on the issue of abortion - I think that he was pro-choice then... and he made a controversial comment somewhat-likening conservative Christians to Islamic fundamentalists, which irked some conservatives. Oberweis ran this time around... Some months ago, he chose to adopt the issue of illegal immigration as a campaign theme; he took a firm stance against President Bush's proposal to grant amnesty to some illegal aliens. Oberweis got a lot of criticism for the approach that he took on this issue - and regarding the attitude that his campaign ads presented. His criticism of President Bush's plan on this issue was viewed as too harsh. However, Mr. Oberweis is absolutely correct on this issue, and President Bush is absolutely wrong. Furthermore, opposition to illegal immigration, and the advocacy of tighter controls on immigration overall - this is a winning issue; it appeals to conservatives, Republicans, and some liberals and Democrats as well (such as those involved in labor or environmentalist causes), and even some libertarians. And, contrary to what some believe, it is minority-Americans (African-Americans, as well as some Hispanics and Asians, including many immigrants) who have been among the strongest critics of illegal immigration, and have been among the most frustrated by the adverse impacts that it has been having on our nation's socio-economic infrastructure. Immigration reform is a winning issue - and it is popular among Americans all across the political spectrum. Update (4/25/04): Some steamed by Oberweis chairman's ads, Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2004 Campaigning for the Republican nomination for U.S. senator, Jim Oberweis ran television spots that angered some viewers and may hurt his dairy business. (via Greg Blankenship) This news makes me mad. Oberweis is right on this issue. Below are some pertinent links on the immigration issue, from a variety of sources (many of them from the Left): - Numbers USA - Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America - Sierrans for U.S. Population Stablization (not officially affiliated with the Sierra Club) - Carrying Capacity Network - Negative Population Growth - Campaign for a Responsible Population Policy (archived site) - Center for Immigration Studies - Project USA - The Social Contract - U.S. Domestic Overpopulation (from EcoFuture - Immigration and the Environment (from F.A.I.R.) - Environmental Impact of Immigration (from the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus) - How Mass Immigration Policies Hurt Animals - Urban Sprawl (see also the latest news on this and obesity) - DesertInvasion.us - Population-Environment Balance - Is Overimmigration Immoral? (policy harms the poor, the unborn, and the environment) - Immigration Reform and Progressive Populism (Democrats and liberals should support lower immigration) - Who is Hurt? (mass immigration's effect on African-American workers) - Immigration's Impacts on Minorities - Immigration and Black Americans - Immigration and Affirmative Action - The Immigration Lie (article by Cedric Muhammad, President, Black Electorate Communications) - "Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are!" - Booker T. Washington's 1895 "Atlanta Compromise Speech" ----> more on this speech, and this issue Happy St. Patrick's Day! Via TownHall.com: The Real St. Patrick St. Patrick didn’t chase the snakes out of Ireland. Instead, God used him to forever transform the Irish people. Update (3/23/04): Josh's St. Patrick's Day entry features a post by the Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts, also on "The Real St. Patrick." Monday, March 15, 2004
Note (4/16/04): Despite their dates and time stamps, I actually published this entry, and the two entries under it, this afternoon - Tuesday, March 17, 2004. I should have had, by now, some entries written about today's primary election, but I did not do that. Darn it! John Borling (R) - Retired Air Force General, Vietnam War POW & Energy Consultant www.borlingforsenate.com (630) 773-0404 Norm Hill (R) - Insurance Executive, GOP Activist & Army Veteran www.normhill2004.com (312) 946-0040 Chirinjeev Kathuria (R) - Telecom Company CEO & Physician www.kathuriaforsenate.com (312) 726-5700 ext. 225 Andy McKenna Jr. (R) - Paper Company President www.mckennaforsenate.com (847) 724-6398 Jim Oberweis (R) - Securities Firm Executive, Dairy Company Owner & '02 Candidate www.oberweisforsenate.com (877) 603-2004 Steve Rauschenberger (R) - State Sen. & Ex-Furniture Retailer www.steve2004.com (847) 742-2004 (800) 322-VOTE Jack Ryan (R) - Teacher & Retired Investment Banker www.jackryan2004.com (312) 258.8600 (888) 880-2004 Jonathan Wright (R) - Ex-State Rep., Ex-State Appellate Court Judge & Attorney www.wright2004.com (217) 732-3262 via Politics1.com From Patterico's post, I found out yesterday that Armed Liberal and Spoons both got married this weekend. Congratulations! See my comment at Patterico's post about Spoons (whose real name is Christopher Kanis)... I had thought that he was already married! Update (3/19/04): Mr. and Mrs. Spoons are leaving for their honeymoon tonight... on a tropical isle (which some have wanted to make our 51st state... Bad idea...). I just found this funny entry by Dr. Weevil from around the time that the newlyweds got engaged. Spoons and Forks? It's time for the meal! I wish I was in a group of people in which we did events like this. I commented on that right here. Very, very cool - and classy. Sunday, March 14, 2004
A Very Cool College Republican I saw, on the great site LewRockwell.com, that there was an article there by Jason Mattera, the now-famous President of the College Republicans at Roger Williams University. I went to the home page of Young America's Foundation, a leading nationwide conservative organization, aimed at helping the Americans of our generation (Mr. Mattera is a member of Club 100, as am I... though I have not been active in it, unlike him), and I see that that article by Mr. Mattera is featured on their home page. Here is the YAF page with the background info on the white scholarship award. I see the great website of the RWU College Republicans... It has a blog, which I will be adding to my blogroll soon. The CR club at RWU seems like a great organization - a model for College Republican and student organizations throughout the country. We need more young people to take firm stands on the issues, and to be willing to accompany these positions with bold actions. I had forwarded out to some people that column by Jason Mattera... I may have noticed at that time that it mentions Sean Hannity, who I was planning to go see at a Decatur event, with other Society of Conservative Students members (which we did, see my last Feb. 29th entry, three posts below this one). Here are excerpts from the beginning and the end of that article: RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie has much to worry about: a soaring deficit, low approval ratings for President Bush, and an amnesty program that has Bush’s conservative base fuming. So what is Gillespie’s next move? Writing to a 20-year-old College Republican. His letter scolded me for sponsoring a much-publicized "whites-only" scholarship, a political gesture designed as a parody to protest affirmative action and race-based scholarships handed out by federally-subsidized universities.
...Despite Gillespie’s objections, my group will continue to use the Republican symbol because we stand for principle, not for political pragmatism. The word "Republican" will become meaningless if our leadership continues to compete with Democrats on who can be the better liberal. Our Party should be proud to unite against affirmative action. If you cannot stand behind Republican principles, or if you cannot defend them properly in the face of liberalism, then you should not be a leader or spokesman for the Republican Party.
Read the great article by Jason at: www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/mattera1.html Here is the transcript from the Hannity & Colmes show where he appeared. It's good that, like myself (see three entries below), Jason wasn't "Hannitized." I recently discovered the collegiate conservative columnist Ryan Merryman, and added an excellent column of his to my recent entry about the ongoing perilous situation facing the Christians of Iraq. That article by Ryan, which I found via this post at the Antiwar.com blog, hits upon the very issues that I had been thinking about, and writing about - the Christians of Iraq, the division between traditional conservatism vs. neoconservatism, and its connection to the Iraq war, and the need for a Republican challenger to President Bush in the primaries. This entry of mine from about a year ago contains some material from young conservatives (and libertarians) against the Iraq war. Updates: There are actually a lot of people of my generation who are conservative, but unfortunately, many of them do not know that much about political philosophy, and about the different schools of political thought. There are a lot of people - young and old - who do not understand what true conservative is, and how to differentiate between traditionalist conservatives, neoconservatives, and others. This is a rather complex political and philosophical issue, so it's understandable that many Americans do not know much about it - even some of those who majored in political science don't understand these issues. One phenomenon that occurs - for conservatives, and probably liberals as well - is that their movement has more strength, vigor, and integrity when someone from the opposite movement or party is in power. For example, shortly after Bill (and Hillary) Clinton were elected President in 1992, the conservative movement was very strong. A "moderate" administration such as that of George W. Bush, which has policies that are in some ways more liberal than the Clinton administration, is more liked, or more tolerated, than a Democratic administration would be, simply because tje head of state has an "R" next to his name. This is a phenomenon that occurs in politics - the same policies that would be opposed, on principle, by conservatives (or by liberals), are less opposed, and more tolerated and accepted, if the administration supporting them has an "R" (or a "D") by it. If a president like Reagan were in office, things would be different, and American conservatism would be strong than it is now. But a presidency like Bush's has actually damaged the strength and potency of American conservatism. But aside from that issue, regarding the matter of young Americans and conservatism... Many young conservatives and College Republicans do not understand what true conservatism is, especially with regard to the issue of foreign policy. During the Clinton administration, there were many more conservatives and Republicans who were anti-war, anti-interventionism, anti-globalism, and who supported the traditionalist conservative viewpoint regarding foreign policy. This made many of the neoconservatives rather frustrated - Bill Kristol suggested that he might leave the GOP, because most Republicans opposed Bill Clinton's [illegal] war in Kosovo. Some neoconservatives accused the anti-war Republicans of "isolationism," the same inaccurate charge leveled by the Clinton administration and other liberal internationalists. Presidential candidate George W. Bush adopted the traditionalist conservative positions into his campaign, for which he was criticized from both the liberal internationalists and the neoconservatives. Al Gore implied that candidate Bush was an isolationist, or at least, that his statements were often "isolationist in tone." And many of the neoconservatives supported John McCain during the Republican primaries; they were concerned that George W. Bush would have a foreign policy like that of his father, who opposed their interventionist positions on many issues. However, in 2002 and 2003, President Bush made somewhat of a U-Turn on his foreign policy philosophy, choosing to follow the neoconservative and neoliberal political philosophies, rather than the traditionalist conservative platform which he got elected on. And because a Republican president has chosen to follow this path, and because intervention such as this has (quite unfortunately) been attributed, in many people's minds, with conservatism, many young conservatives and young Republicans have been all too eager to embrace this non-conservative foreign policy agenda. In a column from April 2002, Daniel McCarthy, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote: "I've seen for myself during six years of college as a graduate and undergraduate just how little campus conservatives know about the history of their own beliefs." That article began with a quote from Lew Rockwell: "Have pity on the kids in college who take their politics from the new conservative leadership in the reign of Bush. To them, conservatism will be synonymous with the uncritical celebration of war, power, and violence. Forget about reading Edmund Burke or Eric Voegelin. To flex your conservative muscle, call for more government consolidation and shout down anyone who has doubts about US global hegemony. Power, control, coercion: these are the new watchwords of American conservatism 2002." ~ Lew Rockwell, April 4, 2002 Mr. Rockwell is right... Check out Mr. McCarthy's column, "Crash-Course for Conservatives." I think that at Mr. McCarthy's campus, Washington University in St. Louis, they have many students there who, unlike the conservatives at many other universities, are in tune with the traditional values of the true Right. They have a student publication there called The Washington Witness, which seems excellent. From my above-mentioned blog entry from last year, I had some material by conservative and libertarian students and youth who opposed the Iraq war. One item that was included in an update to that entry was this report, with photos, from Washington University in St. Louis: Conservative/libertarian students rally against war - From Mike Ewens Two young conservatives in the Blogosphere who oppose this war are Pieter Friedrich and Josh Matthews (Josh is not blogging in the present). A new web publication was just started, called The New Fugitive; it is a paleoconservative web journal, which also has a blog. For the past two years, I have marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade here in Springfield. Last year, I marched with my new state representative, Rich Brauer. Here is my blog entry from then, about that. In that entry, I note that the previous year, in March 2002, I was with supporters of conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate Patrick O'Malley in the parade. And of course, marching with us was the Youth Coordinator for that campaign, Erika Harold. I've done several blog entries about Erika... While our candidate did not end up winning the GOP gubernatorial primary, Erika did end up winning that year - she became Miss America! [Update: Erika recently became a delegate to this year's Republican National Convention.] Yesterday morning, I missed the parade, because I was in Decatur at the Sean Hannity event, described in the entry below. As I said in that entry, I will be doing a post with my reaction to that event, perhaps somewhat modeled after that excellent post of Radley Balko's that I link to below, about his reaction to an Ann Coulter speech. For now, however, I will do some other posts, including some on the upcoming primary election on Tuesday. It's been awhile since I posted about state politics; we have a U.S. Senate primary this Tuesday (on both sides), and it has been an interesting contest. I was backing the great conservative Republican candidate John Cox, and did a little work for him this past summer, but unfortunately, he withdrew from the race. Since then, I haven't been paying too much attention to, or thinking that much about, the Senate race. I have not decided who I will vote for on Tuesday... I'll have to make up my mind soon. I'll post more about this race soon. Update: From this excellent site that's been monitoring the U.S. Senate race in Illinois, I found this good page at Eric Zorn's site, and found the Illinois Leader's Election Watch page, the latter of which is at a site that I visit often. Also check out ArchPundit's page on this race. I also just found this page at a site that I don't think I've ever been to before. |
