May 15 2006
A Day Of Thanks (Not Moaning & Whining)
*** Update: Check out Mac Ranger on this matter (great round up). A lot of us are getting tired twith the all or nothing crowd. How about all for us and nothing for them? Just asking ***
Today conservatives and Americans across this nation, especially those who voted for George W Bush, should be thankful for what we have accomplished and for having George Bush as President. My tolerance for the whiners who don’t get all they want, or who say the pace of getting America to become more responsive to conservative ideas is too slow, is totally used up. Tonight, when George Bush speaks he is going to discuss how we can take SOME steps towards getting a handle on immigration and the security threats it represents.
I want to give thanks to W for taking the war to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and for not shrinking from his course when the French and Germans bawked, when the UN whimpered, when the left wailed and when the right ran away.
I want to thank him for protecting all our families and neighbors since 9-11.
I want to thank him for reducing taxes and pulling this economy together since my family just about went under due to the economic hits from 9-11, and now I am working a dream job exploring the solar system.
I want to thank W for protecting the lives of some of the embryos who otherwise would have become a product to harvest for spare cells (to make spare parts).
I want to thank W for making the education system accountable and force it to produce statistics on its performance.
Thanks also for giving my 80+year old parents a prescription drug plan so they can live out their lives with dignity and in the best health preventive medicine can offer. I know that at their age to fix things once their broken is much harder than keeping them from breaking in the first place.
Thank you as well to the immigrants who come here and extend the American fabric and re-establish respect for the family and the work ethic. I still believe working without papers is aking to driving a car which is not properly registered. While not legal, it pales next to the people I deal with everyday in my 75 mile commute on the busy and dangerous DC Beltway. For perspective, I do not thank all the drivers chatting on the phone, reading, eating, doing their face who risk my LIFE with their casualness. I am less concerned about the immigrant workers coming to do top notch work on my house than the insane drivers who could kill me or my family. Let’s not even discuss how little thanks I have for drunk drivers (and drunk is only a few drinks away).
I want to thank LJSTrata for putting up with me for so long and keeping this site going through its first Blogoversart (5/18/06).
I owe a big thanks to Powerline this week for naming us Blog of the Week – which is an extreme honor we will cherish.
I want to thank my kids and family for being who they are.
I do not have any words of thanks to he those who leak national secrets to the media because they cannot address their issues through our established political processes. None. Anomous leaks are not a badge of honor.
I have no words of thanks to those who are so frustrated they have turned on Bush when he needs our support, and threaten to sit out elections. Why would I have any thanks for that kind of action? I am thankful we avoided a President Gore and President Kerry. Gore would have lost his mind after 9-11 (look at how he handled the 2000 election). And Kerry would have been so confused about what to do he would have signed legislation beforing vetoing it.
I am thankful for our new allies in Iraq, Afgahnistan, the UAE, Qatar and Pakistan. They are not perfect allies, but they are better than enemies. Just like Bush is 100 fold better than a manic Gore or a confused Kerry. I thank Bush for doing all he did, and doing it despite the naysayers and quitters, the moaners and whiners, and especially the serial surrenderers. Thanks George Bush. And no thanks goes to anyone who gives us nothing on immigration because they could not get all they wanted. I am tired of the zero sum game. It is a game for fools.
The American Kadima may come sooner than we think…
Actually I disagree. Bush’s position on open borders is so destructive to the country that he will go down as the GOP’S Jimmy Carter. To suggest we should be grateful to this arrogant, clueless and pig -headed moron is the height of folly. Only the true Kool Aid drinkers will fall for his disingenious BS. He has managed to turn a life long conservative Repub against the party. The Party now is composed of the scumbags Hagel, Martinez, Snowe, Collins and De Wine. Now how exactly are they different than the Demos?
American Kadima will be a pro-life, pro-gay rights Republican. Probably look a lot like Rudy, in my opinion.
Ment pro-choice.
Granmary,
How in the world am I supposed to know if they are legal? I contract some guy to paint the house and he gets it done. You think I have time or desire to check everyone for their papers? How about I come by your place and see how many laws you are breaking while I am playing at policeman?
That is right Cab, until Bush came along there was no such thing as an open border. Hispanics did not roof houses or pick lettuce or take care of other people’s children. Yep, it is all his fault.
If the far right wants to run on this go ahead, they will get the support of about 1% of the population. At least that is what Buchanan got in 2000. Even Nader did better than that..
The sad thing is they are starting to make the Democrats look half way rational.
So much for the war on Terror, and AlQaida says the far right. Right now we have a new enemy and his name is Jose.
Excellent post, and a lot of the comments added good points.
One, in particular, caught my attention, and that was the alert that donks are trying to stoke the fire, pretending to be “last straw Repubs” with comments on conservative sites.
Now, that makes sense in light of an Opinion Journal (on-line) poll about the November election, which gives a 70+% result to the option, “Republicans will retain control of both House and Senate” (the other options were: Democrats will win both, Democrats will win the House, Democrats will win the Senate); the remaining 29+% was split, but I don’t recall the breakdown).
Cab, your dave duke brand of conservatism is dead, if not dying.
Patch, why would it be pro choice? Are you getting hperbolic on us? And if you mean pro civil unions (as oppose to pro-gay) then you will find a majority of the country is ready to give gay people some basic rights (like visitation to their dying partners). I am against gay marriage but am fine with civil union changes.
When did the conservatives become so full of hate for their fellow man?
My emai lto Michelle Malkin –
Michelle,
I used to come to blog daily to read your insight, and I would tune into Fox when you were a guest to hear your input.
I think it is time I moved on though because I personally feel you have crossed the line from providing a great service to a disservice on this immigration issue.
President Bush is trying to do his best to appeal to as broad of a consensus. Where were all the other presidents including the beloved Reagan on this issue? Amnesty by Reagan and ignored by the rest. So lets hammer Bush and string him up. Unbelievable.
Yet here you are leading the charge to the whitehouse with Polipundit, Peggy Noonan and La Shawn Barber calling for impeachement. Impeachment? Oh what a web we are weaving.
Michelle I had the upmost respect for you at one time but no more. You are going to hurt our cause in Nov more than POTUS Bush ever could by constantly slamming him because you do not get everything you want. Do you give your children everything they want or try to do the best you can as a parent? Republicans will stay home in Nov because of the likes of Polipundit, La Shawn Barber, Peggy Noonan and yourself.
Let’s see how happy a Reid senate and a Pelosi house will make you. We will have a vacancy on the Supreme Court in the next few years while Bush is in office. With the donks in charge with more senators and us with some rhinos, fat chance at a strong conservative. We will end up with a rhino Hagel type sitting there. But you can then blame Bush for this too, even though you are fanning the flames to our defeat.
There are allot of great blogs out there that are conservative but not insane, so I will move on. Just like you all think the GOP should learn a lesson, maybe you will widen your perspective when fans of yours go elsewhere.
Good luck with your ventures. Hot air is a great idea, but not for me anymore. And I truly do not expect you to agree with me or widen your perspective, that is why I will not be back.
Jeff
No, I am just looking at the people in the middle … the registered independents who have left both parties. In many areas the indepenents outnumber Republicans and Democrats. A person that is pro-choice and pro-gay rights but is otherwise pretty much with the Republican agenda would probably pull in a big chunk of those. Probably a larger chunk than any of the more inflexible members of either party that are pretty tied to a particular platform. In other words, a candidate who could take some parts of agenda A and some parts of agenda B might stand a good chance of winning.
Many Democrats would be willing to cross over and vote for a pro-choice Republican. Probably more would be willing to cross over than the Republicans would lose.
Not saying it is how I feel, I am ambivalent on those two issue myself, just saying that my gut tells me that a Rudy type Republican would win a national election even though he would probaly lose the party primaries. We might be in a position in the fall of 2008 to decide that the person who might be best at winning the national election might not be the person who arrives at the convention with the most delegates.
You ask them for their name, address, and taxpayer id number and you give them a form 1099 along with your check. Any contractor with a license will have a taxpayer id number. The least you can do is to make sure he pays taxes on what you pay him, and giving him a 1099 tells him that the government has been made aware of what you paid him.
By the way, there are several different form 1099. What you would issue the contractor is a 1099-MISC
Sorry to make so much clutter, but the instructions for 1099-MISC are here.
Basically if you paid someone more than $600 for rent or services rendered, you should file a 1099 with them getting a copy.
Crosspatch,
Are you being serious? I hire a company to do a job, I don’t search their employees. Remind me never to do work with you. 😉
Crosspatch,
sorry for the misunderstanding about the independents. I think you will find they are more con than you think!
Okay, so I am full of crap. (won’t be the first time or the last) It turns out that 1099 is only for businesses to fill out. I went that route because *I* got stuck with a 1099 once for working on someone’s computer on my spare time. Seems they had set up a business out of their home and issued me the 1099 but as sole proprietor, the business name was his name. He was doing business as himself.
Oh, I know the independents are more conservative, but they tend not to be rabidly attached to the issues that the religious right wing of the party is so attached to. I simply have a hunch that a candidate that doesn’t appear to be married to Falwell’s might appeal to those who have registered Independent. Otherwise they would have registered Republican.
If I were a Democrat, the pro-choice or gay rights issues wouldn’t have caused me to leave the party over the past say, 5 years. Those have been Democratic Party issues for a long time. It would be the Democrat’s great leftward swing over the past several years and their blame America first crap that would cause me to leave.
Look at it this way … a non-religious woman who is pro-choice but strong defense … what party does she sign up for? What about a gay hawk? What about an older conservative Democrat? A Rudy could win those over at the expense of possibly losing the support of the most hardcore of the religious right. The trade might be worth it in numbers.
crosspatch:
What about the ag workers? Some of these people have been coming over for years to work and there are farms and vineyards that would go bellyup without them. But they tend to be migrants, and so it is hard to track them.
Maybe I could put it another way. Imagine a person who is very strong in the areas of individual responsibility, smaller government, anti-nanny state but is also strong in the area of social tolerance. That person is perfectly willing to accept gay marriage and legal abortion but also wants lower taxes and workfare rather than welfare. That is the position of many in the middle. Many of the Republical ideals concerning government and defense appeals to them but the social agenda turns them off. They don’t have a home with the Republicans or the Democrats.