A Feeling of Unsatisfying Vindication

My apologies for the brief break in posting. I was politically wearied, I admit, by the election cycle, and decided to take a break for a bit whilst the country settled down.

But rest assured, The Free Radical was not dormant! I've been watching with detached interest as the economy continues to stumble despite enormous government efforts to correct it, as Obama continues to fill in the blanks for his White House staff, and the world waits with bated breath to see what wondrous things the Chosen One is going to bring about after beginning his term in office.



It's not often I reference a Jodi Foster movie, but watching Congress try to control and improve the economy right now is a bit like a scene in Contact. Foster is traveling in the machine through space/time, and the seat she was strapped into (which was not included in the original design for the machine) is shaking violently and giving the impression that the machine is coming apart. Finally, she releases herself from the harness, and suddenly the ride is smooth, as it was intended to be.

Over the last several weeks, the Federal government has created all sorts of new "stimulus" programs meant to aid and stabilize the struggling economy, and yet the economy has paid them no mind. Word is that over half of the $700 billion stimulus package is already gone (or will be shortly), and yet there has not been a noticeable shift in the momentum of the economy. In fact, if one is to use the stock market as an indicator of the overall economic picture, it would seem that the more Congress tries to do, the worse the economy continues to get. They can cinch the straps down all they want, but the ride just keeps getting bumpier.

None of this is particularly surprising to conservatives. We have long contended that the answers to the nation's problems are almost never more government. We have pointed to the abject failures of public education, social security, welfare and drug policy enforcement as concrete examples of this truth. But big government likes nothing more than bigger government, and so they have lulled the people into a state of apathy. And now they have apparently decided that they know better than the people, passing bailout legislation despite overwhelming public sentiment opposing it.

The initial bailout bill is not working as advertised. True to form, the liberals' answer is more bailouts. And all of this coming from the already-slim wallets of the American taxpayer. It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.* If that is so, how long will this particular strain of governmental insanity continue? As conservatives, we can hope that the negative public sentiment towards these bailout measures will carry through to the midterm elections, facilitating the removal of some of the long-established liberals from their thrones in D.C.

Those of us on the right who saw this coming are likely going to have every chance and reason to shout "I told you so!" when all this is over. And yet, that is a truly unsatisfying vindication, coming as it is, at the expense of our nation.

*Actually a quote from feminist author Rita Mae Brown, not Einstein or Benjamin Franklin.

Much more on all fronts soon!

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL

Concession and Pragmatism

Well, that's it then. At long last, the nearly two-year presidential election cycle is over, and the last man standing is Obama. McCain was as gracious as usual in defeat, as one would expect. Those who I was liveblogging with were somewhat less gracious, you might say.

And now it is a matter of where we go from here, as conservatives, as the Republican Party, and as Americans. Let's hope that we're somehow able to limit the damage that I believe will come from the impeding Obama presidency. Even more importantly, we need to start finding and advancing people now from within the conservative movement for candidacy in 2012. To be clear, McCain lost this election because he wasn't the right candidate. We cannot afford to make that mistake again in the future.

More in the way of a recap later.

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL

Sculpting Another Election

The talking heads in the media are once again trying to sculpt the results of the election with their coverage of the electoral race. All of the major media outlets called Ohio some hours ago, with only a scant few percentage of the precincts reporting, when Obama led by a 2-1 margin. But it's not even close to being over yet! The gap has closed to 5% as of this writing, and by the looks of the county electoral maps, may close further yet.

The morons in the media still know nothing. They're already saying things like "roll credits" and talking about "how Obama did it," while many states are still complete toss-ups.

It ain't over 'till it's over, but the media is doing its best to make sure you think it is.

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL

Local Election Rundown

Another State and Local update, this time on the offices up for election:

Ohio Attorney General: Democrat Richard Cordray looks to be taking this one home, currently leading with 58 percent of the vote.

U.S. House, 3rd District: Republican incumbent Mike Turner looks to have survived an unexpectedly strong opponent, currently taking home 54 percent of the vote.

U.S. House, 8th District: Republican incumbent John Boehner looks to take a convincing win, bringing in two-thirds of the vote.

More updates as these races become official.

Local Issue Rundown

Taking a short break from the national scene, here’s a quick rundown of the State and Local issues being decided tonight:

Issue 1: To provide for earlier filing deadlines for statewide ballot issues. Looks like this one is going to pass, currently leading 70-30.

Issue 2: Authorizing the state to issue bonds (read: go into debt) to pursue environmental interests. Looks as if this one is going to pass as well, ahead 75-25.

Issue 3: A constitutional amendment underlining the water rights of private property owners. This one’s going on the books, currently up 70-30.

Issue 5: State referendum allowing government regulation of the payday lending industry with regards to interest rates and fees. This one looks to be over as well, passing 68-32.

Issue 6: Constitutional amendment to allow a casino to be built near Wilmington, Ohio. This one’s going down to the wire, it looks like. Currently a near-tie, 50.3 in favor, 47.7 opposed.

Issue 52: School levy for Dayton Public Schools. This one is something of a surprise, looking like it’s going to pass, for the first time in 16 years. Currently ahead 58-42

More small-election updates later.

The first call of the night!

You heard it here first, people! None of these journalistic idiots know anything. Every major news outlet I've been watching (which is to say, nearly all of them) has called states, un-called them, re-called them, and basically thrown their aprons over their heads and run around in circles.

So the first call of the night from THE FREE RADICAL, posting live from Worldview Election Headquarters, is that the media doesn't have a clue what is going on.

Saying nothing, like never before.

That seems to be the theme of the media tonight. If I read one more idiot journalist gushing over the "historic election" and the "record turnouts" today, I think I'm going to toss my laptop across the room. These people are really college-educated? Every election is historic, and we've had record turnouts every election for as long as I can remember! Seriously, if the talking heads in the media can't come up with anything better to write about, they really ought to look for another line of work.

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL

Oh great, this could be awhile...

This from the Columbus Dispatch:

"Nearly half of Montgomery County voters were expected to use paper ballots Tuesday, Nov. 4, which could delay the count, the board of elections director told the Dayton Daily News this morning.

He said paper ballots will take longer to count and "we expect the count to continue into Wednesday afternoon," said Steve Harsman, director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections."

Like I said earlier, if you're too dumb to use the voting machines in Ohio, maybe you shouldn't be voting...

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL

The Power of Suggestion, and a Manufactured Financial Crisis

Do me a favor, and go type "The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression" into Google. If you include the quotes, you get about 65 thousand results. This phrase was brought back to my attention during the presidential debates this year, as it was dutifully trotted out by Obama as a means of depicting a bleak economic picture of our country. Leaving aside for a moment that our current economic woes don't even begin to approach the level of the Great Depression, and that every metric I've seen has its equal in far more recent times, I'd like to focus on the effect of the words in that phrase.

I recall first hearing those words being tossed about during the 2004 presidential election cycle, when FrankenKerry first started droning on about how Bush was heading us all straight for the dustbowl. The assertion was even more absurd then than it is now, but that didn't stop Kerry, and others on the left and in the media (wait, did I just repeat myself?) from repeating it ad nauseum.

Even after Kerry lost, the phrase really didn't go dormant. Leftist pundits and politicians continued to bemoan the ailing state of our economy, exaggerating, misinterpreting and sometimes inventing various figures to support their doom and gloom prophesies about our finanical future as a nation. It became something of a litany. Each day, from the major newspapers, networks and websites, more horrible news about the economy would break. The media played on the public's misunderstanding that any decline in a market is a bad thing, and started capitalizing on what was originally only a correction in the housing market. Unemployment rates, though still low, rose slightly, and talking heads across America tore their robes and smeared ash on their faces.

All of this negative press, I believe, was not without purpose. Continuing to assert how horrible the economy was eventually convinced the American people. This effectively scuttled confidence among consumer and investor alike, both of whom pulled back the reins on their spending and investing. These actions further depressed markets and provided more fodder for the Chicken Little media. It was a snowball effect of the worst degree, and was having the effect of a viral infection on the economy.

It would be easy to explain all of this away as simply another instance of the media only reporting the bad news, because that's what sells, but in this case I don't think that's the explanation. Markets rise and fall all the time, and the various statistics go up and down along with them, but I don't recall ever seeing such coverage and analysis of each inane report that comes out regarding the economy. Why all this focus, all this effort to try and spin the economy in a negative direction? Why are they trying to actually make this "The worst economy since the Great Depression?"

Simple. Because it's nearly impossible for a political party to retain control after they've been blamed for economic downturn. This "throw the bums out" mentality has been a documented presence in electoral politics for well over a century, and the Democrats desparately needed it to win this year's election. With conditions in Iraq improving, they had to have something to point at and say they could do it better, so it was time to use the power of suggestion, through the media, to manufacture a financial crisis.

I will not disagree that we were facing something of a slow-down even without the media's influence. But I believe that, in order to ensure the success of their chosen candidate, the mainstream media did everything in their power to escalate and accelerate that slowdown into the "crisis" we face today.

The irony is that if Obama is elected tonight, and is able to enact many of the things he's talked about on the campaign trail, that crisis is very likely to worsen severely.

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL

Style vs. Substance

In the whirlwind of rhetoric and talking points leading up to any election, it is not uncommon to find one side trying to turn around a point often raised by the other side. This election year is no different. We've seen the McCain campaign try mightily to steal the moniker of "change" from the Obama campaign and portray McCain and Palin as the true agents of government reform.

But one rather unnoticed turn has come from the Obama campaign, which has, for some time now, been criticizing McCain for attacking Obama on style, rather than substance. Indeed, this charge has been repeated throughout the left, especially in the liberal media. And yet, whenever the topic of a possible Obama defeat comes up, the only possible reason liberals can come up with is racism. It couldn't possibly be that the American people would look at Obama, disagree with what he says and what he stands for, and vote against him. No, the only reason anyone would ever vote against the Most Merciful Lord Barack Hussein Obama (praise be upon him... er, wait, what?) is that they're evil, backwards racists.

Nevermind that he's half white. Or that the other half is very likely of Arab descent, not African.

But the larger point is that the Obama campaign has, since its inception, been run primarily on style, not substance. The first year or so of his campaign featured nothing but empty speeches and soaring rhetoric, completely devoid of any substantive content. And largely, that theme of campaigning continues today. To be fair, I've been somewhat disappointed that the McCain campaign has not put forth more specific answers to the issues in this election, but how can you criticize someone for attacking Obama's style, when that's basically all he's made of?

Further, almost all of the attacks I've seen from the Obama campaign against McCain have been stylistic in nature. McCain's being too negative, or too personal, or bringing up things too far in the past, or making too big a deal out of Obama's voting record... All of these are stylistic rebuttals, and yet Obama's charge is that McCain attacks only on style?

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL

I has a sticker!

One of my vivid memories of the electoral process as a kid was when my mom would take me with her to vote. I remember it because she always would get two of the "I voted today" stickers, one for me, and one for her. Looking back, it was as if she was demonstrating to me, even at an early age, the importance she placed on voting. So every time I go vote today, I still look forward to getting that sticker, and I faithfully put it on my t-shirt, just like I did when I was four.

Voting today was somewhat less of an ordeal than voting in the primary. My polling location is at an elementary school on the not-so-nice side of town. Let's just say I am deeply in the ethnic minority there. In the last presidential election, I made it to the polls after work, about a half an hour before the polls closed, and was stupefied when a DNC campaigner held the door open for me to go in! During this years' primaries, it was clear that the polling personnel had no clue what they were doing, as they struggled to find me on their lists, then tried to make me vote on a Democratic ballot, then tried to tell me that if I voted in the Republican primary, that I could only vote for Republicans in November. Insert face into palm and sigh deeply...

Today wasn't so bad. I didn't endure any of the lines that are being reported nationally, and the poll worker found my registration without incident. My voting machine worked as advertised, and I appreciated the slight upgrades in the software they appear to have made since the last election. If anyone claims that these machines are confusing now, they don't need to be voting (or driving, or dressing themselves) in the first place. The Obama supporters were an adequate distance from the polling center, handing out stickers on the street in front of the school. The worst distraction I experienced was when the school children came in from recess while I was voting, and started singing the Barney song. I hate hearing about all that love and harmony while I'm voting against a school levy...

Stay tuned throughout the day to this blog and Worldview for live blogging throughout the day (and well into the night, I'd guess).

~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL