This is what’s killing baseball… idiots!

In The Face of Evil : Reagan’s War in Word and Deed
Wow. That about sums up this terreific film about Reagan’s battle with communism. It is a fantastic documentary that covers his early years at the Screen Actors Guild all the way through the end of his second term. It really is quite moving and I think an excellent look into the way Reagan viewed the fight.

I think it fills in a lot of the gaps that we forget about, such as Reagan’s fight with the radicals at Berkely and the way he looked at some of the other conflicts abroad. It was obviously a very very pro-Reagan film, but I thought it did bring up some of the down sides concerning Iran Contra and Afgahnistan. Overall an excellent film that all should see.

Patrick Leahy is the Director of Student Lifenet, an orgnization which is the heart of the British pro-life movement. You can read his report on our rockin’ pro-life group here at GW.

For those of you not from Pittsburgh, I can not overstate how big of a deal the coming switch in party registration for Michael Diven. He is a conservative Democrat scoring substancially higher than many Republicans in the Commonwealth Foundation ratings, who has built a strong base in his district.

If he switches it will give the GOP the first chance to win a State Senate seat encompassing part of Pittsburgh in several decades (72 since the last Republican ciy councilman) and would give the GOP the base it needs to begin making inroads. If this happens as all signs point to, then things are looking up for the Pittsburgh GOP for the first time in a half of a century.

According to NewsMax, Swift Boar “Unfit for Command”, co-author Jerome Corsi wants to run for Senate against John Kerry. The problem is that Corsi has made several highly controversial statements about Islam and Catholicism on Free Republic.

Now I don’t think the Islam stuff will have any legs, but in the Peoples Republic of Mass, you can’t be anti-Catholic. He has enough money to largely self-fund his candidacy, but these comments may kill any real chance before they get off the ground. Only time will tell. Kerry isn’t up until 2008 so there is going to be quite awhile for this to simmer, or he could forget about Kerry and run against Kennedy in ‘06 if he decides to run again

Hugo Chavez (dictator of Venezuela) is a thug. Everyone knows it, but he feels compelled to show the world in no uncertain terms just what a boor he is. The American Thinker has a piece up describing his announcement on Venezuelan government television (is there any other kind?) that he would like to be married to Condi Rice and that it is “too bad she doesn’t know what she’s missing.” We are supposed to respect a guy who talks about boning (if you will pardon the expression) our sec. of State? We’ll see how the White House responds to this insult, if they do at all. I would love to see this clown toppled, but our hands seem to be tied by prior engagements.

Among Republican circles, it is fashionable to root for Howard Dean to win the race for DNC chair, which it is looking increasingly liklely that he will do, but after reading up on the race, Republicans should be afraid of Dean.

Sure he would PR-wise come off as a bit whacky, but read up on what he thinks should be done to save the Dems and you come to the shocking conclusion he’s mostly right.

# Show up! Never concede a single state, county, district or even a single voter to the Republicans. We must be active and compete in all 50 states and work with the state parties to build a truly national party.

# Recruit, train, and encourage candidates to run for office at every level — building tomorrow’s farm team from the ground up. This was the founding principle behind Democracy for America.

# Actively grow local Democratic committees in local communities. Local neighborhood advocates are our best spokespeople — helping them reach out in their own communities will better articulate our message and enable the grassroots to support state and local candidates.

# Better integrate national and state party operations. Specifically, that means: providing the state party the means to pay for its executive director in every state; building and sharing lists between the national and state parties; and creating an ongoing active presence — a permanent campaign in every state that does not have to be recreated for only four months every four years.

# Develop and articulate core Democratic principles that we all can agree on, that will let people know what our party stands for. We will not win elections or build a lasting majority solely by changing our rhetoric, nor will we win by adopting the other side’s positions. We must say what we mean — and mean real change when we say it.

# Make Democrats the party of reform — reforming America’s financial situation, reforming our electoral process, reforming health care, reforming education and putting morality back in our foreign policy.

# Utilize cutting edge Internet technology, not only to fundraise, but also as an effective organizing tool to recruit more supporters, communicate with them, and empower them to lead in their local communities.

# Strengthen the party institutions and leadership institutes so that they rival the Republican machine that currently exists. These institutions must work together in a coordinated way to recruit new talent, develop leaders, articulate our values and elect Democrats at every level.

This is exactly what the Republicans DON’T want Democrats doing, rebuilding infrastructure to rival our current machine. The fact is Republicans have written off the cities counting on suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas to carry the day, but if Democrats find an inroads into any of these then the Republican majority will evaporate overnight, because the GOP has no such plan to gain a foothold in the cities.

As I mentioned before the reason that Pennsylvania Republicans have lost statewide elections lately, which they used to win, is because the Philadelphia suburbs now go Democrat. Having given up totally on downtown Philly and Pittsburgh, there simply isn’t enough votes to overcome this avalanche. Until the Republican Party begins contesting in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, then PA will stay solidly in the blue column. So Republicans be ware, Howard Dean could be just a scream away from saving the Democrats from permanent minority status.

When Mark invited me to join the blog, I knew that my first post had to be a tour de force if we had any hope of making it in the blogosphere. I pondered and I prayed. And then this comedic manna fell from heaven:

“The ability of fear to debilitate soldiers under chemical conditions
cannot be overestimated. In 1985, a battalion of the French Foreign
Legion was undergoing a mock chemical attack at its base in Corsica.
This unit had been through this exercise many times before. Usually, a
single aircraft would pass low over the troops and drop water vapor,
simulating a gas attack. This time, however, the instructors replaced
the water vapor with a harmless red powder that the troops had never
seen. Once the aircraft released the powder, the seasoned troops of
the Legion were shaken to the core. The whole battalion, apparently
believing that some horrible mistake had been made and that real
chemical compounds had been used, simply came apart. Scores of
soldiers writhed on the ground manifesting all the symptoms of a
genuine chemical attack. Some almost died from their psychologically
generated symptoms. The rest either panicked and ran or froze on the
spot expecting to die.”

Should Jonah Goldberg ever be hired by the Oxford English Dictionary to trace the etymology of The Simpsons inspired “cheese-eating surrender monkeys,” I hope he uses this as an example. If you think this is just too funny to be true, I suggest you check out page 39 in No More Heroes: Madness & Psychiatry in War by Richard A. Gabriel. Adieu.