Misc Commentary For Jan 3, 2007

by John Hawkins | January 3, 2007 10:55 am

— From Byron York at The Corner:[1]

“American Research Group has just released a number of state polls for the Democratic and Republican 2008 races. In the GOP race, Giuliani leads McCain, 28-26 in Iowa and 31-25 in Nevada, and McCain leads Giuliani 35-28 in South Carolina and 29-25 in New Hampshire. Perhaps the more interesting news is the strength of Newt Gingrich in each state — the choice of 18 percent of those polled in Iowa, 22 percent in Nevada, 15 percent in South Carolina, and 14 percent in New Hampshire. Of the lower-downs, Mitt Romney and Chuck Hagel are tied at six percent in Iowa, and Romney comes in at four percent in Nevada, five percent in South Carolina, and nine percent in New Hampshire.”

At the moment, Newt is not only looking to be the third strongest candidate, he looks to be within striking distance of McCain and Giuliani. That makes his decision to wait until September to decide whether to run all the more frustrating. By then, the other major candidates will have enormous warchests, most of the best staffers locked up, and tons of key endorsements. That’s a shame, too, because if I had a choice between McCain, Rudy, and Newt as nominees, I wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest to choose Newt.

PS: After all the positive ink that he has gotten, wouldn’t you think Mitt Romney would be in double digits in one of these polls if he really had what it takes to appeal to the Republican base?

— From Jihad Watch[2]

“A 35-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly made terrorist threats inside a Palm Springs bar, police said.

Officers detained Haider Mohammad of Palm Springs about 8 p.m. Friday at the Hair of the Dog Bar at 238 North Palm Canyon after he allegedly said he was going to “kill all Jews,” said Palm Springs police Sgt. Mitch Spike.

According to witnesses, Mohammad also allegedly claimed to have an alliance with executed former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and to be affiliated with Al Qaeda.”

Chris Rock used to do this bit in his act about Martin Luther King was a man of peace, but today, “If a friend calls you on the telephone and says they’re lost on Martin Luther King Boulevard and they want to know what they should do, the best response is, ‘Run!’”

Similarly, we’re constantly being told that Muhammad’s religion, Islam, is a religion of peace, but chances are, if someone is blown up, decapitated, murdered, or even if there are people talking about jihad, there’s almost always going to be a Muhammad involved in there somewhere.

PS: Of course, MLK really was a man of peace. The same can’t be said of Muhammad[3].

— If the Republicans allow this[4] to go through, they’re going to rue the day:

“After more than 200 years of paying taxes, fighting in the nation’s wars and abiding by sometimes arbitrary acts of Congress, Washington residents are close to getting a full-fledged representative in the House.

The turning point in this long battle for enfranchisement may be an unlikely partnership with the people of Utah.

The new Democratic majority, in the first months of the new Congress, is expected to take up a bill that would increase the voting membership of the House from 435 to 437, giving new vote each to Utah, a Republican stronghold, and the District of Columbia, dominated by Democrats.”

This is the same old thing that the Democrats always do. They get a foot in the door and then they wait a while and they move the goalposts. Today, it’s a seat in the House. If they get that, a few years down the road, they will demand (and get) two Senate seats (which of course, will be perpetually Democrat controlled). If DC wants representation, let them have it, as part of Maryland.

— Now this[5] is good news because I suspect that it means gay marriage in the United States is about to come to a long overdue end (at least until the judicial activist libs on the Supreme Court get a chance to force it on America):

“Lawmakers in Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriage is legal, voted Tuesday to allow a proposed constitutional amendment to move forward that would effectively ban the practice.

The amendment’s backers had collected 170,000 signatures to get a question on the 2008 ballot asking voters to declare marriage to only be between a man and a woman, but they still needed the approval of legislators in two consecutive sessions.

On Tuesday, 61 lawmakers voted in favor of moving the measure forward, compared to 132 opposed. The amendment need 50 votes of support to advance.

If it makes it on the ballot and residents approve it, the constitutional amendment would leave Massachusetts’ existing same-sex marriages intact but ban any new ones.

About 8,000 same-sex couples have wed in Massachusetts since the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that the state Constitution guarantees gays the right to marry. A few other states offer civil unions with similar rights for gay couples, but only Massachusetts allows gay marriage.

Backers of the amendment argue that it should be up to the people, not the courts, to define something as important as marriage.

Supporters of gay marriage say the civil rights of a minority should not be put to a popular vote.

Democratic Gov.-elect Deval Patrick on Tuesday had met with leading lawmakers and urged them to skip the vote, calling it a “question of conscience” and saying the amendment process was being used “to consider reinserting discrimination into the constitution.”

Since Tuesday was the final day of the session, skipping the vote would have effectively killed the amendment effort.”

This whole incident shows you how comfortable liberals are with subverting democracy when it conflicts with their ideological goals. Initially, the liberals on the Massachusetts Supreme Court invented a “right to gay marriage” out of whole cloth and declared it to be Constitutional law. So, the only way it could be changed was a Constitutional Amendment. Then, after the necessary signatures were collected to get a vote on a Constitutional Amendment, most of the Democratic legislators, including the incoming Governor, didn’t want to allow the question to be decided by the people. In other words, the Democrats bent over backwards to try and make sure that the people weren’t allowed to have any say at all about an issue as important as gay marriage.

But now, the people are going to get to vote and even in Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in America, it looks likely that gay marriage will be voted down.

Endnotes:
  1. The Corner:: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmZjMTMyMmQwMTcxODZhZDAxNzIxZTljZmYyMWE3N2M=
  2. Jihad Watch: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014666.php
  3. can’t be said of Muhammad: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/archives/week_2006_11_19.PHP#006861
  4. this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070102/ap_on_go_co/dc_vote
  5. this: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-02-gay-marriage_x.htm

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