Maybe now the Democrats won’t be able to pull a Vietnam redux

The New Neo Posted on by

One of the main reasons I voted for President Bush in 2004 was that I wanted to give Iraq the chance that Vietnam never had (see this and this for details of the endgame in Vietnam and the role our Congress played).

One of the few comforting things about the last four years is that this hope of mine may have been realized. If we can credit these sources (and I think we can), Iraq may just be strong enough now that even those many Democrats who wanted so badly to declare the surge a catastrophe before it ever happened—and who, like President-elect Obama, still wish the surge had never occurred—may have been thwarted.

It may be very difficult for them to mess it up now, although they certainly tried hard enough in the past. In this the Democrats are the ironic beneficiaries of the policies of the man they so despise. Their earlier fears that they would be the ones to preside over shameful and terrible scenes of helicopters on the roof, this time in Baghdad, will probably never be realized.

But don’t expect them to give thanks where it’s due. Unlikely.

Good question: how to get the conservative message across

The New Neo Posted on by

Now here’s a good question:

How do we restore integrity to the republican causes of fiscal responsibility and limited government?…

The present crop of republicans has discredited the message by their short-sighted and greedy actions from the president on down. The only spot they seemed to get it right on was on the War on Terror. Their lack of credibility harms that cause too.

I would love to see you post on and begin a thread about how we begin to remedy the situation. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m up for some good ideas.

So am I, and I welcome suggestions in the comments section. But first, here are my thoughts on the matter. Continue reading →

Now it can be told

The New Neo Posted on by

Now that Obama has been safely elected on a campaign of false and/or misguided promises, the truth can start to be allowed to seep out. Surprise, surprise—raising taxes on the wealthy is not a good idea in a recession or depression.

See also this, another “now it can be told” story. Turns out it may not be so easy for Barack to just say no to Guantanamo. Continue reading →

Cycles of the crash: hope springs eternal

The New Neo Posted on by

The other night I watched this PBS program on the Crash of ’29. It was made four years ago, so there were no tie-ins to the present crisis. But the mind can create them easily enough.

Each downturn was preceded by a long bull market, lulling investors into thinking that such was the natural state of things and would continue. How could people be so dumb? Just try them. The show made the point that crashes tend to happen in cycles because it takes a while for a generation to grow up that doesn’t remember the last one. Continue reading →

On Veterans Day

The New Neo Posted on by

Yes, indeed, I am that old—old enough to remember when Veterans Day was called Armistice Day. The change in names occurred in 1954, when I was very small, in order to accommodate World War II and its veterans.

Since then, the original name has largely fallen out of use—although it remains, like a vestigial organ, in the timing of the holiday, the Monday closest to November 11th, which commemorates the day the WWI armistice was signed (eleventh hour, eleventh day, eleventh month).

I’m also old enough–and had a teacher ancient enough—to have been forced to memorize that old chestnut “In Flanders Fields” in fifth grade—although without being given any historical context for it. I think at the time I assumed it was about World War II, since as far as I knew that was the only real war. Continue reading →

One of a dying breed

The New Neo Posted on by

Who would have thought that Greta Van Susteren would be one of the last journalists with integrity? It’s all the more surprising because she’s a lawyer, too:

I never used to watch Greta’s show when it consisted of interminable yammering about interminably sensationalistic court cases. But I noticed that, throughout this long and sorry campaign, Greta was one of the few journalists that seemed to hold to some journalistic standards.

[Hat tip Ace.]

In a twist…

The New Neo Posted on by

…on the immortal words of LBJ, Councilman Steve Lipski was in the tent pissing in, since it’s logical to assume that the DC club crowd that was the object of Lipski’s uh, favors, was heavily Democratic in composition.

And speaking of LBJ—in my quest to find a good link for the Johnson quote to which I’m referring (that Johnson would rather have J. Edgar Hoover inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in, quote number four here), I found a page of quotations from LBJ listing quite a few insightful and /or funny ones that seem to retain their appropriateness today: Continue reading →

Baldilocks nails it

The New Neo Posted on by

An excellent observation from Baldilocks:

Losers find it almost impossible to act like winners even when they win.

Since Obama’s victory, troll visits to right-wing blogs are up, dropping comments that show all the class of second graders in the schoolyard singing “Nah nah nah boo boo, stick your head in doo doo.”

You’d think they’d be happy to have won, with no need to waste time and energy on such entertainment. But it you’d think that, you’d think wrong. For a certain segment of the Obamaphile population (and I have no idea how large it is), the feeling of triumph goes hand in hand with the desire to spit on others in their overwhelming delight at their own victory. Not an admirable impulse to be sure, but an ancient one. By their fruits ye shall know them.