13 Reasons to vote Republican on Nov. 7
By Mona Charen
Friday, October 27, 2006
I can understand why Democrats are jazzed about November's election. The polls combined with the fawning media ("Oh, please, Sen. Obama, let us kiss the hem of your garment!") are giving them goose bumps such as they have not experienced since "An Inconvenient Truth" debuted in theaters.
What I don't understand is the seeming tepidness of so many Republicans. Yes, the war in Iraq is a long, hard slog. The world is not Topeka, Kansas (would that it were). A journalist pointed out to President Bush at his most recent press conference that the Iraq war has now been going on as long as World War II did for the United States. Well, yes, but we lost 407,316 men in World War II. On Iwo Jima alone, we lost 6,800. This is not to say that the deaths of our people in Iraq should be trivialized. But comparisons with World War II -- in terms of sacrifice and terrible price paid -- are ridiculous.
Republicans have abundant reasons to reserve a spot at their polling places on Election Day:
1) The economy. More than 6.6 million new jobs have been created since August 2003. Our 4.1 annual growth rate is superior to all other major industrialized nations. The Dow has set record highs multiple times in the past several weeks. Productivity is up, and the deficit is down. Real, after-tax income has grown by 15 percent since 2001. Inflation has remained low. As Vice President Cheney summed it up at a recent meeting with journalists, "What more do you want?" The tax cuts proposed by President Bush and passed by a Republican Congress can take a bow.
2) The Patriot Act. Democrats and liberals mourn this law as a gross infringement upon civil liberties. Yet the much-discussed abuses simply haven't materialized. The law has, on the other hand, permitted the CIA and FBI to cooperate and share information about terrorist threats -- at least so long as The New York Times isn't publishing the details of our counterterrorism efforts on the front page.
3) The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, to which liberals clung with passionate intensity, has been cancelled, permitting us to work on missile defense. In the age of Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is anyone (except Nancy Pelosi) sorry?
4) Immigration. Republicans in Congress insisted upon and got the first serious immigration restriction in decades. On Oct. 26, the president signed a law that will build a 700-mile fence along our southern border and, what is more important, does not offer amnesty.
5) There has not been another terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11. Who would have predicted that on 9/12?
6) Libya has surrendered its nuclear program.
7) A.Q. Khan's nuclear smuggling network has been rolled up.
8) John Roberts and Samuel Alito sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.
9) Those Democrats who do not want to close Guantanamo Bay altogether want to give all of its inmates the full panoply of rights Americans enjoy in criminal procedures.
10) Democrats believe in immediate withdrawal from Iraq. If they succeed in forcing us to leave under these circumstances, the United States will suffer a stinging defeat in the war on terror. The terrorists already believe that they drove the Russians from Afghanistan and Israel from Lebanon and Gaza. They are convinced they chased us out of Lebanon in 1983 and from Somalia in 1993. According to Osama bin Laden and those who share his views, we are militarily strong but psychologically and spiritually weak. Like it or not -- and no one likes it -- we cannot leave Iraq now without utterly and decisively validating this analysis. We might as well run a white flag up the flagpole at the Capitol.
11) Democrats would like to eliminate the terrorist surveillance program.
12) If Democrats achieve a majority in the House, Barney Frank will chair the Financial Services Committee, Henry Waxman will head the Government Reform Committee, and Alcee Hastings will chair the Intelligence Committee.
13) Democrats believe that the proper response to Kim Jong Il's nuclear test is "face to face talks." That's what the Clinton administration did for years.
It worked out well, didn't it?
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2006/10/27/13_reasons_to_vote_republican_on_nov_7
Good to see you Terra.
I hope you are as healthy as you are wrong.
Unemployment rate lowest in nearly 5-1/2 years
Fri Nov 3, 2006 9:23 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to its lowest in nearly 5-1/2 years during October as 92,000 more jobs were added and hiring in each of the two prior months was revised up, a government report on Friday showed.
The October new-jobs figure was below Wall Street economists' expectations for 125,000 but the Labor Department said a total 139,000 more jobs were created in August and September than it had previously thought. It revised up September's job-creation total to 148,000, or nearly three times the 51,000 it reported a month ago, and said there were 230,000 new jobs in August instead of 188,000.
The unemployment rate fell in October to 4.4 percent from 4.6 percent in September. It was the lowest unemployment rate since 4.3 percent in May 2001 and was likely to fan concerns that labor markets are growing tight and could contribute to inflation pressures.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent to $16.91 - higher than the 0.3 percent that analysts had anticipated - while the average work week edged up to 33.9 hours from 33.8. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 3.9 percent, the department said.
Most of the new hiring in October was in service industries, where 152,000 new jobs were created, while goods-producing industries shed 60,000 jobs.
Hi Terra. Welcome back.
Yes, the Republicans have disappointed me in many ways lately.
there seems to be districts where the word republican is dirty.
there seems to be districts where the word republican is dirty.
You forgot to add "the Dem's fear mongering is doing it's job," with this section.
All the dems have to do is tell the truth.
Fear! Run for your lives! The Democrats are coming!!! I did say they were repubs. Bush with his.../if you vote for democrats you will get taxed and killed in your bed.Now you know that is playing to the fears of people raised in fear. All the dems have to do is tell the truth.
terra
Good to see you Terra.
I hope you are as healthy as you are wrong.
I am right as rain and more right then you.
I am doing volunteer work for MoveOn... :-*
How have you been?
Bush with his.../if you vote for democrats you will get taxed and killed in your bed.
Good to see you Terra.
I hope you are as healthy as you are wrong.
I am right as rain and more right then you.
I am doing volunteer work for MoveOn... :-*
How have you been?
I did say they were repubs. Bush with his.../if you vote for democrats you will get taxed and killed in your bed.Now you know that is playing to the fears of people raised in fear. All the dems have to do is tell the truth.thanks Larry,
Hi Terra. Do you think Bush arranged for the Saddam verdict to be announced just two day before the election? I do. The trial went on for more than a year. Three of Saddam's attorneys were murdered and in spite of all of that, the verdict came right on time for a Nov. surprise.
Glad to see you back in action Terra.
Good to see you Terra.
I hope you are as healthy as you are wrong.
I am right as rain and more right then you.
I am doing volunteer work for MoveOn... :-*
How have you been?
Yay Terra! Good to see you!
Saw "The Wicker Man" the other day and thoguht of you, Terra. Seen it yet? Nicolas Cage did an excellent job as did others in the movie.
Name for us two scandals .
One in which a Republican was caught with his pants down and gets away with it.
And one in which a Democrat is caught so , and must go?
Name for us two scandals .
One in which a Republican was caught with his pants down and gets away with it.
And one in which a Democrat is caught so , and must go?
This should be interesting