Sarah Palin and I share a birthday.  Small world, eh?  Happy birthday, ma'am, and keep spreading the smaller-government message!

Posted by: Douglas Oosting at 09:53 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Posted to category: Looking Ahead

...so, I haven't been writing anything.  Not that a lot of things haven't been happening, of course.  I think we're all quite aware of just how swimmingly the Second Great Depression is going so far.

The original point I was making with this blog...or at least intended to make...was to demonstrate how it was possible to disagree with someone without demonizing them.  A trait the outspoken Left was singularly incapable of during 8 years of "Bushitler" jokes and crying-wolf "Facism!"   It was suddenly "trendy" to make jokes about assassinating the President.

These days, I'm not feeling so civil.  The inaction of the President and his office during several crises--the Deepwater Horizon spill being but the latest--has been, at best, negligent.  The mass populist uprising of the Tea Parties seems poised to make their point at the ballot box in a few short months.

Unless, of course, the Black Panthers and SEIU get to control the ballots.  I, personally, have no fear of that.  King County here is all-mail voting.  Yep, even if I don't trust it, the ONLY way I have to vote is to put it in the mail...and hope it doesn't get misplaced in a warehouse somewhere.

Posted by: Douglas Oosting at 09:15 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Posted to category: Looking Ahead

In Gulliver's Travels, one of the places the hero visits is Laputa, a land where all those in power are accompanied by "Flappers."   These functionaries block the ears and mouths of the important and powerful with their flaps, permitting the powerful to fully occupy themselves with their thoughts.  When the Flapper thinks their person needs to hear something, they remove the ear block. 

This, of course, is a satire on courtiers, bureaucrats, pages, messengers, lackeys, yes-men and sycophants that inevitably surround leaders.   It is every bit as true today as when Swift wrote about it.  Our President is incredibly busy and important, and cannot be bothered by such petty things as the actual unfiltered opinions of the people.

This leads me to the current hoo-rah about President-Elect Obama and his electronic leash.  Err, I mean Crackberry.  As with many of our executives in business and politics, he is extremely fond of his, using it throughout his day to keep on top of his schedule, contacts, and things that Must Be Remembered.   Entire working styles have evolved around rapid access, fast emails and text-messaging, synched calendars, and so on.

Of course, It Must Go.  Security risk, you know.  Oh, and those pesky legal discovery laws.  Would hate to have to explain the "missing 18 emails" some independant counsel wants to dig up.  Besides, the REAL risk here is that he might accidentally be exposed to non-filtered, un-agenda-approved EXTERNAL INPUT.  Not to go off into conspiracy-land, here, but if I'm a career apparatchik, that's the last thing I want to have happen!

Posted by: Douglas Oosting at 06:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Posted to category: Looking Ahead

For whatever skill I have with words, Bill Whittle always manages to say it better.

Posted by: Douglas Oosting at 01:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Posted to category: Looking Ahead

Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has some ideas on "what do Republicans do now?"

I suggest that we return to first principles. At the top of that list has to be a recommitment to limited government. After eight years of profligate spending and soaring deficits, voters can be forgiven for not knowing that limited government has long been the first article of faith for Republicans.

Posted by: Douglas Oosting at 09:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Posted to category: Looking Ahead