Fourth of July Message
We have just returned from the Fourth of July Parade here in Ojai, California. The parade in Ojai is different in some ways from the… Read More »Fourth of July Message
Douglas M. Parker
Special Bulletin: Statement From Republican Majority For Choice
RINOcracy.com will ordinarily publish only original commentary by Doug Parker, or perhaps in due course, guest bloggers. But the essay below by Susan Bevan, Co-Chairwoman of Republican Majority for Choice, is so cogent and well-stated that it is reproduced here in full. (The next regular blog, dealing with the recent Supreme Court decisions involving race, will be forthcoming in a few days.)
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Wake Up, GOP! Extreme Social Crusades Are Passé
This week our nation witnessed a series of historic events in the long battle for individual freedom and equality. While the Democratic Party is waving victory flags, applauding progress toward personal freedom and opening its arms to ever-increasing constituencies, GOP elected leaders have once again donned the mantle of ‘grumpy old men’ who bemoan the changing world and attempt to legislate their so-called traditional values.Read More »Special Bulletin: Statement From Republican Majority For Choice
Blog No. 5 Whither the War on Terror? Part III: Disclosures of NSA Surveillance—The Elephant in the Room
On June 5, a British newspaper, The Guardian, reported the existence of a National Security Agency program active in collecting data on telephone calls made within the United States. The report was based on documents and information provided by one Edward Snowden who also furnished information and documents for a story in The Washington Post the following day on a second NSA program, PRISM, that intercepts communications of overseas internet users. The stories created sufficient uproar that on June 7, that President Obama felt obliged to address the matter while attending a healthcare conference in California.Read More »Blog No. 5 Whither the War on Terror? Part III: Disclosures of NSA Surveillance—The Elephant in the Room
Blog No. 5 Whither the War on Terror? Part II. Of Drones and Guantanamo
Drone Strikes. President Obama’s May 23 speech announced new criteria for drone strikes. Although the previous criteria had not been disclosed, he made it clear that the new criteria were significantly narrower. According to the President, a targeted terrorist must now pose “a continuing and imminent threat to the American people,” and “before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured.” Taken literally and applied conscientiously, those are narrow criteria indeed. But as The New York Times reported, “Even as [Obama] set new standards, a debate broke out about what they actually meant and what would actually change.” Read More »Blog No. 5 Whither the War on Terror? Part II. Of Drones and Guantanamo
Special Bulletins: Abortion Bill Update and Welcome to RINOs Marco Rubio and Reagan
Parts II and III of Blog No. 5. “Whither the War on Terror?” will soon be forthcoming. There were, however, two events this week deserving of immediate brief comment. Both events involve difficult issues, immigration and abortion, that will each be the subject of full blogs, but, in the meantime, RINOs should be aware of them.
A Salute to the Sensible Six. Whatever one’s views on abortion, the bill passed by the House this week makes little sense. The bill, a severe anti-abortion measure sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks passed by a margin of 228-196. RINOcracy.com salutes the six Republican members of the House of Representatives who were sensible enough, and courageous enough, to vote against it. They are: Reps. Paul Broun (Ga.), Charlie Dent (Pa.), Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Jon Runyan (N.J.) and Rob Woodall (Ga.). The Franks bill, would, with limited exceptions, ban the abortion of a fetus older than 20 weeks old (or at 22 weeks of pregnancy under a different measuring system). The bill stands no chance of being enacted into law, and if it were, would be clearly unconstitutional. Read More »Special Bulletins: Abortion Bill Update and Welcome to RINOs Marco Rubio and Reagan
Blog No. 5 Whither the War on Terror? Part I: The President’s Vision
On May 23, President Obama gave a major speech on what has commonly been referred to as the War on Terror. The New York Times hailed it as “the most important statement on counterterrorism policy since the 2001 attacks, a momentous turning point in post-9/11 America.” The Wall Street Journal took a symmetrically negative view, but described it as “one of the more memorable speeches of [the Obama] Presidency… or for that matter any recent President.” Yet only a few weeks later, the speech has been swept from not only the front pages, but the editorial and op-ed pages and, no doubt, from most of the public consciousness.Read More »Blog No. 5 Whither the War on Terror? Part I: The President’s Vision
Blog No. 4 Olympia Snowe: RINO of the Year?
After Arlen Specter and Lincoln Chaffee departed from the Republican Party, Olympia Snowe and her fellow Senator from Maine, Susan Collins, remained as the most prominent Republicans to be termed RINOs. Now Senator Snowe has left the Senate in frustration over its addiction to gridlock, and has embarked on a campaign to promote the cause of bipartisanship. In that effort, she has published a book, Fighting for Common Ground, and created a website, Olympia’s List.org to “provide a gathering point for all of us who believe our elected officials need to put the country ahead of politics, to facilitate the distribution of news about activities taking place to further that goal, and to identify and support like-minded candidates and office holders.” Along with her devotion to bipartisanship, however, Senator Snowe has also made it explicitly clear that she remains a proud Republican, dedicated to the traditional principles of our party: “limited government, strong defense, lower taxes, and individual freedom and opportunity.” (Senator Snowe has not yet, so far as I know, embraced the label “RINO” as a badge of honor, but if RINOcracy.com can attract enough followers, perhaps she will come to that.)Read More »Blog No. 4 Olympia Snowe: RINO of the Year?
Blog No. 3 Common Core State Standards: A New Cause for the Tea Party
Our friends in the Tea Party have a new cause. A May 30 article in The Washington Post expanded on earlier press reports that Tea Party groups have mounted a nationwide campaign against the Common Core Standards. Some readers of the blog will doubtless respond “Hunh?” But if you are aware of the Standards only vaguely, or not at all, and are not familiar with the growing controversy surrounding them, now’s the time to catch up.Read More »Blog No. 3 Common Core State Standards: A New Cause for the Tea Party
Blog No. 1 Sexual Assaults in the Military
Is there anyone who does not believe that the disclosures of sexual assaults in the military are appalling? The official Pentagon report, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, indicated that, between 2010 and 2012, reported incidents of sexual assaults had increased from 3,192 to 3,374. Even more troubling is the fact that many sexual assaults go unreported, resulting in an estimate that the total number of sexual assaults rose from 19,300 to 26,000. Public concern with the issue has been heightened by a compelling documentary, The Invisible War, the report of a criminal conviction by a military court being overturned by a commanding general, and by the recent arrest, on charges of sexual assault, of the very officer, Lt. Col Jeffrey Kusinski, who had been in charge of the Air Force’s program to prevent sexual assaults.Read More »Blog No. 1 Sexual Assaults in the Military
Blog No. 2 Taxes, Spending and the Deficit
A development in Congress last week seemed peculiar even by the standards of that troubled institution. For years, Republicans have been complaining – quite reasonably – about the failure of the Senate to pass a budget. Pass a budget, they said, and proceed with the process of negotiating a reconciliation of the budget passed by the House in the ordinary way. Now that the Senate has, after four years, finally passed a budget, three Republicans in the Senate, self-styled “tea-party conservatives,” have blocked the appointment of a Conference Committee to do exactly what the Republicans had been demanding. Senator John McCain’s description of that tactic as “bizarre” seems altogether fitting.Read More »Blog No. 2 Taxes, Spending and the Deficit