A BRIEF HIATUS

'Tis the season, as they say, and Conservative In Exile is taking a little holiday break. Simply too much to do, to keep up with two blogs during this season. I'll be back in January, ready to fight the liberals wherever they may be.

Until then, I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year!! Don't party too hard now y'hear???

-- Larry "Dawgman"

BAILING OUT DETROIT IS A BAD IDEA

Those of the liberal persuasion are fond of saying that our Big Three automakers are in trouble because they're making cars that Americans don't want to buy. Uh, excuse me, but I don't think so. They certainly made enough of those big gax-guzzing SUVs and there were an awful lot of them on our higways -- until gas hit four bucks per gallon earlier this year -- so it looks like lots of folks were buying them. Everyone except liberals, that is, who vastly prefer their Mercedes-Benz's, BMWs, and Volvos, with the bicycle racks on top and the Obama or Kerry bumper stickers on the rear. The libs are in love with anything and everything European, including their socialized society, but that's another story altogether, for another entry.

The Big Three have always, and still do, make cars in accordance with the demands of the American public's tastes, and our tastes have traditionally gravitated toward bigger vehicles, whether for the sake of families, for work, or for whatever the need. Of course, when the gas crunch smacked us down, they couldn't give the guzzlers away, so they took a soaking, as people sought smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. They found what they were looking for, primarily from the Japanese and other Asian automakers. Major trouble.

But the truth is, our Detroit automakers were already in trouble well before OPEC decided to stick it to us again. Now they've all got their hands out, looking for a handout from Uncle Sam. The Democrats are coming, with all their free goodies, and everyone wants a share of the pie, it seems. Sorry, Detroit, but I'd give a firm "no" to your request for financial aid. If it were up to me, you could all go file that Chapter Eleven right now. Because that would allow all of you to reorganize and oh, brother, do you ever need to do that!

Detroit's problem was that it was relying too heavily on the bigger SUVs and full-size pickup trucks that sold like hotcakes for years on end; they didn't offer nearly as many smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles in their model line-ups. So, when OPEC and the oil speculators stuck it to us earlier this year, they were caught with their panties all the way down. Gas prices went to nearly five bucks a gallon in some locations and all of the sudden, the Big Three couldn't give their big, gas-guzzling products away. The demand for guzzlers disappeared overnight and Detroit had few alternatives to offer. The Asian manufacturers, who were always known for their smaller, fuel-stingier models, had a field day. The Big Three couldn't compete; it takes time to redesign and retool the plants and it costs money. They weren't making much money right then and then there was that union, the UAW.

Increasingly exhorbitant union demands had been draining Detroit's corporate wallets for years. The average Detroit autoworker makes about $75,000 per year in combined wages and union-guaranteed benefits; the average worker at a non-union Japanese-owned firm makes about $38,000 per year. A large percentage of the domestic worker's yearly take is in those benefits, which have grown unbelievably and unrealistically lavish in recent times. How many employers out there pay their laid-off employees 90% (yes, that's ninety percent) of their salaries up to four years after they're laid off? How many other employers offer fully-paid healthcare plans for their retired employees for the rest of their lives? Those are but two of the lavish benefits that the UAW has secured for their union workers. Is it any wonder our automakers are on the verge of bankruptcy? Is it a little more understandable now why some American companies, like Wal-Mart, have refused to let their employees unionize? That sort of thing would bankrupt any company, in time.

Every government bailout plan I've seen for the Big Three has tied into it somewhere one or both of two things. First, Congress wants to buy shares of their stocks in return for the money they loan them; secondly, there's some mandate to produce "greener" cars and trucks. Therein lies the greatest risk associated with any bailout. I can read between the lines here, can't you? In the first instance, it's a poorly disguised effort to buy out our automakers and exert government control over their operations. The second instance ties right in with that -- the government wants the ability to dictate what kinds of cars are manufactured and thus what kinds of cars we're allowed to own and drive. My dear readers, this is spelled "S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-M," plain and simple. Greater government control over our lives and lifestyles. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to what we're going to see over the next four years, if we don't stop these politicians who now have the power that they've craved for so long.

So, no -- no bailout for Detroit. Let them file for bankruptcy reorganization and allow them to reorganize. The minute they file, the union contracts become null and void, so maybe it will get them out from under the burden of the UAW. Many companies have gone under Chapter Eleven protection and come out of it stronger than ever. Why can't the Big Three do likewise? Get rid of all the deadwood in their operation. Correct the mistakes of the past and strengthen the management of the companies. If they get bailed out all the time, they'll never learn and they'll make the same blunders over and over again in the future. And don't believe the nonsense about losing seven more jobs for every one autoworker's job that's lost. That's crap. If the carmakers close up shop for a reorganization, do you actually believe that they're going to stop making auto tires? Or brake components? Or headlamps? Or engine parts? I don't. There's too many cars out there that need those parts -- about 300 million or so of them.

Detroit can remake itself and our auto industry can become strong once again. But a bailout is not the way it should be done.

WILL OBAMA PLAY A PART IN PROPHETIC FULLFILLMENT?

In the Holy Bible, Book of Genesis, it recounts how Abraham's son, Jacob, wrestled with an angel, attempting to gain God's blessing. Seeing Jacob's sincerity and determination, God allowed him to win that wrestling match and indeed did bless him. God changed Jacob's name to Israel and told him that he would go on to found a great nation, of God's chosen people. He also told Israel that "Whomever would bless your name shall be blessed and whomever would curse your name shall be cursed."

Israel did indeed become a great nation, the ancestral home of the Hebrew people; the Promised Land, given to them by God after Moses freed them from the Egyptians. It was conquered by outsiders several times over the years, always because the Hebrew nation had displeased and angered God in some way. Approximately forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus, in A.D. 70, the Romans devastated it, reducing the Temple of Solomon to rubble and running the Jews away from their promised land, scattering them all over the world. That dispersion lasted until 1948, when the modern nation of Israel was reborn, exactly as Old Testament prophecy had predicted it would be, right down to the very day. Biblical prophecy has always been fulfilled. It always will be, because that prophecy has been given by God Himself.

Over the years of the dispersion, that little strip of land remained barren and empty, except for Arab nomad tribes who traveled through it. After the Islamic faith was born, around 650 A.D., the Muslims conquered all the Middle East, including the Hebrew's ancestral homeland. Nations like Syria and Jordan were founded, bordering on that desolate strip of desert. Yet no nation ever claimed it at all. It sat there all those years, unclaimed and largely uninhabited, as if waiting. It became known as Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, but it was never a nation unto itself; only an unoccupied and unclaimed territory.

Some Jews began moving back there in the late 1800's and many more settled there from Europe, both before and after World War Two. They brought with them agricultural know-how and after they built irrigation canals, the land began to bloom again and flourish. The Islamic Arabs grew jealous and since their ancestors had conquered it in the name of their god, Allah, they began trying to run the Jews away again, now wanting those crops for themselves. The Jews, of course, resisted and fought to retain their ancestral homeland which they had regained at last. This was the beginning of the Middle Eastern strife which is still going on today.

Palestine was then a British Protectorate and the Brits struggled to keep the two factions apart, away from each other's throats. Finally, fed up with the entire affair, Britain put Palestine in the hands of the newly-formed United Nations and withdrew. In 1948, the U.N. partitioned Palestine, giving the smallest portion to the Jews and the rest to the Arabs living there, who now called themselves "Palestinians." When the U.N. officially recognized the Nation of Israel, that was the last straw for the Arabs and Palestinians. War after war followed, right up to today.

Today there is a persistent belief that Israel is the cause of all the stife in the Middle East. That notion, of course, has been planted in people's minds by the Palestinians and other Muslims who dominate that region. Personally, I hardly think that is the case, considering that the Jewish claim to the land that Israel occupies is much, much older than the faith of Islam itself. The problem lies in the Islamic belief that once a land is conquered in the name of Allah, it can never be returned to those who claimed it before it was conquered. Put in the simplest terms, the Muslims stubbornly refuse to recognize any Jewish claim to the land on which Israel sits; it was conquered for Allah and it is Allah's land now. They believe that steadfastly and will not budge an inch. Every Muslim nation surrounding Israel shares a common desire to wipe Israel from the face of the earth.

The United States is, at this writing, still allied with Israel, although that partnership has suffered much and gotten weaker in the past few years. The question is: How much longer will that alliance last? Our politicians, even George W. Bush and our Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, have seemingly bought into the notion that Israel is the cause of the problems in the Middle East. It' s like they prefer to honor the Islamic claim, rather than the much older biblical Jewish claim. Political Correctness has taken its evil toll on our diplomacy nowadays and Israel has been scolded, time and again, for daring to even defend its right to exist. We let despot leaders like Iran's president (whose name I won't attempt to spell) speak at our universities, cheering on a man who denies that the Holocaust ever took place, is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, and whose country has now, according to a
recent N.Y. Times article, enriched enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon. Anyone care to guess who that weapon will be used against, once it's built??

In January, Barack Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President and I fear greatly for the future of our continued relationship with Israel. Obama is almost hopelessly naive on foreign policy, vowing to talk to despotic rulers all over the world, with no pre-conditions at all. From what he's said in past speeches and interviews, he appears to be more pro-Palestinian than any of his predecessors were. And to top it off, Vice-President-Elect Joseph Biden has plainly said that Obama will be tested soon after he takes office. There will be some kind of world crisis that will call for action on Obama's part. And we will find out how weak or strong he truly is.

I can pretty much guess what that crisis might well turn out to be, and it's probably going to come within the next six months. Israel is going to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. They will have to; their very existence depends on it. Israel, a tiny nation surrounded by other nations who despise them, can ill-afford to let Iran build a nuclear bomb, or other device. They know full well that it would be used on them almost immediately, so it's a simple matter of survival on their part. It's coming -- mark my words.

I hope Obama is ready for something like this, but I have my doubts that he will be. In his politically correct mind, any pre-emptive strike by Israel would be seen as a dire transgression against one of the nations that the PC crowd loves to coddle so much -- never mind the fact that Iran is a first-class terrorist nation and one of the world's biggest troublemakers. A nation that has labeled America as the "Great Satan." Yet the PC'ers seek only to kiss their rears, naively believing that they'll somehow magically start liking us, if we're nice to them. Yeah. Right. Tell me another fairy tale.

Obama would likely severely denounce Israel for such an attack, completely ignoring the survival aspect of the matter. Israel's response won't be apologetic, especially if they elect a new, hard-liner Prime Minister. Our already strained relationship could worsen and even end altogether. That is my fear and it plays right into the End Time prophecy of Revelation. A reading of Revelation will show you that Israel is all alone in the End Times; it makes mention of no allies of Israel and no mention of any nation that could be interpreted as America at all. Israel will be attacked and God will protect her, perhaps with a devastating earthquake, as many theologians believe.

That attack will come suddenly, with no warning at all, and the prophecy mentions Gog and Magog as the attackers. Gog is believed by most to be modern-day Russia, while Magog may be Iran, or some other Middle Eastern power. That makes perfect sense, because Iran and Russia are bosom buddies, to say the least. Would Russia and Iran combine their forces and attack Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Iran?? I can very well see that happening, in the next few years. Will Obama break our alliance with Israel? That could very well take place, too. Such a thing would not only leave Israel all alone with her enemies, it would make this country subject to God's curse, as he told Jacob/Israel in the Bible.

I don't know that all this will happen. I don't claim to be a prophet myself. I only know that it is very possible and I believe that the Obama presidency is going to change things in the world in ways that we can't imagine. Problem is, I don't think they will be good changes at all.

AND THIS IS CHANGE??!!!!!

Friday brought confirmation of a week-old rumor; Hillary Clinton will indeed become our next Secretary Of State in the new Obama Administration. Or, is that the right term to use at all? The list of confirmed and speculative Obama cabinet and advisory appointments is reading like a who's who list of former Clinton Administration officials. Perhaps "Clinton II" is a better description for what's shaping up. Clinton's third term, without Slick Willie himself being present (at least in any official capacity). Pause for thought. Hmmmmmmmmm. So much for change.

Perhaps, with the notable exception of Obama himself, I should dub this year as the "Year of the Retread." Because this allegedly "fresh and new" administration is poised to run on leftovers from the last Democratic administration. The appointment of The Dutchess as head of the State Department may be Obama's way of tossing a bone to her supporters, most of whom reluctantly voted for him after he beat her out for the nomination. But that hardly accounts for all the other former Clintonistas, beginning with "Rahmbo" Emanuel and veering hard left from there. Or is that really turning to the center? Hard to tell how this will play out. Obama may indeed head toward centerfield, once he's inaugurated. There is quite a bit of incentive, after all, for him to do so. He'll want that second term and he's smart enough to know that if he overreaches, becomes unpopular with the voters, and the Republicans can get their act halfway together, that sophomore season could well be denied him, ala Jimmy Carter.

That said, however, any supposed desire to govern from the middle may not be possible. There is a very leftist-led House and Senate to contend with, as well as the far-left lunatic fringe represented by the admittedly socialist billionaire, George Soros and his MoveOn.Org crowd. Obama would have to weigh his popularity with the public-at-large against his approval rating by the more rabid leftist members of his own party. And he might have to fight his own Congress, to remain centered at all. Would he veto any far-left legislation that lands on his desk, even if doing so would make him popular with the public? I just can't see him doing so. His hand would be forced in such a situation, to prevent a civil war within his own party.

And we can't forget that Obama is himself a dedicated leftist of the first caliber. Any detectible move to the center might be merely a feint, designed around generating popularity and attempting to calm the fears of many who didn't vote for him. As for his collection of Clintonistas and The Dutchess herself, they are no indication of a centrist stance at all. I would remind readers that Bill Clinton was forced to govern from the center, because of the Republican-controlled Congress he got stuck with in 1994. Democrats have the whole ball of wax now, for at least the next two years, and the GOP is in disarray, due for a major overhaul. If the Democrats can retain their majority in 2010 and Obama can stay popular enough to win re-election in 2012, look out! Once he's a lame duck, there'll be no more attempt to hold the center at all. Better hold on for that sharp left turn.

I may be checking out truck driving opportunities in Australia by then.

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FOR THE GOP

Last week, I touched on some things that Republicans need to do in order to win elections in the future. However, I didn't even go into what I see as the biggest single problem that GOP candidates must overcome. To put it in its simplest terms, future Republican candidates have got to stop competing with Democrats for control of institutions that liberals have established.

Nothing makes my conservative blood boil nowadays more than Republicans who have seemingly capitulated to liberal/socialist ideals and are attempting to convince voters that Republicans can manage the vast federal leviathan more efficiently than the very ones whose policies created most of it in the first place. How ludicrous can you get? As I said last week, nobody can outspend a tax and spend liberal Democrat and nobody can out-socialize a socialist; to even attempt to do so is futile and will only result in making one look like a prize boob.

Which is pretty much what Republicans ended up looking like after the election on Nov. 4th. We have indeed lost our way, as a party with viable alternative ideas, if our leadership insists on competing with liberals for control over liberal programs. And we will continue to lose elections, running the risk of virtual one-party rule in the future.

This trend must be brought to a screeching halt, ASAP. What happened to traditional GOP opposition to liberal schemes and ideas? What happened to the GOP which stood for spending cuts and downsizing the federal government? With giving incentives to business for job creation and the gradual weaning of able-bodied recipients off of welfare programs and back into the workplace again? Is the idea of a "hand-up, but not a hand-out" totally lost nowadays? It's quite clear that the GOP has become so much like the Democrats when it comes to Big Government that there is now little difference to offer voters who are fed up with it. In frustration, many potential voters sit home on election day, allowing the Democrats to win almost by default. This is what happened in 2006, and it happened this year as well, though in smaller numbers. The "silent majority," who grew so loud 25 years ago have become quiet again, and the situation is much more desperate nowadays than it was during the 1980's.

The next two to four years are probably going to determine whether us traditionalist Americans can salvage what's left of the country we've always known and loved, or whether we'll be plunged headlong into the Democrats' idea of a socialist worker's "paradise." Remember this: There's no going back, once it happens. If it does, the America we've always known will disappear forever into history. It's next to impossible to reverse things once they've been completely socialized. This game is played for keeps.

That is what's at stake. Our future freedom to determine our own path in life. We do have a handful of Republican leaders who are fighting socialism tooth and nail. I'm with them, 100%, but we need many, many more. And we absolutely, as a party, must return to the platform and principles that once made us so strong. If we can't do that soon, it's going to be the end of the world, as we know it, I'm afraid.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD, REPUBLICANS!

For six of the past eight years, Republicans had full control of all three branches of our federal government. We lost the House and Senate in the mid-term elections of 2006 and now, with the election of Barack Obama on Nov. 4th of this year, we have lost it all. The Democrats now sit in the position that we once held, barely able to hold their socialistic ambitions in check until the inauguration in January. We blew it, and miserably so at times. In a recent Republican-only poll that was taken, the results were brutally telling: 32% of the respondents characterized the Republican leadership as "incompetent;" another 28% indicated that the party has lost its way and abandoned its conservative roots. Only 9% approved of the party as-is.

To say that the GOP has serious problems is the understatement of the century. Our party is a total train wreck, derailed by George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" concept, which has led in turn to a moderate/liberal takeover of the party leadership and an almost complete dismissal of the conservative principles that Ronald Reagan put in place in the 1980's. Those principles unified our party and made it formidable at the polls. A force to be reckoned with. Voters had a clear choice in the booth on election day. Not anymore, unfortunately. No personal disrespect intended to President Bush, whom I still believe is a good and decent man in his heart of hearts, but if this is to be his legacy, then who needs it??

Mr. President, sorry to break the news to you this way, but your compassionate conservatism has failed. Twice. It doesn't work. I once heard the word "insanity" defined as doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting different results. That's a pretty good definition, if you ask me. How many elections does the GOP have to blow before it finally catches on? The public, as of now, has little to no confidence in the leadership ability of Republicans. The election of Barack Obama proved that conclusively; when people prefer to take a chance on an inexperienced, naive junior senator, rather than trust the much more experienced Republican candidate, something is definitely wrong with your party brand. It's time to put the GOP ship into a drydock and overhaul it. This is what we must do if we ever expect to win another election in our lifetime.

The state Republican committees will be assembling shortly to elect a new Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Whom they select is of the utmost importance up through the next presidential election cycle. We have got to bring our party back to its conservative roots again, so the election of a strong conservative chairman is an absolute must-do. Of the two frontrunning candidates for the post, my pick is Michael Steele, who is the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Mr. Steele is an African-American who is also a very strong conservative and would, I believe, provide just what the party needs in the leadership for its future.

Michael Steele is young, energetic, and enthusiastic -- something that the GOP needs an immediate infusion of in the worst way. We badly need younger blood to replace the old, worn-out blood we've had for far too long. The Republican Party has got to break with the "stuffy old fogey in the gray flannel suit" image that it has been stuck with for years. That was okay for Reagan, considering his age and that he was set in his ways, but nowadays that image is woefully outdated. We've got to obtain a more youthful image which reflects the changing of the guard, generationally. The key to this is in running, appointing and electing younger, conservative Republican leaders.

Sarah Palin was a great start. She'll be back and I think will have a bright future in national politics for years to come. And there are others, like Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, the first Indian-descended candidate to be elected. Like Gov. Palin, he is young, intelligent, and a strong conservative. He will, I think, become a future superstar as well. There are more like them out there and the party has got to find them and persuade them to seek public office.

We Republicans have got to re-define ourselves and what it is to be a Republican. We have to take off the gray flannel suits and replace them with sport jackets worn over jeans. Let the public know that we aren't all 70-year-old Wall Street bankers, riding around in chauffuered limos; more of us than you think wear jeans, leather biker jackets, ride Harleys, and drive our own Camaros to work. We are blue collar, we are conservative Republicans, and we're coming after you liberals who want to destroy our country and way of life!!

If we can do that, then maybe we can take back our party and our nation in the future.

CONSERVATIVE IN EXILE

My blog's title has changed, if you haven't noticed. This new title is designed to more accurately represent the new status of myself, and of all true conservatives, now that the Democrats are ruling the roost once more. As the blurb beneath the title denotes, we are down, for now, but we definitely aren't licked yet. To paraphrase the immortal words of The Terminator, "We'll be back!!" In the meantime, the conservative underground movement has its home here, and in other similar blogs and alternative media outlets.

The left has succeeded, over the past eight years, in characterizing "conservative" as a dirty word in American politics, much as we did the word "liberal" primarily during the Reagan Era. Maybe we had it coming. I don't know. But it has certainly worked well for them. It has gotten to the point where far too many politicians, who were formerly considered conservative, are now acting apologetic for being what they are (or once were.) Under President Bush's enigmatic "Compassionate Conservatism" (and I still can't figure out what that means, for the life of me), we have gone steadily downhill and moderate, outright liberal, and RINO Republicans have hijacked our party right out from under us. We are still very much the base of that party, but we've been steadily swept under the rug for eight years. Gee, thanks, George W.!!! You've managed to disenfranchise the heart and soul of the Republican Party and replace it with "Democrat Lite!" No freakin' wonder we've lost the past two elections!!!

Voters now have no clear choice at all. If Republicans are going to act like Democrats, then why not just elect the genuine article and be done with it? This is like trying to replace the original product with some off-brand, half-assed copy. It is futile. You can't outspend a liberal Democrat (although the RINOs in Congress have tried to.) You can't out-socialize a socialist. And you definitely can't make deals with socialists. You'll end up losing your shirt every time. And so we have. Abraham Lincoln -- the first GOP president -- is probably tossing and turning in his grave. So are our Founding Fathers, and all they stood for. What happened to the small central government they created? It grew into a leviathan and lately the Republicans, who once stood for shrinking it, have aided only in increasing its size even more. We are in deep doo-doo if this trend continues much longer.

This blogger will never apologize for his conservatism. Political Correctness be damned!! I am a Reagan Conservative and am very proud of it. I hold my head high, because I know the truth. I know how things really do work in America, and don't base my beliefs on some illusory, self-serving idea of how I think they should work. I am both a realist and a true intellectual, and not a pseudo-intellectual, as so many on the left side of the street are prone to be. And I'm convinced that's the best way to be, especially in these troubling times. You can join my new conservative underground, by reading me, and by taking part yourself, if you happen to agree with me.

Lose any shame that you've been made to feel. Free yourself and work to take back our political party again. Patch things up so that we can re-emerge, once the liberals screw things up (and they will, trust me.)

It's going to be a wild ride, the next four years. Will you join me?