Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

The Nation had a reporter at the College Republican National Committee meeting last week. Which gives me a chance to put this fine picture of the aptly named Paul Gourley back up. I wondered if I was taking potshots at some young guy that didn’t deserve to be picked on. Boy, was I ever wrong. I remembered hearing about this incident last year, didn’t know the names though. Here is what Max Blumenthal reports about him:

Not to be outdone by his opponent’s petty pranks, CRNC front-runner and University of South Dakota senior Paul Gourley was at the center of a controversial fundraising scheme. During the height of last year’s campaign, a firm hired by the CRNC sent repeated solicitation letters printed on “Republican Headquarters 2004″ letterhead to elderly Republicans, some of whom suffered from dementia. The letter urged recipients to pray over an American flag lapel pin, then send it back–along with $1,000–so George W. Bush could wear it during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. The solicitation was signed by “Paul Gourley, National Director.”

Total bastard. A few years back, we had a similar problem with one of the myriad vice-presidents in the YDA. Guess what? She was quietly asked to leave the group. We didn’t promote her to president.

In the article, Blumenthal asks various gung-ho CRs why they don’t sign up for the Army. After all, the President called it the most noble calling just a couple of days ago. Their answers are so, well…uh…creative, that I can’t do them justice by picking out a quote here or there.

In the interest of equal time, Christopher Hitchens has an article in Slate where he argues that this whole notion that decision makers may have different ideas of sacrifice if their own are the ones being sacrificed is silly. I guess he doesn’t understand why the wealthy and powerful should pay the same price as the rest of us. Does he still consider himself a lefty?

The overt racism and hate from some of the speakers at the CRNC leads me to something that I have always wondered with folks envolved with the CRs, YRs, YAFs and all other sorts of groups. I remember when I was at the U of A, and encountering some of these guys. Many of them did not know I was half-Mexican, they’d say the spew some of the most bizarre racism that I’ve ever heard. Heck, one of them that I knew proudly showed me his graddad’s KKK necktie. I always think, well, they can grow out of it. Obviously, this sort of thing is not frowned upon by the speakers at these meetings. So, how can they grow out of it if no one ever says that it’s wrong?

The kid I knew with the tie, last I heard he works for a congressman. Nothing indicates to me that he has ever changed his mind. Heck, why would he?

The one thing that offended me was the title “Generation Chickenhawk.” Are they indicting an entire generation of people because of a few pampered elitists at a meeting in Virginia? It’s an insult to the thousands of young people who have signed up.

I also wanted to follow up on one of my first posts. One of the things that’s nice on the Cochise County Board of Supervisors is that there are only three members. This means that you can go from being a lone voice in the wilderness to majority in one fell swoop. Well, not quite that simple.

You may recall that Supervisor Paul Newman had some serious questions about an incinerator that is being built near Whetstone. He has kept on asking questions, and now it looks like his fellow supervisor, Richard Searle, has changed his mind. Now, there is only one vote, Pat Call, for the project. This will probably keep going for a while, but it looks like the good guys are winning.

One more item: I was totally disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Kelo v. City of New London case. For those of you who don’t follow these things, the City of New London was trying to use eminent domain to force residents of a working class neighborhood out so a private firm could develop the area. We may not like that neighborhoods get bulldozed, but we swallow it when it is for a public use. New Haven argued that the public benefitted because there would be increased tax revenue. Well, that can be argued about just about every neighborhood. For some reason, the Supremes agreed.

Well, a libertarian group called Free Star Media has there own ideas. Yeah, they are whacked out libertarians, and they love Ayn Rand way too much. But, this is brilliant. Check it out.