The Candidates and Israel: John McCain

For me, one of the most important issues in voting for people to run our country is their stance on Israel. This is one of the reasons Ron Paul was such an attractive candidate for me. While his policy was technically non-interventionist, I think that would actually help Israel. Our "Peace" efforts have largely crippled and hindered the nation, in my opinion. If Iran shoots missiles at them, they should be able to respond to what any sane person would call an "Act of War." But we've restrained them several times now, in just such instances.

However, I'm not righting this about my opinions. I'm writing this to inform you, my loyal readers (all 2 of you!) about the candidates opinions. I'll start with McCain.

"I’m proudly pro-Israel, and my positions have been consistent and clear. Israel, as one of America’s closest allies and the only democracy in a
dangerous neighborhood, deserves our support and assistance. That’s why I view
with such alarm the victory of Hamas and the Iranian president’s vile comments
about wiping Israel off the map." -- John McCain 1

John McCain has been turning up his pro-Israel rhetoric lately, mostly in an effort to bridge gaps with the evangelical base of the Republican Party. Christians LOVE Israel. Typically, the most devout Christians are republican. And most of us hate John McCain. Well, hate is a bad word. We are Christians after all. We love him, hate his politics. How about that?

So what's the real story with McCain? I have the feeling that he is more FOR blowing up Iran and hunting down every last muslim extremist in the world than he is FOR Israel... but hey, that's close enough right? Not so fast. The above quote is the first of many from McCain trying to distance himself from comments made in an interview in 2006. An interview published then, but never commented on until now. When he says that he was quoted out of context. Here's a few snippets:

McCain reportedly added: "I would expect concessions and sacrifices by both
sides."
When Oren asked McCain if that meant a "movement toward the June 4,
1967 armistice lines, with minor modifications," the reporter wrote, "McCain
nodded in the affirmative."
Oren said that McCain stated clearly that Israel's policy should be one of
"defending itself and withdrawing, defending itself and withdrawing."2

The Oren mentioned here is the reporter, defending his journalistic integrity. He even invited McCain to take a polygraph test with him, to see who was lying about the interview...the interview which McCain never questioned until this past weekend. It would seem that McCain expects Israel to concede much of its disputed territories to Palestine, which would include Bethlehem, and much of the surrounding area of Jerusalem. This is the Palestine that is run by Hamas...the terrorist organization. To be fair to McCain, he says that talks can't happen until Palestine shows they are committed to non-violence. In a related statement, McCain also was overheard booking a ski vacation in hell.

For those of you who don't "get" sarcasm, I'm saying that Palestine will never renounce violence. Oh, they may say they will...but the Quran says that it's okay to lie in situations like this, to infidels, in order to position yourself to destroy them later. (I'm paraphrasing here.) Hamas' sole raison d'etre is the destruction of Israel, and the death of every Jew in the world. And they're not too fond of Christians either. It reminds of the scripture, "Beware when everyone says, 'Peace! Peace!'"

So, is McCain FOR Israel? My answer is, "Meh." He'll do. He's better than Obama. He's about equal with Hillary, whose stances I'll be detailing in another blog. He does seem to value Israel as an ally. And I doubt he'd stand for much Israel bashing. But he's not the staunch supporter that Paul or Huckabee would've been. He's very comfortable with negotiating (or forcing Israel to negotiate) with the Palestinians, and having Israel fork over their God-given land to terrorists.

November 2008: Hope for America

You all know my thoughts on a John McCain vote . . . they haven't changed. Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh, among others have brought a little hope to me lately, though.


The Presidential Election is pretty much done, from a conservative viewpoint...but the fight is far from over. The President, himself, has no power to do much of anything (well, besides invading Middle Eastern Countries, it seems). Congress is the true power player...at least the one we should concern ourselves with. There is a new crop of conservative candidates coming into their own in elections around the country. McCain may not represent our viewpoints, but these people do. As Ms. Malkin points out, Obama was just a peon in the state legislature 4 years ago...and today is an increasingly likely Presidential Candidate. Many truely conservative young politicians fit this bill as well.


Take a look at Jingal (I think that's his name) that recently won the Governor race in Louisiana. Many are calling him the next Ronald Reagan!


So, I am recanting my lamentations that led you to believe I would consider sitting out the vote in November. While I'm still not voting for McCain, there are a TON of people, at state and local levels, that do deserve my vote, and will be getting it. Information on these people are hard to come by sometimes, but I urge you all to look up as much as you can on the candidates in your states, and help mold the government of the future, if not the next 4 years.

Reconciling my vote with my faith

I have had a hard time with the presidential race, thus far. The man whom I truly believed represented the values and ideals that I hold dear was written off by the media months ago, dooming his campaign. The man that I'm told I should vote for because I'm an evangelical Christian (which seems to be a very unpopular group these days...thanks G. W.) is so liberal on every single topic besides gay marriage and abortion it makes my head spin. And the man I'm left with at this stage of the Republican Primaries is as far from conservative as Michael Moore. What is a Christian, who votes with his conscience as much as his intellect, to do?

Ignoring the futile campaigns of Ron Paul (sad) and Huckabee (why is he still around?), I'm left with three options, as I can see it. I can vote AGAINST McCain, and in doing so vote FOR the democratic candidate. I can vote for McCain, since I am a registered Republican, and hope that the conservative voices of the party move him more in line with what I'm looking for. Or, I can sit at home.

Personally, I'm not seeing a morally clear-cut answer. McCain is for Real ID, taxing the middle class out of existence, continuing to drown our country in a multitude of debt, stem cell research, limiting free speech, surrendering rights to privacy, flinging wide the borders with Mexico, supporting the global warming propoganda machine...basically everything I have eschewed voting for democrats for in the past. On top of all that, he is pretty much George Bush v2.0 Extreme Edition on all the stuff that has made me regret daily ever voting for Bush in the first place. Iraq for 100 more years?! Egad! Did Karl Rove track down Common Sense, find him huddling in a dark alley, shivering and alone, and put a bullet in his head? If so, I have the feeling that he wrestled the Constitution from his cold, dead, hands, brought it back to the White House, and destroyed it in a vile ritual with Bush, McCain, and several other RINO's.

So, voting my conscience aside, my intellect cannot even wrap its mind around a McCain vote. Ron Paul represents a very ardent group of people. A group that the media cannot ignore forever. I believe that McCain would not just be a bad president, but that he would put the final nail in the coffin (built by Bush) for the conservative movement. And no, I'm not talking the Huckabee, liberal spending, neocon, Jesus-centered conservative movement. I'm talking about the growing unrest with liberal spending, liberal financial policies, etc, etc. The conservative movement with whom Ron Paul's message resounded so well. Small Government. Low Taxes. Decreased Spending. Neutering the Fed. A reasonable foreign policy. No empire building. No policing the world. Stabilizing the economy so that free markets can work unencumbered. This conservative movement is the antithesis of both the current Republican power-wielders, AND the democratic party. McCain's lunatic Bush Extreme policies would usher in 30 years of democratic control of the country...during which we would likely lose all ties to true democracy, and become a socialist state.

Speaking of socialism, I don't believe I can vote my conscience and vote for Hillary, and I'm sure I can't vote for Obama. Despite the fact that Clinton has a MORE conservative voting history than McCain. But I'm not sure that sitting out an election is a socially or civically responsible thing to do either. It's our responsibility as Christians to help redeem the world, and be productive and helpful members of society...participating in all our civic duties. This is quite a predicament. What does one do when there really isn't a lesser of two evils? The evil is equitably distributed amongst the candidates. Who does an evangelical, conservative Christian vote for?
Discuss.

Ubuntu 7.01 Installation Attempt 1 (respost)

Author's note: This is a reposting from a series I began at my last blog host, which I plan to continue here.


Well, by the title, you can see that I did not succeed in my first installation attempt. The installation CD is also a live CD. Basically meaning that you can run Ubuntu totally off the CD, without installing on your hard drive. I played with a few features in the live boot. In short, Ubuntu is beautiful. It looks like a third major OS, next to Windows and Mac. It runs smoothly, and is easy enough for a first time or clueless computer user to use. The installation instructions were in plain English. Actually, I would say installation was easier than Windows...significantly so. I believe that a total computer novice could install Ubuntu first time...given that it works right...
...which brings me to my first issue. An easy to understand an informative error box popped up and explained that I had an error on my CD, that I should reburn it at a slower speed, or move my computer to a cooler area. Huh?
My computer is cool enough, thank you. I didn't have the time to reburn the CD...I will try that. This is the only negative thing I have to say about Ubuntu thus far. It looks like an amazing OS, and I'm pretty excited to try out more.

This is my first post.

I'm considering using blogger to host my blog until my server is up and running.