Conservative on Target! Perry’s Tea Party, Race Spoils, Perry, Terror Strategy, Liberal Roulette

Gallup > Tea Party Supporters Backing Perry for GOP Nomination: Rick Perry's candidacy has attracted strong initial support from Republicans who identify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement. Perry leads by 21 percentage points over the closest contenders among this group, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Among Republicans who say they do not support the Tea Party movement, Romney and Perry are essentially tied. [The groups that had more non-Tea Party supporters than Tea Party supporters were the Romney and Paul groups! – JS]

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Obama's Race-Based Spoils System: … African-Americans are hardly underrepresented in the U.S. government. Though only 12 percent to 13 percent of the U.S. population, blacks hold 18 percent of all federal jobs. African-Americans are 25 percent of the employees at Treasury and Veterans Affairs, 31 percent of State Department employees, 37 percent of the Department of Education, 38 percent of Housing and Urban Development. They are 42 percent of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., 55 percent of the Government Printing Office, 82 percent of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency. According to The Washington Post, blacks hold 44 percent of the jobs at Fannie Mae and 50 percent of the jobs at Freddie Mac.

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My Rick Perry Problem -- and Ours: My weariness is hardly a major consideration for anybody, but I think it reflects a larger problem. Conservatism is starting to have an identity-politics problem all its own. I think conservatism needs to spend less time defending candidates for who they are, and more time supporting candidates for what they intend to do.

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The Right Strategy to Fight Terrorism: The Administration now seeks to treat terrorism under a law enforcement paradigm that failed to protect Americans from terrorism when it was adopted by the Clinton Administration before 9/11. In addition, the White House intends to follow a “small footprint” strategy for overseas operations, relying primarily on Special Forces operations, covert action, and strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles. The President’s strategy cedes the initiative to America’s enemies and provides them the opportunity to reconstitute both their moral and physical assets… The first element of the U.S. strategy should be persistence… !

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Buy a roulette set. Invite your liberal friends over for a "fun" version of the game especially adapted to their ideological enthusiasms. When they lose, you—the bank (that is, the government)—take all their chips. But whenever they win, temper their delight by paying out only 60 percent of the proceeds. Divide the remaining 40 percent among the other players. Smile brightly: "So much friendlier this way, don't you think, when everything is shared equally?"