5views.com

Recently a commenter on this site asked me how I defined ‘a conservative’. I didn’t respond because it’s not up to me to define it.

Something liberals seldom understand is that words have meaning. If we try to change the meaning of a word we end up misrepresenting something or someone, which is usually tantamount to a lie.

That being said, I guess a definition of ‘a conservative’ is in order. Simply put, and pardon me for pulling a Webster and using another form of a word to define that word, a conservative is someone who holds to conservative principles.

An easy mistake that is made is to confuse conservative principles with the issues of the day. Another is to refer to someone as a conservative who only holds some of those principles while rejecting others.

What are those conservative principles? America has a somewhat unique set of principles that make up the ideals that we want to conserve. The individual principles are not unique, but together they are uniquely American.
(more…)

Is this what conservatives have needed? A few techno-conservatives have banded together to create a new site called ‘The NextRight‘ that they hope will shift the center of gravity on the Internet back toward the political right (h/t NewsBusters.Org). Here’s what they say about what they’re planning:

The Next Right is the place for wired activists to build a new Republican Party and conservative movement. As a community-driven grassroots action website for the right, we’ll feature in-depth political analysis, on-the-ground reports, and strategic discussion and debate.

Sounds cool to me. It sounds like they’re on the right track (pardon the pun), but many questions remain.

Will they be able to provide the tools to make it happen? Will anyone want to use the tools? Will anyone (such as the McCain campaign) try to exploit it for votes? Will real conservatives find a home there or is it just another attempt by RINO’s to sport their fake conservative credentials?
(more…)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been quoting the Bible. Well not actually quoting. And, well, not actually the Bible.

What she’s been saying is, “The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.’” (More over at MichelleMalkin.com.)

The word ‘minister’ simply means ’serve’, so Nancy is telling us to serve created things. And is it an act of worship? Probably, but not one that is worshiping God. When you worship God, you worship God, not the things He created. But since she was ambiguous about who or what was is being worshiped, maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe she meant ’serving created things is also worshiping created things’.
(more…)

Frank Rogers, a long-time Pierce County Republican and active member, has written an open letter to the state party chair, Luke Esser, regarding the handling of a vote at the convention last week.

I’ve been mulling over some concerns about that vote for the last week and couldn’t settle on how (or whether) to blog about it. Since this post is available, I guess I have a way to talk about it. What held me back from commenting was that I’m not well versed on parliamentary procedures at this point, so I wasn’t sure what to focus on. This open letter helped me find a way to address it.

After reading the letter I spoke with the convention parliamentarian (Alex Hays, see our discussion about another matter at the convention in the comments here.) His points about the County Executive endorsement vote were basically:
(more…)

Terry Bergeson, WA State Superintendent of Public Instruction, spoke at the Pierce County GOP Convention on Saturday. Now we find out that she approved an effort to bring children from public schools in 25 counties to see the Dalai Lama. When asked whether she would do the same for the Pope, her response was:

[Essex] PORTER: Would the Superintendent of Public Instruction urge schools to bring kids to the Pope?

[Terry] BERGESON: Well, I probably couldn’t get away with that as the Pope, Essex. But the Dalai Lama is a man of the whole world.

Radio talk show host Dori Monson talked with Bergeson about the issue. Give it a listen. She tries to make a distinction between the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Buddhists, and the Pope, spiritual leader of Roman Catholics. But as she does she describes Dalai Lama’s efforts as religious in nature, bringing our hearts, minds and spirits together to bring more compassion.
(more…)

Dino Rossi, once again running against Queen Christine to take back the election that he won in ‘04, has unveiled his transportation plan for Washington state.

Funding for the plan comes from several sources:

• Less than half of revenue from vehicle sales taxes [goes to funding roads] ($7.7 billion)
• Stop charging state sales tax on transportation projects ($2.4 billion)
• Half of the current and future eastside subarea equity Sound Transit surplus ($690 million)
• Reasonable tolling ($ ?)

The plan:

• Congestion relief - nine projects given the highest priority (other than safety, stated in a video)
• Other Transportation Initiatives - Alaskan Way Viaduct, our state ferry system, and addressing the funding gap for projects statewide
• Green Initiatives - promotes the use of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles, and provides funding to repair salmon blocking culverts owned by the WSDOT
• Transit - Transit has always been planned, and managed, at the local level. The state should not meddle in local transit decisions.

(more…)

In an opinion piece in USA Today the writer blames the Republican Party’s association with conservative Christians (one of the main reasons) for the GOP losing young voters. And, of course, liberal Republicans buy the lie.

It’s beginning to sound like a broken record. Oh, I’m sorry, the ‘youth’ won’t know what a record is.

Remember that this is an opinion piece, not a study or a survey. And it’s posted on a liberal, dead-tree rag’s Web site as they try to reach a younger crowd that never had ink-stained fingers from trying to understand the world around them.

What are the other reasons given in the piece?

Young people react to the success or failure of the first politicians they know. The twentysomethings of the 1980s, for example, associated the Democratic Party with the malaise of Jimmy Carter — and the GOP with the triumphs of Ronald Reagan.

Apparently, the writer thinks that ‘young people’ are too stupid to think for themselves. They’re just dumb animals with limited higher brain functions. All they can do is follow their first emotional reaction.
(more…)

A TNT article reveals details about the meeting between the ‘Tacoma Partnership’ and Russell consultants regarding their potential move in five years. The title of the article is telling,”Will Russell catch Tacoma’s Hail Mary pass?”

The first thing I noticed in the article is that the writer, Dan Voelpel, is probably shilling for the local politicians, comparing them to the heroes of an old western movie:

This Magnificent Seven, led by U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, represented a new affiliation that calls itself the Tacoma Partnership. They arrived early on this crisp morning for a 9 a.m. meeting.

The Magnificent Seven of the 1960 motion picture of the same name came together as underdog gunslingers aiming to save a poor Mexican farming village from 100 banditos who wanted to steal its food stocks.

Aside for the blatent butt-kissing by the writer, I think he tried to reverse the roles. He’s putting Russell and their consultants in the role of the banditos and making these politicians the heroes. But Russell isn’t robbing anyone. They have a business decision to make.

In my view, it’s the politicians who are stealing from the poor farming village by using our tax dollars, to the tune of $140 million or more (not all coming from local taxes), to fulfill their pie-in-the-sky pipe-dream of an ‘International Financial Services Area’ (IFSA) in downtown Tacoma.

Now the part that gave me a chuckle:
(more…)

What a disgrace. The American flag is a rallying banner for everyone who loves this nation and all the good it has done for its citizens and for freedom around the world. The same flag that symbolizes their right to free speech.

Eli Sanders at the Stranger describes what a Democrat caucus looks like in a liberal wasteland like Seattle. The highlight, or should I say lowlight, was:

At the mere mention of doing the pledge there were groans and boos. Then, when the district chair put the idea of doing the Pledge of Allegiance up to a vote, it was overwhelmingly voted down. One might more accurately say the idea of pledging allegiance to the flag (of which there was only one in the room, by the way, on some delegate’s hat) was shouted down.

(more…)

And there’s the pitch…

Project Destiny, now known as the Tacoma Partnership, unveiled their sales pitch to Russell Investments Group to keep them in Tacoma. How much will it cost taxpayers? $140 million. That’s right. $140,000,000. Just to keep one company from moving down the road a pace or two, probably close enough that most of their employees might commute instead of move.

Those making the pitch included Congressman Norm Dicks, City Manager Eric Anderson and Bruce Kendall, CEO of the Economic Development Board of Tacoma. And I’m sure they had the blessing of the City Council as well.

Did it work? They don’t know. And they don’t know when they’ll know.

But let’s be honest. That money isn’t about influencing one company. It’s about keeping a political pipe-dream alive. A pipe-dream that has has been failing since it was first dreamed up. A pipe-dream that has shaped downtown Tacoma into what it is today: an Economic Empowerment Zone.
(more…)