'Blue Dog' Democrats Seek Larger Role

For a dozen years, the Democratic conservatives known as Blue Dogs have been baying at the moon, ignored by Republicans and tolerated by their more liberal Democratic colleagues. Now, these House lawmakers say that is about to change.

Republicans "did not lose their seats to liberal Democrats" in last weeks elections, said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. "Republicans lost their seats to Blue Dog Democrats." "We'll have a lot to say about what passes and what doesn't" when the 110th Congress convenes in January with Democrats in control for the first time in 12 years, said Ross, new communications director for the caucus.

With the addition of nine newly elected freshmen, the Blue Dogs claim 44 members, nearly 20 percent of the incoming Democratic majority. They will be led by Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., and include Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., in line to become the next Agriculture Committee chairman.

The Blue Dogs were formed in 1994 after Republicans swept the long-entrenched Democrats from power. They tend to be social conservatives on such issues as abortion. But their big issue is fiscal discipline - balancing the budget and reducing the federal debt.

More here

***************************

Brookes News Update

Democrats, taxes and the US economy : Now that the Democrats have won both houses I think we can count on the leftwing Media Party to start reporting on the Bush boom as soon as it figures out a way to credit the Dems for the economic recovery and full employment
Storm clouds gather over the Australian economy as the money supply increases: Australia has been running a reckless monetary policy for about 10 years. From March 1996, when Howard once his first election, to August this year bank deposits rose by 133 per cent and M1 by 105 per cent. Since October last year bank deposits rose by 9 per cent and M1 by 8 per cent. Monetary figures like these can only bring grief
Boris, Bill and Monica: trouble ahead for Hillary?: Did the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service use Bill Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky to extort from him billions of dollars from American taxpayers to save the Russian economy from financial collapse? If so, will this destroy Hillarys presidential ambitions?
Rupert Murdoch just doesnt get the message: Murdoch, the man who complained about the emergence of neo-socialism, is cosying up to Hillary Clinton a politician that embodies those things he affects to despise
Why the Democrats accept lies : The Modern Liberal marches down the streets of San Francisco cheering on Hezbollah not because theyre rationally, morally and intellectually thought through the terrorist groups motives and actions but simply because it is an opportunity to attack the Jews
Christian socialism v economic reality: Christian socialists are just as ignorant as other secular socialists when it comes to the market place and capitalism. To read this lot you would think the world was on the verge of destruction and that the exploited masses are clothed in rags
Malcolm Fraser's ignorance and the Soviet collapse: Malcolm Fraser has become a ridiculous figure, strutting about the public arena, parading intellectual pretensions that he sadly mistakes for serious thought, becoming the despair of thoughtful and informed opinion, the but of jokes of the malicious and a source of propaganda for the ignorant and self-serving

************************

ELSEWHERE

Doug Ross has a very good fisking of the lunatic Democrat strategy for "Energy independence"

Islamic fruitcake works in British immigration office: "A senior member of the Islamist group Hizb ut- Tahrir is working as a computer technician at the Home Office, despite calls by Tony Blair for the group to be banned. The activist, named as Abid Javaid, is said to be an official at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon, one of the department's most sensitive branches. Shortly after the July 7 bombing attacks, the Prime Minister included the group in a list of those he planned to proscribe, but it has not been among those banned. An investigation by the BBC Two programme Newsnight also claimed that the group preached hatred to young men using staged videos of persecution of Muslims. Newsnight said that Hizb ut-Tahrir targeted disaffected youngsters, particularly the unemployed and members of gangs in South London, and encouraged them to attack non-believers - a claim denied by the group's spokesman, Abdul Wahid, on the programme... The Home Office refused to confirm whether Mr Javaid worked at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate but added: "All Home Office civil servants are expected to abide by Home Office rules governing their conduct and are subject to the Civil Service Code."

Arafat's stolen billions: "Two years after Arafat's funeral, an international scavenger hunt continues for the revolutionary leader's far-flung riches. A motley assortment of investigators ranging from Israel's security establishment to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which now rules in Ramallah, maintain an ongoing interest in every lost stash. "The only man who knows the whole story is dead," says a senior Israeli military intelligence official who agreed to answer questions on condition of anonymity. "But the deeper you go into it, the more it stinks."

Al Qaeda "nothing to do" with Iraq? "Al Qaeda recently issued a statement that it has 12,000 fighters in Iraq. If we were not accomplishing important strategic goals there, why would al Qaeda be deploying so much of its resources to Iraq? It would be nice to know everything, like the folks at the Times, Seymour Hersh, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and the long list of left-biased journalists and academics. Unfortunately, they are unschooled bufoons with respect to this question, and their views are, well, dumb."

Nuke attack on Britain: "British intelligence officials believe that al-Qaida is determined to attack the UK with a nuclear weapon, it emerged yesterday. The announcement, from an officially organised Foreign Office counter-terrorism briefing for the media, was the latest in a series of bleak assessments by senior officials and ministers about the terrorist threat facing Britain. UK officials have detected "an awful lot of chatter" on jihadi websites expressing the desire to acquire chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons. Asked whether there was any doubt that al-Qaida was trying to gain the technology to attack the west, including the UK, with a nuclear weapon, a senior Foreign Office counter-terrorism official said: "No doubt at all."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

**************************

"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

****************************