Tapping the Blue Market

Wizbang! has announced the launch of Wizbang Blue, a liberal version of the site, along with it’s other franchises on sports, technology, pop culture, and of course general politics, in addition to the main conservative blog.

The liberal blogosphere needs another big liberal blog like the a 9th Circuit judge needs arrogance, but the move isn’t much about the need. The way I see it, it’s a money move. At Wizbang Blue grows, we’ll see “Advertise Liberally” blog ads buttons on there, I’m sure. More money for them and it’s not really selling out anymore than Capitalism requires. It’s like your local newspaper carrying George Will. It’s a sweet deal, I guess, but I’ll stick with the Wizbangs I like for my personal reading.

Christian Persecution Update

A couple highlights from the Christian Persecution Blog. First, some awful news from Pakistan:

The following prayer request appeared in this weeks Persecution & Prayer Alert from VOM Canada. And I have to tell you that reading this request turned my stomach because of the trauma and horror this young girl has gone through, simply because of her faith in Jesus. I plea with you all to put Shaheena Masih, on your permanent prayer list. This young woman will have a lifetime of memories because of this evil incident and will have a long recovery. Here’s her story…

A 12-year-old Christian girl, Shaheena Masih, was kidnapped and raped by four Muslim men on Easter Day in the city of Lahore, Punjab province, Pakistan, according to an April 23 report from the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance.

Also, a Christian Bookstore in Turkey was bombed. Keep these brave Turkish Christians in your prayers as well.

What Matters Most?

Reasoned Audacity has the details with wisdom from Charles Schultz.

The Money Quote

From a CNN correspondent via Newsbusters:

“Well, even more than that, if you just wanted to look at it in terms of purely American national interest, if U.S. troops leave now, you’re giving Iraq to Iran, a member of President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil,’ and al Qaeda. That’s who will own it. And so, coming back now, I’m struck by the nature of the debate on Capitol Hill, how delusional it is. Whether you’re for this war, or against it; whether you’ve supported the way it’s been executed, or not; it doesn’t matter. You’ve broke it, you’ve got to fix it now. You can’t leave, or it’s going to come and blow back on America.”

Couldn’t have said it better. Hat Tip: Human Events.

Idaho Blog Notes

From Blog Idaho, I think there was a serious point to this at some point, but it’s still amusing even if it sailed over my head.

Meanwhile, the Idahoan looks on the bright side.

Nancy Pelosi Needs a PDA

Cameron at Magic Valley Mormon has some suggested reminders

Podcast #243: Politicians Lose Wars

The base pandering of Harry Reid to the nutty base of the Democratic Party needs to stop.

Click here to download. Click here to add my podcast to your I-tunes.

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Effective Congressmen

The complaint has been raised that Bill Sali isn’t effective as a Congressman, most recently by Mountain Goat Report:

Idaho’s First District Congressman Bill Sali continues his quest to embed himself with the tiniest of minorities. This time he’s voted with 19 others against a bill that would authorize support of science and engineering researchers.

Mountain Goat Report shows us the numbers, gives us no clue as to what the opponents arguments were against the bill, but give us an implication that being on the “wrong side” of a 397-20 vote indicates Bill Sali is wrong. In fact that Bill Sali is just willy nilly voting against bills because he’s “anti-science.” Did MGR call Sali’s office and ask? Get a statement he could respond to? No, just filed a charge to attack Bill Sali.

The assumption here is that successful Congressmen are never on the losing side of lop-sided votes. Of course, that’s not true. Mike Pence, one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress voted against the same bill.

How does one define an effective Congressman? Is it someone like Robert Byrd or Ted Stevens who’ve created our nation’s fiscal crisis with their massive egocentric overspending? They bring home the bacon, but grandkids get stuck paying the bill. Is it someone who passes big impressive government programs which end up doing more harm than good? No.

As I see it, the folks of Idaho’s 1st District msde a choice for someone who represented their values. Not the values of Seattle, the Bay Area, or Maryland, but Idaho values. In the current Democrat Congress, those values are not popular. Does that mean we surrender who we are and what we believe for some pork? Will we sell our souls to gain fool’s gold that kids and grandkids will have to pay for? Idaho said no.

They elected someone who would stand firm against the tides of statism and liberalism. They elected Bill Sali to represent their values whether they’re popular or not. It’s tough getting anywhere as a freshman in the minority party, but I don’t believe either status will last forever. I believe he’s got grit and determination mixed with a good style that will serve him well in the long run. Yes, some folks in Idaho’s political establishment didn’t like him because of inconvenient dedication to principle. But had we had 220 or so members of Congress like him for the past few years, I can safely say we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today, and only by electing more men of his caliber can we hope to make our way back.