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…just sang a song about the pledge of allegiance.
Oh… My… God.
UPDATE: John Tabin has audio.
I should really get an MP3 recorder, but I have been using traditional tape for the book — just too worried about losing an important interview to a technical glitch.
Why haven’t papers been running the Danish cartoons?
Pretty simple really: "This was expressed to
us directly: ‘I’m not putting lives in danger. We’re not getting things
blown up.’"
That’s Harry Siegel’s report of why his former paper’s owners wouldn’t print the cartoons.
He’s a former colleague, and I don’t doubt for a second he’s telling the truth. Fearful editors who refuse to print these cartoons, on the other hand, are lying.
I’ll have my thoughts on the Santorum speech later.
But for now, here’s the audio, from Save The GOP.
Time to update the Ayn Rand stamp.
There’s something immensly creepy about this poster. And not just that it’s from the MPAA.
Here’s a judge lying while taking her constitutional oath. Bitch.
None of them, if they’re upholding their constitutional oath. Now, if maybe we could screen judges at the front end on substantive constitutional issues we wouldn’t need this conservative crusade to undermine the judiciary.
Judicial review, you know, isn’t a modern innovation. It’s in the damned Constitution (not to mention The Federalist).
(Sorry it’s blurry… I’m guessing you can make out the words.)
Some more t-shirt designs and posters.
And, fittingly, I’m now off to listen to Sen. Santorum.
Here’s Radio Row.
Flight simulator. Very cool. Very popular.
A bit one-dimensional in person. Wooden.
Here are the Newtbots, evangelizing on behalf of the former Speaker’s talk at the end of the conference.
I like the color choice: red.
One of the first things you’ll run into is the Condi ‘08 booth.
I’m not sure it’s fair to say, however, that she’s THE black Republican. There are others.
And now for some photoblogging.
Here’s a little tour of the convention floor, the entrance to which is pictured above.
Welcome Instapundit readers…
Will be blogging some more momentarily. Right now, I have to do a little thing I like to call "reporting." (Imagine George W. saying it… "reportin’.")
It’s for my forthcoming book: "The Elephant in the Room: Libertarians, the Christian Right and the Looming Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party."
It’s about the future of the Republican Party (will it continue to abandon its commitment to limited government, and what will it mean if it does) and is due out in September from Wiley publishing.
Sign up for a notice when the book hits stores by mailing me here.
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said the model for America’s border fence should be fence/wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
He also called illegal immigration a form of terrorism.
My thoughts: The anti-immigration folks want to peg their agenda to the War on Terror, but it’s worth remembering — as always — that a lot of people had agendas pre-9/11, and a lot of them think 9/11 is a great new way to package their cause. It doesn’t mean that any of their original motives have changed. And those listening to them should keep that in mind.
The real immigration action started off with Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.).
Above is a picture of the scattered standing ovation he received when he took the podium (I’d say about 5 percent stood, the rest applauded happily, but not wildly).
The content of the speech was nothing too surprising:
* End birthright citizenship
* Build a wall
“Open borders are wrong," Tancredo said. “No matter how good they are for the restaurant industry.”
Yes, God forbid the restaurant industry, the construction industry, fruit growers or any other industry do well.
So, here’s the rub with all the people who think that immigration is going to be the defining issue within the Republican Party for years to come. They’re wrong — and not just because their policies are based on economic ignorance and not-so-subtle racism.
Why? Because the modern Republican Party doesn’t work without a decent segment of the Hispanic vote. The party George W. Bush has built will lose if it morphs (back) into the old Republican Party that wants to keep brown people out.
The numbers don’t work. (And, well, the economy would fall apart if any of the anti-immigration folks got their way … but that’s another set of numbers.)
“It is the president who is out of step with his party, not Tom Tancredo," says Tancredo. That may be true with a certain segment of the GOP base. But presidents win in the center to the extent they restrain the ugliest impulses of their bases. Bush may be out of step with some conservative activists, but he’s in step with the American people.
As for things Tancredo said that I agreed with…
He did have some nice stuff to say about how George W. Bush has corrupted the Republican Party.
“We are not the party of bigger government," he said. And he said the GOP should admit its mistakes by repealing the Medicare prescription-drug bill and No Child Left Behind.
He’s right about all that, of course. But that’s the problem with expanding government. Once it’s done, it’s done. Neither of those programs can ever be repealed now (though NCLB could be reformed into somewhat decent shape, if you brought back the voucher provisions that were stripped out immediately when Congress took it up in 2001).
Oddest moment: "God bless Denmark," Tancredo declared, as an aside. There was some enthusiastic spontaneous applause … though not as much as for ending birthright citizenship.
Next up was former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
He talked a little bit about immigration, but also focused a bit on the drift in the Republican Party.
“Some Republicans believe in tax and spend as well, he said. He took particular aim at Virginia Republicans, who, despite controlling both houses of the state legislature, haven’t cut taxes enough (according to Gilmore, I don’t know a whole hell of a lot about internal [domestic?] Virginia politics).
Oddest moment: a spontaneous burst of applause when Gilmore blamed the Katrina mess on local authorities.
Today’s GOP: In charge of everything, but still happy when it can find someone else to blame.
So, George Will kicked things off this morning — first speech of CPAC 2006.
Went over his view of Iraq as a huge mistake. Neocons, he says, never ask: "But then what?"
His conclusion about Iraq: “We have to win in Iraq, and I think we will.”
But…
“It will not be pretty getting there, and what we leave behind will not be pretty.”
Immigration.
No wireless in the main ballroom this year (blogging by Treo).
Will report later.
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