[Tolik]

Nailed It!

This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of good stuff that is worthy attention. I keep separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson, Lee Harris, David Warren, Orson Scott Card. You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about).

[kellynla]

BTTT

[soundandvision]

Gingrich/Tancredo '08 anyone?

[Tanniker Smith]

You know, one of the many good and blessed things that may result from the election of a black pope may be an awakening of sorts in the black community. Actually, they're already awake, but many aren't acting on it politcally, even if they are starting to act on it in their community.

A black spiritual leader, even if he is of a different demonimation that they are, can resonate with them. We can move some of them away from the extremism on the left.

TS

[TruthConquers]

Bump for later read, dittos!

[jla]

I like ol' Newtie, but he will never be our POTUS.
Although in 3 1/2 yrs I wouldn't mind if he had a position within George Allen's administration.

[k2blader]

Newt makes a lot of good points here.

One of the Republicans' major problems is they don't know how to define the argument, let alone win it. It has seemed to me for a while now that they are fearful of even educating the American public about conservative solutions to problems because they would rather preserve the status quo (and their own power) than risk political capital. The GOP will never successfully advance conservatism until they readjust this attitude.

[Dutchgirl]

This what I was going on about last month (Long read but well worth it!)Note new tag line.Thanks for posting Tolik!

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

We have a governor who is an immigrant. We have a former secretary of state whose parents came here from the West Indies. Go down the list. We had another former secretary of state who came here from Germany in the Second World War. We have Nobel Prize winners who came from all over the planet. We want to be a country that is open to legal immigration, and I think we want to be a country that is open to legal temporary workers. But we want to have a couple requirements. First, we have to have a biometric, which means either an iris scan or a thumbprint, so we know who people entering our country really are, and so we can track them. Second, immigrants have to commit to obey our laws, to pay our taxes, to be involved as honest people. And we have the right to deport them in 72 hours if they break these rules.

Go Newt.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Great read.

[OESY]

Newt is one of the most profound thinkers in America today. He would make an excellent president because he knows how to win the political arguments and can teach others.

Unfortunately, the left-wing and MSM have tainted him and conservatives are wary of taking a chance despite Newt's stunning success in winning back the House after 40 years with ideas and actions embodied in the Contract With America.

Newt is also brutally honest--on welfare reform, the State Department, Social Security, Medicare, etc., and is almost always right as history has shown.

That means recognizing that Newt would be most effective serving as a member of a president's brain trust providing astute advice and valuable direction on a range of issues confronting this nation.

[ex-snook]

"A Conservative Plan for Victory"

The man for all seasons when writing TO RENEW AMERICA wrote "Balancing the budget is the right thing to do for America". But then again the book was dedicated to Marianne, his wife, so maybe all things pass.

[SuziQ]

You know, when Gingrich is on, he's really ON!

[bert]

Wow.... this should be posted every morning for the next month.

.....whether you are flowing with the natural stream of history.....

This is the reason I like Newt, he takes the long view and sees today as a part of the continuing process.

I'm sending this to my representative Bill Jenkins and to Senators Alexander and Frist with instructions to make copies and put them where they will be ready reference.

Newt has pointed the way as previously pointed by Reagen and Thatcher, we must take up and follow the course.

Oh yes, regarding the people acting, there is a host of FReepers this day in Washington doing a job...... showing the way. It is not just enough to say "good job guys", we must each make an effort..... spend some time and some money. We will prevail.

[livius]

Finally, I would say that people who get to be American citizens should have to pass a test in American history and English.

I think this should apply to guest workers, too, if we get such a program. If they went to a mandatory class a couple of hours a week, they'd soon have enough basic level knowledge of English to get by. Even if they're here only temporarily, it's good for them to know something about our ideas and society (other than what they see while working as somebody's gardener in Hollywood!).

That said, I like Newt and I was very sorry that the GOP caved in to pressure and dumped him. The Dems are trying it again with DeLay, and I bet - given the spinelessness of the GOP - that they'll get rid of him, too.

[jordan8]

Republicans so radically underperform among African-Americans and Hispanics. If Republicans could reach out and create a new sense of inclusion

Racial problems and differences are real and difficult, talking about them with terms like underperformance and reaching out, as if he could make these differences disappear with some sort of spin or program or nice words is just avoidance of reality. The majority of blacks and hispanics support affirmative action type programs, how would Newt give them a "new sense of inclusion"? By caving in on AA, of course, but labeling it as something else, because he'll never get their votes if he pledges to eliminate such programs. That's the hard reality that blather about talking to them all just the same won't cover.

The reason is straightforward mathematics. There are too many human beings who want to come here to work, to ever seal off the border. We don’t have the kind of country that would run that kind of border. The Soviets could do it, because they put up barbed wire, minefields, and machine guns. We’re not going to do that, and we don’t want to be an America that does that.

Mathematics is a science, this has nothing to do with science. The rest of this paragraph is just cheap demagoguery, if you support strong immigration controls you're just like those nasty old Soviets. Newt didn't have the nerve to work Nazis in, I guess. Where will we keep all your 72hr deportees Newt, how will we find them in the first place without nasty Soviet style organs, won't that make us the kind of Americans you say we don't want to be? Do you have real, tough, plans to provide for the physical enforcement of immigration laws, to punish employers who routinely flout such laws? The answer is we won't keep or find them at all and, like all other such reforms the only thing left when the dust clears is increased immigration. Newt's an open borders guy, and I'm afraid all this talk about 72hrs is just bait and switch. After all, what did Newt say or do about immigration when he was house leader?