The Conservative Revolution

Although the media isn’t paying too much attention to this right now, Venezuela is set to hold an election on Sunday to vote on Hugo Chavez’s referendum. If the Venezuelans vote “si” Hugo Chavez will be able to become presidente for life.

Unfortunately, Chavez has been able to become quite popular with many poor people in his country, and expectations are that they will vote to grant him the power he covets. This reminds me of a line from the Star Wars series, when Natalie Portman’s character Queen Amidala says, “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.” The evil character Palpatine had just declared martial law and granted himself the title of “emperor” to a cheering Senate.

Sadly, the Chavez story is a real one. But the lesson from Star Wars is as old as human civilization. Lord Acton said it best, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

My question is whether Cindy Sheehan, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte and Sean Penn will ever come to regret their sycophantic photos with the power-hungry and brutal dictator of Venezuela. Then again, the left has never really come to grips with its support for Castro or Stalin, so my expectations are low.

Watch this interview on Fox News about the movement to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their guns on college campuses. Students at Texas State University in San Marcos recently passed a resolution supporting the idea of allowing CHL holders to carry on campus. Matt Drudge linked to the story earlier today.

As a graduate student and concealed handgun license holder myself, I fully support this movement, which has grown leaps and bounds since the Virginia Tech tragedy. The arguments against allowing law-abiding citizens who already qualify for a CHL to carry their guns on campus are, quite simply, pathetic. Police can not be everywhere, at all times. As we saw at V-Tech, the criminal gunman locked the door to the building he was in and systematically shot dozens of students. The ONLY thing that could have stopped the killing once it began would have been another student with a gun that could have shot the gunman.

The police had no way to prevent this tragedy, and the students inside were rendered defenseless by insane anti-gun laws that prohibit students from protecting themselves and each other. As a CHL holder, I can already carry my gun to the grocery store, while driving late at night or while walking down the street. Why shouldn’t I be allowed the same protection while attending classes?

Hopefully the D.C. gun ban case before the Supreme Court will come out in favor of freedom, and it will lead to momentum toward allowing more places, instead of less, for citizens to protect themselves and each other from violent criminals.

Congrats to the students at Texas State University and elsewhere who are organizing for this noble cause.

I read two interesting articles this weekend, both pointing out that we are, indeed, winning in Iraq. Here is Jack Kelly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

Al-Qaida has been driven from every neighborhood in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, the U.S. commander there, said Nov. 7. This follows the expulsion of al-Qaida from two previous “capitals” of its Islamic Republic of Iraq, Ramadi and Baquba.

Al-Qaida is evacuating populated areas and is trying to establish hideouts in the Hamrin mountains in northern Iraq, with U.S. and Iraqi security forces, and former insurgent allies who have turned on them, in hot pursuit. Forty-five al-Qaida leaders were killed or captured in October alone.

Al-Qaida’s support in the Muslim world has plummeted, partly because of the terror group’s lack of success in Iraq, more because al-Qaida’s attacks have mostly killed Muslim civilians.

And this from the Australian,

The dramatic improvement is directly attributed to the surge of 30,000 US troops, their effective counter-insurgency strategy and to the fact that locals are fed up with al-Qa’ida and other extremists. The good news is not just limited to Baghdad. Anbar, once an al-Qa’ida stronghold, is relatively peaceful thanks to the joint efforts of Sunni sheiks and marines. In the south, those willing Iraq to defeat were gloomily predicting that the withdrawal of British troops from Basra would lead to a brutal domination of the city by Iranian-backed terrorists. That hasn’t happened.

Despite the fact that the Democrats are invested in our defeat, the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy has made significant progress in Iraq. The only question remaining is whether this improved security situation will lead to a stable and prosperous Iraq. While the signs are getting better that this will come to pass, only time will tell. In the mean time, I am still waiting for The New York Times to write a front page story about the improving situation in Iraq.

UPDATE: My friends at The New York Times have a front page story about the progress in Iraq. (They must have read my blog. )
Seriously, though, it is good to see that the Times has finally written something positive about the situation in Iraq. What is this, one positive story for every thousand negative stories?

Next week FreedomWorks is hosting its fall 2007 Liberty Summit.

This is the event where we bring in our top activists from all over the country to meet each other, lobby Congress and get grassroots leadership training from our staff.

You can rsvp on Facebook or visit http://www.freedomworks.org/conference

Looking forward to seeing everyone next week!

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin for bringing this to light.

Watch this left-wing propaganda video hosted by Linda Ellerbee and then call the producers at Nickelodeon. The person to contact is  Alison Dexter at 818-736-3000.

If they are going to do a piece on young activists, that’s fine. But they should at least provide a balanced look at conservatives, liberals, libertarians, greens, etc.. Instead, this propaganda piece is meant to indoctrinate young children into the left-wing mindset. Not that I watch the t.v. station anyway, but now I will encourage a boycott of Nick.