Interview with Conservative Site "This Ain't Hell"

Pundit Press is proud to present our 6th interview in our on-going series.  Today we are lucky to have the successful conservative website This Ain't Hell answer some of our questions.  I'd like to thank This Ain't Hell for an excellent interview:

When and why did you start This Ain't Hell?

I started TAH four years ago yesterday because I got tired of being banned for my passionate opinions. The last banning was from Right Nation. I don't remember why, but I'm sure it was for being obstinate. I flailed around for a year and a half looking for my niche. I tried to avoid being a milblog because I didn't think I deserved the label...then I had it thrust upon me in 2008 because of my work against phony soldiers and the organizations that use veterans for their own political gains. Like IVAW, VoteVets, IAVA and Oath Keepers. No one was taking them on at the time, and now everyone wants to.

What is the most rewarding aspect of running a successful political site?  What is the most daunting aspect?

I've made a lot of friends and we've been in the news a few times. I guess it's rewarding that our research and connections tell the public things they wouldn't know otherwise. I know some real-life heroes that everyone knows ABOUT, but I get to call them by their first names and they buy me drinks. And I know some quiet heroes that don't get mentioned but they help people put their lives back together and make folks feel loved when they may not otherwise. Just knowing those people gives me hope for the future. Without This Ain't Hell, I probably wouldn't have the opportunity to meet the best people America has to offer, people-wise.

Daunting? Well, one of my co-bloggers had his laptop seized with a federal warrant just to intimidate us last year during the Hasan thing at Fort Hood. I guess it's fairly daunting that sometimes we do things that bring us out of the basement and into the light of day. That's why I moved TAH Headquarters to an undisclosed location in West Virginia, an open carry state. I kid, but it sounds good.

You've recently written that you want Republicans in the minority in Congress.  Could you explain why?

That was a co-blogger, TSO. He says things that are a little off the wall sometimes. I agree with him to a point, I suppose. The Republicans did such a piss poor job of being Conservatives when they had the majority in Congress, it's tiring trying to defend them. I think TSO's point, though, was that even if they get the majority in November, they're going to look weak because the president will veto everything they send him and that won't do us any good in Nov. 2012.

How do you expect Republicans to fare in the November elections?  Will they take back the House and Senate, one or the other, or neither?

They certainly have the opportunity to take back both houses, but the election is more than a month away. Republicans have a habit of doing stupid things that the Democrats can use against them (with the media's big megaphone) and defeat them. Ya know, sex scandals, campaign irregularities - things that don't seem to have any effect on Democrats' reputations when it happens to them.

Do you have a favorite Republican for the 2012 Presidential campaign?

Honestly, I like Sarah Palin a lot. She's got a George W. Bush personality. Like her or not, you know what she's going to do in a given situation because she tells us up front what she's like. Palin isn't the idiot she's made to look like in the press. I think she'd be a kick-ass President if she had a Congress that would get on board with her...like we thought Congress was going to be during the Bush Administration.

TSO likes Pawlenty and if I didn't have high hopes that Palin is going to rescue a truckload of Golden Retriever puppies from wolves and zombies on the nightly news in the next few months, I'd probably be for Pawlenty, too.

President Obama has been in office for over a year and a half now.  Has he been worse than you expected, better, or in between?

That depends. On the Terror War, I supported him until last summer when he decided to make the politically expedient decision instead of the commander-in-chief decision. I've been vocal about that since last year, too. He exceded my expectations until last summer. He's fallen in line with my expectations since.

His domestic agenda was about what I expected - too much radical change in one big bite. I hardly know where to begin and he's kept all of us busy trying to track all of his wild-ass legislation. I think that was his plan. Well, not his plan, because I think he's too much of a figure head to have any agenda other than his own reelection to satisfy his ego. I doubt he has a thought in his head.

What do you think about the Republicans' new "Pledge to America?"

The Contract with America was genious and I'm curious as to why the GOP hasn't done one every election. America deserves to have a scorecard to keep track of what we're voting for.

I think the current pledge is too little too late. Unless they get a veto-proof majority, the only thing they're going to accomplish is stop Obama from passing his wilder legislation which is OK, but it's just so much wheel spinning and gives the GOP another bad name to fight in the next election.

If the Republicans hadn't wasted those Bush years feathering their own nests, they wouldn't have found themselves in this position of begging for our trust and making impossible promises. I haven't given a dime to the GOP since 2004 and they haven't given me a reason to trust them yet.

The Pledge gives them a unified voice, but they need a real leader to lead us all out of the woods. One hasn't emerged yet. Ronald Reagan led the party from the minute Jimmy Carter took the oath of office. Who are we following now?

Even the Contract with America fell short when it came to term limits - the cornerstone of congressional reform. Tell me when they're ready to end the Congressional retirement plan and repeal the 17th Amendment.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

The key to this upcoming election is going to be voter turn out. Every vote counts and if you don't vote, you can't bitch. If you can't bitch, what are you going to do for two years? Read This Ain't Hell?


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