Archive for August, 2009
Gimme Some ‘Turf Money
Sunday, August 9th, 2009You know what stinks? What stinks is that the Tea Party and other Right leaning activists are totally unfunded. They get no money….AT ALL. I’m just bitter because while the no-talents on the left get paid $16 an hour to show up, act bored, block doors, [New: Punch people] and wave a sign, activists on the Right can’t seem to buy love from anyone in the government or grassroots organizations.
The Republicans, still coveting MSM approval that will never come, ignore the grassroots folks as ineffective and irrelevant. Well, the people are getting a little more relevant. Republicans aren’t being spared anyone’s wrath, either.
And the big spenders on the Right? WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY? I’m getting nothing. Other bloggers get zip–except for well-earned ad revenue. And even then, it’s not making people, save a very few, any sort of living. And the people showing up to these get togethers? They get paid squat. Nada.
I mean, look at these activists. Beholden to no one, coming out to protest and to demand accountability from their elected officials. They are being so ripped. If the Right meant business, they’d do it this way.
P.S. While I’m mostly making fun of this whole situation, the fact remains that the Right side of the movement needs to start putting their money where their mouths are. The Left can screech about astroturf, but that is entirely a Leftist phenomenon. Ironically, the Right puts all their money into traditional media and trying to win influence among people who just don’t care about the message. They need to get outside of D.C., and help get some of the grassroots people funded so they could quite their day-jobs and help spread the message full-time. The Left spent loads of money winning hearts and minds–mostly people working on the ground. Well, people have families. They need income for their efforts.
Some of the Tea Party folks were passing the plate at meetings–the activists themselves were funding….themselves. And then there are online activists who eek out a living or have to do other jobs to keep working–but only part time. Full time bloggers could be doing harder news and getting the stories out. We need more of this. And there are those willing to do it.
The Right needs astroturf money. Badly.
Health Care: Obama’s Mercenaries Vs. Freedom Fighters
Sunday, August 9th, 2009How about a little something for the effort? The Democratic party and their grassroots organizers are paying workers to hold signs and show up. Who is the mob again? Here’s some Craig’s List examples in Sacramento:
Aug 7 – Make social change – Help Pass Obama’s Health Care Reform!!! – (Sacramento) img < Aug 4 – Help pass Obama’s Health Care Reform!!! Earn $9-14 an hour!!! – (Sacramento) img < Aug 3 – ***Help Pass Obama’s Health Care Plan and Earn $325-$500/Week – (Sacramento, CA) img < Jul 31 – Help Pass Obama’s Health Care Reform! Earn $325-550 per week! – (Sacramento) img < Jul 29 – Work to Pass Obama’s Plans this Summer! Earn $9-14/hr! – (Sacramento) img < Jul 28 – Build Support for Obama’s Plans!!! Earn $325-550 a Week! – (Sacramento) img < Jul 27 – HELP PASS OBAMA’S PLANS AND EARN $325-550 A WEEK!!! – (Berkeley) img < Jul 27 – HELP PASS OBAMA’S PLANS AND EARN $325-550 A WEEK!!! – (Sacramento) img < Jul 23 – HELP PASS OBAMA’S PLAN TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING! EARN $9-14/HOUR!!! – (Sacramento) img < Jul 21 – BUILD PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR OBAMA’S PLAN & EARN $9-14 AN HOUR!!! – (Sacramento) img < Jul 15 – Make $350-550 per Week Working for OBAMA’s PROGRESSIVE AGENDA!!! – (Sacramento) img < Jul 14 – SUMMER CAMPAIGN STAFF POSITIONS AVAILABLE!!! EARN $350-550 A WEEK! – (Sacramento) img < And here’s Austin Craig’s List: Aug 6 – Summer Jobs: Support Obama’s Clean Energy Agenda! – (Austin) img < Aug 4 – >>>Field Organizers Needed! Help Conserve TX Water for the Future! – (Austin, West Campus) img < Aug 3 – >>>Community Organizers Needed! Fight to Conserve Water in TX! – (Austin, West Campus) img < Jul 31 – >>>Community Organizers Needed! Fight to Conserve Water in Texas – (Austin, West Campus) img < Jul 28 – >>>Community Organizers Needed! Fight the Drought!! – (Austin, West Campus) img < Jul 27 – >>>Fight for Green Jobs in Texas! – (Austin, West Campus) img < Jul 22 – SUMMER JOBS: Support Obama’s Clean Energy Agenda! – (Austin) img < Jul 22 – >>>Work for Clean Energy and Green Jobs in Texas!!! – (Austin, West Campus) img < Really, they’re everywhere. Mercenary grassroots efforts. Meanwhile, the people who make up the Right grassroots efforts aren’t paid. These new activists adhere to a point of view they came to themselves and are organic, self-organizing groups. I’ve said it before, the Left is jealous. This is like a new civil rights movement (no one had to be paid back then, either). Common citizens are concerned about the direction of the country–the debt, the deficit, the future. Health care is just one more way the government is getting bigger and scarier. There’s astroturfing going on, but it’s not on the right. H/T Josh Trevino via Twitter
10 Books Every Young Man Should Read Before His 18th Birthday: UPDATED
Friday, August 7th, 2009Question: Name 10 books every young man should read before his 18th birthday.
Posted by President_Friedman
Here’s the deal. There are so many books that could be read. I decided to include children’s books and kinda “grow up” through them. The Bible should be read to a child, there are great childrens’ versions, from the beginning. The stories all tell a moral and form the groundwork for any other stories both from a moral sense and a literary sense. There are archetypes in the stories that recur again and again. The Bible is a life-long must. [Note: I prefer to read the Bible in the Old King James. First, it makes other older English writings easier to understand. Second, the vocabulary is rich and lyrical.]
As a child ages, more complexity enters the stories. Not every story has a happy ending. Also, note that some of the books are non-fiction. Frankl’s book is a must-read. A young man tends to be petulant and put-upon. Viktor Frankl survived the Holocaust and found the keys to survival and mental health. It is a perspective-inducing book.
You’ll note that there aren’t just ten. Too few, for me. And I could have easily made the list 25.
UPDATED:
A reader asked if I’d pick the same books for girls. The strange answer? Yes. But I’m not a typical girl. When younger, I also read all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. My sister loved Little Women and the Laura Ingells books. Anne of Green Gables is good for female protagonist. Also Jane Austen. Period. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, etc. Excellent.
Aesops Fables are a given. My kids LOVED these.
The recommendation to just get kids reading is wise. I make my kids read a section of something and write a report on it nearly every day during the summer. They love reading.
The Federalist Papers I considered including, but I also was thinking of compelling reading that taught while telling a story. I put The Prince in the strange category of important reads but would mean more to someone with more life experience.
Brave New World should be read opposite 1984 and compared and contrasted, in my opinion.
Martin, I too, read the encyclopedia when I was bored and bought an old set for that purpose with my kids. (Ditto medical encyclopedia, but I’m a nerd.)
Okay, as far as the Odyssey goes….it’s good, but heavy. Instead, I have had my kids read the Percy Jackson and The Olympians. Excellent series by Rick Riordan that will teach your kids about the gods in such a fun way they won’t know they’re learning. Can’t recommend these books enough. (Ages 8-14, but I love ‘em too.)
And Watership Down? Are you kidding me? That book was assigned when I was in 9th grade and I think I almost gave up reading. That book, along with Catcher In The Rye, inspired me full of hate both for stupid rabbits in their byzantine warrens and slacker, aimless college students.
Also, my favorite writer when I was a kid was Hemingway. I read them all. Oh! And anything by Chaim Potok, especially The Chosen.
As far as self-help goes, “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff”, is a great read. Also, if a person wants to manage his or her life, Stephen Covey’s 10 Habits is classic. This book is a good one for a kid to develop a framework for managing his life. First rule is most important: Begin with the end in mind. Words to live by.
15. Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne
Exposition of common personalities. Friendship.
14. Charlotte’s Web E.B. White
Cycle of life and death. Memories transcend death.
13. The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter
Listen to your mother. Obedience. Adventure.
12. Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak
You always have a home and someone who loves you. Power of family.
11. The Velveteen Rabbit Margery Williams
The power of love to transform. Overcoming hardship. Finding purpose.
10. Frog & Toad Are Friends Arnold Lobel
Friendship makes life better. Adventures. Treasuring friendship.
9. The Lion, Witch & The Wardrobe [Series] C.S. Lewis
The power of choice. Doing the right thing against all odds.
8. Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl
Surviving even the worst oppression. Psychology of men.
7. 1984 George Orwell
Best description of totalitarianism.
6. Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
How a free society can be turned of their own will into slaves of the state.
5. Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
Faith. Leadership. Loss. Ambiguity of evil. Adventure.
4. Maslow on Management Abraham Maslow
Best book on the psychology of leadership and management, bar none.
3. Dune Frank Hebert
The power of servant leadership verses dictatorial force.
2. Sun Tzu’s Art of War
Again, understanding the psychology of leadership and tactics to employ.
1. The Bible God
Obviously, every educated person should read the Bible. It is a primer on human nature, natural law, morality, consequences, and connecting a person’s physical existence to the Creator. In essence, while many books can teach people what to do, the Bible gives a foundation for why something must be done. Truly, “the foundation of all knowledge is the Word of God.” Amen.
Protests Reveal The New Civil Rights Issue: Ignoring The Will Of The Majority
Friday, August 7th, 2009The Left, exasperated by being thwarted both without and within, have taken to distortion, demonizing, and violence. Discussion not allowed.
This is expected.
Conservatives and small government types, have had it. The press has been in the business of painting those on the Right as psychotic, baby-killing, meanies. If you doubt the bias, tell me how many soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since President Obama took office. Yeah, suddenly body counts don’t count. They don’t fit the narrative. So of course, the press will lie about the protests. Nothing much new here.
But it hasn’t only been the press. For six years, Republicans controlled the House and had an evenly divided Senate and Republican president. And still, the government expanded. It wasn’t just war spending that did this. Big fat government freebie programs like the Prescription Drug Benefit passed under President Bush did this. Wars come and go. Entitlement programs live forever.
Conservatives and libertarians wondered why they should vote Republican. Some didn’t. Some just did not vote. Others voted for Ralph Nader or Bob Barr. And some disgruntled conservatives and libertarians voted for Barack Obama because they hoped for change.
The most bitter pill is being swallowed by those in the latter category. For now, they see the government expanding exponentially bigger. The growth of the government is so staggering, the average person can’t comprehend the scope and the size. They can only feel the oppressive magnitude.
So, when the cameras turn onto the faces of average Americans, and the people watching see themselves in those faces and those faces are portrayed as “mobs”, the people get angrier. This is not a group who has been content for a long time. This is a group who have seen their hopes for a smaller, leaner, sensible, more efficient government thwarted over and over and over.
The Republicans still don’t seem to get it either. It’s not just the President and his pet progressives who have insulted the tax payers and citizens. They just seem to be more ribald and open about their contempt.
Protests over health care are the current topic. Expansion of the government’s scope and intrusion is the underlying concern. That the political class don’t seem to care one iota about how the American people feel reveals a general contempt for democracy.
That the President and Representatives and Senators don’t even read bills before passing them symbolizes everything wrong in America right now. And these same people are surprised that something like the Tea Party movement emerged? That they’re surprised reveals their disconnect with the American people.
It would be more comforting if it seemed like the Republican party was more in touch, humble, and responsive. But, like their Democratic buddies, so far they haven’t been.
Maybe the Town Hall protests are making a point. Maybe. The discontented need to keep the ultimate goal in mind and understand that freedom’s enemies will distort even the smallest disrespectful action. The Anchoress has wisdom here.
This is a civil rights issue, ultimately. When a small percentage of the population impose their will against the majority and the majority must pay for the minority, the notion of representative democracy is turned inside out. A vote means nothing.
I suggest that our representatives Meet the Mob. They have lots to say that’s worth listening to. Our Republic depends on it.
Americans For Prosperity Answers Rachel Maddow
Thursday, August 6th, 2009The Left possesses stunning hypocrisy when it comes to being funded by policy groups. Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity explains it all. Please watch. You won’t look at NBC in the same way again:
President Obama’s Report Your Neighbor Program: The Executive Branch Has Your Info Forever
Thursday, August 6th, 2009Byron York has an excellent piece up at The Examiner about the Flag.gov deal. Here’s the program:
On Monday, White House director of new media Macon Phillips posted a note on the White House web site complaining of “disinformation about health insurance reform.” “These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation,” Phillips wrote. “Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
Well, that caused serious outcry and some amusing responses, too. Americans have fun with fascism! There is a serious side, though. This information, must, by law, be kept forever. York says:
In addition, the lawyers say the collected emails likely will be covered by the Presidential Records Act, which requires the White House to preserve and maintain its records for permanent storage in a government database. Phillips’ request suggests that whatever information the White House receives on health-care reform “disinformation” will be used to further the goal of passing a national health-care makeover, which is, of course, one of the president’s main policy initiatives. Such material, and whatever the White House does with it, would qualify as presidential records. Only after more than a decade would such records be publicly available.
“So the White House, whether by design or accident, has requested information from the public that will become ‘records’ under the Presidential Records Act, yet would be impermissible for any government to otherwise collect under the Privacy Act,” writes one Judiciary Committee source. “Where were the lawyers in all of this? What is their legal basis for authorizing the collection of these records?”
Read the whole thing. So, the White House, the President of the United States, is asking you to inform on a friend even in “casual conversation“.
And, it’s likely illegal. Says Erick Erickson:
According to 5 U.S.C. § 552a, United States agencies, including the Executive Office of the President shall, “maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity.”
The White House may take the position that certain of its offices aren’t subject to the Privacy Act (that is a longstanding Office of Legal Counsel position, see here), but most Presidents instruct their staffs to comply. This will be a the first significant time the White House has ignored the Privacy Act and may open President Obama up to litigation.
This is another example of the Obama administration ignoring long time precedent when it is no longer convenient for them. And ignoring this precedent lets them collect data on and potential harass individual American citizens.
The legality is troubling. The information is troubling. Perhaps the most distressing element is the knee-jerk reaction the President has to disagreement with his policies. He doesn’t view disagreement as legitimate. In fact, President Obama assumes that all disagreement is disinformation.
This seems like another revealing way that President Obama has statist tendencies.
President Pothead
Thursday, August 6th, 2009Now, probably every single person attending the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws conference in San Francisco voted for President Obama and really, the President, himself probably wink-winks at pot use. (Kinda like he’s actually pro gay marriage, for a single payer health care system, and wants to tax all people, not just the rich, into oblivion.) Still this image is probably not what President Obama wants out there for public consumption.
The goal is to look middle of the road, while secretly having the politics of a hippie communist that will “remake America” with a tad more subtlety (via the Washington Post):
What I love about this picture is that he looks soooo Cuban, so dear leader of a Banana Republic.
Note: It’s satire.
Al Gore Is A Big Stinky Foot
Thursday, August 6th, 2009Where has Al Gore been? Like a bad penny he turned up on the news yesterday. So, the topic of the show covered environmentalist wackos, demands for Henry Waxman’s birth certificates, getting into the spirit of reporting your neighbor, or even better, your elderly mother, and the tactics the Palins will take against their enemies in the blogosphere and press. Hope you’ll download it!
Dan Riehl of RiehlWorldView.com and Stephen Kruiser of StephenKruiser.com were guests. And, of course, this is still Queen Week–so more Queen music.
If there’s a guest you’d like me to have on the show, or a topic you’d like covered, email me at drmelissa1@gmail.com.
Melissa’s show can also be found on RFC Radio every Monday and Wednesday night at 10:00 pm Eastern.
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When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.
Distress For Middle Of The Road Voters
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009Most people pay little attention to politics and vote as a civic duty for the guy they relate to most. They dislike politics generally, but feel it is a necessary evil.
There is something that concerns me a bit. On the Right, Republicans are going after Barack Obama and he’s still personally popular even if his policies are unpopular. On the Left, Democrats are demonizing the American people who disagree.
Where is a fair-minded middle of the road voter to turn? Michael Turk, on Twitter says:
The trouble with the DNC ad (http://bit.ly/3DECAg) is “the mob” looks like middle America. Unlike this Seattle scene: http://bit.ly/31H0F
The Dems seem to hate anyone who disagrees. Ironically, the people they’re demonizing voted them into office and feel betrayed by a bigger government–they didn’t like that part of George W. Bush. Democrats are squandering good will.
Republicans need to be careful, too. The party’s big government ways, their increased spending and loyalty to fat cat lobbyists rather than listening to the American people got them out of office and brought America Barack Obama.
Generally, it seems that the DC insiders are against the American people. They are against anyone who disagrees that the government might not have the answers.
There is an infection in Washington, D.C. And the disease creates a state where the elected leaders turn around and have scorn for their constituents.
It is distressing for common people to be pulled two ways. They are being told they’re stupid two ways: The Democrats tell them they’re stupid for disliking the President’s policies. The Republicans tell them they’re stupid for liking the President.
The first national politician who shows respect for the American people will receive huge support. People thought that President Obama was that man. He is turning out to be like other D.C. insiders–angry that the American people have the nerve to have a say.
Democracy is not better for this disillusionment.
Barack Obama: Failed Experiment
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009What do you think of this?
I’m curious about the messaging of the conservative movement in general and the Republican party in particular. Even after six months, it seems like the Right is having a challenging time coalescing around a message.
I know attack ads work and this is an attack ad. It still seems we need a combination with positive messaging. What do you guys think?
