Tea Parties & More: Putting Money, Time & Energy Where Our Mouths Are–UPDATED
Friday, April 10th, 2009The Tea Parties are coming up and many of us, myself included, whose activism has been limited to voting and blogging are getting involved now locally. Twitter and Facebook have been good resources for networking and keeping up on how things are going. Still, many working people are too busy for that, but this new way to keep abreast of things is really useful: Being notified on your cell phone via text message of local events.
Please go to Let Freedom Ring and you’ll find all sorts of resources.
There is a sense that the United States government is no longer by the people and for the people. Now, the government is by special groups and for special groups who receive special favor. Average Americans need to band together to be heard.
The Left is way ahead of the Right when it comes to controlling the narrative, shaping policy and pushing an agenda. They spend money and push around power. Not only do they protest and make noise, they have agencies to do their ideological bidding and the press plays along:
Conservatives know liberals have built a powerful network of pressure groups who have entree — where right wing groups do not — into the newsrooms of the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News and other left-leaning outlets.
What is not well known is that Fenton Communications, founded by liberal activist David Fenton, binds the two together to produce explosive public relations campaigns that conservatives have trouble matching or rebuffing.
Understanding Fenton’s connections to the press, liberal Washington lawmakers, pressure groups and trial lawyers is increasingly important for conservatives if they are to emerge from their decidedly minority status in Washington.
Think there isn’t coordination? Look at what Doug Ross has dug up. Most recently, a sham group for Big Labor has pushed forward “research” about uninsured people.
Hundreds of Mainstream Media headlines resulted from this bogus PR effort.
Oh, and P.S., the research is wrong.
The Right needs more coordination, more cohesion, more money, etc. And the big corporations bending over for the Left need to grow a spine and put money where it counts–fighting these extorting jerks by funding conservative foundations, media groups, bloggers and more.
Finally, conservative politicians need to walk the walk. Who, exactly, do these people represent anyway? Do they represent the average taxpayer being asked to bailout their irresponsible fellow Americans and corporations? Or do they, like the Democrats, represent the big interests, but just in a more subtle way. Are Republicans for personal responsibility or not? Are Republicans for economic freedom or not? Are Republicans for individual solutions or not? Are Republicans for the family or not?
Because Americans are unsure about the Republican party and feel betrayed by it, they are very angry. They feel taken advantage of and duped. Americans don’t want a “little bit better” Republican party. The party slogan has got to cease being, “It Could Be Worse”.
We’re seeing what worse looks like. It’s far worse than even we could have imagined. Still, Republicans can forget being rewarded for bad behavior. They need to stick to principles and make better, more proactive policy.
America suffers a crisis of leadership. We need new leaders. The Tea Party movement is not just about registering discontent, but renewing the focus on what matters.
America is at a cross-roads. We are either the nation the Founding Fathers imagined or we’re morphing into an impotent Europe II. What will it be? Average Americans should be the “deciders” not Leftist special interest organizations that have the Mainstream Media in their hip pockets. The Tea Party movement is a start.
UPDATED:
Matt Lewis talks about the outrage fueling the Tea Party movement and the liberal left’s odd two step of dismissing it as irrelevant and seeking to interfere at the same time:
In fact, it looks like liberals are taking this far more seriously than they are letting on. Furthermore, their underground efforts to disrupt the Tea Parties may even be a tacit endorsement of their effectiveness. Michelle Malkin noted that, “the tax-subsidized and Soros-subsidized troops are going to try and wreak havoc every way they can. Many readers and fellow bloggers have seen signs that ACORN may send in ringers and saboteurs”.
But one reason there is reason for liberals to fear this spontaneous movement is that, for years, the nature of conservatism to be a chaotic movement (in the sense that conservatives are guided by an “invisible hand” as opposed to following appointed “leaders”) has been a political detriment. The good news is that technology has finally arrived at a point where this independent nature is no longer a liability.
I think Matt is right. At one time, the fact that conservatives tended to be working, spread out and difficult to organize because, well, they have lives, has changed thanks to technology.
Also, I think that everyone–both elected officials (Republicans included) and the Left–is underestimating the fury. Yes. Fury. Moral outrage is mild. When my Aunt and Uncle at age 70 know about the Tea Party and are going into Chicago to attend and protest, the sentiment has reached the bottom of the grassroots. My Aunt and Uncle don’t read my blog. They are barely computer literate. But they get email and they know all about the Tea Party and they’ll be there. I was shocked, frankly, at their anger and involvement.
Underestimate this movement to your own demise. And every elected Republican should have his or her ass at the Tea Party. Don’t expect to speak. Just be there and absorb. Listen to your constituents and keep your yappers shut. Right now, you have no credibility. That includes you, Newt. People are sick and tired of hearing talk and ideas and then having the government get bigger, take more and just generally acting irresponsible.
Enough.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
States Begging For Bailouts
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009This morning, the Governors from Pennsylvania and California and the Mayor of New York met with David Gregory on Meet the Press to share their sad woes. They sung President Obama’s praises because, of course, all three have their greedy little fists waiting anxiously for a bailout.
It’s not that being responsible is impossible. GayPatriot notes that Indiana, Nebraska and Mississippi, Republican-lead states all, are refusing bailout money.
Essentially, taxpayers from responsible states will fund gluttons like California. States who have taxed companies into fleeing will get theirs one way or another. Responsible companies, individuals and states will subsidize the irresponsible…just like banks, just like those who got into homes they couldn’t afford.
Why be responsible when being irresponsible pays?
“Disabled” Fat People Demand More
Friday, March 20th, 2009I can’t believe that Rachel Lucas hasn’t smacked this English bottom, but since she’s hasn’t and is instead focusing on Obama’s military aspirations, I will (smack the English, fat bottom).
Americans are fat and unhappy these days, but in Britain, that gets you government help:
The family from Blackburn claim £22,508 a year in benefits, equivalent to the take-home pay from a £30,000 salary.
The Chawners, haven’t worked in 11 years, claim their weight is a hereditary condition and the money they receive is insufficient to live on.
Mr Chawner said: “What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It’s not our fault we can’t work. We deserve more.”
The family claim to spend £50 a week on food and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.
“We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner,” Mrs Chawner told Closer magazine.
“All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We’re fat because it’s in our genes. Our whole family is overweight,” she added.
That’s approximately $43,448.78 American, take home, for sitting around with “bad genetics” and eating.
Well, hell. I need to move to England. Curse my Scottish, squat genes. Curse my proclivity to sit on my sorry rear behind a computer all day. Curse my desire for Coca-Cola. I can’t help it! I need to be bailed out.
This entitlement impulse is what keeps Barack Obama as popular as he is right now. We are at a tipping point here in America: the scales are moving in favor of hands out and me-first-and-more-than-my-fair-share. And why not? Where is the incentive to work and be self-sufficient when you can sit at home and eat all day, morally justified to boot.
H/T Tom Elia and reader Lorne
Shepherd Smith Simplifies The AIG Issue–UPDATED
Thursday, March 19th, 2009The issue isn’t greedy bankers. The issue is Chris Dodd giving the bonuses. The issue is also finding anyone willing to jump on a sinking ship to try to save it. Most people balk for obvious reasons. Thus, the bonuses.
By the way, Obama knew, Congress knew. They OWN AIG (80% Owners), so they are paying attention in that ADHD government way of paying attention.
UPDATED:
Ace talks about Obama talking about taking responsibility–in a theoretical sense, of course. In reality? Not so much responsibility taking by Obama. His first job is to conflate Republicans (who have zero involvement in this mess except as follows) with Democrats:
You be the judge:
President Barack Obama said he will take the blame for bonuses being paid at American International Group Inc. if it will settle an intense finger pointing under way over how such payments were possible at a company that has received tremendous taxpayer aid.
“Washington is all in a tizzy and everybody is pointing fingers at each other and saying it’s their fault, the Democrats’ fault, the Republicans’ fault,” he said at a town hall meeting Wednesday.
The Republican’s fault? The only Republican in this mess is Olympia Snowe, whose contribution to the bill was language prohibiting the controversial bonuses.
It was a Democrat, Chris Dodd, who changed that language to permit the bonuses, at the behest of a Democrat, Tim Geithner, who was appointed by another Democrat, Barack Obama.
So who the fuck exactly is saying it’s the Republicans’ fault except for our graciously blame-accepting president?
People believe this man. Still. Do people not recognize a bull-shitter when they meet one?
Small Dead Animals
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009The “Bloviating Swine” Questioning the AIG Executives
Hypocrites. The lot of them.
President Obama’s “Multitrillion-dollar Tax Hike”
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009How does Barack Obama increase your taxes without obviously increasing your taxes? He taxes the lucky Americans who have health care, that’s how. He also makes veterans pay for their own care (more here, here, here and here). What I want to concentrate on today, though, is how the vast majority of Americans will be taxed. The Washington Times reports:
Neither Christina Romer, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, nor Lawrence H. Summers, chairman of the National Economic Council, ruled out a plan to tax employee health care benefits to help pay for the president’s overhaul of the system. They said Mr. Obama is open to all ideas on his health care plan, so long as they fall within the principles outlined in his budget.
And yet, this is what President Obama campaigned on, “”On health care reform — two extremes. On one end, government-run health care, higher taxes. On the other, insurance companies without rules, denying coverage. Barack Obama says both extremes are wrong.”
Suddenly, government-run health care and higher taxes are looking better–unless you’re a vet and you pay for your own health care. President Obama’s plan seems to be the same as it always has been: take from those who produce and/or serve and create a health care system that’s mediocre for all:
Like Ms. Romer, though, he did not directly answer an invitation to take taxes on health care benefits off the table.
During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama took a much harsher tack, running a spate of ads denouncing Republican opponent John McCain’s health care plan on precisely those grounds – that it was partially financed by taxes from counting the value of medical insurance as taxable income. He called the McCain proposal a “multitrillion-dollar tax hike.”
When asked about a report in Sunday’s New York Times that the president was considering such a move, Austan Goolsbee, also of the Council of Economic Advisers, said, “The president has laid out a series of clear principles on the health plan that we will do whatever it takes to get affordable quality coverage to all Americans.”
Well, it’s not a tax hike if he does it. It’s a “health care for all” on the backs of the few.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
Brutally Honest
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009First They Came For AIG Executives
By the way, Obama knew about the payouts before the bill was signed.
Accuracy In Media Danny Glover
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009Media Doesn’t Cover Nationwide Tea Parties: “A Dereliction of Journalistic Duty”
The Hidden Reason Card Check Is Dangerous–UPDATED
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009Forget taking away worker rights, forget silencing opposition, forget all the money that will pour into Democratic coffers, ….yes, for all those reasons the legislation that Democrats are trying to pass are wrong.
Card check is dangerous because it’s a way to remove economic competition. If every big company, in every state can be coerced into union submission, the United States becomes a uniformly inhospitable place for businesses. Northern states already bereft of manufacturing jobs figure that the companies won’t keep moving south because the south won’t be as appealing. In actuality, companies will just flee overseas which will harm the southern states just as badly as the northern states were harmed.
Card check is the worst legislation sitting in Congress right now with the most damaging long-term implications. Yes, that includes even Health Care legislation. I know. This is saying something.
UPDATED:
Is Card Check off the table until Summer?
