Finding Political Common Ground in San Francisco

Awwww, isn't that sweet?  Finally something everyone can agree on!  < / snark>

A Liberal Journalist Reflects

Do read this. I did say a long time ago that the fundamental problem was the transmogrification of objective journalism into unhidden advocacy. A blurb:

Someday, cultural historians will look back on the early 21st century and speculate about what killed the credibility of America’s so-called liberal-media elite. 

They will ask, Were the wounds self-inflicted or the product of a methodical plot? 

Make no mistake about it. We did this to ourselves. 

As a card-carrying member of the leftist media near-elite — alas, I’m not nearly rich or famous enough to be regarded as a 100% elitist — it pains me to see my brethren sinking like the sun in the west. But we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Finding Common Ground?

The Chicago Boyz seem to have done it!  Check this out:

Perhaps we, from 99% to 53%, can also agree on the following ... ?

Quote of the Day: Tea Party Immigrants

Some immigrants are joining the Tea Party.  Here's a quotation by one such fellow, Tito Muñoz, originally from Colombia and now owner of a construction company in Virginia:

“Why do immigrants leave their country? Because they don’t have opportunity and they don’t have freedom, because politicians control everything,” he said. “We come to America and we are going to have the same crap? Then we might as well go back there.”

Nerd Analysis: A History Prof Looks at the Tea Party In the Light of American History

Read it all.  This is a real and thoughtful history professor, mind you, not a shrieking ideologue of the type found all too often on campuses.  Here is a taste of his article after the fold:

Nerd News: the Tea Party on College Campuses

Interesting!  Here's a nice quote from two professors:

At Brandeis, an associate professor of American history, Jerry Cohen, says he e-mailed [student Mary-Alice] Perdichizzi and told her that he admired her courage after he saw she had put up Tea Party fliers. It is healthier for students who disagree with Tea Party principles to actually engage with their fellow students than to whack at straw men, he says.

“Whether it will prove to be a positive presence on campus or not, I think that overwhelmingly -- and notwithstanding the habitual use of the word diversity four times per sentence coming out of the administration -- there’s very little real commitment to intellectual diversity,” Cohen says.

“To the extent that a Republican Party and Democratic Party can have clubs on a campus, I can see no reason not to have a Tea Party on campus,” says William Kline, an assistant professor of liberal and integrative studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Indeed.  More, please.  Faster, please.  Campuses should be places where different ideas are vigorously debated!  PS: Professor Cohen gets extra brownie points from me for also managing to take a potshot at the edu-crats in his response.

The Power of a Rant

The Cafe Hayek blog has this note about the famous Santelli Rant of February 2009, which I covered here and here.  As something of a ranter and connoisseur of rants myself, I must say, kudos, Mr. Santelli.  Rant on!

Girls and Big Government: Do Women Prefer Safety or Freedom?

Never mind that the question is far too reductionist.  Take a look at this thought that this election, plenty of ladies went to the polls and defied conventional wisdom.  (I do find that conventional wisdom to be utterly stupid, by the way.)  May I also remind you of this and this and also this and especially recently this?  Is it SUCH a surprise that some believers in rugged individualism, American exceptionalism, that good old-fashioned can-do attitude, and self-reliance are women?   Need I remind you that from the beginning there have been tough, resourceful, intelligent American ladies who have made a difference?  

Quote of the Day: the Politics of Demonization

Here's a quote:

I can’t remember a time when there’s been such a coordinated effort to marginalize and impugn the motives of so many of this nation’s citizens.

I’m not sure how they [desperate Democrats] plan to balance their oft-heralded concerns for the middle class with their attempts to paint so many of its members as ignorant racists, but it’ll be fun to see them try.

True dat!  But what do I know?  I'm just an ignorant bitter racist hater clinging to my guns and Bible.


RELATED POST: You Disagree With Me, So You Must Be A (Insert Insult Here).  Also, maybe we're all right-wing loony extremists now.

Quote of the Day: Culture Clash in Domestic Politics

A Brit looks at current American politics and compares it to class-based portions of British politics.  It's an interesting read, and the following is our quote of the day:

The president's determination to transform the US into a social democracy, complete with a centrally run healthcare programme and a redistributive tax system, has collided rather magnificently with America's history as a nation of displaced people who were prepared to risk their futures on a bid to be free from the power of the state.

BINGO.  Look at how succinctly and piquantly he has identified one of the core problems of the Obama Administration's domestic policy initiatives: we don't want European-style big government statism.

Even more quotable goodness after the fold below:

A Horde of Angry Libertarians

Read this. Keep in mind:

The chief problem here isn't the little things that Lilla gets wrong; it's his reaction to a thing that he gets mostly right. But it's that reaction that makes the article so interesting. This is how the world looks to someone who thinks a revolt against bureaucratic institutions is a bad thing.

Me, I'm revolting. Probably in both senses of the word, ha!

Moms to the Barricades! Protesting Government Overreach, Mother's Day Edition

Read this. The piece also contains this awesome quote from a mom:

Christen Varley, the Boston tea party leader [said:] "[we, mothers are] the CEO's of our households. We do the shopping, bill paying, budgeting, etc. We know less money means less freedom. Maybe if the president and Congress did the grocery shopping, they'd know why we're mad."

Go, Freedom Mommies!

Congress and James Madison's "Overbearing Majority"

Take a look at this. All too true in all too many aspects?

Here is a bit of Madison's Federalist Papers No. 10,

[M]easures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority … By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community ...

How prescient and incisive was that observation? How accurate in describing the Pelosicrats' approach to the health care "reform" bill?

Surprise! Not All Dissent Is Raaaaaaacist

Well, it's about time. Plus best title of the day: "Diversi-Tea Training."

Cowboy Up: 40% of Tea Partiers Are Democrats and Independents

I'd already noted the presence of disaffected Dems among the tea parties, and now a fresh survey has more numbers: some estimated 40% of the tea partiers are Democrats and independents.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the miserable MSM to acknowledge the diversity of the grassroots tea parties. As far as they're concerned, the tea partiers are all evil Republican operatives.

Cowboy Up: The Tea Party Grows -- "These are not the Democrats that I have been brought up with"

Unhappy Democrats join the tea party movement for less government.

I guess we're all racist tea partying right-wing gun-clinging extremists now.

Welcome to the world of common sense and self-reliance, new tea partiers! I can offer you a hot steaming cup of Earl Grey or jasmine green. Buyers' remorse can be a terrible thing. Tea and sympathy!

Nerdworld Soundtrack: 3 Doors Down for Defiant Citizens

I love 3 Doors Down, and I know I've posted this song of theirs before, but "Not My Time" seems really fitting right now.

You know, I don't think I've EVER been as disgusted with the DC swamp and its creepy-crawly denizens as I am right now. All the Pelosicrats' triumphalist cries of victory ring hollow because the entire mess was forcibly foisted, in the most obviously corrupt and disgraceful ways (Louisiana Purchase, anyone? Cornhusker Kickback, anyone?), on an unwilling public. Seriously, never before has such a huge measure been shoved through with not a single vote from the other party (and with some 30+ Dems voting No as well). Even the Medicare and Social Security had (actual, not putative!) bipartisan support when they passed decades ago. Oh, sure, the mini-despots in DC did make history -- but what a sordid history it is. The icing on the cake is the now-standard tactic of calling concerned citizen opponents "racists" and every other insult imaginable. It's so contemptible that it's not worth a rebuttal. The existence of the smear tactic says enough.

Look, I've never been a particularly POLITICAL person. I actually don't much like politics. I've never been to a protest. I'm not an activist. I really just want to blog about good books and interesting history and cute dresses and awesome shoes and movies and pop culture and recipes. I simply want to be left alone to live my life as I please without a bunch of meddling busybodies interfering with everything. But apparently this (very American, no?) desire makes me some kind of PROBLEM. I can't help wondering how many other people are like me in this way. The sheer aristocratic arrogance of the political class has galvanized opposition in ways that transcend party lines.

You know, when Crazy Uncle Joe Biden cluelessly said into a live mic that the health care issue was "a big f***ing deal," he was right -- in ways he can't possibly understand. I can't be the only taxpaying citizen who's sick of getting screwed. Do you know that I was so angry that I actually DREAMED last night that I had a tea party with (wait for it) Sarah Palin? I'm not saying that in real life I'm all for Sarah, but I think I identify with her in the fact that she's constantly been belittled, misrepresented, and subjected to every kind of abhorrent abuse by the leftist loons.

Whoops, I started to rant there. Let's listen to some good music and plan for November ballot box action, shall we? People who want to make a serf of me will find that I'm not going to go quietly. I still VOTE. So do you. As for all the poor saps who think that it's health-care Christmas and that they've gotten something for free, GROW UP. There's no such thing as a free lunch. The cost may not be in money, but there will be a cost. Geez, costs in mere money are at least measurable and even understandable; when the cost is in intangibles and abstracts like -- oh, freedom and choice and quality of care and such -- it's harder to quantify, but also harder to live with. It ends up being far more expensive than mere money. Are you happy that you sold your birthright for a mess of pottage? I won't even bother starting on how every med person I know is in full revolt.

Anyhoo, onto some 3 Doors Down!

I look ahead to all the plans that we made
And the dreams that we had.
I'm in a world that tries to take them away.
Oh, but I'm taking them back.
'Cause all of this time I've just been too blind to understand
What should matter to me.
My friends this life we live, it’s not what we have
It’s what we believe in.

Cause it’s not my time I'm not going.
There's a fear in me but it’s not showing.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.
But it’s not my time; I'm not going.
There's a will in me and now I know that.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.
Oh, but I won’t go.
I won’t go.

There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see

But it’s not my time; I'm not going.
There's a fear in me; it’s not showing.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.
But it’s not my time; I'm not going.
There's a will in me and now it’s gonna show.
This could be the end of me
And everything I know.

There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see.

Nerdworld Soundtrack, Health Care Bill Edition: Queen

The lyrics of the opening of "I Want To Break Free" seem too all applicable to the attitude I (and countless tea party protesters) have toward the Congresscritters today and their obsession with expanding government:

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied -- I don't need you!
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free!

And how.

By the way, I'm not sad or depressed or disillusioned or any of that. I'm flat-out furious, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. We're CITIZENS, not subjects!

Quote of the Day: From the UK, a Thought on The President and the Press

Heh:

Mr Obama benefited in his campaign from an idiotic level of idolatry, in which most of the media participated with an astonishing suspension of cynicism. The sound of the squealing of brakes is now audible all over the American press . . .

Vacuous promises of change are hostages to fortune if they cannot be delivered upon to improve the living conditions of a people. The slickness of campaigning that comes from a combination of heavy funding and public relations expertise does not inevitably translate into an ability to govern.

The whole editorial is a firecracker. But we've been telling you this for months. Oh, and the op-ed's big flaw is its apparent insistence that Fox News is a grand cause of the president's problems. Ace of Spades disassembles this notion. OK, let me say this: Fox News might capitalize on public unhappiness with policy, but it's not the same as actually creating the unhappiness from nothing. Do you remember how the tea party protests began? It wasn't some creation by Fox News execs. It was sparked by a spontaneous outburst a year ago by Rick Santelli on a little CNBC (not Fox!) cable business show that struck a chord with millions of already-frustrated Americans.

And I don't have to watch Fox News in order to be increasingly fed up with the current administration's feckless foolishness about both foreign and domestic policy ... and its apparent inability to do simple math when it comes to deficit spending, indebtedness, and unsustainable entitlements.

It's Independents' Day in American Politics (Plus a Rant)

One thing seems clear in current American politics: you alienate independents to your peril. First the GOP did it, and now the Dems are busy apparently trying to alienate independents as quickly as possible. See the political turnarounds in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts with Scott Brown. (See this too.)

After all, what do independents seem to want most? Limited government and the protection of individual rights. PREACH IT! Related to this are the ongoing tea party protests and the frustration of the middle class. We do NOT like an ever-increasing tax-sucking intrusive federal juggernaut run by a "let-zem-eat-unpopular-policy" lot of mealy-mouthed, sticky-fingered, statist corruptocrats and ideologues bent on reducing every productive citizen to indentured tax servitude.

Oh, and here's some free MM advice to the unbelievably feckless and ineffective leadership of the RNC and GOP. Pay attention, people! Stop banging on about social agendas. We don't like the left pushing social agendas, so what makes you think we'll like the right doing it too? Get down to brass tacks here: Limited government. Lower taxes. Less government intrusion. More individual freedom. No nanny government. Stop penalizing the productive in order to bail out the failed and failing. Or, to put it most simply, I'll vote for the people who promise to first (a) LEAVE ME (AND MY WALLET) ALONE, and (b) prevent others from messing with my Constitutionally-protected rights and liberties. (And, yes, for me, this encompasses going after terrorists.)

For the record, this nanny-government idea and the nanny-statists' attempt to infantilize everybody. I don't want or like my own biological parents telling me what to do. Why would I want a government doing that? A government with the power to tax (always the power to destroy) and to compel? I mean, seriously, if my mom nags me to change my behavior or do something that I don't want to do, I can just go away or ignore the directive. If the nanny state nags, it can outlaw things and impose fines and resort to all sorts of nastiness. Why would any intelligent, freedom-loving person assent to such a thing? The only reason I can think of is the temptation to suck forever at the government teat, depend on the Mommy State cradle-to-grave, and refuse to take any responsibility for oneself. Pathetic. Give me spirited, self-reliant rugged individualism any day. Maybe the question boils down to, do you want opportunities or guarantees?

Oh, and to be fair, here's some free advice for the Dems in power in DC. Pay attention! The voter revolts do NOT mean that you should push on even harder with your craptastic policy ideas that every single poll reveals to be wildly unpopular with just about EVERYBODY, left, right, and center! Are you really so far into your own echo chamber that you don't realize that you are utterly out of step with THE COUNTRY? Stop trying to cram stuff down our throats as if we were geese being force-fed to make foie gras. (Then again, maybe that's exactly the point, so eventually they can eat our livers -- I mean, bank accounts.)

Oh, and you might want to dial back the overweening aristocratic arrogance, elitist self-absorption, and open contempt for dissenting citizens or, in the words of one of your DC peeps, "evil-mongers." Your Marie Antoinette is showing. Lucky for you, in this country we don't have the guillotine. We do, however, have something even better. They're called elections, and if I'm not mistaken there are a whole boatload of midterm elections coming this very year. Remember, you are in office to serve the citizens, not the other way around. Pelosi, your "most ethical Congress ever" is now the most despised train wreck of a Congress ever. A wise person learns from his own mistakes. A REALLY wise person learns from someone else's mistakes. Only a total moron learns nothing at all from his own mistakes. Wake up and smell the political mortality. In good Greek-tragic fashion, hubris soon practically begs for nemesis to come and squash it like an cockroach.

Now I could go on lambasting politicians left and right, but I have better things to do! MM is going to procrastinate on her latest nerd paper; she's off to the mall and to Borders (to look at books that have nothing to do with her studies!).