Where Are The Communists When You Need Them?
As I was reading The (dead tree) Dispatch this morning, I noticed an article at the bottom of the front page with the headline Tea Party To Protest Bailouts. This protest was to be at noon today at the corner of Brady and Locust in Davenport. I consider myself well-informed, but this was the first I knew of it, and it was scheduled to begin in just a few hours from when I read about it.
Say what you will about the communists and other leftist groups, but they know how to put on a demonstration/protest. The massive anti-war demonstrations done during the Bush Administration were all organized by such leftwing groups as International ANSWER and the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade.
These taxpayer protests are just beginning and I assume will improve with time, but I wonder why the local organizers chose the Brady & Locust location? Aside from the fact that it is a busy intersection, especially on Saturday, it doesn’t do what these protests SHOULD do—tie the protests to the politicians who voted for these bailouts and the “stimulus”. A better location would have been at Braley’s and Harkin’s local offices. As long as these free-spending liberals remain in power we will continue to have our pockets picked.
I look forward to attending these local protests, but I’ll need more than a few hours notice, something these “tea party” grassroots organizers could learn from the communists.
Here’s a roundup of the Tea Parties nationwide; the attendance isn’t huge yet, but with crowds ranging from 300-2000 so far, this movement is bound to gather strength over time, especially as we learn more about Obama’s plans for even more deficit spending in order to finance his New Great Society.
Headlines Of The Day
and
Stocks Fall As Fears Of Budget Proposal Impact Hit Health Care Stocks
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In the first article, Hare uses what is becoming his stock rationale for every vote: “If we do nothing, we sin by silence.” This “do nothing” trope is the same strawman that Obama is so fond of building, then tearing down—who does Hare think wants to “do nothing”? It’s obvious to everyone—even the GOP, that something needs to be done, the question is what?
Hare and Obama battling strawmen doesn’t move the debate about health care reform forward—it retards progress.
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Here’s the lede from the second linked story in USAToday:
“Health care stocks, one of the better performers on Wall Street lately, led the market lower Thursday after the White House proposed cutting payments to private insurance plans.”
Doing the wrong “something” can be even worse than the “sin of silence.”
Quote Of The Day
Michael van der Galien on the projected $1.75 trillion deficit expected in 2010:
“It’s the new fiscal responsibility: spend like an angry and drunk woman shopping with the credit card of her ex.”
The Third Term Of The Bush Administration
Democrat Representative Gene Taylor on Obama’s proposed budget:
“I don’t like it . . . change is not running up even bigger deficits than George Bush did . . . That’s what George Bush did very well. Apparently that’s what President Obama is doing.”
I didn’t vote for him, but I wonder how all those people who voted for Obama and “change” feel about having voted in the third term of the Bush Administration—on steroids?
Meet the new boss same as the old boss, or the more things “change” the more they remain the same.
The Media Ghouls Got What They Wanted
At the Obama press conference, a CNN reporter asked if Obama would consider lifting the ban on photographing the returning war dead when they arrive at Dover AFB. CNN claimed we couldn’t know “the cost of war” without photos of flag-draped coffins and Obama said he would look into it.
Today the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates announced they were lifting the ban PROVIDED the families of these heroes agreed.
Some thoughts:
1. I never did get the “cost of war” bit. Everyone who lives out here in flyover country has
seen plenty of the “cost of war.” Yesterday it was announced that a National Guardsman from Kewanee had been killed in Afghanistan and the local media will cover his funeral, as they have for all the locals killed in Iraq/Afghanistan. We don’t need CNN to show us “the cost of war.” So I assume these photos are for the gratification of those who live in liberal enclaves and have never known of any war deaths. Liberals in the Upper East Side are already against war, so what’s the point?
2. The other thing I don’t get is that, as I understand it, they don’t send each warrior back the day he/she died; they wait until they have a certain number before making the trip back to Dover. So if it is up to the families to allow photographs, does everyone have to agree, disagree, majority rule? Looks like this another one of those Obama plans that still needs work.
3. This “show us the coffins” bit was always a bit dishonest anyway, as a FOIA request forced the military to release all the flag-draped coffin photos they had, so how is this showing “the cost of war” any more than the previous photos did?
4. Since Obama is now POTUS, I doubt the Obama-loving press will use these photos to “show the cost of war” since they don’t want to disturb The Won from his mission to take us back to The Great Society.
It will be interesting to see how the press uses these photos—or doesn’t.
Shocking News!
“The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five month ago…”
What’s the deal with Democrats and paying taxes?
According to the S-T, six weeks after the IRS slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his house, Blago hired Burris II as senior counsel for the state’s housing authority!
Pay-for-play or just business as usual Chicago Way politics?
Either way, you can’t make this stuff up!
Advice To Illinois Republicans . . .
. . . from Bush’s Brain.
At a fundraiser Monday in Schaumburg, Karl Rove had this advice for a gathering of DuPage County Republicans:
“The people are looking closely at the quality of candidates you put forward . . . You better not claw yourselves up and bloody yourselves up and cut yourselves up in a primary.”
Also:
“It strikes me that you have a pretty easy message . . . If you want change from the way things are then you ought to elect yourself a Republican governor.”
It’s obvious that Karl Rove isn’t from around here:
1. The “easy” message is clouded by the existence of George Ryan, although a case could be made about how Democrat one-party rule has driven the state into a ditch.
2. What “quality of candidates”—or better still WHAT candidates? I can’t think of one Illinois GOPer who could make a successful run for either US Senator or governor. Who are these candidates?
3. Rove’s idea of avoiding a brutal primary is a good one though. This is how the undemocratic Democrats have been doing business for a generation; they do their fighting in private and their candidates are unsullied by any public vetting. I used to think this was a bad thing, but it has worked out extremely well for the Dems, so the GOP ought to give it a shot.
Ultimately, no matter how “easy” the message, the Illinois GOP will find a way to screw it up—-guaranteed!
See How They Run Like Pigs From A Gun
The venality of our political class in Illinois continues to amaze.
Stymied by that pesky Second Amendment from achieving their gun-free utopia, Illinois liberals have decided to make an end run around the Constitution by presenting HB0687 to the Senate for approval.
According to a report in Digital Journal, the bill would require $1 million dollar insurance policy to cover accidental and wilful acts involving an individual’s firearm.
Lack of compliance would result in the Department of State Police revoking and seizing the uninsured’s FOI Card, making the firearm illegal and the owner a criminal.
This is just so crackheaded on so many levels— if a burgler breaks into my house and I shoot him, he or his heirs get a payoff from my insurance policy?
Sheesh!
This is just another fine example of how our government punishes the law abiding and rewards the evildoers.
The same homeys who are cruising the ‘hood with no car insurance will be the same homeys who kill people with no gun insurance.
Except for helping the insurance companies, what, exactly is this bill supposed to accomplish?
Springfield Begins To Tackle The Difficult Issues
Casting aside such trivial matters as the $9 billion dollar deficit, unsustainable government pension costs and ethics concerns, lawmakers in Springfield are devoting their time and efforts to thorny scientific problems like returning Pluto to its rightful place in the solar system.
A bill declaring March 13 “Pluto Day” and returning Pluto’s status as a planet after it was downgraded to “iceball” by a panel of scientists in ‘06 has passed through committee and is awaiting a vote by the Illinois Senate.
But lest you think this is just more legislative silliness and time wasting, the bill’s author, Gary Dahl of Streator, says this is about more than just Pluto, this is a sign of increasing bipartisanship in the Senate, since Democrat leadership had held up the bill last year, but the new Senate president allowed it to go forward.
I’m all for bipartisanship, when appropriate, but this seems more like a “fiddling while Rome burns” moment to me.
h/t: Betsy
Quote Of The Day
From Dana Milbank:
Holding a “fiscal responsibility summit” at the White House in the middle of a government spending spree is a bit like having an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at a frat house on homecoming weekend.
