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Name: RedStateJD
Location: Rochester, NY
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"Lost boys, we got 'em on the run!"

The title of today's blog is taken from one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, "Hook."  In the 1991 Robin Williams feature film, the final battle scene shows Peter Pan and his rag-tag group of 'lost boys' fighting and winning the battle against Captain Hook and his much larger group of pirates.  I thought of this the other day when I saw President Obama visibly angry or at least distressed at a press conference this week.  The topic of course was...health care!  ((Thunder and lightning!))  

Known for his cool, placid composure, it was surprising to see him scowling and fidgeting while answering questions.  I saw the same thing tonight as I sat and watched him talk tonight in his fourth televised press conference in six months of his presidency.  Six months into this administration he is finally being shown the downside of the job.  Not everything will go his way.  There were questions being launched at him that he did not want and did not expect.  I had to stand up and shout a few times as some of the most liberal members of the white house press corps gave him some questions that I never thought they would.  A few times my girl 'Marie' and I slapped high fives as he evaded one question after another, clearly not pleased with what he was getting.  

(To give my girl a sense of anonymity I will refer to her as 'Marie.'  Her real name will be kept private)

'Marie' and I giggled and laughed a few times as he made these long winded speeches that I believed were clearly designed to take up time.  I don't think he wanted to answer any more questions than he had too.  He didn't like what he was getting thrown at him at all.  I can't say I really blame him.  On the campaign trail he was asked softball questions, greeted by throngs of blindly adoring followers, and never had to take the bumps that the mainstream media would typically give a candidate.  Governor's Romney and Huckabee's personal faith were scrutinized by the various talking heads on prime time.  Endless quotes from Hillary Clinton were talked about, and we won't even get into what they put Governor Palin through.  Anything they could have looked into about then-senator Obama was largely ignored, save for a few commentators and talk radio hosts.

President Obama's health care overhaul could collapse before it ever gets off the ground.  The fact that some House and Senate democrats might be the reason in the end that it does not succeed has got to be driving Obama right up a wall.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for all of this.  It is certainly better than the alternative.  If it collapsed after it took off, it would probably take the entire United States economy with it.  Still, he is not exactly used to having things not go his way.  So far in six months he has had almost no opposition worth mentioning.  The republicans are outnumbered in the house, and there are sixty votes in the senate for the democrats.  Before there were sixty democrats in the senate, there were a few liberal republicans that were willing to make back room deals.  
 
On January 29th he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.  February 9th saw the signing of an extension of the State Children's Health Insurance program.  The crippling blow for a generation came on February 17th when he signed The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (better known as the Stimulus bill) into law.  Later on came the Omnibus bill, which like the stimulus bill was loaded with pork projects.  On May 22nd he signed the Credit CARD Act, and then on Tuesday of this week he got the senate to strip funding for new F-22 Raptors.  The senate handed Obama a way to actually keep a campaign promise, cutting military spending.  Now I always give credit where credit is due, and I have to give some to Senator Chris Dodd, who spoke out on the senate floor warning that this would cost thousands of jobs.  Good job Chris, but your still in hot water for that whole sub-prime thing.   

A universal health care bill was up for consideration before in 1993.  President Clinton and then first lady Hillary wanted a single-payer universal health care bill passed quickly.  It bombed horribly when the American people learned what was contained in the pages of the bill, and spoke out.  The next year marked the republican takeover of congress, a signal of the public's disapproval with the way Clinton and the democrats were trying to cram things in quickly.  The current crop of congressional democrats may be radical, but they are by no means stupid.  They know that 2010 could be a painful flashback for them if this bill bombs out like its predecessor.  

This health care bill is being read as much as the stimulus bill was by members of congress.  For those playing the home game, this means that they are hardly reading it at all.  It is loaded with projects that do not save people money, or have anything to do with health care for that matter.  People are being made aware of this and it turns their stomachs.  It's now beginning to show in the polls, and that is giving President Obama his first wake-up call of the season.

I saw in my local paper today the results of a recent Associated Press-GfK Poll.  This poll shows that 54% of Americans now believe that we as a nation are on the wrong path. This figure is up from 46% in June.  President Obama's approval rating has broken down below the dreaded 60 mark, and now hovers at a cool 55%.  People who believe that Obama can help the economy have dropped down a sobering 19% from just before inauguration day.  The president is not the only one hurting in the polls.  The democrat-controlled congress has not been showing well for over a year and a half, and is now sinking lower once again.  They are currently hovering at 32%, and I would not be surprised if they sunk lower back into the twenties, which at that point you're down to blood relatives and a few staff members being the only ones giving you their approval.  

People fear waiting lists, rationed care and clogged emergency rooms.  They see people in Britain being denied treatments because they are not deemed worth it to try and save.  They see the enormous costs of the European and Canadian systems.  What's worse, if we go to a Canadian style single-payer system, then where will Canadians in need of a serious operation go?!  

Every time most or all of the republicans in congress vote against another huge expensive government project, I give them the ole' pat on the back and an "Atta boys!"  It's time I give the same to the American people.  Obama is like a paper champion, a boxer who has never fought a real battle.  He has finally been cut, and it has him frayed at both ends.

Keep at 'em!
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PALIN! PALIN!

Well, it's been a while since Governor Sarah Palin dropped a tactical nuclear bomb on the country.  I of course am referring to her resignation from the office of Governor of Alaska.  She came swooping into this office and followed it up with some of the highest approval ratings in recent gubernatorial history.  She is also one of the most successful, working with people to get things done as she promised. 

I believe she is far more of a threat to the liberals and Democratic party than they would ever let on, both because of the way she reaches people, and for the values she proudly wears on her sleeve.  She is far more qualified than anyone of them would say, and she is far smarter as well.

In a short amount of time she has rooted out corruption in both major parties. Her state is one of the only ones in this deep recession showing a surplus of cash and energy.  She has cut billions from their spending budget for this fiscal year while still being able to meet all major priorities.  Her state did not need the stimulus bill, and she turned down the money when it was thrust upon her.   Why should she?  If you don't need it, don't spend it!  She fought the oil companies and fought to have her states vast resources of oil pumped down to the lower 48.  She knows that ANWR is full of oil and has none of the endangered species to protect we're told it does by the EPA and other agencies.  It's frozen tundra on top of buried treasure.  C'mon people!!!  People argue her state has a surplus because of the oil reserves.  I ask them to keep in mind that much of it, they have not been able to tap, pump, drill or sell, so therefore it does not help them with their budget or energy supply.  

Last week there was a USA Today / Gallup Poll that showed that a over two-thirds of republicans want Palin as the nominee in 2012, or at least as 'a major national political figure.'  I like to go deeper sometimes, beyond the poll numbers..

Today in America if you drop GOP or DEM from the polling questions, more people identify themselves as conservatives, a full 40%.  I know conservatives who are libertarian.  Some of them are members of the Constitution or American Independence parties.  There are more still who have no party at all, but are conservative at heart.

I was at a tea party on July 3rd, the day the governor announced her resignation.  There were over a thousand people from all races and parties, men and women, old and young who began to chant ‘PALIN! PALIN!’ 

Sarah Palin connects with regular Americans.  Some call them Reagan-Democrats, some call them ‘average joe’s.’  Their detractors call them hicks, farmers, rednecks and a whole slew of other people that they assume cling to their guns and religion.  (Ba dum bum)  She drew thousands upon thousands of people to her campaign rallies, and in fact she drew much more than the head of the ticket, Senator McCain.  No other conservative candidate has had that kind of draw with the American public since Ronald Reagan.  She is also equally polarizing.  It is a fundamental law of Newtonian physics that for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.  If there was ever proof that physics applied to politics, then that proof is Sarah Palin.

For every person who is a fan, there is another who hates her.  For each person who came out to see her at a rally, one sat at home and called her stupid on Myspace.  People did not know why they hated her, but they did.  They wrote her off as a dunce, a fool, and a ditz.  The medias portrayal of her did not help at all.  For three months they beat the hell out of her, giving her questions about Bush’s policy that Bush and Cheney could not have answered, and offending her at other times with questions that were a waste of time.  When it comes to the mainstream media, our friend Sir Isaac Newton departs.

In the afore mentioned poll, three-fourths of republicans, over half of independents, and a full third of democrats say the media coverage of Palin had, and still has been unfairly negative.  When she was announced as Senator McCains running mate last year, the banner on MSNBC said “How Many Houses Does This Add To The Republican Ticket?”

Chris Matthews lambasted her on his show for a full five minutes for writing a book with the aid of a ghostwriter.  I guess he forgot about Hillary Clintons who had helped her with her book. 

Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric asked her questions that not only would they never have asked President Obama, but questions that were not too relevant to well, anything!  (Governor Palin later said that she paused and smiled during the Katie Couric interview because she could not believe what she was being asked half of the time.)  Add this onto the unbelievable bias that the mainstream media showed to Obama during the campaign, and it is a recipe for swaying public opinion.  If you happen to doubt that there was intense bias from the media favoring President Obama, then just ask his secretary of state.

I won’t even dignify the constant comments of people like David Letterman.  To do so would lead people to believe that I watch him.  He of course is free to say whatever he wants, no matter how tacky, tasteless or unfunny.  That’s the price of a free society, and I pay it gladly.

There were even some fellow republicans who were less than helpful.  Governor Palin had poor handlers on a poorly run campaign.  Personally, I think some of the former staffers, like the ones who contributed to the twenty-four page article in Vanity Fair, not only did not give their names out of cowardice, but out of selfish career aspirations as well.  I believe they would cite themselves as having helped written the article at any interview, or any step to them being hired to work on the campaign circuit again.  After how poorly the McCain campaign was run, I doubt many of them will work again.  They made two tactical blunders that sunk them.  The let Senator McCain off the leash, and they kept Governor Palin on one.

No one wants to hire a rat who deserts the ship even before it sinks, let alone one who runs to the press!  We all know people like this!  As soon as your back is turned they are running off to the media with juicy stories about you, and as soon as you turn around again they are giving you the smile and pat on the shoulder.  They go above your head to your boss and blame you for their mistakes.  If someone is going to accuse someone of such things, I’d rather they at least be brave enough to author their libel writings.

If someone does not like Sarah Palin’s policies or positions, that’s a personal call and I can respect that.  However, when I see someone who would instead say that they do not like her because she is stupid, or a dummy, or ‘too pretty,’ (I actually heard that from someone) or the ‘wrong kind of feminist,’ I get angry.  It is the same as someone who

Makes fun of a gay person, then when they are confronted they say ‘well, I guess I’m just more homophobic than I realize.’  They brush it off with a stupid excuse for their ignorance.  When people reside themselves to that all-too-comfortable kind of resignation, without the compulsion to find out why, or even the willingness to express it, it is as sad as it is inexcusable. 

If Governor Palin is so dim and inconsequential, as the elites, the media and Matt Damon would tell us, then why the constant attacks even after the campaign is long gone?  Do we not still ignore that which truly does not matter?  If she is not a threat, why still attack her?

 

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Tea Party, Blackout?

Well it was one eventful weekend was it not?  I myself attended a tea party here in my home city.  There were people coming and going constantly, but I believe there were about eleven hundred people total who attended all in all.  It was amazing to see.  The people were well behaved, there was no unruly behavior.  No mobs, no shouting with the police.  There were no bottles being thrown and there were no marches with people chanting angry slogans.  There was however, a large peaceful protest.  With music, speeches, prayer, and people talking about their common beliefs.

Those on CNN would have had you believe that the April 15th tea parties were full of zealots who were all frothing at the mouth with a chance to sacrifice an effigy of President Obama on a towering inferno of liberal bodies.  Not bloody likely...

Of course there are always a few radicals at each protest.  The radicals at the one I attended were not there in support of our cause.  I call them 'Truthers."  They are people, almost always in their early to mid twenties, who believe that 9/11 was an inside job.  These people do not simply blame republicans or democrats for their woes.  I do not know if they even believe the outlandish theories of the 9/11 inside job conspiracies make sense.  I believe personally that they just want to rally against something.  I think they are a new grade of anarchists.  They seem to want no government whatsoever, and they have no implications of that which they ask for.  Total anarchy and the chaos it could bring, are beyond imagination.  

These people at the tea parties did not want a bloody revolution.  They did not want to have Nancy Pelosi do am impression of Marie Antoinette's final minutes.  They do not wish for people to get their arms together, go to their local deli, and punch out foreign counter workers.  I saw none of that, and I doubt there was much if any of it at the thousands of other demonstrations around the country.

These people did not want their taxes being hiked to pay for programs they did not want.  A huge portion of the country according to Rasmussen and Gallup Polls, now strongly disapprove of the bailouts, Cap and Trade, socialized health care, amnesty for illegal aliens, and the nationalization of the banks and auto industry!  Sometimes up to as much of 80% of the people disapprove of the way that President Obama and the democrat congress are heading us in.  Let me correct that.  Warping.  They are shoving us to the left at warp speed.  They do not let the members of congress read the bills, and they call in votes at three o'clock in the morning sometimes to sneak them by the public.  The current laws are bypassed by 'czars' that are answerable only to Obama, and that do not need to be approved like a normal cabinet member.  People do not want socialism or insane spending.  This is still a center-right country.  

The people at the tea parties were there because they are angry.  They feel betrayed.  The people they voted in have not done what they asked.  You will know the ones that do, because they will stay in office after the midterm elections of 2010.  They ones that are angering people will be gone. (See: Harry Reid)  They do not want the debt to be piled on so high that we will never pay it off.  People are truly afraid that the dollar could crash and that we would have to rely on precious metals and the selling of first born children to pay for things.  When you print up money at a rapid pace to pay for things, inflation occurs.  The value of the currency goes down.  This will happen if we continue along at this pace.

They heard about people in Texas having their guns seized for no logical reason.  This angers them and scares them.  They see postings of theirs being taken offline, and off of myspace and facebook.  They see their first, second, and tenth amendment rights being trampled over and re-written.  None of us signed up for this.

This is why we were there.  The only question is, where was the media?  I know that with Governor Sanford, Governor Palin and Michael Jackson all being in the news that there were big stories out there, but with an estimated two million people organizing in all fifty states across the country, where was the media?

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"A Republic, if you can keep it..."

I'm going to a tea party later today in my home city, and then tomorrow I will gladly celebrate my favorite holiday, The Fourth of July.  Independence Day!

The title of todays entry is a quote from Benjamin Franklin.  It was spoken by him after a woman approached him upon his leaving the halls of the constitutional convention. The men had finished, and the document they gave us solidified our independence.  Of course years earlier we had fought and won our independence from the British.  We had a first document outlining our government, called the Articles of Confederation.  It was a disaster, because it was too weak, and nothing could ever get accomplished.  

The Constitution of the United States, is perfect.  They say perfection cannot exist, but it does.  It outlines a representative republic, and all of the rights of the people that truly can make them free.  It also outlines all of the necessary restrictions on the government so that it cannot become overbearing or too powerful.  It also left a way to fix itself, in the form of amendments.  It is at the same time, long lasting and rectifiable.  The founding fathers knew they might make some mistakes, but they also left a way to repair them, while making all of the liberty and freedom we desired so much a stronghold of our countries foundation.

Think about that while you cook out this weekend and blast off fireworks.  I will no doubt, be cooking out and blasting off as well.  I know exactly what this country is, and therefore I know what we all stand to loose.  "A republic, if you can keep it."  We could loose it in the blink of an eye, and once it is lost, it could never come back... 
Remember that it was outlined in such a way that government was the servant, and never the master.   Now we have strong-armed nationalization of the banks and auto industry.  Also the appointments of over two dozen 'czars' that can go around the congress or supreme court while doing the presidents bidding, skirting around the checks and balances.  It sounds to me like the trampling on our founding documents by a power hungry man.  It's sad.

Remember where we all come from.  If we can keep it, it will still be the greatest thing ever.
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