The American Spectator

Booger| 10.4.10 @ 6:18AM

From the desk of Michael Steele:

Dear Fellow Republicans,

While I was reading my morning copy of the Washington Post the other day (a fine paper, which I find second only to the New York Times) it came to my attention that many public opinion polls are finding our Grand Old Party with a significant lead in generic polling. While this may initially seem gratifying, I believe we should at the situation with a gimlet eye.
First of all, are we really ready to rule? After all, many of our finest eldest statespersons (can't leave out Lisa!) will no longer be with us. Without Senators Murkowski or Bennet, or the fine governorship of Charlie Crist, or the congressional leadership of Mike Castle I truly doubt the Republicans are ready to govern this fine nation.
My next point of concern is this overly-rowdy Tea Party movement. While I am gratified to see that they are currently voting for Republican candidates, I am concerned over their romantic notions of actually being able to choose those candidates themselves. We here at the RNC have spent years in the system, paying our dues to advance through the party. We have spent large sums of money to locate and recruit fine, upstanding legislators of moderate demeanor, who will be non-threatening to the voting public. To have these Tea Partiers reject our choices through this ridiculous primary system is, quite frankly, a bit tedious and offensive. These people have quite simply got to learn their place. Still, I suppose that can wait until after the election.
Now as to this matter of a possible majority in Congress and the Senate, I must caution you not to become to optimistic. This wild-eyed exuberance we have been seeing of late is quite simply unbecoming. We are Republicans, after all. We have an image to maintain. This notion of "fighting" for a win is simply to "street" for us, if you know what I mean. We need to remember, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. And we here at the RNC know all about playing the game.

Sincerely,

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Michele Havins| 10.4.10 @ 7:57AM

Mr. Steele,

You still don't get it? Hardworking people are tired of living and working with those who choose not to do anything productive, but require everything from government. People want to be left alone by government to pursue their lives. In order to preserve our status as Americans, not party affiliations, we need to stop this march toward socialism, toward bigger government. It begins with the discussion of not who is a Republican or Democrat, but who wants to begin to solve problems. What if these "wild eyed" people are enthusiastically supporting change? Is that not their right? This is not a game. This is our country and this is our life. Only those of you who are insulated by your political office think of it as a game. For the private American, this is not a game. This is a fight for a way of life that we continue to be proud of, to work tirelessly under and for which we send our children to fight. You simplify the gravity of the situation as though the American public is a pawn in a chess game. We are real people struggling to inform our elected officials that YOU are getting WRONG! If you are getting it wrong and you want to continue to serve, then change your message. Get with the bold men and women who are swimming up stream to make some changes to restore America!

Mark James| 10.4.10 @ 10:05AM

Dude, why did this comedic satire escape you? But I still like what you said even if you did miss Booger's excellent parody.

2FUnNy| 10.4.10 @ 3:12PM

Michael Steele says he wants to meet with you over a beer at the White House. Just don't act stupidly.

Alan Brooks| 10.4.10 @ 7:07PM

"You still don't get it? Hardworking people are tired of living and working with those who choose not to do anything productive, but require everything from government."

No, your creed is:
"less government that I don't like but more government that helps my people"
However unlike before, now everybody knows what the game is.

Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 10.4.10 @ 8:07AM

Michael Steele, please stop posting under Booger's name & grow a set! Thank you.

Pat Porterfield| 10.4.10 @ 9:21AM

I trust this is a sick joke played by a desperate RINO or frazzled liberal/progressive. If this is truly from Mr. Steele, I trust you will also be summarily removed from your post and sent to pasture.

Pat Porterfield| 10.4.10 @ 9:22AM

Booger got me!!

David C| 10.4.10 @ 11:47AM

To crib a line from a liberal poet,

Can we call it a loan?
And a debt that I owe
On a bet that I lost

What if...when the republicans take over next month...
We print the money and pay off all the T-bills (13 trillion)...
Print what is needed to replace the IOU's in the entitlements...

And...

Then write a law to balance the budget...
Yes, the dollar would lose value, but the economy would be re-inflated, the velocity of money would again increase (as has the supply), and we could move on in a more conservative USA and vow not to fall into these traps again.

Or perhaps not...just a thought

John Navratil| 10.4.10 @ 1:05PM

I would be a transfer of wealth from owners to debtors. Who wouldn't like to repay that mortgage or car loan in dollars worth 30% of what they where last year.

The inflation would make Jimmuh's misery index look like happy days.

David C| 10.4.10 @ 1:53PM

There is a rumor that the Chinese are doing this already, buying our T-Bills with currency they are printing from plentiful trees.

It is also an open secret that their bookkeeping is not what would be required for any public company in our fine country and that profits of many of their “booming” companies may just be on paper. Remember “just in time” from the Japanese miracle in the 1980’s? Fool me once…

Inflation occurs when the velocity of money is accelerating, demographics in the 1970’s with an enormous baby boom generation coming into the workforce, (Harry Dent made this point) created this phenomenon. Ever wonder with all the monetary growth and domestic spending why we are fighting off deflation now?

We can repay this debt with minor consequences to our net worth and with minimal damage to our currency. Is their any other equation that reduces our 30 trillion dollar nut?

To dukas...."you take Sally and I'll take Sue, there ain't no difference between the two" or is that fannie and freddie?

megapotamus| 10.4.10 @ 2:46PM

Yeah Boog, I get a call from Mr. Michael pretty routinely. NEVER should have given him my cell. You capture the 'tude quite well. It is time for all good men, and even those not so good, to come to the aid of their party. I don't really count Steele among these. Frankly, he is a doofus and the Democrats look upon him as the Iranians look upon O; as a godsend of mediocrity... on the BEST day!

joli| 10.4.10 @ 5:58PM

Booger, you're on a roll today!

Leslie Barnett| 10.5.10 @ 12:47AM

What? This is not a serious commentary, is it???

MOF| 10.6.10 @ 9:14AM

Isn't a "booger" something nasty you want to get rid of? If in fact, that was Michael Steele speaking, then He just proves that the more power one obtains, the further they move from reality!

ervin| 10.13.10 @ 6:56PM

LOL !

Kenny| 10.4.10 @ 7:01AM

Among the signs that America does not want to continue in the direction the Obama Administration has set is this one.

Yesterday, Cleveland's liberal Plain Deaer newspaper, the state's largest, endorsed John Kasish and Rob Portman, two Republicans, for governor and the U.S. Senate, respectively.

Talk about seeing the light.

RodgerS| 10.4.10 @ 7:11AM

I believe the main stream media (MSM) and the Republicans are facing their own tipping point as well. I don't know anyone who feels that the MSM has any credibility - they are truly swamped in their biases and desires to run the country over in their above-us-all pursuit to remake America. The "Tea Party" is not a party, but reflects a genuine bloodless revolution that is at hand of the people. What is "unbecoming" is the separation of the main stream political class, which includes the Republicans, and the MSM from the people. What Steel refers to as "overly-rowdy," is simply the sound of the awakening of the unrepresented silent majority. It is unsettlingly loud because it is huge and comes from those who are usually silent, realizing their trust in the MSM and political class that allows them to go about their business on a daily basis was misplaced. An ostrich like Steele, needs to get his head out of his...er, the sand before it's too late.

Appleby| 10.4.10 @ 7:37AM

The Sixties Are Over. Govern yourselves accordingly.

Ret. Marine| 10.4.10 @ 7:39AM

I don't believe this tipping point is quite here just yet. The very fact that many have not felt the pain, lost their jobs, homes, sanity etc...yet, we will not witness this until after this coming election. Signs of it coming are all around us many are paying attention but, there is an uneasy feeling that something Hugh is about to happen. I pray daily for the deliverance of this pain although I am not ignorant as many we saw this past Saturday with the give-me, give-me yours, and give me more than I can honestly make on my own crowd.
Questions abound, why is the sanfran nanny and her cohorts gleaming of the "we will hold the chambers" mentality not showing any worry, are they delusional, over confident?, maybe they know of something of their own making that will be a game changer? Maybe they have perfected the fine art of election voter fraud so refined to the point of blatant stolen status. They may even be insane as to the thought that their minions are going to create a crises to good to waste? I am not going to be optimistic but, rather to keep my eyes open to these real possibilities of created chaos coming from their type, after all, they have gamed the system for far too long and in their arrogance they may have something up their sleeves, think dead people voting ballots and such, making them confident of the next game changer.
There is something far more damaging than a tipping point going on here, they have come out in the open with little regard for bullets, Patriots, or the rule of law, almost as if to challenge We the People, those of us who are not of their sleaze, in their outright attempt or willingness to kill for their positions of power..

Mark James| 10.4.10 @ 10:14AM

RM, been reading your stuff a long time. Agree 99.99% of the time. My dear dead father warned me in 1962 this is where we were headed and he said it wouldn't change until there was bloodshed. I hope for decades he was wrong but I now have set myself to whatever eventuality is required to return our nation to it's former status as a Free Republic.

daddio| 10.4.10 @ 11:34AM

I have always wondered what would happen if these folks simply refused to leave office when voted out?

Ned| 10.4.10 @ 1:43PM

Perhaps they are privy to the ACORN led plans to steal THIS election, as they did the Washington Governor's election, and the Frank-enstein Senatorial race.....

Jeanette| 10.8.10 @ 5:37AM

RM: Here's the key to "Pazzo" Pelosi. The Word. Remember how she said if they changed the name of the Stimulus or some-such bill, then people would like it and support it. She's a blockhead. Or how she went ballistic when the White House press secretary suggested the dems were in trouble. Like we (the public) never suspected such a thing until Gibbs leaked.

Pelosi's whole world-view depends upon marketing spin. She believes if you refuse to admit defeat, you will not experience it. She has a lot of trouble with reality.

I don't think we should be overly optimistic about the upcoming election -- the work isn't done yet. But contrary to the Republicans ginning up their base, I think the base overpowered the weary Republican Party. As party stalwarts have seen already, if they persist in yesterday's rather pathetic and even offensive behavior, well, they'll have to go, too.

Gotta say, after years of despair and worry about the Republic, I've never been so proud of America as right now. And if the lefties are willing to introduce violence into the scenario, they're facing a heavily armed and very determined population -- despite their best efforts to demolish the 2nd Amendment. I'm pretty confident about who will this fight... if not now, eventually.

Melvin| 10.4.10 @ 7:50AM

It's going to take a allot more than just voting these rascals out of office. There is one thing that regardless of political pedigree agree on. There is rampant corruption in the halls of government.
This, "Corruption" issue needs to be addressed. Laws were broken or ignored, millions of billions of tax payers dollars have evaporated into thin air.
Corruption is not only regulated to the political elite, the corruption also extends to what the government likes to call, "The partnership between government and private enterprise."
This partnership has long had to much comfortable access to our elected representatives.
Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac stinks of a money scheme concocted by politicians and carried out by the financial industry. These schemes is what America wants stopped, and those involved gone to jail.
If our society is going to thrive on the Rule of Law, then there has to be accountability by our elected and appointed government officials.
Unfortunately, this current Justice Department is anything by that, since the Attorney General takes his marching orders from the White House.
This revolution need not stop after the Mid Term Elections, it has to go deeper, much deeper to get at the heart of the political corruption that has a nice cozy home in the halls of Capitol Hill.
The Mid Term Elections are not the end of the political revolution, it is only the beginning.

gearjammer| 10.4.10 @ 10:05AM

Corruption is too mild a term. Barone said it correctly- " gangsta government". They are outright criminals ! And, don't give me this Rino crap-it is the hardcore democrats and the criminal special interests that lurk behind them-be it union " leadership", much of the legal establishment-on and on-you know who they are and it does include the marvy world of television and holly wood including executives and the " stars". And, no, they ARE NOT all Jewish .

Maddox| 10.4.10 @ 11:50AM

Absolutely and if not stopped the result will be "trickle down crime and chaos." When the ruling class is no longer held to The Rule of Law, the majority of the streets will follow their lead.

Siegfried X| 10.4.10 @ 7:55AM

The 2012 Republican presidential nomination is the key. The presidential candidate along with his / her platform will determine the direction of the Republican Party for the next 4 years.

If we choose a RINO establishment candidate who thinks we can win by being more Democratic than the Democrats, then nothing has changed. In that case the citizens must continue fighting both parties to preserve our freedom, as they've been doing ever since President Bush tried to force amnesty on us in 2005.

ds80| 10.4.10 @ 8:08AM

Exactly, Sieg.
No Mitt Romney.
No Mike Huckabee.
No John McCain.
No Newt Gingrich.
... the list goes on.

JP| 10.4.10 @ 9:12AM

It appears John Bolton will throw his hat in the ring. And there are some whispers that Jeb Bush is waiting for the right set of circumstances (Yes, the Bush family is not quite finished).

Eric Cartman| 10.4.10 @ 9:51AM

Um, sorry JP, but the Bush family IS quite finished. No mas, no mas.

Nunya| 10.4.10 @ 12:30PM

I agree completely EC. I will never vote for another Bush, EVER. They are a disgrace to the concept of Conservative government and the founding documents.

TomB| 10.6.10 @ 7:45PM

When Jeb's son, John Ellis "Jebby" Bush marries Chelsea Clinton they will produce an heir who will seal the breach and found a dynasty to last a thousand years.

There is the small matter of Marc Mezvinsky, but fate is unfolding. It is the legend. There is no stopping it.

gearjammer| 10.4.10 @ 10:27AM

Does endorsing McCain over an electable republican put one on your list?

Ned| 10.4.10 @ 1:48PM

Newt might well do a bang-up job, but he's been vilified enough from the left that he's virtually un-electable. McCain never was a conservative, and only barely a Republican... Romney is a semi-maybe, Huckabee is a good TV host...

Siegfried X| 10.4.10 @ 7:29PM

Newt is a conservative on Mondays and Wednesdays. But he's been erratic during his entire career so on Friday he's likely to be filming global warming commercials with Nancy Pelosi, then campaigning for RINOs and against conservatives on Saturday.

megapotamus| 10.4.10 @ 2:53PM

Romney is Radioactive! Romney is Radioactive! Romney is Radioactive! Romney is Radioactive! Yes, he has made some pro forma gestures to refudiating Romneycare but far, far from the Full Monty of denouncing the socialist impulse that underpins it. So until and unless that happens Romney is Radioactive! Romney is Radioactive! Romney is Radioactive! No Romney, no how. No way. No Romney. No.

Doctor Right| 10.4.10 @ 8:09AM

Once we throw the Communists out of Washington, there is only ONE way to stop the rot and corruption and completely change how our Government functions:

TERM LIMITS.

NOW.

Throw the ALL out. ALL OF THEM.

2 Terms for a Senator; 6 Terms for a Congressmen. That gives each 12 years TOTAL. After that, it's time to return to the real world.

The necessity to return to the real world would be one major factor in preventing them from 'effing it up more than they already do. They'd be forced to live by the rules they impose upon us.

It's time to end the idea of politics as a a career choice. It was NEVER intended to be one, anyway. Able-bodied men and women were supposed to put down their plows, legal books, stethoscopes, calculators, etc, when their country needed them in DC on urgent business. They WEREN'T supposed to create a new Brahmin-class of professional politicians who enriched themselves at our expense while they amassed more control over our live with each and every session.

Under "Dr. Right's Rules", anyone currently in Congress or the Senate who's served more than 12 years MUST retire at the next election cycle. NO EXCEPTIONS.

This would virtually ensure that those who look to politics as a means to gain personal power would avoid it like the plague.

It would purge BOTH parties of the deadwood, rubber-stamping losers as well as the egomaniacs.

Some argue that under such a system, very little would be accomplished without the veteran legislators and their understanding of "the system".

To that, I say "GREAT!". Let the constant barrage of new and needless legislation come to a screeching halt!! Maybe then we can get our freedom back.

Term Limits would be akin to a 2nd American Revolution. Ask yourself:

Did King George III EVER threaten our liberties in the way that the professional ruling class elites in D.C. currently do?

Siegfried X| 10.4.10 @ 8:24AM

I agree but the problem is that politicians will never limit their own terms. It is political suicide.

The term limit movement came and went in the mid-1990's. Every state which allowed CITIZENS to pass term limits did so. But the federal government and other governments which don't have citizen-sponsored legislation did NOT pass term limits.

The Contract With America gave us a VOTE on term limits but the amendment failed. Boehner didn't even mention term limits in the Pledge To America.

2Anglico| 10.4.10 @ 9:26AM

Term limits are every 2 years for the house, every 6 years for the Senate. If the people want them out, they'll be out.
The kind of term limits you are calling for would require an Amendment to the Constitution, good luck with that!

Siegfried X| 10.4.10 @ 9:37AM

Elections are not term limits, and they can't replace them. Incumbents have too much power. Even if I overcome all the hurdles and manage to defeat my incumbents, all the others are still in power.

Tom| 10.4.10 @ 11:26AM

Incumbents have too much power because government has too much reach. Term limits will not limit the reach of government.

Beyond any debate on whether term limits are a good thing is the question on whether they would be constitutional on the federal level. Where in the constitution does it give the federal government the power to limit a citizen's right to run for office simply because he or she in an incumbent? The way out of the mess brough about by disregarding the Constitution is not by disregarding some more.

Siegfried X| 10.4.10 @ 11:37AM

Federal term limits would require a constitutional amendment. Everyone including the Supreme Court admits that.

Which is why I am saying that they won't happen. It would take a massive, focused multi-decade battle like the passage of the 17th amendment.

Dedicated_Dad| 10.11.10 @ 2:04AM

Passage of the 17th did more to bring us to where we are than most any other single "milestone" in the history of our Republic. It was the end of the 10th Amendment - and those pushing it must have known.
I can't help wondering what ever possessed the states to go along with this in the first place.

*ANY* plan to restore our Republic *MUST* include repeal of the 17th as an early goal - without this - without restoring CONgress to its people/states balance (with the Executive being the ONLY representation of the fed.gov - as designed) we'll never get the fed.gov back within its due Article 1/Section 8 bounds.

Of course, I'm of the opinion that if you believe any of this can be done through the ballot box you're a mcnugget shy of a happy-meal anyway.

God help us - and God Save Our Republic!

Nunya| 10.4.10 @ 12:33PM

I agree completely. What is needed is an amendment to the Constitution to accomplish this, so it needs to start at the state level.

Tom| 10.4.10 @ 12:41PM

Several questions: Are you thinking that the states would call for a Constitutional Convention in order to enact term limits?

And if so why would politicians at the state level do this?

And if not how are you ever going to get Congress to pass an ammendment with a 2/3rd majority?

DWS| 10.4.10 @ 8:16AM

Maybe I'm missing something--and certainly I'm not defending the Republican establishment--but if one looks closely at the "letter" from the RNC chairman will notice it was posted by somone calling himself "Booger". This does not appear to be an official "communique". Besides, even if the RNC leadership believed what the letter says, they would never put it that way. So the respondents to this article who directed their response to this letter seem to have fallen victims to a clever satire.

megapotamus| 10.4.10 @ 2:56PM

Of course you are correct and it is somewhat embarrassing that so many of our friends here could not recognize Boogers epistle for what it is. What? Are you people mentally challenged? Try reading once in a while, it ain't that tough.

Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 10.4.10 @ 3:03PM

Or those responding to the "letter" were piling more sarcasm on top of Booger's satirical "letter" for fun & effect. Who here really believes Michael Steele would have the stones to post a "letter" here like Booger's critiquing those conservatives who refuse to follow the GOP establishment's narrative? Anyone?

Boogers| 10.4.10 @ 3:25PM

I'm Michael Steele and you're not, so deal with it! Now where's my Busta Rhymes CD?

Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 10.4.10 @ 3:55PM

"I'm Michael Steele and you're not, so deal with it!"
Ha-ha, better you than me brother. Your cd is in the mail.

TR| 10.4.10 @ 11:24PM

Almost every morning I look forward to the latest Booger satire letter. It is always entertaining. Today the reaction from soooo many posters thinking it was a real letter was even more entertaining!

What is not entertaining is that the satire hit so close to home that so many THOUGHT it was real. Speaks volumns about the failures of the Republican party, doesn't it?

R Martin| 10.4.10 @ 8:27AM

Will all those voters, so thick and unperceptive in 2008 as to miss how Obama's associations with Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright might predict his true political philosophy, suddenly see the precipice and vote to turn away from it? I hope so, but I fear too many actually want to go over the edge.

Siegfried X| 10.4.10 @ 8:39AM

I don't think Obama fooled a lot of people, but they saw him as being the lesser of two evils.

I don't think that the Republican party can win big until we admit that Bush II was a horrible president, and promise that we won't ever govern like that again.

Bush, among other things: (1) betrayed every conservative principle which Reagan and the 1995 Republican congress believed in; (2) refused to communicate, allowing the Democrats to control the message; (3) was a terrible manager ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job").

wodiej| 10.4.10 @ 8:46AM

Bush was the most progressive president the Republicans ever elected. Republicans have went as far as saying they screwed up but that is it. Maybe that is enough.

Avogadra| 10.4.10 @ 9:26AM

Excellent points, Siegfried X. Very few people have commented on Bush's refusal to communicate. The Democrats took control of the message, were allowed to lie about what they were up to, and now we have Obama-Reid-Pelosi issuing orders to us from on high.

Nunya| 10.4.10 @ 12:49PM

Avo, I had this same discussion of my brother some time ago, who happened to be a fan of W. I commented that it was a complete lack of leadership on W's part that he didn't communicate what he was doing, where he was trying to lead us, etc.

Nunya | 10.4.10 @ 12:34PM

Frankly, I think Obozo was the lesser of two weevils.

;-)

Mark Shepler- Jupiter FL| 10.4.10 @ 1:00PM

Did that way back in the early '00's. By the middle of W's first term I was already fed up with the the Ag bill, the Ed bill authored by Ted Kennedy, Bush's refusal to veto any crazy thing coming off the Hill and Ed Gillespie's declaration that those programs were basically untouchable. On Rush's show I decried his cynical expediency as the equivalent of a Rep "Brezhnev Doctrine" which reinforced the liberal paradigm, surrendered the initiative to them and would prove a recipie to future irrelevancy and defeat. Only reason I voted for Bush in '04 was because he was right on defending America, which I still believe, and the alternative was so much worse. Ditto for voting for McCain. As I told my cigar hangout buds, ala Victor Davis Hanson on war, the choices are rarely between good and better but between bad and worse. So I held my nose and did my best with the choices on offer, as did millions of us conservatives.

Now, in a cosmic kind of way I'm not so sure it would've been better with McCain. Sure, he'd be better on certain issues, like defense, but just as bad on others of great importance, say immigration. I think he'd be better on spending but by how much? And we'd have four more years of the same old establishment good cop, bad cop routine why the Ruling Class agenda marched on. The advent of the Axis of Liberalism (Pelosi-Reid-Obama) has gotten America's attention (see my full post below) in a way I cannot ever recall seeing before. Even Jimmy Carter's screw-ups didn't cause America to recognize the threat from the Left that Obama does precisely because Carter was a bumbling fool whose errors were just that whereas Obama's attacks on America are premeditated and deliberate. We are witnessing something new, a Great Political Awakening unlike anything we've seen before, I think.

But that is why this season is so exciting. There seems to truly be a new set of choices bursting through. And they are pointing out the error of the Rep's ways even if the Rep establishment is not. I think we must , and will, seize the Rep party the ground up or there will be a new viable, third party.

Ned| 10.4.10 @ 2:03PM

completely agree - I've spent my life voting *against* candidates, as opposed to *for* their opponents - despite all of George's manifold issues (declining to veto *anything* is right up there) he got my vote... however, over the past eight to ten years the behavior of the Demon-crat party as a whole and their failure to censure or even 'tsk-tsk' the most glaringly false and dishonest behavior of their members has given me a new directive... and it's simple... I will NEVER, for the remainder of my life vote for another Democrat candidate for ANYTHING... as I said, not because Repubs are so great, but because Dims have proven themselves to be utterly vile and capable of any grotesquery...

megapotamus| 10.4.10 @ 3:00PM

Word. Much of the legitimate anti-W-ism (which was the smaller part) was based on deficit spending. Hilarious! But only because curing deficits with Democrats is like curing lung cancer with cigarettes. Effective, yes, but not beneficial at all.

Siegfried X| 10.4.10 @ 3:45PM

"I've spent my life voting *against* candidates,"

I only vote for conservatives. If Republicans nominate a RINO, then I vote third party conservative. If every conservative voted that way the Republican establishment would clean up their act very quickly.

art| 10.9.10 @ 7:17AM

And did that help in 92, 96, and 08?
Thanks for clitoon twice and obama.

wodiej| 10.4.10 @ 8:44AM

I agree that term limits would make a huge difference. Even if the majority of voters in a particular race do not support a candidate, they can still get back in if they cheat and many do.

We have too many politicians who cover for each other and the corruption and irresponsibility goes on with no accountability. I believe there are enough good people to run for office if we can make it clear that principles will be upheld and make being in Congress a job worth having.

Tim*| 10.4.10 @ 8:45AM

Our Tea Party Candidates are in place for The Midterm Elections .

30 days to November 2nd .

The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates .

Rise Up !

dukas| 10.4.10 @ 9:04AM

Cocaine round the brain.

Ken (Old Texican)| 10.4.10 @ 9:12AM

I have posted many times:

If the Democrats maintain control after November 3rd, for WHATEVER methods or reasons, it will be proof that our ballots are worthless.

What comes after that is anyone's guess.

pat.duran| 10.4.10 @ 9:44PM

You got that right.

davelnaf| 10.4.10 @ 9:27AM

The dems have pushed their agenda about as far and as hard as they could, short of sending armed thugs into the street. And we could see this in the not distant future if this little coup of theirs is not stopped.

They have been throwing away our money for too long. If we do not throw these people out they will start throwing away our lives along with the money. And, given their record, it's a safe bet they would hardly know the difference.

olainfree| 10.4.10 @ 9:46AM

I say that ObaMao would be happier to have a Latin American-style command-control a la Chavez or even African's Mugabe than he wishes to emulate European socialism.

He is d*mn dangerous. The fact that he has used executive agencies to enforce what he cannot achieve through his idiots in Congress reveals much about him. ObaMao himself lamented that the legislative process is "too slow" to bring about the fundamental change that he seeks.

The task ahead of a re-energized Constitution-abiding Congress is to unravel the knot of strangling federal government.

OG| 10.4.10 @ 10:58AM

>...and remake America as a multicultural, secular humanist state.

Obama fails to realize that America was already a secular humanist state. He didn't recognize it because it's not a Leftist secular humanist state.

Christian? Jewish? Muslim? Hindu? Nobody cares. We all already work, live, study, and socialize together all the time. The stereotype that conservatives are racists is flatly wrong: conservatives care about whether you as an individual are a decent human being. If you are, we like you, if you're not, we don't, and we don't care what your religion or race is either way. It's the content of your character that counts.

It is liberals who assign people to groups based on religion or ethnicity, and then treat individuals as members of that aggrieved group rather than as individual human beings.

One's spirituality is a matter for oneself and one's family; it's irrelevant in our daily interactions with each other, except to the extent that our religion makes us better human beings.

Government has no role here. There is nothing for it to do or enforce. Fair treatment in matters of law apply to all individuals regardless of race or nationality or religion, and that's as far as it should go. Gay, straight, atheist, deist, New Age moonlight prancing reincarnated flower goddess, nobody cares, and the government needs to stop pretending that it does.

Mark Shepler- Jupiter FL| 10.4.10 @ 11:45AM

...I think something much, much greater is underway than anyone realizes. It's independent of the two parties, though being channeled through a more kindred Rep party and has a force all of its own. A couple of weeks ago my wife of 24 years who I've known for 32 forwarded me a political chain email. It was her first such proselytizing in our lives together. The email was the kind that non-political types send exclaiming red-hot outrage and a veneer of factual depth over some issue they've only just become aware of but that types like us have followed for the 10 or 20 years or half-century of its evolution. Their Paul Revere-like alarm, God bless 'em, is more of a confession of their former ignorance and obliviousness. Don't get me wrong, my wife is a wonderful, kind and devoted mother of our six children but formerly so apolitical I gave up trying to engage her in it 30 years ago. You know, a regular, normal American. But what I found extremely interesting and telling was she had annotated it with commentary, some of it pretty astute. And I said to myself, "If Washington has roused the likes of her maybe the counter-revolution truly IS at hand".

There are millions and millions like her. We partisans call them the "middle", the media labels them "independents". We here and our counterparts on leftist sites, we political animals, are the odd-balls and exceptions. I started watching the news every day in 1967 at six years old and remember when Bobby Kennedy and MLK were assassinated. I remember the Tet Offensive and the battle of Hue and other world changing events because I was watching the news those days. We are always attuned, engaged and outraged about something going on in DC. But the middle only wakes up to politics every fourth Sept. or so, sometimes in off years if something rouses them, votes for whoever sounds right on the surface issues of the day, which is to say the economy and war and peace, and then promptly goes back to their pursuits or sleep.

It is the middle, those vaunted "independents" who gives us RINOS, Blue Dogs and other fairy-tale creatures and who gave us the messiah. I have in the past scorned the media's fawning attentions of them because in my experience they are not engaged, informed and rational voters choosing the candidate over party "on the issues" as claimed but quite literally the opposite. They are typically political ignoramuses who vote precisely for the man or woman who says what they want to hear irrespective of what that candidate has done in the past, his party and its foundational principles, its track record or history, the people he's associated with or any other of the equivalent markers we all use every day in our regular lives when judging to whom we will entrust our money, property, safety or confidence. These are the people who complain about taxes or instrusive government on Monday, vote for Democrats and liberal Reps on a Tuesday and sum up with a hope they've sent the right person to fix the problem. These are the folks who actually bought the Dem line in '06 that Bush ran up the deficits and Dems are the party of fiscal sanity because they didn't even know that only Congress can propose a spending bill in general and only the house a revenue bill in particular and that by law the Pres must spend whatever is appropriated. In short, they don't know that all spending and taxing originates and is controlled by Congress and, at most, the Pres. can only direct and cajole his party in that branch. They don't know any political or party history beyond the last few years or why it matters. They don't know that a candidates' conservative talk is meaningless once he's arrived in DC where he must hew the party line and so that it matters more what his party advocates in general. The very fact they swung so heavily for Obama, who we all here (and those on leftist sites as well) knew was a liar and charlatan of the first order running a long con, and are now so p.o.'d for having been duped is an admission of sorts. For the last 30 years the vaunted middle has played Charlie Brown to DC's Lucys. But there is a difference this go 'round.

They ARE center-right politically. They do live their personal lives conservatively, as do most liberals I've ever met, and what we see before us now, I think, is something new and of a much higher order of magnitude. Not even the Ross Perot phenomonem compares. This great, right of center middle is finally awake and engaged. I believe they have finally comprehended what we have been crying from the wilderness for decades- that outsized, overreaching government itself is the threat to liberty and economic stability. That size and reach really do matter and we are almost at the suffocation point under Leviathan if not already there. That this may be the last chance to turn back. Most importantly of all, I further believe they now see clearly who is who in our national drama and are readying themselves to make a great sorting out of the cast of characters. I believe they finally see that the competing world views, although generally embodied in the parties but not strictly so, are not coequal and that it has not been an argument over simple practicalities of how best to achieve commonly desired ends as they casually believed. They see now it's two diametrically opposed worldviews in which one side believes that when they win an election they have the right to confiscate the other's liberties, property and wealth, with the willing aid of our Quislings, whereas the other's point of view, our point of view, has been a consistent fending off of the attacks. As William F Buckley once said (I paraphrase) in debate about those who equivocated between the US and Soviets, "One side is attempting to rescue a woman out from in front of an oncoming bus where the other side pushed her. They are both involved with the women but it is not the same proposition." They may not get the finer points we like to debate but they do see the problem now and that is the departure from the past. There is a Great Purge coming in Nov. and it will be mostly of those who side with government against the people...

Texas Mom 2010| 10.4.10 @ 12:53PM

Your post gives me hope that I can get my husband of 24 years to actually vote! He just says that politicians are all crooks... On a brighter note my 19 year old son is heavily engaged in paying attention to our government and will get to vote this year, so one more for our side!

megapotamus| 10.4.10 @ 3:05PM

Mark, your post is the most hearteing thing I have seen this month or two. These are exciting times, no?

Mark Shepler- Jupiter FL| 10.4.10 @ 4:53PM

Hello, I actually wrote that on 9/15 in response to the Rove-O'Donnell brouhaha but it is germane here as well.

These ARE exciting times and I truly hope it's the awakening we've been waiting for and a real change in direction back to our founding principles.

Let no one deceive themselves though. Getting back is going to be a very uncertain, close run thing and will take a decade or three. I give it about a 50-50 shot. We've got a couple of generations of folks who think they're entitled to other's wealth and property by dint of having been born. Wresting control away from and re-yoking the demagogues who cater to that mob to the Constitution is no sure bet.

Damocles| 10.4.10 @ 11:47AM

We the people - have to reverse thinking a bit. The upcoming midterm is just a battle in a war that will continue for many years. The critical battles, as they were this year, and as they will be two years from now - are in the primaries. 2010 was an excellent primary season for the revolution. We've bloodied the RNC, but unless we stomp them two death in the next two primary seasons, it will eventually return to business as usual. Dedicate yourselves to joining the revolution. We seek the destruction of todays co-opted RNC leadership. Being little more than covert DNC operatives, they need to be exposed and driven to the DNC where they naturally belong. Get involved with your local precinct. Become an RNC precinct captain. Carry the message to your friends and neighbors in your community. (www.precinctproject.com) You are fighting for your very lives whether you yet realize it or not. You are fighting for the lives of your children and your grandchildren. There is no way to overstate the threat to our nation.

You will know America is a healthy place again, when she is once again doing to communists what she has historically always done: find them, arrest them, and execute them - while confronting their sick ideology every where she encounters it. Yes, certainly this applies to our government at all levels, but that isn't all. We need to clean out the education system too. And we need to clean out the media as well. Give these miserable vermin no place to run or hide on our shores. Let them agitate in the European ghetto's they crawled out of, if at all.

Good day ladies and gentlemen.

joli| 10.4.10 @ 6:56PM

Execute them? Shoot! (No pun intended) I was really looking forward to the next Sean Penn movie! ('scuse me while I go barf.)

Mimi| 10.5.10 @ 9:02PM

Damocles...Great post! Your insight is right on. I only hope it doesn't take that long. When we get on the right track... the train of LIBERTY will zip along. We have a great struggle before us...reading TAS gives me great HOPE. There are a lot of true Patriots, and some hilarious posters...(Booger, Curly , Gypsy, on &on;) We'll make it!!!

James| 10.4.10 @ 1:23PM

http://www.stockrocker.blogspot.com

Someone mentioned something very seriously factual in a post above. It stated that we as Americans are tired of working incredibly hard only to see thousands around us sit back and do nothing but soak up free benefits off the government. That is not how we are supposed to make it through life. There are some words in the Bible which state something to the effect "if we don't work, we don't eat". I'd be strongly in favor of reviving the draft. Military service could do good for many who choose not to work but to soak up resources for free.

Ned| 10.4.10 @ 2:20PM

Sorry, James, but to say you'd like to revive the draft you must be oblivious to the total disaster that was the military from the late 60's until the advent of the all-volunteer force... forcing some low-life to take responsibility for themselves at the cost of destroying the only military force actually working for good in the world would be a poor trade...

megapotamus| 10.4.10 @ 3:08PM

Agreed, the draft is the most odious and onerous of the state's impositions. It has no place, one would hope, in our current situation.

jrjr| 10.4.10 @ 4:09PM

There is another tipping point not yet reached but we are destined for it in some manner -- racism. I realize that some of us would go to extremes because of the real black Prez but he keeps bringing it up along with his pals in the media. Soon that will become a routine headline that we will have to deal with.

Sam Vaughn| 10.4.10 @ 4:30PM

Tipping point - no doubt, when historians write that revolutions are made by the people that is completely accurate. Something happens in people's hearts and then in their stomachs, down there where they have had to much. Then up they rise. It's seems to me that's unstoppable, because people do not give up.....we've had the revolution, then the civil war and skirmishes along the way. What scares some about the Tea Party is they see ordinary men and women who want the right to own and run their own country. It's as simple as that. When ordinary men and women overcome their own it is no small matter.

Otherwise, it's the vtwins of the world that eventually show up at your door, with no mercy and a pistol and decide your fate for you. We should all be voting as if our lives depend.

eagles4ever| 10.4.10 @ 4:40PM

So the revolution is coming.

As Tim* likes to say, he can see it from his house.

But what does the revolution mean?

Read this piece a few days ago from someone whose main gig is providing investment insight.

It struck me as quite interesting. For your perusal and comment.

http://www.marketwatch.com/sto.....genumber=2

Sept. 28, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EDT
America on the brink of a Second Revolution
Commentary: 2010 elections guarantee gridlock, anti-capitalist class war
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- “What’s distinctive about the Tea Party is its anarchist streak -- its antagonism toward any authority, its belligerent self-expression, and its lack of any coherent program or alternative to the policies it condemns,” warns Jacob Weisberg in Newsweek. But why not three cheers for the Tea Party Express?
Admit it, something historic is brewing. And yes, it’s good for America, even the anarchy. Revolution is renewal. Tea-baggers want to take on both parties, “restore honor” and “take back the country.” Bring it on, the feeling’s mutual.
Obama: GOP pledge a disastrous plan
President Barack Obama used his weekly radio address Saturday to accuse Republicans of overlooking the middle class by creating policies that would benefit only the rich while making a pledge of his own to continue supporting the national economy.
OK, maybe most Americans just silently mimic the words, “we’re mad as hell, won’t take it any more.” But watch out: After November the campaign’s shrill rhetoric explodes into action.
Tea-baggers are kicking the revolution into high gear. Debt is sinking America. Both parties are to blame. So vote out incumbents. Spare no one. We need new leadership, another Reagan or Truman. Congress better get the message: Cut that budget, or they’ll dump the rest of you in the coming Great Purge of 2012.
Unfortunately they’re tone deaf. Congress cannot see past the election. All that changes in November.
So thanks Tea Party, Vegas odds must favor a Second American Revolution. Actually, the revolution is already roaring, hot, it’s about time. The GOP and the Dems had more than a decade. But America’s worse off. We need a real revolution to restore sanity … or we can kiss democracy and capitalism good-bye, permanently.
Warning: Another revolution will cost investors 20% more losses
Yes, big warning, the Second American Revolution will extract painful austerity, not the “happy days are here again” future touted by tea-baggers. For years it’ll be impossible for most of America’s 95 million investors to develop a successful investment or logical retirement strategy.
Why? Political chaos will translate into extreme volatility and a highly unpredictable stock market. Result: Wall Street will lose another 20% of the value of your retirement portfolio in the next decade, just as Wall Street did the last decade. So if you think you’re “mad as hell” now, “you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!”
Here’s the timeline:
Stage 1: The Dems just put the nail in their coffin by confirming they are wimps, refusing to force the GOP to filibuster the Bush tax cuts for America’s richest.
Stage 2: The GOP takes over the House, expanding its war to destroy Obama with its new policy of “complete gridlock,” even “shutting down government.”
Stage 3: Obama goes lame-duck.
Stage 4: The GOP wins back the White House and Senate in 2012. Health care returns to insurers. Free market financial deregulation returns.
Stage 5: Under the new president, Wall Street’s insatiable greed triggers the catastrophic third meltdown of the 21st century Shiller predicted, with defaults on dollar-denominated debt.
Stage 6: The Second American Revolution explodes into a brutal full-scale class war rebelling against the out-of-touch, out-of-control greedy conspiracy-of-the-rich now running America.
Stage 7: Domestic class warfare is compounded by Pentagon’s prediction that by 2020 “an ancient pattern of desperate, all-out wars over food, water, and energy supplies would emerge” worldwide and “warfare is defining human life.”
What’s behind our 2010-2020 countdown? It became obvious after reading the brilliant but bleak “Decadence of Election 2010” report by Prof. Peter Morici, former chief economist at the International Trade Commission. He sees no hope from America’s political parties, just a dark scenario ahead.
Here are the 10 points we see in his message:
1. Expect nothing positive from Dems, the GOP or Tea Party
Yes, we’re all “justifiably ticked off.” But “Democrats, Republicans, and yes the Tea Party offer little that is encouraging.” Earlier Morici warned: “Democratic capitalism is in eclipse. … Politicians have deceived voters,” and are “suffering from delusions of grandeur, self deception and good old-fashioned abuse.”
2. Democracy has become too-big-to-govern … by anyone
“The current economic quagmire is a bipartisan creation.” Bush failures led to a “Great Recession … reckless Wall Street pay and fraud, a breakdown in sound lending standards by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac … Countrywide, and a huge trade deficit with China and on oil” leaving “Beijing and Middle East royals with trillions of U.S. dollars that they invested foolishly” in bonds “financing the housing and commercial real estate bubbles.”
3. Clinton, Bush, Obama policies all feeding revolutionary flames
Even before Bush, “all was set in motion by bank deregulation engineered by Clinton … Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers … Clinton’s deal to admit China into the World Trade Organization” handed “China free access to U.S. markets” while blocking exports. Earlier Dems blocked “domestic oil and gas development” and froze “auto mileage standards.” Obama “finally imposed higher mileage requirements,” but after pushing offshore drilling, he “punished the entire petroleum industry” for the BP disaster.
4. Bush’s biggest mistake: Goldman CEO Hank Paulson
Morici admits: If Bush is “culpable for anything, it was to not see the gathering storm on Wall Street.” Worse, his Treasury picks were disasters: [John] Snow was clueless, Paulson devious. He conned a clueless Congress into bailout trillions, “believing banks could borrow at 3% and lend at 5 and pay MBAs three years out of school five-million-dollar bonuses to create mortgage backed securities.” Greed drove the Bush Treasury.
5. All partisan political leaders are destined to sabotage America
One thing is clear to Morici: Not only were America’s leaders a “bunch of second-rate incompetents” on both the Clinton and Bush teams, “Obama’s ratcheting up government spending and taxes won’t fix what’s broke, and neither will the GOP prescription of tax cuts and deregulation.” Get it? Democracy is in a classic double-bind, no-win scenario.
6. America’s democratic capitalism trapped in systemic failure
Morici simply dismisses “Obama’s two signature initiatives -- health-care reform and financial services reregulation.” They “simply don’t work.” Why? Politicians “failed to address the root problem, Americans pay 50% more for doctors, hospitals and drugs, than subscribers to national health plans in Germany, France and other decadent socialist European countries.” Yet, insurers hate reform, will self-destruct America first.
7. Wall Street’s insatiable greed is a virus that never sleeps
Wall Street banks are “back to their old tricks,” warns Morici, “hustling municipal governments into the kind of quick-fix budget schemes, like selling parking meters and airport fees.” Why? Wall Street’s “hustling shoddy corporate bonds that lack adequate collateral and may never be repaid” to justify their absurd mega-bonuses. And they’ll keep doing it till the revolution creates a new non-capitalist banking system.
8. New political leaders offer no hope -- Wall Street rules America
GOP’s next leaders will fail: “Cutting taxes and mindless deregulation are not the answer.” We need the revenue. They have no real plan to trim “$1 trillion from federal spending … few believe deregulation will fix health care or Wall Street.” The GOP has no “effective government solutions to health care, Wall Street, fixing trade with China, and dependence on foreign oil.” And the Tea Party “only offers a purer form of failed Republicanism. Tax and spend less, and turn the country over to the robber barons.”
9. Praying for a messiah, we’re sleepwalking till the revolution
Morici’s solution: America “needs a prophet, another Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan.” But we’ll never get one, until a catastrophe hits. Wall Street’s so greedy, so corrupt, so untouchable, so much in control, they will bankroll and control all future “prophets.”
10. The Second American Revolution coming
Yes, extreme austerity: “Americans must accept fewer government-paid benefits -- for the rich, the poor and those in between -- and must acknowledge the market works best most of the time, but it is not working in health care, banking, China, and oil.” Huh? Sounds like classic economist’s double-speak: “The market works most of the time” … except the market doesn’t work at all in the four biggest economic sectors? Fuzzy thinking?
Morici warns, we need “new approaches to regulating, yes regulating, what the medical industry charges, bankers pay themselves, what Americans tolerate and buy” and “guiding big oil and car companies to sustainable solutions.”
Holy cow, he suddenly sounds more like a liberal politician than conservative economist. Yes, he’s reflecting the total chaos coming on the short road to the Second American Revolution.
In the end, however, you have to admit the good professor does make a lot of sense: “Sounds radical but running the world has never been a choice between statism and anarchy,” says Morici.
Choice? Unfortunately, he offers a false choice: Running America effectively means accepting “that the private sector is not the enemy and government is not evil, but neither can serve the other, and us, if value is not seen in each.”
Laudable, but impossible because once the GOP Tea Party of No-No is back in power, compromising is not on their agenda, “gridlock” is. So anarchy is the only choice -- they will never, never work with Democrats … until forced by the Second America Revolution when the middle class finally rises up and overthrows the greedy wealth conspiracy of Wall Street, Washington, CEOs and the Forbes 400.
Till then, anarchy rules as the conspiracy keeps looting Treasury, stealing from taxpayers, conning us all.
Comments (339) Community Commons
bobbobwhite 10 days ago
Once a powerful nation's power is suspect, it is only a matter of time until that suspicion is turned into a reality and that nation is no longer powerful. It is an undeniable and inarguable fact of nature, power lasts for a limited time in all living things, then it must give way to the next holders of power. Civilizations and people and animals are all ruled by the very same life laws that have always ruled, and they will never alter to suit anyone or anything.

J.C.Eaton| 10.4.10 @ 5:48PM

No offense, but if somebody thinks that putting that incoherent mess on this site does anyone a service, they are monumentally mistake. If that was[as it seems to this reader] a recent Paul Farrell column, Paul is his customary egomaniacal, self-absorbed, hooray-for-me tool. The guy insultingly conflates an obscenity with the tea-party, oblivious either to his own ignorance or his holier than thou ego. The people fed up with the depredations of the incumbent Party and the witlessness of the Republican Party are not looking for anarchy. We are looking for a return to competent, reasonable, fairly honest government before this fairest of all lands goes into the shitter. The Tea-Party is an equal opportunity vacuum cleaner, not as this idiot opines: a Tea Party of no-nos. Talk about anarchy, this lesion's typewriter just coshed him on the melon and took over!

howard roark| 10.4.10 @ 6:45PM

And just what, exactly, is wrong with anarchy? Is that not, truly, the logical conclusion of a drive to reduce government? Total success when government is reduced to nothing. If you want small government, then this is the ultimate. Perhaps we need to destroy the whole existing apparatus before there is any hope of reclaiming our freedom. Trying to simply reform what exists is a pipe dream. The entire system is corrupt. Making a corrupt system smaller won't make it less corrupt, it will just mean it is corrupted by fewer (and inevitably the strongest remaining) interests.

To say you want smaller government is pure hypocrisy -- what is to be done? Just the things you think should be done (likely things that work for you). Ahhh... if only we could all be dictator of the world for a day!

Rely only on yourself. As I said:

"[T]he degree of a man's independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value...There is no substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity except independence." Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

PolishKnight| 10.5.10 @ 11:53AM

Another way of putting the 'tipping point' is the ratchet effect: Liberalism and big government moves inevitably forward. At best, conservatives can only slow the panzers down.

So even though the author of this article meant the best, this is what we've been hearing for years: To vote because if you don't, the Dems will "transform" America beyond recognition. But they can't promise actually REVERSING anything.

As long as that's the model, who doesn't want to be a liberal and believe that they will ultimately win? Isn't that alluring?

I find it important to deflate liberals by observing the following things:

Their agenda to remake America into Sweden won't work since they'll only get... Detroit at best. In the meantime, even Sweden is looking less like Sweden.

In addition, the average leftists' notion of self-esteem is about being superior to the average right winger. Without right wingers to bash, they're just a bunch of serfs begging for benefits under a very big tent.

Realist| 12.19.10 @ 9:49AM

I have read a full page of rambling, all within the rule of law. I fully hope it is possible to pull off the change that will make this nation what it once was with "normal" actions, but seriously doubt it. This article, with the great tongue-in-cheek revue by Booger is labeled Tipping Point. We have yet to reach that point but are still on the edge of the cliff, waiting. The newly elected mid-term Republicans are on probation as of the first of the year, and will be ejected promptly if they don't do as promised. The Tea Party is growing incleasingly tired of the game playing and won't tolerate it much longer. We forget that for each one of the two million that marched on Washington in 2009 there were perhaps 10 that were cheering them on, but had to go to work and couldn't make it. Those people did not go away, but are watching, and waiting to see if their peaceful jesture had any impact. Do not fool yourself into believing they have melted back into the national landscape.
These are serious times and have been marked by the greatest rush in weapon and ammunition sales in modern history. I pray we can pull ourselves out of this mess by peaceful means, but right now the buzz words are" Bullets, beans, and precious metal" the most precious of which is lead.
III