The Obama Doctrine of Change (Self-Loathing) and the Price of Weakness (My Head)
The first 94 days of the Obama administration has been, in my opinion, a mixed bag. I applaud our precocious President for a couple positions he has taken with regard to upgrading the public transportation system as well as doing more to bolster higher education. Moreover, I am pleased with his emphasis on taking care of returning veterans and increasing their benefits. However, that is basically where the lovefest ends (though I hesitate, I don’t want to end up on DHS’ watch list). I won’t even start on his economic policies. Suffice to say I think that Lenin would have been quite pleased that his NEP has returned (minus the liquidation of the vile Kulaks!). No, what bothers me the most is Obama’s increasingly soft stance on foreign policy and the possible consequences of his growing image of weakness and indecision.
I had always suspected that Obama was going to be a weak leader, but two recent events sealed it for me. First off, the President of France, the irascible Nikolas Sarkozy, opened his big Gallic mouth and quite bluntly called Obama weak and indecisive . Privately, Sarkozy and other European leaders are beginning to rethink their enthusiasm for Change and Hope. How bad must things be if the French are calling us weak? When was the last time that happened? 1979?
Will Generation Y Redefine What it means to be Conservative or Liberal?
In Yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Concordia University Professor and former Republican Congressional candidate, Jim Burkee, had an interesting op-ed discussing role “Generation Y” could play in re-shaping American politics.
In the first few months of his presidency, Obama has continued his full-court press for young voters, breaking protocol by giving Queen Elizabeth a loaded iPod, appearing on television and radio and expanding the White House’s Internet presence.
But the political loyalties of that coveted demographic are not yet decided. While they seem to lean to the left, they’re actually more libertarian than liberal, a fact that will reshape the way we think about liberalism and conservatism in decades to come.
America’s Generation Y (born between 1980 and 1995) is the first to have grown up with the Internet, which leaves it the most liberty-loving generation since the era of Andrew Jackson. Liberty, the root of what meant to the founders’ generation “liberal,” describes freedom from control and interference, particularly by government. And there is no domain so free from government as the Internet.
What does it mean to have been weaned in an environment – the Internet – virtually free of government interference? Millions of Gen-Yers have grown accustomed to making purchases online tax-free. They download movies and music (much of it pirated), read their news online for free (to the detriment of print media), find recipes online and network with friends and relatives online.
In short, they love their freedom.
While I agree with much of what he is saying there, I do have to point out some disagreement with the beginning of his op-ed:
If exit polls and surveys prove accurate, there will be one demographic deeply underrepresented in Wednesday’s conservative “taxpayer tea parties,” to be held at capitols across the country: Americans between the ages of 18 and 29.
While in the eyes of many Americans that might seem like a safe assumption, personally, I don’t think it could be further from the truth.
The fact of the matter is that if it wasn’t for this demographic (and those who come close to falling in it), the tea parties that have been (and will be) held around the country wouldn’t have been as successful.
It was the Internet (the tool that Burkee rightly points out as one that has given our generation a unique footing politically) that has led to these movements becoming what they are today.
Luckily, most of us “Gen-Y” folks haven’t been politically active enough to be completely indoctrinated by one party or another. This means that if anyone is going to be able to call bullshit on those in Washington and in our states, it’s going to be us.
We’re young and we’re not huge donors, so most politicians don’t give us the time of day (unless they want free labor or websites built). This inherent bias and neglect gives us a perspective that many older Americans simply aren’t able to see… at least without our help.
Simply put, we get to see politicians for who they really are, first hand, because so many of them still don’t take us seriously.
While every generation was once young and had similar experiences, with the Internet, we have the advantage of being able to share our frustrations with millions of people in seconds, and quickly organize to yield change.
Yes my friends, change is coming America, and it’s going to come from us, Generation Y. Yes we can.
Let the classical liberal revolution begin
DC Tea Party Looking to be a Huge Success
h/t to Ms. Chandler Ramelli at ANotSoCapitolIdea.com for the info, and for helping put this together.
For those who will be in the DC area tomorrow (April 15) between 11am – 3pm, I strongly urge you to attend the DC Tea Party, which will be staged at Lafayette Square and outside of the United States Treasury (yes, we’re talking belly of the beast here).
Here is a partial list of speakers scheduled to be in attendance:
Princella Smith, American Solutions
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
Tobin Smith, Fox News
Brian Johnson, Americans for Tax Reform
Alan Keyes, Activist
Mike Church, Mike Church Radio Show
Rachel Hoff, College Republicans
Tom Schatz, Citizens against Government Waste
Josh Bolin, Reagan.org
For those of you unfamiliar with Washington, DC, below is a simple GoogleMap that I put together to illustrate the area.
View DC Tea Party in a larger map
While there is ample parking in the area, I warn you, it’s never cheap, unless you get lucky and score a street spot (usually around the monuments).
Instead of risking a $20 parking tab, or ranging parking ticket fee, my suggestion would be to find parking somewhere in Northern Virginia and just take the Metro in.
The event (both Lafayette Square and the Treasury) are located within a few blocks of 5 different metro stations: Farragut North, Farragut West, McPherson Square, Metro Center and Federal Triangle.
If you’re coming from Northern Virginia, both the Orange Line and Blue Line will get you to the event without transferring. If you have to take the Yellow line, you’ll have to transfer at L’Enfant Plaza.
Don’t forget your signs!
Just how popular is TaxDayTeaParty.com?
There have been many on the left who have been diligently trying to discredit the rapidly growing Tea Party Movement as nothing more than a few angry activists.
Well, I guess in terms of web traffic, these few angry activists are more energized than the ever-so-famous Barack Obama army.
What this link shows is the increase in traffic rank, as calculated by Alexa.com.
Of course, any computer geek will quickly rush in and discredit Alexa’s ranking system. However, if you look at some of the other metrics presented here, TaxDayTeaParty.com comes up strong in every category, bringing to question the real power of the post-election Obama machine.
For those of you who don’t follow this stuff regularly and may be confused, let me just walk you through the more important metrics.
While traffic rank is an interesting number to follow, most techies are more concerned with things like pageviews, as shown on the “pageview” tab here.
Now Alexa doesn’t provide you with the exact number pageviews, but instead displays the data as a percentage of overall online activity.
Even so, TaxDayTeaParty.com comes out strong again.
Using another metric, bounce rate, you can easily see how engaging a particular website is. Basically, bounce rate represents nothing more than a percentage of people who come to a certain page on a site and then leave without clicking to other internal links. This metric is important because if a site has content that isn’t relevant or interesting, they’ll leave.
Looking at the two sties, TaxDayTeaParty.com wins another round. Since this metric is based on a percentage of those who exit the site, it’s better to have a lower a number, which TaxDayTeaParty.com does, with a bounce rate of around 35% versus Obama’s 45%.
Yet they’re still trying to discredit this movement?
While I could easily stop there, I might as well finish this out by examining the “Time on Site” numbers.
This metric is self explanatory, it represents the average amount of time visitors spend browsing a particular website. If you’re a web developer, this is an important metric because the time spent on site will often reflect the quality of your sites content, structure, and interactivity.
So looking at the two sites, once again TaxDayTeaParty.com is the victor, with an average time on site of just under 3 minutes, versus Obama’s, which is right around 1 minute and 30 seconds.
While it’s easy to understand why TaxDayTeaParty.com is doing better than the Obama site at present, it’s important to note that in the weeks following the election, everyone was worried about what Obama was going to do with his “massive grassroots army.”
While he may still have a massive email list and a flashy website, in terms of measured attention, it looks like it’s become a model that can be (and is being) replicated by other organizations and movements successfully.
Just for kicks, here is how TaxDayTeaParty.com does against other sites:
TaxDayTeaParty.com vs. MoveOn.org
Winner: TaxDayTeaParty.com
TaxDayTeaParty.com vs. Democrats.org
Winner: TaxDayTeaParty.com
TaxDayTeaParty.com vs. DailyKos.com
Winner: DailyKos.com (for now)
Random: Survival of the Fittest?
I’m sorry, but I have a hard time being compassionate for stupidity.
From CNN.com:
BERLIN, Germany (CNN) — A polar bear attacked a woman at Berlin Zoo Friday afternoon after she climbed a fence and jumped into its habitat during feeding time, police said Saturday.
The bear attacks the woman during feeding time at the zoo.The bear attacks the woman during feeding time at the zoo.
One adult polar bit her several times after she plunged into the moat, police said.
Zoo workers tossed rescue rings toward the woman to hoist her out and distract polar bears swimming nearby, said Goerg Gebhard, a Berlin police officer.
“They saved her life,” Gebhard told CNN.
The woman was severely injured and was being treated at a hospital, police said.
It’s unclear why the woman entered the bear habitat, but police issued her a citation for trespassing.
While I’ve tried hard to figure this woman’s logic out, I can’t really come up with anything.
Regardless, this woman should definitely be nominated for a Darwin, or institutionalized.