Dear Diary,

It has been a most eventful past few days. With the passage of Health Care I have no doubt that the plebes will finally acknowledge what we progressives have always known; that President Obama has already solidified his place as America’s greatest President.

For a moment there I was scared that the right-wing America haters would get there way and use the legislative process to deny us the victory we so rightly deserved. I mean really, how dare they use something as insignificant as votes to block the bill? It should have been done with Deem and Pass. Our health care is more important than the mere niceties of congressional procedure. The-worse-than- Hitler Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for bringing up the Constitution during the “debate” over the bill. The Constitution has no place in the discussion when it comes to progress and, better yet, there shouldn’t even be a debate. The Founding Fathers, though handicapped by their racist white outlooks, also would have seen the need to push health care through no matter the opposition. Somethings are more important than some 18th century scrap of paper.

Why even bother with open hearings or debates at all? The American people are too stupid and feckless to grasp the basic tenant that they need to be forced into health care. They embarrass themselves with all this talk of “what they want” and their pathetic protests and letters to Congress. They should just shut up and let the people that know best, we enlightened few, we band of brothers with Ivy League degrees, handle things. Like children, they know not what they do and must be put in their place. They don’t know what they want and they don’t know what is best for them. People like Speaker Pelosi need not answer to that shabby and dirty rabble.

Thanks to Republican run education systems in places like Texas, I bet they can’t even read much less articulate a real argument. “Privacy!” “States rights!” “Democratic process!” HA! It makes me laugh, it is like a five year old trying to understand Shakespeare and playing at adults with big boy words! Why do they hate America? Don’ they see they need to be forced to get healthcare? It will run down the deficit too (though I am not quite sure how, I am good with numbers but how does spending a trillion dollars lower the deficit? Why not just tax the shit out of fat-cats making over $30,000 a year?).

President Obama should do us all a favor and fence off everything between the Mississippi and California. Those so-called states resemble more of a third-world loony bin than the US. With their guns and superstitions as well as their racist, sexist and homophobic outlooks, those people belong more to a bad western than the modern era. They even like Sarah Palin! Ha! She doesn’t have a real degree (a “BA” from the “University” of Idaho….how droll!) How could they be so stupid!?!

Thank goodness though. Thank goodness our beloved leader, our Great One, our Dear One, had the courage to do whatever it necessary to pass the bill. He is from Chicago and you can tell! They have it right, they know that important things need to be passed and that the law shouldn’t get in the way. Giving dissenting pieces of shit whatever they wanted in pork for their districts was an inspired tactic! Our beloved President’s bold leadership saved the say from the stupid filthy masses!

It is a great day to be an American. I thought I would never see the day when the Democrats would finally get the courage to do whats right and put to bed silly notions of “Constitutionality” that stand in the way of whats best for America. We finally have a leader that will do whatever it takes to transform this nation into a real, modern social democracy! We will no longer have to be ashamed of America and lower our eyes when the French or Germans talk about the glories of cradle-to-grave government protection.

I have to run, first I have to pick up my check from McDonalds, then clean out my room at home (Mom is on me again) and then I have brie and wine with Jenny Williams-Anthony-Cohen and her life partner * Copeckny-Liter-Jones at the independent bookstore. Its poetry night! I hope my “Ode to Our Beloved One” is as well received as “Texas is Full of Stupid Rednecks and Racists.”

-SVD
Berkeley, CA

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—With the Massachusetts Senate seat unexpectedly in play, Democrats are weighing alternative scenarios for passing a health bill without their filibuster-proof majority.

Congressional Democrats and the White House have rapidly stepped up the pace of negotiations on a final bill in the last 48 hours as polls showed a tightening race in Tuesday’s special election.

But Senate leaders need every one of the 60 votes they can call on—including two independents—to pass the bill. A Republican victory in Tuesday’s special Senate election would deprive them of that margin.

It’s also possible that vulnerable Democrats could bolt after a defeat, leaving more votes to make up. Even a narrow victory for Democratic contender Martha Coakley—in one of the nation’s bluest states—could unnerve fellow party members.

Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a member of the Democratic leadership circle in the House, acknowledged Friday the Massachusetts race would “complicate things if we lose.”

While we’ve known for awhile what was at stake with this special election, it’s disgusting to see what “nuclear options” are being proposed and considered by the various Democrat caucuses.

So far, four options have come to light: Move Quickly, Pass the Senate Bill, Use Reconciliation, or simply Give Up.

This obviously poses a challenge for the Democrats.

Should Scott Brown win, they’re going to have to select one of the four options mentioned above if they want to get their health care bill passed. Unfortunately for them, no matter which option they go with (other than waiting it out and hoping for a miracle), the current Democrat majority is going to lose a huge chunk of their base, those who lean more towards identifying themselves as conservative or moderate Democrats.

Not only will the Democrats lose popularity amongst there base, but they’ll also lose a significant amount of political capital, which is essential during an election year.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, they’ve set up a legislative agenda that will fracture them even more should they not maintain a safe number of reliable votes. After all, this Congress still hasn’t been able to come up with a cap and trade policy that is popular with the American electorate.

Luckily for the GOP, if the Democrats aren’t able to hold Ted Kennedy’s seat, and their filibuster-proof majority, I think it’s safe to say that the Dem’s are going to into a tailspin between now and November, essentially writing their own attack ads, paving the way for a Republican victory.

Links:

Politico: Tea Partiers rally: ‘Kill the bill’

Dakota Voice: Code Red Rally Today Against Gov’t Health Care

The Washington Independent: Nervous About Health Care, Tea Parties Look to 2010

Christian News Wire: Concerned Women for America Joins ‘Code Red’ Rally on Capitol Hill

Courthouse News Service: Right Wingers Dress in Red to Protest Bill

CNN Political Ticker: Dean: Time to ‘kill the Senate bill’

CBS News: Conservatives Rally to “Kill the Bill”

CNN Political Ticker: Conservative ‘Code Red rally’ hits the Hill

The Hill: Tea Party supporters, conservative groups rally outside Capitol

Video Coverage:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo Coverage:

Congressman Kingston Speaks at Code Red Rally

Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) looks on as Mr. William Temple of Brunswick, GA is interviewed by a correspondent from National Public Radio in Washington.

Code Red Protest in DC

Code Red Protest in DC

Code Red Protest in DC

Conservatives rallied in Washington Tuesday to show their opposition to Democrats' plans for health care reform. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

(AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

Connecticut resident Tom Hill poses with a homemade sign. The other side featured a health care message for Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). (Photo by David Weigel)

Who was Russell Kirk?

From Wikipedia:

Russell Kirk (October 19, 1918 – April 29, 1994) was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement. It traced the development of conservative thought in the Anglo-American tradition, giving special importance to the ideas of Edmund Burke.

His works include:

• The Conservative mind: From Burke to Eliot
• American Cause
• Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered
• Old house of Fear
• Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales
• Economics: Work and Prosperity
• Roots of American Order
• Eliot and His Age
• The Portable Conservative Reader
• John Randolph of Roanoke

And many others

From the article:

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

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!

From Rob Portman:

Dear Friend,

I am truly humbled by your support for my campaign for the U.S. Senate.  As a close supporter I want you to be one of the first to hear about our campaign’s most recent success.

Today we announced our fundraising total of $3,178,476 for the first quarter 2009. This is an impressive achievement, especially given the tough economy we face here in Ohio and around the country. I am so grateful to you and so many others who are standing with me in this critical campaign.

During the first two months of the campaign we raised more than $1.7 million and transferred approximately $1.4 million from my Congressional campaign account, giving us a campaign war chest that exceeds $3 million.

This means that the Portman for Senate campaign has exceeded the amount Lt. Governor Lee Fisher raised from donors in the first quarter by over 50 percent and we have more than three times the amount of cash on hand. At this time, we cannot be certain what Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has raised but we expect an even greater advantage over her campaign.

Our support came from every region of Ohio, and more than 78 percent of our donors were Ohioans. As impressive as our fundraising efforts have been, I have been even more humbled by the many Ohioans who have stepped forward to volunteer in the effort.

Since we announced this campaign on January 14, we’ve received the endorsements of an overwhelming majority of Republican activists, elected officials and key party leaders.  From every corner of Ohio, thousands of you have come forward to join our campaign for a better future for our great state and country.

As I’ve travelled the state speaking at Lincoln Day Dinners and meeting with the working families and small business owners who are struggling in this economy, it is clear that Ohioans want a better way than the tax, spend and borrow policies of the Democrats in Congress.

We offer a positive alternative that focuses on job creation and economic growth; with your help we’re well on our way to having the resources to share that message in 2010.

Fundraising is an important barometer this early in a campaign. We could never have achieved this initial success without your hard work and the help of thousands of Ohioans. Thank you for all that you’ve done and will do for our campaign.

I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail.

All best,

Rob Portman

Sometimes I forget just how expensive politics has become these days

At present, it looks like the ball is in Portman’s court, however it’s way to early to be confident in retaining that seat.

I am certain that Ohio will be a state where both the unions and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will be (probably already are) planning a full, well-funded, assault against Portman.

While $3mil+ this far out is a good sign for any campaign, he definitely has a long way to go.

]]> http://dcrepublican.com/2009/04/11/rob-portmans-war-chest-tops-3000000/feed/ 0 http://dcrepublican.com/2009/04/06/is-your-tea-party-listed/ http://dcrepublican.com/2009/04/06/is-your-tea-party-listed/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:42:46 +0000 DC Republican http://dcrepublican.com/?p=929 A few weeks ago I created a GoogleMap to help a few co-workers and myself keep up all the different tea parties happening around the country.  At first, this was an extremely easy project to manage, however, as the momentum started to build, these tea parties spread like wildfire, as the map shows:


View Larger Map

Odds are there are dozens of events that we haven’t even heard about yet, and if that is the case, please leave the details in the comments section below, and I’ll make sure I get them posted ASAP.

Also, if you want to embed this map on your blog or website, here is the code:

<iframe width=”425″ height=”350″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ src=”http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp;hl=en&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=112875499027114938790.0004647d9f61bab744fd4&amp;t=h&amp;ll=36.713898,-96.379716&amp;spn=21.879292,53.294898&amp;output=embed”></iframe><br /><small><a href=”http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp;hl=en&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=112875499027114938790.0004647d9f61bab744fd4&amp;t=h&amp;ll=36.713898,-96.379716&amp;spn=21.879292,53.294898&amp;source=embed” style=”color:#0000FF;text-align:left”>View Larger Map</a></small>

Special thanks to Brendan Steinhauser for helping keep this map up-to-date!

A few points:

First, let’s remember that AIG never actually went into bankruptcy proceedings, instead allowing the United States government to become a majority shareholder in the company, taking ownership of 79.9% of their assets.

Look at this from the role of shareholder: would you want to have the company you’re invested in revoke contracts that were designed to keep your talent on board, during an especially difficult time? If you were in fact a shareholder, and saw that it had the potential to yield a return with the right people and incentive, I would hope you’d say yes.

The government claimed when they made this investment that they thought it was going to have a positive return on investment for the American people. How do they expect that to be the case when the people working at the company are having one of their biggest perks stripped from them?

Second, staying on the same topic, it’s important to remember that bankruptcy is one of the legal protections a business has to get themselves out of the potentially crippling contracts without having to go through a sea of red tape and individual legal proceedings.

Just as is the case with any company, AIG had the option to file bankruptcy, go into protection and remove these contracts. However, the United States felt that AIG was too big to fail, and decided that instead of letting them go bankrupt, they would give them the money they needed to continue doing what they thought was needed to become solid again.

Third, do people actually believe that AIG would be able to employ quality people without having the ability to give them something to sweeten things a bit? If you’re someone who actually understands the credit market and has the knowledge that could save AIG, odds are if you’re not receiving the right sort of benefits package, you’ll just going to go elsewhere (especially in this economy).

Those who orchestrated this deal both in New York and Washington have all worked for institutions like AIG at some point. I am quite confident that if they weren’t receiving bonuses when they were with those companies, they too would have gone elsewhere.

While the media has had a field day with this, I find it extremely troubling that the government is coming down so aggressively on AIG for a practice that involves bonuses that are renewed annually, yet is unwilling to speak out negatively against union contracts held by the auto industry that often yield more benefits, FOR LIFE, and yield no positive return for the company.

The government is creating a slippery slope here by now threatening to come in and take this bonus money back, particularly when they’re talking about tracking down the individuals who received the money.

The government has no place telling companies that they cant honor contracts that were established prior to their investment. If they want to do this, they’re going to have to write a new slate of contract law, or use their majority power to drive the company into bankruptcy. However, when you’re the United States government, odds are regard for the law is the last thing you’re paying attention to. Public opinion and approval rating, however, is another story.

This is going to get worse, I promise.

If you thought Sarbanes/Oxley was a business killer, wait until you see what extreme regulation they’re going to come up with to try and prevent the unknown in the future.

Democrats will introduce contentious labor legislation in both chambers today even though Senate Democrats do not yet have the support necessary to overcome a certain Republican filibuster.

This is all going to come down to the Blue Dogs in the House of Representatives. Those 51 Members, all self-proclaimed conservative democrats, have the power to block this in the House.

Obviously, there will be more updates to follow.

Even Warren Buffett opposes Card Check:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And a concise commercial regarding the legislation:

Click here to view the embedded video.