So This Is How It All Begins

What does it take for a local, community-oriented individual to become the condescending, I-know-better-than-you state-level or national-level politician?  I think I learned a bit about that over the last week.

A Facebook associate – no, I don’t call everyone on FB my “friend”, because they are not – has pretty strong ties to the local political party affiliates.  I won’t say which party, because it is not relevant to the story.  In one FB update, he commented how he liked candidate A more than candidate B for the upcoming Senatorial primary.

I did not know candidate A was in the running.  Maybe I had heard his name once or twice, but that’s it.  I have no surface level knowledge about him, let alone in depth knowledge.  So, I asked my associate why he preferred candidate A.  The response was, essentially, “because I met him, and I don’t automatically vote for the anti-establishment guy.”

Hmm…I didn’t ask the guy why he wasn’t supporting candidate B, or wasn’t calling him out for his support of candidate A.  As a voter, I wanted to know what he knew about each.  Since I am a voter who is not inside the political loop at the local, state or national levels, I figured he could impart some knowledge that I could then use to help me further independently assess both candidates.

I responded saying (paraphrased), “can you expound?   I would like to know more of a basis on your opinion.”   That approach worked, right?

Nope.  Not completely.

He gave his reasons for supporting candidate A, but he had no info on candidate B whatsoever, outside of heresay, or “this is what might be”.  Then he snarked on me for not investigating the candidates on my own.

Hmm.  I was looking for prelim info on both candidates so I could have a foundation on which to conduct my own research.  Yet he could not tell me anything about candidate B, although my associate is a local insider, candidate B is from the area, and candidate A is from the opposite end of the state.  Turns out I know more about candidate B than my associate does, which isn’t saying much.

My conclusion, based on other posts from my associate, is this:  candidate A represents the party well, and his beliefs happen to coincide with several of my associate’s core beliefs.  But most important, candidate A has worked his way through the ranks of the party, just like my associate wants to.  Hence party loyalty is more important than the will of the people, mostly because of my associate’s own investment in the process.  That I would even consider asking him about a candidate that was an outsider to the process put him on the defensive.

To my FB associate:  I am doing my homework, sir.  I voted absentee in each of the last two major election cycles, so that I could investigate every candidate and issue on the ballot without needing to make a hasty decision.  I pay attention to every potential office candidate once I hear they are in the running.  I do my own investigation, talk things over with my wife, and ask others what they know about the candidates beyond the sound bites.  Your response to me was to be one piece of my research.  So much for that.

I appreciate the snark…not.  Had you really cared about your party – and more so, the country – you would have had reasoned responses regarding both candidates.  Instead, you couldn’t handle a basic question.

Good thing this guy is on my side, and not on the enemy’s side.  Maybe.

Regardless, after the healthcare cloture vote, I think the following still applies more than anything:

Take It Out and Shoot It

• Lawyer: “When he went, had you gone and had she, if she wanted to and were able, for the time being excluding all the restraints on her not to go, gone also, would he have brought you, meaning you and she, with him to the station?”
• Other Lawyer: “Objection. That question should be taken out and shot.”

After trying to keep tabs on the ultimate three ring circus currently taking place in Copenhagen, I cannot think of anything that is a bigger waste of time, money, and idiots than the Global Warming scummit. Ponzi schemers everywhere are livid that they weren’t as thoughtful as Al Gore and his band of brothers at the IPCC and UN.

These guys can’t keep their own stuff straight, let alone try to reason with the honest skeptics. It’s kind of like talking to Reverend Jim.

Is there some honesty in the AGW argument? There might be. Can they express it while logically (not emotionally) refuting the skeptics? Obviously not. It’s like watching your children try to cover for a lie, realize they are caught, then build another lie on top of it.

The whole bunch of them should be taken out and shot. If not for lies, extortion, and slander, then for flat-out incompetence.

FWIW, this post is being categorized under “Religion” – because AGW is – and under “Science” – even though it’s not.

Stupid Is

If you’ve hit internet news or blogs at all over the last two to three weeks, you have heard about the Tea Parties being organized by grass roots Americans that don’t want Congress and the President taking over their country.   Not all of the attendees are conservative, but I would venture to guess that a supermajority of them are.

And for all you closet idiots out there, Conservative and Republican are not the same thing.  Not even close.  Not by a long shot.

I guess this Congressman Adler and his staff either are too stupid to understand the stunt, or are playing ignorant and don’t care what their constituents are thinking.  Either way, Rep. Adler needs to get a thicker skin and grow up.  He is the first IOTW candidate this week.

Here is the video of the message left by Rep. Adler’s staff.

And here is a little text on the follow-up conversation

Rep. Adler – someone actually voted for you?

A Toast to the Dying Newspapers

An ode to newspapers:

Oh, how I wish
you could ply your trade well.
You might stick around for a while.

Oh, how I wish
your paper would sell
if you reported more substance, less style.

“We don’t know what to do!”
You lament and you fret.
The new media has joined the fray.

It’s doing your job,
It prods and it vets,
And that’s why you’re going away.

Yes, the latest IOTW candidate is none other than the L.A. Times.  Seems they can’t cover the Chicago Tea Parties because they don’t qualify for coverage, no matter how many people attend.

And they wonder why their subscription rates drop like the stock market after Obama opens his mouth.  Fools.

Support your local tea parties.  A buddy told me that he can’t renew Atlas Shrugged from the library because demand is so high.  People want to know; now only if some smart newspaper would actually cover the story….

I support the Chicago Tea Party movement.  The story needs to be told.

Capitalism, not Capitol-ism

Click here to learn more about the Tea Parties.

Money Pacifies Me

It is true that the Congress found a way to stomp all over states’ rights again with the political stimulation bill that passed last week. Hopefully, a state or two or fifty will file a lawsuit. But then, who could trust the Supreme Court if it got that far, any way.

So instead of including a last minute entry into this week’s IOTW contest, I figured instead I would give it to someone who knows the politicians’ best trick, anyway, which is getting OPM.

This week’s winner is Lucie J. Kim. As much as Oscar the Grouch and Congress deserve it, I’ll give it to Lucie for trying to extort $4 billion from Miley Cyrus.

Grow up, babe.  You may not win $4 billion, but you did win the Idiot of the Week award.

Just keep repeating to yourself:

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but money pacifies me
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but money pacifies me
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but money pacifies me

Freedom is Dead

In his first public speech after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush said, “Freedom was attacked.”  How right he was.

Now, a mere eight years and five months later, freedom is dead.  Well, at least in the United States.  The Partisan Democrats were joined by three Bipartisan Republicans to pass the largest socialist reform in America since, well, since, I don’t know.  I haven’t done the compare/contrast to the New Deal to know for sure. I can say that thanks to the traitors in both parties, nationalized socialized health care is a certainty.

I hope none of your parents are past their working years and in need of an organ replacement.

I hope you don’t have kids just starting a practice in the medical profession.

I hope you don’t pay taxes now, because you’ll only pay more.

I hope you don’t home school, because that implied right will probably be taken away when the U.S. adopts the UN Rights of the Child contract.

We are who we elect.  We let this happen to us because race, emotion, and “getting along” were more important than doing the right thing.  We are lazy and selfish, and know better how to boss others around than to discipline ourselves.

Sounds just like our Congress and their puppet leader, The Jerk:

The only things left to do now are to lay waste to this concept of a consumer-based economy by spending no more than we absolutely need to, saving or investing the rest, letting the house of cards continue to fall until only the resourceful and self-sufficient remain, and teaching our kids about the “outdated” priniciples of civility, respect, responsibility and accountability.

Oh, and voting these idiots out of Congress in 2010 would go a long way to resolving this problem, too.

(This post is cross-posted at QuipSpot.)