Teapot Tantrums

Overpaid Celebrities ... Yeah, We Should Take Them Seriously

If you can't get the irony in this YouTube video, there's no point in trying to convince you of anything.

I Thought This Was a Post-Racial Era - What Happened?

Democrats happened. No one brought up race in this whole thing when Barack Obama started running for president because everyone thought it was a good thing that a "melanin-enhanced" individual was running. (I use "melanin-enhanced" because I'm told there's a huge push to get the color "black" removed from speech in everything from science [black hole] to crayons [I have no idea what they'd replace it with], so untwist you knickers! -- I guess we can call him an African American 'cause his dad actually *was* from Africa, whereas the vast majority of the melanin-enhanced in the US have never been there, and many from this generation probably couldn't tell you where it is on the map.)

What I found interesting, though, is that everyone kinda acted like he was the very first melanin-enhanced person to run for president. He wasn't. And like the majority of his predecesors, he was a radical, too, but the media decided to ignore it this time, 'cause he was so charismatic (i.e. he reads well from a teleprompter).

But back to the beginning ... no one really cared about his race. No one mentioned it. People don't want to brign up the elephant in the room and have the invective of "raaaacist!" hurled in their faces, especially when they aren't.

But Barack Obama brought it up, accused Bill of racist motives in not supporting him, and it just mushroomed from there (well, it's only *partly* 'cause the American people are kept in the dark regarding the truths about this guy who's spent $1 or thereabouts to keep all records pertaining to him sealed and are fed a lot of bulls**t about him instead -- but maybe that's just me). He and his lackeys keep stoking the flames, feeding the fire -- in fact, ObaMao felt it necessary last night to point out to David Letterman that he had in fact, been a black man before the election. The problem is that he feels the need to make sure people remember that at every turn.

So, it falls to someone like Star Parker to help us understand why we're talking about race yet again. She knows what she's talking about, being a black woman herself, and one who spent time on welfare (read her book Uncle Sam's Plantation) and escaped that particular institution. Her post below was distributed by GOPUSA.com yesterday.

~~~~~~~~

Why We're Talking About Race -- Again
By Star Parker
September 21, 2009

The Democrats have lost the health care debate.

For months now, polls have been showing that Americans don't want the massive new government controls, regulations, taxes, and spending that Democrats are pushing.

Latest Gallup polling shows 60 percent saying that President Barack Obama's proposal will not expand health coverage without raising taxes on middle class Americans and without affecting the current quality of health care.

Forty three percent approve of how Obama is handling health care and 52 percent disapprove.

You would be hard pressed to find a Democrat or Republican who does not agree that we can improve how we deliver health care.

So the logical conclusion we'd expect now from well intentioned people would be that we go back to square one. We do what Obama promised but never did -- have a truly open, bi-partisan discussion, with all ideas are on the table, to generate the best possible product for the American people.

Why is this not happening? Because it's not about healthcare. It's about ideology.

Despite claims from our Democrat administration that it wants civility, it does not. It wants control.

This nation is already torn apart ideologically. In the last four months we've witnessed two cold-blooded ideologically motivated murders. An abortion doctor shot in a church and a pro-life demonstrator murdered in a drive-by shooting in front of a school.

There are fewer and fewer "self evident truths" about which we all agree.

The current charade to paint ideological differences with our president as racially motivated dangerously pours gasoline on the burning embers of our differences.

But this is what Democrats want. They have lost the health-care debate on substance, so they want to make it emotional. They want to intimidate. And nothing intimidates and polarizes like race.

Months ago they started the process of getting socialized medicine -- taking over one sixth of the American economy -- passed in a few short weeks. The deadlines and breathlessness were because they knew that if Americans got a chance to understand what they were trying to do there would be push back. Exactly what has happened.

When the President spoke recently before the joint session of Congress, he finished by asking that we replace "acrimony with civility." But in this same speech he characterized his opposition as fomenting a "partisan spectacle," of "scare tactics" and of "wild claims about a government takeover of health care."

Our smooth talking President reduced those who disagree with him to a bunch of clowns, incorporated not a single major reform idea coming from the opposition, and then accused Republicans of stifling "honest debate."

Is it any wonder that every freedom loving American is at wits end? And that Congressman Joe Wilson lost it when he yelled out "You lie."

To demonstrate the Obama team's interest in civility, immediately after the speech, Rahm Emanuel, Obama's foul-mouthed, take-no-prisoners chief of staff, "charged over to three Republicans," as reported by the Wall St. Journal, "demanding in a profanity-laced tirade that they force Mr. Wilson to apologize."

Cong. Jim Clyburn, third ranking House Democrat, and black caucus member, took the lead in getting a House vote to formally reprimand Wilson. According to Clyburn, "This is about the rules of the House."

But what rules does Clyburn really care about?

When asked in an interview where the Constitution gives the federal government authority to regulate health care delivery, Clyburn replied, "There's nothing in the Constitution that says that the federal government has anything to do with most of the stuff we do."

Finally an honest Democrat. Clyburn pulled no punches that our Constitution, which is the basis of his authority, is irrelevant to him. That it's all about political thuggery.

Which is why we're now talking about race instead of health care.

---

Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (www.urbancure.org). She can be reached at parker(at)urbancure.org

Say It With Me: "Dissent Is the Highest Form of Patriotism"

Um ... wait ... sorry, I forgot. That only applies if you're a D/L/L/M/S/C/A (Democrat/Liberal/Leftist/Marxist/Socialist/Communist/Anarchist) ... let's just say it's anyone that's *NOT* a C/C/R (Conservative/Christian/Republican) -- those people are supposed to sit down, shut up and play nice, or go in the corner and think about what they've been *accused* of having done.

Why is it that the non-C/C/R is supposed to be quiet ... and if they choose to speak up (having had quite enough, thanks very much) ... when the D/L/L/M/S/C/A has every right to say whatever they want (whether it's true or not) however they want (whether it's vitriol or "street theater") to whomever they want (whether it's old people they're trying to scare or young children or families) wherever they want (whether it's Code Pink and their ilk interrupting presidential speeches, or those of Republicans/Conservatives, or those who peacefully protest something the "true dissenters" support).

Michael Barone, a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, posits his observation, which was distributed by GOPUSA.com. I wonder if you agree with him. I think I do, and I'm not afraid of saying so.

~~~~~~~~

Strangers to Dissent, Liberals Try to Stifle It
By Michael Barone
September 21, 2009

It is an interesting phenomenon that the response of the left half of our political spectrum to criticism and argument is often to try to shut it down. Thus President Obama in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress told us to stop "bickering," as if principled objections to major changes in public policy were just childish obstinacy, and chastised his critics for telling "lies," employing "scare tactics" and playing "games." Unlike his predecessor, he sought to use the prestige of his office to shut criticism down.

Now, no one likes criticism very much, and most politicians would prefer to have their colleagues and constituents meekly and gratefully agree with them on pretty much everything. And yes, Rep. Joe Wilson did seem to have broken the rules and standards of decorum of the House (though not of the British House of Commons) when he shouted, "You lie!" in the middle of Obama's speech.

But none of this justifies the charges, passed off as cool-headed analysis, that Obama's critics are motivated by racism. There are plenty of non-racist reasons to oppose (or to support) the Democrats' health care proposals.

I would submit that the president's call for an end to "bickering" and the charges of racism by some of his supporters are the natural reflex of people who are not used to hearing people disagree with them and who are determined to shut them up.

This comes naturally to liberals educated in our great colleges and universities, so many of which have speech codes whose primary aim is to prevent the expression of certain conservative ideas and which are commonly deployed for that purpose. (For examples, see the Website of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which defends students of all political stripes.) Once the haven of free inquiry and expression, academia has become a swamp of stifling political correctness.

Similarly, the "mainstream media" -- the old-line broadcast networks, The New York Times, etc. -- present a politically correct picture of the world. The result is that liberals can live in a cocoon, an America in which seldom is heard a discouraging word. Conservatives, in contrast, find themselves constantly pummeled with liberal criticism, on campus, in news media, and in Hollywood TV and movies. They don't like it, but they've gotten used to it. Liberals aren't used to it and increasingly try to stamp it out.

"Mainstream media" try to help. In the past few weeks, we have seen textbook examples of how MSM have ignored news stories that reflected badly on the administration for which it has such warm feelings. It ignored the videos in which the White House "green jobs czar" proclaimed himself a "communist" and the "truther" petition he signed charging that George W. Bush may have allowed the Sept. 11 attacks.

It ignored the videos released on Andrew Breitbart's biggovernment.com showing ACORN employees offering to help a supposed pimp and prostitute evade taxes and employ 13- to 15-year-old prostitutes. It downplayed last spring's Tea Parties -- locally organized demonstrations against big government that attracted about a million people nationwide -- and downplayed the Tea Party throng at the Capitol and on the Mall Sept. 12.

Actually, "mainstream media" are doing their friends in the Obama administration and the Democratic Party no favors, at least in the long run. Obama comes from one-party Chicago, and the House Democrats' nine top leadership members and committee chairmen come from districts that voted on average 73 percent for Obama last fall. They need help in understanding the larger country they are seeking to govern, where nearly half voted the other way. Instead, they get the impression they can dismiss critics as racist or "Nazis" or as indulging in (as Sen. Harry Reid said) "evil-mongering."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned us that there's a danger that intense rhetoric can provoke violence, and no decent person wants to see harm come to our president or other leaders. But it's interesting that the two most violent incidents at this summer's town hall meetings came when a union thug beat up a 65-year-old black conservative in Missouri and when a liberal protester bit off part of a man's finger in California.

These incidents don't justify a conclusion that all liberals are violent. But they are more evidence that American liberals, unused to hearing dissent, have an impulse to shut it down.

---

Michael Barone is senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner.

COPYRIGHT 2009 THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

If It Looks Like a Duck...

Obama wants to call it an "individual mandate" for buying health insurance (to the tune of a $900 fine for a single and up to a $3,800 fine for a family of four if they don't provide evidence of a sufficient health insurance plan when they file their taxes) and says "I absolutely reject the notion" that it's a tax.

"A tax is when you take money involuntarily from people and use it for a public purpose" as noted by Greta van Susteren's guest tonight.

And when you have to report such a policy (or lack thereof) on your *tax return*, with the proceeds to be collected by the IRS or be penalized by the IRS ... THEN IT'S A FREAKING TAX!

So much for ObaMao's promise during his campaign that he would absolutely *not* increase taxes on those making under $250,000 a year ... wait, the it was $200,000 a year ... which, changed to $150,000 a year ... anyone know the threshold now? 

Notice in the video below how Obama condescendingly scolds George Stephanopolous for consulting Merriam Webster's Dictionary to get the most commonly-recognized definition of the word "tax" ... and he accused Stephanopolous of "stretching" to make his point because he had to look up the definition. Puhleeeze! Stephanopolous was attempting to make sure he wasn't misinterpreting the word or misapplying motives to Dear Leader.

As Greta pointed out, "on page 29 of Max Baucus's bill, it says "the consequences for not maintaining insurance would be an excise *tax*" ... if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck ... well, you get the idea.

It's Only Radicals That Protest? Not Anymore!

I'm Not the Only One Who Sees It! Really!

No, I'm not the only one who sees the problems within ACORN and it's wide-spread web of corruption. I'm not the only one commenting on it. My "blogfather" Gullyborg has a good post up todayt with his observations and the outrage of why the media isn't covering this. Why the cricket chirps from the "'objective journalists"? Could it be that they're not objective anymore?

I'm re-reading the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (well, actually listening to it on my iPod so I can listen at work) and I just passed the part where Nicolae Carpathia has been named the President of the UN Security Council and has taken control of the vast majority of the media outlets ... seeing as how Obama is set to be Chair of the UN Security Council on nuclear disarmament, and how the media doesn't cover reality anymore (unless it's "reality TV" shows) ... why am I getting just a little nervous?

If he calls for voluntary destruction of 90% each countries weapons and voluntary donation of the other 10% to the UN for "peacekeeping", I'll soon be watching for the unsuccessful mass attack on Israel!

Yeah, you have to read the series to get the reference.

ACORN ... SEIU ... Apollo Alliance -- What Do They All Have In Common?

I'm not a Glenn Beck fan in the sense that I don't make a point to watch his show every day. I do believe that he makes some very salient points and talks about what others aren't talking about -- but should be.

Yesterday I was sitting on the couch, home early from a minor procedure in the doctor's office, and had Fox News on. Beck's show came on and he did the most interesting monologue using a blackboard (wait, is it raaaacist of me to say 'blackboard'?) and a diagram of the relationship between many organizations and their roots.

I wanted to share it with y'all and give you something to think about. If this doesn't give you a pause for concern, what exactly will it take?

Tea Party Protester Account: Recollections from a Former Leftist

Barbara Curtis was one of the original radicals, it seems. She was a hippie before it was cool to be one. She was a second-tier feminist (I think that's the term she used). Pro-women's right, pro-abortion, anti-government. She was about as leftist as they come, from her account.

Fast forward many years and many experiences later and the former liberal is now a conservative, Christian mother of 12 (9 biologically hers, 3 adopted). Her very inspiring account of attending the 9/12/09 Tea Party protest in Washington, DC is posted at Pajamas Media. Be sure to go there and read the comments:

A Former Radical Goes Back to the Future at the 9/12 March

September 15, 2009 - by Barbara Curtis

In 1967, I was the radical Alinsky wrote the rules for. On the political cutting edge, I’d been arguing with fellow students and coworkers for years about Vietnam, and my growing disgust with my country led me down many winding roads of anti-American thought. I was counterculture before there was a name for it, skipping my prom and graduation as “bourgeois,” going barefoot, braless, and unshaven, and collecting tattoos at the only place in town those days — a crummy hole-in-the-wall next to downtown D.C.’s Greyhound station.

Everything about me was about making a statement. And while it was pretty exciting for me as a young woman to create a new identity based on rejection of the status quo, for years I’d felt like I was alone.

Then suddenly I discovered I wasn’t.

On October 21, a crisp, clear D.C. day, I arrived with my boyfriend at my first anti-war protest and felt a thrill of belonging and hope. The Pentagon grounds were churning with 50,000 or so people like us — a curious conglomeration of serious anti-American academic types (like me) and sha-la-la-la-la-live-for-today potheads (like him). But the differences didn’t matter to us that day, which celebrated everything from putting flowers in National Guard rifles to taunting police until we were tear-gassed. The counterculture had a big umbrella, and we were all hippies at heart — eager to create a new world, whatever that might turn out to be. This day gave us a sense of unity, strength, and purpose.

I went on to help organize events — from the whimsical Ring Around the Capitol (sponsored by Another Mother for Peace) to the ultra-violent May Day, where we used our bodies to stop traffic on the bridges into D.C. Rallying cry: “If the government won’t stop the war, we’ll stop the government.”

Through it all, to be honest, I felt a little ashamed that I wasn’t completely living up to my political ideals, which involved destroying the status quo. I was always a secret admirer of the most radical — people like Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayers. But while they were busy blowing things up, I’d gotten married and had a baby — Samantha Sunshine. Still barefoot and braless, I kept up my counterculture credentials by dropping her in the college daycare center during the week and carrying her on my back for weekend demonstrations. While my heart yearned for solidarity with my most radical leftist comrades, my mother’s instinct to stay alive and out of jail prevailed.

I was also among the original second-wave feminists — fed up with the machismo of our political comrades — who made abortion the next battleground. As a mother, I became a sought-after spokeswoman for the right to “choice.” After all, an unwanted pregnancy at this point would interfere with my education; didn’t I have the right to get rid of a parasite growing in my body?

Flash forward forty years to find this mother of 12 (nine by birth, three by adoption) once again a political activist — but now for the conservative cause.

What happened? Life happened. A 1972 permanent pilgrimage to San Francisco, another baby (Jasmine Moondance), divorce, promiscuity/experimentation, abortion, drug addiction, welfare — all in accord with my proud leftist political banner. A 1980 move to Marin County, Alcoholics Anonymous, a second marriage, New Age spirituality, birth control failures, building a business, owning a home.

A 1987 born-again experience, homeschooling, a son with Down syndrome, a writing career, three adoptions, and finally in 2002 a cross country move with 24 native Californians (my husband, children, sons-in-law and grandchildren) to come back to the traditional values I’d rejected before.

Not much about my current life looks like anything like the me I used to be — other than a lingering weakness for retro hippie fashion. Oh, and the skin art now lumping me with tattoo-come-lately Baby Boomers rather than communicating my colorful past.

But the hopeful giddiness I felt last Saturday at the 9/12 Freedom March took me back 40 years. And what I observed — no matter how ignored or spun by the increasingly irrelevant dinosaur media — tells me that this spontaneous and improbable gathering of conservatives is just the beginning of a movement that in the end will be as culturally revolutionary as the Woodstock generation.

I’m not coming at this like some dry academic — tsk-tsking conservatives and pushing moderation — but as a proud and passionate veteran of the personal-is-the-political generation. My agenda here is to encourage conservatives of all stripes who gathered to speak truth to power in Washington and across the country last Saturday, last month, and last summer. My message is to keep up the good work. Don’t listen to what they say. Keep informed. Keep showing up. And watch our numbers grow.

This is just the beginning.

On the morning of September 12, I left for the march with my camera. Since every picture’s worth a thousand words, I thought that would be the easiest and fastest way to communicate what really took place.

But what was going to take place? How many people would show? Though in my gut — with the latest victories of the new media over the old (Van Jones, ACORN) — I felt momentum building, I was really just one person going without a group, a strategy, or a plan.

At the Dunn-Loring (VA) Metro station, I noted the nearly-full parking lot — unlikely on a Saturday — with many out-of-state cars, many sporting conservative bumper stickers. My hopes began to rise. I was not alone. The platform was filled with people of all ages, some carrying signs. No one quite knew how to ask each other: “Are you going to the march?” But as a reporter, I could and I did.

There was a young couple with three children from Centerville, VA, a middle-aged woman and her mother from Harrisonburg, PA, a couple from Texas — and many more.

No one I talked to — on that platform or throughout the day — had ever been to a protest, march, or demonstration of any kind. No one knew what to expect. All had sacrificed time, energy, and money to come to Washington. All had undertaken this adventure independently with the assumption that they might indeed be the only one showing up.

“But with everything that’s going on, I felt like I had no choice but to come,” was a theme I heard echoed throughout the day.

All seemed informed and concerned, but cheerful and optimistic. I knew this feeling from before — it begins when you move from concern to action. It’s a beautiful thing to behold, and as I discovered on September 12, particularly beautiful in people whose orientation toward their country is not revolution but recovery.

Not much about my current life looks like anything like the me I used to be — other than a lingering weakness for retro hippie fashion. Oh, and the skin art now lumping me with tattoo-come-lately Baby Boomers rather than communicating my colorful past.

But the hopeful giddiness I felt last Saturday at the 9/12 Freedom March took me back 40 years. And what I observed — no matter how ignored or spun by the increasingly irrelevant dinosaur media — tells me that this spontaneous and improbable gathering of conservatives is just the beginning of a movement that in the end will be as culturally revolutionary as the Woodstock generation.

I’m not coming at this like some dry academic — tsk-tsking conservatives and pushing moderation — but as a proud and passionate veteran of the personal-is-the-political generation. My agenda here is to encourage conservatives of all stripes who gathered to speak truth to power in Washington and across the country last Saturday, last month, and last summer. My message is to keep up the good work. Don’t listen to what they say. Keep informed. Keep showing up. And watch our numbers grow.

This is just the beginning.

On the morning of September 12, I left for the march with my camera. Since every picture’s worth a thousand words, I thought that would be the easiest and fastest way to communicate what really took place.

But what was going to take place? How many people would show? Though in my gut — with the latest victories of the new media over the old (Van Jones, ACORN) — I felt momentum building, I was really just one person going without a group, a strategy, or a plan.

At the Dunn-Loring (VA) Metro station, I noted the nearly-full parking lot — unlikely on a Saturday — with many out-of-state cars, many sporting conservative bumper stickers. My hopes began to rise. I was not alone. The platform was filled with people of all ages, some carrying signs. No one quite knew how to ask each other: “Are you going to the march?” But as a reporter, I could and I did.

There was a young couple with three children from Centerville, VA, a middle-aged woman and her mother from Harrisonburg, PA, a couple from Texas — and many more.

No one I talked to — on that platform or throughout the day — had ever been to a protest, march, or demonstration of any kind. No one knew what to expect. All had sacrificed time, energy, and money to come to Washington. All had undertaken this adventure independently with the assumption that they might indeed be the only one showing up.

“But with everything that’s going on, I felt like I had no choice but to come,” was a theme I heard echoed throughout the day.

All seemed informed and concerned, but cheerful and optimistic. I knew this feeling from before — it begins when you move from concern to action. It’s a beautiful thing to behold, and as I discovered on September 12, particularly beautiful in people whose orientation toward their country is not revolution but recovery.

Barbara Curtis is a wife, mother of 12, and author of nine books, including Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking About Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You. Visit her at www.barbaracurtis.com or at her blog www.MommyLife.net.

Tea Party Protester Account: A View From the Crowds

Many people who have never ventured out of their political comfort zones have decided that Enough Is Enough! Many got off their couches, and out of their offices, and out of their homeschool rooms and headed for Washington, DC to protest everything from ObamaCare, Commie Czars (hey, it was on their signs, but I do happen to agree), unread-yet-voted-for bills, and a host of other concerns.

Many people went to Washington, DC concerned about their safety, worried about the possibility of angry confrontations from Liberals/Leftists but brought their kids anyway because they thought it was a lesson to be learned.

Many people got the idea from listening to like-minded friends and family members, some from listening to inspiring talk-radio personalities, and many from just paying attention.

But people turned out by the thousands ... the tens of thousands ... and some (across the pond, of course) estimate attendance upwards of two million souls. (Why do we have to look to Europe to get unbiased and realistic coverage about something that happened on our own shores???)

Many people have decided to share their stories of September 12, 2009, when they attended the Tea Party Protest in Washington, DC. They've shared via interview, email, blog, Facebook and other networking sites. I wish I could've gone, but instead, I'll share with you what they've shared as their experiences.

This recollection by Kathy Garriott is posted over at The American Thinker, a great blog that I would heartily recommend as a consistent must-read.

What I Saw at the Revolution

By Kathy Garriott

"Do you think there'll be porta-potties?" Was the anxious question my husband asked.  He's in his fifties, after all. He asked about restroom facilities several days before we left for DC, and enjoined me to "find out on the internet" because he thinks I can find out anything on the internet.  It was from the various conservative blogs and forums that I haunt on the net that had inspired me to put together this trip to DC in the first place.  Like most tea-partiers, I am only loosely affiliated with any of the organizers.  I was anxious about restrooms, too, and anxious about the notorious summer heat and humidity of our nation's capitol.  I'm in my fifties, after all.  I knew the organizers of this event were not professionals (and I mean that in the nicest way) and things like adequate porta-potties might not have crossed their radar.

So we set off to DC with our supplies of poster-making materials and some folding camp chairs, umbrellas, trail mix, and basic first-aid.  If there were no restrooms, well, we'd just deal with that when we got there.  

We'd booked a hotel in the downtown area, and when we arrived a family with three small children was also checking in with some Tea Party paraphrenalia.  If they can face bringing three children under five to a political rally with the uncertain knowledge of available restrooms, I'd better stop whining.

The only preparation we had for this Tea Party were the downloaded  instructions: "We meet at Freedom Plaza between 9 and 11, then we march down Pennsylvania to our rally on Capitol Hill."  Getting up  late, we were on the street at 10 for the twenty-minute walk to Freedom Plaza, marked on our city map.  We started seeing other tea-partiers with their signs and flags, camp chairs slung over their shoulders and Uncle Sam fashions, and we walked together and spoke together without introduction like old alums from the same school.

"Heading to Freedom Plaza?"  asked the Rebels in Fanny Packs.  "Yep!"  We were headed west on F street,  roughly parallel to Pennsylvania Avenue.  Maps were consulted, we all had several, maps with earnest  orange and pink highlighting.  We were at 11th Street when we glanced  two blocks south toward Pennsylvania Avenue and stopped in shock.

A mass of humanity! a wave of signs and people! marched east, framed to our eyes between the tall shadows of the two blocks of buildings.  Husband asked, "Is that a different protest group going ahead of us?  There are always protests going on in DC."  Another said, "I see the yellow Gadsden flags.  That has to be the tea-party."  "But they weren't supposed to start the  march until after eleven o'clock!"

So we hung a sharp left and hurried to Pennsylvania Avenue.  When we reached the curb, we squinted north-eastward to see where the marchers started.  We knew that the march would start with costumed musicians in Revolutionary War gear playing Yankee Doodle.  No music.  There was nothing but a solid mass of people with signs as far as we could see, all the way to Capitol Hill.  We looked southwest, to where we had expected to assemble with speeches before the march: nothing but a thicket of protestors and signs across four lanes of Pennsylvania.

It was like the loudest, most jovial football pep rally you've ever seen, hundreds of thousands rooting for the beloved home team.  Every demonstrator was grinning wide and hoisting the most original, pithy, and often hilarious signage.  One marcher had contrived a life-size cardboard Obama at the podium, with two friends carrying teleprompters made out of plexi-glass--"promises, promises, promises" said one, and "lies, lies, lies" said the other.  People on the curb leaped out to photograph this work of genius, and the protestors all stopped good-naturedly to allow the recording.   "We're not the party of no.  We're the party of HELL, NO!"

But one of the most poignant signs was flaunted by a fledgling couple that were probably newlyweds.  "$800 Plane Ticket.  $300 Hotel Stay.  Marching for freedom--priceless."  DC is an expensive town to visit.  So many had dug deep into their pockets during a financial downturn to make an appearance. 

Husband and I just stood on the curb (we weren't supposed to stand on the sidewalk, and we are law-abiding partiers), laughing and yelling back at the protestors.  "Yay, Texas!  Yay, South Carolina!"  We couldn't stop reading the signs and calling encouragement long enough to join in the marching.  It was just too delightful to stand and watch the parade go by, even though we knew that the early marchers would get the plum spots close to the steps of the capitol, and probably conveniently close to the porta-potties.

While waving our flags and hollering, trying to save some of our voices for the actual rally, a young woman came to stand by me, probably in her early twenties and dressed smartly in good leather boots and a dashing shawl-sweater ensemble. I was the country bumpkin and she the urban sophisticate, but she was bashful and uncertain, and ventured a question to this woman in her fifties wearing a Life is Good t-shirt.  "But what about Freedom Plaza?"  said, worried, as if somehow she had transgressed. " Weren't we supposed to meet at Freedom Plaza before the march?  Why are they already out marching?" 

I found out the next day that at Freedom Plaza, the turnout had been too unmanageable to have the pre-march rally as planned; the Park Service (who would later refuse to give out any estimates of crowd size) demanded that they start the march an hour and a half early because the crowd had swarmed  too large for comfort.   After all, Freedom Plaza is very close to the White House.

There were now three of us, because the  woman seemed to want company and we liked having a young person to look after, watching the crowd go by for more than an hour.  At eleven-thirty, we decided to join in the march and ebullient bellowing.  "No more czars!"  "Enough is enough!"  The marchers paused front of a building with the first amendment engraved in the side, Congress shall make no law... to generate a handsome  noise about the threats to our freedom of speech.

When we got close to the Capitol, the crowd stopped for almost half an hour because there was a bottleneck of people finding their places in front of the capitol.  I noticed that in the parking lot was a reassuringly long row of porta-potties.  We eventually set up "camp" across the pond from the staging area, and really couldn't hear much of what was said.  An informal "parade of signs" marched around the pond, as people showed off their original artwork and slogans to the applause and cheers of  partiers.  The crowd was thick all around the pond, and I turned to look behind and gasped at more crowds that stretched toward the Washington Monument (and also saw the CNN bus sitting bravely in the thick of a partying humanity).  

So the young woman and I talked some politics.  Everyone around me was collaring some friendly stranger to talk politics:  to joyously, vociferously talk politics.  A small, elegant, elderly lady had flown in from San Francisco and told everyone of her low opinion of Nancy Pelosi's character and warned that she posed a  dire threat  to the welfare of the nation.  A man with an Oklahoma flag and a man with a Texas flag crossed the poles, like  military sabers at a wedding, and everyone joked about the two rivalrous states finding common cause.  There was no profanity.  (Well, there were several signs with One Big Ass Mistake, America, but it got no worse than that.)  People made a point of picking up litter, even some that had obviously been there a while.

Observing this, my young companion mentioned that everyone in her social set were "progessives" and that she had been dragged to a Green event.

"You should have seen the mess they left," said in disgust.  I concluded that she was a closeted conservative ready to Come Out but only beginning to figure out how to go about it.  She had decided to come to the Party at the last minute, had come alone, and had found her way to the Metro.

"It was filled with people with signs and flags. We packed in like sardines, but everyone was having such a good time."

Everyone, everyone in the crowds grinned big grins.  Joy.  You could feel the joy of people who have been distressed, even anguished, for over a year suddenly finding that they are not alone and that there is something they can do.   Not alone by a long shot!  We knew with our own eyes that there were hundreds of thousands of people, maybe as much as a million.  Tens of thousands would not have stretched across four lanes of Pennsylvania for hours!

The young woman departed with a hug, infected with the cheer of all those around the Capitol, and eventually the rally was over.

But not really.  The euphoria continued.  We joked with strangers about the dangerous "mob," --Put down that brick!--when we saw the first waste disposals with dozens of discarded signs stacked neatly next to the cans.  The cans overflowed, but upright empty water bottles  tidily circled the cans, to make for easy removal.    

We were relaxed on the Pennsylvania sidewalks now, filling them on both sides as we left. People talked on their cells as they walked.  One women, alone  like our campanion, shrieked happily into her phone, "No, I didn't mind being alone!  Because I wasn't alone!  Not for a single minute!"

And there was a luster to the eyes of the departing partiers.  I heard:  I'm so glad I came.  This was incredible.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  It was worth every penny.

And the restaurants were full of us, gauche in our Uncle Sam finery.  We greeted other partiers at their tables, partiers whose names we didn't know, to discuss plans for taking this to the next level.  I caught the sideways glances of chagrin from the urbane Townies.  We tipped the wait-staff well.

The only discouraging word was not all that discouraging.  As we ambled away from the Capitol, some youthful local man  with a soft round face and early balding scalp,  sporting the prerequisite wispy  uptown Van Dyke, muttered  in a high-pitched tone  that conveyed a kind of agonized sqeamishness, "These people need to get out of my city."

His city.  If he's listening, I'd like to tell him...

We'll be back.

Kathy Garriott is a housewife from the American South

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/what_i_saw_at_the_revolution.html

The Conservative Woodstock ... But Without the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N Roll

The LameStream Media likes to pretend "a few thousand" stragglers met up the mall carrying swastikas and being an "unruly" astroturf mob ... yeah, right. That's not how I see it when I look at pictures people have shared. The LSM likes to portray these people as horrible, racist, evil-mongering, knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers ... hey ... not so!

Read the article at Looking at the Left and take a look at the horrible, unruly mob that attended (It could take a couple minutes to load 'cause there are *lots* of pictures of the hateful, angry, unruly mob -- so I've posted just a few for you here).

 

 

 

 

The Environmentally-Aware Leftists vs. the Environment-Hating Righties

Perhaps the EnviroWackos should learn to practice what they preach.

Courtesy of photos posted at Gateway Pundit, let's compare the picture of the the Washington DC mall after the Tea Party protesters left

 

with the view of the mall after the revellers celebrating Obama's inauguration left it.

 

 

Obama's Not the Only One Who's Been Lying!

For months now we've heard one Dem/Lib House Representative or Senator after another claim that there won't be one dime in the proposed health care bills that would provide for federally funded abortions. Those of us who take ... shall we say ... a "dim view" of abortion could've told you from the get-go that this was false. Those who belong to the culture of death have found ways to couch the language, to express themselves in what would seem to those "uneducated" in Lib-Speak to be perfectly reasonable words, a really, really good reason for abortion to be paid for by tax dollars, much of which was taken from those that believe abortion is a *bad* thing!

"That can't be so," you say. Think again, my friend. I think it's well-expressed in a "guest viewpoint" in the Register-Guard this morning. (The Register-Guard serves Oregon's Willamette Valley and a good portion of the rest of the state, too.)

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Reform bills would allow abortion at the public’s expense

By Gayle Atteberry

Appeared in print: Monday, Sep 14, 2009

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Despite erroneous claims that abortion is not included in any of the proposed health care bills, passage of President Obama’s health care plan would result in the biggest expansion of abortion since Roe vs. Wade.

Until this last month, “abortion” was not specifically mentioned in any of the proposed health bills, allowing proponents to claim that abortion would not be covered in the final health plan.

Both the Senate and House bills call for the creation of a massive new federal health insurance plan called the “public plan,” which would be required to cover all “essential benefits.” According to multiple past administrative and legal interpretations of federal law, unless an abortion exclusion is explicitly written into the bill, abortion coverage will be included as an “essential benefit.”

For example, when the federal Medicaid statue was passed, the law did not mention abortion, but it was interpreted to require coverage of any abortion sought by a Medicaid-­eligible woman.

As the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said: “Because abortion fits within many of the mandatory categories, including ‘family planning,’ ‘outpatient services,’ ‘impatient services’ and ‘physicians services’ Medicaid covered medically necessary abortion between 1973 and 1976” (Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan vs. Engler, 1996). “Medically necessary” is a term understood by both abortion advocates and foes to include the broadest range of situations.

Therefore, the Hyde Amendment was adopted in 1977, which bans the use of federal funds for Medicaid abortions. The Hyde Amendment must be re-approved annually as a rider to the Health and Human Services appropriations bill.

Recognizing the ramifications of the term “essential benefits,” pro-life members of Congress attempted to add amendments to both the Senate and House health care bills to ban abortion from being included in the plans or to forbid federal money from paying for abortions. All such amendments were defeated by Democratic majorities on numerous committees.

After rejecting all pro-life amendments, the House Energy and Commerce Committee met July 30 and adopted the Capps Amendment. House Resolution 3200, with the Capps Amendment, creates a nationwide insurance plan run by the federal government, and the language explicitly authorizes the public option plan to cover all elective abortions.

In addition, the language would create a new program to provide federal subsidies to cover 27 million Americans to help them purchase health insurance (either private plans or the new federal public plan) that cover abortion. Abortionists would send bills to the federal insurance plan and receive payment from the federal Treasury. It is nonsense to pretend this scheme does not constitute federal subsidies for abortion.

Some say that the Hyde Amendment would forbid taxpayer funding of abortion. However, the Hyde Amendment applies only to Medicaid. An Aug. 5 article from The Associated Press headlined “Government insurance would allow coverage for abortion” addressed the Capps Amendment and its consequences:

“A law called the Hyde Amendment applies the restrictions to Medicaid, forcing states that cover abortion for low-income women to do so with their own money. … The health overhaul would create a stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions.

“The new federal funds would take the form of subsidies for low- and middle-income people buying coverage through the health insurance exchange. Subsidies would be available for people to buy the public plan or private coverage.”

It gets worse. HR 3200 (Page 49) says that any state law that prevents an essential service (including abortion) will be overturned. The majority of states have laws restricting abortion in some way, such as parental notification, waiting periods and women’s right-to-know laws. These all would be overturned, leaving abortion-on-demand at public expense.

Roe vs. Wade gave women a “constitutional right” to an abortion for the entire nine months of her pregnancy. President Obama’s plan would now require every taxpayer to pay for it.

Gayle Atteberry of Eugene is executive director of Oregon Right to Life.

Joe Wilson Won't Apologize Again! (nor should he)

From The Hill:

Wilson 'not going to apologize again' despite threat of sanction

By Mike Soraghan - 09/13/09 09:43 AM ET

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said Sunday he will not apologize for his "You lie!" outburst, risking a sanction from the Democrats who run the House.

"I am not going to apologize again," Wilson said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday." "I have apologized to the president. I believe that is sufficient."

Democratic leaders have said they will introduce a "resolution of disapproval" Monday or Tuesday unless Wilson formally apologizes on the House floor. The House returns Monday.

Wilson's outburst Wednesday night during Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress came after Obama said his healthcare plan would not cover illegal immigrants.

Wilson apologized to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday evening and, on Thursday, Obama said he accepted Wilson’s apology. Democratic lawmakers note that he was pressed to do so by Republican leaders.

Several House leaders and many rank-and-file Democrats pushed a reluctant House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Thursday for some sanction against Wilson.

"There was a violation of the rules of the House," said Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly. "It needs to be resolved by an apology or a resolution."

It is against House rules to impugn the integrity of the president when speaking on the floor or in committee meetings.

While not a formal censure or reprimand, the resolution, if passed as expected, would put Congress on record as condemning Wilson's conduct.

Wilson said he was coming off several large town hall meetings where constituents made clear they didn't like Obama's healthcare plan. He said his son told him he had a "town hall moment."

"I respect the president," Wilson said. "I would not do that again. I just felt so provoked. I would have said it differently if I had the time."

But he added, "I believe in truth," and said his outburst brought the issue to light and forced Democrats to alter their plan to address the illegal immigration issue.

Wilson said he values civility but is prepared to deal with the scolding on the floor.

"It's going to be tough for me," Wilson said. "I'm a civil person. I believe in civil debate on the floor."

He said Democrats are pushing the apology to distract from the real issues.

"Democrats are playing politics," Wilson said. "I believe in the truth. That was not the truth."

He also rejected an accusation by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd that Wilson's outburst stemmed from racial intolerance.

"No, no. I respect the president," Wilson told host Chris Wallace. He added that there is a relationship of sorts between their families, because his family and First Lady Michelle Obama's family hail from adjacent towns in South Carolina.

Wilson and his Democratic opponent Rob Miller have each reportedly raised more than $1 million in campaign contributions since the episode Wednesday night.

And Wilson was hailed as a hero at a taxpayer rally at the Capitol on Saturday, with speakers praising him, and many protesters waving signs reading "Joe Wilson for President."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, called the Wilson flap a "red herring," saying "there's no disagreements" on limiting health coverage to those in this country legally.

"The language will be clear" that they won't be covered, Sebelius said. "That will be very spelled out."

September 12 2009 Tea Party Protest/March on Washington DC

The leftists would have you believe that Obama & Co. had no idea there would be a protest of any size in town. His puppet Gibbs said he had "no idea people were coming to DC to be heard." Of course they knew! It's been in the works for months! The people whose business it is to know what's going on in DC on a day to day basis, those that prepare the "threat matrix" for the president (sorry, I feel he doesn't deserve capitalization) would obviously have known and, knowing, Obama did the disrespectful thing and left town so he could say, "Protesters? I didn't see any protesters! It's all lies! The people love me!"

Um .... yeah .....

Out of the other side of their liberal mouths (remember, that's how you tell they're lying ... when the lips are moving!) they will say there were no more than a few thousand protesters gathered on the mall. Word has it that, rather than getting pictures of the hundreds of thousands of gathered protesters, the liberal media made sure to get footage of small groups of stragglers so they portray it as a huge failure (similar to what actually happened to the last "million man" march).

Take a look at the time-lapsed footage and decide the truth for yourself.

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Seems some on the Left are trying to say that the pictures from the Tea Party protest are fakes or are taken from another "event" like the procession from Ted Kennedy's funeral (supposedly because the flags are at half staff ... which they were from Friday 9/11 in honor of those who died in the 9/11 attacks) ... hmmm, so how to decide how many people were there? Let's go right to the source, the drawing released that shows how "they" put a quantity to the number of people who can fit in the Washington Mall, as they tried to quantify those that attended the inauguration in January. What do you think?

Washngton DC Tea Party Speech - Mike Pence

Yesterday hundreds of thousands of protesters (precisely how many hundreds is up to interpretation and political leaning -- personally, from the footage I've seen [and will link] I'm guesstimating it's *way* over a million ... but I can be obstinate like that) converged on Washington DC to protest the current health care bill and our government's continuing problem of taxing and spending without an end in sight. Although many celebrities who think they know something have tried to pass the gathering of Tea Party protesters off as "astroturf" (an artificial political movement put together by powerful organizations rather than a grassroots effort put together for average people with a common interest), there's no doubt in my mind that this is as grassroots as it gets!

For the record, why is it that Democrats/Liberals/Leftists seem to think they are the only ones with an authentic point of view and an authentic right to speak out against those things/people with which they don't agree???

If I could've gone to DC to participate in the protest, I certainly would've love the opportunity. As it is, I've had to make do with reports from others. Here's a speech made by Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN):

~~~~~~~~~

September 12, 2009

Pence Remarks at the National Tea Party “March on Washington”

Washington, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks today at the National Tea Party “March on Washington:”

“I am Mike Pence.  I am from Indiana, and it is an honor to welcome the largest gathering of conservatives in American history to your nation’s capitol.

“There are some politicians who think of you people as astroturf.  Un-American.  I’ve got to be honest with you, after nine years of fighting runaway spending here on this hill, you people look like the cavalry to me.

“We stand together at a historic moment in the life of the conservative movement and in the life of this great country.  The coming weeks and months may well set the course for this nation for a generation.  How we as conservatives respond to these challenges, could determine whether America retains her place in the world as a beacon of freedom or whether we slip into the abyss that has swallowed much of Europe in an avalanche of socialism.

“While some are prepared to write the obituary on capitalism and the conservative movement, I believe we are on the verge of a great American awakening.  And it will begin here and begin now and begin with you.

“This Administration and this Congress are getting a badly needed history lesson, starting with just what our founders meant by ‘consent of the governed.’  If silence is consent, it is now revoked.

“We the people, do not consent to runaway federal spending.  We the people, do not consent to the notion that we can borrow and spend and bail our way back to a growing America.  And we the people, do not consent to government-run insurance that will cause millions of Americans to lose the insurance they have, and that will lead us to a government takeover of health care in this nation.

“This week, the president came to this hill and he gave one more speech about the same bad plan.   Mr. President, America doesn’t want another speech, we want another health care plan that is built on freedom.

“And we the people, do not consent to Members of Congress passing thousand-page bills without anybody ever reading them.  Members of Congress should be required to read ever major bill that Congress adopts.  I’ve got to be honest with you, I think Members of Congress should read major bills, but I’d be just as happy if some of them read this just a little more often – the Constitution of the United States.

“You know, there is a lot of good stuff in there and it reminds us that we are a nation led by the people, and not the elites and the bureaucrats and the politicians.  It reminds us that the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or to the people.

“And nowhere in our Constitution can you find the word ‘czar.’  It is time Washington, D.C. became a No Czar Zone.

“The American people are not happy. But it is not just about dollars and cents.  It is about who we are as a nation.

“As Ronald Reagan said in 1964, it’s about whether ‘we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.’  My money is on the American people.  My money is on freedom.  My money is on the future.

“This great national Capitol is filled with memorials to freedom’s heroes.  Americans whose faces are carved in bronze, whose names adorn monuments, and just across that river, lie the remains of Americans who paid freedom’s price so we could gather here today.  In their time, they did freedom’s work as citizens and patriots. Now it’s our turn. 

“Let us do as those great Americans we remember in this city have done before: let us stand and fight for freedom.  And if we hold the banner of freedom high, I believe with all my heart that the good and great people of this country will rally to our cause, we will take this Congress back in 2010 and we will take this Country back in 2012, so help us God.”

Single-Payer Healthcare for Native Americans a Big Bust

With a hat tip to the Northwest Republican blog, I invite you to watch a very informative video regarding the health care provided *by treaty* to the Native Americans throughout our country. Apparently a well-know adage is ... "Don't get sick after June" ... now I know why.

Dragnet Still Relevant!!! Sgt. Joe Friday Rocks!

Why We Need Government Healthcare NOW ... Finally Explained!