Progressive Democrats set example of Enlightened Civility and Tolerance

The following is a re-print from the Arizona Daily Star and is posted here as a sterling example of the civility and respect with which the Progressive Democrats view anyone who thinks differently from them.  Here we can see such Leftist virtues as *Tolerance* of *Diversity* and *Respect* for Others.    In other words, the Progressive Democrats want everyone to DO as they SAY but NOT as they DO.   These are the folks who want you to elect them to steer the ship of state.

By the way, what is the fetish the Progressive Left has with college and university education?  They seem to think it magically bestows some kind of smartness on those who endured four or more years of higher education.  They seem to look down their collective noses on those who are graduates of the School of Hard Knocks, in other words, those who may possess good old common sense.  Liberals seem to believe that once you leave high school your ability to continue learning ends unless you sit for endless hours listening to a college professor who’s never practiced anything remotely like what he teaches.  But I digress.  Read this example of *civility* that hails from the enlightened troglodytes in Baja Arizona.

Fitz: Kelly wins

Dave Fitzsimmons The Arizona Daily Star | Tuesday, April 17, 2012

     High school graduate Jesse Kelly defeated a Harvard educated Air Force pilot, a nice American named Dave Sitton and Frank “Spank me, I’m bad” Antenori. Now that the fat lady has sung and the primary is over it’s time for Act II of “The Barber of Civility”: A contest between the guy who looks like the Jurassic Park professor without the pith helmet and a carpet bagging gun-toting Bible thumping gosh and shucks Gomer Pyle who can channel Sean Hannity.

Jesse will do great among the unwashed, the rural, the illiterate, the scared goobers willing to cheerfully vote against their own interests, whipping up the groundlings and the believers with rhetorical red meat so rotten with the stench of untruths that honorable flies will choose to lay their eggs elsewhere. And he’ll smile like a man surprised he said something resembling a coherent thought. And the crowds who hate elitists and grammar and syntax and critical thinking will slap their knees and hoot. Scan the online comment section for repugnant speech and unfiltered anonymous hatred of all who differ with the strict conservative  view and and you have found your archetypal “here come the black helicopters from Kenya” Kelly supporters.

And he will be petted and stroked and groomed and cooed to by right-wing think tanks and he’ll be showered, nay, flooded with bags of cash from big oil and all the right PACs looking for a manly mannequin with a pull string. And he’s a pretty one. He’s tall and he’s handsome and he’s tall and he’s handsome. Elderly church ladies who can’t tell you who the Vice-President is gaze adoringly up at Kelly, yearning to vote for him and to adopt him and to feed him apple pie. Goodbye Mo Udall, hello empty plastic Ken doll.

And he will be angry at those who question his ascendency and his indignant finger will raise up to poke the sky and he’ll thunder incoherent talk radio babble about freedom and liberty and liberty from freedom and FOX news and the right-wing machine will give him their cameras and their spotlights every chance they can.

He won’t represent you. He will represent the Tea Party fanatics, talk radio freaks, the hand-wringing evangelicals, the gun fondlers and the paranoid. The rest of you are just not Americans, you Marxists and Communists and baby killers and you can go to Hell for all he cares. He’ll terrify crowds with his tales of the liberal straw man, the wretched progressive sasquatch, the abominable secularists and he’ll shake the scarecrow and he’ll offer himself up as the great peasant’s torch just waiting to be pressed into battle against the fictitious kindling. Swaddled in the flag and clutching his sacred Constitution he’ll weep for America and prophesy a plague of socialism sweeping across the land that will rival the fire-in-the-sky visions of St. John. Evolution is a head-shaker and abortion is for harlots and those who are not with him are devils. The Word is Limbaugh and he is the word made flesh. Hearken to Jesse all ye Limbaugh Christians, the end times are upon us and the Messiah has a high school diploma. Reject him not, oh ye dittoheads. The Republicans have their man, their folksy Baron of bromides, their King of jingos, raised in the womb of the right-wing echo chamber. And their darling will have an army of fanatical feverish shock jocks who’ll trumpet at the Walls of Jericho for He who is Him everyday until Medicare, Social Security, Big Government, Taxes, the department of Education, our rotting public education system, and those diabolical regulators and the United Nations all come tumbling down.

At the final debate with Giffords in 2010 he was figuratively hoisted on the shoulders of believers with pitchforks and torches who cheered their Messiah with yahoos and slogans in lieu of palm fronds. How can one be civil when you’re debating an opponent who lies and smirks and makes George Bush sound look Stephen Hawking? His adherents cannot be moved by facts, they have found faith.

Sinclair Lewis had his Main Street Babbitt, we have Kelly. This Barber v. Kelly election will truly be an American spectacle rivaling the Scopes Monkey trial because its outcome will define us for years. Are we an easily frightened America aching for the shallow comfort of the primitive and the superstitious or are we the fearless America that questions, that embraces the future, that is modern and smart? Mark Twain and H.L.Mencken savaged their respective times as the gilded ages of carnival hawkers and tent evangelists and smiling shoeshine salesmen and gullible rubes willing to say yes to any smiling carpet-bagger. They are gazing up from Hell longing to see this show unfold. This summer the oldest American story shall repeat itself.

 

AZ House Members Who Voted L’Chaim!

BILL STATUS VOTES FOR HB2036 – Final Reading

Y = Yes
N = No
NV = Not Voting
EXC = Excused
V = Vacant

Member Name Vote Member Name Vote Member Name Vote
Eddie Ableser N Lela Alston N Ben Arredondo N
Cecil P. Ash N Brenda Barton Y Kate Brophy McGee N
Chad Campbell N Heather Carter NV Tom Chabin N
Steve Court Y Chester Crandell Y Jeff Dial Y
Karen Fann Y Steve Farley N Eddie Farnsworth Y
John Fillmore Y Tom Forese Y Ruben Gallego N
Sally Ann Gonzales N Doris Goodale Y David Gowan Y
Rick Gray Y Albert Hale N Jack W. Harper Y
Matt Heinz N Katie Hobbs N Russ Jones N
Peggy Judd Y John Kavanagh Y Debbie Lesko Y
Phil Lovas Y Debbie McCune Davis N Nancy McLain Y
Javan “J.D.” Mesnard Y Eric Meyer N Catherine H. Miranda Y
Steve B. Montenegro Y Justin Olson Y Lynne Pancrazi N
Daniel Patterson N Justin Pierce Y Frank Pratt Y
Terri Proud Y Martin J. Quezada N Amanda A. Reeve Y
Bob Robson Y Macario Saldate IV N Carl Seel Y
David Burnell Smith Y David W. Stevens Y Anna Tovar N
Michelle Ugenti Y Steve Urie Y Ted Vogt Y
Jim Weiers Y Jerry Weiers Y Bruce Wheeler N
Vic Williams Y Kimberly Yee Y Andy Tobin Y

AYES: 37   NAYS: 22   NOT VOTING: 1   EXCUSED: 0   VACANT: 0

Thank you to those members of the Arizona Legislature who chose to stand for Life and the Unborn.  Thank you Governor Brewer for the courage to sign this important legislation.

 

 

Goldwater Institute has new Rival, Grand Canyon Institute

I’m surprised Jerry Lewis isn’t Chairman of this new “Think Tank” (all they ever thought of was ‘enhanced investments’ of other people’s money.  Well dear readers, now you know what they’re doing with themselves.  Wouldn’t be at all surprised if they haven’t already been calling our our Senate and House members.      Squish…

Arizona Heralds Arrival of New Bipartisan Think Tank 

Too often ideology, rather than economics, has guided policy in Arizona, with the result being a state that finds itself caught in an unsound fiscal situation with one of the worst structural deficits in the country.  Arizona continues to lag in the development of a diversified, education-led economy, and relies on a greatly atrophied tax system that fails to provide the resources needed to sustain critical investments for the state’s future.

To remedy the dire situation, Arizona now has a new nonpartisan think tank, the Grand Canyon Institute, led by a bipartisan group of former state lawmakers, economists, community leaders, and academicians. The Grand Canyon Institute will serve as an independent voice reflecting mainstream American values and a pragmatic approach to addressing economic, fiscal, budgetary and taxation challenges confronting Americans with a special emphasis on Arizona issues.  As Arizona begins its second century, the Grand Canyon Institute aims to bridge this immense gap between policy and results by providing sound research expertise from a network of fellows to help inform the public and lawmakers …

Over time, the board of the nonprofit will expand and be composed of an even more diverse, broad based, bi-partisan group of business, community, and academic leaders who share the Institute’s vision during the 21st Century.

The Institute serves as an independent voice reflecting mainstream American values and a pragmatic approach to addressing economic, fiscal, budgetary, and taxation challenges confronting all Americans with a special emphasis on Arizona issues.

Board of Directors

Carolyn Allen (R)

Jack L. August, Jr., Ph.D. (D)

Jeff Chapman, Ph.D. (D)

Tom Chapman (R)

George Cunningham (D)

Susan Gerard (R)

Ryan Harper (R)

Pete Hershberger (R)

Paul Johnson (I)

Bill Konopnicki (R)

George Seitts (R)

Dave Wells, Ph.D. (D)

Liberals vs. Reality – Haven’t you often wondered?

The logical mind says “try something else”. The progressive mind says “double down.

COMMENTARY; John Hull, Yahoo Contributor

Liberals fancy themselves as intellectuals, but their actions often tell a different story. How is it these intelligentsia can be so out of phase with reality?

In a campaign speech in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Friday, President Barack Obama advised the crowd, “We’ve got to have a strategy that, yes, is producing our own oil and natural gas.”

He said this without any sense of irony, the same guy who killed the Keystone pipeline just nine days prior and with it tens of thousands of jobs.

Obama’s blocking of the pipeline prompted Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to look to China to bolster its oil industry, as reported by Business Week. Obama has been warned from the beginning that blocking the pipeline would result in Canada going to China, but he chose to step on his union base to protect his campaign donations from the no-growth enviro-wackos, as reported by CNN.

Obama is willing to abandon a proven energy source and real jobs, yet worries about losing those that are impractical, unaffordable and are hemorrhaging jobs as evidenced by the following statement from his Ann Arbor speech: “I don’t want to cede the wind or the solar or the battery industry to China or Germany because we were too timid.”

Obama advised Congress must “double down” the taxpayer funding of “clean energy” even after three solar companies received over $660 million of our dollars crashed and burned in rapid succession, as reported in Yahoo!.

To the logical thinker, this is nothing short of ridiculous. To the progressive, this makes perfect sense. This is because progressivism is a cult religion, beliefs that transcend reason.

The silliest belief in the progressive philosophy is its call for fairness through unfair means. Theirs is an unattainable, child-like utopian dream of fairness of outcome. They reject the fact that, although all men are created equal, they do not stay equal, by their own making. Some are smarter than others, some are lazy or do drugs, etc. In order to achieve this fairness of outcome for some, they must be fundamentally unfair to others.

They must take from those who work hard and earn and give to those who do not, and it’s okay, so long as the person taken from is someone else. Perhaps someone who has a little bit more than them.

This is not unlike a baby with a rattle who sees another with a lollipop. He wants the other baby’s lollipop, but will not give up his rattle, and feels he deserves the lollipop simply because he wants it. He doesn’t care that the other baby had to get a booster shot to earn that lollipop.

This is the mindset that calls for more government and more welfare in spite of the fact that in the 7 decades since welfare began the need for welfare has grown. It has made them dependent rather than independent.

The logical mind says “try something else”. The progressive mind says “double down.”

In other news on Yahoo…

As for the notion that liberals are more intelligent than conservatives, I would like to cite the following study:

According to a May 2010 study from The American Institute for Economic Research entitled: “Economic Enlightenment in Relation to College-going, Ideology, and Other Variables: A Zogby Survey of Americans, participants were separated into six classes by political ideology.

The study consisted of 4,835 participants who were asked eight questions about economics. The results in order from most right answers to most wrong answers were as follows; Very conservative, libertarian, conservative, liberal and progressive.

Two Men Trapped in One Candidate – Who is Mitt Romney?

Two Men Trapped in One Candidate  The “Bob Dole” of 2012…

YouTube Preview Image

Tonight the Faux News Network reported that he “did what he had to do” in order to be elected in a Blue State.   Does that mean he’ll do whatever he has to do in order to win the White House?  Isn’t that what we don’t like about Obama?  Seriously why have so many of Arizona’s political class endorsed him in the Primary so early?

Had a Democrat done this many flips and flops the GOP would be all over them like a ill-fitting suit.   What I’m reading and hearing is that the voters want a clear vision and a leader to move us forward, not more McBlandness.

Here’s my forecast:  Gingrich wins New Hampshire by +3% over Romney and Herman Cain takes Iowa.  That leaves Florida and South Carolina and the game changes.

Monitoring Iowa Shows Herman Cain Leading GOP Field

 

Cedar RapidsGazette/KCRG-TV poll, of likely Iowa GOP Caucus Attendees, conducted Nov/1-13

  1. Herman Cain, 25%
  2. Rep. Paul (TX), 20%
  3. Gov. Romney (MA), at 16%
  4. Gov. Perry (TX), at 8%

Rep. Bachmann (MN) at 8%
Speaker Gingrich, at 5%
Sen.  Santorum (PA), at 5%
Gov. Huntsman (UT), at na%

           

      

This poll is exclusively Iowa Caucus attendees.  National polling is too generic to accurately reflect the mood of Iowa Republicans and fluctuates with the mainstream news-cycle.

Look for the Union Label when hiring Community Organizers

In the interest of promoting job growth in Arizona, and in helping young college students understand the career path and experience Liberals deem  necessary to obtain a job at the White House… we post this current employment opportunity from the Union Jobs Clearinghouse website.

PLEASE NOTE:

THERE IS NO EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR THIS POSITION.  THE SUCCESSFUL APPLICANT, however must  SPEAK FLUENT SPANISH.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ bing!

Jobs

Community Organizer

Posted on: October 17, 2011

Posted by: Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA)

Description

Join the movement for social and economic justice in Arizona!

Leading the nation with an onslaught of anti-immigrant, segregationist policies, drastic state-level cuts to public programs and a devastated economy, Arizona is ripe for cutting-edge, progressive organizing.

LUCHA, Living United for Change in Arizona, is a dynamic, membership-led, grassroots organization, building power among low- to moderate-income people to advance social, economic and racial justice for all. Our organizers, members, and leaders work for change, out in the streets, at meetings with elected officials and corporate executives, through electoral campaigns and in the media. Organizers engage in direct action and work with our leaders to develop their skills and build power based on their ability to move people to action.

Community Organizers will help to build a strong organizing program, recruiting members and developing leaders. S/he will facilitate collective decision-making and democracy at regularly-held community and leadership meetings, identify and develop leaders among the membership base, and work with leaders and members to build their organizing skills in an effort to create a self-sustaining and truly grassroots movement for change.

RESPONSIBILITIES

- Recruit community members to join our organization and take leadership in organizational campaigns and activities.

- Identify potential leaders and assist in developing the leadership of grassroots members.

- Develop and implement campaign strategies with members and member-leaders.

- Do research, direct action, and media work.

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

- One year of political or community organizing experience preferred, on racial, social and economic justice issues.

- Demonstrated ability to work in multi-racial, multi-income groups.  

- Spanish language fluency, both written and spoken, is required.

- Experience in base building, door knocking, leadership development, and strategy development essential.

- Experience in and commitment to bottom-up organizing, grassroots leadership, and collective decision-making.

- Commitment to racial justice, multi-racial organizing, movement building and direct action organizing.

- Must be flexible and willing to work long and nontraditional hours in a demanding and rapidly changing work environment.

How to apply:        

 

More Silence from the Baja-Arizona Center for Civility in Public Discourse

Some light hearted  frivolity from the (union)  folks lurking in the background of the  Pearce recall effort.

Speaker’s Suggestion that Protesters Start Urinating on GOP Lawmakers Draws Applause, Laughter at Fighting Bob Fest

MacIver News Service | September 18, 2011

[Madison, Wisc…] Thousands of liberal political activists, gathered here Saturday for an annual conference, cheered and laughed as a speaker recounted the recent assault of a GOP lawmaker.

The crowd attending the Fighting Bob Fest also rejoiced at the suggestion that protesters, instead of dumping beer over the heads of Republicans, should urinate on them.

“This is Wisconsin, this is the place where you had some guy pour a beer on the head of a Republican State Senator?” said Fest speaker Greg Palast as the crowd erupted with cheers. “No, no, no, that’s all wrong. You can’t do that. That’s just wrong. I’m from New York. If you’re going to pour beer on a Republican, you have to drink it first.”

In audio of Palast’s speech posted online, the crowd can then be heard breaking out in loud and sustained cheers and laughter.

Madison Police on Friday cited Miles Kristan, commonly referred to as ‘Pink Dress Guy’ with disorderly conduct for an incident that occurred Wednesday evening. According to police reports, Kristan dumped a beer over State Representative Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and two of his colleagues GOP Reps Scott Suder (Abbotsford) and John Nygren (Marinette) at the Inn on the Park hotel bar and restaurant.

The incident has brought to a head concerns by conservatives in Madison that law enforcement there have not taken threats to public safety seriously. Many on the Left, however, have openly mocked the incident as humorous and minimal, although most of this has come in the form of facebook and twitter postings and none in such a public fashion as Palast, an author and freelance journalist, brazenly did on Saturday.

Hear the clip, which was posted on the liberal Democurmudgeon

Fighting Bob Fest is an annual gathering featuring progressive speakers, networking opportunities, and folk-style entertainment, according to organizers. Named after Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, the event attracts thousands and had previously been held at the Sauk County fairgrounds but was moved to the Dane County Coliseum this year.

The line up of speakers included Democratic Congresswoman and US Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin of Madison, Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, John Nichols of the Capital Times and The Nation Magazine, former Congressman David Obey, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Matt Rothchild of the Progressive magazine. According to press accounts attendees included Vos’ colleague State Representative Mark Pocan.

Ironically, earlier this year Pocan joined Vos in a call for more civility in Madison.

Pocan has not issued a statement regarding the assault on Vos, nor Palast’s comments that protesters should instead urinate on their political foes. As of press time neither has any of the speakers mentioned above.

The inciting comments and crowd reaction come one day after State Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater)  said he believed Madison law enforcement leaders are partially to blame for the escalation of disorderly and dangerous conduct by protesters in the Capitol city.

Nass believes that Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney, Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs and Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne have been more interested in cooperating with protesters than enforcing the law.

“The problem is not with rank-and-file police officers. They have had enough, as well. Frankly, the problem rests squarely with the top law enforcement leaders that have let their partisan views interfere with the conduct of their offices,” Nass said.

Indeed, the beer incident of Wednesday night was not a spontaneous occurrence.

The MacIver News Service discovered a video, posted online, of Kristan and another protester harassing Representatives Vos and Suder just last week. In the video, which is apparently shot by Kristan and can be seen here, the representatives leave the Capitol and head over to check into the Inn on the Park. This video corroborates allegations that these two individuals have repeatedly harassed Vos, Suder and others.

“I am somebody and you will listen to me,” the agitator screams at one point in the six-and-a-half-minute video. Earlier, he warns that he was giving Vos “five business days to respond.”

The beer was dumped on Vos and the others five days after the video was posted.

Many conservatives share Nass’ concern that Madison authorities, while not mocking the incident as publicly as Palast, appear to be supportive of Kristan’s antics. Nass warns this casual attitude toward unrest could reach a boiling point.

In this exclusive video interview with the MacIver News Service, Nass said, “[I]f Madison law enforcement authorities don’t begin to crack down on the repeated and escalating harassment of lawmakers and staff “somebody is seriously going to get hurt…or killed.”

Civil War in the Democratic Party, Obama losing his base

It seems that the Republican Party isn’t an exclusive club when it comes to inter-party warfare. 

I wish to thank Donna Gratehouse, an Arizona Liberal Diva and US Navy veteran for introducing me to the internecine warfare now raging within the Democratic Party.  Without her assistance I would never have gotten as far as I have in understanding the true soul of a Progressive and why they are so angry.

The following piece was written in frustration and has since been adopted by hundreds of thousands of Leftist Progressives across the country who have resonated with Mr. Cory’s angst.  I have taken the license of re-posting Mr. Cory’s thoughts as a means of assisting conservatives, Tea Party members, and Republicans to understand the soul of a liberal. 

And I dedicate this piece to Klute, who’s constant deconstructions of logic have served as delicate entertainment to many of us familiar with these pages, and to all, who hold the doctrinal faith that big government is god. 

 

I Am Angry

By John Cory, Reader Supported News

06 March 2010

am angry.

I’m tired of pundits and know-nothing media gasbags. I’m tired of snarky “inside politics” programming. I am sick of the bigotry and hatred of “birthers” and faux patriotic cranks and their GOP puppet masters. And I’m really pissed at the Democratic Party that confuses having a plate of limp noodles with having a spine.

I’m going to vomit if I hear the word “bipartisanship” one more time.

It was “bipartisanship” that gave us this activist conservative Supreme Court. A Supreme Court that says money is free speech and corporations are persons except when real people try to hold them accountable for their greed and poisonous ways.

“Bipartisanship” gave us the Patriot Act and FISA and illegal wiretaps and two wars and “free speech zones” and “no fly” lists. God bless bipartisan America.

I get nauseated every time the Senate explains how it takes a super majority to do anything for the American people. Tell you what Senate Bozos, if it takes 60 votes to pass legislation then it should take 60% of the popular vote to get you elected.

When some Tea Party crank says, “I want my country back,” I respond, “No madam, you want your country backward.”

When a deficit-mongering politician says, “How do we pay for this?” Why not ask, “What did you Republicans do with the surplus we Democrats left you?”

When a compassionate conservative says, “Healthcare reform is socialism,” why not answer, “No, sir it is the moral and American way to care for people.”

Yes, I can hear it now: “You are naïve and simplistic. These are complicated matters and require sophisticated solutions. Democrats are a big tent and strive for balance. But Republicans block our path at every turn. We are thinking and considering new ways to work in harmony with everyone.”

Bite me.

The only thing you get with “harmony” is a Barbershop Quartet.

Democrats stop being Republican Lite. Stop whining about that mean GOP and their nasty messaging. Grow a pair, get a message, get a bumper sticker and hang it out there. Get some strong vivid talking points.

G-O-P = Greed Over People.

Greed Kills – jobs, people and the economy.

Terrorism is Viagra for Republicans: The more fear – the more excited they get.

When a soldier dies for America, who dares ask if they were gay or straight?

Don’t act so shocked, Democratic Party. Have you looked around lately?

You’re losing the young vote that showed up to elect Obama. You’re losing those old enough to remember real Democrats. Why? Because you don’t talk to them any more than you talk to me. You talk at me. You talk around me. You talk down to me. You talk about me. You don’t talk with me. And you don’t inspire and you don’t champion and without that you are nothing more than an arbitrator of compromise and abdication.

You are facing a bully. Deal with it!

Republicans want the country backwards. They champion superstition over science because it entrenches ignorance and bigotry and captures the easily frightened.

Republicans treat the Constitution the way they treat the Bible, with selective interpretation and selective application to others while exempting themselves from judgment and accountability.

Republicans preach the gospel of fear because fear is darkness and darkness covers their theft of civil liberties and Constitutional principles.

For thirty years the Republican Party has claimed the mantle of law and order but now quake in dread of the American judicial system when putting terrorists on trial. How criminal is that?

Torture is illegal. Period. John Wayne and Jack Bauer were not our Founding Fathers – only in the make-believe world of Republican drugstore-patriots.

DADT needs to be repealed. Now. It is unconscionable, immoral, and disgusting.

Empathy, compassion and equality are not pejoratives. They are American values proven again and again throughout our history.

Republicans believe that bake-sales and cookies for chemotherapy best determine the value of life and healthcare because life is a pre-existing condition and the “free market” should not have to take on such a high risk – after all, no one gets out alive, so why should the corporation be left holding the bag? Unless of course the price is right.

Republicans believe that government should keep its hands off healthcare but should put its hands inside a woman’s body.

Republicans believe in small government – small enough to hold the “right” people and small enough to be owned and operated by the “right” people. And who are the “right” people? Them. Not you.

Democratic Party, DNC, DLCC, DSCC or whatever your acronym – I have only one question for you: Really?

You can’t win against these guys? You can’t get your message out against these guys? You can’t give America leadership against these guys?

Really?

The Tea Party made them do it! Credit Rating reduction

       Here’s to Common Sense!  And credit to Jim Lakely of the Heartland Institute…

The ‘Tea Party Downgrade’? Please

by Jim Lakely
on August 8, 2011

The talking point of the weekend from the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats was that Standard & Poor’s reduction of the U.S. government’s credit rating from sterling AAA to less-shiny AA-plus was the fault of the Tea Party movement and the freshmen they put into the House and Senate last year. As of Sunday night, if you googled (in quotes) “Tea Party Downgrade,” you got 11,000 hits. That number is sure to skyrocket in the coming weeks , but the argument (if you want to call it one) is absurd.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) trotted out the line on Meet the Press Sunday morning:

“I believe this is without question the Tea Party downgrade,” he said. “This is the Tea Party downgrade because a minority of people in the House of Representatives countered the will of even many of Republicans in the United States Senate who were prepared to do a bigger deal.”

Obama political operative David Axelrod (who likely coined the phrase and passed it along to Kerry and others), said the same on Face The Nation:

On the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Mr. Obama’s longtime political adviser, David Axelrod, made clear that Democrats would seek to brand the rating as a “Tea Party downgrade.” He said Mr. Obama had been willing to compromise on issues sacred to liberals by curbing spending on entitlements, but the deal foundered because “Republicans are having to respond to this very, very strident group that is pulling them away and believes that compromise is a dirty word. That is a prescription for failure.”

They may “seek to brand” this on the Tea Party, but as John Hinderaker at Power Line noted Sunday afternoon, there’s no way that is going to sell.

What is most ludicrous is the Democrats’ effort to distract attention from the fact that they controlled Congress from January 2007 until January 2011. The first Congress that had any ability to be influenced by the Tea Party movement has been in office for only six months. Do the Democrats seriously expect anyone to believe that S&P’s downgrade of U.S. debt arises out of something that Republican Congressmen have done in the last six months? We expect the Democrats to appeal to ignorance at all times, but this is ridiculous.

Yes, but the tactic will continue. A recent poll by The New York Times shows that this budget/debt-ceiling fight has reduced the public appeal of the Tea Party movement: 40 percent give the Tea Party an “unfavorable” rating. This should come as no surprise, considering the MSM has spent the better part of some three years characterizing Tea Party folks as racists, terrorists, hostage-takers, etc. Somebody get the MSM a “Mission Accomplished” sign they can use for a photo-op!

But has Hinderaker notes in his Power Line post, the 2008 budget deficit was a mere $460 billion. Since then, the Democratic Congress (and, for two years, Obama with full and nearly filibuster-proof majorities on his side) has racked up annual deficits of $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, and $1.6 trillion in 2011.

So, of our current $14.5 trillion national debt, writes Hinderaker, “nearly $4.8 trillion–one-third of the total–was incurred during that four-year period when the Congress was exclusively controlled by the Democrats.” But this is a “Tea Party Downgrade.” Right.

As the credit-rating agencies have said for months before S&P’s dramatic late-Friday downgrade, it came as a result of federal borrowing and spending that is way out of control. And, as it is, the deal the Republicans squeezed out of Obama and the spendthrift Democrats merely reduces a planned $10 trillion increase in federal spending over 10 years by a trillion or so. The “draconian cuts,” in other words, don’t actually decrease real federal spending at all — which is why some Heartland scholars are not too happy with the “deal.”

Regardless, this is the line we’ll hear from the talking heads for a while. Hinderaker, like me, doesn’t think voters are stupid enough to buy it.

It is hard to believe that even the dimmest voters will fall for the idea that the movement that was founded in order to do something about the spending and debt crisis is somehow to blame for that crisis.

We’ll see. More absurd lies have been swallowed by the electorate.

Sunday Comics: Curtis & Leroy Buy a Mule

 Something light for a Sunday afternoon …

 

Description: cid:1.3475367217@web161909.mail.bf1.yahoo.com

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily in
  Starkville, MS. and bought a mule for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said, “Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night.”

Curtis &Leroy replied, “Well, then just give us our money back.”

The farmer said, “Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.”

They said, “OK then, just bring us the dead mule.”

The farmer asked, “What in the world ya’ll gonna do with a dead mule?”

Curtis said, “We gonna raffle him off.”

The farmer said, “You can’t raffle off a dead mule!”

Leroy said, “We shore can!  Heck, we don’t hafta tell nobody he’s dead!” 

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis &Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked.

“What’d you fellers ever do with that dead mule?”

They said, “We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do..”

Leroy said, “Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.”

The farmer said, “My Lord, didn’t anyone complain?” 

Curtis said, “Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back.”

Curtis and Leroy now work for the federal government.

They’re overseeing the Obama Stimulus Bailout Program.

Description: cid:2.3475367217@web161909.mail.bf1.yahoo.com

 

 

 

The Tail Wagging the Dog; Same-Sex Couples in Arizona

Population of Arizona?   6,392,017 souls or approximately 11 people per acre when spread out over the entire state.

Number of husband and wife households in Arizona?    The 2010 U.S. Census counted nearly 1.15 million husband and wife households in Arizona.   Number of same-sex households in Arizona?   The 2010 U.S. Census counted nearly 21,000 same-sex couples in Arizona.

So how does that work out?  About 1.83% of couples identified in Arizona by the U.S. Census Bureau are same-sex.  Think about that.  What does that figure suggest for the overall GLBT population of Arizona?  Even being generous and posting that figure at 3% still only yields less than a single legislative district (there are 30 of those).

So what prompted this article?  The fact that in spite of numbers so statistically small, the Associated Press, FoxNews Phoenix, ABC15, and the Arizona Daily Star actually expended time and space reporting this minor factoid.  And, I’ll bet this isn’t over.  By the end of the news-day today several more of Arizona’s MSM will have carried the same story.  And by the end of the week, they’ll be editorials, commentary (like this one) to fill a book!

Why?  How is a small stadium (about the size of Chase Field) of people among so many more millions a “news story”?  How about how many children have a father living in the same household or how many female veterans are homeless in our state?  Priorities.  What’s important.  That’s what the media reports.  If they are simply keeping score then the numbers aren’t encouraging and perhaps don’t warrant the amount of attention given to GLBT issues in the media.

Are they a viable component of Arizona’s population?  Absolutely.  Do they receive more than their share of attention and political clout disproportionate to their numbers?  Absolutely.  In our state today aren’t there more important issues to address such as the growing influence of Chinese investment in U.S. resources?

And of course, maybe we should be paying attention to that whole Debt-Ceiling issue now raging in Washington.  After all, $0.40 of each dollar spent by the federal government daily is borrowed.  How sustainable is that?

(picture courtesy of the website Global Cocktails)

 The point?

There are more important issues today than tracking same-sex couples, so why does the media expend the energy on this issue?  How much energy and capital is expended on the GLBT community in Arizona and why given what a small segment of the overall population they truly are.

 

 

Fast and Furious(ly) Cats shoveling the Kitty Litter

ATF to require gun buyer information on border

AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an effort to stem the illicit flow of weapons into Mexico, the Justice Department announced Monday that all gun shops in four Southwest border states will be required to alert the federal government to frequent buyers of high-powered rifles.

The only flow of illicit guns from the four border states are those purchased with taxpayer money by the government of the United States.

How long ago was it when Secretary of Homeland (In)Security made the audacious claim that weapons being used were being supplied by gun shops in the border states?

She expected us to believe that the Drug Cartel’s with their massive stockpiles of cash were purchasing semi-automatic (that’s all you can legally purchase in the US without a special license) weapons one at a time and paying full over the counter retail.  That’s how out of touch this moron of an ex-Arizona governor is… or how politically motivated she is.

When those claims were proved to be false, rather than admitting they were slightly in error,  Napolitano and the Administration simply regrouped and called in Eric Holder who proceeded to launch a taxpayer funded effort to insure that the guns used by the Drug Cartell’s and in crimes committed in the border states had their origins with lawful FFL holders in gun shops from Yuma to Brownsville.

How ripe it is that Holder to deflect the true purpose of Fast and Furious is now ordering via administrative policy new gun regulations for the now discredited BATFE to execute.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the new policy “is exactly what ATF agents on the ground told Congress — that reporting multiple sales of military-grade assault weapons is a crucial tool to identify and disrupt Mexican drug cartels engaged in gun trafficking.”

Military grade assault weapons?  Does Mr Cummings even know what those are?  Does Mr Cummings even know that you can’t buy “military grade” weapons over the counter in the United States?  But then knowledge and truth seem to be alien concepts to some in Congress and the Administration (and for some time now).

It is therefore no surprise that Eric Holder is now doing exactly what that Wiener guy did when first confronted with the T-R-U-T-H … continuing to tell his lie louder.  As the AP story goes on to explain, Holder is rushing to institute policy within the rogue BATFE before the chickens come home to roost and Holder’s role in ordering Fast & Furious (along with a couple of other similar dubious operations) is brought to full light.

If Obama can’t secure his promise of increased draconian gun control through legislation, he and his cronies will do it the way Tyrants and Dictators have always done it… by executive fiat … er, of course I mean order.  After all, for them its all about order.

Side bar: Senator Klein

 

The Senator receives an “F” in handgun responsibility.  Give her the Scott Bundgaard Award for Stupidity

Seems the story appears to have taken place last January because the July 10 article by Richard Ruelas which appeard in the Arizona Republic cites in a later paragraph the date of January 10th during which the episode occurred.

“No more training, background checks or permitting required, thank you very much.”

The above quote is taken from an Editorial in AZ Central July 12 and provides stark evidence just how imbecilic the Editorial board of the financially challenged Arizona Republic truly is;  because background checks are a federal law and are conducted by a licensed FFL in the United States on each and every firearm sale made at a gun shop.

Regarding the lack of training or permitting for handgun ownership;  just look at the carnage on the highway over any holiday weekend in SoCali due to motorists lacking proper training and permits .  Oh and Lorie?  Please try to remember that a gun is not a designer accessory.

Senator Kyl speaks about the next 20 months

But Kyl prefers not to talk about what happens next — not when the country is facing “significant challenges” that will need to be confronted at some point during his final term. Asked about what he hopes to accomplish in that time, Kyl has a ready list of tasks. First and foremost, he wants to work with the Senate Finance Committee to address entitlement reform and institute a “real, pro-growth tax policy.” He’ll also work closely with fellow Arizonan Sen. John McCain to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and combat further illegal immigration. Formidable goals, to be sure. “It might be easier to do now that I’m not seeking reelection,” he says.

The full article may be found in the National Review online.

Without the pressure of re-election and free of the usual Beltway pressures, how will Senator Kyl proceed?  We are encouraged in the belief that his core conservative values will shine.

… he hastens to add, when his legacy is ultimately considered, it won’t be one that can be readily boiled down to a list of concrete accomplishments. “It’s not about bills that I have passed, it’s about the influence I have had,” he says.

So will the Honorable Gentleman from Arizona use the next 20 months to write a list of “concrete accomplishments” to compliment the years of brokering and influence that are the hallmarks of his tenure in the U.S. Senate?

McCain Obama’s 2012 Campaign Manager?

Tipping my hat with a thanks to Seeing Red for bringing this excellent analysis to our attention.  Following the events of last Saturday, I felt it was especially necessary to re-post this article “Obama 2012 Campaign Manager: John McCain” as published in “The American Thinker”.   Author Jeannie DeAngelis kicks a field goal from 65 yards out straight and true.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/obama_2012_campaign_manager_jo.html

It’s clear as 2012 approaches that a similar blueprint of calling attention to a failed presidency could help unseat Barack Obama from the Oval Office.  Yet rather than continue to turn up the heat to accomplish that goal, one particular politician appears to be confused about what side of the aisle he should sit on.  That politician is…yes, you guessed it: that poster child of bipartisanship, the always civil and moderate John Sidney McCain.

Thanks Johnny!

Introducing Liberals of the Arizona Senate, Meet Linda Lopez

Linda Lopez

Linda Lopez

Democrat
District 29

Arizona Senate
1700 W. Washington
Room 312
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Phone Number: (602) 926-4089

Home City: Tucson
Occupation: Program Devlopment Coordinator, LaFrontier Center Member
Member Since: 2001


Linda’s Legislative Achievements:

First elected to office in 2001 to serve District 29; House Minority Whip 2003-2004; Assistant Minority Leader 2005-2006; Current committee assignments are Appropriations( B); Health; Rules; Joint Legislative Budget Committee; CPS Oversight; and the Governor’s Commission on Reforming CPS.

Professional Experience:

Linda serves as Community Relations Coordinator for La Frontera Center, Inc., Tucson. She has been employed and worked for the center since 1991 and is responsible for pursuing funding opportunities for programs, collaborating with other agencies and providers to ensure optimum services for children and adults, and for promoting La Frontera Center to the community. Ms. Lopez has also served as a Clinical Supervisor for Child/Family Center, responsible for overseeing all aspects of daily operations of the Child/Family Center to include personnel management, program development and implementation for a variety of children with special needs, provision of counseling services for children and parents/guardians, and review of financial operations. Prior to this she served as Child/Family Specialist which required direct contact with a variety of special needs children, including developmentally delayed and emotionally and behaviorally disturbed. She developed treatment plans, maintained client records, counseled children and parents/guardians, conducted home visits, and collaborated with staff of cooperating agencies. She was a foster parent for 10 years for 44 foster children who had been abused and neglected. Many of the children had special needs, including schizophrenia, learning disabilities, depression, developmental delays and behavior disorders.

Education:

15 units of graduate credit toward M.A. in History, 1991.

B.A., University of Arizona, Women’s Studies, 1990, (minor in Psychology)

University of California, Berkeley – 1966 to 1968

Academic Honors:

Dean’s List, Phi Beta Kappa and National Golden Key Honor Society

Awards:

Among the many awards Linda has received are:
1996 NOW Woman of Courage
1996 Arizona Art Advocate
1998 YWCA Woman on the Move Award
2000 Noche de la Estrella Serenata de Honor
2003 Arizona School Boards Association Legislator of the Year
2004 Sunnyside School District Hall of Fame Award
2005 Distinguished Service to Exceptional Children
2006 National Association of Social Workers Elected Official of the Year
2006 Arizona School Boards Association Legislator of the Year for 2005
Associations:
Ms. Lopez serves on numerous boards and is a member of many organizations, including:
  • National Conference of State Legislatures Women’s Legislative Network, Executive Committee Board
  • Sunnyside School Board Member, 1986-2002, 2005 to present
  • Parents as Teachers, 1998 to present. Advisory Committee member
  • Arizona Schools Board Association, 1991 to 2002, 2005 to present. Served as President in 2001
  • Arizona Hispanic – Native American School Board Members Caucus. 1987 to 2002. 2005 to present. Served as president in 1994
  • Council of Urban Boards of Education, 1992 – 2002, 2005 to present. Served as chair (2002)
  • National Hispanic Caucus of School Board Members, 1988 to 2002 – present – President 1999 – 2000.
  • Juvenile Services Coordinating Council, 2000 – present. Member
  • National Organization for Women
  • Arizona Women’s Political Caucus
  • NAACP
  • American Association of University Women
  • End of Life Choices — Arizona
  • Planned Parenthood
  • Arizona Human Rights Fund
  • Business and Professional Women’s Association
  • Los Descendientes of Tucson
  • Tucson Sister Cities
  • Co-Chair Governor’s Task Force on Preventing Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Other Drugs…..2005
  • NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected Officials)

Leadership Development:
2004 Flemming Fellow
2005 Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Program for Senior Government Executives, Fannie Mae Foundation
2005 Center for Women Policy Studies Foreign Policy Institute for Women Legislators

A huge reason Carmichael should not be Az GOP State Chairman

Comments may be turned off elsewhere but here its open season.  Ron Carmichael, recruited by Hellon and Verdone is endorsed by Jon Kyl.  You know, the guy who in 2006 promised to “… do something about the border” and promptly forgot he said that after he was safely elected for six more years.  Kyl is the most compromising member of the Republican Party now serving in the U.S. Senate.  What makes Kyl more loathsome than his counterpart John McCain is that Kyl is much more accomplished at masking his real nature – something McCain either never learned or didn’t care about learning.

And Carmichael appears proud to be pictured with Henry Kissinger.  Someone hand me an airsick bag.