The 2011 Ames Straw Poll Photo Tour, Vol. 1

Mixing free food,  free goodies, free entertainment, political activism, large crowds, and candidates desperate for votes makes for a unique experience under any circumstance, but the circus that is the Ames Straw Poll beats anything I’ve ever seen. Wandering through the University of Iowa grounds with my trusty Canon Digital Rebel, I did my best to capture the sights. Here is my experience in chronological order:

 

The bus to Ames we were on was packed with self proclaimed “terrorists” and “hobbits” who had so much fun together it should have been outlawed. Maybe I shouldn’t have written that, the government might get ideas.

Once we were disembarked, we found some of the campaigns had volunteers to greet us at the entrance to the grounds. First up were from the Rick Santorum campaign.

This gal from the Ron Paul volunteers was happy to smile for the camera.

There was a small stage with flood lights that messed with my first attempt to photograph these two gentlemen from the Tim Pawlenty campaign. They didn’t hesitate to move to a better position when asked. Having a big camera confers unusual power, I found out.

This is Jerry Lanser, one of what I call “micro-candidates” running for President. He was handing out business cards and was very frustrated at being barred from the debate. There were more like him who don’t have a prayer, but Mr. Lanser was the only one I was able to talk to.

Michelle Bachmann had a lot of gals walking around to show her colors. Her organization was very impressive.

A couple of volunteers from the Herman Cain campaign. He’s my favorite candidate and doesn’t have much of a chance at the nomination. I have to say his supporters were the mellowest of the bunch there.

You see a lot of advocacy groups at the Straw Poll, but this year it was amazing how much “green” energy groups dominated. While the Iowa Republicans were enthusiastic about it, many of the people attending from out of state weren’t.

Patch.com was there and I had no clue what they were about. Looking at their website, it appears to be a social network with news and views oriented around community hubs.

The Faith Family Freedom Fund had their Values Bus there. You guessed it, they promote family values.

Citizens United Productions were selling DVDs from this tent. Traffic was a little higher later in the day. No doubt it was hard to compete with the freebies being given away.

Another vendor was selling T-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers. Oddly there were no free bumper stickers being given away by candidates or advocacy groups, which is the norm at big political gatherings.

Mike Huckabee was everywhere and I managed to miss him every time. But his people from his PAC were all over the place. He hasn’t lost any of his popularity in Iowa.

The NRA presence was much bigger than in 2007. Even bigger was its popularity, people were swarming the tents. Fortunately for me, I got there early enough to score one of the extremely popular blaze orange NRA hats they were giving to new members. Good thing I mentioned I was a lifetime member or I wouldn’t have gotten the hat.

Another micro-candidate was Fred Karger. Having no clue who he was, I looked up his web site. Karger is extremely far left socially and his only claim to fame is that he’s the only gay Republican running for president. Running on a platform lowering the voting age to 16, legalizing marijuana, federal gay marriage, and amnesty for illegals isn’t going to get you far. I wonder what goes through some of these candidates’ heads.

 

Across from the NRA tents was the Iowa Gun Owners tent. Like the NRA tent it ended up getting huge traffic as the day went on.

The National Association for Gun Rights was there and got decent traffic, but nothing like the NRA. They are a more recent rival to the NRA and formed by people who didn’t think the NRA was right wing enough.

The bulk of the candidates were in back of the coliseum where the actual vote takes place. The busiest tent there was Bachmann’s and I never did get decent photos since I vowed not to stand in any lines. Her bus was parked outside the huge air conditioned tent.

 

Drifting above the massive tent was a balloon. At first I though it had come unmoored but discovered there was another line besides the one with streamers. My 18-55mm IS lens did a good job and I never had to get the big lens out.

I finally found Herman Cain’s tents when I spotted the bus.

Cain never had the huge crowds Bachmann and Santorum had in the same lot, but I saw a lot of supporters from other campaigns avidly watch him speak. I never heard a disparaging word about him and suspect he was the number two choice for many of them. Cain even sang a couple of gospel tunes and was accompanied by Mike Huckabee on base guitar on one of them.

Cain and McCotter both had inflatable rubber rooms for the little kids, which I thought was a nice touch. There were a lot of young families in attendance.

To get in Bachmann’s tent, you had to stand in line and get a paper bracelet taped around your wrist. This did not deter people and I later heard  she had bussed in 6000 supporters. I can’t verify that but it looked like that many. Like mentioned before, she had the best organization on the grounds.

To be continued…

Off to See the Circus

It is that strange time again in politics when the straw poll is held in Ames, Iowa. I’ll be heading to the Twin Cities today to catch a bus down there on Saturday if all goes according to plan. That’s something that could change, but I’m going ahead anyway.

Describing the Ames Straw Poll as a circus is pretty accurate. In 2007, I went there to see it first hand and how the Fairtax pavilion was doing. If you have ever gone to a county or state fair, you have a good idea of what it is like. The only difference is that almost everything is free.

For some reason, I failed to blog about it four years ago in 2007. So here are a few pictures with some hazy memories to accompany them.

Entering the grounds it looks just like a county fair.

Every candidate had their own pavilion. There was live music later at Mitt Romney’s which was a very posh setup.

Mike Huckabee’s wasn’t as elaborate, but got a lot more attention.

Tommy Thompson’s run fizzled shortly after this but the bikers who came out in force for him made an impression while driving there. They were a fun bunch.

Tom Tancredo failed to drum up much excitement. This time around he’s sitting out and sniping at Perry over illegal immigration issues. Perry isn’t as conservative as people believe he is.

John Cox was one of the micro candidates who show up at affairs like this – desperately hoping to gain any kind of traction. Hardly anybody was there.

Ron Paul supporters were ever present and stridently marched around shouting his name to drown out other candidates interviews with reporters or discussions with others. As you can see, there is a heavy hippie influence. Some people were very uptight around Paul’s supporters and you could see they were afraid of them. Not a good impression.

Duncan Hunter had an Elvis impersonator performing. Make your own jokes here.

C-Span made a big deal about having their bus there. I don’t remember getting to see what the fuss was about.

Lance Armstrong’s charity was there. Why? I have no clue.

I have even less of a clue what they were about.

There was no escaping the Ron Paul presence. Nowhere was safe. Nowhere.

Over at the Fairtax pavilion, we had a Ferris wheel giving rides. It was a heavily trafficked pavilion.

One of the less crowded moments in the pavilion. I saw a lot of families in there and the atmosphere was good.

Uncle Sam costumes are always popular at these events.

You see some strange sights at political gatherings.

This is the closest I got to a crowd shot. I was so busy trying to get photos of specific things that I failed to capture just how many people were there. One of these days I should get a wide angle lens.

It was hot down there and misting fans were very popular. A good idea by the Fairtax bunch.

That’s what it looked like in 2007. I wonder what I’ll find tomorrow? At least I’ll have a better camera this time.

Life in the Fast Lane

It has been a very nice improvement going to 7.7M down on the DSL service. No longer do I have to check if my father is online and streaming something when I want to myself. Downloading walkaround pictures of aircraft doesn’t consume vast amounts of time. Best of all, I can click on news videos without worrying about buffering.

In a similar vein, high speed access is coming to many church meetinghouses too. I like the fact that you’ll log in using your LDS account and there will be extensive filtering which is a very good thing. Nice to see a wiki up on the Internet too, this page on filtering should be bookmarked by every Latter-day Saint household. From personal experience, I heavily recommend using OpenDNS to filter things at the router level.

Our meetinghouse already has high speed Internet, but protected access only. This should be a great help to Sunday school teachers, though I hope the temptation to use media too much is avoided. Nothing beats real discourse.

Across the river, the GOP in Wisconsin held the state senate, only losing two seats in the recall efforts. But those could be regained elswhere in next weeks recalls against Democrats. This is all very silly – recalls should be for serious malfeasance only.

Locally, Kapanke was toast due to his screwing up and being corrupt in transferring campaign funds to a business he owned. Doing that once is bad enough, but being caught doing it again is sheer stupidity in an age of quick news dissemination.

Just got a call from a FedEx driver, my Verizon pay as you go cellphone will be here this morning. After multiple difficulties with TracPhone, I gave up on them and have been without a mobile phone this year. One has to love being able to order a cellphone online and have it delivered to your house that has no reception. The irony is splendid.

Of course Verizon’s union workers went on strike as soon as I ordered the thing. I wonder which company I should cause trouble for next…

Bad Moon Rising

There are those who actually believe we emerged out of the recession and are worried we are going into another. Well, we aren’t. We never got out of the first one and it isn’t a recession, but the early stages of another Great Depression. While we have more social safety nets in place, they aren’t going to last very long at this rate.

One myth on the Left is that Social Security is a “lockbox” and all the funds are safe there to pay it out. If that were true, how could President Obama threaten to not send checks out next month? Note that this is a threat in political speak and his verbal tones suggest he was eager to issue it.  While it is a despicable thing to do, it does unmask the fallacy of the lockbox.  Another Democrat President ended that isolation of Social Security funds from the general fund back in the 1960’s – Lyndon Baines Johnson. They are now controlled at the whim of our government and are not guaranteed.

But the most interesting thing about this is that there will be money to spend on Social Security and other needed things even if we can’t borrow money. It means drastic cuts elsewhere, but that is at the discretion of the Treasury. Which means it is at the discretion of the President. In other words, Obama is threatening to cut off benefits for political gain in the 2012 elections. Some servant of the people he is.

Being on Social Security Disability, this hits me directly. Loss of Social Security means no food, no shelter, no Internet, and the loss of everything I have.  I can’t say I’m surprised how cavalier the President is about the people who will be affected as he is part of the Chicago Machine which is all about thuggery. The willingness to hurt the elderly and disabled just to damage the Republicans shows the quality of Obama’s character.

Sadly, that is only the beginning of our problems. The debt ceiling will mean nothing in the near future because an economic catastrophe has already begun across the globe. Large things tend to be slow moving and people don’t notice the changes until they hit critical mass. And much like an avalanche, they can’t be avoided.

The jobs report for June in the United States is an unmitigated disaster. 18,000 jobs were purportedly created when we need 150,000 new jobs created each month just to match population growth. Notice I used the word “purportedly.” At The NY Post it is revealed that 131,000 jobs were estimated out of thin air to pad the number upwards. In the United Kingdom, their latest report on employment isn’t quite as grim, but it isn’t good.

Meanwhile, the PIIGS crisis in the European Union continues unabated. Ireland just got relegated to junk bond status and Greece continues to be a bottomless sink hole despite hundreds of billions of Euros dumped into it. I don’t even want to discuss the problems China is having with inflation and bad loans. Two ballyhooed stimulus packages have failed to do anything positive at all and now they are talking about another one, QE3. Throwing money that doesn’t exist at something caused by spending money that doesn’t exist is not a sign of intelligent or even sapient behavior.

What will the second Great Depression look like? That’s hard to tell, since there has been so much wealth generated worldwide since the end of World War II. As mentioned before, there are safety nets in place that weren’t previously in developed countries. But there has never been so much debt in place as we have today. It will hit slower than in the 1920’s and 30’s and it has already begun.

We have much more to lose, so the possibility of it being more dramatic and catastrophic increases due to the simple fact the masses aren’t acquainted with real hardship anymore. What happens when food supplies become permanently disrupted? What happens when fuel is too expensive to allow easy migration to better places? What happens when electricity becomes unreliable with rolling blackouts the norm? What happens when groups begin hoarding resources? Those are all questions the world is going to have to face very soon.

Here in the U.S., we have a cultural divide that is now unbridgeable. The Left have gone so far away from common ground with the middle and right that the political frictions we see now are going to look quaint by comparison when the real crisis hits fully.  Though the truth is the middle will do whatever the group in charge tells them to do, so really they don’t matter. It is a sad thing, but the result of apathy/fence sitting is the loss of any real say in things.

My prediction is greater division and rising violence, both of which have already begun. Frustrations will continue to grow and the political class will continue to play games as long as they are comfortable. By the time anything will be attempted seriously, it will be too late.

So where does that leave the little guy? Up a creek without a paddle in most cases.

All we can do is prepare ourselves for the worst outcome and pray for the best. Storing food for more than threes days of supplies is a beginning. Having the ability to protect yourself wherever you are means exercising your 2nd Amendment rights here in the States, no matter how you feel about firearms. Most of all, you need to be spiritually prepared.

In God you can trust, but not man. I wish people would remember that whenever the latest demagogue of any political persuasion shows up.

The Shutdown

The big news in Minnesota is the state government shutdown due to an inability to get a budget passed. As I expected, the media is backing Governor Dayton and one of the main line of attacks is hammering on incessantly about the closure of state parks during the popular camping season of the 4th of July weekend. All very predictable and probably very effective in swaying public sentiment. Portraying the Republicans as only cutting spending when they actually presented an increase in spending is all part of the dishonest game.

I have to give credit to the state Republican leadership who didn’t cave in despite knowing this was exactly what Dayton wanted, contrary to his protestations to reporters. The surprising thing is how many Republicans I know who didn’t think the shutdown would happen. When a reversed version of this happened while Pawlenty was in office in 2005, the Democrats used it to great advantage to vilify the Republican party and it was believed it contributed to the rout of the GOP in 2006. Of course Dayton was going to return to that playbook!

In the end, there is a high probability that doing the right thing on holding back spending will damage Republican chances statewide in 2012. The power of the media is still great and that can’t be ignored. For all the talk of how the new methods of communication like Twitter and Facebook have changed things, the old partisan media is still where most people get their information. However, there is a lot going on nationally that will effect the local races, especially the economy. That keeps things unpredictable for the moment.

Frankly, I don’t think the public has the intestinal fortitude to deal with the extensive cuts that are really required and we will see Minnesota and the nation collapse into economic ruins. Cynical pandering and class warfare are already being used to buttress the Left’s insane devotion to Keynesian economics. Spending when you have no savings will never get a person, a state, or a nation out of debt. So all of that stimulus into the economy just made things worse and yes, both political parties are to blame for it. You would have thought the lessons of the 1970’s would have been remembered.

Dark times are ahead, far darker than most expect because it is a systemic problem with how our government “works.” People look to the demonstrations and riots in Europe while wondering if it can happen here. It can and could get much worse with the Left’s history of violence.

I would like to be wrong about this.

Misleading Ads and Dayton’s Shadow PAC

Starting this week, I’ve been getting targeted ads in several places I visit on the Net.  They all say “Tell Sen. Jeremy Miller to stand up for the middle class.”  Next to the white text on a somber black background is a poorly dithered grayscale portrait shot of Jeremy with a “Click to learn more.”

Click on it and it takes you to a dishonest video attacking Senator Miller and extolling our rather strange governor’s plan -- which isn’t a balanced budget but instead features massive spending increases.  It is fascinating seeing a rookie Republican State Senator come under attack this way. To me, it shows he is doing a good job at being fiscally responsible in a very bad economic situation. That’s more than I can say about Governor Dayton as he’d rather have a shutdown than not pander to the special interests that got him elected.

This soak the rich campaign shows how utterly out of touch the socialist Democratic Party people have become. You will never hear someone talk about how a poor man gave them their job… Wait, there is one way for that to be true. Overtax and over spend and pretty soon everyone will be poor except the politicians and unionized government workers.  Technically, the public is supposed to be the employer, right? So if we are all poor… Well you get the picture.

Funny how the Alliance for a Better Minnesota is a union funded PAC out to help Mark Dayton. Are they looking out for the best interest of the people of Minnesota or their own pocket books? The answer is pretty clear.

Senator Miller is standing for the middle class, the people who have to balance their budgets and don’t have infinite credit to borrow from.

Maybe now Trump and the Birthers Will Go Away

 

Obama’s long form birth certificate has finally been released and you can download it here.

One of the red herrings that has had conspiracy theorists going nuts has been the lack of a full birth certificate being released.  Foolish dreams of President Biden and a public spectacle of a resigning president have just gone up in smoke. This whole issue has been ridiculous to me from the beginning, since a local newspaper had his birth recorded at the time.

Hopefully, Donald Trump’s ego and celebrity driven candidacy can go up in smoke as well.  He’s no conservative and a constant failure at business, which is precisely what we don’t need.  The only thing he’s been good at is promoting himself and trading in wives for younger models as they get older. That’s cold reality there, much like Obama being a natural born citizen.

Why did the White House wait so long to release it?  Mainly to avoid other records being released as the President made it clear to the media his family was off limits to them.  The suspicion that his grades weren’t great is a valid one given his performance in office so far. But it is his wife’s dealings and family’s dealings in Chicago corruption that are the real issue, in my opinion.  It also has been a great distraction from dealing with the real issues with his presidency and split independents from the Republican party.

In the meantime, the “birther” movement has made themselves look like idiots and that has been to the benefit of President Obama for some time.  With the latest polls showing an increase in people believing he isn’t a citizen and Trump unofficially launching a candidacy, something had to be done to reign it back in. 

By the 2008 election, we entered an era where people can’t tell what the differences between truth, lies, and speculation are. Now demagogues from all facets of the political spectrum are running rampant and things are becoming nuts as a result.  Time to stop being so emotional people!  Coldly focus on what needs to be done or there will be no hope of fixing anything.

What a sad joke our country is becoming.

The Violent Hypocrisy of the American Left

In the fall out of the shooting of Rep. Giffords and others at her public meeting in Arizona, the politics of demonization of the political right has been quick and ruthless by the political left. Their puppets in the news media have been quick to try to pin blame on the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Republicans. Claims that violent rhetoric from Republicans inspired this has become a chanting point. while the real facts that keep trickling out show that the shooter, Jarod Loughner, was a pot smoking, anti-religion, anti-war left winger with an obsession with Giffords dating back to 2007.

Definition:

1. feigned high principles: the false claim to or pretense of having admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings
It would be sheer hypocrisy for them to turn around and do what they criticize in others.

Warning: NSFW in some cases -- Michelle Malkin has an astounding and very long list of the violence called for and perpetrated by the left in the past ten years.  Read through it and the definition of hypocrisy above is well proven, I think.  As I mentioned, beware foul language and crude imagery at the link.

The desire to vilify the right has trumped anything approaching fairness or rationality on the left. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame has an editorial at the Wall Street Journal that further points out the hypocrisy going on.  I will quote him:

To be clear, if you're using this event to criticize the "rhetoric" of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you're either: (a) asserting a connection between the "rhetoric" and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you're not, in which case you're just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?

Frankly, I don’t expect an honest answer from the left on that one. But I don’t expect honest answers from them on anything these days.

This rant by krakatoa at Ace of Spades pretty sums up how fed up we are with this.  It is horrible that the acts of an extremely mentally ill young man are being used for attempted political gain by the left.  Appalling barely begins to describe it.

I used to defend people on the left as being well intentioned if misguided.  The events of the last several years have taught me otherwise.  Dishonesty, intolerance, and hate is all I’m seeing out of them and it is getting worse.  This trend cannot be good for the country and will lead to real conflict down the road.

A Memorable and Unpredictable Election

Since I was up until 3:00 A.M., I’m hoping I have some semblance of coherency writing this post.  My father and I spent the evening with our State Representative Greg Davids with other supporters of his (kudos to Bonnie for being such a great hostess).  We’ve been doing this since election night in 2006, which unfolded like a horror movie  as the Democratic tsunami took Greg and most of the other state Republicans out of office.   I imagine that was the feeling in many a DFL victory party last night that turned into funerals when both the state house and senate went from veto proof majorities for them to Republican majorities.

I refused to make any solid predictions this year when asked by friends and political activists because at some point I realized none of the data coming in fit anything I’d seen before.  Combined that with a very strange atmosphere of smoldering resentment toward all politicians that I found amongst the average citizen of the area and I concluded this was going to be a strange election.  Even the political activists didn’t have much passion, aside from some of the Tea Partiers.   I knew the Republicans would win and win big nationally, but Minnesota looked bad.

Thanks to Mark Ritchie’s incompetence (or is it something more sinister?)  at managing the Secretary of State office, results for our local counties of Fillmore and Houston trickled in very slowly if at all on the SoS website.  That meant phone calls and trips to the local county courthouses to find out what was going on.  Houston County was forced to email results in because the line for the counting machines to the state capitol was dead.  That made for a long evening watching national and statewide races seesaw back and forth.

In the end, we saw the voters of the United States punish the Democratic Party for their ignoring the will of the people and following an extreme left wing agenda. That agenda is over, even though Republicans only took the U.S. House.  The gains in the U.S. Senate were large enough to make things very difficult for certain Democrat Senators to toe the party line when they are looking to get re-elected in 2012. 

The bigger news is that many state legislatures and governorships flipped to the GOP.  Why is this bigger news?  2010 is a census year and that means federal and state redistricting of voting districts.  With their penchant for gerrymandering, the Democrats had to hold on to everything they had to keep those districts or tamper with Republican dominated ones. Now Republican dominated legislatures will control the redistricting in many critical states and Minnesota.  Never thought I’d see that!

I’m pleased to say Houston County went completely red this election.

On to some specific races:

Greg Davids won HD-31B outright despite having two opponents. Steve Kemp (DFL) and Al Hein (Ind) split the liberal vote but even that didn’t matter as Greg won 53% of the vote for a clear knock out.  Surprising, I thought it would be tighter.

Rhett Zenke put up a good fight but Gene Pelowski HD-31A will never be knocked out as he is the last of the conservative Democrat breed.  At least Rhett won in Houston County and I hope he sticks around after redistricting.

Jeremy Miller upset Sharon Ropes in SD-31 which surprised many. This one didn’t surprise me, I knew Miller would win a close race and it was very close.  Congratulations on winning and securing the state senate for us, Jeremy!

Randy Demmer made it close against Tim Walz in CD-1, but enough people buy into Walz’s phony moderate act to keep him in office.  There was a poisoned atmosphere the unfairly hurt Randy that originated in the 2006 endorsement campaign that I think affected things. But the biggest problem is that unless we find a multimillionaire to self finance, Walz will always have a ridiculous money advantage. The union money borders on the infinite there.

The governor’s race is going into automatic recount with Emmer trailing Dayton by half a percent.  This race went bad because “moderate” Republicans decided to go out and get Horner elected.  His 12 % didn’t come from Dayton like some activists insisted, but mostly from Emmer.  But this gets uglier.  Hennepin County managed to have 180,000 more ballots cast than there are registered voters when there was only 58% turnout statewide.  This stinks of voter fraud and I predict the recounts will get ugly.

Those 180,000 votes would be enough to change the outcomes of the state constitutional offices as well.   As it stands, they all remain in the hands of the DFL.

That leads me to point out a problem that Minnesota has – we don’t have clean elections and haven’t for some time. The corruption and fraud in the Twin Cities has spilled out to affect smaller cities in the state as well.  Voter fraud is extremely hard to prove because there are very few safeguards against it in the system.  Voter ID is desperately needed here and would prevent it up front.

Finally, a comment on two races that gained national attention.  In Nevada, Harry Reid won when he shouldn’t have.  In Delaware, Coons destroyed O’Donnell easily.  Both those candidates were poor choices and in O’Donnell’s case, became a litmus test for purity amongst some conservatives.  Those who pointed out her Grand Canyon sized flaws were shouted down and accused of being RINO’s.  Quality of character matters and should matter to those of use who are conservatives.  Just because someone says things we want to hear doesn’t make them a good candidate or trustworthy.  That lesson needs to be driven home before November 2012 comes around.

Why?  Because the American public hates Republicans almost as much as they hate Democrats.  Republicans have to come through on fiscal issues or else they will be dumped out of office too. I expect the electorate to fragment over the next few years and there will be growing instability if the GOP screws up again.   Hostility toward the federal government is growing in proportion to the expansion of it.  Big government has been rejected along with Barack Obama’s radical agenda.  All newly elected Republicans better keep that in mind because the public is watching.

Another Potential Candidate for President

Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) made waves by winning the Value Voters Summit straw poll last week.  He’d been on the outer edges of my radar but this speech on the Presidency at Hillsdale College has really gotten my attention. He is someone to watch now.

The O'Donnell Victory

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/246622/about-last-night-jonah-goldberg

In the above missive, Jonah Goldberg captures most of how I feel about what has happened in Delaware. But I'm going to criticize the mindless viciousness of her supporters because they are turning things into identity politics the way the Democrats do. From the women blindly supporting O'Donnell thinking that she was attacked for daring to be a woman to the ad hominem profanity directed at principled conservatives objecting to a fraud and a liar becoming the candidate (though in truth those descriptions apply to Castle as well), the attitudes remind me of how Obama's camp tore down Hillary Clinton in 2008. There was very little rationality involved and a great deal of emoting due to the desire to get rid of a RINO.

I've got news for people. Just because someone says all the things you want to hear from them doesn't make them the real deal. Anybody who made rent payments from their campaign contributions is not someone you want going to Washington to live off the taxpayer. Opposing a person like that doesn't make you a RINO or a puppet of the Republican establishment. Look deeper into the actions of those who say all the right things before opposing or supporting them. With the Republic itself dangling by a thread, this is not the time to be stupid and start a civil war amongst conservatives.

The consequences could be dire, for with a public sick of the Democratic and Republican parties, hating another party such as the Tea Party will be very easy. All it will take is getting the wrong people in and their screwing up. There is no patience in the electorate right now. As the Democrats have found, the anger that can sweep you into power can just as quickly sweep you out. People advocating a third party will find that it will fare no differently.

As for me, I wish a real conservative had been in the Delaware primary. I consider neither Castle or O'Donnell to be the real deal.

The Great Divider

For some time I have considered Obama to be “The Great Divider,” especially in regard to racial issues.  The Democrats have been inflaming things by making false accusations of racism and violence by Tea Partiers.  Be sure to read all the links in those posts.

These accusations are flat out lies designed to smear average Americans who don’t want to see the country turn into a socialist state or dictatorship.  Claiming a rock was thrown through a Democrat office window when the said office is on the 30th floor of a building is probably the most ludicrous of the lies.

The end result of this is that there can be no coming together, no bipartisanship, and no reconciliation (not the Senate maneuver) between the right and left in America.  It simply isn’t possible when the left plays these games and if you think things are polarized know you have no clue.  Unless Republicans take back Congress and repeal ObamaCare, I predict a civil war by no later than 2015.   We now have irreconcilable differences and a president who has no interest in building bridges or listening to the people. 

The irony of the smear tactics being used by Obama and his enablers in Congress is that they may breed that which they are lying about.  Not only are they genuinely angering conservatives and libertarians with their lies, those lies are believed by people on the left who have no clue what is really going on.  With the real tendency toward violence on the left, I will not be surprised if we start seeing violent acts against Tea Partiers.  Oh wait, we’ve already seen that with the SEIU thugs.

I think the Democrats have forgotten the important fact that every government must be afraid of the people because that’s where the real power lies.  Instead, they insist on imposing their elitist socialist views on an unhappy populace.  By fomenting anger with lies the leftists think they can control things. They will reap the whirlwind if they keep on this path and I had hoped I wouldn’t be around to see the day when the country was torn apart. Sadly, that is looking very unlikely now.

This is why it will be critical to throw the Democrats out of office in November.  If the House and Senate aren’t taken away from them, ObamaCare will be the least of our worries.  A civil war is not something to want or desire.  It makes me think of Theoden’s speech to Gandalf in the movie LoTR: The Two Towers:

“Simbelmyne. Ever has it grown on the tombs of my forebearers.  Now it shall cover the grave of my son. Alas that these evil days should be mine. The young perish and the old linger. That I should live......to see the last days of my house.”

We need to take action now to undue the damage being done. The voters need to send a clear message in November.

Odds and Ends

So much for posting the other night!  It has been another strange week and I’m trying to recover from a trip to the Minnesota State Capitol yesterday.  My father and a mutual friend went up to visit our State Representitive Greg Davids and watch the House in action.  Having floor passes, we witnessed first hand the very messy process of law making.  I suspect that the general public would have an interesting reaction if they saw how things actually function.

Sitting in on the House Republican Caucus before hand was just as fascinating.  All of it was reminiscent of the activity in a beehive with constituents, politicians, lobbyists, pages, activists, and visiting students bussing around the hallways. I would have liked to stay longer and visit with the pols I’ve gotten to know over the few years I’ve been in politics.  But it was taking it out of me and we needed to get going on the long trip home.  There were also sliders to get at White Castle.  All in all, a good time.

Now for a few links to things that caught my interest around the world:

The Russian Bear has been stirring for awhile and the Brits have been intercepting their bombers quite a bit in the past year.  The Norwegians have been busy doing the same and I get the feeling that Obama’s weak behavior in dealing with foreign countries is getting tested.

The economic and totalitarian fiasco that is ObamaCare will soon reap destructive results in the bond markets. Scratch that, it is already happening. Once again it is a problem magnified by Obama’s incompetence in handling foreign affairs – of course he isn’t any better at handling domestic affairs either.

Locally, we had an endorsing convention last Saturday.  Both candidates for the Republican endorsement ran good campaigns and I think Jeremy Miller will win in November.  The results weren’t a surprise but the margin of victory was.  It bodes well that all three counties went for Miller. Congratulations to Jeremy and I look forward to helping his campaign out.

If You Think U.S. Politics Are Bad…

 

Coming off the rather lame healthcare summit that was done for political cover, most of the coverage has dealt with the testy exchange between President Obama and Senator McCain. That was nothing compared to what goes on in other countries.  Check out this withering verbal assault on the President of the European Union.

 

At first it seems like a Monty Python skit, but then the tempers really begin to flare. It makes our politicians look good by comparison doesn’t it?

Back to the summit – I think that was a clear win for the Republicans as the Democrats only had pity inducing stories for ammunition.  The GOP came ready and had their A gamers at the top of their form. Obama did not help things as he gave the Democrats twice as much time to speak than the Republicans.  Then he gave himself more time that either!  If they think this will swing the public over to supporting reconciliation they are sorely mistaken.

 

del.icio.us Tags: Obamacare,summit,Nigel Farage,Obama,McCain,politics

Caucus Time in Minnesota

Next Tuesday night we have the political caucuses for the Republican and Democrat-Farmer Labor parties.  Not many states have this system, so it is something different than most voters expect.  Instead of going someplace to vote in a primary for predetermined candidates, the local voter goes to a caucus where they can choose to run for a delegate seat in the county convention.  Resolutions are also submitted and voted upon to be considered at the previously mentioned convention.

In other words, it is an opportunity for the little guy to be heard and have some effect on local politics beyond just voting. Locally, the county chairs for both parties sat down with reporter Ryan Henry at The Houston County News for an informative article.

Government is best run if the people are fully involved and I recommend that every Minnesotan with a political opinion put their time and energy where their mouths are by attending their local caucus.

I’ll be doing my part as a convener for the Republican Party caucus location in Houston.  Should be interesting if the Tea Parties are any indication!

Brown Wins Senate Race in Massachusetts

All the networks are calling it for Brown with 70% of the precincts reported in.  He won convincingly, 53% to 46% for Coakley and it will be interesting to see if the percentage holds up.  Given the voter fraud that gives Democrats around 5% extra in the race, this was a very solid win.

Good news for now and we’ll have to wait and see if this kills Obamacare.  I suspect it will as Democrats up for re-election this year will be very scared after this debacle.  The last minute campaigning by President Obama did nothing to stem the populist tide and may have hurt things.

November is looking good for the Republican Party.

Good News in the MN Governor’s Race

Norm Coleman isn’t going to run after all.  I, for one, am very relieved to read this as I think it would have been a disaster. There would have been a revolt amongst the activists and Tea Partiers which would have dragged down other races.

Odds are that Marty Seifert will get the endorsement but things could change by convention time.  It will be interesting to gauge the mood at the precinct caucuses on February 2 and that may give a clearer picture.  Depending on who the new delegates and alternates are there could be a big shakeup in what direction the state GOP will go.

I think anyone who isn’t a fiscal conservative will be dead meat.

Big Business & Big Government

One of the refrains I’ve seen of late is how capitalism failed and that’s why we are in an economic crisis. Something I’ve tried to explain to people in the past is that real capitalism is rarely seen in America these days.  What we have is huge corporations that dearly wish to be monopolies.  Monopolies don’t want competition, they want total control and are big believers in centralization.

So I’ve found it interesting how Republicans have been labeled the party of big business when so many big businesses mainly contribute to Democrats.  When big government and big business conspire, you get what we have these days.  What I am is a believer in competition of the free market which is different than being pro-business.  Jonah Goldberg has an excellent piece on this that everyone should read.

At Blogmocracy, Rodan has a post based on Goldberg’s op-ed that connects the union of progressives and big business with the policies of fascism.  In it, he uses a term I’ve used for years, Neo-feudal to describe the attitude of those wishing control through making everyone beholden to them. I have to point out that the ever increasing number of “czars” in the Obama administration accentuates the impression of feudalism to me.  Having people with cabinet level power who directly report to the President is all too much like vassals reporting to their lord, in my view.

I will say that the video in the post is annoying, it has some good content on socialism and George Orwell, then completely goes off the rails with the cartoony stuff at the end.

I think a fundamental human mistake is to vest power in one organization and then have all the decisions be made at the top.  This is the essence of centralization and history shows that it leads to inflexibility, inefficiency, and corruption every time.  This applies to businesses, organizations, political parties, and governments equally.

But here we are, repeating the same mistakes and being shocked when it goes wrong. While I think people are starting to wake up and see what is happening, I wonder if it is too late.  The consolidation of power by the federal government and large corporations has been going on for some time now.  The ACTA shenanigans are a good example of how it works, with the US government doing the bidding of the entertainment industry.

The solution is smaller government and small business.  A focus on these things will lead to better economic and political health in the country.  But will the American people do what is needed to bring reform about?  That’s the multi-trillion dollar question.

The 66% Rule: How to Select Republican Candidates for 2010

 

There is unrest amongst the grass roots and discontent with all politicians – not just Democrats.  At the moment, it looks good for the Republican Party but it is a long way until November 2010.  Things change and the unpredictable can alter any trajectory in politics.  Therefore, the Republicans need to be coming up with candidates who will stand for something, not just counting on the voters being angry with the other side.

Whether candidates are chosen via caucuses or primaries, the Republican Party needs to have a clear identity to present to the public.  While RINO hunting can be a valid sport there can be a tendency to go overboard in purity tests. Likewise, the “Big Tent” approach can lead to leftwing liberals like Dede Scozzafava running as a Republican. It would help if the GOP actually stood for something basic while still allowing a variety of candidates to be fielded in the very different districts that make up the political landscape.

I submit that we must use a variation of Reagan’s three legs of a stool test.  Reagan’s idea was that a Republican movement needed to be fiscally conservative, socially conservative, and defense hawks.  This is the ideal for a candidate and can be achieved in solidly red districts – in fact it must be the criteria there.

But what of weaker areas? Realistically, we have to face that there will be districts that a pure conservative cannot win. Still, we need a Republican who will vote most of the time with the caucus. By that, I don’t mean 51% of the time.  In those weaker districts a Republican who votes conservatively 66% of the time is the bare minimum.

In choosing a candidate, I have come to the conclusion the person must meet at least two of the following criteria:

1. The candidate must be fiscally conservative, no exceptions!  A true fiscal conservative will also favor small government and won’t do anything to grow government. This criteria is absolute and inflexible.

Next at least one of the following stances must be held:

2. The candidate is socially conservative.  This generally means pro-life, pro defense of marriage, and/or pro Second Amendment.  The beliefs must be solid and not based on pandering.

3. The candidate is a defense hawk who supports the military.  Our men and women in the armed forces need all the backing they can get as we confront terrorism and other threats.

Two out of three should give us conservative legislators who will work together well at the state level and in Congress. This is The 66% Rule.

Holding only one of these conservative credentials is not enough even in the bluest of districts.  In order for the Republican Party to have a cohesive identity and work together, there has to be common ground other than merely having the label “Republican.”  It isn’t enough to just win elections – the goal has to be advancing our political philosophies. Otherwise, the Democratic Party will continue to use divide and conquer tactics to get their legislation passed.

If we keep the Rule of the Three Legged Stool in solidly conservative districts and follow The 66% Rule for weaker districts, I believe Republicans can win in 2010 and 2012. More importantly, it will give us candidates who will advance the conservative cause and undo some of the damage done by the current Congress and administration.

While this is a broad and simplified set of criteria, anything more complicated becomes cumbersome and subject to constant amendments.  There will be “moderates” who will be upset at the rule and there will be “true conservatives” equally unhappy with it. It doesn’t matter. Things are at a dangerous point in our governance and we don’t have time to play internecine games that only strengthen the political Left. 

We need to keep things simple and focused while remembering that most of the country considers themselves conservative one way or another.  The public craves politicians who will stand for something and actually live by their words.  There was a whiff of desperation in the voting choices made in 2008, a hope that if everything was turned over to the Democrats things would be better.  Many Democrats shaded their stated positions toward the middle to get elected, much like President Obama did and more recently Owens in NY-23.  Once in place, they didn’t live up to their statements and went left.

The Republican Party lost its identity some time back and the voters haven’t forgiven us for it. We need to win the people over and to do that we have to have cohesion in our ranks. Until then, any victories we have will be short lived.  With a true identity, the Republican Party could retake power and stay there for some time.

Weekend Links: The Economy

It was quite a week for developments on the economic front.  I wish I could report it was good news.
First off, official unemployment hit 10.2% after October’s figures came in.  This indicates things are getting worse for the American worker – not better. Ed Morrisey at Hot Air has an excellent post on it including an updated Romer graph of what the stimulus promised to do versus what actually happened.  We are off the chart now.  Also from Ed is a post with links of what jobs were really saved by the stimulus, starting with California.  Hint: the state & federal governments aren’t honest.
Doesn’t get much more pointed than what India’s finance minister said when their central bank bought 200 tons of gold in order to reduce dollar holdings.  What did he say about the economies of Europe and the US?  That they had “collapsed.”  Asian countries are running from the US dollar now.
Makes the wrangling over how much to increase health care look silly if there won’t be any money at all.  Still, the Republican health care plan was rolled out Wednesday after having the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) go over the figures.  It would actually reduce the deficit by $68 million over a ten year span.  Sounds good compared to the trillion dollar increase in debt from ObamaCare.  Still, how will any of it be paid for? There is no answer on that, because there is no way to!

UPDATE:  I was wrong, the Democrats plan isn't a trillion dollar outlay, but $3,000,000,000,000 plus over 10 years according to the CBO! The Heritage foundation estimate comes in at $2.4 to 2.6 trillion.  This is insane.