It's The Constitution Stupid!

There's the famous sign that Bill Clinton had in his office that said, "it's the economy, stupid!"  Well, it's still the economy, but that's being nudged into second place by The Constitution and all I have to say is that it's about time.

What the government doesn't seem to understand is that though they may disregard the constitution and relegate it to a meaningless piece of memorabelia, the American people still believe that it is the cornerstone of who we are and what our government is supposed to be. 

The trampling of the constitution will no longer be allowed by the majority of the American citizenry so while the economy is still a driving force in people's opinions of their leaders, it is now also the Constitution, stupid.

The Tea Partiers Aren't The Racists

On O'Reilly tonight I was dismayed by Al Sharpton saying that a sign reading "take back our country" was racist.  "What do they mean by 'our' country?" Sharpton asked.  Then I was further dismayed to hear Juan Williams say that we have to consider that the president is a black man and we should be careful about what we say for this reason.

What bothers me here is that Al Sharpton, Juan Williams and most of the hard left see Obama as a black man first and the president second.  And yet the Tea partiers are the racists?  I find it very disturbing to hear that we should meter what we say based on the skin color of the person we're talking to or about.  How can we ever get past the very real, and very horrible problem of racism when we have people telling us that we MUST consider the race of the person and adjust our words accordingly.

It shouldn't matter what color skin the leader has or anybody else for that matter.  We shouldn't see Obama as a black man first and the president second.  As much as I hate it, the man is the president and no assumptions should be made that opposition to his policies has anything at all to do with his race without hard evidence.  The idea that somebody can cast such a broad interpretation of an innocuous statement as to claim it is racist based solely on the color of his skin is tragic, insulting and racist in itself.

I refuse to see an individual by their color first.  Each man and woman will be judged by their actions, and claiming racism where it doesn't exist is keeping a wound open while the rest of us are desperately trying to make the wound heal.

Shame on Al Sharpton and shame on Juan Williams.

Aretha Franklin's Think

In one of her great, girl power songs, Aretha Franklin gave us a call to freedom.  It was a parody I couldn't resist as it needed so few changes to make it a political statement.  I would love to hear a tea party crowd singing this song.

Think

You better think (think)

think about what you’re doing in DC

Yeah think (think, think)

what you’re doing to this great country

Let’s go back – let’s go back,

Let’s go way on back to the founding men

They passed the Bill of Rights

Including that amendment number ten

I’m not an academic

I don’t have twelve degrees

But it don’t take a high IQ

To see what you’re doing to me

You better think (think)

Think about what you’re doing in DC

Yeah think (think, think)

What you’re doing to this great country

Oh freedom, (freedom)

Let’s have some freedom (freedom)

Oh freedom, yeah freedom

You got to have freedom (freedom)

Oh freedom (freedom)

We need us some freedom

Oh freedom

We got to have

Hey, think about it

You, think about it

There aint nothing we could ask

You could answer us but you won’t

All we want is to live free

but it’s clear letting us you won’t

You better think (think)

think about what you’re doing in DC

Yeah think (think, think)

what you’re doing to this great country

Stripping away our freedoms

You’re Just special interest whores

Doing nothing while we lose our jobs

Well be careful or you’ll lose yours

Oh think (think)

Think about what you’re doing in DC

Whoo Hooo, think (think)

What you’re doing to this great country

You need us

We don’t need you

If you won’t listen

We'll find us someone new

Obama - The Leader America Needed

I can already hear the screams of horror at this title, but the Scott Brown / Martha Coakley race shows us exactly why Obama was the president the country needed.

Unlike Clinton who discovered very quickly that pushing hard left was not the way to secure his legacy, Obama ran as a moderate and then went hard left in his administration.  This was a good thing for the country.  A very good thing.

Instead of the gentle nudges to the left that only those of us paying attention noticed, he took a big lurch to the left side that woke many Americans from their complacent slumber.  More people are now paying attention to what's going on, and not liking what they see.  More people are speaking out against the irresponsible spending of both political parties.  More people are seeking out people who support the Constitution to run as their representatives and not just accepting the lesser of the evils on the ticket.  More people are demanding the protection of their God given liberties and are willing to fight hard to protect them.  More people are not only accepting but embracing their civic responsibilities.

With Obama's epic ego convincing him that he can force socialism down the protesting throats of the American people, he has done what no conservative candidate had been able to accomplish.  He shook the American populace out of their slumber and showed them the real path of the progressives.  A path the masses do not want to tread.

Don't get me wrong here; I believe that Obama's policies are disastrous for the nation, but I have faith that the people will stop anything irrevocable from happening and that a new era of responsibility will emerge from the ashes of this obamanation, but it is up to us to do it.  Fortunately, there are far more people who recognize what needs to be done and are willing to volunteer their time and energy to do it.

Obama is not the leader we deserved, but he may just be the leader we needed.

Where's the Equal Protection?

Considering that I've actually read the 14th amendment, I am aware that the equal protection clause specifies that the states can't deny equal protection under the laws; but shouldn't we be able to expect equal treatment and equal protection under the laws of the federal government as well?  We should, but we aren't going to get it and that point has really been driven home in the last month or so.

We don't get treated equally by the government.  Not at all.  Especially when it comes to a tax code that says some pay 35% of their paycheck, others pay 25%, some pay 10% and some pay nothing at all.  And instead of railing against the inequality of this, people scream that those paying 35% aren't paying enough.  It should be equal.  The same percentage for everybody.

One of my pet peaves is that somebody making the exact same amount of money as I do will pay much less in taxes than I do because they have children and I don't.  As if not being able to find somebody who wants to marry me and being physically incapable of having children isn't hard enough, I have to pay higher taxes as a result of those things.  How's that equal?  If it's based on pay it should be based on pay.

Now we have the backroom deals where some states will get money and others won't.  Some people will have to pay taxes on their healthcare plans and others won't.  This bank should have to pay back money they borrowed, but that one won't.  This company that is failing gets saved but the government, but your company won't.

We have taken a country begun with the belief that we are created equal, and legislated inequality.

During the first round of the tea parties we were told to "learn our history" and that the original tea parties were about taxation without representation.  Well I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling represented.

The colonists were fed up with Parliament saying we need money for these people over here, so we're going to take it from those people over there.  Isn't that exactly what's happening now?  Isn't our government saying that if the poor need money they can just take it from "the rich".  Talk about a lack of representation, the rich people in the US have no representation at all.  If you dare to stand up against the idea that they should always be on the hook for paying whatever the government needs, then you are villified.  I'm not rich, not even close to it, but the way they are expected to foot the bill for everybody else in the country offends my sense of fairness.

If we're going to have an income tax, then everybody, and I mean everybody, who earns money should pay the same percentage of their paycheck in taxes.  What's more, I think we should do away with the payroll taxes and everybody should have to write a monthly check for their taxes.  Of course the government will never do this and it's not hard to figure out why.

If those in the lower income brackets, which I have fallen in for much of my adult life, were to actually have to feel the impact on their own checkbooks, they would be the fiercest guards against government waste.  The staunchest defenders of small government and personal liberties.  If you have nothing and the government is taking that from you, you're going to be sure they're not wasting your hard earned money. This is exactly why the government works to exempt these people from any taxes at all.  With no skin in the game they don't really care how the money is spent.  Why should they?

Can you imagine what would happen if there were a house in Congress where, like the Senate with the states, every tax bracket had the same number of representatives and had the same representation? 

I'm completely fed up with the legislation of inequality in this country and my point, after all my rambling, is that if a piece of legislation applies to one person, it should apply to all people equally.

Janeane Garofalo - A Study in Stupidity

I had told myself that I wasn't going to post about this. But I just can't seem to shake my disbelief at the levels of stupidity of this actress and comedienne whose work I once enjoyed and admired. But her statements regarding the tea party protesters (and I am one) was sheer stupidity. Her stance that we are all a bunch of rednecks objecting to a black man in the white house left me resembling the slack jawed yokel she thought me when my chin hit my chest in shock and dismay. Of course the protest couldn't have anything to do with the trillions in debt we are in as the result of irresponsible spending on both sides of the political isle. It couldn't have anything to do with the government bailing out companies who have mismanaged their assets and should fail as a result of their bad management. It couldn't have anything to do with our government officials, most of which don't know their ass from their elbow, thinking that they have the right to fire the CEOs of private companies. It can't have anything to do with printing more money when there are no assets to back it up. Nope. All of those things were just a smoke screen for out bigotry and racism according to Ms Garofalo. The funny thing is that her assumption of the reason behind the protests was way more racist that the actual reason. Her first assumption was that it was due to the color of our president's skin. A very racist stance. For a comedienne she doesn't appear to have much of a sense of humor when it comes to people with different political views from her own.

Making a judgement based on assumption, and stating it as fact is stupid. She made no attempt to find out from the actual protesters what their stance was. Instead she stated her opinion based on her own prejudices and even went so far as to state that there was no other way to see it. That is the essence of stupidity. So to Janeane Garofalo, a big thank you for illustrating to the world what stupidity looks and sounds like.