News from the Rabbit Hole

Because we are in it, folks.

1.  Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs.  This is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.  Hey, don’t look at me like that.  Vice-President Biden says so.

2.  Perhaps someone should tell Biden that government spending is already 41% of our entire Gross Domestic Product.  Forty-one percent!

3.  A mayor in the grip of the Obama administration’s regulatory stranglehold cries, “uncle!”  Oh, and she’s a Democrat.

4.  Organizing for America is running an art contest.  Submit your Agitprop for Obama Government, and you may be a winner!  Really, it’s not just satire.  It’s a real contest.

5.  Some writer over at the Business Insider thinks it’s hard to tell the difference between her selection of Tea Party v. Occupy Wall Street signs.  (Psst.  Each sign is dead easy to judge, if one is actually familiar with the Tea Party Movement.  Here’s a couple hints for the uninitiated:  American flags in the background=Tea Party!  Sign makes little or no sense=OWS!)

Have a great rest of the week.  If you find a way out of this rabbit hole, do let me know.

So About These Occupiers . . .

What’s the best way to deal with them?

“Feh” is my initial gut instinct–who cares?  Let them beclown themselves.  I commented in this vein over at Conservatives on Fire.  Yeah, there are Soros and other Big Money connections–who cares?  All the better if these substantively empty protests drain the left’s coffers.

Then I got around to reading a post over at FilmLadd. (Drat.  I can’t remember who led me to FilmLadd, so I can’t do the via link.)  In that post, Mr. Ehlinger makes an unsettling point:

“My hunch is that these protests aren’t about accomplishing anything right now except to flex their muscles, test out the police, and see which supporters “they” (the White House) can count on.

In short: #OccupyWallStreet is a dry run for November 2012.”

Hmm.  That sounds bad . . . and yet plausible.

What do you think?

Update on Those “We The People” Petitions

Of course you are probably aware of the fact that the White House petition site is a dog-and-pony show, a bit of Uncle Joe’s theater, and an all-around exercise in futility.

Still, only a few internet clicks are required.  So registering to sign petitions is probably at least as worthwhile as reporting fellow bloggers to ATTACK WAAAAAATTCCHH, especially since that site seems to have gone dormant, aww.  (You did report me to Attack Watch at least once, didn’t you?  I reported several of you.)

Those Misfit Politics dudes should gin up a parody, stat, and jack up the fun factor on We The People.  At the moment, the petition list is pretty well dominated by progressive stuff, drug legalization, narrow unheard-of issues, and general kookiness.  Overrunning the site with conservative concerns would be a good show, at least.

Part of me, however, does not want to encourage the affair.  When you create your own petition, the website formats it to begin like this:

“WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO”

As I’ve scrolled down the growing list of petitions, my eyes have opened to an insidious angle on the whole exercise.  “We The People” is a program that, perhaps, gets citizens used to the idea of petitioning a consolidated central power directly for any need or heart’s desire.  No consideration is given to whether the Executive Branch can grant the petition, or should grant the petition.  No Rule of Law, just arbitrary hope for favor granting.  (Pwease forgive our college loans, Papa Obama, we don’t wanna pay ‘em!)

Ah, well, I’ve signed a couple of petitions anyway.  Karen at the Lonely Conservative pointed out a Repeal Obamacare petition that needs a bunch of signatures to make the cutoff.  Here it is.

Also, kudos goes to the person that created this petition:   Support H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, which is carefully worded to include the reality that the Obama Administration cannot pass or repeal laws, just support or veto them.  (Well, never mind that whole regulatory law problem we got going right now–that’s a separate post.)

And now, a Nelson Award goes to the petition asking the Obama Administration to “Recognize the men and women who are occupying wall street.”  Looks like somebody’s feeling underappreciated and ignored.  How come they don’t get all that fine attention that those nasty Tea Partiers get?  Wah:

“Mr.Obama, this is a petition for you to publicly recognize, whether in a live speech, or in one of your weekly youtube addresses, the #occupywallstreet movement that is currently taking place in NYC.

These men and women are trying to send a message to their fellow Americans and to the world- the big banks and the super-rich, who is ‘buying out congress’, are the primary drivers of the ongoing recession.

Unfortunately, they are largely being ignored by the media in the United States due to the ‘small size’ of the protests. Note that ‘small size’ has not deterred Fox, CNN and other US news channels/newspapers from covering, and even putting on the front page, Tea Party and other far right protests, some of which have had as little as 100 people (#occupywallst varies from 500-3000)”

The White House Is Ready For Our Petitions

We The People has gone active, ya’ll.  Remember it?

I just got a quick look at the page, and only a few petitions have been filed.  Most of them pertain to legalizing marijuana, hmm.  One is from PETA, wanting to mandate the spaying or neutering of pets.  In the process of registering in order to file my own petition, and also screen cap the first day’s petitions, I have run into problems.

First, the registration window is cut off at the bottom.  Once I type the captcha, I can’t find the submit button.  Trying the enter button just elicits the ubiquitous Windows “ding.”

Second, the website is extremely sluggish.  Getting more attention than anticipated, perhaps?  I can’t seem to get back onto the petitions list in order to capture it.

Frustrating.

Aha!  Trying to log in as though already registered brings up a new “not a registered user” option.  Okay, I’ve received the confirmation email, and I’ve clicked on the link provided to confirm my account . . . wait, what?  404 file not found?  Let’s try again . . . I can only use the confirmation link once for security reasons?  I’ll try to sign in anyway . . .

I’m in!

Eight petitions so far, here they are:

I’m not too interested in the existing petitions.  The current threshold is 5,000 signatures within 30 days, in order to get an official response.  Any changes to that threshold will not be made retroactively, says the White House webpage.

What shall I petition the White House about first? I’m open to suggestions.

It’s Gonna Be A Good Day, Tater.

First, Weiner’s ex-district elected a Republican for the first time since forever ago.

Then, comes Great New Material for Mockery:  AttackWatch.com.

Instant hilarity has ensued in twitter feeds and comment threads.  Somebody at ABC tried to give Attack Watch a positive spin, but even folks at the Washington Post are smacking their foreheads.

Get on over to Attack Watch, and sign up to Report an Attack. Out of patriotic duty, I signed up and reported my own humble blog site, as well as the First Lady’s attempt to make her husband look bad.

You just can’t make up stuff like this.   Iowahawk tweets it best:

“I’m grateful to live in a country where the totalitarians are so hilariously inept.”

This parody (via Hot Air) is chockfull of mockery-goodness, too:

Better than finding M&Ms in the folds of your jowl skin.

Sign Up for the Email Alert!

The White House wants to hear from the grassroots, ya’ll.  Via Legal Insurrection comes word of a new program, We the People:

“Individuals will be able to create or sign a petition that calls for action by the federal government on a range of issues. If a petition gathers enough support (i.e., signatures) it will be reviewed by a standing group of White House staff, routed to any other appropriate offices and generate an official, on-the-record response.

How many signatures? Initially petitions that gather more than 5,000 signatures in 30 days will be reviewed and answered.”

Giddy-up!

Follow the White House link below, and you too can be first to know when this new petition system is available.

P.S.  I am still unable to embed links.  I don’t know if it’s WordPress or my browser.  I’m hoping to get a helpful reply from the WordPress support folks soon.  Here are the links “footnote” style:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/09/now-this-is-an-opportunity/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/01/we-people-announcing-white-house-petitions-how-they-work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqlaRZOUwn4&NR=1

Twitter Town Hall Funnies

Sigh.  Before I share this link, I feel compelled to admit I am not a regular reader of Iowahawk. 

This fact is due to my own shortcomings, however.  I am quite convinced that David Burge is devastatingly clever.  Everyone says so.  I can even tell by the few posts I’ve read.

Here’s the embarrassing part.  I haven’t read more Iowahawk posts, because I usually don’t get them.  I start reading . . . then I get lost.  An internet equivalent to a tennis ball inevitably catches my eye, and like the dog in “Up” my attention immediately goes elsewhere.

But.  Even a canine attention span can absorb the comedic genius in Iowahawk’s list of proposed questions for President Obama’s Twitter town hall.  I’m not going to quote any of them, even though I really want to.  You have to go read them all.

Here.  /drops a newspaper at your feet/

Ooh!  Squirrel!  /scampers off excitedly/

Abandon Ship?

Is it time to start a third party?

That question comes up on a regular basis.  For good reason, of course:  the GOP sucks, generally speaking.  That suckage notwithstanding, my gut reaction to this question is always:  no.  It is not time to start a third party.

Why?

I pondered that question on one of my runs, or dog walks, or school trips, or summat.  Can’t remember which.  Anyhow, in a typically annoying fashion, I shall answer the question with a question of my own:

Has the left made its progress through the ascendency of a third party?

No.

Sure, there are leftist “third parties” out there:  the Green Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Labor Party, the Socialist Labor Party, the Workers Party, to the Working Families Party, just to name a few from this Wikipedia list.

But.  Did these ”third parties” actually create the major leftist mile (mill) stones of today, from the Great Society to Obamacare?

No.  It’s all Dem, baby.

Far-left groups have influenced Democrat thinking, no question.  But did they do so by being an electorally viable party?

No.

In the same way, the Libertarian Party and the Tea Party do not need to be electorally viable in order to influence Republican thinking.

We do not need a third party.  We need to be working overtime to infiltrate and influence the GOP.  Just as the left did the Dems.  For us, the November 2010 election was only the beginning.  If the advance made so far is inadequate, that is our bad.  We should have been infiltrating and influencing well before Obama was elected.

Our bad.

Let’s just hope our bad hasn’t cost us the whole of our liberty.

I’ve Got A Name For It Too

I’m detecting a wee bit of cynicism regarding Congress’ commitment to controlling spending.

Citizen Tom calls it a “tempest in a teapot.”  But, how can that be?  A government shutdown is looming, hanging over our heads like an axe!

Wait, what?  The GOP’s drastic $60 billion proposal amounts to only a 1.6 percent cut in the 2011 budget?  Anybody want to check the math on this?

That Spellchek fellow seems adept with math.  (Hopefully better than his spelling, wink.)  According to him, the Dems’ proposal to cut $6.5 billion ”doesn’t even equate to 20 hours of deficit spending, based on the record February rate Obama just added to our debt.”

Wow, 20 whole hours of spending.  Nice.

Even the stoic watchman on his tower isn’t feeling it:

“This is going to come all the way down to the wire, but in the end the Republicans will give up much more than they gain because they will be too timid to shut down the federal government in light of the repercussions it had when they tried this in the nineties.”

In the meantime, OFA is sending a mass email brimming with shocked denunciations and chicken little proclamations like:

They would close more than 16,000 classrooms, lay off 55,000 teachers, and cause 218,000 children to be kicked out of early-childhood education programs!

They would slash homeland security investments and lay off thousands of police officers and firefighters!!

They would defund health insurance reform, doing away with the cost savings and vital patient protections relied upon by millions of Americans around the country!!!

They would eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, ending thousands of health center jobs and leaving millions of women without access to preventive care!!!!

They would kick homeless people out of their cardboard shelters to recycle said shelter for a penny while simultaneously shoving grandmas and kicking puppies!!!!!

 Where was I?  Oh, I promised my own descriptive phrase for this budget debate:

Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy your dog and pony show.

The GOP starts off their negotiations with a proposal to cut $60 billion.  Sigh.  Let Rand Paul tell you how that dog don’t hunt.

Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking . . .

I’m A Little Nosy Part 2

Ever since the Coffee Party burst onto the scene in March of ’10, I’ve been on their email list.  Now, we don’t hear much about them anymore.  Professor Jacobsen over at Legal Insurrection noted the movement’s decline back in August.

Yet, the Coffee Party is still chugging along in a sleepy fashion, which amuses me since it’s named after such a stimulating beverage.  I still get emails from them, thanks to signing a sheet passed around that fateful first local Coffee Party meeting at Starbucks. 

At first, local participants sent the emails, but that stopped quickly.  Now it’s the typical mass email from headquarters–you know, like the stuff you get from OFA or the RNC.

So I get a little nosy when a new name appears in the “from” box.  (Like the time I got nosy about the name Joshua Norris, listed as the coordinator of a local OFA event.  His Myspace page was . . . interesting.)

This time the new name in the Coffee Party “from” box was Bruce Schuman.  Google produced a few different Bruce Schumans, but I’m pretty sure this is the guy. 

Go ahead, click over.

He’s probably a really nice guy, but I’m not sure I follow his spiritual beliefs.

Oh and hey.  If you ever run out of Lunesta and need a sleep-aid immediately, click here.

UPDATE:  Yeah, I’ve definitely got the correct Bruce Schuman.  He’s written an article at the Coffee Party site about ”transpartisanship.”  You know, because bipartisanship is so ten minutes ago.  What is it with the constant rebranding of all things progressive?

He also started something called Shared Purpose.  Here is the list of groups participating so far.

And check out the info on this kinda mysterious website called Public Intelligence Blog:

Below the line is an email with several links that has been broadcast by and to what we think of as the “thinking man’s kum-ba-ya crowd.”  They have not gotten a grip on public intelligence in the public interest yet, they are still crawling around the edges of structured organization.  Think of them as raw material for GroupOn.  A mix of naivete, scary, and inspiring.  Please also note, as Tom Atlee has emphasized, that CITIZENSHIP makes “transpartisanship” a moot if not a counter-productive term.  The Coffee Party is seriously over-hyped in the material that follows, but the spirit of the note is authentic and merits respect.

Okey-dokey then.