Welcome to the Tampa Tax Day Tea Party!

Here in Tampa Tea Party members and 912 members gathered from throughout the entire Tampa Bay region to celebrate a very hot but fun day at Raymond James Stadium.  Keynote speaker Sen. Marco Rubio was joined by Ralph Reed (Faith and Freedom Coalition), Apryl Marie Fogel (Americans for Prosperity), Michael Pinson (Americans for Freedom), Ed Braddy (American Dream Coalition), Amy Kremmer (Tea Party Express) and Dr. David McKalip (Neurosergeon and Health Care activist). 

We also managed to score a couple of counter-protesters-a charming lady in a NARAL tee shirt and a man with a bullhorn wearing a white doctor's coat.  I assume he was representing abortion doctors since he was with the pro death chic.  Her sign reads, "TEABGGERS CORPORATE TOOLS and too dumb to realize it."  Glad she decided to keep it classy.

While all the speakers did a wonderful job it was Marco that everyone was waiting to see and he did not disappoint.  The video is not as clear as I would have liked and on several occasions Marco is obscured by a flag.  There was no way I was going to ask a man who had proudly held up an American flag for hours in 90 degree weather to move so I just made do.  In any case, it is Rubio's words we came to hear and he gave one very rousing speech.  And now, I am taking my very tired, very sunburnt self to bed.



Welcome to my blog Instapundit readers!

What if they shut down the government and nobody noticed?

Jesse Jackson compares it to the Civil War and Rep. Louise (she had to wear her dead sister’s teeth to the funeral) Slaughter (D-A galaxy far, far away) says that Republicans are trying to kill women. All I can say is that bloviators were born to blow.

Let’s put all this nonsense into perspective. The Dems declined to pass a budget when the ball was in their court. We’ve been running on patched tires ever since. Speaker Boehner has offered a bill to insure that our troops are paid in the event of a shutdown and the troop’s Commander in Chief has said that he will veto the bill if it hits his desk. Apparently Planned Parenthood falls under the category of “essential services”, our troops, not so much.

I have a theory on why Obama seems so keen to avoid a shutdown. Maybe he’s worried that the government will shut down and nobody will notice. Well yeah, the poor senators who are forced to push their own elevator buttons will notice but so what? A comment spied over at Hit & Run pretty much sums it up:

But the Dept. of Agriculture would shut down. Crops couldn’t grow, cows, goats, and chickens would stop producing, meat would turn to ash and fish would turn to salt.

Without the DOA’s regulations, farmers would plant their tools and thresh their livestock. Food-hauling trucks will drive into the sea, and sheep will start producing steel wool.

It’s a joke. Not the comment, the government. SHUT. HER. DOWN.

My, he’s gonna make some lucky woman very happy one day

My fellow Conservatives, why do you want people to suffer so? What is it about misery that you value so highly? Forgive my sarcasm. It is a natural reaction to this tripe from Matt Yglesias (the emphasis belongs to Yglesias):

This put me in mind of Monica Potts’ review of Kay Hymowitz:

“Before [today], the fact is that primarily, a 20-year-old woman would have been a wife and a mother,” author Kay Hymowitz told the crowd of about 100 at the Manhattan Institute in New York City. Men would have been mowing lawns and changing the oil in their family sedans instead of playing video games and watching television. In previous decades, adults in their 20s and 30s were too busy with real life for such empty entertainment, Hymowitz says. “They didn’t live with roommates in Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Dupont Circle in D.C.”

Hymowitz’s argument, essentially, is that not only has feminism opened up new doors of opportunity to women, but it’s helped contribute to the growth of a society in which young men are less crushed down with family and household obligations and are spending more time enjoying themselves. Except she means this as a bad thing! In both cases the conservative conceit seems to be that a decline in human suffering is a bad thing because it leads to a corresponding decline in admirable anti-suffering effort….

We can argue whether the unobligated life equates to a happy life but to refer to men who have chosen to be family men as “crushed down” belies a liberal conceit. A certain amount of selfishness is necessary for happiness but a life based on selfishness alone is at best boring and at worst, lonely.

I suspect that Mr. Yglesias is incapable of understanding the joy that is inherent in the mundane trappings of the family life. Given the choice between hot dogs in the back yard and, well, anything else “anything else” would be the hands down winner. It makes me feel sorry for Yglesias. But on the other hand, I’ll happily breathe a sigh of relief on behalf of those never to be born children who will be spared the unhappiness of his uninterested parenting.

Would you like a matching thong to go with your push-up bikini, little girl? Updated

I first heard about Abercrombie and Fitch marketing “push-up” bikinis to girls as young as seven years old at Don Surber’s Daily Scoreboard and then I came across the story at Hot Air:

Is it possible to be both disgusted and jaded at the same time? As a grandparent, the latest line of swimwear from the purveyors at Abercrombie & Fitch disgusts me, but hardly surprises any more. ABC reports that A&F has a new line of bikinis for preadolescents that feature padded, “push-up” bikini tops for girls as young as eight years old — the same age as one of my granddaughters….

Actually it is seven, not eight years old. The age of my granddaughter. Here’s the thing-who thinks of this stuff? What normal person comes up with the idea of accentuating a seven year old’s breasts? And once the idea is conceived who are the perverts that approve bringing the product to market? And then once the product makes it to market, what parent would buy a bathing suit that sexualizes their little girl? The bottom line is that the product would not exist if the market didn’t exist. The market wouldn’t exist if adults would just be content with screwing up the lives of other adults and just leave kids alone.

Once upon a time parents were told that they would just need to accept that once their children left for college that said kids would be doing “things” (code for S.E.X.) that Mom and Dad would not approve of. True enough. But college became high school and then middle school. Do we wait until the sexualization of children hits pre-K or do we, as adults, grow a backbone and finally say, “No, this is not acceptable.”

Children need adult guidance. Responsible adults understand that children’s development should be paced and that while some children may reach physical maturity prior to others, children’s physical and emotional maturity rarely coincide. Why would any parent want a child to think of themselves in sexual terms before maturity on any level has occurred?

From the comments at Surber’s:

Luke 17:2″ It were well for
him if a millstone were
hanged about his neck, and
he were thrown into the sea,
rather than that he should
cause one of these little ones
to stumble.” Jesus Christ

Amen

Update:

Pundette has some excellent thoughts on the subject and one very creepy revelation:

Bonus item from the UK: Isn't it about time we started quizzing 11 year-olds about their sexual preferences?

Children as young as 11 could soon be asked about their sexuality without their parents’ consent, it has emerged.

Teachers, nurses and youth workers are being urged to set up pilot studies aimed at monitoring adolescent sexual orientation for the first time.

A report commissioned by the Government’s equalities watchdog found that it was ‘practically and ethically’ possible to interview young children about their sexuality.

Controversially, it says parental consent, while ‘considered good practice’, is not a legal necessity.

When did Kevin Jennings become the "safe schools" czar in the UK?

"And such is the fleeting nature of fame."

Nancy French, writing of Elizabeth Taylor’s death in The Corner:

And such is the fleeting nature of fame. Perhaps the most famous movie star (and sex symbol) in history, her death causes barely a ripple amongst entire generations. It should be a gentle reminder to all women — all of us who struggle with those last ten pounds, who don’t even own four-inch heels, and who sometimes despair of glamour while driving three kids to school in a minivan — that legacies are not built on fame or sex or wealth, or even by a Drudge headline on the day of our passing. Our legacies instead our built by the kids in that van and by the husband who’s with you from the moment you wore white and said “I do” to the moment one of you says your final earthly goodbye.

Faithfulness, children, enduring marriage, and stretch marks. They may not be sexy, but they are the true legacies that even the most glamorous, upon reflection, wish they’d had.

Sadly, I am no expert at marriage.  Tried it once, briefly, in my youth and never gave it a go again.  Elizabeth Taylor was married seven times to eight different men.  Unlike me, Taylor's motto was, "If first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try, try again.  At some point I think she would have been better off honestly admitting that she just wasn't willing to put out the effort that a lasting marriage deserves. 
 
But more to French's point-I mentioned Taylor's passing to a co-worker whose response was, "Yeah, I think I've heard of her."  Elizabeth Taylor has already been forgotten by those who never really knew her to begin with. 

To which Mark Steyn says, “No sh*t”

While subbing for Rush Limbaugh back in February, Mark Steyn made remarks about Detroit that some from the Motor City took umbrage with:

We're now being told that this is the model for America in the 21st century," he said. "If it is, we're all doomed."

Referring to a book published last year that showed the city's ruins, Steyn compared Detroit to European cities reduced to rubble during world wars.

"Unlike European cities, no bombs fell on this American city," he said. "This American city did it to themselves."

He blamed the city's decline on unions and a succession of liberal political leaders.

Reaction to Mr. Steyn’s words was, putting it mildly, unkind:

F-BOMBS AWAY!

I heard you took some shots at Detroit today. What was the point of that? Just to be an asshole? Like the commercial said last night, people talk about Detroit even though they have never been here. I am sure your Canadian ass has only been to the East Coast after you moved out of that Socialist country. Are you that insecure with yourself that you need to pile on to the city of Detroit like you did? Did it give you a hard-on?

It would be original if one of you “talking-heads” actually took the time to see the city, learn about the history of the city, and see the good in the city too. It's real easy to throw out insults to Detroit.... be original guy, you embarrassed yourself today.

GO F YOURSELF YOU BASTARD

Rush just lost a listener for life....nice job.

“…learn about the history of the city…”. What, like the 1967 riots that left forty-three dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed? It took five days, the Michigan National Guard, and the United States Army to quell that little disturbance and years later parts of the city have never rebuilt. For the record, I was born in Detroit in 1958 and was living in Blissfield, Michigan at the time of the riots. I seem to recall that my parents never had much use for the city after that and apparently, neither did anyone else:

What happens when a city buys the liberal dream hook, line and sinker? Just take a look at the City of Detroit. The once-great city lost 237,493 residents over the last decade according to the 2010 Census, bringing it to 713,777 – a population plunge of 25%. That’s its lowest population since 1910, and it marks the city’s fall from a 1950s peak of two million, over 60%. And that’s just the people who can afford to leave.


Detroit, once known as “the great arsenal of democracy,” has made headlines of late for its notorious fall from grace. The “Big Three” automakers are no longer the biggest, falling behind their overseas rivals, and the Michigan economy lost 450,000 manufacturing jobs over the past 10 years all while Detroit lost population. And while the Motor City suffers unemployment from a decimated automotive industry, it suffers crime, high taxes, poor city services, plummeting home values, and a public education system in shambles with a $327 million budget deficit and a 19 percent dropout rate. Is it any wonder people are leaving in droves?

But to understand why folks are really leaving Detroit, it’s worth looking where they’re headed. As Detroit suffered a population loss, its neighboring suburban counties with lower crime, better schools and an improving economic outlook saw their population increase. One former Detroiter told The Detroit News, “Detroit just got too messy for me … I was not getting the benefits of those tax dollars. The city services are poor and I could not use the school system. And you look at the cost of living and the corruption, we had to leave.” In other words, bad government drove her out, and she’s seeking greener pastures elsewhere.

For the record, Detroit has been under liberal leadership for decades. And the city’s big problem today is that its road forward is blocked by the very same political machine that helped deliver it to its state of ruin. Case in point: the state’s powerful teachers unions. In 2003, a philanthropist pledged $200 million for the creation of 15 charter schools in the city. Despite the city’s tragic public school system, the plan failed and the offer was withdrawn following protests by the Detroit Federation of Teachers. Little has changed, eight years later. A state-appointed emergency financial manager has proposed sweeping changes to the city’s public school system, including a plan to convert 41 of the city’s schools to charter schools. Guess who’s opposed to the reforms? That very same union.

I doubt that of this comes as a surprise to Steyn, who pretty much has the city pegged. I also doubt that Mr. Steyn will find his mailbox full of missives of the “you were right” variety. It takes a whole lot of willful blindness, greed and corruption to turn an American city into a third world cesspool but that is just what they have managed to do. Perhaps if we throw in Buffalo and a city to be named later Canada will kindly take Detroit off our hands.

Sedition

Se·di·tion

Actions or words intended to provoke or incite rebellion against government authority, or actual rebellion against government authority

Does this rise to the definition?

We need to figure out in a much more through direct action more concrete way how we are really trying to disrupt and create uncertainty for capital for how corporations operate
The thing about a boom and bust economy is it is actually incredibly fragile.

There are actually extraordinary things we could do right now to start to destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement.

For example, 10% of homeowners are underwater right their home they are paying more for it then its worth 10% of those people are in strategic default, meaning they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home that's totally spontaneous they figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up

If you could double that number you would you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again.

Students have a trillion dollar debt

We have an entire economy that is built on debt and banks so the question would be what would happen if we organized homeowners in mass to do a mortgage strike if we get half a million people to agree it would literally cause a new finical crisis for the banks not for us we would be doing quite well we wouldn't be paying anything.

Government is being strangled by debt

The four things we could do that could really upset wall street

One is if city and state and other government entities demanded to renegotiate their debt and you might say why would the banks ever do it - because city and counties could say we won’t do business with you in the future if you won’t renegotiate the debt now

So we could leverage the power we have of government and say two things we won’t do business with you JP Morgan Chase anymore unless you do two things: you reduce the price of our interest and second you rewrite the mortgages for everybody in the communities

We could make them do that

The second thing is there is a whole question in Europe about students’ rates in debt structure. What would happen if students said we are not going to pay? Its a trillion dollars. Think about republicans screaming about debt a trillion dollars in student debt

There is a third thing we can think about what if public employee unions instead of just being on the defensive put on the collective bargaining table when they negotiate they say we demand as a condition of negotiation that the government renegotiate - it’s crazy that you’re paying too much interest to your buddies the bankers it’s a strike issue - we will strike unless you force the banks to renegotiate/

Then if you add on top of that if we really thought about moving the kind of disruption in Madison but moving that to Wall Street and moving that to other cities around the country

We basically said you stole seventeen trillion dollars - you've improvised us and we are going to make it impossible for you to operate

The speaker is former SEIU official Steven Lerner, talking at a closed session at Pace University last weekend. He is advocating for bringing down the government via a total collapse of the entire financial market. His plan is simple-don’t pay your debt. Don’t pay your mortgage, don’t pay your student loans, car loans, credit cards. Just stop paying and the market will collapse, the banks will fail and the government will fall. In one fell swoop your 401K and bank accounts-gone. Nice little doomsday scenario he’s got going there.

Once the collapse is complete, and the government has been brought to its knees, Mr. Lerner, and those of his ilk, will ride in like knights in shining armor and redistribute the wealth. No, you won’t have anything. Having is not for the little people. But the new government will provide for you the lifestyle that they think you should become accustomed to.

I think it is the absolute vanity of socialists that bugs me the most. They believe that individuals just don’t have the brains to make the important decisions in life. They believe that they, the smart people need to Nudge us along:

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice….

Gee, who is this “we” they speak of? Certainly not you or me.

I do not think we will see Mr. Lerner’s plan come to fruition. I simply don’t think we have that many sheeple who desire to be led through life. Our friends on the Left are quick to throw around the word “sedition” when talking about Hutaree and other militia groups who basically just want to be left alone. Doesn’t the word apply at least as equally to the Liberal elite who would remake our country in their own image?

The People vs THE PARTY

I only got started paying attention to politics a couple of years ago. Don’t get me wrong-I never missed a vote but I also left the nitty gritty of politics to others. Now that I’m a bit more involved I’ve started to notice that there is a whole lot of gritty going on:

[After Scott's victory] it was time for Republican leaders and insiders to come home to Scott. Scott wasn’t coming to them. Barbour learned that firsthand.

“He called to say congratulations on behalf of the RGA, and probably expected the same platitudes back. Instead, Haley got an earful from Rick,” said one source. “From what I understand, I’m glad I wasn’t Haley on the other end of the line. Haley tried to avoid the topic, like there was no problem. Rick wasn’t having that.”

Scott cut him off at one point, according to sources who remember the following exchange:

“Haley, you shouldn’t have gotten involved,” Scott said.

Barbour: “But….”

Scott: “Haley, you cost me more than $7 million -- $7 million.”

Barbour poured on the Southern charm and tried to steer the conversation to letting bygones be bygones. But sources said Scott wanted to make sure that the RGA felt his pain – after all, it helped underwrite ads calling Scott a “fraud.” Scott also wanted to make sure the RGA would support him and make good on its promise to spend $8 million in Florida.

“Haley, we want the $8 million,” Scott said at one point....

[A]s Barbour plans to run in Florida, a coterie of Republicans in the nation’s most important swing state are like the party’s namesake elephants – they don’t forget, even if they forgive

Until the Rubio/Crist race I was under the silly impression that candidates were chosen by, well, voters.  Naiveté can be a beautiful thing but once the blinders come off things just never look the same.

One thing voters learned in 2010 is that THE PARTY means to control the process and when someone (Angle, O'Donnell, and yes, Rick Scott) throws a monkey wrench in THE PARTY’s plans THE PARTY gets a might huffy. It leaves one to believe that THE PEOPLE fall way down on the THE PARTY’s list of priorities.

Today in “taxes are for the little people” news

Sometimes you’re just better off taking the bus:

I like to imagine that this revelation came to her in the course of her day, as a vague, nagging worry that there was something she was supposed to do. “Did I … leave the stove on? No, no. I remember turning it off. Did I … maybe forget my keys? Nope, got ‘em right here. What was it? It was something to do with … the air. Replace the air filters, maybe? Noooo… WAIT. THE PLANE.”

Look on the bright side, though. Now she’s qualified to be Treasury Secretary.

McCaskill has been answering questions about the plane since POLITICO recently reported that she billed taxpayers for a political trip around Missouri. POLITICO also reported that McCaskill spent $76,000 from her Senate budget on trips on the aircraft over the past four years, prompting the senator to refund the Treasury Department more than $88,000 for the cost of the trips plus pilot fees.

McCaskill’s announcement Monday is the latest twist in a political scandal that has dogged her for the past two weeks. The expensive fiasco clashes with her self-made image as a reformer and good-government advocate during her first term in the Senate. McCaskill has now shelled out more than $375,000 in payments to cover the cost the plane flights and back taxes, a series of events the senator herself has called “embarrassing.”

On top of this, McCaskill signed on in February as a co-sponsor of Senate legislation that would fire federal employees if they are “seriously delinquent” in paying their own federal taxes…

“There are people I could blame for this, but I know better. As an auditor, I know I should have checked for myself. I take full responsibility for the mistake,” added McCaskill, Missouri’s former state auditor from 1999 to 2007. “I should have checked the documentation. I should have been asking the questions. I shouldn’t have assumed that somebody was doing it.”

Gee, how much were those taxes that McCaskill “mistakenly” “overlooked”? A mere $287,000. Chump change. Insert John Kerry joke here.

Come someone please provide me with a list of things that aren’t racist?

Let's see if I've got this right:

· Complaining about Obama's failure to lead = racist
· Complaining about the administration’s “tax the rich” blather = racist
· Complaining about Obama’s “shop til you drop” spending policies = racist
· Complementing the Japanese on their resolve in the face of devastating earth quake and resulting tsunami = racist

Whoa, wait a minute. What?

Count me among those who are incredibly impressed by the actions of Japanese people. While we’re at it, count me among those who have asked themselves if they would act as admirably in a similar situation. Presumably you can also count me among the people that the venerable James Wolcott considers “racist”.

In Mr. Wolcott’s very small and tightly woven world the act of complementing one race is sure sign that speaker actually means to denigrate another. Well, not just any other race-The Race. Everybody got that?

Little Miss Attila is the current subject of dear Wolcott’s ire for posting “Japanese Urged To Try Rioting” along with this picture and a link to a bit of satire:

Wolcott might ask himself why the picture and accompanying link bother him so and why he so freely associates any mention of looting, or a lack therefore, with African Americans. There is definitely a waft of racism in the air but it doesn’t seem to be emanating from the Right.

Kudos to Darleen Click for hitting the nail on the head:

Of course, JaWo and his ilk can’t be challenged as “racist” even as they inexorably link values and principles with melanin level. Shorter JaWo, with pinkie extended and tonal refinement: “We can’t blame the darkies, they can’t help themselves. We must make allowances.”

Yep, those Democrat low-expectations have done wonders for family and community structure for African-Americans. No racism there. Nothing to see. Pack your backpack of white privilege and move on.
 

In the meantime, our Mr. Wolcott has fired another volley.  Pity really.  A real man knows when he's bested.  In any case, my money is on LMA in the third round.  Why the third round, you ask?  Because I expect her to toy with him a bit first.

Our friends on the Left are miffed

We've joined in the air strikes of Libya and the usual subjects on the Left are taking it none too kindly.  Don Surber has a roundup of reactions from Andrew Sullivan, Robert Dreyfuss, Louis Farrakhan and Michael Moore.  Honest righteous indignation from the Left or just their typical "I'm so important that everyone is waiting to hear my opinion" claptrap?

I've heard rumors that Michael Moore is so distraught over the bombings that he couldn't even eat is normal ten meals before breakfast.  Sullivan has had a bad case of the joneses since first he laid eyes on Barry and on the odd occasion that he does see fit to criticize his pet he typically lays the ultimate blame elsewhere.  Now he's calling for a congressional vote-in all likelihood believing that a vote will give his beloved cover.  Dreyfuss is blaming the women in Obama's life.  Hey, we're all Delilha's at heart.  Only Farrakhan managed to sound genuinely pissed-"Who the Hell do you think you are?"  I think Obama had an epiphany somewhere between the third and forth hole, turned to his caddy and said, "I think I may be president of the United States."  Just a guess.

For all the rumbling, what is the Left going to do?  Refuse to support his re-election campaign?  Actually vote against him?  Nope.  This is just lipservice and this too, shall pass.

So, what would you call someone who cuts the head off a three month old baby?

Melanie Phillips calls them "savages", an understatement at best, and finds herself in the cross hairs of the PCC (the British “Press Complaints Commission”).

Let us mentally transport ourselves back to the civil rights era, and suppose that a columnist used a phrase like ”redneck savages” or the “moral depravity of Mississippians” to condemn violence against blacks. We might imagine that some would complain that this language unfairly implicated all Southern whites in the crimes of a hateful few. But there would have been no possibility of official sanction against such a columnist, as is the case with this British “Press Complaints Commission” that is investigating Melanie Phillips.

What is this commission? It was established in 1991 to stave off Parliamentary complaints about the media and is tasked with exercising “non-statutory self-regulation” in the press. I’m insufficiently familiar with the PCC to know whether it routinely acts to enforce political correctness.

So, what can you say about the barbaric attacks against a Jewish settler family?  Not much.  And that is the point of the PCC and their ideological cousins throughout Europe and Canada.  The purpose of sanctioning speech is to stifle it.  In Canada it is about stifling speech and getting rich (see Blazing Cat Fur, Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn and Maclean's and way too many others).   

Whatever the motivation the result is the same-someone sitting in a politburo deciding what can and cannot be said.  Think it can't happen here?  I've got two words for you-Al Franken.

Let’s play “Spot the Irony”

Something seems amiss in the following statement:

You could get to know the assholes on your side in real fucking life instead of sponging off the civil society we provide for you every single day you draw breath.

Maybe it’s just me. Somehow "We will picket on public property as close to your house as we can every day. We will harrass the ever loving shit out of you all the time. Campus is OCCUPIED. State street is OCCUPIED. The Square is OCCUPIED. Vilas, Schenk's Corners, Atwood, Willy Street – Occupied, Occupied, Occupied, Occupied. Did you really think it was all about the Capitol? Fuck the Capitol, we are the CITY...” doesn’t sound like the words of someone who provides a “civil society”. A seven year old that has just been told they can’t hit the PlayStation until after they’ve eaten their broccoli-yes. An adult-no way. At one point the writer informs Ms. Althouse that “we are young and horny and screw each other incessantly”, which has such a Meghan McCainish ring to it. Why do progressives insist on being so juvenile? Why are they so fearful of maturity?  Such are the eternal questions of life.

Had I read further before I started writing I would realized that the above potty brained writer is one Jim Shankman. Mr. Shankman screeds like a little girl.

So little time, so many, many levels of just plain wrong

If this doesn’t conjure up the image of some pervy high school principal drooling over the Facebook pages of his school’s cheerleaders while sitting behind a locked office door, I don’t know what will (emphasis added):

Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.

There has only been muted opposition to this far-reaching policy among the professionals and advocates in the education sector, most of whom are heavily reliant on funding and support from top-level education officials. The normally government-averse tech-sector is also playing along, and on Mar. 11, Facebook declared that it was “thrilled” to work with White House officials to foster government oversight of teens’ online activities.

Um, overreach, much? And what types of private, after school activities are educators to monitor?

“Harassing conduct may take many forms, including verbal acts and name-calling; graphic and written statements, which may include use of cell phones or the Internet… it does not have to include intent to harm, be directed at a specific target, or involve repeated incidents [but] creates a hostile environment … [which can] limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or opportunities offered by a school,” according to the far-reaching letter, which was completed Oct. 26 by Russlynn Ali, who heads the agency’s civil rights office.

So if Sally steals Susie’s boyfriend and Susie decides to air her displeasure with Sally by telling her Facebook friends that Sally is a fat bitch and a skank Susie’s school is responsible for disciplining Susie and counseling both Susie and Susie’s family.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for monitoring children’s online activities. However, that job belongs to parents, not the schools and certainly not to the government. I am also against bullying. Children should be able to go to school without being picked on but we are not discussing in school activities.

Children should also be taught that there is a difference between speech that is meant to bully and speech that is just plain rude. And while we are at it, children should also learn that a) not everyone wants to be their friend, b) that is perfectly okay and c) jerks are best ignored.

Please notice that we are talking about speech here-speech that occurs outside of school hours in a non-school related forum. And once again we have government monitoring private activities. In essence the government is decreeing that schools, not parents, are responsible for children twenty-four/seven.

I am beginning to wonder what purpose this administration believes that parents serve.

Spring is here!

The first iris of the year has bloomed.  Now I just need to be patient and wait for everything else to come out.  It shouldn't be long now.

The question "Did you hear us?" has been answered

and they said, "Nope!" 

During my morning perusal of Memeorandum I came across this little gem:

GOP woos 'Morning Joe' for Fla. Senate

Had I not read it at The Hill I would have thought it was some kind of cruel joke.  Joe Scarborough?  That is who John (whole lotta love for Charlie Crist) Cornyn thinks is a "suitable" candidate for the next Florida senate race?  Geez, why doesn't the NRSC just start backing Democrats for crying out loud?

I've sent the following email to Reince Priebus, RNC Chairman:

Dear Chairman Priebus,

You are new and I think you deserve a fair shake and I think you deserve to know why a lot of Republicans have quit calling ourselves "Republican" and prefer to be known as "conservatives". Many of us are fed up with the Republican Party. We feel that the Party takes us for granted. We feel that you ask us for donations but ignore our input. Case in point:

GOP woos 'Morning Joe' for Fla. Senate

The last time John Cornyn and the NRSC decided to interfere in Florida politics the anointed one was Charlie Crist. We all know how well that turned out. As Marco Rubio won straw poll after straw poll the NRSC stood by their man Crist. Had Crist not left the party Cornyn and Company would have followed him straight off the cliff. Well, here we go again. And for that matter-Joe Scarborough? Really? What does the NRSC have against Republicans?

For an idea of how well this news is going over I suggest you read Not One Red Cent a blog started in response to the NRSC's knack for backing the least conservative candidates in the field. Or for some specific reasons why the wooing of Scarborough is mind boggling to conservatives, Prof. Jacobson has an excellent post at Legal Insurrection. I have no doubt that by the end of the day there will be plenty of reaction to this news throughout the Conservative blogosphere.

I want to see the Republican Party succeed but if I have to chose between being a Republican and being a Conservative the Republican Party loses hands down. We Conservatives sent a clear message last November. It is apparent that not everyone in the Republican Party heard us. As party chairman it is your job to rectify the situation.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Tackett

The tyranny of the establishment has to end if the Republican party is going to continue to exist.  The current leadership of the NRSC is notnonly tone deaf-they are stupid.  Joe Scarborough?  I'm just stunned.

More at:

Riehl World View
Weasel Zippers

Today in high speed rail: As the choo choo churns

Because everybody just loves high speed rail we have this from Gregg Pollowitz at Planet Gore:

Fox News has a handy tax calculator up so you can see how many of your tax dollars will go to this $53 billion boondoggle. For example, if your income is $100,000, then $654.60 goes for the high-speed choo-choo.

To put this 654.60 in perspective, its 85 miles between Tampa and Orlando, the high-speed route that Gov. Scott of Florida just refused Federal funds to develop. With a car getting 20 mpg burning $4 a gallon gas, the trip would cost roughly $17 if you drove. So it would take 40 trips between Tampa and Orlando to equal the tax burden in our example — and that doesn’t include the cost of the rail ticket.

What’s more, the $53 billion doesn’t finish ANY rail project; it just gets the country pregnant with high-speed rail. The faster high-speed rail heads to the ash heap of history, the better.

Even better, if you prefer train travel then a family of four can go from Tampa to Orlando for a mere $30.00. Of course then you have to pay for parking in Tampa and pay to get around in Orlando and pay another $30.00 to get home but hey, the train is there for the riding. Nobody does, thus Amtrak is flat busted and were it not for the generosity of the American people who donate a portion of every paycheck to the government which in turn lavishes it upon the fiscally inept Amtrak, the company would be no more. What we really need is TWO of these money losers, right? Why limit yourself when you are using other people’s money.

I’ve never gotten anyone to explain why they believe that high speed rail would succeed where Amtrak failed. Proponents of rail dismiss concerns about cost overruns, lack of ridership and the need for taxpayer subsidies to cover operational costs but let’s look at California’s experience with that state’s high speed rail project and see if those concerns might be justified (emphasis added):

This peer review group, which was organized by the legislature, noted the following major problem areas.

- Funding is unreliable, especially considering the wobbly conditions of the state's finances and the certainty that the federal government will not give nearly as much as initially predicted. Also, Republicans in DC have said they will attempt block any and all federal funding.

- Costs have already soared enormously. But we already knew that. The initial bond issue in 2008 approved by voters was for $9.95 billion. But costs are already at $40 billion and rising. Also, it's unclear whether the bond measure can include revenue guarantees for investors. This will probably be decided in court.

- Ridership and revenue projections are unrealistic. This directly affects the ability to raise money from private investors, who will want to know precisely how they will be paid back.

- The California High-Speed Rail Authority is seriously understaffed and lacking in accountability. The roles of the various parties are undefined and unclear. This can and will only lead to chaos, as well as cost overruns and the inevitable lawsuits.

Is it any wonder that California has its hand stretched out for the money the Gov. Rick Scott turned down? Too bad the people in California fell for a load of cow manure but honestly, better them then us.

Headlines that warm the cockles of my heart

Indiana GOP lines up behind Lugar's primary challenger

Talk smack about the Tea Party, get a challenger.  What a shame.  We're "getting real", Senator.

Fugitive Democrat Senators From Wisconsin Could Face Felony Charges

Dereliction of duty and pissin' on the people.  Kick them out, fire the teachers and take the licenses away from the doctors who wrote fake excuses.

SEC busts global warming fraud

Oh, nos.  It can't be.  Al Gore says the sky is falling.  Follow the money.

If This Is Monday, It Must Be Time for Another ‘Death of Blogging’ Story

Okay, for personal reasons I've been on a prolonged break but don't take that as a sign that I am down and out.  How about the rest of you?




"The Left is reacting with all the grace of an alcoholic denied the bottle."

No need to insult alcoholics.

Libya: Gaddafi Regime on the Brink, Uprising Reaches Tripoli — UPDATE: Gaddafi Flees Tripoli, Parliament Set on Fire


Yeah, but is the Lockerbie Bomber still living in the lap of luxury?

TeaPartyTracker.org Fails


Damn shame.  Damn dirty shame.  Too many of us for you?

Heavily Democratic states cut in half since 2008: Gallup

Earlier, in the comments at Legal Insurrection I said, "Hippies never die. We just grow up, get jobs, have families and see the light."  People are seeing the light.  Batten the hatches and buckle your seat belts, Lefties.  It is going to be one bumpy ride.

Sorry, that's it.  I'm bushed.  First I got lost driving in  Tampa today and then I got lost walking in Tampa.  To the nice man who gave me directions while I was walking, sent me ten blocks out of my way and laughed at me when I finally made it to the rally-screw you..

Sexy students

Sexy students don't need to know no stinkin' economics, they go straight from Mommy and Daddy's dime to the government's dime. 

The young girls with the "sexy students" signs were among the about three dozen supporters of high speed rally that gathered in downtown Tampa today.  You would never know it from reading the rally coverage at TBO.com but those of us who stand with Gov. Rick Scott in opposition to high speed rail outnumbered the pro rail forces about four to one. 

For those of you who are unaware of the controversy here, the voters have repeated voted against funding high speed rail in Florida.  Gov. Scott, acting on the will of the people and with the state's long term fiscal health in mind, turned down 2.4 billion federal dollars for high speed rail in Florida.  Sen. Bill Nelson (D FL) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D FL11), two people who have never given a rat's ass about the will of the people let alone the fiscal health of this state and nation, are trying to do an end run around our governor and force the people of Florida to accept the federal dollars.  Both Castor and Nelson are heavily beholden to the unions and the jobs that proponents of rail keep touting would be taxpayer funded union jobs not private sector jobs.

What we are experiencing in Florida is not unlike what is happening in Wisconsin, only on a smaller (for now) scale.  Special interest groups are trying to dictate policy-taxpayers and our future be damned.  Gov. Scott has been the subject of vicious attacks since he took a principled stand against the waste of taxpayer money.  Please stand with Gov. Rick Scott and send him a word of support.

I would like to send a special thank you to the deputy in this picture.  Several proponents of rail tried to tell us that we were not allowed to protest on "their" side of the street.  When one of them approached this deputy and asked him to make us move he explained to her that we were well within our rights.  Yes, we were loud and yes, we were passionate but at no point were we out of bounds.  The Left needs to understand that the days of the "quiet conservative" are long gone.  We will defend our rights in the voting booth and we will defend them in the street.  It is a brand new day.  My advice to Lefties-get used to it.

For more go to Potluck

Time to hit the streets

From Steven F Hayward at The Corner:

During the riots in Greece last year over budget cuts, a common refrain was, “There’s no Tea Party movement in Europe; America is different.” Well, now is the moment to test this proposition. If ever there was a time for the Tea Party movement to take to the streets, it’s now in Ground Zero in Madison, Wisconsin — and other state capitals, from the sound of the news that the unions want to organize rallies in Ohio and Indiana as well. Just winning a big election isn’t enough.

In November we told the political class in this country that we are mad as Hell and we aren't going to take it anymore.  Apparently they weren't listening.  We sent a clear message that we don't want rail here in Florida and our governor, acting on the will of the people refused the federal dollars for rail.  End of story, right?  Wrong.

From Americans for Prosperity:

**Breaking News**

Members of Florida's Congressional Delegation and the Florida Legislature are plotting to circumvent Governor Scott's decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal funds to build a high speed rail from Orlando to Tampa. Unlikely bedfellows were made today when a group of 26 State Senators, including ten democrats and led by high speed rail supporter Paula Dockery, sent a letter to Obama’s Transportation Secretary asking him to circumvent Gov. Scott and send the dollars directly to a state commission created in 2009.They noted that politics should have no place in the future of Florida’s transportation, but they are doing exactly that with this political power play to quiet your voice and that of your elected Governor.

Governor Scott's decision to reject the federal stimulus dollars is backed by sound economic policy and represents the voice of fiscal conservatives - he doesn't think it is in the best interest of the state to commit to a project we can't afford down the road. The Federal Railroad Administration has proposed a plan for Florida that will cost an estimated $11 billion to build, and it is projected that along with SunRail and Tri-Rail it will cost $100 million per year to operate once completed. With unknown ridership numbers and a budget shortfall of $3.5 billion and growing, the state of Florida simply can't afford Obama and Dockery's High Speed Rail plan.

Click here to contact your state and congressional representatives to tell them that we can't afford to play politics over High Speed Rail.

For Prosperity,

Apryl Marie Fogel
State Director
Americans for Prosperity - Florida

From Wisconsin to Florida politicians are using taxpayer money to purchase votes.  If they didn't hear us in November than we just need to shout a little bit louder.