Archive for the 'Civics' Category

On Saturday 9/12/09, I went down to DC to join the Tea Party protest. Around 8:30 AM, I arrived at Shady Grove, a station on the Washington Metro subway, just north of Rockville, MD. As I got out of my car, I noticed license plates from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. I looked over at the station’s platform, which is above ground, and saw that it was already crowded. I got into one of the train cars, which quickly became standing-room only, as various groups of protesters, some wearing themed T-shirts and/or carrying signs, occupied the seats around me. Although they were (to me) complete strangers, they were easy to talk to, due to our common purpose for being there. As the train proceded towards downtown Washington and took on more passengers, the standees became packed liked sardines.

After riding for about 45 minutes, the throng left the train at a downtown station called Metro Center. I made my way to Freedom Plaza, an open area just east of the White House, and started wandering around the crowd.
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Arrest warrants have been issued for 11 workers hired by ACORN, for voter registration fraud in Homestead, Florida. According to Florida state attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle,

11 workers hired to register voters by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — or ACORN — submitted 888 fraudulent names. She said the names included people who were already registered voters, fictitious names, and the name of the late actor Paul Newman, who died in Sept. 2008.

Voting while dead – it’s not just for Chicago anymore. I wonder if Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ted Kennedy (who would probably love the irony) will show up.

To their credit, or maybe to throw a few people under the bus, ACORN itself alerted the authorities.

Fernandez-Rundle said ACORN alerted her office after it reviewed hundreds of voter registration cards it suspected were fraudulent. She said that none of the names in question actually voted.

The workers each face from 2 to 37 charges of “false swearing in connection with voting or elections” and “submission of false voter registration information.”
SOURCE

Tomorrow, Obama will give his speech to the nation’s schoolchildren. Some have been critical of his planned speaking appearance, and others have said, “What’s the big deal? Reagan and/or (GHW) Bush also spoke to kids in school.” Still others have argued that Barry’s upcoming speech is different from those given by his predecessors. Therefore, I offer the text of all three. To shamelessly steal a phrase from Fox News, I report, you decide.

Speaking of which, Fox News got a hold of Barry’s prepared remarks, to be delivered at Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA.
(H/T HotAir.)

Way back in 1988, the Gipper gave this speech, from the State Dining Room at the White House. The speech was carried by C-Span and the Instructional Television Network. He also took questions from students at several junior high schools.

In 1991, Bush the Elder spoke at Alice Deal Junior High School. The speech was carried by CNN, PBS, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and the NBC radio network.
(H/T Skye, who tweeted this.)

According to its Wikipedia entry, it can be “considered” that:

The Sons of Liberty was a secret organization of American patriots which originated in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. British authorities and their supporters, known as Loyalists, considered the Sons of Liberty as seditious rebels, referring to them as “Sons of Violence” and “Sons of Iniquity.” Patriots attacked the apparatus and symbols of British authority and power such as property of the gentry, customs officers, East India Company tea, and as the war approached, vocal supporters of the Crown. The group can be considered the first American terrorist organization.

Yes, with men in its membership like John Hancock, Sam Adams, John Adams, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere. All terrorists, just like Timothy McVeigh, Osama Bin Laden, and Abu Al-Zarqawi.

I know it is wikipedia, and therefore is suspect at all times, until verified by a third party. But with the Tea Parties being referred to as “political terrorists”, to see our Founders being referred to as “terrorists” is quite disturbing, and I’m beginning to see where those who disagree with the direction this federal government is taking into becoming a national government will be branded as dissidents, revolutionaries, malcontents, and then insurgents and finally as terrorists. And once branded as a terrorist, well, we know that the PATRIOT Act is mainly used to combat terrorism, and W set the precedent of holding the “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla in violation of habeas corpus, on American soil, a privilege that can only be suspended by Congress, I think we know what we can suspect will be next.

I am trying not to be paranoid or start down some sort of conspiratorial rabbit hole. But I see what is being attempted by the progressive left in this country. They’ve been whittling away at the independent American citizen since Roosevelt’s New Deal, and now they’ve got almost half the citizens in this country buying off on all of these new, great social programs, and even many believing in a new form of class warfare against the “rich”. The average American citizen can’t even explain to you what the Constitution says or what freedoms it guarantees. I bet a large number agree with that President’s assertion that the Constituion doesn’t say enough about what the government can do “for you”. A long cry away from JFK, dontcha think?

I don’t see this ending well if we continue to allow the federal government to grow and expand, whether it is a Republican, or a Democrat, running the show from the Oval Office.

Almost immediate UPDATE:

It appears that someone else caught this, someone with an editing account on wikipedia, and have since removed the offending sentence. Good. Wonder how long till it pops up somewhere else….

A dramatization of the representatives of the 13 colonies voting on a resolution to approve a declaration of independence from the British Crown

Excerpts from a letter from John Adams to his wife dated July 3, 1776, the evening before that fateful vote:

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I’ve been acquainted with this quote for quite a few years, now, but following the events surrounding the first several weeks of the Obama administration and his allies in Congress, culminating in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, for the first time I truly understand what the author meant – because that exactly how they view it, as demonstrated by their actions.

Here’s what Saint John had to say to the moderates of his era:

I could wish that you were hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm…I will vomit you out of my mouth

And with that prologue, I will address the behavior of three Senators with Rs next to their names, those who willingly yielded to the pick-up line of those asking them to be bipartisan.

For months, the so-called moderates in the Republican party, especially those allied with the Republican Main Street Partnership, have decried the pernicious influence of social conservatives, accusing them of ignoring fiscal conservatism.

Well folks, this week we see who are the fiscal conservatives. And guess what, it’s not the maligned social conservatives who have left the team.

Rather, it’s the “moderate” – the RMSP members* who have abandoned fiscal conservatism is the most egregious act of irresponsibility in our nation’s history. The “moderates” not the “social conservatives”. I will remember who took a stand for fiscal conservatism in the hour when our nation’s future was a stake, and who sold out for thirty pieces of silver. You need to also.

Worse they have aided and abetted a process in which the largest appropriation bill in history was rushed through to passage without either our representatives or the people of this country even having a chance to read the contents. A rush precipitated by the President of Hope and Change™ appealing to the base emotions of fear and scapegoating.

The second action, even more than the first, is a betrayal of fundamental representative principles, and for that betrayal they need to be primaried and cast out if possible. We are on the verge of a legislative tyranny of the majority – which will only invite retaliation in kind if the Republicans ever regain the ascendency. This degeneration is deeply injurious to the principles of deliberative government.

Democracy itself has taken a body blow today, one that may prove fatal. Those who enabled it must be held accountable.

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*From the RMSP website: Who we are:

Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine
Sen. John McCain, Arizona
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania

That’s a fascinating list of names, wouldn’t you say. Of these 5 names, 3 are the very Republican senators who provided the critical Republican votes needed to pass the stimulus bill. Sen. Coleman, of course, is not seated since he is still in an election court contest. Sen. McCain to his credit publically called bullshit on President Obama’s attempt to label the bill bipartisan.

Senator McCain, you’ve really done grave damage to the conservative movement with your inept campaign. But you have left the door open to redemption with your position on the stimulus bill, if this represents a new awakening on your part that we are now in a war for the survival of our country – with possibly its very existence on the line, but certainly its existence as a Constitutional republic of free mean and women. We shall see.

As America braces itself for what looks to be the most extravagent, expensive and over-the-top inauguration in our entire history, here’s a look back at what might be the most unusual and humble inauguration of any American president, when Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in, to succeed President Warren G. Harding.
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The Russians are gleefully rubbing their cold hands together, hoping and predicting the total demise of the US.

MOSCOW — For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument — that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. — very seriously. Now he’s found an eager audience: Russian state media.

Hmm.

SO where would we all go?

California will form the nucleus of what he calls “The Californian Republic,” and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of “The Texas Republic,” a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an “Atlantic America” that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls “The Central North American Republic.” Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

NOOOO. NH will NOT be part of the EU. I’d have to move out west. Or somewhere..

LOL…Keep those hands rubbing together freak- Professor Igor. Thanks for the laugh on a Monday afternoon.

How well do you know your civics? Find out by taking this quiz from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

I found this quiz twice, in two very different places – a message board on a site for Virginia Tech athletics and a blog full of rightwing conspirators (as our next Secretary of State would call them). Thus, an interestingly divided H/T.

Some of those who have been following the Proposition 8 drama (including my co-bloggers at ARS) may be puzzled as to why the California Supreme Court is reviewing the legitimacy of a constitutional amendment or what grounds that may have to do so.

First, by taking this case now, the California Supreme Court avoids months or years of uncertainty as cases challenging Proposition 8 wend their way through the lower courts, since whatever they do, the matter is going to get appealed to the highest state court.

Also, since they created this mess, they need to clean it up (also known as the Pottery Barn rule).

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