STARVE THE FEDS

Once again this Tea Party movement is at a crossroads. Every time a situation like this comes up, the temptation to “hedge our bets” comes up. I flirt with the idea of falling prey to it and every time I am wrong. If people think big and work for it, they get big results. I’m learning.

I feel like a broken record saying this, but it is a very important lesson. When I found out the Chicago Tea Party was being held two days after I found out about it, I could have waited and seen what would have happened before I got involved. I didn’t have to take a work day off. I went and drove 8 hours one way risking the possibility that only 10-20 people would show up, no one would care, and we’d go home defeated and forgotten. That didn’t happen. It spurred the momentum on to April 15.

Fox News covered the April 15 Tax Day Tea Parties nationwide, knowing they were throwing fuel on the fire, and put their credibility at risk. Mind you, I don’t mean credibility with the zealot left; I mean the actual viewers that come up on their ratings reports – the same reports that show Fox clobbering MSNBC, CNBC, etc. combined. Fox didn’t have to do this. But after hearing the condescending reports coming from the other networks, it was apparent that Fox was in the right.

This goes on and on, with 9/12 being the latest example. I thought I was having high hopes by thinking we’d shock the world with a half million protesters marching on Constitution Avenue on the way to the Capitol Building. Even with the sub-par national media coverage, we hit it out of the park and for the first time we thought we were going to win this one.

I think that can be evidenced by the stalling of the health care bill. Remember, this bill was supposed to be passed before the end of July. We’re now nearing November, and they are nowhere closer to passing a damn thing. I think we ARE winning. The Congress doesn’t dare challenge us. They are putting out trial balloons like crazy, with zero concrete results to show for it. They won’t admit to us that we scared them, but they don’t have to tell us. We already know.

Now we must make our next step. For those who wondered after 9/12 – “What do we do now?” – now we know.

A Congressional special election is coming up in November 3rd for one district in the country. The beautiful Lake Placid area of Adirondack New York state is the focus of a heated three-way election. The Republican Party had been put to the test, and by their selection of Diedre “Dede” Scozzafava, they failed miserably. Scozzafava has ties to ACORN, favors the “card check” bill (that gives labor unions the power to further intimidate dissenters with thug tactics), is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and is endorsed by – get this – the Huffington Post and Newt Gingrich.

Doug Hoffman was chosen by New York’s Conservative Party, and is a viable third-party candidate due to his stubborn principles consisting of ending the bailouts and scrapping our current tax system. Find more on www.DougHoffmanForCongress.com. He is the Tea Party in one candidate.

We now have a list of prominent influential people who endorse Doug Hoffman for the NY-23 Congressional seat. So far, they are as follows: Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson, Rick Santorum, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Eric Odom. I know this isn’t a complete list, but this is great company.

How can our bets be hedged? By saying that even if Doug Hoffman loses, that we can obligatorily tell ourselves, “Well, at least he made an impact”. We can delude ourselves by saying this race doesn’t mean as much as we thought it would. If you’re a poll follower, Hoffman came in third behind D-Owens (39%) and R-Scozzafava (29%), with 23%.

However, Scozzafava’s campaign appears to be a train wreck. One blogger attempted to ask questions about her stance on the health care bill, and the cops were called on him because she was “shaken up”. Hoffman’s campaign has picked up huge momentum. Eric Odom has flown to the Lake Placid area to support him personally. Supposedly, campaign advisers have quietly acknowledged that Hoffman has overtaken Scozzafava in the race, even if there are no polls to reflect that.

Whatever the situation is, it’s meaningless. Hoffman is in it to win, and so shall the rest of us. We have got to quit thinking that our goal is to make an impact (myself included). Our real goal is to win and make a true impact in government. This could be a beginning of an age where there will truly no longer be politics as usual.

Sometimes, I wonder that if Hoffman loses, will that be a wake up call to us? I don’t want to find out. Instead, I want to know how the rest of the USA reacts when Hoffman wins. We need to make this happen.

An email from my local Tea Party organization:

“Newsflash!  The Daily Show, a satirical TV program on Comedy Central, is doing a story on the Tea Party movement and will be filming part of our meeting. If you don’t wish to be on camera, please feel free to leave the room during filming.”

I will be speaking at this particular meeting – not really a “speech” per se; more like a quick update on my plans – so there stands a small chance that Jon Stewart himself will poke fun at me on national television.

I’m really not sure if this is a good thing. To me, this seems like feeding our cause to the opposition wolves. A liberal leaning satirical program is not going to be moved by what we are doing. They won’t change their focus until the mainstream does first, IF that happens.

I know who I am, and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing regardless, so why do this? I’ll have to ask. Maybe there’s a chance that our footage will hit the cutting room floor.

We’ll see.

I have been asked to be a guest speaker at the Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party’s next rally at the Gazebo in downtown Mansfield, Ohio, on Saturday, November 7th. The rally will start at noon and will last until 3pm at the latest.

The main topic will be the Federal Reserve, the devaluation of the dollar, and the precious metals market. I promise not to make this boring. I won’t cite statistics from various sources; I will just bring general knowledge instead. The process our federal government is using to tank our economy is a complicated one, and I see this as an opportunity to translate this process into everyday plain English.

I also plan on making a big announcement at the tail end of my speech, unrelated to the Fed. I won’t give away what it’s about just yet, but let’s just say that given that these Mansfield rallies have historically drew anywhere from 500 – 1,200 people, I am excited about the possibilities. Please come to this event, as it will be the last one held outdoors before the spring season peeks around the corner later in 2010.

Hope to see you there.

This is one of those days where I have no idea what we’re truly in for.

It appears that our government is making their attempt to work against us. They’re testing us. They may be the anti-representative government that we feared.

I realize many people want the government health care and such. That’s no surprise. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it took a government this long to try and blatantly grow larger exponentially. The inherent flaw of any system of government is that government itself tends to grow, like mold. The American Constitution was put in place in order to keep our government limited. Despite that, our government has found a way to grow itself regardless by exploiting loopholes and betraying the trust of those who elect them. So I suppose I should be glad the Constitution was able to delay tyranny for 233 years, yes? It’s like Jim Quinn’s reasoning that the Constitution is one of the best documents to base government on because it limits government; and that no existing countries would ever accept the American Constitution because it would force their respective governments to limit themselves, and no government would voluntarily relinquish that kind of power.

The central question of the movie “No Country For Old Men” is - How can good overcome evil; when evil is so rampant, so random, and so reckless? How can one stem the tide that seems hell bent on leaving destruction in its wake with no remorse? How can organizations that are mocked by the general public be the “pioneers that take the arrows” as Rush Limbaugh says we are? It’s too little taking on too much.

I feel like I am coming out of my denial that government has slowly but surely become an evil force. I’m wondering if the national media’s reporting is one-sided due to fear from the government rather than a blind adoration for them. I’m wondering if the National Football League’s inner politics are just as how Rush Limbaugh told us on his radio show – that Rush was a pawn in the chess game between the NFL’s Players’ Association and the teams’ owners. That the White House may play a part in intimidating the football team owners – who undoubtedly will be cast as the evil filthy rich that would cancel the NFL season just so they can count their gold.

Why can’t a private company like Humana explain their opinion of the health care legislation freely to their clients without threats from Washington? Why must a sport mega-organization dictate that in order to buy a minority stake in one of their clubs, that you have to keep quiet as not to appear “divisive”? Doesn’t that just mean, “Shut the hell up if you wish to get what you want”? Why can’t a CEO and a janitor alike receive their bonus check without some empty suit bureaucrat in Washington interfering and telling them that they are “unessential employees”, and therefore undeserving of their own bonus checks?

It’s times like these where I wish we had adopted the ways of the stereotypical Eastern Asian cultures, where honor trumps all. A Japanese CEO of a failed company would slash himself to death with his own sword, because he felt that his company’s failure brought shame upon himself and his family. An American Congressman like Barney Frank, the main target for blame behind the Community Reinvestment Act on overdrive, as well as colossal nightmares like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – he wants to reimplement these programs; he wants to do it all again. No honor. No shame.

I love you liberals, I really do. You have hearts of gold, are very caring, and very trusting. I just wish I could grab your collar and throw you up against the wall – not to cause violence, but only to get your direct attention. You have got to know who you trust. You have got to know who you associate with, and which people’s hands you put your lives into. I wish you could understand that even if a big government was a benevolent one presently, what would stop someone in the future to use the same system of government to twist to their evil purposes? You couldn’t stand George W. Bush because you feared his leadership was much like a dictator’s? I don’t agree, but fine, let me agree just this once for the sake of argument. If Bush was so horrible, and Obama is the way he is, then shouldn’t the government’s power be restricted further so that NEITHER of them are tempted to rule rather than lead like they should? In other words, if you favor bigger government because your side is showing the other who’s the man and who’s the bitch, then what the hell do you think will happen when the other side wins? The tables will turn, and revenge will become the number one motivator. The fighting will become more intense, and we head to war.

If ANY health care bill passes, government will get to choose who lives and who dies. Whether directly via death panels or some indirect method like nationalizing the insurance companies (the true meaning of “fascism”), they will control who lives and who dies. Who isn’t to say a Democrat-led government won’t be tempted to let elderly Republicans take painkillers while they keep elderly Democrats alive to control the voting blocs? Who’s to say the Republicans wouldn’t do the same thing, even if it’s to even the score? Do we really want to go there? If we do, then we really are approaching 1930′s-era Germany territory. I don’t want to say that, because it’s too easy to call someone “Hitler” or “Nazi”. But once the government death panels take effect in any form, then the next line of intrusiveness would be crossed. Is this what we really want?

At least we can have some choices with health insurance companies. If our loopy government truly deregulated this industry so that the companies can truly compete, then we’d have even more choices. If the federal government is our caregiver, we live and die by their decisions. There wouldn’t be any real appeals process – not when government is looking to control costs by rationing care. Appeals processes are expensive.

I’ll say it again – as long as government gets their hands on our money and creates their dream entitlement society, then they have a financial interest in letting us citizens die. If we had our own retirement and pension funds, then our beneficiaries would inherit these funds upon our death. If we die while collecting Social Security and Medicare, the government keeps it. Therefore, we are cheaper on the system dead rather than alive.

Is it any wonder that WE DON’T TRUST YOU?

We don’t trust the national media. We suspected liberal leanings over the past decade. We were injured by it by the treatment of Sarah Palin. Now with the blatant slander and defamation of Rush Limbaugh (whether you like the guy or not), they’re nothing. I told you these guys were dead because I am alive. This is why CNN gets shouted down every time they cover a Tea Party gathering.

We don’t trust statistics or science. I figured once I felt I always had to research the source of the information, then it wasn’t worth it anymore. Politics is nothing but true information getting drowned out by a flood of falsehoods at every turn. For every cold summer day we had, there was always “global warming”. For every Joe Wilson, there’s a worthless Congressman’s insistence that Republicans want people to die quickly in absence of a government health plan. For every Rush Limbaugh, there’s defamation by sportswriters and mainstream talking heads in order to prevent a purely capitalistic transaction from taking place.

We don’t trust our government to run things anymore. That’s why we’re onto them now. That’s why we’re screaming only to find out the media tells the others that nothing is wrong, and that we’re a bunch of racist nuts. That’s another reason we don’t trust media. We know racism is not the explanation for Obama’s shortcomings, not when racism wasn’t a problem during his election. We don’t trust the lesser of two evils anymore. That’s why you’ll see us run for office ourselves. You just go ahead and try and get us. We’ll have more balls than you’ll expect. Believe it.

If we lose this fight, it will not be by a shutout or knockout. We would go down in honor, and for honor. We will fight. You injure us, and we will come right back at you. It’s time the pansies in government take it like real men.

If we lose, don’t be fooled into thinking you’ve won. The most you can hope for in that situation is that the tyranny would reward your loyalty with their table scraps after they’ve had their feast.

I have been reawakened.

The concept of “belief” is a tricky one for me, but I’m going to give it my best.

I’m starting to believe that the 9/12 March on Washington was it. That was the best we got in our bag so far. February showed people were willing to stand up for what was right. April showed many people were joining the cause in their hometowns everywhere. July reaffirmed our patriotism. August showed our willingness to confront those who were willing to injure us. September was our home-run ball from the very start, and we slammed it in the face of bureaucrats even if the general population is still clueless to the impact. As much as many of us talked about the idea on 9/12, I don’t think we’ll have a bigger march with 3 million people the way things stand now.

Let’s not forget, though – the government has stalled all the way into October. There is no health care bill, no Crap and Trade, no illegal immigrant amnesty that’s in the works. The Max Baucus Plan shows some signs of being a threat, but my gut feeling says it’s a no-go. Why? Because the government has been put on notice. They know us now. Every action they take bears the inherent risk of hearing from us because they know we pay attention now. If they try to ram any bill that reeks of tyranny and big government down our throats, then my statement about not having a bigger march will go straight out the window. If they try it, they know full well that we’ll recognize it as a challenge – an action taken by the government against the people they govern.

I also believe that many Republicans have not learned their lessons of 2006 and 2008. A long-time good-ole-boy network like the Republican Party will not go down easily, and they still like big government like many Democrats do today. Granted, not all Republicans (or Democrats) are like this, but there are way too many who are. I can see this scenario playing out – Republicans will capitalize on the Tea Party anger to propel their campaigns, and win some big elections the next few years. Too many will fall into the SS/DD tricks and repeat their mistakes of 2006, and they are going to be plenty surprised when the Tea Partiers turn against them. We don’t say “non-partisan” and then whisper to each other that we’re really Republicans. We mean “non-partisan” because we’ll turn against the R’s twice as much as we do the D’s now. I agree with those who claim that we should have protested during the late Bush years, but I don’t agree that the Tea Party is a “sham” for not doing so. I think we were in a state of shock for awhile, and against our gut, we were waiting and seeing what Obama would bring to the table. Once we saw what it really was, then we erupted.

The trickiest belief of all is of the religious variety. I’m very uneasy about the subject, because I am a struggling believer. There’s so much I do not know.

I do know that “church” and “state” cannot be separated, despite all efforts. I understand that people want their government to remain neutral on religion. I would too, if it was possible. The only thing is, it isn’t. It can’t be possible because all leaders are guided by some sort of principles. Whether an individual looks to a higher power for guidance, or to the way Man has handled similar situations in the past, every leader has to look somewhere. There has to be a belief system in place in order for leaders to make any decision regarding their district.

Even atheism itself is a belief system, because by definition, it is a belief that there is nothing more than what we see ourselves or discover through science. I’ve been to this place for awhile, but eventually found my way out of it when I learned that if I didn’t believe in God, then by default I believed in Men; and Men always fail. Mankind is full of sinners, and it’s unavoidable that they would fail me as well.

This ties in directly with my belief that our rights do not come from our government; they come from God and we lend our power to a representative government to which it’s up to us on how we decide to control our government. Elections, recalls, protests, campaign financing – our actions define how we want our government to represent us.

I am guilty of being a major slacker in this department for a long time. Despite turning 18 in the year 1994, I didn’t vote until 2004 – 10 years later. I’m still compelled to be more active in order to make up for lost time. My grandparents lived during the Great Depression. My grandfather was involved in World War II. What the hell did I do in comparison?

Once I answered that question and strategized on what to do about that, I’m finding my place. With the help of people from all over the country, and even some parts of the world, I know where I’m going. And once I find what I am looking for, religiously speaking, you can bet I will be unapologetic about where my principles come from. I will not hide it for the sake of my political party or to appease some atheist who cries “religious conspiracy” whenever he sees the word “God” in his alphabet soup or Alpha-Bits cereal (remember that, kids?). I know who I’ll be then, and I know who I am now. I know what I believe and what I don’t believe. I know not to get hung up on others beliefs, or any displays of religious belief, provided no one was physically hurt by or legitimately persecuted for disagreeing. And by “persecuted”, I don’t mean being forced to view the Ten Commandments and claiming to be scarred for life. I mean real persecution, like terrorist attacks and political prisons.

We better watch ourselves, because discrimination does take place against Christians. The Jews of Israel are very easy targets for being thrown under the bus against Palestinian sham requests for peace. The word “holocaust” is treated too lightly nowadays. Most of all, I fear for my country that shows evidence of discrediting any religion and throwing their hopes in Men instead. And Men will fail us because of their propensity for greed. I can only hope and believe there will be plenty of us as ultra-vigilant watchdogs whenever the next liberty grab takes place. There’s been a slow period in the federal government for quite a while, which is good, but I wouldn’t let anyone believe we’ll be lulled into complacency. We’re still watching, and we won’t give up God to place our hopes in Men. It won’t happen.

Another week gone by, another time period of leaders’ insanity disguised as normal everyday life.

I’m starting to get worn down by exaggerated claims, overstated hypotheses, and dumb comparisons.

For the record, as much as I couldn’t stand John McCain, he is NOT worse than Barack Obama; although, he is not that much better either. I think McCain would have signed off on Crap and Trade just as Obama will do once it passes the Senate.

Barack Obama’s agenda will not be the least bit affected by Chicago’s upset loss in their bid to host the 2016 Olympics. He will keep doing as he does, with little damage to his overpowerful ego. And Mark Levin, as much as I love your show and your wisdom, why compare this Olympic non-event to the fall of the Hindenburg? Is that really necessary? [Added 10/6/09: I now know the Hindenburg themes were alluding to how the mainstream national media was treating this as a news story, in the vein of "Oh, the drama! Whatever shall our President do to handle this awful travesty?" type of reporting. Then it all got twisted as how Republicans were rooting for our country to fail, despite our pleas to Obama to stay in touch with General McChrystal regarding the Afghanistan situation, but you know how it all goes.]

Meanwhile, I talked with a well-meaning liberal who had no idea the 9/12 march even happened. I think many people still haven’t heard about it, despite the staggering attendance. I don’t think protesting in front of liberal leaning news media outlets will do any good either. Remember the first Chicago Tea Party in February – we taunted the NBC building near Michigan Avenue and watched the reporters smile and wave at us through the windows. They know we were there. They found out why we were there. It did us no good then; it’s not going to do good now. They already know. They just continue not to report it with the same emphasis as liberal protests with 1/10 of the attendance.

We still have more in common with each other than we thought. Many of us want the Federal Reserve abolished, regardless of party. Many of us want marijuana legalized, regardless of whether we are an “R” or a “D” or something else entirely. Many of us side with the country of Israel and despise the commentary of Iran’s Ahmandinejad when he talks about how the Holocaust never occured.

Hell, many of us are downright horrified at a Florida congressman’s comparison of the lack of a government health care plan to the Holocaust. Apparently, Republicans want people who get sick to “die quickly”. No apology for that, is there? Not as much as Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” I suppose, even if Obama did lie.

Unfunded Mandates are the devil that’s in the details. I’m not understanding how any state can pass a law mandating that certain programs be started, and pass along the cost to county and city governments. That is so Federal Government of you to do that, states. When a federal government can create Medicare and stick the states with the cost, what will the states turn to when they can’t balance the budget? The ARRA – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the Obama Stimulus Package. Makes me wonder if counties deliberately lay off police officers, knowing that the United States will allocate federal funds to reinstate some of those officers. I smell set-up, and I also smell a government rescue with strings attached.

I sounded rather melancholy in my previous post. I don’t mean to say that the 9/12 march meant nothing. I don’t mean to say it had no effect, just short-term effects. We most certainly made a difference that day. There is no other great feeling that compares with patriotism in great masses, showing the government 1.5 million times over that it’s not about them. It was most definitely worth wondering what Barack Obama thought as he looked at the crowd before hightailing it to Minnesota on his helicopter. It was definitely worth seeing how the mainstream national media truly works in the age of distrust. It was a beautiful thing to see what the Silent Majority looked like in person. This emotionally powerful event will never leave us, as we will pass it on to future generations along with others in the present who were left in the dark by their own national media. It was not from a Super Bowl victory, not from a celebrity-dominated event, not from a “reality” TV show. This is all real. We are the beacon for the rest of the world, to show that true freedom is not dead, and that we will not let it die. I think England senses that, as evidenced by their UK Press. I think France even senses it, due to the hesitant comments made by their leader Sarkozy. A new dawn is approaching, and I cannot wait to see how it all transpires. I hope you are all beside me when it all comes to pass.