Obamacare delande est!

Rest assured, this avid, right wing, gun loving, conservative will vote for no Republican who does not vow to repeal this monstrosity if given back functional control of the House, Senate, and Whitehouse.

Happy 222nd Birthday US Constitution

Update:

Don adds: Let's hope it survives to its 223rd anniversary.

The (Tea) Party’s Over

At Least for now

The turnout was huge. Fox News and others report that “tens of thousands” marched and protested at the Capitol and I guess that’s true if they mean “many, many” tens of thousands. I’m not able to support the estimates I’ve seen that the crowd numbered a million or 1.6 million, but I’ve seen crowds of 100,000 or more milling in and around football stadiums, and this crowd was bigger.

Because so many of the protesters made their own plans (as we did) and just showed up, organizers had little idea how many to expect. I think they thought maybe 50,000 and hoped for 100,000 and when thousands more walked in from nearby hotels or rode the Metro from outlying areas, they were a little overwhelmed. People were told to gather in Freedom Plaza at 9:00 for a march down Pennsylvania Avenue starting at 11:30. By 10:00 the crowd had filled the available area with more coming in all the time. My little group had wandered over past the east (Capitol) side of the staging area looking for a cup of coffee and a donut, when we heard the fife and drum band playing as the march toward the Capitol began an hour early.

Revolutionary Era Band Leads the March

Acting uncharacteristically quickly, we managed to position ourselves near the front of the marchers and were rewarded, about a mile later, with a vantage point well up on Capitol Hill.


We were close enough to hear all the speakers and occasionally catch a glimpse of them. Behind us and off to the sides, we could still see a sea of people coming down Pennsylvania Avenue an hour later.

Later Arrivals

People, people everywhere

The sign says "No brown shirts, we are red white and blue shirts"

The signs were creative and displayed a lot of originality. Some of my favorites were "Barack, I'm Ba-roke", and "Go Green - Recycle Congress".

Not all were about "Healthcare" Reform

Some were even much harsher on the President than this one was.

A common theme was "Can you hear us now?" which some of the speakers emphasized and many people I talked to agreed was a source of frustration. We have gone to tea parties and townhall meetings, we have written to our congresscritters and to newspapers, and still we are being ignored.

That is the reason so many of us took our time and spent our own money - no damned astroturfing here, thank you - to go to D.C. and try to make enough noise that they have to hear us. Obamacare is not the only issue, but it was the catalyst that finally drove us to action.

Did we do any good? Will the media respond? I don't know. The Washington Post had a relatively neutral article on the march and the AP put out a fair report. I'm told the NYtimes had a paragraph on page 37; I guess you can't win them all.

But everybody I talked to said they would all be back next year if necessary.

Or sooner.

Definitely on November, 2010

Heading for D.C.

Tusk and Talon will be represented at the 912 Project Tea Party in Washington this weekend. As my wife explains, we didn't go to Woodstock forty years ago because we had jobs - we were working. But we're not going to miss our opportunity to go to this years reincarnation of the festival.

It'll be a little different this time because our intent is to do what we can to rescue the country from those people - and their progeny - of the type who were at the first one. I expect the most prevalent drugs there will probably be blood pressure medicine. The music will be country, but not Country Joe. If there's buying and selling going on, the item being bought will be gold.

We're a little older and wiser than we were forty years ago. If you need a name for this Tea Party, call it "Geezerstock".

We'll be driving to Geezerstock with our friends Marty and Keren. Marty wrote me with his reasons for going. With his permission, I'll quote him here:

I am going to Washington DC to voice my concerns about the direction of our country. I have put this email together to send to my email contacts list.

I have been thinking about why I am going to stand on Capitol Hill with what I hope will be a very large crowd when I have avoided being in crowds my whole life. Why am I looking forward to a political demonstration when I have thought them foolish my whole life? Finally, why am I hoping to be noticed when I have avoided being part of the spectacle my whole life?

Maybe I will be asked why I am there and I am trying to figure that out. I was surprised that health care is not at the top of my list, it is just the most recent offense.

The reasons I want the Federal Government to know I am dissatisfied with their performance:

1. Too much government power and arrogance. The government has dismissed the CEO of GM, purchased auto companies, banks, and ignored bankruptcy laws. The government wants to punish people who do not pay their taxes and appoints a man who did not pay his to head this effort. The government has chosen to read terrorists their rights and to pursue the punishment of CIA interrogators who try to protect us from those terrorists. The government is calling people who ask legitimate questions about what is going on: racists; Nazis; mobs; and all manner of demeaning things.

2. A new level of transparency. All legislation was going to be on-line for 5 days to enable citizens to read it before it was voted on. Instead, the bills have been signed before Congress even read them. They passed a bill for more than ¾ Trillion dollars to stimulate the economy and did not read it. It had to be passed immediately or the world would end, then the President let 4 days go before he signed it. The bill was for shovel-ready projects and today, 7 months later, 11% has been spent. There is little evidence that the 11% has done anything, yet the government is going to continue spending this borrowed money.

3. “Failed Bush policies which got us into this mess”. The failed policies according to the candidate were too much spending and too little taxing of the rich. Since taking office now President Obama is spending twice as much ($4T v. $2T) and has not raised taxes. He would argue that you cannot raise taxes in a recession. I do not understand how it is sound economically to “let” people keep their money when you want the economy to improve and to confiscate their money when times are better.

4. The US debt is $11 Trillion and projected to grow by 9 Trillion more. The world is already balking at our bond sales (China is demanding shorter term bonds, not willing to risk their money at low interest over any extended period). China has a little more than ½ Trillion of our debt as does Japan. We are selling $2 Trillion of debt this year. When (not if) the world stops buying the debt (caused by this excessive spending) the consequences will be disastrous.

5. Apologizing for America. I do not believe that it is good foreign policy to apologize for America’s arrogance, nor to offer an “open hand” to proven enemies at the expense of proven allies.

6. Failures of government are “corrected” by expanding government.

a. In 1956 Brown v. Topeka, KS eliminated segregation; everyone would agree that is a great thing. It did start the federal government meddling in education. Today, our education is no longer the envy of the world, 95% of the PhDs in the world are in Asia, our students test very poorly against other countries, and we spend twice as much per student as other developed countries. A half century of downgrading American education is not enough; the government continues to solve this problem by spending even more money.

b. They formed a Department of Energy in the 70s to reduce American dependence on foreign oil. No result and the Department of Energy continues to grow.

c. Clinton and Bush wanted a larger percentage of Americans in their own homes. This was followed by the House Finance Committee forcing companies to loan money to poorer and poorer people (and backing the loans through Fanny and Freddy – eliminating things like down payments and a source of income to get mortgages). First, this caused a huge boom in demand for housing artificially raising prices. Next, people without money started defaulting on their loans (duh). The bubble burst and this was a major cause of the recession. We never hear the government talk about this, instead they talk about greed on Wall Street and too little regulation. The government had plenty of power to create the situation why is more power the solution?

7. Failure to honor pledges to an aging population. The aging population is going to force the government to examine some very unpopular things. Medicare and Social Security are going to require massive tax increases and/or benefit cuts to meet the baby boomers’ needs. Decades of over-promising and meeting the promises by spending future generations’ money are going to catch up to the government and the solutions are going to be difficult. This is not the time to add another Trillion dollar
entitlement.

8. A “shadow” government. The administration has appointed ~3 dozen special advisors (Czars). Among them are self-proclaimed communists, Marxists, and people about whom we know nothing. They are to regulate how much money private citizens can make, an ill-thought-out move to become green, and who knows what else? There has been Congressional oversight in neither their appointments nor in the scope of work to be done.

9. Cap and Trade will hurt both our economy and global carbon emissions. Increasing the price of energy will make manufacturing in the US more expensive. Jobs, already being lost to globalization, will be further transferred to the developing world. This will reduce US carbon emissions but cause the carbon emissions of (for instance) China and India to increase disproportionally. China is producing one new coal-fired power plant each week. Global carbon emissions will increase, US jobs will decrease, and US utility bills will sky rocket. The framers of the bill say it will create green jobs. The job creation will not be proportionate to the jobs lost AND the green jobs are most likely to move off shore where manufacturing is cheaper.

10. Health Care Reform or Health Insurance reform. The results of government health care around the world are not encouraging to me. There is a rush to get this legislation passed which I do not understand. I have many questions where the rhetoric and the words of the bills do not match up: “you can keep your health care” - unless your employer wants to switch; no cuts in benefits but $500 billion of unspecified Medicare cuts; a pledge to be deficit neutral when the cost estimate is at least $1 Trillion (this will cause a huge tax increase which will not go toward the existing ~$1.8 Trillion deficit); how will 46 million more people be covered by the same number of providers without rationing of care, why does the entire healthcare system have to be completely overhauled to correct any of these deficiencies; and why does all of this have to be done NOW, why can we not be given a chance to have our questions answered?

So what? Why did I send this to you? What are you supposed to do with it (or about it)? If you are concerned, write your Congress person and Senators, make sure they know whether you are satisfied with their performance and if not, why not.

I agree with the above and could add a few of my own. I'll let you know what we saw and did when we get back.

A Look Into Jeff: Left Brain vs. Right Brain

My daily review of the internet world leads me to these two items. A video by Bill Whittle and a column by P.J. O'Rourke.

I'd like to think that Bill--or as those of us who aren't as smart, and who is, like to call him, Mr. Whittle--is my left brain. On the other hand, P.J. O'Rourke is my right brain.

You might be forgiven for thinking, "Jeff, your left brain is a conservative dude with a sarcastic nature and a distinct belief in American exceptionalism while your right brain is a conservative due with a sarcastic nature and a distinct belief in American exceptionalism." And you'd be right as far as it goes. But when you dive a little deeper, you'd see that my left brain is a conservative due with a sarcastic nature and a distinct belief in American exceptionalism who is buttoned down while my right brain is a conservative due with a sarcastic nature and a distinct belief in American exceptionalism who was once a social libertine and only became buttoned down in middle age.

Why Did Sarah Quit?

UPDATED BELOW

Sarah Palin’s surprise announcement today that she would not serve out her term as Alaska governor not only interrupted the nonstop coverage of Michael Jackson’s funeral arrangements, but the media’s holiday weekend plans as well. In between high-fiving each other, they are asking why. Naturally, many speculated that there is some scandal about to break; some even question if she is pregnant again.

They also wonder, what does this do to her future plans? Will being labeled as a quitter put an end to whatever presidential aspirations she has, they ask breathlessly? Those wishing to be charitable suggest that this frees up her time to challenge Lisa Murkowski in a Republican senatorial primary next year. And of course, they note, there’s always the possibility that she really does regret the time away from her family and wants to step out of the public eye for a while.

However, except for the scandal theory, none of those alternatives explain the apparent suddenness of the decision. And in view of the thorough examination of every aspect of her and her family’s lives that has already been done, it’s hard to see how they can have any secrets.

If taken at face value, her rambling announcement, may have given some honest insights. Palin blamed the amount of time that it cost her to defend herself against baseless ethics complaints and the fact that this was “not fair to the state, not fair to her family … I can’t allow all that time and millions of dollars to go to waste just so that I can hold the title of governor.” The media, used to self-serving statements from politicians, naturally discounted the possibility that she might actually be sincere in the inference that the Lieutenant Governor could be in a better position to fulfill the responsibilities of governance than she could. (“A good point guard … keep[ing] her eye on the basket, knows when it is time to pass the ball … for victory”)

Maybe she really didn’t feel right drawing a governor’s paycheck while not being able to do her job effectively. As she keeps telling us, she’s not into “politics as usual”. Her unconventional, shoot from the hip style has worked for her in the past, and she assured her listeners this was not a hasty decision.

Her intentions are unknown at this point, but it does appear she has a plan, i.e. “I’m taking my fight for what’s right for Alaska in a new direction.” Almost surely, what’s right for Alaska involves energy production. That has been her signature issue, and it is at the heart of America’s most contentious current problems. Middle-eastern wars, global “warming”, California bankruptcy, government control of auto companies and the cost of living are all wholly or partially due to energy policies. Even the subprime mortgage crisis was influenced by a dollar weakened by the negative balance of trade. Sensible energy policies – the opposite of what the current administration and congress are offering – would cure a lot of what ails the nation.

What if … she is offended by each and every day bringing a new outrage against her values and beliefs? What if … she fears American institutions are at risk from a bunch of statists? What if … she fears time is running out and she has decided she must begin a populist campaign in favor of energy independence, smaller government, national security and freedom?

Once no longer constrained by being on a public payroll, she would be more free to speak out against what she sees as threats. She attracts crowds wherever she speaks, she has promised to campaign for like-minded candidates, she makes news – she may be the ideal person to capitalize on tea-party populism.

Opponents will try to brand her as irrational or a quitter. Her political future may be a long shot but she’s faced long odds before. In fact she revels in them.

The MSM has been asking for months now, who leads the Republican party, by which I guess they mean, who is willing to take on President Obama? What if …they should be careful what they wish for?


UPDATE:

Governor Palin has written an op-ed for the Washington Post titled "The 'Cap And Tax' Dead End". Playing to her strengths, she covers energy needs, sources and uses with a special shout-out to Alaska's unique part in it:

American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president's cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.

And she concludes with a shot across the Obama bow:

Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation?
Yes, we can.

Just not with Barack Obama's energy cap-and-tax plan.

Read the whole thing. As you might expect, it has received much negative commentary, mostly insulting and lacking factual basis.

Support for an Idea I'd Always Suspected to be the Case

The Washington Times is reporting that there is a rather high correlation between domestic vehicle ownership and conservative political identification, along with a corresponding correlation between foreign vehicle ownership and liberal political identification.

As you might have gathered from the title of this post, I don't find this particularly surprising. But, it does lead me to what I think is an interesting queary. What, if any, effect will this have on General Motors and Chrysler as wards of the state? I foresee a couple of possibilities:

1.) There will be a flip-flop in purchasing, with those of liberal political identification seeing the success of the domestic auto industry as tied to their political fortunes. Moreover, buoyed by the government mandates that require the domestics to make electric and more fuel efficient vehicles, the embrace the domestics in a feel-good bear-hug. Simultaneously, conservatives more or less abandon the domestics, seeing their success as a rallying cry of success for the liberal agenda. Moreover, they have real philosophical problems with such heavy-handed government influence/control in any industry.

2.) Conservatives behave as described in #1. They pull back from the domestics. Lingering loyalty mutes the trend for some time, but the trend becomes unmistakeable as quality declines. Liberals still won't buy them for the same reasons they don't now.

This Would Likely Be My Dream Job

Pajamas Media is going to force me...

...to subscribe to them if Bill Whittle keeps putting out stuff like this.

The worldwide staff of T'n'T are car people. More specifically, we are Big Three car people. Watching what may be the death rattles of Chrysler, and, particularly, General Motors, has been quite difficult. For me, GM loyalty runs deep.

On the paternal side, Dad was an industrial engineer with the General. So, in my youth, General Motors put food on the table, a roof over my head, and kept me in Levi's, Nikes, and the occassional Coke Shirt. We lived about twenty miles outside of Dayton, Ohio. Back in the 70's and early 80's, Dayton was essentially a company town for the General. There were something like six or seven plants in town.

One plant, in the industrial area of Loraine, was the final assembly plant for Chevy S-10 pick-ups. Watching a car get put together is like the world's most awesome jigsaw puzzle. It is both science and art--creating something that is an object of both passion and utility. There was a point where the body assebly line and the frame assembly line merged. The bodes would come from up high and get dropped down onto the lower line that the frames were on, all while both continued to move forward. It's an industrial tango of equisite angles and timing. I never met someone who couldn't stand there and watch it all day in wonder. If I ever actually met a guy who didn't think that was simply awesome, I'd probably punch him in the face.

Mom's contribution to the GM-love has always been more about the cool factor. She has said to me, that if she ever became independently wealthy she wouldn't buy a big house. Nope. She says she'd build a seven-car garage and have a new Corvette, a classic Corvette Stingray, a Camaro, a Cadillac Escalade, a Cadillac CTS, a Pontiac Solstice, and a Chevrolet Silverado or Avalanche. Basically, it'd be a car for every day of the week.

Mom and I share an appreciation for Corvettes. I remember one time when we were driving home from a Cincinnati Reds game up I-75. There was a guy in a Corvette that was weaving in and out of traffic. I watched out the rear window as he came up behind us, pulled out and then went around us. Moments later I heard Mom yell, "Oh God, no! Not the Corvette." I looked and saw it do a 180 and slide off the highway backwards into ditch. As we passed and saw the driver slap his hands against the steering wheel in frustration, Mom says, "Whew. Good, it doesn't look like he did much damage to the 'Vette."

So, what's the point of my ramblings? Well, it's this. As P.J. O'Rourke discusses in this WSJ column is that a big part of what went wrong with the American automotive industry is that it lost, because we as Americans lost, the love affair with the auto.

I fear that once the "G" in GM stands for "Government" rather than "General", that what remaining passion roams the halls of the Renaissance Center will be squeezed out. Who could possibly want a car brought to you by the same people who bring you the Post Office and the Social Security Administration. When plant expansion or closing decision don't just have politica considerations, but are considered political in their entirety, how long will it be before we have an empty plant in southwestern Pennsylvania named for John Murtha. And when the broad parameters of design, engineering, and salemanship are driven by the whims of a Congressional committee, I suspect it won't be long before we are asked to buy Chevrolet Algores that are as bloated and content-free as their namesake.

Where do we go from here? Well, I hope that the General comes out of this on the other side as a still viable entity. I hope that it doesn't go the way of British Leyland.

But, more immediately, I'm going to do my part to remember how much I love cars. I'm going to encourage the rather unhealthy man-crush that I have for my car by driving around tomorrow for no particular purpose with the sun-roof open, the windows down, and the Beach Boys blaring and an ear-drum shattering volume. I encourage all of you to do the same.

What is Inflation

I love this article on the fine line that the Fed runs when it comes to figuring out how much money to print. I like to think and, frequently, write in analogies because I think that it helps flesh out difficult concepts. And that's what this article did for me.

I would say that the gist is that it may be possible for the Fed to avoid big time inflation in the coming years (though not probably this year) in spite of the massive money printing and debt-taking we are doing right now. But, it isn't going to be easy. Oh no. It won't be easy.

Des Moines Tea Party

Chad and I made it over to the front lawn of the Iowa State Capitol for the Des Moines Tea Party. Pretty good crowd. Chad estimated maybe 3000. I thought maybe 2000 to 2500. KCCI, citing the Iowa State Patrol, agreed with Chad. The Des Moines Register, of course, came up with a much lower number.

Chad and I rolled in about 11:30 AM. We walked the last couple blocks up to the Capitol with a nice guy who was wearing a tie-dye shirt, a macrame knit cap, and carrying a guitar. He stated that he didn't understand why people of the right would be called totalitarians or fascists when we wanted less government. I had to agree with that. He indicated that he wouldn't mind living out of a bus that ran on bio-diesel so that he wouldn't have to use any money for rent or utilities. While I would wish him the best of luck, I'm not entirely convinced that I could make that work.

The crowd was large and well-behaved. As we walked up, they were introducing a new speaker, an elderly gentleman who spoke mostly about abortion, though he did get some points in about lower taxes. To my mind, the crowd was receptive and in agreement, but no really getting into his talk.

The next gentleman spoke with a bit of a drawl and was more on point with the tenor of the crowd. He was four-square behind lower taxes and not over-burdening future generations through government debt. I thought he got several more applause lines than the earlier speaker.

We took a moment to sing America the Beautiful. And then had a woman from a local relgious AM radio station. She too spoke mostly about social issues, but got her best applause lines when she ventured into low taxes.

The fourt speaker was introduced as a pastor's wife and small business owner. She focused almost entirely on the small business angle and how taxes thwart the growth of small businesses.

By this time, it was about 12:30 and a return to work beckoned. We ran into one of Chad's neighbors who described the crowd as, "A lot of disaffected conservatives and libertarians, a lot of Ron Paul supporters, and a few black helicopter types." That seemed about right to me.

I did take two or three pictures. And if I can figure out how to get them uploaded on here, I'll do so.

Update: Photos

Here's sort of a distance picture. It's kind of hard to see everyone because they are curving downhill and away from where Chad and I were standing.



Then for these next three I zoomed and took three shots panning from my left to right.

Davenport Tea Party

A crowd of as many as 500 angry, but well-behaved citizens gathered at the corner of 4th and Main Streets in downtown Davenport Iowa to mark this tax-filing day of 2009. Most carried hand-made signs and a few waved traditional “Don’t Tread On Me” and large American flags. There were no speakers or organized activities, but while most of the crowd milled around on one or another of the corners, two groups of 20-30 people started chanting and marching around the intersection. It was typical of this largely conservative-oriented crowd that the marchers only crossed with the lights and obeyed all traffic signals. These are not the right-wing extremists that DHS warned us about.

I liked this sign best

The local news media was on hand but didn’t stay long when it became apparent that violence was unlikely. The only signs I saw of counterprotesters were one brave jackass yelling down from the safety of a fifth-story window and one motorist flipping off the gathering. Many, perhaps as much as a third of the passing cars honked their horns and/or gave thumbs-up signals in support of the occasion. (In all honesty, it did seem that I was seeing some of the same vehicles more than once.)

By 1:30 much of the crowd had drifted off, many explaining that they had to get back to work. Protesting is fine, but unlike leftist rent-a-mobs, the people who were at this event have better things to do.