Iowahawk serves up a extra helping of sarcasm in this post on community agitators. Here’s a snippet:

Note the fine grassroots sanserif display font typography of their signs, spontaneously designed for maximum television legibility. Note that these citizens have coincidentally chosen their signage to color-match with their t-shirts. This will help independent grassroots organization leaders locate the citizens to distribute town hall seat assignments and bus departure schedules. You may also note that these hometown neighbors are carrying spontaneous chant cards.

I do think that it’s pretty funny that the left makes the claims that it does about organized protests when the current President was a community organizers for years. I can’t speak for all town hall meetings, but I know the Tea Party protests were very unorganized and I went out of concern for my country (the growing deficit that it has).

From Byron York (via Power Line):

“After all this discussion about health care and cap and trade and loss of jobs and the budget and the stimulus, this group [middle class voters] is suddenly beginning to feel particularly vulnerable to tax increases,” says one Republican pollster. “They don’t see how things are going to work out for them in a positive way, and they worry that instead of being in a position to bounce back from the present economic environment, in fact more money may be taken away from them.”

Their concerns are entirely rational. Economists left and right have long argued that there is no way Obama can pay for a national health care makeover and a host of other expensive initiatives without breaking his campaign pledge not to raise taxes for anyone making less than $250,000. The wealthy are already paying a grossly disproportionate percentage of federal income taxes, and increasing taxes on them won’t raise enough money to meet Obama’s needs.

This is the crux of the matter for me. Sure it would be nice for everyone to be healthy, well fed and living in peace. Seriously, who wouldn’t like that? Guess what though, we aren’t there yet. This isn’t Star Trek. There are limitations to the amount of money available. At this point, we need more people working and making money and fewer people with their hand out. We just can’t sustain our current level of expenditures.

I was a little taken back by the comments of President Obama at a press conference recently.

“I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately,’’ the president said. “That’s just a fact.’’

It remarkable that even though he “didn’t know all of the facts”, his gut reaction is to bring the police officer into question. So without even looking into the events of the incident, he is willing to further widen the racial chasm by faulting police (a white man) instead of staying neutral and letting local officials get the facts.

I don’t know the facts either, but I didn’t blame Gates for his actions. It would be easy to say that he (Gates) was obviously at fault, but I just don’t have all of the facts. I do know that I was in the exact position as Gates found himself though and I found it wise to not make any fast moments and carefully, calmly show proof of my identification. Of course, that was my own reaction because I didn’t want to get shot. I didn’t even care what the race of the police officers where. In fact, I don’t even remember.

I find the Presidents behavior rather disappointing.

Update: I see that President Obama issued a statement that he could have chosen his words more carefully. It’s not really an apology and it doesn’t change the fact that he conveyed his “true” feelings to his listeners.

Another Update: It seems as though the situation has calmed down quite a bit. Part of that is due to fellow officers (multiple races) coming forward to support the police officer. Of course, the two sides of the story certainly clash so I expect them to remain at odds unless new information comes out.

Michael Ramirez is really sharp these days:

I’m somewhat at a loss at how we are officially reacting to events in Honduras.

I’m not sure if anyone is keeping score, but I would say that other than increasing government debt beyond belief the stimulus package as been a failure. Unfortunately we are going to have to sit back and watch GM and Chrysler (and all of the associated jobs) deconstruct under the Governments control. Let’s hope there is something left after the damage is done.

From ABC blog:

President Obama’s expressed hope today in his weekly address “that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this (Supreme Court nomination) process, and Congress, in the past” runs against another historical first for the 44th president: his unique role in history as the first US President to have ever voted to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee.

From Byron York:

For some Republicans, however, it will be hard to avoid thinking back a few years, to a confirmation hearing that didn’t end happily at all.  In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated former Justice Department lawyer Miguel Estrada to a seat on the federal courts of appeals.  In that instance, as today, the nominee was was a Hispanic with a compelling story and impressive qualifications.  And some of the very people who are today praising Sotomayor spent their time devising extraordinary measures to kill Estrada’s chances.

Don’t expect to hear much about this though. It seems that these days, the media is moving lock step with the White House. I will not soon forget the bitter hatred that our last president endured.

I think the numbers speak for themselves. Don’t be fooled by the calm words of the media. Check the facts and act if you feel compelled.

From a casual inspection, it would seem that the US is on a path similar to that of Venezuela in recent years. Fueled by a low income political voting block, Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998. Since then there has been a steady move to silence political opponents and nationalize a majority of the nations industries (primarily energy and finance). Some would view that as a positive outcome, however my view is socialist governments rarely work on behalf of the people they profess to want to help. Not that the US is a truly free society, but its heritage is one of self-motivated people fueling growth through the power of invention. This is surely in danger of becoming a passing stage.

When I see speakers shouted down at universities or public figures dismissed as racist, it’s a red flag that signals troubled times ahead. When businesses are held hostage by politicians and are unable to function normally then we should be wary as our business might be next. Alas the stage is set and the crowd is coming. I fear we may already be closer than we thought.

On Wednesday (Tax Day in the US), Tea Parties were held in towns across the nation to protest the spending and taxing policies of the United States government. I took a couple hours from my day to drive down to the state capital to take part in the gathering. The group was a nice slice of the general population and was pretty similar to what you might see at an LSU football game (if you carried signs about taxation to football games). There were about 5 or 6 speakers while I was there (couldn’t see them due to the crowd) and they covered a wide range of the conservative political spectrum. I wasn’t particularly impressed with any of them with the exception of Matt Kennedy from WGBO. He’s a well spoken guy that seemed to have good things to say. The others didn’t have a coherent message and seemed to jump from hot button to hot button.

The most common question that I’ve heard about the tea parties is whether they will make a difference. I would say that they have already caused a few people to take the first step toward involvement, so that’s a pretty big deal. They’ve also put the politicians on notice that people are watching (which they really hate). So it was definitely worthwhile. In a general sense, politicians work with a list of priorities and this helps them to place more weight on reducing the spending and therefore eventually, hopefully reducing taxes. Just a balanced budget would be a huge improvement.

After 22 years of being a Republican, I now consider myself an independent. There really isn’t a major political party that I can call my own. The spending policies of George W. Bush and the Republican controlled Congress from 2004-2006 really showed their true colors in refusing to balance the budget and increasing domestic spending. The Obama administration and the Democratic controlled Congress is now set to triple the size of the deficit and double the size of domestic spending. This in itself is particular damaging and I think this is the reason that I and others were motivated to act.

All in all a nice day. Beautiful weather, a nice location and a lot of friendly people. Next time, take a vacation day and spend part of it with the other right wing extremists.

One side note: It’s telling how the national media has potrayed (mocked really) the Tea Parties. If you are a conservative, you should vote with your viewership. Refuse to watch those channels and hopefully they will driven off the air. Perhaps the BBC would be a good options as they are less biased than our own media.

Second side note: The following is the lamest statement that I heard from a politician (from 2thadvocate):

U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, participated in a gathering held in Alexandria. Similar events took place in Shreveport and Winnfield.

“I participated because I don’t want anybody saying I’m not for lower taxes,” Alexander said. “I don’t know what good these things do but I think it’s good for people to come out and express their frustration.”

Wow! Does that sound like a politician or what?

After so much effort to promote social items at most schools, we’ve forgotten the core material. It’s nice to see the Governor’s wife pick up on it. The local newspaper has the story: Supriya Jindal Promotes Math, Science. A good dose of math and science goes a long way. Mmmm… mmm.