Announcing the Sturbridge Tea Party
Aug 26th
When: October 9th 12:00 -6:00 PM
Where: Sturbridge Common – Main Street, Sturbridge MA
Email me if you want to help at FWDAJ@live.com
Be there or be square!
Conventional wisdom need not apply
Aug 25th
In Alaska, the Joe Miller upset over Lisa Murkowski for the republican nomination for the senate is almost codified as I write this. In Florida, Rick Scott beat Bill McCollum in the GOP primary for governor. In Arizona McCain handily beat Hayworth and Ben Quayle (who recently referred to President Obama as “the worst president in history”) beat Steve Moak (and seven other candidates) for the republican nomination for the Congressional 3rd District in AZ.
Only the McCain win was expected. Yesterday we heard that McCollum and Murkowski were shoe-ins, and Moak would probably overcome Quayle.
Republican turnout was enormous. In Florida, 50% more people voted in the republican race than went out to vote for the democrats. Over a million people cast their ballot in a senate primary that was not contested (Rubio) and produced an upset in the Governors race.
So what does it mean? At first glance it appears that the public has simply had it with all politicians. It makes no difference if you are a republican or a democrat, we want you out. We are sick of the corrupt slap-on-the-back/wink-wink deals that go on in government to our detriment, so you are gone. Secondly, The motivated voters are republicans. (If you are reading this you are probably in that group.) The tea party is working. (And could someone please tell Mike Huckabee that tea party does not stand for “social conservative”. We really don’t do social issues Mike, so take your agenda and shove it.)
It remains to be seen what happens in November but I certainly would wager that an army of Nancy Pelosi’s will not be re-elected.
The Political Version of Jersey Shore – The U.S. Congress
Aug 24th
Cross posted at Matt’s Meditations by Matt Hozmann
Deep into August, Thanksgiving has come early. Congress is finally in recess. As the President cavorts on Martha’s Vineyard, various state parties are holding conventions to assess the run into the November election. In the meantime, the artists formerly known as the paper of record seem to be melting down in their absurd denunciations of those with whom they disagree.
Krugman pretzelates on Social Security, while Dowd uses Kremlin logic on the mosque controversy. As she quotes Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s statement that “everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts” she twists Rev. Graham’s statement on the patrilineal inheritance of faith in Islam into a new and unique form of dissemblance. Who ever said nothing important happens in August? We are watching the readership of the New York Times shrink down to a metaphorical Unter den Linden and Tiergarten as Pinch Sulzberger rants at his editors ordering divisions of nonexistent reporters to write on trends that exist only in certain neighborhoods of Manhattan.
And the most apt analogy to Congress today is a reality show, “Jersey Shore”. 435 Housemates in Washington, 8 on the television show, but it’s the TV show that’s killing in the ratings. You have Angelina, the Kim Kardashian of Staten Island versus Nancy Pelosi; Jenny the Preying Mantis, aka Jan Schachowsky; Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino vs. Alan Grayson; and DJ Pauly D, aka Barney Frank…..
The drama on Jersey Shore includes booting Angelina off the show for not working her shift at the t shirt shore; JWWow cheating on her boyfriend, Snookie getting punched out in a bar, and Deena the party girl just partying, y’know? The main preoccupation is hooking up. Sounds like any given weekend in DC to me.
With impeachment proceedings against Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters the drama in Congress is reduced to farce, but they do have Health Care, Carbon Offsets, and a growing movement to legalize pot, which would fit right in with the Jersey crowd. Somehow I see Harry Reid as Snookie’s ex boyfriend, known as the Jerzee Pud.
As Democratic candidates run like the wind from their votes for the president’s agenda, many of the Republican candidates can’t seem to punch their way out of a paper bag. The messages are muddled and disoriented. However, the underlying message is anti-establishment, but in a highly non-traditional sense. For it is the believers in our country’s original principles that are in conflict with our establishment today.
In “Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture”, the authors make a persuasive argument that so-called rebellion only fuels a consumer economy based upon narcissism, emptiness, and greed. The increasing voyeurism of modern society is illustrated as well by Jersey Shore as it is by our legislators, who pass more laws based upon the desire to control others lives than on the underlying principles of our democracy based upon freedom and self-reliance.
The analogy between reality television and our Congress has become a very unfunny joke. Sound bites, attack ads, coordinated media blitzes, and false agendas have made our political process just as much a false construct as what they call reality television today.
Finally – someone gets feminism
Aug 23rd
I’d like to think if I were 20 years younger, I’d be Dana Loesch. She is a radio host, tea partier, conservative and has a bang-up editorial in the national examiner today: Sarah Palin and the rise of the Feminist Right
A taste:
Popularly defined feminism is no longer about liberating women from the patriarchy but about beholding them to a political party whose policies clearly affect women negatively.
This past month, liberal feminists made more hay made over Palin’s “mama grizzlies” talk than the matter of the Food and Drug Administration jerking Avastin off the market. Avastin is a drug used to treat late-stage breast cancer and has been shown to extend the life of some breast cancer patients by five months, but was deemed “cost-prohibitive” by the government.
Emily’s List cared enough about women to make a video criticizing Palin, but apparently not enough about breast cancer patients to make a video criticizing the FDA’s move.
Liberal feminists made more hay about Palin’s chest than I saw them make over the nine women who were recently stoned to death in the Middle East. Those same liberal feminists were also silent when Alle Bautsch was beaten in the street for being a conservative woman.
Liberal feminists talk of choice, but refuse to take the liberated, independent responsibility for their choices and instead press Uncle Sam to subsidize their abortions and birth control.
Liberal women complain about unemployment, yet promote policies which stifle the free market, suppress economic growth and shrink their wallets.
Liberal women rage about education, but help put a man in the White House who worked to kill educational equality by destroying the school vouchers program.
Read the whole thing. Go Dana Go!