Agenda 21 defeated in Sturbridge
Dec 6th
I attended my first Sturbridge town meeting last night. That may seem odd for someone as political as I, but I’m a national politics girl and I hate meetings. If you love the sound of your own voice (and since I have a radio show I suppose I could be accused of just that), there is no better place to be than a town meeting.
The first half hour was pretty much consumed with the rules. Anyone who has been to a Sturbridge Tea Party meeting knows that by the end of the first half hour we are on the winding-down side. Not so at a town meeting. They are barely getting started. After a reiteration of the rules comes the pledge and the prayer (which I was shocked and happy to see). Then came the introductions of the 873 13 people on stage. Then came the awards (don’t ask). By then I was ready for bed.
Finally to the first of several issues, which was explained by the moderator, then explained by a member of the panel and they another one.
Next came the discussion which alternated between pro’s and cons. Luckily I was sitting next to a guy who provided great color commentary about what was going on.
The issue was about some soccer field and it was clear that the packed room was mostly there for that matter. According to my interpreter it was essentially between lazy soccer moms who were willing to spend whatever it took to not be forced to drive an extra mile and the sane people.
By the time they got to the vote the sun was rising (somewhere). It was a majority rule vote and a show of hands revealed it was very close. Out came the hall monitors who two by two counted the voters. My seatmate and I thought that the soccer moms won, but after the votes were counted manually they lost by an incredible 265 – 272. Suddenly I was happy to be there, because I actually made a difference.
Several votes later, (when we approaching the reverse of daylite savings time) we got to Agenda 21, which was masked as ICLEI. I’m proud to report every single speaker opposed the bill which would force government regulation on building codes, cars, and before you know it, pets, and send costs for everything through the roof. Agenda 21 is a lot more sinister that that:
Agenda 21 is an action plan of the United Nations (UN) related to sustainable development and was an outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans directly affect the environment.
Agenda 21 is a huge tea party issue in MA, and rightly so. This will not be the last gasp.
The Arugla Defense
Nov 30th
The Daily Caller encountered Eric Holder and asked him about the calls for his resignation which now include 52 Congressmen, 1 Senator, 2 Governors and 4 presidential candidates. His response was priceless:
‘You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.’”
It’s not “organic”? Really? Apparently it’s the attorney general’s position that we can ignore his part in Fast and Furious because the uproar doesn’t feel natural to him? Tell that to Brian Terry.
Bye Bye Barney
Nov 29th
WE interrupt my very slow recap of the NRO cruise to celebrate the retirement of Barney Frank, arguably the worst congressman in the history of this country.
Michael Graham sums up his shameful career:
A sitting congressman re-elected after his boyfriend is busted for running a male prostitution ring out of the congressman’s condo? Amazing. Re-elected after it’s discovered another boyfriend helps run a major money-losing government agency “regulated” by the congressman’s committee? Astounding. But after a third boyfriend is busted for growing pot while you’re sitting on his front porch?
And that’s just his personal life. Frank is arguably responsible for most of the current fiscal problems we have in this country. The editors at National Review sum it up nicely:
But though his private life spilled over into his public duties, it is as a champion of a different kind of pay-for-play operation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that the congressman did the most damage to the country. The government-backed mortgage giants were at the center of the housing bubble and the subsequent financial crisis. Representative Frank was a stalwart defender of the organizations, even after the government uncovered “extensive” fraud at Fannie Mae and found that Freddie Mac had illegally channeled funds to its political benefactors. Again, Representative Frank’s personal life intruded into the story: He was sexually involved with a Fannie Mae executive during a time when he was voting on laws affecting the organization. The final cost of the Fannie/Freddie bailouts will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and the real damage that the organizations did to the U.S. economy — and the world economy, for that matter — probably is incalculable.
For years Barney Frank’s district was gerrymandered to keep him in office. This year Frank fears the gerrymandering will cause him to lose his seat.
One would hope the voters of Massachusetts have learned their lesson. Don’t hold your breath.
Page 3 – Including Night Owl #1
Nov 23rd
The panels began in earnest on Sunday. After the interview of Sununu and Thompson, John Miller moderated a panel of Tony Blankley, John Fund, Ralph Reed, Mona Charen and Bob Costa on The Politics of 2012. Fund is the most optimistic about our country. The rest, (including me) not so much. I have noticed that on the 4 cruises I’ve attended since 2009, the tea party has continued to gain steam and credibility with the NRO crowd. We started out as a footnote, and now are considered real players. That’s a good thing.
The next panel tackled the Economy. Kevin Hassett, Ramesh Ponnuru, Deroy Murdock and Tracie Sharp along with moderator Kevin Williamson were impressive and pessimistic. At one point Hassett took us through a non-Tarp scenero which would have been infinitely better than what we got. Books will be written about that.
Sunday night was our first Night Owl. Night Owls are comedy nights on the cruise. Well our brand of comedy which means political people making us laugh over political things. (It would be funny to drag a non-NRO person into a Night Owl session to see if they even cracked a smile. It may be all too much inside baseball.)
The topic: Reflections on Barry
The speakers: Lileks, Andrew Klavin, SE Cupp and Michael Walsh as moderator.
I’m not sure I recall much said about Barry. After all, what is there to say? Whatever the motive, he has taken this country on a ride toward destruction, and it is getting harder by the minute to find things to laugh about.
But laugh we did. These are funny and talented people. And we are all on the same team which might just be the best part of all.
Page 2: Politicians are boring
Nov 22nd
One thing was abundantly clear on this year’s cruise – politicians are pretty boring. Everything out of their mouths sounds like a recycled stump speech, written to offend no one and inform even fewer people. I’ve been a fan of Fred Thompson forever, but I can’t believe he didn’t put himself to sleep with his recent NRO performance. On Sunday Jay Nordlinger interviewed both he and Governor John Sununu and I can’t remember a thing either one said. Later in the trip Tim Pawlenty joined us and seemed to drone on and on as well. Others say he got better in the second half, I was probably snoozing by then. Later in the cruise I suggested we have a politician free cruise next year. Many others agreed. I go on the cruises to learn things I don’t know. Politicians are rarely willing to be that revealing.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Saturday night I sat down at dinner and a few minutes later SE Cupp and her friend James sat down next to me. It was about 3 minutes before we realized we had grown up in the same town 27 years apart. We actually lived about a quarter mile from each other, practically in different centuries, but still that was fun.
SE is an interesting woman and very accomplished for her mere 32 years. She has written 2 books: Why You’re Wrong About the Right and Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity.
The most fascinating thing to me about SE, as her book title suggests, she is a huge defender of religion, particularly against the liberal media, and she is an atheist. Since I struggle with the concept of God and am also a protector of religion I was fascinated by her struggle. She would like to believe but is not there yet. I asked why an atheist and not an agnostic and she shook her head and shrugged. I understood.
