The answer is: NO

The question is: What should congresscritters do when a massive bill is shoved under their noses with no time to review.

A friendly word of advice for the soon to be freshman class of Congress…and all the other members as well, I suppose.

I was reading this self pitying article in WSJ Online about a one term Democrat representative (Oh so true.  He represented the Democrats in Washington, DC more than Washington state) and how he was forced, FORCED to vote for massive bills with no time to review.

Ya’ know, one of the goals of the US Constitution is to ensure mature representation.  That was the reason for age limits for offices.  The Country needs a D.A.R.E. program for congresscritters to teach them that their first reaction to any bill should be, “Just say NO.” until there is a compelling case for its passage.  Pressure from your political overlords in the Party doesn’t qualify.  In fact the more pressure applied, the more emphatic the NO should be.  Because it is never the job of congresscritters to represent their party overlords.  And that’s how you keep the overlords from becoming overlords.

Tic-Toc

They’re counting down the hours until election day (108 for Missouri polls closing).  I’ve been sick.  Wife’s been sick.  No plans now for Tuesday but work and vote.   Storm last weekend bent my flag pole.  I’m not taking that as a omen though.

It’s not the end of liberalism

The paroxysms of the conservative blog world about NPR canning Juan Williams keeps revolving around the theme that “It’s the end of liberalism”.  To use a term I’ve used before:

Pppfffftttt.

It’s not the end of liberalism.  It’s the end of the Left pulling off the pretense of being liberal.  There is nothing liberal about the political Left.  Not in the sense of classical liberalism.  There is nothing progressive about the political left.  For decades now, the political Left has claimed the heritage of Jefferson, Madison and the other founders of the Republic.  It worked for people who who weren’t paying attention.  But to those of us who were, it was pretty transparent that they supported the idea of personal liberties only for anybody who slavishly followed their staggeringly narrow world view.

Beware the Government-Corporate Complex

(dredging up an old draft from summer of ’09 so I don’t have to write a new post.  Hey, it’s still timely.)

Building on Zoroafter’s fine comment to How Can You Tell Obama Is Lying post.

Obama is the worst form of partner, stabbing you in the back while partnering to rob the pantry.  Kind of like Hitler and Stalin (did I say Hitler!?  I even said Stalin!) signing a public non-aggression pact while privately dividing up Poland between them and secretly preparing to annihilate each other.

Obama blames “special interest groups and insurance companies” for the ills of healthcare in America.  But it’s not because they oppose him.  It’s because they are so deeply in bed with him and the rest of the statist in government it’s hard to differentiate between them.

Eisenhower warned of the Military-Industrial Complex.  But rather than heed the warning, the industrial component has expanded far beyond the military to every facet of government.

Can we call Meghan McCain a Democrat now?

John McCain’s rich little princess daughter has deigned to share her opinion of Christine O’Donnell with the world.  Hot Air picks up some of  the reactions.  I have a suggestion for Ms McCain.

STFU

Up till now I have pretty much ignored the McCain progeny.  But this was too egregious.

The McCain clan has always exhibited the worst aspect of the RINO class.  Their position isn’t principled.  It’s whatever gets them invited to the posh cocktail parties with all the cool kids.  M. McCain’s invitations to all the leftist hangouts where all the cool celebrities can be seen must be pouring in now.  Why?  Because what she is doing now is actively campaigning for the Democrats.

It’s two weeks before the election.  O’Donnell is the underdog and trying to make it up a steep hill.  Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment needs to be in full force.  And Meghan McCain is lobbing hand grenades at her.

We could give her the benefit of the doubt and say she’s just stupid.  Or that she is a narcissistic spoiled little rich kid intoxicated with the musical sound of her own voice.  But I don’t have to giver her the benefit of the doubt.  I just have to have an opinion (hence the name of the blog).  She is doing is actively working to increase the numbers of Democrats in Congress.

I guess if she stood up and declared that she was really a Democrat, she would just be another ditsy rich kid leftist among all the other ditsy rich kid leftists.  But by claiming to be Republican and then attacking republicans, she is immediately vaulted to the front of the line.

Obama the Chilean Minor

One little flaw with Harry ‘A Few Cans Shorter of a Six Pack than When He Was Younger’ Reid’s analogy of Obama as one of the Chilean miners…

From Hot Air:

“It was like the Chilean miners, but he, being the man he is, rolled up his sleeves and said ‘I am going to get us out of this hole,’” Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said in Las Vegas on Sunday.

The miners didn’t do anything to get out of that hole but survive.  They endured a lot.  I’m glad I wasn’t down there.  But they had to sit and wait for others to save them.

Then again, maybe it is a good analogy!

“It was like the Chilean miners, but he, being the man he is, he sat down and whined “When are they going to save me from this hole I dug?”” Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) should’a said in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Just say’n.

What’s an election? – updated

To a Conservative, an election is a sacred thing.  So sacred that cheating by the opposition is often ignored lest the complaint of the aggrieved undermine the  belief in the integrity of the electoral process.

To a Leftist/Statist/Communist/Marxist/Socialist/Democrat, it is a game with no rules.  The only goal being to accumulate enough power that they never have to do it any more.

‘ey look…somebody else gets it.

Party of Dinosaurs

Horace Cooper at Pajamas Media observes the resistance of the Democratic leadership to bend with the coming whirlwind they have sown.  He attributes it to obstinance.  But really it is the inability of the Left to even conceive of anything besides the Liberal Playbook that they have pursued for a century now.

I first noticed this listening to just about anything coming out of the mouth of a labor mafia (aka, labor union) goon.  No matter what the topic, not matter what the position, it always sounds like they are talking about something happening in the 1920’s.  That is where they are stuck.  The Communists governments suffered the same problems.  They were all built on “The Revolution!”  Seventy years after the revolution, most of the world had moved on to other things.  But the only justification for the failures and abuses of the communist governments were, “The Revolution!”  And so you got the picture of the Soviet Union, simultaneously damning the bourgeois intelligentsia as counter-revolutionary elitists while becoming increasingly dependent on them to try to kick start their moribund economy into the modern era where the evil capitalists had gone.  Likewise, they depended on “The Revolution!” mantra to demonize the extinct corruption of monarchs and dictators long dead in order to hide their own personal corruptions.

The American Left has the same blindness.  (Well, in reality, they are essentially the same political philosophy.)  Obama must have been suckled on liberal playbook.  Every place he went through his life reinforced his belief in the liberal agenda.  Other leftist Democratic leaders are equally imbued with that image of the Earthly Utopia that would be brought about by the “Progressive” agenda.  Hence their refusal to compromise.  Hence their refusal to change course when the unpopularity of their agenda became clear.  Hence their inability to even acknowledge that unpopularity, because the essence of the liberal agenda is that it is for, “The People!”, those ignorant ingrates.

Oh, the irony that the so called “Progressives” really more than anything else want to bring back…what?  1910?  1920?  And I expect nothing to change.  The insane leftists will be driven into the deepest liberal enclaves.  The sane leftists will, as they did for decades before, hide their true agenda.  They will quietly bide their time until the next time people forget what they really stand for.  Then once again they will march forth to present the solutions to whatever was bothering Woodrow Wilson way back when.

Hmmppphhhh…

Sent an e-mail to the local Republican township Chairwoman to see about helping with GOTV.  Not response.  ‘parently, they don’t need any help.

I didn’t see any mines in Chile

I was working in Chile in 1980.  A few recollections.

There is an old fort on a hilltop in downtown Santiago.  There was a cannon on the parapets that was fired every day at noon.  The field representative’s office was right across the street.  I don’t know how that cannon didn’t blow the windows out of the office but there was no excuse for not knowing it was lunchtime.

This was right after the communist Salvador Allende was overthrown and Gen. Pinochet took over.  His Presidential inauguration took place while I was there.  Lot’s of preparation going on, but I didn’t see any of the parade.

One of the people I was working with took me to the Presidential Palace and described how the Air Force Mirages fired missiles through the front doors to allow the army to enter.  It was a real serious Latin American shoot’n coup.

They also described life under Allende.  Street thugs being sent out to harass anybody with anything to steal. (Street thugs?  Who would do a thing like that?)  It was pretty unpleasant for the people I worked with.  Pinochet and the military saved Chile from being another Cuba.