Party time at the White House

There is turmoil all over the middle east. We have troops in Afghanistan engaging in regular combat. We have liberal zealots in Wisconsin sending death threats to 18 of the Republican legislators in that state, (wausaudailyherald.com.) There is devastation in Japan. Israelis are getting killed by Palestinian terrorists, (Reuters.)

Don't worry. The parties in DC won't stop. It's party time! (Yahoo News.)

Trips to Spain, rants about Bush, and unpaid taxes. Where does the average American fit in with all this?

As I follow the intersecting stories of Michelle's vacation, Obama's speech given yesterday in an attempt to drum up the seemingly lackluster current support for the Democrat party, and the hot water which Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel find themselves in, I see that there is clearly something which they all have in common.



This morning, Fox News dug from out of the archives, footage of Maxine Waters back in 1995 railing against double standards, saying "What's fair for the goose, is fair for the gander!" She of course, was speaking about Newt Gingrich. Now she is playing the race card and saying that she has done nothing wrong. Charles Rangel who is yet another tax cheat continues to maintain his innocence as well.

Yesterday the President made yet another speech about how our current national troubles are due to the incompetence of President Bush. He defended this strategy saying that he's simply bringing it up still so that we don't forget and continues to point out that the GOP has yet to bring up any ideas of their own. (This reminds me of my post yesterday in which I wrote about liberals believing that saying something makes it true. If you don't agree with the actions Republicans have proposed that's fine, but to say they haven't suggested anything is ludicrous.)

Michelle took an extravagant vacation to Spain which has certainly raised eyebrows, despite a habit of attempting to look like the average American woman. I'd say she just burst that image.

But so far I haven't banged out anything here on the keyboard that everyone hasn't already heard. After all, the argument of whether it is or isn't relevant to constantly bring up Bush has lasted for months. The anger over US Congressmen and women not paying their taxes is just. Everybody has heard the whole "if I didn't pay my taxes I'd be sitting in the slammer right now!" bit. Finally, the Marie Antoinette comparisons to Michelle Obama have been all over the blogosphere, and quite frankly, may have been slightly blown out of proportion.



What really concerns me here isn't necessarily just the actions themselves. It's not as if I'm terribly surprised that there are Congressmen who aren't paying their taxes. People generally trust politicians about as far as they can spit, both Democrat and Republican. Michelle's vacation itself doesn't really bother me all that much either. Money-wise it's a drop in the hat. And let's face it, first ladies aren't your average American women,they are more of a unique type of American royalty. Barack Obama shoving the Bush talk down our throats no longer gets me riled up either; the man consistently proves to be a stubborn ideologue.

What we can really learn from all this however is the prevailing attitude of the left. Mrs. Obama's vacation didn't do much by itself to harm the country, yet it sent a bad message. The White House isn't stupid enough to not understand that the trip was going to rub people the wrong way. It's clear that they simply no longer care what the average American feels, or how much they insult them. The White House isn't stupid enough to not realize that to bring up Bush everyday is irresponsible, foolish and immature. It's clear they just feel themselves above having to take responsibility. The members of Congress aren't stupid enough not to know that they would eventually be caught in their crimes and that these crimes would enrage the American people. It's clear they just feel themselves above being accountable to the law.

The term "out of touch" has been thrown around a lot lately, by myself included. Yet these things seem beyond "out of touch." These actions expose a prevailing attitude of elitism and disdain for the common man.

Which brings up another thing to ponder; why would a party which fights for "social justice" show disdain for the common man?

When JoBi calls Republicans "out of step," does he really mean to tell the American people that WE are out of step?

(Click on title for the story at McClatchydc.com)

Yesterday JoBi made a high dollar speech here in North Carolina, right over at UNC Chapel Hill, or, as my girlfriend's father likes to call it; Berkley East. The essence of his speech was to reassure his Democrat followers that the Dems have everything under control, that November is nothing to worry about for the left, and that Republicans are "out of step." What were his words really saying though? Was their purpose to make the Dems at his rally feel better? Was their purpose to make a statement against all the elected Republicans in the House or the Senate? While I'm sure their are pieces of truth in both of these first two options, I am convinced his words had a much darker and menacing undertone to the people of the United States..."Remember your place...don't get out of line..."

With pretty much all polls predicting that the Republicans will make some significant gains in November, it's hard to tell what's been going on in JoBi's head of late. He has been claiming that the Dems are in absolutely no trouble in the fall. Of course Joe making questionable statements is hardly a new phenomenon. Make no mistake, I am leery of getting overconfident about November, and feel it would be a huge mistake for the GOP and conservative base to underestimate the left, (as I pointed out in my previous post.) Yet to say that the Dems are going to win huge...Now Joe, that just sounds silly. On top of that, when the every poll shows that the vast majority of the American people disapprove of the job the current administration is doing, including the spending, the handling of the oil spill, the war in Afghanistan, it's hard to think that the term "out of step" would be used for any party BUT the Democrats.

JoBi said yesterday at Chapel Hill, "They want us to throw on the brakes, but what they really want us to do is throw us in reverse. As the President said, they drove the car in the bridge."

Now wait a second Joe. This is a Republic. We elect men and women to represent us in Washington. Granted, currently the Democrats hold the majority. Yet, maybe instead of turning a blind eye to the possibility of a major left-wing loss in November, you could take note of what we are saying. Biden's quote about the car gives the American citizen a glimpes into the mind of a liberal. He's not speaking about elected GOP officials. He's talking about anyone who disagrees with him, even if those who do outnumber him. He's directly telling us; "WE KNOW BETTER THAN YOU. REMEMBER YOUR PLACE. DO AS WE SAY."

The current administration has always been socialists as far as I'm concerned. Yet know they are truly starting to throw in some elements of fascism. Not only that, but they don't even seem to be competent at it. They seem to be in the constant state of being frighteningly out of touch. Or are they out of touch at all? Do they simply not care what we, the American people, have to say?

Ignoring facts and claiming ludicrous things, having the media in the tank for your agenda, and blatantly telling the citizens of a country to behave, or that they are "out of step" have all the qualities of a dictatorship or a despot. Always remember, words have meaning - and JoBi's latest words have given this American a very clear understanding of his meaning.

Interesting article by Charles Krauthammer this morning

I know, I know. How original right? Some other guy writes a great article, and for my newest blog post I talk about it. (You can click on the title to read his article by the way.) However, at the risk of sounding like that guy, who jumps up and down when an intelligent person says something yelling, "Yeah, that's what I have been saying!" - well, what he wrote this morning is something I have been somewhat worried about.

Mr. Krauthammer issued a warning in his piece this morning. He told Republicans, in so many words, not to count their chickens before they hatched. "Don't underestimate Barack Obama" Charles tells us. He went on to cite all the things that Obama has managed to do while in the White House - which is plenty of things. Destructive as these things are, I don't think anyone can really doubt that he has managed to get a lot of things done. Charles issued the warning, and to back it up, mostly concentrated on the administration's end on things. It got me really thinking though, about how overconfident many conservatives may be getting.

When I was 9 years old, I was on a little league team that didn't win a single game all year. Going 0-14 isn't just no fun, it's also embarrassing. To lose game after game, all season long, without a single spark or moment of victory is in short, miserable. A crazy thing happened the next season though. We won our first game, and we won it by a fairly large amount. It felt really good to go out their and experience the feeling of victory. It's amazing how this victory somehow blotted out the memory of our previous 14 consecutive losses. Just a few games later however, we faced the same team again. We lost. I was confused. We had beat them before right? Doesn't that mean we should have beat them again? I didn't think about the fact that they outpitched, out hit, and out-ran us on the base-paths. I simply focused on the fact that we had beat them once before, that they didn't seem like a particularly good team at the time, and now, somehow, we had lost to them.

"We beat them last time" I remember saying indignantly.

"So?" Pops said. He continued on, "C, they aren't a bad team."

That's about as much as my memory serves me right now. Other than the fact that we lost, and that conversation with Dear ole' Dad, I don't remember the ins and outs of the game. But for the purpose of this post, I suspect we were a little arrogant over our previous win. Maybe, instead of focusing on our own game, we focused on our desire to see the opposing team lose.

Republicans need to focus on their own game, not just seeing Democrats in November, and hopefully our current president in 2012, lose. The current polls show conservatives and Republicans leading in many races across the United States. Scott Brown won recently up in Massachusetts. Republicans have won some governor races in some unlikely states such as NJ. The President's approval rating is down. All these things are great, but I fear Republicans and conservatives are getting a bit too caught up in it. Every time I turn on "Hannity," (which isn't too often, I'm not a huge fan) I hear him telling us, as if it's already happened; "November is going to be huge! We're taking back the House and the Senate!" Every time I turn on the news, the Republican pundit is focusing on how the left is going to face humbling results in November.

Let's not get too caught up in that frenzy. Obviously the liberals aren't too stupid, or they wouldn't have won as big as they did in the first place. Obviously Republicans aren't political geniuses or they wouldn't have lost as bad as they did in the first place.

Many Republicans and conservatives are angry, and very rightfully so. Yet let's not let our emotions cloud our judgment. Let's not let our hatred for progressive and liberal ideology, our continuing loss of freedom and individuality, and increasing power of the government get in the way of what WE stand for. Our representatives NEED to understand; they can't just focus on making the other guys lose, they need to focus on our game as well. Freedom, individuality, American exceptionalism, and limited government are much wiser things to get excited over, than poll numbers.