I warned you they would do this:
Leave a comment[Bedell's] view of the government appears well out on the extreme—until you see what some people close to the center of power are saying these days.
“America is teetering towards tyranny,” Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina told the Conservative Political Action Conference last month. He accused the governing Democrats of peddling socialist policies “that have been the enemy of freedom for centuries all over the world.”
Print This Post
That’s the message in my latest post at Big Government:
No tragedy is beyond exploitation by the left. When census worker Bill Sparkman was found dead and it was leaked that “Fed” was scrawled across his chest, the entirety of the conservative and Tea Party movements were immediately convicted by the online left. They were wrong, and we now know that Sparkman committed suicide. Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the left also tried to hang Joseph Stack around the neck of the Tea Party. Again they failed.
They are now
doing the same song and dance with Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell. Despite the fact that he’s a registered Democrat and 9/11 Truther, the left and their media sycophants are stretching to tie him to the Tea Party movement, though the best that they can honestly come up with is that he distrusted government.
That’s what it really boils down to. At the end of the day, they know none of these guys will hold up as right-wingers. Their real objective is simply to shame anyone who thinks government should be smaller, rather than bigger. Anyone who thinks that the IRS is often used to bully Americans isn’t simply wrong, you see, but is also dangerous. Anyone who thinks that a limited government would better promote prosperity and ensure individual liberty isn’t merely antiquated, but also a potential shooter of government employees.
…
Read the whole thing.
Leave a comment Print This Post
The president of the Utah Senate and the speaker of the Utah House of Representatives recently took to the pages of the Washington Post to lay out a “modest proposal.” While their ideas are modest in a historical context, the sad irony is that what they propose is quite radical for the modern era. Simply put, they want the federal government to butt out and let Utah take care of Utah.
The two Utah legislators, Michael G. Waddoups and David Clark, propose to have the state take over completely several programs, such as education and Medicaid, which are currently influenced by both state and federal policy. They argue that the strings which come with federal dollars for these programs are onerous and promote inefficiency. They’d rather those dollars be kept in the state to begin with, instead of first being funneled through federal bureaucracies, only to return with strings that threaten state sovereignty.
Hear, hear.
I’ve written in the past about the destructive consequences of allowing the federal government to abuse its tax and spending power in order to cajole states into adopting its preferred policies. Such a system wastes money, distances tax payers from their local governments, and undermines the federalist system which has served us so well.
Utah isn’t the only state talking about restoring federalism. Alabama Governor Bob Riley recently signed a resolution reaffirming the long-ignored Tenth Amendment. While not legally binding, the resolution ought to serve notice that the states are not longer rolling over to federal demands. Other states have similar measures at various stages of the legislative process.
It’s about time that state lawmakers stand up and say that they’d rather not take federal dollars at all. They deserve support, because this is not an easy position to take. Too often the states are complicit in the erosion of their own authority as they run hat-in-hand to the federal government for more money. Perhaps now they are realizing that sacrificing long-term governing authority for immediate political expediency is a bad bargain.
Leave a comment Print This Post
A rather masterful takedown of Bill, who doesn’t seem to be “looking out for the folks” anymore when it comes to the right to defend themselves:
Hat-tip: Gateway Pundit
Leave a comment Print This Post
The productive sector of the economy is having to shoulder quite the burden when it comes to paying the salaries for their “public sector” cohorts, who USA Today finds are excessively compensated:
Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds.
…Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available.
…These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Federal workers earn considerably more pay for performing the same job as those in the private sector. Unless they are equally more productive, the difference is pure waste. Keep in mind that it’s the private sector workers who pay the salary of their public sector counterparts.
Similar studies at the state and local level, such as this one by Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, have found the same results.
The job on USA Today’s list with the biggest pay gap is that of public relations manager, where government employees earn over $44k more than equivalent private sector workers. In this case it might actually be deserved, as making big government look good is an impossible task.
1 comment Print This Post
Sarah Palin is no stranger to smear campaigns. The latest such story which has liberal bloggers and other Palin haters all wee-wee’d up alleges that Palin and her “entourage” gobbled up all the free Oscar swag. Supposedly, she and her group were “like locusts,” and descended on the liberal event and ruined everything by being such a greedy capitalist.
Too bad it’s all a lie. Here’s what actually happened:
Leave a commentThe Silver Spoon, a company owned and operated by women and established with a firm belief in supporting women in business and leadership, invited Governor Sarah Palin and her family to participate in a charitable function sponsored by The Silver Spoon and the Red Cross to support the Red Cross’ disaster relief efforts in Haiti. Governor Palin graciously accepted since it was in support of such a worthy and timely cause. The governor arrived with a small group about 15 minutes prior to our store’s official opening; and upon arrival, she and her entire group gave generous donations to the cause. We offered to open early to accommodate her schedule; she did not ask us to open early. The other vendors routinely set up an hour before the event opens, so they were already there when the governor arrived. No one was asked to come in early. When Governor Palin arrived, she and her guests made generous donations. I escorted her around and introduced her to every vendor, and they talked to her about their products and gifted her with samples. She never asked for anything but politely accepted the products. The governor and her family and guests were very gracious and respectful to everyone. We asked and the governor happily agreed to take a photo with the American Red Cross staff and the staff of The Silver Spoon. The governor stayed for a total of about 35 minutes, thanked everyone, made an additional generous personal donation pledge to the Red Cross, and then departed.
Print This Post
States are running out of money. If there was a bankruptcy process for States, many would be going through it. Naturally, this means lawmakers are looking for things to cut and places to save money. An obvious target is the generous subsidies they force taxpayers to give to public universities so little Johnny can sit around playing beer-pong in his Birkenstocks.
And now Johnny is pissed off that the gravy train is slowing down. So what’s a Berkley Progressive to do? Destroy some property, of course!
See how a Berkley student representative defends this leftwing tantrum
Petulant, entitlement-minded tantrums aside, are students right to be upset? No.
They have no right to taxpayer money for their education. Moreover, part of the reason tuition is so high is because government continues to subsidize it, which encourages overconsumption.
Maybe students should target their ire at universities which waste money on silly moonbat courses.
Leave a comment Print This Post
Harry Reid is thrilled that we only lost a net 36,000 jobs in the latest report (via HotAir).
I’m sure those 36,000 people are equally thrilled with the effectiveness of the $787 dollars Congress tossed down the drain last year.
In addition, these numbers are probably being propped up by the once-a-decade, temporary census hiring. While a necessary project, it’s no credit to the state of the economy.
Leave a comment Print This Post
An Obama judicial appointment has troubling views on the Constitution:
Liu opponents point to a number of his writings, including a book he co-authored in 2009 called “Keeping Faith with the Constitution,” in which the authors opine about their concept of judicial interpretation.
“Applications of constitutional text and principles must be open to adaptation and change … as the conditions and norms of our society become ever more distant from those of the Founding generation.”
That theme — that the Constitution’s text and principles must be adapted to changes in the world — repeats throughout the book and raises eyebrows among conservatives.
It is imperative to combat such dangerous views wherever they arise. Yes, some principles change over time. Others, including many captured by both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are timeless. But for those principles that might change, the Constitution provides a process for dealing with that: amendments.
It’s an entirely different beast to say that the application of the constitution changes. The principles of the Constitution should be simply applied as they are. Believing differently raises an obvious question, which in the end should reveal the fault of this view. Who decides how the application changes? The answer, as we have seen to our detriment over the last 80 years or so, is that the court decides.
Allowing the Supreme Court to bring the Constitution into alignment with changing principles removes the people from the democratic process. This is why the Constitution was given an amendment process – so that it could maintain its principled timeliness, but still be of, by and for the people.
Print This Post
Democrats scramble to ram through health care takeover before facing Townhalls:
Democrats are racing the clock to pass health care reform ahead of a wave of Tea Party-driven town hall meetings planned for the spring recess — the kind of gatherings that nearly derailed the package last August.
But there’s a big difference this time around. Last summer, Democrats were encouraged to hold the town hall meetings, and they were blindsided by the backlash, which was recorded and promoted in countless YouTube clips. This time around, they have a good idea of what’s coming — and they’re lying low.
“There’s not been the same push as there was in August to encourage members to do town halls,” said Stephanie Lundberg, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
But that isn’t stopping Tea Party groups, as well as former House Republican Leader Dick Armey’s outfit, FreedomWorks, from holding their own meetings and trying to coax lawmakers into attending.
“We’re about to ratchet it up,” said Debbie Dooley, a Tea Party Patriots organizer and FreedomWorks volunteer outside Atlanta. “You’re about to see the passion that we saw during the August recess.”
I wouldn’t count on many of the weasels having their courage to face constituents and explain their betrayal.
Leave a comment Print This Post
I am a libertarian-conservative blogger living in the DC area. I have a Master's degree in Political Science, but please don't hold that against me.
