) where she explains her vote against the County budget.  I must take issue with her claim that “the schools are well past the point of cutting nonessentials”.  UCPS took actions that increased the “baseline” for their spending.

Howard and the gang have been discussing the recent Citizens United decision. Stern believes that the Court got this completely wrong, and will makes what he sees as an intrinsically corrupt system even worse. He foresees the wholesale buying of Congress critters by corporations and “special interests”, and compared it to the payola scandals in radio. (As an aside, I don’t see what is so horrible about “payola”; it’s not that different than stores selling shelf space to General Mills, for example.). Stern thinks that we need more regulation of political speech and to ban lobbyists and corporations form the public square. Even if Howard’s analysis is correct (and I’m not cynical enough to agree with him), his prescription is way off the mark.

Let’s leave aside the fact that the First Amendment was intended to protect political speech above all else. Let’s ignore the fact that the Amendment gives absolute protection to the right of the people to “petition the government for redress of grievances” (also known as lobbying). Let’s ignore the irony of a self-proclaimed advocate of free speech calling for censorship.

If the danger or fear is that corporate advocacy will lead to “influence peddling”, the correct solution is to bring the power and scope of the government back to its Constitutional limits. In other words, don’t give the Congress critters anything to peddle! We have little reason to fear that a Federal government exercising the limited and enumerated powers granted in the Constitution will be irretrieveably corrupted.

The answer, Howard, is to limit government, not speech!

The scheduled start time was 6:30, so I figured I’d get there around 6:10. I’d probably have to park in the bus lot and sit in the back, but that wouldn’t be a big deal. Lo and behold, I had to park across the street, since all the school lots were full!

I went into WHS, only to find that the auditorium was full. The cafeteria was set up as an overflow room. Myrick’s staff set up an audio feed, but we didn’t have video. The Charlotte Observer reported that the crowd was estimated at 1200 people.

When Rep. Myrick began speaking, it became apparent that that audience was 90% – 10% against the House bill. She was loudly applauded every time she criticized the bill. She encouraged supporters of the bill to speak their minds, and quieted the crowd when she felt the questioners could not be heard.

My impressions are that people do not like what they hear about the bill, and they resented Congress trying to ram it through. They do not trust the government to run a health care system. We were well informed; when a speaker said (and I’m paraphrasing) “the previous speaker said he loves Medicare. That’s socialize medicine! That’s a single-payer system, and he loves it!”, we responded with “Medicare’s broke! It’s trillions in the hole!”

There were those who came to put on some political theater. One man came in a top hat and said he was a representative of the insurance lobby and was there to present Rep. Myrick with an award, since she “has been one our best investments.” Sue received him with good humor (no “What planet do you live on” from her!).

While Rep. Myrick is on our side, she kept repeating that she had no input on the bill; the democrats are responsible for each and every word, comma, and period.  So what’s the point of this exercise?

In all, the audience was angry, but the main current I got was fear. People are afraid of this plan, and this administration. One person near me said that for the first time, she’s afraid of her own government.

I’m with her. I think the Dems will push this through, piecemeal if they have to. I think they’ll get the 60 votes they need in the Senate; there are too many RINOs in the Senate who never fail to do the wrong thing.

We are doomed.

The worker was annoyed because the householder kept to the deal that was made. He wanted to tell the householder what to do with the householder’s property. In short, he felt he had a right to the householder’s property.

To me, the worker reflects the Statist in our time. The Statist believes he has a right to our property. He answers the householder’s questions “No, you are not allowed to do what you choose, because it does not belong to you. You hold it by our sufferance. It really belongs to us. We allow you to have it.” Everything he does reflects this belief.

These heroes suffered and bled for us, and this piece of shit we have for a President want to force them to use their private medical insurance to pay for healing the wounds they received on our behalf?!!?? This coward who holds our military and veterans in contempt? Is this another front in his battle to force everyone into government run health care?

I am a member of the American Legion, and I thank our Commander, and the Commanders of the other VSOs, for their fight for our heroes.

BHO can go to hell!

So I was reading the transcript in the NY Times and saw this section:

“…we must also address the crushing cost of health care.

This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. “

Can that number be accurate? I did a quick calculation: 120 half-minute/hour X 24 hours/day X 365 days/year = 1,051,200 bankruptcies allegedly caused by ” the crushing cost of health care”.

I did a quick Google search to try and find the total number of personal bankruptcies filed last year. The best I could do (so far) is this:

“By the end of the year, the number of personal bankruptcies filed during 2008 could be greater than 1.1 million, the executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute has told the Los Angeles Times.”

So Obama wants us to believe that roughly 95% of all personal bankruptcies are caused by medical costs? I find that hard to swallow. What else did he stretch in his speech?

UPDATE:  I should ALWAYS check NRO/The Corner first!  Here are the relevant numbers:

“…In 2007, the last year data was available, there were just over 822,000 non-business bankruptcies nationwide. But according to a study by Dr. Ning Zhu at UC-Davis, only 5 percent of them were caused by medical bills. That’s only 41,000 medical bankruptcies…”

Part one is here; part two is here.

Conservative talk radio hosts, such as Sean Hannity, tell us that the conservative movement is re-energized. House GOP leaders says the Republican members stood together on and for principle today. The over reach by the Democrats, and the failure of the (so-called) stimulus package will serve as a catalyst to get the GOP back in power in 2010 or 2012.

They’re probably right, but there’s a nagging question in the back of my mind:

Why do we think they’ll cede power peacefully? Fascists rarely do. (I told you it was a paranoid thought.)

I think we are entering another fascist moment in our history, as we did under Wilson, FDR, and LBJ (see Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism). The (so-called) stimulus bill was pushed through without public review, and in direct violation of promises made by congressional leaders and Obama. The mainstream media are in the tank for Obama and his programs. Modern communication makes it possible to assemble a mob in minutes. (Look at the crowds at BHO’s inauguration. Think how they could be turned if BHO doesn’t “succeed” because right-wingers sabotaged him). I believe the Dems will force through an amnesty for illegal immigrants, giving them millions of new voters on the democrat side. They will use every page in their playbook to stay in power.

Remember, they think that power is their birthright, and no one should take it from them. Will we have the iron to do what’s necessary if the time comes? They certainly will.

Yesterday, TS/UTE Geithner unveiled his “plan” for dealing with illiquid “toxic” assets and financial institution insolvency. How’d he do? Larry Kudlow put it best:

“Geithner had no real plan to deal with the problem of unmarketable toxic assets on bank balance sheets. He offered no new architectural structure, no good way to remove the toxic assets, no clear pricing or funding proposals, and no meat on the bones.

According to Merriam-Webster, a “plan” is “a detailed formulation of a program of action; a method for achieving an end.” But Mr. Geithner had none of this. As a result, stocks plunged about 250 points. Prominent investment strategist Ed Yardeni described Geithner as an empty suit with an empty plan.”

Here’s the chart of the Dow from yesterday. The Dow started off down about 75 points, no doubt due to the doom-and-gloom Obama “presser” Monday night. You can see how the market went off a cliff when TS/UTE Geithner started speaking:

If TS/UTE Geithner is so brilliant, shouldn’t he have known NOT to come out with a “plan” that offers no details, no new ideas, nothing but gaseous vapor? This is why the Senate ignored TS/UTE Geithner’s tax evasion? This is why the IRS didn’t nail his hide to a board? He couldn’t figure out the markets would tank if he made this announcement? Didn’t Obama see this coming if he let TS/UTE Geithner go to the mic with (essentially) nothing but his dick in his hand?

What the fuck?! We’ve got a bunch of amateurs running things! It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

They’re full of crap. (Oops. Sorry if that offended anyone. I meant to say “They’re full of shit.”)

Politics has always been and will always be rancorous. Prioritizing scarce resources while preserving liberty always involves disagreement. Always. People have strongly held principles and beliefs about the proper and fitting role of government. These beliefs and principles will differ, and some times the circle cannot be squared.

Campaigns, whether for election to office or for a particular piece of legislation, will always involve debate and disagreement. To disagree with an opponent’s position and point out where s/he is wrong is not a “personal attack”, even if the pointing out is done with relish and invective.

It seems to me that those calling for a “new politics” or “bipartisanship” are really just trying to say “Shut up and roll over.” Case in point: when Obama met with congressional GOP leaders and, in replay to their request for more tax cuts and input to the “stimulus” bill, told them “I won.” He expected them to just roll over and abandon their principles (such as they are) so Barry O could have a “bipartisan” bill and show that he’s “unified the country”.

Well Barry, just ’cause you won doesn’t make you right, and the only time a nation should be unified behind a leader is if it faces a true existential war. All else leads to fascism (which is where I think you really want to take us).

Oops! Not very bipartisan of me! Too fargin’ bad!