COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, February 07, 2010

"They know we're at war, and to win that war we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern." - Sarah Palin



PART TWO



PART THREE



PART FOUR



PART FIVE



I confess to being a Sarah Palin sceptic, but Palin does strike a chord as the un-Obama. I was less impressed with the beginning of the Tea Party.

Now I am not sure that they should not be taken seriously. The Democrats surely have.

How can we tell? The race card of course.

The Left and Democrats have reflexively played the race card, saying the Tea Party is a white movement and of course suspicious, which is laughable and ironic at the beginning of the dutiful annual homage to "black history month."

I am amused that almost all black callers on c-apan complain that the Tea Party movement is a white movement, and of course, racist.

Look at the Left-wing blocks. Listen to MSNBC, the tingly pink Chris Matthews. They are the real race card officiandos. Check out field negro's blog

Blacks voted 97% for Obama and somehow I doubt that was a coincidence. Complacency has been a large feature of white middle class and working class Americans, and they do not vote on strictly racial lines.

We shall see in November.

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Sarah Palin lashes Obama at first Tea Party convention
BBC

Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has spoken at the first US Tea Party convention, urging a return to conservate principles.

Speaking in Nashville, Mrs Palin called President Obama's 2011 budget "immoral" and said it would raise the US debt.

The year-old Tea Party movement includes many people who oppose Barack Obama's plans for healthcare reform and the president's stimulus package.

Mrs Palin said future generations would pay the cost if spending was not cut.

"It's easy to understand why Americans are shaking their heads when Washington has broken trust with the people that these politicians are to be serving," she told the convention.

'Drowning in debt'

When she warned that the US was "drowning in national debt, and many of us have had enough," the former governor of Alaska was rewarded with a standing ovation.

She also berated the Obama administration for focusing on adversaries of the US rather than its allies.

"We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America's friends from her enemies, and recognises the true nature of the threats that we face," Mrs Palin said.

She praised the leaderless, bottom-up approach of the Tea Party movement, saying its success had Washington politicians running scared.

"I am a big supporter of this movement," she said, and added - in a nod to the Tea Party's name, a reference to a famous protest against British colonial rule: "America is ready for another revolution and you are part of this".
Congress goal
Barely a year old, the Tea Party gained influence during the acrimonious US healthcare reform debate.

Members, gathered from state-level Tea Parties, complain that big spending to stimulate the economy is being wasted in Washington and on Wall Street while small-town America has to tighten its belt.

And the coalition of disaffected conservatives is undoubtedly growing in influence - its endorsement of Republican Scott Brown helped his election last month as Massachusetts senator, says the BBC's Madeleine Morris, attending the Nashville event.

Our correspondent says that movement's organisers have announced the formation of a political action committee, with funds of $10m, whose goal will be to get up to 20 conservative candidates into Congress in November's mid-term congressional elections.

There has been controversy over the use of paid lobbyists and PR companies at the conference and Mrs Palin's appearance fee: reported to be as much as $100,000.

Some activists have also complained about the $500 (£317) registration fee for the Nashville conference.
But in an opinion piece published on USA Today website ahead of the conference Mrs Palin said she would not benefit financially from speaking at the event.

Instead she said she was motivated only by her "goal [...] to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government - and our constitution".






28 comments:

  1. On the previous thread, Rat takes exception to Palin's arguement that we are at war:

    desert rat said...
    The campaign against the current crop of Federal Socialists, doug-o, needs to be made by exposing their disregard for the Constitution. Both Parties.

    The most obvious and egregious example of that unconstitutional Federal activity is the undeclared "Long War".

    That the current Administration has abandon that "war" rhetoric, and has moved into the full criminal prosecution mode exemplifies that the Obamamericans "get it".

    Mrs Palin if she wants to campaign across America, for a policy that the US Congress should declare war upon our enemies, should then identify the enemy, their locale and sponsors.

    All of which would be required for a full debate, prior to Congressional action.

    Instead she uses the "war" rhetoric, without campaigning for any specific "War".

    The rhetoric is popular, no doubt, but that she and the others who use it are not pursuing a serious call to action.

    Not after the last 8 years of the bitter sweet taste of the "Long War"

    The scope and scale of the actions required by a real war, well that goes far beyond the authority provided in either the authorizations of use of force, in Afpakistan or Iraq.

    Those both being limited and local authorizations for the President to use the military, but both falling well short of a declaration of war.

    There is the issue that could rally the "Right", but even Mrs Palin will not touch it.

    Sun Feb 07, 08:16:00 AM EST

    ReplyDelete
  2. I fail to see the argument when in fact we are in a ground war in Afghanistan and winding down in Iraq.

    Whether we should be is another matter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That view, that the US is not at war, but involved in a couple of "local conflicts" upheld by the SCOTUS, in Hamdan v Rumsfeld.

    That is the current reality.

    There is no "War".

    If there should be, well then amigos, there is the "ISSUE" for 2012.

    Or even 2010. But know full well that 9-11-01 will be a distant memory, in 2012.

    It'll be all about the "economy", not the "war".

    ReplyDelete
  4. Palin is not going away. She is representing a significant movement in the US.

    That movement is making the already crumbling Hope and Change world of Barack Obama look passe.

    In light of how Obama got elected and the reality-show performance of Palin during the past year, the rise of Palin and the Tea Party is quite remarkable.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The status of Afpakistan as a war, Deuce, sealed with Hamdan, who was arrested in Afghanistan.

    The use of the military, as a police force, in foreign lands, does not a war make.

    It is policing foreign lands.
    While attempting to apprehend the perps of 9-11-01. Per the Authorization for Use of Force, 13SEP01.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree that Mrs Palin will not be going away. My point is that as she is going she does not represent a significant "Change" candidate, either.

    While she does well represent the anti-Obama sentiment, she does not present any sort of anti-Federal agenda.
    In fact her rhetoric, as to the "War" indicates a desire to expand the Federal footprint, but in a "different" direction.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yeah, cops.

    Watts, Detroit, Chi-town.
    The SLA and Ms Hearst, the Black Panthers, Weathermen and the KKK.

    All police matters, just like the Taliban, Crips or Bloods.

    There is a real issue, but even Mrs Palin will not tread there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What would happen to a Mexican military outpost, in PA, Deuce?

    Would the locals sit back and collect their payoff pesos?

    Or would there be a modern version of the "Swamp Fox" raising havoc with them Mexicans?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Should the "Swamp Fox" be considered an enemy combatant, insurgent, criminal or terrorist of global reach?

    Or merely a patriot?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Roger on that rat. Once they got "in country" outside of Philadelphia, they would get a first hand lesson in how the PA gool ol' boys make country "scrapple".

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've added this link to our sidebar.

    Honor the Fallen

    Number of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5325

    ReplyDelete
  12. How much snow do you have outside your house, Deuce? MLD?

    ReplyDelete
  13. How's the snow situation by you, Trish?

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  14. philly got 28.5 inches. I waiting for the plow truck now.

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  15. Which makes it second to 1995/96, which got 65 inches that winter, as the second snowiest winter recorded.

    There has never been two major snow storms recorded in one winter, unless, the meteorologist here don't know what they are talking about. Just like, I could have sworn Glen Schwartz said that the weather we are having is due to a la Nina. I rewound it twice, knowing that we were are in an El Nina year. A weak one but still...So he either he made a mistake or my hearing is start to go.

    My hair looks much better today.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Her main goal is herself. She blew it when she quit the governorship of Alaska . That was nuttier than Ross Perot quitting because Cuban Death Squads were about to attack his daughter's wedding. It was nuttier, even, than when I quit the Elephant Bar recently.

    In her resignation speech Palin said: "And I will support you because we need YOU and YOU can effect change, and I can too on the outside."

    It is my sincere wish that she continues to work to effect change...from the outside.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's an El Nino. It started off weak. It strengthened, considerably, in the last couple of months, and now . . . . . Who knows. It, literally, depends on how the "wind" blows.

    A Governor in Alaska has to defend himself/herself from junk lawsuits. The State can't do it. The left knew that, and knowing that the Palins were not wealthy people just filed junk suit, after junk suit against her.

    She said, "screw it. It's a lame-duck year, and they're going to ruin me, and my family, if I don't change the game, and go make ome money." She did; and they're screwed.

    How much that decision will hurt her, I don't know. But, she has One huge advantage: She's up against Barack Obama. Presidents have been made for lesss.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I kept hearing last night that she's leading all the Republican Polls.

    Sarah was leaning Way to the Right last night. That's what her crowd paid to hear, but she will have to ease up just a tad to pull in the Independents (re: soft democrats.) *not on "Policy," just rhetoric.*

    ReplyDelete
  19. A Governor in Alaska has to defend himself/herself from junk lawsuits. The State can't do it. The left knew that, and knowing that the Palins were not wealthy people just filed junk suit, after junk suit against her.

    That's how I see it and I don't blame her. She is now free to take the national stage to promote traditional, conservation causes and candidates. That being said, I am not ready to get into another Presidential campaign. There's too much time left. There's also a lot of time between now and the November elections.

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  20. ...conservative causes...

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  21. Melody, we must be in the same weather band. I have no idea what happened to my crew either.

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  22. We really need a legal system where loser pays.

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  23. RUFUS IS RIGHT!
    RUFUS IS RIGHT!
    ...just taking care of my legacy of being
    Fair and Balanced.

    ReplyDelete
  24. but for balance:
    How about subtracting gasoline tax from your unfair Volt/Gas comparision Ruf?

    ReplyDelete