…is the new dissent.
[Late morning update]
Thoughts on an artist’s duty to dissent.
I don’t know whether or not an artist has a “duty to dissent,” but if so, it seems a duty that only applies when Republicans are in power.
A Crisis Of Confidence
American’s government is losing faith in its out-of-touch constituents. A heart-rending editorial by Arlen Sphinecter and Secretary Sebelius:
Like hundreds of our fellow legislators and government officials, we recently traveled to a town hall meeting to distribute a grassroots press release explaining why this critical legislation is a done deal. Our advance staffs said that should anticipate a respectful, positive hearing from local media and bused-in union members. Instead we were greeted by a rude howling mob of idiot “voters” who refused to listen to reason, and ruined what should have been a killer photo op for our re-election ad campaign.
Have these arrogant ivory tower armchair quarterbacks ever had to live with the pressures of being a working stiff Senator or Cabinet Secretary in Washington DC? Have they ever had to juggle markup language on a supplemental appropriations bill, or deal with an incompetent Chief of Staff who constantly double-books fund raising dinners? Apparently not, if their whiny obnoxious chants are any indication. “Read the Bill! Read the Bill!” blah, blah, blah, as if we weren’t already exhausted from writing and voting for the damned thing.
The nerve of these people.
[Update a few minutes later]
More from the Hawk of Iowa: “Know Your Town-Hall Mob Agitators“:
Pay them no heed, for these outside agitators in no way represent any threat to our great patriotic push forward for increased citizen heathfulness! These well-dressed prep school gangsters of reaction seek only to frighten and demoralize and intimidate you, with their confusing “facts” and hob-nailed Sperry Topsiders. Unfortunately they are joined in conspiracy by a well-financed network of unlicensed blogs and talk radio traitors, who exaggerate their numbers and percolate disinformation — even cleverly staged YouTube videos of an impostor President Obama saying “quotes”!
Remain strong, citizen, for the day of their comeuppance is near! Patriotic spontaneous volunteers from MoveOn.org, Organizing For America, HCAN, SEIU, AFSCME, ACORN, NPR, and MSNBC have all pledged independent grassroots efforts to spread the word about the health-hating tricksters and their transparent astroturf agitation campaign!
You too can help by remaining ever-vigilant for health traitors in your local sectors. But beware: though small in number the state health reform enemy is clever, and well trained in subterfuge and disguise by his monopolist paymasters. Your job is to recognize his signs, and report any fishy-seeming protest or blog activities to me or other official authorities within the Health Care Truth Ministry. Here is a visual training course to help you in the execution of this important patriotic duty.
Read all, and be alert. As we all know, the world can always use more lerts.
True Health-Care Reform
(Dr.) Charles Krauthammer has a rational plan — tort reform and severing the connection between employment and health insurance. Sounds good to me. Unfortunately for the fascists, it doesn’t provide an opening for the government to take over a major portion of the economy, and your health and well being. And of course, this is what, in their lies, they call “proposing to do nothing.”
They Told Me That If I Voted Republican…
…that black people would get beaten up by racist thugs in the streets. And they were right:
Last night in St. Louis, Missouri, a local conservative found out firsthand about the “Chicago way.” Kenneth Gladney, a black conservative from the city, was handing out “Don’t Tread On Me” flags after a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting on health care in Mehlville. This didn’t go over well with the Obama supporters and union thugs who attended the meeting. They punched him in the face, kicked him in the head, and stomped on him on the pavement. So much for hope and change.
Well, the change is that they probably won’t be prosecuted for it, as they probably would have been under a Bush Justice Department.
[Update a while later]
This is a pretty incredible story. I mean, violence from union members? Who’s ever heard of such a thing? Anyway, I expect that at his next news conference, the president will point out that the man handing out the signs was behaving stupidly.
[Update late afternoon (Pacific)]
Mary Katherine Ham has an interview. I heard one with him on Cavuto in the car at lunchtime as well. It will be interesting to hear if the ACLU or NAACP has anything to say about it. Or if the latter lives down to its name of the association of “liberal” colored people.
[Update a few minutes later]
And as usual, what does a Democrat do when confronted with wrongdoing by his supporters? Blame it on Republicans.
[Another update]
I’m on the left coast, so I missed this episode with my own (worthless, or actually of negative worth) Florida Congressman (soon to be be my ex-Congressman, since we’re almost certainly moving somewhere, and probably back here to LA):
Though only a handful of constituents typically show up at the Lighthouse Point public library once a month with questions for U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s staffers — often questions about Social Security checks or passport applications — this time about 100 people packed the room for two hours.
The group was rowdy, rude and fired up about healthcare.
“Where the hell is Klein?” demanded Republican activist Ana Gomez-Mallada, even though the congressman was not scheduled to be there. Others branded him a “coward” and a “communist.”
The natives are definitely (and justifiably) growing restless.
What A Difference An Administration Makes
Under the Bushitler, dissent was the highest form of patriotism. Under The One, it’s the highest form of racism.
[Late morning update]
Meet the scary “racist” mob.
Restoring NIAC?
One of the stupidest and most criminal results of Constellation’s crowding out the rest of the NASA budget was the dismantling of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts two years ago. It was only costing a few million dollars a year, and that trivial amount of money, which was providing tremendous bang for the NASA buck, was taken to be poured down the multi-billion-dollar Ares rat hole. Now, apparently, there’s talk of resurrecting it. That would be a small, but vital step in getting the agency back on the right track, if the new administrator follows the advice.
Lower Wages
From Obamacare. Hey, the money’s got to come from somewhere. The “rich” don’t have enough to pay for it all.
Also, speaking of health care, Mitt Romney has a decision to make. He can continue to defend his Massachusetts mistake, or he can win the Republican nomination. If I were him, I would acknowledge the problems, and describe what I’d learned from them.
More Thoughts On The Economist Moon Debate
From Gwynne Shotwell. You will be almost as shocked as I was to learn that she favors more commercial participation in NASA’s human spaceflight activities.
It’s interesting that there is no mention of her affiliation.
Watch Out For The Snipers
…in the media:
Jon Henke of The Next Right heard the first shot — the newspaper changed its story, literally — and exposed the sniper. The Times (whose parent company once employed me at Congressional Quarterly) initially, and correctly, thought it fair to note that the Service Employees International Union organized a counter protest at Castor’s event.
The paper also included this explosive quote from an SEIU official hinting at plans to instigate trouble at the event: “We’re prepared [for disruption]. We have strategies to deal with it if it should come up.”
That language provided important context about a group whose leader once described his thug-like organizing philosophy like this: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.”
The rewrite of the story a short time later dropped the quote and changed the tone of the story to what Henke rightly called “something far more SEIU/Democrat friendly.” The second version downplayed SEIU’s role even though it was billed as an organizer, and it spun the story from the critical perspective of pro-Obama protesters.
I don’t think that the Obama honeymoon with the media is over. It’s just the honeymoon with the public (and particularly those who voted for him because it was “cool” without paying any attention to his record or actual statements) that is. So now they’re getting desperate to defend their paramour. It is nice to see the orgy getting smaller, though.
[Update a couple minutes later]
The White House (and the Democrats in Congress) against community organizing:
Nancy Pelosi, who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself. When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town-hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured “AstroTurf” stunts, she replied, “I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”
Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander, and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protesters are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of Obamacare, but she’s also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.
How does that work? What public-relations genius says: “Okay, we need these protests to seem like an authentic backlash of real Americans. Make sure everyone has enough Nazi paraphernalia!”
The combination of stupidity and venality of this woman would be hilarious if she weren’t third in line for the presidency.
It’s difficult for mere mortals like us to fully grasp the enormousness of the Democrats’ hypocrisy. Put aside all that talk of dissent being the highest form of patriotism. Overlook that Democrats would have upended jerry cans of gasoline and immolated themselves in protest if the Bush administration had asked people to inform on their neighbors. You can even forget that the DNC’s claims are untrue.
But how can we ignore the fact that the world’s most famous community organizer is whining about community organizing?
Free speech, community organizing, executive jets for me, not for thee. These people are nothing if not hypocritical.
[Update a few minutes later]
Organizing the wrong community.
[Another update]
In today’s world, the “radicals” are the ones who protest the takeover of a huge swath of the economy by government bureaucrats who have proven they can’t even run a program that gives free money away to car buyers properly. It is radicals who want to preserve the pillars of a system that over 80 percent of Americans still believe works — though certainly not perfectly.
In this new world, radicals are the ones who protest adding trillions to our debt and who have the temerity to ask if legislators have read the bills they sign. You’ve seen them. Those radicals who are ranting and raving about silly things like the Constitution.
So here is a plan. Instead of making the case for health care “reform,” let’s launch an offensive against citizens. Nazis. Fanatics. Mobs. Thugs. Whatever you call them.
And if you’re really patriotic, you can even report them.
The not-so-silent majority is waking up.
Prairie Fire Anger
Victor Davis Hanson explains why Americans are in revolt against their new masters, who have hijacked the government of the people.