Friday, July 4, 2008

Something Happening Here, What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear.

Our little “guerilla war” is turning into a full blown battle. What started with the Guerilla tactics out of the view of the mainstream media by the likes of Newt Gingrich’s Drill Here Drill Now Pay Less Petition drive to Lynn Westmoreland, Tom Price, and Dan Burton standing in the well of the House talking to a small CSPAN audience after hours and introducing what I called a “by the door Petition“ about increasing oil production for the legislators to see and hopefully sign on their way into the chamber. To Michigan’s Tim Walberg’s “Discharge Petition”. Then finally to the Republican Leadership of the house and Senate taking notice and getting behind the troops. The seed had been planted. The American public is changing their minds with this constant drumbeat that is beginning to be picked up by the Media. I give Kudos in this blog today to John Boehner, the Republican House leader.

The more I follow John Boehner’s web site, the more I realize that he is on top of things, he is taking the lead in this battle as he should. He is really putting the Democrat’s feet to the fire over drilling for oil. Below is his excellent article from 7/3/08. He has been posting everyday. Congress may be on vacation but he is still posting on the net. John Boehner has been working over time.
-----link-----
http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=96338
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In the article he mentions the latest PEW poll and the effect it should have on the average Democratic members who are up for election in November. The link to the PEW poll is below. As I studied it I was amazed. This poll should be devastating to the Democratic middle.
-----link-----
http://people-press.org/report/433/gas-prices
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This poll gives proof that within 4 months the American public has been changing their minds about drilling (exploration) all across the board. The most amazing thing was that the Democratic base showed the highest percentage of change for all the groups. Here I’m talking about the following groups, all double digit change in favor of drilling vs. conserving our way out of the problem: Young voters, college students, women of all ages and those calling themselves liberals. I’m talking up to 20^% change of attitude towards drilling. The findings are indeed amazing. Almost the entire Democratic base has changed their minds. Dan Burton highlighted a blog of mine in the past and his joy that someone had noticed what he Price and Westmoreland were doing seemingly alone. The battle they were fighting against hopeless odds. Well it seems that I wasn’t the only one listening, and the PEW poll shows that the odds are piling up in their favor.

While I’m praising the Wayward Son, those who know the bible will understand my deep undying gratitude and respect for those who put it all out there with little chance of success and got the ball rolling. That ball seems to have taken on a life of it’s own. This is what I keep referring to as “Bottom Up Politics” after the British model. Take what we have to work with, to put forward a Conservative based solution to a problem. Put it into practice to prove that our ideas work. This whole idea of drilling, simply fit’s a conservative mantra of supply and demand. We have a chance to prove that this mantra works.

Our National leaders have a chance to get behind this and expand it and increase it’s scope to include a “Manhattan Like Project” for energy independence, A Kennedy like effort to be energy independent by 2015. Don’t be afraid of the Kennedy thing, use it to find the common ground for solutions that work. We as conservatives want things to work we should be willing to share the praise for doing so. We know the Congress has been a do nothing Congress on both sides and the people have had enough. We as Republicans have a chance show how all members can be a part of a “Get it Done” Congress. Help restore the peoples faith in their institutions. I’m sure there are many on either side of the aisle that would welcome that title and respect.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
PS AN OH MY GOD LOOK WHAT I SAW MOMENT. The only thing we have to fear is ourselves.

A word of caution upon re studying the PEW poll. Those calling themselves conservatives showed no change holding at only 47%, those people over 65 showed a decline of 2% in favor of increased exploration, mining drilling and new power plants. The most scary was that among Republicans, Democrats, and Independents; Republicans only showed a decline and it was 6% bringing them and became the group most against trying to increase production. MAN OHOOO MAN OOOOH MAN. What the Heck is the deal?? Are the Country Club Republicans going to take this gift and ruin it again as they have in the past? Are we going to let the Democrats slither their way into leading and taking charge of this popular movement? This movement that we created? Our one good chance. Please what can I do about it? Are we so conditioned to the beating the Radical Environmentalist have given us over the years that in our misguided quest to get along at the Club, we have lost our will to fight?? If we do lose this issue, that’s it. The guerilla war will just have to start from the bottom up and find it’s own leaders. Again Thank God for the Wayward sons. Thank God for the Guerillas and Thank you John Boehner. Let’s hope that the others will get off their high horse of charts graphs and market analysis long enough to see the forest through the trees. Either that or get the hell out of the way.

Warmest regards to some.

Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Reform Michigan Now Petition. (Deform ??)

Reform Michigan Now Petition.


The World Wide Web is a wonderful thing. You can find almost anything your heart desires on it. EXCEPT the exact wording of a petition going around simply titled
Initiative petition Amendment to the Constitution. Reform Michigan Government Now is purported to be behind it. Nick at Right Michigan has been keeping a running drumbeat going about it. His site seems to have taken the lead in exposing this piece of political skullduggery.
Nick the purveyor of the site helps to clarify the issue.
-----link-----
http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2008/6/30/94826/5789
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The RMGN Nick refers to is Reform Michigan Government Now. I finally found a photo copy of the thing which is around 14 pages of fine print. It is all printed on one sheet of paper as a map for example is. You have to unfold it a bunch of times to see it all. The print was way too small to read without the help of a magnifying glass. I’m serious about that. I copied off the pages took them down and had each one blown up really large. The special paper was about twice the size of a normal sheet. (just for one page there were 11) It had to be that large to be able to read the print. Still the print is small and the lines are long and hard to read. BUT I have one of the readable copies in existence. I’ve been reading and researching it for a week now.

Just a thought, next time someone approaches you to sign something they claim will save the government money or shrink the government or cut the money we pay our representatives. Ask them to let you read it. I asked once and he wouldn’t let me, said he didn’t have the time. I asked him why he was in a hurry and he said he gets $1.50 per signature. He also in the same breath complained that in GR they were giving out $2.00 per signature. I then said what about the changes in the redistricting plan in Article IV, he said he didn’t know but he had to run.

I’m older so he didn’t tell me that it also allows 18 year olds to vote.

It also cuts the number of state legislators in the House and Senate, cuts their pay too. Claims it’s a good thing. I think that instead of cutting the only leverage voters have with what the government does ( our elected representatives) Maybe we should cut the number of government workers. The reason of saving money is not very credible. The reason that they can do less harm doesn’t hold water either. It just means that there will be fewer legislators to try to come up with policy. A judge in the following article’s link said it better.
-----link-----
http://www.hillsdale.net/local_news/x390619763/Judges-cool-to-ballot-reform-effort
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The article is good, I lifted the following as pertinent to what I was saying.
-----snippet from the above link-----
Michael Nye, Chief Probate Judge at the Hillsdale Circuit Court, said the proposal raises the question of when voters should stop cutting back on the number of judges. If five judges work more efficiently than seven, that logic might lead to handing all the power to one judge eventually.

Nye said he didn’t trust the reductions in the number of legislators, either.

“By decreasing the number of senators and the number of representatives, what you’re actually doing is cutting back representation for the people,” he said.

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I was googling to find a readable copy and ran across a liberal blog that was posted just after they found out about the petition from a friend. They were pretty righteous in their derision of it because they thought it was a Republican trick. How evil and unfair the Republicans are for trying to do such a thing. They were thinking the Republicans were trying to pack the court and redistrict the state in their favor.
-----link-----
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:eAKS6NYAcLYJ:www.michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do%3FdiaryId%3D12663+Initiative+petition+amendment+to+the+constitution+Michigan&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us
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The comments were instructive as to how the liberal mind works. What they base their ideas on. Scroll through and read one here and there then see the last one. It’s last for a reason. Once the commenter mentioned this was a Democrat ploy. The comments stopped abruptly. You could of heard a pin drop. Lol Link to the last comment.
-----last comment on article-----
Joe Lukasiewicz bills himself as the leader of the Reform Michigan Government Now! ballot proposal (0.00 / 0)
Dianne Byrum,emerged Thursday as the spokeswoman for the group.
The measure was endorsed Thursday by Mark Brewer,chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party.
http://www.mlive.com/elections...
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I edited out the user name.

ROTFLMAO.
That wins my OOOOOOOOOPS award of the day. Lol

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

PS Stay tuned for more as I get it.

Monday, June 30, 2008

VIGILANCE

Below is a link to an article by Kathryn Jean Lopez in the National Review.
-----link-----
http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2008/6/28/73437/7269
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She talks about a new conservative revolution. About how conservative core ideas still resonate with the general public. Her article was about McClintock and California. Yesterday I posted the following about a new Gallop Poll, covering the whole country.
-----quote from my previous article--------------------------------------------------------
New Gallop Pole. A shocker to me, at least in one aspect.
-----link-----
http://www.gallup.com/poll/108445/Americans-Oppose-Income-Redistribution-Fix-Economy.aspx
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The aspect I was stunned by was the following I lifted directly from the above article.
-----quote-----
PRINCETON, NJ -- When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today's consumer, Americans overwhelmingly -- by 84% to 13% --prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
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From that quote I drew the obvious conclusion that 84% of Americans realize that redistributing wealth doesn’t fix the underlying problems with the economy and jobs. I further concluded that the public knows those liberal programs have not worked in the past. I agree that conservative ideas such as less government intrusion is still an issue that will garner votes.

I see in the Lopez article about McClintock and his run in the primary and subsequent nomination as a microcosm for the hope and a guide for a conservative rebirth. As she alludes to, this may not happen over night, but it will happen. I liked the article in that it showed the dilemma Republicans as a party find themselves in after breaking faith with the public and their own promises as conservatives. McClintock symbolizes a conservative making the same promises of the Reagan era and getting elected.

While I agree that Conservatives have to stick to the basics, because that is what the people believe. I go a step further and as you know if you’ve read my other posts, I continually push for concrete specific actions. Lead by example not only word. Don’t just back a good sounding conservative bill. Then sit back and say see I fought the good fight. Stay in there and fight tooth and nail. Don’t compromise on principle, get a part of the bill you like enacted. Show that the conservative message has teeth and can work if given a chance. Fight to show your ideas are workable. Earn that trust back.

I also make one other suggestion. Get the grass roots involved, we can rally around any big league leaders that happen along, but the real work needs to be done at the local level. We need to get people talking about conservative solutions to problems within our local schools, local governments. Back the local conservatives who seem true to the core conservative ideas. I’m not talking about ideologues spouting invective larceny about how terrible liberals are, you know those a mile away, everybody else shuns them. Maybe we should too. I’m talking about the ones that make a reasoned workable suggestion at a city or a county or a local school board meeting.

I’ll back the person who suggests that perhaps the private sector could do some things the government does only better and save us money. At the same time I want to see that person willing to fight to actually take that savings out of the income stream of government. Not let it be put back into it. I like the way David Cameron of the new Conservative Party in England talks of “no unfunded tax cuts” and "sharing the proceeds of growth between public services and lower taxes" As a conservative I’m backing saving money in government then actually taking that income stream (taxes in one form or other) out of play. Once we turn the service over, take the money we saved actually out of government. Without doing that the government only continues to grows. By doing that the government becomes smaller and less intrusive.

Hopefully Phil Gramm is pounding that basic conservative idea into John McCain’s brain and we can have some direction from above. Maybe, but I think this really has to come from the bottom up. Thomas Jefferson said back in the day: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. I think Jefferson was thinking more of the individual citizen than the legislator in congress. We the Citizen are the ones who have to be vigilant. Vigilant enough so our legislators are wary.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Shock Gallop Poll

New Gallop Pole. A shocker to me, at least in one aspect.
-----link-----
http://www.gallup.com/poll/108445/Americans-Oppose-Income-Redistribution-Fix-Economy.aspx
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The aspect I was stunned by was the following I lifted directly from the above article.
-----quote-----
PRINCETON, NJ -- When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today's consumer, Americans overwhelmingly -- by 84% to 13% --prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
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What struck me was the above numbers when compared to the reasonably close numbers in the rest of the article. The rest of the numbers seemed to follow accepted differences between the parties. So what was the difference of the first set of numbers. Why did all parties and all income brackets favor the first .

It seems apparent to me that the survey reflected the idea people have which favors doing something about the cause of the problems, and that they thought that redistributing the wealth doesn’t do anything about the root cause. Again the quote
-----quote-----
Prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
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The American people want things done to fix the problems we face and they overwhelmingly seem to be saying that taxing the people with money more will not do it. Rather they want the government to focus on the problems and fix them.

The other questions fall back to normal predictable results. Those questions deal with whether the government should do more or less to help, vs. letting the individual do more to help themselves.

My take on this is that the People want solutions that are directly tied to the fixing of the problem in a concrete way. The article seemed to think the recent stimulus cash advance was popular on both sides of the aisle. I’m stipulating that, but also point out that the people with whom this was so popular was the Legislators, not necessarily the people. Have you seen the popularity or lack thereof the Legislators have with the public. The popularity the stimulus package had with the legislators as I see it comes from offering them a chance to legally buy votes. I would agree that choice was probably popular with those doing the buying. The question is, does the majority of Americans think that practice is the best way of fixing the problem??

The citizens took the money, why not? I ask what concrete choice did the people have. Is there a way to change the choices out there? You bet. This recent push across the board by the Republicans on Energy is putting a choice out there that the American people are overwhelmingly in favor of. A choice that does something concrete about the oil shortage which is driving up the cost at the pump. The “All of the Above” energy plan of the Republicans is offering a choice. (Finally). Maybe this gallop poll will help to turn some Democrats facing close elections to swing in favor of more drilling as a more realistic way of increasing production than taxing the producers out of business. They already (the legislators) have shown they know how to bribe the people. Now they have a chance if they grab it to show the people that they can actually create concrete solutions that works. The people would feel better and I bet our reps will too. Remember in our quiver, that this gallop poll showed off another one of our arrows. Overall the majority of Americans still believe 50%-43% according to the poll that the government should do less. That is enough to easily win a national election. If Republicans can force some votes on their energy bills then we may have a chance to show the concrete plans we have created. We have a chance to offer a solution that works through less government. Gosh what a novel thing. The people may think otherwise. They might just start to think differently about the people against a realistic common sense approach to helping them with gas prices.

The article concluded the following.
-----from the article-----
On the other hand, the economic turbulence of 2008 could end up getting government into significant new income and wealth redistribution programs unless the Treasury and the Federal Reserve act soon to stabilize and reduce today's unmanageable food and energy price increases.
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That conclusion I don’t agree with because it assumes that the government will do nothing other than a wealth and redistribution program. Then states the reason for what will happen will be that the Treasury and The Federal Reserve did nothing. It is assuming that only they can change things. Why I ask is that? Common practice maybe, but It’s not written in stone anyplace. I like to be more positive. I’d like to think the Constitution was written for a reason. That we have a representative democracy. Why not assume that the Federal Reserve will do nothing, and that our elected representatives will wake up and seize the moment; partially in response to the Gallop Poll numbers and other wildly popular Petitions (drill here, drill now). Perhaps they will realize they want to keep their jobs and will be the ones to do something concrete. On top of that how can the Fed increase production of food and oil?

Scratching my head over that logic but smiling over the ammunition the Gallop Poll has given those of our elected Representatives who are willing to offer that 84% of the population desiring a solution, some other choice than us throwing the Bums out.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative