When reality does catch up with the Liberal and Conservative Elites, it is done thru those that because of their low standing in society have to deal directly with that reality. Namely the youth and the vast unwashed masses which turn out being the beasts of burden who are forced to carry the water for those high flung ideologues. Whether it’s being called to war or having to pay for ever more socialistic policies.
Either way the youth and the everyday Joe and Mary have to pay the price. The youth don’t like it but do it as a rite of passage; while the everyday Joe and Mary do it because they don’t feel they have the ability or right to avoid it.
Change however does happen; it is built from the ever present chaos that surrounds us. It starts slowly by fits and starts. Fits and starts are what defines a bottom up change. There is no blueprint to it. If new pieces start to fit together, the plan becomes a work in progress, ever changing and evolving. The main ingredient is a general desire to change the way things are.
The process starts with the individual who gets an idea for change and stands up for that idea. The process of change is hard and long and only rewarding in a personal way. The reward has to come from within and is found in the doing; especially in the beginning. That is what change is; the culmination of beginnings.
Only occasionally will an idea be resonant enough to catch the imagination of others with the same sense of unrest. When that happens the elites through the power structures they control or that control them either feel threatened and go into attack mode, or don’t know how to handle it and try to ignore it or try to manipulate it for their purpose. The likes of Krauthammer cannot begin to understand the angst of the Tea Party thing: but manipulate he can.
In Political I read an article explaining Krauthammer’s new status as the new neocon critic of Obama.
-----link-----
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22743.html
---------------
The quote that stirred me to blog was his comment about the Tea Party Thing.
-----quote-----
"It's completely incoherent, fractured and inconsistent," he said, calling the recent anti-tax tea parties "a perfect example."
"They were ostensibly about taxes. Obama hasn't raised taxes as of now by a penny. So what was all that about? It was a natural pushback by people who have sense of the government expanding rapidly in its size and control," Krauthammer said. "It was simply an inchoate reaction, the sort of thing that happens very early on in a very important and consequential presidency."
------------------
What he says is true until he lumps the reason for the angst as being a natural reaction to Obama. What I mean to say is that this angst has little to do with Obama and whether he is important or consequential, and more to do with his first assumption. I question whether this need to define Obama’s in that way has to do with Krauthammer’s new found status?
This is a push back against ever expanding Government control of people’s lives at the expense of those people. Enough is enough is all they are saying. Inchoate sure enough; when you think it has to be related to something other than what it is. To classify these reactions as being in response to something that is important and consequential seems by lack of definition to define the tea party thing as unimportant and inconsequential. I hope you get my drift.
The link below is an example of another fit and start, this time in the film industry.
-----link-----
http://townhall.com/columnists/BenShapiro/2009/05/20/is_hollywood_finally_promoting_traditional_values?page=1
-------------
Here is a movie that makes the case for abstaining from sex before marriage; along with some other value statements we haven’t heard out of Hollywood in a long time. The Left wing Liberals are justifiably upset by this intrusion into their own private fiefdom. From the article it seems that they are practically frothing at the mouth.
My case is that this alone will be the only publicity needed to get kids interested. This “fit” will be another false start if it becomes classified by us on the right as something fitting some master ideologue’s formula. This will become a “start” simply if we who are in favor of it leave it to the people we continue to say we trust whether they enjoy and connect with the movie or not. That will not only be a better judge of the movie; but also of our ideas. If the judgment is against us then we need to try something else. If we judge it by what we want it to become it will fail, if the content is what is judged and it is good then it will be not be a “fit”, and we will have made a start.
After all do we not believe as conservatives that "We the People" are the "Annointed One"?
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
A Deaf Ear
And a blind Eye Too
Conservative Outpost had an article by Drew McKissick bringing up some new poll information. He was talking about some obvious issues in which a large majority of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents agree.
-----link-----
http://www.conservativeoutpost.com/recent_polls_should_offer_hints_gop
---------------
The most obvious was whether or not the English Language should be the official language, not just in government but throughout the country. At the end of the article Mr. McKisseck states the following.
-----quote-----
As the leaders of the GOP try to figure out "what the party stands for", they would do well to consider how the American people feel about key issues like these that relate to core issues such as immigration and government/spending - to say nothing of what the people that actually comprise the party (stand) for.
------------------
He then states, “The question is, will they?”
The answer to that is obvious. No they will not.
Think back if you will to the time before the 2008 election cycle as we were starting to lose 4 out of the 4 special elections in what were considered “safe” Republican areas.
If you remember, Newt Gingrich saw it coming and threw his mighty talents into trying to warn the Republican Party leadership of the impending disaster that was looming.
-----link-----
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23775
---------------
Newt wrote that back in Dec, 2007
No one listened then.
Well most of the leadership didn’t. House Minority leader Boehner was an exception. Newt then put forth his mighty organizing skills to try to come up with ways to work his solutions. The genesis of his effort was to come up with what he called tri-partisan issues. Through his own polling he found issues in which there was a majority of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents which believed in them. Guess what? English as a national language was at the top of the list. He made his case with facts and figures for the leadership.
Well they fiddled while Rome burned. Some diddled but that’s another story. Newt set up a great web site which was interactive and pro active; a site where action could take place. All the pieces were then in place. The leadership turned a blind eye, but if you’ll also remember Newt kept at it. He used his polling and his web site to incite a “Drill Hear, Drill Now, Pay Less” petition drive that turned into a movement that forced Nancy Pelosi in self defense to literally shut off the lights on the oil drilling debate. John Boehner along with fellow Republicans kept the House open in the dark, forcing the debate into the light of day. Poll numbers skyrocketed and proved Newt numbers and his vision were spot on with the tri-partisan majority of Americans. The Democrats caved, even candidate Obama thought some drilling might be allowed. The important thing was that the drilling ban was allowed to lapse. Public opinion in an election year was changed by the vision of Newt and mobilized by the internet through his Herculean efforts.
The man was tireless. He kept up those efforts.
Later through the help of his website the second wave of Tea parties swept the nation April 15th.
That angst is out there and even now the leadership is too afraid to tap into it. Their position is to side step it like broken glass. Like Drew McKissick perfectly pointed out at the end of the article and I quote.
-----quote-----
And I'm not talking about simply taking a position. We've had our fill of people who take a position. We need candidates and elected officials that will fiercely advocate for such positions. And those are rare animals.
-------------------
Amen brother McKissick
May I along with you, Live Dangerously (and) Be A Conservative
Conservative Outpost had an article by Drew McKissick bringing up some new poll information. He was talking about some obvious issues in which a large majority of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents agree.
-----link-----
http://www.conservativeoutpost.com/recent_polls_should_offer_hints_gop
---------------
The most obvious was whether or not the English Language should be the official language, not just in government but throughout the country. At the end of the article Mr. McKisseck states the following.
-----quote-----
As the leaders of the GOP try to figure out "what the party stands for", they would do well to consider how the American people feel about key issues like these that relate to core issues such as immigration and government/spending - to say nothing of what the people that actually comprise the party (stand) for.
------------------
He then states, “The question is, will they?”
The answer to that is obvious. No they will not.
Think back if you will to the time before the 2008 election cycle as we were starting to lose 4 out of the 4 special elections in what were considered “safe” Republican areas.
If you remember, Newt Gingrich saw it coming and threw his mighty talents into trying to warn the Republican Party leadership of the impending disaster that was looming.
-----link-----
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23775
---------------
Newt wrote that back in Dec, 2007
No one listened then.
Well most of the leadership didn’t. House Minority leader Boehner was an exception. Newt then put forth his mighty organizing skills to try to come up with ways to work his solutions. The genesis of his effort was to come up with what he called tri-partisan issues. Through his own polling he found issues in which there was a majority of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents which believed in them. Guess what? English as a national language was at the top of the list. He made his case with facts and figures for the leadership.
Well they fiddled while Rome burned. Some diddled but that’s another story. Newt set up a great web site which was interactive and pro active; a site where action could take place. All the pieces were then in place. The leadership turned a blind eye, but if you’ll also remember Newt kept at it. He used his polling and his web site to incite a “Drill Hear, Drill Now, Pay Less” petition drive that turned into a movement that forced Nancy Pelosi in self defense to literally shut off the lights on the oil drilling debate. John Boehner along with fellow Republicans kept the House open in the dark, forcing the debate into the light of day. Poll numbers skyrocketed and proved Newt numbers and his vision were spot on with the tri-partisan majority of Americans. The Democrats caved, even candidate Obama thought some drilling might be allowed. The important thing was that the drilling ban was allowed to lapse. Public opinion in an election year was changed by the vision of Newt and mobilized by the internet through his Herculean efforts.
The man was tireless. He kept up those efforts.
Later through the help of his website the second wave of Tea parties swept the nation April 15th.
That angst is out there and even now the leadership is too afraid to tap into it. Their position is to side step it like broken glass. Like Drew McKissick perfectly pointed out at the end of the article and I quote.
-----quote-----
And I'm not talking about simply taking a position. We've had our fill of people who take a position. We need candidates and elected officials that will fiercely advocate for such positions. And those are rare animals.
-------------------
Amen brother McKissick
May I along with you, Live Dangerously (and) Be A Conservative
Monday, May 18, 2009
Doing As We Say (Novel Concept)
Ben Smith in Politico has written an article about how the Republicans may be poised to lose more of the Latino vote and he draws the conclusion that if that does happen the Republicans will truly become a minority party.
All that may be the case. The piece however sounds like the same old same old as far as any solutions to the problem. What the piece doesn’t say tells me more about the problems the Republicans have with any outreach. Below the article is linked. Judge for yourself
-----link-----
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22586.html
---------------
To reach out, we should be out in the communities translating (figuratively and then literally) how our core values are closer to their own than the Liberal’s are. From what I’ve seen in the construction trades and the people I’ve met in my neighborhood, the average person from the Hispanic Heritage has a stronger sense of the American Dream than most American’s I meet. They are “old school” freedom loving people. They will “do work American won’t do” anymore to get ahead.
Like all broad strokes, I realize the danger. But these are the impressions I have seen.
How many Americans work for or have part of their income derived from the government who exists because of regulation and its fees and taxes etc? How many Americans work for larger corporations that also thrive on the stifling effects of regulation taxes and fees on small business’?
The one chance Immigrants have to get ahead in America now is the same as it was in the past. Small business started on a shoe string. This business model is the quickest response to a need the public has. The overregulation of such efforts, not only takes that chance away from Immigrants but from everyone who has little money but a good idea. Further the public suffers from a lack of options on how to fulfill its needs. We need to ask for help from Hispanics in helping us to return America to it’s Dream.
Look at all the programs out there to help “minorities”. The regulations and infrastructure become so confining that the “prisoner of the system” loses sight of and all the inspiration they originally had for their idea. I posit that the freedom of expression the free enterprise system allows is the “secret ingredient” that allows people to take the gamble to do what others will not.
A bureaucrat will say to that; “Well if they don’t have the energy to go through our hoops and pay the extra money for what we have proven is necessary for their own success, we are actually helping them to avoid the failure. The implied condescension implied by all of this type of thing is what we as a party out to be out there showing and cataloguing and fighting the loudest against. Simple freedom from government oppression is what freedom is all about. We know what we want better than the government. That is what they come here for in the first place. We need their help to remake it into Our Dream.
If we go back to what has made America great and again championed whatever helps make a strong, self reliant, proud and free citizenry; we will not only start to win back Hispanic voters but all who rail against a government that it too oppressive of its people. A place where the rule of law says we have a right to raise my children and protect our families any way we see fit; that is the Dream we all share. That is something worth fighting for. Republicans can represent that if we earn back our credibility. There are a lot of “Democrat Lite” things we all do. The one I hate the most is the, “Do as I Say, Not as I Do” hypocrisy. I know the Liberal Elite does that, I don’t care. I know that we could go a long way towards earning our credibility back if we quit doing that same thing.
If we started doing what we say. What do you think, that would shock everybody. Ya think?
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
All that may be the case. The piece however sounds like the same old same old as far as any solutions to the problem. What the piece doesn’t say tells me more about the problems the Republicans have with any outreach. Below the article is linked. Judge for yourself
-----link-----
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22586.html
---------------
To reach out, we should be out in the communities translating (figuratively and then literally) how our core values are closer to their own than the Liberal’s are. From what I’ve seen in the construction trades and the people I’ve met in my neighborhood, the average person from the Hispanic Heritage has a stronger sense of the American Dream than most American’s I meet. They are “old school” freedom loving people. They will “do work American won’t do” anymore to get ahead.
Like all broad strokes, I realize the danger. But these are the impressions I have seen.
How many Americans work for or have part of their income derived from the government who exists because of regulation and its fees and taxes etc? How many Americans work for larger corporations that also thrive on the stifling effects of regulation taxes and fees on small business’?
The one chance Immigrants have to get ahead in America now is the same as it was in the past. Small business started on a shoe string. This business model is the quickest response to a need the public has. The overregulation of such efforts, not only takes that chance away from Immigrants but from everyone who has little money but a good idea. Further the public suffers from a lack of options on how to fulfill its needs. We need to ask for help from Hispanics in helping us to return America to it’s Dream.
Look at all the programs out there to help “minorities”. The regulations and infrastructure become so confining that the “prisoner of the system” loses sight of and all the inspiration they originally had for their idea. I posit that the freedom of expression the free enterprise system allows is the “secret ingredient” that allows people to take the gamble to do what others will not.
A bureaucrat will say to that; “Well if they don’t have the energy to go through our hoops and pay the extra money for what we have proven is necessary for their own success, we are actually helping them to avoid the failure. The implied condescension implied by all of this type of thing is what we as a party out to be out there showing and cataloguing and fighting the loudest against. Simple freedom from government oppression is what freedom is all about. We know what we want better than the government. That is what they come here for in the first place. We need their help to remake it into Our Dream.
If we go back to what has made America great and again championed whatever helps make a strong, self reliant, proud and free citizenry; we will not only start to win back Hispanic voters but all who rail against a government that it too oppressive of its people. A place where the rule of law says we have a right to raise my children and protect our families any way we see fit; that is the Dream we all share. That is something worth fighting for. Republicans can represent that if we earn back our credibility. There are a lot of “Democrat Lite” things we all do. The one I hate the most is the, “Do as I Say, Not as I Do” hypocrisy. I know the Liberal Elite does that, I don’t care. I know that we could go a long way towards earning our credibility back if we quit doing that same thing.
If we started doing what we say. What do you think, that would shock everybody. Ya think?
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
Sunday, May 17, 2009
We Must Fight To Earn A Compromise
We Must Fight To Earn A Compromise
Which is better for the individual; to get pleasure from sitting in front of a computer all day or going to work all day? I ask this due to my belief that “Individual Freedom” is the #1 vision I strive for. In our lives, at birth till we leave the nest of home, we are weaned in varying degrees away from the idea that seeking individual pleasure is good. Selfish is the term we use to denigrate that which seems so natural to us.
In our lives we find that there is good in sitting in front of the computer and in going to work; just as there is bad found in exclusively doing either one. I used to think that my mind enjoyed patterns found in nature because they replicated the patterns found in the way my mind worked. If I could set up a world with the same patterns as those within the architecture of my brain; I would become thoroughly happy.
That however has proved to not be the case in my life. The chink in that suit of armor is the concept of time. When the fruit of the tree of life was threatened to be eaten after we had partaken of the tree of knowledge; “Someone” said to “Someone else or Themselves”, “Lest they eat of the tree of life and become as one of us” We better kick them out of the Garden; From that point Humankind was saddled with the burden of time. It is the deciding factor in everything we do. EVERYTHING.
----link-----
http://www.icr.org/bible/Genesis/3:22/
-------------
The “Someone” I quoted as saying “as one of us” has to live outside time. Is that possible? Einstein probably would agree as he thought of pure Energy as existing (for lack of a better word) separate of time matter and space. Only when E was constrained by time would it break down into matter and space. In other words when matter attains the speed of light it changes back to pure energy which then destroys the concept of time.
I bring this up to point out the importance of time, not just in physics but in our daily lives. In every decision we make, perhaps in the way the very structure of our mind and down to our very DNA is formed and therefore works.
The example I always use to explain the effect time has on the decisions we make is this. Imagine you were living in eternity. Imagine you had no concept of time that you lived forever, that the word “end” didn’t exist. Next imagine that you decided that you wanted to tie your shoe. You could feel free to spend as much of your effort and thought to do that one mundane thing. If you spent the equivalent of a thousand years learning the best way to tie your shoes what would you have lost? You would still have an eternity left. All of the penalties and rewards on earth as we know it have to do with manipulating time. We are punished by losing our freedom for a certain amount of time. As in being sent to our room or being sent to jail. At the core of every decision is the weighing of whether the time involved makes something worthwhile doing or not.
Thomas Sowell in his book “Conflict of Visions” explains two basic constructs he believes form the two basic political thoughts. Mr. Sowell does not claim one is better than the other. They are both valid. Throughout the book he allows one to draw the conclusion that while both are valid neither one alone will succeed. I believe Thomas Sowell makes the case brilliantly for the use of Compromise between the two. I came to understand the differences between our political parties at a deeper level after I read his book.
-----link-----
http://books.google.com/books?id=NwrWDM8FW04C&dq=conflict+of+visions+sowell&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=bH0rrvUB5b&sig=fIgZkizwo1g_cdVjxyQq_KRv_Mo&hl=en&ei=vRkQSuekLqWkNZ222VI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#PPR10,M1
--------------
This brings me to the reason for writing this blog entry. Should the Republicans return to their principles? Will our party continue disintegrating if we don’t? When I look at the bigger picture I should ask if the Liberals should deviate from their principles also. That brings up the whole idea of the goodness of compromise. Is it proper to compromise one’s principles?
Of course it is, but only to the point that is determined by the constraints “Time” has placed upon us. For example if it is my principle that tells me I should do the very best in whatever I attempt, then in my above example of the role time plays in tying my shoe; I would never get past that effort before I died. Time forces me to compromise with walking around with shoes that are imperfectly tied, or live a shortened life due to starvation. The best compromise I could make would be to invent a better way (Velcro) and set up a money making venture selling it which would give me the wherewithal to prolong my life to further study tying my shoes.
People do that all the time. It’s called doing what one has a passion for.
I often use the saying “You can make a science out of anything” I usually say that in a negative sense when confronted with a bureaucracy run wild. But good can also come of the same type of thing. Look at all the complicated effort we have made out of putting a ball into a hole. We weren’t happy with one either. Think basketball, golf, and if you expand the concept to a ball in a net well you get the drift.
Most know that a vision or a dream of what we want to accomplish is important and even necessary if we want to make progress. We must fight for that vision with all our might, but we must also know at what point to make the compromise that will keep our Vision moving forward, even though the other side gains something too; that is ok. The reason is simple; the clock is ticking.
More than that, within our party we need both the idealist fighting on the barricades and the pragmatist fighting in the halls of power. Neither will win every battle or argument, but the key is for both to have the vision ever present and well defined, to guide our point of compromise and keep it from being a point of surrender.
Dream big, fight hard and the compromises will not be the terms of Surrender. The compromises back in the day, once upon a time turned into the Declaration of Independence and further compromise brought us the Constitution. Both of which the dreamers and pragmatists from both sides were content with. They knew they did their best, and they were definitely feeling the constraint of time from the British. Their compromise was not a defeat or surrender on either side but a moving forward for humankind.
I must now make my own compromise now with the tyranny of Time and sign off and do something to pay the bills. As God has been so freely translated. Time and Tide wait for no one.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative.
Which is better for the individual; to get pleasure from sitting in front of a computer all day or going to work all day? I ask this due to my belief that “Individual Freedom” is the #1 vision I strive for. In our lives, at birth till we leave the nest of home, we are weaned in varying degrees away from the idea that seeking individual pleasure is good. Selfish is the term we use to denigrate that which seems so natural to us.
In our lives we find that there is good in sitting in front of the computer and in going to work; just as there is bad found in exclusively doing either one. I used to think that my mind enjoyed patterns found in nature because they replicated the patterns found in the way my mind worked. If I could set up a world with the same patterns as those within the architecture of my brain; I would become thoroughly happy.
That however has proved to not be the case in my life. The chink in that suit of armor is the concept of time. When the fruit of the tree of life was threatened to be eaten after we had partaken of the tree of knowledge; “Someone” said to “Someone else or Themselves”, “Lest they eat of the tree of life and become as one of us” We better kick them out of the Garden; From that point Humankind was saddled with the burden of time. It is the deciding factor in everything we do. EVERYTHING.
----link-----
http://www.icr.org/bible/Genesis/3:22/
-------------
The “Someone” I quoted as saying “as one of us” has to live outside time. Is that possible? Einstein probably would agree as he thought of pure Energy as existing (for lack of a better word) separate of time matter and space. Only when E was constrained by time would it break down into matter and space. In other words when matter attains the speed of light it changes back to pure energy which then destroys the concept of time.
I bring this up to point out the importance of time, not just in physics but in our daily lives. In every decision we make, perhaps in the way the very structure of our mind and down to our very DNA is formed and therefore works.
The example I always use to explain the effect time has on the decisions we make is this. Imagine you were living in eternity. Imagine you had no concept of time that you lived forever, that the word “end” didn’t exist. Next imagine that you decided that you wanted to tie your shoe. You could feel free to spend as much of your effort and thought to do that one mundane thing. If you spent the equivalent of a thousand years learning the best way to tie your shoes what would you have lost? You would still have an eternity left. All of the penalties and rewards on earth as we know it have to do with manipulating time. We are punished by losing our freedom for a certain amount of time. As in being sent to our room or being sent to jail. At the core of every decision is the weighing of whether the time involved makes something worthwhile doing or not.
Thomas Sowell in his book “Conflict of Visions” explains two basic constructs he believes form the two basic political thoughts. Mr. Sowell does not claim one is better than the other. They are both valid. Throughout the book he allows one to draw the conclusion that while both are valid neither one alone will succeed. I believe Thomas Sowell makes the case brilliantly for the use of Compromise between the two. I came to understand the differences between our political parties at a deeper level after I read his book.
-----link-----
http://books.google.com/books?id=NwrWDM8FW04C&dq=conflict+of+visions+sowell&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=bH0rrvUB5b&sig=fIgZkizwo1g_cdVjxyQq_KRv_Mo&hl=en&ei=vRkQSuekLqWkNZ222VI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#PPR10,M1
--------------
This brings me to the reason for writing this blog entry. Should the Republicans return to their principles? Will our party continue disintegrating if we don’t? When I look at the bigger picture I should ask if the Liberals should deviate from their principles also. That brings up the whole idea of the goodness of compromise. Is it proper to compromise one’s principles?
Of course it is, but only to the point that is determined by the constraints “Time” has placed upon us. For example if it is my principle that tells me I should do the very best in whatever I attempt, then in my above example of the role time plays in tying my shoe; I would never get past that effort before I died. Time forces me to compromise with walking around with shoes that are imperfectly tied, or live a shortened life due to starvation. The best compromise I could make would be to invent a better way (Velcro) and set up a money making venture selling it which would give me the wherewithal to prolong my life to further study tying my shoes.
People do that all the time. It’s called doing what one has a passion for.
I often use the saying “You can make a science out of anything” I usually say that in a negative sense when confronted with a bureaucracy run wild. But good can also come of the same type of thing. Look at all the complicated effort we have made out of putting a ball into a hole. We weren’t happy with one either. Think basketball, golf, and if you expand the concept to a ball in a net well you get the drift.
Most know that a vision or a dream of what we want to accomplish is important and even necessary if we want to make progress. We must fight for that vision with all our might, but we must also know at what point to make the compromise that will keep our Vision moving forward, even though the other side gains something too; that is ok. The reason is simple; the clock is ticking.
More than that, within our party we need both the idealist fighting on the barricades and the pragmatist fighting in the halls of power. Neither will win every battle or argument, but the key is for both to have the vision ever present and well defined, to guide our point of compromise and keep it from being a point of surrender.
Dream big, fight hard and the compromises will not be the terms of Surrender. The compromises back in the day, once upon a time turned into the Declaration of Independence and further compromise brought us the Constitution. Both of which the dreamers and pragmatists from both sides were content with. They knew they did their best, and they were definitely feeling the constraint of time from the British. Their compromise was not a defeat or surrender on either side but a moving forward for humankind.
I must now make my own compromise now with the tyranny of Time and sign off and do something to pay the bills. As God has been so freely translated. Time and Tide wait for no one.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative.
Friday, May 15, 2009
A Civil Right ---- Saving Money.
Hey I’m just a blogger clinging with one hand to the idea of common sense and accountability. Hey I know, but I do have two hands and I can multi task; with the other hand you know what I’m clinging to. If you can’t figure it out, just ask any Liberal.
I'd like to give that "Civil Right" to the Government.Force it on them if need be.
I came up with a platform I would run on if I ran as President of the US, or Governor of my state of Michigan for that matter.
1. The money allocated to a program or Department need not all be spent.
2. I will set up a program rewarding and publicizing those departments and specific individuals that do not spend all their money.
3. I will set up a completely transparent fund in which to place all the money saved.
4. I will reward departments upon results based on actual performance.
5. Those departments and individuals that make the most efficient use of and that save taxpayers money will be singled out and rewarded by promotion, and their departments in the future will be looked upon as worthy of funding. This process will be completely transparent for all with a computer to see. Those individuals and department that can’t won’t be rewarded
.
6. I will fire and trim departments where I can legally and I will stretch that limit to my limits as President, where I can’t I will let attrition and shame do the rest of the job.
7. Every two year election cycle I will put on the ballot an initiative asking voter’s whether that money saved should go to pay off the deficit or be mailed back to the taxpayers.
Well like I said I’m just a blogger. Imagine some elected official in America trying to control an unelected bureaucrat, especially when it comes to spending taxpayer’s money. How naïve I am. I would only be President and we all have seen from Kennedy to Bush that a President can only nudge a Bureaucracy.
I guess I just get tired of funding things like “Airports to almost Nowhere”. Especially for the likes of "Let's Make a Deal" Murtha.
-----link-----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051202679.html
---------------
The new money going to this airport is only $800,000 for repaving an alternative runway. This airport has only 6 incoming and outgoing flights a day. I guess the alternative runway needs repaving through lack of use. Like I said so what it’s only $800,000, but if we read further in the article it points out the $8 million for a new radar and tower given them in 2004 that has never been used, altogether the airport received $150 million.
I think if you elect me president and we instituted our fat collector fund, maybe our “Airports to almost Nowhere” and “Bridges for almost no one” wouldn’t cost so much, might even (gasp) be seen as not needed. Imagine the audacity that in America someone would actually be rewarded for spending someone else’s money wisely and even in radically extreme cases returning it. Imagine if John Lennon was still alive, “Imagine” a bureaucracy in charge of saving money.
I’d be shot before the primary was over. Lol Hell, the pork producers would boil me in their excess and feather me with the stuffing of people’s mattresses as they rip them apart trying to find the last of the people's money.
And they wonder why I still cling to you know what.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
I'd like to give that "Civil Right" to the Government.Force it on them if need be.
I came up with a platform I would run on if I ran as President of the US, or Governor of my state of Michigan for that matter.
1. The money allocated to a program or Department need not all be spent.
2. I will set up a program rewarding and publicizing those departments and specific individuals that do not spend all their money.
3. I will set up a completely transparent fund in which to place all the money saved.
4. I will reward departments upon results based on actual performance.
5. Those departments and individuals that make the most efficient use of and that save taxpayers money will be singled out and rewarded by promotion, and their departments in the future will be looked upon as worthy of funding. This process will be completely transparent for all with a computer to see. Those individuals and department that can’t won’t be rewarded
.
6. I will fire and trim departments where I can legally and I will stretch that limit to my limits as President, where I can’t I will let attrition and shame do the rest of the job.
7. Every two year election cycle I will put on the ballot an initiative asking voter’s whether that money saved should go to pay off the deficit or be mailed back to the taxpayers.
Well like I said I’m just a blogger. Imagine some elected official in America trying to control an unelected bureaucrat, especially when it comes to spending taxpayer’s money. How naïve I am. I would only be President and we all have seen from Kennedy to Bush that a President can only nudge a Bureaucracy.
I guess I just get tired of funding things like “Airports to almost Nowhere”. Especially for the likes of "Let's Make a Deal" Murtha.
-----link-----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051202679.html
---------------
The new money going to this airport is only $800,000 for repaving an alternative runway. This airport has only 6 incoming and outgoing flights a day. I guess the alternative runway needs repaving through lack of use. Like I said so what it’s only $800,000, but if we read further in the article it points out the $8 million for a new radar and tower given them in 2004 that has never been used, altogether the airport received $150 million.
I think if you elect me president and we instituted our fat collector fund, maybe our “Airports to almost Nowhere” and “Bridges for almost no one” wouldn’t cost so much, might even (gasp) be seen as not needed. Imagine the audacity that in America someone would actually be rewarded for spending someone else’s money wisely and even in radically extreme cases returning it. Imagine if John Lennon was still alive, “Imagine” a bureaucracy in charge of saving money.
I’d be shot before the primary was over. Lol Hell, the pork producers would boil me in their excess and feather me with the stuffing of people’s mattresses as they rip them apart trying to find the last of the people's money.
And they wonder why I still cling to you know what.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Lesson of the Internet
Age of the Internet.
I’ve read all the predictions of what will happen to the GOP in the 2010 elections. They range anywhere from the GOP is dead scenario, to the idea that the GOP will take back the House; and all things in-between. I would like to add a new wrinkle.
The rules have changed.
The way people get their information and the ways ideas are disseminated are entirely different.
We are losing the middleman. In the case of politics, that middleman in need of change is the Party leadership. Until the GOP leadership stops trying to control the grassroots and starts to actually listen to and help when asked, they may very well become totally irrelevant.
Obama knew that and was able to come from outside the Democrat Party Leadership and storm the process with email and the internet. That is not the magic pill as the Republicans think. They have been slowly coming to that conclusion. The Leadership from the National on down to the County have been ceaselessly preaching grass roots, big tents, and setting up web sites and blogs galore to no avail.
The point they should be seeing is that there was a driving force that enabled the new technology of blogs and websites to become useful tool that it was for the Obama election team. That force was not the DNC, or Hillary would of won the primary.That force was an anger; a general anger coming from the general public who sensed they had lost control of the government; that their freedoms were being eroded. That anger was bred from a sense of helplessness which hung over everything like a dark cloud.
They wanted to vote against the status quo. Obama was the perfect storm. The Internet was the perfect medium that people could use to get and send out news and make plans in real time. The internet was a chance for people to become part of the process; it seemed only logical that they picked someone who was a political novice. With that combination a national election was won. During the last election I couldn’t help but think the Republicans were specifically running against this new idea.
Early on I made the connection with what the internet did to the way people could invest in the stock market. I remember getting excited about investing in stocks, but I had very little money. This was before internet trading was allowed. I made an appointment for the following week to see a broker. He was very smart and knowledgeable and therefore unwilling to share such wisdom with the likes of me. He said I couldn’t make anything with the amount of money I had and he was right. The commissions et all would eat up any possible profits. The stock market was for the big boys.
Well along came internet trading and I spent a year in the heyday of it making all kinds of money (a relative expression) without leaving my house, and paying commissions so low even I could afford them. The internet stock revolution brought billions of new money into the market. Much like politics joining with the internet once the people with the new money found out how the game was rigged, the bubble burst and people were left to figure out a new way or put their money back under their mattress.
The Republicans have the chance to define a new way, but we need to start doing it at the grassroot level. If we wait for the leadership to provide it, they will keep giving us new gadgets for the same old same old.
I don’t know the magic answer other than the answer lies in the doing and failing and changing and doing and succeeding and failing and doing. It’s called real life and like real life it takes “doing” to get anything out of it. Talking and blogging is needed, BUT it is not “doing”.
We used to be a party of “Can Do”, hard work is good and individual effort. The political class of politicians, consultants and big money non profits including the Government no longer reflect those ideas.
I wish a thousand little conservative groups would start up with a million different ideas. Like a kid it would be unruly but think of what we could learn from the doing even if all the ideas don’t work so what. That’s how kids grow up and mature. Think what we could learn about organizing small groups what works, what doesn’t work. Isn’t it better to learn that when we are young? We could learn how we relate to others (compromise) so a group can work, to actually get something done.
Nothing I can see wrong with that especially when compared to the “common wisdom” and where that is getting us.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
I’ve read all the predictions of what will happen to the GOP in the 2010 elections. They range anywhere from the GOP is dead scenario, to the idea that the GOP will take back the House; and all things in-between. I would like to add a new wrinkle.
The rules have changed.
The way people get their information and the ways ideas are disseminated are entirely different.
We are losing the middleman. In the case of politics, that middleman in need of change is the Party leadership. Until the GOP leadership stops trying to control the grassroots and starts to actually listen to and help when asked, they may very well become totally irrelevant.
Obama knew that and was able to come from outside the Democrat Party Leadership and storm the process with email and the internet. That is not the magic pill as the Republicans think. They have been slowly coming to that conclusion. The Leadership from the National on down to the County have been ceaselessly preaching grass roots, big tents, and setting up web sites and blogs galore to no avail.
The point they should be seeing is that there was a driving force that enabled the new technology of blogs and websites to become useful tool that it was for the Obama election team. That force was not the DNC, or Hillary would of won the primary.That force was an anger; a general anger coming from the general public who sensed they had lost control of the government; that their freedoms were being eroded. That anger was bred from a sense of helplessness which hung over everything like a dark cloud.
They wanted to vote against the status quo. Obama was the perfect storm. The Internet was the perfect medium that people could use to get and send out news and make plans in real time. The internet was a chance for people to become part of the process; it seemed only logical that they picked someone who was a political novice. With that combination a national election was won. During the last election I couldn’t help but think the Republicans were specifically running against this new idea.
Early on I made the connection with what the internet did to the way people could invest in the stock market. I remember getting excited about investing in stocks, but I had very little money. This was before internet trading was allowed. I made an appointment for the following week to see a broker. He was very smart and knowledgeable and therefore unwilling to share such wisdom with the likes of me. He said I couldn’t make anything with the amount of money I had and he was right. The commissions et all would eat up any possible profits. The stock market was for the big boys.
Well along came internet trading and I spent a year in the heyday of it making all kinds of money (a relative expression) without leaving my house, and paying commissions so low even I could afford them. The internet stock revolution brought billions of new money into the market. Much like politics joining with the internet once the people with the new money found out how the game was rigged, the bubble burst and people were left to figure out a new way or put their money back under their mattress.
The Republicans have the chance to define a new way, but we need to start doing it at the grassroot level. If we wait for the leadership to provide it, they will keep giving us new gadgets for the same old same old.
I don’t know the magic answer other than the answer lies in the doing and failing and changing and doing and succeeding and failing and doing. It’s called real life and like real life it takes “doing” to get anything out of it. Talking and blogging is needed, BUT it is not “doing”.
We used to be a party of “Can Do”, hard work is good and individual effort. The political class of politicians, consultants and big money non profits including the Government no longer reflect those ideas.
I wish a thousand little conservative groups would start up with a million different ideas. Like a kid it would be unruly but think of what we could learn from the doing even if all the ideas don’t work so what. That’s how kids grow up and mature. Think what we could learn about organizing small groups what works, what doesn’t work. Isn’t it better to learn that when we are young? We could learn how we relate to others (compromise) so a group can work, to actually get something done.
Nothing I can see wrong with that especially when compared to the “common wisdom” and where that is getting us.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Back Seat In Hell
For years I have heard the lament that Democrats know what to do. They wake up and say how can I raise taxes today? How can I make government bigger? Damn the facts full speed ahead. Republicans lament because they feel that they are so much smarter and have to know the facts before they act and therefore have to be more careful in what they suggest. It is the ignorant public that doesn’t understand. Plus they don’t want to make a fool out of themselves by sticking their neck out.
But Why?
What has our carefulness gotten us? We are in the minority, we have accomplished very little and what little we did we let the Dems confiscate it. The only thing we have to be careful about now is what seat in the back of the bus we are allowed to sit in.
In all their haste and disregard of the facts the Dems have won majorities to the point they control all branches of government. While they may lose every intellectual argument with the lofty Republicans they have won everything else.
Our rallying cry has turned into one that says when the country falls apart, when the bus the country is on runs into the bridge, because we so astutely decided to sit in the back of the bus, we will survive and take control back.
Boy, that’s the ticket alright. No more lamenting about the Dems springing out of bed knowing what to do. We get to sleep in, never mind them. We’ll win in the end. Just keep writing those checks to those who got us here.
So set your alarm clocks all you faithful and undaunted Republicans for half past Armageddon; for it is surely upon us, and we might as well sleep through that too if we can find a comfortable back seat in hell.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
But Why?
What has our carefulness gotten us? We are in the minority, we have accomplished very little and what little we did we let the Dems confiscate it. The only thing we have to be careful about now is what seat in the back of the bus we are allowed to sit in.
In all their haste and disregard of the facts the Dems have won majorities to the point they control all branches of government. While they may lose every intellectual argument with the lofty Republicans they have won everything else.
Our rallying cry has turned into one that says when the country falls apart, when the bus the country is on runs into the bridge, because we so astutely decided to sit in the back of the bus, we will survive and take control back.
Boy, that’s the ticket alright. No more lamenting about the Dems springing out of bed knowing what to do. We get to sleep in, never mind them. We’ll win in the end. Just keep writing those checks to those who got us here.
So set your alarm clocks all you faithful and undaunted Republicans for half past Armageddon; for it is surely upon us, and we might as well sleep through that too if we can find a comfortable back seat in hell.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)