Stephen Green/VodkaPundit and his evil drinks.
Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame!
Me and Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs
Remember this guy's video's here? Alfonzo. I'll to go back and find his videos.
Me and my baby girl, and Teri Christophe from Smart Girl Politics
Ken Shepard from Newsbusters and my buddy Melissa Clothier.
Ann doing a radio interview.
Congressman John Boehner. Very inspiring.
This weekend has just been so much fun and productive that I didn't have time to blog. My good friends Melissa Clouthier and Ed Morrisey at HotAir were liveblogging it for all of us. Tons of other great bloggers there. James Joyner from OutSideTheBeltway. Stephen Green from the VodkaPundit was there and he has some sort of evil power that makes martinis 3 times more powerful just by being near him. I was a victim of his evilness. It was fun though.
I can't begin to name all the people I met, from National Review writers to Joe the plumber, who I got a pic with (I'll put up all the pics tonight) Joe turned down doing "The Bachelor." Can you believe that? He didn't want to get into that cheesy stuff especially when it comes to finding someone to love. He really is just a humble good guy.
Talked Michelle Malkin again , who is just a living doll. My daughter was so excited to meet her. Glenn Reynolds and his wife Helen of "instapundit" was there as well and as sweet as can be. We saw Stephen Baldwin for just a second. We listened to Mitt Romney sounding very Presidential. There is no doubt he will run again. William Bennet spoke about us not using over the top rhetoric with Obama . We shouldn't even use the word "socialism." We just need to be factual.
Sen John Cornyn spoke yesterday and was very good. He has presidential qualities imo. Congressman John Boehner was fantastic! Very funny and nice looking. Very inspiring. He had us giving him about 3 standing O's. Sen Jim DeMint was also charismatic and down to earth. I was very impressed with him. There was a very "fighting back" spirit in the place. Very upbeat and I liked that.
We stood close to Ann Coulter doing some interviews (so skinny!) and I got to speak with former Senator George Allen, and Jim Pinkerton of Fox News, and Tom Delay (who I am not overly fond of), and guess who else I met?? Alphonso from the videos I always embed here. The young black guy that slams Obama and tells it like it is. He was so cool and sweet. I got a pic of
him too.
When I get home tonight I will put all the links in and I'll try to remember all the things that happened. I had such a good time!
ON RADIO NOW http://kchnradio.com/3.html
Yesterday was so much fun! When I got to Sen. John Cornyn's office she asked me if I could conduct the interview off the floor! Cornyn was in a vote. So she takes me to this beautiful room off the floor and there was Orrin Hatch standing there and several more Senators! I saw Specter (ugh) sitting right beyond the door (there was glass in the doors).
The interview went great and I videotaped it, but I don't have time yet to download any of it!
We got a private tour of the Capitol and that was awesome as well!
I'm off the hear speakers Romney, Boehner, Cornyn, DeMint, and many others. I''ll check back in later!
Pres. Obama, as we all know, is a fine speaker. He promises us rainbows and unicorns while he also speaks of dark clouds and hard times. His best line was "We are not quitters." And he is certainly right about that. But Pres. Obama's solution always remains with the government, and that is the problem. Obama saying that he didn't believe in bigger government was on it's face, laughable. Obama has gotten very good at saying one thing and doing another.
I don't doubt Pres. Obama's sincerity. He believes that what he is doing is what is best for the country. He simply believes in the role of government over the role of the market and the people.
Liberty and freedom should never be diminished because of fear and uncertainty. Hard times are not reason enough to hand over to our government what makes us great, the free market and the decisions we make for ourselves.
But the first line of Gov. Jindal's response was exactly on point:
Who amongst us would ask our children for a loan so we could spend money we do not have on things we do -- we do not need? That is precisely what the Democrats in Congress just did. It's irresponsible. And it's no way to strengthen our economy, create jobs, or build a prosperous future for our children.
He also pinpointed our fundamental differences:
In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. We oppose the national Democratic view that says the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government. We believe the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington, to empower individuals and small businesses to grow our economy and create jobs.
Meanwhile MSNBC tries to regain some semblance of journalistic integrity by actually fact checking Obama's speech. They call him on saying that only deserving homeowners will receive help in the mortgage crisis among many other things.
McCain called Obama out on the "no earmarks" comment. McCain said to Katie Couric: "But when he says there are no earmarks - I just picked up a bill that we are going to take up tomorrow that has 9,247 earmarks in it,” a combative McCain continued. “What am I supposed to believe here?” Pres. Obama reminds me of a snakeoil salesman. Saying all the right things with a charming smile, promising us cures, but none of us really know what we are buying.
One thing not mentioned by Pres. Obama of course, is the taxes he is planning and the effect it will have on all of us.
As someone at NRO noted, PBS, Mark Shields said that the President is more popular than his policies. True. People just like Obama as a person (and some, of course, are wacko over him). Not enough people are paying real attention to what this "change" really means for America.
It all started when CNBC's Rick Santelli called for a "Chicago Tea Party" Thursday. It was this shout out (and you have to watch it) that caused this ripple of revolution that touched a nerve. People are frustrated to no end about this stimulus bill that passed too quickly, and not even properly read by anyone who voted on it. Along comes this mortgage bailout and the frustration mounts.
Santelli called for the "Chicago Tea Party" but it's gone national now. Michelle Malkin has a bunch of stuff on it.
Bottom line? Responsible homeowners who worked hard to put a good sized down payment on a 30-year fixed mortgage should not have to bail out those who bought more house than they could afford.
What is especially rich with irony is ACORN's nationwide effort to not allow banks to evict homeowners who have failed to pay their mortgages. It's called being a "Home Defender." They become "squatters" at a home and sit there until the money from Obama comes though. It's rich with irony because it was ACORN that blackmailed banks into giving those same questionable loans. ACORN was all about the 1977 federal law, the Community Reinvestment Act, which forced banks to make bad loans to the poor. In order for banks to get approval for mergers and acquisitions they need to prove they have not discriminated against minority communities in their lending. The CRA gave “community groups” the opportunity to lodge complaints against the banks. And you better believe ACORN was all about that. ACORN developed a lucrative side business as an “advisor” to banks seeking regulatory approvals. In other words, banks had no choice but to give risky loans and ACORN was there as the watchdog to make sure it happened. Banks then took hundreds of individual mortgages packaged together and sold them to investors as “mortgage-backed securities." And we all know how that turned out.
Now, many on the left say "where were you protesting with the bank bailout?" And they would have a legitimate point. What idiots we were. We bought into the scare tactics. The Republican leadership bought into the scare tactics and voted for this insane bailout. How could we have EVER been fooled into thinking that a govt bailout was every going to solve anything?! Bush was wrong about the bank bailout and Obama is wrong about the stimulus bill (as it was passed anyway) and this mortgage bailout.
Tarp I and Tarp II. What a joke. Tim Geithner doesn't seem to have a grasp on what is going on. It's like we are watching a nightmare we can't wake up from, and it's made worse by the fact that we contributed to it big time.
Here is the "Tea Party" protests site. There seems to be one being planned for CPAC in Washington D.C. this week. I'll be there, so I'll bring it to you.
I'm all for it, but you have to admit that Republicans aren't very good at "protests." We just don't have that "Che Guevara" mojo going. I remember during the 2000 presidential vote recount when a bunch of Republicans invaded the voting counting offices. I had to laugh at all the khaki and white button down shirts. Let's face it, we don't exactly scream "revolution!"
But it's time for something. It's time to just stop sitting here watching our an economic meltdown and do nothing.
If the thought of nationalizing our banks doesn't send a chill up your spine, then you aren't paying attention.
Maybe we can't match the papier mache Bush and Cheney dolls or the stepping on the flag, or the lying "dead" in protest. Maybe we will look like the responsible nerds that we are, but at least our voice will be heard.
And that's kind of important. Especially now.
Good Stuff here at WSJ:
These Governors -- Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Butch Otter of Idaho, Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina -- all have the same objection: The tens of billions of dollars of aid for health care, welfare and education will disappear in two years and leave states with no way to finance the expanded programs. Mr. Perry sent a letter to President Obama last week warning that Texas may refuse certain stimulus funds. "If this money expands entitlements, we will not accept it. This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs," he says.
I can't think of a more apt analogy. The Federal Government is our drug pusher and the people who have long depended on them, need their fix. This is the vicious cycle of government dependency.
Consider South Carolina. Its annual budget is roughly $7 billion and the stimulus will send about $2.8 billion to the state over two years. But to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to the likes of Head Start, child care subsidies and special education, the state will have to enroll thousands of new families into the programs. "There's no way politically we're going to be able to push people out of the program in two years when the federal money runs out," Mr. Sanford says.
Once a government program is introduced into the system there is almost no way to eliminate it. That is why the government has become the real life version of the movie, "The Blob."
For example, the stimulus bill temporarily increases the share of state Medicaid bills reimbursed by the federal government, but in 2011 almost all the $80 billion of extra federal Medicaid money disappears. the Democrats in Congress know that no state is going to just dump people when the money from the federal government runs out, so it's their sneaky way of making states pay for programs that that they themselves want.
The Democrats get millions more on the dole, and then come election time pat themselves on the back for being so benevolent with our money and ask those same people who are receiving their aid...to vote for them.
See how this works?
I suppose the Democrats in Congress saw that many Republican Governors would see this ruse, so they stuck in a little-noticed provision into the stimulus bill giving state legislatures the power to overrule Governors and spend the money "by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution." Since legislatures are a lot like Congress, in that they simply adore spending our money, most of the Governors will be overruled.
From Politico:
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Friday that he will decline stimulus money specifically targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal government’s payout to states…
“The federal money in this bill will run out in less than three years for this benefit and our businesses would then be stuck paying the bill,” Jindal said. “We must be careful and thoughtful as we examine all the strings attached to the funding in this package. We cannot grow government in an unsustainable way.”
Jindal says he will accept money for transportation infrastructure and a modest increase in unemployment benefits, but says that unemployment insurance would mean a $12 million tax hike for Louisiana businesses three years from now.
via HotAir
I just love Jindal. He is the real deal.
The Federal government has long used blackmail to get States to do it's bidding. It also does this kind of thing where it funds something in exchange for a State to give into what the federal government wants. And then years down the line, the funding dries up from the federal government, and the States then have to then fund it themselves. So the federal government gets what it wants, and then ends up not continuing the funding it blackmailed states with. This is exactly what Jindal is trying to prevent happening here.
It's hair pulling out crazy and I cant' stand it.
Recently you may have read about 100 college Presidents who are trying to get the drinking age lowered to 18 again (which I am for btw). When I was in college the drinking age was 18. I have two children in college now and I can promise you that the drinking has in no way abated. Now it's just a system of clandestine drinking, fake ID's, and a big local enforcement business of making money off of MIP's (minor in possession).
What a lot of people don't know is how getting all states to lower their drinking ages happened. In 1984 the federal government said (threatened) that they would withhold 10 percent of federal highway funds from any State that did not prohibit selling alcohol to those under the age of 21. By 1988, 49 states had complied.
Louisiana happens to be the one State that fought this law in the courts for years and didn't join the rest of the States until 1995.
Just one example of many.
