A retro protest

I suppose history does have a way of repeating itself.

While a few places have jumped the gun, the majority of tea parties inspired by an on-air rant by CNBC’s Rick Santelli will be occurring on April 15th, the dreaded day of reckoning for many American taxpayers. (This includes one in Salisbury on the steps of the Government Office Building from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.)

One thing that has struck me as hilarious is Media Matters whining about how much coverage these protests already get on Fox News. And this is a problem why? Seems to me we saw a lot of antiwar protests which made much more news than their feeble attendance would suggest they dictated.

It may be foreign to those who slavishly believe Media Matters, but there’s a lot of us who are fed up with government overspending and a lack of not only accountability but just plain humility among those who hold the pursestrings in Washington, D.C. President Obama, at the moment you may “trump us” but don’t count on that being the case after 2010 – I’m not sure you can get out enough government largesse fast enough to buy the votes you need to maintain your hold on Congress.

Still others may dismiss this as a Republican stunt, but as a member of the local GOP let me make clear that we as a party have NO official role in the proceedings. It sure doesn’t mean there’s not individual members who support it and will be in attendance – as I said I plan on being there.

Nationally this movement has attracted a number of heavy hitters. This update comes from a press release I got a few days ago from the Don’tGo Movement, a relatively new grassroots group:

The Tax Day Tea Parties are being held across the country on April 15th to protest the unprecedented wasteful spending by the Obama Administration and certain members in Congress.

(DGM) National Communications Director Juliana Johnson says, “As we get closer and closer to the Tea Party date we continue to grow stronger. We have over 300 cities planning Tea Parties with that number growing every day. If this doesn’t show that Americans are displeased that (sic) I don’t know what will.”

The Tax Day Tea Parties will be occuring in over 300 cities and have an expected turnout of over 150,000 people. The groups sponsoring the Tea Parties are Smart Girl Politics, the DontGo Movement, and Top Conservatives on Twitter. They have the endorsement of Newt Gingrich, Michelle Malkin, Dana Loesch, and numerous other groups.

In truth, the release was to announce that Sean Hannity had promised to cover the Atlanta protest live on his FOX News show that night. Obviously that will make for a spirited affair, and hopefully the Salisbury version will also bring out the local media too. By the way, I don’t believe any of these sponsoring groups is over one year old – all are very recent creations spawned by the monster that is online social networking.

While the long-range forecast is for a cool and showery April 15th, we are talking about Delmarva here. (They’re also predicting a sunny April 16th for the Shorebirds’ home opener – yeah right!) Either way, we can’t let a little rain deter us from making our feelings known.

It also will make for a good photo-op as tea mixes with the rain and flows toward the Wicomico River. Make sure to be there and watch it run.

Continue reading “A retro protest”

No shortage of material

If you’re one of the many longtime readers of my website you’ll recall that last summer I did the first of what I’m envisioning as a continuing look at the voting records of those who Free Staters elected to represent them in the General Assembly. That actually covered three different sessions in 2007 and 2008. (The pages are still there, under “internal links”.)

Needless to say, the 2009 session will be no different but I was beginning to worry that I wouldn’t have a lot of votes to discuss and rate based on my platform of fiscal conservatism and having government stay out of our lives as much as it can.

But while there was some noise about the budget – and certainly there will be a fair share of amendments to consider in selecting a reasonable number of votes to ponder – this session has brought a number of doozies in the personal freedom department.

Let’s take for example the ban on texting while driving. First of all, let me say that I understand trying to text and drive at the same time doesn’t work very well. However, what I can’t figure out is how anyone with half a brain can’t come to the same conclusion and just not do it (I’m lucky if I can text while sitting still and I have a QWERTY keyboard on my cell phone.) Nope, we have to have the nanny state of Maryland come in and give the law enforcement officers another reason to stop drivers, even for READING text messages.

Another traffic law some wanted enforced by Big Brother is speeding, as yet another attempt to fatten local and state coffers by installing speed cameras in more areas came under debate. What, the plainclothes SUV cruisers aren’t good enough?

And then we have the environmental do-gooders who are trying to price those of us with septic systems out of house and home by installing nitrogen reduction systems as part of the package. It sounds like a good idea until one works out the financial implications to either the homeowner (if they pay for it) or state (if financial assistance is granted). Eventually I think the goal is to either have everyone piped into a central wastewater treatment plant (at a cost of billions) or make them move to a place which already is, leaving rural areas as wide swaths of green space. Yet the Bay won’t ever be as pristine as the radical environmentalists wish – at least until we’re not around to pollute it.

Besides the budget, the largest controversy in this year’s session seems to be the revised protocol for applying the death penalty. It was a “compromise” measure where none needed to be, making it all but impossible to place someone on death row short of a confession. If a murderer can eliminate the DNA and video evidence that he did the crime, ten thousand eyewitnesses couldn’t get him executed.

Finally, while this didn’t involve a vote, the Department of Legislative Services decided that the cure to its virus and malware ills was to deny legislators access to Facebook and Myspace. Eventually the DLS relented on the Facebook ban but still one has to wonder what other sites could be blocked. Perhaps a site that rates each legislator and in most cases not too kindly may be high on the list.

It’s a good test for those legislators who work there, let’s have a comment on this post. Maybe I should make it a goal to get myself blocked on the basis of content – that is, content the majority doesn’t agree with because I call absolute corruption in pursuit of absolute power as I see it.

Repudiation or restoration?

Today was the special election in New York State to fill a Congressional seat vacated when Kirsten Gillibrand was elevated to fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. As I write this, the election is too close to call with Democrat Scott Murphy leading by 65 votes through the unofficial count – this doesn’t factor in absentee or military votes, though. (h/t Suitably Flip).

While the registration advantage is to the GOP, Barack Obama won the district in 2008 so this election was seen as a referendum of sorts on the Obama economic policies. Perhaps this special election may have been a factor in some recent Obama Administration decisions on the economy; however it’s apparent that BHO’s current high approval numbers may have helped the Murphy cause.

In any case, this seat is likely not going to have an occupant for several weeks as the closeness of the election will dictate a recount – unless of course there’s some ballots “found” in a safely Democrat area of the district (like that which happened in Minnesota).

If Tedisco manages to pull off the win though, it will make the GOP streak three in a row following post-November wins in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff – where Saxby Chambliss won handily – and Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, where the first Vietnamese-American Congressman was elected (Joseph Cao). These Republican triumphs weren’t mentioned much in the pre-inaugural hoopla over Obama but may be noticed now – needless to say if Murphy wins the spin from inside the Beltway will be that Obama’s populist economic policies have the stamp of approval from the public.

I can tell you though that hard times will continue unless and until some sanity is brought back to those who run government. Regardless of who wins in New York’s 20th District, sanity is not likely to happen before next year’s election.

What I want to know is: who’s against this?

I had this passed along to me by Nick Loffer and thought it would be worth noting as the time drew closer:

Friends and Fellow Taxpayers of Maryland,

Americans for Prosperity Maryland invites you to our Official Kick Off Press Conference and Rally April 2nd, 1 p.m. at The Lawyers Mall at the State House in Annapolis. Tell the Governor and General Assembly how you feel about our economic situation and policies in place!

Americans for Prosperity is a national organization that promotes limited government and free market principles at all levels.

The Maryland Chapter was formed to educate and advocate these principles through grassroots movements because we all have had enough of the failed policies that hurt Maryland. We will be an effective force for improving the economic and governmental landscape so that all Maryland Taxpayers can be prosperous.

But we still need everyone’s help and voice! Without concerned citizens like you these events could not take place. It is time to make your mark on behalf of everyone in Maryland!

You can help Maryland by showing up to the Press Conference and signing our petition to Gov. O’Malley and the General Assembly urging them not to accept any Federal money with strings attached.

Tim Phillips, the National President of AFP, will be the keynote speaker and an organizational meeting will follow.

AFP has been involved with the Tea Parties that have been organized and have been successful all over the Country. Please support these events to continue the fight for sane economic policies.

We will meet starting at 12:15 at the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium parking lot for free parking and trolley service to the State House.

For questions, comments, or more information please contact State Director Dave Schwartz at dave@afpmaryland.com – (443) 797-5144

Or

Nick Loffer – afpmd@live.com

Let us all make a difference for Maryland and We hope to see you there!

Again, one has to ask who is against prosperity? Until very recent times when Uncle Sam seemed to want to get his mitts into everything, the system we had was working pretty darn well.

I believe in equality of opportunity but there’s no way we can have equality of outcome unless misery is shared equally. Sure, as a kid I wanted to be a pro baseball player but with my lack of talent there no one would pay to watch me play – that is, unless the government decided on affirmative action for skill-challenged players like me and let me in that way. But would I have truly earned it?

Perhaps I use an apples-to-oranges comparison but it’s the job of the market to pick winners and losers, not that of Barack Obama. However, by hook or by crook it appears BHO has usurped the task  – just ask Rick Wagoner about this, or those people unfortunate enough to still be holding Chrysler shares. In either case, prosperity is not forthcoming once the federal government has its way and to me that’s an outcome which should have never happened.

WCRC meeting – March 2009

With no speaker this time, business was the rule of the evening at our monthly affair.

Pleasingly there was no real drop in attendance though and once we dispensed with the usual business of the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, club president Marc Kilmer took a moment to thank the two officers who chose not to seek re-election this year (George Ossman and Helen Shockley), then joined his fellow officers in being sworn in for a new term by Wicomico County GOP Chair Dr. John Bartkovich.

We then heard the minutes and received the treasurer’s report.

Because we had no guest speaker a number of reports and items of business were placed on the agenda. First up was Mark Biehl giving the Lower Shore Young Republicans report and clarifying the purpose of an upcoming fundraiser. The May 23rd affair will be for the benefit of the LSYR club but the hope is that State Senator and Congressional hopeful Andy Harris will be the keynote speaker. Prior to that their next meeting will be on April 9th at the Flavors of Italy on East Main Street in Salisbury.

Bartkovich then moved to the podium to give a Central Committee report. Referring to a decision last month to help fund a local student’ s trip to the Teenage Republican convention, he called it money well spent on the possible future growth of the party.

Another upcoming event John alluded to was the annual Tawes Clam Bake in Crisfield July 15th. As always we’ll assist in sponsoring a tent with other local Republican entities. We’ll also begin a new effort to communicate with new Republican registrants with more details to be ironed out at the April WCRC meeting. It was part of a bid to “think of terms of 2010” and about getting a message out which reflects Republican principles.

Continue reading “WCRC meeting – March 2009”

Salary drive

On Thursday last we found out that our newly-minted Congressman, who’s sworn to uphold the law, isn’t above shaping it to punish those he deems unworthy of the money they’ve legally become entitled to.

With this vote on H.R. 1586 Frank Kratovil (along with 87 Republicans who should be hanging their heads in shame) decided that contractual obligations completed long before the TARP money was given to AIG (who in turn laundered it to dozens of other recipients) – and which comprised less than 1% of the total payout – mean nothing when the federal government takes over a large chunk of the company.

Certainly the bonuses seem excessive and one can argue that the legislation is an incentive not to take the federal bailout money in the first place. Truthfully the federal government should not have bailed out AIG in the first place but unfortunately they already cast that die some time ago.

But Thursday’s vote also signified another step in the continuing attitude change among Congress that they’re just damn well entitled to make decisions for the rest of us when it comes to how a business should be run; never mind that their sole expertise seems to come from accepting campaign contributions from many of these same outfits.

Moreover, the hypocricy of screaming about this less than 1 percent of the AIG money devoted to bonuses intended to insure an employee stays put as long as the company needs him yet forgiving the pork-laden stimulus bill because the earmarks “only” comprised 1 percent of the total is nearly beyond belief until you look at who’s in charge of the place.

It’s more unfortunate that Congress is becoming interested in selecting the winners and losers in American business. Those in the financial sector being counted on at one time to save the venerable AIG ship were instead tossed overboard in a fit of rage because what Congress and both the Obama and Bush administrations have attempted as a fix hasn’t worked very well if at all. On the other hand, Congress received its annual raise and they’re not moving swiftly to enact a 90% tax on that which they were legally entitled to (because of legislation written in such a manner to make raises automatic without a recorded vote for them) but didn’t earn based on lousy performance.

Given the results of what has come to pass in recent days Congress shouldn’t have earned a penny over the last two sessions and it’s dubious that much in the two to three previous ones is worthy of compensation either.

A referendum on March 31

Depending on who wins the race, pundits will view an upcoming Congressional election on March 31 as either an endorsement or a repudiation of Barack Obama’s economic policies.

The election in question is in New York’s 20th Congressional District, which snakes along as a sideways “T” along the state’s eastern border. The race became necessary when Congressman Kirsten Gillibrand was named to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate seat she vacated when President Obama named her as Secretary of State. The battle pits Republican Jim Tedisco against Democrat Scott Murphy, with the winner serving out the remainder of Gillibrand’s House term.

So this race is a little unusual in that national attention has been bestowed upon this upstate district that lies within reach of both the minor media market of the Albany area and the huge New York City metro market. It’s somewhat analogous to our Congressional district in that it’s peripheral to a large media center but more served by a smaller one.

Needless to say, media is a large part of the effort. Here’s two ads from my old friends at Our Country Deserves Better, a PAC who’s made this race one of its major causes. They’re both attack ads, with this one hammering Scott Murphy’s disdain of the military:

This one talks about taxes:

In both cases we have a battle that sounds like our local Harris vs. Kratovil slugfest. Hopefully 20th District voters will vote in a somewhat more conservative manner than we did.

Having said that, let’s look at what the political pundits will say depending on who wins – at least the pundits who occupy the Sunday morning shows.

If Scott Murphy wins, it will be seen as an endorsement of Barack Obama’s policies and yet another blow to Reagan conservatism. Americans will be seen as more confident that the bailouts will soon work and the stimulus will indeed stimulate the economy – otherwise wouldn’t the Republican have won?

But if Jim Tedisco wins these pundits will dismiss it as a meaningless local race won by a politician with more style than substance who won based on the dirtiest ads. Of course it won’t be a referendum on Obama’s economic plans.

As I see it, if the voters of upstate New York – a state with primarily Democrats in charge and suffering from some of the highest tax rates in the nation along with the fallout from the disaster which befell the financial industry over the last year or so – replace the Democrat Gillibrand with a GOP Congressman, one would have to conclude that there are pockets of America which indeed want change, and that change doesn’t include those items President Obama has placed high on his list of priorities.

Putting Hillary Clinton in as Secretary of State may do more far-reaching damage to an Obama presidency than the threat she presented residing in the Senate if her replacement’s Congressional seat switches parties. It will be another in a recent string of GOP victories which has been little noticed since the 2008 elections (in Louisiana and Georgia), and the first in a “blue” state.

Let’s hope we wake up on April Fool’s Day to the news that a trick’s been played on Barack Obama.

The 2012 campaign continues

And if you don’t believe me, just check out this video from the Obama front group “Organizing for America”:

You’ll notice about 2/3 of the way through that Mitch Stewart solicits e-mail addresses – again, a clever way to build up and expand the database originally started way back in Howard Dean’s abortive 2004 Presidential campaign and enhanced with Obama’s 2008 run.

Then again there’s nothing wrong with activism and involvement; it just needs to have a push from the correct direction. It’s interesting that Stewart blames “special interests” for standing in Obama’s way when it’s the special interests who have the most to gain from Obama’s agenda – that is if you consider Big Labor, supporters of a rewarmed HillaryCare, the teachers’ unions, radical environmentalists, and corporations who have gained from the massive government involvement in their affairs and are now rent-seeking as special interests – most right-thinking Americans who inhabit the producer class do believe those groups are special interests.

President Obama submitted the largest budget in American history with the largest projected deficit in American history at a time when the government is actually being run via continuing resolutions because the current budget is still being ironed out. Something about that just doesn’t make sense, particularly when it’s his party running Congress.

Seven weeks into an Obama presidency it almost appears that he’s already running the country in perpetual campaign mode much as President Clinton did during the first four years of his run. (The second term was more damage control mode thanks to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and accompanying impeachment drive. In Obama’s case the scandals seem to be falling amongst his underlings, though.)

It goes without saying that little of Obama’s agenda can be stopped in the House of Representatives and given the tendency of a small group of Senate RINO’s to place what they consider political expediency above principle it’s not likely that body will be much of a speedbump either.

But the one thing both House and Senate are afraid of is a large-scale backlash from constituents – witness the firestorm conservatives caused on immigration or the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination.

I’m considering this video an effort to short-circuit the prospect of a conservative grassroots rebellion by isolating those on the left who would be most likely to be active and sending out their competing propaganda to a list of activists all their own, one backed by much of the mainstream media. This is particularly true in our Congressional district, where a freshman Democrat who barely won election (and flip-flopped on the stimulus bill) will most likely face a strongly conservative challenger next year.

So I bring this video to your attention even though it’s from a source that would normally not attract my notice as much. It proves a point that we on the right need to stay on our toes and not let the intraparty squabbles such as Limbaugh vs. Steele or Limbaugh vs. Newt distract us from the main goal of squelching the socialist Obamanation agenda.

A bit of self-service

Many of you know I have what those in the music business might refer to as a “side project” called Red County Wicomico. It’s a website where I generally park a number of my local posts in order to bring them to a national stage. Recently Marc Kilmer (a frequent monoblogue commentor) joined my “blogpen” as a contributor and I’ll be looking for a few more good men (and women) to join up in the coming weeks and months – unlike monoblogue, RCW is meant to be multi-contributor forum. I’m just the editor and all that gives me is the power to pull anything which I don’t feel to be appropriate to the site. In that respect it’s similar to Red Maryland.

This release was sent to me over the weekend in an effort to announce their newly revamped site – I saw a sneak preview a week or so ago and it will knock your socks off too.

An Enhanced Red County is on the Way!

Red County will be introducing a brand new site next week! A new look, new features the addition of new contributors, plus a few surprises,  are all part of the exciting changes in store at Red County.  We fully intend  to provide readers with the very best online source for regional political news and commentary and our redesigned site is just the start.

From all-star contributors to video and podcast programs, we’re excited about the re-design that’s coming in just a few days. Since it will represent a change for our readers, however, we wanted to give you a sneak peek at what is coming here.

We would like to thank our readers for their support and we look forward to making Red County your primary source for political news.  Stay tuned!

One thing I’ve been a little bit lax on is adding new content to the RCW site, in part because of time demands from a number of sources. Soon that will begin to balance out and things should improve; however, this does give me the opportunity to seek out some new good local writers who could benefit from more national exposure. Red County Wicomico is actually a blog where one could write once or twice a week and not have to worry about maintenance and such. My site here is actually a bit of a throwback to the original days of blogging when it was one person and their thoughts, much like a journal.

In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the new Red County site as it rolls out. One nice feature will be the opportunity to personalize the site to have my (and my blogpen’s) most recent contributions at the top, so one can continue to stay abreast of local political news.

There’s a lot to write about over the coming weeks and months and I look forward to having my say in the fray both here and through Red County.

Quirky but appropriate

This is an unusual place from which to get a press release, but once you read this it will all make sense.

On April 15th the DontGo Movement (www.dontgomovement.com) in collaboration with Michelle Malkin, Top Conservatives on Twitter, and Smart Girl Politics will be hosting Tax Day Tea Parties in every state in America. For the Tea Parties, the Portsmouth Tea Company (www.portsmouthtea.com) will be donating one pound for every participating state. They will be providing tea similar to what was used at the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

President of the Portsmouth Tea Company, Marshall Malone, says, “It’s an honor to aid in the revival of liberty – fighting socialism rather than imperialism. The number of lives impacted is greater than our founding fathers ever imagined. We will choose our own stimulus package and offer $2 shipping until tax day.”

Communications Director Juliana Johnsons, “This highlights how many people are getting involved. We are so thankful to the Portsmouth Tea Company for supporting our cause. These are small business owners, working, everyday Americans who believe in our cause. We have more than 20 states holding Tax Day Tea Parties. We are growing every day. April 15th will be something this nation hasn’t seen since 1773.

The goal of these protests is to call attention to the unprecedented wasteful spending by the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress.
Information on the Tax Day Tea Party can be found at www.taxdayteaparty.com.

I don’t know if we’re having a local Tea Party on April 15th but if you believe the likes of Jim Ireton you’d never know the difference in the Wicomico River anyway. And what would the Chesapeake Bay Foundation say?

I can see the point, though. By having a tea party, the original colonists were hitting the British Crown where it lived, since tea was a revenue item for them. Obviously this is utterly symbolic but if it helps the Portsmouth Tea Company sell a little more tea that’s not a bad thing either.

Americans are fed up. We have a balky economy and a government that just doesn’t seem to care about anything except making itself look good and perpetuating itself. It doesn’t seem to matter to them that we are placing our children, grandchildren, and succeeding generations in a debt they didn’t create.

The environmentalists can talk about saving the planet for future generations, but strangely they are silent on saving their financial well-being and the amount of freedom they’ll enjoy. What good is a pristine planet if one is a slave to tyranny?

I figured I may as well post this today because come April 15th I doubt there will be a word about these rallies on the national network news. As far as they’re concerned the only producers in the nation who merit coverage are those who produce more government.

Same topic of discussion…

I found it quite interesting that the subject of a recent surge of comments was also the lead item in a recent Pew Research release. It showed that Rush Limbaugh draws conservative listeners. Well, tell me something I didn’t know – I’m a dittohead and conservative, so the profile is right in line insofar as I’m concerned.

This is one result of a recent poll done by the Pew Research Center on media habits.

What’s quite telling about this poll is the fact it was actually done some time ago but came to light again recently because of Rush’s well-publicized hope that Barack Obama fails to enact his socialist agenda.

If you notice in reading the polling data further, the two items that Limbaugh’s radio show are compared to in audience are both prime time Fox News Channel programs – The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity. Obviously one could conclude that Limbaugh has less reach; on the other hand much of Limbaugh’s audience is working during his time slot and may not have the opportunity to hear the show in whole or in part. This is true in my case since my work takes me away from a radio for several hours a day unless I happen to be traveling.

What I also found intriguing were the number of people who get their news from the mainstream media and how little knowledge they have of the three basic questions that Pew used to determine political knowledge. (I wish they would have asked about the Constitution, though.) It certainly shows why Jay Leno can get away with his humorous man on the street interviews because many people are fairly ignorant of the world around them and believe just what the likes of network talking heads tell them.

I figured since Rush was a recent topic of discussion on this site it would be an interesting piece of conversation fodder despite the poll’s age.

Steele vs. Limbaugh

Politico started this conservative family feud and I found out about it through both listening to Rush’s show today and from Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum. And while it sounds like Steele has done a little bit of a mea culpa since the radio show aired, this was a concern I had with his election to the RNC Chairman post in the first place. While Michael Steele is conservative in many of his views, politically he’s trying to align himself squarely in the center of the tension in the GOP between the Beltway establishment and the conservative grassroots. And we know what happens to those who inhabit the middle of the road.

Those conservative grassroots are the ones who hailed Limbaugh as a hero when he spoke to CPAC on Saturday. Whether you attempt to dismiss him as an entertainer or feel he’s the soul of the conservative movement, there’s little doubt that Rush Limbaugh has placed himself into a position of political influence. Basically he appeals to a significant voting bloc of 15 to 20 million people who regularly tune into his afternoon radio show.

Even though Michael Steele has made himself into a more noteworthy figure with frequent appearances on the Fox News Channel and other media outlets, in terms of recognition he pales in comparison to Rush Limbaugh. Obviously we in Maryland know him well but someone who subscribes to a conservative way of thinking down Texas way may not know Steele from a hole in the ground.

And while Steele may get praise from the Beltway Republicans who despise Limbaugh nearly as much as the party’s legacy left by Ronald Reagan, the split in the party is what will draw the attention of pundits everywhere (obviously including me.) But I don’t really see a schism unless Steele also wishes to split from party principles, which by and large embody what’s known as the conservative movement.

The biggest trap Michael Steele could fall into would be separating himself from the grassroots who will help rebuild the party for future elections. He won election by pledging to reignite them into a volunteer force, and it wasn’t Michael’s fault at all that some GOP members of the Senate forsook principle to score political points with the punditocracy. Those three RINO’s will have to face an angry electorate, although Steele could find himself in more hot water should he overtly support them over a primary opponent (as George W. Bush supported Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in 2004).

Much of the criticism of Limbaugh stems from the oft-quoted statement Rush made that he “hopes Obama fails.” Well, you folks can criticize me too because I agree. The election of Barack Obama was a colossal blunder.

Are you kidding me? The best I can hope for is that the country’s not in some sort of internal armed insurrection come 2013. I hold out exactly zero confidence that anything Barack Obama is doing will improve the economy in and of itself. Now we may bounce back to some extent simply based on the fact that pent-up demand can only be suppressed for so long but it’s my contention that doing what Obama is doing will only lengthen the suffering. This stimulus was a bad idea under Bush and even worse under Obama because he’s throwing more money at the problem!

The lack of confidence is signified by the utter collapse of the Dow Jones and NASDAQ markets, which have seen their overall value eroded by about 1/3 just since Obama was elected. That’s billions or maybe even trillions in aggregate personal net worth, vanished in the proverbial blink of an eye. And while it’s true that huge mistakes were made in the financial sector – mistakes which helped bring about the recession we now suffer from – I’m arguing that the steps government has taken to “solve” the problem will only make things worse down the road. Even our nation is not too big to fail.

Rush Limbaugh takes to the airwaves five days a week because he clearly and cleverly articulates a worldview that most of his listeners nod their heads and agree with. For the most part, it’s a worldview which reflects one our Founders intended our nation to follow and it’s one that unfortunately didn’t get much of a chance to be heard from in the last election. When you consider that the more popular draw on the Republican ticket seemed to be the Vice-Presidential nominee – one who articulated a more conservative stance on issues, or at least stayed truer to them – there’s no question that a number of Americans aren’t going to be satisfied if the Republican Party apparatus continues to ply a moderate course.

If Steele is truly attuned to what the grassroots of the GOP have to say he will begin to adopt the pitbull attitude that Limbaugh has exhibited since last November (and actually prior to that, since he wasn’t a great supporter of John McCain as the Republican nominee.)

We can respect our political opponents as people, but to me they’re still wrong and my job here is to help them see the light. It’s nice to have a great communicator like Limbaugh in my corner though.

Speaking of GOP nominees, the CPAC attendees preferred Mitt Romney in a straw poll of likely 2012 nominees. While 20 percent supported Mitt, 14 percent saw Bobby Jindal as the best choice, followed by Ron Paul and Sarah Palin with 13 percent each and Newt Gingrich with 10 percent. A host of other hopefuls ended up under the 9% who were undecided. (h/t Bob McCarty).