One Chart to Rule Them All

On August 15, 2009, in Barack Obama, Congress, by directorblue

I spotted this chart (courtesy Larwyn, of course) at The Jacksonian Party. It explains a great deal about our current situation; one in which the people find themselves pitted against their elected officials.

Prior to 1902, Congress had never reached a 70% reelection rate.

090815-chart-reelected-incumbents
Jacksonian argues that when the Senate became a directly elected body and no longer represented Statehouses, taxation and other federal usurpations of Constitutional bounds became rife. In other words, the federal government could and did use its power to begin punishing the states, regulating local affairs and interfering in every sort of arcane transaction.

reelection-graph
That change triggered an ever-increasing federal budget that went far beyond national defense. Budget-busting initiatives, politically motivated in nature, purported to help retirees, the sick, the elderly and so on, while concentrating ever more power in Washington.

The federal government now consists of a body of lifetime bureaucrats, many of whom couldn’t power a flashlight with all of their brainpower combined, who are reelected automatically through their use of federal tax funds. They reward, they punish, they anoint.

And they continue to aggregate more power at the federal level — and to build their own personal wealth — ignoring and flouting the law. Dodd, Rangel, Feinstein, Frank, Reid, Waters, Conyers, Mollohan, Murtha — to name but a few — have repeatedly thumbed their noses at financial disclosures, ethics violations, criminal complaints, FOIA requests, and the like.

If government worked as Obama and the National Socialist Democrats say it will, then why would we care about separation of powers? Why would we care about different levels of government?

Why would we care about the Constitution?

Why was this nation founded in the first place?

If government is so beneficent, so effective, so humane and compassionate, how is it that throughout all of human history, the great philosophers and thinkers were so fearful of it?

Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Montesquieu, Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and so many more.

Were they all wrong about government and Obama right?

Were they all wrong about limiting, balancing, placing checks on government? Were they all wrong about liberty?

Is human history all wrong and Obama right?

Is human history all wrong and Nancy Pelosi right?

Is human history all wrong and Harry Reid right?

Do you really think Obama, Pelosi and Reid hold a candle to the greatest thinkers civilization has ever seen?

Because for Obama to be right; and for his party, now in the hands of the radical left, to be right; the Founders had to be wrong.

For Obama to be right, the Declaration of Independence has to be wrong.

For Obama to be right, the Constitution has to be wrong.

For Obama to be right, Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Montesquieu, Burke, Smith and the founding fathers all had to be wrong.

And so it is clear how all of this will end.

Government-run health care will be used as a tool by government officials. As these programs always are. It will be used to punish political enemies, to reward friends, to entice supporters and — always — to aggregate more power.

It must be defeated.

Hat tips: The Jacksonian Party, Thirty Thousand and Mark Levin (8/14/2009, 44:30 – MP3).

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The AP: Sky is Falling; only Obama can save us

On June 22, 2008, in Uncategorized, by directorblue

Two interesting facts regarding the Associated Press: (a) the AP is now charging fees to excerpt even small snippets of articles*; and (b) it has pegged the needle on the bias-o-meter with two of today’s national articles.

Where’s our can-do psyche? (“Everything Seemingly Is Spinning out of Control”) by Alan Fram and Eileen Putman; the pair report — in Carter-esque style — that American confidence has eroded… the economy, the weather and gas prices have all spun “out of control”. The only thing that can help: the party in the White House must change.

McCain recovering from bad streak of campaign missteps by David Espo (AP). Say, I follow politics pretty closely, but I haven’t heard of any of these so-called “missteps”.

Obama has grand plans for spending by Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times. Granted, it’s not the AP, but virtually a seamless fit with the theme… and the grandiose report doesn’t exactly jibe with reality. May was one of Obama’s worst fundraising months.

At Newsbusters, Tom Blumer noticed the ‘sky is falling’ meme as well. Graphic: New York Post.

Update: Harley Davidson answers the doom-and-gloomers.

Update II: The AP: a veritable free public relations arm for Hugo Chavez.

* TechCrunch: Our new policy on AP stories: they’re banned.

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Coburn in the WSJ: $300 billion in annual waste

On May 27, 2008, in Uncategorized, by directorblue

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) says that Republicans are in denial.

Republicans can tear up the “emergency spending” credit card and refuse to accept any new spending whatsoever, including for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, until Congress does its job of eliminating wasteful spending. The federal budget contains a vast unexplored area of offsets. My office alone has identified $300 billion in annual waste. Borrowing from the next generation when we haven’t done our job of oversight is unconscionable.

Regaining our brand is not about “messaging.” It’s about action. It’s about courage. It’s about priorities. Most of all, it’s about being willing to give up our political careers so our grandkids don’t have to grow up in a debtor’s prison, or a world in which other nations can tell a weakened and bankrupt America where we can and can’t defend liberty, pursue terrorists, or show compassion.

John McCain, for all his faults, is the one Republican candidate who can lead us through our wilderness. Mr. McCain is not running on a messianic platform or as a great healer of dysfunctional Republicans who refuse to help themselves. His humility is one of his great strengths. In his heart, he’s a soldier who sees one more hill to charge, one more mission to complete.

Indeed: it is time for action.

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The roadmap for rebooting the Republican Party

On May 18, 2008, in Uncategorized, by directorblue

Think back a few decades.

We, the members of the New Republican Party, believe that the preservation and enhancement of the values that strengthen and protect individual freedom, family life, communities and neighborhoods and the liberty of our beloved nation should be at the heart of any legislative or political program presented to the American people.” We good so far? “Our task now is not to sell a philosophy, but to make the majority of Americans, who already share that philosophy, see that modern conservatism offers them a political home. … The job is ours and the job must be done. If not by us, who? If not now, when? Our party must be the party of the individual. It must not sell out the individual to cater to the group. No greater challenge faces our society today than ensuring that each one of us can maintain his dignity and his identity in an increasingly complex, centralized society.

Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business … frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite. Our party must be based on the kind of leadership that grows and takes its strength from the people. Any organization is in actuality only the lengthened shadow of its members. A political party is a mechanical structure created to further a cause. The cause, not the mechanism, brings and holds the members together. And our cause must be to rediscover, reassert and reapply America’s spiritual heritage to our national affairs. Then with God’s help we shall indeed be as a city upon a hill with the eyes of all people upon us.

These are the immortal words of Ronald Reagan.

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