The Extinction Burst

Before the 2008 election, I told my wife that I think the real reason that the media was completely tossing aside even the pretense of objectivity was that it was - to me - obviously an "extinction burst."

Consider the following:

1) The continuing daisy chain of newspaper/newsmagazine failures
2) The utter failure of liberal talk radio
3) The declining ratings of the alphabet networks, CNN and MSNBC
4) The ascendancy of Fox News
5) The enduring popularity of conservative talk radio
6) The rise of the dextrosphere and the already peaked popularity of the sinestrophere.
7) The repeated best-selling success of conservative books - not just on current topics, but re-examining political history as well (e.g., Liberal Fascism).
8) The calamitous decline in union membership outside of government.

Put them all together and what do you have? The end of the ability of the Left to completely control the narrative, to hide inconvenient truths and to pretend that opposing views are without merit or that they even exist.

I believe that the media understood very well that 2008 would be the last presidential election in which they had as much influence as they did. So they had no incentive to pretend they were objective any longer. After all, most of them wouldn't even have jobs by the time the next election rolled around anyway.

By 2012, it is very likely that neither Time nor Newsweek will even exist as print magazines. The NY Times may or may not be putting ink to paper, but even if it is there will be far fewer copies to circulate. Air America has already gone silent. Etc., Etc.

The Leftists in this country have controlled political conversation in this country for generations now. That monopoly has effectively ended, and now their agenda is being shredded daily by Glenn Reynolds' "Army of Davids" who are pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, and in fact, never really did.

So the Democratic Party had no choice but to go "all in" after the last election. From ObamaCare to Cap-N-Tax to Card Check, every liberal wet dream is on the table.

They thought "we've only got one more shot to get this through, so we've got to jam as much through as possible RIGHT NOW." They know they're not likely to get another bite at this apple for a very long time to come.

Because not only have they lost control of the message, they've run out of money. Federal and state budgets are exploding across the country as the inevitable result of decades of liberal mismanagement (see California) and the extraordinarily high cost of government union workers (see GM and Chrysler for examples of where this is heading).

The appetite for, and the ability to fund, the expansion of government is over for the foreseeable future.

We just can't afford it. Democrats knew the debt bomb was ticking, but this recession and their own irresponsibility in passing the stimulus plan, sped up the countdown timer far faster than they had planned. The Tea Party movement was a completely unanticipated development which is why they were left floundering when it took off so suddenly. They never saw it coming, and it left them angry and sputtering ineffective, inaccurate and inane responses like "Nazis," "racists," and "unAmerican."

Time has run out. The steady flow of money and muscle from their union allies is quickly drying up, and that will affect the Democratic Party's ability to remain competitive. (And why they reacted so vehemently to the recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporate participation in elections.)

The Leftist agenda will always find a way to come back eventually. That totalitarian impulse isn't going to go away. It never really does as there are always people who seek to use the heavy hand of government to control other people's lives. But if it gets defeated now, it's going to have to go underground for a long time. And the actions of the Leftists for the last few years proves that they know it too.

What TEA Partiers and Sarah Palin Have In Common

Republicans were sensing momentum earlier in the summer, but events of
the August recess -- specifically, the town hall meetings in which
opponents of the Democratic health care reform plan have turned out in
force -- have changed their view. "This month has opened our eyes,"
says one plugged-in House aide. "We're seeing real people who are fired
up who weren't engaged before -- the first time we've had a popular
movement that could really benefit us electorally."

That's the take this morning from Republican House members talking about their prospects in the upcoming 2010 elections. Both Democratic and Republican insiders are talking about the effect of the TEA Party movement, and there's widespread agreement that it's generally bad news for congressional Democrats.

"I think what's going to happen is Obama's going to be fine, and the
Democrats in Congress are going to get their asses kicked in 2010,"
says one Democratic strategist who prefers not to be named.

It's only the middle of August and the TEA Party movement is already making itself felt deep inside the halls of Congress. That's why you're seeing people like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi ratcheting up their rhetoric against the grassroots who are spontaneously rising up across the country. They're genuinely scared. (They're whistling past the graveyard with regard to the potential impact on Obama, but that's a discussion for another day.)

In mid-term elections, the president's party generally loses seats in Congress as there is generally some pushback against the agenda of an incoming president - no matter what his party is. But this year has been exceptional in that conservatives have taken to the streets, a virtually unheard of phenomenon, early and loudly within months of him taking office. Reid and Pelosi may publicly be dismissing TEA Partiers as "rent-a-mobs" carrying swastikas who only show up at the behest of insurance companies, but privately they understand its true grassroots nature.

This is the second time in less than a year that genuine grassroots enthusiasm from the other side of the aisle has thrown Democrats for a loop, and they are returning to the only thing they really understand: demonizing the opposition. The first instance was the vice presidential nomination of Sarah Palin, and I don't think I need to remind anyone how the Left continues to hound her even today. The fire she lit under the conservative base briefly pushed McCain over Obama in the polls and struck fear into the hearts of Democrats. So they responded with the most vicious smearing of a politician in recent memory, with the active assistance of the mainstream media which has since admitted that they took sides against her.

Even in the last few days, Palin has had an impact on the ObamaCare discussion by forcing the Senate to drop the end-of-life counseling from its version. A recent headline proclaimed that "Sarah Palin Defines the Health Care Debate." When was the last time that the vice presidential candidate on a losing ticket was able to make her voice heard a year later with nothing more than writing a few paragraphs on her Facebook account?

TEA Partiers should look forward to more hate-filled diatribes to be directed their way from both Democratic officeholders and the mainstream media. Like Palin, they will be dismissed as stupid and ill-informed. They will be accused of being tools of nefarious corporate interests and hating poor people. Can you remember an effective opponent of Leftist ideology who they didn't say these exact same things about? There hasn't been an original thought in the Leftist playbook for decades: they go after all their opponents the same way.

But TEA Partiers should take every sling and arrow which is thrown at them with pride. They should recognize that the greater the insults being hurled at them, the closer they are to the mark. There's another saying from the bomber corps that TEA Partiers should keep in mind:

You only take flak when you're over the target.

Sarah Palin, TEA Parties, Democrats, Leftists, 2010 Elections, Congress, Nancy Pelosi

My Favorite TEA Partier

"I owe China how much? Thanks a lot, Mr. President."

TEA Parties

Blue Dogs On the Edge

Once again doing the job that the mainstream American media refuses to do, the Financial Times has an article about two wavering "Blue Dog" Democrats who are both saying that they could not vote for the House version of ObamaCare in its current form.

If there was any doubt that the TEA Partiers are having a profound effect on the current debate over socialized medicine, this should put an end to it. Just a couple of days ago the junior senator from Maryland, Ben Cardin, got an earful at a townhall meeting he held in Towson - a northern suburb of Baltimore:

Towson is a very liberal area - especially in relation to the far more conservative congressional district that Frank Kratovil, one of the Blue Dogs mentioned in the article, represents. Kratovil won in 2008 by a margin of only 3,000 votes in a traditionally Republican-held district. That puts him on the razor's edge of electability in 2010: he can't afford to be on the wrong side of his constituents. There's no doubt that the massive turnout at Cardin's townhall, someone who Marylanders know is likely going to vote for ObamaCare no matter what, has to have an impact on a vulnerable House freshman without Cardin's political muscle.

The question someone like Kratovil is likely asking himself today is: If a statewide Democratic Party potentate like Cardin can't even maintain control over one of his own townhall meetings, what are the 2010 prospects for a guy representing a conservative district in the face of this level of public anger?

It's not just a matter of being heard: there is a real opportunity for TEA Partiers and others who oppose socialized medicine to actually affect not just the ultimate structure of the House bill, but whether one is passed at all. The pressure is being turned up to 11: it's just a matter of how invested politicians like Kratovil are in having a future in elected office beyond November 2010.

2010 Elections, Democrats, ObamaCare, TEA Parties

Single-Payer Health Advocates Create 'Obama As Hitler' Signs

It's been all over the news: anti-ObamaCare protesters are using Nazi imagery! They're putting Hitleresque mustaches on pictures of Obama and demanding a stop to Obama's "Nazi" Health Care. Those TEA Partiers are just crazy!

One major problem with the narrative: the Obama-Hitler signs aren't from TEA Partiers at all:

The takeaway from the video? LaRouchePAC created the 'Obama as Hitler' signs, and it is a staunch supporter of a single-payer system. They support a government takeover of the healthcare system too: they just want it done on their terms instead of Obama's.

So much for those Democratic talking points that falsely smear TEA Partiers. With the army of citizen-journalists across the nation doing the work that the media won't do, none of their talking points are holding up and their AstroTurfing is being exposed left and right. What desperate tricks does Obama, Pelosi, Reid and their allies have up their sleeves next?

TEA Parties, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, Barack Obama, Disinformation, Democrats

Obama Can't Find Any Grassroots, Decides to Bus Them In

In response to the grassroots TEA parties that have sprung up around the country, Barack Obama has decided to do a series of townhall meetings where he takes supposedly random questions from the audience about ObamaCare. One problem: he can't find enough supporters of ObamaCare to fill a townhall, so he has to bus them in.

This has become such a debacle for Democrats that Obama's people actually had to plant a 11-year old girl to ask him a question about the "mean signs" that TEA Partiers are holding outside in protest - a little girl who just happens to be the child of one of the organizers from Obama's campaign after Obama. Purely coincidence. Your president wouldn't lie to you, would he?

TEA Partiers should take comfort that they have both Obama and the Democratic Party scrambling. First it was the accusations of AstroTurfing. Then it was the ridiculous swastika business. And now they're reducing to planting young children at Obama's propaganda events.

And still the poll numbers for ObamaCare keep dropping.

If it weren't such a serious subject, it would definitely be worth a big belly-laugh.

AstroTurfing, Barack Obama, Democrats, ObamaCare, TEA Parties

AstroTurfing Accusations Just Make People Angrier

As soon as Nancy Pelosi and her minions started rolling out the latest Democratic talking points about how the TEA Partiers were AstroTurfed crowds who only showed up at the behest of the Republican Party and insurance companies, I knew that it was bound to backfire. Instead of intimidating people into staying away from townhall meetings, such accusations are only redoubling their determination.

Because Leftists are only capable of producing crowds at protests by paying them to attend, they are incapable of understanding that it is possible for a true grassroots effort to exist without corporate and political sponsorship. Having attended a TEA Party myself, I can tell you that not one of those in attendance was paid to be there, they are better informed on the issues than the congressmen they are confronting, and that they are genuinely angry about where Barack Obama and his Democratic allies are taking this country. Just listen to Leah from New Hampshire who called into C-SPAN:

The Democratic arrogance and dismissive attitude toward to their constituents has opened Pandora's Box. And like Pandora, they are going to be extremely sorry they did.

(H/T Smitty @ The Other McCain)

Nancy Pelosi, AstroTurfing, TEA Parties, Democrats, Congress

Time for Corporate TEA Parties

The TEA in TEA parties stands for Taxed Enough Already. According to this post from TaxProf, it looks like American businesses should be joining the TEA Partiers on the picket lines.

The US has the second highest corporate taxes in the industrialized world: behind only Japan. And it's not by much, American corporate tax rates are at 39.1% while Japan's are at barely higher rate of 39.6%. Everybody else? Well, their weighted average is 26.5%.

Not only is that putting American businesses at a significant disadvantage in global trade, it's also causing higher prices domestically. Corporate taxes are all ultimately paid by consumers in the form of higher prices. It's just another way that the government is taking a bite out of every dollar you earn.

And now they're coming for your healthcare...

Business, Taxes, TEA Parties

But Don't Dare Call it AstroTurfing

Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress can't seem to find enough people to get out and hit the streets in support of their government takeover of health care, so now they're advertising on Craigslist to hire them instead.

But remember that it's the TEA Partiers who are supposedly the ones who are "AstroTurfing," right? Not the Leftists who are actually paying people to do the work that no Americans are willing to do voluntarily. I guess it's a good thing that Obama's disastrous economic policies have put so many people out of work. Otherwise they wouldn't have anybody willing to do their dirty work at all.

AstroTurfing, Democrats, Barack Obama, Leftists, ObamaCare

Dissent Is Now Officially Un-American

The Botox Queen, Nancy Pelosi, and her court jester, Steny Hoyer, have spoken.

If you're angry that Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress are trying to ram through a government takeover of your healthcare in less time than it took for him to pick out a family dog, then you're un-American.

If you're unwilling to be told what to think by people who are blatantly lying to your face, then you're un-American.

If you're not willing to be beaten into submission, then you're un-American.

I guess that makes me about as un-American as it gets. And you probably are too.

TEA Parties, Democrats, ObamaCare, Nancy Pelosi

TEA Partiers = Gandhi

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

The arc of the TEA parties brought something to mind today: they are living proof of the truth of this quote from Mahatma Gandhi.

When the TEA parties first began earlier this year, there was a collective yawn from pretty much everybody in the media - with the notable exception of Fox News. Perhaps because they have a greater familiarity with actual conservatives, they immediately recognized the significance of so many of them taking to the streets in protest.

Street protests have long been the domain of the Left. With so many union thugs, students, "community activists," race hustlers and underemployed hippies in their ranks; they have always had the available manpower to take to the streets at even the slightest provocation. On the other hand, conservatives have always had higher priorities: jobs, families, and, you know, actual lives to live. But this year things have changed.

It was pretty much assumed that the Tax Day protests across the country were one-off affairs. Oh sure these impotent losers were a little upset at having to pay taxes, but they'll go back to their regular lives soon enough. If we just ignore them, they'll just go away.

But then a funny thing happened: they didn't. And not only didn't they go away, their numbers quickly grew. And got louder. And got angrier at the obvious bias of media organizations who regularly reported on pseudo-protests by Leftists which consisted of little more than press conferences attended by a few solitary figures outnumbered by the number of reporters on hand but yet pretended that protests by hundreds of ordinary Joes were beneath their notice.

Then the next round of TEA parties was held around the 4th of July. Suddenly there were even more of them, and they were getting more organized. Their events were being covered by bloggers and local news, and they were flooding Congress with phone calls. They were getting too big to ignore any more.

The elite punditry who had previously dismissed these citizens as "tea-baggers" (An obscene little joke that they were oh so proud of themselves for telling.) suddenly were forced to take notice of the growing ranks of the TEA partiers. But did they take them seriously? Of course not. The TEA partiers were noticed all right. But only to the extent of being the butt of jokes for every Leftist pundit and blogger who deigned to mention their existence.

Which brings us to today. Now those TEA partiers are seemingly everywhere a congressmen rears his head in public. They're demanding answers and openly mocking the pitiful attempts to lie away reality. ACORN and the AFL-CIO are holding events and finding themselves outnumbered 3-, 5- or even 10-to-1 by tea partiers. The message of the Leftists is getting drowned out by the voices of citizens who have decided that they're mad as hell and not going to take it any more.

To which the Left has predictably responded by calling out the union thugs to surround their mouthpieces, and Obama has issued an urgent call to his cultists to turn in anyone who says anything "fishy" about his attempts to nationalize large parts of the US economy. Those "tea-baggers" have magically been transformed by their opponents into "mobsters." No longer are they objects of ridicule: they are striking fear into the hearts of Leftists across the country.

With the August recess now upon us, the fight is now on in earnest. Just a few months ago the Left thought they were Mike Tyson in his heyday fighting against the patsy du jour. The smart money wasn't betting on whether or not it was going to be a 1st round knockout: it was how many seconds it would take for their opponent to hit the canvas.

But along the way the TEA partiers started training in earnest. They worked harder, sweated more, and studied their opponent's tactics. Leftists are no longer laboring under the delusion that this is going to be a cakewalk, and like a fighter past his prime they're desperately trying to reach back for last year's glory to pull out another victory.

The outcome isn't certain by any means, but - like Gandhi - the TEA partiers have already achieved more than any of their opponents ever thought was going to be possible. And like Gandhi, they may yet win.

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