“Rights” were once something retained by an educated citizenry, and the government was restrained by the Constitution from infringing upon those rights. Now, apparently, “rights” are things that the someone has and someone else wants, and the enraged citizenry demands that the federal government secure those “rights” for them.
John Stossel and 20/20 explains CanadaCare (in words and images even a Congressman can understand), and why America’s private, profit-based, individual choice healthcare system breeds inovation and attracts people from Canada and around the world who can’t get care under their government-run, “free healthcare” systems:
Certain members of our Demcrat Congressional leadership seem to be having great difficulty distinguishing between paid union thugs and actual constituents. Some have taken to calling citizen participants in our democratic process (i.e. protesters at congressional town hall events) “mobs.” To help Rep. Conyers and others reacquaint themselves with their voters, here is a great post with lots of annotated pictures of the “mob.” (http://thedanashow.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/meet-the-mob/)
ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan announced today that a federal lawsuit has been filed against a Dearborn, Michigan high school, Fordson High School, and its Muslim principal, Imad Fadlallah, over the firing of Gerald Marszalek because of Marszalek’s connection to a Christian volunteer coach.
Marszalek, who had coached wrestling for 35 years, had achieved a legendary status in the wrestling community. Earning more that 450 wins, and sending numerous wrestlers to various collegiate programs, he was elected to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, named “Sportsman of the Year” by the All-American Athletic Association. Marszalek’s contract was not renewed because of his association with a Christian volunteer coach, Trey Hancock, who the principal accused of…
Being President of the United States is a heady experience, and it can be very hard to stay humble and grounded – especially when a President comes into office with an excessively positive opinion of himself to start with…. Hopefully this video, once Homeland Security alerts him to it, will help our President stay more grounded in reality.
Please stay with it – the payoff is at the end:
You are here, Mr. President (on Earth that is – not the Moon!)
This piece came across the Designated Conservative’s digital desk this morning (excerpt below – click here to read the whole article). I hope that the conclusion doesn’t surprise anyone these days….
The closest I’ve seen to surprise that homeschoolers are everywhere was back in 2002-03 when our (former) Mayor and (former) Police Chief pushed for a “daytime curfew” ordinance to make it a crime for “school-age” children to be out on a public street or in a public place “during school hours.” After homeschoolers packed a public hearing on the ordinance, the Police Chief backed down and the ordinance died.
Everybody knows somebody who is teaching a child at home
“I never really told anybody about my music at school, only my really close friends,” Cheyenne Kimball told People Magazine in 2006. “Then [school officials] actually aired the show around the whole entire school, and that caused a lot of problems. I was a straight-A student and all of a sudden I didn’t want to go to school anymore because of the things people were saying. That’s why I’m homeschooled now.” Cheyenne, winner of NBC’s America’s Most Talented Kid at age 12, recording artist, and star of her own MTV show, is just one of many high-profile Americans whose educational choice is home schooling.
Movie stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, married in 1997, home school their two children along with Will’s nephew. Why? “For flexibility,” Pinkett Smith told an Essence reporter, “so they can stay with us when we travel, and also because the school system in this country—public and private—is designed for the industrial age. We’re in a technological age. We don’t want our kids to memorize. We want them to learn.”
While home schooling may have particular appeal to celebrities, over the last decade families of all kinds have embraced the practice for widely varying reasons: no longer is…
The following is an extended excerpt from an item that crossed the Designated Conservative’s RSS Feed this afternoon from Connor’s Conundrums (click here to read the whole piece). I disagree with his conclusion about Mr. Lincoln, but he makes a compelling argument about the origins of our Obamiforous federal government (emphasis and bullet points are mine).
So far, this Designated Conservative, like all of the Tea Party protesters across the U.S., has received no response from President Obama to my April Fool’s Day Tea Party letter… …at least until now. Click here for more….
FAIRNESS DOCTRINE UPDATE: …and for the last (and least) word on local Tax Day Tea Parties, we offer up this excerpt from a liberal extremist perspective (otherwise known as the new “in-crowd” at the Department of Homeland Security), as offered on MarkMaynard.com about the modest gathering held at the Ypsilanti City Hall….
None of these people gave a flying f**k about the forged documents concerning yellow cake uranium that led us into a war in which hundreds of thousands of people have died, but here they are today, actually taking to the streets with signs, questioning the legitimacy of the President’s birth certificate.
It’s absolutely mind boggling.
Do I think that we still have problems? Hell yes. Under the Bush administration, our rights were systematically stripped from us, and my hope had been that Obama would be quicker about restoring them. But it’s only been a few months. And my sense is that he’s trying.
FAIR USE UPDATE: (hat tip to Michelle Malkin) Apparently, CNN is trying to hide the Obamantics of their reporter at the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party – the original FoundingBloggers video was taken down by YouTube at CNN’s request. Here is a replacement link:
(from Newsbusters.com)
It is pretty telling that on-air “reporter” Roesgen’s email address suddenly returns as address unknown, isn’t it? Why is CNN so afraid of hearing from its viewers?
If you’d like to email CNN about its unprofessional “journalists” try these other email addresses:
CNN Executive Vice President Ken Jautz: ken.jautz@cnn.com
Philip Kent, the Chairman & CEO of CNN: phil.kent@turner.com
“The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs,” Schakowsky said in a statement.
“It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt,” she added. “Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year. Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”
This is the strongest language to date opposing the protesters, which, according to some estimates, topped 250,000 across the country.
For this designated conservative, these comments and Mark’s other (more graphic) post that went down into the no-class Anderson Cooper/CNN gutter (referring to the Tea Party attendees by the vulgar “teabaggers”) serve as a reminder that freedom and liberty-focused conservatives truly are speaking a language that Obamanation liberals can no longer understand.
For my Obamanation liberal readers, the Tea Parties are about:
protesting the growing intrusiveness of our federal government,
the resulting erosion of personal freedom and liberty,
the unconstitutional usurping of state sovereignty by the Democrat Congressional leadership, and
the borrow-and-spend proclivities and creeping socialistic tendencies of our ballooning federal government.
For Michigan, add in protests against the increasingly taxing, I-never-saw-a-state-employee-or-state-program-that-isn’t absolutely-essential proclivities of our Governor Jennifer Granholm and her best bud Speaker of the Michigan House, Andy Dillon.
Like the first Boston Tea Party, taxes have part in that – but are not the be-all and end-all of the protests.
Go to the Tax Day Tea Party website for all the latest news and updates nationally, and check out the Designated Conservative’s favorite site for Michigan political news and views, RightMichigan.com, for links to Michigan Tea Party events.
Americans for Prosperity-Michigan has arranged for Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher to speak at the rally. This is your opportunity to meet an ordinary man who was not afraid to publicly question a national politician.
What: Michigan Taxpayer Tea Party When: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 – High Noon Where: Capitol Steps, Capitol Avenue, Lansing, Michigan Why: Protest out-of-control politicians who are borrowing against your great grandchildren’s yet-to-be earned income.
Plans are underway for a follow up to the successful “Chicago Tea Parties” around the U.S.: The following is from a new site called “Tax Day Tea Party“:
Building upon the success of the February 27th “Chicago Tea Party” Rallies, many of the organizers are now working to develop an even larger day of protests set to happen on April 15th, 2009.
Our goal with this website is to try and help pull a lot of the Tea Party event organization in to one easy to navigate and user friendly place on the web. We learned, after much feedback, that one of the biggest frustrations was the difficulty in finding information. Our hope is that this website will solve a lot of these problems.
Planning a Tax Day Tea Party? Visit http://taxdayteaparty.com to post your information and contact details on the site.
“…I wanted to let you all know about the Michigan Tea Party being held on Friday, February 27, 2009. Grassroots patriots from all across Michigan will join thousands across the nation in a Nationwide Chicago Tea Party. It is from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm at the Michigan State Capitol, 100 N. Capitol Ave, Lansing.”
What started as a twitter conversation between local RIGHTY bloggers… Joan from The World According to Me, Wendy Day from For a Better Day and twitter-maven MelanieAnn79, turned into an event that drew hundreds of taxpayers to the Capitol steps from all across Michigan.
Wendy, Joan and the team will be blogging about the event in their own awesome way but I wanted to give them each a shout-out and a big congrats on an amazing turn-out, that had everyone buzzing, from both regular citizens, moms, dads and kids all the way to the mainstream media…
Folks are fed up and they are not going to take it any more. These weren’t Republicans and they weren’t Democrats. Both parties were roundly and lustily booed for their hands in the Congress’s recent out-of-control spending. These were Michiganders coming together simply to say enough is enough.
UPDATE 2: Here is the video “rant by a CNBC reporter at the Chicago Board of Trade that got this movement started:
UPDATE 3: More links to pictures and news about the Lansing, Michigan “Chicago Tea Party” have been posted at RightMichigan.com. Click here!
UPDATE: The intent of this idea of going “cold turkey” on the federal income tax is really all about restoring the constitutional balance between the federal government, state governments, and the people. The founding fathers viewed the potential of the federal government to accumulate power and trample on freedom and liberty with trepidation. In response, the authors of the constitution and Bill of Rights included as many checks, balances, and fences around federal authority as possible.
One of the natural limitations on federal power was the ability to tax. Limited federal revenues naturally limited federal power. This began to change with the passage of the 16th Amendment. The federal-state-people relationship turned virtually upside-down in the wake of the New Deal, World War II, and especially with the Great Society social-welfare explosion of the 1960s and 70s.
The only way to begin the process of restoring the proper federal/states constitutional balance is to…
