A Boston Tea Party …(Uphill Both Ways)

Most parents fondly remember things about their childhood. We often nostalgically refer to specific instances from our younger years. Those wonderfully memorable times of reflection often cause us to contrast them with what the young people of today do. If you are like me then you prefer your time of growing up rather than your kids. The problem is it is never possible to turn back the clock and live in those times again.

The style of clothes is certainly returning to the past but you don’t see games of neighborhood sandlot baseball played anymore. Playstation has the attention of most kids now. Tell your children about the things you did as a kid like drive your bike across town and they will look at you with bewilderment. Tell your children they too would have enjoyed growing up when we did and they will say “no way”. Obviously, it can never be proven because we are unable to go back in time. Imagine the excitement if we could only make it happen.

That type of exhilaration is what the current war protestors are experiencing. These hippies of the past have spent their adult years telling stories to their children of all the crazy anti-war fun they had growing up and now they get to show them for real. They must feel they have actually found a time warp. It is the time of Woodstock, college campus protests, and the peace sign. The problem though is it is as pathetic now as it was cool then. Oh, sure the children of the hippies of the past get to see their parents in all their glory but the rest of the country has a different meaning of “cool” now. They are evidence to our children that those drug-hazed, protesting 60’s really did exist. Cindy Sheehan and her ditch ding-a-lings are living “the Dream”. Maybe it is true that my parents walked six miles uphill both ways to school. I just never believed it. Maybe now my kids will believe disco really did exist.

Cry Of The Loon (Silent Majority)

Ed Schultz, Fargo’s national disgrace, is hot for the story. The man who calls Hillary, Ted Kennedy, Robert Bird, and Dick Durbin heroes is hot on the trail of another far left cause. On Wednesday he joined the Cindy Sheehan nuts in Crawford, Texas. Ed is trying to portray his going there as a way of offering support for Cindy’s mission. Us folks who know Ed better than he knows himself know he is in Crawford because he wants the far left fringe that has joined Ms. Sheehan to know his is their man.

There is no wacko left wing cause Big Eddie will not support in the name of popularity except Ed’s nose for news is about as in tune as I am when I sing in the shower. Conspiracies like the Downing Street memo, Karl Rove’s CIA leak, war for oil, and now Cindy Sheehan are all stories the Loon figured would bring Bush down but within a couple weeks were no longer even talked about. Ed often talks about hunting but if his tracking skills in the outdoors are anything like his tracking of a legitimate story then he must come home without a kill.

It is his willingness to follow a story without any credibility that further embarrasses the region from which he resides. Early this week he talked about his days hosting a local radio show for North Dakota rednecks. As Ed has become more intellectually progressive (his words) we in North Dakota become more and more redneck.

Because he lets his listeners know he is broadcasting from Fargo, his show needs to be listened to by people in this area. It is the responsibility of those who want to inform that they listen to the incredible distortions Ed is championing, especially when it takes place in their own backyard. The general public of Fargo needs to be educated on the incorrect impression he is giving the country about us but instead Ed is treated like the elephant in the room that no one wants to recognize. Those in the media with pens or microphones refuse to discuss how incredibly out of touch Ed is with the city and area he broadcasts from. It should embarrass all of us that people throughout the country might think he speaks for us. The silent majority in Fargo should be asking him to leave but they haven’t been informed as to why. The opinions and judgments Ed has are better suited for San Francisco than Fargo. It is too bad those who could rally the people of this region refuse to do so.

Ed's nose for legitimate news

A Boston Tea Party …(Street Cred)

The art of charades was once again on display in the federal government this week. The federal highway bill was signed into law this week. A government with Republican (I use this term specifically) control of the house, senate, and executive branch passed a $286 billion with $24 billion in pork projects.

This is a perfect example of the difference between a Republican and a conservative Republican. Republicans call $24 billion in pork economic stimulus while true conservative Republicans call $24 billion in pork unnecessary and wasteful. Notice the different connotation that goes with economic stimulus. It tells us we should be thankful for our politicians wasting our tax money. Imagine if a Democratic controlled government had passed such an outrageously pork filled bill the Republicans would be screaming. The hypocrisy should not be shocking. It became evident shortly after the “contract with America” that Republicans were no longer conservative but instead would operate in a manner that keeps them in power.

It is time to let Republicans like those in Washington and Republican cheeleaders like Sean Hannity and Scott Hennen who use the word “conservative” for “street cred” that they no longer fool us. They use the word conservative to help catagorize themselves into a certain "niche". Spokespeople for the Republican party have no link to true conservatism. They have become so intertwined with their own party to harshly criticize them. A true conservative would demand that the money spent on pork be returned to its owner, the American taxpayer. The reaction these spokespeople should have had should have been vomiting on the air. Pork spending should make every true conservative violently ill but instead is passed of as economic stimulus by those whose loyalty is to party rather than conviction. This type of Republican is as close to a true conservative as Kennedy and Kerry are to being true Catholics, only in name. The next time you run across a Republican pretending to be a conservative……….tell him/her to F*** OFF!

A Boston Tea Party …(A Strain On Their Marriages Perhaps)

Many, many times when referring to the war in Iraq I have heard Democrats say, “America should be better than that”. We heard it when they spoke about prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and the prison abuse scandal of Abu Ghraib. Now we are hearing it in reference to how the President treated Cindy Sheehan during her visit to the White House in June 2004.

In saying “America should be better than that” are Dems saying the country must act responsibly but they personally do not have too? An example of blatant, classless action is the commercial being run by NARAL focusing on Supreme Court Justice nominee John Robert’s record of siding with violent anti-choice groups. Since the first moment the commercial ran over the weekend, everyone has been stating how obviously false it is. This of course has not stopped NARAL from running it. CNN stated this morning that it is true the commercial is not factual but that they would not stop running the commercial just because it was untrue. I have to ask, aren’t we better than that?

The Democrats willingness to overtly lie in an effort to get their preferred result reminds me of a not very popular movie made my John Candy called “The Last Polka”. In this movie John Candy and Eugene Levy play polka icons Yosh and Stan Schmenge. Because they are icons they have groupies who are three sisters called the Lemon twins. These twins hang around Yosh and Stan so much that a scandal is created. When one of the Lemon Twins (played by Catherine O’Hara of Home Alone) is asked about the scandal she answers, “Even though the rumors are untrue we realize the difficulty this is causing Yosh and Stan … a strain on their marriages perhaps … we hope so anyway. This is what the far left groups are willing to do to unseat the nomination of John Roberts. They are willing to portray Roberts falsely in hopes of increasing their chances of success. They really aren’t any better than that.

A Boston Tea Party ...(Liberty and Socialism)

A constitutional quiz: which answer is correct?

The tenth amendment of the constitution states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The tenth amendment of the constitution states “All powers not listed by the Constitution, are reserved to the Federal Government and not to the States respectively, or to the people.”

For those of you who are historically challenged the correct answer is the first one. Now allow me to rephrase the question. Which wording of the tenth amendment better describes how the powers of given in the constitution are used in today’s world? The second answer better states the way government currently operates.

How did it get this way? It has happened over a large period of time. Career politicians combined with judicial activism have brought States rights to its knees. The power vacuum of Washington has closed the door to anything resembling what our forefathers had envisioned. They wanted a federal government limited in power and scope. Instead, today we have a federal government growing in size and stature.

The states and the citizens therein along time ago decided to bow to the federal government. The feds are now masters of our domain. Whether it is abortion rights or gun control, the federal government is in charge of how we live rather than what was intended, hat power be more localized. It is the states that should make such decisions through their own legislatures. The men who wrote the constitution knew true liberty could only exist when men not government had the power.

The Supreme Court through the work of activist judges has increased the capacity of our federal government to control our lives. It was Patrick Henry who said, “Give me liberty or give me death”. Over time Americans have become to distracted to ever again die for the liberty our forefathers envisioned. Instead most sit around idly as the left pushes us closer to socialism. Last week Ed Schultz said, “You righties are just afraid of socialism”. Yes Ed, I am. I have yet to figure out what liberty and socialism have in common. I am positive had our forefathers wanted a socialist government they would have designed a constitution towards that end. It is time with the help of a constitutionalist Supreme Court that we get back to the country the 10th amemndment intended it to be.

north dakota pride

A Boston Tea Party …(Village Idiots)

The flat tax is once again on the hot burner. Steve Forbes has written a new book championing the benefits of abolishing the IRS and installing a flat tax on both personal and business income. The resurgence of tax reform is a welcomed sight. The last time we heard so much discussion on the flat tax was about 8 or so years ago.

I remember explaining the benefits of the flat tax to a management level co-worker around that time. I told him how wonderful it would be if we could do our taxes on a post card. No more need for itemizing deductions or figuring out the earned income credit. He was worried that he would lose his mortgage interest deduction. He further explained the interest deduction was the only reason he purchased a new home. I decided maybe an example would better explain the flat tax benefit. I told him to imagine he made $50,000 and under the current tax system (which includes his home mortgage interest deduction) he had to pay in am additional $1,000 on his return. Now using the flat tax system he still had $50,000 of income. He would lose his mortgage interest deduction but rather than paying in an additional $1,000 he would instead be refunded $2,000. I asked him which system he would prefer. He obviously (sarcasm) answered he would prefer to pay the $1,000 and keep his interest deduction.

It is this type of idiocy the flat tax will have to overcome. There are certain tax breaks, tax loopholes, and tax misconceptions that have been ingrained into the American tax paying brain. It will take as much education on the flat tax as it is taking on Social Security private accounts for people to believe in it. The American public is just not that bright when it comes to reform issues. They are easily scared by those who benefit from the status quo.

It is the status quo that I would target with the idea of tax reform. If I were running against an incumbent of either party I would find out where he/she stands on the issue of tax reform. If the incumbent was still in support of our current tax system I would use that as a weapon. Every politician who favors such a corrupt system has been bought off by special interests. There is no easier way to define a politician as being bought and paid for than to ask if they are in favor of our current tax code. To favor the current system means you agree with income redistribution, tax loopholes, and the government dictating policy through tax breaks. If I were running against such an incumbent I would use the favoring of the current code as a rope and tie it around his/her neck until he/she choked from it. The incumbent would be branded. Branded as an elected official who has been compromised by lobbyists. Steve Forbes will hopefully bring tax reform again to the minds of the American public. Only a village idiot would be against it. Use the above example and find out how many village idiots you have in your neighborhood or office. It may shock you.