A Party for Charlie Rangel? Political Class Not Even Pretending to Care Anymore
New York Democrats are planning a birthday bash for Charlie Rangel. This brought to mind the lyrics John Adams sings in the musical 1776:
Is anybody there? Does anybody care?
General George Washington supposedly wrote them when he received no replies to 15 dispatches to the Continental Congress.
Yes, President Obama suggested to CBS News that Rangel might step down. And a few House Democrats made similar suggestions. Good for him and them, even if the members were looking over their shoulders at polls that predict tough races for them in November. But you don’t need to search far for evidence that a lot of political types don’t care about what most Americans feel.
A House ethics panel charged Rangel with serious violations of House rules. Some suggest he could be charged by the IRS for not reporting income. And the band plays on. Donations to his campaign coffers pour in. About two-thirds of his campaign cash in 2009 went to legal fees — so when donors cough up for Charlie’s campaign they likely indulge in a bit of nudge, nudge, wink, wink: “this money is for getting old Charlie off the hook.”
While the band plays, the plans for the party progress. New York City Mayor Bloomberg is supposedly scheduled to attend. As is the candidate for New York governorship, Andrew Cuomo. (Let’s hope former Governor Eliot Spitzer shows. He loves a party.) According to The Hill, party guests will pay up to $2500 per ticket. Several prominent figures, even a rabbi, signed up for the committee to honor Charlie.
Does anybody care?
Yes, it is proper to recognize good work Charlie Rangel has done for constituents. But to party while the ethics cloud hovers over him? Maybe the invites should read: “Let them eat cake.” Or: “If he is a crook, he’s our kind of crook.”
“The best representative money can buy.”
Lawmakers routinely sneak unpopular items into the thickets of verbiage they spew. They know most voters find the items repugnant, and so they resort to subterfuge and sleight of hand. In other words, the public be damned.
If they don’t know by now that most Americans oppose amnesty for illegals, they need resuscitators. But the Associated Press reports the White House and Congress have apparently decided on stealth amnesty. They may allow bureaucrats to help illegals avoid deportation. They clearly don’t care what most of us think or feel.
I wonder what the Latin is for nudge, nudge, wink, wink. We should chisel it under the Capitol dome.
The American political class believes it has mastered a sufficient range of weapons to make it and its machinations unassailable. If we can’t bring it to heel in the upcoming elections, armed revolution will be the only remaining recourse.
You assume that the “political class” will honor election results that they do not agree with. Think back to Florida 2000, or the “election” of Al Fanken in Minnesota in 2008. Add in the documented election fraud perpetrated by ACORN/Project Vote, the refusal of Democrat Secretaries of State to purge voter lists of ineligible voters (as required by Federal law), and the continuing efforts to disenfranchise deployed military voters (who generally favor Conservatives).
No, I make no assumptions about the integrity of the upcoming elections. You could well be right, Bill. But whether they fail us because they’re corrupted or because we’ve lost them “honestly,” the sole remaining corrective will be armed revolt. Although that might be a bit clearer to most if the corruption is really blatant.
Although I think all need to go…I seriously doubt it will happen. Dems are going to preach about what they have jut passed etc and the left will lap it up and ask no questions…
I sound so discouraged, and I suppose I am. I see what was just passed by Pelosi and the kids, and I wonder where we are going to end up, we can’t live on what we do not have…
It’s a fact that the Right has long had an appeal to the “better angels” of human nature on its side, but it’s never been and never will be enough. The Left’s ace in the hole has always been its appeal to the multitude of baser elements of our nature. Just look at all of human history; which side of humanity tends to prevail?
That’s why I’m a pessimist. The Left promises state-approved iniquity, and delivers. On a national scale there has never been any competition with that.
Francis:
And there is only one way to bring it to heel; vote and vote against every encumbent, no exceptions. The dying body needs fresh blood.
The ruling class will never simply fade away. Leaf, twig branch and root, all that’s rotten must be replaced and renewed.
Keep your weapons handy-Comrade Dumbama and His poodle Piglosi wont like losing, commies never do. The october surprise might be martial law, with these scum you never know. Im keeping the Ruger blackhawk close by.
Oh, that’s quite clear, Darth. I doubt that we’d be allowed to take even one seat from Democrat incumbents without a horde of poll watchers, each of them with a videocamera and the police on speed dial, deployed at every polling station in America. Even that might not suffice.
Be ready, friends. This could be the “big one.”
Civil disobedience in the form of a tax revolt will be the way to go. No Taxes no big fat bloated left. Civil disobedience before violence.
I tend to agree that armed revolt may be the only option left to us to restore the Republic. I’m unconvinced, however, that there are nearly enough people willing to fight, much less who see the need for it. And the Left acts as if it knows it, too, and is counting on it. Hence the unprecedented undisguised ARROGANCE we’ve seen from them of late. They’re acting exactly like people who know something the rest of us do not.
Once upon a time, within the last 100 years, might revolt have happened? Did we still have the stock to do it? Yes. Today? I just don’t see it. Wish I did.
Re: Whether there’s “enough people”.
Kind of makes you wonder if that’s why BO has not brought a significant number of soldiers home. He know’s they’re not simpatico with his agenda by and large, they’re also extremely “proficient” at this stage in the game and the have proven their willingness to fight for freedom. BO’s far better off with them over there and relying on police forces against a revolt.
Of course, if he brought any soldiers home it would only exacerbate the bad job numbers as the national guard guys went back into the work force. So that’s a good reason too. Where are the “No Blood for Good Economic Numbers” protestors?
I guess the point is… Its MHO that unless…
- the Dems get knocked back to the point that they reconsider their whole political philosophy,
- AND the Political Class culture gets shattered,
- AND some kind of extremely constitutional fundamentalist (libertarian) leader comes on the scene that can lead the effort to restore the Fed to is proper size and shape,…
then some sort of violent revolt is coming and coming fast.
They have long been promoting the smear that violent Tea Party racists threaten public security. They may instigate some violence and blame the Tea Party, then declare a national emergency with elections cancelled or corrupted by government poll controllers. This is as close as the progressives will ever get to establishing their Marxist dictatorship. Why would they not go all out?
There will be another song playing Nov 3rd-Does anyone really know what tim e it is? The dimwits will know. I beleive the Marvel comics character the Thing said it best-ITS CLOBBERIN TIME………………………………..
I think the way they have all been acting is just evidence that they all have proof and know that the aliens are coming and the world really is going to end in December 2012. They are all partying like it’s the end of the world as we know it.
Well, at least that’s more amusing than persistent speculation about declarations of martial law. Which were annoying when I heard them about Clinton and Bush. Just who, please, do you think would enforce said idiotic declaration of martial law?
There’s yet time and hope for a Constitutional solution to these lying, thieving traitors through the ballot box. Abraham Lincoln thought so in October 1859 when word reached him of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry; but eighteen months later the Civil War had begun. At the time of the Boston Tea Party Edmund Burke warned the British Parliament, “Free people will not be argued into slavery;” but Parliament ignored Burke and responded with the “Coercive Acts.” About a year later, on 19 April 1775, Patriot Captain Parker’s command to his 120 homespun Minutemen facing 800 Red Coat bayonets on Lexington Green still rings down the centuries: “Don’t fire unless fired upon; but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!”
A giant can of good ol’ fashioned American whoop-@ss may be our only recourse if we can’t save our Republic in a legitimate way. I’m with Francis on this. Why? Because the corruption, ineptitude and lyin’-no-good-for-nothin’ thievery is so far gone and toxically systemic in our politics that we may be ruefully reduced to civil disobedience in order to make known “WHO IS THE BOSS”. Will enough of us STAND? I don’t know.
If votes magically show up in a hatch-back or votes “get disappeared” altogether (fostered by Acorn type criminals), we are going to be gagged and bound by the thugs running the show (and that goes for the idiots who sit on their hands under the ‘R’ too).
Nobody wants a fight? HAH! Nobody would join the damned military if we were all cowards and I firmly believe we are NOT a nation of cowards.
The gloves need to come off and the truth needs to be outed over and over.
Don’t mince words, Delia, tell us how you really feel.
Let’s stipulate that the more corrupt a politician you are, the more likely you are to generate scandal. This strongly suggests that Rangel, having been outed as corrupt, and given how slack the anti-corruption safeguards are, is a center of political corruption, having made lots of shady deals with lots of politicians who still look OK. Rangel’s old and any significant jail time is effectively for life, so there’s always the implicit threat of his revealing corruption the authorities don’t yet know about, getting seemingly clean politicians into trouble. Thus what Rangel wants from his secret cronies, Rangel gets. Being professionals, these secret cronies know the score and realize that it’s very much safer to attend Rangel’s fund-raising parties than to stay away. Since we the voters are non-professionals, we have to reason our way to the conclusion that Rangel has something on every famous member of the US elite who attends his fund-raisers, having in effect blackmailed them to his expensive celebratory gatherings. With all this in mind, look around at his guest lists and ask yourself if you’re really surprised at who’s attending and who’s not. Vote accordingly.
Palpa! Palpa! Conive! Conive!
(A rough Latin translation)
It’s democratic voters. As long as the pork, welfare, student loans and government paychecks keep coming they could care less who sends it.
The next Republican house needs to starve the Democratic entitlement machine. Tax payer pay for the whole infrastructure of the left. We need cut off all the money. From Acorn to Columbia University no more Federal dollars. Nada zip zero.
absolutely ruebacca. you have the answer. now if we can only get enough sane Americans to help us,
“It’s democratic voters. As long as the pork, welfare, student loans and government paychecks keep coming they could care less who sends it.”
Yep, and that’s why I think the Left knows it has a permanent lock on this country and the Republic has been beyond resurrection for some time. More and more people are either choosing to go gladly over to their side (see the U.K. for a current example) or are so discouraged and powerless they feel they have no choice but to quietly go along. Either way, once they cross that line there’s almost no chance getting them back.
I’ll still vote and act and – if need be – fight as if we can change it, though.
Yeah, well, since the political class seems fine with a ground zero mosque, maybe some enterprising souls could start a Muslim gay bath house next door to the Mosque? Set up a canine day care center for fifi and fido while the boys are having fun. You know, full service bar and deli, serve some ribs and soul food, and call it Mohammed”s Pigs And Poop. Tolerance is a two way street.
That’s an excellent idea. I LOVE it! And why not add adult “toy stores,” a Victoria’s Secret and as many veterinary clinics as possible.
Dat Damn Kingfisher done gots cought wiff his hand in da cokkie-jarz agains :O
They say “Let them eat cake”… but remember, the cake is a lie.
I despise all politicians with the burning white hot intensity of a thousand suns.
SO DO I JONES. I TRY VERY HARD TO NOT HATE PEOPLE. BUT I CAN’T HELP IT I DO HATE POLITICIANS. AND WE HAVEN’T HAD A STATESMAN SINCE JESSE HELMES DIED. FOR A SHORT FEW MOMENTS I THOUGHT WE MIGHT HAVE ONE IN JOE LIEBEMAN. BUT HE SHOUWED HIS TRUE COLLERS WHEN HE SIDED WITH THE PARTY OF CORRUPTION AFTER THEY DUMPED HIM,
Morgan says to look at the Rasmussen report to find their definition of “political class.” I looked at the report and not only didn’t find a definition of that class but a note that in the survey they did NOT define it. They let each respondent make up his own definition of what he meant by “political class”. They did not ask respondents to identify themselves as part of that class or not. They classified each respondent according to his answers, and voila! They found that people they classified according to their answers, gave different answers. They would have produced more meaningful results had they classified them by occupation, whether they work in the private sector or in government or tax-free organizations.
I have seen estimates that up to 45% of GDP is direct government or government driven. That would be like a private company spending 45% on overhead, i.e. those supporting the people who are actually doing the productive work. Most business models I have seen assume that this should be somewhere around 10%.
The problem is that competition in the private sector keeps companies honest and they cannot do such foolish things without threatening their own existence. But absent this affect, overhead rises uncontrollably. After all, they are the ones with the power and the ones who make all the decisions.
The democratic process that is supposed to function as a check on government growth, waste and fraud has been severely gamed by the political class as pointed out in many comments above. So my conclusion is that only civil disobedience will work. How about a grass roots declaration of a flat and limited tax, and where the declared rate would be lowered if the Fed borrowed too much or printed more money in response. And a grass roots declaration of a regulatory holiday where a list of the dumbest and most harmful (to our standard of living) regulations would be ignored until further notice.
The progressives will push us to the limit. Civil Disobedience is quite a weapon if used right. We will know what to do when the time comes. We have the numbers.
As the comments show we have lot’s to be concerned about.
The political class feels perfectly justified in “they know best” attitude.
This patronizing stance can be found in all non-free nations governed by the Theocracy and Despots.
We the people have voted for Despots. Now that we recognize them for what they are an up-rising is in order.
We need to upset their apple cart least we become more the apple they eat.
Dear Darth Vader,
No, in the current business climate we find ourselves, I would NOT recommend keeping the Ruger Blackhawk 1.0 system close by. It is too slow to “reboot”, and its unique “memory” requirements will make it rather difficult to meet “just in time production needs” when utilizing the “excess inventory” of those whom we have recently taken “market share” from.
Keep in mind, stockpiles of “random access memory sticks” , buried at various locales for just such a “market downturn” as we find ourselves today, are often quite a distance away from where the actual “business” will take place, and therefore might as well be on Mars when we are required to “crunch data” on the fly.
It is better, I believe, to choose a system that is more “portable” and, as much as possible; “interchangeable” with the “operating systems” we expect “the competition” to use, at least on the individual PC level.
In the days when the “primary mainframe” for “the competition” was the “Wheel-Gun 38.0″ , I preferred to keep our “field reps” supplied with the unobtrusive lever action Winchester, chambered in .357 mag, for most of the above reasons.
Today however, there are many high quality aftermarket “systems” that mimic our competitors full size hardware, yet offer unique “subgroups” with which to “interchange data”.
I am describing a shoulder mounted “Desktop M.16.15.” that will “receive data” from the various and commonly available M.9 or M.4.0. “hand held” modules we can expect THEIR Field Reps to have on hand in sufficient quantity to supply our customers.
Yes, the range of this device is not as great as the full-on desktops models we expect their “upper management” to employ once “the sale” begins. But it does, via superior ergonomics (and longer barrel), provide much greater “customer focus” than the purely hand held module their Field Reps typically carry….and it can use THEIR data sticks, thus relieving us of expense and logistics of carrying “excess inventory”.
This will be of primary importance during the initial “point of sale” interface /customer frenzy that is expected to occur in the typical bankruptcy/liquidation event our sales models have predicted.
Yes, we will eventually need a complete business plan, and full scale mainframe hardware capacity to restore long term profitability. But the market is currently volatile, and having the right tools in the right place means we can capitalize on day to day turnovers, and slowly build market share.
The Ruger 1.0 is a great operating system, I would take it anywhere….but its not about ME, its about THE FUTURE OF THE COMPANY, and I want to see flexible, better integrated systems in place now, for the long haul.