GOP Netroots: Fired Up and Ready to Rumble
Chairman Steele understands that Republicans must act quickly and there is no time to lose. Therefore, he has tasked several working groups with the responsibility for bringing together experts and concerned activists from across the country to discuss initiatives. It is clear that he and his advisers are serious about the effort. For example, Anuzis jumped on a conference call for the tech grassroots on Tuesday night, thanking them for their forward thinking and openness.
Chairman Steele is right to be focused on technology. Americans are paying closer attention to politics than at any other time in recent history. With all the technologies available to distribute information this should be no surprise. But the technology is not necessarily one controlled by politicians. Politicians should wake up and realize that anyone with a cell phone now can be a reporter. Any slip of the tongue can wind up on YouTube. (Virginia Senator George Allen realized that a glib remark made at a small campaign event effectively undermined his re-election in 2006.)
Transparency is quickly becoming the buzz word in Washington. The days of politicians escaping from the public and evading responsibility for their rhetoric are drawing to an end. Websites like politifact.com are keeping tabs on the promises made and broken by President Obama. Individuals then can blast that information to their network on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter for thousands to see.
Chairman Steele has said that we are not going to win by using Facebook and Twitter. However, using all forums and media to reach voters, especially new voters, is the key to growing the party. “The internet is a living organism that is what you make of it,” says David All, a Republican strategist coordinating efforts for the tech grassroots working group.
Republicans are not that far behind and are quickly gaining ground on their political adversaries. The next congressional election will be here before you know it, and the presidential election is just a few years away. It is clear that if Chairman Steele has anything to say about it, the GOP will not repeat the same mistakes of 2008.
TO: Sergio Rodriguera Jr., et al.
RE: The Biggest Problem….
…was that the Republican Party organizational structure was ‘manned’, and I use the term loosely, by a bunch of dinosaurs and dinosaur wannabes. A group of cretins who did—as far as I could tell—absolutely nothing to use the technology available to present their ideals and goals to the rest of the nation.
Stephen Green, who lives a few score miles north of me even commented on PJM that he hardly saw ANY Republican door-knockers or any such presence during the run-up to the election. However, he stated there were certainly plenty of Democrats out there pestering people.
In my own county, in 2007, we took our dead-on-arrival web-site and turned it into an interactive, multi-tiered system to support the 2008 campaign. BUT, in my honest opinion, because the county party chair was LITERALLY in bed with the local newspaper, i.e., he’s married to the daughter of the publisher, NOTHING was EVERY allowed to be posted on the site. I suspect because the newspaper wanted to control its monopoly on the flow of information. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be good for filial felicity if the chair’s web-site contradicted what was published in the paper.
So, in 2008—just in time to support the disaster of the election—the web-site reverted back to a do-nothing thing that provided NOTHING to support the campaign.
RE: Steele
I look forward to what Steele is going to be doing. I REALLY like the business that he fired everyone at the national level upon assuming authority. I think that should be done in every state and county where nothing was accomplished to prevent the disaster of last November. Because as I witnessed it, at MY state level, the chair and his cronies did nothing useful to avert it.
You already have my opinion of the situation in my county. And I’m confident the problem was similar in most other counties as well.
RE: The Current Situation
Here, the chair, who is the same person who brought us November 2009 at the county level, has been talking a lot about coming up to the 21st Century in terms of communication. However, the problem, as I stated above, persists. He is STILL too closely tied to the local newspaper. So, I have my doubts as to the veracity of his claims. And I’ve advised some of the people on the team that is supposed to bring forth our new web-presence to keep an eye out for obstructions.
We’ll see what happens here. I hope it’s for the best, but I have my doubts…..
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Meet the new boss. He IS the old boss.]
Take care! The quickest way to get me to vote Democratic, in fact about the only way, is to cold call me on my cell. I don’t pay the subscription fee to canvas for ads. Leave me alone!!
None of this really matters as much as “branding” the Republicans as tech savvy. The irony of course is that the GOP is approaching this in a way that will allow the democrats to brand them as “look at those fuddy duddy dinosaurs pretending to be hip.” More than getting tech savvy the GOP needs to brand themselves as antiestablishment and the democrats as the Establishment. That shouldn’t be all the tricky as the Left has so dominated all cultural centers of power for so long the democrats really cant pretend that they aren’t the party of establishment.
http://rebelsk8.blogspot.com/
TO: Bill N
RE: Cold Calling
“Take care! The quickest way to get me to vote Democratic, in fact about the only way, is to cold call me on my cell. I don’t pay the subscription fee to canvas for ads. Leave me alone!!” — Bill N
I can understand and appreciate that. I hate political cold calls myself.
However, allow me to point out that Sergio stated the cell phone numbers were solicited of people who attended a Democratic Party rally, by the ‘warm-up’ crew. So the cell phone numbers were provided willingly by the attendees.
This seems to me to be a rather clever approach to soliciting would-be volunteers to help with a campaign. And I appreciate the lesson learned.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[In politics the middle way is none at all. -- John Adams]
TO: Chuck Pelto
RE: “Solicited Numbers”
Will you promise me that the Republicans will never call me unless I give them my number and ask them to? Never mind what the Obama “warm-up” team did. The article is encouraging the GOP to use new technology. I am telling them to take care with that technology, less they appear big-brotherish. Have you never gotten a call from a candidate in the past? Where did they get your number, hmmmmm? I am telling the pols to leave off. I want my number on a “Don’t Call” list. For all ads! Candidates, too.
Anecdotally I saw how effective Obama’s netwarfare could be. An otherwise sensible relation, MBA and highly business-savvy, raved about how “in touch” (s)he was with Obama, thanks to the frequent updates by cellphone. Not sure if this traffic also generates revenue for the phone service carrier but presumably yes, so I wouldn’t be surprised if carriers would be happy to help enable such new uses. …For any and all comers, not just Dems.
High tech outreach is a fine thing – if you have a message to go along with it.
Sending out e-mails screaming that the dems are taking us over a cliff at a hundred miles an hour – so vote republican and we’ll slow it down to fifty, isn’t really going to fire up the “whipped mule” voters (the ones who went to the polls like whipped mules and voted republican even though they knew it wasn’t going to matter).
I suspect the problem isn’t that the party lacks technical expertise – what it lacks is vision.
So Bill N really is not political or is a leftist trying to stop the Repubs from competing. Nice work there Bill N. :thumbsup:
You’re kidding right?
The head of the GOP, the man with the most GOP power today, is Arnold Hussein Schwarzenegger, the allegedly Republican Governor of California.
During this, the largest financial crisis his state has ever faced … during this the New Great Depression, as unemployment soars, as foreclosures mount in the millions amongst his neighbors … what does Mr. Republican do?
He raised their taxes.
I would add that, were it not for Republicans Arlen Spector, Olympia Snow and Susan Collins, the $787 billion Obama Transfer of Wealth wouldn’t have passed.
Make no mistake about it: the GOP will never, ever get another cent of my money, or my votes.
They’re working hand-in-hand with Democrats to enact the largest possible government; bankrupting my children in the process.
Take your netroots and stuff ‘em, buddy.
I’m voting for the guys who will free me from the government.
If the GOP decides to stand for something, like they did in 1994, they’ll win. Until then, welcome to the permanent minority. All the marketing in the world won’t sell a defective product to me.
If it could, I’d be a Democrat, because they were the ones making the promises. How are you liking that middle class tax cut?
TO: Bill N
RE: Try….
“Will you promise me that the Republicans will never call me unless I give them my number and ask them to?” — Bill N
…not to look like you were born last night.
You know better than that. If your phone number is in the phone book anybody can call you. ESPECIALLY if you’re registered to vote in your county. After all the County Clerk/Recorder requires you to provide your phone number and mailing address when you register to vote. And that information is made available to any interested party.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[I was born at night. But it wasn't LAST night.]
Readerer . . . you’re focusing on the Rinos, who happen to make up a small part of the Republicans. You’re not focusing on the majority of the Republicans who don’t think like those people you named. Try again.
P.S. About That “No Call” List….
It doesn’t apply to political or charitable organizations. It ONLY APPLIES to commercial sales organizations. At least in MY state. Your experience may vary….
#8. Mike is right…the party does lack vision. In 2002-2006, all of the members in Congress merely became “Democrat Lights”…they spent their way out of our first majority in 50 years.
What we really need is for a new vision, and to get that vision out to the country. Show that we are the right direction, and that a new “New Deal” will wreck the economy our economy just as FDR’s did in 1935-42, and will turn a deep recession into a true depression.
sk8 punk has it right. technological gewgaws alone are not going to bridge the message deficit. the idea that today’s GOP can’t call out the establishmentarianism tells many of us that the GOP’s governing class is as much the establishment as the Dems are, thus this whole “impassioned vitriol” thing starts to look like they’re all playing us for chumps. until the party gets its message straight and returns to principles – hint, the ones that will bring in the strays, not drive them away (and we know what i’m talking about here; let’s not make easy targets of ourselves for once, shall we?) – it’ll be sitting in the penalty box, cellphone in hand or not.
The GOP better realize there’s large voting blocks happy to vote Republican as long as they’re not told to screw off because they’re not pure enough. I’m not looking for the GOP to cater to my needs, but I don’t need a putz like Mike Gallagher letting me know I’m not needed to win elections.
I hope Chairman Steele begins his work by firing the entire staffs of the Republican National Committee, the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.
Those drones spent the entire 2008 campaign season mailing out ‘questionnaires’ and ‘opinion polls’ to their constituencies. The contents of said mailers were oh so motivating – ‘Do You Agree that Democrats are Horrible?’ – ‘On a Scale of 1 to 5, Do You Support Evil D(1) or Good R(5)?’ – and other push-poll signals too numerous to count. And always, if you wanted your ‘opinion’ counted, please send in $11 for processing, on top of your loyal contribution.
Between times, they were on the phone, several times a month. They still are, and my wife is offering brisk and ingenious prayers for their demises, jointly and severally. The warm-up caller reads a ghastly long script telling you what bad works the Democrats are about to do, and then asks you to hold the line for a longer and even more pontifical script by some Senator or other using rah-rah techniques from their 1949 high school class, leading up to the pitch for money.
Spare us, you jerks! Address one issue at a time, concisely and articulately – don’t waste our time. Throw back at the untouchable Obama the specifically broken promises, the bait-and-switches, and EXACTLY WHAT THE REPUBLICANS WOULD DO INSTEAD. Give us something to vote for, not against.
From what I’ve seen, folks who aren’t Democrats generally want to be left alone, and believe that leaving things alone is a big part of the Federal obligation.
IMO, it’s hard to get folks like that excited unless there’s a threat to that kind of existence. But these same folks are also willing to embrace hardship (as opposed to running to the nanny state every time they suffer misfortune), so their threshhold of alarm is higher. Ergo, unless they’re genuinely scared out of their wits by the government, their attitude is that they can survive even a Democratic government, so what the hey?
That’s oversimplifying, but it’s in service of a point. I just don’t think non-Democrats are as easily mobilized as Democrats. Self-reliant folks who ignore government don’t naturally band together to pay a lot of attention to it.
I don’t think the politics of fear is an answer, but I do think a politics of ridicule, satire, lampoon and hard work investigating things would be. “Investigation” as in, can anyone point out how many of the stimulus bill’s porky provisions existed previously in other incarnations which were, in those earlier forms, untenable as legislation anyone would take seriously?
Dems do use the politics of fear, citing the “haters” on the right. We can’t do likewise. The politics of ridicule exercised judiciously — where well deserved and NOT gratuitously — would take Libertarians and Conservatives far.
My two cents.
I am a former Republican. I left the party in 2005. Why? Because I joined up for term limits and a balanced budget. I got gay marriage and Terri Shively (I know the name isn’t right, but I’m close).
I felt as if I had been royally hornswoggled. I am fiscally and constitutionally conservative, but socially libertarian; as far as politics are concerned I care not one jot or iota about abortion, who-smokes-what, or who-marries-whom.
My personal views on such subjects are my business only, and are politically irrelevant. So are yours. (But then again, for social conservatives, it’s all about YOU, isn’t it?!)
I want one question answered before I sign up Republican again: Where were you guys in 2002-2003, when we could have gotten a handle on federal spending and forestalled this financial mess?
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
>:-/
The problem of the RNC isn’t their tech-savvy, nor how big their tent is. It’s that they basically believe the same things the Dems believe, only not as much: bigger gov’t, gov’t as nanny, and gov’t as a solver of problems. Whether these beliefs are desireable or not, the fact is that very few Republican voters believe in them. People that believe in those ideas go for the name-brand version, not the generic: they vote Democrat.
The GOP should be selling itself as the party of freedom: freedom from coercive laws, freedom from nannyism, freedom from PC, freedom from social engineering, freedom from excessive regulation and excessive taxation. Gov’t doesn’t solve problems, gov’t causes problems, and everyone knows this. Witness the cliche about dealing with the DMV.
How about slavery @20, are you ok with that? It is not as bad as killing people before they are born. Just as 3/5ths human was a compromise on Black slaves humanity. Murdering babies in the womb at any point is just the same kind of compromise.
As for homosexuals, I could care less about them shacking up as long as they respect my right to freedom of association. Heck they can marry their dog as far as I am concerned. As long as I can have schools, paid for with my taxes, and groups like the Boy Scouts which do not teach such as moral “lifestyle” choice.
Fair enough?
To summarize the better posts above – it AIN’T the medium, it’s the MESSAGE! And you have to back up your message with ACTIONS.
The Republican team in Congress let us down the last few years and Bush deserves a mixed review.
Activist Democrats have an interest in big government. Activist Republicans have some burning desire to influence events. But neither of those groups decide elections – it is the Independents and the apathetic who make the difference in most elections.
The message has to be common sense and stinging insight into the follies of liberalism and the Democratic Party. We’re looking for the easy “Duh!” moments here folks. Thankfully, Obama and the Democrats are giving us lots of material.
I have been trying to get the Republicans organized in my county/state Lincoln County, Oregon for months. I email republicans in state legislature – no response. The name, email address and phone number of the Lincoln County Republican Party is disconnected phone, no response from email not found. When I email the national GOP all I get are some lame emails asking for money. And we call the other team donkeys.
We don’t need to HEAR FROM the GOP. We need to PROVIDE INPUT TO the GOP. That’s what Grassroots is all about (I hope).
I used senatorial e-mail to let Specter know I was upset at his support of the stimulus bill. His office wrote back and said I wasn’t a constituent. He’s voting on the future of America and they say I’m not a constituent.
We need an organization to hold Congress accountable for their votes, whether we are in their district or not.
I propose cancelling your cable and print media until the next election to prevent brainwasing from the media. It will also help their demise.
And, it will send a message loud and clear to politicians the TEA PARTY has begun.
I see references to the Obama campaign requesting, then calling cell phone numbers. Some of the above comments are inaccurate.
The law, at 47 USC 227, provides that it is illegal to call a cell phone using automated dialing equipment for ANY REASON unless EXPRESS permission has been previously provided or there is an emergency. It does not matter if it is non-commercial. It does not matter if it is for charity. If your cell phone is dialed by an automated dialer without your express permission and it is not an emergency, you can sue the caller for $500-$1500 for each violation of the law or regulations.
For the purposes of this discussion, cell phones should not be called unless candidates have express permission to call citizen’s cell phones. Unless of course you want pay people like me $1500 when they sue you.
Also regulated are prerecorded message calls to residential lines (and cell phones, which by law are treated as residential lines) which must identify the caller and provide a telephone number at which the caller can be reached. The Utah Attorney general made calls in which a telephone number was not provided during the last election. Hmm.
The point is to be careful with technology solutions to get the message out. Even if legal, candidates may alienate voters with calls for which permission has not been granted.
The statute and the regulations made under that statute are easy to comply with. No point making stupid mistakes.
See:
47 USC 227:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html
47 CFR 64.1200
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=47&PART=64&SECTION=1200&YEAR=2001&TYPE=TEXT
I agree with rasqual #19. Republicans are not as easily mobilized or organized, and these higher tech avenues of communication may only achieve improved fundraising. We really need to develop the new talent within the party. Is Sarah Palin the best we can do? Republican women, Latinos, Blacks, Asians – where are they in this party!
#23:
Don’t get your cape in a twist, Fantom. Ever hear of the 13th Amendment? Attempts to liken abortion to slavery will get you written off as a loon by at least 50% of the electorate.
I never said and do not believe a lot of things you apparently ascribe to me. I never said that abortion or homosexuality were wonderful, just that I don’t care about them in a political context. (Where do you have to go in order to get away from “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”?)
My point was that we have much, much, bigger issues at hand – such as (1) the long-term fiscal stability of the Republic and (2) usurious taxation.
Thanks for proving my point though – it’s all about YOU, isn’t it? If you don’t want me joining your party because I’m not a True Believer, then, OK. See ya around.
Fair enough?
>:-/
#23 = #22. Sorry.
I hate it when my fingers do that!
Actually trouble. You are the selfish one when you allow murder of babies. The Right to life is actually in the Constitution. Of course when it is all about you(it actually fits you better) you could care less about others Right to Life. Which makes you no better than the last centuries slave owner.
Republicans also need to get over their fear of being called “nasty” or “insensitive” by Democrats. Most are so damn worried that the public will view them as terrible people that they back down from their convictions. GET OVER IT!!!! Politics is a down and dirty business, and the Democrats practice it well. Republicans need to be just as nasty and dirty as the Democrats when the situation calls for it. Have some balls!!!! Who gives a rats a– what Democrats think of us? We want to defeat them!!! Not make them our friends!!!
“Readerer . . . you’re focusing on the Rinos”
No, I’m focusing on card-carrying welcome members of the Republican Party. I ask you … has the GOP rebuked Arnold? Announced a cessation of all ties with him? Has the Michael Steele announced that Olympia Snowe is no longer welcome in the Republican Party? Absolutely not. They’re MORE than welcome. The GOP keeps these folks in power.
These are the standard bearers. These are the guys making the bailouts happen. Obama couldn’t do it without them on his team.
RINO, SCHMINO. We’re not buying that crapola anymore.
The Republican governors, Haley Barber, and the rest of them? Not turning down stimulus. Taking Obama’s bribes. They’re bought cheap, and who knows it better than a Chicago pol?
When it comes time to vote, I’ll be pushing every lever against Republicans to eviscerate the Party so that we can make way for a new conservative organization, one not tainted by the Schwarzeneggers and their ilk.
Fantom:
Thanks for proving my point, see ya around.
Since you brought this up: as far as government is concerned (I say again: as far as government is concerned), when does life begin? The question can be answered quite easily by looking at your drivers’ license. What is listed there: your date of birth, or your estimated date of conception?
Thought so. Have fun in your little regional party; enjoy your permanent minority status.
“We’ve got to save our phony baloney jobs!”
I think the tea party might have some effect.
The republican party still doesn`t get it……….
I am 200% on Trouble’s side. Especially because Social Conservatives like Fantom drag down the Republicans with their inability to separate church and state. This is a political party, Fantom. We’re a secular country inclusive of many religions. You don’t share my views, and I keep them off political tickets.
When Social Conservative platforms (gays, abortion, creationism) are cleansed from our arguments, you magically find that Dems find the remainder pretty hard to dispute. When we can become fiscal conservatives again and keep our nose the hell out of people’s bedrooms, we will be an unstoppable force for good.
And who, exactly, is to strip Arnold of his Republican label? He IS elected so has more legitmacy than any other state office holder (except Steve Poisner).
My problem with Arnold is that he is a coward. He came in talking tough, won our votes, then folded after his first setback in his initial political battle. What if Lincoln had folded after the first Battle of Bull Run? Or what if we had quit after Pearl Harbor or if Washington had gave up after being expelled from New York?
Renewal has to come from the grass roots. We show some energy and spunk and make enough noise then leaders will find us.
We should be taking it to the streets!
While I’m sympathetic to our social conservatives, ain’t nothing going to happen until we change the Supreme Court and that takes electorial vistories, many of them. Then we can bring the abortion issue back to the states where it should properly be decided via the legislative or initiative process.
Sk8 Punk The irony of course is that the GOP is approaching this in a way that will allow the democrats to brand them as “look at those fuddy duddy dinosaurs pretending to be hip.”
Hm. Sounds like pretty [bleeped] judgmental, elitist speak to these Fingertips..
Trouble I got gay marriage and Terri Shively (I know the name isn’t right, but I’m close).
It’s (Terri Schindler) Schiavo, and they were trying to prevent her murder concerted by a person with a vested interest in the same.. Eugenics won out in the end, population control and all, you know.
37 Air2air, I back you and Trouble. I am a Christian and fiscally Conservative. But as our minister says, we usually get ourselves into trouble when we think that God’s plan won’t work unless we intervene. If others want to make choices with the body He gave them, then they will get an opportunity to answer for that later. Fantom, if you don’t believe that then I would ask how strong your faith really is.
What should the Republican party be, in order to win my vote? In no particular order …
1) The party of civil rights. Republicans should never have let the Democrats steal that.
2) I’m trying to start a small business. Leave me alone. The government couldn’t impose a higher standard on me than I do, myself.
3) I have a day job as well. Leave them alone.
4) The party of fiscal conservatism.
5) The party of defense.
6) The party of controlled immigration. Close the borders.
One more thing: elephants have thicker skin than donkeys. Republican congresscritters’ efforts to be collegial with the Democrats have gotten them nothing, and us a world of hurt. Stand for something!
Got to be my favorite quote, from Michael Steel responding to Glenn Beck’s questions about Republicans:
“You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point.”
Oopsie, he used his truth voice instead of his party voice. Now that’s a leader the RNC can really get behind. If not the RNC then certainly the DNC. thanks, Michael. We’ll be using that one again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again
Where did I mention the Bible? Not that such is bad. After all it is separation of the State from Religion. Not separation of Religion from state. Religious People have a right to redress of grievances too. They have every right to engage in the political process as anyone else does.
Anyhow. One need not be religious at all to realize it is wrong to own slaves. And to realize ALL people have a Right to Life. It is right there in our Founding Documents. “Life,Liberty., and the persuit of Happiness”.. In fact it comes first.
Trouble, are you a libtard or what? The birth date on ones drivers license is hardly a government mandate on when Life begins. LOL. It is simply a recognition of date of birth. Certainly people of good conscience are endeavouring to fulfill our Founders belief in Life as being a fundamental right. Really it should be clear that such is so, except to the most selfish(liberal) amongst us. Really it is clearer than the slavery issue, in which amongst other things, Government considered a Black man as only 3/5ths human. Fortunately, people of good conscience concluded otherwise and refused to accept that Government decree.
As for many other “Social” issues. The common sense that marriage is between one man and one woman is a winner too. Even in such a liberal hellhole as California it has been proven so.
Nope, leftist liberal trolls are wrong. Now slink back to the d.u.
Sheeple.. er steeple. ROTFLMAO… I do not worry about my faith.
Cindy Sue #39:
Thanks for refreshing my memory. I recall that those two unhappy families already had been pushed through 50 kinds of hell by the court system. The local and state courts had (by dint of access to information to which we on the outside were not privy) decided the matter as they had – much to the evident displeasure of the social conservative lobby.
What was the Republican Party’s response to all this? “Separation of powers be damned! Constitutional jurisdiction be hanged! Let’s get the Federal government involved!”
To paraphrase P. J. O’Rourke, this was roughly akin to saying, “Dad burned dinner again, so let’s have the dog do the cooking.”
This whole sad affair (1) inspired me to write a living will and (2) drove me out of the Republican Party. “Party of Limited Government” my… big toe.
If the Republican Party of 2001-2005 had pursued term limits, balanced budgets, and de-evolution of Federal powers with the same vigor they exhibited in the Terri Schiavo case, I’d still be a Republican.
I have no problem working alongside people whose opinions on this, or that, or the other issue, happen to differ from my own. I realize that many people have studied these issues and come to conclusions which differ from my own. However, there is no good reason that I should be likened to a slave owner or a eugenicist simply because I have concluded that abortion should not be a political football.
With all best regards –
T
The Democrats have made abortion into a political issue, when it’s an ethics issue. Killing the unborn is infanticide. That’s the definition. And like that or not, we’ve terminated over 50 million would be American citizens by promoting its performance. Getting close to Stalin in scope.
I don’t propose we outlaw abortion. However, as a conservative I believe it’s unethical for my gov’t to spend my tax dollars to facilitate it. My principled stand has nothing to do with faith, as I’m an atheist.
Fantom –
I apologize – we seem to be debating at cross purposes. I’m discussing the nature of government; you’re discussing the nature of existence.
My sole concern in everything I’ve written here is the limitation of government power. Government’s province in our Republic is outlined in the preamble and in the Declaration of Independence. Clearly, our government is charged with maintaining the public peace, not public morals (see Jefferson’s “it neither picks peoples’ pockets nor breaks their legs” statement).
Or should government usurp the role of priest, as Jeroboam did?
We can debate the nature of existence and of ethics until we’re all blue at the mouth, but right now the issues facing the country have more to do with the nature of government. Federal spending and deficits are, IMHO, items #1 and #2 on the list. Abortion is somewhere around #17,622.
Again: I have no problem with your opinions on abortion, so long as you have no problem with my opinion that it should not be a political football – especially right now.
Inability to put aside one’s personal agenda for the sake of addressing matters of greater urgency – this strikes me as truly selfish.
As for the attacks on my personal character, I’ll take my Mom’s advice: “If there’s a turd in the punchbowl, leave it there – and don’t drink the punch.”
Pleasant evening all -
T
TO: All
RE: One of the Idiots
Don’t you love it when people take thinks out of context?
If we went with the UCLA Chicano Research Center’s concept of ‘hate speech’, we could have this guy arrested and thrown away.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out, and one on his own isn't going to like it....]
“……..because I have concluded that abortion should not be a political football.
With all best regards -
T”
Until a wrong is righted, what else can it be? Was slavery a
political football”? Should Blacks not being allowed at the lunch counter be a “political football”?
You made your cape, now wear it.
Back to the onus of this tread, Our message is right, and just. We just need to engage it as fiercely as the deceivers, the liberals do. No few of which have made their way here. It is time for conservative civil unrest/disobedience.
Remember how scared the left media was when a few conservatives demonstrated outside the canvasing office in Dade… back when al gore was trying to steal an election?
It is past time for a conservative ACORN… time to kick down some liberal doors.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Frederick Douglass
#42: The truth hurts but we’re miles ahead of an administration that just blew $800 billion and now calls for fiscal responsibility.
Trouble., Governments basic purpose is to ensure the rights of the People. I am sad you think a baby in the womb is not a person. In a different age, some thought others not people too.
Thanks T for bringing this up. A little late to the discourse.. but hey.
Government’s province in our Republic is outlined in the preamble and in the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Do you notice where ‘Life” is Trouble?
I live in rural northern CA, My local Republican ‘machine’ does not have a website. Central Committee meetings look like an Alzheimer ward.
The only time the party contacted anyone is for money. A local businessman ‘tried’ to donate a storefront to the party (electricity
incl.) party said no. Anyone want to
start a radical right party up here?
It seems that the Democrats have no trouble employing the technology.
Their campaign has already started. They are getting the word out by internet, and phone, From the Daily Kos, their latest targets and phone strategy.
Hello, I’m calling on behalf of House Democrats with an important message about the economy.
Did you know Congressman Thad McCotter voted against President Obama’s economic recovery plan, endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? McCotter’s empty rhetoric can’t hide that he voted to raise the AMT tax on 22 million middle class Americans and against the largest tax cut in history.
Call McCotter at 734-632-0314 to ask why he voted to raise taxes on middle class families.
Check out Recovery For America to learn more.
The full list of targeted Republicans is below the fold.
0. ::
Automated calls will be running in the following Republican Members’ districts:
Representative Judy Biggert (IL-13)
Representative Ken Calvert (CA-44)
Representative Michael Castle (DE-AL)
Representative Charlie Dent (PA-15)
Representative Jim Gerlach (PA-06)
Representative Mark Kirk (IL-10)
Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-09)
Representative Dan Lungren (CA-03)
Representative Thad McCotter (MI-11)
Representative Adam Putnam (FL-12)
Representative Dave Reichert (WA-08)
Representative Pete Sessions (TX-32)
Hey folks, its time to wake up before we have a one party system.
I’m an ex-Democrat and think the Repubes are a disgrace.
McCain? Specter? Snowe? Collins? Grahamnesty? Voinavich?
Who ARE these freaks?
THROW…THEM…OUT.
TO: Dan
RE: Tough Times
“I live in rural northern CA, My local Republican ‘machine’ does not have a website. Central Committee meetings look like an Alzheimer ward.” — Dan
Looks like you need to start a revolution WITHIN the county party.
I’d recommend taking the fight to the web. Set up a web-site of your own and start posting your observations. Call upon the local libertarians. Cite Stephen Green’s recent article that the Republican Party, is STILL their best hope for changing the government.
Be sure to use humor in your postings and communications.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever. -- Mark Twain]
Conservatives and libertarians understand that, as a group, we need to harness new technologies to re-energize a movement that advocates a return to a smaller, more fiscally restrained government that interferes less in one’s financial or personal business. We want government to get out of our lives, and to get back to the business of governing by the rules laid out in the Constitution.
Those are all issues we need to deal with. But myself, I don’t believe that’s really at the heart of our problem.
Our main challenge is wrapped up in a core conservative/libertarian belief–that we as Americans have a right to self-determination. The freedom to choose for one’s self cannot exist without a personal sense of responsibility, a willingness to accept the consequences (good and bad) of our choices. And a majority of Americans have lost the desire to be responsible for themselves; they would rather give up their freedom in return for an easy life with few consequences, even if that life is constrained by the government.
The question isn’t about technology, or about signing up volunteers. It’s about transforming Americans’ priorities, to show that accepting responsibility for their own successes–and failures–is a better alternative than anything Congress could offer.
I don’t know the answer to this, but I hope other, more learned readers out there do. Thoughts?
53. Dan, et al . . . The Republicans are back! Conservatism is coming out of exile! Patriots are no longer under ground! They’ve finished re-branding themselves! Michael Steele can update his message from “You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point.” to a new mantra care of Pajamas Media’a own Dan . . . “Central Committee meetings look like an Alzheimer ward.”
Wow, watch out Barack! The Lawrence Welkians are coming to get you.
I wouldn’t worry about the internet so much. Anybody can learn to use it. The problem is that we are way behind in using it for political purposes. Our real worry is the left’s agenda. We need to worry about the census, redistricting, the fairness doctrine, and their political hit list. We could wake up and find out that we are too late to act.
Other real dangers:
Amnesty for Illegal aliens
Gun control
Abandoning our allies
Reduced defense funding
Nationalizing our banks and industries
Inflation (yes, believe it or not)
Agreeing to abide to the World Court
I’m open to other suggestions
Learning how to operate a software program isn’t technology literacy.
The left makes hay with this because the younger crowd equates learning how to operate a software program correctly as a high tech achievement: “Obama is one with me. He gets it.” No, he doesn’t. Obama doesn’t know technology from ungulates. no different than any other leftist. (Technology is about creating, about opportunity. The left is about taxing and regulating. They create nothing. The twain not only doesn’t meet; it doesn’t even leave the station on the left…)
You can sorta prove this to yourselves. The left is against funding NASA adequately. “We have problems to solve right here on earth.” Yet we solve those best when we are investing into technology (which is wealth creation.) The republicans are space supporters. Dan Qualye was an advocate of DC/X which if the #$#%#& democrats hadn’t killed would have reduced launch costs to the point that we could be putting solar power collection satellites into orbit today. (We already know the basics and knew them then; it’s a matter of engineering.) There solves the energy problems of the current day. Could have been done by 1990. It’s republicans who are the party of high tech (the real right stuff), not the left. The left kills high tech.
The left wants to kill the missile shield, citing asymmetrical warfare as the only extant threat. Which of course is true until some rogue party gets hold of a working (Iranian? North Korean?) missile and a nuke. The question isn’t IF, but WHEN. The left is anti-technology. Always has been.
As I see it what the republicans need to do is find a way to get this across. Facebook etc is immaterial. Just get the message out that the real and true party of technology is the GOP.
Of course it’s kinda tough to come across as the party of science and technology when the social conservatives are busy doing their best to kill stem cell lines. The party is therefore going to have to either drop social conservatism as a platform plank (consistent messages are required if anything is going to ever work) or concede “high tech” to the party that has no idea what high tech is. Of course, doing so will also screw the US for generations into the future as well. Much is at stake.
REPOST from another thread, but most is germane enough –
The GOP needs a laser focus on the left’s INTENTIONS for the long term.
#1. ENERGY
a) global warming — the EPA will soon declare CO2 a pollutant, which is silly (you exhale the stuff, so we’re all polluters?)
a1) they will use this to enact law that will tax us all silly for boondoggles that either won’t work or can’t make amy real difference.
a2) they intend to force the auto companies to create hybrid and other “green” cars; this will have a negative ripple effect.
b) they will pursue a NIMBY approach to drilling
c) and a NIMBY approach to nuke plants
d) and a NIMBY approach to waste storage
Energy Summary — you need to have a good idea what they are doing, know why it’s wrong, and what to do about it. Energy is the #1 problem we face going forward. The left will cripple the US energy infrastructure. After bailing everyone and everything, there will be no money to do improvements. Solve this.
#2. FOREIGN POLICY
The world doesn’t hate us. It didn’t hate George Bush. The failure of the GOP to stop that mendacious assertion was one of the reasons voters figured Obama was a reasonable choice.
On the other hand foreign policy could well break things under the left’s watch. You need to discuss what is likely to break and what to do about it.
#3. RESOURCES
As mentioned in energy the left wants hybrids for all. They don’t want to send money to places that hate us.
But.
To make hybrids these take permanent magnets. Ones the public can afford are either Cobalt or Neodynium. Most of the world’s cobalt is in Bolivia (they hate us) and Zaire (they hate veryone as well as themselves.) 95% of the Neodynium is in China.
Hmmmm.
***
Just throwing this out here, but mastery of really basic stuff is way more important than some imbecile’s idea to put up a facebook page or get a twitter channel. High Tech is NOT the ability to follow directions and use somebody’s software. High Tech is the ability to understand what’s happening in the world and make the technology flow smoothly, as in being able to know what raw materials we’re going to need to be able to formulate a policy worth a damn. Right now the GOP seems hopeless. At least the left knows what a hybrid is. Beat them at their own game. They intend to make this stuff an issue whether you want it to be that way or not. If you intend to beat the left and you’re pro business… PROVE IT.
Chuck(le)
I just checked out your website. Colorado
Mensa huh? Last post was September 24, 2007. None of those buttons (statistics, etc., you know)work,
maybe you need an IT guy. Here is a joke for you,
People who live in glass websites shouldn’t throw
posts.
Just pullin’ your chain,
Dan
TO: Dan
RE: COMensarations
Last post 2007….
….it’s been an interest two years. Mother-in-Law passing away, despite our best efforts to fight off the carcinoma and stuff like that there.
As for your ‘joke’….
“People who live in glass websites shouldn’t throw posts.” — Dan
…are you suggesting because I’ve been OBE, I should be ‘silenced’?
How ‘Democratic’ of you.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[If you can't beat them, kill them. -- Democrat axiom]
P.S. And….
…based on your previous post (#53), I thought you were a living-breathing human being…..
….obviously my mistake. And I apologize…..
P.P.S. You’re obvious unaware of my other blog, which focuses more on local, i.e., city-county politics.
I’d REALLY like to be all things to all people, but I’m only a human being. Unlike you…..
P.P.P.S….
….don’t go gett’n the ‘big head’ because I’ve replied to you in several items here.
I’m just working on supper, carna adobada and quacamole salad. I’m ‘slumming’ between stirring the meat in the pot.
If it weren’t for the timing, I’d probably have missed your odd comments here….
After all, I have a life outside of the world-wide-web….
58. one of your own:
53. Dan, et al . . . The Republicans are back! Conservatism is coming out of exile! Patriots are no longer under ground! They’ve finished re-branding themselves! Michael Steele can update his message from “You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point.” to a new mantra care of Pajamas Media’a own Dan . . . “Central Committee meetings look like an Alzheimer ward.”
Wow, watch out Barack! The Lawrence Welkians are coming to get you.
To paraphrase Forrest Gump…… “Stupid is as liberals do.”
In other words, go away you sorro’s clown. Your saint B.O.(obama) not only smells better than you, the P.O.S. actually is smarter than you. Which means he is epic fail.
Dang slack jawed liberals… worse than flies at a water mellon feed…………. an twice as stupid.
Well, well, well . . . I’ve heard Obama, the future of America. And I’ve heard Jindal, the future of the Republican party. I need say nothing more.
On behalf of mister man, hot and right, high as a kite, and our fearless leader Sambo Hux, I leave you to yourselves.
The key will be using new technology in a new way. Using new technology in the same old way won’t work. Cold calling a cell phone instead of a land line IS NOT using new technology. The cold call was invented by Watson the day after Mr. Bell requested his presence. How about a text message with a number to call to do an opinion poll? That way you will get those that use a cell instead of a land line and won’t annoy them if they are in the middle of boffing the bosses wife or something else sensitive.
I’m sure there are many creative ways to use 21st century communications in a 21st century way.
G. Alston,
You made sense when you point that the GOP is the party of technology. Then you go off the rails, again, slamming true conservatives. You’re a Randian aren’t you?
The best way to approach the ‘kick the socons out’ (after you get off the floor and wipe the tears of laughter from your face) is to point out that the Republican Party is a conservative party. We welcome all voters, but only bring the conservative part of yourself to the big tent.
When you go to a football game, you don’t wear spats. When you go to pull weeds in the garden, you don’t wear your autographed football jersey.
When you come to the Conservative Party, bring whatever part of yourself is conservative. Leave the rest at home.
This continual debate between the dozen different varieties of moderates and the massively larger base only benefits the RINOs who have no principles other than ‘its good to be the king’. Its time and past time to put this debate in the past, and to move on to a bright future with greater freedom, righteousness, security, and prosperity for all (but the slime-buckets).
If you’re one of the dozen different varieties of moderate, or one of the many other fringe movements, and you want to attack the Left in some non-conservative fashion, the Conservative Party may see fit to aid you in an alliance of convenience. Or it may not.
Forex: We might be able to make common cause with Randians. With Jew-haters, not so much.