RePork Card from Club for Growth

CLUB FOR GROWTH 2007 RePORK CARD

U.S. HOUSE

(A high score means voted against pork-barrel spending)

State------------- Score----Ratio
ID – 1--SALI -------- 94%---47/50

ID -2 --SIMPSON-----4% ---2/50

Sali voted against pork 47 out of 50 times.
Simpson voted 2 times against pork spending.

THE letter-to-the-editor of the Year, so far ...

August 8, 2007

Mr. Dean Stone, Editor
The Daily Times
307 E Harper Ave
Maryville, TN 37804

Subject: Pork Barrel vs. Bridge Repair

Dear Editor,

Nearly $7 million in U.S. Highway Transportation funds were secured by Senator Lamar Alexander for the construction of an unpopular funded Civic Arts Center located on the property of Maryville College. Most local taxpayers objected to the use of local tax money for this building which was not owned by the local governments. The Federal portion was just a forgotten background note as most citizens view Federal money as coming from some free source not directly linked to their tax dollars.

Now comes the Minnesota bridge collapse which is linked to a lack of funding (U.S. Highway Transportation) for repairing bridges. There is such a shortfall in available funding we hear that we might have to raise the Federal gasoline tax (which funds bridge repair). I say baloney! The funding to keep our bridges safe was there until numerous pork barrel projects such as the local Civic Arts Center robbed the funds.

Now to be sure, Lamar is not the only Senator to “bring home the bacon” from other Federally earmarked funds to his local friends. I am not trying to single him out. However, should Maryville College erect crosses in the lawn of the new Civic Arts Center in memory of the Minnesota people who died because someone took the funds from their bridge repair budget?

The Civic Arts Center was called a transportation improvement program in order to qualify for Federal funding. Was it given a higher priority than the Minnesota bridge? Pork Barrel projects always cost somebody; and some have paid with their lives. Kind of gives one pause before congratulating a politician for “bringing home the bacon”.

Sincerely,

W.W. (Sunny) Day
Louisville, TN 37777

Grant, LaRocco got nutroots

Anybody, who knows anything about insider politics (current Idaho GOP elected officials excluded) knows that the Daily Kos is the nutty, nuts of the left "idea and policy fountain" for ultra-leftist nutty ideas. (It used to be the New York Times)

All, repeat all, of the Democratic presidential candidates attended the Daily Kos' annual convention dubbed the Yearly Kos. They refer to themselves as Kossacks.

The groovy Idahoans attending were Larry LaRocco and Larry Grant, a.k.a "My brother Larry and my other brother Larry."

If you need to read all about it from the nutroots perspective, here is the link to Red State Rebel's blog about her big adventure with the Kossacks.

Sen. Gary Schroeder is ideologically blinded

Idaho State Senator Gary Schroeder (R-Peoples Republic of Moscow) is blind-in-one-eye-and-can’t-see-out-of-the-other. He has been repeatedly endorsed by the ultra-leftist teachers’ union. He is the apple of the liberal’s eye, and he also fancies himself as a Republican.

Schroeder is quoted in the July 26, 2007 Lewiston Tribune blathering about how closed primaries in Idaho may cost some people their jobs. Maybe he was talking about himself:

Schroeder worries people like judges or state government employees would stop voting in primaries if they must register with a party.

Idaho had three different governors in the space of a year and Statehouse workers lost their jobs as a result, Schroeder said.

"The Capitol Boulevard is running with blood," Schroeder said. "People lose their jobs because they're in the wrong party... and if you register, they know what party you're in."

Schroeder should take back his vile words. “Running with blood” is a crude insult to Idaho governors and this from a Senate committee chairman.

After taking back his words, Schroeder might detect that he has been silent on plentiful examples of ideological discrimination.

Journalism:

[Well-known national columnist Robert] Novak blamed liberal discrimination which he said forces young conservatives to remain "in the closet" if they hope to have a career in media.

"One of the big differences in 50 years is that the liberals have now filtered into the executive ranks of journalism. And so if you go into journalism now not in the closet but out in the open as a conservative, you're going to have a hard time getting a job, believe me." (Source: Media Research Center)


Academia: (University of Idaho included)

Thus, academic hiring committees are elitist and self-selecting, and function like medieval guilds to insulate themselves from external scrutiny. Once an academic hire is made, faculty "tenure" provides lifetime employment to the competent and the incompetent, the scholar and the ideologue alike. This means that outside the hard sciences and practical professions, there is no bottom-line in the university for bad ideas or discredited doctrines. Working in combination with these academic realities, the tolerant attitudes of a free society have made it possible for ideological minorities in the social sciences and related fields to enforce a political conformity otherwise incomprehensible in a modern democracy.

As a result, while the red and blue electoral map reveals an America that is almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, in the nation's universities Republicans (and conservatives) have become almost as rare as unicorns. In most schools, Republicans are less well represented than Greens, Marxists and sects of the far left. This is an indefensible situation with far-reaching implications.

(Source: David Horowitz from his book "You Can't Get a Good Education If They're Only Telling You Half the Story.")

The Politically Correct Constitution

Pick your presidential candidate

This is a good test to see if you are supporting the presidential candidate who closely matches up with your views.

It is also helpful for those studying the candidates.

Click here to take the test.

I matched up with Duncan Hunter ... which is correct for me.

How about you ... post your comments.

Grassroots Idaho GOP file lawsuit for party registration

The liberals are screaming (as usual) that the rotten grassroots members of the Idaho Republican Party have filed suit in Federal Court to require that only declared Republicans be permitted to vote to select the Republican candidates in the Primary Election to represent them in the General Election.

Seems the liberals and RINO's (that's Republicans In Name Only) are witnessing the fact that they will no longer be able to count on cross-over voting in the primary to get elected ... and that means ... the gig is up.

The grassroots GOP'ers believe is it wrong in principle for liberals and their comrades to have a hand in selecting their choice of candidates to face the liberals in the General Election.

In other words, why should the a team have the ability to help select their opponent's starting line-up?

Go to Grassroots Idaho GOP for all the latest news on this important issue.

Comfort level: Nudist vs. Democrat

Hat Tip to Red State Rebels:

 

But a story on the site caught my eye, about the Northwest nudists' convention in Worley. The AP story reported, "Terri Capshaw, an Idaho nudist who built a home next to Sun Meadow, says, 'Your body needs air and sunshine. To me it's just like exercise. I'm more comfortable telling people I'm a nudist than saying I'm a Democrat.'"

People for the Ethical Treatment of Taxpayers

A new pro-taxpayer protection group has been established in Florida with the fantastic name "People for the Ethical Treatment of Taxpayers."

 

This is one of those head-slapping names where you say, "Why didn't I think of that."

 

We wish them the best of results joining the ranks of the many taxpayer groups all across America, struggling to squeeze the juice out of local and state government political machines who, with the help of their private sector cronies, keep pickpocketing the families of American taxpayers.

 

Give a visit to their web site at:  www.pettpac.org.

 

Better yet, send them a couple bucks for help.

 

With a name like that ... it has to be good.

 

Keep rattling,

 

Big Rattler

Biased media hits cultural "tipping point" with Sen. Switchback expose

This insta-ad was produced by HotAir.com (Michelle Malkin). What is important to note, aside from the ad and its content, is how the old drive-by media, the dinosaur press, the mainstream media is being left in the dust heap of history. The new manner and techniques used by the American public simply by-passed the old relics of news dissemination.

The hard-fought immigration issue could be noted in the eyes of future historians as the "tipping point" when it became obvious that these electronic information transfers surrounding this bill is indeed the symbolic moment when the people who are willfully self-governed by the republic threw away the news filter of the self-anointed elites.

(Note: I did not use the term democracy for good reason. "And to the democracy for which it stands?")

With this in mind, please take a click at this wonderful insta-ad:



We see Sen. Sam Brownback switching his vote. Other bloggers and the like have posted Brownback's news release crowing that he voted against the failed immigration bill. Brownback is mocked.

This ad is prima facia evidence that the political gamesmanship practiced by too many politicians is a big reason why Congress suffers from a 14% approval rating.

Politicians are not stupid people when it comes to getting and remaining elected.

This culture shift will be duly noted. The best news is that they are now held accountable to an extent they never were before, and the drive-by media is in large part to blame for covering up this gamesmanship with their biased reporting.

Make way you biased-old, creaky, phony journalists for the blessings of liberty now create confusion in your wretched ranks. You risk being smited by drowning in your own ink.

Thou shalt not steal, even by majority vote.

An excellent article by Gary North on the Duke University scandal and its cultural importance.

North's article is titled: What I learned from Duke University

Quick excerpt:

The elite bourgeoisie and the professors are allied together in a struggle to overcome historic Christianity and the free market. To put this as a slogan, they stand together against Moses and Mises – against Moses, because they refuse to answer to God; against Mises, because they refuse to answer to consumers.

David Ripley: Idaho's justices have denied us our constitutional rights

Big Rattler obtained an orginal copy of this complete article.

Be advised that pro-homosexual PrideDepot.com reports that Idaho Statesman political hachet man, Dan Popkey, sits in Washington D.C. gay bars flashing a photo asking if they know of anyone who "did it" with this guy.    Why would anyone take Popkey's opinions seriously?

 

This is a copy of the guest editorial that ran in the Idaho Statesman 6-22-07:

Dan Popkey is mistaken when he claims that Justice Linda Copple Trout's imperious revision of the Idaho Constitution is somehow an improvement — or, more insultingly, "a favor" to voters.

In the June 13 column, Popkey seeks to defend the decision by two sitting justices to resign early in order to manipulate the selection of their successors. This is not a legitimate exercise of their public trust. In fact, I believe their bold challenge is a violation of their oath of office to defend our state constitution.

Popkey echoes the elitism of Trout when he writes that we would all be better off to leave the hard and complicated work of justice selection to some unelected committee. These special folks will somehow provide us all with a better crop of justices.

I submit Popkey is simply wrong on both a philosophical and practical level.

Idaho voters have done very well without the help of liberal elites. There can be no serious indictment of the quality of Justices Wayne Kidwell, Jim Jones and Daniel Eismann. These people were selected by the people and have served with great distinction. Not even Popkey has leveled a charge that these populists have lacked integrity or proper judicial temperament.

So the problem Popkey seeks to fix must be something else. It seems likely that Popkey is simply frustrated that Idaho voters are considerably more conservative than he. Like many elites, he wants a more liberal judiciary, unaccountable to the people, because that is about the only way his agenda could ever be accomplished.

But the Founding Fathers crafted the Constitution to protect our freedom from just such plots.

Popkey seeks to legitimize his arguments with the claim that he would allow a limited role for the people. Well, I appreciate this consideration — but his bread crumbs don't amount to much. Under his plan, Idaho voters will have a chance to vote for justices in just the same way that the old Soviet Politburo allowed Russians a chance to ratify their decisions. It is, after all, highly unlikely that any qualified lawyer would risk a challenge of a newly appointed justice — particularly when their judicial record would be so slim by the time of candidate filing next spring.

It is only through the rigors of a contested election or a long judicial record that Idahoans will get a solid understanding of the justice's philosophy and values. But by the time we find out that a social engineer has captured a post of such power — it may well be too late.

The dangers of a runaway judiciary are all about us. The list of damages created by the 9th Circuit alone is enough to serve as a clarion call that we must rise to defend our rights under the Idaho Constitution.

David Ripley is executive director of Idaho Chooses Life , a pro-life political action committee.

Victims of Communism Memorial Dedicated in DC

From the Washington Times (6-13-07):

President Bush yesterday told hundreds of people whose countries had emerged from the grip of communism that their sacrifices would not be forgotten as he dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial to the millions oppressed and
killed by totalitarian regimes.

"We'll never know the names of all who perished, but at this sacred place, communism's unknown victims will be consecrated to history and remembered forever," he said to more than 500 people just blocks from the Capitol. "We dedicate this memorial because we have an obligation to those who died, to acknowledge their lives and honor their memory."

The memorial is the only such monument in the world, according to its founders, who estimate that communist governments have killed more than 100 million people.

Mr. Bush compared the Cold War to the fight against terrorism, saying that the "evil and hatred" that inspired totalitarian regimes to kill millions is shared by terrorists today.

The bronze, 10-foot "Goddess of Democracy" statue was meant not only to memorialize the victims, but also to combat the ignorance of communism's global effects, said conservative historian Lee Edwards, chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

[Statue modeled after the figure Chinese students placed in Tiananmen Square in 1989, which was subsequently destroyed by Chinese tanks]

"This is to send a very clear message that one-fifth of the world's population still live under communism and not by their choice," he said.

The ceremony came exactly 20 years after President Reagan visited the Berlin Wall and called on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear it down. [More...]

T. Blair on the news media

Exiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair delivered a speech on how the media has blurred the lines between news and commentary.

 

Unfortunately, Blair, who has a record of favoring the "big-government" philosophy, concludes that reviewing government imposed news standards may likely be streamlined and put under one authority instead of the various public overseers present in the U.K. today.

 

It appears that he places little faith with the punishment that the marketplace can deliver to sub-standard reporting even if the marketplace moves slowly but surely over time.  If there is a demand for delivering hard-news in an unbiased fashion, the marketplace will reward those who fulfill that what has become a rather niche market, in light of the hard news being who is up or down in the latest offering of American Idol.

 

Here is an excerpt of Blair's speech:

 

Fourth, rather than just report news, even if sensational or controversial, the new technique is commentary on the news being as, if not more important than the news itself. So - for example - there will often be as much interpretation of what a politician is saying as there is coverage of them actually saying it. In the interpretation, what matters is not what they mean; but what they could be taken to mean. This leads to the incredibly frustrating pastime of expending a large amount of energy rebutting claims about the significance of things said, that bears little or no relation to what was intended.

In turn, this leads to a fifth point which is the confusion of news and commentary. Comment is a perfectly respectable part of journalism. But it is supposed to be separate. Opinion and fact should be clearly divisible. The truth is a large part of the media today not merely elides the two but does so now as a matter of course. In other words, this is not exceptional. It is routine.

Black eye to KBCI (C.BS)

From NewsBusters Media Research Center:

Boise TV: Snide Remarks During Soldier's Upbeat Report
Posted by Warner Todd Huston on June 12, 2007 - 03:07.

What is it about some news outlets that they can't report a story without trying to flavor it with their own biases? That they can't give "just the facts m'am" but have to throw in their snide asides and negative phraseology? And, it's bad enough when they do it in their normal attempts at "reporting" the news, but when they do it in between an upbeat report by one of our soldiers who's opinion is that the surge is working and our presence in Iraq is a good thing, it's all the more grating. But, then, they just can't leave their hatred for American foreign policy aside long enough to report this soldier's enthusiasm, now can they?

In this case, Boise, Idaho TV 2 News, in a story by Scott Logan, just can't leave the snide comments out of their story of Army First Sergeant Noah Edney's enthusiastic point of view on our efforts in Iraq. Even the title seems to take a swipe at policy: Boise Infantryman In Baghdad Shares Views On "Surge" -- notice the quotation marks around the word surge? Even as surge is a commonly acceptable term and not one to be questioning with quotations they cast doubt onto it by using the grammatical device. [More...]

Price of Stamps vs. Gasoline

This is quite interesting. Hat tip to Ben Cunningham of TN.

Inside Story about how the Senate Immigration Bill was killed

From the Right Wing News:

A GOP Aide, who's one of my sources in the Senate, gave me the rundown on what happened to the Senate bill today.

After the 2nd cloture vote failure at noon on Thursday, Harry Reid could not get unanimous consent to call up amendments to the bill because Jim DeMint refused to give his consent. This was extremely problematic for Reid because he wanted to get in votes on 6 more amendments before the last try at a cloture vote.

At that point, all the senators who were participants in the "Grand Compromise" AKA the "Masters of the Universe" by the opponents of the bill, leaned on DeMint to try to get him to give consent for the bill to move forward.

Unfortunately for them, DeMint wouldn't budge. This essentially killed the entire afternoon that the pro-amnesty side hoped to use to shore up support for the bill.

While DeMint was gumming up the works, the opponents of the bill, including most prominently Jim DeMint, Jeff Sessions, and Tom Coburn, huddled and came up with a list of conservative amendments they wanted considered ... [more]

Where's the Fence

Immigration is not that complicated if you break it into pieces and do things one-by-one.

Granted, the fedgov is very incompetent, so it makes sense to simply complete one project at a time, then move on to the next project.

Build the already authorized and funded fence -- First.

A Blast from the Past -- Just say NO to Surrender Monkeys

Does Sherriff Allow Illegal Trespass?

Take a look at this video and tell me what you think.

You'll notice that many times they very people who stand up to defend our rights and who understand the legal protections we are supposed to enjoy are just folks trying to get by on what they have.

Those with the means, rarely lift a finger. God Bless the "Road Scholars" of America

Does Sheriff Allow Illegal Trespass?
http://www.break.com/index/sheriff-allows-illegal-trespass2b.html


Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Keep Rattling .....