The Senate will be easier to clean. For one thing there are only 1oo Senators, and only some of them are up for election in 2010.
Here’s how it breaks down:
There are 58 Democratic Senators.
There are 2 Independents who are basically Democrats, but as of this writing, Kudos to Joe Lieberman for threatening to block Socialist Medicine. So, at a minimum we need to pick up 11 seats. It IS possible. There are 18 Democrats up for re-election in 2012, and 4 of those were appointed.
There are 40 Republicans. Thankfully only 4 of them are RINOs, and the worst of them only votes about 42% Progressive. I’ll list them below with their National Journal’s 2008 Liberal Vote Score (the higher the score the more of a RINO they are). (Again, the RINOs are not ALL bad, but given a stronger Conservative we need to support the stronger Conservative because the RINOs occasionally vote with Progressives.)
While many of us were politically asleep, dragging ourselves to the polls to punch chads next to the ‘R’ for many years, the people who hate America were wide awake and using our great system to change America into something we don’t recognize. If you were asleep, don’t feel bad. You were not alone.
The recent suspension of the Scozzafava Campaign sends the message loud and clear that Barack Obama and his band of Progressives have awoken a sleeping giant.
If you’re like me — wondering where we go from here, I hope you’ll find my next series of posts educational and informative.
Let’s start with 2010: In short, we need to retain our current set of Conservatively voting Representatives and add a MINIMUM of 41 to their number.
To begin with, all of the Representatives in the House are up for re-election in 2010. This means that, in theory, it is a black-and-white fact that we can take back the house in 2010. Admittedly it will be a tall order. Of the 435 voting members, 177 are Republican. If there were no such thing as the Republican In Name Only (RINO), then simple math says we need to win 41 seats. Unfortunately, while we were asleep, the leaders of the GOP thought the smart thing to do was to cave to the Progressive movement and we now have approximately 30 R’s who (sometimes) vote like D’s. So we need to not only campaign against the D’s, but also the RINOs like Scozzafava. We also need to campaign FOR Conservatives. Personally, I don’t think most of us care if the winners are R’s or I’s or like I saw next to Hoffman’s name at one time (C’s) as long as they vote Conservative and do not cave to Progressives.
Of vital importance is: we need to donate our time and money across state lines. For too long I (and I suspect many reading this blog) felt like what happened in other states was each state’s own business and completely ignored what happened in other states. But, recent events in the NY23 special election prove that we have woken up. I donated to Doug Hoffman and I don’t live anywhere near NY. I also donated to Chris Christie, and Joe Wilson and don’t live in their states either. I’ve read the blogs on both the left and the right and this is ‘what it takes’ to win political power. While I don’t think it is what our Founding Fathers intended, it is a fact of life that the the laws written by our legislature are binding on us all. So please make time and money available to support those we want in office, and oppose those who we do not .
Next question: Who ARE the RINOs and Who ARE the true Conservatives?
RINOs: (note: I’m not saying these people are ALL bad. Many have voted very conservatively on issues important to us. However, they vote liberal often enough to be classified with liberal scores ranging for near 50 (on a scale of 1-100) at the top of this list (the worst offenders), to mid 30’s near the bottom of this list (the least offenders). If the only option is to keep them in, they are better than the Democrats. However, if there is a strong candidate who is more conservative, these people need to be carefully evaluated for replacement in 2010.)
True Conservatives: (note: all below are Republicans. These people need our full support of time, money, encouragement, and social networking. They all vote conservatively over 90% of the time.)
#1. Paul Broun, GA
#2 Trent Franks, AZ
#3. Jeb Hensarling, TX
#4. Gresham Barrett, SC (but sadly did vote for bailout)
#5. Todd Akin, MO
#6. Virgina Foxx, NC
#7. Doug Lamborn, CO
#8. Jeff Miller, FL
#9. Steve King, IA
#10. John Shadegg, AZ (but sadly did vote for bailout)
#11. Tom Price, GA
#12. Ed Royce, CA
#13. Phil Gingrey, GA
#14. Bill Sali, ID
#15. Kenny Marchant, TX
#16. John Boehner, OH: Note, John endorsed Dierdre Scozzafava over Doug Hoffman. Most Republican leaders eventually fell in line behind Hoffman. This is troubling. Also voted for bailout.
#17. Chris Cannon, UT (but sadly did vote for bailout)
#18. Mike Pence, IN
#19. Randy Neugebauer, TX
#20. Roy Blunt, MO
#21. Adrian Smith, NE
#22. Wally Herger, CA (but sadly did vote for bailout)
#23. Patrick McHenry, NC
#24. Mike Conaway, TX (but sadly did vote for bailout)
#25. George Radnovich, CA (but sadly did vote for bailout)
Note: If you find any errors or omissions in this post, please comment this post, and I will research and fix anything that is wrong with it.
Enter ObamaCare. I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not a politician; but the way that I read it, they are telling me that I have to pay 72.5% of the cost of each employee’s individual healthcare, and 65% of each employee’s family healthcare. If I don’t want to do it, I can simply pay 8% of our annual payroll as a penalty. If I do neither, I get fined $100 per day per violation. Heil Hitler Obama!
Now, thankfully, we have always been able to provide ‘Cadillac’ plans to each of our full time employees — 100% for their individual needs, but they have to pay the difference if they insure their family. From what I read, our costs are about to skyrocket. This will more than likely result in layoffs. I present my story below so anyone who is not an employer can see how this Obamanation will cost the Country jobs, prolong the recession, and hurt small business.
I am a small business owner.
And let me tell you, it’s tough out there.
Starting over 20 years ago, we had an idea, and through blood, sweat, and tears we built that idea into a multimillion dollar business.
We bought in to the nudges from the government, and we invested heavily in commercial property.
About 3 years ago, things started going down hill fast. Over 18 months we lost half of our income.
I’m not complaining. It’s my fault. We could have paid the 55% tax on every dollar of profit and used the other 45% to buy gold. But I digress.
Sadly, we have had to say goodbye to some excellent employees. At our heyday we had 25 employees that the new house bill calls ‘highly compensated.’ Today we have 16.
We agonized over those layoffs. We feel that we have a responsibility to our employees and their families. But the reality was that if we didn’t cut some, we would have lost them all.
At this point, we are a mere shadow of what we used to be. Things have become more stable, and there is a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. We don’t feel like we need to lay off any more employees, and in fact, we have two open positions and we are trying to HIRE. If the government will just LEAVE US ALONE we will be OK. We can rebuild.
But no. At this point in our history…when small business is war-torn and battle weary…filthy with the stench of 3 years of economic loss…when we are at our weakest point EVER, Oblahblah and Pop-up-Pelosi think NOW is the time to kick us below the belt and force us to fund their ‘Healthcare for America Now.’
When I say that we can’t afford it…I really mean…WE CAN NOT AFFORD IT.
For a long time I could say I was a millionaire. No more. Our reserves are gone, our real estate is worth much less than we bought it for (but we still have the debt), and our credit is partially dried up, and what remains is at its limit. My net worth is NEGATIVE. We do not have money to finance ObamaCare. Yet, because our company still has a lot of revenue (not profit…revenue)…Obama and his 50% of non-taxpaying, voting masses want to spread my wealth around. The only problem is…THERE IS NO WEALTH TO SPREAD.
These snakes have even gone so far as to say that if we reduce salaries in order to pay for this healthcare that it ‘will not count’ towards not being penalized.
There is only one result: more layoffs.
Thank you President Obama: If your Socialist Obamanation of a plan includes the above provisions and gets passed into law, you will cost the country millions of jobs and destroy small business. But since you hate the free market, I guess that’s your plan. The more people you get dependent on government, the closer you are to Communism — which you love — just like your mentors, your friends, and your Czars.
I find it particularly interesting that during the exchange with Obama in the article above, Obama admits that when he said, “Our plan does not fund abortion,” and “Our plan does not cover illegal aliens,” etc., he WAS TALKING ABOUT THE UNWRITTEN PLAN IN HIS HEAD!
Now, Mr. President, we are not stupid. Maybe most of your voters and followers are, but we are not. If there are bills being voted on in Congress, THAT AND ONLY THAT is what we expect you to talk about. For you to stand before Congress and the American People and mislead the entire country by distracting us from the ACTUAL, EXISTING bills that are headed toward your desk by spewing nonsense about a non-existing bill that has-not-and-will-not be written is the most disappointing behavior from any president yet. Be a man! If you want a single-paying-abortion-and-illegal-alien-funding-socialized-health-care system SAY IT.
But don’t act like a child who soils his training pants and when Joe Wilson asks if you made a poo-poo stand there and say no; and then when you’re getting spanked for lying…sob through your tears: “When I said no, I thought you were asking me if I soiled my pants tomorrow, and since it isn’t tomorrow yet, that is not a lie.”
The sentence above illustrates how I feel about MY President. (Your words, not mine.) As I watched on election night, worried that your lies about Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers were not going to come back to haunt the Country, my thoughts of despair were interrupted with you saying that you would be MY President too. I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t believe it now.
Here’s a suggestion: How about acting like it. You can start with the TRUTH.
Earlier this month, I blogged about this new site with hope that the GOP had a clue.
Sadly, I was quickly disappointed and disgusted. After signing up there was no engagement, no real direction, and no outreach despite my willingness to volunteer. Michael Steele on his blog, which Liberals had a field day mocking claiming the initial title was ‘What Up?’ (I never saw that), and which is currently a partial ripoff of Obama’s ‘Change’ theme, ‘Change the Game’ said on his blog that he wanted to engage and would personally answer comments. I commented asking: why despite, 3 attempts on two different GOP sites, where I asked to contribute does nothing ever come back. Not only did I not get an answer by email…my comment was moderated OFF the board and never showed up!
Does the GOP not need the help of its members or are they too inept to be able to use it? Between this and the unbending support of RINOs do they really wonder why people are leaving the party in droves?
Meanwhile, while I was waiting for some type of contact, I went out and studied the opposition. What I found were scores of sites that targeted elected officials for election, defeat, and/or pressure on issues. And these people know about pressure. It’s not just ‘vote for this or we will vote you out,’ these lefties target not only the job of the official, but also their policies, funding, appointees, and everything else the incumbents and/or candidates care about. These sites organize, collect, and move people to action. http://my.barackobama.com is probably the most damaging of these. Even now, President Obama is engaged with that site, attends the occasional conference call, and rallies his troops. The bottom line is: for people who want to make a difference in their government drag the country into Socialism, they are given the tools, training, encouragement, and ability to put enormous pressure on our elected leaders to do so.
I know I’m late to this party as there are many, many Conservative Patriots who are already doing great work there. But the difference in that and the broken-down-jalopy of the GOP is like night and day. Join ResistNet and:
1. You will be almost immediately engaged with an approval and credentials.
2. Upon first logon, you’ll be led to a video that encourages you to go join your state, congressional district, and county.
3. You’ll find a ‘Vote Them Out’ section (dear to my heart) that targets the Socialists-masking-as-American-Politicians (my words) who need to be voted out…as well as additional information about their vulnerabilities.
4. You’ll find a watchdog section where people can claim interests of liberal actions that they are passionate about, and then post anything they find about movement towards the left.
I could go on, and on, but instead I encourage you to join. Please go here now, http://www.resistnet.com/ and get started with a working and relevant site, and don’t even bother wasting your time with our.gop.
Michael Steele: I’m calling you out. As a sign carrying, protest going, D.C. marching teaparty member and supporter, you no longer have my support, nor the support of thousands of people I’ve met at the teaparties.
For most of our lives, we’ve simply voted for the candidate with the ‘R’ next to their name, but no more.
Your recent example of Dede Scozzafava with Newt Gingrich’s full support is the last straw. If we wanted her liberal, free-market-killing, socialist policies we would vote for Bill Owens. It is beyond stupid to continue this course, and if you insist on it then I call for your resignation.
For months I’ve been tweeting and blogging that we need to ‘fix the Republican Party and get behind it.’ No more.
Note to Newt: We’re tired of the scare tacticts about splitting the vote. Yes, the vote may get split, but putting in a RINO renders your dire warning powerless. When you support RINOs we have nothing to lose by risking a split ticket.
Kudos to
Tim Pawlenty
Sarah Palin
Dick Armey
Jim DeMint
Fred Thompson
Tom Cole
Dana Rohrabacher
for having the courage to stand up. THOSE are the kind of people who can earn our votes.
Minority Leader John Boehner is deflecting Neal Cavuto’s direct question of why Boehner is supporting the Acorn backed, Obama-lite candidate. He needs to get voted out as well. John, you’re weak. You need to step down. Please take Lindsay Graham with you.
To support the first real Teaparty Conservative Candidate, please consider donating to help him against the two ‘more of the same progressive socialism’ machines. I did, and if felt great! You can too: just click here: https://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/donate3.html
I know that you and the rest of the unskilled masses have been fighting a war against business since the late 1800’s. I understand that unskilled workers were treated horribly by big business back then. So people like you organized and used your numbers against big business and won — hurting everyone except the unskilled workers. The cost of production went up, competition went down, quality went down, and we took a huge step away from the free market (which you hate) and towards Socialism.
But big business was NOT the problem.
The problem was that most of the work that people did back then was unskilled labor. Since everyone is born with the same lack of skills, that means every person wanting to work had nothing to compete with. Big business had the luxury of setting extremely low wages and horrible working conditions and maintaining the attitude of: “Don’t like it? Quit. There are 100 people wanting your job the minute you leave.”
And admittedly, in the free market (which you hate) supply and demand set the value of the asset. Too much supply of unskilled labor meant too little demand and extremely low value for the resource of labor from unskilled labor.
Here’s the thing: had the people like you left well enough alone, the problem would have worked itself out. As industry grew and technology increased, more jobs needing more skill would have been created. People would have increased their skills to gain an advantage (and more income), and the free market (which you hate) would have fixed itself over time.
But no. Your kind (marxists, communists, socialists) can’t let the free market (which you hate) work. You organize and demand that the ‘wealth should be spread around’ and that people who have no skills are entitled to an equal share of the value created by people who do have skills. Business must still maintain profit, so prices go up, quality goes down, and jobs are lost — not gained. This loss of jobs is the problem, stupid. More tax, more regulation, more wage pressure, more healthcare costs, more everything-that-makes-business-harder is not the answer. It’s not what-can-you-give-the-American-worker, stupid. The free market (which you hate) wants to give the American worker everything s/he can demand value (by increasing skills and education) for. The problem is not that we need more spending.
It is the JOBS, stupid.
History teaches us that the Great Depression dragged on for years despite the New Deal and massive government spending and regulation. Unemployment continued to climb despite all of the government interference. The depression didn’t end until the 2nd World War because the war created J-O-B-S. 10 million young men were drafted. Many of those left their jobs to fight for America. Those jobs were backfilled by unemployed men who did not go to war. Millions more jobs were created to support the war effort. And when the country ran out of men who needed to work, women (for the first time) entered the workforce in huge numbers and took on even traditionally male jobs. It is not the New Deal that broke the Depression. It is not the war that broke the Depression. The Depression was broken by JOBS.
We have all of the history to study, but those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Clearly, you sprint down the path of Socialists before you. Or perhaps, it’s more accurate to say that Nancy Pelosi sprints, and drags you by the back of your neck. The only problem this time is that there is no 10,000,000 person draft to bail out your mistake. And in fact, you would need many more drafted to have the same effect as the population has increased more than 200% since 1940. Somehow I don’t see you getting away with drafting 20-25 million people.
So I decided to spell it out for you: J-O-B-S is the answer. And each week the official numbers show that you are LOSING that war. Stimulus spending DOES NOT CREATE ENOUGH JOBS TO BE SIGNIFICANT. But…
MAKING THE BUSINESS CLIMATE EASIER DOES CREATE JOBS. Here’s a short list:
Less taxes = more money for business = people with confidence who want to HIRE to expand. (note: the one-man-band carpet cleaner who came to my house on Saturday told me he wants to hire, but worries about the economy and the economic policies of YOUR administration and is therefore WAITING to hire), stupid.
More jobs = more people with income = more consumer confidence = more spending = more business growth = more people who want to hire, stupid.
But no. You insist on ramming healthcare down our throats with the LIE that you will pay for it by cutting out waste. Yeah, right. You can go ahead and admit it…we all know. Once you pass this Obination, premiums will go up, discretionary spending will go down, consumption will go down, and jobs will be LOST, stupid.
And, you insist on your precious CBO study that studies 10 years of tax with 5 years of service. Yeah, right. CBO really got medicare costs accurately. Yeah, right. Another bankrupt government program of entitlements = more taxes = less jobs, stupid.
And if the above is not enough, you want to ’skyrocket energy costs’ with Cap & Tax. Note to stupid: every dime you take out of peoples’ pockets means less confidence, less spending, less business growth, and LESS JOBS STUPID.
And just to cap it off, your transfer of power and wealth to the unions (who started the entire problem because rather than help people to pick themselves up and gain skills to better compete and have a better life in the free market (which you hate))….this transfer of power and wealth to the unions will mean LESS JOBS FOR ALL THE REASONS ABOVE, STUPID.
I understand why you do it. By keeping people down, you keep them dependent. Don’t teach them to lift themselves up with education and training. Just help the unions to demand they get paid $40,000 per year (for life) in exchanging for sweeping the floor. Because then you get a voter for life…times millions. And then you can use their numbers to gain power, and transfer wealth (while making sure your corrupt administration siphons off a significant portion for itself) to buy votes and fund Socialism, Communism, and Marxism around the globe. Nice.
But here’s the thing. Your tax and spend strategy has scraped the bottom of the “rich man’s barrel.” Now your administration seeks to tax the middle class — many of whom are in the middle class with no skills thanks only to the unions. But they don’t like it much that you are talking about forcing them to buy healthcare…or that Pelosi wants to create a Value Added Tax, or that now your administration speaks of a consumption tax. The middle class doesn’t like it one bit that their energy costs may double. Because they understand that those policies will lose JOBS, stupid. And when you’ve taken all the rich have to give…taken from the middle class…and the union bosses are the ones making millions while the workers are on the street…it will still be the JOBS, stupid.
You’ve reached the end of your pyramid scheme. The 100 years of socialism have run their course. Stop hating the free market and let it work.
Or, continue on this path and you will surely continue to lose jobs — which will cost you the election in 2012.
In trying to understand the mind of the enemy (the liberal left), I’ve been spending a lot of time on Open Left. Sheesh, these people bash their own choice for government as much or more than when the GOP is in control! THEY are calling Obama an Idiot and a liar — saying that (incredibly) all of these changes (which we believe are in the completely wrong direction) ARE NOT ENOUGH!
An ad along the right side of http://www.openleft.com/ that says, “If you will sign up with SEIU’s push for healthcare and give SEIU your email address, SEIU will donate $1 to Open Left!”
I’ve been thinking hard trying to figure out how SEIU can simply flex its arm and cause tens-or-hundreds of thousands of calls to congress…now I know. It’s a huge machine. The blogs attract the minions where SEIU trolls for email addresses; and SEIU pays the blogs to bring them more minions. When an important vote is coming up, SEIU uses their bought-and-paid-for list of minions to call Congress and demand yet something else that lines SEIU’s pockets in the name of ‘what is moral.’
We, the conservative bloggers, need to start capturing email addresses and blasting alerts to counteract the left’s stronghold on Congress.
Glenn Beck often speaks of liberal bloggers in their pajamas in their basements.
I first heard of this concept years ago when I learned that there was a weird family on the other side of town. The Dad was a clerk at a retail store and the Mom was an unemployed web designer who never came out of her basement and was always working on a website named http://www.democraticunderground.com/.
Like so many trivial issues, I ignored the information and never even bothered view the site. I next heard of the website when a talk radio host claimed to have been viciously attacked by the site. Knowing many of the liberal stereotypes of this family (low & unemployment, taking government money to support their many children, demanding more and more wealth be transferred) I put 2 & 2 together and wrote the site and the people behind such sites off as harmless nuts. Only recently have I learned how wrong and dangerous it is to write these people off.
Now, these people don’t look like unwashed basement dwellers; but in times past I would have written them off as nuts. No longer.
See, for a long time I’ve been writing about ‘Taxation without Representation.’ I’ve wondered how, when the majority of American people do NOT want a public option, or cap & tax, or Socialism, or Commie czars, etc., etc. HOW can Congress work so hard to ram it down our throats? That is the antithesis of America. Our history is painted with the blood of Patriots who have spilled their blood to ensure that we get representation in exchange for our taxation.
But here’s the thing: we’re getting representation. While we, the producers in America, shower and rush to work to earn income, 12 hours per day, with little time to spend with family in pursuit of the American Dream, people like Open Left and Democratic Underground are participating in our Government. It is THEY who are getting representation and it is WE who are SILENT. Congress is doing what it being instructed to do.
Want proof? A few days ago I blogged about the 300,000+ calls made under Organizing for America. Yesterday I read on Open Left that they were in crunch time for Public Option and had compiled a list of everyone in the House and their position and likely vote on the Public Option. This list was being released to the readers for an emergency round of calls — with instructions about what to do if you had a ‘leaning NO’ Democratic rep, or a ‘leaning NO’ Republican rep, etc.
The fact of the matter is that the Left has become the expert and has been winning the war on getting the ear of Congress, and has overwhelmed Congress with support for Socialism while we are watching it happen on Glenn Beck. We need to keep watching Glenn and reading conservative blogs, and listening to talk radio; but most importantly we need to be spending our time as political activists like these Liberal Basement Bloggers.
Conservatives: the left is extremely organized and we are WAY behind. I know you don’t have time for this kind of action because you’re too busy earning money that the left wants to take from you to give to people in their pajamas blogging in their basement. But we MUST find time to combat these people. We must make our voices heard in Congress, or soon we will be addressing each other as Comrade.
Somebody ought to remake this video with Joe Wilson popping up saying ‘You Lie’ after each of these lies. I don’t know what infuriates me more, the fact that this Liar of all Liars is spewing these lies, or the fact that 53% of America believed them, or the fact that about 47% of America still believes them.
Nothing angers me more than lying politicians. Here’s why: politicians, once elected, are almost never successfully impeached. So, they get to say anything they want to steal your vote, and then completely ignore their campaign promises with absolutely no repercussion, except perhaps not getting re-elected like Bush Sr. with his ‘read my lips’ lie.
Clinton lying under oath was not enough to get him out. Bush lying about WMD’s was not enough to get him out.
Disgust with Obama is not about race. It’s about this. This video sums up the entire presidency in under 2 minutes: Promise everything to everyone in order to grab power, then ignore the cries of the masses while you use that power ram unpopular, fringe communist and socialist tinged ’social justice’ transfer of wealth down the throats of Americans.
The anger is growing. And it will drive independents to the polls in record numbers.
Here he is, the man who claimed to be the man who would change ‘old style’ politics…spewing lie after lie after lie. Most of these promises broken on his very first bill. All continue to be broken time and time again.
