1,000 demonstrations set for April 15th:

While WND has been tracking 170 individual tea parties across the nation, one group has announced it is planning rallies in 1,000 cities and towns on April 15.

The American Family Association, or AFA, is coordinating 1,000 Taxed Enough Already, or TEA, parties to be held at 12 p.m. in front of city halls across the nation.

The organization launched a Tea Party Day website just days ago so volunteer organizers may register their protests with AFA. The website also provides a list of other protests across the nation that are not organized by AFA.

I think we can do it and we should do it – heck, try to get 2,000 demonstrations and 2,000 people at each event. If 4,000,000 Americans take time out of their day to protest against tax and spend liberalism, we’ll have the ball fully rolling on a new, American revolution.

…then we’d better just close up shop:

So Chris Dodd admitted he misled CNN, telling them on Tuesday he had nothing to do with the loophole that mysteriously found its way into legislation and paved the way for AIG’s bonuses to be paid. The following day, Dodd confessed to CNN’s Dana Bash that he in fact wrote the loophole, though he said he did it at the behest of the administration and with the knowledge that he would lose the amendment altogether if he did not comply…

…Stepping back for a second, Chris Dodd is already in a bit of trouble in his reelection bid, based on recent polling. Obviously, this further complicates matters. Dodd is now directly associated with two of the most distasteful aspects of the current financial meltdown: getting a sweetheart mortgage from the CEO of a company that was a major player in the subprime mess, and now authoring the loophole that allowed AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses after already taking scores of billions of bailout dollars , all at taxpayer expense.

“Vulnerable” doesn’t even begin to describe Dodd at this point – all we need is a credible challenger and a reasonable message, and we should bury Dodd under a landslide, and make this a pivot point for some large gains in 2010. Democrats are getting heavily tarred with the brush of political corruption, and if we add what will likely be a poor economy (at best) in 2010, a good GOP campaign should allow us to get within striking distance of a House majority and chip down the Democrats Senate majority to the 55 or 54 range.

The defeats in 2006 and 2008 seem to be turning into a blessing in disguise – by forcing out the corrupt elements of the GOP and greatly weakening the RINOs, we are becoming a stronger party more able to effectively present a credible alternative to Democrat corruption and incompetence. We’ll still have to fight very hard as the Democrats and their MSM allies will pull out all the stops, but if we do fight hard, I believe that 2010 will signal the revival of a conservative, GOP favored by the people to govern the country for quite a long time.

No, we’re not referring to Obama’s economic policies, but how our DHS Secretary refers to terrorism:

SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word “terrorism.” Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?

NAPOLITANO: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word “terrorism,” I referred to “man-caused” disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

To put it in terms that Napolitano will apparently understand, this is double-plus-ungood.

You think we’re in bad shape:

…Russia’s dependency on oil is pushing the country’s economy into a tailspin. Oil peaked at $147 a barrel in July but has since plunged as low as $35 a barrel. As a result of the plummeting oil price and the global financial crisis, gross domestic product shrank by 8.8% in the 12 months to January, the rouble has lost one-third of its value since September and unemployment is expected to rise to 10 million by the end of the year. The Kremlin has spent more than $200bn of its reserves to cushion the devaluation of the rouble and avoid public panic.

Neil Shearing, emerging Europe economist at consultants Capital Economics, believes the situation is going to get much worse. “The news from Russia has gone from bad to worse in recent weeks. The economy looks likely to contract by 5% this year, which would be close to the drop in output witnessed during the 1998 rouble crisis,” he said, referring to the year when the government defaulted on its debts, sending shockwaves through the global financial system. “In contrast to the 1998 crisis, a weak external environment makes a sharp bounceback in growth unlikely.”…

…Unemployment is widely expected to soar to 12% this year from 6.3% in 2008 as firms struggle to access finance. “This will spell disaster for an economy in which private consumption accounts for over half of GDP,” said Shearing. About 500,000 Russians are waiting to be paid wages which are late and since inflation is running at 13%, their purchasing power is slipping rapidly.

Take financial collapse, massive unemployment, runaway inflation and add tyrant (Putin). What to you get? Risk of nuclear-armed civil war and/or risk of Putin making a mad dog attack in order to start a war to stifle dissent at home. This is not a pretty picture.

What can we do? Strengthen our alliances with nations on Russia’s borders, eschew any long-term deals with Putin’s government and then just hunker down and hope for the best.

We do need one, ya know? As for me, taking all things into consideration, I nominate this song:

Sexy Sadie what have you done

You made a fool of everyone

You made a fool of everyone

Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done.

Sexy Sadie you broke the rules

You layed it down for all to see

You layed it down for all to see

Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules.

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover

She came along to turn on everyone

Sexy Sadie the greatest of them all.

Sexy Sadie how did you know

The world was waiting just for you

The world was waiting just for you

Sexy Sadie oooh how did you know.

Sexy Sadie you’ll get yours yet

However big you think you are

However big you think you are

Sexy Sadie oooh you’ll get yours yet.

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table

Just a smile would lighten everything

Sexy Sadie she’s the latest and the greatest of them all.

She made a fool of everyone

Sexy Sadie.

However big you think you are

Sexy Sadie.

Discuss.

UPDATE by MATT MARGOLIS: Mark, I think my vote is for “Over My Head (Cable Car)” by The Fray: Continue reading →

…and not going to take it any longer? Victor Davis Hanson notes:

There is a populist anger out there, hard to calibrate exactly, but growing nonetheless. Here’s what I think people are saying: Wall Street gets bailed out, despite billions that the masters of the universe skimmed off. Meanwhile our retirement accounts are crashed. Then the government bails out those ‘homeowners’ who failed, often due to their own greed and foolishness, not those who played by the rules: so default on your over priced home that you should have never bought, and the fed is there to bail you out; put away $1,000 a month in your 401(k)—and tough luck.

No new taxes of course for “all of us” except the evil “them,” but rumors still somehow abound that health care benefits will be taxed, carbon emissions will be taxed, and even veterans will pay for their care via private accounts before drawing on VA resources. And why would not Obama resort to more bait and switch to pay for a $3.5 trillion budget—when that proverbial evil 5% simply does not have the wherewithal to make up for the 50% who pay no federal income tax at all?

This growing unease is a weird sort of prairie-fire populism, focused on both Wall Street and still more the government. (Who is worse, the AIG execs that praise capitalism, then want federal handouts to ensure their bonuses, or the incompetent and unethical government who feeds them the cash [”hope and change”?]—or we the poor fools who will keep working to pay for all this?)

Where it all leads I don’t know.

I don’t know, either – but I’m pretty certain that liberalism isn’t doing itself any favors right now. When Rasmussen for the first time in years picks up that GOPers are more favored than Democrats in the “generic” Congressional ballot, we’re clearly seeing a political whirlwind on the horizon. Will it actually benefit the GOP? Can’t say – people are still pretty ticked off at us, too. 2010 might be an excellent year to run as an Independent. Main thing – if a person is a smart politician, he won’t want to be identified in any way, shape or form with the Powers That Be in Washington at the moment.

I think what is happening is that people are, finally, getting fed up with it all – the lies coming out of Washington have gone from brazen to stupid. Its so obvious that, say, Dodd is lying to us about what is going on and what part he had in it – and the rest of them are only slightly less nauseating in their attitudes towards the people. When Obama tries to claim a populist mantle in this by grandly saying he’s responsible, people are seeing right through it – he’s saying he’s responsible as if he’s not, but willing to sacrifice himself for us and we’re supposed to think he’s such a swell guy for doing this…BS, Barry; we know that you really were responsible for it, and if you really wanted to take responsibility for it you’d be working for a repeal of your Spendulus so it could be re-written with a bit of honesty and common sense thrown in to the mix. Maybe on a re-do we can actually not pass the bill until everyone’s read it?

A little revolution, now and then, is a good thing. And we need it, dear people, we need it.

The news story:

The Federal Reserve sharply stepped up its efforts to bolster the economy on Wednesday, announcing that it would pump an extra $1 trillion into the financial system by purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage securities.

Having already reduced the key interest rate it controls nearly to zero, the central bank has increasingly turned to alternatives like buying securities as a way of getting more dollars into the economy, a tactic that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air. But the moves on Wednesday were its biggest yet, almost doubling all of the Fed’s measures in the last year.

The action makes the Fed a buyer of long-term government bonds rather than the short-term debt that it typically buys and sells to help control the money supply.

The idea was to encourage more economic activity by lowering interest rates, including those on home loans, and to help the financial system as it struggles under the crushing weight of bad loans and poor investments.

Investors responded with surprise and enthusiasm. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been down about 50 points just before the announcement, jumped immediately and ended the day up almost 91 points at 7,486.58. Yields on long-term Treasury bonds dropped markedly, and analysts predicted that interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages would soon drop below 5 percent.

Get ready for a gigantic bubble which will either burst with a financial crisis which makes the current one look small, or the Fed tightening the screws later this year or early next and knocking us willy-nilly into a double-dip recession. In my long study of history, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more short-sighted and bone-headed policy move. Imagine the idiocy which figures that if you steal money from the people you’ll be able to create wealth.

Steal? Yes, steal. You see, by waving their magic wand and creating a trillion dollars, the Fed has effectively devalued all of the money outstanding the moment before the Fed acted. This will help bankers and financial speculators – they’ll now be able to obtain devalued currency to pay back loans contracted with pre-devaluation money. It works like this – I borrow $10 from you today. Tomorrow, the Fed devalues the currency by 20%. I borrow this devalued money from the Fed at 0% interest and then pay you your $10 back with $1 interest the day after tomorrow – but you didn’t get $11; you actually got $8.80 because each dollar is worth 20 cents less than it did when you loaned it to me. Its real cool, unless you’re the guy holding the pre-devaluation notes…and guess who is buying up the pre-devaluation notes? Look in the mirror. And thank your Barry for the swell deal.

It’d be nice if, at least, this would work in the long run – but it won’t. Its going to spike inflation like no tomorrow (and we’re talking 10, 20 or 30% inflation, boys and girls) unless it gets cut off real fast, and that means the funds for moving the economy along will be gone…so, welcome to 25% unemployment. Of course, there’s always that chance we’ll get “stagflation”, as we did in the 70’s…won’t 20% inflation and 20% unemployment be a kick?

We’re being swindled – we’re balancing the banks’ books on the back of the middle class taxpayer. And some people wonder why I want us to return to the gold standard…

Dear Readers,

As you might recall, last week I brought my father to the hospital where it was discovered that he was bleeding internally. That particular issue is at least temporarily stable, but the plain fact of the matter is that my father’s manifold health problems at age 82 indicate that the end draws near.

I ask your prayers that my father will be at ease as he enters this time and that we all accept God’s will in this as in all matters.

This is getting rather absurd:

Faith and begorrah, is nothing sacred?

Some folks are trying to transform the name of Tuesday’s holiday from St. Patrick’s Day to “Shamrock Day.”

Card shops have banners proclaiming the occasion; the Disney Channel is using the term; and some places in this country have changed the name of their community celebrations of Celtic heritage to the “nonoffending” terminology.

And that offends some folks.

I’m telling ya, good people, eventually someone kook leftist is going to notice that “Corpus Christi” means “Body of Christ” and they’re going to insist that Corpus Christi, TX change its name. And just what are we to do with St Louis, MO and St Paul, MN? And lets not forget that city in California which is named in honor of the Blessed Virgin, the Queen of the Angels.

Look, leftists, this is our civilization – you’re welcome to live in it, but it has some ground rules. Among these rules is that Christians built the civilization and you can’t have said civilization without it remaining Christian in its fundamentals. Look what is happening in post-Christian Europe; ever more kowtowing to radical Islam and an increasing demand that basic liberties be curtailed because said radicals say it offends against Islam. If the people of Europe were majority Christian they would tolerate the Moslems and politely tell them to take their Islamism and get stuffed…in other words, if you want to preserve your ability to have gay pride parades, you’d better ensure that your civilization remains Christian because its only us Christians who are easy going enough to allow such nonsense to carry on in public.

Please, do, Senator:

Sen. Arlen Specter said Tuesday that he will not run for reelection in 2010 as a Democrat, but might run as an Independent.

The Pennsylvania Republican has been under tremendous pressure from the GOP base since being one of just three Republicans to vote for the Democratic-led stimulus package last month…

…Specter said he is open to the possibility of running as an Independent with the understanding that he would caucus with Republicans, just as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) did with Democrats in 2006.

Though he left that option on the table, he suggested it would be a last resort.

Senator Specter is a fine man and from what I understand a very nice guy – but he’s not a Republican. Not even close. He’s a Democrat who did a bit of political calculus and figured that he’d have a better chance winning election way back when as a Republican. But we of the GOP just don’t need him in our party – much better to have him as an Independent we can work with from time to time. And, of course, there is just that chance that a more solid GOP could slip through with the Democrat and Specter splitting the mush-minded semi-liberal vote, especially in 2010 when things are likely to be very favorable to the GOP, unless Obama’s plan to spend us into prosperity works.

A bit of a lesson here, boys and girls: the reason we have political parties is so that on some basic, crucial issues there is a clear choice for the American people. While a GOPer and a Democrat can both be in favor of, say, increasing funding to the National Park Service, when it comes down to whether or not we should increase spending, per se, it is good for the GOP to be known as the watchdog of the Treasury and the taxpayer as opposed to the Democrats being tagged as the party of taxing and spending. But we’re not going to get anywhere on this if people like Specter, wearing the GOP label, continually cut us off at the knees when the chips are down. In the long run, it will be better for the GOP even if it gets a little smaller if by so doing it becomes a more cohesive entity able to battle for clearly defined ideals. Winning isn’t worth it if all we’re doing is getting into office – we want office for a purpose.

Our purpose, as GOPers, is to reform America – to restore those constitutional provisions which have been eroded by decades of liberal usurpation; to put America on a sound financial footing where we live within our means and only tax as necessary for the basic functions of government; to ensure that the American military is second to none; to stand firm with all people who are free or who aspire to be so; to work for a public square which is decent and home to all Americans, not the plaything of the most depraved. There is in this much room for difference – a pro-choice and a pro-life Republican will both agree that Roe is a legal abomination, while they will differ in whether or not a law should be passed to make abortion legal or illegal. A libertarian GOPer and a social conservative GOPer will disagree on what level of regulation should be placed on the availability of pornography, but both will agree that local standards must dictate such availability in each particular community. On and on it goes – room in the tent for a diversity of opinion, but agreement on core principles. And fighting for such will remain impossible if there remain in senior GOP ranks people who agree with the liberal worldview of Statism, licentiousness and group rights over individual liberties.

I hope that Specter does decide to go Independent – he’ll be in his proper element, and we’ll have a better chance of advancing our cause.