Sherry Jeffe over at NBC LA:

…The outcry that followed the Commission’s first draft of new district lines seemed to knock the new approach off-kilter.

Latino leaders demanded more districts, to reflect their increasing demographic and political clout (not to mention the mandate of the federal Voting Rights Act).

Their cries of “Foul!” were echoed by Republicans worried that, because of the state’s changing demographics, their new districts will include dangerously high numbers of Latinos—not a GOP-friendly voter group.

African-American activists decried proposed boundaries that could lead to fewer black lawmakers. L.A.’s Westside is reeling from the possible loss of at least one of the most powerful Jewish-Americans in Congress…

Here’s the thing, Jeffe clearly considers this bad – bad that the citizens commission didn’t make more Latino districts, didn’t make more black districts, may force GOPers to compete for hispanic votes, that an entrenched Los Angeles politician might lose his life-seat.  To me, this is all just great – and, in fact, the more “screwed up” the commission makes the districts, the better.

You see, what Jeffe – and everyone else who is either of the Ruling Class or unable to break free and start thinking independently – doesn’t realize is that having things made messy is a feature of a democratically governed republic, not a bug.  It is supposed to be like that – we’re not supposed to have life-long, professional politicians and their aids working things out for us.  We’re supposed to do it all on our own – with untrained, inexperienced regular folks just getting together to hash it out and then going back to be citizens living under the laws they made.

Bill Buckley once opined that he’d rather be governed by the first 100 names in the phone book than an Ivy League faculty – and he said this because, at bottom, he knew that was the way it is supposed to be.  Self rule must be just that – we, the people, ruling ourselves.  Sure, representative democracy…but the people who represent us are supposed to be us.  You know, send your neighbor Fred to Congress for a couple years and then send Nancy and after that maybe Jeff down the block.  We’re not supposed to have 18 term House members who are so entrenched that they start to seek a chosen successor when senility finally makes them incapable of spending other people’s money.

And we’re not supposed to be carved up by skin color, religious affinity or anything like that.  We’re supposed to be carved up by the area we live in, because it is a certainty that people living in a given area have similar interests.  That is why districts are supposed to be compact – not drawn with part of the district going down the middle of a street so that two entirely different areas can be stitched together to give a hack politician an easy ride to re-election.

Furthermore, inexperienced politicians can’t be crooks on the same level as career politicians.  It takes time to both learn how to steal on a grand scale, as well as to develope the ego necessary to think you should.  You have a worry that Congressional staffers would then really be in charge?  Simple – get rid of the Congressional staffers.  Make the Congressmen write their own bills and answer their own constituent mail…that will tell us who can put together a coherent sentence all on their own.  It’ll also give them less time to think up laws to impose on us, as well as less time to grand stand on fashionable issues.

Enough of this elitist mentality – as well as the serf mentality which sustains it.  Are we Americans, or not?  Have we even an ounce of the blood of Washington, Jefferson and Madison in us?  If we do, then it is time we proved it – by taking our government back.

From The Washington Times:

…At least a dozen states ended fiscal 2011 with surpluses. Indiana reported one of the largest, with an extra $1.2 billion in its accounts. Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, on Friday authorized bonus payments of up to $1,000 for state employees…

…While Indiana decided to reward its employees, other states are redirecting surplus funds into cash-strapped areas such as education. Idaho ended the year with an $85 million surplus, the majority of which will be funneled to public schools and colleges, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a Republican, said in a statement last week.

Other states are bulking up their savings accounts. Maine finished the year with a surplus of nearly $50 million. About half will go to the state’s reserve, the Bangor Daily News reported. Iowa closed its books with $480 million left over, on top of an already healthy “rainy day fund.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, on Sunday touted the fact that since taking office in January, he has helped the Buckeye State turn its deficit into a surplus…

All it takes is the courage to cut – to be sure, State revenues have increased over the past year, but the real source of the surplus is the fact that these Republican governors went after spending.  And that not only saved money directly, but also by its nature helped to free up their State economies, resulting in more wealth creation.  That, in turn, provided more revenues.  It is a wonderful cycle, if you can just get it started.  Trouble is, no liberal Democrat ever can – because no liberal Democrat will ever consider genuine cuts in spending.

I would caution these governors, though, not to get too cocky – the latent effects of Obamunism are piling up and we may well wind up at the end of 2011 in recession.  If that happens, even the best managed States will feel the pinch – better to keep cutting spending and/or taxes right now so that if there is another down turn it can more easily be weathered.  Let the liberal, Democrat States take their just punishment when Obamunism finally fails…they have been using fiscal hocus pocus to cover deficits and are counting on Kenynesian economics to magically increase their revenues before the chickens come home to roost.  Let them stew in that and let the Republican governed States shine as a beacon to a better future.

What we are seeing now is the grandest of all political experiments.  Liberalism and conservatism are governing and we are swiftly seeing the actual effects of each.  This period of our history – which is hard and likely to get even harder before it improves – may be the watershed.  It may, once and for all, lay to rest the notion that government is the answer.  Time will tell – our job is to just keep pressing the conservative, Republican program.  The more we do it, the better things will be and the more likely the people will turn to us.

Calling Obama’s bluff:

Defying a veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted Tuesday night to slice federal spending by $6 trillion and require a constitutional balanced budget amendment to be sent to the states in exchange for averting a threatened Aug. 2 government default.

The 234-190 vote marked the power of deeply conservative first-term Republicans, and it stood in contrast to rising support at the White House and in the Senate for a late stab at bipartisanship to solve the nation’s looming debt crisis…

A better description of that would be “The 234-190 vote shows that there are 234 common-sense votes in the House, and it stood in contrast to the desperate efforts of the Ruling Class to scam the American people out of another $2 trillion”.

This bill will now die in the Senate – or, if by some miracle it gets through there, will be veto’d by Obama.  I would have preferred a slightly different bill – you know, with my “trap the liberals” wealth tax in order to entirely get over on them about “taxing the rich” – but this is what needs to be done.  We have a plan, here it is – now, what is your alternative?  Tell us and, more importantly, tell the American people.  Obama and his Democrats and the rest of the Ruling Class will just have to come up with something – and it will either be acceptable to the 234 common-sense votes in the House, or will be a political albatross ’round Obama’s neck in 2012.  Either way, America comes out ahead.

From Zero Hedge:

No, the soap opera is not done just yet. According to The Hill the office of John Boehner has said that the Gang of Six proposed $3.7 trillion fluff “settlement” appears to fall short of goals set by House Republicans. “This plan shares many similarities with the framework the Speaker discussed with the president, but also appears to fall short in some important areas. The House is voting today on our ‘cut, cap, and balance’ plan, and we hope the Senate will take it up soon. That remains our focus,” a Boehner spokesman said…

I don’t like the gang of six plan, either – in fact, I don’t actually like any plan which raises the debt limit.  Raising the debt limit is just a demand of the Ruling Class which wants 18 more months of stealing from us.  What they’ll do after that, I haven’t a clue – we’ll tip in to bankruptcy and it is clear they don’t care…or, perhaps, are really too dumb to even understand their peril (it is a disease of ruling classes that they often really can’t see that the writing is on the wall).  But the main thing is, they want to jack up the debt so that they can continue to live as they have – there is no other reason to do is because we are taking in plenty of money.

Uncle Sam projects that he will take in more than $2.1 trillion in fiscal year 2012 (which begins October 1st, 2011).  Roll it back to 2008 levels and we cut the projected deficit by $300 billion, more than enough to to keep us below the debt ceiling.  Roll it back to 2003 levels and we run a surplus and start paying off the debt – and it isn’t like we were being all tight fisted in 2003…we were, in that year, spending money like water (remember, Democrats, how loudly you complained about those levels of spending and resultant deficit?). We need to set aside sufficient funds for social security, medicare/medicaid, national defense and law enforcement.  Everything else has to stop until we’ve balanced the budget.

Drill this in to your head:  we are, at most, four years from being in the condition of Greece.  We must stop borrowing – we must start paying back.  Anyone who says we must borrow is either a fool or a con artist.  Unfortunately, the combination of the two do seem sufficient to force a debt increase this year – but if we are to get swindled like that, then the GOP had at least better get some real cuts out of the deal or we’ll suffer a disaster among the base with incalculable effects on 2012.

Stand firm, GOP – don’t agree to any tax hikes, don’t agree to any debt increase unless coupled with significant spending cuts which will take effect in fiscal year 2012.  Do that, and we’ll win a crushing victory over liberalism next year – do otherwise and we might see Obama re-elected.

From Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell three points on Thursday to 67.8. That’s the lowest level in nearly two years, since July 24, 2009.  Consumer confidence is down four points from a week ago, down eleven points from a month ago and down ten points from three months ago…

There are a few polls out there purporting to show Obama and his Democrats as the winners in the budget debate…that the GOP will be blamed if there is a shut down or default.  These polls fly in the face of two facts:

1.  Its not like the Democrats are innocent bystanders with nothing to do with the issue.

2.  Poll after poll shows people just miserable about the state of the nation.

Given these two facts, I find it highly unlikely that a majority of Americans – or even a plurality – will heap blame primarily upon the GOP for whatever goes wrong.  To this day, probably not one in 20 Americans could correctly identify the Speaker of the House in a line up.  No, my friends, if things blow up, they blow up in Obama’s face…he’s the President, he’s the man who said that everything was going to get better with him in office, he’s the man who said he’d bring us all together.

Well, people can see that isn’t working and that is why Obama’s poll numbers are tanking…and if don’t get a budget deal, people aren’t going to suddenly say, “hey, that poor Obama!  Done in by the GOP so let’s re-elect Obama”.  That just isn’t going to happen.  The only way Obama and his Democrats can gain a 2012 advantage is if things get better – and so much better that people can clearly perceive that things are improving.  Can that happen?  Certainly – not too likely, but it can happen…but if it doesn’t happen then people will not give Obama four more years just because they’re mad at the House GOP leadership, even supposing they lay primary blame on them for the failure to get a budget deal.