As relates to the TEA Party movement:

Opportunities like this come along once in a political lifetime. Instead of worrying about Whole Foods, the Tea Party leadership should be figuring out how to channel this tidal shift in American public opinion into concrete results in next year’s congressional elections.

Being nonpartisan, the Tea Party movement must identify and encourage like-minded candidates in both major parties. That means a Tea Party Movement Seal of Approval, or a Tea Party Pledge, to point voters of all stripes to the new blood needed to replace the current calcified cast of establishment insiders running Congress.

No, that would straight-jacket the movement. It would turn it in to just another special interest the politicians will placate. What the TEA Party movement is all about, if anything, is anger over the status quo. It is for independent-minded Republicans and Democrats to demonstrate – by word and deed – that they are not part of the corrupt power structure but are, indeed, determined to bring it down; then the TEA Party support will be automatic.

Republicans will benefit from this more than Democrats – partially because we’re the out party, mostly because we’re more ideologically in tune with the TEA Party than most Democrats. But smart Democrats can also ride this wave of anti-establishment anger – indeed, even ultra liberals can garner at least some TEA Party support, if they just become part of the solution to big government problems, as opposed to being part of the problem (as almost all liberals are). This is a revolutionary wave – whomever catches it, will win.

Its just getting weird:

A top environmental official of the Obama administration issued a statement Thursday apologizing for past incendiary statement and denying that he ever agreed with a 2004 petition on which his name appears, a petition calling for congressional hearings and an investigation by the New York Attorney General into “evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur.”

Van Jones, the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is Number 46 of the petitioners from the so-called “Truther” movement which suggests that people in the administration of President George W. Bush “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.”

In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of “the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.”

Now we are being asked to agree that a person’s signed statement should not be held against him. If Lewis Carroll had written this, the editor would have struck it out as too unbelievable.

Look, anyone with and wits at all knows darn well that Van Jones signed on to the “truther” movement – which is being played, today, as if only a few fringe kooks were involved, but which was actually running quite strong on the left right about the same time Jones signed the petition. The left is trying to do a bit of a re-write but the fact of the matter is that the left, by and large, still believes that President Bush used 9/11 as a foundation for lies to get us in to Iraq. While not one in a hundred will admit to harboring “truther” views about 9/11, itself, there is no great leap from thinking that Bush cooked the intel books on Iraq to thinking Bush had a hand in 9/11. Van Jones isn’t an oddity – he’s mainstream liberal (yes, even with his cockeyed communism – especially so!).

The Obama Administration is shot through with people like this because the Democratic party is shot through with people like this – you couldn’t heave a brick at a Democrat gathering without hitting someone who thinks that President Bush had a hand in 9/11, or some other variant of the “BusHitler” meme (Ed. Note: Blogs for Victory strongly discourages hurling bricks at gathered Democrats…no matter how fun it’d be). The Democrats invited these kooks in to the party for the 2004 campaign. Michael Moore was the tip of the spear, but once the party was opened to people like Moore, they just came flooding in…and ended up providing the core support for Obama’s candidacy.

What can the Democrats do? Conduct a purge – though they won’t do it until they’re beaten. So, we’ll have to put up with Van Jones and his like at least through November of 2010.

UPDATE: Least shocking news of the day – he’s also a supporter of the cop-killed Mumia.

Inquiring minds want to know, in light of this:

A healthcare-reform opponent whose finger was partially bitten off Wednesday during a Thousand Oaks rally said today that doctors could not re-attach the severed section.

William Rice, 65, of Newbury Park also confirmed reports that he threw the first punch in the confrontation that claimed part of his left pinky.

“When he got in my personal space, I popped him in the nose,” Rice said. “I felt like I had no choice other than to defend myself.”

The incident was reported at 7:26 p.m. Wednesday at Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive, where more than 100 people gathered for a pro-healthcare reform vigil organized by Moveon.org.

A bit of advice for my fellow conservatives: while punching hippies is fun and relaxing, we should refrain from such activities as long as Obama is in office. It distracts from the central issue. If you must get in to a physical confrontation with a hippie, wear durable, leather work gloves.

Have at it, boys and girls.

If this doesn’t get you in a fighting mood, then you’re dead:

…Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. They — and let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions, ladies and gentlemen, of equality. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

Fellow Republicans, it is the cause of Republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people. And, so help us God, that is exactly what (we will do) – Barry Goldwater

Goodness, what a well spring of human love:

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar told US news service MSNBC they are delighted to discover the impending arrival of their 19th child. Described by the Today program as “glowing,” Michelle Duggar said, “I’m feeling sick and tired, which is a good way to be feeling about right now.”

“I always tell myself that’s a good way to be because that means good things are happening.”

The baby is due to arrive around March 18, 2010.

The family stars in the reality TV show “18 Kids and Counting” airing on TLC. The family are members of the Quiverfull movement among US Protestants that rejects the modern anti-child philosophy and allows God to decide how large their families will be.

The news of Michelle’s pregnancy, only eight months after the birth of their last child Jordyn-Grace, was followed by that of the family’s eldest son, Josh, who announced that his new wife Anna is expecting their first child, who is due on October 18. “Children are a blessing and a gift if you raise them right, and I think my parents have definitely shown that,” Josh Duggar said.

Most people simply will not have 19 children, even if they remain open to Life as God intends – God, I think, is providing a bit of instruction here. The family is happy, filled with love and seems to be completely free of the social pathologies we see in all too many of our families these days…those oh, so “planned” families.

So, how does the left react to this? With the only thing they have – hate:

…When the story was published on the website of the left-leaning Huffington Post, commenters did not hesitate to express their hostility to the Duggar’s openness to life. 1081 commenters responded with nearly uniform outrage that the Duggars, who have no financial problems, live in a large house they built themselves and are not in debt, have the audacity to be happy with their large family.

“Nothing but pure selfishness,” said one…

Mutual self-donation and the open well springs of life are examples of selfishness? Yes, if you are on the left – where the only generosity in existence is government-funded and the proper role of sex is personal pleasure. Rather sad, actually – the fools don’t realize what they’re missing.

Life – always choose life. You’ll never go wrong, that way.

And this could actually get worse – via NRO:

Americans are extremely displeased with Congress, and there are already some signs that this could take a toll on the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. Currently, 37% express a favorable opinion of Congress, while 52% hold an unfavorable view. Positive opinions of Congress have declined by 13 points since April and are now at one of their lowest points in more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys.

At the same time, intentions to vote Democratic in the next midterm election are markedly lower than they have been over the past four years. Voters are about evenly divided when asked how they would vote if the election for Congress were being held today: 45% say they would vote for a Democratic candidate in their district, or lean Democratic, while 44% say they would vote for a Republican or lean Republican. At about this point four years ago, Democrats led in the generic congressional ballot by 52% to 40% and went on to win a majority of the popular vote and regain control of Congress the following November.

Now, don’t any GOPers out there start breaking out the champagne – the GOP is gaining, but not that much because people are pretty disgusted with both parties, at the moment. What people should take away from this – as well as other polls also showing a complete collapse of support for Congress and those who run our government – is that a revolution is brewing out there. People really are mad as heck, and really aren’t going to take it any more.

If you ever had a thought of running for office – whatever office – then in 2010 you should do so. Even you liberals – unless you want to say that Pelosi and Boxer are the best you’ve got. It is time – the iron is hot: strike! Our future is to be decided in 2010 – and it will be your choice which decides it.

The whole, rotten edifice of modern, American government – built up since Woodrow Wilson took us to war and only slowed down a bit by Ronald Reagan and a few others – is crumbling. It has shot its bolt – its course of lies, funny money and usury; the magicians bag of tricks; is all played out. We can take the whole government back – if we just try.

You really want this, liberals?

Sentenced to death on the NHS

Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a “national crisis” in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative (by) care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.

“Forecasting death is an inexact science,”they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death “without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.

“As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients.”

First off, a Christian society wouldn’t deny food and water to patients under any circumstances – that is how low we’ve fallen; we’ll look at someone sick and say, “don’t even give them a crust of bread, nor a drop of water”. That, my friends, is really advanced liberalism – which cares about humanity. You know, more than you do (unless you’re a liberal, of course).

Aside from that, “end of life” is inexact – my mother-in-law lived months longer than the doctors gave her, while my father had doctors convinced he had moths left a couple days before he died. We are not the masters here, boys and girls – God is, and He will decide when its time for us to go, not us. We’re like 5 year olds messing with nuclear weapons when we start making presumptions here.

Tax increases, naturally – from The New Editor:

Some Democrats and their key allies are pushing another old, discredited idea in order to raise more tax revenue for the federal government. According to The Hill, the AFL-CIO and some Democrats are pushing a new tax to be placed on every stock transaction.

AFL-CIO policy director Thea Lee is quoted by The Hill as saying of the proposed tax, “It would have two benefits, raise a lot of revenue and discourage speculative financial activity.”

It wouldn’t curtail speculative activity – the returns speculators are looking for are so high that whatever the transaction fee is, they’ll still do it. What it will do is push money out of the stock market and in to the bond market – making it easier for Uncle Sam to go further in to debt, but not doing much for the productive economy. Look, Democrats, we can’t tax our way to wealth – it really does have to be earned and the sooner we start earning it, the better off we’ll be. Schemes to prop up liberalism with another round of taxation will just bury us further.

It is like talking to a brick wall when we’re dealing with Democrats – doesn’t matter how many times we demonstrate conclusively the superiority or lower taxes, our Democrats always find a tax hike they can love. Ah, well – let them try. With Bush’s tax cuts set to expire, we’ll gladly accept yet another issue to hammer the Democrats on in 2010.

More inspiration:

…The Creative Society, in other words, is simply a return to the people of the privilege of self-government, as well as a pledge for more efficient representative government–citizens of proven ability in their fields, serving where their experience qualifies them, proposing common sense answers for … problems, reviewing governmental structure itself and bringing it into line with the most advanced, modern business practices. Those who talk of complex problems, requiring more government planning and more control, in reality are taking us back in time to the acceptance of rule of the many by the few. Time to look to the future. We’ve had enough talk–disruptive talk–in America of left and right, dividing us down the center. There is really no such choice facing us. The only choice we have is up or down–up, to the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down, to the deadly dullness of totalitarianism. – Ronald Reagan, 1966

Yes, he is the inspiration – and he should be inspiring all of us to do our best, in whatever we are called to do.