Saturday, July 4, 2009

Over 15,000 at Tulare July 4th Tea Party; Patriots Nationwide Protest Obamanation; Thunderous Crowd Greets G.W. Bush in Oklahoma!

Big tea parties across the country today, and check this out: "Over 15,000 attend Freedom Rally Tea Party in Tulare."


Here's the report from KFSN-TV/DT Fresno, "Tea Time in Tulare: Thousands Angered About Taxes."

Gateway Pundit reports on the St. Louis tea party,"
1,500 Turn Out At St. Louis-Washington Missouri Independence Day Tea Party Rally." Also, "Thunderous Applause Greets Bush in Oklahoma - 6 Standing Ovations."

Glenn Reynolds
is getting busy with tea party pictures and links from around the country.

The first shot is from The Blog Prof, "
Reporting from the Lansing, MI Tea Party. UPDATED!":


He's got more photos at the link!

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This batch of pictures is courtesy of Skye at Midnight Blue, "
Tea Party 3 - Independence Hall - July 4th":

Check Skye's blog from more tea party updates.

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This last one is from
San Juan Capistrano Independence Day Tea Party, via Megan Barth on Facebook:

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See also, FreedomWorks, "
Pictures from the July 4th DC Tea Party." Plus, Michelle Malkin, "Independence Day: America Turns 233," and Panhandle Poet, "On This 4th of July."

Dan Riehl comments:

It occurs to me that if we want the kind of future for America that many of us generally support, in a sense, we need to remember our history and celebrate it more than ever just now. In large part, it is that very history that is at the heart of today's Tea Party movement. Not that we want to take any government down, but we do want to preserve as much individual freedom as possible under our current system. It is a quest that has been at the heart of many American endeavors and fundamental to the very best of our ideals. It's time to make that which is old, freedom, new again, or risk too much of its loss forever.
Also, check Memeorandum, and CBS, "Tea Party Protests Rally Against Taxes."

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UPDATE: From KDAF-TV Dallas, "Thousands Attend America's Tea Party Protest at Southfork Ranch"

Celebrating Independence Day for one group means voicing their frustration with the government. Tea party rallies were held in cities across the country and one of the largest took place at Southfork Ranch near Plano.

Even the youngest generation got involved this Independence Day. They took part in America's Tea Party, a growing and conservative grass roots movement trying to put a stop to what it calls a "tax and spend" government.

"This whole thing transcends party lines. It's important for everyone to stick up for their freedom," said 18-year-old Beau Brehm of McKinney.

27 comments:

Green Eagle said...

I went to three tea parties on April 15th, and two today, in the same area.

The attendance and enthusiasm were way down today. I want to tell you, I'm not guessing- I counted the crowds. I have some experience with this (going back to the sixties) and I am pretty confident about my numbers. What I saw was half the size of April 15th, or less.

I have trouble believing that things were much different anywhere else.

Deuce Geary said...

10 times the crowd in Tulare, CA (pop. 52,000) than in St, Louis, MO (pop. 354,361). What's wrong with this picture?

cracker said...

I'll tell ya whats Wrong Deuce

California is the joke of the nation right now.

The worlds 8th larget economy.....run Steeeeee-raight into the ground.

By The People

Any TEA party in Cali is a direct response to their own incompetence.

And for the rest of us.....we get to bail those jerks out .....there's your tax and spend

Thank You California

Rich Casebolt said...

Cracker ... I thought these were the exclusive pastime of senior white guys?

And California is what you get when you give in and fund the dreams of Leftists for a nanny state, no matter who's driving the train. But blaming this on the initiative process alone, as you are indirectly doing here, is a real stretch IMO (correct me if I'm wrong)... though the People there kept re-electing the legislators who drove most of the spending, so they are to blame.

Just like the rest of us.

Green Eagle ... the enthusiasm, at least, might have been more focused on Tax Day. Yesterday, the crowd sizes were subject to two conflicting effects -- scheduling on the weekend, which should have increased their size, and scheduling on a holiday, which could act to decrease their size because of travel/family-time pressures.

Still, I wouldn't take this as a sign that the movement is petering out. Ask my Congressman. The fact that most of these people had never taken such action prior to 15 April 2009 ... and are local and grassroots, as opposed to being organized by professional agitators like ANSWER ... says a lot.

Rich Casebolt said...

Deuce, you know what's wrong ...

... the cities see the nanny-staters as the Mr. Softie truck, bringing them goodies ...

... while those in rural/suburban areas are less affected by the goodies, and more aware that everyone's a cash cow that will be milked to make the ice cream being delivered.

smitty1e said...

[Yelling over rotor noise]
Gunner: "Bam! Bam! Get some! Get Some!"
Joker: "Oh my God! How can you shoot innocent Progressive and Collectivist ideas?"
Gunner: "It's easy! You just don't force as much Liberal Fascist leadership down them!"

Brian K Mcclung said...

It is hard to tell yet if this is meaningful and productive, or simply sour grapes by a Republican Party that failed to produce a meaningful alternative to Obama and Biden.

I voted for Obama, but have become somewhat displeased by some of his actions. But I have also tried to retain some sort of perspective, and do not believe he is destroying this country, or even turning it socialist. Which is a term that gets splattered about far too easily and with little validity.

What I see is a Republican Party that is very good at generating contempt for our government, but not very good at eliminating the desire for dependency on it.

I'll give you an example of something that happened yesterday. There was a protest in Temecula, Ca and I stopped my car and made this comment.

Why don't you form your own government with no taxes and see how long it lasts.

I received this angry response. There is nowhere else to go, we are going to fight for it here.

But what are you really fighting for.

No tax increases.

Fighting for a completely erroneous, and possibly delusional belief that up until Obama's election there were no deficits.

This country has had enormous deficits for decades, and both parties are equally responsible for it.

I seem to remember a comment during the last 8 years coming from some Republicans, the deficit is a small part of the GDP, and therefore not that serious.

I hope seem good comes of these tea parties, but in the end I fear the only result will be taxes aren't raised and the debt increases.

Unfortunately, if that is all that happens I feel that most tea party attendees will still be happy.

In closing, I also feel that using children to hold up signs, children who cannot even begin to comprehend the complexity of the issue or all the opposing forces that will have to compromise to find a solution, is kind of sad.

The new American Motto:

Raise our taxes we scream, but we will bend right over for gasoline.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Brian K Mcclung said...

Thanks for not limiting my comment to a certain amount of words.

Just for an additional frame of reference can some angry tax protester recall deficit amounts at the following four points in time.

Pre-Reagan 1980
Post-Reagan 1988

Pre-Bush 2000
Post-Bush 2008

I only raise this point because my brother, who is now a die hard Republican, will himself admit that from 2000 to 2008 Bush was hardly a shining example of fiscal restraint.

And thunderous crowd aside, anybody who denies the incredible amount of damage that Bush did, and that his 8 years almost guaranteed that ABAR was going to be the guiding philosophy for the majority of Americans in 2008 is purposely, purposely deluding themselves.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

bassplyr98 said...

It is a very sad sight to see parents dressing up they're little kids to turn them into the next line of litte right wing commandos.

The cry of tax and spend is so tired. The right wing is correct, we should spend and not tax, as it doesn't matter, Regan proved that deficits don't matter, no?

Ask the Chinese or anyone else who won't buy our debt anymore, and then ask yourself why the IMF, which has been around since the early 60's, is gaining steam.

This country has become a country of people who feel they deserve something for nothing, on both sides of the coin.

The rich feel like they should be allowed to continue shaping the rest of the world to they're liking, raping it of resources while destroying whatever they don't like, understand, or want. (allof this done over the phone of course)
The poor in the meantime see a hopless situation, where they feel the rest should take care of them.

We have reached the point in history, where the vast majority of our population needs to do an audit of they're values.

We are not entiltled to anything as a result of our forefathers efforts, other than to continue making them. If we cease to move ahead, we'll cease to exist. As for America as a superpower? I, for one, am quite tired of seeing the worldwide effects of our tax dollars at work.

Parties don't matter, politics don't matter. Our future, and the future's of our brothers and sisters around the world, is the only thing that does.

As long as huge machines, insistent on spending they're nations wealth on weapons, and bribes control the world, our situation will not change.

Am I the only one that is tired of seeing our tax dollars(our time and livelyhood) going for weapons?
Why do we still spend a trillion a year to keep troops in Japan, Germany, South Korea, etc. etc. etc.? Can't we count on those countries to govern themselves?

Tea Parties... Where were they when our country was spending a third of its budget on defense in the 80's under the big tent?

Rich Casebolt said...

Why don't you form your own government with no taxes and see how long it lasts.

Too simplistic.

It's not about "no taxes" -- it's about using the right tools to solve the problems we face, instead of government taking more and more of our resources to attempt to solve problems it -- by its very design as rights-respecting governance -- is incapable of effectively/efficiently solving.

It's about recognizing the limitations of so-called "experts" that created many of the problems in the first place -- and calling on the proper people, be they We the People or competent experts who know their and government's limitations -- to work on the solutions, instead of continuing to blindly trust elites who are full of themselves to solve them for us.

We have been asked, where were we in the 1980's?

Wellll ...

We had leadership that was trending away from socialism at the time ... but were also trying to thwart the totalitarian expansion of a powerful socialist enemy ... and a Congress chock-full of elitist "experts" who thought they had all the answers, and would stand in the way of effectively engaging that enemy unless they got what they wanted.

So Mr. Reagan gave it to them ... all the while validating supply-side economics by cutting taxes and watching government revenues double.

So my question is ... where were the principled/responsible Democrats in the 1980's, to stop the social experimentation that was finally ended by a GOP Congress in 1994?

And where are they now, as opposed to those ready to bankrupt this nation and burden the productive to restart their attempts at creating the Great (and Green) Society in their elitist hubris ... which will not only fail, but actually work against their stated objectives of social justice and environmental protection in the long run?

The trend now is different, than it was in the 1980's ... we are moving headlong towards courses of action that have historically been proven to be folly.

That's why there are Tea Parties now.

Brian K Mcclung said...

Why don't you form your own government with no taxes and see how long it lasts.

Too simplistic.
__

It was an initial question, and being in my car on a public street, I certainly did not have time to pursue the conversation.

You say Reagan cut taxes and increased revnues. That would indicate to me that the deficit should not have increased under Reagan.

And yet it did, quite a bit.

Why?

This brings me back to an earlier point of mine.

""What I see is a Republican Party that is very good at generating contempt for our government, but not very good at eliminating the desire for dependency on it.""

Until this goal of decreasing the desire for dependency is accompished, I fear that the only outcome of these tea parites will be static or decresing taxes and higher deficits.

And contrasry to what you might think I would like to see some good come out of it.

And please, debate and compromise are an essential part of finding a solution, and I don't debate with children.

And mature adults don't drag their children into adult matters.

And children who hold up signs they can't possibly understand or grasp, and who in later years might actually be embarassed by, is really quite sad.

One more thing, you agree or disagree that this country had huge deficits well before Obama became president.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Rich Casebolt said...

Brian, I know we had large deficits before 20 Jan 2009.

Problem is, after 20 Jan 2009 we are running them up at a far higher rate than ever before ... and such activity needs to be opposed, not only to mitigate the debt burden upon this nation (more later on that).

Understand that Reagan (unlike GWB) never had both chambers of Congress under the control of his party ... and he still had to rebuild the military that had been gutted by his opponents before 20 Jan 1981, if he was going to effectively deal with the USSR.

So he was between a rock and a hard place, when it came to the spending ... and it is spending, not cutting taxes, that ran (and still runs) up the deficits.

GWB's opponents, while they did not have control of Congress until 2006, still had the power of the filibuster -- and media willing to frame the debate in their terms. GWB was between a rock and a hard place similar to the one Reagan had to deal with ... except his opponents were less principled than Reagan's.

And yes, too many Republicans thought that becoming Democrat Lite -- or simply corrupt -- was in their best interest. And if you'd been where I was yesterday, you'd see that we recognize that, and denounce it ... and plan to do more than that about it in the future.

Your concern about dependence echoes my own ... in fact, I see the acceptance of dependence as the normal state-of-living by so many of We the People, as a primary problem for this nation.

But it is more than dependence upon welfare, which is what usually comes to mind ...

... it includes the dependence I and many others have been guilty of for years, that one of the speakers at the Tea Party I attended yesterday pointed out as OUR contribution to the dysfunctional government we have today.

For too many years, we didn't pay enough attention to who we were sending to Washington (or to our state capitals, for that matter) ... having a (R) by their name was good enough in most cases, because it was seen as too much effort -- or as handing an election to someone we detested even more on a silver platter -- to challenge them where they were weak on principle. Like the mayor in the old sitcom Carter Country we just said "Handleit Handleit Handleit" and sent them to supposedly look after our interests in what I describe as "rent-a-government".

That is beginning to change, at least in attitude ... and if I have anything to do with it, in the facts-on-the-ground, though that may take time to fully implement.

But my heightened awareness makes me oppose Mr. Obama and the political elites -- on both sides of the aisle -- even more.

That is because they have encouraged the most corrosive dependence of all ... that we should depend upon them to find most of the answers to the problems we face, because they are the Best, the Brightest, and the Deepest Pockets, to the point that we surrender our resources and our choices to them "for the greater good".

As I described earlier, dependence on such "experts" put us where we are today ... and I don't want to see this nation dig an even deeper hole for itself, to the point that we are reduced to the least-common-denominator of European social democracy.

Hopefully, I have shown you that we Tea Partiers are deeper thinkers than the surface appearance may indicate.

Rich Casebolt said...

And Brian, while I realize that compromise and concession can be effective grease for the wheels of solution, compromise for its own sake -- or with the morally relative, who can/have/will exploit our desire for consensus to implement what they damn well want, no matter how wrong it is -- is counterproductive in solving our problems.

Seeking consensus while ignoring sound principle created some of the GOP leaders I now criticize ... that is the way of the lemming, and leads to a similar end.

Brian K Mcclung said...

You make a reasoned argument, and I appreciate it.

I will offer some advice.

Quit blaming the media, quit using th word elitist, and don't expect me to raise my opinion of all tea partiers to some higher level because I am having a online debate with one who can debate with me without insulting me.

If the demonstration in Temecula is any indication you have a very long way to go to convince the majority of Americans you are concerned about anything other than becoming rich and keeping your taxes low. And to hell with anybody who disagrees with you, or is less fortunate than you.

Now I am not saying you feel that way, or a majority of tea partiers.

But it is a simple fact that you cannot alienate people who you want to help, or they will reject you out of hand.

In this country we have laws, we have elections, and we have freedom of speech.

Going back to the origins of this country, it would have never come about without strong convictions, and the realization that compromises will always be necessary in a democracy, or in our case a republic.

Signs about tyranny, calling Obama a socialist, not accepting the fact that Republicans lost the last election, they ain't helping your cause.

If you truly want to make a positive change, if your cause is truly that important to you, heed my advice.

Sour grapes are rarely that apppealing to people.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Rich Casebolt said...

Brian ...

Mr. Reagan got some of that same advice, I am sure, on many occasions ... in particular, his speechwriters repeatedly deleted his famous "Tear Down This Wall!" statement from that speech three times IIRC. He kept re-inserting it, and delivered it. It made history ... positive history.

Well before that, I could see some of Jesus' disciples raising eyebrows about His calling the Pharasees "whitewashed tombs" ... a particularly harsh insult to them. I, however, am not about to question His judgment, especially in the light of history.

There is a time for civility and erudition ... and a time for deliniating the virtue of your position -- and the vice of your opponent's -- in no uncertain terms.

You say that I shouldn't alienate those I am trying to help ... well, neither should they continue to be lied to in the name of congeniality, leaving them vulnerable to more folly in the process.

My opponents are elitists, who look down at many like myself who question the products of their intellect ... derisively saying we "cling to our guns and religion" ... even as they cling to the hubris to think they can effectively manage the economic/energy/health-care needs of 300 million people from a relative few offices, when history shows us otherwise.

My opponents seek to exert extensive government control over the energy and health-care sectors, and have already done so over our financial and automobile sectors ... by some accounts, if their plans are implemented, they will control the processes behind up to 85% of our GDP. If that is not socialism, it is a close cousin to it.

We conservatives have actually used your advice in the past ... on many occasions ... and have ceded the process of governance to unprincipled opponents on some of these occasions, to the detriment of this nation. The debate over border security is a prime example of this.

Brian, if the opponents of my position within the national leadership were principled men and women, your advice would have merit.

However, their track record -- (R) and (D) alike -- of subordinating sound principle to political expediency makes the implementation of your advice the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gunfight.

I will implement it where it advances the cause of life and liberty to do so ... but I will reject it, when it does not.

And yes, I know Republicans lost the last election. That does not relieve me of the responsibility of holding our elected leaders to account for their actions ... especially when those actions will be extremely difficult and painful to reverse, once they are implemented and exposed for the folly they are.

Tomas said...

lol Rich,

Lets hope that you're just jokin' about the impact of Ronald Reagans' "tear down this wall statement.

Boy, you folk still believe that Reagan and his mighty words brought down the "iron curtain" or something?

Well, I suppose some of us still believe in the tooth fairy and other weird phenomena, so there is still hope.

Brian K Mcclung said...

And yes, I know Republicans lost the last election. That does not relieve me of the responsibility of holding our elected leaders to account for their actions ... especially when those actions will be extremely difficult and painful to reverse, once they are implemented and exposed for the folly they are.
--
I'll make one last comment Rich, and let it go at that.

You have the right, as every other American, to criticize what you think is wrong, as well as a Constitutionally guaranteed right to do so.

But you also have the responsibility to accept the fact that Obama, for better or worse, is President, and will be for close to 4 more years.

As I said earlier, I hope these tea parties can have a positive effect in the long run.

But I also see a very definite possibility for the creation of a very polarized minority that will become increasingly irrelevant to the majority of Americans.

And I think it would be a shame.

In closing I appreciate the very respectful way you have presented your position.

Sincerely

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Brian K Mcclung said...

If I may make one last comment, I should have included it in my other post.

No person, or group, has a monopoly on the truth.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Brian K Mcclung said...

I know this is a little off topic, but I think this might be relevant in some roundabout way to what I was trying to make a point about earlier.

I don't watch Fox news. I can tolerate it for about 15 seconds, but their political agenda is so blatantly obvious every time I turn it on I have to almost immediately change the channel.

I watched it a little while ago for about 30 seconds, and as usual they were having some tiff about a Hollywood celebrity, in this case Gwyneth Paltrow.

Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow went to Spain and fell in love with it.

I'll have to investigate this on my own as I am certainly not going to count on Fox news to give an unbiased and fair representation of her feelings.

But apparently in her comparison between Spain and the US she made some unflattering statements about the US.

I just want to relate my feelings about Mike Huckabee's reaction to this.

As near as I can recall Mike made the following statement.

Due to genetics and some good contacts in Hollywood she made a gazillion dollars, but now this country isn't good enough for her. Goodbye, good riddance.

As if somehow the fact she can make more money here than anywhere else is the only thing she should base her opinion of the US on.

And this is exactly one of the reasons why the Republican Party is becoming so irrelevant to so many people, including myself.

Business and money is of the utmost importance, and everything is secondary, at times even meaningless.

The most important realization anyone can make in life is that even in their most successful moment they might be missing out on something, and when they realize it they shouldn't ignore it, but try to capture it.

How arrogant so many Americans have become.

Were so F*&^%$G great how can anybody be against us.

Were so F*&^%G great, how could anybody even think that someplace else could be better, if only for them.

How sad, and how typical.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Rich Casebolt said...

Brian, given the numbers and demographics of people involved in the Tea Parties, and their awareness that they have been Part of the Problem, any polarization will be driven at least as much by an arrogant response to their efforts on the part of the current leadership, as it will be by their own opinions.

And you are correct, that no person/group has a monopoly on the truth ... I hope my opponents are listening to you, for many of them believe that they do have a monopoly on the truth, simply because they see themselves as the Best and Brightest.

As for your example of Fox News and Ms. Paltrow ... it's not about the money ... it's about her ungrateful attitude towards the nation that facilitated the entertainment market where her opportunities to pursue happiness and prosper were located ... and her lack of recognition that the nation she now praises wavered when terrorism took a swing at it, unlike the one she criticizes.

Our nation has expended more blood and treasure -- and successfully so -- to secure and protect the most critical needs of humanity ... life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ... than any other in modern (if not all of) history.

Yet people ... in some cases, simply out of envy, or the misunderstanding that the mere possession of wealth is an absolute indicator of greed ... keep trying to treat this nation as "just another" ... in the face of the expenditures and success I describe above.

If it was merely a lack of gratitude on others' part, I wouldn't be spending so much time responding to this ... but the attitude that America is "just another nation" is indicative of a far greater problem.

When we refuse to recognize that some nations ARE superior to others when it comes to their primary mission -- securing those unalienable rights -- and instead treat dictator and democrat with the same deference and respect for their sovereignty (as has been done under the auspices of the UN and other world forums, as well as by our own Foggy Bottom), we empower the dictator while making the democrat vulnerable.

That increases the probability that others' rights will be/continue to be denied to them ... which in turn threatens my own life and liberty as the dictators work to expand their influence and holdings in such an environment.

That ... not mere pride, not greed ... is why I insist that credit be given where credit is due, and that we be accurate when it comes to assessing the good, and the bad, that has come from our nation.

Rich Casebolt said...

tomas ... I know this much.

That before there was a President Reagan, my great uncles shared the land their farms sat on with Minuteman missile silos.

After President Reagan, those missiles are no longer there ... due to arms-reduction agreements he facilitated.

That alone is more arms reduction, in real terms, than your "progressive" fellow-travelers ever produced through their toothless diplomacy.

History shows us that, in real terms, the real peace song sounds less like "Kumbiyah" ... and more like "Yippie-Ky-Ay-A"!

Brian K Mcclung said...

Hi Rich

I am almost at a loss of words.

You make my case better than I do.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Rich Casebolt said...

Brian ... are you more interested in getting along, than in discerning right and wrong?

If so, you are putting your liberty at risk of being trampled by the unscrupulous.

If not ... refute my assertions, if they are wrong in absolute terms.

Take a stand.

Brian K Mcclung said...

I am not interested in making enemies.

But I will respond to you in this way.

This country has many things to be proud of, several of which you pointed out in your last few responses to me.

As well as many things it should be ashamed of.

But pride and arrogance are not the same thing.

They are different, there is a line between the two, and you are either incapable of, or more likely simply refuse to see it.

The mild tirade you went through in my posting about Gwyneth Paltrow is proof of it. In my opinion.

You want absolutes, turn on Fox News.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Rich Casebolt said...

Fox is not my source for absolutes ... here is what I consider the benchmark regarding governance, Brian.

The fact that others ignore absolutes as irrelevant, doesn't remove them from existence.

And neither pride, nor arrogance, is what drives me.

It is a desire to avoid repeating errors of the past that cost us dearly, in both treasure and blood -- by implementing what history has shown to be most benficial to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I'm 50 years old ... as I said to Tomas, I watched as my family lived in a nuclear bullseye, knowing full well that in well under an hour, they could be glass.

I saw the Great Society perpetuate poverty in my father's birthplace in Appalachia ... and bring families and towns to ruin all over this nation, by ignoring human nature as it tried to help ... always assuming that government was the only answer ... even when it could only sit by and watch poverty handed down from generation to generation.

I lived through the Carter years, and watched our nation reduced to impotence by totalitarian thugs ... and our economy wrecked by stagflation ... and the President who wrote "Why Not the Best" telling us we should get ready to settle for less than the best.

I also saw what it took for people to successfully repel tyranny ... it took strong words, assertive preparation, and resolve ... not soothing talk and inaction.

And I saw what it took to secure prosperity ... not greed, but the freedom to make an honest profit commensurate with my own efforts, and keep it to fund my family's living ... instead of having others fund them through a government check.

Let me conclude with this:

When someone's standing on the tracks and shows no indications that they're going to move out of the way of an oncoming freight train that I've seen coming down those tracks before ... shouldn't I be speaking up loudly to persuade them to move, even if that is initially upsetting to them?

Brian K Mcclung said...

Hi Rich

As I said before, you express your point eloquently, and I agree with much of what you say.

And I have said it before, you have every right to speak your mind, and to criticize what you think is wrong.

Nobody has a monopoly on the truth, and I say that to everybody, and I hope everybody listens.

I think you overexaggerate what happened during the Carter years, and I watched a very interesting interview on TV with a book writer, and President Carter was one topic that was discussed.

I think he got a bad rap, and as often happens with President's they either are blamed too much or given too much credit.

But that is a topic for another day.

I agree with you that government is not the answer to everything, but neither is the free market.

I'm 51 myself, and I see a radicalization developing in this country that is frightening.

And I started to realize this shortly after I voted for Reagan in 1984. In 1980 I was in the Navy and not too concerned with politics at that time.

And I regret voting for him. And not necessarily because I felt he was a bad president, but I because I see his legacy.

What is that legacy.

Democrats and Liberals are too blame for all the problems, and Republicans and Conservatives are the saviours.

And if you don't see this extreme polarization and the danger of it, well I can't make you. I wont even try.

But when I hear talk of revolution, when I read idiots on the web suggesting bloodshed, advocating military takeovers to get Obama out of office, to me that is more frightening than anything Obama is doing to try to help people.

And to show that I too have a strong radical side, I think people like that should be taken out and shot as an example to other Americans.

If Carter was as bad as you think he was, and we survived, I think we can survive Obama.

I enjoy our conversation.

Let's not tear our country apart trying to save it.

Taxes aren't tyranny, and taxes being raised are not the greatest evil ever perpetrated on the American people.

I'll give you some examples of what I see as tyranny.

Persecution of Smokers.

Safety Police, who's primary goal is to create some delusional Utopia where nothing bad ever happens.

NIMBY fanatics, who care about nothing except their self centered isolated place in a world that can no longer tolerate isolation.

Sorry, I can't think of anything else to write at the moment.

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca

Brian K Mcclung said...

Do me a favor.

Post my last comment, or don't.

But I don't want it edited.

Thanks

Brian K Mcclung
San Pedro, Ca