DC TEA PARTY VIDEOS – PART I

Finally! Here is a vignette of the Tea Party held on Lafayette Square in Washington on April 15.

NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY

“The only surviving Somali pirate has arrived in New York, and judging by the footage, he's got the biggest smile we've seen this side of Susan Boyle after she finished singing .... Isn't this essentially importing criminals to our prison system? What, is this some obscure, previously unrevealed detail in Obama's immigration policy?”

Any bets he’ll be voting in the 2012 election?

SPENDING CUTS? WHAT SPENDING CUTS?

President Obama convened his first official Cabinet meeting yesterday. At the session, Obama ordered his agency heads to identify and shave a collective $100 million in administrative costs from federal programs in a budget of well over $3 trillion.

The Heritage Foundation responds: “Just how laughable is Obama’s latest stunt to try to maintain his “fiscal responsibility” credentials? This graphic might help:”



Don Surber has fun with the news:

[ABC White House correspondent Jake] Tapper to White House [Press Secretary] spokesbot Robert Gibbs: “You were talking about an appropriations bill a few weeks ago about $8 billion being minuscule — $8 billion in earmarks. We were talking about that and you said that that $100 million is a lot but $8 billion is small?”

The transcript is here.

Even Paul Krugman of the New York Times is having trouble with the latest “budget cut.”

“[P]retty soon, even here in Washington, it adds up to real money,” says the president.
Except, you know, really it doesn’t. Let’s say the administration finds $100 million in efficiencies every working day for the rest of the Obama administration’s first term. That’s still around $80 billion, or around 2% of one year’s federal spending.

And the media wonders why there were some 500 tea parties on April 15?

LAWS ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE, CONTINUING

Via Instapundit:

It was their dream home, a two-story, four-bedroom colonial in one of Detroit’s nicest and most stable neighborhoods.

But then, one day in December, City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta and his wife packed up their belongings, locked the doors, mailed in the keys and walked away - adding another vacant house to the thousands in a city hard hit by the nation’s mortgage crisis.

So where are they now living?

About five months ago, the Kenyattas moved to a rented condo on the city's east side. It has three bedrooms, four baths, a whirlpool bath, finished basement and garage.

The news article is here.

VIEW FROM MY (OFFICE) WINDOW

Well, actually from the parking garage.





Luckily, my office is on the other side of the building from the construction, so the pile drivers aren’t audible.

For construction updates, go here. A new photo is taken every 15 minutes, every day since last February.

ISN’T THE LEFT SUPPOSED TO BE TOLERANT?

They can talk it; they can’t walk it.

Former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, who is now the director of the Miss California USA pageant ... and her business partner, Keith Lewis, a strong activist against Proposition 8, were so infuriated over [Miss California Carrie] Prejean’s answer to Perez Hilton’s gay marriage question during Sunday’s crowning, they refused to make contact with the San Diego native after the show.

When asked by judge Perez Hilton, an openly gay gossip blogger, whether she believed in gay marriage, Miss California said "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

“Prejean, a student at San Diego Christian College, is studying to become a special education teacher and spends her spare time volunteering for the Best Buddies non profit organization, a program that helps people with disabilities. Prejean is also a volunteer for the Special Olympics.”

Tolerance - it’s not for just anyone.

CRIMES AREN’T CRIMES

Unless they’re not politically correct.

Speaking of immigration violations [Homeland Security head] Janet Napolitano said “And yes, when we find illegal workers, yes, appropriate action, some of which is criminal, most of that is civil, because crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil.”

Um, Janet, “In fact, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. 1325, crossing the border illegally is a crime–a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for the second and subsequent offenses. But of course, ignoring or mischaracterizing the law is a very convenient way for those in power to avoid the laws they find most inconvenient.”

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU’RE FAT

Your waist size exceeds your inseam length.

CELEBRATE DIVERSITY!

With some exceptions.

HMM ...

The FBI adds its first domestic terrorist to its Most Wanted list -- an animal rights activist.

The Department of Homeland Security is terrified of “right wing extremists.”

Do these people even talk to each other?

STAY TUNED ...

I will post the videos from the DC Tea Party on April 15, but right now my laptop is refusing to install the antivirus software - and I do have a day job.

CHRYSLER REJECTS MORE GOVERNMENT AID

Via Fox News:

The Washington Post reported on its Web site Monday that Chrysler Financial turned down $750 million in aid on top of $1.5 billion it already has received.

Chrysler Financial ... issued a statement saying it has enough private capital to meet its short-term needs of lending money to dealers and customers, and it doesn't need more money now from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

The light is dawning. “I’m from the Government and I’m here to help you” is an oxymoron.

ON SOCIALISM – OR IS IT FASCISM?

In a comment thread about the lack of media attention to the attendance at the national “tea parties” on Wednesday, Tim notes (scroll down):

When the net “takers” outnumber the net “contributors” in our society ... [s]ocialism will rule. Clearly the agenda in Washington is to maximize the number of “takers” that can be created. The flaw in their design (as there always will be one) is that eventually they will eliminate all the contributors.

I’m certainly sympathetic to the thought, but based on the Webster’s Dictionary definitions, I lean a little more toward a fascist interpretation of the Obama admininstration philosophy – (a) centralized government control of private enterprise and (b) suppression of any opposition.

I’ll blame Obama for the first; the mainstream media seems to be doing its best to achieve the second.

SO WHO’S WORSE?

Brown University, for renaming the Columbus Day holiday as "Fall Weekend?"

Or Notre Dame, for covering up religious symbols for President Obama's speech?

Political Correctness run amok.

A LITTLE LATE, BUT STILL ...

THEY DID IT FOR YOU. NOW DO IT FOR THEM.

These men [our Founding Fathers] signed a document knowing that was their death sentence, should their ramshackle collection of farmers and brewers and smiths fail to prevail against the most powerful military force the world had ever seen. A death sentence. They did that, not because they craved money, or social position, or political power – as with all revolutions before or since. Most of them had that in abundance. This was a risk they took not to gain everything, but to lose it.

They did it because they believed that men should be free: free from the petty tyrannies of other people telling you what to do for your own good.

If you couldn’t be there in person, there will be more.

And think about this (from the comments): “I’m going to the one in Washington D.C. I’m doing it for my children. I want them to know that I didn’t sit back while my generation passed on massive debt to theirs.”

My thoughts exactly.

SMALL CARS AREN’T SAFE?

Who’d’ve thunk it?

In crash tests released Tuesday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that drivers of 2009 versions of the Smart "fortwo," Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris could face significant leg and head injuries in severe front-end crashes with larger, mid-size vehicles.

The institute has raised questions about whether stricter gas mileage rules, which are being developed by the government, might lead to smaller, lighter vehicles that could be less safe.

Well, of course they’re less “safe” -- higher mileage implies smaller and lighter, and smaller and lighter don’t do well against bigger and heavier. Why do you think there are weight classes in almost every one-on-one sport? Why are women’s sports separate from men’s sports? Where is common sense? Oh, never mind ....

The real question is when (if) the Nanny-State Liberals will realize that there is always a trade-off between benefit and risk. To put it bluntly, to get the benefit of increased mileage, one is going to have to accept the additional risk of getting creamed in a crash.

Face it, folks – semi-trailers, box trucks, buses, delivery vans, concrete barriers, and trees aren’t going to vanish in the forseeable future, and to misuse an analogy, it really doesn’t matter if the hammer hits the light bulb or the light bulb hits the hammer, it’s the light bulb that’s going to take the beating every time.

Frankly, the best way to solve the safety “issue” is to immediately disable all the safety equipment on every car in America – no seat belts, no air bags, nothing – and issue a stern warning to every driver that his/her survival is wholly dependent on two things: (a) driving skill, and (b) undivided attention to the road.

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT – PART TWO

Let’s see, now. The Thursday Washington Times [print edition] reported on Wednesday’s tea parties on the front page, above the fold, with three pictures. A second article was inside the first section, on page A15. Both articles were national in scope.

The [Manassas VA] News & Messenger reported on Wednesday’s tea party in Woodbridge, Virginia, on the front page, again above the fold, with two photos from the protest. It did not mention other tea party protests.

The Washington Post [print edition] coverage was a mostly negative article, with a single protest photo, in the B [Metro] section. There was no mention of other protests until the eighth paragraph, on page B2 inside. Nothing to see here, folks. Nope. Nothing. Just move along now.

[Update] Oops. I missed Dana Milbank's snark on page B2.

NO BIAS HERE, JUST MOVE ON

Hey, robots, use your brain instead of blindly protesting

I don't blame the folks at Fox News for being the promotional engine behind the Tax Day Tea Party protests today.

Fox has been laughable for years, and this is just another low-level stunt for ratings.

So Fox doesn't surprise me. But what does surprise me are the robotic, non-thinking lemmings who will still take their marching orders from Fox, and other stations' hosts.

What still surprises me – to the extent anything in the “mainstream” media can surprise me – is the extent to which “journalists” can’t perform even a simple Google search. If this Gary Stein had done so, he might have discovered that the first tax protest occurred before Rick Santelli’s (of CNBC, not Fox)famous tea party rant.

Fox News may be jumping on,but they certainly aren't leading the bandwagon.

And Gary Stein is going to be thrown under it.

via Don Surber.

A NEW CABINET DEPARTMENT

The Administration response to tea parties.

TAX DAY TEA PARTY IN DC

Here are some initial pictures and impressions from the protest.

It was wet, cold, and raining throughout the day. Even with coats and an umbrella, we left cold, tired, and soaked to the skin. Despite the weather, I'd guess the total attendance was at least 2000, perhaps as high as 3000 at the peak.

It was so closely packed at the outset that we couldn't get close enough to hear the speakers despite the fact that there was a loudspeaker system. This photo gives some idea of the density near the speaker’s stage. It was taken at least 50 feet back from the fence surrounding the stage.



The sign in the center reads:

Constitution – 4400 words
Declaration of Independence – 1328 words
2009 Tax Code – 3.7 million words
JUST WORDS?

The audience was very well behaved -- no clown suits, that sort of thing. There was a large number of families in attendance, and I spotted a fair number of suits & ties in attendance, especially over the lunch hour.


The number of posters and signs, was a little sparser than I expected. Because of the rain, unprotected posters didn’t fare that well. Here’s one on a “pirate” theme. I suppose Senator Harry Reid wasn’t considered important enough to make the list.



And the hiring freeze.



“The 111th Congress could be replaced with a button marked THEFT.” True enough.



But my personal favorite, is this one:



“HOCUS POTUS” You can’t say it better than that.

Please stay tuned. Thoughts to come on the police activity (trivial); the counter-protest (laughable); audience (laudable); and some video clips.