But it is clear to me, at least for the homosexual community, that tolerance only extends so far as you are in agreement with them.  Should you dare to oppose their view you are set upon just as the Reverend Rick Warren was set upon when Barack Obama chose him to give the opening prayer.  I haven’t heard any tolerance from the homosexual community concerning Pastor Warren.  To the contrary, I’ve heard nothing but hate-speech toward him because he has the audacity to suggest homosexuality is biblically unpleasing to God (which scripture I will not quote, but am able, so as not to appear as though I am pulling things out of context as I am not).

Reverend Lowery decided to use his benediction, which is usually used as a way to bless all in attendance, as a bully pulpit designed to admonish whites and those opposed to homosexual marriage.  I find this use of the inauguration as a deplorable and degrading statement from the Reverend Lowery.

On both subjects I challenge the left to upbraid and castigate those who cannot see the hypocrisy in both the homosexual community for their treatment of Pastor Rick Warren and Revered Joseph E. Lowery.

The mainstream media is only relevant if people talk about what they discuss.  They know if they put out inflammatory remarks we’ll pick it up, link to it, and talk about it.  There may be little we can do about this given it is a wise military commander who knows his enemy.

However, given PEBO’s (President Elect Barak Obama) successful use of the New Media during his campaign we may be seeing a shift away from traditional television information dispersal.

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We do not start publicly decrying those Republicans who are Republicans In November Only just to court the conservative base and then abandon us once elected.

We do not stop accepting ‘the lesser of evils’.  Some pain is going to be necessary to over come this death spiral of accepting moderates and those Really Interested in Nothing Overt when it comes to principals.

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Congressional Hypocrisy

Congressional democrats blaming Bush for the decision to go to war when they voted for it

Congressional republicans touting their conservative roots and voting for the Bail Out Bill (HR1424)

Congressional democrats blaming Wallstreet for the mortgage meltdown while knowing Congressional Republicans warned eeryont it was coming.

Congress (all of them) for upbraiding the CEO’s of the automakers for flying in on their corporate jets while members of congress jet all over the country to make appearances.

Congressional democrats chiding Enron and Worldcom for ‘cooking the books’ while they do EXACTLY the same thing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack (but Franklin Raines et al get away with it while Skilling and Ebbers.are now convicted felons)

Congressional democrats fear-monger the auto industry going into bankruptcy as losing 2 million jobs while Tribune company goes into bankruptcy without losing any jobs (thus protecting the UAW’s cushy contracts, which are arguably the reason The Big Three are in the situation they’re in).

Congressional Republicans forcing their moderate candidate on the party despite conservative complaints he can’t win then blaming the failure of said moderate on those same conservatives (never mind the addition of a true conservative on the ticket is the only thing that saved the 2008 campaign from Mondalian failure)

Superior court judge Michael C. Clark correctly enforced state law today by blocking the implementation of the Georgia counties plan to hand over county responsibility for garbage collection to a private firm, Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful.  The short text of the article can be read here.

Erick put out the call for Georgians on this one and to all who made an effort to expose this unacceptable act by a supposed republican dominated commission thanks.  The great white hunter is on the trail of several more potential trophies in Gwinnett county.

For at least the last eight years, and highlighted during this past election cycle, members of the Republican party have shown no pageant for a fight.  No backbone to defend themselves when they have hard public opinion, the constitution, or even hard evidence on their side.

A common theme in many of the diaries on RS both before the election and since lament the unwillingness for Republicans to call a spade a spade and take the offensive against slanderous, incorrect, and in some cases out and out lies.  For those of you holding current office a good first step toward getting back in the good graces of the base would be to…

FIGHT BACK

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Liberal activists need a cause.  They cannot be content with achieving their stated goals.  Consequently, their stated goals are, usually unachievable so as to ensure the longevity of the cause.

Conservative activists do not need a cause.  They rally around an injustice they see and work to correct it.  Once the correction is made they return focus to their lives (read jobs).

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Recently on December 6th, Newsweek published a story by Lisa Miller entitled ‘Our Mutual Joy’.  In this article Ms. Miller (I’m sure she’s a Ms.) trots out a number of quotes from people who say the bible really supports gay marriage despite many passages to the contrary.  We just have to read between the lines and understand what the writers ‘really’ meant to say.

This approach is flawed for many reasons chief among them is ignoring the divine nature of biblical scripture.

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On October 21st, 2008 The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt an amendment to the county garbage disposal ordinance.  The amendment is entitled Amendment to Gwinnett County Solid Waste Collection and Disposal Service Ordinance (you can read the signed 33 page document here  http://www.gwinnettcbservices.org/Documents/Solid_Waste_Ordinance_2008_2008112050.pdf ).

The amendment, among other things, removes the 400k county resident’s ability to choose a garbage disposal service: they must now pay for service from the county selected provider.   It also increases a county resident’s ad valorem tax after July 1, 2009.  Lastly, it has a series of prohibited activities for which a violator can be charged up to $500.

I sent all of the commission members an email requesting a comment, which I promised to post unedited if they’d send it to me before 8:30 PM ET last night (12 Dec 08).  I received not one comment.  Additionally, I have a friend in Gwinnett who informed me there was a GOP party a few days ago at which several of the commission members would be in attendance.  Several were asked about the issue and all refused to discuss it.

Update: Since I drafted this diary the Atalnta Journal/Constitution has published the following article detailing a court battle Gwinnett is now in over this very topic:  http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/12/10/gwinnett_recycling_plan.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

Opponents have been mentioning recycling as the reason residents can be fined, but according to the wording of the amendment it is for any  violation of the prohibited activities section.

Here are some high points before we get into the particulars of the violations.

Section V A vii - Increases county resident’s taxes
Section V D i 2 - Yard waste removal costs the resident more
Section XVIII A - Enforcement by any inspector employed by Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful and deputized by the Sheriff
Section XIX A - Makes any violation, not just recyclables punishable by no more than $500

Section VII A contains the prohibited acts a residential owner can be fined for and is summed up violating anything in section V.A. Keep in mind Section XIX.A. States, “…any person who willfully violates this ordinance may be punished by a civil monetary penalty not to exceed $500.00 per violation.  Keep in mind that last part as you read through the summaries below of Section V. Also, the final part of Section XIX A. reads, “Each full day a violation continues may constitute a separate violation”.

Section V (I have paraphrased much of this for brevity)
V.A.ii. -You can only contract for garbage service with the county approved provider prior to July 1, 2009 but you may remove it by other means other than having trash service.
V.A.iii. -you Must use the county provided service after July 1, 2009.  All residents will also, ‘Source separate residential recovered materials i.e. recyclables
V.A.v. -All residents will prevent the accumulation of trash on their property or public thoroughfares bordering same
V.A.vi.1.-Before July 1, 2009 all residents shall

• put trash where they say
• Put all recycleables in the service providers recyclable cart and put that where the trash collector says
• Recyclable materials are as follows
  • Newspaper and inserts
  • Aluminum cans
  • Tin/steel cans
  • glass bottles and jars
  • plastic soda and water bottles (#1)
  • plastic milk jugs (#2)
  • plastic detergent jugs (#2)
• Place all white goods where they tell you to
• Place all yard trimmings in paper bags to be collected within 3 days of an owners request to collect them.
• You must place the trash can where they tell you no earlier than 7 PM the day before scheduled collection
• Each owner must remove the can from the designated area within 24 hours of collection
• 2.After July 1, 2009

b. I. -The list of source separated materials will be provided to residents by The Administrator and is subject to change at any time without notice at the discretion of The Administrator

With these violations in mind lets explore what might be…

If you put your trash out, then go out of town and the can isn’t removed for three days, those last two days are a violation of section V.A.vi.f., which would be considered two separate violations costing a resident up to $1000.

If several types of recyclable materials, such as two or three water bottles, a six pack of your favorite beer cans(lets face it, there’ll be drinking—heavy drinking—during an Obama administration) and a milk jug, you’ve just racked up $5000.00 of county funding from your ten violations.  Oh, and these violations will come when exactly?  Will there be a deputy riding ’shotgun’ on the garbage truck supervising each trash can as it’s emptied into the back of the trash truck who can then write the ticket on the spot (thus delaying the speedy completion of the sanitation engineers’ rounds, which is a violation of the sanitation engineer’s Hippocratic oath to let no prohibited residential recoverable materials enter into the waste stream despite sleet, snow, hail, or global warming copyright infringement)?  Perhaps they cannot afford all those extra deputized trash sheriffs and will just wait until the truck reaches the dumping facility.  Then they’ll use a Berkley researched formula for determining the address along a route by the position of the offending garbage within the truck.  This of course will only come after a quarter million dollar research grant is completed two years from now.  Or, maybe a dart will be thrown at a map and the house stuck will receive the violation.  After all, how are you going to prove the bottle(s) they produce as ‘evidence’ didn’t come from your home?

Yes, most of that is tongue in cheek, most.  The violations can easily add up in a hurry.  The consumer has no where to turn since government has stepped in and will determine what is best for it’s people.  Those who live in Gwinnett county cannot make this choice for themselves it seems.  The commission board has determined since 20,000 homes have no trash service they are going to impose their chosen solution on the other 380,000 residents of that region.  Apparently, they forgot those other 380,000 residents live there and VOTE.  Oh, did I forget to mention if you’re unhappy with this choice the email addresses and phone numbers of all the commission members is at the end of this diary.

Local politics is where you individually have a greater impact than in any other realm of politics.  Don’t just get angry, you can actually get even here.  Find out when each member is coming up for reelection.  Contact them using the email addresses and phone numbers in this post.  If they won’t listen, refuse to hear your voice, or just plain ignore you then remove them from office in favor of some other guy who suffered through this with you.  Perhaps the next person will be more respectful of his neighbors.

Oh, if you’d like to discuss it with the commission in person, they have a public hearing on December 16, 2009 at 7 PM. The address is also at the bottom of this post.

The Commission is chaired by Charles E. Bannister, chairman (Charles.Bannister@gwinnettcounty.com 770.822.7010)

last night when they stymied the union bailout bill cordially known as the Auto Bailout bill.  As many well thought out front page diarists have already pointed out, Francis Cianfrocca most notably, we will do this over again in January when the Democrats control everything.

With this defeat, perhaps the remaining GOP senators have learned their collective lesson from the demise of so many of their colleagues in the last election.  Only time will tell on that front.  Let us just hope the great white hunter can finally put up his rifle and retire from rhino hunting.

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Noes

Kingston(R), Westmoreland(R), Price(R), Linder(R), Marshall(D), Deal(R), Broun(R), Gingrey(R)

Ayes

Bishop(D), Johnson(D), Lewis(D), Barrow(D), Scott(D)

HR7321, the auto bailout passed by the House of Representatives yesterday (which can be found here http://clipsandcomment.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/1210autobill.pdf) is fraught with problems. I won’t get into a breakdown of the individual sections here, but restrictions are placed on any auto manufacturer who accepts funds from this to focus production on environmentally friendly vehicles, while at the same time passing on ‘excess production’ of SUV’s to govenrment agencies, it appears.

“(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—

VerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:55 Dec 10, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 C:\TEMP\AUTO_006.XML HOLCPC

1 (1) to immediately provide authority and facili2

ties to restore liquidity and stability to the domestic

3 automobile industry in the United States; and

4 (2) to ensure that such authority and such fa5

cilities are used in a manner that—

6 (A) results in a viable and competitive do7

mestic automobile industry that minimizes ad8

verse effects on the environment;

9 (B) enhances the ability and the capacity

10 of the domestic automobile industry to pursue

11 the timely and aggressive production of energy12

efficient advanced technology vehicles;

13 (C) preserves and promotes the jobs of

14 American workers employed directly by the do15

mestic automobile industry and in related in16

dustries;

17 (D) safeguards the ability of the domestic

18 automobile industry to provide retirement and

19 health care benefits for the industry’s retirees

20 and their dependents; and “

Further, there are absolutely no provisions to allow the automakers to renegotiate, or otherwise alter the union deals, which drove them into this position in the first place. The House passed this thing, let us hope the senate will not.

seasons greetings or anything else. This is the season to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. If you are offended by that, frankly, I don’t care. I’m tired of having to worry about if the most high holy season of my religion offends anyone. You’re offense offends me. You’re lack of tolerance toward my religious beliefs offends me.

The left tells us we do not include enough diverse opinions. They tell us we are intolerant of the views of others. They tell us we must accept divergent beliefs from our own. Then, in the same breath, they tell us Christians we are not allowed to be included in the public school programs, our open displays of holiday spirit are not tolerated in public places, and they will not teach their children to accept our beliefs BECAUSE they differ from their own.

To those of you who think a nativity cannot be displayed because I’m not being tolerant of others I submit my moral outrage at your own hypocrisy. Oh, and by the way, the constitution guarantees us a freedom OF religion, not a freedom from religion. By virtue of removing all religion you are, in my opinion, by default promoting the religion of atheism (which falls on the category of religious beliefs even though it denies any deity’s existence).

Oh, Merry Christmas to all, peace and good will toward men, and happy birthday Jesus.

Before John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate I didn’t know her. Even after we still only know what the MSM and the McCain handlers allowed us to see and hear. I think one of the flaws in McCain’s campaign was they didn’t allow Sarah to be herself. Part of that too was having to support the McCain platform and not contradict the presidential candidate on the ticket.

Now, she’s been introduced to the nation and the base. She fired up huge numbers of people to come out who, arguably, would have otherwise remained at home. I was one of these.

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Americans, why did McCain/Palin loose this election? A lack of conservative principals showcased from the beginning. The Republican leadership allowed a moderate (McCain) to be selected as our candidate. McCain ran a weak campaign only selecting Palin in the end to energize the conservative base, and she did.

I submit if someone with more ‘fire in the belly’ for conservative principals like Sarah Palin had been chosen in the beginning we wouldn’t be lamenting the direction we all fear our country will take after January 20, 2009. If you are not happy with the direction the Republican party is currently taking then I suggest we all get off our collective backsides and get involved.

I don’t mean send in cash and feel as if you’ve ‘done your part’. No. I mean select some local candidates at the state or local level and volunteer. Choose someone in from the house at the federal level and volunteer. Do it now to get your feet wet and ready before the election cycle begins. I’m currently looking at several of my Georgia political figures, such as Tom Price and Chip Rogers and I encourage others to do the same.

Conservatism has not been defeated, nor is it in decline. Moderates lost this election. Now we need to take charge and help get this party energized and moving again in a more fiscally and socially conservative direction rather than ‘reaching across the isle’.