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The clock is ticking on Porkulus—what can we, and the GOP Congress, do? OPEN THREAD

By: smagar (Diary)  |  February 10th, 2009 at 08:48 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In the interest of using this site to generate ideas that motivated people—i.e., us—can execute, I hereby start this diary entry.  Contributors/Moderators—feel free to override this with an article of your own.

For our GOP Congress:

1) Stall.  Slow this thing down.  The more sunshine that falls on it, the more that support for it will erode.  And, if America comes to see this stimulus bill as one big turkey, they’ll think much less of a President Obama who spent a fair portion of his first prime-time presser extolling the bill’s merits and denigrating its opponents.  (When he wasn’t musing on coffins or baseball, that is).

2) Be ready to make your colleagues mad.  Really mad.  By that, I mean you should be willing to use the kinds of parliamentary procedures that (a) slow the legislative process down and (b) make the Democrats publicly defend positions they’d just as soon not have to discuss publicly. 

The Senate has lots of these procedures.  I know the Senate prides itself on its collegiality.  With respect, though, I’m not willing to assume a $800 billion debt so that Senators can continue to be chummy in the cloakroom.   If there was ever the time to offend someone, then now is the time.

I think Obama and Rahm are counting on the GOP Senate leadership’s desire to preserve civility and decorum.  They’re counting on that to blunt criticism just enough for this bill to get through.  I suspect the White House is thinking:  let the GOP and the press criticize us as much as they want after the President signs this bill.  We can solemnly nod in agreement with their critiques, as we cash those Porkulus checks.

3) Figure out ways to force the media to cover you.  GOAD them if necessary!  CNN’s coffin question and the WaPo’s A-Rod question make me fear that the media will help President Obama and the Democrats through these perilous PR times by not asking the tough questions.  By the next time Obama holds a prime-time presser, billions and billions of dollars will be lost. 

The media will also try to help President Obama by minimizing its coverage of stimulus opponents.  You know this, GOP Congress.  You have to figure out ways to FORCE them to cover you.

Hold pressers on the steps of the Capitol.  Do it every day if necessary.  Everyone—what else can they do to make the media cover them?

4) Highlight the aggregious items in the bill.  Distill them into a list of short,bullet points that people can pick from and recite, over and over and over again.  It’s called messaging!  (I think).  Remember “miserable failure”?  That phrase, repeated over and over again, found traction in the public mind.  This Porkulus bill is FULL of 1-2 sentence tidbits that are idea for Twitter or sound bites.   

5) Be ready to embarass Collins, Snowe and Specter.  Don’t lowball your criticisms of the bill, out of fear of making three of your friends look bad.  They chose to be human shields for this bill. 

6) Embarass the media.  No one has worse public approval ratings than the media.  Fine–let’s use that to our advantage.  GOP leaders (paging Michael Steele!)—comment loudly and obnoxiously on the love fest that was last night’s prime time presser.  Wonder loudly why the media isn’t digging more aggressively into the stinky sub-parts and sub-sub parts of this bill.  Wonder why the media doesn’t care about rising mountains of debt.  Call them out by name.  Wonder, for example, if the WaPo screwed up and sent a sports reporter to the White House last night. 

For the rest of us

I gotta admit—I’m at a bit of a loss here.  The most effective thing I can think of is to keep calling the Senate.  But, I fear that the Terrible Three are no longer listening.  I fear that the best we can hope for is to keep the number of GOP Senate defections to three.

What we CAN do, is to get as many Dems to peel off as possible.  I’m thinking Blanche Lincoln, Blue Dogs, etc…   THe more Dems we peel away, the less bipartisan this bill is.

That’s all I have—-Little Smagar is up.  Gotta go. 

Everyone, please pitch in.  What are your good ideas.  We only have a few days left to save billions of dollars.

COMMENTS

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  • http://www.ufcle.com/willis/willis.htm Steven Willis

    1. We must cogently explain why the economic crisis is more the responsibility of Democrats than Republicans. They encouraged/forced/facilitated bad loans. Republicans did not oppose them with sufficient ferocity. Blaming republicans is akin to blaming the designated driver when the drunk gets the keys and kills someone: yes, we deserve some blame, but let’s maintain some perspective.

    2. We must overcome the “Republicans over-spent, too” arguments. This requires numbers, which I do not have at the moment. I believe, however, the magnitude of Republican pork was minor compared to the current bill. Also, surpluses under Clinton (largely an accounting trick) resulted under a Republican Congress. Absent two wars and 9/11, they continued. That is a tough sell without numbers . . . and still tough with numbers, as most people glaze over numbers.

    3. We must remind, remind, remind everyone: Geithner cheated on his taxes. So did Emanuel (that free apartment is worse than Daschle). Obama/Rezco cannot go away. We must be ethical and must rid ourselves of those who are not. Then relentlessly point out the moral/ethical flaws of the other side.

    4. Fight on judges, but be prepared to lose. This will remind voters where much of the real fight is.

    On the current bills, I believe we are too late. We might have prevented this mess two years ago, but we did not. I hope the Obama/Geithner proposals work. I give them a 1 to 2% chance.

    We will likely enter a depression, followed by inflation. That will feel good for awhile and we may fall further behind politically. But, inevitably the new inflationary bubble will burst and the over-regulation of the economy/health care/speech will come to light. May be five years . . . or ten. If we are responsible now, we can then pick up the pieces. This is a great country with a great populace. I fear we can do very little now to prevent a lost decade – it is already lost. We must, instead, lay the groundwork for a recovery in ten years. That requires rehabilitating the Republican/Conservative brand. We do that with truth and honor.

    In the meantime, relentlessly protect the first and second amendments: without them, we cannot recover. And make no mistake: they are at serious risk.

  • http://fairfaxgardener.blogspot.com ddstrain

    We need to press Congress for complete, no exception, streak-free Windex transparency. We need a government website that shows where EVERY SINGLE PENNY goes. I want to see not only who the government gives the money to, I want to see exactly how every recipient actually spends the money.

    I want to know how every shiny red penny of the $4 billion for community organizers is spent. I want to see how Milwaukee spends the money on school they don’t need. I want to see every “incentive payment” to medical professionaals for going electronic with their files. I want every single recipient of this money to prepare and submit format expense reports WITH documentary backup in the form of receipts, invoices, payroll lists, packing slips, petty cash receipts, etc.

    All of this…every expense report, every funds tranfer, every invoice, paystub, recipt, every piece of backup will be available for public review on-line, 24 hours a day with no fees needing to be paid for access, no passwords and no access restrictions.

    I want the public to be able to sue on behalf of the government when they identify theft, fraud, waste and abuse (which we all know will be massive). In addition to the GAO watching this (ha ha), let the taxpayers keep an eye on this spending. I want the struggling CPA with time on his hands to be able to run the numbers and figure out that someone cooked the books…and get treble damages from the fraudster. I want efficiency freaks to identify whenever anything purchased government money was over priced. If they raised a stink about $10,000 hammers in the 80′s, I want to raise a stink about $2 ball point pens.

    Now’s your chance to have the transparency you blathered about for so long Barack…for it has sure been lacking thus far.

    • Spartan4Life

      I think one of the most ridiculous aspects of this circus is Obama’s claim that this is all OK because they are going to create some web site so people can go and see how the money is being spent.

      If you believe that than I have some swampland you might be interested in. The American people have become sheeplike.

    • bk

      and how he will go page by page and line by line through each one to make sure all the fat is trimmed and wasteful programs are fixed or eliminated.

      At least that’s how it is when viewed through the looking-glass.

      • bk

         

    • Aaron Gardner

      The fact of the matter is that we will probably be given transparency, but that doesn’t matter because Obama does not care about the will of the people…to him all decisions were made final on Nov 4th…..after all…he won.

      If he doesn’t watch his a$$ we will be on the road to a full out revolution…I mean it.

      • Kyle-MI

        While he focuses on the past, we need to focus on the future, namely Nov. 2010 (and 2012). Transparency gives us another weapon in future elections.

  • Spartan4Life

    I had thought that the right strategy was to let the Dems pass this turkey while opposing it and pointing out to voters what bad medicine this is.

    I now have concluded that this thing is so bad that the GOP should expend what little political capital it has and filibuster this thing. Obama thinks it is politics but really it is principles.

  • itrytobenice

    I’m working off the books as much as possible. I’ve got to pay down my debt, and I’m danged if I’m going to give half of it to BO to waste before I get to use the other half.

  • Kyle-MI

    The only chance we have of defeating this monstrosity is for the GOP to stick together in opposition to it. Only with a united front will redstate Democrats get nervous. The more united the more nervous they will be. There is still time to pull back Specter, Collins, and Snowe.

  • Spartan4Life

    Maybe the press should take a look at the markets reaction to all this mess to see how wrongheaded it all is.

    • Rod_Patrick

      MSM’s lines are like these:

      1″. The market is not rebounding because the “GOP” politicians are derailing the Porkhoulous Bill. But if the Obamessiah gets this done, the market will surely rebound and American economy will be healthy and vibrant again.

      2. Obama’s Porkhoulous will save the market. As the market further plummets, Obama must immediately pass his New Deal with America, aka the Greatest Porkhoulous Bill Ever.”

      WE CAN NEVER GET HELP FROMTHE PRESS FROM THIS MOMENT ON. MSM is Obama’s main machinery in advancing his Spending Bill.

      Unfortunately, it is just a taste of the many fearful and shameful things to come in the next 4 years.

      In short, we must make our own press and communication channels with those people who haven’t yet drunk the KoolAid.

      • Spartan4Life

        Every time he or one of his minions speak the markets go down.

        Between that amateurish press conference last night and now tax cheat Geithner’s plan a few more trillion down the drain. short seller Soros must be laughing his ass off.

  • Ron Ferraro

    I’ll first say that given the lack of any sort of reaction from almost any one of my elected officials on awful this bill is, my expectations are very low. That said, I did two things:

    First, I wrote to both Michael Steele from the RNC and Senator Cornyn and the rest of the NRSC, and told them that Specter, Collins and Snowe made their bed, and now they must sleep in it. If this abomination passes with their name on it, I demanded that the NRSC withold any help, funding, etc for any of their re-election campaigns. I would rather have a liberal in their place that we can effectively run against that an interloper, which is what they are.

    Second, I have sent my two lib Senators, the RNC and the NRSC a link to an article I found on the Hudson Institute web site, which sheds light on yet another ignored provision of this bill, which names a National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, which basically gives the government the mandate to create this new office and system, force doctors to use it or face stiff penalties, and of course, charge doctors for the right to use it. And what is it? Well, the precursor to socialized medicine, of course. I won’t go into all of the details, but go to the Hudson Institute web site and read it….it scared the daylights out of me.

  • uma_richie

    When a White House press corps member asks a responsible question of anyone in the Obama administration, please post it here — embed video if you can. Give us his/her name and news organization so we can send a flood of kudos via phone and e-mail.

    • smagar

      Howard Kurtz is the designated cleaner for the MSM.

      When the MSM screws up, Howard is sent out to scold them, and tell them that, if they don’t do better, they’re going to lose the trust of the American people.

      Howard vents his indignation, the American people think that something will finally change in MSM reporting…and the pressure goes away. Like pulling the trigger on a release valve.

      I’ll bet that, on this weekend’s Reliable Sources, Howard will scold his panel on the softball questions Obama got in his presser. The reporters will hang their heads—not in shame, but to hide their knowing smirks.

      Meanwhile, Obama, Pelosi, Obey, Rangel, et.al will be doling out goodies to their pals. Goodies my toddler is paying for.

      It’s the Chicago Way. And, apparently, our MSM wants it to be the Washington Way.

  • HerbC

    of whatever ranking seats they have on whatever commissions. They’ve failed in their jobs with that vote.

  • dovey

    Porkulus, porkulus, porkulus, porkulus, porkulus.

    All spending is pork, right? Not to help innocent people suddenly stuck between two economic realties, not to help businesses keep their doors open, but just spending for the sake of spending? If all spending is pork, then let’s cut the Iraq war pork. Saving $10 billion of pork per month will go a long way to restoring the economy.

    • Kyle-MI

      Go play puppets with with your miserable fiends at DKos. You are a pitiful excuse for a human being.

      • dovey

        Just answer the questions.

        • Kyle-MI

          What about all the children in Iraq? You want to condemn all those girls to rape by A.Q. thugs. As I said above, you are a pitiful excuse for a human being. Go and peddle your garbage elsewhere.

        • Aaron Gardner

          The “Economic Stimulus Bill” cost more than WW2, The Korean War, Vietnam, and Iragq combined.

          How about we don’t spend billions on expanding the federal bureaucracy, which wastes our tax money on programs we don’t want or need.

    • Frozen_Man

      Don’t be silly no one is saying that any spending that the federal government ever engages in is pork. That is a pathetic straw man that you set up and an even more pathetic attempt to knock it down. What we are saying is that major portions of this bill are pork and that most of the bill even large portions that would not be considered pork will not accomplish the goal of spurring economic growth or aiding the economy. It is a power grab pure and simple by a liberals who want government to have almost unilateral supreme control.

      • dovey

        it spends too much, but it doesn’t spend enough. Am I confused, or are you?

        The Dems don’t need to grab power, they already have it. The Reps had their chance, and they blew it. Their choices now are:

        1) follow
        2) get out of the way.

        • Kyle-MI

          The Dems have enough votes already to pass this garbage. If Obama was so concerned about passing this ASAP to help the economy, he wouldn’t be putting on his little dog and pony show. He would just tell the Democrats to pass the stupid thing already. This is all just a political game to him.

        • Frozen_Man

          Never did I say it didn’t spend enough. It spends more than enough. It just spends money it doesn’t have, on things we don’t need, that won’t stimulate the economy.

          “The Dems don?t need to grab power, they already have it. The Reps had their chance, and they blew it. Their choices now are:

          1) follow
          2) get out of the way.”

          Kind of dumb to write that and then write this:

          “Is that your moderate, bi-partisan approach to disagreement?”

        • Aaron Gardner
    • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

      Unlike, apparently, you.

      Blam.

      • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

        One who hates Arabs and African-Americans! Who here thinks that he also has problems with the Jews?

      • HappyBunny

        I just got up from my morning nap to see if I was needed. You’re on top of things so I’m off to a nice head of lettuce. It does look like we’re gonna be busy for while though. Panting

        You da man! (Whateverrrrrrrrr that means…)

    • CarlSchurz

      Stimulates the Democratic Party. Sure pumping money into unemployment insurance and pumping money into state governments to prevent them from having to cut necessary services such as 911 centers is a good thing and necessary thing.

      But I fail to see how Acorn can create jobs. Wait, now I see, same way they create voters. Out of thin air.

      Infact, this entire bill is pork. Obama was supposed to create jobs out of unicorn farts and pixie dust. And I still haven’t gotten my skittle crapping unicorn.

  • NJChris

    I googles the New Deal and found from Wikipedia that the debat e over the Social Security Administration lasted nearly SIX MONTHS!!!

    In the largest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal, we have been debating this thing for less than one month? This is crazy and says more about the abject cluelessness of those in Washington than those who are suffering.

    We need to slow this down, examine all the regulations and fully vet the Conference Report prior to final passage. We know one thing: the Obamacrats will not shed any light on the pork and spending fest.

  • Hancock

    All due respect to the excellent outside-of-the-Beltway and communications ideas presented above, which should be pursued, the sad fact of the matter is that inside Congress, there is NOTHING that can be done at this point.

    The game ended when Benedict Arlen and the Maine Sisters voted with the Democrats to end the filibuster. The bill will pass the Senate, then go to conference, where it will get refilled with even more outrageous provisions, including vastly increased spending, and probalby more of the socialized medicine precursors, along with heaven knows what else, and then come back to the House and Senate for an up or down vote.

    The bad news is that you cannot filibuster a conference report. It needs only a bare majority in both the House and Senate. The Dems only need 50 votes to pass the thing now, so what Benedict Arlen and the Maine sisters think is immaterial. The Democrats can go back on every promise made to them, Ben Nelson, or anyone else, and conceivably push the bill to 2 trillion or more if they want. There is nothing the 3 traitorous RINOs can do to stop it, nor the ‘Fake Dog’ Democrats in the House or Senate. They will pass this monstrosity into law with 50 liberal votes in the Senate and 218 House leftists. GAME OVER.

    The worst part of this is that Benedict Arlen and the Maine Sisters, as well as Nelson, know this and still allowed the bill to go forward. They are playing a game, voting for the ‘compromise’, knowing the bill will be rewritten, and then for cosmetics for the voters back home, they will vote against final passage and claim betrayal by the liberals, when they fully well know that their vote on final doesn’t matter and it was the vote to end the filibuster and proceed with the debate was really the key one.

    All the other good ideas aside, the only thing that stops this from becoming law now is 10 million Americans marching on DC with torches and pitchforks.

    Otherwise, be ready, the United Socialist States of America has been born.

  • farstar99

    If the shoe fits…

    On a similar note, we have to start calling this “Obama’s Power Grab” and otherwise stapling it to the foreheads of every Democrat.
    That way, when it fails to do any of the things it says on the box, they and the Quislings Three will face re-election hell.

    • 6eorge Jetson

      Ah, she likes to travel around
      She’ll fool you and she’ll put you down
      Now people let me put you wise
      Sue goes out with other guys
      Here’s the moral in the story from the guy who knows
      I voted for her and my vote still owes
      Ask any fool that she ever knew, they’ll tell ya
      Keep away from-a Runaround Sue

  • bs

    Since we still have a few days for the House/Senate conference, letters to the local paper will also help expose this mess for what it is. Calls to Senators and Congresspersons are also good.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    You don’t have to be obnoxious about it, but you do have to be firm. Take a cue from Mark I’s interview: this was and is the Democrats’ responsibility, and that’s fine. They won the election, they got the power, they used it, and the results are all because of them.

    And when they try to argue the three who voted for cloture, still be polite, but remind people that when somebody with McCain’s track record for bipartisanship says that a deal isn’t bipartisan, it isn’t bipartisan. You can even laugh a little and say that it takes something special for that particular Senator to not snap at the bipartisan hook.

  • bk

    The only hope is that Nancy’s henchmen are successful in making it look more like the House version and the three Senate Rs grow a set of balls among them and flip their vote. I suspect at this point that they are going to support the final bill no matter what, even though Collins left some wiggle room and you never know what Specter will do when the time comes.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Essentially, it’s like this: the Democrats have bet that this bill will produce an effect that will let them convince the populace that the economy’s recovered. If they can do that, it doesn’t matter who voted for this bill. If it doesn’t, they take the blame. They need ten Senators and about forty House members to avoid the latter (by spreading it around), and they won’t get either.

    And they now know this, which is one reason why they’ve been so crotchety lately. :)

  • barry915barry

    past the President’s Day Holiday (which is the 16th). Force the Dems to play ball in conference.

  • red4ever

    While saying this bill needs to have hearings and it should not be rushed, he said he will still vote for it — because he promised he would. Even with the new provisiions coming to light. Even with his opposition to nationalized healthcare. He just wants that provision “clarified.”

    It must be made clear to the Senators that “clarification” will consist of more of the same: “I won” and the world will end if this bill does not get done by some artificially imposed deadline.

  • bk

    The only way he’d get involved in a delay is if there was some arcane rule that opened some back door because of something that got added in the conference committee.

    The Dems are great as a minority in getting the Senate tied in knots. I don’t think the GOP has people like that any more. Jim Nickles (is that his name – the guy from OK?) seemed to be an expert at that.

  • trishg

    Great list. It gives me, dare I say it, HOPE.
    My husband and I were talking last night about what we can do as Americans raising two beautiful girls. We already vote during all elections. We make phone calls, sign petitions, support both our local and federal conservatives. We educate ourselves on the issues. We talk to friends and family. We do all this and will contiue to do so even though we feel like we lost a big one yesterday. We also decided we can continue to improve our own little bubble. We will get the rest of our debt paid off. We will continue to save wisely for our retirement and most importantly we will teach our girls the true value of money, the dangers of debt, and the importance of personal responsibility. Maybe as we educate the next generation (by example mostly), they can be better prepared to handle this crap we are leaving them.

  • Finrod

    I present this without comment (hat tip: Neal Boortz):

    (CNSNews.com) – Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said yesterday that some of the spending in the $819-billion stimulus passed by the House of Representatives last week represented important federal spending priorities needed to ?make-up for a starvation diet under the Bush Administration.?

  • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

    Hidden in that bill are some isolationist policies; the known one being the “buy American” clause but there are others not so easily spotted. I’m still wading through the thing and they have been smart in the write up. They’ve scattered things into several sections so you don’t get a sense of the whole.

    Instead of arguing against them, argue for them but challenge them to go “whole hog” and advocate complete isolationism, the reason being that isolationism only works if it’s an “all in” policy (and even then it works only in the very short term).

    They’ve convinced me we’re so broken that we can’t do anything anyway and we’re a really bad country, ;-)

    We close our borders, withdraw from NATO and the United Nations and tell them to find a new home, withdraw all our troops from overseas bases and posts, kill NAFTA, and so on… basically telling the rest of the world its on its own. Perhaps it’s time we withdrew and let the rest of the world manage the rest of the world since we’ve done such a poor job of it.

    If they call our dare on it, we’ll have a terrible (and I mean TERRIBLE) time for a few years until they (the rest of the meally mouthed world) learn their lesson but, in the end, I believe we’d be a stronger nation for it.

    I don’t believe they will, however, because they’re all set to defer ever more powers to the likes of the corruptocrats at the U.N. rather than reclaim powers we’ve already abdicated. Maybe, just maybe, it will push them to get rid of some of that kind of legislation in the nuclear bomb erroneously called a stimulus bill.

    At the least, it can be another delay tactic.

  • Finrod

    I wish I was exaggerating with that subject, but I’m not (hat tip again: Neal Boortz). Apologies for the lengthy quote.

    But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and ?guide? your doctor?s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, ?Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.? According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and ?learn to operate less like solo practitioners.?

    …

    Hospitals and doctors that are not ?meaningful users? of the new system will face penalties. ?Meaningful user? isn?t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose ?more stringent measures of meaningful use over time? (511, 518, 540-541)

    What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the ?tough? decisions elected politicians won?t make.

    The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle?s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept ?hopeless diagnoses? and ?forgo experimental treatments,? and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

    Daschle says health-care reform ?will not be pain free.? Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

    Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

    The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle?s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

    In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.

    I guess the Democrats are really pinning their electoral hopes on the young, because I can’t imagine any senior citizen voting for Democrats that took away their health care. Unless of course they don’t know that the Democrats are responsible for it– which is now our job to tell them, because the MSM sure isn’t going to.

  • sloeride

    Hmmm…any parallels between Obama’s rush to pork and Bush “rush” to war? Of course not, Hussein was an actual threat…but that would be a line the media would buy and hash around like it actually meant something. Anything to slow this disaster down…let Obama’s approval rating catch up with the disapproval rating of

  • Finrod

    I hadn’t seen that he’d posted an entire article about this already. My bad.

  • Kyle-MI

    Out of one side of their mouth they complain about Bush’s deficits and them complain on the other side about his overspending.

  • Aaron Gardner

    is to post on your boards on MySpace and Facebook. This, in essence shotguns out a message to people you don’t even know.

    Maybe no one will pick it up and repost, but maybe they will, and if they do then their entire network of friends see it. Then maybe someone in their network reposts…so on and so on.

    Digg it also, same premise.

  • Finrod

    It took six months for the ‘rush to war’ to happen: Bush laid out the case for invading Iraq in September 2002, we invaded in March 2003.

    Whereas we’re not even 6 weeks into the Obama Administration and they’re trying to cram this swine down our throats.

  • EagleWatcher

    You start in Main and work your way to California. I’d say 20s, 50sand 100s would be best.

    Crazy?

    It would stimulate the economy a lot faster than the Porkzzilla Plan Obama is pushing.

  • ss396

    Why is it that the Democrats can peel off some of the Republicans, but the Republicans do not seem able to return the favor? There were Democrats in the House who voted against that version; surely there must be a couple of votes in the Senate to off-set our dear fiends Specter, Snowe, and Collins.

    I’ve have been writing steadily to my Senators, urging them to get some ‘bi-partisan’ support for the Republican position.

    And by the way, if Specter, Snowe, and Collins vote for the full bill, they need to be stripped of every committee seat that they currently have. They need to be rendered wholly toothless in the seated Congress.

  • Kyle-MI

    Nelson (NE) is one who has threatened to vote against the House/Senate compromise bill if it is too large and wasteful. Take a look at redstate Democratic Senators – one from South Dakota, two from North Dakota, two from Arkansas, one from Missouri, two from Montana. There should also be some purple state Democrats from places like Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, just to name a few.

  • dovey

    >>And by the way, if Specter, Snowe, and Collins vote for the full bill, they need to be stripped of every committee seat that they currently have. They need to be rendered wholly toothless in the seated Congress.

    Is that your moderate, bi-partisan approach to disagreement?

  • Frozen_Man

    You come trolling on this site trying to force everyone to agree to the wholey democrat and liberal plan and then acuse someone else of not being moderate or bi-partisan. Funny that bi-partisan means everyone agreeing with what you and the democrats want to do.

    “A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.”
    - Robert Frost

  • Praveen

    bi-partisan approach is a thing of the past. We don’t believe in that. Remember “Dissent is patriotic” ?

  • ss396

    Party membership is partisan – by definition, for crying out loud! And Party leadership even more so.

    You want bi-partisanship inside a party? Well, if you set that for a requirement, where was the “bi-partisanship” among the Senate Democrats? They voted en bloc for this thing – isn’t that being partisan on their part? Where is their “moderate, bi-partisan approach to disagreement” that you require of me? Or are they somehow exempt from your requirements?

    Membership in a political party confers certain obligations on the member. It is, after all, voluntary on their part to join that organization. If they do not subscribe to the goals of the party, why on earth should they be allowed to lead it?

  • Martin Knight

    So the opposition was even more bipartisan than its support.

  • penguin2

    I know you need your rest, but these are trying times and I think you have your work cut out for you.

    Thanks.

  • CarlSchurz

    Dissent against Conservatives and Rethuglicans is Patriotic. Dissent against Liberals is racism, bigotry and fascism.

    Obama thanked the Three Stooges for their patriotism. The New Patriotism is agreeing with the One. Disagreeing is racism.

    /sarc

  • smagar

    What will we need to do so we can financially weather the impending inflation, damage to free markets and other side effects from Porkulus?

    Redstate can perform a useful service for all of us, by offering tips on how we can prepare our families for the future.

  • Praveen

    from O Biden and Gang…. As house republicans demonstrated bi-partisan attitude is a thing of the past.

    I believe to be partisan is good. Those 3 schmucks can just get lost.

    I am happy being called a racist, fascist or whatever…

  • smagar

    We are a party of adults. We are not Kossacks or Bill Maher audience members.

    Letters to the editors are good ideas, because your local media types are leftys whose stories will overlook the bad parts of Porkulus. Or, they’ll run AP stories by the likes of Jennifer Loven, that will do the same thing.

  • smagar

    :)

  • HOOS30

    I’m curious to know if any of you will write to your governors and mayors to ask them to turn down your jurisdicion’s share of the “pork”?

  • JustLeaveMeAlone

    n/t

  • janis

    we did to stop this abortion of a bill. I’m in Tennessee, Democrat governor Phil Bredesen is declining to report on the state budget until he sees what kind of hand-out he’s getting from our new overlords.

    And if you wish to get yourself booted from this site, keep trying to jab us with sharp sticks. Tempers are frayed already and we’d love nothing better than to shred you before you get blammed. So have at it, pork-rind.

  • Aaron Gardner

    I am sure you are already writing out your big check to pay down the debt created by this “stimulus” bill aren’t you…since you are just a good and decent democrat…right…..RIGHT!!!

    Piss Off!!!

    P.S. I didn’t vote for it, I don’t need it, and I won’t accept any money from it. When the depression really does come, don’t come begging with your handout, because I will only be handing out lead…and at a high rate of speed. Just desserts for your kind.

  • CarlSchurz

    I am going to cash it and buy more ammo. Figure that’ll get me my money’s worth.

  • HOOS30

    Honestly, I’m more than happy to pay a little more in taxes if this plan will help get our economy back on its feet. I’m blessed to be in fairly decent shape financially, but that won’t last if my company’s customers can’t afford to pay the bill.

  • Aaron Gardner
  • HappyBunny

  • Herodotus

    about a fool and his/her money.

  • Herodotus

    .