CPAC 2011 Friday Afternoon

McKeever and Dodge

In a small room at CPAC, Andrew Ian Dodge announced he's running against Olympia Snowe in the 2012 Maine Republican primary. There were about 20 people there. I'd met Dodge a couple of years ago at CPAC, but I didn't speak to him much and can't say I know him.

Been expecting Republicans to challenge Snowe in the primary. It seems like a sure thing, but Snowe won't have much to worry about with Dodge.

Dodge isn't a great speaker. He's not even an okay speaker. His thoughts ramble. He doesn't stay on a point very long before going on a tangent. He's unsure of himself even with a small group of conservatives. Makes me wonder how he'll be if he's working with a hostile audience.

He's running against Snowe, he says, because she voted to report an early version of Obamacare out of committee, and he thinks that allowed it to come to a vote in the full senate when it otherwise would not have. “I’m convinced Snowe made a deal with Obama to vote Obamacare out of committee," he said.

Andrew Ian Dodge

As you can see, looks aren't a strong point either. He said he's “Maine coordinator for the Tea Party.”

He wasn't born in Maine but his family has been in the state a long time. His father was a “casual clammer.” He said he was the first to organize a Tea Party rally in Maine, which he refers to as “Tea Party Patriots.”

McKeever said, “You dislike social conservatives, don’t you?”

“No,” said Dodge.

He’s against funding Planned Parenthood, but for monetary reasons, not pro-life reasons. He doesn't plan to take a position on abortion. "[There's a] perception by some that the tea party movement should be a Christian Crusade. I’m a conservative with faith, just don’t happen to share theirs.”

“What do you think about conservative Maine Governor Paul LePage’s support of Snowe?” someone asked him.

"Snowe’s first husband got LePage a bye on the SAT when he was applying to college because he was French," said Dodge. "He's personally loyal to Snowe for that."

I left the little room and went back to the big ballroom for Senator John Thune.John Thune and the crowd

He came onstage to polite applause. I’d heard he’s thinking of running for president and many think he will. I’d seen one profile on him on TV and he seemed fine.

Again, I wanted to be in the room to hear him and feel how the audience perceived him. They liked him but, as with Romney, they weren't passionate about him. After listening to him for ten minutes, I wasn't either.

I want a conservative candidate for president with passion. So does most of America. If one emerges with no skeletons in his closet, he or she would defeat Obama.Thune looks good and he seems sincere if rehearsed, like he's practiced this speech a lot. This was the base here in the big room and they’re not fired up. I could list the individual things he said, but I won’t. They were all good to this conservative writer, but again - I want passion too. Am I expecting too much?

CPAC 2011 Friday Morning

Went to the exhibit hall first thing and bought lots of stuff. Good place to meet people. More about that later.

Went to a good session on the left's attempts to take over the judiciary. More later on that one too, but I just watched Mitt Romney's speech. There was an overflow crowd, but I was able to get into the hall through the media lounge with my pass.The dour mainstream media

The big hall was packed and they stood up to clap for Romney. I wanted to be in the room to feel things. Being in an overflow room watching a monitor isn't the same. The standing O was tepid though, if that seem's possible. There were not hoots, no audible cheers. He got respect as the front-runner for 2012, but there was no passion.Romney on the floor this morning

Romney speaks. I’m reminded immediately that he’s flat when he makes these speeches to conservatives and I've watched him do it five times now. I feel it right away. I interviewed him three years ago at The Conway Daily Sun and he's personable in a small venue, but he lacks passion in both venues. He has pretty good material, but his timing is off. It's as if he's rehearsed the speech over and over and he's doing it the same way he did for his wife last night. He doesn’t have the chutzpah. He doesn’t have fire in the belly. His timing is off. He's not connected to the audience the way Gingrich is when he speaks. Romney looks good. He pronounces words well, but he’s lacking something very important. He doesn’t have presence. He’s like a talking mannequin.Referring to Obama and his economic policies, he says, “What we’re watching is not Brave New World. What we’re watching is Groundhog Day.” Good line, but it falls flat because of his delivery.

Romney quotes Obama's remarks about the worst economy since the Great Depression: "'It could be worse . . .' What’s next?" he asks. "Let them eat cake? or Let them eat organic cake?” Another good line, but he can't deliver it well.

“There are more people out of work in the USA than there are people working in Canada, yet Canada created more new jobs than America has [last month].”

That was a good line and the crowd responded. Not bad.
“15 million Americans are out of work.”

“This is a moral tragedy," he says because of the strain unemployment has on marriages and families. “LIberals should be ashamed that they and their liberal policies have failed these Americans.”

“The president and his fellow liberals look to Europe [for solutions, but] it (socialist policy) does not work there and it will never work here.”[Instead] Believe in capitalism, federalism, the Constitution as it was written by the founders.”He's done now. Bye-bye. Is he the best we've got? I hope not.

CPAC 2011 Thursday Evening

Got back to the big ballroom and Donald Trump was speaking. I'd heard earlier today he was coming and he talked like he was running for president. I confess I don't know much about him except that he's a real estate developer and sometime-rich-guy who goes on television and says, "You're fired" to people. I never watched the program, but I've heard. I have a hard time taking guys with comb-overs seriously and his is one of the most flamboyant I've ever seen. If you're losing your hair, accept it with dignity. It doesn't make you a bad person.Trump addressing the crowd

"Ron Paul has zero chance of getting elected," he shouted soon after I got there and set up in the media lounge. Yes, I was not allowed back into the Bloggers' Lounge. I made a friend on the ACU Board (they put on CPAC) in the bar last night who offered to help me get in if they refused me, but I don't think I'll take advantage of it right now. I sat next to Joe Klein this afternoon with the mainstream media, but I didn't recognize anyone else yet and I don't want to read their badges. Many were taking notes using the old technology - pen and pad. Nobody does that in the Bloggers' Lounge. Most, however, were banging their laptops like I was. It's a quiet bunch and everybody keeps to themselves. I can deal with that.

Well, Trump is pissing off the Paulies. They're booing him vehemently and they comprise about a quarter of the people down there on the floor. Another quarter stand up and cheer. Most people are annoyed with them. They are different. I kind of like Trump. He's fiesty. The Paulies aren't ruffling his feathers or his hairdo. It's going to be interesting to have him in the race for president, especially in the debates. He's talking like he already announced he's running. He must have said it before I got here.Newly-elected Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

Rand Paul is at the podium. He says the proposed budget cuts Republicans are offering don't go nearly far enough and he's right. He's talking about going after entitlements. Right again. He says Social Security is going to have to gradually raise the retirement age. Right again. I haven't disagreed with anything he's saying. He's not a dynamic speaker, but I like what I'm hearing.

“The notion that the Commerce Clause can [allow Congress to] do anything," he said, is going to have to change.

Hmm. Can't disagree with that.

He says fellow doctor/Senator Tom Coburn asked Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan: “Could the Congress make people eat three vegetables a day?” She said it could.

Hmm. I like vegetables in my later years, but I want eating them to be my idea.

"How many Tea Party people are out there?" he asks. About a quarter of the crows responds. “[Because of the Tea Party] this town is now talking about the debt and deficit incessantly," he says.

That's good. I like Rand Paul. He suggests cuts to the budget totaling $500 billion so far. I hope we get more like him elected in 2012.
Cheney and Rumsfeld

Next, someone introduces someone else who introduces former Vice President Dick Cheney who will introduce Donald Rumsfeld. Hundreds of Paulies are filing out of the hall and I walk down from the media lounge to the floor so I can get better photographs. I had to wait for them as they filed out.

They were obnoxious. The were shouting “Ron Paul! Ron Paul!” as they walked the aisles. Others in the crowd were clearly angry. “Shut up!” some said with hostility. Most of these rude and obnoxious Ron Paulies were young men - boys really - with longish, Justin Beiber-like hair and lots of stickers plastered over their shirts and jackets. I think Ron Paul is a little strange, but I like and respect him though I agree with Trump that he'll never get elected. He's speaking tomorrow or the next day and I'll probably attend. I liked most everything I heard from his son, Senator Rand Paul, too, but I don’t like their supporters. They don’t reflect well on their heroes. Not at all.

Someone else yelled "Draft Dodger!" as Cheney was speaking, but he seems undaunted. I'm sorry this happens at CPAC and I like Dick Cheney very much. Always have. I like Rumsfeld too. They're big boys and they can take it.Rummy at the podium

Rumsfeld says nice things about the United States and our military. Lots of former military in the crowd. Many are my age - Vietnam era. I feel at home. Rummy plugs his book. He'll be available in the exhibit hall to sign copies.

I'm tired now and I'm going outside to find a place where I can buy a bottle of red wine and some hard Italian cheese. After that, I'll probably go to bed - if I'm smart, that is. I was up late in the lounge last night. Not good to do that two nights in a row, and besides, I've got a good book to read: "The Faithful Departed" by Philip Lawler. I like the title. It's both a phrase and a sentence, depending on how you want to interpret it. It's about the decline of the Boston Archdiocese in the late 20th century and I was there for much of it.

So far, it rings true. Very true.

Good night.

CPAC2011 Thursday Afternoon

Black farmers protesting Pigford case fraud

A guy from Brietbart TV invited bloggers downstairs for a press conference on the Pigford black farmers case. Brietbart was there with some farmers and blogger Lee Stranahan from the Huffington Post - dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He stood out, calling himself "the worst-dressed guy at CPAC" where almost every guy wears a jacket and tie, this writer included. It was nice to see someone from the left just as outraged as Brietbart over this politically-correct fraud. They played audio evidence of fraud by attorneys assisting black "farmers" applying for their piece of more than $2 billion in settlement funds for alleged discrimination against them.Black farmers, Brietbart, and Stranahan on the right

Stranahan was sitting on the right, but he's figuratively from the left - writing as he does for the Huffington Post. Unusual to see someone from the other side at CPAC, but it emphasized his indignation about what was happening with the Pigford case, as well as his respect for Andrew Brieitbart. He explained what we were listening to, which was an attorney named Burrell coaching a church full of alleged black farmers to fill out applications and "get their checks" from the federal government. The standard of proof was as loose as them them claiming their deceased father once tried to get an application from the US Department of Agriculture and was denied because he was black.Representative Steve King (R Iowa)

According to USDA figures, Iowa Congressman Steve King said, there were only 18,000 black farmers, but 94,000 application for compensation. He also said that then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama was encouraging farmers from Illinois to get involved.

We'll definitely be hearing more about this case. Brietbart has a special interest in it after the left accused him of shoddy journalism in the USDA white farmers case and the firing of Shirley Sherrod back in July, 2010. As it turned out, Sherrod and her husband each got $150,000 in "compensation" for pain and suffering, and stand to collect millions more.

Interesting. Very interesting.

I had to leave partway through to get to another session. More on this later, I'm sure.

CPAC2011 Thursday Morning

Got my media pass at 7:00 AM. It's 9:00 now gearing up in the main function room below. I’m in the Bloggers’ Lounge, but I don’t know for how long. I have my media credentials and it says "Blogger" in green below my name on the conference pass. Haven’t been over at the media lounge yet, and if I’m kicked out of here, I’ll check it out. I’m told I can work over there if I have to. Looks like old media: newspapers, TV, etc. There’s a good spirit here and I’ll try to stand my ground. Either way, I saved the $175 conference fee I've usually paid as a conservative civilian and that counts for something.
David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union is speaking, to introduce Michelle Bachmann. She read the roll call of conservative Republican congressman and Senators. She's up now and pumping up the faithful. They're responding. The room isn't filled yet, but they're pouring in from the far side.The internet connection here is deathly slow. So many people are uploading video now, it's clogging things. I better publish when I can. Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs just sat down next to me and set up. Talked to her in the lounge last night. She's a soldier. Gonna attend her presentation on the Ground Zero Mosque tomorrow.

Okay. Michelle is going after the libs for shutting down energy development here in the good old USA. You know, oil shale, offshore drilling, ANWAR, etc. Good for her. She's finishing now. She's pumping up the crowd to take back the country. "Let's roll."

The Sargent Schultz Routine

The arrest of abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell at his grisly Philadelphia abortuary “wasn’t about abortion.” Feminists and other liberals insist there’s no association and if you say there is, you’re a hateful, misogynist bigot who would deny women their constitutional rights.

Gosnell and others are charged with murdering seven babies by cutting their spines with surgical scissors. Clinic workers familiar with Gosnell’s habits testified to the grand jury that he killed hundreds of babies by this method or just by “slitting their necks.” He’d been doing this for decades and would be still if federal agents hadn’t burst into his clinic. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: “The investigation began last February, after federal and state drug agents and Philadelphia police raided the clinic at 3801 Lancaster Avenue on suspicion that Gosnell was illegally dispensing narcotic painkillers. (The federal drug-trafficking investigation is ongoing.) What they found, according to the report, was ‘filthy, deplorable, and disgusting’: Blood on the floor. The stench of urine. Cat feces on the stairs. Semi-conscious women moaning in the waiting or recovery rooms, covered with blood-stained blankets. Broken equipment. Blocked or locked exits.”

Abuses at the clinic were reported over and over for decades, but regulatory agencies ignored them. For some macabre purpose, Gosnell preserved amputated feet of the babies he killed. There were lines of them on shelves throughout the “clinic.” Investigators found little corpses in freezers. One worker at the clinic said Gosnell tried to joke as a baby squirmed while he cut its throat saying it acted like a chicken with its head cut off. How could abortion clinic inspectors fail to act all those years? The Sargent Shultz routine of politically-correct liberals in government and the mainstream media for whom abortion is sacrosanct: “I see nothing. I know nothing.”

If you can believe abortion Doctor Gosnell isn’t about abortion, you can believe radical Muslim Doctor Malik Hasan shooting forty-three US soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” wasn’t about Islam. Liberals insisted fifteen months ago when the massacre occurred that there was no association. If you still insist there was, you’re an intolerant, hateful, racist, Islamophobic bigot. The denial reached absolutely unbelievable proportions. According to a report by US Senators Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins, the federal government knew Hasan exchanged emails regularly with radical imam Anwar Al Awlaki of al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula and ignored it. Fellow officers knew of his radical Muslim beliefs because he was anything but secretive about them, but he was not arrested. He was not imprisoned. He was not courtmartialed. No. He was promoted! He was actually promoted by politically-correct, multicultural officers afraid of giving offense to a Muslim. We’re talking about our senior military here in a state of war with radical Islam. If we’re afraid even of offending them, how are we going to defeat them?

As the Lieberman/Collins report puts it: "The officers who kept Hasan in the military and moved him steadily along knew full well of his problematic behavior . . . They collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan's radicalization to violent Islamic extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it.”

Are you with me so far? Okay. Let’s take it one step further. If you can believe Dr. Gosnell isn’t about abortion and Dr. Hasan isn’t about Islam, then you’ll also believe that hundreds of homosexual priests raping thousands of altar boys for decades wasn’t about homosexuality. If you still believe it was, you’re a hateful, homophobic bigot. In spite of report after report after report that upwards of forty percent of Catholic priests were homosexual and 85% of their victims were adolescent boys, the mainstream media outlets like The Boston Globe, which broke the story, insist homosexuality had nothing to do with it.

Abortion, multiculturalism, homosexuality. Are there three more sacred cows in politically-correct America? I don’t think so. Whenever they report on these things, we can expect our mainstream media’s Sargent Shultz routine to continue for as long as most Americans remain willing to accept it.

Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

The world is changing faster than it ever has. No pundit I follow expected revolutions in across North Africa and the Middle East in just a few weeks. That it all seemed to be driven by Facebook and Twitter is astonishing. Everyone’s watching to see what emerges and all bets are off.

Best case scenario? Secular, western-style democracy takes root in each country; the whole region elects western-friendly governments and moves into the 21st century. That’s what most of the original demonstrators dream of and I hope they get it, but . . .

Worst case scenario? Radical Muslims take control of the revolutions in a half-dozen countries as they did in 1979 Iran. It spreads to Saudi Arabia; they all attack Israel again in a couple of years; and there’s full-scale war across the Middle East.

In between those two possibilities might be this: The Egyptian military appoints another of their own like Omar Suleiman to replace Mubarak and everything calms down in the region for a bit.

By the time this is published a trend might become visible and I’ll have to revise daily, maybe hourly. The unexpected catalysts for it all have been twenty-something males in Tunisia and elsewhere - but not the ones looking to blow themselves up to kill us to get their 72 black-eyed virgins in Paradise. Instead, they seem to be secular Arabs who are educated, unemployed or under-employed, with modern electronic communications they use to coordinate demonstrations. But where do they want to take their countries? Not clear. Seems they know what they don’t want, but haven’t much clue about what they want to replace it. Democracy is difficult. Even if it’s obtained, it’s not an easy thing to maintain.
 Most pundits focus is on Egypt because it’s the biggest Arab Muslim country in the region with over 80 million people. Thanks to billions in US foreign aid, they have a huge military, and they control the Suez Canal. Demonstrators there say they want Mubarak out and democracy in. Okay. No problem. Mubarak is our ally because he’s a bulwark against radical Muslims like the Muslim Brotherhood - out of which al Qaida, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and other enemy groups emerged. If he left, someone else from the military could replace him as I outlined above.

Last week though, they were joined by thousands of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators. Uh-oh. Sunday a reporter on Fox News refer to the Muslim Brotherhood as a “social human rights group.” The Muslim Brotherhood? Was he kidding? One of their affiliates (Islamic Jihad) shot Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, because he signed a peace treaty with Israel and because he wouldn’t institute Shariah Law. The Muslim Brotherhood is anything but a “social human rights group.” It would be disastrous for them to take control of Egypt and the Suez canal, through which a significant portion of the world’s oil passes through every day.

The Muslim Brotherhood would never abide by Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. The founding charter of their offspring, Hamas, calls for the killing of every Jew in Israel. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Muslim Brotherhood is backing Mohamed ElBaradei as the leading spokesman for the Egyptian demonstrators. Some see him as a stabilizing force, but this is not good. ElBaradei is no friend of the United States or Israel. That he has a Nobel Prize impresses our liberal mainstream media, but they should know better. As head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, he ran interference for Iranian nuclear weapons development. With those weapons, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promises to “wipe Israel off the map.” ElBaradei is a sly one. He’s not our friend and his association with the Muslim Brotherhood is not a recent development. They’ve played footsie for a while now. On Monday, the MB and ElBaradei offered to form an interim government. Watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing.As former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton put it: “If the Muslim Brotherhood can bring down the government and install a radical Islam regime there, in control of the Suez Canal, one can only wonder what will happen in the oil rich kingdoms of the Arabian peninsula. So there's a lot that rides on the outcome of this that will have a direct impact on America's economy and America's security."

There are some who see what’s happening in North Africa as all good. I hope they’re right, but I’ll reserve my judgement. Seems that Bolton will too: "We are not on the verge of the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius in Egypt if only the demonstrators get their way,” he said. “In this very complex, very fast moving situation, the strategic interests of the U.S. in Egypt are enormous, profound and "critical".

Amen.

Just Do It, Mr. President

“President Obama was in Hawaii for his Christmas vacation when Hawaii’s Governor Abercrombie said he wanted to find Obama’s birth certificate,” I said to the class. We were reviewing stories in the news after we returned from our week-and-a-half-long Christmas vacation.

“The New York Times reported on Christmas Eve,” I continued, “that: ‘Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, who befriended President Obama’s parents when they were university students here, has been in office for less than three weeks. But he is so incensed over “birthers” — the conspiracy theorists who assert that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and was thus not eligible to become president — that he is seeking ways to change state policy to allow him to release additional proof that the president was born in Honolulu in 1961.’”

“How can they say Obama’s not eligible to be president?” asked a boy. “He is the president, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” I said. “However, some people insist he was born in Kenya, Africa where his father lived. Such people are called “birthers” by the New York Times and others who think they’re nuts.”

“What do you think?” asked a girl.

“I’ve been hearing that story since before Obama was elected, but I’m skeptical. When I read that local newspapers reported on Obama’s birth in Honolulu back in 1961, I figured it must be true and stopped giving serious attention to the “birthers.” The skepticism had died down when Abercrombie called attention to it again. I hope he finds it and clears this up. If anyone can do it, I imagine the governor can. Of course, President Obama could do it too and I’m not sure why he doesn’t.”
“Have any of you had to get a copy of your birth certificate?” I asked. Several hands went up.

“I had to get one to prove how old I was for a Babe Ruth game,” said a boy.

“I had to get one so I could get a passport,” said a girl.

“I had to get one so I could visit someone in jail,” said another girl.

“So lots of people have to produce birth certificates for lots of reasons,” I said. “ “What if they find out that President Obama wasn’t born in the USA?” asked the girl. “What would happen then?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s never happened before. Let’s hope we don’t have to figure that out. To see what the Constitution says about this, turn to page 879 in your textbooks.” I gave them a few minutes and said, “Look at Article 2, Section 1, Number 5 of the Constitution where it says ‘Qualifications.’ Could someone read that please?”

“‘No person except a natural born citizen or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible for the office of president; neither shall any person be eligible for that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident in the United States,’” read a boy.

“Thank you,” I said.

“That’s all you need to be president? he asked.

“Yup. That’s all,” I said.

Two weeks later, I put a story up on the screen with an LCD projector. It was an article from the London Daily Mail with the headline: “Hawaii governor claims record of Obama's birth 'exists in archives' but can't produce the vital document." “Remember when we discussed this a couple of weeks ago?” I asked. “The story here says: ‘[Governor Abercrombie] told Honolulu's Star-Advertiser: 'It actually exists in the archives, written down,' he said. But it became apparent that what had been discovered was an unspecified listing or notation of Obama's birth that someone had made in the state archives and not a birth certificate. And in the same interview Abercrombie suggested that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Barack Obama may not exist within the vital records maintained by the Hawaii Department of Health.’”

“So now what?” asked a girl. “Will he have to resign?”

“I doubt it,” I said. “The so-called ‘birthers’ will continue to grumble, I guess. The article says: ‘[Abercrombie] acknowledged the birth certificate issue would  have 'political implications' for the next presidential election 'that we simply cannot have.’ So Obama’s friend Governor Abercrombie thinks it may hurt the president politically when he faces reelection in 2012 if he doesn’t come up with a birth certificate before then. People may think: ‘I have to produce a birth certificate when I’m asked. Why doesn’t the president?’”

Don't Apologize

Did Governor LePage tell the NAACP to “kiss my butt”? Well, yes and no.

The NAACP expects politicians to kiss their butt, and for decades they’ve gotten in line, kneeled down, and puckered up. Many resented it, but they held their noses and laid on the lip smacks anyway. While the NAACP may once have been a legitimate civil rights organization, they have devolved into a condescending, left-wing, special-interest group and their biggest interest is playing on white guilt to further their far-left agenda - especially racist policies like Affirmative Action. Martin Luther King would never have supported it, saying as he did: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”Maine’s new governor is unpretentious. He’s conservative so I’m inclined to like him, but his candor is most refreshing: “I’ve not yet learned to speak out of both sides of my mouth,” he says. Liberals, who have been running Maine for decades, find him appalling. They claim he told the NAACP to “kiss my butt.” He didn’t, actually, but that’s what is going out over national news. Ben Jealous, CEO of the national NAACP, wants LePage to apologize.

To put this into perspective, we must go back a bit. First, LePage is in sync with the Tea Party movement whose primary goal is to limit government to what the framers of our Constitution intended. Thousands of small-government-conservative candidates for state and federal offices across the country were swept into office as the Tea Party changed American politics. Big government liberals are in shock and desperate to stop it. Trying to pin the recent Arizona shootings on them is only their latest in a series of attempts to tarnish them. Maine elected a conservative governor because enough people - even in this very liberal state - see big government as the problem, not the solution.

While LePage campaigned against big government last October, opponents videotaped him saying: "We came from behind because we have a message. We have a message that says:  One, we've had enough of the federal government. We've had enough. Two, we've had enough of the state government. And number three, government should be working for the people, not the people working for the government. And as your governor, you're gonna be seeing a lot of me on the front page saying Governor LePage tells Obama to go to hell."

Well, that last phrase is exactly what liberals in Maine were hoping for as they followed LePage around with a video camera. The comment made national news, but the context in which it was spoken did not. Obama is the quintessential big government liberal. Obamacare is his signature accomplishment and the Tea Party was born in opposition to it. Government will take over 18% of our entire economy and force Mainers to buy health insurance. Obamacare’s constitutionality is being challenged by dozens of states in federal court for exercising power the constitution didn’t grant it. Obama has run up more debt and expanded government more than any other president in American peacetime history, and it all makes life much more difficult for state governors like LePage.

Any criticism of President Obama is assumed by our liberal mainstream media to be racially motivated. They think all conservatives - especially us rural types - are dumb rednecks. Obama himself said: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

So, when LePage declined the Maine NAACP’s invitation to an event at the Maine State Prison last weekend, the media pressed him. LePage knew where they were going and he said the NAACP was a special interest group, while he represents all Mainers. A reporter asked how he would respond to those who claim his decision not to attend was part of a negative pattern (in other words - what do you say to people who imply that you’re a racist?), he smiled and said: “Tell them to kiss my butt.” Cameras were running, so it’s on video.Last July, the NAACP accused the Tea Party of racism. There was no evidence, but a lack of evidence never stops liberals from accusing conservatives - as we’re seeing in Arizona. The mainstream media is always ready to amplify baseless accusations because perception is reality in politics. People vote based on their perception of issues and the liberal media, until just recently, have enjoyed monopolistic control over that perception. Lately conservatives have used talk radio, Fox News, and the internet to chip away at their monopoly and that’s driving liberals crazy.One of the first things LePage did as governor was to rescind his predecessor’s executive order banning state employees from inquiring about anyone’s immigration status. Now police, welfare officials, or anyone else can refuse to grant special privileges to illegal aliens. Maine is no longer a sanctuary state. Naturally, Maine chapters of both the far-left NAACP and the ACLU organized a protest against LePage for Martin Luther King Day. In Maine and Arizona, liberals consider those of us who are against paying benefits for illegal aliens sneaking into the United States to be just as “racist” as the Tea Party.

Governor LePage shouldn’t apologize for telling them all to kiss his butt. In fact, he should tell them more often.

Propaganda Versus Evidence

“Are we going to have a moment of silence at eleven o’clock?” asked a student first thing Monday morning before classes started.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“President Obama wants to have a moment of silence because of the shooting in Arizona,” he said.

“Oh. I didn’t know that,” I answered. Later, the principal came over the loudspeaker to announce that the entire school would observe a moment of silence at eleven. The Arizona shooting clearly dominated everyone’s attention and, being responsible for teaching current events, I postponed my planned Monday lesson plan and used the story to reinforce some earlier lessons on the Bill of Rights, propaganda, and the political spectrum.

“Open your books to page 885,” I said when class started, “and look at Amendment 6 at the top. It reads: ‘In all criminal prosecutions, the accused’ - and that would be Jared Loughner, the alleged shooter in this case - ‘shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law . . .’”

“The ‘state and district’ mentioned would be Tucson, Arizona, which is in Pima County. The sheriff of Pima County is Democrat Charles Dupnik, and he made some controversial statements about why he thinks Loughner did what he did.”

“Sheriff Dupnik blamed former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and others for stirring up the shooter,” I explained. “Dupnik accused Palin of saying ‘We have people like Gabby Giffords in the crosshairs.’ Actually, Palin didn’t say that, but had published a map of the US showing congressional districts where Democrats like Gifford were targeted for defeat at the polls on election day. After Sheriff Dupnik said that, other Democrats made statements that it was right-wing conservatives in the Tea Party who provoked Loughner to shoot Congresswoman Gifford and the others.”

We had studied the political spectrum in class, so students knew what was meant by left-wing and right-wing. “Some people on the right have accused Sheriff Dupnik of using the shooting as propaganda to damage right-wing politicians,” I said. “I hope you remember what propaganda is.”

“Spreading information to help a cause or hurt an opposing cause,” said a girl.

“Yes,” I said. “We’ll look online for evidence that Jared Loughner was influenced by either right-wingers or by left-wingers. It’s only been 48 hours, but we’ll see if there’s any actual evidence out there to back up these claims, okay?”

They took out their laptops and started searching. On the blackboard, I wrote “Left Wing” on the left and “Right Wing” on the right. Some students read opinions like those expressed by Dupnik and I explained that opinions were not evidence. Then a student said, “Loughner wrote on Youtube that one of his favorite books was ‘The Communist Manifesto’ by Karl Marx. That’s left-wing,” the boy said.

“Right,” I answered. We had studied Marx as the founder of communism and I listed that as evidence on the left.

“Another favorite book was ‘We The Living,’” he added.

“The author of that book would be Ayn Rand, who was Libertarian. That’s conservative, and some might say right-wing,” I explained as I listed it on the right.

“Another book was ‘Mein Kampf’ by Hitler,” said a girl.

“I’ll put that on the right,” I said, “but some think Nazis were leftist. I guess they could go on either end.”

“Loughner could have been reading those books to study both sides,” said another boy.

“Good point,” I said. “I have books by both Marx and Rand in my own library. That Loughner had them is evidence that he may have been influenced politically one way or the other. A piece of evidence is a clue. It’s not proof.”

“One of Loughner’s classmates sald he was a left-wing pothead,” said a girl.

“Okay. That’s a first-hand account and it’s evidence,” I said as I listed it on the left.

“Another classmate said he had serious mental problems and she was afraid of him,” said the girl.

“That’s not left-wing or right-wing,” I said. “There are nutcases on both sides of the political spectrum, so let’s add another column in the middle called “Nutcase.” I did, and listed that description.

“Has anyone found more evidence that Loughner was influenced by left-wing or right-wing politics?” I asked.

There were no hands.

“Okay. How about evidence that he was a nutcase?”

Lots of hands went up.

“His math professor said he was dangerous,” said a boy.

“His parents said he was mentally ill,” said a girl.

“His neighbor said he was disturbed,” said another girl.

The middle column got longer and longer. “Looks like there’s far more evidence that Loughner acted because he was mentally disturbed than because he was motivated politically,” I said. “It appears Sheriff Dupnik was shooting from the hip with his opinions when he should have been looking for evidence.”

Humpty-Dumpty

When I was seventeen, some friends and I got in trouble with the police for illegal possession of alcohol. Both friends pleaded guilty. I wanted to also because I was guilty. I wanted to pay the $35 fine and get it over with, but my father insisted I pay $150 for an attorney to get me off - and he told me fee would be coming out of my bank account on which his name appeared under my own.

“Why should I do that?” I asked him.

“Because with this on your record, you won’t be able to get a government job,” he said.

The clannish Boston-Irish-Catholic-Democrat culture I came from was extremely involved with government. It worked for you if you cooperated with it, if you knew the right people, and especially if you had an Irish name. You could get a job when you needed it that would pay fairly well and wouldn’t be too difficult. Little did I know then that I would work over thirty years at a government job as a public-school history teacher.My father is standing with his jacket open. To his left is JFK. Seated in front are Congressman (and later Speaker) John McCormack, Kenneth Lyons of NAGE, and Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers - all from Massachusetts.

My father grew up in the Irish enclave of Boston known as Charlestown. Counting his military service during World War II, he worked thirty-three years for the federal government, mostly as a civilian procurement officer for the US Air Force. After claiming a work-related disability, he retired a GS-13 in 1974 at age fifty-two with generous pension and medical benefits. Early in his career, he helped form NAGE - the National Association of Government Employees, which has since morphed into SEIU - the Service Employees International Union which has been supplying thugs for Democrats at Tea Party rallies of late. Government unions like SEIU, NEA (National Education Association), AFT (American Federation of Teachers), and AFS-CME (National Association of State, County and Municipal Employees) are the biggest public employee unions. Public employee unions now dominate the American labor movement.

These unions have been negotiating contracts with cities, states and the federal government containing extremely generous pensions and medical benefits that even in the best of the times would be unsustainable. Both sides must have known it would eventually become impossible to deliver on the terms of those contracts, but they were approved anyway. Employees contributed to the pension fund and the city or state contributed as well for what are called “defined benefit” plans. That means if the pension funds’ investments aren’t sufficient to pay certain specific benefits for each pensioner and spouse - taxpayers are on the hook for them. State and municipal officials who signed those contracts had to know there would come a day when the fund would be insufficient, but it would be far enough off that they’d be out of office and others would have to deal it.

Well, that day has arrived. Dozens of cities and states are on the brink of bankruptcy because of those contracts. Prichard, a small city in Alabama, has simply stopped sending checks to its retired employees because the pension fund dried up and the city doesn’t have the money. According to a New York Times article: “‘Prichard is the future,’ said Michael Aguirre, the former San Diego city attorney, who has called for San Diego to declare bankruptcy and restructure its own outsize pension obligations. ‘We’re all on the same conveyor belt. Prichard is just a little further down the road.’”

Mr. Aquirre mixed his metaphors, but he’s absolutely right. If a city or state goes bankrupt, union pension contracts would be nullified, just as they are when corporation does. Had General Motors been allowed to go under, its generous pension contracts with the UAW (United Auto Workers) would have also. Is that why Democrats in the Obama Administration bailed out GM? Unions are the Democrats’ biggest constituency after all. Even in bankruptcy though, taxpayers may still have been stuck with the bill because there exists another federal agency called the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) which underwrites pension programs for bankrupt companies the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee foreclosed mortgages.

Government encouraged shaky mortgagees through the Community Reinvestment Act and then couldn’t pick up the pieces when it all came crashing down. The economic mess we’re in now is the result. In spite of what the Obama Administration and its media minions claim, this recession/depression is far from over. In fact, it’s likely to get a lot worse when the pension bubble breaks as it inevitably will.

So maybe I better not retire from my government job after thirty-four years. My pension wouldn’t be all that generous, especially the medical benefits, which would be paltry. With part time employment elsewhere to supplement I could get by all right, but The Maine State Employees Retirement Fund I’ve been paying into all that time is underfunded by billions. What would I do when I’m sixty-five or seventy and the checks stop like they have in Prichard? My father’s generation enjoyed a comfy retirement, but us baby boomers aren’t likely to. Humpty Dumpty is about to fall off the wall. All Obama’s horses and all the Democrat men won’t be able to put their massive entitlement programs together again. They won’t be able to bail out all the cities and states - not with a debt that’s $14 trillion and climbing fast.

Will there be riots like there are in Greece? People in France rioted when President Sarkozy said he'd raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. What will happen here when the checks stop?

Looks like we baby boomers are going to have to keep working until a few years after we’re dead. One consolation is that I won't be arrested for illegal possession of alcohol by a minor in my old age. That's good because I expect I'll be needing a snort now and then after I get home.