Why is no one talking about HR 1388, the “volunteer” act? Or as I call it, the Re-introduction of Slavery to the US Act?

With all the flap about the silly AIG bonus, this turd passed the House the other day, slipping completely under the radar.

Do some research on this thing and be afraid. Be very afraid.

…into work to celebrate the arrival of Spring!

The Keystone Cops running the State Dept. that gave Russia the “Over-Charge” button could well have told Iranians just about anything in misinterpreted language translation this time!!!! Good thing he didn’t send any DVD’s.

Some of you know I’m a sucker for dog and cat stories and this is a good one. I did a diary about Alaska’s Iditarod Sled Dog Race a few days ago. As it looked at the time, Lance Mackey won for the third straight year joining a guy from Montana whose name I can’t remember and Susan Butcher of “Where Men are Men and Women Win the Iditarod” tee shirt and bumper sticker fame as a three-peat winner.

Today Mackey announced that he was retiring his lead dog, Larry. Lead dogs are special animals under any circumstance but this one is especially special. First, he’s NINE years old, an age at which most dogs have settled into laying around a lot. Second, he’s won the Iditarod before and has also won the Yukon Quest, another 1000 mile race through the wilderness from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Larry has over 12,000 miles in long distance races under his harness!

Anyway, it is about as far from politics as stories get and it’s a good story. The Anchorage Daily News’ story is here: http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/729908.html

Treasury officials proposed limiting annual bonuses for all employees of American International Group in November, as they were negotiating the government’s first investment in the troubled firm

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/exclusive-treasury-officials-proposed-limiting-bonuses-aig/

When do the hearing start?

give me 4 more weeks of winter anytime !

yes, shoveling snow is the worst, ice storms can be devastating and no one actually enjoys blizzards; but that’s not everyday winter in the US; that’s everyday winter in upper Canada.

winter in the US has days like that, but even Chicago and Boston clear up after a few sunny days and winter just turns into cold and heavy coat season.

i’ll trade 6 more weeks of that for 4 less weeks of august’s 90-100 degree days, when you wake up its hot; when you go to bed; its still hot and the world’s largest a/c unit has a hard time changing that.

right. spring.

i’ll be skiing in snowstorms next week if the forecast holds and enjoying every minute, knowing that 90 degrees, sunburn and mosquitos are about to take over.

(but then, w/ a handle of “skicougar”; i was obligated to rant against spring.)

Organizing For America’s “Pledge Project Canvass” is tomorrow.

Sweetness & Light describes the organization & goals here.

This siteannounces Saturday’s event.

Volunteers will go door-to-door and/or stand in busy public areas to ask people to sign a pledge to support the President and his policies on Energy, Health Care, and Education. Further, they will ask the signers to fill out a form giving their personal information, so that they can be contacted to participate in future activites.

S&L’s site include a training video put together for the volunteers, listing 10 steps:

1 Pick Canvass location strategically (door-to-door neighborhood / high-traffic area)
2 Approach people with positive attitude
3 Share your personal story (what motivates you)
4 Explain the significance of your message
5 Share the organizing plan
6 Make the ask, get the signature
7 Make sure information is complete and legible
8 Ask them to volunteer
9 Let people know where to find you / us
10 Tally results and enter data

It occurs to me that, while Taxpayer Tea Parties are a satisfying way to express our outrage with the direction the President and Congress are taking our country, we need to organize events more like this canvassing drive. We need to take the movement to the people, and not depend on them to find us.

There are a LOT of like-minded people out there. Many of them will join us if we reach out to them.

If I happen to run into one of them, I will try to waste as much of their time as possible.

And have them leave not knowing what happened.

If they see through my time-wasting ploy, then I’ll make sure to make fun of them before they leave.

1) Figure out which companies manufacture and/or service TelePrompters
2) Buy controlling interest in said companies
3) Cancel all service contracts with 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
4) Hilarity ensues.

Sound like a plan?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/20/top_10_gaffes_by_barack_obama_and_joe_biden_

If someone else previously posted this, I apologize. You get full credit.

This is just so cool: A plan to unite SoCon and FiCon wings of Rep. party:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/religion/2009/03/20/newt-gingrich-steps-up-efforts-to-mobilize-religious-conservatives.html

Okay, I can take stop yelling at the top of my lungs out my living room window, now. I’m still mad as hell, but I sense we just may be able to take back our country.

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Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

Fox News has the story from the AP.

Reason I did not attribute your quote in my sig was if someone searches the thread for your name, it would point to it there. It’s not your real name and also nobody reads my signature anyway.

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Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

are any indication. Looks like the damagegenerated by the Democrats will continue on until 2012 at the earliest. Of course, it is still early in ’09 to tell. I am just saying.

What is even more depressing is if the people of the country are happy with the course of the Government at the present time, I do not know what to tell them in 2010, because this type of behavior is inevitable to continue. I am just sayin’.

4 years of this will inevitably lead to the total dismantling of all that was accomplished (or what was not accomplished which can be a good thing) for the last 27 years, and it will take 27 years + to put it right again. Dismal huh? I am just sayin’.

Never, never, never give up.

Here’s our battle plan (trust me, I’ve read Churchill’s six volume treatise on the Second World War and we have experienced NOTHING comparable in terms of damage to our way of life):

If you really want to change the country, start by becoming a Republican Party Precinct Committeeman! The most powerful office in the world because Precinct Committeemen determine who gets the chance to be elected to office at every level of government.

1. To change things, we must change the laws.

2. To change the laws, we must change the people who make them.

3. To get elected, your candidate must be on the ballot.

4. To get on the November ballot you must win the Primary.

5. To win the Primary, you must get the support of people who make endorsements in the Primary, who reliably vote in the Primary, and who get out the vote of others in the Primary. Those people are the Precinct Committeemen.

Do you want to get involved in politics and advance the conservative agenda? I do. One thing I recently found out is that the Maricopa County GOP has over 4,000 openings for precinct committeeman and my Legislative District has only 32 per cent of its Precinct Committeeman positions filled. I also understand this situation exists in all across the country. Imagine if we could fill those openings with conservatives!

Most importantly, Precinct Committeeman get to vote in the Party elections that determine the leadership of the Party. The more conservatives who become Precinct Committeemen, the more conservative the Party, and its candidates, will become. The Party again might appear to the voters to offer a clear choice from the Democrat Party, rather than echo of it.
Some of the duties of the precinct committeeman are:

1. Registering new voters.

2. Helping local candiates build canvassing lists and canvassing the neighborhood.

3. Get Out The Vote efforts. Calling party members to make sure they can get to the polls or get an absentee ballot.

4. Finding election judges for your precinct.

5. Becoming a poll watcher.

On doing some internet searching, I also found several copies and variations of this fantastic article by The Eagle Forum:

The Most Powerful Office in the World is NOT the President of the United States. ( http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/brochures/precinct-committman.shtml )

While the claim in the title is a bit exaggerated, it does make some fairly good points. If you want to make a difference in politics, the precinct is the place to start.

Each of you want to get our country back on the right track. How BEST to do that? Through DEEDS, not just words. Calling talk radio stations doesn’t really DO much. Twittering and ranting in chat rooms about what’s happening doesn’t really DO much. The only reason I’m posting this here is in hopes YOU, who are reading this, will consider DOING SOMETHING MEANINGFUL to change your government back to its Constitutional limits. To DO that, we need to strengthen and change the Republican Party back to its Reagan era strength.

How do WE do that? The BEST way to strengthen and change the Republican Party into one that again clearly advocates conservative principles is to . . . drum roll . . . HAVE MORE PEOPLE IN ITS RANKS who accept, understand and advocate conservative principles. I’m not talking about just registering as a Republican, I’m talking about YOU, yes, YOU, who’s reading this, not “the other guy,” but YOU — becoming an A REAL, ACTIVE MEMBER of the Republican Party by becoming a real, live, functioning Precinct Committeeman. That’s the bottom rung on the leadership ladder in the Party.

By becoming a Precinct Committeeman, you get to ACTUALLY VOTE for the Party leadership. YOU GET TO CAST A VOTE FOR YOUR LOCAL REPUBLICAN LEADERS UP TO THE COUNTY LEVEL, AND THEN GET TO ELECT ELECTORS WHO ELECT THE STATE AND NATIONAL PARTY LEADERS. If those who accept, understand and advocate conservative principles become a majority IN THE PARTY RANKS, guess what? The Party leadership voted in will be those who accept, understand and advocate conservative principles. This just happened here in Arizona.

It’s not hard to find out how to become a Precinct Committeeman. Do some googling to find your county Republican Party web site. Maricopa County’s is here: www.maricopagop.org .

Find out which Legislative District you live in. Find out when the next meeting of that Legislative District Committee meets. Then go to the meeting and tell the chairman you want to volunteer to be a Precinct Committeeman. You’ll have to gather a few signatures to get on the ballot. Once the election comes around, you’ll be elected. Meanwhile, volunteer to DO SOMETHING in support of your conservative values and principles WITHIN THE PARTY. You will be leading by example. Many of the moderates are moderates because they don’t know how to think and be conservative. You can show them by your DEEDS.

Now get to it!

P.S. “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

Thomas Paine.

DETROIT — Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra says he’s running for Michigan governor.

The 55-year-old from Holland made the announcement Monday morning on WJR-AM’s Paul W. Smith program.

Hoekstra says he plans to file formal paperwork Monday afternoon in Lansing.

He says the state needs a new vision.