PLEASE GO TO SILICON VALLEY TEA PARTY PATRIOTS SITE!

CLICK HERE to go to siliconvalleyteaparty.com. The site you're at now is no longer being updated, in favor of the new site with our new name and all the current updates.

There will be on-going events and rallies, and we hope all good citizens get or stay involved in their own governance and work hard for the America we all love.

ObamaCare: It's to Die For

ObamaCare: Kiss Your Access Goodbye

July 5 Rally - Pro US - Anti Government Run Health Care

The San Jose Tea Party Patriots movement is planning a rally on Sunday, July 5, at the corner of Winchester Blvd. and Stevens Creek Blvd. The plan is to line the street with as many patriots and opponents of socialized health care as possible.

The rally starts at 1:00 and runs until 3:00 or until we get tired. It will be warm so bring water.

Bring flags, signs (both general Tea Party and specific anti-socialized-health-care), and noise-makers. Drums, whistles, etc.

We specifically did not have this on July 4 as we respect that this is a day for family and friends to gather to celebrate America.

More details to follow.

Props 1A-1E: Excellent Poll Results

This is a fantastic graphic from the Sacramento Bee. Props 1A through 1E getting blasted in the polls. This is the crap that the legislature is trying to pull on the voters to help them cover the insane budget gap. I am confident that the California Teachers Association will be pouring on every last dollar they have to get these approved by the voters, but with the State Democratic Party officially neutral on A, D & E, and the SEIU opposed 1A(!), it's not looking good for that pack of baboons* we call the State Legislature. There's room for movement in the undecideds, but it's looking exceptionally grim for A-E.

Only the last one, F, which disallows raises for legislators when they can't make a budget (which is pretty much every year), is running ahead, and it's way, waaaaayyyyy ahead.

After days of relentlessly bad news, this is the first political good news I've seen. Thank you, good voters of California.

* The collective noun for baboons is actually Congress - as in a congress of baboons

Mortgage Bailout Now Covers 2d Mortgage

In the Washington Post today. Second mortgages serve two purposes: First, they help people buy the house in the first place when they can't qualify for a big-enough first. By definition, therefore, these borrowers bought more house than they could afford and acted irresponsibly. Second, the house becomes a big ATM for people to buy a cool new car; a boat they use twice a year; a lovely vacation in the Islands; or a snazzy new kitchen with granite, a Sub-Zero and a Viking range - things they could not really afford in the first place, but wanted anyway. Under the Administration's plan, these irresponsible people get bailed out by people who were responsible and didn't do those things.

Bailing out first mortgages was bad enough. Bailing out seconds is a travesty of justice. It's just not fair.

That, or I'm just a moron for not spending all of your money on neat stuff for me.

We Don't Want to Run GM - We Want to OWN GM

Anyone remember when President Obama said the US government had no interest in running GM?

A friend of my laughed at me a few weeks ago when I said I thought President Obama was pursuing a socialist economic program. Now we have word that to "save" GM, the Federal Government has to "own" GM - or at least 50% of GM.

Oh, and the UAW - the single biggest part of GM (and Chrysler's and Ford's) problem gets 39%.

Bond-holders, who have the biggest financial stake in the company get 10% Here's how math works when you're with the government: Bond holders own $27+ Billion in debt and get 10%. The US Government has put in $14.5 Billion and gets 50% The UAW is exchanging $10 Billion in debt to get 39%.

Bond holders end up paying $2.7B per 1%. The federal government pays $0.29B per 1%, and the UAW pays 0.26B per 1%.

As far as I'm concerned, this is flat-out theft from the private bond-holders.

All of this could have just gone to bankruptcy, like other companies, where the UAW contracts could be renegotiated (that'll never happen now), the debt holders would have been better protected, and Barney Frank and Al Gore wouldn't be telling GM what kinds of cars to build.

Add to this the explicit intent to nationalize health-care, and nationalize major banks. When can we start saying that the United States is no longer a Capitalist country and is now a Socialist country?

The Administration is putting out the word that this government-owned result was just the logical result, not the original intent. Anyone believe that? I've got a bridge in Brooklyn if you're that gullible...

p.s. Chrysler: 55% to UAW, 35% to Feds. Chrysler, R.I.P., 2009.

p.p.s. I am of the opinion that buying a car from two of the three major American car companies is now flatly un-American.

Return to Federalism?

I meant to link this a few days ago. From the Wall Street Journal, a Georgetown Law School Professor's ideas on how to carry forward the limited government ideas of the Tea Party movement.

We live in a federal system where the states are supposed to be powerful and take care of all their local problems. The federal government is supposed to be limited and really handle only those issues between the states, and between the US and foreign countries. We've moved awfully far away from that in these days of stimulus packages detailing the building of dog parks, more dog parks, and retrofitting houses with doorbells.

This is an interesting read. I commend you to it.

Oh, just remember, believing in federalism might get you branded as a right wing extremist by the Department of Homeland Security.

Plus ça Change...

From the Chicago Tribune, 1934. Change the names (Stalin = Chavez today, I think) and it's the same. The guy in the lower left is Leon Trotsky, by the way; Bolshevik revolutionary, assassinated by an NKVD (early version of KGB) thug in Mexico, 1940.

Torture Calculus

Sorry, this post is not related to the fiscal crisis at the heart of the Tea Party Patriot movement. However, the subject is all over the news and I just feel compelled to ask this question.

Given that:
1. Waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques used by the CIA on Khalid Sheik Mohammad and the other two guys at Guantanamo really do constitute torture, and
2. Intelligence gleaned from the use of such techniques provided "high value information," including information used to prevent a 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.

How many Americans should we let die in a terror attack so that we can feel good about not torturing terrorists? 1? 10? 100? 1,000?

If we had captured one of the 9/11 terrorists on 9/9 and knew he was up to something big, should we have been willing to sacrifice those 3,000 Americans to have a clean conscience?

I know my answer. What's yours?

TARP = Nationalizing the Banks = Socialism

As if we needed another reason to think the TARP program was a bad idea, we now can say, with absolute certainty, that "bailing out" banks was really a way to nationalize them. Another link to HotAir with a story about a bank in Minnesota that "took" $361 million in TARP money it didn't really want. The bank is in good health, so it wanted to give the money back rather than deal with all the new strings that came with the money (most of which were not announced until after the money was doled out). It paid it all back, plus interest, plus it agreed to a Treasury demand that it cut its dividend from $.25 to $.05 per share in the first quarter. So, in order to allow this bank to give back it's public money, the bank had to screw its private investors. There's no reason for this other than to make it extra difficult to return the money it didn't need or want in the first place.

Couple this with the plan to convert TARP holdings of preferred shares into common-stock shares of banks who "fail" the "stress tests" designed and judged by the Treasury Department. So, the government designs the test, gives the test, judges the results of the test, and then assumes a massive voting share in banks that don't measure up to the government's standards. Imagine letting Barney Frank tell Bank of America what to do? Just recall what a bang-up job the government did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

There is simply no other way to look at this other than to say that the current administration is pursuing an industrial policy that is socialist - direct government ownership of significant parts of the economy.

America grew to greatness as a capitalist country. We will descend into mediocrity pursuing the current path.

1.2 MILLION

The latest count we have received from the national organizers of the Tax Day Tea Party is that nearly 2,000 Tea Parties were attended by over 1.2 Million Americans! This is an amazing result, especially since, for so many people, this was their very first political demonstration. Congratulations, America! It's going to be awfully hard for Washington to ignore this number and the depth of passion it shows.

Plenty of Blame to Go Around

One last post today. We need to remember that the problem in Washington is not partisan - both parties have Congressmen and Senators who voted for TARP, the Stimulus, and the rest of this nonsense. I am proud to say that the Tea Party movement is happy to abuse them all - here's a Republican congressman in South Carolina getting it from the crowd:


The Chairman of the California Republican Party was roundly (and deservedly) booed in Sacramento when he was introduced. Sorry I don't have video...

The Rattlesnake Flags

Many of you saw lots of these flags at the Tea Parties, both here in San Jose and around the country. They are all Revolutionary War flags. These are, in order, the Gadsden Flag, the Culpepper Minute Men Flag, and the First Navy Jack. If you want to know where to get your own, you can order merchandise (flags, shirts, stickers, patches, hats, etc.) with these designs at gadsdenandculpepper.com. Their prices are reasonable and I've purchased from them.

The Preamble to the Declaration of Indepedence

When reading the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, most people stop at the first sentence - which is easily one of the most famous in the English language. However, there's more to it. I offer it for your reading pleasure:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Analysis of these 202 words fills more than that number of volumes. I won't bore you with my thoughts, but remember that our rights derive not from our government, but exist beyond and before government. No government can take away these rights, nor the ability of the people to exercise them.

Embarrassing

Photo from AP


Here's the President of the United States warmly greeting Hugo Chavez, Socialist/Marxist dictator-for-life of Venezuela, who has crushed dissent, destroyed his economy with redistributive economic and social policies (sound familiar?), and financially supported the FARC terrorists in Colombia and Hezbollah in Lebanon. After bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia, our President is positively chummy with this scumbag dictator who actively undermines our close allies. This is embarrassing and beneath the dignity of the United States.

You're Just Racists.

To those of you who support the Tea Party movement, here's what your moral betters think of you.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Admittedly, Jeananne Garafolo (a D-list actress and itinerant Air America host), is about as nuts as they get on the Left, but even so her calumny against the good Americans who supported the Tea Parties is breathtaking. Lou Dobbs, whom Garafolo specifically attacks, has this to say about her:


Indeed: take your meds.

Really Unscientific Poll Results

I've taken down the poll question: "Is Obama's Spending Plan Good for America?" and replaced it with polls on what people would like to do for a next event. Here are the results (which are, of course, totally unscientific and biased, but fun):

Absolutely: 16 votes (4%)
Jury's Out: 4 votes (1%)
Don't think so: 32 votes (8%)
Worst idea ever: 306 votes (85%)

Thanks for voting and please vote in the 'what's next' polls.

Obama's Got Too Much Free Time, I Guess...

President Obama is now pushing "high speed rail" as a solution to traffic jams. Remember when Jimmy Carter personally set the schedule for the White House tennis courts? Since when are traffic jams the problem of the President of the United States? Let's review the important topics on the President's agenda: Banking crisis. GM/Chrysler/UAW collapse. Unemployment. Pakistan. Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan. Somali piracy. Health care "reform." Cap-and-trade. Type of, and name for, Presidential puppy. Traffic jams.

Never mind that high speed rail only makes sense between cities, not within cities, so it really does nothing for traffic jams. What's worse is that TRAINS SUCK. In the United States, the distances to be traveled are just too far for trains, no matter how fast they go.

As it is, on many long-distance routes, it would be cheaper for the public to buy passengers a plane ticket than to run the trains (see below).

But, the real reason for building "high speed rail" is the opportunity to create highly-paid union jobs which in turn create substantial political contributions for Obama and the Democratic party, not to mention the massive contracts with industry who will climb on board (!) with more donations to make sure the decades-long building (read: spending) spree keeps going.

But then, who cares? What's another $500 Billion between friends?

From the Heritage Foundation:

1. Amtrak's costliest route is the Sunset Limited, which connects Los Angeles and Orlando in a grueling cross-country trip. In FY 2006, it served only 51,860 passengers and generated $6.5 mil­lion in revenue but ran at an annual operating loss of $27.2 million ($524.49 per passenger). In FY 2005, the route generated $10.8 million in revenue but lost $35.2 million (compared to $29.3 million in 2004), yielding a loss of $433 per passenger. Amtrak could save money by shutting down the line and buying each passen­ger an airline ticket.

2. The Silver Service (Silver Meteor and Silver Star) between New York and Florida lost $132.6 million in FY 2006 ($226.90 per pas­senger). In FY 2005, it lost $105.3 million (compared to $87.9 million in 2004), yielding a loss of $146 per passenger.

3. The Coast Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles sold $31.8 million in tickets in FY 2006 but lost $43.9 million, or $132.25 per passenger, compared to a loss of $97.50 per passenger in FY 2005.

Thank You San Jose!

More posts to come, but I just wanted to thank the thousands of people who came out to the San Jose Tax Day Tea Party to show their concern for America's future. Hooray!

Homeland Security Thinks You're "Extremists"

The Department of Homeland Security is alarmed by the rise of "right wing extremist" groups following the election of President Obama. If you attend a Tea Party, it's a pretty fair bet you're a suspect.

Here's a quote from this report. If you believe in Federalism, which is to say that the state and local governments should have more power relative to the federal government (or precisely what the Constitution was designed to achieve), you are a "rightwing extremist."

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

I saw reports about this document, and I assumed someone had put up an elaborate hoax. Well played, I thought. Then Michelle Malkin confirmed it's real.

So that makes George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and all of our Founding Fathers "rightwing extremists."

Anyone who believes that the United States Constitution means what it says, is a "rightwing extremist." Here is the entire text of the Tenth Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

I keep saying I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, and I mean it, but, damn, what the h*ll is going on in this country!?

How About Everyone Pay At Least Some Taxes

Maybe I should be embarrassed by stealing so many posts from HotAir, but then they get paid to blog. Here is a report about an op-ed by Ari Fleischer, who used to work as communications director in the Bush administration. The simple idea he presents (not new to him, but the one printed today) is that all taxpayers should actually pay some income tax. Remembering that there is plenty of blame to go around, in 2005, after Bush tax law changes, the bottom 60% of earners, representing over 25% of income, paid less than 1% of income taxes. The top 10% paid 72%. How is this fair?

Our current President wants everyone to have 'skin in the game.' O.K., I agree. To do that, however, everyone has to feel a little, just a little, pinch. Now that nearly 50% of income taxpayers owe no taxes, are paying ZERO or even getting a refund (How do you get a refund when you owe no taxes? It's just a welfare check, pretending to be a tax refund), those people have no concern for the costs of government. If everyone had to pay, at least a little, then maybe everyone would start to understand just how much this Leviathan really costs.

Respecting the Constitution - Not

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a fine example of the types of federal judges that the current administration will appoint, and the current Senate will happily confirm. In an interview with the New York Times, she openly admits to thinking that foreign jurisprudence has relevance to American courts and that our courts can, and should, cite foreign legal decisions. She says it's like looking to American law review journals. It's not. Law Reviews attempt to interpret American law. By definition, foreign courts are interpreting foreign law. Ginsburg says they don't rely on foreign decisions, but if they rely on foreign reasoning, then it's the same thing. Remember, elections have consequences. Perhaps the single best reason to vote for McCain was to avoid more of the partisan leftist mischief of the sort Ginsburg-style Justices could bring to the Supreme Court. Of course, Bush I brought us David Souter. More reason to throw the bums out!

Another Dangerous Chinese Import - Drywall

This post is probably the least Tea Party related one I've posted, but it's at least tangentially related - as American companies are less and less able to compete due to regulations, environmental impact taxes, corporate taxes, etc., Chinese goods become more attractive. The problem is that it seems to be common practice in China to cut corners (read: cheat) when making products, and thus make them dangerous. Lead paint on toys. Melamine in pet food. Melamine in baby formula. Now, toxic chemicals in drywall. Read the article from the AP, via Yahoo.
American consumers are paying the price in health problems, property value declines, and the Chinese companies who created this junk are laughing all the way to the bank.

Remember, Paying Taxes is Patriotic!

From the indispensable HotAir blog

Possible Disruptions - Agents Provocateur

I hesitated to post anything about this as I don't want to seem paranoid. However, the internet has been buzzing about the possibility of counter-demonstrations and, worse, people from hard-core leftist organizations like ACORN showing up to Tea Parties and pretending to be like-minded. I even got a comment to my previous post alleging they will do so at this rally. The agitators will be obvious because they will have the most outrageous signs and make a spectacle of themselves specifically in order to generate negative press and make everyone else there look like crazies. We can't afford security personnel and we don't want to get in any violence, so all I can ask is to ignore these people and try to understand that they do not represent our movement.

It is a fundamental truth of American politics that despite their claims to be open-minded and all in favor of free speech, the present day American left cannot tolerate opposing points of view. "Progressives" will try to shout down, shut down, or undermine opinions that are different from their own. William F. Buckley, in 1959, I think, had this to say about liberals, and it's still true today: "Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."

Initiative Petition Circulating - Permanent Sales Tax Increase

We all know there's no such thing as a temporary tax*. The legislature passed a "temporary" sales tax increase of 1% to help with the current state budget crisis (instead of cutting state government, of course). Now the California Teachers Association, easily the most powerful lobbying group in the state, is circulating petitions to make that temporary increase permanent. The revenue could only be spent on K-12 and junior colleges, and would be exempted from all other spending rules and limits - it's a permanent $5 Billion per year tax increase over which the Legislature has no control. Does anyone think the taxpayers of this state can, or should, shoulder this added expense? How about the Legislature start actually living within it's means? Please watch out for this petition and make sure NOT to sign it.

*It took until 2006, and only because of court orders, for the Federal government to stop collecting a telephone excise tax originally enacted in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War. That "temporary" tax lasted 108 years.

Proposition 1A

As an added "bonus" for Tea Parties, we in California have a grossly irresponsible state government to complaint about, too. The budget was months late and tens of billions out of balance. We got a 1% temporary (see next post!) increase in the sales tax, a surcharge on income taxes, borrowing, and no real reform in how the state government works. However, we can do something about it. The legislature has authorized several initiatives for a special election in May (how many of you even knew that was happening?). Of these, the most critical one to defeat is Proposition 1A. I don't have the space to explain fully what it does, or why to defeat it, so please click through to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association site and read all about it.

Why Can't He Be My Congressman II?

This is Conservative MEP* Daniel Hannan. Let's all be clear on this: Nationalized health care in the US would be a disaster. Watch for what Hannity says about patients with late-stage breast cancer. Note, too, that without the profit motive to develop new drugs, new procedures, new equipment, nationalized health care in the US, from which nearly all medical innovation comes, would be a disaster for the entire world.



*MEP is Member of the European Parliament. I think I called him an MP in my last post about him. Sorry for the mistake.

Melanie Morgan to Speak in San Jose

More great news, as promised:

Former KSFO morning co-host, Melanie Morgan, of Move America Forward, will be speaking at the San Jose Tax Day Tea Party, 5-7 PM, Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, San Jose. Melanie will be calling in live updates to Brian Sussman's show which is being produced from the San Jose broadcast center.

Listen for Melanie to be talking up the Tea Parties next week when she'll be temporarily back on the air at KSFO specifically to promote the Tea Party Movement.

San Jose, this Tea Party is going to rock!

KSFO Supports San Jose Tea Party!

Great news today. We've learned that KSFO Radio, 560AM, is officially supporting three Tax Day Tea Parties around the Bay Area, and San Jose,.5-7 PM at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, is one of them.

Here's the link to their website

More great news about this to follow!

Event info - parking

Many attendees of the San Jose Tea Party will be coming by car. Here is a link to a site dedicated to showing all the available public parking in downtown San Jose. If you look at the map, look for Market Street, and you'll see an oval area at Park Ave. That's the Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park where we're rallying at 5:00. There are also directions how to get to downtown San Jose. Watch for later posts on public transit...

Taxdayteaparty.com versus teapartyday.com - updated

The San Jose Tax Day Tea Party is affiliated with the website taxdayteaparty.com. The Tax Day Tea Party organization was created specifically for promoting the 'Tea Party Movement' and is very careful to not dabble in issues outside of the fiscal problems in Washington, including the deficit spending, the pork projects, the long-term instability, the damage to the currency, etc. It is very careful to stay away from divisive social issues like gay marriage, abortion rights, and even gun control. The movement is non-partisan and very intentionally not affiliated with any political party.

Some of you may have seen another site: www.teapartyday.com. I'm not linking it. This site was mentioned in a KSFO radio email newsletter and many people saw it there. This site is run by a group called the American Family Association in Tupelo, MS. They are supported by Newt Gingrich - which some of you reading this will think is a good thing, and others will think is a bad thing. The problem is that this organization is an evangelical christian political organization with far broader policy goals than bringing fiscal sanity back to Washington. They support teaching creationism, for example. I'm pointing this out so that those of you who want to be part of the Tea Party movement don't get the idea that the organizers of Tea Parties in general, and the San Jose Tax Day Tea Party, in particular, endorse their social agenda, or are associated with them. This event is listed on their site only because they are getting traffic and I hope people will come to this website to see what we're about.

It looks to me like the main goal of the teapartyday.com website is to collect email addresses and start sending out tons of email - I've been getting one or two a day every day. So, be wary of giving them your email address.

My promise is that the San Jose Tax Day Tea Party is non-partisan, not pushing any social agenda, and welcomes people of all political and religious (including non-political and non-religious) backgrounds who are frustrated with the way our country is being driven into irrecoverable debt.

Cap-and-Trade Dead?

Follow up to the earlier Budget Reconciliation post...

Last night, 26 Democrats in the Senate joined all 41 Republicans to require any cap-and-trade provision to be subject to the 60-vote requirement of the Budget Act of 1974 (which is what requires budget bills in the Senate to get a 60 vote super-majority to pass). It seems that Democrats from the Rust Belt and farm states states took President Obama at his word:

"Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." (January 2008, SF Chronicle)

So, it's not going to happen the easy way through the reconciliation process and given the really large number of Democrat votes on this procedural matter, it would seem that cap-and-trade is dead for this session. A tactical victory in a strategic struggle.

Hat tip: HotAir

A Great Idea from Tom - How to Help

Tom is coming to the Tea Party and has volunteered to pass out fliers and post fliers in shops with sympathetic owners. Here's a link to download a copy. You have to type in the three funny-looking numbers in the box to their right, and hit submit to get to the download page, then hit download. It's a PDF file in color. Remember, only do this when you have permission from the owner (we respect property rights) and if you know someone will take them down when the time comes (we don't want to litter).

Thanks for the great suggestion, Tom.

Here's to You, Mr. Jefferson

Sorry for the long, wordy posts. This is a cool little video to watch:

The Budget "Reconciliation" Process

You may start hearing about the "budget reconciliation" process soon. This process was developed by Senator Robert Byrd (D- WVa, and one of the greatest pork-barrel politicians of all time) in 1974. It is arcane, but basically it allows certain budget measures to pass the Senate on a simple majority vote (51 votes) rather than the 60 votes typically needed for a budget. It also limits debate to only 20 hours on the reconciliation bill. See explanation here on Wikipedia.

The process has been used fairly sparingly, and almost exclusively for proper budgetary matters, including forcing through the Bush II tax cuts.

Now President Obama wants to push two new policies through the Senate using this process.

Obama's Cap-and-Trade program will imposing massive taxes on pollution (really a massive tax increase on energy producers, especially coal- and fossil fuel-fired plants) which would generate between $1.3 trillion and $1.9 trillion in new taxes on all Americans who use energy (and who doesn't?).

The other policy for which this process is being contemplated is the President's "health care reform" package which would, in effect, nationalize our health care along European lines, much like Hillary Clinton proposed in the 1990s.

Robert Byrd himself, has this to say about it (my emphasis):

I am certain that putting health-care reform and climate change legislation on a freight train through Congress is an outrage that must be resisted.

Using the reconciliation process to enact major legislation prevents an open debate about critical issues in full view of the public. Health reform and climate change are issues that, in one way or another, touch every American family. Their resolution carries serious economic and emotional consequences.

The misuse of the arcane process of reconciliation -- a process intended for deficit reduction -- to enact substantive policy changes is an undemocratic disservice to our people and to the Senate's institutional role. Reconciliation, with its tight time limits, excludes debate and shuts down amendments. Essentially it says "take it or leave it" to the citizens who sent us here to solve problems, and it prevents members from representing their constituents' interests. Everyone likes to win, and the Obama administration, of course, wants victories. But tactics that ignore the means in pursuit of the ends are wrong when the outcome affects Americans' health and economic security. Let us inform the people, get their feedback, allow amendments to be considered and hear opposing views. That's the American way and the right way.

Congress passed the $800 Billion "economic stimulus" package without a single person having read the actual bill. Now they want to ram through a massive tax increase on all Americans (so much for no new taxes on the bottom 95%) and a wholesale restructuring of our health care system (so the same people who run the TSA, IRS, VA, and DMV get to run your health care), with essentially no debate.

The madness continues.

We Don't Want to Run GM - Well, Yes We Do

On Monday, that's two days ago, President Obama said: "the United States government has no interest in running GM."

The Washington Post reports in today's edition:

The Obama administration will play a key role in reshaping General Motors’ board of directors over the next six months, potentially giving it even greater control in the management of the storied American manufacturer.

The president’s auto task force plans to consult with the company as it replaces a majority of its board...

The president said Monday that “the United States government has no interest in running GM.” But in practice it is already exerting tremendous influence over it, a situation that has triggered fierce debate over how much power the government should wield over the companies that it aids.

Monday: We don't want to run GM. Wednesday: We're going to run GM.

"There will be continuing coordination as decisions about the leadership of the company are made," a White House official said yesterday. "Folks from the autos task force will be involved in those decisions."

How many members of the President's Autos Task Force, comprised of 21 people, do you think have any significant experience in the automobile manufacturing industry? I'm sure you all know the answer: Zero.

At least someone in Washington understands how significant this is:

"They have opened Pandora's box -- the U.S. government has decided they know better than the private company," said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) "There is no question that this country is moving down a very different and foreign path. We have crossed this threshold: We own this company and we are telling it what to do."

What country is this again? Well, at least we're not Sweden, right? From the New York Times, we learn that the Swedish government is actually not going to save Saab motors.

[T]he Swedish government has responded to Saab’s desperate financial situation by saying, essentially, tough luck. Or, as the enterprise minister, Maud Olofsson, put it recently, “The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories.”

Unlike President Obama, Ms. Olofsson actually means it. US policy is more socialist than Sweden. No, really, what country is this?

What This Protest Is NOT About

Equally important as knowing what common cause brings us together is knowing what issues are not part of the Tea Party movement. Because this is primarily an economic responsibility movement, the Tea Party movement does not emphasize social issues. We're not demonstrating one way or the other on abortion rights, gay marriage, legalization of drugs, gun rights, etc.

These issues are important, and many of us feel passionately about them.

However, they have no place at the Tea Party. Building a coalition big enough to effect a real change means making common cause where we can with people who may have opposing views on other issues. We don't care if you're a card-carrying member of the ACLU or a Libertarian or an Evangelical. The Pro-Choicers and Pro-Lifers can, after all, agree that adding $10 Trillion to the debt over the next ten years is a very bad idea.

People of all political persuasions can and should make common cause on the total abdication of fiscal responsibility in Washington. The Tea Party movement invites all comers and we ask that you leave these other issues 'at the door' so we can effectively focus on the fiscal emergency at hand.

What This Protest Is About

I thought it would be helpful to have a high-level understanding of what the Tea Party protest is about, and then the next post will be what it's not about. I'll be updating this list as I think of more things, and I invite suggestions.

The Tea Party Movement is primarily about fiscal issues at the Federal level. Of course, everyone who comes to a Tea Party demonstration is bringing their own political beliefs, and predilections. That's why this is non-partisan and open to people of any political stripe. As a general rule these are the kinds of things Tea Partiers are mad about, and the causes that bring us together:

1. Running up epic deficits and debt to buy wasteful pork projects.
2. Impoverishing our children's and grandchildren's future to pay for 'economic stimulus' today.
3. Spending billions to bail out companies that should be allowed to fail.
4. Rewarding lenders and borrowers who were irresponsible with tax money from the rest of us.
5. Punishing the most productive members of our society with confiscatory taxes meant to "redistribute the wealth" to people who didn't earn it.
6. Printing trillions of dollars, undermining the strength of our currency.
7. Undertaking an unprecedented socialization of the American economy - automobile manufacturing, health care, banking, insurance, and who knows what's next?
8. Doing all this under a President who's never run a lemonade stand, much less a country.
9. Expanding the unproductive public sector while crushing private enterprise.
10. Wasting vast sums of money on speculative 'green energy' while actively preventing domestic energy production.
11. Disregarding Constitutional limits on government power.
12. Relentlessly undermining individual rights, freedom and liberty.

These are the things we can agree on; the government is hopelessly out of control and run by incompetents who are simply out of their depth. Pretty speeches don't make up for policies meant to undermine the basic economic system of the United States.

Do You Want This Man* Setting Your Salary?

From The Washington Examiner Newspaper comes this report that a measure is quietly going through Congress to give the Federal government the right to approve the pay for every employee at every company receiving federal funds. That's almost all banks, lots of insurance companies, and GM and Chrysler. Not just CEOs (which is already an affront to capitalism and free markets), but EVERY EMPLOYEE. The government now decides when someone's pay is "excessive" or "unreasonable." The government can set the pay scale for UAW line workers. The guy in the mail room better step it up or his pay might be deemed "unreasonable."

What has happened to America? This is not a power any government should ever have, and yet this seems to happen with no fanfare or much concern. Well, we should all be concerned. This is not right.

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

The purpose of the legislation is to "prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards," according to the bill's language. That includes regular pay, bonuses -- everything -- paid to employees of companies in whom the government has a capital stake, including those that have received funds through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The measure is not limited just to those firms that received the largest sums of money, or just to the top 25 or 50 executives of those companies. It applies to all employees of all companies involved, for as long as the government is invested. And it would not only apply going forward, but also retroactively to existing contracts and pay arrangements of institutions that have already received funds.

In addition, the bill gives Geithner the authority to decide what pay is "unreasonable" or "excessive." And it directs the Treasury Department to come up with a method to evaluate "the performance of the individual executive or employee to whom the payment relates."

* This is Barney Frank (D - MA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. This man is probably the single most responsible person for the subprime mortgage crash (that's another post some other day). The economic damage he's done makes Bernie Madoff look like a Girl Scout. This guy should be in jail, not telling other people how much money they can and can't make.

World's Smallest Political Quiz

This is kind of a fun exercise. The political spectrum is not really just a line, but a field. Please post your results in the comments. I'm Personal = 50%, Economic = 100%. It'll be interesting to see where people are at.

On The Importance of Staying Involved

I bring to your attention an article from the Politico website yesterday. Over 100 political organizations on the Left have banded together to form an umbrella organization, centered on George Soros’ MoveOn.org organization, to aggregate funds and organize campaigns for state offices.

These organizations, whose funding utterly dwarfs analogous groups from the Right, all stand in line with their hands out to the government, asking for more public funding. They get that funding and spend a good deal of it on more political organizing to ask for more public funding. They support sympathetic legislators who are more than happy to ‘tax the rich’ or just ‘spend money we don’t have’ to give them even more money. It’s a vicious circle wherein taxpayers pay the salaries of people whose job it is to advocate to take more taxpayer money.

These organizations are in ‘permanent campaign’ mode where everything is politicized and the campaigning never stops. Just now, a huge campaign is being waged in districts of undecided Congressmen around the country to pass President Obama’s horrible new budget.

This is why it is important for people drawn to politics for the first time as part of the Tea Party movement, opposing the current paroxysm of spending in D.C., to stay involved. Frankly, no one can outspend those on the political left who strive only to bleed away more public funds, so we have to outwork them. To do that, people who are mad today have to stay with politics, stay involved, and keep working to bring sanity back to our political process.

Free Sign Graphics

Here's a site that has free downloadable graphics for simple Tea Party protests. These are designed to be printed at a place like Kinko's on 11x17 cardstock. We encourage everyone to make their own signs, but here are some good pre-designed options for you.

Here's a sample:

An Actual Tea Party Update!

We have ordered postcards to hand out at the event to send in to your elected officials demanding fiscal responsibility. You can download a copy of the proof here, but it has "PROOF" written across it. There should be plenty to go around at the actual event, so make sure to pick up a few.

How, and Why, I Pick Stuff to Post

So, this blog/website is set up to promote the San Jose Tax Day Tea Party on April 15 at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose (5 - 7 PM). Other than the initial "Welcome" post, none of the blog entries have been about the event. That will change as we get closer to the event - so please keep checking back.

However, I am also using this as a place to post a couple of entries every day that are on generally on the topic of the fiscal irresponsibility of our current administration - which is, after all, the reason we're all so ticked off. A very important part of the exercise of holding these Tea Parties is for regular citizens who may not devote their every waking hour to politics to become more involved - to emulate our Founders who dumped that tea in Boston harbor, to understand that everyday citizens can fight the Leviathan. I hope that these posts inform, inflame, uplift, inspire, or amuse the readers of this blog and encourage greater political understanding and participation. It's not all greed and ego - there is still a place in American politics for ideas and honorable citizen participation.

General Motors = Obama Motors

It seems that President Obama has forced GM's CEO to resign. Obama, who has never run any business, much less a big business, seems to think he knows what's best for American industry. We should have let GM go into Chapter 11 and come out leaner, meaner, and unburdened by those stupid union contracts with which it is stuck. Instead, we threw billions of dollars we don't have at the problem, with predictable results - nothing.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

General Motors issued a vague statement Sunday night that did not officially confirm Wagoner's departure.

"We are anticipating an announcement soon from the Administration regarding the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. We continue to work closely with members of the Task Force and it would not be appropriate for us to speculate on the content of any announcement," the company said.

The surprise announcement about the classically iconic American corporation is perhaps the most vivid sign yet of the tectonic change in the relationship between business and government in this era of subsidies and bailouts.

Tectonic change = government control of the means of production. This is not Capitalism. This is not the America we grew up in, nor is it the America we want. This is madness, and we have to put a stop to this.

People who should have known better...

A lot of Americans who have only momentary interest in politics, and who have been raised on a steady diet of leftist claptrap and cynicism (see Jon Stewart), bought the pretty Obama brand and voted for a rank amateur who promised 'post-partisanship' while having the most left-wing record in the US Senate. But then there are people, like the Economist Magazine, who really should have known better, and endorsed this tool anyway. Now, it seems, they're having second thoughts. Read the whole post at HotAir. I continue to be amazed at how even the smart, politically and economically-savvy class were so taken in by this guy.

The National Anthem done right.

Palate cleanser and reason to be jealous of Texas. This is at a Texas Tech basketball game. Pay attention to the crowd - quiet and respectful. God bless America.

Green Jobs = Fewer Jobs

This really shouldn't come as a surprise, but when government subsidizes "green" energy sources - i.e. energy sources that are too expensive to compete with fossil fuels or nuclear - it ends up costing jobs. President Obama has told us that Spain has been a pioneer in green energy and we should emulate them. Well, turns out "green" energy is massively expensive and ends up costing jobs.

Hat Tip: Ace, HotAir

Surrender US Energy Sovereignty?

Part of the Tea Party movement is a concern that our current administration has less than complete regard for the role of the US Constitution and the special nature of the US. I think it's appropriate to post this link about a proposed UN structure to enact a global energy policy, with, presumably, the UN in charge of the world's (and, thus, our) energy supply. Note the bit about how the plan "may induce some industrial relocation" to "less regulated host countries." President Obama seems to think this idea could be an "effective framework" for dealing with the fantasy of global warming. It's really just a way to take independence away from us. I'm not a "one world order" conspiracy guy, but this is pretty creepy.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510937,00.html

Hat Tip, again, to Ace Of Spades

Why can't he be my Congressman?

Watch this to see how attacking a lame statist government is supposed to be done.

It's not just the federal government that's nuts

It seems that the goons at the California Air Resources Board are looking into promulgating standards for the color of your car - black is bad because it gets hotter, requiring more air conditioning to cool it, thus using more energy.

I can't believe I'm not making this up:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/california-may-ban-black-cars/

Hat tip: Ace of Spades Blog - a great, funny blog

Welcome!

5:00 to 7:00 PM - Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, North End, San Jose, California

Welcome to the website blog for the San Jose, California April 15 Tea Party. We invite everyone who believes that our current administration's plans to tax and spend trillions of dollars to save failing banks, pay off other people's mortgages, build dog parks, cause epic inflation, and generally leave our children and grandchildren holding a crushing debt to join us on April 15, 2009 at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park (where they have Christmas in the Park) at 5:00 PM

Note: This was originally scheduled for the Federal Building on 1st St. There's no room there, so we've moved it to the Cesar Chavez Park.

Please send email to sjteaparty@yahoo.com for more information, or watch this blog for updates, schedules, etc.

Everyone is encouraged to bring creative signs to the protest - post your ideas here! However, profane, vulgar, violent, rude, or off-topic signs are not welcome. This is a family event so we ask you to keep it clean.