Lessons About Conservative vs Liberal America Learned from a Power Outage

Interesting perspective in the comments to this post: Krauthammer and Goldberg Agree The Rules of American Politics Have Changed Fundamentally, But Disagree Sharply On How They’ve Changed

Ok, couple of things that give me real hope here.

1. Liberals want the big nanny state because they can’t survive with out it. Eventually one way or the other the nanny state is gone. It either gets turned around now and all this crap gets repealed, or it eventually collapses under it’s own weight. Either way it’s the liberals who can’t survive without it. Granted, it will suck for the rest of us, but I think many of us will survive. I don’t think any of them will.

2. All of the PETA retards are going to starve to death pretty quick once the system does collapse. If you can’t hunt and kill your own food, yup, you’re gone. Good riddance. Please be sure to take NOW and Planned Parenthood with you.

3. If it does come down to civil war, I’m not all that worried. Our whacky moonbat opposition abhors guns, and would never own one much less have any idea how to use one. Me, I suffer from no such delusions. So if it’s civil war, so be it. Better show up with more than a court injunction fucknuts, because like most well trained marksmen I wait for shots and always go for center mass.

4. Do I think it will come to any of this? No. I think we are in for some very tough times ahead. But I think that unlike Greece most of us are waking up and starting to get it. It’s going to be a hard road back – but I truly think we can make it.

Why? Simple. A power outage. Yup, no shit, a power outage. I live in a small town in Nebraska. Day before yesterday we lost power… the whole town mind you, thanks to a rather violent thunderstorm. The power was out for nearly 6 hours before they got it back up and running again.

When I lived in L.A., eons and eons ago, I remember a power outage there that sparked rioting and looting. So here I am, standing in the darkened street in small town Nebraska, and what happens?

Neighbors are coming outside to check on one another, making sure we’re all ok. Since we have no power, no TV, none of the things that so often fill our lives with distraction, we start chatting with each other.

Before you know it we’ve got a very impromptu neighborhood block party going, beverages, tiki torches, people driving by and stopping by to make sure everybody’s ok and to see if anyone had news about the power outage.

As I was standing outside with my neighbors enjoying a tasty beverage, the cool night air and some pleasant company I thought about that power outage years ago in L.A. and realized why the left coast and places like it would be in such deep shit if the system ever did collapse.

One night without power, or law enforcement, or worse yet both, and most of their neighborhoods would be in ashes. Without Uncle Sugar, they’re all doomed.

Posted by: Stuck On Stupid at July 16, 2010 04:14 PM

Why Do People Continue to Consider Tim “Global Warming” Pawlenty a Viable 2012 GOP Candidate?

I really can’t figure out how people who write a right-leaning political blog — which I assume means they keep up with politics and right-leaning politicians — continue to support GOP politicians who have exposed themselves as being anything but right-leaning. But here we have it at AoSHQ:

Just noting — he’s got a rap as a RINO but he seems okay to me.

I will note again I do not believe the Republican nominee will be any of the people that the media always talks about, Palin, Huck, Romney, Gingrich. I think it will be a first-timer with less baggage, namely, either Pence, Thune, or Pawlenty.

And there are even a bunch of commenters there who also are okay with Pawlenty. What the hell? At least one of the commenters hasn’t let their valu-rite and bacon intake destroy their memory of Pawlenty’s political ri-TARD-ation:

Every time this putz’s name comes up I am reminded of the fact that he happily jumped on board with the global warming scam, called the skeptics ignorant, and said they should be ignored. One of two things are possible:

a) He believed or still believes that manmade global warming was real and that government must curtail our liberty, our economy, and our standard of living in order to save the world.

b) He tried to coopt an issue from the left and was willing to curtail our liberty, our economy, and our standard of living in order to gain political advantage.

My opinion of him could be encapsulated by a good Mel Gibson rant. He is either a statist or a statist enabler and has no business being anywhere near the White House.

Posted by: Ghost of Lee Atwater at July 16, 2010 02:39 PM

Here you go Vic, from an opinion piece, WSJ, 2.23.08:

In April, Mr. Pawlenty delivered the remarks that probably best reveal his views on the environment. “It looks like we should have listened to President Carter,” he told the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group. “He called us to action, and we should have listened. . . . Climate change is real. Human behavior is partly and may be a lot responsible. Those who don’t think so are simply not right. We should not spend time on voices that say it’s not real.”

Any Republican who says we should have listened to Jimmy Carter about anything should be considered a non-starter.

Posted by: Ghost of Lee Atwater at July 16, 2010 02:48 PM

Seriously, if people who claim to be highly informed regarding politics are forgetting something blatantly statist like this from Tim Pawlenty, how do we expect people who are not at all informed to pay attention and to vote accordingly?

If this is an example of how informed is the electorate, I’m not very confident about 2010 and 2012 at all…

I have saved links and research in folders on my computer for the past 4-5 years. I keep them for reference to refresh my memory of issues and politicians, especially when debating people on the issues or certain policitians. Here are a few of the links I have kept on Tim Pawlenty. To read that people think he “seems okay” when we have known about his statist pro-global warming and big government record since 2008 is immensely disheartening:

WallStreet Journal: Pawlenty’s Record

“The era of small government is over . . . government has to be more proactive, more aggressive.”
– Tim Pawlenty, 2006.

So here we are in JULY of 2010 and what is the #1 issue? Small government. Yet people who claim to be informed about politics and about small government are actually saying that a guy “seems okay” who said “the era of small government is over”? Are you kidding me?

Following the tax hike, the governor pushed through a state-wide smoking ban in workplaces, restaurants and bars. Aggressive, Nanny-state government seems to be big with Republican governors these days — although policies such as smoking bans do little to stem the costly tide of state-run health care.

In 2006, liberal Democrats (there is no other kind here) proposed a universal health-care behemoth to cover all residents. Mr. Pawlenty responded with a more limited proposal to expand the state’s child health-care program, Minnesota Care, to cover all children. More recently, the governor’s Health Care Transformation Task Force recommended imposing a mandate — à la Massachusetts — on residents to buy health insurance. [ ... ]

Nevertheless, Mr. Pawlenty has presided over back-to-back biennial budget increases of 12.4% and 9.8% respectively. Last year the governor’s proposed budget survived essentially intact but still spent the state’s $2 billion surplus, with half the general fund increase going to education. Minnesota, with five million people, now has a biennial budget of nearly $35 billion.

Mr. Pawlenty’s proactive government stance extends to support for mass transit and sport stadium subsidies, as well as for hiking the state’s minimum wage, which is now $6.15 an hour for large employers (the federal minimum wage is $5.85). But it is education and the environment where Mr. Pawlenty hopes to establish his progressive bona fides.

He calls for accountability in education, but does little to buck the most powerful lobby in state politics, Education Minnesota. Indeed, Mr. Pawlenty has courted the unions, telling the Minnesota Business Partnership that “I can’t have the Republican governor talk about changing the school system without having the support and help of the teachers’ union and my friends on the other side of the aisle. It just won’t work.”

On the environment, Mr. Pawlenty imposed some of the most aggressive renewable energy mandates in the country. Other states will be requiring, in coming years, that energy producers get 20% of their electricity from “renewable” sources such as wind, solar or animal manure. In Mr. Pawlenty’s Minnesota, the state’s largest utility will be required to generate 30% of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

Mr. Pawlenty is using his influence through the National Governor’s Association to export his ideas across state lines. The NGA meets in Washington, D.C. next week. Look for Mr. Pawlenty to be on hand and stumping for renewable mandates.

In April, Mr. Pawlenty delivered the remarks that probably best reveal his views on the environment. “It looks like we should have listened to President Carter,” he told the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group. “He called us to action, and we should have listened. . . . Climate change is real. Human behavior is partly and may be a lot responsible. Those who don’t think so are simply not right. We should not spend time on voices that say it’s not real.”

At times it seems that Mr. Pawlenty’s first political instinct is to placate liberal critics, …

Oh yeah, this sounds like just the guy we need to stop this rampant Marxism. NOT. He “can’t have the Republican Governor talk about changing the school system without” befriending the unions? Wrong. Take a look at the job that Governor Chris Christie is doing in New Jersey.

The following is from a liberal, pro-global warming fraud website, but they lay out Pawlenty’s obvious politically-motivated flip flopping on the issue:

Pawlenty completes climate science flip flop, after flip flopping on support for bipartisan climate action

Over the course of the last three years, Pawlenty has gone from an outspoken proponent of clean energy to a Glenn Beck pandering climate change denier:

Dec. 2006: Pawlenty lays out an ambitious clean energy program for Minnesotans to reduce their use of fossil fuels 15 percent by 2015. Cutting greenhouse gases, Pawlenty said, would “be good for the environment, good for rural economies, good for national security and good for consumers.” He also calls for a regional cap and trade program.

May 2007: Pawlenty signs the Next Generation Energy Act of 2007, requiring the state to reduce its emissions 15 percent by 2015 and 80 percent in 2050. At the signing ceremony, Pawlenty said Minnesota was “kicking-starting the future” by “tackling greenhouse gas emissions.”

Oct. 2007: Pawlenty declares that the climate change issue is “one of the most important of our time.” He also brushes off “some flak” from right-wingers who doubt climate change science.

Sept. 2008: During the election, Pawlenty backs away from his own cap and trade program, says such a system would “wreck the economy.” He then tells hate radio personality Glenn Beck (a climate change denier) that human activity only contributes “half a percent” to climate change.

Nov. 2009: Pawlenty backs away from acknowledging that any human activity is the cause of climate change.

Oh yeah, that sounds like someone I can trust. NOT.

Pawlenty, Steger make bond to slow changes to climate

One of the biggest issues, global climate change, is what motivated the pair to join forces — warning of what they say will be grave consequences if individuals, businesses and governments don’t act to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

“It is an important issue — I think one of the most important of our time,” Pawlenty told the 400 researchers, resource managers and educators gathered in Duluth this week.

Steger praised Pawlenty for having “the guts to take on bold initiatives” to reduce greenhouse gases and for his leadership on that issue in his capacity as chair of the National Governors Association. [ ... ]

Pawlenty, who wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state 80 percent by the year 2050, expressed disappointment that more steps aren’t being taken on the national level, and he challenged individuals, communities, and states to show the way.

“Maybe we can lead them [the federal government] or even shame them into action,” Pawlenty said. “It’ll become de facto national policy.”

Oh yeah, that’s the kind of GOP Presidential nominee we need. Another statist who wants to shame us into action with bullsh!t ‘science’.

But hey, he “seems okay”.

Oy.

Oh geez, first Ace of Spades HQ and now we have a bunch of ignoramuses at HotAir singing the praises of Tim Pawlenty. Geez, from the comments on this post at HotAir, I have to believe that HotAir commenters are either complete political ignoramuses to not know about Pawlenty’s big government background or are liberals themselves like Tim Pawlenty. One would think that people who read and comment on a political blog would be, you know, politically informed. Apparently not. Oy…

It Took Me 5 Years…

…but I finally bothered to search around for the comments modification on WordPress and fixed my comments where one does not have to be registered with WordPress in order to comment. People have been asking me to do this for at least 2 1/2 years now and I didn’t bother to search around the site enough to figure it out.  (After doing a minimal search, I had thought that I needed some special html code in order to make commenting open to non-registered commenters).  I just happened to stumble upon it today and — voila! — people can now comment without being registered.

Granted, now that I have probably lost all my readers who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, comment the past 2 1/2 years without registering with WordPress, this might be a moot point. But, oh well. I’ll take any small positive ‘victories’ nowadays. heh