Withholding your vote ...

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... will it work?

If you want to extract the occasional concession for a Republican, fine. But the only way is to make withholding your vote your default position. Let them pander in deed, not just word to earn your case by case transnational support. 

This is a long post ... and sort of rantish. And the comments, geez the comments. I still can't believe how many people really think the GOP is salvagable.

It's not.

But they do make a good point about how withholding your vote advances the conservative cause. I have the answer.

It involves not withholding your vote, but voting for someone who can be identified as Not being the current GOP. Someone like, NOTA.

Someone like ... Not Another Moderate Republican (NAMR).

You see, if the party can't see definitively how many votes they lost by foisting another squish on the electorate, then they'll never change.

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DrewM point out how ...

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... liberals eventually win:

This is how liberals win. They spend decades trying to get something and conservatives stop fighting against it and start trying to “make it work” six months later. There’s no longer any argument about whether or not we should be doing what liberals want, just how we should be doing it. 

That's the argument that the GOP does not want to make, yet it's the one that must be made.

We are so fucked.

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I noticed yesterday ...

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... that NBC didn't report on the DC Court decision that purchasers of insurance from federal exchanges aren't eligible for subsidies.

I guess they can put their fingers in their ears and sing 'la la la la la' with the best of them.

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You mean ...

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... you didn't already know that?

In a resignation letter obtained by National Report, Wagner claims she has been spreading “lies on behalf of Obama” and using her position with MSNBC to “falsely promote a brutal dictator.”

Wagner goes on to say, “I have spent my entire professional career working toward a position based on false pretenses.  I have worked hard to obtain a position with a major news network and expected to be reporting on serious issues.  Instead, I am handed Pro-Obama scripts and asked to be a mouthpiece for the administration.”

Because I did.

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n a resignation letter obtained by National Report, Wagner claims she has been spreading “lies on behalf of Obama” and using her position with MSNBC to “falsely promote a brutal dictator.”
Wagner goes on to say, “I have spent my entire professional career working toward a position based on false pretenses.  I have worked hard to obtain a position with a major news network and expected to be reporting on serious issues.  Instead, I am handed Pro-Obama scripts and asked to be a mouthpiece for the administration.”
- See more at: http://nationalreport.net/msnbc-anchor-resigns-admits-spreading-lies-behalf-obama/#sthash.zmPKiYzC.dpuf

Because the king ...

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... must not be mocked:

The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a member of its Community Relations Service team to investigate a Nebraska parade float that criticized President Obama.

I guess all the other crimes have been solved.

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Using this logic ...

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... the government should be buying me up to and including an M249:

A California college town known for its liberal activism has voted to make medicinal marijuana dispensaries give away free a small amount of their pot to the poor.

Berkeley City Council members voted unanimously late on Tuesday to instruct local outlets to provide marijuana equal to 2 percent of their sales to patients on low incomes. 

 After all, 'keeping' means I have to be able to 'get', and I'm low income, don't ya know!

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Yeah ...

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... that's the ticket!

Saw this on Patterico's blog ...

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... my, some people are fed up!

No, it’s actually time for the TEA Party to quit the “let it burn” mantra, and start stoking the fires.

Ace (@Ace of Spades) has been of the 'let it burn' camp for a while now. Looks like that's not fast enough.

I'm not sure that the GOP can be reformed, at this point; at least, not at the national level. There's too much incentive for politicians to seek power over representation.

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How?

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How indeed:

The thing about dogs eating homework is, it could actually happen. This can’t.

This is “the dog ate my hard drive, broke into another building, ate the backup of the hard drive, then broke into six other top officials’ offices and ate their hard drives also.”

I keep saying it, but things will not get better until the citizens get fed up enough to start spilling blood.

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Ace brings up ...

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... some good points about what's wrong with our political system:

The only thing that can change is the incentive structure offered by the voters. As Milton Friedman observed, you will not get a good government by electing "Good People" to office. You either will not be able to accomplish this, or these Good People will soon become Bad People because that is the nature of the system.

The way you get good government is set the rewards -- and punishments -- such that even Bad People will make Good Decisions, out of pure self-interest.

Isn't this interesting, in light of the suggestion that T Jefferson made about liberty and the blood of tyrants and patriots?

Now, I'm not saying that we should just start the wholesale shooting of our representatives who screw up, but there is surely something a bit ... milder ... that we can do.

Part of the problem is the federalization of everything; the further away from the local, the less likely that an outraged citizenry will act. After all, it's much easier to influence your neighbor who's a legislator than it is someone who lives across the state.

A blogger of my acquaintance said (regarding the student who was not allowed to re-apply sunscreen in TX): Seriously, fathers have a duty to beat the living shit out of people like this. One good ass kicking can permanently reform the idiot, and serves as an object lesson to others. "Wait, is this decision callous enough that some angry father is going to beat me to a pulp? Then maybe I should double check my answer and see if there's a better solution."
Does anyone not think this would work on our elected officials?

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This had got to be ...

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... one of the worst reasons to elect a senator:

“I guess Mississippi doesn't want Federal money anymore,” revolving-door K Streeter John Feehery posted on Twitter last week.

This in response to MI voters expressing a preference that doesn't suit lobbyists. The GOP can't die as a party soon enough.

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A REAL journalist ...

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... could make a Pulitzer-winning career out of this:

Renowned Swedish scientist Professor Lennart Bengtsson of Reading University was at the centre of an international row last week when his study was rejected by a leading science journal after it was said to be ‘harmful’ and have a ‘negative impact’.

The rejection sparked accusations that scientists had crossed an important line by censoring findings that were not helpful to their views.

They keep using that word, 'science'; I don't think it means what they think it means.

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Don't bother calling your Chamber ...

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... it'll do no good:

“If the Republicans don’t do it, they shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016,” Donohue joked at an event on infrastructure investment in D.C. “Think about that. Think about who the voters are. I just did that to get everybody’s attention.”…

He got my attention, all right.

He may allege he was joking, but I'm still going to get a list of local business who are members of the local Chamber and let them know what the president of the national organization is doing.

It still may do no good, but I'll feel better.

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Identifying voters is offending people?

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Boo fucking hoo:

Just sat down w @SenRandPaul after his meeting with black pastors. He says GOP needs to lay off voter ID. "It's offending people."

Is there NO ONE who will support and defend conservative principles and the rule of law?!

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It is appalling to me ...

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... that Boehner has any legitimacy left at all:

we’ll find out just how far the House is willing to go down this road in the name of getting their names on something with the word immigration on it. But it’s going to start yet another revolt among the conservative base if something like the DREAM Act makes it’s way through, and this one may start a fire too big for Boehner to put out.

John Boehner has done nothing, nothing to please conservatives; why should he start now?

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Call to Action!!!

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If you live in TN, please contact your state representatives (the senate already passed this bill overwhelmingly) and ask them to vote to have HB2409 recalled to the floor to have an up or down vote, then ask them to vote Yes! You can find your rep here.

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I am sad that I'm not well-educated ...

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... else I could graciously tell people to kiss my ass:

What was initially intended as an honor has now devolved into a moment of shaming. Yet the slur on my reputation is not the worst aspect of this episode. More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles. The 'spirit of free expression' referred to in the Brandeis statement has been stifled here, as my critics have achieved their objective of preventing me from addressing the graduating Class of 2014. Neither Brandeis nor my critics knew or even inquired as to what I might say. They simply wanted me to be silenced. 

That should leave a mark, but I doubt it will.

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Undeniably ...

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... logical:

We will revive them (Crusade and Inquisition) before we will abandon our faith. And while we would prefer to live with both Christian and traditional Constitutional values, if we are forced to choose between the two, we will choose the former without even thinking twice. (Editor add)

Vox is in a whole 'nother intellectual sphere than I, but I never fail to see the logical consistency regarding the trajectory of modern tolerance.

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Methinks I would invite Sen Whitehouse and Rep Waxman ...

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... to go fuck themselves:

But it may have been even more political, and more nakedly partisan, than we suspected. Today Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman wrote a letter to David Robertson, President and COO of Koch Industries. The Democrats’ letter was premised almost entirely on the Washington Post’s discredited article; it repeatedly footnoted that article and the IFG report on which the Post story was based. The two Democrats concluded by requesting that Koch answer questions and produce a long series of documents relating in various ways to the Keystone pipeline. 

 I think it's time more people invited elected officials to go fuck themselves!

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GA liberty ...

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... advances a little:

Churches were given an opt-in provision when the HB 60 finally passed, also out of general election concerns. Beyond that, both sides are still scrutinizing the language approved last night. Washington isn’t the only place where you vote first, and read later.

This was actually one of the worse things that gun owners got. I haven't heard yet how much of HB875 got passed, but I'm sure in a couple more days someone will have a comprehensive break-down on what we gained in the peach state.

The link is actually about how political considerations get in the way of action. Sad that our civil rights are held hostage in the process.

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