Tax Tea Party Protest - Hilo, HI

On April 15th, 2009, a group of "right-wing extremists" assembled to protest taxes in, among many other places in the United States, Hilo, Hawaii. The turnout of heartless, racist "teabagging rednecks," (as the brilliant sociologist, Janeane Garofalo referred to us), numbered around 100, according to the Hawaii Tribune Herald. This was a far bigger turnout than one might have expected, in this liberal outpost.

Contrary to what the mainstream media would have people believe, this was definitely not an assembly of the wealthy, nor was it organized or promoted by deep-pocketed Republican political action committees. This was a true, grassroots effort, organized by one middle-class, working man, who was wearing worn blue jeans at the protest. It was attended not by a blood-thirsty, racist rabble, but by a group of polite, thoughtful, hard-working people.

Liberals nationwide seem to dismiss these protests, and demean the protesters as ignorant ideologues. One of the many liberal advocates posing as journalists, Susan Roesgen, who works for (surprise!) CNN, berated one protester on the air with the assertion that he would be getting a several hundred dollar tax credit, and his home state would be getting 50 billion dollars in "stimulus" funds, implying that to protest taxes was therefore illogical.

What such liberals fail to credit the rest of us with is the intelligence to realize that there is no free lunch. SOMEONE has to pay for all of this spending. So, as much as a tax protest, this was a spending protest. Even if our taxes do not go up this year, some of us have the foresight to know that we will all pay, eventually, and our descendants will keep paying after we are gone. In the process, we will have lost everything that has made this country the greatest on Earth.

In the short term, our hard-earned savings will be devalued through inflation. With trillions more dollars printed to compete for the same goods and services that existed before, it will naturally take more dollars to buy those same goods and services.

In the long run, the free enterprise system; the engine that has driven this country to be the strongest in the world - the land of opportunity that people throughout the world still envy - will have been replaced with a "nanny state" that incentivizes mediocrity.

We won the Cold War (Ronald Reagan, R.I.P.), and we have served as the example for failed Communist states to revitalize their societies through increasing Capitalism. How sadly ironic, that the Russians and Chinese now think we are heading in the wrong direction - toward Socialism!

President Eloquent and First Lady Elegant?

As the President and his entourage attended the G20 London Summit, the media love affair with the Obamas, and the double-standard applied to presidents based upon their political parties, evidently extended across the Atlantic Ocean.

When "W" misspoke during a reception for Queen Elizabeth, and accidentally implied that the queen had been around since 1776, he corrected himself and winked at her. The British press eviscerated him. One apparently does not wink at the queen.

On another occasion, when some Australian official put his arm around the queen, he was treated similarly. However, just this week, when Michelle Obama put her arm around the queen, it was not an issue. For crying out loud, even I knew you aren’t supposed to touch the queen or treat her familiarly! But the queen was unfazed, as were the British press.

Let's not even get into the propriety of giving the queen an Ipod loaded with, among other things, audio of his own notable speeches. "Here, Queenie, listen up. Didja know I'm a celebrity?"

During President Obama's press conference at the G20 summit (the non-teleprompter portion, during which he answered questions from the members of the press), he made the following statements (emphasis added):

"So, overall, I'm pleased with the product. And I'll leave it to others to determine whether me and my team had anything to do with that. All right?"

"And that's good. But we want to make sure that there's mechanisms in place that holds people accountable and produces results. Okay?"

"I think the patient is stabilized; there's still wounds that have to heal and there's still emergencies that could arise, but I think that you've got some pretty good care being applied."

Nary a word from the press, about how bad his grammatical errors made him sound, yet Bush was reduced to the image of a blubbering moron by the media. Granted, President Bush made a lot of gaffes, but so far, President Obama is matching his pace.

While this manifestation of the mainstream media's double standard is annoying - maddening, even - what is really scary is that this refusal to criticize their anointed leader extends beyond the superficial to really important, substantive matters. It's like boarding a bus and averting your eyes while the driver slams tequila shots and starts careening into parked cars and fire hydrants. Something's gonna die, and I am afraid it is the United States of America, as we know it.