Articles tagged as

Progressives

”no controlling legal authority”

Get Out Of Jail Free CardThat was the line Al Gore used back when he was campaigning against George W Bush back in 2000 in raising money at a Buddhist temple (where the monks has a vow of poverty).   As I used to hear in Sunday school, and then say myself – an object lesson!  By that, he just didn’t see any applicable law that applied to the situation – there was nothing there to stop him.  There was no gate, if breached, that would cause a negative consequence to him.  It was as if someone gave him a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card.

And that is the lesson.  As a Conservative, I believe in the phrase “self-governance”.  A two-fer: both meant that citizens should be able to govern themselves in a limited government – there is no monarchy or unaccountable entity to which to be responsible for regulations and laws set for them to merely obey.  We, the citizens, elect our representatives in the law-making process.  It is also is complementary to another phrase: self-responsibility.  Combine them and one will have a sense of morality that says “I need to do the right thing – regardless if there is a law about this or not”.  It is internal governance – that little guy that sits on your shoulder that says “you REALLY should think about NOT doing that” when you know you are wrong before you start.  Right from wrong becomes a personal responsibility – even when no one is looking.  Especially when no one else is there.

Being the Progressive that he is, Gore took advantage of the fact there there was not an “external governor” stuck in the ground in front of him that said “no, this is not right”.  No flag, no cop, no bars, no signs – nothing.  In the Progressive mindset, it seems that they depend on externalities to govern their behavior.  Seeing nothing?  Go ahead and do it!  And he did.  And then blamed the fact that there was no law there to stop him.  Effectively, Progressives outsource that internal governance to others who have made the laws they must follow.

Like Gore, it seems that AG Eric Holder and his partisan crew at the Federal Dept of Justice are now claiming “hey, if there had JUST been another law in place”:

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Did uber-Obama confident put a pin into the Progressive ballon and made it go “Pop!”?

I know I keep harping on this but one of the main tenets of Progressivism is to bring about the Administrative State – a place in time where expert technocrats “guide” the rest of us through our lives.  These are unelected, unaccountable, and most likely, unapproachable bureaucrats working in a centralized government situation sitting down to make sure that we all know our place in order to have “an ordered and efficient” government (‘the country as machine and we all know our Borg cog place in it”).  Obama, more than any other President since FDR, has embraced and declared (“fundamentally transform the United States”) this to be his philosophy.

Expert technocrats – only experts will staff governments.  That is the hallmark claim: “we know it all” – and as we have lately seen, it does have multiple uses.  However, it is expected that the Administrative State, if it is to organize and run Society, is even “better” than Society?  That’s why it was a Mtn Dew snort out the nose moment when I read this from David Axelrod, uber-confidant to Progressive Prez Obama, on why these mega-scandals are all happening at once and why it isn’t Obama’s fault:

“Part of being president is there’s so much beneath you that you can’t know because the government is so vast,”

Boggled, I was.  Here it was – an uber-Progressive saying that “Government is too big to manage”.  What an outstanding gaffe that undercuts the entire raison d’etre for Progressivism.  In one sentence, Axlerod:

  • says that the brightest President not only is NOT the Smartest President EVAH (peace be upon him) (see here, too)
  • validates what Conservatives have been saying for years; Government, as Reagan (a Progressive’s arch-enemy) once said, is the problem

If something is too vast, it is too big to manage and certainly too big to manage properly.  And if the Smartest President EVAH (peace be upon him) can’t manage it well, well, who could?  Well, the Founders “have an app for that!”

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I ask, seeing…

all these scandals in the Most Progressive Administration EVAH, if Progressives have been lying to themselves that men become angels when they start receiving a Government payroll check?  This is their “Heaven on Earth”? Just another question…

Tyranny – Some might say it is already here, Mr. President – Part II

When I wrote this post about Government Tyranny, I forgot to say anything at all about President Obama’s outlook – a VERY Progressive (which translates to “incremental Socialism”) outlook of what Government should be.  Progressives are technocrats – they  believe that Government should be stocked by experts that are there to organize Society to be … Read more

The basis of his economic theory

You can steal from your children and your grandchildren with impunity because, after all,  “In the long run, we’re all dead“. “We repudiated entirely customary morals, conventions and traditional wisdom. We were, that is to say, in the strict sense of the term, immoralists. The consequences of being found out had, of course, to be … Read more

Crickets….

An introspection from our friends over at Blue Hampshire: “What do you think? Does B[lue] H[ampshire] have a future in a 140 character world? With digital publishing tools becoming more and more accessible, is B[lue] H[ampshire] still needed? What would be lost if B[lue] H[ampshire] was not a part of the NH media landscape?”

You might be a Democrat if:

Heh!  I love it when the Democrat definition of “Consistency” is spotlighted: You might be a Democrat if you believe… Fighting against government-subsidized contraceptives constitutes a “war on women,” but when Islamists stone a woman to death because she was raped, it is just “cultural differences.” Fighting against government-subsidized contraceptives constitutes a “war on women,” … Read more

April 27th GrokTALK! Skip and Steve open the Program…

This week on GrokTALK! before our guests arrive Skip and Steve talk about Bill O’Brien, making State government smaller, a local New Hampshire case where despite stand your ground a Democrat county attorney still pressed charges, second amendment rights, contracts, the government messing up prescription drugs, what happens when you are late for your guest … Read more

Tyranny: Democrat Socialists of America in the US House saying (Ah-gain) “you don’t need all that and you didn’t earn it anyways!”

So they believe that if you have too much private property (too much cash), they have the perfect way to steal it from you: write a bill!  After all, it isn’t FAIR that you have earned so much by stealing it from the poor and middle class.  They have far better purposes for what your labor, skill, and motivation has earned you.  It’s rather simple, really – they basically want to count your money: $1 for you and we’ll take one too!  Lather, rinse, repeat – for your entire stash (not to be confused with the Obamastash which seems to come out of nowhere to give to the 47%.  Or have we found the source??  Oh, never mind – I don’t speak Mandarin).

Several House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would impose a minimum 45 percent tax rate on taxable income above $1 million, and would set a 49 percent rate on income above $1 billion.

The Fairness in Taxation Act, H.R. 1723, was proposed by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who said the bill would help put the nation’s wealth back into the hands of middle- and lower-income workers.

Fairness?  To take that which was not earned by you is “fair”?  I have yet to see any reference in the Democrat Socialists of America white papers that says that they stand in solidarity with the Founders who held the pursuit of Property (which was the original wording in the Declaration until Ole’ Ben said to use “Happiness” – which was considered to the be same thing back then) was one of the philosophical underpinnings of a free society).  A man is not free when the Government can take his stuff.  After all, in all other societies at the time, if the King wanted it, the King took it by “Divine Right” for the use of his government.  Now, we see this again – this bunch of Progressives wish to regress back to that time of when Government (via the King) wants something, they will just take it.  Grokster Steve’s phrase of Fee Staters not only covers the Democrat Progressives here in NH but those in DC as well; none of them believe it is enough.

This is “progress” with respect human Liberty and Freedom?  Obviously, no to the question but yes to their intent.  We see this incremental Tyranny in that these folks that believe in a foreign political philosophy certainly join in with Obama when he said “at some point, you have made enough money” (or even saved enough) –

Individual, meh.  The Collective, YEAH!

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HB 135: State v. Craig Moses

“In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.” —Tacitus

Fingers_In_EarsLiberals love to ignore inconvenient facts. Stick fingers in ears, close eyes and yell, “La-la-la-la-la!” Franklin resident Craig Moses was acquitted under the Granite State’s “Stand Your Ground” law.  Moses was arrested nearly a year ago in Nashua outside a nighclub and charged with criminal threatening with a deadly weapon after he and his cousin were severely beaten.

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This Week On GrokTALK! – the after edition Part II

We also talked about this post from Instapundit so I figured somebody might want the text / link (emphasis mine):

So, as tactical officers, 9 deep, hang off urban military assault vehicles, they feel great. I look at those things rumbling through empty streets and feel sick.

Bad guy #2 was bleeding for 20 hours outside the perimeter the cops and FBI had set. That was a miscalculation I wouldn’t dream of second guessing, but luckily for all of us, a regular guy noticed the torn and bloody tarp on the boat parked out back and called it in. They answered the 911 call and did what was required–excellent! But if Average Joe hadn’t noticed, how long would the officials have kept the city locked down? But I expect we’ll hear how important it is that they have more domestic P.D. paramilitary, oh yeah, and that CISPA that just passed under the radar was a must.

Law enforcement has been working very hard, but how about a little recognition that this was another instance when an alert citizen rose up, without official permission or sanction, to take reasonable, effective steps?

And my response this morning was “Gee, not to take anything away from the Boston PD (et lots of al), but once again, we see that it was NOT the apparatus of the Progressive State (and make no mistake, MA is a Progressive / Democrat dominated State) that “solved the problem”, but just a regular citizen”.  Glen Reynolds links to his book, An Army of Davids, at the end of the post.  The message he is trying to send by doing so is that ordinary  technology has so empowered  regular citizens, that crowd sourcing has outstripped the often outdated notions of how Business and Government should and can act.  Indeed –  just look how Twitter and Facebook are acting as the “first responders” of the news cycle simply due to the ubiquitous presence of  ordinary citizens than specialized “professionals”.  Often, there are domain specific experts “among the crowd” that can quickly relay highly detailed observations that are far beyond the pros – and then technology makes that knowledge widespread in just a few clicks.  Ah, the disruptive force, that Internet!

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An observation: Does the Left now hate Muslims?

Quick observation: all week long, one Leftist / Progressive / Democrat has trotted out the meme that it had to be a white TEA Party extremist that set off the bombs – someone who loves a lo-cal Government struggling on a pittance.  Three examples: David Axelrod’s “hanging” innuendo of a tax day protest, Charles Pierce that it as a “patriot” because of the MA Patriot Day holiday, CNN, David Sirota – and that’s just from today’s quick run through my normal blog readings (there have been a LOT since Monday – here’s a better list).

Chalk it up to the Progressive politicization of everything where nothing is off limits. They just couldn’t wait to see what actually developed – after all, they traffic in emotion and not facts.  They were wailing before it was known if this tragedy was created by a lone wolf or an entire cell network behind this.  Yes, the Right reacted as well, but mostly AFTER the first few punches / tweets / quotes / op-eds had already been unleashed by the Left who just couldn’t constrain their hatred.  They were DYING that it be their opposition.  Not just any opposition, but those that keep them from achieving their goals.  You see, they believe they ARE the moral ground (and not just merely standing on it or holding it).  Their fevered minds believe if they can JUST show that their political opposition is as evil as they believe that are (re: that old saw that Conservatives think that Liberals are just wrong / misguided; Liberals believe Conservatives are EEEEEvil), they could convince the Middle to hate them as well.

Me?  I think it is just

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Liberal Hypocrisy – Children are the adults in the Progressive world

The second one definitely breeches Reynolds’ Second Law.  How can the Progressive mind believe that an 11 year old can make rational decisions about a powerful hormonal abortifacient but an adult can make a rational decision about how thirsty they are? Or is this ONLY about the money – another illegitimate baby on welfare for … Read more

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