Ray over at Tea Party Of Northern Colorado has this one up but it's so good I just had to make sure you didn't miss it:
And I think we can be quite sure he'll fix this up.Here's my letter to Congresswoman Markey of Colorado's 4th District (final):
From:
Bob Gronlund
Fort Collins, CO
To:
Congresswoman Markey
Colorado 4th District
Dear Congresswoman Markey,
First a little about myself. I am a master engineer for a well respected and widely known multi-billion dollar worldwide technology corporation. We are #1 in our industry. We build some of the most complex electronic and software products in existence to enable the global high tech economy. I work daily with people of all nationalities and races from all over the world on distributed, interdisciplinary engineering teams producing a continual stream of world-leading, innovative products.
I have a reputation for competence and integrity won in a 26+ year career of technology and people leadership. I have the ear of upper management in my company and am entrusted with decision making that impacts enormous revenue streams in our businesses. We have a rigorous hiring process and I love working with the high quality people of our company from all over the world. And while I don't always agree with them, I find our upper management to be smart, competent and ethical people.
I also have a long record of local volunteerism and philanthropy in our community. I have generally found the people of my community to be caring and committed to cooperation to make a better place to live.
Unfortunately, I see a complete disconnect between the largely functional organizations I find in my company and my community with what I see in Washington. In Washington I see a lack of humility, pandering to special interests (who wrote those bills anyway if the congresspeople haven't read them?), venality, rude language and lack of respect for the people for whom you are supposed to work.
On top of that I see a complete lack of knowledge about the fundamentals of economics and an overweening belief that the government is the solution to all problems when no sane person who operates in the real world can possibly believe that. I see fundamental innumeracy and a lack of appreciation for the negative impact that debt has on individuals, companies and governments. I see both Democrats and Republicans as being owned by Wall Street and special interests. This must stop and be reversed.
Government is not the solution. It is the problem.
In case you're wondering how it got this way, I think P.J. O'Rourke might have his finger closest to the truth when he said: "When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."
Ever larger regulation just creates the illusion of healthy function. We need less government interference in people's lives, not more. And we need a focus on re-building a moral society and one where everyone is moral of their own volition, not "moral" because of government controlling their lives.
Which by the way is why I am implacably opposed to President Obama's and Congress' current health care proposals. Government interference has in large part created what problems we do have in our health care system -- and more interference will just make it worse. And should you vote for any of these disastrous and anti-competitive "public option" or "coop" plans I will work night and day against your re-election.
And by the way, there are many people of otherwise liberal leanings who point out some pretty damning things that are being squelched in the "debate". For instance, Dean Kamen -- a prolific medical products inventor and creator of the Segue scooter -- points out that the entire debate is "backward looking" and that we need to find ways to drive innovation and not starve it. ( http://tinyurl.com/kamenbackward )
Oh. And I'm very tired of being called a racist. Should you be tempted to do so, I challenge you to follow me around at work and to visit with my family. This is simply unacceptable for our representatives to behave in such a contemptible manner to create a dishonest smokescreen for their Machiavellian behavior.
I hope you have not already become accustomed to Washington. Because if you ever become so, I will work tirelessly to return you to the real world of everyday Americans.
In closing, I note that you have, I hope not disingenuously, been attempting to apply George Washington's rules of civility to your recent local meetings. One rule that an outside observer such as myself suspects you may find difficult to follow (in Washington's own city!) is: "A Man ought not to value himself of his Achievements, or rare Qualities of wit; much less of his riches Virtue or Kindred." Perhaps you have already voted for Congress to buy more private jets? That is a great irony of our time, isn't it?
And since we're mutually admiring Washington, I might also suggest paying close attention to his farewell address. In particular, his warnings about the dangers of party allegiance and influence of foreigners over loyalty to the people of one's country. ( http://tinyurl.com/washfarewell ) In particular, he warned against the alternate domination of one party faction over another leading to the "ruins of Public Liberty".
That I believe is what we are witnessing today. Please don't be a part of it.
And despite some of my rather forthright words, you have an open invitation to my home to discuss these and any other matters you desire over a very civil dinner. I can always be contacted at bgronlund at gmail dot com.
I suspect that you have somehow managed to convince yourself that people with my set of beliefs and background don't exist. I can assure you we do. We are not hicks and dimwits. I meet more and more people who are realizing that they need to become involved to stop our power-mad, reality disconnected Republican and Democrat parties from carrying out their unrealistic ideas.
And no, we will not allow you to "watch over" us. But we are watching your performance very closely.
And I'm going to be fascinated to see whether I get any indication that your staff recognizes that this letter may not be quite like many others expressing similar opinions that you ignore.
Sincerely,
Bob Gronlund
Fort Collins, CO
http://nocosurroundsthem.blogspot.com
That's how you'll find me Saturday the 22nd at noon at College and Mulberry in Fort Collins.
Be there or be a socialist.
Oh. And the sign I like best -- other than mine of course -- wins a quick $50 from me.
Just so you remember that capitalism pays.
Which almost everyone seems to have forgotten despite all the evidence that surrounds them.
Sigh.
UPDATE: The winner was a very nice, freedom-loving lady carrying the sign: 'This "Wise Latina" says no to Obamacare'. I would have taken her picture but I don't trust our "betters" not to find and harass her. I'm pretty livid right now about the lefty-loon abuse of Kenneth Gladney and the lady who challenged Arlen Specter for instance. The "people" doing this are truly contemptible. Somehow, protest seems to not be patriotic when it's on the other foot.
You need to advance directly over to Ray's to watch -- well really listen -- to this one. A smile of "they wouldn't listen to me now would they?" will be painted on your face for a good long time I suspect.
Read More......Folks it doesn’t get any clearer than that. Mr. Massa isn’t there to “represent” anyone. He’s made it clear that his agenda and his party’s agenda take precedence over anything his constituency wants.Kind of puts George Washington's warnings about the evils of political party (and foreign influence!) from his farewell address in a whole new light, doesn't it?
So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest.Imagine my surprise. Read More......
If you are wondering about the press…..Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds.
We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho. Speaking of the local media…they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn’t want anyone to have to think off the top of their head.
It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes, the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors…EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!!
I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America, more like the USSR!! I was physically nauseous. Joe and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices. If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington DC. Scary!!”
I'm going to beat the Gonz to this one for once. It'll warm his heart. As it does mine.
Read More......Instapundit nails the idiocy that pervades Obama's health "care" obfuscations to the wall using the context of the most recent Robert Reich column's unwitting admission of incompetence:
... Mainly because there’s still no healthcare plan. All we have are some initial markups from several congressional committees, which differ from one another in significant ways. The White House’s is waiting to see what emerges from the House and Senate before insisting on what it wants, maybe in conference committee.But that’s the problem: It’s always easier to stir up fear and anger against something that’s amorphous than to stir up enthusiasm for it.
A concise jewel of evisceration, no? RTWT.Hmm. So it’s like this:
Obama: I’m going to turn healthcare upside down. Not sure how.
People: I don’t think I’ll like this.
Obama: Haters!
Remember how Bush was supposed to be the idiot who went into Iraq without a plan, while Obama was supposed to be the cool methodical one? But Reich is admitting that despite all the Administration hoopla, there’s still no plan. Or, possibly, that the White House has a plan, but won’t tell us what it is. And yet the people who don’t want to see a bill — some bill, doing who-knows-what — rammed through in the dead of night are somehow the ones who are ignorant and being manipulated. Right.
RULE 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. ...Just in case you were surprised about what was happening to Sarah Palin.
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
A stirring call to action by Bill Whittle. If you've never heard of Bill Whittle you'll be wondering why he's not in congress too.
Read More......I've finally figured out just the ticket.
First, we need somebody at the top of the ticket who's not only heard of Thomas Jefferson but can actually quote him with knowledgeable enthusiasm:
This is a long excerpt of an interview that Popular Mechanics has up with Dean Kamen (H/T Glenn). I strongly recommend that you just click over and RTWT but this is important enough that I'm putting up the conclusion excerpt without hiding it behind a "Read More" jump so you have no excuses.
If you're a free market advocate, you know what Dean's saying in your bones but you maybe haven't heard anyone pull it together into this kind of a concise and devastating argument with market sizes, impacts and comparisons.
And, BTW, Kamen is far from a right wing ideologue. Along with his long list of medical inventions, he's also the inventor of the Segue scooter, which is almost a liberal religious shibboleth! He doesn't flesh this out in Hayekian free market terms because that's not his educational background but you can see there's no fundamental contradiction with his argument and free markets at all. In fact, he's one of the world's pre-eminent medical entrepreneurs. (And ironically, he's one of the founders of the First Lego League robotics competition for elementary and junior high students which I am involved in and find to be heavily staffed with liberal global warming alarmist parents, etc.)
Anyway, here it is:
Kamen: We spent on all pharmaceuticals in the United States last year $260 billion. That means all those vaccinations to prevent diseases, all those pills to treat diseases, all those pills to cure them so we don't have to treat them anymore. We spent in all branches of all our pharmaceutical suppliers, $260 billion.Note his perhaps unconscious reference to the liberal healthcare alarmism in similar terms to free market advocate's notice of how the AGW advocates use alarmism. Beautiful. Just beautiful.
That's certainly way up from what it was in the early days of the world, but we also spent way more money on computers and other things that didn't exist back then, either, and we don't claim we have a computer crisis. We spent more money on our iPhones last year than we did ten years ago cause there were no iPhones. But let me compare $260 billion to other things. How much did we spend in the United States last year on tobacco? $88 billion. That's a significant piece of 260. It's the reason we spent some of that 260. How much did we spend last year on alcohol? The government doesn't subsidize that, you don't have a right to it, it's discretionary spending and if you were really in trouble you would probably spend a little less on alcohol. We spent $90 billion.
Last year what did we spend in the United States on soft drinks? $121 billion. Nearly half of what we spend on all of our pharmaceuticals, on soft drinks. I'm not against soft drinks—I think you ought to buy all the soft drinks you want.
Last year what did we spend supporting professional sports? $409 billion.
Now if somebody in this country wants to explain to me that we ought to be spending about twice as much supporting sports as on all of our pharmaceuticals, then stop spending. You don't like that drug? You don't want to cure this disease? Don't buy it. But don't make villains out of people so that we can turn what is a real social responsibility issue into a political debate.
PM: Yet health-care costs do keep rising. Is there a point at which we simply can't afford the most advanced treatments?
Kamen: Diabetes alone, if you include all of the long-term, insidious consequences of a lifetime of diabetes, is responsible for about 30 percent of the federal reimbursement for healthcare. Taking care of the diabetic every day is a small piece of it. But what if tomorrow we could wipe out diabetes, suddenly everybody takes a pill and it cures the people that have it, and it inoculates the other people so they'll never have it? Forgetting what a great life that would give people and their families, you take care of 30 percent of what now we project as this insurmountable problem of healthcare, which they project is going to kill us.
Well, it would kill us if we look at the 30-year actuarial data based on our 19th century confidence in technology. But I'm sure in 1920 if you asked actuaries to say what percentage of our GDP are we going to spend taking care of people with polio, they'd say: "They get polio, it goes to their lungs, they sit in iron lung machines, they could live a whole lifetime with three people watching over them. We can't support them all."
But what did it cost to deal with everybody with polio? Oh, $2 apiece. We gave them the Salk vaccine. But in the 1920s Salk wasn't around yet.
PM: In other words, R&D spending now may save money later?
Kamen: If you project forward these horrific costs of treating everybody and you want to assume we are not going to respond to that by making the therapies better, simpler and cheaper and in some cases completely wiping out the [diseases], well you know what? We might actually get to that situation—if we stop investing in technology, if we stop believing that the future ought to be better than the past.
If we want to sit here and keep assuming we should be fighting, and that we should be striving to spend less of our intellectual power and our money on great achievements to come in healthcare—that we should be fighting to make it a smaller piece of our economy—I want to know what you want to make a bigger piece of our economy. What do you want to see the future look like?
I think this debate shows a fundamental lack of vision, a lack of confidence, a lack of understanding of what's possible. And it's being fueled and fed by vested interests of people that have something to gain by making the general public, frankly, afraid of all sorts of things.
Any more questions? Read More......Obama (D-IL): “I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There’s going to be potentially some transition process” (3/24/07, at SEIU “Universal Health Care Forum”); “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care system” (2003 at AFL-CIO event)
Frank (D-MA): “I think if we get a good public option, it could lead to single-payer; that’s the best way to reach single-payer” (7/27/09)
Schakowsky (D-IL): “And next to me was a guy from the insurance company, who then argued against the public health insurance option, saying ‘it wouldn’t let private insurance compete’ — that ‘a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single-payer.’ He was right! The man was right!” (4/18/09)
Self Defense in Washington D.C.:
This month, I felt compelled to talk in my gun club news letter about an aspect of gun ownership that many folks probably don’t think about or even want to talk about too much: Defensive gun ownership rights – specifically, the concept of being able to own or even carry a concealed handgun for self defense. So I thought I would re-print that article here as well.
Let me explain: Once again I find myself in Washington D.C. on business. When I have some down time, my mind wanders and I find myself comparing the culture in this part of the country to the culture we enjoy in Colorado. While here, I was often asked by friends and colleagues what I did for fun the evening before. My response was usually along the lines of walking the National Mall and looking at monuments – I love seeing our national monuments, and take the time to visit them every time I am here.
The response:
“You didn’t walk the National Mall at NIGHT, did you?!”
Well – no, but why, I am thinking, would they ask such a thing?
"Because it just isn’t safe!” was always the answer. Well – I knew that, thus my decision for not doing it.
Well – let’s talk about that for a moment. It’s not SAFE to walk the National Mall in Washington D.C.! And this sentiment in a city where the Police Chief, City Council, and Mayor have all made it clear that they do not like the idea of citizens being armed. But yet the Supreme Court has ruled (in the case of D.C. versus Warren and others) that the police do not have an obligation to protect individual citizens. My perception of how dangerous this city is can always be further perpetuated by the events of many late afternoons, when I am walking around the city, and there are police sirens whaling every so often, followed by something looking like a bomb disposal vehicle, followed by fire engines. “What the heck is going on here?” I have often thought. Why isn’t this place safe? What makes a place like this to be widely considered dangerous to walk around at night, but yet those charged with protecting it would regard armed citizens as a bad thing?
In talking with a few of the locals, I most assuredly have my impressions confirmed that Washington D.C. is just widely regarded as having a high rate of violent crime. Now this is not something new – I know that many of you have heard this all before. But what occurs to me every time I come here is that there is a very simple explanation: Citizens are not allowed to have guns for self defense, either in the open, concealed, or just locked in the trunk of their cars. Until last year, handguns where completely outlawed. But even though the Supreme Court has ruled the bearing of arms to be a right that these citizens should enjoy, the city leadership has been throwing up roadblock after roadblock towards allowing these people to arm themselves and put the violent criminals on notice that they want to defend themselves.
Washington D.C. is not unique in this. Cities like Chicago, New York, and some other large metropolitan areas also have very restrictive gun laws, and citizens are deprived of the right to carry concealed weapons or in many cases even own them. What do they also have in common? Very high rates of violent crime! The economy is certainly having an effect on the increase in violent crimes every where¸ but when criminals know that their victims cannot fight back, they are further enabled and feel emboldened to commit these crimes. And in this city in particular, it is even illegal to carry knives and pepper spray. So basically, everyone except the criminals, is rendered completely defenseless.
What does this mean to us as a gun club? We’re all voters! With some very important elections coming up in 2010 and 2012, we need to start NOW in looking for state candidates who will help protect our rights to bear arms, to ensure that Colorado will continue to enjoy the rights we have now with no further erosion of these rights, and national candidates who will take this message to Washington D.C. The current administration is moving at a furious pace to change our country – I am wondering how long it will be before our “privileges” of concealed carry disappear, and our RIGHT to keep and bear arms is taken away for good. Get involved, get the word out, and wake your fellow Americans up.
OK kiddoes. Here's an update on the protests that don't exist in Iran.
I was inspired by the protestor comment that "they don't even know what to do". That's the mode the Washington Fascists have us in right now as Glenn has been doing a good job of pointing out.
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