Hey Wall Street Journal, we Tea Party rubes can use “Lord of the Rings“, too! And while I was among the first, Anna’s Clue Tank did it best:
Hat-Tip: Anna's Clue Tank
I have been busy with profit-center activities, so opining on the current debt ceiling situation has not been possible. I must admit, I have been torn — until I considered how the elite, establishment pundits have been targeting us citizen activists in articles and statements such as this (and NOT the spending-crazed Democrat trolls in the corridors of Mordor D.C.).
Gamling: .. We cannot defeat the armies of Mordor.
Theoden: No. We cannot. But we will meet them in battle nonetheless.
I asked the SLOBs for their opinions on the Boehner Bill. There is no consensus, but here is the meat of the matter on each side:
B-daddy (pro-Boehner Bill): John Boehner’s plan to cut the deficit by $915 billion while raising the debt ceiling is going to underwhelm many tea party types. But I like it a lot. Here’s why; Obama won’t dare veto it, because that would be irresponsible, and more importantly, he would appear irresponsible. However, it will keep the issue alive into 2012 and continue to make the growing debt a campaign issue. As I have said before, the public needs to make a decision on our fiscal direction through elections.
On the other hand, Randian Objectivist and Shrine friend Shane Atwell doesn’t quite see it the same way:
A committee of 12 elected by those 4 jokers would be even worse than those 4. Six committed leftists and 6 compromising ‘RINOs’. Yuck.
Cuts over 10 years? Not going to happen. Cuts in the first year are the only thing that does. Tens of billions don’t do anything.
Required to ‘vote’ on a balanced budget..instead of just having one right now by keeping the debt ceiling?
He in fact IS increasing the ceiling more than spending, since the increase in ceiling is an immediate $900b but the cuts are pie in the sky and distributed over the next 10 years.
Lastly, there’s no point in proving we can govern by abandoning our principles and governing just how the GOP would have done before the tea party. None of the problems get fixed and we’re still careening towards disaster, a disaster that would then be blamed on us because we had our chance and blew it.
I see both sides, and many of the opiners who I respect side with B-Daddy. However, after much thought, I have come to this conclusion:
Aragorn: Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!
Why? I have considered all the information including this facet of legislative process:
We’ve Been Played for Saps, Folks: Boehner Bill Will Become Reid Bill (By Rush Limbaugh)
They don’t want to head off passage of the Boehner bill. They want the Boehner bill to pass in the house. There’s a trap essentially that’s being set, and I noticed that there’s an AP story, and way down at the AP story: “In fact, Boehner’s plan has enough in common with Reid’s — including the establishment of a special congressional panel to recommend additional spending cuts this fall — that Reid hinted a compromise could be easy to snap together,” between his nonexistent bill and the Boehner bill. What does that mean? What it means is that over in the Senate Reid really doesn’t have a bill. He’s got an idea, but he doesn’t have a bill. And what he’s put forth as an idea hasn’t gotten all that much support. But here comes, let’s say the House, and Boehner doesn’t have the votes in the House yet according to Politico. And this is key. That was as of 9:30 this morning and they’re going to be working the Republican caucus all day long before the vote tonight. But, as of now, Boehner doesn’t have the votes for his bill. But let’s assume he gets the votes. The Boehner bill then goes to the Senate where it’s dead on arrival. There are 58 senators that are going to vote against it, by design. However, they’ve got a bill over there now.
So Dingy Harry can take the Boehner bill and tweak it and rewrite it, make additions to it, take some things out of it, play with it however he wants, and get enough votes from Democrats since it becomes the Reid bill, and then it gets sent back to Boehner in the House looking nothing like his bill, but the rationale for passing the Boehner bill in the House is we’ve got to do this, the time is up, we’re not going to get blamed. So if Reid monkeys around with the bill that he gets from Boehner, and it passes in the Senate, with whatever changes that are not favorable to us, of course, they throw it back in Boehner’s lap, and then the pressure is going to be back on Boehner. Okay, do you sign the Reid bill? Do you pass it? Do you get your guys to vote for it and send it to Obama, basically a Democrat bill. That is what a lot of people — and I sign on to the theory, too — this is one of the traps that’s being set. The Boehner bill is essentially being used to be a foundation for a nonexistent as of yet Reid bill. And thereby the Boehner bill becomes the Reid bill, therefore Democrat bill all in the absence of an Obama plan. No Obama plan at all in this.
I also think it is high time that someone in Washington DC decided to lead, with the interests of the American people in mind — and not focus on the outcome of the election cycle. Doing the right thing is not always easy, or appreciated, but I have to think that the proper choice will be rewarded by grateful Americans in the form of votes and donations.
And even though the vote has been tabled, the upset around the nation is palpable. Horemheb and I have been in heated discussions, as he think this will mark the demise of the Tea Party. I must disagree!
Sam: … That’s just morbid thinking, that is.
Tea party activists have been so critical to the success of so many grassroots efforts and operations on state and local levels, that no matter what happens in the nation’s capitol, we will still have an important role. Let me give you a few examples:
* A caller to LaDona Harvey nailed a false ad that just played on her show, probably bought for by public employee unions, which attempted scare people into NOT signing petitions. Petitioning is one of the few ways Californians have to really make their voices heard locally and in Sacramento. Such engaged citizens will ensure such tactics do not work any longer. I will be following this story.
* The newly formed black led South Central L.A. Tea Party held a major rally to expose the lies of the NAACP this past Sunday (7/24). Over 200 people attended, calling out the NAACP for their racism and hypocrisy — and highlighting the Tea Party message of less government and more individual responsibility.
South LA Tea Party
* This gem from Gateway Pundit: Band of Military Mothers Rescues John Bolton From Code Pink Attack (Video): Bev Perlson, founder of Band of Mothers, and Debbie Lee, a Gold Star mother, surrounded Ambassador Bolton with military support signs and protected him from the Code Pink attack. Then they got Code Pink kicked off the corner.
Sweet!
In conclusion:
Gandalf: Hold them back! Do not give in to fear! Stand to your posts! FIGHT!
Or, to accurately quote FDR: We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Obama’s thoughts?
One DEBT to rule them all, One DEBT to chide them,
One DEBT to bring them all and in the red-ink bind them
Bonus: I just caught this snap-shot of John McCain -
Maybe McCain hasn’t read or watched LOTR. Or maybe it was a subconscious impulse that made him side with Sauron and Mordor, not realizing that it was the Hobbits who were key to freeing Middle Earth from the totalitarian clutches of Sauron, his henchmen and his weasely, pragmatic supporters (e.g. Worm Tongue and Saruman). It was two tireless, dedicated hobbits who threw the one ring into the volcano. So it is just a handful of tea party congressmen that are trying to save us all. Rand Paul, DeMint, Mike Lee.
What is the one ring? I think its the morality of altruism, the idea that everyone owes his life to everyone else. Once we discard that ring and embrace the Declaration’s righteous pursuit of each of our own’s happiness, we will once again be free.
Well Harry Reid and the Senate took another bullet for Obama. Along with a few Republicans. The House passed bill was defeated. McConnell and McCain did not help things.
Mutnodjmet,
I don’t see any way out of the scenario that Rush laid out. The House has to pass something, and they did. The Senate was not going to accept it, that’s a given. So some sort of compromise was always going to be required. The question is whether or not 40+ Republicans in the Senate can hold together and prevent a vote unless a compromise that actually slows the growth of government is passed. This is a Republic with divided government, this gridlock has protected us from egregious excess in the past. We should not complain when it slows our plans to cut spending.
B-Daddy: I will believe that a compromise agreement will be achieved only when I see it. I believe that NO deal will be made until AFTER the deadline passes and the gov’t is shut-down for a few days — so that the entire blame can be laid at the feet of the Tea Party. This serves Obama, the Senate Democrats facing election, and establishment Republicans. I will hope that you hold the correct view, but I fear what I see coming our way.