Two independently wealthy 9-year-olds express their frustration with the Bush Administration’s bail-out of the banking industry Obama Administration’s stimulus bill during The Town Talk-endorsed Lafayette Tea Party. (Photo: The Daily Advertiser).
A sampling of this week’s Our View editorials in The Town Talk:
Consider what is promised in “A New Era of Responsibility,” the president’s misguided spending plan for 2010 and a strategy that will mortgage much of what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Uh-huh. And they’d have us believe the entire plan is “misguided” because, well, it calls for new things (I suppose they believe the old way of doing business and running the government was working just fine, thank you).
This “New Era” calls for new programs, a new path, new jobs, a new foundation, new infrastructure, new energy technologies, new training, new reforms, a new generation, new medical breakthroughs, new discoveries (for those of us who have grown tired of making “old” discoveries), new industries, new levels, a new sense of responsibility, a new home, a new car, a new way of doing business, new industry sectors, new entitlement, new credits and new federal commitments.
By the way, how do you “mortgage” what someone has “in mind”? And what, exactly, is it about Obama’s budget that’s antithetical to the founding fathers? That’s a pretty bold claim.
Which brings me to their editorial the following day, March 5th:
Reasonable Americans, transfixed by the crushing debt of the Obama administration’s “New Era of Responsibility,” have not had time to ask what else is new.
The short answer to that question is this: New Columbia.
You’ve not heard of New Columbia unless you a) know the U.S. Constitution and understand why the Founding Fathers did what they did at the beginning, or b) know the U.S. Constitution and are determined to violate it.
New Columbia would be the new name of Washington, D.C., if the District of Columbia were to become a state.
You see, the fabric of our democracy would be completely undermined if we allowed DC to have actual (and not just ceremonial) representation in Congress.
Why?
It really has nothing to do with this lame Constitutional argument. The paper didn’t seem to care much about the Constitution when it came to things like the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, or the expansion of executive powers. And incidentally, they’ve exhibited some cognitive dissonance when it comes to out-of-control government spending; Obama inherited $4 trillion in debt after eight years of a Republican administration, yet the paper piles on him as some sort of stereotypical tax and spend liberal. And that’s what the DC argument is really about– not the Constitution, but about party politics.
This would include the Democrats who today control Congress and who, once again, are trying to grant Washington, D.C., the right to vote in Congress. They have the votes push the agenda and a president who says he will sign the legislation.
They’ve had to retreat for the moment, because of the opposition’s legislative maneuvering, but that is only temporary. They won’t pass up the chance to exploit the reality of the moment, which is this:
Reasonable Americans may be too distracted by the oppressive costs of the “New Era of Responsibility” to notice this renewed threat to their Constitution.
D.C. is majority-Democratic, which means that if they had a vote in Congress, well, it’d be a Democratic vote. And we can’t have that!
The comment section seemed to know what was going on:
It’s another ploy to further cement the Democrats grip on power. If DC gets the equivalence of statehood that would almost assuredly mean one more Democrat in the House and two more Democrats in the Senate. If the Supreme Court upheld the action, how long do you think it would be before Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, or American Samoa would demand equal treatment?
I suppose, by that logic, this person believes that we should rescind statehood for everything but the original thirteen colonies.
In actuality, D.C. isn’t asking for two Senators; they’re asking that the one “Congresswoman” currently representing D.C. have her vote counted. Remember the whole taxation without representation thing?
Either way, it should come as no surprise that today, the paper implores us to participate in a “tea party” in Lafayette. Now as fun as it would be to hang out with a group of white libertarians, out-of-work computer programmers, and Sarah Palin fans, I think I’ll pass. Still, The Town Talk couldn’t pass up an opportunity to plug their favorite political action committees. The headline today, “Our View: Tea Party A Reason to Go to Lafayette.” Quoting:
They’re having a tea party today in Lafayette for everyone who thinks the nation is headed in the wrong economic direction under President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress. The event from 1 to 3 p.m. should draw a crowd to Veterans Park. Organizers of the Tea Party and Anti-Pork Protest are the fiscally conservative Louisiana Resistance (www.resist.net) and the Louisiana chapter of Team Sarah, fans of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (www.teamsarah.org). The event is affiliated with the New American Tea Party’s national effort to cut spending. For details on today’s party, call (337) 258-8852.
Actually, Clown Talk, it’s Resistnet.com, not to be confused with resist.com, which is the homepage of the White Aryan Resistance. Close enough, I guess.
Also, I love it how Sarah Palin has fans and not supporters. It reminds me of that ad McCain ran against Obama… you know, the one that compares Obama to a celebrity and his supporters to throngs of cheering, star-gazing fans.
Most of the time, the paper and I agree with each other on local issues (something tells me that the national “Our Views” are written by a different writer), but whenever they venture out of the State, they lose their bearings.
This is what those tea parties are like:
And, just in time, here’s what The Town Talk wanted all of us to attend today in Lafayette:
Notice the incredible diversity: White people wearing sunglasses and white people not wearing sunglasses. (Note: Some of these people CLEARLY do not have their hands on their hearts).
Also featuring homemade, barely legible signs predicting the total demise and destruction of America.
Red: “Obama is funding sheep and leading Americans to the slaugter!”
White: “Pelosi: The Wicked Witch of the Liberal West. Go Home Pelosi.” (Note: Nancy Pelosi did not attend the Lafayette Tea Party rally).
CenLamar 
I’m not going to argue over political ideology with you…as we would most likely disagree. I do have a problem though with parents who use (slaughter) their kids (sheep) to promote their own agendas. Most of these kids don’t appear to be old enough to have formulated their own ideas about politics and if so, probably wouldn’t have to the balls to express those ideas…especially if they differed from their parents. But heh…it’s a free country, so if people want to show their ass in public, whether in Lafayette, Chicago, or Washington DC, they have the right to do so.
Agreed.
Louisiana consistently receives more in federal disbursements than it pays in federal income tax. The last time Louisiana paid more than it got back was the early 1980s.
As such, each and every Lafayette Tea Party person is freeloading off other states, like New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and other “Socialist” states (usually blues ones), which consistently pay more than they receive.
If Louisiana was forced to pick itself up by its collective bootstraps (instead of taking income redistribution from “Taxachusetts”) its road infrastructure would collapse. So these folks are hypocrites.