Visual Proof of Obama's Failure as President

With the latest monthly unemployment numbers coming out this Friday, I decided to take a look at what we've seen so far.  It struck me that most of the quoted numbers were actually percentages, with the actual number of people not working obscured by statistics.   So I decided to take a look at what would happen if I took the BLS numbers and then subtracted the number of people employed from the number of people in the populations that are 16 and over.  This gives you the number of people who are currently not working, though are old enough to.  Take a look at what has happened in Obama's first term so far:

As you can see, we've hit an all time high with over 100 million people not working, a number that has increased by 9 million since the day Obama took office with no letup in sight.

Now let's take a look at what happened in the first term of Ronald Reagan, a truly great American President:

Notice how different the trend is.  Unlike Obama's trend which hit another all-time high in April, Reagan's peaked in March of 1983 and relentlessly fell from then on.  It actually kept falling through his second term so that we had no increase in the number of people not working despite having 16 million more people 16 and over!

And all this happened in an economic environment that one could easily argue was less friendly than today.  Remember that monetary policy was incredibly tight back then.  Right when Reagan took office, Paul Volcker increased the Fed Funds rate by 2% to a whopping 20%!  That is a far cry from today's zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) which has been in effect since December of 2008, right before Obama took office.  From day one, Reagan was dealing with the tightest monetary policy in US history while Obama was dealing with the loosest, and yet Reagan was still able to turn gruel into gravy.

Also, if you look at the timing of the recessions each had to deal with, Reagan was disadvantaged there as well.  Reagan's recession only ended in November 1982, almost halfway through his first term, giving him little time to show improvement in unemployment as that often lags economic growth.  Obama's recession, on the other hand, ended in June 2009, 5 months after he took office, giving him quite a long time to improve the employment situation.  And yet he has failed miserably.

Obama needs to go to the dustbin of history so America can start growing again.  His un-American policies that rely on big government, crony capitalism and corruption are simply not working.

Cross posted from libertarian neocon's blog.

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Europe is FUBAR

It's no surprise that Europe is doing badly, but I don't think most people really understand how badly Europe, especially the western and southern portions, are doing.  Take the industrial production statistics that came out yesterday which showed that Europe as a whole contracted by 0.4% on a monthly basis and fell 1.9% compared to last year. The numbers are bad, signifying a recession, but aren't necessarily horrible.  Two things need to be noted.  First, growth in eastern europe is buoying these numbers so that weakness in the larger countries is being masked.  Second, it's very important to take note where the absolute industrial production level is compared to years past.  Incremental declines of 0.2% or 0.1% really add up.  Take a look at this chart that I compiled of industrial production levels of select countries compared to 2005 and also what year those countries first hit this level (to give a sense of how far an economy has regressed).  It's really not pretty:

As you can see, Greece's industrial production is almost 30% lower than it was in 2005, the same level it was at in 1978 (Newt Gingrich was not even in Congress then and Pink Floyd's The Wall hadn't been released yet)!  That is over 30+ years of progress wiped out.  Spain is doing better but you can't really say it is doing "well" as industrial production there is 21% lower than 2005, the same level as 1989.  Go down the list, just about all the major western European economies are performing badly right now, except for Germany.  And just for a reference, back at the height of the recession in the US, our industrial production was just 11.9% lower than 2005. So right now the UK, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Greece are all doing worse than we were when it looked like to many in the US as if the sky was falling.

And I just don't see how things are going to get better anytime soon.  To cure the debt crisis, the European authorities have been throwing even more debt at is, making the eventual fall even worse.  Also, "austerity" has meant heavy tax increases, putting economies deeper into recession (something that could happen in the US as well, thanks to the massive scheduled tax increases that are coming in several months).  Take a look at this list of measures approved in Greece last year:

• Taxes will increase by 2.32bn euros this year, with additional taxes of 3.38bn euros in 2012, 152m euros in 2013 and 699m euros in 2014.
• A solidarity levy of between 1% and 5% of income will be levied on households to raise 1.38bn euros.
• The tax-free threshold for income tax will be lowered from 12,000 to 8,000 euros.
• There will be higher property taxes
• VAT rates are to rise: the 19% rate will increase to 23%, 11% becomes 13%, and 5.5% will increase to 6.5%.
• The VAT rate for restaurants and bars will rise to 23% from 13%.
• Luxury levies will be introduced on yachts, pools and cars.
• Some tax exemptions will be scrapped
• Excise taxes on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol will rise by one third.
• Special levies on profitable firms, high-value properties and people with high incomes will be introduced.

Seems like a great way to crash an economy, which is exactly what happened. It's no wonder that extremist parties did so well in the recent Greek elections.  The second largest party in parliament is now SYRIZA (gained almost 17% of the vote), which is a coalition of radical left wing parties (including maoist, trotskyite and traditional communist & socialist parties) with such names as Anticapitalist Political Group, International Workers' Left, Communist Organization of Greece and Renewing Communist Ecological Left.  And this wasn't the only communist game in town either, the official Communist Party of Greece gained another 8.5% of the vote.  There is even a Greek neo-nazi party called Golden Dawn which gained 7% of the vote.  It comes complete with a nazi salute and even a Greek version of the swastika.  If you add it all up, these three crazy authoritarian parties gained a whopping 32.2% of the vote (this number could go up soon as new elections are necessary after no coalition government could be agreed to by the various parties).  And this insanity is not limited to Greece either (thought he Greek parties seem to be especially extreme).  In France, Presidential candidates representing fascists, communists and radical leftists got 30.2% of the vote in the first round of voting.  As a reference, back in Weimar Germany, in the 1930 election, the Nazis and Communists gained 31.4% of the vote between them.    Just saying.

Cross posted from libertarian neocon's blog.

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Santorum’s (Profane) Fat Bottomed Girl

***************WARNING GRAPHIC LANGUAGE*************** After the initial background, we get into tweets and blogs of a Santorum supporter that are not for children under 18 or adults with delicate sensitivities.  (You know that’s not me.)
PolitiJim followers are aware of the recent demand for a retraction  from Dallas based Alice Linahan and her “new media consulting” Voicesempower.  It’s bad enough she is now trying to make money off of the Tea Party movement.  Alice also claims to be a “newspaper owner,” and yet seems unfamiliar with LIBEL LAWS or a little known journalistic practice called “honesty in sourcing.”  Others call it integrity. 

Her entire site is a propaganda tool for Santorum but she tries to insinuate that Gingrich is trying “influence peddle” within the Tea Parties.  Uhhhmmm.  If by “influence peddle” you mean for Newt to pay for his own ads to get people to join the Tea Party before it started (right), appear with Sean Hannity at the FIRST Tea Party event on 4/15/2009, defend it to the mainstream media in countless interviews, then….yeah.  Sure. (Shouldn’t newspaper owners have a better vocabulary?) 
A couple of things are interesting about this.  She writes against Gingrich co-opting the Tea Party, but she hosted Rick Santorum in Keller (Dallas, TX), has Rick Santorum campaign advertisements all over her website and has ONLY Rick Santorum articles on her website.  (Unless you include Herman Cain from days past).  Unlike PolitiJim, there is ZERO BALANCE and is only pushing a single candidate.
Pardon me, ma’am.  Wasn’t the Tea Party supposed to stay on principle and clear of personality? 
Secondly, I am sure Tea Partiers in need of media help will race to the person who overlooks that HER candidate was SLAMMING the Tea Party, and supporting the Mitch McConnell RINO over Tea Party Rand Paul.  In fact Santorum can’t be found on record ANYWHERE battling ObamaCare, Tarp, or support Palin against attacks by Obama press except a couple of odd PAID appearances on FOX.  Pennsylvania Tea Partiers say,

“Now to show up and act like he was the original tea party candidate is absurd,” said High, the former Eichelberger aide. “But he’s phony. He’ll go to extreme lengths to be perceived as the most conservative guy in the room, but when it’s time to cut a deal to advance his political career, he’ll do it in a heartbeat.”

Among many false arguments, Alice also complained about the PolitiJim acronym used to describe Santorum Lovers Unwilling To Soberly Syllogize and recently doubled down on Tea Party leader (and patriot) Katrina Pierson actually accusing her of being FOR Agenda 21 when she was a key leader against it.  Pierson also happens to be a Gingrich supporter and Linahan is now rallying others to OUT HER from the movement by calling her a “Tea Party Leader In Name Only.”
Why?  Because she retweeted a video from a liberal group attacking Santorum and using the “F-word.”  In her original article she fantasizes that PolitiJim is a “segregate” (we are assuming she meant surrogate) as part of the Gingrich campaign and “as a mom” is appalled by the “SLUTSS” term.  (I know she’s reading PolitiJim because she corrected her article from an earlier misspelling as SLUTTS.)
I’ve got to tell you.  Something sounds fishy with this whole thing.  Most of the Santorum supporters I know may be totally blind to Rick’s faults and dislike Gingrich, but they are generally good Christians who really do CARE about the Tea Party movement.  This women is simply mad because we are pointing out Santorum character flaws and supporting Gingrich.  Hardly a cause to get worked up about considering Romney is Santorum’s real threat right now.  What gives?
One quick example of her journalistic malpractice comes from even tiny portrayals of her qualifications using the testimonial of a Mr. Wayne Holt of “The Holt Agency” in Dallas on her “portfolio” page.  He is even listed as an “Owner/Agent,” making us think this might be some kind of advertising agency/professional representation firm that is saavy in this media business she is pursuing.  Hardly.  Turns out, Mr. Holt’s “agency” is a:

Multilines Agency for all property/casualty insurance products including farm,ranch,equestrian properties, trainer liability, club and event liability,equine liability,equine mortality,outfitters and guide,home,auto,commercial,as well as financial products including mutual funds,life insurance,disability,business overhead protection,estate planning,long term care, annuities and securities.

He’s a horse breeder, which of course is EXACTLY who Tea Party patriots would rely on to know that Ms. Linahan is qualified to take their hard earned dollars and turn it into…..a political movement?  Actually, he had NOTHING TO DO WITH Voices Empower according to Alice’s LINKEDIN profile.  Instead it says:

So let me get this right. Alice started a newspaper two years ago and Voices Empower overlapped a year of that and she is suddenly an expert in media charging money for Tea Party activities because a horse owner used her in in her 2 year career Real Estate?  OK. Got it.
In a day of investigation with my Texas Tea Party network, we found just kind of landed on the scene a year ago, about the time the battle to unseat RINO Joe Strauss began.   Suddenly she’s a national tea party leader?  Hmmmm.
ON WITH THE FUN STUFF.
So, I was even more intrigued, when out of the blue PolitiJim got THIS comment posted and then an ensuing barrage of the same on Twitter:

Tiffany says:
March 22, 2012 4:25 PM
This blog post is severely flawed. NOBODY called you a Newt Surrogate. Nobody accused YOU of being affiliated with the Gingrich campaign. They were saying that the Gingrich campaign found your rants very useful. Now, the fact that you "clearly disavow" the true meaning of the word "slut" is all good and fine, but I read these blogs, your whole Slutss series, as a matter of fact. I read your whole explanation behind the term, but, still, why use the word even as an acronym if you aren't just trying to be insulting and completely disrespectful of a certain population of conservatives? Maybe you used it for esoteric purposes, because I sure didn't see the point, except as a way for you to bash female Santorum supporters. Maybe you just used it for shock value, which means, you sat and deliberated in front of your computer which words you could use that would necessitate the acronym SLUTSS, and yet it didn't once occur to you that you would still be disparaging people you were supposedly trying to reach with your message based on "facts"? Furthermore, I found a number of inconsistencies, things that you wrote that weren't quite "factual", as you claim, in those blogs, so don't think for one minute you can just climb on this high horse of truth, especially regarding somebody else's blog that was ABOUT Katrina Pierson, and NOT you.
And furthermore, NO ONE said who is or isn't the voice of the "Tea Party", as Tea Partiers know FULL WELL there IS no one voice for the Tea Party. This article that you are attempting to tear apart for whatever reason(mostly because it's Pro-Rick Santorum) is only maintaining that.

So “Tiffany” the commenter and “@MrsKlien54” on Twitter (the same person as you will find out) is suddenly also offended at the SLUTSS term although none of the actual issues about Rick Santorum are challenged.
A number of us on Twitter argued with her and she continued her “outrage” at the term.  I noted that I DID apologize for those who were offended in Part 3 and apologized again on Twitter.
It is worth noting that since the post there were some casual Tweets to PolitiJim expressing a discomfort with the SLUTSS term and certainly some unfollows, BUT NO ONE HAD REALLY sent more than a single DM or MT on it. No comments AT ALL. 
Then, not having been on Twitter all day – I was confronted with this barrage from the “sensitive” MrsKlein54 (read from the bottom up):

Perhaps the biggest red flag was the “why isn’t PolitiJim responding to my tweets?” tweet.  This seemed too out of character for most gentile Santorum supporters.  So, I wanted to see who this person was and looked at her bio which said:

A pro-life, Catholic, Santorum-supporter.  What are the odds that TWO DIFFERENT “Tiffany’s” would simultaneously attack me on PolitiJim.com and Twitter at the same time? 
So I reeled off answers to each of her tweets from her complete ignorance of the link BACKING UP the claim that Santorum supported individual mandates in 1994.  Responses from Santorum supporters are typical.  So she fit the mold with this reply:

I informed her of course that a political candidate like Rick Santorum could actually say BOTH things contradicting himself.  He has quite a history of doing EXACTLY that including saying anyone who funds ANY PART of Planned Parenthood is guilty of funding abortion, and then making an excuse of his vote for Title X as being for “women’s health needs.” 
In a bone-chilling parry, using Bill Buckley Jr.-like intellect she responded:

Just like liberal would, she didn’t address this and jumped to another accusation of me.  I was getting tired and my good Twitter friend @conservativeecho began to engage her ALSO trying to reason.  I got suspicious when I got this DM from him:

A bell went off and I went back to her original post on PolitiJim to look at her bio.  I clicked on the Blogger profile for “Tiffany,” and then the BLOG that was listed.  What did I see?
Since June of last year Tiffany has had a Blogger ID.  AND A BLOG!!! 
Well, this should be interesting.  Let’s click “Fat Bottomed Girl” and see what Santorum supporters blog….


In case you don’t want to zoom it says, WELCOME:

Yes, I am an asshole...

I am also a mother of a Little Bug, wife to my Hubby, student at University of Fictional Bird, and trying to not be fat.

And her first post listed from February 20th under the title MISTAKEN IDENTITY (love the irony, right?) starts:

Remember my uptight bitch teacher who I wanted to choke? The female one? Yeah, she's a he. And not just any he. I had pictured a forty-something, overweight, frizzy haired white woman and I got....well, um I got not that.

So my “offended” Santorum Tea Partier continues her piece in a flurry of prose that would make Edward R. Murrow (and her candidate( so proud:

I arrived to campus early to get an official University of Fictitious Bird nameplate, I soon discovered that the instructor was a man. A woman in the admin building, after telling me how fucking ridiculous it was that he made a fucking name tag a fucking requirement (exact verbiage), she said "I haven't heard good things about him. Good luck." I obviously thought she misspoke, so I said "Yeah, she isn't rubbing me the right way." She gave me a funny look and replied "No, she's a he." All I could say was "fuck". I had called him a ma'am in my earlier email. Super. I haven't even got to class and I already have pissed the man off. I think that's a record for me.

THIS is a Santorum supporter that identifies herself first as a Catholic, then  a Santorum supporter and finally “100% Prolife”?  There are lots of Christians and Catholics who cuss.  (I know because I was one of them before God helped me with that.)  But I don’t know of anyone whose FIRST IDENTITY is their faith in God who are this profane.
What about “MrsKlein54?”  It had to be the same person right?  I published this on Twitter IMMEDIATELY, and got this response:

So – I went BACK out to the blog and WHALA!  “Tiffany” left another comment on PolitiJim….WHERE SHE ADMITS IT WAS HER ON TWITTER!!!

Now why would a good wholesome Catholic Santorum supporter who is “offended” at the PolitiJim “SLUTSS” acronym have a profane blog complete with “B***tch” and “F**k”?






I wonder what we would find in @MrsKlein54’s Twitter timeline?  Here are some samples:

WAIT…, what?  Maybe this good Catholic girl didn’t know what that meant?

Hmmm.  She retweeted someone ELSE using the word slut too?

WHOA!!
Green Eyed Warrior merely TWEETED “Promiscuous roommate” and MrsKlein54 (aka Tiffany) SUGGESTS to use the word SLUT?
Worse than that, she DEFENDS THE USE of the “S” word and gets more crude than you can imagine. (GRAPHIC WARNING)
  _
It is far worse than it looks.  She uses:

• 14 Sluts (not including the PolitiJim SLUTSS reference)
• 12 Sh*t’s
• 5 “F” words
• 2 “A-holes”
• 1 G_dmn and many other crude terms
  
  …..in a single month

Here is a short scrapbook of George Carlin’s (almost) favorite 7 words:

View Full Album

This is the SAME “lady” who tweeted me (after her initial barrage):

I also found out that she attacked ANOTHER GINGRICH SUPPORTER harassing him in a similar way:


What is the explanation for this?
So do we have just a deranged individual Santorum supporter, or something more sinister.  (If you guessed the latter you win.)
It dawned on me that “Tiffany” seemed to know the article from Alice Voicesempower a little too well.  And it was quite strange that with my obvious Tea Party affiliation and even more Katrina Pierson’s, WHY ARE SANTORUM SUPPORTERS burning all bridges to attack other Tea Partiers?
I was told of a group last year that tried to seem like part of the tea party, shouting obnoxious things and attempting to incite violence.  There was also documented cases of Democrats hiring trolls as in the video below.

h/t GulagBound.com

As I was going through her timeline, I saw SOME OF MY CLOSEST TWITTER FRIENDS and many conservative icons like @DavidLimbaugh conversing with her.  NO ONE COULD READ HER BLOG and assume she is a conservative.
But with a Twitter profile indicating she lived in Colorado, all I could think is she is one of the millions who had applied for jobs through the Obama campaign or some of the ACORN/SEIU slush fund partners documented elsewhere.
Until I double-checked her location.  Seems she lied about that too.

Date and Time	IP Address	Browser	Region	City	Postal Code	ISP	Page Title
3/22/2012 21:26	70.123. 108.205	AppleWebKit	Texas	Flower Mound	75028	Road Runner	More Santorum Supporter Tea Party LIES ~ PolitiJim's Rants for Reasonable People

Where is Flower Mound, Texas? You got it.  Dallas.
 
Alice’s LinkedIn profile goes on to say:

Specializes in social media integration, media relations, strategic planning. and front-line marketing. Alice has a solid track record of results which has clearly been seen recently in her hard work in the trenches of the tea party movement.

We don’t know if using “Tiffany” was part of her “social media integration” skills, but we are now asking her (in addition to issuing a retraction for the libel on her site regarding Katrina and myself) for the following:

• A condemnation of “Tiffany” for doing far worse than Katrina RETWEETING a Romney video,
• A clarification on her site that the TEA PARTY DOES NOT ENDORSE ANYONE INCLUDING RICK SANTORUM OR NEWT GINGRICH. (And especially not Mitt Romney),
• An explanation of why she is using the Tea Party as a basis to engender animosity toward ANY conservative candidate – rather than maintaining the separation mandated by Tea Party groups and leaders nationwide,
• An apology for attempting to impugn the reputation of a single mom and Tea Party leader who has given selflessly to conservative causes for practicing her free speech rights.

The great intellectual and conservative voice Thomas Sowell had this to say about Rick Santorum (graciously provided to me by one of your contributing writers at Voices Empower, by the way.)

…can (Rick Santorum)  survive the media's constant attempts to paint him as some kind of religious nut who would use the government to impose his views on others? And, if he can, will he also be able to go toe-to-toe with Obama in debates?
I would not bet the rent money on it.

And what is at stake is far bigger than the rent money.

Prove you are not still ANOTHER Santorum nut-job like Tiffany who is immune to reason, a sense of ethics and morals by trying to silence other conservatives.  As my friend @conservativeecho put it:

And we know you know how to do that.  We especially liked your work where you called on Sheila Jackson Lee to apologize.  Perhaps you could demonstrate to her how.

PolitiJim is just now starting it’s investigation and there is certainly more to follow on this entire fabricated attack on other Tea Party people and fake identities.  STAY TUNED!

---

UPDATE: Alice is now calling for “conservative information pushers”  (Not patriots, not thinking analysts – but “pushers”)
 
And what pray tell are they going to do at this function?

Yep! It is to “push” Santorum through the Tea Party on a state level and she is hiding behind Anita Moncrief – former ACORN board member to do it.  (I am shocked Anita would be a part of this, but that is for another story.)
Patriots in Dallas be aware of this hypocritical promotion of using Tea Party resources for Santorum and against Gingrich or other conservatives.  DON’T LET OPPORTUNISTS (or possible plants) LIKE HER RUIN THE TEA PARTY!

---

Meanwhile, Katrina Pierson has perhaps the best advice of all (and PolitiJim is taking it to heart):

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Out With The Bull, In With the Jew

I find political meaning in everything, including the annual ritual of the changing of the Chicago Sports fan’s season, where we exchange bitter disappointment of basketball for the bogus hope for the boys of summer.  PolitiJim has changed from his Bull hat to Cubs, but perhaps this year it is prophetic for our political hopes as Tea Party conservatives as well.  Allow me to explain.

The team that miraculously tied for the best record in the NBA’s shortened seasoned (see PolitiJim cap in title picture) was eliminated by the Philadelphia 76ers last night in a series that ended up 4-2.  At the True the Vote National Summit I sat with a fellow patriot from Philly who owes me a plate of crow.  I suppose I’ll need to bring my own Bullsauce with which to wash it down.

The Bulls were astounded at losing game 3, especially with a 14 point lead in the 4th quarter of that game.   No one said it, but even without Derrick Rose, the meltdown took on supernatural tones.  All Star Luo Deng couldn’t grasp it saying:

“It just felt like that everything that wasn’t supposed to happen, happened,” Luol Deng said. “It just felt like that everything that wasn’t supposed to happen, happened.

True, I predicted here, that the Bulls would not win the Championship due to the “Obama Curse.” But I thought that even without last year’s MVP Derrick Rose lost to a season ending ACL injury in game 1, they could beat the worst team in the playoffs.  Afterall, the Bulls had gone 18-9 against other teams (including Miami and Dallas) without their hard working floor leader.  Apparently the Barack Jinx is becoming more potent, or PolitiJim failed to factor in the increased effect resulting from Rose publicly endorsing Obama for re-election.  Kind of a double damn, I suppose.  It appears unless you are directly apart of satan’s secret circle, endorsing Obama may be as hazardous to your success as having him endorse you.  Just ask Oprah who looks like her old “magic” tumbled when she endorsed Obama and is on the verge of loosing $300 Million and total failure in her new network.

THE POWER OF EPSTEIN

Is it coincidence that the Cubs, after starting out 3-11, are the hottest team in baseball while the Red Sox, who started out 1-5 are one of the worst?  Last year the Red Sox also started out 2-10 and went on to have the best record in baseball – a 81-42 record.  Yes, the managers have changed at both clubs, but the common denominator is the Waveland Wonder, Theo Epstein.  NO ONE, including PolitiJim, expects to be searching scalpers for World Series tickets this year.  But just as Phil Jackson took wannabe contenders to winners with Jordan and the Lake Show, there is SOMETHING beyond better decision making, better “X’s and O’s” to success, and the Cubs LOOK like a different team as the former Boston Red Sox GM promised.

Yes, creating a different “attitude” does help success.  But even the famed, philosophical optimist, Jimmy V only won one National Basketball Championship.  In the bible it’s called “an anointing.”  It is the opposite of a curse.

Of course, despite the natural inclinations of Wrigley worshipping devotees, it is too early to indicate long term success.  Don’t think every Cub fan wouldn’t like to declare the season over right now and take our winning record when we can get it.

But by all accounts there IS a different winning “atmosphere” despite injuries to Kerry Wood, and melt downs by crazy closer Carlos Marmol.  (For non-Cub, non-baseball fans – Kerry Wood held the record for most strikeouts in a game until last year and Carolos Marmol is the most unhittable pitcher in the majors.  Unless he’s not, which has been the story most of the past year.)

Tea Partiers felt that in 2010 only to wonder if “conservative” is the new “Cub.”  Afterall, conservatives REALLY truly haven’t been empowered since Contract With America, and Bush turned out to be bush league as far as Regan Republicanism goes.

Many felt that last year the basketball Bulls were overachievers.  They were far more successful with Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau despite utilizing the same core players that Vinny Del Negro and Scott Skiles couldn’t get into the playoffs or past the first round of playoffs.  The amazing accomplishment this year of EXCEEDING their winning percentage of last year (despite only having their starting 5 healthy for 15 games) proved that the Bulls were “for real.”  The players could INDIVIDUALLY play and improve all they wanted, but the right coach can set a goal, group expectation and integration of talents in a way average coaches can’t.  It’s why we marvel at John Wooden who won 10 NCAA titles.

The same is true with politics.  It isn’t JUST “policies” that dictate success.  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal have presided over enormous gains for each of their states utilizing limited government, free market principles.  Chris Christie, despite the “conservative” love from Coulter and Romney, hasn’t fare as well.

Rankings of Best States for Economic Growth and Business

	2012	2011	2010	2008	2 Yr Chg	4 Yr Chg
LA - Jindal	13	27	40	45	+27	+28
WI - Walker	20	24	41	43	+21	N/A
NJ - Christie	45	47	47	47	+2	N/A

I don’t care how many great of a speeches the New Jersey Jiggle gives in front of Nancy at the Ronald Reagan Library. 

RHETORIC is NOT RESULTS. 

And “Leadership” is not equal, but necessary to all initiatives.

I envision leadership as a recipe with ingredients including:

• Bold Visions and Intelligent Strategy
• Shrewd Judgment
• Motivating Communication
• Measured Tenacity and Immoveable Core Principles
• Humility

You can have 90% of the above qualities but base them on false Keynesian theory (or if you are an NBA coach the “Four Corner” offense), and you’ll still fall short in your effort to implement and sustain change.  INTELLIGENT means based on Objective Truth.  Alternatively, you can have the knowledge of prosperous conservative principles, but waiver when they are put to the test and end up ruining the “brand” or “franchise” as Bush 41 did to Reagan or Jeffery Immelt did to Jack Welch at General Electric.

Clearly, on every measure, Obama has shown he took America into an even deeper ditch than into the one he declared McCain would take us.  I’m not a George Bush worshiper, but clearly the tax cuts following 9-11 saved this country experiencing what might have been a severe recession with or without the mortgage bubble.  Obama had choices and chose the wrong one every time. Similar comparisons of the Regan and Obama recoveries show what leadership versus Leninism does.  Obama has set many records, but they’ve all been blasphemies of sound policy.  Unemployment is at 22% (not 8%) and welfare is at an all time high.

Here’s the good news and bad news.  The good news is that Romney will be better than Obama.  But so would a 9 day old unpeeled Easter egg.  The bad news is that with ALL of this terrible, horrible economic news - and documented evidence that he is not legitimately qualified to be President – he is STILL neck and neck with Romney in the polls.  In a sane world, Obama would have already resigned in disgrace.  If you factor in rampant voter fraud, Romney would have to win by 6% to 10% in the key battle ground states like Virginia just to tie.  And if that particular Secretary of State is owned by Soros, they will “Al Franken” a way to win.

It is true that a large number of people don’t “tune in” into last few weeks of the race.  It is also true that Obama has multiple OTHER devices ready to steal, kill and destroy our elections and that Obama doesn’t have to win the national popular vote to stay in office and inflict more desecration upon our Republic.

I suspect as this person, this article, and this person does, that the next few months will not only be the most UNconventional election in history, but will likely be the most seductive and chaotic attempt to usurp our government.  Ever.  And most likely the GOP (and most of us if we are honest) will still be playing the equivalent of baseball in the middle of a no-holds bar ultimate fighting cage match.

I’ve had many close Twitter/Blogger friends tell me they have a bad feeling in their gut about the upcoming Presidential election.  Someone either tweeted, emailed or texted me the following thought this week, after the successful upset of RINdianaO Dick Lugar by Tea Party candidate Richard Murdock:

Where the hell was THIS Tea Party on the national level the past months of the primary?

I have many friends who argue with me that Tea Party is still alive and strong.  My answer:  If it were, Romney would not be the presumptive nominee.  It’s the same idiocy with fellow Bulls fans (like Scottie Pippen) claiming the Bulls were still the best team in the NBA even without MVP Derrick Rose because they went 18-9 without him.  Sorry, facts matter.  The Bulls only went 7-7 against quality teams without Rose.  It’s about damn time we start getting DETAILED and SMARTER about what is really going on underneath the surface of our assumptions.  We have got to quit kidding ourselves that we aren’t in deep delegate doo doo.

I can’t believe I saw a headline at Breitbart.com (no less) that Tea Party was strong since the Tea Party Patriots raised twelve million dollars in 2012.  $12 Million to organize, communicate and support Presidential, US Congressional, Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer and a myraid of other races across the country.  Remember Gingrich’s SuperPac raised over $23 Million for a single candidate in a single race focusing on less than a handful of states.  $12 Million is $1 million LESS than what the GOP and DNC spent on the single Governor’s race in Colorado in 2010.  An additional $18 Million was spent by outside groups.  JUST in Colorado.  JUST for one race.  Why can’t conservative media report honestly?  Where is the mention that the co-founder of TPP talked about the organization selling out to the GOP establishment and other problems.  This from a once ballsy outfit that now denies a six month law enforcement investigation which proves forged government documents (felonies) by the White House.  Why should we listen to them anymore?  Or pretend that they really have the same values we do?

As I’ve said before.  It’s not just Andrew that has died, but his namesake and most major conservative media.

After 2 years of Tea Party activism we still have yet to obtain a single seat on the 168 member GOP governing committee.  And may I remind you that Human Events Top Ten RINO for 2006 is our nominee?  You know, that guy that passed gay marriage by executive order, and implemented the most liberal socialized medicine and cap and trade programs of ANY state just 7 years ago?  And you want to tell me the Tea Party is alive and well?

(I’m not trying to depress you, honest.) But we have to quit deluding ourselves that Romney is going to wipe up White House with Obama, or that we in the “Tea Party” are as strong as we think. 

I’m not here to discourage you honest.  There is hope in the end.  I believe in the Tea Party and what we WANT it to be.  But we are setting ourselves up for a worse disaster than Hurricane Cain in a Florida straw poll if we delude ourselves into false security.  I’ll explain why in a moment, but first…

It’s Time to Tell the Truth About Tea Party

The Tea Party was ALWAYS an amalgamation of social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, Libertarians and angry independents who resonated with the idea of blaming someone.  “I’m not gonna take it anymore” wasn’t just a line from a 70’s movie.  My friend Richichi thinks this group breaks out something like this:

42% Social
28% Fiscal
17% Libertarians
13% Constitutional

If you combine “fiscal” and “Libertarian” (both who are primarily motivated by economic issues rather than social), that sounds about right to me.  BUT HERE IS THE PROBLEM.

At it’s height of popularity in 2010, Tea Party “supporters”
themselves have never polled more than 30% of all Americans.

The TOTAL of all Tea Party Supporters among ALL political persuasions is only SLIGHTLY higher than the number of people who call themselves “conservative Republicans.”  If you add in “conservative Democrats” (Sorry Rush, there are some in the South that still think they are), you still only come up with the 40% “conservative” number we all have heard about. 

BUT THAT IS SELF IDENTIFIED “Conservatives” and NOT Tea Partiers.  Meaning only about 2/3rds of all “conservatives” support (or supported) the Tea Party.  Only 60% of the Republicans ever did.

And it’s gotten worse since 2010.  Now that the media has had time to try and “define” the Tea Party for those that only get their news from ABCMSNBC and Comedy Central.  Disapproval of the Tea Party has doubled, and is now rivaling that of the Forger-in-Chief.  Conservative South Carolina self identified Tea Partiers dropped from 28% to 11%.  Those “supporting” the Tea Party nationally have dropped from 31% to only 27%. 

“Occupy” support is only 3 points away at 24%.

And let me preempt those of you who will argue that it’s a “liberal” poll or that “you don’t believe in polls.”  Don’t be a fool.  It is very rare for a poll to not only be off from it’s margin of error, and it is NEVER off by double the margin of error unless there are rapid events occurring or anomalies in communication.  In other words, polls including samples from the day before Gingrich’s South Carolina debate likely didn’t include the ABC (fake) bombshell, the Perry endorsement, or the Gingrich debate performance itself.  But even then it DOES give an accurate view of what the general population is thinking AT THE MOMENT they are asked.  Rick Perry didn’t secretly have 5 times the number of support than his polls said, and indeed, he lost badly in New Hampshire.  So don’t kid yourself that SECRETLY 50% of America loves the Tea Party or that the 75% that would NOT vote for Romney throughout 2011 were all Tea Party motivated.  It just isn’t so.

I’m shocked at the people that get paid to do “this” (reporting and analyzing news) who want to declare the Tea Party back on it’s feet because Dick Lugar lost to a Tea Party candidate.  That’s like saying the Cubs won the World Series in 2001 and 2008 because the Diamondbacks and Phillies each had a few ex-Cubbies on the roster.  Just because the Tea Party candidate got Just because the Tea Party candidate got 60% of the vote doesn’t mean that 60% of the vote are Tea Partiers.  Just because JFK was elected President in 1960 didn’t mean that everyone converted to Catholicism.  Good candidates who can articulate a BETTER more compelling message than their opponent get not just people who believe EXACTLY as they do, but those that also don’t want to vote for the other guy.  

Rush used to say that conservatism wins everywhere it’s tried.  That’s just hogwash.  It usually does, but as Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell learned, how you are defined through the media makes “perception” the overriding factor.  It certainly hasn’t worked in the GOP primaries.  There are scientific models on how conservative one can be in a liberal state or vice versa, but it doesn’t account for differences in communication style and charisma.  Reagan won a LOT of blue states AFTER demonstrating supply side economics work.  Even states that HATED his social views.

So why am I giving you bitter TEA?

If you’ve ever gotten into a street fight underestimating your opponent, or OVERestimating your advantage, you’ll understand WHY we can’t get all punch drunk over what we WANT the Tea Party to be, versus what it is.  If you know you are up against a Ultimate Fighting Champion and you’re a 12 year old girl, it doesn’t help at all to pretend you are Xena Princess Warrior.  What DOES help is to run like hell and get a cop (or a gun) when ARE equipped for the challenge.

We Tea Partiers need a 12 step program. 

PolitiJim:  “Hi.  My name is PolitiJim.  I’m an ex-‘Tea Party will take back our government in 2012’ believer.”

Support Group: “Hello PolitiJim.”

PolitiJim: “It’s been 2 since I blindly accepted what Rush, Drudge, Gary Bauer or my favorite Twitter follower told me.”

Support Group Facilitator: “How did it go this week?”

PolitiJim: “I quit worrying about missing my Twitter timeline and found 2 neighbors who had no idea the unemployment numbers were faked.  I got them registered to vote and asked them to do the research on a local City Councilman running which they will report back to at our local neighborhood Tea Party meeting in 2 weeks.”

The first step is admitting you have a problem.  T.E.A. FACTS:

• We keep trusting the same GOP establishment types based on what they SAY rather than what they do or have done.
• We’ve never had control of the power mechanisms of the GOP party, although our message and motives are sound.
• We’ve ALWAYS been a minority EVEN within the GOP (46.7%) and threaten those that see it as a “club.”
• We have (temporarily) lost the media war of persuading the rest of Americans to join us, or getting our message out.
• This will take more work than reading blogs, Twitter, listening to talk radio or showing up once a year at a Tea Party rally.
• The GOP establishment is terribly corrupt and will use ANY means to stay in power.  They are NOT principled or conservative.  Just slightly more principled and more conservative than the Democrats.
• We can not win by forcing or threatening those who are intimidated by our social conservative values to accept flaming religiosity.
• We can not win by demanding 100% conservative purity when there is no candidate.

I reiterate.  Not only do we “Tea Partiers” not have the power we thought we did in 2010 among the United States voters – we clearly don’t have the influence we thought we did in the GOP.  And we now know that “conservative” most likely does not mean what we think it means to over HALF of the GOP.

You’re happy we beat RINO Lugar in Indiana?  Me too.  But this was a GOP Primary (not facing a union funded Democrat) against an 80 year old, bailout endorsing, out of state transient, whom Obama called his “favorite” Republican.  That is your sign the Tea Party is healthy?  Really?  Santorum lost by basically the same margin TO A DEMOCRAT and many of you thought it superfluous.  If you think this “reignites the Tea Party” or assures a GOP Senate, much less a conservative one, you’re either drinking Chamomile or Long Island tea, I’m not sure which.  DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TEA PARTY CANDIDATES HAVE ALREADY LOST IN EARLIER PRIMARIES?  Do you realize that Romney STILL got 65% of the vote in Indiana when Paul/Santorum/Gingrich voters could have made a “protest” vote, but failed? (16% / 13% / 6% respectively if you were wondering.)

Now I have to be honest.  I’ve always hated the “12 Steps” philosophy since their REAL first step is declaring you are “powerless” over your addiction.  That’s worse than Chicago BULLcrap with a sprained ACL and a dislocated finger on your shooting hand.   We are NOT powerless and we need to start seeing ourselves as well informed, nonplussed, leaders who are like tanks against charging RINOs.  Maybe a better analogy is that you can reach your destination quicker if you first know exactly where you are, and how far you are from it.  (Fill in your own damn cliché’ if you don’t like mine.)

But now that you’re Rose colored glasses are broken, here’s the hope, the rub and the reality.

The Good Tea Party News

The good news is that after all the effort to separate religious conservatives, from conservative purists that won’t vote for anyone who wants to dismantle the Federal Reserve on the first day of office – and worse - we ONLY lost 4% of our support.  That’s pretty frickin’ amazing if you ask me. 

The second piece of good news IS that the win in Indiana by Tea Party Mourdock proves a NUMBER of things including:

• The Tea Party message itself is sound and will attract independents and non-Tea Partiers.
• When conservative media unites around a candidate (rather than using Alinsky tactics against each other) they have an amplified impact that raises cash and awareness.
• When there is a CLEAR enemy, and a CLEAR leader expressing reasonable, mature views – there is no contest WITHIN the GOP.
• RINO inconsistencies and duplicities will not hold up if conservatives maintain a methodic drone and don’t quit when no one is listening.  (It took MONTHS for the pro-Mourdock / anti-Lugar message to finally sink into the media.)
• The “establishment” can not buy an election with clear cut differences between the candidates given ALL of the above.

The other good news?  The American Revolution was fought with only 30% support of the colonial population against a well funded, well organized, well trained enemy while having to fight off loyalists on “their side” as well.  (If that doesn’t describe our predicament I don’t know what does.)

Most revolutions from Cuba to Russia and even Poland were led and sustained by a minority that perceived through action until the lazy people gave way.  But Cuba had Fidel.  Russia had Lenin.  Poland had Walesa and Britain had Disraeli.

And so we get back to the “leadership” thing.

Breitbart’s Nolte smugly says that a leaderless Tea Party is a great thing because they raised about the same amount of money Romney will spend on robo calls in the primary.  Thank God he’s not in charge of running anything.  Here in Harris County (Houston), Texas we’ve written about a Malcom X teaching Democrat who “bought” a Republican leadership title through the local GOP precisely because there wasn’t strong funding, organization and leadership.

A friend (who is much smarter about politics than I) made an argument that the original revolution started with unorganized small individual militias and no central leadership.  “We don’t need a leader,” he says.  But this was before there was any expectation that Virginia or Georgia or Massachusetts OWED it to each other to fight together.  They were as skeptical of each other as they were of the British.  And they DID have their own militias that were organized against Indians and natural threats in each “state.”  Even if you take Massachusetts within itself, Samuel Adams and John Hancock formed the heart of the movement by identifying and implementing strategies and it was the Boston patriots providing ideas, direction and initiative to the rest.  Places like Georgia hardly had ANY British to contend with save the tax collectors and limited troops protecting the governors.  And we did not win the war without a clearly identified General who was fastidious on authority, discipline and chain of command.

I would suggest we are not only past Lexington and Concord, but are already past the Declaration and well into organizing troops for the war.  And the very ABSENCE of leadership, is why we are ineffective nationally.  Mourdock HIMSELF was the leader to whom not only Tea Partiers, but the rest of the GOP rallied.  His victory wasn’t a spontaneous endorsement of “ideas” but a man.  A man with a plan.

In 1775, the leaders were identified and were working toward a common goal of determining precisely what it would take to RUN a government.  While they disagreed, the ACT of declaring independence was NOT the central focus.  The Continental Congress was an organization unto itself to IDENTIFY key issues of tyranny and to UNIFY around a solution, independence being just one and the last resort.  Despite severe splits in HOW to handle the issue (appeals to the King versus war), they were already acting as a single unit because they knew they needed each other.  THEY ELECTED LEADERS and RULES OF PROCEDURE.  They were not separate mobs that said, “Hey Thomas, you want to kill you some redcoats sometime?”  Furthermore they engaged the enemy as a UNIFIED front with a UNIFIED plan.  Even John Adams who saw all along the diplomacy and threats were going no where, didn’t break off and decide to try get Massachusetts to start the war on it’s own.

We HAVE a plan for conservative insurrection in the Disraeli, Goldwater/Reagan and Gingrich movements.  Don’t forget, the GOP wrote off Gingrich’s Contract (much less thinking it had any chance to succeed in retaking the House) UP UNTIL THE NIGHT BEFORE the election.  Newt didn’t have a majority of Republicans, much less US voters, during the entire 14 year planning of creating mechanisms for the recruitment of conservatives, their education, their funding and their unity of expressing conservative ideals.  And he really didn’t need the GOP establishment bandwagon because he spent years putting the candidates in place to challenge those races by using his the future Speaker’s songbook note for note.  The GOP takeover in the House and Senate happened BECAUSE OF UNIFIED STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP not because of a lack of it.

It is why I pleaded for Palin or Gingrich to strip off conventional politics and risk breaking apart the GOP and to start going after Obama on his corruption and fraud, and also after Romney and the party.  For some reason, Newt didn’t was blindsided by Bachmann and Santorum’s willingness to playing lying politics and didn’t understand the fragile nature of the conservative media as Drudge, Will, Coulter, and FOX News itself was clearly in the pocket of Romney and the rest were willing to let the GOP forces separate us.  He certainly underestimated the level and dishonesty of attack by the establishment in money and malice.

But let’s be clear.  At a local level and state level, there IS enough Tea Party power to compete WITHOUT a national leader if we:

• Get an articulate candidate without major flaws.
• Focus on the REAL enemy instead of false issues.
• Ensure the integrity of the vote.
• Use what media we have available to hammer the message.
• Take over the GOP machinery precinct by precinct, and,
• Work our arses off.

And pray.

What this has to do with the Cubs and Bulls

The same basic Bulls team was only a .500 team the two years BEFORE Tom Thibodeau arrived from Boston.  During those two years they STILL almost beat the reigning Championship Celtics and the Lebron led Cavaliers with Vinny Del Negro as head coach.  The Bulls had actually ASKED to speak to Thibs BEFORE hiring Vinny.  The Boston brass refused.  Then someone came and led.

The Bulls were the best team in the regular season of the NBA the last two years and made it to the Finals of the Eastern Conference last year because of a tenacious coach that SET an expectation, that taught them to NEVER give up, that coached them to remember WHICH fundamentals work if you stay disciplined, and challenged them to not accept anything less of yourself than playing EVERY minute of EVERY game.

It’s what Ronald Regan did WITHOUT the benefit of a Tea Party.

Like this year’s Bulls, we can’t help injuries to our key leaders.  Palin not running, Gingrich being slaughtered by $40 million in false, lying ads (compounded by conservative media complicit in spreading those lies instead of diligently checking them themselves) are facts of life even without “curses.”  The goal hasn’t changed.

The fact is that we don’t have enough people to overtake the party without coordinated leadership amplifying and articulating our views together, much less coordinating our strategies and setting the goal.  But you probably can get enough people to take over your district or county.

Baring Romney having a political Damascus experience we are still in search of our Thibodeau, Epstein, Phil Jackson or Ronald Reagan.  We might have to play the next couple of seasons knowing that we can only give our personal best, but that our fellow conservatives NEED coordinated leadership to get motivated.  We need to prepare the way for when they are ready.

Obama could implement martial law before the election… or simply be elected and expand his desecration of the constitution… and then finally someone like a DeMint, Gingrich, Palin or Scott Walker, will make it “acceptable” for other media to take the gloves off and fight.  Maybe it will be an unknown “Joe the Plumber” type who will understand how to step into that role when the spotlight hits.  But:

There will be a clearly defined enemy.

There will be a clearly defined objective.

And like a Lugar learned near the Land of Lincoln, T.E.A. will spill when we are unified.  Enough of the remaining 70% of Americans will be motivated to join us out of fear for their pain, simply because they are following whoever is winning that season.  Stadiums begin filling with fans with a few back to back victories.

And suddenly, a team that everyone writes off, may start 3-11, but finds they can compete with the Big Boys as the Cubs did this past weekend going 4-2 against the two best teams in baseball.  Any poll of “pre-season” selections for the Pennant or even Division Champions show that no one really knows until the game is played.

We all know (myself included) we’ve fallen into this lethargy because we seem outnumbered.  We have to remember that RIGHT and TRUTH do prevail.  That we ARE empowered to get control of our local precinct, or fight for the county or state GOP chairmanship.  Let God determine the results, but as for me and my house, we will give every effort to finding just ONE thing that will move the momentum in the right direction.  It might be volunteering as a poll watcher or precinct captain.  It might be holding neighborhood discussions or “block walking” simply to educate 20 people on where the local, state and national candidates stand.  It might be buying 100 copies of Little Patriots for the private school or daycare down the street, and then volunteering to read it at the local library.

But we will trust God with the results.  And believe.  And pray.

It was the Great Awakening that inspired and educated colonists to get their hearts and minds around righteous rebellion that made the American Revolution possible.  Today our country is too easily diverted by entertainment, too easily swept up in sleight-of-hand scandals, too self-righteous, prideful or ignorant to do what’s “right” rather than what’s necessary, but our founders left us an inheritance which they believed was from God.

And if G_d Almighty wouldn’t let His own people perish without a homeland or a nation to call their own, I don’t believe He would ignore the prayers and faith of those of us who want to restore America to a place even greater than something which our forefather’s envisioned.

So out with the BS of both conservative and main stream media, as well as impotence, lethargy and fear.  Screw it all.

And in with the new season of doing just one thing to get this Tea Party revolution back on track, whether we die trying or not.

Who knows what God will do, if we just take the NEXT step in faith.

Go Cubs Go.

---

The following excerpt from the 2012 Shepherd's Rod will speak for itself.

The President's Hat Blows Away

The wind of the Holy Spirit will cause the hat of the President to blow away. The cover of the President and his administration will be blown. Then all things done in secret will be cast down and will not stand.

For they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7a

The truth is coming forth by the Spirit of God. It is the only thing that will have answers for this nation. It will come forth when we repent like Daniel did for the sins of his nation. The sins of our government will be revealed so repentance can be made and the Lord can release mercy to this nation. America is a great nation and God desires for her to survive. She can only survive when the truth is revealed to the people. This is the year the people will know the truth. If they seek the truth they will find it and the truth will set this nation free.

Nothing is [so closely] covered up that it will not be revealed, or hidden that it will not be known. Luke 12:2

The canopy of God is love and this nation must return to its first love. America must repent and return to her first love. When she does God will release His canopy of love to her.

End of excerpt.

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