gdp's Comments

Big Government : Big Labor Plans Super Bowl Chaos

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 22:35:10 +0000

My first thought upon scrolling down to her piccy was "Who let Jabba the Hut loose?"

Big Government : Catholic Bishops Stand Up to the Obama Administration

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 19:23:05 +0000

Look, you started out by issuing a challenge that more Catholic women support the HHS decision than not. I suppose you made that point as a means of deflecting discussion away from the core issue, which of course is the freedom of a recognised faith to operate by its professed beliefs without government interference, a freedom which is enshrined our First Amendment. I countered by making an affirmative statement to the effect that what individuals choose to do or not do isn't the core of the issue - what's important in this discussion is the principle that our government not attempt to control the religious or moral positions and teachings of an established religion. . Now you're on about who Catholic organisations employ or don't. None of that matters in the least. The fundamental issue at play here is that through HHS, the federal government is exerting legal pressure on the Catholic Church to violate long-standing principles of their faith. The people who run the Catholic Church are concerned about being told to comply with HHS because doing so puts them in the position of violating their own beliefs. As Bishop Zubik of Philadelphia put it - the government is quite plainly telling the leadership of the Catholic Church - "To Hell with you".

Big Government : Catholic Bishops Stand Up to the Obama Administration

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 18:54:54 +0000

Let me reiterate (and I promise to type slowly so you get it all) the issue here is not about the individual - it's about our government telling a church that it must violate its principles of conscience in order to satisfy a HHS diktat. What individuals do or don't do is their own business. Where this ruling goes wrong is that through it, HHS is telling a religious organisation that if it follows it's own moral teaching and principles, it'll be fined and otherwise assailed in the courts. The message is clear - conform or face punishment, but by no means is your faith any excuse for non-compliance. Got it now?

Big Government : EXCLUSIVE: #Occupy Plans Cross-Country Marches for Mayday: ‘We’ll Quarter Our Troops in Homes A

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 16:13:17 +0000

Well, at least they finally kinda, sorta copped to their ties to the worldwide communist collective. I mean May Day? How commie of them.

Big Government : Susan G. Komen Foundation Breaks with Planned Parenthood

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 16:06:54 +0000

In response to the drop in funding from the Komen Foundation, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, openly criticized the anti-abortion sentiments that led to the end of the relationship between the organizations. Ms. RIchards said in a press release, “We are alarmed and saddened that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure. Our greatest desire is for Komen to reconsider this policy and recommit to the partnership on which so many women count.”

And that, dear friends, is where the spin and deceptions start. SGKF cancelled their funding due to a Board policy of not dealing with people and organisations who're under investigation for wrong-doing. PP is currently under investigation for wrong-doing in the matter of using public funds (taxpayer money) to fund abortions. SGKF made a policy-driven decision, not a political one. So Ms. Richards starts out from the position of having already come to the wrong conclusion, and she has subsequently charged off on her own heavily politicised path of attack. Our society worked a whole lot better before everyone was a freakin' activist and life was all politics all the time.

Big Government : Catholic Bishops Stand Up to the Obama Administration

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 14:33:44 +0000

Even if there are, it's irrelevant. People are free in a free society to make their own choices about moral and ethical behaviour (not to be conflated with legal behaviour) - neither the government nor their church are permitted coercive power over them in that regard. But the issue here isn't what individual Catholics are choosing and doing. The issue is that the US government has made policy decisions which compromise and negate the religiously-driven policies of the religion itself. If an individual decides to stray from her/his religious teachings, that only affects them. When a church to which many people belong is itself told it cannot do something, or has to do something under threat of law, that affects all people associated with that religion.

Big Government : CBO Study: Federal Workers Compensated Much Better than Private Sector

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:50:29 +0000

I'm a compensation executive and have worked professionally in the compensation field for 25+ years. The one finding in this report which I find both fascinating and concerning is that the federal government is apparently strategically using compensation to attract, hire and retain lower level employees, but just as strategically, they're using compensation to dissuade those who've striven to rise up the career ladder through education and training. So much for the whole fantasy of "the best and brightest", eh? Looks like they're aiming at hiring and retaining the most mediocre and mundane. .

Big Government : It's Father Versus Son as Morris Beschloss Declares George Soros 'The Most Dangerous Man in America'

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:49:51 +0000

We are at a major crossroads of life.

We are at a crossroads. World-wide collectivists are attempting to assert control over governments, peoples, and processes. It's a multi-pronged attack encompassing economics, politics, environment, and culture. Almost every day I'm reminded of the old saying "May you live in interesting times." Well, we're living in interesting times.

Big Government : Fast and Furious Breaking News: Rep. Issa Now Calls Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Morrissey to the

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:44:21 +0000

Really. I wonder if this master of compassion would have the balls to face Mr. Terry's family or the family/loved ones of the 300 or so Mexicans who're dead due to F&F weapons and tell them that he thinks the death of their loved one is "tripe".

Big Government : New Film Skewers Chicago Teachers Union, Explains Stakes of Contract Negotiations

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:16:53 +0000

While I agree with your point, it's impractical as all get out to force open negotiations as a matter of law. There are times when either of the parties need to make a concession in bargaining which might be very unpopular with a constituency, but necessary to get a contract. Take away the shield of closed bargaining and you'll find that the already contentious process gets more contentious. The solution, at least in my mind, is to require any pending agreement to be open to public inspection before the management authorities can officially sign it. This would give the public a chance to view and comment on the deal before it becomes fait accompli.

Big Government : Obama in SOTU: Cut the Taxes that Pay for Social Security, but Don't Threaten Social Security

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:58:57 +0000

I have completely lost confidence in the ability of our federal government to manage and govern our nation. The fiasco of Social Security is just one of what looks like an endless series of failures to effectively manage federal programmes, budgets and futures. It doesn't matter to me who gets elected in the next election either to the WH or to Congress - I don't think we're coming back from the hole we're in. Of the presidential candidates, I don't think any of them, with the exception of Mr. Paul, really give a tinker's dam about our Constitution and Amendments. And Mr. Paul espouses some positions I find troubling and out of place in the world as it is. After nearly a century of usurping the state's rights to manage their own affairs as members of a federal republic, I'm at the point that I believe it's highly unlikely that the feds will ever return to the promises of liberty and freedom outlined in our founding documents. I fear for our future. While the Congress and President and Supreme Court argue over how best to throw the dying carcass of the Constitution over a cliff, George Soros has been widely quoted in the media over the past few days saying that he believes violent protests will erupt here soon, that we will experience rioting in the streets. I believe that this man, who is no friend of our Constitutions or of personal liberty and freedom, has just issued the battle cry to his proxies in the socialist groups, community activist groups and 'Occupy' movement to let the other shoe drop and incite violence. For me, that call can only be the prelude to, and justification for, a totalitarian clampdown on Americans the likes of which we've never seen before, and from which there will be no escape.

Big Government : Instead of Eliminating Primary Elections, Process Can and Should Be Improved

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:51:57 +0000

Agreed. And on top of that, the states should be strongly encouraged to eliminate "open" primaries - they're nothing but an invitation to game the system. Then there's the issue of voter ID...

Big Government : Former Obama Staffer Busted After Falsely Implicating Iowa Secretary of State in Illegal Activity

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:46:28 +0000

This is what we're up against - an internal conspiracy of the radical left to completely dominate American politics and policy institutions. You see it in their domination of the media, their control of the educational sector, their lock on the activist organisations which spring up like mushrooms. For anyone who hasn't done so, I'd strongly recommend reading Ms. Rand's 'other book', The Fountainhead. The leftist infiltration strategy is laid out very clearly in an entertaining way in that volume.

Big Government : Michigan Teacher Finds It’s Not So Easy, or Cheap, to Become a Former Member of a Teachers Union

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:06:40 +0000

You know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see there be a requirement that all unions be required to post a notice to at each facility where they represent employees about how they can decertify the union. Think about it - various federal and state agencies require employers to post notices about their legal protections and how they can sue their employers and all the programmes government offers - why shouldn't there be an obligation on unions to notify employees about their right to be non-union? There's a legal process through which employees who're dissatisfied with their union can "fire" the union, but it's the secret that no one ever talks about or writes about. Here's a brief description of that process: http://www.unionfacts.com/union-member-resources/...

Big Government : It's Time to End the War on Drugs

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:29:24 +0000

Decriminalisation makes so much more sense than outright legalisation. Unchecked cannabis use carries with it a host of other problems (physical, mental and social) which we probably don't want to encourage in our society and the tax revenues from legalisation are a bit of a mirage - if the taxes are high enough to generate meaningful revenues, they're also high enough to encourage a black market in untaxed goods - which is exactly the situation we have today. Plus, since it takes exactly zero skilled knowledge and very little effort to grow small amounts of cannabis on your own, can someone please tell me who's going to enforce collection of cannabis taxes and how they're going to do it? Do we hire an army of "revenuers" to trudge through the backyards of America seeking untaxed cannabis plants? Get real.

Big Government : 'Green' Stimulus Boondoggle Brings Fewer Than 20 Jobs for $6 Million

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:33:53 +0000

For me, while the stories of waste, fraud, cronyism and inefficiency are bad enough to cause me to go into a major depression, the real underlying tragedy of all of this is that none of this "green energy" hogwash is any business of government's in the first place. That they can't do it well, or at all, almost serves as a distraction to the main problem at hand - bloated government is trying to be something it can't and shouldn't be, and we're just passively letting them do it. Then on top the that, they're wasting our money.

Big Government : California Lawmaker: Let Boys Be Girls...And Girls Be Boys.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:09:44 +0000

Um, I think you meant to say "Lola" rather than "Layla".

Big Government : Axelrod Defends Jeremiah Wright, Says He Was Victim of Selective Editing

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:47:10 +0000

OK - completely off-topic to the politics at hand - does that picture of Mr. Axelrod (and most other pictures I've seen of the man) strike anyone else as though he might be a time-traveler from 1972? I mean with the 'porn star' mustache, the crooked smirk of a grin, the beady little weasel eyes - you think he might have been teleported through time from an early Ron Popeil infomercial set where he was the announcer/straight man for Big Ron himself. Every time I see him, I reflexively and subconsciously reach back and check that my wallet is still in my pocket.

Big Government : Obama's EPA Opens Another Front in the War on Coal

Thu, 5 Jan 2012 15:42:13 +0000

One point the author missed is that while EPA is making power generation only affordable for natural gas-fired plants, they're also slowing down the recovery of natural gas through fracking. Large fields of NG have been identified, but in EPA has clamped down on issuing new permits to recover said NG. Plus, Mr. Obama sits squarely opposed to increased imports of Canadian petroleum through the Keystone pipeline. So here we sit - every avenue towards generating energy partially or significantly blocked, except wind and solar, neither of which are scalable to meet the demands of a growing nation and economy. This isn't just a war on coal - it's a war on a forward-facing and technologically-driven society.

Big Government : Holder Math Part 2: DOJ Lays Trap to Misrepresent South Carolina Voter Data

Tue, 3 Jan 2012 22:55:10 +0000

Uh, you do understand that law has to be made by the State Legislature, not by one political party or the other, don't you?