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I grew up as the second of six siblings. My parents were absolute geniuses at molding natural sibling rivalry into six sets of well-honed competitive instincts. We were taught that if someone's keeping score, then winning's important, and you either play to win (within the rules of the game) or don't bother playing; full-contact euchre is a regular event at family get-togethers. We also were taught how to be both considerate winners and gracious losers, and that once the final score is on the board, you shake hands, go have a beer, and get over it. My three now-adult children were taught the same concepts, as were most of my two-and-a-half-dozen-or-so nieces and nephews (including the in-laws).
It would appear, however, that the GoverNerd never learned the same lessons. If you can tolerate listening to all of the logical fallacies and factual misrepresentations, the money quotes start at about 5:01, 11:17, 21:47, 22:24, and 23:19.
We're a shade under two weeks from the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1st thru 3rd). And as I was mulling over what I've learned about the Michigan Senate Republican Caucus this week, one track of my mind started comparing what's expected to happen on the senate floor today to the final Confederate assault of the battle, popularly referred to as "Pickett's Charge." Without overly belaboring the analogy, I think it appropriate.
"Urgent: getting this information to activists depends on folks sharing this. Please help.
Currently (1:37 a.m.) all of the websites for Republican State Senators are down. This is very curious considering the democrat sites are all working and the fact that not having email or a contact form will disenfranchise a lot of people, greatly reducing the number of grassroots activists who contact their legislators.
Today, massive numbers of limited government activists will be trying to contact their senators to tell them to vote no on ObamaCare.
As House Bill 4714 (2013) was rapidly transitioning from "read a second time" to "substitute H-3 adopted and amended" to "placed on third reading" to "read a third time" to "placed on immediate passage" to "passed; given immediate effect" . . . yes, transitioning just that quickly (the proof starts on page 24 of House Journal # 59) . . . I was in conversation with, among others, Dara Bailey (Vice President & National Vetting Director of iCaucus National). She offered to commit national resources to help the liberty-minded network in Michigan do what needs to be done to visit political punishment on every single legislative turncoat next summer. All that we need to do as a statewide movement is to use Joanie's screencap of 2013 House Roll Call # 241 as a motivator to set aside our nationally infamous internecine squabbling, and work as a cohesive machine toward a larger goal.
It's by now quite obvious that there are wayyy too many people occupying either publicly-elected office or party-elected internal office that still don't understand a key concept of the liberty movement, grassroots conservatives, and tea party network (committed to principled cause first, and loyal to a political party only to the extent that the party serves the purpose of the cause). The arm-twisting associated with the passage in the House of 2013 House Bill 4111 (which still sits "on the table" in the Senate, according to Thursday's calendar), and the heavy-handed bifarceisanship and lobbyist nonsense that we're seeing leveraged in an attempt to accomplish the passage of 2013 House Bill 4714, (which, as of Thursday's House calendar, has been reported to the House floor for a second reading) seems to indicate that some politician paper training is still in order.
