Comment Decorum

We’ve been getting a few complaints over the past few weeks about a number of regular commenters here, both liberal and conservative, and  so, before we start banning people left and right I want to offer this post as an advisory notice for everyone to keep things at a respectful tone. Seriously.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Its been a long time in coming, boys and girls, and we’ve tried to be nice about it. But it has got out of hand. I just wanted to throw my two cents in and, also, be right out there saying that I’m in on this, too. Polite. Calm. Say the serenity prayer before you come in. Whatever it takes.

St. Cloud, MN Tea Party a Rousing Success!

I really didn’t know what to expect when I attended the teaparty in my home town today, but what I found was clearly a pleasant, and somewhat overwhelming surprise!

Details, including pictures and video, at The Ice Palace.

Tax Day Tea Party Open Thread

Unfortunately, I have to work – to pay those taxes which keep Obamunism going strong, so you know how happy I am today. Report and discuss here the Tea Party events of the day. We’ll update as we can.

UPDATE: Instapundit has the round up – seems that huge crowds showed up all around the nation. Given the numbers I’ve heard, I’ll bet that a million or more Americans – on a Wednesday made up of people who have jobs and real lives – showed up nation wide.

Now we just need to bring 5 million Americans to DC….

Marilyn Chambers, RIP

An infamous performer in pornographic films:

Marilyn Chambers, 56, the onetime Ivory Snow model who became the star of the pornographic film “Behind the Green Door,” a salacious sensation that helped hard-core movies find a mass audience and a measure of public acceptance, was found dead April 12 at her home in Santa Clarita, Calif.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office was planning to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Foul play was not suspected.

At 19 she entered the pornography business and went on and on and on with it…and then there’s this bit:

Two years ago, Ms. Chambers told the Providence Journal that the adult-film business “chews women up and spits them out. It’s a business I’d never want my daughter to be in.”

Yes, indeed. Pity it took her that long to figure it out.

Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

Disenfranchising Military Voters

No surprise, the State is governed by Democrats:

If election officials started disenfranchising minority voters at a rate of 80%, headlines would scream on the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, as would civil rights leaders. And rightly so.

However, when those being disenfranchised are military voters, the media and the traditional civil rights establishment give a collective shrug. I posted a story on April 2 about the shameful behavior of the New York Election Board and the inadequate actions of the Department of Justice in protecting military voters in New York’s 20th district congressional race.

Yesterday was the deadline for the receipt of completed absentee ballots from military voters—ballots that had been mailed out too late by local election officials. The Election Board has posted a chart showing that 998 absentee ballots were sent to military voters, yet only 205 were returned in time to be counted.

There is no doubt many more would have been returned if New York had been forced to take other steps to remedy their late mailing of absentee ballots. For example, the state could have been required to pay for international express service for the return of voted ballots. That didn’t happen. The resulting low voting rate among service members can be partly attributed to the failure of state and federal officials to carry out their responsibilities to comply with and enforce the federal statute that guarantees the rights of all military personnel to vote.

Remember the rule, guys: “Count every vote” means “count every vote which helps a Democrat, even if you have to count it a dozen times”. If you’re even possibly going to vote GOP, then counting your vote falls in importance to somewhere below investigating Obama’s ties to Ayers. We can expect more and more of this as time goes on – Democrats are determined to win and they don’t care how they do it. The ultimate reason for this is that Democrats believe that if everyone was being sensible and not bitterly clinging to God and guns (you know how those service members are…they have guns and, my goodness, a lot of them pray), they’d vote Democrat…so, its ok to disenfranchise them because its in their best interest.

Its going to be a long, nasty fight to get these Democrats out of power.

Obama Administration Figuring American People Are a Threat?

If this report (PDF) is accurate. To quote:

(U//LES) The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment…

…(U//FOUO) The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.

The report goes on to note that people who hold anti-abortion opinions – ie, me – are primarily hate-orientated and thus a threat.

If this is a correct report – in other words, if this is a real DHS report – then this is the first shot of Civil War II. President Obama must investigate and if this report is found to be accurate, those who prepared it must be removed from their positions in government. We cannot tolerate that we on the right be considered potential terrorists merely for being opposed to gun control or abortion.

UPDATE: Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) stands for the Constitution.

UPDATE II: Please don’t read this subversive, right wing, hate-filled, anti-government document.

Surge In Tax Delinquency Widens Obama's Pool For Cabinet Nominees

Reuters reports an increase in first time tax delinquents as a result of the current recession.

As a deep recession strips Americans of their jobs, homes and investments, the 2009 U.S. tax season promises to see a large uptick in first-time delinquent income taxpayers.

“Our calls are up 280 percent,” said Richard Boggs, founder and chief executive of Los Angeles-based Nationwide Tax Relief, a firm that helps delinquent taxpayers resolve tax issues.

“We’ve seen a huge rise in what we call the rookie delinquent taxpayer,” he said. “They are incredibly scared, and they have no idea what’s going to happen to them because, God bless them, they’ve never owed before.”

The IRS, according to the story, “vowed to show its gentler side this year.” You think? The economy aside, with so many tax delinquents in or nominated for Obama’s cabinet, it would be hypocritical for the government to say it is okay for the Secretary of Treasury to be a tax delinquent, while throwing the book at middle-class taxpayers who are late to pay their taxes.

Of course, they can always just apply for a job in the Obama administration.

Sebelius Hid Level of Pro-Abortion Support

Guess we can at least say she isn’t proud to be a backer of the Culture of Death:

President Barack Obama’s health secretary nominee, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, got nearly three times as much political money from an abortion doctor as she told senators.

In response to questions from the Senate Finance Committee, Sebelius wrote that she received $12,450 between 1994 and 2001 from one of the nation’s few late-term abortion providers, Dr. George Tiller.

But records reviewed by The Associated Press show that Tiller gave at least $23,000 more from 2000-2002 to a political action committee that Sebelius established while state insurance commissioner to raise money for fellow Democrats.

The Health and Human Services Department said Monday that the omission was an oversight Sebelius would correct.

Omission? Yeah, whatever – seems like a lot of Democrats have a lot of omissions they have to correct these days.

Perceiving Obama's Weakness

I know our liberals are still all aglow with love and devotion for The One, but the rest of the world is taking the measure of the man, and its having some disturbing effects:

North Korea said on Tuesday it saw talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme as “useless” and it planned to restart a plant that makes arms-grade plutonium, state media quoted its Foreign Ministry as saying.

The comments came in response to the U.N. Security Council unanimously condemning North Korea’s long-range rocket launch nearly two weeks ago as contravening a U.N. ban, and demanding enforcement of existing sanctions against Pyongyang.

“We will actively consider building our own light-water nuclear reactor, will revive nuclear facilities and reprocess used nuclear fuel rods,” KCNA news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

Why do this? Because the North Korean leaders figure that no matter what they do, the world community as led by Obama will not take any action which would actually harm North Korea. There’s no downside to re-starting the nuke program, and the upside could be a new agreement whereby American money and supplies prop up the NK regime…until NK figures it should up the ante and does something else which will bring America to the table to sign away yet more concrete resources in return for yet more paper promises.

Now, Obama can cut the Gordian knot here by hitting the NK leadership – a aerial attack on something NK’s leaders care about would signal them that our intentions are serious, that while the new day in American foreign policy means we’re willing to talk, it doesn’t mean we’re willing to talk to people who just violated the last agreement we made. Obey the current agreement and we can talk about modifying it in a mutual manner…unilaterally renounce the agreement, and it will cost you.

Will Obama do any such thing? I doubt it – like all liberals, he has this basic ignorance which can best be characterized as a lack of understanding of the concept of Original Sin. So, we’ll either back-burner this, or come to some sort of bogus agreement…anything to get us off the hook at least through the next election cycle.

Another Sacrifice for the Good of the Collective?

With my son having a rare genetic bone disorder, we have often utilized the expertise available at Minneapolis Shriner’s Children’s Hospital. The care there is top notch, and they are tops at what they do. Nowhere else can one find more competent care with regard to children’s orthopedic issues, burn issues, and other muscular-skeletal maladies. And most of all, treatment there is of absolutely no charge to its patients.

Bruce Thompson at American Thinker brings some bad news:

The Shriners Children’s Hospitals, which have provided free medical care to children, may be closing many of their facilities. The endowment supporting these facilities have fallen in value from $8 billion to 5 billion, with income also down sharply. Supporting current operations is reportedly drawing down the endowment further at a pace of $1 million a day, according to AP.

And if President Obama gets his wish with limiting deductions wrt charitable contributions, the future of Shrine Hospitals looks even more bleak:

The Obama administration proposal to reduce the tax deductibility of charitable donations makes the future dim for these, and many other worthy charitable endeavors, whose funding basis has been devastated.

Indeed. But it would appear that through greatly decreasing and/or eliminating charitable deductions altogether, the socialist Obama administration plans to bleed private charities dry, thereby leaving the government to step in and take up the slack; this would by necessity not only grow government, but increase its power and influence over others to the point where Big Government will be the be-all, and the end-all, womb-to-the-tomb abomination.

‘Charitable functions’ will be an exclusive function of the government, and as thus will cease to be charity, as charity itself has a voluntary component.

So, Obama voters, how do you like your ‘brave new world’ now?