Tom always does a great job with his essays but this one is especially poignant. 



Video streaming by Ustream 

Tea and Rolls - A Tea Party Blog Roll: Welcome!

Tea and Rolls - A Tea Party Blog Roll: Welcome!: "Welcome to 'Tea and Rolls' Blog Roll, a place for tea party bloggers to share and read what each is writing. Keep in mind, the opinions expressed in each of the blogs listed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of either the Worcester Tea Party or the local tea party group the author is affiliated with.
The success of the Tea Party movement is based on individuals, each with their own ideas and opinions, who through rational debate, come to consensus. This blog roll promotes this and allows anyone to read the various opinions.
If you would like to add your blog to this list, please email me imjustmusing@aol.com and I and the Blog Roll Committee will be more than happy to add you. Okay, there really isn't a blog roll committee, but it sounded good. We only ask that you be a supporter of the Tea party movement.

Thank you for stopping by and come back again!

Paul Roy"

The Income Tax Increase is Coming!

The Income Tax Increase is Coming!
The Income Tax Increase is Coming!

Legislators in Massachusetts are planing on raising our state Income Tax to 5.95% from 5.3%. Previously the people of Massachusetts voted to return our Income Tax to it's historical rate of 5%. In November 964,210 Massachusetts voters saw through the fear campaign and voted to reduce our Sales Tax to 3%. Many of those that voted against lowering our Sales Tax believed that lowering that it would require raising our Income Taxes. We argued that voting against lowering the Sales tax would be seen as a green light for raising taxes. We are now seeing that prediction come true.

There are where hearings about this travesty held in Marlborough, read the press accounts here:
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1934472439/Eldridge-calls-for-higher-taxes-on-wealthy

Mr. John Niewiecki attended that meeting and his thought on this issue are published here:
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-boston/everyone-give-me-more-give-me-more-says-massachusetts-legislature?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Friends, Neighbors, Voters of the Commonwealth ask yourselves if can you afford to pay 12% more for the State Government? If you are like me there is no money I can spare. My family pays enough. Call your Legislators and demand that they stop the Income Tax Increase and cut the waste in State government. You can find out their contact information here:
http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php

Otherwise, The Income Tax Increase is Coming!
The Income Tax Increase is Coming!

The Abuse of Power by the TSA.

You may have heard some stories about how TSA agents grope and fondle fliers in a misguided attempt to foil terrorists. You can listen to the conversations of a man trying to fly from San Diego International Airport and the TSA thugs. It’s chilling.



You can read entire account at this gentleman's blog:

http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/2010/11/these-events-took-place-roughly-between.html

As of today our Nation has changed utterly. We are not the Nation of free people we once were. No longer are we "...the land of the free and home of the BRAVE!" This level of brutal unthinking is beyond acceptance. How does the TSA reconcile what they are now doing with the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution.

Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

All Patriotic Americans please send comments about this to the TSA Comment page.

https://contact.tsa.dhs.gov/DynaForm.aspx?FormID=20

God Bless America!

Franklin Roosevelt -Second Bill of Rights

A Progressive from central Mass posted this video clip on his blog with this request:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed shortly before he died a Second Bill of Rights. This was his vision. Watch this video, Tea Party members, and explain which "rights" you think are unreasonable for American citizens.

My short answer is that President Roosevelt engaged in hyperbole and no “new Rights” are spoken of. FDR was speaking to a nation that was in the middle of a horrifyingly brutal war. Every day families learned that sons would not be coming home. As our President he wanted to encourage us that this sacrifice was worth it, that the world could be remade better, fairer, and happier. FDR was a progressive and he saw it as his role to hasten in this better age of social justice. He believed that it was inevitable and was not concerned that it was contradictory to our nations founding principles. What follows is a point by point rebuttal of FDR's Second Bill of Rights. I am not equating myself with President Roosevelt. But I will always be quick to defend the values of the Tea Party movement.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. This passage reveals some of the Progressive blinders that inhibited FDR. Much of the world’s people still bear the yoke they accepted when Marxism was believed inevitable. Generations have suffered want and death because of that misbegotten ideology. Why? Because they gave up individual freedom and independence for an illusion of economic security. Freedom creates economic security; that is why today South Koreans have 20 times the GDP per capita of North Koreans.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed. Many people are all too ready to believe that now is completely different from all previous time. That today is the product of a stead progression in society. Sadly that is not true. FDR sees a false dichotomy between economic freedom and political freedom. With the quote from the Declaration of Independence, he attempts to lend familiarity this proposal and to cast it as a current reality. By emphasizing “all” he tries to distract the listener from the most controversial part of this proposal. He is not suggesting that the Government relinquish its control and stop inhibiting our peoples’ economic freedom. FDR is proposing a complete government take over of our economy.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; Every American will be guaranteed a job. No matter your skills or talents, you industry your initiative or your personal choice you will have a job. You will report to your job. You must do what you are told to do. If the state needs ditches dug, you will dig. If the state does not need the art you make then you cannot be allowed to make it.

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; So your full time job will pay a “Living Wage”. The job that you are assigned will give you that salary. Not that you earn it. You will receive it by government fiat. Today that might be as much as $33,075.00 per year for a family of four. That is 150% of the National Poverty rate. It really does not matter how much money you receive because a government agency will determine it is “adequate.” 1900 calories a day is “adequate food.” Blue jeans and white tee shirts is “adequate clothing.” Watching Howard Zinn’s “A Peoples History of the United States” on NPTV is “adequate recreation”.

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; With the wage controls mentioned above there would need to be price controls. Apples will cost a quarter. But as we have seen in Soviet Russia, there will be scarcity of apples. And hunger will increase.

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; This is straight out of George Orwell. Having your business owned by the state is not freedom.

The right of every family to a decent home; Those that build homes must do so until every family has one. It must be the same as every other home and our flag must be flown on all the occasions that you are told to do so. You have the right to occupy the home but it can not be yours because what would happen if you choose to sell it? Then you would be with out a decent home and would we have to build you another one?

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; FDR suffered from polio as did my father. At the time of this speech he was suffering from influenza. But “adequate medical care” does not confer the “opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health". I could write an entire post about my own interactions with the medical community. But I would say one can see “adequate medical care” by going to any city and find where the old that rely on Medicare and Social Security are sent. I visit such a place frequently. I would prefer to go to MCI Shirley, I know the guards there care about the prisoners more.

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; see above

The right to a good education; This is another instance that the qualifier is important. Would the people of Massachusetts accept the education that they have in Mississippi? But the Federal Dept of Education has not shut Mississippi schools down because they are inadequate.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being. If you believe that human happiness is a new goal and you are not suffering from teenaged angst: seek help. Since Adam and Eve left the garden, people have searched for Happiness. But all that combined history must be ignored because now we will have Happiness by law. We will all enjoy wellness. Great news now I am a garbage man but the leader says I happy.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world. This statement is a reversal of what was being said before we entered the war. But think about what FDR sees as the alternative to his new bill of rights; bloody revolution and another world war.

In the years since this speech was made it has been held up by many progressives as a road map for their vision of America. Michael Moore included it in his movie about capitalism. They are sure if we enact these “New Rights” we will all be not just better off but Happy. Because of that they see no problem with cutting corners or subverting the political process in any way. After all, they are giving you happiness. It brings to mind a recent quote from House Speaker Pelosi, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.” Progressives are making a mistake when they reduce human existence to the role that one plays in their endless class-struggle drama.

Happiness is more than a matter of economics or politics. People are much more than that. If it were so simple then no one would take drugs, husbands wouldn’t cheat on their wives, and children wouldn’t be abused. All of human suffering would have come to an end in the first half of the last century. Of course suffering is still with us. Progressives seem willfully blind to the human desire for freedom. Freedom is the core value of the Tea Party Movement. Free to become what you wish to be. Freedom to work how you want to work. Freedom to play when you can. Freedom to create what you want to create. Freedom works wherever it has been tried.
Because of the power of video, I will conclude with an old Disney video that shows that Walt got it, he knew why we were fighting the Nazis.

The Ninth 9/11

by Daniel Pipes
September 11, 2010
Cross-posted from National Review Online

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/09/the-ninth-9-11

As September 11 comes around each year, those of us who focus on radical Islam inevitably ask whether the lessons of 9/11 have sunk in – or whether they are fading as the event itself becomes a memory. Are we, in other words, progressing or regressing in what once was called the war on terror?

In contrast to a conventional war, in which objective markers such as control of territory or the output of steel indicate trends, in this new kind of war one must look to subjective factors like understanding the enemy or pride in one's own civilization. How, on this slippery basis, does the United States stand on the ninth 9/11?

On the plus side, about half of the population – basically the conservative half – has made substantial progress. It has done everything from read the Koran to volunteer for combat in Afghanistan. A speech by Newt Gingrich in July with an informed discussion of "a struggle with radical Islamists in both their militant and their stealth form," symbolizes this increase in awareness.

On the minus side, the liberal half and the establishment it inevitably controls, from government to media to the academy to the arts, has become ever more determined to ignore the religious aspect of the war and instead reduce it to counterterrorism and economics. Eric Holder's buffoonish Congressional testimony in May, when he time and again refused to acknowledge any role for radical Islam, symbolizes this obduracy. Worse, liberals hamstring defense attempts by labeling these "Islamophobism" and "racism."

Combining this contrary evidence, I conclude that the lessons of 9/11 seemed obvious but in fact were deep and subtle; therefore, drawing fully those implications will take decades. Fortunately, that process is underway. Unfortunately, it may be going too slowly to achieve victory.

This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

Account Blocked

I wish to have it known that my account at LGF has been blocked. For longer than I can remember I have followed Charles Johnson's blog. Many times have I posted articles from his site on Digg and I will continue to follow his work. It is his choice whom he allows to have an account and who he does not. Mr. Johnson has not informed me why my account was blocked, but I assume it is because I am an advocate for the Tea Party movement. My advocacy took the form of giving minuses to his posts about the 9/12 rally. I took part in a satellite rally and saw none, I repeat none, of the ugly images or racism that he has given much space to on his blog. That he honestly believes that the people in the tea party movement are racists hurts me personally.