THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

Yesterday I spoke to the Pima GOP ladies. Today I have the Pinal GOP ladies, in Saddlebrook, Arizona, near Tucson.

I said yesterday that I was not going to be covering President Obama’s newest self-indulgent waste of time. People who say I should be open-minded and just hear him out at some point should concede that he has had enough chances to speak. Nevertheless, hours driving in a car allowed for me to hear more than enough to determine that he is completely wasting our time.

When a liberal tells a conservative to “be bipartisan,” that liberal is really telling the conservative “shut up and agree with me.”

When people reject what the left offers, the left claims that their opponents are either evil or stupid.  Claims that they did not explain it right means that we are complete dolts too unsophisticated to grasp concepts. Claims that we have no interest in coming to the table attacks us as bad people when the truth is that dialogue is not the same as monologue.

Let’s start out with a basic premise that will anger conservatives. Barack Obama has every right to ram through his agenda. He won the election. He has healthy majorities in congress. If he rams through a left-wing agenda and we on the right dislike it, too d@mn bad. We lost the election and have to shut up and deal with it.

However, my objection with Mr. Obama is not that he wants to ram through an agenda I dislike. That is what elections are for. My problem with him is that he keeps telling us that he wants to be bipartisan. He doesn’t. He is an ideologue. He wants to govern from the left. I do not believe the right should refuse to deal with him out of spite. However, we have every right to refuse to deal with him until he starts speaking honestly.

Here is the truth, with a lowercase “t.”

Republicans did not block health care reform. Democrats did. The Democrats had a filibuster proof majority in the senate and could not get the job done. Again, there is absolutely nothing the Republicans could have done to block the bill. Failure to enact Obamacare is 100% the fault of the Democrats.

Barack Obama is not coming to the table because he is bipartisan. He knows that the Democrats are a bunched of undisciplined children that can’t govern. If they could, his bill would have become law.

The next truth is that Mr. Obama wants the Republicans to agree to his bill. He does not want to enact any Republican proposals.

Republicans favor legal reform. He is against it. His concern that legal reform would allow corporations to crush innocent victims is bogus. There can be a compromise legal reform bill that limits frivolous lawsuits while still allowing legitimate ones to go forward. Mr. Obama will not stand up to the trial lawyers.

Selling insurance across state lines would lead to competition, which is good. Mr. Obama is masterful at saying that Republican ideas should be “looked at,” which his way of pretending to acknowledge opposing views before completely discounting them.

Mr. Obama is even trying to revive the public option. Republicans do not want this.

So what is the solution?

I personally think Mr. Obama should try and ram his bill down our throats. Then when he fails, he and the Democratic Party should face the deserved humiliation, as they did with Hillarycare in 1994.

The Republicans should absolutely not cave in to this man.

Flash back to 1992. In a recession, Tom Foley and George Mitchell convinced President George Herbert Walker Bush to agree to raise taxes. Vice President Dan Quayle correctly pointed out that he would be breaking his word, ending his presidency.

President Bush gave a speech about how he hated to do it, but that he really wanted to work with the other side. The Jayson Blair Times praised him for compromising.

What was his reward? Foley and Mitchell and the rest of the Democrats called him a liar for breaking his “no new taxes pledge.” He was fired.

Politics are like the cartoon Peanuts. Democrats are Lucy, and Republicans are like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. How many times do we have to get fooled before we realize that the other side wants to bury us?

The Democrats screwed up health care reform. They desperately want Republicans to come on board so that if the bill fails, blame will be spread out.

Hell no. Let me say this again. Hell no.

President Obama keeps saying we have no ideas. We have plenty of ideas, and he keeps rejecting them. Either he adopts some of our recommendations, or he tries to pass a hyperpartisan bill on his own.

(Tomorrow I will explain WHY the Democrats cannot pass it on their own, and what is causing their own members to immolate themselves. It involves Barbara Boxer.)

Barack Obama keeps saying that the people want his bill. Therefore, he should pass his bill with his party and get all the credit if it succeeds. He is scared of blame, which tells me that he knows the people are not buying what he is trying to sell.

The left can cry and throw temper tantrums about GOP obstructionism, but it is a lie. They have the votes. They are too gutless and useless to do anything with the votes.

There is no need to talk anymore. It is a waste of time.

Meetings are useful when both sides are willing to listen and compromise. Mr. Obama wants face time in front of the camera in the hopes that the public will become weary with the Republicans and demand his bill be passed. This was the strategy that allowed Bill Clinton to defeat Newt Gingrich during the government shutdown of 1995.

Mr. Obama wants to talk everybody to death until the public says “enough already.” Then pressure will fall on Republicans to cave.

This cannot happen. Mr. Obama should not be rewarded for his own intransigence.

The bill is a bad bill. He refuses to change it. Having a meeting with the other side is not the same thing as taking concrete actions.

Mr. Obama did not definitely promise to put one GOP proposal into the bill or remove one liberal poison pill out of the bill.

He also promised to focus on jobs first, but he cannot let health care go.

He could sign a smaller bill eliminating restrictions on preexisting conditions. In 1994 Hillarycare collapsed, but after the GOP took over congress we got the Kennedy-Kassebaum portability bill. It was good legislation.

Barack Obama wants what he wants, and he will not stop until he is dragged kicking and screaming to the center.

Republicans should hold the line. If we can get Bill Clinton to agree to a balanced budget, we can get Barack Obama to move as well. He is mortal, despite his own visions of grandeur.

Hours and hours of wasted time accomplished nothing. Mr. Obama talked, blathered, lectured, and nothing changed.

Mr. Obama, either pass your own bill, or work with the Republicans.

Just stop talking. Nobody that matters believes you any more.

Enough already.

eric

I am not covering the Obama meeting with Republicans. I only cover actual news.

Yesterday had me in Yuma, Arizona. Today is Pima County, which contains Tucson. I am speaking to the Pima GOP ladies at lunch. I am in a rental car, and I can assure you, it is not a Prius.

As Priuses break down and cause carnage, congressional hearings are being held. In a vacuum, this would be fine. However, let’s be honest. Toyota has for so long been a far superior firm to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. I wonder if those companies will ever be called on the carpet. Given that Barack Obama own them, don’t bet on it. These hearings are a thinly veiled protectionism.

Having said that, I am not losing sleep over Toyota. If every Prius spontaneously combusted, the world would be a better place.

I admit it. I have Prius rage.

Every time I see a Prius, I want to pull the owner out of the car and give them a savage beating. I refrain from doing this because given that Priuses are driven by liberals, the chances of a minority driver would be sky high. Then it would be a hate crime.

The judge would never believe me that I did not pummel a guy because of his skin color, that it was really his car that provoked me.

Priuses are wrong on every level, and the world will be better when they are eradicated.

Let’s start with the aesthetics. The Prius is a hideously ugly car. Owners can make all the excuses they want, but they sound no different from people with ugly dogs, cats, or children. The car is ugly. It looks disgusting.

If that were the end of it, I would deal. It isn’t, so I won’t.

As the comedy South Park put it, Priuses are bad for the environment. They lead to an overdose of smug.

Not smog…smug. Prius drivers love letting everybody else know how morally superior they are. The car even has a chair position to make sure their noses are tilted high enough in the air for us all to bow down to.

These environmental phonies have no idea (or do know and don’t care) that the car does nothing for the environment. The battery alone leaves a bigger carbon footprint than anything else out there in a normal car.

What is it about hybrid owners that turns them into insufferable bores?

Why can’t hybrid drivers shut up and drive?

Even conservative Republicans get tough to listen to when they drive hybrids.

I love Sean Hannity. Yet he keeps mentioning his Escalade. Republican hybrid drivers are not braggarts. They are grovelers. It is their way of saying “please like me. I am not an evil Republican. I am a good person.”

Screw that. I say burn forests and build shopping malls.

(Whether I believe this is not the point. The issue is I refuse to say politically correct things. Either you like me or you don’t, but I am not going to kiss your politically correct @nus to win your worthless approval.)

Conservatives driving hybrids need to realize they will be hated no matter what. Stop talking about the hybrid. The left will never respect you under any circumstances.

Some will wonder why I have such hostility toward Prius drivers. Why can’t we all just live and let live?

Because they will never stop interfering with my life.

Here is the real crux of the issue.

If you want to be politically on the left, fine. Just get the ever loving blood hades out of the left lane.

I can’t stand it when I miss a light because the Prius in front of me is driving slow because they are busy taking time to smell the roses up their @nus.

Driving in the right lane does not make one politically conservative.

Yet instead of pulling to the right, they log up the left lane, with traffic congestion blending in with their own toxic self-satisfaction.

This is bad enough. Yet what really chaps my hide worse than Mistress Evil on a Saturday night is that Prius drivers get to use the diamond carpool lane. Why the hell should they get that privilege? Why should they get to their destination early while I am mired in traffic?

The carpool lane is for two or more drivers. It is not for government social engineering to play favorites. The reason why Prius drivers think they are better than everybody else is because the government tells them they are.

People driving ugly cars that hurt the environment and are now mechanically unsafe should not be given equal treatment, much less preferential treatment.

When I have the right to get from point A to point B without these obnoxious gasbags interfering with my right to move faster than an ice cream truck, then I will relent.

Let every Prius blow up until all the hope and change bumper stickers are off the road. May they blow up without the owners inside so that I am not accused of lacking compassion.

eric

At the 2010 Lake Havasu Lincoln Day Dinner, I had the pleasure of being the opening speaker before keynote speaker JD Hayworth.

Congressman Hayworth is running for the Arizona Senate seat currently held by John McCain.

(I am publicly neutral in the race. As is my custom, I do not get involved in primary fights, especially since in 49 states it is none of my d@mn business. I will support whoever wins the primary in the general election.)

I originally met Congressman Hayworth at the 2008 GOP Convention in Minneapolis. He was hosting his radio show. Yet two years later, he was not covering an event. He was the event.

Congressman Hayworth has angered many Republicans by taking on an American hero in a contested primary. Yet this is America, and he is exercising his freedom by running. He began his remarks by balancing the dichotomy of trying to replace a man that is universally praised as an American hero.

“There is never an easy or good way to take on this issue. Men like john McCain make it possible for all of us to even have disagreements.”

“This is not personal. We have disagreements in public policy.”

“Thankfully in America, we follow the political process. We decide elections with ballots, not bullets.”

“I take polite but profound exception to some of John McCain’s political decisions.”

“I supported John McCain for President in 2000. Yet the John McCain of 2000 is not the John McCain of 2010.”

“In the Fall of 2008, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke panicked. We were given the Chicken Little notion that the sky was falling. John McCain was part of the hysteria.”

“John McCain pointed out that I voted for an earmark dealing with money for snake eradication. John McCain also voted for that earmark.”

“A half-truth is the same thing as an outright fabrication.”

“I don’t believe that John McCain meant to mislead people. Yet with five million dollars on hand, he could afford to spend some of it and hire better researchers.”

“When it came time to bail out the mortgages, John McCain was standing next to and listening to Hillary Clinton. Anybody who is listening to Hillary Clinton is not listening to the people of Arizona.”

“John McCain joined Joe Lieberman to support cap and trade.”

“This year, when running for reelection, McCain left cap and trade to Lindsay Graham and John Kerry. Well which is it?”

“Many Senators love to raise taxes. I never operated the Capitol Hill version of H & R Block.”

“It is said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. Well the power to lower taxes is the power to employ. This was understood by Calvin Coolidge, JFK, Ronald Reaga, and George W. Bush.”

“With George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, I had an active hand in writing those tax cuts.”

“McCain called the Bush reductions tax cuts for the rich. Now he wants to vote to extend them even though he voted against them.”

“We should rename the Straight Talk Express the Double Talk Express.”

“We should provide two chairs for John McCain at his next town hall in case both John McCain’s show up.”

“Governments cannot create wealth.”

“Everything we need to learn about Barack Obama can be learned from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.”

“Justice on left means taking from the productive and giving to the idle.”

“Defending our borders and sovereignty is the job of our government.”

“John McCain supports comprehensive immigration reform, or as we call it, amnesty.”

“Border security is national security.”

“There is a securtiy threat and an invasion that must be stopped.”

“I respect John and his service, but four times enhanced interrogation techniques prevented another 9/11 style attack on us.”

“McCain is an enabler to dangerous Obama policies. McCain voted to confirm Eric Holder.”

“McCain voted to close Guantanamo Bay and bring them here. Illegals are not citizens of the United STates. Enemy combatants are not citizens. They have no rights confirmed upon them.”

“You can send a message on August 24th, 2010, in the primary.”

“I am not interested in reducing the rate of growth in spending. I want to cut spending.”

“Cut taxes, and enforcement first.”

“Some will set up a straw man saying that we cannot throw twenty million people out of the country. We don’t have to. When you enforce the law, people obey the law.”

“The Governor of Sonora is complaining that too many of his citizens are coming home. This is because Maricopa Sheriff Apaia is enforcing the law.”

“Sheriff Apaia is endorsing me.”

“This election is about John McCain and the Washington, DC establishment versus we the people. I proudly stand with you.”

As a man from California, I stand with Arizona Republicans and respect their decision. John McCain is a hero, but that is not what the election is about. JD Hayworth has fundamental policy disagreements with John McCain. The voters will decide who they trust going forward.

What I will say is that I judge people in how they behave when the cameras are off and nobody is watching. JD Hayworth did something nice for me that went far beyond his call of duty.

I could not find my car after the event. It was dark, I was driving a rental, and I have no sense of direction. He and one of his high ranking staffers spent more than a few minutes helping me find it. They had other places to be, and I am not even an Arizona voter.

Nevertheless, one of them walked with me while the other one checked other areas. Between the three of us, we found it.

Regardless of how the campaign turns out, I am grateful to have met him again, and thankful for his friendship. I wish him well in life always.

eric

Only three months after an Islamofascist murdered soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas has become the victim of a suicide bomber every bit as evil as the perpetrators of 9/11.

A 53 year old man named Joseph Stack took a plane and flew it into an office building containing  IRS workers.

This was an act of murder.

I am not interested in his manifesto. I don’t want to understand him. I don’t want to get to the root causes of why this happened. A madman engaged in an abominable act.

Like many, my heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones.

Regardless of where one is on the political spectrum, I implore my fellow Americans not to make this a political issue.

As a conservative, I am waiting to have thus guy linked to every right of center person or group on Earth.

Any moment now talk radio, tea party people, and conservative politicians will be blamed for this. Politicians who take strong anti-tax positions will be accused of fomenting anti-IRS hatred.

Every mainstream conservative had condemned what one awful man did.

This has nothing to do with people that feel that tax cuts spur economic growth, or that government spends too much.

There is zero correlation between wanting lower taxes and flying a plane into a building.

On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush made it clear the one billion Muslims were not to be blamed for the actions of 20 evil people. President Bush was right.

Well now the 50% of the country that is politically right of center should not be indicted for the actions of one man.

I am waiting patiently to see if the left will let this one go, or if they will exploit this tragedy and blame the right.

This act had nothing to do with politics, economics, or 1040 forms. It was one man who committed one tragic evil act.

To imply otherwise would be to justify evil.

Suicide bombers are evil. There is no political cause that justifies suicide bombers. Whether in Israel, Iraq, or Texas, murderers are murderers. No political or religious philosophy sanctions the murder of innocent life.

The only proper thing to do in this situation is pray to God that something like this never happens again.

eric