John Kerry: Media Should Not Give Time to Tea Party

The left's elitist fallback position is authoritarianism and suppression of dissent, but you knew that already.

At The Blaze, "JOHN KERRY: MEDIA HAS ‘RESPONSIBILITY’ TO ‘NOT GIVE EQUAL TIME’ TO TEA PARTY." Also at Memeorandum.

Alternative Media is Today's Free Press

From George Scaggs, at Pajamas Media:

The rise of a new press is nothing less than an attempt to re-establish a free press — an essential component of a free society. Sadly, this too has also been misconstrued and confused in the public mind. In our modern age, everything is politicized precisely because government has involved itself in virtually all aspects of life. Having willingly assumed a supporting role in advancing the concept of government which infinitely expands in size and scope, big media has been a central player in this phenomenon.

Big media joins together with government, academia, and various corporate interests to constitute what Angelo Codevilla succinctly identified as “the Elite Ruling Class” in his prodigious essay on the subject.

This relatively minute class is adept at manipulating that plurality of Americans who have come to view the state as an entity that does “for them” rather than “to them,” creating a self-perpetuating momentum. Over time, modern society has become conditioned to adopt whatever this ruling class chooses to foist upon it. Anything goes, from light bulbs to TSA pat-downs.

Used as a tool to keep the whole sordid system propped up, one of big media’s primary roles is to simply parrot big government’s daily proclamations, aiding in creating the perception of omnipotence.

RTWT.

This reminds me of the John Hawkins debate on blogging. Bloggers help keep America free.

I might have more on this later today, but I'll be running around a bit. Hopefully soon though ...

A New Constitutional Understanding of War Powers?

Bruce Kesler takes Charles Krauthammer to task, quite effectively, at Maggie's Farm, "Krauthammer Goes From Frying Pan to Fire, and Misses the Point."

Tax Day Rallies in Mission Viejo and Oceanside — Stop Spending Money!

More than ever before, in over two years of tea party coverage, the theme of overspending was the rage yesterday in Mission Viejo and Oceanside. Sure, out-of-control spending was a major part of tea party protests against the 2009 stimulus package and ObamaCare, but the signage this year seemed even more focused on the spending equation. I think this woman's sign from Oceanside captures the day's meme:

There's some mainstream media coverage of yesterday's tea parties in Mission Viejo and Oceanside.

The Orange County Register has coverage of the Mission Viejo event, "Tea Party tax-day rally draws supporters." And for the Oceanside event, see San Diego Union-Tribune, "Two political rallies raise their voices in Oceanside," and North County Times, "OCEANSIDE: Dueling rallies held Friday." (And check Bruce Kesler's post on the media coverage, "Raising Taxes is “Nonpartisan”!")

Here's the scene at La Paz Road and Marguerite Parkway yesterday:

This is former Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who's running for county supervisor:

Here's Connie Lee, the event organizer. Love that Reagan shirt:

This was unusual, a confederate flag with "In God We Trust." We had nothing like this at the Irvine tea parties in 2009 and 2010, and I doubt this flag would be welcomed, given the likely media attacks on the group as "racist":

Folks might want to stay with this message, or Think Progress will be all over it:

Now, here's this from the Oceanside rally. The Union-Tribune notes, "The tea party rally, at the foot of the Oceanside Pier, attracted more than 1,500":

Ted Hayes, self-described "Black U.S. Citizen Patriot," was in the house. Folks might remember Ted from my coverage of the Arizona rallies last year:

Some of the tea partiers:

Some folks want Donald Trump to dump the Obama Chump:

Oceanside's hard to beat for beautiful tea party locations:

Here's the lady who wanted my picture with her tea party sign. That was also a first:

Here's the shot I'm talking about:

This guy was hard to miss. He obviously spoke for a lot of people:

More on that overspending theme:

Those signs read "Project 2012 - Vote." Folks talked a lot about November 2012, "the most important election ever" (again). People just want to get that sucker out:

Rick Roberts, a popular San Diego talk radio personality, gave the keynote speech. A great guy and a real patriot:

After things wound down, I headed out for a couple of beers with Left Coast Rebel, an Oceanside local and another true patriot. That's what's great about the tea parties: You're around people who love America.

I'll have more later ...

Added: Linked at Maggie's Farm and News Alert.

Assemblymember Donald Wagner's 'Taxpayers Caucus' Stands Firm for Tea Party Principles in Sacramento

I met Assemblyman Wagner a couple of times last year during the tea party events in the O.C. He's replaced Chuck DeVore in the legislature, and he's wasting no time in laying down a bedrock conservative agenda for the assembly session. I recall at the Republican Central Committee meeting I attended, in January 2010, local big shots were tripping over each other to see who'd be the most genuine anti-tax crusader. The O.C.'s still pretty conservative, in an overwhelming Blue State, so it was refreshing. And so is the news from Sacramento on Wagner's new "Taxpayers Caucus." See the Los Angeles Times, "California GOP group takes hard-line stance against tax hikes":

More than two-thirds of the Republicans in the Legislature took a hard-line stance Wednesday against Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan, forming a new group and pledging to block the governor's efforts to let voters extend tax hikes.

The unusual effort highlighted the deep partisan divisions in the statehouse as Brown and lawmakers race to pass a state spending plan. So far, 22 of the 27 GOP Assembly members and eight of the 15 GOP state senators have signed on to the new "taxpayers caucus."

At a news conference on the Capitol steps, Assemblyman Donald Wagner (R-Irvine), a co-chairman of the caucus, said the message to Brown was clear: "You're not getting Republicans to go for tax increases."

Brown has proposed deep cuts in state services and wants to ask voters to agree to extend for five years billions of dollars in sales, income and car taxes. The governor needs at least four GOP votes, two in the Assembly and two in the state Senate, to place a tax measure on the ballot.

Conservatives are already branding the group's nonmembers as potential GOP traitors. The two chairmen of the caucus, Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) and Wagner, went on the popular John and Ken radio show Wednesday as the conservative KFI-AM (640) duo posted phone numbers and photos of the non-signers and rallied listeners.

"You're going to see very intensified grassroots efforts" turning up the heat on nonmembers, said Jon Fleischman, an influential GOP blogger who attended Wednesday's news conference.

This is going to be interesting, especially since California is the nation's budget basket case. And Jerry Brown's playing for keeps on this. See the breaking update, "Gov. Jerry Brown tells legislators he will push for a $25-billion cut in California's budget unless voters OK tax extension."

RELATED: Check this column from progressive George Skelton, who makes the comparison between California and Wisconsin, "The pension haves vs. the have-nots":

A statewide poll in December by Democratic pollster Jim Moore found that 62% of likely voters — including 54% of Democrats — considered "the escalating cost to taxpayers" of public employee pensions to be a "very serious" issue.

In a January 2010 poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, 70% of likely voters — including 61% of Democrats —favored changing government retirement benefits from pensions to 401(k)-type plans.

The legislative analyst has suggested that the state consider adopting a "hybrid" retirement program that would include less generous "defined benefit" pensions combined with a "defined contribution" 401(k).

"In defined contribution programs," the analyst continued, pointing out something private-sector workers already are painfully aware of, "if the investment returns don't materialize, that risk is placed on the employee, not on the employer or the taxpayer."

Actually, free enterprise employees should be rooting for government workers in hopes that at least some retirement security can be retained in America.

Actually, that's the wrong takeaway here. Those "free enterprise employees" are also the taxpayers financing the public-sector. If the system's truly unsustainable, what matters most is economic growth creating a rising tide that lifts all boats and fattens investment portfolios. But like I said, it's going to interesting how things turn out.

What's Your Constitution IQ?

At ABC News, "Inside the Constitution: Your Government IQ."



I was going to be embarrassed if I blew this, LOL! But actually, I'm thinking about how well my students would do. That, and how well the progressives would do? They're all so smart and all. Not. Especially JBW. And butt-freak Thers.