Great Satan, Inc.

So you’ve slept off the Slurpee hangovers, given some high-fives, and perhaps done some gloating on Facebook or Twitter.  Now what?

I think Arizona talk radio station KFYI’s Mike Broomhead said it best.  NOW IS WHEN THE WORK BEGINS.

It’s feet to the fire time, folks.  The politicians (on both sides) got elected because they promised us the moon and stars, cuter puppies and a major decrease in spending and government intrusion.  They made these promises to get our votes, and while I would bet the farm they don’t expect us to hold them to it, we have to keep the pressure on.

We need to remind incumbent and newly elected politicians alike that the “work” they did to convince us to vote for them was merely a prelude to what we expect them to do for us on a daily basis.  I’m sure your boss expects you to do the work you’ve been asked to do,  so why should we expect anything less of our politicians?

The voters, TEA Party candidates, and newly elected Republicans ALL have to prove that they aren’t doing business as usual. They need to show us that they are not the same as the “bums” we just threw out.

Note to politicians:  we’ll be watching you.  If you show us that you’re all talk and no action, y’all are outta there in 2012.

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Dear Senator McCain,

My friend, we are friends aren’t we? You’ve used the phrase “my friends” again and again during your recent Presidential campaign. Since we’re friends, I’ll just call you John. Please let me start again, taking our friendship into consideration.

Dear John,

Thank you for your service to our country. I could never truly fathom the depths of hell you went through during your time as a P.O.W. Your story of perseverance in the face of adversity is compelling.

Following your return to civilian life, I’ve had my differences with your positions on quite a few matters. I’ve had my differences with others too, including the New York Times’ assertion that you are the Maverick ™ Senator from Arizona, as well as the belief held by some, that you are uniquely more qualified to make my decisions than I am.

Dear John, as a candidate for President, you refused to run negative ads about your Democratic opponents. Strangely, your campaign staff had no problem running a negative whisper campaign against your own running mate, Governor Sarah Palin. I know I was slow to get in line behind you until Governor Palin was selected, but I was thoroughly flummoxed by a campaign strategy that had your staff trashing your running mate. Perhaps, someday, you can help me understand the brilliance of this strategy.

Strangely, you’ve had no qualms about running attack ads against fellow Republicans. In fact, you’ve run attack ads against Republicans who aren’t even running for office. Just the other day, one of your commercials claimed that local radio personality and former Arizona Representative J.D. Hayworth wasn’t a “real conservative”, while noting how much government overspending occurred under his watch. Unfortunately, that spending was under your watch too, and even larger amounts have been spent after Mr. Hayworth returned to Arizona, while you’ve remained in D.C.

Dear John, while we’re talking about negative campaigns, I see that you’ve developed a set of … radio ads that declare you are leading the fight against a President on a “far left crusade” out to destroy the United States of America. One could assume that this fight would be against; big spending bailouts, damaging reforms done in the name of health care, illegal immigration to insure the safety and job security of Americans, dependence on foreign oil, and a crippling Cap-and-Trade tax scheme to “solve” Global Warming. Unfortunately, these left-of-center positions are actually your Presidential campaign planks, positions you just happen share with President Obama. It is difficult for a mere citizen to see how you could possibly win this fight against your own positions.

Dear John, your stance on border enforcement issues highlights your representation of Arizona. Your prior amnesty based stance included a distasteful belief that those who want effective immigration enforcement reform and detest living with the devastating consequences of a porous, insecure, open border, aren’t as enlightened you are. Your aristocratic view shows just how Maverick ™ you really are. While you’ve lived in Washington, my hometown of Phoenix has become the second most likely place in the world to be kidnapped. I know you don’t want your constituents to appear xenophobic or receive special earmarks recovering the costs of an ineffective Federal border policy, but people are still suffering due to D.C. inaction.

Dear John, you’ve talked about how you were, “elected to change Washington” and “let Washington change” you. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, my friend. You have had over 25 years to change Washington. The “change” thing hasn’t worked out so well. I believe it’s time for you to take a term off from office, relax and spend some quality time in Arizona while you try to undo the changes Washington has made to you. I think a long vacation in Arizona is a change that would do you well.

Respectfully,
An Average Arizona Voter

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As promised, here is the complete set of photographs that were taken at the Tax Day Tea Party in Phoenix on April 15th, 2009.

To view an image, click on it, and a new window will appear in front of this one.  From there, you can scroll through the images with the arrows on the bottom, or just click on the image, and you should return back to this page.

[Show slideshow]

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If anything goes wonky on this page, just let me know, and I’ll try to fix it.

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Which is ironic since she claims to be a comedian.

If you are fortunate enough to have missed Janeane Garofalo’s latest bats**t crazy rant on MSNBC, you can see it at Olbermannwatch.com, along with some great commentary by my favorite late night show, Red Eye.

Being called a “redneck and a “racist” by her doesn’t make me angry, it makes me laugh. She’s been a joke for a long time, and this latest nonsense just makes her even less credible (like the CNN reporter at the Tea Party) and more of a joke than ever before. A sad, pushing fifty but trying to look twenty, unattractive on the inside and out joke.

Anyone that calls a group of people rednecks, and in the same breath accuses said rednecks of being racist can not possibly be taken seriously. I’m not exactly sure which combination of mental illnesses she suffers from (NPD for one), but one of the symptoms is obviously cognitive dissonance.

Another reason to not be upset is the drivel she spews isn’t meant for me, it’s meant for the Elvis Factor, the “enlightened” that congregate at the Starbucks the next day over lattes and talk to hear their own voice, but never listen.

So, here’s to you Janeane – I’m not laughing with you, I’m laughing at you.

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The Tax Day Tea Party brought several thousand people to Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza today. It was impossible to get a count of the attendees, as we saw a steady stream of people both arriving and leaving for the two hours that we were at the event. I’m thinking there were ten thousand there easily.

A very large group of people crammed into an area in front of the Capitol Building where politicians, concerned citizens and radio and TV hosts were speaking. It was so crowded in that area that we were never able to actually see who was speaking, so we chose to mill around the crowd and take some photos for your viewing pleasure.

We’ll be writing more about the event itself within the next few days, but I wanted to leave you with the best quotes of the day:

A woman holding a sign in one hand and a cell phone to her ear:

I’m standing in front of the capitol with fifty thousand other people and they all hate Obama.

This one is our favorite:

If I would have known that protesting would be this much fun, I would have done it in the ’60’s instead of starting to protest in my sixties.

Some general crowd shots:

Just some of the many clever and creative signs (we’ll post more later):

We would like to dedicate this one to the exurbanleague.com guys:

I’ll post some more tomorrow, but I’ll leave you with this one. I haven’t decided what is more humorous – seeing “hippies” at the Tea Party, or the camera crew grabbing them out of the crowd and making a fuss over them. I might normally say that they got lost on their way to a Phish concert, but they did have Tea Party signs :

P.S. – If you didn’t already know it, Arizona is a beautiful place:

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