Hmm .... intelligent taxation and spending of federal money doesn't appear to sit on one side of the conservative-liberal continuum to me. You can talk about tax and spend liberals if you wish, but we have certainly seen our fill of borrow and spend conservatives in the last few years. Both are wrong. By politicizing the push to have our elected representatives use our tax money intelligently, we decrease the opportunity to make a change in DC. I'm just happy to see people spit up at the size and scope of this bailout, who they vote for doesn't interest me.
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Well I disagree, sort of, but let me preface that with this: I believe both the Democratic and Republican parties are taking us on a path to socialism. One is walking and the other is running.

I used to think of myself as a Republican but I don't anymore. I consider myself a conservative. There are Republicans who like to tax and spend, but they by definition cannot be called conservatives.

I don't want to turn this into any kind of us vs them rant or thread. I'm just glad to see people rejecting big government and big taxation. Rejecting these two things is IMO conservative. That's all I meant.
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Gotcha.

The thing about being fiscally conservative is that its simply the smart thing to do. Oh, the bums getting handouts may disagree, but the people paying for this mess certainly have better things to spend their money on than bailing out the lazy, the stupid, and the reckless.

I know I do ... and I'm pretty sure you do too.
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I have a wife and 2 kids of my own I have to support. I can't afford to support (as Ted Nugent calls them) pimps, whores, and welfare brats. Don't get me wrong I have an uncle who is physically disabled and can barely move around. I have no problem with a program to help assist people like him. Most Americans probably wouldn't either. That's not what we're talking about here.

It's about responsibility. Personal and corporate responsibility. Welfare and programs like it circumvent personal responsibility. Bailouts circumvent corporate responsibility. Government loans are a little different. I'm not a fan, but I understand the idea. I'm a little more open to it when a company's international competition get government subsidised loans and don't pay for healthcare costs.

That said, I'm am conservative socially and fiscally. I believe the majority of our country is middle of the road or even somewhat liberal socially, but I believe most Americans are fiscally conservative. This puts most of them into Libertarian territory. Unfortunately the Libertarian party has some really bad platforms they need to drop/fix before they get any serious considerations from the masses. It's too bad because I'd sure vote for a Libertarian before I'd vote for a social and fiscally liberal candidate. Anyway, now I'm rambling...
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very well put..... could not have said it better. :-)

The last 8 year (6 of which the republicans had 2 branches of government) were the preamble to what is going on now. So its a tax, borrow, and spend issue not a party issue.

“Principled compromise is the lifeblood of democracy and those who seek principled compromise to advance their state and their nation are doing what the voters want,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). WTF, compromising your principals is what has gotten us into this mess.
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I attended a Tea Party last night. The news reported that a few hundred people were in attendance. Sadly this was severely understated....there were about 6K in attendance. Talk about a liberal biased media.
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Contrast the dinosaur media's coverage of the illegal marches last year to the tea parties. Tells you all you need to know!
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Great Point!!! I forgot about that.
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Preach it brother!

My brother in law went last night, and I was going to go as well, but volleyball was calling my name. Played well, the wife gave me 'the look' and motioned for me to slow down my serve when a woman's nose was nearly/probably bloodied. Woops :-)

Anyway, he said it was a great event and was pleased to see so many turun out (West Palm Beach, FL).
Today he IM'd a couple links,
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/1...f-tea-parties/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQbNaXJ8Pw
What liberal media bias? :-) Someone did some serious digging to find the footage in the second clip.
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Image

I went and it was very inspirational
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nice one james:-)
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Please don't take this the wrong way because I am not busting your balls or calling you out, but until the problem becomes more important than playing volleyball, it will not change. :-)

We are all guilty of, someone else will be there or take care of it from time to time, and the machine chugs along out of control until its epidemic and hard to reverse. If people would only have to write a check on the 1st of each month for all the tax they will pay for the whole month, the tax and spend era would come to a halt.

Chas
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How right that is... I even had a lady (30ish) that at the tea party on Wednesday told me she was 'not paying taxes but got a refund' I politely asked if she would give me an income range she was in and she said single and making in the 80's. I explained that she did pay taxes and a heck of a lot of them. She just deposited her money in an non-interest bearing account the gave her a small portion of her own money back on April 15th. I told her to look at her return to find the true amount she paid in. I hope she does because my rough guess would be 12 to 15k.
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My daughter throws a mean tea party some times more than once a day. I have to say I am a bit worried about some of the attendees but so far there has only been some yelling and an occasional biting.
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This is one of the biggest problems we have to overcome in order to avoid turning into the Soviet Union; ignorance. So many people have no clue what our constitution says, what rights they have, that we live in a republic not a democracy, how our socialist progressive tax works, or how quickly socialism can kill a thriving county's spirit.

Entitlement is out of control too. People think it's the government's job to provide housing, transportation, college education, healthcare, garaunteed employment, and money during retirement. I'm sorry but that's not what made our country great. Opportunity and Freedom is what made our country great. People have been dying to get here for over 200 years because of the freedom to enjoy the fruits of their own labor; not so they could become dependent and let the government provide for them. If people wanted that they could stay in the USSR, Cuba, China, or Europe.

Don't believe the myth that socialism or communism can eradicate poverty. The Soviet Union proved that. Cuba is a fine example now. It doesn't eradicat poverty, it multiplies poverty. Rather than having a small percentage of the population in poverty, 90% of the country is piss poor. Even today large portions of the former Soviet Union still do not have indoor plumbing. My wife lived there for 6 years and you wouldn't believe the stories she can tell.
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