A Nascent Political Career Gets Underway!

Your intrepid Peasant recently received some exciting news!
A famous entertainer, with whom I am personally acquainted,
who happens to be a staunch and unabashed conservative in
a field which is hostile territory to conservatives has declared
her candidacy for public office!

Victoria Jackson, of Saturday Night Live fame, has tossed her
hat, or perhaps I should say her bow, into the ring to become
a candidate for Williamson County Commissioner. Her county
is in the state of Tennessee, close to Nashville. Jackson filed
as an independent, as she has publicly stated her disappointment
with the Republican Party and had left the GOP some time ago.
She is a Tea Party activist, and has appeared on some Tea Party
tours giving speeches and meeting the throngs turning out.
Jackson will face the Republican nominee, who will be chosen
by the Williamson County GOP on May 6.

Your faithful Peasant avers that Victoria Jackson has the courage
of her conservative convictions, as she has proven in working in
liberal territory for a long time, and not having compromised her
political principles one little bit; the lady neither asks nor gives 
any quarter. And she is an avid student of politics, and does her
research on the issues of the day most meticulously. Jackson
has, in fact, participated in some debates on political talk shows,
proving herself to be a formidable debater.

So conservatives in Williamson County, take note: you won't have
to settle for supporting some establishment mush-mouth that your
county's Republicans may endorse and nominate. In Victoria
Jackson you'll have a true champion of conservative principles.
Your humble Peasant hereby endorses Victoria Jackson for the
office of Williamson County Commissioner. Godspeed, Victoria!
May your campaign be victorious.


MEM

The Obama Regime's 2013 Accomplishments

Team Obama congratulated themselves for their actions
in 2013, and tried mightily to spin their record as a great
success. However, last year was quite the opposite for
Obama and his merry men and women, as your faithful
Peasant will detail here.

While the Democrats and Republicans came together to
to pass a budget after a great tussle, the Dems were at the
time faced with a new "no budget, no pay" provision
which meant that if a budget was not passed by April 15,
all senate salaries would be held in escrow until a budget
was approved. The Dems finally passed a budget, although
the original senate version called for increasing taxes in
2014 by $1 trillion and passed by a single vote --- with no
Republican votes and four Democrats joining the GOP to
vote against the measure.

The Dems boast that American businesses created 2 million
jobs in the old year, but conveniently failed to mention that
the staggering job losses experienced in the first term of
Obama's presidency is still weighing down our economy.
Furthermore, if the number of people who lost their jobs
in that period and have left the job market --- that is, that
they have ceased looking for new jobs --- are added into
the calculation of our unemployment rate, the rate would
be in double-digit per cent territory.

The party of the donkey also brags that the economy is
growing; the truth is, though, that the alleged recovery
is the slowest in many decades, and that we still have not
recovered the jobs that died off in Obama's first term.
And the effects of Obamacare and Obama's high corporate
taxes have proved to be an extra couple of albatrosses
around the neck of the economy. And the former has not
been fully implemented yet!

These same charlatans claim to have cut the nation's budget
deficit in half since Obama took office in 2009, but Obama
has presided over the five largest budget deficits in history,
and this is one of his and his regime's biggest and hairiest
lies to date.

Now, the US oil industry is, in fact, having some fat times.
This, in the face of Obama trying to kill off the Keystone
Pipeline which would bring oil down from the Canadian
oil fields, denying oil permits on federal lands and off
US coastlines, and heaping on more regulatory oversight.
Credit oil drilling on private lands and fracking for the oil
industry's high productivity, not Obama's misguided
policies.

The American auto industry is not thriving like Obama and
friends would have us believe; The US has at last sold its
final stake in General Motors, saddling the taxpayers with
a $10 billion loss. And recently, the Italian automaker Fiat
bought the shares of Chrysler which were also held by Uncle
Sam to have a strong controlling financial stake in the
company. Now our "Big Three" car makers numbers two.
Yippee.

And Obama and his fellow Dems are boasting that Americans
are getting better and more affordable health care coverage
thanks to the so-called Affordable Health Care Act. We have
examined the myriad flaws in both the program and in the
website to register for it here on this blog. And Americans
are continuing to lose their old, affordable health care policies,
in greater number than that of Americans that have signed up for
the Obamacare monstrosity so far. Remember Obama's pie crust
promise that if we "liked our health care policies, we could
keep (them)"? one of the biggest whoppers yet from the Liar-
In-Chief!

And let's not forget the biggest attempted backside covering
in history, the Benghazi scandal. We discussed that ugly
event here as well.

So we know what to expect for 2014 and the remaining two years
to come from the Obama reign. And it won't be pretty. However,
we can mitigate the effects of the waning time of the lame duck
imperial president by electing a conservative senate (not merely
a Republican senate, mind, but a conservative senate; electing
truly conservative Republicans to that chamber) and beefing up
the Republican ranks in the House with more conservatives.
If we do this, we will make Obama the lamest lame duck that
ever watched the hourglass sands trickle out on his remaining
time in the Oval Office. Having thus mitigated this misbegotten
president, we then can concentrate on electing a conservative
president who will undo the damage that this president
has done to our economy, our laws, our livelihoods, and
our lives.


MEM

Shirley Temple, R.I.P.

Shirley Temple Black, child actress extraordinaire,
American diplomat, politician, and a role model
for girls and ladies back in the days when it was
fashionable to be ladylike, as well as a symbol of
courage for women suffering breast cancer, sailed
on the Good Ship Lollipop for heaven's shores on
February 10. Having lived on this earth for 85
years, Temple lived both a long and a full life.

Having gotten into show business by her mother's
design as a tot, Temple was signed by 20th Century
Fox in the 1930s and made an impressive (for those
Depression-era times) $250,000 per picture, making
her the richest child actress in movies. She was
a bright and cheerful diversion for a gloomy, finan-
cially-struggling people seeking to forget their
troubles for an hour or two at their local cinemas.
At the tender age of six, she received a miniature
Academy Award and had her footprints immor-
talized in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre,
joining the other movie luminaries so honored.

Among the movies that Temple starred in were
"Curly Top"; "Wee Willie Winkle"; "Heidi";
"The Littlest Rebel", in which she famously tap
danced with famed tap dancer Bill "Bojangles"
Robinson, and "Dimples". Temple was also known
for her curly hair and her dimples. In one film
she sang "On The Good Ship Lollipop", which
had practically become her signature song.

At 22, Temple saw her acting career wane as she
had outgrown her typical roles upon attaining
womanhood, so she married and started a family.
However, her first marriage ended in divorce,
and she next threw herself into politics, becoming
active in the Republican Party. She was appointed
Ambassador to Ghana by President Richard Nixon,
later named Ambassador to Czechoslovakia by
President George H.W. Bush, and was appointed
Chief of Protocol by President Gerald Ford in
between these postings, this appointment making
her the first woman to hold this post. Temple
once ran for Congress but lost. Her fame from her
first career made her visible and prominent abroad,
increasing her effectiveness in her diplomatic duties.

Temple had been diagnosed with breast cancer and
had undergone a mastectomy in the 1970s, at a time
when women generally didn't openly discuss having
either the disease or the surgery, and helped make
it easier and more sociably acceptable to do so by
making public her surgery. In so doing, she helped
save many womens' lives.

She remarried, taking as her second husband former
naval officer Charles Black, with whom she had two
children; Temple had had one child with her first hus-
band. This marriage gave Temple the marital bliss
and joy that her first marriage failed to deliver. She
remarked in an interview that her life was "overflowing"
with happiness and that "It is because I am Mrs. Charles
Alden Black ... housewife and mother of three happy
and healthy children. Not because I was Shirley Temple."
A successful woman in two career endeavors and in her
family life. Not exactly music to the ears of radical
feminists.

In summation, Shirley Temple Black succeeded in life
on her own terms, and she did so without ever compromising
her femininity, her dignity, or her morals. She was a role
model for women throughout her long and storied life,
and could be so again after her passing, if the women
of today would take the time to give her a long, serious
look; for they would learn that they could have fulfilling
lives without making gratuitous sideshows of themselves.
Rest in peace, Shirley.


MEM

Further Developments on the IRS Scandal

The investigation continues into the IRS' harassment
of Tea Party groups, and has turned up some revealing
e-mail pieces by Lois Lerner, the high-ranking IRS
official who has been the focal point of the investigation.
The content of the e-correspondence between Lerner and
the Federal Election Committee (FEC) showed that
Lerner had been sharing tax information on certain
political groups with that governmental body, which is
a violation of federal law. The latter prohibits the sharing
of confidential taxpayer information by the IRS with other
government agencies, nor with anyone else. Once the IRS
assembles a file on an individual or a group, the contents
of that file are forthwith considered taxpayer information,
and Lerner had been sharing this sensitive and confidential
information after these political groups --- all conservative,
some being Tea Party groups --- after the groups had filed
for tax exempt status. Although the Tax exemption application
is public information, such documents as the minutes of
meetings and correspondence are not, and Lerner had been
giving these documents over to the FEC.

News reports in August had told that the IRS and the FEC
were sharing information on conservative groups, smacking
of at least potential collusion between government agencies
in targeting conservative political groups for audits and
demands for further confidential information from these
groups.

The Peasant is grateful for The Blaze, radio talker-turned-
alternative media mogul Glenn Beck's publication for the
latest information in this disturbing case which I have
related here for you, my dear readers. As your faithful
Peasant learns more on this matter, I shall post the
information here for your perusal. Lois Lerner had since
retired (read: got out of Dodge!) since this scandal broke,
but she could still be held legally culpable for her actions.
We can but hope and pray. This is but another example of
the "Change" part of President Obama's "Hope and Change"
plans in which he hopes to change our country into a
statist fiefdom for himself and his liberal establishment
patrons.


MEM

A Stroll Through the News

A stroll through the latest news stories:

Our nation's debt, as of the start of this brand new year,
stands at $17,308,849,523,342.29. Our second president,
John Adams, noted that "There are two ways to conquer
and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is
by debt." Thanks to the Obama regime, our children,
our grandchildren, and one can likely now add our great-
grandchildren will be encumbered with this growing
monster. They will have to work slavishly to pay even
a noticeable portion of it down. Let's keep this in mind
as the 2014 election approaches. Obama may have gotten
a second term, but at least we can make him a lame duck
before he can finally make our nation a dead duck.

The federal government slapped 141 new regulations on
the nation at the start of the new year. The Obama gang
is plowing ahead with even greater alacrity to micromanage
us, our homes, our businesses, and our lives. All the more
reason to make Obama a lame duck in the fullest sense
of the term come November.

The content editor for the website Reddit has banned
global warming/climate change dissenters from posting
responses on the site's science forums. This website joins
the Los Angeles Times in so banning anyone daring to
go against the left-wing junk-science orthodoxy on this
subject. Yet another example of the Left's view of free
speech, "Free speech for me, not for thee", especially
whenever someone will not go along with the party line;
this on the heels of the IRS and the NSA hassling and
snooping on people openly critical of Obama and his
statist governance, notably Tea Party activists.

Additionally, Santa Clara (CA) county officials recently
banned employees of that county from criticizing
Obamacare, worried that such outspokenness may cause
"stress" for those employees who favor it. A 20 year
employee, Norina Mooney, was so warned by said
officials with the threat of  repercussions, prompting her
to sue the county. Mooney states that Obama T-shirts,
posters, and calendars are permitted, but nothing at
all critical, including discussion among co-workers.

Here in my neck of the woods, due to the abnormally
cold weather, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele
ordered the county courthouse closed for one day.
This caused postponement of court dates for that period
of time, with some cases needing to be rescheduled for
still later on. While some in town have questioned Abele's
decision, seeing as how with the exception of Milwaukee's
public schools, other local government branches and their
facilities were not closed for this exceptionally and
dangerously cold day, including local conservative radio
talk show host Mark Belling on WISN-AM asking Abele
directly on the air, Abele said that he acted upon the infor-
mation he got from the local weather forecasts and wanted
to keep people safe from the ravages of the subzero tem-
peratures and wind chills. The day turned out to be not
as perilously cold as was predicted, but in your humble
Peasant's opinion Abele acted properly, citing the reasons
that he gave to Belling on the latter's show. In the bitterly
cold spells we in Milwaukee (and much of the rest of
the country) have been suffering through, some people
have chosen to be more risk-averse than others, thus stay-
ing home and closing businesses, postponing activities
that would have them venture outside, keeping their
children home, etc. One day here in Milwaukee the
temperature was -10' with wind chills of -35' to -40',
and weather forecasters warned that one could get
frostbite on any exposed skin, even the tip of the nose!
So it was good of County Executive Abele to choose
the safety and the health of the Milwaukee County
courthouse staff and all who had business scheduled there
for that day over getting on with everything as placed
on the dockets. Such business can be rescheduled; one's
health is harder to regain and, along with one's safety, is
of course more important. A true no-brainer to be sure.
Although the day in question proved to not be so
dangerously cold, Abele erred on the warmer side.
Your faithful Peasant heartily commends his county's
executive.

The Peasant wishes to thank Freedom Weekly for the first
four stories which I have shared here with you. The fifth
story I got right from my radio when I tuned in to Mark
Belling's weekday afternoon show. Freedom Weekly is
one of my favorite conservative periodicals, and I heartily
recommend it to you, my fabulous readers. They have an
online version too:  freedomweekly.com

Stay warm and we'll get together again soon!


MEM

Left-Wing Pluralism and Tolerance on Parade

On Friday of last week New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo, son of former Gov.
Mario Cuomo and staunch liberal
Democrat like his dad, demonstarted
his snese of political pluralism by
displaying his tolerance for those in
New York with whom he is not at all
politically copacetic. The governor
said that they were not welcome in
the Empire State.

Your faithful Peasant explains:
during a radio interview that day,
Gov. Cuomo was discussing how
Republicans are at odds with each
other, conservatives against moderates
when he made this intemperate statement:

"Their (here Cuomo was referring to
the conservatives) problem is not me
and the Democrats; their problem is
themselves ... Who are they? Are they
extreme conservatives who are right-to-
life, pro-assault weapon, anti-gay? Is
that who they are? Because if that's who
they are and they're extreme conservatives,
they have no place in the state of New York,
because that's not who New Yorkers are."

Let's examine the heated and haughty words
of New York's governor, shall we? First, it
is true that there is some infighting in the GOP
between the conservatives in the Reagan wing
and the moderates and liberals in the Rockefeller
wing of the party. This is not the first time
that this has occurred, nor is it anything to be
alarmed about. Such spirited discussions are
healthy for the party, and has generally benefited
Republicans heading into presidential elections.
These set-tos clarify what the party stands for,
making it clear what the party platform offers
to the electorate. Anyway, the Democrats have
certainly had their intraparty disagreements over
the years; remember the 1968 convention in
Chicago? Fighting inside of the convention hall
and worse fighting outside of it.

Second, it is apparent that Gov. Cuomo has a
problem with New Yorkers who are opponents
of abortion-on-demand, who are supporters of
the Second Amendment to the Constitution
which guarantees Americans the right to keep
and bear arms, so-called assault weapons included,
and those who may question the granting of the
same rights to gay people which straight people
have, or at least question how can such rights be
granted to gay people while still having reservations,
be they medical, scientific, or religious, regarding
the legitimacy of their sexual preferences. Being a
good and proper left-winger, the governor reflexively
rails against such notions and those who hold them.
And he certainly pays the proper lip service to the
lefty pieties of pluralism and tolerance; it's just that,
as many lefties often do, Cuomo does not apply
these very pieties to conservatives. As we on the
conservative side of the American political divide
know, the lefties preach one thing while practicing
the opposite, while holding us to the sane standards
that they themselves selectively adhere to, whenever
they adhere to them at all. Additionally, Gov. Cuomo
seems to think that he does not have to be the gov-
ernor of all the people in his state; that he can pick
and choose his constituents, to serve only those whom
he approves of. What an elitist pig!

Third, if your favorite Peasant may be permitted a
slight indelicacy in choice of words, just who the
hell is Gov. Andrew Cuomo to say who is and is
not welcome to reside in and participate in the
political arena of the state of New York? Now,
he did try to leaven his arrogant words in an open
letter to the editor of the New York Post two days
later, however the damage could not be undone;
Cuomo tried to convince New Yorkers that he
was simply stating that a political candidate could
not win in a statewide race in their state with strong
conservative political views. As if either the people
of the state of New York were not paying attention
to the flap, or that they are irrevocably stupid.
Cuomo even said that "it is fine" to be anti-gun
control and anti-choice (on abortion) (!). This is
the kind of game-playing that left-wing politicians
engage in when they try to hoodwink the public,
and it is beyond sickening. Just as far beyond
sickening as they are for preaching pluralism and
tolerance, and respecting people who are different.
Sure, as long as the difference is not political, i.e.
a person who is a conservative rather than a liberal!
And we've seen how our left-wing president whom
we are presently saddled with practices pluralism
and tolerance, setting the IRS and the NSA on Tea
Party groups for daring to question and criticize
His Imperial Presidential Majesty!

And fourth, Andrew Cuomo's dad ran against Ed Koch
for the mayoral office of New York, using a slogan
staright out of Archie Bunker's playbook: "Vote for
Cuomo, not the homo". That's right, Mario Cuomo
tried to make negative political hay out of Ed Koch's
bachelorhood. While Koch never married, there is
no evidence showing the late New York mayor to
have been gay, but that didn't mean anything to
Mario and his son, who had a prominent and visible
role in the former's campaign. So not only is Andrew
Cuomo intolerant of people with opposing political
views, the second generation New York governor
is a raving hypocrite as well.

This is how the Left deals with dissent and dissenters.
This is why there is a Tea Party movement. This is why
conservatives are fighting to take back one major
political party, neutralize the other, and reclaim our
great country. And this is why Andrew Cuomo is unfit
to be governor of his home state, and to hold any
governmental office, appointed or elected. May the
people of the Empire State remember their governor's
divisive, intolerant, and hateful words when he comes
up for re-election.


MEM

Bob Grant, R.I.P.

On New Year's Eve conservative talk radio
saw one of its longest-shining lights go dim.
Bob Grant, one of the forefathers of conser-
vative talk radio and of the "combat talk"
format, died at the age of 84.

Born Robert Ciro Gigante (he was of Italian
extraction), Grant's career spanned seven decades,
from the 1950s to 2013, the year of his passing.
Grant graduated from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign with a degree in journalism,
soon going to work in the news department at
WBBM-AM in chicago, followed by a stint at
KNX-AM in Los Angeles as a radio personality
and television talk show host, then going on to
serve in the U.S. Naval Reserve during the Korean
War. Grant was, after guest-hosting for another
early conservative talker Joe Pyne, chosen to be
Pyne's successor. The year was 1964, and it
was the year Grant's career took off. Grant would
go on to host three different radio shows that year,
making an indellible mark in radio and in broad-
cast political discussion.

Along the way, Grant did garner controversy with
some of his statements and actions; in 1973 he
scheduled U.S. Rep. Ben Rosenthal (D-NY) as
a guest. Rosenthal, who at the time was leading
a boycott of meat, changed his mind about going
on Grant's show. Grant, in discussion with a caller
about the matter, called Rosenthal a "coward",
which prompted the congressman to file a complaint
with the FCC. the tussle went up to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,
which ruled in favor of Grant, due to the fact that
Grant offered the congressman an invitation to
be on his show, thereby granting Rosenthal equal
time.

In 1984, Grant was hired by WABC-AM, which was
inaugurating a new talk radio station. Starting with a
morning time slot, then going to one in the afternoon,
Grant dominated the ratings in both periods. However,
Grant's lengthy stay at this post ended when he remarked
to a caller that he had "a hunch that (Commerce Secretary
Ron Brown) is the only survivor" of a 1996 plane crash
which was believed to have no survivors, further stating
that "... Maybe it's because, at heart, I'm a pessimist."
Brown was a member of Democrat Presidnet Bill Clinton's
administration at the time. After a lengthy media campaign,
Grant was fired from his show.

Grant would also make other incendiary remarks during his
long, storied, and checkered career, prompting some to call
him "racist" and "homophobic". Your faithful Peasant will
state here that, while Grant was a boost for conservative
talk radio as an alternative forum for conservatives to
gather around, Grant was nearly the finish for the format
with some of his content. While some of what Grant said
on air could be debated as to its appropriateness or lack
thereof, a few statements, such as the one regarding Ron
Brown, were definitely beyond the borders of good taste,
tact, and decency. That being said, Grant was the inspiration
for several current conservative talkers who are prominent
in the media, among them Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity
and Glenn Beck. Grant even met and advised these present
luminaries. So Bob Grant did some good which ultimately
outweighed his errors, and all conservatives as well as
those who appreciate hearing other points of view besides
that of the establsihment have benefitted greatly as a
result. The on-air talent, in subsequent years, were more
refined and prudent in their commentary, thus helping the
nascent conservative talk show format grow and mature.

May Bob Grant rest in peace.


MEM