ABC News Poll: Americans lack confidence in government

ABC News: Confidence in the U.S. system of government has dropped to a new low in more than 35 years, with public attitudes burdened by continued economic discontent, soaring gasoline prices, record opposition to the war in Afghanistan -- and a letdown in hopes for political progress after a bout of bipartisanship last fall.

Only 26 percent of Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll say they're optimistic about "our system of government and how well it works," down 7 points since October to the fewest in surveys dating to 1974. Almost as many, 23 percent, are pessimistic, the closest these measures ever have come. The rest, a record high, are "uncertain" about the system.

The causes are many. Despite a significant advance, more than half still say the economy has not yet begun to recover. And there's trouble at the pump: Seventy-one percent in this poll, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, report financial hardship as a result of rising gas prices. Forty-four percent call it a "serious" hardship".

We could easily file this poll under "duh". I would say that over the past decade, with an acceleration over the last two years, our government has been operating for itself under the guise it is "helping" the American people. On so many issues the public wants A and government is hell bent on delivering B. Think back to the Bush administration's push for comprehensive immigration reform when the public clearly just wants the borders tightened first. Under this administration the people could not be clearer that they thought ObamaCare sucked, yet it was foisted upon us anyway. With these direct conflicts between government and the governed, is it any wonder people have little confidence?

It is going to take a really sharp chief executive to bring back the public's confidence level. Whoever replaces Obama is going to have his or her work cut out for them.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: ABC News

Fondle of Fine: TSA says submit to search or face $11,000 fine

Well here is a pleasant choice for the holiday season

Sun Sentinel: If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.

That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.

"Once a person submits to the screening process, they can not just decide to leave that process," says Sari Koshetz, regional TSA spokesperson, based in Miami.

Koshetz said such passengers would be questioned "until it is determined that they don't pose a threat" to the public.

Palm Beach Sheriff's Office spokesperson Teri Barbera said PBSO deputies stationed at the airport would become involved when requested by the TSA.

"We will handle each incident on a case-by-case basis," she said.

No one will be forcibly searched or arrested "just because they refuse to go through the security procedures," Barbera said. "That may rise to the level of suspicious behavior for the TSA, but it wouldn't rise to the level of suspicious behavior for a deputy," she said.

But Barbera said that if a person is judged to be a possible threat, deputies are legally permitted to detain and search that individual. "The deputies will do it at the airport just as they would do it anywhere else," she said.

Once cleared by the TSA and deputies, the people will be allowed to leave, she said. [MORE]

While this may sound like you are powerless to resist the gropefest, you are not.  For me, I will not fly unless it is absolutely necessary.  I will take the train, a boat or drive to any destination I can. A drop in airline travel will bring the airline on our sides.  Nothing speaks louder in American than the power of the pocketbook, even in the age of Obama.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Sun Sentinel 

A $120 license to run a child’s lemonade stand?

Consider this Exhibit A of government run amok. 

The Oregonian: It's hardly unusual to hear small-business owners gripe about licensing requirements or complain that heavy-handed regulations are driving them into the red. 

So when Multnomah County shut down an enterprise last week for operating without a license, you might just sigh and say, there they go again. 

Except this entrepreneur was a 7-year-old named Julie Murphy. Her business was a lemonade stand at the Last Thursday monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license. 

Turns out that kids' lemonade stands -- those constants of summertime -- are supposed to get a permit in Oregon, particularly at big events that happen to be patrolled regularly by county health inspectors. [MORE] 

This is a perfect example of where common sense has left the building. Because we have become a society that wants to live a risk free and irresponsible life, we elect government to watch out for us at every turn. The trade off is freedom is eroded and commonsense takes a backseat.

Did any of these inspectors ever stop to think that children’s lemonade stands have been around forever and millions of people have not keeled over and died because of them? If past generations have successfully survived the hidden threat of “food-borne illness” from lemonade stands, then I think this generation can pull through just fine. We don’t need government to protect us from every tiny possible danger.

Just this past weekend while vacationing at a friend’s lake house, I stopped by a neighborhood garage sale. Sure enough there was a little girl selling lemonade. I bought a cup. It was the nastiest thing I ever tasted (Hey little girl, where da sugar at?).  Needless to say I did not finish the cup (or let the little girl know that I hated her lemonade).

The whole point in buying the cup was to help this little girl make some money and experience the rudiments of entrepreneurship.  Only the biggest idiot on the planet would expect restaurant level hygiene from a kid working a sidewalk lemonade stand.  Commonsense people, we got to use some commonsense.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Oregonian

Full Video: Shirley Sherrod’s comments to the NAACP

As we all know many things have come out about USDA Director Shirley Sherrod’s speech to the NAACP. This is the full video of her remarks. A few commenters on the previous post seem to think I was throwing Sherrod under the bus for racism. Perhaps if they actually read my post they would have seen I was only critical of Sherrod for her love of government largess and the full video doesn’t change my mind on that score. I did come down harshly on the NAACP for racism and that still stands too, because the audience is approving when Sherrod tells of how she initially discriminated against the white farmer.

I will be posting shortly about the various plot twist concerning Sherrod, the NAACP and the administration.

Video h/t: DaTechguy’s Blog

BUSTED! Video of USDA Director Shirley Sherrod sharing a racist moment with the NAACP

 

Big Government: We are in possession of a video from in which Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, speaks at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia. In her meandering speech to what appears to be an all-black audience, this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.

In the first video, Sherrod describes how she racially discriminates against a white farmer. She describes how she is torn over how much she will choose to help him. And, she admits that she doesn’t do everything she can for him, because he is white. Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from “one of his own kind”. She refers him to a white lawyer.

Sherrod’s racist tale is received by the NAACP audience with nodding approval and murmurs of recognition and agreement. Hardly the behavior of the group now holding itself up as the supreme judge of another groups’ racial tolerance. [MORE]

What was all that chatter from the NAACP last week about how the Tea Party must remove racists from their ranks?  The good Lord says; “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.  Well, it is time for the NAACP to put down its bag of stones and time for them to do a little house cleaning of their own.

It is rather sad to see what the NAACP has become over the years. Here is an organization that once stood boldly against racial discrimination. Today, the organization is chock full of small-minded bigots who prefer to wallow in hypocrisy rather than stand as vanguards against discrimination for all Americans.

When the NAACP decided to take on the Tea Parties, they clearly thought they would be dealing with your typical elected Republican. Instead they are finding out the hard way that conservative activists are not the same as elected Republicans. Wantonly chucking around the race card simply won’t do. The NAACP is now set to have it biases, hypocrisy and foolishness exposed for all of America to see.

Aside from the racism in the video above, Andrew Breitbart exposes another problem (perhaps America’s biggest problem) from the same event with Ms. Sherrod. Ms. Sherrod is caught out there bragging about how great it is to work for Uncle Sam. How despite hard times for the private sector, good times are rolling on the public nickel.

This is exactly what the Tea Party is fighting against. Why should government employees enjoy better job security than the people who actually pay their salary? American Spectator had an article this Saturday called America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution. It is a long read (21 pages printed) but well worth it. In it the author Angelo Codevilla spells out where attitudes like Ms. Sherrod’s come from. Take time to read it. It will enlighten you as to what a big task we have ahead of us if we truly want government to work for the people again.

Oh, and before I forget, after her big YouTube moment, Ms. Sherrod has resigned.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Big Government

Via: American Spectator

Via: The Other McCain 

The pushback to big government

I have a very good read for you today. Daniel Henninger’s column in the Wall Street Journal looks beyond opposition to ObamaCare and sees a giant pushback forming to growth of government. 

Henninger: The left-wing critics are right: The rage is not about health care. They are also right that similar complaints about big government were heard during the New Deal and the Great Society, and the sky didn't fall.

But what if this time the sky is falling—on them.

What if after more than a century of growth in the national government, starting with the Progressive Era, the American people are starting to push back. Not just the tea partiers or the 13 state attorneys general seeking protection under the 10th Amendment and the Commerce Clause. But something bigger than that. […]

Powerful political forces suddenly seem to be in motion across the U.S. What they have in common is anxiety over what government has become in the first decade of the 21st century. […]

Make sure to read the whole thing. Henninger is correct. Many Americans see government as getting out of control. From the wild spending to mandating what we purchase, it all seems like just too much. Add to the mix political characters that reek of corruption and incompetence and you begin to see why so many Americans have become unsettled.

The left seems completely unaware or deliberately deaf to the lack of confidence they inspire. Take for example Hank Johnson’s YouTube moment. Who in his or her right mind would believe Johnson is capable of knowing what is in our best interest? Does anyone think for a second he read and understood all 2,700 pages of ObamaCare before he voted to inflict that hot mess upon us? Yet the left just carries on in their merry little way dismissing any concerns about the size, scope or competence of government as all so much racism.

I believe that what is brewing in America is a fundamental lack of confidence in the Federal government. Many Americans are finding the Fed more of a burden than a benefit. As Democrats continue to foist more of the Fed upon us, the pushback will only grow greater.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Wall Street Journal