Truth Before Dishonor Is Moving

Truth Before Dishonor is moving to a new address. You can find it at http://www.truthbeforedishonor.com. I have a lot of work to do to get the new site looking and running right, so bear with me as I make the change.

Ignore Us At Your Own Peril

For at least 20 years, the Republican Party has been telling Conservatives “you cannot win without us.” With the election of Obama and many in both houses of Congress, we have experienced a very radical leftward/progressive shift. And it is endangering the survival of our country. And the Republican Party deserves a great deal of the blame for the radical, nation-threatening shift.

When the Republicans were swept into Congress with its Contract With America, they made very specific promises. And all those promises were conservative. It is the Conservative Agenda that wins nationally, and no wonder, 40 percent of the voters self-declare as conservative, 36 percent as moderate and only 20 percent as liberal.

The election of 1994 resulted in moderate and left-leaning Democrats being voted out. As a result the Democrat Party lurched hard left and various moderate Democrats switched to the Republican Party. The Democrat Party, in effect, was radicalized. The remaining Democrats in office were, overall, radical liberals, in the left 2/3 of the 20 percent.

As a result, I naively thought I was watching the death of the Democrat Party. The Republicans won majority of both Houses, including the House of Representatives for the first time in over 40 years, by promoting a specifically Conservative agenda. And the Democrats lurched hard left/progressive, which was completely opposite of the winning agenda. So, what could go wrong?

In a very brief period of time, the Republicans rescued the Democrats from death. It took less than two years for the Republicans to lurch leftward to take up the space previously held by the defeated Democrats and to abandon the position that got them (the Republicans) elected. Less than two years. And that’s how the Republicans rescued the Democrats from death.

I reached voting age in time for the 1984 elections, and immediately registered Republican. I don’t know what the Republican power-brokers were saying in the 1980s but I do know starting at least in the 1990s, the Republican power brokers were telling all Conservatives “you cannot win without us.” And then the Republicans decided the Conservatives were guaranteed. Where else could we go? It was clear the Republicans decided we were a guaranteed vote and they didn’t need to listen to us at all.

2006 and 2008 were direct results of the Republicans ignoring the Conservatives and expecting the Conservatives to keep slavishly voting Republican. 2009 is very much a result of Republicans ignoring Conservatives. Both political parties are now to the left of mainstream America. And that has caused the TEA Party. Had either party been concerned with satisfying the mainstream, the events that caused the TEA Party would never have surfaced.

It is very clear the Democrats are very much afraid of the TEA Party folks. The Democrats have engaged in all manner of lie-filled attacks against the TEA Party folks, such as the lie that the TEA Party is racist or white (TEA Party Black representation is 40 percent of overall Black voter representation while the Black voter representation is overwhelmingly liberal). Various liberals are also engaging in and planning the engagement in infiltrating the TEA Party in order to commit acts and make declarations that do not at all fit into the TEA Party atmosphere. A newspaper wrote about a recently exposed liberal plan to infiltrate and present a dishonest image. But that newspaper mocked Conservatives and TEA Party activists for being concerned instead of reporting on the activities of the liars. Imagine that.

But the Republican Party is afraid of the TEA Party activists, as well. For the first time in generations, the Republican Party is not running things on the right side of the aisle. For the first time in generations, the Republican Party finds itself needing the people instead of the other way round. The TEA Party, which is in no way, shape or form centralized, can very well be considered to have a controlling vote. Without the support of the TEA Party activists and supporters, the Republicans can win nothing.

Yet it’s telling that many in the GOP leadership still do not understand. The poll showing clear majorities of Republicans and Independents believing DC Republicans are more liberal than the base should’ve been eye-opening to the GOP power-brokers. But, apparently, it wasn’t. The poll showing a sizable majority of the voters consider the TEA Party more in tune with the public than the political class should’ve been eye-opening to the GOP power-brokers. But by the actions taken by the political class — both parties — shows an obstinance in their demands to remain out of touch with the people.

This time around is definitely different than previous elections. With the radical leftist agenda that is being passed against the will of the nation, the GOP stands to make major gains. But the RNC, NRCC, NRSC appears to be having a bit of trouble in raising campaign money. Various individual candidates are not having trouble but the Party itself is, and that’s a good thing. Until the Party drops its elitist cranial-rectal inversion, nobody should contribute to the RNC, NRCC, NRSC. Send your money directly to the candidates that understand or to PACs that understand, instead.

I have seen many articles and comments stating that Conservatives and Liberals talk past each other, so there is no communication. Liberals tend to desire communal redistribution to create equality of outcome and some mushy sense of “fairness” while Conservatives push Personal Responsibility and an achievement-based reward system. Liberals believe in a static pie and punishing the successful to benefit the unsuccessful (or lazy) while Conservatives believe in a growing pie and rewarding success while allowing people to fail.

History is replete with examples of Liberal failure and Conservative success. The Communist Chavez has sent Venezuela on a downward spiral with his government takeovers and Communist policies. Castro’s Cuba has been a failure from day one. The subjects of the Soviet Union spent decades in poverty and in lines waiting for the opportunity to buy their government-limited supply of scarce commodities such as bread and toilet paper. East Germany and the Soviet Union built a wall around West Berlin for the sole purpose of preventing East German subjects from escaping Communism/state control and joining the free market and opportunity. When the wall came down and Germany was reunified, the differences were especially stark. Free Market Germany had fully recovered from WWII and prospered while the radical left state-controlled Germany had never recovered from WWII and was an absolute economic shambles.

The Czech Republic, which formed out of the Eastern Bloc nation of Czechoslovakia (which had previously failed in its attempt to gain freedom as the Soviets rolled tanks down the streets to quell the democracy movement), has a health system that is far below US standards. My sister-in-law, who is a Czech national, has heard it from her family: now that she’s working as an RN in the US, she’s obviously rich. Of course, she’s by no means rich, but she’s far better off than those stuck in the Czech Republic.

The radical leftist, state-owned North Korea is among the poorest of nations, while a much freer-market South Korea is among the more wealthy on the Pacific Rim. And the North Korean guards on the fence in the DMZ are not aimed at the south but at the north, to prevent North Koreans from escaping to South Korea.

While Hong Kong was in British hands, fully engaged in the free market, it was massively prosperous. Taiwan is highly prosperous. China has only begun to experience expansive prosperity, and it has done so by implementing a version of free market economics. China learned state-controlled economics was an abject failure.

Spain, France, Iceland, Greece with their leftist agendae have been abject failures. Germany is leading Europe in rescuing Greece from total collapse. From what I understand, Iceland has already gone through a collapse. And France has decided to move more Conservative, more in line with previous US policies while Obama and the other radical liberals are pushing an agenda that makes the Greek agenda and the previous French agenda look moderate.

In debates over ObamaCare, I mentioned the Czech Republic. My sister-in-law was an RN in a Prague hospital. My brother was a patient in life-threatening condition in that Prague hospital. My mother visited that Prague hospital. That Prague hospital’s modernity and standards of care was far below that of ANY US HOSPITAL. But a certain socialist commenter who is known on many sites for trollery refused to allow me to cite Prague. I was only allowed to look at “western nations” and not nations that had many decades of state-run health care. Imagine that. Let’s not look at longitudinal proof of leftist/statist failure when we’re talking about a leftist/statist take-over. We don’t want to be bothered with histo-factual evidence.

It is very clear the Conservative free-market, Personal Responsibility, economic self-interest policy where there is opportunity to fail raises people out of poverty while the Liberal state-controlled communal redistributionist policy where nobody is allowed to fail results in shared poverty and misery. This cannot be denied without rejecting the histo-factual evidence.

While the Democrats are very clearly pushing a failed agenda in opposition to the will of the people, the Republicans have not exactly fared better. Oh, they’re suddenly coalesced against the radical left agenda, but they’re also clearly further left than the public at large. The Republicans, by and large, are not in line with Conservative values, those values proven to be highly successful. And, again, the Republicans ignore the people at their own peril.

As I was writing this (a 3-day project), news came out of a long-term Republican incumbent losing in a Republican Primary run-off with a TEA Party candidate. Understand, the TEA Party candidate was not running third-party but in the Republican Primary. This is the proper approach, and reason to contribute to specific campaigns and not the RNC, NRCC, NRSC. DRJ reported the news out of Texas.

Lubbock made history tonight. Not only was Jones the oldest member of the Texas Legislature but Perry is now the Texas Legislature’s (and perhaps the nation’s) first Tea Party winner since there is no Democrat or Libertarian candidate on the ballot.

Perry ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility but he wasn’t given much chance to make the run-off, let alone win. Political analysts were especially doubtful of his chances after he pledged to work to rescind in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

Again, Republicans ignore Conservatives at their own peril. Delwin Jones was a 30-year incumbent in the Texas legislature and he fell to a Conservative. I suspect as the Primary season continues, more incumbent Republicans will fall by the wayside. Because they are elitists who are out of touch with the people and are busily rejecting Conservative values while they expect the Conservatives to mindlessly vote for them.

But while all this is going on with the anti-people radical left doing their thang and the tone-deaf Republicans acting like it’s business as usual and Conservatives doing damage to incumbent Republicans, there is still a message many people are not getting. I have no doubt that the fiscally conservative, socially liberal types have been agreeing with me to this point. But they’re doing the same thing the Republicans are doing: ignoring us at their own peril.

Republicans cannot win without the Conservative vote, and they’re losing in the Primary season because the Conservative vote is not with them. And I don’t believe the Republicans are learning anything. Fiscal Conservatives cannot win without the Social Conservatives. And that’s a point the FisCon/SocLib set cannot see. Again, it’s two groups talking past each other. And, again, it’s to the FC/SL’s detriment.

Social Conservatives are heavily represented by Christian Conservatives. And Christian Conservatives have a higher law, a higher standard, than any government. The vast majority of us have principles we will not violate in the voting booth. I asked my daughter if both major candidates were pro-abortion, would she vote for the more conservative pro-abortionist, a third candidate, or choose not to vote. She said she’d choose not to vote on that line. I would vote third party.

There are principles I will not, under any circumstances, violate for some false pragmatism, and the abortion issue is only one of those principled issues. And there are very large numbers like my daughter and me. The FC/SL falsity of the big-tent while rejecting the Social Conservatives is a different tone-deafness than the Republicans, but with the same effect. FC/SL cannot count on our mindlessly voting with them but cannot win without our vote. But FC/SL are indeed expecting us to just go along to get along, ignoring us at their own peril.

I Am Now A Texan

I finished packing and moved out of my home Wednesday. 22 hours later, I arrived in my new home occupied by my daughter and grandson. 6 hours ago, I turned in the U-Haul and auto transport. But I still have a lot of unpacking to do.

How Much Is This Costing Us?

0607-0919-C
Reply
from ((my real name here)) <****@gmail.com>
to paperwork@census.gov
date Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 4:10 PM
subject 0607-0919-C
mailed-by gmail.com
hide details Mar 9
Where can I access a copy of OMB No. 0607-0919-C?

—
“My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday.” – GK Chesterton, New York Times Magazine, 2/11/23

Moments ago:

How to Obtain a Census Form Inbox X
Reply
from dmd.decennial.communications@census.gov
to
date Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 12:49 PM
subject How to Obtain a Census Form
mailed-by census.gov
hide details 12:49 PM (25 minutes ago)

April 1, 2010

Dear Resident:

We have received your March 2009 request for a 2010 Census form. We ask
that you please wait a little longer. As of April 1, we began mailing
replacement forms. If through some error you did not get your original
form, you still might get a replacement form. Please note that in some
parts of the country (about 1% of all addresses), including remote areas,
many American Indian reservations, or areas without postal delivery, the
Census Bureau does not send a form to the household. In these areas, we
send an enumerator to collect the household information in person. Except
for these areas, we have gone to great lengths to ensure a questionnaire is
delivered to every address. However, we know that sometimes this won’t
happen. Therefore we have set up two ways for you to be included in the
census:

1) Visit a Questionnaire Assistance Center or Be Counted Center

Visit a Questionnaire Assistance Center or Be Counted Center and pick up a
blank form. A “Be Counted” form asks you to put down a full description of
your address, and contains the same 10 questions as the other Census form.
You can complete a Be Counted form if you have not received your original
form. Be Counted forms are available now through April 19 in public
locations, such as libraries, within your community and at Questionnaire
Assistance Centers where census workers are available to answer your
questions. To find a site in your community, please visit our website at
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/.

2) Contact Us

If you still have not received your form by April 12, then you may contact
one of our 2010 Census Toll-free help lines. An agent can send you a form
to fill out, or can take your interview over the phone.

English: 1-866-872-6868 Chinese: 1-866-935-2010 Korean:
1-866-955-2010
Russian: 1-866-965-2010 Spanish: 1-866-928-2010 Vietnamese:
1-866-945-2010
TDD (Telephone Display Device for the hearing impaired): 1-866-783-2010
Puerto Rico (in English): 1-866-939-2010 Puerto Rico (in Spanish):
1-866-929-2010

Thank you for your interest in the 2010 Census. We look forward to your
participation.

Sincerely,

Frank A. Vitrano
Chief, Decennial Management Division

Formatting maintained, the only change being removing my name and email from the header of the first.  (Yes, they apparently did a BCC on a very, very cruddy response.  Hm, think maybe they got more emails than expected?)

Dude, when you’re doing a bad form letter….just let it look like a form letter; if you want to do a better form letter, send 5,000 emails with the right name and address rather than one email BCCed 5,000 times; either way, get better programmers to design the response system.

UPDATE:
 Emailed back that their response had nothing to do with my question, and got the following response:

My apology for the mistake.

You asked….Where can I access a copy of OMB No. 0607-0919-C?

Answer: Go to . Select Volume
73 and search on 0607-0919. On next screen, select the second item, 2010
Decennial.

(Embedded image moved to file: pic10557.jpg)

That leads to this document: fr26mr08N Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; 2010 Decennial.

It mentions something close to my requested information:

III. Data

OMB Control Number: 0607-0919.
Form Numbers:
Letters:

D-5(L), Advance Letter (English, Spanish).

etc

But not really much of an answer… I can GUESS that OMB No. 0607-0919-C was approved to refer to the various documents listed, and I can GUESS there wasn’t a change…but still not much of a response.

It ends thus:

Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of this information
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.

Easter Is Important

Easter is important.
Air is desirable.
Water has value.

There are many who consider Easter the most important celebratory day of the year. I may be one of them but I am not entirely certain. Let me explain my predicament, using a Progressive tool: Values Clarification (which is actually values modification).

You are planning a journey to colonize the moon. In your plans, you have to decide what to take with you. There will be no other trips to your colony for a year. You have limited space, so you will have to do without a lot of things you would prefer to have in order to make your life on the moon survivable. List these items in order of importance:

Housing unit
Cold-weather clothing
Hot-weather clothing
Food
Excavation tools
Compressed air
Lunar maps
Water
Lunar compasses

So, what did you decide was most important for your trip? Air, perhaps? Without air, nobody will survive longer than a few short minutes. Without water, nobody will survive more than a few days. Without food, nobody will survive more than a few weeks. Without proper shelter or clothing, it is highly unlikely you could survive a week. So it’s quite possible that air is the most important on the list. Or is it?

If you will not gain anything for a year, what importance is the fraction-of-year survival without a certain item compared to the importance of the fraction-of-year survival without a different item? No matter how you order it, if you’re missing one for that duration, you’re still just as dead after the year is up.

So, what celebratory day is more important? Easter, Christmas or Good Friday? Without Easter, there would be no Resurrection and thus no redemption of sin. There could be no Resurrection without the Crucifixion celebrated on Good Friday (which I believe is the wrong day). That means the redemption of sin could not occur. Without the Birth, there could be no Crucifixion. Without the Immaculate Conception, everything is moot. Remove any one of these four events and the other three events lose all their value. Remove Jesus’ 33 years of sin-free life and all four events lose all their value.

So, in the grand scheme of things, can any of the events truly be ordered as more important than the others?

The Contract FROM America

Over 365,000 people are involved in creating the Contract From America, and I’m now one of them. Those of the left have accused the TEA Party of being “anti” but have nothing to back up that accusation. On April 15, the Contract From America will be unveiled in over 80 different locales. And it comes from the grass-roots.

From Newsmax:

Leading the list as issue No. 1: “Protect the Constitution: Require each bill to identity the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.”

That proposal won the approval of 80.7 percent of the survey responses collected so far. Voting will continue through Monday at ContractFromAmerica.com.

The second most popular of the 21 issues that are up for a vote: “Reject cap and trade: Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures.”

The goal of that plank, tea party officials say, is to block any imposition of the cap and trade tax, whether by congressional fiat or by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has threatened to act unilaterally if Congress fails to do so. The issue won the support of 70.8 percent of respondents.

Issue No. 3 was unveiled Thursday based on the survey responses: “Demand a balanced budget: Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike.” That plank received the approval of 69.9 percent of respondents.

This has been an extended project by ContractFromAmerica.com, which took in suggestions from the populace, filtered the suggestions down to a list of top suggestions, and asked which 10 were the most important. And the top ten list will become the Contract From America, unveiled during the April 15 TEA Parties.

And it would behoove politicians to sign onto the Contract, if they actually want a huge grass-roots movement to back them. Of course the history of each of the politicians will be under the microscope to determine whether they have any background evidence of being supportive of the issues and the overall agenda. These politicians will most assuredly be vetted by hard-working folk (which leaves out the lamestream media).

While the RNC is wrestling with whether to create a 1994-style Contract With America and what should be in it if it does, the grass-roots is actually in the process of writing one. This time, it is the RNC that needs to fall in line and not the public. And so far, the RNC cannot figure that out. For those of you who donate to political campaigns, DO NOT DONATE to the RNC, the NRCC, or the NRSC. Instead, donate to specific candidates and to grass-roots organizations. Do not waste your time and money on the wishy-washy party leadership in the hopes of defeating the far-left party.

And go add your opinion to the Contract From America before it’s finalized.