Catching Up

New Beginnings

With winter losing its grip on my new home, I am getting more time to get into my community. Before our last ice storm and the ground snow was mostly gone I walked my property and met another neighbor. A nice young couple with a very young child living my idea of the American dream. I actually found I owned more land than I thought.

On the political side of things, our Cozy Conservative Corner is running well and has a core of five people who show up regularly every Tuesday 8am at LaFiesta in downtown Hart at the light. BTW all are welcome to our breakfast. At our last one we had a visitor from Muskegon who was one of the originals at our group there. He had a motion to file at the Court House in Hart and he read my Cozy Conservative Corner email and came for breakfast. If you want to get on the email list let me know at glhotdogs513@gmail.com.

After the breakfast some of us went to the Hesperia where Andy brought us up to speed on how facebook works.


I recently talked with Rob Lemille who was one of the 4 people who came to the first CCCorner in Hart. He said he would be coming home from Florida and he will be attending our Cozy Conservative Corners at LaFiesta in Hart plus hopefully he will be home in time for our 2nd Oceana Tea Party. Let me now catch you up on our First one.

March 23rd we held our first Oceana Tea Party meeting at the Golden Township Hall at 7pm. The weather was truly awful and a lot of organizations cancelled out. We didn’t and still twelve people showed up including a reporter from the Oceana Herald Journal. After the meeting he said that he was going to write a story and would put the date of our next meeting in it. Good news for us, we need all the free publicity we can get.

I was impressed with the people that came. There obviously is enough interest in a Conservative message to justify a Tea Party in Oceana County. We did little advertising and had short notice – I was happy with the turnout.

At the meeting we sketched out the idea of the Tea Party and what we thought it could do. Our mission statement was passed around. It was a casual and friendly meeting. We also set the date for our next meeting for April 6th, and Tom just confirmed that we can use the same location. The meeting room holds only 40-50, but Tom also got the ok that we could use the gym if we had more than that. Our only problem would be chairs. I any one has access to a bunch of chairs let me know. I would like to have an extra 50 or so just in case. I remember the very first Tea Party meeting in Manistee and they had over 130 and had to turn people away. Call me Bob Carr at 231-728-3455. I placed an ad with the Journal to run on the 31st March. Tom paid for the last ad I’ll pay for this one.

Also at the meeting we decided that at the next meeting we would elect the leadership. We already have people who volunteered for Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. All will be welcome to run.

Our next meeting will have some reports from Township meetings. Andy said he’d report from Elbridge and about their wind turbine ordinance. I went to my first Newfield Township meeting and will report on that as well. Along those lines I and Tom plan on going to the County meeting and will talk about that. Below is the link to the Oceana County website.
-----link-----
http://www.oceana.mi.us/
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I picked up the remaining County Directories that list all the contact info and meeting times for all the county and township meetings plus a world of other info. The County Clerk Rebecca Griffin let me have them for free as they are last year’s and out of date. There were about 15 which I’ll hand out at the meeting. The new ones are coming out within a month and I put an order in for either 50 or 100 depending on the cost. The old cost was $1 but now the counties cost is $1.60. I can only afford to buy a limited amount and will give them out mainly to people who lack computers.

Andy also will be presenting the idea of getting some people to car pool to Lansing for a “Keeping Them Honest Rally” being put on by AFP (Americans For Prosperity) and a bunch of Tea Party Groups April 14th.

-----link------
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1296924135/efblike
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I’m going, The speaker list is impressive with Dick Morris leading the list with a lot of state wide dignitaries including Ruth Johnson, Bill Shuette , Bob Young and many more. Also please note in the link that the candidates hoping to replace Debbie Stabenow will be there also including Pete Hoekstra among others, I didn’t see Terri Lynn Land’s name, and hopefully she will be there as well. This will be an all day affair.

A lot of Tea Party groups are helping to put this on so I’ll enjoy seeing some old friends. This is on the 14th and I would like to bring up at the meeting the idea of Oceana having a Tea Party Rally in Hart the next day, the 15th. I’m sure I could get a speaker or two if we decide we want to have one. By the way when I placed the ad, the reporter who covered our last meeting was there and said that the Journal would cover it if we had it. So let’s get busy and figure this out. This could be a great chance to recruit new members and let people know the Tea Party at least in Oceana County is alive and well and growing.

We would need a few things to make this work.
Advertising
Guest Speakers
Sound system
Venue or Place hopefully with covered stage or platform.
An OK to do it.
And most important, volunteers to help make it happen; to man a sign in table and give out our flyers and information etc., also to invite all their friends to the rally.

Below is a pic of one we had in Muskegon. There we marched down the street to the park.


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All that aside, I had a great time at the Newfield Township meeting and when I asked if there was anything I could volunteer for I was warmly welcomed. The treasurer Tammy wanted me to become the alternate to sit on the Property Review Board. I talked with her today and the idea seems to be a good fit for me. I’ll meet with her later and get some info to study to make sure I’m capable then I’ll sign up. I also asked if I could become a poll worker and they were agreeable but I think the slots are filled but they wanted me to “tag along” to get broken into the job so I could fill any vacancies as they arise.

I was impressed with the openness of the meeting, all the leaders were accessible also there was a group of around 14 people in the audience which seemed like a large group for a township meeting and later when I talked with the Tammy the Treasurer she said that the audience was larger than normal.

I would suggest for anyone interested in watching your government at the local work to attend your township meeting.

That’s all for now,
Regards, Live Dangerously Be a Conservative

Census Figures In -- Oceana's 1st Tea Party

First to the Census and Reapportionment

The 2010 Census figures are now in at the Mi. Secretary of State website

-----link-----
http://www.michigan.gov/cgi/0,1607,7-158-54534-252541--,00.html
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These figures are what determines the political district lines throughout the state.

Reapportionment at all levels is gearing up for the battles to come.

First, Mi has lost population overall as you can see by the link above we in Michigan will lose one seat and voice in the US House of Representatives.

Our Michigan State House and Senate district lines will be redrawn.

So will our County Commission lines. The County lines are what I'm interested in. Here is the set up.

1. Each county in the state forms a five person reapportionment committee made up of the County Treasurer, Clerk, and Prosecuting Attorney; along with the County Chairs of each of the political parties. This has been done.

2. Depending upon the County Committees, there may be some “informational” public meetings to get input from the public on how the people feel the lines should be drawn.

3. Once the Census figures come out then a complicated set of timelines is started. What they boil down to is setting a time limit to study the figures and come up with a plan. BTW, anyone can submit a plan, not just the members, however the members are the ones that decide.

4. All of this information should be made public with ample time for the public to look at the information and submit a plan.
Here is my information on this.

I went to a public meeting in Ravenna of the Muskegon County Reapportionment Board, this was one of many previously held across the county. A resident of Ravenna labored long and hard to make that meeting happen. She wanted to make sure that the more rural areas of the County would be at least heard. This is what I learned from that meeting.

1. Though it hasn’t been decided my guess is that Muskegon County will lower the number of Commissioners by 4 from 11 to 7. There happens to currently only be 4 Republican Commissioners. Of the Reapportionment Board, 4 of the 5 are Democrats. You do the math.

2. About the mechanics I learned the following;

a.The number of districts is variable from 5 – 25 (it may be 5-23) ; regardless of the population of the County.
b.The one man one vote proviso only demands that the districts are roughly equal. Kay Punter said the exact figures as far as deviation from the average t was roughly 5% either way or 10% total. Example if the county has a population of 20,000 and they want 5 commissioners their districts will each have 4,000 plus or minus 200 (5% of 4,000).

The main thing I understand is that the more representatives there are for let us say a County of 20,000 the more weight my voice will carry. Example if there are 5 commissioners I am one voice of 4,000 for my commissioner to hear. If there are 10 commissioners for the same 20,000 then I am one voice of 2,000 for my commissioner to hear. My voice would be twice as loud. The latter was seems the best way for me or anyone’s voice to be heard.

I just found out that the Oceana Reapportionment Board will meet March 31st Thurs. 2pm at the county bldg in Hart.

Overall it seems people are moving out of the cities to the more rural areas. My conclusions from briefly looking at the figures is that they are not moving to be away from the amenities as much as they are moving to get away from the "Big Government" mentality of their elected officials. They seem to be moving from the cities to the subburbs that still have the amenieties like TV and highspeed internet, large supermarkets and seem willing to give some of each for larger yards and smaller government. This seems to go across racial lines.

People in the "Primitive" areas lacking most amenities and miles from "civilization" are also losing population.

I hope this is a trend towards self "governance" which by the way is the title of a great short pithy and stimulating book by Scott Rasmussion. Time will tell.

Now some great news. Oceana County will be having its first Tea Party meeting 3/23/11 at the Golden Township hall. 5537 Fox Rd. Mears Mi.

-----google map-----
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=5537+W+Fox+Rd,+Mears,+MI+49436&aq=0&sll=36.949892,-95.800781&sspn=17.311977,46.318359&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=5537+W+Fox+Rd,+Mears,+Michigan+49436&ll=43.685998,-86.405067&spn=0.015331,0.045233&z=14
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We couldn’t have picked a worse day weather wise (careful driving) – well just think of Washington crossing the Delaware river in the dead of winter and it won’t seem so bad.



This will be an organizational and get together meeting, I’m sure we will have another real soon to get officers etc elected and the show on the road.

If you are interested in doing something to change the mess we are in come on down

All are welcome

Political Correctness gone Amuck

Political Correctness Gone Amuck.



President Obama has sanctioned a no-fly zone in Libya. Apparently the "Anti Government" forces lacked the aircraft that the government of Libya was using to defend itself from the "Anti Government" protesters. As the media portrayed this effort to impose a no-fly zone; we were told that this effort would level the playing field.

Obama figured as he always seems to do, that if as he said it, so it shall be written and so it shall be done. After all he did warn Gaddafi that he should abdicate and leave the country.

So it is with the latte sipping coffee house crowd; they seem to think that simply by saying something the problem will be solved through their superior intellect. The reality is now coming to light. As we are seeing the "no-fly" zone also means "no-tank-no big artillery, no command- centers or no anything that would hinder the anti government forces from winning. Of course to enforce that we are using military technology that Gaddafi and his military never dreamed of. ------ So much for a level playing field.

I guess this is a Politically Correct way to get your way. But I ask you to stop and think. Let's put our feet into that shoe..... World opinion has been against the US. for quite awhile. How would we feel if Iran led strikes against what they and seemingly the rest of the Islamic world felt was an unfair advantage capitalism in America was using against them. The perfect symbol of that would be the World Trade Towers in NY. Then let us say that we retaliated with weapons and technology the Islamic world lacked, should they have the right to balance the playing field? Should we first not arm and train them in the tools we would use against them??

As the Tea Party people would say “Common Sense” is dearly lacking in our current administration

Let us just say now that in a backlash of his own making, our President has seemed to have stepped in it.

From Drudge I find all sorts of backlash.

First Anti-War protesters;
-----link-----
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WAR_PROTEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-19-18-32-15
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Anti-war protesters are dusting off their old signs and shaking the bugs out of their beards to try and reinvigorate the anti war protest movement of the 60’s, which as you remember started under the watch of President Kennedy and later President Johnson and then if you really want to talk about inheriting a mess, that is what President Nixon inherited.

Next Nation of Islam leader.
-----link-----
http://www.hapblog.com/2011/03/who-hell-do-you-think-your-are.html
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First Louis Farrakhan gives Obama a dire warning to “watch out Brother”.
Then anti-war protesters are making their feeling known about Obama’s “2nd War”. His first was of course Afghanistan.

Then there is the First Couple’s vacation in Rio.
-----link-----
http://blogs.forbes.com/kenrapoza/2011/03/18/rubber-bullets-fly-at-anti-obama-protest-in-rio-o-globo-reports/
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The President’s upcoming visit to Brazil was already causing riots and protests that have had to be broken up with the use of rubber bullets and some good old fashioned skull cracking by the government forces. Perhaps President Obama and his coalition at the UN should enforce a “no-rubber bullet and no-club zone” at least for his visit. After all the poor protesters have no such fancy things as rubber bullets although they do have access to clubs. -------Yes even in America clubs are available-----



Read further in Drudge and you’ll see that the President had to cancel a speech and a press conference due to this “backlash”.

I think perhaps he is better at picking basketball winners or playing golf than he is at actually doing something in the foreign policy field other than talking---and as far as taking responsibility for what he says – well forget about it.

Nobody seems to see the writing on the wall so let me decipher it for you.
The Dems need for 2012 a leader of the Anti-war movement to step forward, some one similar to George McGovern. Remember the glory days of the Dem. Convention and Liberal Peace movement??? The shouting and protesting?

The Uber Left has to regain controll of the Democrat party to lead us into the future and protect us from ourselves. I remember what that led to with the McGovernites.

They started in 1968 when the anti-war protests were at their height but failed to gain any of their leaders the nomination. The next election cycle (1972) saw George McGovern emerge as the nominee of the Democrat party and the Uber Left. They lost the election in the most lopsided manner ever. Looking at the comparison closer, I doubt that like Lyndon Johnson, Obama will decide not to run again. But remember that Johnson handpicked his successor who in 68 beat down the anti-war crowd through the help of the Democrat machine and Mayor Daley. That same machine will do what it can to stop any insurgents from toppling Obama.

-----link-----
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml
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BTW If anyone needed a hand and weapons etc to level the playing field it was the poor Uber Left during the battle in the streets of Chicago. Talk about tyrants quelching the will of their people. Lol



Regards, Live Dangerously Be a Conservative

Postscript --- Remember all you Union organizers and thugs, the busses that brought you to the protest will be the same busses that your leadership will throw you under once you’re not necessary.