Either way, win or lose in 2012, the rank and file voters, the everyday people who get up and go to work every day, the Main Street, the Maple Street, and the Mulberry Lane people who vote for Republicans, need to cut their ties to the Grand Old Party.

It's the 21st Century. Time for something new.

2011: The Year The Wheels Fell Off, an essay in which, appallingly, most of the cited events actually did occur:

. . .
FEBRUARY: Chicago chose as its new mayor former White House chief of staff Rahm Effing Emanuel, who immediately ordered a voter registration drive in the city's cemeteries. Shortly after that, the "Arab spring training season" began in Egypt. After Secretary of State Hillary said that the Mubarak regime was stable, the Cairo Clubbers traded their top grenade thrower to the Port Said Molotovs for two machine-gunners and a future draft pick.
. . .
SEPTEMBER: Republican debates became so boring that television networks considered hiring fake moderators such as Donald Trump. The problem can best be solved, without Trump, by ensuring that future debates are moderated, seriatim, by John Madden, the Kardashian sisters, and Liam Neeson accompanied by the rest of the stars of the "A-Team" movie appearing in character. I pity the fools…

DECEMBER: . . . Ratings agencies Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch issued a joint statement in reaction to the Eurozone deal which said only, "Bwahahahahahahahaha." Which some people mistook for a reaction to Joe Biden's statement that the Taliban wasn't our enemy, "per se."

So what will 2012 bring? . . .

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Nine

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

September 4 (Sunday, Day 28, Nanortalik, Greenland, 1 DKK = $0.19; $1 = 5.21 DKK) -

Nanortalik

Snookums attended total body conditioning while the first tender was going to the little settlement of Nanortalik, population 1,500. (For comparison, the ms Eurodam has 2,100 passengers on it and 800 crew.) Greenland only has 53,000 people in it so this is probably a normal sized settlement. It was around 50° and misting. We weren’t in any big hurry to get out and about since it didn’t seem like it would take too long to walk the few streets there were.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eight

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

September 3 (Saturday, Day 27, Cruising Prince Christian Sound [Ikerasassuaq]) -

Early morning iceberg

We woke up at 5 AM since the captain said that we might see whales at the entrance to Prince Christian Sound (a channel off the coast of Greenland). Last year the ship saw 80 whales. It was cold and windy so we bundled up with all the layers we brought (including tights for under our pants). It took us several minutes and lots of stair walking to find a door open on the ship for us to get outside but we finally found one. The TV said that it was 48° and it felt colder due to the wind from the cruising of the ship. We stayed outside for about 45 minutes before calling it quits and going to breakfast.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Seven

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 28 (Sunday, Day 21, Dublin, Ireland; €1 = $1.43; $1 = €0.70) -

Dublin

Since the ship was docked in Dublin until 11 PM and the stores didn’t open until noon, we decided to leave the ship around 11:30. That meant that Snookums had plenty of time for the 7:30 “Circuit Training” class. It was sunny and around 62 but Filbert’s Dublin radio station said storms were expected. We decided to not take any umbrellas with us.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 24 (Wednesday, Day 17, Dover, England; £1 = $1.63; $1 = £0.61) -

The Prince Albert Pub, Dover

We woke up during one of the many announcements letting disembarking passengers know what tag color could leave. It didn’t bother us too much. However, the two crew members that walked across our balcony around 8 AM surprised us since we hadn’t been notified about balcony maintenance. Luckily Snookums was still in bed and Filbert was fully dressed! Filbert decided that he needed to notify the front desk of this since he wasn’t sure that the ship knew we were staying on board. (In the past, we’ve always received notes the day before whenever there was going to be maintenance to our balcony.) The front desk man didn’t seem too bothered by it, but apologized to Filbert and said it wouldn’t happen again.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Five

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 19 (Friday, Day 12, St. Petersburg, Russia) -

In the Hermitage

The tour group met at 8 AM. The day was sunny and looked 100% different than yesterday. We drove to a boat for an hour-long boat ride along the rivers and canals with room temperature champagne and chocolates. Filbert joked that in Russia the vodka is cold and the champagne is room temp. (That didn’t stop him from drinking several glasses of it, though!) We passed most of the places we drove by yesterday, but today we could actually see them. Snookums found a 10-kopek coin on the boat, too, keeping intact her skill of finding money in foreign countries.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Four

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 18 (Thursday, Day 11, St. Petersburg, Russia; 1 ruble = $0.03; $1 = $29.14 ruble) -

Eurodam, rain, St. Petersburg

Snookums arranged to take a tour with an independent tour company. We normally don’t like tours, but Russia requires a $250 visa unless you are with a tour group and then you don’t need a visa. So, we signed up for a two-day St. Petersburg tour for $256 with http://st-petersburg-tours.ru/. (The ship was charging $400 for the same thing and took people in big buses. Our tour group was limited to 16 people.)

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 16 (Tuesday, Day 9, Cruising the Baltic Sea) -

Show girls

Snookums woke at 7:15 and hustled to the 7:30 fitness class. Only one other person was there and the fitness instructor went ahead and held it. Snookums was on cruises before where the policy was that at least three people had to show up for a class to be held. Snookums is very impressed with this cruise so far. It was another 30 minutes of good torture and during the class Snookums found out that the instructor is from Zimbabwe and played professional rugby in Zimbabwe and in South Africa. Then he decided that his body couldn’t take the punishment anymore and he got a degree in Exercise Science before training various Olympic athletes. Now he’s on a cruise ship training non-Olympic athletes! After the 30-minute class she used the elliptical for 30 minutes and was sweating through her gray T-shirt by the time she was done.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

August 8-September 10, 2011

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise (from Holland America)

The Holland America Eurodam (from Holland America)

This is the table of contents for the online version of our trip journal. Here are the chapters:

Part One - To London

Part Two - Dover, Copenhagen, Warnemunde

Part Three - Tallinn

Part Four - St. Petersburg

Part Five - St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Nynäshamn

Part Six - Dover, Amsterdam, Bruges

Part Seven - Dublin, Tórshavn

Part Eight - Greenland

Part Nine - St. John's, Halifax

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Two

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 12 (Friday, Day 5, Boarding ms Eurodam in Dover, England) -

Suite, sweet suite

We woke up, packed what little we had in the roll-aboard and enjoyed our last full English breakfast. We took the tube to the coach station in order to take the coach (i.e. a Greyhound bus) to Dover for $14 per person. (Holland America’s charter bus was $70 per person.) During the 2.5-hour ride we went through various parts of London that had shops with boarded up windows from the riots. We also stopped in three towns, including Canterbury. Most of the people on the coach got off at Canterbury. The people left were going to the cruise ship. The coach was supposed to drop us off in “downtown” Dover, but the driver realized that all of the passengers were cruise ship passengers so he took us directly to the ship. That saved a cab ride and got us there faster.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise (from Holland America)

The Holland America Eurodam (from Holland America)

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part One

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 8 (Monday, Day 1, Flying to London, England) -

We arrived at KCI just fine and found out that the flight to Chicago was delayed. We went to the American Airlines lounge and enjoyed the free sodas and chips. The receptionist made an announcement that the flight was boarding so the lounge emptied out but the gate agent then said that O’Hare was in a ground stop so we wouldn’t board for another 30 minutes. Back to the lounge we went. We weren't worried since we had a 2-hour layover in Chicago. We finally boarded the flight and landed in Chicago and enjoyed 20 minutes at the O’Hare Admirals Lounge – just long enough to use nice bathrooms and get a quick snack.

Summaries for petitions for a minimum wage increase proposal for the 2012 ballot in Missouri have been approved by the Secretary of State, meaning we'll see earnest, well-meaning, economically illiterate people with clipboards out in public places, asking for Missouri voters to put their signatures on petitions to approve a statewide vote to increase the minimum wage--and thereby put even more low-income people out of work.

We do this because we care so much about the poorest among us.

"Their" "democracy" anyway. From the New York Post:

The Zuccotti “cops” had just spent an hour and a half tracking Bezabeh through goat paths in the park armed with a description from the manager.

“We cannot take him in by ourselves, the cops have to come!” reiterates the OWS security force member.

They call the NYPD -- and it becomes abundantly clear that the cops down there are sick of the antics.

“Every single night it’s the same thing. I mean, some guy was a victim of rape!” an officer snarls. “There comes a time when it’s over. This is a disaster. It’s all we’re doing, every two seconds, is locking somebody up every time. It’s done.

“It’s done,” he repeats. “Occupy Wall Street is no longer a protest.”

Scenes like this -- and far worse -- have been playing out since the Zuccotti Park “occupation” began on Sept. 17.

The parcel is now a sliver of madness, rife with sex attacks, robberies and vigilante justice. . . .

“I’m in a tent that keeps getting flooded, ransacked and robbed,” fumes a transgender group leader -- a female who identifies as a male.

He said that the transgender group would create its own police force for transgender protesters and females, since an immense distrust loomed over the OWS-created authority. . . .

A day later, a female-only “safety tent” would be erected to shield women from predators.

Organizers plan to add a medical tent, as well as others designed to provide safe sleeping for gay, transgender and co-ed groups.

The threat of rape is very real here -- for women and men.

Sitting in the McDonald’s just moments after Bezabeh was hauled off in cuffs, Lauren DiGioia, 26, tells me about how she became one of the growing number of victims on her very first night in the park.

Via Instapundit.

This is what their "democracy" looks like. The strong preying on the weak simply because they can. The legitimate use of force to protect life, liberty, and property being completely suspended because someone, somewhere within that "democracy" might become offended that their "rights" (by which they mean their whims of the moment) are being violated--while at the same time aggressively and maliciously violating the actual human rights of countless other people in a myriad of ways--beginning by squatting on privately-owned land which does not belong to them.

This is what a steady parade of Democratic Party leaders ran to the microphones, stood in front of the media's cameras, and loudly and repeatedly praised with great praise, deceitfully and disingenuously comparing this mob of brigands, arsonists and rapists to Tea Parties that consistently left their demonstration areas cleaner than they found them. (And, by the way, not a single rape occurred at any Tea Party. Ever.) This is what a steady parade of Democratic Party operatives masquerading as objective reporters and journalists tried to sell to the American People as a genuine outpouring of grass-roots concern for the future of the country.

Yes, there are a lot of genuinely concerned people who have been sucked into the "Occupy" madness. They are nothing but useful idiots. Which should cause you to ask the question: who's using them?

Who started this "Occupy" thing? Who fanned its flames? Who benefits from mayhem and chaos? Who believes a crisis should never go to waste? Ask questions. And then, and this is important, ask the next question.

The root cause of many of our problems today is that people--especially elected officials, never ask the next question.

It's your country. It's your responsibility.

ASK THE NEXT QUESTION.

Why is it that Democrats can say any damn thing that pops into their head (if it's slanderous to Republicans, that is) regardless of the actual truth of the statement, and never, ever suffer any real consequences? The major media never calls on them to "apologize," let alone suffer any actual consequences for their inveterate lying.

Joe Biden should resign as Vice President for his "rape is up" comments attacking Republicans. Somebody that egregiously, breathtakingly, criminally stupid should not be allowed to operate heavy equipment, let alone be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

And don't get me started about President "Goldman Sachs" "Let me be clear while I set up this false-choice strawman" Obama . . .

One of the most egregious flaws of the United States Constitution is that it failed to lay out specific, significant penalties for public officials and elected representatives who fail to abide by the requirements and limits of the Constitution.

The Founders naively believed that the people themselves would be both willing and able to defend their Constitution, and would be willing and able to punish Presidents, Senators, Representatives, and other federal officials who transgress against the Constitution's limits on governmental power.

The result is a Federal government far, far, FAR larger and more intrusive into the people's lives than the Founders could ever have contemplated in their worst nightmares. Depending on the issue, and depending on the situation, people of good will on the left, the center, and the right of the political spectrum have been outraged at the actions of Presidents, the Congress, and the Federal government in which we, the people have delegated a portion (but only a portion) of our rights, privileges and immunities, and have watched in horror as the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial branches of the Federal government have steadily arrogated power to themselves and steadily constrained and restricted the freedoms and liberties of the people.

We, the people, should fix that problem.

I propose the following amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Section 1. Constitutional malfeasance shall consist of the action of any elected, appointed, or otherwise authorized representative of the people of the United States who, while purporting to act under color of the legitimate powers delegated by the People to the United States government by this Constitution, approves any law or regulation, makes any ruling, finding or determination, or sets into motion any action or process of the United States government which violates or abridges the rights and privileges of any citizen of the United States.

Section 2. This Constitution shall be interpreted at all times according to the plain intent and common meaning of the words of this Constitution, and shall be interpreted at all times in a manner that restricts the activities of the government and preserves the liberties, rights, privileges and immunities of the People.

Section 3. The supreme Court of any of the Several States shall have authority upon presentation of satisfactory evidence under this article to make a finding of Constitutional malfeasance.

Section 4. The supreme Court of the United States and any such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish shall have authority upon presentation of satisfactory evidence, make a finding of constitutional malfeasance.

Section 5. Any citizen of the United States shall have standing to make a complaint of Constitutional malfeasance to any State court or any court of the United States, and the disposition of such complaints shall be disposed of in a serious and timely manner.

Section 6. Congress shall, by three fourths majority of both houses, be empowered to make a finding of Constitutional malfeasance by a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Section 7. Any person found to have committed Constitutional malfeasance shall, regardless of any subsequent disposition of the matter, from the date of the finding and forever more be ineligible to serve the United States or any State in any position of trust or authority; and shall from the date of the finding and forever more be ineligible to receive any salary, pension, payment, remuneration, or monetary benefit of any kind whatsoever from the United States or any State. Such ineligibility shall not be subject to review or appeal.

Section 8. Any Representative, Senator, President, Justice, Judge, or Officer of the United States who is found to have committed Constitutional malfeasance shall be fined no less than ten million dollars, such amount to be distributed in equal measure to any and all citizens of the United States whose rights and privileges were abridged or violated. Such fine shall be subject to review and appeal in the usual and customary manner for judicial appeals.

Section 9. Any Representative, Senator, President, Justice, Judge, or Officer of the United States who is found to have committed Constitutional malfeasance shall be imprisoned for no less than ten years. Such imprisonment shall be subject to review and appeal in the usual and customary manner for judicial appeals, however no person shall be released from imprisonment until and unless that person is found not guilty on appeal.

Section 10. Congressional authority under this Article shall be limited to that authority delegated to it by the People in Section 6, and that Congress may modify the amount of the fine described in Section 8, and the length of imprisonment in Section 9, except that neither the fine nor the imprisonment shall be less than that described in this Article.

Update: Performed some minor edits to the Amendment.

There are, in fact, two Republican Parties.

One can be called the "Establishment Republican Party." This includes most of the elected Republicans, the Republican Party organization, their corporate (crony) supporters and that (small) proportion of the media who are not full-blown collectivists. They are The Republican Party as we have come to know and not-so-love today.

The other might be called the "Main Street Republican Party." This includes most of the people who actually vote for Republicans, in the hopes that the Establishment Republicans actually, this time, will come through on their campaign rhetoric of trying to return government to its proper Constitutional boundaries, and generally getting the government off of their backs. If you remember the old "Peanuts" comic strip, the Main Street Republicans play Charlie Brown to the Establishment Republican's Lucy, who always pulled the football away at the very last second after holding it for Charlie Brown to kick.

Sarah Palin is one of the few prominent Republicans on the national scene who, when elected, did not defect from the Main Street Republicans to the Establishment. This earned her the scorn and enmity of the Establishment Republicans that, if anything, exceeded the vitriol she attracted from her natural enemies, the collectivists of the Democrat Party.

It is the Establishment Republicans who are now dancing joyously upon Sarah Palin's political grave, after her announcement that she will not pursue the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012. Among the most vigorous of those dancers was Eric Erickson, an Establishment Republican operative who runs the web site redstate.org.

Stacy McCain has a post and an article up about Palin's announcement.

This is the comment I posted on his blog:

I wonder how many people Erickson and the rest of the mindless knee-jerk snarkmeister Palin-haters sent away from the effort to unseat Obama, install a liberty-oriented Congress, and restore the Constitutional Republic?

Granted there were a lot of people who were engaged in Palin hero worship, but unlike most politicians, Palin herself wasn't doing anything to encourage that. As far as I could tell, all of her public comments re-directed the attention back to the public policy issues and the problems faced by this country. Whenever she was asked if she was running, her response was consistently a variation on the theme of "I'm praying about it and talking to my family." And surprise! her decision was based on prayer and what she thought was best for her family. What a tease! She's obviously just in it for the money!

The Palin-haters of the right made the basic mistake of conflating the over-enthusiastic Palinistas with Palin herself. That's the thing I found most frustrating and appalling. In the process, they may very well have successfully taken a sizable chunk of the liberty coalition and sent them to the sidelines. And the grave-dancing I've seen in various places in response to Palin's announcement will keep a lot of people on the sidelines.

Everyone needs to remember that politics is people. People have feelings, and people have memories. You don't burn sources if you're a professional journalist, and you don't burn political allies if you're really interested in winning elections. Some Palinistas forgot this, but a whole bunch of Palin-haters on the right forgot it, too.

I hope we don't all pay for decades for their self-indulgent juvenile spite.

The people who supported Palin now will decide who, if anyone, they will get behind for President in 2012. The antics of the Establishment Republicans both before and after Palin's announcement will be a factor in that decision.

Actions, and words, have consequences.

But really: If you're not protesting against President Goldman Sachs, you're not protesting against "Wall Street."; You're just a hack. Sorry. “The modern anarchists are just the far-left’s muscle. Look at when and where they show up, who they march with and for, and how carefully the press ignores them and their acts.”

The ignorant souls with their inchoate grievances who began to gather in Wall Street at the call of Marxists (Van Jones) and anti-Semites (Ad-Busters) either don't realize or don't care that they're being used by the powerful to maintain their power--or they simply want to join the club of the powerful.

They are absolutely correct, that things are wrong and spinning further out of control. They are sadly and disastrously misled by the major media and their "leaders" as to the causes and the cures of our problems. The purpose of the Wall Street demonstrations is to maintain in power the very people who have caused the problems in the first place.

Posted as a comment over at Big Government

There is a Media-Government Complex, even more dangerous and corrosive of liberty as Eisenhower's "military/industrial complex" (which, if you actually go back and read Eisenhower's speech--he's warning against much the same crony capitalism that Palin highlighted once again in Indianola, Iowa.

Eisenhower:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military/industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. "

Palin::

"Ever notice how so many of them arrive in Washington, D.C. of modest means and then miraculously throughout the years they end up becoming very, very wealthy? Well, it’s because they derive power and their wealth from their access to our money – to taxpayer dollars. They use it to bail out their friends on Wall Street and their corporate cronies, and to reward campaign contributors, and to buy votes via earmarks. There is so much waste. And there is a name for this: It’s called corporate crony capitalism. This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk. No, this is the capitalism of connections and government bailouts and handouts, of waste and influence peddling and corporate welfare. This is the crony capitalism that destroyed Europe’s economies. It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest – to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners – the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70% of the jobs in America, it’s you who own these small businesses, you’re the economic engine, but you don’t grease the wheels of government power."

When you're too lazy/otherwise occupied to actually post an article, what do you do?

Link dump!

First, links with snark/pithy comment:
Thank Wal-Mart for your new bank card fee -- The title should be: "Thank Wal-Mart And Senator Dick Durban For Your New Bank Card Fee" -- it wouldn't have happened without government intervention in the market.

Gunwalker: Under White House Control?- New documents reveal extensive White House communication with the ATF head behind the scandal. - Like Watergate, except an office break-in is a bit different than handing out guns to killers who then go out and kill, isn't it?

Sunday Reflection: Changing the Constitution -- I like the idea of banning U.S. Senators from seeking the Presidency . . .

Economic Growth, Not Income Redistribution, Is What Helps Us All -- Well, yes, that's what has worked since the 1600's, not that the "progressives" have noticed . . .

Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales -- A classic, textbook hit piece. See if you can divine the author's agenda. "Telling the truth" isn't it.