With “the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 500 points, as investors appeared to lose faith in the ability of the world’s policy makers to revive the global economy” and a “growing realization among even the most optimistic investors that the United States is entering a new recession — a dreaded ‘double-dip’“, Republicans need to put forward a plan to jumpstart the economy.

We know that increased government spending won’t do the trick.  We have to find ways to stimulate the dynamic and job-creating sector of the economy.  Perhaps the biggest problem is what the blogress formerly known as Little Miss Attila dubs the “pervasive climate of regulatory uncertainty” which . . .

. . . has led to the phenomenon of businesses “not knowing which way to turn.” When businesses don’t know what to invest in, they keep their money to themselves. [The president] should have signalled that he’d try to be fair to entrepreneurs and corporations.

Via Instapundit.  Over at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s blog, Tom Donohue offers “five steps officials in Washington should take immediately to spur faster hiring in America’s private sector” which instead of ratcheting up federal spending will thin “the ranks of those who are dependent on government support”:

1. Ratify Pending Free Trade Agreements With Colombia, Korea, and Panama.
2. Unlock Our Domestic Energy Resources.
3. Green-Light Transportation and Energy Infrastructure Projects.
4. Speed Up Permitting and Provide Immediate Regulatory Certainty.
5. Put the Welcome Mat Back Out for Tourists and Travelers.

Of those five points, I think we need focus on 1, 2 and 4, but alas that the incumbent administration does not seem much interested in such free-market policies.

With the debt debate behind us, House Republicans must at minimum debate bills which would unshackle the engines of economic growth, removing burdens from entrepreneurs, those job creators and innovators who are the life-blood of any economy.

Conservatives have to do more than just criticize Obama’s big-government policies.  We have to offer free market alternatives.  With these five steps, the Chamber of Commerce has done just that.  It’s time for House Republicans to follow suit.

Our visitor ticker at the bottom is about to click to a big number.

Will we get our 4,000,000th visitor on Monday?

Fingers crossed!

I’ve been major-league sick since returning from New York City on Sunday night.  Fever, stuffy head — fullblown NyQuil cold.

Anyway, my apologies for the silence — I haven’t felt much like doing anything but staying in bed.

Regarding post-HOMOCON stories, thanks to Dan for keeping up with it.  I may have more to say, but I think Lisa DePasquale who was there had the best article (which Dan linked to earlier this week).

Anyway, aside from the cold — New York & HOMOCON was a blast.  I got to meet a number of long-time GayPatriot readers and others in the Gay Conservative movement.   New and old friends alike!

A special thanks to the lovely and smart Tammy Bruce and John Phillips (handsome & smart!) for their hospitality Saturday evening!!!

More later.  *sniffle*

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE:  I just found this post that is nearly a year old.  It still seems to fit (even MORE so now, perhaps). 

Take the very worst personal and leadership traits of these Presidents:

Combine the Socialist, statist and world-view philosophy of this one:

And add the big-spending ways of this one:

And you get this big mess:

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Sorta….

The most patriotic gay confirms fisting within the Log Cabin Republicans. [GayPatriot]

Read more at Wonkette: Empress of Washingtonia’s Reign of Terror Continues

LOL.  High-larious.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Another one in the can!  Hopefully someday I’ll completely master uploading songs.  It was a great two hours and I’m so excited to have had two awesome guests.

Libertarian blogger and Tea Party activist Andrew Ian Dodge was my guest for Hour #1.  Check out Andrew’s work HERE.

And GOProud Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia was my guest in Hour #2.  Please support Jimmy’s work & GOProud HERE.

Finally, I promised I would post this great video with music from the song “Crying Freedom” written by Andrew.  A great way to celebrate the awakening America — Cry Freedom!

I’m very psyched. Clayton, a loyal GP reader from the Mountain States, has made this sign he will carry tomorrow in DC!!

Here is a handy guide to Tea Party Protests around the nation tomorrow.

Oh, if you are a homophobic, socialist, racist liberal — please do not attend.  Your hatred of your fellow Americans who believe in the Constitution is not welcome.

UPDATE: A special plug for the Tea Party protest in San Francisco on Thursday!

Thursday April 15th

UNION SQUARE

4:00 PM to 7:00 PM

(between Macy’s and Tiffany’s)

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

It all sounded good when spouted out of the mouths of MSM babes (Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow and the like) and other children of our time (Joe Biden): $787 Billion to “jumpstart” the economy, and create MILLIONS of jobs!

But just like nearly all of Obama’s principles and promises — this one falls flat in a major way.  3.2 Million Americans have LOST their jobs SINCE the Democrats’ Stimulus Package was enacted into law.

Now in a vain effort to promote all of these alleged jobs “SAVED”, the Obama Administrations PR effort has fallen flat on its face and reinforced the notion that the Federal Government is at best inept. (h/t - Instapundit)

The chairman of the Obama administration’s Recovery Board is telling lawmakers that he can’t certify jobs data posted at the Recovery.gov Web site — and doesn’t have access to a “master list” of stimulus recipients that have neglected to report data.

Earl Devaney, the chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, responded to questions posed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., late yesterday to say the board can’t vouch for the numbers submitted by recipients of stimulus funding.

“Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable. No, I am not able to make this certification,” Devaney wrote, in a letter provided to ABC News.

Even powerful Congressional Democrats have faced the obvious and the embarrassing.

However, the website [Recovery.gov] is troubled with inaccuracies, and these problems are undermining its credibility. Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Dave Obey agrees: “The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the Administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes.”

Given that stimulus award recipients are responsible for providing much of the information you see on Recovery.gov, it’s reasonable to expect some errors in the reporting process. Alas, some of the information seems to come out of thin air.

Here’s a novel idea, Congress.  Stop all Stimulus spending for 9 months beginning NOW.  Instead, institute an across the board payroll tax holiday (individuals & small businesses) for those same 9 months.  Let’s see how that idea does for job creation versus your Stimulus’ 9 month track record.  A more substantive tax cut in the 1980s led to 20 million jobs created and the greatest growth period since WWII.  And, Reagan’s tax cuts led to deficit spending that in the context of Obama’s debt – would look like a savings plan now in comparison.

I know, wishful thinking.  Washington doesn’t listen to We, The People anymore.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

No principles.

No respect.

No honor.

Just a simple lust for power.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Bruce and I almost never coordinate our blogging, only occasionally alerting each other to a post we have planned, so this afternoon I was surprised and pleased to see that he had blogged on the latest Gallup poll showing conservatives maintaining their edge as the top ideological group.  Yesterday morning, while in Santa Barbara, I chanced on that very poll via Jennifer Rubin’s Commentary Contentions piece and had scribbled a note (before joining friends for breakfast) to blog on it when I returned to Los Angeles.

But, so caught up was I in my dissertation research when I returned that I didn’t get the blog until late in the afternoon.   And Bruce had already brought the poll to your attention.  Still, its significance cannot be underestimated. And not just as a rebuke to the president.  It also serves as a kind of rebuke to the GOP.

Coupled with a Club for Growth polling showing “Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman surging into the lead in the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district to replace John McHugh,” this suggests that the road to Republican victory means adopting more conservative policies–and not following the pundits’ advice in nominating candidates like that race’s GOP nominee, third-place finisher Dede Scozzafava.

Now, contrast this with the latest Gallup poll on party identification.  27% of Americans identify as Republican–that’s 13 points fewer than those who describe themselves as conservative.  35% identify as Democrats–15 points higher than those who describe themselves as liberal.

In a column this past summer, Michael Barone boiled down this phenomenon:

The result is that the two parties have offsetting political advantages. Democrats tend to win on party identification. Republicans tend to win on ideology. Democrats don’t have to appeal to as many independents as Republicans do. Republicans don’t have to appeal to as many moderates as Democrats do.

It’s hard to see Democrats holding onto a third of the electorate if the President and Congress continue in their big-spending liberal ways.  Barone’s explanation reinforces our theory that the GOP has been losing ground in recent years because it lost sight of conservative ideology.

But, will those moderates move over to a more conservative GOP?  Perhaps, if it’s conservative on the issues where many of them lean to the right.  And Gallup polls do suggest that opposing big government is one such issue.

Why would this be happening?  Ya think maybe the Era of “hopeandchange” is wearing thin?

GALLUP.com:  Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June. Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group.

And how’s that healthcare reform persuasion goin’ for ya, Mr. President?

In a recent Rasmussen tracking poll, opposition to health care reform as proposed by President Obama and the congressional Democrats had risen to 54 percent. Support dropped to 42 percent.

The bill recently endorsed by the Senate Finance Committee was hailed by some as more reasonable than the House versions, yet all these bills share provisions that will dramatically raise costs.

There is a growing disconnect between the Washington Elite Class and the Outside The Beltway Normals.   It makes me wonder where we are with our “low grade civil war” these days?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

GOProud’s chairman Chris Barron co-authored a piece on healthcare reform with US Senator Tom Coburn for The Advocate.  I want to open with this commenter at The Advocate, which is typical of the closeminded vitriol of most gay activists:

Seriously? Republicans concerned over GLBTs who have HIV/AIDS and who are scared? I’ve never heard of such a thing. In fact, the last things I remember are GWB slashing funding for HIV/AIDS care and that Nazi Reagan ignoring our community while we died. Republicans, bite me. I’ll never listen to you.

Few people know that Sen. Coburn was personally responsible for re-inserting HIV/AIDS funding into the Federal Budget when Bill Clinton zeroed-it out throughout his Presidency.  Inconvenient truths.

But back to the topic at hand:  the dangers of government run healthcare for those with HIV/AIDS.  Read the whole thing from Coburn & Barron, but here are few excerpts:

The federal government will spend $15 billion on AIDS treatment alone this year, yet due to the inefficiencies of the public-run program, thousands will not receive appropriate care. In recent years, two patients in West Virginia and five in Kentucky died while awaiting care on waiting lists for the RWCA AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Today there are 247 Americans on waiting lists for livesaving AIDS drugs in eight states. The number is expected to reach 500 by Christmas. Those on the ADAP waiting lists are disproportionately minorities and residents of rural areas.

Sadly, the waiting lists do not tell the whole story of how care is being rationed under this program. Many other ADAP patients, while receiving care, are being denied the best treatment. Fuzeon, the AIDS drug of last resort that has been successful in treating patients who no longer benefit from other drugs, for example, has been denied to ADAP patients in our nation’s capital.

With our neighbors in need, no one should question that we have an obligation to help those who lack access to quality, affordable medical care. But how?

The best solution is to prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against patients who are sick or who have preexisting conditions. These are some of the very reasons why we have insurance. Then we should give all Americans the same choices of health care coverage enjoyed by members of Congress, who can select from more than 10 different private health care plans. S. 1099, the Patients’ Choice Act, would guarantee that all Americans would be able to choose the health care coverage that best meets their individual needs with creating a new government program. The Patients’ Choice Act will put you, not insurance companies, bureaucrats, or politicians, in charge of your own health care decisions.

We can and should work to make sure that every man, woman, and child in this country has access to quality, affordable health care. No one should be denied access to health care that would improve or extend their life. The good news is that we can do this. We can do it without creating an inefficient and expensive government program and we can do it in such a way that empowers individuals to take control of their own health care.

RELATED STORY: D.C. officials to scrutinize spending by AIDS groups – Washington Post

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I agree with US Senator Lamar Alexander and have been saying so for quite sometime. 

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) accused the White House on Wednesday of “street-brawling” with opponents, and said the West Wing’s strategy of freezing out opponents amounts to a latter-day “enemies list,” a reference to an infamous practice of President Richard Nixon.

 ”An ‘enemies list’ only denigrates the Presidency and the Republic itself,” Alexander said on the Senate floor. “These are unusually difficult times, with plenty of forces encouraging us to disagree. Let’s not start calling people out and compiling an enemies list. Let’s push the street-brawling out of the White House and work together on the truly presidential issues: creating jobs, reducing health care costs, reducing the debt, creating clean energy.”

Alexander continued:

“In 1969 and during the first half of 1970, I was a wet-behind-the-ears, 29-year-old staff aide in the West Wing of the Nixon White House. I was working for the wisest man in that White House, Bryce Harlow, who was a friend of President Johnson, as well as the favorite staff member of President Eisenhower, and President Nixon’s first appointee.

 Based upon that experience and my forty years since then in and out of public life, I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President Obama and his White House: don’t create an enemies list.”

Obama has all of the worst qualities of Jimmy Carter & Richard Nixon and none of the good qualities of any recent President I can think of…

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

TIME MAGAZINE trashes Obama over his empty promises….

Saturday night President Obama charmingly delivered a rather bleak message to the gay community on the eve of its latest march on Washington. In a speech to the world’s largest gay political group, the Human Rights Campaign, Obama essentially said two things: I’m with you. But I can’t do much for you.

As usual with this President, all the cadences were right. “It is a privilege to be here tonight to open for Lady Gaga,” he ad-libbed, again a deft and knowing line for an audience probably as eager to hear her performance as his. During one clamorous ovation, Obama said, simply, “I love you back.”

Obama patted himself on the back for his party’s passage earlier in the week of a a hate-crimes bill that, for the first time, includes gay and transgender people. And he used the opportunity to tell gay critics who have expected so much of him to express what he expects of them. The hate-crimes bill, he said, had become law only because those who believed in it had thoroughly educated the public about why it was important. “Countless activists and organizers never gave up,” he said. “You held vigils. You spoke out year after year, Congress after Congress.”

Obama is right, in a civics-class sort of way, because social change can’t occur if it’s forced from the top down. But that’s also a convenient argument for him, since it defers responsibility from his office.

Obama did pledge — as he has before — to end the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But once again he said nothing specific about how he plans to do that and didn’t acknowledge that he already has the statutory power to instruct the Pentagon that investigating service members’ sexuality is not in the best interest of the armed forces. Also, he said that gay relationships can be “just as real and admirable” as straight relationships, but he did not say gay couples should be treated equally. Obama, after all, still opposes equal marriage rights.

“Obama lost me,” said Zach Rosen, 28, who came to Washington from Philadelphia. “He took a lot of gay dollars and gay votes, and then it was like Clinton — unkept promises.”

I’m sorry, who is surprised by this exactly?  I mean there is a trail of bodies behind the bus that Obama drives over those who are politically expedient in his career (or lack thereof).  Why wouldn’t The Gays be another victim?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

In no particular order:

• More than one-third of all US casualties in Afghanistan have happened since Obama  took the oath of office (Oct 2001 to Dec 2008 versus Jan-Sept 2009)
• Job losses in the USA have gone up significantly SINCE Obama signed his “stimulus package”
  UPDATE from USA TODAY:
  Fourteen of the top federal agencies responsible for spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act say they’ve hired about 3,000 workers with stimulus money. That’s helped fuel the continued growth of the federal government, which increased by more than 25,000 employees, or 1.3%, since December 2008, according to the latest quarterly report. During that time, the ranks of the nation’s unemployed increased by nearly 4 million, Labor Department statistics show.
• There has been no significant progress on gay rights since Obama took the oath of office.  And Obama shares the same view on gay marriage as President Bush.  And Dick Cheney is more progressive on gay marriage than Obama is.
• Obama is responsible for more government spending than all of his previous Presidents’ spending combined
• The only political violence in 2009 has come from left-wing radicals, not conservatives
• Gitmo will still be open in February 2010
• Transparency by the Obama Administration is a hollow talking point, not policy
• We have still not withdrawn from Iraq, despite the withdrawal agreement that President Bush reached with the Iraqi government
• Obama is getting the same intelligence from the same intelligence agency on Iran that Bush did on Iraq
• Based on a variety of public polling, Obama is the most divisive President since Richard Nixon
• No American President in this nation’s history has ever so frequently expressed his sorrow at being its leader

I’m sure I’ve missed something….

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Here’s the news Dan was referring to earlier today.

The NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.

This practice has never been the historical role of the NEA. The NEA’s role is to support excellence in the arts, to increase access to the arts, and to be a leader in arts education. Using the arts to address contentiously debated issues is political subversion. And the fact that the White House played a role in encouraging the arts to address contentious issues should also be considered a government overreach.

Three days after the conference call a coalition of arts groups, led by Americans for the Arts, a participant on the conference call per the meeting contact list and recipient of NEA grants, sent out a press release with the heading “Urgent Call to Congress for Healthcare Reform,” which called for the creation of “a health care reform bill that will create a public health insurance option.” Eleven days after the conference call, Rock the Vote, another participant on the call, announced a health care design contest. “We can’t stand by and listen to lies and deceit coming from those who are against reforming a broken system,” they stated in their announcement. “Enough is Enough. We need designs that tell the country YES WE CARE! Young people demand health care.”

These may both be coincidences and I am not suggesting that the NEA or these groups definitively violated the law in these efforts. That’s for others to discuss and investigate. As I’ve stated in various television interviews, the organizers never discussed any specific policies.

Oh.. NOW I UNDERSTAND.  It is Andrew Breitbart and his team that are doing those jobs that the American mainstream media won’t do.

People will go to jail over this corruption. It is just a question of who and how deep within the White House.

UPDATE: BigHollywood’s Nick Gillespie adds:

It’s ironic that official attempts to use artists have come to light only weeks before the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the German Democratic Republic, a regime that spent an enormous amount of time, energy, and resources creating fake culture to bolster its political agenda. “Official” culture is always unseemly, especially when the connections between officials and the ostensible creators are hidden from the audience.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Sorry for my absence from the blog.  I blame my real job and a nasty sinus infection that just won’t go away.

Anyway, I was just weeding through a ton of GayPatriot email and found this devastating summary by Dick Morris of President Obama’s current political situation.  I usually give Dick Morris just about grain of salt, so it was the Zogby poll numbers that really caught my eye.  (That would be the traditionally Democrat-leaning Zogby poll)

• People under 30 — long a key element of his support — give him no better than break-even ratings, with 41 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving of the job he’s doing, according to Zogby.

• Only 75 percent of Democrats, who formerly have supported Obama strongly, now approve of his performance in office. Zogby reports that this represents a slide of more than 10 points over the summer.

• Even among blacks, only 74 percent approve of the job he’s doing (also a drop of more than 10 points).

• Hispanics, who voted for him by a margin of more than 40 points, now break even (36-36) when rating his performance.

• Independents, the key swing group in our politics, now deliver a sharply negative 37-50 verdict on Obama’s job performance. The elderly also give him negative ratings by 42-51.

Whoa.  Obama’s popularity crash is truly breathtaking and something I never thought I would see so soon.  Morris points out, rightly, that this leaves Obama with few good options on healthcare reform.

He obviously can’t get 60 votes in the Senate for his health-care proposals in their current form. No Republican will support them, and moderate Democrats aren’t likely to vote with him.

If he tries to pass it with 50 votes, using so-called reconciliation procedures, he may also fail — because he’d also lose the votes of less-moderate Democrats who’d quail at using parliamentary tricks to pass such a radical, unpopular program.

If Obama waters down his proposals to attract moderate support, he’d lose votes on the left — perhaps more than he’d gain, at this point.

Yet the longer he takes to resolve this political problem, the more his ratings will slip — diminishing his power to achieve anything. No president with support in the 30s would be able to push through a program like his health-care agenda.

Healthcare reform has become a death spiral that looks like a bottomless pit for Obama and fellow Democrats. Morris points out that Clinton recovered by tacking to the right. I was always amazed how Clinton had an epiphany and discovered his interest a balanced budget in 1995; following the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994, of course.

But what is Obama to do when clearly he has only radical leftist bones in  his body?

What to do, Chairman Obama?  What to do?   Ah, I know…. talk to the chillllllllllldren.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

From Rasmussen Reports:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 27% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14. These figures mark the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President. The previous low of -12 was reached on July 30 (see trends).

Prior to today, the number who Strongly Approved of the President’s performance had never fallen below 29%. Some of the decline has come from within the President’s own party. Just 49% of Democrats offer such a positive assessment of the President at this time.

At the other end of the spectrum, today’s total for Strongly Disapprove matches the highest level yet recorded. The 41% mark was reached just once before and that came one week ago today. Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans now Strongly Disapprove along with 49% of those not affiliated with either major party.

I have seen this coming since Obama’s election.  When your entire presidency is built on an ultra-thin resume, hidden loyalties and agendas and mostly on empty rhetoric — well, it was bound to collapse.

Thanks Obama voters, thanks a lot.  At least most of you are starting to see you were punk’d.

And thanks to you, President Obama — you did in 8 months what the previous 220 years of US Presidents didn’t do in combination.  Create the largest US debt that will bankrupt future generations.  Now go enjoy Martha’s Vineyard with Queen Michelle.  We’ll enjoy our cake.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I already have.  You should too.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

(Not My) Speaker & Crazy Harry had their say in today’s USA Today.

‘Un-American’ attacks can’t derail health care debate
By Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer

Here’s my response folks:  how about you buy this bumper sticker and slap it right on your car?

UPDATE: James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal adds this perspective about the Pelosi-Reid smear column today:

All we can say is, America is very lucky that George W. Bush was president.  Had he not been, we might never have found out that dissent is patriotic.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)