THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

Water is wet, the sun rises in the East, and the President is still talking.

Those on the left worship him. He has no faults. His words are true simply because he says them. Appealing to those people to actually judge him on substance is a waste of time. For those actually capable of cutting through the fog, welcome to the world of our Spinal Tap in Chief.

Although the issue is health care reform, I am not referring to the medical procedure known as a spinal tap.

I am referring to the fictional rock band Spinal Tap, with Michael McKean of Laverne and Shirley playing Nigel Teufel.

The more I listen to President Obama, the more he reminds me of Spinal Tap. He sounds like he is saying lofty and groundbreaking things, but he is really saying absolutely nothing.

The song “The Majesty of Rock” is as hilarious as it is analogous.

“When we die…do we haunt the sky…do we lurk in the murk of the seas…

What then…are we born again…just to sit asking questions like these…

I know…for I told me so…and I’m sure each of you quite agrees…

The more it stays the same…the less it changes!”

(Even those who love Mr. Obama should find this song riotous.)

“That’s the majesty of rock…the fantasy of roll…

The ticking of the clock (or the crowing of the cock)…the scoring of the goal (or the running of the foal)…

The shepherd with his flock…the miner with his coal…

We’re in this together!”

I will get to the President’s remarks momentarily, but think of how the lyrics apply to him.

“I know, for I told me so, and I’m sure each of you quite agrees.”

If that does not perfectly encapsulate the mentality of this man, I don’t know what does.

Instead of “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” we get, “the more it stays the same, the less it changes.” It sounds so deep, but upon further analysis, is nonsense.

Barack Obama does not understand the economic concept of diminishing marginal returns. If every speech is a groundbreaking speech, then none of them are.

(In college, the 4th beer may have been better than the 3rd beer, but the 27th one might not be better than the 26th one. I was not a drinker, but the analogy is the same with barbecued ribs. It is a different type of physical pain that is self-inflicted.)

Now for Mr. Obama’s Spinal Tap remarks.

“The status quo is unacceptable. Doing nothing is not an option.”

Nobody is saying we should do nothing. Those are fictional arguments he keeps repeating.

He then tries to triangulate himself as a reasonable moderate between two extremes. On one side are those who want the single payer system. Mr. Obama yearns for this, but is honest enough to know it is not politically feasible at this time. Fair enough. Yet he claims that the Republican approach is solely to “loosen regulations on insurance companies. I disagree with that approach.”

No, it is not. I have not met a single Republican who said that letting insurance companies run wild is the only solution, and that everything will be fine if we do that.

He then stated where there was agreement.

1) Removing the ban on preexisting conditions (He cited the 39% Anthem Blue Cross increase in premiums).

2) Giving the people the same plan as Congress.

3) Bringing down costs

# 2 will not happen. Congress always finds a way to get special treatment. This is a bipartisan form of entitlement.

# 3 is a meaningless platitude. Everybody wants stuff to cost less.

# 1 makes sense. However, the reason why Anthem Blue Cross got away with what it did is because they lack competition. Does anybody in their right mind think that Coca Cola could charge $20 for a soda with Pepsi breathing down their neck?

Allowing insurance across state lines would absolutely prevent Anthem Blue Cross from engaging in such maneuvers.

President Obama kept saying that he “incorporated ideas from both sides.”

No he did not. He will not look at legal reform. Some call it tort reform, but we need wide ranging legal reform that balances reducing frivolous lawsuits without letting legitimate ones get buried.

He said that the CBO claims his plan will reduce the deficit by 2 trillion dollars. He neglects to mention that in the late years, it explodes again.

Anybody criticizing his numbers has their motives attacked as racist or unpatriotic or uncaring. I have one questions for these people.

How the heck can one reduce any deficit by spending more? It does not work that way.

“I took the best ideas from the Democrats and the GOP.”

No he did not.

“There is a disagreement over regulation of insurance companies.”

That is not the debate. That is a small slice of the debate.

“If Republicans feel that way, they should vote against my plan.”

Good. We will continue to vote against bad plans. It’s called being principled.

I have said that the president should take a piecemeal approach. The president feels that unless we get universal coverage (although his plan does not cover everybody), insurance companies will still deny those with preexisting conditions.

This is not the case. He claims that there is broad agreement, but insists on an all or nothing approach, disagreements be d@mned.”

He then complained that his bill “deserves an up or down vote.”

Again, Democrats are the ones that have had a year to have an up or down vote. 100% of the fault with failure has been because Democrats fought amongst themselves.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as usual made sense.

“The President left out the medicare cuts and tax increases.”

“The only thing bipartisan about this bill is the opposition to it.”

“This is not an argument between Democrats and Republicans. It is an argument between Democrats and the people.”

If Barack Obama wants a bill passed now, then get one passed! It is intraparty fights between the center-left and the hard left.

He can attack Tea Party attendees, Republicans, insurance companies, and everybody else, but the fault lies inward.

The bigger picture is that his passionate speeches on health care should be replaced with passionate work on jobs. 85% of Americans are happy with their health care. 100% of Americans are worried about the economy and job creation.

Over and over again Americans have said that they want the economy dealt with first. He pretends to get the message, then continues charging forward on health care.

We keep being told that “the time for talk and debate is over,” and that “the time to act is now.”

All this president does is talk. His party is the party of inertia. If they want to act, then shut up and act. Just stop boring me.

“I know, for I told me so, and I’m sure each of you quite agrees…the more it stays the same, the less it changes.”

eric

The main event today is Sarah Palin, but first, some quick housekeeping notes.

I am on a plane today to speak to the Silicon Valley Young Republicans in San Jose.

Last night California Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner spoke at the San Fernando Valley Republican Club headed by Gary Aminoff.

http://www.sfvrc.org

While I am publicly neutral in the race, I will say that this is the second time I have listened to and met Mr. Poizner. He is impressive.

Yet yesterday was a day of agonizing sadness. Sarah Palin visited Los Angeles, and again I am one crushed Tygrrrr fella.

(I expect you all to pretend to care and feel my pain.)

I have met so many politicians, but I have never met Sarah Palin. At the 2008 GOP Convention in Minneapolis, I met tons of politicos. However, Governor Palin was on lockdown. This was understandable. The Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees are under Secret Service protection for their safety.

Yet Sarah Palin is now a private citizen, and every time I think I am about to meet her something goes wrong.

On March 12th she and I are both in Florida. Yet while I have speaking event in Florida on the 11th, her event is the evening of the 12th. By then I will already be on a plane to Oklahoma City.

Yet yesterday I was so close. She came to Los Angeles to appear on the Jay Leno Tonight Show.

I drove the 30 minutes to the studio, was able to obtain a ticket, and was sitting in one of the front rows. We were 30 feet apart.

She was on fire. She joked with Jay about his own negative press coverage. She referred to the writing on her hand as a “poor man’s teleprompter.” It was a great line. She also did a comedy monologue that went over very well.

I have said many times that her critics are so rabid and frothing at the mouth that they will take a harmless event such as writing on a hand and use it to attack her, when the truth is they have a predetermined hatred of her and simply make things up to fit the predetermined narrative.

A couple of people that looked like they were still in the 1960s tried to hand me a copy of “Going Rouge.” I changed seats. They looked filthy, and their behavior was typical leftist intolerance. They could not even be polite enough to shut up and let the guest speak. Thankfully the supporters drowned them out.

The guest list in addition to Sarah Palin featured Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn White and American Idol singer Adam Lambert.

While Mr. Lambert looks a little creepy to me with all of his piercings and black eyeliner, I had never heard him sing before. He does have a good voice, and the song he sang was pleasant. It was odd to hear women in their 40s and 50s screaming like teenagers over this young man, but I never grasped Beatlemania either.

I was not there to see Mr. Lambert or Mr. White, although the chants of “USA” for Mr. White were nice.

I was there to see Governor Palin. I really wanted to meet her. I was 30 feet away from her.

She almost became Vice President. Then the financial crisis hit, and the GOP was done. SHe was so close, and yet so far away.

I feel the same way. She was right there. Yet meeting her on this day did not happen.

I may or may not have gotten on camera due to the band. The saxophone player was unbelievable, and the woman belted out classics during commercial breaks. As they played “Old Time Rock n Roll” by Bob Seger, I had a microphone shoved in my face. Lord help those who now know that I, in a very fake gravelly manner, “Reminisce about the days of old…”

I understand that there are many people in this world with bigger worries than me.

Yet I still wish we had met.

No, for those wondering, I would not have hit on her. I would have been very polite, and just let her know I supported her and admired her.

This is worse than the time in junior high school when some girl whose name I can’t remember did something I forgot that bothered me for reasons I cannot recall.

On March 27th, Sarah Palin is doing a tea party near Las Vegas. I am trying to be the undercard for that event.

I have built up very positive reviews among the ladies of the Federation of Republican Women.

Ladies…you run the country. All I ask…can you please get me in front of Sarah Palin so I can say hello to her?

I cannot go to Alaska. I am deathly afraid of cold weather. Somebody let me know when she is in the lower 48 in a climate controlled room (Not climate change you nimrods, climate controlled).

Until then, from 10 yards away, I offer a daydreamy sighhhhhhh.

Now to go sob uncontrollably.

So close, and yet so far away.

Oh, and for those wondering, she looks as stunning as ever.

(Editor’s note. This is not about lust. I wanted to give her a copy of my book in the hopes she would admire it and launch me on the road to superstardom. I may pretend to chase women, but I really am all business all the time)

eric

I have decided to endorse violence against women.

Men, it is open season. Brutalize away.

Despite my column “Light a candle, smack a woman” that rings in every Hanukkah, I used to actually be opposed to violence against women.

http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/2007/12/light-a-candle-smack-a-woman/

Yet an event recently had me switch sides. Naturally, it was the National Organization for Women that made me see the light.

The NOW should be renamed the 4-H club. Maybe we can call it Hillary’s Horrid Hags and Harpies.

For those who have better things to do (meaning you are not a feminist), a quick recap is necessary.

A football player named Tim Tebow appeared with his mother in a Super Bowl ad. Mrs. Tebow was over 40 when she was pregnant with Tim. She was advised to have an abortion due to complications, and she refused due to her pro-life beliefs. She was not crusading against other women. She had a choice, and she chose life.

The purpose of the commercial was to advertise the pro-life cause.

Naturally pro-choice groups went into a tizzy, expecting an “offensive” commercial. The commercial was so mild that no reasonable person (again, excludes feminists) could have possibly been offended.

Yet the NOW exists for the purpose of being offended, and setting women’s rights back. In the same way racial grievance mongers act like it is still 1863, the NOW offers gender grievances as if the 19th Amendment had never happened.

Because the ad was pro-life, the NOW needed something, anything, to attack the ad. Unable to attack it on substance (big surprise, the left avoiding substance), the president of the NOW offered a ludicrous criticism.

Tim Tebow playfully “tackles” his mother in the ad.

For those living in real life and not fantasy land (once again, feminists exempted), no actual mothers were hurt during the ad. In a separate unrelated ad, 88 year old actress Betty White was belted and slammed to the ground in a pickup game. Apparently it was make believe, and Mrs. White is walking just fine.

The NOW president threw her tiara to the ground, and in hysterical hissy (oh wow, make it the 6H Club) fit fashion, decided that the Tebow add promotes violence against women.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/National-Organization-for-Women-upset-83814942.html

Therefore, I have decided to propose new ways to commit violence against women.

As tempting as it is to advocate duct taping NOW members mouth’s shut, that would be illegal unless they voluntarily wanted it. Even so, they are most likely too ugly to play bondage with anyway.

My first act of violence against women will involve invading random flower gardens and pulling all the petals off of the flowers.

Women are obviously delicate little flowers, too soft and fragile to withstand the slightest slights. I will pull every petal off of every flower and violently throw them to the ground. Instead of yelling, “she loves me, she loves me not,” I will chant, “I hate you, I hate you more.”

Plus, I hate foliage. Most feminists are environmentalists, another reason to attack flowers.

Next, I will be sabotaging the Lifetime network. I will be jamming the feed and replacing it with the NFL network. The only commercial on tv will be the Tebow commercial.

Next, I will send religious monks into NOW headquarters. The NOW is secular, so religious people showing up would freak them out. The monks will be equipped with a chalkboard, using illustrations to teach them how to take a vow of silence.

If I have to, I will order the monks to throw the flower petals at these women. The women might get injured upon being hit by the petals. Then again, some of them may swoon because they will see it as an act of love, the only time flowers have ever been near them.

At this point some feminists will claim that it is unfair to criticize all of them for the lunatics at the NOW.

Either people stand up and condemn the cancerous elements in their own movement, or they are complicit.  Silence is acquiescence.

The solution is to reach a compromise on the abortion issue. Conservative pro-lifers should keep breeding. However, if a radical feminist gets pregnant (most likely through en vitro fertilization), and a crystal ball shows that the child will grow up to join the NOW, an abortion must take place.

Women who complain that I am trivializing a group that fights real violence against women can shut up and sit down. Until they care about honor killings in Muslim nations, they are hypocritical has-beens (oh wow, the 8-H Club).

Until then, I need to go to the hardware store. It is not easy to take broken flower petals and duct tape them together, but it will be worth it.

eric

It is time to tell the truth about why the Democrats failed to pass their own version of Obamacare. It had nothing to do with Republicans.

I am against Obamacare, but my concern is that I am not going to sit by and let Republicans take an ounce of blame for liberal uselessness.

Barbara Boxer and her ilk killed health care reform.

The truth is simple. I finally stated this last week, and although it deals with an issue I prefer to avoid, it is unavoidable for the health care discussion.

It is all about the A-word.

The only thing the left cares about is abortion. Liberal women have blinders on, and liberal Jewish women do not know a single other issue exists. Barbara Boxer is the trifecta.

Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak has language that keeps abortion from being part of a comprehensive plan. Right now abortion is considered an elective procedure.

I have publicly stated my neutrality on the issue. When a tough bill comes up, the easiest way to deal with the abortion issue is to maintain the status quo. I am not taking a pro-choice or pro-life position. I am taking a “deal with it separately” position.

On the issue of abortion alone, I am not wedded to Barbara Boxer or Bart Stupak. What I am looking at is which person is trying to change something. The Stupak language keeps the status quo. Barbara Boxer opposes this. She wants to increase abortion access.

This matters because she is willing to let the entire health care reform process go down in flames over abortion. The Democrats have the votes to pass a bill with zero support from Republicans. Yet pro-life Democrats will not accept new abortion expansion.

Barbara Boxer and her ilk cannot let this go. This is her greedy nature.

Getting bills passed is about consensus. Barabara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi are not about consensus. They are about rigid ideological feminist hysteria. Whether the issue is tax cuts or the War on Terror, they are obsessed with the abortion issue. This is why Boxer has been in the Senate 18 years and has virtually zero accomplishments.

If the Democrats were smart (they would be Republicans, based on their results), they would go to Boxer and say that getting a bill passed with many things the left likes has to be good enough, and that abortion can be revisited later.

The Democrats know that if they cannot get health care passed in 2010, it will never happen the way they want it. Who could be so selfish to torpedo an entire 30 to 40 years of work on an issue that divides Democrats?

Barbara Boxer and her ilk.

Barbara Boxer is a disaster of a human being, and she is dragging down an entire political party along with the Pelosiraptor.

How utterly delightful.

I would worry that this could be prevented, but it would require President Obama to grow a spine. That will not happen.

Barbara Boxer will rally the angry hard-left women of the world. She will claim a moral victory.

As for the millions off people without health care, Barbara Boxer cares nothing about them. Unless they are having an abortion, any other medical procedure is too boring for her to deal with.

Republicans should just sit back and let Boxer be Boxer. Then everything will work out fine.

eric

Today is Chile Fried Hockey Sunday.

With Chile, keep the people in your hearts. The idea that this was not as bad as Haiti because “only” 300 (since updated to 700) people died is not the case. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced or have damaged homes. Keep them in your hearts, love them, and pray for them.

As an American, I was listening nervously on the radio yesterday hoping that Hawaii would be spared. There was even talk of a Tsunami hitting Los Angeles and San Diego. I was in Arizona, but am back in Los Angeles. Driving in an Arizona rainstorm is not fun, but by the time I reached Las Vegas the night skies were clear and safe all the way home.

Weather will do what it does and we are at its mercy.

In America, the Gold Medal hockey game against Canada takes place. Canada has home ice advantage in Vancouver. America has the memories of the 2002 shellacking we took at Salt Lake City, Utah.

Some may question focusing on the Olympics when world tragedies are happening, but this is not fair. We have to live our lives. This does not make us insensitive or uncaring.

If America loses today I will order the burning of all copies of the movie “Canadian Bacon.”

Anyway, I drove last night from Kingman, Arizona to Los Angeles. I am fried.

This concludes Chile Fried Hockey Sunday.

eric

Update: We lost 3-2 in overtime. The President should immediately begin carpetbombing Canada. They are the scourge of the North.

eric

This lighthearted column was written before an Earthquake rocked Chile. I have nothing to say about that today until we know more. I hope Hawaii is spared. Like the rest of you, I am praying.

At lunch I am speaking to the Arizona Republican Women’s Federated at their state meeting in Yuma. Then later tonight I am speaking at the Kingman GOP Lincoln Dinner.

Now for a very lighthearted prewritten musing.

Comedian Steven Wright once remarked that he met a blonde Chinese woman who had a bizarre illness. She was a nymphomaniac who was only turned on by Jewish Cowboys. He responded by introducing himself and saying, “Hi, I’m Bucky Goldstein.”

There are very few if any Buck Goldsteins.

When Jimmy Johnson was coaching his football team to back to back Super Bowls, his popular refrain was “How bout them Cowboys!” Yet the players were not Jewish.

Actually, at least one of them was. Offensive lineman Alan Veingrad was on the 1992 championship team, so he was a Jewish Cowboy.

Yet this is not about the team that owns Dallas, Texas. This is about real cowboys.

A country music song once lamented, “I’m tired of make believing…they’re all the things they say…Are there really any cowboys left…in the good old U.S.A.?”

The search for cowboys has been few and far between. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were derisively called cowboys,  but they were ranchers, which was the complete opposite.

Trying to find cowboys is like trying to find Jews in certain parts of Arizona. Believe me, I know. While Phoenix and Tucson have Jewish communities, Yuma, Lake Havasu, and Kingman have slightly more Jews than Libya.

While this is discouraging, a Synagogue in Tucson allowed me to find both Jews and cowboys.

This past Friday was Rodeo Friday in Tucson. When the rodeo is in town, kids get off from school. Temple Emanu-El incorporated the rodeo into their Friday night services.

http://wwwtempleemanueltucson.org

This week was Western Shabbos.

Congregants were encouraged to show up in their jeans, belt buckles, and ten gallon hats. They were instructed to check their six shooters at the door.

Rabbi Samuel Cohon led a fun service. He referenced the cowboys of yore, and somehow related it to the Jewish service of the week. It was the first time I can recall Kinky Freedman being part of a service.

The final prayer was “Adon Olam,” as is customary. There are many different versions of it, but I have never heard any prayer Hebrew or otherwise be sung to the tune of “Home on the range.”

Tonight is the Jewish drinking holiday of Purim. Sadly enough, with Tucson in the rear view mirror, the area of Kingman I will be in has almost no Jews. So either I drive to Las Vegas or somewhere else, or sit out partying this year for Purim.

Then again, it has already been an adventure, and that is what life is about.

So thank you Temple Emanu-El. I will be back.

How Bout Them Jewish Cowboys!

eric

Yesterday I spoke to the Pima GOP ladies. Today I have the Pinal GOP ladies, in Saddlebrook, Arizona, near Tucson.

I said yesterday that I was not going to be covering President Obama’s newest self-indulgent waste of time. People who say I should be open-minded and just hear him out at some point should concede that he has had enough chances to speak. Nevertheless, hours driving in a car allowed for me to hear more than enough to determine that he is completely wasting our time.

When a liberal tells a conservative to “be bipartisan,” that liberal is really telling the conservative “shut up and agree with me.”

When people reject what the left offers, the left claims that their opponents are either evil or stupid.  Claims that they did not explain it right means that we are complete dolts too unsophisticated to grasp concepts. Claims that we have no interest in coming to the table attacks us as bad people when the truth is that dialogue is not the same as monologue.

Let’s start out with a basic premise that will anger conservatives. Barack Obama has every right to ram through his agenda. He won the election. He has healthy majorities in congress. If he rams through a left-wing agenda and we on the right dislike it, too d@mn bad. We lost the election and have to shut up and deal with it.

However, my objection with Mr. Obama is not that he wants to ram through an agenda I dislike. That is what elections are for. My problem with him is that he keeps telling us that he wants to be bipartisan. He doesn’t. He is an ideologue. He wants to govern from the left. I do not believe the right should refuse to deal with him out of spite. However, we have every right to refuse to deal with him until he starts speaking honestly.

Here is the truth, with a lowercase “t.”

Republicans did not block health care reform. Democrats did. The Democrats had a filibuster proof majority in the senate and could not get the job done. Again, there is absolutely nothing the Republicans could have done to block the bill. Failure to enact Obamacare is 100% the fault of the Democrats.

Barack Obama is not coming to the table because he is bipartisan. He knows that the Democrats are a bunched of undisciplined children that can’t govern. If they could, his bill would have become law.

The next truth is that Mr. Obama wants the Republicans to agree to his bill. He does not want to enact any Republican proposals.

Republicans favor legal reform. He is against it. His concern that legal reform would allow corporations to crush innocent victims is bogus. There can be a compromise legal reform bill that limits frivolous lawsuits while still allowing legitimate ones to go forward. Mr. Obama will not stand up to the trial lawyers.

Selling insurance across state lines would lead to competition, which is good. Mr. Obama is masterful at saying that Republican ideas should be “looked at,” which his way of pretending to acknowledge opposing views before completely discounting them.

Mr. Obama is even trying to revive the public option. Republicans do not want this.

So what is the solution?

I personally think Mr. Obama should try and ram his bill down our throats. Then when he fails, he and the Democratic Party should face the deserved humiliation, as they did with Hillarycare in 1994.

The Republicans should absolutely not cave in to this man.

Flash back to 1992. In a recession, Tom Foley and George Mitchell convinced President George Herbert Walker Bush to agree to raise taxes. Vice President Dan Quayle correctly pointed out that he would be breaking his word, ending his presidency.

President Bush gave a speech about how he hated to do it, but that he really wanted to work with the other side. The Jayson Blair Times praised him for compromising.

What was his reward? Foley and Mitchell and the rest of the Democrats called him a liar for breaking his “no new taxes pledge.” He was fired.

Politics are like the cartoon Peanuts. Democrats are Lucy, and Republicans are like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. How many times do we have to get fooled before we realize that the other side wants to bury us?

The Democrats screwed up health care reform. They desperately want Republicans to come on board so that if the bill fails, blame will be spread out.

Hell no. Let me say this again. Hell no.

President Obama keeps saying we have no ideas. We have plenty of ideas, and he keeps rejecting them. Either he adopts some of our recommendations, or he tries to pass a hyperpartisan bill on his own.

(Tomorrow I will explain WHY the Democrats cannot pass it on their own, and what is causing their own members to immolate themselves. It involves Barbara Boxer.)

Barack Obama keeps saying that the people want his bill. Therefore, he should pass his bill with his party and get all the credit if it succeeds. He is scared of blame, which tells me that he knows the people are not buying what he is trying to sell.

The left can cry and throw temper tantrums about GOP obstructionism, but it is a lie. They have the votes. They are too gutless and useless to do anything with the votes.

There is no need to talk anymore. It is a waste of time.

Meetings are useful when both sides are willing to listen and compromise. Mr. Obama wants face time in front of the camera in the hopes that the public will become weary with the Republicans and demand his bill be passed. This was the strategy that allowed Bill Clinton to defeat Newt Gingrich during the government shutdown of 1995.

Mr. Obama wants to talk everybody to death until the public says “enough already.” Then pressure will fall on Republicans to cave.

This cannot happen. Mr. Obama should not be rewarded for his own intransigence.

The bill is a bad bill. He refuses to change it. Having a meeting with the other side is not the same thing as taking concrete actions.

Mr. Obama did not definitely promise to put one GOP proposal into the bill or remove one liberal poison pill out of the bill.

He also promised to focus on jobs first, but he cannot let health care go.

He could sign a smaller bill eliminating restrictions on preexisting conditions. In 1994 Hillarycare collapsed, but after the GOP took over congress we got the Kennedy-Kassebaum portability bill. It was good legislation.

Barack Obama wants what he wants, and he will not stop until he is dragged kicking and screaming to the center.

Republicans should hold the line. If we can get Bill Clinton to agree to a balanced budget, we can get Barack Obama to move as well. He is mortal, despite his own visions of grandeur.

Hours and hours of wasted time accomplished nothing. Mr. Obama talked, blathered, lectured, and nothing changed.

Mr. Obama, either pass your own bill, or work with the Republicans.

Just stop talking. Nobody that matters believes you any more.

Enough already.

eric

I am not covering the Obama meeting with Republicans. I only cover actual news.

Yesterday had me in Yuma, Arizona. Today is Pima County, which contains Tucson. I am speaking to the Pima GOP ladies at lunch. I am in a rental car, and I can assure you, it is not a Prius.

As Priuses break down and cause carnage, congressional hearings are being held. In a vacuum, this would be fine. However, let’s be honest. Toyota has for so long been a far superior firm to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. I wonder if those companies will ever be called on the carpet. Given that Barack Obama own them, don’t bet on it. These hearings are a thinly veiled protectionism.

Having said that, I am not losing sleep over Toyota. If every Prius spontaneously combusted, the world would be a better place.

I admit it. I have Prius rage.

Every time I see a Prius, I want to pull the owner out of the car and give them a savage beating. I refrain from doing this because given that Priuses are driven by liberals, the chances of a minority driver would be sky high. Then it would be a hate crime.

The judge would never believe me that I did not pummel a guy because of his skin color, that it was really his car that provoked me.

Priuses are wrong on every level, and the world will be better when they are eradicated.

Let’s start with the aesthetics. The Prius is a hideously ugly car. Owners can make all the excuses they want, but they sound no different from people with ugly dogs, cats, or children. The car is ugly. It looks disgusting.

If that were the end of it, I would deal. It isn’t, so I won’t.

As the comedy South Park put it, Priuses are bad for the environment. They lead to an overdose of smug.

Not smog…smug. Prius drivers love letting everybody else know how morally superior they are. The car even has a chair position to make sure their noses are tilted high enough in the air for us all to bow down to.

These environmental phonies have no idea (or do know and don’t care) that the car does nothing for the environment. The battery alone leaves a bigger carbon footprint than anything else out there in a normal car.

What is it about hybrid owners that turns them into insufferable bores?

Why can’t hybrid drivers shut up and drive?

Even conservative Republicans get tough to listen to when they drive hybrids.

I love Sean Hannity. Yet he keeps mentioning his Escalade. Republican hybrid drivers are not braggarts. They are grovelers. It is their way of saying “please like me. I am not an evil Republican. I am a good person.”

Screw that. I say burn forests and build shopping malls.

(Whether I believe this is not the point. The issue is I refuse to say politically correct things. Either you like me or you don’t, but I am not going to kiss your politically correct @nus to win your worthless approval.)

Conservatives driving hybrids need to realize they will be hated no matter what. Stop talking about the hybrid. The left will never respect you under any circumstances.

Some will wonder why I have such hostility toward Prius drivers. Why can’t we all just live and let live?

Because they will never stop interfering with my life.

Here is the real crux of the issue.

If you want to be politically on the left, fine. Just get the ever loving blood hades out of the left lane.

I can’t stand it when I miss a light because the Prius in front of me is driving slow because they are busy taking time to smell the roses up their @nus.

Driving in the right lane does not make one politically conservative.

Yet instead of pulling to the right, they log up the left lane, with traffic congestion blending in with their own toxic self-satisfaction.

This is bad enough. Yet what really chaps my hide worse than Mistress Evil on a Saturday night is that Prius drivers get to use the diamond carpool lane. Why the hell should they get that privilege? Why should they get to their destination early while I am mired in traffic?

The carpool lane is for two or more drivers. It is not for government social engineering to play favorites. The reason why Prius drivers think they are better than everybody else is because the government tells them they are.

People driving ugly cars that hurt the environment and are now mechanically unsafe should not be given equal treatment, much less preferential treatment.

When I have the right to get from point A to point B without these obnoxious gasbags interfering with my right to move faster than an ice cream truck, then I will relent.

Let every Prius blow up until all the hope and change bumper stickers are off the road. May they blow up without the owners inside so that I am not accused of lacking compassion.

eric

At the 2010 Lake Havasu Lincoln Day Dinner, I had the pleasure of being the opening speaker before keynote speaker JD Hayworth.

Congressman Hayworth is running for the Arizona Senate seat currently held by John McCain.

(I am publicly neutral in the race. As is my custom, I do not get involved in primary fights, especially since in 49 states it is none of my d@mn business. I will support whoever wins the primary in the general election.)

I originally met Congressman Hayworth at the 2008 GOP Convention in Minneapolis. He was hosting his radio show. Yet two years later, he was not covering an event. He was the event.

Congressman Hayworth has angered many Republicans by taking on an American hero in a contested primary. Yet this is America, and he is exercising his freedom by running. He began his remarks by balancing the dichotomy of trying to replace a man that is universally praised as an American hero.

“There is never an easy or good way to take on this issue. Men like john McCain make it possible for all of us to even have disagreements.”

“This is not personal. We have disagreements in public policy.”

“Thankfully in America, we follow the political process. We decide elections with ballots, not bullets.”

“I take polite but profound exception to some of John McCain’s political decisions.”

“I supported John McCain for President in 2000. Yet the John McCain of 2000 is not the John McCain of 2010.”

“In the Fall of 2008, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke panicked. We were given the Chicken Little notion that the sky was falling. John McCain was part of the hysteria.”

“John McCain pointed out that I voted for an earmark dealing with money for snake eradication. John McCain also voted for that earmark.”

“A half-truth is the same thing as an outright fabrication.”

“I don’t believe that John McCain meant to mislead people. Yet with five million dollars on hand, he could afford to spend some of it and hire better researchers.”

“When it came time to bail out the mortgages, John McCain was standing next to and listening to Hillary Clinton. Anybody who is listening to Hillary Clinton is not listening to the people of Arizona.”

“John McCain joined Joe Lieberman to support cap and trade.”

“This year, when running for reelection, McCain left cap and trade to Lindsay Graham and John Kerry. Well which is it?”

“Many Senators love to raise taxes. I never operated the Capitol Hill version of H & R Block.”

“It is said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. Well the power to lower taxes is the power to employ. This was understood by Calvin Coolidge, JFK, Ronald Reaga, and George W. Bush.”

“With George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, I had an active hand in writing those tax cuts.”

“McCain called the Bush reductions tax cuts for the rich. Now he wants to vote to extend them even though he voted against them.”

“We should rename the Straight Talk Express the Double Talk Express.”

“We should provide two chairs for John McCain at his next town hall in case both John McCain’s show up.”

“Governments cannot create wealth.”

“Everything we need to learn about Barack Obama can be learned from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.”

“Justice on left means taking from the productive and giving to the idle.”

“Defending our borders and sovereignty is the job of our government.”

“John McCain supports comprehensive immigration reform, or as we call it, amnesty.”

“Border security is national security.”

“There is a securtiy threat and an invasion that must be stopped.”

“I respect John and his service, but four times enhanced interrogation techniques prevented another 9/11 style attack on us.”

“McCain is an enabler to dangerous Obama policies. McCain voted to confirm Eric Holder.”

“McCain voted to close Guantanamo Bay and bring them here. Illegals are not citizens of the United STates. Enemy combatants are not citizens. They have no rights confirmed upon them.”

“You can send a message on August 24th, 2010, in the primary.”

“I am not interested in reducing the rate of growth in spending. I want to cut spending.”

“Cut taxes, and enforcement first.”

“Some will set up a straw man saying that we cannot throw twenty million people out of the country. We don’t have to. When you enforce the law, people obey the law.”

“The Governor of Sonora is complaining that too many of his citizens are coming home. This is because Maricopa Sheriff Apaia is enforcing the law.”

“Sheriff Apaia is endorsing me.”

“This election is about John McCain and the Washington, DC establishment versus we the people. I proudly stand with you.”

As a man from California, I stand with Arizona Republicans and respect their decision. John McCain is a hero, but that is not what the election is about. JD Hayworth has fundamental policy disagreements with John McCain. The voters will decide who they trust going forward.

What I will say is that I judge people in how they behave when the cameras are off and nobody is watching. JD Hayworth did something nice for me that went far beyond his call of duty.

I could not find my car after the event. It was dark, I was driving a rental, and I have no sense of direction. He and one of his high ranking staffers spent more than a few minutes helping me find it. They had other places to be, and I am not even an Arizona voter.

Nevertheless, one of them walked with me while the other one checked other areas. Between the three of us, we found it.

Regardless of how the campaign turns out, I am grateful to have met him again, and thankful for his friendship. I wish him well in life always.

eric

The Tygrrrr Express is headed back to Arizona. Politics will have to take the day off, returning tomorrow.

I just drove from Arizona to Los Angeles on February 20th. Only 3 days later, it is time to turn right back around and drive back to Arizona. I have 8 events in 5 days.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010—I will be speaking to the Yuma County Republican Central Committee in Arizona at 7pm. Please contact Cody Beeson for details.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010—At 7am I will be an in studio guest of radio host Russ Clark on KBLU 560AM in Yuma, Arizona.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010—I will be speaking to the Yuma County Republican Women’s Federated in Arizona at lunch. Putter Inn, 1245 West Desert Hills Drive, Yuma 85365. Please contact Anne Booth for details.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010—I will be speaking to the Yuma County Young Republicans in Arizona in the evening. Chretin’s Mexican Food, 16th Street & Arizona Avenue, Yuma, AZ 85364. Please contact Cody Beeson for details.

Thursday, February 25, 2010—I will be speaking to the Pima County Republican Women’s Club in Arizona at 11am at the Sheraton Hotel. 5151 East Grant Rd, Tucson 85712. Please contact Leslie Fromm for details.

Thursday, February 25, 2010—I will be speaking to the Pima County Young Republicans in Arizona in the evening. RESCHEDULED. Details to follow.

Friday, February 26, 2010—I will be speaking to the Pinal Republican Women’s Federated in Tucson, Arizona at 11am. 64500 E Saddlebrook Blvd, Saddlebrook, 85739. Please contact Jo Ann Evans for details.

Saturday, February 27. 2010—I will be speaking at the Arizona Federation of Republican Women State Convention in Yuma at 10:30am at the Radisson Hotel. Details to follow.

Saturday, February 27, 2010—I will be speaking at the Kingman Lincoln Day Dinner near Lake Havasu, Arizona. Please contact Ray Cullison for details.

Politics matters, and the news is the world we live in on a  macro level. Yet on a micro level, life is about living.

Flying down the highway headed West…

In a streak of black lightning, called the Tygrrrr Express.

Eastbound and Down.

See you tomorrow.

eric