The everyday decisions we make can have monumental consequences if we make a mistake in judgment. A politician will make decisions affecting millions. Throughout history, poor judgment has allowed politicians to create the instruments of their own demise and it often happens before he realizes it is happening. Once the wheels of fate are allowed to gain momentum, there is often no option but to devise an escape.
I put myself in mortal danger once as a young man, an experience I reflect upon on a regular basis. It was early December, I had helped several hunters get elk and moose and a couple of grizzly, but the seasons except for moose were over and I needed a moose for my family’s meat supply for the year.
The snow was about a foot deep and the daytime temperature was thirty below. I was riding a horse to cover more ground in the snow. The snow helped disguise the noisy movements a horse makes and an old wool military trench coat slit high in the back so that it covered my legs and the horse’s ribs provided a lot of heat from the horse.
It was snowing and I was headed back to the ranch house when I saw a three year old bull about a hundred yards away. I slid from the horse and started to get my cold stiff body loosened up and ready to fire. It was a fairly easy shot, my old 8 mm Mauser with a receiver chambered for an ’06 brass barked and I saw the bullet strike home through both lungs missing the heart by several inches. The young bull staggered and began blowing red bubbles through his nose, he was slowly bleeding to death. I let him bleed out for a few minutes before risking a killing headshot. The moose head is huge and the brain is small, a misplaced shot could cause the animal to run for miles before giving up the ghost, making recovery much more difficult.
Once the bull showed signs of weakening, I finished him with the headshot.
At this point, the real work of the hunt begins: the internal organs must be evacuated, the blood drained from the body cavity, and the hide must be skinned before it freezes to the body. This animal was probably 6’ 6” at the withers and weighed close to 1500 pounds. I built a fire next to the carcass so that I could warm my hands and cook moose nose and liver for dinner along with some onions I had in my saddlebags. A billycan sat next to the fire to boil water for tea, in a few minutes, I would have a feast suitable for a bush ape and that would be me.
Actually the warm food and tea would give my body the strength needed to survive the intense cold that was settling in.
The moose nose was hung over the fire with a forked stick. I was always amazed at how God arranged the little things like designing the nose to be impaled through the anatomical features with a forked stick to facilitate cooking over an open fire. A one-pound chunk of liver, a small portion of the massive liver, would be roasted directly on the coals and I would cut the onions in half and lay them cut side down directly on the liver for the last two minutes. The tea would be boiling continuously and I would stop to warm myself with the tea now and then.
I had to wash my hands in the snow before eating and they were becoming numb. When the black hide covering the nose split and peeled my gourmet meal was ready. The wind was increasing and I was becoming worried because with the darkness the temperature was dropping much quicker than normal. I dug through the snow and cut some dry grass and vetch, and crushed some small poplar branches for my horse, it wasn’t as good as my meal, but he would have feed in his belly for the ride home.
One of the problems with field butchering is that you must work without gloves so my hands were beginning to suffer from the extreme cold. My knife handle was slippery from the blood and fat from the moose and just before I was finished, the knife slid back in my hand and I cut my index and my middle fingers fairly deep. I washed the hand in clean snow as well as possible and poured tea over the wounds for antiseptic. I then wrapped the fingers in a clean sock and put a leather mitten over the hand and finished the moose using my left hand.
Injuring the hand weakened me, now I was tired, cold, and in pain; in the meantime the temperature was still dropping. That is when the shooting started; although, there are no guns involved, it is the sound caused from sap trapped in the spruce and pine trees freezing and splitting the wood in the trunks from the expansion. It sounded like there was a bunch of 30-06 rifles going off all around me, it means that the temperature had dropped to 55 below or colder, my situation had become dire.
There wasn’t enough snow on the ground to make a snow cave and expect insulation from the extreme cold. I didn’t know if the horse and I could survive the ride back to one of the line cabins and that’s when I decided to try something desperate. I placed a two-foot stick under the top hind leg to open up the carcass and crawled inside, yes, it was tight but there was enough room for me to get inside. I placed my blanket roll from my saddle over my horse to help protect him through the night. I lined the body cavity of the moose with the moose hide so that the hair side would be against my body. I crawled inside and felt an immediate warmth course through my body. It actually began to warm up in my temporary moose carcass motel. I soon drifted off into a peaceful slumber for several hours.
I awoke in the morning and immediately sensed that something was dreadfully wrong. During the night, I had probably pushed against the hind legs with my feet and the stick that was holding the upper leg up in the air had fallen away so that the hind quarter had fallen down and now my legs were locked beneath the frozen meat of the hind quarters and I was entombed in a frozen moose carcass.
I tried not to panic while I surveyed my situation; I was on my back wrapped in a frozen raw moose hide about three eighths of an inch thick with four to eight inches of thick coarse hair that dulls a knife in minutes, my hands had some movement, my feet were trapped beneath a frozen hind quarter that weighed at least 150 pounds, my shoulders are wide for my 6’ 2” 230 pound frame, so there was no chance of rolling over, my face had 3 or 4 inches of breathing space, my Buck knife, dull from field dressing the moose was on my hip beneath my old Marine issue great coat.
I had two options: I could work methodically to escape or I could wait for hypothermia and die. I decided to try for life.
My immediate goal was to retrieve my knife in its case on my belt. With my right hand that was now very sore from last nights’ accident, I worked my way into the pocket of my great coat, I then began to wear a hole in the pocket with my thumb nail. I was cursing at how the Corps could make some articles so well. When I had a hole large enough to insert my thumb I pulled down hard and ripped the pocket and felt for my knife, alas I found the scabbard and pulled the knife out.
My exertions and heavy breathing while doing these normally simple procedures caused the moose cavity to steam up making it even more uncomfortable; but it would help in a few minutes.
When I tried to pull the knife out of my pocket, the pocket would follow my hand so that I was caught in the South East Asian monkey trap as well. I had to open the knife with one hand and cut my way free of the pocket. Most bush apes open a Buck knife routinely with one hand, but not in a pocket. It worked and I set about destroying my beloved coat from the USMC.
Once my knife hand was free from the pocket, I made a length wise cut to my right, through the moose hide, of course the thick hair was falling everywhere, making it harder to breathe. My moisture laden breath helped thaw the hide enough that I was able to push it towards my feet.
I now could work on the rib cage, I sliced between each rib as far toward the sternum as possible. It was a welcome relief to get fresh air in my cocoon; but there was a heavy snow above me, so ventilation was limited, it was daylight because light was showing through the snow.
After making the slits between each rib, I began cutting through the ribs a few inches from the spine. This was before the saw blade knives and the process was painfully slow. A moose rib is three times the size of the beef ribs you see at the barbeque joints, but it still isn’t large enough for my hand to push the rib through and break it at the sternum, so the first ribs were pushed out two at a time. Now the snow fell in on top of me and it was necessary to keep pushing it out and away since there was several feet of snow above me. The process of cutting through each rib and pushing it up and away was a long and laborious process, but perseverance pays off.
Eventually, I sat up with a great feeling of freedom, even though my feet were still trapped. I reached forward and grabbed the lower leg of the top quarter that had me trapped and leaned back with all my weight and I was free, free at last!
My daylight was disappearing quickly, my saddle horse seemed glad to see me, probably figured I would make sure to get him some good feed. I saddled him and we rode home to the ranch. I would get a good night’s sleep before taking three packhorses to load up the moose the next morning.
Although it was a desperate struggle to get out of that coffin, in the back of my mind I was thinking about the odd grizzly that wakes up and goes for a walk looking for something to eat. The moose and I would have looked like a warm burrito to a hungry grizzly.
Obama is creating his own frozen moose sarcophagus with carefully scripted moves. While he revels in his success and temporary adulation he forgets that he owns these dubious bills. He will no longer be able to blame Bush, he is the one that has created the astronomical and ever increasing debt.
The English have not adopted the trillion dollar term, they are content with the one thousand billion term. Unfortunately, American taxpayers are more comfortable with the trillion dollar debt than the one thousand billion amount. The naiveté and stupidity of the voting public is facilitating our destruction.
Its true that the average voter doesn’t understand the significance of signing over our sovereignty through treaty negotiations relating to the cap and tax bill, designed so that the United Nations can tax us into oblivion and reward the Marxist dictators and war lords of third world countries with untold hundreds of millions; but eventually they will realize the difference, as their standard of living and ability to buy food slowly erodes away.
We sit around and watch the price of gold reaching record heights without realizing that gold isn’t that high, our dollar is just that low. Hyper inflation is beginning to set in and America is about to find out what the Weimar Republic, Peron’s Argentina, and Zimbabwe have gone through. In Zimbabwe, money is being printed in ten trillion dollar notes.
Even wealthy Liberal Marxists will feel the pinch when their fortunes are reduced to less than 1% of their former value within a few days. Yes Obama the dilettante is creating his own frozen moose cocoon, yet he wouldn’t last 24 hours in the bush, he is destroying himself and the country we love while he crawls into his own frozen carcass and dragging us with him. Whether it is his intention to destroy this country or he is pursing some idealistic ghetto concept of Marxism, the result will be the same, destruction of our economy and of our way of life.
There will be no carving an escape from this frozen carcass, this time we will be waiting for the hungry grizzly and mankind’s descent into barbarism for hundreds of years.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CqNbzCHBdo[/youtube]
It takes courage to look death in the eye, this old bull has confidence, but knows to be cautious.
Epilogue: This was one of my first posts at FA. I was reviewing it for my book “Skook, A Canadian Cowboy, Loose In America” and I realized that those early predictions were not far off the mark. I couldn’t resist, so here it is again at one of these critical junctions of our nation’s history. Hopefully, it will help you cool off during the heat wave.
A professional horseman for over 50 years, Skook continues to work with horses. Skook has finished an historical novel, Fifty Thousand Years, that traces a mitochondrial line of DNA from 50,000 years ago to the present. The story follows a line of courageous women, from the Ice Ages to the present, as they meet the challenges of survival with grit and creativity. These are not women who whimper of being victims, they meet the challenges of survival as women who use their abilities without excuses or remorse, these women are winners, they are our ancestors.
Fifty Thousand Years is available in paperback and e-book, it is getting great reviews. You can purchase a copy here; Visit me on Facebook.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dylantheauthor
I have a few friends who moved here from Venezuela back in the 1990’s.
One of them pointed out to me that Iran had to deal with their inflation by knocking off the last three zeros on their currency.
The Iranians will eventually print new money, but this was an emergency devaluation.
He pointed out to me that he and all his family left Venezuela after the 1996-7 inflation rate there hit 117%
(And I thought the couple of months Jimmy Carter’s policies took our inflation above 15% was bad.)
So many things Obama has been doing lately are hidden taxes.
The release of 30 million barrels of our oil from the strategic oil reserves was one.
QE2 was another.
Our Treasury and Fed selling our debt to ourselves is another.
I loved your illustration, but I pray your conclusion is incorrect.
Our country has survived wars and witch hunts.
I hope it can bounce back after 4 years of Obama.
There is a whole lot of cash on the sidelines.
I hope it is still worth something when Obama is gone.
By the way, what does Moose taste like? Just curious.
Moose is closest to beef, without the feed lot experience.
Moose nose is an acquired taste.
“By the way, what does Moose taste like? Just curious.”
Why do I suspect that it probably tastes like chicken? 🙂
“By the way, what does Moose taste like? Just curious.”
I thought about this question while I was working today.
Moose doesn’t taste anything like chicken, that is a safe statement.
Before a moose begins the rut, (a breeding period that varies between both genders to facilitate successful breeding), the bull moose will have large amounts of fat on the back and rib cage. Moose tastes the best at this time, because the moose quits eating during the rut and spends his waking moments breeding and fighting or looking for either and forgets to eat. The fat reserves are depleted within a month and the bulls will be skinny after the rut.
If they took managed to get gored or bruised up, they will go into winter in a compromised condition and will probably die during the winter; of course predators, severity of winter, and the bull’s condition will affect his odds of surviving the winter. It’s a rough game but the moose have evolved into an awesome animal as a result of this system.
The steaks and roasts of the pre-rut moose will taste like grass fed beef or an animal that didn’t spend 90 to 120 days in a feed lot eating a grain ration. If you have the fixins, you usually add butter or pork fat to your steaks and roasts because the yellow colored moose fat is even too strong or gamey for a bush ape like me.
In the mountains, you must make do with what you have. If you have the luxury of eating at your kill site, the fresh liver is delicious and most bush apes will always eat the nose roasted over an open fire.
If i have a December old baloney bull (the older they are the stronger and more intense will be the rut urges) I usually make sausages and hamburgers with pork fat and pork and beef trimmings, these dishes were always in high demand and I’d watch twenty or thirty pounds disappear in a matter of minutes when company came over.
That the best I can do on explaining moose meat, without going into recipes.
I’ve never hunted out of a truck, but these guys were chasing this bull for sport; at least until the bull decided he had enough of their games. It is just a little moose, a big one can toss a horse and rider like they weigh a few pounds instead of over a half ton.
Nan, I am hoping our country can survive, but I still talk to people who believe Obama is struggling against insurmountable odds to save this country. They have swallowed the propaganda hook line and sinker.
Jesus said there would always be poor people, but i think he should have said something about the stupid and the naive.
Are those stripes on the moose scars from at least one previous attacks? Perhaps the Bears saw them and decided discretion was the better part of valour…
SKOOKUM, hi,
I enjoyed reading the story in a different way, a different context,
and I must be a beast to have liked the video, but I did like it, all ,
you know what it means ?
that your book will be a KEEPSAkE TO COME BACK TO IT , AND RE READ THE SAME STORY ALL OF IT , AGAIN AND AGAIN, THAT PROOF IS THERE RIGHT HERE NOW.
that is how powerful your stories are.
thank you again for the pleasure of reading that story, again.
Skookum,
You said, “I put myself in mortal danger once as a young man….”
Most of us did it hundreds of times in our childhood. If you only did it once, pat yourself on your back.
I quit eating liver when I realized that the liver filters the blood of all of the contaminants it can from the body. I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the contaminants are still in the liver after it is cooked.
Obama will meet his grizzly bear in 2012.
Thanks to the propaganda media a lot of Americans are frogs sitting in a pan of water. Obama and the other liberals are raising the water temperature slowly and hoping the frogs in the water won’t notice the increase in temperature until they are cooked.
A lot of us jumped out of the pan a long time ago. I jumped out when he said he wanted a civilian security force the size of the military and funded equally. What did Hitler call his civilian security force?
KZnextzone : Those are probably scars from fighting other bulls in years past. Those are the wounds they carry into winter and hopefully survive the period of starvation and intense cold. They often have those old scars and strips of flesh hanging loose that didn’t heal correctly, but the meat underneath looks good. Those battles can be pretty intense and can result in death.
ilovebeeswarzone: Bees I am working on the book a lot now and it is coming along and is a learning process. I will probably be publishing in paper, thanks to the tip from Greg.
Smorgasbord: I figured the liver from Moose that never had antibiotics or growth hormones was probably the best liver you could eat.
I also jumped ship, when I heard the request for a civilian security force with the same funding as the military. That was right out of a horror movie.
I’ve considered that frozen moose a nightmare. If a grizzly would have walked along, i would have been a tasty morsel.
I hope enough people see through this guy; we can no longer afford to play his games and we can no longer afford the Obama Republicans.
We survived Woodrow Wilson, and we survived FDR, and we survived Jimmy Carter, and we’ll survive Barack (and Michelle) Obama, too. Have more faith in the resilience of your fellow Americans,. Study your country’s history. It has been ordinary people, not our leaders, who have made the USA the greatest country in the history of this planet. Think about the frequency with which the fortitude of us ordinary people has compensated for the screw-ups by our leaders. Americans are truly, [truly] extraordinary people.
Brian, I probably have way more history hours logged than you realize.
Why am I pessimistic over this situation, let’s say I am perplexed over why so many people were willing to vote for a man without a record, except for an affinity far radial Marxists. The fact that so many seemingly normal people, trade unionists, Obama Republicans, and minorities are still under the spell of Socialism and our teleprompter Reader is strange and depressing.
Do I think he can win this 2012 election? With his own propaganda bureaus invading the living rooms of tens of millions every evening and orchestrating women to faint on camera cue and having young people believing he actually texts them and cares about them, yes put all these together and we may see the country destroyed under another four years of Obama.
Our Republicans don’t seem to know how to meet this guy on even terms; their first option when meeting resistance is to have a plan of capitulation.
The rest of the world considers him a joke as a leader, but we have a huge segment of the population that thinks he can guide us through this disaster with massive taxes and enlarged entitlement programs and more government workers.
Just today, a customer told me that Alberta’s dynamic economy that is supporting the rest of the Canadian economy was at the expense of the environment. I told her that the land, resources, and cities of Alberta are among the most pristine in the world and they are doing well because that $100 barrel oil is staying in Canada and not leaving the country like the US.
Alberta had to import 250 German carpenters to keep up with the demand for luxury homes. When they need carpenters, they hire the best in the world; they don’t let a guy cross the border at night and slap on a carpenter’s belt the next morning.
That customer is one that believes the lies and one that will vote for Obama, that is what scares me.
Please put me down to purchase a copy of your book when it is released, Skook. I am a fan of your writing and I look forward to having my own copy of your book to read.
Re: Obama, your opinion of him is spot on, as usual. Great piece, my friend.
Skookum @ #14
I see it differently than you do.
As I see it, and these are just my opinions, mind you, a lot of ditzy college kids and a lot of ditzy women and a lot of ditzy Jews thought that it would be really cool if we could have our first black president. The kids and the women didn’t have the street smarts or the business acumen to realize that Obama was an empty suit and a street hustler, who didn’t have any managerial, executive or leadership skills, and, well, with the Jews, it was genetic, an immoral compulsion to elect a liberal and a socialist, and besides, Jews like and admire con artists. After all, they come from a long line of grifters themselves.
Soliloquy: Hmmmm, I wonder if it bothers any of them that he is a pretentious, decadent dilletante, who fancies himself to be royalty? Probably not.
In any case, I suspect that many of the aforementioned ditzes have noticed by now that this current administation is comprised entirely of chronic screw-ups like Obama himself, Clinton, Holder, Panetta, Geithner and Napolitano, whose policies, both foreign and domestic, have been a disaster, and so I suspect, also, that enough of them are now having buyers’ remorse that Obama won’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being reelected.
It’s more complicated than that. But that’s the gist of beliefs on that issue. I continue to be optimistic.
@Skookum: #12
You said, “…we can no longer afford the Obama Republicans.”
This is why I say there no longer are republicans or democrats in congress, only republicrats. If you have ever seen videos of sharks feeding off of a large whale, you have a good idea of what is going on with the USA. Each republicrat is taking as many bites as they can.
Smorgasborg @ #17 & Skookum @ #14: Without a majority in the Senate, and preferably a veto proof majority, there isn’t much else that Republicans can do.
If the ditzy Tea Partiers hadn’t gummed up the works with their unqualified and ditzy candidates, who shunted aside qualified Rinos and even qualified Conservatives favored to win, and who then lost to Democrats in 2010, the Republicans could have regained control of the Senate, too. Tea Partiers are doing more harm than good. In their ignorance and in their ditziness, they are the best asset that the Democrats have, and the MSM knows it.
But you don’t see any of those ignorant and ditzy Tea Partiers rushing to accept responsibility for the consequences of their terrible judgment, do you? No, they’re shifting the blame onto Republicans. Considering the type of people who are Tea Partiers, that isn’t surprising. If you want to blame someone, get real and blame them. They’re like Ross Perot supporters. They have their heads so far up their asses that they don’t have a freaking clue as to what is going on out here in the real world, and yet they are very opinionated. Go figure.
Republicrats? Obama Republicans? That’s nonsense. Get a grip and get real. The Republicans in Congress are only human. They are doing the best job that they can. If you think that you can do a better job, run for office.
@Skookum: #14
Even if Obama can fool enough people long enough that they WOULD vote for him the second time, I am confident in the fact that he won’t be able to vett himself to the states who have passed legislation requiring proof of citizenship. You have heard the say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Nobody is going to accept a document with a Smiley Face and all of the other proven fake stuff no matter how faithful they are to the democrat’s agenda.
After all of this is over with, I hope Obama winds up in a non-smoking prison so he can get off of the cigarettes.
@Brian: #18
You said, “Get a grip and get real.”
I got a grip and got real when I became one of those ditzy Tea Partiers. I have been to most of the Tea Party protests in Washington DC, gone into the House and Senate buildings two or three times, and I have gone to other places. I guess I am trying to make up for sitting around and letting the republicrats in congress mess up this country. Without the Tea Party the republicans might not have gotten the House.
You also said, “They have their heads so far up their asses that they don’t have a freaking clue as to what is going on out here in the real world, and yet they are very opinionated.”
I am guessing you haven’t been to any of the Tea party protests. I suggest you go to one and observe, if you can do it in neutral mode.
Before the last election I wrote the Tea Party and suggested they have any candidate they recommend should sign a contract stating what they will and won’t do and that if they don’t introduce the legislation by a certain time, the contract would also be their resignation notice effective on that date. I also suggested they put in the contract that they require the candidate to vote for the legislation. Just because a candidate introduces legislation doesn’t mean they will vote for it when it comes up for a vote. They will vote the way the ones who donate to them tell them to.
Several candidates got the Tea Party endorsement by promising to eliminate entitlements. After they got elected, some of them said that some entitlements are OK. So much for politician promises.
What the Tea Party needs to do is make the candidates sign a contract before they give the candidate an endorsement. That will eliminate a lot of candidates asking for a Tea Party endorsement. Can anyone name one politician who has kept their promises? Remember, “Read my lips. No new taxes.?”
The Tea Party is made of humans, that means there are going to be imperfections, but think where we would be if the Tea Party didn’t exist! When Obama and the propaganda media condemn us, you know we are doing something right. It’s just like them condemning Bachman, Palin, and others. The more the propaganda media condemns a person, the more they are admitting that person is a problem to them. It is a compliment to be condemned by the propaganda media. It means you are doing the moral thing.
One thing a person needs to learn when going into sales is that the best way to send a customer to your competition is to condemn it. Bachman, Palin, and other republican candidates are getting free advertising that would normally cost them millions. Joe the Plumber, Rush, Fox News, etc., loved all of the free advertising they got. I hope the propaganda media keep giving the republican candidates the free advertising they have been getting.
You said, “If you think that you can do a better job, run for office.”
I wouldn’t be able to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars I would need to campaign properly. Do you want to be the first to donate to my campaign? If I were a candidate, I would probably have a slogan something like, “The propaganda media doesn’t want me in office, so you should.”
The Obama voters remind me of a drunk man walking a rail fence. He might have had well formed ideas before he started drinking and before he climbed on the fence, but on election day he is eligible to fall on either side of the fence.
The nomination of a Republican candidate is a critical factor that will get former Obama voters and Independents drinking before the election. A McCain issue candidate, who only remembers his conservative roots when he is faced with TEA Party pressure is a perfect example.
The TEA Party may lack organization, but they have managed to elect a crop of freshmen congressmen willing to hold the Conservative principles and make wavering senior congressmen remember their constituencies.
The Obama Senators like Snowe, Collins, and Graham can never be relied when facing bills that Obama holds close to his heart; especially when he has generous Obama Pig Slop to entice them. Is the TEA Party having an effect on Graham and others: I think it is a major influencing and threatening factor.
The Senate debacle was a disaster, but the TEA Party was crucial in establishing a relationship between the Republican Party Country Club Elites, who were willing to be Liberals if it could win votes and pork, and the small c Conservatives. The Republican Party was losing the grass roots Conservatives, because of the willingness of the Republican Party to play along with the Obama Con Games, i.e. passage of the emergency Stimulus Plan.
This was the impetus for the TEA Party. The alienation of the Conservative electorate by what appeared to be Obama Republicans. Of course the TEA Party is now thought to be superfluous by Republican ideologues who see the momentum forming because of Obama’s failures, the failures of a Marxist ideology that was doomed from the start, but a Marxist ideology that many Republicans were trusting two and a half years ago.
Mainline Republicans should be grateful for the TEA Party: if Obama had not been such an incompetent Marxist and would have had real leadership abilities, and if the TEA Party would not have formed to help the Republican Party find its base, the Republican Party might have ceased being a viable political party.
Remember the old yarn “Moose Turd Pie”–by I believe Monty Python and the Flying Circus? I believe this story serves up a big portion of it.
Actually, Smorgasborg, my girlfriend and I and two of our friends attended one Tea Party rally, and my girlfriend and I and four of our friends attended yet another Tea Party rally, both in 2010, not so much with any intent of becoming participants, but more so to satisfy my girlfriend’s curiosity.
My girlfriend and I are activists in the Republican Party. After cordially talking at length with several of the participants at each of those two rallies, what all of us took away from those rallies with unanimnity was that it was an organization in which none of us wanted to participate, the reasons for which you probably don’t want to know about, if for no other reason than because they won’t conform with your own opinions and your positions on issues.
Now, as for your assertion, “Without the Tea Party the republicans might not have gotten the House”, that is hogwash. The fact of the matter is that the Republicans probably would have picked up [four more seats in the House] and probably [six more seats in the Senate] if ditzy Tea Partiers hadn’t interfered. You’re dreamers. You want to take credit for seats which would have been won without Tea Party endorsements, and you’re disingenuous. Months after candidates were already way, way out ahead in the polls, you endorsed them to give yourselves credibility, and you’re clueless. In primaries, you shunted aside highly qualified Republicans who could have won to put forward your own ditzy and unqualified candidates who lost, and the list goes on and on. The bottom line is that Tea Partiers have neither the experience, nor the qualifications, nor certainly the intelligence or the savvy to be selecting [any] candidates. Personally, I wish that you would form your own party. You, collectively, mean well. But you, collectively, are incompetent, imho. You’re very opinionated, insufferable know-it-alls who don’t know squat. In fact, your ignorance is stunning.
And one more point: Many of the participants in those Tea Party rallies are hardcore Democrat subversives and professional agitators whose singular purpose is to split the votes of Republicans, peeling away votes from a viable contender who could defeat Obama. They’re easy to spot if you’re looking for them. They always trash Republican politicians the most vehemently …., and they post on Conservative blogs, too. But, of course, you’re so smart and savvy that you already realized that, didn’t you?
Y’ALL, there is good to take from all the supporter of the same side, there is legitimate good ideas,
and desire to get this NATION ON THE RIGHT TRACK,
and we can humbly received the good ideas and add it to the package we want on the same side,
but we will not confuse the rest of the people to the point that they would cast their votes on the same party that is in the leadership. we have to take one side for all to fit where they belong and keep open eyes on our sides, but most of all keep our focus toward the elimination of the desaster awaiting this AMERICA if the same destruction makers are re elected,
we must keep in mind that we will elect another human being, but a human qualified a 100 time more than what is in the present,
and just like your wife or husband would say when they quarrel on issues,
that is: be careful and lower the tone, because the children might hear, and think that we’r not on the same side.
@Brian: #23
I am curious if you were in neutral mode before you went to the protests.
Talk about being opinionated! You don’t know me very well, but you formed a very negative opinion of me. Just for the record, I don’t belong to any political party because they have merged together and become one. I vote for the person or the bill without any regard to the party.
I am curious, at the Tea Party protests you went to, did you hear any gutter language, or was any trash left around, or was anybody discourteous, or were they protesting anything you disagreed with?
I saw a video of one protestor who had a questionable sign and others asked him not to display it. He still wanted to display his sign, so one of the others offered him one of his signs if the man would trade and the man did. As I have mentioned before, when you have a group of people, there are imperfections, but I hope you will admit that we are trying to do the right thing and we are policing ourselves. We are doing a better job at that than the members of congress.
One interesting thing is that when I finally figured out the liberal agenda I thought to myself that we need another Tea Party. A short time later I found out that there were many others who felt the same way and had started different groups. My first protest I went to I made a burlap bag outfit that I wore with a sign that said, “OBAMA’S TEA TAX and wore a large sign on my cowboy hat that said, “THROW ME IN BOSTON HARBOR AGAIN.” I’m still trying to throw the tea in the harbor.
I don’t know how many at TEA parties have been there for purposes other than the intent of the rally, but we have seen TEA party photos of some of them surrounded by real TEA party members holding a sign that has an arrow (pointed at the fake) and the word, ”INFILTRATOR,” on it.
So, it’s not like they fooled anyone, Brian.
Also many Democrats have tried to run fake TEA party candidates.
In Michigan, 2010, the Democrat party chairman in suburban Detroit’s Oakland County conceded that one of his top aides played a role in helping nine ”tea party” candidates get onto the ballot for various offices across the state – including the open 1st Congressional District and the 7th Congressional District, held by vulnerable freshman Democratic Rep. Mark Schauer.
Jim Schneller was one.
3,800 of the 4,200 voter signatures gathered to put Schneller on the ballot were collected by Democrats.
And among those who helped him were Colleen Guiney, the chairwoman of the Swarthmore Democratic Party and a Lentz supporter, and Nicholas Allred, who works for the Swarthmore College Democrats.
Another one was Lonny Lee Snyder.
Snyder didn’t have a website, the Tea Party headquarters didn’t release biographical information about his candidacy, and grass-roots tea party activists say they had never heard of him.
The man who helped all nine of these fakes get on the ballot was Jason Bauer.
Bauer worked for the Oakland County Democratic Party.
And it was Bauer who notarized all nine of the Affidavits of Identity for the fakers.
Fake TEA party material source.
To see the Infiltrator signs:
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=895&q=infiltrator+tea+party+sign&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&oq=infiltrator+tea+party+sign&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=1715l11674l0l13532l26l26l0l18l18l0l271l1482l0.5.3l8
Skookum @ #21 – LOL, yeah, right, LOL.
Don’t take it personally, Smorgasborg. It wasn’t my intent to single you out. My beef, such as it is, is with all Tea Partiers, collectively. As I said, I’m sure that you have the best intentions. But leave it to the professionals. The people at the RNC know what they’re doing. They and their local offices thoroughly screen our candidates. Obviously Tea Partiers don’t, or they wouldn’t have picked Christine O’Donnell, Dino Rossi, Sharon Angle, Joe Miller, Carly Fiorino or a half dozen other lemons who were their ditzy choices in 2010. You, collectively, are just mucking up the works, ensuring that Obama and other Democrats will get reelected. As I said, you, collectively, are the Democrats’ best asset, and the MSM knows it, which is why they keep putting Tea Partiers on TV. BTW, the MSM isn’t your friend. 😉
@Brian:
You have mentioned several times that the “ditzy” TEA Party candidates replaced “highly qualified” Republican candidates. I am just wondering what, exactly, is your definition of “highly qualified”. And, as well, since you mention such “highly qualified” Republican candidates, that presupposes that the so-called TEA Party candidates were not “highly qualified”.
Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution states;
Article I, Section 3 of the US Constitution states;
Now granted, those are only the basic required qualifications for a person to seek those offices. However, I am very interested in what you deem a qualification worthy of being included in a “highly qualified” candidate’s resume.
Smorgasborg @ #25 – Acrtually, I couldn’t have been more neutral. Us guys threw around a football and talked sports, and we left it up to our girlfriends to gossip with the other girls, and we compared notes afterwards. (From which I concluded, also, incidentally, that Tea Partiers have never played football or any other sports.) 🙂
“Leave it to the professionals.”
That’s funny.
Those “professionals” have brought us to where we are now.
The “professionals” on both sides of the aisle have become so corrupted by money and power and influence that they have lost sight of the most basic elements of what is important to this country and its’ very survival.
It’s time to boot the “professionals” and get some folks in office in DC who have a clue about running businesses and meeting payroll and coming in on budget.
The rise of the Tea Party was at the very root of the massive victories in the 2010 elections, at the Federal as well as the State levels. Did some Tea Party backed candidates lose? Yes, of course they did. You cannot realistically expect that all candidates from any one party will win all the time as long as we’re talking about free and fair elections.
Even when you consider a few losing candidates it is inarguable that the Tea Party helped to get the voters enthused and involved in the political process rather than just sitting at home.
Johngalt @ #29
Christine O’Donnell vs. Mike Castle
Carly Fiorino vs. Chuck DeVore
Sharon Angle vs. Sue Lowden
To name just a few. BTW, most of your
post was extraneous, petty and irrelvant
But I don’t mind. 🙂
P.S. To what do you object in the Ryan Plan,
or to put it another way, what changes could
they make that would get it to meet with your
approval? I asked you that yesterday. But I
suppose you logged off without reading it,
and that thread was gone this morning..
You can answer that, too. I’ll wait. I can walk
and chew gum at the same time, so to speak.
@Aye:
Agreed, Aye.
Aye @ #31 – You’re entitled to your opinion. But that was a stretch, and you know it. Get real.
@Brian:
You never defined what, in your view, a “highly qualified” Republican actually is.
Tell me, exactly, what was extraneous, or petty, or irrelevant about my post. I simply asked for a compilation of qualifications from you. Nothing more. I even helped you out by listing the required qualifications for anyone seeking those offices, so that you didn’t have to.
I did comment on it, and that “thread” wasn’t gone this morning;
http://floppingaces.net/most_wanted/obama-only-backing-gang-plan-because-gop-on-the-offensive/#comment-335275
And, in the interest of saving you more time, I’ll post it here;
Does that answer your question? Or do you need me to be even more specific?
@Brian:
Really? What, precisely, was a stretch?
Do you deny the reality of the Tea Party protests that occurred in towns both large and small across the nation?
Do you deny the reality of massive Tea Party gatherings in the larger cities of this nation including, but not limited to multiple protests in DC?
Do you deny the reality of Tea Party backed candidates appearing on ballots for every level of government across America?
Of course, this accusation of stretching is coming from the very guy who has been stretching the truth about the Tea Party throughout this thread.
Oh, and here was a classic boo boo by the Tea Partiers, guys.
How about when, with the help of Tea Partiers from California, and for strictly self-servinng reasons, Sarah Palin vindictivly, viciously and [senselessly] interfered in the race between Lisa Mukowski and Joe Miller in Alaska, accomplishing nothing, absolutely nothing, except that she pissed-off Lisa Murkowski to the extent that she temporarily pushed a Rino further into the Democrat’s camp? I say temporarily, because I have faith that when Lisa Murkowski cools off and regains her senses, she will be more inclined to vote with Republicans again. After all, she was more of a Ted Steven’s protege than that ditz, Sarah Palin, was willing to concede, again for childish and petty reasons. I’m just getting warmed up, folks. 🙂
Aye @ #36 – LOL, diversions, distractions, dancing, bobbing, weaving, smoke, mirrors and bullshit. LOL
No, I’m saying that the Tea Partiers didn’t have the impact on the 2010 Election that you said that they did, and that in their own minds they did. In fact, they did more harm than good, causing Republicans to lose seats that they could have picked up, and taking credit for seats which Republicans would have won anyway.
Example: They take credit for the wins by Rand Paul and by Paul Rubio. That is bullshit. Paul and Rubio were already way, [WAY] out ahead in the polls [long] before Tea Partiers endorsed them just to give ditzy Tea Partiers credibility. They needed it. With their endorsements of Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle, they had made fools of themselves, and their support was flagging.
Just the facts, m’am. Just the facts. 🙂
Next?
@Brian:
I believe that your comments do not match the actual reality, Brian.
In 2009, Murkowski had a conservative rating of 68.0, according to conservative.org’s ratings, and in 2010, the year she was primaried, and opted to run independent, and also a year you say she was pushed further into the “Democrat’s camp”, her conservative rating actually went up, to 73.0.
As an aside, her lifetime conservative rating is 70.54, hardly what I’d call a bastion of conservative values. Maybe you need to do some more research instead of promoting your own mistaken narrative that runs counter to the truth. Just a thought.
“Of course, this accusation of stretching is coming from the very guy who has been stretching the truth about the Tea Party throughout this thread.” – Aye
LOL, tsk, tsk, tsk, saying it is so ain’t going to make it so, and it ain’t going to make you any smarter or better informed, and it ain’t going to make you feel better about yourself either.
But hey, isn’t this more fun than arguing with Democrats? C’mon, fess-up and admit it. After all, you’re losing an argument with a Republican. Cool, huh? 🙂
@Brian:
1. Christine O’Donnell was sandbagged.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) falsely accused her of embezzling money from her campaign to cover her personal expenses for years.
The FCC investigated and that was where we were at during the election.
Now that the election is safely over, and she lost, guess what?
The entire CREW Complaint Against Christine O’Donnell has been dismissed!
2. Sharon Angle lost only because Harry Reid’s Union buddies bussed every last union worker to a polling place whether they had intended to vote or not!
It wasn’t their TEA party backing that cost them their elections.
That’s just revisionist history.
@Brian:
Again, your mistaken narrative mars the actual reality of the truth.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/18/rand-paul-credits-tea-party-for-gop-senate-nomination-in-kentuck/
Those were Senator Paul’s own words, crediting the TEA Party movement with his victory in the primary, but yet, you say the TEA Party cannot take credit for that? That is delusional.
And as for Rubio, he attended numerous TEA Party rallies as a speaker, courting the movement for support. Any google search of Rubio and TEA Party lists numerous headlines of him attending such events and speaking about the movement itself. All that is evidence that the TEA Party helped to get him elected, so they rightly claim credit for his victory.
Johngalt @ #39 – You missed my point – entirely.
Let me put it another way in more simplistic terms. I’m saying essentially that, unlike Sarah Palin and a lot other [extremely] irresponsible Tea Partiers who have an irrational and ignorant dislike for Rinos, I would rather vote for an already established Rino (like Mike Castle) who will vote with Republicans [most of the time] than take the risk of voting for a professed conservative unknown (like Christine O’Donnell) who will lose to a Democrat, who will NEVER vote with Republicans. That ain’t rocket science. That’s common sense and a no brainer. But not for ditzy Tea Partiers. If you fail to see the logic and the sensible rationale there, you’re just being obstinate for no purpose.
Thanks for the re-post Skookum. Enjoyed it. And just like the Weimar Republic we have only a handful of politicians who refuse to be bullied by the Brownshirts who now call themselves enlightened progressives. One thing you can bet on though, republicans/democrats politicians will be insulated from all the chaos and financial difficulties that we their humble subjects will all endure that they brought on by playing politics as usual. But maybe, just maybe more Americans will wake up and shrug off the undeserved and misplaced loyalty that they have placed in the professional republican politicians who care only for their own careers. Look on the bright side, even after the fall of the Weimar Republic many of politicians actually did wake up. Yeah, I know that by then it was too late. But at least they could comfort themselves with that fact as they stood in the soup lines.
@Brian:
Really? Can you prove this?
I can prove the existence of a grassroots based groundswell via the Tea Party.
Can you prove a lack of influence?
Sources please.
Really? More harm than good? Which seats do you contend would have been won by Republicans?
Back up your contentions with sources please.
Which seats would have been won by Republicans without the involvement of the Tea Party? Which of those candidates would have been more conservative than the candidate who went on to win the election?
Sources please.
Really? Sources please.
Their support was flagging? Really?
Sources please.
Indeed. Just saying it is so ain’t going to make it so.
Show us some real facts rather than more of your blather.
Oh get off it, John. Of course Rand Paul had to thank the Tea Partiers. But he won on his own merits. He would have won without the Tea Partiers. Get real. You’re not even rational. You’re just being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. Now, you’re trying my patience.
Oh bullshit, Aye. Provide credible sources which disprove what I’ve said, or take a hike. Credible is the buzz word there.
You’re just not man enough to admit that you’re ignorant and that you are wrong. With people like you, if you didn’t know about it, it didn’t happen. Five hundred years ago, people like you were still saying that the earth was flat.
@Brian:
Your points. Your onus.
You made the contentions. The burden is on you to prove them.
That’s the way debating works.
Just saying it is so ain’t going to make it so, and it ain’t going to make you any smarter or better informed.
@Brian:
I wasn’t discussing your point, Brian, only your mistaken version of reality. You claimed Murkowski did one thing, and I explained, and included my source, that she, in fact, did the opposite.
I see the logic, but do not agree that the rationale is sensible. Part of the reason our government is in the financial mess it is in, is because of people like Murkowski, a RINO, enable the Democratic Party’s overspending and excessive regulation, instead of standing up to it.
You wish to have numbers in the houses of Congress, but what good are numbers when the party is being led by, and supported by, a bunch of people who are more accurately described as liberals or progressives, than conservatives. It is either death by a thousand cuts, or death by a few massive blows. Either one results in your death. For me, I’d rather vote, and continue voting, for those candidates I see as true conservatives, even if they might not win. At least I don’t have to hold my nose while doing so.
Johngalt @ #42 – you’re drowning and grasping at straws
I live in Florida. I was part of Marco Rubio’s campaigns going all of the way back to when he first ran for the Florida Legislature and before I even lived in Florida. You’re full of shit. Rubio garnered an unprecedented 52% of the votes in a 3-way race in 2010, because he received a huge number of votes not just from Republicans, but from Democrats and Independents, too. In fact, he split the Democratic vote. He is perhaps one of Florida’s most popular politicians. He won here [entirely] on his own merits. To say otherwise is a lie. Tea Partiers didn’t endorse him formally until late in the race, too late to make any difference. Don’t try to blow smoke up my ass with thhis one. You don’t know what you are talking about.