Free Republic

Citizens must be wary of the attempt to redirect legitimate concern about coronavirus into a mandate for sweeping new government powers. Civil liberties are a delicate thing. Governments are instituted among people to protect rights, rather than create them. In the midst of necessary action at the federal, state, and local level, citizens must be wary of the attempt to redirect legitimate concern about coronavirus into a mandate for sweeping new government powers.A full 74 percent of voters support a nationwide lockdown due to the pandemic. With the American public desperate for answers and solutions, this could allow our politicians...

Modern government, at pretty much all levels, has become simply a jobs program that constantly seeks to increase its members. And of course 90+% of these members will vote for the Democrat party, the party of government. Anyone who isn’t a member of one of these jobs programs is a sap for playing

In response to Rick Perry’s claim of near-miraculous job growth in Texas during the last decade, critics have alleged that the job growth came from public-sector hiring. Over a quarter of a million net new jobs in Texas over the last ten years came in the public sector, and Perry’s opponents accuse him of hypocrisy in espousing his jobs record and small-government conservatism. The Washington Post offers the critical argument (via Poor Richard’s News): With a young and fast-growing population, a large and expanding military presence and an influx of federal stimulus money, the number of government jobs in Texas...

This comes from Business Insider, and it provides a natural follow-up to my post from last week as to why public-sector workers are more optimistic than private-sector employees.  For the first time, the US has more government workers than goods-producing workers: The significant dropoff comes from the sharp increase in unemployment over the last year. 

When it was first created in the 1970s, the California Department of Toxics Control (DTSC) was a tiny unit under the California Department of Health Services. Today its staff of over 1,000, mostly scientists and engineers, works to reduce toxic pollution. Recommendations developed by DTSC for the California Environmental Protection Agency’s new Green Chemistry Initiative have set the stage for California to pioneer a new wave of chemical policies.... ... When I went through the budget process I realized we needed to put more resources into the pollution prevention part of my department. It didn't need to be this little...

Dear Mr. DeLay, I'd like to begin by welcoming you to the blogosphere. I'm so glad you have discovered the power of this medium to communicate directly with the grassroots of America. I'm also glad to hear your rhetoric about a need for Republicans to return to first principles. However, there's an aspect of this whole business I find troubling. There's no mention of your own record in Congress in all of this. While you used your skill as a Whip and leader to obtain the votes necessary to attempt to save the life of Terri Schiavo, and forever earned...

From: Dave Screwtape To: House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Democratic National Committee, Friendly Publications Subject: We Define the Issues After last week's report, I was deluged with e-mail. The e-mails did not regard the substance of the report, but rather the line, "we are winning." Many of you in Congress have sent me resentful e-mails asking how I can possibly suggest we are winning when we are in our fifth term as the House's minority, and have spent all but a year and a half of the last decade as the Senate minority party. Do not be so egocentric! Yes, I...