High Ground Underground

CPAC & Campaign Workshop At CPAC, Romney humbly said we need to learn from our & his mistakes, and take back the country.  An interesting contrast to Obama’s arrogance.  Speaking of that learning, on Feb. 9 I attended an all-day campaign workshop given in L.A. by the Leadership Institute of Washington, D.C. ( http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/ ) to sharpen the skills of candidates, campaign managers, staffers & activists (I now count myself in the latter category).  Some very experienced presenters from the recent presidential campaign, and some who’d been in the business for over 30 years.  I took 10 pages of notes, on the modules that were titled:  campaign structure & organization, managing volunteers, strategic research, voter ID and targeting, building coalitions, developing your message, public relations & earned media, keys to precinct organization, door-to-door, phones, basics of online activism, keys to election day,...

You may recall that not long ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of Boy Scouts of America's right to have its own membership policy regarding openly gay homosexuals (basically "don't ask, don't tell," as had been in the military).  But apparently, 2 CEOs sitting on the BSA national board have recently been (along with gay activists) pushing to change that policy from within.  Over the past few weeks, BSA-registered adults & parents of registered boys have been sent a survey on their feelings regarding various real-life scenarios pertaining to the current policy.   For more on the survey, you can Google "Voice of the Scout."  From a Scouting Magazine blog describing the survey ( http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2013/03/14/voice-of-the-scout-membership-policy-survey-questions-give-scouters-parents-a-chance-to-be-heard/)  "If  you are a current member and you have not received a survey, you may visit  this link  to register your me...

Presidents’ Day As has become somewhat of a personal tradition, one of my Presidents’ Day activities was patriotically working on my tax returns.  Got to keep our government solvent, at least for a while longer.  Although more and more it seems like pouring money into a black hole.  And lest anyone take that racially, I do have an astronomy blog, and know whereof I speak. While engaging in that tax-paying tradition, I look forward to being entertained by 2 radio shows that also have a Presidents’ Day tradition.  Michael Medved highlights certain presidents, and today it was the worst presidents in U.S. history – Buchanan, Johnson, Hoover , Carter.  And no doubt also soon to be welcomed into the ranks – Barack Obama.  Then Hugh Hewitt had a history expert go through all the presidents briefly, including shining stars like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, Coolidge (surprisingly), Eisenhower (also surprisingly) and Reagan.  State ...

The Inauguration Instead of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and a failure, we could have had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and a competent executive.  It'll be a long 4 years. We’ll see if this time Obama can do better at keeping his oath to uphold/defend the constitution.  His address was widely seen as the most partisan,  belligerent & radical progressive in memory – not the lip service he occasionally gives to unity & cooperation.  He seems to forget how narrow his victory was – even with the clear support of the media, unions, minorities & every special interest group he could cobble together, and all his promised goodies.  As well as his distraction from his failures on the economy, etc., by demonizing his opponent.  It was hardly a vote of confidence or a landslide or mandate, as much as a vote of ignorance & greed.  In the inaugural he touted issues that he never mentioned in the campaign, and i...