What the hell happened to Martin Sheen and Sean Penn and Tim Robbins?

I've been super-busy at work for the last two weeks, so I'm shamelessly ripping off stuff from elsewhere.  This is Buzzfeed's list of prominent anti-war celebrities who have been missing since the end of the Bush administration. 

 

Please pray for them and their families, and also for their safe return to protesting against our upcoming war in Syria. 

1. Sheryl Crow

                          

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.”
— Sheryl Crow

2. Bruce Springsteen

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.”
— Bruce Springsteen

3. Martin Sheen

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“But I am equally against the death penalty or war — anywhere people are sacrificed for some end justifying a means.”
— Martin Sheen

4. Ed Asner

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“I also think that there is a strong streak of racism, and whenever we engage in foreign adventures. Our whole history in regime change has been of people of different color.”
— Ed Asner

 

5. Sean Penn

                               

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“I think we’re past that point in human evolution where there’s such a thing as winning wars.”
— Sean Penn

6. Tim Robbins

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“It is very inspiring and amusing how many people have come out in this genuine and spontaneous way to embrace peace and reject war. It reminds us there is a human and gentle spirit out there in this world.”
— Tim Robbins

7. George Clooney

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“You can’t beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people revenge-seeking.”
— George Clooney

8. Jackson Browne

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“American people always have to be tricked into going to war, they always have to be cajoled. I mean, there’s a long history of being lied to, of having things described in a particular way, in order to get them out of their sort of isolationist… prosperity mode and go to war.”
— Jackson Brown

9. Janeane Garofalo

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“War is failure! When you are at war, you have failed!”
— Janeane Garofalo

10. Neil Young

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“I don’t like war. I particularly don’t like the celebration of war.”
— Neil Young

11. Jessica Lange

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“Let’s talk for a minute about these masters of war, these same men that are sending our sons and our daughters, our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers to fight an undeclared and unconstitutional and unwinnable war for them.”
— Jessica Lange

12. Barbra Streisand

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“You know, really good artists have a way of being relevant in their time — but great artists are relevant at any time. So, in the words of William Shakespeare, ‘Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor.”
— Barbra Streisand

13. Danny Glover

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“The world has come together and said ‘no’ to this war – and we must stand with them.”
— Danny Glover

14. Susan Sarandon

 

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“Let us resist this war. Let us hate war in all its forms, whether the weapon used is a missile or an airplane.”
— Susan Sarandon

 

The only explanation for their continued silence must be a large, organized kidnapping. To whoever is responsible for their disappearance, please post pictures of them holding a recent newspaper so we know they’re okay. Maybe one of these:

 

Yours in peace,
America

It always flows downhill

Traitorous Ex-Smoker Drug Warrior Bastards

My friend Tristan Tucker and I have had several conversations about the staggering numbers of politicians who smoke marijuana, then claim to quit, and then start locking up their fellow weed consumers by the tens of thousands.  

Tristan and I were both invited to speak at the recent DFW/NORML Regional Conference.  I bet Tristan that I could use the phrase "Traitorous Ex-Smoker Drug Warrior Bastards" in my speech more than he could in his speech.   

Tristan took me up on the wager. 

I lost.  I lost badly. 

Here's Tristan's speech, along with a few pics of the Traitorous Ex-Smoker Drug Warrior Bastards. 

Wow, what an honor it is to be speaking in front of people that I have looked up to for years. Keith (Stroup).. You founded NORML. Without you, none of us would be here right now.

 Judge Jim Gray… You and Gary Johnson had my vote. My generation appreciates men with principles and decency, you are one of my intellectual heroes.

Joy Strickland… when I first met you, your story motivated me to not give this fight up. The work you do with Mothers Against Teen Violence is incredible and has not fallen on deaf ears or blind eyes. Together, we are making the world a much safer, better place…and, the only government intervention we need is literally one fell swoop of a pen.

Thank you all, everyone, for being here, for being a part of a revolution and for taking the lead role in your freedom. I am Tristan Tucker, the executive director of the University of North Texas Chapter of NORML. I served in the US Navy for six years and I can honestly say that since I got out of the navy I have done more for my country, in terms of actually fighting for freedom, than I ever did while I was on active duty. I believe that my oath of enlistment and re-enlistment last for life. The words that I faithfully said, “I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against ALL enemies foreign and domestic..” are the words that ring out the loudest. I can see objectively who the enemy is now and the enemy isn’t in some far away land, they are here… in our own backyard. Our enemy is any law that allows for someone to be forcibly put in a cage for possessing a harmless plant and especially the people that support and defend such laws. I will not digress, I will not rest, I will not be silenced until we win this drug war. And we will win.

Ghandi is quoted as saying “If all the mice in the world held a conference together and resolved that they would no more fear the cat but instead, all run into her mouth, all the mice would live.” Well, mice, this is our conference and I want to be the first to scoff at the cat and tell her that “I am free. I was born to know no fear. I want you all to be fearless against the traitorous ex-smoker drug warrior bastards, the faceless persecutor that is always looking around our corners. I want you all to take these words from this conference and be empowered and develop a newfound passion for your activism because what we are doing doesn’t only effect DFW, or Texas – we are impacting the entire world. Every day when you talk about NORML, the drug war or even just about cannabis, I want you to remember just who exactly you are helping. We are helping our youth be relatively drug free. We are helping our troops, who came home like I did with newfound mental disorders or with chronic pain or missing limbs. We are fighting for the patients, like Cash Hyde, who, without us – many wouldn’t have a voice. We are fighting for liberty, for freedom and these United States of America.

As the director of UNTNORML I have come to realize and appreciate the necessity to have college-based organizations like Students For Sensible Drug Policy, Students for Liberty and NORML. Through my tenure at UNT I have definitely seen massive amounts of ignorance related to the topics of drug prohibition and the effects of cannabis. It is my profound belief that due to programs like DARE, the traitorous ex-smoker drug warrior bastards are still ruining our youth’s ability to use critical thinking skills to question this treacherous type of authority.

I have several goals for UNTNORML and want to brag a little about the efficacy we have had on campus. First, we were the first university in Texas to change dorm policies in regard to possession and paraphernalia. Before NORML’s campus-wide campaign, the school would evict students from the dorm, report to the police and place the student on probation while requiring them to pay a $1000 fine and attend a drug awareness class. Now, the school just forces the student to change dorms.

My main goal with UNTNORML is to get a college chapter at every university in the state of Texas. I believe that by placing intelligent, tactful leaders at universities across the state, we will combat the ill-effects of prohibition based propaganda like DARE. Additionally, I plan to make cannabis a topic that university administration will willingly talk about. I have gotten professors to discuss the topic but currently, the administration refuses to actually debate the topic or the university’s policies publicly. All of my requests have so far fallen on deaf ears. With that in mind, we have received overwhelming support from a plethora of students and student organizations. We are always well received on the campus’ “Free Speech Corner”… man I despise that name.

When I was on active duty, I was one of the ex-smoker drug warrior bastards. I was a neo-conservative military member that wouldn’t even associate with people that used or talked about cannabis. I participated in anti-drug operations off the eastern seaboard of South and Central America, as a 25mm gunner on the aft mount of an amphibious assault ship. For me, it took a mental health diagnosis and subsequent research into treatments and therapies to really discover the truth about marijuana. I am proud to publicly tell you all that the day I received my separation paperwork, I drove off base joint in mouth. I have sed cannabis medicinally now for three years and have weaned myself off of fourteen different medicines thanks to this wonderful plant. My quality of life is the best its been in years and, in my opinion, that is all that matters.

My first position I held with DFWNORML was the veteran outreach coordinator. Unfortunately, it had to fall to the wayside when I took over at UNTNORML, but I still reach out to every veteran I meet and know to spread the good word of unity, family, cannabis and love. With those tenets of inclusivity I believe we have really touched many veterans One of the most difficult parts of my transition out of the military was not having the close bond of brotherhood and I really try to bring that to both UNT and DFWNORML. I believe that veterans find that trait important and inviting and thus, flock to our organization.

Our veterans are battle trained leaders and continuing to reach out to them is imperative. Our veterans are already used to the type of pressure it takes to effectively communicate with our representatives. Our veteran members also provide a very unique viewpoint, particularly when discussing medicinal marijuana. Medical grade marijuana has proven to have incredible results when treating post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain and a whole host of other ailments our warriors are coming home with. We owe it to our veterans to continue to fight for them, since I know for a fact they would keep fighting for us.

As a team all of the Texas NORML chapters are planning comprehensive lobbying strategies for our next legislative session. Cheyanne Weldon has began coordinating our efforts via facebook already, less than a month after the end of our legislative session. Let me assure you that our representatives know who we are and what we seek to do in this state. Every time I have talked to my representatives or their staff about an action alert item, they explain ludicrous amounts of feedback and positive response from our supporters. We need to work on getting that type of commitment from members on a monthly or weekly basis.

Forming programs such as signed from letters, targeted mailing lists, positive recruitment strategies and continued public presence will win this drug war.

There is an old war movie, The Americanization of Emily from 1964, James Garner, who played commander Charles Madison said the following:

“War isn't hell at all. It's man at his best, the highest morality he's capable of. It's not war that's insane, you see. It's the morality of it. It's not greed or ambition that makes war: it's goodness. Wars are always fought for the best of reasons - for liberation or manifest destiny. Always against tyranny and always in the interest of humanity. So far this war, we've managed to butcher some ten million humans in the interest of humanity. Next war it seems we'll have to destroy all of man in order to preserve his damn dignity. It's not war that's unnatural to us, it's virtue. As long as valor remains a virtue, we shall have soldiers. So, I preach cowardice. Through cowardice, we shall all be saved.”

When we think about the drug war, we see ourselves, rightfully, as the victim, but the important thing to note is that we have turned it around on our aggressors. When the drug war was officially initiated by President Dick Nixon and his regime of traitorous ex-smoke drug warrior bastards, we were made to look like the modern Taliban. We were the scourge of the country, us dopers. Through the decades, as science and morality has progressed, we have come to take the upper hand in this drug war. We are showing Americans that compassionate care via a plant is possible from stories like Cash Hyde’s and by way of documentaries like American Drug War, Square Grouper and The Union: The Business Behind Getting High. Americans are starting to realize that too much government intervention into our lives is a bad thing and that we would like to be able to close our metaphorical blinds for a change.

What we do damages nobody and heals everybody. This plant has brought communities together, brought addicts back from the brink of death, stopped pain, treated cancer, helped calm irrational minds and has the capacity to heal our nation – the nation that I was promised as a child. Cannabis can heal our economic hole, can help mend our moral degradation, will help improve our air quality and has potential to slow global warming.

In closing, I want to thank you all tremendously for the work you do for NORML, for coming to this conference and supporting our freedoms and for everything that you do out of the kindness of your hearts and with the dollars in your wallets.

Won’t you help us end our nation’s drug problem? Let’s legalize cannabis.

For a near-definitive list of politicians who have smoked weed, go here.  Not all of them (see: Gary Johnson) are traitorous bastards. 

The Statist Outrage Generator

I often find myself in website, blog, Facebook, Twitter and bar arguments with the advocates of more and greater Barack'n'Boehner activity. 

They come back at me with the same talking points with a startling degree of consistency.  Especially the "trickle down doesn't work" and Sarah Palin and Fox News responses. 

To save my online opponents a lot of trouble, I've created The Statist Outrage Generator.  It says everything they're going to say, long before they can think to say it. 

Please feel free to share this with your Friends Of Big Brother, but don't overdo it.  We don't want them testing new knee-jerk reactions in between elections. 

What I Actually Do - Barack Obama edition

Best Yard Sign EVER !!!!

The top 12 things that Libertarians wish that everyone knew

Here are the top 12 things that Libertarians (IMHO) wish that everyone knew:

1)  The only Fair Trade is Free Trade.  All other arrangements are designed to protect political supporters.  And no, slavery isn't "Free Trade".  Slaves aren't free to make a choice. 

2)  You can't legislate morality.  There will always be a market for alcohol, tobacco, drugs, whores, gambling, and other things that the state doesn't like.  Prohibitions create a black market, and make the activity more dangerous.  This creates jobs for bureaucrats, which is probably the only rationale for the prohibition. 

3)  War is a racket.  Check out this rant from Medal Of Honor winner General Smedley Butler. 

4)  If you want to discourage something, tax it.  Or even threaten to tax it.  Now, take a look at our economy. 

5)  If it weren't for our arbitrary political boundaries, we wouldn't have the words "exports", "imports", "globalization", or "offshoring". 

6)  You can oppose government healthcare, education and safety standards and still support healthcare, education and safety standards.  I'm almost violently opposed to the public school system, but I like the idea of education.  Amazing, isn't it? 

7)  The "Invisible Hand", the way that markets work in a spontaneous unplanned way because of people trying to make a profit, is far more effective than any "planned economy".  See: Cuba. 

8)  There really isn't that much difference in Barack Obama and George Bush. 

9)  Gary Johnson, who spent twice as much time as governor as Mitt Romney, left his state with a budget surplus.  He vetoed more bills than all other governors combined.  He once told me that if he had been dictator of New Mexico, he could've cut government jobs and spending by 40%, and nobody would've noticed.  This would've left the taxpayers with more money to spend in the manner of their own choosing.  Gary Johnson is considered radical, and "outside the mainstream". 

10)  One day Cash For Clunkers will be linked with Mao's Cultural Revolution in lists of the most insanely destructive policies ever pursued by a government.  I might have to write the list myself, but it's gonna happen. 

11)  ObamaCare adds no doctors, only IRS agents and bureaucrats.  Therefore, it is going to be a disaster. 

12)  No private industry is as scary as any government agency.  Unless, of course, the private industry has the support of a government agency. 

Why Libertarians shouldn't support the Texas Rangers

This hurts me. 
I don't want to write this again. 
I've written it before. 
Here's why libertarians shouldn't support The Texas Rangers baseball team in The World Series. 

Waaaay back when George W. Bush was just a pup, he was the front man for a group that bought The Texas Rangers baseball team. Bush brought a 2% share of the team using borrowed money. ($600,000.00) They wanted a new ballpark.
Bush's buddies could've built a new ballpark themselves, but why should they? You were there for them. Bush threatened to move the Rangers out of Arlington. His cartel spent about $125,000.00 campaigning for a 1/2% increase in the Arlington sales tax. The voters approved it. Bush and Company then trampled property rights, seizing land via Eminent Domain.
That's right.  They stole the land on which the ballpark was built. 


All in all, the Bush gang profited from a total subsidy of $205 million dollars.
(Did he send you a thank-you note? Me neither.)
They had paid $86 million for the Rangers.
They sold The Rangers nine years later for $250 million.

The team still stunk.
So what was different? Why the added value?
It was all in the stadium that YOU bought for them. The $164 million dollar profit was $38 million dollars less than the money that we put into the team ! ! !

My arch-nemesis Dr. Ralph likes to refer to the Iraq war as one of history's worst "bait-and-switch" deals.

The following is also David Cay Johnston's "Free Lunch", pg 79:

"What followed (after the Rangers purchase) was an early indicator of Bush's extraordinary success at marketing. Bush is arguably the greatest salesman of our time, having sold not just friends but political opponents on a war costing more than a trillion dollars and thousands of lives with the kind of pay-no-attention-to-that-pool-oil-under-the-engine polish that used car salesmen only dream about."

Ok, they stole the land, they built a mega-stadium on the land, sent you the bill, and then sold the whole thing to Nolan Ryan and kept the overage. 

Why do we put up with this? 

I think it's because Juvanal said it best, somewhere around 100 B.C.   Give us bread and circuses and World Series appearances, and we'll support anything. 

The Three Women Who Led Barack Obama Into War With Libya

Lord have mercy, what a week. 

Here's Ann Althouse on the Code Pink group, and the three women who led Barack Obama by the nose into Libya. 

It's the opposite of the Code Pink idea that women bring the peace. How long have I heard this feminist plaint: If only women had the power, we would have peace, not phallocratic war.

Well, Ms. Althouse doesn't agree to let an interesting theory get in the way of some cold hard facts:

In a Paris hotel room on Monday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton... changed course, forming an unlikely alliance with a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention.


Within hours, Mrs. Clinton and the aides had convinced Mr. Obama that the United States had to act...

... Mrs. Clinton joined Samantha Power, a senior aide at the National Security Council, and Susan Rice, Mr. Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, who had been pressing the case for military action, according to senior administration officials speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ms. Power is a former journalist and human rights advocate; Ms. Rice was an Africa adviser to President Clinton when the United States failed to intervene to stop the Rwanda genocide, which Mr. Clinton has called his biggest regret.

Now, the three women were pushing for American intervention....

Is this kinda like Bush being led into war by Rumsfeld and Cheney?  I'm sure that the facts will come out later. 

Here's the latest zinger from Ms. Althouse:

To ally with Power and Rice, Clinton had to make "an unusual break with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who, along with the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and the counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, had urged caution." Oh, timid men. Step aside! Yield to the boldness of women.

Ouch. 

She Whose Name Is Not Spoken has already announced that she doesn't want to be Secretary Of State any longer.  I'll bet dollars to donuts that she's going to run against The Teleprompter next year. 

To the eternal credit of the Code Pink group, they did design this little gem of a poster:

That was before we opened a 3rd front in the Middle East. 
Code Pink doesn't have anything condemning this latest "intervention" on their website yet.  We'll see. 

They do have a bookmark that you can slip into copies of Don Rumsfeld's biography that accuses him of being a war criminal. 
Here's the bookmark that stealth shoppers can slip into unsold copies of George Bush's "Decision Points". 
And here's a handy link telling readers how to execute a citizen's arrest, just in case they want to detain one of the warmongers from the Bush administration. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the bookmark they design to slip into copies of "Dreams From My Father", by Barack Obama.
I'm looking foward to seeing these ladies take to the streets in protests next week. 
Or not. 

"No Blood For Oil" - Libya edition

From my buddies over at the Gotta Get Drunk First blog.  A couple of headlines dated exactly 8 years apart:

MARCH 19, 2011
OBAMA: 'Today we are part of a broad coalition. We are answering the calls of a threatened people. And we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world'...

MARCH 19, 2003
BUSH: 'American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger'...

Is there anyone out there who thinks we'll be out of Libya in 8 years? 
Any takers? 

According to some of the Talking Head on Meet The Depressed this morning, we're already moving beyond enforcing the "No Fly Zone".  We've already bombed a few of Gaddafi's troops.  We're taking sides in a civil war.  Qaddafi is a very bad man, but we have no freakin' clue as to the character or goals of the people opposing him.  If I'm not mistaken, the complexity of Libya's tribal loyalties makes Iraq look as homogeneous as a Klan rally. 

We have learned absolutely nothing from the past 8 years. 

A Prayer For The Texas Rangers

Dear God,

I know that I am a sinner. 
I have no business asking you for anything. 
One of my earliest blog entries was based on a pun on the name of your servant, Oral Roberts.  I called it something funny just to get a lot of hits.  It's still getting them. 
Anyway, I'm sorry.  Please hear my prayer, and I'll delete it.   

Tonight, The Texas Rangers will face the despicable New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. 

The Yankees have won the World Series 27 times.  Until we put away The Devil Rays a few days ago, we'd only won one playoff game.  Ever. 

The Yankees have had Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, and Mickey Mantle on their roster. 
The Rangers once had Mississippi taxidermist Ned Yost. 

I know that the Ballpark in Arlington is built on stolen land.  I know that George W. Bush threatened to pull the team out of Arlington unless he got a sales tax increase and a $205,000,000.00 subsidy.  I know he bought the team for $86,000,000.00 and then turned around and sold it for $250,000,000.00   I know that he never properly thanked the taxpayers. 
But the Yankees are worse.  They've won it all so many times that they now personify evil. 

I know that when Major League Baseball had their last big strike/lockout about 15 years ago, and I had to lay off about half the staff of my close-to-the-ballpark retail store as a result, I swore I would never again care about this silly game.  I know.  I know. 

This is about The New York Freakin' Yankees.  All God-Fearing people in this great Republic hate The New York Freakin' Yankees. 

Anyway, I'm not asking for much, God.  It just wouldn't be right.  We are all sinners, but can't you agree that some teams are worse than others?  I mean, seriously....

I'm not going to ask for a victory over the Yankees in the ALCS, and I wouldn't dream of asking for the Rangers to win it all. 

But is there any way you could arrange for Josh Hamilton to hit the game-winning RBI in World Series game seven?  That wouldn't be asking for too much, would it? 

The pictures of typical Yankee fans came from here.  The picture of She Whose Name Is Not Spoken came from here. 

Ronald Reagan was a fiscal conservative ????

This post is about the funniest 3 word combination in the English language. 

But first, check out this movie trailer.  I WILL see this if it ever makes it to Texas:



There's only one problem. Why are they featuring Republican politicians?  Especially Ronald Reagan? 

Ronald Reagan was able to increase the amount of money coming into the Treasury by using a simple method.  He lowered taxes.  GDP increased as people hid less of their income and put it to work in sensible ways.  It's better to have 15% of a thousand dollars than 85% of a hundred dollars.
 
But under Reagan, our government spent money like, well, like Republicans. 

Here's a chart showing U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP.  It's from Wikipedia, but it roughly follows the info to be found here:

Look at the pink band running from 1981 to 1993, the Gipper/Poppy Bush era. 
Does that look like they believed "Government Is Not The Solution; Government Is The Problem?"

Here's another look at the same data, formatted for entertainment value....

Enough about Reagan.  Here's the Cato Institute's Veronique De Rugy on George W. Bush's spending habits:

During his eight years in office, President Bush oversaw a large increase in government spending. In fact, President Bush increased government spending more than any of the six presidents preceding him, including LBJ. In his last term in office, President Bush increased discretionary outlays by an estimated 48.6 percent.


During his eight years in office, President Bush spent almost twice as much as his predecessor, President Clinton. Adjusted for inflation, in eight years, President Clinton increased the federal budget by 11 percent. In eight years, President Bush increased it by a whopping 104 percent.

One reason offered for these large budget increases is that entitlement programs are growing rapidly. Although Social Security and Medicare spending growth outpaced most other programs in the mid-1990s, spending growth in discretionary programs has accelerated in the last 15 years, especially during Bush’s two terms. Between FY2002 and FY2009, discretionary spending rose 96 percent.

Some argue that federal spending during the Bush years was so high because security needs drove up the budget. It is true that defense spending increased dramatically since the late-1990s, particularly since 9/11 and the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, nondefense spending increased too. Some also argue that much of the increase in nondefense spending stemmed from increases in homeland security spending. Whether this is true, the overall rapid rise of discretionary spending indicates that, here too, the administration and Congress made no trade-offs in the budget. If the administration and Congress wanted more security spending and wanted to be fiscally responsible, they should have found savings elsewhere in the budget.

President Bush added thousands of new federal subsidy programs during his eight years in office. In 2008, there were 1,816 subsidy programs in the federal budget that spread hundreds of billions of dollars annually to special interest groups such as state governments, businesses, nonprofit groups, and individuals. The number of subsidy programs has grown by 30 percent since 2000 and by 54 percent since 1990.

Here's some more research from Ms. De Rugy, from the November 8th, 2008 issue of Reason magazine.  (Remember, this was written before the current Messiah started his spending spree):
 
"When it comes to out-of-control spending, conventional wisdom says the Democrats are most likely to bust open the coffers. That's why many fear an increased Democratic majority in Congress topped by a Democratic president. And we should be afraid. Democrats are indeed big spenders. Second only to Republicans."
 
She goes on to rank the possible combinations of Republican vs. Democrat control of Congress and the Presidency, going from kinda bad to worse:
 
1) Democratic White House, Republican Congress

2) Republican White House, Democratic Congress
3) Unified Republican or Democratic rule.

You cannot, you will not, get spending under control by electing Republicans.  Until recently, Republicans held all the spending records.  Democrat spending might be sillier, and easier to poke fun at, but by every measurement, until recently, the Democrats spend less money.  If you look at the long term, FREAKIN' DEMOCRATS are the fiscal conservatives ! 

We simply have to start electing Libertarians to high office.  There is no other solution. 

Oh, and the funniest 3 words in the English language? 
Small Government Republican