The Dropkick Murphys, one of my favorite bands posted this on their web site:

Take ‘Em Down – The Dropkick Murphys stand with Wisconsin

Hey Everyone the Dropkick Murphys would like to take a moment to acknowledge the struggles of the working people of Wisconsin and to pledge our support and solidarity by releasing the song “Take Em Down” from our upcoming album. We think it’s appropriate at the moment and hope you like it.

We have also created a limited edition “Take ‘Em Down” t-shirt which will be available for sale shortly at www.dropkickmurphys.com/merch. Proceeds from the “Take ‘Em Down” t-shirt sales will benefit Workers’ Rights Emergency Response Fund (https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4002/wi-response).

We’ll see you in Wisconsin in a few days,

The Dropkick Murphys Stand With Wisconsin !!!!!

Gentlemen, you say you are standing with Wisconsin, but that simply is not true. The state is in debt and cannot afford to pay the workers employed by the state. The people of Wisconsin just voted in a governor who promised to do exactly what he is doing now, reign in spending. The people of Wisconsin voted in a Republican house and senate as well because they were ready for a change to fiscal responsibility.

The deal that was proposed to the unions have the workers paying a portion of their health care and pension costs, a portion so small that it is still half of what the average non-union worker pays.

What is going on in Wisconsin is not about screwing the workers, it's about being able to continue to stay in business and actually being able to pay these workers. You guys run a business, if the money dries up you'd have to fire staff or cut their salaries, correct? That's just the fiscal situation going on in Wisconsin.

Sláinte,
Darren O'Neill

Every once in a while I hear something that just really makes me wonder what, if anything, is going on in a typical progressive's head. Hillary Clinton doesn't think the rich in the United States are paying enough in taxes and she pines for a system that would make us look more like Brazil. These are her words:

"The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues (the United States is), whether it's individual, corporate, whatever the taxation forms are," she said.

"Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what -- it's growing like crazy. And the rich are getting richer, but they're pulling people out of poverty," she said. "There is a certain formula there that used to work for us until we abandoned it, to our regret in my opinion."

Maybe Hillary isn't up on what's going on in Brazil, so here's a quick lesson for her:

Brazilian police chief shot dead while giving radio interview on drug violence http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/26/brazil-police-chief-shot-int...

Violence is an everyday occurrence for law enforcement officials and the more than 11 million residents in and around the favelas, Rio’s slum areas, which are overrun by heavily armed drug gangs. More than 6,000 people are killed each year, a rate comparable to a war zone. (from http://www.realtruth.org/articles/100510-005-crime.html)

Just do a Google News search on Brazil and you'll find a country out of control and in turmoil. Is THAT really what you want here in the USA Ms. Clinton?

I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with me on this and if you're one of them then I sincerely ask you to explain to me how I'm wrong...

Twitter is being touted as a powerful tool for helping people get information out there. I agree with this if we are talking about a band or a sports team tweeting to the masses as a one-way line of communication. I mean it's great that Taylor Swift wants to keep her fans in the loop on what she's doing and there are 3,265,000 fans that are glued to every word. Do you really think Taylor could keep up with what those 3 million people are tweeting back to her? I don't think so.

So the question becomes just how many people can you have as friends on Twitter (where you follow them and they follow you) and not have it become just noise? My guess is somewhere in the 200-300 range and less if you have a lot of active tweeters. For our show we have set up a Twitter account @commonsenseshow and currently have 788 followers and are following 727. The other day I left the page open as I went to dinner, came back two hours later and there were thousands of new tweets. Sorry, just don't have the time to read that many tweets!

So I asked myself, at any given time how many people are REALLY paying attention to what you say. I asked a question about if people really feel ok with fellow Twitter users using automated systems to send tweets. Out of our 788 followers I go zero response to this.

So I decided to try again, this time asking if people REALLY believe Twitter is a two-way street of communication to reply to me with the word "yes." After 24 hours we received two yes responses. One from Dana (@sparkey999w) and one from Lynn (@jetts424). Thank you for the responses ladies, but I think I've proven the point the other way.

The only way for Twitter to be a two-way street is if everyone follows a very small number of people, and that just isn't going to work. These folks that follow thousands or tens of thousands of people and pretend they can read what's out there is laughable at best. Sure, you can sometimes get their attention with a direct message or @reply but what's the point of that? E-Mail serves a better purpose at that point.

If you want people to follow you and have that number really MEAN something and translate to some kind of result your best bet is to get followers who follow very few people, that's the only way your message is going to stand out. Having a huge list of followers who don't read your message does nothing for you at all except it might make you feel cool because you have a large number of mostly empty, meaningless followers.

I'm sorry, but I see Twitter as an overall #Fail! for two-way communications. Am I wrong?

Glenn Beck talked about this test last week and linked to it from his web site, as such the test crashed hard under the traffic load but it's back now!

It's a simple ten question test, took me about 5 minutes to take it and I suggest you try it out too. My results weren't really surprising, putting me firmly into the libertarian territory.

Here is my result, feel free to post yours in the comments!

Here is Jeff's result, he's just a little less libertarian than I am!

Take the Nolan Test here: http://www.nolanchart.com/survey.php

Here's a story that makes me wonder exactly what's going on in Tampa, Florida these days. It seems a young man, 19 years old, was seen walking around wearing a clown mask. So the police did what the police do and they arrested him. I'm not really sure why, maybe someone can clue me in on the legalities of being a clown in Tampa. I mean we have a TON of them in Washington, DC. Can someone round them up and throw them in the clink please??

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9E2O97G0&show_article=1

Hey Al Gore, put down your cheeseburger and take notice to the latest Pew poll. The American people don't care about "global warming" or "climate change" as it's being called now. In the latest Pew numbers Al's pet project comes in at dead last on the list of Top Priorities for 2010.

The top three on the list are the economy (83% rating it as a "top priority"), jobs (81%) and terrorism (80%). Who would have predicted these numbers? Oh yeah, I did. Actually, any idiot could have told you that the economy and jobs would top the list. I am happy to see so many Americans still vigilant about terrorism as well, even with the current administration trying to downplay that at every turn.

Only 57% said Health Care should be a top priority, which is less than the 60% who say Deficit Reduction should be a top priority. It's an overall interesting look at the mindset of America as we move further in the Obama Administration. You can read the whole list here.

The bottom line on "Global Warming" / "Climate Change" is that as a collective whole here in America we are just not buying it anymore. Sorry Al! The American people know the scam. We know that you're profiting from your rants about how the planet has a temperature. We know you're a snake oil saleman Al, so it's time you just ride off into the sunset.

The facts can't be disputed, the planet isn't warming anymore and hasn't for about a decade. Since we're still spewing more and more CO2 into the air the logic says CO2 isn't the cause of the previous warming. Maybe now CO2 will be the cause of the cooling, just wait for Al to slobber that message out while he scarfs down a Double Big Boy with Everything!

According to a Politco story President Obama dismisses talk of another mass exodus of Democrats from the House and Senate like we saw under Bill Clinton in 1994 because, in his own words "well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me."

This report comes as a parting shot from Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry who is retiring at the end of his current term. Didn't Obama learn anything from the statement made by the voters of Massachusetts? Doesn't he believe any of the polls that show his popularity dropping faster than any President before him? Is he really that delusional to think that he has the political capital to pull it off?

If Obama thinks his personality will carry him through on these issues he is sadly mistaken. The only thing that can save him is to do as Mayor Daley of Chicago suggested weeks ago and start moving to a more moderate centrist agenda. His ego won't seem to let him do this and I predict if he stays the course between now and November the Democrats are going to see a landslide election cycle like the Republicans have never had. Which really wouldn't be a bad thing at all!

We covered the Ellie Light story in yesterday's Common Man Common Sense Show, so if you haven't heard it yet please check the show out! In a nutshell Ellie Light is the name given by some mysterious person writing pro-Obama letters to the editor and sending them to newspapers around the country.

That in itself isn't the story, the story is with every letter sent "Ellie" claims to be in the newspapers subscriber area by listing a different home town with each letter. The most amazing thing is that "she" was published in 42 papers before being caught and called out by the Cleveland Plain Dealer who actually *gasp* decided to check on the source before printing it.

But, 42 other papers didn't feel the need to even try to verify the identity of "Ellie Light" before running the piece. I want everyone to truly consider the odds of someone getting a letter to the editor published even ONCE in larger city papers. This person was able to get her Obama diatribe published 42 times in papers big and small around the country.

I said during the show that I believe this is someone in the White House or working for the White House. The person's identity MUST be found out and the veil must be lifted. This kind of fraud NOT being caught by the mainstream papers that published the letters is laughable at best and complicit at worst.

It seems that only the Cleveland Plain Dealer is the only one investigating this story. The other newspapers involved are either completely ignorant or just don't care that what they have published is fraudulent because it praises the messiah Barack Obama. It's just another reason newspapers have lost their credibility with the American people and are now mostly irrelevant.

You can check out more on this story over at the NewsBusters web site where there is a fantastic article on the topic.

Will the REAL Ellie Light please stand up?

How can't President Obama get it? That's really the question that needs to be answered. After the wake-up call the people of Massachusetts gave the progressive liberals of this country President Obama's reaction is that the public 1. really hates George Bush and 2. really don't understand what he is trying to do.

I say Mr. President, with all due respect, STOP BLAMING YOUR PREDECESSOR! Man up and take responsibility for what you and your administration have done to this country.

I also say the country IS understanding what you're trying to do Sir, they just don't like it. You received a wake-up call in Massachusetts and you hit the snooze button. The country, on the other hand, did not. They're wide awake.

Here are the latest Rasmussen numbers:

Obama Approval Index: -18
Strongly Approve 25%
Strongly Disapprove 43%
Total Approval: 45%

Let's be honest, we haven't seen a fall like this since Humpty-Dumpty. The people have spoken and politicians everywhere need to understand that they are in the jobs that they hold in order to do the will of the people. They aren't in the job to tell US what to do. Those that don't understand that will soon be looking for new jobs.

I almost can't believe it, Scott Brown, a Republican won a Senate seat in the commonwealth of Massachusetts! Congratulations to him on a campaign that resonated with the American people during a time when our government seems hell bent on sending us deeper and deeper into the abyss of debt.