2010: Dormant No More

It's been a very long time since there's been any activity here at JELLY BEENZ. It's unfortunate and pretty much inexcusable.

But much like the Tea Party folks, the long period of dormancy is over.

The political and cultural goings on of 2009 have been difficult to let silently unfold. And truthfully, it's so much easier to pop over to Facebook and drop a snarky status update that stirs the pot amongst my most liberal friends and relatives.

I believe there's something lingering in the air. Something powerful that is about to congeal into a mighty force.

2010 has all the markings of a year of political upheaval, equivalent to the polar ice caps swapping places. Big time change that sees big C Conservatism roaring into power for the first time in 15 years.

The liberals who are currently in power in Washington have revealed the true nature of the system and of their souls. In a period of absolute power, they have tended to govern from positions further left than mainstream America.

The promises of transparency and of a corruption-free process lasted about as long as the words hung in the air. The wheeling and dealing involved in passage of bills twice the length of ATLAS SHRUGGED has given the American public a court side seat at the sausage factory and the public does not like what it has seen.

The pressure to pass massive bills quickly, without time to discuss, digest or even read - let alone debate - has made for a wary public.

And then there's the legislative bribery.

Ah, but that's just Washington being Washington, right? Maybe in a different climate, yes. But not in the promised climate of HOPE AND CHANGE.

A more generic term has never captured the hearts of so many. A more unexplained directive has never swept the country into a celebrity worshiping frenzy. Heck, Conservatives who thought George W. Bush was too liberal, or too weak, or too passive wanted some of that change too.

But nobody got it.

For all the promises of HOPE, the jobless claims continue to mount up and Obama's economy looks more and more like Jimmy Carter's every day. For every promise of CHANGE, there's yet another DC lobbyist taking over a brand new Czar position in an Obama administration that reveals its true transparency in its sealing of the president's birth certificate. (But that's a discussion for a different day.)

A full year after having a liberal conservative foisted upon them by the media (and liberals who crossed party lines to ensure McCain's nomination), Conservatives are beginning to feel the true depth of their power. A year after their national ticket (which was more appealing when viewed from the bottom up) went down in the flames of the folly of moderation, the silence is beginning to fade away.

After a year of being called racists, homophobes, red necks and tea baggers, the American Conservative has had enough. The Uprising is about to commence.

There is a song by the group Muse called UPRISING. There's some question as to the true politics of the group, but I don't care. The lyrics apply to 2010.

They will not force us.
They will stop degrading us.
They will not control us.
We will be victorious.

Like I said... the long period of dormancy is over.

As the World Spins

Over the course of just 24 hours the world seems to have righted itself.

At the start of the week, the Senate was moments away from passing an immigration bill that seemed to please only the Senate. Conservatives, in particular, were feeling particularly disenfranchised. No one seemed to be listening.

Then there was Paris Hilton. Yet another celebrity who managed to pull a quick one on society by turning a 45 day sentence into a three day sleep over.

In both cases the rule of law was having its nose rubbed in some rather smelly stuff.

This new so-called immigration bill used language very similar to the last edition, with promises that this time we'd actually enforce the law. Many wondered if it might be prudent to at least experiment with enforcing the current laws before we went to the extreme of replacing them.

Had a pollster asked me if the country was headed in the right direction, I would have said no.

And then the Earth rotated once more in the heavens and something changed. Within a 24 hour window, Harry Reid was forced to pull this pitiful excuse for a bill from the floor - and the world watched as Paris cried from the back seat of a squad car - on her way back to justice.

Maybe Jack Bauer was involved.

Outside the chambers Senators railed against their collective lack of stick-to-it-iveness. Senator Feinstein wondered why the Senate was unwilling to see things through. Others talked about how victory could be assured - if only we would allow more time. Words that sounded eerily like discussions on events in Iraq.

It's a shame some on the left are more passionate about legalizing illegal immigrants than they are about securing victory over folks who want to do us extreme harm.

Jerry Falwell died a couple of weeks ago, but the silent majority he called the Moral Majority stood up and made a bit of noise this week. Grass roots outrage was heard on both coasts. As a result, a judge in L.A. threw the book at a celebrity debutante, and politicians in D.C. bailed on a very bad bill in order to save their hides.

The immigration bill is dead. Paris is back in jail. Law and order seems to be taking hold after a bit of a vacation, and the country seems to headed in the right direction.

For this week at least.