An old adage

Sent to me from Prof. Lynskey…..

OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house
and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the
summer away.    Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.    The
grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY:    Be responsible for yourself!

——————————————

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house
and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the
summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands
to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others
are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering
grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table
filled with food.     America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is
allowed to suffer so?

Barack Obama appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries
when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green”, and blames it on a right wing philosophy.

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ants’ house where the
news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’   Jesse then has
the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the
ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and call for and retroactive
tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Hillary and Barack go on national television agreeing that the plight of the
grasshopper is the fault of George Bush and “8 years of Republican Administration
neglect”.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act
retroactive to the beginning of the year.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs
and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is
confiscated by the government.

Obama’s buddies in the tort lobby gets a campaign contributor / law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges
that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant of course loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the
ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the
ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it. However his lawyers
will sue both the manfacturer and governement who provided the housing.

The ant has since disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is later found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now
abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once
peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:   Be very careful how you vote in 2008.

Intern for the Tennessee Republican Party

Beef up your resumé over the summer:
http://ms.tngop.org/new/intern.asp

Dominic posted this on the Facebook group, so I thought I’d advertise it a little bit more.

Nick Alexander
VP of Communications

New Appointed Officers

Hey Vandy CRs,

Please congratulate our two newest officers and members of the Executive Board:

Kylen Grimes - Attorney General
Chelsea Gaw - Executive Assistant

Thanks to everyone who applied and/or ran for an office. I’m looking forward to working with all of you in the upcoming year.

Cameron Norris
President ‘08-’09

Barack Obama’s electability

I wanted something to write to see if I knew how to actually post a blog on the site. So I thought I’d share the most interesting thing I read today about the upcoming presidential election.

“…our [Politico’s] conversations with Democrats who speak to the Clintons make plain that their public comments are only the palest version of what they really believe: that if Obama is the nominee, a likely Democratic victory would turn to a near-certain defeat. Far from a no-holds-barred affair, the Democratic contest has been an exercise in self-censorship. Rip off the duct tape and here is what they would say: Obama has serious problems with Jewish voters (goodbye Florida), working-class whites (goodbye Ohio) and Hispanics (goodbye, New Mexico).”

Here’s the story link for anyone interested:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9564.html

-Nick Alexander

State Convention

The state convention will be held on April 12 in Knoxville, TN.  We are going to be organizing a carpool, so let me know if you are interested in attending.  The invited but unconfirmed guests include Congressman Duncan, Congressman Blackburn, Congressman Wamp, Senator Alexander, and Lt. Gov. Ramsey.  You’ll get lunch and the chance to hang out with CRs from across the state!

Officer Elections

We are going to be having officer elections at our last general body meeting of the year on Tuesday, April 8 at 7 pm, location TBA.  Candidates will give a 1 - 3 minute speech before we vote by secret ballot.  The available officer positions are:

Elected:
President
VP Finance
VP Membership
VP Communications
VP Political Affairs
VP Events

Appointed by President after elections:
Attorney General
Executive Assistant

First Meeting of the Year

VCR will have it’s first meeting of the year on Wednesday, September 5th in Wilson 103.

• Guest Speaker Randy Stamps. Randy is the Executive Director of the Tennessee Republican Party.
• Presidential Straw Poll. Come out and vote for your favorite Republican Presidential candidate.
• We will be accepting membership dues and T-Shirt orders.

Get excited for another great year of College Republicans!

Come to the All-American Block Party

Vanderbilt College Republicans is proud to be a cosponsor of the All-American Block Party taking place here at Vanderbilt on Friday, September 7th at 5 pm on Kensington Avenue. Be sure to invite all your friends to this great event! Here is the link and information for the Facebook event:

http://vanderbilt.facebook.com/event.php?eid=4246873895&ref=mf

Continue reading Come to the All-American Block Party…

Happy Fourth of July

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Continue reading Happy Fourth of July…

VCR Appointed Positions

I am proud to announce that I have nominated and the Executive Board has confirmed Helen Richards as our club Attorney General. The Attorney General is responsible for running our club elections and keeping us in line with our governing documents. The AG also sits as a voting member of the Executive Board. Congratulations, Helen!

Also, I would like to announce that I am opening up the application process for the Special Assistant to the President. The Special Assistant will assist me in administering my duties and sits as a non-voting member of the Executive Board. Please email me at j.anderson@vandy if you are interested in this position.