Gateway Patriot

My New Job... UPDATE: JOBS!

2010-07-26T12:01:00.004-05:00

I am now a freelance political writer for Examiner.com St. Louis. I will be posting several commentary pieces each week which I encourage you to link through and read.

My profile and all my articles are HERE .

I will also post a link on the sidebar ---------->

This is an exciting opportunity and I encourage all my readers to check out my frequent articles over at Examiner.com!!!

UPDATE: I'm also a contributer to Big Journalism... linked HERE.

Always follow me on Twitter to connect to everything...

Does the Internet need “checks and balances”?

2010-07-25T14:28:00.002-05:00

My commentary from Examiner.com...

CNN anchors Kyra Phillps and John Roberts recently discussed what apparently is a pressing issue in America today, Internet restrictions. In the course of interviewing Andrew Keen, who authors a book about the evils of blogging and the Internet’s vast openness, they chewed over restrictions on anonymous blogging and a need for “gatekeepers”. All three seemed to be in agreement that in the wake of the Shirley Sherrod controversy, we must do something about Internet freedom.

Phillps going so far as to think that something must be done “legally” to “crack down” on the false or defamatory language from the blogosphere. There’s just a small stumbling block on the road to Internet utopia, the first Amendment. Broadly, all Americans have the right to speak their mind anywhere they go and through all mediums. While the Internet is the most recent and successful disseminator of speech, it is covered by freedom of speech and press as well.

I tend to see a pattern of language about “crack downs” and “gatekeepers” a lot lately, mainly from the left. They focus on Sherrod as the poor victim of the Internet’s “wild west atmosphere” but forget that it was the same medium that vindicated her within 24 hours. In the same way President John Adams attempted to censor self-titled “seditious” speech from local papers and penny presses, folks like these CNN anchors feel the need to regulate something that is fallible.

America is unique in the world. The bedrock of our freedom is that to speak freely. Even if we get the story wrong, we can use our speech to correct it. We should not regulate out of a fear of failure, we simply need to learn to avoid it naturally.

The Cold War of Race

2010-07-22T12:31:00.002-05:00

They say talking about entitlements like Medicare and Social Security are the “third rail” in American politics. I would venture that the third rail in American culture is race. It’s an issue that is ever present with us throughout our history. Only at certain times does it rear its head. When this happens our ugly racial history yields an ugly skirmish, the firestorm dies down, and we go back to normal trying to ignore the cultural third rail.

We’ve seen a skirmish the past couple weeks. I liken it to a Cold War era limited engagement. But like all war engagements it is an escalation that ends in bloodshed. The NAACP passed a resolution that condemned Tea Party racism. This prompted Tea Party elements to defend their dignity as not racists. The NAACP showed some racial signs in Tea Party crowds. Andrew Breitbart posted a tape of a NAACP event that seemed to show racial intolerance getting a welcome reaction by the crowd. But like most engagements, the crossfire enveloped a non-target. Breitbart says he never was targeting Shirley Sherrod, he was pointing out the reaction of her story by the audience. Nevertheless, Sherrod became a target and a thin-skinned White House forced her to resign her job because of an edited tape they hadn’t even seen. The NAACP, in direct contradiction of their acronym, shoved Sherrod out too, even though they possessed the full tape that would have proved her innocent of racial bias.

Eventually the tape did come out, albeit not fast enough to save Sherrod’s job. The apologies came fast and furious from the White House, the Agriculture Department. The point of Breitbart’s video ignored, the finger pointing has commenced. And so goes another chapter in America’s racial Cold War.

The Truth on Race & Tea

2010-07-15T18:48:00.006-05:00

Racism is one of the worst attributes that can be shown and espoused today. Just as hurtful is falsely being accused of being racist when you’re not. This issue comes to a head due to the NAACP’s proclamation that condemns supposed ‘Tea Party racism’.

First, let me speak for myself: I would like to think that I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I don’t know any racists. I don’t have any friends that are racists. If I saw a racist, I wouldn’t associate with them. I tend to think that a very large majority of my fellow Americans thinks like I do. When I judge a person, I use Dr. Martin Luther King’s way, I judge on the content of one’s character.

Next, let me explain the Tea Parties I’ve been to. I’ve attended numerous and spoken at one. I personally haven’t seen any racial signs when I’ve been to Tea Party rallies. I’m honored to know personally the organizers here in St. Louis, none of which harbor racial animus.

Beyond that, I must speak extremely broadly. The Tea Party movement is a broad and open movement. We don’t have ID cards, stamp entrances, or private/secret meetings. Like many other public demonstrations, people are free to come and go as they please. The likelihood of uninvited or unwanted guests exists here as it does everywhere in America. Legally, it’s difficult for Tea Parties to expel these people because more often than not, the event is on public land.

Furthermore, I would argue that it is unfair to judge any movement based on individual acts like single signs. So to be fair you can’t say that the Tea Party is racist because there’s a nut with a racist sign. Even if you find 100 examples of this around the country, it pales in comparison to the millions who are at Tea Parties for the right reasons. It would be slightly fairer to judge the organizers of Tea Parties and whom they themselves invite to speak. That’s fair to judge. If it’s sponsored by the official organization, then talk about it. I must also point out that the hierarchy of Tea Party groups is very fractured. There are local town groups, citywide groups, and national sponsors. Not every group thinks the same or endorses every one of each other’s actions.

To take an example, the Northern Iowa Tea Party placed a sign off a road that has a picture of Adolf Hitler, Vladmir Lenin, and President Barack Obama. This was in reference to the three variations of socialism. Personally, I wouldn’t characterize Obama in such a way. He is the most left wing President in history, but not quite socialist in my opinion. But on another level, I think plastering Hitler and Obama together is just not politically smart. It’s easy to marginalize you when you do that. Just as we rightfully dismissed the Bush-Hitler signs by the left. But in terms of criticizing the sign, I think it’s fair. The sign was put up by a Tea Party organization. I would condemn such a reference, as did some national sponsors.

On the whole, this Hitler comparison or racist displays are extremely rare on the individual nut level and from an organizational level. By no means should these small incidents be taken to indict an entire movement. If people still are fuzzy about what Tea Parties actually stand for, it’s fiscal conservatism and individual freedom at its core. Race doesn’t now nor ever did play a part. The rhetoric can get heated, but above it all, it’s fiscal issues that drive the movement.

The above points were intended to inform and sway open minded, level headed people who had questions about racism in the Tea Party. But to be honest, I know why members of the media and elements of the left are driving the racial narrative, fear. For the better part of four decades, the left has been using freedom of assembly quite well. They can mobilize on a street corner at a moment’s notice. Only in the last 18 months has the right waded into this zone. The threat is being treated with vicious hate and bitter division. And the easiest way to smear and divide is racially. I doubt that the left really cares about supposed racial rhetoric as much as discrediting a legitimate movement that has garnered majority support across the nation. It is the vilest of smears to be called racist when false. And I encourage people on the left who hurl it to be careful about the broadness of your brush (unless you intend to insult and smear patriotic Americans).

I would hope the truth prevails in the end. Instead of smearing, why don’t liberals defend the disastrous policies of the Obama Administration? I’d much rather be posting on it, rather than defending against ugly smears.

Happy Independence Day America

2010-07-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here are some of my personal thoughts...

Text:

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… it is the birthright of every American… defended by the bravest among us, to protect the most innocent among us… to ensure for them and future generations the freedom granted by God and fulfilled by humanity… it is fitting then that we honor such a unique nation… founded in freedom… living on for over two centuries… for the 234^th time we wish a happy birthday to the greatest nation the world has ever known… the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Why We're Angry

2010-06-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

It’s the question all the Washington elites are asking, why are they so angry? Well, here’s why…

All across America we are seeing failure.

The economy is drowning, and big business and Wall Street are the only ones receiving a life jacket. While the tried and tested backbone of our economy, small businesses and workers are being ignored and demagogued from Washington.

The Gulf is drowning in oil due to a failure of a big corporation, and the same government tasked with fixing the problem is too busy getting marred in bureaucratic paperwork and environmental standards. We see more photo ops than tankers in the gulf.

We are addicted to oil from a dangerous part of the world and yet the Department of Energy, whose sole reason for existence is to wean us off of oil, has failed for almost four decades to do so.

The most basic act of budgeting is ignored. It was at least something when Congress ignored the budget, now they don't even bother writing one! Meanwhile, the deficit grows larger, the debt grows out of control, while my future and my kid's future is being recklessly spent away. It seems preserving any amount of fiscal prudence for my generation has been lost. The next generation, be damned!

We see a national security apparatus so laden with agencies and turf wars that terrorists are able to penetrate are our defenses and kill Americans if not for their own incompetence.

Our southern border is not secure and Washington is unwilling to lift a finger, yet they’re quick to file a lawsuit against a state that actually is tackling the problem they ignore.

Big bureaucracies across the board are failing us, whether in corporate America or in government. Yet Washington’s answer to a failed bureaucracy is to appoint another to oversee the failing one.

Common sense would dictate that when a crisis hits, you handle the crisis. Instead, we see more time paid to public relations and how much political capital can be garnered. They’re not letting said crisis go to waste instead of simply fixing the problem.

We don’t see government as the enemy. It has its place. But we see that when government delves into things it shouldn’t, it ignores the things it is already been tasked with doing. We now see that large and cumbersome bureaucracies fail, where smaller, more agile operations succeed. We know that when the American people have more of their own money to spend, prosperity will follow.

We know these things are true. We know these things work. Why are we angry? Now you know.

American Inheritance

2010-06-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

If it’s been said once it’s been said hundreds of times by Barack Obama and his administration, “I inherited (blank)”. The term has been the automatic refrain when it comes to the unemployment rate, the financial system, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, America’s global image, and now the BP oil spill. It was all George W. Bush’s fault and President Obama inherited the problems.

For once though I’d like to see the President give a speech that tells of the other things he inherited. There have been 43 presidents previous to him and he has inherited them all. He inherited the legacy of the greatest nation on Earth. He inherited a world devoid of German Nazis, Italian fascists, Imperial Japanese, or Soviet communists. He inherited a world where slavery is banned, institutionalized racism in America is no more, and the American people have elected him, an ethnic minority to be its Commander in Chief.

The world has come a long way in the past 234 years and so has the Untied States of America. The truth about the Presidency is that every President inherits his predecessor’s problems the same way they inherit the White House as their home, the Oval Office as their work space, and a Limo and Air Force One as their travel. To blame past President’s for one’s problems ignores all the good the past 43 President’s have done. When you put your hand on the Bible and recite the Presidential Oath, you get everything, including the problems.

President Obama has had almost 17 months and it’s high time he accepts responsibility for the office he sought over 3 years ago. If he wanted to be President, he has no excuses when he gets the job he wanted, perks and problems in all.

Great Moments in Presidential Leadership

2010-06-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

Here a video I made that chronicles the best of President Obama's quotes during the BP Oil spill...

A 21st Century Pastime

2010-06-03T18:32:00.005-05:00

If I may, let me take a break from political commentary and turn to America's pastime, baseball. It's a sport I dearly love. My being from St. Louis and part of America's best fan base only heightens my enthusiastic feelings toward the game.

More than anything, baseball is a game of moments. Little bits and pieces of the game that are captured and remembered for all time. What happened last night when Tiger's pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out away from completing one of the hardest feats in sports, pitching a perfect game, was a moment that should be a turning point for America's pastime.

h/t NYT

After Mike Redmond grounded out to shortstop, Donald bounced a ball between first and second. Miguel Cabrera fielded it and threw to Galarraga covering.
The ball got there in time. So did Galarraga. He seemed to catch the ball near the top of the webbing; perhaps Joyce did not hear the telltale thwack of ball meeting leather before he heard Donald’s foot cross the base. He spread his arms — safe, an infield single.

The botched call being one of the worst many have ever seen. The play beat Donald by a good foot, but Umpire Jim Joyce missed it. It would be easy to demonize Joyce but he actually is extremely upset by the incident and feels sorry for costing the pitcher the perfect game. I can accept that.

As all baseball fans do on every call we disagree with. The line goes that umpires are "only human" or ironically "not perfect". Many fans could except that around the turn of the 20th century, through the 1950's, and even into the 90's. But why in the year 2010 do baseball fans have to put up with horrendous calls like Joyce's Wednesday night?

The solution, simply allow Joyce to take a whole 10 seconds to peak at a monitor and correct his mistake. The story today would be, "Pitcher has perfect game saved by replay". It happens in almost every other sport, why not baseball?

The answer that many who oppose instant replay give is the nostalgic element. That somehow having umpires make mistakes is a unique and special element to baseball that we need not give up. Ridiculous. The reason fans had to deal with it back in the 60's is because replay wasn't existent, much less "instant". Now, it would have taken an umpire a fraction of time to make sure he was right. The convenience is there where it wasn't for over a century.

Another argument is the oddly that the moment last night was bigger because of the botched call, and it will be remembered longer than a simple perfect game. That may be correct, but remembered for what? For the call that was wrong and couldn't be rectified, or more correctly, wouldn't be rectified.

This asinine view that clings to some sick sense of historical precedent, where we play the game like they played it in 1900 because we've got to preserve something about the game. If that were true, baseball in the 40's would have said no to African Americans because it might ruin the "continuity" of the game. Or maybe we should except steroids in baseball to preserve the records those athletes set. Sure, they cheated but cheating is part of the history of the game. Absurd.

We don't have to put up with bad calls anymore. Busch Stadium plays a replay after every hit, why not play one in the rare case when there's a close call. It would be a minor change in the scheme of things and would progress baseball into the 21st century. We're not changing the rules, we're ensuring the rules be enforced correctly and without mistakes. I fail to see the problem with that.

The Deserted Truth

2010-05-30T00:00:00.001-05:00

Enough is enough. After reading yet another article about protests and opposition to Arizona's immigration law, I feel someone must speak the truth about this issue. It's an issue that oddly divides the American right. Many who oppose it I suspect fear the electoral reprisal of hispanics if they agree to any enforcement measures. The problem is that racially pandering is just about as useless and outdated as racial discrimination. Forgetting the political correctness, here's the truth as I see it.

Here are the facts...

- The economic conditions of Mexico and Latin America at large are quite poor, which necessitates emigration to a country with better economic conditions, predominantly the United States.

- America has a border with Mexico that has, in most places, insufficient barriers to prevent people from illegally entering the country.

- Right now there are 12-20 million people who are not legally present in the United States.

- An estimated $8 billion is annually sent out of the United States in remittences.

- Drug wars between cartels have spilled onto the U.S. side of the border, thus making Phoenix, Arizona the number one kidnapping capital of the United States.

- For more than two decades, the Federal Government has not acted on this growing issue.

Now with that is a backdrop, the Arizona legislature decided to pass and Governor Jan Brewer signed an enforcement bill that did a number of things. Most of the bill consists of restating Federal and Arizona laws regarding illegal immigration.

The part that bothers many people and has caused such and uproar is the following:

B. For any lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation. Any person who is arrested shall have the person’s immigration status determined before the person is released. The person’s immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States code section 1373(c).

The problem is, what the definition of "reasonable suspicion"? The fear is that many police officers will construe it to mean that any person of hispanic dissent is here illegally and will be harassed by officers. This also assumes that a good number of cops are racist, or at least use racial tactics in their official duties, which I don't. Knowing that's already illegal in itself, the Arizona law goes further on protecting the rights of legal Americans...

A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution. A person is presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States if the person provides to the law enforcement officer or agency any of the following:
1. A valid Arizona driver license.
2. A valid Arizona nonoperating identification license.
3. A valid tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal identification.
4. If the entity requires proof of legal presence in the United States before issuance, any valid United States federal, state or local government issued identification.

So, for all of those folks blabbing at rallies about "racial profiling" in the law or that the law is "racist" altogether, all you must do is read the text of the law. Cops "may not" use race to determine illegality, period. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not telling you the truth or is ignorant and hasn't even read the law itself. In reality, it's quite simple to dissuade a cop who suspects you, pull out your driver's license and you're clear. And when it comes to asking for someone's "papers" there's been a federal law for over 50 years stating that all legal non-citizens must carry a Green Card/ ID everywhere.

Now I've also heard a few other inventive arguments even after I read the law's text.

One is that cops simply can't be trusted to stay within the confines of the law. If that's the case, we need to talk to police, not politicians. If the police's competence is your argument against any law enforcement bill, then we need to halt the passage of any law that requires police work (that's all of them) until the police themselves can be investigated further. Setting aside the fact that I, by and large trust cops, the contention nonetheless has nothing to do with this particular law.

The last argument I've heard is that by passing a law on immigration at all, it inadvertently targets hispanics. This is again, complete and utter nonsense. Does enforcing laws against the Mafia inadvertently target Italians? Or does enforcing laws against murder target African- Americans (who statistically commit more murders), or does white collar crime only target white people (who commit more frauds)? NO!!! Enforcing laws discriminates against only one group, criminals.

Crossing the border into America without documentation is breaking the law, period. Doing this makes you a criminal, period. And all the Arizona law did was empower law enforcement to do a novel thing, enforce the law.

Same Old Paul Krugman

2010-05-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

In his latest Op-Ed in the New York Times, liberal brainchild Paul Krugman yet again managed to confirm his pretend knowledge of the Tea Party and his nonsensical view of his political rival's objectives.

First off, Krugman displays that primal trait among the intellectual left today that somehow the Tea Party goers are too stupid to realize they're being used. First it was the insurance companies, then the Republican Party, then big conservative think tanks, and now Mr. Krugman has identified corporations has the latest puppet master. He cites the up tick of corporate money toward the GOP. Apparently he forgets that from the 2005-2008 the corporate money moved to the Democrat side. This is indicative of a power play to those who the corporates believe will be in a position to help them. So since mid 2009, the tide has been shifting to the right in anticipation of a GOP win in the fall. Is it any shock that big money will move that way as well?

Krugman cites the abundant hatred for the Obama Administration by Corporate America, as well. And why is this surprising? President Obama routinely demonizes them, even going so far as to hint at a point when "you've made enough money" and that "now is not that time" for profits. But it's those taxes that make them hate Obama, says Krugman. Not to fear though, because they'll only go up to Clinton era levels and why not, "they’ll still be doing extremely well". I guess Krugman forgets about that quadrupling of the federal deficit in the past 16 months and, that the "tax the rich" redistributionist crowd's deficit fervor may increase the taxes beyond those measly Clinton era rates. It's a slippery slope that scares the rich in America.

Krugman cites regulations as the next item of disdain. He uses that tired and false meme about no regulations leading to the recession when it was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that drove the lending markets into the ground. But never fear, Krugman has a plan to fix the last government failure, more government interference.

Now to the part about those dumb puppets in the Tea Party. Krugman argues that the right has a conspiratorial "formula" of how to win elections. "Play identity politics," he says. Wait a minute, it was the President himself who called upon specific ethnic groups to help him win in 2010. Aside from a few nut cases masquerading at Tea Parties, there have been no ethnic politics played on the right. But who is the evil mastermind behind this villainous plot, none other than classic hate magnet Karl Rove. Who Krugman apparently thinks should stop working, talking, traveling, etc. after public service.

In the end, Krugman relents that those buffoon Tea Partiers won't heckle at being used, in fact that evil libertarian Rand Paul didn't foam at the mouth over the BP oil spill. Krugman says "it’s a kind of populism that’s remarkably sympathetic to big corporations." Not really Mr. Krugman. This movement is about the freedom of every American, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, and income to pursue happiness.

But Krugman somehow believed that Obama, the most partisan member of the Senate, could "transcend" it once President. He needs to find his inner FDR and fight “the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.” I hate to attack the liberal messiah but since 1936, we have laws of anti-trust, speculation is normal in a capitalist economy, the reckless banks were under duress from Fannie and Freddie, the class warfare is from the White House only, the sectionalism of income and ethnicity also comes from the Administration, and the war contracts ended the Great Depression when FDR's government expansion didn't.

Sorry Mr. Krugman, President Obama can learn from FDR to not waste a term on a failed government expansion and possibly try to create wealth in the most proven way in history, let people keep their own money. It worked under Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush. The only thing stopping the President is ironically Krugman and his redistributionist allies who I believe Obama must transcend in order to have a shot at reelection. To do that would show true courage.

College Lessons

2010-05-18T08:00:00.002-05:00

Beings I just returned from my freshman year of college, I believe the time is right to look back on a year spent inside the ivory towers of academia.

I entered college life knowing that I would be tremendously outnumbered ideologically. My principle on professors said that they were liberal until proven otherwise. After one year, none proved themselves to be conservative. However, I was surprised to find a couple that were liberal but also intellectually curious. Others held the quite open view that the point of being a professor is to preach from "on high" a political perspective. A year spent in uncharted waters honed my beliefs and attending the hub of the intellectual elite showed me some basics about the intellectual left in America.

First, on any issue on the horizon it is the liberal view that in some way individuals are not capable of fully living their lives, spending their money, or making important life choices. This takes many forms. Many would claim that we are simply too small in the scheme of things. We are so little compared to the big corporations and thus need someone to always help us fight them. On the surface this argument makes sense, due to the fact that in some cases money does equal power. But while that view tended to be the most pervasive, I discovered it was only the first layer of an onion. When you peel another back it reveals another reason individuals are incapable. Coupled with their lack of political power is their lack of civic knowledge. The line would go that the American people don't pay attention to politics. That's why politicians, who presumably follow day-to-day politics, must take a more assertive role. Again this seems plausible due to Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" where random folks can't name the Vice President. Even this reason isn't the end though. If you peel one last layer back you see the real reason individuals are deemed incapable, you're stupid. In the end the first two layers stem from the individual's inherent lack of basic knowledge. They are susceptible to fads, have unreasonable expectations, they have inherent bigotries, etc. They buy a truck even after the elite say they'll kill us all. They buy guns even though they're dangerous. They believe in a God that elite science cannot definitively prove. All of this is the underlying reason why we need a small intellectual elite to make decisions for the large, predominantly dumb populous.

This view of middle America as a bunch of redneck, gun-toting, Bible thumping, bigots was eloquently put in 2008 by an Illinois Senator named Barack Obama, a former college professor himself. All of this leads to the inevitable conclusion that Ronald Reagan said in 1964 on the choice America faced then...

"This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

This issue continues to be debated today.

Another issue that raised its head was the attack on the free market. I kept hearing how the market has enabled the rape and pillage of land and people. Thus, markets must be severely limited and highly regulated. But the facts that determined the raping of an individual were compared to our living standards in the wealthiest nation on Earth. If a farmer in the Caribbean gets paid 80 cents an hour that must be wrong because Americans get paid upwards of seven dollars. One professor attacked a corporation for paying farmers in Jamaica 40 cents a day to harvest the crops. She acknowledged that prior to the company coming to that country the farmer was paid 10 cents a day. She found a way to attack a 400% increase in pay as unethical. If a corporation made it, it must be bad. Even so, the hypocrisy was wild as she came in with designer clothes every single class.

A third point I learned was the opposite of Mitt Romney's book "The Case for American Greatness". Every day it seemed like American greatness was under attack. Our being a large, wealthy, and powerful country is to blame for almost every ill in the world and we must humble ourselves to be liked again. Again I was drawing comparisons to the former professor in the White House's apology tour in early 2009.

But the final thing I found was an answer to these charges.

On the first point it’s hard to give one. All I can say is that everywhere that individual freedom has flourished, so has society as a whole. Everywhere it is oppressed and eliminated, the society has failed. Americans are an amazing people. Sure, we all make mistakes. Some of us aren’t too smart. But as a people we are capable of great things. Point to the largest innovations of the last two centuries and most were accomplished without government’s help, protection, or involvement at all.

On the free market, we must make clear that no one says there shouldn’t be any basic regulation. Some is needed to keep the market stable, like guardrails on a highway. But if you over regulate, it eliminates the ability of individuals to pursue new endeavors, maybe discover a shortcut on the highway. This is how we persevere as a people. This is how innovations are born.

On American greatness, we must also point to the history of the 20^th century and another Reagan quote that makes the point…

“We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong; it is when they are weak that tyrants are tempted.”

American success is not something to begrudge, it is something to maintain and expand. Like our individually our nation has not been perfect over the years. But the scars we bear we bear openly for all to see and learn from. Hopefully we will learn as well. The problem comes when people harp on our small number of faults and ignore the wealth of good this nation has done for the world. The growth or decay of our nation mirrors the rise or fall of the values we hold dear. If we are weak than those principles will weaken. Whether we like it or not, we are the world’s arbiter of freedom and it is up to us to keep freedom alive and prosperous.

Let me say that overall my college experience has been a great one. I’ve made new friends, worked hard, and had fun. My point here is only about the political bias in the intellectual sphere of college life, not any one person or institution. Even those who preach a political agenda aren’t evil, they’re just wrong headed.

For now I’ll be enjoying a summer vacation of blogging, tweeting, and maybe even some old features could be resurrected in the summer of 2010. Stay tuned…

Quote to Think About...

2010-04-09T21:47:00.002-05:00

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

-- Adrian Rogers 1931

Optimism after Obamacare

2010-03-21T17:44:00.006-05:00

With former pro-life Congressman Bart Stupak's flip to yes, the Democrats Health Care Reform bill has passed tonight. While the outcome is not what we conservatives wanted, there is a reason for, dare I say, hope.

First, the challenges from states like Idaho and Virginia hold a possible chance of derailing the bill on a statewide basis. Second and most importantly, I would point back to the budget trick that the Democrats used to make the bill budget neutral to the CBO. They tax for all of the first ten years but don't start the program's so called benefits for 4 years. Do some arithmetic and you'll find that two elections happen between now and 2014. If the GOP gets their act together you could see a Republican House, Senate, and Presidency in 2013. This is where the Democrats process this year will come back to bite them. If the Democrats pass their bill with reconciliation, the GOP can surely repeal it with reconciliation as well, right? All the GOP would need is a simple majority in each chamber and a Republican President to end the bill before it even begins.

But, as I tweeted on Sunday, the most important words in the next two elections are "Repeal and Replace". It's not enough to be like the failed GOP Presidential candidate Alf Landon in 1936 and run strictly a repeal campaign. The GOP must reform the reform. There are precious few things in this bill that are decent. The Republicans should acknowledge and keep them. They should also campaign on new changes that don't keep the ever despised "status quo". We've got good ideas on healthcare. We need to put them into affect and take this issue away from liberal Democrat thinkers.

My message tonight is to not get to down about the setback tonight, because it's only that. The final battle is never over. Milton Friedman said the battle for freedom must be won over and over again. Now it's this generation's turn to stand for healthcare freedom in the face of a legislative loss. Don't quit, don't mourn, just keep fighting for freedom for the next four years. The country depends on it.

President Obama at George Mason University

2010-03-19T12:58:00.005-05:00

I made it through without my head exploding... barely.

Here are some videos from the scene...

Protests...

Lowlights...

The Mototcade...

Overall, it was cool to see the President of the United States, I just wished he would tell the truth more often.

The Summit-What We Learned

2010-02-26T23:26:00.002-06:00

Well for one, the Democrats couldn't decide what the meeting was actually about...

Was it about jobs???

Or segregation???

Or even dentures???

And what Obama Administration appearance wouldn't be complete without a "Joe Biden acting like a fool" moment...

One thing was clear, when the Republicans were able to speak without being interrupted...

... They were brilliant...

And nobody talked about that dirty reconciliation tactic EVER, right???

But when it was all said and done, the Democrats had used almost twice the time as the Republicans, but that's to be expected you see because...

And frankly, if the GOP doesn't roll over to what Barack Obama says well, they'll go the Chicago Way!!!

I wonder if President Obama has ever or will ever listen to these people...

Obama was right on one thing, they'll be elections in November 2010 and in 2012. He needs to prepare himself for a rout if he doesn't quit lecturing the American people when they've already made up their minds. If I may, Mr. President, you've LOST this debate... let US write the bill this time!!!

What a Difference 5 Years Makes

2010-02-24T09:51:00.006-06:00

You know what... they're right.

So a Congress with a 10% approval rating, is trying to pass a bill that has a majority opposed to it, with an unconstitutional maneuver. What could go wrong for the Democrats?

Think long and hard about this Mr. President...

Special Comment to Keith Olbermann

2010-02-16T20:04:00.003-06:00

First I would ask you to watch his comments starting at about 4:30...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If I may Mr. Olbermann, here is my Special Comment to you today…

Since you asked Tea Partiers a bunch of questions and challenged our assertions and our beliefs, let me tell you what I’ve found.

The entire premise of your special comment was based on an assertion that all Tea Party attendees are white. This is simply untrue.

Your main contention, that we are all simply afraid out of some 60’s throwback mentality of distrusting people who aren’t like us, shows how truly out of touch you are with those who aren’t like you, politically and racially.

For the record, at every Tea Party I’ve attended and the one I spoke at, there were, in fact, people with non-white skin. We’ve had a black speaker and a Cuban speaker. I guess you’d wave your chauvinistic finger at us and claim those people were just token minorities, right? That we intentionally chose them out of some urge to disguise our true, evil, racist intent. Actually, Mr. Olbermann, no we did not.

But I think it’s high time someone finally calls you out, Mr. Olbermann, on something I don’t think you want to hear. That it is you, the one who asks us to count every minority skin color, sexual orientation, or gender, that is the racist. It is you who see based on color, judge based on color, speak based on color, and attack people based on color who is the real racist here. I think for all of your pontificating about how you call others out on their racism, it is you are truly insecure about yours.

You see, Mr. Olbermann, we don’t think minorities need an advocate. They don’t need a crutch. They can stand by themselves and for themselves because they are, in fact, equal to everyone else. They have the same potential as everyone else. They deserve to be treated like humans, not black humans.

Which is how you want to treat them, Mr. Olbermann. As if they need some sort of help. Why do they need a job based on their race and not ability? Maybe, Mr. Olbermann, it’s because you don’t think they can do it on their own. What, are they not smart enough, Mr. Olbermann? Is their some inherent trait that makes them unequal to whites, Mr. Olbermann? Let me help you out, Mr. Olbermann, there isn’t.

And what of your statement that somehow minorities can’t be conservative? They can’t be opposed to bankrupting future generations with debt. Your assertion that minorities don’t believe, or can’t believe this is indicative of another peculiar trait you possess, Mr. Olbermann. That is your assumption that races vote in monolithic blocks. That somehow, those, on average, 10% of black Americans that vote for the Republican Party every four years are, what Mr. Olbermann? Are they, as others on your network have suggested, not black? Do you somehow believe Mr. Olbermann, that to be black, means one must conform to one party. Maybe because you believe they must rely on you to tell them? Are they too stupid to figure it out? Let me help you out, Mr. Olbermann, they are smart enough. And that’s what you and your allies are afraid of. That if black Americans figure out the sick game your playing with them, if they are freed from the mediocrity you expect from them that they might find another party to vote for, or ideology to embrace.

Ah, maybe I’ve hit a nerve, Mr. Olbermann. Maybe I can ask you to ask yourself when you’re on your set tonight, why can’t minorities make decisions for themselves? Why can’t they get jobs without your help? Why can’t they support another candidate and preserve their racial identity in your mind?

I know the answers for myself. Minorities can do all of those things on their own. My ideology allows for every human being's true potential to come out. They don’t have to be subjugated into mediocrity. My ideology makes everyone, regardless of race, color, or creed free.

My question to you, Mr. Olbermann, is what are YOU afraid of?

The New Contract With America...

2010-02-11T16:59:00.004-06:00

It doesn’t take a big, long list of ideas, just some broad principles to stand on…

Pact for Prosperity 2010

-A Simpler contract with America

If Republicans are elected we will stand for…

- Treating acts or terror as acts of war, treating the terrorists themselves as enemy combatants in war, and prosecuting captured terrorists in military commissions, not in civilian court.

“ Spend Taxpayer money to kill and capture terrorists, not on the lawyers to defend them”

- Broad based Tax-Cuts for every single American family and business, regardless of income or size. This will free up Americans to spend for their families and invest in an expansion of their business.

We will work with open-minded Democrats to…

- Stand for any policy that returns responsibility to individual Americans and their families-oppose policies that take more power from Americans and put it in Washington.

In working for reforms…

- All comprehensive changes to any aspect of American life must be fragmented into multiple bills. All of which must be online for at least one week prior to final voting in each chamber.

Any other ideas for the GOP in 2010? Comment below to add suggestions...

In Defense of 60

2010-02-08T19:59:00.002-06:00

I’ve heard the hand ringing over the past 12-18 months about the Senate’s rule of needing 60 votes to “get anything done”. Critics say it gives the minority more rights than the elected majority. This has even been characterized as Un-American by some who believe simple 51-vote majority is the “Democratic” thing to do.

To be clear, the rule of 60 is to end debate, because the U.S. Senate doesn’t have timing rules like the House does. The key is, if the debate of a bill isn’t ended, it can never be voted upon (which is a simple majority) and thus, never passed.

These critics have a wrong-headed view of government to begin with. In a government that is needed legislate every moral, political, cultural, etc. issue, a way to quickly act is required. If government must generally choose your life’s path, then there is an argument for a quick moving legislature. However, that view isn’t what the founders wanted. They instituted the cloture rule of 60 to make sure that any government action taken in people’s lives was to be overwhelmingly supported. The easier you make it, the more engulfed one’s life would become by bureaucracy.

So yes, we need a 60-vote rule in the United States Senate. This counts when either party is in the majority, by the way. That is the “American” thing to do.

Super Bowl 44

2010-02-05T18:00:00.000-06:00

This Sunday is the 44th edition of the Super Bowl. This is also the 11th super bowl I've remembered being aware of. Even though I am an avid NFL fan and follow the season intently, when it comes to predictions in the big game, let's just say my pick is the equivalent to a kiss of death. I think I've only gotten two correct in my life. Nevertheless, I will continue my predictions this year as well.

I will reveal that I am rooting for the Saints. But, my objective Super Bowl prediction is Colts 34 and the Saints 28 (leaving the door open to a possible overtime game winning touchdown).

Now if your a Saints fan, I won't blame you if you cheer, but I'm going with the Colts.

I'll be live tweeting the game and commercials (including Tim Tebow's) on Twitter so follow me there if you'd like.

Let's hope this game lives up to the previous two in competitiveness and excitement.

Decorum Disaster

2010-02-01T16:09:00.003-06:00

It’s not the substance. We knew that would be horrendous. It wasn’t the inane commentators after the speech. We knew they were high on “hopium”. The main thing that stuck out to me about President Obama’s State of the Union Speech last week was the complete and utter lack of decorum in the House Chamber that night.

From the President to the Speaker to the members, they all forgot where they were and who they are. They’re members of the United States government. They’re sitting in the Capital of this country. Not at a campaign rally. Not at a fundraiser. Not with a special interest shindig.

Let’s start with the President himself. I have the same critique of Obama in this speech than any other high profile speech he’s made as President. You want to yell, “It’s not all about you!!!” In an address about the state of the nation, he used the words “I”, “me”, or “my” over 110 times. He treated the state of the union like the state of Obama. He insulted the Supreme Court for not agreeing with him. The other branch, however, was the most distressing.

The Congressmen and women have a right to applaud a statement one side of the other likes. That’s normal and punctual. But every other sentence the President uttered was not just clapping, but also a cheering. A hooting and hollering reserved for campaign events. Nancy Pelosi alone made me think her legs were on a spring. Maybe she should have plastic surgery on the so they never move (like her face). It’s almost sad to see grown men and women, and members of the government no less, act like children at playtime.

I think we’ve lost decorum in many areas of our politics. It might just be me, but I think when the President is addressing people anywhere in the world, he needs to where a tie. He shouldn’t bow to anyone. Members of Congress should have a sense of the granger and history they are sitting in. Treat it with more respect than I saw last Wednesday.

I thought we’ve come further than the days of duels and fights on the House or Senate floor. Apparently this “progressive” President and Congress has regressed the etiquette for government officials. The way we’re going, next year Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden might actually throw a clump of mud at Joe Wilson.

GOP or the "Tea"OP?

2010-01-26T15:46:00.006-06:00

I've heard many generic politicos and conservative pundits jabber about who will the Tea Party goers support in November 2010 and 2012? Their opinions are quite vast and confusing. Some have even openly considered the Tea Party as a new 3rd party in American Politics. Coming from a person who spoke at a Tea Party and voted for John McCain, the answer to me is pretty obvious.

While not all Tea Party supporters call themselves conservative, many hold the beliefs of limited government and less taxes in high esteem. There are libertarians, and virulent pro-life supporters. While an individual's main issue may differ from another's, it's plainly obvious that they all fit in some way with one plank or another of President Reagan's "3 legged stool".

So it amuses me that main line Republicans can't seem to recognize that this movement is tailor made for Republicans to garner support from. It's shocking that many Tea Partiers shrug off the GOP and waste a vote on a 3rd party or even withholding their vote altogether.

The GOP doesn't need to blatantly pander to the Tea Party. That's patronizing. Just offer an agenda that Tea Partiers can endorse. Heaven knows they basically want the same general thing, and we know the Democrats aren't going to offer us anything better.

We operate in a two party system. The Tea Party's beliefs are in line with the classic values of the Republican Party. So a GOP that's half-way competent should be able to put together a classic GOP platform for Tea Partiers to endorse (the question of GOP competence however, is an open one).

So, to my Tea Party brethren and my Republican friends... get along.

"Let's Take our Country Back"

2010-01-21T18:19:00.006-06:00

I got the master copy of this song performed by Lucas Hoge. It was written by Tom Paden and Eddie Kilgallon. I want help spread the word on this song. Visit www.letstakeourcountryback.net to hear and buy the song. I certainly hope that this song becomes the theme for a Conservative victory on November 2010 and 2012.

The Miracle in Massachusetts

2010-01-19T20:43:00.004-06:00

Massachusetts has done the unthinkable, sent a Republican to the United States Senate for the first time since the 1970's.

Senator-Elect Scott Brown (R-MA) <--- [love doing that now] won by a solid margin.

The ramifications to this are extraordinary. The Democrats no longer have 60 votes to pass healthcare reform. They are down to the House passing the Senate's version, which is a long shot, or Reconciliation with only 50 votes needed. But this option was there since August. The Democrats no that's against the rules to do.

To be clear tonight... Obamacare has just flatlined.

Why the "Jobless Recovery"?

2010-01-12T16:49:00.003-06:00

The answer doesn't require a couple master's degrees from Harvard or Yale. Heaven knows you can't listen to Turbo-Tax cheat Tim Geithner.

Just look back at the bailouts, stimulus-es, and free cash handouts over the past two years. In fall 2008 the Federal Government bailed out Wall Street. Around the new year '09 the feds bailed out big auto companies GM and Chrysler. In February 2009 money was handed out to irresponsible state governments and thrown to so called "shovel-ready" government infrastructure jobs. To top it off, another car stimulus over the summer with "Cash for Clunkers".

Meanwhile, President Obama and the Democrat leaders in Congress have been pushing major systematic transformations in healthcare, energy, and executive pay.

What economic picture does this paint? A very unstable one. Major institutions are being changed which will inevitably require more tax revenue, bankruptcy laws have been ignored, and there has been zero help for small business in America. These small businesses are the true backbone of the economy and engine of economic growth. They create three out of every four jobs. So why does it surprise anyone that in an environment where everyone is being bailed out except the small business, that small businesses aren't expanding or blossoming? Why the surprise when, in an environment where an already unstable economy is being transformed and rules of the road being rewritten, that small businesses don't take risks? Why dip your toe into the water when there's a hurricane coming? Why build a city in the middle of an earthquake? The one thing that's not being projected in Washington is a calm, stable future.

The simple way to get jobs created is to keep the rules the same. Stable economies produce jobs. If we need to give a stimulus, just allow businesses to have more of their money in order to improve, expand, and most importantly hire new workers.

For individuals and families who are hurting, another simple solution. Give them more of their money to keep, save, or most importantly spend to fuel other businesses that, at the same time, are receiving their "bailout".

This jolt to the system will begin to slowly turn the wheel of our job machine.

Wall Street got their bailout. Big Business got their stimulus. It's time small business got their shot in the arm. It's time American families get the tax relief they deserve, as well. Only then can a true recovery bloom, with the jobs to take us further into the 21st century.

The Elitism of David Brooks

2010-01-05T11:52:00.002-06:00

While it is not my custom to attack lowly Op-Ed writers or to attack members of my side of the political isle, I feel I must finally retort the assertions of the New York Time's token right-winger, David Brooks.

Mr. Brooks has long irked many in the conservative movement for being, well, not a conservative on pretty much any major policy discussion. His inclination is always to attack the right and say how it's damaging the GOP or America in general. He always pushes moderation when conservatives push core values. I would call Mr. Brooks a sell out, but that would imply he was ever a serious "conservative" thinker in the first place. To be blunt, Mr. Brooks is as he called Sarah Palin, a joke.

Let's take his most recent column as an example. The very title, "Tea Party Teens", should offend anyone who has attended or sympathizes with the Tea Party platform. Not to be denied, Brooks writes yet another article bashing the Tea Party, but this time he reveals his true beef with them.

He begins oddly with an almost justification for anti-washington sentiment...

The United States opens this decade in a sour mood. First, Americans are anxious about the future. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe the country is in decline, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey. Only 27 percent feel confident that their children’s generation will be better off than they are.
Second, Americans have lost faith in their institutions. During the great moments of social reform, at least 60 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing most of the time. Now, only a quarter have that kind of trust.
The country is evenly divided about President Obama, but state governments are in disrepute and confidence in Congress is at withering lows. As Frank Newport of the Gallup organization noted in his year-end wrap-up, “Americans have less faith in their elected representatives than ever before.”
Third, the new administration has not galvanized a popular majority. In almost every sphere of public opinion, Americans are moving away from the administration, not toward it. The Ipsos/McClatchy organizations have been asking voters which party can do the best job of handling a range of 13 different issues. During the first year of the Obama administration, the Republicans gained ground on all 13.

My translation, the "hope-ium" has worn off. We are more divided than ever. President Obama is pursuing policies that will damage our nation. Okay, blah blah blah. We've heard this before. What gets quite odd and offensive is the next part...

The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year.
The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise. The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them. The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting.
The story is the same in foreign affairs. The educated class is internationalist, so isolationist sentiment is now at an all-time high, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The educated class believes in multilateral action, so the number of Americans who believe we should “go our own way” has risen sharply.
A year ago, the Obama supporters were the passionate ones. Now the tea party brigades have all the intensity.

This harkens back to the famous beginning of Laura Ingraham's book "Shut up and Sing". It began with, "They think you're stupid". That's exactly what Mr. Brooks is saying. The only reason President Obama's policies are being opposed is because of a knee-jerk reaction against "the smart people". That predisposes anyone who substantively opposes the policy as an "anti-intellectual" the essence of elitism. The oh so smart and intellectual David Brooks will expose the ignorance of the anti-intellectuals and their stupid, redneck ways. This sounds eerily like a college professor talking to one of his young, naive students. Brooks even calls his critics "Teens" in the title of his piece.

What's even more comical is Brooks' attempt at defining the movement- keyword "amateur"...

The tea party movement is a large, fractious confederation of Americans who are defined by what they are against. They are against the concentrated power of the educated class. They believe big government, big business, big media and the affluent professionals are merging to form self-serving oligarchy — with bloated government, unsustainable deficits, high taxes and intrusive regulation.
The tea party movement is mostly famous for its flamboyant fringe. But it is now more popular than either major party. According to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 41 percent of Americans have a positive view of the tea party movement. Only 35 percent of Americans have a positive view of the Democrats and only 28 percent have a positive view of the Republican Party.
The movement is especially popular among independents. The Rasmussen organization asked independent voters whom they would support in a generic election between a Democrat, a Republican and a tea party candidate. The tea party candidate won, with 33 percent of independents. Undecided came in second with 30 percent. The Democrats came in third with 25 percent and the Republicans fourth with 12 percent.
Over the course of this year, the tea party movement will probably be transformed. Right now, it is an amateurish movement with mediocre leadership. But several bright and polished politicians, like Marco Rubio of Florida and Gary Johnson of New Mexico, are unofficially competing to become its de facto leader. If they succeed, their movement is likely to outgrow its crude beginnings and become a major force in American politics. After all, it represents arguments that are deeply rooted in American history.

I assume Mr. Brooks sees this movement as a threat to his "smart" friends. I also assume that Brooks subscribes to the "tyranny of the experts" in policy making. The small, smart, intellectual elite should make the policy for the large, stupid, misinformed populous. And he wonders why populist movements are sprouting in America? People don't like being told they're dumb, or childish. They don't take to well to people who would transform our system of government into something that's run by todays royalty, experts and intellectuals. This is, after all the classic liberal model, they can live your life better than you can, because you're the dumb, neanderthal who needs a master to keep you on the right track.

I have some news for David Brooks, this country is of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, and for the PEOPLE. Every person, no matter how smart or stupid, informed or misinformed, intellectual or proctor of common sense.

David Brooks is not evil, and he's not a naive teen as he paints his opponents, he's just wrong. Mr. Brooks is simply a misguided elitist who needs to get in touch with the American people again.

The Obama Presidency-One Year In

2009-12-31T07:00:00.002-06:00

My fellow Americans:

This address could and should be the equivalent to a convention speech. I am not a politician, I’m not part of a party, and I’m not running for anything - I’m too young.

I come to you at the early years of a Presidency yet at a turning point of our nation’s collective soul.

On January 20^th of 2009 America made history by electing the first black President of the United States. This moment was historic… for the 20^th of January only. I have and will continue to judge this man, Barack Obama on the content of his character, not the color of his skin or the historic nature of his election.

The content of his governance over the past year has been nothing short of lackluster. His economic recovery plans have, by his own measure, failed. His laughable diplomatic efforts threaten our standing as the leader of the free world. Today I ask what another man asked at a similar point, are you better off than you were one year ago?

I assume the answer to be no. And if the President wants to know why we believe this, let me take him to school. However, this time he won’t be able to grade himself.

After voting, as a Senator to bail out big businesses, and backing the bailout of America’s auto industry, the President began his term as President with an executive order about 24 hours in. He would close the Military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by that time the next year. In that year however, his administration has had nothing short of a heck of a time finding a state in this great country to take the most dangerous people on planet Earth. Was he shocked by the fact that the American people don’t want terrorists down the street? Is he shocked to find that Americans oppose giving the rights we hold as law abiding U.S. citizens, to non-U.S. enemy combatants bent on our very destruction?

On the last point, he either didn’t know or didn’t care. During this year his Attorney General announced their master plan for prosecuting the mastermind of an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. Barack Obama’s justice department will try Khalid Sheik Muhammad in lower Manhattan, just blocks from the very towers he helped bring down, in a city where his attack butchered over 2700 people. If this sick irony is supposed to comfort the people who lost loved ones, this White House needs a new moral compass.

The truth is that decision as well as the closure of Guantanamo Bay is as reckless and irresponsible as anything in the war on terror to date-if that’s what we call it anymore. It is not right legally or morally to grant non-U.S. citizens, American rights.

As to our defense overseas, Iran continues on an unobstructed path toward nuclear weapons. However, this year the administration was given a gift on this front. The June reelection of their President sparked massive protests because of their elections being rigged in favor of the incumbent. As the protests grew, the more violent the government treated the protesters. As men, women and children were being cracked down upon for practicing their inherent human rights, this President said nothing. An innocent woman known as “Neda” is murdered on camera and President Obama can only blame both sides for the conflict’s escalation. For a man who leads the free world, he was buying ice bream in Northern Virginia when oppressed people needed an advocate. It took nearly 8 days for our President to condemn the obviously cruel actions by the Iranian government.

While we’re on the topic of overseas relations, this President spent more time in the air and overseas than any other President in his first year. I guess we can excuse his jet setting and own environmental hypocrisy if he came away with anything from all of the conferences, summits, and trips.

Twice he went to Copenhagen in order to achieve lofty goals. But, he failed to win his hometown the 2016 Olympics and failed to get India and China to agree to hamstring their economies along with our own on climate change.

His famous apology tour took him to Europe, where he got a smattering of troops for the war in Afghanistan and a whole one Guantanamo detainee. To the Middle East, where his efforts provided the United States with more foiled attacks by that part of the world, and Israel with a continued barrage of rockets into their country.

He also flew to Russia, where he promptly stabbed our allies Poland and the Czech Republic in the back when he gave up the much needed missile defense that would’ve been housed in those brave nations. For this dramatic change of policy, the United States received nothing and demanded nothing in return from the Putin/Medvedev regime.

On the topic of allies, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahou was left to his own country’s defense at the United Nations. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was snubbed by the White House and given unusable DVD’s as an official gift.

These events would be comical if they weren’t so detrimental to our country.

I would be remise, however, if I didn’t mention the Commander in Chief’s decision to send much needed reinforcements to America’s war in Afghanistan. What he didn’t realize is the commanding general he put in charge in that country Gen. Stanly McChrystal had deemed time to be of the essence in our efforts and if we didn’t act in 12 months we would lose. The President promptly spent one fourth of that time pondering a decision that should have been right in front of him all along. In the end, he will send up to the 40,000 troops the General asked for, but on a strict timetable, which is another piece of lunacy. Did General Eisenhower have a timetable after D-Day? Did Grant? Or Washington? No, because wars end not when the President’s political capital runs out, it’s when the troops win the war and achieve the goals they were sent on their mission to achieve. We can only hope the timetable is only a political stalling measure, designed to fool his left wing base.

Domestically this President is fond of boasting about the sour economy he inherited from George W. Bush. That excuse may have been viable early on, but not anymore. After one year, the economy is worse off than last year. Unemployment last year was 7%. Now it is 10%. Big business may be back, but small business isn’t and that’s the backbone of this economy. The day the President owned this situation is the day he waited 3 days in a self-titled “crisis” to sign the stimulus bill. Many claimed this bill was only about one thing, a three-letter word as Vice President Biden put it, J-O-B-S, jobs. After assuring us that “nobody messes with Joe” the President essentially placed 787 Billion dollars in the Vice President’s lap. The result? He promised the unemployment rate wouldn’t go above 8%. It peaked at 10.2%. Money was shown to have gone to over 1000 congressional districts, even though there are only 435 of them. It seemed the type of jobs were akin to paying one man to dig a hole, and paying another man to fill in back up. It prompted many to ask, where are the jobs? Good question. We still don’t know. Maybe they fell in the new and completely make believe category for “saved jobs”.

Good news erupted though, when, after the House passed a Cap and Trade tax, the measure fell on deaf ears. Even so, the Environmental Protection Agency deemed the very substance we breathe out of our bodies as pollution.

But the reason energy taxes were put on the back burner was because the American people were to busy trying to read up on healthcare. We had a lot of reading all right. Each bill from the House and Senate seemed to grow larger and larger. 1000 page legislation began to look small as each attempt to put the government’s hands further on American’s healthcare grew bigger, bad-er, and more bogus. Senators and Congressman openly saw reading the bill to be an unnecessary task. While, at the same time badgering those who only ask that the bills be read openly on the floor once. After Nancy Pelosi jammed it through the House by five votes, the Senate lowered itself to out and out legalized bribery to pass their bill. Any Senator that had a loud objection to the final product was given a payoff, a kickback, or another personal incentive to vote in favor of this legislation. In the process we also saw the spine of so called moderate Senators. The truth is, they have no spine at all.

And even as we end 2009, the President will not have a healthcare bill on his desk until at least late January of next year. So what will be the lasting legacy domestically in 2009 for President Obama? Deficits. While the President still claims he inherited that too, the truth is he took a 1 trillion dollar deficit and multiplied it by four. He plopped more money on our national debt to the point that the federal government is in danger of losing its AAA bond rating. He’s printing money so fast that the world community he panders too is openly discussing moving to another currency and away from the dollar as its standard. All of this happens amid the President’s call for fiscal responsibility in 2010. Pardon us if we ask where you’ve been for the past 12 months Mr. President? Pardon us if we question the audacity of Barack Obama. We know he had it in his book, but this nerve is almost jaw dropping. Message to President Obama in 2010: “You’ve run out of our money”.

What a record for 12 months? How sad is it that we have to go through three more years of this. Well, we may not have to. Slowly but surely the American people are waking up. The President’s approval rating has plummeted from near 70% to the mid 40’s-in one year. Tea Party protests have become widespread. There are elections for Congress in November of 2010, and of course the President’s reelection in 2012. We must collectively make our voices clear on these occasions, because that is the only way we can make a difference. We need to tell the President, we don’t need him to be audacious, we need him to be right.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless America.

Terror Year, Terror Decade...

2009-12-27T23:02:00.004-06:00

Instead of doing a year in review - or a decade in review - I would like to focus on the unquestioned number one story of the decade: Terrorism-and how we can prevent the next decade from being engrossed in it.

------------------------------------------------------------------

In reading the “year in review” articles from around the media and blogosphere, I came upon a trend that may be shocking when put all together in a list: Joe Biden was right… in some ways.

Biden predicted that the world would test the new President. We conservatives took that as proof Obama was weak on foreign policy, but during this year it wasn’t a world crisis that faced Obama, it was terrorism right here on American soil.

For all of Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano’s edicts early on in the year about “right wing extremists”, it was REAL terrorists that tried time and time again to attack and kill Americans this year.

(From a Time Mag article)

• In January, Bryant Neal Vinas, a Long Island convert to Islam, plead guilty to helping al-Qaeda in a plot to blow up a train in Penn Station.

• Late in 2008, Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali-American college student from Minneapolis, became the first American suicide bomber on record when he killed 29 people in an attack in Somalia. Earlier in the year, the FBI had revealed that at least 20 Somali-Americans from the Minneapolis area had traveled to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, a radical militia tied to al-Qaeda. Five Somali-Americans are believed to have died in fighting there this year, and Somali officials say at least one more unnamed American citizen has become a suicide bomber on behalf of al-Shabab.

• In June, Abdulhakim Muhammed, an Arkansas convert to Islam, was accused of killing one soldier and wounding another in an attack at a military recruitment center in Little Rock.

• In September, an Illinois man, Michael Finton, who converted to Islam in prison, was accused of trying to blow up a Federal building in Springfield.

• In October, David Coleman Headley, a Chicago businessman, was arrested for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper that had published controversial cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammed. (Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian resident of Chicago was also arrested in connection with the same plot.) Headley was later additionally charged with abetting the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 2008.

• In November, Maj. Nidal Hasan, the son of Palestinian immigrants who had grown up in the U.S., was accused of going on a shooting spree at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 30.

• Also in November, eight Somali-American men from Minnesota were charged with terrorism-related counts involving al-Shabaab. Six other had been charged previously. Most of the men were charged in absentia because they remain in Somalia, along with dozens of Somali-Americans who are believed to have joined the Qaeda-linked militia.

• And earlier this month, five men from the Washington, D.C., area were detained in Pakistan, where local officials say they had been trying to join the fight against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Ramy Zamzam, said to be the leader of the group, is a Howard University dental student; two others are sons of businessmen.

• Some other cases involve legal residents who are not U.S. citizens, such as Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan suspect arrested in Denver and charged with a plot to bomb targets in New York, and Jordanian Hosam Smadi, arrested in Dallas, accused of trying blow up a skyscraper.

And then on Christmas Day, another attempted attack on an airliner from Amsterdam to Detroit. Thankfully the attack failed due to the incompetence of the terrorist and the courage of the passengers.

This caps off a decade that redefined the word terrorism, and finally tasked us with substantively fighting it for the first time.

However, it seems over the past year and the post 9-11 decade that terrorists connected or homegrown will find any weakness and exploit any good will Americans have. They can recruit in ever evolving ways to evade our security. They will discover new and more devious ways of killing themselves and other that will be harder and harder to catch. They’ll continue to set up camps to train others that will be in more remote or more radical countries. Tighter security isn’t the ultimate answer. The shoe bomber forced all of us to take our shoes off after 2002. So the revelation that the Detroit plane bomber had explosive underwear beckons me to draw a line in the proverbial anti-terror sand. Fighting war after war, building up pre-industrial nation after nation is not the end game. So are we damned to a never-ending game of cat and mouse, murder and retaliation for decades to come?

----------------------------------------------

How do we win, then? While it’s an inevitability that this war on terror will last decades, we’d hope it could be tamped down in the second decade of the fight. Here’s my hypothesis… and I’ll warn you, it will be very philosophical.

As a stated by many others, even calling the fight a war on “terrorism” isn’t accurate, but I’ll use it out of consistency and to make a point. There is a point to be found in the announcement of a “war” on a tactic. That’s how we fought it for 7 ½ years and even more so today. Hence the “we catch a shoe bomber, everyone take off your shoes” mentality. Even more broadly the “If there’s a terrorist in your country we’ll invade” mentality. Not to say that we should do away with either because in the short term they do accomplish goals. The issue is they don’t end the conflict.

They way to end this war, after changing your own mindset, is to change the targets of radicalization. The truth is there are limited amounts of committed recruiters to the radical form of Islam but a large population of possible converts. It’s easy to deal with the committed people at the top, they must be killed or captured, period. But to prevent a generational conversion and thus a generational conflict is to fight on the same battlefield as the radicals, the mind.

There is an ideology that, regardless of your religion, one can latch onto and favor: freedom…Freedom to be a Muslim, or Jew, or Christian, or an atheist, freedom to wear a Hijab (headscarf) or not, etc. That underlying assertion, freedom, should convert into democratic governments and an overall more tolerant populace. This would give them the power to reject the arm of radicalism and/or throw off a ruling radical tyrant. All of this could lead up to a world in which American troops don’t have to defend against terror, we don’t have to keep them on the run. It will be second nature to everyone to resist tyranny physically or psychologically. This would make the few radicals left without recruits and without a base of support. That is where the war ends.

Now don’t get me wrong, a process like this could take years of commitment from multiple American and world leaders, but it would ensure that the next generation of the Muslim world doesn’t end up as bait for Osama bin Laden’s acolytes.

Also, don’t assume I’m imposing my will on anybody. I’m not advocating a forced move, just a support, on our side, of freedom loving people around the world. Showing even token support furthers the notion that opting for freedom is better than the alternative.

Muslim-American groups should also embrace this effort. If there is as they say, no radical elements in the Koran, it should be a simple transition in mindset for both Muslim and non-Muslim.

The simple reality is this is an ideological struggle that has manifested itself into a physical war because of the mental radicalization that has happened over the past centuries. To push back, we must not allow the ideological battlefield to remain a home to radicalism. We’ve got to fight the ideological war with greater intensity than the physical one. Only then can we see a real light at the end of the tunnel. Then we can see an end to terrorism-the tactic, and the ideology.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T10:43:00.003-06:00

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!!!

To commemorate the day... I'll link my Christmas show from last year... just a quick 15 minute thoughts and reflection show.

The Review: Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

2009-12-14T00:00:00.001-06:00

From the start, I was impressed by the structure of the book. The subtitle “An American Life”, wasn’t a cliché. The book literally goes through her life.

While the first chapter was interesting, it really read like a cutesy, stories from one’s childhood kind of memoir. No offense to Palin, I was just waiting for the meat.

Things began to pick up the subsequent chapters. It began to read like a political drama turned real, which I enjoyed. I got the sense that she was, from the beginning, taking a common sense approach to politics. She didn’t care about the intangibles or the spin. She was attacked and dumped on routinely by everyone all the time. Yet, when her name was on the ballot, the people were always her vindication.

Once I got to the campaign chapter, my first impression, which stayed with me throughout the chapter, was this: if the McCain Campaign was this disorganized, backstabbing, petty, and all around horrendous… how would a McCain Administration fair? At every turn, the campaign treated her like a novelty that they could wind up, feed with talking points and let her go. They obviously knew facts and dirt on her, but they never figured out how dynamic she was and what an asset they had. The picture that was painted by the media of this low-life, Alaska bimbo wasn’t all the media’s fault. It seemed the McCain people believed that very notion from the beginning and they treated her as such. The people most exposed as negatives in the campaign were Steve Schmidt, and the elusive “headquarters” that Palin spoke of. The positives in her eyes were the people close to her (aka, the people that KNEW her), and Senator McCain himself. By all accounts, McCain was a fantastic person who simply put his campaign’s trust in the wrong people, mainly Schmidt.

As I waded into the fifth chapter I was skeptical of Rush Limbaugh’s assertion that Palin’s book was a great policy read. No offence, but that’s one thing I didn’t see as of yet. However, chapter five provided not only the justification for her resignation, but some great personal stories that dovetailed into broad economic policy points of less government and individual freedom. I also finally understood her resignation. I rationalized like this- no matter what Sarah Palin did the media would dump on her. A normal person would want to take their ball and go sit in a hole. But I’m sure if Palin did that, the media would criticize the location and depth of the hole. She couldn’t win. So she eluded the Alinsky tactics and is making a bigger impact outside the Governor’s mansion. Not to mention her name isn’t holding the state’s agenda back anymore. When you read into it, the resignation was a win-win.

The policy portions of the 5^th chapter became a symphony in the 6^th. Palin’s “way forward” included what she officially dubbed “Commonsense Conservatism”. Personally, I much prefer that to being a Bush “Compassionate Conservative”. She artfully and swiftly tore into President Obama’s policies and explained core planks of Commonsense Conservatism. This chapter was the shortest of them all, but it packed a lot in.

Overall, I saw this book as Palin’s re-coming out and reintroduction to the American people. She needed to do this because her first intro was bungled by a bunch of elite campaign buffoons. Now, if she wants to make a run at the White House, she’s got to write another book that’s all policy. She’s laid out a philosophy, but now she must apply Commonsense Conservatism to common problems.

Finally, let me say that I am not now, or ever was, a Palin lover (or “Palinista”). I liked her choice as John McCain’s VP. I also liked Mitt Romney in the 2008 primaries and might go for him again in 2012. But the more I hear and read about Sarah Palin, minus the McCain campaign, the more I like her. If she becomes viable by 2011, she will be high on my list of possible endorsements.

(BTW--- I noticed in her acknowledgments she thanks "2012 Draft Sarah Committee"...HMMMM!!!)

My Conversation with Sarah Palin

2009-12-06T10:21:00.015-06:00

After waiting over 13 hours in line, I got to meet Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at the Fairfax BJ's bulk food store.

After shaking hands with the Governor's husband Todd, I shook hands and spoke briefly with Gov. Palin.

We had about a ten second conversation--- here's a transcript...

Me: Nice to see you Governor.
Palin: Thanks, what's your name?
Me: Curtis Kalin, it's like your name, but with a K.
Palin: Good! You going to school?
Me: Yes, George Mason University.
Palin: What are you studying?
Me: Government.
Palin: Great!!! We need more the good guys guys out there. Thanks for coming out.
Me: Thank you, keep fighting.
Palin: I will.

At times the snow and bitter cold would make me think, "Why am I doing this?" But after that moment, I knew my time was worth it. Gotta say, it was pretty cool.

-My Twitter feed had many tweets from the signing throughout the night and morning.

I'll try to find videos and news reports of the event. I'll link them below when I find them...

- Book signing in the Washington Post... (video in article)

-Greta has 5 pics,--- I'm in the last pic (5 of 5)

- redvirginiarailroad has massive coverage-pics and vids

-So does NoVa Tea Party Patriots.

-Liberty's Lamp coverage.

- CNN, too.

-ABC 7's coverage.

-WUSA 9, as well.

There's a Czar for That!!!

2009-11-29T14:47:00.002-06:00

Obama White House Czars = Apple ipod apps...

Thanks to Dana Loesch for linking to it!!!

Thoughts on Sarah Palin

2009-11-17T15:48:00.003-06:00

Here are some of my thoughts just jotted down so I'm on record in regard to Sarah Palin...

-I like Sarah Palin. I like her story. I like her personality. I like her policies. And, let's face it, I love that she's drop dead gorgeous.

-I'll read her book in the coming weeks and will do a review on it.

-I liked her choice as VP. But, above all I believe she is both the brightest star and the most misunderstood politician in America.

-As for her Presidential prospects, she's sure sounding like a candidate. I won't endorse her until the race begins, or at all.

-I find it abhorrent that so called conservatives like David Brookes can call Palin a "joke" when she is the only member of the GOP that has made a bigger impact against the President. Her two words, "Death Panels" reformed the debate on healthcare... from Facebook.

-If Barack Obama was the liberal rock-star, Palin is ours. She has equal, if not more experience than Pres. Obama had when he announced his candidacy for President. Why count her out?

-I think the American people want a person that is real, has common sense, and doesn't BS them. Sarah Palin is that person. I wish her luck.

Piece About Gateway Patriot in "Amp For Teens"

2009-11-11T17:29:00.002-06:00

I was truly honored and awed by the article about me hear. Ms. Hanna Lawson did a great job...

Curtis Kalin is an opinionated nineteen year old who isn’t afraid to share his thoughts with the world. Although he’s currently a college student, Kalin grew up in Ballwin, Missouri. He publishes his own conservative blog, Gateway Patriot, which led to his YouTube channel, twitter, and his internet radio host on Blog Talk Radio. Kalin started out by developing a blog on the internet and received enough recognition to appear on St. Louis radio and speak at the July 4th St. Louis Tea Party. Needless to say, he’s been successful in speaking his mind on political issues. Who would have thought a teen’s opinion could hold so much weight? ...

(Continued at Amp For Teens website)

Still doing good at college and be sure to follow me on twitter for more up to date thoughts!!!

A Crisis of Leadership

2009-10-08T16:33:00.002-05:00

I am no commander. What I know about Afghanistan is what I need to know about Afghanistan. A large majority of Americans are in the same quandary. We can’t intelligently argue about something we know so little about.

However, one thing I do know a little about is human nature, we all do. A piece I read today out of the Times of London isn’t another war report, it’s a morale assessment. It wasn’t about the policy, the strategy, or the number of forces. It’s about the people themselves - the people who defend us and are wiling to die for us.

When you hear our soldiers saying things like “I don’t know why I’m here,” or “We’re lost,” or “the country is going to S***,” you’re legitimately fearful. Forgetting why we’re there, why the situation is bad now, or anything else, when you hear stuff like that you know there’s something wrong.

What I believe the troops lack right now could be blamed on themselves, their commanders, the secretaries at the Pentagon. But overall the buck stops with their commander in chief. The President needs to be a leader now more than ever. At the very least give these people a strategy, some goals, some reason for their sacrifice because right now they don’t have one.

You can lose a hill, a battle, even an entire conflict, but it’s when you lose the hearts and minds of the men and women on the battlefield that you’ve really lost.

To President Obama: if you don’t think the troops can do what is necessary to win-bring them home. If the politics preclude you from continuing this war-bring them home. If you’re only interested in counter-terrorism- order them to do that and take them off the frontlines. However, if you think the troops are able, if this nation must protect itself from another 9-11, and if you think the country has the stomach for it (polls say it does), then you need to order these folks to fight and win. I will be right behind you if you do.

My general principle: when you fight a war, you fight it with everything it takes and win as fast as possible. But if at any time in the middle you decide otherwise you bring them home. It’s immoral to fight any other way. Mr. President, our troops want to you to lead them, so make a decision.

Obamatopia

2009-09-25T15:09:00.005-05:00

It is high time someone calls out Barack Obama not on his policies, not on his ideas, but on his leadership.

This man does not act like a leader, he doesn’t speak like a leader, so why did he want to be one? His speech at the United Nations personifies this fact.

He began his speech by declaring HIS honor of speaking to the UN for HIS first time as President. Let me list some of the over 30 times he used himself in pronoun…

“I have been…”
“I took office…”
“I believe…”
“I am well aware…”
“I will…”
“I carried this message…”
“I prohibited…”
“I ordered…”
“I’ve made it clear…”
“I have outlined…”
“I appointed…”
“I’ve said before, I’ll repeat…”
“I will not waver…”

So as you can see, he talks about himself…a lot. Then came this video by Congressman Tom Price about the President’s difference between the campaign and the job (or lack thereof)…

There are numerous other examples of this narcissism. However it leads all to one conclusion, one I’ve seen since he was a candidate, Barack Obama wants to be celebrity. He wants attention (good of course). You can tell that he was the oddball kid and the “different” kid and young man. He was probably not given much of anything close to attention of gratitude. He’s the geek who has all of a sudden become the BMOC.

My message is “Mr. President, don’t let that title go to your head.” But it’s obvious it already has.

When you go to the UN and represent the over 300 million Americans that live here, the word “I” should almost never come up. You say “The United States believes…”, “The United States has made it clear…”. I don’t know where he gets off taking credit for this country.

Barack Obama, I contend is using the Presidency to further inflate his stardom and consequently, his ego. The American Executive is only a means to an end. I sought the highest exposure job he could get. What a shock then when we’ve gone less than ten days without seeing him since January 20!

The Presidency is not a reality show. The White House is not YOUR home. Nor, was it President Bush’s, or any other Commander in Chief. That title of “President” before your name isn’t a status symbol. It’s not just another sure-fire way to get on TMZ.

If I may, “the time for games has past…” This is the big league. This time, your charm won’t save you. Your rhetorical ability won’t help you. All you’ve got is your gut, your core instinct, and your experiences.

After over seven months I say to you again… the campaign is over Mr. Obama. Now you ARE the leader, you ARE the representative. You didn’t sign a four-season contract on a game show, you’ve got a four year mandate as the leader of the free world. For the sake of us all, I hope it’s just your four years of fame.

Look Who's Coming to Class...

2009-09-03T16:36:00.002-05:00

In May I graduated from my public High School in St. Louis, MO. It was the most exiting and prideful event of my life. Little did I know I got out just in time.

On September 8 a visitor will greet the public school students of America over their TV screens. President Barack Obama will speak to my former comrades. I would hope the President could use his high office and the historic nature of his tenure to hit home some broad, well agreed upon tips and encouragement to our kids. Don’t do drugs, stay in school, don’t drink alcohol under age, and anyone in America can make it if they work hard.

That would be nice. However, President Obama’s Education department is trying to make this an exercise, not a special message. In the now deleted report, the administration is said to encourage teachers to participate in activities that will encourage them to “help the President”. Not help the country, not help our fellow citizens, help HIM!!!

Now I’m sure he’s not stupid enough to make a public push for government healthcare directly to America’s youth, but the mere pre and post speech activities leave members of the National Education Association, of which all public teachers belong and which is the backbone of the President’s party, alone in the classroom with some very ambiguous instructions on how to instruct kids to “help the President”.

This opens the door to liberal teachers (most are) having the excuse to gently or aggressively tap into the universal liberal ideal of “organizing a community”. But this community is America’s children. The very lives that are the easiest to mold and yield at least two votes each.

I encourage each of you to either go to school with your child on September 8, keep them home, or if your kid insists, or ask him/her to bring a digital recording device so that if the teacher gets out of line, you’ll hear about it and publically expose them.

If that’s not enough, I would like you to go to www.hallpassonthat.com. My good Tea-Party friend Dana Loesch has set this up to be a conduit through which we can oppose this open book youthful community organizing in schools we pay for. As the site’s motto says… “Parents, not the President, determine what you learn”.

The College Hiatus

2009-08-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Since I'll be off to college soon, I wanted to let the readers know that my blog posts will slow down. With studying and whatnot, I'll have less time to do long form blog posts and analysis. I'll still do that, just not as often. Because of this fact, plus my impulse to not want to lose contact with such great and loyal readers, I'll be remaining full time on Twitter. So I'll often give short bits and pieces and give my point of view quicker.

Another casualty of going off to college is my radio show. I've had 50 great shows since last November. It's been great, but I can't host a quality show weekly when I'm at college.

Even though I'm not quitting, (just slowing down) I feel the need to share with my fantastic readers my thoughts...

I began blogging in 2006 having no idea how to do pretty much anything. I just sat sown and ranted on the keyboard and hoped people would find it. Later in 2008 I joined other mediums like Youtube, Blog Talk Radio, Twitter, and many other. Again, It was a hobby for me, not meant to do much more than amuse myself and vent.

What it turned into however, was something I could have never expected. Over a thousand followers on Twitter, hundreds of hits on Youtube videos and the blogs. I appeared on a city-wide radio show, twice. My biggest honor was my speaking role at the July 4th Tea Party in Washington, MO. To think that some kid with a keyboard and an opinion could hit a climax of speaking to over 3,000 people and being given a standing ovation? Young people started blogs because of me. It was unbelievable.

Now I do what most good conservatives should do: get an education, a job, and make money!!! But not before I thank you all for your hardy support, gratitude, and encouragement over the past year. I did more than fulfill a hobby, I made a difference... and I have you to thank for it.

My hope and prayer is that I can do the same in my career (hopefully in Washington DC).

So, keep watching the blog for the same commentary on politics... but especially watch Twitter (join too) and follow my shorter pithier reactions to the days current events.

God Bless you all, and God Bless America!!!

Real Myths

2009-08-25T15:21:00.004-05:00

Here are the most annoying myths propagated by President Obama in the debate over healthcare reform:

---"My plan says......"--- uhhh, Mr. President, you don't have a plan, the Senate and House have ones. Obama never delineates between his ideas on reform and the pure facts in the legislation. If he was like Hillary Clinton in 1993, he could make those statements because he would have wrote a plan. In reality, it's dishonest for him to say anything about "his" plan until he either drafts one, or has it on his desk.

--- "'My' plan is about competition... there isn't any now"--- The notion that a private market which includes over 1,300 competitors isn't competitive enough is laughable. Also laughable is the idea that another competitor that operates like the umpires on a baseball diamond, while participating in the game isn't creating a better market, it's destroying it. The real problem is that the market is chopped off into 50 small markets that discourage competition. We need to allow insurance selling across state lines. That is how you spur more competition.

---"We must stop the discrimination of people with preexisting conditions..."--- This might be unpopular to defend, but let me explain... should you be allowed to buy life insurance when you have a terminal illness? Can you get car insurance after you total your car? No. The reason why is that the very point of insurance is a risk pool where the prices go up and down based on the risk on the whole pool. If you ban the "discrimination" of preexisting conditions, you end up dramatically increasing the risk in those pools. That in turn makes the price skyrocket for everyone.

---"My plan won't cover illegal immigrants..."--- Well, the House bill expressively covers them and they are always included in the "47 million" that don't have coverage. They don't deserve health insurance because they aren't citizens. Emergency care yes, anything else, no.

---"We can't allow 47 million Americans to be without health insurance... it'll break the budget..."--- First, the real number of Americans who are Americans and are simply too poor for health insurance is about 10-15 million. Two, the line that the budget will bust if we do nothing on healthcare was exactly what President Clinton said in 1994. We were coming out of economic hardship and he claimed we would never grow unless we reformed healthcare. That's funny because it's the very Democrats that now take credit for the 90's/Clinton boom, when it undermined his own argument for reform of healthcare. We can do a number of things to positively reform healthcare but simply put: it's not a "crisis".

One more...

---"There are no 'death panels' in the bill"--- First I'd like to once again congratulate Sarah Palin for totally changing the debate on healthcare from Facebook. She once again lured the left into a trap of linguistics. But to the point, Palin's quote of "death panels" was never a statement of fact in any congressional bill. It was a metaphor for what would inevadably uldhappen under a public plan turned single payer. The government will have to ration care and it's safe for Gov. Palin to assume that a special needs baby or an elderly person would be near the top of the cost cutting. So, no, there isn't a death panel "in the bill"-nobody believed that anyway- Palin just extrapolated down the road a bit to the looming panel that very well might sentence "non cost effective" members of society to death.

So let's keep spreading the real facts and bust the real myths...

Not So Fast To Reconcile...

2009-08-19T17:19:00.004-05:00

The New York Times, and a few senators (Chuck Schumer, most notably) have hinted that the healthcare overhaul's divisiveness to their party can be "reconciled" with an arcane Senatorial procedure known as reconciliation. This was usually invoked to prevent the minority from filibustering budget bills. This takes out the 60 vote requirement for cutting off Senate debate and thus, voting and passing bills. Since the Democrats have exactly 60 votes, they need every member to vote with them. Problem: Many red-state members of the party aren't too keen on the public plan or Canada-style healthcare. If the Democrats pass a bill under this system, they only need 50 votes (plus Biden in a 50-50 tie) to pass a socialization of one sixth of the U.S. economy.

But before you lose sleep over this, it's a long shot that this will even happen for a few reasons:

-One: The chair (who would be a democrat) would have to agree that this healthcare overhaul is a budgetary piece of legislation, which it isn't. More than likely it will end there with the parliamentarian ruling that motion out of order.

However, if the chair commits this malpractice and allows this...

-Two: Being a CSPAN geek, I've heard of a simple way for the GOP to make a point after such a motion. This takes a little bit to explain...

Every thing that happens in the Senate: motions, votes, referrals, resolutions, reading aloud the bills, etc. is done with what's called "unanimous consent". A Senator would ask unanimous consent to do _____. Usually no one says anything and the Senate's business moves along at a steady pace. However, if the Democrats try to ram through a bill like this, just one republican can de-rail the business of the Senate. He/she must object. After an objection to unanimous consent, it will force a roll call vote in which all 100 senators must come to the chamber and vote on whether to move forward. Now a roll call takes at least an hour or more.

The GOP could also force the issue by demanding that all bills be read aloud. This is customary procedure but usually after the first paragraph, a member asks unanimous consent to skip reading the bill. The GOP can object, forcing the Senate clerk to read the entire 1000+ pages aloud. This could take days, or weeks. It would get the country's attention and shine a spotlight on the reconciliation misuse.

So don't fret, either we keep fighting on the bill or we have perhaps the greatest political theater in a generation.

The Taliban Electoral College...

2009-08-08T14:00:00.001-05:00

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Real Healthcare Reform Explained

2009-08-04T19:19:00.003-05:00

One sixth of the American economy is spent healthcare costs. So reforming this industry seems important. We've gotten some extra time to talk it out with our representatives this month, so let me run down, in comprehensive form, how I see healthcare in America.

What seems to be at issue in this debate are a few things: cost, access, and quality of care.

So, for cost I’ve already cited the over 16% of our GDP spent for healthcare. Furthermore, we hear repeatedly that costs our “skyrocketing” and “out of control”. The sides of the debate see this dilemma very differently.

President Obama and his Democrat allies in the Congress say that costs are up due to the people’s irresponsibility and the insurance company’s price gouging and lust for profit.

The Democrat’s bills attempt to solve this problem using that methodology. They would institute a “public option” or a government run health plan for those who are uninsured. They contend that if the government, who doesn’t need to make a profit, is competing along with the profit driven providers, then it’ll force the private insurers to allow for more coverage and less cost.

There are many problems with this. The line by the left that we need more competition in the healthcare market is absurd. There are over 1,3oo insurance providers in the U.S. competing right now. However, this new competitor in the arena will change the game completely and forever. Let’s take a situation from sports to make the point…

Let’s say the Major League Baseball all of a sudden determined that there wasn’t enough parity or competition in the league. So they would create a 32^nd team that would compete along side the other “winning driven” teams. The team would be named the MLB Umpires. What’s more, this new team will be allowed to officiate the very game they’re playing in and get to call the balls and strikes, out or safe, fair or foul in every game. Who would win the World Series under this scenario? It’s pretty obvious.

The same goes for the healthcare market. The Federal Government will make laws they don’t have to abide by, plus make zero money. Their competitors in the market will, though. So in short order the public plan will annually “win” in the market place due to their having an inherent tactical advantage over their free market counterparts. By the way, the market consequence for a provider “losing” is going out of business, forever. What remains will only be the public plan. That’s that single payer healthcare system many have talked about. Canada, Britain, Germany, and other European systems are identical.

So how does one keep cost down in a system where care is “free”? Well, insurance is free financially, but the cost must be paid somewhere. Our sacrifice will be quality and access. Like every government bureau in the country, there’s no incentive to be nice or polite. There’s no other alternative. Another pesky way to keep cost down is to isolate where the most cost comes from in one’s life and minimize it. The answer there is at the end of your life. The only way to minimize cost at the end of life is to simply deny it. “You’ve had a nice life, but your not cost effective anymore”. The President has already said folks should strongly consider hospice care over a life saving treatment. That would be a sure fire way to reduce cost.

Instead of the individual making this choice at the end of life, this plan states that that decision is made usually be a group or board of bureaucrats from the medical and government systems. They determine which treatments are cost effective and when. A horror story in Britain is regarding a disease of the eye called macular degeneration. Under Britain’s rationing body NICE, the drug to treat this condition was only allowed to be prescribed once you lost sight in one eye. Britain is also notorious for having a shortage of dentists. This would be true of most medical areas because the doctors pay would be set by the government and to minimize cost, it would almost always take a cut.

The results of a single payer plan would affect access as well, and not for the better. Assuming the number of doctors doesn’t drop off sharply when their pay is cut, how can we add the entire population of the United States and not add a single doctor or specialist to offset the increased demand? What happens then is you simply have to wait for them. Waiting lists are weeks, months, even years in Canada and Great Britain for simple procedures or a family doctor. That is just what happens when there’s a monopoly in the marketplace.

I didn’t even have to mention access and quality in separate sections because it’s all related to cost saving.

If this sounds barbaric and insane to you, you’re not alone. This is why conservatives have objections to the plans of President Obama and Congress. We’re not trying to scare you, we’re just telling you the future of America under his plan. To most it is scary.

We conservatives tend to believe that the health insurance marketplace is anything but. Our health insurance is unlike every other kind of insurance in two ways: One, it’s tied to one’s job, and two, it covers EVERYTHING, no matter the size.

If you had grocery insurance in the same fashion, you would never look for sales. You would never settle for a less expensive option. You would go big and spend big all the time because you’re not paying. On the same foot, the food producers would have no incentive to lower the price of products because no one knows the price anyway. If the consumer doesn’t care about the price, neither does the producer. That’s why cost is out of control. Nobody knows what they’re spending. And why should they, they’re not paying for it.

Maybe we should have the kind of insurance on our body like the insurance on our home or car. A totaled car or a flooded room is covered, but an oil change and a light bulb replacement is not. This would reveal the true price of the most common health needs. It would force one doctor’s price to be seen along with another’s. This new freedom would spawn consumer websites for health choices for those who aren’t familiar with the ins and outs. It puts the people in charge, not the insurer, and not the government. Offer better care at a lower price, and you’ll get more patients. Aren’t those two of the three problems we have now? They’re solved with this approach.

Another problem that is illuminated now that unemployment is growing near 10% is your insurance is tied to your job. Again, this might sound like a dumb way to do provide healthcare. That’s because it was never meant to be a permanent fixture. This was done under FDR to consolidate the unemployment problems. If you get a job, you get medical care too. It kills two birds with one stone. This was never meant to last, though.

A conservative alternative is to break the bond between the two. Let individuals buy plans for themselves, and let them be portable. If one is concerned about the exorbitant cost of an individual plan, that can be solved with tax credits and simply allowing insurers to offer plans across state lines, thus increasing the pool and driving down price.

Another key ingredient to talk about here is Malpractice reform. There’s an estimated $100 billion in defensive medicine being practiced by American doctors. This is due to the out of control number of junk lawsuits that cost nothing to file and millions to fight. A simple answer is to institute loser pays provisions. If there was really malpractice, then you should win the case, but if you’re out to make money for trial lawyers off the backs of doctors, it’ll be time to pay up.

To the dismay of Obama and Capital Hill Democrats, the GOP does have many plans in both houses of Congress. They all feature parts of this conservative plan, which would focus on the things I laid out here.

So that’s your look at healthcare, I know it’s long and complicated, but the more you know, the better you can convince our representatives to come around and represent our interests. We’ve got a month, lets do it.

Suggested Weekend Viewing...

2009-07-31T21:45:00.005-05:00

Here are some must-see videos for this weekend...

Well, let's all listen to Mighty Mitchell who will help our great President know what's "best for you..."---

Well now after you know what's good for you, now hear Glenn Beck expose Obama (who I remembered HATED terrorist surveillance) now can tap into your computer through the CARS.gov site...

And speaking of the Government... Steven Crowder finds out where they've spent our stimulus dough... (so sad)

And... Rudy to Barack: "Shut Up"

Seems like good advice...

Well I'm not going to leave you hanging off a (blogging) cliff... but this guy will...

And for a finale... THIS...

It's kind of awsome... in a wierd yet modern yet cool sort of way???!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

"Well, That's Washington"... Moment

2009-07-28T22:02:00.002-05:00

Two words: Term-Limits.

Political Video of the Week...

2009-07-28T14:21:00.003-05:00

Sarah Palin slaps the media around in her farewell speech...

Here's the full speech... very good, very powerful... If I didn't know her better, I'd say she's not done with politics...?

Enjoy!!!

Be sure to listen to last night's radio show on the right sidebar!!!

Obama's "Waterloo"?

2009-07-21T18:46:00.005-05:00

"If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him"
-Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC)

South Carolina Senator Jim Demint made a comment that was meant to inspire the GOPers in Congress to fight tooth and nail to defeat the President's healthcare bill(s). Instead, his comment has galvanized Pres. Obama and given him an anemy with which he can paint the Republicans as "playing politics". For the record, no one including Demint isn't doing this, but don't tell Obama that. Overlooking the politics of the comment, the statement could be true.

I went into a detailed rebuke of Obama's plan(s) Monday Night on my BTR show. Today we need to talk about the rubber hitting the road in Congress. The so-called "Blue Dog's", a group of moderate, red state, class of '06 Democrats in the House are not supporting the far left antics of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Charlie Rangel. Their Sir-Taxes and strong arming haven't convinced these moderate Dems to go along. The Blue-Dogs can't go back to their predominantly red districts and present this leftist monstrosity and expect to keep their seat.

The same problem arises in the Senate, where Senators from red states are finding this plan hard to swallow.

Obama, not to be detoured, has invited these Reps. to the White House where I'm sure they'll get familiar with the Rhambo-style treatment of arm-twisting and big dealing. Obama knows that he and his party have complete control here and if they fail, it's on them. The GOP has no way of stopping them.

However, you do. The President doesn't vote in the election, you do. That's what you should hit home when you call them. Since the GOP doesn't have much say, I would encourage people to call or email your Congressman and Senator if they're a Democrat. Make multiple calls if you live in a red state. The bigger the backlash against this bill, the more chance of it failing. While we're at it, cite the Republican plans in the Senate (Coburn, etc.) that actually will improve healthcare and not drive it off a cliff.

Is this Obama's Waterloo? Maybe. Remember that no one is against reform, just against Obama's reform. We must focus on healthcare and healthcare only. If we win, we save the best care in the world. If this ends up being the beginning of the end for the President's far-left agenda, all the better.

Obama's Pitch

2009-07-15T00:27:00.003-05:00

Here it is...

His pitch is like his foreign policy, weak. I expected it and it was St. Louis Cardinal, Albert Pujols who had to save him from bouncing it.

Compare that pitch with this one, devoid of the over the top theatrics of flailing the arms and looking cool, just throwing the ball...

Strength vs. weakness determined by baseball? I'm from the mind that America's President needs to know how to throw a strike in America's Pastime.

All Star Game Live From St. Louis

2009-07-12T22:49:00.004-05:00

Monday, July 13 I will be attending the 25th annual Home Run Derby. At 6 pm eastern, 5 pm central time, I'll have a quick, 15 minute show live from Busch Stadium and will serve as a preview for the derby and have a live report from the middle of the All Star madness.

Show link HERE.

On Tuesday, July 14 I'll have another 15 minute show previewing the 80th All-Star Game and President Obama's first ever first pitch as President.

That show link HERE.

So, for the next two days I'll take a quick break from politics to be an eyewitness to the first Midsummer Classic in my hometown in 43 years. Thanks and enjoy.

From Russia, Without Spine

2009-07-09T07:30:00.008-05:00

As I heard the news reports on President Obama’s visit to Moscow, I again got the feeling similar to a parent who’s child is getting taken advantage of on the playground. That feeling of helplessness that I also felt when the President visited Cairo, and Paris, and London. The refrain that rings in my head is Sen. McCain’s famous ad during the ’08 campaign… “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world… but is he ready to lead?”

The President’s consistent answer to that timeless ad is no. No matter what nation he visits, two things happen: he’s viewed and treated like a celebrity, and he kowtows to the host’s wishes/demands.

His Russian excursion is no exception. He seems to bring his wife Michelle along with the kids on these trips as well. Somebody never told him that foreign trips abroad are not just easy vacation spots. Diplomacy isn’t a family affair, especially in Moscow. Whenever you hear “Malia” and “Kremlin” in the same sentence you should be concerned. The President doesn’t seem to understand that evil men like Russian PM Putin isn’t as enamored with his picturesque family as we are in America. “Oh you have a beautiful family, well I guess I’ll give up on resurrecting the Soviet Union…” That’s pure lunacy.

The President’s meetings with the Russian tandem of leaders this week yielded expected, yet still sad results. On missile defense, Obama seems ready, willing, and able to give up the program in Poland and the Czech Republic, even though those countries and all of NATO are behind the U.S. on it. The Russians sensitivity toward a defense against Iranian and North Korean missiles should say something that our astute, well-educated President should detect. It should tell him that Russia needs to have Iran and North Korea as a threat in order to have a bargaining chip with Europe… and America (they’ve already sold missile parts to Iran). If the threat of Iranian missiles is off the table then Russia has no leverage.

Obama also heard an hour-long diatribe by Putin on the Cold War and our involvement. After this odd waste of time, Obama came out and told interviewers that America shouldn’t, and moreover cannot take credit for winning the cold war. Apparently, Putin convinced Obama of his version of history.

In all of these negotiations, all of these foreign trips, President Obama remains consistent on one thing: he’s weak. On every issue he concedes. On every debate he equivocates. On every point by a counterpart, he agrees.

When we elect a President, we elect a representative. That individual is the face of our country. We’ve chosen this man to be on the other side of the table with Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Amadinajad, Kim Jong Ill, Hugo Chavez, Rual Castro, and others. He might be talking to some of the most evil people on the planet. In every case, I fear he will negotiate out of weakness. He undoubtedly will be dictated to, as he was by Putin, and our national interest will take a back seat.

If Obama’s aim is to prevent war and death, his path will not yield his desired result. Every time America has had to fight a war, it has been when the forces of freedom and liberty were weak. That is when evil men are enabled to carry out their evil work. In Obama’s strategy lies the road to war. Obama can’t or won’t negotiate in a way that puts us in the drivers seat, we call the shots, we are the ones who talk terms, we set the agenda. In that lies the road to peace. That strategy will yield a world in which tyrants are minimized and weapons are unused. Obama says we shouldn’t dictate. He calls it arrogance, I call it strength. And strength is how war is avoided.

Good Job Rep. Peter King

2009-07-07T16:50:00.003-05:00

The only public figure with the guts to tell it like it is regarding Michael Jackson and the media worship and their airbrushing of Jackson's life to make him look like a hero, when in fact he was, in the latter part of his life, a pervert and a child molester.

So good job Rep. King, I wish I could vote for you for the Senate.

For New Tea Party Readers... (UPDATE)

2009-07-04T16:13:00.007-05:00

I attended the Independence Day St. Louis Tea Party and spoke on the importance of youth. The turnout was awesome and I gave out my site to tons of youth and grown ups alike.

So, to new readers WELCOME!!!

-The sidebar ----------> will link all of the outlets I am on... Blog Talk Radio, Twitter, Youtube, etc.

-Speaking of the radio, my show airs every Monday night at 9 pm Eastern, 8 pm Central time.

--My show is on at the above time... + Click on the "Profile" tab ------> and click on the upcoming show... then (if no chat appears at the bottom, refresh) just wait for the top of the hour or refresh then too. My show usually runs 30 minutes, sometimes bonus minutes, too.

-Special thanks to Dana Loesch, Bill Hennessy, Dr. Gina Louden, Lyda Louden, and many others.

-I hope to increase site traffic so after you take a look around, pass my site on to others. I hope you enjoy my musings.

Independence Day Special

2009-07-01T14:17:00.004-05:00

Coming on Friday night, July 3 the Gateway Patriot presents a Podcast Special for America's Independence Day. It's a 30 minute show, starting at 9 pm eastern, 8 pm central time.

Features:

-My reading of the Declaration of Independence...

-Patriotic Songs

-Patriotic Stories

-Reflections on the USA

-Calls!!!

Show link HERE!!!

Be sure to tune in for the full 30 minutes, chat, and call in and reflect on the greatest nation of Earth.

Iran's Evil Exposed... by the 21st Century

2009-06-20T23:29:00.007-05:00

I know this is uncharacteristic, but the events in Iran today warrant some kind of blog post, even a late one.

All day today I’ve witnessed the horror of the Iranian regime. This kind of violence was last witnessed in Tiananmen Square two decades ago. The Chinese students then had their taste of freedom and liberty ripped from them when they first had a bite. This week the Iranian people are feeling the effects of a faux liberty. Liberty in Iran was never their, just the illusion of it. That façade is being ripped away in a similar fashion than in China.

The horror, which is the best word to describe the violence and repression the world is seeing, hits home to me because for the first time in human history it is a digitized revolution. My generation, albeit across the globe is fighting for freedom and I can see it from their eye, their camera lens. My generation across the world is being beaten, reportedly having chemicals dumped on them, being subjected to home invasions, and now being murdered for their God given right to liberty and freedom.

Twitter and Youtube make this possible. The Ayatollahs and the throwbacks in Iran are being convicted on the world stage of crimes they are still tonight trying to cover up. They are falling victim to the very technology they decried for a long time. My generation is fighting for freedom and they’re armed with a computer and a camera.

To all members of the last generation that harped and mocked Twitter as a mindless waste of time, to all who felt and espoused culture shock about Youtube, this week is your answer. Without those mediums the Iranian people would be victims of a brutal regime and we would be at the mercy of their state-run nonsense. The truth is out in Iran.

If their was ever any doubt that radical Islam's 7th century throwback mentality is out of date, you see it now. Welcome to the first digitized revolution. Hey Ayatollahs, welcome to the 21st century.

Obama tougher on fly than North Korea!!!

2009-06-17T17:23:00.006-05:00

Pay attention to the headline after he swats it... It's BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!

(Pardon my screaming at the computer)

And then the media reaction... my fav.= Obama is a NINJA!!!

(sigh)

Obama Silent While Tehran Burns

2009-06-16T16:35:00.004-05:00

Call me a right wing neocon but I would like to have a little more reaction from my President about freedom fighters than "concern" and "troubled".

Pres. Barack Obama showed yet again his difference from George W. Bush by speaking little about the situation in Iran, thus abandoning Bush's hope of Middle East nations becoming free. When Obama did speak he was emotionless and his comments could best be described as tepid. Why can't our President shift focus for more than an instant off of destroying our healthcare system and pay more attention to people petitioning for the scraps of Democracy in the Middle East.

Now I'm not advocating military force, just verbal outrage. Ed Morrisey over at Hotair made the astutue comparison to President Reagan and Polnad in the early 80's. Here's what Reagan said (take out Poland and replace with Iran):

"We’re not naive. We view the current situation in Poland (Iran) in the gravest of terms, particularly the increasing use of force against an unarmed population and violations of the basic civil rights of the Polish (Iranian) people."

And this...

But the torch of liberty is hot. It warms those who hold it high. It burns those who try to extinguish it.

What Reagan said is all I expect Obama to say. For once I would like Pres. Obama to use his fantastic oratory to express ideals of freedom and liberty. He won't, or can't do it.

Why? He has a campaign promise, don't you know? He's got to meet Amadeinajad without preconditions. If he sides with the Iranian people, he blows the chance to negotiate the nuclear program. But what of the people? What of the freedom fighters? Obama is ready, willing, and able to make a deal with the people's slave masters? Is that going to be his legacy?

Obama must condemn in the most forceful terms the Iranian regime's crackdown on it's people, the press, and the hopes of million in Iran and around the world. If he doesn't he is risking the future of the people of Iran and the legacy of his term as President on the world.

Newt Gingrich @ GOP Congressional Dinner Speech

2009-06-10T17:18:00.005-05:00

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich increased my disappointment of his un-electability for President this week when he gave a fantastic speech to the NRCC and NRSC dinner. It was chocked full of facts, strategies, and principles of a new vibrant GOP. It's a shame that he is not electable for President in 2012. However, this speech tended, in the end to brag on his tenure as Speaker, which would suggest he's thinking about it.

Nevertheless, I think his speech was so valuable to see that I 'll link it up below. One down side is that it's almost one hour long. So, if you can't devote that amount of time to the speech. I took notes of key phrases, facts, and principles that I found of note. They will be copied below the video... Enjoy.

Newt Gingrich Speech at NRCC/NRSC…June 2009

“Do not tell me at can’t be done”

· 1965, 1977, 1993… GOP lost, and a came back.
· Carter’s popularity was higher than Obama early on.
· Be inclusive… we need both Colin Powell and Dick Cheney.
· Reagan: “My fellow Republicans and those independents and Democrats who are looking for a better future…”
· Reagan said of Soviet Union strategy/goal: “We win, they lose.”
· Be idealistic and realistic.
· By 3-1 Americans say we are safer w/ terrorists in Guantanamo rather than in America.
· Reagan used his great oratorical skills to shine light on truths and facts, Obama uses his to hide from truth and facts.
· Obama makes issues seem so complex that only he can adequately explain it to us.
· English should be the official language of government.
· 59% of Hispanics are in favor of it.
· Use it to assimilate people into being American.
· National campaign to fundamentally redesign the curriculum of every school in the country so they learn real American History.
· Must think about the new threats on the horizon.
· Current defense and homeland security budgets are too small and bureaucracies are too slow.
· Look at short and long-term threats. Don’t focus on just one and ignore the other. That’s the lesson of 9-11.
· Reform litigation, regulation, taxation, education, health, energy, and infrastructure… to compete w/ China and India.
· We don’t need stimulus, we need growth.
· The left made fun of “Trickle down Capitalism”… Trickle down bureaucracy works even less.
· You can’t pour $700 Billion into Washington, and create sustainable, free market jobs is lunacy.
· Obama got HIS stimulus, on HIS schedule, for HIS amount, delivered by HIS party’s Congress, who did what HE said, without even reading the bill.
· That wasn’t George W. Bush’s fault.
· They promised we would peek at 8% unemployment w/ the stimulus; we’re at 9.4 % today.
· That’s not in their budget, so it’s ruined. They’re going to get fewer jobs, greater government expenses, and less revenue than they projected.
· You can’t have Capitalism on they way up, and Socialism on the way down. You’ve got to pick one.
· You must have the rule of law, not the rule of empathy.
· People will not invest in where politicians can rip them off.
· High taxes kill jobs and growth. Low taxes encourage jobs and growth.
· Give money to the people who work and the people who hire them.
· Two year, 50% reduction of the Social Security and Medicare tax for both the employer and the employee (equal).
· To compete with China for jobs, make our Capital Gains Tax the same as theirs, zero.
· To compete with Ireland for jobs and new businesses, match their corporate tax rate of 12.5%.
· Abolish the death tax.
· 79% of the American people believe it is morally wrong to tax death.
· Thatcher: “First you win the argument, then you win the vote.”
· Go to the every small business (including minority) and explain how much those tax cuts will help their business. Start the conversation. Offer a bold vision.
· Reward work, reward savings, reward investment, reward risk taking…take on corrupt politicians and allies head on.
· To the left: big deficits=higher taxes.
· To the right… it’s control spending, reform government, modernize/cut programs.
· Tax increases can’t balance the budget because they crush the economy, which reduces revenues, and they encourage the liberals to spend more. If raising taxes worked California and New York would have balanced budgets. But they don’t.
· In the last decade, it cost the Americans $250 Million in Medicare fraud.
· Minimum level of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid is $75-125 Billion per year.
· In South Florida, they closed 17 HIV/AIDS facilities in the same day. Five of the 17 were pizza parlors.
· Need a real American energy policy.
· North Dakota has an estimated 2500% more oil there.
· We have a 100-year supply of Natural gas due to new technologies.
· In oil shale we have three times the reserves as Saudi Arabia.
· We have the largest supply of coal in the world.
· We have more coal than the Saudis have oil.
· More bio-fuels, ethanol, wind, solar.
· “Bowing to the Saudi King is not an energy policy.”
· 79% of Americans say that we should develop American energy.
· A majority rejects an energy tax. (Like cap and trade)
· The poorest kids in America are trapped in the worst schools… more likely to go to jail than college. Lives are limited.
· “The second greatest threat to the United States is the failure of Math and Science education.”
· Every child deserves to learn. Every non-educated adult deserves to learn. Every first time prisoner deserves to learn.
· School vouchers, or Sen. Alexander’s plan of offering Pell grants to K-12.
· Unlimited Charter schools. Reward states that adopt this. =School Choice.
· Faith based prison system to rehabilitate them.
· Reach out to EVERY American.

Barack Obama Defined

2009-06-06T22:20:00.005-05:00

I don't know if I should laugh, cry, or fear. Probably all of the above.

The Arab Appeasement Tour

2009-06-03T16:37:00.011-05:00

Well, it’s going to happen again. Our President will soon complete the Arabic world leg of the American apology tour. The first trip was during the campaign, more specifically a speech in front of a Hitler-esqe monument in Germany. Next, on his first foreign trip as President, he apologized to Europe for our “arrogance”. This week, Pres. Obama will now apologize to the Middle East.

Now his first trip wasn’t really as important because he wasn’t President. On his second trip, he was in charge, but his audience wasn’t really important (As one witty person once said, the European’s will never forgive America for liberating them twice). This trip, on the other hand, could literally be dangerous. This time Obama will be talking, either directly or indirectly, to many of our enemies. He’d better get it right. Unfortunately, I doubt he will.

Here’s what he should say (but won’t). As he could’ve emphasized of Europeans, the United States has liberated more Muslims than any other country in history: Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, and on and on. He should explain the circumstances of our war on radical Islam and make clear our fight is not with the religion as a whole. He should point out the threat faced by the U.S. and all Arabs are of equal consequence. He should affirm his belief that the Holocaust happened and draw a line with Iran’s leader in that regard. Basically, he should learn how to build a bridge without lying down and apologizing. Yes, there can be that ever important middle ground here too.

My fear and predication is that Obama will replace the word “Europe” on his last trip, with “Arab” and “Muslim” on this one. Our arrogance and divisiveness will be center stage and featured. Obama will undoubtedly outline a kinder, gentler America, one that will talk first, and talk some more later.

I know what he’s thinking. He believes that America’s “cowboy” attitude the past eight years failed. His approach is meant to humble ourselves. While in a perfect world that might work and change minds, in the reality of this war, its naïve and shows weakness. Showing weakness to Europe is holding up a mirror, showing our enemies weakness is like holding up our hands and putting a target on our backs. In an article written by NRO contributing editor Andrew McCarthy, he said of the evil of pirates, “High minded as it is commonly made to sound, it is not civilized to appease evil, to treat it with ‘dignity’ and ‘respect’, to rationalize its root causes, to equivocate about whether evil really is evil, and, when all else fails, to ignore it…Evil doesn’t do nuance. It finds you, it tests you…”

What the President will do in Cairo is, by any other name, appeasement. He’s rationalizing the root causes of terrorists, he equivocates, and he is the king of nuance. He will ignore the evil of the enemy, and focus on the evil of us. That is wrong and it’s dangerous. Remember Mr. President, evil doesn’t do nuance, and evil will be watching you this week.

Gateway Patriot on the Jimmy Z Show

2009-06-01T21:46:00.003-05:00

I was on today's Jimmy Z show and had a very good time with Jimmy Z...

We talked about my move and about the politics of the day...

Listen HERE...

Gateway Patriot on STL Radio Tonight

2009-05-31T15:27:00.003-05:00

Tonight in the 8 pm central hour of "The Dana Show" on 97.1 FM Talk in St. Louis I will be a guest.

-There is a live stream on the station site at www.971talk.com.

-Dana was a guest on the BTR show before the April 15 Tea Party... her personal blog is www.thedanashow.wordpress.com/.

I should be on around 8:40. If you aren't able to listen live, I'll link up the podcast and might play it on the podcast on Monday.

The Sotomayor Standard

2009-05-28T21:33:00.005-05:00

When President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court Tuesday, he used his usual distortion tactics and methods. But in the past few days, some disturbing yet understandable revelations were uncovered about Sotomayor.

Obama painted her as a moderate, citing her original nomination to the district court by President George H.W. Bush and her appointment to her current post by President Bill Clinton. However, she is anything but a moderate on the court. She subscribes to a similar view that Obama favors on the judiciary. She even admitted that her court was “where policy is made.” This statement says all we need to know about her philosophy. She is a radical liberal who believes courts don’t interpret law, they make it up. I like to use Chief Justice John Roberts’ analogy that a judge calls the balls and strikes, but doesn’t change the rulebook. Obama and Sotomayor would need to consult the batter’s life story, race, color, creed, religion, or any other factor that they deem necessary under Obama’s “empathy” standard.

The statement above is reason enough to oppose her. But she also threw out the nugget about race and how a “wise” Hispanic would reach a better decision than a white guy. Funny, I never knew Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton was being nominated to the court? Well they aren’t, but their race-bating is.

Obama has nominated the first Hispanic, who cares? This is a classic reaction from the left. Everything with them is about color, class, or religion. There’s this inherent notion that she has a hard time getting on the court because of her heritage. That’s complete and utter ignorance. She didn’t have any harder time then, let’s say, Clearance Thomas who happens to be black and was smeared.

The race baiting has continued yesterday when Press. Sec. Robert Gibbs warned the GOP to tread lightly with her. Sen. Chuck Schumer did this as well. To not question her tough is doing a disservice to the Court and to the American people. But that seemed like Obama’s plan all along. The more warnings from the Obama administration, the more I am coming to the conclusion that this pick was more out of affirmative action than real substance. Again with Pres. Obama, politics trumps everything else.

Bottom line, Judge Sotomayor is a deep-seated, entrenched judicial activist and, like others on the court, should not be there. The law is about the law, period. Any other extraneous circumstances should be ignored. Sotomayor doesn’t understand this, and that disqualifies her from the court.

Obama v. Cheney---Point-Counterpoint

2009-05-21T20:04:00.008-05:00

Today the American people were a witness to a rare occurrence in American politics, a real point-counterpoint debate. Today’s is so stark that veteran political correspondents were citing the historic nature of the debate over Pres. Bush’s agenda on national security.

Let us set the stage. Who began this brouhaha, Barack Obama, when he released the so-called “torture memos”, the legal opinions that justify the water boarding of just three terrorists. And the techniques weren’t used in an elongated time period, they were used in the months directly proceeding 9-11.

That is what we know. What we don’t know are the results, which the “most transparent Presidency ever” refused to disclose. We know one attack that was stopped: a plot to fly a hijacked plane into the Library Tower in Los Angeles. An attack which would have undoubtedly killed thousands was thwarted. Other attacks sit in the redacted portions of CIA documents that Pres. Obama won’t declassify. All we have to go on is the word of the previous five CIA directors, including Obama’s, who say that this program saved tens of thousands of lives.

Yet, when the former Vice-President, Dick Cheney, scheduled another public appearance to criticize Obama again, the President does when he is confronted with a political crisis, similar to Rev. Wright. He gives a “major speech”. And it’s not a humble setting like Cheney. Obama must have the most symbolic setting, with big lights, an area that gives a God-like echo and shows his head bouncing from teleprompter to teleprompter like a ping-pong match. He hopes this will awe you into submission. His substance was stark. Stark in it’s defensiveness. He again goes on the blame parade and whines and blubbers on about the toughness of the job and the circumstances surrounding his tenure. He has the, dare I say, audacity to call the Bush/ Cheney policies un-American. Un-American are policies that weren’t even policies, they were responses to a war begun on the run. Un-American were the policies that kept us safe after 9-11. This fact he cannot get away from. He cited the nation’s fear as an excuse for allowing this to go on. You could almost hear the old Al Gore “he played on our fears!!!” refrain throughout the National Archives.

And why was Obama so jaded? Why did he go almost so far as to dig out the Greek columns? Pure and simple, he was losing the argument. He thought he could sneak out a tidbit about the previous administration like a banana republic and no one would object. Well, Dick Cheney did. Obama lost control of the debate. He is still losing after today.

Today’s debate proved this administration’s hypersensitivity to criticism. How dare Cheney defend those evil, Un-American, policies that saved lives? The American public has also, through polls, agreed with Cheney. Obama’s actions and rhetoric today shows us that we are winning the argument in the public square. Don’t stop. Don’t let up. Let’s keep defending those life saving policies.

“We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”

The California Lesson

2009-05-20T16:12:00.009-05:00

Yesterday, the people of California rejected 5 of the 6 ballot measures that Gov. Awwwnold and the inept state government of California. The one they passed was to deny pay raises to elected officeholders during economic downturns. To me, California went 6 for 6.

Why does this matter? Because the state of California is the 8th largest economy on the planet and their policies over the past decade are eerily familiar to those that Pres. Obama is testing on the nation as a whole. In this blue-est of blue states, the Democrat policies were tried rit-large, and the result is unfolding before our eyes. The man who played the Terminator, effectively groveling and begging his state's constituents to bite the bullet because of his failed government.

What is more astonishing is that, in this blue-est of blue states, the citizens terminated the terminators plea. It's being characterized as a "tax-revolt". Hmmmm... sounds like a TEA-Party. The Californians message to Gov. Schwarzenegger, "We are Taxed Enough Already..." to pay for a welfare state, bloated budgets, and deficit spending. They did this in the face of a Governor who outspent his opponents 10 to 1 to persuade them to bail him out.

Maybe we're not as close to the "Road to Socialism" as we thought? If California can wake up, so can the rest of us. That is the rallying cry out of this. TEA Party goers are the silent majority no more. We are no longer silent, at the ballot box or in the town square. We've had enough. California's had enough. America is starting to be "... as mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore."

The Code Pink Showdown-Monday Night

2009-05-17T19:16:00.006-05:00

In under one day, the inaugural Gateway Patriot Podcast is a showdown with a representative from the anti-war group Code Pink.

The show is at 7 pm eastern, 6 pm central time live on Monday night. If you can't make it then, I'll link it up on this site in a post.

Link HERE.

Be sure to come, listen, chat, and maybe call in!!!

"...and The Pursuit of Happiness"

2009-05-13T19:18:00.005-05:00

I've just gotten done researching and watching videos from Chris Gardner. He is the real life story in the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith. I've also seen President Obama lay down a deadline of July 31 for a health care bill, which will add to America's entitlement programs. This confluence of events showed me something about America.

As Americans we reverie the words "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Liberty meaning freedom. Many in today's culture lose the meaning of this statement completely. Life to them applies to anyone who wasn't aborted while in the womb. Liberty applies to those who would give it up to a foreign power that's not an individual (like the government). And many forget "the pursuit of" in the last statement. They think they're entitled to happiness.

The truth is, your not entitled to anything. The meaning the that statement, and moreover the definition of this country, is that we give you the essentials. Oh, but we don't give them to you either, God does. He gives you the right to live. This is where you start. He gives you the right to do what you want, or freedom, liberty. And He gives you the ability to pursue whatever makes you happy. But that happiness isn't always achieved, but the path is unimpeded.

Gardner's story is emblematic of the title of his book and the movie. There is an underlying theme in his story. He pursues what his path to happiness. How many times did he ask the government for a handout? Zero. His path isn't impeded by government. He didn't need government to achieve the American Dream. Gardner's story is living proof that Americans don't need entitlement programs, welfare, or government health care.

Gardner is now a stock broker making millions of dollars, and needed zero government assistance. He didn't need to ration his freedom for an easier time. He was living in public restrooms, choosing whether to eat or stay at a hotel. He didn't ask for, nor did he need, a handout. He worked toward a dream, the American dream. And all he was given was "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"... and nothing else.

The views of the Gateway Patriot

2009-04-11T23:09:00.001-05:00

Here are my views on a wide variety of issues facing this nation…

Abortion

I believe human life begins at conception. Abortion is murder and no woman has the “right” to choose murder. I am in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade.

Death Penalty

The death penalty as it stands now is a completely justified punishment. It is a punishment that fits the crime of a brutal murder. It is neither cruel nor unusual.

Economy

I favor the free market system of capitalism and shun government interference in our economy. I also support tax cuts because the more money an American has in his/her pocket, the more he/she can invest in our economy. In favor of overhauling the current tax system either by Fair Tax, Flat Tax, etc.

Global Warming

The earth is warming. However, I believe that global warming/climate change has little to do with human industrial activity and more to do with solar flares from the sun and livestock “emissions”. There is far from a scientific consensus about human contribution to global warming.

Gun Control

The Second Amendment gives every American citizen the right to keep and bear arms. Criminals find illegal guns so enacting gun control only disarms possible victims of gun violence. A criminal is less likely to try to cause harm if they know their victims are armed.

Healthcare

Although I am not well versed in the different kinds of healthcare proposals, I am strongly opposed to socialized medicine and I support health saving accounts.

Homeland Security

Strongly support the PATRIOT Act.

Immigration

I support legal immigration at the current rate, but strongly oppose illegal immigration. The U.S. government should build a strong fence on the U.S.-Mexico border. Most illegal aliens are not looking to start a new life here in America. They are using our economy to make money which they send back to their home country. Also, a fence would curtail a large percentage of drug trafficking coming from Mexico. Illegal aliens should have none of the rights of a legal citizen. After the Immigration Amnesty Bill went down last summer, I put together my own plan. Here it is…

Secure 100% of the U.S.-Mexico border in five years. (Physically, Technologically, etc.)Deporting 100% of criminal aliens in five years.(Allow money saved in prison costs to fund the border)Create a bio-metric, tamper-proof I.D. card for all LEGAL non-citizens in the U.S., so if an immigrant wants a job, they must have that card to prove they are legal.An immediate doubling of the fine for employers who hire illegals.An immediate cutting off of all Federal funding to any city that is a “Sanctuary city”.
This creates an attrition system where, if the work dries up, the illegals will “self-deport” because they would all be out of jobs.

Same-Sex Marriage

I am opposed to marriage being anything other than between a man and a woman. The best family situation in which to bring up a child is one between a mother and a father. A Constitutional Amendment banning Same-Sex Marriage would be acceptable. However, I am open to homosexuals being allowed to have joint ownership of money or possessions.

United Nations

The UN has repeatedly failed in its essential mission of world peace. It lets criminal and murderous regimes in power and allows the genocide of thousands without lifting a finger. Instead they focus on containing the United States and Israel by focusing on Israel and the United States’ foreign policies. The United States should never subvert its national interests to those at the UN.

War on Terrorism

Militant Islamists attacked the United States on 9-11 and they want to do it again. They strive for Islam to rule the world and they are prepared to use murder and terror as a weapon. These extremists cannot be negotiated with or appeased. Their view of the world cannot coexist with western civilization. The extremist network runs far beyond Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda. A conservative estimate is that 10% of the world’s two billion Muslims are radicalized. That is 200 Million people, at least. This is a global war that will not be over after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are complete. The terrorists must be stopped and destroyed.

War in Iraq

The war in Iraq was justified because Saddam Hussein was a radical genocidal dictator who was pursuing WMD and had some already, not stockpiles but enough to worry. He had numerous terrorist connections including some with al-Qaeda, although he had no operational knowledge of 9-11. He gave money, resources, and sanctuary to many radical Islamists for over a decade. Establishing a free nation in the Middle East could spur other citizens of terrorist states to rise up and demand their freedom.

Also, the war was terribly mismanaged. We did not have enough troops to secure the population and support the interim government. In early 2007, President Bush tried to correct his mistake by surging our troops into Baghdad and Anbar Province. After over a year and a half, the surge shows dramatic signs of success and now the question is not, can we win, it’s, we won, now how do we leave gracefully. We have essentially relegated foreign terror groups in Iraq to frail, if not dead activity. Al-Qaeda is reportedly withdrawing from Iraq because of the defeat they were handed, by America. However, security gains are fragile, so our pullout must be slow, but steady. If we leave in the right way, Iraq will be fine.