Amber

The Elements of the Desperation of the Democratic Party

July 30, 2010 | election

David Lambro writes an excellent summary of how the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner in this upcoming election.

In a campaign strategy that comes directly from the White House high command, Democrats are ditching President Obama’s 2008 campaign promise of political reconciliation and attempting to smear the GOP by tying it to the tea party movement.

The decision, announced Wednesday by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, has failure and desperation written all over it.

They can’t run on the Republicans blocking their agenda. It was passed by Democrats on party-line votes, and voters are strongly opposed to most of it

They can’t run on Obama’s popularity, because he is unpopular in a number of midterm election battleground states.

They can’t run on the success of his economic policies, because his $800 billion spending stimulus has been a conspicuous failure at worst and mediocre at best

With 15 million Americans unemployed and millions more forced to work part-time, the Democrats cannot talk about the economy with any credibility

So with nothing else to run on, Democratic party leaders are going on the attack, trying to tie Republicans to the tea party activists whom they say are “out of the political mainstream” and made up of radical elements. But if Democrats think that opposing staggering deficits, tax increases in a recession and health-care mandates that will drive up costs is radical, then which party is really out of the mainstream now?

I would feel sorry for any other group of human beings, but these creeps deserve to suffer. They have dug their own graves, by their assumption that they know what is best for us, and we are really too stupid to understand what is going on. Maybe it will dawn on them that, perhaps, we DO understand, and we don’t like it.

Remember Arizona in November!!!

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The Sherrod Controversy and Obama’s Racial Politics

July 24, 2010 | election

Days after the NAACP clashed with Tea Party members over allegations of racism, a video has surfaced showing an Agriculture Department official, Shirley Sherrod, regaling an NAACP audience with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy — video that now has forced the official to resign. Subsequently, it has come out that the clip represented only a small part of the speech Sherrod gave, and that Sherrod was using this as an example of how she has changed, and how she came to help this white farmer…and the administration reversed itself, asking Sherrod to resume her position.

What is going on here? As a friend said, even if Sharrod had harbored or does harbor a dislike for white people, if that dislike didn’t or doesn’t affect her work then who cares?  The farmer she helped thinks that he got a fair deal so what is the problem?

I couldn’t agree more…but there is more to this story than simply Sherrod’s remarks. There is a complex interaction going on here, partially having to do with the NAACP attack on the TEA party, and the Republican attempts to demonstrate the inherent racism of the Obama administration.

Dick Morris suggests that Obama has two conflicting goals: He wants to expand his base among whites and heighten enthusiasm of blacks. Good goals, both. But if he uses racial issues to accomplish either objective — as he appears to do in the Sherrod controversy — he alienates one group in order to win the other. Not a good strategy.

If you want my canny insider-oriented political opinion on this, the Republicans fomented this controversy, counting on the inexperience and amateurism of the Obama administration to make a hasty decision that would make them look bad, and the administration fell for it like a high school Senior running for class President, instead of a professional team of highly paid political hucksters. A single phone call to Sherrod asking for clarification would have shown this for what it is, but the White House panicked, as the Republicans thought it would, and then tried to recover, making it even worse.

Look for more of this as November approaches. The Republicans are playing this political gamesmanship to a T, and the Democrats are looking like the petty amateurs they are. It is all geared to increasing the Republican margins in December, and the Democrats don’t have a hand to play in this game

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Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future”

July 16, 2010 | america, economy

“Are we going to reclaim the American idea — an entrepreneurial economy where you make the most of your life, you tap your potential, we reinvigorate the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise — and defend the morality of that — or are we going to abandon that and switch over toward a European-style, cradle-to-grave welfare state where we drain people of their incentive and will to make the most of their lives and make them more dependent on the government?”

Watch the video.  This is the quintessential question facing this country. Do we have what it takes to grab the future and run with it? Are we still the Americans who took a continent and built the most powerful economy in the world? Or are we going to follow the path of today’s Progressives, believing we cann’t accomplish anything, and needing government intervention just to live?

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Why he is failing.

July 13, 2010 | america, american ideals, constitution, economy, obama

Note: I  wrote this in reply to a question posed in the Delphi “Bully Pulpit” forum, a political discussion board which can be found in the Internet Resources list in the right column of this page, and which I frequent.

The Question was;

“Why is Obama failing so Badly?”

My reply;

He is arrogant in the extreme.

He is narcissistic in the extreme.

He is an ideologue in the extreme.

He is a racist.

He treats the Office of the Presidency as if he has been given a turn at kingship.

He treats it as if it is a position from which to ‘fundamentally change’ America to suit HIS ideology, rather than as a stewardship of America’s Constitution, and the ideology that founded Her and has made Her great.

His youth was spent being indoctrinated to the “virtues” of Socialist/Communist forms of government, and to despise, distrust, and possibly even hate the ‘white’ race.

He has spent his adult years, both in his professional and personal life,  sequestered with people which agree with and reinforce the beliefs he acquired as a youth.

He has been groomed, and groomed himself, to engage in politics as a means of furthering his ideology.

His narcissism, whether a native aspect of his character, or instilled in him by the grooming and preparation for political life by those around him, has become a palpable, if not an overriding aspect of his ‘id’.

To a large degree his success[being elected President] AND failures are the result of timing.

He achieved success largely because he was tapped to run for the Presidency at a point in time when America was ready to elect a Black as President….both because racism for most Americans is no longer an appreciable issue…and because a fair number of Americans are suffering from guilt rooted in ‘The Sins of Our Fathers’, and are eager, if not desperate, to assuage that guilt.

His failure is partly, if not largely, the result of having been tapped to run at a point in time when much, if not a large majority, of Democrats that hold National Office are almost or just as far to the left as he is, happened to hold a ‘super Majority’ in Congress, and so are willing to suffer the slings and arrows of the American people in order to get their agenda through while they have a President who they know will not VETO their assault on American principles of Capitalism and the Free Market.

Another reason for much of his failure is that in his arrogance and narcissism, and due to his exposure to and association only with others of his ilk throughout his life, he actually and honestly assumed that a majority of Americans share his political ideology, and would welcome his agenda with open arms, and that his “gift”(his own word), would give him the power to win over the few who did not agree with him.

He came into office expecting his every desire to be handed to him on a silver platter.
Instead he has met unprecedented resistance from America at every turn.
This frustrates him, confuses him, and angers him.
This is displayed almost every time he opens his mouth without a teleprompter in his face…which is also when his racism shows on occasion.

He does not like America…We the People do.

He does not like Capitalism and Free Enterprise…We the People do

He considers the U.S. Constitution a “Charter of negative liberties”…We the People Do Not.

He believes in massive redistribution of wealth….We the People Do Not.

These are just a few of the reasons he is failing so badly .

I would trade much to have all of America see this man-child speak and respond to real and un-vetted questions, unassisted by a teleprompter, for one hour….hell….make it 30 minutes.

I know that much of what I have just said is going to be scoffed at by libs and that I will be challenged on it. I would advise them to read his books, and to search out as many interviews with him as they can find on you tube before doing so…because the evidence supporting virtually everything I have said is both voluminous and readily available.

But I will probably choose to ignore their barbs and denials for the most part.

Of course, most libs in here have already been directed to much of that evidence and are choosing to ignore it, or to rationalize it into something benign, and so presenting it again will have little or no impact, as by this time most have proven themselves so steeped in Kool-Aid that they no doubt piss in Technicolor.

Nevertheless, what I have stated is what I have concluded and what I think…and each and every day B.O. does nothing to dissuade my perception….but he does and says much to reinforce and validate it.

RTYB

( Wade Patrick, July 13, 2010 )

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A Norman Rockwell July 4th

July 4, 2010 | america

I spent This Friday night in a Normal Rockwell painting and, for me, it was the perfect July 4th event. It could not have been more American, could not have represented more precisely what the men and women who gave their lives, and are remembered on this day, fought for. This evening was my homage to America.

Of course it had to do with baseball. Baseball IS America, inseparable from the American identity. The old Chevrolet Commercial, “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet” says it all.

It was the seventh inning of a baseball game between the Minnesota Twin class A farm team, the St. Paul Saints, and the Fort Worth Cats. The Cats were managed by Wayne Terwilliger, a genuine American hero (see here and here). A Marine, who fought on Iwo Jima, during WWII, he played, coached and managed baseball for 52 years. Part of that career was coaching and managing the Saints, so this night was dedicated to him.

It was then that I had my realization that this night was special. The Saints were being trounced, 11-2 (later to lose 13-2) by the Cats. The team management was handing out “rally flags,” which were blue, polyethylene blow-ups that sported a flag that said “St. Paul Saints.” Of course, it took a few milliseconds for people to realize that they could use the blow-up flagpoles to bonk each other, and you could see sudden commotions where friends would attack each other with these things. I was surrounded by freckle-faced young boys, with baseball gloves, baseball caps, and that look of awe on a kid’s face when they are imagining themselves on that field, shagging flies and whacking the ball out of the park.

It was those freckle-faced kids that got me thinking of Norman Rockwell. America is about traditions, and it is in these small-town events where American traditions are most evident. You do not find them in the cities; there are too many people for common traditions to develop. In this small ball park, which seated no more than a little bit over 6000 people, we were all bound by the traditions of baseball, specific to this ball park, but repeated, in an endless variety, in small-town ball parks all over the country.

There were so many little traditions spread throughout the game; the team mascot was a pig, and this baby pig was brought out on a leash at the beginning of each inning, dressed in a different outfit — a tutu, one inning, pink ears and a dress on another. To understand the relevance of the pig, one has to go back to the early history of St. Paul, whose original name was “Pig Eye,” named after Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant, a French Canadian who sold whiskey upstream from Fort Snelling, at a trading post which later became St. Paul. I don’t know how many people in the stands knew this, but the pig was a fixture at Saints games. It gets bigger and bigger as the season goes by. I do not know what happens to it at the end of the season (they start each season with a baby pig), and do not know if it has any connection to the pig roast that occurs at the end of the season.

Then there are the trains. Just behind the Left Field fence is a train track. All during the game, trains go by; and each time one does, the announcer says, “train.” The crowd says “train.” The word ‘Train’ scrolls across the scoreboard. If there are two trains, on both tracks, the announcer says, “double train” and everyone repeats it….and, finally, there was the wonderful fireworks, bursting overhead to the tune of Neal Diamond’s ‘Coming to America,’ with the crowd singing out the tune, and then “God Bless America” with everyone standing and cheering their heads off

All of this bound people at the park together, and made them part of a greater fabric which is America. I could have seen the same theme 50 years ago, with minor variations; and Norman Rockwell could have been in the stands, painting the kids on the field, before the game, playing catch with the Saints ball players 50 years ago as he could have today. It was as American as one could possibly get, and I was in awe, at that point, at the thought that I was IN this painting.

So, God bless Wayne Terwilliger, the war hero who came home to baseball, and devoted his life to making our enjoyment. God bless all those eager young men who never made it to adulthood, buried in some unknown land, or in the fields of snow-like tombstones that are so ever present in our towns and cities. Your death did have meaning. I weep for every one of you, and am grateful that your sacrifice enabled these freckle-faced kids to sit in the stands and be part of a great American experience.

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Jefferson Got it Wrong; The Relationship Between Minorities and Majorities in a Democracy

July 4, 2010 | america, constitution

Harry Jaffa has an interesting discussion in Opinion Journal on the relationship between the majority and minority in a Democracy, especially in relationship to our efforts to help Democracy bloom in Iraq. It raises the question of what rights a minority has in a Democracy? Do the rights of the minority supercede the rights of the majority? If a minority finds certain words, emblems, actions or deeds to be offensive, does the majority have the obligation to cease those words, emblems, actions or deeds? What are the responsibilities of the majority to the minority in a Democracy?

I always thought that Jefferson got it wrong when he wrote America’s Declaration of Independence, prior to the American Revolutionary War. He wrote, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Jefferson knew better; he was a slaveholder, and was well aware that all men are not created equal. He probably never entertained the notion at all that women might be equal. I do not know how he felt about Indians, but I am quite sure he did not consider them to be the equal of Europeans.

What he should have written was “we hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equally endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights….” Every man has these rights, even though they are not born equally endowed with skills, intelligence or the access to resources that might help them.

Of course, the problem revolves around who is considered ‘man,’ and what those ‘inherent rights’ are. Certainly, in the 18th century, no African or Indian was considered in that definition of who has inalienable rights; the reason why it was so easy to kill Indians and enslave blacks and women was because they were not considered to be ‘human.’ Their religion was wrong, their technology was lacking and there were serious questions about their level of intelligence…thus, the word ‘man’ was very defined. Only white males, especially landowners, were endowed with unalienable rights; everyone else needed to be taken care of.

Today, we have gone in the opposite direction. Everyone has rights…even illegal aliens have all the rights of the Constitution. Some jurisdictions are considering giving illegals the right to vote and the right to a driver’s license.

Along with this has come a regular industry of lawyers and organizations, such as the ACLU, which fight for the rights of the underdog. Well-known is the furor over Indian mascots and names of sports teams, both professional and college, fights for the right to smoke cigarettes in public places, etc, etc.

In the Federalist Papers, no. 51, James Madison suggests that the rights of the minority are not threatened in a democracy. The minority cannot be oppressed in a Democracy, because there are not centers of power to oppress minorities; power is dispersed throughout the electorate. ” In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government; and the usurpations are guarded against by a division of the government into distinct and separate departments. In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself”

The argument against this, of course, is the situation of Indians, Africans and women at the time of the signing of the Constitution, and decades afterwards. These groups certainly did not have rights, nor did they have protection. In fact, they could not even count on living, as all three groups were subject to be killed at the whim of those who did have rights, more often than not with impunity….and this is the point which relates to Iraq. What guarantees can we give to the Sunnis that they will be protected by the majority, in a Democracy, especially as we have not had such a sterling record ourselves in protecting minorities?

The answer is obvious; the plight of women, Africans and Indians in the United States is FAR better than it was in the 19th century. It took us close to a hundred years, but the situations, which were in existence at the founding of our nation, have been resolved…because a Democracy cannot exist with a totalitarian segment in society. Social status’ have to, eventually, be reconciled. In other words, if the Democracy survives, rights will follow.

This does not happen immediately. Sometimes it takes a generation or ten for the society, as a whole, to adjust to changes that need to be made…which is, of course not at all helpful for the people alive at the time, but change does take time.

The problem with those who want instant solutions to social problems is that they lack faith in people and in Democracy. They are totalitarians, who want totalitarian solutions to problems, in their mold…they do see the long view, but want change made now. Rarely are such instant solutions lasting solutions. One must take a long view of history and, when one does, many of the eternal questions we continuously debate wither away like snow in the spring.

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The United States Used to Be a Nation of Laws

July 3, 2010 | bias, media, media bias, new york times

Nothing illustrates the despicable politically-bankrupt atmosphere surrounding the current administration than the case of two armed black men standing in front of a  polling place intimidating yelling threats at voters they consider to be against their issues.  the Washington Times explains:

Tomorrow, the Civil Rights Commission will hear long-awaited testimony from J. Christian Adams, who resigned from the Voting Section of the Justice Department after the department improperly ordered him to refuse compliance with the commission‘s lawful subpoena.

All these allegations stem from what should have been a slam-dunk voter-intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party videotaped in menacing behavior outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008. The Obama Justice Department dropped or seriously reduced all the charges or penalties in the case after it already effectively had been won. Mr. Adams‘ former colleague, longtime award-winning civil rights lawyer Christopher Coates, has been reported on multiple occasions to have backed Mr. Adams‘ version of events and of the Obama team’s openly discriminatory policy.

If the department’s motives are not racial or racist, Justice officials surely appear political. One of the Black Panthers against whom the department declined to press charges was an official poll watcher for the Democratic Party and an elected local party official. The department dropped charges just four days before another election, allowing him again to serve as a poll watcher

Disgraceful is the BEST word that can be used for this situation. The justice department has given the Black Panther Party a green light to intimidate voters in future elections, with the full knowledge that they will not be prosecuted.  As Fox news says,:

Adams says the dismissal is a symptom of the Obama administration’s reverse racism and that the Justice Department will not pursue voting rights cases against white victims.

Where are the champions of Civil Rights, our protectors of free expression, in the media, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune? Are we to assume that we, as citizens, are on our own, now? We cannot depend on the media or the Justice Department to pursue overt violations of the Civil Rights laws?

My fellow Americans, we are deeply in trouble if we allow this to happen without STRONG, VOCAL and DEMONSTRATIVE actions directed towards the justice department, our Representatives in Congress and the media. We cannot let this stand! If our laws are no longer impartial, our principles no longer exist!  As we approach the July 4th holiday, the symbol of the founding of our nation, are we seeing its end?

.

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An Open Letter to the President

June 23, 2010 | america

An open letter from actor Jon Voight to President Obama:

June 22, 2010

President Obama:

You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone’s enemy — and it has resonated throughout the world. You are putting Israel in harm’s way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world.

You have brought this to a people who have given the world the Ten Commandments and most laws we live by today. The Jewish people have given the world our greatest scientists and philosophers, and the cures for many diseases, and now you play a very dangerous game so you can look like a true martyr to what you see and say are the underdogs. But the underdogs you defend are murderers and criminals who want Israel eradicated.

You have brought to Arizona a civil war, once again defending the criminals and illegals, creating a meltdown for good, loyal, law-abiding citizens. Your destruction of this country may never be remedied, and we may never recover. I pray to God you stop, and I hope the people in this great country realize your agenda is not for the betterment of mankind, but for the betterment of your politics.

With heartfelt and deep concern for America and Israel,

Jon Voight

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Stand for Israel, Stand for the West

June 19, 2010 | israel

The Friends of Israel have joined together in a new international initiative on the basis of the following convictions: 

Believing that the continuous deligitimation of Israel has a great deal of responsibility in raising an aggressive and dangerous anti-semitism, in a spirit of solidarity with the State of Israel, and in recognition that we, the Western nations, must stand together lest we fall together, we therefore launch the Friends of Israel Initiative to do the following:

a) To combat the deligitimization of the State of Israel at home, abroad and inside the institutions of the international community.

b) To publicly show our solidarity with Israel’s democratic institutions – the legitimate expression of the Jewish people’s millennial aspiration to live in peace and freedom in its national homeland.

c) To support Israel’s inalienable right to secure borders unmolested by terrorists or tyrannical regimes so that its citizens can continue living with the same guarantees that our own societies enjoy.

d) To consistently and firmly oppose the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.

e) To work to ensure that Israel is fully accepted as a normal Western country, an essential and indivisible part of the Western world to which we belong.

f) To reaffirm the value of the religious, moral, and cultural Judeo-Christian heritage as the main source of the liberal and democratic Western societies.

We stand by Israel because, among other reasons, we stand for civilization, Democracy and freedom against the forces which seek to suppress the expansion of human potential

These convictions inspire this Friends of Israel Initiative. We invite all men and women of goodwill to join us.

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The United States Has Lost Control of its Southern Border

June 16, 2010 | america

Fox News is reporting that Federal officials made an 80-mile stretch of Arizona-Mexico border — including part of national wildlife refuge — a virtual no-man’s land as violence by drug smugglers and illegals runs.

We have lost control of our borders, people. There is obviously no one in charge in Washington. Are we getting nervous yet?

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