Chet Edwards Votes To Leave For Vacation

In considering the events going on this week in the House of Representatives, Texas District 17 should know that Rep. Chet Edwards voted to adjourn for a 5 week break rather than vote, or even debate, on solutions for the nation's Energy Crisis. 15 Blue Dog Democrats had the spine to stand against Speaker Pelosi and voted "Nay" to the adjournment. Chet Edwards (D-TX) was not among these noble men. Those 15 put the prosperity of the nation before partisan politics.

Let this be a clear delineation, that while Chet hails from the heart of conservatism, he is neither a Blue Dog nor a conservative.

Chet's value system has become skewed by the promise of political power. As my Daddy would say, "His plumb bob doesn't hang true right." By reading Chet's description of his faith, it is clear he designates the IRS as the great Collection Plate from which he can dispense the lucre according to his own charitable ideals.

In Chet's world the victims are not the taxpayers trying to make ends meet with what the government allows them to keep; but those who just can't get enough "charity" dispensed through "Bishop Edwards'" munificence in order that their every problem be solved. When political aspirations cause a man to legislate in direct conflict with the will of the people, that man must be removed to allow another to take his place.

There is a man to take his place. Rob Curnock would be an added voice to the Republicans in the House that are calling for a bold energy plan: All Of The Above. The Republicans are the party of ideas. The Democratic Party is the party of "No!"

Either lead or get out of the way. Chet Edwards (D-TX), with his vote to adjourn, exhibited the latter quality - he got out of the way. Time to make it permanent.

Stick a fork in him....he's done.

#dontgo - New Media Trounces Pelosi Blackout

August 1, 2008, Speaker Pelosi thought she could send the House of Representatives home for adjournment without a vote, or even debate, on solving the Energy Crisis. She turned off the lights, cameras, and microphones. She emptied the Press Gallery thinking the story was over.

Thanks to Rep. John Culberson and Real Time News, she thought wrong.

Breaking Speaker Pelosi's News Blackout

The Nancy Pelosi [a.k.a. Marie Antoinette] Book Tour

Rather than stay in Washington to work on legislation to solve the nation's energy crisis, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is promoting her new book - "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters".

Pelosi provides hints of her leadership style only in one instance: her 2005 confrontation with Bush over his proposal to create private retirement accounts in place of the Social Security system.

America's daughters must understand that this woman stopped a wonderful plan to allow America's young men and women to place part of the Social Security taken from their paychecks by the government into a PRIVATE account of their own choosing. The President's plan would have guaranteed that upon reaching retirement age, at least that personal account would actually contain money, rather than an I.O.U. that's in the government's account.

But, solving a foreboding financial meltdown was not the purpose of this paragon of Democratic Party strategery. Assuming power, for the sake of power is Nancy Pelosi's political strategy with the financial security of America's daughters and sons.

But she and her allies chose another strategy.

"First, you must take down the ratings of your opposition," Pelosi writes. "Second, you must differentiate yourselves from them.

"And third, only when the time is right do you present your platform."

Pelosi assumed power in 1996 with the Democratic Party spin of "Culture of Corruption". Any plan to make America more prosperous and secure for the future has been bottled up in the 110th Congress, while spending/bailout legislation has skyrocketed. Pelosi needs to meet the power of America's daughters and sons voting to repudiate Pelosi and her brand of political scheming.

The republican revolution of France [falsely] accused Marie Antoinette of telling the starving peasants crying for bread, "Let Them Eat Cake". Marie unfortunately met her end upon the guillotine. Multi-millionaire Nancy Pelosi, offered no counter plan to President Bush's superb idea, thereby allowing the government to continue to "rob" young people of their hard earned money in the name of Social [In]Security. She's got hers, but she denied you a portion of your own.

The 109th and 110th Congress has stood in the way of sound investments in the future of America and the people. Chet Edwards (D-17 TX) has been a voting asset to Nancy Pelosi.

This is a call to arms of all America's young people - Know Your Power - elect a conservative to Congress.

In Texas District 17 - elect Rob Curnock a real conservative.

McCain Does It Right On MSM Obama Love

YouTube - Obama Love


Way to go John! This is so brilliant in so many ways.

Real Time News and Its Enemies

We are entering the next step of personalized news. Rather than waiting for your congressman to be chosen for an interview by Fox News or the New York Times, you can interview your own congressman in "real time." Watch this video from John Culberson (R-TX), who uses an internet-connected video camera and a Blackberry to "broadcast" his side of a news interview. Imagine the possibilities, and the accountability!

What are the ramifications of this new technology? The first major benefit is that we no longer have to wait until the MSM decides to interview our congressman. Real time technology allows us to interview him or her directly. We can watch our representatives and senators explain their votes, make speeches, or even observe a chat in the hallway as it happens. The second benefit is that we can disseminate this information to friends via the internet. This activity is the essence of classical republicanism which is based on individual equality and self-interest bound by morality. Ideas and events otherwise hidden in the netherworld of uncovered MSM news are brought into the light and into the hands of everyday citizens.

Real time can become your personal news source. Micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter, where short text messages are used to spread information about what is happening right now. Twitter is used by the firefighters in California to relay information and by the people being evacuated to tell family and loved ones where they are and where they are going. The Red Cross uses Twitter and so do Congressmen from the floor of the House. Sign up for Twitter and search, monitor, and communicate with anyone you choose, on your computer or cell phone. You don't have to be a geek or have a bunch of spare time--Twitter is quicker and easier than email.

In Congress, only leaders are allowed to use this technology. All other members are currently not allowed under the archaic House franking rules. For example, because email has the word "mail", it must be reviewed by the Franking Commission before it is sent. However, there are two congressmen, Representatives Culberson and Tim Ryan (D-OH), who are skirting the gray area by using Twitter, Facebook and Qik Video to talk directly with those members of the public that have signed up to do so. Culberson and Ryan send messages about what's happening on the House floor in real time, bypassing the MSM and, so far, leadership approval. This is the essence of the internet--free flowing information in real time. And as with Tivo, if you don't catch it live, watch the recording.

But not all is flowing smoothly. Full congressional use of this technology is being challenged in the Democratic-controlled House. At issue are concerns regarding decorum. The House doesn't want racy content or political advertisements adjacent to official congressional communications. Oddly, these same rules do not apply to print, radio or television. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA), Chairman of the Commission, wrote this letter to Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA), Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, recommending no actual changes in the rules. This sparked a flurry of activity on Twitter last week, with even the left-leaning Sunlight Foundation joining the fracus with the Let Our Congress Tweet campaign. YouTube has also responded by offering to provide a separate platform for Congressional use without advertising. Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) fully supports the use of this technology, and issued this letter (pdf) to Speaker Pelosi saying:

"I believe Members of Congress should have the ability to choose whichever service they believe will best assist in communicating with their constituents, and not be limited to only services "approved" by the House Administration Committee or any other government entity. We must encourage, not restrict, the free and open flow of uncensored information between the American people and their elected leaders over the Internet."

Speaker Pelosi replied with this letter, castigating the Republicans for supposed false allegations:

Unfortunately, inaccurate rumors have been circulated asserting that the suggested standards allowing for web video outside of the House.gov domain would affect Member blogging or use of sites such as Twitter. Dissemination of this false information does a disservice to the vital dialogue on using technology to increase citizen involvement, education, and transparency in the House.

The above link from "inaccurate rumors" goes to a blog post in which the Capuano letter is sanitized by someone telling us what Capuano "meant" to say. Culberson writes in at comment #5 stating that he spoke directly with Capuano to confirm that oversight over all congressional electronic communication is the ultimate goal. According to Congress Daily, "He [Capuano]said that he is not seeking to regulate anything other than video — not blogs, chat rooms or any other written communication – “but [at] some point we may have to.” [emphasis added]

Culberson has since written this letter (pdf) to Speaker Pelosi in which he chronicles the fact that the rules placed upon internet communications are not, and rightfully so, applied to print,radio, or television. He believes Congressmen were elected by the people because of their good judgment and that Congress should place no burden restricting that judgment.

Real time is where it's at. Every rugged individualist should have the power to find their own personal news and then spread it among friends. Such ability is the true design of an engaged electorate in a free democratic republic. It is both the voice of democracy and the sublime nature of a republic when the leaders and the electorate can speak in an open dialog unedited into sound bites. The republic is then protected by a transparency that quickly reveals actions done for selfish motives for amassing control and power. Imagine a future in which congressmen who refuse to use this technology of transparency being viewed not only as Luddites but as suspect. Congress should act soon to allow its use.

The Defending the American Dream Summit

I met many new friends at the Defending the American Dream Summit this weekend in Austin. I'll write more about this conference in upcoming posts, but here's me with one of my new friends, Michelle Malkin. (!)

Jackalope on American Thinker!

Dear Readers,

The Jackalope is currently at the RightOnline/Americans for Prosperity Defending The American Dream Summit in Austin, Texas.

I am pleased to announce that today I have an article, "Real Time News and Its Enemies" posted at American Thinker. I will post the article tomorrow here at jackalope.blogspot.com, but I encourage you to visit American Thinker today and leave a comment.

Turning Civilization's Virtues Into Liabilities - The Democratic Party War Machine

Over the weekend Senator John McCain met up with the real Democratic Party War Machine (DPWM)—an alternate reality where virtues are turned into the blackest liabilities. Where molesting an intern is a virtue worthy of stalwart Democrats burning every grass crown of righteousness they’ve ever earned, but anything considered true, honorable, pure and of good report is considered a diabolical plot. The spin machine of the DPWM has accelerated to ramming speed. All party members are chained to their oars. Their target now is the one undeniable virtue of John McCain—his war-hero status as a Vietnam POW.

John McCain went through a brutality beyond even the scope of Abu Gharib or Club Gitmo. No quiet times sitting in the recliner listening as a guard read another chapter in the latest Harry Potter series for McCain. No fraternity prank of a sexually charged dominatrix leash or panties on the head for McCain. America is well aware of the atrocities he experienced in the Hanoi Hilton. Only Jack Bauer is able to apply the same rules of torture our enemies apply to their captives; where electricity is more than just a source of power to run a light or radio and bones are meant to be broken to aid in breaking the spirit. McCain only thinks he has experienced the worse a human heart can devise, but he and America are sitting targets for the depths of depravity the Democratic Party will use to sink their opposition.

This depravity graffitis over every virtuous ideal, making the once clear image unintelligible. Like a middle-school student’s book cover, the process begins by filling in all the enclosed spaces of print. As an “o” becomes a black hole, McCain’s Air Force service makes him guilty of not watching out for children in school crosswalks by his indiscriminate bombings. He is Robert Duvall smoking the trees and faceless innocents with napalm because Charlie don’t surf. Genuine torture victim John McCain doesn’t even deserve the idealistic virtue of never cracking under pressure, as Hollywood characters James Bond or Jack Bauer are able to do. So now it is McCain who is guilty of crimes against the United States or is as suspect as the Manchurian Candidate.

For innocent lambs puzzled by evil or obliviously unaware they are sure prey to those intent upon dark work, who think I am an alarmist, I cite the activities of my own Representative and Nancy Pelosi’s choice for Obama’s Vice-President, Chet Edwards (D-TX 17). Also of note is how the DPWM inner circle is revealed as Edwards gives his seminar on “How To Win In The Red States” at a Wesley Clark sponsored event. It is “et tu, Wesley” delivering the past weekend's dagger-stab to Caesar McCain. In the seminar, Edwards lays down the DPWM ground rules:

Let me just say that I am one that believes in the basics. I think that it's the basics that make the difference between a successful company or corporation or a failing one, an effective military organization or an ineffective one, or a winning campaign or not, sometimes.

It's the basics. And there are three basic rules, or 3 basic goals we had in our campaign that were sacrosanct.

1. I would define myself. I wouldn't let others do it, or my opponent do it. We defined ourselves.
2. Secondly, I defined my opponents.
3. And thirdly, we responded immediately if attacked.

Edwards further defines Basic Rule 2:

Let me get to the final, key thing that allowed us to win. Rule #2, I was going to define my opponent. … Take your opponent's greatest strength and turn it into their worst negative. (Emphasis added)

In practicing this rule, Edwards found a “victim” of his Republican opponent’s state-level cut in the CHIP children’s health insurance program, portraying Arlene Wolgemuth’s lower-taxes virtue as the darkest vice:

I'm Jamie Jones. I'm 28 years old. I live in Teague, Texas. I have a little girl that's 3, Bailey.
Two years ago in March, my husband was killed in a house fire. And she got put on CHIPs. That meant no matter what happened, she was going to be okay. And then about 6 months ago, we were denied.
I haven't changed. I didn't get a raise at work. She was just denied.
You know there are so many people out there that work so hard. I don't want welfare; I just want good insurance for my child.
I'm working hard. I could go quit my job tomorrow and she'd be set. But I'm not going to do that. There are a lot of people out there that aren't going to do that and why that group of us has to get hurt, I don't know.
Look at my little girl, look into her eyes and tell her why she's not good enough to be taken care of.

CHET EDWARDS: “I'm Chet Edwards and I approve this message because there's so much at stake.”

By playing the “Republicans are always out to starve children” ad, Edwards not only defined his opponent, he left a dark crater where that virtue of cutting government spending once stood. When the DPWM sends out a lightning bolt of destruction, nothing remains but charred rock—as if the Almighty Himself had hovered over the mountain of redemption. But, such is the practice of darkness that it always seeks to mimic the power of God.

Therefore, it is incumbent that we defend the marble pedestal upon which ALL military heroes stand. As I write here in a coffee shop, I pause to visit with a cool prosthetic-sporting Army vet from the Afghan terrorist front. When we refuse to allow the white marble of all war veterans to be graffitied into oblivion, we are defending this hero’s honor as much as John McCain’s. The DPWM is out to destroy any virtue, honor, truth, value, or reputation that gets in the way of their acquisition of power. The history of all things undeniable is destined to the ash heap of fallen civilizations unless we make the conscious decision to fight hard to keep these truths undeniable … and I’m not being an alarmist!

Who Is Chet Edwards?

Last Tuesday, June 24, Texans of District 17 learned that victorious Queen Bee Nancy Pelosi vaulted one of her inner-circle drones into the national eye as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate for Barak Obama. Who is Chester (Chet) Edwards and what does he bring to the Democratic Party Presidential ticket?

Chet Edwards, a 20-year member of Congress, assumed control of newly drawn Texas District 17 during the Tom Delay sponsored redistricting. He was the only Democrat able to maintain his seat in Congress in the 1992 Congressional election.

TX 17 is much more than President G.W. Bush’s district. It is home of:

• Texas A&M, a behemoth of bureaucrats, researchers and an airport beholden to tax funding,


• Fort Hood, another leviathan, a 340 square mile installation (217,337 acres) and the only post in the United States capable of stationing and training two Armored Divisions. This makes Fort Hood a tax funded construction contractor’s dream,


• Baylor University and Medical School, another higher education facility with its hand ready to be shook in allegiance,


• a collective of the Southernism known as “Yellow Dog Democrats”—ranchers, cotton and corn farmers, country folk, and retired military.

In Congress, Edwards is “one of the few House Members on both the Budget and Appropriations Committees and one of two House Democrats serving on three subcommittees.”

• Appropriations Committee
  • Chairman Military Construction and Veterans Affairs
  • Second ranking member Energy and Water Subcommittee
  • Member Homeland Security Subcommittee
• Budget Committee

In response to Speaker Pelosi’s announcement, Edwards released this political biography:

Edwards is the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. In his first year as Chairman of the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee in 2007, Congressman Edwards authored a historic increase of $11.8 billion in veterans’ health care and benefits, the largest increase in veterans funding in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration (VA). Today, the Appropriations Committee unanimously passed the fiscal year 2009 bill, which increases VA spending by $2.9 billion above the President’s request and $4.6 billion more than the historic fiscal year 2008 level.

But what kind of man is Chet Edwards and what does he bring to the Obama ticket?

After winning the newly drawn District 17 in 1992, Edwards gave an informative political seminar: Winning in the Red States. If Obama practices the Alinsky method of political jujitsu, he’s a piker compared to Edwards. In the seminar, Edwards regales how he politically destroyed his Republican challenger, Arlene Wohlmeguth, by finding a pitiable victim of Wohlmeguth’s state level cuts in the CHIP. program. Edwards played the “Republicans starve children” ad and burned his opposition to the ground. Where Obama wins his races through political duplicity, Edwards is a hard-core Texas politician in the LBJ mold and he knows how to scare his constituents for votes.

Veterans are, in the words of Bonfire of the Vanities race pimp Rev. Bacon, “Steam Control” and Edwards knows how to keep the steam stoked and ready for his political machinations. In 2004, Edwards successfully stoked his Veteran steam to near explosion by playing a carney shell game with a willing and gullible press to get the headline he wanted in order to scare his own vote base: Lawmakers Work To Fill $1 Billion Gap In Funding For VA Lawmakers. The game involved bringing up a shortage in funding for veterans in a budget committee rather than in the appropriation committee of which Edwards is a member.

“I was accused of making partisan attacks. Now some of those people have apologized to me and are saying I was right and they were wrong,” Edwards said.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a member of the House Budget Committee, said Edwards’ efforts in that committee wouldn’t have made a difference because the panel votes on a budget blueprint, not appropriations.

Edwards is a prime mover in the insidious Democratic Party activity of insinuating that our government is not giving enough money, care, or help to group “X” in order to emotionally cripple their own voter base. This disgusting practice allows the perpetrator to self-anoint himself as the benefactor to his victim voter. Nothing is more debilitating to the mental health of a veteran than to start a whisper campaign that they are in fact being used and tossed away. What veterans must recognize in order to not fall under the spell of such duplicity is that the Democratic Party cares nothing for a military man until he in fact is blessed enough to actually become a veteran. Note in the above mentioned bio/press release that Edwards only lists massive spending increases for veterans and nothing for active duty troops.

Edwards first vote in this current Congress was the party line vote that refused to fund the surge in Iraq. Ditto the F.I.S.A. bill that has remained in limbo underneath Speaker Pelosi’s desk blotter until last Tuesday when Edwards gushingly reported to his constituents in his weekly radio interview that in a massive move of “bi-partisanship”—a constant buzzword in Chetspeak—Congress finally came together to pass the FISA bill. In the alternative world of those in the know, that means Congressional Democrats finally dug the bill out of the dark hole they had hidden it for almost 4 months and actually put the bill up for a vote.

This is a brief introduction to the man Nancy Pelosi has selected for Obama’s Vice-President and the method of power he would bring to the ticket. This would be a powerful Democratic ticket and Republicans would be wise to attend a Fight Club seminar before challenging an Obama/Edwards merger because as Fight Club says, “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?” Chet Edwards knows how to fight and is not afraid of the dark alley.

Why can't we Republicans be…well…more republican?

Have we become so like spoiled children since 1994 that don’t know our own key political issues? On Friday, Rush Limbaugh opened his show with Reagan quotes from a 1977 CPAC speech that provided the answer to something that has been worrying me: conservatives seem to believe our leaders are doing nothing.

In the 1790's, Thomas Jefferson perceived that the Federalist Party was becoming too like the nation's previous English overlords - governing in a top down fashion. With the advent of the French Revolution, a spontaneous debate sprung up between Federalists and republicans that sought to further define the philosophy of this new experiment in democracy. Local clubs were formed and their ideas were printed in widely read newspapers. This was the first grassroots republican movement.
In 1801, Jefferson set about leading America toward an even more liberal democracy,

[by] instill[ing] the nation with his liberal convictions. That is, he succeeded in limiting the scope of government while protecting the informal public realm where people could form organizations, engage in politics and freely trade with one another. So familiar to us are these elements of public life that we easily forget that it took a foresighted leader to pluck, from the quiver of America's possibilities, the two arrows of participatory politics and limited government.

Joyce Appleby, Thomas Jefferson

We are republicans (little "r"), individuals united by a philosophy. We must not forget that republican leaders are only as powerful as we are unified behind them. We cannot let the fact that we are a motley crew of rugged individualists become our own downfall. As exhibited when we stopped the legislation on illegal immigration last year, we are the power behind the Republican (capital "R") throne!

"But, what are they doing?", we whimper. Actually, quite a lot, if you examine the sites listed below.

* The Heritage Foundation (10 Key Issues are listed with research to back them up)
* John Boehner/Republican Leader (A Superlative 14 Key Issues are listed here)
* Roy Blunt/Republican Whip (Follow House activities under Whip Resources)
* GOP.Gov (8 Key Issues are listed here)
* The Freedom Project (10 Key Issues are listed here. Join the team and Take Action Now)
* National Republican Senate Committee NRSC.ORG (View great ad campaigns here)
* The American Conservative Union Foundation (An outstanding online classroom of conservative study)

Our leaders are making the case for our cause every day and it must be increasingly disheartening for them to be told they are doing nothing. Anyone can be a critic, but it takes a real pair of...onions...to make a difference out in the world.

"But, there wasn't a television announcement", we blubber. Or was there? The news is not only about shaping your mind as to what to think, it's also about shaping your mind as to what to think about! Why did we learn nothing about Ira Magaziner perjuring himself at the court hearing of Hillary's secret Health Care Task Force? The news agencies played a shell game and moved our attention to The O.J. Simpson Show. The last thing we saw concerning the East Coast event was the swirl of Hillary's dragon-embroidered cape as she exited her black limo. And, so it goes today with Obama coverage sucking up all the bandwidth and brainwidth.

The Internet is our venue and word of mouth is our newspaper. We know, as Reagan told us,

[e]xtreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business, galloping inflation, frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite.

It is our job to spread the word and we are not a helpless minority. Reagan told us,

[l]et us lay to rest, once and for all, the myth of a small group of ideological purists trying to capture a majority. Replace it with the reality of a majority trying to assert its rights against the tyranny of powerful academics, fashionable left-revolutionaries, some economic illiterates who happen to hold elective office and the social engineers who dominate the dialogue and set the format in political and social affairs" (and because we are the majority) "let’s act and talk like it.

We must remember who we are, realize the power we possess, and act accordingly. Yes, we have been dismayed because John McCain's political compass doesn't point due north. But the answer is not to cry and run home to our mamas. The best solution is a powerfully charged electronic fence of a strong Congress backed up with an engaged electorate to keep our prone-to-stray mustang on the farm. We must use the fact that we have 3 branches of government to our own advantage.

Reagan tells us:

I refuse to believe that the good Lord divided this world into Republicans who defend basic values and Democrats who win elections.

Our party must be based on the kind of leadership that grows and takes its strength from the people. Any organization is in actuality only the lengthened shadow of its members. A political party is a mechanical structure created to further a cause. The cause, not the mechanism, brings and holds the members together. And our cause must be to rediscover, reassert and reapply America’s spiritual heritage to our national affairs. Then with God’s help we shall indeed be as a city upon a hill with the eyes of all people upon us.

It's the Congress, stupid

Let the mole do her work, while we rally to elect a Congress

We all remember November 1994, when then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich initiated a unifying manifesto to give Americans a reason to rally the vote: The Contract With America. Considering this 2008 election we are forgetting one major aspect - the first 100 Days that heralded in the 1992 Clinton Co-Presidency. The martyred Barbara Olsen, in her book Hell To Pay reminds us that “(w)ith advisors like (Ira) Magaziner and (Vicente) Navarro, Hillary was determined to sweep aside the best medical delivery system in the world” with a plan of government control of a private business sector in order to “reshape 14 percent of America’s economy by enacting a national health care plan.”

What we must remind ourselves of is that every day, there was a new Munch silent scream as people actually read the fine print of “The Plan” and warned America of the danger that lurked in the heart of Hillary Clinton. We must remind ourselves of the little things, such as Hillary's vocal attacks on the pharmaceutical industry while her hedge fund not-yet-in-a-blind-trust was busy selling pharmaceutical stock short. Such was the beginning of the newfound Clinton wealth.

Such panic and fear was created in the first two years of the Clinton Presidency that private businesses actually made political commercials to alert the voting public of the threat not only to industry but also to the very personal well-being of the individual. I remember seeing a Vegas casino representative in an extremely nice suit and very sharp tie as a guest on This Week With David Brinkley stating in no uncertain terms that the people employed by whatever casino he represented had the best health care program available and were not in need of Mrs. Clinton's help. It seemed Michael Corleone took care of his own, and Mrs. Clinton should get her butt in the kitchen baking some canollies.

Motivated did not even begin to describe the roaring ocean of the Vox Populi, Vox Dei for the 1994 election. For those first two years the American public was held hostage by a maniacal power grabbing family backed up by Democratic Party control of both Houses of Congress. Recall the fawning of the Congressmen as they lined up to praise the “little woman” who so over-shown with brilliance that forevermore the President should be referred to as “Hillary Clinton's husband.” The 1993 torching of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas made it perfectly clear that the Peace and Love Generation was running the nation, and nothing's scarier than a totalitarian regime with a tank. I saw a local newsguy proudly showing off his “Branch Davidian/Texas Bar-B-Que” novelty t-shirt to the rest of the crew back at the station; purchased no doubt from some of the more entrepreneurial revelers at the gas and burn event.

The sleeping giant was wide awake; fully cognizant that freedom and liberty were under assault. What Newt Gingrich did was solidify that national horror into a Republican Party we could vote for. The results of the 1994 election displayed an enormous backlash against the person Hillary Rodham Clinton. The political casualties included Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, George Mitchell, and Dan Rostenkowski.

It was then that a caller to the Rush Limbaugh show made a prescient observation: former Goldwater Girl Hillary Clinton could not be more destructive to the Democratic Party if she were a Republican mole destroying it from within. The wisdom of Solomon tells us a contentious woman will tear down her house with her own hands.

The present Democratic Party is the source of this nemesis against freedom. Let the mole do her work, while we rally to elect a Congress to stand in the gap between Liberty and tyranny. A Congress aware of the threat of terrorism will support Israel. A Congress firm in their understanding of our Constitution will keep McCain on the ranch.

It's the Congress, stupid.

Democratic Pirate Code

You have just watched the best analysis of the Democratic Party Code ever. Of course, it goes without saying that you must be a Democrat in order for the Code to apply, so any other political party's cry of fairness falls upon deaf ears, even the ears of the pirates working in the MSM. Because the Democratic Party Code reality is that the code is more what you would call guidelines than actual rules. So, it is perfectly normal to count and recount those votes until you get the results you want. Besides, this is the generation that broke all the rules and crossed every social boundary of our national culture.

Aaaarggghh, Democrat Pirates will even redo primaries in order to get the results they want.

Zell Miller and Joe Liberman are evidence enough that the Democratic Pirate Code holds true when it comes to marooning any crew member guilty of abandoning his post in the heat of battle.

We must unite in a mission to send the entire lot to Davy Jone's Locker. Aaaarrrrgggh!

Liberty and Freedom Require a Moral Citizenry

But the Left and Democratic Party are Actively Screwing It Up

One of the greatest losses in today's culture has been the decline in basic, or practical morality. In a society based on liberty and freedom, trust is a mandatory element. I'm trusting you to be ethical and honest and you are doing the same towards me. Truth is the basic and necessary requirement of a civil society that cherishes freedom and liberty. Truth is the foundation of trust, because without truth, the creation of trust is impossible. In philosophical terms of 'ends and means', we can state: Truth is the means to achieve the ends of a civil society based on maximizing personal liberty and freedom. To live in that free society, citizens are individually responsible for regulating their morality. A lack of basic morality creates the need for more outside regulation. Outside regulation, by its very nature, places limits upon personal freedom. Personal morality means less government interference and control.

The Left, like every totalitarian regime before it, has issued a two-front war on morality that works in tandem to actually endanger personal liberty. The first front denies the need for morality by confusing freedom with hedonism. The second method is to deny the existence of morality under the argument there is no God and morality falls under the auspices of religion. Religion is then opposed under the misunderstood "separation of church and state".

Hedonism teaches that happiness or pleasure is the sole or chief good in life. Those of us that survived the 1960's Cultural Revolution remember the hedonistic motto, "If it feels good, do it!" However, the fact that such a life actually leads to a self-imposed limitation on personal freedom is not given proper consideration. Examination of the break-down of the family due to following the revolutionary creed resulted in more than one generation of children virtually raising themselves. The continuity of generations of parental instruction became fractured. The pursuit of hedonism results in every sort of behavior that has proven detrimental for individuals, families and especially so for the children born into the self-inflicted social turmoil. Such a community creates alienated individuals. Alienated people are easy to control and become prey for those who seek power for power's sake.

The Left through the Democratic Party and numerous front groups have deftly manuevered many citizens into a trap by presenting hedonism as if it were the ultimate choice representing personal liberty. Note that for every vice there is an "addiction" factor making the addict a victim to be rescued by the "caring" Left. There is a government investigation and program created for every hedonistic vice we could possibly create. It is clearly apparent from the checkout line tabloids that sex, food, alcohol, smoking, gambling, drugs and anything else hedonism offers can become a prison, both metaphorically and in reality. Even the desire to live off the largess of others leads straight to the self-induced imprisonment of poverty and destitution.

Note how the Left today rushes in to "save" us from our hedonistic pleasures with laws to prevent smoking, to eliminate our debt on maxed out credit cards and home mortgages, or even overeating. But isn't it a bit much that the people that encourage hedonistic behavior should now comfort us by telling us that nothing is our own fault and offer yet another government program to save us from ourselves? The real evil is the truth behind the Left's pronouncement that you have been victimized. The dark truth is that it was they who did the initial victimizing. Considering these thoughts, we can only conclude the Left pushes hedonism as a substitute for personal liberty, because broken people are powerless and easy to control. How sweet a deal is that when we look to our personal destroyers as our benevolent protector? The victimized readily reward Democratic Congressman, national and state, by voting them to rule over us year after year.


We must accept the fact that to embrace hedonism as a liberating choice is to despise your Creator-endowed personal liberty. To be truly free requires us to be in charge of our own destiny. The key to personal liberty and freedom is self-control. My plea to young people: Do not accept the Left's lie that hedonism is an equal substitute for liberty. Baby-making, drug use, or just general apathy about life is like tying your shoelaces together before your Olympic sprint. The term "stupid" comes readily to mind. The commercial plea for donations says, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste", but a community can not prevent her youth from wasting their own minds. Wise up. Freedom is not free.

The second front the Left employs seeks to deny the existence of God and the Judeo-Christian creed. The idea here is that if God doesn't exist, then neither does morality. By connecting morality to religion, the Left is able to deny even the existence of practical morality, or what we used to call good citizenship. Good citizenship was based upon truth and honesty. The Bible teaches truth and honesty, because God Himself is true and honest and requires the same from those that desire relationship with Him.

But the Left teaches there is no God, no Creator, no Ten Commandments. Instead of transcendent truth, the Left's moral slogan is: "If you can get away with it, then the means justify the ends." which is nothing more than a call for social anarchy. The Left is paving the way to making lying and deceit normal activity. The Left declares that if lying, deceit and whatever other dishonest activity will get you what and where you want to be without being caught or sent to prison, then go for it. An absence of practical morality makes the community a scary place to live. Everything is potentially a lie, a front, a scam or even cause of death. This kind of community also keeps people alienated from others because too often we find we can't even trust our friends to be honest and trustworthy. So, once again the Left has deliberately created a social problem so they can rush in and "save" us from those that deal dishonestly and corruptly. But, the dark thought that the Left and the Democratic Party were the source of the confusion should niggle in your brain.

Therefore, to think the actual source of the problem can be your salvation is through common logic, a blatant and malicious lie. Remember that those in political power achieved their status through the same motto they preach: "If lying, deceit, and whatever other dishonest activity will get you what and where you want to be without being caught or sent to prison, then go for it." “If there is no God, then everything is permissible. ..., as the fateful quote goes in Dostoyevsky's The Brother's Karamazov. Imagine the horror such a community would become if we acted on every evil and deceitful thought that came into our minds. Then realize the Left's approval of such groups as NAMBLA should forever ban any idea the Democratic Party might present as to how to better run this nation or community. It is completely absurd to think a bent ideology has anything positive to offer.

That the Left holds themselves as Messiahs of hope, when the reality is their ideas are diabolically corrupted and deceitful is evidence of a complete mental break with reality. Besides, how can there be a Messiah, a Son of God, a Saviour, if there is no God? There can be no Son without a Father. The Left preaches "hope", but tell you the nation is broken. They promise a "new" freedom, but use government to restrict freedom. They offer help, but that help comes at the expense of not just your personal liberty and freedom, but your very well-being. And even more perversely and deadly, when it comes to national security, the Left practices an abberation of Christian teaching, by loving our enemies more than they love us. Or even worse loving money more than our security.

In conclusion, it should be obvious that to believe the current Democratic Party offers anything other than tyranny and oppression is to be clinically deranged.

If You Love Public Schools, You'll Heart Huckabee

The title says it all. If you are completely satisfied with the current state of our public schools, Mike Huckabee is your man and reading this article will be of no use to you. Thanks for reading these first sentences, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

However, if you are not exactly thrilled with the results of our public school system but you think Huckabee is your man, I encourage you to (as Moderates are prone to suggest) keep an open mind and give me a chance to make my case. As a refugee from the public school system and having mastered the 12 Step Program of "Catcher in the Rye Syndrome" the attempt to save our culture one remedial reader at a time, I believe I have the credentials to challenge your populist love affair with Mr. Huckabee.

A good populist, as defined by Merriam-Webster is "a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people." And as Rush Limbaugh likes to point out, we common people know who we are. Common people are authentic and genuine and expect it in others. However, as evidenced by our failing public schools we might want to consider that the great guy sitting next to you singing "Bringing In The Sheaves" with robust enthusiasm who also serves as principal at the local zoo of a school might not be a living saint. A thoughtful consideration of the parable about the tree and good fruit and bad fruit might be your assignment for tonight. (Okay, so I haven't fully recovered from my teacher status.)

The point I want to make is that a person can be an authentically shallow person voicing the right platitude at the required time like the proverbial typing monkeys. Given time, an authentic commoner who needs real action in solving a problem can recognize trite platitudinous drivel for what it is: WORTHLESS.

Welcome to the school campus run by Mr. Fluffy. We teachers call our principal, Mr. Fluffy because we never know what's going to happen because emotions guide our helmsman. Parents may wonder how young girls cutting their "mystery meat" with a knife brought from home or boys who draw a gun on a piece of paper are arrested and then suspended from school. But yet a troubled student can walk into a class and shoot at will. The answer to your query is a local Mr. Fluffly who agonizes over everything petty while also extending Christian forgiveness to serious infractions or problems.

When a teacher has had it up to her French twist with a disrespectful student, Mr. Fluffy strives to prove he's more Christian than she is, forgiving our dear student of all his sins and infractions. Mr. Fluffy twists the golden rule sideways by loving the enemies of others. Mr. Fluffy grins and joshes with the classroom's little hellion, making said hellion promise to not cause Miss French Twist anymore trouble, and then Mr. Fluffy pats him on the back and sends him on his way. Mr. Fluffy then continues on down the hall with the air in his head making a whistling noise come out his mouth. This is your local zoo school and one prime reason of how it got that way.

But, how does this connect to Huckabee you might be asking yourself. Read the "brilliant" foreign policy thoughts of Huckabee and think not of foreign policy but of the state of our public schools.

The United States, as the world's only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat. But it is more vulnerable to the animosity of other countries. Much like a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised.

Huckabee just gave truth to the upside-down world of our failing public schools by supporting the notion that successful students are to be despised. This is prime Mr. Fluffy territory. Do you know of a situation where the campus thug bully attacked the good and righteous student and both students were punished? Have you heard murmurs of a good and righteous student being lectured to not be so good and righteous because it only antagonizes the bad and unrighteous?

Well consider this: if the achieving student is urged to downplay his natural ability and the underachiever is not only forgiven his predatory tendencies but actually rewarded by seeing the gifted student degraded, then how on earth can worthwhile education be happening on that campus? Mr. Fluffy firmly believes the righteous will be persecuted by the unrighteous, but he mistakes his religion for his job assignment, which is to foster an environment of learning and safety on his campus - NOT to allow his religious beliefs foster a sort of fatalism that allows the big ones to eat the little ones with impunity. That's not Christianity, that's Christian/Nihilism!

To apply Mr. Huckabee's standard of public school principal to American foreign policy would be disastrous. Imagine Mr. Fluffy as President of the world's lone super-power; agonizing over the petty issues and good o'l boy-ing tyrants and dictators. Listen carefully to Huckabee's silly meaningless platitudes and realize that to a fluffy Principal/President, those brave students in Iran with the "Live Free or Die" banners are the same as the gifted student striving to succeed according to his God given ability. While professing that it "grieves his heart", a fluffy President knows it is the protesting students who must be quiet for the greater good.

This is simply the application of Huckabee's top high school student example put into practice on the world stage. A Fluffy President knows best and it's the bad guys with the weapons that must be pardoned for their sin, because a Fluffy President is able to love our enemies more than he respects his own common citizen.

If Mr. Huckabee never considered this application of his foreign policy statement, then I suggest his shallow introspection is not the quality of a great man much less that of a potential President of the United States of America. If you did your aforementioned homework assignment you now understand why you can't pick a ripe juicy fig from a thistle because there is a difference between benevolence - the desire to do good things - and beneficence - the actual accomplishment of something useful and good for another common man.

Class dismissed.

Stop Fighting, Start FixingOr, Don't Go Down Fighting, Just Go

When it comes to politics, I must admit to "fighting" fatigue. Hillary Clinton tells us she is fighting for families. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX 17) tells us he is fighting for veterans and families not wanting welfare, but some other vague non-welfare welfare so their children get health care through SCHIP. All this political "fighting for" never addresses the fact that the "fighter's" victims/opponents are simply other American individuals and families that basically want to mind their own business and have others do the same.

Even in high school I thought the "fighting" word pretty stupid. I remember standing at parade rest in the end-zone, Friday Night Lights glaring, as the stadium announcer welcomed the "J. Frank Dobie Fightin' Longhorn Band." What a stupid statement: fightin' Longhorn band. Were we some sort of uniformed gang standing in the end zone looking for an opportunity to march onto the field clubbing our opposition with our musical instruments? Even then the whole "fighting for this" or "fighting for that" seemed inane.

Don't people ever just talk, come to a conclusion of the best course of action, and then proceed in an amicable fashion? Or have common sense and civility left us entirely? Has the the "fighting" mentality of the Contrary Generation been going on so long that they are incapable of accepting defeat when it comes their way? When the President vetoed Congress' expansion of an approved expansion of the S-Chip Bill, Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX 17) told his constituents in his weekly WTAW radio interview that Republicans and Democrats needed to come together in "good faith" and write an (obviously identical) bill. The reality that the Democrat position was overruled was completely ignored.

The "good faith" line always reminds me of the rite of sharing a campfire with the caveat that I disarm myself while allowing my comrade to remain fully armed and dangerous. Common sense is the casualty of this wall/head banging, creating a psychological disconnect to reality. Senator Kennedy's fighting seems to be obsesed with water. And does Senator Kennedy really think he can pontificate the "torture of water boarding" when a number of people remember a poor girl drowning in Ted's Cadillac as he wandered the shoreline thinking how to save his political career? The irony of such a situation has the makings of magnificent farce; yet it is accepted as not only normal but profound. The shrill, viper-tongued, lamp-throwing Hillary is the champion fighting with, er, for ... the family? David Mamet--even Shakespeare--could not have written a more sublime farce.

As we enter this next year of political campaigning in earnest, any candidate using the F-words ("fighting for") instead of ardent declarations to defend our American strengths and values (the Constitution, our troops, free enterprise, individual freedom and family) should be instantly and firmly advised to get back to specifics. Irresponsible rhetoric attempting to engage fighting between fellow Americans is just plain tiresome. The republican (little "r") ideal of the best idea winning upon its own merit must resoundingly rebuke the F-words mentality of boilerplate bludgeoning that passes for political discussion.

Respect Belongs To The Individual

Tom Wolfe's The Painted Word tells of his epiphany when viewing minimalist abstract art. Wolfe became aware that the black and white paintings of Barnett Newman or Mark Rothko were the result of a refining fire in the massive, world-wide, time-eternal libraries of spiritual understanding. The paintings, in a sense, distilled ages of literature. Wolfe was on to something. Professor of Fine Arts Robert Rosenblum wrote of Newman's Stations of the Cross series:

Here the ultimates pertain to death and resurrection, evoked by the primal duality of black and white, and of taut linear forces that, like paths of feeling, quiver and strain against a field of raw canvas, translating the sequence of Christ's martyrdom into irreducible, abstract metaphors, and totally transforming the corporeal Passion into a spiritual one.

This sentence is comprehensible if and only if the reader is steeped in the volumes that reveal that Passion. Even then, the physical realities of what actually happened when our Messiah was arrested and crucified escape us. What is missing is the true concept of respect.

The reasonable and proper understanding of the concept of respect remains the recognition of past personal development built upon the foundation of ultimate truths. It is complete foolishness to look upon the end results - wealth, power, or personality - and believe it worthy of respect any more than we can understand the Passion of the Christ simply by viewing a series of paintings at a museum.

The present Post Modern culture has not only reduced the inscrutable mysteries of meaning into mere painted black and white lines, but we project this attitude in our daily lives and think we have gained insight and understanding. Kind of like Clark Griswold's attitude of seeing the Grand Canyon (okay..okay...let's go!) before pointing the station wagon toward Wally World for a 'real' vacation. The post-modern mind shallowly accepts the final synthesized product as the lesson to be learned without the bother of exploring the volumes of thought the final product represents.

Those that demand true respect the most, deserve it the least. But how do we know this basic truth unless we explore the countless volumes of past commentary? The etymology of respect is English, from Latin respectus, literally, act of looking back, from respicere to look back, regard, from re- + specere to look. In Western thought, respect became a commodity of the free man. The feudal man was told whom he was to respect without choice and without the ability to regard the character of the man. If he did regard the character of the person of means, it amounted to nothing unless the entire system were to be overturned. Power in feudal times belonged to those that seized it or were appointed by divine right.

By the Age of Enlightenment, respect came to be a worthy commodity, granted and retained according to the free will of the individual. The American Declaration of Independence and Constitution declared the respect of the individual according to secular and political terms. Respect became an individual's raw material and this new Constitution provided the protection to develop that raw material in our personal pursuit of happiness. The respect garnered by the individual as he lived his life was valued at all costs by the owner. The gift of pledging personal respect to add to that of another individual was a sober event. Respect is only as dear as the individuals bearing it behave.

This is the freedom that the United States of America was created to protect and to nurture. A new order of men established according to the value of the individual. No worldly connections should be able to earn a man respect; this new order required men to build their own. The foundation stones of respect -- duty, honor, commitment, righteousness -- are the same for all men. All men were equal upon achieving the age of consent. From that point, development of personal respect was the deciding factor in the value of that respect. America was designed to reward choice, not connections. To decide or choose is to live in freedom.

The Post-Modern world has supposedly freed itself from all that baggage stored in the libraries of philosophical thought. They were all "out with the old/ in with the new." To ponder out the good from the bad, the enduring from the au currant, was so yesterday. The Post-Modernists are respect thieves. Anyone with integrity who operates in righteousness is vilified for doing so. Post-Modernists add up their stolen respect like notches on a gun. Every day they take aim at a new target and then proceed to destroy their prey.

Freed of the past form of constitutional respect, post-modernists can destroy the integrity of men of respect while being completely devoid of the characteristics of respect themselves. Stolen respect creates a wealth of power. Stolen respect is sold on the political table and we see such odd bedfellows as the burly guys of the labor union's support for girly-man presidential candidate, John Edwards. Freed from working out your own respect before an omniscient God, a Post-Modernist can answer the question, "Did you have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski?" with a transcendental musing on the legal meaning of "is".

These leaders spend so much political time destroying any opposition or buying respect back in the home district that they fail to do that which they were elected to do. Keep bridges from falling down, protect the border, defeat those who would do us harm, honor the Constitution -- these things require men of integrity, righteousness, honor, diligence, justice; all the historical aspects of respect. To expect anything of value, of worth and principle from a Post Modernist is complete foolishness. Without examination of the qualities that have stood the test of time, respect devolves back into a feudal age of power, coercion and compulsion. This is our future unless something is done.

Today's leaders are leaders because they were elected 20-30+ years ago. Most have never worked any other job other than politics. The current thought of accepting the end result of power in exchange for the age old qualities of personal respect has allowed the incumbent to rule rather than the Constitution. Our Congress is full of 'appointed' Lords and Ladies rather than men of respect. Why should we be surprised to find corruption, malfeasance, lack of character, and incompetence on both sides of the aisle?

We have allowed our leaders too much respect for the end result of position rather than observing the qualities of their own personal respect. Even worse, in doing so, we have devalued our own respect and become unwashed wastrels begging at the trough of government largess. We continue to vote for our appointed representative to keep the money flowing even though that representative's votes tell sensible constituents to go pound sand. When Chet Edwards (D-TX 17) was questioned about his vote not to fund the troops of the surge in Iraq, (a vote that had many of his constituents furious) he laughed and said, "That's what's great about a democracy." (!) This cocksure presumption comes from having purchased his position through distribution of taxpayer money. Such is the attitude of any elected official when citizens sell their self-respect.

The Post Modernist sees the black and white paintings of The Stations of the Cross and thinks himself a better person on the hierarchy of mankind, rather than having met the truth of his need to develop his own personal respect. When the '60's radicals did away with such arcane rules as respect for authority (i.e. police and military) or office (i.e. Republican Party) they paved the way for a legalistic regard for respect. If you doubt that the United States went through a cultural upheaval that has taken us backwards one need only look at the wall of a local classroom where they will see a poster put up by a teacher to describe how students are to treat her and how she will treat them. While these placards use the word respect, the behavior sought is better termed etiquette or common courtesy. Behavior is not respect. Not even good behavior. Treating someone kindly is not the same as respecting them. However, doing so is an investment in your own commodity of respect. Today, politically correct rules seek to enforce honor to those not willing to cultivate their own respect. All these Post Modernist views of respect are in opposition to the original intent of our Constitution.

To understand respect is to appreciate the value of your own existence and then that of others. A freeman's respect is qualified by his own ability to cultivate that raw material that makes us all equal. The process of developing these abilities are free and available to every man: discipline, work ethic, and integrity. To truly appreciate respect is to recognize and accept the rules and spiritual foundation that created it. The recipient cannot claim the final product as truly his own, unless he dares enter into the great volumes of the past to continue the qualities of men who have set us apart and put us on the road to establish community and civilization. It is to this end that the everlasting qualities of respect are revealed, not by viewing a canvas of end results and assigning upon them respect. Civilization suffers when respect is coerced or stolen from the holder by thugs or those holding political office and authority . The future of our nation depends upon respect remaining the commodity of freeman.

Time Out for the Pepsi Generation

When I was in 3rd grade or so, I remember a TV ad for Pepsi, showing what I thought of as "the older kids" playing touch football on the beach. They were the perfect "older kids" living some sort of 'lifestyle of the rich and famous' as they were to be later classified, whom the Pepsi ad presented as the "Pepsi Generation". They were the cool kids; the tuned-in, turned-on, tuned-out. But throughout the entire American culture the product this set-aside generation has created is akin to a toddler proudly, and rightfully so, presenting their parent with their poopy-bowl. The parent is filled with joy at this presentation of a bowl of excrement, and again rightfully so. But when immature adults are more concerned with their "right" to show their poopy-bowl in public and have the public struck dumb by the magnificence of that feat than in the defense of the Constitution providing the safety for their willful silliness, it behooves grown-ups to snap a chalk-line of cultural relevance and drop a plumb bob of acceptable behavior in our communities.

My point is that this self-anointed Pepsi Generation has been like the unrepentant generation that plagued Moses with their incessant murmuring and excuses as to why they couldn't just do what God told them to do - enter the Promised Land. Complicating simple tasks is the trademark of The Pepsi Generation. Health care, education, retirement, welfare, college tuition, insurance, energy production - each of these industries are being destroyed by a bureaucracy created to muddle the clear path and entrap unwitting passers by.

At present, all clear minds see the sublime beauty of our Constitution with its recognition of our God given rights and establishing capitalism as a course of individual freedom. The second year of the the Clinton Presidency, I declared that the Democratic Party dead. My friends declared the idea absurd at the time, but have realized the prescient qualities of the humble jackalope. The activities and the people excused by the Party cornered them in an unconscionable position. The "Pepsi Generation" must be sent to eternal political "time out", so that the thinking citizens can enter into the Promised Land defined by our forefathers. When integrity and righteousness are perceived as weak, the nasties of the world rise up to do their worst. When stupid behavior receives its swift and just reward, children can play with safety upon their front yards and sidewalks. That's the Promised Land and I say we can take it.

This post came from a comment made at The Breath of The Beast - Cultural Insanity III

We Have Statesmen!

The Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declared the search of Rep. William Jefferson's (D-La.) Congressional office was unconstitutional. The House Republican Leadership received heat at the time from their supporters for declaring the search unconstitutional. Could we then extrapolate that the House Republican Leadership is in touch with the true interpretation of the Constitution; even to their own hurt? Isn't that the definition of 'statesman'? To defend the Constitution is a solemn oath. If we don't like what it could allow, then amendments are in order.

Bridges and Bureaucracy

A main lesson of the Minneapolis highway bridge collapse is that politicians don't spend our money wisely, because they are too busy spending it to get themselves re-elected. This can only be fixed by us, the taxpayers and voters.

As it is now, unless a bridge is "new and improved" a true bureaucrat would never fund it. Remember Texas Governor Ann Richards cuting the ribbon on the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, proudly proclaiming it as her "gift to the people of Texas"? So, since the first job of an elected official is to get re-elected, the money allocated to every congressional committee and sub-committee is nothing more than oil used to lather up the boys and girls for the political equivalent of WWF. A bureaucrat knows his constituents are fools and could never see something so obtuse as investment in the future continuity of the country if it's just plain keeping things functioning correctly. Unless, that necessary infrastructure is deemed bad ( new refineries? nuclear power? never!) and is to be build in your constituent's backyard; then the bureaucrat can ensure re-election by being against it.


Since some tax monies are meant to support the nation's infrastructure and our bridges are falling down, the logical solution of the bureaucrat is to raise taxes. Like children, they have no shame that they participated in frivolous spending and now have no money for essentials. Only when taxpayers identify - and reject - congressional pork in their own backyard will this silliness stop. My congressman, Chet Edwards (D-TX 17) , is proudly earmarking my district in a manner that enslaves his constituents to his beneficence with your tax money. Many children rebel against a parent that gives money instead of parental love and nurturing. Should we taxpayers be any different? Chet gives us your money, but he votes contrary to our values. I rebel! .

The question of whether the beat goes on, or the crumbling walls of the eminence front is knocked down on rests in the action of united individuals. Things crumble when what's everybody's business becomes nobody's business. This is also the stumbling block of uniting individuals. In contrast to the bureaucrat, statesmen spend tax funds first for essentials and only then consider either returning the money to the the taxpayers or investing in projects that would benefit the future. We need statesmen, but we must vote them in and support them when they are attacked by the Left and the MSM. The truth is that there are statesmen involved in a struggle for our liberty and freedom, much like the Minneapolis highway bridge victims who suddenly found themselves trapped in their cars and plunging into the dark water. The philosophical question for us is: Do we blame Bush and accept even higher taxes or do we bravely jump into the water to save lives and the future of our republic?

Proper Instruction Gets Proper Results

The jackalope has returned from a very well deserved and absolutely bodacious vacation. The joy of seeing my young niece and her rambunctious brothers play and enjoy life was most gratifying and relaxing. The absolute thrill I saw on my nephew’s face as he began to master his new “big” bike’s hand brakes in a curve was reward enough for an hour of coaching him in the high altitude sun that reddened my middle-age wild turkey waddle that used to be a svelte tower of a neck. I was young again, sharing in his joy of learning to do something big and intimidating. I saw it in his face: The world is conquerable! It is not something overwhelming and uncontrollable. It is an undeniable truth: Proper instruction gets proper results.

So when we traveled to Salt Lake City to visit my grown man nephew, wife and son, this thought was in my head. How wonderful was this visit. It was the first time we had seen Justin since his return from Iraq. What joy to see he and his wife, Heather, playing with little (almost) 3 year old Hunter in the front yard as they waited for us to drive up. To hug and kiss and see with your own eyes that everything is alright and getting back to enjoying the life he had fought to preserve for the rest of us. The secret of another child on the way being told first hand and in person to his childless aunt and uncle. The circle of love and family is ever expanding.

Then began the furious evening and following full day of getting the marrow and fat of enjoying each other's company. Absence had definitely made the hearts grow fonder. This time, we had a grand-nephew to listen to and observe and such funny things you learn. As evidence that youth is fleeting, little Hunter had already learned the retort, “I hate you” when reprimanded. Gee, it took me 14 years to come up with that childish rebuttal. As with most silly childish things, Hunter had learned this comment from an older cousin. Improper instruction gets improper results.

As we went about our shared adventure, the repartee in the car was quick and usually silly, but then came the moment for the sowing of salt along with the fun. This is the habit of a teacher: inserting something profound disguised as silliness into the conversation. The childish rebuttal — “Easy for you to say” — is the Liberal answer to anything confoundingly simple and logically concise. I listened with joy to the common sense my young nephew was relaying concerning his plan for the future of his family when, with childish cunning, I slyly slid in a lesson. “Easy for you to say, Justin.” He laughed because it was funny. I explained that the phrase was the catch-all phrase used by the sillies on the Left to excuse failure. He quickly rose to the bait.

“Get a job.” “Easy for you to say.” “Don't get pregnant before marriage.” “Easy for you to say.” “Learn to read and write.” “Learn to speak English.” “Don't drink and drive.” All easy for you to say! If the answer is anything but agreement, the adult/child is sowing seeds of silliness. We all had a great laugh, and then went to eat the most carnivorous hamburger ever invented: The Crown Burger of Salt Lake City. “Easy for you to say!”

Yes, proper instruction gets proper results!