A Fait Accompli?

The buzz in the American news media is that Obamacare seems to be a fait accompli.

The Obama administration and democrat partisan hacks in the federal legislature are apparently negotiating on Fox News, and also print and broadcast organs of the government/media enterprise in advance of the House-Senate conference next month, which is normally where competing bills would be reconciled before a concluding final vote in each body. They are planning and refining their "ping-pong" strategy to work out their differences behind closed doors, without C-SPAN and out of the public view.

Eternal Vigilance has already been in contact with our senators, as well as with other key Republican senators. We will also be contacting the members of our state delegation in the House of Representatives, both Republican and democrat. We have asked, and will continue to ask that, our elected representatives in both parties work to defeat the socialist/progressive/government takeover of American health care.

We have contacted with the Republican Governors Association. As many governors have taken to the airwaves to denounce the Louisiana Purchase, Cornhusker Kickback and the Florida Flim-Flam as "unfair", this raises the spectre of chief executives supplicating on behalf of their states for a place at the ping-pong table with Nancy and Harry. They will have our unwavering support if they use every constitutional means at their disposal to thwart this disaster. Conversely, any use of their office to support or advance this flagrant subornation of the United States Constitution and the legislative process will be duly noted and reported here.

Health care is but one part of the scheme that has been launched since the election of President Obama. From his czars, to climate change, to foreign relations, to domestic policy, President Obama seems determined to roll back decades of real progress under the rubric of "change" and "progress". Matthew Spalding with the Heritage Foundation rightly points out that change and progress are virtually useless as metrics. The 2008 election of Barack Obama is an example of "change". The inexorable march toward "health care reform", with its irrevocable clauses binding future Congresses, regressive taxes, debt-busting expenditures, and second-world rationing of care is "progress".

In the Senate bill the backdoor repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion, is an example of the lengths to which the socialist/progressives will go to pander to their base. They would subvert three decades of established law and the moral conventions which inform our society. We applaud the Stupak-Pitts amendment offered with the House version, which restricted government insurance plans under the bill from paying for abortions. That amendment passed on a floor vote with a solid majority of members.This may be a major problem for the conferees and the ping-pong players.

We no longer accept the idea that writing and passing legislation is one of two things that should never be seen. We call on Congress and the Senate to deal justly with the American people. When there is a fair and open legislative process, free from corruptive pandering and influence-peddling and fully dedicated to good governance and sound fiscal policies, only then will Congress be able to regain any measure of trust and respect from the American people.

President Lincoln at Gettysburg called on the Americans of his day to take the measure of their devotion, on behalf of those who had given "their last full measure of devotion". These times are just as perilous to the Republic as the Civil War was then. They fought to preserve the Union. We strive today, once again, to save the Republic.

Millions of everyday, otherwise unremarkable Americans have taken the measure of their devotion and have decided that enough is enough. We have drawn a line in the sand in 2009.

When we voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 we said no to radical socialist/progressivism.

We voted no on cap-and-tax.

We voted no on deficit and debt-busting budgets, regressive taxation and the expansion of the welfare state on April 15, 2009.

We voted no on government-run universal health care on August 22, 2009 and at townhall meetings all summer. Many of us have been reviled and sorely abused for the stand we've taken, some even physically abused for refusing to bow to the "inevitability" of it.

We voted no on the unbridled expansion of government and a radical socialist/progressive agenda on September 12, 2009 with a million or two million Americans in the streets of Washington, D.C.

We have voted no again and again and again with emails, faxes, phone calls, letters and petitions. Because the Left have had the street to themselves too long, we have taken to the streets in record numbers, with signs and anger, and a little fear.

Every elected Republican representative and senator has the support of the electoral majority in their district and state. Why haven't they all taken advantage of their bully pulpit to explain the health care bill and why they opposed it? We would ask that they come out of their offices and out of the TV studios, and take the lead on this issue.

Gentlemen and gentleladies, enough with the civil and stentorian tone! There is no comity out here in the real world! A talk radio listener wanted to know why the senators from his state, who voted against the Senate bill, weren't running around like their hair was on fire over this.

We are not satisfied with press releases from your office or tweets from the party or the campaign. It is long past the time for sound bites and emails, or speeches from the floor to empty chambers and C-SPAN cameras. We don't have time to watch anyway. We may not all be the deep-pocketed contributors who will help pay for your re-election campaign, but we are the voters at whose pleasure you serve. You have heard from us - it's high time we hear from you!

A fait accompli? We the People don't think so. Do you?

Thomas Paine offered three alternatives to the leaders of his day - "Lead, follow, or get out of the way".

SO SAY WE ALL!!!!

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty....

Rage Against the Machine

In response to a plea for deus ex machina.

There is a god in the machine, but one which will only bring us harm. The machine is malevolent rather than benevolent, a mechanism of soft tyranny which seeks to crush the impulse of liberty.

The machine is incapable of deliverance, only enslavement.

Rage against the machine....

Rage against the machine that was the legislative branch of the federal government but is now a den of charlatans, thieves and feckless mandarins. Rage against the machine that has become the government/media enterprise, substituting propaganda, "progressivism" and "change" for responsible governance and sound fiscal policies.

There are tens of millions of fed-up and frustrated Americans, with an equal number of points of view and opinions on how to respond to the problems that plague us. No single individual or group has the capacity alone to mitigate this crisis. Each new day brings with it a greater sense of urgency, new demands for action.

Each one of us needs to heed the wisdom of President Lincoln at Gettysburg, and take the measure of our devotion - to faith, to liberty, to hope for the future of our country and our posterity, then act accordingly.

Thomas Paine said it best, I think -
"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

There is no greater reason for hope, no greater gift to our posterity, than for us to know we have done all we could in our generation to preserve, protect and defend the United States of America against all foreign enemies, and against domestic enemies who write their legacy in double-dealing and fraudulent legislation.

Our legacy will be the continuation of the American experiment.

Ours is the better course.

Harry Reid's "health reform" debacle

So Harry had to buy Senator Mary Landrieux, democrat Lousiana, to get her vote. He had to toss the so-called "public option" overboard to buy the vote of Senator Joseph Lieberman, Independent from Connecticut. Now there are supposed changes to the abortion language to mollify Senator Ben Nelson, democrat Nebraska, to get his vote. Oh yeah, almost forgot - and some unspecified amount of federal health care dollars, covered under a portion of the legislation written specifically for the state of Nebraska, to be paid beginning January 1, 2017(!).

According to Cox Radio correspondent Jamie Dupree, the abortion provision changes that satisfied Nelson have angered Representative Bart Stupak Democrat of Michigan, who calls the language "unacceptable". Politico.com reports that Stupak says he has to the votes to stop the bill.

While Stupak was making his objections known, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), also came out against the modified abortion language in the bill. Planned Parenthood and the National Organization of Women (NOW) have raised their own objections to the Reid-Nelson abortion compromise, as well.

Does this mean that Reid's cloture-ready democrat majority is blown up again? What will it take to buy off Stupak and the House anti-abortion Democrats? Are all democrat politicians for sale? Will the pro-abortion caucus in the Senate bow to pressure from abortion interest groups and reject cloture on the bill as it now stands?

Stay tuned.

Eternal vigilance, indeed....

On Copenhagen

Venezualen dictator Hugo Chavez says socialism will save the world from the "evil ghost of capitalism", and gets a rowsing round of applause.

US Secretary Hillary Clinton's talking about how hard it is to reach an agreement on activities to mitigate climate change and that $100bil is just a downpayment in the 3rd world shakedown of 1st world capitalism.

It's not about the environment, stupid...!

It's anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, and anti-American economic thuggery.

It's a global pandemic of liberal pandering. Western and Asian democracies have elected leaders who are more sympathetic to the madcap anarchists and tin-horn dictators who populate the Copenhagen conference and make up the bulk of the protestors outside, than are dedicated to the democratic principles which have underpinned their countries for decades and centuries.

The leaders of these economic powers would sell their citizens down the river- for what? The admiration and respect of Hugo Chavez and Wen Jia Bao? For good vibes in Sudan and Russia?

Unfortunately, President Barack Hussein Obama is more interested in creating a world constituency for himself, than he is in advancing the ideals of freedom, limited government and American exceptionalism...

...and he was probably right at home....

Of Partisan Hacks, Rank Hypocrites and Opportunists

It is the rankest form of hypocrisy for democrat partisan hacks in Washington
to complain about the quality of the Afghan government and the cost of the Afghanistan war.

FoxNews.com quotes Richard Durbin, ranking democrat partisan hack from Illinois, speaking about Afghanistan, "...there's a lot to be desired in terms of the last election and the corruption in his government". I suppose it's some kind of mental or rhetorical slip as he goes on to ask, "Are we going to let American soldiers stay there (in Afghanistan) indefinitely while they dither, in Vice President Cheney's words?"

I could give Durbin the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's accusing President Karzai and the Afghan government of dithering. However, based on Durbin's behavior, I wouldn't put it past him to actually accuse the U. S. military of dithering. And it must be lost on Durbin that President Karzai could easily justify making the same statement about the American government, as the American government, in the person of President Barack Obama, did dither for months on the Afghanistan decision.

The same article quotes Russ Feingold, democrat partisan hack from Wisconsin, as saying he and his allies will do whatever they can to prevent the Afghanistan surge, even to the point of blocking funds for the troops. Their strategy will include efforts to "...fight any attempts to use sort of accounting gimmicks to allow it (the Afghanistan surge) to be funded", and "...to oppose it... (as) also fiscally irresponsible." Feingold is also quoted as saying, "The idea of continuing to spend on this war flies in the face of the American people's priority to bring spending down.

Perhaps these are newly discovered traits for both, and they really don't know how to apply the principles that underly these ideas. Otherwise, Durbin's recent passion for good governance and decisiveness, and Feingold's new-found ardor for sound policy and fiscal restraint smacks of political opportunism and paints both of them as the rankest of a mob of rank hypocrites in Washington D.C. and in the democrat party as a whole.

It may seem redundant to do so, but I would like to offer the following list of recent democrat activities for the reader's consideration - Bush's fault, TARP, bank and insurance company seizures, US military as Nazis and terrorists, automotive manufacturing seizures, Bush's fault, tax cheats, socialists, tax increases, VATs and war surtaxes, communists and communist sympathizers, Maoists, ACORN, dithering, health care "reform", Bush's fault, talking with dictators without preconditions, racism, Honduras, Colombia, Afghanistan, timetables for withdrawal, 12 trillion dollar national debt, quadrupling the national budget deficit, cutting critical weapons systems and Bush's fault.

Anywhere else it would be considered a singular character flaw when someone tries to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Of course, since Durbin and Feingold are both career Washington insiders, I believe they know exactly what they're doing. They are pandering to their base, to their sycophants and acolytes in the state-run media by cloaking themselves in the mantle of good governance and fiscal restraint to advance a liberal/democrat/progressive agenda which has no use for either virtue.

Perhaps Durbin, Feingold and the rest of the democrat partisan hacks could benefit from the wisdom of Jesus Christ, found in the Book of Matthew chapter 7 verse 3, by ignoring the mote in someone else's eye and considering the beam in their own.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, especially when liberty is under assault by partisan hacks, rank hypocrites and political opportunists.

GET OUT OF OUR HOUSE - GOOOH.com

In your favorite internet browser head on over to http://www.goooh.com

This is the web site for Get Out Of Our House. Here you will find information about the GOOOH plan to replace all 435 members of the United States House of Representatives. Take the time to look it over, take a shot at the questionnaire, see if you find something there that gets your attention.

In a previous post, this writer charged sitting members of the U.S. Congress with waging a cultural and economic war against the American people. Feckless mandarins, an impotent and ineffectual political class, aggrandizing and enriching themselves and their cohorts at taxpayers' expense and at the expense of American liberty.

They fancy themselves of the lineage of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, Truman, JFK, Reagan. A few may be that principled and informed, but most are not. And on their watch, America may be headed toward social, economic and political shoals which could sink the ship of State.

President Reagan pointed out that America's values, founding principles and way of life are never more than one generation from extinction. This generation, more than any other in recent history, must take urgent action to reverse this radical/socialist/progressive tide. A large part of that work can be accomplished by removing, as much as possible, the power of incumbency, the power of the K Street lobby, and the power of interest groups.

This is the purpose of GOOOH, to use the power of the vote to remove the political nobility currently ensconced in the House of Representatives and return that chamber to the hands of a responsible and responsive citizen legislature.

Is GOOOH the perfect solution? A solution at all? This writer has an opinion, but there's only one way for you to be sure. Find a GOOOH meeting. Listen to what they have to say. Join the discussion.

Because it's your House too....

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Share the Sacrifice Act of 2010

This is so arrogant, so absolutely scurrilous, so scandalous and beyond the pale, that it could only originate in the mind of a democrat partisan hack. With bailouts, "stimulus", apologies and bows, one could hope that there could be an end to the insanity. Only a politician with an absolutely impaired sense of the moral, the right and the good, and an equally enfeebled intellect, could come up with such a reckless and feckless scheme.

Among others, and we can't wait to find out who the rest are, disreputable democrat hacks Frank, Murtha and Obey have proposed the Share the Sacrifice Act of 2010, an income surtax meant to cover the cost of the Afghan war. They are concerned that the continuing costs of that effort will impair their ability to wage a cultural and economic war against the American people.

These people are not worthy of the Constitutional office to which they have been elected, and certainly not worthy of the rights and freedoms that accompany citizenship in the United States of America. Going forward, in these pages, any democrat that has endorsed this outrage will no longer be referred to by the title conferred on them by the office to which they were elected. They will be identified by their behavior, which is that of disreputable democrat partisan hacks, and regularly treated to the opprobrium they so richly deserve.

This writer has far too much respect for the United States of America and her enduring institutions to allow this profanation against the Constitutional responsibilities of the Legislative Branch, and the desecration of our military services, and the memories of those who have given what President Lincoln described as "...their last full measure of devotion", to pass unremarked and unchallenged. These hacks, responsible in their own persons for much of the economic destruction wrought against America in the last 15 months, would use the American military and the dead and the living victims of 9/11, to advance their corrupt and hateful political agenda.

We implore President Barack Obama to condemn this as the stunt that it is, and reject this cynical and naked partisanship. Though we believe that he would rather bow to tyrants and demigods, than to the wishes and the will of the American people.

Only the God of Heaven can grant recompense. His judgment, swift and sure, is tempered by mercy.

We would cry "A pox on their House!"

Eternal vigilance is the price of protecting liberty from the political thuggery of feckless mandarins disguised as American politicians.

On the 146th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

In early November 1863 President Abraham Lincoln was invited by David Wills of Gettysburg. Pennsylvania to offer remarks at the ceremony of dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial Cemetery.

The ceremony took place at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Gettysburg Memorial Cemetery on November 19, 1863. President Lincoln was expected to provide brief dedicatory remarks, to use the power of the Executive to consecrate and formally set aside that ground. He was preceded in the program by Edward Everett, who delivered a two-hour address. When Mr. Lincoln took the platform, he delivered the following remarks:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
With credit for the text to Abraham Lincoln Online http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.com

Thanks President Lincoln!

Make Mine Freedom (1948)

The link below was posted by one of the members of my local meetup. She added the following comment, "It is for a cartoon made in 1948 -- and is eerily relevant today -- please watch the entire 9 1/2 minute film. I hope it will inspire all of you -- 'John Q. Publics' all -- that everything depends on what we do next."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVh75ylAUXY

This same member created a Powerpoint presentation called "The Perfect Storm", which detail the rise of the Progressive movement and demonstrated that Progressives and their fellow-travelers have been peddling the same lies for nearly a hundred years. It is incumbent on us as lovers of liberty to take every opportunity resist these progressive ideas, and the collectivist impulses which emanate from them. I describe the desired end of their radical/socialist/collectivist agenda like this:

They want to transform the United States of America into a second world cradle-to-grave welfare state.

President Obama and the progressive machine are determined to reduce America to a mere shadow of her former self. We must be determined to thwart them at every turn. One of the best ways at our disposal is to remind ourselves and our fellow Americans where we came from, why America exists, what will be lost if our generation fails to protect, preserve and defend our liberty and enduring institutions from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Liberals Runnin' Scared?

I saw a post on a message board last week. The putative point of the post, as described by the title, is that liberals are trying to ram all this horrible legislation through the United States Congress because they are "runnin' scared". That they are panicked because of the backlash that is beginning to build as evidenced by falling poll numbers, media disaffection, etc. The post, rather than actually describing why the writer thought liberals were runnin' scared, was devoted to preaching to the anti-liberal, anti-democrat party, anti-Obama choir. My question in response to the post is this - if the Liberals were really runnin' scared, do you think they would still be trying to pass this health care bill? Cap and Trade? Putting up all these czars?

If you had the opportunity to compose an epic work which would hold up an opposition ideology or figure to scorn and ridicule, would you? Or would you use that time and energy to discuss the values and principles which undergird the foundation of this great country? To contrast a position which recognizes American exceptionalism, with the idea that America is merely one nation among many? To explain why the time-tested ideas of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", practiced among a citizenry "...dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.", is better than the liberal/socialist/progressive ideas of "spreading the wealth around" or "from each according to his means, to each according to his needs.?

Instead, we're out here larding up forums and message boards and inboxes with 2,367 word paeans to blue-collar political comedy, while the imperial congress, senate and Obama administration keep chugging right on with their "long train of abuses & usurpations... (which) evinces a design to reduce them (us) under absolute Despotism, (therefore) it is their (our) right to throw off such government, & to provide new guards for their (our) future security....", as decribed in the American Declaration of Independence.

How about five hundred or even two hundred fifty serious words about why the liberal agenda is wrong for our country? What would be the outcome if someone were to devote 2,367 words to a serious exposition of just one of the abuses and usurpations waged against the people of the United States of America by a government that seems to aspire to absolute despotism? I imagine that person, that document, would be a source of encouragement to millions all across this great country.

I'm far more concerned about the apparent ascendancy of a radical/socialist/Progressive economic and political agenda which seems to have taken hold in the mainstream of American thought. This battle, well, war really, is about hearts and minds. About an engaged and informed populace, properly equipped and empowered to confront and defeat the liberal/radical/socialist/media onslaught. About a people not beguiled by the siren song of ease and peace and security provided through the largesse of an evermore expansive and expensive federal government.

Frankly, I could care less about the motive state of liberals. Running, walking, lying in repose - they could take wing and fly - as long as their attempt to transform the United States of America into a second-world cradle-to-grave welfare state goes down ignominiously to defeat.

Eternal vigilance is the price of protecting, preserving, and defending this God-given gift of Liberty.

I Imagine Racism!

I think it was really stupid for the 9/12 March on DC participants to have the Obama witch doctor signs. How many, out of the hundreds of thousands of participants, actually carried those signs? A handful of idiots. The fact that they were used gives the state-run media and the race industry license to do what they do so well - paint in broad strokes.


In a blog post on CNN.com masquerading as political news, found here, Spelman College professor William Jelani Cobb is quoted as saying "there's a lot of connective tissue" between the Obama presidency, race riots in 1906 Atlanta and the "historic rancor [some] whites feel against successful blacks". Cobb continues, "Whether people want to admit it or not [I suspect] the Tea Party crowd believes the currency of whiteness has been devalued" (emphasis mine). Another academic quoted in the article, Princeton University's African-American Studies professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell says that the Tea Party movement, with an emphasis on states' rights, is "... an argument... tied to racial segregation during the civil rights era", which the blogger, Ashley Fantz, feels closes the circle.

Harris-Lacewell thinks it's unfortunate that the age of Obama has led to "an investigative effort to determine whether opposition to him is based on race or substantive disagreement.", She then falls back to the failsafe position of "I Imagine Racism!" by asserting, "...the problem is, it can be both."


I think the unfortunate conclusion to this article is that there are those who believe that the currency of blackness has been devalued by substantive opposition to President Obama's policies. Their response is to depreciate those legitimate policy disagreements, while embellishing their race industry credentials by exaggerating the racial "crisis". President Obama is diminished by their portrayal of him as a transfigurative ascendant hero, rather than a person of substance. They have internalized our opposition to government policy and made it about themselves.

It's as if Governors Faubus and Wallace stand athwart history yelling, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" Not really - those men and those ideas are dead. Racism, left and right, black or white, is alive in the imaginations of many, but it's dead too. Dead as an idea which defines American society, but not as a worn-out excuse. Some people just haven't figured that out yet.


Eternal vigilance is the price of protecting the right of self-expression, even of those who seek to divide us by race, rather than uniting us as Americans.

America Transformed?

I explored several different ideas and themes for this post. I was going to share my experience of being immersed in media this week, and the struggle to regain clarity. I was going to talk about how diabolical the government/media enterprise are in their pursuit of power. I was going to rant a while about the Obama czars. I was going to go on about the utter ruthlessness of a congress and an administration who would exploit the death of one of their own for their political gain. But I think I'll start off this way.

I heard it said this week that America is being transformed before our very eyes. The speaker's point was that all the things taking place in the Obama administration and the democrat party are attempts to radically change America. He was only partially right. America is not yet being transformed by all the madness in the White House and the Capitol.

The federal government is not the country, and the country is not the federal government.

The federal government is being transformed.

The Obama administration is being transformed into something most Americans wouldn't recognize. They are driven by a foreign collectivist impulse to centralize as much power and authority as possible unto themselves. From banking and insurance to automotive manufacturing the federal government has unprecedented control over a large portion of the economy. The Obama attorney general has decided to make the Central intelligence agency his sandbox, and has used the authority of his office to launch an investigation of CIA practices, over the stated objections of his own president.

The congress has seen fit to impose themselves on another piece of the economy under the false guise of health care reform. At the same time they have mounted a frontal assault on private insurers by demanding compensation records and travel expenses and other information which is no business of theirs. They've already stomped on the CIA. And they're working on legislation which would empower the president of the United States to take control of private computer networks in the event of some unknown cybersecurity disaster.

If recent reports are accurate, Mr. Obama has stacked his administration with nearly forty czars, not subject to congressional approval and accountable only to himself. By and large, these are some of the most radical individuals to ever walk the halls of power, and they serve there at Mr. Obama's invitation and pleasure. The congress with its Democrat majority has allowed itself to be co-opted by a leftist/radical agenda. Egged on by a compliant, if not outright complicit media, they have come together in a government/media enterprise which threatens the very fabric of American society.

Many have said, myself included, that the 2010 mid-term election could be the turning point. After this week I find myself compelled to say that there needs to be a turning point right now. We can't wait until 2010. The government of the most powerful nation in the world is being transformed into an instrument of oppression and repression.

In a previous post I wrote that because of our poorly chosen elected representatives, "We the People" would have to look after American values and ideals ourselves. The gravity of the current situation underscores the urgency with which we need to be about that task. The same groundswell of opposition to health care reform must arise against every leftist/radical/collectivist idea, impulse or initiative that comes out of the government/media enterprise.

In conversations with family, friends and co-workers there are a couple of recurring themes. They say it's too late to do anything about this, or they're scared, worried and/or afraid. The first statement is totally inaccurate and comes mostly from people who have yet to reach what I call the tipping point, people who are more concerned about the ramifications of getting up and getting involved than of sitting back and watching. The issue of fear is a little different. Fear is a most excellent motivator. My tipping point cost me three nights sleep and three days of anxiety before I decided to join the fray. Fear that doesn't motivate is an indulgence. It wasn't self-indulgence that gave rise to the Revolutionary-era tea parties, but a willingness to sacrifice time life and livelihood to preserve, protect and defend the American ideal in its infancy. Nor was it self-indulgence that propelled the once-silent majority into the streets on April 15, 2009 once again in defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

When America faces existential threats from enemies foreign and domestic, when her own government seems dedicated to dismantling the ideals and principles which formed the foundation of our Republic, when many of our enduring institutions have been co-opted by a leftist/radical/collectivist machine, "We the People" have two choices in the face of this creeping tryanny - acquiescence or resistance. We lose or we win. There's not much room in the middle.

I remain optimistic about our chances. The tea party fervor hasn't faded. In fact it has been bolstered by the passion generated by the health care debate. A friend, whose insight I value, says that this rising tide of opposition appears to have held off the long-term changes the Obama administration has sought. I hope and pray that he's right.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Ramblings

OK, so it's been a while since my last post. Wow - I don't even know where to begin! I'll just ramble on for a while and see where I get to.

In an earlier post I added a new word to the American political lexicon - palinization. This time around I'm adding a new note to my personal stylebook. Previously, I've also referred to the Leftist/Democrat/State-run Media establishment or cabal. I've decided to abbreviate that to LDSrM. Also, in order to further reflect the monolithic nature of the LDSrM and its quasigovernmental-parapolitical-propagandistic relationship to the Obama administration and their allies in the Congress, LDSrm will be used interchangably with government/media enterprise. All independent media sources will be referred to by their names and given attribution when required.

Thomas Jefferson said, "A little rebellion now and then is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government". We the People have rediscovered the republican instincts of freedom that gave birth to this nation, and have taken President Jefferson's prescription for ourselves, and are now applying that strong medicine to our government. We've decided that a return to tyranny is a fate worse than death, and have also chosen to ignore the euthanasian impulses so prevalent among the LDSrM.

We have rediscovered the principle that America and her government are not always the same things. Case in point - any government that has officials who advocate for forced sterilization as a method of population control and assert that babies don't attain to humanity until years after birth (www.zombietime.com/john_holdren, www.lifenews.com/nat5296.html) does not reflect the views or the values of the America I know. These are just a couple of positions attributed to President Obama's new science advisor, John Holdren.

There is also a stark difference between our America and what passes for academia. Holdren's analogue in the academic world can be found at the University of Oregon. William McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal Online about a study published by Murtaugh and Schlax entitled, "Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals". Their basic premise, quoted in its entirety, is that, "...a person is responsible for the emissions of his descendants, and their relatedeness to him." According to them, they don't make any policy recommendations. But they seem to believe that lowering the rate of population growth reduces the strain on the planet - I think - not really sure. Even the west coast organ of record for the government/media enterprise was moved to ask, "Tie Your Tubes and Save the Planet?"

McGurn also writes that two British doctors published a similar "study" in the British Medical Journal stating that, "'Having one less child is the simplest and biggest gift' anyone could give to a more habitable planet". They further suggest that Britian promote "environmental ethics", as in fewer children is analogous to "avoiding patio heaters and high-carbon cars".

These guys are statisticians and medical doctors. It looks like they're trying to establish their green credentials with junk math and science. And an avowed eugenicist has, not only the approval of the United States Senate, but the ear of the President as well. They've apparently missed that whole replacement birth-rate thing....

Finally, there is a great chasm between America and the majority of her elected representatives. Mr. Obama has activated his Organizing for (against) America campaign calling for volunteers to go quell dissent against health care reform, or is it health insurance reform? Apparently the major labor unions are on board as well, with John Sweeney's AFL-CIO marshalling a 1,000,000 member "health care task force". I would expect Andy Stern and SEIU to be involved in a similar effort at Mr. Obama's behest. Nancy Pelosi has called us Nazis. Others have described us as "rabid right-wing extremists", "mobs", and the now familiar "astroturf". I don't care what they call me as long as they lose in the end!

They are absolutely hell-bent on cramming their deficits and taxes and socialism and radical leftist government/media enterprise down our throats. Yet congressional trust and popularity is in the teens percentage-wise, and Mr. Obama has slipped to less than 50% in some polls, having lost the support of his electoral majority. His White House is hosting a snitch email box for tips on those of us spreading "disinformation" and "fishy" stuff about whatever health-related reform he's doing - is it care or insurance this week? I can't ever think of a time when the government, media and organized labor have set themselves in open and direct opposition to America.

Several weeks ago I wrote that, short of Divine intervention, the only thing that would stop them was a groundswell of opposition to their schemes. I'm gratified and encouraged to see just such a groundswell taking place. The America I know and love has finally awakened to the fact that all these forces arrayed against her must be taken seriously. If the government/media enterprise are successful in remaking our America into the second-world cradle-to-grave welfare state they seem to desire, our America will cease to exist.

God save America - please!

Eternal vigilance is the price of not sitting idly by while the LDSrM government/media enterprise works 24/7 to run this country into the ground.

Civics

I'm part of a local meetup dedicated to the 9 Principles and 12 Values as put forth by Fox Television's Glenn Beck earlier this year. We had a very lively discussion at the close of our most recent meeting about the state of our country and how we got here.

One of the presenters, who gave a talk on enumerated powers of the Federal government, put forward the idea that the pervasive corruption in Washington DC is our fault - the voters who send the legislators back there over and over again. Then someone else suggested that the genesis of the problem lay with education in the United States, which raised the ire of a teacher who was present. This teacher then made an impassioned plea for parental and civic involvement in the educational process.

In the course of listening to the discussion, I had an epiphany of sorts. I was making notes and wrote down CIVICS EDUCATION in capital letters and underlined and circled it. Twenty-seven years out of high school, I wasn't sure how to define it. Needless to say I spent a little time looking around the Internet after I got home.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute uses the term civic literacy and defines it as, "knowledge of America's founding principles and texts, core history and enduring institutions". Their organization has done extensive surveys to measure the extent of civic literacy (or illiteracy) in America. Their website, www.americancivicliteracy.org, has the dismal results of their survey over the last few years. The website includes a civics quiz and a host of resources for parents, students and educators. I would definitely recommend this website to anyone interested in furthering their own awareness of civic literacy and education.

John Adams wrote in 1765 that "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right and a desire to know". The only way to reverse what has become of the enduring institution of our Federal government is by increasing that "general knowledge" through civic literacy.

We the people have no right to expect our elected officials to comport themselves within the bounds of their oaths of office, if we have no idea why we elected them in the first place. If we are to have any hope of reversing the freedom-killing, authoritarian and socialist policies of this current administration and congress, we must begin at the beginning to understand why America is here and what kind of nation and people we're supposed to be. Reversing the fog of ignorance that has settled over America in the last hundred years is one of the most urgent tasks we face today.

Eternal vigilance is the price of understanding and defending liberty.

Health Care Reform?

I just got an email from some Republican committee asking me to contribute to their “responsible” approach to health care reform, because “we need health care reform”. I have to ask “Why?”

This whole thing has been ginned up by the Leftist/Democrat establishment in Washington DC and their fellow-travelers among the Republicans. As long as Republicans and conservatives stay on the current “reform” band-wagon they give the Democrat party absolute control over the agenda.

There are any number of things the US Congress and the current administration should be focused on – Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions, the resurgent Russian hegemony in the former Soviet states in the Urals and the Caucasus regions, a strong national defense, security in Iraq and Afghanistan, following the law. Instead, the president and congress are pushing a radical progressive agenda the intent of which is government seizure of banking and insurance interests, a large portion of the domestic auto industry, energy and environmental policy in the guise of cap and trade – and now they’re ready to move on to health care “reform”.

Nobody has read the 1,018 page bill introduced in the US House of Representatives. Nobody has read the various pieces of the Senate bill, all of which just passed out of committee. Speaker Pelosi has said there won’t be time to allow the public time to analyze the House bill before it’s put to a final vote.

President Obama has denied that health care reform is a Trojan horse for single payer. It doesn’t matter what he calls it. To call this blatant government grab at another 20% of the US economy a Trojan horse is to insult the horse. They’re not trying to sneak this in! The House and Senate bills are a mishmash of employer mandates and penalties, regressive taxes and surtaxes, mandated coverage for individuals, privacy and health data management regulations, which will apply to everyone in America except for the President, Congress and labor unions. President Obama nor most members of Congress are empowered by their Constitutional office or equipped with the knowledge to make quality of life and health care decisions.Yet their plan is to impose a giant bureaucracy between the American people and their physicians.

We need a “reset” on domestic priorities. Republicans need to stop playing at all these reform proposals and start legislating on behalf of the people who sent them to Washington in the first place. No conservative Republican voter expects his or her legislator to kowtow to President Obama’s phony prestige and flowery rhetoric. If the Republican leadership were more concerned about their obligation to the country than they were currying favor with the Leftist/Democrat and state-run media establishment, there would be real resistance to the progressive agenda and a spirited defense of the values and principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States of America.

Elections have consequences. This administration and congress and their radical progressive allies are working around the clock to transform this country into a second-world, cradle-to-grave welfare state. Short of Divine intervention, the only other thing to stop them is a groundswell of informed and vocal opposition by you and me.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Especially when our government so inexorably bound to special interests dedicated to rolling back two and a half centuries of American progress.

Palinization and the Republican Party

There's a new concept in the of pantheon of American politics. Palinization - the unrelenting campaign of bigotry, ridicule and falsehood unleashed by the Leftist/Democrat, state-run media, and Republican establishments against Sarah Palin and others not like themselves.

I think the treatment Sarah Palin has received at the hands of the aforementioned cabal is beyond shameful. I would expect to find palinizers among the rank and file Leftist/Democrats and the state-run media, but not the Republican Party, yet the list of Republican palinizers is too long for this post. There are two, however, whom I believe to be poster persons for the malaise afflicting the Republican establishment.

American Conservative Union chair David Keene recently told Newsmax Magazine's Ronald Kessler that Mrs. Palin isn't ready to run for president. That was nearly the kindest thing he was quoted as saying. He went on with a lengthy list of her so-called mistakes and additional reasons she isn't qualified, but did stop to breathe and take note of the fact that she is "well liked... an attractive political personality... obviously bright...." That faint praise really took the edge off his otherwise delightful and refreshing candor.

Anybody know what David Keene has ever run for? Nothing. In addition to the chairmanship of the ACU, he's currently a lobbyist (on behalf of liberal pressure groups, in some instances), a newspaper columnist, and a blogger, and he sits as a member on several boards. Since 1976 Keene has served in four losing Republican presidential campaigns, endorsed the erstwhile Democrat-Republican-Democrat Arlen Specter over conservative Pat Toomey in the 2004 Pennsylvania Senate election, back in the days when Specter was still a member of the Republican party. In 2007 Keene endorsed Mitt Romney and founded a coalition to oppose to the alleged expansion of powers of the Executive Branch, opposing Republican president George W. Bush. Keene is billed in the Newsmax article as "one of the country's most astute political observers." Really?

Authoress, Wall Street Journal columnist, and MSNBC commentator-palinizer Peggy Noonan has had it in for Mrs. Palin since the 2008 presidential campaign. Noonan's recent column, available at Wall Street Journal online, Farewell to Harms, is as much a hit-piece as you'd ever see at the Huffington Post. It's a bitter screed, by turns aggrieved and baleful. The gist is that Sarah Palin is not a serious political contender, thank God and Barack Obama that Sarah Palin and George W. Bush are gone; she even implies that Joe Biden is smart! Noonan is so out of touch that she thinks the Republican establishment made Palin and Bush, then turns around and blames them for the Republican establishment's troubles. Noonan throws rocks at President George W. Bush, and he's gone! No mention of their accomplishments, character and convictions, just a breathless rush to move past them and get the Grand Old Party started (restarted?). Noonan's never run for anything either.

Two examples of a Republican establishment with its tin ear, out of touch with its base. Furthermore, recent accomplishments of the Republican establishment include losing the House, the Senate, a presidential election and racking up an impressive tally of assorted scandals among their most prominent members. After all this it's no surprise to me that McCain/Palin lost. The Republican establishment's mistreatment of Sarah Palin is nothing but a futile attempt at aggrandizement, to compensate for their own shocking inadequacies and glittering failures. Nor does it bode well for political outsiders or average Joes who want to make a difference for the country by running for public office on a Republican ticket. If successful politicians can't satisfy them, who can?

Over 48 million people voted the McCain/Palin ticket in the 2008 election. How many of those have been alienated by the palinization of Sarah Palin and others? No way to really know? The 2010 midterms and the 2012 presidential election will surely answer that question for us.

Let the Republican establishment worry about brands and big tents and natter away about inclusiveness and unity. It would appear that "We the People" are going to have to look after American ideals and values ourselves. I'm not sure the Republican establishment can be trusted with any part of our future, anymore than I would trust the Leftist/Democrat/state-run media establishment. I'm not at all sure I even recognize what passes for the Republican party nowadays - Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan wouldn't either.

48 million voters in 2008 weren't wrong. We don't need to stay home in 2010. We don't need to sit by quietly and let the Republican establishment do the Democrat dirty work. We don't need RINOs playing at healthcare reform or banking reform. We don't need patronage that perpetuates perfidy. We don't need RINOs - there are too many Democrats already!

We need a conservative surge among the American electorate. We need a conservative reformation in the Republican party. We need to find and elect Republicans to all levels of government who will defend the values and principles this nation was founded on, and uphold their oaths of office. We need Republican leaders with the courage to stop the Obama administration and the radical left. We have a few now, but America needs an unashamed and unapologetic conservative Republican majority in the US House and Senate.

If he were alive today, Thomas Paine would tell the Republican establishment to "lead, follow, or get out of the way". And I would have to wholeheartedly agree with him.


Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, but I never dreamed we'd have to watch out for the Republicans, too!

Welcome

Welcome to Eternal Vigilance!

I take my blog name from a quote by the ardent abolitionist Wendell Phillips, "Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty". Thomas Paine, in his American Crisis I, wrote "These are the times that try men's souls". Two quotes from two men nearly one hundred years apart, yet words which ring as true today, as when they were first written.

My hope is that Eternal Vigilance will be a source of balance between the doomsayers and apocalypsists who say damnation and crisis are all we have left, and those who just really don't care at all. I don't intend to let fear win out in my life or the lives of those around me, and since February 2009, I don't intend to watch all this go by without doing what I can to stop it. Eternal Vigilance the blog is a just a portion of the price I intend to pay for liberty.

These are indeed trying times. I can understand why the apocalypsists are so convinced that the end is nigh. Just trying to keep up with the misdeeds of the Obama administration and Congress is enough to drive people to despair. On top of that are whole sub-groups of American society devoted to conspiracies, racism, ethno-centrism, anarchy, violent revolution, radicalism, resistance to whatever, power to the whatever. You won't find any of that here, unless it's to criticize, debunk or generally scoff at the ignorance that gives rise to that.

Eternal Vigilance is the price of being an American.

I believe that America is unique in the world. I believe that, from the beginning of time, God, to quote President Lincoln, "brought forth a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal".

I believe that America is a Christian nation, founded on bedrock principles which have stood the test of time for over 2,000 years. The fact the sitting president views America differently then me means that he is wrong about that, too.

I believe in standing in opposition to failed policies, government takeovers, galloping socialism disguised as reform, and a legislative branch that is, in large part, out of step with the views and values of a large part of their constituency. I believe that America is the most safe when our politicians are on vacation, and am in favor permanent vacations for as many of them as necessary to stop the headlong rush to statism and socialism.

I believe that the establishment media is nothing but a propaganda organ for the Obama administration and the leftist establishment. I've heard the term "state-run media", and believe it to be accurate.

If you believe these things, or you think you don't care but you've made it this far down the page, then Eternal Vigilance is for you, too. If I can put words on a page and capture the imagination of just one or a handful of people, to inspire them to look at America as the land of hope and promise that God and the Founders intended her to be, then this is a valuable use of your time and mine.

God Bless America!