Tag Archive for: Republican

Republicans Constantly Validate Black Democrats

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I am fond of saying that many times Republicans try to do the right thing, but do it the wrong way.

Branch Rickey, former president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, scoured the Negro Leagues in 1943 to find the best and brightest baseball players who he could sign to integrate baseball.  He wasn’t just looking for raw talent; he was also looking for the “right” person(s).

Jackie Robinson was not the only good ball player in the league back then; for sure he was definitely one of the elite.  But he also had the other skill-sets that would allow him to endure the racist taunts he was about to encounter as the first Black to play professional baseball with white folks.

Rickey chose Robinson not only because of his skill, but also because of his personality which would allow him to keep his composure under the strain of hostility he was about to face.  Rickey constantly validated Robinson specifically and constantly discussed publicly the need for diversity within baseball and ultimately America.

Where are the Branch Rickey’s of the Republican Party today?  There are none.  The last one was former N.F.L. quarterback and former congressman Jack Kemp who died in 2009.

I was plucked out of obscurity by the Bush family in St. Louis when I was fresh out of college from Oral Roberts University.  They had no prior relationship with me, but they, like Rickey, scoured Missouri politics to find the best person(s) with the right political background; but also with the right temperament to proudly represent the Bush family’s name as the then vice president was about to launch his presidential campaign in 1988.  According to them, “they had been following my career and noticing my work in the Republican Party in Missouri.”

My work got me noticed, but my relationships got me opportunity.  I didn’t have to run to be a delegate to our party’s national convention, I was told I would be a delegate; and thus it was so.

My point is very simple, I grew up in a Republican Party when relationships mattered and the party took care of their own.  This is no longer the case.

Republicans today spend more time rewarding their enemies versus rewarding their friends.

Why would Rand Paul have lunch with Al Sharpton last November in the Senate dining room?  By doing it in the Senate dining room, he meant for the media and other members of the U.S. Senate to see them together; thus validating Sharpton as someone to be sought out for private counsel.  I wonder why there is no account of Paul making a similar validation of a Black Republican with relevant party credentials.

Why would Jeb Bush meet with members of the Black Lives Matter group when he has never met with any relevant Black Republicans?  Are you kidding me?  When you have no Blacks in your inner circle you tend to make foolish decisions like this.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is the most recent example of validating Black Democrats and ignoring Black Republicans.  She was in town last week to speak before the National Press Club.  I thought the section of her speech about her accomplishments as governor was very good; but the speech was horrible when she began to talk about race relations and the Black community.  I also found it to be very offensive.

It was quite obvious that the speech was written by a White staffer.  Memo to Republicans, you cannot have a White person write a speech about Blacks and race relations!  Period.  End of discussion.  I found the speech like the tinkling cymbal or sounding brass, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The most offensive part of her speech was when she began to gush over her budding friendship with Jesse Jackson.  I have known Jesse since my high school days in St. Louis and will acknowledge that he has done some good things for America.

But again, why would she not use the occasion of her speech to validate some Black Republicans, not only from her state; but from around the country.  I will tell you why; because she doesn’t know any.  She doesn’t know Bob Brown, Harold Doley, Kay James, Shannon Reeves, Sarah Harper, or Buster Soaries.

When have you ever heard Obama effusively praise a Black Republican other than when someone like former Sen. Ed Brooks dies?  When have you ever heard Massachusetts Gov. Devall Patrick singing the praises of a Black Republican?  When have you ever heard DNC chair Debbie Wassermann Schultz ever praise a Black Republican.

But yet you hear our leaders showering praise upon known Democrats like Bob Johnson and Cathy Hughes; who are both good people and very accomplished.  Yet, their media empires constantly bash Republicans, especially those from the Black community.

If you can’t acknowledge Black Republicans in a speech, should we be surprised that we are not acknowledged in your staffing decisions or your consultant decisions?

As I often say, “the best way to get attention as a Black in the Republican Party is to be a Black Democrat.”

‘We the People’ or the Political Elite

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“We the People,” those symbolic words mean that for the first time in world history, a government was set up to not only recognize the God given rights of you and I, but also operate according to that most worthy premise “We the People.”  Unfortunately, the progressive political elitists have reversed the role and mission of the federal government.  So now, it is a rogue anti unalienable rights regime that only looks out for illegal immigrants, American born thugs, and anyone who is on a mission to destroy our exceptional nation way of life.

The federal government is most certainly rouge and is now a clear and present danger to the very continuation of our republic turned mob ruled democracy.  Not only is the federal government, but increasingly, state and local government are working diligently to obstruct the ability of sovereign citizens to live free from tyranny and to be the best that God would have them to be.

Often through government over regulations and draconian taxes people are obstructed from freely opening and running a family business.  Abusive government regulations are now so a stringent, they are literally choking the life out of what was at one time the most vibrant economy the world had ever known.

The latest round of proposed Environmental Protection Agency laws would at the very least increase household and small business energy bills 30 to 50 percent.  Why?  Because President Obama and others hate American greatness and power.  They are working overtime to use any method they can to destroy the United States.  Or at the very least, have her severely weakened and under the influence of islam by the time Obama leaves office.

The Obama administration is nothing more than a lightning rod of calculated destructive measures.  Some of which have practically destroyed a decent quality of life for not only black Americans, but increasingly for more and more Americans of all backgrounds.  The sad truth is, that some Americans are now too dumb to even understand just how screwed over they really are.

After five decades of indoctrination rom their liberal masters and a steady decrease in their standard of living, many psyched out black Americans are more enamored with running around carrying black lives matter signs, than building a good quality of life with their families and fellow Americans.

They are foolishly self-centered in their so-called progressive struggle, that they have the nerve to be upset because a presidential candidate and fellow progressive socialist stated that “all lives matter.”   To add insult to their stupid injury, the black socialist progressives even consider the “all lives matter” statement to be hate speech or a violent statement.   One has to wonder, what society can continue to remain great and economically prominent when millions of it’s brainwashed citizens are so bitter?  Then add in their low quality of cognitive functioning and increasing their numbers through breeding, what is occurring is a massive negative drain on our nation making us vulnerable to external enemies and economic collapse.

Unfortunately, far too many Americans have devolved into what the Bible refers to as those who would prefer to believe lies over the truth.  That is a direct result of at least five decades of unrelenting indoctrination of generations of American students against all that is good and morally correct.

There was a time if an individual chose to believe that he or she was entitled to someone else’s property and chose to rob them, I the were shot or beaten, that was considered just and no big deal.  But now, certain people are so off kilter morally, that brute force against an aggressive burglar is considered more horrendous than aborting innocent babies.

By the way, the black lives matter folks, President Obama and thugs can celebrate because local police forces have been prevented from going hard after thugs who choose to commit crimes against their fellow citizens.  So now, crime has dramatically increased in every city where there are substantial black populations.

In Chicago, over the past year murder of blacks by blacks is up 10 percent and rape has increased seven percent.  In Las Angeles, violent crime is up 20 percent year after year.  In Cleveland, the city is going through a tremendous revival downtown and in many neighborhoods that are not populated by mostly black Americans.  But in the city’s notorious east side, (with the exception of University Circle and Little Italy) is a black dominated war zone where they are seemingly bumping each other off for the sport of it.

Such developments or devolutions are the direct result of a wholesale rejection of morality and the Biblical principles that were the foundational building blocks of all that was great about this nation.  The continued dangerous practice of repudiating that which is good is literally destroying our republic.

Only through the rejection of that which is evil and learning about and accepting the good, will America have even a chance of once again becoming that shining city on a hill nation.

The choice is completely up to “We the People” not the political elites.

Dear Liberals: America Doesn’t Need Your Input on Who’s Conservative

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Are you as tired as I am of media elites attempting to pick our GOP candidates for us?

The media tries this same magic trick during every presidential election where they feign allegiance to the least conservative GOP candidate or candidates and then, when the Democratic nominee has sealed the Party nomination, they quickly, and viciously, turn on their “favorite son” GOP candidate.

Well, they’re up to the same hijinks again. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank recently penned an absurd piece in his regular opinion column where he viciously attacked Texas Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz for having the “temerity” to call a lie a lie, to ask that the Iranians recognize Israel’s right to simply exist, and to defund the monstrous Planned Parenthood. Dana Milbank, the far-left ideologue disguising himself as a mildly credible opinion journalist in a major newspaper, has absolutely no business commenting on who should, or should not, be blacklisted by American conservatives – the very group he despises and makes no effort to otherwise understand the movement.

After reading the Milbank piece I thought the best way to respond to him and the media/Democratic Party complex would be to return the favor and write an open letter to the Left explaining which Democratic candidates should be shunned, and why. If you’re on the Left and reading this and getting angry, now you have a mild understanding of what conservatives go through every day when the left-leaning media lectures us about who the “non-angry, acceptable conservatives” are.

Here goes:

Dear American Left,

How can you support Hillary Clinton for President? Hillary Clinton claims to be a champion of the middle class but she openly advocates for policies that will decimate your quality of life. She supports Obamacare, which has dramatically hiked your insurance premiums through its reliance on community rating and guaranteed issue. She supports an enormous hike in the capital gains tax that will dramatically reduce investment in the economy and, as a result, reduce middle class wages which rely on capital investment to increase economic productivity. And, critically, she fights furiously against school choice and will destroy any chance you have of getting your child a quality education if you live an area with subpar public schools.

And Bernie Sanders? How can you support a man who describes himself as a socialist? Do you realize that Senator Sanders is guided by a political ideology that will steal away from you the freedoms you claim to cherish? Socialism claims to be an ideology of equality but, the so-called “equality” they wish to bring to the United States is an equality of misery because government doesn’t possess the ability to enforce equality of outcomes. As legendary political economist Friedrich Hayek noted in The Constitution of Liberty:

From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time.

Finally, how can you support Martin O’Malley? O’Malley is a man with so few convictions that when challenged by left-wing extremists on his seemingly innocuous statement that “all lives matter” at the Netroots Nation conference he APOLOGIZED. O’Malley cowardly walked back his comments by saying “That was a mistake on my part and I meant no disrespect.” Disrespect? For saying “all lives matter”? If this is the kind of character you are seeking in your Democratic nominee for president then your Party is lost at sea with no chance for rescue. I hope you consider my comments on your candidates before entering the voting booth in 2016.

Thanks for your time,

Dan Bongino

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the Conservative Review. The feature image is by Earl Gibson III | AP Photo.

Is Politics Obsolete? How People Outpace Politicians by Max Borders and Jeffrey A. Tucker

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Hillary Clinton talks of cracking down on the gig economy. Donald Trump speaks of telling American corporations where they can and can’t do business abroad. Bernie Sanders says we have too many deodorant choices. They all speak about immigrants as if it were 1863.

What the heck are these people talking about?

More and more, that’s the response many people have to the current-day political speeches and rhetoric. It’s a hotly contested election, somewhat like 2008, but this time around, public engagement is low, reports Pew.

That’s no surprise, really. Whether it’s the leftists, the rightists, or everyone in between, all of these politicians seem to be blathering about a world gone by — one that has little to do with the 21st century. If they’re not tapping into people’s baser instincts of fear and nativism, they’re dusting off 20th-century talking points about creating “good jobs.”

Maybe there was a time when the political culture seemed to keep up with the pace of innovation. If so, those times are long gone. The rhetoric of electoral politics is exposing the great rift in civic life.

The tools we use every day, the technologies we love, the way we engage each other, the means by which our lives are improving are a consequences of innovation, markets, community, and globalization — that is, by the interactions of free people. Not by politics. And not by the systems politics creates.

The political election is a tired old ritual in which we send our hopes and dreams away to distant capitals. Why do we outsource them to politicians, lobbyists, and bureaucrats: people who are trapped in a system that rewards the worst in people? What’s left of governance is logrolling, spectacle, and unwanted interference in the lives of everyone else.

Politicians seem more concerned with putting the genie of innovation and entrepreneurship back in the bottle than doing anything meaningful. After the election, we try our best to ignore them and get on with life.

Politicians seem more concerned with putting the genie of innovation and entrepreneurship back in the bottle than doing anything meaningful.

In 2012, US voters reelected Barack Obama, and now we’re gearing up to elect someone else. Candidates will talk about their visions and their wonderful plans for the country. But in the last three years, virtually none of the incredible, beautiful upheaval we’ve seen has had anything to do with the presidency or with anyone politician’s plans.

In fact, when you think about what government has done for us in recent years, only one new program comes to mind: Obamacare. Opinions vary on whether that program has been deeply disappointing or an unmitigated disaster.

Now, take a step back and observe the evolution of commercial society and how it is bringing us unprecedented bounty. The digital sector of emergent, market-generated, people-driven, technology-fueled innovation is fulfilling human aspirations and spreading useful services to people in all walks of life. National borders seem ever more arbitrary. Surprises await us around every corner. Our political systems can claim credit for none of it.

And yet, we are once again being asked to turn to politicians to drive progress.

Consider how much our lives and technologies have changed since the last presidential election. Smartphone ownership has gone from 300 million to 2 billion, meaning that most of the population of the developed world — and large parts of the rest — now have access to a wireless supercomputer in their pockets. As a result, we are more in touch than ever.

There are now dozens of ways for anyone to keep in contact with anyone else through text messaging and video, and most of the services are free. Transportation in cities has fundamentally changed due to ridesharing and app-based systems that are outcompeting municipal taxis. Traditional travel lodging has been disrupted through mobile applications that turn every empty room into a hotel, and finding permanent lodging is easier than ever. You can find the ratings for any service or establishment instantly with a click or a tap, long before you purchase. You can feasibly shop for and buy a house without ever having stepped inside of it.

Cryptocurrency is becoming a viable alternative to national monies, and payment systems on distributed networks are being customized for peer-to-peer exchanges of property titles.

The mass distribution and availability of mobile applications with maps means that you are never lost, and, moreover, that you can be intensely aware of everything around you, wherever you are or wherever you are planning to be. Extended families that are spread out over large geographic regions can stay constantly in touch, chatting and playing games.

The way we help our neighbors and communities is improving. We can contribute to charitable causes with just a click. We are closer to our neighbors and their needs — whether it’s a missing cat, a call for a handyman, or childcare for Saturday night. We can be on the lookout after a break-in and share video of the perpetrators instantly.

The way we consume music has fundamentally changed. We once bought CDs. Then we downloaded particular tracks and albums. With Internet everywhere, we now stream a seemingly endless variety of genres. The switch between classical and indie rock requires only a touch. And it’s not just new music we can access, but vast archives and recreations of music dating to antiquity. Instantly.

Software packages that once cost thousands are now low-cost downloadable apps. Many of us live in the cloud now, so that no one’s life is ruined by a computer crash. Lost hardware can be found with built-in tracers — even stealing computers is harder than ever.

Where we work no longer matters as much. 4G LTE means a powerful Internet connection wherever you are, and WiFi on airlines means staying in touch even while above the clouds. Online document signing means total portability and the end of the physical world for most business transactions. You can share almost anything — whether grocery lists or whole writing projects — with anyone and work in real time. More people than ever work from home because they can.

News is now crowdsourced through Twitter and Facebook — or through mostly silly sites like BuzzFeed. There are thousands of competitors, so that we can know what we want to know wherever we are. Once there was only “national news”; now a news event has to be pretty epic to qualify, and much of the news that we are interested in never even makes old-line newspapers.

Edward Snowden revealed ubiquitous surveillance, escaped prosecution, and now, thanks to technology, has been on a worldwide speaking tour, becoming the globe’s most famous public intellectual. This is despite his having been censored and effectively exiled by the world’s biggest and most powerful state. He has a great story to tell, and that story is more powerful than any of the big shots who want him to shut up.

Pot has been effectively legalized in many American cities, and the temperature on the war against it has dropped dramatically. When dispensaries are raided, the news flies all over the Internet within minutes, creating outrage and bringing the heat down on the one-time masters of the universe. There is now a political risk to participating in the war on pot — something unthinkable even 10 years ago. And as police continue to abuse their power, citizens are waiting with cameras.

Oil prices have collapsed, revealing the fallacy of peak oil. This happened despite pressure in the opposite direction from every special interest, from environmentalists to the oil industry itself. The reason was again technological. We discovered better and cheaper ways of drilling, and, in so doing, exposed vastly more resources than anyone thought accessible.

At the very time when oil and gas seemed untouchable, we suddenly saw electric cars becoming viable options. This was not due to government mandates — regulators tried those for years — but due to some serious innovation on the part of one remarkable company. It’s not even the subsidies, such as they are, that are making the difference; it’s the fine-tuning of the machine itself. Tesla even took it a step further and released its patents into the commons, allowing innovation to spread at a market-based pace.

We are now printing houses in one day, vaping instead of smoking, legally purchasing pharmaceuticals abroad, using drones to deliver consumer products, and enjoying one-day delivery of just about everything.

In the last four years, the ebook became a mass consumer item, outselling the physical book and readable on devices within the budget of just about everyone. And despite attempts to keep books offline, just about anything is now available for download, putting all the world’s great literature, in all major languages, at our fingertips.

Here we go again, playing “let’s pretend” and electing leaders under the old-fashioned presumption that it is politics that improves the world and drives history forward.

And speaking of languages, we now have instant access to translation programs that allow us to email and even text with anyone in a way he or she can understand regardless of language. It’s an awesome thing to consider that this final barrier to universal harmony, once seen as insuperable, is in the process of melting away.

These are all ways in which the world has been improved through markets, creativity, and free association. And yet, here we go again, playing “let’s pretend” and electing leaders under the old-fashioned presumption that it is politics that improves the world and drives history forward.

Look around: progress is everywhere. And it is not because we are electing the “right people.” Progress occurs despite politics and politicians, not because of them.

Max Borders

Max Borders is the editor of the Freeman and director of content for FEE. He is also cofounder of the event experience Voice & Exit and author of Superwealth: Why we should stop worrying about the gap between rich and poor.

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Digital Development at FEE, CLO of the startup Liberty.me, and editor at Laissez Faire Books. Author of five books, he speaks at FEE summer seminars and other events. His latest book is Bit by Bit: How P2P Is Freeing the World. Follow on Twitter and Like on Facebook.

Is the West Threatened More by Islamist Fact or by Right-Wing Fiction?

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The left characterizes non-liberals as extremists whether they are right-wingers or centrist conservatives, libertarians, independents, people of faith, or simply neutral critics of liberal social policy. This provides cover for Islamists.

Why are progressives so quick to disparage traditional Jews or conservative Christians who question the liberal agenda, yet so reluctant to criticize Islamists who oppress minorities and women, persecute those of other faiths, stifle free speech, and promote religious supremacism through jihad and genocide?  Not only do they downplay the terrorist threat at home and abroad, but they deflect attention away from Islamic radicalism by focusing on a supposed right-wing terror menace that has been defined into existence more by questionable statistics than objective analysis.

The New York Times recently reported that fewer people have been killed in the U.S. by jihadists than by right-wing extremists since 9/11, citing among other things data from the International Security Program at the New America Foundation (“NAF”), which according to critics uses the term “right-wing” so broadly as to dilute its meaning.  The NAF claims that jihadists have killed twenty-six people, while “homegrown non-jihadists” have killed forty-eight since September 11, 2001.  The implication is that Islamist extremism is the lesser threat.

The problem with this narrative is that it fails to factor in the growing number of homegrown jihadist plots that have been foiled by law enforcement.  Moreover, it excludes the 9/11 terror attacks themselves, which although perpetrated by foreign nationals, nonetheless killed three-thousand people on U.S. soil.  It also makes no mention of honor killings of Muslim women and girls who are condemned for adopting western culture or refusing to submit to prearranged marriages.

The message of the story is used to tarnish Republicans, conservatives, and pro-Israel advocates, who are often described by progressives as fascists and loons.  The left has a penchant for characterizing non-liberals as extremists whether they are truly right-wingers or are instead centrist conservatives, libertarians, independents, people of faith, or simply neutral critics of liberal social policy.  This tactic is used to provide cover for Islamists – whom progressives often regard sympathetically as victims of European and American oppression – at the expense of domestic political opponents, whose expression of dissenting viewpoints is actually more in keeping with America’s constitutional and electoral tradition.

Despite their obsession with proving that the right is more dangerous than radical Islam, progressive partisans and their mainstream media flunkies have identified no monolithic dogmas or institutions that endorse global right-wing terrorism for the purpose of destroying western civilization.  Neither have they exposed reactionary ideologies comparable to jihad that sanction the killing of innocents for doctrinal gratification, or rightist organizations analogous to ISIS, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, which aim to conquer and subjugate. Furthermore, Islamist terrorism is openly supported by state sponsors like Iran, whereas coordinated right-wing extremism is not.

If progressive alarmists truly wanted to show the existence of a global support network for non-jihadist terrorism similar to that which facilitates radical Islam, they would have to look back at the behavior of communist and socialist regimes over the years, including those in Russia, China and Cuba, which exported violence throughout the world and are estimated to have killed between 85,000,000 and 100,000,000 or more during the twentieth century.  But to do so would require the acknowledgement that progressives have a long history of supporting brutal dictatorships.

According to a number of experts and resource organizations, the FBI has purged its anti-terrorism training manuals of material deemed offensive to Muslims.  Nevertheless, the only consistent law enforcement warning regarding domestic terror these days seems to focus on Islamists – not right-wing zealots or anti-abortion fanatics.  In a recent “60 Minutes”interview, for example, FBI Director James Comey warned that domestic attacks by the Khorosan group could happen “very very soon” and conceded the difficulty of preventing radicalized Americans from joining terror groups like ISIS on the battle field and returning stateside on their US passports.

These observations seem all the more prescient in the wake of the recent shooting deaths of a US naval officer and four marines by a Kuwaiti-born American Muslim in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Some have tried to draw comparisons between Islamist terrorism and the recent racist shooting that left nine African-Americans dead in Charleston, South Carolina.  But as horrific as those murders were, they were not part of an international terror campaign to eradicate western culture and impose religious totalitarianism.  Those murders were the acts of a depraved individual who was motivated by despicable racial hatred, not an extremist doctrine that preaches the destruction of liberal democratic society.

The White House’s knee-jerk tendency to discourage any discussion of the religious roots of Islamist terror bespeaks a willingness to rationalize abhorrent conduct that would not be tolerated if perpetrated by Christians, Jews, Americans or Europeans.  However, government is not required to tolerate faith-based practices that threaten or harm others. There can be no excuse for honor killings, institutional degradation of women, or the suppression of other faiths in a pluralistic society like the United States, in which the Constitution mandates tolerance for the beliefs of all citizens but establishes no state religion.

America’s founding fathers conceived of a society balancing individual liberties and communal obligations regardless of personal religious belief. Generations of immigrants were able to embrace American culture without abdicating their ethnic or religious identities because the Constitution imposes no creed beyond the political ideals enumerated within it.  Jewish immigrants were able to adapt to the general culture because of the concept of “dina d’malchuta dina,” or “the law of the land is the law.”  In contrast, jihadist supremacism holds itself above the law of the land and contravenes the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution.

It’s ironic that the Obama administration reflexively accuses its political opponents of demagoguery and zealotry, but seems to exempt from scrutiny the intolerant ideology of real extremists.  This inconsistency does not only compromise American national security and integrity – it also undercuts the aspirations of those Muslims who come to the US in search of a life free from tyranny and oppression.

An objective discussion of the theological basis of militant Islam cannot be omitted from the debate no matter how hard the Obama administration attempts to restrict the dialogue.  The reality is that radical Islamists are not a harmless minority, but a volatile element dedicated to perpetuating a state of holy war.  This is the central doctrine that motivates ISIS in its goal of reestablishing the caliphate, and which fuels Boko Haram’s war against Christians in Africa.  It galvanizes Hezbollah’s abuses in Lebanon, provokes Hamas’s genocidal hatred of Israel and the Jews, and informs Iran’s now unfettered nuclear ambitions.

Islamists will win if we restrict speech to avoid insulting them, give more credence to their cultural sensitivities than to our own beliefs and ideals, validate their revisionist grievances against the West, and behave with the meek resignation of the subjugated.

They will also win if we allow ourselves to be deluded by red herrings and bogeymen, including overblown reports of the right-wing terror threat, which obfuscate the true nature of their holy war against western society.  Islamists can only prevail in this clash of civilizations if we modify our conduct to accommodate them.  Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the Obama administration has done – by refusing to acknowledge religious beliefs that sanctify terrorism, by minimizing the threat of ISIS, by ignoring strategic realities in Syria and Iraq, and by guaranteeing the nuclearization of Iran with a very bad deal after years of negotiating from an embarrassing position of moral weakness.

The dangers of Islamist extremism are real and will only be exacerbated by the failure to respond effectively.  It will not disappear by ignoring it or referring to it generically as “violent extremism.”  Nor will Islamic radicalism be defeated by welcoming its largest state sponsor – the Islamic Republic of Iran – into the community of nations while it continues exporting terrorism, working to develop nuclear weapons, exerting its influence throughout the region and beyond, and toppling other governments through its proxies.

The most clear and present danger to world order today does not come from some shadow right-wing conspiracy concocted by the administration and mindlessly parroted as immutable fact by its acolytes in the press.  It comes from the purveyors of Islamist extremism.  This is the reality, and it’s one that cannot be changed by wishful thinking, semantic disingenuity, political misdirection, or left-wing dissimulation.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the Israel National News.

Virginia: Immigration Turning Another Red State Blue

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There is an informative article at Breitbart, thanks to Julia (LOL! not the same Julia as the author of this article) for sending it, that pretty much confirms what I have been hearing anecdotally about Virginia.

Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor

I have no time this morning to go into it in any great detail, but here is how Breitbart writer, Julia Hahn begins:

The birthplace and final resting place of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson—and once one of the most reliably-red of red states—is being rapidly turned into a progressive stronghold.

These changes are not the result of an inside agency, or a natural evolution in political thinking, but rather the result of one of the most impactful yet least-discussed policies of the federal government.

Each year the federal government prints millions of visas and distributes these admission tickets to the poorest and least-developed nations in the world.

[….]

A census study entitled “Immigrants in Virginia,” released by University of Virginia (UVA) researchers, documented the phenomenon: “Until 1970, only 1 in 100 Virginians was born outside of the United States; by 2012, 1 in every 9 Virginians is foreign-born.”

Republicans helping to make it happen!

While the influence of conservative voters in the Commonwealth continues to diminish, it is ironically Republican officials in Virginia who have led the push to resettle even larger numbers of immigrants inside the state.

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, for instance, in the months before his titanic fall from power, engineered the effort to provide more labor to Virginia employers through foreign worker visas.

Former-executive director of the Virginia Republican Party, Shaun Kenney, described conservatives who wanted to trim the ongoing resettlement efforts as “nativists” who “have no home in the modern Republican Party,” thundering, “drive ‘em out.” Ironically, Kenney’s immigration policies are having that exact effect.

There is much more, continue reading here.

Take heart, ‘Pockets of resistance’ are forming in Virginia, more on that later.

RELATED ARTICLE: Exodus from Puerto Rico could upend Florida vote in 2016 presidential race

Stephen Limbaugh Answers the Question: Are Corporations People?

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In Dinesh D’Souza’s the latest video of the “new voices” series, Stephen Limbaugh gives his unique take on the liberal dogma that “corporations are not people.”

EDITORS NOTE: This video initially appeared on DineshDSouza.com. Keep an eye out for more “new voices” videos on DineshDSouza.com in the coming months. In the meantime, watch some more of Stephen’s videos and connect with him on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Dinesh D’Souza’s latest #1 New York Times best selling book is “America,” a rebuttal of the progressive shame narrative of American history, now available in paperback for the first time!

Combat Veterans For Congress Endorses Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL 6) for U.S. Senate

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Congressman Ron DeSantis twitter profileThe Combat Veterans For Congress PAC is supporting the 63rd endorsed and elected Combat Veteran For Congress to run for the United States Senate in Florida; he is the 28th endorsed Combat Veteran For Congress to serve in Congress. His policies mirror those of President Reagans, “Peace Through Strength” on national defense, supports a “Don’t Tread On Me” foreign policy, and as his fiscal conservative voting record has supported the reining in of out-of-control and unnecessary federal spending.

He has been rated as the #1 Taxpayer Hero in Florida by Citizens Against Waste. Congressman Ron DeSantis, Lcdr-USNR (JAGC) (R-FL-6), a resident of Ponte Vedra Beach in St John’s County, is running for the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by Senator Marco Rubio, who is running for U.S. Presidency, and by doing so is leaving a CRITICAL Republican Senate seat up for grabs in a critical swing state.

The 2016 election could well rest on the shoulders of Florida-–again—and on the caliber of the Republican senate nominee.

Congressman DeSantis has faithfully been protecting and defending the U.S. Constitution, led efforts on the House floor to call attention to Obama’s lawlessness, authored & passed the “Faithful Execution of the Law Act” to rein Obama’s repeated violation of Federal Laws, and supported efforts to defund the unconstitutional executive amnesty of 5 million Illegal aliens.

In July 2007, Lt DeSantis received orders to report to the Naval Special Warfare Command Group ONE in Coronado, California; he was assigned to SEAL Team ONE and ordered to deploy to Iraq on October 7, 2007 with the troop surge. Lt DeSantis was assigned as the Legal Advisor to the SEAL Commander, Special Operations Task Force-West in Fallujah in support of the counterinsurgency missions during the combat deployment of SEAL Team ONE with additional duty in Ramadi, Al Assad, Balad, and Baghdad.

He returned to CONUS on April 15, 2008, at which time he was reassigned to the Naval Region Legal Service Office SE and earned an appointment with the U.S. Department of Justice to serve as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida until his orders elapsed on January 3, 2009.

Lt DeSantis was assigned as a Trial Defense Counsel for the Naval Region Legal Service Office SE until he left active duty and was Honorably Discharged on February 28, 2010; he accepted a commission as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

For his duty assignment with SEAL Team ONE in support of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq, Lcdr DeSantis was awarded the Bronze Star Medal (Meritorious), in previous assignments he was awarded the Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (Gold Star in lieu of 2nd award), the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Medal, and various Service and Campaign Medals.

Congressman DeSantis was first elected to the 6th Congressional District of Florida in 2012, and was re-elected in 2014. Congressman DeSantis was selected as Chairman of the National Security Oversight Committee, has highlighted the threats posed by an EMP attack, and has helped lead efforts to protect critical infrastructure.

Congressman DeSantis also holds a seat on the Congressional Oversight Committee, and has been relentlessly investigating scandals concerning the Obama Administration, including the Battle of Benghazi where four Americans, including two Navy SEALs, lost their lives because of the failure of Obama to execute “Cross Border Authority” so Military personnel at the ready could be sent to rescue them.

He has also been involved in investigating the IRS’ violation of the right of conservative Americans citizens to exercise their Constitutional right to organize to participate in the election process, and has led the effort to hold IRS Commissioner Koskinen and Lois Lerner accountable for the cover up and obstruction of justice. Congressman DeSantis has also been investigating the Obama administrations retaliation against whistleblowers, which is another the Obama administration’s violation of Federal Laws enacted by Congress.

Congressman DeSantis has demonstrated that he stands with Israel, is a leading opponent of Obama’s policy of nuclear concessions to Iran, which is permitting Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Congressman DeSantis helped defeat efforts by liberal Democrats to defund operations against ISIL, and their attempt reduce the US Navy’s carrier fleet.

He believes ISIL should be stopped by finally providing self-defense arms to the Kurds & Christians in the Plains of Ninveh, and providing them with effective close air support. He opposes the Communist regime of Castro’s Cuba, and joined another elected Combat Veterans For Congress, Senator Tom Cotton, Cpt-USA (R-AR), to author a bill to prevent the release of dangerous Radical Islamic Terrorists from GTMO.

Since his election to, Congress he has led by example to reform Congress by declining pension and taxpayer-financed health insurance subsidies for Congress, authored a bill to end pensions for members of Congress, authored a bill to force Congress to live under Obama Care as it is written, supports term limits for members of Congress, and supports prohibiting Congress from exempting its members from generally applicable laws.

Congressman DeSantis has supported every effort in the House to stop Obama Care, and helped defeat the Internet sales tax in the House, He authored a bill with Senator Mike Lee to pop the higher education bubble and promote alternative (and cheaper) forms of higher education beyond traditional brick-and-ivy schools. The American Conservative Union, Heritage Action, and Freedom Works give Congressman DeSantis an outstanding ratings for his voting record in Congress.

Congressman DeSantis is often interviewed on the FOX National News TV Network seeking his invaluable opinion on controversial issues of the day.

The Combat Veterans for Congress PAC is pleased to endorse Congressman Ron DeSantis, Lcdr-USNR (JAGC) (R-FL-6) who will bring to the United States Senate extraordinary public sector and private sector skills and wisdom to better solve problems and represent his Congressional District and the Republic.

If you review Congressman DeSantis’ positions on his Congressional Web site, you would be pleased with his stands; they agree with the Combat Veterans For Congress Mission Statement. We look forward to working with Congressman DeSantis, and are pleased that a Combat Veteran of his caliber is running for the U.S. Senate.

If you have friends, associates, or relatives who know voters in Florida, kindly pass this column on to them, and ask them to support Congressman DeSantis by working in his campaign, providing financial support for his campaign in any amount, and/or by networking with others who would be willing to support his campaign.

The military is one of the few remaining institutions producing the caliber of men and women needed to restore this nation to the greatness our Founding Fathers envisioned. We have endorsed another Combat Veteran For Congress that General George Washington would have approved of. He is a Veteran who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America” for an amount “up to and including his life.”

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on the Combat Veterans For Congress website.

A Behind the Scenes Look at the Republican Candidates

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Join The United West team as they show an excellent analysis of the current crop of Republican Presidential candidates presented by Orlando attorney, John Stemberger.

Stemberger evaluates each Republican Presidential hopeful by examining their pros & cons and then reveals the rich benefactors behind each candidate and how that money may help or hurt them.

This is very interesting and necessary information to know in order to intelligently vote on November 8, 2016.

American Exceptionalism: The Defining Question for Presidential Candidates

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The most important question we can ask our presidential candidates in this rapidly approaching primary season is for their definition of American Exceptionalism. After six-plus years of an administration that has apologized for America, demoralized our American military, destroyed our status on the international stage, attacked America’s unparalleled entrepreneurial vigor, and assaulted our future path to prosperity, I’ve had enough. My daughters deserve better, your children deserve better, and the many men and women who sacrificed and died for the ideas our flag represents deserve better.

We are an exceptional nation, and Americans are an exceptional people, and we should never make any apologies for that. We are not only the economic breadbasket of the world, and the innovative idea factory of the world, but we are a beacon of freedom for other nations to follow. Yes, we’ve fallen short at times, but we’ve always gotten back up and emerged stronger.

We were born of a revolution where the odds of being victorious were incalculable. We conquered the scourge of slavery. We sent our fighting men and women to foreign shores to conquer fascism and communism. And we measure our national valor not by the conquered land we’ve acquired, but by the land we’ve returned to people we’ve set free from the shackles of tyranny in exchange for the blood of our sons and daughters. Our commitment to liberty and freedom as gifted by God, not man, is unique and has no equal on the world stage either now, or historically. Reagan recognized this, JFK recognized this, our military men and women recognize this and, most importantly, the overwhelming majority of Americans recognize this.

It’s time for an American renaissance. We’ve been through the economic travails and the international Barack Obama American apology tour and it’s time for an American president who will boldly stand, both at home and abroad, for a reinvigorated and vibrant American spirit, which shines brightly on the global stage. Our next president must passionately fight back against the idea that the United States of America can happily enter into an era of “managed decline.” I will be no part of any “managed decline” and our next President should reaffirm that an exceptional America will never decline, managed or otherwise, in this lifetime or in the lifetimes of the American sons and daughters to follow.

While I’ll be intensely focused on all of the candidate’s responses to questions on taxes, spending and the other important issues of our time, it’s their answers as to what makes America exceptional that will tell me if they can right America’s course. I ask you to join me in this mission to challenge our candidates for president, and everywhere else at the state and local levels, and to ask our future leaders what makes America exceptional. It’s not a gotcha question and I’m not looking for a candidate who can wax poetic in their response. I am looking for a candidate who can firmly, passionately and vigorously defend the axiom that this nation has been touched by the hand of God and has no equal, and that it’s not who we’ve been willing to fight with that has made us exceptional, but what we have been willing to fight for.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the Conservative Review. The featured image of Rick Santorum is by Tom Williams | AP Photo.

New Poll of Registered Voters Age 65+ Reveals Surprising Views

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WASHINGTON, June 11, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A Bring The Vote Home survey of nearly 4,000 registered voters age 65 and older found that senior citizens are a politically aware group with strong feelings on a variety of policy and political issues.  The Bring The Vote Home survey is noteworthy in that it specifically seeks to determine the political viewpoints and concerns of American seniors who are registered voters.

The results revealed that senior voters lean towards the GOP especially when Hillary Clinton is the nominee. When asked about potential Presidential candidates, respondents favored Scott Walker (45%) over Hillary Clinton (36%), and Jeb Bush (44%) over Hillary Clinton (41%).  In addition, the survey found that 44 percent of senior voters would support a Republican candidate if the 2016 Congressional elections were held today, while only 35 percent of seniors would vote for a Democratic candidate.

The survey also asked seniors about a variety of policy areas and found that foreign affairs is a topline issue for senior voters.  When asked about the Islamic state known as ISIS, immigration reform, health care, federal deficit, jobs and unemployment, and climate change, thirty-one percent of senior voters chose ISIS as the most important issue facing the country right now, followed by jobs and unemployment (18%). Senior voters were least concerned with climate change, with only five percent of voters citing this as the most pressing issue in America.

Other key findings from the survey include:

  • A majority of seniors on both sides of the aisle (53% of Democrats, 67% of Independents, and 71% of Republicans) are in favor of Congress voting on any agreement that President Obama makes with Iranconcerning its nuclear program.
  • Thirty-six percent of women and one-in-four men chose ISIS as the most important issue facing the country.
  • Urban seniors are more likely to vote for a Democratic Congressional candidate (DEM: 50%, GOP: 46%), while suburban (DEM: 31%, GOP: 46%) and rural seniors (DEM: 28%, GOP: 52%) are more likely to vote Republican.

“This Bring The Vote Home survey provides an important measure of senior Americans’ views as we approach the upcoming election,” stated Eric Berger, CEO of the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare. “Bring the Vote Home is also making important strides in empowering seniors across the country to register and, if needed, obtain absentee ballots so that their voices will be heard on Election Day.”

The survey questions were conducted as part of a Morning Consult Poll from April 27 to May 5 and June 5 to June 8, 2015. The poll surveyed 3,904 registered voters, age 65 and older, and has a margin error of two percentage points.

To view the National Seniors Poll Charts, click here.

To read the National Seniors Poll Results Memo, click here.

ABOUT BRING THE VOTE HOME

Bring The Vote Home was launched to help senior citizens, disabled Americans, their family members, and their home healthcare clinicians participate in the electoral process. Home healthcare beneficiaries make up a rapidly growing portion of the population, but the homebound status of many of them makes it difficult for them to travel to polling places. Through its voter and absentee ballot registration process, Bring The Vote Home is dedicated to helping all members of the home healthcare community participate fully in our nation’s democratic process. To learn more, visit http://bringthevotehome.org.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of Bloomberg Business photograph by Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis.

Republican Congressional Leaders Grant Obama “Unconstitutional” Authority to By-Pass Congress in Approving Treaties

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On Tuesday the Republican leadership will encourage the House and Senate to vote to pass the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Initiative; the bill is known as “Trade Promotion Authority” or TPA—when no one has even seen thousands of pages of Obama’s Secret Trade Bill —now the Republican leadership is saying “we will have to pass it to see what is in it”.  The Republican leaders are planning to give Obama “Carte Blanche” to enter into “Fast-Track Trade Treaties” in “total secrecy” eventually with future countries like Cuba, Iran, China, Russia, etc., because Obama will be able to add other countries to this agreement, which is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, because it “short circuits the legislative process” which requires a two thirds majority vote of the US Senate to approve Treaties.  Republican leaders are planning to give Obama unprecedented power to curtail Congressional checks and balances on Treaties, even while they have been watching him for 6 ½ years, violate Federal Immigration Laws, the U.S. Constitution, and Freedom of Religion for members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

The TPA Bill has many damaging provisions, among them, it will allow millions of foreign workers to be given visas to enter the US at a time when 104 million Americans are unemployed, the TPA will open the way to import dangerous foods products that will negatively affect the health of unsuspecting Americans, according to Congressman Alan Grayson (R-FL-9) it will ship millions of American jobs overseas, it will “force the U.S.” to abide by UN & EPA business destructive unproven climate change regulations, will “force the US” to abide by the UN’s Small Arms Trade Treaty(ATT) which was voted down by the US Senate & violates the 2nd Amendment’s provision that allows American citizens to purchase and sell their small arms, and it will force the US Congress to abide by every UN Treaty that undermines the sovereignty of the United States.

The TPA initially embraces 12 nations including the U.S., Peru, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore; however there is a provision in the agreement that allows Obama to add other countries in the future, like Cuba, China, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Libya, Syria, etc.  The TPA is a secret Obama Law, like the secret Obamacare Law, that will allow the free flow of Mexican, South American, and Asian workers to enter the US (not only will the southern border remain wide open, but the U.S. will no longer have any borders “at all”, or any barriers to entry), the millions of new entering foreign workers will willingly work for exceptionally lower wages under substandard conditions.  Details in thousands of unread pages of this law have not been read or worked out, yet the Republican leadership is giving Obama “Fast-Track” authority to make any and all decisions in all and every treaty with the initial 12 countries and as many additional countries he decides on in the future without Senate ratification (all future trade treaties will no longer be subject to the Constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority of the US Senate for ratification).  Republican leaders are enhancing Obama’s control of foreign policy, while making the Congress irrelevant.

In order to deal with the millions of Americans who will be losing their jobs because of the TPA Bill, under the radar, the Republican leadership of the House and Senate is crafting a bill to go along with TPA, known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Bill to be passed on the same day the TPA Bill is passed—-it should more appropriately be entitled the “Put all American Workers on Welfare Bill Because of the TRPA Bill”.   That new Trade Adjustment Assistance Bill specifically targets workers and farmers who lose their livelihood, because of this “Stupid TPA Bill” being promoted by the Republican leadership in Congress, which result in millions of Americans losing their jobs because of what Obama will authorize in secret “Trade Treaties” with foreign countries that will effectively be devastating to the labor movement and jobs in the United States.

Once Obama uses his “Fast-Track” authority to agree with UN Regulations, Congress would not be able to modify or amend those TPP provision entered into solely  by Obama by himself, without Congressional involvement at all, and Obama’s individual decision would have the force of the “law of the land” under the U.S. Constitution.   This proposed “living agreement” by Republican leaders in Congress will seriously undercut the re-employment of 104 million unemployed Americans, because as a “living agreement“, it would leave the southern border of the U.S. to be even more porous than it is today, and will allow Obama to change immigration policy “at will” without Congressional approval—those proposed provisions of the TPA are absolutely UNCONSTITUTIONAL.  Republican leaders are approving the massive immigration of Illegal Aliens from Mexico and 12 other countries.

The Republican leadership will surrender its authority to write Federal Immigration Laws by passing TPA, thus enabling Obama to use his pen to simply authorize the importation of millions of non-Christian Asian, Japanese, Malaysian, Brunei, Darussalam, Singapore, and eventually Chinese and Iranian workers.  According to the Greek Catholic Relief Agency, for over 6 years, Obama has refused to allow any of the 300,000 Syrian and Assyrian Christian refugees in the Middle East to enter the US, while Canada has been resettling those Syrian and Assyrian Christians.  Obama’s has only been allowing the entry of Muslim refugees thru the UN Muslim Refugees Resettlement Program, and has been intentionally excluded Christians.  Now the Republican leadership is giving Obama the right to bring in millions of Asian immigrant workers who are also not of the Christian faith.

Obama has been resettling hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees in 195 cities across the nation without elected state and city officials being provided with specific details on who is being resettled in their cities, and without informing them who is going to pay for the health care, resettlement costs, transportation costs, education of refugee children, the welfare costs of refugee families, food stamps, and housing costs for hundreds of thousands of those Muslim refugees being brought into their communities.

Supporters of this aggressive secret Obama initiative include Democratic Progressives in Congress, Democratic Congressman Danny K. Davis who received an award from the Communist Party in 2012, David Cortright who is Obama’s close Chicago associate on the Committee for a Sane Nuclear policy (SANE), Communist Tom Hayden who is a member of “Progressives for Obama”, Democratic Congressmen in the “Hanoi Lobby” who are aggressively supporting normalization of relations with Cuba, Cora Weiss who is a strong supporter of Communism & a member of the Anti-War Movement, Adam Hersh from the liberal Center for American Progress, the left of center liberal media establishment, and the Democratic Progressive Caucus.  Those Leftists, Marxists, Progressives, and Communists, have been getting the very aggressive support of the Republican leadership in the House and Senate, who have been working with the Democratic Progressive Caucus in Congress to pass the TPA (the 70 member Caucus  includes Socialists, Progressives, Marxists, and Communists members of Congress).

The AFL-CIO Unions are on solid footing in their opposition to this “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority”.  Responsible and clear thinking Democrats in Congress are against giving Obama  “Fast-Track” authority over this labor damaging bill, which will allow millions of new workers to enter the US, will force the Congress to abide by environmental protection standards that will restrict business development & job growth, will allow currency manipulation, and will allow millions of new Mexican Illegal Alien workers to legally enter & work in the United State.   The Republican leaders in Congress should use some degree of “Common Sense” and wait for 19 months, before they give the occupant in the Oval Office any trade promotion authority, and only if that trade authority is very limited.  Hopefully the new occupant of the Oval Office, unlike Obama, will be a pro-American president who supports and abides by the provisions of the US Constitution.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has alerted the American people about the dangers of the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) speeding through Congress and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal that TPA would help push.  Senator Sessions said, “The president has circumvented Congress on immigration with serial regularity. But the TPA would yield new power to the executive to alter admissions while subtracting Congressional checks against those actions,” said in a “critical alert” dispatched by Senator Session’s office. Senator Sessions and several outside groups said Obama could change immigration policies between trading partners“at will” without any Congressional oversight.   “The plain language of TPA provides avenues for Obama and trading partners to facilitate the expanded movement of foreign workers into the U.S. — including issuing visitor visas that are used as worker visas,” said Senator Sessions.  The bases of that charge is a phrase in TPA calling it a “living agreement.” Sessions said that means that they can be changed after Congress approves them, and also that countries can be added in the future, including China.  “It leaves it open for a president to change it without Congressional approval,” warned Jessica M. Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. “Congress should not surrender its authority to write immigration laws to either the executive branch, to trade negotiators, and definitely not to international trade tribunals,” she added.

The Republican Leadership of the House and Senate are planning to give Obama free rein with “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority”, with full the knowledge of Obama’s very dangerous anti-American track record, and his pro-Marxist/Communist initiatives.  Even the most casual observer of Obama’s dangerous foreign policy initiatives can’t help but understand that, in the past 6 ½ years, Obama foreign policy decisions have consistently favored the enemies of the Republic like Radical Islamic Terrorists in Libya, Communist China, Communist North Vietnam, ant-America Iran, The Muslim Brotherhood, Chavez’s Socialist Venezuela, Castro’s Communist Cuba, and Putin’s Russia—they have all collectively and repeatedly expressed their intent to destroy the Republic as it was created by the Founding Fathers.

A newly elected pro-American Patriotic U.S. President would judiciously apply trade promotion authority negotiating by entering into separate Trade Treaties with 12 Asian and South American countries, while abiding by the provision of the U.S. Constitution that requires a two thirds majority vote of the U.S. Senate to approve each treaty.  The American people need to rise up and oppose Obama’s secret TPA Bill by calling their Senate representatives at (202) 224-3121 and by sending FaxGrams to their Senate and Congressional representatives telling them to reject Obama’s “Fast-Track” authority which will permit Obama to enter into and force the Congress to abide by all UN Treaties, and will also permit Obama to enter into future secret treaties with countries such as Cuba, China, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, etc.—this most recent initiative by Republican leadership in the House and Senate, following their unwise funding of Obamacare and illegal Immigration & wide open border policies thru September 2015, is approaching insanity and would be akin to allowing the fox into the chicken coop.

Dr. Ben Carson Answers the Clamoring of Millions of Americans to Run for President

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MERRIFIELD, Va./PRNewswire/ — Citing the critical need to heal a nation more bitterly divided politically than it has been at any time in the past 150 years, Dr. Ben Carson on May 4th in Detroit announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

“As a world-renowned neurosurgeon, Dr. Carson knows a thing or two about healing,” said John Philip Sousa IV, co-founder and chairman of The 2016 Committee, the political action committee originally formed to draft Carson into the presidential race. “I know I speak for millions of Americans in thanking Dr. Carson for entering this race and pledging to support his candidacy.”

“Dr. Carson’s candidacy represents the best and really the only opportunity we have to heal America and to bring Americans back together again under the banner of our Constitution,” Sousa added.

The Committee has been at the forefront of the movement urging Dr. Carson to run for president. Starting in August of 2013, it conducted  a petition campaign that ultimately collected more than 500,000 signatures from Americans urging Dr. Carson to enter the race. The Committee operates full time offices in Iowa and New Hampshire, and chairmen are in place in nearly every state coordinating more than 30,000 volunteers nationwide. The Committee has raised more than $16 million from more than 150,000 individual donors since 2013.

“For two years, Dr. Carson has said that if people clamored for him to run for president, he would have to answer their call,” said Vernon Robinson, The 2016 Committee’s campaign director. “Well, they indeed clamored, and he has answered them. But our work is far from over.  We will continue growing the massive grassroots network in pace to support Dr. Carson’s candidacy, and look ahead toward key Republican presidential straw polls and the September debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.”

“Dr. Carson’s candidacy will build on the massive grass-roots network that sprang up to encourage him to get into the race in the first place,” Robinson said. “He’s in it to win it, and we’re with him all the way.”

Dr. Carson is consistently among likely Republican voters’ top picks for the nomination. In one recent CNN survey, Dr. Carson placed second behind Mitt Romney but ahead of other likely contenders including formerFlorida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Dr. Carson finished an impressive second place in the 2014 Bloomberg/Des Moines Register presidential poll of likely caucus-goers, and scored an overwhelming victory in the Polk County Republican Dinner in Des Moines in August. He also won the Linn County, Iowa, midterm caucus straw poll in January 2014.

The now-retired Dr. Carson chose Detroit for his announcement because that’s where he grew up and because he wanted to use the bankrupt city as a metaphor for President Obama’s failed economic policies. He says his campaign will speak out against Mr. Obama’s radical left-wing agenda, because he loves his country and wants to save it.

About The 2016 Committee

The 2016 Committee, formed expressly to draft Dr. Carson into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, was founded in August 2013. Going forward, it will work to raise awareness of Dr. Carson’s qualifications, and will engage grass-roots conservative activists on behalf of his candidacy to provide the margin of victory for Ben Carson. For more information, visit www.2016committee.org or connect on Twitter@DraftRunBenRun or Facebook.com/RunBenRun.org.

‘Risking Life and Limb for Liberty’ Real Heroes: Harriet Tubman

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When the day arrives that a woman’s image adorns Federal Reserve currency for the first time, it might well be that of Harriet Tubman. She’s reportedly on the short list. It may, however, be a dubious honor to appear on something that declines so regularly in value. Without a doubt, this woman would impart more esteem to the bill than the bill would to her. Her value is far more solid and enduring.

Slavery was once ubiquitous in the world — and even intellectually respectable. That began to change in the late 18th century, first in Britain, which ended its slave trade in 1807 and liberated the enslaved throughout its jurisdiction in 1834. Before the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in America in 1865, American blacks risked everything attempting to escape from their masters, who sometimes pursued them all the way to the Canadian border. Tubman, herself a fugitive slave, became the most renowned “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, a network of trails for escapees from the antebellum South to the North. As many as 100,000 slaves risked life and limb traveling its routes. It was the most dangerous “railroad” in the world.

Born Araminta Harriet Ross in 1820 in Maryland, Tubman survived the brutalities of bondage for 29 years. Three of her sisters had been sold to distant plantation owners. She herself carried scars for her entire life from frequent whippings. Once, when she refused to restrain a runaway slave, she was bashed in the head with a two-pound weight, causing lifelong pain, migraines, and “buzzing” in her ears. She bolted for freedom in 1849, making her way to the neighboring free state of Pennsylvania and its city of brotherly love, Philadelphia.

“I had crossed the line of which I had so long been dreaming,” she later wrote.

I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with the old folks and my brothers and sisters. But to this solemn resolution I came: I was free, and they should be free also; I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all there. Oh, how I prayed then, lying all alone on the cold damp ground! ‘Oh, dear Lord’, I said. I haven’t got no friend but you. Come to my help Lord, for I’m in trouble! Oh, Lord! You’ve been with me in six troubles, don’t desert me in the seventh!

Tubman bravely ventured 13 times back into slave states to personally escort at least 70 escapees to Northern states and to Canada. “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years,” she famously recounted, “and I can say what most conductors can’t say: I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.” Those passengers included her aging parents, her three brothers, their wives, and many of their children.

Working for the Union Army as a cook and nurse during the Civil War, Tubman morphed quickly into an armed scout and spy. She became the war’s first woman to lead an armed expedition when she guided the Combahee River Raid, an expedition that liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina.

For her service to the government — tending to newly freed slaves, scouting into enemy territory, and nursing wounded soldiers — she was treated shamefully and shabbily. She was denied compensation and didn’t receive a pension for her war duties until 1899. She took in boarders and worked long hours at odd jobs to make ends meet.

In an August 1868 letter to Tubman, famous abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass paid tribute to her heroism:

Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day — you in the night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt “God bless you” has been your only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism.

Tubman spent her last decades caring for others, especially the sick and aged. She often spoke publicly on behalf of women’s right to vote. For relief from that head injury mentioned earlier, she endured brain surgery in Boston in the late 1890s. She refused anesthesia, preferring instead simply to bite down on a bullet. In her words, the surgeon “sawed open my skull, and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable.” She died in 1913 at the age of 91 — a real hero to the very end.

In 2014, an asteroid was named for Tubman. In my book, that beats a Federal Reserve note hands down.

For additional information, see:

Lawrence W. Reed

Lawrence W. (“Larry”) Reed became president of FEE in 2008 after serving as chairman of its board of trustees in the 1990s and both writing and speaking for FEE since the late 1970s.

EDITORS NOTE: Each week, Mr. Reed will relate the stories of people whose choices and actions make them heroes. See the table of contents for previous installments.

Mary’s Garden and Henry Ross for Congress

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For the past few months Mary and I have been working from home rather than on the road campaigning for conservative candidates. I built a container for Mary’s veggie garden. How can someone be a gardener who freaks out over the sight of a worm?

My last blood test was not good. So, I have gone rogue in my battle to defeat diabetes; totally raw food. I only eat raw salmon and tuna and hearty salads. No diary. I only drink water with lemon and black coffee. No eating after 8pm. My daily sugar level has been dramatically better. I have been on this regiment for a month and a half. After 60 days, I will go for another blood test. I covet your prayers. I figure if I can get a handle on my health, I can introduce a healthy, but more normal diet and even cheat occasionally.

There was a knock at our front door. A courier handed me a package from CCC (Conservative Campaign Committee) with a memory stick inside. “Hello Mr Marcus. Your mission should you choose to accept it is Henry Ross for Congress, Mississippi. As always, should you or any member of our CCC team be caught working to send a true Tea Party conservative to Washington, the GOP will disavow any knowledge of our actions. This memory stick will self-destruct in 30 seconds.”

henry ross congress mississippi

Henry Ross, Republican candidate for the U.S. Congress, Mississippi District 1

Okay, perhaps, it did not happen quite that way, but we at CCC proudly announce our endorsement of Henry Ross for U.S. Congress, Mississippi, District 1.

Why should you care? Folks, the only way we stop Obama and his fellow Leftist’s anti-America and anti-God agenda is to replace Democrats, betrayers and spineless Republicans with rock-solid courageous conservatives; one race at a time.

Quoting CCC Executive Director, Joe Wierzbicki, “He (Henry Ross) is definitely “our guy” in terms of ideology and approach. He’s a Ted Cruz-Louis Gohmert-Ted Yoho-Mark Levin type of Republican.”

Ross’ bio is excellent – Former Circuit Judge, Assistant District Attorney, served in the U.S. Navy, was a member of the Navy JAG Corps, was an appointee to GW Bush’s Justice Department and graduated from Ole Miss.

Far too many GOP candidates are obsessed with trying to prove to the mainstream media that conservatives are not that bad, willing to compromise and play nice with Obama and the Democrats.

What sealed the deal for me to support Henry Ross was his boldness in stating who he is, what he believes and his intentions when elected, “…bring us back to God centered limited Constitutional government, where we have rights, but we have responsibilities – responsibility to our nation and to our families. But government has responsibilities to us to follow the Constitution and not bankrupt the country.”

Patriots, please join us in helping Henry Ross win the GOP primary and the runoff. Time is short. The GOP primary is May 12th. The special election runoff is June 2nd.

Henry, thanks brother for stepping up. Let’s get behind him folks. Go Henry Ross for Congress!