Big Girl Pants

we were a part of history

2009-09-23T14:28:43-05:00

today i bring you the second in my three-part series on the tea party at the capitol on 12 september 2009. this is piece is written by one of my oldest and dearest friends - mr. h. he has a great amount of experience in radio broadcast as a d.j. and in production. he has worked in both public and private enterprises in that arena. i have always valued mr. h's insight and opinions and i find it especially so when pertaining to politics, history and driving directions. i think you'll understand the why for all but the latter after reading his contribution below.

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My wife and I drove down to DC the day before. We stayed with friends in one of the less tony suburbs between DC and Baltimore, so we weren’t really aware of the impact the event was having on the area until we got to the Greenbelt metro station Saturday morning. It looked like a weekday morning in terms of the sheer number of people (and buses) present. It was clear the crowds were not locals when we went inside the station and found them lined up 25 deep at the fare-card machines. Of course, the signs would have been a giveaway. About every fourth person or so was carrying something.

We’d planned to ride the metro to the Archives station, which would put us on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks east of the start of the event. This meant we wouldn’t need to change trains, which looked like a good idea given the sheer number of folks in the system. When we arrived at the Archives station, it was clear we wouldn’t be walking west to start the march, because it had already begun.

I stood on the curb and looked both ways down Pennsylvania Avenue. The street was a sea of people all the way to each end and beyond. At that moment my wife said what I had been thinking, that she suddenly felt like she was a part of history, and that she never imagined she’d be marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. I can recall watching news clips of people marching on that street all the way back to the mid-60s, and what we saw looked eerily similar to some of the larger demonstrations in the past. We joined the throng as it flowed toward Capitol Hill. At Third Street we were shunted south and ended up just about centered in front of the Capitol, on the west side of the reflecting pool.

Much has been made of the signs at the event. The vast majority were reasonable, often humorous. Some were downright embarrassing. How could that not be so at an event with this many folks? You will always have extremists and outliers in any group. Is there a place for them? Sure. Do they define the movement? Absolutely not.

In this setting people were encouraged to express themselves and felt no inhibition about doing so. In practice this meant that it was much more likely that any given sign would be of the ‘questionable content’ variety. And yet the percentage of signs that fell into that category was really quite small. The only way to ensure that the signboard messaging at these events is a balanced reflection of the mood of the entire group would be to require everyone attending to bring a sign, which strikes me as a not altogether practical solution.

I saw only one ‘opposition’ group doing counter-demonstrating, and their message was so muddled I’m still not really sure what they were trying to say. At least they were polite.

In fact, everyone was. There was no violence anywhere, no aggression. Even the small amount of litter

the crowd generated was picked up by members of the participating groups. Capitol Hill was cleaner when we left than it was when the event began, a marked contrast to the average Fourth of July trashfest or the huge piles of garbage

after the Obama inauguration.

Media coverage was sparse. I could see a camera on top of the Fox building for most of the event. But except for a few un-logoed lone videographers, there were no cameras in evidence. Funny thing was, the dish on top of the CNN truck (which was just behind us on Third Street) folded up about 12:15 -- in other words, just about as things got started. Cynical bastard that I am, I expected CNN would run a clip they'd shot at about 9 AM (long before the march was planned to begin and therefore of a mostly empty Capitol lawn) to try to downplay the attendance. But too many other outlets had video showing how large the event really was for them to get away with that kind of subterfuge.

What was my on-the-scene estimate of the size of the crowd? They announced over the PA at one point that CNN had described the crowd as “1000 people”. I think we can be fairly sure that was on the low side. I know they had to push it up to "tens of thousands" by that evening. A British newspaper reported the crowd as about 2 million. But there’s our defined range. If I were put on the spot and forced to guess, I’d say the crowd was probably easily in the neighborhood of a half-million, which was where the organizers put the crowd size in an announcement over the PA.

If you’re familiar with the area or have a large-scale map handy, the crowd covered the Capitol grounds up around both sides and west as far as Third Street, but there was very little spillover across Third Street itself. My wife, who used to work on Capitol Hill and has seen many different events in the National Mall, says this one was about comparable to an average inauguration crowd – which would make it slightly smaller than my estimate. It was definitely not in the same class as a July 4th crowd or the bigger historical demonstrations. Martin Luther King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial saw the crowd cover West Potomac Park and the entire mall all the way from 23rd Street to the foot of Capitol Hill. That crowd was about 5 million.

So, disregard the ridiculous estimates, but be proud of the actual, respectable numbers. Half a million

concerned Americans gave up their Saturday to make a statement. At an event with no ‘official’ centralized organization or sponsor, that’s pretty impressive.

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it is impressive and moving for all of us. i believe that to be true even for those whom did not attend.

we have not yet begun to fight...

2009-09-17T21:19:52-05:00

today is the first of two very special posts and the first of three in a series. i realize the tea parties happened nearly a week ago, but i've decided that not everything has been posted on the day - yet.

my cousin, jessica hayes, was one of the more than 50,000 to over a million people - of course, depending on who's estimates you believe: the "official" estimates or your own lying eyes - attending the tea party on the mall in dc last saturday 12 september 2009. this is her personal accounting of that day. in a few days there will be a post from one of my very good friends, mr. h, whom also attended the tea party on the mall - a few days after that i'll post my accounting of the tea party on the lawn of the federal building in west l.a.

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I had been anticipating the 9-12 March on Washington for a few months but no amount of anticipation could surpass the passion and unbridled patriotism that enveloped my heart bountifully as I marched down Pennsylvania Avenue that cool crisp pre-fall morning. The spirit emanated from my fellow countrymen adjacent me; they were from every walk of life, from near and far, young and old, black and white. Without speaking a word we all knew that we were there for the same cause. As we marched, waves of chants would start from either the rear or fore and roll backwards and forwards until we were all in sync. Perhaps the most poignant moment was as we were passing by one of the government buildings. The chant had become loud and strong, “Can you hear us now?” “Can you hear us now?”; “Can you hear us now?” Awe struck when at that instant to our left was a tremendous marble wall inscribed with...

'CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES'

Time seemed to stand still for that moment in time, for this was the very motive for our March on Washington to petition our government for a redress of many grievances.

We made our way to about midway between the capital and the beginning of the mall. We listened to all of the speakers; we cheered and chanted until our voices were hoarse. We held up our signs and waved our flags with pride. Everyone we encountered was polite, courteous and friendly. There was no pushing, no shoving and no violence. As we were headed for the bus we noticed that there was no trash littered about on the lawn or the sidewalks. Everyone had either placed their trash in a waste can or stacked it neatly by one if it was full.

It is glorious to be an American and on September 12, 2009 an unequivocal message echoed throughout the land that if our elected representatives don’t represent us, "We have not yet begun to fight".

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what an amazing day for jessica, for me, for our country.

do you remember? - redub

2009-09-11T00:48:00-05:00

in 2007 i ran this post - given the stupidness of what's happening now, i felt it appropriate to run it again today. a few things in my post should be changed - our current student is mongolian and i'm living in cali and not kc and it's been eight years now instead of six; but that's about it. i still work from home and i still cry at the thought of those planes. hitting the towers. hitting our pentagon. going down at the hands of those aboard to spare further horror in that pennsylvania field.

for those whom this attack was personal in 2001, it still is, it always will be. and because it was personal to some very close to me, it's personal for me too. i believe it should be personal for all of us. i hope my readers agree...

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do you remember?

i do. so do our braves sons and daughters standing in harm's way around the world. and so do the terrorists.

sitting here, working from home, watching the memorial services and it's all so fresh. from the first moment of silence at 08:46 (EDT) to the last one at 10:20 (EDT) the tears just flowed and i couldn't have done anything to stop them had i tried.

right now we have an exchange student from the czech republic. he's getting a unique perspective that he could never have received in europe. it's [probably] highly unlikely he'd get this same experience with any other host family here. from his surprise that we fly the u.s. and federalist flags everyday, the flying of the flag at half-mast today, he's been just one question after another.

we have exchange students every year and it never ceases to amaze me how skewed is their concept of free. i can't help but think that our founding fathers would find what passes for freedom in our current reality, here in the u.s., to be unacceptable. and yet, we are still the most free country on the face of the earth.

six years ago today, i stepped out of the shower to the image of the first tower burning. moments later i watched, live, as the second plane crashed into the second tower. it was then that i realized the first tower hit wasn't an accident. we were truly under attack.

at the time, we were living in houston about six miles from nasa. when the plane hit the second tower, i left to get my children from school. no matter how irrational, i just wanted my children with me. my oldest daughter, katerina, was waiting for me. seems she "knew" i'd be coming as soon as they made the announcement at her high school. no idea how she knew, but i guess i've always been neurotic about the safety of my kids. my other two children, jesse and tatiana, were younger; they really didn't understand why mom and dad were so upset. i'm not sure they yet have any idea. kat gets it. she remembers.

but honestly, i don't think that most people remember. certainly the msm doesn't remember. sure they remember that it happened, but not the significance of it all. they don't remember the pain of realizing our innocence, as a nation, was gone forever. they don't remember the horror of not knowing who it was or why or if more was imminent. do you?

we don't see those video images on the t.v. any more - seems the experts are worried that viewing the destruction will breed anger and hatred. apparently they are correct as islamist terrorists are seemingly using the videos for recruiting more jihad. they remember. they don't want you to remember.

they want you to believe the conspiracists. they want you to belive the msm and george soros and his moveon organization. they want you to believe the talking heads in the democrat party. they want you to believe that the war in iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror.

they know that if you believe the lies being passed off by these groups that you will be more likely to think we're safe here no matter what the "warmongerers" are telling you. they know that if you believe you're safe that you'll be more likely to pressure washington to abandon iraq. and maybe even afghanistan. and maybe even ignore any dangers from iran, if it comes to that.

nearly 3000 people dead on our soil. six years ago today. nearly 5000 american service men and women dead in this war on terror since oif started more than 5 years ago. many related terrorist plots foiled (worldwide) by our allies and our own country in the past six years.

in the new tape released, today, obl says that the only way the u.s. will escape further wrath from the islamists is if we all convert to islam. but don't look for this statement to change the dribble spewing forth from the defeatists. don't look for them to admit that the terrorist hate us not because of our capitalism or any other reason than the fact that we are not an islamic state. it doesn't fit their policy of cut and run, so look to even this statement being ignored.

already, today, i am hearing claims that obl isn't the man in charge any more. where before these same people were calling on the president to abandon iraq because the "real war" is wherever obl is, my guess is that these people will now start trying to make the case that there is no "real leader" and therefore we need to go back to treating the terrorists as criminals, not combatants. this will be the new justification for abandoning iraq and not fighting any more.

i, for one, will never forget. i will remember until the day i die that morning when my view of the world changed forever. i will always remember the innocence of the world i grew up in, snatched from my childrens' hands before they even knew it. i will remember, with pride, for as long as i live the brave souls on flight 93 who said "let's roll" and then did. i will remember fear i felt wondering if my friend was safely out of the pentagon when flight 77 hit (thankfully she was late that day and parking as the plane came in).

i will remember the horrors, the fear, the pain, the disbelief and the pride always and i will try to communicate that frequently to everyone i meet who does not remember. will you?

the clothes have no emperor*

2009-09-09T17:05:58-05:00

this morning my wonderful client in nowhere's-ville mississippi (right next to where my daddy's family is from) sent me an email of a blog post from one jim mcmahon of chicago. no, not THAT mcmahon - this one can actually string a couple sentences together and seems to be highly intelligent (i've now read several of his blog posts) and he's a conservative at that. not sure how well he can throw a football, though...

in his post, titled "who's really running the show" mr. mcmahon puts forth a premise that many of my friends and i have been discussing since obama showed up strong on the campaign trail. there is simply no way that anyone - let alone a relative no one - can move up the ladder this quickly. it MUST be orchestrated. the post starts as follows:

"I have been having a nagging intuition lately that something is not quite right about Barack Obama. I am not suggesting there is something wrong with the man, per se. Nor am I talking about the crazy, even dangerous, policies coming out of the White House. No, lately, I have been wondering if Barack Obama is, in fact, the person who is actually functioning as President of the United States.

"I mean, there's no doubt that he fills the position of POTUS but is he really the one in command? The man actually seems lost at times. He seems to be reacting to ideas about which he does not really have a clue. He has left the writing of this health care bill to Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives and she, in turn, has farmed the writing out to several fairly radical community action groups. When questioned about health care, he seems not to know or understand the details and even with his silver-tongue seems unable to demonstrate any leadership on the issue."

and further down in his post:

"We know that he has been and remains surrounded by life-long radicals, professed communists and anti-capitalists, some of whom he has even appointed as czars in his administration. Thirty six czars, to date. But is it Obama who is picking the czars or is it the czars who are running the show and propping up Obama as their front man?

"I know all this may sound crazy but, really, when you look at the man without the idolatry and media worship, does he really look like he knows what he is doing? Does he seem to have a direction? Firm convictions? Something he deeply believes in? The more he talks now, the more his words seems empty of content. Platitudes about America and the American people which, when he says them, simply do not ring true. They are words being mouthed but not believed by him."

sort of like watching someone smile or laugh when the smile never quite reaches his eyes. he comes off as plastic man - not just to me, but too so many others whom i have spoken with lately. several of whom voted for him and now are ASHAMED of having done so.

it really is a great post and i highly recommend that you go read the whole thing. and share the knowledge - spread this piece around. it's well written and NEEDS to be read by everyone and anyone professing to love this country. especially if they're thinking something "off" but were thinking maybe it was just their own perception that was wrong. it's not.

mr. mcmahon finishes his post:

In my view, Obama has been trained and used as a puppet by others for a long time. His successes seem to have come too easily, as if they have been orchestrated. His life appears to have been pre-planned. I mean, Harvard Law Review without publishing a single paper of note. That is unusual. A community organizer for a short time, a State legislator for a few years, a freshman US Senator, a convention key-note speaker, and then POTUS. How does that happen? A person with zero governmental administrative experience is running the entire government of the United States.

How do 1,017 page documents get developed and put out in such short order? Who is writing all these proposals? Does it not seem that something is just not quite right here? Forget about the specifics of the policies for the moment. Have you seen this level of activity in the first few months of any other administration in your lifetime? Does Obama seem like the kind of person that could manage this level of activity in so short a time? Too much does not make sense here.
So, slowly but surely, I am becoming convinced that it’s not Barack Obama who is running the show. The White House has been captured by a group of people who are using Barack Obama as their front man. He is nothing but an articulate but empty suit. We have to start looking behind the curtains to find out who is really controlling the "great and powerful Obama."

pre-planned. orchestrated. yep - this whole thing definitely has that feeling to me. starting with john mccain as the gop candidate. and a virtual nobody with no background to speak of for dnc candidate. is it any real surprise to anyone that mccain didn't win? he is, after all, the candidate that the gop was allowed to have. obama's presidency was inevitable because of the power in control who manipulated this entire scenario.

some say that the massive missives being vended as legislation were written by lobbyists who stood to gain the most from their passage. i'm not buying it. i cannot believe that any private industry lobbying firm would look at the health care reform opportunity and think "wow! that's how we can make our bucks!" i know, i know - the ama and the pharmaceutical companies have made golden deals with the obama administration in exchange for backing the legislation - but those deals were cut AFTER the fact, not ahead of it.

i'm going to take jim's paranoia just a step farther and put forth the thought that these bills were pre-written by whomever is really in control of the administration at this point. these bills were designed for exactly the situation we find ourselves in now and the puppet masters have just been waiting for the correct stars to align in order to push this legislation through.

what do y'all think?

*with heartfelt apologies to my dear friend, mr. hart, for stealing his line.

...we gotta vote out these clowns who don't love the usa...

2009-08-31T18:28:32-05:00

so says lloyd marcus about the president's "stimulus" policy in his 'tea party anthem' written for the tea parties. aside from being a great songwriter, mr. marcus is the president of the 'national association for the advancement of conservative people of color'. wow, now that's a group that i hope grows by leaps and bounds in the next few weeks, months, and years - i'm certain it's already happening.

it's a great piece of music and you can hear it in part above when he was on fox news just after the first orlando tea party. you can check out both of his songs (and videos), 'we the people' and the 'american tea party anthem' at his webiste. through these songs and his fox news interview you begin to get a good sense of what this man is all about.

last week, on 27 august 2009 to be exact, mr. marcus wrote an 'open letter to white liberals' which was published at renew america's website. it's a well written, extremely sarcastic letter from a black man who's clearly fed up with watching the liberal elite treating he and his brethren as if they are second class citizens. please follow the renew america link and read it in its entirety - it's worth the few minutes of your time.

his letter starts with:

Thank you very, very much. You see us poor helpless inferior blacks, oh forgive me, I must be politically correct, "African Americans," and you want to help us using your superior intellect. After all, we could not possibly succeed in this racist, homophobic and greedy country without your assistance.

and continues with:

So, now you former hippie boomers are in total control of government, colleges and public schools, still selling your Utopian message of peace and love. Thanks for getting rid of black dads in the home via your welfare programs. I mean, everyone knows dads are cruel chauvinists who beat and molest their kids.

and finishes with:

In closing, you libs, please keep up the good work. With your continued diligence, we minorities and most Americans will not have to work or be responsible for anything. Your president is in the process of confiscating the wealth from those greedy rich white SOBs and redistributing it to us. Right on!

Now, if I can just figure out how to tie my shoes all by myself. But if I can't, I know you libs are there for me. Fighting back tears of overwhelming gratitude, again, I thank you.

did i mention that he is a very proud black man who loves this country and he doesn't want a hand out? i'm certain he must be racially confused or something else he wouldn't feel this way - much like clarence thomas or condoleeza rice or michael steele or larry elders or star parker and so on and so forth.

i have never been able to understand how denigrating one group of people makes another group of people feel better. i will never understand how taking from those who are producing - regardless of color - and giving to "those folks who won't get out of their easy chairs..." is supposed to increase the prosperity of all. the only thing that accomplishes is to decrease the overall wealth and morale of the country as a whole.

i wish i knew this man and were able to thank him personally for being willing to speak out and say the things that he is saying. i can't help but think that his is precisely the type of voice that congress will seek to silence (along with we conservative bloggers) with rockefeller's 'cyber security' bill. so i find myself championing him and helping to make his voice heard in the only way i can - by sharing him with my readers. i hope y'all will do the same...

UPDATE - CHECK OUT THIS POST FROM DI AND MIRADENA. it's a a great tie-in for what marcus lloyd is saying and an extremely well written article in its own right.

the most beautiful baby in the world

2009-08-29T14:49:11-05:00

taking a break from ugly political landscape that is our current existence to share with my readers something of much greater importance. this week marked the birth of my first grandchild. miss laela noel joined us in this world at 22:48 on 24 august 2009. she weighed 5lbs 14oz and was 18" long.

she looks so much like her mommy, miss katerina scarlette, that it made my heart ache. she DOES have her daddy's nose and ear lobes, but other than that, she's pure katerina.

here are some pictures of here first few days of life. she is one very loved baby and her grammy could not be more proud.

i hope you enjoy the pictures as much as i am enjoying this little angel.

laela is the hope of my future and the promise of tomorrow.

admonishments from a true american hero

2009-08-24T11:12:02-05:00

this is short and sweet to break my [way too] long absence. sorry, i've been beating back the alligators as best i can - i'll be more consistent again, now. thanks for the patience and the support.

this guys is a disabled marine corp veteran and he is well spoken and really knows his stuff. imho, the best line of the whole confrontation is his last "...i have kept my oath, do you ever intend to keep yours?" indeed.

power is not a means, it is an end. a parable for today.

2009-07-07T15:54:20-05:00

sixty years ago, avowed and confirmed socialist george orwell released his brilliantly bitter novel 1984. the novel was orwell's warning of what happens when state power is unabated and unchecked - and the premise novel is no less nightmarish now than when it was first released.

set in the fictional police state of oceana where the image of "big brother" - the personification of "the party" - and the "thought police" ruthlessly suppressed any hint of dissent. in the book control is realized through constant surveillance, relentess propaganda and quick, sure annihilation of anyone who rebels against its authority, even if only in private thoughts or conversation. winston smith, the unheroic and unlikely hero of the story engaged in dissent from the party - in both thought and written word and he was eventually arrested, interrogated, tortured and broken.

shortly after the book was published, mr. orwell wrote "I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe . . . that something resembling it could arrive," and further "I believe also that totalitarian ideas have taken root in the minds of intellectuals everywhere, and I have tried to draw these ideas out to their logical consequences." boy did he ever say a mouthful!

my good friend, z, from golly geeeez sent me a great little story - written by god knows who - that i think ties nicely into the above:

Once upon a time, I was invited to the White House for a private dinner with the President. I am a respected businessman, with a factory that produces memory chips for computers and portable electronics. There was some talk that my industry was being scrutinized by the administration, but I paid it no mind. I live in a free country. There's nothing that the government can do to me if I've broken no laws. My wealth was earned honestly, and an invitation to dinner with an American President is an honor.

I checked my coat, was greeted by the Chief of Staff, and joined the President in a yellow dining room. We sat across from each other at a table draped in white linen. The Great Seal was embossed on the china. Uniformed staff served our dinner.

The meal was served, and I was startled when my waiter suddenly reached out, plucked a dinner roll off my plate, and began nibbling it as he walked back to the kitchen.

"Sorry about that," said the President. "Andrew is very hungry."

"I don't appreciate..." I began, but as I looked into the calm brown eyes across from me, I felt immediately guilty and petty. It was just a dinner roll. "Of course," I concluded, and reached for my glass. Before I could, however, another waiter reached forward, took the glass away and swallowed the wine in a single gulp.

"And his brother Eric is very thirsty." said the President.

I didn't say anything. The President is testing my compassion, I thought. I will play along. I don't want to seem unkind.

My plate was whisked away before I had tasted a bite.

"Eric's children are also quite hungry."

With a lurch, I crashed to the floor. My chair had been pulled out from under me. I stood, brushing myself off angrily, and watched as it was carried from the room.

"And their grandmother can't stand for long."

I excused myself, smiling outwardly, but inside feeling like a fool. Obviously I had been invited to the White House to be sport for some game. I reached for my coat, to find that it had been taken. I turned back to the President.

"Their grandfather doesn't like the cold."

I wanted to shout- that was my coat! But again, I looked at the placid smiling face of my host and decided I was being a poor sport. I spread my hands helplessly and chuckled. Then I felt my hip pocket and realized my wallet was gone. I excused myself and walked to a phone on an elegant side table. I learned shortly that my credit cards had been maxed out, my bank accounts emptied, my retirement and equity portfolios had vanished, and my wife had been thrown out of our home. Apparently, the waiters and their families were moving in. The President hadn't moved or spoken as I learned all this, but finally I lowered the phone into its cradle and turned to face him.

"Andrew's whole family has made bad financial decisions. They haven't planned for retirement, and they need a house. They recently defaulted on a subprime mortgage. I told them they could have your home. They need it more than you do."

My hands were shaking. I felt faint. I stumbled back to the table and knelt on the floor. The President cheerfully cut his meat, ate his steak and drank his wine. I lowered my eyes and stared at the small grey circles on the tablecloth that were water drops.

"By the way," He added, "I have just signed an Executive Order nationalizing your factories. I'm firing you as head of your business. I'll be operating the firm now for the benefit of all mankind. There's a whole bunch of Erics and Andrews out there and they can't come to you for jobs groveling like beggars."

I looked up. The President dropped his spoon into the empty ramekin which had been his creme brulee. He drained the last drops of his wine. As the table was cleared, he lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair. He stared at me. I clung to the edge of the table as if were a ledge and I were a man hanging over an abyss. I thought of the years behind me, of the life I had lived. The life I had earned with a lifetime of work, risk and struggle. Why was I punished? How had I allowed it to be taken? What game had I played and lost? I looked across the table and noticed with some surprise that there was no game board between us.

What had I done wrong?

As if answering the unspoken thought, the President suddenly cocked his head, locked his empty eyes to mine, and bared a million teeth, chuckling wryly as he folded his hands.

"You should have stopped me at the dinner roll," he said.

what a perfect analogy for what is going on now. and if we don't do something to stop it - sooner rather than later - we will be way too far down the road to turn the ship and avoid the iceberg that threatens to sink us.

some of our politicians are waking up. check out representative michele bachman (r-minn) on the floor of the house taking congress, in general, to task. in part she says "Now weve moved into the realm of gangster government. We have gangster government when the Federal Government has set up a new cartel and private businesses now have to go begging with their hand out to their local hopefully well politically connectedCongressman or their Senator so they can buy a peace offering for that local business. Is that the kind of country we are going to have in the future?"

it is time to wake up people. the tea parties aren't enough. we must go further. at what point does civil unrest become the right thing? i think we're close to that point now - if not already there.

it's time to stop him/them. it's time to shut down the power grab. it's time to BRIDGE the gap that separates all freedom loving americans and restore our constitution. it's time to be responsible americans.

i leave you with another quote from orwell: "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. ... We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end."

hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry - now wait.

2009-06-26T22:01:45-05:00

back in january - in fact barely two days after his inaugration as president of the united states of america - bho signed an executive order requiring that the guantanamo bay facility be closed within 12 months. at the time of his signing the order, the president said he was issuing the order to close the facility in order to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism."

and all the world rejoiced.

um, yeah, not so much.

you see, obama and the other leftists around the world did not take into consideration that no one wants the detainees from gitmo. not here in the united states and certainly not in europe.

initially, obamah's decision to close the gitmo facility received a speedy backing from obama's presidential election opponent, john mccain (clueless arizona) when he made a joint statement with senator lindsey graham (rino, sc) saying they supported obama's move to "reaffirm America's adherence to the Geneva Conventions, and begin a process that will, we hope, lead to the resolution of all cases of Guantanamo detainees."

then "larry king live," john-boy said he thought that perhaps the new president may have been a tad bit hasty in his decision to close gitmo. that maybe he should have taken a little more time to consider everything associated with closing the camp before laying out a timetable for adherence.

specifically, mclame said he thought bho needed to consider what would need to be done with enemy combatants held at G=guantanamo before ordering the facility to be closed. saying, "So, the easy part, in all due respect, is to say we're going to close Guantanamo," McCain said. "Then I think I would have said where they were going to be taken. Because you're going to run into a NIMBY [not in my backyard] problem here in the United States of America."

ya think? so johnny supported obama's closing of the gitmo facility before he warned him against the closing of the facility. all seems a little too much like the dems after the start of the iraq war, doesn't it?

so, now, fast forward five months and today - this evening, really - obama's white house has drafted an order that would "reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations."

according to dafna linzer and peter finn of the washington post, the order was drafted because of fears of a battle-royal with congress that would stall plans to close gitmo.

so let me get this straight. it was so important to close the guantanamo bay facility that it couldn't even wait two full days after the one's coronation, but it's not important enough that he's willing to fight congress on it? hmmm, i smell a rat (well actually more than one, but we'll reserve the others for another day).

his advisors appear to be worried that embracing another legacy of gwb's will put him on weaker footing with the courts and key supporters. uh-huh. of the two groups, whom do you think the advisors are more concerned about. yep, me too.

from the wapo article:

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said that there is no executive order and that the administration has not decided whether to issue one. But one administration official suggested that the White House is already trying to build support for an order.

"Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order," the official said. Such an order could be rescinded and would not block later efforts to write legislation, but civil liberties groups generally oppose long-term detention, arguing that detainees should be prosecuted or released.

why does anyone care what civil liberties groups think about long-term detention? if they feel so strongly about this, why don't they invite them to live in their homes?

in reality, the people who have been to gitmo all seem agree that life at guantanamo is pretty good. in fact, the patriot post digest from today had this to say about the whole thing:

The Guantanamo detainee merry-go-round continues to turn and churn. On the detainee transfer front, the European Union, a harsh critic of detainee treatment, allegedly made its most explicit promise to date on accepting some Gitmo detainees... well, kind of, maybe. In a rather foggy, diplo-speak statement, the EU pledged to cooperate with the U.S. on legal strategies that will "help the U.S. turn the page" on past detention policies. Naturally, the statement did not specify how many detainees would be sent to Europe or which countries would accept them, although apparently Italy has agreed to accept three detainees. So much for the "explicit" promise.

Speaking of transferred detainees, the four Chinese Muslim Uighurs released from Gitmo and sent to Bermuda last week were found by the swimming pool outside of their pink bungalow. Questioned by a Fox News reporter, the well-tanned detainees said that living in China is worse than life at Guantanamo, saying there is no guarantee of human rights in China. We're shocked -- shocked -- to find that this is the case.

yeah, me too.

in short, obama is back tracking once again. and just like with the whole iranian election thing (we can't meddle in their affairs. oh by the way stop doing what you're doing), obama's reversal doesn't make him look strong or presidential or even manly. it simply shows him as the spineless jelly fish that he is. and our enemies have taken notice.

step right up folks, get your "ism"

2009-06-21T18:06:25-05:00

about 50 years ago the extension department of harding college produced this mid-length cartoon as part of a series of films. the purpose of the series was to help to illustrate to, and create a deeper understanding with, the general public of what made america the finest place in the world to live.

in this film, "make mine freedom", we go from the opening lines acknowledgement that 'america is many things to many people' to the listing of several of our guaranteed freedoms to the statement that "it is these freedoms that have made america strong, to the disagreement between management and labor, politicians and regular folk. same old same old, eh?

enter dr. utopia's sensational new discovery "ism". the answer to all the problems. how prophetic a cartoon this is. how sad that it is so prophetic and that we americans didn't fight against this tide harder. too bad so many signed the "itty bitty scrap of paper" without the permission of the rest of us and we did nothing.

no, our system of free enterprise wasn't perfect, but it sure served us well for a good many years. it made not only our industry but our educational system the envy of the world! can you imagine anyone envying our education system today?

john q. public was right when he said "anyone who preaches disunity; tries to pit one of us against the other through class warfare, race hatred or religious intolerence you know that person seeks to rob us of our freedom and destroy our very lives." this is exactly what has happened over the course of the last 40 years.

especially in the last presidential election. no matter where you look or who you listen to in the msm all you hear is the obamantra of "everything is fine. everything is fine." fine for who? not fine for me, and i'm betting not fine for you either.

we used to know what to do about those who would rob us of our freedom and destroy our country. i wonder do we still? i wonder is it too late to chase the usurpers out of town?