All Politics is Local

By The Lone Front Ranger

Sean Paige, The executive director of LLA, and editor of Local Liberty Online, has announced his candidacy to replace Jerry Heimlicher on the Colorado Springs City Council. His announcement:

“It's official, folks. I dropped off my paperwork at City Hall a few hours ago, along with a detailed, point-by-point agenda that I hope will turn the search for Jerry Heimlicher's replacement into something more than an empty kiss-up contest. The mayor's office called a few minutes ago to say interviews begin on the afternoon of the 6th, which came as a shock, since I fully expected that my paperwork would be "misplaced."

So I'm still in the running, technically, though Vegas odds-makers say the Detroit Lions have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl than I have of sitting in Jerry's chair. No matter. Winning was never the goal or expectation. The point is to put some actual ideas forward and see if they'll stir a little thought and debate.

I'll paste some of the highlights of that agenda below, in bullet form. Those who aren't mortified by that, and want more, can find it at my Local Liberty Online blog, Page by Paige: http://www.locallibertyonline.org/paige_blog.php. Your feedback is appreciated, as always. And if you have some ideas of you own, send them along. This is a work in progress.”

I do not live in this district. I have met Sean, but don’t really know him. I follow his writings, and typically agree with his points. How refreshing it would be to actually have someone of this mindset in elected office.

I encourage you to follow the link above to his platform. It shows what a truly small government platform might look like. A platform where the government, even at the local level, knows its appropriate place in the lives and wallets of taxpayers.

An example from Sean’s platform: “I will fight for an opt-out clause in existing or future historic preservation districts. Inclusion in such districts should be voluntary, not coerced. I won’t support any new historic preservation districts that don’t allow homeowners to opt-out.”

So Sean is proposing that government not have the ability to coerce property owners into restricting the use of their honestly acquired property. Wow…what a novel approach. You mean since I bought my house, I get to have a say on what I do with my house? Sounds like a common sense policy to me.

He has a whole platform, all of which liberty-loving people will warm up to.

A lot of us pay attention more to national politics than local politics. The allure is understandable. High stakes politics, scandals, policies with huge impact on the entire nation…it’s all very interesting. But our ability to impact politics is actually at the local level. Some of these local races are won by just a few votes. And to have the opportunity to vote for a guy like Sean Paige, happens first at the local level.

I hope Sean is not disappointed if he wins. The City of Colorado Springs would be far better for him being a City Councilman.

“Mm, mmm, bad…Indoctrination?”
by John Alexander Madison
September 28, 2009

It could not have been clearer. On July 4, 1776 the unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America began with: “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” Well, you know the rest.

Two hundred thirty-three years later someone other than King George III of England has: “…imposed taxes on us without our Consent…he has erected a multitude of new offices (czars), and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass (organize) our people (A.C.O.R.N.) and eat out their substance…he has obstructed the Administration of Justice” (against his followers and disciples);…and “he has excited domestic insurrections amongst us”… (tea parties & refusal to obey his federal health care mandate)…“In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions (Republican amendments) have been answered only by repeated injury (rejection)…a Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” This was (and is) serious stuff.

It seems the citizenry was quite upset back then, as they are today, and understandably so. Perhaps as egregious as was the situation two plus centuries ago is the recent indoctrination of school children at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, NJ. It is nothing short of “Obamanable” (sic), worthy of causing disgust or hatred, quite disagreeable, detestable, and unpleasant. These impressionable children were “programmed” to sing, over and over, the following lyrics:

Song 1: Mm, mmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama. He said that all must lend a hand, To make this country strong again, Mm, mmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama; He said we must be fair today, Equal work means equal pay, Mm, mmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama; He said that we must take a stand, To make sure everyone gets a chance Mm, mmm, mm!Barack Hussein Obama; He said red, yellow, black or white, All are equal in his sight, Mm, mmm, mm! Chairman Mao; (oops, typo); Yes! Mm, mmm, mm, Barack Hussein Obama!

Song 2: Hello, Mr. President we honor you today! For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say “hooray!” Hooray, Mr. President! You’re number one! The first black American to lead this great nation! Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans; To make this country’s economy number one again! Hooray Mr. President, we’re really proud of you! And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue! So continue- Mr. President we know you’ll do the trick; So here’s a hearty hip-hooray —-Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip hooray!

“We know you’ll do the trick”? What does that mean, transfer the greatest nation on Earth into yet another failed experiment in socialism…enable the transfer of wealth by destroying our free market economy? Progressives have hijacked our government, our businesses and our public school system. It is time to stop the madness!

Well, you sure didn’t “trick” Asher Enbry who contributed the song’s next verse (The American Specator, September 26, 2009) “Think maybe now we weren't such "fools," To try to block O's speech to (public) schools? Mm, mmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama.”

Indoctrination is often associated with programming, brain-washing, and propaganda tactics used by Communists, Nazis and dictators…Mao, Hitler, Khadafi, and Chavez. Webster defines indoctrination as “to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle.” Defenders will quickly ask ‘isn’t that what religious institutions do?’ Many will acknowledge that teaching any set of values or morals by which one should live is a form of programming. You can expect that from a religious denomination where you participate by choice. But the question today is whether we want our government and our schools to brainwash or teach our children with only a one-sided, liberal, Marxist, or socialistic agenda. The answer is a resounding “NO!” Indoctrination or programming of our school children is inexcusable and just plain wrong…wrong, wrong, wrong!

One of scores of progressive liberals, socialists or communist leaning inner circle members of the new administration is Chicagoan Valerie Bowman Jarrett, a Chicago lawyer and civic “leader” and product of the infamous Chicago political machine. She is best known for her role as a senior advisor to Barack Obama and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. She believes strongly that Americans should serve our government. But, am I mistaken, wasn’t the federal government established to serve its citizens (not the other way around) in a very limited way, including providing for our national defense? Mm, mmm, mm.

EPILOGUE
America needs a literate and engaged citizenry, not a dumbed-down, indoctrinated, programmed citizenry and certainly not a citizenry to serve the government. What we need is a united citizenry which will notify the government when it has lost its way. Our federal government is out of control…under inexperienced, delusional, and ineffective leadership. And don’t be fooled. The economy or various segments of the economy may experience some recovery in the coming year but what will not go away is the disastrous, unprecedented and unmanageable federal deficit which will burden our nation for generations, and for that I apologize to my granddaughter.

The President is not an abomination, a person who is loathsome or disgusting, but his policies sure are abominable. Barack Hussein Obama’s policies are not a delicious, delectable cup of “Mm, mmm, mm good” Campbell’s soup. It’s more like “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you…here have a cup of arsenic!”

Tough Times for Allies of the United States

By Range Rider

The Administration’s decision to disavow commitments made to the Eastern European countries to provide missile shield protection is troubling. The timing of the announcement, which effectively abandoned our democratic allies in favor of Russian interests, was inauspicious. It was announced on the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union.

The decision was explained as a shift in strategy to concentrate resources on the growing threat of short- and medium-range Iranian missiles. This explanation is not to be taken seriously. The idea that the Iranian missile threat is limited to short-and medium-range missiles is contradicted by the long-range missile test conducted by Iran earlier this year. Even if a long-range test hadn’t already occurred, it would obviously be the next step in the process. Would it really make sense to wait until the Iranian long-range missiles are perfected before we begin to plan for our defense? Anyway, the cat was already out of the bag with this decision in February, when Administration officials leaked their plan to end the missile shield defense shortly after President Obama’s inauguration.

Certainly the explanation did not provide solace to the angry Czechs and Polish citizens who fear aggression from Russia much more than attacks from Iran. The treatment of these fledgling democracies, with which the United States had developed warm relations, was yet another example of the callousness with which President Obama has treated our allies. Consider the situation in Honduras, where the United States is sanctioning the lawful government because of their unwillingness to allow former President Zelaya, a Hugo Chavez ally, to return to the country after being ousted for unlawfully seeking a third term in office in violation of the constitution. Dictators Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez are joining the U.S. in their zealous effort to reinstate Zelaya. While their behavior is predictable, it is harder to fathom the rationale for the U.S. position in this matter.

The Colombian government, a close ally of the U.S., has had the free trade agreement approved in the Bush Administration placed on indefinite hold by Congress at the request of labor unions in the United States. This agreement, which would lift tariffs on American goods sold in Colombia, would clearly be beneficial to American businesses and strengthen our alliance with the Colombian government, but it is stalled for the foreseeable future.

It would appear that President Obama’s strategy is to focus on winning over dictators such as Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin. If it puts other relationships, forged in past years with American allies in jeopardy . . . well, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

The naïveté and futility of this approach is plainly evident. These leaders have no interest in freedom or democracy in their own countries. Their ambitions put them at odds with the national interest of the United States. By making a priority of winning their favor, the Administration will tend to make concessions that are not beneficial to our country. Hence, the decision to abandon the missile shield interceptors, while delighting the Russians, will not necessarily result in a comparable concession on their part. After all, they’ve already achieved their objective.

In the meantime, we have betrayed our allies, demonstrating to the world that commitments from the U.S. are not to be relied upon.

Budget Woes

- by The Lone Front Ranger

According to Tim Hoover, in the Denver Post:

On the heels of spending cuts Gov. Bill Ritter made in August, lawmakers learned Monday that the state is short another $240 million in the current budget year that started in July.

That could mean more cuts to state services in the current year, and it probably means that in the next budget year seniors will once again lose a property-tax break.

Lawmakers also are going to take a close look at a variety of tax breaks to companies and individuals that total nearly $2 billion.

"While the recession is forcing us to make some very difficult and painful decisions," Ritter said, "I want to be very clear: The budget will be balanced."

Ritter, a Democrat, said he expected his office to ready another round of cuts by mid-October, reductions he said would be "thoughtful, surgical and compassionate." Those are the words the governor used to describe the round of cuts he announced in August, for which he received much criticism.

"We need to be realistic," Ritter said Monday. "Every cut we make will cause some pain. Every cut that we have to make will hurt." -http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13390276

The Governor doesn’t use the word tax increase, but let’s be clear that’s exactly what he is looking at:

· “Seniors will once again lose a property-tax break”. This is a tax increase.

· “Take a close look at a variety of tax breaks to companies and individuals that total nearly $2 billion”. This is a tax increase.

He also says, "Every cut we make will cause some pain. Every cut that we have to make will hurt." And who will they hurt, Governor Ritter? Have you looked at every avenue to increase revenue without raising taxes?

This is a year when the Governor has already raised taxes (yes, he called them fees, but families still feel this in their household budgets). And since past performance is the best predictor of future performance, how did the increased fees, and elimination of the Senior Homestead Exemption work for the State of Colorado? We are another $240 Million in debt.

Ronald Reagan’s Supply-Side policies of tax reduction led to the largest peacetime economic surge in American history. Instead of following new taxes and fees with more new taxes and fees, is it too much to ask Governor Ritter to look at the lessons of history, and return more of the taxpayer’s money to them? After all, they are the ones who earned it, and they are the only ones who can put it back into the economy.

This Governor has also put such restrictive new rules and regulations on the energy industry, that Severance Revenue to the State of Colorado are down 84%. Has he thought about getting out of the way of the energy industry so they can get back to business? Doesn’t that sound less painful?

“If I Only Knew…A Wake Up Call for You and Me”
by John Alexander Madison
September 21, 2009

DID YOU KNOW that smoking is hazardous to your health? It’s no secret smokers should not only fear heart disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and other breathing problems that can seriously cramp their lifestyle, but death as well. Smoking kills over 400,000 Americans each year- and each one is entirely preventable.

DID YOU KNOW that a sedentary lifestyle (lack of exercise) is a factor in many health problems, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis? Moving around now will help you keep moving around in the future. A brisk daily walk would be a great start.

DID YOU KNOW junk food contains trans-fats (which clog your arteries and add extra calories to your diet) and super-sizing it a fast track to bad health? As you get older you need high-quality, low-fat foods. Pitfalls of consuming junk food include being overweight and eating foods high in fat and sugar which contribute to heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. But for many, the drive-through is just too convenient…it's what is available at lunchtime while you are at work.

DID YOU KNOW excessive stress can kill you? Reducing stress can impact your health dramatically – reducing risk of heart disease and stroke, but also issues such as insomnia and eczema.

DID YOU KNOW that flossing promotes good health? Gum disease can have a negative impact on heart health. Daily dental care is critical, including flossing.

DID YOU KNOW that consumption of alcoholic beverages, even in moderation, damages brain and body cells because they generally contain chemical additives? Most suicides are alcohol related. However, my senior medical advisor says a glass of red wine per day for ladies and two per day for men can be beneficial to your health due to anti-oxidants. It should also be noted that grape juice may provide similar benefits.

DID YOU KNOW that lack of sleep makes any health problem worse? Why do you stay up late? Turn off your television earlier. A good night’s sleep (8 or more hours) ensures a longer life.

AND, surely you know that chemical abuse hurts your body. It does. Chemical abuse includes over-use of prescription drugs as well as narcotic addiction.

DID YOU KNOW regular use, in excess, of over-the-counter medication is also chemical abuse. Headaches are not caused by aspirin deficiency, nor are digestive problems due to insufficient antacids in your diet. Try to avoid headaches and stomach aches by eliminating the real cause of these maladies.

DID YOU KNOW if you are overweight you will have many more health problems and a shorter life? Americans are usually the most overweight people in the world. Start losing that excess weight today!

DID YOU KNOW that drinking coffee is not a healthy habit? If you must have several morning cups of coffee and more throughout the day you are addicted to caffeine. Caffeine is a drug. If you stop today, and you are a Starbucks addict, you will also save about $2,000 per year. If you must continue, try cutting back.

DID YOU KNOW that eating chocolate negatively affects more people than you might think? No, I don’t believe it and I don’t want to hear about it! I think dark chocolate is great and great for you…it makes me very happy. So let’s move on.

DID YOU KNOW sugar is not your friend? Avoid it and feel better right away with fewer mood swings.

DID YOU KNOW that worrying is useless and a waste of time? Most things we worry about never happen and you usually can’t do anything about the remaining items. As Bobby McFerrin reminded us in 1988, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

DID YOU KNOW that drinking soft drinks is harmful? Carbonated drinks erode tooth enamel (because they contain carbonic and phosphoric acids) and they also appear to promote kidney stones. Drink more H2O.

DID YOU KNOW that eating meat (especially too much) is not a necessity? Get your proteins elsewhere.

DID YOU KNOW artificial sweeteners add chemicals to your body? Is that any better than sugar?

DID YOU KNOW that eating anything with a chemical ingredient in it that you can’t pronounce easily is probably not good for you? Is your body a chemistry lab or depository?

DID YOU KNOW that working too hard means you may not have your priorities in order. We should work to live, not live to work.

DID YOU KNOW that not chewing your food carefully may result in a variety of health problems? Eating too fast almost guarantees poor digestion. Turn off the television, put on some music, and eat more slowly. What’s the hurry?

So, if almost everything we do every day is bad for us, what’s the formula for immediate improvement in your health, a longer lifespan, fewer medical problems, and lower medical-related costs?

It’s nothing new, you’ve heard it before. Fruits and veggies baby, fruits and veggies…and more sleep and exercise…and find someone to love. Sincere love, it’s a wonderful (legal) narcotic.

EPILOGUE

So what was that all about? Well, with all the talk about a national healthcare program, one which won’t cost us a dime (if you believe that), it seems Americans should do all we can, immediately, to control or lower our health care costs.

You’ve just read about 20 ways to do just that. Promoting a healthy lifestyle is just plain smart…it’s a choice between a healthier, longer life and the less appealing alternative.

It is all about choices…good choices, smart choices, healthy choices…and, if you continue to make bad choices why do I need to provide health care coverage for you?

Top 5 Primaries to Watch (Revised)

First off, I apologize for the lapse between posts, things have been crazy lately!

Some time ago, I posted my “Top 5” Primary picks. It’s a new quarter and things have changed so it’s about time to update the list… Below are the Top 5 Primaries that I will be watching throughout Colorado, along with an update for any primary that is new or has moved off the list. Do you agree with my picks? Disagree? Do you have any primaries that you're watching? Please let me know!

Moving off the radar: Congressional District 4
Moving onto the radar: State Treasurer

5. County Commissioner District 5- While it seems like every registered Republican is running for the nomination to take on presumptive Democratic candidate Mike Merrifield for this seat, not all candidates are running equally. The only candidate making any real moves at the nomination (aside from showing up at the occasional event) at this point is State Board of Education member Peggy Littleton. Despite that fact, I don’t think that the field will narrow much between now and the caucuses as some of the candidates are so quixotic that I don’t think they recognize their own weaknesses.

4. Senate District 10- It’s difficult to gauge how active Tom McDowell’s candidacy is; on one hand he says he’s campaigning every day but on the other I’ve seen reports of him subbing key advocacy groups who have reached out to him. Despite this and McDowell’s odd campaign strategy, Sen. Schultheis’s campaign has been quiet and doesn’t seem to have geared up. Regardless, this race will continue to be interesting and should be worth watching.

3. U.S. Senate- In the past this race was rated based on the fact that the field was so incredibly open that the winner would really have earned it and thus would be interesting to watch. However, the race has been turned on its head with the entry of former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, and she has to be considered the front-runner at this point. That hasn’t stopped Councilman Ryan Frazier and D.A. Ken Buck from staying in the race. The unanswered question at this point is whether Frazier and Buck add constructive or destructive elements to the primary. Either way, this is one to watch.

2. This quarter will determine whether this race stays this high up on the top 5 list. Walker Stapleton wowed just about everybody with his 138k raised last quarter--almost twice as much as the Democrat-- putting him squarely in the driver’s seat at this point. But JJ Ament can’t be written off at this point either, and this quarter is going to be very important for him. If he can raise the same kind of cash as Stapleton, we’re looking at a great primary and general election fight that will be hard to top. If Ament can’t raise the money, then this race might fade a bit but given the fact that both candidates are high quality I don’t see that happening.

1. Last time I said that the gubernatorial primary wasn’t higher on the list because the field hadn’t taken shape yet. Well, now that Penry has jumped in it’s hard to view this as anything other then the race to watch this primary season. The two major candidates have their fair share of strengths and weaknesses (i.e.-contrasts) and I don’t think there is going to be any shortages of punches thrown.

The Independent's Melancholy

By Range Rider

“You don’t know what you got until you lose it all again”

• From Mandolin Rain by Bruce Hornsby


Independents and others that cast their vote and our future with then-candidate Obama must feel the melancholy so well expressed in Bruce Hornsby’s sad song.

The euphoric rise of the seemingly bright, articulate, post-racial bipartisan candidate Obama convinced many that a new day was coming, that we (including the First Lady-to-be) would be living in an America of which we “could all be proud of at last.”

His stirring speeches and fiery passion, although lacking detail, gave many hope that once again the nation could turn from troubled times to enter a more united, peaceful and prosperous era. And we would do it together, sweeping away the rancor and bitterness that had characterized national politics for so long. The campaign cry “Yes, we can!” symbolized the hope many saw in the candidate, despite the many questionable relationships and long-term affiliation with far-left activists. Somehow, he was “mainstream.”

And so candidate Obama became President Obama. With rock-star status at home and abroad, the new President entered the world stage. And the dreams began to die…we lost all of our hope for change in a matter of months.

I won’t replay the many instances where we have returned to politics as usual, or where the President’s inexperience, empty promises or simple hypocrisy have eroded the nation’s…. and the world’s… confidence in the neophyte leader. The list is simply too long and can be found chronicled elsewhere. Just a few from the last few weeks are sufficient make the point:

• The specter of questionable relationships and poor judgment in selecting advisors was rekindled by the ACORN revelations and resignation of Van Jones.

• The delegation of accountability of his signature health insurance reform to a deeply divided Congress, while making countless speeches riddled with vague admonitions and unabashed insistence on unobtainable combinations of outcomes (health care for all with no budget impact, keeping our plans if we want them, at no cost to taxpayers or small business)

• The hypocrisy of avowing that actions taken in good faith by previous administrations should not be investigated, then permitting his own Attorney General to do just that.

• Terminating plans for missile defense of Europe, apparently abandoning America’s pledge of support for the threatened young democracies unfortunate enough to share a border with a bellicose Russia.

• In yet another bow to the labor unions, our President may have started a trade war with our principle trading partner, China, over tires.

Some from the left are also unhappy with the President, for his decisions to stay the course in Afghanistan, or advocate for teacher performance standards. While one might say this suggests the President is plotting a wise, balanced course, it simply reminds me that the American people didn’t get the future for which they voted.

As Charles Krauthammer so aptly pointed out in his column yesterday: “Obama doesn't lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads -- so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness.”

The Rider knows the sorrow that comes from disillusionment… followed by anger and determination to redeem our freedom and fight for our principles.

Saddle up!

THE GREAT AMERICAN RABBLE

By Robert Harkins

In response to constitutionally protected protest, the O’bama Administration has flung vicious epithets against Americans, in which we are accused, more or less, of being an ignorant rabble. I accept this last with pride because our heritage finds its roots in a long line of American Rabble, who in the sacrifice of blood and treasure, have bequeathed a Constitution and a really rebellious attitude toward those who would trample its principles. Here’s a story of one “Great American Rabble.”

On June 17th 1775 the American Continental Army gathers at Bunker Hill, on the Charlestown Peninsula, just north of the Boston Harbor. America’s first soldiers do not think of themselves as great, nor do they foresee that in the shedding of their blood that June day, they would begin the birthing of a nation. They are just 1500 men more or less, not soldiers, but tillers of the earth, butchers and bakers, fishermen, and shopkeepers, undisciplined in the strategies of war, but men brave and fearful gathered to engage the scarlet might of 2400 perfectly disciplined and equipped British Grenadiers.

This Continental Army is a ragged bunch. The men are without uniforms. They wear course cotton breaches, mended boots scuffed and cracked from working stony New England farms but for all this they reveal a martial grace. These are men not to be trifled with; they are men seasoned by sacrifice and hard work, fear, courage and grievous loss, men made strong by faith. They carry muskets used mostly to put food on the table. They own a few bayonets.

The night before battle they build strong fortifications, load their muskets, get down in the dirt, think of the battle to come, pray to their God, and with Him, wait for the dawn. They are afraid but they feel a righteous anger at this foreign trespass. Finally, with a deadly grace, they draw down their muskets upon the neat lines of British troops that begin to appear in the morning light.

The British are not generous in their admiration of this rabble. They scoff at their crude barricades and shabby discipline. This American rabble will not hold against a single charge. We will inter their bone in the black and rocky soil of this hill. It will avail them nothing but widows’ tears that for freedom’s sake they have the gall to defy, with a handful of muskets and a few rusty swords, the will of their sovereign king and the Englishmen who have taken the King’s Shilling.

Well then enough. Attack. The grenadiers march up Bunker Hill. The drummer boy beats a somber tattoo. But what is this outrage? This rabble will not move, will not run. Instead, they draw a deadly bead upon the crossed white straps set against British chests and trigger a lethal fire. The grenadiers cut down, retreat, charge again and are again cut down until at last their proud tricorne hat, bearskin caps and their broken bodies are strewn in carnage upon the grassy hill. The British take Bunker Hill on the third charge. The Americans, out of ammunition, make an orderly retreat. They will fight again.

And so now, those who forget, deny, defame or revise American history say that we Americans are weak, bled out and hopelessly religious. They say of us that we are heirs to an American creed that speaks naïvely of individual liberty, justice, and equality; that our Constitution is more a cultural relic than the blue print of a Republic. They say of us that all human suffering and inequity finds its first cause in American arrogance.

Are the accusations made against us true? Is it true that we are no longer a one and alloyed people, that we have become a collage of multicultural tribes motivated not by an American Creed, but by a desire for tribal privilege, money, power and toxic pleasures?Are we then a people who have cast aside the idea of moral and rational excellence, a people who now assert that truth is relative and the rational mind a myth, that religion is an archaic and superstitious impediment to Darwinian and Progressive wisdom, and the practice of virtue a corrupt construct of bankrupt philosophies? Are we as we stand accused, a broken nation; are we a people without a creed?

Or is it time now for Americans to reject apologies and those who, against our will, claim the right to apologize in our place? Should we instead remind Islamic nations that we have sacrificed blood and treasure to save Muslim lives; and Europeans, that an American army under Black Jack Pershing saved Europe from German fascism in World War I; that Americans who stormed the beaches at Normandy saved Europe again, this time from Hitler’s murderous National Socialism, even as Americans liberated Italy from the grip of Mussolini’s fascist state?

Should we remind all nations that Americans prevailed in a Cold War that caused the implosion of a Soviet Union, a nation of gulags and secret police, a totalitarian ruin run by Joseph Stalin, a killer who starved to death, or ordered the execution of millions of his Russian people?

And is it time to remind the nations of Europe that even now, we have pledged American power, blood and treasure to the guarantee of European sovereignty against an ascendant and still dangerous Soviet Confederation? We may well ask, where is the gratitude for the freedoms we Americans have won for them?

This I believe. We should not apologize to anyone. We should instead recall our history. We have written a Constitution. We have created a Republic. We live in an America that is still the destination of people who make good their escape from gulags, some, built by the very nations to whom we Americans have apologized for being the rabble that we are.

Nothing is lost. The courage of our ancestors is still in us so long as we revere our history, traditions philosophical and religious and the American Constitution. A rabble we may be but we are a free and passionate rabble. We still hold true to an American Creed. We are not broken. We will not break.

What do you think?

“A Triumph of Good Over Evil”
by John Alexander Madison
September 14, 2009

For nearly twenty-four hours we feared there was no justice in this world, none at all. The question was whether tennis superstar Serena Williams would be fined and/or suspended from the women’s professional tennis tour for her worse than despicable behavior during her semi-final match of the 2009 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Allow me to set the scene.

It was late Saturday evening and Kim Clijsters of Belgium was making history. She won the 2005 U.S. Open then retired from tennis the following year to start a family. After her father passed away early 2009, Kim decided to come out of retirement. With a husband and an 18 month old daughter in tow, Kim got back into shape, practiced a lot, and then entered two tournaments. Not yet ranked high enough to gain entry into the 2009 U.S. Open, the United States Tennis Association (U.S.T.A.) granted Kim a wild card entry into the tournament. The rest, they say, is history.

Kim advanced to semi-finals after defeating five opponents including former two-time U.S. Open Champion Venus Williams and several other highly ranked players. But her biggest obstacle to returning to another final was Serena Williams, a three-time U.S. Open Champion. Surprisingly, Clijsters was dominating the defending champion and was leading 6-4, 6-5 (30-15) when “it” happened. An attentive line umpire called a foot fault on Williams’ second serve setting up a match point for Clijsters, at 15-40. After a moment of hesitation Williams went berserk. She approached the line umpire, angrily shaking her racket-in hand fist, and blurted out the unprintable…something to the effect of ‘I’m going to take this f****** ball and shove it down your f****** throat.’ Really? Really!

So my friend and tournament referee Brian Early was summoned to the court and within moments the match was over. What I haven’t shared with you is that after losing the first set about 45 minutes earlier, Ms. Williams smashed her tennis racket into the court, demolishing it. According to the rules of tennis, the chair umpire issued Ms. Williams a warning, which is the first step in the cumulative penalty process. A second behavioral incident in tennis calls for a point penalty. So after the foot fault call late in the second set the score became 5-6, 15-40, match point for Clijsters. With the imposition of the point penalty by the referee and chair umpire, for Williams’ outrage, the match was over. What a strange and sudden ending. Williams was still furious and Clijsters was stunned. She had now successfully reached the Sunday night final through a miraculous career comeback, some spectacular tennis, and a series of events which will be remembered as unusual and bizarre.

Williams not only blew her cool and a chance to become a four-time U.S. Open Singles Champion, she also would surely face stiff fines and penalties from the powers that be in women’s tennis. Surely. And it happened, less than 24 hours later Serena Williams was fined “one million big ones.” Now to you and me that would be an awfully stiff and perhaps unfair punishment, but to Williams it is all relative. After all she has won, to date, more that $22.8 million in career prize money plus tens of millions more in endorsements. And by losing her semi-final match on Saturday evening she pocketed a smooth $350,000 in prize money. So a fine of a million…well, she can handle it. And that seems to be it…just a fine, no suspension. That is truly bizarre.

Now here’s the issue: I challenge you to name any other sport in which an athlete storms angrily over to an umpire or referee, lethal weapon in hand, and angrily threatens said umpire, violently swears at said umpire, and does not get a serious suspension from the sport in addition to a fine. To save you the time, I’ll tell you, there is none.

For the integrity of the sport which has been an important part of my life for over five decades I beg the Women’s Tennis Association and the U.S.T.A. to suspend Ms. Serena Williams’ for a significant period of time. It would mean little to impose a 30-day suspension with no major championships on the horizon. However, suspending Ms. Williams from the season-ending Sony-Ericsson championship event in Qatar the week of October 27, 2009 would, in my opinion, be an appropriate punishment. Of course, I would raise the fine too…significantly!

EPILOGUE
Dick Enberg, normally smooth television tennis commentator, opined after the Williams match that the line umpire’s foot fault call was clearly a case of “over officiating.” Really? Are you suggesting, Mr. Enberg, a foot fault be called only at non-crucial points of a match, and surely not against champions such as Ms. Williams? I’ve got news for you Dick, a foot fault is a foot fault, when it happens it must be called. End of story.

The rest of this story has a happy ending, one which will be a more memorable and lasting image of the 2009 U.S. Open Women’s Tennis Championships than Williams’ inexcusable behavior and mild slap on the wrist from the tennis establishment. Williams’ tantrum has already been described as the worst example of bad sportsmanship in the history of women’s tennis.

All’s well that ends well. What will be remembered, and fittingly so, was the Sunday evening finals featuring the truly gracious Kim Clijsters and equally gracious 19-year old Danish up and comer, 9th seeded Caroline Wozniacki…the first Dane ever to reach a Grand Slam tennis final. Clijsters finished her Cinderella story with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Wozniacki in a fine display of tennis among two talented and gracious sportsmen. She is also the first unseeded player to ever win the Championships and the first mother to do so since 1980. Well done, Kim.

Oh, I mentioned the fine of one million but I failed to mention it was a fine of one million PENNIES! That’s right, one million pennies ($10,000), a mere slap on the wrist…and no suspension! I am embarrassed for the sport of tennis. Let’s only hope, after a few more days, the tennis gods will come to their senses and impose a more meaningful and message sending penalty.

(the author is a former college and tournament tennis player who served as an international referee and tennis umpire for many years, and was a former deputy referee of the U.S. Open, in addition to being the chair umpire for a previous U.S. Open Men’s Singles Final)

Jack Webb Schools Obama on Healthcare

Season of Discontent

Season of Discontent

by Range Rider

As fall approaches, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the dynamics of our democracy have been altered with the election of President Obama. Traditionally, our congressional leaders return to their districts during the summer recess and hold town meetings with their constituents to discuss pending legislation and other matters of concern to citizens. It is the right of every citizen to share their views on these issues with their elected representatives.

This summer, the level of participation in the town hall meetings was unprecedented. Normal attendance at these events might be expected to be a small handful of interested citizens. Instead, many legislators found hundreds of animated constituents ready to express their views. It was astounding to witness the scorched earth response to this exercise in responsible citizenship. The Administration dismissed the understandable concerns expressed by ordinary citizens uninformed, characterized them as pawns of the far right and—in a particularly scurrilous comment—as Nazis. Where were these scolds during President Bush’s term, when virulent disagreement was hailed as a sign of patriotism?

This situation raises numerous questions. If you find it difficult to ignore the many inconsistencies in the President’s statements, does that make you misinformed? Don’t elected representatives have an obligation to listen to the concerns of the populace they represent? Why is the press acting as the President’s cheerleader rather than analyzing the details and impact of what is being proposed?

The United States of America has prospered under an entrepreneurial system, where better ideas and willingness to work hard have the potential to reap great rewards. The opportunity for financial gain provides a powerful incentive for risk-taking and hard work, and it has been responsible for the unparalleled success of business in our country. Most Americans understand that it is this system that makes our country the “land of opportunity,” and cherish our freedom to live our lives as we choose.

President Obama does not appear to appreciate the importance of the private sector and is pushing an agenda that would diminish the reward for individual success. He would replace it with a plodding bureaucracy that would control costs by rationing services such as health care in the same way it administers all government programs . . . by redistributing the wealth of citizens. While a certain amount of redistribution is necessary for the good of the less fortunate members of society, a point will come where the transfer of wealth destroys the entrepreneurial system. If a majority of hard-earned income will be redistributed through state, local, and federal taxes, the question will arise: Is it worth toiling and taking risks just to feed the government bureaucracy?

The ideas coming from this Administration are not new. National health insurance exists in Canada and the United Kingdom. It has proven to be enormously costly and has led to rationing of care. The result of the enormous debt that is being amassed is higher taxes and probably inflation. Living beyond your means is not a sustainable model—at the individual or national level. Americans understand this and have endeavored to tailor their budgets accordingly. They don’t understand why the government doesn’t follow this example.

Abraham Lincoln had it right when he said:

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

The Administration would do well to take Lincoln’s belief in the people to heart. Americans have an uncanny ability to ferret out the truth when it is not forthcoming. So far, those on the left appear to be in two camps: those who think they know better than the people, and those who are sufficiently uninformed to believe their own misinformation. The Rider wouldn’t pitch his tent with either…

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KITING PAPER

By Robert Harkins

September 9, 2009

KITE

Informal: a fraudulent check, bill, or receipt. An illicit or surreptitious letter or note. Archaic: a person who exploits or preys on others. Oxford Dictionary.

The O’bama Administration, in no less than its first eight months in office, has imposed on the American people a debt greater than that of all previous administrations together since the creation of the United States. It is a debt, entailing billions in interest, that will not be paid during our life or the life our children. It is a nearly unquenchable debt that will reduce American prosperity, quality of life and the once attainable hopes of new American generations. It is a debt that will savage American business and its ability to compete with the new, vigorous, and ironically, more capitalist nations of Asia, Russia and Brazil. It is an adventurous squander of trillions that is far worse than the disease the Administration assures us it will cure.

As if unquenchable debt were not enough, the President’s Cap & Trade Bill— directed to the eradication of a specious, and scientifically aberrant theory of global warming— will be the largest single tax increase in American history. The federal government’s vast confiscation of private American wealth will forever be drawn from all Americans; and for the 95% of Americans who may have bought the President’s promise, faithfully made, that they will be kept safe from all tax increases, there will be betrayal, sore disappointment and higher taxes. In the scores of speeches in which the President pitched and pitches still an ambitious and suspect expansion of federal power, he insists that the calculated intrusion of government into once private American life and its printing of money— that is, by the committing of American generations to the payment of trillions in deficit debt and burgeoning interest—the cost of health care and ultimately, the national deficit itself will decline. The President’s promise, long since repudiated by the Congressional Budget Office, is predicated on quaint and wishful analysis, transparently fictional forecasts of a stimulus related increase in jobs and GDP, on amorphous savings neither the President, Congress or the Senate when questioned will identify, and on the elimination of fraud and waste, an old government siren song sung off-tune as a preclude to a symphony of new taxes, inflation and governmental intrusion in to the life, privacy and freedom of every American; and finally, upon Chicago politics as new to most Americans as it is an old and familiar corruption to those who call Chicago their home.

In response to Constitutionally protected protest and justifiable American anger, the President and his Administration have answered Americans with slanderous accusations and raucous shouts of contempt. Congressional leaders and Senators have characterized Americans as Nazis, Evil Mongers, cross-burning Klanners and Red Necks. The President of the United States has characterized Americans as Fabricators, and Disseminators of Misinformation, a vapid euphemism for the word “Liar.” The attack on American protesters has been launched by Congressional leaders, by the President himself, by legions of dependants, a tame, subservient and corrupt “mainstream media,” by union minions and radicals of various and recognizable stripes.

In response to the unprecedented American protest of the President’s intention to impose on Americans a government takeover of health care, and despite polls which show overwhelming American opposition, the President and Speaker of the House, apparently intend to force the government take-over of heath care on Americans with or without Republican support and if necessary by resort to what has become known as Reconciliation or the Nuclear Option. What they cannot take by consensus, they will take by resort to slick propaganda and the wielding of procedural brass knuckles.

The truth is that the real purveyors of disinformation are the Congress, Senate and the Office of President. For example, the President’s push to pass the incomplete and unread health care bill into law before the August recess plainly exposes his intention that no one, not the members of Congress, the Senate or the American people would have a chance to read its thousand pages of legalese or debate its provisions. His belated invitation to debate, as if debate had always been his idea in the first place, came only after American protests and consequently, his failure to secure passage of the bill into law before anyone could read it. That he could now suggest that the idea of debate was his or that he has always been ready to go over the health care plan line by line, demonstrates a brash presidential chutzpah!

In an unprecedented struggle for supremacy between two rugged adversaries one the American people and the other, incredibly, their own Government— and two competing theories of governance, one a Constitutional Republic and the other Socialism renamed the Welfare State—perhaps the most malignant damage done will be inflation and the devaluation of the dollar. Already, the United Nations is calling for the creation of a reserve currency to replace the dollar, and China is now inexorably selling off American Treasury bonds.

The printing of money to finance government services by deficit spending constitutes a double tax on the American people. This government knows well, as do all governments, new and ancient, the causal connection between deficit spending, inflation and the confiscation of private wealth — a law of economics equal in force to the law of gravity in physics. This government, however, is more than willing to live with the consequences of inflation despite the will of the American people.

In 1923, the French occupied the Ruhr Valley where Germany had concentrated a major part of its potent manufacturing capacity. German workers in the Ruhr Valley went on strike. The German government, then nearly bankrupt, paid their wages in marks turned out by the billions on government printing presses. Inflation followed the printing of marks and destroyed the German economy. Germans citizens, desperate to acquire something or anything of value as the mark became inexorably worthless, immediately purchased almost anything. Desperate buying forced prices rapidly upward. Nevertheless, a bankrupt government continued to print and finally killed its currency and economy.

What then did the Germans do with the German mark? Adults tied them into the rough shape of logs which they burnt in their fireplace so as to stay warm |through a brutal winter. Parents also had plenty of marks to give their children. The children glued them together in sheets, cut them neatly to fit the crossed wooden ribs to which they tied a rag tail. Then running with the speed and grace that only children can maintain, and laughing, as children laugh with such pure and innocent joy, the German children flew their kites high upon the winter wind.

It is a fleeting mercy that tragedy sometimes passes high above the understanding of children.

What to you think?

Enviro-Social Experimentation and our Standard of Living

by The Lone Front Ranger

What is being done in the name of protecting the environment:

- This summer, the API cited a Congressional Budget Office study saying gasoline prices could rise by 77 cents a gallon under Cap and Trade, albeit not for several years.

- Myriad states have tried (with varying success) to charge consumers for every plastic or paper bag they use at the grocery store.

- The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) passed 175 pages of new regulations, which have moved Colorado from first to last as a state to do energy business in. Sure, prices will bring drilling back, just not to Colorado.

- Oh, and if you want to appeal their decision, the COGCC has also eliminated the right of the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to hear appeals on decisions related to drilling permits.

- The federal Endangered Species Act leaves landowners in fear of finding a particular species of mouse or bird on their property. Discovery would restrict land usage, at best, or lead to “takings” at worst.

These are only 5 examples out of thousands. Think about the financial burden on American families at each level of government. Without these taxes and the hidden taxes of regulation, what might an American family be able to do with that extra money? Send their child to a private school? Give more to their place of worship? Be able to support a charity in a larger way than they have been able to? Save for their retirement? I trust private American citizens to choose the best place for their hard-earned money.

And this is all done in the name of Enviro-Social Experimentation. Getting us to be appropriately environmentally conscious citizens, to make us think that “protecting” the environment at any cost, is what is expected of us. That, and making sure that money continues to flow to government coffers.

Conservatives, by and large, are kind people, who want our environment to be clean, unpolluted and full of all the bounty of wildlife it can sustain. Conservative hunters and farmers see themselves as stewards of the land, with self-interest in maintaining the environment. After all, they hunt, fish, farm and live there. Anyone who believes that conservatives cannot be environmentally conscious, without the intervention of government, has not fully looked at the issue. I also trust these citizens, who have some skin in the game, to care for the land more than I trust government agencies to do so.

Note to government at all levels: I don’t want to be a part of your experiment. Stay off my property, and stay out of my wallet.

“Bad Choices…When Will They End?”
by John Alexander Madison
September 7, 2009

We learn from Wikipedia that the title “czar” (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who claims the same rank as a Roman emperor, with the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official (the Pope or the Ecumenical Patriarch). Occasionally, the word could be used to designate other, non-Christian, supreme rulers. In Russia and Bulgaria the imperial connotations of the term were blurred with time and, by the 19th century, it had come to be viewed as an equivalent of King.

Like many lofty titles (e.g. Mogul) "tsar" or "czar" is used as a term for positions of high authority in English societies. In the United States the title "czar" is an informal term for certain high-level officials, such as the "drug czar" for the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, "terrorism czar" for a Presidential advisor on terrorism policy, "cyber security czar" for the highest-ranking Department of Homeland Security official on computer security and information security policy, and "war czar" to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before we move on, let’s not forget the “green jobs czar,” the highly respected and qualified Van Jones. (Not so fast Mr. Madison, didn’t Jones just resign last Saturday for being neither highly respected nor highly qualified after all? That’s right, yet another anti-American and disastrous appointee of “wannabe Czar” Obama? It reminds me of the movie “Titanic” when Jack said “I’m King of the World!” Yes indeed.)

The current, out of control, administration in Washington, has created no less than 32 czars which many believe is an effort to create a shadow government accountable to nobody…not the Vice President, not Congress, and certainly not the citizens of the United States…nobody. Nobody that is, except the big kahuna (Hawaiian), a/k/a/ the Emperor himself, er the President of our currently less-than-united country...the guy who, from the ages of 6-10, was indoctrinated in muslin schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. And we’ve since learned that he refused to wear an American flag lapel pin until he finally realized it was politically expedient to do so. That alone is disconcerting to many.

The bad choices started on November 4, 2008, when a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Barack Obama (a/k/a Barry Soetero), was elected President…a President with a socialist agenda who has, arguably, less experience at anything than several of his chosen friends: the hate-filled Rev. Jeremiah Wright; radical, anti-American Bill Ayers, former member of the Weather Underground who was a fugitive for ten years (no, he was not a meteorologist); his pick for Attorney General, Eric Holder, who in his final days with the Clinton Administration was involved with the last-minute pardon of fugitive and Democratic contributor Marc Rich…the same Mark Rich who was indicted on federal charges of tax evasion and illegally making oil deals with Iran during the late 1970s-early 1980s Iran hostage crisis; or his fellow chalice bearers in the church of political corruption, Chicagoans Rahm Emmanuel and Rod Blagojevich…acolytes all.

On the other hand, the President gained significant experience for many years as a community organizer…but when we hear that experience was at the alter of A.C.O.R.N., the luster of that resume enhancer quickly fades. The next thing you know A.C.O.R.N., proven to be a corrupt organization through and through in voter registration fraud and elsewhere, will be conducting the 2010 census. Heaven forbid.

In 2009, the new administration, chose to conduct a ‘world apology tour,’ then chose to appoint a plethora of czars, then chose to establish one spending program after another which have flowed as quickly as Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during a Super Bowl halftime show. Fortunately the malfunction happened only once, yet the irresponsible and excessively expensive spending programs appear to have no end...indeed it is government which is now malfunctioning.

It started with the totally unnecessary $780 billion stimulus package, followed by one foolish initiative after another through the most recent disaster, the “Cash for Clunkers” program. And the latest mantra is “We must have health care reform and we must have it now.” So what’s the rush big fellah? Are you concerned Americans will “wise up?” Why are you demanding that the federal government run a national health care program... the same federal government which has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy in the Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security programs? The federal government ran those programs alright, right into the ground.

And while you’re at it, let’s get rid of the multi-billion dollar Department of Education which feeds endlessly at the trough of the U.S. Treasury. America has been successfully “dumbed down” and it is now time to return the responsibility of educating future generations to parents and locally elected school boards. Of course, there’s the Department of Energy...talk about worthless. Let’s abolish that one too. The national debt accumulated this year alone, is reported to be more that the combined debt accumulated in our nation’s 233 history… with a reported $85 billion daily interest payment. Could that be true?

Regarding President Obama’s agenda and his national health care program, perhaps Charles Krauthammer said it best: “Obama unveiled his plans for a grand makeover of the American system, animating that vision by enacting measure after measure that greatly enlarged state power, government spending and national debt. Not surprisingly, these measures engendered powerful popular skepticism that burst into tea-party town-hall resistance. Obama's reaction to that resistance made things worse. Obama fancies himself tribune of the people, spokesman for the grass roots, harbinger of a new kind of politics from below that would upset the established lobbyist special-interest order of Washington. Yet faced with protests from a real grass-roots movement, his party and his supporters called it a mob -- misinformed, misled, irrational, angry, unhinged, bordering on racist. All this while the administration was cutting backroom deals with every manner of special interest -- from drug companies to auto unions to doctors -- in which favors worth billions were quietly and opaquely exchanged.”

In Roman history a “tribune” was an administrative officer who was to protect the interests and rights of the plebeians from the patricians. And about Obama’s first address to Congress Krauthammer observed it was: “the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by a U.S. president.” The last time I heard the word “manifesto” it was preceded by the word Communist. As it turns out, Charles Krauthammer was never one who waited by the mailbox for an invitation to a black-tie event at the White House. Good thing, Charles.

Bad choices…when will they end? Not soon enough. But there is hope. Mark your calendar for November 2, 2010! On that day maybe, just maybe, Americans will be so fed up with the President’s two year experiment in socialism that they will vote for another change, “change they can truly believe in!”

So much for protecting the interests of the plebeians or common people, Mr. President. The plebeians, or the mob as you describe them, have awakened and have said no more.


EPILOGUE
Mark my words, the free-spending liberals in Washington (primarily ‘the party in control’) will spend the next twelve months painting a rosy picture, a landscape rich with redistributed wealth, a nation recovered from a deep depression. But one thing is certain…the national debt accumulated by the 44th President of the United States will still be there as a not so subtle reminder of just how far our nation has strayed.

It’s an old saying but, perhaps, appropriate today: “Fear (and prepare) the worst and hope for the best.” Hope that the downward spiral of our government can be reversed and that the hopes and dreams of every American can be achieved, once again, through opportunity and hard work…not through government handouts.
Our Founding Fathers knew best.

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