The Jeff Crank Show

THE GATHERING STORM

2012-01-16T10:21:00.001-07:00

ROBERT HARKINS

History teaches that nations are not driven by a desire for freedom but by an insatiable will to power. Hence appeasement ends always in rack and ruin. History also teaches that nations always repeat the mistakes of history however, foreseeable, irrational and ruinous. Thus the army of Charles 12 of Sweden intent upon the conquest of Russia invaded and perished in its vast, frozen wilderness.

Napoleon, repeating the folly, invaded Russia with an army nearly a million strong. He left scattered along the wayside of a mortifying retreat 700,000 French soldiers taken by a Russian bullet, bayonet or wintry death. Napoleon, leftist Jacobin, and self-styled Emperor, abandoned a worshipful French army to its fate.

Hitler dead set on conquering “living room” for a burgeoning German population ordered the invasion of Russia. The German army crossed bridges set upon foundations built by Napoleon’s engineers. It perished in winter at “Fortress” Leningrad, and as it retreated to the Kursk Salient. Tens of thousands of German prisoners were marched to Stalin’s gulags and few returned.

The unconquerable forces of Great Britain, the United States and France defeated Germany in the First World War. But the casualties were for all nations mortifying. Winston Churchill, the greatest statesman, poet and prophet of his age, expressed the outrage of Europeans who with wobbly hearts tried to screw their courage to the sticking place thereby to end the scourge of a once vainglorious, ascendant and martial Germany. “The peoples,” wrote Winston Churchill,

…transported by their sufferings and by the mass teaching with which they had been inspired, stood around in scores of millions to demand that retribution should be exacted to the full. Woe betide the leaders now perched on their dizzy pinnacles of triumph if they cast away at the conference table what the soldiers had won on a hundred blood-soaked battlefields… There was hardly a cottage or a family from Verdun to Toulon that did not mourn its dead or shelter its cripples.

The Victors in the Treaty of Versailles severely restricted Germany’s power to prepare its people for another war. Versailles forbade Germany’s reinstitution of a universal military draft and the creation of anything more formidable than a ceremonial navy and token air force. But its severe terms were never enforced. Instead, France and Great Britain embraced a policy of disarmament and appeasement—so fresh and terrible were the memories of Verdun and the Marne, maxim machine guns and chlorine gas, trench warfare and virulent disease. In The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill wrote,

No one could deny that we were hideously unprepared for war. …. Great Britain had allowed herself to be far surpassed by the strength of the German Air Force. All our vulnerable points were unprotected. Barely a hundred anti-aircraft guns could be found for the defense of the largest city and centre of population in the world; and these were largely in the hands of untrained men.

History teaches again and again that appeasement is not a strategy; it is a synonym for cowardice; it is surrender by a thousand cuts; it is a denial and retreat from the reality that the human predator is ever vigilant, opportunistic and merciless.

Appeasement therefore if it is to be palatable must be centered upon a laudable and artfully crafted fantasy. Accordingly, the British Parliament counseling prudence embraced the outright falsehood that Germany had finally and at last given up the ways of war. Britain’s socialist party (renamed the Labor party) and as well conservatives such as Neville Chamberlain, pursued disarmament even as they blinded themselves to the fact of Germany’s defiance of Versailles. Other than for an occasional rattle of sabers, the British government did precisely nothing when Germany built three battleships including the Bismarck, then the largest and most deadly battle ship afloat.

The liberal press and socialist party characterized Winston Churchill as a warmonger for his prophetic warnings that a rearming Germany would engage Europe in a second world war. The British and French governments let their air force become obsolete and looked the other way when Hitler ordered the reinstitution of a universal draft. In a bow to Churchill’s warnings that Britain no longer maintained air superiority Parliament sent Anthony Eden to visit Adolph Hitler the democratically elected chancellor of Germany. Hitler explained that the German air force was equal in power to that of Britain, and as all the world would soon discover ultimately superior in virtually every armament capable of wrecking misery and mass destruction.

When Neville Chamberlain succeeded the ailing Scotty Baldwin as Prime Minister, he had already conceived an image of himself as the great peacemaker; and so embraced a policy of “not offending” Hitler or Mussolini. Even as the truth of Germany’s new military machine became too nakedly real to deny, Britain and France did nothing when Hitler’s army occupied the Rhineland, nothing when Hitler ordered its fortification, a portent of his intention to wage war, and again nothing when the dictator Mussolini partnered with Hitler and conquered Abyssinia. They did nothing when Hitler first corrupted and then annexed Austria to the Thousand Year Reich.

Appeasement in the name of prudence continued even unto the betrayal of a democratic Czechoslovakia and Hitler’s armed invasion of Poland. Finally, lethargically and unprepared, Britain declared war on Germany. The Germans’ quick, implacable destruction of the first British expeditionary force and its narrow escape from Dunkirk exposed years of self-delusion pitched in the apathetic language of prudence.

Will the United States repeat again the mistakes of history, as did Charles of Sweden, Napoleon, Hitler, France and Great Britain? Well then, what will be the critical fantasy, the prudent language upon which appeasement will be made to sound appealing, rational, indeed, the only prudent course?

In America, appeasement is now premised upon the fiction that now and historically Islam has proved itself to be a religion of peace. But even were this true, whatever does Islam as a religion of peace have to do with a minority of Muslims who for the past quarter century have justified their slaughter of Americans, Europeans and Jews upon the prurient hatred and religious ideologies of religious Jihad.

As the fantasy unfolds Americans are told that the Muslim-jihad slaying and wounding of American soldiers at Ft Hood was nothing more than a “Work Related Incident.” Just so, President Obama engages the powers of rhetoric to conceive for Americans an Arab Spring, a resplendent renaissance that will transform an increasingly terrorist Middle East into a collective utopia of friendly democracies. In the conception he has ignored the lessons of history: Predatory nations will not requite with peace the strategies of appeasement: self-delusion, base flattery, national self-abnegation and serial, groveling apologies.

Recently, the president announced that America will develop a more potent military by cutting a half trillion dollars from its budget, retiring 180, 000 well and expensively trained troops and setting its sights on Asia rather than the Middle East or Europe. One might well wonder how a radical reduction in the number of American soldiers and the slashing of the defense budget will somehow make the military more “agile” and therefore better able to wage war.

The Marine Corps is also slated to downsize by tens of thousands. Many Republicans have sought a pay freeze for government employees and have suggested trimming the overall federal workforce -- but this isn't exactly what they had in mind. Unlike thousands of government pencil-pushers, the US military provides a constitutionally required service, and the safety and endurance of the republic literally depends on its strategic capability. The military is also more trusted and beloved by the public than any other civic institution. Yet this president has decided to curtail their numbers and limit their capacity to wage worst-case scenario war, while increasing the pay of other federal bureaucrats. This decision comes despite last year's warning from Ocala’s own Defense Secretary that further military cuts could "damage our national defense."[1]

Ah, but here’s the rub. How will the American leadership deal with the lessons of history? And will the American citizen, insulated from his ancient culture and history, succumb to fantasies so “agile” that appeasement; disarmament and retreat in a still dangerous world will be successfully portrayed as the only safe and prudent path? As the unspeakable devastation of the Second World War began to unfold Winston Churchill described its first cause. “We shall see,” he wrote as he began to describe the immolation of Europe

…how the counsel of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead directly to the bull’s eye of disaster.

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance, endorsed by our own Jeff Crank, is now available at Amazon.com. Type in my name and “Renegades.”

[1] Guy Bension, Political Editor Townhall.com

A Not-So-Happy New Year?

2012-01-01T11:58:00.007-07:00

by John Alexander Madison
January 1, 2012

I almost don't know where to start...almost.

Eric Holder, the soon to be former Attorney General, is now on the attack against all those who believe providing Proof of Citizenship when registering to vote and presenting a government issued photo I.D. when voting is an effort to suppress voter participation. I didn't think I would ever agree with Mr. Holder, but he is absolutely right on this one. Requiring Proof of Citizenship when first registering to vote and requiring U.S. Government issued photo I.D.'s when voting IS AN EFFORT TO SUPPRESS VOTER PARTICIPATION...voter suppression of all those who are ineligible to vote (primarily non-citizens and let's throw in a few felons while we're at it...those who have voluntarily given up their right to vote by committing crimes).

Every state in the United States establishes eligibility to vote and every state has declared that you must be eighteen years of age and a U.S. citizen in order to exercise the privilege of voting. So my advice to Mr. Holder and his boss is to "butt out," and focus on those things you were sworn to uphold, like the U.S. Constitution, and protecting our borders. What a concept.

Instead, our favorite Attorney General, and his boss, is suing states who have passed laws to restrict the activities of those who have entered our country illegally claiming we are violating the rights afforded to them in our Constitution. Would someone explain to me "what rights?" Isn't it as simple as saying you are here illegally and you are not afforded the same rights granted under our Constitution to our citizens? What a concept.

It is just plain wrong that our federal government wants to prohibit states from passing legislation to help them enforce their own laws, let alone federal immigration laws which the Attorney General Holder, and his boss, refuse to enforce.

Speaking of incompetence Nancy Pelosi comes to mind. So does Harry Reid, Barney Frank, Joe Biden (and his boss), and Chris Dodd, to name a few. But let's go back to Ms. ("what did she say") Pelosi for a moment. Just ten days ago she said "Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat." What did she say?

Moving on, an African-American radio talk show host Tom Joyner, who has 8 million listeners, was recently quoted as saying "Let's not even deal with the facts right now. Let's deal with our blackness and pride- and loyal. We have a chance to re-elect the 1st African-American president. And I'm not afraid or ashamed to say that as black people we should do it because he's a black man."

"And then, and then, and then, and then along came Jones, tall thin Jones, Slow walk'in Jones, Slow talkin' Jones, Along came long, lean, lanky Jones.". Well, of course, I digress. But that was the Chorus for the world-famous Coasters' fantastic hit song of 1965 "Along Came Jones."

In a rejoinder to Tom Joyner, former El Paso County (CO) Commissioner and State Senator Ed Jones penned a Guest Editorial in The Gazette (Colorado Springs, December 29, 2011) in which he said "rallying blacks to vote for Obama simply because he is black is jay plain wrong." Good for you, Ed Jones! You came along just in time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, America is the greatest nation on Earth because we are a nation of immigrants, from all over the world (African-American, European- American, Mexican-American, Chinese-American, etc.) with varying backgrounds,and diverse skills. But our nation's greatness came from the fact that in spite of our origins people emigrated to America to assimilate and combine their labors to ensure that, as Americans, we will always enjoy the freedoms that define our great nation, while appreciating their ancestry. They wanted to be Americans first!

And then, and then, and then, along came Barry Soetero who likens himself to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and more recently Teddy Roosevelt. How arrogant, how wrong. Narcissism is defined as excessive love or admiration of oneself. When all is said and done, however, history may very well associate him with Jimmy Carter whose failed presidency is without question. In doing so, that wouldn't be fair to Mr. Carter.

EPILOGUE
The Republican Presidential primary season has brought many candidates into the national spotlight, including Herman Cain, for a while. And why was Herman Cain so popular? It was not because of is blackness but rather is conservative, common-sense politics, his core values, his entrepreneurial successes, his strength of conviction, and deep understanding and support of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Now is the time to set aside the differences we have, naturally, as individuals and believe, once again, in America's greatness and resolve...no more appeasement, no more abandonment of our principles, no more apologizing for all the "bad things" America has done.

While some may say President Obama inherited a bad economic situation, nobody can honestly dispute that every economic indicator clearly proves that President Obama and his socialistic policies have made things much worse for America. And we should give him a second term to finish the job he started because he is an African-American? No thank you. I'll take Herman Cain, Colin Powell, J.C. Watts, Clarence Thomas, Martin Luther King, W.E.B. DuBois, Chappie James, Bill Cosby or Ed Jones anytime!

And then along came....

Http://jamadison.wordpress.com #99

Redneck Stonehenge: Tim Leigh Is An Art Critic

2011-12-13T05:22:00.003-07:00

By Laura Carno

Copperhead Road Nightclub made news Friday night because of an art project outside of their business. Sounds like a non-story, as it should be.

But Colorado Springs City Councilman Tim Leigh has a problem with it. In a story on Fox 21 News in Colorado Springs, Councilman Leigh says "You have a car that's sitting on the lot, that theoretically would be a junker, and would by zoning be hauled off and then you put it on a pole and it becomes art? That's a little bit of a stretch for me I think, but it is somewhat interesting," Leigh said.

The art includes 3 old cars, arranged into a Stonehenge formation. It is art to Justin Carter, Copperhead’s General Manager. And Carter told me that before he started the project, he spoke to the Regional Building Department and was told that no permit was needed to put art on your own property. So they started the project.

With due respect to Councilman Leigh, his opinion on art, as an elected official, does not matter. Is it a legitimate function of our local government to make an artistic determination? If patrons of the nightclub like the art display, they will spend their money there and the business will thrive. If the patrons do not like the art display, they will not spend their money there and the business will fail. That is how the free market works.

The City Council has a lot of legitimate business on its plate between Memorial Hospital, Colorado Springs Utilities (which unnecessarily spent $7,500 of ratepayer money on an electric car filling station), and decisions about whether or not to drill for oil and natural gas. A City Councilman should not spend one more moment attempting to determine the artistic value of what a business has on their property.

Laura Carno is a Political Consultant. She can be reached at www.lauracarno.com.

There is Beauty in All Women?

2011-12-10T07:10:00.001-07:00

Jeff Crank Show Lunar Eclipse Update: Breaking

2011-12-10T06:35:00.001-07:00

2011-11-20T20:42:00.009-07:00

“Short and Sweet”
by John Alexander Madison
November 20, 2011

The President’s online biography boasts he continues to enact policy changes in response to the issues of health care and economic crisis. It fails to say a “crisis” he deserves a significant amount of credit for creating.

Let’s face it, this President does not take the national debt seriously, having carelessly maneuvered it to more than $15,000,000,000,000…that’s 15 trillion dollars faster than you can say “fraud.” Our national debt to GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is nearing that of Greece and Italy and is unsustainable. Simply put, we cannot afford to repay it.

Our federal government under this President has operated without a federal budget since April 2009, preferring to operate with one continuing resolution after another.
This President is irresponsible. This President is unqualified to be President. And have you seen his swing? No, not his arrogant, fist-clenched, arms tight to his sides swagger as he jogs up or down the stairs of Air Force One or as he ascends yet another stage during his never-ending campaign tour...but his golf swing! He is also a terrible golfer as well. That alone makes him unqualified to be our Commander in Chief.

This President is mortgaging our future. He promises everything to everyone. Why wouldn’t they vote for him? Are a majority of Americans so stupid that they actually believe the government can take care of everyone from cradle to grave?

The Democrat politicians in charge of the White House and U.S. Senate just want more of your hard-earned dollars to give to those who want to occupy your parks, occupy your streets, occupy your wallet, occupy your home, occupy your car, occupy your savings accounts and occupy our future.

Did you know that millions upon millions dollars in federal income tax refunds have been given to those who do not pay any federal income taxes? This President’s plan is working but redistribution of wealth is not in the best interests of a majority of American citizens.

This President has been in campaign mode, not governing mode, for five years now. For the first three years of his Presidency he has not done nothing in the best interests of you, me, our children, our grandchildren and our country...the United States of America. His is a divider, not a uniter. “Class Warfare” is this President’s 2012 re-election theme, pure and simple. His Presidency is nothing short of a complete failure.

And we’ve heard a lot about this President’s questionable history: he got scholarships reserved for foreign students (non-American citizens); nobody in college or graduate school remembers him; he voted “present” in the Illinois Senate more time than he was probably there; he has associated himself with anti-American and anti-Christian zealots. His wife, for the first time in her lifetime, was proud to be an American only after her husband was nominated to be President of the United States.

fraud/frôd/
Noun:
1. Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
2. A person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.

Some believe our President is a fraud. Maybe, maybe not. But in the very least his policies are a complete failure.

EPILOGUE
On Friday, a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment vote in the U.S. House of Representatives garnered 261 yes votes and 165 no votes. This was a few dozen votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to move it forward to the States for ratification as an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Vote tally:
Republicans (236 yes; 4 no) including Michelle Bachmann, Paul Ryan, and Colorado Representatives Scott Tipton, Cory Gardner, Mike Coffman, and Doug Lamborn.

Democrats (25 yes; 161 no) including Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, John Conyers, Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel, Stennie Hoyer and your Colorado Representatives Ed Perlmutter, Jared Polis, and Diana DeGette (friends of Bill Ayers, George Soros. Jeremiah Wright, George Soros, Governor Bill Ritter, George Soros, Harry Reid, and George Soros.)

Do you support a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Who would you have voted with? If you answer "the Republicans" write your Congressmen and then go out and do everything you can to defeat the re-election efforts of the worst President in U.S. History.

http://jamadison.wordpress.com #98

Rolling in the Dough: Use Memorial Cash for Increased Bus Service

2011-11-20T06:06:00.003-07:00

I’d like to talk about health care in Colorado Springs by knitting together two stories that very much go together.

The first story involves a meeting I attended at City Hall on October 27th where members of the public were able to weigh in on the proposed City budget. There were several groups whose members testified passionately about why the budget should be increased in given areas. The group that made the most lasting impression on me was a large group of adults, mostly in wheelchairs, who use the City bus service. They testified to the impact of not being able to get to their doctor appointments, church, and other destinations. This group testified on behalf of many other physically and mentally handicapped users of the bus service. Bus service has been reduced in recent years due to budget considerations, and they requested an additional $100,000 per year.

The second story, just developing, is the RFP process for Memorial Hospital. The bids are in, and Health One has released the details of their bid. There is a law called the Hospital Transfer Act that requires the proceeds of a sale to be used for health-related or charitable purposes. Essentially, the $500 million up-front payment from Health One, were they to be the winning bidder, would have to be used for health programs or other charitable purposes. Interpretation is needed. I will oblige.

My interpretation is that $100,000 per year of the $500 million could be set aside to increase bus service to this population of folks in wheelchairs. The primary reason for their requested increase in bus service was to get to their doctor appointments. I submit this is a health program and should be allowed under the Healt Transfer Act.

Anyone care to weigh in?

Laura Carno is a Political Consultant. She can be reached at www.lauracarno.com.

People of Wal-Mart

2011-11-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Obese Nebraska Cop - View News Story

2011-11-18T16:45:00.002-07:00

Click here to view video:

http://youtu.be/mcymAfIT6V8

UTOPIA, THE LETHAL COUNTRY

2011-11-16T06:37:00.001-07:00

ROBERT HARKINS

Political leftists, communists, socialists, progressives and welfare statists, now call themselves liberals. Renaissance Liberals, unlike Leftists, evolved from the protest of a Catholic Inquisition, Protestant and Catholic persecutions and their detestation of slave labor. They were the English barons who forced upon an outraged King John his signature to the Magna Charter of liberties. They were the men and women who protested child labor, who demanded and won universal suffrage.

He was the British parliamentarian William Wilberforce who abolished slavery and with America drove the scourge of slave ships from the sea. He was Great Britain’s Winston Churchill who offered his people blood, sweat and tears, until at last allied with America he graced his island with peace. Renaissance Liberals are born from the legacy of Athens’s Pericles and the stoic wisdom of Rome’s Cicero. They are the faith keepers who hold sacred their unalienable, self-evident right to freedom, liberty and property.

The Leftist pretends to be a liberal. He was not born from this liberal tradition. He is the acolyte of Karl Marx, the advocate of Utopia, the totalitarian.

Just as V. I. Lenin, in the launching of a minority communist party, falsely claimed the title Bolshevik (Majority Party), so does the Leftist claim the title liberal. He uses a liberal artifice to appear as one with Americans who respect a heritage of freedom and liberty, who demand that central government be constrained according to the letter and spirit of an American Constitution. Leftists are not to be mistaken for Renaissance Liberals who prize knowledge, individual freedom, liberty and the rule of law.

That the Leftist is motivated by Marxist first principles is evident in his degradation of constitutional principles intended to constrain central government’s confiscatory powers. Conversely, Renaissance liberals adhere to the Constitution’s plainly stated intention set forth in its Bill of Rights and in Amendments Nine and Ten written to constrain government to its strictly enumerated powers.

The political genesis of the Renaissance Liberal is centered in the humanistic philosophies of political rebels Montesquieu (Separation of Powers), John Locke (the unalienable and individual right to life liberty and property), James Burke (respect for the autonomous individual, his freedoms and traditions, his society and institutions) and America’s firebrand Tom Paine who wrote in an incendiary prose the American response to tyranny hard or soft: “These are the times that try mens’ souls.”

The font of leftist political thought is Utopia, a non existent state conceived in fantasy, built out of bits and pieces of Plato’s Republic, a country without geography infused with the radical materialist vision of Marx, Engels, Trotsky and Rousseau. Utopia so envisioned is static, eternal and perfect; it is a mystical country, which like Thomas Moore’s Utopia, permits or forbids cultural traditions, compels the redistribution of property and mandates politically correct discourse. Were it not intended to govern human beings Utopia would be more a silly dream than a nightmare.

For the Leftist, Utopia is the repository of all permissible truths. Not too long ago a now extinct Soviet Utopia declared in a splendidly crafted constitution the citizens’ right to free speech, freedom and dignity. But the Russian citizen soon discovered that it were better that he be silent than to contend against a firing squad or find cold death in a Siberian gulag.

In Utopia all men are angels because they are silent, docile and obedient. Truly, Utopia is a lethal country.

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance, endorsed by our own Jeff Crank, is now available at Amazon.com. Type in my name or “Renegades” and place your order.

My Hero & My Dad: Kenny Crank

2011-11-11T19:37:00.003-07:00

My dad and World War II hero, Kenneth J. Crank. I honor him and all veterans who have fought for our freedoms. God bless you.

THE KILL CANE CROWD

2011-11-09T15:06:00.001-07:00

ROBERT HARKINS

Hollywood style attorney Gloria Allred, has represented, among other notorious clients two porn stars in their claim for “on the job” sexual harassment. She now claims falsely that she is representing Ms. Sharon Bialek. Allred’s legal representation so called is a farce calculated to convince Americans that she is laboring in the legal Vineyards of Justice so as to vindicate the rights of woman scorned by man. Her target this time is Republican presidential contender Herman Cane who sometime in the nineties was incautious enough to offer Sharon Bialek a ride to her hotel. He did this without setting up a video cam, a backup recording device and forgot to retain as potential witnesses a rabbi, priest and a court reporter to record their observations from the back seat. Now Ms. Bialek claims that Mr. Kane tried to grasp her genitals and force her head to his crotch—inferring thereby, none to subtly, that he was interested in sexual intercourse.

Twelve years later she sought out Mr. Kane back stage at one of his speaking engagements and according to one witness gave him a hug and talked to him as if they were old pals. She does admit to tracking down Mr. Cane. Now however smelling blood, her recollection of that meeting has become something else again. She recalls ominously that Mr. Kane was “uncomfortable” in her presence. Well, how does one defend against a woman’s accusation that he is feeling “uncomfortable?” And how does he defend against the accusation? After all Ms. Bialek is not talking about ordinary discomfort as when one’s underwear is in a bind, but an uncomfortableness reeking with guilt and suppressed carnal desire.

Could perhaps Ms. Bilek’s indictment have been a bit more specific? For example, did he again try to grab her “genitals?” Did he grab and push her head southward toward his crotch?

At a press conference this week Ms. Allred, in a spectacle of self-adulation announced that she and her client will not file a lawsuit against Herman Cane. How wonderful for her. After all no one likes people who file lawsuits. Ms. Allred did not mention, however, that at twelve years post “incident” it is legally impossible to file a lawsuit against Mr. Kane because every claim Sharon Bialek might have filed is dead as a matter of law. In fact, the statute of limitations has extinguished any and all claims Ms. Bialek might conceivably have leveled against Herman Cain based on his alleged sexual harassment.

Were Sharon Bialek an employee she could have filed a complaint with the EEOC. Regardless of employment she could have filed a civil suit against Mr. Cane alleging assault and outrageous conduct. She could also have filed a claim with the civil rights division of the state in which she lived. Or she could have filed a criminal complaint for assault with the district attorney’s office. She did absolutely nothing all the way to her big hug, back stage with Mr. Cane.

The Statute of Limitations is intended to protect the innocent victim of a lawsuit. The claim of one who sits on her rights will not be heard if it is not timely prosecuted. Memories fail. Witnesses die or disappear. Documents are lost, credibility is strained, and confusion and injustice reign over all. The statute of limitations is centered on the principle that a defendant must have his day in court or have his peace. There comes a time when justice mandates that the court room doors be closed to claims, real, spurious, or too long ignored.

Justice if it is to prevail must be timely urged in a courtroom according to the rule of law, evidence and defendant’s right to cross examine his accuser before an impartial jury. One will not find justice in the streets, or in the lurid accusations of a political hack like Ms. Allred. As Ms. Allred may not legally file suit against Mr. Cane, Americans should wonder precisely what legal services she is providing her client Sharon Bialek. The answer is none at all.

At this late date, as Mr. Cane is leading in the polls, Ms. Allred’s suggestion that she and her client are simply trying to clear the air, do the right thing and see that Mr. Cane admit his wrong doing so that everybody can well… just “move on” rings of a contempt for truth so base the very stones of Rome should rise up in mutiny. They are, in fact, seeking his political annihilation.

That Ms. Allred, a Democrat mouthpiece, is somehow representing Sharon Bialek is a myth. She is not performing a legal function. Her client does not require a lawyer to read from her notes an accusation concerning which she has too long been silent. Let us for the moment put aside vainglory, hubris, avarice and ambition. The truth is that the shouting out of incendiary libels does not constitute legal representation; nor does legal representation include a lawyer’s appearance on morning talk shows that cannot have enough of bloodlettings.

Ms. Allred’s “representation” could as well have been done by the doorman at the hotel in which Ms Allred announced her “disgust” with a “serial” abuser of women. The term “serial” is usually reserved for killers, as in “serial killers.” The truth is, Ms. Allred’s business is not justice; it is political malice and character assassination, self promotion and the aggrandizement of a political party now well to the left of Russia’s Putin.

Americans may well ask why a woman silent since the nineties, a woman who never once accused Mr. Cane of wrong doing is now seeking his political annihilation. We will never know the facts perfectly. Motive and circumstantial evidence however disclose a political agenda centered on the publication of libel, the destruction of reputations and a thirst for political power.

So what to we know for a fact: Should any of these accusations “stick” whether or not they are true, Mr. Cane presently the presidential choice of millions of Americans will not win the Republican nomination nor will he be selected for the vice presidential slot. He will be damaged goods.

The killing off of Mr. Kane’s political aspirations will damage the Republican Party even as it increases President Obama’s chances for reelection. Mr. Kane’s 41 years as a CEO for major corporations are free of wrongdoing and are characterized by professional excellence. Sexual predators are for the most part repeat offenders. He does not fit the mold. A good reputation however will not stand against prolonged accusations of immoral conduct.

Finally, guilt or innocence should be decided in the courtroom according to the evidence and the rule of law. That Ms. Allred is trying Mr. Kane in the streets, and in the bylines of a rapacious and biased media is more reminiscent of hi-tech lynching than democracy. She, and the party who supports her, must not prevail.

OWS Protestors Blocking Wheelchair Bound Patriot.

2011-11-05T08:32:00.001-06:00

The New "Occupiers" Old Anti-Westernism

2011-11-04T15:26:00.002-06:00

The Right Word
By Kelly Sloan

It would be a mistake, really, to think that the “Occupy Wall Street” movement that has popped up in cities across the U.S., Canada, and Europe the past few weeks, is some sort of fresh, new, original phenomena.

It is, in fact, merely the most recent manifestation of a predominantly anti-western sentiment that was birthed in the 1960’s, and has periodically flared up, continually in search of a catalyst, since that time. Some of its more notable revivals were observed in the anti-nuclear protests of the 1980’s, the anti-globalization riots in Seattle, Quebec City and elsewhere during the 1990’s and beyond, the hysterical anti-Bush protests throughout the 2000's, and, more recently, the social upheavals in London and Greece.

That it is difficult to discern just what, exactly, the occupiers would like to see come about as a result of their shenanigans is by now something of a cliché. Media interviews, a scanning of the occupiers visual aids, and random conversations with the denizens of the ‘occupied’ areas reveal a deluge of real, perceived, and imagined social ills (elucidated with varying degrees of eloquence, but generally boiling down to some form of “he’s got an IPAD, and I ain’t got one”) brought about by the inequities built in to the current system, etc., etc., etc. When pressed for a solution, the typical response seems to range from confused bewilderment, through murky, non-committal circumlocutions (again delivered with divergent levels of skill), to unguarded calls for socialist revolution.

It is the negative definition of the movement – they are not so much “for” anything as “against” what currently exists – that serves as the unifying factor; and what they are against is nothing less than the West, and the civilization that it has wrought over the past thousand-plus years, especially as symbolized by America. The same contempt and disdain for the structures and institutions of the West – capitalism, Christianity, the rule of law, individualism, natural orders and traditions, etc. – that is evident among the throngs in New York, Denver, Oakland and elsewhere, was being spewed long before the OWS crowd commenced their current temper tantrum, and is what brings them into communion with the radical leftists of Europe and of previous years. How many of the erstwhile London rioters, for instance, do you suppose are currently “occupying” St. Paul’s Cathedral?

There are a couple ironies in all of this; the first is that this movement towards deracination of Western culture is in part a product of the West’s own success. The spoiled-brat class that populates the bulk of the OWS crowds, the London rioters, and the Greek mobs, is composed mainly of a generation that has become accustomed to being taken care of.

In Europe especially, where 50-plus years of experimentation with Social Democracy is now beginning to crumble under its own weight, the realization that the bill is now well past due is a frightening shock to a 20-something kid who thought that the state would provide for him. Ill-equipped to deal with reality after a lifetime of socialization, the only option he sees available to him is not to take responsibility for his own life, but to strike out at “the system”, a target conveniently presented to him by a local leftist organizer.
Rather than focus their rage on the source of their economic woes – an expansionist government that granted itself plenipotentiary power to organize society independent of natural and economic laws – they look for an easy scapegoat; the banking system, the rich, the church, the police, and so forth.

A second irony is that while there are serious economic problems plaguing both Europe and America, most, if not all, of these problems – many of which the occupiers themselves ostensibly carry on about – can only be solved by the very system that the protesters rail against; and would in fact be intensified under the system that some of them are coherent, or careless, enough to define as a replacement.

The final irony is that while clamoring for more freebies from government, the protesters also strain against the checks necessary in a free society. They want a society where a central authority exists to manage, distribute, and equalize, but not to bridle the more basal human instincts and appetites; restraints which provide order and structure in society, and which are the foundation upon which a free people build.

The OWS movement is zygotic with the war on western culture, which is why it should be unsettling to those who recognize the beauty and achievements, alongside the scars, of our civilization.

OUR COMMON TRAGEDY

2011-11-02T06:58:00.001-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

The “Occupy Wall Streeters”, in demonstrations across this grand America, have displayed a common character as tragic as the President’s funding of a corrupt “green” Solyndra and as slick as P.T. Barnum’s circus shtick in which he was heard to say, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

There is an amoral basis for their “occupation.” It is evident in the tons of garbage they have piled against stately trees and once immaculate park benches, in their interference with traffic and the lives of people, in their intimidation of local governments and business employees, in the spectacle of an occasional child-rape.

DALLAS — Dallas police have arrested a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a minor at the Occupy Dallas campsite downtown. Richard Armstrong, 24, was charged with sexual assault of child and failure to register as a sex offender. Armstrong was identified as the man who police said had sex with a runaway from Garland. The alleged incident happened in a tent at one of the encampments on or before Oct. 23.[1]

That and mindless expressions of anti-Semitism. In a video published on the Weekly Standard a gang of Wall Streeters, shouting out the names of a number of male Jews accuse them and the Israelis of master minding the 911 massacre as a means to lure the American government into an invasion of the Middle East.[2]

Finally, moral and intellectual bankruptcy finds its grossest expression in public exhibitions of masturbation. This last we may suppose will be characterized by the leftward press and the American Civil Liberties Union as a symbolic expression of First Amendment free speech, much as the symbolic erection of tents, and demands for other people’s money.

City officials temporarily denied Occupy Madison a new street use permit Wednesday after protesters violated public health and safety conditions and failed to follow the correct processes to renew or amend a permit. The permit, which expired Wednesday at noon, required Occupy Madison protesters to relocate from their current space at 30 West Mifflin Street, also called 30 on the Square. A neighboring hotel's staff alleged voiced concerns about having to recently escort hotel employees to and from bus stops late at night due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters.[3]

This much is true. Though many of these young men and women are college graduates they express an irrational vacuity so barren that we may justly see them as naive victims of a predatory educational establishment that traffics more in ideological trash than wisdom. The Wall Streeters know little or nothing of the function and principles of the American Constitution or its birth from a centuries long struggle against secular, religious and aristocratic despotism. They are ignorant of economics and cannot distinguish discourse or debate from simply shouting in one’s face. While they have been taught how to express their feelings in nihilist sentimentalisms or angry outbursts they have not been taught how to think. They cannot tolerate facts. They abhor rational principles born of cause and effect, blood and suffering. They know nothing of political science or the splendid men and women who bequeathed unto their generation a tradition of freedom and liberty. This is our common tragedy.

The Wall Streeters do make one poorly presented point. Wall Street financiers, many of whom are now manning the barricades as appointees of President Obama, have much to answer for in their bundling and selling of worthless mortgage securities; and indeed, making fortunes by betting that these very securities would crash. The Wall Streeters, however, will not recognize the government’s complicity first in bullying banks into the financing of homes to individuals incapable of meeting the mortgage payments and second, by guaranteeing that Wall Street would be held harmless from loss no matter how avaricious its investment strategies.

The Ponzi scheme that brought down the economy was born in the administration of former President Bill Clinton and found its apogee in President Obama’s guarantee of Wall Street’s mortgage security profits even as he socialized its losses—a new euphemism calculated to gloss over the fact that once again the citizen is left holding the bag.

It is no coincidence that in their “spontaneous” expression of protest, the Wall Streeters have not brought to bear even the slightest criticism of President Obama’s “stimulus plan.” They simply ignore his squandering of American wealth on green corporations like Solyndra and Solar Power; profitless companies previously condemned as dark holes by accounting firms, and rational investors this, before the first dollar of stimulus money found its way into their checking accounts.

Solyndra is a company that used to make and sell solar panels. It has not once made a dime in profits—before or after its 55 million dollar stimulus— and was so financially moribund it could not qualify for an IPO, i.e. an initial public stock offering. Authoritative accounting firms trashed its balance sheet. The former President George Bush, to whom according to the president all blame adheres for all and everything, told the company to get lost. President Obama, well aware of its slow-motion collapse, handed Solyndra a half billion dollars which it promptly squandered. Thereafter, in less than a year, it filed a petition for bankruptcy. Solyndra’s high rollers, bundlers of campaign donations for President Obama, will be held harmless even as American taxpayers are once again forced to pick up the tab, i.e. socialize the losses.

Recently, an immigrant from Russia tried to question several Wall Streeters. They immediately began to shout in his face the accusation that the Russian/American did not know what he was talking about. A woman, wearing a Che Guevara tee shirt denied that this Cuban mass murderer was anything other than a people’s hero. However, during the Cuban Missile crisis Che urged Fidel Castro to nuke New York City and was miffed at his reticence. His ideology was communism. His profession was executer. He died like a coward. Hollywood recently produced a two-hour eulogy to Che Guevara entitled The Motorcycle Diaries, in which his virtue is portrayed as a communist saint, a lover of humanity. His saintly character is best characterized in his own words.

Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl.[4]

When this woman was asked what she thought of the “communist” North Korea, she answered that it was a great place where the people enjoyed good, steady jobs. She denied that untold numbers of North Koreans had died and are dying of starvation in this dynastic, workers’ paradise.

Up to 2.8 million people may have died of starvation because of North Korea's three-year famine and worsening economic crisis. Former agriculture diplomat Kim Dong-Su, who defected to South Korea in early February, said the figure was the closest possible estimate of deaths because the North's regime had not compiled reliable figures. Kim, who spent three years negotiating with the United Nations to secure food aid for the stricken north, said the country's communist leaders could not deal with the huge scale of the crisis and they face increasing unrest from the population.[5]

Another Wall Streeter denied that the Russian people had ever suffered a casualty at the hands of Stalin. He knew nothing of gulags, or Stalin’s calculated starvation of eight million Ukrainians. Another Wall Streeter denied that the Constitution protected rights in property—because he had found nothing referring to this right when he looked up the word “property” in a dictionary!

While the Wall Streeters’ silence is truly comedic in its calculated avoidance of language remotely critical of President Obama, their demands reflect a species of intellectual psychosis which if somehow accepted would require nothing less than an abolition of the Constitution and the Rule of Law—anarchy in fact. The Wall Streeters have demanded the abolition of contracts, the repeal of all debt, the confiscation of private wealth, and a government guarantee of good salaries for everybody whether or not they are inclined to work. For this infinitely grand largess they have no plan whatever. They will simply camp out until it happens.

They demand no less than a state of anarchy—chaos, the law of the jungle, a rule of tooth and claw— a state of lawlessness that always precedes tyranny. V.I. Lenin recognized it when as the Bolsheviks captured and destroyed a fledging Russian parliamentary government; he saw power free for the taking in the streets.

Anarchy literally means ‘without ruler or government’, and denotes a political arrangement in which there is no framework of laws or a governing authority. Anarchism is the theory that advocates anarchy in this sense; it is the theory held by those who argue for abolition of the state, defined as a body, which exists to maintain a compulsory legal order. Anarchists argue that organic communities will emerge from the common sense of people opposed to living under any form of authority other than what they impose on themselves.

…One can canvass some probabilities to test whether an anarchic arrangement would be likely to work as follows. Contemporary advanced societies function fairly smoothly, in general, within a framework of institutions which give assurance to most people that they can rely on arrangements they have made, contracts they have entered into, and services they depend on. This fact is overlooked by most people because of the very success of its operation; yet it is the result of its being constituted by the enforceable rule of law and well-regulated normal government—in short the opposite of anarchy, either in the colloquial sense of disorder or in the strict sense of absence of government… As this suggests, the anarchists’ belief that people can live in unregulated mutual harmony is touching by naïve. [6]

The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and American Constitution are the finest expression of a Western Renaissance that held sacred above all else individual freedom of person and conscience, liberty and property. The Founders, however, were by no means idealists. They realized that the principles of freedom and liberty they had set down in parchment were mere words that would fail in the absence of a virtuous, knowledgeable and committed American people. They knew from a disciplined study of history that democracy unconstrained by a constitution and the rule of law inevitably ends always in collapse, injustice, outrage and bloody tyranny.

“In 1936 Stalin’s Soviet Union promulgated a new and beautifully liberal constitution, even as massacres of kulaks and show trials were happening? It enshrined freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and meetings, freedom of street processions and demonstrations (all specifically permitted in clause 125). It stipulated ‘universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot’ (clause 134), and gave ‘each Union republic [the] right freely to secede from the USSR’ (clause 17). These admirable provisions alone might raise a horse-laugh; history and Stalinism between them make the entire rambling document a comedy. [7]

England and the United States, even then, had their own Wall Streeters. Like the Wall Streeters today they were leftists beside themselves with visions of a lethal utopia.

The [Soviet] constitution was hailed by thinkers on the liberal left in Britain and elsewhere as a fresh dream, adding to the popularity among them both of Communism and the Soviet system.[8]

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance, endorsed by our own Jeff Crank, is now available at Amazon.com in perfect soft cover and now on Kindle. Type in my name or “Renegades” and place your order.

[1] Man arrested for child sex assault at Occupy Dallas camp by STEVE STOLER

WFAA, 11.1.2011

[2] Daniel Halper, “More Anti-Semitism—and Conspiracy Theories—at Occupy Wall Street” Weekly Standard.

[3] The Daily Cardinal: The Occupy Madison permit not re-issued by Taylor Harvey, October 26,2011.

[4] Robert Harkins, Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance. (Tate Pubishing, 20 11).

[5] World: Asia-Pacific Millions dead from starvation says North Korean defector, Feb.1988.

[6] C. Grayling, Ideas That Matter, The Concepts That Shape the 21^st Century, An Opinionated Guide. 19,20.

[7] AC. Grayling, Toward The Light of Liberty, The Struggles For Freedom and Rights That Made the Modern World, (Walker & Company, New York, 2007), 159.

[8] Grayling supra.

2011-10-30T21:38:00.004-06:00

“Individual Freedom, Personal Responsibility”
by John Alexander Madison
October 30, 2011

You can't afford an expensive home, no problem. I'm from the government and I'm here to help. We'll lower qualifying standards and make loans to unqualified buyers like you. We'll lower down payment requirements and make loans to you and others who cannot possibly afford to repay them. Better still a couple of years down the road when you default on your loan we'll be back to forgive your loan or at least lower your debt balance. Sound good? Let those greedy wall street bankers suffer, they're rich, they can afford the loses.

Vote for me again because I'm not through destroying (err, reforming) America. I have more I want to do, for you!

And while I’m at it, you don't happen to have a student loan, do you? You do? Well, today is your lucky day because I'm from the government and I'm here to help. You see, us liberals think you should be able to take on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in educational loans and not have to pay them back in full. Maybe we'll lower your student loans debt/ payments to just 20% of your salary…even if your salary goes up as you gain experience. Keep this in mind, if your income increases over the years, we won't raise your loan amount to what you actually owed, we'll just let the banks suffer, after all we know they are all greedy capitalist pigs. Deal? Just as long as you vote for me again in 2012!

This scenario reminds me of a 1970 Duke University scholar who opined "Everyone doesn't have a right to a college education any more than one has the right to run a four minute mile, you have to earn it." Perhaps more importantly, where does it end? If our government is willing to pay for a college education for all Americans, why not an M.B.A.? Hey, while our government is being generous let's all demand a PhD or a complete medical school education.

But wait, that won't work will it? After all, who's going to perform tune-ups for my car, the new one I got through the cash for clunkers program; or help me 'have it my way' at Burger King; or fix potholes on our city streets; or pick up my trash every Friday; or deliver my newspaper every morning; or make those wooden chairs for my kitchen table; or perform electrical wiring and pour the concrete slab for my family room addition; or pick lettuce from the field for my blue cheese lettuce wedge?

Here's an idea...illegal immigrants! And if they are willing pick our vegetables, clean our hotel rooms, and build stucco walls around our new home subdivisions, or cut my lawn for me let's provide college tuition for their kids as a token of our appreciation.

I think we can all agree that America is the most generous nation on Earth. So is there any chance we can drum up some sympathy for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and investors (large and small) like you and me? For example, since July Netflix stockholders have suffered a 70% loss in the value of their stocks. How can we allow these stockholders to suffer such a severe devaluation in their portfolio? Or how about stockholders of one of the largest banks in the world? A few years ago their common stock was valued a $55 per share and today each share is worth about $7. Had you owned 15,000 shares of this bank stock a few years ago you were earning about $10,000 in quarterly dividends, or $40,000 per year. Today those quarterly dividends yield $560 per year. No more yachts, no more expensive cars, no more Caribbean or Alaskan cruises. Well, at least until my next investment works out a bit better. In the meantime, I will continue to invest in a variety of businesses and in doing so many hard-working Americans will be employed and be able to bring a turkey home for Thanksgiving.

If there is one constant element in a capitalist, free-market economy it is this: capitalism works just fine when failure is part of the equation...you win some, you lose some but the opportunity to succeed is what motivates hard-working citizens from every ethnic background and religious persuasion in this great American melting pot of ours.

America is all about liberty, individual freedom, personal responsibility and opportunity. America is not about more government, less freedom and oppression. Or is it?

EPILOGUE

Not too long ago we heard:
"We have to pass this health care bill now so we can then read it and learn what's in it," Really?

Now we're hearing:
"Pass my new jobs bill now. Pass it now, pass this bill!" To that I ask "Why?"

"We can't wait!" To that, I ask "Why not."

"Why can't Congress work together...it's their fault...they are blocking all my job stimulus bills!" To that I say "You are right, Mr. President, it’s their fault. But remember both Republicans and Democrats in Congress recognize you are a failure and that you a destroying America.

And to top it all off, according to a senior White House aide, this President wants to set new ethical standards for conducting political campaign fund raising. Yes, this President, the one travelling all around the country at taxpayer expense pushing his socialist agenda. The same President who is setting all sorts of fund raising records including having raised more money from Wall Street’s richest than any other President in U.S. History. Speaking about turkeys...well, never mind.

And to those misguided Wall Street protestors I say go buy a record. How about the #1 song in October 1957 performed by The Silhouettes, “Get a Job.”

http://jamadison.wordpress.com #97

A SOLILOQUY TO SENATOR BULL!

2011-10-27T12:58:00.000-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

The good Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming, Co-Chair of Obama's deficit commission, has called senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. A conservative, now collecting social security, taken with umbrage has sent this letter to Senator Simpson. I set it forth verbatim editing only a few words perhaps understandably profane.

"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight.

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).

3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.

4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you incompetent bas…spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt. To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bull…." on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bull…., I have a few questions for YOU.

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bull, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes. That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank you….

What are Occupy Wall Street Colorado Springs Protestors Up To?

2011-10-21T23:00:00.005-06:00

Two witnesses confirmed that the person kicking the cross is an Occupy Wall Street Colorado Springs protestor. The "kicker" has been seen on several occasions mingling and talking in the tent with OWS protestors.

We've all heard them say that they don't smoke marijuana at the OWS Colorado Springs protests - so I'm sure the fellow below wasn't really doing what we think he is doing:

CSPD should enforce the law! They have the right to protest but they don't have the right to camp on a sidewalk that you and I want to walk down. They don't have the right to kick the cross of a Christian exercising his First Amendment right and they don't have the right to smoke illegal drugs in front of kids in the park.

CSPD should do their job and move them out.

THE WALL-STREETERS

2011-10-19T09:36:00.002-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

Good news! The German Nazi party, a squalid cabal of skinheads and psychopaths, in its longing for the past glories of Treblinka and Dashau, has endorsed “Occupy Wall Street.” If that were not enough to insure the Wall-Streeters a place in the sun the convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Gamal, has generously added his own lyrical endorsement. What more could the Wall-Streeters ask for? Well, President Obama and the Democrat Administration have added their endorsement, first with a not so candid “wink” from President O’bama, and finally with an addled “God Bless-em” from former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Panic is the mid wife of witless strategies.

The good news is that Americans battered by a severe recession, joblessness, inflation, foreclosures, flash mobs, drug wars and government class warfare may take comfort in knowing that only one third of the Wall-Streeters advocate terrorism as a means to the imposition of their agenda.

Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen's firm surveys the mob, and turns up some...interesting results: 

The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park…Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.[1]

The young and idealistic, Wall-Streeters claim to have discovered in the vacuous labyrinth of their iconoclastic minds a wisdom so perfect and a political science so excellent they need not explain it to the common folk. It is enough to say that they have unchained economics from Malthusian pessimism, from the laws of cause and effect, supply and demand, wealth and ruin, indeed, from reality itself.

Still there is not much new under the sun. In fact, the Wall-Streeters’ protest is centered on a first principle that has been around since the first pickpocket plied his trade. The country singer Hank Williams Jr. expressed this principle most poignantly in his song I fought the Law. Strumming an old, well-worn guitar he warbled out,

I wanted some money cause I had none,

I fought the law and the law won.

The Wall-Streeters also want some money “cause they have none.” Accordingly, they demand that Americans be done with constitutions, elections, and governments. They shout let there be untold wealth, the repeal of American borders, the extinction of corporations and single payer health care. Let there be government paid $50,000 per year salaries even for those who do not care to work, and a free college education for those who already know everything. Let all and every debt be repealed forever and a day— let there be everywhere eternal anarchy. And let us be done forever with addition and subtraction.

But how will Valhalla be financed? Simple really: All that need be done is to take Wall Street in hand, dismiss or behead those “vampires” who are rich because they have stolen trillions of dollars from the illiterate, the pseudo-intellectual and an army of government free loaders who claim a constitutional right to bread, leisure, and ignorance.

Like the sixties hippies addled by the narcissist idea that history and wisdom began with them, the Wall-Streeters claim a transcendent knowledge unavailable to Americans older than say, age thirty.

It is true, however, that many Wall-Streeters have been sorely overcharged for their virtually worthless college degrees. Although they have been taught a large repertoire of dog-tired political epithets, “Power to the People” or “Let the Workers of the World Unite” for example, they have not been taught how to think. They have instead been taught how to “feel.” But ragged, green emissions of raw sentiment and deadbeat political slogans are a poor substitute for reason.

In 1789 the French people stormed the Bastille, executed King Louis XVI in January of 1793 and engaged in that Reign of Terror inspired by leftist Jacobins, in particular Robespierre. The Jacobins promised freedom, justice and a constitution. They promised liberation from the oppression of a corrupt king, a profligate, tax-exempt aristocracy and a queen who told them to go eat cake.

The Jacobins, however, became too attached to the efficiency of terrorism and so resorted to mass murder. Their youthful idealism quickly descended into mob rule. Indeed, Robespierre himself was finally trotted out to take his place in the long line leading to the scaffold of a bloody guillotine. In the end, a once radical Jacobin predator Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed the Revolution, declared himself emperor, caused the military slaughter of millions, brought France down to ruin and finally met his Waterloo.

“I wanted some money cause I had none?” Not all that great a principle. Really.

What do you think?

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance, endorsed by our own Jeff Crank, is now available at Amazon.com. Type in Robert Harkins and “Renegades” and place your order. Thank you.

[1] Guy BensonPolitical Editor, Townhall.com

RUNNING FROM THE BEAR

2011-10-05T15:41:00.001-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

The intrepid camper, dauntless hunter and all famous adventurers are well advised to be careful when entering the wild and wooly woods. You may recall the inebriated and suicidal hunter who entered a New Hampshire forest during deer hunting season wearing a fur coat and hat? He drew fire from citizens whose motto is to “live free or die” until finally forest rangers ran him down, packed him away, confiscated his rifle and impounded his jug of whiskey. Later, reluctantly, they returned his rifle. But then, they drank his jug of whiskey. Is nothing sacred?

One warm, sunny March day a Colorado Springs tourist decided to hike Pike’s Peak trail to the summit. He posed for a photograph decked out in sneakers, Bermuda shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt; he was carrying in one hand a paper lunch bag containing an apple, a peanut butter sandwich and a handful of dried figs. His right hand was raised high in a V for Victory sign. He was discovered cowering, barely alive, penitent and in prayer, clinging to an Aspen, in the middle of a spring snowstorm.

Park rangers advise all hikers, campers and Gaia poets that when you are confronted by a bear you must remain calm even if the bear rears up, towers over you and roars like the demented fiend from hell it is. That said, you need not be immediately concerned as it may be that the bear is just trying to find out whether you are a threat in which case it will tear you to pieces.

Rangers warn particularly that you must not try to make eye contact with the bear. Eye contact may well transform the Rooseveltian “Teddy Bear” into an implacable killing machine. Now, all is not lost should the bear decide to attack. Forest rangers advise that you remain calm and—as the primeval beast, displaying fang and claw, bounds toward you— back away slowly and confidently. Confidence is everything. Accordingly, if it appears that the bear really intends to kill you must then stand your ground. Rangers advise that,

When standing your ground try not to intimidate the bear, but rather, make yourself look important, like something the bear might injure himself with.[1]

If you discover that making yourself look important does not seem to be working you are advised to fall down and pretend that you are dead. Needless to say, you should try to be as confident and convincing as possible. In any event, you must not run from the bear as flight will trigger its instincts to chase you, take you down, tear you into small edible pieces and once sated wistfully arrange flowers in your hair.

Now what is the correlation between running from a bear and Democrat election year strategies? When a president, and his party engage in desperate, irrational and self-destructive conduct they are running from the bear. Here are a few examples.

The president submitted a budget to a democratic Senate and not one senator voted for it. Absolutely everyone voted against it. The score was 97-0. One may well ask, are there no phones at the White House? Could the president not have discovered the certainty of his national humiliation and have avoided it? Or did he simply panic?

The president is now demanding that Congress pass a new mini stimulus, a mere 450 billion dollars, which he will then “invest” in infrastructure, education and green energy companies much like the recently bankrupt Solyndra presumably so as to “save or create” trillions of jobs. He will acquire these new billions by borrowing and by canceling tax deductions on such aristocratic luxuries as corporate jets.

Now here is the president’s campaign strategy. When Republicans oppose his bill, the president will at last have found them out for the cynical, heartless fat cats they truly are. We the “little people”, appropriately grateful, will then humbly grace him with four more years in office. It appears, however, that Democrats may also vote to kill the president’s spending bill. How then will the president further his reelection ambitions if in a strategy to smear the Republicans he also smears the Democrats.

President Obama’s relations with Senate Democratic leaders are deteriorating along with his poll numbers. With Obama’s approval ratings at record lows and the 2012 electoral map favoring Senate Republicans, the president and Senate Democrats are, in many ways, on divergent paths. Vulnerable Democrats from red states see Obama as impeding their chances of winning reelection, while the president often seems aloof to their concerns.

Obama, focused on winning a second term, has distanced himself from Congress altogether, at times not making the distinction between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.[2]

President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs package appears to be dead on arrival at Capitol Hill, where House Republicans say no way will it pass, and Senate Democrats are looking the other way, ignoring repeated requests to schedule a date and vote on the bill. [3]

Over the past few months Democrats have raised a new hue and cry. Tea Partiers are vile racists. They are terrorists in the tradition of Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, they who criticize the president’s performance are malicious bigots. While active tea partiers are a minority, millions of conservatives who are not tea partiers sympathize with their demand for economic responsibility, limited constitutional government and an end to political corruption.

Now, paradoxically, the president and his Democrats are asking the very people they have accused of racial bigotry, and characterized as unpatriotic, to return the president and his party to four more years of power. But how does it serve their objective to vilify today Americans they must ask to vote for them in 2012? Frankly, their strategy is a real bear; so much so, that many Democrats, including the president, may soon be forced to find honest employment in an economy they have destroyed. Really, it looks like the Colorado tourist who tried to reach the summit in sneakers, shorts and a Hawaiian shirt is heading up democratic strategy.

What then should be the Democrat’s election strategy? When next they face off with the Republicans, the Independants, the Tea Partiers, and the millions of people who have been the targets of their merciless wrath, and bottomless corruption, they must stand their ground, try not to intimidate them and above all take care not to make eye contact? They should try to look important and back away confidently? After all, the last thing Democrats should do is run from a bear. Or better still, perhaps, they should fall over and pretend to be dead?

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of American. Her Revolution and Renaissance is now available at Amazon.Com. Type in Renegades and my name Robert Harkins. Thank you.

[1] How to Escape from Dangerous Forest Animals - wikiHow

www.wikihow.com › ... › Outdoor Safety › Animal and Insect Safety

[2] White House kept Democratic senators hanging on the phone

By Alexander Bolton - 10/04/11 05:30 AM ET

[3] Obama's Jobs Bill DOA on Capitol Hill

by Audrey Hudson

10/04/2011

2011-09-25T16:51:00.003-06:00

The Three Envelopes
by John Alexander Madison
September 25, 2011

What you didn’t know.

When President Obama first walked into the Oval Office placed upon the President’s desk was a note from his predecessor, President George W. Bush, along with three envelopes. The note said, when times are looking bad, open these envelopes in order, one occasion at a time.

Well, somewhat amused, and riding on a tsunami of support from those Americans who bought into his promise of “hope and change, we can believe in” the President put the envelopes aside in his desk drawer.

Yesterday, nearly three painful years after Obama’s historical walk into the Oval Office, the Colorado Republican Party held its Central Committee meeting in Colorado Springs to make plans for the 2012 General Election year, with the idea that “hope and change we can believe in” may finally come in November 2012.

One Resolution which passed selected February 7th for next year’s Colorado Republican Party caucuses, almost immediately after the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. At that time Republicans in every precinct throughout Colorado will participate in a non-binding Presidential Straw Poll. Since Colorado is widely recognized as a swing state in the 2012 it seemed very appropriate to do so by a large majority of those present. As one speaker opined “In 2012 Colorado is relevant and President Obama is not.”

Meanwhile, back at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue late one evening in the fall of 2009, President Obama found himself alone in the Oval Office as he asked himself ‘what is happening? I was so popular earlier this year, but unemployment has soared to above 9%, a majority of Americans seem to reject my Obamacare individual mandates, and my popularity, is on the decline.’ He was clearly depressed. Moments later he opened his drawer and found the note from President Bush and the three envelopes. Now is the time, he thought, to open envelope #1. The card inside read “blame me.”

Whereupon, President Obama marched forward with renewed confidence and at every opportunity he blamed George Bush for all the ills of our nation.

In the fall of 2010, the U.S. national debt was climbing, unemployment remained at historically high levels, most Americans felt the $1 trillion stimulus package was not working, the cash for clunkers program was an abject failure, and the President’s approval rating continued its decline. The President was upset and wondering what he could do to turn things around when, once again, he thought of President Bush’s thoughtful note and envelopes in the drawer. He immediately open the drawer and pulled out envelope #2. The card inside read “blame Congress.” Brilliant, thought the President and as he headed into 2011 he did just that.

Now, fully nine months later, in the fall of 2011, our country is nearing the precipice of worldwide irrelevance and historical oblivion due to the more than $14.5 trillion in national debt that we have accumulated. Need I remind you that more than $5 trillion of that debt was accumulated by President Obama in less than three years and that represents more than all the debt which was accumulated during the previous 230 years of this country?

In addition, a majority of Americans have seen their life savings go up in smoke, the stock market has collapsed under the weight of never ending tax increases, unnecessary and intrusive government regulations has crippled small and large businesses alike, and unemployment has set records for sustained, record-high levels. To top off the 'good news’ the President’s approval rating on the economy is the worst is the history of the country.

Are Americans confident that President Obama is the person who can lead our country out of the malaise? Absolutely not. They believe our country is moving perilously close to a double dip recession and it is time for change, “change we can truly believe in.”

Someone overheard just last week that the President was considering buying Greek government bonds in an effort to turn things around for America. That couldn’t be true, could it? Let’s put it this way, with this President and his advisors, anything is possible. Regarding economic issues, it’s quite clear #44 is not the brightest bulb in the closet.

Just today, one political pundit suggested that job creating Texas Governor, Rick Perry, had a disqualifying week for fumbling the ball in Thursday night’s debate and, thereafter, losing the Florida Republican Party straw poll on Saturday to a pizza salesman. (For the record, I’ll take Herman Cain, Rick Perry and certainly Governor Mitt Romney to replace the current occupant of the White House, if not any of the nine current Republican contenders…or Governor Christy of New Jersey.)

But with regard to this pundit’s opinion that last week was a disqualifying WEEK for Rick Perry all I can say is the last three years are certainly disqualifying YEARS for any argument that President Obama is entitled to a second term.

Our nation is loved for the individual liberties we all enjoy yet we all know that personal responsibility is an important element to the general success we have enjoyed. One wonders when this President will take personal responsibility for HIS actions and stop blaming President Bush or even Congress.

EPILOGUE
So, what is the President to do?

Open up envelope #3, Mr. President, for I was there when President Bush wrote those notes to you. And although I was sworn to secrecy as to the advice on the notes inside those three envelopes I feel I can share it just with you, if you promise to tell no one else.

Envelope #3 please….the note inside reads “prepare three envelopes.”

P.S. Were you disturbed today when you heard the two Americans who were released from an Iranian prison just four days ago after more than two years in captivity said that human rights violations on the part of our government were the cause for human rights violations by Iran and other terrorist countries? I was, yet I defend their right to express their opinion. Blame it on America, the most generous nation in the history of the world. Why not.

In the meantime, I am asking for donations for one-way tickets to send them back to Iran.

http://jamadison.wordpress.com #96

SILENCE OF THE DEMOCRATS

2011-09-21T13:26:00.001-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

In May of 1950 Democrat Estes Kefauver began a fifteen-month investigation of organized crime. He was the first democrat to acquire a T.V audience of over 30 million viewers. Americans watched fascinated as Kefauver cross-examined hundreds of shady characters. Time Magazine wrote that “…Dishes stood in sinks, babies went unfed, business sagged, and department stores emptied while the hearings were on.”

Tough bulky, men stuffed into slick $500 buck silk suits, spoke in heavy New York accents. More than a few showed up with their “mouth pieces” then an underworld reference to criminal defense attorneys. A rumor has it that one such character, having raised his calloused hand to swear an oath to tell the truth decided to “claim up.” “I’m taking the Fifth,” he exclaimed,

I ain’t gonna answer dat question on da grounds dat its gonna intimidate me.”

Kefauver, ever the diplomat, is likewise rumored to have replied, “Well, Sir, we certainly would not want to “intimidate you.”

President Obama granted Solyndra, a “green” corporation that never made a red cent, and had a “lousy” balance sheet, no less then a half billion bucks. Solyndra then used millions of these taxpayer dollars to lobby the government for a more favorable loan. Its lobbying efforts produced an amendment to the grant which would leave the American people, rather than the “investors” on the hook should the company declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy, however, was by then a virtual certainty as Solyndra was unable to acquire and squander additional cash by placing their company on the stock exchange. Solyndra’s IPO—initial pubic offering— failed miserably because savvy private investors, after examining the same balance sheet available to the president, would not touch the IPO with a ten foot pole. This should not have surprised anyone as Solyndra even then was raising its prow heavenward much as did the Titanic when it struck an iceberg.

It is really difficult to believe that the president, whose profound intellectual powers transcend those of the ordinary human being, would shovel out a half billion bucks to a company whose balance sheet read like an obituary. Now, of course, as Solyndra has filed for bankruptcy, the once eloquent president has metaphorically taken the Fifth. Silence, after all—in the face of unpardonable presidential incompetence— is better than words.

The silence of the president, his democrats and “fat cat billionaire” donors is not only deafening it is also constitutional. Indeed, American government and its fellow crooks have made considerable progress since the Kefauver hearings. Gone now are the bookies, pimps and loan sharks; gone too are the bootleggers and extortionists—and there is not anywhere a “mouthpiece” to be seen.

Today, the “Wise Guys” wear well-cut conservative suits, work out at corporate gyms, belong to all the right clubs, and have demonstrated the power and corruption of their donations to the Obama administration. They have been granted extraordinary access to the White House; and they have used this access to loot Americans of their wealth. Indeed, President Obama and his staff have attended Solyndra’s top echelon meetings even as the corporation careened its way to certain bankruptcy. It is now quite apparent that these presidential donors see “no percentage” in testifying under oath as to what they have done; after all, prison is a lonely place. Accordingly,

Solyndra Inc.'s chief executive officer and chief financial officer will invoke their 5th Amendment rights and not answer questions during a Friday hearing before a House investigative committee, their attorneys said. Attorneys for Solyndra Chief Executive Brian Harrison and W.G. "Bill" Stover, the company's chief financial officer, sent letters to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subcommittee Tuesday saying the two executives would not answer any questions during the hearing.” I have advised Mr. Harrison that he should decline to answer questions put to him by this subcommittee based on his rights under the Fifth Amendment,"[1]

The Fifth Amendment to the American Constitution guarantees that a government may not compel evidence of criminal conduct from a citizen. The Supreme Court construing the Fifth Amendment has held that prosecutors may not so much as mention defendant’s decision to take the Fifth. Furthermore, at trial, the defendant’s silence may not be considered as evidence of his guilt.

However, corporate consumers of the taxpayers’ money who “take the Fifth” so as to avoid telling the American people where a half billion bucks went are entitled to no suchpublic privilege. They deserve to be “intimidated.”

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance, endorsed by our own Jeff Crank, is now available at Amazaon.com. Type in Renegadesand my name Robert Harkins. Thank you.

Jeff with His Mountain Goat

2011-09-16T17:09:00.002-06:00

LEMONADE FROM LEMONS?

2011-09-14T06:32:00.003-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

The president demands that Congress pass, and pass quickly, another 450 billion dollar spending stimulus. While the president has yet again commanded airtime, he has offered nothing in writing. Nevertheless, he insists that additional billions must be spent on infrastructure (roads and bridges), education, and other noble causes, if the nation is to “jump start” an economy left gasping from the previous trillion-dollar stimulus. It is hard to believe that after squandering a trillion dollars on infrastructure there are road and bridge that still need to be rebuilt. The president argues that Republicans must now at last—if Americans are to escape economic Armageddon— put country over party and patriotism over their crass pandering to corporate fat cats. He does not mention his failed “investments” in the fat cats Chrysler and General Motors.

Americans may recall that tax payer “investments’ in Chrysler resulted in billions in losses just as tax payer investments in General Motors has produced a Chevy Volt that hardly anyone wants to buy. The Administration and General Motors trumpeted the falsehood that the Volt was the first totally electric car. In fact, the Volt’s gasoline engine makes the car go, so to speak, and is not there— as General Motors and the Administration claims— simply to recharge the Volt’s batteries. The Nisan Leaf, an electric car, outsells the Chevy Volt by four to one. Where then are the returns on the American taxpayers’ investment in Chrysler and General Motors?

An evaluation of presidential intelligence is long past due. The adolescent child, who decides to sell lemonade in front his home, must address market principles. How shall he decide what to charge for a glass of lemonade? Well, he must look to the cost of lemons and sugar, and sell his product at a price that covers his costs, shows a profit and is competitive with the adolescent capitalist selling lemonade just down the street.

Precisely the same analysis must be made by the butcher, baker, candlestick maker—and any president with the temerity to invest billions of American tax dollars in a private corporation. The corporation misjudges inexorable market principles at its peril. Indeed, the business landscape is littered with corporate corpses that misjudged cost, profit and competition.

The president, however, in angry reiterations of a once compelling grand eloquence believes that government may abolish the laws of the market place, embrace business failures, and with rhetorically constructed visions of a once and future utopia create wealth out of words. President Obama granted a half billion dollars low interest loan guarantee to Solyndra, a California solar energy company. The company, incorporated in 2006, sells solar panels. However, “Two months before the federal government provided a $535 million federal loan to the company,

auditors found that Solyndra, the bankrupt solar company, had significant financial difficulties, reports. In a deepening scandal that threatens to ensnare members of the Obama administration, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the company's finances “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” Two months later the company was awarded the loan under a green jobs program.[1]

In the five years from its incorporation to President Obama’s grant of a half billion-dollar loan guarantee, Solyndra never made a cent; indeed, it lost 550 million dollars. It then blew nearly all of the 555 million dollar taxpayer loan guarantee before filing a petition for bankruptcy. Solyndra, and the president simply refused to address precisely the same problem confronting the would-be adolescent lemonade seller: how to price a product so as to defeat the competition and make a profit.

Solyndra executives, before they lobbied President Obama for a half billion-dollar loan, knew that China, the seller just down the street, sold solar panels as a price far more competitive than the price at which Solyndra was able to sell solar panels. A company that cannot make a profit goes broke. Solyndra, however, chose a strategy inaugurated by the president. The solar panel corporation, “green” and therefore politically correct borrowed a half billion dollars from the taxpayers. The president then agreed to place the taxpayer on the hook should Solyndra collapse.

As tax payer money paid out to Solyndra— a corporation that never made a dime—did not somehow abolish market forces, their executives waited until they had spent virtually all of the half billion dollars and thereafter filed a petition for bankruptcy. The company that President Obama promised would be the flagship of Green technology fired 1100 workers. The FBI, as part of its investigation, has impounded Solyndra’s computers and other evidence. Congressional hearings are investigating corruption in the Obama Administration.

While Obama Administration officials claim they are shocked by the demise of Solyndra, an FBI investigation reveals that President Obama and administration officials regularly attended Solyndra corporate meetings. Journalist Bob Beauprez writes that,

Early press reports following Solyndra's bankruptcy announcement disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed by shareholders and executives of Solyndra to the Obama 2008 campaign. One of the company's largest investors, George B. Kaiser of Tulsa, reportedly contributed $53,500 personally and bundled large amounts more for Obama in 2008. Kaiser is a billionaire with banking and oil and gas interests that rank him among the wealthiest people in the world. Noting that in the first five years of operation the company had sustained $558 million in losses, the audit report said Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." [2]

Should the president have invested American taxpayer money in Solyndra? Well, what do you think?

My new book, Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance is now available at Amazon.com and will soon be available on Kindle. Type in Renegades and Robert Harkins. Thank you.

[1] Business Insider, “Solyndra Scandal Deepens: Obama Administration Officials Sat In On Bankrupt Solar Company's Board Meetings” http://www.businessinsider.com/solyndra-scandal-auditors-raised-substantial-doubts-about-company-before-controversial-federal-loan-2011-9#ixzz1Xtkw7c6B

[2]Bob Beauprez “Obama's Pet Billionaire at Solyndra May Take White House Down”httpfinance.townhall.com/.../11/obamas_pet_billionaire_at_solyndra_make_take_white_house_down

Post Qaddafi Libya Highlights Challenges for Next President

2011-08-29T17:10:00.002-06:00

The removal of Muammar Qaddafi is hardly unwelcome news. The Libyan tyrant, responsible for (among other things) the Lockerbie bombing, the killing of U.S. servicemen in Germany, and for opening his country up to terrorist groups of all stripes for training, has been an on-again- off-again threat to the West for several decades.

Although the U.S. airstrikes in the 1980's forced him to withdraw back into his shell, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq terrified him into abandoning his own WMD programs, all indications existed that recent American maladroitness in foreign policy was emboldening the dictator to re-flex his muscles a bit, and try and take advantage of other developments in the Mideast.

That is not to suggest that the operation to remove him bore any resemblance to a well-conceived and brilliantly executed strategy. Nevertheless, as Victor Davis Hanson put it, the only thing worse than an ill-conceived war is losing an ill-conceived war. So the President deserves at least some credit for helping lance that particular boil.

However, more than most, the Libyan conflict opens up a range of questions and dilemmas which the next President, whoever it is, will need to deal with, preferably in a less stultifying manner than the current one has.

First, and most immediate, is the fact that no one can predict, with anything approaching confidence, what will happen in Libya now that Colonel Qaddafi (presumably he shot all the Generals) is no longer manning the helm.

Fear of an iniquitous relationship between the rebels and hardline Islamist factions leads to speculation that the biggest dog surfacing from this fight will be one intent on molding a virulently anti-western rouge state, disturbingly aligned with Iran. Others foresee years of internecine warfare creating a quasi-national terror farm, like Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal. On the other end of the conjectural spectrum, optimists see a bright future, a nominally pro-western democracy emerging from the dungeons of Qaddafi's reign. But it's anyone's guess.

Questions also surround the conduct of the war itself; the listless strategy employed by NATO, especially early on, coupled with America's tepid and unenthusiastic "lead from behind" approach, undoubtedly prolonged the conflict, costing much more than was necessary both financially, and in terms of civilian casualties, than a directed, aggressively pursued campaign would have. Only in the final days, when NATO air support took on a more serious tone, was relative success attained. Questions surrounding the wisdom of the undertaking aside, once the decision was made to join the war, it ought to have been treated as such. Any future President contemplating the commitment of his nation's armed forces will need to seriously examine the sagacity of a Libya-Kosovo style of circumscribed war.

He will need to do this while also dealing with a greatly diminished American influence in world affairs. The subservience of the U.S. to the UN, NATO, and other world bodies, and an unwillingness to accept a natural leading role in the conflict (a practical manifestation of President Obama's conviction that the U.S ought not to be any particularly greater than Britain, Greece, or Nepal) projected not the mature prudence he may have hoped for, but rather weakness - or at least trepidation perceived as weakness. This reduction in American leverage will be noticed in many other parts of the globe, and will pose a considerable challenge to the next President.

At home, concerns regarding the role of Congress in the commitment of U.S. military power will linger. The 1973 War Powers Resolution is almost universally recognized as an unconstitutional wreck, and the enumerated power of Congress to declare war is an anachronism - a legal and diplomatic tool held over from the halcyon days of brightly attired armies, and gentlemen officers formally giving up their swords. However, it cannot be denied that the intent clearly existed for Congressional involvement in the decision to go to war, and Congressional approval has been traditionally, and properly, sought by Presidents past. Someone, soon, will need to come up with a Constitutional fix to bring some legal clarity to the question, and ensure that the U.S. Congress trumps the UN on this matter.

Whatever the eventual outcome in Libya, it will certainly add to the growing list of foreign and security challenges that the next President will be left with, some internally created, most external, nearly all complicated by the nonplussed foreign policy of the last few years. It is therefore not beyond the pale to hope that the current crop of Presidential candidates devote a bit more than the obligatory 2 minutes a week to outlining their philosophy in this matter.

LIBERAL FASCISM

2011-08-27T09:42:00.002-06:00

By ROBERT HARKINS

In his new book, Liberty Defined,[1] Presidential candidate Ron Paul makes a fascinating point. He writes that, “History has proven again and again: No system of government is good once the government grows too big and powerful. If the government is small and unintrusive, the form of government doesn’t matter that much. No one is seeking to overthrow the monarch of Liechtenstein, or uproot the system of oligarchical rotation of Costa Rica. The trouble with democracy is not so much its workings at any one time; the trouble is the dynamic it sets in place that gradually changes a small government into a big one. It was precisely to prevent that from happening that the founding generation of the United States borrowed the idea of a republic from the Roman experience.”

The Founders were to witness the mob tyranny of the French Revolution and its short-lived democracy—a Revolution that ate its own. Indeed, Robespierre was beheaded by the rapacious democracy he had created. Finally the new French democracy found in a once radical Jacobin democrat the “Emperor” Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruination of France and the military slaughter of millions of young men. In a historical irony France fell to the despot Napoleon precisely as Athens fell to the despot Pisistratus.

While the heroes of the French Revolution killed anyone who got in their way, the Athenian despot Pisistratus was far cleverer. Aristotle tells us that Pisistratus discovered a tall, strong and buxom “flower girl” in the local market—a polite euphemism for a woman engaged in this the most ancient of professions— dressed her up in garb and hair style to resemble the goddess Athena, and paraded her through the city streets of Athens on a flower bedecked wagon. The local Athenians—certainly not those mentored by Socrates or Plato—swooned at Athena’s divine appearance and surrendered their freedom to Pisistratus. Of Athena, “The Flower Girl” nothing more is known.

Most recently, President Obama, by executive order, and in contempt of an American Constitution, has passed his own Dream Act. In his incarnation as a “constitutional scholar” he has decided that the Justice Department will not defend The Defense of Marriage Act a statute passed with bipartisan support and signed by a president of the United States. In the bailout of General Motors he nullified the property rights of preferred creditors and paid off, with a piece of the action, the unions that contributed to his election. He has compelled—against the will of an American majority, the passing of a health care bill that will insure the ruination of health care just it will impose on Americans the totalitarian “supervision” of their health. Apparently, citizens will be assigned an I.R.S. agent who will see the citizen through to the termination of his medical care.

Like too many presidents President Obama has ignored his obligation to maintain secure borders. He has ordered the Justice Department to sue those states, Arizona and Alabama, who are trying to take back American territory occupied by Mexican drug lords who are killing Mexicans and Americans with military weapons supplied to them during the Obama Administration.

The president has commanded the integration of homosexuals into the military and has set loose upon its soldiers a bevy of “commissars,” experts so called, who will conform the mind of the American soldier to the parameters of political correctness—that is they will tell him what he must think and not think, believe and not believe, say and not say—all this in the name of freedom.

Senator John Kerry is sponsoring a bill will permit homosexuals to contribute blood to the national blood supply. Though homosexuals comprise less then two percent of the population they are sixty times more likely to be infected with HIV and other lethal sexually transmitted diseases. The Center for Disease Control characterizes their sexual practices as dangerous in the extreme. The government, however, must prevent discrimination.

Truly as democracy expands is becomes progressively totalitarian.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul makes the point that the American Constitution enshrines a revolutionary new political principle. The federal government is not sovereign and neither are the states. Only the people are sovereign. The people, and only the people, may of their own free will loan sovereignty to a central government. The people are no longer “subject” to the will of kings or tyrants. Neither are they subject to the government they breathed in to being.

The Founders drafted a Constitution, which in plain, clear, and unequivocal language expressed the intention of a sovereign American people to strictly limit the central government to the exercise of specific “enumerated” powers. All other powers are forbidden to it. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, contained in the Bill of Rights, made certain that the central government and the powers vested in it by the American people exist only by the people’s grace and permission. The Amendments, the primary and critical mandate of constitutional construction, mandate the creation of a central government vastly inferior in power and reach to the powers vested in the states and residing in the people.

Amendment IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X. The powers not delegated to the Untied States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Since the drafting of the Constitution, however, the Supreme Court, in an extraordinary demonstration of mental gymnastics, has vested all real power in the federal government. Amendments Nine and Ten, declared by the Supreme Court a “truism”, that is of no force or merit, are now constitutional relics powerless to circumscribe the federal government’s exercise of despotic powers. It is now the central government that is sovereign. The American people are its subjects, and the states its administrative agencies. The rest, federalism, Constitutional government, and the separation of powers, are holy myths.

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance, is now available in perfect soft cover on Kindle. Please type in the word Renegade and thereafter my name, Robert Harkins. I would most appreciate your patronage. Robert

[1] Liberty Defined, 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom,(Grand Central Publishing. New York. Boston,2010).

Hypocrisy of The Left: Photos from the Running On Empty Tour

2011-08-25T07:53:00.009-06:00

Americans for Prosperity Foundation's Running On Empty Tour hit Colorado yesterday. The left continues to show their hypocrisy. As ProgressNow, a left-wing anti-jobs organization, continues to crank out press releases about "ending subsidies to big oil" they seem to neglect that Americans for Prosperity Foundation is opposed to subsidies to oil companies and government intervention in a free-market system.

Yesterday ProgressNow forwarded photos of their "counter protest" of AFPF events in Colorado and one photo showed their billboard stating "Big Oil Gets Tax Break$, Grandma Gets Medicare Cuts." Only one problem - the photo they forwarded to the media only showed their billboard - it didn't show the gas-guzzling SUV that was pulling the billboard from AFPF event to AFPF event. Here's the photo that I forwarded to the Denver Post so they can understand the hypocrisy of the left:

Oh, and they keep attacking me by name - which is proof positive that you - the patriots fighting this battle - are effective. And to my friends over at ProgressNow - thanks for the name id on your signs and keep the hypocrisy coming.

Join Team Crank to Fight Juvenile Diabetes

2011-08-19T23:41:00.000-06:00

My wonderful son, Joel, was diagnosed at age 8 with juvenile diabetes. He's 13 now and always an inspiration to me. I hope you'll join me, my family and many others as part of Team Crank at the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes on Saturday, September 10 at 9 a.m. at America the Beautiful Park. Click here to register to be a part of Team Crank.

Here is a letter from Joel:

As September gets closer, I am reminded that it is almost time for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk to Cure Diabetes. I hope everyone is having a great summer. I’ve been doing lots of fun stuff; boating, biking, working out, traveling, and of course, just hanging out and relaxing. As much as I enjoy all these things, it would be better if I didn’t have to constantly check my blood sugar and treat highs and lows. The lows really stink. I have to stop what I’m doing because I get weak and shaky. If I go too low, and that can happen quickly, I could have seizures, go into a coma, and die. Tragically, it happened this year to a family friend just a few years older than I am. When I get low, I have to stop what I’m doing and immediately get some sugar. Then I have to wait until my blood sugar levels are at a safe level before I can do anything. It cramps my style! But it doesn’t end there. Sometimes it takes several attempts to get my sugar where it needs to be. Other times I might over-correct and then go too high. Then I need more insulin. It is a delicate balance and very frustrating. This is what my days are like. It is the same every day no matter what I do…everything affects my blood sugar. Without a cure, every day for the rest of my life will be a constant battle.

I’m telling you this with the hope that you will help me raise money for very important research…research that will lead to the prevention and cure of Juvenile Diabetes. Team Crank is participating in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk for the Cure this year on September 10th. I am trying to raise $1,500 or more to fight diabetes.

If you can help, please donate on-line and be a member of Team Crank at the walk by clicking here. Or, you can send a check made out to JDRF to me at P.O. Box 88003, Colorado Springs, CO 80908. We can also take cash donations if you prefer. All donations are tax deductible.

Thanks for your help. I am grateful and truly appreciate your donation.

With best wishes,

Joel

PAPER KITES

2011-08-19T12:00:00.001-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

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 Obama Administration, in less than three years has imposed on the American people a debt greater than that of all administrations since George Washington. While the president continues to blame former President George Bush for the unfolding of this American tragedy, he might with as much justice blame Abraham Lincoln who increased the national debt by declaring war on the southern states. He might also blame President Roosevelt who prevailed in war against Hitler’s National Socialist State and Japan’s military juggernaut after Pearl Harbor. After all, the Second World War certainly created a deficit.

While, President Lincoln preserved a new American Union and President Roosevelt preserved America, Europe and Asia, President Obama has wrecked havoc on the American economy, imposed his will upon the American people, their Constitution; and has created a nation divided against itself. History, however, impeaches the weary, onerous and pathetic speeches wherein President Obama blames former President George Bush for the economy and all else.

Republicans in a dance that would beggar a ballerina’s grace of movement in Swan Lake have agreed to an additional 7 trillion dollars in tax debt over the next ten years—the theory being, we may suppose, that whatever congress and president then runs government will be far better able to pay down a mere 21.5 trillion dollar tax-deficit than is the present congress and president able to pay down a 14.6 trillion dollar deficit.

Fear not however, in the first budget year alone the Obama administration will save as much as 20 billion dollars, or the sum the United States will spend during the time it takes most Americans to finish their first cup of coffee.

As I think about it there may be something to fear after all. The national debt, and its billions in interest payments will not be paid in during our life or the life our children and grand children. It is a nearly unquenchable debt that will reduce American prosperity, quality of life and the once attainable aspirations of American sons and daughters. 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. The incurring of trillions in additional debt is that cure which is worse than the disease— because it kills the patient.

As if insurmountable debt were not enough, the President’s Cap Trade ambitions— directed to the eradication of a specious, and scientifically aberrant theory of global warming— will add to the deficit as it hammers into the ground the very businesses which create energy, employ people and increase the tax base. While Congress is against Cap and Trade, a rogue Environmental Protection Agency is imposing it. For those Americans who may have bought the President’s promise that they will be kept safe from all tax increases, there will be for them betrayal, sore disappointment and confiscation.

The president has pitched and still pitches an ambitious and suspect expansion of federal power. Just yesterday he published an executive order which in effect imposes upon Americans the Dream Act, the very Act that Congress will not pass into law and which the great majority of Americans do not want.

In the “quantitative easing” of the money supply, an odious and dishonest euphemism, the president has directed the Federal Reserve to print money. The printing of money is symbolic of an unprecedented struggle for supremacy between two rugged adversaries one the American people and the other, incredibly, their own Government. Most Americans want a Constitutional Republic; its government however is building a socialist regime renamed the welfare state.

What then has been quantitatively eased? Not a thing. The devaluation of money is a crime old as Cane and Able. The purchasing power the dollar diminishes inexorably. The United Nations is calling for the creation of a reserve currency to replace the dollar, as is now China, the same China that is selling off its American Treasury bonds.

The printing of money to finance government services by deficit spending constitutes yet another tax on the American people. This government knows well, as do all governments, new and ancient, the causal connection between printing money, 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 confiscate wealth by inflating and devaluing the dollar 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 utterly worthless, immediately purchased almost anything. Desperate buying forced prices rapidly upward. Nevertheless, a bankrupt government continued to print and finally destroyed 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 the brutal winters. Parents gave their income paid in marks to their children. The children glued them together in sheets, cut them neatly to fit the crossed wooden ribs to which they tied a cloth 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 frigid winter winds of a bankrupt German wasteland.

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

My new book Renegades, Their Betrayal of America. Her Revolution and Renaissance, is now available in perfect soft cover on Kindle. Please type in the word Renegade and thereafter my name, Robert Harkins. I would most appreciate your patronage. Robert

GOVERNANCE FROM THE BED

2011-08-10T08:57:00.001-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

The unicorn is a mystical creature. A Greek mythos suggests that it is a horse, of a color purest white and sports a spiraled horn upon its forehead. Because the unicorn is a symbol of purity and grace only a virgin may capture it. This may explain its rarity for virtually no one has ever seen one—a unicorn that is.

The Republican unicorn while presently just as rare as the unicorn of legend, is a horse of a different color—and is unmoved by virgin purity. In November of 2010, in a now historic shellacking of a Democrat party gone rogue, the Tea Partiers placed in office a number of Republicans. They were everywhere ubiquitous as rabbits. They sipped tea and spoke of their cuddly affection for limited government and the American Constitution and such other fleeting banalities as they thought the people might like to hear.

The Republicans also pledged a serious reduction in the size of an increasingly lethal deficit. They pledged to confront and deter presidential and congressional arrogance. They pledged to constrain federal government to the enumerated powers narrowly granted by a sovereign people.

The Tea Partiers, like all Americans, while subjected to flatulent bursts of political rhetoric, nevertheless chose to forgive past Republican betrayals; and in their expression of a forlorn hope that “springs eternal from the human breast”[1] turned the House of Representatives and a good part of the Senate over to the Republicans.

Tea Partiers like most Americans are a plain cut, mature and steadfast people. They are impressed by the virtues of honor, justice and undaunted courage. They cherish most particularly this ancient promise:

“My word is my bond, or in Latin, the language of Rome, Dictum meum pactum. That which I promise; that will I bind myself to do.

Tea Partiers realize that they will not prevail in every battle but hope to prevail at last in a cultural, political and existential war. The stoic poet William Henley, in his splendid poem Invictus (Triumph) tells the depth and measure of their true, courageous and indefatigable heart.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me, 

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

 I thank whatever gods may be 

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance 

I have not winced nor cried aloud. 

Under the bludgeonings of chance 

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

 Looms but the Horror of the shade,

 And yet the menace of the years 

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, 

How charged with punishment the scroll,

 I am the master of my fate:

 I am the captain of my soul.

Republicans deeply engaged in the language of Orwellian New Speak, wooed conservatives to the idea that they would rebuild the trust they had betrayed. They claimed piteously that in the Bush years they had somehow “lost their way.” In fact, in lock step with Democrats, they worked into being a profligate spectacle of economic waste that would have beggared the wanton squander of a Persian king. In the end as the two parties raced every-which-way across the aisle to compromise, corrupt and cut their “deals” they and thereafter President Obama brought our country to this precipice of economic ruin.

Americans realize that the time for presidential dilettantism must end now. President Obama offered a budget with egregious deficits, spendthrift spending, tax increases and not one red cent in cuts. He proposed to increase federal spending of no less than 57 percent by 2021. So venal was the president’s proposal that Republicans and Democrats alike cast it upon the same trash heap of history that holds the tortured remains of failed socialist states. The president’s proposal was particularly odious in that he presented it to a people in crisis, a crisis obscured too long in the prurient wastes of presidential demagoguery, a crisis Americans must deal with now or fail.

The core of the American existential issue is this: Will the United States, its people, Creed, Culture and Constitution survive—or not? The Republicans may not yet perceive this as an issue. The Democrats most certainly have not heard tell of it. On the other hand, intensely personal concerns are more worthy of their consideration, the most critical being reelection; Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

One will never encounter Tea Partiers, standing in front of a voting station, decked out in para-military gear and uniforms, wielding clubs and threatening white men and women with a beating should they try to squeeze by them so as exercise their right to vote. While the Black Panthers who actually committed these crimes were given a free ride and their criminal indictments were dismissed, the Democrats, straight-faced, are now accusing Tea Partiers of terrorism. Ironically, a party that has for decades pillaged the substance and wealth of an American people now accuse the Tea Partiers of causing Standard and Poor’s downgrade. They are joined by yellow mainstream journalists supinely acquiescent to their every outrage provided only that they keep and maintain the borders of a dystopian Left.

To this psychotic libel the Tea Partiers may well ask, “Where are the Republicans? Where now is their courage? Will they speak out bravely in our defense? Or must we stand alone, again, our heads bloody but unbowed? Where are the deep cuts will save Americans and their progeny? Where may the Tea Partiers go to count the deficit trillions Republicans will shrive from a leviathan government unfaithful to its Constitution? What will Democrats and Republicans tell them now, these few and trusted men and women who swore to and betrayed their sacred oath.

If one adds to the 14.6 trillion dollar deficit-tax an additional 7 trillion dollar deficit this over 10 years; if one ignores the pretence of spending cuts, as has Standard and Poor’s, then the total increase in the tax burden comes to 21.6 trillion by the year 2021—give or take an unanticipated trillion or two for expenses along the way and not including billions of interest payments on the debt.

Before the downgrade Republicans switched once again from principle to pragmatism. They say that, “We got the best deal we could get.” But they got nothing, cut nothing, saved nothing; and as Dr. Thomas Sowell noted, were played and had by the Democrats! The rest is New Speak. The spending cuts are a myth as real as flying unicorns.

Standard and Poor’s is not done with America. The market as of this writing is down 635 points—in a single day. The American dollar inflated by the printing of money, that is, to use an Orwellian term, by Quantitative Easing, may well lose its status as the world’s reserve currency. China has given Congress and the President a humiliating and well-deserved tongue-lashing and is now demanding a new reserve currency.

The president who claims that Americans have a moral obligation to avoid default has embraced default by inflation. The Chinese own one trillion in American bonds. They have been devalued 30 percent by the printing of dollars, as has the dollar the worker takes home to buy his family’s bread, pay his mortgage or send his son or daughter to college. Government instigated inflation is a tax imposed by the fiat of President Obama, the support of his Administration and a yellow press.

What now is the American fate? It is uncertain. But we know this. The American people have again placed their faith in Republicans; and the Republicans have requited their faith with faithlessness. Nothing new here. In reaching a deal with the Democrats and President Obama the Republicans have surrendered the pretence of principle; and have slipped intimately between the coverlets of the Democrats’ bed where together they will govern. Republicans will point no fingers from the bed; for they are alike guilty of the deficit tax deal, future downgrades, the stock market collapse, and perhaps a decade or more of the same or worse—until such time perhaps as Hell itself freezes over. Is this the best deal the Republicans could get? Well, one more “best deal” like this and we are lost.

[1] English poet Alexander Pope. Hope Springs Eternal

It's Official...the President Obama "experiment" is Over!

2011-08-08T19:40:00.006-06:00

It’s Official…the "President Obama Experiment” is Over!
by John Alexander Madison
August 8, 2011

Further to my message of August 1, 2011 “Blame it on the T.E.A. Party…Why Not?” (http://jamadison.wordpress.com) I am happy to report the President Barrack Hussein Obama will be a one-term only President. It is official!

The President in on the record as saying he will be a one-term President if he and his policies do not turn the economy around in this first three years as President. Well hallelujah, we now know we have to ensure just seventeen more months of this President’s failed economic policies before he can just go away and write his memoires!

The stock market, just today has taken its 6th worst single day beating in history and the arrogant occupant of the White House is asking for more taxes to help us recover. Yes, indeed, he wants to “invest more (read: spend more), he wants to give loans to businesses (read: borrow more money from the Chinese because we are broke so he can lend it to others), and he wants to raise your taxes. If I didn’t know better I’d say he is an idiot…but I know better, so I’ll offer that he has no clue that his very own policies have destroyed our economy and our nation. He is either clueless or he simply just doesn’t care.

Karl Rove was kind enough to point out this week that our public debt represented just 40% of our nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in January 2009 when this guy took office. Today, our public debt is 72% of our GDP. What an accomplishment! This guy has singlehandedly destroyed our economy in just 31 months. Well done, Barry.

I say with complete confidence that #44 will be a one-term President because even though the liberal establishment has dumbed down American for nearly thirty years now, Americans are not that stupid. Not yet. In November 2012 they will stop the madness and insist that #45 cut the tax rates which will, as in the past, increase consumer spending and thereby increase government tax revenues. This is not nuclear science or brain surgery folks, it just economics 101.

EPILOGUEAs if all the economic chaos in America is not enough I am told that the voters in the 5th Congressional District are seriously looking for a change in Congress not only due to their representative’s insensitive “Tar Baby” remarks and two weeks of back-peddling, but also because voting “right” just doesn’t suffice it any more.

The strong 5th CD grass-roots movement is calling for a more pro-active advocate in Congress who will lead the fight to cap the debt ceiling, cut spending and pass a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution.

This happens to be a top priority of most Americans and it’s quite possible that a more qualified advocate will step out of the wings in the 5th CD and challenge the incumbent. Complacency just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Have you ever asked yourself why Minnesota, South Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio (to offer a few examples) elect effective and vocal advocates for smaller government and why Colorado doesn’t? Isn’t it time for that to change?

http://jamadison.wordpress.com #95

"John Galt" style rant

2011-08-04T19:00:00.001-06:00

Rather than writing my own column, I'm going to share a rant that seems worth repeating. Following and trying to make sense of the the recent debate in Washington has been time consuming. Also, went to Sen. Bennet's public forum yesterday as I thought he was serious about hearing from all types of Coloradans - what a waste of time. The below post from the Denver Post blogs seems to succinctly sum up the problem. Of note, the poster just joined the forum today. Think if I send it to Bennet he might start seeing the real problem, i.e. government?

12 points

(16 votes)

Re: Article Discussion: US stock futures drop ahead of jobs data

by toughdays on Today, 11:22 am

This is a shaky economy and the Liberal fix can never work. I am a business owner in a mid size business and I'm scared to death of what the govt is doing. Between new regulations, EPA, Obamacare... it may drive me out of business within 3 years. I know many of you don't see it, but believe me it's a drag on business.

The private sector must pull us out of the down turn.
It seems like common sense. Stop demonizing every business out there, It's not like somebody donated this business to me, I work a ton of hours. Here's a practical solution.

Get rid of loopholes for large corporations. I don't have a lobbyist group to get around taxes.
Get a lower flat tax for individuals and corporations. You can't have 51% of the nation not paying income tax either... We all live here and have the same opportunities. Everybody pays, no loopholes.

Reform entitlements... We won't have them anymore at this pace. Leave entitlements in place for people who cannot plan for cuts. Anybody under 45 must start saving for their OWN retirement. How do people live on welfare their whole life... This is disgusting how people are gaming the system... I see it everyday.

For Gods sake, stop relying on the government for your paycheck... Go out there an work. I swear people are the laziest I've ever seen in my entire life. Where did this "entitlement" mentality come from? I actually have people ask me to fire them so they can get unemployment. It's less money but they don't have to do anything for their paycheck.

We are not victims... Go make something of yourself, have some drive and determination to be the best you can be at ANYTHING you do. It's cliche' but you'll go far in life with this attitude!

Sorry for the rant but I'm tired of the games.

TALES OF TRAVESTY AND RUIN.

2011-08-03T06:46:00.001-06:00

ROBERT HARKINS

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), raised up naked from the primordial muck Leviathan, a creature not of God but man, a State of ever waxing power conceived of necessity and ending in arrogance, oppression and cultural ruin. Hobbs likened Leviathan to a human being with arms and legs, a cretin face, an avaricious mind, malicious ambition and an artificial soul; for by the art of man he wrote,

… is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON WEALTH, or STATE… which is but an Artificiall Man, thought of greater stature and strength than the naturall, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the Sovereign is an Artificiall Soul, as giving life and motion to the body; The Magistrates, and other Officers of Judicature and Executive, artificiall joints; Reward and Punishment….

That the American people have condemned Leviathan matters nothing. It is still proof against the diminishment of its burgeoning power, outrageous waste, and insatiable hunger. The trillions in “spending cuts” so called, when translated from Orwellian New Speak to plain English cuts not a wit from the present spending. Now as before Leviathan waxes ever more bovine; it will confiscate more of the people’s wealth and substance. Nothing has changed. The bipartisan anorexic reductions in future spending, too little, to late, may well be repealed by a future congress.

The American people rejected Leviathan in the November 2010 elections. Why then is their voice ignored? There is only one stark explanation: While there are two parties—there may as well be ten, twenty or a hundred— for there is only one constituency and its name is Leviathan. The state, of course, in order to grease the wheels of its ascendant power will permit the politician to save face a bit, “to strut and shout his hour upon the stage and be no more,” to mouth euphemisms that pass for truth. Are we not yet sick unto death of ten thousand speeches warning that we are bequeathing to our children an outrageous debt, that something must be done about it— right now even—this from the squanderers of American wealth?

And so what did our warriors sent to Congress in November 2010 do? Most bowed their heads to a 2.6 trillion-dollar tax increase. Of course, they characterize the tax increase as a raising of the debt ceiling; in fact, however, it is a tax increase. Who after all is on the hook to pay the 2.6 trillion dollars, and its billions in interest but the American taxpayer? Finally, Republicans and Democrats characterize as austere, a ten-year increase in the tax deficit of 7-8 trillion dollars. The deficit will then be more than twenty trillion dollars.

Americans may well ask when will Republicans and Democrats extinguish the deficit and limit the size of government? The deficit in ten years will be 7-8 trillion dollars more than it is today. Why did they not act now? Why have they decided to do nothing but wait ten years. Will it be easier to pay a twenty trillion plus deficit than a fourteen trillion dollar deficit?

In emphasizing the importance of Constitutional government, the great 19^th century Edmund Burke raged against the great evil that governments sooner or later visit upon their citizens. His words fit well this modern Congress and its too prominent and vulgar political celebrities.

Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding. And to prevent the least hope of amendment, a king is ever surrounded by a crowd of infamous flatterers, who find their account in keeping him from the least light of reason, till all ideas of rectitude and justice are utterly erased from his mind….

Unbounded power proceeds step by step, until it has eradicated every laudable principle. It has been remarked that there is no prince so bad, whose favorites and ministers are not worse. There is hardly any prince without a favorite, by whom he is governed in as arbitrary a manner as he governs the wretches subjected to him. Here the tyranny is doubled.[1]

The Founding Fathers knew too well that Leviathan would not keep safe a people from its implacable power. They realized that it is in its nature to wax more powerful, to consume by degrees the substance, wealth and freedom of its people, to debase their currency, to bind them to unquenchable debt, to engage them in fruitless and destructive wars, to demean their creed, and finally to disgrace, defame, impoverish and take them down to ruin. The debt ceiling deal is a tale of travesty and ruin. The people Americans voted into power are about to fulfill Burke’s prophecy.

The government’s stock and trade is travesty. It speaks in the empty, symbolic language of compassion, equality, social justice and the redistribution of wealth. Ultimately, it attains a savagery that history records is boundless, irrational and unrestrained. “Unbounded power proceeds inexorably until it has eradicated every “laudable principle.” In this way Leviathan casts off the constraints of law. What follows in the end is always serfdom.

Like Roman soldiers, the Republicans clamor to the Senate and the People: “Hail and Victory! Though our wives lay despoiled by the carnal lust of the Huns, still we fought, even as they sold our children into slavery, burned our ancient olive trees, laid waste to our land with fire and sword, sacked sacred Rome, imposed indemnities and desecrated the temples of our gods—still we fought. Hail Victory. But one more such victory and we are lost.” Hail and Farewell.

[1] The Works of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, In Twelve Volumes. London, John C. Nimmot. 14. King William Street. W.C.

Blame it on the T.E.A. Party, why not?

2011-08-01T13:39:00.004-06:00

“Blame it on the T.E.A. Party, why not?”
by John Alexander MadisonAugust 1, 2011

Here I thought I could take a summer hiatus, a vacation of sorts and sit on the sidelines while the President of the United States continues to destroy our nation with his unprecedented spending spree, his insatiable appetite for deficits, and his reckless disregard for our ballooning federal deficit. I really thought I could.

But that is not the case. So I interrupt what have been many rather enjoyable summer weekends in the Rocky Mountains to bring you this important message: ABO…anybody but Obama and his partners in crime (read liberals) in 2012.

Thanks to so-called conservative syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker’s (The Orlando Sentinel) article of August 1, 2011, I have awoken and I am “mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any longer.” Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News, as spoken in the film “Network (1976). Kathleen Parker is now, officially, a Kool-Aid drinker!

Parker’s article this morning begins “Take names. Remember them. The behavior of certain Republicans who call themselves tea party conservatives makes them the most destructive posse of misguided `patriots' we've seen in recent memory. More Kool-Aid, Kathleen? While it seems in fashion to take cheap shots at T.E.A. Party patriots (especially Sarah Palin) Parker and others just don’t get it…and “it” is the message, not the messenger. And I am here to say the T.E.A. party message in on target...it is a message of limited government at all levels.

Some want to give Congress credit for getting their act together over the weekend by avoiding default of loan payments and a downgrading of the Unites States’ AAA credit rating. But whether it’s the T.E.A. Party crying foul or you or me, the fact remains President Obama and Congress have failed the citizens they were elected to serve. Their reckless spending spree, bailouts and hijacking of the American free-enterprise system, under the guise of saving our economy, has not worked. Yes, it is true and I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the President Obama experiment is a failure.

Part of the recent dialogue included a “cut, cap and balance” proposal. That meant cutting spending, capping the deficits and passing a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But in all his arrogance Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, instructed the Republican controlled House of Representatives ‘don’t bother to pass that it will be dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate.’ And Parker wants to blame those with a conservative agenda?

How bad an idea was that…to ask our federal government what each and every American must do on a daily basis (illegal immigrants excepted), to balance our household budgets? And to think Washington has agreed to raise the debt limit now while cutting as similar amount of spending over the next ten years. It either makes no sense at all or it is far too sophisticated an idea for a simple person such as me (or you for that matter) to understand. And, it is my understanding that most of the spending “cuts” will be due to the end of funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…some “cuts!” Does anybody else besides me think we should make a serious attempt to cut our domestic spending? It is, after all, totally out of control. I believe the President knows this (Clover and Piven come to mind), but more people “entitled to government benefits’ clearly mean more votes to the libs. Great.

EPILOGUE
The deal which was cut between the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday was hardly a good deal for America. It could be compared to applying Neosporin® after someone loses an appendage in a chain saw accident. It’s hardly enough.

The Taxed Enough Already movement in the 2010 mid-term elections helped slow the madness and the 2012 General Election will turn things around only if Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and all the other irresponsible Members of Congress who are enabling the president’s agenda are given our most heartfelt thanks for their service and a one-way ticket home, full pensions in hand!

http://jamadison.wordpress.com #94

AFP Colorado School Choice Essay Contest Winner Clayton Fletcher

2011-08-01T09:07:00.005-06:00

Clayton Fletcher of Colorado Springs, Colorado has won the 2011 Freidman Legacy Day Colorado Essay Competition. His winning essay is below. Congratulations to Clayton.

WHY SCHOOL CHOICE IS IMPORTANT
BY: CLAYTON FLETCHER

School choice is a great thing! It is very important because it gives a student independence. A student can pick different schools or no “school” at all. They can homeschool where their parents choose what they learn. Or, a student can do online school where they learn on the computer. Then, there are private schools. There are many private schools to choose from, and many times they give a better education compared to public schools. Lastly, there is more freedom with school choice. So, a student can go to a school where they can talk about their religious freedoms and learn with kids that are like them.

First of alI, I think school choice is important because if you have a free choice, a student can homeschool. Then, they get to stay home and their mom or dad can teach them. They can learn subjects like reading and math, but also you get to learn to help out and do chores. Plus, a homeschool student can help their brothers and sister with their school. Also, while they are learning, their parents might save money. Their parents don’t have to drive them to school, so they save money on gas. Also, they don’t have to buy extra books or materials they don’t need. My favorite part is that there isn’t a need to pack up. Everything they need is at home. And, lastly, homeschooling saves time. Students don’t have to wait for other kids to finish. They can continue on with their lessons. Also, if they don’t understand, they don’t have to wait for the teacher. Their parent is right there to help me.

Next, with school choice, a student also can go to a private school. In private schools, they have the freedom to talk about religion and express their views. For example, a student can talk about God without getting in trouble and learn more about Him. A student can take Bible classes that aren’t taught in public schools. The principle can make sure the kids are to be nice, the classes are smaller, and the teachers help them. A student might be able to learn new subjects and read books that public schools do not teach.

Finally, if you had no choice, a student might have to go to a school that they don’t like so much. First of all, they might have to go to a school with kids that are disrespectful, and some of the people might not be too nice. Next, the classes might be really big, and the student can’t get attention. Also, there would be no freedom to talk about God, unlike at a private school. Lastly, the teachers might believe in different things than your parents. They might teach evolution, and you might believe creation.

I think my school USCS is the best school choice for me. First, I like USCS because we get to talk about Jesus, and learn about the Bible. We also learn in fun ways. We pick a story from the Bible, do a play, and do fun projects. Next, I like the people at USCS. They are really nice. The teachers are especially nice, and every person is encouraging. Finally, we have clubs like drama that are really fun. Adventure Club is also fun. It is led by the principle. P.E. is exciting, and good exercise. My school is the ultimate because we get to talk about Jesus, we have clubs, and have nice people.

In my opinion, there are three reasons why school choice is important. The first is that a student can choose homeschool. The second is that a student can go to a private school. And lastly, if you had no choice, a student might have to go to a school that they don’t like. It is great to have a free choice!