Heroes, Hoaxes and a Wacky Week in America

Geez, is it only Tuesday? I am exhausted with all that has happened in the last week.

We lost Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett and Billy Mays and still hear ad infinitum about MJ - yes, he's still dead. I teach music and grew up on his music and I am sick of hearing about him. He was the King of Pop but he was also a freaky dude.

In the mean time, we are losing 1,000's of real heroes from the WWII generation every day and no one cares. Heroes cam from those who served and those who stayed home and unified in sacrificial support of them The young are too busy being techie and living in "real time" to even realize the history that is disappearing. We older ones remember them because we knew them. They were our dads and grandfathers.

Here's one of these heroes - U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Kenneth L. Reusser courtesy of a favorite columnist via @VetsOnTheWatch on Twitter.

HR 2454 - Affectionately known as "Cap and Trade" - non-affectionately known as "Tax and Raid" passed the House of Representatives.

The vote was snuck in on Friday when most Americans that care were at work and got blind-sided listening to the news on the way home. Many of us were faxing and emailing and calling and tweeting in marathon style - all to no avail. Because deals were made on the house floor to be sure Barack, Nancy, Al, GE, Wall Street, Fannie and Freddie got their way. Nancy knew her job was on the line if she did not get this passed for the big guy.

Dems were told - "its O.K. to vote 'Nay' - your reelection is on the ropes - this'll make them happy!" GOP turncoats were offered environmental incentives. There was NO (not even CNN or Fox) media coverage as our lives were signed away by our non-representative govt. So we tuned them out and stayed glued to C-SPAN through the very brief debate on the 1300 page mostly unread bill, which actually represents the biggest tax increase on U.S. citizens in history. They say it will not make it through the Senate. One would hope that they would be intelligent enough to put a halt on it till a better bill can be written in a bi-partisan manner.

But I will continue to fight it in every way possible, including attending the Orlando Tea Party on Saturday. Regarding the Senate - I'm told faxing is best because you have a receipt of the communication and they have a paper copy. LET'S FILL THE SENATE HALLS WITH 5' OF PAPER "NO CAP AND TRADE" FAXES BEFORE THEY COME BACK FROM RECESS. I know they are probably stored on computer, but we can kill the system.

Just when we thought things couldn't get worse - we find out today that Minnesota will be represented in the Senate by comedian Al Franken. Yes, I coined the next line that is circulating Twitter - "with Al Franken, the three-ring circus is now complete, with Barack Obama as the Imperial Ring-Master". Gee, government feels so much more transparent now.

The White House is getting ready to unveil a brand new "transparency counter" for how our money is spent. As far as I know, stats can be manipulated to prove any hoax you want, Mr. President.

Flashback to November - Conclusion

Conclusion of essay originally written two days after the election in 11/08
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What do we hope for? We hope that our economy survives the spending and taxes that are coming. We hope the information age doesn’t become the disinformation age where all information you receive is controlled by the government. We hope that the terrorists who hate America, the Europeans who we fought for and who have thrown us to the wolves and the Russians and Chinese who are rattling their sabers, somehow believe that we are still a strong enough nation to withstand their attacks and survive to our tri-centennial.

With disregard for our own grief, we will pray for providential wisdom and guidance for President-elect Obama and all leaders because that is what we do. We will continue to go to work every day, raise our families to the best of our abilities, worship in our various houses and creeds, and serve our communities. We will continue to care for the needy and would rather not be told it is someone else’s right to dock our hard-earned pay checks to do so. We will continue to celebrate achievement by all who work hard and grab onto the American dream and not feel it in anyway takes away from us. We will do our best to take care of the planet and its inhabitants.

We will continue to fight for the rights of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” and believe in a “government of the people, by the people and for the people”, not a government that controls the people. We will continue to “ask not what our country can to do for us but what we can do for our country”. We will celebrate the indescribable privilege that we have to live in the greatest nation on earth and thank our Creator that He inspired the puritans to escape here for religious freedom from religious oppression in England.

Freedom isn’t free. It is a result of struggle and constant vigilance. May a people of every age, color and creed be raised up that will read the unedited history of America through her highs and lows and learn to serve her, not themselves.

Flashback to November - Part 2 - Sometimes You're Right!

We grieve because the “agents if change” jeered, belittled and attacked in an incredibly sexist manner a self-made, faithful, hardworking mother of 5, who has a son in uniform. She achieved in every opportunity to improve herself that was presented to her throughout her life. This is what the President elect’s party supposedly stands for and yet she was completely denigrated because her core beliefs were not acceptable to them. Senator Obama never uttered one word to ask them to cease and desist except when the attacks involved the children. Yet the party and major media accused us of focusing on trivialities and cried “Foul” when we questioned his long-term associations and stated agenda.

Those who are grieving grew up in an America where parents of every color and creed believed that it was their job to raise responsible citizens, and support their educational goals (even when those opportunities were limited). Our parents and grandparents provided for us through sacrifice of their own needs and desires. They showed by example how to get along, and how to disagree without being combative or demeaning. They demonstrated how to accomplish hard tasks without whining. In most homes, we had the example and learned the value of a stable marriage. Our parents did not expect our government, our community or our teachers to raise us. They expected us to go to school, mind our manners, do our best and accomplish something.

We are grieving because many people refuse to make the hard choices and take a stand for fear of not being “in” or politically correct. We are grieving because this president elect has stated without equivocation that the lives of unborn and nearly born children are only of value if they are not inconvenient. He has stated this through his unwavering support of Planned Parenthood and his promise to assure that the Freedom of Choice Act becomes law. This act allows children who become pregnant to undergo a medical procedure to dispose of that life, without parents consenting or even being informed. We can only extend that equation to what our lives and our parents’ lives will be worth when aged or infirm.

We are grieving for the removal of parental control of the information that is given to children by their schools. This government indoctrination into class warfare, liberal values and, in many states, the homosexual agenda, is a very real part of the education reform that is planned by the extreme left of the Democratic Party. President-elect Obama is the leader, promised one and poster child for this group.

We are grieving because the Judeo-Christian values that have upheld this nation are being mocked at every turn while we are told how intolerant and archaic WE are. We are grieving because we fear that everything we have fought for, that our young people are fighting and dying for, and that this country was formed to embody, seems to be of no use to many of the current generation which has been indoctrinated by the liberal, and often radical, professors who have staffed our universities since the 70’s.

Flashback to November - Part I - Sometimes You're Right

ORIGINALLY POSTED after President Obama was Elected - it seems I was fairly spot on...

11/6/08

Dear Fellow Americans –

Fifty-two percent of the citizens of the United States woke up on Wednesday or stayed up late on Tuesday and embraced elation, pride and a feeling that “it’s finally time for us”.
I am proud that Americans were able to step above color lines and elect a well-spoken ambitious young man of mixed race.

Forty-eight percent woke up to grief. I am not talking about anger. I am talking about unabashed grief. We are not upset that a man of color was elected. That was a great day for America. We are grieving because the man of color who was elected stands so diametrically opposed to so much that we value. Those values built the America that so many, who are overjoyed with the election results, are expecting to take care of them. We are grieving because the media sold the people a president rather than presenting all the facts and encouraging all citizens to make informed decisions.

We are not grieving for our pocketbooks, our mortgages or our elitest rights. I represent many of the average Americans who make up that 48%. I am a public school teacher in a Title I Renaissance school. My school is 92% economically disadvantaged, 84% African American or mixed race, 12% Hispanic and approximately 4% Caucasian. 15% of our students deal with some form of disability. I am a Caucasian of American Indian, Romanian, Scottish and English descent. I serve this community because I believe I was put on this planet to serve, not to be served, to make a difference, not lodge complaints, and to be appreciative of this remarkable country through good times and bad. I will not always agree with her actions, but I will always believe in the principals she was founded on.

We who are grieving believe it is each community’s job to take care of the truly needy, not the federal government’s. We volunteer in our schools and houses of worship. We contribute regularly and quietly out of the little or much that we have to community food banks and clothing drives. We serve in shelters, provide aid to unwed mothers, and answer with our time, finances and labor in times of national and international disaster. These actions come not out of creed or patriotism but out of values that have been passed from generation to generation and out of the belief that it is the right thing to do. “There but for the grace of God go I”.

We believe that opportunity is there for every American to succeed but that it takes hard work, education, a teachable spirit and the desire to make the world better, whether through a product, a service or an idea. We do not begrudge anyone’s success or think it somehow takes away from us. We know that Presidents have very little control over the economy and that it runs in cycles. We know that we suffered a traumatic financial attack on September 11, 2001 which took many years to recover from.

We believe in living within our means. When we make a poor or inopportune choice economically, like buying into inflated property values, it is our job to find a way out, not the Federal government’s. I have a school loan that was taken in the faith that it would prepare me for a career that would provide for me more adequately in my single middle-age and allow me to retire someday. It did not. I am now trying to decide how to handle a loan that is well beyond my means to pay. But I am not asking the government to solve this problem. It is mine and I will work at it till it is solved. I will be working till I am 90 in order to do so, but that is MY problem, not the government’s.

Don't Underestimate America's Citizens - NO Cap and Trade - NO Nationalized Health Care!

Incredible video created by a high school boy in Alabama. You will be moved to action if our over-reaching, out of control, non-representative gov't has not moved you there already. Call your Senators today regarding Cap and Trade - the biggest tax hike and scam on US citizens in history which will export more jobs overseas, and Nationalized Health Care which will eventually rob you of your choice of doctors, insurance company and necessary medicine.

Here are some numbers and links for you - DC Switchboards - WH: 202-456-1414 Senate 202-224-3121 House (202) 224-3121

Also - http://www.senate.gov - Click on your Senator - all local inforamtion should be on their page. They are home on recess. GO TO THEIR OFFICES! If they are in Class III - they are up for election in 2010, Class I - 2012, Class III-2014.

That Innocent Email

So, another trusted leader falls. The press will have a field day. However, before they get too carried away, I hope they will examine the circumstances and realize how easily, in this technological age, the shoe could be on their foot (or perhaps has already been there).

As disastrous and disappointing as the news was about Governor Mark Sanford's affair today, I believe he will do a great service, to those who are smart enough to listen, in his incredible candor in this situation. I want to briefly also say that the liberals should not be too proud. Their leaders also fall, they just normally lie or connive their way out or just don't mention their failures at all. There are probably exceptions to this, but I haven't seen them. Conservatives tend to to feel the need to "own up" to wrong doing. And if they have a faith basis to their lives, they feel the need to ask forgiveness.

Mark Sanford's gift will be to help people recognize the inherent danger of the "anonymous" feel of cyber communications. His admission that what started as a simple "what would you do" conversation between peers, then had the opportunity to grow in connection when they realized that the geographical distance between them would allow them to open up in a way neither felt free to do in DC. So they opened up and shared a deeper and deeper friendship over time.

EVERYONE knows SOMEONE who said - "but they understand me so much better than my husband/wife. They really listen to me." Then, when need met opportunity or when need made them decide to create an opportunity, they took the irreversible step of taking their verbal intimacy to a physical level. Once you join with someone physically, one of two things happens. Either the bond and chemistry deepens, or the reality starts to set in. In this case, from Gov. Sanford's words and tone of voice, it seemed that the physical connection deepened the bond.

What was the first step in this downfall? Choosing to have intimate conversation with someone not his spouse. There are conversations and thoughts that belong only to your spouse and God. No one else. Once that line is crossed, it becomes extremely difficult to step back. People say it is like a drug addiction where that email conversation is no longer enough to fill the need. Then, the phone conversation is not enough, then the occasional meetings and casual touches are not enough, and so on. And at some point, just as with addiction, you hit bottom where nothing is satisfying that void...because a person is trying to fill it with something (someone) it was not made for. In this case, I believe that Mrs. Sanford discovered the affair before Governor Sanford hit bottom. So now he must reconcile in himself whether to hurt his "drug" or his wife or both. Everyone is ALWAYS hurt in these situations whether they deal with it with a "stiff upper lip" or not.

As always, the innocent parties are always the most hurt. In this case - 4 young men, the Sanfords' sons. What have they learned about keeping promises? What have they earned about public service? What have they learned about marriage being for life? Will they wonder why their mom wasn't good enough? How will they be cyber-bullied by those who love to see someone down or embarrassed?

Constituents, whether nationally or in South Carolina, will survive. The three adults involved will survive - battered and bruised, probably - but they will survive. It's the children who will have to learn how to deal with a father who made promises to their mother, and failed to keep them. Hopefully they will also get to learn what reconciliation looks like, and that it is possible to rise up after failure and do something worthwhile with your life.

Just a note - if you feel you need to get off the computer when a friend or coworker or spouse walks in the room - you probably shouldn't be doing whatever you were doing.

Also - please don't let one person's failure blind you to all that is going on in our gov't. PLEASE call your Senators and Congressional Representatives regarding Cap and Trade - vote being forced through this week - and Health Care Reform - also being pushed!!!

Blood's Shootin' Out of My Eyes

What's bothering me you might ask? Well let me see if I can just bullet point the outrages.

1. Inspector General for the SEC summarily fired for unmasking the illegalities in how A "FOBAM"* spent our tax dollars.
(FOBAM - Friend of Barack and Michele)

2. President justifies this unjust firing by claiming a brilliant man is "confused" (read senile) just a precursor to how this administration and its supporters will deal with the senior citizens of this country. (read health care rationing)

3. State run media on a full scale continuous love fest with the Prez and takes over TV for infomercial for the Obama Care plan. Where is the FCC or the Supreme court or ANYONE with any power??

4. President REFUSES to act in any sort of presidential manner at any time except when apologizing for America

5. Millions of Americans are not on any side of any issue because they are current events illiterate and too involved with their own lives, shopping, working 3 jobs, or just watchin' reality TV to even care.

6. The President is overreaching his constitutional powers every day and no one is calling for impeachment. He's breaking contracts, firing civilian business owners, taking over private businesses, putting thousands of people out of work (dealerships), AND ABOVE ALL - He's setting up a shadow government of Czars which bypasses any congressional or judicial checks and balances.

7. Sweeping reforms of every part of American life are being signed by this President every day which no one is reading and which GOP and some Dems are challenging. BUT the time for stern talk is done. They need to be standing in his office screaming in his face and withholding approval for ANY of his judicial appointments until he backs down from his self-appointed throne.

8. Our country is going down the tubes at an accelerating pace and before long - when the WWII generation is gone, America will not be recognizable (refer to #3)

9. 16 months until the next election is TOO long to wait to do something about the current status quo in DC but there is no focus to the hundred of plans for how to change it.

10. History and civics are no longer being taught in any sort of meaningful way and if it is, it is revisionist history. Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it.

11. People keep asking where are the GOP rising stars and refusing to see Marco Rubio (running for Senate from FL- just google him) - Thanks Jim Demint, Jeb Bush, Jr and Gov. Mike Huckbee for stepping out of the ranks and holding this President in the making up for the public to become aware of. Please donate to Marco today. There are also some stellar freshman in Congress - but the only time you can see them is after hours on CSPAN

12. Stop shoving the whole Gay/ Lesbian/ Transgender/ deviant lifestyle down America's throat - and AMERICA - START STANDING UP TO THE UNBELIEVABLE PRESSURE TO MAKE THIS AN ACCEPTABLE FORM OF RELATIONSHIP AND LIVING IN OUR COUNTRY!

18. The debt is escalating at an astronomical rate and every day we hear of another program that will only cost 37 billion dollars.

19. NO ONE in MSM is willing to say that Al Gore is out of his mind and that Global warming is the biggest scam ever. How ya enjoying that summer weather NYC?

20. People actually laugh if you say you watch Fox News. But let them enjoy their little joke and their self-satisfied self-importance. I will enjoy watching the MSM eat humble pie and show false outrage when their incestuous relationship with our President ends in an an unexpected, abrupt and nasty divorce. Then all those people that are laughing now will be looking at us and saying "How did you know that (insert any calamity you choose) was going to happen?"

21. A dictator in a little country in Asia is aiming nuclear weapons at our country and the President says NOTHING!

22. Another dictator - in a Mid-east country - is threatening to annihilate our greatest ally, Israel, and our President has to be forced to speak against the atrocities that the dictator is perpetrating on his own people while they are fighting for freedom. Then the President wants to sit down and chat with these folks over 4th of July hot dogs. Oh yeah - they will be pointing nukes at the infidel West as soon as possible.

23. WE ARE A Judeo/Christian Nation Mr. Obama and its because of those values that we allow you and other subversives to live here at all.

24. 53% of the popular vote is not a landslide. Repeat - IT IS NOT A LANDSLIDE!! Yes the last two elections have bee very close. But the winner in those elections NEVER looked at the opposing party telling them to "Get over it, I won!" . That president broke incredible new ground in appointing people of all ethnicities and both sexes to high-ranking cabinet posts and never acted like he was doing anything unusual. That president worked very hard at bipartisanship and was reviled none the less - because he made the mistake of believing in America as the vision she was meant to be. Did he make mistakes, yes Did he spend too much, yes. But he was totally aware of the privilege and incredible responsibility of the being allowed to be President of the United States, and tried to the best of his ability to perform that job ethically and with the future of America and its ideals always uppermost in his mind.

A Little Levity

Posted by MR2 on http://www.the912project.com (permission to repost)
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Woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him,

"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

Sometimes Ya Gotta Laugh

While I continue to pray for Freedom in the Green Wave people's movement in Iran...

While I continue to try to figure out how conservatives can find a common voice to reach Americans and help them understand that the country we love is in grave peril but there is hope...

While I try to get my own house in order to prepare for our rapidly changing times...

While I listen to music that reminds me He told us 365 times to "Fear not!", that He is the same yesterday today and forever, that he will not let his people perish and his word does not go out in vain...

While I remember with longing the America that I grew up in - where people remembered the cost of forming and protecting this country and were honored to become a part of it whether by birth, naturalization or by enforcement of its constitution (reversal of slavery and Jim Crow)laws...

While I remember my Dad, my uncles, my Pop-Pop and my husband who all fought for their country and saved it for those yet to be privileged to be an American...

While I do all these things with profoundness of heart and an inquiring mind, sometimes I just have to take a break and LAUGH A LITTLE!!

A friend sent this to me to day and it is a little scary to know it applies to me!

"Lookin for my Wallet" (it may surprise you!)

Support the fight for Freedom in Iran!

Demonstrations return to the streets at 4 pm Tehran

That is 7:30 am US EST.

Go to a main street near you. Carry a green "Where is THEIR vote?" sign. Do candlelight of possible where you are.

If you are a Twitter - do only Iran SUPPORT tweets or keep silent prayer vigil from 7:30-8:30 am US EST

We need to support the fight for freedom everywhere!

Live Free or Die!

I am an American who happens to be conservative and also happens to be a Christian. Since November, I have lived in a state of stress about the power this election would bring to the radical socialist left. This group was barely being held back for the Bush-Clinton-Bush years. My November post "Election Commentary (Parts i-III)" describes the foundation for that state of stress - in spite of the fact that in my heart I know God is in control.

Glenn keeps asking us for our turning point. Well my anger has been building for weeks. In 5 short months America as I knew it is being reshaped from on high rather than according to State wishes - and the new form is not pretty. Read "Declining Ethics in Government" and "Two Weeks (of Insanity)".

"Meeting" Gerald Walpin this week through Glenn's show has been my turning point. My anger has turned to white hot outrage. I can't even find a place to put what I am feeling right now. So I blog so I don't explode. Somehow I have to find action beyond letters, emails, phone calls, petitions, rallies..... Don't know what it is yet. Please read my post (and previously mentioned posts) "Rising Ageism in Obama's Amerika" and suggest real noteworthy courses of action.

Rising Ageism in Obama's Amerika!

I've been trying to imagine what life would be like without some people that I am used to seeing either in person or on TV, sometime on a daily basis, sometimes less frequently.

I'll start with my Mom. She raised six children and went to work outside the home as a trainee for ATT when the youngest two were adolescents. The youngest of us is now 48, the oldest 62. Mom is still going strong except for arthritis. I hope that continues to be the case until she's 100+, but there are no guarantees. She has lived through the losing her mom at 18, being deserted by her dad, surviving the great depression as a young married woman, watching brothers and others leave to fight in WWII, sending a son into Vietnam with the Navy, burying my father just when the kids were getting grown and they could relax a little, dealing with my step-dad's Korean war injuries and of course all the failures, foibles and successes that come with raising six children in any era. She has more energy than most any person I know except my principal at school. She loves God and country and does the best she can every day. She knows more about her neighbors after first meeting than I know after 6 years - and she remembers it all.

Then there's Willie P. (anonymity to protect her) who every day volunteers in our cafeteria at school. She is raising at least 3 grandchildren. She never complains, just does what she needs to do. The kids are impeccably dressed in whatever she can afford and have been taught how to achieve in their lives and behave in society. I know they will be successful.

There are the current US Senators, 39 of them, over the age of 65. Now some of these folks I really don't know and others I see entirely too much of in the 24/7 news cycle. Sometimes they drive me absolutely to the edge of insanity. Actually, right now some of them have me outraged over their complete lack of concern over what is best for America rather than what is expedient to the furthering of their careers, or what benefits their constituents. Regardless of whether I agree or disagree with their methods or their policies, I would never doubt their intelligence, political acumen or life experience. In fact, I am concerned about the time when we will have a Congress that does not have the benefit of the lessons learned through some of those historical experiences that they share with my mom and Willie P. Have some been in DC too long? Absolutely! Should they be treated differently because of their age? Absolutely not, except to try to teach our young people respect for the senior citizens in our country.

Here is the list - Robert Byrd (D-WV) 91, Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) 85, Daniel Inouye (D-HI) 84, Daniel Akaka (D-HI) 84, Arlen Specter (D-PA) 79, Jim Bunning (R-KY) 77, Ted Kennedy (D-MA) 77, Richard Lugar (R-IN) 77, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 75, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) 75, Robert Foster Bennett (R-UT) 75, Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 75, Richard Shelby (R-AL) 75, Carl Levin (D-MI) 74, Jim Inhofe (R-OK) 74, Herb Kohl (D-WI) 74, Pat Roberts (R-KS) 73, George Voinovich (R-OH) 72, Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) 72, John McCain (R-AZ) 72, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) 71, Roland Burris (D-IL) 71, Thad Cochran (R-MS) 71, Kit Bond (R-MO) 70, Ted Kaufman (D-DE) 70, Tom Harkin (D-IA) 69, Harry Reid (D-NV) 69, Patrick Leahy (D-VT) 69, Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 68, Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 68, Ben Nelson (D-NE) 68, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 67, Max Baucus (D-MT) 67, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 67, Joe Lieberman (I-CT) 67, Jon Kyl (R-AZ) 67, Byron Dorgan (D-ND) 67, Bill Nelson (D-FL) 66, Jim Risch (R-ID) 66.

Then there is our lovable V.P. who I still remember hating when he was on the Senate Judiciary committee. I will have to say that I enjoy seeing him now because I enjoy his silver hair, tan, affable manner and gaffe of the day. If I were to meet him in person though, I would ask him how he survived the death of his wife and child, how he found love again and does he regret leaving the Senate. I would have this conversation with respect for someone who has served our country for several decades.

There are three gentlemen that I cannot imagine my world without (and so many other class acts we have lost in the last few years). I cannot imagine not seeing Billy Graham, George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows in a stadium somewhere proclaiming the simple truth of the gospel. Men of integrity and spiritual strength who have been filling arenas for over 50 years by staying true to their beliefs and yet open to searching young people all over the world. All 3 still just as sharp as they come. All 3 faithful to their wives and families. Billy said, when they dedicated his museum in Montreat a year or two ago, "I feel like I'm attending my own funeral!"

This week I met a new senior citizen to admire. His name is Gerald Walpin. He is the Inspector General for the SEC. A delightful intelligent man with a keen wit who has prosecuted some very tough cases. I may not agree with all his views, but I can only pray that I am that sharp when I am his age (77, I believe). Well, he was just doing his job one day when he found some irregularities with how someone was handling monies received from the federal govt. That's right, mishandling our tax dollars. When he reported this, he was summarily fired by our President, given one hour to decide whether to resign or be fired and clear out his office. Not for misconduct, but for DOING HIS JOB.

It so happens that the person he was reporting is a friend of Mr. Obama's. That cronyism would be bad enough. However, our president's representatives publicly justified this wrongful termination by labeling Mr Walpin "confused" and "unable to carry out his duties". He will quietly fight this, because as he said, "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't". However I wonder where the other people are that should be standing up for him. Thank you Senator Grassley for stepping up to the plate in this and two other IG firings. I wonder where your peers are.

Now some may consider the next far-fetched. I do not. Many others do not. When I pair this firing and the slander involved i it with the thinly veiled health care rationing that is coming in the Obama Health Care Plan, I fear for the lives of all these fine senior citizens. When it is passed, the two knee replacements and cataract surgery that my Mom has had in the last 5 years will likely not be available to other seniors over 75. Long term, quality, assisted living insurance for those who need it? I don't see it happening. If one of our seniors develops an operable brain tumor, will surgery be an option under this plan if it does not guarantee at least 10 years of life? I doubt it. Unless of course you are a Kennedy - the plan is named after him after all.

I don't know all the details of the Health Care Plan and refuse to watch the ABC Obama infomercial about what they would like me to think about the bill. I'll read it myself on Thomas. I do know though that in the transition to this presidency we have moved from a White House that tried to deal respectfully even with those who viciously attacked them, to a bullying, power-grabbing, whining gang of punks. This gang is inserting itself into the management of our lives ad our free(?) enterprise system at every level and spending us into oblivion. They have NO respect for senior citizens and are moving us toward a European Socialist eugenics model of (lack of) Health Care.

The firing of Mr. Walpin has been the tipping point for me. I cannot stand by any longer and watch my Republic turn into a thugocracy. Its not just the White House. However, the WH occupant has the job of setting the tone for American public opinion and service. I am not at all happy with the tone being set.Mr Obama wants the world community to respect us but he snivels and derides anyone who does not buy into his grand plan and could care less what almost 50% of Americans (and that number in dissent is growing) think about his administration or his plans. Mr. Obama also could care less what the Constitution says or even bills that he endorsed. What matters is only what he wants in his power grab on the way to his goal of becoming King of the Known World

I don't know what my next step will be in trying to "fight city hall" - I only know there will be many. I am just starting the journey. if they want to come for me and lock me up - that's OK. I have no fear. I wonder if - with no children, no husband and the memory of an America that was a world leader - I was born for "such a time as this"?

Jim DeMint's Letter for Marco Rubio

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint
12:51 PM

Dear Susan,

Once there was a poor farmer who wanted to become fabulously rich in the diamond trade. He deserted his farmland and traveled the world looking for diamonds until he was too old to look anymore. He returned home penniless, only to discover that the fields around his home were thick with flawless diamonds as big as your fist. The poor guy’s fortune had been right under his nose, but he had wasted his whole life looking everywhere but in his own backyard.

That old story came back to me a few weeks ago when I met Marco Rubio. He’s the 38-year old former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez next year. Rubio is the most impressive conservative leader I have met in a long time, a natural leader with an inspiring personal story and an even more inspiring vision for Florida and America.

He is at once a principled conservative and an accomplished legislator with a proven record of building broad coalitions to champion fiscal discipline, economic growth, and the American values of family, faith, and freedom.
For months now, Republicans have been looking around, asking everyone they meet who our next leaders will be. And somehow, inexplicably, many of us have grown blind to the diamonds all around us. There are already many young, conservative leaders ready to fight for freedom in Washington and in state capitals all around the country. But we’ll never find them if we only look for well-known politicians.

Rubio is the son of Cuban exiles, who fled to the United States in the late 1950s without a dollar in their pocket. He tells inspiring stories about the neighborhoods where he grew up, and how America empowered his family to make a life for themselves. Rubio did rise: to college and law school, to the City Commission in West Miami to the legislature, all the way to the speaker’s chair. From each of these positions, Rubio has championed a positive, principled, conservative agenda as the best way to create jobs and opportunities. He is living the American Dream, and understands how much he owes to our Founders and their principles of personal liberty and limited government. He wants to serve because he wants to protect those principles – when Marco Rubio swears an oath to our constitution, he’s one of those politicians who will actually mean it.
Everywhere he has gone, Rubio has stood up to liberal ideas and interest groups, and stood up for freedom. He has taken on daunting issues – from a statewide education curriculum to energy reform – and succeeded in persuading independents and Democrats that his ideas – innovative, conservative solutions – make for the best answers to our biggest challenges.
He is exactly the kind of Senator Florida needs, and exactly the kind of leader our party is looking for: a conservative’s conservative with a record of success in a swing state, a self-made first generation American, a dynamic Republican spokesman in two languages, a young husband and father himself dealing with the same problems middle class families like his face every day.

There is no question Marco Rubio will be a big part of the Republican Party’s future, but I believe if we are to defeat the forces of Big Government now controlling Washington, Marco Rubio needs to be a big part of the Republican Party’s present. He has the skills and ideas we need to rebuild our party, reform our government, and renew our nation.
That’s why Marco Rubio will have my full support in his upcoming election.

The end of this month marks the end of the second quarter of fundraising. I'm challenging you to Stand up for Marco today by chipping in $25, $50, $250 or more to help him end his second quarter strong.

Donate here:
https://marcorubio.kimbia.com/demintchallenge

Two Weeks (of Insanity)

Sometime I feel that modern life is moving at such blinding speed that I will never be able to wrap my brain around it. Who do I believe? What is real? 24/7 news often not about what is really happening, just the "smoke and mirrors". Then I look around me and wonder how our materialistic, get ahead at any cost society is oblivious to the very real possibility that the world as we know it may be getting ready to go up in flames. I look at the people that I spend time with on a professional basis and wonder how I can communicate any of my concern without sounding like one of those crazy right wing radicals.

Just consider the last two weeks - the profound and the inane-

A man who has murdered 60,000 babies is murdered - and I am blamed. There is no justification for this act. Murder is murder. Just as there is no justification for the blame being placed on conservative voices in the media and by proxy - me. Meanwhile my president finds, rightly, "that it was a heinous act of violence".

A comedian utters vile and disgusting comments about a mother and her daughter and people find him amusing. These comments would not even have been made in polite company when I was growing up, much less on nationwide TV. And when her mother, out of necessity, defends her - she is told - "its on you - you trotted your kid out in front of the camera" (paraphrase -Behar)

A US Army recruiter is shot down in cold blood and his partner severely wounded. This is done by an American Muslim convert who says he feels no guilt due to the fact that it is right to follow his Islamic beliefs and Americans are murdering innocent women and children. There is almost no mention in most media. Our president makes no statement about this heinous act against our own servicemen, even when given opportunity when appointing a new Army commander. There is no blame placed on the MSM for its continuous hate speech against GW Bush, the war in Iraq, and lack of support for, and in fact attacks on, our military.

A madman walks into the Holocaust Museum in DC and opens fire. None of his beliefs align with traditional conservative beliefs and yet once more the conservative media - and by proxy - myself, are blamed. Now of course more laws against hate speech must be cranked out. DHS was right about those right wing extremists etc.

North Korea is test firing nuclear weapons, elections in Iran are going awry, Israel is on alert, our country is becoming more divided by the day. Every day we get another Czar of something adding another arm to Mr Obama's shadow government.

People in Iran are marching for their right to a free and fair election process, their frustration over an intrusive government and possibly freedom from the Mullahs and theocracy. Our president speaks for their "right to peaceful protest" and his deep concern over the violence erupting against them. Yet when hundreds of thousands of Americans take to the streets to peacefully protest a growing, overly intrusive government that can't keep its hands out of our wallets, he ridicules us and finds no problem with the vile names we were called in the media. In fact, he pretty much laughed it off, as Akmadinijad did about Iranian protestors being like disgruntled fans after a soccer match. His common theme is "I won. Just deal with it".

While the world is erupting all around us (not much from Chavez lately, but it is sure to come), our president feels his most important duties are to forcefully take over private businesses, control pay rates, redesign our health care, apologize for our country to those we have defended with hundreds of thousands American lives over the years, make sure he gets his date nights and golf matches in, spending as much time out of DC as possible and remaining on the campaign trail to try to sway folks with his impeccable intelligent teleprompter speeches. Oh yes, and quietly sending terrorists back to where they came from....or to island paradises.

Meanwhile I'm trying to relax a bit while wrapping up one school year and attending training to prepare for the next. I've woken up to think I had no water in the house and realized it was just the screen on my water filter in the kitchen. I've done my best to help some folks win the All-America City award for Tampa. I've started working out - the better to pedal a bike when gas prices are manipulated to force me to buy an midget car - which would not have protected the way my KIA did when I was rear-ended this morning. I spend time with family and with friends online. I've "gone green" on Twitter to support the people of Iran's right to a free and fair election process. A friend from work said "you watch Fox News? EEWWWW! Why??"

What's next? Who knows! I only know that God is in control and will walk with me through whatever it is.

Looney Liberal Limerick Land!

Open thread - add your pithy creation through a comment!

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There once was a prez name of O
who thought he was King dontcha know?
He fired the bosses,
made us eat the losses,
then taxed us to make up the dough.

- Gordon at the Cafe -

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So Dave was afraid of Ms Palin
and mouthed off just to keep show from failin'
Gave out lame excuses
for serious abuses
of stardom and now NOW has nailed him.

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YOUR turn!



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