The only polling that matters is on election day!
The polling is going up, down all around, and the inanity of it all should be enough to dissuade individual voters from giving the numbers any real truck or truth.
The only poll that matters is on -- election day.
Do not let the polling one way or another determine whether you go out and vote or not.
You and I, we cast the votes, we define the one poll that matters, on election day.
With the proliferation of news media, of electronic means for tracking public opinion, perhaps the central media outlets will have to put aside their claim to know the final tally every time.
Karl Roll just went over the more precise metrics which outline the results. He pointed out the diverse exit polling which outlined which voters went to the voting booths in the swing states Ohio and Florida.
He has also reminded viewers that Jimmy Carter was polling ahead of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Carter was an established liberal and an incumbent, much like the current president. Then as well as now, the mainstream media leans toward promoting the left leaning candidate, especially if he or she is an incumbent.
Now more than ever, voters' opinions are shifting more quickly. One media flap gives way to a gaffe from the opposition candidate. I believe that the voters in this country are more informed than during previous elections. The proliferation of media has engaged small candidates to take advantage of "word of mouth" promotion instead of spending millions of dollars. Now more than ever, a persuasive message is more important a big bank account.
Do not let the polls lie, discourage, dissuade, or render you complacent. Get the word out on the candidates and the causes you support, get to polls, and vote!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
"I Don't Want to Wake up in the Morning"
I loved the librarian in South Gate. She was not too old to play "Mommy" to a lost first-year teacher like me, but she was not so young that she was as clueless as I was.
An English teacher who had worked in Irvine, she hailed from Sherman Oaks, yet she was willing to drive down the five to work in South Gate.
She was not like most librarians, whom many characterize as stuffy, old, rude, ready to snap at you for talking in the library or to snipe at you for taking your time checking out materials. She was willing to work with what she had, staff and students.
Let me clarify -- I was a teacher at this school, yet even then librarians can have a real nasty streak if left unhinged.
Ms. W. was nothing like that. She cared about other people, and she cared enough to offer me some of her time.
But she was a tired woman, it seemed. On some days, she had a wizened face. She looked as pale as some of the pages in the new books in the new library with the new kids. Of course, the new school was run according to the same principles of top-down waste and fraud which dominate in public schools throughout LA Unified.
She helped me with my French class. She helped many students. She also yelled a lot, especially when students would play music on the library computers instead of working on their projects for class.
Don't get me wrong -- she was a great lady, one of the few staff members whom I trusted enough to share complaints about staff and administration.
Once, I was contending with the secretary who ran the textbook room, a clerk who was a real jerk. She was "the ice queen" to many teachers who got tired of her peevish, unpleasant attitude. The librarian told me to talk to one of the administrators, yet even I did not have the courage to tell a supervisor how much I detested the personnel working in the main office or in the storage rooms. Apparently, the librarian felt the same way. She warned me not to confront anyone in the administrative office, since all of them were new and easy to intimidate.
Still, she was the type who would throw pizza parties for the best students in the school. When only three students had done all their homework one week, I sent them to the library to complete an extra credit activity, which the librarian willingly supervised. She helped me out that day in an unprecedented way.
Toward the end of the year, events were not just winding down, the wind in the librarian's formerly buoyant sails had given out. While I was working hard typing up another lesson for the next, Ms. L. was toiling behind the counter of the library front desk. She looked exhausted. I asked what she was doing.
She surprised me by telling me that she was training her replacement. She was not getting let go, for at the time the school districts were still getting enough money to get by. She had had enough.
"This administration is so. . ." she could not think of the mot juste, perhaps too colorful and controversial for the high school crowd, but I understood exactly where she was coming from.
"I get no support here." I heard that. The administrators at that school were incompetent and ineffective, since most of them this was their first year serving as supervisors. It was quite a shock how ineffective an inexperienced administrator could be.
"I thought about moving here, but the commute is just too much, and I don't want to wake up in the morning. . ."
That phrase I had heard only intermittently on sitcoms and dramas on TV. Not wanting to wake up in the morning did not sound like a reality to me, though at the time I did not realize that I had been so used to a grey existence that I did not even notice how "unawake" I had become.
She was willing to share something very painful, very trying. She told me that she was taking advantage of this chance to leave, because as any teacher, as any certificated personnel in a public school will tell you, a professional can only get credit for so many years of service before they start losing pay for moving from one district to another. Ms W. was getting while the getting was good.
I wish that I had paid more attention to what she had to say that day. I was in the throes of the same public school woes -- no support, no headway, no way to get my head in the door expect to "think of a happy place" most of the day while going through the motions in the classroom.
"I don't want to wake up in the morning." Looking back on those days, that was exactly how I felt, but since full-time teaching was the first full-time job that I had ever had, I did not know anything beyond taking care of myself, paying the bills, getting through doing this thing called "living" -- except that I was not living.
The next week, following a heated and horrifying set of parent conferences, the principal screamed at me up and down about "a line of parents" at his door. He was in over his head, to say the least -- and a year later he would be convicted of failing to report lewd acts perpetrated by one of the teachers against a minor. He had it coming, no doubt, yet at the time, sitting in the assistant principal's office that May afternoon, the principal asked me:
"Do you like waking up in the morning?" He asked this with a sense of stern sarcasm, yet inadvertently, he had diagnosed the problem which had been plaguing me, a malaise without a name, the same nameless infamy which had been afflicting the librarian, who liked working with kids, just not working at that school.
In those days, though, I had no knowledge about working or not working as something that I wanted to do. In my mind, in those day, work was all about just doing something, just getting a job done so that you could live on your own. Except that living on my own, as I understood it, I was not really living.
And no, I did not look forward to waking up in the morning, either.
An English teacher who had worked in Irvine, she hailed from Sherman Oaks, yet she was willing to drive down the five to work in South Gate.
She was not like most librarians, whom many characterize as stuffy, old, rude, ready to snap at you for talking in the library or to snipe at you for taking your time checking out materials. She was willing to work with what she had, staff and students.
Let me clarify -- I was a teacher at this school, yet even then librarians can have a real nasty streak if left unhinged.
Ms. W. was nothing like that. She cared about other people, and she cared enough to offer me some of her time.
But she was a tired woman, it seemed. On some days, she had a wizened face. She looked as pale as some of the pages in the new books in the new library with the new kids. Of course, the new school was run according to the same principles of top-down waste and fraud which dominate in public schools throughout LA Unified.
She helped me with my French class. She helped many students. She also yelled a lot, especially when students would play music on the library computers instead of working on their projects for class.
Don't get me wrong -- she was a great lady, one of the few staff members whom I trusted enough to share complaints about staff and administration.
Once, I was contending with the secretary who ran the textbook room, a clerk who was a real jerk. She was "the ice queen" to many teachers who got tired of her peevish, unpleasant attitude. The librarian told me to talk to one of the administrators, yet even I did not have the courage to tell a supervisor how much I detested the personnel working in the main office or in the storage rooms. Apparently, the librarian felt the same way. She warned me not to confront anyone in the administrative office, since all of them were new and easy to intimidate.
Still, she was the type who would throw pizza parties for the best students in the school. When only three students had done all their homework one week, I sent them to the library to complete an extra credit activity, which the librarian willingly supervised. She helped me out that day in an unprecedented way.
Toward the end of the year, events were not just winding down, the wind in the librarian's formerly buoyant sails had given out. While I was working hard typing up another lesson for the next, Ms. L. was toiling behind the counter of the library front desk. She looked exhausted. I asked what she was doing.
She surprised me by telling me that she was training her replacement. She was not getting let go, for at the time the school districts were still getting enough money to get by. She had had enough.
"This administration is so. . ." she could not think of the mot juste, perhaps too colorful and controversial for the high school crowd, but I understood exactly where she was coming from.
"I get no support here." I heard that. The administrators at that school were incompetent and ineffective, since most of them this was their first year serving as supervisors. It was quite a shock how ineffective an inexperienced administrator could be.
"I thought about moving here, but the commute is just too much, and I don't want to wake up in the morning. . ."
That phrase I had heard only intermittently on sitcoms and dramas on TV. Not wanting to wake up in the morning did not sound like a reality to me, though at the time I did not realize that I had been so used to a grey existence that I did not even notice how "unawake" I had become.
She was willing to share something very painful, very trying. She told me that she was taking advantage of this chance to leave, because as any teacher, as any certificated personnel in a public school will tell you, a professional can only get credit for so many years of service before they start losing pay for moving from one district to another. Ms W. was getting while the getting was good.
I wish that I had paid more attention to what she had to say that day. I was in the throes of the same public school woes -- no support, no headway, no way to get my head in the door expect to "think of a happy place" most of the day while going through the motions in the classroom.
"I don't want to wake up in the morning." Looking back on those days, that was exactly how I felt, but since full-time teaching was the first full-time job that I had ever had, I did not know anything beyond taking care of myself, paying the bills, getting through doing this thing called "living" -- except that I was not living.
The next week, following a heated and horrifying set of parent conferences, the principal screamed at me up and down about "a line of parents" at his door. He was in over his head, to say the least -- and a year later he would be convicted of failing to report lewd acts perpetrated by one of the teachers against a minor. He had it coming, no doubt, yet at the time, sitting in the assistant principal's office that May afternoon, the principal asked me:
"Do you like waking up in the morning?" He asked this with a sense of stern sarcasm, yet inadvertently, he had diagnosed the problem which had been plaguing me, a malaise without a name, the same nameless infamy which had been afflicting the librarian, who liked working with kids, just not working at that school.
In those days, though, I had no knowledge about working or not working as something that I wanted to do. In my mind, in those day, work was all about just doing something, just getting a job done so that you could live on your own. Except that living on my own, as I understood it, I was not really living.
And no, I did not look forward to waking up in the morning, either.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Mr. Smith: Go to Washington! (Tom Smith for US Senate)
| Tom Smith for US Senate |
Undeterred, Mr. Smith stands up to the Establishment Party bosses, crooked politicians who want money, power, and prestige, refusing to stand up for the principles of the federal government or the best interests of the voters. Even his once esteemed mentor reveals himself to be one more politician swept up in the corruption, yet even he takes a stand at the last minute for the falsely accused Mr. Smith.
Now another Smith from Pennsylvania, this time Tom Smith of Armstrong Country, PA, is poised for an upset against Bob Casey, a pro-life Democrat who has voted against the life, liberty, and property of the very voters whom he claims to represent.
Mr. Tom Smith started out as a coal miner of no small repute, a self-made man of sorts who mortgaged his home only to expand coal operations and employee many in Armstrong Country.
In 2010, Pennsylvania rejected an incumbent Democrat-turned-Republican-returned Democrat (Arlen Specter) who claimed to be a centrist, when in truth he was an opportunist and spend-thrift politician who followed polls instead of principles. Joe Sestak stood up and defeated Specter in the primary, yet despite campaigning long and hard across the Keystone State, he did not have a ghost of a chance against Tea Party favorite Pat Toomey.
The times and circumstances are stacked against Mr. Casey, who may run as a moderate, yet like a growing number of Democratic senators in swing states, he swings with the Beltway on many issues which have created more cause for alarm instead of applause.
Tom Smith challenged incumbent Senator Bob Casey to provide a viable economic plan of his own, which Casey has yet to furnish for the voters of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Smith's Five Point Plan includes ending the frivolous lawsuits which drive up healthcare costs while driving physicians out of the profession and driving hospitals into insolvency and closure. Smith favors a flat tax rate in order to simplify the tax code and eliminate corporate loopholes. He wants to reduce spending to 20% of GDP, a measure of reduction which would put taxpayer dollars where they belong -- in the wallets of the individual and invested in the private sector, promoting expansion and job growth.
Mr. Smith three big "Repeal" measures, which should appeal to voters: ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes-Oxley, all three of which have expanded the size of the regulatory state without fixing the very problems which the laws set out to tackle. All other regulatory nightmares would fall under rigorous scrutiny of Senator Smith, to facilitate job growth without exploding waste, fraud, and bureaucracy.
Smith would eliminate the death tax and capital gains tax. Death and taxes may be a sure thing for everyone, but to be taxed for dying -- well, that's just cruel and unusual punishment. Regarding capital gains taxes, it is immoral and unnecessary to tax a man for making money on income that has already been taxed. These reforms have received widespread support before, so Mr. Smith would find very little to stifle his efforts for financial reform.
Other fiscal and legislative reforms supported by Mr. Smith include a Balanced Budget Amendment, a No Budget-No Pay provision to force Congress to pass an operating national budget on time. Ending earmarks and reducing the federal workforce through attrition also highlight Smith's reforms. For energy independence, Smith supports the XL Keystone Pipeline extension and ending the overbearing overreach of the EPA.
In contrast to the specific and engaging reforms offered by private businessman Tom Smith, US Senate Bob Casey has been an uninspiring Senator who has voted in line with the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda of tax, spend, regulate, and frustrate. He voted for the wasteful Obama Stimulus of 2009, which stimulate nothing but paybacks to political supporters. He has voted against Earmark Moratoriums, but he supported the wasteful "Cash for Clunkers". His most notorious vote, one which should provide reason enough to send Casey packing, Casey supported ObamaCare, the same legislation which pushed three hospitals to close.
On a more somber note, Bob Casey has surrendered his pro-life credentials in favor of his party, even supporting ObamaCare before the President issued an executive order to assure pro-life Democrats in the House that the legislation would maintain the Hyde Amendment, prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. The choice is clear for Pennsylvania voters. Casey has struck out time and again for his constituents, while Mr. Smith is ready to go to Washington with a pro-growth, limited government plan.
In a growing sign of trouble for the Casey campaign, FreedomWorks for America invested another $200,000 in Smith's campaign. Contrary to the empty cries of "Tea Party Extremism" which have fallen hollow on the Republican Candidate, Mr. Smith is continuing his drive to go to Washington and represent the people of the state of Pennsylvania, not the tax-and-spend statism of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, all of which have all but given up on legislating and leading, resorting instead to complaining and campaigning.
To the voters of Pennsylvania, send Mr. Smith to Washington! Vote for Tom Smith for US Senate!
Mitt Romney -- More Modest than Moderate
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/09/25/7_incredible_personal_stories_about_mitt_romney_that_you_may_not_know
John Hawkins led the charge against Mitt Romney for President. Romney is a generous man, not just proven by his tax records, but by his charitable works toward veterans and the disabled.
Mitt Romney was a diligent conservative in Massachusetts, vetoing eight hundred bills in the face of a tax-and-spend legislature dominated nearly four to one by the opposition.
He has campaigned for seven years, learning every step of the way, leaning ever closer for the win.
He fought past multiple challenges, even within his own party.
I wish that I had learned all of these accounts sooner.
I would have been more inclined to vote for the guy.
I cannot believe that the GOP has done such a poor job of presenting that goodness that defines much of what this man does for this family, his home state, and the country.
Romney's campaign is going to be the nail in the coffin for the mainstream media. Shame on these news outlets which can find nothing to indict except the failing off-hand flubs of a governor who has more experience leading instead of campaigning, a stark contrast to the current President, who has done nothing but campaign yet refuses to lead.
This country would be well served by Mitt Romney.
John Hawkins led the charge against Mitt Romney for President. Romney is a generous man, not just proven by his tax records, but by his charitable works toward veterans and the disabled.
Mitt Romney was a diligent conservative in Massachusetts, vetoing eight hundred bills in the face of a tax-and-spend legislature dominated nearly four to one by the opposition.
He has campaigned for seven years, learning every step of the way, leaning ever closer for the win.
He fought past multiple challenges, even within his own party.
I wish that I had learned all of these accounts sooner.
I would have been more inclined to vote for the guy.
I cannot believe that the GOP has done such a poor job of presenting that goodness that defines much of what this man does for this family, his home state, and the country.
Romney's campaign is going to be the nail in the coffin for the mainstream media. Shame on these news outlets which can find nothing to indict except the failing off-hand flubs of a governor who has more experience leading instead of campaigning, a stark contrast to the current President, who has done nothing but campaign yet refuses to lead.
This country would be well served by Mitt Romney.
Monday, September 24, 2012
John Adams: Big Government, Less Freedom
Throughout your editorial on socialized medicine in early United States history, Mr. Allen, you cite the common care which communities created for a select population dedicated to a rigorous service, from the Plymouth Colony to the present day. In each instance, veterans received this extended care. I see nothing amiss about providing for the care and comfort of our veterans, although I would prefer that this nation would stop putting our troops in harm’s way fighting unwinnable wars and engaging in unsupportable “nation building”.
In citing Forbes Magazine’s article on “An act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen”, you neglect to notice that the specific law targeted a specific population engaged in a specific purpose. Expansive legislation like “ObamaCare” wants to force everyone to enter into a market based on an outrageously erroneous interpretation of the Commerce Clause, which would invite unrestrained regulation by the federal government into every aspect of our lives. You also neglected to document whether the Marine Health service, its successive public health institutions, and today’s socialized medical programs do provide adequate health care, which in many cases is simply not the case.
Citing President John Adams as a positive precedent for federal action is a mixed affair. Though President John Adams was not a socialist, he was a Big Government nationalist who signed into law the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts. The first officious law lengthened the time required for naturalization, punishing law-abiding immigrants who supported Adam’s political opposition, headed by limited government Democrat Thomas Jefferson. The second law outlined harsh sanctions for critics of the Government by extending the definition of libel to include anything that the government considered “malicious.” Big Government inevitably leads to Little Freedom.
If you lived during the Adams administration, you would likely have ended up in jail for publishing “Ye Olde Lengthes of Randomness”. I also doubt that you would be getting free health care, although your tax dollars would be subsidizing the health care of others.
Richard Tisei for MA-6th!
| Richard Tisei: Republican for Congress in the MA-6th |
I did not have the proper packaging to send five hundred copper coins of the realm to the Commonwealth, but I am offering my two cents on Richard Tisei, the former state senator who served the Bay state with distinction for twenty-six years, then ran for lieutenant governor on 2010. He is not just a seasoned politician, but a real estate agent who understands the importance of balancing budgets in the public as well as the private sector.
At first, I could not believe what I was reading when I learned about the MA-6th race: a gay Republican running for Congress, although I prefer his appellation: “Live and Let Live Republican.”The mix seemed unlikely, uncanny, unbelievable. I am saddened that he is campaigning in a state where being “gay” is less controversial than being “Republican”, but I hope that Tisei will be the first of many brave politicians who will change that perception.
For the first time in two decades, a Republican has real and growing change of winning a House seat in the Bay State. I was thrilled when I learned that Barney Frank, of Dodd-Frank, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac infamy, was retiring. Now I have a more positive reason to root for the Bay State because bipartisan yet unashamed Republican Richard Tisei is leading the way for a limited government resurgence in the North East.
I just had to look at the legislative demographics in the Massachusetts state legislature. I cannot believe that the Massachusetts legislature is more than three to one Democratic! Even the state of California is not nearly as divided. I applaud legislators like Tisei who are not afraid to stand with the red party of limited government, individual liberty, and private enterprise in a state which is overwhelming blue.
While looking for stray coins to throw into Tisei’s surging campaign coffers, I realized that I can think of 16 TRILLION reasons why to vote for him: the national debt. The overwhelming obligations which will weigh on future generations is a disgrace, and we need men and women in government who will do something to stop the spending. The Democratic Party pushed a health insurance mandate-tax on this country, one which even US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has opposed in part.
I was especially pleased when the Gloucester Times printed a letter from a local resident who supports Obama, but will vote for Tisei. Ms. Maureen Flatley of Essex cited the ongoing corruption charges against embattled incumbent John Tierney, whose wife served a prison sentence for tax fraud related to her brothers’ illegal gambling operation. It is conceivable then that Tierney would win another term in 2010, but it now appears that he will not have “Lady Luck” on his side this time.
Other dubious distinctions of Congressman John Tierney include his refusal to part with gifts which he received while his wife’s brothers were running their gambling operation.
His voting record also suggests that he is out of the mainstream, and certainly not out for the best interests of his district, his state, or the country. Tierney voted against Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2012, Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Extension, and Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011. He even voted against the “No More Solyndras” Act, which would protect taxpayer
dollars from being invested in wasteful green tech companies.
Yet Tierney voted for ObamaCare, the same law which was so unpopular, that native son Republican state senator Scott Brown won the US Senate seat vacated by the recently deceased Ted Kennedy in three-to-one Democratic Massachusetts. He also supported the abortive Cap and Trade bill of 2009, which would have killed millions of jobs and sent already struggling industries overseas. John Tierney is out of touch and out of date with the voters of Northwestern Massachusetts. It’s time to retire Tierney for good.(Tierney's Voting Record)
I am convinced that political candidates like Tisei are the future of the Republican Party and the better interests of the country. He is a pragmatic libertarian on social issues, an impulse which a growing number of conservatives, including fiscal hawk Rand Paul of Kentucky, are inclined to accept in order to help the GOP compete across the country.
The Bay state has lost one Congressional seat to redistricting. Why should the voters of Massachusetts suffer with nine knee-jerk partisans who support nothing but taxing and spending this country into oblivion? The nation is broke, and the liberal establishment does not want to fix it. This country’s entitlements that are leading this country into bankruptcy, but bipartisanship from Richard Tisei will help end the bickering and get Washington doing its job for the people. An independent mind and supporter of free enterprise are the order of the day, so I ask every in the 6th Congressional to vote for Richard Tisei for Congress!
Coulter's Talk On Blacks, Immigration, and Civil Rights
"We owe black people something. We have a legacy of slavery." - Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter cultivates controversy as a rule. That's all well and good.
Most people engage in name-calling and femme-baiting only because she is outspoken without being needy or catty. I applaud this columnist and author for having the guts to give her point of view on "The View", where the view of those four "commentators" is blighted with self-absorbed elitism.
However, Coulter's recent comments on the "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" cannot go unchecked. The above cited statement just defies logic and reason -- and this coming from a conservative who has taken down the race-baiting of professional panderers like IR-reverend Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
Who is "we", Ann? "White" people? How many "white" people took up arms to fight and end slavery? More than gets the recognition.
"We" do not have legacy of slavery. Black people today do not have a legacy of slavery, either. No one in this country has the right to define the hardships for any human being.
I still remember talking to one gentleman from Alabama. He was a black man, and he told me that the racism he endured in California was worse! He said so because people pretended to respect him, yet in truth they treated him with prejudicial condescension. Another lady, raised in Grenada Mississippi, told me that when she was growing up, no one ever bothered her. She never had to contend with the Ku Klux Klan or any other institutional racism.
Black economist and columnist Thomas Sowell has overseen and published numerous studies which demonstrated that persecuted minorities actually thrive notwithstanding the institutional persecution of the state. On the other hand, affirmative action and welfare subsidies actually hurt the very people whom they are intended to help.
Coulter's comments are one more example of the insulting pandering that has been foisted on a group of people. She is still miming the same "guilty conscience" of the "white people" in the Republican Party, even the GOP now more than ever boasts of more diverse candidates, causes, and public officials than even the Democratic Party!
One person born into this country does not have to be defined by the experience of previous generations, and neither should other people of any color feel obliged to feel guilty. There is no freedom there.
I am tired of politicians and pundits who talk down to black people, as if they are weak and cannot make it in this world with the faith and facts and force which God has equipped them and every other human being in the world.
I am tired of people who look at someone of color and start feeling sorry for them. They deserve more respect than pity, as does every human being in the world.
I thought that this country had finally reached the level of "post-racial" society. The same politicians who have taken advantage of "race-baiting" are just so unwilling to let go and honor every voter in this country, regardless of his color or ethnic background.
Ann Coulter cultivates controversy as a rule. That's all well and good.
Most people engage in name-calling and femme-baiting only because she is outspoken without being needy or catty. I applaud this columnist and author for having the guts to give her point of view on "The View", where the view of those four "commentators" is blighted with self-absorbed elitism.
However, Coulter's recent comments on the "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" cannot go unchecked. The above cited statement just defies logic and reason -- and this coming from a conservative who has taken down the race-baiting of professional panderers like IR-reverend Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
Who is "we", Ann? "White" people? How many "white" people took up arms to fight and end slavery? More than gets the recognition.
"We" do not have legacy of slavery. Black people today do not have a legacy of slavery, either. No one in this country has the right to define the hardships for any human being.
I still remember talking to one gentleman from Alabama. He was a black man, and he told me that the racism he endured in California was worse! He said so because people pretended to respect him, yet in truth they treated him with prejudicial condescension. Another lady, raised in Grenada Mississippi, told me that when she was growing up, no one ever bothered her. She never had to contend with the Ku Klux Klan or any other institutional racism.
Black economist and columnist Thomas Sowell has overseen and published numerous studies which demonstrated that persecuted minorities actually thrive notwithstanding the institutional persecution of the state. On the other hand, affirmative action and welfare subsidies actually hurt the very people whom they are intended to help.
Coulter's comments are one more example of the insulting pandering that has been foisted on a group of people. She is still miming the same "guilty conscience" of the "white people" in the Republican Party, even the GOP now more than ever boasts of more diverse candidates, causes, and public officials than even the Democratic Party!
One person born into this country does not have to be defined by the experience of previous generations, and neither should other people of any color feel obliged to feel guilty. There is no freedom there.
I am tired of politicians and pundits who talk down to black people, as if they are weak and cannot make it in this world with the faith and facts and force which God has equipped them and every other human being in the world.
I am tired of people who look at someone of color and start feeling sorry for them. They deserve more respect than pity, as does every human being in the world.
I thought that this country had finally reached the level of "post-racial" society. The same politicians who have taken advantage of "race-baiting" are just so unwilling to let go and honor every voter in this country, regardless of his color or ethnic background.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
President Obama's "Do Nothing" Foreign Policy
President Barack Obama’s "do nothing" foreign policy has been a bust of from the very beginning. From his apologetic stance toward hostile Arab states to his concerted non-support of Israel, his inattention to portentous developments in Latin America to his craven policies with our European counterparts, President Obama has failed as Commander in Chief.
Obama went throughout the Muslim Middle East at the outset of his presidency, apologizing for this country’s previous lack of rapprochement with the region. In his quest to sway public opinion on global warming and the site for the 2016 Olympics, the international community resoundingly adored him then ignored him. His receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, while arming and supporting the United States’ abortive stance in Afghanistan, rendered irrelevant the myopic political worldview of the Nobel Committee and the President’s commitment to peace.
When the President removed our defenses from the former Eastern Bloc, including Poland and the Czech Republic, he advanced an ongoing policy of accommodation with antagonistic nations, appeasing the preferences of autocratic Russia while ignoring that country’s growing alliance with the fanatical Iranian regime.
Also in 2009, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the same head of state who declared that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth) won reelection on disputed voter tallies. Ahmadinejad claimed to reclaim the presidency by 60%, widely disputed by demonstrations and rebellions throughout the country. President Obama stood back and said nothing. His shameful non-intervention discouraged freedom fighters around the world, especially democratic activists in the Middle East.
How many domestic terrorist attacks has this country endured under Obama’s watch? Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Somalia, the Christmas Day bomber, attempted to bring down a commercial airliner over Detroit. In the Fort Hood Massacre, deranged psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on our men and women serving in this country. The safeguards protecting our forces did not properly screen and sideline this domestic terrorist. This lack of oversight is inexcusable, yet President Obama hid behind a culture of political correctness instead of heavy-handed support for our soldiers and retaliation against this nation’s internal enemies.
On another positive note, the assassinations of Osama Bin Laden and Yemeni-American terrorist-acolyte Anwar al-Awlaki have provided this country and our allies much needed respite, stemming the tide and diminishing the influence of the terrorist group which twice attacked the United States World Trade Center in a decade. However, this administration’s frayed relationship with Pakistan, complete with billions of dollars of wasted foreign aid, still defies reason.
Furthermore, the President did end major operations in Iraq as promised, but in Afghanistan the federal government is still spending two billion dollars a week on the failed mission of establishing peace and building a peaceful nation. The tribal warlords still trade opium, and the essentially corrupted Karzai regime in Kabul has emboldened our enemies and frustrated our efforts. How many empires have faltered in their vain attempts to conquer and create a sphere of influence in the region? Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Mongols, the British, the Soviets, and now the United States have all failed. Yet President Obama refuses to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan.
The Arab Spring began with the self-immolation of wronged Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi on December 17, 2010. The CIA was caught off-guard by this sudden revolution, which spread throughout the Arab World, crippling Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's grip on power, and thus crippling one semi-reliable ally in the region. Soon, dictators throughout the region were falling and fleeing, from Zine Ben Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, to Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, to the ouster and mass assassination of Libyan strongman Moammar Ghadhafi. Rather than leaving bad enough alone, President Obama instigated a no-fly zone over Libya, with no knowledge of the rebel combatants’ stance on anything beyond their growing unrest to wrest power from Ghadhafi. The United States’ brief military venture yielded mixed results in light of growing internal antagonisms, which in the past two weeks have boiled over into violent protests and unwarranted attacks on United States Embassies in Egypt and Libya. The President has done nothing to regroup or equip our foreign diplomats, now more than ever in harm’s way as radical Islamists press their power against this country’s presence in the Middle East.
South America is turning into another hostile sphere of influence, with China reaching out Brazil and Iran forming alliances with Venezuela. These diplomatic links spell nothing but trouble for the United States. How many Israeli consulates have been shut down throughout the region? How many Jewish communities are enduring persecution because of the rising Anti-Semitism permeating the continent? President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a Communist in populist clothing, has expelled the entire Israeli diplomatic delegation from his nation. President Obama has done nothing.
President Obama has also said nothing and continues to do nothing while massive gangs entrenched in Central America and throughout Mexico terrorize Latin America with drug wars which have neutralized the police forces while exposing the rampant corruption of the political classes. The resulting waves of political destabilization and forced immigration have harmed the security on our borders. Within the US Capitol, secret forces exposed a plot between Iran and rogue Mexican cartels to assassinate Saudi officials in Washington D.C. These breaches of national security, coupled with the frequent leaks excoriated by California Senator Dianne Feinstein, all suggest that President Obama’s administration is not qualified to secure the national interests of this country.
The greatest foreign policy failure of this presidency, however, lies in the break-down between Israel and the United States, culminating in the Democratic Party’s attempt to remove God and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel from their party platform. The president lectured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the proper borders of his own country, citing “land swaps” as a means for achieving peace. Contrary to the hues of disapproval from the press, Prime Minister Netanyahu properly lectured the president that he could not permit Israel to recede back to the pre-1967 borders. DespiteNetanyahu’s demands for a “red line” on Iran -- indicating that if the fanatical regime in Tehran persists in accessing nuclear capabilities, Israel will strike -- President Obama has refused to signal any support, still harping on and hoping in the failed pragmatism of talks and negotiations.
Israel remains further isolated in the Middle East, with compromising dictators replaced by radical Muslim regimes with no character of compromise nor charter of respect for the Jewish State. This nation’s armed are forces are pressed and weakened throughout the world, yet President Obama has done nothing to allay the justified concerns of our allies, putting his campaign ahead of the comity much lacking in the international community. The list of foreign policy failures all excite to one point: Obama has failed as chief executive of the United States and has not further right to remain Commander in Chief of the United States of America.
Thank You, Peggy!
| Noonan: "Time for an Intervention" |
Party leaders are streaming in, with reports suggesting that they have been thanking Noonan for cutting through the crap and demanding that the Romney machine get busy.
There is no reason why this embattled, embittered incumbent President Barack Obama should be hovering three to five points ahead of Romney in swing states like Florida or even Ohio, where Obamanomics have devastated housing, tourism, and the manufacturing industries of the Steel now turned Rust Belt.
Has anyone forgotten about ObamaCare? This outrageous mandate will foist highers taxes on six million people in this country, and they cannot find work, let along pay a higher tax for health insurance. The IRS has interpreted the legislation to push out working families, yet the same families will still be on the hook for the mandate/tax poised to bring them down.
President Obama has overseen one of the most abortive foreign policies in recent memory. Muslim attackers have wounded and killer our armed forces in this country (Fort Hood comes to mind)
Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has pushed forward adequate budget proposals
Governor Romney, the presidential candidate, is too scripted, too dependent on the saged saws of experts.
He is gathering money, but he is not gathering support.
He is making a case, but he is not winning it.
He has run for seven years for the Presidency, apparently, yet timid to the end, he refuses to run on his record or attack the record of his opponent with any panache.
He was partly right to indicate that half the people in this country are receiving assistance from the government.
Our veterans receive benefits because they benefited this country with their service, their lives.
If people have paid into an entitlement program, then you are entitled to receive your investment back from the government. If someone is taking two to three times as much as they put into the system, then the federal government must implement reforms to put an end to this nonsense.
He is wrong to assume that it's their fault, or a pulse of venality which motives them to "take" without doing anything. This gaffe will blow over, but if Romney does not get in the game, then he might as well blow off this entire race.
Thank you, Peggy Noonan for telling it like it is!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
God as Father in the Old Testament, Through His Son in the New
I was intrigued when one preacher announced that for the Jews of Ancient Times, they did not know the LORD as Father.
In numerous references in the Prophets, though, God addresses Himself and is addressed as "Father".
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9: 6)
Here, the Fatherhood of God is manifest along with the Prince of Peace, Jesus, who is our peace (Ephesians 2: 14), because by His death, He took away our sin and brought us into reconciliation with God the Father (2 Corinthians 5: 20-21)
"Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. " (Isaiah 63: 16)
and
"But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
"Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people." (Isaiah 64: 8-9)
Here again, God as Father occurs in connection with not remembering our iniquity. All of this foretells the adoptive work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer:
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8: 15-16)
Jeremiah also painted a kind and blessed future of Israel walking with the help of God as doting Father:
"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. " (Jeremiah 31: 9)
The reference to the "rivers waters" speaks of the Holy Spirit, who leads us in the way we are to go:
"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
"(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) " (John 7: 38-39)
and
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." (Galatians 5: 16-18)
Malachi, the final prophet of the Old Testament, shares the following recriminations of God the Father toward His people:
"A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? " (Malachi 1: 6)
The fear of the Lord is based on forgiveness (Psalm 130: 4), an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9: 24) which had not yet occurred when Malachi prophesied, although Isaiah foresaw the sufferings of the Messiah on our behalf (see Isaiah 53)
"Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?" (Malachi 2: 10)
Man in his own effort cannot but transgress the covenant. That is why God promised to establish a new covenant:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
God the Father is revealed to us through His Son:
"Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me." (Jon 12: 44)
See the Son, and you will see the Father.
In numerous references in the Prophets, though, God addresses Himself and is addressed as "Father".
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9: 6)
Here, the Fatherhood of God is manifest along with the Prince of Peace, Jesus, who is our peace (Ephesians 2: 14), because by His death, He took away our sin and brought us into reconciliation with God the Father (2 Corinthians 5: 20-21)
"Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. " (Isaiah 63: 16)
and
"But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
"Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people." (Isaiah 64: 8-9)
Here again, God as Father occurs in connection with not remembering our iniquity. All of this foretells the adoptive work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer:
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8: 15-16)
Jeremiah also painted a kind and blessed future of Israel walking with the help of God as doting Father:
"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. " (Jeremiah 31: 9)
The reference to the "rivers waters" speaks of the Holy Spirit, who leads us in the way we are to go:
"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
"(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) " (John 7: 38-39)
and
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." (Galatians 5: 16-18)
Malachi, the final prophet of the Old Testament, shares the following recriminations of God the Father toward His people:
"A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? " (Malachi 1: 6)
The fear of the Lord is based on forgiveness (Psalm 130: 4), an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9: 24) which had not yet occurred when Malachi prophesied, although Isaiah foresaw the sufferings of the Messiah on our behalf (see Isaiah 53)
"Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?" (Malachi 2: 10)
Man in his own effort cannot but transgress the covenant. That is why God promised to establish a new covenant:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
God the Father is revealed to us through His Son:
"Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me." (Jon 12: 44)
See the Son, and you will see the Father.
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