Ring For Liberty

It has been quite some time since my last post. The laptop I used for all of my research and posting crashed, everything was wiped out and there was very little backed up. This was a major disruption, but I now have a new laptop and enough pieces back together to move onward.

That is as good of a segue as any… Speaking of wiped out, how about them Democrats? It is funny how the word “historic” is not getting thrown at you every which way like it did in 2008. This past election was very historic indeed. In case you lost count, Republicans picked up 60 seats in the House, with 7 still pending; 5 Senate seats, with 1 still pending, and 5 Governor races, with two still pending. Bringing the totals to 239 House Seats, 46 Senate Seats and 29 Governorships.

As great as those results are, there should be equal or more excitement about the statewide races throughout the country. Republicans made historic gains in State Legislatures of more than 675 seats, which dramatically surpasses the gains in 1994. The chamber switches are all Democratic to Republican, except for Montana where it was tied and is now Republican, and Oregon which was Democratic and is now tied. If you drill down further in these races and the national ones there is even better news. There seems to be a whole crop of New Republicans, which were heavily influenced, if not born from, the Tea Party movement. This will translate into a more conservative Constitutional form of government at every level. The state and local levels of government are extremely important, as they help shape and set the tone for national races.

This was an exciting election. You could feel the energy building up the whole year. I know that I could not wait for the big day. I even carved up a little more time this year to post signs, deliver flyers in the neighborhood and work the local polling station. It's one thing to sit at home and blog, but every freedom-loving American should do as much as they can for the candidate that is most committed to preserving liberty up until the day they cast their vote.

Here is an example of a woman doing her part on Election Day. She is on a little road that doesn't get a ton of traffic, but she felt compelled to remind people to exercise their right to vote. I snapped this picture on my way to work. I have no idea how long she had been out there, but I made sure to thank her for what she was doing for America!

I am certainly not in favor of airing out our dirty laundry in public. I do think these soldiers should have known better than to trust saying such off-color things with someone that is not a brother in arms. We don’t know if such comments were supposed to be off the record, but our mainstream media and pop culture industry has never been our military’s greatest fans. The most puzzling and disappointing things to me were that Rolling Stone magazine actually had someone embedded with our troops in Afghanistan and that McChrystal actually voted for Obama! As for the rest of it, is it really a story that soldiers use foul language? We have audio of Joe Biden using foul language in celebration of the health care scam. Rahm Emanuel is notorious for his filthy mouth. Is it really shocking that our active duty soldiers do not hold this far left liberal administration in high esteem? Heck, their approval rating among civilians, many of who are completely on the dole, is south of 25%!

General McChrystal has been dutifully serving this country for most of his life. He has spent almost the last decade engaged in war and has spent a matter of months WITH his family over that timeframe. The first thing that came to my mind when this story broke was how Obama dithered over McChrystal’s request for more troops last year. Obama was more concerned with the political consequences than the General’s combat needs. He ultimately took four months to respond and shortchanged the General on the troops. So, I was not surprised with McChrystal's lack of love for the big (O)rganizer.

Unfortunately, I was on an airplane while the U.S. advanced by beating Algeria 1-0 in the World Cup and Obama was announcing that General David Petraeus, Central Command Leader, would be taking McChrystal’s place. If anyone is capable of taking over in Afghanistan, General Petraeus is the first name that comes to mind. I was quite surprised that (O)’s ego allowed him to go with Bush’s guy, but I am glad the soldiers have been given a proven leader. I just wish the Organizer in Chief was as quick to react to the Oil Spill Crisis or in protecting our southern border, as he was in defending his fragile ego. Now that Obama has called up General Petraeus, I wonder if MoveOn.org or any other Democrat support groups will be re-running more “General Betray Us” ads in the New York Times?

You have to wonder how today’s media would have covered the Tea Party back in 1773. Perhaps a better question to ponder would be, how the Tea Partiers would have reacted to such hypothetical media coverage…

We are becoming increasingly more aware of what to expect from the left leaning media in our country. However, the contemptuous statements from some Democrat political figures, has become downright disgusting. Former President Clinton said, “ “legitimate” comparisons can be drawn between today’s grass roots anger and resentment toward the government and the right-wing extremism that bubbled up prior to the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City 15 years ago (while he was in office).” More recently, Mayor Bloomberg guessed the Islamic Extremist responsible for the attempted Times Square bombing was someone “that doesn’t like the health care bill or something”, in response to a question from Katie Couric. It was shocking that the ever insightful and probing Couric did not challenge that notion and suggest an actual terrorist! Perhaps, she was too busy wondering what magazines Bloomberg reads when he is not monitoring New Yorkers’ sodium intake levels?

The fact of the matter is that the modern Tea Party members can be considered terrorists…if you are a liberal politician. The Tea Party movement is certainly terrorizing both Democrats and liberal Republicans, as evidenced by the way the 2010 midterm elections are shaping up. The demand for politicians to follow our constitution has literally forced some to resign and others to change their party affiliation. This is precisely the goal of the movement. The fringe benefit has been the further exposing of just how desperate liberals have become.

Independents and moderate Democrats are no longer buying the formulaic Olinsky tactics the far left have been using for decades. For those not familiar, it is the simple method of creating villains and stirring up resentment between social classes. In this instance, you have a true grass roots movement of law-abiding citizens demanding their employees (elected politicians) obey the company policy manual (U.S. Constitution). Olinsky rules simply call for the Tea Party targets to attack the character of the Tea Party members. If it sounds like a third grade school yard approach to you, you’re absolutely right. However, this is fairly effective when 98% of the media uses the same liberal playbook, and a growing percentage of the electorate make voting decisions solely on eight-second media segments.

The Tea Party movement is aptly named, as it stands for lower taxes and it feels the federal government’s increasing power is intolerable. However, it may be most appropriate, as the name itself forces people to reflect on American history. As one patriot stated, “There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country and [it] is the means by which a nation establishes its sense of identity and purpose.” Which patriot said that… Rush Limbaugh….Sarah Palin….Glenn Beck…??? No, that would be President John F. Kennedy in an article he wrote in 1962, for American Heritage magazine, while in the White House. He also went on to say, “A knowledge of history is, above all, a means of responsibility – of responsibility to the past and of responsibility to the future … of responsibility to those who came before us and struggled and sacrificed to pass on to us our precious inheritance of freedom … and of responsibility to those who will come after us and to whom we must pass on that inheritance with what new strength and substance it is within our power to add.”

Considering JFK’s respect for American history, his support for tax cuts, not to mention pushing NASA to the moon, you wonder if today’s Democratic party would even be seen in public with their former Prince of America’s Royal Family. I’m afraid the feeling could be mutual. You never know, there might just be one more member of the Tea Party from Massachusetts to add authenticity, if he were alive today!