Daily Archives: March 12, 2012

03/12/12

Taking the Constitution on Offense

By: Chad Kent
CDN

Last week, Misfit Politics posted a video tribute to honor the passing of Andrew Breitbart. In it, Brandon Morse said that, for the first time ever conservatism is going on the offense… and he couldn’t be more right. Over the last few years we’ve learned a few things and gotten organized. All you have to do now is talk to a few conservatives or libertarians and you can feel the energy coming from them.

The problem is, as conservatives we are often put in the position of defending the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the ideas of our Founding Fathers. Any time you are defending your position you aren’t gaining ground.

If you want to learn how to take conservative ideas on offense, let Calvin Coolidge give you an example of how to destroy progressive ideas:

“About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay any claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”

Calvin Coolidge – July 5, 1926

There you go – the next time some fool starts attacking our principles or the Founders it’s time to go to on offense. Ask this person, “Ok, what exactly about our principles is outdated – are all men not created equal?” This person will try to redirect the conversation from this question because – more than likely – he was initially just repeating something some campaign talking point or something his college professor told him. But don’t let him off the hook – remember, you’re on offense here. Demand an answer to that question. Then move on to the others. Do we not all have equal rights? Are the people not the source of political power?

Coolidge nailed it in this quote – there is no moving beyond these three principles that make up the foundation of our country. Everything that progressives want to do moves us away from one of these principles in some way. We must force them to defend this ground if we want to move the debate in a positive direction.

Here’s one example of how it works: progressives want to take property away from some people in order to give it to others who progressives feel are more deserving. As President Obama would say, “At a certain point, you’ve made enough money.” This is where you go on offense. Ok, at exactly what point in the income scale do you forfeit your property rights? So we don’t have equal rights to keep property we’ve earned? Who will be taking these rights away? I thought our rights came from God. And on and on.

This is ground that the progressives simply cannot defend. Remember – as long as they are on defense they cannot gain ground.

If you are a person who loves freedom, it’s time to get to work.. and it’s time to go on offense. Liberty is not for those who are willing to sit back and allow others to make decisions for them. Liberty is earned by people who are willing to be eternally vigilant in its defense.

On that same day in 1926, Calvin Coolidge described the type of people we need to be if we want to preserve our freedom:

“The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.”

For decades now many conservatives – myself included – have had the option of paying lip service to how much they love their rights and their liberty without consequence. Those days are over. Our rights and our liberty are currently under a direct assault. The time has come to make a decision – do you have the courage to maintain them?

03/12/12

Obama’s oil deception is quickly leaking out

By: Jeffrey Klein
Examiner.com

President Barack Obama is desperately trying to paint a picture of success in defense of his “Anything buy Oil” energy policy–unfortunately, the carefully crafted narratives designed in Chicago and being distributed from Washington, D.C., are collapsing in plain sight.

The most dangerous one to the future of Obama and the Democrats is the skyrocketing price of motor fuel, which is wreaking havoc in most homes and businesses across America.

In addition to having a chilling effect on the economy, the average increase in monthly fuel costs for families has erased the average value of the highly touted “Payroll Tax Holiday,” which has “choked off” the only source of funding for the nearly bankrupt Social Security Trust fund.

While President Obama continues claiming there is no “silver bullet” solution for the cost of oil, and mocks Republicans for their ‘3-point plan…drill, drill and drill some more, in order to $2.50 per gallon plan,’ he is truly trying to deceive the American public.

His often repeated fallback statement is … ‘we use a quarter of the world’s oil, but only have 2% of the world’s oil reserves. So, do the math … it’s impossible,’ according to Gerri Willis FOXBusiness article from February 27, 2012.

The source of this “mythical” 2 percent is that they are only counting “proven oil reserves.”

The official definition for proven oil reserves, from the non-partisan Congressional Research service, reads in part … “certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.”

The key word here is “existing” conditions.

According to this definition, there are 20 billion barrels in proven reserves in the United States.

But, the amount of so called “technically recoverable” oil is over seven times greater.

Now, using today’s technology, including fracking to release oil from shale deposits, which is the type that would have flowed through the Keystone XL Pipeline, the U.S. has nearly 1.5 trillion barrels of oil, which would be enough to fuel our present needs for around 250 years, according to the Institute for Energy Research.

According to Willis reporting, [John Hofmeister], the former Shell Oil Company CEO, who is also the founder of “Citizens for Affordable Energy,” appeared on FBN earlier today, explained how we could easily get back to producing 10 million barrels a day:

“The best source for new oil is the world’s largest consumer economy: this country.

We could go back to 10 million barrels if we had the permitting that would enable it to happen. We have the oil. There is more oil in this country that we’re not allowed to get at than oil we’re allowed to get at.”

But much of the oil is off limits thanks to the policies of this President:

-The outer Continental shelf.

-The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Anwar.

-And Shale Oil, where the United States has the largest deposits in the world–estimated by the government to be over 2 trillion barrels.

Finally, President Obama is famous for bragging that ‘oil production is at the highest it has been in eight years under my watch,’ which although chronologically true—it is a blatantly and intellectually corrupt statement.

Oil production has indeed risen…but only on private and state lands, such as the shale oil boom going on in North Dakota, which has brought with it a 3% unemployment rate.

As far as production on federal lands under the Obama administration, various figures show that it has declined precipitously, off 30 percent in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a 70 percent decrease in permitting on federal lands.

Most of the current exploration and drilling was initiated under the Bush administration.

President Barack Obama is now famous for making another, boastful, outrageous claim lately–that he has “five more years to go in his presidency,” which is equally feckless.