Daily Archives: November 16, 2012

11/16/12

Ron Paul’s Farewell Address

By: Against All Enemies
Gulag Bound

“Too many people have for too long placed too much confidence and trust
in government and not enough in themselves.”
–Ron Paul

Ron Paul is leaving Congress after 23 years of service as a representative from the State of Texas. When I first heard him speak, I found him to be a bit eccentric. However, after looking into the problems we are facing as a nation, I believe that Ron Paul is correct in his description of the problem and his recommended solution. That solution is to return to our Constitutional form of government as originally founded.

We must therefore strengthen those individuals, groups, and political parties that support such a return. The Tea Party is a solid beginning, and it must grow. It could potentially become a completely separate party, as the governing corruption of both the Republican and Democratic (Socialist) Parties do not offer us true solutions to get us out of the mess we’re in and prevent it from occurring again in the future.

The name of “Tea Party” could become the “Constitutional Party” to make its platform inherent in its name, clearly setting it apart from the Republican and Democratic (Socialist) parties that have worked together over the years to circumvent our Constitution. We must also prevent its corruption by those who seek to hijack and pervert its platform. Another option would be for the Constitutional Party to completely transform the Republican Party from within.

What follows is Representative Ron Paul’s farewell address. Listen to his words and contemplate what he is saying. Then be resolved to do your part to get America back on track before it is too late.

Against All Enemies

Farewell to Congress

 

This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I’ll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty.

It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security.

To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire.

The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.

How Much Did I Accomplish?

In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little. No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways—thank goodness. In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without Congressional declaration, deficits rise to the sky, poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government is now worse than any time in our history.

All this with minimal concerns for the deficits and unfunded liabilities that common sense tells us cannot go on much longer. A grand, but never mentioned, bipartisan agreement allows for the well-kept secret that keeps the spending going. One side doesn’t give up one penny on military spending, the other side doesn’t give up one penny on welfare spending, while both sides support the bailouts and subsidies for the banking and corporate elite. And the spending continues as the economy weakens and the downward spiral continues. As the government continues fiddling around, our liberties and our wealth burn in the flames of a foreign policy that makes us less safe.

The major stumbling block to real change in Washington is the total resistance to admitting that the country is broke. This has made compromising, just to agree to increase spending, inevitable since neither side has any intention of cutting spending.

The country and the Congress will remain divisive since there’s no “loot left to divvy up.”

Without this recognition the spenders in Washington will continue the march toward a fiscal cliff much bigger than the one anticipated this coming January.

I have thought a lot about why those of us who believe in liberty, as a solution, have done so poorly in convincing others of its benefits. If liberty is what we claim it is- the principle that protects all personal, social and economic decisions necessary for maximum prosperity and the best chance for peace- it should be an easy sell. Yet, history has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled.

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11/16/12

Maryland’s Endemic Corruption: An Object Lesson for the Nation

By: James Simpson
Accuracy in Media

Maryland is one of the most corrupt states in our nation. Nowhere is this fact more evident than with the state’s treatment of illegal aliens. Maryland politicians have literally become lawless in their efforts to cultivate illegals, and this lawlessness flows downhill from the very top. I will focus on a few of the more egregious examples.

In 2011, we published a report on CASA de Maryland, a Silver Spring-based illegal immigrant advocacy group that parrots ACORN in both its methods and associates—which include the Communist Party USA, FMLN, (a former Salvadoran communist guerilla group, now a political party), ACORN and others. Yet it is one of the most influential organizations in the state.

CASA receives significant state government funding, while Director Gustavo Torres and his wife, Sonia Mora both hold influential positions within that same government. Torres is a member of the Governor’s Council for New Americans and served on Governor Martin O’Malley’s transition team. Mora sits on the Governor’s Hispanic Affairs Commission and manages Montgomery County’s Latino Health Initiative. This is unseemly if not illegal. Torres’ primary source of income is CASA de Maryland, and CASA owes its inordinate influence to its many supporters in state government.

There is no disputing CASA’s influence. At a party to celebrate CASA’s 25 years of operation, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said, “I’d like to say I’m here for Mary Kay and Eliseo [the guests of honor], but when Gustavo Torres calls, I generally get in my car and go over and ask him what he wants.”

Torres’ influence extends to the White House. Former CASA Board member Cecilia Muñoz is President Obama’s Domestic Policy Director. Muñoz, who also worked for the National Council of La Raza, has been a persistent advocate for illegals throughout her tenure. Former CASA Board member Thomas Perez is now Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Holder Justice Department. Many of the odious lawsuits launched by the DOJ have been under Perez’s pen, including suits against states’ voter ID laws, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Arizona’s anti-illegal alien law.

As quoted by The Washington Post, Baltimore County Delegate Pat McDonough put it bluntly: “Gustavo has created a sanctuary state. The governor does his bidding. The politicians who control power in the State of Maryland do his bidding. … And his success has caused financial and personal heartbreak for the State of Maryland.”

When Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins cracked down on illegals flooding the county, CASA sued. They claimed that two of Jenkins’ deputies violated an illegal’s civil rights by questioning her, although she had an outstanding warrant and tried to run and hide when she saw them. CASA lost. Sheriff Jenkins stated:

I find it deplorable and disgusting that the groups involved in this lawsuit have tried to defame… the agency and discredit the two involved deputies and drag them through the mud for what is clearly their agenda in attempting to stop and derail the 287 program here in Frederick County.

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11/16/12

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watcher’s Council Results – 11/16/12

The Watcher’s Council

Dedicated to the brave Israelis who are now in a war with Hamas and Iran.
May G-d be with you.

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match-up.

But before we get to that, we have some important biz to deal with… because it’s our pal Tom White of VA Right’s birthday!

Actually, the big day was yesterday, but we’re dealing in WoW time here, so I thought we’d celebrate it today. I don’t think I’m revealing anything top secret when I say that Tom’s just one of those people I instinctively liked right from the jump. As an illustrious member of our crew, aside from his stellar blogging talent (he was chosen a top political blogger by the AFP), I’ve never seen him fail to help out someone in the Council with a techie problem, or to give me an honest and useful answer whenever I’ve asked his advice… and isn’t that one definition of a good friend?

To go with this cake (carrot with chocolate pralines), in honor of the Old Dominion, I picked up a nice couple of bottles of Williamsburg Winery’s 2010 Vintage Reserve Chardonay to share around. As I’m told they like to say in VA: Virginia makes wine, Napa makes auto parts… or something like that.

Happy birthday bro… many, many more.

Okay, on to business.

There has been a great deal of handwringing and circular fire squading going on among Republicans and conservatives because of President Obama’s re-election.

Chicken Little has definitely been working overtime.

In this week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Taking DC By Strategy – A Battle Plan, I had a few things to say about that mentality… and more importantly, what’s really needed to turn things around. And trust me, this sort of stuff is exactly what you’re not hearing from the GOP establishment or much of the consultant class. Here’s a slice:

Looking at some of the wailing and moaning coming from various Republican pundits and politicians, you would think the GOP’s days are over.

Well, maybe they should be if this is how they respond to what happened Tuesday.But as someone who is a conservative (that is, a classic liberal in the true sense of the word) rather than a doctrinaire party man, I’m far more interested in victory than appeasement.

That victory is eminently doable, but it will take some real soul searching and an answer to the age old questions: what are you prepared to do? How bad do you want it? Because it’s time to let the pretty, convenient lies die if you do want it.

I’ve already gone over a lot of the tactical reasons Mitt Romney lost, and some of the lessons learned from that I’ll expand on here.

The first thing we need to do is tune out the media static and realize that this was a far closer election than we’re being told.

Barack Obama is the only president in history to be re-elected with a smaller percentage of the popular vote than he won initially.. He won 53 percent to 46 percent in 2008 but his official numbers right now are 50.6 percent to 47.8 percent over Mitt Romney. The numbers might change slightly as the states finish their counts, but the president still won by a much smaller percentage than in 2008.As the National Review’s Jim Geraghty observed, Had Romney won just another 407,000 or so additional votes total in the battle ground states of Virginia, Colorado, Ohio, and Florida, he’d be president.

The bottom line, when all’s said and done is that about 3 million Republicans stayed home last Tuesday,mostly because they had no compelling reason to show up, and partly because, as we now know, the Romney campaign had an abysmal ground game. When you have only 6 campaign offices in a state like Ohio while your opponent has 130, you’re asking for a beating.

Those voters who were supposedly willing to crawl over broken glass to vote against Obama existed, but 3 million others simply took a pass. If even half of them had showed up, we’d have a different story to tell today.So the key to our little puzzle is not only figuring out why they didn’t show up, but why a relatively unpopular incumbent battling huge deficits, record food and energy costs and an 8% unemployment rate managed to prevail because enough of his people did. Again, not nearly as many as showed up in 2008,(which ought to tell you something about that so-called ‘decisive victory’) but enough to win.

In order to see how this works, it’s first necessary to realize a few things.

Republicans have always told themselves that this is a center right nation. It still is, but it’s moving in the opposite direction..Here’s why.

Since the 1970′s, when the unions took over, the left has gradually assumed almost total control of public education, and in K-12, not just the universities. Ever wonder why so many radicals found a home in academia, and why radicals like Bill Ayers became so interested and influential in public education, particularly of young children?

The results are obvious. Today, half the children produced out of this dysfunctional system may have trouble reading and writing, they may be ignorant of their culture and history, but boy are a lot of them proficient in repeating the leftist talking points they’ve been indoctrinated with for years!

As an added bonus, the teachers unions, like the other public employee unions are a major component of the Ponzi scheme that funds the Democratic Party at the taxpayer’s expense.

The good news is that this is very slowly starting to change in some parts of America simply because it’s financially unsustainable, but for now, especially in deep blue states like California and Massachusetts, that’s simply how it is.

So the first major requirement of winning the White House is a candidate capable of educating voters on conservative principles in terms they can easily understand, why they work, and why leftist statism merely produces equal misery.

The last presidential candidate the Republicans had whom could do this was Ronald Reagan, Ronaldus Maximus. He wasn’t known as the Great Communicator for nothing. Since Reagan, the only one who’s even come close is Sarah Palin, and at this point, considering the way she was shafted by her own campaign and the GOP establishment, she might very well have been better off turning John McCain down in 2008, serving out her term as governor and running for the top of the ticket in 2012 or 2016.

One of the reasons Sarah Palin was so effective at it was that she promised a change in the very climate of Washington… which is exactly how Ronald Reagan approached it. That’s something people turn out for.

Mitt Romney, for all his sincerity and obvious fitness for office never promised that kind of change in Washington and was surrounded by enough of the Republican establishment to ensure that it wasn’t going to happen.

To a lot of people, the promise of a better managed Washington bureaucracy wasn’t enough to get them to the polls.

And he certainly never explained conservative principles of government consistently and effectively and why they work. He tried, especially later in the campaign, but it was like listening to someone speak a second language. And by the time he started to get better at it, he’d already been defined by the Obama Campaign and their sycophants in the media.

It goes on from there…

In our non-Council category, the winner was Victor Davis Hanson with a dynamite look at Anatomies of Electoral Madness submitted by Joshuapundit. It’s an excellent look at what happened November 6th, written in VDH’s one of a kind style.

Here are this week’s full results. Rhymes With Right, Gay Patriot and Simply Jews were unable to vote this week, but none of them were subject to the 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

Non-Council Winners

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in… don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!

11/16/12

Benghazi: Special Operations Speaks Presents 100K Signature Petition for Special Prosecutor

By: Arlen Williams
Gulag Bound

Special Operations Speaks is the political organization founded by U.S. Special Ops veterans which were censored for a time, before the general election, by Facebook.

This may indicate why that was.

At this point, as the event is occurring, we have no knowledge of any streaming netcast or live blogging of the event. We look forward to a follow-up report or update.

Special Operations Speaks Sets Thursday Press Conference to Present Congress with Petition Demanding Benghazi Massacre Special Prosecutor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 12, 2012

Contact: Alex Rosenwald
571-282-7954
[email protected]

WHO:

Members of Congress:
The Honorable Louie Gohmert (R-TX 1)
Additional members are likely to attend. We will update as each member confirms.

Special Operations Speaks, PAC Leadership:
Brigadier General Joseph S. Stringham, US Army (Ret.)
Captain Larry Bailey, (SEAL), USN (Ret.)
Colonel Dick Brauer, USAF (Ret.)

WHAT: SOS leaders will present the congressmen with a petition containing the names of more than 100,000 Americans demanding a special prosecutor be appointed to fully investigate the events in Washington and abroad surrounding the murder of the US ambassador to Libya, the ambassador’s aide, and the two Navy Seals attempting to defend US property in Libya.

WHEN: Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 3:45 p.m.

WHERE: The House Triangle
U.S. Capitol Building
House side of the Capitol’s East Front

WHY: The leadership of Special Operations Speaks and a majority of the American people by a 51% to 38% margin do not approve of the way the Obama Administration has handled the Benghazi massacre. Conflicting stories about the cause of the massacre and the actions taken by the Obama White House during and after the attack have led to serious questions about events surrounding the massacre and the veracity of the President and members of his Administration in relation to the event.

SOS and the more than 100,000 signatories of the Benghazi petition believe that the only way to be certain about the actions of the President and those in his Administration before, during and after the massacre is for a special prosecutor to fully investigate all circumstances and report back to the American people.

Please note: The SOS support team will be happy to arrange for any special accommodations needed by members of the press and will set up private interviews as requested.

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Image that was censored by Facebook at Special Operations Speaks’ page there: