06/8/14

Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

I wrote a post earlier today extolling the electability and rise of Ted Cruz. I have been called and written to by several people complaining about a number of problems they see with Cruz. I will not debate them here at length. I will just state flatly here and now that I feel that Ted Cruz is our best shot at a Constitutional candidate — the best we have seen in many years, as a matter of fact.

It strikes me that so many on the ‘so-called’ Right have made it their priority to attack Cruz on his eligibility (Constitutionally I believe he is eligible), or his wife for working with Goldman Sachs, or the fact that he is in their eyes ‘unelectable’ because he has alienated too many in Washington (that’s a plus in my book). We are spending so much time attacking our own, I think we have forgotten who the real enemy is. If we will only elect a perfect candidate, we will never elect one again on our side. None of us is perfect and all of us have made bad calls in our life. Ted Cruz is an honest, decent, true Conservative and he is not the enemy.

The perfect is the enemy of the good is an aphorism or proverb meaning that insisting on perfection often results in no improvement at all. The phrase is commonly attributed to Voltaire whose moral poem, La Bégueule, starts:

Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.

(In his writings, a wise Italian
says that the best is the enemy of the good)

Cruz is the strongest Constitutional Conservative out there. He is not beholden to anyone on either side. He stands by what he says and means it. He may stand alone, but that shows character, not unelectability. We should support our strongest candidates and get behind them — not nitpick them to death or tear them apart. Notice that the Left does not do this. For all of Hillary’s warts (and there are many), the Progressive Marxists are behind her.

A friend of mine and occasional contributor to the blog, Citizen Scribe, had this to say about what he calls “The Myth of Electability” as a concept:

In every election cycle I find myself in any number of discussions about the best candidate for this or that. Inevitably someone in the discussion trots out the ‘electability’ trope. It’s a way to win arguments without having to present any actual data. It’s an assertion that’s simply not provable, as it depends on facts not in evidence. It is a form of inspired laziness. It is pretended wisdom (“I know something you don’t”).

Reagan was unelectable … or was until he was elected. Lincoln was unelectable. Bush 41 was a shoo-in … until he wasn’t. The history of elections in the United States is strewn with egregious predictions and declarations. Dewey Defeats Truman! Except, well, he didn’t.

In order to know that someone is unelectable, you have to be privy to some piece of knowledge denied the man in the street. Now, if you are Stalin, or one of his minions, you know that (famously) it’s not who votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes. Said differently, if you know there’s going to be a fiddle, and you yourself are the fiddler, then you may indeed declare who shall be unelectable.

It’s a favorite insiders’ game in Washington DC to pronounce someone as unelectable, especially if he is a DC troublemaker, rabble-rouser, or boat rocker. It’s the DC equivalent of Damning With Faint Praise, where you can pretend to like someone while cursing him as ‘unelectable.’

Electability is a simple matter. If enough of the population likes and and votes for you, then you are, by definition, electable. But you won’t know that until after the fact. By pretending to know the mind of the citizenry, you attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy by predisposing the electorate to abandon a candidate on the grounds that “nobody else will be voting for him, so why should I?”

“Electability as peddled by press and politicos is a myth. It is arrogance of pretended knowledge. To the voter I say this: vote your conscience. To the candidate I say this: speak your mind and speak your heart; speak to the voters only, do not play the pundits. You are as electable as the voters — individually — decide you are on election day.

“We are the electorate. Speak to us. Listen to us. We will vote for you. And the gods of Olympus and DC be damned.”

In the end, each of us must vote for the one who he feels is the best fit, the strongest candidate. It is an individual choice as it should be. But sometimes I worry that we are our own worst enemy.

Perfect is the enemy of good and we have met the enemy and they are ours. What our Founding Fathers knew is as true today as it was in their day: We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

06/8/14

Obama jails American soldiers for killing the enemy and frees the enemy to kill more Americans.

By: Nelson Abdullah
Conscience of a Conservative

It would be stupid to even think about asking the question: Whose side is Obama on? Anyone who doesn’t know by now must have just returned from a very long vacation. For the record, let the evidence stand to prove that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim and as a Muslim he must wage war against anyone who fights other Muslims. So how does the the so-called Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military wage war against American soldiers who are fighting Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan? By making it difficult for them to fight. For one thing, by changing the Rules of Engagement that our fighting soldiers must follow. Rules such as no one allowed to carry a loaded weapon while on patrol. No live rounds carried in any chamber. Rules such as no one must fire upon the enemy until the enemy fires first. Rules such as no one is allowed to fire back at the enemy if the enemy is firing from a school, hospital or occupied civilian residence. Of course, these just happen to be the favorite locations used by the enemy. Which may account why 85% of the military casualties in Afghanistan have occurred after Obama got elected.

What happens when an American soldier breaks any of those rules? He will be Court Marshaled. Think this is absurd then let me introduce you to The Leavenworth 10.

The Leavenworth 10, a group of soldiers/Marines incarcerated at Ft. Leavenworth for killing members of Al-Qaeda or Iraqi insurgents. These decorated and committed soldiers/Marines who honorably served their country—achieving a significant number of combat medals over multiple deployments—are now serving sentences ranging between 10 years and life in prison . hey and their families have fallen victim to the untenable Rules of Engagement, demoralizing “Catch and Release” policies, and climate of political correctness that govern our troops’ actions while trying to survive a combat zone.

While these soldiers/Marines have been judged very harshly by the military, our military leadership is currently releasing imprisoned enemy combatants back to the battlefield. We request the same mercy for these troops, many of whom have been denied clemency time and again. The Leavenworth 10 do not pose any threat and deserve to be returned to their families.

Please take the time to read their stories to the left. If you believe they should not be forgotten and left behind, contact your US Congressman and US Senators to bring awareness to their cases and most importantly let these soldiers/Marines know that we wholly and completely support each of them.

Click on the photos below to read their stories.	Please write to them…
	1LT Michael Behenna	Michael Behenna Paroled in March 2014
	SGT Evan Vela Carnahan	Evan Vela Carnahan Paroled in March 2013
	PFC Corey Clagett	Corey Clagett #82477 1300 N Warehouse Rd Fort Leavenworth KS 66027-2304
	SSG Raymond Girouard	Girouard’s negligent homicide conviction was reversed on 4/14/2011 by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and Girouard is no longer in custody.
	Msg John E Hatley	John E Hatley #87613 1300 N Warehouse Rd Fort Leavenworth KS 66027-2304
	SPC William B Hunsaker	William B Hunsaker Paroled in March 2013
	SGT Larry Hutchins	Lawrence Hutchins III Hutchins conviction was overturned by the highest military court in June 2013, and he is not in custody. However, the Marines re-charged Hutchins with murder and he awaits an expensive re-trial in August 2014.
	SGT Michael Leahy	Michael P Leahy Jr 87356 1300 N Warehouse Rd Fort Leavenworth KS 66027-2304
	SFC Joseph Mayo	Joseph Mayo #87525 1300 N Warehouse Rd Fort Leavenworth KS 66027-2304
	SGT Derrick A Miller	Derrick A Miller #89775 1300 N. Warehouse Rd Ft Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304
	SGT Michael P Williams	Michael P William Paroled in May 2014

And then there were the heroes of Special Forces SEAL Team Six who took out Osama bin Laden. Obama must have been faced with hell to pay for taking credit for the demise of the greatest hero is the Muslim world. Was it a coincidence then that many of those SEAL Team Six were mysteriously killed three months later along with 30 soldiers flying at night on an unarmed Chinook helicopter. No one knows who leaked the details of that flight to the enemy but it is known the enemy was waiting at just the right spot to shoot the helicopter down with Rocket Propelled Grenades. All aboard were killed.

Now we must judge Barack Hussein Obama for trading five top commanders of the Muslim Taliban in exchange for one cowardly deserter who hated being an American, who wanted to renounce his citizenship and who converted to Islam. Did, in fact, Barack Hussein Obama become interested in “saving” Bowe Bergdahl only because he became a Muslim? Hopefully, Bergdahl’s trial for desertion in wartime will answer that question.

Now another former Marine, decorated in combat, is sitting in a Mexican prison for the sole reason he got lost and crossed the Mexican border while carrying three registered firearms. Former Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi isn’t a Muslim and he isn’t Black (which happens to be the other way to win special favor from the Obama Administration). And no one in the White House has lifted a finger to appeal to the Mexican government on Andrew Tahmooressi’s behalf. An interesting comparison exists between Tahmooressi accidentally transporting 3 legally owned firearms and Attorney General Eric Holder’s gun running scheme called Fast and Furious. For the sole purpose of creating public favor for more gun control, Eric Holder arranged to allow guns purchased by straw buyers in states bordering Mexico to wind up in the hands of drug dealers in Mexico. And one of those guns were used to murder U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

So you be the judge, whose side is Barack Hussein Obama on?

My name is Nelson Abdullah and I am Oldironsides.

06/8/14

Good Medicine for America

06/8/14

House Committee To Hold Hearings On Taliban Prisoner Swap

Hat Tip: BB

BREAKING: Senior Military Leaders Advised Obama NOT to Make Swap With Taliban (Video)

Obama to Release Osama’s Bodyguard From Gitmo Because He Wants to Start a “Milk & Honey Farm”

Gitmo Detainees Awaiting Move to Prison in Thomson, Illinois

Judge Jeanine Criticizes Obama Over Prisoner Swap, Demands Impeachment

Bergdahl fiasco the last straw? Tell Congress to impeach

POW, Deserter or Traitor? Military Back Pay & Special Compensation for Bergdahl May Lead to Big Sum

Author Brad Thor asks a very important question that isn’t being asked about the Bergdahl terrorist swap

06/8/14

URGENT: Updating the case of Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim. Signatures needed on White House petition.

By: Nelson Abdullah
Conscience of a Conservative

Dr. Meriam Ibrahim is a Sudanese Christian married to an American citizen. She was convicted in an Islamic Sharia Court in Sudan for being an Apostate – one who converts from Islam to Christianity (or any other religion). Miriam could have been set free if she renounced her belief in Jesus Christ and converted to Islam but she refused and was sentenced to death.

WND.com reported that Islam analyst Pamela Geller said the Obama White House’s silence on the Ibrahim issue is no surprise.

“Obama won’t touch this. He never speaks out about anything that might reflect negatively on Islam,” she said. “Everything that is happening to her is in accord with Islamic law, and so the International Criminal Court won’t touch it either: to do so would be tantamount to criminalizing Shariah.”

But a petition has been started to force a response from the White House but only if 100,000 signatures are gathered in one month’s time.

UPDATE June 8, 2014
A petition was created on May 28th on the White House web site to urge Barack Hussein Obama to intercede on the behalf of Sudanese Christian Miriam Ibrahim. 100,000 signatures are required within one month’s time to get a response. The signature as of today at 9:28 AM June 8th are:

Total signatures on this petition

40,593

Signatures needed by June 27, 2014 to reach goal of 100,000

59,407

If you are a U.S. resident I urge you to go to this web site and sign the petition.

we petition the obama administration to:

Act in the case of Meriam Ibrahim in Sudan and her baby and toddler in prison.

We strongly urge the administration to take action in the case of Dr. Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who with her toddler and newborn baby (who pending the proper documentation are American citizens) is languishing inside a prison in Khartoum. While Meriam awaits execution for the “crime” of converting to Christianity, her children are forced to be at her side in a prison that a 2008 U.N. document reported as having an infant mortality rate of one per day in the summer. No innocent child should be in this situation. We urge you to pressure the Sudanese government to release Meriam and her children so she can escape execution and possible death of her children and be rejoined with her husband in the U.S. Please grant her expedited safe haven in the U.S., where she could seek asylum.
Created: May 28, 2014

06/8/14

Ted Cruz: Blacklisted and Loving It — Right Into The White House

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Ted Cruz was introduced at the TX GOP Convention as ‘the next president of the United States.’
AP Photo

Entering to the sound of riotous and raucous applause, Senator Ted Cruz stormed the Texas GOP Convention amid calls welcoming him as the next president of the United States. May it be so. Cruz crushed Rand Paul and Rick Perry in the straw poll held at the convention. It wasn’t even close. 43% went to Cruz, with a distant second place of 12.2% going to Ben Carson. Rand Paul came in at 12.1% and Rick Perry at 11.7%.

The convention rocked with thunderous calls of “Run, Ted, Run!” and “Cruz! Cruz!” The event became a massive display of grassroots support for the Senator from Texas and the Tea Party. So much for the much decried demise of the Tea Party… we have only begun to fight. The Tea Party ruled the roost at the TX GOP Convention and struck a hard line over immigration. 7,000 delegates put the kibosh on a guest worker program for illegal aliens, entitled the ‘Texas Solution,’ that was an addition to the Republican platform only two years ago. The tide is turning and not in favor of the Progressives. The language was poorly disguised Amnesty and this time around, Conservatives proclaimed, enough! It’s about damn time.

You have just got to love Texans – they are a breed apart with spines to match:

This time, the convention had appeared poised to pass a plank including a compromise removing a specific call for a guest-worker program but creating a work-permit plan that essentially did the same thing once the U.S.-Mexico border was fully “secured.”

That initially passed, but then collapsed as the tea party flexed its muscles — the latest sign that grass-roots activists have pushed the always conservative Texas GOP even further to the right.

Delegate Jack M. Finger of San Antonio walked the floor with a hand-scrawled sign reading “No! Not even a hint of amnesty!”

“There is language that allows us to slide toward amnesty,” Finger said of the plan that eventually was defeated. “Guest worker, visa permit, all that puts us on a road to make our citizenship meaningless.”

Indeed, the hall was enveloped in applause when delegate Ivette Lozano, of Dallas, took a microphone to liken a softer immigration stance to negotiating with terrorists.

Right on, right on! Ding, ding, ding!! Give that Texan a prize. To hell with the all hat and no cattle approach. The boos and catcalls against Amnesty were deafening and the party chairman had to continuously call for civility. Time’s up for that crap and Katie bar the gate, because that bronco is long gone. Amnesty and all its evil facets were voted down – decisively. Good times. Go Texan or go home.

June 6, 2014: Sen. Ted Cruz address delegates at the Texas GOP Convention in Fort Worth, Texas.
AP Photo

In the midst of a Conservative maelstrom, Ted Cruz was treated like the rock star he is. Promising another ‘Reagan Revolution,’ Cruz swept through the convention and dominated the stage.

Huffpo and the Progressive Marxists would like you to believe that Cruz running for the presidency is a sheer gift to Hillary Clinton and ensures her win as the next president of the United States. After I finished laughing over that one and picked myself up, I took time to wonder over their propaganda and/or delusions. Ted Cruz is Hillary’s worst nightmare. She couldn’t even begin to compete if she was pristine politically — which, as we all know, she is not. Between Benghazi, Bergdahl and a whole host of scandals, Hillary Clinton is about as useful as an old, tattered, hole-ridden shoe and just about as attractive to Americans. Texas casts a long shadow over the Clinton stain.

Both sides of the Progressive aisle keep telling America that the Tea Party and Ted Cruz represent a vocal minority. They are lying. They represent Conservative and Constitutional principals and the majority of Americans. Cruz is for defending ALL of the Bill of Rights and exposing the evil mischief being conducted by those in power — he stands for those rights and is working to drag those Progressives hiding in the dark into the light, exposing them for all to see. For all of us who have stood against Obamacare, Common Core, the IRS, abortion; for all of us who have stood for religious freedom, for our guns, for our privacy, for state rights and on and on… Cruz is the leader we have waited for and now is his time.

Cruz is energizing millions of Americans to fight back. He is willing to stand in front of them and take the heat and keep on fighting. He is strong on national defense at home and abroad. Securing our borders and strengthening our military in a time of war, are things he strongly believes in. He wants to restore us to world leadership and make us strong once again — freedom is everything to Cruz. Cutting the debt and ACTUALLY balancing the budget are also among his passions.

Ted Cruz is a principled man, who chooses his friends carefully and makes his endorsements judiciously. He doesn’t mince words – he is unapologetically pro-Israel and anti-Communist. He stands against radical Islam and will stop nuclear encroachment. Cruz is a Christian who doesn’t believe in cutting deals with terrorists… he believes in standing up for persecuted Christians across the globe. So, while the Obamas are jetting across the globe, partying and golfing, Cruz is doing what a real president does… speaking to the important issues of our time and taking a stand. Obama should take notes, but he won’t. Cruz rightly asks America, “Where is the president of the United States?”

In a much-anticipated speech on Friday, Cruz hammered those present over the “great stagnation” and “crushing regulations” of the Obama administration, calling on Texans to “stand up and lead the fight to defend our freedom.” In typical Texas fashion, he elicited laughter and applause by asserting that gun control in Texas means “hitting what you aim at.” Indeed.

Cruz is blacklisted among the Washington politically elite and loving it — all the way to the White House. The Democrats may think that Texas is their new stomping ground, but they couldn’t be more wrong. As goes the great state of Texas, so goes the nation. As Rafael Cruz put it, “I lost my freedom once, I’ll die before I lose it again.”

Ted Cruz speaking at the Texas Republican Convention.
Credit Rex C. Curry/Associated Press

Cruz Coalition on Facebook
Cruz Coalition on Twitter

—————-

Update: Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

06/8/14

The Muslim thread in the Obama equation. — Updated

By: Nelson Abdullah
Conscience of a Conservative

Updated below to include petition to the White House to save Sudanese Christian Miriam Ibrahim.

Sometimes politics is as predictable as a mathematical equation. Assuming all of the relevant factors are known the solution can be found, or at least understood. Three prime examples in the news these past few days are Meriam Ibrahim the Christian woman awaiting execution in Sudan for refusing to convert to Islam, the ex-Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi awaiting trial in a Mexican jail because he accidentally crossed the border while traveling with registered weapons, and, of course, the return of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who had deserted his post while on active duty in Afghanistan. All three of these examples involve a single common denominator – religion, and specifically, Islam or the absence of it.

Barack Hussein Obama, a onetime Muslim himself, who many believe is still a Muslim even though he attended a Black Christian church run by Rev. Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, has surrounded himself with fellow Muslims connected with The Muslim Brotherhood. As a point of fact, Rev. Wright admitted that he never believed Barack Hussein Obama ever left Islam while attending his church. Obama, finding himself in the position of defending his Muslim faith, has stacked up a record number of actions that were not in the best interests of our military because Islam dictates that war be declared against any who kill Muslims. So in defending Islam Barack Hussein Obama does what he can to get back at our soldiers. Such logic can be used to explain why, for instance, would Obama order a change in the Rules of Engagement that would put our fighting soldiers at greater risk in combat. Or the dismal scandal affecting our veterans seeking medical treatment at VA hospitals being placed on lengthy waiting lists. With the successful elimination of Osama bin Ladin by members of the Special Forces SEAL Team 6, payback from a Muslim point of view was called for. Consequently, 3-months later someone ordered 30 American soldiers including many of the original SEAL Team 6 that carried out the raid on Osama bin Ladin’s compound, into an unarmed Chinook helicopter that was shot down by Muslim insurgents in August 2011. All aboard were killed.

As a Muslim, Barack Hussein Obama is motivated to defend Islam and support the Sharia Islamic Laws and one such law calls for the execution of any Muslim who becomes an Apostate when they convert to another religion. Islamic clerics have ruled that any child born of a Muslim father is therefore a Muslim. Meriam Ibrahim was raised as a Christian from childhood after being abandoned by her father. Meriam, who is Sudanese is also married to an American citizen. She was arrested after a family member reported to police that she was an Apostate. In what was supposed to be a criminal trial in an Islamic court that did not allow her to present any defense she was ordered to renounce her Christian faith and return to Islam under penalty of death. Meriam refused to do so and was convicted. She still sits in prison because she was pregnant at the time of her trial and ordered to give birth to her baby before the sentence was carried out. Her 20-month old child is also in the same prison and will presumably be killed along with her. Barack Hussein Obama and his State Department have not intervened on her behalf or on the behalf of her American husband who is also a Christian.

While Barack Hussein Obama took exceptional actions to retrieve an Army deserter named Bowe Bergdahl from Afghanistan, he has done absolutely nothing to help former Marine Andrew Tahmooressi get home from Mexico. Tahmooressi isn’t a Muslim so he has no interest to Obama. Obama went to the extremes of breaking the law by negotiating with terrorists in trading Bowe Bergdahl for 5 top commanders in the Muslim Taliban that were imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. The Islamic connection here can be explained easily because it was reported that after Bowe Bergdahl abandoned his post and went over to the Taliban, he converted to Islam. It was further reported at length in a story on CNN.com that Bowe Bergdahl was instructing the Taliban in making IEDs and how to successfully use them to blow up American troops. So it was imperative for Muslim Barack Hussein Obama to do everything to save this Muslim traitor. The situation becomes even more deplorable when it was learned that a half dozen American soldiers were killed in the effort to locate Bergdahl after he deserted. Adding insult to injury, the White House even claimed that Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction” when National Security Adviser Susan Rice went on national television Sunday to explain why Obama interceded.

Just as the Muslims who devoutly follow the commands in the Qur’an are waging war on Christians in every country they dominate, Barack Hussein Obama is doing the same here at home. Obama has ordered Chaplains to abandon Christian teachings under penalty of court marshal. Z3NEWS, a Christian Church blog wrote last October, “President Obama’s anti-Christian bigotry has now infiltrated all levels of his administration, including the U.S. military where our soldiers are being indoctrinated with a steady diet of anti-Christian hatred. The attacks on Christians are ramping up. Soldiers are being threatened with punishment for donating to any evangelical Christian organizations, which is a flagrant violation of their Constitutional rights.” Obama ordered all Christian symbols, icons, crosses and paintings covered when he spoke at the Roman Catholic Georgetown University in April 2009 and repeated another coverup when he spoke at Notre Dame a month later. And lets not forget the Obama administration has purged all references to Muslim and Islamic terrorism from training manuals used by the FBI. And has repeatedly refused to classify the slaughter of unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood by Muslim “Soldier of Allah” Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan as a terrorist act but instead, insisted it was simply workplace violence.

When Barack Hussein Obama announced the return of Bowe Bergdahl during a press conference in the Rose Garden, he was flanked by Bergdahl’s parents. Several conservative bloggers noted that when Robert Bergdahl, Bowe’s father, spoke at the microphone he invoked a Muslim chant praising Allah saying “bismillah al-rahman al-rahim,” Arabic for “in the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.” and the video tape shown below recorded a broad smile on Obama’s face when he heard the words. Robert Bergdahl encouraged his son to follow his conscience and Bowe apparently did so when he wrote that wanted to renounce his U.S. citizenship.

Meanwhile, CNSNews.com reports that the U.S. State Department won’t even say if the infant child of Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim born in the prison cell where Merian is chained to the wall, is even a U.S. citizen. Such is the present course of American history under the leadership of Democrats and Muslims. I pray for our Republican representatives in Congress to find the courage to commence proceedings to impeach this imposter president. Someone must have the backbone to stand up to this wannabe dictator and tell him he must face his crimes.

My name is Nelson Abdullah and I am Oldironsides.

Signatures needed by June 27, 2014 to reach goal of 100,000

59,407

Total signatures on this petition

40,593

If you are a U.S. resident I urge you to go to this web site and sign the petition.

we petition the obama administration to:

Act in the case of Meriam Ibrahim in Sudan and her baby and toddler in prison.

We strongly urge the administration to take action in the case of Dr. Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who with her toddler and newborn baby (who pending the proper documentation are American citizens) is languishing inside a prison in Khartoum. While Meriam awaits execution for the “crime” of converting to Christianity, her children are forced to be at her side in a prison that a 2008 U.N. document reported as having an infant mortality rate of one per day in the summer. No innocent child should be in this situation. We urge you to pressure the Sudanese government to release Meriam and her children so she can escape execution and possible death of her children and be rejoined with her husband in the U.S. Please grant her expedited safe haven in the U.S., where she could seek asylum.
Created: May 28, 2014