07/19/16

GOP Convention: The Former Party of Law and Order Goes Bananas (as in Banana Republic)

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

The odds were against those who opposed Donald Trump at the Republican Convention from the outset. They did not prevail yesterday and what I briefly witnessed was jaw-dropping. It shows an utter contempt for the grassroots and the intentional eradication of conservatism in the Republican Party. If I hadn’t already been staunchly against Donald Trump before yesterday, I certainly would have been by today. I’ve also developed an uber aversion to nationalism and populism. It reminds me far too much of Germany in the 1930’s.

I’m well aware mine is not the popular stance. Everyone wants on the Trump train… even many of those who staunchly stood against Trump after what he did to Ted Cruz are beginning to warm to him. Many are in a panic to keep Hillary Clinton out of office and I can understand and appreciate that. What I can’t do here is follow evil to keep evil out of power. I can’t and won’t do it, no matter the cost. When this started, I was gently warned that if I stood against Trump, it would destroy me. So be it. I will raise my voice and keep speaking out as long as I can, regardless of what they do.

I am far from alone in this. Many constitutional conservatives have been threatened by Team Trump. We are told to get out of the party and that our viewpoints and votes don’t count. We are also told that if Trump loses to Clinton, it will be our fault. You can’t have it both ways… either we are irrelevant or too relevant. We are told that if we don’t vote for Trump, it is a vote for Clinton. What hogwash and that is a monstrous lie all in itself. I and many others will vote our conscience and stand by our principles and no one… I mean NO ONE is going to bully us into following their dear leader.

Yesterday, on the first day of the convention, I watched the former attorney general of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli and Senator Mike Lee of Utah call for a roll call of the states. This is normal and they wanted a vote on the rules going forward in the party. What wasn’t normal was the chairman first calling for a voice vote, which he gave to the Trumpsters and then walked off the stage, initially denying the roll call vote. After some time, he finally came back and took another voice vote, which he again gave to the Trumpsters. I listened and it sounded like a tie to me, but it wouldn’t have mattered… the fix was in. All you had to do was look at the seating arrangements at the convention to know that. The ones for Trump were given prime seating.

This whole thing was over a rules package. This package was not just an anti-Trump package, but also included a number of reforms that conservatives – including some pro-Trump delegates have been supportive of. But it wasn’t even allowed to be brought forward. Originally, 11 states supported the package. According to RedState, the secretary was literally physically hiding from delegates who were attempting to file petitions to force a roll call vote. Other witnesses allege that delegates who attempted to force the issue were prevented from approaching by armed guard. The petitions were finally filed and accepted.

Those delegates were hoping for a state-by-state vote on the rules that bind delegates to back Trump.

“I have no idea what’s going on right now,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee said Monday, who helped lead the failed uprising. “This is surreal.”

Deputy Chair Steve Womack eventually recognized the delegation from Utah, who requested a roll call vote. Womack stated that initially, 9 states had filed petitions, but three withdrew, leaving the motion under the 7 states required for a roll call vote. Therefore, he says, a roll call vote cannot happen. The convention has moved on to the platform committee consideration. It appears the rules challenge and the roll call vote is dead. The three delegations that dropped out of the effort to challenge the rules package were the District of Columbia, Minnesota and Maine. Alaska did not file the paperwork properly, while Iowa dropped out after the fact. As I said before, there were 11 states, not 9. What I can tell you is there was strong arming and bribing going on. If Trump is elected, his presidency will certainly be known for its heavy-handed, unconstitutional, thuggish ways. Not to mention pathological lying.

Rory Cooper, senior adviser with the Never Trump group, blasted party officials, saying in a statement: “Delegates presented party officials with more than enough states to force a roll call vote on the floor. There is no excuse for strong arming delegates and skirting the rules to silence these members of the party.”

North Dakota delegate Gary Emineth, who had a role on the Trump Victory fundraising committee, resigned in protest following the floor fight over the way the anti-Trump forces were treated.

“They want a kumbaya moment. Why can’t we have a little drama?” he said. He also had strong words for RNC Chairman Reince Priebus; asked if Priebus should resign, he said “yes.”

“We won’t sit around and coronate a king,” said Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh, who like many insurgents backed vanquished presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Many delegates began chanting: “Roll Call. Roll Call,” effectively calling for a lengthy process that would allow every state to weigh in. Following the votes, almost all of the Colorado and half of Iowa’s delegations walked out. Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli and members of his state’s delegation were screaming “shame” amid the vote; he later told CNN the RNC “violated its rules.”

“This entire system is rigged to force the vote for Donald Trump,” said Kendal Unruh, one of the Colorado delegates. Cuccinelli called the situation “appalling”.

“This is the party of law and order. … If you won’t obey your own rules there is no reason to think you’ll obey any others,” Cuccinelli told MSNBC.

Trump’s son and adviser, Donald Trump Jr., threatened the leaders of the attempted revolt, saying: “Your careers are finished” in a message posted on Twitter. Trump’s campaign had the names of the delegates standing against him and they were hounded and threatened yesterday.

A Utah delegate also claims to have been confronted:

A Utah delegate was reportedly threatened inside a bathroom at Quicken Loans Arena during the Republican National Convention Monday.

According to NBC, Utah delegate Kera Birkeland was on the floor during the Rules vote as one of the delegates calling for a roll call vote.

Birkeland reportedly went to the women’s restroom and when she emerged from a stall, a group of Trump supporters surrounded her and threatened to kill her, urging her to leave the party and the state.

Birkeland is 33 years-old, a Mormon and a Cruz delegate.

After all this occurred and Trump continued with the convention, I just sat in wonder at how easily those I thought were conservatives, eschewed their values to follow the cult of personality in Donald Trump. An unprincipled, dishonest, vile and vicious man, who is Godless in my opinion. He is using people left and right and manipulating the system expertly. We had a real chance to elect a constitutional conservative… a man of faith and principles… and we turned away not only from everything this country was founded upon, but God Himself. As this plays out, there will be a heavy price to pay and America has earned it every step of the way over this. I know Cruz is slated to speak… I wish he would cancel. It would be way more than appropriate here.

Eerily, Melania Trump’s speech sounded like a retread of Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008. Looks like the RNC has bought into the same type of leadership that the left bought into in 2008. It’s a repeat, only on the right.

The Republican Party is now more of a banana republic than a political force, where only those who support Trump have a voice. Conservatives and constitutionalists are being purged just as promised by Trump and his minions. They show an overwhelming tendency to violence, force and mafia-tactics.

The moment that spoke the most to me was Trump’s theatrical entrance, where he walked in slowly with dim lights and fog surrounding him. It was the counter to Greek columns. This is what we have chosen as our candidate. God help the Republic, but I doubt it.

06/30/16

Sen. Mike Lee Launches Epic Rant After Conservative Show Host Asks Him Why He Hasn’t Endorsed Trump

By: Tré Goins-Phillips | TheBlaze

Republican Sen. Mike Lee went off on an epic rant against Donald Trump Wednesday when one show host asked the Utah lawmaker why he hasn’t endorsed the presumptive GOP nominee.

Newsmax TV anchor Steve Malzberg wanted to know why Lee isn’t “out there trumpeting Trump,” adding that he “doesn’t understand” why he wouldn’t be backing the billionaire businessman. Lee offered a laundry list of reasons.

Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images

“Hey look, Steve, I get it. You want me to endorse Trump,” Lee responded. “We can get into that if you want.”

At that, Lee slammed Trump for pushing a conspiracy theory that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael, was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and said the candidate’s comments about Muslims are “religiously intolerant.”

“We can get into the fact that he accused my best friend’s father of conspiring to kill JFK,” the senator said. “We can go through the fact that he’s made statements that some have identified correctly as religiously intolerant. We can get into the fact that he’s wildly unpopular in my state, in part because my state consists of people who are members of a religious minority church.”

Lee added that part of the reason some Utahns — many of whom are Mormon — dislike Trump is because, as “a people who were ordered exterminated by the governor of Missouri in 1838,” policy proposals like the real estate mogul’s Muslim ban “make them nervous.”

The only way Lee could move on, he said, is if he “heard the right things” from Trump moving forward.

“I can go on if you like, … but don’t sit here and tell me, Steve, that I have no reason to be concerned about Donald Trump,” Lee told Malzberg.

In response, the Newsmax anchor seemed surprised the issues the senator listed would be reason enough to withhold an endorsement, telling Lee his complaints “dwarf” in comparison to concerns over Hillary Clinton.

“To me, the concerns that you should have about Hillary Clinton would dwarf most if not all, in my view, I can’t speak for you, of what you just said,” Malzberg said. “She’s under FBI investigation, she takes money from countries that kill gays, that treat women like garbage. You know, we know about the email scandal, I mean, the list goes on: the Clinton Foundation, the conflict of interest, I mean, the corruption, the lifelong corruption. It goes on and on and on.”

Malzberg then seemed to suggest Trump’s peddling of conspiracy theories about Cruz’s father pales by comparison, but Lee wasn’t quite ready to let it go.

“Right, right, he said that,” Lee interjected. “He actually said that. He said that without any scintilla, without a scintilla of evidence. Now that concerns me.”

Lee, who “can’t vote for” Clinton, told Malzberg he would like to see “assurances” from Trump that he is going to be a “vigorous defender” of the U.S. Constitution and won’t lead in an “authoritarian” manner.

“I’m sorry, sir, but that is not an unreasonable demand,” he concluded.

10/5/15

Cruz Stands Alone in the Senate – A Lone Voice for Americans… A True Conservative [Video]

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Ted Cruz gave possibly the best speech I have ever heard on the Senate Floor. John Adams would have been proud of him. While on the Senate floor, Cruz beseeched his fellow Republicans to defend the most innocent among us… the unborn. He spoke fervently in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood and protecting the precious lives of millions of unborn babies. This is an issue that most conservatives are in favor of and support. It is at the very heart of being a conservative. The magnificent speech that Ted Cruz gave followed the GOP leadership’s blocking of his attempt to get them to vote on his amendment to strip the funding from the butchers of Planned Parenthood and the apocalyptic funding of the Iranian nuclear deal.

In a voice reminiscent of the Founding Fathers, Cruz flayed the Republican leadership in Congress for utterly failing to “lift a finger to defend life” by defunding Planned Parenthood. These so-called leaders that we have voted in and trusted with the leadership of our country, betrayed everything they stood for by voting 77 to 19 to advance a bill to authorize spending for Planned Parenthood and to fuel the publicly funded abortion mill. Ted Cruz is absolutely right when he points out that Planned Parenthood has committed multiple heinous crimes that they should be charged, prosecuted and convicted for. He asked why the DOJ and the FBI have failed to open any investigation into the death retailer. Then Cruz wondered aloud how it was possible that not one single Democrat has called for that investigation – not one.

How is it that these people that we have elected, many claiming to be Tea Party conservatives, seem determined to vote for everything we stand against? They support murderers of the unborn; they seem cool with Obamacare; they spend like drunken sailors and they let the immigration/refugee crisis here in the US spiral ever further out of control. All of them seem to back Barack Obama to one extent or another. They say one thing and do another. Obama and the Democrats would happily walk through glass or crawl through fire to see their objectives fulfilled. Republicans can’t even be bothered with a ‘nay’ vote. It’s pathetic. The GOP has failed the American people and it is no longer the party of conservatives. They are Democrat-lite. They are moderate Marxists. The Senate, the House, the Presidency and the Supreme Court all need a political enema.

Instead of standing against extortion by Obama, the Republicans fold like a cheap hand. Obama says if Planned Parenthood isn’t funded, then he will veto funding for the entire federal government and shut it down. The Republicans, except for Ted Cruz, proceed to roll over and wet on themselves. Then they crawl to Obama and offer up the unborn on a sacrificial bloody alter, so they can make nice with a demon. It’s abhorrent and evil. Every one of them should be voted out of office. The House and Senate are about to pass a “clean” spending bill, but Cruz said that bill is anything but clean and right he is. It’s really hard to wash all that blood off, isn’t it guys?

We don’t need people in Congress who are willing to play along, to get along. We need warriors who will fight for the American people and what is right. We need constitutionalists like Ted Cruz who will do the right thing no matter what… who don’t care if it costs them everything. For doing the right thing, the principled thing, Cruz has been ceaselessly derided, not just by those in Congress, but by the media, talking heads, pundits and frankly, by those who should know better.

While the Senate voted, Cruz offered up an amendment to stop Planned Parenthood’s funding. It would have also cut off funds for the monstrous Iranian nuclear deal. The next thing that happened was beyond the pale and signaled what I consider to be the end of the Republican Party. In a departure from Senate custom, a quartet of Republican leaders blocked the Texas senator from even getting a vote on his amendment. Only one senator, Mike Lee of Utah, stood with Cruz on the Senate floor. Only one ethical man who was determined to vote to save the unborn and the millions who could die in a nuclear holocaust stood with Ted Cruz. Only one.

Yes, Cruz is an outsider. He has no support in the Senate, because unlike the rest of the sycophants there, he believes in doing what he was sent there to do. Not make buddies and money… not garner power and influence. And instead of holding him up for the leader he is, all I hear are those that paint him as some kind of lunatic or egomaniac because he won’t play nice. It’s beyond infuriating and it explains why we are where we are. When good men like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are not only not allowed to do the right thing, they are excoriated for it, you have turned into Rome and the barbarians are at the gate. Literally.

Cruz’s hour-long speech goes over this and his disappointment in his fellow countrymen is apparent. When the ones who could actually save our country can longer even be heard because of gangs who run the Senate, then I fear for my government and I certainly fear for my country. But the betrayal goes deeper still. I give you Rand Paul who was a staunch supporter of Mitch McConnell and still is. He is now claiming that Cruz is done for because he called McConnell the liar that he is. I am truly sorry I ever supported Senator Paul. Never, ever again.

“Ted has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names, which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence, he can’t get anything done legislatively,” Paul told Fox News Radio. “He is pretty much done for and stifled and it’s really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem”…

“I approach things a little different, I am still just as hardcore in saying what we are doing, I just chose not to call people liars on the Senate floor and it’s just a matter of different perspectives on how best to get to the end result,” Paul said in the interview.

The Tea Party helped propel Paul forward and what does he do? He sidles up to a corrupt bureaucrat and deftly crawls between the sheets with him. Paul has now chosen his side and it is McConnell’s. He says he’s staying in the presidential race… I don’t know why he should even bother. He has no chance of winning and he should just slink back to Kentucky where he can huddle with McConnell to dominate that state. Rand Paul has finally shown his true face. Compromise is just another word for surrender, Senator.

Cruz is cut from a different cloth than Paul. He will go down fighting. If working the system is in vain, why not? Better to lose a political battle than your soul. Cruz has principles and integrity – Paul, not so much evidently.

Ted Cruz’s campaign is slow and steady. His coffers are being filled by those that know he is a man that actually represents America, not the rotten Washington Cartel.

Supporters of Paul have been steadily joining the Cruz team. Evangelicals are solidly behind Ted Cruz because he is a man of faith, as is his father, Rafael Cruz. He is the very embodiment of an anti-establishment candidate and Cruz will go all the way in his bid to win the presidency. He believes the country is at stake, as do I. One of the reasons Paul has turned on Cruz, who was a friend and a solid one at that, is because of sheer jealousy in my opinion. He is losing support to the Texan and that just ticks him off. Cruz’s “Liberty Leaders for Cruz” coalition is made up of mostly former Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) supporters, a direct affront to Sen. Rand Paul.

I firmly support Ted Cruz for the nomination. The fact that he stands alone in the Senate only adds more to his credit. America is going to have to make a decision… do you want someone who tells the truth and will do the right thing no matter what, or do you want someone who is good at politics and being part of the good ole boy club? Are you willing to fight the dirty Washington Cartel or are you willing to let the Marxists on both sides of the aisle take over permanently? Because that is what we are talking about here. People have screamed for a leader who would rise up and speak and act like Reagan. Ted Cruz is that man and because of that he is feared and hated in the beltway. But every day he goes to do battle in the belly of the beast – that takes courage and fortitude. Isn’t that the leader we need? The one we have waited and cried for? Now is the time to rally behind Ted Cruz with thunderous support and save our nation. If you want to see and hear a modern day equivalent of the Founding Fathers, watch Cruz’s speech below. It says it far better than I can. Ted Cruz is a true constitutional conservative.

Maggie’s Notebook: Ted Cruz: Why Boehner Resigned, Why We Don’t Need Conservatives in Congress (a transcript of the above speech is available here)

07/27/15

Ted Cruz – A Matter Of Honor [Video]

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Ted Cruz threw down the conservative gauntlet in the Senate this week. This was inspiring… it is something I have never seen happen before in my lifetime. He boldly and honestly called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar. It was long overdue and immensely satisfying. The straw that broke the elephant’s back was the vote on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. McConnell went one lie too far this time.

Cruz voted for Obama’s Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) the first go-around in the Senate based on McConnell’s word and he famously turned against the fast-track trade authority later. Because it was based on lies.

From the AP:

In a stunning attack on a leader of his own party, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of lying to him and said he couldn’t be trusted.

Cruz, a Texan who is running for president but ranks low in early polling, delivered the broadside in a speech on the Senate floor, an extraordinary departure from the norms of Senate behavior that demand courtesy and respect.

At issue are assurances Cruz claimed McConnell, R-Ky., had given that there was no deal to allow a vote to renew the federal Export-Import Bank – a little-known federal agency that has become a rallying cry for conservatives. Cruz rose to deliver his remarks moments after McConnell had lined up a vote on the Export-Import Bank for coming days.

“It saddens me to say this. I sat in my office, I told my staff the majority leader looked me in the eye and looked 54 Republicans in the eye. I cannot believe he would tell a flat-out lie, and I voted based on those assurances that he made to each and every one of us,” Cruz said.

“What we just saw today was an absolute demonstration that not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over and over again, was a simple lie.”

A spokesman said McConnell would have no response. The majority leader was not on the Senate floor when Cruz issued his attack.

“Today is a sad day for this institution,” said Cruz with a heavy heart. “What we just witnessed this morning is profoundly disappointing.” Betrayal always is, especially from someone you really, really want to believe in. Cruz made his statements after McConnell set up a procedural vote to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which expired last month. Democrats claim McConnell agreed to allow a vote on attaching the Export-Import Bank to “must-pass” legislation to win support from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) for a trade package earlier this year.

When Cruz approached McConnell on the floor in a private conversation, McConnell, with biblical overtones, denied to him three times that there was such a deal. “The majority leader was visibly angry with me that I would ask him such a question,” Cruz said. “The majority looked at me and said ‘there is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal.'” The good senator’s staff tried to warn him about McConnell, but Cruz just couldn’t believe that McConnell would lie to his face and to every other conservative out there like this. He was wrong and learned of McConnell’s treachery the hard way. But then Ted Cruz did something that no one in my memory has done… he called McConnell out for his lying ways on the Senate floor. McConnell’s errand boy say’s he has no response. Maybe not verbally, but Ted Cruz has made a very powerful and evil enemy. You know what? I don’t think he cares. Good.

Cruz pointed out that McConnell’s move to allow the Export-Import Bank vote shows that he does not always mean what he says – that he’s dishonest. “Well, we now know that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment that he is willing to say things that he knows are false,” Cruz added. He also pointed out that it could have ramifications down the road. That’s an understatement. We now have open warfare in the Senate and that is a good thing. “That has consequences for how this body operates,” Cruz said. “If you or I cannot trust what the majority leader tells us, that will have consequences on other legislation, as well as on how this institution operates.” Plainer and truer words have never been spoken.

It doesn’t end there. Cruz also berated McConnell for using a procedural maneuver to prevent other amendments from being offered to the Highway Bill. That’s the vehicle that will be used for the Export-Import Bank vote. In a breathtakingly hypocritical move, McConnell “filled the tree” just as Harry Reid frequently did. This was to stop amendments when Democrats had a Senate majority. Of course, when McConnell did it, Reid screamed to the heavens. McConnell also set up a vote on repealing ObamaCare. That particular maneuver was a faux move to appease conservatives – it would not have succeeded and McConnell knew it, so it was safe to set up the vote. Cruz is a smart guy and saw right through McConnell’s machinations. “I agree with Senator Reid when he said the ObamaCare amendment is a cynical amendment. Of course it is. It is empty showmanship,” Cruz added.

This is a bitter fight between the GOP leadership and conservatives and it’s about to get real. While Donald Trump is excoriating the media and bringing illegal immigration to the forefront, Cruz is in the Senate stirring the pot and calling out the Washington Cartel. Joining Cruz in the political brawl are Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY).

From the Conservative Review:

McConnell has avoided one procedural blockade. The Senate Majority Leader has attached the highway bill to an unrelated bill from the House to make sure that he does not violate the Constitution.

Leader McConnell called up a House passed bill and added the text of the highway bill to it, then he called up an amendment that allows the Export-Import Bank to continue. This married an unrelated House bill to the highway bill and EX-IM. But then Senator McConnell did something that was unexpected.

Next, Senator McConnell offered an amendment for a full repeal of Obamacare. This seemed to be an attempt to intimidate the Tea Party faction in the Senate to take the vote on a full repeal of Obamacare and walk away from the fight over EX-IM. The problem is that nobody believes the Obamacare amendment to be anything other than meaningless vote.

McConnell then proceeded to use a parliamentary maneuver, abhorred by many conservatives and Senate procedure strict constructionists, to block all other amendments to the bill. This tactic, known as “Filling the Amendment Tree,” enraged many members of the Republican caucus who wanted to offer their own amendments to the bill. When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) ran the Senate he frequently filled the amendment tree as a way to block Republicans from ever offering amendments. This obstructionist tactic still rubs many conservatives the wrong way and is still considered by many to be an abuse of power.

Enter Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz took to the floor and offered an amendment to condition the Iran deal on Iran recognizing the right of Israel to exist and calling on Iran to release Americans held hostage. The Cruz amendment violates the Senate’s rules, because, under the current scenario, only certain amendments are allowed.

Do you see the shady dealings that McConnell is engaged in here? It’s dirty political pool. All meant to reinstate the Export-Import Bank by whatever means necessary. It’s a slap in the face to conservatives and furthers crony capitalism in the ranks.

This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party between Progressives on the Right and Constitutional conservatives. As Reagan did, the conservatives are trying to reform the Republican Party from within. The fight will be bloody and definitive. If the Progressives win, a third party will be born and the GOP will go the way of the Whigs. Marxist rule will most likely prevail in America for the foreseeable future if that happens. If the conservatives ascend, then the GOP will take a much needed sharp turn to the right and the Tea Party and other conservatives will become the new face of the GOP. It will mark the beginning of the war to return the US to its Constitutional roots and freedoms.

From The Daily Signal:

Conservatives in the U.S. Senate are gearing up to challenge Republican leadership today, setting their sights on a plan to repeal Obamacare with 51 votes—a measure that will easily pass if the 54 GOP senators support it.

The move comes after several contentious days of fighting over the GOP leadership’s priorities. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., allowed a vote Sunday to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank despite his stated opposition. It passed, 67-26, but drew a sharp rebuke from conservatives.

“The American people elected a Republican majority believing that a Republican majority would be somehow different from a Democratic majority in the United States Senate,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said. “Unfortunately, the way the current Senate operates, there is one party, the Washington party.”

Mike Lee and Ted Cruz couldn’t get anywhere over the weekend in the Senate on their Planned Parenthood and Iran amendments. Both were denied a roll call vote, a maneuver Senate experts said was highly unusual. Cruz called it an “unprecedented” plot by McConnell and Reid. And that is exactly what it was.

“What we just saw a moment ago is unprecedented in the annals of Senate history,” Cruz said. “It consisted of the majority leader and the minority leader denying members the ability to have votes on their amendments and indeed the ability even to have a roll call vote.” Mike Lee will be making his move for an amendment on repealing Obamacare shortly and we can only hope and pray that it goes through, but I doubt it. The Export-Import Bank measure easily passed Sunday with unanimous Democrat support. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell renewed funding for the Export-Import Bank despite previous promises. Then McConnell blocked defunding Planned Parenthood and Ted Cruz’ Kate’s Law, which mandates that undocumented aliens who are deported and return to the United States would receive a mandatory five year sentence in a federal penitentiary upon conviction. That piece of legislation arose after Trump turned a spotlight on Sanctuary Cities – specifically San Francisco where Kate Steinle was murdered by an illegal alien criminal who had been deported five times. Tell me again whose side McConnell is on?

Ted Cruz was predictably rebuked by McConnell’s henchmen: Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. All because he exposed the backroom deals of Mitch McConnell and the fact that he’s a prolific liar. McConnell is sooo busy with his backroom deals, bribes, schemes and illicit doings that he can’t bother with being subtle anymore. I guess he figures Americans are either too stupid to get it or just aren’t paying attention. We’re broke as a nation – utterly bankrupt. Yet, McConnell is for more and more taxation and deficit spending. He doesn’t care what the fallout is down the road… he’s in it for the here and now and how much power, control and wealth he can amass personally. Constitution and America be damned. There is no difference between what Mitch McConnell does and what the Marxist Democrats do – none.

In the end, this also benefits not only McConnell, but Obama’s minions, Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce. Cruz has criticized politicians on both sides of the aisle for this type of complicity and corruption. He has stood for principle and the Constitution unfailingly. McConnell despises him for it as do his cronies.

Ted Cruz defended himself in a special session against charges that he broke Rule 19 of the Senate rules by calling Mitch McConnell a liar concerning what he had promised him personally. Cruz says there is nothing wrong with telling the truth on the floor. There certainly isn’t and it takes courage to do so. He went on to say, “I entirely agree” with Hatch’s call for civility. But says “speaking the truth” is “entirely consistent with civility.” I couldn’t agree more.

Ted Cruz has set his sights on the Washington Cartel. He means to take them down with his band of conservatives. I believe Reagan would approve and this is a fight that must happen. It’s what I have been waiting for and I roundly applaud Cruz for leading the fight in the Congress and Trump for taking on the media and rallying the grassroots. This is a brilliant divide and conquer technique playing out. I don’t know who will be president in the end, but I can tell you this… when the dust settles, the GOP will never be the same. And I suspect standing in the midst of victory will be a man of honor – Ted Cruz.

04/25/15

Loretta “I Refuse To Answer” Lynch Confirmed As Attorney General After Republican Betrayal

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Getty Images

The Republican Party is becoming more and more detached from their conservative base. They seem to vote against anything the conservatives want and do all they can to enable our Marxist president. As Andrew McCarthy put it, “Voting to confirm an attorney general who won’t uphold the Constitution isn’t a way to inspire confidence among conservatives.”

Last Thursday, Karl Rove couldn’t wait to announce that, “The dysfunctional Congress finally appears to be working again as the Founders intended.” Really? Because this isn’t the way I perceive the Founders having intended it at all. They would have impeached and removed a sitting president who acted like a monarch. Then to validate Rove’s proclamation, the GOP-controlled Senate confirmed as attorney general Loretta Lynch who blatantly supports the systematic non-enforcement of federal law. Ms. Lynch also supports President Obama’s boldly unconstitutional usurpations of legislative authority, including Congress’ power to set the terms of lawful presence by aliens in our country. Ted Cruz SLAMMED the Republican majority in the Senate for allowing the Lynch nomination:

On the Senate floor a few moments ago, Ted Cruz SLAMMED the new Senate Republican majority for refusing to block Loretta Lynch’s nomination to attorney general. He said that the Republican majority could continue to block the nomination if they wanted to and it’s something he’s urged them to do because of her admissions to run the DOJ in a lawless fashion just like Eric Holder.

He pointed out that more than a few voters are asking what is the difference between a Republican and Democratic Senate majority when someone promising the exact same lawlessness as Holder will be allowed to get confirmed. He says that’s something each Republican will have to explain to their constituents.

He also adds that not a single Republican can vote for such a nomination and be consistent with their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution.

Unfortunately, Loretta Lynch was just confirmed. Sigh.

Here is a small sampling of Loretta Lynch’s answers at her confirmation hearing:

Q: Will you defend Obama’s illegal Executive Amnesty?
A: Lynch thinks the Administration’s contrived legal justification is reasonable. She sees nothing wrong with the President’s decision to unilaterally grant lawful status and work authorizations that are explicitly barred by federal law to nearly 5 million people who are here illegally.

Q: Who has more right to a job in this country? A lawful immigrant who’s here as a citizen – or a person who entered the country unlawfully?
A: Lynch believes that the right and the obligation to work is one that’s shared by everyone in this country regardless of how they came here. And certainly, if someone is here, regardless of status, she would prefer that they would be participating in the workplace than not participating in the workplace.

Q: Concerning the limits of prosecutorial discretion… the dubious theory that President Obama has put forward to justify his illegal Executive Amnesty; where do you stand?
A: Lynch would give no limits to that theory.

Q: Can a subsequent President use prosecutorial discretion to order the Treasury Secretary not to enforce the tax laws and to collect no more income taxes in excess of 25%?
A: She refused to answer.

Q: Can a subsequent President use prosecutorial discretion to exempt the state of Texas, all 27 million people, from every single federal labor and environmental law?
A: She refused to answer.

Q: Do you agree with the Holder Justice Department that the government could place a GPS sensor on the car of every single American without probable cause?
A: She refused to answer.

Q: Do you agree with the Holder Justice Department that the First Amendment gives no religious liberty protection whatsoever to a church’s or a synagogue’s choice of their own pastor or rabbi?
A: She refused to answer.

Q: Do you believe the federal government can employ a drone to kill a US citizen on American soil if that citizen does not pose an imminent threat?
A: She refused to answer.

Q: Would you be willing to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the IRS’ targeting of citizens and citizen groups for their political views? An investigator that was at a minimum, not a major Obama donor?
A: She refused to answer.

Our ‘functional Congress’ confirmed Loretta Lynch as our new attorney general, replacing Eric Holder, possibly the most lawless, racist and fascist AG this nation has ever seen. Lynch testified brazenly that she endorses and intends to facilitate the president’s lawlessness and constitutional violations. Having heard her testimony during the confirmation hearings, 10 Republican senators decided to vote for Lynch. Remember, the position of attorney general exists to ensure that the laws are enforced and the Constitution is preserved; and… each senator has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. This should have been a no-brainer. Yet, Republicans sided with the Marxist Leftists and Lynch was confirmed. The ten Republicans who voted for confirmation were: Kelly Ayotte, Ron Johnson, Mark Kirk, Rob Portman, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell. The Senate voted 56–43 in favor of Lynch.

Mitch McConnell bald-facedly lied in October. While he was wooing conservatives for the upcoming midterm election, he stated that any nominee that was going to replace Eric Holder as “the nation’s highest law-enforcement official” must, “as a condition of his or her confirmation,” avoid “at all costs” Holder’s penchant for putting “political and ideological commitments ahead of the rule of law” — including as it “relates to the president’s acting unilaterally on immigration or anything else.” He fibbed big time and betrayed conservatives nationwide. It was his wheeling and dealing that led to the deal that was struck with Harry Reid and that cinched Lynch’s confirmation.

Here’s Mitch McConnell’s deal: If Democrats agree to stop blocking a human trafficking bill over some boilerplate language regarding abortion funding — a position that made them look unreasonable — Republicans, with all the leverage imaginable, will help confirm another attorney general nominee who will rubber stamp the president’s many overreaches. So, you see in the end, the Republicans voted for the continuation of the abuse of Executive power. It’s really just that simple. The reasons given for supporting Lynch included that she was a black woman and the best so far to come out the Obama White House – those are two breathtakingly horrible reasons for Lynch to be confirmed. It’s absolutely shameful politicking.

If you didn’t think Mitch McConnell was a lying, conniving Progressive before… you should now. Once the November election was won and behind him, McConnell went to work behind the scenes to whip up support for Loretta Lynch. He wielded his power from the shadows and strong-armed others into supporting her. By voting for her confirmation, he summarily flipped off any conservative who had been foolish enough to believe his campaign rhetoric. Suckers.

But it is even worse than that. From Andrew McCarthy:

That doesn’t begin to quantify the perfidy, though. In order to get Lynch to the finish line, McConnell first had to break conservative opposition to allowing a final vote for her nomination. The majority leader thus twisted enough arms that 20 Republicans voted to end debate. This guaranteed that Lynch would not only get a final vote but would, in the end, prevail — Senators Hatch, Graham, Flake, Collins, and Kirk having already announced their intention to join all 46 Democrats in getting Lynch to the magic confirmation number of 51.

So, in addition to the aforementioned ten Republicans who said “aye” on the final vote to make Lynch attorney general, there are ten others who conspired in the GOP’s now routine parliamentary deception: Vote in favor of ending debate, knowing that this will give Democrats ultimate victory, but cast a meaningless vote against the Democrats in the final tally in order to pose as staunch Obama opponents when schmoozing the saps back home. These ten — John Thune (S.D.), John Cornyn (Texas), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Cory Gardner (Col.), Mike Rounds (S.D.), and Thom Tillis (N.C.) — are just as willfully complicit in Lynch’s confirmation and her imminent execution of Obama’s lawlessness.

This is not a Senate back to regular order. It is a disgrace, one that leads to the farce’s final act: On Monday, Loretta Lynch will ceremoniously take the oath to uphold the Constitution she has already told us she will undermine.

This is not about immigration, amnesty, health care, and the full spectrum of tough issues on which reasonable minds can differ. It is about the collapse of fundamental assumptions on which the rule of law rests. When solemn oaths are empty words, when missions such as “law enforcement” become self-parody, public contempt for Washington intensifies — in particular, on the political right, which wants to preserve the good society and constitutional order the rule of law sustains.

Mitch McConnell and the other Progressive RINOs are responsible for destroying mainstream America’s faith in their government and the rule of law. Our contempt and disgust for those in DC is now complete. The last time out for a presidential election, millions of Republicans were so disillusioned that they stayed home rather than voting. Obama won a second term that way. It appears that the Republican Party is intent on losing the next presidential race as well… they obviously don’t give a flying crap about their base. Ask yourself this… would McConnell be doing anything differently if he were Obama’s insider in the Senate?

Mike Lee had this to say:

“I voted against her because even though I walked into her confirmation process with an open mind, hoping and even expecting to like her, I couldn’t vote for her because she refused to answer any of my questions about prosecutorial discretion and its limits,” Sen. Mike Lee, whose grilling gave Lynch the most trouble, told The Federalist. “Even as I made the questions more and more obvious, and gave her hypotheticals which I thought made the question clearer, she refused to answer. It’s not because she doesn’t have the capacity, it’s because she had concluded that she wanted to share as little information as possible and, apparently, she responded well to coaching. I found that troubling.”

Lee had offered a hypothetical scenario wherein a governor wanted to raise the speed limit from 55 miles per-hour to 75 but could not convince the legislature. Could that governor decide to unilaterally instruct his highway patrol to not enforce the speed limit? Could he issue permits to drivers who wanted to exceed the limits established by statute? “I thought that was a pretty reasonable hypothetical,” Lee explained. She refused [to] discuss the scenario.

And from TheBlaze:

Much of the GOP’s opposition to Lynch was due to her support for Obama’s executive action on immigration. During her confirmation hearing, Lynch said she believes Obama’s plan was consistent with the Constitution, drawing outrage from Republicans who have said it’s an end-run around Congress.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the most vocal Republican against Obama’s plan, said the Senate shouldn’t confirm Lynch to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer given her support for what he has called an illegal move by Obama.

“The Senate must never confirm an individual to such an office as this who will support and advance a scheme that violates our Constitution and eviscerates established law and congressional authority,” he said Thursday. “No person who would do that should be confirmed. And we don’t need to be apologetic about it, colleagues.”

Obstructionist and evasive doesn’t quite do Loretta Lynch justice here. In my opinion, she is an anti-Constitutionalist and certainly a Liberal Progressive. I am convinced that Lynch is not only a racist, she will be just as bad or worse than Eric Holder and you can thank, in large part, Mitch McConnell and the Progressive Republicans for it. She also has a very special enthusiasm for civil asset forfeiture that she will up the stakes on across the nation. The fact that she is black and a woman should have nothing to do with her confirmation – her adherence and stances on the law and the Constitution should be all that counts. We are definitely at a Constitutional tipping point and Loretta “I Refuse To Answer” Lynch may very well be the Progressive straw that broke the Republic’s back.

03/13/15

The Founders Didn’t Fail—We Are Failing The Founders

By: Benjamin Weingarten
The Federalist

Conservatives are understandably depressed in the wake of Speaker Boehner and the Republican-controlled Congress’ predictable caving on executive amnesty.

Let me stop right there by emphasizing that I only said conservatives. Were our republic healthy, every single American would be depressed that President Obama’s amnesty—which on dozens of occasions he said he did not have the authority to enforce—will continue apace to the benefit of lawbreakers at the expense of American citizens.

Americans would be further demoralized at the notion that our president politicized the sovereignty of our nation represented by failing to protect its borders, all in a transparent attempt to win a permanent Democratic majority—which the shortsighted Republican establishment seem perfectly fine with, since they want immigration and the idea of “those racist Republicans” to become non-issues.

Some are lamenting the cowardice of our representatives, and to that I quote a former NFL Coach: “They are who we thought they were!”

I have even seen one article arguing that the Constitution itself has failed. But the Constitution and our Founders did not fail. Human nature has not changed between 1787 and 2015. There were undoubtedly plenty of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century booze-swilling, cigar-smoking iterations of John Boehner lumbering around Capitol Hill.

What has changed is the size and scope of government, the number and composition of people who are voting, and the public’s general indifference to and acceptance of the greed, graft, lying, and all matter of corruption that have become commonplace in public life. There is also a heck of a lot more bread and circuses to keep us fat, happy, and distracted from what our supposed leaders are doing.

Government Is Too Big to Control

Entitlement reform is not going to capture the imagination of the American people like a llama chase or the color of a dress. And it bears noting that many of the Founders themselves were involved in sordid activities, and even willing to accept a king.

But that king’s powers would have looked downright puny compared to those President Obama wields today; and what corrupt politicians did way back when feels less offensive than the systemic abuse and political malpractice on display now, in part because the nation our founders—exceptional citizen legislators—entrusted us with was substantially smaller and less intrusive.

Today, when you have hundreds of agencies and millions of pages of laws, when the federal government is among the largest employers in the world, hyper-regulating almost every aspect of our society, creating arcane and byzantine rules designed to reward one set of constituents or another over and above the American people, not to mention the rule makers, rule interpreters and compliance officers themselves—this naturally creates not only an unwieldy and unaccountable federal government, but one that will invite and reward people willing to pull the kinds of shenanigans we see today.

To the percentage of the public that is actually informed as to what is going on in government, there are simply too many egregious things occurring on a daily basis, not to mention again the Siren song of bread and circuses, for anyone to keep track of it all or know where to focus one’s energies and pitchforks.

The Failure Is Our Fault

What defines an informed voter itself is of course open to interpretation, given what the majority of people are taught in our hallowed Democrat-controlled community organizing institutions, also known as schools; and given that one can read The New York Times, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Vox, and watch “The Daily Show” each day to qualify as informed by today’s standards, without knowing anything about what the other half of the country thinks and believes.

On amnesty specifically, as a lame-duck president without control of either house of Congress, Barack Obama is completely unchained, simply running roughshod over our laws. That a supposed constitutional scholar is rendering the system of checks and balances and separation of powers meaningless; that the executive branch is usurping the legislative branch, while congressmen say one thing and stand by idly doing another, is not a reflection that the Constitution or founders failed.

Rather, these travesties reflect that the American people are failing the founders.

We elected Barack Obama twice, in spite of his words, actions, and associations, which have unsurprisingly led to these disastrous six-plus years. The presidents who preceded him were not much better, though no one would have posed the question of them as Mark Steyn recently dared: “If he were working for the other side, what exactly would he be doing differently?”

We elected the congressmen who with rare exceptions (see Lee, Sen. Mike) continue to stand by while Rome burns, and who are derelict in their duty to defend and protect the Constitution, including against its brazen violator who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Welfare Versus Defense: Who Wins?

We have failed to persuasively enough make the case that we cannot thrive as a nation just by slowing government’s rate of growth and hiring smarter technocrats, but must literally be slashing the federal budget by 50 percent, abolishing agencies en masse, allowing Americans to opt out of the welfare state (including programs which can only pay my generation back in devalued dollars like Social Security), ensuring that we have not small deficits but massive surpluses to pay down our debt so the interest alone does not consume all the money we pay to the feds each year, and demanding a massive devolution of power back to the states and the people where it rightfully belongs.

And if our fellow Americans choose to live in socialist basket-case states, they are free to do so without reaching into your and my pockets at the point of a gun.

At root and underlying all of these issues, we have allowed the Left to control the media, academia, and the rest of America’s key cultural institutions, such that the vast majority of our fellow citizens are reflexively progressive and cannot even conceive of the types of changes I just mentioned. This is how the radical, morally and economically bankrupting leftist policies can be considered mainstream, while freedom can be considered fascistic.

This inherent progressivism narrowly underlies Republican acquiescence to the growing leviathan, and dictates the type of leaders that America broadly finds palatable, which has led us to this perilous place in our history in which all of our worst enemies are ascendant, while we are fast on the road to bankruptcy and serfdom, with our only choice between welfare and defense.

When entitlements and our armed forces are sitting side by side on the chopping block, which do you think a war-weary, economically pummeled American public is going to choose?

We Need a New Generation of Savvy Statesmen

No, the Constitution hasn’t failed, and our founders haven’t failed. We the people have failed during the hundred-year progressive march. So now we are burdened with the doubly difficult task of trying to win the long game of culture and the short game of politics.

I have much more faith in the latter over the former—that over time the chances are greater that we develop the strategy and tactics to beat an establishment incumbent class than win America’s cherished cultural institutions, which form our national soul.

Our national soul determines whether the Constitution is a piece of parchment or enshrines principles like equal rights for all and special privileges for none, that law resides above man, that men are not angels and that we must compel government’s non-angels to control themselves, and that the most important thing in America is protecting the rights of the minority, the most important of which is the individual.

And the inspiration for our national soul should reside not in our Constitution but in the Declaration of Independence that breathes life into it, a majestic document that we have ignored for far too long.

Don’t Blame Boehner—Blame Us

In any event, we the people have all the leverage in the world. The Boehners and Mitch McConnells will listen to us when the political cost of siding with the Chamber of Commerce is so great that their political lives depend on it.

Using the power of the purse as a lever to control the president, or threatening let alone bringing forth articles of impeachment are political remedies, and they are not being used not only because the Republican establishment that makes up the majority of the majority in Congress are risk-averse and often spineless, but because the majority of the American people are not demanding it.

That impeachment brings howls of racism alone shows a failure of our culture to separate the original sin of slavery from the demerits of the job done by this president, to separate identity politics from the individual.

Until and unless we devote all of our efforts to winning the long and short games with a constant, strategic, relentless full-court press, we are going to see amnesties ad nauseum, Obamacare not only not abolished but metastasizing, the federal budget and debt continue skyrocketing, comparatively small things like the Export-Import Bank chugging along and, yes, the welfare state expanding and our defenses shrinking while Islamic supremacists, Russia, China, and their proxies grow ever-bolder and more confidently bellicose.

We the people have much work to do if we want to keep any semblance of our republic, as Benjamin Franklin challenged us to do. And we hold the power in our hands.

But do we have the will and capability to exert it?

Ben Weingarten (@bhweingarten) is publishing manager and editor of TheBlaze Books. Ben is a graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in economics-political science and contributed to outlets including the Breitbart sites and the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

01/25/15

The Iowa Freedom Summit

Hat Tip: BB

‘We LOSE when we nominate RINOS’ – Freedom Summit’s standing ovation to thinly veiled anti-Romney speech

‘Repeal every word’: Potential GOP 2016 rivals hammer ObamaCare, IRS at Iowa summit

12/16/14

Mark Levin threatens to leave the GOP

On Monday’s Mark Levin Show, The Republicans had an opportunity Saturday night to stand up and vote against this Cromnibus bill, which funds Obamacare, amnesty and President Obama’s radical agenda, and they didn’t. Mark says he is one inch away from leaving the Republican Party if this keeps up and there are thousands of people who feel the same. The Constitution is in tatters and the Republican Party doesn’t even realize they’ve ceded their power to Obama. Congress goes on about an imperial president yet do nothing about it. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell should resign but their egos won’t let them. Instead, they’re cutting deals with the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid behind closed doors, pushing their agenda to the Republican establishment in Congress, and anyone that speaks out against it like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz are attacked for not going along with the party. We are sick of voting for corrupt crony Republicans who won’t do what we voted for and continue to violate their oath of office and trample the constitution. Senators Mark Lee and Ted Cruz call in and speak with Mark to talk about the gridlock in Washington. They have to fight tooth and nail to vote on anything, while bills are negotiated behind closed doors rather than on the Senate floor.

Ted Cruz: They want to come after me? Knock yourself out

Mike Lee: We are not to blame for Harry Reid pushing through nominees