There are always many issues that each generation faces on the political landscape that they live through.  Many are mundane orders of business that are a natural progression of an evolving, growing society, yet others stand out as hallmark issues that offer significant change one way or another.  At times these issues are so resoundingly clear, that their importance cannot be overlooked.  Other times the impact of these issues does not become clear until well after the decisions have been made and it is too late to undo what had been done.

The hallmark issues of yesterday are always easy to identify.  Those defining moments when a nation changed forever are easy to spot through the crystal clear view that we are fortunate to posses of history.  There is no doubt that the rejection of tyranny, taxation and violation of personal and property rights that spurned simple farmers, tailors and smiths to take arms against their distant masters was one of the most defining moments in not only American, but in world history as well.  Another clear hallmark in our own history was the abolition of slavery.  This forever changed the course of this nation and of an entire people in ways that could scarcely be imagined at the time.  Were you to tell a civil war soldier, even one fighting for the North, that we would eventually see black people in all walks of life, even holding the office of Commander In Chief, he might have not believed you.  In the years leading up to the Civil War, as the states in the North began to forbid slavery and reject the appeals of the South to return slaves, it might have just seemed like a simple State’s rights issue to them.  These states may not have even realized the impact that their decisions would have, bringing a nation to its knees on the brink of destruction, yet freeing an enslaved people forever.  However, looking back it is easy to see what an impact on this nation was made by their decisions. 

Some hallmarks in this nations history were clearly defined by others.  When the peaceful morning worship of Pacific island residents was shattered by explosions at Pearl Harbor or as an entire nation stood still, holding their breath, watching its people jump to their death rather than be burned alive from two stricken and doomed buildings, we changed as a people.  Other hallmarks were defined sometimes by the death of a single individual.  In a single decade, two great men fell to the shots of assassins.  One man’s legacy drove an entire species to reach beyond their planetary bounds and set foot upon another world, while the legacy of the other forced people to face the hatred and racism that still plagued this nation from a conflict that was over a hundred years old.  The deaths of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were hallmark moments in the history of this nation that forever changed us as a nation and a people.

These clearly definable moments in history are easy to see and to recognize the effects they had upon this nation.  The ones not so easily defined are the one of which I wish to turn your thoughts today.  For starters, let us take one of the more contentious issues we face today, 2nd Amendment rights and gun control.  Can you tell me at what point in our history did it all of a sudden become illegal for a law abiding citizen to carry a firearm?  Can you tell me what the hallmark issue was that gave the government the right to tell you when, how and what type of gun you may buy, own or carry?  Probably not.  At the inception of our nation, carrying a firearm was not a privilege, licensed or otherwise. It was a fact, a way of life.  Fast forward a hundred years to the expansion of our nation into the West.  Again, no one ever would have challenged a citizen’s right to own or carry a gun.  Leap forward another hundred years, to just a few decades ago and now things have changed drastically.  At that time you couldn’t openly carry a sidearm, but long rifles and shotguns were still seen hanging from the racks of the pickup trucks that teenagers drove to school.  Now examin this today.  You may only carry a firearm under certain circumstances, with a license issued by a state that will allow the carrying of weapons and with a ton of restrictions upon that RIGHT.  Not upon the privilege, but upon the right to bear arms.  Now when did this happen?  What was the catalyst to cause such a drastic departure from the will our founding fathers?  What gave the government the ability to suppress your right as a citizen of this nation to carry a firearm.  Two hundred years ago if you walked into a local store, attended a political rally or just walked down the street with a weapon slung across your back no one would have paid you any mind.  Do so today and you are sure to be visited by the police and quite possibly told you cannot do that which is your basic fundamental right under the Constitution of the United States of America, bear arms.

The problem is that this did not happen in one critical defining moment in our history.  It happened slowly and deliberately over time.  Many years ago, laws began to surface that restricted where you could openly carry a weapon.  First it was in saloons, then churches, then entire communities, then states.  Finally, the Federal government stepped in and began to tell you what kinds of guns you could own, how many bullets they could hold and what type of attachments and accessories they could have.  Oddly enough, we just simply accepted these changes.  We sat back and justified our complacency with statements of how is was sensible for no one to have a gun in a saloon, or for that matter a church.  This just made sense, there was no need for a gun there.   Ah, well I guess if that city/county/state does not want people to carry guns then it is their business.  Surely we could not argue that anyone needed this certain banned type of weapon to hunt with, or that it was in anyway practical to have a clip that held more than ten bullets.  Slowly, in small steps and stages, we agreed to these restrictions and we allowed our view of what the 2nd Amendment meant to be twisted and warped into someone else’s vision, not that of the founders.  We forgot that this Amendment was never about self-protection, property protection or the ability to hunt.  Our forefathers would have seen no need to make an Amendment to convey such things as they were simply an absolute necessity and an understood way of life for them.  We have forgotten that the 2nd Amendment was designed to protect the freedom of the States against the biggest threat to life, liberty and personal property that the founders could see: the very government that they just created.  Therefore, we have allowed our rights to be stripped from us, not in one clarion moment as in the examples above, but through our apathy, complacency and willful acceptance that our government knows best.  I find it ironic that we have allowed the very entity that our founders saw as the biggest threat to our freedom, to strip away our only means of securing that freedom.

Another of these slow, creeping abrogation of rights is found in our system of taxation.  While the passing of the 16th Amendment is certainly a hallmark moment for this issue, it alone is not what has stripped us of our rights.  Can anyone tell me the percentage of taxation that prompted the colonist to throw tea into the Boston Harbor?  Was it a 30-40% tax like most of us face on our personal income?  Was it even an 8.25% tax like most here in Texas pay as a sales tax for all products?  Nope.  This nation practically started a blood war for independence over a meager 25% tax on one single item, which amounted to a tax burden of a bout 1.5% adjusted to the average earnings of a family at the time.  Now we face taxes levied on what we earn, what we purchase and even what we out right own.  This has not come in one large stroke, but again in small steps over time that have burdened us and made us beholden to the government that we are forced to surrender our personal labor to.  We are indentured servants, whether we want to admit it or not.  I hold that ANY tax on personal property is a direct violation of individual liberties and an assault on personal freedoms.  No one has the right to force you to work for free, we abolished that more than 130 years ago just to have it return in a government sanctioned method supported by an Amendment to our Constitution making it legal.  We are slaves.  Your labor is not income nor is the wage that you barter your labor for.  You have traded one hour of your labor, your personal property, for a amount of compensation that you agreed to with another party.  Taxation of this amount is a taxation of personal property and liberty.  No one has the right, other than the government, to forcibly take the money you have earned for you labor.  Should an individual walk up to you and force you to surrender 30% of the money that you made this week, threatening your very freedom if you do not surrender, you would call him a robber and you would have the right to resist him with deadly force.  When the government does this it is called taxation and you have no right to resist at all.  The same is directly true of property taxes.  If you are taxed upon the property that you own, under penalty of law and the potential loss of that property, then in reality, you own nothing.  You are merely renting that property from the government, by payment of said taxes.  Again these are direct violations of personal liberty.

So, now what are the issues that our generation faces that bear the weight of these mistakes of the past?  If healthcare is not immediately upon your tongue, then I pray for you and your children.  How people cannot understand that this is the clarion issue of our time, is beyond me.  We have already surrendered so much of our rights, piece by piece, to the control of our government, how could we ever consider giving them the control of our health and well being.  Just as many of the laws passed in our history must have seemed benevolent and wise, do not be fooled by those who tell you that they can act in your best interest far better than you can.  When a people surrender themselves to a government so wholly as to allow it to do for them what they can and should do for themselves, they become beholden to its will.  This is not a new thing upon this Earth.  It has been repeated many a time throughout history and has always ended in disaster for those who surrender their freedom so willingly.  This is the defining issue of our time.  The one that will pave the way of our future.  Will it be a future where my health or my very life is dependent on the will of a government for which I have no control or recourse?  Will it be one where the decisions of my children’s well being are taken out of my hands and made the domain of some distant, disconnected bureaucrat?  Will it become one where the decision to let my child live or die is one made by a budgetary committee that must weigh the value of my child’s life against the cost of the procedure needed?  No, it must not!  It cannot!  This must never come to pass, else the 234 year struggle for liberty dies with a pitiful whimper as we willingly surrender one of our last vestiges of freedom to the very entity that our founders new we would need to be armed to protect ourselves and our liberty from.

We must end this now.

Victory Institute Action Alert

January 9, 2009

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In September, Navy SEALs captured Ahmed Hashim Abed – a most-wanted al Qaeda leader – during a nighttime raid. Abed is the suspected mastermind of a 2004 ambush that brutally murdered four Blackwater security contractors – including a former SEAL – in Fallujah, Iraq. The contractors were burned, mutilated, and suspended from a bridge. According to the terrorist himself and conflicting statements from another sailor, these SEALs might have hit Abed in the stomach.

The objective of Operation Neptune’s Fury is to exonerate the SEALs, who should be honored as heroes, not tried as criminals.

The charged SEALs are:

• SO2 Matthew McCabe, 24, of Perrysburg, Ohio
• SO1 Julio Huertas, 28, of Blue Island, Ill.
• SO2 Jonathon Keefe, 25, of Yorktown, Va.

All are from SEAL Team Ten in Little Creek, Va.

The Navy has just over 2,000 SEALs, and it takes years of training to become one. These men are some of the most elite warriors in the world. They accomplished their mission, yet could face discharge because the man responsible for the Fallujah ambush could have received a fat lip?

"How long before America’s front-line troops begin to wonder if the country really has their backs?" asked Lt. Col. Ralph Peters in a New York Post op-ed.

Unfortunately, they already are. As a SEAL officer told me in an interview, "SEALs are tired of having to watch their back – not only from the enemy – but also from our own leadership." These warriors clearly need our help. This is a battle that they cannot win.
Take Action!
Let the SEALs know that the United States does have their backs. Admiral Eric Olson is the Commanding Officer of Special Operations Command; he is a SEAL himself and has the authority to stop the trials. Politely inform him that the charges against the SEALs must be dropped. These elite warriors have went above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to securing our freedom, and deserve to be treated as heroes rather than tried as criminals.

Remember, what you communicate could either help or hurt these men’s careers.

1. Call Admiral Eric Olson at               (813) 826.5100         (813) 826.5100
2. Or Fax (813) 825.5109
3. Or Email: olsone@socom.mil
4. Then Forward this to as many people as possible

Sign up to receive Victory Institute Action Alerts here.

Donate to the SEALs’ Legal Defense Fund

I encourage all of you who can do this to express your opinion and your support for these men in honor of the sacrifices they make in the name of our safety and protection.  In my opinion, these men are heroes and Abed is lucky to still draw breath.  His fate has been far more kind than the fate of the men that he captured, tortured, murdered and then hung their desecrated bodies on display for the entire world to see.  Enough is enough.

It is a well know fact that once elected politicians almost immediately forget the very promises that got them elected in the first place.  This administration has been no different.  Of course they have kept some of the promises that they made, but those are only the ones that serve their purposes and drive their agendas. 

What promises have they kept?  Well that is easy, we were promised justice for those held in Guantanamo Bay, they have certainly delivered on that.  In fact those who are now held at Gitmo can rest assured that they will have far more legal rights then the very soldiers that captured them on a foreign battlefield.  You see the Obama administration promised them justice and they shall have it in the form of the American civil legal system, something actually denied our brave men and women who serve and die for this nation.  No, military tribunals or courts martial was not good enough for the illegal enemy combatants who fought our soldiers overseas.  They must have far superior legal rights, attorneys paid for by the American tax payer and access to all the case law, precedence and jurisprudence afforded each and every American citizen.  Who cares that our brave servicemen and women do not get this luxury, those terrorist suspects certainly deserve it.  You see when you become a soldier, airman, sailor or marine in service to this nation, you not only pledge your life to the defense of this nation and her Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic, you also waive your right to the very guarantees provided by the document that your are duty bound to protect.  You swear to surrender your rights and be governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).  However, now those who fight against American troops on the field of battle do not have to worry about such details.  Now they can have the same rights as any other American criminal, including the right for some sleaze ball attorney to find a legal loop hole to let them go free, because some bureaucratic bookworm did not fill out some piece of paperwork in triplicate or some soldier was insensitive to the cultural needs of a detainee.  Not to mention the fact that in their utmost lack of wisdom, the Federal government has decided to try some of these terrorist just miles from the scene of the ‘crime’.  I be New Yorkers will welcome any verdict that comes out of these trials that they will be forced to host, even if it is an innocent one, so long as the rights of these terrorist who killed 3,000 innocent New York citizen were not violated in even the slightest way.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is one promise that the Obama administration has kept: Far superior legal rights and proceedings for terrorist suspects than is afforded our very own soldiers, all at the expense of the American taxpayer.

You want an American trial for these jihadist?  Well, I agree.  Here is my idea.  Dress them in bright pink jumpsuits, pick a day and time to release them in Hoboken or Queens, broadcast the location and time of release to everyone in the Tri-State area, then let them go.  If they can make it out of the city alive, they are free to go.  It is a hell of a better fate than the three thousand innocent civilians that burned to death or were buried alive in the rubble so many years ago.

What other promises have they kept?  Ah, yes, healthcare.  They told us they would ram a Federally controlled healthcare plan down our throats whether we liked it or not.  Almost a year later they are close to succeeding, but here is where some of the broken promises come in.  Now I am not talking about the one we would have plainly been fools to believe, like that he would not have any activist or lobbyist as his advisors or that he would not sign any bill with a single piece of pork attached to it.  No, I am talking about those that he repeated over and over again that gave all the naive liberal votes hope that we would see the shining light of democracy from the unprecedented transparency promised by the Obama administration.  You see he knew this healthcare thing was poisonous.  He knew that the American people would not willingly sacrifice their choices, their rights and their control over their medical decisions if they really knew what was being planned.  No secrecy would be key to the success of this agenda.  The American people could not really find out what what in this healthcare bill or they would resist, but if he promised us that we would get to see each and every deliberation about this  live on CSPAN it sounded awfully good for the campaign.  Complete transparency, it seems, is just a bit more opaque than we thought.  Where has this CSPAN coverage been?  Why now that people are demanding that he live up to his promises is he hemming and hawing about allowing his bumbling press secretary to blurt out one half-witted excuse after another?  It is funny how those promises that you never meant to keep, come around and bite you in the ass, Mr. President.

On to other promises, how about that unemployment rate?  Hey, I know this one personally.  Both my wife and I had good productive jobs to start off 2009.  Nine months later neither of us did.  So what was this about if we passed the TARP bill, or was it the Omnibus, that we would not go over 8% unemployment?  What about the transparency promised with all of these bailout an stimulus programs?  Oh, sure there was a website created and job loss numbers spewed about, but then we find out that those numbers were complete bullshit.  They included thousands of jobs that had not even started yet and did you know that almost one billion dollars, that is right $920 million of your dollars cannot be adequately accounted for from the funds that were spent in the first six months.  Oh and did you also know that much of this money did not even go to create jobs?  Well that is of the money that has actually been spent of the staggering amounts allocated for these travesties that were voted into law.  That is another thing that apparently was just a flat out lie or just something that this administration does not care much about.  You see, for weeks we were told that we had to act now to avert a crisis.  We had to infuse the economy with these staggering trillions of immediately of face collapse.  Funny, that, because as of today only about 20% of the funds for first $890 billion so called stimulus packages has been spent with another 20% or so in process to be spent within the next six months.  That does not sound like a shot in the arm, but more like a long term prescription plan.  So why the rush if we are going to sit on more than $600 billion dollars until well into 2010?  Why did we have to pass this massive bill in its entirety right then?  Could we not have slowed down and voted to spend the roughly $160 billion dollars that we have so far, then taken our time on the rest?  Hell, now there is even talk of another stimulus package, because the first one was ineffective and the economy has not recovered.  Well no shit, Sherlock.  If $890 billion dollars in funds immediately injected into the American economy was the real answer, then spending $160 billion over six months won’t have the same effect.  That is the difference between a shot and a slow drip IV, not anywhere close to the same thing.

You know there is a question that I always hear thrown around at election time.  Are you better off today than you were four years ago?  It seems that is how we are to judge the effectiveness of our leaders, most pointedly the President.  Well, Mr. President, I am not better off that I was four years ago, nor even two for that matter.  Two years ago, my wife an I both had very profitable jobs in solid industries, hers in the middle of a growing boom.  We were making significant salaries, had good future prospects, good health insurance, large life insurance policies, a healthy stock portfolio and plenty of money in the savings.  Yeah, uhm, we don’t have any of that anymore.  My wife has spent the last nine months unemployed because her industry freaked out about Cap and Trade and I joined her for two months as the economy wore into my job as well.  Hell I even worked for a government contract regulatory lab.  People HAVE to have done what we did, but it still cut into our business enough that I am not even sure my former company will survive after being in business since it was founded in 1976.  No, Mr. President I am far, far worse off now than I was before you were elected and there are many Americans who are right there with me.  You have had a year and all your policies have done is make worse an already bad situation.  You have three years left.  The clock is ticking.

Since I am in an analogy mood, this evening I will give you another one.   Let’s say you take your car into a mechanic and he charges you $890 dollars to fix your engine.  A week later you have to take it back to him for the very same problem.  This is when you discover that he only spend $160 dollars to fix your car the last time, hides the invoice when you try to look at it, can’t explain to you what some of it was spent on and tells you that it should be running better because the flux capacitor is now in synch with the primary phase coil, but he promises that if you will give him another $1,000 he will make sure it runs right.  Now, ask yourself, how likely would you be to let this man work on your car again, provided you do not punch him out straight away and take your money back forcibly.  Now ask yourself how likely would you be to let him recommend a doctor for you and your family, or decide what medical procedure you need or do not need?  Scary thought isn’t it?

When do we realize that our system of government has failed to live up to the promises of our forefathers?  At what point do we fully comprehend just how far from that vision we have come?

Is it when our government completely fails to understand that it’s own power is derived from the consent of the governed and not by some ordained right for it to exist?  We can see plenty of examples of this today, be it the idea that the government has the right to demand, control and ultimately decide healthcare choices for each and every citizen or the false presumption that the will of the American people and the massive resistance to this idea is somehow irrelevant.  How do they respond to the demand by an even increasing segment of the population that the Federal government stay out of our healthcare and eliminate the public option from this reckless push to reform?  They pretend that we are idiots and simply change the name to something that sounds less ominous and more capitalist.  Now it is the consumer option!  That is better right?  Yeah, consumerism promotes capitalism, right?  Surely the unwashed masses will like that better, right?  Nah, none of them will actually read the changes and figure out that this new consumer option is basically the same damn thing as the previous public option.  They aren’t that smart. 

The problem is that we do read and understand far more than given credit for.  We do realize that, to quote our great leader, “putting lipstick on a pig, still makes it a pig”.  Our government honestly believes that the millions of people showing up at these TEA Party protests and 9/12 rallies are just common simpletons, spurned on by Fox News and a couple of conservative talking heads.  They are incapable of seeing that this is an underlying movement across this nations composed of average, everyday citizens who are finally finding their voices and who have had their fill of a bloated, inefficient, expansive and detached government who is no more in touch with the people that they govern than King George was with the Colonies.  Here in Texas, we do have some hope.  Our governor has already stated that Texas will not participate in any Federally back or controlled healthcare system to the point that the State of Texas will withhold her Federal tax contributions should she be forced to.  Our House of Representatives has already passed HCR 50 declaring Texas’ sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, hopefully our Senate will have the wisdom to follow course and our governor the strength of will and conviction to sign it into law.  We are not alone.  Many states have already passed such legislation and are demanding that the Federal government cease its interference with the governing of the States.  Should Texas decide to resist this healthcare option, others will surely follow.  Many have expressed similar objections and warnings directed towards Congress in the passing months.  What will happen if this comes to pass?

It is at this point that I grow concerned.  Texas is a fairly conservative state except for select pockets of liberal ideology.  We as a people in general value our traditions, our rights and our way of life free from the interference of others.  Yet recently we have seen them come under almost direct assault from the Federal government.  The opposition to the bailouts, the Federal manipulation of the free market, the refusal to allow domestic drilling, the re-investment act, the gun and ammunition control measures and the healthcare initiative has been powerfully strong here in Texas.  We will not take many more direct assaults on our freedoms.  Any one of these issues could be the straw, but issues like the Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, various iterations of the Ammunition Accountability Act and nationalized healthcare are ones that I fear might push Texas to say enough if enough.  Should Texas finally stand its ground what will happen then?

If Governor Perry’s promise of refusing to participate in a Federally mandated healthcare system come to fruition and Texas attempts to withhold its Federal Income Tax contributions, what will be the consequences?  There is no possible way that the Federal government could allow this to occur.  Some states might get away with such threats, but not Texas.  Texas is a donor state.  This means that we pay in more Federal Income Taxes than we receive back from the government, and we are a large donor state at that.  If you compared the Texas economy against other nations in the world we would rank the 12th largest even in these poor economic times.  The Federal government could never allow the withholding of such a significant chunk of its income.  What if other states followed suit?  What then would Washington do if say just ten states refused to participate and threatened to withhold Federal tax dollars should they be forced to?  Would the Federal government finally come to grips with the fact that the States hold the power to be governed or would it come down to another civil war?  Would the Federal government try to take by force the funds withheld by states resisting such overarching legislation that is directly in contravention to Tenth Amendment? 

Had you asked me that question ten or twenty years ago, I would have automatically assumed that the Federal government would never even consider the possibility of force to strong arm a state to participate in a nationalized healthcare system.  Today, however, I am not so sure.  A friend of mine asked me an interesting question while we were discussing the foolish cancelation of the F-22 program earlier today.  The question was simply this, “What do you think we will see first, another civil war or another world war?”  Again, had this question been asked years ago, the answer would have automatically been that we are far more likely to see another world war, than we were to see another civil one.   When I was asked today, I honestly had to stop and consider the question before giving my answer.  My answer ended up being, “I am not sure.”  Unfortunately, I find that both are as easily possible in the world that we face today.  There are still serious threats outside our borders and as America continues to weaken it status and power across the globe, the likelihood that a major conflict between large nations could erupt and spread into a global one will continue to increase.  However, there is just as likely a chance that if our Federal government continues to grow and expand as it has been doing for far too long, makes reckless, wasteful decisions with our tax dollars, continues to interfere with the free market and continues to attempt to usurp rights from its citizens and its States, that some States will finally decide that they have had enough and refuse to comply.  What then?

I honestly do not know which is more likely for us to see in the future; a major world war or one bound within our own borders.  Human history has taught us that we will suffer long before finally deciding that we have had enough.  I see signs of it today.  Never before have so many States passed legislation declaring their own sovereignty and demanding their rights to govern themselves be restored, but never before have those rights been under assaults as they have been for the past fifty years.  Never before have the States been forced to watch their own power, individuality and sovereignty wither away under a slow, but persistent assault by a detached, distant central government.

So, enough…  When is it really enough and what will become of us then?

How this nation is not in full fledged revolt at this stage in the game is a mystery to me. Maybe it stems from the apathy permeating our culture or perhaps it is the feelings of complete detachment and helplessness that many people feel about our political process. We are currently faced with one of the most serious threats to life and liberty that we have ever seen in this nation and we are still allowing these people to stand behind their podiums and lie through their teeth.

President Obama was finally publicly called out for lying to the American people about one aspect of this healthcare reform yesterday, when the AARP denied any endorsement or support of any healthcare proposal. During a completely phony town hall meeting stuffed with Obama supporters and strategic plants, he commented that the AARP had endorsed this reform. He further stated that the AARP would not be on board if they thought that this legislation would reduce MediCare benefits to the elderly. Almost immediately, the 40 million member strong AARP organization denied the endorsement or support of any healthcare reform. Although they did admit to agreeing with President Obama that they did not see any threat to benefits from the reduction in MediCare, they strongly denied any endorsement such as President Obama had claimed. Of course the excuse from the Whitehouse was that the President simply misspoke. Really? Has he been simply misspeaking all this time? This is not a new claim. This has been repeated for months now.

Maybe AARP is feeling the wrath of its members. How this organization could even consider supporting this legislation is far beyond my comprehension and that of many of its members that I know. Most of the seniors that I know are deathly afraid of what this legislation means for their future care and do not support it at all. The AARP is playing politics with the lives of its members and they are starting to react.

For those of you who think senior citizens have nothing to fear from this lead into single payer socialized medicine, allow me to introduce you to Barbara Wagner of Springfield, OR. Wagner has the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) as single payer system put in place several years ago in Oregon. She also has lung cancer. When she found this out, her doctor suggested a new form of aggressive chemotherapy that has shown very promising results in treating the disease, even in someone of her age. Unfortunately for this senior citizen, the bureaucrats at the OHP did not agree with her doctor since the treatment cost $4,000/mo. They denied the treatment and offered to pay for hospice care or medically assisted suicide. How nice of the government to tell this woman that she was not worth saving, but she was worth being allowed to die slowly in her home or they were more than willing to pay to have her kill herself right now. Can you imagine a government behaving this way? Well you better start. By the way, there is good news on this front. The greedy pharmaceutical company that produces this incredibly expensive drug has contacted Barbara Wagner and will be giving her the medication for free so that the State of Oregon does not decide to kill her off. How nice of them.

Move on to more of these town hall meetings. Let us examine the other lies and falsifications pouring out of these dishonest charlatans from Washington. For starters, we will look at the town hall conference hosted by Representative Sheila Jackson Lee in Houston, TX yesterday. This Democrat embarrassment to the State of Texas had the unfettered gall to get on a cell phone while a woman stood and asked her a question about the healthcare legislation. Her pathetic excuse that she was actually trying to get information to answer the woman’s concerns and that they are taught to multi-task in Congress was a pitiful example of her ignorance and detachment. She did not give the woman the common courtesy of her undivided attention at least long enough for her to ask her question and she proves that she has no clue about this legislation and was horribly unprepared to answer her constituents.

To top off this disgraceful behavior, how about the doctor who stood up in support of this legislation? She originally identified herself as a pediatric primary care physician, but with a little research it was discovered that she was actually Roxana Mayer, an Obama delegate for the State of Texas and a campaign volunteer. Let’s make this clear. She was a plant. A dishonest plant who misrepresented herself as a physician (read as she lied through her teeth) to give her comments a false sense of weight in an effort to spread disinformation to the public on behalf of the Obama healthcare initiative.

Lies! Lies from the President, lies from our Congressional members, lies from the mainstream media and even lies from civilian plants placed inside these town hall meetings. You my friends are being lied to on a scale far more massive than you have ever seen before. It is time to wake up and fight back. As I have stated so many times in the past, this is not a debate or a discussion. This is a fight for your life. This is a battle to control your life and death.

Enough. When you can read through the Declaration of Independence and directly pick out offenses in that document that could easily be applied to the Federal government today, it is time that we act and take back this government of the people, for the people and most importantly by the people.

We have seen some frightening developments in the seven short months since Barack Obama was ‘anointed’ to the presidency. One of the aspects that I simply abhor is the Orwellian style ‘newspeak’ that is surfacing from this administration and the blatant hypocrisy of the left. To clarify things, let us go over some of the new rules.

For starters, let us examine some behaviors.

Private Jets

It is apparently absolutely unacceptable for captains of industry to fly on private jets when their companies are struggling and near collapse, even though multiple business analysts have confirmed that by driving to Washington or flying on normal commercial flights, these men wasted more of their shareholders money than the private flights did. However, if you are in Congress while our nation is struggling economically and hemorrhaging taxpayer money at an alarming rate, it is perfectly acceptable for you to order eight high-end Gulfstream G550 jets to ferry them around. Even when the Air Force says they do not need that many new aircraft and don’t have the proper resources to operate and maintain them for the Congressional fleet, you can simply ignore those who actually have a clue about the issue and set aside over half a billion dollars so that you can travel in luxury.

Protests

Apparently, when you are protesting former President George W. Bush and his policies it is your patriotic duty to do so and any form of protests is acceptable. You can carry swastikas or even wear Nazi uniforms. You can call him a murderer, a terrorist or anything else you want. You can stalk him and wait outside his private residence for weeks on end. This is your patriotic duty to do so. As Hillary Clinton once said, “I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say, we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration!” Oh, wait… She must have meant to say any Republican administration.

If you dare to debate or disagree with THIS administration then you are a political plant, an angry mob or a political terrorist and you should be reported by your friends and neighbors. If you carry a sign denouncing his policies, then you are disruptive and unpatriotic. If you carry a banner with a swastika crossed out by a big red circle and slash saying “No Repeat of Socialism” then you are insensitive to the seriousness of the issue surrounding World War II. I guess if you wore one on your arm to protest Bush and called him Hitler, you were somehow being sensitive to those issues? I see. No, wait. I don’t see it at all. Nice double standard you hypocrites on the left have established.

It was perfectly acceptable for thousands of people to hold marches, rallies and protests over whatever struck their fancies about the Bush administration. Fast forward to the Obama administration and suddenly common everyday American citizens who speak out about their governments action by hosting nationwide TEA Party demonstrations are labeled racists, tea baggers (a sexually insulting connotation) and potential terrorists. They are chastised by Congressional members as if they were unruly children disobeying their elders. They are plotted against by the very people who’s job it is to serve their interests and they are ridiculed by a shameful media that has lost all sense of journalistic integrity. This is oppression of dissent is eerily reminiscent of things we have seen before.

Definitions

I was so glad to hear that the War on Terror was over when the administration announced it a few days ago. I was just a tad bit confused as to who won or what we were still doing in Afghanistan if that were true. This behavior is straight out of Orwell’s 1984 novel. The practice of using less offensive or abrasive terms for things was referred to as ‘newspeak’ by Orwell and it is in full swing today. We are no longer fighting ‘jihadists’ but we are fighting someone, so who is it? We are no longer at war with terrorists, just at war with al-Qaida. I am sure that the Taliban are glad to hear this. Even though we are still killing them on sight, it must be nice to know that we are no longer at war with them. At least this will limit the number of unlawful enemy combatants we obtain. Oh, I am sorry. There I go again using plain English to explain things. What I meant to call them was ‘unprivileged enemy belligerents’. That sounds so much better doesn’t it?

You know, the next time I get pulled over for speeding, I need to tell the officer that I was not actually speeding. I was simply traveling at an increased velocity to expedite my transit. Surely, I would not get a ticket for that, right? When someone commits murder, we should call it something else because murder just sounds too bad… Let’s call it an unsanctioned life force termination. Or maybe even an extreme post-term abortion… Those sound more acceptable.

This mind numbing bullshit is just that. It is designed to restrict speech and limit debate and those are but a few examples of the insane amount of politically correct crap spewing out of Washington. Orwell would be shocked at how close he came. He was just about 25 years off the mark.

Policy

The government is tired of wasteful spending by these corporate executives and it is bound and determined to do something about these irresponsible executives. However, Congress and the President continue to waste trillions of dollars on programs that the American people do not approve of. Are we simply to accept this? We are told that we must conserve energy and drive more fuel efficient vehicles, while we watch Nancy Pelosi fly back and forth to California on the taxpayers dime and see President Obama take three times the normal staff on trips with him around the world. How about you give up your fleet of SUVs that you drive around in Mr. President? I am sure some one can figure out how to armor plate a Chevy Volt for you.

We are to believe that insurance companies are responsible for denial of services, massive healthcare costs and limited availability of healthcare to Americans. Yet, when you look at all of the government programs concerning health you actually will find those traits there. The tell us that we must surrender our choices in an effort to reform healthcare, but Congress refuses to adopt the same plan for their families that they are trying to shove down the throat of the American public. They talk of greed and profit in the healtcare industry, yet will not touch the issue of tort reform for that very reason. Having the tort lawyers in their pockets are very profitable for them.

If we take things from another that do not belong to us by coercion or threat of force, it is a felony in most states. When the government does it, they call it taxes.

This hypocrisy must end and it needs to end now.

In a striking turn of events, that actually surprised no one, it has now been confirmed that Nancy Pelosi is one of the most ignorant people that has ever held a public office. I have not given out a Blithering Idiot award in some time, so maybe one is due. Congratulations Nancy Pelosi, you are the Blithering Idiot of the Week. She has plenty of company in Congress right now and they are willingly showing their ineptitude day after day.

Astroturf? Seriously? Did that take you all morning to come up with Nancy or did one of your staffers write that little line for you? The indignation and arrogance on display by our Congressional leaders against the American people right now is simply appalling. These corrupt, out of touch, elitist morons cannot fathom that the American people are completely fed up with their crap and are finally standing up for ourselves.

Just a few short months ago Hillary Clinton stated that it was our patriotic duty to voice our dissent against a government that we disagreed with. There were multitudes calling President Bush everything from a murderer to a terrorist to Hitler himself. We saw morons like Cindy Sheehan literally camped outside his home, shouting horribly insulting and borderline threatening comments at the President. How did the former administration act when these ‘angry mobs’ showed up? Did he encourage other Americans to report them to their government for exercising their free speech? No. Did he chastise them publicly claiming that they were an unruly angry mob? No. Did he demand that others show up to counter their protests? Nope. He simply acknowledged their right to have their own opinions and protest against the actions of their government.

Now we see astounding arrogance coming from Washington in their personal attacks on citizens who are speaking their mind openly and honestly. Nancy Pelosi even went so far as to claim that these citizens protesting the nationalized healthcare were carrying swastikas and similar symbols to the protests. Really? I have done some extensive searching and can find not a single photo or video from these protests containing any such symbols. However, I was able to find multiple photos containing swastika symbols from earlier protests against President Bush. Was that who she was talking about? I wonder… This just goes to further show the feeble intelligence of this woman. If she actually knew anything about the Nazi (or National Socialist) Party, she would realize that it would more likely be those in favor of this national socialized medical program that would bear symbols hailing the Nazi regime. After all, one of the questions often ask of German citizens in the 1930s and 1940s was, “Are you a good socialist?” Well, Nancy, are you?

What they do not realize is that by dismissing these normal, everyday citizens who have legitimate concerns as nothing but an angry mob, they are likely to turn them into just that. Now we hear that they are canceling these town hall meetings in an act of pure cowardice because they do not want to face the truth of a public turned against them. They might as well stand upon the steps of Congress and shout, “Let them eat cake!” This will not sit well with an America already tiring of the wasteful, corrupt and reality deprived administration that has shown nothing but contempt for the will of the populace. I will point you to another time in our history, when the calls from the people went unheeded. A time when taxation was used as a means to control and laws were forced upon a people from a distant, detached government who did not concern itself with what those governed desired. We should learn from this past where the voices of the people went unheard and the protests that they staged were dismissed as a bunch of unruly ingrates and angry mobs. In the end this did not fare well for the governing body responsible for such injustices against the American colonies, nor will it do so now.

If we stare into the Abyss long enough, the Abyss stares back at us. Right now we stand at the edge of the Abyss, what we do will define the future of this nation for generations to come. I say we stand and fight.

Arise you sons and daughters of Liberty. Stand firm in your beliefs and make your voices heard from the tip of the Aleutians to the Florida Keys. Call them out and give them no quarter to the lies being told. Fight for your freedoms and liberty, lest they be stripped from you while you sleep.

Now that the veil has begun to lift and the public is opening its eyes to the massive assault on our healthcare industry that is occurring in Washington, it seems that a new movement has been spurned in the style of the TEA Parties. This past weekend at town hall meetings across this nation, common citizens shouted their dissent at politicians over the issue of nationalized healthcare. America is finally rising up and her citizens are demanding to be heard. The odor in the air that you smell if fear and it is coming from Washington, D.C.

Even the Democrats in Congress have started to feel the sting of public opinion, but they still fail to grasp the reality of this message. As if they were alcoholics in denial, they have begun to deny the validity of these protests, claiming they were staged by insurance companies who fear the passage of healthcare reform. They have gone so far as to accuse the people protesting of being paid plants, who were bused in and given instructions on how to appear that they were not together. They cannot come to grips with the reality that the American people do not want, need or trust the Federal government to control our healthcare.

In Austin, Texas this weekend, one of the embarrassments of our state, Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex) held a poor excuse for a town hall meeting in the parking lot of a supermarket. It quickly became clear that the citizens at the meeting were far better informed about the healthcare issue than Doggett himself was. When he was pressed with someone asking him if he would support this bill even if he found the majority of his constituents strongly opposed it, he admitted that yes he would. Suddenly a voice arose from one of the many protestors carrying signs opposing socialized medicine and this Obamacare initiative, yelling, “Just say no!” The cry quickly rose across the group turning the meeting into an ad hoc political protest.

This was not an isolated event. In Philadelphia this weekend both Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were met with vociferous protests shouting “Read the bill!” Of course, the Democrats were not having it. Sebelius coyly chastised the crowd saying, “Excuse me… Excuse me! We can either stand here and shout at one another and then we can leave the stage, or we can have a conversation. It’s really up to you.” However, when the crowd engaged them in conversation, asking specific pointed questions about the bill, they were not impressed with their answers. When she talked about making sure Americans receive the best healthcare, they shouted “We already do!” When Specter spoke of the supporting Obama’s healthcare program he was quickly shouted and booed down. At one point a man shouted to Specter a simple question, “Will you sign up for it?” All Specter did was avert his gaze and continue prattling on about government run healthcare. At the mention of a single payer system, it almost seemed the crowd was about to set upon him. Shouts calling him a liar and demanding to know where the constitutional authority for this was could be heard among the continuous booing

Again, this was not an isolated incident. These happened everywhere, all around this nation. Yet, it seems that it is not enough to penetrate the stupidity and arrogance that permeates Washington, D.C. Today the Democrats are ignorantly claiming that all these events were staged. They seem to actually believe that the American people could not possibly be this passionate or have this much will to fight over the matter of healthcare.

I find this argument so odd coming from the Democrats, until you remember that this is not at all about healthcare, but about power over the individual. Most Democrats support a woman’s right to choose by claiming that it is her body and it should be her decision alone as to what to do with it and what medical procedures can be performed on it. Following that logic, it should be safe to assume that the right to decide what medical procedures can be done would extend to every American citizen, not just a woman attempting to use abortion as a form a birth control. However, with this plan that is not the case at all. Apparently, your right to choose is only important when you want to kill an unborn child, not when you want to determine which doctor you go to or what treatment you or your children receive to treat an illness. It seems that this warped form of logic makes perfect sense to Democrats, but it is completely lost on me.

As I have stated before this is a struggle for life and death and our ability to control both aspects personally. This is potentially one of the most threatening pieces of legislation that the American public and our individual liberties have ever faced. This must be defeated at all costs, or we lose the very ability to make decisions of a very personal nature.

I have not had much time to write over the past few days. Some changes are taking place in my personal life that have had me quite busy and I have been working on getting a project off the ground that has taken some of my time as well.

However, I have been keeping a close eye on this healthcare debate and it is scaring the hell out of me. I cannot believe that this is even under consideration, until I look at those pushing this agenda. There is so much subterfuge and deception surrounding this issue that it is almost impossible for the average American to get their minds around and understand what is really occurring. This administration and many in Congress are trying to shove this legislation down the throat of the American people, yet do so with coercion and deception.

Lie Number One – 47 Million Uninsured

For starters, the number of uninsured Americans in this country is greatly inflated. The 47 million that the President claims he is trying to cover is not as clear as you might think. Within that 47 million exist around 10 million illegal aliens, around 17 million that make well over the median income of $46,300 annually who could afford health insurance but choose not to have it and a small percentage of people who lacked health insurance for short periods of time only. Even if you just take number of illegal aliens and those who could afford insurance, but choose not to, you more than cut the 47 million figure in half, leaving only 20 million Americans uninsured, just 7% of the population. Some estimated put the number of critically uninsured as low as 8.2 million or 3% of the total.

Lie Number Two – The Government is the Solution

While I acknowledge that some healthcare reform is needed in this nation, I flatly reject the notion that it is the right, duty or business of the Federal government to mandate or control it. Constitutionally, not only does the Federal government lack any and all power over this issue, but it is explicitly barred from action on matters such as these via the 10th Amendment. Not to mention that what they are currently proposing will be drastically harmful to the healthcare industry in this nation. Just look at the example that the government provides in Social Security, Medicare and the Veterans Administration. All dismal examples of government waste, corruption and bureaucracy at one time or another. Now we are told that the government can reduce healthcare cost, improve quality and not reduce services. Even when the Congressional Budget Office releases report after report disagreeing with this claim and greatly expanding the projected cost of this program, it is just ignored. Even when the very sections of the bill that point out planned cuts to Medicaid and Medicare are pointed out, excuses are made and those calling foul are branded as cold hearted obstructionists. The plan currently in the House would create twelve additional government agencies just to deal with this massive undertaking, creating more inefficiency, waste and bureaucracy.

Lie Number Three – You Will Still Have a Choice

This is one of the most grievous fallacies of this entire fiasco. You will lose your ability to choose, period. For starters, the President has already made it clear that you will be forced to have health insurance whether you want it or not. No choice there. Now we hear that doctors will be rated and paid based on how well they treat an illness, not per patient or per procedure. Really? I want to know who in the hell decides by what benchmarks to gauge my doctor? What if I think my doctor has performed admirably, but some distant, detached bureaucratic moron in Washington, who has no clue about me or my doctor, decided that he is not as ‘efficient’ as they would like and decides not to pay him? How to I have a choice in that? When my personal physician that I have had for well on twenty years has to quit his practice because he cannot afford to function on his government allowance, where is my choice?

Now we discover the horrible truth about other aspects of this bill such as end of life care. After a certain age you will be compelled to meet with a ‘counselor’ every five years to discuss your future healthcare needs. Really? Discuss what about them? Why would I need a counselor at the age of 65 and beyond to discuss my healthcare requirements, unless you are planning on restricting the services available to me due to my age and failing health? You see once you pass the age of 65, you are not as good of an investment as when you are young and healthy. You have less time to live and you consume more resources via the healthcare system, therefore it only makes sense to a cold, calculating government bureaucracy that they not spend money on you. Sure they will offer to make you comfortable, but will not approve the procedure that might extend your life because the return on investment will not be enough.

Lie Number Four – Not a Single Payer System

While this statement may be true at this point, it will not be so for long. As Barney Frank openly admitted a few days earlier, this is a gateway to a single payer system.

“If we get a good public option it could lead to single payer,” Frank said. “The best way to get single payer — the only way — is to have a public option and demonstrate the strength of its power.”

You notice the words he chose there? Power. This is after all what this is really all about. Power. Power to control. Power to have millions depending on the government for their very health and survival.

The other part of this lie is that the private insurance companies can survive this ‘public option’ when it is more likely that it will cause the failure of most major insurance companies, costing this economy precious jobs and destroying the healthcare industry as we know it. The government option could be as much as 20% lower in cost for private business, since it will use taxpayer money to support the implementation of this program. How many businesses do you think would love to get a 20% reduction in the cost of benefits they provide to their employees? Suddenly, millions of people will be shoved onto this government program, taking critical market share away from the private insurance companies. Without the monthly premiums, these companies will not be able to provide for their remaining insured parties and will quickly fold, leaving even more people with nowhere else to turn but the government. Of course, that it the real objective of this, not healthcare at all.

Those are just four obvious ones. There are multitudes of more that I could expound upon, but these should be enough to wave us off of this destructive past. With the example of failures in the States where these single payer models have been tried such as Wisconsin and Massachusetts, we should be scare to death of even discussing any government run options at all. I sincerely hope that the governor of my great State meant what he said early last week. Governor Perry stated that if the Congress was foolish enough to pass this destructive legislation, Texas would assert her right under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and flatly refuse to conform or participate in any way. God bless that man and give him the strength to stand his ground should this disaster find its way into law. Should Texas refuse Federal interference and further usurpation of her citizens right by the Federal government, I believe that others would follow her lead.

This is a battle of life and death. Either you control your life or the government will control both it and your death.

Welcome to the USSA.

Allow me to post a an article titled Flipped Flag Signals Distress found in Weatherford Telegram, a smaller community oriented publication by its parent paper the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I am not exactly sure I approve of the tone that the very first sentence sets up for this article. To me it is no joking matter that one of the most patriotic people I have ever know has been pushed to the point that he feels it necessary to fly the flag upside down that he laid his life on the line for. It almost seems as if this poor attempt at humor is being made at this man’s expense. I sincerely hope that is not the case. I would hope that a serious reporter for the Star Telegram would be above making fun of a man whom this nation should be eternally grateful to.

Weatherford’s most profound patriot and staunchest supporter of the American flag has flipped (his flag).
 
Chuck Katlic, Battle of the Bulge survivor and American Legion Post 163 chaplain, is flying his flag upside down to draw attention to what he perceives as the USA’s distressed circumstances.
 
“Section 8 Article A of the United States Flag Code says to display the flag upside down when there is dire national distress,” Katlic said. “Our Congress and president are not obeying the Constitution. The first step was taking the gold standard off our money. Roosevelt started it, Johnson continued it and Nixon closed the door. Everyone who feels our nation is in dire distress should fly their flags upside down.”
 
Katlic said he believes that President Obama is imposing Marxist, Socialist rule on Americans.
 
“At the suggestion of Russia and China, Obama said he would consider one world currency,” he said. “They’re taking away states’ rights. They’ve made schools a government cabinet position, limiting what public schools (I call them government school, now) can teach.”
 
Katlic also believes that such people in Congress as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Representative Barney Frank and Senator Ted Kennedy want to “take away our guns.”
 
Admitting that “Nothing personally has been done to me,” Katlic said that “what’s being done to our citizens is that they’re being taxed to death, losing their homes. [Congress is] violating people’s Fourth Amendment rights, stopping them and searching their cars without warrants.”
 
Katlic said that he also fears that because the federal government allows abortions, “next they will be euthanizing older people. This is to reduce the population.”
 
Another concern Katlic expressed is that concentration camps are being built in Arizona “to put us in when we misbehave.”
 
Katlic said that every president after George Washington wanted to be a dictator, and that all politicians care about is power. His daily front-yard gesture is intended to raise awareness.
 
“I’ll fly my flag that this until Obama and Congress obey the Constitution, or they’re out, even if I have to do for the next four years,” he said. “I pledge my life, my fortune and my honor to do my part to turn our nation back to the founding fathers’ principles that have preserved our nation for 250 years. I call on all my fellow Parker County residents to fly their flags upside down, too.”

I know this man. I have gone to church with him since I was a child and my children adore him. He is not your normal run of the mill citizen of this nation. He is one of the few surviving young men that saw such horrors in Europe that we can scarcely imagine. He survived the frozen forests near Bastogne and held out through one of the toughest sieges our armed forces have ever faced. He is a patriot through and through, caring greatly for his God, his country, his fellow soldiers and his fellow citizens.

Some may try to dismiss him as a radical, right wing nut and I guess under this administration’s definition of such I would be one too. After all I believe in the rights of the State’s and the individual. I believe in the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the founding of this nation. I believe that the Constitution means exactly what it frakking says and needs no manipulation or interpretation. I believe that this is and always has been a nation founded on and rooted in Christian principles, so much so that our first President warned us against straying from this religious bedrock.

I believe that I will be following suit with Chuck and I encourage you all to do the same thing. This most definitely is a nation under duress and distress. What better way to show it that by following the lead of such a great patriot as Chuck Katlic and sending a clear message to our government. I will turn my flags this weekend. I hope that you will do the same.