82nd Rant: The REAL problem with the Second Amendment

Many people have a problem with the Second Amendment to the Constitution which reads as follows:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Many take that to mean that ONLY the military and police officers should have guns, but that is far from the truth. The reason for a militia is to protect the citizenship from the government. And the militia is not the military or the police officers. Rather, it is normal citizens. After all, when the British tried to take the weapons from the Patriots in 1773 the Patriots fought back and then on July 2, 1776, declared themselves free and independent from Britain.

The gun control battle came up with Fast & Furious under the Obama Administration (which Katie Pavlich wrote about in depth in her wonderful book Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up) and also with Operation Wide Receiver under the George W. Bush Administration (of which they are both TOTALLY different in that one did not lead into the other) then came full bore with the shooting in Tucson (Arizona) in 2011 where Former Congresswoman Gabriella Giffords (Democrat from Arizona’s 8^th District) was shot. Then came Aurora (Colorado) and Newtown (Connecticut) in 2012, where mentally ill people decided to pick up a gun and just commit unspeakable horrors. After the Newtown tragedy, many politicians (all on the Democrat side) called for stricter gun laws and gun control. I am against it for the simple reason that if you look at history, the dictators of the world (Hitler in Germany, Stalin in Russia, Mao in China, and Pol Pot in Cambodia) had first come to power with talk of gun control. Then when only the military and police had guns, the dictators decided to unleash holy hell on their respective countries. Many try to make reasonable arguments for no gun control and support for the second Amendment, but one such comment only took 30 seconds, and said so much more than many of the politicians and pro-Second Amendment supporters could in 30 hours. Take a listen to my good friend Kira Davis:

 

Kira Davis (@KiraAynDavis) and the Second Amendment

Kira is a GREAT American (f/t to Sean Hannity for that phrase) and a wonderful Conservative woman who I am proud to call friend. She says many things in 30 seconds (as the above video) or in 5 minutes than any politician or pundit can speak in 5 hours. Definitely give her a follow (she is @KiraAynDavis on Twitter) and also subscribe to her YouTube Channel for more wisdom.

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81st Rant: The 2016 Presidential Primary Election Schedule

At the Republican National Committee (RNC) Winter Meeting over the weekend, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had taken what I think is a major step toward taking the White House back in 2016 by strengthening the nominee (whoever it is, and if we are EVER to take the White House in 2016 we need to follow what Andrew Breitbart had said. More on that below) and empowering the voters during the primary process.

One of the main things he did is shorten the primary process for the goal of having the convention in late June or early July. The following is a list of the rules that were passed to make it happen.

[So] on Friday, we passed new rules to shape the 2016 presidential primary process.

• First, the “carve out” states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada) will hold their contests in February.
• Other states can start their contests on or after March 1.
• Any contest between March 1^st and March 14^th must allocate delegates on a proportional basis.
• Any contest after March 14^th may choose to allocate delegates proportionally or on a winner-take-all basis.
• The deadline for selection of alternates and delegates will move from 35 days before the convention to 45 days before the convention.

You can read the whole thing on breitbart.com. Now while he is on the right path toward having the convention in June or July (which I had said should happen when I wrote my 26^th Rant and my 27^th Rant on these very topics back in January, 2012) he is doing it wrong. Granted, I know I am but a drop in the Republican Party as a voter and as such have no say in the process, but at least I agree that Priebus is leading the party in the right direction with holding the convention in June or July so as to give our nominee a fighting chance during the dog days of summer and also accomplish a little of what I had mentioned in my 26^th Rant.

One thing I would see with [having the voting at the end of the month] is that all of the voting and tabulations would be done by May which means that the nominee would have three months to find a running mate and get the grassroots campaign at least started by getting the main headquarters set up before the convention. Then the day after they give their acceptance speech they can get started on their general election campaign.

You can read the whole thing at ricktheranter.blogspot.com. This in a sense also brings the dates of the Republican National Convention back to what it was during the first nomination of Ronald Reagan, when the 1980 convention was held July 14 to 17. It is also important to note that even before then the Republicans had traditionally held their conventions as early as the middle of May and as late as mid July from 1856 (when the Republicans held their first convention and nominated John Charles Fremont) until 1952 when they nominated Dwight David Eisenhower.

However, no matter what happens on our side, we all have to coalesce behind the nominee (whoever it is) after the convention because as I had pointed out in various rants during the 2012 election, the only two people who have a VIABLE chance of getting the electoral votes are the Republican and the Democrat nominees regardless of who is running as a minor (ie 3rd party or other party) candidate. We need to remember the words of Andrew Breitbart at CPAC in 2012 when he said the following (f/t to Biff Spackle of Director Blue for the transcript)

I don't care who our candidate is

You want a unity speech? I'll give you a unity speech. I don't care who our candidate is.
I haven't since the beginning of this... ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate!
And that's what the Tea Party is.
We are there to confront [the radical left] on behalf of our candidate!
I will march behind who ever our candidate is. Because if we don't, we lose.
There are two paths! There are two paths! One is America, the other is Occupy! One is America, the other is Occupy! And I don't care, and along the way... I've realized over the last three years that the Republican Party and the conservative movement is not what ABC, CBS and NBC put on the screen.
They try to portray you in the worst possible light... and when I travel around the United States meeting people in the Tea Party who care -- black, white, gay, straight -- anyone that's willing to stand next to me to fight the progressive left, I will be in that bunker, and if you're not in that bunker 'cause you're not satisfied with this candidate, more than shame on you. You're on the other side.

Read that part again: “anyone that's willing to stand next to me to fight the progressive left, I will be in that bunker, and if you're not in that bunker 'cause you're not satisfied with this candidate, more than shame on you. You're on the other side.” That is right. We might be zealous and support our candidate in the primary, but when the convention comes around and our candidate is not nominated, we have to support whoever the nominee for the Republican side is after the convention – even if it means holding our nose at the poling place on election day – because when we get to the fork in the road, we have to decide which branch of the fork (and from what I had seen there are only branches of the fork in the road) to go. As Andrew said, one path is America, and the other is Occupy or – since Occupy has dispersed in the middle of 2012 – Socialism. Choose wisely the path you wish to traverse, because there is no going back.

Priebus is taking the first steps to taking the White House back in 2016 with the moving of the convention to late June or early July, as well as moving the first four primaries to February, but we need to take the steps to help our candidate get across the finish line to get nominated. If we can, that is fine. If not, then we need to get behind the candidate that does ultimately get the nomination.

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80th Rant: The Republican Presidential Nomination and 2016

One of my favorite blogs is entitled The Other McCain (no, not THAT McCain but the OTHER guy named McCain) and one of the articles that caught my eye was by Smitty entitled “32 GOP Presidential Choices? Nuts!” In it there was an email from GOP.com about 32 potential candidates for the presidential nomination. Now Smitty brings up a good point when he said the following:

(a) The next election is in 9 1/2 months, dudes. It’s both more important to focus on the next election, and to understand that how this November goes will inform what happens in 2016 in a major way.

We DO have a very important election in 9.5 months called the midterm elections in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate (a total of 468 members of Congress) are up for grabs. If we focus on that, then we will decide where this country will go for the next two years and then ultimately in 2016. However, just for grinz, Smitty had put the 32 candidates in separate categories. I will posit his categories for all 32 candidates, and then offer my picks in the same categories.

Here are Smitty’s picks:

YES (9)	– Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas - Nikki Haley, South Carolina governor - Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor – Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor – Mike Pence, Indiana governor - Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky - Scott Walker, Wisconsin governor – Former Rep. Allen West, of Florida - Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator
MAYBE (7)	- John Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations - Ben Carson, author and neurosurgeon – Rick Perry, Texas governor - Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state – Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida - Sen. Rob Portman, of Ohio – Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina
NO (11)	- Sen. Kelly Ayotte, of New Hampshire - Haley Barbour, former Mississippi governor – Chris Christie, New Jersey governor – Mitch Daniels, former Indiana governor - Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor - Susana Martinez, New Mexico governor – John Kasich, Ohio governor - Former Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas – Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor – Brian Sandoval, Nevada governor - Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota
I WILL VOTE LIBERTARIAN (2)	- Jeb Bush, former Florida governor - Rep. Peter King, of New York
SPECIAL MENTIONS (3)	– Herman Cain, a radio host–Health concerns - Newt Gingrich, former House speaker–Be an advisor, sir. – Rep. Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin–You soiled yourself on the budget deal.

And here are my picks:

YES (7)	- Marco Rubio (Florida Senator) - Ted Cruz (Texas Senator) - John Bolton (former ambassador to the United Nations) - Scott Walker (Wisconsin Governor) -  Nikki Haley (South Carolina Governor) - Tim Scott (South Carolina Senator) - Bobby Jindal (Louisiana Governor)
MAYBE (13)	- Ben Carson (Author and Neurosurgeon) - Paul Ryan (Wisconsin Congressman) - Allen West (Former Florida Congressman) - Rand Paul (Kentucky Senator) - Brian Sandoval (Nevada Governor) - John Kasich (Ohio Governor) - Condoleezza Rice (Former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush) - Sarah Palin (Former Alaska Governor) - Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire Senator) - Haley Barbour (Former Mississippi Governor) Mike Pence (Indiana Governor) - Susanna Martinez (New Mexico Governor) - John Thune (Former South Dakota Senator)
NO (10)	- Jeb Bush (Former Florida Governor) - Peter King (New York Congressman) - Rick Santorum (Former Pennsylvania Senator) - Ron Paul (Former Texas Congressman) - Mike Huckabee (Former Arkansas Governor) - Tim Pawlenty (Former Minnesota Governor) - Rick Perry (Texas Governor) - Rob Portman (Ohio Senator) - Chris Christie (New Jersey Governor) - Mitch Daniels (Former Indiana Governor)
I WILL VOTE OTHER (0)	NONE (This is because if I were to vote for other if there were people in this category, then I would in a sense be voting for the Democrat running)
SPECIAL MENTIONS (2)	- Herman Cain (Considering his age and also how 2012 was a train wreck for him, he might stay in radio) - Newt Gingrich (I think he would be good in an advisory position or as Chief of Staff or other insider position for a Republican President)

Do you agree or disagree with my picks? Let me know on Skype (rickbulow74), email (rickbulow74@live.com), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/RickBulow1974) or on Twitter (@RickBulow1974) where I am wrong. Let us, in the immortal words of one Tony Katz, engage the conversation on this and see where we differ.

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79th Rant: “Duck Dynasty” and homosexuality

I had never seen the show “Duck Dynasty” which appears on A&E. However, I had seen members of “Duck Dynasty” appear on various shows on Fox News Channel (“The Five” and “Fox & Friends” in particular) so I not totally unfamiliar with them. I have to say that what A&E did in suspending Phil Robertson, the Patriarch of the Robertson family which is the centerpiece of “Duck Dynasty”,  is messed up in many ways just because he spoke his mind on the topic of homosexuality.

For those of you who do not know what I am referring to, here is just a small clip of his interview (taken from Middletown Transcript):

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

Phil continues, "It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man's anus. That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical."

You can read the entire thing at GQ. Now I will admit I am a Christian and DO view homosexuality as a sin. However, I do not judge or shun anyone who does it. God does tell us to love the sinner but hate the sin. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (New International Version) reads as such in regards as to who will not inherit the kingdom of God:

⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men^{[a] 10} nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (The words men who have sex with men  in vs. 9 translate two Greek words that refer to the passive and active participants in homosexual acts.)

And 1 Corinthians 5: 9-11 (New International Version) reads as such

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^[a] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. (The Greek word for brother or sister [adelphos] in vs. 11 refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in 1 Corinthians 8:11, 13.)

Now, earlier I said that God tells us to love the sinner but hate the sin. In so doing we follow the path of Jesus who actually ate with the sinners. Now did he participate in what they had none? No he did not. In fact, if memory serves me from reading the gospels many of the sinners Jesus associated with gave up their sinful ways to follow him. Zaccheus and Levi (who was renamed Matthew and became a disciple of Christ and later an apostle in the early church) are prime examples of that.

Now Robert Stacy McCain (no not THAT McCain but the OTHER McCain) brings up a good point in his entry “Is Phil Robertson Wrong?”

You’ll excuse my confusion, but amidst the hyperventilating screeches — GLAAD claiming that Phil Robertson was pushing “vile and extreme stereotypes” — maybe I missed what it was the Duck Dynasty patriarch actually said that was wrong.

“It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would
be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me.”

Is it a “vile and extreme stereotype” to say that gay men engage in anal sex with each other? Or is it in some way objectionable for heterosexuals to say that they prefer the opposite sex? Why is this offensive? To whom is it offensive and why?

You can read the whole thing here.

I know many do not like Neal Boortz (formerly of WSB 750 AM and 95.5 FM out of Atlanta; also known as @Talkmaster on Twitter) for one reason  or another, but one thing he says really puts things into perspective. If two people of the same sex want to be together, what harm does that do to my life, my liberty, or my property? In other words, I do not care what people do  in their bedroom or in public as long as they do not infringe on my life, liberty, or property.

One thing we need to do, one thing we CAN do is support Phil Robertson because he just spoke his mind but those on the left got their thongs in a wad and complained. however, if it were someone on the Left (like when Alec Baldwin shouted a gay obscenity at a reporter) who said something like this and we complained, they would say that we are infringing on their First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Basically, the mantra of the Left is “Free speech for me but not for thee.” Apparently the Constitution means one thing to the Right but something totally different to the Left.

And this is not the first time that A&E had done something like this. In 2012 A&E decided to cancel the hit show "Dog the Bounty Hunter" after 8 seasons. “Dog” was about a family of bounty hunters who prayed prior to going out on the hunt and who had talked to the fugitives they captured about second chances. Granted, there were some internal issues (some of which were brought out in front of the camera and probably which caused the cancellation of the show) but one thing about Duane “Dog” Chapman and Company is that they were a family who preached about second chances and making things right. Then when the family had brought the fugitive to the jail, they would pray with the fugitive at times to try to get him or her right with God.

The issue with Phil Robertson and also (I think) with Dog Chapman is a first amendment right to free speech.  Dog and his wife Beth are back on TV with another show on CMT. Phil should be back on TV as well and the sooner the better. We need more people like the Robertson's and the Chapman's, and less people like the Kardashian’s, to be on TV.

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78th Rant: The Third Party Candidates and the Ruination of Another Election

Diane Sori of The Patriot Factor GETS IT

Democrat Terry McAuliffe was elected Virginia’s governor by a margin of 48% to 46% (1,066,149 to 1,010,929) over Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s conservative attorney general. And while Virginia has historically been a conservative-leaning ‘swing state’…a state that backed every Republican presidential candidate from Richard Nixon through George W. Bush and in 2009 elected a Republican governor by 59% to 41%…the entrance of ‘supposed’ Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis into the race spoiled the election for Cuccinelli, who would have won as most of Sarvis’ 6.6% of the vote would have been added to his total (145,762 in actual numbers).

McAuliffe was able to win basically because he ran a highly financed negative campaign (outspending Cuccinelli by over 15+million dollars). By saying over and over ad-nauseum that Cuccinelli was a social conservative who was anti-woman because he vehemently opposed abortion, McAuiffe was able to garner the women’s vote by a 51-42 margin. And by also constantly repeating that Cucchinelli refused to admit that it was the Republicans who were to blame for the recent government shutdown, McAufliffe was able to play to the heavily populated Northern Virginia area, where many work for the government or for government contractors.

But truth be told it was both ‘anything but Libertarian’ Robert Sarvis and a lack of support… including the all important and much needed financial support…by his own Republican Party that cost Cuchinelli the election. Using tactics more Democratic than Libertarian, Sarvis, kept demeaning Cuccinelli’s social issue positions instead of focusing on the Libertarian agenda of small government and individual liberties, leading many to rightfully believe he was ‘planted’ in the race by the Democrats who knew the election was NOT a sure deal after the ObamaCare website and insurance policy cancellation fiascoes.
In fact, software billionaire Joe Liemandt, a Democratic Party benefactor and Obama campaign bundler, helped pay professional petition circulators to get Robert Sarvis on the ballot as the Libertarian candidate for NO other purpose than to split and syphon off the Republican vote…split and cause friction between the old guard Republican establishment base and the new true conservative Republican grassroots movement...AKA TEA Party Republicans.

And after proving just how successful base splitting was in Virginia with the insertion of unknown Sarvis into the governor’s race, come 2014 and 2016 this base splitting might be the ultimate Democratic strategy they will use anytime a race seems a bit too close for comfort so listen up people…NO third party candidate must be allowed to split the vote ever again…they simply cannot win so voting for a third party candidate is an actual wasted vote or worse yet…a vote for the Democratic opponent. ...

So like I said in the beginning we win some…we lose some…but if we are to take our country back we must start winning more than we lose…and we must do it by supporting TEA Party Republicans over old guard establishment Republicans who are more RINO than true conservatives…and we must turn our backs on all third party candidates, period…and I do mean…period.

Read the whole thing. What Diane had said is so true. Third Party Candidates only serve to divide the vote and cause panic and mayhem. In fact, I had even railed on the third party in my own editorial during the post-election edition of my talk show Red, Right, and Blue right after the 2012 Presidential Election.

Now, as far as who to blame for Romney's loss Tuesday which evidently led to the death of America, I think we ought to lay the blame on the three groups that deserve it. (WARNING: graphic language ahead)

1.) The Occupy movement: Yes I know they are not around in as full of a force as they were this time last year, but they were the major lynchpin in the downfall of America.
2.) The third party HACKS: If it were not for the third party candidates like Virgil Goode, Roseanne Barr, Jill Stein and more importantly Gary FUCKING Johnson I think Mitt Romney would have won the election. Here in Florida, Romney is losing (as the count is still going on) by 64,185 votes. Had the third party candidates (who combined had 68,576 votes with Gary Johnson grabbing 44,418 votes) voted for Romney, then he would have won Florida outright. Hell, I think it would have been the same in the other states as well.

3.) The voting electorate as a whole. In 2009 a video had first been floated about where people who had voted for Obama (who ranged in ages from 18 - 80) were asked simple, basic questions about who was in charge of our nation, who Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were, and other questions about politics that a 5th fucking grader should know, and they had no motherfucking clue on ANY of them! Take a look at this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3ZLJj_q4xI is the link to the 10 minute video) and you will see what I mean.

I know there are others who deserve it as well, but these three groups I mentioned deserve the brunt of it and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. When I say this, I do not mean prosecuted in an actual court but rather in the court of public opinion, where it rightfully belongs.

Read the entire editorial. It would do us good to remember that when it comes down to the GENERAL election to choose ONLY one of the two who actually matter. Why? Because as is so expertly mentioned in a song by Greg X. Volz, there is no room in the middle.

I always bring this up, and I know many are sick of hearing it, but it bears repeating over and over again. As Andrew Breitbart had said at CPAC back in February of 2012, “If you’re not in that bunker because you’re not satisfied with that candidate (in this case Romney), more than shame on you. You’re on the other side.”

Andrew Breitbart telling it like it is #WAR

As the last clip shows, are you with us Patriots and REAL AMERICANS or are you on the other side?

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77th Rant: Get In The Fight

There are certain posts from The Other McCain which do not really stand out to me to merit their own blog post. And then there are rare gems like this one from Robert Stacy McCain:

From the perspective of the neurasthenic weaklings who now run Republican politics, anyone who wants to stand up and fight for principles is considered a troublemaker. Ted Cruz? Mike Lee? Rand Paul? No, the GOP leadership doesn’t want to elect people like that. They want smooth-talking sellouts like Lindsey Graham and good ol’ boys like Mitch McConnell who understand that the job of Republicans is to “compromise” by giving Democrats everything they want.

Well, who in their right mind would fight on behalf of a such a party? Who would risk their reputation, their comfort, perhaps even their livelihood, to defend the Republican Party, when the party itself is run by wimps who only care about their own re-election?

Think about this: When Lady Liberty and Sister Toldjah came under fire by North Carolina Democrats, did anybody in the North Carolina GOP apparatus stand up for them? Hell, no.

You cannot win in political combat by continually retreating. If you ever hope to win, you must first determine to fight. And once you’re in the fight, you must never stop fighting until you win.

Please read the whole thing. Now for those of you who have been following me, whether through my writings or my online talk show Red, Right, and Blue, you will know that I had brought up something like this when I first said that I would go through the Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Revolutionaries that Andrew Breitbart had talked about in his wonderful book Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save The World. Andrew’s very first rule in the Primer was “Don't be afraid to go into enemy territory” and it is wise words to live by in order to win the war. This is one quote from the Primer that Andrew mentioned:

The army of the emboldened and gleefully ill-informed is growing. Groupthink happens, and we have to take it head-on. We can't win the political war until we win the cultural war. The Frankfurt School knew that - that's why they won the cultural war and then, on it's back, the political war. We can do the same, but we have to be willing to enter the arena. By neglecting The View or, worse, by ignoring Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Maher, and David Letterman - we allow them to distort and demean us as they romanticize and elevate themselves. It's harder to attack people to their faces than behind their backs. and we have to confront them face-to-face. Young people suckle at the teat of pop culture - but by refusing to fight for their attention, we lose by default.

Our most articulate voices, likable faces, and best idea-makers need to go into hostile territory and plant the seeds of doubt in our ideological enemy and the apolitical masses who simply go with the media flow. Our babysitter has an Obama bumper sticker on her car, but admits she knows nothing about politics. How did that happen? It's what the complex tells her to do to be cool. We have to use their media control against them by walking into the lion's den, heads held high, proud of who we are and what we stand for.

The reason the Progressive Socialist Left has their collective claws in our society is because they had infiltrated the culture (talk shows, music, TV, media, movies) and dictated how America should think from there. Then after they won the cultural war (or the war for the hearts and minds of people) then they won the political war. We need to do the same. Andrew was right. By refusing to fight for the attention of young people who suckle at the teat of pop culture, we lose the cultural and then the political war by default.

When I gave my own editorialization of Andrew’s Pragmatic Primer, I said something which we ALL need to take to heart:

Back in 1994 or so I had read a book by InterVarsity Press (a part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) entitled Out of the Saltshaker & into the World by Rebecca Manley Pippert. The book deals with evangelism. However, after reading Andrew’s Pragmatic Primer Rule 1, I also thought of this because just as Get out of the Saltshaker dealt with getting out of the church and into the world, what Andrew is saying is our best and brightest conservative minds need to get off of Fox News and conservative talk shows and go on shows like Piers Morgan, Hardball, Meet the Press with David Gregory, The Daily Show with John Stewart, Real Time with Bill Maher, The View, and others to get our word out there. While most of us are not of the caliber to go on those shows, there is one way we can do it. We need to actually go and engage the culture in the malls, the parks, anywhere we can.

When I was involved in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship back in 1993 and 1994, one person would always point to the door before he left the meeting and say “The mission field is right out that door there.” His basis for that was from the Bible where in Isaiah 6:8 God asked “Whom will I send, and who will go for us?” and Isaiah said “Here am I. Send me.” I am here to say that the battlefield for the hearts and minds of Americans, nay, the WORLD, is the Internet as well as right in our own backyards. The question is will you stand on the sidelines and retreat to the safety of Fox News and conservative talk shows, or will you get out there and join in the fight?

Read my entire editorial here. The same question I asked at the end of my editorial in March is just as applicable in October.  Will you stand on the sidelines and retreat to the safety of Fox News and conservative talk shows, or will you get out there and join in the fight?

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76th Rant: The IRS

Over the past few weeks we had been hearing of the IRS denying certain statuses to organizations that have the words “Tea Party", “Patriot”, or “Constitution” in it’s name. That is in and of itself profiling, and one of the things that the IRS should NOT be a part of. In fact, the IRS should be defunded and/or abolished because they are rewarding bad behavior and punishing good behavior.

I know most of you are asking what to replace the IRS with if it is abolished. The answer in my mind is simple. I had devoted earlier rants on this blog (see my Second Rant and my 13th Rant back in 2005 as well as my 19th rant in 2010) to the messed up Federal Tax System and said that we should go to the Fair Tax. In later rants I will go into why I think the Fair Tax is the way to go, but will ask you this. Take a look at the following picture and tell me just which one you prefer.

The two paychecks look similar, don’t they? Well take a closer look. The current paycheck has you losing all your hard earned money before it even reaches your hand due to all of the taxes that Uncle Sam inflicts. This is called taxing PRODUCTIVITY. Normally people who make $5 an hour (for instance) should expect to take home $400 every 2 weeks (not counting taxes) but instead they are taking home $275 – $300 (I know it might not be just like that, but am trying to give an example) every 2 weeks due to Uncle Sam taking that hard earned money out of your pocket.

Now with the FairTax, when you make $5 an hour which leads to $400 every two weeks you TAKE HOME $400 every two weeks. “Well now what about all of the taxes? How does the government get it’s share?” you ask. Well the answer is simple. Let’s say you go to the hardware store and buy a $10 hammer. The hardware store get $7.70 of the money and the remain $2.30 goes to the government. That is called taxing CONSUMPTION or WHAT YOU BUY.

If you want to know more about the FairTax, I will go into the truth of it in later rants, but one thing I recommend is to go to the Fair Tax website at http://www.fairtax.org and check it out. There are also some videos as well on YouTube which I will be playing and discussing in future rants. However, I will say that the FairTax will bring money, jobs, and growth back to the United States of America.

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75th Rant: American Exceptionalism

Last week someone had said that a friend and I had ruined 60 years of what he believed to be an American, going on to say there is no more American exceptionalism. Well I am here to say that what he said is FAR from the truth. Like my good friend (and host of Live and Direct with G-Ski Rocks every Monday and Wednesday night at 9 PM Eastern on BlogTalk Radio) G-Ski Rocks of 20-20 Radio says, this is the greatest country on the planet BECAUSE of the exceptionalism in each and every American here. In order for American exceptionalism to be no more, well that would mean that each and every person who believes in it is dead and buried. While the Obama Administration might want that to happen, there is no way IN HELL that I will let that happen on my watch.

The history of American exceptionalism came from Alexis de Tocqueville back in 1831 an in 1840 when he wrote in his book Democracy in America. He wrote:

The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit, which seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts, the proximity of Europe, which allows them to neglect these pursuits without relapsing into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I have only been able to point out the most important, have singularly concurred to fix the mind of the American upon purely practical objects. His passions, his wants, his education, and everything about him seem to unite in drawing the native of the United States earthward; his religion alone bids him turn, from time to time, a transient and distracted glance to heaven. Let us cease, then, to view all democratic nations under the example of the American people.

While de Tocqueville TALKED about American exceptionalism, the specific term was first used in 1929, when the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, disagreeing with Jay Lovestone of the Communist Party of America that America was so resistant to revolution because of the increasing strength of American capitalism, and the country's "tremendous reserve power" (a strength and power which he said prevented Communist revolution), called Lovestone's ideas "the heresy of American exceptionalism." In the 1930s, academics in the U.S. redefined American exceptionalism as befitting a nation that was to lead the world, with the newer United States ready to serve the older European societies as an example of a liberated future free from Marxism and socialism. More recently, socialists and other writers have tried to discover or describe this exceptionalism of the U.S. within and outside its borders.

In future blog entries I will get into the details of American exceptionalism from my point of view, and give certain examples of it. But know that the only way American exceptionalism can die, in spite of everything Obama and his cronies do, is if the AMERICAN PEOPLE do not believe in it.

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74th Rant: Impeaching Obama? Not a wise idea

It has been a while since I have done a rant, having spent the past few months or so devoting the blog to doing up a news aggregate. However, just because I have not ranted it does not mean that my mind stops churning over a few things that had been happening.

It really frosts me when I hear people say how we should impeach Barack Obama because of Benghazi and Fast and Furious. While I do feel that Obama should be held culpable for Benghazi and Fast and Furious, impeachment is not the way to go, and here is why. There have only been two sitting Presidents who have been impeached in the history of the United States. The first one was Andrew Johnson in 1868 and the second one was Bill Clinton in 1999. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted, as the votes in the Senate to impeach failed with 2/3 of the Senate not voting guilty, as seen below:

Year	President	House charge (vote to impeach)	Senate vote to impeach (number required to impeach)
1868	Andrew Johnson	Vote to impeach the president of high crimes and misdemeanors (126 yea, 47 nay)	Vote to impeach the president of high crimes and misdemeanors - 35 guilty, 19 not guilty (36 required out of 54)
1999	Bill Clinton	2 charges that stuck 1.) Perjury to a grand jury (228 yea, 206 nay) 2.) Obstruction of Justice (221 yea, 212 nay) 2 charges that failed 1.) Second count of perjury (205 yea, 229 nay) 2.) accusing Clinton of abuse of power (148 yea, 285 nay)	1.) Perjury to a Grand Jury – 45 guilty, 55 not guilty 2.) Obstruction of Justice – 50 guilty, 50 not guilty (67 required out of 100)

Diane Sori of The Patriot Factor had written a very interesting Op-ed on this very subject.

In order to impeach a sitting president the House of Representatives needs a simple majority vote, but to obtain a conviction in the Senate a two-thirds majority (67 votes) is needed. Unfortunately, with the current Democratic controlled Senate this is NOT likely to happen, so the Republicans are looking forward to the 2014 elections to try to take back the Senate.
But another year is too long to wait to avenge the MURDERS of Ambassador Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and ex-Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Too long and with NO guarantee that the Republicans will even take back control of the Senate for we all know that Obama will ‘fix’ the mid-terms with voter fraud and machine ‘irregularities’ just like he did in November.

After all, this time his neck is on the line…literally.         
And even if he was by an outside chance impeached, impeachment gives credibility to his presidency and all his misguided policies and laws would still stay in place…something we surely do NOT want. Also, remember that once charges are brought for impeachment and they fail in the Senate, it’s over and cannot be brought back again.

“If we cannot impeach Obama, then what CAN we do?” Well, Diane gives us the answer later on in her blog entry:

The simple fact is that Barack HUSSEIN Obama can and should be arrested for treason under Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution which states, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort…”
Meaning in NO uncertain terms that the betrayal of the United States of America by consciously and purposely acting to aid her enemies is indeed grounds for treason.
And treason fits Obama to a tee for this man NOT only sends monies to our enemies (like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas), but I believe that Barack HUSSEIN Obama was sending, without Congressional approval, guns and weapons to Syrian rebels, rebels with direct ties to al-Qaeda, got caught by Ambassador Stevens, who then had to be silenced at all costs.

She then finishes it up by saying:

So my friends, impeachment is but a slap on the wrist and won’t do for Barack HUSSEIN Obama or for Hillary Clinton for that matter. Arrest, try, convict, and sentence carried out for treason, aiding and abetting the enemy, murder, and crimes against America is the way to go.
And along with Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution there is a possibly that the military could arrest Obama and bring him before a military tribunal. A military tribunal is a military court designed to try members of enemy forces during times of war. A definitive case can be made that Barack HUSSEIN Obama, by his actions or should I say deliberate lack of actions in regards to Benghazi, is a member of our enemy’s forces.
And it’s also appropriate to subject a private citizen to a military tribunal if that person is being tried for treason, which would be the case with Hillary Clinton…a now private citizen who knew of the gun-running…who covered it up…and who lied about it all thus aiding and abetting the enemy.

Read the whole thing on The Patriot Factor, and support a TRUE PATRIOT, a REAL AMERICAN in Diane Sori!

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73rd Rant: Obama’s Second Inauguration and America’s Future

Well, the unthinkable which we had failed to prevent on November 6, 2012, had officially happened this past Sunday. We have 4 more years of Barack Obama. I say officially on Sunday because according to the Constitution January 20 is the official day when the President and Vice President begin their term, with the public inauguration occurring on Monday, January 21.  We already know what plans Obama has for the second term, and that which I had long feared might just occur in his second term, that in turning the Republic which the Founding Fathers had fought and died to create into an Empire like that of Soviet Russia a century ago or (even worse) like that which we had seen come about in Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith. Granted, the latter is just a movie, but it is still powerful nevertheless.

If you had not seen that movie, there is a very interesting clip which has been removed on YouTube where Chancellor Palpatine was speaking to the Senate and spoke of the Jedi attack on him, thus leaving him scarred and deformed. However, he said his resolve had never been stronger and that ” in order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the First Galactic Empire...for a safe and secure society!” The reply from Senator Padme Amidala is rather alarming, and possibly serves as a warning for us today: “So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause.”  Is there any way to prevent this from happening in our world today?

Fortunately, there might be a way. AJ Reissig has written a book entitled Escape to Freedom: Book One in the FreedomRedux Series. AJ lives in New Richmond, Ohio with his lovely wife Christina and children. Born in 1973, he grew up in the small river town of Moscow, Ohio. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a background in chemistry. After spending several years as an analyst in manufacturing, he began to pursue writing as a part-time freelancer. His hobbies include gardening, woodworking, home improvement, and anything outdoors.
AJ has long followed politics. Over the years, AJ has become increasingly disturbed by the trend toward big government in the United States. His novel series, FreedomRedux, revolves around a United States of the future that is governed by a totalitarian regime that is bent on world domination, and those who wish to restore the United States to the nation that the founding fathers intended. In 2011, he started the political blog FreedomRedux to express his libertarian political beliefs. In 2012, he founded Freedom Notes Press, LLC to publish political novels.

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72nd Rant: An Open Letter to the Haters

I have picked up a lot of haters in my 38 years of being vertical and walking the earth. However, over the past three years that I had decided to actively blog about politics (as opposed to passively blog now and then) they had come out of the woodwork. Many would think that because I am a Conservative that it would come from the Liberals, but that is not the case. Roughly 95% of the haters had come from those who call themselves Conservative. The following goes out to them on behalf of myself and a few close friends:

Dear haters and other douchenozzles,

It is because of you and your egotistical bullshit that we are 24 – 48 hours from the coronation of Barack Obama. While I understand we each had different candidates through the Primaries, when Romney had the nomination all locked up in April we should have put our differences aside and supported him as the candidate to go up against Obama in November. However, that was not the case as had been mentioned on Red, Right, and Blue as well as this very blog on several occasions. Thanks to you, the Left had controlled the narrative and that led to Obama winning the White House for 4 more years.

Many of you had said that “a vote for Romney is a vote for Obama because they both believe the same thing.” I had disproven that as well because we had all seen how Obama hates America in many ways, more recently with the executive orders he signed this past Wednesday tightening gun control. On the other hand, if you had heard Romney with an open mind then you would know that he loves America and would do all he could in order to make this the best country on the earth.But you would not see that through your rose-colored glasses. We lost the White House not because of WHO we ran or HOW we ran, but rather because we were not a solid unit. Now, because we were not a solid unit, you better be prepared to see all that the Founding Fathers fought, bled, and died for crumble and America as we know it go to hell in a handbag even faster. I told you this is exactly what would happen, but you were so bull-headed that you could not see an inch from your own face.

I know you had told me to go back to my blog because I know nothing. I also know that you had told a few conservative BlogTalk Radio show hosts to get off the air and you have bragged that you ran off a couple of others. Well, you had not run us off but rather we are bigger and better than ever before. In the immortal words of Katy Abram to Arlen Specter, you have awakened a sleeping giant. We WILL NOT be denied. You might have run us off of BlogTalk Radio but you have NOT silenced us. We own the narrative because it is not just a fancy saying or something that can be turned off like a light switch. Rather, it is a way of life, something that is in us every second of our lives, and we are determined to make your lives a living hell the only way we know how. You might think that you have silenced us, but instead you have made our drive to take back America that much more in the fore. We are bound and determined to own and control the narrative. Whatever narrative we do not have, we will do all we can to take the narrative away from the liberals and also you haters. You are no better than the liberals. In fact, and I speak for myself on this, you are ALL liberals in my eyes!

Sincerely,

Richard P. (Rick) Bulow

A REAL American fighting for what’s right

I do not know about you, but the haters and douchenozzles had only given me more incentive to got to #WAR and ensure that I can do all I can to save this nation in 2014 and beyond. While the past is behind us, I will do all I can to learn from it and move ahead so as not to let the past repeat itself.

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71st Rant: An Apology to the Founding Fathers

My friend Laurin Moreno had written something on December 15, 2012, which really put things in perspective nowadays.

Dear Founding Fathers:
 
I’m sorry that after all we have been through as a nation that we cannot see when something is wrong under our very eyes.
 
I’m sorry that we have become so dependent on government instead of on ourselves.
 
I’m sorry that we care more for our enemies overseas than we do our allies.
 
I’m sorry that in times of tragedy that people will use their political beliefs to get their agendas across.
 
I’m sorry that we have been so arrogant as a Nation, thinking that nothing or no one will harm us.
 
I’m sorry that we are electing people to Office without vetting them.
 
I’m sorry that we have come to a point where free speech is considered a hate crime.
 
I’m sorry for those who think we are on the right track when we are coming so close to falling off a cliff, financially, economically, and morally.
 
I’m sorry that good is being called evil and that evil is being called good.
 
I’m sorry that people who live today do not realize the struggles you all went through to get yourselves from under the thumb of the British and make America what it is today.
 
I’m sorry that we have become a nation where we can sit back and watch someone die without even trying to help them.
 
I’m sorry that we are fast becoming the government from which you fought so hard to break away.
 
I’m sorry that we have a president who has been spitting on the Constitution ever since…ever since before he got into Office and after. In his opinion, the Constitution is flawed.
 
I’m sorry that after such tragedies like Fort Hood, Operation Fast and Furious, the oil spill in Florida, the theater shooting in Colorado, the death of Team SEAL Six, Benghazi, and just recently the shooting in an elementary school in Connecticut, that people still can’t see our President as someone who is only looking out for himself.
 
I’m sorry that we elected a president whose background includes: growing up around those who worshiped terrorism, racism, socialism, communism, Marxism, and Saul Alinsky. Add to that the fact that anyone who knew the president for what he really is and who tried to come forward and warn U.S. citizens, especially when he was running for President the first time, have been killed, or have disappeared.
 
I’m sorry we have a president who apologizes to other countries for America being America.
 
I’m sorry we have a president who supplies our enemies with OUR weapons.
 
I’m sorry we have a president who gets our men and women in uniform killed because he keeps bowing to our enemies and making their missions much more dangerous with ridiculous Rules of Engagement.
 
I’m sorry we have a president, a Senate, and a House of Representatives who continue to dig our country even deeper into debt while imposing disastrous regulations on small businesses while catering to big businesses, forcing banks to make "bad loans" in order to be ALLOWED to expand and in the process killing American jobs.
 
I’m sorry that we try to see the good in people—especially our elected officials-- when, day after day, year after year, they continue to intentionally hurt America and its people emotionally and physically.
 
I’m sorry that ignorance, stupidity, and gullibility is the new norm.
 
I’m sorry that the murdering of the unborn is just all right, when in the Declaration of Independence it clearly states that people have the right to LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
 
I’m sorry that even America’s most patriotic people can’t even see the evil that pervades most of our elected officials, especially our current president who is the most evil, anti-America president that we have ever had.
 
I’m sorry that U.S. citizens take their rights-something that most countries do not have—for granted.
 
I’m sorry that, instead of telling people of certain religions and ethnic backgrounds to integrate, we have to treat them like they are someone special.
 
I’m sorry that hardworking, law-abiding citizens are having everything taken from them by those who do the opposite.
 
Most of all, I’m sorry that everything you all have fought and died for is being thrown away, daily. If all of you were here right now, you would probably look at us in disgust and think, ”If we knew America was going to be like this, we would not have ever broken away from Britain.”

 

No truer words have been spoken. She had summed up in 739 words what many have tried to say in in the past 20 years. America is suffering, and the Founders are probably spinning in their graves seeing the once beautiful country that they bled and died for being turned into the despotic cesspool that it is now, no thanks to Obama and his cronies. We need to do all that we can to take this country back. Everyone should ask themselves one question which I had spoken of in my most recent rant: Will you give up, or will you fight on?

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70th Rant: Time to give up or time to fight on?

Last night the House voted to pass the Fiscal Cliff deal, thereby slapping the American People in the face. In fact, Speaker John Boehner (Republican from Ohio’s 8th Congressional District) voted for the deal (thereby proving that he deserved the title of Schmuck of the Week on Red, Right, and Blue for December 8, 2012) as well as Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (Republican from Wisconsin’s 1^st Congressional District) while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican from Virginia's 7^th congressional district) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Republican from California's 22^nd congressional district) voted against the deal, thereby dividing the House Leadership and also possibly firing Boehner as Speaker.

This whole fiscal cliff debacle reminds me of the most recent issue of the Imprimis newsletter from Hillsdale College. In it Dr. Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale, had posted his interview on the Hugh Hewitt show from November 7. There was a very interesting dialogue at the beginning of the newsletter in which Hewitt had mentioned that “there are a lot of people who are close to saying “game over,” who are tempted now to retreat from politics—to go do missionary
work, for instance—and give up on the republic. But you have made your life’s work the studying of leaders who have refused to do that.” Dr. Arnn’s answer is one in which many people should read many times and commit it to memory.

That’s right. And the reason you can’t do that, by the way—the reason you can’t retreat into private life and give up on politics—is that the cost of doing it is overwhelming. If you don’t live under good laws, life becomes truncated and less happy, injustice becomes customary, civilization is compromised. And one
cannot acquiesce in that. One has to be involved. And since politics is natural to us—man is essentially political, as Aristotle says—and since we do live in the greatest modern country—founded that way at least—we owe it a lot. And many of the people who have seen the republic
through to where we are today have gone through things that are worse than this. So first of all, it’s a duty not to give up. But second, there are good reasons to
know that the game isn’t over.

When pressed by Hugh what he meant, Dr. Arnn went on to say,

One of them is that the election is shot through with contradictions. The obvious contradiction is that we have a divided government. The presidency and the Senate are in the hands of one party, and the House of Representatives and most governorships are in the hands of the other. A second contradiction is that a large majority of people continued to say in the exit polls that they were against raising taxes in order to cut the deficit.
One might be cynical and put that down to an irresponsible refusal to pay for existing benefits—to get more and more “free stuff.” But for a long time now, opinion polls have pointed towards the existence of a broad majority of Americans who favor smaller government. This obviously contradicts the re-election of the president and the Democratic gains in the Senate. The
country is still a house divided against itself, and that’s dangerous. But it doesn’t mean that there’s been a resolution. It means in fact the opposite: there is not a
resolution. That resolution still has to be made, and the making of it lies ahead of us, and not behind us.

Dr. Arnn went on to say that Reagan and Churchill were “two statesmen that regarded the Soviet Union as weak, even at the height of its power, because it was built on self-contradictory propositions and its system led to obvious and repeated injustices.”

You can read the entire interview here and also subscribe to Imprimis for free here. I strongly recommend subscribing to Imprimis as it brings the best and brightest from well-known politicians, columnists, and radio hosts like Thomas Sowell, Mark Steyn, John Bolton, Margaret Thatcher, Mark Helperin, and others. The main question here is, “will you give up, or will you fight on?”

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69th Rant: The 112th Congress and the Fiscal Cliff

Well, 2012 is fast coming to an end in 10 hours and 32 minutes, and there has been NO deal reached on the Fiscal Cliff. That means that the can will be kicked down the road for another three months when the debt ceiling is reached.

If you remember from the beginning of the 112^th Congress there was the matter of the debt ceiling debacle from July to August, 2011, where the Republican-led House of Representatives had brought  Cut, Cap, and Balance to the floor on July 15 (as H.R. 2560; the entire transcript of the debate can be found in the Congressional Record here) and it passed on July 19 with a vote of 234-190 with 8 members not voting. Cut, Cap, and Balance in effect died in the Democrat-led Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) called it one of the worst pieces of legislation he had ever seen, and even Barack Obama said he would veto it should it pass the Senate. On July 20, the bill was read twice in the Senate and placed on the Calendar (The entire Senate record can be found in five separate places; S4743-4751, S4751-4779, S4781-4795, S4813-4826a and S4813-4826c) for a vote. The vote to table H.R. 2560 occurred on July 22 and that vote passed with a vote of 51-46 with 3 not voting.

I mention the Cut, Cap, and Balance debate and the debt ceiling debacle as that is how and why we are at this point where we are about to fall off the fiscal cliff. If the Senate had passed Cut, Cap, and Balance I feel that it would have been one step in avoiding the fiscal cliff. Now we are on our way toward that cliff, and as I had mentioned in a prior rant,

there is a cliff symbolizing socialism ahead of us, and this election is a make or break election in which we either have a chance to put the car in Reverse or keep it in Drive. If we keep going the way we are, then as I had mentioned in recent editorials, the country as we know it will cease to exist. We need someone to put a bandaid on the bleeding, and Mitt Romney in my opinion is the one to if not stop the bleeding outright at least stop the bleeding for 4 or even 8 years.

Well, we had failed to put a bandaid on the bleeding of the country November 6, and now we are bleeding to death. In that same rant and also in another rant, I had mentioned the Tytler circle, and those words are ever so true even here once more.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.  These nations have progressed through this sequence:

"From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."

I had said that we are in the selfishness to apathy or apathy to dependence stage. After looking at this debate and debacle over the fiscal cliff, I would say that we are fully in the apathy to dependence stage. Right now Atlas is totally shrugging, and there is nothing that can be done to stop him, even if Obama and Congress comes to a deal because it is the final countdown. As Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain said on December 10, “It’s either (a) a hopeless stalemate, or (b) the prelude to a total GOP surrender, and there not really anything you or I can do about it.”

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68th Rant: Remove Boehner as Speaker of the House

As I had mentioned in my 67th rant, Barack Obama and John Boehner had met the beginning of the month to figure out a way to avoid the fiscal cliff. Just before Christmas Boehner had put forth a “Plan B” which he had pulled off of the table after it was found out that he would not have the required votes for it to pass. Stuff like this had been Boehner’s modus operandi for the past 2 years. Granted, some of the things the House had done in Boehner’s term as Speaker was good, but for the most part it ALMOST felt like we were seeing another term by San Fran Nan Pelosi as House Speaker!

The Republicans kept the House on November 6, but it was a pyrrhic victory as they lost ground in the Senate and lost the chance to win the White House and stop Obama fundamentally transforming America into a Socialist state. There had been some scuttlebutt to replace Boehner as House Speaker, and I am in agreement with that.

There had been many articles floating about online in regards to who SHOULD replace Boehner as House Speaker, and on Red, Right, and Blue last Saturday, Matt Boyle of Breitbart was talking about the division in the House as well as who should replace Boehner. Some possible candidates to replace Boehner are:

• Paul Ryan – as reported to Laura Ingraham by her sources on Capitol Hill.
• Bob Goodlatte – requested by the sixth District of the Virginia GOP to challenge Boehner
• Kevin McCarthy – as mentioned by Republican Strategist and Whip ally Dee Dee Benkie

I like the pick of Paul Ryan to replace Boehner. I also like Michelle Bachmann to replace Boehner as House Speaker. Of course, those two are IF the Speaker has to come from the House membership. If the Speaker does not have to come from the House membership, then I have a couple of options of my own:

• Allen West – He lost his House seat in November (due to fraud) to Patrick Murphy. I had thought he was an effective Congressman and as such thought he would make a great Speaker in the future should he have remained in the House. Now that he is not a House member (effective January 3, 2013) I think it would be poetic justice if the majority were to drop Boehner for West
• Newt Gingrich – Say what you will about Newt as a man and as a 2012 presidential candidate. His term as House Speaker after the Republican Revolution in 1994 gave America a balanced budget after many meetings with Bill Clinton. Newt was an effective bulldog against Clinton in the meetings on the budget and the government shutdown, and we need a bulldog to face Obama now.

We are stuck with Obama for 4 more years. If Boehner keeps the Speakership in 2013, then we look forward to the Republicans losing the House in the 2014 mid-term elections. If that happens, then we will be stuck with either Pelosi as Speaker or (even worse) Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as the next House Speaker.

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67th Rant: Approaching The Fiscal Cliff

As I had mentioned during the Debt Ceiling Debacle in my 20th Rant last year, this clip from Jerry Maguire where Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) tells Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) to show him the money is quite fitting of what the American people (mostly from the Tea Party) are trying to tell the Democrats and Obama. Now, with it being 21 days, 16 hours, and 15 minutes until the new year, we are barreling toward the fiscal cliff and about to go over. Therefore, the American people are not only telling the Democrats but also the Republicans to do something to prevent us from going over the edge. Yesterday, President Obama had met with House Speaker John Boehner (Republican from the 8th Congressional District in Ohio and also Schmuck of the Week on Red, Right, and Blue for December 8, 2012) for the first time since the election to speak on a way to prevent us going over the fiscal cliff. You can find a good piece about the fiscal cliff from Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain.

We have not had a national budget in almost 1400 days, and every budget Obama had posited before Congress had not had a positive vote in the Senate, with even the Democrats opposing the Obama budget. When asked when the Senate would put forth their own budget. Max Baucus (Democrat from Montana who is Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee) and Harry Reid (Democrat from Nevada who is the Senate Majority Leader) both said that they are not required to put out a budget. These two are the main reasons why the Congress is in total disarray. The House had already passed a budget (thanks to Budget Chairman and 2012 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan of Wisconsin’s 1^st Congressional District) for the past three years and sent it on to the Senate, but Reid would not bring it to the floor for a vote.

Day after day we are inching closer not only to the fiscal cliff but also toward socialism. There is a saying that elections have consequences, and we are seeing it happening every second with Obama just sitting around fiddling. The last time a leader fiddled while his country was collapsing was Nero back in AD 64 when Rome was burning. The words of Alexander Tytler are ringing true.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.  These nations have progressed through this sequence:

"From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."

Every day we are sinking back again into bondage. Right now we are in the selfishness to apathy or the apathy to dependence stage. We need to tell Obama, Boehner, Reid, and the other politicians to batten down and do something to fix this nation’s debt and prevent us from going over the fiscal cliff, or their time in charge will end in 2014 (all 435 House members including Boehner and 33 senate seats including 20 held by Democrats) and we the people will elect Congressmen and Senators who will actually know how to fix the economy.

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66th Rant: Brett Kimberlin and the moment of truth

Today is the final countdown for Brett Kimberlin. For those of you who remember my 41st rant from May 25th in regards to Brett Kimberlin (aka the Speedway Bomber) then you are probably wondering why it has taken me 25 rants to dedicate a full rant on him. Well, for one thing there was an election to worry about and I had promised that after the election I would devote my time to the Kimberlin affair. Now I had made scant mentions of Kimberlin in various news posts of December 3rd, November 27th, and November 19th. However, I felt that now would be a good time to make a full post about Kimberlin, especially as I had seen from W.J.J. Hoge in Hogewash! that the case Walker v. Kimberlin, et al. is being heard today in Federal Court in Manassas, Virginia, at 10 AM Eastern. I know that the highly respected Mr. Hoge is going to be in the courtroom covering it, and when word comes down from the court through Hogewash, I will talk about it not only on this blog but also <shamelessplug>on my radio show Red, Right, and Blue this Saturday at 1:30 PM on BlogTalk Radio under the Conservative Nation Radio banner, as well as a short blurb on it on Nobamanation (another Conservative Nation Radio show) this Thursday at 8 PM Eastern.<shamelessplug>

And for those of you who are new to my blog and wondering who Brett Kimberlin is, check out the following links:

• The #DreadPirateKimberlin files on Hogewash
• The Brett Kimberlin files on Hogewash
• The Kimberlin Files from The Other McCain
• Lee Stranahan on who comprises #TeamKimberlin
• A very interesting video on Brett Kimberlin posted by Lee Stranahan
• The May 26th episode of Red, Right, and Blue where I speak with Aaron Walker and Mandy Nagy about Kimberlin
• Mandy Nagy's article on Kimberlin
• Twitter Gulag and it's ties to Brett Kimberlin

(This is just the tip of the Brett Kimberlin iceberg. I will work on more and post it all up here on a page dedicated solely to him.)

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