Republican Wake Up Call

When will Republican's finally learn that they have to stop dealing with Liberal, reporters on their terms and start taking charge. Out going Republican, Texas Governor Rick Perry, ponder another run for the Republican nomination for the right to run for President in 2016 has been dipping his toe in the water with donors and the media.

Perry recently sat down with liberal, NBC hack political reporter Kasie Hunt who had the unmitigated gall to ask Perry "are you smart enough to be President?"

Instead of telling Ms. Hunt to stick her question where the sun don't shine or removing his mic and walking away, Perry actually responded to this insulting question. Until Republicans learn to stand up for themselves and squaring off head on with these liberal hacks, then they will continue to be subject to this kind of crap. This is a wake up call for Republicans to not subject themselves to this kind of crap. I can't imagine any Democrat candidate ever being asked this kind of ridiculous question.

Unexplored Theory Doesn’t Equal “An Agenda”

The Book of Matt: The Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard – Stephen Jimenez (Steerforth Press Paperback Edition)

The October 6, 1998 beating and torture of Matthew Shepard that eventually led to his death has become one of the more interesting rallying points in our recent history in the United States. Almost overnight Shepard’s brutal murder was plunged into politics based solely on the fact that he was an HIV positive, gay man; which raised the specter that his murder was due to hated or as popularized at the time, a hate crime.

In, The Book of Matt: The Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard, journalist Stephen Jimenez continued his investigations of the crime and some of the facts that were left unexplored during the eventual trial and conviction of Shepard’s murders. Jimenez had been the producer of an ABC News 20/20 investigation into the case and a couple of years after the trial and conviction of Shepard’s murderers, he went back to Laramie, Wyoming to dig a little deeper into things that had come up in the initial digging into the story.

The book is the result of that second, deeper look at the story and some of the facts weren’t a part of the trial or the case against Shepard’s killers. It didn’t take long to track down those killers and the case against them in legal parlance was “air tight” so why would police dig any deeper?

Jimenez uncovered some clear evidence that Shepard, a slight, college student wasn’t perhaps the innocent victim of a hate crime, but perhaps even more likely, he was murdered due to his involvement in dealing methamphetamine. This naturally flew in the face of the activists who were pushing for legislation that eventually came to pass, to somehow supersize the crimes against protected classes as defined in the law.

Jimenez became the subject of attacks that labeled him as somehow “anti-gay” because he pointed out facts that flew counter to the public claims about Shepard. I guess that would make Jimenez a self-hating gay man; since he is in fact gay himself. The orchestrated campaign against Jimenez and the book is ridiculous on its face, since it doesn’t bother to actually address the facts in the book.

But that seems to be the way politics is debated in this day and age; and that is purely what is at play here. The politics of who cares more and who can somehow do more to protect or defend of give more to defined special classes. Think about the ridiculous nature of so-called hate crimes. Are people injured or killed because someone hates them? Certainly the answer is YES! Do we need a special set of laws to enforce criminal sanctions against those deemed to be in protected groups? NO…not really.

Matthew Shepard’s murder’s were convicted of their crimes; in a deal brokered by Shepard’s parents the killer received life sentences without chance of parole. If they had been convicted of a hate crime, would they spend any more time behind bars? The vile murderers of James Byrd, a Texas man who was beaten, chained and dragged to his death; both received death penalty sentences. When Texas eventually gets around to meting out that sentence, would they have been executed twice due to committing a hate crime?

Turning this book into a political debate is ridiculous. It’s clear to me that Jimenez didn’t have an “agenda” in mind when he set out to investigate the story, but it is in fact the left who attack him that have the agenda to somehow protect ridiculous hate crimes laws to somehow be portrayed as more caring and compassionate.

Rachel Maddow: Delusional Lib

MSNBC host and wonk Rachel Maddow (I hate that guy) in a monthly screed for the Washington Post on Monday, had the nerve to claim that the Republican party was running on a platform of fear; in the twisted estimation trying to peddle an unfounded fear of Ebola, ISIS, and illegal immigration in an attempt to wrench power away from Harry Reid’s senate Democrats.

Clearly Mr. Maddow can’t conceive of the concept that Americans were really in the mood to shift power from the Democrats, based largely on the crappy performance and awful lack of leadership displayed by Liberal all conquering hero, the Community Organizer in Chief Obama.

Lord knows Democrat candidates have never ever run on fear! Right?! Dems have never tried to peddle things like “Republicans want to take away your grandma’s Social Security.” Or “Republicans don’t want you to have healthcare, they just want you to hurry up and die.”

Democrats would certainly never say “Republicans want to take away your right to vote…your civil rights…and go back to the Jim Crow era” to black voters. Or make a ridiculous claim like “if you vote for a Republican you vote for another black man to die” (Ferguson, MO.)

We certainly never had any Democrat claim that Republicans have a war on women: “Republicans want to take away your right to choose” or “Republicans want to ban contraception.” Or how about “Republicans don’t think women should be paid the same amount as men for the same job.”

And there would never ever be an instance of Democrats claiming that “Republicans want to pollute the air and water and poison the environment and don’t believe in the settled science of global climate change.”

Yes, in Mr. Maddow’s delusional, twisted, liberal mind…none of those things ever happened. Anyone with common sense…knows otherwise.

Drive Liberals Crazy…Oh Wait They Already Are!

Hands Off My Gun – Defeating the Plot to Disarm America – Dana Loesch (Center Street)

Conservative Radio/TV Host and author Dana Loesch has to just drive Liberals crazy. She is a true triple threat; brainy, bold and beautiful. Loesch’s first book, Hands Off My Gun – Defeating the Plot to Disarm America is like much of her career to this point as she fearlessly and systematically dismantles Liberal rhetoric on guns and the Second Amendment piece by piece.

Loesch points out the almost delusional self-importance that whacko Libs like former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Community Organizer in Chief, Barack Obama bring to the gun debate. They firmly believe that they can simply put a stop to both the high profile incidences of murder involving guns, like Newtown, Columbine and the shooting of Congresswomen Gabby Giffords, as well as the average gun crime, by passing yet another gun law.

 

Currently there are in excess of 20,000 gun laws on the books in the United States, many that go unenforced or contradict each other; so what would make these Liberal clowns think that they have the proverbial magic bullet to stop gun crime?

I love the fact that Loesch used a quote from Seinfeld character George Costanza, “It’s not a lie if you believe it” to start the chapter entitled The Fourteen Biggest Anti-Gun Lies, Debunked. That quote could be the clearest indicator of the Liberal mindset when it comes to guns. Time and time again Loesch points out the inherent lies and utter lack of knowledge that liberals seem hell bent on parading out for all to see when it comes to guns. Clearly they have NO knowledge of what an automatic weapon is, what the difference is between a clip and a magazine is, or what in God’s name an “assault weapon” is.

In the process of researching and writing this book, Loesch has delivered one of the most passionate and clear thinking defenses of the Second Amendment and gun ownership since scholar John Lott served up the classic More Guns, Less Crime back in 1998.

In The Zones…Green and Red

The Bremmer Detail – Protecting the Most Threatened Man in the World – Frank Gallagher with John Del Vecchio (Open Road Media)

May 2003, Paul Bremmer, a former associate of Henry Kissinger, is named a presidential envoy to Iraq, by President George W. Bush; he will essentially run the country until a new Iraqi government can be stood up to replace the regime of the deposed Saddam Hussein. Naturally Bremmer will have to make decisions that will be unpopular among Iraq’s opposition parties so he immediately becomes a target for extremists.

Frank Gallagher, a former Marine and private security veteran gets tapped by the fledgling security firm Blackwater to head to Iraq and help secure Bremmer. In The Bremmer Detail – Protecting the Most Threatened Man in the World, Gallagher and co-author John Del Vecchio detail the fly by the seat of their pants approach during those early days in which Blackwater, Gallagher and his team were writing the protective playbook with game afoot.

Gallagher captures in entertaining detail the almost constant evolution of of the job he and his team were tasked with performing in the face of not only untold danger, but also the almost non-stop schedule that Bremmer kept. When you consider the limited manpower, the tactical limitations and the total unknowns; like the force arrayed against them, the uncertain nature of terrorist-types and improvised weapons, it is amazing that they were able to complete the task at hand and keep Bremmer unscathed.

The Bremmer Detail takes on a “bunch of guys telling stories” quality and ladles out healthy doses of insider stories that offer real insight into the process and transition that Iraq was going through. There is a level of irony given the current state of the country and ISIS terrorists.  

Abortion Barbie: The Story of the Empty Pink Suit

Forgetting To Be Afraid - Wendy Davis (Blue Rider Books)
For someone thrust headlong into the national spotlight based solely on her hours long pro-abortion filibuster in the Texas legislature, the Lone Star State Democrat gubernatorial candid seems almost blisteringly not self-aware of the contradictions she presents to the public.

For someone so famously pro-abortion; who admits she partook in the Liberal sacrament twice herself in Forgetting To Be Afraid and her campaign team clumsily Tweeted; “As governor, I’ll always make investing in our Texas children my first priority #TeamWendy.”  Seems hard to believe that someone who is lauded for being so self-aware that she has been hailed as the new face of the Democrat party; she comes off as strikingly unaware of the impact of the words she uses.

Forgetting To Be Afraid reads like a pretty typical campaign tome; plenty of overcoming of difficult situations, larded with a healthy dose of self-aggrandizing and a dollop of “wow isn’t she something!” The fact that Davis choose to not address things like the fact that she famously divorced her second husband, who footed the bill for her final years at Texas Christian and Harvard Law, shortly after he made the final payments on the loans. Guess it makes for a much more admirable story to fabricate a tale of a single Mom overcoming.

Contributing Factor

Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill – Revised and Updated Edition: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie, and Video Game Violence – Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria Degaetano (Harmony Books)

A short time after a teacher was shot and killed by a 14 year old at a middle school dance in nearby Edinboro, Pennsylvania, a sleepy, little, college town; I had the opportunity to interview Lt. Col. Dave Grossman about the original edition of his book with co-author Gloria Degaetano, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill. In revised and updated edition of the book, the authors continue to make the case that the exposure our kids get to violence in the form of movies, TV and video games has desensitized them to violence and conditioned them to be more violent.

15 years after the that original edition of the book, not much has really changed; there continues to be a steady stream of violent acts committed by kids on an all to regular basis and there continues to be a sharp divide between those who have their beliefs confirmed by the book and those who disagree with the conclusion. One thing that has changed is that there has been a steady ratcheting up of the level of violent content and the access to this violent content has been multiplied by the advent of tablets and other smart devices that have become a part of our everyday life.

While I continue to believe that violent video games, movies and TV does not create killers, I think it’s foolish to believe that there is not at least a contributing factor to these violent acts that can be traced back to the video violence. When you track back through both the infamous instances of violence; Sandy Hook and Columbine and even the cases that didn’t stir national headlines, has the authors have here, there are a striking number of cases where violent video games and a high level of not only activity, but a proficiency at the games are part and parcel of the shooters lives.

Adam Lanza, who gunned down 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary, was an aficionado of the Combat Arms, shooting game with 83,496 kills to his credit including 22,725 head shots. Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were regular players of the early shooter classic, Doom. Did the games make them killers? I have my doubts, but do believe that the repetition of playing the games made them more efficient killing machines when the succumbed to their twisted mental view of the world. While I confess to not knowing the statistics on the more recent cases of violence involving kids; during what I call the Columbine era of school yard violence, the shooters involved 9 of the 13 high profile cases were confirmed to be prescribed psychotropic drugs like Luvox or Ritalin for behavioral issues. The other four shooters may have also been some prescription meds, but those involved in any treatment of the four, never disclosed if that was the case. So like violent video games, TV or movies, these medications could be a contributing factor.

Just as I did back in 1999, I still believe that Grossman and Degaetano have put together a compelling case that video violence has caused possibly irreparable damage to our kids and elevated the potential for sick, twisted, minds to continue to cause great damage to our society.  

Nice Try…but it’s Back to the Drawing Board for “Environmentalists”

Environmental Debt – The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy - Amy Larkin (Palgrave Books)

Wow…where to start.

I guess I have to at least start by giving Amy Larkin, a longtime environmental activist and consultant some credit for at least trying to bring a new perspective of the impact on the economy that environmental activism as wrought.

In her book Environmental Debt – The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy, tries, ever so desperately at times, to make the case that the costs associated with the impact of alleged, man-made global climate change have created a drag on the economy that is having a far reaching negative impact. Larkin’s solution is to propose that “big business” changes its ways and somehow miraculously changes the climate.

The problem with the theory start pretty quickly in the book; as typical of so-called environmentalists, Larkin loves to mix her terminology in an effort to make her case. She interchangeably uses environment, climate and weather, three very distinct and different things as if they are one and the same.

She cites no less of an expert than now former, failed, CNN opinion host Piers Morgan in conversation with weatherman Chad Myers that somehow human activity and climate change is the cause for supposed increases in the intensity of weather events like hurricanes. The Morgan, Myers exchange: “Chad, you’ve been in this game for nearly three decades. Is this global warming that we’re seeing? From a meteorological point of view, is there any other explanation? (Myers) It is a prime suspect. I don’t have another one.”

Now that is what I call deep, scientific reasoning! The problem for Larkin, Morgan and Myers; it isn’t happening! Even the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the group so often cited by so-called environmentalists, had to admit in 2013 that North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity was down 71%! from normal rates. Flip on the Weather Channel during hurricane season and you can just hear the desperation as Jim Cantore and his ilk hope for a huge weather hit that just hasn’t materialized.

While Larkin proposes a new way for business to approach the environment and claims to come from a business background in her approach, she does seem to quite have even a rudimentary grip on global economics. In the section on renewable energy she talks about wind and solar in glowing terms on the global front, citing how the Chinese have skewed the market with their ridiculous subsidies of the solar sector. Larkin’s response would be to have the U.S. and other global players dump even more public dollars into the already glaringly failed attempts, see Solyndra and countless others.

Larkin acts as if there is no costs associated with government subsidies; apparently you just go to the money tree and pick off a few more dollars and the magic happens. Larkin apparently isn’t aware that people have to pay taxes to cover these subsidies to failed solar and other renewable industries. Perhaps if we removed costly and often time onerous government regulations then the cost of trying the R & D of these kinds of projects could be undertaken without subsidy and no that doesn’t mean we should willy-nilly pollute the environment.

I also have to give Larkin’s publisher, Palgrave, credit; at least they are willing to stand up to reviewer scrutiny unlike the gutless weasels at Beacon Press who won’t even send out review copies of The Real Cost of Fracking, authored by a veterinarian and a microbiologist of all things.

Obama’s Serial High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Faithless Execution – Building the Case for Obama’s Impeachment – Andrew McCarthy (Encounter Books)

The concept; isn’t really all that difficult to understand, yet liberals can’t or most likely won’t wrap their heads around the straight forward idea that former federal prosecutor, bestselling author and political commentator Andrew McCarthy lays out in his new book, Faithless Execution – Building the Case for Obama’s Impeachment.

Like any good criminal prosecutor, it isn’t McCarthy’s job to determine whether or not to move forward with prosecuting a case; it is his job to simply gather the raw materials; evidence, timelines, the DNA trails and all of the building blocks that going into “making” a case. Once that case is built it falls to the district attorney or the Attorney General to determine if the case will go to trial.

In the case of Faithless Execution, McCarthy isn’t building a criminal case, but instead is tasked with making the political case of impeachment against President Obama. In this case Congress, or at the very least the Republican party, would play the role of district attorney. Because McCarthy has stated publicly that politically he doesn’t think Obama should be impeached and Liberals have jumped on that saying that he somehow contradicts himself.

Nothing could be further from the truth! McCarthy successfully lays out a detailed and compelling case not only for impeaching Obama for his serial high crimes and misdemeanors against the U. S. Constitution, but he goes on to detail why impeachment shouldn’t happen without the clear will and support of the American public. That is clearly not going to happen, no matter how strong the case.

Faced with a media savvy, public manipulator in the Oval Office, who somehow managed to earn reelection after an outright and utter failure of a first term in office; the Republican “leadership” lacks the testicular fortitude to even ponder an attempt at impeaching Obama. Left unsaid is the all out fear of the outrage that would naturally be fanned by the liberal media over the “racist” impeachment of our first black President.

It’s clear why McCarthy had such a successful track record as a federal prosecutor. He develops seven very specific prosecutorial lines that would make for viable options for impeaching Obama, any of which could stand on their own, but given the shear breadth of evidence and the serial disregard for the Constitution that Obama placed his hand in the Bible and swore to defend, the true crime may be in the decision not to move forward with impeachment proceedings. Striking, eye-opening and deeply detailed, Faithless Execution will leave you disgusted by the lack of true leadership in Washington and hopeful for the day when Attorney General Andrew McCarthy could become a reality.

Attention Republican or Conservative Candidates: Required Reading

Assault and Flattery – The Truth About The Left and Their War on Women – Katie Pavlich (Threshold Editions)

Let me state this as clearly as possible: If you are a Republican or Conservative candidate, running for statewide or national office, or if you are advising or working for the campaign of a Republican or Conservative candidate; THIS BOOK IS REQUIRED READING!

Assault and Flattery– The Truth About The Left and Their War on Women  by bestselling author and Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich lays out in chapter and verse the facts about which party is conducting an all out war on women. Pavlich explores not only the current state of that war but delves into the roots of the of the left’s expedient transition to laying claiming to being the party of women purely for elective purposes.

 

From equal rights to equal pay and from advancing the cause of women to the sacrament of left wing “healthcare” (meaning abortion) Pavlich cuts the liberals tall tales down to size. She also highlights the outright and utter ineptitude of the Republicans when it comes to responding to the lefts unfounded attacks and claims that conservatives are waging a war on women. In their seemingly never ending quest to be liked by the liberal media, Pavalich points out the lack of testicular fortitude to call out liberal mouth pieces like ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, who pulled a Republican “plot” to ban contraceptives out of his backside and dropped squarely in the lap of candidate Mitt Romney during a Presidential debate.

Pavalich makes the case and arms Conservatives with a boatload of facts to respond to these unfounded creations. Until Republicans and conservatives find a way to systematically respond to these ridiculous attacks they run the risk of being pounded into submission, pummeled by liberal lies and kept out of the White House and control of Congress.    

 

The Battle for Control of the Democrat Party

Blood Feud – The Clintons vs. The Obamas – Edward Klein (Regnery Publishing)

Former foreign editor of Newsweek, former editor in chief of the New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair contributor, hardly the bona fides of a conservative flame thrower, Edward Klein has made a cottage industry out of chronicling the comings and goings of Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack and Michelle Obama.

Klein’s background gives him unique access and perspective that he brings to bear on the extremely troubling relationship between these two sets political titans in Blood Feud – The Clintons vs. The Obamas. He recounts their tenuous history and what eventually boils down to an ultimate battle royal for the control of the Democrat party.

The final chapter of this story is far from being written; the Clinton’s certainly have a history of taking no prisoners and Obama is well schooled in “the Chicago Way” so the final victor is anything but certain.

While the Clintons and the Obamas have very little in common and clearly don’t get along; Klein without actually trying to do so points out exactly how little both of these two term Presidents have actually achieved! It’s almost as if the “legend” ridiculously out paces the reality.   

Klein doesn’t break to much new ground, but confirms suspicions has he paints a portrait of the Obamas and the Clintons at the crossroads where outsized ambitions and ego meets the utter lack of ability to accomplish anything beyond gaining elective office.

The Clintons dearly crave the power and position of the Presidency and the cache that that brings. Only Bill Clinton could build himself a bachelor pad at his Presidential library; a redneck doublewide penthouse where he dreams of scoring Hollywood actresses and ends up settling for Little Rock cocktail waitresses. Like I said, outsized ambition meets the lack of ability to get it done.

The Obamas seem to like the thought of the Presidency, but didn’t realize that there was actual work involved, so they treat the job like that of a community organizer with a Platinum card expense account.

This is the tale of two bitter rivals who despite all public statements to the contrary, truly HATE each other; and that gives me hope that rather than doing what it takes to get the “Hildebeast”, a named allegedly coined for Hillary by Michelle Obama and Obama insider Valerie Jarrett, elected in 2016, that this battle for control will lead to a meltdown that will once and for all rid us of both of these liberal losers and their awful policies.  

How Much Is Enough?

Conform – Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education – Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions/Mercury Radio Arts)

For years when it comes to public education, I have been asking the question; how much is enough? That simple question has now taken on a much greater meaning; while I was asking it about from the straight forward financial perspective, with the advent of Common Core, that question has now expand to include government control of our and our students lives.

Media mogul Glenn Beck offers up the second installment in his Control series; Conform – Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education, which offers up a basic primer not only on the roots and breadth of Common Core, but also spells out a broad based break down of systemic problems with the U.S. public education system.

Naturally, because Beck is who he is, this will no doubt engender howls of protest and name-calling, but the fact of the matter is he does arm folks with the basic understanding they need to fight back against Common Core before it becomes deeply engrained in the education system. While the career path training may sound good and has certainly proven the strange bedfellows analogy by drawing interest and support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and business organizations across the U.S., the longitudinal computer tracking of students through out there educational career and on into their career path is downright scary.

Clearly, anyone with even a modicum of common sense will recognize that Common Core’s twisted approach to education will do nothing to improve outcomes and sets up the perpetual argument that the only reason why it failed is of course, because we didn’t spend enough money! Not that it was doomed to fail from the start.

The U.S. education system is beyond repair until we address the systemic issues that have become deeply seated and are protected by education fiefdoms and teachers unions. Taxpayers are saddled with too many school districts that duplicate too many administrative functions at too great a cost. The city that I grew up in upstate New York is divided into four separate school districts in a relatively small geographic area. There are 500(!) school districts spread across the 67 counties that make up Pennsylvania; that means 500 school superintendents, 500 district administrative staffs and the high costs inherent to these systems.

Unions are designed to do two things; perpetuate unions and protect the worst teachers, keeping them in the classroom and subjecting students to their mediocre skills. Until we create a system that properly measures and rewards highly skilled teachers and frees those less than stellar teachers to pursue their true career path, we will continue to lag behind the rest of the world in educational outcomes.

Is There Anyone Dumber Than Jen Psaki?

Once again, State Department spokesweasel Jen Psaki delivers yet another example of why she could quite possibly be the single dumbest member of the Obama administration...and when you consider the depths of their collective stupidity...that is truly saying something!

Here's our favorite spokeweasel, trying and succeeding at avoiding answering Fox News reporter James Rosen's question.

Please Oh Please Send Jen Psaki to the White House

Now that the lying P O S...I mean White House press secretary, Jay Carney has announced his resignation I am begging for President Obama to continue his winning track record, of placing clueless, drooling morons, as inept as he is into powerful positions on his staff. Please Oh Please! Give the call up to State Department spokesweasel Jen Psaki! After all tree stumps have registered higher IQs than this mind numbed douchebag. Here is just the most recent example of the statements this blithering idiot makes to the press corps at the State Department...priceless!

Freedom: What a Concept

Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto – Matt Kibbe (William Morrow)

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty, one of the great symbols of the United States of America reads in part; “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” You’ll find nowhere in the full text anything about those seeking a government hand out or those looking for others to pay their way, just a simple statement about the desire to be free from government shackles. FREEDOM…what a concept.

In his new book, Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto, Matt Kibbe, the president and CEO of the grassroots organization Freedom Works makes the strong case for freedom and posits the concept that the answer probably does not lie with either of the two current parties.

 

Six Rules For Liberty  

Kibbe details a straight forward set of six basic rules for liberty; they are as follows:

1.   Don’t Hurt People – The concept seems pretty clear that it is wrong to use violence or the threat of violence against others.

2.   Don’t Take Their Stuff – Property rights, again seems like a pretty fundamental concept, but even recent Supreme Court decisions that should have been a pretty easy decision to make, have clouded the issue.

3.   Take Responsibility – Personal responsibility; shouldn’t we all be ultimately responsible for or lives and our actions?

4.   Work for It – As the size and scope of government grows, so to does the number of able bodied Americans who simply no longer get up and go to work!

5.   Mind Your Own Business – As long as you remain within the law, liberty means that everyone should be free to pursue happiness in their own way.

6.   Fight the Power – Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely; freedom comes with the price tag that includes the continuous need to stand up and fight against those that seek to usurp freedom.

There is an almost simple, fundamental quality to all of Kibbe’s rules and yet there seems to be an undeniable need to teach these basic concepts to a society that appears to have turned its back on what equates to some of this nation’s founding principles, that he bases them on. This is truly one of the most important books not only for 2014, but for the future of this once great country.   

 

Arlen Specter Redux

The Party’s Over – How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat – Charlie Crist (Dutton Books)

The late Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was a legendary master of self-serving politics at its worst; a Philadelphia liberal, who loved to lay claim to being a moderate Republican, who in reality wouldn’t take a principled stand if his life depended on it. Not able to muster the spine to vote to remove the impeached President Bill Clinton, Specter famously chose to wipe his backside with the Constitution by citing Scottish law and voting “not proven.” Specter later whined that the Republican had somehow abandoned him when in a desperate attempt at re-election; he finally swapped political parties to become the Democrat he truly had always been.

Now along comes former Florida Governor Charlie Crist to attempt to lay claim to the Specter mantle in his new political memoir The Party’s Over – How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat. While Crist is a well tanned, slick looking package, he can’t quite muster half the political savvy and cunning that Specter demonstrated on countless occasions.

His actions are so outrageously ham-fisted and self-serving that he can’t even bring himself to point out that his departure from the Republican party didn’t reach it’s Democrat party destination until it made a pit stop as an independent. If he was the true believer, convert that he claims, why not go big; rather than licking a finger and sticking in up in the breeze? Crist’s self-serving desire to remain in office has caused him to delude himself into believing that his incessant flip-flopping isn’t at the root of his problems with the Republican Party.

Crist tries mightily to re-write his history; unfortunately his very public sideling up to Barrack Obama clearly defined exactly who the former governor really was. He utilizes so many Democrat talking points and ridiculous lies like the claim the Ronald Reagan wouldn’t be conservative enough for the Tea Party and his allusions to race and his empty claims to “values I hold dear.” As if to reinforce his status a master flip-flopper Crist recently changed his stance on Cuba, a political issue near and dear to Florida voters. Here’s hoping that Sunshine State voters demonstrate the wisdom to keep Crist on the political unemployment rolls this November.