Anatomy of a Failed Liberal State

When I grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago in the 1960s and '70s, Illinois was still a financial and industrial powerhouse. The Land of Lincoln had a low-rate flat income tax, the property taxes were reasonable, the state ran budget surpluses, and Illinois was the home of such iconic mega-employers as Caterpillar, Sears Roebuck and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The public schools were pretty good back then and a dedicated corps of teachers put kids first -- they didn't walk out on strike, and they didn't have the fat pensions they can get now when retiring at age 55.


Read more at Townhall.com Read More......

Liberals Do Themselves No Favor by Denying Their Ideology

For the last 20 years, give or take another 50, one of the most cherished baubles of Beltway conventional wisdom has been that the Republican Party has moved too far to the right. We'll come back to that in a moment.


Another beloved trinket in the nest of notions that make up elite groupthink is that liberals not only haven't moved left, but they aren't even liberals at all. A week doesn't go by without Barack Obama insisting that he's merely a pragmatist and problem-solver, with nary an ideological ax to grind. Shortly after he was re-elected, Obama told David Gregory, then the host of "Meet the Press," the obvious takeaway of his presidency is that, "I'm not driven by some ideological agenda. I'm a pretty practical guy and I just want to make sure that things work."


A few weeks later, he gave the most ideologically left-wing State of the Union address of any president since FDR.




Read more at Townhall.com Read More......

On the mark or off the track?

25 Examples Of What America Would Be Like If Everyone Was A Liberal
25 Examples of What America Would Be Like if We Were All Christian Conservative Tea Partiers

Townhall.com by John Hawkins Read More......

“A Republic—If You Can Keep It”

PERSONAL LIBERTY DIGEST, 6/18/2010 by Chip Wood (Hat tip: Stella Guenther) - At first I couldn’t believe my eyes. ∴ In fact, I had to look away and blink a couple of times before reading the email again. But it still said the same thing: “Benjamin Franklin said, ‘We have given you a democratic-republic… if you can keep it.” ∴ No, he didn’t! ∴ I had to face the fact: A Straight Talk reader had fallen victim to 100 years of liberal brainwashing. What he said was such a gross perversion of the truth—and the difference is so incredibly important to preserving what liberties we have left—I hope you’ll indulge me in a brief history lesson this week. Read more at www.personalliberty.com...

Good examples as to why the Founders rejected democracy. --bc Read More......

Rest in Peace: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

HYANNIS PORT, Mass. — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in an enduring political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night, August 25, 2009, at his home on Cape Cod after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. He was 77. Read more at the Corvallis Gazette-Times... Read More......

The Life of a Young Black Conservative

GLENN BECK (via email/hat tip: Linda Weimer), July 8, 2009 - Last week Glenn got a call from a very impressive young man named Jerome Hudson, who told Glenn he had written an op-ed during the 2008 election on being a black conservative. He sent it in and it's fantastic. Enjoy!

While attending a black fraternity party, I recently learned it’s a bad idea to profess one’s affinity for Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity.

Worse, according to current polls, it appears I may be the only black 22 year old in America who will be voting for Sen. John McCain.

It’s not that I was unaware that being a black conservative Republican puts me in the ultimate “minority.” After all, Shelby Steele’s classic article “The Loneliness of the Black Conservative” has become an article of faith that I’ve all but committed to memory.

But I guess I had made the mistake of buying into all that liberal yammering about being “open minded” and supporting “diversity” that I’d deluded myself into believing that a civil, discussion about the herd-like ideological mentality of so many of my contemporaries suffer from was possible.

Boy, was I wrong. Big time!

My official “Negro” card got stripped away. I instantly lost my “blackness.” And now, consequently, I now am greeted with this: “Hey, y’all, here comes The Black Republican.”

And that’s when I think to myself, Hmmm…so this is how it feels to be an "Uncle Tom."

Still, being labeled “The Black Republican” is undoubtedly a promotion from: "Hey, why are you dressed so nice? You got a job interview or something?" Or, worse, “Man, why are you talking like that? You sound white? Who do you think you are? A conservative Kanye West?”

But my path to ideological emancipation began where all the most important things always begin—with my father and mother. Growing up, my Army drill sergeant father was a firm believer in tough love. My parents instilled in us Christian values. But I believe that first part—having an involved mother and father—was critical. With 70% of all black babies being born out-of-wedlock, it’s no wonder black poverty remains entrenched, welfare has become a way of life, and that many of my fellow young black male counterparts choose gangsta life over college.

But it wasn’t until college that I realized I had been ensnared in what John McWhorter calls the “Cult of Victimology.” One of my professor’s pointed me toward a world of literature I’d never been introduced to: Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, Shelby Steele, Star Parker, Angela McGlowan, Larry Elder, Walter Williams—they obliterated the Leftist foolishness that floods my community.

It was then that my eyes were opened to the truth, a truth that my father was willing to give his life for, a truth that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have paid the ultimate price to pass on to future generations. And that truth is this: America remains the greatest country that God gave to man.

So imagine me, a member of various organizations that largely consist of young black Americans, most of whom are womb to the tomb Democrats and liberals, speaking openly about the many opportunities and blessings we enjoy in our great nation and refuting Michelle Obama’s supposition that America is a “downright mean place..”

Can you say…..social suicide?

"So Jerome,” the partygoers asked, “you’re REALLY a Republican?!"

Duh!

Of course I’m a Republican! And your great grandparents were too!

Yes, I’m a member of the Anti-Slavery Party, the party responsible for: the 13th (abolished slavery), 14th (gave former slaves full citizenship rights), the 15th Amendment (gave slaves voting rights), the Civil Rights Act of 1871(protecting southern blacks from the Ku Klux Klan), the Reconstruction Acts, and the 1866, 1875, 1957, 1960, and 1964 Civil Rights Acts.

And no, my brothers and sisters, yesterday’s southern Democrats are NOT today’s Republicans! If so, former Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd—the highest ranking senate Democrat and President Pro-Tempore of the Senate—apparently didn’t get the memo and forgot to switch parties.

But it’s more than just the history. I’m proud to stand for self-empowerment, personal responsibility, strong family values, small government, low taxes, free markets, a strong military, and individual achievement etc.

And don’t even get me started on which side stands up for the precious 1.4 million unborn children (32% of whom are black), who will be casualties in the war inside the womb. When I see these so-called “black leaders” bashing conservatives for “racist policies,” I wonder how they justify cheering on the political team who proudly defends the annihilation of 13 million black children since 1973.

And conservatives don’t care about black people? I don’t think so!

No, I think I’ll ride with the team who says enough with the welfare cancer that has destroyed people’s innate desire to achieve. Yes, I’ll ride with the folks who respect me enough to consider me their equal and not insult me with Affirmative Action racism. Yeah, I’ll ride with the gang who would rather create effective policies than emotional “feel good” symbolism that robs individuals of their desire to aspire.

So while it may take a little getting used to walking into college parties where I’m known as “The Black Republican,” I now realize I am a newly inducted member of a rich tradition of ideologically emancipated black conservatives. And guess what? I’m more than cool with that. I’m proud, actually.

“The conservative Kanye West”?

Hmmm….

Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Jerome Hudson is a sophomore at Tallahassee Community College with plans to transfer to Florida A&M University in the fall. Read More......

Obama picks Sotomayor for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, selecting a woman who would be the court's first Hispanic justice and a liberal who is unlikely to change its ideological balance. ∴ Sotomayor, 54, is a U.S. appeals court judge who grew up in a public housing project in New York City and is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents. She would replace retiring Justice David Souter, who was part of the court's liberal wing. Read more at Reuters...

A Case Against Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice
NFRW, POLITICAL BRIEFING, 5/25/2009 - President Obama announced his nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Souter. He named a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sonia Sotomayor. While we applaud the President for nominating a woman with such an impressive personal history, NFRW does not support this nomination. Obama claims that she is a great constitutionalist, does not let her personal opinions affect her decisions, and that she understands her role and the oath of a Supreme Court justice. Obama's claims could not be further from the truth. Read more at NFRW...

Related
Telegraph: Barack Obama nominates Hispanic woman for Supreme Court Read More......

Barack Obama's speech to Congress

UPDATED. President Obama's speech to Congress (see full text) didn't sit well with many conservatives but it's not just bad spending and mounting debt that has them riled. Here are some reactions...

WASHINGTON POST, 2/26/09 by William Kristol - Republicans' Day of Reckoning (Hat tip: John Detweiler)

Excerpt: For Obama's aim is not merely to "revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity." Obama outlined much of this new foundation in the most unabashedly liberal and big-government speech a president has delivered to Congress since Lyndon Baines Johnson. Obama intends to use his big three issues -- energy, health care and education --to transform the role of the federal government as fundamentally as did the New Deal and the Great Society.

WASHINGTON POST, 2/26.09 by David S. Broder - Obama Rolls The Dice (Hat tip: John Detweiler)

The size of the gambles that President Obama is taking every day is simply staggering. What came through in his speech to a joint session of Congress and a national television audience Tuesday night was a dramatic reminder of the unbelievable stakes he has placed on the table in his first month in office, putting at risk the future well-being of the country and the Democratic Party's control of Washington.

BREITBART NEWS.COM, 2/27/09 by Martin Crutsinger - Economists question budget's economic assumptions

But many economists who examined the economic assumptions that undergird the spending plan believe that Obama may have resorted to one of the oldest gimmicks around—relying on overly optimistic economic assumptions to make it look like you are dealing with soaring budget deficits when in reality you are only closing the gap on paper.

GRASSFIRE.ORG, 2/25/09 - Obama wants our children "from the day they are born" (Hat tip: Hawthorne O'Rourke)

"Last night, President Obama pledged to expand the tentacles of government further into our lives than ever before when he said that government will watch over your children "from the day they are born"! Here (below the fold) is a sampling of Obama's outrageous socialistic pledges...

• ...350,000 new government jobs...
• ...A new government "lending fund that represents the largest effort ever" to make the government your banker!
• ...A "housing plan" that further disrupts the market and puts government in the middle of the foreclosure and refinance process -- the government will decide your payment and maybe even the value of your home...
• ...Trillions more in bailout funds for the banking industry that will further balloon the unprecedented deficit that could approach $2 trillion this year...
• ...Onerous regulations that give government more and more control over the financial markets...
• ...A new global warming bureaucracy and carbon tax that force us to adopt inefficient "green" energy...
• ..."Comprehensive" health care that further burdens our broken system with more and more health care entitlements...
• ...A massive expansion of government education that covers children "from the day they are born" and includes a guarantee that everyone can afford higher education...
  

Obama using the economic crisis to push socialism
President Barack Obama is using the current economic conditions to implement the most massive expansion of government in modern American history. He has called this a recession that "we may not be able to reverse" and last night called it a "day of reckoning."

His Chief of Staff said plainly that "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste," and that is precisely what Obama is doing! In his first two years in office, federal spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product will double--from 20 percent to nearly 40 percent. This IS socialism!

---SUBSCRIBER GIFT REQUEST(for four copies of Grassfire's acclaimed 48-page booklet, Living in an Obama Nation: 21 Ways the Obama Presidency Will Impact You and Your Family)

Read More......