Take a moment today to say a prayer of thanks for our service personnel and enjoy this slide show from The Military Support Group, an evangelistic ministry founded to support and encourage them:

Thanksgiving

In 2006, when Ecuadorians were electing a new president, Venezuelans such as Alejandro Peña Esclusa warned Ecuadorians that the young and charismatic Rafael Correa would use democratic institutions to impose “socialismo del siglo XXI” (Marxism) in Ecuador just like Hugo Chavez had done in Venezuela. (Reference — Carta abierta al pueblo ecuatoriano)

How did Peña Esclusa know that Marxism would be imposed in Ecuador? Because the basic elements of Chavez’s campaign (lies, manipulation, intimidation, fraud) were identical to those of Correa’s campaign.  Even their slogans were the same (CHANGE, YES WE CAN). Correa’s campaign appealed to young people, to the poor, and to everyone who was envious of others. Correa ridiculed the opposition as old and out of touch. Chavez had done the same. Correa’s campaign was extremely “professional” as millions were spent on that campaign. It seems most of those millions were donated by Chavez and terrorist groups, such as FARC (see Ecuadorean President Correa Took $100,000 From FARC to Fund Campaign), and perhaps even by the ubiquitous George Soros, working everywhere against democracy and U.S. interests.

Informed Ecuadorians were not able to convince their compatriots that Correa was a fake and not the wonderful savior the media was portraying. Once he took over, Correa dissolved Congress and took control of the legislative and judicial powers. Just like in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, CHANGE in Ecuador has meant loss of freedoms and greater poverty and despair.  When informed Latin Americans realized that Barack Obama’s “Christian” Church was based on Black Liberation Theology (Marxism), they began to worry. Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Rafael Correa all pretend to be Christian, but profess “Liberation Theology” (Marxism) instead. They noticed that Obama’s campaign strategies were almost identical to those of Chavez, Morales and Correa. And George Soros was supporting Obama!

However, most Latin Americans could not imagine that North Americans could be fooled as the poorest and most ignorant people in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador had been fooled. Tito the Builder (from Colombia), for example, believed that “Americans are very smart” and would realize that Obama is a North American Chavez (see Tito the Builder). However, those Latin Americans were wrong. They were not keeping in mind that perhaps Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov was right when he warned that, through media manipulation, Americans would be brainwashed and would allow their country to be taken over by Marxists (watch this video).

On November 4, 2008, tragedy struck the U.S. and the Free World. North Americans were fooled just like the poorest and most ignorant Venezuelans, Bolivians and Ecuadorians. Through lies, manipulation, fraud, and a bribed or corrupt media, a Marxist president was elected in the U.S.  A speck of hope… Barack Obama may not have a legitimate U.S. birth certificate. By December 1, 2008, Obama must present to the Supreme Court an authentic birth certificate. “I can see a unanimous Court (en banc) decertifying the election if Obama refuses to produce his birth certificate,” says Raymond S. Kraft, an attorney and writer. “They cannot do otherwise without abandoning all credibility as guardians of the Constitution.” (Reference — The Supreme Court and Obama’s Birth Certificate)  If Obama does not have a legitimate U.S. birth certificate, will the Court decertify the election?  For the sake of the U.S. and the world, the Court must do so.

Democrat economic policies are steering us into a collision course with disaster. This raises the question whether they understand or if they are so consumed by the desire for power that they don’t care.

From its peak a little over a year ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down some 42%. This downward spiral coincides with the rise of the Democrats’ political star, now President Elect, pushing a platform of higher individual taxes, higher business taxes, increased capital gains taxes, increased government (deficit) spending and redistribution of wealth. Unfortunately for the Republicans, the voter blames the party in power for the economic problems and that blame was soundly felt at the polls last week. Clearly, the Republicans who are leaderless, unprincipled and lacking articulate spokespersons are not blameless. They pandered to the public as Democrat lite on the premise that they could win Moderates and Independents by moving left. They also failed in oversight with respect to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yes, the Democrats were in charge of those bloated and corrupt cash cows and yes, the Democrats blocked efforts that might have brought reform. However, a real leader of the opposition party would have gone directly to the public with the facts in evidence of what was occurring. But no; “real leader” and “Republican” has become an oxymoron. Consequently, the voters took the party to the woodshed and thought that by putting the fox in charge of the henhouse we chickens could be saved.

But there is a unique characteristic to financial markets. They don’t look back, they look forward and when they do they see even more economic calamity in the offing evidenced by clearly announced Democrat plans. Plans that will dig a hole so deep that recovery will be decidedly painful if achievable at all. Waiting in the wings to exploit our economic weakness are a host of foreign enemies who are growing their economies and their military capabilities. Health care, college tuition and earned income tax credits will be the least of our concerns given emerging geopolitical issues viz a viz Israel, Iran, Syria, South America, North Korea, China, Russia and Al Qaeda. We are fiddling while our manufacturing base crumbles and the only growth sector for jobs is government. Who will be there to manufacture the military hardware in support of a major defense build up?

At the foundation of our problem is taxation. High corporate tax rates force companies to shift manufacturing to lower taxed countries. If your profits are taxed at 35% in the US and 12% in Ireland, certainly the Chief Financial Officer is going to recommend the Board of Directors shift to Ireland. The same scenario exists for small companies where the majority of private sector jobs originate. Taking money from productive people who make over $250 K and giving it to unproductive people under that threshold stifles and kills growth. Jobs are being lost, not created. At the same time the small business infrastructure necessary for the support of larger companies crumbles.

On top of this, seeds are being sown for a concurrent problem with inflation and/or stagflation. Bailout monies on top of increased entitlements on top of unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Prescription Drugs, Medicare and Medicaid cannot be financed without printing more money. And that is a recipe for disaster. Better buy a wheelbarrow to carry your money to the grocery store. The 20% mortgages under Jimmy Carter will look like a bargain.

The coup de grâce is energy. Instead of incentives to utilize our own resources and get off foreign oil, the plan is to increase that dependence by instituting cap and trade* and continue blocking exploration, utilization of coal, natural gas and nuclear power. Cap and trade alone will dramatically increase the cost of electricity compounding the exporting of jobs and manufacturing caused by high taxes. Energy is critical to growth. Without affordable energy business cannot produce economically. Further compounding matters the consumer has yet another drain on discretionary spending.

This is not complicated. High taxes and energy costs kill jobs. Without jobs there is no consumer and without jobs and consumers there is no tax base. Where will the money come from to fund the entitlements?

Here are some anecdotal references to ponder:

• California representative Maxine Waters during a hearing on oil prices said to company executives “…when we socialize you…”
• Massachusetts representative Barney Frank, who brought us the Freddie and Fannie debacle, wants to give auto companies a bailout package in exchange for installing a government master to control product development.
• New York representative Charley Rangle, himself a tax evader, wants to find more creative ways to tax wealthy people.
• Virginia representative Jim Moran thinks it is wrong for people to believe they can hold on to their wealth.
• President elect Obama plans to let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 creating a substantial tax increase by default thereby exacerbating the recession.
• Others in Congress have called for a 25% reduction in defense spending to fund social programs.
• New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to raise taxes and fees to offset budget shortfalls. New York State is facing a massive deficit and the Unions and the legislature do not want to cut spending. The political entities are, in effect, going out of business and the unions and the democrat controlled legislature believe they can continue spending as if nothing is happening!

The market sees where all this is leading and investors are jumping ship.

While Congress plans more and more entitlements to be paid for with money and taxes that are no longer there, the country’s economic base crumbles and melts away. Along with it goes our defense infrastructure and related manufacturing base that forms the foundation of our strength and security. In addition to the markets, the world sees where we are headed and has only to pick the right time and place to deliver a knock-out blow.

Perhaps if we had a truly independent media and taught critical thinking skills in our schools, tough questions would be asked and the voting public would have a better appreciation for why we are on this track and where it is taking us.

So, do the democrats understand or care? Looks like what they care about is power and control but are so blinded that they can’t see the oncoming train.

*Cap and Trade: — A flexible environmental regulation mechanism that sets an overall limit on the emission of a certain pollutant, but allows companies that can easily reduce emissions to sell credits to other companies for which such reduction would be difficult. The cap ensures that emissions will not exceed a desired amount.

© Keith Kappel 2008, all rights reserved

During World War II, A. J. Willis spent seven months as a prisoner of war in Germany. He states conditions were so deplorable that “Every morning when we woke up, there would be a few more dead bodies.” Malnutrition, disease, and exposure were generally the killers. His own weight dropped from 160 to 97 pounds before he was liberated. He still suffers numbness in his feet due to nerve damage incurred because of prolonged exposure to extreme cold.

Bob Payne served with the U.S. Navy Seabees during the Vietnam War. He is alive now because a foxhole he tried to take shelter in to escape a mortar attack was full, forcing him to seek cover several yards away. The foxhole took a direct hit, and everyone in it was killed.

Wright McCartney, another World War II veteran, is modestly reticent when his daughter tells me he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary courage and heroism in piloting his damaged and limping B-17 bomber to safety, saving the lives of himself and his crew. Mr. McCartney flew a total of 35 missions over Germany during the last four months of the war.

What do these men have in common besides having served their country during a war? Their stories have been recorded for posterity on high quality DVDs that will be housed in the Library of Congress. The collections are available to researchers, authors and other journalists, filmmakers, or people just looking up the stories of relatives, ancestors, or old war buddies.

In the year 2000, Congress passed legislation approving the project of collecting and preserving such stories in the Veterans’ History Project. Public Law 106-380, passed by the 106th Congress of the United States, declares, among other things, that “Military service during a time of war is the highest sacrifice a citizen may make for his or her country…. War veterans possess an invaluable resource in their memories of the conflicts in which they served and can provide a rich history of our Nation and its people through the retelling of those memories…”

Sometimes talking about their experiences is very painful, and many veterans simply cannot bring themselves to open up. Forty, fifty, or even sixty years later, life-threatening events and horrors they lived through can seem as real as if they had occurred last week. But for those who have somehow acceded to the level of being able to talk about it, the act of giving their story is cathartic. And it becomes one of the most valuable historical records our nation has.

I personally interviewed A.J. Willis, Bob Payne, and Wright McCartney, as well as other veterans. Volunteer videographers, just as concerned as I about the preservation of this valuable information, taped the interviews and preserved them to DVDs. We hope to do more in the future. There is no pay for it; the reward is getting to meet these heroes, hear their stories, and have a part in preserving them for posterity. We also provide courtesy copies of each DVD to the contributing veteran.

I’m writing about this because I know that many of my readers are war veterans or have relatives who are. And I hope that you will take an interest in contributing to this very worthwhile project. All of the information necessary to start recording and preserving veteran histories is at the Veterans History Project. You can print a Veterans History Project Field Kit directly from the web site. It will include the necessary biographical data form, along with release forms and recording logs. If you don’t have access to the internet, you can request a Field Kit by phone at 1-888-371-5848.

Besides oral histories, the Veterans History Project solicits the following:

• Original wartime memoirs or diaries of at least 20 pages.
• Collections of original letters (10 or more).
• Original photographs or artwork.
• Home movies, photograph albums, or scrapbooks (related only to wartime service).
• Official military personnel documents for the veteran.
• Original maps.

I hope that many others will consider making an effort to help with the preservation of these important vignettes of our nation’s history.

Copyright © by Carolyn Abell

National Security is big business nowadays. The cabinet position of Homeland Security was established in response to the attacks of September 2001. Homeland security is the term generally used to refer to the broad national effort by all levels of government — federal, state, local and tribal — to protect the territory of the United States from hazards, both internal and external, natural and man-made.

At a political rally prior to being elected, Hussein Obama proposed a Civilian National Security force. Why? Because he feels that we can no longer depend on our armed forces to secure the borders of the nation. And, this security force will be: “Just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded” as our national armed forces. HUH???

Let’s get some perspective. The U.S. military is composed of almost 3 million personnel, of which approximately half are reserve personnel. The U.S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. The U.S. military draws its manpower from a large pool of volunteers and as such conscription is neither needed nor desirable as it maintains a purely professional military force. The U.S. military receives $711 billion per year in funding, constituting approximately 50% of military expenditure in the world. The U.S. military possesses advanced and powerful military equipment giving it huge military capabilities and power projection. Thus, it is considered to be by far the most powerful and most advanced military in the world, giving the United States enormous hard power and is a major factor towards deterring attacks against the United States.

Who would this CNS force be responsible to? What exactly would be their mandate? More importantly, who would have oversight? Lawfully operating within the nation’s borders there is the FBI (incompetent? yes), the National Guard, Coast Guard, state and local police forces.  All of which come under the umbrella of Homeland Security. Millions have been allocated and spent on trying to train every level to detect, prevent, and respond to terrorist attack. What would be the purpose of a national security force equal to our military??  There is only one answer.  Political suppression. Can you say Sturmabteilung, or maybe Schutzstaffel, or 5th Directorate KGB??
 
What about that world’s most powerful military? All members of our armed forces know what an unlawful order is.  Hussein may be Commander-in-Chief, but there is strong honor in the military.  Many would not obey an unlawful order or standby and watch their nation and way of life destroyed.  Hussein needs a military force that will obey him without question.  Similar to the brown shirts (SA) and SS in Hitler’s day.  The armed forces would be destroyed by confusion and desertion.  Not because they are automatons, but because they are citizens and can recognize tyranny. That is why Hussein said: “Just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded”. He can order one to stand down, and the other to attack.
 
First he must disarm the public.  That will be an agenda item of equal importance with his CNSF. 
 
To paraphrase a famous author:  These will be the times that try our souls!
 
I never broke faith with my country; rather it was my country that broke faith with me.

ER, Viet Nam, 1965-67

Anyone familiar with horses has heard the term “barn sour.” A barn sour horse is fine riding away from home, away from the barn where the hay and grain are stored. However, once that horse turns his nose home, toward the barn, toward the food, he is hell bent to get back there. He cannot be influenced off that path. That horse will set the bit in his teeth and run through fences to get back to the hay and the grain. He has become “barn sour,” essentially useless. He is no longer useful for work or pleasure. The horse is now only focused on his own interests, his own appetites. Therefore, that horse is headed for the glue factory.

Election results this past Tuesday indicate we have become a barn sour nation. People voted their bellies. They voted self-interest. The rhetoric surrounding the majority march back to the barn is full of references to altruism, but that is obviously window dressing, a kind of gold ring in the pig’s nose. Where once Americans prided themselves as their brothers’ keepers, we now insist government keep us. People voted for government provision of housing, food, employment and healthcare. They voted for nationalized abortion funded with tax dollars, an ultimate expression of selfishness. Americans voted for federalized adult daycare, cradle to grave sustenance provided by the benevolence of institutionalized liberalism. Indeed, Barack Obama has promised Supreme Court appointments based on special considerations for the ‘dispossessed.’ Consequently, Lady Justice will not be impartial, and the rule of law will give way to a Court now acting like a legislative body.

There are three glaring problems with this popular rush to complete reliance on government. One is funding. We are already bankrupt. The only way to fund all the promised goodies is to tax companies and productive individuals. Doing so during a recession will drive us into depression. It will destroy the middle class, drive the poor lower, and ruin the means of producing prosperity. Perhaps this is the plan. Perhaps the idea is to level the playing field globally. After all, many radical liberals see America as the problem. Destroying America is therefore part of the solution. The only other way to fund the goodies is to cut defense, and other programs. Cutting defense is obviously foolhardy, and when did government ever restrain itself or actually reduce spending?

The second problem with citizens insisting government become Big Daddy is government will also insist on becoming Big Brother. As the old saying goes, you cannot get something for nothing. The transaction historically takes on a threatening dimension. If people demand government provide everything, then government controls everything, and that means EVERYTHING. When free speech and assembly are limited, when they come for your firearm, and when they start telling you where you can live, where you can travel, and how many children you are allowed, it will sink in you’ve forfeited EVERYTHING, and for what, a few meager meals and the privilege of waiting in line for months to see a doctor?

The third enormous problem with handing over all power to the central government is it is completely contrary to our founding principles. It means the end of America as it was originally defined and created. The Founders created government to serve the people. With the election of Barack Obama and majorities in the Legislature leading to a decidedly leftist Judiciary we have now decided citizens will serve the government. Government is insatiable. It must be restrained. When citizens decide government is the source of power and the solution to all problems, they unleash a hungry beast and shirk individual responsibility, leading inevitably toward tyranny.

We know there are only two forces known to man capable of restraining behaviors such that society enjoys some measure of order, the avoidance of chaos. One force is self-restraint based on virtue person-to-person. The Founders knew our democracy could only function with a virtuous citizenry, and they pointed to the source of virtue flowing from the Creator. Once we forsake the Creator and replace him with government, we cut off the flow of virtue, setting us up for destruction and chaos. At that point, the only option, the only other force capable of restraining behaviors is force itself, a police state, the gun and the bayonet, that is, despotism.

All this, and we haven’t even considered the issues concerning partisan mass media, the relinquishing of American sovereignty in the embrace of globalism, or the new, incomparable and lethal foreign threats we face. What is required is a bold, fierce resurgence of traditional American values rooted in the ideas of individualism, freedom, private property, enterprise, charity, sovereignty and a Jeffersonian approach to government: small, decentralized. Instead, we are stampeding in the opposite direction, kicking up dust,
running headlong for the barn, and the glue factory.

Over the last 25 years, John McCain has been in the middle of just about federal issue. He has been a voice of reason. He has stood up to everybody, including his own party whenever necessary.

Tuesday night, Sen. McCain gave a wonderful concession speech.

It was very sad to watch such a career end in defeat. However, it did. I guess timing is important in politics.

Why did McCain lose? I think that it’s tough to win 3 in a row. Just ask Nixon ’60, Humphrey ’68, Ford ’76 and Gore ’00.

Reagan is the only president who was succeeded by his own party. It happened in 1988 when VP Bush defeated Dukakis.

We say thank you to McCain.

Of course, McCain will be around until 2012 when his term expires. My guess is that he will be a key player in the US Senate again, specially as we rebuild the party along lowered taxes and spending.

Thank you Sen. McCain! [I spoke about Sen. McCain and the election in general in Wednesday's radio show. You can listen to the archived version here -- Let's talk about the election.]

Well, as St. Paul wrote, “We have fought the fight, we have finished the course.” In this election contest we have been defeated. Now, it is time to put it to rest. Oh, yes, most certainly to pursue those issues about which there are legitimate questions, but to set aside the disappointment of loss and work to make certain that the country does not lurch too violently in one direction or the other.

Having listened to both Senator McCain’s concession and Obama’s victory speeches, McCain called on us to unite behind Obama, and Obama urged us to set aside the partisanship and immaturity of past politics. One truly hopes that he observes his own admonition. Unfortunately, his record does not give us great hope that he will do that since he sat in a Church that spewed hatred for twenty years with no evidence that he did anything to reach out and heal political or racial divisions. But that aside, we should pray that he does.

It is a disappointment that McCain and Palin did not win because they would have been the best choice for the nation; but we should not be paralyzed by the loss. We may be down, but we are far from out. We should look forward, and back only to the extent that we remember the good from whence we came without being so tied to it that we miss opportunities in the future; and, to eschew the mistakes we made so as to not repeat them.

We should have grave concerns about the promised direction that Obama and the Democrats are poised to lead the nation. Those concerns should keep us alert to any actions that would jeopardize the security, economic well being, social and moral fabric and political composition of the nation.

Anyone who has objectively observed and studied Obama can see that he has presented us with plenty about which to be concerned, but when he is right we should support him, and when he is wrong, we should vigorously oppose him.

Now it is time to restructure the Republican Party into the Party of Conservatism that has been its tradition, but absent a desire and/or recognition by the GOP of a need for that, to raise up a Party of Conservatives that will bury and replace it.

Change has come, although we do not yet know the full extent of that change, but if his rhetoric has any validity we must be on guard. Now it is up to us as the loyal (unlike our opposite numbers in the Democrat Party) opposition to regroup, rethink, reorganize and retake America for its betterment, not as the Republican Party did in ’94 then tragically immediately successfully “out-Democrated” the Democrats. But rather, to lead by example based on well-known and proven political, social, economic and moral principles within the framework of the Constitution of the United States, for generations to come.

Finally, it is best stated in Phillipians 3:13,14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Semper Fidelis

Copyright © November 5th, 2008, by Robert L. Pappas.

In sports, as in presidential elections, a win is a win.

First of all, we salute Pres. elect Obama. We wish him well. We want him to succeed because we want the country to do well.

Nevertheless, this is not a landslide by any means. Nixon ’72 and Reagan ’84 got 60% of the popular vote and over 500 EV’s. LBJ ’64 and Bush ’88 got over 400 EV’s.

Obama beat McCain, 52-47%, a good victory but not a landslide. He will finish with about 355 EV’s, a strong number but not close to a landslide.

Obama beat McCain in Florida, Virginia, Ohio by very close margins. Also, the Dems did not get the “magic 60″ in the Senate.

What does this mean? It means that Obama has to deliver and stay near the center. Obama will make a huge mistake if he governs to the left or lets Congress move him to the left.

So what now?

The Republicans have to regroup as we did after losing to Carter ’76 and Clinton ’92.

We must look for new leaders and remember the lessons of 1976 and 1992.

We came back very quickly in the 1978 and 1994 midterms. In both instances, we had a clear message. We also benefited from having Dems control the Congress and the White House.

Governing is hard, as the Dems learned under Carter and Clinton. Again, we wish Pres. elect Obama well. We will support and oppose him. We won’t engage in the kind of irrational behavior that depicted the angry left during the last 8 years.

We will be back.