“I loved what happened in the Bork hearings. … The Bork hearings were great. The Bork hearings were educational.”

–Elena Kagan on Breitbart TV.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, but the Senate rejected his nomination following an intensely partisan debate led by Senators Ted (now dead) Kennedy and Joe (teats on a boar) Biden.

The Bork confirmation hearings were arguably the most contentious in the two-hundred-year history of the U.S. Constitution. The hearings were nothing more than a witch hunt to slander and smear a great legal mind to gain ideological control over the Court and the Constitution.

The majority of the senators who questioned Bork were focused on his vilification, not his jurisprudence. In particular, Kennedy used slanderous accusations and outright lies to demonize him.

“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy… President Reagan … should not be able to … impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.”

–Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) quoted on Power Line.

The Economist agreed with Bork that

“There was not a line in Ted Kennedy’s speech that was accurate.”

Kennedy’s excoriating witch hunt worked so well to discredit the judge, whose legal competence and personal integrity were beyond doubt, that the word “borked” was invented as a verb to describe a Supreme Court or federal judgeship nominee who was denied confirmation as a result of sustained public disparagement.

Bork was rejected because he viewed the Constitution as the “the Founders’ Constitution” bound by original intent and not as a “living” instrument subjected to the interpretive whims of a leftist judiciary.

“You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.”

–Charles Austin Beard from Wikiquote.

Bork argued that the court’s task is to adjudicate and not to “legislate from the bench”; i.e., judges should restrain from ad hoc pronouncements or subjective value judgments in deciding cases.

“We are increasingly governed not by law or elected representatives but by an unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable committee of lawyers applying no law other than their own will.”

–Judge Robert Bork as quoted in Eagle Forum.

The rule of law and the Constitution would be more secure had Bork joined Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas on the high court, but instead the Senate will likely add another Brother O lackey to join Sotomayor, only this one doesn’t know that we live in a Constitutional Republic not a Constitutional Democracy.

“The Bork hearings were the best thing that ever happened to Constitutional Democracy.”

–Elena Kagan on Breitbart TV.

Not only are the two aforementioned forms of government dissimilar, they are antithetical. From The American Ideal of 1776: The Twelve Basic American Principles:

An Important Distinction: Democracy versus Republic

In a democracy, the power of the majority is unlimited lacking legal safeguards to protect the rights of the individual and the minority; in a republic, the power of the majority is limited by a constitution safeguarding the rights of the individual and the minority.

According to Bork, Kagan’s regard for the Israeli Supreme Court’s quintessential activist judge Aharon Barak as her “judicial hero” disqualifies her to sit on the Supreme Court. Kagan’s acclamation of Barak, whom Bork considers “the worst judge on the planet” and whom federal appeals court judge Richard Posner says “is a law unto himself,” reveals her potential as an activist justice.

“I try to be guided by my North Star, which is justice. I try to make law and justice converge, so that the Justice will do justice.”

–Aharon Barak, Israeli Supreme Court justice, as quoted in National Review.

“Don’t tell me words don’t matter” when it’s their world view they share, and not just rhetoric.

If Senate Republicans cared as much about the Constitution and the political direction of the country as they do about maintaining a cordial relationship with leftist Democrats and the lapdog media, they would to do a time-limited filibuster of Kagan until after the August recess to make her confirmation hearings as educational for Americans as Bork’s were for her.

Gamaliel is actually a more dangerous group than its corrupt cousin ACORN for it actually embodies the dreaded union of church and state, and, if left unchecked, will emasculate individual liberty in the name of God and sacred community and will sacrifice religious freedom on the advocacy altar of social justice and the greater good.

Brietbart TV has recently unearthed a 2:00 minute video of a Gamaliel International Leadership Assembly “prayer meeting” held December 4, 2008, in Washington, DC, which has created a bit of a stir. 

In the video, people hurriedly enter a room while chanting, “Everybody in! Nobody out!” an apparent reference to universal health care. The group then gathers to offer a scripted prayer for “all of us who face health care without good health care insurance.”

In liturgical fashion, a woman leads a responsive reading, and the group purportedly responds at appropriate intervals “Hear our cry Obama” and “Deliver us Obama.” Whether the respondents clearly say “Obama” or “O God” is open to debate, but what is not debatable are the current and historical ties that Brother O has to the Gamaliel Foundation.

During the 1980s, Chicago served as the intellectual epicenter of Black Nationalism, Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, and Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns, and from 1985 to 1989, at the apex of black radical political thought, Brother O worked as a consultant, trainer, and leadership developer for the Chicago-based Gamaliel Foundation, a group of community organizers trained in the political strategies and leftist principles of radical intellectual Saul Alinsky.

Alinsky’s organization was based in Chicago, and it trained a cadre of community organizers for such groups as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Gamaliel Foundation in the political strategies outlined in Rules for Radicals. To build left-wing political coalitions within inner city neighborhoods and black churches, Alinsky-style organizing specialized in ideological stealth, deception, and camouflage.

Like ACORN, the Gamaliel Foundation is a politically active organization with Marxist goals and differs only in its narrowly-focused outreach for infiltrating local church communities rather than entire neighborhoods. Once infiltrated, the Gamaliel Foundation hijacks the church leadership to combine a Marxist agenda with a smattering of Christian doctrine and push leftist political issues through methods of intimidation and agitation. Gamaliel organizers quietly share the same anti-American liberation theology brought to the limelight through the guttural discharges of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Gamaliel stands at the center of a well-coordinated, well-funded, and complex campaign to take back the debate and move Obamacare forward. Almost thirty denominations including mainstream Episcopal, Presbyterian USA, and United Methodist churches have joined Gamaliel and the Whitehouse to sell Obamacare through a nationwide TV ad with local clergy and lay leaders supporting reform, prayer rallies and in-district meetings, petition drives, and a call-in Webcast that featured Brother O and diverse faith leaders.

Alinsky created partnerships among faith-based community organizations as a means to seize power to realize his utopian dream of equality, justice, and peace. In Chicago, Brother O learned how to use power at the feet of some of the most radical socialists in America and to advance the Alinsky agenda into the highest levels in government. 

Now that America is in the throes of an Alinsky dream, Americans may wish to examine what the Reverend John C. Welch and Gamaliel acolytes say about the man into whose hands the governance of this nation has been placed: 

“He is Gamaliel.  He is African American.  He is one of us.  He is the 44th President of the United States of America!”

Cass Sunstein is one scary dude. He believes that the president, and not the judiciary, should interpret federal law. Goodbye, US Constitution. Goodbye, checks and balances. Hello, dictatorship.

The opinions of the newly confirmed regulatory czar are all laid out in his own words by this article at WorldNetDaily:

The interpretation of federal law should be made not by judges but by the beliefs and commitments of the U.S. president and those around him, according to President Obama’s newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein.

“There is no reason to believe that in the face of statutory ambiguity, the meaning of federal law should be settled by the inclinations and predispositions of federal judges. The outcome should instead depend on the commitments and beliefs of the President and those who operate under him,” argued Sunstein.

This statement was the central thesis of Sunstein’s 2006 Yale Law School paper, “Beyond Marbury: The Executive’s Power to Say What the Law Is.” The paper, in which he argues the president and his advisers should be the ones to interpret federal laws, was obtained and reviewed by WND.

Sunstein debated the precedent-setting 1803 case, Marbury v. Madison, which determined it is “emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”

He lamented multiple recent examples of U.S. presidents interpreting law only to have their interpretations overturned by the Supreme Court….

There are many more czars where he came from, all radical leftwing types. Be very afraid for our democracy!

Instead of filing charges against ACORN employees for criminal violations captured on tape by hidden camera, Baltimore City State’s Attorney is looking to prosecute two investigative reporters for violating Maryland’s wiretap laws in filming the group’s lawbreaking acts.

State’s Attorney Patricia Coats Jessamy, a Brother O supporter and contributor who worked on the Maryland Women for Obama Steering Committee, issued the following statement concerning the criminal acts committed by the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now (ACORN) employees at its Baltimore office:

“The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video…. [T]he audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent.

If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years.” [emphasis mine]

Jessamy, who has held the office since 1995, is looking to prosecute 20 year-old journalist Hannah Giles and 25-year old film maker James O’Keefe for failing to acquire ACORN’s permission to expose its heinous underbelly to the world. A nonpartisan state’s attorney would be looking to prosecute ACORN as a criminal enterprise under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes.

In the video, O’Keefe and Giles show up on ACORN’s stoop seeking advice for purchasing a house to serve as a brothel. O’Keefe poses as a pimp with plans to run for Congress, and Giles is his prostitute girlfriend who intends to staff their brothel with smuggled teenage girls from El Salvador.

After making their intentions known to the ACORN workers, O’Keefe and Giles are given instructions on how to go about getting a loan to purchase the house, with further advice to list the girls as dependents on their tax returns and to train them to keep quiet about the prostitution activities.

Jessamy seems to be more interested in prosecuting violations of unauthorized taping than in prosecuting “child abuse, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, tax evasion,” and illegal immigration violations that may have been committed by the ACORN workers.

If Jessamy has an obsession with enforcing Maryland’s unauthorized taping law and prosecuting its violators, she fought her compulsion to selectively apply Maryland’s law on at least two occasions in 2006 and in 2000 when WMAR-TV in Baltimore used “undercover journalists with cameras to record people without their knowledge, and won awards for their efforts.”

But that was then, and 2009 is now, so when two young journalists with hidden cameras go undercover to expose a group of lawbreakers that support Brother O’s politics and policies, for Jessamy it’s more a matter of aligning with kindred spirits than with the rule of law.

Jessamy is obviously more interested in protecting fellow travelers and in enforcing the law against those who threaten Brother O’s power and policies than in carrying out her sworn duty and in upholding her oath of office.

If Jessamy presses to file charges down-the-road, will any fair-minded person look on her prosecution as anything but retaliation for uncovering the criminal activities of her president’s favorite group of community organizers? Will fair-minded people regard her authoritative actions as anything other than a tread-lightly warning for anyone who dares to uncover and expose the misdeeds of Brother O’s Obots?

I think not.

During the last Presidential debate, free trade came up for discussion. Responding to McCain’s support for Bush’s free trade proposal with Colombia, Obama said,

“Let me respond. Actually, I understand it pretty well. The history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis and there have not been prosecutions.”

Obviously Obama does not understand. He is repeating what Hugo Chavez wants Americans to believe. Hugo Chavez must have been jumping for joy! The millions he has invested to brainwash Americans are yielding results. The reality is that, due to security improvements under Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, there has been a marked human rights improvement over a decade ago. Under Uribe, Colombia has agreed to a permanent ILO mission to monitor labor rights, and arrests and prosecutions of those committing the violence have increased. Far fewer union members were being killed this year than the nearly 200 that were killed in 2002.  Obama’s remarks during the debate, however, may be changing the situation for the worse.  Those remarks seem to have fueled violence and increased the number of people killed in Colombia.

As if to support Obama’s remarks, on October 23 Reuters reported:

Thousands of indigenous Colombians marched on Thursday to press their demands against President Alvaro Uribe, and labor unions protested in the capital Bogota, where five small blasts panicked residents.

Indigenous protesters with traditional staves, banners and mock coffins snaked toward Cali city, where leaders want talks with Uribe on promises to protect their lands, defend them against violence and reject a U.S. free trade agreement.

In Bogota, where several thousand state employees marched against Uribe’s economic management, five small explosions left in trash cans or tied to lampposts slightly wounded at least 11 people, police said without commenting on those responsible.

Authorities say three indigenous protesters have died during more than a week of demonstrations near Cali. Uribe says they were killed when a homemade bomb exploded, but community leaders say security forces shot the victims…

Who benefits from the marches by indigenous protesters in coordination with manifestations of labor unions? Not most of Colombians who only want peace and a trade agreement that would benefit Colombia.  It’s Chavez and their terrorist friends who benefit. Their objective is to prevent the trade agreement and impose “socialismo del siglo XXI” (Marxism) in Colombia, as it has been imposed in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. Colombia would then become another U.S. enemy. If Obama is elected president of the United States, Colombia, America’s best ally in Latin America, will fall in Chavez’s hands and in the hands of Chavez’s accomplices — Russians, FARC, Islamic terrorists and other enemies of the free world. And Colombia’s falling in Chavez’s hands will destroy the hopes of Cubans, Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Bolivians of returning to democracy and a free-market economy. It will also increase the danger of Marxism — and the greater poverty and corruption that Marxism engenders — for the rest of Latin America … and the United States.

Sen. McCain has suspended his presidential campaign to go to Washington to focus on the economic crisis Americans face thanks to greed on Wall Street, and corruption in government.

From what we can gather here on main street, the big money boys got in too deep because they got piggish and borrowed money to speculate, and lost, and now the bill comes due, and they are so broke they must turn to the taxpayers for bailouts.

The President and the Treasury Secretary and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank all agree the government should write a blank check to the banks to the tune of $700 Billion to save the day. True conservatives say no: people who got in over their heads should suffer the consequences and not be rescued by placing even more outrageous debt on the backs of the people.

Congress is hamstrung again, waffling, debating, pointing fingers, playing politics and generally acting like the clowns they are: another locked grid, such as the gridlock surrounding calls for regulatory reform of the financial markets years ago, some of those calls coming from this President and McCain, reform stymied by Democrats like Dodd and Frank, while Obama and many of his closest associates were profiting from the mismanagement of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two quasi-government sub-prime housing lenders “credited” with starting this financial mess in the first place.

Calls for bipartisanship in approaching a solution to our financial problems fall on deaf ears here on main street for two reasons:

1. We don’t trust the politicians or the bureaucrats or the big money boys. They always act in their best interests, not ours, and so, they broke faith long ago, and cannot be trusted. Their moral depravity is clear for all to see.
2. This financial collapse is precisely what the far Left has been hoping for, working toward, and assisting for many years. Why?

Understand, the far Left did not go out of business simply because we defeated the Communist Party at home and abroad. The far Left, i.e., the contemporary Democrat Party, did not go out of business when the Vietnam War was ended by the U.S. Senate. The ‘Euro-Socialist Government is God’ far Left Democrat Party did not stop working against traditional Americanism when the hippies moved to the hills. In reality, the hippies got haircuts and donned pinstripes and moved to Wall Street, to the universities and to the halls of political power, copies of “Rules for Radicals” neatly tucked under their arms.

People on main street have been scratching their heads for quite some time. Why does Hollywood hate traditional American values, and family life? Why do the elites on the Coasts sneer at home town? Why do the Democrats hope we lose in Iraq? Why is everything we love about America under attack, including old fashioned faith and religion?

It’s war folks. Not just a culture war. It’s a war for the soul of America. This is why there is no possibility of bipartisanship. One or the other side will win.

The Far Left Dem Media (FLDM) cabal wants America to change. Change! To what? Take a look at Cuba, enlarge it, and you get an idea of what the FLDM wants.

• Government control of everything, including the economy (this crisis is the door of opportunity!)
• Government control of religion, or better, the abolition of religion, and the incarceration of Christians in particular
• Government mandates: education, curriculum, library content, movies, the arts, all assembly and speech—unless it promotes the State, it is forbidden
• Government provision of all health care services
• Government dictates in the areas of family, reproduction, morality, structure and civil codes of conduct
• Government confiscation of all private property including guns
• Government legislated hate crimes and enforcement to stamp down all dissent
• Government executive domination of puppet legislative and judicial branches, i.e., despotism.

All this of course is transitional. This complete dictatorship of the proletariat, once the corrupt bourgeoisie are destroyed, is temporary, a stepping stone to the communist paradise beyond.

Trouble is, no one has ever seen the communist paradise. Things always seem to get eternally stuck in the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat stage,’ right after the blood-letting around the destruction of the bourgeoisie.

The financial mess we experience today is the bloodless destruction of the bourgeoisie the FLDM is thrilled about. It provides entre’ to the ‘regretful but required’ dictatorship of the proletariat.

We understand this much on main street: we are the proletariat, you know, the little folks. The FLDM says it is our champion. Funny how the little folk are either marginalized or exploited or downright hammered every time a new FLDM posse rides to the rescue. (But remember: it’s for our own good.)

Today we see a government willing to intervene in capital markets and essentially take over. Little guys stop and say, hey wait, didn’t they do that with Freddie/Fannie, and take over, and offer housing loans to people unqualified for loans, and didn’t the Fannie/Freddie managers raid the treasury while giving out taxpayer funds to unworthy borrowers, and didn’t that start our tail spin, and aren’t they saying they want to do it again only this time on a much grander scale, and isn’t that simply a bad idea, akin to giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys?

What did we hear from Europe this week: it’s the end of American capitalism (worse than Satan in many quarters)?

What did we hear from China this week: time for a world financial system (run by whom you ask: the UN)?

What did we hear from the president of Iran this week: it’s the end of the American empire?

What we will never hear from the private backrooms of the FLDM is the glee they express watching this economic train wreck unfold. They agree with Europe, and China and Ahmadinejad — time for a new America, time for Change!

If main street America is to survive, and if traditional America is to prevail, we will have to get behind McCain’s effort to wage war on our behalf, to save this republic from being overrun by the FLDM, to prevent our becoming another Cuba, and to preserve the very idea of liberty.

McCain is going to Washington not simply to address the economic woes of this nation. He is going to fight the real war, the war for the soul of the country. Pray he prevails.

Obama is in the backroom, grinning.

We watched in numbed amazement as Howard “Yeeaahh” Dean and Nancy “14%” Pelosi crowned their Kenyan nominee despite the wishes of the 18 million strong majority of Democratic primary voters. Up until this election cycle, most ordinary folk still labored under the delusion that they lived in a democracy where they — the people — could choose their leaders.

Confronting the dismal reality brought anguish to all manner of long-time Democrats. Now, here at American Daughter, our contributors are mostly conservative or libertarian, so we cannot claim that our proposed solutions to national problems would be the same as theirs. But what is OVERWHELMINGLY the same is our love for the principles of democracy. And we deeply feel their pain.

Numerous groups have formed among disenfranchised Democrats to try to restore the open candidate selection process within their party. As the Democratic convention unfolds this week, we will be watching their efforts with interest and wishing them success. Here is a list of the players, dear readers, so you can follow the action.

PUMA (Party Unity My Ass)

Almost immediately after the selection process was hijacked, the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) group coalesced. Formed largely by Hillary Clinton supporters dismayed when she had the nomination taken away from her by the boys in the smoke-filled back room, they refused to be shanghied into allegiance by the mantra of “party unity.” They have modified their slogan to People United Means Action for the sake of decorum, but everyone still prefers the original.

You can follow their action at the Democratic convention by reading the constantly updated posts at the PUMA PAC. It sounds like fun. They have opened their own headquarters in Denver!

Our Puma PAC HQ is humming. We are a half-mile from the Pepsi Center, right across the street from the Denver Police Headquarters. Dave, the world’s greatest landlord, had his guys washing our windows and glueing down the last pieces of carpet.

NOBAMA Community

The NOBAMA Community also developed quite early. Their primary news blog is here.

The Nobama Network

Developing later, but sounding similar, the Nobama Network also formed a coalition of weblogs and serves as an information resource.

Nobama Network is a portal site designed to bring together the Grass Roots Movements in America spawned by outrage over the actions of the DNC disenfranchising voters, reassigning delegates, selecting their illegitimate Nominee and diminishing the most basic factor that makes America great, our right to vote and be heard!

We are not affiliated with any party or candidate, we take no money, we support no candidate, and we are not a “spy” site as rumored . What you see is what you get. We are a directory giving exposure to American’s who are speaking up.

Just Say No Deal

One of the largest weblog coalitions is Just Say No Deal.

We are a coalition of millions with one thing in common: NObama. If you thought you were alone, you’re wrong.

This website is a tremendous source of information about videos, polls, petitions, opposition research, the latest from Denver — just about everything you might want to keep track of.

Democrats Against Obama

The group Democrats Against Obama formed early and has an extensive list of supporting weblogs. They have t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, yard signs and banners for sale, displaying their copyrighted logo — see below.

Democrats for McCain

 

The Democrats for McCain expressed specific goals, sharing news and selling bumper stickers.

 

DNC Disruption 08

The group DNC Disruption 08 is planning organized protests for the Democratic convention. They have a complex schedule of disruption events planned. You can read the PDF version here. They have sceduled actions, marches, concerts, teach-ins, workshops — it’s a pretty impressive effort.

The Denver Group

One of the most recent to form is The Denver Group, whose stated mission is:

The Denver Group has been formed to insure that the Democratic National Committee respect and carry out the democratic process at the convention in Denver this August by meeting certain specific goals. We will be advocating, and if neccessary pressuring, through purchased mass media as well other accepted avenues, the Democratic National Committee to see to it that these goals and the interests of tens of millions of Democratic voters are met.

Our goals are: An open convention; Senator Clinton’s name placed in nomination; no symbolic roll call vote; speeches allowed by supporters of Senator Clinton on behalf of her candidacy; a genuine roll call vote with Senator Clinton as a legitimate candidate; no coronation.

The Denver Group composed this outstanding advertisement arguing for the principles of democracy — the Boston Tea Party ad.

Not-Obama Volunteers

There are the Not-Obama Volunteers. This is an information sharing effort with a membership blogroll and a library of articles for dissemination.

The Nobama Mission

Another information sharing group is the Nobama Mission. This is a volunteer organization of bloggers designed to counter-balance the army of paid bloggers working for the Obama campaign:

Ready to tell the world about the REAL Barack Obama? The truth that the media has largely ignored throughout this election? We’ve got the skinny for you.

Barack Obama has a reputed army of paid Bloggers. He is taking over the Internet. It’s time to take it back. Show Obama that while we may not get paid for our work (and trust me, this is all volunteer), we will not be shut out. Our voices will be heard.

They have a library of material that can be printed out as pamphlets or flyers for distribution.

Co-founder Cristi Adkins is a tireless activist and a frequent guest on talk shows.

Hillary Supporters for McCain

This passage from Hillary Supporters for McCain says it best:

I’ve been printing one e-mail after another from Democrats who are disgusted with the fraud, sexism, and left-wing idiocy of their former political “home.” In fact, the Democratic Party has become the haven for the corrupt, the socialistic, and the unpatriotic. That has been happening for years, of course, but Democrats are starting to notice, and the implications for the Party are not good.

I Own My Vote

The I Own My Vote effort is focused on a petition drive. Here’s the pledge:

On Saturday, June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton suspended her historic campaign for President. To her 18 million voters, it may have seemed like an end, but I pledge to make it a beginning… a beginning of a movement to achieve the democratic and just country that Hillary has envisioned for America. ….

I own my vote. It does not belong to any party. It does not belong to any candidate. It does not belong to any mob that would impose its will on me. Only I can decide how to use my vote, and I can decide based on any criteria I choose. Therefore I pledge not to give my vote to anyone who does not earn it.

The petition and signatures will be presented to Senator Obama, the DNC, and Senator McCain.

Our Country Deserves Better PAC

Another group just about to get started is the Our Country Deserves Better PAC.

Join the Our Country Deserves Better PAC as we launch a national effort to counter the empty rhetoric and extreme-liberal policies of Barack Obama.

[We will] officially launch on Thursday, August 28, 2008, and we’ve got big plans in store …including an aggressive television ad campaign, grass roots efforts including “Our Country Deserves Better” rallies, media events and much much more.

The Good News

The good news is that we still have enough freedom left in our country so that these passionate and committed folk can make speeches, distribute pamphlets, meet and march and carry signs, etc. without fear of torture or imprisonment — hopefully. We wish them well.

The Facts

Exactly one week ago, on Wednesday, 16 July 2008, the United States forces in Iraq transferred responsibility for security in the southern Iraqi province of Diwaniya to local Iraqi forces. It was a landmark moment, as Confederate Yankee notes:

While the Media Slept…

…another province, Diwaniyah, was handed over to Iraqi government control.

This means that for the first time, a democratically-elected Iraqi government is in charge of a majority of the country (10 of 18 provinces)….

You would think that turning point such as the Iraqis taking over the control of the majority of their country would be a moment that editorial writers, always looking for moments pregnant with symbolism, would gush over.

Alas, Iraq isn’t as newsworthy with victory so near at hand….

British Press Coverage

Well, the Brits DID headline it as front page news by 13:03 GMT the same day.

BBC News headline — Province handed to Iraqi control

Responsibility for security in the southern Iraqi province of Diwaniya has been transferred to local Iraqi forces.

It is the 10th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be transferred to the government….

…overall, the violence countrywide is now at its lowest level since 2003.

That, our correspondent says, is in large measure attributed to the US troop “surge”, which began last year and is now coming to an end….

US Press Coverage

Ho hum. Although their on-site reporter posted the story the same day (byline from BAGHDAD, July 16), the Washington Post carried the news as a subtopic in a story buried on Page A14 one whole day later.

Washington Post headline — Bombings Kill 22 in Iraq’s North

Attacks Coincide With U.S. Handover of Southern Province

By Zaid Sabah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 17, 2008; Page A14

BAGHDAD, July 16 — A car packed with explosives detonated in a crowded market in the northern city of Tall Afar on Wednesday, killing 20 people, including nine children, and wounding 82 others, police and hospital officials said. Two car bombs also exploded in the northeastern city of Mosul, killing two people and wounding 15.

The attacks underscored Iraq’s fragility, even as U.S. forces on Wednesday handed over control of the southern province of Qadisiyah to Iraqi security forces….

A New Voice You May Want To Bookmark

The discrepancy between the reports on two sides of “the pond” is noted by Stand Point Magazine, a new British voice in the Blogosphere:

Left off the Front Page

Yesterday, Diwaniyah Province was handed over to Iraqi government control. For the first time a democratically-elected Iraqi government is in charge of a majority of the country (10 of 18 provinces). Top story of the day, and yet we search fruitlessly to read more on this….

Instapundit has the last word:

Old media line — “Of course we’re losing — that’s why we have to talk about it all the time.”

New line: “Of course we’re winning — so it isn’t news!”

If at first you don’t succeed, try making failure your goal. That’s basically what the President and our illustrious elected politicians have set as their goal — FAILURE! Since when have we not been able to accomplish whatever we set out to do? It’s very apparent that “the powers that be” are not interested in accomplishing the task at hand and what the majority of Americans demand be accomplished — which is securing our borders.

Pat Buchanan brilliantly points out the fact that we, as Americans, have gone above and beyond in exhibiting our potential to accomplish whatever the task may be, no matter how difficult. I’m appalled that our elected leaders WILL NOT do what we’ve put them in office to do — defend this great country of ours! They continue to deny us secure borders in spite of our overwhelming numbers demanding that they do so.

This reminds me of an article I read earlier on this website, The Myth of Democracy — Popular Vote, with regard to voting and how the process is not so democratic as we’d like to believe it to be. It makes one seriously question whether we indeed have a voice and a vote in our government or whether it is merely smoke and mirrors, a fraud??

Here’s the bottom line as noted by Pat Buchanan:

“Given the manifest will of the people that this invasion from the south be halted and rolled back, the 2008 election is shaping up as yet further confirmation that American democracy is a fraud.”

Very frightening indeed! We all need to stop talking about what’s wrong with America and start doing something about it before it’s too late.

Read the entire article if you have time. Buchanan documents the amazing ability of our nation to accomplish desired goals:

Katrina Nation
by Patrick J. Buchanan

When Woodrow Wilson went to Congress to ask for a declaration of war in 1917, the U.S. Army was ranked 17th in the world, behind Portugal.

On Armistice Day, 19 months later, there were 2 million doughboys in France, where they had helped to break the back of Gen. Ludendorff’s theretofore invincible army in its final offensive, and 2 million more in the United States ready to march on Berlin.

No other nation could have done that.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, FDR demanded that a disarmed America “build 50,000 planes” — a seemingly impossible number, but one America met and exceeded.

Starting from scratch in 1941, the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos designed, built, tested and detonated three atomic bombs by August 1945 to end the war.

After Sputnik humiliated America, Wernher Von Braun and the boys at Redstone Arsenal had a satellite up in three months. In 1961, JFK declared we were going to the moon and would be there before the decade was out. Cynics scoffed. This writer was at Canaveral to watch Apollo 11 lift off in the summer of 1969.

Whatever became of that can-do nation?….

If we could put men on the moon in a scant eight years, why can we not secure our borders?

One common assumption about democracy is that the choice of an elected leader will represent the preference of the majority of the people governed. Let’s take a look at the last half-century of presidential elections to see how often this has been true in the United States …… never.

Year	Registered Voters	Voter Turnout	Winner Total	Popular Support
1960		63.5%	Kennedy – 49.7%	31.5%
1964	64.7%	62.0%	Johnson – 60.6%	37.6%
1968	70.1%	62.8%	Nixon – 43.4%	27.3%
1972	71.5%	57.1%	Nixon – 60.3%	34.4%
1976	71.7%	55.7%	Carter – 50.1%	27.9%
1980	70.8%	54.2%	Reagan – 50.8%	27.5%
1984	74.0%	55.2%	Reagan – 58.8%	32.5%
1988	72.8%	52.8%	Bush #1 – 53.4%	28.2%
1992	74.5%	58.1%	Clinton – 43.0%	25.0%
1996	78.5%	51.8%	Clinton – 49.2%	25.5%
2000	66.7%	57.0%	Bush #2 – 47.9%	27.3%
2004	70.1%	62.0%	Bush #2 – 51%	31.6%

From the total residential and expatriate population of the United States, those eligible to vote are that subset meeting the following qualifications:

• person is of voting age
• person is a legal citizen, by birth or naturalization
• person is not institutionalized, or has not had franchise revoked due to crime

From the pool of eligible voters, only a percentage make the effort to establish their bona fides with their local precinct and place their authorized signature in the voting records, becoming registered voters.

During an election, not all of the registered voters participate. The voter turnout fluctuates from year to year, but is usually higher during presidential election years than for those in-between years featuring only state or local races.

Authentic democracy occurs when two conditions are met:

• 100% of eligible citizens register to vote
• 100% of registered voters participate in an election

The table above shows, in effect, the degree to which the United States election process differs from real democracy due to civic laziness and voter apathy.

References:

An excellent research project is ongoing at George Mason University (GMU), Fairfax, Virginia under the auspices of Dr. Michael McDonald, Associate Professor, Department of Public and International Affairs. The United States Elections Project gives a detailed summary of relevant data for the years 1980 through 2006. More importantly, it shows that the apparent decline in voter participation reported by the United States Census Bureau results from their analytical methods, rather than actual voting patterns. Two important definitions from the GMU project:

VAP — The voting-age population is defined by the Bureau of the Census as everyone residing in the United States, age 18 and older. Before 1971, the voting-age population was age 21 and older.

VEP — The voting-eligible population is the population that is eligible to vote. Counted among the voting-age population are persons who are ineligible to vote, such as non-citizens, felons (depending on state law), and mentally incapacitated persons. Not counted are persons in the military or civilians living overseas.

The voting age population totals used in our study for the years 1960 and 1964 are from the U.S. Census Bureau report for those two years. The VAP totals used for the years 1968 through 2004 are from the U.S. Census Bureau Report Registration Rates in Presidential Election Years.

Prior to 1980 the difference between the voting age population and the number of eligible voters in any given presidential election year was less than one or two percent of the total population. Since separate official VEP numbers are not available for those years, we used VAP data as the basis of calculation. However, as the discrepancy began to grow rapidly with the onslaught of illegal immigration, we used the available VEP data from 1980 onward.

The eligible voter totals (in millions) for the years 1980 through 2004 used in our computations are from the GMU research. The registration totals (in millions) for the years 1964 through 1996 used in our computations are from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The registration totals compiled by the FEC for the year 1960 do not include sixteen states, and so we did not make a computation for that year. The voter turnout totals (in millions) for the years 1960 through 1996 are also from the FEC. Both the registration totals and the voter turnout totals for the years 2000 and 2004 are from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The percent of eligible voters who did their civic duty and registered for each presidential election is computed by dividing the registration toal by the eligible voter total (or the VAP total prior to 1980). The percent of turnout is computed by dividing the turnout total by the eligible voter total.

The Winner Total percentages from 1960 through 2000 are taken from President Elect, the unofficial website of the United States Electoral College. They differ only slightly from the numbers given on another popular reference page, History Central, which is also often quoted.

The popular support for every president-elect represents the percentage of eligible voters who actuallly wanted that candidate to be president. It is computed by multiplying the percentage turnout by the percentage of votes garnered by the winner. In every case it is considerably less than half of the electorate. Contrary to media spin, the least popular president-elect in the last half-century was Bill Clinton, who was favored by only one quarter of the electorate in both of his successful bids for the office.