The Siren's Call

We are standing on the precipice of a descent into the abyss of socialism. How we came to this point is left up to historians. I, however, suggest that we are on a different path. I believe that we are seeing the evolution of our country toward even greater relevance.

What country in history has withstood the siren's call to government-run societies? None, to date. Is this country to become just another failed experiment, or our we willing to re-establish ourselves as the transformational country that we have been throughout the last 235 years?

We've weathered some mighty storms. From the Revolutionary War, to the Civil War, to the World Wars, we have endured. Why does this war with socialism seem so daunting? It is because we are living through it right now. We are at a focus point that all our citizens are beginning to recognize. We are at the fork in the road.

Will we accept the failed policies of socialism, or will we continue to re-affirm our greatness as the "last, best hope of earth"? Do we crumble in the face of a growing, governmental leviathan, or do we re-assert ourselves to follow a path that no country has followed before?

The upcoming election in 2012 is truly a tipping point for our form of government, as defined by our Constitution and re-affirmed by our greatest Presidents. Do we follow the advice of a few, modern voices, or do we re-examine our history to re-invoke the commitment to liberty that has made us strong?

The future unfolds before the eyes of the living, as it has done since our inception. We are no less challenged now that we were at every pivotal moment in our history. We are once again faced with a challenge toward our commitment to liberty. Will we succumb to the siren's call, or will we once again rise up to defeat it?

What candidate in 2012 will resist our plunge into socialism? What candidate will we support, and why? For myself, I am looking for a candidate that hasn't been steeped in the Washington way, for those are all talking in the siren's voice. I am looking for the human amongst us who will cover their ears and follow their heart and our history.

The Unconventional Campaign

Sarah Palin has said in the past that she didn't know if America was ready for an unconventional campaign for President of the United States. I think we just got a glimpse of what she was talking about with her speech to the Madison Tea Party on Saturday.

I was not expecting what I saw, but was absolutely thrilled by what I did see. I watched the speech live via the Internet and quickly posted a piece on my blog with my initial reactions. I then took the time, once video of the speech became available online, to watch it again. I was more blown away the second time I watched it then it struck me: Sarah Palin has begun her unconventional campaign for President!

Sure, there will be naysayers out there, but I have not seen her give such a spirited speech since her 2008 GOP Convention speech. This was Sarah at her finest, drawing a stark contrast between herself and the rest of the GOP field. Mitt Romney had to be in need of oxygen if he watched it, which I have no doubt that he did. Donald Trump must have thought he'd died and gone to Trump heaven when his girlie voice was "trumped" by a woman's. Mike Huckabee must have segued into playing the blues with his pals, for there was nothing in Sarah's speech that he can even hope to capture for himself. And Newt Gingrich must be having fits right about now for thinking that he could out-think his adversaries. Newt has no hope for delivering a stump speech that can even come close to being compared to a Sarah Palin address at a Tea Party.

And Barack Obama must be writhing around on the floor. He must now recognize that he is about to be pilloried in ad nauseam over the next several months by someone who has stronger convictions and the willingness to voice them than he will ever be able to. After all, Obama's only advantage is his complete willingness to lie about his agenda and now Sarah Palin has shown a willingness to call him out on all of it.

No, we are witnessing a Sarah Palin unshackled from any beltway pundit's opinion of her and the panty-waisted response of Republicans in Washington to the task of reigning in government largesse. And it will be interesting to see how the so-called national Tea Party leaders react to her renewed presence in the debate. Those Tea Party "leaders" have just been made irrelevant as Sarah has shown she doesn't need their blessing to appeal to the ranks of Tea Partiers throughout the country.

If this is truly the beginning of Sarah Palin's unconventional campaign, then I can't wait until her next appearance. She has just shifted the debate on her terms and everyone else will be playing catch up. Maybe they'll all learn how to "fight like a girl"!

Sarah Palin: Game On!

Sarah Palin delivered a rousing speech to the Madison Tea Party today. It was only remotely reminiscent of her acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican Convention. Today's speech was much more in keeping with Sarah's Mama Grizzly image. She went after Obama with unflinching candor and delivered some stinging barbs. She also was not deterred from going after the "Republican establishment", in her words, and lambasted the latest compromise on the 2011 budget as failing to deliver on the promises of the 2010 election.

This speech could best be described as Sarah-Unplugged. It delivered a stinging rebuke to the union leaders that have cast Madison as the centerpiece of Obama's world vision and spoke of the Tea Party as the voice of America. This was as close to a campaign speech that I have ever seen her deliver, hence the comparison to 2008.

This was not the Sarah Palin who has worked hard to deliver thoughtful speeches to enhance her bona fides in the world of national politics. This was a tit-for-tat response to Obama's partisanship, as delivered in his deficit-reduction speech on Wednesday. In it, Obama targeted Republican efforts toward spending reductions and overtly focused on Paul Ryan, lambasting his and the Republican's plans as being against the aging, women and the less-advantaged.

Sarah Pain ripped into Obama's characterization of Paul Ryan's plan and left no doubt about her feelings when she said of The White House: "you lie"! She called out Obama for his lack of leadership and mocked him for his use of the terms "hope" and "change". This was the most direct attack on Obama that I have seen Sarah Palin deliver since her acceptance speech at the GOP Convention.

As she wound down her speech, she implored the Madison Tea Party to consider itself as the beginning of the 2012 Presidential campaign. She invoked a well-accepted battle cry of "Game On" and compared it to the spirit of the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl victory to rally those in attendance.

All in all, Sarah Palin said everything that a Presidential candidate should say, short of saying it as an announced Presidential candidate. I feel that there is a major campaign in her near future and she is only sharpening her axe as she prepares for it.

I'm awaiting a transcript of her speech and will update this post as soon as it is available. I'm sure videos of her speech will be available as well and they are well-worth your time to watch. This speech was definitely history in the making.

UPDATE:
Here is a link to Sarah's speech on Breitbart.tv

Oh, a word about that...

The amazing thing about new media is that you get to "comment" on something as soon as it appears online. Major internet sites, whether right-leaning or left-leaning, have all recognized the value of having "spirited" comments succeeding their pieces. The major networks are trying to get there, but they haven't linked their nightly news directly into their websites to allow comments. I wonder why?

A Government of the People

With the looming government shutdown, perhaps we need to remember what is really at stake. Our Nation is not one that has now or ever will be duplicated in the still-unwritten history of mankind. We are truly exceptional.

This country is teetering right now and there is only one way to stabilize it. We must return to our founding principles and reaffirm the understanding that our Founders had a vision that transcends our lifetime. It has already transcended those of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Lincoln. And yet it still endures.

We cannot let this country change from what we were and what we were always intended to be. We must now master our destiny and return to our founding principles.

This video is a reading of the Gettysburg Address by Johnny Cash. It is stirring, relevant and timely. It's text is every bit as important now as when it was written.

Shut it down!

Bumped from 3/16/11

Enough with all the dithering over the budget, it's time to take a stand. Either the Democrat-controlled Senate agrees to significant cuts in our deficit spending or it consents (by default) to shut things down.

Personally, I don't think that normal, everyday Americans will experience a whit of difference if the federal government grinds to a halt. If anything, it will underscore the fact that the federal government doesn't have the impact on everyday life to the extent exhorted by liberals and that we really can live without it for a while.

Life will go on and we will all continue to do what we do in a normal day.

Maybe it's time to demonstrate the over-emphasis of the federal government's role in our lives.

Shut it down and let's see what happens. I suspect that we won't notice a thing.

Update:
For an idea of what's at stake, check out the latest Bill Whittle video here. For Paul Ryan's take, check out his well-made, 3 minute video here.

As Obama dithers, Sarah Palin unloads her quiver

Per Dictionary.com:

quiv·er
[kwiv-er]
–noun
1. a case for holding or carrying arrows.
2. the arrows in such a case.

Sarah Palin had a great response to Obama's inaction on a 2011 budget compromise. Keep in mind, our government has been without a budget for the duration of the current fiscal year, which started on October 1, 2010. Yes, that's correct. When the Democrats had a majority in both houses of Congress, they could not find the time to pass a budget, one of the primary functions of the legislative branch. Now we're faced with a shutdown of nonessential government services because the Democrats and Obama don't like the Republican's plan.

In her Facebook post today, Palin said:

The House GOP does not want a shut down. They just want legitimate cuts (and I would argue not even enough!). If we can’t agree to cut a billion here and a billion there, we’ll never close this $1.5 trillion deficit.

Let’s look at the numbers. We have a $1.5 trillion deficit this year. We’re paying $200 billion a year on our interest alone. That’s half a billion dollars per day on interest. And our $1.5 trillion deficit means that we’re borrowing $4 billion per day just to keep afloat. So, we pat ourselves on the back if we cut a billion dollars here or a billion there in discretionary spending, as we borrow $4 billion a day and pay half a billion a day in interest. The deficit for the month of February alone was the highest in our history at $223 billion. That’s more than the entire deficit for the year 2007. And there’s no end in sight. We’re not heading towards the iceberg. We’ve already hit it. Now we’re taking on water. We must find a way to get back to harbor to repair our ship of state before it’s too late.

Where is President Obama in all of this? He just doesn’t get it. His 2012 budget was a signal of that. The President’s proposed budget offered higher taxes and higher spending. A budget is supposed to be more than just numbers crunched on a spreadsheet. It’s supposed to be a credible blueprint of a nation’s priorities and direction. The President’s budget was a political document. It was designed not to ruffle any feathers or take any decisive moves to deal with the deficit problem. Instead of cutting spending, he’s moving us in the opposite direction. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the White House was not telling the truth when they claimed that their 2012 budget reduces the deficit. It actually increases it. Instead of dealing with the hard realities we face, he just kicked the can down the road. That’s not leadership.

To make matters worse, Obama has threatened to veto a measure passed by the House that would guarantee our service members will continue to be paid on schedule for the rest of the fiscal year. Remember, the Democrats didn't bother to pass a 2011 Budget. Sarah observes:

Yesterday the House passed H.R. 1363, which funds our Department of Defense and our military for the rest of the year at their current levels. It allows for the continuation of current military operations, which is pretty important when you’re fighting three wars. It also funds the government for another week and cuts $12 billion in wasteful spending. So why would the Commander in Chief declare that he will veto this? Why would he play politics at the expense of our troops who are putting everything on the line to protect us? Memo to the President: I doubt the insurgents will stop and wait for a government shutdown to end before resuming actions.

Like me, you might be asking yourself: Why on earth would he threaten to veto funding for the troops? What is his game plan? Basically, he’ll veto military funding because he wants the rest of the government funded too. And by the rest of the government, he means things like Harry Reid’s “Cowboy Poetry.” Essentially, he’s holding military funding hostage to NPR funding. This is a perfect analogy for what is wrong with this entire budget showdown. Our federal government has strayed so far from what is constitutionally mandated that they are blind to the fact that NPR funding is not a constitutional duty. Funding our military at a time of war is!

You can read the rest here.

When are we going to see real leadership in Washington? Apparently, the Republicans fear the political fallout of a government shutdown more than standing on principle.

Sarah, are you listening? Paul Ryan certainly is. Check out his video here. For an even better perspective, check out the latest Bill Whittle video here.

A Roadmap to Fiscal Sanity

It's time to take on the challenge of our generation and curb government spending. This is an excellent video featuring Paul Ryan.

EAT THE RICH!

In a stunningly powerful video, Bill Whittle does a fantastic job of educating us about the current year's Federal budget deficit.