President Reagan’s Remarks at Memorial Day Ceremonies at Arlington Cemetery, May 31, 1982

By Gary P Jackson

Remembering a powerful speech by the Gipper, because frankly, we don’t have a President of his caliber today, nor do we have one like him on the horizon. Barring a true miracle from God, it may be a long time before we see a President like Ronald Reagan again.

Thank God for Reagan, and may we one day be blessed with his sort again.

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Trump: Sarah Palin Could Have Official Capacity In Administration-Trey Gowdy as Attorney General

Donald Trump makes a point as he walks with former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin in New York City as they make their way to a scheduled meeting Tuesday, May 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

I can tell you she’s just an amazing woman. She is given great credit, but she should be given even more credit because she is someone that people respect and admire. She speaks to so many people. I don’t even think she knows how important she is. And maybe that is part of the beauty of Sarah Palin, but I just see it all over. So many people revere her, so I think it’s great. I think she is terrific.

~ Donald Trump on Governor Sarah Palin

By Gary P Jackson

I’m not a huge Trump fan. I’m not yet convinced he’s for real, or anything REMOTELY resembling a Conservative. He’s held some pretty left wing positions in the past, and has spent a LOT of time mingling with the Clintons and other democrat party scum-bags. He’s donated money to some of the sleaziest of the bunch.

Some have noted that Ronald Reagan, one of our greatest Presidents, ever, was also once a democrat. In fact, Reagan was not only a democrat, but a self-described “FDR -New Deal democrat” [which meant he was OK with hard-core socialism, at least at one time] Reagan was also a union leader. He was President of the Screen Actors Guild. It was in that capacity that he met Nancy, the great love of his life.

In comparing Reagan and Trump, it must be noted that AFTER Reagan proclaimed that “I didn’t leave the democrat party, it left me” and became a Republican, he spent over 20 years PROVING IT, before becoming President. That includes serving two terms as Governor of California.

I’m not saying Trump CAN’T change, or HASN’T changed, but in the sage advice of Reagan himself, I’m thinking “Trust but verify” wouldn’t be a bad policy!

We’ve seen other democrats turn Republican for strictly political gain, and power. Arlen Specter comes to mind. He was a democrat, turned Republican when the winds blew that way, then switched back, even telling voters it was all about keeping power! He, of course, lost his last election, after that stunt. Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist also comes to mind. He’s switched from GOP, to democrat, to “independent” in attempts to hold on to, and/or regain power. He’s failed.

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is another liberal democrat who switched parties. Perry held office as a democrat, but something happened in Texas over 20 years ago. People woke up and realized just exactly how evil democrats are, and how bad they had screwed up Texas. Voters simply said no más! Lt Governor Bob Bullock [a bit of a legend in the state] was the last democrat elected to statewide office. That was 1994. Bullock was really old by 1998 and ready to retire. Enter newly minted Republican Rick Perry. I could go on all day about the cronies and the corruption, and how Texas has blossomed into an incredible economic powerhouse IN SPITE OF, not because of Perry, but our longtime, loyal readers already know where we stand here! And besides, corruption in Texas politics ain’t nothing new!

My point? Not to trash Trump, but be totally honest with readers, and admit that I am not sold on the guy, even though he and Sarah Palin have a friendship that goes back a ways. In fact, in a recent spat between Trump and John McCain, Governor Palin was quick to come to Trump’s defense. We all know the Governor is loyal to a fault, and has great admiration and respect for McCain. She also said good things about McCain while defending Trump, but her statement supporting Trump was a shot across the bow to those who represent the old guard, and don’t have America’s best interest at heart.

Conservatives understand why Trump is making waves and leading most polls, we also understand why he’s doing INCREDIBLY WELL among Hispanics. In our last election in Texas, both our new Governor and Lt Governor were hard line against illegals. Lt Governor Dan Patrick promised everything short of boiling illegals in hot oil! He got 57% of the male Hispanic vote! Governor Abbott, whose wife is Mexican, and whose mother-in-law did TV ads, got 54% of the same vote.They both got record support from Hispanics, in total. That’s a SHARP difference from Rick Perry, who pandered to illegals for 14 years, and never even got the Hispanic support Governor George W Bush did!

People like a straight talker, which is why so many millions love Sarah Palin. Trump isn’t as eloquent as Governor Palin, he certainly isn’t as diplomatic, but like Palin [especially when she’s pissed off] Trump says EXACTLY what’s on his mind and like Palin, doesn’t focus group a damned word! You won’t see a bunch of political hack “consultants” hanging around either Trump OR Palin. The closest thing to a consultant you ever saw around Governor Palin [after she left office] was Reagan biographer Peter Schweizer, who has written numerous books on Reagan’s foreign policy, and helped Governor Palin polish and articulate her foreign policy.

I guess I’m at the wait and see on Trump. I DO know that Senator Ted Cruz has met with Trump. That leaves all kinds of room for speculation.

Our buddy Kevin Scholla, the host of Mama Grizzly Radio, interviewed Trump for the latest episode. Of course, they talk a LOT about Governor Palin, but they also talk about “climate change” and how China is laughing at the United States as we destroy businesses, which then relocate to China. Trump understands the global warming scam and also understands we’ve had far more severe weather in the past, than anything we’ve experienced this millennium.

Point Trump!

Trump is not a fan of China, neither is Governor Palin!

In September of 2009 Governor Palin gave a high profile speech in Hong Kong, and while she praised China’s growth, so far as a huge number of Chinese people have been taken out of poverty, she was highly critical of many of their policies.

In March of 2011 Governor Palin spoke in New Delhi, India at the India Today Conclave While she envisioned a world where the United States and India had a strong strategic partnership, she again expressed serious concerns about China. She and Trump would be simpatico here.

Trump and Kevin also talk about Planned Parenthood and the barbaric practices they engage in. Trump is in 100% agreement with Governor Palin. Shut it down!

The murder of our Marines at Chattanooga, and the disastrous Iran deal come up as well.

Now to the tape!

Donald Trump is on The Palin Update with Kevin Scholla! Mr. Trump discusses his run for the White House, his thoughts on Sarah Palin, and how he plans to Make America Great Again! Plus, Governor Palin calls Trump a “hero”. Also, Palin demands the flag is lowered to honor our servicemen killed in Tennessee and she calls for a shutdown of the evil Planned Parenthood. A brand new segment of Liberty & Legacy with Tamara Colbert in Texas is featured, and Steel Resolve, our weekly commentary with Sarah Steelman in Missouri is showcased. Mama Grizzly Radio is ON DEMAND and available for DOWNLOAD anytime. Mama Grizzly Radio…hear the roar! www.mamagrizzlyradio.com

Part One

Part Two:

This is a good, solid interview. One supporters of Governor Palin will certainly appreciate. Trump admires Palin and Palin has called Trump a “hero.”

One report is out there though, must be corrected. Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit who is generally unimpeachable with his reporting, told readers Trump would like to see Governor Palin in a cabinet position. Other major news outlets have picked this up. Though the idea of Palin being an adviser is highly likely in a Trump administration, nowhere in the interview is a cabinet position mentioned, though one could certainly hope an offer would be forthcoming, should Trump win. No one can blame Hoft for being so enthusiastic! We all are, if Governor Palin can be put to work helping restore America!

Energy Secretary would be a no-brainer position for the Governor, given her extensive experience, as the head of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Commission, a very powerful job, as well as being Chairman of the nation’s Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a co-operative that includes all of the oil and gas producing states in the country. It’s an elected position that is held by a Governor of an Oil and Gas producing state. Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert is the current IOGCC Chairman. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin was just elected Chair for a new term that starts in 2016. She previously held the position after Governor Palin’s term expired.

Governor Palin was also unanimously elected by the other 49 state Governors as Chairman of the National Governors Association’s Natural Resources Committee.

That said, Governor Palin would make an excellent Secretary of State, and would be very busy undoing all the damage the current Secretary [John Kerry] and former Secretary [Hillary Clinton] have done to our relationships with allies around the world. This is a job she could sink her teeth into!

Hoft did include a tweet from The Donald, which does indicate Trey Gowdy, a well liked, no nonsense Congressman, is his choice for Attorney General. I always liked Mark Levin for the job, but Gowdy is an inspired [and inspiring] choice!

"@USARestoring: @HillaryClinton's toast. Dems had better get the"B Team" off the bench. @TGowdySC for Attorney General under President Trump

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2015

One response is right on, for sure:

You Draft Ted Cruz At A Top Post Along w/Palin & @TGowdySC & You'll Begin Sewing Up Real Votes @realDonaldTrump @USARestoring

— Ministry Of Truth ✒️ (@USABillOfRights) July 28, 2015

Again, I’m not sold on Trump, yet, but can you imagine a ticket that somehow had Ted Cruz, Trey Gowdy, AND Sarah Palin associated with it, and working in that administration!

I’m not sure we won’t see a Trump-Cruz ticket, if he wins the nomination. That makes sense, as would a Trump-Palin ticket.

One thing’s for sure, Trump will certainly gain new fans, if not supporters, by speaking well of Governor Palin.

Meanwhile, my colleague, Isabel Matos wonders out loud why Governor Palin doesn’t throw her hat in the ring for the Republican nomination for President.

Take Isabel’s new Palin poll here.

As We Honor the Heroes of D-Day, Watch Ronald Reagan’s Iconic 1984 Speech at Point-du-Hoc

By Gary P Jackson

June 6, 1944,

Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. It was the largest amphibious invasion ever attempted. Many brave men died on this day, but those who lived went on to liberate Europe from the evils of Nazism.

Many great movies have been made, memorializing these heroes, with The Longest Day being my personal favorite. Not many movies have John Wayne and Sir Richard Burton as bit players! Like the invasion itself, the movie was a major undertaking with a huge cast of players. Shot in black and white, it’s one of those, if you haven’t seen, you simply must.

One of the groups portrayed in the movie is the “Boys of Point-du-Hoc,” United States Army Rangers. These brave men scaled a sheer cliff, that was occupied, at the top, by Germans. It was an amazing act of bravery and determination, as they fought for every inch they moved up those cliffs.

In 1984, on the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion, President Ronald Reagan was on the beaches of Normandy and gave a beautiful tribute to the “Boys of Point-du-Hoc.” 31 years later, this speech, reportedly crafted with Peggy Noonan, will still give you chills.

As we honor the heroes of D-Day, and honor men who literally freed the world from tyranny and oppression, lets listen to President Ronald Reagan honor them, as only he could:

President Reagan’s continued push for peace in the world, as he speaks to Soviet aggression, is a very noteworthy part of this speech as well. Ronald Reagan was an amazing champion of Liberty and Freedom. A true hero. Lord we miss him so.

* Video courtesy The Reagan Foundation at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Impeach, Convict, and Remove President Obama Today or Lose the Republic Forever

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
~ Benjamin Franklin

By Gary P Jackson

A Republic, IF You Can Keep It

At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation, Benjamin Franklin was stopped by a Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia. The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention were held in strict secrecy. As such, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended, in order to learn what had been created behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. Mrs Powell reportedly asked Franklin: “ Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Without a moment’s hesitation, Franklin answered: “A republic, if you can keep it.” And here in starts the tale of the slow and steady decline of Liberty and Freedom in the United States. The slow and steady decline federalism, and the First Principles used to create these United States.

The original intent of the Constitution was to create a very weak federal government. A federal government that would be almost totally inconsequential to the average citizen in their daily lives. A federal government that was to live by the notion that he [or she] who governs least, governs best.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, the last two Amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, a covenant between government, and We, the People …. that guarantees absolute …. certain inalienable, God given rights from government infringement, state:

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

These two guarantees make it quite clear that We, the People are sovereign, as are the several states. Under federalism, the states are to be the main governing bodies that interact with the people. Obviously, under local governance, the needs, as well as the will of the People, are better served. Even in 1787, our Republic was too large and her people so varied, for a top down, “one size fits all,” central command and control government to work. With over 300 million American citizens today, spread out over millions of square miles, and with so many varied needs, that notion is even more valid today, than it was in Ben Franklin’s time!

An ever growing, overreaching federal government is nothing new. Almost from the start Presidents and Congress have pushed the boundaries, often crossing them. And, as we all know, Freedom lost, is rarely ever regained, without a revolution, of some sort or another.

The Civil War and it’s aftermath saw a major increase in the size and scope of the federal government, but it wasn’t until the so-called “progressive” era that started with President Theodore Roosevelt and hit the afterburners under Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt that the notion of an all powerful, central command and control government, not only grabbed the United States by the throat, and started strangling the life out of her, but also became accepted as the “new normal” for a small, but rapidly growing group of Americans.

By 1964, under Socialist Lyndon Baines Johnson and his “Great Society,” the United States was facing yet another constitutional crisis. [One could argue FDR’s entire four terms as President was nothing but one constitutional crisis after another!] So strong was the concern that Ronald Reagan stated in his iconic 1964 speech:

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

Unfortunately, the American people chose to allow this vicious cycle to continue, for the problem to fester. Now it has become a full-grown cancer on society. With so much overreach, with so many Cabinet level agencies in the Executive Branch, all run by, and staffed by, unelected, unaccountable little drones, it’s virtually impossible to live your live without being touched, in a very significant way, by the thoughts, deeds, and whims of the federal government. We, in fact, HAVE abandoned the American Revolution, and decided that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol CAN plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. Or at least SOME of us have!

Impeach, Convict, and Remove President Obama Today or Lose the Republic Forever

In the 238 years since our nation’s founding, we have never had a more vile, corrupt, lawless, Anti-American scoundrel at the helm. President Obama is someone who has called our beloved Constitution, the most enduring political document in history, a “charter of negative liberties.” In a 2001 radio interview, where he discusses this, Obama is angered because the Constitution is designed to restrain GOVERNMENT, not the people.

In other words, for Obama, the problem is the Constitution is designed to STOP the federal government from doing things TO the people, and doesn’t address doing anything FOR the people, such as Obama’s socialist dream of wealth distribution and “social justice,” what he might call the “ Rainbows and Unicorns” amendment, if such nonsense was actually written into the Constitution. BTW, FDR worked hard to created a “Second Bill of Rights,” but was, thankfully thwarted. [OK, FDR didn’t work as much as he copied those “rights” directly from the constitution of the Soviet Union]

Since being elected President, Obama has shown his hatred for America and our Constitution, on a regular, and consistent basis, but never more so than in the past two years. He has become so lawless [and unfazed by threats and sanctions] that we now have a constitutional crisis, the likes of which we have never seen, and a nation at her tipping point.

Any time one brings up the obvious, that Obama must be impeached, convicted, removed from office, and imprisoned; pundits, consultants, and weak-kneed Republicans come out of the woodwork telling you why that’s a “bad idea.” Some of my favorites are, in no particular order: “You CAN’T impeach the first black president.” “Remember Bill Clinton’s impeachment, the Republicans took a BIG hit, politically.” “Obama only has a short time in office, why waste the time?” and “Oh my GOD, Joe Biden would be President JOE FREAKIN BIDEN!!!!!”

OK …..

Joe Biden

Yes, Joe Biden is a national punch line. In so much as complete morons are quite rare, Joe Biden is a glittering jewel! That said, I have no doubt in my mind that Biden would NOT spend his time in office looking to purposely destroy the United States, as Barack Obama is engaged in daily. The fact is, Biden has wanted to be President for a LONG time, if there were actual LEADERS in the Republican Party, I suspect a deal could be made, wherein Biden SUPPORTED the impeachment, conviction, and removal of Obama, in exchange for not being held responsible himself, and also impeached and removed from office. That deal would also include, in writing, future President Biden’s guarantee that he wouldn’t pardon Obama before leaving office. As a lifelong, successful salesman, I would pitch that deal, if I were in a position to do so. The worst that could happen is Biden simply saying no! There are also a few democrats in the Senate, like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, that could be convinced to go along, if for no other reason than to save their careers come 2016, which could be another bloodbath for democrats both nationally, and across the fruited plain.

This is racist!

Look, if you disagree with Obama, even in the slightest, you are automatically “racist,” according to the democrats and their media partners at MSNBC, and the networks. After six years, the word now has no meaning whatsoever. The Republicans need to stop seeking the approval of those that hate them, and America! [yes, they are one in the same] It ain’t gonna happen, EVER. Even when Republicans capitulate, completely lay down for the democrats, they are still viciously attacked, and lied about. Republicans consistently fail to understand we are at war for the soul of our nation. Our enemies, and the enemies of America, are armed with nuclear weapons, while Republicans have water pistols! [and not very good ones, either]

The bottom line: You can’t defeat evil with timidity. Go hard, or go home!

This isn’t the Clinton impeachment, not even close

William Jefferson Blythe Clinton was impeached for, among other things, perjury and suborning perjury. Both are felonies, and both can carry up to six years in prison …. each. Of course, the corrupt, lying-ass media managed to make it all about Bill chasing a chubby, misguided, immature girl around the Resolute Desk. The Republicans didn’t help, by choosing Ken Starr, who focused on the lurid, and compromising acts, instead of the simple case of Clinton lying under oath, and talking Monica into lying under oath for him. Yes, having sex in the Oval Office, with someone he barely knew, was dangerous and a real threat to national security. Had Monica been a foreign agent, instead of a mixed up kid with stars in her eyes for a serial rapist, our most important and vital secrets would have been at risk. There is no doubt in any reasonable person’s mind, that HAD Monica been a foreign agent, and blackmailed Bill, he would have done ANYTHING to keep the American people from finding out, including handing over the keys to our most vital secrets. The Clinton impeachment was serious, and seriously bungled.

One thing it DIDN’T do though, is harm the Republican Party in any way. It’s time for Republicans to stop falling for these idiotic myths, concocted by the very people who want them destroyed.

President Obama has committed real crimes. SERIOUS crimes. The same crimes, in fact, that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation from office, just ahead of impeachment, sure conviction, removal from office, and possible imprisonment. Obama has committed international crimes that not only directly led to the murders of two United States Border Agents: Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, but hundreds of innocent Mexican citizens as well. Operation Fast and Furious was not only illegal, it was a cynical attempt by Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to subvert the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, the very Constitution they both swore and oath to God to uphold and defend. Most sane people would consider this an act of treason.

There are numerous cases that can be listed in the Articles of Impeachment. The document could read like War and Peace, at least in length.

Obama can do a lot of damage, completely destroying these United States, FOREVER, in the next 25 months

The fact is, Obama doesn’t have “just a short time left” in office. There are over TWO YEARS left in this tyrant’s reign of terror, unless he’s stopped! The amount of damage Obama can do in the next two years is incalculable. If Obama isn’t sent the message, that only impeachment can send, there is literally NOTHING or NO ONE who can stop him from doing ANYTHING he wants to do, by executive fiat. He will have effectively become a fascist dictator [for real] and Congress [a co-equal branch of government] will be rendered null and void.

Need an example? Obama is part of the “climate change” scam. He already has his EPA destroying entire industries, like coal, and destroying hundreds of thousands of jobs [and innocent lives] in the process. Obama’s War on Coal™ has contributed greatly to the record poverty and record unemployment the American people face today. He’s already been overseas proposing ludicrous regulations that no one, but America, will adhere to.

What’s to stop Obama from waking up in January and deciding he will just put a carbon tax in place, by Executive Order?

As we noted back in May of 2010, Obama, along with Al Gore, Maurice Strong, George Soros, domestic terrorist Bill Ayer’s brother, and others, had invested heavily in the Chicago Climate Exchange, what would have been essentially the Wall Street of carbon credit trading. This scam looked to bring in as much as $10 TRILLION [gross] annually, making Obama and company wealthy beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, off of a HOAX.

Again, what would stop him? Obama has plenty of billionaire [and would-be billionaire] cronies in the “alternative energy business.” We’ve already watched companies like Solyndra not only steal billions of dollars from the American people, without producing a viable product, but IN the case of Solyndra, leave a massive toxic waste dump at it’s factory, after filing bankruptcy, something that will cost millions, if not billions more to clean up! Paid for, of course, by you and me, the American taxpayers. This isn’t just corrupt, it’s pure evil!

But you know what? Forget Obama for a minute. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t even about Obama. In reality, this is about defending the Constitution, and the Rule of Law. This is about saying that there is INDEED a line we won’t allow to be crossed. It is a reminder that we elect a President, not a king or an emperor. It’s also about serving warning to future presidents who might try the same illegal, unconstitutional gambits Obama has been engaged in, for years. Impeaching Obama is far bigger than Obama. It boils down to whether we can actually KEEP the Republic, or stand by, as it ends, right before our very eyes.

With Obama, Past is prologue

Though this may not be grounds for impeachment, it certainly points to a pattern that will not stop until Obama is forcibly removed from office. Obama has written Executive Orders, illegally declared the Senate in recess [when it wasn’t …. not that he has the power to declare anything Senate related] and so on. The United States Supreme Court has UNANIMOUSLY declared Obama’s actions unconstitutional on 12 occasions. Yup, even the far left extremists Obama himself placed on The Court have declared his actions unconstitutional a dozen times!

A normal person would get the hint, at some point.

If having the Supreme Court clip his wings didn’t give Obama some pause for reflection, you’d have thought the historic ass-whipping the democrat party took nationwide on November 4th would have! Instead it’s: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

I think Obama has proven, without a doubt, that neither the Constitution, nor the rule of law, or even the will of the American people, mean a thing to him. Obama is on a mission and has no intention of stopping. So, he must BE stopped.

Thankfully, our Founding Fathers left us a simple, CONSTITUTIONAL remedy for tyrants and wanna-be dictators like Obama. Currently Republicans have retained counsel and are suing Obama over his illegal deferments of sections of the ObamaCare legislation. Obama illegally changed the law to suit political purposes, namely trying to hold off the painful and devastatingly expensive portions of the law, until after the 2014 elections. More than a few constitutional scholars doubt Congress even has what the courts call standing, to even bring the suit. Courts are not inclined to get involved in a pissing contest between the Legislative and Executive branches of government, as all three are co-equal, under our Supreme Law of the Land.

Again, our Constitution provides the answer: Impeachment.

It should be noted that President George W Bush tried two very stupid things while in office: Grant massive amnesty to illegal aliens, and put an unqualified Harriett Myers on the Supreme Court. Both times the American people raised Holy Hell, melting the phone lines to the White House and their congresscritters. Bush wisely gave up, on both ideas. Contrast this with Obama. When ObamaCare was still being shoved down our throats, the American people rose up, en masse, to protest. ObamaCare was NEVER popular among the people, and as the years have passed, it has become even less so. Obama’s response? The legislation was “deemed passed” in the middle of the night, via illegal procedures, without a single bi-partisan vote for it. That has never happened in American history. The Republicans’ response? Boehner shouted, then cried, then sat down and shut up! With Obama threatening this amnesty for illegals, the American people sent a message, loud and clear. Obama’s response? A big middle finger to the entire nation!

We’ve discussed Speaker of the House John Boeher’s idiotic, and lame-ass lawsuit before. In our article, we also lay out the various crimes Obama has committed, including High Treason. Many, including myself, consider Obama’s recent granting of executive amnesty, which amounts to a refusal to enforce the law of the land, for an entire class of people [laws he swore an oath to God to uphold] yet another case of High Treason, and grounds for the most severe of punishments allowed by law.

The bottom line is this:

If Obama isn’t stopped, and stopped NOW, the United States, as we know it, will cease to exist

The only way to stop Obama is impeachment, conviction, and removal from office. It will be an all out war, but so was the Revolution that gave birth to the Republic we love so much. More simply put, America can’t survive under Barack Obama. She will indeed fall, if this tyrant is allowed to remain in office.

They that can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor Liberty
~ Benjamin Franklin

A Republic, IF You Can Keep It!

October 27,1964: Remembering Ronald Reagan’s Most Iconic Speech

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

~Ronald Wilson Reagan,
40th President of these United States [1911-2004]

By Gary P Jackson

On October 27, 1964 at the Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan gave what would become one of his greatest, most memorable speeches. A speech that would become, along with Reagan himself, an American icon!

Entitled “A Time For Choosing” it would come to be known as simply “The Speech.”

Every year, as we remember this great speech, and reflect on it’s importance, I find myself filled with a combination of joy, inspiration, and sadness.

Joy and inspiration because it’s Ronald Reagan. The Great Renaldus Magnus in all of his glory. This is Ronald Reagan at his finest. He is telling the American people like it is. No punches pulled, no sugar coating. But this isn’t an angry, fire breathing speech. This is a hopeful speech. Reagan is speaking about the greatest evil mankind has ever faced, rabid liberalism, both in America, and of course, from communist states like the Soviet Union, but he counts on the intelligence of the American people to prevail. Rather than just raising hell about the viciousness and destructiveness of the policies put forth by the democrat party, Reagan offers up common sense, and a future less dire and more Free.

I’m sad though, because today, 49 years later, Reagan could give this EXACT speech. The only changes would be to some of the names mentioned, and of course, the dollars amounts are astronomically higher, as are the dangers America faces at the hands of rabid, anti-American liberals, in BOTH political parties.

Ronald Reagan is famous for fighting and eventually defeating the Soviet Union, which he called an “evil empire” but he also warned of the evils of liberalism here at home. He warned of out of control spending, corruption, and the growing welfare state. Reagan was able to put the destruction caused by liberalism in human terms, which is what makes this speech so powerful.

Every year I tell readers that “The Speech” should be required learning in every grade school, high school, and college. In fact, one shouldn’t be able to graduate high school or college, without a working knowledge and understanding of this speech, and the concepts espoused within. This year I’d like to add that NO ELECTED OFFICIAL should be allowed to hold office, without that same knowledge and understanding! [Yes I know, I’m living in a fantasy world … but… ]

Ronald Reagan always said the answers are simple. Not easy, but simple. Reagan’s conservatism was built on common sense and pragmatic solutions, both of which are in short supply these days, and not just in politics!

I love to think how much stronger America and the American people would be, had the country listened to Reagan in 1964, and followed a true Conservative path, rather than allowing rabid liberalism to take hold and lead us to where we are today, staring into the abyss.

The best way to honor Ronald Reagan on this day, and every day, is to listen to these words, and take heed. We ALL need to be inspired, and STAY inspired. We ALL need to work TOGETHER to save this nation we love so dearly from the evil that has us by the throat.

We must ALL be inspired to send liberalism, and all of it’s evils, to the ash heap of history. We must ALL look for leaders who will go to Washington, end the corruption, end the out of control spending, and end the era of Big Government, once and for all….

….or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

And now, a thoughtful address by Ronald Reagan:

A TIME FOR CHOOSING (The Speech – October 27, 1964)

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn’t been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own words and discuss my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks.

I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines. Now, one side in this campaign has been telling us that the issues of this election are the maintenance of peace and prosperity. The line has been used, “We’ve never had it so good.”

But I have an uncomfortable feeling that this prosperity isn’t something on which we can base our hopes for the future. No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of its national income. Today, 37 cents out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector’s share, and yet our government continues to spend 17 million dollars a day more than the government takes in. We haven’t balanced our budget 28 out of the last 34 years. We’ve raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve months, and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world. We have 15 billion dollars in gold in our treasury; we don’t own an ounce. Foreign dollar claims are 27.3 billion dollars. And we’ve just had announced that the dollar of 1939 will now purchase 45 cents in its total value.

As for the peace that we would preserve, I wonder who among us would like to approach the wife or mother whose husband or son has died in South Vietnam and ask them if they think this is a peace that should be maintained indefinitely. Do they mean peace, or do they mean we just want to be left in peace? There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us. We’re at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it’s been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. Well I think it’s time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers.

Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, “We don’t know how lucky we are.” And the Cuban stopped and said, “How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.” And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.

And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man.

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down—[up] man’s old—old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

In this vote-harvesting time, they use terms like the “Great Society,” or as we were told a few days ago by the President, we must accept a greater government activity in the affairs of the people. But they’ve been a little more explicit in the past and among themselves; and all of the things I now will quote have appeared in print. These are not Republican accusations. For example, they have voices that say, “The cold war will end through our acceptance of a not undemocratic socialism.” Another voice says, “The profit motive has become outmoded. It must be replaced by the incentives of the welfare state.” Or, “Our traditional system of individual freedom is incapable of solving the complex problems of the 20th century.” Senator Fullbright has said at Stanford University that the Constitution is outmoded. He referred to the President as “our moral teacher and our leader,” and he says he is “hobbled in his task by the restrictions of power imposed on him by this antiquated document.” He must “be freed,” so that he “can do for us” what he knows “is best.” And Senator Clark of Pennsylvania, another articulate spokesman, defines liberalism as “meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government.”

Well, I, for one, resent it when a representative of the people refers to you and me, the free men and women of this country, as “the masses.” This is a term we haven’t applied to ourselves in America. But beyond that, “the full power of centralized government“—this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don’t control things. A government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.

Now, we have no better example of this than government’s involvement in the farm economy over the last 30 years. Since 1955, the cost of this program has nearly doubled. One-fourth of farming in America is responsible for 85 percent of the farm surplus. Three-fourths of farming is out on the free market and has known a 21 percent increase in the per capita consumption of all its produce. You see, that one-fourth of farming—that’s regulated and controlled by the federal government. In the last three years we’ve spent 43 dollars in the feed grain program for every dollar bushel of corn we don’t grow.

Senator Humphrey last week charged that Barry Goldwater, as President, would seek to eliminate farmers. He should do his homework a little better, because he’ll find out that we’ve had a decline of 5 million in the farm population under these government programs. He’ll also find that the Democratic administration has sought to get from Congress [an] extension of the farm program to include that three-fourths that is now free. He’ll find that they’ve also asked for the right to imprison farmers who wouldn’t keep books as prescribed by the federal government. The Secretary of Agriculture asked for the right to seize farms through condemnation and resell them to other individuals. And contained in that same program was a provision that would have allowed the federal government to remove 2 million farmers from the soil.

At the same time, there’s been an increase in the Department of Agriculture employees. There’s now one for every 30 farms in the United States, and still they can’t tell us how 66 shiploads of grain headed for Austria disappeared without a trace and Billie Sol Estes never left shore.

Every responsible farmer and farm organization has repeatedly asked the government to free the farm economy, but how—who are farmers to know what’s best for them? The wheat farmers voted against a wheat program. The government passed it anyway. Now the price of bread goes up; the price of wheat to the farmer goes down.

Meanwhile, back in the city, under urban renewal the assault on freedom carries on. Private property rights [are] so diluted that public interest is almost anything a few government planners decide it should be. In a program that takes from the needy and gives to the greedy, we see such spectacles as in Cleveland, Ohio, a million-and-a-half-dollar building completed only three years ago must be destroyed to make way for what government officials call a “more compatible use of the land.” The President tells us he’s now going to start building public housing units in the thousands, where heretofore we’ve only built them in the hundreds. But FHA [Federal Housing Authority] and the Veterans Administration tell us they have 120,000 housing units they’ve taken back through mortgage foreclosure. For three decades, we’ve sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan. The latest is the Area Redevelopment Agency.

They’ve just declared Rice County, Kansas, a depressed area. Rice County, Kansas, has two hundred oil wells, and the 14,000 people there have over 30 million dollars on deposit in personal savings in their banks. And when the government tells you you’re depressed, lie down and be depressed.

We have so many people who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they’re going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer—and they’ve had almost 30 years of it—shouldn’t we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn’t they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing?

But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater; the program grows greater. We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well that was probably true. They were all on a diet. But now we’re told that 9.3 million families in this country are poverty-stricken on the basis of earning less than 3,000 dollars a year. Welfare spending [is] 10 times greater than in the dark depths of the Depression. We’re spending 45 billion dollars on welfare. Now do a little arithmetic, and you’ll find that if we divided the 45 billion dollars up equally among those 9 million poor families, we’d be able to give each family 4,600 dollars a year. And this added to their present income should eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only running only about 600 dollars per family. It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.

Now—so now we declare “war on poverty,” or “You, too, can be a Bobby Baker.” Now do they honestly expect us to believe that if we add 1 billion dollars to the 45 billion we’re spending, one more program to the 30-odd we have—and remember, this new program doesn’t replace any, it just duplicates existing programs—do they believe that poverty is suddenly going to disappear by magic? Well, in all fairness I should explain there is one part of the new program that isn’t duplicated. This is the youth feature. We’re now going to solve the dropout problem, juvenile delinquency, by reinstituting something like the old CCC camps [Civilian Conservation Corps], and we’re going to put our young people in these camps. But again we do some arithmetic, and we find that we’re going to spend each year just on room and board for each young person we help 4,700 dollars a year. We can send them to Harvard for 2,700! Course, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting Harvard is the answer to juvenile delinquency.

But seriously, what are we doing to those we seek to help? Not too long ago, a judge called me here in Los Angeles. He told me of a young woman who’d come before him for a divorce. She had six children, was pregnant with her seventh. Under his questioning, she revealed her husband was a laborer earning 250 dollars a month. She wanted a divorce to get an 80 dollar raise. She’s eligible for 330 dollars a month in the Aid to Dependent Children Program. She got the idea from two women in her neighborhood who’d already done that very thing.

Yet anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we’re denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we’re always “against” things—we’re never “for” anything.

Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

Now—we’re for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we’ve accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem.

But we’re against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments to those people who depend on them for a livelihood. They’ve called it “insurance” to us in a hundred million pieces of literature. But then they appeared before the Supreme Court and they testified it was a welfare program. They only use the term “insurance” to sell it to the people. And they said Social Security dues are a tax for the general use of the government, and the government has used that tax. There is no fund, because Robert Byers, the actuarial head, appeared before a congressional committee and admitted that Social Security as of this moment is 298 billion dollars in the hole. But he said there should be no cause for worry because as long as they have the power to tax, they could always take away from the people whatever they needed to bail them out of trouble. And they’re doing just that.

A young man, 21 years of age, working at an average salary—his Social Security contribution would, in the open market, buy him an insurance policy that would guarantee 220 dollars a month at age 65. The government promises 127. He could live it up until he’s 31 and then take out a policy that would pay more than Social Security. Now are we so lacking in business sense that we can’t put this program on a sound basis, so that people who do require those payments will find they can get them when they’re due—that the cupboard isn’t bare?

Barry Goldwater thinks we can.

At the same time, can’t we introduce voluntary features that would permit a citizen who can do better on his own to be excused upon presentation of evidence that he had made provision for the non-earning years? Should we not allow a widow with children to work, and not lose the benefits supposedly paid for by her deceased husband? Shouldn’t you and I be allowed to declare who our beneficiaries will be under this program, which we cannot do? I think we’re for telling our senior citizens that no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds. But I think we’re against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program, especially when we have such examples, as was announced last week, when France admitted that their Medicare program is now bankrupt. They’ve come to the end of the road.

In addition, was Barry Goldwater so irresponsible when he suggested that our government give up its program of deliberate, planned inflation, so that when you do get your Social Security pension, a dollar will buy a dollar’s worth, and not 45 cents worth?

I think we’re for an international organization, where the nations of the world can seek peace. But I think we’re against subordinating American interests to an organization that has become so structurally unsound that today you can muster a two-thirds vote on the floor of the General Assembly among nations that represent less than 10 percent of the world’s population. I think we’re against the hypocrisy of assailing our allies because here and there they cling to a colony, while we engage in a conspiracy of silence and never open our mouths about the millions of people enslaved in the Soviet colonies in the satellite nations.

I think we’re for aiding our allies by sharing of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we’re against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 countries. We’re helping 107. We’ve spent 146 billion dollars. With that money, we bought a 2 million dollar yacht for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenya[n] government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no electricity. In the last six years, 52 nations have bought 7 billion dollars worth of our gold, and all 52 are receiving foreign aid from this country.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments’ programs, once launched, never disappear.

Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.

Federal employees—federal employees number two and a half million; and federal, state, and local, one out of six of the nation’s work force employed by government. These proliferating bureaus with their thousands of regulations have cost us many of our constitutional safeguards. How many of us realize that today federal agents can invade a man’s property without a warrant? They can impose a fine without a formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury? And they can seize and sell his property at auction to enforce the payment of that fine. In Chico County, Arkansas, James Wier over-planted his rice allotment. The government obtained a 17,000 dollar judgment. And a U.S. marshal sold his 960-acre farm at auction. The government said it was necessary as a warning to others to make the system work.

Last February 19th at the University of Minnesota, Norman Thomas, six-times candidate for President on the Socialist Party ticket, said, “If Barry Goldwater became President, he would stop the advance of socialism in the United States.” I think that’s exactly what he will do.

But as a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas isn’t the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism with the present administration, because back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his Party was taking the Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. And he walked away from his Party, and he never returned til the day he died—because to this day, the leadership of that Party has been taking that Party, that honorable Party, down the road in the image of the labor Socialist Party of England.

Now it doesn’t require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the—or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

Our Democratic opponents seem unwilling to debate these issues. They want to make you and I believe that this is a contest between two men—that we’re to choose just between two personalities.

Well what of this man that they would destroy—and in destroying, they would destroy that which he represents, the ideas that you and I hold dear? Is he the brash and shallow and trigger-happy man they say he is? Well I’ve been privileged to know him “when.” I knew him long before he ever dreamed of trying for high office, and I can tell you personally I’ve never known a man in my life I believed so incapable of doing a dishonest or dishonorable thing.

This is a man who, in his own business before he entered politics, instituted a profit-sharing plan before unions had ever thought of it. He put in health and medical insurance for all his employees. He took 50 percent of the profits before taxes and set up a retirement program, a pension plan for all his employees. He sent monthly checks for life to an employee who was ill and couldn’t work. He provides nursing care for the children of mothers who work in the stores. When Mexico was ravaged by the floods in the Rio Grande, he climbed in his airplane and flew medicine and supplies down there.

An ex-GI told me how he met him. It was the week before Christmas during the Korean War, and he was at the Los Angeles airport trying to get a ride home to Arizona for Christmas. And he said that [there were] a lot of servicemen there and no seats available on the planes. And then a voice came over the loudspeaker and said, “Any men in uniform wanting a ride to Arizona, go to runway such-and-such,” and they went down there, and there was a fellow named Barry Goldwater sitting in his plane. Every day in those weeks before Christmas, all day long, he’d load up the plane, fly it to Arizona, fly them to their homes, fly back over to get another load.

During the hectic split-second timing of a campaign, this is a man who took time out to sit beside an old friend who was dying of cancer. His campaign managers were understandably impatient, but he said, “There aren’t many left who care what happens to her. I’d like her to know I care.” This is a man who said to his 19-year-old son, “There is no foundation like the rock of honesty and fairness, and when you begin to build your life on that rock, with the cement of the faith in God that you have, then you have a real start.” This is not a man who could carelessly send other people’s sons to war. And that is the issue of this campaign that makes all the other problems I’ve discussed academic, unless we realize we’re in a war that must be won.

Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy “accommodation.” And they say if we’ll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he’ll forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer—not an easy answer—but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.

We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, “Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we’re willing to make a deal with your slave masters.” Alexander Hamilton said, “A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.” Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender.

Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum. And what then—when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we’re retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he’s heard voices pleading for “peace at any price” or “better Red than dead,” or as one commentator put it, he’d rather “live on his knees than die on his feet.” And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don’t speak for the rest of us.

You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin—just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn’t die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it’s a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” “There is a point beyond which they must not advance.” And this—this is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater’s “peace through strength.” Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits—not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.

Thank you very much.

Breaking: Governor Sarah Palin to Hannity I Won’t Stop Until Americans Have the Good Government They Deserve!

By Gary P Jackson

A great interview with Governor Sarah Palin on a Tuesday afternoon.

Sounding very much like George Washington, the rather reluctant leader, Governor Palin ends the interview with a bold statement about leading the party.

Ronald Reagan was a democrat for most of his adult life. He famously said that he didn’t leave the democrat party, the democrat party left him.

Governor Palin is saying what the rest of us are thinking. We’d MUCH rather revitalize the Republican Party than go in another direction, but …. and what else can be said but …. we haven’t left the GOP, the GOP has left all of us!

This is a long interview. Governor Palin talks about how the Republican Party has failed. She talks about starting a third party vs revitalizing the GOP. She also tells Sean that we must get new blood in the government, and save America.

Governor Palin also gives a VERY interesting answer to the question if she WOULD consider running for the United States Senate out of Alaska. This is the kind of answer a true leader, who cares about her nation, would give. Vintage Sarah Palin too!

All of this, and much, much more:

Audio courtesy SarahNET.

RS McCain: By God, Sarah Palin is Right! AND So Is McCain. Here’s Why BOTH Are, and Why That’s So Important!

What’s possible if only the Geniuses of the GOP™ were smart enough to listen to Governor Palin’s wisdom, and warnings.

By Gary P Jackson

Recently Stacy Drake exposed the hate-filled, misogynist bunch at RedState’s attack on Governor Sarah Palin, not only did they use a photoshopped pic of Governor Palin’s head on a woman’s body [with considerable cleavage] sitting on Santa Claus’ lap, but the accompanying article was demeaning, mean spirited, and hell …. just plain wrong!

RedState is a “Republican” website that is unfriendly to Conservatives. In fact, in their comment rules they announce that any talk promoting any party but the GOP is ban worthy. [and they follow through] RedState has always been anti-Palin, and I can tell you from first hand experience that any attempt to defend Governor Palin with factual information, against the lies posted there, is always met with seething hatred, ridicule, and even banning. I know, I’ve been banned not once, but TWICE!

And I consider THAT a badge of honor!

Many of the nation’s top Conservative bloggers were offended by RedState’s nastiness. Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy called RedState out, and posted their after the fact Twitter thuggery, attacking those who dared to call them out.

Others, like Stacy McCain, not only came out and defended Governor Palin, Stacy always stands with those who defend Liberty and Freedom, he went further, and defended her position that that BOTH political parties have screwed over the American people, and that the GOP should be put on notice, with a wonderful article of his own!

Here’s a taste from The Other McCain:

Palin went on to say that many Americans, herself included, “are barely hanging on to our enlistment papers in any political party,” denouncing both parties as “dysfunctional political machines.”

Hear! Hear! Attagirl, Sarah! You tell ‘em!

Then, in response to my friend Josh Painter, Governor Palin said she liked his suggestion of joining forces with Mark Levin to create a new “Freedom Party” if the GOP continues its drift toward abandoning a commitment to core American values. This comment was picked up by the Daily Caller’s Jeff Poor (who has always hated Sarah Palin with a blind fury) and was in turn seized on by a Red State diarist who, in order to illustrate his post, used a Photoshopped image to mock Palin.

By a strange chain of events — having missed the build-up of the brewing controversy — I learned of this via Stacy Drake, who slammed the dishonesty of the Red State attack. Quite frankly, a lot of Palin supporters have been bitter toward Red State since 2011, when Erick Erickson went out of his way to mock them. But let us lay aside these ancient quarrels to ask: Is Sarah Palin right?

Not only is she right to oppose this amnesty sellout, but the resentment toward GOP leadership she expresses touches on key aspects of a criticism that the most astute minds in the conservative movement have been making for many, many years. Readers already acquainted with this critique will excuse me for taking time here to explain to new readers the historical and philosophical background.

The perennial problem of the Republican Party is that they are a party of ideas, whereas Democrats are a party of people. That is to say, the GOP since the era of Reagan has been devoted to a philosophy of conservatism — an ideology — while by contrast, the Democrats sit around identifying specific voter groups (labor union members, women, blacks, gays, etc.), telling them that the Republicans are their mortal enemies, and then pitching them with promises: “We’re on your side. We’re your friends. Vote for us and we’ll give you X, Y and Z.”

Republicans succeed when they are led by spokesmen who can clearly articulate a conservative philosophy, and who consistently point out the Democrats’ history of dishonesty and failure: Even if you could trust Democrats to do what they say they’re going to do (which by the way, you can’t) their policies don’t work, have never worked and never will work. People who vote Democrat in the belief that Democrats will fix their problems always end up with worse problems.

Want to see what Democrats do for their “friends”? Go to Detroit.

Republicans fail when they lack confidence in their own beliefs and instead offer voters a “Me, Too” agenda of Democrat Lite. This has been a GOP problem since the era of Herbert Hoover, at least, and was a basic reason why William F. Buckley Jr. and a number of other like-minded people organized what we now know as Movement Conservatism during the 1950s. It is a sad fact that many of those who today claim to be conservatives have never really studied the development of this movement. Too much of this history has either been forgotten or twisted by liberal authors (e.g., Sam Tanenhaus) so as to be unrecognizable to those familiar with the actual facts.

After spending some time talking to and about our libertarian friends, and their sometimes confusion about what actual Conservatism is and means, McCain goes on to say:

Well, “steady licks kill the Devil,” as they say. We have seen in the past half-century that, if properly organized and properly led, the conservative movement can make real changes. But personnel is policy, and too often the ambitions of individuals — careerists seeking to make politics the vehicle of their own personal success — have put the wrong kind of people in key roles, enabling them to prevent success (and then, of course, to scapegoat others for the failure).

Ability and ambition are not always accompanied by virtue and wisdom. Quite commonly in political life, we encounter selfish people who cleverly present themselves as principled idealists, zealous for The Cause, while enriching themselves and enhancing their own influence behind the convenient camouflage of political purity.

Al Regnery once summarized this problem by saying that the success of conservatism had created opportunities for opportunists.

In other words, back when “conservative” was an unpopular label and a misunderstood idea, people could not get rich or build careers for themselves by parading beneath the banner of conservatism. But the success of the conservative movement during the Reagan era and beyond made it a popular thing — both for Republican office-seekers and for various sorts of political functionaries — to identify themselves as “conservatives,” to claim to speak for conservatism, and to assert that their particular ideas were True Conservatism.

This influx of opportunists has not only confused the public as to what “conservative” means, but it has erected an organizational infrastructure of the movement staffed by careerists more interested in their own advancement within this hierarchy — “The Ziggurat of Ambition,” as I’ve called it — than in conservatism itself.

In this, McCain describes hangers-on and phonies like Erick Erickson and Ben Howe of RedState and also big time con-artists like Karl Rove, and lying politicians like Marco Rubio, Kelly Ayotte, and Jeff Flake, who pretend to be Conservative, to get elected, then immediately run to the left once in office.

Whether he meant to or not, Stacy McCain just described everything that is wrong with the Republican Party in general. They will pretend to be “conservative” when they think they must, but screw over the entire base, and the country, once in office. And line their pockets while they are at it!

The GOP’s last presidential candidate is a perfect example of why the GOP is circling the drain.

In his lengthy column, McCain goes on to say:

This certainly summarizes a perception of Palin that many people might agree with, if they haven’t bothered to study Palin’s biography and to assess the fundamental problem: What happens when a successful but relatively obscure Republican with no previous exposure to high-stakes national politics is suddenly thrust into the spotlight — and finds herself surrounded by the sort of vicious backstabbing crapweasels who were running John McCain’s campaign?

Seriously: If Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace are the future of the Republican Party, we are doomed beyond all hope of redemption.

Criticize Palin however you will — say she was “not ready for primetime,” call her a “bomb thrower,” accuse her of greed or excessive vanity, impugn her temperament, whatever — but you must understand this: Sarah Palin is not what’s wrong with the Republican Party.

And while I do not mean to endorse a third-party effort in 2016, Governor Palin has put her finger directly on a key problem for conservatives, namely that such leaders of the Republican Party as have joined The Gang of Eight Liars are betraying the people who elected them with the belief that those voters have no alternative.

Controlling the party apparatus and able to hire plenty of “conservative intellectuals” to endorse their betrayal as essential to the future success of the GOP, these Republicans proceed on the assumption that conservative voters are so lacking in devotion to principle that they will always vote Republican no matter what.

Governor Palin can’t say this, but I can: F–k you, “Republican leaders.”

And while we’re at it, f–k anybody who says we should roll over and accept this kind of phony “conservative” bulls–t as inevitable.

No, by God, I say we fight these bastards with everything we’ve got.

Fight them until Hell freezes over, and then fight them on the ice.

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, a fine occasion to declare our independence from these vicious backstabbing crapweasels.

If Governor Palin is willing to help lead this fight — inside the GOP so long as there is hope, but outside the GOP if we must — then I say, “Patriots! We must conquer here or die! Rally on the Alaskan!”

The entire article is a seriously great read, and well, an essential one, please go here to do it.

Stacy McCain says what is on the mind of just about ever Conservative activist these days, and is saying it exactly the way it needs to be said! The cold hard fact is, the Republican Party needs Conservatives a hell of a lot more than Conservatives need the Republican Party!

The Geniuses of the GOP™ have caused all but a baker’s dozen, plus one, of Senate Republicans, to commit an act of TREASON against the United States of America, all in order to pander to an insignificant voting block that liberal talkers have convinced them that if they don’t, the GOP will never win another election.

Mitt Romney didn’t lose the election because of Hispanic voters, who only made up 8% of the electorate in 2012. Some pundits throw around the [legit] notion that had Romney gotten 70% of the Hispanic vote in 2012, he would have still lost. I’ll go further and say he could have gotten 100% of their vote and still got skunked!

What the GOP Smart Set™ still hasn’t figured out, but Governor Palin has, and pointed out quite strongly to them, is Romney lost because Reagan democrats and movement Conservatives weren’t impressed enough to care. They either stayed home, or voted for someone else. It’s really that simple.

Think about this: Barack Obama is demonstrably the absolute worst President in our nation’s 237 year history. In fact, he’s one of the worst people to lead any nation, in the history of history itself …. and yet …. Obama won re-election, by a convincing margin! ….. W.T.F.?

Obama is not just corrupt, he’s running a lawless, completely illegitimate government. The Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Founding Principles that have guided America for two-and-a-quarter centuries, are not only meaningless to the Obama regime, they are openly ridiculed and attacked by it, and the entire democrat party!

Not only could Mitt Romney NOT defeat the worst President in history, one of the worst leaders the world has ever known, he actually got less votes than the McCain/Palin ticket did in 2008! Now to be fair, Barack Obama ALSO got considerable less votes in 2012 than he did in 2008. That, by the way, is the first time in America’s history a sitting President has been re-elected with fewer votes than he got originally!

Now what does that data tell you? Evidently it tells the Geniuses of the GOP™ they need to out-lie and out-pander the democrats. What it tells the rest of us though is neither man inspired the nation enough to care about them and get off their asses and vote!

This didn’t help the down ticket races a bit either.

The 2012 election was nothing more than a test of those who put party over principle, and will pull the lever for ANYONE with an R or a D after their name, depending on which team they support! THAT is not how you win elections. THAT is not how you lead a nation to prosperity. What THAT is …. is an exercise in maintaining mediocrity.

Republicans still haven’t figured out the ONLY way to win elections convincingly, is to capture the hearts and minds of WE the People. That the ONLY way they will ever be the majority party, and be able to actually restore America, is to choose leaders with an actual message. A positive message. It’s not enough to be the “lesser of two evils” or “not” [fill in the name of the offensive candidate]” Nope, you gotta stand for something POSITIVE. You MUST give voters real, compelling reasons to vote FOR YOU and not just AGAINST that other guy!

Governor Sarah Palin had this figured out two decades ago!

Her first political campaign was for a seat on the city council of the tiny village of Wasilla, Alaska. She was part of a new breed of younger, progressive [The GOOD kind of progressive!] forward-thinking Conservative men and women candidates who had a strong vision of where Wasilla needed to go. History tells us that she was not only popular and successful, but always fought for what was right, no matter the situation, or the personal consequences.

In time, Sarah ran for Mayor, and was elected not once, but twice, on a message of real hope, and real change. She didn’t have a ton of high paid political consultants blowing smoke up her ass, she didn’t waste a single dime on attack ads going after her opponents. What Sarah DID do was get out there and meet the people, sell herself, and bring a positive message to the people of Wasilla.

Once in office, Mayor Palin not only lived up to the hype, she made good on her promises. She stayed true to her convictions, and the people of Wasilla. The results are the stuff of legend. She and her team took a mostly dirt road village and turned it into the fastest growing city in Alaska! She built roads and the infrastructure needed to lure in big businesses. Mayor Palin and her team created an vibrant, modern city. This created jobs and grew the city’s tax base so much that during her tenure, she was actually able to LOWER taxes!

Something else Mayor Palin did, that some may think quaint, but I find unique. She kept a jar with the names and numbers of her constituents on her desk. Once a week, she would pull out a random name, and call one of them up, just to ask them if they thought she was doing a good job, and if so, why, and if not, why not, and how things could be better.

As someone who spent 30 years in the high end retail automobile industry, I can tell you customer service, great customer service, not only maters, most times it’s the ONLY thing that matters, if you want to be truly successful. What Mayor Palin did was provide great, personal, customer service. There’s a whole bunch of hacks in government nationwide who could benefit from this one lesson from Sarah Palin alone! Don’t just act like you give a damn, ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN!

In the end, thanks to Mayor Sarah Palin, Wasilla, Alaska became the trading hub for the entire Mat-Su Valley, an area roughly the size of the state of Delaware! The current Mayor reports tens of thousands of people shop there weekly [Wasilla’s population is around 7800, give or take] and absolutely credits Sarah’s efforts for this economic power.

We all know Mayor Palin was term limited, and after an unsuccessful, but close bid for Lt Governor, was seen as a political superstar in Alaska and appointed by Governor Murkowski as the powerful Chairman of Alaska’s AOGCC, the state’s oil, gas, and environmental regulatory body.

I won’t rehash the whole story here, as entire books have been written about Sarah Palin’s discovery of massive corruption in the Alaska Republican Party, as well as their corrupt relationship with the Big Three major oil companies that operate there. As she later would, more than a few times, as Governor, Sarah stood toe to toe with the Republican Establishment and the CEO of these oil companies, and never backed down!

Of course, when Sarah first discovered the massive corruption, she went through the chain of command, so to speak, and took it to her boss, the Governor. Here she was basically told to “shut up and play ball“! To re-enforce that sentiment the state’s Attorney General, who was wallowing in his own, but separate corrupt dealings, paid Chairman Palin a threatening visit. The message was “Shut the hell up or we will destroy you“!

The rest is history, and well, legendary, among those of us that appreciate honest, motivated reformers. Chairman Sarah Palin, a young mother with four mouths to help feed, and on a career path that could take her anywhere she wanted [if she played ball] did what EVERYONE up there considered political suicide, and resigned from that high paying gig!

But Sarah Palin didn’t stop by resigning, that was just the first step. She would team up with an honest democrat lawmaker, Eric Croft, to file ethics charges against the corrupt Attorney General, Gregg Renkes, who was forced to resign, and then went after the entire Republican Establishment!

The VERY powerful GOP State Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich, who had been a fellow AOGCC commissioner with Palin, was not only forced to resign from the AOGCC [he was spending all of his AOGCC time doing GOP Party business] but also pay the largest individual fine in Alaska’s history! A six figure fine!

As we all know, all of this convinced Sarah Palin that Alaska needed a strong, powerful and ETHICAL leader. She looked around and realized that she was the only one that fit that bill.

It would have been easy for Sarah to have run a negative, scorched earth campaign against Governor Murkowski in the primary, and even against former democrat Governor Tony Knowles, in the general election. Both were part of the good old boys club, and both deserved all of that wrath that could be thrown at them.

Instead of a two-fisted negative battle, Sarah Palin would run on a platform of sudden, and relentless reform, something she’s been preaching to GOP candidates ever since. She told the people she would clean up the rotten government, or as Nancy Pelosi once promised, but never intended to actually do: “drain the swamp“! Sarah Palin promised good, efficient, TRANSPARENT government. One free of corruption.

Again, the results were legendary. She won both the primary and the general by a landslide!

When I first learned of Governor Sarah Palin, only a couple of months after she took office, the FBI was still raiding lawmakers’ offices, and still hauling corrupt Republicans off to jail. In the end, Sarah Palin ran on an aggressive agenda, made some mighty big campaign promises, including doing things others had promised, but failed to deliver on, for decades. And you know what, she delivered on ever single promise, and more!

Stacy Drake and Whitney Pitcher wrote an extensive accounting of Governor Sarah Palin’s incredible executive accomplishments as America’s Best Governor, something that every single voter should know and share.

The haters, the loons, the Geniuses of the GOP™, and their overpaid jackass consultants will never understand why so many millions of regular, every-day Americans support Governor Palin and stand with her. These little elites live in a bubble, for sure, but the also have a real and true disdain for the ordinary, everyman. Those “John Does” our very own Whitney Pitcher so eloquently spoke of here.

As we all know, Governor Palin is absolutely right about the GOP. She may not be ready to start an actual third party, or even run as a third party candidate, even though, from what I see, a hell of a lot of Conservatives are chomping at the bit for that very thing to happen.

What Governor Palin is ACTUALLY telling the GOP”leadership” is they have lost their way. Governor Palin is reminding these clowns that they have forgotten they they work for WE the People, not the other way around! Governor Palin is giving them a PROVEN blueprint for success. One that has worked before. Sadly, I suspect it’s all falling on deaf ears.

Frankly, I’d love a new party, but reality tells me, a new party would be too much work and might take years to be viable. [Not that the GOP is all that viable these days] Common sense tells me that we need to be at a somewhat state of war with the leadership of the Republican Party, a war for the soul of the party, which in turn is a war for the soul of the nation! A war to get the liberal Republicans that lead this disaster, out of power, if not out of office.

Liberalism is the greatest evil man has faced in long climb from the swamp to the stars, and liberalism has infected the leadership of the Republican Party, so much so, the disease may prove to be terminal for the entire party.

Here’s my biggest hope. We know Sarah Palin is a force of nature. Stubborn and damned near unstoppable when she sets her mind to something. We can almost guarantee she will lead strong Conservatives in battle, come 2014. With all of the scandals and outright crimes from the Obama regime, with all of this mismanagement, and outright TREASON from Congress, 2014 could make 2010 look like a picnic, in comparison, to those incumbents in both parties who have betrayed America. It could be a true Conservative blowout!

But while 2014 is almost a forgone conclusion, from what Sarah Palin will do, to how Conservatism will rule the day, [and I say all of that cautiously] my biggest hope is like she did when she ran a successful campaign for Governor of Alaska, Sarah will look around and realize the best man for the job of President come 2016 is indeed, a woman … HER!

After far too many campaigns full of nothing but negative ads and bullshit rhetoric from BOTH sides, I LONG for a campaign run by a competent, PROVEN, successful leader. A reformer who has actually taken a major government that was 100% FUBAR and turned it into one of the finest examples we have of how good government should be run.

A Sarah Palin campaign would be a campaign that talked about sudden, relentless, and never ending reform. That, of course, is why she scares the hell out of the corrupt “good old boys” in both rotten political parties! She would destroy their gravy trains forever!

Sarah Palin would run on REAL HOPE and REAL CHANGE. But unlike President Obama, Sarah Palin wouldn’t look to “fundamentally change” America into something our founders wouldn’t recognize, she would look to fundamentally RESTORE America. Her’s would be a campaign of Restoration, Renewal, and Revitalization.

We all know Sarah Palin is that one leader who never pulls her punches, the one with the balls to say what many think, but are too timid or afraid to say out loud. A Sarah Palin presidential campaign would kick ass and take names. She would eviscerate her opponents, but wouldn’t run a scorched earth, all negative, all the time, schlockfest of mediocrity and failure, that we have all come to expect, and despise.

Sarah Palin would run a positive, inspirational campaign that would remind everyone what is RIGHT about America, what is GOOD and GREAT, while also calling out those who have helped lead us down the path of destruction. Rather than empty platitudes and insulting pandering, Sarah Palin would bring a message that not only reminds us where we are, and how, sadly, we got here, but offer up REAL solutions that will bring America and the American people back to where they should be. She can, and would restore America to her rightful place in the world.

Unlike others who are going to flood both parties’ tickets in a run for the presidency in 2016, only Governor Sarah Palin has the experience needed to turn this EXTREMELY FUBARED government around.

We hear about the need for outsiders, and often names of news makers who inspire, but have no experience, are championed as the next potential President. If these were normal times, that sort of fancy would be considered interesting, even laudable and worth considering. These ain’t normal times my friends!

Sarah Palin is the ONE serious leader in America that not only sees the problems and understands them [there are several GREAT people who do that] she’s the ONLY leader in our great nation that has actually walked into the aftermath of an all but destroyed government, and swiftly turned it around. If you wonder why Governor Palin had a lengthy SUSTAINED job approval rating of over 90% throughout most of her time in office, all you need to do is review her record!

I, for one, would follow Sarah Palin through the fires of hell, carrying a bucket of gasoline in both hands, if that’s what it took, no matter what path she chooses. But as someone who has studied her career extensively, and looked around at the other sad, and disheartening alternatives, I hope Sarah Palin takes up the charge in 2016, hopefully as a serious reformist REPUBLICAN candidate, but if an independent run is the only option, as the GOP has, by then, committed suicide, well an independent run it is!

As far as I [and a whole bunch of others] are concerned, the only REAL question left unanswered is who should be Sarah Palin’s running mate, and who she should choose to fill out her cabinet!

Stand strong. Never give up, never surrender! WE the People, will prevail!

***
In case you missed it, take time to read: America, 237 Years Strong and Ready to Grow Stronger

We have only begun to fight!

Sarah Palin: The American Flag Flies as a Symbol of Liberty and Justice for All

By Sarah Palin

Whether outside our homes, inside our classrooms, or alongside our courthouses, the American flag flies as a symbol of “liberty and justice for all.” On this Flag Day, we pledge our allegiance once again to the ideals that define this most exceptional nation. We vow to defend these ideals out of respect for those who have come before us and out of love for future generations.

Please follow the link to read President Reagan’s 1986 Flag Day Radio Address. It reads in part:

“As the American Republic grew and prospered and new stars were added to the flag, the ideal of freedom grew and prospered. From the rolling hills of Kentucky to the shores of California to the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon, our pioneers carried our flag before them, a symbol of the indomitable spirit of a free people. And let us never forget that in honoring our flag, we honor the American men and women who have courageously fought and died for it over the last 200 years, patriots who set an ideal above any consideration of self. Our flag flies free today because of their sacrifice.”

What powerful words from our fortieth president! Happy Flag Day, and God bless America!

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=37452

Radio Address to the Nation on Flag Day and Father’s Day
June 14, 1986

My fellow Americans:

Today we celebrate Flag Day, the birthday of our Stars and Stripes. As we think back over the history of our nation’s flag, we remember that the story of its early years was often one of hardship and trials, sometimes a fight for simple survival.

Such is the story behind our Star-Spangled Banner. It was 2 years into the War of 1812, and America seemed to be teetering on the edge of defeat. The British had already taken our Capital and burned the White House. Baltimore was the next target in a grand design to divide our forces and crush this newly independent nation of upstart colonies. All that stood between the British and Baltimore were the guns of Fort McHenry, blocking their entry into Baltimore Harbor.

The British bombardment lasted for 25 hours. Through the dark hours of the night, the rockets fired and the bombs exploded. And a young American patriot named Key, held captive aboard a British ship, watched anxiously for some proof, some sign, that liberty would prevail. You can imagine his joy when the next morning, in the dawn’s early light, he looked out and saw the banner still flying—a little tattered and torn, but still flying proudly above the ramparts. Fort McHenry and the brave men manning it had withstood the assault. Baltimore was saved. The United States, this great experiment in human freedom, as George Washington described it, would endure.

Thinking back to those times, one realizes that our democracy is so strong because it was forged in the fires of adversity. In those dark days of the war, it must have been easy to give in to despair. But our forefathers were motivated by a cause beyond themselves. From the harsh winter of Valley Forge to the blazing night above Fort McHenry, those patriot soldiers were sustained by the ideals of human freedom. Through the hardships and the setbacks, they kept their eyes on that ideal and purpose, just as through the smoke of battle they kept a lookout for the flag. For with the birth of our nation, the cause of human freedom had become forever tied to that flag and its survival.

As the American Republic grew and prospered and new stars were added to the flag, the ideal of freedom grew and prospered. From the rolling hills of Kentucky to the shores of California to the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon, our pioneers carried our flag before them, a symbol of the indomitable spirit of a free people. And let us never forget that in honoring our flag, we honor the American men and women who have courageously fought and died for it over the last 200 years, patriots who set an ideal above any consideration of self. Our flag flies free today because of their sacrifice.

And I hope you all will join Nancy and me and millions of other Americans at 7 o’clock this evening, eastern daylight time, when we pause a few minutes to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Though separated by many miles, we will be together in our thoughts. These anniversaries remind us that the great American experiment in freedom and democracy has really just begun. They remind us of the terrible hardships our forefathers willingly endured for their beliefs. And they challenge us to match that greatness of spirit in our own time, and I know we will. We are, after all, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

If we ask ourselves what has held our nation together, what has given it the strength to endure and the spirit to achieve, we find the answer in our families and those basic family values of work, hope, charity, faith, and love. So, it’s appropriate that this year Father’s Day falls on the same weekend as Flag Day, for in commemorating fatherhood, we’re also expressing a basic truth about America. What does fatherhood mean today in America? I guess the same as it always has.

Fatherhood can sometimes be walking the floor at midnight with a baby that can’t sleep. More likely, fatherhood is repairing a bicycle wheel for the umpteenth time, knowing that it won’t last the afternoon. Fatherhood is guiding a youth through the wilderness of adolescence toward adulthood. Fatherhood is holding tight when all seems to be falling apart; and it’s letting go when it is time to part. Fatherhood is long hours at the blast furnace or in the fields, behind the wheel or in front of a computer screen, working a 12-hour shift or doing a 6-month tour of duty. It’s giving one’s all, from the break of day to its end, on the job, in the house, but most of all in the heart.

Now, if you are thinking, “Look who’s talking—he’s a father himself.” Well, that’s right, but on today I think we could all remember—this weekend, at least—that every father is also a son. So, on this day for fathers, we, too, say thanks to America’s dads—for the labor and legacy of our families and our freedoms.

Until next week, thanks for listening, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:06 p.m. from Camp David, MD.

Video: Ronald Reagan’s 1984 Memorial Day Speech

By Gary P Jackson

On Memorial Day 1984, President Ronald Reagan gave a moving speech honoring the Unknown Servicemen who died during the Vietnam War.

The John Does vs The Permanent Political Establishment

By Gary P Jackson
Follow Gary on Twitter!

Sarah Palin has often said one of her favorite movies is the 1939 classic Mr Smith Goes to Washington. Directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart, the movie follows newly appointed Senator Jefferson Smith [Stewart] , a naive and idealistic young man. As the story unfolds, Senator Smith runs up against the political machine, massive corruption and cronyism.

Before taking office, Smith was the leader of the Boy Rangers a fictional group akin to the Boy Scouts of America. It’s his goal, as Senator, to create a national boys camp, a noble idea that turns into a battle. It’s a great movie that I firmly believe all Americans should see. Like all Capra films, it has a strong message.

It’s easy to understand why Sarah Palin loves this movie. Sarah is a proven reformer, having gone after questionable politicians since her earliest days as a member of the Wasilla, Alaska city council.

In a move that kinda mirrors the movie, after an unsuccessful bid to be Alaska’s Lt. Governor, Sarah, whose political star was definitely on the rise, was appointed by Governor Frank Murkowski as Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. This is one of the most powerful positions in the state. It was here that Sarah uncovered massive corruption at almost every level.

After uncovering all of this corruption, Sarah went to the Governor and demanded action. After being told to let it go, she told the Governor to either get something done, or she would go to the media with the facts. This, of course led to Murkowski sending then Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who was also neck deep in his own corrupt dealings, to pay Sarah a visit, threatening her with legal consequences if she blew the whistle.

In the end, Sarah resigned from her high paying gig at the AOGCC and took on the entire corrupt Republican Party in Alaska. The rest is history. The FBI would eventually get involved, and two years later, months into Governor Palin’s term, corrupt Republicans were still being hauled off to prison.

It’s easy to see why Governor Palin relates to the struggles of Senator Smith. She’s lived the movie, and then some!

For me though, it’s another Capra film that hits all of the right notes. Meet John Doe is a wonderful film starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. I relate to the film because of the parallels between the film and what is going on between the Republican Party and the Tea Party today.

Full Disclosure: I’m a huge Gary Cooper fan, something helped along by the fact that he was my mother’s favorite actor, and who I’m named after. And I simply adore Barbara Stanwyck. She is one of the greatest actresses ever to appear on film, and one of the most beautiful. As such, I love every film both of them made.

It’s interesting to note that Cooper and Stanwyck, as well as actors Clark Gable, Ginger Rogers, John Wayne, and Irene Dunne [among others] were members of The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Within Stanwyck’s online bio, the Internet Movie Database describes this group as “a rabidly right-wing political action group during the McCarthy-era ‘blacklisting’ period in the early and mid-1950s.” Wonderful actors and Conservative to boot. Good enough for me! If they were alive today they would likely be Tea Party members themselves. BTW, as we now know, MaCarthy was spot on!

Released in 1941, while America was still in shambles due to Roosevelt’s failed liberal policies, that turned a bad recession into what is now known as The Great Depression, the movie opens in the town’s newspaper office. The local newspaper has been bought out by oil tycoon D. B. Norton, deliciously played by Edward Arnold, and the first order of business is firing almost everyone, including popular columnist Ann Mitchell. [Stanwyck]

Angered, especially after being told to make sure her last column is done before she hits the door, Mitchell decides to leave a parting shot. She quickly types up a fictional letter to the editor in which a desperate, unemployed man, who calls himself “John Doe,” goes on and on about the state of the country, the political corruption, and the decline of the American way. As a gesture, this fictional “John Doe” promises to commit suicide by jumping off the city’s municipal building on New Year’s Eve.

Once published, the letter creates an uproar in the community. The new editor Henry Connell [James Gleason] summons Mitchell back. Connell figures the letter is bogus, and the town’s other newspaper is already saying as much. Ann’s a fast talker though and convinces Connell that his only course of action is to run with the story, as any admission that the whole thing was made up would harm the paper’s credibility. Mitchell then convinces Connell to hire her back, with a substantial raise.

It’s decided they will run an article asking “John Doe” to come to the newspaper office, and that they have employment for him. The thinking here is people would show up claiming to be “John” and they could pick someone to play the part. It works, as a long line of sad looking tramps parade through the office claiming to be “John.” Of course, none of these characters will do, but as luck will have it, an injured baseball player “Long John” Willoughby [Gary Cooper] walks through the door. Unlike the rest, the humble Willoughby doesn’t claim to be “John Doe.” He tells Mitchell and Connell that he just figured if there was one job, maybe there was two. The newspaper just found itself a sucker to play “John Doe.”

As it turns out, Willoughby is a good speaker, and inspires people all over the nation, when he goes on a nation radio show with his message, a message written by Mitchell. In an organic movement that mirrors the formation of the Tea Party, “John Doe Clubs” start popping up across the country, built on the ideals that Willoughby, speaking the words written by Mitchell, sets forth.

Seeing what he has, D. B. Norton starts outlaying his own cash to fund a national tour with Willoughby and Mitchell, and to help start up these “John Doe Clubs” everywhere. Norton also puts a plan in motion for a national “John Doe” convention.

There are several plot twists, and Willoughby starts having feelings for Mitchell, but we’ll skip past that. Besides, if you haven’t seen the movie, you simply must, not only because you’ll better get where I’m going with all of this, but because this is simply a damned good movie and I want you to experience it yourself!

Moving along, we learn that the kindly D.B. Norton really isn’t kindly at all. The oil man has bought up newspapers and radio stations across the country and plans to use them, as well as the now powerful “John Doe” movement, to launch his political career. It seems Norton has his sights on the White House.

The plan is for Willoughby, as “John Doe” to deliver the keynote speech at the convention, and endorse Norton for president. At least that’s Norton’s plan. Meanwhile Mitchell has actually bought into the “John Doe” movement and has written a wonderful and inspiring speech for the convention.

It all comes to a head when the newspaper’s editor, Henry Connell, gets wind of what Norton is up to and grows a conscience, though not before getting all liquored up. He informs Mitchell of Norton’s plan, and catches Willoughby before the speech. Willoughby then approaches Norton and tells him he refuses to go along. Norton informs Willoughby that if he doesn’t go through with it, he will expose him as a fraud to the world, and destroy him.

At the convention Norton has his union thugs placed throughout the audience, and newspapers pre-printed exposing Willoughby, just in case. He also has Ann Mitchell on lockdown, so she can’t blow the whistle.

It’s cold and rainy as Willoughby takes to the stage. His conscience simply won’t allow him to do Norton’s bidding. As promised, Norton’s union thugs start calling him a fraud, when he starts with the speech Mitchell wrote, rather than the one Norton wanted him to give, and newspapers magically appeared exposing Willoughby, conveniently leaving out Norton and his newspaper’s part in it all. Pretty soon the entire crowd turns on Willoughby.

Destroyed, Willoughby takes the role of “John Doe” all of the way to the top of the town’s municipal building on New Year’s Eve, where he intends to jump.

Much like the fictional “John Doe” movement, the Tea Party is an organic movement that got it’s inspiration from a man who was fed up. On February 19, 2009 CNBC anchor Rick Santelli, reporting from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, went into a well deserved rant about the corrupt dealings going on in the financial markets and called for a new Boston Tea Party. This rant, heard around the world, spoke to tens of millions of fed up Americans who would form thousands of Tea Party groups nationwide.

Though mostly without a formal structure, and no national leadership unifying all of it’s members, the Tea Party has become a powerful force in American politics. It didn’t take long for politicians to try and co-opt the movement for their own gains. For the most part though, Tea Party members turned out to be more sophisticated than the politicians hoped, and with only a few notable exceptions, weren’t fooled by the phonies in the least.

That didn’t stop the GOP from riding the Tea Party’s coattails into 2010 and historic victories nationwide. With the help of Conservative leaders like Sarah Palin, we saw the greatest nationwide political turnover of power since Reconstruction after the Civil War.

Of course, not everyone the Tea Party helped put in power stayed true to their mandate, and those who have are despised by the Republican Elite. You see, true Conservatives cannot be corrupted by Washington, nor can they be controlled by the party bosses. The more the GOP has tried to get Tea Party members to “play ball” the more resistance they have met. The Republican Party bosses want to keeps the status quo. They want to keep their little power bases and corrupt deals alive and producing. They want nothing to do with real reform and real reformers.

True reformers, like Sarah Palin, are attacked unmercifully by the Republican Party Elite. The last thing they want are strong, powerful men and women who, if elected, would dismantle the entire corrupt establishment machine. [in both parties] Something that must be done if America is to survive.

Since they can’t control the Tea Party, the Republicans are again imitating the movie, and have moved into the seek and destroy phase. Recently we’ve seen Speaker of the House John Boehner purge Tea Party Republicans from leadership positions in Congress, and his minions bad mouth the Tea Party to any and all who would listen. As you can imagine, the democrats, and their corrupt media partners, are loving it all, and reporting it breathlessly.

History is being rewritten, and losses by establishment hacks are now being blamed on the Tea Party. The GOP is blaming the Tea Party for all of the loses in 2012, never mind it was their standard bearer, Mitt Romney, who lost to the worst president in American history, and it was their candidates who failed to win 10 seats. Seats that would have put the Senate in Republican hands.

Now we have Karl Rove, one of the most despicable human beings in politics today, renaming his failed political action group the “Conservative Victory Fund” in an attempt to not only co-opt the Conservative movement, but stop the Tea Party as well.

As we reported last November, Rove’s group spent between $100 million and $400 million [depending on who you ask] on various establishment candidates. Rove had a 1% success rate. In comparison, Sarah Palin had a 75% endorsement success rate and America Grizzlies United [Organize for Palin] a group of Palin supporters nationwide, had a 66% success rate, putting candidates in office locally, statewide, and of course, in national office. Thomas S Schmitz, Chairman of the Board of American Grizzlies United, tells me the group spent less that $1000 total, the rest was just good old fashioned hard work.

No wonder Rove wants to destroy the Tea Party and other Conservative groups. They are making him look like the worthless hack he is!

Though establishment candidates lost big in 2010, and Tea Party candidates won huge gains all over the country, the Rove wing of the GOP love to bring up two candidates who lost: Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle.

The elites use these two ladies as examples of why the Tea Party is a failure and can’t be taken seriously. For the establishment, this is a twofer, because they can bash Sarah Palin at the same time. The GOP lies when they bash Sarah, and they lie about Angle and O’Donnell.

First let’s look at Sharron Angle. For one thing, Sarah Palin didn’t endorse her in the primary. She didn’t endorse any candidate in that race, as both her dad and brother had endorsed Danny Tarkanian. BTW, Mitt Romney DID endorse Angle in the primary, something the GOP Elite never mention. Now Sarah did endorse Angle once she was the nominee, but so what. Who else was she gonna to endorse? Angle lost because many liberal Republicans in Nevada backed Harry Reid. Plain and simple.

Christine O’Donnell is another matter altogether, and if anyone is to blame for her loss it’s Karl Rove. Yeah, she was, and is, quirky. But O’Donnell was sincere and had a real Conservative message, and no doubt would have made a good Senator.

As it was, you had George Soros’ boy, Republican Congressman Mike Castle, who only voted like a Conservative at election time, and voted like a socialist democrat the rest of the time, or Mike Coons, the self-proclaimed “bearded Marxist” on the democrat side. Quirks and all, Christine O’Donnell would have made a far superior Senator then either one of those two idiots!

Karl Rove didn’t quite see it that way. You see, Rove had dealings with Congressman Castle, and had hoped to further them along with a Senator Castle. As Michelle Malkin reported at the time, Rove had met with Tea Party leaders in Delaware and tried to convince them to leave his boy Castle alone, and NOT support O’Donnell’s bid for the Senate. As it happened, the Tea Party told Rove to shove it, and O’Donnell got massive Tea Party support from around the country. She won the nomination handily.

O’Donnell was still giving her victory speech when Karl Rove took to the airwaves on Fox’s Sean Hannity Show and proceeded to rip her to shreds. In Fact, Fox [and Hannity] allowed Rove to bash O’Donnell for three nights in a row. As you can imagine, the left ate this up, and their media partners reported it all breathlessly.

Had Rove kept his yap shut, we’d probably be addressing her as Senator O’Donnell to this day. We’ll never know. What we do know, is before Rove’s despicable attacks, O’Donnell was favored to win over Coons by a respectable amount.

Now Rove, along with the rest of the Republican Party machine has targeted Conservatives for defeat. It’s Rove and the GOP’s intention to destroy the Tea Party, and stop Conservatives from winning primaries. Never mind that Conservatives have traditionally won, where the unprincipled squishes the establishment is in love with, do not, and cannot.

This is where you, the American People, come in. It’s time to hold ALL politicians accountable. All politicians from BOTH parties.

As Conservatives, we have very few places to go. The democrat party has been taken over by Marxists. The party of the KKK, Jim Crow, and Margret Sanger is beyond redemption. Thing is, the party of Lincoln and Reagan ain’t much better.

Since the days of Barry Goldwater, Conservatives have tried to reform the Republican Party, and force it to live up to the principles it pretends to stand for. The only brief moment of victory was the Reagan presidency, but Republican Elites have been trying to erase Reagan’s triumphs since the day he left office.

So what are we to do? There are dozens of registered political parties, but none have proven viable. I think at this point, a real reformer COULD win the presidency as an independent, but then what? A president without a party would have both the GOP and the democrats doing everything possible to stifle any attempts at real reform, both parties hoping to get back in power quickly. It would be a frustrating situation.

How about creating a new and vibrant alternative? I’m of the mindset that the Republican Party has become just as morally bankrupt and beyond redemption as the democrat party, but for different reasons. I personally think it’s time for the GOP to go the way of the Whigs, the party it replaced.

It takes time and money to create a new party, and one would have to convince many solid Conservatives already in office to leave the GOP and join that new party. Can it be done? I don’t know. It would take a dynamic leader, and a solid message of real reform. Sudden, and relentless reform. The American people thirst for that message and no-bullshit leaders who would deliver on it. But is it really possible to start a new party?

One thing I do know is the Republican Party machine, with the help of the corrupt media, and much to the delight of the democrats, aims to destroy the Tea Party and the entire Conservative movement, once and for all.

The question is, are you just going to stand by and let them get away with it?

The final scenes of Meet John Doe have D.B. Norton and all of his cronies atop the city municipal building waiting to see if Willoughby will show up and jump. In fact, Willoughby does show up, ready to make good on his threat, after mailing off a letter exposing everyone and everything.

Norton greets Willoughby and tells him that if he jumps, his people are already down there, ready to grab his body, and bury it in an unmarked grave, and no one will ever know. It’s at this point that Ann Mitchell, who has broken free of her captors, shows up and begs Willoughby not to jump, and in tears professes her undying love for him.

Willoughby is dead set on jumping, when members of the “John Doe Club,” folks we’d met earlier in the movie, make their way to the top of the building where Willoughby, Mitchell, and Norton are. They are accompanied by Henry Connell, the newspaper editor.

These “John Does” all plead with Willoughby not to jump. They tell him they don’t care how it all came to be, that they believe in his message, because they have used it in their own lives, and seen positive change in their own communities. It’s then that Ann Mitchell, crying, collapses in Willoughby’s arms and he picks her up and starts carrying her toward the crowd of “John Does”

In the very last scene Henry Connell looks at D.B. Norton
and says with a dare: “The people, you just TRY and lick ’em!”