My Discouraging Chat with Rep. Slaughter

During a vet recognition luncheon yesterday, I briefly spoke with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), an invited speaker.

Following the usual pleasantries and before the festivities were underway, I asked Louise what she thought about Sen. Schumer's characterization of conservative talk radio as "pornography", and whether or not that was symptomatic of Democrats' wanting to re-impose the Fairness Doctrine which, to me, was tantamount to breaching free speech. Her carefree demeanor morphed into a decidedly defensive posture and she quickly countered that the doctrine had been around since 1939 and that it was nothing to worry about. (Her logic was interesting. Slavery was the law of the land for a very long time too before that abysmally odious practice was outlawed.) She proceeded to quickly deny that Sen. Schumer said what he had reportedly said and went on to pronounce that the airwaves belong to the people and that equal time for both points of view was needed. Calmly maintaining eye contact and without wavering, I politely pointed out that the free market belonged to "us" all as does "our" choice as to which station "we" can tune in. I asked if she had any problem with "our" exercising "free choice" in this regard and informed her that I periodically listen to Air America, but that owing to the station's sophomoric and mean-spirited dialogue I could never stomach more than 10 minutes at a time and invariably switched to other stations for balance and information. She appeared a tad taken aback by my unwillingness to allow her "congressional awe" to deter me. She countered by saying that the Fairness Doctrine has nothing to do with free speech. "Of course it does," I gently countered.

I then asked her if she planned to push the Fairness Doctrine. She dodged and tried to drift away from me. I asked her to please reflect carefully if that is her position and intention; that her decision should be based upon "country first" and not "party first", noting that that's what we veterans are all about.

Though obviously discomfited by my polite determination, we briefly touched on other subjects, like Obama and how genuinely fearful I am of his presidency. Trying to reassure me on that score, she said that I should just listen to what he says. "If you listen to what he says you have nothing to worry about," she confidently asserted. Momentarily speechless by her exasperatingly vacuous pronouncement, I quickly and calmly assured her that "unlike too many Americans, I HAVE very carefully listened to him and have very carefully examined his record, and that that's precisely why I AM worried."

Realizing she wasn't making any headway on that score, she then asked if I didn't like Medicare and Social Security. I responded that I did, noting that both needed reform and that without proper reform they are both additional train wrecks in the making. As anticipated, she asked if I would have been happy "had the Republicans gotten their way by privatizing Social Security." I courteously parried by noting that the GOP was advocating that only a small percentage of one's social security deduction was to have been privatized, and then only if the taxpayer chose to do so, and that, for me, it's a free choice issue and that I would be surprised if others would have a problem with a person's exercising his or her free choice.

She finally managed to gracefully and deftly drift away. We courteously bid each other farewell, and she took her seat at the head table and I mine with my vet colleagues in the audience.

Unfortunately, this brief exchange served only to reinforce my concerns about the left. For Rep. Slaughter and so many others like her in D.C. I am convinced that narrow ideological interests and party pre-eminence will ALWAYS trump common sense and country. This exchange further convinced me that whenever we have an opportunity to speak with our reps, we should go out of our way to do so. And we should never feel intimidated by their lofty station in life. We should bear in mind that they are but folks not unlike most others we know in our daily lives. They don't have the corner on wisdom, intelligence or reality. But, for these exchanges to be reasonably constructive, no matter how brief they may be, one should always be courteous and certain of one's positions.

Frankly, I wish our exchange yesterday had been heard by everyone in the room. Indeed, everyone in the county. It was revealing and, yes, so very, very unsettling.

Hope & Prayer are Good, But Vigilance is Best

With the heady presidential election behind us, and still somewhat numb and battered from the drubbing, I've just a few things to say for now.

Given the "financial meltdown" erroneously attributed to the GOP, it is nothing short of remarkable that McCain garnered 46% of the vote. Thus, there are at least 55 million Americans who remain deeply skeptical and profoundly concerned about what an Obama presidency might really mean for our country. The truth is that for both Democrats and Republicans alike the president-elect is still very much an unknown quantity, a wild card, an enigma.

Unquestionably, being unified as Americans is always in our best interests. But goody-two-shoes demonstration of unity around this President-elect would be patently myopic and irresponsible. While respectful of the office of the presidency, sensible Americans should continue to be justifiably wary. Being depressed is not in our therapeutic best interests in any event.

Clearly We the People now, more than ever, constitute the only viable check on any socialist excesses which the Obama administration may wish to perpetrate. After all is said and done, a filibuster-proof Senate remains a menacing possibility. So, in the end, it's going to be up us to keep the new administration and congress on an even keel.

My sincerest hope is that Obama will be as pragmatic in his governance as he was in his uniquely successful campaigning, and that fears of his socialist and/or Marxist proclivities have been grossly misguided. Could it be that the hardcore leftist ideological mentoring in his earlier years may not have motivated his single-minded drive to occupy the White House. If true, then perhaps we can reasonably hope that his disturbingly radical associations were either anomalies or merely naive adolescent flirtations, and that they will in no way fundamentally shape his stewardship over the freest, most powerful and most economically vibrant country in the world today.

Let us pray that American traditions and values will be rigorously safeguarded by the new President and that far-left demands and influences will be given short shrift. Let us also pray that Obama's revisionist interpretation of our Constitution, which he will swear to preserve, protect and defend, will not hold sway.

More specifically, it is hoped that Obama, the President, confronted with the harsh reality of national leadership, a faltering economy, and a host of dangerous enemies, will reverse his campaign pledge to slow or drastically curtail new weapons development and the further diminution of our anti-missile defense capability. Let us hope that campaign pledges of tax increases will be either postponed or abandoned, thus ensuring that recession doesn't morph into preventable economic depression.

Among other critical issues, let us also hope that he will in no way help re-impose the God-awful "Fairness Doctrine", unilaterally extend to illegals and terrorists unwarranted and inappropriate rights and privileges, champion debilitating cap-and-trade legislation, or approve passage of the loathsome "Employee Free Choice Act". And let's hope for a commonsense "all-of-the-above" energy policy to free us from foreign energy dependence once and for all.

Ironic that it is now the turn of "country-first" Americans to hope--hope that the "change" about which Obama so eloquently spoke means more than his own personal ambition to be elected President. Let us hope, but let us be ever-vigilant and prepared to stop cold any socialist excesses and heavy-handedness. We've much to lose as a country and, therefore, much to protect.

("The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Thomas Jefferson)

("I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson)

Insidious Socialist Tide Likely Unstoppable--The Last Gleaming

Since America seems to have been inexorably drawn to the left for a long time now, perhaps the ascendancy to the Oval Office of the most far-left and disturbingly enigmatic politician in our nation's history should not be altogether surprising. Spurred on by the financial market meltdown, the socialist ascendancy in America has, unfortunately, occurred far sooner than I could have anticipated.

How far left have both the political parties moved over the years? Were JFK be alive today, particularly in the area of economic policy, his decidedly conservative governing priniciples would be in stark contrast to the uninspired and progressive big government approach of both political parties today. While JFK would be stunned with the gargantuan size and scope of the federal government today, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be utterly staggered and brokenhearted.

Dominated by the elitist and progressive Obama-Pelosi-Reid triumverate, the transformation begun on January 20, 2009 to more intrusive big government, suffocatingly higher taxes and spending, further expansion of already bloated bureaucracies and domineering unions, and to the globalist and environmentalist deconstruction of America will be on a fast track. And, of course, our military and weapons development programs, e.g. the anti-missle defense system, will again be eviscerated in order to pay for expanded government giveaways and other vote-mining programs, again rendering our country vulnerable to attack and to Islamofascist subversion from within.

But that's not all. To consolidate power, every attempt, surreptitious and otherwise, will be made by the socialist overseers in D.C. to more aggressively silence opposing political viewpoints and to indoctrinate our youth in socialist precepts. (That process has already been underway with the help of BHO sycophants in public schools and professorial burn-outs from the 60's era.) Political correctness will be more than a nuisance. It will take precedence over commonsense.

Newly appointed Supreme Court justices will be in the Ginsberg, aka ACLU, mold, and efforts will be made to once again curtail our 2nd amendments rights, a unborn babyies right-to-life, and to suppress secret ballot rights of workers. Illegal immigrants will get a free ride (at our expense) and terrorists will be further coddled to the detriment of effective law enforcement and our own security.

A clean sweep of the White House and Congress by an emboldened Democratic Party hijacked and bankrolled by the far-left will usher in the greatest expansion of government since FDR. Our Founding Fathers' principles of small government, states rights, personal liberty and free enterprise will have been dealt a devastating blow from which the nation may not easily--if at all--recover. But fully recover, it probably never will.

If the Democratic Party takeover is complete, failed Euro-style socialism and secularist dominion will have been democratically embraced by a starry-eyed, what's-in-it-for-me electorate seduced by soaring, yet empty and misleading, messianic rhetoric.

An empty-headed pop culture in combination with a craven appetite for bread-and-circuses (entitlements) will have conspired to effectively weaken the very foundations of a once thriving and dynamic experiment in private enterprise and individual freedom. In short, a gullible and misguided American electorate may well have given away all that has made America so profoundly exceptional and uniquely successful. And we'll ALL get hurt in the aftermath.

In the absence of a responsible, dutiful, properly informed and vigilant electorate, the only check on this abuse of power will be conservative talk radio and other divergent media outlets which the Progressive apparachicks are already plotting to shut down with the re-imposition of the so-called Fairness Doctrine. That done, the takeover will be virtually complete. The gallant American experiment, the envy of the world, will be on its way to disrepute and ruin. Like the mighty Roman Empire, our nation's unraveling will have come from within--not from without. We will be our own undoing.

Because most Americans are dominated by wild-eyed emotion, misplaced fears, and/or stubbornly shortsighted ideology, the helm of state is slowly but surely slipping into the hands of self-serving and entirely opportunistic Washington bureaucrats, lobbyists, unionists, environmentalists, and career politicians, many of whom are hostile to America's rich traditions and values and solely dedicated to preserving and expanding their political power at the expense of "we the people". With the complete Democratic takeover in November 2009, the helm of state may have irretrievably slipped from our hands altogether.

As for me, I'm deeply and unashamedly troubled by the prospect of the far-left's occupation of the once venerable Oval Office. The ascendancy of Speaker Pelosi was difficult enough to endure. But, my White House being defiled by a socialist occupation is simply too painful to bear. After the count is in and the left's victory--and America's defeat--is confirmed on November 4th, my flag, which has proudly and prominently flown non-stop from atop my 30-ft flag pole for the last 8 years, will be mercifully, respectfully and quietly retired. I will sorely miss her. Replacing her will be the historical Culpeper Flag ("Give me Liberty or Give me Death, Don't Tread on Me"). Old Glory will again be proudly unfurled on my property only when I can be confident that America has properly cleansed itself of the socialist contagion. Demonstrable and convincing respect on the part of this government for America's cherished traditions and values must be satisfactorily restored before She flies again.

God bless America.

("The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation without knowing what happened." Norman Thomas, Socialist Party of America, circa 1925)

("That government which is big enough to give all you want is big enough to take it all away; that government is best which governs least, because the people discipline themselves." Thomas Jefferson)

("Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it's a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington)

Hello, out there! Is anyone listening to these guys?

McCain Must Take His Own Advice--"Fight!"

The next three weeks will be acutely unsettling for those who are hoping for a McCain-Palin victory on November 4th.

Although it's difficult to foresee with any certainty the outcome of this seminal election, intuitively it looks like an Obama victory. In view the deeply troubling economic upheavel, a 2-term GOP presidency to conveniently blame for it, an electorate historically predisposed to voting against the party whose leader has occupied the WH for any consecutive 8-year period, and a disturbingly starry-eyed electorate especialy susceptible to promises of bread-and-circuses and other entitlements, it seems preposterous to believe that Mickey Mouse himself, were he the Democratic candidate, would fail to prevail at the ballot box in November.

However, with so very much on the line this time, i.e. the end of an America our Founding Fathers had intended and for which so much precious American blood has been shed, I can only hope that for the sake of the country--and not merely his candidacy--Senator McCain will take the proverbial gloves off during the debate on October 15th and lay it all on the line for us all to see. He owes that to America. To paraphrase him, "I'd rather lose an election than a war." Fine. But, let's hope that he's also willing to risk losing this election to save his country from an Obama-Pelosi-Reid socialist tyranny.

So neatly packaged and insulated from scutiny by six masterful PR marketing firms and a fawning media, Obama's unprecedentedly sinister associations become all the more important, and properly so. A man's character, judgement, philosophy and worldview must be manifest to the electorate before the reins of presidential power are consigned to his care. For this reason, I sincerely believe that our very survival as a free market democracy depends upon Sen McCain's "fighting" for us as never before. Yes, Sen. McCain should speak plainly about his economic plan to help rescue the country from its credit excesses and congressional corruption, but more than ever before it is encumbent upon Sen. Reach-Across-the-Aisle McCain to expose Obama once and for all. To my way of thinking, it is his sacred and patriotic duty to do so--come what may. Frankly, he has nothing to lose by doing so, and America has much to gain if it's successfully done.

We have a country to lose if Sen McCain fails to honestly and forthrightly step up by forcing the character issue on Wednesday. I pray he does the right thing.

Beware "Employee Free Choice Act"

With private sector union membership at a 50-year low (7.4% of workers), labor bosses understand that the secret ballot will no longer serve their parochial interests. But, fear not--the Democrats are coming to their rescue again. For the Dem leadership, any accommodation is possible if it means more political contributions and an expanded voter base.

Though public opinion solidly supports federally supervised secret ballot elections to form unions, to curry union boss favor liberals are now pushing for passage of the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) which will replace secret ballot elections with a "card check" system. Under attack by none other than Senator George McGovern, this undemocratic "card check" system will enable union organizers to elicit a worker's support for unionizing merely by persuading the worker to publicly sign an "authorization card". And so long as a simple majority of workers have publicly signed a card, the union is a fait accompli. (Note: even the U.S. Supreme Court has opined--understatedly--that the card check system is "inferior to the election process.")

If passed, EFCA would strip workers of their right to privacy and free choice and would surely expose them to intimidation, deception and coercion from both their peers and outside union organizers.

Always the suspiciously vocal champion of individual rights and the "little guy", behind the scenes the Dems are again assailing Americans' personal liberties, this time in the workplace.

Among a wide array of excesses, be prepared for reimposition of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine", repeal of the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) and, of course, unfettered abortion "rights" should the Dems take over in January.

Serious Energy Policy a Top Priority

Posted/Published D&C October 8, 2008

On September 23rd, the Dems conceded defeat in their cynical bid to extend the 1981 offshore drilling ban which mercifully expired September 30th.

While the concession doesn't portend imminent federal sale of offshore oil and gas leases, for the moment it does hold at bay foreign oil producers and those pesky speculators who were hoping for an extension of the ban and a corresponding short-term spike in oil prices.

However, still very much missing is passage of a "comprehensive, all-of-the-above energy bill" without which emergy prices will surely soar once the ameliorating effect of the ban's expiration has subsided.

Without a serious and timely "comprehensive energy policy", consumers and an economy already shaken by years of grotesque government mismanagement and intrusion in the free market could soon be facing insurmountable economic challenges. (Looming still are Medicaid and social security, two more government-induced disasters in the making.)

To restore our economic vitality, let's vote for a President who will push for aggressive offshore drilling and a country-first Congress which will quickly pass a comprehensive energy bill.

Obama's "95% Tax Cut" Ruse

As we patiently listen to Sen. Obama's tedious torrent of socialist mantras like "economic fairness" and "leveling the playing field", we would all do well to clearly remember just who pays the taxes in these United States.

When speaking about tax policy with Obama disciples, we must intellectually challenge them with, among other truths, this verifiably indisputable FACT:

"According to the IRS, 75% of tax filers in the top
5% income bracket are small busniness owners who create
75% of new jobs in America."

To help lead our liberal friends further into the light, here's a breakdown of what portion of total taxes collected is already paid by the various income brackets:

Top 5%..........60%
Top 10%.........70%
Top 25%.........86%
Top 50%.........98%
Bottom 50%.......0%

This straightforward IRS breakdown means that Obama's oft-repeated and seductive promise of a "tax cut" for 95% of taxpayers is shamelessly misleading. (In impolite circles it would be called a "lie".) Simply put, since 50% of low and middle income earners pay no tax, then 50% of Obama's 95% figure will NOT get a tax cut. What they will get is a bread-and-circuses, vote-buying welfare check. Again, not a "tax cut".

Finally, history has proven over and over and over again that taxing business stymies job growth and economic prosperity. Thus, imposing higher taxes on the top 5%--75% of whom are small businesses which create 75% of new jobs--would severely hurt the very people whom the liberals loftily profess they so desperately want to help. Unblievable. The twisted logic of socialism.

Now that this is off my chest, let the Obama chicanery resume--but, in part, pre-exposed this time around. And let's none of us be reluctant to enlighten those Obamaniacs who, despite the intrusion of facts in their lives, opt to see and "feel" otherwise.