Author: kingsjester

64 year old Christian Conservative husband, father, and grandfather who has been writing since April 2010.

Rumble on the River, Part 2: The Citizens Speak

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

I rarely write about what’s going on in my neck of the woods. However, as a product of the Memphis City Schools System (Wooddale  Class of ’76), I want to catch y’all up to speed on the biggest kerfuffle since forced busing was implemented in 1972.

In February of 2011, I wrote:

After over 30 years of mismanagement, poor stewardship, and the downright dumbing-down of an excellent school system, the politicians of the city of Memphis, including the School Board, the City Council, and the Mayor, himself, have decided that they will surrender the charter of the Memphis City Schools System in order to merge with the Shelby County School System…by any means necessary.

After the citizens voted down consolidation of city and county services last November, the Memphis City School Board , in an attempt to save their failing school system and their phony baloney jobs, came up with the plan to surrender their charter, thereby forcing consolidation with the Shelby County Schools.

In the last few days, things have really come to a head in this scholastic soap opera:

  • The Memphis City School Board voted Monday night, December 20th, 2010 to let City voters decide on March 8th whether to surrender its charter.
  • On Thursday, February 10th, 2011, the Memphis City Council voted 10 – 0 to accept the decision by the Memphis City Schools Board of Education to surrender its charter, wiping out the city school board in one vote.
  • On Friday, February 11th, 2011, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslan signed into law a measure designed to delay any merger between the two systems.

And, through all of this, the wishes of the Shelby County School Board and the citizens that it represents have been tossed aside, because…wait for it…it’s for the children.

Well, the merger is now under way and the unified system is supposed to be in place by 2014.

On June 14th, 2012, the Transition Planning Committee released the following report:

After more than eight months of research, discussions, and planning, the Transition Planning Commission is confident that the talent and resources in this community will enable the merged SCS to achieve the vision in this Plan. The merger presents a unique opportunity to build from the existing strengths and emerging success of both systems, of which there are many. The merger also prompts this community to step back and ask, “Why not here?”, and adopt best practices in education from around the world. Both districts employ talented leaders, who are true experts in their fields. This merger enables these leaders to join forces to build a district that improves upon both districts today.

And finally, this merger presents an opportunity for community, business, philanthropic, faith, and government leaders to unite to guarantee the success of this system, for the benefit of all of Shelby County’s children.

Well…The  other cities in Shelby County aren’t too keen about allowing the clowns who ruined the Memphis City Schools System to gain control of their schools.

The Commercial Appeal Reports:

Declaring they want no part of a unified countywide school system, voters in Shelby County’s six suburban municipalities gave landslide approval Thursday to referendums establishing their own districts and, in every town but one, agreed to raise sales taxes to pay for them.

Measures to create school districts sailed through with margins ranging from nearly 2 to 1 in Millington to 7 to 1 in Collierville. Even in Lakeland, where a former mayor led a political action committee opposing municipal schools, the referendum was favored by almost two-thirds of all voters.

By somewhat lower margins, voters in five of the suburbs also approved separate referendums to raise municipal sales taxes from 2.25 to 2.75 percent to fund the districts. The tally in Millington, however, showed the measure getting three more ‘no’ than ‘yes’ votes.

“How does it feel to win?” Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald asked a group of municipal-district supporters after the votes were counted showing a 4-to-1 approval margin. “It just shows what grass roots can do.”

In Germantown, cheers erupted at a watch party hosted by the My Germantown Schools group at Garibaldi’s pizza. With an 87 percent yes, vote, Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy called the citizen response a “mandate.”

But despite the resounding approval of the municipal school districts, the issue is far from settled. In a trial slated for Sept. 4, U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel “Hardy” Mays will rule on a suit filed by the County Commission charging that the state law allowing the referendums violates the Tennessee Constitution.

The battle over schools, which underscored urban-suburban and black-white rifts in Greater Memphis, began with the December 2010 vote by the Memphis City Schools board to surrender the system’s charter and force a merger with Shelby County Schools. Memphis voters endorsed that decision in a landslide of the their own in a March 2011 referendum.

The consolidation of the MCS and Shelby County systems takes effect in the 2013-14 school year

Suburban reaction to the pending merger has been overwhelmingly critical, with municipal leaders and citizens chafing at the prospect of joining a unified district they said would be dominated by Memphis. County Commissioners, however, have charged there was a racial component to the opposition, saying the mostly white suburbs are seeking to carve out districts segregated from predominantly black Memphis.

Turnout for the referendums ranged from less than 31 percent in Millington to about 42 percent in Germantown and Lakeland. About one-third of the ballots were cast during the early-voting period that ended Saturday.

Throughout the day Thursday, the turnout in Bartlett was at best steady as voters and campaign workers sought relief from the heat. Supporters sat under umbrellas or tents and waited in their cars, emerging if someone approached the polling location.

There were few Better Bartlett Schools signs supporting the municipal school signs at the various voting precincts. Derek Venckus, spokesman for the pro-schools citizen group, said the main reason was supporters already had the bulk of the 1,500 signs ordered by the group in their front yards.

“We held a few when we started running out, just so we would have some at the polling places,” he said.

While there were few pro-municipal school signs in Bartlett, there were no opposition signs at a random number of precincts checked in the suburbs.

Across the suburbs, the most visible opposition group was in Lakeland, led by former Mayor Jim Bomprezzi

Leaders of suburban groups favoring municipal schools said they expected to win.

“I’m not surprised. Pleased obviously,” said Phillip Walker, one of the leaders of Better Bartlett Schools. ” … We pretty much were expecting a wide majority to vote for it.”

By comparison, the sales-tax referendums received tepid support, trailing the approval levels for the district referendum by 10 to 20 percentage points.

Suburban leaders had avoided using references to schools in the wording in the referendums so that all of the money was not required to go to education. Bartlett Alderman Emily Elliott, who worked early voting, said many voters were unclear about where the revenues would go, leading to some confusion.

In each suburb, however, supporters’ euphoria over the referendum results was somewhat tempered by uncertainty over the legal wrangling in the schools issue.

“Now we take a big deep breath, get up in the morning and move on with the business at hand, which is litigation,” Goldsworthy said.

Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner said he’s pleased about Thursday night’s outcome but it’s just one obstacle the town has to clear.

“We are like Olympic runners — we get over one hurdle and there’s the next one we have to clear. I’m still guardedly optimistic.

But Portia Scurlock, a Germantown resident with two elementary-aged children, said she wasn’t worried that her vote would later be ruled unconstitutional.

“If all the other Podunk towns in Tennessee can have their own school systems, why keep a larger municipality from doing the same? It doesn’t make sense.”

Ms. Scurlock, do not put anything past the hack politicians in Memphis, Tennessee.

There’s a reason I moved across the state line to DeSoto County, Mississippi back in ’97.

A lot of y’all may soon be joining me.

You eeevil suburbanites.

American Conservatives/Chick-Fil-A…GOP Elite/Bread and Circuses

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

While Conservatives and “Independents” have been out fighting the good fight against Fascist Liberals by standing or sitting in their car, in massive lines at their local Chick-Fil-A, they have all been wondering:

Where’s the Republican Establishment?

Like the Main Stream Media, they’ve been ignoring the situation.

There is some good news ,though:

It appears that the apparent Republican Nominee for President has taken a stand after all.

On the Chick-Fil-A situation, KJ? Nope.

In his own defense.

FoxNews.com has the story:

Mitt Romney lashed back at Harry Reid on Thursday in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, saying the Senate majority leader needs to “put up or shut up” after airing allegations about Romney’s taxes.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, first raised eyebrows Tuesday by saying in a news interview that someone had told him Romney went 10 years without paying taxes. He would only identify his source as an investor in Romney’s former venture capital firm, Bain Capital, and he acknowledged, “I’m not certain” it’s true.

That didn’t stop Reid from taking to the Senate floor Thursday to accuse the Republican presidential candidate again of paying no taxes, part of a broader Democratic attack on Romney for declining to release more than two years of tax documents.

“The word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for 10 years,” Reid said. “Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”

But Romney forcefully denied Reid’s allegations on Hannity’s radio show Thursday.

“Harry’s going to have to describe who it is he spoke with, because, of course, that is totally and completely wrong,” Romney said. “It’s untrue, dishonest and inaccurate. It’s wrong.

“So, I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources, and we will probably find out it’s the White House.”

Romney’s campaign earlier rejected the majority leader’s statement as “shameful.”

Reid also raised eyebrows for invoking Romney’s late father, himself a one-time presidential candidate.

“His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son,” Reid told the Huffington Post.

George Romney, a Michigan governor, released 12 years of tax returns during his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. His son has released only his 2010 tax return and an estimate for 2011, years when he was preparing for his own presidential bid or already running.

Reid doubled down on the claim late Thursday, firing back at Romney in a written statement.

“People who make as much money as Mitt Romney have many tricks at their disposal to avoid paying taxes,” Reid said in a written statement. “When it comes to answering the legitimate questions the American people have about whether he avoided paying his fair share in taxes or why he opened a Swiss bank account, Romney has shut up. But as a presidential candidate, it’s his obligation to put up, and release several years’ worth of tax returns just like nominees of both parties have done for decades.

“It’s clear Romney is hiding something, and the American people deserve to know what it is.”

Reid’s comments come in the middle of a scathing critique of the former Massachusetts governor’s tax plan. The Tax Policy Center, which Romney has called “an objective third party” in the past, noted that his proposal would give benefits to high-income earners while giving a tax increase to middle-class Americans. Romney’s camp has disputed that analysis.

Meanwhile, another well-known Moderate seems to have found his…err…backbone also. 

Thehill.com reports:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lashed out at President Obama during an interview Tuesday, saying the president has “never even had a real job, for God’s sake.”

Boehner was discussing the presidential election, and accusing President Obama’s campaign team of using “over-the-top” rhetoric to distract from his economic record.

“Sometimes I have to catch my breath and slow down because the rhetoric in this campaign is just so over-the-top,” Bohener said during an appearance on “Kilmeade and Friends.” “And that’s because the president’s policies have failed. Listen — 93 percent of Americans believe they’re a part of the middle class. That’s why you hear the president talk about the middle class every day, because he’s talking to 93 percent of the American people.”

Then the Ohio lawmaker lit into the president’s qualifications to discuss job creation.

“But the president has never created a job. He’s never even had a real job, for God’s sake,” Boehner said. “And I can tell you from my dealings with him, he has no idea how the real world, that we actually live in, works.”

In the same interview, Boehner blasted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for his suggestion on the Senate floor Thursday that Mitt Romney paid no federal income taxes for a decade.

“I don’t know how you go out there and make a statement like that without any facts,” Boehner said. “It’s one of the problems that occurs here in Washington, people run out there without any facts and just make noise. The American people are too smart for this, they’ll get to the bottom of this, it clearly is not a fact, and I would think that the Senate majority leader would be smart enough to know that.”

While Americans have been taking a stand this week against the tyranny of the Minority, what have the leaders of the Republican Party (which we will be dragging across the goal line) been giving us?

Bread and circuses.

The Aftermath of Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

May I ask y’all a question?

While millions of Conservatives showed their appreciation for Chick-Fil-A yesterday, where was the presumed Republican Nominee for President?

For that matter, where was the GOP Leadership?

Were they still stunned from Cruz’s victory in Texas the night before?

Or, were they simply maintaining the aloof condension they’ve been practicing since they decided that Mitt was going to be their candidate for the Presidency of the United States?

Cruz’s victory was a blow to them, no doubt…especially considering the indispensable help given by Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin…which had to smart.

Check out what foxnews.com had to say yesterday about Cruz’s victory:

Google “Ted Cruz” and “grassroots” and you get 865,000 hits. That’s because the conventional wisdom posits that Tuesday night’s runoff victory for the former Texas solicitor general against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in their battle for the Republican nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat, marked the triumph of grassroots Tea Party activism over an entrenched GOP establishment figure.

To be sure, Dewhurst, aided by the backing of Gov. Rick Perry, outspent Cruz, a newcomer to elective politics, by a ratio of three-to-one. And prior to the May 29 primary, in which Dewhurst easily prevailed but failed to attain a majority of votes cast, virtually nobody gave Cruz even the faintest odds of winning.

But a number of factors at work in the Lone Star State make Cruz’s victory more easily understood, and beg the question of whether the new Republican nominee for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison did not himself enjoy the backing of a wholly separate “establishment.”

For one thing, the gap between the Senate primary and the Cruz-Dewhurst runoff was nine weeks long. Previously, the longest such gap between a primary and runoff election in Texas had been a mere five weeks. Cruz used the 63 days effectively, drumming up money and free media. Second, victories like his are actually the norm in Texas, where, including Tuesday’s results, the second-place finisher in a state primary has gone on to win the ensuing runoff election nine out of fifteen times.

“He was the man versus Dewhurst, who’s part of the machine, the establishment there in Texas and in Washington, D.C.,” said Sarah Palin on Tuesday night’s episode of “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “He was the outsider to come in and promise that reform.”

Yet Cruz was no ordinary Tea Party figure, and few people’s idea of a Beltway outsider. He attended Harvard University’s law school and founded a Latino law review there; clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Chief Justice William Rehnquist; worked at two federal agencies in Washington, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, under President George W. Bush; and is married to a woman who works for Goldman Sachs.

More important to his electoral fortunes, Cruz received critical endorsements and millions of dollars’ worth of contributions and other forms of support from the likes of Gov. Palin, who campaigned for him; Tea Party hero and fundraising powerhouse Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; the D.C.-based Tea Party group FreedomWorks, which is led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey; the anti-tax, pro-free market group Club for Growth, whose top executive is former Rep. Chris Chocola, R-Pa.; conservative columnist and ABC News commentator George F. Will; and National Review, the venerated magazine founded by the late William F. Buckley, Jr.

Ted Cruz, in short, was an establishment candidate in his own right.

“It is time to think differently about the Tea Party,” said Darrell West, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution. “In the early days, the Tea Party was basically a grassroots movement, didn’t have a lot of prominent people behind them, didn’t have a lot of money. But now they have big money. They can bring outside resources into a state election, and prove to be very decisive. So they are getting institutionalized as a movement: They have major political figures who are behind them; they have money that is behind them. So they have emerged as a different type of ‘establishment’ organization.”

Other races this year in which Tea Party-backed candidates have defeated better-known politicians include the victory of state Sen. Deb Fisher in a three-way primary in Nebraska, and the primary defeat of six-term GOP incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar at the hands of state Treasurer Richard Mourdock in Indiana.

Turnout among GOP voters in Texas dropped slightly from the 2008 primary contest in which incumbent Sen. John Cornyn prevailed over fellow Republican Larry Kilgore. In that race, more than 1.2 million votes were cast, as contrasted with Tuesday night’s results, in which just over 1.1 million votes were tallied.

Still, the popular narrative of the Cruz-Dewhurst race was reinforced by the candidates themselves. “Tonight is a victory for the grassroots,” Cruz told an ecstatic audience at his victory rally Tuesday night. “It is a testament to Republican women, to Tea Party leaders, and to grassroots conservatives. This is how elections are supposed to be decided — by we the people.”

“Thanks for standing up for Texas,” Dewhurst told his supporters in his concession speech. “We got beat up a little bit, but we never gave up, and we can stand tall knowing we never compromised any of our values.”

That’s great, sir. But…what are the Republican Establishment’s values?

Because, if they don’t align with us God and Country-loving, traditional- American-Values-embracing average Americans, your fellow Establishment Republicans are going to join the Democrats on the Unemployment Line after November 6th.

And, Mitt’s going to be awfully lonely, being the only Moderate left in Washington, DC, surrounded by Tea Party Conservatives.

Think about it.

The War Against Christianity: Battleground Chick-Fil-A…Today!

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics11 Comments

Well, here we are… a day that “fiscal Conservatives” and Liberals alike (or do I repeat myself?) have sworn (usually under their breath) doesn’t mean a doggone thing. They claim that there are no moral absolutes and that Christianity is passe.

I haven’t heard such a exercise in underestimation and poor judgement since General George Armstrong Custer remarked to his aide,

What Indians? I don’t see any Indians.

Mike Huckabee recently announced the following:

I ask you to join me in speaking out on Wednesday, August 1 “Chick Fil-A Appreciation Day.” No one is being asked to make signs, speeches, or openly demonstrate. The goal is simple: Let’s affirm a business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1. Too often, those on the left make corporate statements to show support for same-sex marriage, abortion, or profanity, but if Christians affirm traditional values, we’re considered homophobic, fundamentalists, hate-mongers, and intolerant. This effort is not being launched by the Chick Fil-A company and no one from the company or family is involved in proposing or promoting it.

There’s no need for anyone to be angry or engage in a verbal battle. Simply affirm appreciation for a company run by Christian principles by showing up on Wednesday, August 1 or by participating online – tweeting your support or sending a message on Facebook.

Chick-Fil-A has been besieged by business ever since.

The Washington Post, of course, has their own spin on things:

The restaurant chain with Christian roots — “closed Sunday,” it proudly proclaims — is run by owners with conservative values. Now company President and CEO Dan Cathy has sparked a nationwide food fight by saying he is “guilty as charged” for opposing same-sex marriage.

“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives,” Cathy told the Biblical Recorder newspaper. The article was reprinted by Baptist Press on July 16.

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has spearheaded “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” and, as of Tuesday (July 31), more than 500,000 people had pledged on its Facebook page to show up or give support to the restaurant via social media on Wednesday.

“People are outraged that someone who expresses a view that is shared by most of the country is being bullied by hate speech and intolerance from the militant gay groups that are trying to disenfranchise his right to a personal opinion,” Huckabee told Religion News Service in an email.

“CFA doesn’t turn away people as customers or employees on the basis of sexual orientation and that’s the only way this could be an issue,” Huckabee added.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, plans to buy more than 200 of the restaurant’s sandwiches for its students, faculty and staff on Wednesday and famed evangelist Billy Graham has promised to “Eat Mor Chikin” — Chick-fil-A’s catchphrase — at one of the restaurants that day.

Meanwhile, opponents to Cathy’s stance have spearheaded “National Same Sex Kiss Day at Chick-fil-A” on Friday — the anniversary of the day the Episcopal Church elected its first openly gay bishop.

Organizer Carly McGehee said it will be up to rally participants whether to buy food or not.

“Some have said they will ask for a water, some have said they won’t buy anything,” she said. As of Tuesday, more than 8,400 people had signed up for the “kiss-in.”

In several locations, people have planned to place kissing booths outside the restaurants, with proceeds going to local gay rights groups. Heterosexuals supporting the kissing event plan to appear and kiss loved ones, she said.

“People will simply walk into the restaurant, kiss someone of the same-sex and take a picture or video, then leave and post it on Facebook for all the world to see!”

Some think the food fight is misplaced.

Others are taking the fight very seriously…and taking their complaints to a higher authority.

No…not that One.

CNN.com has the story:

A group of conservative black pastors are responding to President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage with what they say will be a national campaign aimed at rallying black Americans to rethink their overwhelming support of the President, though the group’s leader is offering few specifics about the effort.

The Rev. Williams Owens, who is president and founder of the Coalition of African-Americans Pastors and the leader of the campaign, has highlighted opposition to same-sex marriage among African-Americans. He calls this campaign “an effort to save the family.”

“The time has come for a broad-based assault against the powers that be that want to change our culture to one of men marrying men and women marrying women,” said Owens, in an interview Tuesday after the launch event at the National Press Club. “I am ashamed that the first black president chose this road, a disgraceful road.”

At the press conference, Owens was joined by five other black regional pastors and said there were 3,742 African-American pastors on board for the anti-Obama campaign.

When asked at the press conference for specifics about the campaign – funding, planned events and goals – Owens said only that the group’s first fundraiser will be on August 16 in Memphis, Tennessee. But Owens insisted that “we are going to go nationwide with our agenda just like the president has gone to Hollywood.”

You go, Reverends. God Bless you all.

To repeat what I wrote Sunday…

Go get yourself a sammich and some waffle fries and support this Christian American Business.

Oh….and to those who would rather American Christians go away and keep our mouths shut, and forego our faith for a Godless Political Ideology?

You guys are in for a shock. I’ve read The Book. I know how this ends.

Hallelujah. Amen.

See y’all at breakfast, lunch and/or dinner!!!

This Ain’t Yo’ Folks’ Democratic Party

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics6 Comments

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m 53 years old.  My Mother and Daddy were 40 years older than me. I think that they were going to name me “Oops”. But, I digress…

My folks were Southern Democrats…Conservative Southern Democrats. They passed away in ’95 and ’97, respectively.

Back in the day, the Democrat Party was a far different political party than they are today.

On July 11, 1960, the Democratic Party Platform began with the following:

In 1796, in America’s first contested national election, our Party, under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, campaigned on the principles of “The Rights of Man.”

Ever since, these four words have underscored our identity with the plain people of America and the world.

In periods of national crisis, we Democrats have returned to these words for renewed strength. We return to them today.

In 1960, “The Rights of Man” are still the issue. It is our continuing responsibility to provide an effective instrument of political action for every American who seeks to strengthen these rights-everywhere here in America, and everywhere in our 20th Century world.

The common danger of mankind is war and the threat of war. Today, three billion human beings live in fear that some rash act or blunder may plunge us all into a nuclear holocaust which will leave only ruined cities, blasted homes, and a poisoned earth and sky.

Our objective, however, is not the right to coexist in armed camps on the same planet with totalitarian ideologies; it is the creation of an enduring peace in which the universal values of human dignity, truth, and justice under law are finally secured for all men everywhere on earth.

If America is to work effectively for such a peace, we must first restore our national strength-military, political, economic, and moral.

That’s a far cry from “You didn’t build that”, huh?

In fact, it sounds like the Modern Republican Party.

Well, hold on to something. You ain’t seen nothin’, yet…as The New York Times reports:

Democrats appear ready to embrace same-sex marriage as part of their party platform, a policy shift that reflects an expanded acceptance of gay rights in mainstream politics.

The move would place the party in line with the beliefs of President Obama, who in May became the first sitting president to declare that gay men and lesbians should be able to marry.

Democratic Party officials had squabbled over the issue in the past. But at a platform-drafting meeting over the weekend in Minneapolis, they approved the first step to amend their platform, placing the amendment on track for adoption. In two weeks, the entire platform committee will vote at a meeting scheduled in Detroit. Then, if approved as expected, it would go before convention delegates in Charlotte, N.C., for final passage in early September.

According to Democrats who were briefed on the vote in Minneapolis, there was no objection when the issue came up. Though the language that was voted on could still be revised, party officials do not anticipate any major obstacles going forward.

The platform language approved over the weekend also reiterated the party’s disapproval of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing legal same-sex marriages. The 2008 platform had a similar section.

The Democratic Party’s move comes more than two months after President Obama personally backed the rights of same-sex couples to wed. The president’s reversal — he had said previously that while he could not support same-sex marriage, his views on the issue were “evolving” — was a significant move, though it carried no legal weight.

The Democrats would become the first major party to embrace same-sex marriage. But as historic as the platform would be, the president’s position makes it decidedly less controversial.

News of the platform amendment was first reported by The Washington Blade.

Gay rights supporters praised the Democratic Party’s vote. “Like Americans from all walks of life, the Democratic Party has recognized that committed and loving gay and lesbian couples deserve the right to have their relationships respected as equal under the law,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “I believe that one day very soon the platforms of both major parties will include similar language on this issue.”

The Democratic Party platform that was drafted four years ago, when Mr. Obama was first running for president, called for “full inclusion of all families, including same-sex couples, in the life of our nation, and support equal responsibility, benefits and protections.”

But the platform stopped short of endorsing same-sex marriages, in part because Mr. Obama had said he remained opposed.

Well, all bets are off now, because as we have all found out, all of Obama’s promises come with expiration dates.

Oh…and that whirring sound you hear? It’s the sound of Democrats like Scoop Jackson, Tip O’Neill, Hubert Humphrey, John F. Kennedy…and my parents…spinning in their graves.

Sarah Palin Vs. The Liberals…and the GOP Elite

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

Sarah Palin still lives rent-free in a lot of people’s heads.

For example, Noel Sheppard at newsbusters.org reports that:

On Sunday, Pink’s “Stupid Girls” was played before a CNN Sunday Morning piece about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin visiting a Chick-fil-A restaurant to show support for the embattled company (video follows with transcript and commentary):

[Music and lyrics]: Aha, aha. Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girls. Maybe if I act like that…

RANDI KAYE, ANCHOR: Sarah Palin is apparently hungry for chicken and controversy. She posted this on Twitter and Facebook: “Stopped by Chick-fil-A in the Woodlands to support a great business.” That is her and her husband Todd. Chick-fil-A has come under fire after, we were just telling you, after its president Dan Cathy came out in opposition to same-sex marriage. Several communities now trying to block Chick-fil-A from coming into their cities. Fellow Republican Mike Huckabee has organized that Chick-fil-A appreciation day scheduled for Wednesday.

Imagine such a song being used to introduce any female Democrat. The outrage would be deafening.

Indeed. However, it’s bad enough for Liberals to be attacking the Former Alaskan Governor, now, the GOP Elite is being blatant about it, too. This absolutely floored me:

Former vice president Richard B. Cheney said the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008 was “a mistake” — the sort of mistake Mitt Romney should avoid.

In an interview with ABC News, Cheney said Sen. John McCain’s choice of the relatively inexperienced Palin was one “I don’t think was well handled.”

In choosing a running mate, Cheney said, “there are two lists. There is the big list. And it’s got a lot of folks on it.”

To make the smaller list, he said, “the test . . . has to be, ‘Is this person capable of being president of the United States?’ ”

Putting electoral considerations over qualifications is not wise, Cheney told ABC’s Jon Karl in an interview from Cheney’s ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo., to be aired Monday on ABC news programs and on “Nightline.”

“Those are important issues, but they should never be allowed to override that first proposition. That was one of the problems McCain had,” Cheney said.

“I like Governor Palin,” Cheney said of the former Alaska governor. “I’ve met her. I know her. . . . Attractive candidate. But based on her background, she’d only been governor for, what, two years. I don’t think she passed that test . . . of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake.”

Cheney, who is recovering from heart transplant surgery in March, is an old hand at vetting vice-presidential aspirants. He helped Gerald R. Ford and George W. Bush in their searches. He then became Bush’s vice president, serving two terms.

Four years ago, Romney lost out to Palin in the veepstakes. This year Palin, who flirted with a 2012 presidential run, is not believed to be under consideration as a potential running mate. She has not responded to Cheney’s comments.

Romney has told confidants that he does not want to put a candidate through an intensive review unless he is considering him or her for the job.

Back on May 15th, Nebraska State Senator Deb Fischer won the Republican nomination for US Senate in a race against the Attorney General Jon Bruning. Palin endorsed Sen. Fisher. AG Bruning was an establishment Republican, who was endorsed by the GOP Elite.

The next day, on his radio program, Rush Limbaugh had this to say:

We’re talking about Palin, Romney’s VP, the Republican establishment. Folks, I don’t know what the word is. It’s not criminal, but what’s being done here to Sarah Palin, what continues to be done, I tell you, it’s gonna come back and bite these people who are doing it. Here’s an example. Mike Allen at The Politico kicked off this whole story last week by writing this. “One Republican official familiar with the campaign’s thinking –” meaning Romney, the Romney campaign’s thinking “– said it will be designed to produce a pick who is safe and, by design, unexciting — a deliberate anti-Palin. The prized pick, said this official: an ‘incredibly boring white guy.'” That’s the prized Romney pick.

I’m gonna tell you where this is coming from. This is coming from consultants who ran McCain’s campaign who are trying to make sure they don’t get the blame for McCain losing. By the way, one might say that in the ’08 campaign, was it not the boring white guy who lost? Might it also be said that it was the boring white guy who wasn’t able to engender any passion or enthusiasm among voters for his own campaign? Might it be said that it was Palin who did all that? So these people who mismanaged Palin in the first place are now trying to protect themselves, their reputations, their future paychecks within the Republican Party by blaming the ’08 loss on Palin, not them.

Now, look. Sarah Palin knows this. This is the way politics works. That’s the business. This is not the first time that a defeat has attempted to be passed off to people so that blame doesn’t attach to the real culprits. It’s just happening, and what the real meaning of it is, is that the Republican establishment remains distant and detached from the voters of the Republican Party who are going to be the instruments of change, gonna be the people that really make things happen here.

And, as I wrote yesterday concerning the GOP Elite and their supporters, this erroneous belief in their own political punditry, masked by incessant political catch phrases and insults toward Reagan or “Social” Conservatives, is the reason why this upcoming Presidential Election has turned into a referendum against Obama, and not a groundswell in support of Romney.

In the last election, Sen. John McCain would not have done as well as he did without Sarah Palin.  Period.

And, that fact, scares Liberals and the GOP Elite out of their minds.

Christian American Conservatives and Chick-Fil-A

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

The fight for Ideological Control of our nation hit a flashpoint this week…as a couple of Liberal Mayors of Northern cities and the Mayor of San Francisco (of course) proclaimed that they would ban the Christian-owned Fast Food Chain, Chick Fil-A, from opening new restaurants in their cities, because their owner Dan Cathey, has voiced his opposition to Gay Marriage.

Say what?

Rush Limbaugh can’t believe this garbage, either:

What do we have? We have two mayors who are essentially Stalinist, who have had no problem whatsoever — not one problem at all — with going before the microphones and telling an American business, “You are not welcome here. And if you come here, you will be penalized or whatever the h!@l will happen.”

All because the guy who owns the outfit happens to be a publicly professed Christian who believes that “marriage” has a specific definition. Now, this is a classic example of a government destroying an institution that has promoted the kind of society we have had in the past and the kind of society we’ve always wanted. This is a direct assault. That’s a direct assault on Christianity. That is a direct assault on Christians. With economic punishment thrown in including threats from government officials that are in clear violation of the Constitution.

I read about it on conservative blogs, and I can’t believe what I’m reading! I’m reading intellectual treatises on, “Well, you know, they have the right to say these things, and the solution here is let Chick-Fil-A open a store in Chicago and let’s see if the people will visit it.” That’s not the reaction to have! The reaction to have is, “Who the h!@l do you think you are, Rahm Emanuel? Who the h!@l do you think you are? What country do you think you’re in?”

Now, we want to have an intellectual debate here over the First Amendment? “Well, the solution to this is to let Chick-Fil-A open a store”? Yeah, let Chick-Fil-A open a store with the mayor of Chicago threatening anybody who walks into one? Meanwhile, this company hires gays. They serve gays. They don’t discriminate! It’s just that the owner happens to be a publicly professed, witnessing Christian. My God, you would think that he’s the worst enemy Chicago ever had and the worst enemy Boston ever had!

Thirty years ago, if this woulda happened in this country, there would have been an uprising against Menino and Rahm Emanuel — or Daley, or whoever would have done it. Today we get intellectual debates on who’s got the right to do what and say what and say this and do that and do what where. The sense of proportion is all out of whack, and there’s no outrage. So, yeah, I fully understand losing institutions. We’re sitting by, and we are watching, every day, the institutions and traditions that have made this country great come under assault.

Day in and day out.

And I’ve been making that comment for 24 years. Too much of all of this has become nothing more than an opportunity for people to show how smart they are, how open-minded they are when they debate these things. Rather than having an actual, human, real-life reaction to this, which is, “This is outrageous!” The mayor of San Francisco. What is his name? I think his last name is Lee. The mayor of San Francisco got in on this, and he warned Chick-Fil-A, “You better not come here! You had better keep out!”

I am in stunned disbelief.

As usual, Rush is absolutely right. The Republican Power Brokers are just as out-of-touch with us average Americans as the Far Left-controlled Democrat Party is.

They don’t believe, as most Americans do, (and that’s why Reagan won) in the three-legged stool that is Conservatism. They believe that Conservatism can be re-defined to mean whatever they want it to mean…i.e. “fiscal” Conservatism.

This erroneous belief in their own political punditry, masked by incessant political catch phrases and insults toward Reagan or “Social” Conservatives, is the reason why this upcoming Presidential Election has turned into a referendum against Obama, and not a groundswell in support of Romney.

Additionally, I’ve noticed on Political Websites that there are several of his “supporters” who, seemingly, have made it their mission in life to alienate Reagan Conservatives,who believe in God and country.

That’s not a way to garner support for your candidate. In fact, it’s the very opposite of what they need to be doing.

Recently, Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin has been campaigning in Texas for Ted Cruz.  Gov. Palin has been attempting to fire up Conservatives to get them to come out and vote in November, for Conservative candidates.

And, while he’s not a Conservative, Gov. Palin will no doubt be supportive of Mitt Romney’s Campaign for President of these United States.

That’s all any of us can do, at this point, except stand behind the Conservative principles that Reagan laid out before us, and get the Manchurian President out of our house.

Regarding the Chick-Fil-A situation, America’s Pastor, Reverend Billy Graham, had this to say:

As the son of a dairy farmer who milked many a cow, I plan to ‘Eat Mor Chikin’ and show my support by visiting Chick-fil-A next Wednesday.

Wednesday, August 1st is National Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.

Go get yourself a sammich and some waffle fries and support this Christian American Business.

Oh….and to those who would rather American Christians go away and keep our mouths shut, and forego our faith for a Godless Political Ideology?

You guys are in for a shock. I’ve read The Book. I know how this ends.

Hallelujah. Amen.

 

DNC Campaign Strategy: Ignore Obama’s Record

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

You’re the Democratic National Committee. Your task: somehow getting the American public to re-elect President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

How in the world do you pull off something like that?

The local CBS affiliate in Washington checked out the DNC’s website to see how they plan on achieving the impossible:

If the Democratic National Committee’s strategy for victory is to muffle its own party’s achievements and focus more on slamming Republicans, it seems to be doing a good job on its website.

The DNC’s homepage has numerous attack ads against presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, far more than news touting President Obama’s accomplishments in office.

A review of the DNC’s homepage shows a majority of ads mocking Romney from “Romney’s Guide To International Diplomacy” following his comments that London might not be ready for the Olympics with the Twitter hashtag “RomneyShambles,” to attack ads highlighting “Mitt Romney’s $ecret $tash” of money in Swiss bank accounts and his tenure at Bain Capital.

But a visitor will have to dig through the site to find Obama’s signature accomplishments.

July 11 is the last post on the homepage to mention the president’s signature health care law, but in that instance, it’s a blog post about why Republicans shouldn’t have voted to repeal “Obamacare” for the 33rd time. Before that, users have to go back to last month to find the DNC page proclaiming a health care victory following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law as constitutional.

Obama made history by becoming the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriage, but to find it on the DNC homepage, one has to go through over 100 posts back to May when he first made the statement.

Instead of having Obama’s accomplishments readily available on the homepage, visitors need to scroll over to the “People” and “Issue” tabs to find his successes in office. CBSDC reached out to the DNC for comment.

Mathews Pierson, director of politics at CBS Local Media, said negative attack ads work better than presenting someone’s success.

“Everyone complains about negative campaigning, but we keep doing it for one really simple reason: it works,” Pierson told CBSDC. “The same voter who tells you he doesn’t want to see anymore of it will then tell you something bad about Mitt Romney that he certainly didn’t learn doing his own research. “

Pierson explained that constantly using attack ads on the DNC’s front page will help to “rev up activists.”

“Driving Romney’s negatives is working to engage activists and generate press coverage to keep pressing until it doesn’t,” Pierson said. “Also, while most of the public is tuned-out and hitting the beach, if every time they tune in they hear the negative Romney narrative it can solidify their opinion of him before they truly start paying attention to the race this fall.”

A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that Romney holds a 49 to 44 percent lead over Obama.

Accentuate the other guy’s negative campaign in order to overcome your own candidate’s ineptitude?

Errr…ummm…brilliant? No…that’s not the word. Liberal?  Yeah…that’s it. That’s how they approach everything (with thanks to John):

If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn`t buy one.
If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn`t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy.
A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a black man or Hispanic are conservative, they see themselves as independently successful.
Their liberal counterparts see themselves as victims in need of government protection.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a conservative reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
If a liberal reads this he will delete it and try to ban the use of email for everyone for life.

Finally, to add to this wonderful list:

If a Conservative, or in Romney’s case, a Moderate, runs for President, he tells you why you should vote for him.

If a Liberal (Obama) runs (again) for President, he tell you why the other candidate is horrible, completely ignoring his own horrible record.

I mean, which are you going to believe? Him…or your wallet?

The Muslim Brotherhood Has a Friend in Washington

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

The Godfather of all Islamic Terrorists may be hatching a plot to overthrow the governments of Arab countries around the Persian Gulf.

The Jerusalem Post has the story:

Dubai’s chief of police has warned of an “international plot” to overthrow the governments of Gulf Arab countries, saying the region needs to be prepared to counter any threat from Islamist dissidents as well as Syria and Iran.

The comments by Dahi Khalfan, one of the most outspoken security officials in the United Arab Emirates, follow the detention in the UAE since April of at least 20 dissidents, according to relatives of the detainees and activists.

“There’s an international plot against Gulf states in particular and Arab countries in general…This is preplanned to take over our fortunes,” Khalfan told reporters at a gathering late on Wednesday marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“The bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to take over our countries…The brothers and their governments in Damascus and North Africa have to know that the Gulf is a red line, not only for Iran but also for the Brothers as well.”

Most of the detainees since April are Islamists, targeted by an official clampdown amid concern they may be emboldened by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries such as Egypt.

UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning “crimes against the security of the state”.

“I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard because the wider these groups become, the higher probability there is for trouble,” Khalfan said on Wednesday.

“We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow Gulf governments in the long term.”

Meanwhile, back home, we may have a Muslim Brotherhood spy in our government…

Describing the accusations against her as “ugly” and “sinister,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., came to the defense of Huma Abedin, longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Last week five Republican members of the House of Representatives, including former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, made claims that Abedin’s family has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and questioned whether she is part of a nefarious conspiracy to harm the United States by influencing U.S. foreign policy with her high-level position at the State Department.

“The Departments Deputy, Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, has three family members – her late father, her mother and her brother – connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and /or organizations. Her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy making,” according to the the June 13th letter, signed by Reps. Bachmann, R-Minn., Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, Thomas Rooney, R-Fla., and Lynn Westmoreland, R-GA.

The letter was sent to Harold Geisel, the Deputy Inspector General at the Department of State, while similar copies were sent to the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The lawmakers point to a report by the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think tank, which makes the allegations about Abedin’s family ties and calls on the Deputy Inspector General of the Department of State to begin an investigation into the possibility that Abedin and other American officials are using their influence to promote the cause of the Muslim Brotherhood within the U.S. government.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took to the Senate floor today to rip apart his fellow Republicans’ accusations and came to the defense of Abedin, whom he calls a “fine and decent American,” after observing her work as both a long-time aide to Clinton while she was a Senator and as the Secretary of State.

“These sinister accusations rest solely on a few unspecified and unsubstantiated associations of members of Huma’s family, none of which have been shown to harm or threaten the United States in any way,” McCain said. “These attacks have no logic, no basis, and no merit and they need to stop. They need to stop now.”

McCain argued that there is no evidence to back up the claims by the House Republicans.

“To say that the accusations made in both documents are not substantiated by the evidence they offer is to be overly polite and diplomatic about it,” McCain said. “The letter in the report offer not one instance of an action, a decision or a public position that Huma has taken while at the State Department or as a member of then-Senator Clinton’s staff that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government.”

McCain said that no one, “not least a member of Congress,” should launch such a “degrading attack against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are an ignorance of that hey stand for.”

I thought that McCain was supposed to be a Republican?

I’m sure you remember Huma. She’s the bride of disgraced Former Democratic Congressman and Liberal talk show favorite Anthony Weiner. You know him…he’s the idiot who exposed his shortcomings by using his blackberry in an immodest way referred to as “sexting”.

What a leader among men. Such class.  Such panache. Such a putz.

And now, we’re finding out that Huma’s connected to the Muslim Brotherhood? 

I bet they had a good laugh about her goof of a husband, too.

The Aurora Massacre: Is Hollywood the Problem?

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, Politics5 Comments

Famous Hollywood Director Peter Bogdanovich (Targets, The Last Picture Show) weighed in a few months back about a disturbing trend he had noticed in the current crop of movies.

The Hollywood Reporter has the story:

People go to a movie to have a good time, and they get killed. It’s a horrible, horrible event. It makes me sick that I made a movie about it.

We made Targets 44 years ago. It was based on something that happened in Texas, when that guy Charles Whitman shot a bunch of people after killing his mother and his wife. Paramount bought it, but then was terrified by it when Martin Luther King was killed and Bobby Kennedy was killed. The studio didn’t want to release the film at all. So they released it with a pro-gun-control campaign, but that made the picture seem like a documentary to people, and it didn’t do too well.

It was meant to be a cautionary fable. It was a way of saying the Boris Karloff kind of violence, the Victorian violence of the past, wasn’t as scary as the kind of random violence that we associate with a sniper — or what happened last weekend. That’s modern horror. At first, some of the people [at The Dark Knight Rises] thought it was part of the movie. That’s very telling.

Violence on the screen has increased tenfold. It’s almost pornographic. In fact, it is pornographic. Video games are violent, too. It’s all out of control. I can see where it would drive somebody crazy.

I’m in the minority, but I don’t like comic book movies. They’re not my cup of tea. What happened to pictures like How Green Was My Valley or even From Here to Eternity? They’re not making those kind of movies anymore. They are either making tentpole pictures based on comic books or specialty pictures that you pray someone will go see.

The fact that these tentpole movies are all violent comic book movies doesn’t speak well for our society.

Obviously, there is violence in the world, and you have to deal with it. But there are other ways to do it without showing people getting blown up. One of the most horrible movies ever made was Fritz Lang’s M, about a child murderer. But he didn’t show the murder of the child. The child is playing with a rubber ball and a balloon. When the killer takes her behind the bushes, we see the ball roll out from the bushes. And then he cuts to the balloon flying up into the sky. Everybody who sees it feels a different kind of chill up their back, a horrible feeling. So this argument that you have to have violence shown in gory details is not true. It’s much more artistic to show it in a different way.

Today, there’s a general numbing of the audience. There’s too much murder and killing. You make people insensitive by showing it all the time. The body count in pictures is huge. It numbs the audience into thinking it’s not so terrible. Back in the ’70s, I asked Orson Welles what he thought was happening to pictures, and he said, “We’re brutalizing the audience. We’re going to end up like the Roman circus, live at the Coliseum.” The respect for human life seems to be eroding.

I disagree with the distinguished director concerning a few points.

Movies based on comic book heroes aren’t a cause of violence per se. When Christopher Reeve starred as Superman, there was not an outbreak of violence reported, nor has there been one after the current Marvel Superheroes Movies, including The Avengers.

The difference between those movies and The Batman Trilogy? They weren’t dark in tone. They were uplifting. Sure, there was plenty of violence in them, but, it happened to “the bad guys”, as a comeuppance.

The Batman movies, take an already dark and brooding character, and somehow, make everything that’s going on in the world around him, even darker than he is, as if there was no sunlight or hope in the everyday world.

I believe that the majority of Americans, Conservatives, have always had respect for human life.

However, we live in a time in our country where Traditional American ethics and values, including our Christian Faith, have been ridiculed and mocked by the Left and their Power Brokers as being antiquated, restrictive, ignorant, and even, bigoted.

And the majority of the movies which Hollywood has expectorated out in the last few years have reflected this skewed and intolerant view of Traditional American ethics and values.

For example, movies like Redacted, about the Iraq War, which Americans shunned like a Yoko Ono Concert.

When a movie is entertaining, and doesn’t try to run down our country, or teach anti-Christian or anti-American views and values, people turn out in droves, like they did in the case of “The Avengers”.

Americans are looking for another John Ford or Frank Capra, but instead, Hollywood’s giving us Tim Burton and Rob Zombie.