Tag: Cruz

A View From a Christian American Conservative Son of the South: The Politicians Don’t Need Us…Until It’s Time to Vote

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

Banning-Flags-600-LIAs a Son of the South, I am continuously amazed at some folks’ attitudes toward our beloved Dixie and all of us Followers of the Son of God, contained therein.

With all eyes focused on the South Carolina Primar Election, McClatchyDC.com has posted the following article…

ROBERTA, Ga.- Inside the Sunshine Coin Laundry near the Piggly Wiggly supermarket, Lagretta Ellington removed her family’s clothes from one of the large dryers and began to neatly fold them on a nearby table.

The air was moist and smelled of detergent. The floor was concrete. Her views of the presidential race were anything but. She was unsettled, and distrustful. The candidates just seemed like entertainers.
“I’m going to pray on it,” the 48-year-old Ellington said. “Hopefully, God will lead me in the right direction.”

In the South, now the pivotal battlefield of the 2016 presidential campaign, faith and politics walk the aisle together. And while Christians have always dominated American politics – Bernie Sanders this week became the first non-Christian ever to win a presidential primary in U.S. history – conservative Christians feel under siege.

Marriage is being redefined, and they’re being forced to go along. A new health care law mandates free contraception, even if it violates their core beliefs. Even the greeting “Merry Christmas” feels under assault.

Their anxiety and anger help explain the rise of Republican outsider candidates such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas (“Any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander in chief”) and even billionaire Donald Trump (“If I’m president, you’re going to see ‘Merry Christmas’ in department stores, believe me”), perhaps the unlikeliest of vessels for such support.

And their clout is at its peak right now.

In South Carolina, white evangelicals account for 51 percent of the likely Republican vote in the coming GOP primary. Six more Southern states, including Georgia, will vote on “Super Tuesday” March 1. Nearly 600 of the delegates chosen the first week of March will come from states where white evangelical Christians are a majority of the electorate, according to Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political newsletter from Larry J. Sabato and the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

And whether they pray at small chapels or sprawling megachurches, Christian conservatives across the South are driven by worries that their values are being threatened.

“Biblical values we would not be willing to compromise,” explained Dennis Lacy, lead pastor of North Highland Assembly of God in Columbus, Georgia.

“Do we not have any moral compass anymore?” said Dr. Randy Brinson, an evangelical Christian and physician in Montgomery, Alabama, who founded a group, Redeem the Vote, encouraging young people of faith to register and participate.

“Are we to say to people who have a more liberal viewpoint, ‘Does everything go?’ If there are no boundaries to things of moral behavior as Christians believe, if we throw out everything . . . there’s no more faith.”

June Bond, 61, a children’s advocate in Spartanburg, South Carolina, said many evangelical Christians “feel extremely pressured.” But she also tries to imagine what it must be like on the other side of the cultural divide.

“It’s one thing to listen to what our leaders say to us, but we also need to look at the other side and say, ‘What if . . . ?’ ” she said. “The South sometimes looks at things just kind of like, ‘This is what I was told.’ ”

Many say their objections to same-sex marriage are misunderstood.

It’s not “rooted in hostility and animus toward other people,” but because Christian conservatives believe marriage involves one man and one woman, said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM
David Cooke Jr., the Georgia district attorney for Bibb, Crawford and Peach counties, doesn’t buy the “under siege” mentality of his more conservative brethren. He’s an evangelical Christian, and a Democrat, which he said was not as rare as you might think.

“When you limit the gospel to gays and abortion, there’s not a whole lot of talk about taking care of the stranger and the orphan,” Cooke said, seated in his courthouse office in downtown Macon. “I think it shows that for so many folks it’s not really about the message of the faith. It’s about cultural Christianity.”

Religion has always been part of the South’s DNA, a legacy of its rural past.

It was the lifeblood of many communities, a cornerstone of the culture. In “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” author John Berendt’s widely popular book about a Savannah, Georgia, murder, he wrote, “If you go to Atlanta, the first question people ask you is, ‘What’s your business?’ In Macon they ask, ‘Where do you go to church?’ ”

It would never occur to someone that you didn’t, added Cooke, who met his wife at a Macon church.

When you limit the gospel to gays and abortion, there’s not a whole lot of talk about taking care of the stranger and the orphan. David Cooke Jr., an evangelical Democrat and Macon, Georgia, district attorney

Even today, the states of the old Confederacy – along with Utah and Oklahoma ‑ make up the most religious states in the country, according to a 2013 Gallup survey.

“Now change is on the doorstep, and many are worried about what it’s doing to their communities,” said Marc Farinella, a Democratic strategist who oversaw President Barack Obama’s successful 2008 campaign in North Carolina. “There is a sense that their way of life is under attack.”

Christian conservatives feel it deeply, and resent it.

“We live in a society that has a lot of respect for diverse opinion and views, but it seems like anytime Christians express theirs, they can be lampooned,” said Lacy, the Columbus pastor. “We’re kind of open game. You can criticize any Christian and not get into trouble. But you try to criticize any other sect or group, that’s politically incorrect.”

Pastor Lacy is absolutely correct. In fact, as a Former Radio News Director in College, I can detect a condescending tone in this whole article.

In every single presidential election, since I first voted for Future President Ronald Reagan in November of 1980, the voters of the South have proven to be the linchpin upon which all presidential candidates’ victory depended upon.

If you were able, as a Democrat or a Republican, to get the voters of the South to cast their ballots for you, you became the President of the United States of America.

The South, to this day, remains essential to winning the White House.

The Liberals in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, alike, or the Vichy Republicans, as I call them, are all too aware of this political fact.

However, those who believe that the South, in the Year of Our Lord 2016, is still backwards, or somehow inferior to their point of view, or political ideology, jump at every opportunity to negate a period of our history in which American blood on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line was shed in combat.

For example, since we are on the subject of South Carolina…

Why did these Professional Politicians, Democrat and Republican,  shiftd the focus of the nation away from the mental illness of the sociopath who gunned down 9 innocent Christians at a Wednesday Night Church Service in Charleston, South Carolina, shifting our  country’s attention, instead, to the perceived offensive nature of the Battle Flag of the Army of Virginia?

Simple: Political Expediency.

By marginalizing the South through this effort, American Liberals, from President Barack Hussein Obama on down the line, were hoping to diminish and possibly negate the leverage that Southern States have in molding the Political Landscape of America.

Even after 7 plus years under a Far Left President, America is still a Center-Right Nation, in which Christians comprise 75$ of the population.

Through their efforts to make an inanimate object responsible for the death of the Pastor and 8 members of Emanuel AME Church, these politicians and their minions were hoping to swing the Political Pendulum toward their side of the Political Aisle.

They thought that, if somehow, they could place the Southern States in a “bad light” and at a Political Disadvantage, that perhaps our voice in the political affairs of this nation, would not carry as much weight.

Plus, between you and me and the water cooler, Liberals in the Northern and Western States remain ticked off that both American and International Businesses are still relocating to the South, where the climate is friendlier, the Unions have not made the cost of doing business unprofitable, and, where Old-Fashioned American Work Ethic still exists.

Just sayin’.

But, I digress…

Unfortunately for all of the Establishment-Preferred Presidential Hopefuls, being a Christian Conservative, including being one of us dreaded “Evangelicals”, means that while we all worship Christ as our Savior, we also each possess our own FREE WILL.

Unlike Modern Liberals, including Socialism-embracing Millennials, we are not a part of a Hive-Mind. We think for ourselves, voting for the candidate whom we believe will be the best leader for our nation and who will be able to be more effective in cleaning up the unholy mess that Barack Hussein Obama has created, during his time in office.

As a Christian American Conservative, living in Northwest Mississippi, I have watched, like those featured in the article, as our viewpoints here in “Flyover Country”, have been scorned and ridiculed.

And now, the Professional Politicians (i.e., the “usual suspects”) want us to give them permission to continue their mistreatment of us.

Guess what?

It ain’t happenin’ this time, Skippy.

Check out the poll numbers.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

A KJ Op Ed: Vetting The Republican Candidates – Going After the Wrong “Enemy”

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

ctax=Campaigns^Expose^Viewers^Placement%2035743%20-%20Viewer (2) Sward-StoneFor those of us Conservatives, who are considering which candidate to vote for in the 2016 presidential Election, our cup runneth over.

We literally have a smorgasbord of candidates, who are still campaigning, less than 10 months from the big day.

And, therein lies the problem.

While candidates seem to be more interested in attacking each other, than the Democrats, potential Republican Voters are following suit, and attacking each other, all over the World Wide Web.

To quote the Master of Malapropisms, the late, great Yogi Berra,

It’s deja vu, all over again.

During the Presidential Elections of 2008 and 2012, while we were busy “vetting” the Republican Candidates, in search of their “bonafides”, Liberal Democrats were solidly behind their Great Black Hope”, the “Clean and Articulate” (Biden’s words, not mine) Barack Hussein Obama, which resulted in an unvetted, untested, incompetent, petulant, anti-American metrosexual assuming the role of “Leader of the Free World”.

Why have we and why are we “eating our own”?

  • Unlike the present-day version of the Democrat Party, which has moved to the Far Left of the Political Spectrum, Republicans, both Conservative and “Moderate”, still think for themselves. We all have our own opinion on the criteria necessary for a successful American President. Democrats, like the Proletariat of the old Soviet Union, possess a “Hive-Mind” mentality, voting en masse for whoever is deemed “good for the Party”.
  • There is a Generational Gap, in regards to morality and ethical behavior, which is a determining factor as to each Republican’s own definition of “Conservatism”, which is a determining factor as to whom their candidate of choice will be. For example, in my case, as a 57-year old Reagan Conservative, I judge Presidential Primary Candidates, and those who vote for them, by the following criteria, as defined by Matt Barber…

Ronald Reagan often spoke of a “three-legged stool” that undergirds true conservatism. The legs are represented by a strong defense, strong free-market economic policies and strong social values. For the stool to remain upright, it must be supported by all three legs. If you snap off even one leg, the stool collapses under its own weight.

A Republican, for instance, who is conservative on social and national defense issues but liberal on fiscal issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative socialist.

A Republican who is conservative on fiscal and social issues but liberal on national defense issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative dove.

By the same token, a Republican who is conservative on fiscal and national defense issues but liberal on social issues – such as abortion, so-called gay rights or the Second Amendment – is not a Reagan conservative. He is a socio-liberal libertarian.

Put another way: A Republican who is one part William F. Buckley Jr., one part Oliver North and one part Rachel Maddow is no true conservative. He is – well, I’m not exactly sure what he is, but it ain’t pretty. 

  • Another problem, which Republican voters are facing, is the fact that there are no Perfect Candidates. Ronald Reagan is not running for President. Each of the Top Tier Candidates all have their own  good points. Unfortunately, they all have their weak points, as well, just like we voters do. Voters support those candidates whose stance of the important issues most closely resembles their own, a fact which helps to explain why Trump and Cruz are leading the pack.
  • Our defensiveness toward the Republican Candidates comes from the fact that the Republican Establishment has, in several instances, abandoned and betrayed those who placed them in office: average American Voters, living out here in the heartland (or, as those up in the Halls of Power refer to it as, “Flyover Country”). The reaction of Republican Voters in this Primary Season, is, above all else, a repudiation of betrayal of the Republican-held House and Senate. While compromise is, indeed, a part of Washington Politics, capitulation to the opposition party is not. Because of the actions of the Republican Establishment, average Americans have become hyper-vigilant to discrepancies in what a candidate says in the present, and, their actions in the past.

And that, gentle reader, is why we, as Conservatives and potential voters for the Republican Candidate, are allowing the Main Stream Media to lead us around by the nose, “vetting” our candidates, by cause more consternation and infighting, than a bunch of texting teenage girls on Prom Night.

Because of our concerns that whoever winds up as the Republican Candidate for the Office of President of the United States of America represent US, the average American Voter, we are literally, presently, at war with one another, mirroring the infighting going on between the candidates, using the platforms given to us via Political Websites and Facebook Pages.

While vetting the candidates through the use of the New Media is a good thing, it must not be used to tear down each other and destroy our opportunity to undo the damage that years of “Progressive” Political Control in DC has done to our country.

Our mission, now, as Americans, is to decide our own destiny. 

We must not let the Political Elite, on BOTH sides of the aisle, nor the Main Stream Media, pick our candidate for us.

Ronald Reagan once said,

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.

A charge to keep WE have.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

The Charleston Church Massacre: When Gun Control Fails, Blame the Confederate Flag

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

CharlestonThe aftermath of last Wednesday Night’s Massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charlotte continues…

FoxNews.com reports that

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said on Sunday he wouldn’t be “baited” into the politically charged Confederate flag debate in South Carolina, joining a group of fellow GOP White House contenders that says the state must decide.

“Everyone’s being baited with this question as if somehow that has anything to do whatsoever with running for president,” Huckabee, a 2008 presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “My position is it most certainly does not.”

Fellow GOP candidate and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum took a similar position.

“We should let the people of South Carolina go through the process of making this decision,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Their remarks came a day after GOP presidential hopeful Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also said South Carolina should decide whether to allow the Confederate battle flag to fly above the capital grounds.

Walker also said he would honor a request by Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, to reserve comment on whether the flag is a symbol of racism.

He said he would wait until after the funerals for the nine black people fatally shot Wednesday by a white man in a historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C. — the incident that re-ignited the flag controversy.

South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott, one of only two black U.S. senators, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he also would wait until after the funerals to comment.

Flag supporters say it is a symbol of Confederate and southern heritage while critics argued it is a relic of white supremacy.

In 2000, civil right activists got the flag removed from inside the South Carolina statehouse and from atop the capitol dome. However, the flag still flies on the capital grounds in Columbia, S.C.

The controversy has since become an issue in presidential campaign politics, in large part because South Carolina is one of three early-voting states in which defeat or even a poor showing can end a White House bid.

“I don’t think you could say that the presence of one lunatic racist, who everybody in this country feels contempt for, and no one is defending, is somehow evidence of the people of South Carolina,” Huckabee also said Sunday, regarding the church tragedy and alleged shooter Dylann Roof. “I don’t personally display it anywhere, that’s the issue for the people of South Carolina.”

He also said that voters don’t want the presidential candidates to “weigh in on every little issue in all 50 states that might be an important issue to the people of those states, but it’s not on the desk of the president.”

On Saturday, GOP presidential candidate and senior GOP South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the flag is “part of who we are,” while acknowledging it might be “time to revisit” the decision to allow it to fly over the state capitol grounds.

The same day, another Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, touted what his state did in 2001 about the flag, a year after the South Carolina decision.

“In Florida, we acted, moving the flag from the state grounds to a museum where it belonged,” he said in a statement. “I’m confident [South Carolina] will do the right thing.”

Also this weekend, 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for the flag to be removed from the state capitol grounds.

“To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred,” he tweeted. “Remove it now to honor #Charlestonvictims.” 

First off, boys and girls. how does denying a part of Southern History and Heritage honor the innocent Christian American Victims of a madman?

Do all of these Liberals, and spineless Republicans, “Mittens” included, actually know…or care…to learn the truth about the “Stars and Bars”?

Not all of the Republicans are spineless, though. Some actually have the guts to make sense on the subject.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told The Associated Press in a statement that the last thing the people of the southern state need is “people from outside of the state coming in and dictating how they should resolve it.”

The presidential candidate said he understands both sides of the debate – including those who see the flag as a symbol of “racial oppression and a history of slavery” and “those who want to remember the sacrifices of their ancestors and the traditions of their states – not the racial oppression, but the historical traditions.”

It has been absolutely amazing…and disappointing to watch the reaction of Professional Politicians, Pundits, and Provocateurs, in the aftermath of the savage mass murder of 9 innocent Christian Americans, who were participating in Wednesday Night’s Service in Emanuel AME Church in the heart of Charleston, NC.

First, Al Sharpton scurried his race-baiting as…err…self to Charleston, searching for the nearest camera…and deep pocketbook. Then, Gerry Rivers (Geraldo Rivera), took the Redeye Flight on in, continuing his never-ending quest to somehow regain some relevancy…and to make Americans forget about Al Capone’s Vault.

Meanwhile, all of the self-serving politicians started to chime in.

Obama, with his whining about Gun Control, energized his Hive-Mind Base, who immediately hit the Internet, including Facebook, with all sorts of stupid blogs and memes, attempting to buoy the rapidly-sinking Ship of State, the USS(R) Obama.

Seeing that Americans still were not buying into the Marxist-inspired Gun Control Scenario, they then, in their increasing frustration, as they watched the Christians of Charleston band together, as human shields, preventing them from making any political hay over this senseless violence, turned their attention to another lost cause, the attempted removal of the Confederate Battle Flag as the State Flag of South Carolina.

Why? Because, they are shrieking, Mittens included, that…THAT FLAG IS RAAACIIIST!

Did I miss something? Did a flag flown in the War Between the States, some 150 years ago, somehow come to life, and malevolently and maliciously murder 9  Christian Black Americans, last Wednesday Night, during their Church Service?

Why…no. A young sociopath did.

So, why are Liberals on both sides of the aisle, focusing on this, instead of the problem of how America deals with those struggling with mental illness?

Simple: Deflection.

Liberal Democrats are deflecting attention away from their failures, including their biggest one, who currently saunters down to the Oval Office at 10:30 a.m. every weekday, and puts his feet up on the desk.

Liberals Republicans are attempting to stay relevant, by sucking up to Liberal Democrats.

Republican Presidential Hopefuls are scared to death that they might say something wrong.

Meanwhile, American Families, all over the country, are dealing with the reality of family members fighting mental illness.

And, Mitt and his fellow Vichy Republicans still can’t figure out why Conservatives in the Heartland will not vote for them, in Presidential Elections.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Senator Ted Cruz: “The Way We Win Is With Bold Colors And Not Pale Pastels.”

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

tedcruz2016 will be here before we know it. So far, the potential Republican Presidential Candidates are less than exciting, to say the least.

A certain Conservative Firebrand from deep in the heart of Texas has some strong opinions about the future direction of the Republican Party.

Politico.com has the story…

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took a swipe at Mitt Romney on Monday, saying that Republicans’ path to the presidency doesn’t cut through “the mushy middle.”

Cruz was asked about Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, by reporters following the senator’s keynote address at a Heritage Foundation summit.

“There are some who believe that a path to Republican victory is to run to the mushy middle, is to blur distinctions,” Cruz said. “I think recent history has shown us, that’s not a path to success. It doesn’t work. It’s a failed electoral strategy. I very much agree with President Ronald Reagan that the way we win is by painting with bold colors and not pale pastels and I think that’s gonna be a debate Republicans are gonna have over the next two years.”

“It is certainly a debate that I intend to participate in vigorously,” the first-term Texas senator added.

Cruz also called on the Republican majority in Congress not to back down from the agenda on which its members ran and laid out a 10-point plan for the country that included renewed efforts at repealing Obamacare and abolishing the IRS in a keynote address at the Heritage Foundation on Monday afternoon.

“We need to do everything humanly possible to repeal Obamacare,” including a Senate vote on full repeal followed by piecemeal votes on repealing the least popular components of the Affordable Care Act, Cruz said on the first day of a two-day summit branded “Opportunity for All: Favoritism to None.” (Heritage also laid out an agenda in a book of the same name.)

Cruz is one of about two dozen conservative lawmakers scheduled to address the summit, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a potential rival for the GOP presidential nomination.

The senator also hit other conservative hot-button issues — calling for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, passage of balanced budget and term limits amendments to the Constitution, auditing the federal reserve and repealing the Common Core educational standards.

Cruz ended his remarks with a criticism of the Obama administration’s foreign policy, characterizing it as too soft on Iran’s nuclear program and on Islamic terrorism. “They target the West,” he said, “and yet you cannot win a war against radical Islamic terrorism with an administration that is unwilling to utter the words radical Islamic terrorism. These were not a bunch of ticked-off Presbyterians.”

I’m not shy about stating that I like Senator Ted Cruz. He is a straight shooter, who is not afraid to tell it like it is.

The Republican Establishment, or Vichy Republicans, as I have dubbed them, are pushing potential Presidential Candidates for 2016 whose platforms are so similar to those of their potential Democrat Opponents are to be virtually indistinguishable.

Oblivious of their past failures (i.e., Dole, McCain, and Romney), while pursuing their milksop Political Philosophy, the Vichy Republicans, or GOPe, as an internet friend has named them, cling to their mission to hold onto their cushy Seats of Power, recently given to them last November by us, their Conservative Base, by playing an old, tired political game.

Make no mistake, they will defend the Washingtonian Status Quo to their last breath, and savage anyone who threatens it, with the help of their allies from “across the aisle”, the Democrats and their minions in the Main Stream media. Look at how they have attacked Former Alaskan Governor and Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin., and, in recent years, the Republican Senator, Ted Cruz of Texas.

They have called them both everything but Children of God.

However, they are not the first Conservative Republican Politicians to be attacked in this manner, in this generation.  That honor belonged to the greatest United States President in our lifetime. the great man that Senator Cruz referenced in his interview.

On March 1, 1975, the Great Communicator and Future President of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan, spoke the following words at the 2nd Annual CPAC Convention. He may as well have been speaking yesterday.

I don ‘t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party” — when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.

It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls. When have we ever advocated a closed-door policy? Who has ever been barred from participating?

Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?

Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.

Let us also include a permanent limit on the percentage of the people’s earnings government can take without their consent.

Let our banner proclaim a genuine tax reform that will begin by simplifying the income tax so that workers can compute their obligation without having to employ legal help.

And let it provide indexing — adjusting the brackets to the cost of living — so that an increase in salary merely to keep pace with inflation does not move the taxpayer into a surtax bracket. Failure to provide this means an increase in government’s share and would make the worker worse off than he was before he got the raise.

Let our banner proclaim our belief in a free market as the greatest provider for the people. Let us also call for an end to the nit-picking, the harassment and over-regulation of business and industry which restricts expansion and our ability to compete in world markets.

Let us explore ways to ward off socialism, not by increasing government’s coercive power, but by increasing participation by the people in the ownership of our industrial machine.

Our banner must recognize the responsibility of government to protect the law-abiding, holding those who commit misdeeds personally accountable.

And we must make it plain to international adventurers that our love of peace stops short of “peace at any price.”

We will maintain whatever level of strength is necessary to preserve our free way of life.

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.

I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.

Timeless Advice.

Here’s some from ol’ KJ, if I may be so bold: you members of the Republican Establishment need to climb down off of your bar stools at the Congressional Country Club, and travel outside the Echo Chamber of the Beltway, where actual, average Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, trying to provide for their families, while attempting to make a better life for their children and grandchildren.

Come on down to Mississippi and sit a spell and have some barbecue, sweet tea, and ‘nana puddin’ with us average Americans, instead of hanging out with Obama at the White House and partaking of Arugula and Wagyu Beef.

You want to know why folks like Sarah Palin, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz are so popular with average, real-life Americans (as opposed to statistics in an anonymous poll)?

Check out the pictures from October 2013, of the Veterans March on Washington. They were there, GOPe. Why weren’t you?

It’s one thing to talk the talk. It’s another thing to walk the walk.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

Obama’s Obamacare Victory Dance: Figures Lie and Liars Figure

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

ObamalyingYesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama, in a scene which I’m sure was reminiscent of Lenin addressing the Bolsheviks after the murder of the Russian Royal Family, spiked the over-inflated football, known as Obamacare, over his own ever-moving goalposts. No small feat, that.

From the start, Obama and his minions in his Administration, the Congress, and the sycophantic Main Stream Media, have all lied about Obamacare. ..starting with the preliminary information posted, “back in the day”, on change.gov…

The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors, and plans. Under the Obama-Biden plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats.

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year. If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

Make Health Insurance Work for People and Businesses — Not Just Insurance and Drug Companies.

  • Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums.
  • Create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees.
  • Lower costs for businesses by covering a portion of the catastrophic health costs they pay in return for lower premiums for employees.
  • Prevent insurers from overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance and invest in proven strategies to reduce preventable medical errors.
  • Make employer contributions more fair by requiring large employers that do not offer coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of their employees’ health care.
  • Establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage.
  • Ensure everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums.

Reduce Costs and Save a Typical American Family up to $2,500 as reforms phase in:

  • Lower drug costs by allowing the importation of safe medicines from other developed countries, increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs, and taking on drug companies that block cheaper generic medicines from the market.
  • Require hospitals to collect and report health care cost and quality data.
  • Reduce the costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees.
  • Reform the insurance market to increase competition by taking on anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care.
  • The Obama-Biden plan will promote public health. It will require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and increase state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

A Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility: Barack Obama will pay for his $50 – $65 billion health care reform effort by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.

Sounds wonderful, Huh?

Time for a REALITY CHECK!

Dailymail.co.uk reports that

A triumphant President Barack Obama declared Tuesday his signature medical insurance overhaul a success, saying it has made America’s health care system ‘a lot better’ in a Rose Garden press conference.

But buried in the 7.1 million enrollments he announced in a heavily staged appearance is a more unsettling reality.

Numbers from a RAND Corporation study that has been kept under wraps suggest that barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans – nowhere near 7.1 million – have paid for new policies and joined the ranks of the insured by Monday night.

Others were already insured, including millions who lost coverage when their existing policies were suddenly cancelled because they didn’t meet Obamacare’s strict minimum requirements.

Still, he claimed that ‘millions of people who have health insurance would not have it’ without his insurance law.’

‘The goal we’ve set for ourselves – that no American should go without the health care they need … is achievable,’ Obama declared.

The president took no questions from reporters, but celebrated the end of a rocky six-month open-enrollment period by taking pot shots at Republicans who have opposed the law from the beginning as a government-run seizure of one-seventh of the U.S. economy.

‘The debate over repealing this law is over,’ he insisted. ‘The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.’

The president also chided conservatives ‘who have based their entire political agenda on repealing it,’ and praised congressional Democrats for their partisan passage of the law without a single GOP vote.

‘We could not have done it without them, and they should be proud of what they’ve done,’ Obama boasted, in a clear nod to November’s contentious elections in which Republicans are expected to make large gains on an anti-Obamacare platform because of the law’s general lack of popularity.

Yeah…they should….if they don’t try to replace it with a plan of their own.

The Republican Establishment needs to hammer the following information, courtesy of The New York Post, home…with a vengeance.

“As a result of the ACA, between 6 million and 7 million fewer people will have employment-based insurance coverage each year from 2016 through 2024 than would be the case in the absence of the ACA.”

ObamaCare’s key selling point was that it would give coverage to a significant number of the 30-plus million Americans who lack it. Now the CBO is telling the American people that a decade from now, 6 million-plus of their countrymen won’t get health care through their employers who otherwise would have.

Even more damaging is this projection: “About 31 million nonelderly residents of the United States are likely to be without health insurance in 2024, roughly one out of every nine such residents.”

Why? Because, in selling the bill to the American people in a nationally televised September 2009 address, President Obama said the need for ObamaCare was urgent precisely because “there are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.”

Now the CBO is saying that in 10 years about the same number of people will lack insurance as before. This, after new expenditures of as much as $2 trillion and a colossal disruption of the US medical system.

If that’s not startling enough, there’s also the telling projection about ObamaCare’s affect on employment — “a decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024.”

Overall employment will rise, the report says, but not steady, secure, long-term assured employment. The possibility of securing government-provided healthcare without employment will give people a new incentive to avoid it. “The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply,” the report says.

Indeed, overall, between 2017 and 2024, the actual amount of work done in this country will decline by as much as 2 percent.

With their continuous lies about the triumphant nationwide coverage of Obamacare, the Democrats should be easy targets in the November Mid-Term Elections, if the Vichy Republicans echo the message of Senator Ted Cruz…

The bulk of the people who are signing up had health insurance to begin with — and, you know what? They probably had their insurance canceled because of Obamacare ’cause we know that over six million people had their health insurance canceled because of Obamacare. It is abundantly clear this thing isn’t working. It has caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, to be forced into part-time work, to lose their health insurance, or to see their premiums skyrocket. It is the essence of pragmatism to recognize this thing isn’t working. Let’s start over. Let’s repeal every word of it.

Common Sense. Isn’t that a breath of fresh air? It’s sorely needed given what Obama was shoveling yesterday.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Shutdown: The Million Vet March

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

veterans marchYesterday was a very special day in this country. Our Brightest and Best, along with other Patriotic Americans, including Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, and Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, gathered for a celebration of American Freedom, and a protest against tyranny.

Per foxnews.com…

Veterans marched on Sunday in Washington in protest of the partial government shutdown that has kept them and other Americans from visiting war memorials across the country, with support from several star conservatives.

“This is the people’s memorial,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told a crowd of several hundred gathered near the WWII Memorial on the closed National Mall, which has become a national symbol of the shutdown and the country’s response. “Simple question: Why is the federal government spending money to keep veterans out of the memorial? Why did they spend money to keep people out of Mount Vernon, Mount Rushmore? Our veterans should be above political games.”

Veterans, including many in wheelchairs, took down police barricades and entered the memorial at about midday as others took the protest to the edge of the White House South Lawn.

“Today somebody’s wife [or] husband is dead in Afghanistan. Is somebody going to pay her husband [or] his wife or their children?” one protester shouted at the White House, referring to the partial shutdown cutting off benefits for the survivors of military personnel.

Some of the metal barricades were carried the roughly half-mile walk from the memorial to the White House, where they were left near the fence in front of Pennsylvania Avenue.

A man was arrested at the event in connection with bringing at least one gun in a bag.

A witness named Jacob Reed told Fox News the man was standing in line to talk to Washington Republican Rep. David G. Reichert.

Reed said a police officer asked the man what he was doing, then asked him to take his bag off his back. The man complied and said the bag contained a bunch of firearms, at which point he was handcuffed and taken into custody.

Cruz was joined by 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on a gray, rainy day in the nation’s capital.

“Veterans have proven they are not timid. And we will not be timid in calling out anybody that uses the military as pawns,” Palin told the crowd assembled at the Million Vet March on Memorials. “We can only be America, home of the free, if we are America, home of the brave.”

Protesters shouting “U.S.A.” and “Tear down these walls” put the blame squarely on President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders.

“In a mean-spirited fit of selfish anger, Barack Obama has shut down our nation’s war memorials,” march organizers said in a press release. “And he has declared open war on our honored veterans. The World War II memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Obama has shut them all down to force his will on the House of Representatives and, frankly, to get revenge on the American people who oppose ObamaCare and his other naked power grabs.”

As America’s Veterans were exercising their Constitutional Rights, where was the Commander-in-Chief? Was he negotiating with Republicans to end the Government Shutdown? Did he go outside to address the tumultuous crowd outside his front door?

Oh, heck no.

According to reuters.com…

Just before noon, the White House gave the pool of reporters and photographers who travel with the president notice that it would be highly unlikely that Obama would leave the White House or speak publicly for the rest of the day.

Senator Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, was slated to hold talks on Sunday with his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, about how much to raise the debt ceiling, and how to end the ongoing government shutdown, now in its 13th day.

Obama made a series of high-profile public appearances during the early days of the shutdown, where he sought to blame Republicans for the fiscal impasse.

But Obama has stayed away from television cameras since he began meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon.

Vice President Joe Biden, who has close relationships with lawmakers who he served with during his long service in the U.S. Senate, also has stayed out of the public eye.

Biden’s schedule for the weekend showed that he and his wife Jill Biden would spend time at Camp David, the presidential retreat in rural Maryland.

“Maybe we need to get Joe Biden out of the witness protection program,” Republican Senator John McCain said on CBS Television’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday morning, alluding to Biden’s legendary ability to clinch deals with Republicans.

Obama’s favorite President, Abraham Lincoln, had an Open Door Policy at the White House. Obama has just the opposite. Using the Sequester as an excuse, he stopped all public tours of the White House. However, that has not stopped him from entertaining lobbyists and friends, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

The protesters yesterday were met by Park Rangers in riot gear, mounted police, and helicopters, with armed men hanging off of the sides.

It was rumored that one of those helicopters took Obama away from the White House, in flight from the American Citizens he is supposed to be serving.

Obama’s punitive measures which he has unnecessarily taken against American Citizens, under the guise of the Government Shutdown, are the reason for the march, yesterday.

If Obama was in any hurry to undo these actions, he would have entered into negotiations with the Republicans to end the Shutdown.

However, being the petulant man-child that he is, he is not finished with his temper tantrum, yet.

Thanks to a bunch of American Heroes,though, he has some “Barry-cades” outside his front door to build a playpen with.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Senator Ted Cruz: Filibustering for Freedom

On By kingsjesterIn Politics10 Comments

Ted-Cruz-filibuster-SeussWe’re going to be gifted with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it, but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes … same sentence … with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect by the government, which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare — all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke.” – Dr. Barbara Ruth Bellar

As I write this post, Senator Ted Cruz, along with help for a few of his colleagues is holding the Senate Floor, speaking against the ruination of the finest Healthcare System in the world, under the monstrosity known as Obamacare, which is scheduled to begin October 1st..

To summarize where we are at…

The freshman senator took the floor Tuesday afternoon promising to speak “until I am no longer able to stand” and his effort continued overnight, usually with just two other senators with him in the Senate chamber.

By 5 a.m. Wednesday, the length of Cruz’s marathon discourse had surpassed more traditional talking filibusters delivered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in March and a roughly 14-hour filibuster delivered by the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) in 1964.

As he outlined his opposition to the health-care law, Cruz’s hours of oratory touched a broad mix of subjects and sources, ranging from lyrics from a song by country music star Toby Keith; excerpts from the book, “Atlas Shrugged,” a favorite of libertarians; quotations from the popular reality television show, “Duck Dynasty;” the unemployment rate among African American teenagers; how his father, Rafael Cruz, used to make green eggs and ham for breakfast; a recent acceptance speech by actor Ashton Kutcher at an awards show; and the restaurants Denny’s, Benihana and White Castle.

At one point Tuesday night, Cruz opted to read bedtime stories to his two young daughters, who he said were home in Texas watching television with his wife. Cruz first read “King Solomon’s Wise Words,” from the Book of Proverbs and then the Dr. Seuss classic, “Green Eggs and Ham,” saying that it was one of his favorite children’s books.

Several times Cruz read supportive messages sent to his office via Twitter. He frequently noted that James P. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union, has warned that the new health-care law may create “nightmare scenarios” for employers.

If Hoffa is correct, then Cruz said that “senators shouldn’t be asleep when the nation is undergoing a nightmare.”

Several like-minded Senate conservatives briefly joined Cruz for a time on the Senate floor Tuesday evening, including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), two 2016 presidential aspirants. Cruz could yield to colleagues for long-form questions but could not leave the floor or sit.

His most frequent partner was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who would offer the Texas senator a respite by speaking at times for almost an hour.

President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and Former President William Jefferson Clinton(Bubba, to you and me) spoke out against his efforts yesterday:

During an informal discussion at a Clinton Global Initiative Forum in New York City, Obama and former President Bill Clinton focused mostly on the policy details of the law, with the current commander in chief warning that Republicans have tried to “scare” people into declining to get health care coverage.

“You’ve had is an unprecedented effort that you’ve seen ramp up in the past month or so that those who have opposed the idea of universal health care in the first place — and have fought this thing tooth and nail through Congress and through the courts — trying to scare and discourage people from getting a good deal,” Obama said.

Acknowledging the unpopularity of some of the bill’s requirements, Obama said the Affordable Care Act’s mandates on businesses and individuals are integral to a working and fair system.

“People generally don’t like to be told you’ve to get health insurance. And employers don’t like to be told you’ve got to give your employees health insurance,” Obama said. “But as a society what we cannot do is to say you have no responsibilities whatsoever but you’ve got guaranteed coverage.”

Democrats are pushing to publicize the benefits of the new law before open enrollment begins on October 1. Some Republicans have tied a bill to keep the government running to a measure defunding the health care law’s implementation, making the possibility of a government shutdown loom.

As gallant an effort as this is, by this wonderful public servant, the only ones listening to him, are those few colleagues I mentioned…and the American People. The Liberal, socialistic Democrats and their allies, the Vichy Republicans, like John “Juan McAmnesty” McCain and his pet dog Lindsey “Tiddie” Graham, refused to “sully their hands” and listen as Sen. Cruz pleaded for the future of this Republic.

They forgot long ago that they were elected to be OUR voice in Washington. Now, they only speak for themselves, their lobbyists, and an agenda based upon the failed teachings of Karl Marx.

Sen. Cruz is a breath of fresh air. Capra-esque, in fact, and highly reminiscent of the indefatigable Jefferson Smith, in Capra’s classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. Smith (the late, great Jimmy Stewart) says the following as he’s delivering his filibuster:

Just get up off the ground, that’s all I ask. Get up there with that lady that’s up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won’t just see scenery; you’ll see the whole parade of what Man’s carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so’s he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That’s what you’d see. There’s no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties.

And that, when you get down to it, is what Senator Ted Cruz has been speaking about, since Tuesday afternoon: LIBERTY.

Our American Freedom was endowed by OUR CREATOR. Obamacare is simply a step toward a totalitarian regime taking it away.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Sarah Palin: The Re-emergence of the Arctic Fox

On By kingsjesterIn Politics7 Comments

pailinbiggulp2I remember when I first heard the name “Sarah Palin”. I was listening to Glenn Beck on the radio, while he speculated about the possible Vice-Presidential Candidates to run with John McCain on the Republican Ticket in 2008.

I said to myself,

Self, who is that? Sarah Who from where?

Now, almost 6 years later, there is no one in the United States who does not know who she is and what she stands for.

Back in July of 2009, Alaskan Fisherman, Dewey Whetsell, wrote the following list of her accomplishments.

1. Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor’s office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican’s “Corrupt Bastards Club” (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits The Democratsreacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and singing, “la la la la” (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar.

2. Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. So she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called “ACES.” Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them, “don’t let the door hit you in the stern on your way out.” They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.

3. The other thing she did when she walked into the governor’s office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as “pork.” She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the “when-hell-freezes-over” stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we’ll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor’s jet because it was extravagant.

Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor’s cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning – I imagine – that she’s packing heat herself). I’m still waiting to hear the names of those other governors.

4. Now, even with her much-ridiculed “gosh and golly” mannerism, she also managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn’t impress you, then you’re trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand.

5. For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn’t start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started. Then, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the court house. Alaska won again.

6. President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewable by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that’s just a cover-up. I’m still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won’t be holding my breath.

By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn’t let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better.

Of course, her influence and status as “kingmaker” is fast becoming the stuff of legend.

Of the 27 candidates Palin endorsed in 2009 and 2010, 22 of them earned victories.  

In 2012, she endorsed the following winners: Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, Pat Toomey, Nikki Haley, Deb Fischer, Jeff Flake and Ted Cruz.

Not too shabby, huh?

And, the great news is: Wait a minute, folks! You ain’t seen nothing, yet!

Yesterday, Sarah Palin’s Political Action Committee released a new video, titled, “Loaded For Bear”. The video contains snippets of her Conservative Political Action Conference speech from earlier this month as well as media coverage praising the speech and her string of successful past endorsements.

The Brilliant video use of media actually singing Palin’s praises helps back up her view that she doesn’t need a Fox News contract to get her point of view out there or to have the press talking about her.

Indeed.

Her magnificent speech at this year’s CPAC Conference set the stage and set Conservative hearts on fire, including mine.

Allow me to, once again, describe a seminal moment in her speech, which has become an instant Sarah Palin Classic:

She was bringing up some spot-on political points, when, all of the sudden, she got a mischievous smile on her face and began telling the audience how Todd gave her a wonderful gift the Christmas before last: a gun rack for her ATV. She talked about how cool it was, and then told the crowd that, for this Christmas, she gave Todd a new hunting rifle. She quipped,

Yep, Todd got the rifle and I got the rack.

As the stunned audience quickly broke out in thunderous laughter and applause, Sarah stood there, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, while, at the same time, reaching under the podium to retrieve a 44-ounce Super Big Gulp Diet Coke, which she slowly sipped from, still grinning, then holding it over her head , imitating Lady Liberty holding her torch. The picture of this seminal moment has since gone viral, much to the chagrin of Liberals, on both sides of the political aisle, whose heads have been exploding, like balloons which have blown up beyond their usefulness.

She also got a gig in on professional kingmaker, Karl Rove, he of the whiteboard fame, who was, unfortunately, not a very good prognosticator in the Presidential Election.

Rove made an appearance on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, where he basically called Governor Palin a quitter, attacking her like a petulant child , who had been criticized by his Mom, or a Liberal Democrat. Take your pick.

Between now and 2014, Liberals, from both sides of the aisle, along with their willing accomplices in the Main Stream Media, will be doing their dead-level best to sabotage her growing influence on the American Political Scene.

But, this is to be expected. Liberals will tell you whom they fear.

Until He Comes,

KJ