Biden is wrong: The Romney/Ryan ticket is Kennedy-esque

During last week’s vice-presidential debate, Vice President Joe Biden inadvertently raised an interesting question when he dismissed comparisons between Paul Ryan and John F. Kennedy: Which presidential ticket is demonstrating more political courage?

Profiles in Courage, John F. Kennedy’s 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, honored eight U.S. senators who risked their political careers by putting principle above politics. Kennedy wrote in Profiles that courage is “the most admirable of human virtues.” His brother Robert added in a forward to a later edition that President Kennedy was “fond of quoting Dante, who wrote, ‘the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.’”

The Obama-Biden ticket is maintaining its neutrality in the face of a great moral crisis that will have a profoundly negative impact on Americans for decades to come if not faced squarely and very soon. President Obama and his vice president continue to act as if the federal government has not run trillion-dollar-plus deficits the past four years. “We just need to get the wealthy to pay their fair share and along with war savings everything will be okay.”

Supposed war savings can be dismissed out of hand as a means of ending the massive deficits of the last four years. The war in Iraq is over (and has been), and the nation still had a $1.1 trillion deficit in FY 2012. The war in Afghanistan is winding down, but it costs a relatively modest $120 billion per year.

Paul Ryan rightly pointed out during the vice-presidential debate that there are not enough rich people and small businesses to pay for the current $3.8 trillion federal spending level (up $700 billion since Bush left office) much less Obama’s proposed “investments.” Romney noted at this week’s debate that the top five percent of taxpayers already contribute nearly 60 percent of all federal income tax revenue (and the top 10 percent of taxpayers pay higher taxes than their peers in most other industrialized nations). So Obama’s fair-share argument does not hold water. Raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to levels the president has proposed (from 35% to 39.6%) may raise an additional $50 billion and the new Obamacare taxes on investment income may raise a few billion more, but not if raising taxes on job creators — and the businesses they own and invest in — causes the overall economy to slow even more.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Price of Peace Remains Eternal Vigilance – Especially if Romney Wins

Conrad Hilton, the founder of the Hilton Hotel Empire, spent money out of his own pocket to run the following prayer in many major American magazines on July 4th, 1952:

Our Father in heaven,

We pray that You save us from ourselves.

The world that You have made for us, to live in peace, we have made into an armed camp. We live in fear of war to come. We are afraid of “the terror that flies by night, and the arrow that flies by day, the pestilences that walks in darkness and the destruction that wastes at noon-day.” (Psalm 91)

We have turned from You to go out selfish way. We have broken Your commandments and denied Your truth. We have left Your altars to serve the false gods of money and pleasure and power.

Forgive us and help us.

Now, darkness gathers around us, and we are confused in all our counsels. Losing faith in You, we lose faith in ourselves.

Inspire us with wisdom, all of us of every color, race and creed, to use our wealth, our strength to help our brother, instead of destroying him. Help us to do Your will as it is done in heaven, and to be worthy of Your promise of peace on earth. Fill us with new faith, new strength and new courage, that we may win the Battle for Peace.

Be swift to save us, dear God, before the darkness falls.

Again, Hilton ran that ad in major American magazines in 1952. For many of us today, that period of time represents an era of nostalgic Americana we are striving to return to. Yet Hilton looked around at what seems to us an idyllic era and saw many of the exact same evils and threats to freedom we are wringing our hands about today.

There’s a lesson here.

American Christians like me are faced with a temptation to think shortsightedly that I don’t believe any other Christians in the history of Christendom ever had to deal with. That’s because as Americans we are blessed with a level of prosperity, freedom, and mainstream acceptance – yes, even under President Obama – that no other era of Christians has ever had. This provides us the luxury of thinking primarily about the next election, the next fiscal quarter, or the next job review.

Before and outside America, Christians worldwide faced a level of persecution, pestilence, and oppression that compelled them to think long-term, because otherwise there was no hope.

I understand Obama represents an unprecedented lack of respect and agreement with the traditions and values that created American Exceptionalism. I also remember when we were told the same things about Bill Clinton and Michael Dukakis, too. The other side of this debate does not agree or understand American Exceptionalism otherwise they would support policies that support it. That will always be the case until we win the day, and that requires a long-term plan.

Part of that long-term plan is realizing the battle isn’t over on Election Day, but is just beginning. The other side has more diligence and perseverance. Whether they win or lose on November 6th, they will be right back in the fight on November 7th.

Will we do the same? Yes Mitt Romney has more respect for American Exceptionalism than Obama, and he clearly has a better idea of how a real economy works, but given Obama’s failures that’s not a tough threshold to clear. Still, as someone that owns his own show and is thus a business owner himself, I could certainly use a better economy for me and my employees as much as the next guy.

I also agree that it’s tough to be free unless you can provide for yourself, and the more the government interferes with that the more freedom is threatened. I do agree that based on his private sector experience and Obama’s public sector record, Romney is the superior choice for freedom in this area.

However, let us not forget that Romney has shown repeatedly that left on his own he cannot be trusted, as have most Republican politicians who talk a good game on the campaign trail. If a politician like Romney in the heat of a campaign is willing to turn on his own base (see Todd Akin and Chick-fil-a) when he thinks most needs us in the heat of a campaign, what will he do in office when he thinks he doesn’t?

We must do a better job of being diligent in holding their feet to the fire while in office, rather than spinning their failures as “not as bad as the other guy.” For once they’re in office there is no “other guy,” for they are the ones taking the oath of office. Thus responsibility for leadership falls on them alone.

The past two election cycles we have thankfully been willing to wield the ultimate weapon against the ruling class—the threat or realization of a primary. We have mounted casualties of spineless and untrustworthy Republicans around the country, and this trend must not only continue but be ratcheted up all the more. Politicians don’t see the light until they feel the heat, and no amount of blogging, broadcasting, or blasting impacts a politician as much as the threat of losing their job.

The price of liberty remains eternal vigilance. We must be willing to pay it otherwise Hilton’s prayer will be as sadly relevant 60 years from now for our children and grandchildren as it was for Hilton 60 years ago.

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You can friend “Steve Deace” on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @SteveDeaceShow. To learn more about his nationally-syndicated radio show, go to www.stevedeace.com.

Romney Wins Debate on Critical Issues

President Obama showed up ready to rumble last night at the Hofstra University, unfortunately for him, so did Mitt Romney.

But Romney had to debate the President and a mediator who thought she had to pitch in to help out the President if he appeared in trouble. Candy Crowley interrupted Romney 28 times, while she only admonished Obama 9 times for exceeding his time.

There are analysts saying President Obama scored some debate points and critiqued Romney for not taking advantage of clear openings to land a knockout blow on Obama. But when the “fog of the debate” clears, polls will show that Mitt Romney has picked up more support from the American electorate.

Some after the debate flash polls showed that Obama had an edge in the debate. But the question asked was who was the most improved from the Denver debate, of course that was Obama….and who performed close to expectations: Romney.

The left leaning CNN poll shortly after the debate showed that Romney had a 58-40 edge on the issue of economics/who had the best plan for righting our economic ship.

Additionally Romney had the edge in the following 3 key areas:

• Taxes 51-44

• Solving budget deficit 59-36

• Healthcare 49-46

President Obama still had a slight edge on Mitt Romney when it comes to foreign policy. But ominously for President Obama, the Benghazi attack on our consulate and murder of 4 Americans is becoming a big issue. Additionally it seems Al Quaeda and terrorism didn’t disappear from the scene when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

Another key item that will vex President Obama, is the sky high cost of gasoline plaguing American motorists and businesses. Last night Mitt Romney was able to lay that blame squarely on the shoulders of Obamas last 4 years of energy policy.

Political scientist Frank Luntz monitored a panel of 21 voters, many of whom previously voted for Obama in 2008. After the debate a majority of them said they will be voting for Romney.

A newly released Gallup Poll showed that Mitt Romney has jumped to a national lead against President Obama 51-45.

Romney’s popularity in the national polls is making a difference in swing states that were formerly assumed to be President Obama’s, or were leaning his way. They are now very close or leaning Romney.

Pundits might say they give the edge to Obama in points in this last debate, but the points that really matter to Americans all belong to Mitt Romney.

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Ed Farnan’s articles are also carried in:

Irish Central
Energy independence-Politics & More
Carrollstandard.com
Tea Party Cheer
Tea Party Patriots
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Why Romney Is Now Winning With Women

I still remember the day that I learned the most important lesson a man can ever learn about women. It was the first semester of my sophomore year of college. My girlfriend had broken up with me the last semester of the previous year and I still hadn’t figured out why. I had begged her to stay. I told her that I was nothing without her and even cried in front of her. But she still left me for another guy.

What I didn’t understand was that when she had tried to break up with me just a month before, the emasculation of myself seemed to work wonders. She decided we’d give it another try and things seemed to go back to normal. But at the end of that month, she wasn’t snookered by my antics.

Don’t misunderstand, I wasn’t faking. I felt like my world was ending and that she alone held the key to my happiness in life. So it was easy to cry and tell her that I “dwelled in darkness without her.” But I allowed myself to do it because I thought it would work. I thought that getting sympathy could buy me some points with the gentler sex.

I thought that right up until the day I took mental inventory of my recent experiences with women. Since I’d been back as a sophomore, women had been treating me differently. The ones I thought were out of my league were inviting me to have lunch with them. Senior girls were taking walks across campus with me simply because they saw me passing by. Two girls who I’d been friends with for over a year were literally feuding over the “rights” to me to the point that they stopped being roommates.

What had changed? I had. Rather than being a soft spoken weenie whose only skill with women was attempting to solicit sympathy, I had improved myself. I didn’t do it to “get chicks” or win back the girl who’d dumped me. I did it for me. I’d begun a part-time business, started back lifting weights with a buddy, and reunited with friends I had basically ignored when I was infatuated the year before.

I’d become someone that girls wanted to date because I was going places, had a life outside of any one woman, was physically stronger, knew how to have fun and the “looks decent wagon” hadn’t passed me by. I’d earned it.

When I’d cried and begged my ex to stay, she stayed for a little bit because she felt sorry for me. So she felt good in giving me another chance that I really didn’t deserve. But that never works long term. It’s like a sympathy date in high school, it’s a short term relationship because it’s based on sympathy, not attraction and love.

So what does this have to do with Mitt Romney closing the gender gap with Barack Obama? Simple, Obama was a sympathy date in 2008.

He hadn’t earned anything. He had been a senator for less than two years when he started campaigning. He rose to the top because women got warm feelings by voting for him. They felt like they did him a favor. He wasn’t qualified. He hadn’t earned what he got by having a record of successes to point to (or much of any record at all).

But as I said above, the sympathy date is temporary just like the sympathy reconciliation I received. This is especially true of Obama when women are able to see the resume of Mitt Romney. Romney has never been anything but a winner. He’s wealthy, not because he sold a book based on unearned and faddish popularity but because he turned around failing businesses and took the Olympics from debt to profit. He won the governorship of Massachusetts and actually balanced the budget instead of just talking about it – a rare feat these days. He persevered and won the nomination of his party and now he’s standing up to someone who doesn’t have successes to under his belt. In fact, Obama is in a similar spot to where I was the second time my girlfriend tried to break up with me. I relied on what had worked before because that’s all I had. But sympathy didn’t work the second time. She wanted a winner. She wanted a man who had things going for him and was a strong leader in life.

So when women are faced with the choice between a man who’s using the same ole “give me another chance” line she’s heard from him before and a man who doesn’t need another chance because he’s already done the things Obama couldn’t, they’ll likely pick the man who’s already a winner in his own right. The sympathy date rarely happens more than once. And the same is true for the sympathy vote when the country is in need of someone who can actually do what needs to be done.

Free Speech Dying in the Western World

Free speech is dying in the Western world. While most people still enjoy considerable freedom of expression, this right, once a near-absolute, has become less defined and less dependable for those espousing controversial social, political or religious views. The decline of free speech has come not from any single blow but rather from thousands of paper cuts of well-intentioned exceptions designed to maintain social harmony.

In the face of the violence that frequently results from anti-religious expression, some world leaders seem to be losing their patience with free speech. After a video called “Innocence of Muslims” appeared on YouTube and sparked violent protests in several Muslim nations last month, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that “when some people use this freedom of expression to provoke or humiliate some others’ values and beliefs, then this cannot be protected.”

It appears that the one thing modern society can no longer tolerate is intolerance. As Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard put it in her recent speech before the United Nations, “Our tolerance must never extend to tolerating religious hatred.”

A willingness to confine free speech in the name of social pluralism can be seen at various levels of authority and government. In February, for instance, Pennsylvania Judge Mark Martin heard a case in which a Muslim man was charged with attacking an atheist marching in a Halloween parade as a “zombie Muhammed.” Martin castigated not the defendant but the victim, Ernie Perce, lecturing him that “our forefathers intended to use the First Amendment so we can speak with our mind, not to piss off other people and cultures — which is what you did.”

Of course, free speech is often precisely about pissing off other people — challenging social taboos or political values.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why is the American Automobile Association, With Over 50 Million Members, Doing Nothing About High Gas Prices?

By My Auto Club. The American Automobile Association (AAA) has for years failed to fight high gas prices to benefit its motorist members. The AAA with 50+ million members is the largest nonreligious member organization in the country.

The AAA gas price surveys always have included the oil cartel’s excuses and red herring arguments for their skyrocketed prices.

The AAA is tasked to lobby in support of motorists. But it has not yet done any lobbying to any state or the Federal government to:

1. investigate the domestic oil cartel for collusion and antitrust violations.

2. investigate the worldwide oil cartel including OPEC and its allies.

3. urge President Obama to stop all help the US occupation authorities are giving to Iraq and its OPEC allies (could be done with a stroke of President Obama’s pen); and investigate the possible support the US occupying forces continue to give to Iraq and its OPEC allies, including enforcing worldwide oil production quotas. Iraq has kept its oil production down at the Saddam Hussein level of March 2003 when the occupation started. The price of gas was $1/gallon in March 2003 and is now $4/gallon.

4. stop tax increases on gasoline and diesel.

The two largest AAA clubs are the Automobile Club of Southern California (with about 7 million members), which owns the AAA clubs in Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii, and parts of Northern New England (Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire), Missouri, and Alabama; and the Automobile Club of Northern California, which owns the AAA clubs in Utah and Nevada. Both have totally failed to lobby. No bills have been sponsored, no ballot measures been initiated.

Time for the AAA to rise up for its member-owners. The multi-billion dollar rip-offs must stop.

Obama Abandons the Border

Along the Arizona/Mexican border, dozens of heavily armed spotters man look out points on mountain peaks commanding the shimmering, parched landscape below. They usually man these posts for two weeks at a time, taking provisions with them to last the entire 14 days. They are equipped with night vision technology, powerful binoculars and high tech communications able to keep them in touch with command centers miles away.

But these aren’t US military personnel or law enforcement, they are soldiers of powerful Mexican drug cartels, who own these crossing points where vast amounts of drugs and human traffickers stream into the United States. These spotters are on the look out for the US border patrol who is tasked with keeping these invaders out. Hamstrung by the vast areas of desolate country they have to patrol, as well as having to respect environmentally sensitive areas which the cartels could care less about, our forces are out manned and outgunned.

Like the Cohen Brothers movie, “No country for old men,” the undercurrent of this landscape is harsh, lawless and violent. It is ruled by brutal men, who do not hesitate to resort to violence in order to protect their investment in drugs and human trafficking. Headless bodies and rape trees tell the tale of how brutal this place can be.

Mule trains of human and drug traffickers on foot, some carrying burlap sacks filled with drugs, walk into the United States under the watchful eyes of the spotters high above them. Once they reach a staging area, they change clothes so they look more American and discard what they had been wearing. They also discard the burlap bags as they transfer the drugs to vehicles. These smuggling corridors are littered with abandoned vehicles,plastic bottles, cans, clothing, shoes, food, black plastic bags, and empty burlap sacks.

You would think, that at the very least, the EPA would be enthusiastically suing the cartels for despoiling the desert environment…as enthusiastically as they sue and harass our own US corporations and industries.

We are having a war waged against us on our southern border. This war is filling our country with dangerous illegal drugs and swamping us with undocumented illegal immigrants who are overloading our social services.

A border state trampled and drowned by illegal and criminal invaders, Arizona was dealt a severe blow a few months ago by the Obama administration. They were told not to call Dept of Homeland Security for help with their immigration enforcement problem because Homeland security wasn’t going to answer.

Evidently President Obama was in a snit when the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a controversial provision requiring police to check the immigration status of people they detain and suspect to be in the country illegally. So President Obama decided to circumvent the intent of the ruling by another executive order and withdrew federal immigration enforcement help and cooperation from Arizona.

Even Justice Scalia wrote a scathing indictment against the Obama administrations intimidation of Arizona’s efforts to protects its borders when he penned: ” Arizona contradicts federal law by enforcing applications of the Immigration Act that the President declines to enforce boggles the mind.”

President Obama’s decision to suspend laws on immigration and harass the State of Arizona for trying to protect its citizens from a criminal invasion, is indeed mind boggling.

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Ed Farnan’s articles are also carried in:

Irish Central
Energy independence-Politics & More
Carrollstandard.com
Tea Party Cheer
Tea Party Patriots
AMAC

Joe Biden & The Nation Lost Thursday’s Debate on All Counts

Last night at the Vice Presidential debate in Kentucky, the nation got to witness the last vestiges of dignity get stripped away from the office of Vice President. This administration’s all out quest to remain in power saw truth and dignity sacrificed for that goal.

Joe Biden’s conjured up inner outrage lead to a spectacle on stage never duplicated in past debates of this magnitude. Smiling bizarrely while the conversation centered on our soldiers being killed in Afghanistan, Biden even laughed out loud ( insanely?) while the conversation shifted to the possibility of a nuclear armed Iran. Joe was seen by many as a deranged and cranky old man last night.

But one positive aspect for “green energy” emerged. Many folks in the alternative energy business thought Joes expensive teeth could be a new found source to power solar panels, as he flashed them constantly and inappropriately last night.

The only ones who seem to roar with approval are the far left, who were looking for blood after Mitt Romney dismantled President Obama in last weeks debate. But Romney, unlike Biden, did his work without rudely and thuggishly butting in while the President was talking.

Instead of battling Paul Ryan using ideas and truth, Biden was like Stephen King’s Pennywise the clown armed with a crude club. Biden interrupted Ryan in mid sentence 82 times and even butted into the moderator mid sentence several times for good measure.

Biden was able to get away with many complete and false statements yesterday with the aid of the moderator, who cut off Ryan’s responses before he could rebut a Biden falsehood….. Of course Joes own thuggish behavior made it difficult to complete a thought.

What is left today is a bucket full of fact checks that show Joe had an utter disregard for the truth, ranging from the Libyan embassy scandal to Medicare, to Iran and our relations with Israel.

Today many women were expressing their disappointment in the Vice Presidents demeanor last night. To them he appeared to be a bully, especially when he pointed his finger at the moderator and lectured her. Some women said Biden reminded them of ex boyfriends who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Or more ominously, the type of overbearing man they would fear to work around.

The left was cheered by this spectacle and feel vindicated, however we are quickly losing the ability to have an honest debate in this country, if last night is an example of our present discourse.

At this rate, we will be choosing candidates for their gladiatorial skills, rather than their oratorical skills.

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Ed Farnan’s articles are also carried in:

Irish Central
Energy independence-Politics & More
Carrollstandard.com
Tea Party Cheer
Tea Party Patriots
AMAC

Constitutional Expert: Obama has “Profound Disdain for the Constitution”

President Barack Obama is running roughshod over the Constitution, legal scholars say, by disregarding it, changing laws outside the legislative process, and extending federal power in unprecedented ways.

The president has “profound disdain for the Constitution,” said David Rivkin, a lawyer at the BakerHostetler law firm in Washington, DC.

“Across a whole host of policy areas, President Obama and other high officials in his administration have pushed the envelope of anything attempted before,” said Ilya Shapiro, a constitutional expert at the Cato Institute.

Under the president’s judicial philosophy, legislation ideally “streamlines government action” so it can “grow and experiment,” all while overcoming barriers like the checks and balances built into the Constitution, said Charles Kesler, a professor of government and constitutional scholar at Claremont McKenna College.

A pending lawsuit against the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act exemplifies several aspects of the complaints legal scholars have against the president’s treatment of the Constitution.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why Socially Conservative Blacks & Hispanics Tend to Vote Democratic

How is it possible that two groups who have historical legacies of being religious could vote in elections overwhelmingly for the political party that promotes and legalizes “sin” (homosexuality, abortion, gay marriage, taking God out of the mainstream, sloth, etc.) – the Democrats? Blacks have consistently voted in the 90% range for Democrats, and Latinos have voted in the 60-70% range.

The answer to this question can be found in a great statement made recently by Glenn Beck. He said, “When somebody has an agenda, they don’t want to hear the truth.” That is, they let their dominant agenda trump any other agenda they might have. In this case, blacks and Latinos are letting their racial and ethnic identity trump their religious identity. He also said that when this is the case, the more radical are even sometimes given to “lying” (in political ads and speeches), stealing (votes) and cheating (in getting unqualified people to vote)” to advance their agenda. (More “sins”.) And if someone isn’t representing the truth, they automatically are in lies (untruths).

Some of the groups that have at least some agendas and ideologies not based on truth would be: liberals, racists, feminists, hedonists, homosexuals, environmentalists, political parties, various religions/denominations, secularists, various addictions, illegal aliens – including blind addiction to happiness and pleasure, and various personal agendas that aren’t in harmony with nature as designed by its Creator.

And speaking of illegal aliens, why do democrats and democrat judges work hard to make sure that ID’s aren’t required for voting? That doesn’t make sense, when ID’s are required for nearly everything else. The only possible conclusion is that they don’t want their many attempts at voter fraud to be stymied (dead people, felons, pets, multiple votes, illegal aliens, etc.).

A problem with people who have agendas (as the Glenn Beck quote stated) is that they are hard to reason with because based on the tenets of their agenda, they allow a blind, knee-jerk, lock-step loyalty to those tenets to overrule their ability to reason, as they just parrot the sound bites of those tenets. And the fact that they often use name-calling and emotion to push those sound bites and silence their opponents – especially within their racial, ethnic or special-interest group – implicitly says that they don’t have enough confidence in the tenets of the agenda or ideology that they are aligning with to be able to calmly and intelligently present and defend them and persuade others.

Read more from this story HERE.