Posts

Restoring Liberty is Now in the Top 50 Conservative Websites in the Nation

/10 Comments/in , /by

According to the July 4, 2013, “Official Top 100 Conservative Websites for 2013,” Red Flag reports that Restoring Liberty is now ranked 49th* in the nation.

The report reflects that websites such as Mark Levin, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, American Conservative, Ann Coulter, TeaParty.Net, Family Research Council, PJ TV, Laura Ingraham, World Magazine, and others have lower rankings than Restoring Liberty, reflecting lower Internet traffic.

As always, our success is due to your faithful readership, loyal volunteers, and staff (especially Katy). Joe and Kathleen Miller thank every one of you for making Restoring Liberty one the nation’s top political websites.

_________________________________
*Red Flag periodically updates its rankings. Restoring Liberty’s ranking at that site will fluctuate with its worldwide Alexa ranking.

How the Tea Party Can Save America and the World – A Plea From New Zealand

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Right Side NewsMany Tea Partiers and American patriots understand that the fate of the United States of America hangs in the balance.

No melodrama here. If the US loses its position as the world’s number one military super power, another country, or countries, will take its place.

Realistically, that can only be Russia or China, or more likely, an alliance of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Vietnam and whoever ever else climbs aboard.

As the U.S. Dollar slowly sinks and America’s prestige and power goes with it, the “Evil Axis” grows bolder.

But why should I care? I’m safe aren’t I? Way down at the bottom of the South Pacific, in New Zealand.

Well, maybe not so safe. China is steadily advancing through the Pacific. It now has several footholds in our region, particularly in Fiji, which is my country’s nearest major island neighbor. To any thinking Aussie or Kiwi, this is cause for major concern.

in June of 2012, Song Xiaojun, a “retired” Chinese general, told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, that “Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later…” “Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the ‘son’ of the U.S. or ‘son’ of China,” Song said, adding that Australia had best choose China because it all “depends on who is more powerful and based on the strategic environment.”

If America goes under folks, the West goes under. No ifs, no buts. Only a strong America can keep the bad guys in check. Just as soldiers from all over the world fought in Europe and the Pacific to save liberty in WW2, today’s freedom lovers need to join the fight to save the US. Once liberty was fought for in the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, Normandy and Sicily. Now if liberty is to be saved, we must win the electoral battles of Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado.

From my home in Christchurch, I recently spent an hour on the phone with a savvy Florida activist. She outlined for me the crushing problems being faced by American patriots, in the face of a relentless leftist onslaught from the Obama Administration. According to my usually optimistic friend, much of the Tea Party is in disarray, the GOP leadership is even more arrogant and out of touch than usual and if the Dems pass “immigration reform” the Republic will be swamped with millions of new loyal Democrats, effectively turning the US into a permanent “one party state.”
And to cap that, now I’m hearing whispers of a third party.

Let’s get real. There is only one vehicle that can take back America from the Democrats and their union and far left allies, in the very limited time we have left. That is the Republican Party. If the Democrats hold the Senate and take back the House in 2014, or even 2016, which they could well do, America is done for.

Illegal immigrants will be granted voting rights and the intimidation tactics now being employed will seem like kindergarten bullying, as the Democrats and unions unleash full force on their remaining opposition. There is a climate of fear now in the United States. If the Democrats get back in full control, they will NEVER relinquish it. This is no longer the old GOP/Dem turnabout game. This is the left for playing keeps and the GOP playing constant catchup.

While I have no particular love for the Republican Party, its hard to see how starting a third party right now could possibly do anything but hand both the House and the Senate to the Dems in 2014 and the presidency to the left in 2016.
If that happens, the left will never give up power without bloodshed.

If it ever comes to serious civil unrest and the socialist’s power is actually threatened, foreign troops will be called in to restore order. That will be the end of America – and of the entire West. A peaceful revolution is our only realistic hope.

So what to do? A third party will almost certainly hand America to the tyrants. The GOP leadership is ineffectual at best, often cowardly and unprincipled – occasionally even treacherous.

But the GOP does have a structure, a brand, some money, hundreds of thousands of dedicated activists and tens of millions of voters.

That is not something to throw away.

The Tea Party faces a choice. They can “throw their toys out of the cot” as we say in New Zealand and walk away from the GOP. They can work on local issues alone, or dissolve, or form a third party. Satisfying as those options may be, they are almost certainly guaranteed to consign your children and grandchildren to a life of slavery – at best.

So what is the alternative?

I have addressed more than 150 Tea Party groups. I have met thousands of activists. You people are the best of America. I write this on the verge of tears as I remember the amazing patriots, thinkers and activists I have met on my four speaking tours of your amazing country. If America is to be saved, you will do it. No other movement has the energy, drive, commitment, fortitude, foresight or integrity of the Tea Party patriots.

You however have one major weakness. You lack self-confidence.

The vast majority of you are political novices. You take too much advice from your self-appointed “betters” in the GOP and the mainstream conservative movement. This was illustrated in places like Florida, last year, where the Tea Party activists were “forbidden” from pushing the illegal immigrant issue by various “consultants’ and GOP hacks.

The Tea Party needs to realize you have the truth on your side. You are real people, with roots in your communities. Many of you are veterans. You are far more in touch with voters than any GOP blueblood or K street consultant ever will be.
So what should your wonderful movement do?

Here is my advice. It is far from perfect, but I hope it will at least add to the debate.

Its all about CONCENTRATION OF FORCES.

I’ve met a lot of Tea Partiers working inside the GOP. Some of them very successfully. However what tends to happen is that many of them become marginalized by GOP “moderates” and their good work comes to little.

In Australia, the Labor Party – the counterpart, of your Democrats, operates in two main formalized factions – the conservative/moderate Labor Unity and the Socialist Left. One party, two power blocs. Effectively two separate organizations within a one party structure. The two factions horse trade, do deals, fight like cats and dogs, compete viciously with each other, yet at election time, stand as a “united front” against their conservative opposition.

I’m suggesting that the Tea Party should adopt a variant of this approach. Join the GOP en masse, but don’t dilute your efforts by operating as scattered individuals inside the GOP structure. If the tea parties collectively become say, a “Constitutional Caucus”, within the GOP, you could maintain your agenda and your integrity, but would also have the advantage of GOP structure, branding and the ability to actually get your candidates elected. Don’t join GOP branches, BECOME GOP BRANCHES.

There need be nothing covert about this. Tea Party groups should identify themselves openly as Constitutional Republicans and refuse to be in any way subservient to head office dictates. Put the GOP old guard on notice that you are here to retake your party and restore it to its constitutional foundations. Openly state that you regard them as usurpers until proven otherwise.

Boldly proclaim that you fully intend to bloc vote your way into positions of influence and that you will work with other Constitutionalists in your state and nationally to primary GOP candidates, no matter how long serving, who do not actively support in word and deed, the US Constitution. TAKE NO PRISONERS.

Concentrate your resources. Pick winnable fights only. Do not primary candidates you cannot defeat this election cycle. I’ve seen that happen too often. Tea Party groups targeting scattered RINOs all over the state and not quite beating any of them. Pick a handful of winnable races each election cycle and call in fellow Constitutionalists from all over the state to defeat the RINOs and elect some of your own. If they do not respect you MAKE THEM FEAR YOU. The respect will follow later – trust me.

Now is not the time for peripheral issues either. The survival of the United States of America is at stake. The future of Western civilization hangs in the balance. CORE ISSUES ONLY. The Constitution, National Security (including border control, and gun rights), Education and the Economy). I don’t want to minimize other issues, but this is a last ditch effort to save your country and mine. If we blow this one, there may not be another in our great great grandchildren’s lifetimes.

This is cultural warfare folks and we must concentrate resources on core issue that may actually help to defeat our opponents in both parties, in the fast approaching battles ahead.

Logically, the United States of America should never been born. In the 1770′s most Americans were either pro-British or apathetic. Fewer than 10% of the population actually supported the revolution and way fewer actually fought it.

How in God’s name, did a bunch of poorly armed farmers and lawyers, laborers, shopkeepers and tradesmen, seriously hope to defeat the mightiest army in the world at that time? Yet they did it. I left out one important group for a reason. The first American revolution was preached from the pulpit. Hundreds of pastors, a bible in one hand, a long rifle in the other, boldly supported George Washington’s ragtag army. They understood better than any one that America was founded on religious freedom. They understood exactly what was at stake.

The first American revolutionaries were inspired by something much greater than themselves. You Tea Party revolutionaries always need to keep the big picture in mind.

If you don’t think this war is worth winning, you tell me one that is? If you don’t think your grandchildren’s liberty is worth fighting for, please tell me what you do care about?

We all admire the first American revolutionaries, for their incredible bravery and fortitude and sacrifice. They risked everything to give you the exceptional country you enjoy today.

In two hundred years’ time, young teenagers will be standing in front of civics and history classes in schools all across America. These young people will talk about their free and prosperous country with great pride. But some of the proudest will be able to say something like this;

“You know guys, you know back in the early 2000s when the country was in crisis, when a lot of people thought America was done for. When patriots stood up and saved the Republic, restored the Constitution? Gave us the incredible freedom and prosperity we enjoy today? Well I’ve done some family research. And you know what? My great great great Grandpa and Grandma…they were in the TEA PARTY…”

Your Creator gave you both a heart and a brain folks. Now is the time to use both.

Yours in Liberty

Trevor Loudon

Christchurch, New Zealand

______________________________________________________________________

Author Trevor Loudon is a New Zealand based blogger and researcher, noted among other things, for exposing the communist background of Obama “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones , which led to his eventual resignation from his White House position. Loudon was also the first to publicize Barack Obama’s ties to Hawaiian Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.

Trevor Loudon’s research has been cited by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, countless articles, blog posts and in books by well known authors Paul Kengor, Aaron Klein and Jerome Corsi. He has given countless radio interviews and addressed audiences in more than 30 states in his four tours of the United States.

Trevor Loudon speaks on internal subversion, communism and socialism, national security, culture and constitutional conservatism.

See Trevor’s website

Kill the Bill

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard We are conservatives who have differed in the past on immigration reform, with Kristol favorably disposed toward it and Lowry skeptical. But the Gang of Eight has brought us into full agreement: Their bill, passed out of the Senate, is a comprehensive mistake. House Republicans should kill it without reservation.

There is no case for the bill, and certainly no urgency to pass it. During the debate over immigration in 2006–07, Republican rhetoric at times had a flavor that communicated a hostility to immigrants as such. That was a mistake, and it did political damage. This time has been different. The case against the bill has been as responsible as it has been damning.

It’s become clear that you can be pro-immigrant and pro-immigration, and even favor legalization of the 11 million illegal immigrants who are here and increases in some categories of legal immigration—and vigorously oppose this bill.

The bill’s first fatal deficiency is that it doesn’t solve the illegal-immigration problem. The enforcement provisions are riddled with exceptions, loopholes, and waivers. Every indication is that they are for show and will be disregarded, just as prior notional requirements to build a fence or an entry/exit visa system have been—and just as President Obama has recently announced he’s ignoring aspects of Obamacare that are inconvenient to enforce on schedule. Why won’t he waive a requirement for the use of E-Verify just as he’s unilaterally delayed the employer mandate? The fact that the legalization of illegal immigrants comes first makes it all the more likely that enforcement provisions will be ignored the same way they were after passage of the 1986 amnesty.

Marco Rubio says he doesn’t want to have to come back ten years from now and deal with the same illegal-immigration problem. But that’s exactly what the CBO says will happen under his own bill. According to the CBO analysis of the bill, it will reduce illegal immigration by as little as a third or by half at most. By one estimate, this means there will be about 7.5 million illegal immigrants here in ten years. And this is under the implausible assumption that the Obama administration would administer the law as written.

Read more from this story HERE.

Liberal Nonprofit that Pressed IRS Commissioner to Target Conservatives Houses his Wife’s Group

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily CallerThe progressive nonprofit organization Common Cause urged then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate activities of conservative donors despite housing the campaign-reform group that employs Shulman’s wife.

In 2012, Common Cause urged Shulman and fellow embattled IRS official Lois Lerner, director of the agency’s tax-exempt organizations division, to investigate the Koch Brothers’ attempted takeover of the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute.

“Common Cause respectfully requests that the Internal Revenue Service initiate an investigation into whether attempts by Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, shareholders of the Cato Institute, to take control of and manipulate the Cato Institute for partisan political purposes expose a flaw in the Cato Institute’s structure that jeopardizes its tax exempt status under 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3),” Common Cause president Bob Edgar wrote in a letter to Shulman and fellow IRS official Lois Lerner dated March 9, 2012.

Edgar, who died in April of this year, described “grave questions about whether the Kochs are exploiting Cato’s corporate structure to transform the Cato Institute from its longstanding, storied reputation as a nonpartisan, libertarian think tank into a partisan organization in contravention of its educative and charitable purpose.

“For these reasons, the Internal Revenue Service should open an investigation into the impact of the Kochs’ attempt to control the Cato Institute to advance their own political and economic interests, and whether Cato can maintain its charitable, tax-exempt status without changing its ownership structure,” Edgar wrote.

Read more from this story HERE.

GSA Parody Videos Released by Watchdog Group (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: YouTubeA conservative watchdog group released more than a half-dozen movie parody and comedy skit videos Tuesday that were removed from the General Services Administration website last year after a scathing inspector general report revealed the agency overspent taxpayer money on a lavish Las Vegas conference.

Judicial Watch used the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain the videos, which include costumed GSA employees in parody movies scenes from “Rocky,” “The Godfather,” and “Mission Impossible.”

In the parody of “Rocky,” senior GSA officials lead employees on an extended jog through the corridors of the agency’s New York office and the streets of Manhattan, with the movie’s theme music playing. In another video, officials and employees participate in an elaborate “Jeopardy” game show parody, complete with theme music, light-up board and canned audience applause.

The group says it was tipped off about the videos from GSA whistle blower Linda Shenwick.

“This latest round of extravagant and embarrassing GSA videos is further evidence of a bloated federal government completely out of control,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

[Here’s a lengthy compilation of the skits. At about 7:50, you can watch a senior GSA employee rap, and at about 11:00, enjoy a GSA version of Jeopardy. And there’s much more, if you have the time to watch it]

Read more from this story HERE.

The Sprawling, Dimming Age of Obama

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In Barack Obama, America elected a chief executive whose Department of Justice has repeatedly targeted the press, whose Internal Revenue Service has gone gunning for conservatives, and whose government has elevated secrecy into a cardinal virtue. The Obama administration’s data grab is not just about national security, or Edward Snowden. It is also an epilogue befitting a candidate who delivered his 2008 convention acceptance speech in front of a temple façade dedicated to himself, and whose faith in government and the state is at the center of his presidency.

Under the Obama Rules, the unauthorized dissemination of non-classified government information is now “tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.” Think Nixonism without the sweaty five o’clock shadow; Cheneyism without the dyspepsia, armed with a jump shot instead of a shotgun.

Forget Obama’s paeans to civil liberties. The Age of Obama is a celebration of ever-growing and ever-more intrusive government, with mandated healthcare, crony capitalism, and First Family daytime and late-night television appearances as the modern iterations of bread and circuses.

On Tuesday, Obama environmental adviser Daniel Schrag announced to the world that “a war on coal is exactly what’s needed,” only hours before the president rolled out his environmental regulatory scheme that would have the EPA issue more regulations, while constraining development of the Keystone XL Pipeline — jobs be damned. Talk about timing! Just a day later, first quarter GDP growth was revised downward to 1.8 percent.

Having previously been rebuffed by Congress over a carbon tax, the President didn’t propose anything to Congress this time. He simply announced what his executive branch would do unilaterally.

Read more from this story HERE.

After Being Deceived by Rubio on Amnesty, Conservatives Say it Won’t Happen Again

/22 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Many conservatives gave Sen. Marco Rubio the benefit of the doubt when he said securing the border first was a top priority for the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform effort. Later, when those conservatives realized that Rubio’s plan would first legalize the country’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, and only then put new border security measures in place, they expressed deep disappointment and disillusionment.

Now the Gang bill has passed the Senate and immigration is the work of the House, where former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is a leading reform advocate. Ryan favors the same legalization-first sequence for immigration reform that Rubio and the Gang did. The difference is that now, more conservatives are aware of the basics of reform proposals. And that means Ryan might be in for a rougher ride with the conservative base than Rubio experienced.

That, at least, is one conclusion to take from Ryan’s appearance last Wednesday on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program. Hannity interviewed Rubio several times during the Gang of Eight deliberations. In later interviews, Hannity became more skeptical and questioning, and in the last such interview expressed surprise that Rubio had declared legalization would come before border security. With Ryan in the interview chair, the first thing Hannity wanted to know was when securing the border would come in the sequence of immigration reform.

“I’m sure you are aware, a lot of conservatives including myself are angry,” Hannity told Ryan. “No border security first. How do you feel about it?”

Ryan stressed that the House would not take up the Senate Gang of Eight bill. “We want to have real triggers on the border, real triggers on what we call the E-Verify,” Ryan said. But Hannity wanted to know if that meant border security would come first: “Is securing the border first a top priority for you?” he asked.

Read more from this story HERE.

Watchdog Knocks Down Dem Claim That Liberal Groups Were Targeted by IRS

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The government watchdog that exposed IRS targeting of conservative groups gave a blunt response to Democrats’ claims that the agency also targeted liberals: It never happened.

“We found no indication in any of these other materials that ‘Progressives’ was a term used to refer cases for scrutiny for political campaign intervention,” IRS Inspector General J. Russell George wrote in a letter to Democrats.

Democrats have since turned on the IG’s office, claiming it is only telling half the story.

But Republicans used the letter, and a House hearing on Thursday, to counter that narrative — getting the current IRS chief to confirm that, in fact, there’s no evidence to date that progressives were targeted.

“So far, the evidence only shows conservatives being systematically targeted by the IRS,” Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Conservatives Promise to Oust Boehner if he Break His Oath and Moves Amnesty Bill Without Majority Support

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

House Republican conservatives warned Wednesday they would move to oust Speaker John Boehner if he puts an immigration reform bill up for a vote that doesn’t have the support of a majority of GOP members.

“There gets to be a time when there is a straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back,” Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said at a monthly question and answer event featuring a group of conservative lawmakers.

Salmon, along with Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho; Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas; and Rep. Tom McClintock, of California, said they do not support the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform plan now advancing in the Senate, despite the passage of an amendment that would at 20,000 border agents and other border security measures to the bill.

Boehner, R-Ohio, told Republicans today he will not take up the Senate bill, repeating a pledge he made in writing last month, and instead plans to move House-authored legislation. But many in the conservative wing of the GOP conference fear Boehner will allow a bill on the floor that includes legalization or a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants but does not include the level of border security they believe is needed to stop illegal migration.

Such a bill could pass with mostly Democratic support and a fraction of the Republican conference backing it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Army Reprimands Soldier Under Fire for Religious Beliefs

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Ryk Neethling

Photo Credit: Ryk Neethling

A member of the U.S. Army Band who said he was reprimanded for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his personal car, serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at a party and reading books written by conservative authors like Sean Hannity was found guilty of three Article 15 charges.

Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, a decorated soloist with the Army Band, was found guilty Thursday of failing to go to an appointed place of duty, disobedience of an order and making a false official statement, his attorney said.

The charges were handed down June 9, one day after Sommers told Fox News that he was facing discrimination and persecution because of his conservative political and religious beliefs.

Retired Navy Commander John Bennett Wells told Fox News the charges were stemmed from giving a superior officer the wrong date for a doctor’s appointment. He’s also accused of failing to carry out an order. In order to comply with that order, Sommers would have had to disclose private information about his autistic son’s medical records.

“The timing does seem strange,” Wells told Fox News. “It’s suspicious. It looks like a graduated attempt to build a case against him on some really ridiculous charges.

Read more from this story HERE.