An example of what happens when politicians send me unsolicited emails!

To Bobby Harrell, SC Speaker of the House, Republican.

_______________

Speaker Harrell,

I am a voting delegate and the Vice-Chairman for the Chesterfield GOP. I am very disappointed that any Conservative would support even passively the "Stimulus" money being spent in SC. There is NO moral justification for taking the money. Being party to the indenturing of our children and grand children to the Federal Government is, to be sure, immoral. This is not hyperbole or over stating. By taking the money we have insured that our children will be paying down on our miss deeds. How can you be party to that?

The excuse that we " will have to pay for the money anyway" or that other states would get the money does not make the taking of the "stimulus" any more defensible. South Carolina is a sovereign state and the Socialist direction (Participatory Economics) that the Federal government is taking us has no prescription in our US Constitution. SC should stand up to the Feds and protect its citizens from the tyranny of the elite. Unlike many that only complain I have a solution.

1. South Carolina should collect the Federal Taxes from its citizens and hold them in trust and pay them out to the US Treasury for only those things expressly written in the US Constitution.

2. South Carolina should refuse any money from the Federal Government that is not for those things outlined clearly in the US Constitution.

3. South Carolina should protect from Federal harassment, fines or imprisonment any citizen that pays its Federal Taxes to SC rather than to the US Treasury.

4. To accomplish this SC should partner with like minded officials in other states, bring suit against any parties participating in any form of Socialism that adversely affects SC and stop participating in any federal education programs.

5. The money left over after paying to the US Treasury Constitutionally defensible funds held in trust should be allocated for the short falls that the federal spending has been covering, like education. Any money left over after that should be returned to the tax payer.

To be clear, I am not advocating less taxes or no taxes. I am advocating that taxes only be paid for Constitutionally viable expenditures and that the Federal Apparatus is so broken that individual states must correct it. I also do not advocate succession. Any Federal take over of industry, including the education industry, is forbidden because it is not listed as a Federal Power and is therefore reserved for the states and individuals.

Speaker Harrell, we can not "politic" our way out of this mess. Strong corrective action must be taken.

If you have it in you to correct these problems I applaud you and support you. If you do not please step down this very hour. Stop your passive support of Socialism.

The Republican party is in the midst of a schism. Big government, Nanny-State Republicans are being shown for what they are. True Conservatives are banding together. Where are you? Lindsey Graham saw where he was at the Convention. Boldly admitting that he would rather win reelection than be on the right side of the issues. Conservatives are watching.

Kind Regards,

Benjamin Parrish Cook
Vice-Chairman, Chesterfield County GOP

While I am angry... lets fume a bit about PayPal

I am BANNED for LIFE from PayPal. Yep. I own a gunshop. And, I took a payment online via PayPal. Apparently that is a no-no. I didn't know that. So now I am banned for life.

Well, that's ok. Enter Amazon Payments. That's right, https://payments.amazon.com/ will do everything that PayPal does. Even send and receive money.

So, the joke is on you PayPal! All you have accomplished is losing my business and having me direct others to your competitor!

Someone stole my Blackberry...

Someone stole my Crack-berry. I miss it.

And because of my feelings of loss and mourning I felt today I must admit I have a "connection" addiciton. I must at all times be connected to the outside world.

Seriously, I was not myself all day because I lost my phone. How messed up is that!

And to the M&*($#%# FU^K3R that stole my phone I hope you rot in hell.

I never grow tired of being right!!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE54P5RY20090526?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10531

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-four, or one out of every seven, terrorism suspects formerly held at the U.S. detention site at Guantanamo Bay are confirmed or suspected of having returned to terrorism, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

Of more than 530 detainees transferred from the U.S. base in Cuba, 27 are confirmed and 47 suspected of "reengaging in terrorist activity," according to a written Pentagon summary.

The total of 74 has more than doubled since May 2007, when the Pentagon said about 30 had gone back to terrorist activity, and increased slightly since January, when the figure stood at 61...

Teddy R. once again providing precedent and guidance!

He is my favorite President for a reason. And when you are done reading this, slide over to his "Man in the Arena" speech to recharge those Conservative batteries!
http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html

Oh and if you one of those folks that does not trust random emails... you are in good company.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/troosevelt.asp

1907 PHOTO This one needs to circulate

I think this is one email that needs to be forwarded until every American with a computer receives it.

The year is 1907, one hundred years ago.

READ PRINT UNDER PICTURE!



Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Every American citizen needs to read this!


KEEP THIS MOVING

Cheney... LOVE HIM

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw9i42HdcJfk&refer=worldwide

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney accomplished something yesterday that Republicans have seldom been able to do: directly challenge President Barack Obama in real time on a major policy issue.

In a nationally televised speech delivered just minutes after Obama had spoken on how to protect the U.S. against terrorism, Cheney defended the decisions he and former President George W. Bush made after the Sept. 11 attacks, including using harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

While Republican leaders have largely avoided direct attacks on Obama and focused instead on Democratic congressional leaders, Cheney, 68, has taken the opposite tack. Republican lawmakers and strategists said he was able to raise the intensity of the criticism yesterday because, unlike other party members, he isn’t worried about damaging any future political ambitions by taking on a popular president.

Cheney “might not have the highest favorability ratings, but on this issue, I think he’s viewed by people across the country as being very credible and very knowledgeable,” said Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican. “What he says carries a lot of weight.”

obama gitmo

President Obama has announced a framework for dealing with the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The "Gitmo" detainees are hardened terrorists either caught on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan or they are captured via raids and other interventions world wide.  What to do with these detainees/prisoners/terrorists?  To be sure these terrorists deserve a trial, sadly most will never get one and it is their own faults.  Not ours.  But is it our responsibility to provide one anyway?  Unfortunately there is no plain answer.  The answer is "yes" and "no."

Here is Obama's framework.


--When feasible, try those who have violated American criminal laws in federal courts.



--When necessary, try those who violate the rules of war through Military Commissions.



--When possible, transfer to third countries those detainees who can be safely transferred.

What jumps out at me is that this is the exact same framework the Bush Administration has used except of course the easier access to US courts of law.  Which is a bit misleading because the detainees have been tried in US courts under the Bush Administration.  It was just not the preferred venue.  Basically all that is changed is the vehemence with which a "trial" is sought.  Under the Bush Administration the detainees were treated as international terrorists.  Under Obama they are treated as US criminals. 

Terrorists can be both criminals and soldiers.  You could try to parse each individual terrorist as criminal or soldier but even that is problematic.  It seems simple.  But if you have a person who has committed acts of terrorism in Yemen, Pakistan and found fighting the US in Iraq is he a soldier or a criminal.  Or neither.  The Bush Administration said "neither," he is an Enemy Combatant.  Which means we will put him on trial in a court that is our best effort to match what the terrorist is... to what we have available to try him with.  To me that makes perfect sense rather than driving a "square-peg" terrorist into a "round-hole" court system.  Which is the Obama alternative.  Our courts can't deal with the sensitive nature of the evidence itself, its collection or the sensitive nature of those that collected the evidence.  Obama knows this and that is why his Gitmo Plan is just smoke and mirrors with a few bones thrown to his constituency so he appears as having actually done something.

Lets look at the plan and problems with each.  After doing so you will understand why Guantanamo was so successful, useful and necessary.  When "feasible" Obama wants to try terrorists in the US Federal system.  On its face that sounds good.  But it will never, or almost never, be "feasible" for the security and sensitive information reasons I have already laid out.  When "necessary" try terrorists in Military Commissions.  Well my friends that is exactly what we have been doing.  Again, smoke and mirrors to look like big change, but actually effectively no different than Bush.  Finally "when possible, transfer to third countries  those detainees who can be SAFELY transferred."  That means transfers can only happen when the terrorist comes from a modern Western country, which they rarely do.  If you are a terrorist from the UK we can ship you to their prisons to rot and cost their tax payer money.  But if you are from Yemen or Saudi Arabia you will be broken out of jail in about a year if we ship you there, and back on the battle field.  Or, you will actually be tortured for information.  Not water boarded or have dogs bark at you while wearing women's panties on your head.  NO, I mean real torture.

So what does this mean.  It means that 90% of the folks in Gitmo deserve to be there and they will get trials when we get around to it.  The other 10% are to be used by the Obama administration as a distraction and smoke-and-mirrors campaign to hopefully woo his supporters into thinking he is making good on campaign promises.  In the mean time, Gitmo is still open.  It will be open for some time and those inside will get the justice they and we deserve on our timetable not theirs. 

The Way Forward

The Way Forward

How can the Republican Party get back to its Conservative Roots, and there by be the party we deserve?

The answer is simple, though the work may be hard.  The answer:  Follow a set of Conservative Principles, reject anything that varies.  This will require introspection and amendment to our current "principles."

Amendment to items that have been part of our platform for years.  However, it is through this resoluteness that we will find the clearest path.

Not to be confused with the easiest path...

To be clear, we need to understand what it is to be a Conservative and apply those principles when we act as Republicans.  How can we do that locally?

Here is what I suggest.

1.  Start a lending library of books that are part of the Conservative cannon of literature (classical liberalism).  For example books by William F. Buckley Sr., Barry Goldwater, Rush Limbaugh, John Locke, Thomas Paine, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson.  Too few of us understand Conservative principles, and what is more, how to apply these principles to our daily lives and to the problems that face this country.

Free Markets?  Why?  Smaller Government?  Why?  Pro Life?  Why?  States' Rights  Why?

You can't be an ambassador for Conservatism if you don't speak the language and understand the basics.

2.  Create a Century Club.  One-hundred $100 donors.  These donations are earmarked for the election of local Republican politicians.

3.  Two part-time paid staff members that work under the direction of the County executive committee.

4.  Executive officers that lead the way by example in terms of preparedness, planning, organization and fund raising.

5.  Require politicians that request an endorsement or audience from the County GOP to submit in writing how their positions and platform are Conservative (classically liberal).  This will weed out those that only parrot the current platform in an attempt to gain political power.

6.  Attract youth to our cause by speaking their language.  Create an online presence that attracts young people to our county party.

7.  Create committees to share the responsibility of important CCGOP business like fund raising, conventions, precincts/redistricting, membership.

8.  Realign our monthly meeting structure into two different types, election year and non-election year.  In an election year we meet with our full membership as we do now, once per month.  Other years we rotate general meeting, fund raising meeting, membership meeting, officers meeting.  Three or four meaningful meetings with good attendance is better than 12 mediocre meetings with poor attendance.  When the General Membership does meet, have it meet for a reason.  Have learning goals like Conservatism and Free Markets, Conservatism and Globalization or Conservatism and Abortion.  Make these meetings meaningful.

9.  Office space.  We need a member or donor to donate office space for the party.  Preferable somewhere large enough to hold monthly meetings.

10.  Set yearly goals for fund raising, membership and other attainable markers.

Chesterfield County is a county that leans Conservative yet votes Liberal in local elections.  Our number one goal should be to fix this problem.  With our re dedication to what matters we can do it.  A word of caution, NO amount of planning, goals, meetings or funds can replace a clear understanding of what it is to be a Conservative.  Without this understanding we are doomed to return to the sad state of Republican politics we have today.

If your friends are Conservative/Republican let them know we either need their active participation in the party or/and their donation.  If they can not be active in the party we need their funds to be active in the party.  It is all our responsibility to fund raise.

Thank You,

Benjamin Cook, Vice-Chairman and Public Relations Director
Chesterfield County Republican Party

How the Mighty Have Fallen

Fareed Zakaria, you can find his name and links littered through out my blog. Until today I held his opinion in high regard. We often disagreed, but I respected what he said. He still has an informed view of all things Pakistan... but now, now he has sold his soul to the devil in order to confirm his Obama bias.

In one of his latest Newsweek columns he lists the "accomplishments" of the Obama administration in its first 100 days. He goes on to suggest that "any President would be envious" of those accomplishments. What?

Throughout the meat of his column he lists nothing of consequence. He says so in the first few paragraphs... he notes that Obama's policies all need time before we can judge. NO Mr. Zakaria they do not need time. We can judge Obama's policies against History! Against Precedent! And against good common sense! We can judge them now for what they are... Socialist. Your love for European Style Socialism betrays you! You adherence to your Obama narrative betrays you! You uncharacteristic unacademic assessment of Obama's first 100 days puts you off my list of liberal leaning pundits I respect.

I understood how you could back Obama in the election. I did. The right offered no real candidate. Obama was intoxicating to those who had even a slight leftward lean. I get it. But you have abandoned yourself and us by sugar coating a failing 100 days. A 100 days that will forever be the time the left tried to make the United States of America the United Socialist States of America!

Perhaps these are your true colors. I hope not. I hope there is a shred of intellectual honesty left in your body. I hope that you will abandon a failed narrative and bias. I hope I am only witnessing a stumble and not a fall.