The 9-12 Project in Mentor, OH

Do You Believe in God?

2012-02-13T18:26:00.001-05:00

With the debate over the Catholic Church's reaction to the Obama Administration's healthcare mandate making front page news for the past two weeks, the topic of "Faith in America" is in the spotlight. So, the very curious Blaze editorial staff wants to learn more about YOU and your faith. Take our new URTAK poll on Faith and the role that God plays in your life HERE.

Candidate’s Night

2012-02-09T08:36:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 7 PM

Lakeland Community College, Room T-129

Candidates who will be appearing on the March 6th Primary ballot have been invited to come and introduce themselves and tell us why they are running.

The following candidates have accepted and will participate:

David Macko, Libertarian candidate for US House, District 14

Donna Glisman, Republican candidate for US Senate

David Fiebig, Republican candidate for Lake County Commissioner

Emilee Teresczuk, Republican candidate for Lake County Clerk of Courts

John Hamercheck, Republican candidate for Lake County Commissioner

Jason Wuliger, Republican candidate for Lake County Recorder

Eric LaMont Gregory, Republican candidate for US Senate

Richard Shreve, Republican candidate for Lake County Commissioner

Linda Burhenne, Republican candidate for Lake County Commissioner

Bob Patterson, Republican Candidate for Lake County Treasurer

Ted Andrzejewski, Democratic candidate for Lake County Commissioner

Stephen Emmert, Republican candidate for State Central Committee, 25th District

LOCATION: This meeting will take place at Lakeland Community College in Room T-129.

Follow this link for a map of the campus showing where the T Building is located: http://files.meetup.com/1419069/Campus_Map-T.pdf

(The T building is marked in Red with parking indicted in green. Handicap parking is permitted in the blue areas.)

Follow this link for a map of the rooms in the T Building: http://files.meetup.com/1419069/Campus_Map-...

There is a $2 Meeting Room Fee. This fee is waived for Active Members who have paid their yearly dues, college students with an ID and children under 17.

CLINT EASTWOOD SUPER BOWL AD: IT'S HALFTIME IN AMERICA...

2012-02-05T22:13:00.001-05:00

If you missed it at the Super Bowl half time, here it is again. Everybody’s talking about it…

(Or, if you just want to watch it over and over again!)

"FOOTPRINTS IN HISTORY ARE NOT MADE SITTING DOWN"

2012-02-01T09:17:00.001-05:00

America is worth fighting for, and so are our families.

On Tuesday, March 27, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. (local) in more than 450 major movie theaters, audiences will come together for a live, one-night only theatrical event called MONUMENTAL: IN SEARCH OF AMERICA¹S NATIONAL TREASURE, hosted by Kirk Cameron.

Join us on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at our Mentor 9-12 Project meeting to learn more. Details here.

Watch this exciting trailer.

The 9-12 Project in Mentor, OH

Movie Website

Movie News – Act of Valor

2012-01-30T09:12:00.001-05:00

Coming to a theater near you on Feb 24, 2012. A motion picture staring active duty Navy Seals.

Visit the movie website for more trailers.

"I'm worried about ricochets and everything."

"We'll give you a flack jacket and a helmet. You'll be fine."

Military Wives Choir

2012-01-19T07:17:00.001-05:00

This video is taken from a British series where a guy called Gareth Malone takes a group of people and turns them into a choir.

This time he's taken a group of military wives whose husbands are all in Afghanistan and turned them into a choir.

Gareth looks about 16yrs old but is actually in his mid-30s and is the Choir Master for the London Symphony Orchestra.

They wrote a song based on excerpts from letters written by the couples whilst apart and this is the beautiful result.
The single is out in the UK and thousands have been pre-ordered and all the money raised is going to military charities.

Enjoy!

Remember Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941

2011-12-06T11:38:00.001-05:00

The Empire of japan attacks Pearl Harbor and achieves total tactical and strategic surprise. The attack is conducted in two waves: The first wave of 183 enemy aircraft strikes just before 8:00 a.m. The second wave of 170 planes hits a little after 8:30 a.m.

Of the ships anchored at Pearl Harbor, five of the eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were either sunk or severely damaged. By day’s end, 2,718 American sailors, 582 soldiers (including Army Air Forces personnel), 178 Marines, and 103 civilians will be dead, dying or wounded. Japanese losses were minimal: 30 planes, five minisubs, 65 killed, and one Japanese sailor captured. All but two of the battleships - the Arizona and Oklahoma - are raised to fight again. Admiral Hara Tadaichi would say, "We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war."

Meanwhile, Japanese forces bomb Guam and Wake as destroyers and planes attack Midway.

Medal of Honor: 15 sailors earned the Medal of Honor during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

H/T: Blackfive

Made in America

2011-11-11T08:20:00.001-05:00

"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

THANK YOU to all our veterans. Those who served and those who are serving now. All made a sacrifice with their service and some made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you for your service!

Veterans Day Tribute to the American Soldier 2011; Many of the Men in this video have given their lives in heroic action for their country and for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. Several of these Men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Their Brothers in Arms deserve no less recognition for their service......

HT: Subsunk

No Laughing at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

2011-11-09T22:31:00.001-05:00

The Old Guard does not tolerate disrespect at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is what happens when you don't show respect at the Tomb...

Watch and find out.

Only under exceptional circumstances may the guard speak or alter his silent, measured tour of duty. He will issue a warning if anyone attempts to enter the restricted area around the Tomb, but first will halt and bring his rifle to port arms.

H/T Blackfive

A.F.Branco Cartoon “Food for Thought”

2011-10-28T07:59:00.001-04:00

This cartoon was seen on GBTV and re-posted from CDNews on theBlaze.com

CD News is:

CDN offers the top news, analysis and opinion on the internet from a Conservative perspective. Based on a citizen journalist concept, many contributors offer differing styles with which to deliver quality content to you – the reader seeking the information needed to help return America to the great nation she deserves to be.

As with all sources of information, we hope you consult multiple resources and make decisions for yourselves – just start with CDN first.

October 19, 2011 Meeting Notes

2011-10-20T18:47:00.001-04:00

Reference Notes for 10-19-11 Meeting

Union Bosses Don’t Answer to You

Every year, Ohio’s government unions pay themselves handsomely with millions of dollars taken from public workers. It’s a decent gig, considering that taxpayers (and even union members) suffer as a result of unsustainable union demands. Whenever you hear a union apologist slamming fat-cat Republicans or corporate villains, keep in mind what union bosses are paid. Here are the facts:

http://thathero.com/2011/10/10/unions-dont-answer-to-you/

NEA Attacks Ohio Union Reform

Why is NEA desperate to keep Ohioans from voting Yes on Issue 2? In addition to instituting merit pay, putting a stop to last-in-first-out firing policies, and requiring government workers to pay for a small portion of their benefits, Senate Bill 5 ends mandatory “fair share” dues taken from non-members.

Take a look at NEA pay and tell me it’s not about the money:

http://thathero.com/2011/10/12/nea-attacks-ohio-union-reform/

Who is “We Are Ohio”?

We Are Ohio is a citizen-driven, community-based, bipartisan coalition that has come together to repeal SB 5, the unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety. We Are Ohio includes public and private sector workers and employees, police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, pastors, small business owners, Republicans and Democrats, local elected officials and business leaders, students, Moms, Dads, family members, and your neighbors.

Don’t believe it!

http://thirdbasepolitics.blogspot.com/2011/08/who-is-we-are-ohio.html

Ohio Average Pay

The average pay of Ohio union members vs. private non-government workers.

http://thathero.com/2011/07/06/extremely-expensive-signatures/

Video Exposing Occupy Wall Street Was Organized From Day One by SEIU / ACORN Front - The Working Family Party, and How They All Tie To The Obama Administration, DNC, Democratic Socialists of America, Tides, and George Soros

2011-10-07T14:53:00.001-04:00

From our friends at The Blaze,

Visit The Blaze are read about the breakdown of the connections between The Working Family, SEIU, ACORN, The New party, The DNC, Democratic Socialists of America, The Tides Foundation, George Soros and the Obama Administration.

"180" The Movie

2011-10-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

Warning: Contains some graphic scenes from the Holocaust.

http://www.heartchanger.com/index.php

Sherrod Brown and Tim Ryan Lying SB 5 at Columbus Meeting

2011-09-30T08:46:00.001-04:00

Watch the video below that Andrew Breitbart's group captured showing Sherrod Brown and Tim Ryan lying to firefighters about SB 5:

And from Andrew Breitbart’s website Big Journalism is this about the video:

When he’s not busy encouraging Massachusetts voters to commit voter fraud to “keep these bastards out,” or condemning “tea party rhetoric” for not “rising to the president’s challenge on tone” while calling Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut,” MSNBC’s Ed Schultz indulges his hobby of swooping into states like Wisconsin and Ohio, becoming an overnight expert on legislation he is only familiar with from having skimmed through SEIU-furnished Cliffs Notes, calling the legislation “racist” while cheerleading union rallies with applause-cuing platitudes, waving his arms in solidarity and then peacing out.

Schultz made a recent visit to Columbus, Ohio in which he had Congressman Tim Ryan (whom I had interviewed hours prior about Senate Bill 5’s alleged confiscation of safety equipment) and Senator Sherrod Brown on the show against a backdrop of union firefighters to whom, during commercial breaks, Schultz yelled that SB 5 “makes me believe Jimmy Hoffa even more that they are sons of bitches!” Throughout the broadcast Schultz and his guests parroted the manufactured mantra that the bill takes away safety equipment, perhaps almost enough times to make it true.

Here’s the link: http://bigjournalism.com/chartsock/2011/09/28/project-mayhem-part-ii-ed-schultz-lies-and-videotape/

The Money Hole

2011-09-22T07:44:00.001-04:00

John Stossel did a great report called the “Money Hole” and it addresses the very specific, very real effects in towns from excessive spending and not heeding the warnings for necessary reforms.

Public employee unions are addressed in this video making it quite relevant to the SB5 debate happening today.

Get your friends together for a drink and a bite to eat one night and watch this video – this kind of common sense approach to our fiscal crisis will be well received. Then – engage them on the issues this November to help curb the problem. Especially Issue 3!! It effects so much of our future!

It is that important, and it really hits home. Enjoy!

Note: If you don’t watch John Stossel, you are missing arguably the best show on television.

H/T: Chris Littelton

Glenn Beck 9/11 Remembrance

2011-09-11T16:44:00.001-04:00

We Will NEVER Forget

2011-09-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

Standing for Israel

2011-08-24T16:20:00.001-04:00

We gathered today to watch Glenn Beck’s RESTORING COURAGE broadcast. At the end of the program, we were so moved we recorded this short video.

We wanted to show our support and Stand for Israel.

Conquering the Storm

2011-08-10T15:15:00.001-04:00

From Sarah Palin’s Facebook Page

by Sarah Palin on Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:53pm

In the coming days we’ll sort through the repercussions of S&P’s downgrade of our credit rating, including concerns about the impact a potential interest rate increase would have on our ability to service our suffocating $14.5 trillion debt.

I’m surprised that so many people seem surprised by S&P’s decision. Weren’t people paying attention over the last year or so when we were getting warning after warning from various credit rating agencies that this was coming? I’ve been writing and speaking about it myself for quite some time.

Back in December 2010, I wrote: “If the European debt crisis teaches us anything, it’s that tomorrow always comes. Sooner or later, the markets will expect us to settle the bill for the enormous Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending binge. We’ve already been warned by the credit ratings agency Moody’s that unless we get serious about reducing our deficit, we may face a downgrade of our credit rating.” And again in January, in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address I wrote: “With credit ratings agency Moody’s warning us that the federal government must reverse the rapid growth of national debt or face losing our triple-A rating, keep in mind that a nation doesn’t look so ‘great’ when its credit rating is in tatters.”

One doesn’t need a Harvard Law degree to figure this out! Just look across the pond at Europe. European nations with less debt and smaller deficits than ours and with real “austerity” plans in place to deal with them have had their ratings downgraded. By what magical thinking did we figure we could run up perpetual trillion dollar deficits and still somehow avoid the unforgiving mathematics of a downgrade? Nothing is ever “too big to fail.” And there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Didn’t we all learn that in our micro and macro econ classes? I did at the University of Idaho. How could Obama skip through Columbia and Harvard without learning that?

Many commonsense Americans like myself saw this day coming. In fact, in June 2010, Rick Santelli articulated the view of independent Tea Party patriots everywhere when he shouted on CNBC, “I want the government to stop spending! Stop spending! Stop spending! Stop spending! STOP SPENDING!” So, how shamelessly cynical and dishonest must one be to blame this inevitable downgrade on the very people who have been shouting all along “stop spending”? Blaming the Tea Party for our credit downgrade is akin to Nero blaming the Christians for burning Rome. Tea Party Americans weren’t the ones “fiddling” while our country’s fiscal house was going up in smoke. In fact, we commonsense fiscal conservatives were the ones grabbing for the extinguishers while politically correct politicians and their cronies buried their heads in what soon became this bonfire.

With S&P and others now warning that we could face another downgrade if we don’t get serious about our debt problem (i.e., recklessly spending money we don't have), Washington needs to wake up before things get worse! We’re already hearing murmurs about QE3, which is just madness and will further debase our currency at a time when the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency is already being questioned. The loss of the dollar’s reserve currency status would adversely impact us in every conceivable way. Our standard of living would decline as imports become more expensive (including imports of foreign oil), government wouldn’t be able to finance deficits as cheaply, and American corporations – employers – would lose a competitive edge. It would be another crack in our status as a financial superpower.

Last May, I gave a speech at Westhills Community College in Lemoore, California, to an audience that included farmers from California’s Central Valley. I tried to paint a picture for them of where all of this was heading. The following is an excerpt from my prepared remarks:

Now we’re all getting hit with rising food prices too. Back in November of last year, I predicted this would happen when the Federal Reserve dropped a $600 billion money bomb called QE2 on us! That’s short for “quantitative easing 2.” It’s a fancy term for running the printing presses and creating money out of thin air – which drives down the value of the dollar and makes the price of everything more expensive.

As I predicted six months ago, these policies will lead us down a path where for the first time in our history our fate will be taken out of our own hands and placed in the hands of the world’s capital markets. They will force us to make the responsible decisions that our leaders are unwilling to make. Just as the destinies of the Central Valley farms have been taken out of your hands by the federal government’s overreach into your water rights, so the destiny of our nation will be taken out of our hands because our leadership has failed to get our financial house in order.

This isn’t some theoretical threat any more. It’s already happening. The world’s biggest bond investment fund PIMCO announced last month that it was dumping U.S. Treasury bonds. The head of PIMCO, Bill Gross, one of the world’s preeminent debt investors, warned that the U.S. is in serious risk of default with our trillion dollar deficits and no end in sight. And last week, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded our credit outlook to “negative” – that’s the first time that has happened to us since the attack on Pearl Harbor. The IMF has even given us formal notice that, unless we do something to deal with our debt problem, we could tip the world economy into another recession.

It is a disgraceful and embarrassing situation when the United States finds itself justifiably chastised in the same tone normally reserved for near-bankrupt economies.

And in this, like in shutting off your water, the federal government has failed you. Their reckless spending and destruction of the dollar will make access to available credit for farmers and small business owners harder to get. And it will make transportation costs higher because it will hit everyone at the gas pump. You see, because the Obama White House won’t let us drill domestically, we’re forced to import oil that we pay for in dollars. So, when the value of the dollar drops, the price of gas goes up. And if you think $4 a gallon is bad, wait till you see what life is like at $6 or $7 a gallon.

Last November, the so-called smart people all laughed at me when I warned them of this. They told me not to make such a big deal about rising prices. Well, guess what – it became a big deal all on its own.

In fact, there was an editorial in the New York Sun that said – and I quote: “As gasoline is nearing six dollars a gallon at some pumps, the cost of groceries is skyrocketing, and the value of the dollars…has collapsed to less than a 1,500th of an ounce of gold. Unemployment is still high. Shakespeare couldn’t come up with a better plot. But how in the world did Mrs. Palin, who is supposed to be so thick, manage to figure all this out so far ahead of the New York Times and all the economists it talked to?”

Well, I’m sure the New York Times writers will remember the famous line: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” And right now the American economy is in the howling, hot headwinds of a gathering storm. We’re printing up and buying up our own notes at an unprecedented rate, and the Fed is artificially holding interest rates down to nearly zero. Anyone with commonsense could see what was coming. Unfortunately, common sense is in short supply among our leaders. It’s like they never believe that the rules of common sense apply to them. They think somehow we'll escape from the consequences of their policies. It’s the same magical thinking that allows them to run up trillion dollar deficits and still think that we can “win the future.”

Every other generation has weathered recessions by sacrifice and belt tightening. But our leaders today decided that they could magically paper over the tough decisions by running the printing presses. A little history lesson might have showed them how well that worked out for Germany in the 1930s. The Weimar Republic inflated its currency so much that it took a wheel barrel full of paper money to buy a loaf of bread. That might be the main thing I remember from Mr. Crum’s history class at Wasilla High, but it told me all I needed to know about the inflationary dangers of a weak currency and why we must avoid it. What a shame Mr. Crum didn’t teach at Harvard.

That was just three months ago, and things have already gotten worse. We have to face this storm head on. It won’t be easy, but there are real solutions to grow our economy and reduce our debt.

First, we need to get serious about our deficit. No more accounting gimmicks. No more cuts in “out-years” that never materialize. The permanent political class in D.C. might be fooling themselves with these Enron-like accounting games, but they’re not fooling the world’s capital markets. And we don’t need any more happy talk from the White House about “investing” in solar shingles and really fast trains. The White House shouldn’t even bother floating these new spending programs. We can’t afford them. Period. We need to stop this deficit spending, balance our budget, repeal Obamacare, cancel all unused stimulus funds, and reform our entitlement programs. We have to have an adult conversation about our spending commitments; circumstances have changed, and we must adapt. I know none of this will be easy, but, “thick” or not, the average American outside the D.C. politico bubble knows that we no longer have a choice! We will have entitlement reform and a balanced budget; it’s just a matter of how. We can do it ourselves in a calm, methodical, and responsible manner, or we can wait for the world’s capital markets to ram it down on us. Let’s be responsible and do it ourselves. And let’s get serious about reducing the size of government across the board and rooting out waste. How many more reports (that today are destined to merely gather dust on the shelf) do we need about duplicative and unnecessary programs before we actually do something about government waste?

We need to get this economy moving again, and the real stimulus we’ve been waiting for is domestic energy development. We must reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil by responsibly developing natural resources here. This will provide good paying jobs, reduce our trade deficit, increase federal and state revenue, ensure environmental standards, and actually stimulate our economy without incurring any debt. That’s real stimulus! Affordable, plentiful, and secure energy is the foundation of every thriving economy. Let’s make it the foundation of ours. Let’s do the opposite of President Obama’s manipulation of U.S. energy supplies. Let’s drill here, build refineries, and stop kowtowing to foreign countries in asking them to ramp up energy production which makes us even more beholden to them as we rely on their foreign product. Let’s move on tapping our massive domestic natural gas reserves. Natural gas is the perfect “bridge fuel” to a future when more renewable sources are available. It’s clean, it’s green, and we’ve got a lot of it. Let’s drill. Let’s build an infrastructure for natural gas cars and power plants. Energy development can help kick start our economic engine.

In addition to energy security, I embrace a pro-growth agenda that can make American corporations far more competitive on the global stage. (I will be writing more about this in the coming days.) We need to tell the world, “America is open for business again!” And let’s welcome industry by reducing burdensome regulations. The Obama administration keeps strangling businesses in red tape. From the EPA’s rulings to that nightmare known as Obamacare, the Obama administration is hanging one regulatory albatross after another around the private sector’s neck. Let’s get government out of the way and give the private sector room to breathe, grow, and thrive. We can provide businesses confidence to expand and hire Americans in a stable environment.

Be wary of the efforts President Obama makes to “fix” the debt problem. The more he tries to “fix” things, the worse they get because his “solutions” always involve spending more, taxing more, growing government, and increasing debt. This debt problem is the greatest challenge facing our country today. Obviously, President Obama doesn’t have a plan or even a notion of how to deal with it. His press conference today was just a rehash of his old talking points and finger-pointing. That’s why he can’t be re-elected in 2012.

Our economic news is disheartening and the task before us can seem daunting, but we must not lose our sense of optimism. People look around today and may see only the negative. They see a culture and a nation in decline, but that’s not who we are! America must regain its optimistic pioneering spirit again. Our founders declared that “we were born the heirs of freedom.” We are the heirs of those who froze with Washington at Valley Forge, who held the line at Gettysburg, who freed the slaves, carved a nation out of the wilderness, and allowed reward for work ethic. We are the sons and daughters of that Greatest Generation who stormed the beaches of Normandy, raised the flag at Iwo Jima, and made America the strongest and most prosperous nation in the history of mankind. By God, we will not squander what has been given us!

Our destiny is still in our own hands if we pick ourselves up and act responsibly and quickly. We must all get involved. Concerned Americans must seek truth, work harder than ever, and be willing to sacrifice today to ensure freedom tomorrow. Please get engaged in 2012 electoral politics and support experienced, vetted, pro-free market fiscal conservatives who will dedicate all to preserving our Republic and protecting our Constitution.

- Sarah Palin

Senator Rubio: "Save the Whole House or It Will All Burn Down"

2011-07-31T08:27:00.001-04:00

Watch this amazing speech by Senator Marco Rubio [R-FL] on the Debt Ceiling. It's 14 minutes but fantastic. John Kerry interrupts but Rubio makes him look silly.

“Compromise without solutions is a waste of time,” says Marco Rubio.

Here is the video — be sure to catch his exchange with John Kerry:

“To the Senator from Massachusetts I would say that it is impossible to negotiate someone who doesn’t have a plan”

Hattip: Redstate

MSNBC Host Mockingly Asks GOP Congressman If He Has ‘Degree In Economics’ – Turns Out He Does!

2011-07-22T08:30:00.001-04:00

MSNBC anchorette Contessa Brewer was trying to school a congressman, Mo Brooks (R., Ala.), in economics. She told him that, without bailouts, the country would be in a “depression.” Brooks said he disagreed. Brewer asked whether he had a degree in economics. (A little sniffy, don’t you think?) The congressman said, “Yes, ma’am, I do. Highest honors.”

Brewer graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications with a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism in 1996,

Congressman Brooks graduated from Duke University in three years with a double major in political science and economics, with highest honors in economics. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Alabama Law School.

Restoring Courage viewing Event

2011-07-21T08:15:00.001-04:00

Please join us to watch

Glenn Beck’s

RESTORING COURAGE RALLY

Live from Jerusalem, Israel

12 o’clock Noon - August 24, 2011

Come Stand With Israel!

Now is the time to Stand and Restore Courage. We ask those of you who value freedom, honor and faith to join us and stand with Glenn Beck and leaders from around the world with one united voice. Glenn’s company, Mercury Radio Arts, is hosting the Restoring Courage event on August 24th at The Southern Wall Excavations in Jerusalem.

Join us as we watch this historic event live on GBTV.

· Doors open 11 AM Wednesday, August 24, 2011

· Lakeland Community College, Room T-129

· Program streamed live via the Internet on GBTV

· Large projection screen on stage

· Comfortable theatre style seating

· Regular $2 Meeting Fee charged except to Active Members with paid dues

· Visit our Meetup website to RSVP today at http://www.meetup.com/The-9-12-Project-in-Mentor-OH/events/26224041/

Wednesday’s Meeting

2011-07-19T08:33:00.001-04:00

Kevin Coughlin of Cuyahoga Falls, represented Summit County in the Ohio Senate 2001-2011. He served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1997-2001.

He is planning to run for US Senate in Ohio against Sherrod Brown next year.

Come and listen to Kevin outline his thoughts about current federal policies and his plans if he unseats Sherrod Brown.

Kevin was twice elected as an across-the-board conservative in a Senate district where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1.

Currently a small business owner, Coughlin’s firm Lexington Strategic offers strategic planning, public policy and management services to corporations and non-profits.

Don't miss this opportunity to talk with and question a Senate candidate!

LOCATION: This meeting will take place at Lakeland Community College in Room T-129.

Follow this link for a map of the campus showing where the T Building is located: http://files.meetup.c...

(The T building is marked in Red with parking indicted in green. Handicap parking is permitted in the blue areas.)

Follow this link for a map of the rooms in the T Building: http://files.meetup.c...

There is a $2 Meeting Room Fee. This fee is waived for Active Members who have paid their yearly dues, college students with an ID and children 17.

STOP IT

2011-07-15T09:26:00.000-04:00

Judge Napolitano’s Open Letter to John Boehner: A Common Sense Guide to What Needs to Be Done

Hattip: The Blaze

In an impassioned plea to Speaker John Boehner, Judge Andrew Napolitano outlines what needs to be done to help resolve the fiscal crisis faced by America.

ERROR: Video will not embed.

You can also see it here: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1052777014001/an-open-letter-to-john-boehner/

Military Day of Prayer 2011

2011-05-21T07:47:00.001-04:00

Guideposts Outreach is pleased to announce our Military Day of Prayer, May 26, 2011. Please submit your prayer request for our brave servicemen, women and their loved ones. Prayer volunteers will lift up to the Lord all prayer requests received. Submit your requests here.

Ohio Healthcare Amendment Signing Locations

2011-05-18T08:50:00.001-04:00

There are three permanent signing locations in Lake County where you can sign a petition for the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment.

They are:

Bendelewski Meats
6732 N. Ridge E.
Madison

(440) 428-6683
Call to confirm Paul is present.

The Meko Law Office LLC
2778 SOM Center Road, Suite 202
Willoughby Hills

(440) 516-1500
Mon, - Fri.,10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Please call before coming to confirm.

Timothy Allen Jewelers Inc.
8925 Mentor Avenue
Mentor

(440) 974-8885
Tue. 11-6, Wed. 11-6, Thur. 11-8, Fri.11-5, Sat 10-4
Closed Sun & Mon

Stop by soon the sign the petition. We are closing in on the goal and we need your signature now.

For more information about the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment, visit The Ohio Project.

Teen Makes Digital Record of Arlington Graves

2011-05-03T08:28:00.001-04:00

Ricky Gilleland, a tech-savvy 11th-grader, has created the only digitized record of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

April 26, 2011|By Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times

Rosemary Brown is standing over the grave of her son at Arlington National Cemetery when someone catches her eye. It's a boy in khaki shorts and muddy shoes, juggling a clunky camera and the Motorola Xoom he got for his 17th birthday five days earlier.

"May I ask what you're doing?" Brown inquires. The boy begins to peck at the Xoom tablet, and in seconds the image that Brown has come all the way from Cartwright, Okla., to see fills the screen. It's the white marble headstone of Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Jason L. Brown, killed by small-arms fire in Afghanistan three years ago this day. Her face brightens.

"Most of Jason's family and friends are in Oklahoma and Texas. For them to be able to see his grave…," she says, her voice breaking.

Richard "Ricky" Gilleland III — 11th-grader and Junior Future Business Leaders of America computer ace — has succeeded where the Army failed: He has created the only digitized record of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans laid to rest at Arlington. His website, preserveandhonor.com, is a reverent catalog of the fallen, and one young man's response to a scandal of Army mismanagement, mismarked graves and unmarked remains that has rocked this hallowed place for two years.

"It's a tool to help remember people. They can go on and think, 'Wow, look at all these people who gave their lives just so I can walk around,' " Ricky says.

His "project," as he calls it, won't fix Arlington's considerable problems. A commission led by former Sens. Bob Dole and Max Cleland was formed to attempt that.

But his simple website has brought a measure of order and relief to military families unnerved by reports first disclosed by Salon.com in 2009: unidentified remains in graves thought to be empty, one service member buried on top of another, an unmarked urn that turned up in a dirt landfill.

California's war dead

Thirty-six Californians buried at Arlington served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An investigation by the Army inspector general concluded in June that at least 211 graves were mislabeled. Top brass were fired. And the management of the 147-year-old American landmark, where about 300,000 fallen troops rest, suddenly seemed as chaotic as its uniform lines of unadorned white markers are orderly.

Cemetery operations were declared antiquated. Arlington still relies on paper records and index cards to maintain 200 acres where presidents, astronauts, freed slaves and heroes of every American war lie. "One fire, flood or coffee spill away" from irreplaceable loss, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) warned.

While discussing Arlington's outdated record-keeping over dinner one night last summer, Ricky — who had just gotten an A in his Programming 1 class at school — announced, "I can fix that." His mother didn't doubt it. She still remembered her older sons complaining they were locked out of the computer again because Ricky, age 4, had changed all the passwords.

"He was the kid who figured things out," Elisabeth Van Dyk, 46, said of her youngest. "He took apart remote controls and his brothers' toys and put them back together again. You could trust he knew what he was talking about."

Ricky didn't have his driver's license yet, so he hitched a ride with his mom on her 45-minute commute from their home in Stafford, Va., to her workplace in Washington. He hopped the Metro the rest of the way to the cemetery. This was July and he wanted an early start before the heat set in.

His focus was Section 60, where about 700 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, more than anywhere else in the country. He combed all 18 acres of it, row by row, and found more than just names. At one grave was a baby's sonogram; he thought about the child who would never know his dad. He saw parents who looked a lot like his own, standing, staring.

Ricky took it all in. This is a side of service he had never fully appreciated, even for a military brat — his great-great-great-grandfather fought at Gettysburg, his father is a retired Army sergeant first class, his stepfather is a retired Navy lieutenant commander and both of his brothers are Air Force senior airmen. (He intends to apply to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and wants to be an officer.)

"Sometimes I look at the birth date and they are about the same age as my brothers, or a year older than me. It puts a whole new perspective on life to think there are 18- or 19-year-old kids who give their lives," he said.

One afternoon while he was out here taking pictures, a woman asked, "What number is my son?" She wanted to know where he fell in a casualty count that is nearing 6,000 for both wars. Ricky couldn't answer her, but later he told his mom that he didn't want them to be numbers; he wanted them to be remembered as people.

"From that point forward," his mom recalled, "it seemed to turn into more than a project."

He spent afternoons in a bookstore poring over Web development manuals for the right program language to create the site. At night, in his family's study, his computer hooked up to a 40-inch flat screen and his keyboard on a snack table in front of the couch, he input hundreds of names, photos, links to obituaries and newspaper accounts; he created a space to blog tributes.

By mid-October, the site was launched.

Army Times wrote him up. The local TV station did a piece. At North Stafford High, he was a minor celebrity. Friends and families around the country could view a loved one's grave thousands of miles away with the click of a mouse. So far, the site has received nearly 116,000 hits and about 300 emails, like the one from Jean Lockey, widow of Army Col. Jon M. Lockey, killed in Iraq on July 6, 2007: "I now have a site to go to when life overwhelms me, a place where I can pretend for a moment I am right there."

And Sarah Hall, mother of 1st Lt. Benjamin John Hall, killed in Afghanistan on July 31, 2007: "Ben was … the light of my life and I miss him every second of every day. To know that his loss is felt by others and acknowledged with such love and honor as you have shown here lifts my heart.…Thank you."

About 10% of the service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are at Arlington; the rest are in cemeteries around the country. Ricky's next goal is to enlist the help of the American Legion and record them all on the website. He figures it could be done in a few months.

But the work at Arlington is never really finished. Sadly, there are always graves to add, and he comes out every few weeks to update the list. That's what brings him here today, with his mom and stepdad, in the back seat of the silver Honda she said he could have if he stayed on the honor roll, which he did. (If his grades drop, she has threatened to sell the car for a dollar.)

He's eager to try out the Xoom. It's a gorgeous April Sunday after a hard rain. The red tulips stand straight as soldiers at the cemetery gates, but the grounds are soaked. Ricky starts patrolling the far end of Section 60 where the new arrivals are. It's muddy and his sneakers sink three inches into what he realizes is a grave so fresh the sod hasn't gone in yet. He winces and carries on. No way can he wear those shoes to school Monday.

That's what he's doing when Rosemary Brown spots him. She comes here twice a year — with her husband on the anniversary of Jason's death and by herself on his birthday in September. ("It's a Mom thing. That's my time.") In between, Ricky's website might be the next best thing.

"Continue this, please," she tells the boy she's only just met. He's shy and a little awkward, not so different from the one she raised. "It's so important that they never, ever be forgotten. Ever."

"I will," Ricky promises. "You can bet on it."

Photos from Glenn Beck’s show in Cleveland

2011-04-13T16:55:00.001-04:00

Members from The 9-12 Project in Mentor collected signatures for the Ohio Healthcare Project in the lobby at Glenn Beck’s show last night in Cleveland.

Our Young Heroes in the Line of Duty

2011-04-04T22:47:00.001-04:00

Please take time to remember those in the armed forces on active duty, the reservists, or service member who have fallen in the line of duty. Consider law enforcement officers, fire and rescue personnel, border patrol, individuals involved in national defense. Think of the fearless men and women who put on a uniform every day to make freedom possible - because there are no freedoms without those willing to fight for them.

This video tribute to those on the front lines is the story of true patriots, told by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North at the NRA Annual Meeting. It's a stirring profile of the spirited, courageous guardian of our precious freedoms. America's best...

Hattip to Dave.

Are We Ever in Trouble!

2011-03-25T07:53:00.001-04:00

From our friends at The Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs.

By David Foster

Data from the Census of 2010 continues to trickle out, a column from the Wall Street Journal has some figures on cities that have lost population. New Orleans leads the list, for obvious reasons. It lost 140,845 people, for a drop of 29.1% since the last Census ten years ago. Next comes Detroit, which lost a whopping 25% of its population over the same period and without the excuse of a natural disaster. Almost a quarter of a million people fled the Motor City! Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Santa Anna, and Baltimore are also on the list of the top ten losers, though with much smaller losses than Detroit. But the real story is Ohio. Cleveland is third on the list with a loss of 17.1%, which means that 81,558 people moved out in the last decade. Then come Cincinnati and Toledo with losses of 10.4% and 8.4% respectively. Ohio is the only state with more than one city among the top ten losers, and we have three in the top six! That's a distinction we could do without.

The New Health Care Reform Law One Year Later and Getting Worse by the Day

2011-03-24T07:20:00.001-04:00

From Congressman John C. Fleming, M.D.;

Today, on the one year anniversary since government-approved health care was signed into law, a look at the implementation of the new health care reform reveals how the legislation has failed to deliver on costs, premiums, spending, and preserving Americans’ existing coverage:

19 — States where parents can no longer buy child-only insurance policies as a result of the law

30 — States suing to block the law from taking effect, or requesting waivers from its requirements

51 — Percentage of American workers who will lose their current health coverage by 2013, according to the Administration’s own estimates

1,270 — New bureaucrats requested by the Internal Revenue Service to implement the law this year

$2,100 — Increase in individual insurance premiums due to Obamacare, according to the Congressional Budget Office

$2,500 — Premium reduction promised by candidate Obama “by the end of my first term as President”

6,578 — Pages of new regulations issued implementing Obamacare through March 14, 2011

800,000 — Reduction in the American labor force due to Obamacare provisions that “will effectively increase marginal tax rates, which will also discourage work,” according to the CBO

2,624,720 — Total individuals in 1,040 plans granted waivers thus far exempting them from the law’s insurance mandates; nearly half of whom participate in union plans

7,400,000 — Reduction in Medicare Advantage enrollment as a result of Obamacare, resulting in a loss of choice for seniors and millions of beneficiaries losing their current health plan

40,000,000 — Firms subject to the health law’s new 1099 reporting requirements, which the National Federation of Independent Business called a “tremendous new paperwork compliance burden”

$118,000,000,000 — New costs imposed on states to implement Obamacare—budgetary costs that will lead to reduced services for other state programs like education or to higher state taxes

$310,800,000,000 — Projected increase in health costs due to Obamacare, according to the independent Medicare actuary, who called its promise of lower costs “false, more so than true”

$552,200,000,000 — Amount of higher taxes Americans will pay if Obamacare remains in place

$1,390,000,000,000 — Federal spending on new entitlements during fiscal years 2012-2021 according to the CBO, a 48 percent increase from an earlier estimate

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU: Even though we have seen only a few of the law’s initial provisions take effect, American families and businesses are already facing higher costs, economic uncertainty, and loss of their current coverage.

Sen. Rand Paul on Consumer Choice in Energy Committee Hearing

2011-03-16T07:41:00.001-04:00

Liberal Confronts Herman Cain!

2011-03-10T07:27:00.001-05:00

A Herman Cain video worth watching.

New Sign for Congressman Benishek

2011-03-03T06:55:00.001-05:00

From a tweet by Congressman Dan Benishek of Michigan’s 1st district who replaced Bart Stupak last November.

“New banner is up in our DC office... simple Northern Michigan common sense.” posted by @CongressmanDan

"What's the Plan? A Grassroots call to Action"

2011-02-21T08:10:00.001-05:00

You hear about the federal budget and the problems the United States is facing, but those big giant numbers are extremely hard to follow. How bad is the problem? What does it all mean? What’s the solution?

Here’s an excellent new video from our friends at iCaucus that helps put it in perspective. It’s well done and frankly pretty scary! The first half of the video describes the problem and is well worth your time. The second half of the video is a call to join them at an Economic Summit in Utah, either in person or on the web.

Enjoy!

For more information on the summit, here is the link mentioned in the video: http://tinyurl.com/wecount

Remembering the Marines at Iwo Jima

2011-02-19T19:07:00.001-05:00

Today is the 66^th anniversary of the invasion of the sea mount of Iwo Jima.

Let us not forget what those brave men did there.

Members of the 1st Battalion 23rd Marines burrow in the volcanic sand on the beach of Iwo Jima, as their comrades unload supplies and equipment from landing vessels despite the heavy rain of artillery fire from enemy positions in the background.

Of the 3,400 coming ashore with the 28th Regiment, 5th Marine Division, only 600 were standing when the battle closed.

Iwo Jima was the only Marine battle where the American casualties, 26,000, exceeded the Japanese -- most of the 22,000 defending the island. The 6,800 American servicemen killed doubled the deaths of the Twin-Towers of 9/11.

Iwo Jima is a small speck in the Pacific; it is 4.5 miles long and at its broadest point 2.5 miles wide. Iwo is the Japanese word for sulfur, and the island is indeed full of sulfur. Yellow sulfuric mist routinely rises from cracks of earth, and the island distinctly smells like rotten eggs.

There are six Flag Raisers in the photo. Four in the front line and two in back. The front four are (left to right) Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley and Harlon Block. The back two are Michael Strank (behind Sousley) and Rene Gagnon (behind Bradley). Strank, Block and Sousley would die shortly afterwards. Bradley, Hayes and Gagnon became national heroes within weeks.

The Stars and Stripes over Mount Suribachi after the flag raising.

16 January 2003 -- F-14 Tomcats assigned to the Black Knights of Fighter Squadron One Five Four (VF-154) fly by the memorial on Mt. Elkhart on Iwo Jima Island. The memorial is to the flag raising during Battle of Iwo Jima on top of Mt. Suribachi. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. William F. Evans.

The memorial reads:

"Among the Americans who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue." — Nimitz. Dedicated to those who fought here by the Island Command AGF. Erected by the 31st USNCB. Old Glory was raised on this site 23 February 1945 by members of the Second Battalion, 28th Regiment, Fifth Marine Division.

There is a second memorial atop Mount Suribachi in homage to the Marines and Navy corpsmen killed on the island of Iwo Jima . More Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions at Iwo Jima than in any other battle in U.S. history. In 36 days of fighting, there were 25,851 U.S. casualties – 6,825 killed. Virtually all 22,000 Japanese perished.

From Wikipedia:

The Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Empire of Japan. The U.S. invasion, charged with the mission of capturing the three airfields on Iwo Jima, resulted in some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a vast network of bunkers, hidden artillery, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels. The Americans were covered by extensive naval and air support, capable of putting an enormous amount of firepower onto the Japanese positions. The battle was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands, and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. Iwo Jima was also the only U.S. Marine battle where the American overall casualties exceeded the Japanese,[5] although Japanese combat deaths numbered three times that of Americans. Of the more than 18,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner.[1] The rest were killed or missing and assumed dead. Despite heavy fighting and casualties on both sides, Japanese defeat was assured from the start. The Americans possessed an overwhelming superiority in arms and numbers—this, coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement, ensured that there was no plausible scenario in which the United States could have lost the battle.

The battle was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of the 166 m (545 ft) Mount Suribachi by five Marines and one Navy Corpsman. The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. The picture became the iconic image of the battle and has been heavily reproduced.

The Iwo Jima Memorial, also known as the U. S. Marine Corps War Memorial, honors the Marines who have died defending the United States since 1775. The Iwo Jima Memorial is located near Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.

The 32-foot-high sculpture of the Iwo Jima Memorial was inspired by a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of one of the most historic battles of World War II. Iwo Jima, a small island located 660 miles south of Tokyo, was the last territory that U.S. troops recaptured from the Japanese during World War II. The Iwo Jima Memorial statue depicts the scene of the flag raising by five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman that signaled the successful takeover of the island. The capture of Iwo Jima eventually led to the end of the war in 1945.

The figures of the Marines in the Iwo Jima Memorial statue erect a 60-foot bronze flagpole from which a cloth flag flies 24 hours a day. The base of the memorial is made of rough Swedish granite which is inscribed with the names and dates of every principal member of the U. S. Marine Corps. Also engraved are the words "In honor and in memory of the men of the United States Marine Corps who have given their lives to their country since November 10, 1775."

The Star Spangled Banner

2011-02-11T07:40:00.001-05:00

From our friends at the American Policy Roundtable

The Star Spangled Banner

Given what happened at the Super Bowl this year, it seems appropriate to recall the actual words of the Star Spangled Banner and remember the history of our national anthem. Dr. Jeff Sanders has put together a great blog you can read here.

The Actual Words of our National Anthem:
The Star Spangled Banner
(The Defense of Fort McHenry)
September 14, 1814
By Francis Scott Key

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

(Complete version of "The Star Spangled Banner" from Francis Scott Key's manuscript in the Maryland Historical Society collection. Source: Smithsonian National Museum of American History.)

Ronald Reagan Forever Stamp

2011-02-08T21:33:00.001-05:00

The Ronald Reagan “Forever Stamp” goes on sale Thursday, February 10, 2011. I know it’s the only stamp I will be using going forward!

You can order a variety of First Day Issue Collectables from the Ronald Reagan Library.

This newly designated “Forever Stamp” honors President Reagan by celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth. As United States Postal Service Board of Governors James C. Miller III said during the December 13, 2010 stamp unveiling, the stamp also “honors Reagan’s America – that “shining city on a hill,” that indefatigable spirit that no task is too much for us Americans, that sunny-faced optimism that has led us through the centuries.”

The stamp art, by Bart Forbes of Plano, TX, was created in oil wash on board. It is based on a photograph of Reagan taken in 1985, during his second term as President, at his beloved "Rancho del Cielo" (Ranch in the Sky), near Santa Barbara, CA.

Watch President Reagan's Centennial Celebration Live, February 5 - 6

2011-02-05T22:29:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday President Reagan!

Star Spangled Banner by 9 year old Dominique Dy

2011-02-04T08:19:00.001-05:00

We have seen lots of YouTube videos of young singers and lots of videos of people singing the National Anthem. (Some good and some terrible.)

Here’s one form the “Excellent” category featuring 9 year old Dominique Dy singing the National Anthem at a Vanderbilt University basketball game on January 22, 2011.

Enjoy!

The extreme rhetoric should stop here

2011-01-28T08:14:00.001-05:00

Hattip to RedState:

In the wake of the tragic shooting in Arizona there has been a lot of talk about the “tense political climate” and “extreme rhetoric.” Sadly, all that talk and the left’s determination to blame the right for the evil act committed by an apparently deranged young man has required that we do more than offer prayers condolences to victims and their families. Instead, we have been placed in a position from which we must push back against the left wing talking points that the shooting is the result of the right’s rhetoric.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of the left wing media trying to blame the “tense political climate,” the “extreme rhetoric” and even this despicable shooting on the right. Nevertheless, there has been some “extreme rhetoric” that a reasonable person might conclude encourages violence. Consider the following examples of extreme rhetoric rounded up by theblogprof: (click link to read all of Barack Obama’s rhetoric)

Continuing this theme:

Hattip to Theodore Rhodes

A Trip Down Memory Lane

As the media casts Tea Party attendees as dangerous extremists voicing violent rhetoric, it's interesting to look back at some of the radicals the media spent years ignoring. The lesson of the media coverage: protests against President Bush were patriotic, while protests against President Obama are motivated purely by racism and bigotry.

WARNING: Video contains some potty words.

The State of Our Union Is . . . Zzzzzzzzz

2011-01-26T13:52:00.001-05:00

From NRO Newsletter -Morning Jolt

by Jim Geraghty

The night in a nutshell: President Obama was the salesman assuring you that you can afford the new sports car. Paul Ryan was your accountant, reminding you that you can't.

Dan McLaughlin summarizes his message as, "You're not screwed yet. But soon."

I'm told Rob Long saw "ten minutes of clarity, which beat sixty minutes of meandering."

Jon Henke: "Paul Ryan was great. Straightforward, sincere & he acknowledged that Republicans needed to earn back trust."

Jim Pethokoukis: "Listening to Ryan reminds me of listening to the late Jack Kemp, the utter belief and conviction. It's energizing."

Oh, and last night, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told Greta Van Susteren that the stimulus created or saved 3.1 million jobs.

Sigh.

Announcing the GE-Reagan Foundation Scholarship Program

2011-01-21T07:14:00.001-05:00

Our Country Is Their Eternal Monument

2011-01-16T17:14:00.002-05:00

Let each citizen in true gratitude proclaim to any foreign or domestic enemy who comes in the guise of deceit with intent to destroy: "We are Americans. Listen to our words, you enemies of God and country. Our country is a strong country and our message is a strong message. Our ancestors and our families have left their blood on the green of LExington, in the snows of Valley Forge, on the fields of Gettysburg. They have battled the noble cause of human dignity and freedom. Our American blood has even crimsoned the waters of the River Marne and the forest of Argonne, the beachheads of Salerno and Normandy; it has flowed on Iwo Jima and Pearl Harbor. Our country will live up to its ideals - ideals for which millions have sacrificed their lives.

Our country is their eternal monument."

Chris Christie Answers Giuliani Snow Storm Criticism

2011-01-12T08:47:00.001-05:00

From The Blaze

More Chris Christie

A Prayer For Those Injured or Killed in Tucson, AZ

2011-01-10T09:44:00.001-05:00

In the wake of this devastating tragedy, please say a prayer for those injured or the families of those killed in the shooting in Arizona.

In addition, remember Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her family. One of her most recent political acts was to read a section of the Constitution of the United States: the 1st Amendment protecting among other things, the freedom of speech. That right has never been as endangered as it is today.

Let's not be so short sighted by our grief and overwhelmed by the profound loss that we lose sight of the very rights that Rep. Giffords took an oath to defend.

As Speaker John Boehner said, "An attack on one is an attack on all." I commend Speaker Boehner for his decision to suspend Congress and the important debates ahead so we as a nation can focus our prayers and our hopes for Rep. Giffords, Judge John Roll, and all the families impacted by this tragedy.

Would you please consider sending a card to her office in Arizona and DC? Her staffers must be traumatized not only by the attack on her, but also the senseless slaughter of one of her staff members, Gabe Zimmerman.

Tucson District Office
The Honorable Gabrielle Giffords
1661 N. Swan, Suite 112
Tucson, AZ 85712
Phone: (520) 881-3588
Fax: (520) 322-9490

Washington, DC Office
The Honorable Gabrielle Giffords
U.S. House of Representatives
1030 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Pearl Harbor: December 7th, ‘A date which will live in infamy’

2010-12-07T08:18:00.001-05:00

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese surprise attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dubbed the attack as 'a date which will live in infamy,' and he couldn't have predicted it better. 69 years later, Americans vividly remember what happened on that fateful day ...
Hat tip: NYDailyNews

The Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on the US naval base in Hawaii killing 2,350 people.

Remember Pearl Harbor!

The Veteran Vote

2010-11-29T13:12:00.001-05:00

Michael Franc November 29, 2010 4:00 A.M.

“Our nation stands at a precipice, pushed to the edge by the very forces of which MacArthur spoke. To defeat them, we will have to draw upon the character traits he identified as part of the military code. These values, one suspects, resonate most strongly in those communities where large numbers of veterans reside. It was precisely in these communities that the spirit of the Tea Party movement was strongest on Election Day.”

Read it here.

So you think you know what’s going on in Afghanistan…

2010-11-20T19:04:00.001-05:00

Read this. I know it’s long, just read it…

- Free Range International - http://freerangeinternational.com/blog -

Healing Ulcer

Posted By babatim On November 14, 2010 @ 12:44 pm In Afghanistan

After only 90 days of fighting to root out the Taliban of a place they have owned for over a decade, Gen McChrystal called Marjah a bleeding ulcer ^[1]. That was an unbelievably stupid assessment given the nature of the enemy, the rules of engagement placed on the Marines by the General, and the paltry amount of time the Marines had invested in the fight. Marjah is still being called “the most dangerous place in Afghanistan” ^[2] by embedded media which is, in my professional opinion, not true. I’ve just returned from a three day trip into Marjah after being lucky enough to catch a ride with the CO of Regimental Combat Team 1, Col Dave Furness who was taking a road trip to visit his battalions in the field. There is too much information from that trip to post in one sitting so the first dispatch from the trip will cover Marjah. The other things I saw, like Senators McCain, Lieberman, Graham and Gillibrand in the Nawa District Center will have to wait.

The CO of 2/6, LtCol Kyle Ellison with his boss Col Dave Furness talking to local shop owners in the Marjah Bazaar during his Friday morning walk about. Note the lack of body armor and helmets

Counterinsurgency takes a lot of two things, boots on the ground and time. The Marines have been at this task for nine months and they are winning. But it is not easy, it is not cheap in the only currency we care about which is the blood of fellow Marines. The only persistent bitching I heard from Marine commanders concerned their ability to rapidly employ the most potent tool in their arsenal – money. They feel if they are the ones doing the clearing they should be doing the holding too and able to directly finance the projects they nominate. I have a lot to say about that myself but being in the reconstruction business I’m going to (this may be a first) shut up and let that sleeping dog lie for now. The best way to relate the current state of play in Marjah is with lots of pictures and a little bit of story telling.

The first stop in Marjah was COP Shanfield which is named after one of the squad leaders from 2nd platoon Echo 2/6 who was killed in action nearby. This is the COC which monitors the squad sized patrols that are pushed out of this small base 24/7.

We entered Marjah on the afternoon of 11 November heading directly to one of the dozens of platoon combat outposts (COP’s) which dot the Marjah area. We were heading for an important ceremony but not one we would wish on anyone else. As I have said many times before war means fighting and fighting means killing. Unfortunately the killing part of warfare cuts both ways and when the Americans lose a Marine his fellow Marines host a memorial service. This is a painful yet important ritual designed to not just to honor the dead but also assist the living in dealing with the loss of comrades they knew intimately and loved deeply. That is the dynamic of infantry – you know your fellow Marine better than anyone else in the world knows him You may not always like every member of your platoon but you love all of them. And there is not doubt in the mind of an infantry Marine that the men he is with will instantly and willingly take suicidal risks to help him if he is in trouble. Memorials are tough and this one was especially tough for the very tight 2nd Platoon, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion 6th Marines because they were saying goodbye to their leader.

1stLt James R. Zimmerman of Aroostock, Maine was killed in action on the 2nd of November 2010. He is survived by his parents and his wife Lynel.

The universal sign of a tight platoon is how the junior Marines feel about their leader. Here a young corporal in a filthy uniform with a field haircut gathers himself to deliver a tremendous tribute to his former boss. It was an obvious emotional strain for him which is, of course, the norm for these services but it said a lot about just how good Lt Zimmerman was at leading Marines

The firing detail

There is nothing easy about being an infantryman in combat

This was my first visit to a Marine COP and I wished it had been for another purpose. Marjah is rapidly healing but that doesn’t mean the Talbian has given up and slinked off to some other area in the Helmand. Marjah was place where they all ran after getting their asses kicked out of every significant town from Naw Zad in the north to Khanishin in the south and there is very little maneuver room left for the Taliban in Helmand Province.

The 2nd Battalion 6th Marines is currently responsible for the southern, central and some of the northern portions of Marjah which is actually a series of villages organized around a gigantic grid of canals which were built by US AID back in the 60’s. They are expanding their control block by block by spreading their Marines out into platoon and squad size outposts from which Marines foot patrol constantly. The villains still offer battle but only on their terms which means they will fire on a patrol only when they have set up IED’s between their positions and the Marines. When the Marines came back to Afghanistan in 2008 the Taliban had forgotten that they were not like other infantry. The Marines maneuver when fired upon closing with and destroying those stupid enough to take them on. After getting mauled time and again the Taliban learned to use small arms fire to augment IED blasts in an attempt to lure aggressive Marines into mine fields full of more improvised explosive devices. Now the Marines maneuver to fix and then swarm with other units coming in from a different direction or with precision fire from drones. To facilitate this they establish multiple small postions – partrol from them constantly and then push out to establish more small bases once the area they are working comes under their control.

Every Friday the 2/6 CO goes for a tour of the central bazaar. When he started he could make it from his outpost to the ANP post on the far side in 20 minutes. These days he can't make it that far due to the crowds of Afghans who want to stop and tell him two things; 1. they appreciate the Marines and what they have done and 2. Please don't leave and let the Taliban come back.

The CO has not gotten far when more residents stop to chat

The crowds continue to grow and note how relaxed everyone is in a bazaar where this past summer we were dropping 2000 pound JDAMs

The Marines took the funds from the "Interim Security for Critical Infrastructure" and stood up armed neighborhood watch groups organized by blocks. The ISCI program was apparently designed to allow commanders to hire local "security contractors" for guarding critical infrastructure which is stupid. The Marines view the people as the most "critical infrastructre" they have in their AO so they spend those program funds on armed security of the people by the people. On blocks with ISCI guards ( identified by the arm bands) there are no Taliban. As this car load was heading backing home they got a stern reminder from LtCol Ellison "remember fellas if you are not on your block the weapons stay in the cars right?"

On the way back to base LtCol Ellison stops to present a battalion coin to an Afghan policeman telling him he earned it by always being at his post with his weapon and controlling his intersection like a professional which the Marines find "motivating". This is counterinsurgency 101 in action where small acts of recognition provide huge amounts of motivation

After the bazaar tour it was time for another memorial this one for Staff Sergeant Jordan B Emrick, an EOD technician who gave his full measure while working with a platoon patrol. The Platoon commander who was on point thought he saw something in the ground and SSGT Emrick stepped up to assess what the Lt had spotted. It was a command detonated mine which detonated as SSGT Emrick squatted to get a good look at it.

The afternoon started with a "strong man" show at the local school. Both Inchon 6 and Spartan 6 were invited by the District Governor. In this photo the Sergeants Major from RCT 1 and 2/6 are getting the kids pumped up before the big show.

Waiting for the Parwan performance

The ANP arrive with the District Governor

The show starts with forms from both father and son

Then some father and son brick breaking on a bed on nails

More bed of nails work

The show concluded with the classic "run over the Parwan with a tractor load of police" trick

That evening we were invited to a dinner in the newly opened restaurant by the District Governor so we headed downtown again on foot.

Some of the elders from blocks which have recently been cleared also attened the meal - they were there to ask for permission to stand up ISCI teams in their blocks which comes from the District Governors office

The Marine leaders make it a point to travel into Marjah "slick" which means without body armor and helmets as a show of confidence in local security conditions. But they're not stupid and a fully armed security detail travels with them. A dinner like this attracts things like suicide bombers but there is no way any unknown person would get through the layers of security and into the restaurant. They certainly would have never gotten past these two devil dogs.

Marjah is no longer the most dangerous place in Afghanistan. That distinction belongs to Sangin where Col Paul Kennedy is leading the 2nd Regimental Combat Team is a very stiff fight to secure the population of that area. The Marines way of conducting the counterinsurgency fight has caused some friction with our allies ^[3] who think they are too aggressive. They are, without question, the most aggressive fighters in Afghanistan but they are also proving to be the most adept at holding the ground they have cleared. The battalion which proceeded 2/6 in downtown Marjah, the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marines had a 90/10 IED find rate. Only 10% of the IED’s targeting them detonated and the others were either detected by the Marines or (in a vast majority of the time) were pointed out to the Marines by the local population.

Colonel Furness told me there was a Corporal in 3/1 (deployed in the South around Khanishin) who had an uncanny ability to spot IED’s. His squad wanted him on point every day. 49 times there were IED’s placed to target them and 49 times this Corporal found them first. Know what you get when you find mines targeting your squad 49 times in a row? Probably a lot of love and respect from your fellow Marines but you don’t get a combat action ribbon because when you find the mines every time the villains don’t shoot. Mine blasts are used as the signal to attack with small arms and the Taliban are not known for their ability to contingency plan so when the mine doesn’t blow they slink off. Imagine that; seven months of constant patrols in a kinetic environment but because you are so good at spotting mines you don’t get to wear the coveted combat action ribbon. Col Furness isn’t a big fan of that order but it is an order so as 3/1 was leaving he showed up at a company formation and meritoriously promoted the kid to Sergeant. ”It was the least I could do – the kid deserved a hell of lot more… I wish I had 100 more just like him.”

Here is another story you don’t hear every day. Today one of the squad patrols from 2/6 was stopped by a local man who wanted to turn in his son for being Taliban. He had told the kid over and over he did not want him fighting for the Taliban who he believes to be immoral and unislamic. The father and one of his other sons went to the district center and to have their statements video tapped and his son is now in custody.

Counterinsurgency takes time and it is not cheap for the men and women doing the fighting. The question is not if we can prevail but will we be allowed to do what it takes to prevail and that question can only be answered by our Commander in Chief. The President can only “vote present” on Afghanistan for so long. He needs to tell the American people and our allies what we are trying to accomplish in order to define an endstate. The “July 2011 draw down” of forces is not a plan or an endstate or even a good idea. It is an abdication of leadership for a meaningless date which is predicated on nothing more than political calculation. Our president is rumored to be a very smart man. It is time for him to prove it.

Article printed from Free Range International: http://freerangeinternational.com/blog

URL to article: http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=3734

URLs in this post:

[1] Marjah a bleeding ulcer: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/24/94740/mcchrystal-calls-marjah-a-bleeding.html

[2] the most dangerous place in Afghanistan”: http://www.katu.com/news/local/107051228.html

[3] some friction with our allies: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090306195.html

Click here to print.

Don’t Touch My Junk

2010-11-19T08:54:00.001-05:00

Charles Krauthammer

The junk man’s revolt marks the point at which a docile public declares that it will tolerate only so much idiocy.

Hurrah!

Welcome Senate Conservatives

2010-11-17T12:17:00.001-05:00

by Jim DeMint

Congratulations to all the tea party-backed candidates who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections. The next campaign begins today. Because you must now overcome determined party insiders if this nation is going to be spared from fiscal disaster.

Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place. The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy. Consider what former GOP senator-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott told the Washington Post earlier this year: “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.”

Don’t let them. Co-option is coercion. Washington operates on a favor-based economy and for every earmark, committee assignment or fancy title that’s given, payback is expected in return. The chits come due when the roll call votes begin. This is how big-spending bills that everyone always decries in public always manage to pass with just enough votes.

But someone can’t be bribed if they aren’t for sale. Here is some humble advice on how to recognize and refuse such offers.

First, don’t request earmarks. If you do, you’ll vote for legislation based on what’s in it for your state, not what’s best for the country. You will lose the ability to criticize wasteful spending. And, if you dare to oppose other pork-barrel projects, the earmarkers will retaliate against you.

In 2005, Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) offered a measure to kill funding for the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” Before the vote, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.), an appropriator, issued a warning on the Senate floor.

“If we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next,” she said. “When Members come down to the floor to vote on this amendment, they need to know if they support stripping out this project, Senator Bond [a Republican appropriator] and I are likely to be taking a long, serious look at their projects to determine whether they should be preserved during our upcoming conference negotiations.”

The threat worked. Hardly anyone wanted to risk losing earmarks. The Senate voted 82-15 to protect funding for the Bridge to Nowhere.

Second, hire conservative staff. The old saying “personnel is policy” is true. You don’t need Beltway strategists and consultants running your office. Find people who share your values and believe in advancing the same policy reforms. Staff who are driven by conservative instincts can protect you from unwanted, outside influences when the pressure is on.

Third, beware of committees. Committee assignments can be used as bait to make senators compromise on other matters. Rookie senators are often told they must be a member of a particular committee to advance a certain piece of legislation. This may be true in the House, but a senator can legislate on any matter from the Senate floor.

Fourth, don’t seek titles. The word “Senator” before your name carries plenty of clout. All senators have the power to object to bad legislation, speak on the floor and offer amendments, regardless of how they are ranked in party hierarchy.

Lastly, don’t let your re-election become more important than your job. You’ve campaigned long and hard for the opportunity to go to Washington and restore freedom in America. People will try to convince you to moderate conservative positions and break campaign promises, all in the name of winning the next race. Resist the temptation to do so. There are worse things than losing an election—like breaking your word to voters.

At your swearing-in ceremony, you will, as all senators do, take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution.” Most will fail to keep their oath. Doing these five things will help you maintain a focus on national priorities and be one who does.

Congress will never fix entitlements, simplify the tax code or balance the budget as long as members are more concerned with their own narrow, parochial interests. Time spent securing earmarks and serving personal ambitions is time that should be spent working on big-picture reforms.

When you are in Washington, remember what the voters back home want—less government and more freedom. Millions of people are out of work, the government is going bankrupt and the country is trillions in debt. Americans have watched in disgust as billions of their tax dollars have been wasted on failed jobs plans, bailouts and takeovers. It’s up to us to stop the spending spree and make sure we have a government that benefits America instead of being a burden to it.

Tea party Republicans were elected to go to Washington and save the country—not be co-opted by the club. So put on your boxing gloves. The fight begins today.

Mr. DeMint is a Republican senator from South Carolina. This first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

Why I Quit...

2010-11-12T03:46:00.001-05:00

A Desert Storm veteran explains his decision to leave Air Force after 22 years

by Mike Banzet in 'Belief'

He says it well.

Veterans Day 2010

2010-11-11T07:32:00.001-05:00

“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, more glorious the triumph.”

- Thomas Payne, ‘The American Crisis’ #1, 19 December 1776

Veterans Day in Kabul

By Colonel Rick Waddell, U.S. Army Reserve

When I come out of my hootch complex every morning, I pass through the armored vehicles of the Macedonian contingent that guards the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul. Forty-seven nations have troops here on the frontiers of civilization as we enter the 10th year of war. Of the six regional commands in Afghanistan, the Italians command the West, the Germans command the North, the Turks command the Capitol Region around Kabul. The British just gave up command of the South. The British have 9500 troops here; the French, Italians, and Germans each have between 3000 and 5000; the Canadians and Poles have 2800 and 2600 respectively. Some of the nations - the British, Canadians, Australians, New Zealand - have been fighting here since almost the beginning in October 2001.

Twenty nations of the total were once dominated by the Soviets or their clients. The Polish admiral that works in the office is quite open about the harsh conditions of his youth, when basic food was rationed, and the only candy they had was made out of the precious, meager rations of milk and sugar. These nations remember what it was like not being free, and they remember the role that NATO and the US in particular had in their freedom.

Most of the forty-seven nations also maintained troops in Iraq until the Iraqis took charge of their own security in early 2009.

As we approach Veterans Day, we should remember that the Commonwealth nations - the members of the former British Empire - observe this date as Remembrance Day in memory of the millions of their citizens that died on the battlefields of World War I. For the Poles, their nation was re-born when the Western Allies won World War I, and 11 November is their Independence Day. Here in ISAF HQ, the Commonwealth soldiers walk around with red poppies pinned to their uniform in the week prior to the day, as do their citizens back home. The tradition is said to come from a 1915 poem written by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae upon witnessing the death of a friend:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

War is always the supreme human folly, and our world has seen much war in the past 100 years.

Yet, the militarists, fascists, and communists were defeated. The victories were costly, but free nations were born and liberty spread. In the darkest days of the four-decade-long Cold War, who could have predicted the eventual stunning victory? Accommodation with and acquiescence to the totalitarians were often the counsel of the faint of heart; perseverance was hard and unpopular. The current war is no easier and certainly no more popular, and it would be easy to believe that defeat out here on the frontier would be manageable because we could hold the line somewhere else, closer to our homes.

A year ago, a friend of mine, a colonel closing in on 30 years of service, wrote from Afghanistan about the death of a sergeant who was the son of another colonel, noting that more than 130 general officers have children in uniform, as do many more senior officers and noncommissioned officers. As my friend put it, "We give all we have to give. Then we send our kids." His own son is here now. As fate would have it, I am serving alongside the lost sergeant's father, whose pain can only be understandable by those suffering a similar loss, but he continues to hold high the torch thrown from the failing hands of his son, a dedication that surpasses common understanding.

Poppies blow in the fields of Helmand and Kandahar, too, but more importantly they adorn the uniforms of those in Afghanistan who remember the sacrifices of their forebears. They keep the faith by serving in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside the America that did so much in generations past to help their countries.

On Remembrance Day, let us remember these allies, even as we honor our own veterans that "lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow" and did so much in so many places to make a better world.

Hat tip to Mr. Wolf at BlackFive and Dennis Lowery

Happy Birthday, Marines

2010-11-10T22:42:00.001-05:00

In order to wish our beloved Marine Corps "happy birthday," I thought we could honor our friends by posting our favorite Marine Corps quote. To start:

"Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference.
The Marines don't have that problem."

- Ronald Reagan

The Commandant's message remembers all Marines, but focuses special attention on the Marine who fought in Korea.

VET THE STAFF

2010-11-10T16:33:00.005-05:00

Now that elections are over, we are happy that the Tea Parties helped elect a majority in the house.

Here is one question I never hear asked. Who are the staff members that work for the Congress and Senate? What are their backgrounds? Are they radicals, conservatives, marxists? They are the people who write the bills for the congress and senate, yet I'll bet no voter knows their names or who they are.

Is there somewhere we can get a list of the staff members that work for our congress and senate? Yes, I know they are not elected, they are appointed, but they are not vetted! How can the citizens find out who is running the offices in Washington?

If they write the bills, are their names on the rough drafts and the final bills?

Don't you think voters and taxpayers have a right to know?

I'll bet if you write or call your elected representative and ask about the backgrounds of their staff, you'll be told it's none of your business or they'll hang up on you.

Try it! Ask your representative. I'll bet we would all get some interesting responses!

Star Freshmen

2010-11-08T17:54:00.001-05:00

In one of the largest freshman classes in history, these twelve congressmen-elect stand out.

Feeling pretty good about the election results? Read this and feel even better.

Notes From Nov 3rd Mentor 9-12 Project Discussion Panel

2010-11-04T08:22:00.001-04:00

Election Recap

Current US House 178 (R) - 257 (D) - New US House - 240 (R) - 185 (D) with 10 races undecided. The most Republicans in the House since 1948 when they had 246 seats.

More Ohio congressional incumbents lost than in any other state. (5) NY and PA tied when you include open seats.

George Soros funded Secretary of State Project Supported 7 candidates – 2 won, 5 lost

African-American GOP Winners – Allen West in Florida and Tim Scott South Carolina. Fourteen black Republicans were on House ballots nationwide, almost double the number in 2008.

In New Mexico, Susana Martinez was elected as the nation's first female Hispanic governor. Nikki Haley, whose parents were born in India, will be the first woman governor in South Carolina, and Brian Sandoval became Nevada's first Hispanic governor.

Dan Webster crushed the obnoxious Alan Grayson in the 8th District of Florida. Grayson said on the House floor that the GOP health care plan was to "die quickly," and ran the "Taliban Dan" ad.

18 state legislators switched to Republican control.

"I hope he fails." With those famous four words, uttered January 16, 2009 -- only days before Barack Obama was to be inaugurated -- Rush Limbaugh drew a line in the sand. And as a result, this morning it is Rush Limbaugh who is the undisputed winner of the 2010 election. American Spectator

South Dakota Republican challenger Kristi Noem, riding a wave of voter discontent with President Obama's administration, defeated Democrat U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in Tuesday's election.

Republican Mark Kirk has defeated Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in the U.S. Senate race. Kirk has captured the Senate seat once held by the president, dealing an embarrassing blow to Democrats

Congressman Bob Etheridge Loses To Republican Renee Ellmers in North Carolina. The race drew national attention earlier this year, when Congressman Etheridge was shown in a video to be apparently assaulting a young man who questioned him about his political record on a Washington DC sidewalk. Etheridge served for 14 years in Congress and Ellmers is a registered nurse in Dunn.

Illinois Congressman Phil Hare who didn’t worry about the Constitution, loses district to Bobby Schilling. The 28-year hold Democrats have had on the 17th U.S. Congressional District has come to an end.

The House races were largely fought on Republican-leaning turf, but the key Senate fights were in deep blue states.

There will be 18 states subject to reapportionment. The Republicans will control a majority of those — at least ten and maybe a dozen or more. More significantly, a minimum of seventeen state legislative houses have flipped to the Republican Party.
The North Carolina Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1870. Yes, that is Eighteen Seventy.
The Alabama Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1876.
For those saying this is nothing because it is the South, consider these:
The entire Wisconsin and New Hampshire legislatures have flipped to the GOP by wide margins.
The State Houses in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Montana, and Colorado flipped to the GOP.
The Maine and Minnesota Senates flipped to the GOP.
The Texas and Tennessee Houses went from virtually tied to massive Republican gains. The gains in Texas were so big that the Republicans no longer need the Democrats to get state constitutional amendments out of the state legislature.

According to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, 298 women indicated their intent by filing to run for House and Senate seats in the 2010 midterm elections -- (36 Senate, 262 House.)

What makes the 2010 election year stand out is the surge in the number of Republican women running for Congress -- a fact lauded by conservatives and highlighted by mainstream media.

With a record number of female GOP candidates throwing their hats into the ring (145 total, 17 Senate and 128 House), pundits soon began declaring 2010 as "the Year of the Republican Women." (In comparison, 153 Democratic women filed to run for Congress in 2010 - 19 for the Senate and 134 for the House.)

Voter Fraud Watch: A Primer on What to Watch For

2010-10-29T07:17:00.001-04:00

From our friends at Pajamas Media, by J. Christian Adams

There’s been lots of talk about voter fraud this election season. Already machines have purportedly preselected candidates and in other places, documents demonstrate non-citizens are registered to vote. Anyone who says voter fraud doesn’t exist has no credibility. I’ve covered elections for over 10 years. I’ve seen it over and over again with my own eyes. I’ve proved it in federal court. It is significantly more common than Sasquatch.

But what does voter fraud look like? What can citizens be on the lookout for when they participate in their election? Let me share some examples:

Commands to vote

I’ve seen election judges telling voters for whom to vote. In Philadelphia, I have repeatedly seen the people who sign you in and check off your name give instructions to voters for whom to vote. It isn’t supposed to work that way, and if you see it, get the name of the election official and report it to their boss. Better yet, try to get the name of the voter.

Mass illegal assistance

One of the most outrageous behaviors is campaigns of illegal assistance. I’ve seen lone soldiers of a political machine march dozens of voters into the booth and vote for them. In some instances the voter provided little or no input. Remember that disabled citizens have a right under federal law to have anyone assist them, as long as it is not an employer or union representative. Illiteracy and inability to speak English well also trigger this right. So just because someone is in the booth with a voter doesn’t mean something illegal is happening. But if you see van loads of voters being “voted” without expressing their own input, get the tag number of the van and remember what illegal assistant looked like.

Phony voters

I’ve watched people in states without voter ID seek to vote who were clearly not the people they said they were. During one election, I saw a young man give a name. It caused the women working the polls who knew him to laugh at him and tell him to stop fooling them. He insisted, even under watchful eyes, that he was this person everyone knew him not to be. Everyone was laughing, but the poll workers relented and reluctantly gave him a ballot, somewhat perturbed that he pushed the issue. For a brief moment, he was someone else. And since voter ID was not the law in this state, he voted a regular ballot.

Read the rest of the article here.

Also be sure to Join PJM/PJTV's Voter Fraud Watch

If You Give A Democrat a Cookie

2010-10-28T08:14:00.001-04:00

If You Give a Democrat a Cookie from RightChange on Vimeo.

The Streets Are Paved With Gold

2010-10-26T09:15:00.003-04:00

Immigrants coming to this country around the beginning of the last century came because they heard the streets were paved with gold! Obviously the streets were not physically made of gold. It was the opportunities that were golden. They came here because they heard everyone had the opportunity to become wealthy if you were honest and worked hard. Many did become wealthy and most made a better life for their children. My grandparents came through Ellis Island. They didn't come here for the benefits, they came here because they wanted a job and FREEDOM! My grandparents were Polish who escaped from Russia to take advantage of the freedom and opportunities in this country.

What's my point?

Progressive candidates have been promoting class warfare for years. They say some people make too much money. They want to tax successful people. They want to limit or eliminate success and many people agree with them.

Step back and think about it. Do you want to take those opportunities away from your sons and daughters, brothers or sisters? What if your son or daughter wanted to start a busines? What if they became successful and made more than $250,000 a year? Would you penalize them? I don't think so.

America is free, but freedom is expensive. Sometimes you will even have to sacrifice your life, your fortune and your sacred honor. Please don't limit our opportunities!

The other side of the White House white board

2010-10-26T07:53:00.001-04:00

This is a great video, so be sure to take the time to watch it. You will learn a lot!

Here's another view on CEA Chairman Austan Goolsbee's recent White House white board presentation on the U.S. employment situation.

Extremists Extremely Shocked At Public's Extreme Disdain For Extremism

2010-10-21T09:08:00.001-04:00

From Jim Geraghty

Of the many great ads we've seen this year, perhaps one of the best is this one minute and twenty second one from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, taking on one of the Democrats favorite sneers -- "extreme" -- and showcasing just how frequently the Democrats find themselves on the wrong side of public opinion, sometimes by a wide margin.

Nick Popaditch

2010-10-17T22:41:00.001-04:00

Sit back and enjoy all of his ads. See them here.

Arkansas Teen Scores Touchdown in Wheelchair

2010-10-14T08:20:00.001-04:00

From The Blaze

In a story of true sportsmanship, two competing high school football teams in Arkansas came together last Friday night to help one fellow student’s dream come true.

Manila High School trailed top-ranked Rivercrest High 47-0 when Rivercrest forfeited a perfect game to allow Manila senior Dylan Galloway to score, carrying the pig skin over the goal line in his wheelchair. Dylan was born with cerebral palsy and thanks to a pre-arranged moment between opposing coaches, he was able to realize his dream of playing varsity football.

While most of us focus on the scoreboard each game, I found that heartwarming stories like this are more common than we might think.

Earlier this fall, two teams came together in a similar fashion during a match-up in Wisconsin. An agreement between the coaches of Menomonie and Superior High Schools gave Sam Kolden, a Menomonie senior who struggles with autism, the chance to shine during his team’s 52-14 victory. From the Superior Spartans Facebook page, one fan who sat in the stands that night wrote:

Both teams played hard though over time the score tipped in Menomonie’s favor. Our team has one player who, due to special needs, is only occasionally able to be on the field. On this particular night, after a conversation between head coaches, our special player took to the field in his wide receiver position. Teams lined up, ball was snapped, a gentle pass found its way into his hands, and with great care and energy Superior players lunged in pursuit knowing well the dream they granted was more important than the six points it placed on the Menomonie score board.

Read the rest plus another heart warming story here.

"I Want Your Money" Official HD Movie Trailer

2010-10-13T08:24:00.001-04:00

For more information about I Want Your Money please visit www.IWantYourMoney.net. Movie will be in theaters 10-15-10.

Set against the backdrop of today's headline - 67% of Americans don't approve of Obama's economic policies, the film takes a provocative look at our deeply depressed economy using the words and actions of Presidents Reagan and Obama and shows the marked contrast between Reaganomics and Obamanomics. The film contrasts two views of the role that the federal government should play in our daily lives using the words and actions of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Two versions of the American dream now stand in sharp contrast. One views the money you earned as yours and best allocated by you; the other believes that the elite in Washington know how to best allocate your wealth. One champions the traditional American dream, which has played out millions of times through generations of Americans, of improving one's lot in life and even daring to dream and build big. The other holds that there is no end to the "good" the government can do by taking and spending other peoples' money in an ever-burgeoning list of programs. The documentary film I Want Your Money exposes the high cost in lost freedom and in lost opportunity to support a Leviathan-like bureaucratic state.

Chris Coons the Taxman

2010-10-12T22:26:00.001-04:00

Watch the great new Christine O'Donnell ad.

Gov. Christie: It Is "Put Up Or Shut Up Time" For GOP

2010-10-11T08:59:00.001-04:00

"We lost our way a number of years ago. We did. We became tax-and-spend light," Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) said in Iowa last night.

Take a Seat

2010-10-09T07:53:00.001-04:00

Check out this cool website – 40 Seats

We need to win 40 Seats to take back the House from Nancy Pelosi and her "tax and spend" crowd. 40 Seats targets districts where the critical races are occurring today. Click on a highlighted district on the map to find how you can help "Take a Seat".

Burn your VFW cards; See VFW – PAC Endorsements!

2010-10-08T08:48:00.001-04:00

From our good friends at BlackFive comes this unbelievable revelation;

Last night, we received an interesting email from Bev Perlson, who heads the Band of Mothers group. She's got an awesome email list that is good for keeping up on what's going on around the country.

What was so disturbing was the email listed someone we all know- LTC(r) Allen West, and how the VFW, of all people, THE VEE-EFF-FRICKING-W, was ENDORSING HIS OPPONENT.

You read that right.

His opponent? Democrat Ron Klein. WHO HAS NEVER SERVED IN UNIFORM.

You read THAT right, too.

People, I've been pissed before. Mad, even. Upset. But this? THIS is treasonous to me. For a 'so called' veterans organization to pick a NON-SERVING, NON-VETERAN over one of the MOST PROMISING veterans running in politics is heinous. Disturbing. And shows just how far off-track the VFW has become.

As you may recall, when I returned from Iraq one of the first things I did was join VFW and Legion as 'life members'. Now, it seems, the time has come to rip, burn, and toss my Lifetime Membership for the VFW. I feel like they have completely left us at the station here. Over at the Farm Team, Jonn Lilyea lays out just who the VFW has announced they are supporting:

Barbara Boxer, Alcee Hastings, Barbara Lee, Steny Hoyer, Barbara Mikulsky, Chris VanHollen, John Dingell, Chuckie Schumer, Pat Leahy and Patty Murray

In addition, they support Perlmutter over Bailey (former USAF) Frazier (former Navy) for Colorado; to their credit, they do support Mike Coffman (Marine) in his race in CO. But the rest of the list is disgusting. To me, it reads they are 'supporting' or 'endorsing' only those they see as WINNING. It appears they don't give a RATS ASS who supports vets or who WAS a vet.

I am asking all of you to join me in contacting the VFW to protest this development; supporting a non-vet over LTC West was the last straw.

Call the VFW at 1-202-544-5868. Email them at: vfwpac@vfw.org.

Oh yeah, and before I forget- Remember when Obama wanted to charge wounded troops for medical care? VFW supported him on that, too. READ IT HERE.

VFW- we are done here. Fix it, or be gone as a veterans organization.

UPDATE 1: Keep hitting them- word is they are getting calls. Write. HIT THEM HARD. Given the climate that's out there, and what they are doing to veterans behind our backs, this should not stand. I suggest the following in any statements you send/make:

I, my membership, my money (the money I set aside to give to PACs) and every friend I can bring along are switching to the Legion. And I will be doing my damnedest to convince every veteran I know to do likewise.

I hate this- I know there are locals that do great things. But, if they are willing to sit by, and let their national organization do this over their objections, then they are complicit in it. I'd like to see the locals boot the national guys out. Really would.

UPDATE: Getting questions and emails on whether we realize there is a difference between VFW and VFW-PAC. Well, there is and there isn't. Let me just say this- if the local VFW chapters, to include the states, are willing to let National allow their PAC to push this type of agenda and these types of candidates, well, bad on them for just standing by. They should be rioting over it. Holding their dues payments where they can. Put pressure on National to adhere to what the LOCALS want, not what National may think 'is best'. Because to do otherwise is utter bullshiite.

To us, this is not an issue of VFW-PAC vs. VFW. They are the same- don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

In Ohio, the VFW-PAC is endorsing: Boccieri, John (D), Fudge, Marcia (D), Kaptur, Marcy (D), Space, Zack (D) and Sutton, Betty (D) just to name a few. If you are a VFW member, please call your local unit and the national office today.

"Vegetative State" Patients May Soon Be Able to Communicate

2010-10-07T13:02:00.001-04:00

An absolutely incredible announcement and one of hope for many families.

Read here. (You may have to hit Control while clicking.)

And another wheel on the Obmacare bus falls off. — GP

2010-10-04T21:23:00.001-04:00

Early in the summer I had checked out the website through which one can get insurance despite a pre-existing condition. I have since referred to it as the shiny and flashy object sparkling from the sunshine in the cool blue water, from the viewpoint of the fish. Too attractive not to grab. But once the truth is discovered, it’s too late. You’re hooked.

Apparently a lot of hope filled people are greatly disappointed. Insurance you can get isn’t much good if you can’t afford it. http://www.nationalreview.com/the-feed/248625/obamacares-pre-existing-condition-insurance-plan-isnt-living-expectations

Even MSM Doesn‘t Buy ’One Nation’ Claim That 10/2 Rally Attendance Topped Restoring Honor Rally

2010-10-03T16:37:00.001-04:00

From The Blaze

The Restoring Honor Rally on 8/28 is pictured on the left. The “Left Leaning” One Nation socialist Rally held on 10/2 is pictured on the right.

I wonder which one drew a larger crowd?

John Ashbrook: Lycurgus of the Tea Party?

2010-10-01T08:22:00.001-04:00

by: Jay Hartz

With the final round of major primaries now complete, candidates have been selected for this November’s general election. The impact Tea Party candidates will have on the general election and on policy following that election is a question worthy of thought and debate by conservatives. While the nuts-and-bolts questions of which party will control Congress and the possibility of implementing a "refudiate socialism" agenda are important, there is also an interesting discussion to be had concerning "what does this all mean?"

It is worth noting that today’s Tea Party movement has a historical if not a philosophical connection to John M. Ashbrook’s primary challenge to Richard Nixon in 1972. While it will be for someone else to argue Ashbrook was the proto-Tea Party candidate, the extent to which Ashbrook was vilified by the party apparatus for challenging the "establishment" candidate has seen several parallels during this year’s election cycle.

Which brings us to an interesting question: What thoughts and suggestions might Ashbrook offer to conservatives during an election in which the major issues track so closely those he championed during his political career. Luckily, we have a source to consult.

In 1986, just a few years after the untimely death of Ashbrook, Randy McNutt published a slim volume entitled No Left Turns: A Handbook for Conservatives Based on the Writings of John M. Ashbrook. McNutt, then a reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, was able to secure a heartfelt foreword from Congressman Jack Kemp and assembled several of Ashbrook’s speeches, newsletters, newspaper editorials and letters to constituents. From these pages leaps the mind of Ashbrook. Not only his firm grasp of domestic issues, but a foreign policy based on his opposition to totalitarianism in the form of communism and an understanding that a strong America is freedom’s last best chance for success.

Read the rest here.

Want Some Good News For a Change? Go Brits!

2010-09-30T07:47:00.001-04:00

From the UK Telegraph

Every evening in Afghanistan, small, heavily armed units of SAS soldiers are taking part in "kill or capture" missions against the Taliban. The majority of the raids – which are guided by the latest intelligence reports provided to Nato headquarters in Kabul – are targeted directly at senior Taliban commanders, those responsible for planting the deadly roadside bombs that have accounted for so many British casualties.

The SAS raids are part of a special forces operation on an "industrial scale", devised by General David Petraeus, the US commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, to destroy the Taliban's war-fighting capability. And the strategy is proving to be a resounding success.

Over a 90-day period this summer, 365 key Taliban commanders were either killed or captured in a total of 3,000 night raids carried out by British and American special forces units, operating predominantly in southern Afghanistan. Another 1,031 "rank and file" fighters were killed, and 1,355 taken into custody.

Not surprisingly, this unprecedented level of special forces activity is having a devastating impact on the Taliban's effectiveness and morale. British commanders have reported a significant drop in their casualty rates, while the number of roadside bombs has fallen by a quarter.

Equally important, the high attrition rate has led many potential Taliban recruits to have second thoughts about risking their lives for the cause. "When the average life expectancy of a commander is around six months, it certainly concentrates the minds of those who are thinking about joining the insurgency," says a senior British officer working with SAS units in Afghanistan. "Suddenly there is an awareness that there is a price to be paid for planting roadside bombs. Families are less keen to let their sons volunteer."

It would be tempting fate to say that we are finally winning the war against the Taliban, especially as the overall casualty rate for Nato forces this year is the highest since Western troops first deployed in late 2001. But these recent successes do suggest that the mission is heading in the right direction at last, with all the implications that might have for its future success.

If, by virtue of the special forces' relentless onslaught, the Taliban can be persuaded that they are fighting a war they can never win, then the more moderate elements within the leadership might be persuaded to opt for political reconciliation with the Afghan government, which is the fundamental objective of Gen Petraeus's counter-insurgency strategy.

Votes from Beyond the Grave

2010-09-29T11:00:00.001-04:00

Everyone knows about it. everyone shrugs shoulders and says. “That’s the way it is.”

Who is going to address it? Read here

WE THE PEOPLE or FREE THE PEOPLE

2010-09-12T18:51:00.007-04:00

Election is coming soon. Are you comfortable with our selection of candidates? Are you worried that the two parties will still prevail? Will those that are elected really make changes or will this be more Hope and Change?
Have we been too easy on candidates at Town Hall meetings? I haven’t heard any “tough” questions at the few meetings I’ve been to. Here are a few questions I would have liked to hear…..

Federal Congressmen or Congresswomen Are you aware of House Rule XIII, (d)(1) that requires “a statement citing the specific powers granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact the law proposed by the bill or joint resolution.” If you are aware of this rule, why isn’t it followed? Why haven’t the you challenged any proposed law based on this rule?
Will you actively support the 9th and 10th amendments?
Will you sponsor or vote for any bill that repeals Obamacare? Will you vote to defund Obamacare?

State Senators and RepresentativesWill you actively support the two amendments now circulating in the State (State Sovereignty and Health Care Freedom Amendment)?
The property tax method of funding schools has been ruled unconstitutional for many years, but that rule has been completely avoided. What is your SPECIFIC solution for school funding? Please, NO GENERALITIES!

If your candidates won’t answer these questions OR they give you a political answer (which is no answer), do you trust them? If they won’t commit to Constitutional solutions, will you vote for them?

REMEMBER, the fight is not over on November 2nd! The career politicians are banking on the fact that you will be tired of fighting. You will have to be a career citizen, 912er, Tea Party advocate and student of the Constitution. This will be our second career till the day we leave this earth. We can’t leave our country in this condition for our children and grandchildren. Freedom is not free!

9-11 ~ Nine Years Later

2010-09-11T08:31:00.001-04:00

We say we will “never forget” but have we?

Notes about this video:

Warning this video contains people falling or jumping from the world trade center. A lot of questions been coming in about the man on the phone. Yes he was in tower 2 on the 105 floor top right corner of the video when it falls. Also the Music in this video is Requiem For A Dream by Lux Aterna

Let us truly NEVER FORGET.

Chris Christie Schools Another Snide Union Defending Teacher

2010-09-10T19:04:00.001-04:00

From EyeBlastTV Blog:

I’ve never been this jealous of New Jersey before in my life. In fact, as a native Pennsylvanian, for a long time I was one of the many who favored blowing up the whole of Jersey so we could finally get some beaches in PA. I mean Jersey has always been a haven for liberal idiocy but now Christie is in office and the man is a on fire.

At this point its only going to take a few more rhetorical smack downs of snooty little union drones before I pack up my car and move to New Jersey. Go ahead and check out his latest masterpiece from a town hall in Raritan, New Jersey yesterday:

FREE ENTERPRISE

2010-09-09T16:11:00.003-04:00

Progressives are teaching our kids that Free Enterprise is evil while in China, they are extolling the virtues of Free Enterprise. Here is a slightly modified OPED I read from James R. Cook.

Most government employees and those who enforce regulations, are fiercely anti-business. They have little or no knowledge of how the market system works. They see business as greed driven, and profits as an evil that government should control. These people don't understand that profits come from meeting the needs of others by providing products and services that improve living standards. They don't realize that consumers are the rulers of the free market because their buying choices determine the success or failure of the companies competing to serve them.

They are unaware that to serve one's self-interest, the entrepreneur must first serve the self-interest of others. This is the moral underpinning of free enterprise. But rather than notice the unassailable high moral ground of free market capitalism, they prefer to see greed and inequality.

One of the reasons many immigrants came to the U.S. from Europe was to avail themselves of the opportunity to better their standard of living and to make as much money as their talent would allow them!

Misogynist and violent Islam, gaining hold, requires passionate opposition

2010-09-09T07:35:00.001-04:00

BY DIANE MEDVED

Why isn't the poison gassing of Afghan girls simply for attending school generating international outrage? Blood tests have verified that a main ingredient of chemical weapons was the cause of the severe sicknesses suffered by hundreds of girls in two schools in Kabul this last week--just the latest in a series of nine poisonings spanning the last two years. Many of the girls rushing to escape the scene fainted; some collapsed hours later. Scores were hospitalized, requiring oxygen and intravenous drugs.

And yet, the still-ailing girls resolutely resume their educations. "One 12th grader, 18-year-old Khalida Bashir Ahmed, said she was determined to return to school even though she still felt dizzy; she still had a medical tube dangling from her right wrist," reports the New York Times. "As she recounted her ordeal, she fainted and fell to the ground."

The attacks were more than a week ago, but only now, with blood tests revealing the nerve gas ingredient organophosphates, earn any attention: "Many local officials had dismissed the cases as episodes of mass hysteria provoked by acid and arson attacks on school girls by Taliban fighters and others who objected to their education," the article notes. Those pesky Taliban.

Where are the feminists? Where are those vocal for "women's rights" to abortions, who now seem painfully quiet about girls' rights to learn to read without biological attack? It's not enough that the custom of female genital mutilation continues, affecting 140 million women worldwide, most in Africa, though The London Observer reported a few weeks ago that in England this very summer, 500-2,000 girls have undergone the horrifying procedure designed to preclude any sexual pleasure.

Muslim women are regularly beaten by husbands, with little international protest--and complicit support by local authorities. "Wife beating in Islamic countries is more prevalent than one can imagine," writes Brigitte Gabriel in They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. Stories of "honor killings" abound internationally, and Muzzammil Hassan, the Muslim head of the "Bridges" TV outlet, formed to reconcile Muslim and American feeling, beheaded his wife last year in Orchard Park--a murder widely attributed to his religious bent.

And it seems things are getting worse. "In a world where education for females was generally accepted only a generation or two ago, women are again being infantilized, writes journalist Jan Goodwin in The Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World. "In the name of religion, they are being banned from traveling, working, studying, divorcing, voting, holding positions of power, in effect, from making their own decisions about major and minor aspects of their lives."

Full article here.

New Conservative Entertainment Network Launches

2010-09-08T23:04:00.001-04:00

From: The Blaze

Emmy-winning Actor and conservative Kelsey Grammer is lending his distinctly familiar voice in promoting RightNetwork, a new online and cable on-demand programming channel offering alternative programming with a decidedly right-of-center spin. ”We’re not out to vilify or accuse or identify anybody as an enemy,” Grammer has said. “We’re out there to encourage people to open their minds and take a look at some things that we as a group of people believe is the right direction for the country.”

With a growing base of outspoken conservatives drawn out of political slumber by the rising tea party movement and an entertainment industry continually pushing the bar away from family-friendly wholesome entertainment, Grammer and fellow investors–including Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast-Spectacor and owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers–saw a growing demand for a RightNetwork. Programming is available at RightNetwork.com and to Verizon FiOS customers. Wireless company Nokia also offers on-the-go access.

“We’re middle-of-the road people who have a fairly conservative approach to government, that’s all. Less government,” Grammer says. “It’s not some insidious group of people who are plotting some horrible takeover.”

The on-demand programming caters to new trends in at-home television viewing, where families select programs from their DVR lists or from cable companies’ on-demand offerings. Best of all, RightNetwork’s programming casts a wide net of interests for potential viewers:

The President’s Stem-Cell Dollars and the Judge’s Rebuke

2010-09-05T20:19:00.001-04:00

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245641/president-s-stem-cell-dollars-and-judge-s-rebuke-robert-p-george?page=2

“… But it is the president who fails to be open to the inconvenient truth about the human embryo, namely, that from the single-cell stage of development onward, the human embryo is a distinct, determinate, self-directing, integrated human organism — a living member of the human species who, if given a suitable environment, will move along the seamless trajectory of biological development toward maturity. At the so-called “blastocyst stage,” when the embryo might be destroyed to derive embryonic stem cells, he or she is already a living individuated organism. The very same organism — the very same human being — who, unless deprived of the conditions of survival, will soon be crawling, then walking, and then a few years later asking mom and dad for the car keys. …”

Let the death panels commence

2010-09-04T09:45:00.001-04:00

Peter Heck - Guest Columnist www.OneNewsNow.com

On Friday, August 7, 2009, Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page: "The Democrats promise that a government healthcare system will reduce the cost of healthcare, but [it] will not...it will simply refuse to pay the cost. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide...whether they are worthy of healthcare. Such a system is downright evil."

The response of Democrats and the media to Palin's assertion can only be described as outrage. Howard Dean went on ABC and called it "totally erroneous," concluding, "She just made that up." Even David Brooks, the closest thing to a conservative the New York Times can bring themselves to hire, proclaimed on Meet the Press, "That's crazy...the crazies are attacking the plan because it'll cut off granny, and that – that's simply not true. That simply is not going to happen."

And even last week, Newsweek magazine ranked the idea that there would be bureaucratic boards making life-and-death decisions for people as one of the "Dumb Things Americans Believe."

The only problem for Dean, Brooks, Newsweek and the whole lot is that it now appears that under ObamaCare there are bureaucratic boards making life-and-death decisions for people.

Read the rest here.

Our distracted commander in chief

2010-09-03T22:59:00.001-04:00

By Charles Krauthammer

Friday, September 3, 2010

Many have charged that President Obama's decision to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan 10 months from now is hampering our war effort. But now it's official. In a stunning statement last week, Marine Corps Commandant James Conway admitted that the July 2011 date is "probably giving our enemy sustenance."

A remarkably bold charge for an active military officer. It stops just short of suggesting aiding and abetting the enemy. Yet the observation is obvious: It is surely harder to prevail in a war that hinges on the allegiance of the locals when they hear the U.S. president talk of beginning a withdrawal that will ultimately leave them to the mercies of the Taliban.

The whole story here.

Restoring Honor Rally Video

2010-09-02T21:45:00.001-04:00

This is a great video featuring scenes from Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally.

We took 2 buses with 112 people to the Rally and this video closely mirrors the exact path we took.

Enjoy!

Glenn Beck’s - The Blaze

2010-08-31T09:34:00.001-04:00

Check out Glenn’s new News website, The Blaze.

Restoring Honor Rally 8-28-10

2010-08-29T13:11:00.001-04:00

You can watch or re-watch the C-SPAN coverage of Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally here:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/295231-1

When You're Holding a Hammer

2010-08-24T07:14:00.001-04:00

The political song that lampoons the progressive agenda of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid administration, and encourages us to set things straight in November!

Enjoy!

Free Cities

2010-08-22T22:39:00.001-04:00

What do you think? Is this feasible?

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/244140/free-cities-newt-gingrich-ken-hagerty

Rod Walgate - American Policy Roundtable

2010-08-18T00:29:00.001-04:00

The August 18th meeting of The 9-12 Project in Mentor, OH.

Location

Lakeland Community College

7700 Clocktower Drive
Room A2101
Kirtland, OH 44094

About the American Policy Roundtable

A generation ago, a handful of "ordinary people" began meeting together out of a growing concern for America. Their conversations, prayers, and research led to the founding of an "extraordinary" public policy effort that would blossom into the American Policy Roundtable.

Recognizing that America is - at its core - a commitment to ideas and principles, the Roundtable was established with the mission of restoring the historic Judeo-Christian principles to American public policy. The Roundtable seeks to fulfill this mission statement by meeting three core objectives:

1) Rekindling the American Spirit -- by telling the story of Liberty everyday.
2) Building networks of leaders, who will help others join in the adventure of responsible citizenship.
3) Overcoming evil in civil society by promoting positive alternatives in public policy.

To accomplish these objectives the Roundtable model is built upon state-based public policy organizations, established in strategic states, all working to change America from "the bottom-up." Each state-based Roundtable organization serves under the auspices of the Board of Trustees of the American Policy Roundtable.

Impacting public policy is a process that requires multiple areas of activity. Competing in the realm of ideas is critical, but alone cannot prevail in a Constitutional Republic. Good government also requires constant vigilance in the Legislative and Judicial process as well as a constant flow of new leaders to serve in public office. The Roundtable model incorporates the necessity of this "three-pronged" approach to public policy.

The meeting is at Lakeland Community College in the A Building (behind the clocktower). There will be signs up to help you find the room. The room, A2101, is on the second floor. Going in the front of the A Building, go down the hall to the book store. Turn right at the book store. Go down the hall toward the Breakers cafeteria and turn left and head down the hall. take the elevator or stairs to the second floor and you will be outside the meeting room door.

There is a $2 Meeting Room Fee. This fee is waived for Active Members who have paid their yearly dues. Children 17 and under may attend free.

Killing Centers

2010-08-13T11:21:00.001-04:00

Euthanasia for the healthy elderly who are tired of life.

By Any Measure Dutch Euthanasia Out of Control

http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Aug10/nv081110part5.html

Does Congress Follow It's Own Rules?

2010-08-11T19:56:00.004-04:00

Why doesn't Congress follow it's own rules and procedures? The House has a printed set of rules and procedures that they are bound to follow (unless they suspend the rules.) They wouldn't do that, would they?

The House Rules, RULE XIII, under Calendars, Section 1 (d) states:
(d) Each report of a committee on a public bill or public joint resolution shall contain the following:
(1) A statement citing the specific powers granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact the law proposed by the bill or joint resolution.

Why doesn't everyone write a letter to their Congressman asking why they don't follow this rule?

"I'm Going To The Mall" Song - 8/28 Restoring Honor Rally

2010-08-03T08:06:00.001-04:00

This is a pretty cool music video. Nicely done.

Where will you be on 8/28?

Enjoy!

Press Coverage

2010-08-02T11:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we were collecting signatures for the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment.

We set up in front of Timothy Allen Jewelers on Mentor Avenue. The News-Herald was there and wrote a nice article. You can read about it here:

http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/08/02/news/nh2847003.txt

It was a great event with lots of people signing. Betsy Ross and Sam Adams stopped by for a while and we appreciate their help.

LaTourette: 'Cash for Appliances' or 'Cash for Incompetence'?

2010-08-01T23:54:00.001-04:00

U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) is renewing his call that Gov. Ted Strickland form an independent, bipartisan oversight board to monitor federal stimulus spending after a TV report that state officials used stimulus money for the "Cash for Appliances" rebate program to hire a Texas company that outsourced call center duties/jobs to Central America.

LaTourette and several other House Republicans, including Leader John Boehner (R-OH), wrote Strickland in March, 2009 and November, 2009, urging the creation of the stimulus oversight board.

Strickland told them an oversight board wasn't necessary and that he favored a Deputy Inspector General.

LaTourette said he can't believe stimulus funds intended to spur hiring in Ohio were used to hire a Texas company that outsourced the work to another country.

"This just reinforces the need to have better oversight over the stimulus funds," LaTourette said.

According to LaTourette, there was a televised report by WCMH-TV, the NBC affiliate in Columbus, where an Ohio state official defended the hiring of Texas-based Parago, Inc., since it had experience with rebate programs, but acknowledged she didn't know the Texas company would outsource the work.

The WCMH report said the state signed a contract worth about $500,000 with Parago to run Ohio's appliance rebate plan because it had experience with rebate programs, according to LaTourette.

"It's no wonder only 6 percent of Americans believe that the Stimulus Bill created any jobs. To be fair, it does look like Governor Strickland used the funds to create some jobs -- in Central America," LaTourette said.

"To suggest an Ohio company couldn't be trusted to run the appliance rebate program is insulting, and paying a Texas company nearly half a million dollars to use a call center in Central America is astounding. This is not 'Cash for Appliances,' it's 'Cash for Incompetence.'"

During the report, LaTourette says WCMH's Patrick Preston interviewed Nadeane Howard, Director of the Ohio Department of Development's Energy Resource Division.

Howard was asked why a Texas company was running the $10 million Ohio appliance rebate program instead of an Ohio company.

"Ohio has one of the largest Energy Star rebate programs in the country," Howard says, in the report. "We could not trust it to someone who had not done this kind of work before."

Howard further said ODOD stands behind its decision to hire the Texas firm even though it did not hire Americans to answer phones at the call center.

Howard was asked specifically if she knew the company would outsource the call center duties to another country.

"We did not know that initially. The moment we found out, the director of this agency issued a request to Parago to please on-shore their call center," Howard told Preston.

The company did not comply with the request and LaTourette said he was dumbfounded by the explanation the state provided to the television reporter.

"They don't have an on-shore call center that they can utilize, so with the program winding down, it still resides offshore," Howard said.

LaTourette said the Columbus Dispatch reported in March, 2009 that "a divided Ohio Controlling Board" approved the contract with Parago to administer the $10.5 million appliance rebate program for Ohio.

The vote was 4-3. Nine companies submitted proposals to run the program, including two from Ohio. The report said Parago would be "paid $357,300 to cover administrative costs, and was selected based on strengths including experience with appliance-based rebates, according to the request submitted to the board."

The Dispatch reported in May, 2009 about delays in issuing appliance rebates and noted that Parago had 795 consumer complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau in the last three years, but the company has an A+ rating from BBB.

The report said appliance rebate programs in Texas, Minnesota and Iowa were experiencing problems getting through to phone banks and delays in rebates.

LaTourette said he doesn't know if those states used Parago as well.

I Fought For You!

2010-07-29T23:41:00.001-04:00

What do you think?

President's socialist takeover must be stopped

2010-07-28T07:41:00.001-04:00

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

President Obama has engaged in numerous high crimes and misdemeanors. The Democratic majority in Congress is in peril as Americans reject his agenda. Yet more must be done: Mr. Obama should be impeached.

He is slowly - piece by painful piece - erecting a socialist dictatorship. We are not there - yet. But he is putting America on that dangerous path. He is undermining our constitutional system of checks and balances; subverting democratic procedures and the rule of law; presiding over a corrupt, gangster regime; and assaulting the very pillars of traditional capitalism. Like Venezuela's leftist strongman, Hugo Chavez, Mr. Obama is bent on imposing a revolution from above - one that is polarizing America along racial, political and ideological lines. Mr. Obama is the most divisive president since Richard Nixon. His policies are Balkanizing the country. It's time for him to go.

He has abused his office and violated his oath to uphold the Constitution. His health care overhaul was rammed through Congress. It was - and remains - opposed by a majority of the people. It could only be passed through bribery and political intimidation. The Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, the $5 billion Medicaid set-aside for Florida Sen. Bill Nelson - taxpayer money was used as a virtual slush fund to buy swing votes. Moreover, the law is blatantly unconstitutional: The federal government does not have the right to coerce every citizen to purchase a good or service. This is not in the Constitution, and it represents an unprecedented expansion of power.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/22/the-case-for-impeachment-142967590/?page=1

Peter Corrigan Proves Tough Test For Kucinich

2010-07-26T22:18:00.001-04:00

Seven-term incumbent Congressman Dennis Kucinich faces the toughest challenge of his Congressional career in 2010 against Peter Corrigan. Corrigan, the Republican candidate for Ohio's 10th Congressional District has been on the move and experts in Ohio and the national stage have begun to take notice. A conservative Republican, Corrigan is running against ultra-liberal Dennis Kucinich in a seat that was previously thought of as "un-poachable" by mainstream political pundits. However the Weekly Standard recently published an article suggesting that if Dennis Kucinich can be defeated, Corrigan is the candidate to do it. To review the article please click on the following link http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/can-dennis-kucinich-be-defeated

Support Arizona!

2010-07-19T22:07:00.001-04:00

From the great folks at Iowa Presidential Watch.

Activist Supreme Court Nominees

2010-07-14T12:39:00.002-04:00

Are you worried about the latest choices for the Supreme Court? Do you think they will undermine or eliminate the Constitution? Jefferson and Adams had a solution for that. It's in the new book called Nullification by Thomas Woods.

NULLIFICATION
Nullification begins with the point that a federal law that violates the Constitution is no law at all. It is void and of no effect. If a law is unconstitutional and therefore void and of no effect, it is up to the states, the parties to the federal compact, to declare it so and thus refuse to enforce it. It would be foolish and vain to wait for the federal government or a branch thereof to condemn its own law!

Nullification provides a shield between the people of a state and an unconstitutional law from the federal government.

The main point behind nullification is that the federal government cannot be permitted to hold a monopoly on constitutional interpretation. If the federal government has the exclusive right to judge the extent of its own powers, it will continue to grow regardless of elections, the separation of powers and other limits on government power. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson both warned of this.
The Constitution is only a piece of paper and cannot enforce itself. The checks and balances of the three branches of government cannot guarantee a limited government, since these three branches can simply unite against the independence of the states and the reserved rights of the people. This is especially true if one party controls all three branches of government.

The real check on federal power is the ability of the states to interpose to prevent the enforcement of unconstitutional laws.

We cannot believe a bad law is settled because a nine politically well connected lawyers who are treated with awe have informed us that all is well. There is history for the general principle that an unconstitutional law is void. In Federalist Paper #78, Alexander Hamilton said “there is no position which depends on clearer principles, then that every act of a delegated authority contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men, acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”

How and by whom should an unconstitutional law be declared void? The federal courts are a branch of the federal government. How can they be expected to be impartial judges? The Supreme Court itself is a branch of the federal government. In a dispute between the states and the federal government (take the Arizona Immigration law), does the resolution come from the federal government? Jefferson refused to accept that answer.

It was impossible for Jefferson to believe that the states would have agreed to a system that assured their unjust subordination! Spencer Roane, a Virginia Judge at that time said that if the federal judiciary were to arbitrate such a dispute between itself and the states, it would be presiding over its own case which is a clear absurdity!