"With the advent of the tea party movement and President Obama's recent 'shellacking,' the left's long-established effort to marginalize mainstream conservative Americans as fringe extremists has reached a new stage of desperation," writes columnist David Limbaugh.

"Disney and Wal-Mart are among the major retailers who have chosen to begin acknowledging Christmas this year, after previously referring only to the 'holidays' in their Christmas-season advertizing," reports LifeSiteNews.com. 

"The Florida-based pro-life, Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel is continuing its annual 'Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign' this year," says LifeSiteNew. "Every year the organization compiles a 'Naughty and Nice' list, which catalogs retailers who either censor ('naughty') or recognize ('nice') Christmas."

Enjoy this inspiring Thanksgiving message from the Mama Grizzly in Chief.

Rep. Bachmann writes at Human Events:

Nearly four centuries ago, a group of settlers seeking religious freedoms, known as the Pilgrims, marked their thankfulness to God for countless blessings with a Thanksgiving celebration. The Pilgrims came to this land by believing in the establishment of a new colony so their children could grow up without needless interference from the government and come to know true liberty.
 
In 2010 we have witnessed the status quo of our nation become a period of ever-expanding entitlements, continuous bailouts, and government takeovers. Like parents before, a new group of freedom-seekers, the Tea Party, has decided to speak out in order to resurrect the limited government outlined in the Constitution for their children and future generations.

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How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Hans A. Von Sparkovsky writes:

As we sit down to feast with our families this holiday, the blessing might well include a word of thanks to the men and women of our armed forces. While we celebrate our national holiday in the warmth and comfort of homes, they serve at grave peril in faraway places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some of our troops are in Korea. There an unprovoked attack from the North killed four South Koreans on Tuesday. That outrage reminds us of the continuing danger posed by the murderous thugs in Pyongyang. But it should also spur us to remember those Americans who, 60 years ago, spent Thanksgiving fighting at the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. It was a vicious, brutal battle and one of the Marine Corps’ finest hours.

With the commencement of the 112th U.S. Congress in January in view, K.E. Campbell at American Thinker reflects on the "oaths our representatives will take and the pledges they will make." Campbell writes:

The words of the oath ["to support and defend the U.S. Constitution"] and Pledge [of Allegiance] resonate like never before amid the progressives' relentless assault on our founding principles, our values, our beliefs, and our liberty. It is apparent that too many members of Congress simply utter these oaths aloud in rote fashion and give them short shrift -- or worse -- without any consequence.

Reflecting on the Congressional customs above and re-reading the oath and the Pledge, how can it possibly be that those who revere the Constitution are somehow "extreme"? The answer is, of course, we are not, but progressives and their sympathizers in the mainstream media are determined to cast us that way in their effort to "fundamentally transform America" in pursuit of some sort of post-Constitutional socialist utopia.

We should expect and demand our elected representatives to uphold their solemn oaths. We should remind them of their sworn statements, their promises of loyalty, their pledge of fidelity to our founding doctrines and principles. Those who endeavor to dismantle or subvert our Constitution and undermine our liberty should be deemed what they are in the oaths: "enemies," be they "foreign or domestic."

Jedediah Bila at Human Events says, Palin's "voice is warm and welcoming. The tone is optimistic and patriotic. And the writing style is uncluttered and forthright."

What seems especially crucial among Bila's observations is that Palin, whom I expect to run for president in 2012, "honors America’s Founders, our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution."

Here is America by Heart at Amazon.

"Rep. Michele Bachmann, head of the House Tea Party Caucus, tells Newsmax that the Federal Reserve’s plan to increase the money supply by buying government securities is a 'huge mistake' that will boost inflation and amount to 'stealing from the American people,'" reports Jim Meyers at Newsmax.

"The Minnesota Republican also declares that President Barack Obama wants to impose a 'massive increase in taxes' by refusing to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans," Meyers continues.

"And she says Congress could reign in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regarding the use of body scanners and aggressive pat-downs at airports."

On November 19 at National Review, Mona Charen offered "just some of the reasons" "Sarah Palin Shouldn't Run" for the White House in 2012.

Now comes Jedediah Bila at Human Events, offering some of the reasons the former governor of Alaska is "qualified to step up to the plate in 2012 if she so chooses."

Nancy will join nationally syndicated radio talk show host Jim Bohannon on air tonight at 10 p.m. eastern.

Here is a station finder for local listening in your area. To listen live online, go here.

Nancy's new book is titled Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning.

"Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today likened the United States of America to Iran, North Korea and Pakistan because those nations also do not allow homosexuals in their militaries," reports CNSNews.com.

The intellectual vacuity of this senator's position seems clear: The enduring and defining mainstream of the American experiment -- as expressed in the Declaration of Independence -- is that unalienable rights are endowments from the Creator.

Fundamental human rights are not the creation of the secular state (North Korea), a religiously fascist state (Iran), or of a state whose official religion, Islam, does not allow people to question the presumed deity (Pakistan). Nor are unalienable rights the creation of senators from California or activist groups from San Francisco.

Moreover, the Creator who is the source of these rights is also the source of the objective, enduring, and liberating social norms regarding family life and marriage, norms which are rejected by the homosexual activist agenda in its attempt to redefine America according to the private "values" of 60s-style radicalism (ill-founded notions of "diversity," gender, and choice).

In her attempt to derive unalienable rights out of a totally adequate basis, and then impose her merely private belief system upon the rest of us, by force of law, it is out-of-the-American-mainstream radicals such as Sen. Boxer who would be more at home in North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan, than here in the U.S.

The U.S. military is protecting our nation from extremism and tyranny abroad. It is up to we the people in America to protect the military from extremism and tyranny here at home. This is just one of many ways we can say "thank you" to those putting their lives on the line for human liberty. 

American Thinker asks regarding newly elected Col. Allen West (R.-Fla.): Are we witnessing a "statesman in the making?"

Go here for comments by Greg Halvorson and here for a Youtube video of Rep. West before entering his first meeting with the liberal Congressional Black Caucus.

On "Fox & Friends" this morning, columnist and author Michelle Malkin was asked is she agrees that Sarah Palin could defeat Barack Obama in 2012. "Sure," said Malkin. Obama is "beatable."

Yesterday, AP reported: "In an excerpt of an ABC News interview released Wednesday, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee says she's considering a presidential run. When asked directly if she thought she could defeat Obama, the former Alaska governor replied, 'I believe so.'"

"By definition," writes CNSNews.com Editor in Chief Terry Jeffrey, "conservatives are against the gay agenda because the gay agenda ultimately seeks to overturn the moral order that makes freedom possible. Fidelity to the natural law -- including in the laws of our land -- is at the very core of what conservatives seek to conserve."

Terry Jeffery is correct: A pro-"gay" conservative is an oxymoronic concept, for homosexual activism cannot win without obliterating from public life the Declaration's insistence on unalienable human rights being derived from the Creator, who happens to be the originator of the wonder of the male-female ontological distinction and also of objective, enduring, and liberating norms for family life and marriage.

The actions of no one person are sufficient to account for the historic 2010 midterm walloping that the Democrats -- and the anti-freedom "liberalism" for which they have come to stand -- so richly deserved.

Having said that, radio talk show host Sean Hannity is clearly one of the leaders of the new surge for freedom in America, and in "The House That Hannity Built," Jeffrey Lord at American Spectator writes about the radioman's role in Hannitizing the U.S. House of Representatives.

"The Tea Party's influence on the direction of Senate Republicans in the 112th Congress is about to be put to the test," editorializes the Washington Times. "Grass-roots activism helped swell the ranks of the chamber's fiscal hawks with several newly elected members who are fired up about banning earmarks.

"When the Republican conference meets Tuesday to consider South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint's resolution that would end the practice for its members, the outcome will demonstrate whether Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky or Mr. DeMint and the Tea Party have captured the heart and soul of the Senate GOP. . . .

"For a reinvigorated Republican Party to continue earmark spending they would have to be as tone deaf as the Obama-Pelosi-Reid team," the editorial concludes. "Voters expect Washington to change its ways. The best way for senators of all parties to show they've heard the message is to retire the earmark perk once and for all."

Robert Eugene Simmons, Jr., writes at American Thinker:

The November 2 election was not the end of the war, but rather one minor victory in a small side skirmish. The battle rages on, and the and the war is still very much in danger of being lost -- if not in this generation, than in the next. If conservatives, Tea Party activists, and others get complacent, the war will be lost. It's not time to celebrate; it's time to get to work.

Or if knowing it, he rejects it?

What is "the center"? There is only one known "center" that yields freedom for the individual without leading to anarchy, and yet order in society without leading to tyranny.

And that center is what the Declaration of Independence says it is:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Obama may or may not "move" to the relativistic "center" of a particular moment in history.

But if for political reasons he does move, apart from a conversion to Constitutionalist and Declarationalist thoughtforms, this will be a tactical "adjustment" only.

It will be a move primarily in rhetoric, perhaps with a few policy adjustments. A move that appears to respect -- but actually continues to reject -- what is the true and defining mainstream of the American experiment.

The loyal opposition must oppose Obamaism root and branch. The loyal opposition must articulate and apply with consistency and courage the comprehensive vision that lays out the DNA of liberty -- from worldview to principles to strategies to tactics -- so that in community with God and man, America can once again become a "shining city on a hill."

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How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Rep. Michele Bachmann "has withdrawn from the contest for chairman of the House Republican Conference in the 112th Congress," writes Mark Tapscott at Beltway Confidential.

Here is Bachmann's statement indicating her "enthusiastic support" of Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling:  

Jeb Hensarling has my enthusiastic support for his candidacy to become Republican House Conference Chair. Jeb has demonstrated his commitment to limited government, reduced spending and lower taxes and he will be a strong voice for the Tea Party’s call for these values.

I look forward to continuing my consistent support of the Tea Party. I plan to advance the Tea Party ideals through their listening arm, the Tea Party Caucus. It is my wish to bring new faces to the caucus, including freshmen members.

The new Congress will have great opportunities to lead our country into the direction our founders intended. I spoke with Mr. Boehner and other members of leadership and I am convinced they will wholeheartedly work towards the issues the American people are calling for such as fiscal responsibility, ending the bailouts and repealing Obamacare.

If security personnel at airports make a habit of overreacting in the ways described here by Meg McLain, only terrorists, government bigshots, cokeheads, and TSA perverts will be flying the friendly skies. 

"In yet another indication of the increasing alienation of the political elites from the popular will, U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange on Monday granted a temporary restraining order blocking Oklahoma’s brand-new anti-Sharia law," writes Robert Spencer at Frontpagemag.com.

"Seventy percent of Oklahomans voted for the measure, but who cares?" Spencer asks. "The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) argued that the measure was 'anti-Islam,' and that was enough to prevail in today’s multiculturalist environment.

"As Abraham Lincoln put it long ago, 'The people . . . have ceased to be their own rulers'."

Here is the webpage for Oklahoma Judge Vicki Miles-LeGrange.

What's your view on this? "Nauseating, but no surprise," says columnist and attorney Debbie Schlussel.

Michael Reagan today told Megyn Kelly of Fox News that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is "too polarizing" a figure to be elected president of the United States.

Reagan also said he expects to hear about his low expectations for Palin on his Facebook page.

"National Public Radio President Vivian Schiller, who made headlines for firing news analyst Juan Williams, a Fox News contributor, told an audience Sunday that NPR's viewers are a league apart from those of other media organizations," reports Fox News.

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Zonation: Putting Juan Williams on the Back of the Porch -- Video

Jeffrey Lord writes at American Spectator:

It isn't often that a book -- any book, even a popular, bestselling book like Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto -- can be said to have changed the course of American politics and history. The phenomenon is rare, extremely rare, usually taking both the country and even the author by surprise.

Yet Levin's book has done just that, saluted by Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in an exclusive talk with The American Spectator as "providing [the] intellectual balance and foundation" of the Tea Party movement. A movement that stands triumphant this week in the wake of the conservative landslide that Levin himself believes can revitalize the conservative cause that Ronald Reagan once led to the White House.

Comment: This is a terrific article. One caveat: America has not yet changed, and so we are jumping the gun to say this book, as incisive and timely as it is, has "changed America."

Last week an election was won. As I told our teenage son, that election was the most important of his life thus far. However, it was still merely an election. Followup is needed, and it will be followup against an inertia of institutionalized and enculturated statism that has been with us with growing force since the 1960s.

Already this week, we do not hear as much from victorious Republicans about the Constitution and the Declaration, even though especially at this moment in American history, we absolutely need to frame our politics and policies in terms of the Declaration and Constitution -- the only vision known to humanity to have the resources needed to give the balance and the basis for both form and freedom in society. There remains much electoral, political, intellectual, and cultural work to be done.

Last week's victory opened a window of opportunity to reestablish America upon her Constitutional and Declarational principles. Levin's Liberty and Tyranny has played -- and is playing -- a central role in returning our nation to the defining and enduring American mainstream, outside of which all else is extreme. Liberty and Tyranny is helping to change America and that, in and of itself, is a tremendous accomplishment. 

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Levin's Liberty and Tyranny No. 1 at Amazon 
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

"Congressman-elect Allen West (R-Fla.) said he plans to join the Congressional Black Caucus next year," reports The Hill. "West, one of two black Republicans elected to Congress in Tuesday’s election, said he plans to join the Democratic-dominated bloc, to challenge, in West word’s, the CBC’s 'monolithic voice'."

"MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely and without pay for violating the network's ethics code on political contributions," reports WorldNetDaily.

A couple of people appear to be upset. Newsbusters notes a) that Rachel Madow is defending Olbermann by "Attacking Fox News" and b) that "America's Only Openly Socialist Member of Congress" has also risen to defend Olbermann.  

And then there's a report from the Huffington Post saying 175,000 MSNBC viewers have signed a petition to get Olbermann "back on the air."

No doubt, many at Fox News Channel are hoping MSNBC viewers get their wish.

So here's the biq question for Fox and fans and friends of KO: What's next for Olbermann's career in politics? 

In this midterm election night clip from MSNBC, author and columnist S.E. Cupp responds to a clip of Chris Matthews' interview of victorious House candidate Michele Bachmann of MN:

If no one's going to say it, I'm going to say it. I thought it was incredibly disrespectful -- to treat a guest -- I don't care who she is. I heard them laughing in the background when they had Eric Cantor on as well.

Fox is thrashing the other cable networks such as MSNBC because a) Fox provides better reporting, b) it allows a balance of Democrat/Republican and Liberal/Conservative voices to be heard, and c) it operates within a philosophy of journalism that still respects facts and allows facts to triumph over political passions.

On the particular night in question, November 2, when Chris Matthews again exposed his irresponsible and disrespectful style of formerly mainstream journalism, Fox News dominated "Cable News Election Night Coverage," according to this report from TV By the Numbers.

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Michele Bachmann Entrances Chris Matthews

I noticed on Drudge a Reuters story titled, "Obesity Rates Will Reach 42 Percent: Study." And whatever the details of "obesity crisis" are, according to this story or just about any story like this put out by the formerly mainstream media, the point is to reach the conclusion that to fix the problem we need the federal government to step in because "changes in public policy could make a difference."

But here's the real question: How obese is the federal government? And what freedoms are being crushed under the weight of unconstitutional government as bloated, obese fatcats on Capitol Hill use every trick in the book to expand their power and curtail our freedom?

Meanwhile the governmentally fattest and most obese president in U.S. history is spending millions of dollars a day (they won't tell "we the people" -- their bosses -- how much this really costs) to escape  from his midterm shellacking to far-away India, etc., etc., to talk business with Indians and other folks who don't mind teleprompters.

The grossly overweight and slobbering federal government needs to be placed on a diet before it rolls over and smashes freedom and dignity in America once and for all. Maybe new Constitutional blood in Congress can drive out the old boy network of billowing blue bloods. 

And I don't mean just the Demofats. Republican'ts need their pork chopped, too.

Secularism Rebuffed: Read Jim Fletcher's review of Nancy's Saving Leonardo at WorldNetDaily.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who stands in the center of the defining and enduring American mainstream (she embraces the liberating text of both the Declaration and Constitution), handed MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who stands outside of the defining and enduring American and journalistic mainstream, his lunch during an interview on the evening of her midterm victory in Minnesota.

For more on this, see Ann Kane's analysis at American Thinker, as well as this YouTube video of the entrancing Bachmann's smackdown of wannabe bully boy Matthews.

The headline over a National Journal article by Ron Fournier puts it like this: "Washington the Biggest Loser as Wave Sweeps Through Congress."

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How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War 
Secularist Washington-Centrism Un-American

"America's left, and the party it dominates, faced a reckoning yesterday," writes Thomas Lifson at American Thinker. How indeed, Lifson asks, "Could a man once seen as a savior turn out to be a disaster for those who embraced him?"

"On Monday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin mocked her media detractors -- Politico, specifically -- as 'puppy-kicking, chain-smoking porn producers' for their heavy use of anonymous sources in a quote as memorable as Spiro Agnew’s 'nattering nabobs of negativism,'" reports the Daily Caller.

"Palin’s latest broadside against the press," says the Caller, "comes in response to a Politico story that quoted several anonymous Republican operatives worrying aloud that a Palin presidential candidacy could end in disaster."

KTVA, a CBS affiliate in Alaska, "on Thursday was caught up in yet another campaign season phone message scandal," writes Connie Hair at Human Events.

Here is audio of the phone message.

Some people call these last days of electoral campaigning "the silly season." And, yes, there's a lot to laugh about -- if you think utter corruption is funny.

But you can bet that members of the formerly mainstream media are not laughing today. Objectivity in media is possible, but not to those whose passion is the cult of politics rather than the pursuit of truth.

Americans need to free themselves from two sets of chains: The chains of corrupt unconstitutional government by which Washington elites seek to limit our freedom and impose their will, and the chains of corrupt, propagandistic "reporting" by which "journalistic" elites seek to limit our freedom and impose their will.

The midterm elections tomorrow are an opportunity to revolt: To say no to both sets of chains and to both sets of corruption. Tomorrow is a new day of American resistance, and many more shall come.