At The Health Site:

Researchers have highlighted voters' perception of traditional femininity, political competence. According to the Dartmouth College-led study, female politicians' success can be predicted by their facial features, especially in conservative states where women with more feminine faces tend to do better at the ballot box.

The researchers used software called MouseTracker that was developed by the study's senior author Jon Freeman, an assistant professor and director of the Social Cognitive and Neural Sciences Lab at Dartmouth.

"The Dartmouth-led study demonstrates for the first time that gendered cues uniquely predict female politicians' electoral success above and beyond competence, suggesting a discrepancy between traits used to evaluate male and female politicians," Health Site states.

"Freeman said that it's important to examine how facial cues could inadvertently affect female politicians' electoral success, especially given the possibility of a female U.S. president in the near future and the rising number of women in Congress," according to Health Site.

Brandon Darby writes at Breitbart-Texas:

In an apparent violation of state law, Battleground Texas officials are exploiting legally protected information to turn voters out to the polls as part of the Democratic party's quest to paint the Lone Star State blue, a new undercover video from James O'Keefe reveals.

"The footage shows Battleground Texas volunteer Jennifer Longoria [photo] saying the group uses the phone numbers from voter registration forms in later efforts to boost turnout on election day," Darby reports.

"Texas Election Code prohibits the use of, or even the copying of, phone numbers provided by individuals registering to vote," Darby writes.

“Every time we register somebody to vote, we keep their name . . . address, phone number,” Longoria says on the videotaped report. Darby also reports that the video "shows volunteers calling to boost turnout for Wendy Davis's gubernatorial bid."

Longoria's Twitter page description states, "Battleground Texas Field Organizer, world changer, adventurer, language offender, book trafficker, future wife. My kids believe in science; I register voters. San Antonio TX."

Watch the video here.

"We are lucky that we are so different," Thomas Sowell writes, "so that the capabilities of many other people can cover our limitations."

But more than this, Sowell argues, the inequality of abilities (or "diversity," one might say) we see in human beings can save lives and enhance "everyone's well-being."

Yes, human beings are created equal, as the Declaration of Independence so appropriately notes.

This fact of life affirms the ontological worth and significance of the human being. It expresses the basis upon which people are to be respected by the powers that be and not steamrolled by big government, big business, big media, big "ministry," big Hollywood, big "science," or big anything.

Thus government, business, ministry, and so on, are created to serve man. Man is not created to worship and serve any of these entities. 

But note: Human beings are created equal in their individuality, as well. All of us have fingerprints, and yet every set of fingerprints is unique. In the human being, therefore, both unity and diversity are equally affirmed.

When diversity -- or inequality, properly understood -- is respected, our lives are enriched (in creativity, achievement, healing, wealth, and so on). Vive la différence.

The opposite is equally true. When diversity (or inequality) is disrespected, our lives are impoverished. Freedom, ideas, speech, excellence, and creativity begin to disappear as society is herded down the road to serfdom, to borrow a phrase. 

Diversity can also be deified. But this is a bad move because, as an idol, diversity breeds chaos -- even if it is well marketed ("Diversity is our strength!").

Chaos in morals and politics is, of course, unlivable. And so the temptation comes: Let us organize our lives around "unity." 

But when unity is grasped as a final solution, when it is deified in reaction to the totalizing god of "diversity," the real-world result is uniformity and oppression. The individual is smashed in the name of equality (or "fairness," "tolerance," etc.).

All too quickly, a people faces an elitist steamroller of presidential pens and phones, of federal laws and regulations, of dog-whistle peer pressure seeking to impose pretended absolutes enforced by those who hold power at a particular moment in history. 

How do we move forward to achieve individual and corporate balance? By realizing that both unity and diversity are gifts from the Creator. They are too wondrous and powerful to be left in the hands of politicians. 

Related
The Revolt of Intelligence Against "Marriage Equality" 
Memo to Conservatives: Accepting Homosex "Marriage" Opens Door to "Unlimited Statism"

Paul Bond writes at The Hollywood Reporter:

The filmmakers behind Dinesh D'Souza's upcoming doc have vowed to press on while their star defends himself after his indictment on federal charges that he violated campaign finance laws in 2012.

On Sunday, they released a trailer for the move, America, that is set for release on July 4. . . . ["being released in time for the 4t of July," D'Souza says in the trailer].

In America, D'Souza -- who wrote and produced the film -- makes the claim that 1960s radical leftism is more or less indistinguishable from current mainstream liberalism, a doctrine that he says preaches the United States is the product of "stealing and plunder" from Native Americans, Mexicans, and African-American slaves.

"I want to take this progressive, leftist critique head on," D'Souza says in the trailer. The movie will include re-creations of some of the major events in American history.

"America is directed by John Sullivan and co-produced by Gray Frederickson, who won an Oscar for producing The Godfather Part II, and Gerald Molen, who won an Oscar for Schindler's List. D'Souza and Sullivan co-directed 2016: Obama's America," THR reports.

Click here to view the trailer (3 minutes, 1 second) on YouTube.

"Question Authority" should be the motto of every free-thinking American and of every free-thinking human being.

If this documentary lives up to what is promised in the trailer, it should be a very powerful treatment more than a little worrisome to the Obama administration and its allies in media, Hollywood, politics, and academy. "Test everything."

Related
The D'Souza Arrest: Obama Action Adopts the Stalinist Style 
Sowell Reviews Film "2016: Obama's America" 
Dinesh D'Souza: How I Became George Obama's "Brother"

Ann Coulter writes:

Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator running for governor, became a liberal superhero last June when she filibustered a bill to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks. (This was the good filibuster, not that awful filibuster three months later by Ted Cruz -- that was just grandstanding.)

Apart from her enthusiasm for abortion (and you have to admit, abortion is really cool), the centerpiece of Davis’ campaign is her life story. Also the fact that she’s a progressive woman who doesn’t look like Betty Friedan.

Coulter then turns to headlines that "capture the essence of Wendy-mania." For example -- 

CNN: Wendy Davis: From Teen Mom to Harvard Law to Famous Filibuster

Bloomberg: Texas Filibuster Star Rose From Teen Mom to Harvard Law

The Independent (UK): Wendy Davis: Single Mother From Trailer Park Who Has Become Heroine of Pro-Choice Movement

Cosmopolitan: Find a Sugar Daddy to Put You Through Law School!

"Actually," says Coulter, "that last one I made up, but as we now know, it's more accurate than Davis' rags-to-riches life story."

Go here to read the rest of Coulter's column on the "Heroism of Wendy Davis."

John Sexton writes at Breitbart.com:

Wendy Davis has apparently settled on a plan divert questions about her biography raised over the weekend by the Dallas Morning News. In a response sent to one news outlet and on Twitter, Davis and her allies are blaming her opponent Greg Abbott.

For example, on Twitter Wendy Davis writes, "Two days ago, Abbott and his campaign sunk to a new low, making personal attacks on my family, my education, and my character."

But the facts of the news gathering do not appear to support Davis's efforts at damage control. As Dallas Morning News reporter Wayne Slater tweets, "Story was about Davis, not Abbott. In researching, I talked to no -- zero -- Abbott people. They saw story this morn when u did."

Here is Slater's original news report, titled "As Wendy Davis Touts Life Story in Race for Governor, Key Facts Blurred."

Sexton concludes: "Davis and her allies are trying to make her out to be the victim of an unfair personal attack, but there is no one to blame for her admittedly 'loose language' but herself. If Davis had stuck closer to the truth, there wouldn't be room to question her story."

Related
"Abortion Barbie" Wendy Davis "Pro-Life"?

"California Assemblyman Tim Donnelly announced that he is running for the gubernatorial seat in 2014," Becky Yeh reports at OneNewsNow.

"In a campaign video released by Donnelly's campaign, the Republican said he wants to let current Governor Jerry Brown know that the people of California are coming back for their freedom. Donnelly pointed to the state's poverty rate, high taxes and high unemployment.

"'California's broken. The California dream has been swallowed up by an ever-expanding government,' he says in the two-minute video," Yeh reports. 

Related
3 Parents for California Children? 
React to Jerry Brown Comparing Whitman to Goebbels

A Bloomberg news story at Newsmax reports:

The U.S. House voted to finance the federal government through mid-December and choke off funding for President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, setting up a showdown with the Senate and the White House. . . .

The Senate is expected to start considering the legislation on Sept. 23 with [a] goal of finishing by Sept. 26.

From the Washington Times: 

"The American people don’t want the government shut down, and they don’t want Obamacare," said House Speaker John A. Boehner, who rallied with fellow Republicans after the vote in a show of unity that seemed designed to quell speculation about a rebellion within the House Republican Conference.

Meanwhile, a Democrat offers death wishes to the children of a Cruz staffer: "Allan Brauer, the communications chair for the Democratic Party of Sacramento, Calif., told [Amanda Carpenter] an aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Tex.), on Friday that he hoped her children 'die from debilitating, painful and incurable diseases'." After additional vicious Tweets, Brauer apologized.

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the House vote is a "waste of time."

GOP Sen. Ted Cruz released a statement: "The fight to save America from Obamacare is just beginning -- it may well go back and forth from the House and Senate several times -- and a united Republican front means that Harry Reid and the President cannot ignore the American people."

"Bill and Hillary Clinton are angry with efforts by mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner and his campaign to compare his Internet sexcapades -- and his wife Huma Abedin’s incredible forgiveness -- to the Clintons’ notorious White House saga," reports the New York Post.

"The Clintons are upset with the comparisons that the Weiners seem to be encouraging -- that Huma is 'standing by her man' the way Hillary did with Bill, which is not what she in fact did," a leading New York Democrat reportedly said," according to the Post.

But I still say: What's to forgive? All that may be happening -- if one adopts the "liberal" theory about life -- is that most of the voting public is still clinging to their Bibles (what remains of them) and have not yet allowed their "America" to be sufficiently "fundamentally transformed" to realize further progress is required down the "progressive" road of reimagining "family," "faithfulness," "forgiveness," "marriage," "orientation," and the wonders of the sexual revolution.

On this view, in 15-20 years, with more "education," "advocacy," and "equality" from the White House, and with toothless Republicans yipping and faithful media yapping, Weiner may yet be recognized for the courageous trailblazer that he is. He could then go to Hillary's house and demand she bake a Weiner Orientation Cake of Pride, Respect, and Celebration for him, Huma, and internet friends with benefits.

They can kiss and make up on Oprah. Celebrate at the Playboy mansion and ensure that whoever replaces Hef shows up.

It's not easy introducing a new sexual orientation to a bigoted nation in need of evolution from its discriminatory ways. And yet, the culture is pregnant with opportunity for "Carlos Danger" to reveal himself as "Nietzsche Superman."

In almost every respect, for orthodox liberals and secularists (Republicans included), God does not exist -- except when they need Him to create and justify immoral behavior by useful politicians in this broken world (not to mention His usefulness in propagandizing understanding wives and agreeable girlfriends).

Problem is, that pathetic, non-existent "god" of secularist believism also creates "haters" -- that is, people who disagree with the "settled" relativistic opinion of the month, campaign cycle, and other tidbits of mere tradition.

Mind you, "haters" are not to be judged, O ye intolerant of little faith. More simply: It's evil to judge. 

There may be a slight downside to such "fundamental change." As revolutions throughout history have shown, the yang of oppressed haters (we know they're haters because MTV and HBO say so) will demand their "rights," too -- to be won by the edge of the guillotine or through the barrel of a gun, when required. Obamacare data collection and NSA spying could also come in handy. They may help smooth out bumps in the road.

Related
The Pervert Party 
Hillary Clinton: Personal "Religious Beliefs" Are "Obstacles Standing in the Way" of "Gay Rights"

Cal Thomas says yes: "Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies. . . . 
Carson should publicly apologize and stop going on TV doing 'victory laps' and proclaiming that reaction to his speech was overwhelmingly positive."

Star Parker says no: "What seems to offend Cal Thomas is that Dr. Carson has not fallen victim to the Washington disease that Thomas himself seems to have contracted as [a] result of too many years in our nation’s capital. . . . Religious ritual devoid of content is pointless and destructive. This was Isaiah’s message 2,800 years ago. This is Dr. Ben Carson’s critical message for America today. It’s certainly nothing to apologize about."

Related
Udo Middelmann: "Jesus Came to . . . Argue" (Human Action vs. Religious Passivity) 
Politics an Idol That Distracts Christians From What's Really Important? 
Francis Schaeffer on Authoritarian Government 

Drew Zahn reports at WND:

At the National Prayer Breakfast, broadcast live on C-SPAN2, Dr. Ben Carson said he didn’t want to "offend" anyone, but his words nonetheless were likely to have made one distinguished guest in attendance -- President Barack Obama -- squirm in his seat.

Carson is director of the pediatric neurosurgery division at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. His inspiring story of growing up the son of an illiterate, single black woman to becoming one of America’s most esteemed doctors has been detailed in the book Gifted Hands and the movie of the same name.

At Thursday’s prayer breakfast, Carson took aim at a number of topics that may have caused the man seated two chairs to his right a bit of indigestion, including class-warfare economics.

Here is Youtube video of Dr. Carson's remarks.

Michael W. Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

Republican political consultant Karl Rove went on The O’Reilly Factor on Thursday and said -- in response to conservative criticism of his political action committee -- that he had been the director of the 1980 Ronald Reagan campaign in Texas, a point questioned by veteran Texas GOP campaign leaders and which seems to be only partly true for the period after Reagan secured the Republican presidential nomination that year.

If only we could teach the GOP establishment, not to mention a few voters, what this dog already knows.

Speaking at a banquet in Texas, Democrat Pat Caddell said the U.S. is in a "pre-revolutionary moment" and "on the verge of explosion."

In describing Caddell's remarks, Terri Hall writes:

He perfectly articulated what’s broken in politics today: government no longer operates by the consent of the governed, it’s rigged against the ordinary citizen by lobbyists, special interests, and corruption, and as a Gallup poll announced today, two-thirds of Americans believe Congress cares more about retaining their power, even to the detriment of the country, than they do about serving and preserving the country.

Watch a Youtube video of Caddell's remarks here.

This quote is from Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, one of four Republican congressmen stripped of key committee positions, according to the "Inside Story of Boehner's Conservative Purge," reported by WND.

It is suggested that this purge is merely the enactment of party discipline.

However, by punishing these conservatives, GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner may be demonstrating the political equivalent of slitting his own throat. And that of the Republican Party.

A political party increasingly alienated from the rules of freedom, as set forth in the Declaration and U.S. Constitution, either rejects the leadership of hypocritical elites or it dies with them.

It is true: A house divided cannot stand. This is true of political parties and of national communities.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and there is no reason to expect that freedom in the U.S will fall in a day. But Rome did fall, and so the U.S. and freedom in the U.S. equally can fall.

The Democrat Party already wars aggressively against the rules of freedom. Thus its extremism is exposed when measured against the liberating mainstream of America freedom and dignity.

It would be a dying shame to see the GOP go down into that same pit. "We the People" need not follow.

From My Twitter:

Democrats know what they believe and market it very well. Republicans do not do what they believe and market it very well.

At Facebook, too.

Ben Johnson reports at LifeSiteNews:

Former presidential nominee John McCain is urging Republicans to confine their support for the unborn to rhetoric but abandon thoughts of enacting new legislation.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday over the weekend, the Arizona senator said the GOP needs “a bigger tent” to be successful in presidential elections, and part of that means dropping social issues important to conservatives.

Echoing the talking point that men should not weigh in on a female issue McCain said, “I don’t think anybody like me --” then pointed to himself before changing gears abruptly. “I can state my position on abortion, but other than that, leave the issue alone, when we are in the kind of economic situation and, frankly, national security situation we’re in.”

This is the counsel of Republican collapse. As I have written elsewhere, it is a collapse that

. . . . began after the Reagan administration. Reagan understood that American liberty is rooted in a particular political philosophy. It's a vision that declares independence under God instead of dependence under the state. Because Reagan understood there is a vision-for-freedom, he also understood the need to be able to explain and articulate that vision-for-freedom. Unfortunately, then-Vice President George Bush (the elder), despite eight years of seeing Reagan in action, and of seeing that kind of vision win landslide victories at the polls, never seemed to appreciate "the vision thing."

And so the Reagan vision of Americans knowing the "freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers" (from "A Time for Choosing") would be lost. In addition, the rationale and ability to articulate that vision would be lost. More than that, resources to stand up against a contrary vision would be lost -- even if that contrary vision is false.

We hear today many calls for a third party. I'd settle for a second party.

Related
Paper: Out of the Mainstream Obama "Breaking America's Spirit"
Really? "Extreme" Limbaugh, Tea Party Cost Romney the Election?

Joseph Farah writes at WND:

Like many great cultural institutions founded by great Christian men -- Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the New York Times, yes, even the United States of America
-- [Focus on the Family] lost the Christian vision and passion of the founders.

What am I talking about?

I’m talking about the new non-confrontational, wimpy, smiley-faced, lukewarm Focus on the Family as personified by its new leader, Jim Daly, who seems all-too eager to distance himself and the organization he now heads from the legacy of Dobson.

Daly, apparently, also states that he wants to distance Christians from the Republican Party.

Farah quotes Daly as saying, “If the Christian message has been too wrapped around the axle of the Republican Party, then a) that’s our fault, and b) we’ve got to rethink that.”

"What’s funny about that," Farah comments, is this:

a) Daly sounds just like the leadership of the Republican Party who, like him, don’t want to stand up forcefully and passionately strong for biblical values, and

b) What he’s really talking about is giving up on one of the few cultural and political institutions in which Christians even have a voice and a seat at the table.

Withdrawal from politics is, of course, not an option, just as withdrawal from business, medicine, science, the arts, or church life is not an option.

This does not require, or even come close to requiring, that one identifies Christianity with the Republican Party. That is a silly and easily avoidable error, and I can count on maybe two fingers the number of people I know unsophisticated enough to buy into that mistake.

Rather, all of life is meant to be lived in liberating community with God and man -- and any group or individual that shrinks from his place in this struggle is on the wrong side of the Creator's demand that we be salt and light in this broken world.

Sometimes we can make nice. Other times we have to clear the Temple. It's not as if God Almighty has been unclear about this: Being a human being is not for the faint of heart.

Related
Politics an Idol That Distracts Christians From What's Really Important?
The Curse of Comfortable Christians
Bible Student Confesses to Killing Spiritual Leader's Wife
Francis Schaeffer -- "The Central Problem of Our Age"

Politics can certainly be a distraction.

And yet, any aspect of creation can unduly distract and lead to idolatry -- including caring for the lost, sick, and so on.

The challenges one faces in politics are no different in principle from the challenges of living as salt and light in any calling of life today, and in any aspect of society.

A few examples: Pastors and churches are tempted to lord it over their flocks and be treated as gods; Christian businesses and bookstores equally face temptations to lie, cheat, and steal; Christian musicians face the temptation of settling for less than excellence and instead produce "praise" music that's better suited for the gods of elevators.

Politics, education, the arts, recreation -- all of life is meant to be lived in community with God and man.

But, equally, in a broken world, each of these can be a distraction and a lure away from our true calling.

A pastor, church, or Christian who fails to apply -- across all of life, including political life -- the verifiable, publicly actionable wisdom given by a knowable Creator is failing to be salt and light.

When that happens, society suffers, as is evident in the news and events of life in America today.

The comments above, slightly edited here, first appeared in Facebook.

Related
The Curse of Comfortable Christians
Francis Schaeffer -- "The Central Problem of Our Age"

Madeleine Morgenstern reports at The Blaze:

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Friday vowed to subpoena outgoing CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus if he won’t testify voluntarily about the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Gowdy said that while he regretted the "personal ramifications" of Petraeus’ sudden resignation over an extramarital affair, it would not stop Congress from hearing from him about the assault on the consulate that left four Americans dead.

"I hope we don’t have to subpoena a four-star general and the former CIA director," the congressman told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. "I hope he would come voluntarily, but if he won’t, he will be subpoenaed."

Related
Watch: Obama Refuses Direct Answer After Local Reporter Corners Him on Benghazi Terror Attack
Our Ambassador Is Dead But Obama's Political Guru Is Very Well Protected While Shopping

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman reports at LifeSiteNews:

Two new television ads presented to voters by pro-marriage organizations are featuring victims of bullying by homosexual activists and their allies, whose habitual tactics of slander and intimidation were not widely reported by the mainstream media.

One video sponsored by the Family Research Council and aired in opposition to homosexual “marriage” in Maryland, shows [watch ad here] 14-year-old Sarah Crank and her mother describing the vicious attacks against Sarah by homosexuals following the girl’s testimony in favor of traditional marriage in the Maryland state legislature in January. . . .

A second video [watch here] aired by the National Organization for Marriage and the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance features an interview with firefighter Sarah Rowe, who defied her pro-gay union to publicly express her support for a traditional marriage amendment in Minnesota.

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Black Pastors: Banning Chick-Fil-A From Cities Is "Same Thing" as Banning Blacks From Restaurants
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What I Saw at Chick-Fil-A Today 

Nile Gardiner and Morgan Lorraine Roach write at Heritage.org:

A common theme that runs through President Obama's statements is the idea the United States must atone for its past policies, whether it is America's application of the war against Islamist terrorism or its overall foreign policy.

At the core of this message is the concept that the U.S. is a flawed nation that must seek redemption by apologizing for its past "sins."

On several occasions, President Obama has sought to apologize for the actions of his own country when addressing a foreign audience -- including seven of the 10 apologies listed below.

The President has already apologized for his country to nearly 3 billion people across Europe, the Muslim world, and the Americas.

Members of the formerly mainstream media argue that the president has not been involved in anything like an "apology tour." For more on this, and the difficulties of holding such a position, see "Apology Tour Didn't Happen, Media Say." 

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Revolt: The Candy Crowley Tipping Point 
Formerly Mainstream Media vs. Shooting at Family Research Council
CNN Star Caught Reading Liberal Blog on Air
"Objective" Journalism and the Formerly Mainstream Media

Stephen Dinan reports at the Washington Times:

Mitt Romney crossed a major threshold early this week, moving above 50 percent in his favorability rating with voters, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls -- and for the first time in the campaign he now leads President Obama on that measure.

The Republican presidential nominee has clearly benefited from the debates. He had a 44.5 percent favorability rating at the end of September, before the debates. But by Monday, when he and Mr. Obama faced off for the final debate of the campaign, Mr. Romney’s favorability average was up to 50.5 percent.

Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, said Mr. Romney’s favorability surge “really has been remarkable.”

Related
Gallup: Romney 51, Obama 45

From the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT):

Court documents and other records have identified many of these visitors as belonging to groups serving as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other Islamic militant organizations.

The IPT made the discovery combing through millions of White House visitor log entries. IPT compared the visitors' names with lists of known radical Islamists. . . . 

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Bob Unruh reports at WND:

A race for a state legislative seat in Washington state is turning white-hot with a report today that the Democrat challenger who describes herself as a Sunday school teacher appeared as a model in Playboy magazine.

According to the Western Center For Journalism, candidate Amy Biviano has been running for the state House of Representatives as a devoted wife and mother of two sons.

But the report said the campaign has been rocked by the exposure of her appearance in Playboy.

Does this mean political candidates are not allowed to be "proud of my body"? Or does it mean life in the grown-up real world doesn't allow such facile, demeaning, and money-grubbing rationalizations?

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As philosopher Debbie Wasserman Schultz of the DNC explains to Piers Morgan on CNN: Information that was "completely wrong" about Libya "doesn't mean it was false."

Here's the story. Here's the video.

Robert Stacy McCain at American Spectator offers a terrific overview of last night's debate between Mitt Romney and the chair (Obama supporters may be calling the debate a debacle). McCain must have watched the action on my Facebook and Twitter pages as well (now, where's that smiley thingy?).

Here are the opening two paragraphs of McCain's article:

How decisively did Mitt Romney win Wednesday night's debate? All you had to do was watch the most pro-Obama network to see it. "I personally do not know who won this debate," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said as soon as the debate ended. She was obviously the only one who didn't know.

When Maddow brought on her colleague Ed Schultz, he moaned that President Obama "created a problem for himself tonight on Social Security. He agreed with Mitt Romney. . . . I thought he was off his game."

Nor did the president's performance send a thrill up the leg of Chris Matthews. "I don't know what he was doing out there,"Matthews complained. "He had his head down. He was enduring the debate rather than fighting it."

"Of all the turnarounds Romney accomplished in his career at Bain Capital," McCain writes, "perhaps none was so significant as the one he pulled off in 90 minutes last night."

And what's Chris Matthews' new theme song? "The Thrill Is Gone." 

P.S. -- This version of "The Thrill Is Gone" is on my MP3 player for workouts.

Billy Hallowell reports at The Blaze:

The Bishop E.W. Jackson, founder of the Chesapeake, Virginia-based Exodus Faith Ministries, recently released a controversial video calling for African Americans to make a mass exodus from the Democratic Party.

Throughout the clip, Jackson delivers stinging blows to both liberals and the African Americans who continue to support them, while decrying what he sees as a “slavish devotion to the Democrat Party.”

The Exodus Faith Ministries website states that Rev. Jackson "served in the United States Marine Corps, graduated from Harvard Law School and studied at Harvard Divinity School."

To view video of E.W. Jackson's stirring "Message to Black Christians," go here.

At WND:

Former president Jimmy Carter’s grandson helped leak video of Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser to Mother Jones Magazine, New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog reports.

James Carter IV helped connect Mother Jones reporter David Corn with video of Romney at a fundraiser saying, among other things, that it is not his “job” to win over the 47 percent of voters committed to President Obama, because they are “dependent on government” and he will “never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Paul Miller reports at The Carmel Pine Cone:

After a week as topic No. 1 in American politics, former Carmel Mayor Clint Eastwood said the outpouring of criticism from left-wing reporters and liberal politicians after his appearance at the Republican National Convention last Thursday night, followed by an avalanche of support on Twitter and in the blogosphere, is all the proof anybody needs that his 12-minute discourse achieved exactly what he intended it to.

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.” . . .

And while the Hollywood superstar has plenty of experience being adored by crowds, he said he hasn’t given a lot of speeches and admitted that, “I really don’t know how to.” He also hates using a teleprompter, so it was settled in his mind that when he spoke to the 10,000 people in the convention hall, and the millions more watching on television, he would do it extemporaneously.

"It was only after a quick nap in his hotel room a few blocks from the convention site, Eastwood said, that he mapped out his remarks -- starting with his observation about politics in Hollywood, then challenging the president about the failure of his economic policies, and wrapping up by telling the public 'they don’t have to worship politicians, like they were royalty or something,'" Miller reports.

"But even then," Miller writes, "with just an hour before he appeared on stage, it still hadn’t occurred to Eastwood to use an empty chair as a stand-in for the president."

Review
Video: Clint Eastwood at Republican National Convention 
Empty Chair Watch: Obama Says Fatherhood Trumps Politics
Did Clint Eastwood Really Make Mitt Romney's Day?

"Perhaps they got the two concepts mixed up," suggests David N. Bass at American Spectator.

Jim Kane writes at Gather.com:

Transportation Security Administration screeners are now being deployed to political events and were spotted patting down senior citizens at a Paul Ryan speech in Florida.

There's more at The Shark Tank, which notes: "We heard that the TSA was going to expand its ummm, ‘reach,’ but to assist in political campaigns is quite the jump in broadening their ‘transportation security horizons'." 

Infowars.com provides context:

"I had to sit on a staircase in the balcony, but it was worth it." The official trailer of the film is here.

Megyn Kelly of Fox News interviews Dinesh D'Souza, who is introduced as the co-writer and co-director of 2016.

Mackenzie Weinger at Politico reports on a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Red states give more money than blue states. . . .

The eight states whose residents gave the highest share of their income . . . all backed McCain in 2008. Utah leads charitable giving, with 10.6 percent of income given.

And the least generous states . . . were Obama supporters in the last presidential race. New Hampshire residents gave the least share of their income, the Chronicle stated, with 2.5 percent.

From Toby Harnden's blog at the UK Daily Mail:

America’s first black governor has become the most senior Democrat to break ranks over Joe Biden’s "y’all in chains" comments, telling the Vice President: "Slavery is nothing to joke about."

Douglas Wilder, who was governor of Virginia from 1900 to 1994, told CNN that "'without question" Biden’s remarks in Danville, Virginia, "were appeals to race."

CNSNews.com reports:

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday referred to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the running mate of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as “Governor Ryan.”

During a campaign stop at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va., Biden said, “Congressman Ryan and the congressional Republicans, as one person said, had all, have already passed in the Republican House what Governor Ryan is promising to give the whole nation."

LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that Mitt Romney "stands by a 1994 statement that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) should admit homosexuals to the organization, as members or adult supervisors, according to a campaign spokesperson."

"During a 1994 debate with Ted Kennedy," LifeSiteNews continues, "Romney said, 'I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue. I feel that all people should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.'"

Romney's reaffirmation of his 1994 statement is unfortunate, in the extreme, literally. Yes, he does well by affirming that the Boy Scouts should be able "to decide what it wants to do on that issue."

But in relation to a more foundational concern, he seems not to understand that the homosexualist worldview at its core stands in direct opposition to the freedom worldview of the Founders and the Declaration.

How so? The Creator who is the basis for unalienable rights is also the same (knowable and verifiable and publicly actionable) Creator who is the basis for distinquishing real marriage from counterfeit marriage.

Homosexualists are pushing a monodimensional naturalistic sameness (ill-labeled "equality" for marketing and PR purposes), but the Creator affirms male-female diversity and liberation within the circle of marriage.

"Sexual orientation" is another ill-founded wobbly cliche employed to impose an extremist agenda.

But it is better understood as political disorientation for the uninformed and factually challenged. It opens wide the door for any immoral practice harmful to consenting adults and unsuspecting kids. Go ahead, make NAMBLA's day.

On the issue of Boy Scouts, therefore, Romney is embracing an anti-Creator and anti-human bigtory that places him against the mainstream U.S. position as set forth in our defining and foundational documents.

It's an extremist position, an untenable position, an un-American position, and a losing position.

Political memo to Mitt: Americans seeking liberation from Obamaville remain a people of bold colors and bright ideals, not 50 shades of pastel. Don't let nuance devolve into nonsense.

Related
Radical Rules for Girl Scouts' Birthday
Bachmann, Romney, Santorum Sign Pro-Marriage Pledge
Pro-Same-Sex "Marriage" Lesbian: "Institution of Marriage Should Not Exist"
What I Saw at Chick-Fil-A Today

Note: Portions of these remarks also appear in Facebook.

Becket Adams writes at The Blaze:

Clint Eastwood just made Mitt Romney’s day.

The Dirty Harry star and Oscar-winning director of Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby endorsed the Republican presidential candidate Friday night during a Sun Valley fundraiser.

“I think the country needs a boost,” Eastwood told The Associated Press as he joined other Romney supporters for the private campaign event.

Obama responds (or did he ...?): "Clint Eastwood didn't say that. He didn't make those words happen. Somebody else built that sentence."

But would that mean the roads and bridges endorsed Romney? 

Florida congressman "Allen West is on the top 10 target list for Democrats this year," writes William A. Jacobson of Cornell University.

And now a Soros-backed "SuperPAC has been formed specifically to get rid of West, as reported by The Shark Tank."

To donate to West, go here.

Hat tip: Drudge

Jack Minor reports at WND:

Jane Pitt, mother of actor Brad Pitt, has been scared into silence by the hate-filled, vulgar and even violent reaction to her public assertion that Barack Obama is “a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.”

From Conservative HQ:

It says a lot about the caliber of advice Mitt Romney is getting that in the midst of the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s, he can do no better than tie President Barack Obama in most national polls.

The same goes for Republican congressional candidates -- especially those for the Senate -- which under the leadership of Democrat Harry Reid hasn’t passed a budget in over three years.

A big part of the problem is, in a word, consultants. Especially the small coterie of Washington, DC based insiders that have come to dominate Republican political strategy and ad making over the past decade.

Conclusion: "The establishment Republican Party has not so much sold its soul as had its soul stolen by this small group of Washington consultants. Until Republicans throw-off the influence of these self-serving insiders -- and actually run as principled small government constitutional conservatives -- they risk suffering the same fate they suffered in 1976, 1992, 1996 and 2008, while making millions of dollars for the architects of their defeat in the process."

Herman Cain at WND:

I was as disappointed as anyone else by the Obamacare ruling, and I remain deeply troubled by Chief Justice Roberts’ assertion that the federal government has the power to do virtually anything, so long as it calls it a tax.

But this is the hand we’ve been dealt, and the question now is how well can we play it? When you get over the punch in the gut and the feeling of betrayal, you should recognize that it’s a hand we could play all the way to a pretty big win.

Eileen F. Toplansky takes a look at "The Specious Logic of the Left."

Steve McCann writes at American Thinker:

Excessive civility in the face of a national crisis is tantamount to indifference. 

The Bush family dynasty exemplifies the patrician attitude of holding oneself above the fray after fulfilling one's pre-ordained obligation to society.  

This may have been fine in the halcyon days of the past, when America's future seemed limitless and those answering to the call of duty were for the most part honorable people. 

With Barack Obama at the helm, that is no longer the case.

Dana Milbank writes:

Job growth has stalled, the Democrats have been humiliated in Wisconsin, the attorney general is facing a contempt-of-Congress citation, talks with Pakistan have broken down, Bill Clinton is contradicting Obama, Mitt Romney is outraising him, Democrats and Republicans alike are complaining about a “cascade” of national-security leaks from his administration, and he is now on record as saying that the “private sector is doing fine.”

Could an already horrible June "get any worse" for President Obama? Milbank asks.

Answer: Yes.

Aaron Klein reports at WND:

Barack Obama’s 2008 political campaign may not be the only ones caught making possibly misleading statements about the sitting president’s alleged membership in the 1990′s socialist-leaning New Party.

The now defunct New Party’s founder, University of Wisconsin Professor Joel Rogers, is currently denying his organization had ever had any members, thus making it impossible for Obama to have ever been an official member. . . .

WND, however, found scores of reports from the 1990s describing members of the New Party.

"Obama's goose is cooked."

Melissa Quinn writes at The Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama on Tuesday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, Dolores Huerta.

The Heritage Foundation notes that Huerta, 82, has in the past said that “Republicans hate Latinos” and praised Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Dave Boyer reports at the Washington Times:

When President Obama gave the commencement address last week at the Air Force Academy, he congratulated the cadets for excelling at one of the most demanding schools in the country.

But decades after Mr. Obama completed his own college course work, his academic performance is still a mystery.

Before and after his election as president, Mr. Obama has refused to release his college transcripts from his days as an undergraduate and a law school student.

WND reports:

A 1996 print advertisement in a local Chicago newspaper shows President Obama was the speaker at an event sponsored and presented by the Democratic Socialists of America, the DSA. 

Here is the advertisement:

At Investors Business Daily:

Perhaps Democrats know something the rest of us don't about Barack Obama's political fortunes. What else explains the increasing numbers who are openly defying the president on two key election issues?

Benny Johnson writes at The Blaze:

"At last weekend’s Left Forum 2012, the annual pep-rally for liberal thought, renown leftist professor and activist Frances Fox Piven shown some light onto the makeup of the current America Left."

According to Piven, it's all part of "transforming America and the world" (emphasis added). One might wonder if the Piven is writing Obama's speeches.

Joshua Rhett Miller writes at Foxnews.com:

An American flag with President Obama's image in place of the stars flew over a Florida county's Democrat headquarters long enough to enrage local veterans who called the altered banner "a disgrace."

The altered flag is not just a disgrace, but a warning: It captures the spirit of the Obama administration, which seeks to replace the norms and content of the rules for freedom (see the Declaration and Constitution) with the rules for unfreedom (see Alinsky, Marx, and Jeremiah Wright).

David Limbaugh asks: "How much truth is there in President Obama's latest favorite mantra that we consume a disproportionate share of the world's oil, especially considering how little of the world's reserves we have?"

And what did he learn at that church? That's a highly relevant question because a) one's worldview (religious or otherwise) shapes one's character and the direction of one's choices, and b) this is especially important politically for the man who occupies the highest and most-powerful elective office in the world, where freedom is at stake and constantly under attack. More here.

In his most recent column, CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey writes:

It is plain as day: Obama is more deferential to the religious sensibilities of Muslims in Afghanistan than he is to the constitutionally protected religious liberty of Catholics in the United States of America.

Obama voters don't think, they just consume. Like braindead zombies on AMC's The Walking Dead.

More food for thought here.

Dr. John Fea, chairman of the history department at Messiah College, writes that "Obama may be the most explicitly Chrisitan president in American history."

Among other things, the Father of Our Country wrote in 1796: "Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports."

David Corn wites at Mother Jones:

It's no secret that Mitt Romney has an albatross around his neck: Romneycare, the Massachusetts health care overhaul he enacted while governor of the Bay State.

The plan, which included a mandate compelling state residents to obtain health insurance, was a model in part for President Barack Obama's health care reform, which is much-despised by conservatives and Republican voters.

This video of the Romney-Kennedy healthcare bill signing, in which Romney introduces "my collaborator and friend Sen. Edward Kennedy," will make defense of Romney as a constitutional "conservative" that much more difficult. And it should.

Hat tip: David Limbaugh

Aaron Klein writes:

In his third State of the Union address . . . President Obama channeled the mantra of U.S. progressive groups by repeatedly calling for so-called “economic fairness” in America.

Some progressives point to revolutionary socialist Karl Marx as the modern originator of the idea of “economic fairness.”

Also, late Harvard professor John Rawls, one of the most important philosophers of liberalism in the 20th century, named his own theory “justice as fairness.”

Some have previously pointed to Rawls’ possible influence over Obama. Rawls calls for ensuring distributive justice of resources.

From the National Journal:

"Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said on Monday he is boycotting President Obama’s State of the Union address."

Bruce Walker writes at American Thinker:

Gingrich can beat Obama and add more Republicans to elective office. His debating skills will eviscerate Obama, and a Republican platform like the Contract With America would put the left on the defensive through November. More importantly, however, Gingrich can actually defeat leftism in America.

Thus far, Gingrich has done the best job of articulating the antithesis between the rules of freedom (as set forth in the Constitution and Declaration) and the rules of unfreedom (as embraced by radicals Obama and Saul Alinsky).

Whoever wins the GOP nomination, however, if the United States is to escape the clutches of Obama and Obamaism, this fundamental antithesis must be front and center, with particular issues (education, marriage, life, energy, foreign policy, jobs, etc.) framed as choices between these two different destinies for the American people.

And then, while in office, a new president must govern in ways consistent with the rules for freedom. Arrayed against him will be the Democrat machine and RINO Republicanism, not to mention islands of unfreedom in media, the academy, Hollywood, unions, and secularized churches.

Therefore, while the new president is governing, American society in all her sectors must be educated anew in those founding and liberating principles that alone have demonstrated an ability to make this nation a "shining city on a hill."

In this way, the American people can begin throwing off the chains of liberalism and squishy Republicanism.

And when your kids and their kids ask what you did in the struggle to liberate America, those who participate in refounding this great nation will have some terrific stories to tell. Gather around the campfire to pass the torch of freedom.

"We’ve lost with John McCain. We lost with Bob Dole. We lost with Gerry Ford," say Rick Santorum.

On the other hand, says the former senator from Pennsylvania:

When we’ve run conservatives, you know, like Ronald Reagan . . . who went through a tough primary, we’ve been able to win, and that’s what we need.

This is a party that understands ultimately that we need a strong conservative voice out there to be a strong alternative to Barack Obama, and we’re that alternative.

In a column titled "Santorum's Experiment in Truth-Telling," CNSNews Editor-in-Chief Terry Jeffrey explains that Rick Santorum has emerged in Iowa because a) he clearly is qualified to hold the office of the presidency and because b) he offers (unlike Barack Obama) a fact-based vision of American freedom rooted in the Delcaration of Independence.

Jeff Poor writes at The Daily Caller:

Ron Paul’s likely strong showing in next week’s Iowa caucus is causing him to take fire from all sides. The latest: Former adviser to Bill Clinton, Fox News Channel’s Dick Morris.

Morris, in an appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Wednesday, was asked by fill-in host Eric Bolling what he made of Paul’s rise. Morris’ reaction was one of extreme disappointment and caution.

“I think it’s horrible,” Morris replied. “I think that he is absolutely the most liberal, radical, left-wing person to run for president in the United States in the last 50 years.

"Nobody else wants to dismantle the military, including Obama, but he does. Even Obama doesn’t want to repeal the Patriot Act. But he does.

"Even Obama doesn’t say that we caused 9/11 and brought it on ourselves. But Ron Paul does.

"Even Obama doesn’t want to legalize heroin and cocaine, but Ron Paul does. This guy is no conservative. This guy is an ultra, ultra-left-wing radical.”

"Newt Gingrich voiced enthusiasm for Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health-care law when it was passed five years ago, the same plan he has been denouncing over the past few months as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination." 

Posted at MicheleBachmann.com:

Urbandale, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s “Aloha” wishes to the media before heading off to Hawaii for the holidays:

“Mr. President -- We just left Chariton, Iowa, where I talked with a businesswoman with tears in her eyes who was worried about losing her business due to your failed economic policies. While you travel to Hawaii to enjoy the holidays, many Americans will have no Christmas at all because of your failed policies.

“President Obama is out of touch with the people; as he extends ‘Aloha’ wishes, Americans are ready to bid him ‘Goodbye’ in November of 2012.”

At Newsmax:

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Wednesday she is not concerned that she has been lagging behind in national polls since she was considered a top Republican contender in the spring and her upcoming 99-county tour of Iowa will show caucus voters in her home state that she is the only “true constitutional conservative” in the presidential race.  

From the Des Moines Register:

Social conservative Phyllis Schlafly has endorsed Michele Bachmann for president and is urging Iowans to caucus for her, Bachmann’s campaign told The Des Moines Register tonight.

In a written statement, Schlafly says: “Most important, Michele has the courage to be a leader among her peers. She is a real champion in speaking up for values we care about. Michele is a woman of faith and the mother of a beautiful family. She has a 100 percent pro-life record and is a strong supporter of traditional marriage.”

MyFoxAtlanta reports:

Herman Cain might be out of the running as a Republican presidential candidate, but his voice still carries weight with his many loyal supporters. Since he bowed out of the race Saturday, there has been much speculation on who he would endorse.

Sources tell FOX 5 News that Herman Cain plans to endorse fellow Georgian Newt Gingrich on Monday. They say details of a formal announcement are still being worked out.

Newsmax reports:

Rep. Ron Paul is being banned from a major GOP debate on Jewish issues in Washington this week, according to the NY Sun, because of his “extreme views” on Israel and the Mideast.

Paul has stood out at GOP debates by advocating liberatarian foreign policy positions that would put him, in some cases, to the left of the Democratic Party. He has called for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, Afghanistan other countries, has suggested that an Iranian nuclear bomb would not be a threat, and has questions the billions of dollars in foreign aid given to Israel.

Ben Johnson writes at LifeSiteNews:

As polls show Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul tied for first place in Iowa, media outlets have struggled to understand his distinctive stance on the issues, including same-sex “marriage.” Sheldon Alberts of Canada’s National Post, for example, wrote Monday that “Paul believes: Gays should be allowed to marry.”

The truth is more complex . . . and perhaps confusing. Congressman Paul’s view of same-sex “marriage” can best be summed up in one phrase: states rights. Ron Paul believes homosexuals should be allowed to “marry” . . . in states that legalize the practice.

Alex Pappas reports at The Daily Caller:

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told supporters at a fundraising event Monday night that fresh allegations that he had an extended 13-year affair with a woman in Georgia are untrue.

Washington, D.C. attorney Mary Brett, who attended the event, told The Daily Caller that Cain swore to supporters that if he had a Bible, he’d put his hand on it and vow that the allegations are false.

Thomas Edsall oberves at the New York Times:

For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.

All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment -- professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists -- and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.

The Democrat Party has already abandoned the American ideal, so it is hardly surprising that it is abandoning whole swaths of Americans. 

Obama and Co. have already said good-bye to government centered on the Creator, which is what the Declaration calls for, and they are busy trying to create new rights out of thin air in order to win over masses of people who themselves have also either already consciously rejected the American ideal or are not sufficiently educated to know they are being manipulated into control by an ever-growing and mutating federal state apparatus.

Thus the unnacountable White House czars, the relentless push for taxation without Constitutional representation, and the unending busyness of federal regulators who are in our bedrooms, bathrooms, refrigeratiors, toilet bowls, checkbooks, schools, backyards, jobless numbers.

And did we mention the federal hammer and sickle inside the uterus so that all women have equal and democratic access to the reproductive killing fields? The federally authorized killing of babies safely is truly an equal opportunity society. The blood of abandoned life cries out from the ground.

The Democrats have also already said good-bye to Constitutional governance -- and prefer instead a "living" malleable document that they can bend to their wishes for greater state control and greater personal control over the masses of America.

To pull this off this ripoff against freedom and humanity, Democrats will continue using the language of the Declaration and Constitution even while eviscerating both documents in an ongoing campaign of shred, divide, and conquer. 

Thus we can expect to continue to hear much about being "equal" or even "created equal," but without any understanding that there is a Creator over and above the state who is the source and defining reference point for what genuine human equality really means and how this differs from the radical extremism being pushed by Obama and his cadres of activists and organizers.

The real problem for the Democrats is not that they have lost white voters but that they have lost themselves. If America is to find herself again, she must lose Obama (and his Republican enablers) and reconnect with the Creator.

One way you can tell He is the center of gravity for human freedom is that when everything is given to Him, everything is then returned ten-fold and even a hundred-fold. This counts for freedom and economic prosperity.

He who would be rich in freedom must first be rich in spirit.

Newsmax reports:

President Obama gave his weekly radio address, one devoted to Thanksgiving, by praising U.S. service members and volunteers at shelters and soup kitchens.

The president outlined the many ways that Americans were coming together and the various things he was thankful for, but not once thanked God.

Obama is president of this country, but he rejects the American presidency -- for that authority is ultimately rooted in, and limited by, a real Creator who is the center of gravity of human rights and human freedom.

In contrast, Obama rejects that Creator and instead derives his power from electoral nose-counting. And whoever runs his teleprompter.

An authentically American president is one who affirms in public and in private, in policy and in philosophy, the vision-for-freedom set forth in the content, blood, and sacrifice gathered up and represented in our nation's Declaration of Independence.

This is our philosophic vision, and the current White House Occupier appears to have no use for it.

For that vision is centered on the Creator. It is not based on so-called "equality" but on being "created equal," which logically entails the existence of a God over and above the state, the natural order, and even the lofty Mr. Obama himself.

Nor is our nation founded upon Obama's divisive religion of class hatreds and class warfare, on cults of "diversity," on gender as a social construct, or on the latest "values" from secularland. And that includes "luck," Mr. Obama.

What this guy's secular sermon this Thanksgiving teaches us is that we don't have an authentically U.S. president. Instead, we have a phony, a pretender.

It's a turkey, not a president. And if it quacks like a turkey, it's not an eagle.

Mr. Obama may be a great dad and wonderful husband. And apparently he can shoot a hoop.

But as president he is in America, but not of America. The sooner he and his ilk are out of power in America, the better.

From The Blaze:

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on Wednesday demanded NBC apologize for the walk-on music used for her appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” when the house band played an instrumental version of the song “Lyin’ A-- B--ch.”

In her first public comments about the Monday incident, Bachmann said during an appearance on Fox News she has accepted Fallon’s apology, but now NBC needs to address the issue. The Minnesota congresswoman said it was sexist and showed bias against conservative women.

Related: Rush Limbaugh Praises Michele Bachmann Debate Performance

Earlier today on his radio talk show, Rush Limbaugh praised Michele Bachmann for her performance during last night's GOP debate on foreign affairs. The debate was sponsored by CNN, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute.

Limbaugh said that every single person performed well last night, but he also said he had no doubt that Bachmann, if elected president, would spend every single moment of her presidency defending the institutions and traditions of the United States.

Limbaugh also drew attention to the terrible way Bachmann was treated recently on NBC's "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon." When she was brought onto the set for an interview, the Jimmy Fallon band greeted her with a song titled, "Lyin' A-- B--ch" -- not the words, just the tune.

Limbaugh noticed that this show is broadcast by a major television network, NBC. He also suggested that if the tables were turned and, say, the Mike Huckabee band played the same tune while introducing Hillary Clinton, the mainstream media would have responded a bit differently, to say the least.

Limbaugh also said he checked the webpage of NOW, the National Organization for Women, and found that a lead story dealt with Herman Cain and how he was an "SOB" (Rush's language) for calling Nancy Pelosi "Princess Nancy."

Under "Hot Topics" is in fact a story titled, "Cain, Sexual Harassment, and the Campaign Against Women in Public Life."

Limbaugh noted that with Bachmann we have the only woman currently running for the office of the president of the United States, and yet this woman is treated in such a profoundly disrespectful manner.

Therefore, said Limbaugh, not only was the anti-Bachmann Fallon fiasco not mentioned on the NOW website, but instead there is an attack against Herman Cain because, among other things, he dared to term Nancy Pelosi, who is not running for president, "Princess Nancy."

Why is NOW silent about Bachmann's ill treatment -- if NOW's concern is really regarding women instead of just liberal women who embrace abortion, are cool with homosexuality, despise marriage and family, and embrace the idea of the federal state as the new husband or, perhaps more to the point, sugar daddy? Just wondering.

The phrase "selective outrage" comes to mind.  

This is not a double-standard: It's a single standard: Hatred for any candidate who does not embrace the estranged liberal-socialist statist program of radical change -- and hatred especially for any presidential candidate who shows signs of a) understanding the Constitutional and Declarational foundations upon which the United States is built, and b) possessing the courage and backbone needed to stand up against an onslaught of hatred, misreporting, and character assassination.

There really is no doubt in my mind, as well: A President Michele Bachmann would be vastly superior to Barack Obama or to any other current Democrat and the vision-for-unfreedom for which they stand.

My sense is that she would work every single day of her presidency to relaunch and restore and resume the American Constitutional Republic, founded upon Declaration content and its exemplary vision-for-freedom.

Do not count Michele Bachmann out. And if she does not win the presidency, she should be at the top of the list for a major cabinet post.

At Newsmax.com:

President Barack Obama is the most dangerous president of modern times, intent on turning the country into a second-rate power because "he basically despises America,” conservative activist and author David Horowitz tells Newsmax.TV. . . .

When he talks about the political left in America, Horowitz speaks from an experience most conservative experts lack. He was one of the founders of the New Left in the 1960s and an editor of its largest magazine, Ramparts. 

From CBS in Atlanta:

Private investigator T.J. Ward said presidential hopeful Herman Cain was not lying at a news conference on Tuesday in Phoenix.

Cain denied making any sexual actions towards Sharon Bialek and vowed to take a polygraph test if necessary to prove his innocence.

Cain has not taken a polygraph but Ward said he does have software that does something better.

Ward said the $15,000 software can detect lies in people's voices.

Here is news video of the report.

Tiffany Gabbay writes at The Blaze:

On his radio program Tuesday, Mark Levin aired a clip of veteran journalist and CBS anchor Bill Kurtis on WLS saying that Herman Cain’s accuser, Sharon Bialek, is a former CBS employee with a “track record.”

Given her checkered past, a chuckling Kurtis posited that Bialek‘s and Cain’s roles in the alleged car-incident could even have been reversed.

According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, "The president feels that, given the crisis of sexual harassment in America, as exemplified by now the 5th woman to come forward with allegations of sexual harassment against GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain, something must be done now so that the elections of 2012 can be fair and balanced, so that the will of the American people is respected."

The White House press secretary also said, "The president also feels that the people of the Americas have waited far too long for a Cabinet-level office to address this crisis. And that, now, finally, with a Department of Mind-Reading and Social Justice, hard-working indiviudals and cooperatives will be able to save time and money and know for sure who really is committing sexual harassment, which disproportionately impacts women, minorities, and children."

Carney also said, "This new, forward-looking Department of Mind-Reading and Social Justice will also aim to protect freedom and liberty by utilizing non-profiling behaviors and genetic resources to determine who is in a state of pre-sexual harassment and thus an appropriate candidate for responsible crisis intervention by loving family members and by sensitive, licensed practitioners of social justice from a diversity of religious voices."

Finally, said Carney, "The Federal Accounting Service has scored the new plan and has concluded that savings in court costs generated from investments in this new department alone will help provide sorely needed funds for budget neutrality, not to mention an infusion of newly balanced former sexual harassers, to address the concerns of global warming, energy independence, and equality among all organic and inorganic families of this great planet that we call home."

Rachel Quigley reports at the UK Daily Mail.

Hat tip: Dan Smedra

Michael Sneed writes at the Chicago Sun-Times:

WIND radio co-host Amy Jacobson . . . tells Sneed she witnessed the Cain/Bialek encounter a month ago while backstage at the AM 560 WIND sponsored TeaCon meeting in Schaumburg Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center.

Hat tip: Dan Smedra

Tony Lee writes at Human Events:

Herman Cain will hold a press conference today in Scottsdale, Arizona, at 3 p.m. Arizona time (5 p.m. E.T.) to respond to allegations made on Monday by a woman, Sharon Bialek, represented by infamous attorney Gloria Allred. 

“It is noteworthy that Gloria Allred is a celebrity lawyer who specializes in generating publicity for herself and her clients,” Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said in a statement. “Ms. Allred is a high-profile Democrat Party donor and activist who has given over ten thousand dollars to liberal Democrats like Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein,​ and Barbara Boxer." 

CNN reports: "Republican presidential contender Herman Cain will address the latest sexual harassment allegations against him at a Tuesday afternoon news conference, his campaign announced late Monday."

"Herman Cain is weighing a lawsuit over allegations he sexually harassed two women who worked for him at the National Restaurant Association, his chief of staff said Friday," reports The Hill.

If Cain sues, I hope he wins.

That way Politico and other members of the formerly mainstream media might get back to real reporting and leave the propagandizing and character assassinating to political hacks and other trolls who have prostituted their souls to the highest bidder or the Washington establishment (which may be a distinction without a difference).

Peter Heck writes at American Thinker:

Just as Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain predicted, he has become the most recent victim of the race-baiting left's high-tech lynching of prominent, conservative black men. 

Days before the Cain sexual harassment smear emerged from the sewers of liberal trash journalism, MSNBC's Martin Bashir hosted contributor Karen Finney who proclaimed that conservatives only liked Cain because, "they think he's a black man who knows his place." 

As Bashir actually thanked her on-air for making such an offensive and ignorant remark (far from being a submissive position, conservatives are supporting Cain in his effort to ascend to the highest office in the land), Finney granted, "I know that's harsh, but that's how it sure seems to me."

"Diversity of thought amongst minorities -- particularly blacks -- is forbidden in the church of liberalism," Heck writes.

We need a larger Department of Education. More taxes, too. Did you know the top 1/2 percent is really, really evil?

In a column at CNSNews.com:

In the eyes of the liberal media, Herman Cain is just another uppity black American who has had the audacity to leave the liberal plantation. So they must destroy him, just as they tried destroying Clarence Thomas.

American Spectator: Cain is a "threat to both the left and the GOP establishment."

Former Navy chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt writes:

We've all heard the controversy about presidential candidate Mitt Romney's faith. Is he a Christian? He claims to be, yet 75 percent of American Protestant pastors disagree with the statement: "I personally consider Mormons to be Christians." Wherever you stand, here are the top 10 reasons Christians can never vote for Mitt Romney -- and they have nothing to do with his Mormon faith.

Among the Top 10 reasons are these 3, according to Klingenschmitt:

• Romney forced homosexual "marriage" upon Massachusetts
• Romney is pro-abortion
• Romneycare is the reason we have Obamacare.

Klingenschmitt concludes, "Evangelical Christians who care about pro-family, pro-freedom, pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-law/order issues can never support Mitt Romney for president."

Christopher Santarelli writes at The Blaze:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his first campaign stop to Iowa in months on Thursday. While the former Massachusetts governor says he wants to gain the support of Iowans, Romney did not attend an event with other candidates and 1,000 Iowa evangelical activists Saturday, the state’s “most potent conservative voting bloc” according to AP.

Matthew Vadum writes:

Radical anti-American billionaire George Soros​ is a major backer of a left-wing group that is funneling money to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The nonprofit organization at the receiving end of Soros’ largesse, Alliance for Global Justice, is managing donations benefiting the communists, socialists, anarchists and hippies now occupying Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan.

As of Oct. 19, OWS had taken in a grand total of $435,000 from all sources, including donations made by individuals online and in person, according to reports.

Human Events editor Jason Mattera writes: 

Vice President Joe Biden now says he didn’t make a reference to rape, and got testy with HUMAN EVENTS when we asked if he would like to retract his comments that the number of sexual assaults would increase if Republicans don’t sign on to Barack Obama’s latest “jobs” proposal.

“I didn’t use, no no no . . . Let’s get it straight, guy. Don’t screw around with me,” Biden lashed out at HUMAN EVENTS. Then Biden confirmed that he indeed did talk about rape in terms of the President’s spending measure. “Murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise,” if the Democrats agenda isn’t passed, he added.

Here is video of the encounter.

Robert Stacy McCain writes at American Spectator:

Scores of reporters and dozens of cameras surrounded the candidate in the "spin room" here at the Sands Expo and Convention Center following Tuesday night's CNN Republican presidential debate. "Mr. Cain! Mr. Cain!" reporters shouted, shoving their microphones toward the man who was never expected to become a serious contender for the GOP nomination. If nothing else, the Las Vegas debate confirmed that Atlanta businessman Herman Cain is indeed now a contender.

Lloyd Marcus writes: 

White massas Lawrence O'Donnell, Janeane Garofalo and the Democratic Party leadership have instructed their black "slave control" enforcers/overseers to "Stop Cain! NOBODY, escapes the Liberal Democrat Slave Plantation! NOBODY!!!"

Related
New Rasmussen Poll Shocks: But Will Cain Be 1st Black American President?

David Martosko writes at The Daily Caller:

In a move that may redefine the term “strange bedfellows,” the American Nazi Party issued an official endorsement of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement on Sunday afternoon.

The announcement put the organization, a self-described “National Socialist” political party, in company with the Socialist Party USA, which explained its own support for the left-wing protesters in a nationwide conference call last Tuesday night, crediting organized labor with the protests’ strength and sophistication to date.

Thinking while black.

I just want to make sure that people understand there's a huge difference between the Wall Street Protesters and Obama: They're trashing Wall Street, and Obama's trashing America. Got it?

Mike Spaniola writes at American Thinker:

The so-called "Wall Street protesters" who presently follow the '60s adage of "taking it to the streets" might do well to review a bit of history -- in particular, as it relates to the consequences of Marxist ideology.

In 1951, when the horrors of the Red Terror, Siberian gulags, and Auschwitz death camps were still very real, author Eric Hoffer wrote in his acclaimed book, The True Believer, that the "monstrous evils of the 20th century have shown us that the greediest money grubbers are gentle doves compared with money-hating wolves like Lenin, Stalin and Hitler, who in less than three decades killed or maimed nearly a hundred million men, women and children and brought untold suffering to a large.

"President Obama, the Democratic Party, and the 'Occupy Wall Street' mobs are following the Marxist blueprint of Lenin's The State and Revolution to a tee," writes Ellis Washington at WND.

Newt was talking to Sean on the radio.

Yep, it could be Herman Cain, says the editor in chief of WorldNetDaily.

A story at Newsmax reports that Joe Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as "Joe the Plumber," "has filed papers to run as a Republican in Ohio’s newly drawn 9th District, where Obama scored nearly two-thirds of the vote and where Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur will run in a primary."

"Gallup released new polling data today that showed African American presidential candidate Herman Cain's support was surging among Republicans even as President Barack Obama’s job approval hit an all-time low among blacks," reports Terry Jeffrey at CNSNews.com.

"In a poll of 1,064 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents conducted Oct. 3-7, 18 percent said they supported Cain for president," Jeffrey writes. "That put the former Godfathers Pizza CEO in a close second behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who placed first with 20 percent."

Regarding their assessment of Obama's performance as president, "only 80 percent of blacks told Gallup in the week that ended on Oct. 9 that they approved of the way Obama was handling his job," Jeffrey continues.

"Previously," Jeffrey reports, "Obama’s lowest approval among blacks had been the 81 percent he had received in the weeks that ended on March 6 and August 14 of this year."

The current 80 percent figure is a drop of 16 points from Obama's all-time high of 96 percent approval among black voters. 

"I am not formally endorsing him for the presidency," writes Joseph Farah at WND, "but, with the polls headed in the direction they are clearly heading, it's certainly time for all of us to recognize Herman Cain is the real deal."

John Hayward writes at Human Events:

The IBOPE Zogby poll of GOP presidential contenders was the first to declare that Herman Cain’s surge after the Orlando debate had made him a front-runner.

Two weeks later, they’ve got him in first place by a whopping 20% margin over Mitt Romney.

From Wasilla:

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order. . . .

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back - and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it. . . .

From a news headline: "Herman Cain to Occupy Wall Street protesters: If you're not rich, 'blame yourself.'"

Jammie Wearing Fool writes at Human Events:

Coming on the heels of the Washington Post hit piece on Rick Perry, we're wondering whether the Post and the rest of the Washington press corps will be mentioning Barack Obama's association with the notorious racists from the New Black Panther Party.

You may remember some of these charming fellows from this video on Election Day in 2008.

Following that the Obama Justice Department squashed an investigation, leading to the resignation of J. Christian Adams . . . who now has a book coming out this week.

The Emperor formerly known as Obama has no clothes and, apparently, one or more of the following: 

A) A new wife

B) A new name for his old wife

C) A very close friend named "Michael" (sex, gender, species, and planetary location unknown) 

D) An oratorial gift that includes includes reading but not thinking

E) A brain in Spain that rains mainly on the plains.

For additional alternative explanations of "President Teleprompter and the Dog That Ate the Name of My Wife," available at Netflix, please see Thomas Lifson's comments at American Thinker.

And here is video from C-SPAN, no doubt doctored, cherry-picked, spun, or taken out of context -- whatever floats your propaganda and pragmatic "truth"-needs of the moment.

Because, as everybody knows, Barack Obama is brilliant. And because "That's the way, uhuh, uhuh, I like it."

By the way, is that how you spell "uhuh"?

Final Question: Who Is Pulling This Guy's Strings? Please, take me to your leader.

However, a healthy, vibrant, constitutionally strong America would never, ever have elected the likes of a Barack Obama. And we wouldn't put up with a herd of RINOs, either.

Hence, the Tea Party, townhalls, and "angry mobs" re-educating themselves and their nation on what it means to live free under God (see the Declaration) in a world replete with self-serving game-playing elitists who excel in swamplands like Washington, D.C.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, here is President Obama on America as a "great, great country that has gotten a little soft."

Steve Flesher asks at American Thinker:

Is Sarah Palin preparing to declare her candidacy for president? In what is sure to cause a lot of speculation, she has taken the opportunity in her last two interviews on Fox News to go after some of that network's tactics and contributors.

Here's the video. Having a powerful black man speak outside the liberal Democrat box may be what liberals, secularists, and other formerly mainstream elites most fear about the candidacy of Herman Cain.

Newsmax reports:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said a vast majority of Americans believe the federal government spends money “recklessly,” and many politicians who are not in tune with the nation’s needs should be issued “pink slips.”

Palin was responding to a new Gallup poll that shows 81 percent of Americans believe the federal government is doing a bad job.

Jamie Weistein writes at The Daily Caller:

Speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus annual awards dinner in Washington Saturday night, President Obama made a verbal boo-boo.

While defending his call for the rich to pay more in taxes, the president said he didn’t mind people calling him a class warrior for merely asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew. Whoops!

The president meant to say “janitor” instead of “Jew,” and he immediately corrected himself. After all, he doesn’t need any more problems keeping Jewish voters enthusiastic about his re-election bid.

And with Cain's first place finish landing 37.1% of the vote to Perry's 2nd place finish at 15.4%, it wasn't even close.

The Big Lesson? Don't let the formerly mainstream media pick the candidates! And ditto for the formerly mainstream political elites!

It's our country, our Constitution, our freedom. We choose, we decide. More at RedState.

John Hayward writes at Human Events:

Rick Perry​ and Mitt Romney​ spent a good deal of time at the Fox News​/Google debate in Orlando arguing about each other’s books. I haven’t seen that many books thrown around since the FBI raided Solyndra.

Audrey Hudson writes at Human Events:

Congressional Democrats are turning on President Obama and denouncing several of his key policy efforts, effectively distancing themselves from the administration’s faltering approval ratings.

Among the disaffected are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), and John Conyers (D-Mich.).

"What should the White House do now?" asks Hudson. In a word, from Democrat strategist James Carville: "Panic." 

"The vultures are beginning to circle," writes Steve Chapman, a member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

"But there is good news for the president. I checked the Constitution, and he is under no compulsion to run for re-election.

"He can scrap the campaign, bag the fundraising calls, and never watch another Republican debate as long as he's willing to vacate the premises by Jan. 20, 2013."

Hat tip: David Martosko, executive editor, The Daily Caller

David Lewis, "the father of a 2-year-old girl, says he plans on running on a single issue -- Boehner's support of a federal budget that provides funding to Planned Parenthood, which he calls 'the largest killer of unborn babies in America.'"

These attacks, compiled by Human Events, are not merely the momentary tactics of a desperate political philosophy or a desperately weakened Barack Hussein Obama.

Instead, these attacks are greased by a liberalism that is relativistic at its core, having rejected the Creator (see the Declaration of Independence) as the basis of liberating and normative ethical and political content.

This relativism opens the door to absolute hate. But not as an abberation. It's a package deal.

The contrast with the founding ideals of the American republic is stark: If there is inhumanity, and there will be in a broken world, there is an adequate intellectual and moral basis upon which to challenge the inhumanity, whether it arises among the people or whether it arises in the state.

Neither the society nor the state is absolute, for neither is the Creator. Neither the society nor the state is liberating, for neither is the Creator.

Yes, the Founders understood wherein lies the center of gravity of human freedom and dignity:

All men are created equal [and] . . . are endowed by their Creator with certian unalienable rights, . . . among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is, therefore, "We the People," under God, in social and political community with the Creator. Not to assert a false absolute but to challenge the false idol of centralized authority.

And what the Founders understood, the Founders acted upon.

Thus the Declaration of Independence. Thus the practice of independence. Thus the unfolding, sometimes very costly, of the principles of freedom over time, throughout the individual states, and among the people.

The lesson of tyranny in history is clear: First demonize, then destroy. First incivility, then inhumanity. First chaos, then control. Even if marketed as hope, change, and transformation. 

It is fortunate that many in America are seeing this, and taking corrective redemptive action, before it is too late.

"Love thy neighbor" always is a challenge to the status quo. 

Martin Gould and Ashley Martella report at Newsmax:

The Republican Party is in a fight to the death with the tea party, and only one of them will be left standing at the end of it, TV host Glenn Beck tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

“Either the tea party will eat the Republicans or vice versa,” he said. “The Republicans make me nervous, quite honestly.”

Beck was speaking as he launches his GBTV, an Internet-based television channel that he has personally funded after parting ways with Fox News earlier this year.

He said that if the typical “John McCain, Lindsey Graham kind of Republican” wins the internal party battle, the GOP will be finished. “It will go the way of the Whigs,” he said.

Unemployed and losing hope? Well, Barack Obama has just the thing for you: Inform on your neighbors, colleagues. You know, anything suspicious.

Yes, that's right.

Go to "My.BarackObama.com" or "AttackWatch.com" and learn now to "report an attack" ("Get the facts. Fight the smears"). 

All you have to do is supply your email and then provide the Ministry of Love and Community with the "content of attack or link."

Why would you want to go all Secret Police and Stasi on your neighborhood? According the Obama website, to:

Help stop the attacks on the President before they start.

When another unfounded attack surfaces, we'll arm you with the truth so you can share the facts with your friends and family.

If you are new to the game, My.BarackObama.com provides a helpful dropdown menu to help you sort through what kind of "attack" your friends, neighbors, colleagues or other Americans might be up to.

Here are the 9 "Attack types" to be on the lookout for: 1) TV Interview, 2) Public Statement, 3) Forwarded Email, 4) Rumor, 5) TV Ad, 6) Video Ad, 7) Radio Ad, 8) Robo Call, 9) Website/Blog.

You can also attach a photo.

According to My.BarackObama.com, all of this is "paid for by Obama for America."

Hat tip: AM 630, WMAL, Drudge Report

In his report on last night's debate, John Hayward at Human Events says, "Bachmann generated some much-needed fireworks, climbing back into the ring as a major alternative to Perry and Romney."

"Rick Perry is surging," notes Rick Moran at American Thinker. But there's "plenty of room for opinions to shift," says Rasmussen Reports, which conducted the telephone survey. 

Having become aware of Nancy Pearcey's response to Ryan Lizza's New Yorker hit piece on Michele Bachmann, Red State editor Erick Erickson asks, "Is Ryan Lizza an Idiot or Willfully Distorting Christian Theology?"

Related
Bachmann, Schaeffer, Pearcey, & Dominionism Paranoia 
Cal State Prof: Michele Bachmann a Scary Dominionist?

On the question of that anti-Bachmann hit piece in the New Yorker, don't miss this from philosopher Douglas Groothuis:

Those who tar and feather "dominionists" are confusing their readers by conflating Rushdoony's reconstructionism with the thinking of Schaeffer and Pearcey. Worse yet, Lizza and company may believe that any Christian influence in politics is dangerous and un-American. If so, they should reread and ponder the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom and the freedom of speech. Christians are free to be active members in the public square -- along with those of other religions or none. Erecting "dominionist" straw men does nothing to advance this noble cause of freedom.

For more on this, please see, "Francis Schaeffer Expert Offers Facts on Michele Bachmann, Francis Schaeffer, and Dominionism," at Uncommon Descent.

Related
Cal State Prof: Michele Bachmann a Scary Dominionist?
Dangerous Influences: The New Yorker, Michele Bachmann, and Me

Newsmax reports:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says the lesson learned from President Barack Obama vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard while the economy continues to go under is the president has no sense of '"urgency" when it comes to confronting the nation’s fiscal malaise. 

The presidential hopeful also told Fox News' Sean Hannity Thursday Obama "can’t give up his fantasies of a bureaucratic socialism."

"Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has delivered a sharp response to investor Warren Buffett’s plea for the wealthy to pay more in taxes, saying the billionaire should 'write a big check today'." reports Newsmax.

The following guest column is from Richard Weikart, professor of history at California State University, Stanislau. He is the author of four books.

Accusing Schaeffer and Pearcey of peddling dominionism -- and associating Bachmann with it -- is a serious charge, since Lizza defines it as those who believe: “Christians, and Christians alone, are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns.”  Sounds like theocracy to me.

Aside from the fact that Lizza never produces any quotations from Bachmann showing that she endorses dominionism, does his guilt-by-association argument hold any water?  Were Schaeffer and Pearcey tainted by dominionism?

As an undergraduate in the late 1970s I read just about everything that Schaeffer wrote.  I read Schaeffer’s Christian Manifesto (1981), his most political book, as soon as it was published. 

Even though I do not agree with Schaeffer’s position on political activism therein, it is hard to see how he could have stated his opposition to theocracy more plainly.  He stated, “First, we must make definite that we are in no way talking about any kind of theocracy.  Let me say that with great emphasis.”

In the next paragraph he argued, “There is no New Testament basis for a linking of church and state until Christ, the King returns.”  He then criticized the Roman emperors Constantine and Theodosius for merging church and state, calling it a mistake causing “great confusion.”  Schaeffer was a strong opponent of theocracy (and thus dominionism), Lizza’s revisionist history notwithstanding.

Casting Nancy Pearcey as an evil dominionist influence on Bachmann, as Lizza does, is even more bizarre.  By way of full disclosure, I have met and corresponded with Pearcey, and she even sent me her manuscript Total Truth -- the one that Bachmann mentioned as important -- before it was published. 

Though I don’t agree with all of Pearcey’s political views, nowhere have I seen even a hint that she thinks Christians should shoulder everyone else aside to take sole control of the government, economy, or culture.

Indeed Pearcey believes that Christians should apply their worldview to every facet of their lives, including politics, but one of these Christian insights she insists on is that Christians should be servants to others.  As with Schaeffer, love, not domination, is the driving force in her worldview.

That such a savvy political correspondent as Lizza could get things so wrong is disheartening.  This is especially so, because one of his main gripes about Bachmann is that she doesn’t always get her facts straight. 

I suppose Lizza is just illustrating the truth of that Biblical adage that those who judge others condemn themselves, because they do the same things.

Disclaimer: This article should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of Bachmann’s candidacy.

"One day after winning the Iowa straw poll, GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann did a victory lap Sunday, hitting all the major political talk shows and pushing the message that she is the Republican best qualified to defeat President Obama," reports the Washington Times.

And he "blamed everything that ails Washington and the nation on Republicans," writes Glenn Cook in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Hat tip: Drudge

Touchstone magazine helps frame the real intent of that anti-Bachmann hit piece in the New Yorker. 

And note: Somehow or other, despite being castigated as dangerously influenced by a "dominionist" such as Nancy Pearcey (and Francis Schaeffer), Bachmann won the Ames, Iowa, straw poll today.

Some will, no doubt, conclude that Washington was right all along: There's no trusting the American people. They're dangerous. Keep an eye on those Iowa folk.

If you haven't seen it yet, here is Nancy's reply to the New Yorker.

"The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll released Wednesday found that 42 percent of likely U.S. voters believe tea partiers get it, while 34 percent say the average congressman and senator isn’t clued in at all to the economic and other problems facing the country," reports Newsmax.

LifeSiteNews.com reports:

A group of therapists dedicated to providing therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction has criticized the American Psychological Association’s (APA) new declaration in favor of same-sex “marriage” as tainted by primarily political motivations. . . .

Dr. Julie Hamilton, President of The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), said the declaration was another instance of the APA inappropriately playing the standard-bearer for a political cause.

“The APA far too often bases their position statements on political ideology rather than scientific findings. . . .  Although the APA is regarded as a professional, scientifically based organization, far too often it does not function as such.”

Hamilton noted that Drs. Rogers Wright and Nicholas Cummings, both former top APA officials, have disclosed that “many of the APA’s decisions are influenced by ideology rather than research” in their book, Destructive Trends in Mental Health.

“As a result, the APA cannot be viewed as a reliable source of scientific information, and the stances they take therefore lack any real value,” she said.

And not just Nancy because of her more than 100,000-copies selling book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity ("Wonderful" book, says Bachmann), but also Francis Schaeffer because of his work, including the 10-part film series How Should We Then Live? and his book A Christian Manifesto.

Equally as dangerous as Total Truth, I would suggest, and perhaps even more so, is Nancy's new book Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning. I hope Michele and Marcus Bachmann put this new rascal on their reading and thinking list. But don't let the teenagers get ahold of it!

So who is Nancy? Not mentioned in the New Yorker is that Bachmann once told me, by phone, when Bachmann was a Minnesota state senator and considering a run for Congress, that she had two heroes: "Ann Coulter and Nancy Pearcey."

Nancy is a former agnostic, who, like me, embraces critical thinking as a way of life. This too is, perhaps to some, seen as dangerous and even subversive. To us, it's simply being human and taking responsibility for one's ideas and one's choices in life. I think Camus might have liked that. I like Camus; he played soccer, like me.

For some reason, the so-called elite establishments in politics and media seem frightfully worried about the resurgence of a people who can live and think for themselves.

We're not afraid of the big questions, and we're not bigoted toward possible rational answers to the big questions, even if, as the Founding Fathers noticed, the possible answers involve taking seriously the subversive and liberating influence of the Creator.

This divine subversion, as you may recall, upset the reactionary, non-critical-thinking establishment of its own day. Imagine, those extremist tea-partiers actually had the audacity to write it up in the Declaration of Independence (is that document still legal in New Yorker land?). By the way, here is the, sadly, all-too-predictable New Yorker hit piece on Bachmann. Enjoy!

Human Events reports:

Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann, Former Gov. of Massachsetts Mitt Romney, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum signed a pledge that lays out specific steps to defend traditional marriage in America.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) authored the pledge, and the pledge has committed the candidates to a set of five specific stances.

1.)    A constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman
2.)    Appoint federal judges who are committed to the judicial philosophy of Originalism
3.)    Defend the Defense of Marriage Act
4.)    Establish a presidential commission on religious liberty
5.)    Push legislation that gives the people in Washington D.C. the right to vote on marriage.

This from Sarah Palin, as quoted by Newsmax:

Independent, patriotic Americans who desire fiscal sanity in our beloved nation being called terrorists -- Sean, if we were really domestic terrorists, shoot, President Obama would be wanting to pal around with us, wouldn’t he?

"Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says the GOP House should not have agreed to raise the debt ceiling, but instead should have prioritized spending so that the government would stop allocating money it doesn’t have," reports Newsmax.

"Extremism on the left infects the entire Democratic Party," writes James M. Thunder at American Spectator.

For more, see "What Is 'Mainstream' America?" and "How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War."

Ads such as this help explain why Michele Bachmann is giving the elitist, extremist, and unconstitutional status quo in Washington, D.C., a massive migraine headache. 

"'SarahPAC more than doubled the amount we raised as compared to the same time period in 2009,' said SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford," as reported in The Daily Caller.

"His organization received more than 36,700 contributions from over 24,000 people," says TheDC.

Remarks from "lib author" Frank Schaeffer notwithstanding, a report from LifeSiteNews.com details several reasons to seriously consider supporting America-loving Michele Bachmann in her bid to become president of the United States:

GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has signed a pro-family pledge that if she becomes president she will uphold the right to life, the dignity of marriage, and will oppose “all forms of pornography and prostitution.”

The Des Moines Register reports that Bachmann, a U.S. House Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, is the first to sign "The Marriage Vow -- A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family" issued by the Iowa-based social conservative group, the Family Leader.

Alexis Levinson writes at The Daily Caller:

Reports that the Republican Party of Kentucky is considering a proposal that would put off the election of party leadership one year until 2013 has caused an uproar among members of the Tea Party, many of whom perceive it as a way to prevent Tea Party candidates from getting elected to the party leadership.

At the Daily Caller:

They weren’t wearing face paint, but they said they felt like they were in Braveheart.

More than 50 Tea Partiers, many from Utah, stormed the offices of the National Republican Senatorial Committee here in Washington on Monday to protest the organization’s support of Republican incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch.

According to Newsmax, a "surging" Michele Bachmann":

Plans to announce [today] her candidacy for president from her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa.

And, in an exclusive interview in the latest issue of Newsmax Magazine, Bachmann said that Washington is a “corrupt paradigm” of government that she’ll change as president.

“I think it is because of the corrupt paradigm that has become Washington, D.C., whereby votes continually are bought rather than representatives voting the will of their constituents. . . . That’s the voice that’s been missing at the table in Washington, D.C. -- the people's voice has been missing. The lobbyists have been here,” Bachmann explained.

Question is: Where are those wheels rolling? Michelle Maklin writes:

The former Utah Republican governor and Obama ambassador to China is the answer to an election-year problem that doesn't exist.

The quadrennial "problem," in the minds of Beltway GOP strategists and liberal media chin-pullers, is that the Republican Party isn't moderate, civil, self-critical or inclusive enough.

Huntsman is the latest no-labels flavor of the month, a straw man of the same people who have spent the past year smearing entitlement reformers as senior citizen-killers, budget hawks as Hitler's spawn, border-security activists as racists, and leading GOP women as sluts, nuts and bimbos.

Malkin concludes:

McCain's Straight Talk Express ran out of gas when his former media paramours inevitably turned against him -- and his gambit to out-big government the Democrats blew up in his two faces. So it will be with McHuntsman and his campaign wheels to nowhere.

In this video, the presidential hopeful from Minnesota also explains how Obama "has failed the Hispanic community." For more on this, see Terry Jeffrey's report at CNSNews.com.

When Gov. Rick Perry of Texas "wrapped up" his speech at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans earlier today, "activists rang the rafters with chants of 'Run, Rick, Run!'"

From Jason Mattera at Human Events:

Rep. Michele Bachmann really impressed while Gov. Tim Pawlenty passed up the chance to hit Mitt Romney hard over his health care law in Massachusetts, which many say was a precursor to ObamaCare.  So said Donald Trump, in an exclusive interview with HUMAN EVENTS, reacting to the first major Republican Party presidential debate.

"When candidate Obama showed up, I realized that I had heard his typical stump speech every single day of my old Soviet life from big and small Communist bosses -- the same structure, the same cadences, the same bogeymen, the same demagoguery, the same targets," writes Luba Sindler in "Confession of a Reluctant Tea-Partier" at American Thinker.

LifeSiteNews.com reports. And here are video excerpts of Cain's speech at the recent Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C.

"Aides to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney say he won't compete in the Iowa Republican Straw Poll in August, an event he spent more than $1 million to win four years ago," reports AP.

"A political pundit and former member of the Reagan administration says a purging of conservatives by the two Bush administrations has resulted in 'moderates' controlling the GOP -- and ultimately resulted in the election of Barack Obama," reports OneNewsNow.

"As conservatives wonder who will emerge as their standard-bearer to secure the 2012 GOP presidential nomination and make Obama a one-term president," states OneNewsNow, "the closest thing to a frontrunner is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, whose record, particularly on social issues, has not been so conservative."

The only political hope for freedom in America is that of a Constitutional-Declarational renewal, which will not come from compromised Republicans or from out-of-the-U.S.-mainstream Democrats, whose philosophy is at war with the founding principles of human freedom.

David A. Patten writes at Newsmax:

Fast-rising GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO emerging as a strong contender in the Iowa caucuses, blasted President Barack Obama’s leadership abilities in an exclusive Newsmax interview, saying Obama "could not run one Godfather’s pizza restaurant."

The establishment American press today is no longer mainstream, either in its commitment to journalism or to freedom -- which is why I describe it as the formerly mainstream media.

What we have therefore at ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and their disciples, etc., etc., are varieties of cult-like extremism against fair and balanced data-based reporting and varieties of cult-like extremism against the Constitution, the Declaration, and the reality-oriented ontology upon which these documents and their founding facts, content, and political and ethical principles stand.

The extremism of postmodern-day "reporting" is especially evident in its political coverage, and commentator Jedediah Bila calls for a dose of realism as we approach the election of 2012.

"It’s well past time to be realistic about 'objective' journalism and the games of some in the [formerly] mainstream media. However, it’s also time to be realistic about the enormous power of the people -- of grassroots America -- to deliver the truth that so many in the media elite would love for voters to never see." (my emphasis in brackets)

She concludes: "Let [formerly] mainstream media shenanigans make you that much more committed to setting the record straight, to utilizing the blogosphere and social media outlets to call it like you see it, and to letting the media elite know that the days of them controlling outcomes by perpetuating falsehoods are over." (my emphasis in brackets)

Objectivity in reporting is possible. One must, however, be willing to question the cult.

The Arizona senator says he does not know whether Palin is running for president. But when asked if she could win, should she run: "Of course she can."

Caroline May writes at The Daily Caller:

While conservative commentators Charles Krauthammer and Karl Rove might not see Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain as viable, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is keeping an eye on the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO.

The Hermanator writes:

"Just to be clear, I'm running for president of the United States of America, and I'm not running for second place."

That was my announcement on May 21 in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. It was a high-noon event with more than 15,000 of my closest friends in attendance!

Here is video of Cain's announcement in Atlanta.

"We cannot fight Obama when we are having to fight those who are supposed to be our allies."

Here's the Headline: 

What a Difference a Debate Makes: Cain Surges to the Top in Latest TheDC/ConservativeHome Tracking Poll

"Gingrich has completely disqualified himself from consideration by any conservative Republican," writes Joseph Farah.

Herman Cain writes:

Ever since the South Carolina Republican presidential debate, reporters have continued to challenge me for not having a specific plan for our nation's involvement in Afghanistan. They continue to think that ihef you are running for president, then you must have an answer for everything. I don't! A real leader has the right questions for everything. 

WND reports:

Herman Cain, who barely ranked in public-opinion polls among the Republican presidential challengers before tonight's televised debate in South Carolina, wowed a focus group of likely GOP voters assembled by pollster Frank Luntz.

Even Luntz said the reaction of the group was unprecedented in its unanimity -- Cain won.

Big Questions Remain: This Fox Business video segment indicates that the saga of Obama's birth certificate, and of who is the real Obama behind the birth certificate, on our TV screens, and occupying the White House, may be far from over.

Newsmax reports:

In the immediate aftermath of the White House’s release of President Obama’s birth certificate, billionaire Donald Trump came out with guns blazing in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV.

Trump described President Obama as a “very strange president” for not releasing his birth certificate promptly, as well as other personal records still being withheld.

He also lambasted the president for his foreign and economic policies that have made him a “laughingstock.”

"Rush Limbaugh describes Rep. Michele Bachmann as 'a strong spokeswoman for unapologetic conservatism' and says the left is making a big mistake by writing her off as a 'flame-throwing lightweight'," reports Andra Varin at Newsmax.

"A new poll shows only 26 percent of Republicans in Iowa believe President Obama was born in the United States."

At issue is Obama's life documents, not just his birth certificate, says Carol A. Taber at American Thinker. Not to mention the Constitution and the betrayal of the American republic. 

"The Arizona Legislature gave final approval late Thursday night to a proposal that would require President Obama and other presidential candidates to prove they are U.S. citizens before their names can appear on the state's ballot," reports the formerly mainstream AP.

"Arizona would become the first state to require such proof if Gov. Jan Brewer signs the measure into law," says AP. 

Keep on reading the AP "news" report to get the standard White House/liberal spin on why eligibility is a non-issue that somehow "hasn't gone away."

What Arizona in fact is doing is providing a check and balance a) on a tyrannical White House that cares not for the U.S. Constitution and b) on a collaborationist media that cares not about the canons of journalism.

So keep going, Arizona. Bravo!

The Great One says Trump "will get Obama reelected."

In an exclusive interview with David Brody of CBN, Donald Trump discusses his faith, the Bible, church-going, and God.

Related
Trump Slams CNN on Obama Certificate -- Video  
Naked Obama: The Emperor Has No Birth Certificate
Trump: Obama Spending Millions to Hide His Past 
Trump: Obamacare Unconstitutional

Posted at Bachmann.house.gov: "Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06) issued the following statement after voting against the latest Continuing Resolution (CR) that was brought before the House of Representatives today":

The negotiations which led up to this vote reaffirmed a simple truth: our troops should not be used as pawns in political negotiations. I am planning to introduce legislation so that our men and women in uniform are never again in the situation of wondering whether or not they will receive a paycheck in the event of a government shutdown. If we reach another impasse like we did this week, our active duty military and their families must know that their paychecks are secure.

The deal that was reached tonight is a disappointment for me and for millions of Americans who expected $100 billion in cuts, who wanted to make sure their tax dollars stopped flowing to the nation’s largest abortion provider, and who wanted us to defund ObamaCare. Instead, we’ve been asked to settle for $39 billion in cuts, even as we continue to fund Planned Parenthood and the implementation of ObamaCare. Sadly, we’re missing the mandate given us by voters last November, and for that reason I voted against the Continuing Resolution.

This weekend, every American old enough to defend freedom should read this article in American Thinker (and those linked within) and watch this admittedly salty video presentation (part 1) (part 2) by Ann Barnhardt. Here's her website.

Related
Koran, Free Speech, Up in Flames 
What Would Jesus Do With the Koran? 
Herman Cain: Won't Appoint Muslims to Cabinet
Nancy Pearcey at Human Events Says Secular "Values" Crippling U.S. Response to Radical Islam 
Banning Minarets to Save the West 
Warren Panders to Muslim Group 
O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War

In this video, a CNN interviewer tries mightily to carry water for her network, while Trump sees a lot of that water spilling out and falling to the ground.

Trump is asking good questions. The formerly mainstream media would rather move on.

CNSNews.com is also reporting that the Democrat congresswoman from New York "likened Republican efforts to prohibit federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is endangered to actions taken by Nazis."

Let's get this straight: If you seek to legislate consistently with the Constitution and the Delcaration, which emphasize a high view of the individual person, as a creature of God (that is, not of the state nor of the material cosmos), and therefore you seek to defund the likes of Planned Parenthood, which operates on the basis of a business model drenched in blood, then you are like the Nazis?

In fact, the actual Nazis of history organized the German community to embrace the systematic murder of Jews. And Planned Parenthood, with the aid of supporters like Ms. Slaughter, seeks to organize the American community to embrace and fund the systematic murder of the unborn.

It is important to learn from history and not repeat the mistakes of past evil. That's another reason to defund Planned Parenthood -- so that its abortcentration centers have less capital by which to decapitate preborn American citizens.

Meanwhile, the next time Ms. Slaughter engages in ahistorical Nazi talk would someone just hand her a mirror?

The "Trump" card has been played. Watching Obama and the court media run for cover could be interesting.

Jonathon M. Seidl at The Blaze writes, "Every day, with every soundbite, we seem to be inching closer and closer to an official Herman Cain 2012 presidential run. He's sure talking like a candidate."

Here is an example from this week:

The liberal mainstream media, notice how they have tried to destroy Sarah Palin, notice how the more popular Michele Bachmann gets, the more they try to destroy her? You want to know why they go after those two ladies more viciously? Because they know that Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin is going to draw a lot of the women vote away from the Democrat party. They are scared to death of that if they were to run and get the nomination. They are doubly scared that a real black man might run against Barack Obama.

Here's video at YouTube.

Joe Kovacs reports at WorldNetDaily:

Is potential Republican candidate Donald Trump eligible to run for U.S. president?

The question comes in the wake of high-profile statements by the billionaire developer and Palm Beach resident who has suggested Barack Obama's presidency could be "illegal" if he does not release his long-form, hospital-specified birth certificate to prove he's constitutionally qualified to occupy the White House.

At Newsmax:

Sen. Charles E. Schumer briefly revealed his true face Tuesday as reporters listened to him instruct fellow Democrats in how to paint Republicans and House Speaker John Boehner as extremist Tea Party zealots in the budget debates.

“I always use the word extreme,” Schumer told his fellow Democrats. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.”

Here is audio of Schumer caught on tape.

Donald Trump "said during an interview with FoxNewsInsider that Barack Obama is having trouble with, and spending millions to fight, the ongoing questions about his birth, his birth certificate and his eligibility to hold office -- and the longer the issue goes on, the more [Trump] is convinced there are problems with the president's eligibility," reports WorldNetDaily.

Michael Hauschild writes at American Thinker:

From the perch of a humble patriot citizen in the heartland of America, I believe that Sarah Palin wants what I want -- our American life as our forefathers intended: A Constitutional Republic, with checks and balances in place.

If she can deliver this, she'll likely seek office; if she can contribute or support a candidate, she'll do that, too. If she can best serve on the periphery, that'll be the role she takes. She'll seek to save the country with her actions, not risk its destruction because of a lust for power.

Jonathan Strong writes at The Daily Caller:

Donald Trump has been thinking a lot about birth certificates lately. Indeed, he has made questions about Barack Obama’s birth certificate a pivotal part of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

And it appears to be working.

One recent poll has Trump running fifth in the GOP field, just two points behind former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

David Freddoso writes at Beltway Examiner:

Today's Wall Street Journal examines the "Iowa homeschoolers vote" noting that Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and Herman Cain attended the annual lobby day for the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators yesterday.

Speaking of homeschooling, we The Pearceys have homeschooled our sons.

And Nancy in May has the honor of keynoting a North Carolina homeschooling conference expecting some 9,000 in attendence at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem.

Nancy's new book, Saving Leonardo, was taught to homeschoolers prior to publication. Saving Leonardo issues a challenge to liberate culture from its secular captivity.

We've seen that secular captivity at work in education and politics today, and it is not pretty. 

So when potential candidates for U.S. President court the homeschool vote in places like Iowa, this is a highly positive sign indeed -- for our culture, our politics, our education, and our children.

For understanding that "Homeschoolers can make a difference," "Well done!" to the Iowa Network of Christian Home Educators. Here's their website.

"Palin told media in India that it's time for a woman to be president of the United States," reports Newsmax. "She said there was 'still time to deliberate' and that she will make a decision soon whether to run in the 2012 race."

If you affirm the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, this will lift your spirits.

Here's the story at The Blaze.

And here's Col. Allen West, a natural-born leader, on YouTube.

Chris Moody reports at The Daily Caller:

Republican presidential contender Herman Cain said in an interview Monday that he “resent[s]” Muslims who try to convert Americans to Islam, and that the religion has “an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

Drew Zahn reports at WorldNetDaily:

Businessman Herman Cain, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, has criticized Barack Obama for disregarding America's Christian heritage, stating he believes the president's repeated omission of the phrase "endowed by their Creator" is "intentional."

"I have been able to get the pulse of the American people of not only what's in their head but what's in their heart," Cain told CBN News Correspondent David Brody in an interview. "What's in their heart is they love this country. They love the values upon which this country was founded, and they don't like it when the president omits 'endowed by their Creator' from reciting the Declaration of Independence."

At ConservativeHQ:

Levin takes his time in addressing Wehner’s points, and leaves little doubt why Reagan is seen as a conservative hero -- and why conservatives couldn’t wait to see Bush get on Air Force One for the final time as a former president.

Here is Mark Levin on "Ronald Reagan and George Bush" at Human Events.

Hat tip: Mark Levin

It Was Supposed to Be Inevitable, But: "A bill to legalize same-sex 'marriage' failed Friday to win enough support for passage from the Maryland House of Delegates," reports LifeSiteNews.com.

This is great news and a profound defeat for those power groups and organized hatreds in society who presume to think they can create unalienable rights out of thin air.

Those rights are rooted in the Creator, not the state, not in victimology, marketing, nature, 51% of the vote, or San Francisco regressivity. This fact should be clear to any who have read and embrace the philosophic DNA of human liberty as set forth so brilliantly in the Declaration of Independence.

True compassion, not to mention healthy indignation, calls upon every free-thinking and free-living American to resist the pro-homosexualist campaign of discrimination against the Creator and against the Creator's norms for healthy human sexuality and the intrinsic, created embedded diversity of married life as between male and female.

Rage against the religious cult of the homosexualist machine! And rage for freedom in community with an objective, verifiable God and our fellow man -- and woman!

Rick Moran writes at Frontpagemag.com:

Representative Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, finds himself at the center of a media-created firestorm -- all because he wants to investigate the extent to which some American Muslims have been radicalized and examine how cooperative the Muslim community has been in rooting out extremists in their midst.

Scott Conroy writes at RealClearPolitics:

As the 2012 presidential campaign begins to heat up after a sluggish winter, the stakes are high for the five prospective Republican candidates who will address a large crowd of GOP activists at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition forum on Monday night.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain and former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer will have just 10 minutes each to make an impression on the crowd of several hundred expected to gather for the event in Waukee, just west of Des Moines.

In this video, the Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota says she voted against the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government because the measure failed to "cut spending for the implementation of Obamacare" and Planned Parenthood.

"It is certainly unusual for a potential presidential candidate to promote a potential rival, so eyebrows were raised Tuesday when Sarah Palin used her Facebook page (2.8 million followers) and her Twitter account (422,000 followers) to promote an Investor's Business Daily column by Herman Cain," writes Robert Stacy McCain at American Spectator.

This video says it all. Here is a report from WorldNetDaily.

Go Ahead, Make Our Day: "Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio led a field of potential Republican Senate candidates in Arizona with 21 percent in a poll of likely GOP primary voters last week," reports Roll Call.

It is "unclear how much interest he has in running for Senate versus running for re-election as sheriff," Roll Call continues. "But he is being urged by his supporters to pursue the Congressional seat, according to a GOP strategist in Arizona."

"The homosexual activist group GOProud, whose inclusion in the Conservative Political Action Conference here last year and last week stirred controversy within the largest annual conservative gathering, will not be welcomed back next year, sources tell WND."

"The jury still is out on the continued participation by GOProud, a group that openly works on behalf of homosexuals, in the Conservative Political Action Conference, according to CPAC's new chairman, Al Cardenas," reports WorldNetDaily.

"I intend to form a comprehensive vetting process on each CPAC participant, especially at the organizational level," the new chairman told WND. 

"As we develop the vetting process," Cardenas said, "I want to make sure it satisfies our friends, including those at [the Heritage Foundation]," which boycotted this year's event. "I am determined to bring back into the fold those who have been long-term conservative friends of CPAC."

"Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has told conservative activists in Iowa that he and his wife are proud to be identified as evangelical Christians," reports AP.

According to AP, "Pawlenty told them, 'This is a country founded under God,' adding 'that leads you to other values, starting with a respect for life.' Pawlenty also expressed his opposition to same-sex 'marriage'."

Good for Pawlenty. However, the position he advocates is stronger than his current expression of it, as reported by AP.

For a) that this country was "founded under God" is a fact, not a mere "value." The language of "value" is the language of private preference, in contrast to facts, which concerns that which is objectively true regardless of what a person might privately "value."

And b) God operates in the realm of fact and is not reducible to the realm of "value" (or feeling, belief, etc., etc.). That is the entire emphasis of the verifiable information we have in the Old and New Testaments. For more on this, please see "Christmas Spirit in Space and Time." 

Finally, c) the liberating ethical positions against social breakdown as expressed in the secular embrace of abortion, homosexuality, and same-sex "marriage" also concern matters of fact -- that is, ethical fact.

There are of course differences between that which is scientific and that which is ethical. The difference, however, is not at the point of facticity but at the point of the difference between "is" and "ought." In a unified and liberating field of knowledge both "is" and "ought" have to do with the real world and are subject to the normal canons of reason, evidence, coherence, and the need to explain the phenomenon under question.

It is crucial to recognize that the worldview of the Founding and the worldview of the Judeo-Christian position rest on the unity of truth (as opposed to the fragmentation of truth) and that this means statements of science and statements of ethical principle are both to be regarded as asserting that which is objectively the case in the external world, as opposed to casting science into the realm of "fact" and casting "religion," "faith," "meaning," and "ethics" into the realm of "value."

The escape into mere values signals breakdown and decline, not wholeness and progress. It is therefore a step forward when public figures such as Pawlenty assert publicly that this country was "founded under God." It is an even greater step forward into truth and liberation to realize that this God, this Creator, is himself a public figure. The space-time Creator who is the source of unalienable rights is the ultimate critique of statism.

For more on the case to liberate Christianity and evangelicalism from the fact/value dichotomy, please see Total Truth, by Nancy Pearcey. Her new book Saving Leonardo is a plea to liberate culture itself from secularism and its unavoidable fragmentation in thought and practice.

Here is Tim Pawlenty's "Freedom First" website.

From Tucker and the gang at Daily Caller: "Rickles goes on a tear, making fun of President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Secretary of State George Schultz — even Nancy!" Here's the video at YouTube.

In "My Memo to Conservative and Evangelical Leaders," Joseph Farah writes:

"The Tea Party movement would not exist today if the Republicans had not failed under the Bush years," said U.S. Senate hopeful Jamie Radtke of Virginia to the newly formed Senate Tea Party Caucus.  

As I wrote last year, this failure takes us back to the breakdown following the Reagan years:  

The Republican collapse began after the Reagan administration. Reagan understood that American liberty is rooted in a particular political philosophy. It's a vision that declares independence under God instead of dependence under the state. Because Reagan understood there is a vision-for-freedom, he also understood the need to be able to explain and articulate that vision-for-freedom. Unfortunately, then-Vice President George Bush (the elder), despite eight years of seeing Reagan in action, and of seeing that kind of vision win landslide victories at the polls, never seemed to appreciate "the vision thing."

And so the Reagan vision of Americans knowing the "freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers" (from "A Time for Choosing") would be lost. In addition, the rationale and ability to articulate that vision would be lost. More than that, resources to stand up against a contrary vision would be lost -- even if that contrary vision is false.

The GOP's dilemma is that it is double-minded. On one side, some embrace a secular vision that sees the Creator of the Founders and of the Declaration as a kind of nice "religious" touch or "values" touch. But also in the GOP are those who show an appreciation of the connection between a real Creator and real freedom in the real world.

What the New Resistance senses is that neither the single-minded secularism of the Democrats nor the double-minded imbalance of the Republicans is an adequate foundation for freedom, whether we are talking about July 1776, March 2010 or 100 years from now.

Here is the National Journal report on Radtke's presentation at the inaugural meeting of the Senate Tea Party Caucus.

Radtke is a graduate of Liberty University and in 2009 served as the secretary/treasurer of "Restore the Founders' Vision."

For additional information on Radtke, go to the Jamie Radtke for Senate website.

To make matters worse, IT specialist David Coppedge, reportedly the most senior staff on his team at the Jet Propulsion Lab, also passed around a couple of DVDs that make a case for intelligent design.

Clearly, the guy is a threat to civil society, science, and global warming. Or not.

Recommendation: Somebody at NASA needs sensitivity training in the Declaration of Independence, which states:

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. (emphasis added)

The Declaration of Independence affirms human liberty, which includes freedom of thought and discussion. Even at NASA.

And it recognizes the Creator as the center of gravity for American freedoms and American polity. Even at NASA.

So, NASA, free-thinking people would like to know: What exactly is your problem with the Creator, principles of freedom, and the Declaration of Independence?

For more, see "Protest David Coppedge's Persectution, Direct to NASA."

David Solway writes at Frontpagemag.com:

What the Democrats and their supporters earnestly fear is not only that Palin may be around for the indefinite future, but that she is indeed potentially electable in 2012 and must be stopped at all costs.

That Was Then: "A celebrity journalist [Mike Evans] now claims he misspoke when he said last week that Hawaii’s governor told him he was unable to find President Barack Obama’s original birth certificate after a search of state and hospital archives," reports FoxNews.com.

Here's a comment from Prisonplanet: "Reporter Mike Evans is either a filthy lying . . . or he is scared re: Birth Cert."

Related
Report: Gov. Abercrombie Admits No Obama Birth Certificate in Hawaii -- Audio

The information in this stunning audio may be one reason Obama's State of the Union speech last night was so flat.

Here's the opening visual statement as the audio begins:

Neil Abercrombie admitted to close friend and reporter Mike Evans -- There are no records of Obama's birth in Hawaii.

Here's more at Breitbart.com. Author Jack Cashill on Denver radio with AM 630 KHOW host Peter Boyles weighs in here.

"Watch the live broadcast here," says the Tea Party Express.

"Former Hawaii elections clerk Tim Adams has now signed an affidavit swearing he was told by his supervisors in Hawaii that no long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate existed for Barack Obama Jr. in Hawaii and that neither Queens Medical Center nor Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu had any record of Obama having been born in their medical facilities," reports WorldNetDaily.

You may be wondering why the Left in America was so quick to turn the Saturday morning murders in Tucson into a political hatefest directed against their political enemies.

My comments on FB from Saturday, January 8, 8:50 pm, assert a connection between means and ends:

Why Politics of Tragedy? For the Left, Unlimited Politics Is a Means to an Unlimited State; Therefore, a Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste.

Don't miss David Limbaugh's column on how "The Left Is Not About to Waste This 'Crisis'."

"U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is the keynote speaker at a GOP event in the early presidential caucus state of Iowa later this month, and a spokesman said Wednesday that the tea party favorite has 'not ruled out' a bid for president," reports AP.

Michael Filosof writes at American Thinker:

The lame-duck session of the 111th Congress proved one thing beyond a doubt: The Republican Party does not represent the interests of conservatives. Despite the midterm election tidal wave, in which the Republican Party gained 63 House seats (eclipsing its historic 1994 success against Clinton), congressional Republicans failed to leverage their victory into politcial clout and collapsed like a house of cards in the lame-duck session.

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he's more inclined to run for president in 2012 than not to make a bid," reports AP. "Gingrich says he probably won't make a decision until late February or early March. But he says that talking to friends and thinking about such an undertaking have made him more inclined to believe that 'it's doable'."

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

"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."

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.'"

"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."

Related
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.

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.

"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'."

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?"

"Newspaper and TV pundits bashing Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell with respect to the religion clauses of the First Amendment need to do some homework on the topic, as they obviously don’t know anything about it," writes author M. Stanton Evans at Human Events.

This column is a must read. Evans is author of many books -- particularly relevant on this topic is his work titled The Theme Is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition.

Every resistance movement needs leadership. In this column at Human Events, A.W.R. Hawkins explains why Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are at the head of the class, to the astonishment of liberal elites and spineless Republicans.  

"For the second time in little over a month, President Barack Obama stripped the word "Creator" from the Declaration of Independence when giving a speech," reports Penny Starr at CNSNews.com.

Here is the text of the speech Barack Hussein Obama gave at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee dinner October 19 in Rockville, Maryland.

Words matter. The midterm election of November 2 is days away. I would suggest that a political party or president that cannot utter, affirm, defend, explain, and apply to government and policy that is at the very center of the American experiment should not hold power in the United States.

For such a person and such a party are not the friends of liberty.

Freedom should always have a friend, not an enemy, in the White House. And freedom should always have in the White House someone who understands from Whom and upon Whom that freedom rests -- and apart from Whom it goes away. Every office on Capitol Hill should understand this.

The defining center of the American experiment rests upon exactly that point where the Declaration places it: The Creator. To the degree that a president or a political party rejects that defining mainstream of the enduring American center, to that degree a president or a political party occupies the extreme. 

If you are a politician of any party who would strip the Creator from your political or governmental practice or philosophy, a free people under God has an eminently healthy course of action to pursue: If you strip the Creator from the Declaration, you shall be stripped from office. You are a danger to the republic and have no business anywhere near the levers of power.

You shall be repealed and replaced by lovers of freedom who understand the true source of the "blessings of liberty."

"Sarah Palin launched a two-week run of tea party rallies Monday leading up to the election and teased supporters about a possible presidential run for herself, saying 'we can see 2012 from our house,'" reports AP.

"The granny who loves God is giving the politico who loves power quite the run," writes Stuart Schartz at American Thinker.

"Even leftist media icon The New Republic, although admitting it would happily throw the last shovelful of dirt on Angle's candidacy, called her debate last week 'a disaster' for the Senate Majority Leader."

The Left Coast Rebel has pulled together a couple of videos from Fox News plus a report from the Washington Post. Something from Maureen Dowd, too.

And here's "Study: Media Significantly Exaggerate Racism at Tea Party," from Newsbusters.

Upshot: The Tea Party is not racist. Everybody surely must know this, but certain forms of community organizing in America require the pretense of racism to have something to fight against, raise money, stay in power, and transform America into the image of Barack Obama or whoever else is waiting in the left, left, left wings.

From Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner:

Nobody knows with certainty how many illegal votes were cast in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections, but odds are the total was in the millions, thanks to systematic vote fraud campaigns by leftist groups such as ACORN and misguided laws that allow individuals to register and vote on the same day.

But Pajamas Media is doing something unique to combat this most lethal of threats to the integrity of government in a democratic republic, the Voter Fraud Project.

"It’s time for a frank discussion about the folly of monolithic voting among black Americans," writes Jerome Hudson at Human Events. "When 91 percent of any racial group votes one way, it’s either out of racism or blind groupthink. Neither of these is good for America."

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"There is a struggle underway for the hearts and minds of the tea-party movement, conservatism and the Republican Party," Joseph Farah writes at WorldNetDaily. "So-called 'economic conservatives' are doing everything in their power to limit the scope of the movement to take back America to fiscal issues in the narrowest definition of that term."

Farah warns that "economic conservatives" are promoting an agenda "that is fundamentally flawed and wimpy compared to the vision of our founders, who understood we do not live in a world defined exclusively by materialism."

Farah argues that "you simply can't have a self-governing society without an operational consensus on right and wrong. All issues are moral" -- whether they concern "economics, border control, health care, marriage, or abortion."

What is Farah's solution? "There has never been a successful liberty movement in the history of the world built on materialism or an exclusively economic agenda. It's like building the foundation of a house on sand.

"Our founders knew better. They provided the foundation. It's still solid today. We don't have to build a new one. We can find it in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution."

Here's the link to "Why Democrats Are Going Down in November," a truly on-point column by Arnold Ahlert at Jewish World Review, read on-air by Rush Limbaugh across the EIB network today.

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done" in Washington, Barack Obama once famously told Republicans on Capitol Hill.

With millions of Americans reacting in horror to what Obama has gotten "done" in Washington, and then imposed upon "We the People" against our wishes and in violation of the U.S. Constitution, let us all hope, work, and pray that Obama is right.

May all Americans "just listen to Rush" so Obama and his minions can't mess up our country any more than he and they already have. 

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Terry Jeffrey writes at CNSNews.com:

Just seven days after he sparked controversy by omitting the word Creator when he closely paraphrased the passage from the Declaration of Independence that says all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," President Barack Obama again omitted the Creator when speaking about the "inalienable rights"' that "everybody is endowed with."

It is imprudent to regard these omissions as accidents of history.

For Obama and the Democrats seek to "fundamentally transform" America. Absolutely essential to such an ignoble effort is to convince Americans that we really do not need the Creator as the basis for inalienable rights.

Obama's rhetoric and his governance constitute a direct assault, from within, on the intellectual, moral, and practical center of human freedom and dignity in the United States.

It is a presidency that lives in infamy. A hubris that towers and walks to and fro to see whom he might devour. 

And yet it is the fool who says in his heart, "There is no Creator who gives inalienable rights and the blessings of liberty." The fool says in his heart, "Washington giveth and taketh away."

Those who abide in the enduring American mainstream, who would live and think and breathe free, in community with God and man, must repulse this extremism and cast the offender into the political sea. 

Today the winds blow. The waters rise. The cadres of Obama and the enemies of freedom seek to re-enslave the captive set free.  

But we march on. We march forward. We march upward.

November comes. None too soon. November is now.

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How the Resistance Can Win the Culture War

"Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell's victory over Washington establishment favorite Mike Castle raised an interesting question," says Christopher Chantrill at American Thinker. "Do we want just political power and 51 seats in the U.S. Senate? Or do we want to build a movement?"

Chantrill says, "Put me in the movement camp. It's not going to do the conservative movement any good to get back into to power without a mandate. The experience with the Bushes proved it. They took America as the found it; they didn't try to change it."

The larger point may be this: It's not just that wobbly Republicanism will do the conservative movement little good but that it does the American people little good. A go-along-to-get-along GOP lacks the needed Constitutional and Declarational foundations to demand change in the direction of  human freedom and dignity. That kind of change is not consistent with big secularist government centered in Washington and with tentacles in our cars, refrigerators, and living rooms.

What needs conserving -- and protecting and advancing -- is not the hard statism of liberalism or the slower road to hard statism of squishy Republicanism. No, what needs "conserving" is the fight for freedom and unalienable rights endowed by the Creator -- just as the timeless, true, and living content of the Declaration proclaims. 

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Jeffrey Lord at American Spectator examines what Delaware Senator wannabe Chris Coons says in "Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist" in the May 23, 1985, edition of the Amherst Student. 

Lord concludes:

Chris Coons the Senate candidate is determined to get to the Senate and be an agent of the Obama radical redistributionist agenda.

And the person that stands in the way is Christine O'Donnell.

Here are a PDF and text of the article by Coons.

More at Riehl World View.

In his latest column, David Limbaugh argues that the real extremists in America today are not the Christine O'Donnell's or the Tea Partiers. "The real extremism," he writes, "resides in the Democratic Party."

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Paper: Out of the Mainstream Obama "Breaking America's Spirit"

The bees at AP are abuzz over Palin presidential prospects.

Make that a "self-described Marxist" sitting duck. Here's more from Connie Hair of Human Events on Rush, Rove, and O'Donnell.

C. Edmund Wright at American Thinker says "The Architect" has no clothes. This "frightening" image "to ponder" was in evidence "for all to see on Fox News' Hannity show Tuesday night," says Edmund, "thanks to [Rove's] odd response to Christine O'Donnell's win in Delaware."

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At 7:43 AM yesterday (eastern), September 14, on Twitter and Facebook, more than twelve hours before Fox News called the GOP U.S. Senate primary race in Delaware, The Pearcey Report publisher, editor, and political prognosticator par excellence had this to say:

Prediction: Christine O'Donnell will defeat Mike Castle in today's GOP primary for U.S. Senate. It's a gut feeling, but a strong one.

In this video from Fox, Bret Baier on Hannity calls the race for O'Donnell over Castle. The Hannity show airs at 9:00 pm eastern time.

"Delaware Crosses the Washington," headlines this article from American Thinker on the GOP Senate primary victory of "unelectable" Christine O'Donnell, from the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

Posted at the "Christine O'Donnell for U.S. Senate" Facebook Page:

Be wary of polling. All we know is that we are within the margin of error. This race could still break either way. Do not become complacent, or assume that this race is over.

To those who question whether or not we can win the General Election, ask yourself where the incumbent Congressman was in the polls only a few weeks ago, and look where he is today.

Noting that Senate hopeful Mike Castle's "popularity has taken a sharp turn n the wrong direction over the last month," Public Policy Polling says the race is now "Too Close to Call."

I was wondering whether the O'Donnell campaign might see such a late-breaking turnaround. The GOP Senate primary in Delaware is tomorrow, Tuesday, September 14.

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Poll Shocker: Christine O'Donnell Over Mike Castle by 3 
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

September Surprise? "A new poll suggests a seismic upset might be in the making in Tuesday's Delaware Republican Senate primary," David Catanese writes at Politico.

"The survey, released Sunday night by Public Policy Polling, shows Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell leading veteran Rep. Mike Castle by 47 percent to 44 percent -- a dead heat within the poll's 3.8 percent margin of error."

Both Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint have endorsed O'Donnell.

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How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Far away from that Ground Zero Mosque thing: "Not exactly a profile in courage," writes Thomas Lifson at American Thinker.

But Will It Matter? "With just two months to go before the November elections, pollsters and political scientists are predicting a blow-out loss for Democrats that could rival the Republican Revolution of 1994," writes Mike Allen at Politico.

But even if a tsunami occurs, there will be genuine progress only if a resurgent GOP advances on the basis of the freedoms and responsibilities set forth in the Declaration and Constitution.

For it is one thing to reject the corrupt and statist status quo rooted in a secularist belief system, a status quo to which both major political parties have contributed.

It is another thing to replace the current failure with a superior vision based on reality-oriented information given and verified in history by the Creator, who the American Founders respect as the transcendent ground of unalienable rights, as clearly articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

The Democrat Party is, of course, welcome to re-enter the American mainstream, but Obama & Co. show no interest in doing so.

Hat tip: Mark Tapscott

An editorial in the Augusta Chronicle asserts, "Voters bought into a disastrous president -- despite all the warnings."

It is crucial to understand, as we first argued here, that both Obama and much journalism today are clearly and decidedly -- and, therefore, destructively -- out of the defining and enduring American mainstream. They are part of the problem. They are not part of the solution.

That essence of the American mainstream is rooted not in secularism or in liberalism (or in a secularized version of "conservatism"), but in the only known adequate basis for human freedom and dignity, and, therefore, for political liberty.

This, of course, is the Founders' vision, rooted and sustained by the living waters of a real Creator who gives real unalienable rights in the real world. Without this in place, the content of the Declaration falls to the ground, and the Constitution has nothing of substance to protect.  

Any society that rejects that mainstream cannot help but slide into varieties of unfreedom and indignity. Whether quickly or slowly, whether by coup, corruption, or cultural decline, it is really only a matter of time plus crisis (taken advantage of by greedy politicians) before a once-free people become beggars in chains waiting for an all-powerful government to provide another round of stimulus, milk, and honey.

Either that, or resist. Either that, or find the rock of freedom and stand.

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With Glenn Beck and stirred-up Americans on the loose, Obama sticks his head in the sand, where he thinks better, observes ostrichologist Ethel C. Fenig of American Thinker University.

"The speaker of the House wants to know how opponents of the Ground Zero mosque are being funded," states an editorial in Investors Business Daily. "When Americans can be investigated for their opinions, our republic has arrived at a dangerous place."

Every day brings yet another example of why American who respect both our national and creaturely identities must resist and overcome the growing authoritarianism entrenched in Washington, D.C.

"Harry Reid has never heard of Marco Rubio," states the headline above comments by W. James Antle III at American Spectator.

I suppose this means the two have never met. Well, they ought to, if only to fill in a few gaps in Reid's education and life experience.

Antle's comments speak, of course, to Reid's instantly infamous utterance that he just doesn't know how anyone of "Hispanic heritage could be a Republican." This, from a grown man. A U.S. senator. The utterance is an embarrassment.

Well, Harry needs to meet Marco, who is -- as many people seem to know -- the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, from Florida. A son of Cuban immigrants. 

To help things along, here's Marco's website, which Harry may not know about. It's on the internet, another item about which Harry not know of or heard of.

I'm doing my best as a community facilitator to help Reid understand how Rubio could be Republicanio.

Now I've never met Senior Rubio, and I wouldn't ever want to profile, but he sure does look like a human being of "Hispanic heritage." My unscientific guess is that about 99% of my soccer-playing amigos share a somewhat similar background.

I might add that I do see how a person of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican (something along the lines of perferring the liberating Constitution over against the enfebbling divide-and-conquer racism and groupism that now animates, apparently, the like of Harry Reid and the Democrat Party).  

I might also add that maybe a person of Hispanic heritage could be tired of Obama reaching into brown Hispanic wallets, making it all-that-much harder for the "little guy" to run a small business. That, at least, is what my auto mechanic from Puerto Rico tells me. 

Here's a wild prediction: Marco Rubio, Republican, of Hispanic heritage, will vote Republican in the November elections! And he will vote specifically for himself, Republican!

It really is time that Harry met Marco (on a plane, maybe, as in When Harry Met Sally). In any case, a lot of Americans have met this son of Cuban exiles. Americans of all sorts of heritages. And they seem to like the guy and the Republic for which he stands.

"Republic." I wonder if Reid has ever heard of that.

I Know It's a Longshot, But: If you've heard that there are no black human beings in the Tea Party movement, or that the Tea Party movement is a front for the KKK, Nazi Party, or Aryan Nashun, this news conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., may provide a helpful corrective.

I note the August 4 press gathering on the possibility that video of this newsworthy event may not see much air time on the formerly mainstream media. Call it a hunch.

And here's a slide show of the Tea Party Express News conference, featured on the website of the National Press Club.  

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"Yesterday's federal court decision to enjoin enforcement of the Arizona immigration law is the latest example of a virtually unchecked renegade federal government waging war against the states and against the liberties of its citizens," writes David Limbaugh.

"We've seen that Obama will exercise any power he can get away with, from strong-arming secured creditors and favoring unions as he gobbled up automakers to making a mockery of due process with his Oval Office shakedown of BP. But he might have reached a new low with his assaults on the sovereignty of the people of Arizona."

In December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and sent the USS Arizona to the bottom. In July 2010, the Imperial Forces of Barack Obama attacked the State of Arizona and sent the U.S. Constitution to the bottom. Will it stay there, or rise to victory over this anti-American attack from within? 

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"Any possible shred of doubt remaining in anybody's mind about former Senate GOP leader Trent Lott's true allegiance have now been definitively removed," writes Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner. "Lott is a paid tool of the Washington Establishment who hates the Tea Party and all other insurgents who have had it with politics-as-usual."

"'We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them,' Lott told The Washington Post in an incredibly revealing story," says Tapscott, who is editor of the editorial page at the Examiner.

Why target Jim DeMint? Because, Tapscott continues, "Sen. Jim DeMint . . . is the South Carolina conservative Republican who last year formed the Senate Conservatives Fund to back precisely the kind of insurgent conservative Senate candidates most feared by the Lotts of the world."

As Tapscott sees it, "Lott's quote points to the all-too-familiar GOP-losers mentality that GOP officials can just go on as it did in the years before they lost their congressional majorities in the Senate and House, talking the talk of limited government without having to actually walk the walk with their votes."

For a solution to the problem of strategic Republican weakness in the face of challenges to the very essence of the American experiment in freedom and dignity, please see "How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War."

"Republican Sharron Angle says her campaign to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada is 'a calling' from God and that her faith is helping her endure a fiercely competitive race in which Democrats have depicted her as a conservative extremist," reports AP.

The extremists here, of course, are those who reject the mainstream American concept that our polity is based on a Creator who a) has made each us of equal worth and significance (ontological equality) and b) has endowed humanity with "certain unalienable rights," among them "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (please see the Declaration of Independence).

Nothing could be more mainstream American, therefore, than that public servants live in community with their Creator and with our fellow man, and then appreciate public service as a particular calling within that overarching, liberating, and humane vision.

America would be much improved if people we sent to Washington understood they are creatures of God and not of a materialistic secular state, or of impersonal nature, social classes, victim groups, or any other of the various divisive splinterings that seem so at home in certain political circles -- and yet so alien to who we are in our enduring national identity. 

Sharron Angle appears to be a person who embraces that general humane calling to live in community with our Creator and then to respond with specifity to her particular life situation. Therefore, she campaigns to unseat Harry Reid, a man who seems significantly alienated from the American experiment.  

That, and not ahistorical allegations of "conservative extremism," perhaps goes far in explaining the ire her work raises among secularized elites rather accustomed to imposing their extreme ideological agenda upon America unopposed. That Angle has a real shot at defeating the incumbent Reid only adds fuel to the ire. 

From AP:

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he's considering running for president in 2012 and expects to make a decision by early next year.

In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Gingrich predicted a Republican would defeat Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012. He called Obama a "disaster" who would go down as the worst president in modern times.

Because "Obama's Arizona Suit Is 'Toxic'," says Frontpagemag.com.

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"Politico reports that Sarah Palin’s fundraising group 'steps into the big leagues' by raising $866,000 in the second quarter -- the highest amount since SarahPAC was formed in January 2009," notes Barbara Hollingsworth at Beltway Confidential.

"Palin’s aggressive fundraising, and her recent endorsement of a number of winning conservative women candidates in recent primaries, means the top Republican 'mama grizzly' can’t be ruled out as a presidential candidate in 2012," Hollingsworth concludes.

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Doug Brady writes at Conservatives4Palin:

On June 22nd, incumbent Congressman Bob Inglis (RINO-SC) lost his primary runoff election to Trey Gowdy by more than 40 points.

The AP, evidently, was traumatized by Inglis' loss and has consequently decided to blame it on their favorite nemesis, Governor Palin (since when has the AP ever cared about the misfortune of a Republican, even a RINO?).

Apparently Inglis took issue with Governor Palin's metaphoric use of the term death panels as an inevitable result of the rationing contained in Obamacare.

Despite the fact that the accuracy of Governor Palin's contention has since been confirmed by liberals such as Paul Krugman and Peter Orszag, the AP is still trying to make the claim that her analogy was a sinister plot to unfairly turn public opinion against Obamacare.

"A new video from Sarah Palin's political action committee invokes the power of 'common-sense conservative women' as she urges 'mama grizzlies' to let the nation hear them roar," reports Newsmax.

This video is well-crafted, inspiring, and strong in its appeal to women to stand up and resist the Washington-centric attack upon their "cubs."

But something vital is underemphasized. Only one image in this video gets to the heart of what really is at stake politically in this moment in history. "Mama Grizzlies" offers only brief footage in which we see a woman holding a sign that reads: "Moms Opposed to Mandates! Unconstitutional!"

This neglect is unfortunate. For the Constitution (as written) is at the center of the struggle today and where we must stand politically and culturally for freedom against a voracious regime. Furthermore, if you examine history, you see that the liberating balance between "form and freedom" (as Francis Schaeffer would describe it) expressed in the Constitution is rather uncommon sense.

The mistake of extremists such as Obama and the Democrats, and the mistake of double-minded Republicans, is at the crucial point of turning away from the Founders' liberating Constitutional vision protecting an American republic declared independent on the basis of real and verifiable information about the Creator, humanity, and the origin and basis of unalienable rights. This vision-for-freedom includes our responsibilities as citizens "created equal" to hold elected officials accountable and keep government within its proper sphere so that freedom is not devoured by federal bureaucrats "here to help."  

Yes, women should rise up, and are rising up, to protect their cubs. But on what basis are they to be motivated, and what content is true enough, and therefore strong enough, to carry them through the ups and downs of electoral politics, the ebb and flow of emotion, the rise and fall of energy to keep fighting the good fight? 

Palin, at times, has provided the more complete solution -- that of common sense Constitutional conservatism -- so that what is "conserved" is not just "tradition," the past, "the way we did it before," and so on.  

What especially needs to be "conserved" is the fire of revolution based on who we are in our enduring American identity as citizens of resistance and in our enduring human identity as creatures of resistance, both of which are expressed in the Declaration of Independence and in the U.S. Constitution.

Words matter. Even one word matters. Constitution is one of them. Words can be weapons of truth for freedom or tools of propaganda for manipulation and slavery. 

If "mama grizzlies" want to protect their cubs from a devouring out-of-control federal government that will attack again and again, the best defense is to rise up with Constitution in hand. The Constitution, and the vision for which it stands, is death to government tyranny.

Go for the jugular, mama grizzlies. Show the kids how it's done.

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From Going Rogue to Going Constitutional

Columnist Michael Barone writes at Beltway Confidential:

I’m attending the Aspen Ideas Festival run by the Aspen Institute and the Atlantic Monthly in (where else?) Aspen, and I note that enthusiasm for Barack Obama and his administration seems to be conspicuously missing. Lloyd Grove has a pungent account in The Daily Beast titled "The Elite turn against Obama," based on speeches by Niall Ferguson and my former boss at U.S. News Mort Zuckerman on economic policy.

All of this turning away from Obama leads Barone to "wonder whether the Aspen Institute folks might have wanted to invite Sarah Palin, at least to ask her the question, 'How’s that hopey changey thing working for you?'"

Disturbing Behavior: "It is becoming increasingly clear that, when it comes to illegal immigration, the Obama Administration has a disturbingly cavalier approach to what the law requires," Kris Kobach writes at Human Events.  

And then surround himself with wise and Godly advisers instead of unwise and "God-hating" appointees who don't seem to appreciate the cruelty and disaster that history knows as socialism, says Curtis Lovelace.

It's hard to enjoy the "blessings of liberty" if you are relationally and politically alienated from the One who gives the blessings.

. . . Different brothers from the same ideological mother?

How can this be? After all, the chief law enforcement officer of the United States assured the American people less than one week ago that our "southern border is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years," notes IBD in "Shootout at El Paso City Hall."

But that was teleprompter happytalk disconnected from reality.

With each passing day, it becomes more and more clear: The Obama White House has become an impediment to the lives and liberties of Americans in Texas, not to mention in Arizona and in all the border States. 

Weakness at the border is not unrelated to weakness in Washington. Physical violence spilling over from Mexico into our land is not unrelated to constitutional violence spilling over from Washington into our land.

The lesson seems clear: Americans who remember who they are as creatures of resistance in their national heritage and in our human identity must rise up to throw off the oppressor -- whether he be across the border in Mexico or across the border in D.C.

It's 120 days until election day Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010.

Yesterday we celebrated our independence from an alien power imposing its will upon America. In this November we do so again. And there is no artificial timetable for withdrawal from the field of battle, Mr. Oppressor. Let freedom ring.

W. James Antle III writes at American Spectator:

A Constitution that means whatever the government says it means is not a living document. It is a dead letter. And the situational constitutionalism practiced by both parties, often with public approval, has helped kill it.

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"We are not the extreme," says a South Carolina Tea Partier. "We are the voters."

Nice. But it misses the strategic point.

The strategic point is that what is "mainstream" and what is "extreme" is not decided by counting noses or by being a voter. Or a bunch of voters.

This question is decided by who stands in continuity with the definining mainstream of American dignity and liberty under God, as set forth in the Declaration and U.S. Constitution.

To the degree that a Lindsey Graham stands outside of that mainstream, to that degree he is an extremist.

In this sense you can wear a coat and tie, occupy high office, have a nice hair cut, speak in soft tones, count many noses in your support, and yet still be an extremist out of touch with who we are as Americans and out of touch with who we are as beings "created equal" and endowed by our Creator with "certain unalienable rights." 

As C-SPAN viewing indicates, sometimes the most insidious extremists are decked out in Brooks Brothers suits. 

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Clueless in Washington: "The problem with the Tea Party," says Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, "I think it’s just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die out."

Mr. Graham couldn't be more wrong. And if he wants to reconnect with the Declarational and Constitutional mainstream of American thought and liberty -- which is what the Tea Party is reaching for -- he might want to avail himself of "How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War."

The big news in VPville is that police in Portland have re-opened the Al Gore sex case.

This is despite assurances and Latin footnotes from Mr. Gore and his lawyers, back in 2007, that the settled scientific consensus clearly states, as all enlightened people know, that the accusations of "that woman" massage therapist Molly Hagerty are "completely false" -- just as everyone knows today that Mr. Gore's claims about global warming are completely true. 

Meanwhile, one wonders: How long will it be, should the facts of the case decide against Mr. Gore and the settled science regarding the "sex poodle's" possible pildipherings, before apologists from the Daily Kos, ACLU, and the Obama White House discover that behind it all stands the all-powerful, ever-present, and always-responsible figure of George Bush?

The needed scapegoat recipe is well established: If Bush hadn't messed up the world's air conditioning system, Al Gore would not have had to sacrifice his life and his wife to save the planet. And that cute little girl in the hotel would never have caught his eye.

The lesson for leftist organizers is clear: Police may be looking at Gore, but Bush should be on trial.

Hat tip: Beltway Confidential

"Unless freedom-loving people wake up now, their children will wake up to discover that they are living under Sharia law," writes Michael Youssef, founder of Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Ga.

"I'm not going to pretend to a faith I don't feel," says Julia Gillard. But she has "great respect for religion," according to the UK Telegraph.

Three quick points:

1) Faith, at least "trust" placed in our Creator, is a matter of facts, not of feeling. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, for example, is not a feeling. It is either a fact of history or it is not. If it is a fact of history, a reasonable person acts in accordance with that fact; an unreasonable person does not.

2) If the prime minister does not "believe in God," why does she "respect religion"? If a particular "religious" truth claim is false (for example, an assertion that the Easter Bunny is God), why respect it? If a relgious assertion is false, one might hold respect for the misinformed "believer," but "religious" truth claims are the same as any other truth claim. Those which are true ought to be affirmed, and those which are not true ought not to be affirmed. 

3) Finally, the epistemology of the Creator as set forth in the information given in the Biblical data rejects the concept that "faith" is merely a private experience in which people can pretty much "believe" whatever they want and feel good about it. That's not faith, it's nonsense. Biblical "faith" is not about a privatized a way of knowing but rather a fact-based way of trusting -- it's a decision of the whole person based on good and sufficient evidence (as Francis Schaeffer often said) that certain propositions about God, man, and the universe are true.

Gillard gets high marks for her lack of pretense. But based on what we have in this report in the Telegraph, what she rejects has little to do with real Christianity, for what she thinks she rejects is already equally rejected, and even more profoundly rejected, by Christianity itself. 

The real thing -- holistic commitment based on knowable truth -- so that people might live lives of community with their Creator and fellow man -- has always been much more rigorous and reality oriented that what sometimes passes for "faith" these days.

As for me and my house of free-thinkers, we too have great respect -- for truth.

Related
"Religion Very Harmful to People," by Udo Middelmann

You see, folks, it's OK to learn the lessons of history, lest you repeat the failures of the past -- unless, of course, learning the lessons of the fascist past casts the actions of the Democrat present in a somewhat unfortunate light.

And so, don't you know, there are a couple of people in this country who, yet again, find fault with something Sarah Palin has said or done.

All of which means, according to Palin-haters, is that neither Sarah Palin nor anyone like her ought ever to be President of the United States, etc.

Or could it be that the column in question is too close for comfort?

File under "Secret Talks, Unilateral Action":

The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status on a mass basis to illegal immigrants, a former Bush administration official who spoke with at least three people involved in those talks told FoxNews.com. 

The Obama people will not "confirm or deny the claim," reports Fox News.

Meanwhile, consider: When it comes to "getting things done" in Washington, D.C., sometimes Congress, and to be honest, the U.S. Constitution, can be such a distraction. Oh, the frustrations of Chairman Obama. The work of imposing a community organizer's extremist agenda is never done.

"Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) promoted an article on Wednesday on his official Twitter account by a writer who backed his criticism of the government's handling of BP," reports The Hill.

Perhaps also of interest to Barton could be this: "Bless Joe Barton, Good-Bye GOP."

As information in this report from CNSNews.com reveals, the hapless White House occupant currently known as Barack Obama continues to impose his private, intolerant, and intellectually vapid morality upon a people created in the image of God and a society formed and founded upon the basis of liberating norms rooted in verifiable information from the Creator. 

Fortunately, "We the People" have the unalienable right and responsibility from our true Creator to protect our families and therefore to remove from office any fool or screwball who says in his heart and expresses in his policy the anti-American "anti-value" that preaches the death of the God of the Founders and Declaration.  

And by the way, that "We the People" includes you, Reverend. And if you're a mega-preacher hiding your lamp under a mega-pulpit in a mega-church, think of it this way: Love thy neighbor.

We are under extremist assault from within, America, by a president and an ethos that reject the Creator's glorious structural norms for family life, not to mention the other "blessings of liberty." Our only hope is to repel this internal assault upon the enduring American mainstream and to replace it with the only known and verified vision-for-freedom and dignity under God available to man.

The Obama regime is a manmade, self-imposed disaster of epic proportion. We need to get in there and clean it up.

Saving the family environment is an ongoing mandate commissioned by Heaven. Obama may not like it, but don't worry. He's just the hired help. He serves at our pleasure.

Deborah B. Sloan writes at American Thinker:  

There is no greater injustice than punishment of a man for doing something good, and no more loathsome cowardice than when those responsible for defending good sacrifice their cause to accommodate an uncompromising evil. But this type of betrayal is not uncommon for the Republican leadership, and it happened again last week in Congress.

Thursday's House committee hearings with BP CEO Tony Hayward consisted mostly of the empty political grandstanding one would expect from this type of proceedings, characterized by Mark Levin as Soviet-style show trials. 

There was an exception, however, when Representative Joe Barton spoke out against the Obama regime for extorting $20 billion from BP -- without due process -- to be distributed by an Obama appointee as compensation no only to Gulf residents harmed by the oil leak, but also those left unemployed by Obama's moratorium by fiat on all offshore drilling operations.

This was not to say that the Gulf residents shouldn't be compensated, but that the manner in which the funds were expropriated is reprehensible, and it is outrageous for the government to force a private corporation to finance a moratorium imposed by the president.

Update: See also, "Bless Joe Barton, Good-Bye GOP," published at The Pearcey Report.

Alex Pappas at The Daily Caller:

Is Nikki Haley’s primary run-off opponent in the South Carolina gubernatorial race subtly using her religious background to try to alienate the Indian-American candidate born with the name “Nimrata Randhawa” from conservative voters?

Her opponent, Rep. Gresham Barrett, has been vocal about his deep Christian faith. Haley -- although a baptized Methodist -- was raised by Sikh parents, but converted to Christianity when she was 24.

One well-known Republican in the state thinks so, noting that Barrett’s last campaign commercial was about his faith. “You’re running for governor, not pastor,” the Republican said dismissively of Barrett.

Phillip Bowers, co-chairman of Barrett’s campaign, circulated an e-mail Friday afternoon suggesting Haley has lied about her religion. “There are lots of contradictions to her story. It’s not my place to question her faith, but I do question her honesty. If anyone finds the truth, please let me know,” said Bowers, in an email obtained by The Daily Caller.

A few quick points:

1. There is nothing untoward in evaluating a person's religion. If religion is important to a candidate for office, and if religion influences a candidate, then it seems proper to ask questions about the religion of a candidate. Of course, the questions ought to be relevant and not just a matter of: "Oh, my, she has a different religion."

2. Saying someone is "running for governor, not pastor" is no excuse for not having to answer questions about one's religion. Presumably, one's religious views are held in good faith because one thinks them true and applicable to the real world. Otherwise, why bother? But if this is so, go ahead and answer questions that are relevant to the job for which your are applying, whether it be governor or dog catcher.

3. Not your place to "question her faith"? Nonsense. All "faiths" should be open to question and possible falsification, if you wish their application to the real world. These faiths include faith in science, government, education, various ideologies, political passions, wooly activism, and so on. And, of course, religion.

If you are a human being, you therefore question, for questioning is part of the equipment the Creator has endowed upon each of us to protect us from nonsense masquerading as true science, healthy politics, sound religion, and "I'm from Washington and I'm here to help."
 

"The Tea Party Express is targeting Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in the Republican primary, backing Joe Miller, a lawyer from Fairbanks," Jason Pye writes at United Liberty.

Among Joe Miller's supporters: Sarah Palin.

. . . Trails his GOP opponent, notes the following at the American Spectator:

A new poll from the conservative Civitas Institute gives a snapshot of the political ramifications of U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge’s roughhousing ways.

The survey of 400 registered North Carolina voters in Etheridge’s district found his Republican opponent, Renee Ellmers, leading 39 percent to 38 percent. Those are remarkable numbers given the dynamics of the district. Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one in voter registration, and Etheridge won re-election in 2008 by a hefty 67 percent.

That person would be Alvin Greene, the surprise winner in the "South Carolina Democratic senatorial primary."

. . . "To push" his "liberal agenda." Upshot: "More pain to bear" by the people.

Jonathan Strong at The Daily Caller lays out "five more ways Obama's healthcare law boosts unions."

In the so-called "America" Obama is trying to re-create in his image, it pays to have organized friends in high places. 

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. More at "Talk Is Cheap."

Bush. Just like a Louisiana congressman informed member of the formerly mainstream media Chris Matthews.

"Jerry Brown's campaign for California governor continues to suffer fallout from off-the-cuff comments he made to a radio reporter comparing Republican Meg Whitman's messaging to Nazi propaganda."

Apparently, abortion now is so cultish, so "personal" that scientific empirical information cannot be allowed to protect what is a Constitutional and Creator-given ethical fact of life: the unalienable right to life.

For comment, let us turn to Jim Morrison, The Doors, Riders on the Storm:

If you give this man a ride, Sweet family will die

Shame on Charlie Crist, enabler of raw fascist, state-delegated power, a barbarian looking for a home in the U.S. Senate. This isn't "personal," it's fascist.

Dignified and informed voters of Florida, created in the image of God, might want to know come November: "If you give this man a ride, Sweet family will die."

. . . "When the problems go away."

Geert Wilders' "Freedom Party nearly tripled its representation in the Dutch parliament in Wednesday's elections," reports the UK Telegraph.  

It's now 16-plus months into the reign of Barack Hussein Obama, and the topic of conversation among one writer's "friends and associates in London" concerns Obama's "incompetence and narcissism, and the danger he poses to the United States and its allies in Europe."

In a Newsmax report on how the "Palin Factor Was Crucial to GOP Victories" of yesterday, political strategist Ed Gillespie holds forth:

She’s got a lot of common sense. She connects with people’s everyday concerns about the direction of our government, the state of our economy, and the nature of our society today. She’s willing to shake things up. She’s willing to take a stand.

I think she is misunderstood by much of the media and political elite -- and well understood by rank-and-file voters.

Why? La Shawn Barber at Michelle Malkin's website notes that the current Fla. guv and U.S. Senate candidate has to decide -- this week -- whether to sign a bill that requires 1st-trimester pregnant women in Florida to view an ultrasound of their child, or hear a description of such a child, before they decide to go ahead and kill that thing.

Exceptions are allowed for "rape, incest, or domestic violence" -- circumstances of conception that babies generally are not able to control and therefore, one might think, fairness and justice suggest they not suffer the inordinate penalty of capital punishment by dismemberment or other ACLU-approved methods of social justice.

Killing people because of the circumstances of their conception sounds a lot like class warfare, doesn't it? And the "little guy" in the oppressed class seems to be getting the short end of the stick.

Instead of "suffer the little children to come unto me" (Mk 10:14), it's "suffer the little children."

In any case, Crist has a senate election to win against pro-life GOPer Marco Rubio. Does a guilty conscience bleed when it dreams?

. . . at liberal gabfest.

"Ignoring the facts is one of the liberals' favorite tactics, because their agenda is not motivated by any facts at all," writes Herman Cain at WorldNetDaily. "Their agenda is totally politically motivated for the purpose of concentrating more power to government rather than the people."

Or put it this way: Operationally speaking, liberalism has "escaped from reason," to borrow a phrase made famous by thinker Francis Schaeffer (see his book Escape From Reason; for a fuller treatment, see Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth).

That is to say, liberalism in both its tactics and philosophical approach has become a political "faith" in the poor sense (and unbiblical sense) of the word faith (for a corrective, go here).

Instead of liberating people to "test everything" -- which is part of the Creator's inbuilt protection against religious, scientific, and political snakeoil -- liberalism instead pushes its "religious" agenda against fact per se and pounds the pulpit with greater ferocity when inconvenient facts raise their challenging heads.

True believers and stubborn sceptics are therefore supposed to click their heels and salute "settled science," turn tail and run in fear from unsubstantiated charges of "racism!," and genuflect before the new and improved manmade "civil right" consensus of the week, so that transgendered lesbian albinos can visit their inter-species canine spouses while sick in a San Fran hospital for kitty kats.

In contrast stands the reasonableness, wholeness, facticity, and humanity of the Founding worldview, rooted in verifiable information from a real and knowable Creator who gives the blessings of liberty and inalienable rights so that any person and nation who acts upon that information can experience excellence and exceptionalism even in this less than perfect world.

It's amazing what human beings can accomplish when they read the directions.

With an eye on that big party tent permanently parked at the Obama White House, even as din of desperation and disaster from the Gulf of Mexico occasionally interrupts yet another evening's song and dance with the stars, Stuart Schwartz at American Thinker suggests Barack Obama is simply doing what the Prince of Chicago is known for doing best, baby: party, party, party.  

Lloyd Marcus of the Tea Party Express offers up "Prepare for war" Malik Zulu Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, as a case in point. 

Michelle Oddis writes at Human Events:

At a time when President Obama’s relationship with the military is already on shaky ground, his decision to take a vacation with his family in Chicago rather than pay his Memorial Day respects at Arlington National Cemetery further proves his apathy toward our armed forces, according to some veterans.

"The President seems to demonstrate almost weekly just how, at least to me, little he cares about this country and our history and our heritage," retired Marine Lt. Col. Orson Swindle told HUMAN EVENTS.

"He seems almost to resent it, which is the most mind-boggling thing in the world, because without a country like America Barack Obama could not be President. He seems to dislike our institutions . . . and that’s a sad, sad thing," said Swindle, a decorated Vietnam prisoner of war and Sen. John McCain’s cellmate in Hanoi.

AP reports:

Forced to disclose backstage political bargaining, President Barack Obama's embarrassed White House said on Friday it had enlisted Bill Clinton to try to ease Rep. Joe Sestak out of Pennsylvania's Senate primary with a job offer.

Nothing wrong with that, the White House said. Oh, yes, there was, Republicans countered.

At Newsmax:

Kneeling to pick up tar balls on an oil-fouled beach and listening to "heartbreaking stories" of loss, President Barack Obama personally confronted the spreading damage wrought by the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico -- and the bitter anger that's rising onshore. . . . 

Early in the morning in advance of the president's arrival, hundreds of workers clad in white jumpsuits and rubber gloves hit the beaches to dig oily debris from the sand and haul it off. Workers refused to say who hired them, telling a reporter they were told to keep quiet or lose their jobs.

"I think that I have the mainstream record,” said Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Sharron Angle, who is "running in a tough GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Harry Reid," reports The Daily Caller.

The most important "mainstream," of course, is not merely that of where the current majority of any particular group of people stand, be they Americans, Germans, Italians, or Russians, and so on. As history shows, some "majorities" and some "mainstreams" are toxic and not worthy of human consumption.

For the question of freedom over against tyranny, so well framed by author and radio talk show host Mark Levin, the crucial point is whether one's politics reside within the defining and liberating center of the American mainstream -- that is, within the vision-for-freedom as set forth in the Declaration of Independence (as written, not merely "living") and in the U.S. Constitution (again, as written, and not merely "living").

It is in this sense that the Tea Party phenomenon, as an expression of a New American Resistance, may be part of a movement that "can win the culture war" against the forces of secularism, oppression, and indignity.

Any senatorial candidate, therefore, who affirms in philosophy, principle, politics, and practice the historic and defining American mainstream merits serious consideration.

On this view, an extremist such as Sen. Harry Reid would need to find a new day job. The sooner the better.

A GOP candidate "in rural Idaho faced an eve-of-election accusation of plagiarising a famous speech by his ideological foe President Barack Obama," reports the UK Telegraph.

These kinds of unethical practices, if true, damage Vaughn Ward as a political figure, and they harm those who, like Sarah Palin, have supported him. 

You might say midterm House Democrat freshmen are running for their political lives -- away from El Presidente Obama, according to a report at Newsmax.

England football star David Beckham said "he was 'humbled' by the bravery of British troops on a surprise visit to Afghanistan," reports the UK Telegraph.

According to the Telegraph, Beckham said:

"I have nothing but admiration for these young men and women and it makes me very proud to be British.

"I've wanted to visit Afghanistan for a long time and I hope that in some small way it helps remind everyone at home what an amazing job they are doing out here in very difficult conditions. I feel very humble."

His comments, and a photo of him testing a heavy machine gun, place him in stark contrast to "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, who was photographed posing happily on a Communist anti-aircraft gun used to down U.S. pilots during the Vietnam War.

Here is a YouTube video explaining in strong language how avowed socialist Jane Fonda earned the name, and may be forever remembered in history as, Hanoi Jane.

Barack's strategery? "Ride the wave of anti-incumbency," writes Carol Lee at Politico.

Before Obama & Co. head very far down that road, they may want to avail themselves of Larry Elder's "It's Not 'Anti-Incumbency,' But 'Anti-Liberalism'."

The AP quotes Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs: "I have not heard anything from the [White House] political shop that would lead me to believe anything other than our continued support."

Related
Beyond Blumenthal and the Party of Liars

Furthermore, writes Larry Elder in a column on the recent elections, Newsweek may spout, "We're all socialists now," but American voters say, "No . . . . We are not."

"As Mexican President Felipe Calderon ripped Arizona's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants in front of Congress on Thursday, Democrats and White House officials rose to their feet to cheer," according to a report at FoxNews.com.

Among those reportedly applauding the president of Mexico were "Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano -- two officials who have confessed to not even reading the law."

It is of little surprise that this performance "isn't sitting well with officials from states along the border." 

It seems that dashing self-described Vietnam war veteran Richard Blumenthal (otherwise known as the attorney general of Connecticut) "may have helped organize a Toys for Tots drive as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, according to the New York Times," writes George Neumayr at American Spectator.

"This task, among other stateside ones, became in Blumenthal's telling over the years 'service in Vietnam.' He says now that he simply misspoke -- that he meant to say he served 'during' the Vietnam war, not 'in' the Vietnam war."

"Oops!"

Said the lawyer.

After being presented with the videotape.

A friend of mine once asked whether a certain famous household name would "lie through his teeth" about a certain matter -- the pretended authorship of a book that would help his PR image as a great Christian intellect, for example.

Well, given the design of the human body, there really isn't much of an alternative. One could try smoke signals, I suppose. But this may upset the rhythm of an awards dinner, religious conference, or Capitol Hill press event.

The physiological fact is that most lying requires a "lying through one's teeth." And sometimes, unfortunately, a bigger audience and a bigger lie make for a more effective "lying through one's teeth."

This technique is not quite a trade secret known to assorted conmen in politics, science, religion, journalism, and bus terminals.

In fact, the next time you want to see that kind of practice on display, simply watch a member of the federal government swear allegiance to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. No one is saying everyone who takes the oath these days is lying, but one might not be in the wrong to conclude that the truth-tellers in this instance are in the minority.

What's the answer?

For a good start, try this: "Test everything." That is, practice a healthy and humane skepticism rooted in truth about who we are as imperfect creatures (by choice) nevertheless striving for wholeness and perfection because we are, after all, still created in the image of God.

We are broken, yes, but not destroyed. Marred, yes, but not pieces of junk to discard.

And so, in politics, religion, ministry, science, schooling, and car sales: Test everything. Examine what is said and what is done. Do not accept anything "on faith" -- that is, on the basis of that weakened, nonbiblical concept of "faith" acceptable to the ACLU and privatized religious circles today. Instead, maintain your critical distance and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Testing everything is essential to who you are as a human being, created in the image of God -- a God, by the way, who is a verifiable public figure who puts a premium on human brain power and freedom of thought.

And so also, a proper critical distance is essential to living freely and with dignity in what is now a broken world. As you may have noticed, it is a world full of imperfect people, some of whom want to control every aspect of your lives and don't mind applying requisite doses of propaganda, violence, and oppression to get the job done.

By way of contrast, in their Judeo-Christian realism, rooted in history, the Founders understood the fallibility of man. And certainly we should understand that nothing magical happens just because a guy or gal with a smile, honest eyes, and a great handshake occupies the White House, sits on Capitol Hill, stands behind a pulpit, carries a Ph.D. around, wears a white coat, or has "written" 27 books.

"Test everything" won't guarantee perfection in an imperfect world, but it will open the door to what thinker Francis Schaeffer called "substantial healing" in our daily lives, including our political lives.

In the struggle against those who "lie through their teeth" to advance their agendas, a critical distance that leads to substantial healing in human freedom beats magical thinking every time.

It's one of the "blessings of liberty" from the One who gives the blessings that the federal government does not have and, therefore, can never ever give. This is one way you know, for all of the pie-in-the-sky promises of a secular Heaven on earth of "equality," the government is not God and nobody's Savior. 

One could say or suggest otherwise, but that would be to lie through one's teeth.

"The Pentagon’s 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy will be nothing but a memory by year's end, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared Wednesday," reports The Hill.

Roll the Videotape: In this Fox News interview, we learn that Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley joins Obama administration standouts Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano in criticizing the Arizona immigration law that they have not read (or reviewed "in detail," as Napolitano nuances it).

"What's going on here?" asks the Fox interviewer. 

Indeed, what is going on? How would you describe the Obama administration?

a) Amateur Hour -- Think, keystone politicians

b) Ideology Hour -- That is, an aggressive political machine devoted to imposing its message instead of serving the American people on the basis of the rule of law (as written, and read). Let us be clear: Taking time to read the "misguided" Arizona immigration law simply distracts Obama's lockstep army from the political need of the moment to push America in whatever direction demanded by their great leader.   

c) Radical Hour -- That is, an extremist movement demonstrating what it means to live under a "living" Constitution with "living" law, rejecting the defining and enduring American mainstream as set forth by the Declaration (as written) and U.S. Constitution (as written), and replacing the good rules for freedom with the bad rules for statism, secularism, and enslavement to greed, power, and control snarling out of Washington, D.C.

The choice for Americans who prefer freedom and dignity over against unfreedom and indignity becomes clearer not just with each passing day, but with each passing interview with members of this sad joke of an arbitrary and dangerous regime currently occupying the White House.

The November elections are beginning to look more and more like D-Day, June 6, 1944 -- a days of days when Allied forces hit the beaches to begin liberating a continent from the bootheel of oppression and darkness.

What's more important, asks Lloyd Marcus, the color of your skin, the color of Obama's skin, or your commitment to Christ?

That's the word from CBS's Bob Schieffer, of the formerly mainstream media.

This cartoon by Michael Ramirez spotlights why the services of the attorney general of the United States are no longer required and Mr. Eric Holder has "got to go."

It would be nice to have government in Washington that read, respected, and obeyed the laws of this land, as written -- beginning with, let us say, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. 

This is what good public servants are supposed to do.

Bad public servants, however, have not the time for such trifling. Bad public servants view the Declaration and Constitution as distractions.

This is why not only Mr. Holder but also the entire unconstitutional Obama regime has got to go.

The American people must uproot this regressive weed and replace it with the Tree of Liberty once again planted in the soil of freedom.

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

In "Mystery of Barack Obama Continues," Steve Baldwin writes at the Western Center for Journalism:

Everywhere one looks into Obama’s background, we find sealed records, scrubbed websites, altered documents, deception and unanswered questions.

Can anyone imagine for a second if John McCain or George Bush had blocked access to his school, medical, and birth records?  It would have been headlines but as with everything else concerning Obama, the media has given him a pass on this.

Of all these marvels, the latest mystery and probably most perplexing is that of Obama’s social security number. It appears that Obama has multiple identities in term of possessing numerous social security numbers. . . .

All told, there are 49 addresses and 16 different Social Security numbers listed for a person whose name is spelled “Barack Obama.” In some cases, the middle initial “H” is listed.

If you were to expand the search to include closely related names such as: “Barac,” “Barak,” and “Barrack” Obama, you would find more than a dozen additional addresses and Social Security numbers. . . .

[T]he one Social Security number Obama most frequently used, the one beginning with 042, is a number issued in Connecticut sometime during 1976-1977, yet there is no record of Obama ever living or working in Connecticut. Indeed, during this time period Obama would have been 15-16 years old and living in Hawaii at the time.

Hat Tip: Lynn Campbell

"The Rev. Franklin Graham, who last month was officially 'dis-invited' by the Army to speak at a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the Pentagon for statements he made about Islam, said he will not back down in preaching the Gospel as he sees it," reports CNSNews.com. 

"'We’re living in a time where we cannot compromise, we cannot back up, we cannot retreat,' Graham said Wednesday during a live Webcast from the Washington, D.C. offices of the Family Research Council," according to CNSNews.

Related
Prayer at the Pentagon
Franklin Graham: Obama "Giving Islam a Pass," Warns of Persecution

"The question has to be asked, now that a second YouTube video has surfaced in which Michelle Obama refers to her husband as 'a Kenyan'," writes Thomas Lifson at American Thinker.

"Virgil Goode has joined the Constitution Party," writes W. James Antle III at American Spectator.

Obama's moral relativism, says Star Parker, places him at odds with the "whole unique idea of American government." And it leads to a "political arbitrariness in which our lives and property are up for grabs."

Venerating even the great Ronald Reagan will not fix what ails America, argues John W. Truslow III at American Thinker, because the "current political structure is broken." And "if the construction of the political system remains the same, then the outputs of that system will remain the same."

Therefore, Truslow writes, fixing what's broken requires more than a "three-part preoccupation with establishing a permanent majority, the cult of personality (including the veneration of President Reagan), and dubious tactics to secure required ends."

This preoccupation, he writes, "is a postmodern perversion of conservatism," and it distracts "from the core values that make conservatives critical to the sustainability of society."

"The latest wobbler is Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware," writes W. James Antle III at American Spectator, who is joining "fellow Republican wobbler Mark Kirk" to run for the Senate.

Democrat Rep. Barney Frank may not run again, according to radio talk show host Laura Ingraham.

Speaking on her show moments ago, Ingraham says the word from a source deep in local Massachusetts politics is that Frank is eyeing retirement from office and is seeking a position at a bank.

AP Reports:

Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan tells The Associated Press he'll retire from Congress rather than seek a 10th term this year.

Stupak has drawn stinging criticism from opponents of the recently enacted health care overhaul after leading a bloc of anti-abortion Democrats whose last-minute support was crucial to its approval by the House.

In "Republicans Against Repeal,"  W. James Antle, III, writes at American Spectator:

Well, that didn't take long. After Democratic supermajorities rammed through their health care bill, Republicans were full of sound and fury about how this injustice will not stand. Even John McCain was on board, telling a television interviewer, "Outside the Beltway the American people are very angry and they don't like it and we are going to try to repeal this."

But in the GOP, cooler heads always prevail. What these Republican heads want to cool down is the campaign to repeal the health care takeover. Reports the Associated Press: "Top Republicans are increasingly worried that GOP candidates this fall might be burned by a fire that's roaring through the conservative base: demand for the repeal of President Barack Obama's new health care law."

Among those top Republicans are Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who "initially unfurled the 'repeal and replace' banner, only to quickly make an exception for the 'non-controversial stuff'," and "was later seen pouring cold water on the idea entirely."

Mr. Cornyn, anything in Obamacare not authorized by the U.S. Constitution is wielded by the hand of tyranny and is by definition controversial.

Then there's the defeatist remark of Sen. Bob Corker of Tenn.: "It's just not going to happen."

Mr. Corker, repeal and replace is "not going happen" only if people such as you volunteer to surrender to the forces of imposition and unfreedom. If you listen to America per se, you will learn what what's "not going to happen" is preemptive surrender to Washington-centric tyranny.

And don't forget former braveheart Rep. Mark Kirk, "who bravely vowed to 'lead the effort' to repeal the bill. Now he glumly tells a local newspaper, 'Well, we lost'."

Mr. Kirk, there's a difference between "we lost," and being a loser. Buck up, man. Get in the fight. Or else go find a pasture and nibble on federally supplied grass for the rest of your life.

This is why a movement such as the Tea Party -- the "New Resistance" -- must prevail over the impractical "pragmatic" philosophy of those, including "top Republicans," who seem inadequately committed to the rules for freedom, as expressed in the Declaration and Constitution. 

"What the New Resistance senses is that neither the single-minded secularism of the Democrats nor the double-minded imbalance of the Republicans is an adequate foundation for freedom, whether we are talking about July 1776, March 2010 or 100 years from now," I wrote in "How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War."

For the Republican Party, this hour is another "Time for Choosing."

America today is faced with a threat to her existence that is perhaps more significant than any external attack by military forces from abroad since our Founding, including the devastation of Pearl Harbor and the cruel terror of 9/11.

In this our time of choosing, the GOP must either embrace the vision-for-freedom that energizes the enduring American mainstream, or not be surprized that freedom-loving Americans do not follow you over the cliff into oblivion, Kool-Aid land, disintegration, and the wrong side of human freedom and dignity under God.

My hope is that Republicans wake up to reaffirm who they are in their national identity and who they are in their human identity: Human beings created to resist evil, to fight for good, to demand justice, and to live exceptionally whole lives against any tyranny upon the mind and body and life of man.

And after Republicans wake up, they can share with Democrats the wisdom of not jumping off the cliff.

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state of Nevada is expected today to join 15 other states that have filed suit to challenge the constitutionality of Obamacare," writes Connie Hair at Human Events.

Easter Sunday marks the "day Christians believe Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, and 78 percent of Americans share that belief," according to a new Rasmussen poll, as reported by Newsmax yesterday.

This is positive news, but perhaps not entirely so. Because "belief" today is a very weak sister of the concrete and wholistic spiritual strength required of the human being at all times, but especially so in a day such as ours, so harmed by the impact of secularism upon the modern world.   

Note: The information we have from eyewitnesses is that the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is not a matter of private faith but of public fact. It is based on empirical evidence, not on private hopes and dreams. And it is part of a public orientation that has positive and humane implications for all of life, including media, science, politics, creativity, and fulfilling personal relationships.

Merely private hopes and dreams belong to pie-in-the-sky secularists such as Barack Obama, who is running around the country using emotionalism and sales gimmicks to sell (or otherwise impose) the old-time religion of socialist political mythology to the American people. Free-thinkers "red and yellow, black and white" -- all of them created in the image of God -- demand evidence and are willing to follow the evidence wherever it might lead. Even if Marx, Engels, Rev. Wright, and Preacher Obama are offended.

In stark contrast to cults of politics is the realism of the information we have from eyewitnesses of the empirically empty tomb and the empiricaly available Man from Nazareth who was alive at point A, dead as a doornail at point B, and alive again at point C. None of this is a matter of the privatized, nonbiblical, and inhumane concept of "faith" expected so much in politics, in extremist religion, and in other expressions of the secular kneejerk believism so prevalent in big city anti-existence today. 

The fact of the empirical resurrection in space and time challenges every mere belief system, no matter how large its mailing list -- or how mighty the star power of its A-List celebrity lineup. That kind of fact is superior to groundless religiousity which neverthess is an effective tool politicians employ to win friends, manipulate enemies, "heal" nations, and overthrow governments.

If 78% of Americans ever affirm and live by the resurrection as the fact of history that it is, the various regimes of pretend messiahs setting up shop in Washington, D.C., will be done with. There is but one fact-based risen Messiah, and despite what extremist fundraising letters and formerly mainstream media outlets tell you, he does not live in the White House. A manger in Bethlehem is more his style, and besides, the White House is too small in spirit.

Life lived in community with God and neighbor has little use for the merely religious, for the hardshell secularist afraid to let the faithful think for themselves outside the peer-approved political box, or for other pretenders walking to and fro, seeking whom they might devour in our moment of history.

That's what the real Resurrection is all about: The space-time facticity of life after death. Something physically shocking yet biologically reasonable as an effect the Creator and originator of life would be able to pull off because he has the power of animating being within himself. 

This scandalizes the dogma of the secularist, who when not imposing his private religion upon society is counting the number of atoms dancing atop the tip of meaninglessness. Better to grab ahold of the empirically verifiable Nazarene alive from the dead, if you too would live free and think whole.

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Dan Weil writes at Newsmax:

Rush Limbaugh is striking back at President Barack Obama.

On Friday, the nation's top-rated radio host hit back at Obama, saying the president isn’t telling the truth and doesn't have the support of the American people.

The controversy started Thursday, when Obama used an interview with CBS' Harry Smith to level a broadside at Limbaugh and Fox News host Glenn Beck.

Smith asked Obama if he is “aware of the level of enmity that crosses the airwaves and that people have made part of their daily conversation" about him, including being called a Nazi and socialist.

Obama shot back, "Well, I think that when you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, it's pretty apparent, and it's troublesome, but keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out."

Timing Is Everything: Anybody noticing that "incivility" news has suddenly racheted up lately, just in time to change the subject away from Obamacare tyranny?

How would you answer the question below?

The most pernicious anti-Americanism today originates in which of the following?

a) Ahmadinejad's Iran
b) Chavez's Venezuela
c) Obama's White House

Jeannie DeAngelis observes at American Thinker that Barack Obama in seeking the presidency "disguised" himself as a "herald of unanimity," but the man in the flesh in office reveals himself as a despiser of resistance to his agenda to "fundamentally transform" America. 

Obama ascended to office upon a pledge to "enforce a new tone in politics," DeAngelis writes, but "the president instead infused life into the political arena with unprecedented cynicism and unmatched condescension."

DeAngelis concludes, "The president of the 'United' States has instigated a new level of partisansip and breathed dissension into a political fight poised to extend far beyond the arena where blood sport was once safely confined."

Lesson of the day: Obama comes not to heal, but to conquer. He has to, for his worldview is in essential alienation from that of the mainstream mission statement of the United States as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, which Obama has taken an oath to uphold.

Talk of bi-partisanship and healing is pleasant. But it is a distraction from what truly animates this politician and is a diversion from understanding the fundamentally un-American, inhumane, and unfree direction in which he is trying to force our nation to follow, against the Constitution, against the presidential oath of office, and against the consent of "We the People."

America per se resists this alien imposition, and no one should be suprised that this resistance Obama "the healer" hates. Talk of bipartisanship and healing is the hype that lets the enemy inside the gates.

"The week after passing landmark healthcare reform and handing President Barack Obama an important victory, members of the U.S. Congress returned to their home districts for a recess to face constituents and justify their votes after the bruising legislative battle," reports Reuters.

"While Obama made flying visits across the country to tout the new legislation," the Reuters story continues, "a number of key Democrats, who led the charge for healthcare reform, seemed to keep a low profile and are doing little to beat the drum."

Secularized liberal theologians such as Obama's "Red" Rev. Jim Wallis not only misread the Bible, they don't need it.

Except perhaps as a book of emotional "value symbols" to be mined, proof-texted, and manipulated to baptise the political agendas of Marx, Alinsky, and Obama.

Just like liberal ideological corruption does with the "living" U.S. Constitution.

In contrast to verifiable and wholistic information from the real Creator, theirs is a secularized, bifurcated religiousity of snake oil bottled as "social justice."

It finds a home in what Francis Schaeffer described as the "upper story," a construct of human consciousness where "faith" and meaning are affirmed but blindly so, because they are alienated from facts, reason, and history (the "lower story").

Secularists -- religious or otherwise -- locked up inside the "upper story" are therefore estranged from experiencing the unitary wholeness of what it means to be an integrated human being. Perhaps this is one reason they are so frustrated by life.

There are well-meaning people, some of them very bright, who end up situated in the "upper story" inadvertantly. But it is also a home to sneering fanatics and ideologues in media, government, politics, and Hollywood -- the opiate of pseudo-intellectuals at war with "nature and nature's God."

Both classes of people must be loved. But in addition to love, the second class of people must also be resisted. For they are dangerous.

Religious fantacism combined with political fanaticism sometimes does not end well.

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As Obamacare "reform" demonstrates, the Obama government is on the wrong side of the facts, reason, the Declaration, and the Constitution.

This suggests a few basic questions:

* Why give this White House and its enablers the benefit of the doubt?

* Why give it and its enablers any credibility whatsoever?

* Why assume that it and its enablers are dealing with the American people in a way that is honest and straightforward on a whole host of issues -- from the Tea Party to abortion to taxes to national defense?

These questions go to the heart of living free for any people who would keep government in its place as a public servant instead of out of place a public enemy.

By its own behavior, by its own incendiary rhetoric, by its own policies, by its own philosophy of control, by its own hatred of things Constitutional and Declarational -- the Obama administration dares the American people to rise up, resist, improvise, and overcome.

The history of the world is replete with evidence for why "We the People" people should not place our faith in "It the Government." Especially in government that sets itself up as deity, as an idol to which we are now forced, by arbitrary "law" -- just like the U.S. Constitution does not say -- to bring our tithes and offerings and taxes and sweat and children.

This idol, we are told, loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

It promises milk and honey.

All you have to do is fall down and worship.

All you have to do is prostitute your time, sacrifice your humanity, and sell your soul. And by the way, signing away the future of your children to feed government greed here and now is also part of the deal.

In return, all power is yours. In return, all ability to transform, redeem, equalize, and heal America is yours. Finally, you can be proud. You can be as God.  

Yes. We can refuse. And face fines. And face jail time. And who knows what we shall face in the future if we anger this capricious idol and its cult of followers?

The house of Obama is a fundamentally dishonest regime that has broken faith with the American people in our national identity and in our human identity.

But what if Obama is sincere? Then he embraces the policies of a fool. If he is not sincere, he expresses the philosophy of a tryant.

Meanwhile, we live as aliens in a strange land, as partisans for liberty in occupied territory.

Surely, there is a better way than government on high. A way not at war with the freedom and dignity of man created in the image of God.

The realism of the Founders helped them understand the difference between trusting in God, a Creator who gives the blessings of liberty, and trusting in government, a creature which takes them away.

The result? A City on a Hill.

Perfection? Far from it.

And yet still: A City on a Hill. With the people of the world drawn to her gates, clamoring to get inside.

If in this generation we forget that lesson of freedom in history, we can forget seeing freedom in the the history of the next.

Surely, there is a better way.

Speaking of militas, is it not rather suspicious that both Rush and Mark were away from their microphones during the timeframe of the raid on that militia group with suspected members in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio? MSNBC might want to know.

And why the media blackout on the possible connections between Levin and Limbaugh and these militia groups? Very suspicious. All the writers at Huffington Post might like to know.

There is, of course, an eerie lack of evidence regarding any such connections (or regarding incendiary spitting on tyrannical Congressmen, for that matter, but that's a different line of linguistic smear), so clearly Congress must investigate. Comrade Waxman and Marxine Waters stand ready to speak truth to powerlessness.

Meanwhile, Christian Sarah Palin has some explaining to do. All too soon after her incendiary post on her Facebook page, and then her Tea Party talk in Nevada about freedom -- right in Harry Reid's backyard (talk about a provocation! He's a senator!) -- news emerges that a mere 2,000 or so miles away, the FBI stopped wild-eyed militia hillbillies "preparing for battle with the anti-Christ" just in the nick of time.

With drama like this, we may not miss "24." And clearly, more importantly, with all this dot-connecting, we know exactly who the bad guys are.

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"Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin had some harsh words for her detractors in the health care debate with a thinly veiled, March Madness-themed Facebook post in which she declared, 'never retreat, instead RELOAD!'" reports Newsmax.

And, of course, the usual suspects are in a tizzy. And right on schedule. Day in and day out.  

Here's what's really happening: Democrats and mediacrats are doing their best to shut up, demonize, and destroy this strong American woman. And, by implication, to shut up the millions upon millions of freedom-loving Americans that her refusal to bow before the enfeebling Washington-centric status quo represents. And also, by implication, to destroy ("transform") that "vision-for-freedom" that her great refusal to submit to this gang of bullies also represents.

She's effective, she's not backing down, and she affirms the fundamentals of American freedom as enshrined in the Declaration and Constitution. And we can't have that!

These Palin-haters despise real freedom -- rooted in a Creator who gives the "blessings of liberty" -- but they cannot, at this time, actually come out and say so. Not because they don't believe the collectivist gospel and and have drunk deeply from the socialist Kool-Aid, but because the American public alerted to the real designs of these tyrants would rise up to throw the horse and rider into the sea.

But yes, this expressed concern about hate, about "ugly politics," and about "incendiary rhetoric" is utter hypocrisy.

But it's worse than that: The "masters" of media and Washington couldn't care less about a matter so trifling as "hypocrisy" or "double standards." That's the old, defeatist way of thinking. These radicals have evolved!

What we're really seeing in attacks on Palin, the Tea Party, and so on, is a consistent strategy of oppression, of which charges of "ugliness," "hate," and "incendiary rhetoric" are but tools to impose a "transformed," radicalized dark will-to-power upon the people of the United States. 

These tools are wielded as weapons in an attempt to get you and me and our families to play by the rules of radicals who prefer a cakewalk to imposing control over our lives rather than face public exposure and opposition for their anti-American and inhumane march through our country.

And speaking of hate, I would reiterate what I've said on Facebook and Twitter: "Notice that so much of what Obama says and does is an expression of hatred for the Declaration and Constitution."

And speaking of ugly, he mars and scars the Constitution. And speaking of incendiary, he sets the Declaration to flames.

And oh how he sneers and scolds when the people resist the destruction of liberty. My, how silly we are, clinging to our Constitution and Declaration, clinging to our freedom and to "nature and nature's God."

But it's not just Obama, it's also his co-abusers and his co-enforcers in injustice in Hollywood, media, the academy, and so-called "social justice" religionists. For these too, so much of what they say and do is an expression of hatred for the Declaration and Constitution.

This you tyrants should know: Sarah Palin's crossover dribble is the least of your worries. Team America is taking the floor.

Obama and the Democrats have already shown they are willing to kill others as part of their agenda -- that is a real-world lesson of abortion in America. In many respects, what hinders them is not morality, but fear of a political and moral backlash.

If these Jacobin ideologues of inhumanity are willing to kill "the least of these" (which itself has been justified by a decades-long propaganda campaign), it is wise to consider that even more propaganda, and as much violence as they think they can get away with in the present social climate, is a real possibility.

Just because these folks are in government, wear suits and ties, and are surrounded by the pomp of office, it does not necessarily follow that they are good people, sincere people.

But note, even sincere people can be co-opted by evil. And if you are going to co-opt freedom, it's very important to appear sincere.

As a matter of principle, freedom-minded people should question authority and question those in authority, no matter who they are.

Neither trust in God nor trust in government is meant to be a blind leap into the dark. That's for cults, whether political, religious, or scientific.

"Test everything," one the other hand, is utterly Biblical, humane, and central to who we are as Americans and as human beings. It is one of the blessings and responsibilities of liberty called for by the Creator.

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"A new survey shows a political 'maelstrom' brewing in the U.S. that threatens not only Democrats in power but Republicans who have the tag 'incumbent' attached to their name," reports WorldNetDaily.

Not only must the "bums" be thrown out of office, but more importantly, the unconstitutional and anti-Declarational philosophy of the bums must be thrown out with them as well.

These must be replaced by people of tested character who do not just reject the "rules for radicals" but who also self-consciously affirm the rules of freedom and the liberating "vision-for-freedom" that grounds the American Experiment, as set forth in the founding documents and in the founding worldview.

The following is from a column published today at WorldNetDaily: 

Despite what has been reported in the formerly mainstream media, the New Resistance in America – the tea parties, the town halls, protests on Capitol Hill and so on – is to be welcomed and not cast aside as "extreme." The "angry mobs" and "unruly crowds" are actually signs of health, sanity and hope.

What these uppity folk are telling us is that, despite years of miseducation and inattention, millions of ordinary people have not forgotten who they are as Americans. Even more, this resistance suggests that significant numbers of Americans may be on a path to rediscovering something rather exceptional.

By "exceptional" is meant not just who they are in their national identity, but who they are as creatures of resistance, hardwired that way by the Creator himself. And to the degree that this New Resistance succeeds, to that degree prospects are increased for victory in the cultural and political war for human freedom and human dignity.

This column is based on a presentation I gave near Charleston, S.C., at Awakening 2010 earlier this year, edited here for publication.

* March 27, 2010, Update: For related content from November 2009, please see "What Is Mainstream America?"

From CNSNews.com:

In a preview of his book Conservative Victory—Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda, due to be released Monday, Sean Hannity said of the policies President Barack Obama has been pursuing: “If you look up the dictionary definition of socialism, this is it.”

Here is the full quote from Hannity:

Obama is a socialist. If you take over banks, if you take over car companies, if you take over financial institutions, the way that he has--now the health care system. If you're going to use every crooked deal that you can come up with to get a bill like that passed--most recently the health care bill--that is by definition, if you look up the dictionary definition of socialism, this is it.

Hannity made his observation during a video interview with Terry Jeffrey, editor in chief of CNSNews.com. 

The Left "has declared war on the American people," writes Ann Kane at American Thinker. "How will we respond?"

As Churchill did in his day (don't miss Kane's full quote from the man) in defiance of fascist aggressors against freedom? Or as Obama and the Demofascist aggressors against freedom today would have us respond?

Kane reminds us that "Obama removed a bust of Churchill from the White House upon his arrival last year, and sent it back to England whence it came."  

Surely, this Atlantic rearranging is an accident of history, some in the collaborationist media might suggest.

On the other hand, a bust of Churchill is not the kind of real-world reminder you want around in the midst of a blitzkrieg against freedom in America.

Speaking of sending things away, where can we send Obama?

Conn Carroll writes at The Foundry, the blog of the Heritage Foundation:

Another day, two new polls showing the American people are strongly against the health care plan President Barack Obama will sign into law today.

According to CNN, 59% of Americans oppose President Obama’s plan.

And according to CBS News, 48% of Americans oppose the plan (with 33% in strong opposition) compared to only 37% who support it (with only 13% in strong support).

Digging deeper into the CBS poll, we find that 76% of Americans disapprove of how Congress is handling its job on health care, 46% think Congress has spent too much time on health care, and 49% believe the rules and procedures used in Congress to get the current health care bill passed have been mostly unfair.

But the leftist majorities in Congress just do not care what the American people think.