Ever wondered what happened to the guy that was in charge during the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse debacle. Well obviously he is eyeing Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson's Senate seat in Texas, and getting help from Dems. The Former three star general Ricardo Sanchez stated in a press release on Monday, that he is considering running for the U.S. Senate in Texas as a democrat, and he even agreed that Democrats may have recruited him to force Republicans to pour money into the race.
Sanchez a self admitted "progressive", and Fiscal Conservative has stated that he will run as a democrat, not because of the push from the left to make its presence felt in the ever red state of Texas, but because of his upbringing in the border town of the Rio Grande City were he was born to poor Mexican parents. As reported on Chiron.com Sanchez stated that:
“The people need to hear the truth. . . . . They may not be receptive, they may not like it,” Sanchez said. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell the American people, and the people of Texas, what the truth is. . . .
“You can’t shy away from the difficult issues. You have to lay out the difficulties and the variables that must be changed to control the situation and to restore America’s and Texas’ greatness.”
“I came from a broken home. I attended public schools my entire time. My family was on welfare most of my days growing up here in Texas,” Sanchez said.“So I understand the processes, the challenges, the factors that play on our poor. I understand the despair and also the desire to succeed and to try to get out of poverty."
“And it’s about providing opportunity, and it’s not about blaming the people who are poor for being poor because of broken family structures or whatever,” he added. “It’s about being able to give them that opportunity that will break the cycle of poverty, give them the education they need to be able to open those doors that will make them successful.
“It’s about reinforcing family values that help America across the board and also allows us to reinforce the greatness of the country.”
The facts are that Texas is getting younger, and the Hispanic population is on the rise. Which Sanchez knows will give him a slight edge over the GOP front runner Texas LT.Governor David Dewhurst.
“Both of those groups have been pretty favorable to Democrats recently,” he said. “Obviously, the caution for them is they don’t know when in the future it’s going to cross over and become a competitive state. Right now, it’s still a Republican state.”
On paper Sanchez looks strong except his decision making ability, and willingness to bend the rule to fit his needs. In 2004 accounts of torture taking place in Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq were released. Picture depicting prisoner with leashes around there necks, and being stacked on top of one another nude were seen in the press. In 2004 Washington Post reported that documents clearly stated what tactics were to be used, but the then General saw the need for very little oversight in implementing the interrogation tactics used on prisoners in Abu Ghraib.
"One of the documents, an Oct. 9 memorandum on "Interrogation Rules of Engagement," which each military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib was asked to sign, sets out in detail the wide range of pressure tactics approved in September and available before the rules were changed on Oct. 12. They included methods that were close to some of the behavior criticized this March by the Army's own investigator, who said he found evidence of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuse" at the prison.
The document states that the list of tactics in the memorandum is derived from a Sept. 10, 2003, "Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy" approved by Combined Joint Task Force-7, which Sanchez directs. While the document states that "at no time will detainees be treated inhumanely nor maliciously humiliated," it permits the use of yelling, loud music, a reduction of heat in winter and air conditioning in summer, and "stress positions" for as long as 45 minutes every four hours -- all without first gaining the permission of anyone more senior than the "interrogation officer in charge" at Abu Ghraib.
Why would Americans want another politican to feel the need to make life changing decisions for them without actually hearing what the people wanted, or deceiving them all together. Although Sanchez has pulled himself from the depths of poverty to rise to the heights of becoming a Three Star General. A man still has to be judge by his actions, and Sanchez's actions cost many their careers, respect, and altered lives forever for the worst not only for the Abu Ghraib Prisoners, but the American Soldiers under his command.
We have all had a little giggle over the stories of the fraudulent voter registration application filed in the name of Mickey Mouse in Florida, or the the applications being filed in the names of individuals, who some have been deceased for 10 years. The reality of the situation is that with the utter imbecility of these cases there are just as many of them that we never hear about,and that is were one of the most sacred, and honored institution in America is being tarnished. If the American political electoral system becomes a free for all where fictitious characters, and even the deceased are able to cast votes then essential any election can be bought for the right price.
In Texas' Harris County the King Street Patriots Tea Party headed by Catherine Engelbrecht, has rolled out the True to Vote initiative which provides Tea Parties not only in Harris County, but nation wide the resources to ward off the widely known flaws in America's electoral process. In March of this year King Street Patriots held the True to Vote Summit, were activist from 27 states attend to hear of the trials Kings Street faced in the 2010 elections, and how instrumental it was to maintain voter integrity not only in Texas, but throughout the entire nation. With the unveiling of tactics used by the left to sully the American election system, and the proven efforts used by Tea Parties to seal the cracks, the movement is spreading throughout the country. On Saturday April, 30th The Wisconsin campaign for Liberty Annual Conference is being held in Rothschild, Wisconsin. Where activist training will be held on voter fraud, and voter registration. The training will provide information on voter laws, and GOTV efforts that can be implemented to close the ever widening voter fraud gaps in the system.
In comparison to the Lefts' GOTV efforts, the right has become the grandmother that refuses to let go of her rotary phone because using a cordless phone just seemed wrong. With the George Soros, Ford Foundations, and Herb & Marion Sandlers of the world throwing seemingly endless amounts of cash at the left, It begs the question who is burden with the brunt of the rights' GOTV activities. As of late its has been the grassroot Tea Parties who have taken it upon themselves to implement the GOTV measures. Private blue collar citizens' find ways to volunteer there time, to either register voters or even be poll watchers.
The god giving liberties that we as American have a right to, also come with the responsibility to fight, and safeguard those liberties when others will devalue and corrode them until they are rendered useless. For some the responsibilty of this fight is an honor an privilege to have.
I am here in sunny Houston, Texas attending the opening night of the True The Vote Summit and what a night it has been. We heard some inspiring speeches for this sold out event, saw some interesting attendees, and met an awful lot of great folks.
It has been thrilling to see several hundred handpicked Tea Partiers and local concerned citizens from 27 states here to learn how they, too, can stop vote fraud in their own districts using the methods learned the hard way in 2010 by the King Street Patriots here in Harris County, Texas.
You might recall back in Sept. of 2010 when the KSPers discovered an ACORN guy that had registered over 23,000 fake voters for the 2010 elections here in Texas. That was only the beginning of their efforts to root out vote fraud in one of the most corrupt Democrat controlled areas in the state.
Tonight we heard from True The Vote Chief Catherine Engelbrecht, former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, the Heritage Foundation's Hans Von Spakovsky, ACORN Whistle blower and American Majority Rep Anita MonCreif. All gave us spellbinding tales of vote fraud and how important it is to stop. Also in attendance was former Senate candidate from Alaska Joe Miller, RNC Chair candidate Saul Anuzis, and many others.
Tomorrow we'll hear from John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, J. Christian Adams who blew the whistle on the Obama administration's refusal to prosecute the Black Panthers in Philadelphia, and the boss himself Andrew Breitbart -- and I even get some podium time to speak on using new media.
What follows is the encapsulated thrust of the messages we heard tonight.
Catherine Engelbrecht
Head of The King Street Patriots and True The Vote Catherine Engelbrecht
The night began with a few words from the chief cook and bottle washer of the King Street Patriots and the True The Vote effort, the Texas dynamo Catherine Englebrecht.
She warned us that, "across the country we have an epidemic low level of Americans participating at the polls." This is one thing that TTV is aimed at solving. To get Americans interested in the process is their goal.
"The underpinning of True The Vote is not the 'sizzle' of vote fraud," Engelbrecht said, "but it's the integrity of our voting process and that is the key focus."
The one thing that concerned me most was the fact that so many people have said that they just accept fraud as a part of the system. The underpinning of our system is the integrity of the vote, that our voices are heard.
Engelbrecht told us that those that the King Street Patriots invited to speak at this summit of concerned citizens were chosen, "because they each represent a small piece of the troubles that vote fraud and the system is facing."
The next speaker was ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief, herself a tireless advocate for a fair, balanced, and free election process. And she knows exactly how crooked the left is in its efforts to initiate vote fraud, too. She used to work for ACORN and saw it all first hand.
Anita MonCrief
MonCrief spoke and told us of her history with ACORN where she discovered that they spent $28 million in 2004 from people like George Soros to register voters yet it was all fraud. "It was all smoke and mirrors," she said. ACORN was picking up fake ballots from fraudulent voters numbering in the thousands in hopes of pushing John Kerry over the top. When that didn't work they ramped it up even bigger for 2008.
In 2008 that effort worked. "ACORN is not just one organization," she warned us. "There are over 300 organizations that came together to put Obama into the White House in 2008.
Some of the things Anita saw would have violated the RICO statutes if anyone bothered to prosecute ACORN for its fraud.
ACORN also doesn’t really care about “the little people” and that is one of the main reasons she turned against the crooked organization. Each and every year ACORN employees are going to jail for vote fraud but ACORN would always successfully pawn this fact off as the fault of "rogue employees," MonCrief marveled. ACORN never backed up the people they hired and always threw them to the wolves. And all these lower level employees were lied to, told that they deserved things from the government because of slavery or evil white oppressors. Then if they didn't buy that line, ACORN just paid them off to do the left’s bidding.
MonCrief told us that the machinery of our system is such that when it is close it only takes a few votes here and there to pull the election in the left's direction. And we need to stop this left-wing, vote-stealing engine.
But MonCrief had a ray of hope for us. "They are terrified of what we are doing with True The Vote because this is the first time they have faced this sort of opposition. What you are doing here is something the left never thought the right could get done."
Hans Von Spakovsky
Next up was Hans Von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Elections Commission and the Justice Dept., a man who saw mounting fraud first hand. He's also seen the Clinton and Obama administrations refuse to prosecute it.
Von Spakovsky told us some hair-raising tales of Democrat administrations that ignored endemic fraud throughout the country. But he also warned us that courts and prosecution can't "fix" the system.
It is important not just to vote but to protect the integrity of the whole system. Criminal prosecution is simply not enough stop vote fraud it takes us all to get involved.
Like Anita, Von Spakovsky told us that it is in close elections when voter fraud is most useful for the left. And they flood the field with fraud in hopes of being ready for those close elections.
He also spoke on how successful voter ID laws have been. They are just common sense. But he also told us that the left's argument against these laws is built on outright lies.
The claim that photo ID would depress the minority vote is unproven by the facts on the ground. In Georgia and Indiana -- the two states with the toughest ID laws -- the voter photo ID laws showed record turnouts were not prevented in the 2008 primary when Obama ran for president. Voting doubled for minorities in many of these areas. Indiana has the strictest voter ID law in the nation, yet in 2008 the voters quadrupled in the sate in 2008 with the photo ID law in place.
"The most important thing you can do to stop this," Von Spakovsky said, "is to work as an election judge in elections. If you are an election judge you can stop this fraud at the source. If you do that you are doing the best thing to protect the integrity of our election system."
We want to make sure that EVERYONE who is eligible to vote gets to vote. But was also want to make sure that the votes of those eligible voters don't have their vote stolen by fraud and that their votes count.
Finally we heard from former Senator from Minnesota Norm Coleman, a man who understands vote fraud intimately because he lost his seat in the senate by endemic Democrat vote fraud.
Norm Coleman
First of all, Coleman was very pleased with the efforts of TTV.
True The Vote is moving in the right direction. You are helping decide what is happening at the polls and this may seem a small thing but it is a great thing. The political games played with our elections should be of concern to every American.
Coleman gave us two examples where a single vote made a history changing difference, both involving himself. When he was elected as a Senator George W. Bush was able to put through the candidacy of John Roberts as Supreme Court Chief Justice. Previous to Coleman's election, Robert's nomination died in committee. Roberts got in because Coleman became the one Republican Senator at the time that encouraged Bush to push the nomination again. One vote put John Roberts at the Supreme Court. Not but a few years later when Coleman lost to Al Franken due to massive vote fraud, Obamacare was passed with the one vote of Franken, the 60th supermajority vote. That one vote gave us Obamacare.
"One vote counts and we need to make sure the votes are legitimate," he said.
Coleman told us the horror story of Minneapolis. In 19 districts in Minneapolis there were more votes than actual voters and that sort of vote fraud elected Franken to the Senate.
He wrapped up with some recommendations on how we can fix this system.
What can you do to make sure that the vote has integrity. Number one, pass a voter ID law. Voting is the most important part of the underpinning of our nation. Folks died to insure that all Americans could vote. Aren't we making a mockery of those that died to insure a legal, fair election by allowing massive vote fraud?
Coleman reminded us of a stark reality. In some places, he said, in order to use a credit card at a McDonald's you need a photo ID. “If you need a photo ID to buy a Big Mac you should need a photo ID to vote,” he insisted.
Another way to ensure the integrity of the vote is to get more of us to the polls as election judges. Election judges "are on the front line making sure that the elections are true and fair," Coleman said. "That is why I am humbled at what True The Vote is doing. You will put these judges on the front lines."
Whatever you do, do something. More directly do your part! I'm asking you to sacrifice just some of your time on election day. NOW is the time to start this because 2012 is coming soon. Do your part to keep this great republic vibrant.
Senator Coleman finished up by saying we should live our lives as if the world is in a balance and our own actions will tip the scales. As patriots we should do our part to make sure our system is a fair and free process.
More reports tomorrow evening after the training sessions and other speakers.
Senator Norm Coleman and Warner Todd Huston
SFormer GOP Senate Candidate for Alaska Senate Joe Miller picking the drawing winner
Patriots and activists from 23 states are about to gather together on March 25 and 26 in Houston, Texas to attend the True The Vote Summit, an effort to make "true" the electoral system in every polling place in the country, to stop voter fraud, and to quash the intimidation of voters. Organizers hope to make sure that we again have free and fair elections.
A local Harris County activist group named The The King Street Patriots built the True The Vote Summit upon their experiences of attempting to “true” the 2010 election in Harris County, Texas.
Back before the recent election, the KSP got together to try and find out what sort of shape the voting rolls were in Harris County, Texas were. What they found was shocking. Due to its investigation, an ACORN organizer was exposed for having registered over 23,000 fake voters in the county. The story made national news.
With that success under their belts the KSPers and their chief Catherine Engelbrecht decided to step it up a notch. And so, during the 2010 midterm election, the group set out to organize citizen poll watchers to monitor every polling place in Harris County. The goal was to make sure that what went on in each polling place followed the letter of the law, was free of cheating and fraud, and was open and welcoming for every voter.
The attacks on the True The Vote Summit have also continued unabated by the left today. So we know how the left is worried about this movement. Vote fraud is almost exclusively practiced by Democrats and left-wing activists in this country, so an effort like this threatens their operations.
Despite all the attacks they underwent, the King Street Patriots were buoyed by their success in stopping vote fraud during the 2010 elections and with that experience to guide them they now want to offer their assistance and to relay the tools they’ve developed to stop vote fraud to any and every state in the union. The result is the True The Vote Summit to be held March 25 and 26 in Houston, Texas.
According to the event website:
Election fraud attacks the heart of our political system and threatens our rights as citizens.
When True the Vote began monitoring elections last fall in Houston, we were shocked at the fraud we discovered. Precinct judges often failed to check voters IDs, and some even filled out ballots to “help” people vote. These violations are just the tip of a very large and ugly iceberg.
If you are one of the millions of Americans outraged by corruption at the highest levels of our nation’s government, then you can help us stop fraud where it begins – at the polling place, in the precinct where you live, in the streets of your city.
If you care enough to help, contact us today to become part of our action plan. A commitment of just a few hours is all it takes to help restore truth and integrity to our elections.
Appearing to speak at the True The Vote National Summit will be New Media Mogul Andrew Breitbart, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund, former Dept. of Justice attorney and Philadelphia Black Panthers whistleblower J. Christian Adams, ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCreif, former FEC commissioner Hans Von Spakovsky and others.
If you are ready to do your duty as an American to, as in Ben Franklin’s warning, “have our Republic and keep it” make haste to sign up to join the True The Vote Summit this month.
Coming down the pipe in Texas's capitol city of Austin is an effort by the City's Human Rights Commission to establish a Teen Court:
The court system for youth in Travis County may not be operating in the best interest of those who find themselves caught up in it. The Austin Human Rights Commission is calling for city, county and school leaders to create an integrated youth court to deal with teens going through the legal system. Commission Chair Lisa Scheps says right now, the youth deal with six different court systems that have more than 25 judges. Scheps says now the teens just wind up back behind bars without ever breaking the cycle.
develop a strategic plan for strengthening courts and court practice in the child protection system;
identify and assess current and future needs for the courts to be more effective in achieving child-welfare outcomes of safety, permanency, well-being, fairness and due process;
promote best practices and programs that are data-driven, evidence-based and outcome-focused;
improve collaboration and communication among courts, the Department of Family and Protective Services, attorneys, and partners in the child-protection community;
endeavor to increase resources and funding needed for improvement and maximize the wise and efficient use of available resources;
promote adequate and appropiate training for all participants in the child protecxtion system;
institutionalize a collaborative model that will continue systemic improvement beyond the tenure of individual Commission members;
oversee the administration of designated funds, including the Court Improvement Program grants; and
provide an annual progress report to the Court.
As of this writing, there is no recent comment by the Austin Human Rights Commission regarding the effectiveness of the Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families.
590 KLBJ AM - Austin put out a soundbite where a spokesperson for the Human Rights Commission attempted to relate this to the arrests or incarceration of a disproportionate number of black or minority teens. Your humble blogger is still searching for the soundbyte.
Your humble blogger doesn't buy this for a moment, either.
This is an entrypoint for the left to introduce the "Rights of the Child" into the public forum. What a better way to do this than by raising a flag for kids no one cared enough to begin with to keep out of trouble.
For several years now, liberals have been trying to get the United States to become a signatore of the UN's Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). This has been on the Obama Administration's radar since last year. This may soon happen, as Obama had the United States join the UN's Human Rights Council after the Bush Administration refused to join as a sign of protest against the Council protecting human rights violators. Think of the long-arm of the law going beyond taking control of your healthcare. Not just state or federal law. International law.
The UN's CRC: a non-American, uniform way to raise children, including yours.
Think parenting and parental decisions and local and state court decisions in the best interest of the child as well. Usurped and aligned with an international law that would grant new rights to children that would include:
freedom of expression, thought, association, privacy, conscience, religion, a right to rest and leisure, and more. Full abortion and contraceptive rights are granted, even against the wishes of the parents.
That's just a sampling.
Here's another: over in Tennessee, there's a bill being considered that would evenly split custody in divorce cases "equally between moms and dads who are unable to agree unless one parent can prove the other utterly unfit."
It's a crappy bill based on a crappy idea:
Rep. Mike Bell, a Republican and the bill's key sponsor, said he introduced the bills after constituents' complaints and hopes it might encourage more parents to reconsider divorce.
So, with a roll of the dice and a laissez faire ruling, your child will end up being tossed between homes, exactly half the time, unless you can absolutely prove your ex-spouse is completely unfit to parent.
And if you prove they are unfit to parent, wouldn't you want to absolutely terminate parental rights? What would happen to your child support?
This potential Tennessee law is an example of the government involving itself in the decisions of the family and of parents.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child would be no different. In fact, it would be worse, because the you and I would have to follow the whims of an international (read: non-American) commission somewhere, possibly based in Amsterdam, who would decide our children would be best-suited to be raised "Euro style."
I'm not kidding. Research it, learn it. It's there.
Or check out Austin Human Rights Commission. Their city website is nothing spectacular to look at. They spend most of their energy polishing their social media.
They don't list the Rights of the Child as a human right they are particularly concerned with -- yet -- and up until now, they've spent most of their energy polishing their social media and their own website, in between, working on employment, housing, public ordinances issues related to equal rights.
And finding nice anti-Christian quotes that befit their ideals for theirFacebook:
"Before you echo 'Amen' in your home or place of worship, think and remember...a child is listening." — Mary Griffith [PFLAG DC's inspiration]
Will this be a quote our children will recite in place of biblical scripture? We would hope that sort of decision would always rest with parents, last and always.
After the March 2nd Texas primary, CNN proclaimed "Tea party changes tone, but not outcome of Texas primary." Politico's Jonathan Martin asks, "Is the tea party movement a paper tiger?" Locally, a San Angelo, Texas paper framed the result as "GOP incumbents held seats against Tea Party."
This is a classic straw man, and a dramatic misreading of the tea party's political objectives.
Somehow, national media types got it into their heads that the tea party movement was the magic elixer for the kinds of unknown, underfunded and largely unskilled candidates who run in every race to claim the mantle of "tea party candidate" and knock off incumbents. A perusal of the Texas results at the Congressional level shows that the over/under for random, unknown unchallengers (a/k/a "tea party candidates") to incumbents was about 14%. This is basically the "none of the above" vote that materializes in every primary. When a prohibitive frontrunner has a semi-credible challenger, the frontrunner usually wins 70-30. Even when the challenger is unknown or unacceptable, 15 or 20 percent is doable. Convicted felon Lyndon LaRouche got that in some Democratic primaries against Bill Clinton in '96.
Beyond that, the subtext is also that the tea party empowers uniquely conservative candidates, with Rubio/Crist as the model for every primary in the country.
Again, no.
It's clear that there is a lot more primary activity than there was in '06 and '08, largely because the prospects of getting elected as a Republican this year are so good. And in those primaries, proclaiming oneself a "tea party candidate" is about as fashionable as proclaiming oneself a "social media expert."
Going state by state and district by district, the case for conservative ascendancy in primaries is muddled at best. For every Rubio/Crist, there is a Mark Kirk walk-in-the-park. The '08 primaries showed that Republican primary voters are if nothing else pragmatic.
A few basic misconceptions underlie the expectation that the more conservative the primary candidate, the better their chances are at winning. And the main one is that conservatives are uniquely advantaged this year because the tea parties show the party is moving right.
This notion would require one to believe that the grassroots base of the GOP -- not its leaders, but its base -- was somehow un-conservative prior to '09 and '10. There's no evidence for that. Fueled by Rush Limbaugh and talk radio, 1994 was a conservative year. In fact, 1994 probably marked the end of the shift in the ascendancy of conservatives over moderates in Republican grassroots politics, a shift that started with Goldwater. Ever since '94, the ideological change within the Republican Party has been marginal at best.
What has changed in the last two years, is that Republicans are now unshackled from having to defend the Bush Administration and the mood of the country, and inside the Republican Party in particular, has grown more solidly anti-establishment. Those changes alone can explain the emergence of the tea party movement.
While the case for conservative ascendancy in primaries is muddled, what isn't muddled is this: run as the milquetoast candidate of the arrogant establishment, and you lose.
Practically every electorally relevant example points in this direction.
NY-23? Check.
Florida Senate? Check.
Massachusetts? Check.
Texas Governor? Check.
In Texas, the tea party candidate was not Debra Medina. It was Rick Perry, whose political fortunes were revived around the Tax Day tea parties last year. That points to a movement that is much more broadly relevant than the marginal nutjob candidacies that media is holding up as an example of the movement's failures. I know that one can point to Medina strength among the organizers -- and I've certainly played up the role Ron Paul's brigades have played in that effort -- but there is a convincing case that the rank-and-file attendees and their compatriots who followed from the radio dial or Fox News were solidly with Perry. And that's who matters when delivering votes in a primary, as opposed to a straw poll.
But more importantly, the movement was aligned against Kay Bailey Hutchison, who barely disguised her sense of entitlement at holding not one, but two statewide offices. Strike one was trying to elbow aside Perry with a blatant "It's my turn" appeal not to run again, and then going ahead with a challenge. Strikes two and three were the Texas Two-Step around resigning her office, which, quelle surprise, will likely end up with Hutchison holding on to public office against her word.
The KBH fall is of a piece with the staggering fall of "All About Charlie" Crist, who ran on a sense of entitlement before he finished the job voters elected him to do. Only a few words need to be said about Charlie Crist: pride before the fall.
And NY-23 was a similar case of an arrogant establishment attempting to oppose its will against that of primary voters, and getting pwned in the process.
Do you see a pattern here?
Yes, each of these cases was one of a "conservative" beating a "moderate" -- but each also had the essential ingredient of a particularly noxious stench of self-entitlement on the part of the losers.
As ever, public servants need to place the emphasis on the latter part of that title: servant. Those advantaged by a long career of winning elections need to be particularly humble and even servile to the will of the electorate, especially in this environment. Votes cannot be assumed. They must be earned.
There is no easy template for tea party victory in a Republican primary. Saying you are Marco Rubio does not make you Marco Rubio. Rubio's success is due as much to Crist's arrogance and the movement-like aura Rubio has been able to build around himself as it is to a simple ideological contrast. Those whose job it is to run and win elections quickly learn that attributes -- those pesky personal qualities like honesty, integrity, intelligence, and authenticity -- matter a whole lot more than issues, even in primaries. This is not diminish the importance of principle but to acknowledge the reality that it alone is not enough, and having a good, plausible candidate, campaign, and message still matters a whole lot.
Personal opinion aside, one comment on this site has me irked about the chances that Barak Obama has in the 2012 elections. Why? Glenn Beck had a demonstration Tuesday on his TV program using a pair of caskets. The demonstration was that two men wearing a red shirt(Republicans) and a blue shirt(Democrats) were shutting the lid on the casket(the US). The Republican was using hammer and nails while the other had a power drill to screw the casket shut. The point of the demonstration is that the government programs that both the republicans and democrats have created are spending us out of house and shirt.
If you TiVo the show, you will see that the democrats have won the race.
Why did I bring up Glenn Beck when this column is supposed to be about Sarah Palin and her chances in 2012?
The conservative/moderate divide that runs through the Republican party has been a great one. Compare it to the policies of Ronald Regan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both are Republicans, and both are governors of California. However, one difference runs rampant between them. While both have tax and spent during their tenure as governor, Regan realized that a balanced budget and conservative principles is what led this country to greatness and he used the lessons that he learned as governor of California and lead this country as President to its most prosperous years. He also ended the cold war by threatening to use force and tore down the Berlin Wall. Arnold, on the other hand, has tax and spent his way into issuing I. O. U.s to state employees and cut funding to critical state projects and programs.
Where was I, oh yes, Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin's decision or indecision to run in 2012 is giving the liberal media fits because they are salivating at the throat for another bite at the apple to destroy her. They don't understand her popularity among Americans. Is it the fact that Sarah Palin says what she means and means what she says, or is it the fact that she knows the sentament of the American people and talk to them about it unlike Nancy Pelosi and “Dingy” Harry Reid(in the immortal words of Rush Limbagh) and talk down to them like they are nannies. It doesn't matter to liberals at the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC or CNN to name a few, they see someone who stands out in American pop culture and seeks to destroy them by hook or crook.
The point of this column isn't to encourage Sarah Palin to run in 2012, but if she does, then great. The point of this column is to show that, thankfully, if you hold to your principles you can withstand the liberal attacks and come out stronger than you come in.
The mystery of Sarah Palin can be explained through her political career. She doesn't speak nonsense, and has led by example. Her poll numbers have supported the fact that she knew what Alaskans and, by extension, Americans wanted like drilling for our own oil, having a strong national defense, and actually supporting capitalism. And Obama? He has the lowest approval rating in his presidency, the stimulus failed, “Cash for Clunkers” failed, and his “Universal” healthcare is in congressional hell and will not pass as quickly as he would like. He wonders why he is being compared to Jimmy Carter instead of Abraham Lincoln.
Let's chase a rabbit here and actually compare the two. Abraham Lincoln, when he spoke the emancipation proclamation during the Civil War, meant what he said and said what he meant. He fired his commanders on the ground just because they wouldn't fight to win the war. Abraham Lincoln treated all Americans as Americans and was willing to fight a war to keep it that way.
Obama? He drags his feet while men and women fight and die for our country while General McCrystal, a man that he appointed to be the man in Afganistan, is begging for 40,000 more troops by the end of the year or our efforts have failed. While Obama has indicated that he will have a troop increase, but only 35,000 according to one source. He also rammed through the stimulus package to reward his SCIU friends saying that we have to get it passed now or the economy will crash like the stock market did in 1929, much like he is trying to do with healthcare. Our reward for passing the stimulus? The highest unemployment in nearly 8 years at over 10%. That is one in ten working class Americans that do not have a job today, and that number is expected to climb.
In closing, America needs to return to our principles of limited government and stop the brand of socialism that Obama is trying to ram down our throats. America's debt doesn't need to grow nine to eleven times over the next ten years just to “fundamentally transform America” in Obama's image.
Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, etc. have said a lot of downright crazy and dumb things (people with AIDS should be quarantined, etc.) and are far too tied to Christianity. They should be called out for that and pushed to the side so that true leaders on the right can rise to the top and give the right a real chance at regaining credibility and the minds of those who are undecided or in the center. Those who espose hate, and anger should also be discredited and pushed to the side (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc.). It is long past time for Conservative talk radio to become more academic, constructive, and hopeful sounding, and cater to the best in us (love, hope, unity, civics, etc.), rather than the worst (fear, anger, race, etc.).
Stop catering to the Christian right
Christianity has nothing to do with conservative ideas and theory on money, foreign policy, etc. There is also supposed to be a strong seperation of church and state. Our country was formed partially for freedom of religion, and if our government is run by someone who wants to impose their religion through laws and perspective, then we lose that. In addition, America is not a Christian nation; though nearly 80% are Christian, there is still another 20% that are not.
Stop simply opposing every idea President Obama has and propose alternative solutions
The right has really been a thorn in our Presidents side instead of working with him to solve the problems in America. The way to gain credibility and get some conservative ideas into law is to honestly work with the left to create good policy, and also proactively propose laws to solve some of our problems before the left takes up the problem.
Stop supporting causes that have nothing to do with Conservative ideology
The right should disassociate itself with such issues as abortion, and other things that are outside of the ideas of conservatism. Abortion is an issue thats argument against it is primarily based in religion. The same applies to marriage equality for gays; the argument against it can only be made from a religious standpoint. Because of this, and because no party should be tied to any religion, just as our government should not be tied to any religion, the right as a whole and Republicans as a party should disassociate theirselves with abortion and start supporting equal rights for gays. These two issues alone keep some of those in the center and on the left from ever supporting a Republican candidate. It might cause a lot of those on the Christian right to be upset, but then they can choose the party that best conforms to what their idea of government should do on all other issues, or form a new 3rd party that is tightly tied to Christianity.
Stop being inconsistent
Right now many on the right are opposing government run health care on the idea that even though it may save a lot of lives, it isn't proper for the government or taxpayers to help others. Yet, many of those same people are in support of the war in Iraq to give people in another country freedom and save their lives. Why should we spend taxpayer dollars to police the world yet not spend taxpayer dollars to save those within our own borders? Either we shouldn't spend money to help others, or we should and if we should then we should definitely want to help those within our own borders before those who are not within our borders.
Stop being hawks
The right has become a group of hawks and this is contrary to conservative ideas on foreign policy. Conservative ideas on foreign policy are as spelled out by the Cato Institute:
Conservatives need to re-embrace those ideas. They are the ideas that our nations founders had in mind, and they are the ideas that are the most ethical and that might also allow some on the left to consider the rest of our ideas.
Have a well thought out income tax policy
There either should not be an income tax as Libertarians would like, or there should be an income tax that works to support Conservative values. A tax that is progressive helps strengthen families at the lower incomes and therefore helps literacy rates, etc. which helps to preserve conservative values of strong families, an educated populace, etc. Right now the government has taken on far too much responsibility and therefore spends too much and our national debt is growing because of it. It is time to start cutting back on spending, but at the same time increasing revenue and the only realistic way to increase revenue is through a progressive income tax because those in the middle and lower class cannot support any higher tax burden.
Start supporting alternative energy and embrace that global warming is real and might be caused by us
The science is in, global warming is real and it is probably caused by our actions (and can we afford to gamble that it is not?). Most of the oil that is easily available is in countries with citizens that do not like us. Because of these two things, it is long past time to start looking into energy sources that do not emit CO2, and that do not require us to work with countries that are not friendly to us.
Stop catering to Israel
We give far too much money and support to Israel and it hurts our credibilty around the world and doesn't help to reduce the hatred towards us in the Muslim world. It is time to treat Israel as we would any other country that is a friend and ally of ours. We should work with them, and be friends with them, but we should point out when they are doing something that works against peace in the middle east and use our monetary aid as a tool to help control their actions rather than blindly supporting them at all times.
Start rethinking drug policy
The war on drugs does not work, and will never work so long as it is punitive rather than based in medicine. It only makes organized crime stronger, and leads to a larger role of government and often leads to violations of our constitutional rights. The punitive war on drugs was originally based on racism, and is now based in morality that is derived from religion. For these reasons, it is time for the federal government to take a non punitive role and start considering policy that would put organized crime out of business, make drug use safer and less damaging to society, and help those who are ready to reform their lives through cessation of drug abuse.
I am here in sunny Houston, Texas attending the opening night of the 
