As evidence he pointed out, rightfully, that he “watched a peaceful crowd indulge their First Amendment rights to speak, assemble, hand out political literature, and petition their government for redress of grievances.” However, as many in the paleomedia often do, he misses – or ignores – the point of the bigger picture.Politicians, pundits and the paleomedia would love you to focus on the micro instead of the macro. They would love for you to concentrate on the fact that you are freely exercising your First Amendment rights by gathering here today unmolested by government, or that you might exercise your Second Amendment rights by using your concealed carry permit to take a weapon into a local park, because as Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, “. . . all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable. . .” They know that as long as you concentrate on your own little corner of the world, the micro versus the macro, evil will remain sufferable for most.

Do you think that everyone in 18th Century America drank tea and were directly impacted by the tea tax? Or, is it more likely that some were concerned with the big picture versus just their own little corner of the world and problems?

No, they don’t want you to concentrate on the fact that you have a constitutional right to a republican form of government – a republic, and have certain protections against the tyranny of democracy and out-of-control government, but those protections have been broken.

They don’t want you to focus on the fact that you have a Tenth Amendment right to a limited federal government and the rule of law, but that on June 16th the president called a CEO on the carpet, circumvented a law that established BP’s liability for the Gulf oil spill at $75 million, and extorted over $20 billion from BP to be administered by an “independent counsel,” before any court rulings, any judicial findings, or even an investigation as to how the Gulf oil spill occurred and was allowed to worsen. It wasn’t even a settlement in lieu of a lawsuit.

Yielding to a presidential arm twisting, a private corporation agreed to not pay out dividends to share holders for the rest of 2010, in the absence of any investigative findings or court rulings. Funny how BP had asked Louisiana officials for permission to drill in 500 feet of water, where a spill could have been repaired in days versus months, received that permission, but the federal government vetoed the deal and forced BP to dill in 5,000 feet of water.

While claiming your constitutional rights are just fine, the paleomedia would love for you to forget the Supreme Court ruling that allows government to seize your property not for public use as intended, but for the public good as modern collectivists wish, thereby circumventing your Fifth Amendment rights.

Oh yes, our local Florida Today columnist would like you to forget many things with respect to the attacks on your constitutional rights. He would like you to forget that the only method by which our federal government obtains new or expanded powers is by delegation from the people through the amendment process, and not judicial fiat, legislation or elections. He would like you to forget that as recently as the 1920’s, changes such as Prohibition, tax laws and voting rights actually took constitutional amendments, unlike the judicial and legislative fiat used today, because that is all evidence that you here today are right.

With all that is going on in our nation today, what is it that makes that Florida Today columnist believe his right to a free press is inviolate? I hear the Obama administration may be making their move against the paleomedia right now under the guise of another bailout.

While the party itself still claimed those values and espoused their virtues, the candidates that the party began nominating in primaries were not so closely tied to them. Oh sure, they would talk conservatism on the campaign trail and tout family values and fiscal responsibility. Then they would get elected to office and we found ourselves wondering how government continued to grow apparently unchecked. Something was not quite right.Before I moved to Florida in 1998 my native West Virginia would occasionally elect a Republican governor and other than that, we were happy to keep the Democrat controlled legislature in check. I was excited upon my move to Florida that we had a Republican governor (Jeb Bush) and a Republican controlled legislature. Washington was a similar picture for most of my adult life. Democrats controlled the Congress for most of my voting years. We had Republican presidents in Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush and we were fortunate to get occasional tax cuts (but no real tax reform) and in some years we were successful in limiting the damage done by the left. We took the US House in 1994 with the Contract with America. The Clinton’s had promised to nationalize health care and America woke up. We stopped it… for a while.

The problem we had as a majority party was that we did not know how to act like we were in charge. Our representatives were coaxed into reaching across the aisle, giving up on the principles that got them elected and going along to get along. The idea that our principles were the right ones for the country was lost along the way. Even when we had a Republican White House and Congress under George W. Bush, we allowed the Democrats to control much of the agenda. Instead of taking filibuster rules back to where a real, stay all night event had to be held to stop our agenda, we played nice and let them derail nominations and legislation that the people had elected republicans to implement.

It was the same in my new Florida home. Jeb allowed his views on education to grow government. Times were good and money was flowing so the growth of governments themselves and the programs they provided were largely unnoticed by a fat, dumb and happy public. Medicaid has become a significant chunk of the Florida budget. Education demands more and more dollars all the time and we have embraced “stimulus” funds to keep the ship of state afloat for another year. All the while, Florida continues to increase the dollars being spent by the state while slight of hand is played with the budget numbers to make the unknowing or uncaring public believe that someone in Tallahassee is being conservative.

It is similar on the county and city levels where alleged Republicans are helping government intrude into citizen lives in areas that government should never reach. More taxes for this, more land buying for that, a new ordinance that makes rural areas act like incorporated cities and churches that complied with signage restrictions when the signs were erected are now asked to change a perfectly good sign to meet a code change. Oh, and on the churches, don’t worry; there is a grant that pays for the sign changeover so it is no cost to the church. Really? Funny, I believe most of those church members paid taxes to the government that is handing out the money saying it is no cost. There is the respect the elected officials have for our tax dollars – NONE!

It’s all come to a boiling point. And that is where you come in. You’ve joined a Tea Party or 9/12 group. You are tired of getting lip service for your beliefs and not seeing them implemented by people who espouse them when running for office. You are showing up at Town Hall Meetings in numbers like never before. You are not being silent. You are becoming active in Republican circles. You realize a third party would be ineffective as others have been. You see the way to change what we get from government is to change how we elect our officials. A Republican designation on a voter’s registration card is meaningless without the conviction to back up the principles for which it should stand. You are speaking out to elected officials that don’t vote the way they run. You do this in spite of party acquiescence to whichever “R” happens to get the nomination as being just fine.

Some call this a take over. I call it a pull back. No one is trying to take over the Republican Party. We are trying to pull the Republican Party back to the core principles it still claims to uphold. That’s why you‘ve seen the Republican establishment rebuffed when less than conservative candidates were endorsed. The electorate in the last year or so has time and time again nominated the new guy as opposed to that old Republican that was part of the problem. You’ve seen a State Party Chair expelled from office for failing to uphold principles. You see new faces in politics getting to the front of races because old time politicians are repeating unbelievable themes because their actions have not held them up. You see incumbents being challenged where previously they would have reached office by acclimation. Yes, change is coming and it’s all thanks to you being involved.

This year is no time to stop. We have to continue to encourage new faces to step up and run for office. We have to continue to speak out for our beliefs and hold those elected officials accountable who claim to hold them, too. There is a ripple that is becoming a wave and you are in charge of keeping it going… it’s nowhere near an accomplished goal. Oh, and the go along to get along Republicans, they’ll back you, too. We just have to get past the old ways of taking any “R” for “R’s” sake and backing the truly conservative candidates in spite of what the “establishment” may try to force on us. We’ve seen how that worked in the past and, quite frankly, we’re tired of it.

Bill is the host of Bill Mick LIVE weekday mornings on WMMB (1240 & 1350 am) and online at WMMBAM.COM

“In the three decades since its Islamic revolution, Iran has dedicated itself to spreading its moral ideal–Islamic totalitarianism–by force of arms,” writes Elan Journo, fellow with the Ayn Rand Center and editor of the new book “Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism.” “Tehran spends millions every year, not to pursue prosperity for its tyrannized citizens, but to finance terrorism and to build a nuclear arsenal to wield against enemies of Allah.

“Would diplomatic negotiations encourage Iran to mitigate its ideology? No, they would only intensify its hostility. Negotiations buy Iran time. Above all, diplomacy grants Iran moral legitimacy as a civilized regime: its hostile goals–‘death to America’–and its murder of our citizens are made to seem reasonable differences of opinion. Such appeasement confirms the perverse notion that Allah’s warriors, materially weaker but morally self-righteous, can succeed in bringing down the mighty infidel West.

“To protect American lives, we must learn the life-or-death importance of passing objective moral judgment. We must recognize the character of Iran and act accordingly.”

]]> http://spacecoastpolitics.com/2009/10/21/the-hopelessness-of-negotiating-with-iran/feed/ 0 http://spacecoastpolitics.com/2009/10/20/what-went-wrong-in-afghanistan/ http://spacecoastpolitics.com/2009/10/20/what-went-wrong-in-afghanistan/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:38:24 +0000 Barbara Morehead http://spacecoastpolitics.com/2009/10/20/what-went-wrong-in-afghanistan/

What Went Wrong in Afghanistan?

WASHINGTON, October 20, 2009–In a recent blog for publisher Rowman and Littlefield, Elan Journo, a fellow with the Ayn Rand Center, wrote about the failed war in Afghanistan and his new book: “Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism.”

“After eight years of U.S. military intervention, the fighters of the Islamist movement are not only unbowed, but on the march,” writes Journo. “The Islamists (often misidentified by one of their favored tactics: terrorism) seek to impose the totalitarian rule of Allah’s law worldwide–an ideal that entails smiting down infidels and subjugating others under sharia. And they’re making headway.”

Why, Mr. Journo asks, have we failed to defeat this enemy?

“Our post-9/11 policy–in Afghanistan and across the board–was subverted by a factor that few have thought to examine: the basic moral ideas that animate our foreign policy. In essence, the kind of war that our leaders believed was morally proper to wage entailed placing ‘compassion’ ahead of the proper task of self-defense.

“A point we make in ‘Winning the Unwinnable War’ is that the way out of the Afghanistan morass requires Americans to recognize how certain (allegedly) moral ideas have informed, and crippled, our policy–and to challenge those ideas.”

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“Hate Crime” Laws Criminalize Ideas

WASHINGTON, October 19, 2009–The House recently voted to expand federal “hate crimes” to include those committed because of the victim’s sexual orientation.

“Despite the denials of ‘hate crime’ law supporters, this criminalizes certain ideas,” writes Don Watkins, an analyst with the Ayn Rand Center. “If the government can punish a criminal more harshly based on the ‘message of intolerance and discrimination’ he sends through his crime, then the inevitable conclusion is that sending a ‘message of intolerance and discrimination’ is a crime.

“It is irrelevant whether the ideas currently deemed ‘hateful’ are repugnant, which in the case of racism or anti-gay vitriol they certainly are. Every attack on free speech starts by targeting ideas people find repugnant; that’s how censorship gains purchase. But once the principle is established that the government can punish people for holding unpopular ideas, then any dissenter is at risk.

“The men who wrote the First Amendment sought to safeguard intellectual freedom by barring the state from taking cognizance of men’s ideas. The government, they said, has no role in deciding what ideas are true or false, right or wrong, hateful or loving. Its job is to proscribe actions that violate individual rights, so that each of us can make those determinations for ourselves.”

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Don Watkins is

Gut the SEC, Stop the Next Madoff

WASHINGTON, October 19, 2009–Two of the victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme are suing the Securities and Exchange Commission for “negligence.”

“While it’s not clear whether their case will go anywhere, it’s undeniable that the SEC failed miserably in the Madoff case,” writes Alex Epstein, a fellow with the Ayn Rand Center.

Greenspan Shows His Anti-Capitalist Colors . . . Again

WASHINGTON, October 16, 2009–Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is in the news again, calling on the government to use its coercive powers to break up banks that are “too big to fail.”

War Policy vs. Our Troops

WASHINGTON, October 13, 2009–“Under current policy in Afghanistan, our forces are required to endear themselves to the local population by providing so-called humanitarian aid,” writes Elan Journo, a fellow with the Ayn Rand Center.

Just Say “No” to Another “Stimulus”

WASHINGTON, October 9, 2009–On the heels of a failed $700 billion “stimulus” package, Congress is mulling over yet another round of “stimulus” spending.