GOP Counting On The “ABO” Vote

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

To those of us in the Carolinas, it has become clear that the Republican Party is counting on the “ABO” Vote in November.  The ABO vote is: “Anybody But Obama” meaning, of course, that the GOP expects republicans will vote for anyone they nominate in order to defeat Obama.

Frankly, it’s the only explanation that makes any sense.  Even the candidates, themselves, tell us that any one of the GOP candidates would make a better president than Obama.  (Like that was really difficult to discern!)

I spoke to a politically astute friend recently who told me he is very afraid that Romney will win the nomination and lose the election to Obama. (I share that opinion.)  But, my friend went on to say, I will vote for whoever is on the ticket against Obama.

See, the problem with an Obama vs Romney ballot is – one of them will win!

Maybe it is just yours truly, but I am more than a little tired of the milquetoast candidates the GOP continues to put forward for President. I mean, look at Dole and McCain.  And, frankly, I was not impressed with George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism, which was nothing more that another way to say “moderate” or “RINO” (Republican In Name Only).

I’m past ready for a candidate with fire in his or her belly. In my less than humble opinion, the GOP needs a candidate who will get into the gutter where the democrats seem always to take their campaigns.  We need a candidate who will trade blow for blow with the Democratic Party candidate -- a candidate who will go for the jugular, grasp the throat of the opposition and hang on ‘til the election is won. 

Politics is a dirty game.  If a candidate is not willing to get dirty to win, then how in the world am I to trust that when he is up against the world’s meanest, toughest, “low-downest” scoundrels, he will be able to trade blow for blow – and – do whatever it takes to destroy America’s enemies.

Nice guys are, well, NICE.  I’m tired of nice!  It is past time to get mean and throw our weight around.

Look. We have enemies who are in our face proclaiming loudly, and with vigor, that they intend to destroy us, to kill every American they can -- at the very first opportunity.    Uh-uh.  Nope.  This is not the time for a nice guy in the White House.

Our current President seems to think that his flowery oratory will placate our enemies and we can have a global group hug, sing a few verses of Cum Ba Ya, and it will be all better. I’ve seen this movie -- and it does not end well for the nice guy.

No.  We desperately need a leader tough enough that when he speaks, the world stops what it’s doing to listen.  We’ve had enough of a President who runs off at the mouth like a broken facet.  Nobody’s listening anymore – if they ever were.

We also need a leader who leads from the front.  Leading from the rear doesn’t happen.  Leading from the rear is NOT leading – period.  It should be clear by now that when America does not lead -- the world goes to hell in a hand basket.

I am frustrated, and more than a little angry, that the GOP is holding to their practice of nominating the “next in line.”  I am tired of limp wrists in the White House.  I am tired of my President bowing and scraping to every tin horn tyrant he comes across, asking “permission” of the UN, and sucking up to our sworn enemies.  It is embarrassing and deeply humiliating.

Sadly, when I see Romney – I see Al Gore with a GOP bumper sticker on his butt.  I get the same uneasy feeling I got when Al Gore was running for President.  It’s that feeling that something isn’t right, that something is out of place here. Plainly – it’s the feeing that I am looking at a hypocrite.  I feel that I am being sold a bill of goods and that he is reading from a well-prepared script, which he has memorized down to the last dot and tittle.

I once interrupted a very young salesman at my door when he was about 30 seconds into his canned spiel.  I asked him a question, which he could not answer.  He apologized, and asked my forgiveness as he began his spiel all over again -- from the very beginning -- because that was the way he had memorized it.  Back in the day we called that a “canned pitch.”  THAT is the feeling I get when I listen to Romney in a debate or delivering a speech.  There is no THERE there.

Barring an act of God, Romney will be the GOP nominee.  I have to ask:  If Romney wins the election and defeats Obama, short of being rid of Obama, what will America have gained?  To me, it is comparable to the cancer patient placing his entire faith in a new miracle cure for cancer only to learn, after weeks of treatment, that it does not work, either.

I do not agree that beating Obama will be a walk in the park, as some of my fellow conservatives have postulated.  I continue to have great respect for their opinions – BUT -- I am convinced the “ABO” vote will be absolutely necessary in November to evict America’s would-be King, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama.

J. D. Longstreet

The U.S. is on a Suicide Watch ... Alan Caruba

The U.S. is on a Suicide Watch

By Alan Caruba

In 1991, the Soviet Union, arguably the greatest experiment in Communism, collapsed. After Mao Zedong died in 1976, his successors moved to shift its Communist economy to one that embraced Capitalism while retaining centralized government control.

Following World War Two, the recovering nations of Europe were rescued from Communism by the Marshall Plan, but adopted Communism-Light in the form of Socialism. The U.S. was already headed in that direction, creating programs that we now call “entitlements.” For most of the nation’s history, such “entitlements” did not exist.

What binds together the financial problems of the West is the common thread of infantile behavior and thought. One might call it wishful thinking. Instead of encouraging people to provide for old age and possible illness, politicians decided to turn government into Big Daddy, the eternal source of money for everything.

Need to go to college, start a business, or plan for retirement? Government would be there to help. All this ignored the need to actually pay for these programs. In the case of Social Security Congress began to dip into its funding to pay for other programs! This is what children do.

One can look around the world and see what a failure both Communism and Socialism have been. Governments spending more than their tax and other revenues have suffered grievously from this path to default and that includes the United States of America. It can be argued that, with few exceptions--the Reagan years come to mind—Presidents have been poorly served by their economic advisors.

Politicians make poor economists because, in America, members of the House must think of getting reelected every two years and Senators every six. Moreover, being politicians, they believe that the more federal largess they can bring back to their State and then brag about is the one true path to reelection.

At the very beginning of the nation, Thomas Jefferson said it best. “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

How many commissions and special committees have earnestly produced reports intended to deal with a government grown too large? At the federal level, some two million or more Americans are employed promulgating a deluge of regulations and pushing paper.

Now President Obama says he wants to streamline the federal government.

The real issue is not “streamlining” government agencies by gathering them together under one roof and one administrator, but the failure to end government departments and agencies that no longer serve a useful purpose and whose removal would also remove countless obstacles to economic growth.

In April 2011, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute warned that “the federal government is on track to spend more than $3.5 trillion this year. What most people don’t know is that government actually costs about 50% more than what it spends. That’s because complying with federal regulations costs an additional $1.75 trillion—nearly an eighth of GDP. And almost none of that cost appears on the budget.”

The United States of America, the greatest engine of wealth the world has ever seen, is bankrupt. The national debt exceeds the Gross Domestic Product, the sum total of all revenue generated by goods and services.

The President has asked that the debt ceiling be raised another trillion or so and Congress will comply. That, I submit, is insane.

I also submit that, since Barack Obama was sworn into office on January 20, 2009, the nation has been witness to the economic insanity personified in the man and in the Democrat-controlled Congress that was his partner until 2010 when the control of the House of Representatives was wrested away by the Tea Party movement and its support for Republican candidates.

The only constant in life is change. America’s demography has changed. We have, thanks to medical care and other advantages, a much older segment of the population than ever before, but the nation from the 1930s to the 1960s had committed itself to ensure they would have Medicare and Medicaid at a time when people more often than not died in their 50’s and 60’s. We now have an average life expectancy of 78 years. My parents lived into their 90s.

Politics, not economics, continues to make it impossible to revise and restructure both Medicare and Social Security to reflect this reality. Instead, we had Obamacare foisted upon us which took trillions from Medicare and imposes rules that will let elderly heart attack or stroke victims die rather than pay for a level of care to which they contributed during their working years.

If the Supreme Court declares Obamacare unconstitutional it will go away. If we elect a Republican Senate, the repeal already passed in the House will be passed and it will go away.

But America’s economic problems will not go away until Americans insist that the shackles of Big Government be cut loose to enable the growth of an energy industry that can not only make the nation energy independent, but produce billions in revenue as far as the eye can see into the future.

The tax system with its thousands of pages must be revised to a simpler, fairer program. It makes no sense that forty percent of Americans pay no taxes at all.

It’s not that we don’t know what must be done. Conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, The Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and others have spelled out programs that can and will save America, but the nation must be led by a president who understands that Capitalism involves budgeting, planning, hard work, and—yes—risk.

The federal government is running on “continuing resolutions.” It has not had a formal budget since Obama arrived. This is no way to run the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. America is on a suicide watch and we are just an election away from saving it.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

*************************

 Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.

The Hyphen that Destroyed a Nation

The Hyphen that Destroyed a Nation

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

*************************

“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic.

There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American, or an English-American is to be a traitor to American Institutions; and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of foreign votes are engaged with treason to the American Republic.”   …   (Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, in a speech before the Knight’s of Columbus, October 12^th, 1915.) (SOURCE)

As we see today, Teddy was absolutely right.  We have become the very thing he warned we would become if we did not drop the hyphen – both mentally and physically.  Indeed, we have “become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”

Even President Woodrow Wilson regarded "hyphenated Americans" with suspicion, saying, "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready.” (SOURCE)

At no time is it more obvious than during an election cycle when the politicians begin their pathetic pandering to every hyphenated group of so-called Americans in the country… both legal and illegal.

Since Teddy made his remarks we have embraced the hyphen ad infinitum.  Now we have:  African American, Arab American, Asian American, European American, Latino American, Native American, Chinese American, English American, Filipino American, Greek American, German American, Irish American, Indian American, Italian American, Japanese American, Jewish American, Korean American, Mexican American, Norwegian American, Azerbaijani American, Polish American, Russian American, Spanish American, Swedish American, Ukrainian American, Vietnamese American, and the list just continues to grow.

America is more divided today that she was during The War Between the States.  We each seem to have our own little tribe to which we belong.  The once famed “American culture” no longer exists.  We have submerged it in a sea of multiculturalism and it has become the victim of something called “diversity.”  Both Multiculturalism and Diversity were begat by Political Correctness, which has its roots in Marxism.  Yes, I am saying America is becoming a Marxist country.  The evidence is overwhelming.  For exhibit number one, look no farther than the current occupant of the Oval Office of the President of the United States.

We are drowning in a sea of hyphens!

Whatever happened to plain ole Americans?  Only a cursory investigation will reveal that they have been relegated to the dusty corners of our society where they can speak of such things as loyalty to one’s nation, honor, patriotism, and worse, GOD! … and not offend the purveyors of political correctness -- the practitioners of Marxism.

The past few generations of Americans have been indoctrinated in our government schools so that they believe that multiculturalism and diversity are GOOD.  These are the same government schools that replaced prayer with policeman, psychologists, chain link fences, and metal detectors. 

What did we expect?

America is in such hopeless shape that we cannot manage to convince anyone capable of leadership to even stand for election.  Instead, we republicans have this gaggle of second and third stringers who have done nothing but embarrass half of the GOP while the other half is praying to God that he provide a miracle and produce a leader (quickly) we can have, at least, SOME confidence in.

America has lost its identity.  We no longer know who we are. This is the result of hyphens, multiculturalism, and diversity.  Until we can reclaim our real identify -- and coalesce around that identity as one people -- we cannot hope to heal our nation.

J. D. Longstreet

A Short Primer On The South 

An Introduction to the South for the Media and Politicians

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

***************

With eyes of the world focused on South Carolina this last week before the primary election on Saturday, January 21^st, we felt now would be a good time to offer some insight into the people of my home state and the “Southern People” as a whole.

Every four years, I offer my little primer as an introduction and a navigation aid to those who suddenly find themselves about to be immersed in southern culture for the first time. 

If you are representing the mainstream media, and this is your first visit to my country, prepare for a culture shock.

The southern people are distinctively different from the folks “up north.”  The South was settled primarily by Scott-Irish with a smattering of Germans in the Mid-Atlantic area, as well as French Huguenots, and some Spanish along our coast.  Our heritage IS very different. 

You don’t hear it spoken of much anymore, but there still exists a “Code of the South.”  No, it is NOT a myth.

You can sum it up in one word.  “HONOR”.  We cherish honor above everything else.  Without honor, all that remains has no value.

Southerners believe each man and woman has a duty, a responsibility, to seek nobility in life and in purpose.   No matter his, or her, station in life, or the social strata he, or she, was born into.   There is nobility in fighting the good fight, on your job, on the field of battle, at anything you turn your hand to do. 

Southerners believe we were, indeed, created in the image of God. We have a duty to uphold that image as best we can.  It is a continuous battle against the trials of life, but to shirk one’s duty, in this respect, is unforgivable.  It is dishonorable.

We are a culture apart.  We like it that way.  We have no intention of changing.  To do so would be to dishonor all those who have gone before us as well as their creation of this sanctified, set apart, land.   “The South” is to Southerners what the Holy Land is to the Jewish people.

Never question the honor of a Southerner.  It is considered a challenge and your challenge WILL be answered.

A Southerner will go to the wall to defend honor.  No matter the size of the opponent, no matter the place, or the time.  Honor will be defended.

There is an inviolate line, which must never be crossed.  Where does that line lie?  Everywhere.  For instance, you do not disparage our women.  That is at the top of the list of inviolate things. Others include: our homes, our friends, our religion, our military abilities, and you surely do not speak disparagingly about our ancestors.  To violate any of these will bring the wrath of the South down on your head in an instant.

You may have noticed Southerners do not back down.  We refuse to accept defeat. 

We are accused, often, of still fighting the War Between the States.  That is true.  We consider this era of forced quietude only half time between us and the North.  We have never laid the war down.  To quit, to surrender, is not acceptable in our code of honor.  So, we fight on.  Understand… we will win.  It may take another hundred, or even two hundred, years, but we will prevail.  We never forget, and we never quit.

It has been said that Southerners are America’s true “Warrior Class.”  Consider the great warriors of America.  For the most part, they were/are Southerners.  

War comes naturally to Southerners.  The Scot-Irish-German blood flowing in our veins and the Southern Code of Chivalry we learn from birth creates the most fearsome warrior on the face of the earth.

The true Southerner is a gentleman, or lady, always.   Well, right up ‘til he takes your head off.   He will knock you down then offer his hand to lift you back to your feet.  If you make the same mistake again, you will find yourself in need of that helping hand to get you off your backside … again.

Southerners are deeply religious people.  We unashamedly believe in God.  We believe the Bible is His Holy Word.  At the same time we know one cannot be perfect, but we believe every Southerner is born into this world with the obligation to strive for perfection.  Anything less is totally unacceptable.  It has been said this is the Southern interpretation of the European “Noblise Oblige.”  Southerners know in the depths of their being they have an obligation to strive for nobility.

The Southern society is not a classless society.  We acknowledge our society has an upper, middle, and a lower class.  But we believe the obligation to nobility crosses those boundaries and emboldens even the least of us to carry the honor of his name, and his family’s heritage, without stain.  Anything less is unacceptable.

Yes, you WILL see the Confederate Battle Flag snapping in the pine-scented southern breeze.  Get used to it.  It is flown in honor of our heritage – and—as a warning that the people of The South will not suffer tyranny from ANY quarter. 

There exists a divide between the Northern People and the Southern People in this nation.  The divide is vast and unnavigable.  We are two different peoples held together by law.  The bayonet enforced the bondage of the Southern peoples.  We have not forgotten.  Nor will we.  We know these bonds are only temporary.  We work tirelessly for the day we will once again be ruled only by God and voice of the Southern people.

Tis honor, above all else.  It is our code.  It is written on our hearts.

So -- I hope this little primer on “The South” is helpful to you media types and political apparatchiks.  Remember, always:  You are visitors in our home and we expect you respect our hospitality and generosity and do not besmirch what you most certainly do not understand.

And finally, if we like you, you will be sent on your way with the now world-famous: “Y’all come back – ya hear?”  

J. D. Longstreet

Did You Know Homeland Security is Monitoring the Internet? ... Alan Caruba

Did You Know Homeland Security is Monitoring the Internet?

By Alan Caruba

One of the lessons one learns in military basic training is “situational awareness”, a term that reflects the importance of watchfulness in combat. It can mean the difference between life and death. Police practice this as well, looking for people who seem out of place in a neighborhood.

The average citizen blithely ignores this when shopping or just going about their life, though many purchase private monitoring services to protect their homes against fire or theft or put up video surveillance systems to protect their businesses. I doubt there is any public place that does not have television cameras watching.

When it comes to protecting the nation, situational awareness is an essential element to spot a potential individual or group that might pose a danger. There is, of course, the potential for misuse or abuse, but that applies to everything government does.

The upside of such monitoring is contained in a short item from the Heritage Foundation’s January 12 Morning Line dispatch. “His plan was to rip apart nightclubs with explosives, unleash a wave of destruction on bridges, and open fire on police officers—all in sunny Florida. This was the murderous intent of Sami Osmakac, 25, an American citizen from the former Yugoslavia who was determined to spill blood, foment destruction, and bring terror to the United States all in the name of Allah. Fortunately, undercover FBI agents thwarted his efforts, making this the 44th foiled terrorist plot against America."

I am a regular contributor to Harold Wylie’s excellent website, BorderfireReport.net. On a daily basis he gathers news about the effects of illegal immigration and related topics. He recently wrote to say that “my website has been placed on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Operations Center Media Monitoring Initiative.” He learned about this during a visit to World Net Daily.com.

Is this a good or bad thing? Candidly, I thought it was a good thing because it suggests that someone at DHS recognized what an excellent “open source” of information Wylie’s site provides.

A government agency that’s “snooping” on Americans is not likely to issue such a notice and the sites listed represent, in government-speak, the opportunity “to collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.”

When one considers the billions the government spends on covert intelligence gathering, this is a far cry from “Big Brother.” Simply stated, DHS thinks that Wylie’s his site is performing a valuable service for their own Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement operation.

The cliché is that “being paranoid does not mean someone is not watching you.” There are so many sources of information available to individuals and groups regarding everything about your life that it bodes well to conduct oneself in conformance with common sense and the law. Meanwhile, your credit rating and other data are easily accessible.

Like millions of others I am on Facebook and DHS monitors both it and Spacebook. The occasional nutcase uses these social networks to announce to the world that he or she has bad intentions. Ironically, even DHS is monitored by a site called Cryptome that, according to a Reuters’ news story “periodically posts leaked documents and was one of the first websites to post information related to the Homeland Security monitoring program.”

DHS monitors Jihad Watch and Informed Comment “that cover issues related to Islam through sharp political prisms, which have sometimes led critics to accuse the sites of political bias.” You and I visit sites daily that have a sharp political bias. It’s called freedom of speech and the press.

Ostensibly, the DHS monitors dozens of websites, forums, blogs, and message boards, for the purpose of managing “government responses to such events as the 2010 earthquake and aftermath in Haiti and security and border control related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.”

This is not to say that government responses are effective, but I am not disturbed by the fact that it wants the “situational awareness” necessary. The fact remains that our nation’s borders are astonishingly—frightenly—porous and in need of far greater enforcement efforts to stem illegal immigration and the potential for threats to public safety. Then there are the Islamic jihadists that want to kill all of us.

It is very American to be suspicious of government monitoring. Ours is an open society and we want to keep it that way. It is also encouraging to know that the Department of Homeland Security is doing what it can to protect us.

© Alan Caruba, 2012
*************************
 Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.