McCain standard bearer and “conservative” columnist David Brooks launched his own salvo at actual conservative Sarah Palin on ABC’s This Week, joining other bitter RINOs who have attacked the former Alaska governor in recent days.

by Michael Naragon

If I may channel Chandler Bing for a moment: “Can he be any more elitist?”  Perhaps Brooks hasn’t seen the Amazon sales lists, the thousands attending her book signings, or, for that matter, the book sales list published by his own worthless rag.  Remember, folks, this is the same guy who talked about how great John McCain was as a candidate and the very same David Brooks who continues to claim that the GOP must become far more moderate if it wants to win the big elections.

Uhhh, Earth to Brooksy: Your moderate lost big.  The only reason he got the votes he did was because of his running mate.  What was her name again?  Oh, yeah.  Congrats on that one.  (Apologies to those who expect a higher standard from me… I just finished watching Zoolander, a film that appeals to the higher intellect about as well as David Brooks does.)

Brooks also does a good job of pulling up his skirt and showing himself to be a not-so-secret Obama supporter.  Nice work, Dave.  You can’t take her seriously, yet Obama was a serious candidate in 2008 and effective president in 2009?  Wait, who’s the joke again?

Apparently, forming a one-world government that ruled in the interest of climate change wasn’t quite pressing enough to push through this year.

by Michael Naragon

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the COP15 summit to be held from Dec. 7 until Dec. 18 would not offer a legally binding climate treaty for signature.  The treaty, which has become famous from its widespread denunciation by climate change skeptics like Lord Monckton, will be reconsidered in Bonn in 2010.

According to the Times:

U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, but European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action.

Some argued that legal technicalities might otherwise distract the talks in Copenhagen and it was better to focus on the core issue of cutting climate-warming emissions.

“Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not possible,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told the leaders.

Score one, at least temporarily, for the good guys.

In a push for 2010–and undoubtedly testing the waters for his own presidential possibilities–Newt Gingrich has said that he wants the Republicans to formulate a new Contract With America.  Is this what’s really needed?  And is Newt the one to lead it?

by Michael Naragon

Newt Gingrich.  His name became familiar in 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress following Bill and Hillary Clinton’s disastrous attempt to take over the health care industry.  In the year or so that followed, Republicans instituted welfare reform and balanced the budget for the first time since LBJ’s presidency.  Clinton, of course, was quick to take credit for the new fiscal conservatism in Washington, and he and the Congress were just as quick to spend the “surplus.”

Many of the Republicans who won in 1994, as Newt will readily proclaim to all who will listen, were moderates.  Therefore, moderate Republicans made him Speaker of the House.  Within a few years, those moderate Republicans had become carbon copies of their Democrat colleagues, spending money like the proverbial drunken sailors, far more concerned with their re-election campaigns than with doing the work of the people.

The same Newt Gingrich that rode the reaction against Clinton’s attempt to take over health care has sat on the sidelines while the Republicans in Congress have fallen away from nearly every tenet of the original Contract.  Now Newt is endorsing liberal Republicans like Dede Scozzafava, claiming to anyone that will listen that the GOP will always be a minority party unless it accepts candidates like Scozzafava, who dropped out of the NY-23 race and endorsed Democrat Bill Owens.

His overarching argument seemed to be eerily similar to the one made by Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA) at a recent town hall meeting when a voter asked of his decision to support Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.  “She had the votes,” Marshall explained.  “If I didn’t vote for her, it would have been very difficult to bring home the kind of programs and funding [i.e., pork] Georgia needs.”

In an interview with Sean Hannity after the election, Newt defended his choice to endorse Scozzafava by explaining that he would never have become Speaker without the election of the so-called moderates.  He then proceeded to fall into the tired “big tent” diatribe that liberals love to parrot when they discuss the imminent downfall of Republicans.  Moreover, Gingrich has said that running conservative candidates against liberal Republicans in any of the 2010 races would be “destructive,” according to a Politico interview.

Now, this same Newt Gingrich is asking Republicans and Chairman Michael Steele to compile a new Contract, presumably focusing on fiscal responsibility and deficit spending.  If the GOP, which is still essentially run by liberals and moderates (see: Election 2008, John McCain), formulates such a contract, could someone please ask Newt to put in some sort of time element, so we can at least plan for the day when all the new Republicans in the House and Senate will begin acting like their Democrat counterparts and continue to spend us all into oblivion?

If the Republican Party supports power over principle, then what exactly is the advantage in voting for the GOP in 2010 or beyond?

The hits just keep on coming, folks.  Up next, Washington looks to extend its reach to the country’s rail systems in a proposal by the Obama administration.  Apparently, they’re not satisfied with their unconstitutional control of banks, the auto industry, the energy industries, and health care.

by Michael Naragon

In a story that first surfaced Sunday in The Washington Post and was reprinted by FOXNews.com, President Obama’s subordinates have expressed a desire to get a grip on the nation’s rails.

Administration officials cite poor management and lack of oversight as their reasons for taking over the light-rail industry, which leads me to wonder: could the American people take back the federal government using the same line of logic?  Cities affected by the federal usurpation would include Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and every other city, large or small, that uses a rail system, such as a subway.  Washington officials are using last summer’s Metro Red Line crash in D.C. to justify taking over the systems across the country.

“After the [Metro] train crash,” said Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, “we were all sitting around here scratching our heads, saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do something about this.’  And we discovered that there’s not much we could do, because the law wouldn’t allow us to do it.”

It appears from the Post’s piece that the measure has at least some degree of bipartisan support, as two Republicans, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), said the administration was right in raising concerns.  To be fair, Coburn did qualify his statement by saying the federal government should be limited in its regulation to rail lines that cross state lines.

It is striking that, after allowing our federal government to become so bloated and ineffective, that officials still have time to sit around and think about other areas they’d like to control, as if the federal government’s track record at regulation is so effective that they feel compelled to take over and fix things.  Does not the FAA regulate airlines?  Do we not still have incidents?  However, the pervasive school of thought in 21st century America is to give all our problems to Washington, where they can be solved.  Or, if not solved, at least buried so deeply in bureaucracy and political pandering that they become unsolvable problems and, therefore, are no longer our direct concern.  Comfortably numb, as Pink Floyd put it.

In the spirit of the current administration, I have decided to begin to compile an “enemies list.”  Here are my top 220, in order by state.  Each should be tried for crimes against the Constitution.  Instead, they were applauding themselves on the floor of the United States House of Representatives Saturday after passing the most sweeping government control over citizens’ daily lives in the history of our once-great nation.

by Michael Naragon

“Yea” Votes on H.R. 3962:
LA-2 Cao, Anh [R]
AR-1 Berry, Robert [D]
AR-2 Snyder, Victor [D]
AZ-1 Kirkpatrick, Ann [D]
AZ-4 Pastor, Edward [D]
AZ-5 Mitchell, Harry [D]
AZ-7 Grijalva, Raul [D]
AZ-8 Giffords, Gabrielle [D]
CA-1 Thompson, C. [D]
CA-10 Garamendi, John [D]
CA-11 McNerney, Jerry [D]
CA-12 Speier, Jackie [D]
CA-13 Stark, Fortney [D]
CA-14 Eshoo, Anna [D]
CA-15 Honda, Michael [D]
CA-16 Lofgren, Zoe [D]
CA-17 Farr, Sam [D]
CA-18 Cardoza, Dennis [D]
CA-20 Costa, Jim [D]
CA-23 Capps, Lois [D]
CA-27 Sherman, Brad [D]
CA-28 Berman, Howard [D]
CA-29 Schiff, Adam [D]
CA-30 Waxman, Henry [D]
CA-31 Becerra, Xavier [D]
CA-32 Chu, Judy [D]
CA-33 Watson, Diane [D]
CA-34 Roybal-Allard, Lucille [D]
CA-35 Waters, Maxine [D]
CA-36 Harman, Jane [D]
CA-37 Richardson, Laura [D]
CA-38 Napolitano, Grace [D]
CA-39 Sanchez, Linda [D]
CA-43 Baca, Joe [D]
CA-47 Sanchez, Loretta [D]
CA-5 Matsui, Doris [D]
CA-51 Filner, Bob [D]
CA-53 Davis, Susan [D]
CA-6 Woolsey, Lynn [D]
CA-7 Miller, George [D]
CA-8 Pelosi, Nancy [D]
CA-9 Lee, Barbara [D]
CO-1 DeGette, Diana [D]
CO-2 Polis, Jared [D]
CO-3 Salazar, John [D]
CO-7 Perlmutter, Ed [D]
CT-1 Larson, John [D]
CT-2 Courtney, Joe [D]
CT-3 DeLauro, Rosa [D]
CT-4 Himes, James [D]
CT-5 Murphy, Christopher [D]
FL-11 Castor, Kathy [D]
FL-17 Meek, Kendrick [D]
FL-19 Wexler, Robert [D]
FL-20 Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [D]
FL-22 Klein, Ron [D]
FL-23 Hastings, Alcee [D]
FL-3 Brown, Corrine [D]
FL-8 Grayson, Alan [D]
GA-13 Scott, David [D]
GA-2 Bishop, Sanford [D]
GA-4 Johnson, Henry [D]
GA-5 Lewis, John [D]
HI-1 Abercrombie, Neil [D]
HI-2 Hirono, Mazie [D]
IA-1 Braley, Bruce [D]
IA-2 Loebsack, David [D]
IA-3 Boswell, Leonard [D]
IL-1 Rush, Bobby [D]
IL-11 Halvorson, Deborah [D]
IL-12 Costello, Jerry [D]
IL-14 Foster, Bill [D]
IL-17 Hare, Phil [D]
IL-2 Jackson, Jesse [D]
IL-3 Lipinski, Daniel [D]
IL-4 Gutierrez, Luis [D]
IL-5 Quigley, Mike [D]
IL-7 Davis, Danny [D]
IL-8 Bean, Melissa [D]
IL-9 Schakowsky, Janice [D]
IN-1 Visclosky, Peter [D]
IN-2 Donnelly, Joe [D]
IN-7 Carson, André [D]
IN-8 Ellsworth, Brad [D]
IN-9 Hill, Baron [D]
KS-3 Moore, Dennis [D]
KY-3 Yarmuth, John [D]
MA-1 Olver, John [D]
MA-10 Delahunt, William [D]
MA-2 Neal, Richard [D]
MA-3 McGovern, James [D]
MA-4 Frank, Barney [D]
MA-5 Tsongas, Niki [D]
MA-6 Tierney, John [D]
MA-7 Markey, Edward [D]
MA-8 Capuano, Michael [D]
MA-9 Lynch, Stephen [D]
MD-2 Ruppersberger, C.A. [D]
MD-3 Sarbanes, John [D]
MD-4 Edwards, Donna [D]
MD-5 Hoyer, Steny [D]
MD-7 Cummings, Elijah [D]
MD-8 Van Hollen, Christopher [D]
ME-1 Pingree, Chellie [D]
ME-2 Michaud, Michael [D]
MI-1 Stupak, Bart [D]
MI-12 Levin, Sander [D]
MI-13 Kilpatrick, Carolyn [D]
MI-14 Conyers, John [D]
MI-15 Dingell, John [D]
MI-5 Kildee, Dale [D]
MI-7 Schauer, Mark [D]
MI-9 Peters, Gary [D]
MN-1 Walz, Timothy [D]
MN-4 McCollum, Betty [D]
MN-5 Ellison, Keith [D]
MN-8 Oberstar, James [D]
MO-1 Clay, William [D]
MO-3 Carnahan, Russ [D]
MO-5 Cleaver, Emanuel [D]
MS-2 Thompson, Bennie [D]
NC-1 Butterfield, George [D]
NC-12 Watt, Melvin [D]
NC-13 Miller, R. [D]
NC-2 Etheridge, Bob [D]
NC-4 Price, David [D]
ND-0 Pomeroy, Earl [D]
NH-1 Shea-Porter, Carol [D]
NH-2 Hodes, Paul [D]
NJ-10 Payne, Donald [D]
NJ-12 Holt, Rush [D]
NJ-13 Sires, Albio [D]
NJ-1Andrews, Robert [D]
NJ-6 Pallone, Frank [D]
NJ-8 Pascrell, William [D]
NJ-9 Rothman, Steven [D]
NM-1 Heinrich, Martin [D]
NM-3 Lujan, Ben [D]
NV-1 Berkley, Shelley [D]
NV-3 Titus, Dina [D]
NY-1 Bishop, Timothy [D]
NY-10 Towns, Edolphus [D]
NY-11 Clarke, Yvette [D]
NY-12 Velazquez, Nydia [D]
NY-14 Maloney, Carolyn [D]
NY-15 Rangel, Charles [D]
NY-16 Serrano, José [D]
NY-17 Engel, Eliot [D]
NY-18 Lowey, Nita [D]
NY-19 Hall, John [D]
NY-2 Israel, Steve [D]
NY-21 Tonko, Paul [D]
NY-22 Hinchey, Maurice [D]
NY-23 Owens, William [D]
NY-24 Arcuri, Michael [D]
NY-25 Maffei, Daniel [D]
NY-27 Higgins, Brian [D]
NY-28 Slaughter, Louise [D]
NY-4 McCarthy, Carolyn [D]
NY-5 Ackerman, Gary [D]
NY-6 Meeks, Gregory [D]
NY-7 Crowley, Joseph [D]
NY-8 Nadler, Jerrold [D]
NY-9 Weiner, Anthony [D]
OH-1 Driehaus, Steve [D]
OH-11 Fudge, Marcia [D]
OH-13 Sutton, Betty [D]
OH-15 Kilroy, Mary Jo [D]
OH-17 Ryan, Timothy [D]
OH-18 Space, Zachary [D]
OH-6 Wilson, Charles [D]
OH-9 Kaptur, Marcy [D]
OR-1 Wu, David [D]
OR-3 Blumenauer, Earl [D]
OR-4 DeFazio, Peter [D]
OR-5 Schrader, Kurt [D]
PA-1 Brady, Robert [D]
PA-10 Carney, Christopher [D]
PA-11 Kanjorski, Paul [D]
PA-12 Murtha, John [D]
PA-13 Schwartz, Allyson [D]
PA-14 Doyle, Michael [D]
PA-2 Fattah, Chaka [D]
PA-3 Dahlkemper, Kathleen [D]
PA-7 Sestak, Joe [D]
PA-8 Murphy, Patrick [D]
RI-1 Kennedy, Patrick [D]
RI-2 Langevin, James [D]
SC-5 Spratt, John [D]
SC-6 Clyburn, James [D]
TN-5 Cooper, Jim [D]
TN-9 Cohen, Steve [D]
TX-15 Hinojosa, Rubén [D]
TX-16 Reyes, Silvestre [D]
TX-18 Jackson-Lee, Sheila [D]
TX-20 Gonzalez, Charles [D]
TX-23 Rodriguez, Ciro [D]
TX-25 Doggett, Lloyd [D]
TX-27 Ortiz, Solomon [D]
TX-28 Cuellar, Henry [D]
TX-29 Green, Raymond [D]
TX-30 Johnson, Eddie [D]
TX-9 Green, Al [D]
VA-11 Connolly, Gerald [D]
VA-3 Scott, Robert [D]
VA-5 Perriello, Thomas [D]
VA-8 Moran, James [D]
VT-0 Welch, Peter [D]
WA-1 Inslee, Jay [D]
WA-2 Larsen, Rick [D]
WA-6 Dicks, Norman [D]
WA-7 McDermott, James [D]
WA-9 Smith, Adam [D]
WI-2 Baldwin, Tammy [D]
WI-3 Kind, Ronald [D]
WI-4 Moore, Gwen [D]
WI-7 Obey, David [D]
WI-8 Kagen, Steve [D]
WV-1 Mollohan, Alan [D]
WV-3 Rahall, Nick [D]

After months of Tea Parties, town hall meetings, marches on Washington, and millions of calls, letters, and faxes, the Pelosi House of Representatives still passed the most comprehensive control of American lives to date.  On the C-SPAN broadcast of the live vote, several citizens who supported the bill called in to tell their stories.  Some had pre-existing conditions.  Some were elderly and on Medicare.  Some just wanted things to be “fair.”  All of them, whether they believe it or not, were simply making the statement that they were willing to trade their freedom for financial security.  I, on the other hand, am willing to make no such trade.

by Michael Naragon

‘Nuff said!

 

On the eve of gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, states Barack Obama carried in 2008, the president’s representatives continue to downplay the importance of those elections to the president’s agenda.

by Michael Naragon

Both GOP candidates won their respective elections, undoubtedly sending Obama’s spin machine into overdrive as they try to explain away this referendum on his presidency.

Crowds of people rallied to the steps of Georgia’s capitol Monday, showing their support of conservative candidates in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York, and their continued disgust with the federal government’s slide toward socialism.

by Michael Naragon

The mood on Atlanta’s Washington Street was friendly as the people assembled, coming together piecemeal throughout the late afternoon hours as they prepared to voice their opposition once again to a government that continues to grow its power.  Contrary to the notions purported by the Media, the protesters were a diverse group: elderly and infant, black and white, challenged and unchallenged.

The emcee of the event was Rock 100.5’s Larry Wachs, one of the famed “Regular Guys” and a staunch conservative.  Speakers included gubernatorial hopefuls Eric Johnson and John Oxendine, Christian Coalition chairman Ralph Reed, “Give Me Back My America” singer/songwriter John Berry, 920am WGKA’s Denny Schaffer, and WSB 750’s renowned professor of conservatism, Herman Cain.

Fighting the evening chill, the crowd stood in respectful silence as they listened to the story of a Polish hero who survived the Nazi Gestapo, torture, and a concentration camp before moving to the United States to flee the encroaching Soviet menace.  He warned the crowd to be vigilant, lest this government take the same course.  Interestingly, he also made a reference to the one world government, or New World Order, that President Obama is reportedly ready to join in Copenhagen in a matter of weeks.

As usual, the poignant signs and messages were out in force, silently voicing the concerns of an agitated populace that continues to be ignored by its leaders in Washington.

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In a recent speech by National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman, the “Artist in Chief” was described as the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar.  More disturbing was the fact that Landesman dared compare Obama to the “Rough Rider.”

by Michael Naragon

Much has already been made of Landesman’s comparisons of Obama to Julius Caesar.  As a teacher and lifelong student of history, I find that comparison amusing on various levels.

Caesar was an accomplished military leader whose campaign through Gaul was the subject of his major literary work, still available in your local Barnes and Noble.  Barack Obama is an indecisive teleprompter reader whose book will certainly be long forgotten 2,000 years from now.  Julius Caesar’s actions as leader of Rome turned the Republic into a dictatorial empire that later spawned such rulers as Nero and Caligula.  Might the Messiah, who, like Caesar purports himself to be god-like, also be the one who finally eliminates the last vestiges of our Republic?

Aside from this utterly uninformed comparison between this president and the ruler of Rome, the part of Landesman’s speech that disturbed me more was when he likened Obama to one of the greatest and most active presidents the nation has ever seen, Theodore Roosevelt.

“There is a new president and a new NEA,” Landesman explained.  “The president first. This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln.”

Not only does Landesman compare our current office-holder to Roosevelt, he implies that Obama was a better writer.

Before becoming president, Barack Obama lived in Hawaii, then lived in Indonesia, went to college at Harvard, became a lawyer/teacher of radicalism/community organizer.  During his career, he wrote two books, Dreams Of My Father and The Audacity of Hope, in which he demonstrated his views on many topics, including his internal struggles with racism.  He then served as a state senator, and as a U.S. Senator for nearly one term, using his time in office to campaign for president.

Theodore Roosevelt had a significantly more accomplished road to the presidency.  As a young man, Roosevelt faced personal tragedy when his wife and mother died of typhus on the same day.  Rather than wallow in self-pity, the future president traveled to the West to live and work on a ranch.  His interactions with the cowboys and Indian tribes became the subject of one of his early books, Ranch Life and Hunting Trail, which was widely popular.  Roosevelt had already written a critically acclaimed work on U.S. naval warfare during the War of 1812 and biographies of Thomas Hart Benson and Gouverneur Morris.

Roosevelt served as police commisioner of New York, among other things, before being appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by William McKinley.  When war broke out between the U.S. and Spain, Roosevelt resigned and, along with Leonard Wood, formed the famous “Rough Riders” volunteer corps.  Under fire at San Juan Hill, Roosevelt proved his mettle, leading his motley collection of Indian fighters, cowboys, and privileged youths over the Spanish fortifications and into the history books.  He later wrote Rough Riders, a well-received book that described his adventures in Cuba during the war.

Upon his return to the States, Roosevelt was practically drafted into the race for governor of New York.  Using his growing popularity, Theodore won the election and made himself a political player on the national stage.  When McKinley’s vice president died in office, the president tapped Roosevelt, with his national name recognition, to serve in that role.  In the election of 1900, the “Rough Rider” campaigned relentlessly and helped bring victory for McKinley, who was shot six months later, handing the presidency to the young New Yorker.

As chief executive of the nation, Roosevelt sprang into action, attacking monopolies like the Northern Securities Company of financial magnate J.P. Morgan.  Morgan, whose importance on Wall Street had earned him the nickname “Jupiter,” visited the White House and explained to Roosevelt that such a legal attack could not be made.  Morgan tried to entice the president with offers of money and luxury items in exchange for dropping the issue.  Roosevelt not only pursued the case, but the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, much to the chagrin of “Jupiter.”

Roosevelt didn’t bother telling people how he would “change” the country, he simply did it.  During his presidency, a black leader was first invited to dinner at the White House, European nations were warned away from the Americas, the Panama Canal was begun, and the world became aware of the strength of the United States Navy.

After leaving office, Roosevelt went on safari in Africa, rubbed shoulders with dignitaries in Britain, and then returned to the United States to run once again for president in 1912.  The Republican establishment was made up of the same type of stodgy, fearful politicians that populate the party today, denying Roosevelt a chance at the nomination for president despite his overwhelming victories in states with direct primaries.  Roosevelt, undeterred, ran as an independent with his Progressive, or “Bull Moose,” Party.  At a campaign stop in Minnesota, Roosevelt was shot by a would-be assassin.  Rather than seek medical aid, the former president climbed the stage and delivered his speech in a time long before teleprompting.

Roosevelt came in second in the 1912 race, the only third-party candidate ever to have such success.  Five years later, the “old lion” was sitting in the White House, begging Woodrow Wilson to send him to France to serve in the First World War.  Wilson refused, but Roosevelt wasn’t done.  He campaigned for Republicans in 1918, helping the party gain majorities in the House and Senate, majorities which were instrumental in keeping the United States out of Wilson’s League of Nations.

Before his death, Roosevelt had written over 20 books, most of which were met with popular acclaim.

So the head of the NEA would like to compare Barack Obama to Theodore Roosevelt?  They are alike in one respect: like Obama, the “Rough Rider” won a Nobel Peace Prize.  The difference?  Roosevelt received his for ending the Russo-Japanese War.  Obama won his for ending the American experiment.

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