Tuesday
THE GREATEST PROBLEM WE FACE
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THIS WEEK'S EDITORIAL COMMENT: Some of us -- due to age, an
ever decreasing smaller number -- can remember the Democrat National
Convention in Chicago in 1956, when the Governor of Tennessee, Frank
Clements, one of the brightest lights in the Democrat party, delivered
the keynote address. It became known as the "How Long" speech because
of the phrase the Governor kept repeating: "How Long, America?" And
the "How Long" speech marked the beginning of the end of his promising
national political career. Now, more than 50 years later, Frank Clements'
words are remarkably applicable to the problem we are facing today.
We can well ask: "How long must we as Americans put up with a left-
wing, immoral, job killing, anti-business, anti-America agenda of a
Democrat party that has become what is well described by STAND
America President, Bishop E. Jackson, as "a Coalition of the Godless,
supported by abortionists, homosexual activists, casino gambling,
pornographers, activists calling for the legalization of marijuana, and
the anti-Christian ACLU." Or, as Larry Elder defines Obamalism: "a
political/social/economic philosophy that combines socialism,
collectivism and redistributionism wrapped around a killer smile." The
first step in the answer to that plea can take place on Nov. 2, when, after
praying about it, we vote . . . and prove "We Can Make A Difference!"
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AS WE PREPARE FOR OUR PART IN THE
NOVEMBER 2 ELECTION, THE ONGOING
"CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE" IS PROBABLY
THE GREATEST PROBLEM WE FACE;
WE CAN'T BELIEVE OUR PRESENT GOVERNMENT
In 1782 Thomas Jefferson foresaw the very danger we are facing, and
wrote: "It is error alone which needs the support of government.
Truth can stand by itself." Face it -- we expect a gap in the truth
factor between campaign promises and their fulfillment; in other words
we expect to be lied to.
But in the present situation, Mr. Obama has fulfilled campaign promises.
He promised change -- and change is what we have experienced during
the first half of his administration. The national deficit has hit all-time
record highs, to trillions of dollars. The unemployment rate has become
locked in to almost 10%, with more than 15 million out of work. And a
crippling assault on the world's finest health care system is daily being
revealed as becoming a health care disaster. We are facing tax increases
unparalleled in American history. Our prestige and respect on the world
scene has disappeared, climaxed by the unprecedented sight of the
president of the United States bowing in humble obeisance before a
Muslim king. And almost concurrent with that debasing event, he boasted
to the world from a Muslim center that America is no longer a Christian
nation -- something that no president in our history has ever even come
close to saying. It can't be denied -- Mr. Obama promised "change," and
he has kept his word.
But it is after he became president that the Crisis of Confidence began
to develop, and grow. Last year he said, "Let me say this as clearly as
I can, the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In
fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical." This year he
shortened his claim to "We are not at war against Islam." Forgetting al
Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, we have recently heard from
Faisal Shahzad, the Islam jihadist who attempted to detonate a car bomb
in New York's Times Square: "Brace yourself because the war with
Muslims has just begun...The past nine years the war with Muslims has
achieved nothing for the U.S., except for it to wake up the Muslims for
Islam." Mr. Obama may claim otherwise, but the Muslims seem to think
that we are at war with them. They certainly are at war with us.
And that is not just the view of one unsuccessful jihadist bomber -- last
week on the ABC "This Week" show, Christiane Amanpour interviewed
Anjem Choudary, a Muslim cleric who serves as spokesman for the group
Islam4UK. Choudary contends that eventually Islamic rule will be global,
including the United States, predicting, "We do believe as Muslims the
East and the West will be governed by the Sharia. Indeed, we believe
that one day the flag of Islam will fly over the White House." It is a
frightening picture of the future for America if Mr. Obama is truly as
unaware of the obvious intent of the Muslims as he appears to be.
Remember just a few weeks ago on September 20, we read: "The U.S.
recession that began in December 2007 ended in June 2009, according
the National Bureau of Economic Research." Less than a year after the
"end" of the recession, in April, 2010, Vice President Joe Biden, never
hesitant to make headlines, even if erroneous, predicted, "Next month
the nation's employers will add between 100,000 to 200,000 jobs to
their payrolls." A few days later at a fundraiser in Pittsburgh, Biden went
even further:"Sometime in the next couple of months we're going to be
creating between 250,000 and 500,000 jobs a month." The Obama
administration's forecasts project that the labor market will add 100,000
jobs a month for the balance of this year ... then 200,000 jobs a month next
year, and 250,000 jobs a month in 2012. Of course, we have to wait quite
some time to see if those projections prove to be accurate.
And the administration's projections included an unemployment rate never
above 8%. But against an unemployment rate holding steady at 9.6%, and
with an unemployment figure somewhere above 15 million persons, last
Friday (Oct. 8) Mr. Obama returned to his familiar rhetoric, "We've now
seen nine straight months of private sector job growth," but added,
"That news is tempered by a net job loss in September ..." The Labor
Department had reported earlier in the day that employment fell by
95,000 jobs in September, following a revised decrease of 57,000 jobs
in August. It's one more example of the ongoing Crisis of Confidence --
who are you going to believe?
Another example is the enactment of Obamacare -- remember last
week we spoke of the president's statement in late September, when he
said: "There's nothing in the bill that says you have to change the
health insurance you've got right now. If you were already getting
health insurance on your job, then that doesn't change." Not exactly
true. Led by McDonalds Corp, 3M, and a New York City teachers union,
the Department of Health and Human Services was faced with the
problem of about a million workers in 30 major companies losing their
health insurance coverage. The result? HHS immediately granted waivers
so that the workers would not lose their coverage because of the lack of
consumer protection in Obamacare. Robert Laszewski, CEO of a major
insurance consulting firm, explained, "The big political issue here is the
president promised no one would lose the coverage they've got. Here
we are a month before the election and these companies represent one
million people who would lose the coverage they've got." Rather than
expose the president's serious mishandling of the facts, HHS Secretary
Sibelius stepped in and granted waivers to the 30 or so initial objectors
-- who knows how much wider the waiver net will have to be stretched?
There are so many more examples of this Crisis of Confidence -- the
administration hired 84 year old Andy Griffith, whom we recall as the
honest and honorable Sheriff of Mayberry, to endorse Obamacare on TV,
telling viewers that it's going to make things better, and they're going to
like it -- neither of which statements is true. Seniors should get ready for
a hard-to-weather assault on their Medicare coverage, if they can still
find a doctor who will take them on as a patient.
And one more statement from Mr. Obama -- this one to a joint session
of Congress in 2009: "One more misunderstanding I want to clear up --
under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions." In
spite of the much touted "presidential executive order," and the rewriting
of the rules by HHS Secretary Sibelius, Obamacare -- the healthcare
reform act -- does provide for tax funded abortions, according to the
Congressional Research Service, a government agency. Jay Sekulow, of
American Center for Law and Justice, commented, "The president's
beloved health care 'reform' law represents the single greatest
promotion of abortion in decades, an unprecedented flow of taxpayer
dollars into the pockets of abortionists."
But that's enough to make the point; now what can we do about it?
For this entire year, now halfway through the 10th month, we have urged
our Christian readers to take two simple but important steps toward
reclaiming this nation to the Judeo-Christian principles upon which it
was founded: Pray and Vote. Granted, we can do nothing about the
President, Vice President and Cabinet until 2012, but in just 20 days . . .
less than 3 weeks . . . we can go to the polls on Nov. 2 and vote to
replace Nancy Pelosi . . . Harry Reid . . . and the liberals in the House
and Senate who have supported Mr. Obama in the Crisis of Confidence
which is tearing apart this nation.
It is easy to remember how difficult things were in the Carter years, and
the crises we faced then. But he was replaced, and our nation came to
experience a dramatic turn-around under Ronald Reagan, and once again
we became that "shining city upon a hill." Once again we clung to the
moral anchor of "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all." Once again we acknowledged that our unalienable rights
of life and liberty were given to us by God, our Creator. Our prestige and
respect soared among the nations of the world. We stood strong, without
apology, as what we had always been known to be -- a Christian nation.
This can happen again on Nov. 2. It is not too late. It is never too late.
To wrap-up this brief analysis, consider this from Mark Halperin,
Senior Political Analyst for TIME, and (are you ready?) MSNBC.
Under the heading, "Why Obama is in the jaws of political death,"
this week Halperin wrote:"Barack Obama is being politically
crushed in a vise. From above, by elite opinion about his competence.
From below, by mass anger and anxiety over unemployment. And it is
too late for him to do anything about this predicament until after
November's elections. With the exception of core Obama
Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached
the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated,
insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade
members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-
class voters."
In difficult times, we can learn from "What Others Are Saying"
These first two comments are from people whom we quoted last week:
Mat Staver (Liberty Counsel): "America's "Progressives" are now
aligned with Communists in a common goal - to socialize America!
The anti-faith, anti-family, anti- freedom Left will stop at nothing to
impose their agenda on the rest of us. But we can engage millions of
pro-faith voters for the 2010 election and turn the tide!"
Daniel Hannan (Member, European Parliament): “The tea party, in
a way, is the purest expression of what made the U.S. unique... This
administration is on its own [globally] in still pursuing stimulus
packages, nationalizations, regulation of private remuneration and
so on...You’re sacrificing something very unique when you do that."
Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr. (Chairman, STAND America): "The
Democratic Party has become a Coalition of the Godless ... It is time
for black Christians to stop voting for a Party that consistently votes
against us and our God. It is time to declare our independence and
start voting principle, not party."
Ben Johnson (Floyd Reports): "The Pentagon long ago made a
cliché of the phrase, 'Failure is not an option.' Barack Obama’s anti-
terrorism crew believes failure is not only optional but inevitable –
and Americans need to get over it ... What we have to do is put the
threat in perspective.”
Dan Danner (CEO, National Federation of Independent Business):
"The alarming effects of Obamacare are beginning to settle in ... the
effects we've long warned Americans of: President Obama's health
care overhaul could cause Americans to lose their health care
coverage...But supporters of Obamacare don't want you to hear this.
They insist Obamacare is making lives better instead of destroying
small businesses and reducing health care to so many."
And here are a few choice almost "One Liners" we noted this week:
Larry Elder: "'Hope and change' has been replaced with 'hopeless
and small change.'"
C.S. Lewis: "Good and evil both increase at compound interest."
Mike Pence: "America cannot afford the status quo...unless we
change course now, America will go broke."
Jillian Bandes: "The Florida governor’s debate on Friday night took
talking points and platitudes to a new low."
And from Lori Ziganto, her comment on an article by Meghan McCain
on Sarah Palin is worth noting: "Aside from the hilarity provided by
someone who thinks incredibly highly of herself for no discernable
reason, the irony displayed in the article is epic."
And here are a few random "Afterthoughts" . . .
Some suggestions for the Obama "politically correct" dictionary.
Much of the new Obama-approved terminology serves to deny any
association to terrorist attacks by adherents to Islam, the Mulim religion.
For example, "Islamic terrorist" went through "Islamic extremist" to
become "Militant Islamic radicalism." The term "Jihad" was forbidden
any use whatsoever, and it soon became apparent that the Obama
administration had become a victim of JDS -- "Jihad Denial Syndrome."
At about the same time some other headline terms were ordered to be
changed; "terrorist attack" became "man caused disaster," and "illegal
alien" went through a change to "displaced foreign traveler" to become
"undocumented immigrant." In day-to-day use of his teleprompter, Mr.
Obama very frequently uses these words, "let me make this clear," and
"unacceptable," and very recently a new one has been slipping in:
"untenable fiscal situation." In using a degree of boldness to which
we are probably not entitled, we would suggest his adopting a term
used by former President Calvin Collidge, in speaking of a second term
of office as president: "I do not choose to run." Well, it's a thought . . .
Everyone else discussed the two rallies on the Mall. We didn't, but
in all fairness, some comment should be made. On Aug. 28, Fox TV
commentator Glenn Beck was the lead organizer of the "One Nation"
rally. Estimates of the crowd present were all around 500,000, and the
consensus figure placed it at 500,000. Robert Ringer, as close to being
an honest, objective observer as could be found, actually attended both
events. A brief excerpt from his comments on the Beck rally: "They
were two totally different events. Beck is just one individual ... who
produced a rally with a theme of restoring honor to America and to
honor fallen U.S. soldiers." On Oct. 2 Al Sharpton and supporting
Librals sponsored a "One Nation Working Together" rally. The crowd
consensus estimate varied between 75,000 and 150,000. Susy Rice
described it tersely: "One Nation Rally: Depressed crowd is hauled
to D.C. to speak depressingly about how depressing it is to be so
depressed." And Jeff Winkler in The Daily Caller wote: "The liberal
'One Nation Working Together' rally ... was a trashy affair... at least
according to one member of the clean-crew who worked both events
... the area around the Lincoln Memorial had become a landfill." By
contrast, every observer of the Beck rally commented on the cleanliness
of the area following the event. Some of the main line TV media in an
attempt to hide the embarrassing failure of the Sharpton rally, showed
pictures of the Beck rally crowd. If nothing else, the two events should
have proved to the media that America is more Conservative than they
think it is. Or at least that Glenn Beck has more fans than Al Sharpton.
Think of it as good political timing rather than an unexplained delay.
In July, Charlie Rangel (D, NY) was charged with ethics violations. In
August, Maxine Waters (D, CA) was also similarly charged. Now, some
3 months later, their trial dates have been set for Nov. 15 -- and here's
the good political timing aspect: it is after the Nov. 2 election day, when
both will be on the ballots for re-election.
We're not the only ones who wonder about Obama's Christian faith.
Among quite a few messages on the subject, Peter Heck, a radio talk show
host in Indiana, commented on the recent event in New Mexico where Mr.
Obama responded to a question about becoming a Cristian by saying, "I
came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts
of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life I would want to
lead," and added that he was moved by the thought of "being my brothers'
and sisters' keeper." Mr. Heck's comment was: "One has to wonder
whether such an answer was really what his advisors wanted. After all,
who would even suggest that the president use the Biblical phrase,
'being my brother's keeper' when his actual half-brother (blood related)
resides in a shack in Kenya?" (Of course, one might also suggest that at
no place in the Bible is the kind of a life to be led presented as the way
or reason to become a Christian.)
In case you wondered where small amounts of your money go. Not
the big, billion dollar expenditures . . . more like what the government
thinks of as "petty cash." The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an
independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 for these stated
purposes, to promote the progress of science, to advance the national
health, prosperity and welfare; to secure the national defense. Now a new
purpose seems to have been added -- to pay for plays on climate change.
The New York Times reports that NSF will award $700,000 of taxpayer
money to a New York theater company to produce a play on climate
change. It may never be a box office hit -- its theme is to explore "the
emotional and psychological aspects of the current environmental crisis."
We might offer the suggestion that they consider Al Gore for the lead role.
A major developing story must be mentioned in this issue. During the
past few days, in an apparent last-minute desperation move, the Democrat
party began attacking the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of support
for Republican candidates. President Obama stepped up to lead the
attacks in campaign-style, shrill-voiced fund raising speeches. Even the
usually liberal New York Times did not offer support for the Democrat
accusations. Plus it has been noted that the U.S. Chamber also supports a
number of Democrat candidates. Among commentators, there are very
similar views; David Limbaugh wrote: "The most noteworthy aspect of
President Barack Obama's slander of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
for allegedly 'stealing our democracy' ...is that such disgraceful behavior
is par for the course of this self-described post-partisan president." And
Charles Krauthammer spoke of these attacks as "reptilian desperation."
Even George Soros, the billionaire financier who has been an enthusiastic
Democrat supporter in recent elections, is said to be staying out of this
struggle, and when asked about the possibility of Republicans making large
gains in the upcoming election, said "I'm not in a position to stop it. I don't
believe in standing in the way of an avalanche."
More than ever we need to recall the views of our Founding Fathers.
"But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have
virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no
virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation ... If
there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be
exercised in their selection of these men." -- James Madison, 1788
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is
the first and only legitimate object of good government."
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1809
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