-- Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801
"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."
-- Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801
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The Wall Street Journal
James Freeman Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum warned that Mitt Romney might not present a "clear contrast" to [Alleged] President Obama in the general election. Judging by Monday's action on the campaign trail, Mr. Santorum had a point. On a day when the White House urged Congress to increase student-loan subsidies, Mr. Romney had an opportunity to draw a sharp distinction between the expanding Obama entitlement state and a plan to revive the private economy. But instead of laying out plans to create jobs and reduce government spending, the former Massachusetts governor arrived at the same policy conclusion as Barack Obama. "Given the bleak job prospects that young Americans coming out of college face today," said Mr. Romney, "I encourage Congress to temporarily extend the current low rate on subsidized undergraduate Stafford loans. I also hope the president and Congress can pass the extension responsibly that offsets its cost in a way that doesn't harm the job prospects of young Americans." House members who have been opposing the extension know it is anything but responsible. The Obama-Romney subsidy will keep rates as low as 3.4% for many student borrowers, not that far above the 3.1% rate that the Treasury pays to borrow for the long term. If interest rates spike, taxpayers could be losing on every single new loan, never mind the cost of defaults. And as for offsets, the White House and Senate Democrats favor a new tax on small businesses. If Mr. Romney can't provide a contrast to that idea, Republicans will know they're in for a very long campaign. Read more at online.wsj.com ... Tom Hoefling
I wrote the following in response to an Orange County Register piece that was posted at FreeRepublic.com, and it bears repeating here: ----- Not a single sitting justice of the Supreme Court recognizes the personhood of the child in the womb and their protection by the explicit, imperative requirements of the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments. "No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law." "No State shall deprive any person of life without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Not even one of the majority of the justices who were picked by Republican presidents, members of a party whose platform HAS recognized the personhood of the chld and their protection by our Constitution for the last 28 years. So, what do you think are the chances that a "president Romney" (it makes me sick just typing that) would pick a judge who is more conservative than Thomas or Scalia? I say the chances of that are for all intents and purposes ZERO. Especially since Mitt Romney himself is a pro-choice democrat. He thinks God-given rights can be decided by a majority vote. He thinks courts make our laws, and that only they get to decide what is constitutional. In other words, he supports the abortion on demand status quo, the destruction of the checks and balances that make our form of government possible, and the erasure of the legitimate lines of authority granted to the various branches and departments of our government. He thinks states can alienate unalienable rights if they want. A Stephen A. Douglas Democrat position if there ever was one. In other words, even in this shape-shifter’s current incarnation, his views are anti-republican. No matter how you cut it, Obama or Romney, all the babies continue to die, and so does the republic whose founding premise was the equal protection of the rights of all. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men..." Frankly, at this point in history, all the Romney Republican fear-mongering about judges does is disgust and anger me. "Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right."
-- Fulton J. Sheen, 1953 "What raised us to the present happy state?...The Government has been in the hands of the people. To the people, therefore...is the credit due...
It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin... If we persevere...we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence...My fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor." -- President James Monroe, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1817 "No great advance has ever been made in science, politics, or religion, without controversy."
-- Lyman Beecher "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one."
-- Alexander Hamilton "Truth is incontrovertible. Ignorance can deride it; panic may resent it; malice may destroy it; but there it is."
-- Winston Churchill "Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt - Republican conservatives can't handle the truth about Romney4/27/2012 Tom Hoefling
April 27, 2012 I deal on a regular daily basis with self-identified conservatives all across America who are addicted to the Republican Party. And when it comes to the impending nomination by their party of the most liberal governor in U.S. history, Mitt Romney, their reactions are overwhelmingly in line with the classic symptoms described below. We can't make them face reality, of course. All we can do is to keep pointing it out to them, in the sincere hope that they will recover in time to help save the country. ----- From Wikipedia: Denial (also called abnegation) is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence. The subject may use:
Denial of fact In this form of denial, someone avoids a fact by lying. This lying can take the form of an outright falsehood (commission), leaving out certain details to tailor a story (omission), or by falsely agreeing to something (assent, also referred to as "yessing" behavior). Someone who is in denial of fact is typically using lies to avoid facts they think may be painful to themselves or others. Denial of responsibility This form of denial involves avoiding personal responsibility by:
For example: Troy breaks up with his girlfriend because he is unable to control his anger, and then blames her for everything that ever happened. Denial of impact: Denial of impact involves a person's avoiding thinking about or understanding the harms of his or her behavior has caused to self or others, i.e. denial of the consequences. Doing this enables that person to avoid feeling a sense of guilt and it can prevent him or her from developing remorse or empathy for others. Denial of impact reduces or eliminates a sense of pain or harm from poor decisions. Denial of awareness: This type of denial is best discussed by looking at the concept of state dependent learning. People using this type of denial will avoid pain and harm by stating they were in a different state of awareness (such as alcohol or drug intoxication or on occasion mental health related). This type of denial often overlaps with denial of responsibility. Denial of cycle: Many who use this type of denial will say things such as, "it just happened". Denial of cycle is where a person avoids looking at their decisions leading up to an event or does not consider their pattern of decision making and how harmful behavior is repeated. The pain and harm being avoided by this type of denial is more of the effort needed to change the focus from a singular event to looking at preceding events. It can also serve as a way to blame or justify behavior (see above). Denial of denial: This can be a difficult concept for many people to identify with in themselves, but is a major barrier to changing hurtful behaviors. Denial of denial involves thoughts, actions and behaviors which bolster confidence that nothing needs to be changed in one's personal behavior. This form of denial typically overlaps with all of the other forms of denial, but involves more self-delusion. Denial at this level can have significant consequences both personally and at a societal level. DARVO See also: Victim blaming Harassment covers a wide range of offensive behaviour. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset. In the legal sense, it is behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing. DARVO is an acronym to describe a common strategy of abusers: Deny the abuse, then Attack the victim for attempting to make them accountable for their offense, thereby Reversing Victim and Offender. Psychologist Jennifer Freyd writes: ...I have observed that actual abusers threaten, bully and make a nightmare for anyone who holds them accountable or asks them to change their abusive behavior. This attack, intended to chill and terrify, typically includes threats of law suits, overt and covert attacks on the whistle-blower's credibility, and so on. The attack will often take the form of focusing on ridiculing the person who attempts to hold the offender accountable. [...] [T]he offender rapidly creates the impression that the abuser is the wronged one, while the victim or concerned observer is the offender. Figure and ground are completely reversed. [...] The offender is on the offense and the person attempting to hold the offender accountable is put on the defense. The Daily Caller
Will Rahn Jimmy Carter says he would be “comfortable” with a Mitt Romney presidency, although he still expects [Alleged] President Barack Obama to win re-election in the fall. “I’d rather have a Democrat but I would be comfortable,” the former president told MSNBC in a segment aired Wednesday. “I think Romney has shown in the past, in his previous years as a moderate or progressive… that he was fairly competent as a governor and also running the Olympics as you know.” Read more... Patrick Henry: "I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it"4/25/2012 "It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."
-- Patrick Henry, Give me liberty or give me death speech "Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth."
-- George Washington, General Orders, Headquarters, New York - July 2. 1776 "We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them. Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great… We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favor towards us, that His Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves."
— Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms - July 6, 1775 “The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.”
-- Edmund Burke "Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States."
-- Ronald Reagan "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
-- Thomas Jefferson The Daily Caller
A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves. The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land. Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.” “Prohibited places of employment,” a Department press release read, “would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.” The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course. Read this story at dailycaller.com ... "Exceptions to the equal protection of all persons opened the door to abortion on demand, and the subsequent brutal killing in this country of more than fifty million of our fellow human beings. And it is exceptions that keep that doorway to hell wide open."
-- Tom Hoefling, April 25, 2012 2012 Presidential nominee, America's Party Equal Protection for Posterity ----- skepticism.org This Day In History - April 25, 1967 [Republican] Governor John A. Love of Colorado signs the first liberalized abortion law (based upon a model created by the American Law Institute) in the United States, allowing abortion in cases of permanent mental or physical disability of either the child or mother or in cases of rape or incest. This amended Colorado law on abortion has been on the books for over 100 years. Similar laws will soon be passed in California, Oregon, and North Carolina. According to Governor Love, "The new law does several things. First it extends beyond the possible death of the woman or her serious physical injury to include mental impairment of a serious and permanent nature when verified by a psychiatrist. It also extends to cases in which it is likely that the child would have a grave and permanent physical deformity or mental retardation. Finally it extends to certain cases of rape and incest. ... The bill itself is completely permissive, not requiring any hospital, doctor, nurse, potential mother or any other person to act in any way to terminate a pregnancy at any time."Early in the legislative session, Governor Love reportedly said that easing abortion restrictions "sounds like something I can support." Now, however, he says: "The action of the Legislature in passing a bill which seeks to amend Colorado law in regard to the legal termination of certain pregnancies has presented to me one of the more important and difficult decisions of my experience in office." Leonard Carlin, president of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Denver, says "My impression was that he was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the bill." Provided courtesy of DefendtheNaturalFamily.com
americanvisionnews.com Joel McDurmon MetroWeekly.com is exposing the whole truth that Washington Post would not reveal: Mitt Romney’s campaign tonight announced that it has hired Richard Grenell, an out gay former George W. Bush administration official, to serve as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s “national security and foreign policy spokesman,” according to a report from The Washington Post that did not mention Grenell’s sexual orientation. Grenell served through September 2008 in the Bush administration as a spokesman to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — and told The Advocate‘s Kerry Eleveld as he left the administration that it was his hope that New York would have marriage equality soon and that he would one day be able to marry his partner, Matt Lashey. The couple has been together 10 years. . . . Andrew Sullivan, who had endorsed Obama’s 2008 run, wrote of the news, “For Romney to have an openly gay spokesman is a real outreach to gay Republicans, a subtle signal to moderates, and the Santorum faction’s reaction will be worth noting.” Grenell is not just gay, but a gay activist who pushes for same-sex marriages. At the end of Grenell’s service in the Bush administration, he took a notable whack at the administration, telling The Advocate‘s Kerry Eleveld of his effort to have his partner, Matt Lashey, listed in the United Nations’ Blue Book, which is “a reference guide of contact information for different member states of the United Nations as well as diplomatic personnel and their spouses.” Grenell had attempted to have Lashey’s name added several times, to no avail. He told The Advocate back in 2008, “What put me over the edge was a friend and colleague who met her spouse after I was already with my partner — they got married and subsequently were put into the Blue Book in a matter of days.” The State Department eventually told him that the Defense of Marriage Act prevented the listing. Although he protested the decision behind the scenes, Lashey’s name was not ever added, which led to his coming forward to criticize the treatement publicly as he left his post. HuffPost has noted that since the choice, Grenell has scrubbed his Twitter account and website of offensive material... Read this story at americanvisionnews.com ... Provided courtesy of the Peace Through Strength Institute
Big Peace Ben Shapiro Today, the National Journal reported that a senior State Department official has announced, “The war on terror is over.” “Now that we have killed most of al Qaida,” the source said, “now that people have come to see legitimate means of expression, people who once might have gone into al Qaida see an opportunity for a legitimate Islamism.” The article itself describes the Obama administration’s new vision of foreign policy, which admits no enemies. Everyone, in this view, is a friend. Islamism, says the Obama administration, is just fine, so long as it does not openly support terrorism. This, of course, is utter foolishness. Islamism is a religious ideological movement that brooks no real alternatives – so while the State Department proclaims “a legitimate Islamism,” it fails to acknowledge that Islamism, “legitimate” or not, is deeply intolerant of any other modes of expression. Not only that, but Islamism works hand-in-glove with terror groups around the world. Simply because a regime does not openly house al Qaida does not mean that the regime doesn’t support al Qaida; just because a regime pretends at democracy doesn’t mean that it has real democratic values. Obama has created the brave new Middle East – a Middle East that assumes that every human heart has the desire to vote, but not to be truly free; a Middle East that oppresses women and gays and minorities, but pretends at liberalism; a Middle East that despises America but hides that hate behind a façade of multiculturalism, even as it disposes of its internal dissenters. Read this story at breitbart.com ... Alexander Hamilton: Primary truths, first principles, upon which our reasoning must depend4/24/2012 "In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend."
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 31, 1788 "And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for the second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, July 12, 1816 "The only argument Romney Republicans have for their candidate is fear, an abject fear that is intended to convince you to support what you say you hate.
Well, I, for one, refuse to be motivated or activated by fear, or to abandon the truth, or principle, out of fear. My Bible tells me that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, and that He rewards those who act out of a principled faith. And so, like the free men and women who built this country, let us laugh in the face of fear, and simply do right. Let us maintain the spirit and attitude of our first and greatest president, George Washington: 'If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.'" -- Tom Hoefling, April 23, 2012 J.D. Ellis,
Vice Presidential Nominee, America's Party "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." --Psalm 2:1-4 The pitiful attempts at political calculation by those who sacrifice principle at the altar of perceived electability are a joke to the One Who controls our nation. But He has His Own sense of humor: He is using their own efforts against them, and allowing them to nominate a candidate for president who is utterly unelectable. To think that Mitt Romney can defeat Barack Obama is to "imagine a vain thing." We cannot defeat liberal Democrats with liberal Republicans. It simply does not work. America's only hope is to stand with God, vote His principles, and let Him deal with Obama--and Romney. |
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