For freedom’s way the patriots bled,
The crosses mark our honored dead. More clearly than mere words e’er may That field lays out their final say: No greater love, they gave it all, In answer to man’s highest call. But don’t forget that most returned. To them we owe esteem they earned. And last of all, remember this: Our LORD betrayed by one mere kiss. For from within true danger lies, Though carefully as friend disguised. So fight my friend, from where you stand, For freedom rides on every man. E pluribus unum Tom Hoefling, November 11, 2009 Memorial Day 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012 The Foundation "Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives." --John Adams Essential Liberty Col. Tom Manion, USMCR (Ret.), wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the remarkable men and women in uniform and what they give for our great nation. He should know -- his son gave his life in Iraq in 2007. "I served in the military for 30 years. But it was impossible to fully understand the sacrifices of our troops and their families until April 29, 2007, the day my son, First Lt. Travis Manion, was killed in Iraq. "Travis was just 26 years old when an enemy sniper's bullet pierced his heart after he had just helped save two wounded comrades. ... "While my son's life was relatively short, I spend every day marveling at his courage and wisdom. Before his second and final combat deployment, Travis said he wanted to go back to Iraq in order to spare a less-experienced Marine from going in his place. His words -- 'If not me, then who...' -- continue to inspire me. "My son is one of thousands to die in combat since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. ... "When my son died in Iraq, his U.S. Naval Academy roommate, Brendan Looney, was in the middle of BUD/S (basic underwater demolition) training to become a Navy SEAL. Devastated by his good friend's death, Brendan called us in anguish, telling my wife and me that losing Travis was too much for him to handle during the grueling training regimen. "Lt. Brendan Looney overcame his grief to become 'Honor Man' of his SEAL class, and he served in Iraq before later deploying to Afghanistan. On Sept. 21, 2010, after completing 58 combat missions, Brendan died with eight fellow warriors when their helicopter crashed in Zabul province. He was 29. Brendan and Travis now rest side-by-side in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. ... "Even after more than a decade of war, these remarkable men and women are still stepping forward. As the father of a fallen Marine, I hope Americans will treat this Memorial Day as more than a time for pools to open, for barbecues or for a holiday from work. It should be a solemn day to remember heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice, and also a stark reminder that our country is still at war." For the Record Former Lt. Col. Oliver North, USMC, wrote of Memorial Day: "As a crowd of high-school students offloaded from the tour bus for a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial aka 'The Wall,' he yelled, 'There are no good wars!' ... He held a sheet of cardboard, hand-inscribed with the words 'I'm the 99 percent' on one side and 'Help me, I'm Homeless' on the other. ... "'The Wall' is like that. The V-shaped black granite panels with 58,282 names inscribed upon them attract visitors like no other place in our nation's capital. ... "[T]his year, our countrymen who pause from travel, shopping, sporting events and auto races on the last Monday in May will see a very different observance: the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Vietnam War. "For the 2.7 million Americans who fought for our nation in Southeast Asia, the Gold Star families who lost loved ones there and those who still yearn to know what happened to the 1,350 who still are unaccounted for, Monday's ceremony is a long-awaited requital for unacknowledged sacrifice. It's an overdue but welcome event. "What is less certain is whether this commemoration finally can bring closure to the most polarizing armed conflict for Americans since the Civil War. Will it end the false mythology of the Vietnam vet as a pothead marauder, a homeless, unemployed dropout who couldn't fit in after coming home? "The Occupy protester I confronted on my way to 'The Wall' this week probably won't be convinced by this single ceremony. It's unlikely he ever will grasp the innate decency, unstinting perseverance, quiet courage and true humility of those whose names are engraved on those black granite panels. There are no good wars. But there are good warriors. ... "Like most Vietnam War veterans, they still are giving more than they ever asked in return. They aren't dropouts. They are American heroes -- and I'm blessed to call them friends." In Honor of Fallen Patriots Don't miss Mark Alexander's essay on Memorial Day and what it really means. Also, please view our Patriot Memorial Day Tributes. Memorial Day Challenge Ryan's Story Insight "They fought together as brothers-in-arms, they died together, and now they sleep side by side. To them we have a solemn obligation." --Chester Nimitz "They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast, and their names are engraven on honor's bright crest." --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Gipper "Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset telling our children and our children's children what is was once like in the United States where men were free." --Ronald Reagan Thank You "We pause this day in America to remember our fallen heroes, the men and women who answered the call of freedom and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Let us remember and thank them for the nights they slept freezing in a tent or sweating in the desert, for the lonely days they spent fighting boredom and missing loved ones, for the hours they spent sick in pain from battle and without someone holding their hand other than their fellow soldiers, for the moments of sheer fright in the heat of battle, for the wounds suffered fighting evil, for the endless days in hospitals undergoing painful surgeries, for the precious occasions missed at home with family and friends. For all of these sacrifices, we need to thank them on behalf of millions of Americans who are so grateful. We truly appreciate their dedication to duty. ... May their legacy be honored for generations to come, may the tears shed over their coffins fertilize the fields of patriotism in our nation. The new generations to come must be built on strength, duty, honor and country, willing and able to follow in their Warrior footsteps when duty calls to defend America. May their blood not have been shed in vain. May we prove worthy of their sacrifice." --Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely U.S. Army (Ret.) A Final Note From the Publisher On Wednesday of last week, I heard from our longtime, and very devoted editor, David Weed, that he would be out of the publishing loop for Thursday and Friday with "medical issues." On Friday afternoon, I heard from his lovely wife Karen that David has departed this life for the next. David was faithful in his service right to the end, and his absence will leave a large hole in the quality of our Patriot prose. David was our token Yankee curmudgeon -- yes we have a few other Yankees on the team but not as curmudgeonly as David. It would be difficult to find the right adjectives to describe his unique "wit and charm" without the benefit of a very unabridged dictionary! I thank God for his life and the part of it he so generously donated to advance Liberty by way of The Patriot Post. David was a brother and a Patriot, and his legacy has been quietly etched in the hearts and minds of his Patriot brothers and sisters across the nation. I would only ask your prayers for his wife, Karen. Provided courtesy of CTMSR.com
New York Magazine Jonathan Chait The real news in Mitt Romney’s interview with Mark Halperin, as Charles Pierce points out, is that Romney openly repudiated the central argument his party has been making against [Alleged] President Obama for the last three years: that he spent too much money and therefore deepened the economic crisis. Indeed Romney himself had been making this very case as recently as a week ago (“he bailed out the public sector, gave billions of dollars to the companies of his friends, and added almost as much debt as all the prior presidents combined. The consequence is that we are enduring the most tepid recovery in modern history.”) But in his Halperin interview, Romney frankly admits that reducing the budget deficit in the midst of an economic crisis would be a horrible idea: Halperin: You have a plan, as you said, over a number of years, to reduce spending dramatically. Why not in the first year, if you’re elected — why not in 2013, go all the way and propose the kind of budget with spending restraints, that you’d like to see after four years in office? Why not do it more quickly? Romney: Well because, if you take a trillion dollars for instance, out of the first year of the federal budget, that would shrink GDP over 5%. That is by definition throwing us into recession or depression. So I’m not going to do that, of course. Read more at nymag.com ... “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
-- Calvin Coolidge The Equal Protection for Posterity Resolution
America's Party Platform (Includes the Resolution) America's Party Leadership Pledge (Includes the Resolution) Tom Hoefling: I Believe (Includes the Resolution) "Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it."
-- James Madison, Federalist No. 41 'America's Summit - Restore the Republic' - Every Tuesday and Thursday night - 9 pm EST
Every Tuesday and Thursday Night Hosted by America's Party Chairman and 2012 America's Party Presidential Nominee Tom Hoefling National Conference Call featuring America's Party leaders, special guests, and principled independent, conservatives from across the land Email questions or comments to tomhoefling@gmail.com The calls are live-streamed on the web at talkshoe.com. The call-in number is: ………………..(218) 936-4343 and the conference ID is: ………………..340794# The Tuesday and Thursday night calls begin at: ………………..9:00 p.m. Eastern ………………..8:00 p.m. Central ………………..7:00 p.m. Mountain ………………..6:00 p.m. Pacific ………………..5:00 p.m. Alaska Tom Hoefling for President 2012: Mitt Romney Rejects the Reagan Republican Pro-Life Platform5/20/2012 One of the primary planks of the Republican Platform is the party's commitment to recognizing the Fourteenth Amendment protection of unborn children. In this video clip, Mitt Romney states his opposition to that commitment. Mitt Romney is not a prolife candidate. Vote for life in 2012. Vote for Tom Hoefling. tomhoefling.com Tom Hoefling, 2012 America's Party presidential nominee, interviewed by Tom Roten, May 17, 20125/20/2012 "Duty is ours. Results are God's."
-- James Madison "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."
-- George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796 "... [R]ightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our own will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany - 1819 "If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior."
-- James Madison, Federalist No. 39 "There is no part of the administration of government that requires extensive information and a thorough knowledge of the principles of political economy, so much as the business of taxation. The man who understands those principles best will be least likely to resort to oppressive expedients, or sacrifice any particular class of citizens to the procurement of revenue. It might be demonstrated that the most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome."
-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 35 J.D. Ellis,
Vice Presidential Nominee, America's Party "The principal arguments in support of independence may be comprehended under the four following heads. 1st, The natural right of the continent to independence. 2d, Her interest in being independent. 3d, The necessity,- and 4th, The moral advantages arising therefrom. … "IV. But what weigh most with all men of serious reflection are, the moral advantages arising from independence: war and desolation have become the trade of the old world; and America neither could nor can be under the government of Britain without becoming a sharer of her guilt, and a partner in all the dismal commerce of death." --Thomas Paine, The Crisis, 1777 The principal arguments in support of conservatives’ independence from the Republican Party may be comprehended under the four following heads. 1st, The natural right of conservatives to political independence. 2d, Our interest in being independent from the Republican Party. 3d, The necessity,- and 4th, The moral advantages arising therefrom. But what weigh most with all men of serious reflection are, the moral advantages arising from independence: War against unborn humanity and desolation of the traditional family have become the trade of the Grand Old Party. (If any man be in doubt of this fact, he need only look to the record and even the stated positions of the man whom the party is working so hard to nominate: Mitt Romney supports the destruction of the traditional family, in favor of the radical homosexual agenda. And he denies that the right to life of the unborn is unalienable and unconditional, proclaiming instead that it is an issue for the states to decide. If the states are the proper arbiters of this matter, then the right to life is neither unalienable nor unconditional--it is utterly conditioned on the will of the state, and completely severable at the whim of the people!) Conservatives neither could nor can be under the leadership and influence of Romney Republicanism without becoming a sharer of that party’s guilt, and a partner in all the dismal commerce of death. “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
-- Abraham Lincoln The Ticket
Ron Paul announced Monday that his campaign will no longer spend money on presidential nominating contests due to lack of funds, effectively ending his campaign for the Republican nomination. "There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
-- James Madison, speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788 "Our national task today is to restore the conditions for economic recovery, without which our prosperity and our national security cannot be assured. We must restrain the headlong growth of the Federal budget; enact multi-year across-the-board tax reductions to spur new job-creating investment and productivity; roll back the tangle of regulations which needlessly hamper enterprises; and cleave to a sound monetary policy which preserves the strength of the American dollar. But even as we act boldly to achieve these goals, we most work to create the conditions for expanding the ownership of the nation's wealth, so that all Americans may have their fair chance to become true proprietors of their country."
--Ronald Reagan, Letter to Pierre S. du Pont IV, Delaware, 1981 NBC Miami
Gary Fineout Tens of thousands of voters could be dropped from the rolls this election year Florida officials are now saying that nearly 200,000 registered voters may not be U.S. citizens. Earlier in the week, state election officials announced they had identified more than 2,600 people who are in Florida legally but ineligible to vote. The Department of State is asking county election officials to verify the information. Election supervisors are contacting voters and if someone is not a citizen, their name will be dropped from the voter rolls. But an initial list drawn up by the state — and not widely released — shows that a comparison of voter lists and driver's license information turned up a list of nearly 182,000 people who may not be U.S. citizens. State officials, however, note that some of those on list may have become citizens after first getting their driver's licenses. Still, the decision to screen the voter rolls for non-citizens could result in tens of thousands voters being dropped in the middle of a critical election year. [Alleged] President Barack Obama won Florida four years ago, but recent polls have shown that he is neck-and-neck with likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney. The 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was decided by just 537 votes in the Sunshine State. Read this story at nbcmiami.com ... The Washington Post
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) said Thursday that he believes gay couples should be allowed to adopt children... |
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