A "Changed" America Not As Good As The Old America.

 

Change is not always good.  This "changed" America is definitely not as good as the America we had before we decided to exchange freedom for socialism.

 

Today, Americans are just beginning to awaken and learn the nightmare they are experiencing is not a nightmare  one experiences during REM sleep.  In fact, they learn, to their utter surprise, they are NOT sleeping.  This nightmare is NO DREAM.  It is REAL.  And, it was brought on by Americans who THOUGHT they wanted, and yes, even NEEDED change.

 

Many of the votes that were cast last November for "change" were votes from young people who had no idea what they were trading and what they were getting for the trade. They are the product of a public education system in America now almost totally ruled over by the political left, which still seeks the Nirvana of Utopia through Socialism.  After 12, or more, years in the public education system, then 2 to 4 more years in those bastions of liberalism/socialism we refer to as colleges and universities, is it any wonder their Pavlovian response in the voting booth was to pull all the levers by the names of the candidates who were decidedly left-wing candidates? Hardly!  They were simply reacting to the stimuli implanted in their malleable minds as they made their way through an education system designed to do just that.

 

And now, some six months after the deed is done, we are just on the cusp of the avalanche of hurt coming our way as our country is about to collapse around us.

 

Those of us who knew socialism's sad story of lies, deceit, and destruction are not surprised at America's precarious position today.  We knew it would happen. We have watched socialism from its birth.  We watched socialism's struggle to grow while it murdered its host country all the while.  Like a physician trying to heal a patient, by draining the patient's body of all its blood, socialism drains a nation of it's life-giving force and leaves it a broken shell of its former self. Even as robust a nation as Russia required assistance from former enemies, just to survive, after throwing off the bonds of socialism a few short years ago.

 

Pope Pius XI once said: "It is wrong to withdraw from the individual and commit to the community at large what private enterprise and industry can accomplish.  So, too, it is an injustice, a grave evil, and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies."

 

Now we are observing this "wrong," and this "injustice", Pope Pius XI warned of, play out right before our eyes here in America.

 

The "old" America was truly "something else!"  She was a dream.  She was a land of unlimited opportunities and horizons that went on forever.  She was the envy of the world!

 

Americans were optimistic people who threw themselves into the task of firing the furnace of the engine of democracy and delighting in the rewards of their own labor. The "American Dream" was so big and so multi-faceted that no one could describe it! 

 

One British author, John Keegan, described America this way:

 

"Left to themselves, Americans build, cultivate, bridge, dam, canalize, invent, teach, manufacture, think write, lock themselves in struggle with the eternal challenges that man has chosen to confront, and with an intensity not known elsewhere on the globe.

 

Bidden to make "War" their work, Americans shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose.  If I were obliged to define the American mystery, I would say it is the ethos - masculine, pervasive, unrelenting - of work as an end in itself.  War is a form of work, and America makes war in a particularly workmanlike way.  I do not love war; but I love America!"  - John Keegan, author of "Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America" is a British military historian, lecturer, and journalist.

 

Mr. Keegan had it right  This is what America used to be like. And for those of us who STILL remember her, as she was, today's "changed" America  is a bitter pill to swallow!

 

J. D. Longstreet

Questions to ask at town hall meetings

Demand answers from your senators and congressman during their August recess

By: Paul Driessen

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Americans are justifiably wary about Congress rushing to overhaul our healthcare system – 17% of our economy – with little debate, analysis or bipartisan input. They worry that the legislation could affect their costs, free choice, doctor-patient relationships and access to quality care.

They should be even more concerned about complex, thousand-page legislation that would overhaul 100% of our economy – the energy system that powers and enables everything we eat, heat, cool, grow, make, transport, drive and do – to prevent hypothetical manmade catastrophic climate change.

Energy is the Master Resource that makes life possible. Without abundant, reliable, affordable energy, opportunity, progress, job creation, health and civil rights are hobbled and rolled back.

And yet, global warming bills are being rushed into law at warp speed, not just without debate, but with debate vilified as climate holocaust denial, criminal acts and treason against the planet.

Proponents insist a planetary crisis demands instant action. The truth is that President Obama wants to present a US commitment to draconian reductions in plant-fertilizing carbon dioxide at the December Copenhagen climate conference. He wants to pressure China, India and other nations to sacrifice their economic growth to the specter of alleged climate disasters. Copenhagen is the last chance for eco-activists to implement a UN-centered system of global governance, global taxes, and global control of energy, economies and living standards.

Open, robust, unfettered debate is absolutely essential. It is our inalienable right, the foundation of democracy and a free and prosperous America. A good place to start that debate is the town hall meetings that our elected representatives will be holding during their August recess. Here are a few questions that concerned citizens might want to ask.

1) Congressman John Conyers said he didn’t bother reading the bill, before he voted on it, because he would need two lawyers to explain the passages to him. Did you read and understand it? All of it? Then how can we be expected to do so? Why should we be expected to obey it? Why should we let congressmen who can’t understand their own bills control 100% of our economy?

2) Global temperatures are not increasing. Thousands of scientists say humans and carbon dioxide are not causing a climate disaster. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and heat waves are not increasing. Emissions from China and India will quickly replace any CO2 reductions the United States might achieve by taxing and restricting fossil fuel use, crippling our economy, and hurting seniors and poor families most. Why does Congress refuse to allow real debate? Why does it simply assume and decree that we have a global warming crisis and must enact legislation immediately?

3) House Speaker Pelosi recently said “every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory,” so that America can slash energy use and emissions, and prevent dangerous climate change. This can only lead to a massive, intrusive Green Nanny State; the end of affordable, reliable energy; a coerced switch to expensive, unreliable wind and solar power; and skyrocketing energy costs that will hammer families and businesses and cost millions of jobs. Why would you support such legislation?

4) Cap-and-trade is a huge tax on the energy we use for everything we make and do. It’s a massive wealth transfer, from consumers to the government, to pay for unprecedented spending increases and more pork for favored businesses and voting blocs. It violates President Obama’s pledge not to tax anyone with incomes below $250,000. It will cost families $1000 to $4,600 per year in extra energy and living expenses. How can you justify voting for such punitive legislation?

5) The average annual temperature in Antarctica is minus 50. Temperatures would have to increase 85 degrees 24/7/365 for a century or more, to melt South Pole ice caps and raise sea levels 20-50 feet. Can you explain how a 0.02% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (from 285 ppm in 1850 to projected 485 ppm) can overturn basic laws of thermodynamics, replace the powerful natural forces that caused Ice Ages and other climate changes in the past, and produce ice-cap meltdowns?

6) Replacing hydrocarbons with “green” energy will require millions of acres of land for turbines, solar panels, geothermal facilities and transmission lines. Do you support relaxing environmental study, endangered species and other laws, to fast-track approval of these projects, despite their impacts on habitats? Or do you want them subjected to the same rules that have stymied thousands of other energy projects, so that renewable energy projects can’t be built, either – and we have a huge “energy gap”?

Do you support protecting the rights of land owners? Or do you favor eminent domain, so that government can seize people’s property and expedite construction of these projects?

7) Replacing hydrocarbons with “green” power will also require hundreds of millions of tons of steel, copper, concrete, fiberglass and rare earth minerals for turbines, solar panels and transmission lines. Do you support opening our lands for renewed exploration and development, so that we can produce these raw materials and create American jobs? Or do you intend to keep US lands off limits, allow eco-activists to file lawsuits to prevent development, and force us to depend on imports for renewable energy, too?

8) The United States spent $79 billion on global warming programs between 1989 and 2008. The vast majority went to scientists, bureaucrats, alarmist groups and propaganda campaigns that say we face a climate disaster. Do you support a law requiring that future spending be split 50:50 between researchers who think humans are causing a climate disaster, and those who believe climate change is mostly natural and cyclical – so that we can have honest, unbiased science … and sound public policy decisions?

9) Claims that we face a climate disaster are based on selected use of questionable temperature data, short-term temperature trends, and scary computer scenarios that even modelers don’t call predictions – but merely possible futures, if numerous assumptions about climate systems, energy generation, carbon dioxide and global economic growth 25-100 years from now turn out to be true. How can you justify transforming (and risking) America’s energy and economic future, based on computer models?

10) The White House and EPA suppressed a government report that said scientific evidence does not support claims that we face a global warming disaster – until after passage of a House bill that would send US carbon dioxide emissions back to 1868 levels. Why did you ignore this dictatorial and fraudulent action? Will you now demand a new debate and new vote? Demand that this report be reviewed and debated fully, before the Senate acts on similar legislation? Penalize EPA for suppressing free speech?

11) The economic pain, job losses and government intrusion into our lives under the House-passed global warming bill would reduce projected global average temperatures in 2050 by an imperceptible 0.1 degrees. That’s largely because 97% of the projected increase in CO2 emissions between now and 2030 will come from developing countries that are building new coal-fired power plants every week, according to the International Energy Agency. Why would you support legislation that is all pain, and no gain?

12) Over 1.5 billion people in China, India and Africa still do not have electricity, for even a light bulb or tiny refrigerator. Almost 2.5 billion people around the world live on less than $2 a day. Millions die every year from diseases that would be largely eradicated with electricity for refrigeration, sanitation, clinics, and industries that generate greater health and prosperity. How can you justify telling them global warming is the biggest threat they face, and they need to get by on wind and solar power, and give up their dreams of better lives, because you are worried about global warming? Doesn’t that violate their most basic human rights – including their right to improved living standards, and to life itself?

Exercise your constitutional rights. Attend town hall meetings. Ask questions. Demand answers. Demand debate. And safeguard your future, and your children’s future.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power • Black Death.  

A Rip in the Fabric of the GOP Tent!

 

Republicans have a growing divide in the party…the divide between Liberal Republicans and Conservative Republicans.  I don’t include Moderate Republicans because, frankly, I don’t believe there is such a thing.  Moderates, I believe, are simply Liberals afraid to take a stand.

 

Here’s the problem:  Liberals want to compromise.  They LOVE to compromise.  Conservatives do not want to compromise at all.  In fact we view compromise as losing. We conservatives had rather lose than compromise, period.

 

This trait has caused the Liberal Republicans to hate our guts and, believe me when I tell you, there is no love lost for Liberal Republicans in the Conservative Camp.

 

So, basically, what we have is… a big tent with two political parties underneath it.

 

This is not good for anyone... except the Democrats.

 

So, I propose the split of the Republican Party.  The Liberals may keep the name “Republican” if they choose and the new name for the Conservative Republican party would be: “The Conservative Party”.

 

I have said often, before, that I believe a Conservative Political party would draw conservatives from the Democrat party who feel they have no place to go now. I still believe that.

 

It is a fact that the electorate in America leans conservative… all the time.  So… why not have a Conservative Party, as such?  Makes all sorts of sense to me. 

 

I do not believe we would be a three party system long.  I am fairly certain the liberal Republicans would fold straight away, or join with the Liberal democrats, as they should, anyway.

 

Taking uncompromising stands is the hallmark of a conservative.  That’s what we do. It’s how we got to be conservatives in the first place.

 

The Libs in the GOP really want us to be gone… they think.  The problem, for them, you see, is… we win elections for the party.  The liberal GOP, left to it’s own devices, cannot swing a single election.  Soon there would be no liberal Republicans in the House or the Senate.  I can only feel that would be a good thing for the Party and the country!

 

Conservatives know what they believe and they can articulate it well.  They aren’t good at nuance, or shading their beliefs, in any way.   You ask Conservatives a question and you will get a direct answer. No flip-flopping.  Unlike Liberals who are with you at the beginning of a war but flee at the sound of the first gunshots, Conservatives stay for the entire war… period!

 

We can be defeated… but not easily.   As things are today, the GOP is continually on the edge of defeat.  A Conservative Party would stay away from the edge.

 

I fully expect to see another party develop in the next few months. It will be a conservative party. 

 

The bottom line is this:  Conservatives are fed up with being used to win elections and immediately afterwards being dumped.  We don’t like it.  We feel if we had our own party, we could do even more than the GOP allows us to do today.  We feel we could eventually capture the seats held by Liberal Republicans in the Congress and in the White House. 

 

So, give us the party.  Give us a party named “The Conservative Party” and we will flock to the banner. I’m ready!  How about you?

 

J. D. Longstreet

 

Southerners Should Leave the Republican Party en Masse!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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If you need or want any more proof that the Republican Party’s fondest desire is to be rid of us Southern Conservatives - all you have to do is read the article entitled: "Them Dang Southerners" by Kathleen Parker. You’ll find it HERE.

I have been insulted! As a Southerner, as a conservative, I have been insulted. As dueling has been outlawed in this country now, I cannot demand satisfaction on the “field of honor,” but I CAN remove myself from amongst those who decry my presence. And THAT, I SHALL do!

I’ve said it before but for those of you new to this site, I have been a Republican since I registered to vote for the first time when I turned 21 years of age in South Carolina. I am now approaching my 7th decade on this earth and it’s a hell of a time to learn that the political party I have supported all my adult life wants me GONE!

If you are a Southerner, and you are a conservative, and you are a registered Republican, may I be so bold as to suggest that you consider going to your local board of elections and changing your registration from Republican to something else. I’d change mine to Independent but here in North Carolina, where the dems rule the state legislature, one cannot register as an Independent. One may register as Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or “Unaffiliated.” I don’t want to be “unaffiliated,” dammit! I want to be an “Independent!”

As I am writing this, I am downloading and printing out the forms from my State Election Board to change my registration from Republican to Unaffiliated. I have "had it" with the disrespect shown me, as a Southerner and as a conservative, by the GOP.

Anyone with a gnat’s brain knows the GOP is in serious trouble. They are so out of touch with their grassroots, out here in the hinterlands, that it is almost laughable – and would be were it not so serious. For them, or some of the leaders within the party, to show the kind of disrespect for conservative republicans, especially SOUTHERN CONSERVATIVE VOTERS, is just unforgivable! It was the CONSERVATIVE voters who supported and assisted them in wrenching control of the Congress from the hands of the democrats in the mid-90’s only to have the GOP falter and fail as national leaders and eventually hand the Congress right back to the democrats in 2006.

I offer a heads-up to Republicans who have, as yet, not sipped from the cup of reality: You are going to lose again in 2010 - and - Obama will be returned to office for a second term in 2012!

I have no crystal ball. What I DO have is a functioning brain and a good grasp on how to use common sense.

Speaking as a Southerner now, I have been insulted by my political party for the last time. Their recent insults have given me a new appreciation for the depth of the acerbic feelings my Southern/Confederate ancestors had for those they referred to as “Carpetbaggers.”

To my fellow Southerners, especially my fellow conservative Southerners, may I be so bold as to suggest to you that you, too, have been insulted as has your Southern ancestry. Will your honor allow this insult to pass? Honor, Sir, and Madam, demands that you defend her!

We Southerners have been challenged. As much as it pains me to say it – it would seem that modern day carpetbaggers from the GOP are, indeed, amongst us again. This time they are not stealing our land and our possessions, they are taking our votes and our support and then wiping their feet on us as they would a doormat.

I am a Southerner FIRST before I am (actually WAS) a Republican. My family, my ancestry, comes first before ANY political party. As a Southerner I understand the meaning of, and the value of, HONOR! I understand that honor forbids the taking of anything under false pretenses. Unfortunately some within the GOP seem to think taking our Southern votes, money, support, and loyalty, while making crude jokes about our manner of speech, and our customs, and our adherence to our religious faith, is an honorable thing to do. It is not. In fact, it is just the opposite.

If you are a Southern Conservative and you are still clinging to the GOP, I implore you… get OUT! Find yourself a conservative political organization that truly appreciates what you can bring to the table - not just for the conservative movement but also for the country. You have no excuse for remaining where you are not wanted. The GOP PLAINLY DOES NOT WANT SOUTHERN CONSERVATIVES. This Southern Conservative is done with the Republican Party!

J. D. Longstreet
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Conservative+Southerner+Republican+Dishonor+Honor

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Driver's License preferred over DNA?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Earlier this week I went in for a doctor's appointment.  This was a regularly scheduled visit I must make every 4 to 6 weeks.  I have been availing myself of this doctor's services since the late 1960's.  But - on this visit, as I weighed-in and signed-in, I was asked to produce my drivers license!

 

I was stunned, frankly!  I had not expected this.  Being one of the old mossbacks who believes that "the less government the better" is the ONLY way, I protested vigorously, loudly, and profusely - and, I am somewhat embarrassed to say, used some language I learned in the military and haven't used since those long ago days - before I remembered I am a Southern Gentleman, and got hold of myself.

 

I inquired of the receptionist what could a driver's license possibly have that my DNA, which, I assume, they already have on file, didn't have?  Taken aback at my – ahem - robust defense of my privacy, the receptionist hastily assured me she didn't make the rules. It was, she said, a new HIPA ruling and there was nothing she could do about it.

 

In the event you do not know what the letters H I P A stand for - it is the Health Information Privacy Act of 1999 .  You should be able to click on the name and go right to a site that will provide you with some info on it.   If not, then clicking on this one should: Health Information Protection Act  .

 

As I said, I realize I am an old mossback about such things as the government, or anyone, for that matter knowing entirely too much about me. 

 

I am a private person.  I like it that way.  I am extremely uncomfortable with social networking sites. That is why you do not see me on those sites. I also realize we have, at least, one generation that grew up on computers and have no problem with laying their whole lives out, on the net, for one and all to see and snoop around in.  Believe me when I tell you - I AM NOT WIRED THAT WAY!

 

I could not help but compare the HIPA rules with what I expect to be a morass of rules and regulations when ObamaCare is eventually installed nationwide… if we don't kill it while it is yet aborning!

 

Less than 20 minutes before this encounter I had been sitting here, at the keyboard, working on a piece about socialized medicine in the US and how it is, in my opinion, a government power-grab at the cost of not only our money, as taxpayers, but our privacy as well.  In the space of only a few minutes I had been thrust into the dreaded government-run healthcare system I had just been opining about in my commentary, which was still, at that moment, under construction!  It was as if I had entered the "Twilight Zone!"

 

The confrontation between the receptionist and myself lasted only a few minutes and I never got an answer as to what a NC Driver's License had that my DNA, which they already had on file, did not have!  I was still fuming as I drove home.  It was during that short commute that it became clear.  A photograph.  My DNA did not have a photograph.  My NC Driver's License does.  It was a photo ID they were after, preferably a "likeness" that my state certified was, in fact, me.

 

You can imagine, I suppose, how much disdain I am going to have for government-run healthcare… ObamaCare. 

 

A few days ago I was aghast at an article in one of my regional newspapers, which stated that the "wait time" at the ER room (Emergency Department) of a regional hospital near me was - 12 hours.  I had to fuss and fume at least one full day about that until, until, I read that, in Canada, the AVERAGE waiting time, in any Emergency Department in the country is - 23 HOURS!  Oh, yes!  And Canada has the much-vaunted nationalized healthcare, or as we refer to it - socialized medicine.

 

A few years ago, I had the fortune, good or bad, to be cared for by an RN from Canada during one of my nearly 70 hospitalizations   The hospital was experiencing some personnel difficulties and had made arrangements with some nurses, registered and otherwise, from Canada.  At shift change, the RN came around an introduced herself and we struck up a light conversation.  She mentioned that she was from Canada.  It was then that I asked her for her opinion of Canada's socialized medicine now that she had worked in the American healthcare system.  Her reply was – to quote:  "IT SUCKS!"  She made this remark about the healthcare system of her own country, one in which she, as a registered nurse, was employed! That settled it for me.

 

Recently, John Stossel exposed the flaws in the Canadian and British government-run health care systems.  There is an excellent article on that report

HERE.  We recommend you take a couple (or three) minutes and read it.

 

We Americans are told time and time again that the healthcare system in America is broken and ObamaCare is the way to fix it.  Well, as the Congress and the Obama Administration are learning, much to their chagrin, the American people are not convinced that our healthcare system is broken.  We have a "For Profit" system.  That means the costs for healthcare will be high.  We know that.  It is profit driven. Much of that profit goes right back into research and development of new drugs and new treatments and new equipment to be used in those treatments in conjunction with those new drugs. We are, at least, we WERE a capitalist nation, before Obama. Healthcare delivery in America is a business and businesses must make a profit for its owners and shareholders else it goes out of business.  NOBODY IS IN BUSINESS TO DO YOU AND I A FAVOR! They are in business to make money! Not to put to o fine a point on it, but - I say again - Healthcare Delivery in America is a business! Without the "profit motive" all those wonderful lifesaving devices, and drugs, and treatments would not exist.  I know that is not "a warm and fuzzy thing" to say, but it is the truth and the truth is rarely warm and certainly not fuzzy!

 

ObamaCare has no "Profit Motive." It will be a government-run healthcare delivery system.   YOU will be little more than a number.  In all likelihood, the medical equipment used in your treatment will come from the "low bidder." Chances are - the drugs used in your treatment will come from the pharmaceutical company offering them to the government at the lowest price. As my sainted mother used to say:  "You get what you pay for!"

 

ObamaCare is NOT the answer.  If there is a problem it is with the 46 or 47 million uninsured in America.  First, determine whom, exactly, those people are.  Determine why they have no insurance.  If they don't want it, then leave them ALONE!  If they are illegal aliens, then cross them off the list - entirely.  They never should have been included in the first place!  Now wee are down to those If there is truly a healthcare problem in America, that is it.   And with that "fixed," the healthcare problem in America is solved.

 

J.D. Longstreet

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