Government Considers the Average American a Terrorist Threat

The Liberty Papers reported that the government is seeing people that believe in the Constitution and the vision of the Founding Fathers as extremist and possibly terrorist. Now I have been reading about this document on the Internet for a few days, but waited until it has been verified before reporting on it. Well, it is real, and entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

Michelle Malkin wrote a very nice piece exposing the paper as well. I imagine that King George the III's people wrote something similar about the Founding Fathers, the Framers of the Constitution. After all tyranny doesn't like a free people that exercise their "inalienable rights" as Thomas Jefferson put it.

Our government has gotten way to big and way to far from the Founding Fathers vision. Hope to see you at a Tea Party tomorrow. The Founding Fathers Rock!

The Greatest Nation In History

Presidents come and go. Economic prosperity rises and fades. Our nation fights and wins wars. And it remains.

How many of you right now understand that you live in the greatest nation in the history of mankind? There is more opportunity for more people here and now than ever before, anywhere. All you have to do is . . . work.

Being a Judeo-Christian nation, we should understand that. We are spiritually descended from the Israelites, the name of whose country meant "struggle with God." Each human being must struggle with something because it is the essence of existence. Good living means facing and overcoming struggles. Only through overcoming adversity can people really achieve happiness and confidence.

The Founding Fathers understood this as well. We have the right to pursue property, as George Mason explained. We do not have the right to a share, as Vladimir Lenin taught. Only through learning the values of hard work has this nation succeeded.

I have seen in my own experience this at work. I had parents who started in the housing projects of Charleston and ended up executives. They worked hard, made sound decisions, and sacrificed to get to where they are. It was a little over a decade ago when my family all had to sleep in the same room because the old house we rented had no insulation and only one heated area. Others have risen as well. Look at Henry Louis Gates who started off life poor in Piedmont and is now one of the most prestigious scholars in his field. None of these people have had to fear that the fruits of their sacrifices, hard work, and risk will ever be stolen from them by a government more interested in sharing wealth than protecting property.

That is America at work. Each person, no matter where they start, can pursue their opportunities and dreams. And hard work combined with sound decisions pays off.

Rome could not offer that. Neither could Communist Russia. Only in America. And we can always be proud of that!

Today the US Supreme Court Heard a 2nd Amendment Case

While we will not know the outcome from some time, the fundamental question is whether or not the right to bear arms is a collective right or an individual right.

The 2nd Amendment states, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." To any student of history it is clear that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right, but some believe it is not.

Over 200 years ago the people of the American Colonies petitioned the Crown and their calls fell on deaf ears. In the Declaration of Independence it states, "The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States." Our forefathers understood what Tyranny was, they lived under it, most of us have not.

When they wrote the Bill of Rights, these men understood what was necessary to preserve freedom. First they understood that a free people needed the ability to speak openly about government and more importantly the ability to disagree with government. That is why the first amendment is the Guarantee of Freedom of Speech.

These men had also knew what happened Freedom of Speech is taken away and they got it back my force of arms. Without the Right to Bear Arms, there would be no United States. My ancestor John Moore was one of those men that took up arms against the crown and helped form this nation. These men that formed our nation understood the true cost of freedom.

Many of us understand that the 2nd Amendment is to protect both the 1st Amendment and to allow individuals to protect themselves when government can't. Should government try to take away freedom of speech from the people, the people have the ability to keep it as long as the right to bare arms is not infringed. A free people should never fear its government, government should aways fear its people.

Those that wish to give up the Right to Bear Arms will ultimately give up the right to free speech. The 2nd Amendment is an individual right.

Six Year Term

I just finished watching the always anti-climactic State of the Union speech. It’s basically the end of the road for President Bush. And there is a looming recession. Then I thought, when else in my conscious, adult life have I seen a two term President end his term. Perhaps showing my youth, the only one that happened was President Clinton. There was a looming recession back then as well. The stock market slow down after the tech bubble burst was the major theme and focus for my Business Finance curriculum in college. Granted both of these happened in consecutive order. But combine this issue with the growing length of a campaign for the white house. Let’s face it, the 2008 election really began when the party nominations for the 2004 election were announced.

Is it possible that one issue we are seeing is that everyone is seeking a two-term role in the White House? The first term is guided by re-election concerns, the second term is guided by cleaning up the first term so that a strong legacy can be left. Why not one 6 year term. You get elected, then you seek to fulfill your mandate. No re-election worries, just outright pursuit of the policies and beliefs that you truly subscribe to.

How do we display judgment on our elected President? At each election of Congress, we either make his/her job easier or more difficult by providing him/her with co-operative co-workers, or congressional enemies.

It isn’t often that I subscribe to such a dramatic change from what the founding fathers established. After all, they established a union that consistently sees peaceful power shifts even after 230+ years of existence. Then again, I also don’t subscribe to the belief that our current generations are more intelligent than our ancestors. But it is hard to believe that they could have foreseen elections where the winner would spend hundreds of millions of dollars just to get elected to a job that pays a fraction of that sticker price.

Hither and Yon

Ever since it was declared that Mineral County should cease development or risk running out of water, God has seen fit to drench the region with rain and snow almost every single day .

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The Grant County Press reported lottery payouts to local governments.

Hampshire, $2,803.63; Hardy, $1,698.89; Mineral, $11,039.98; Pendleton, $157.51; Tucker, $153.15.
Petersburg received a payment of $176.37 and Bayard picked up $21.76.
Some other cities and their payments were: Franklin, $16.97; Keyser, $3,109.46; Moorefield, $401.56; Romney, $301.12: Wardensville, $41.59; and Elk Garden, $127.24.

From the new table games account, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, and Pendleton each received $242.65. Cities received $57.67.

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Antiwar protesters love using quotations. Ever notice that? They love to drag some quote out of context to try and prove that Founding Fathers or other respectable people share their viewpoints. The Devil can even cite Scripture for his own purposes. People's actions reflect their nature better than their words. Yes John Adams discussed the evil of war, but he built up a United States Navy and sent it to war, as did his successor Thomas Jefferson.

Quotations are easy to memorize and antiwar folks are very good at learning their lines. However, true wisdom lies in knowledge AND understanding. Ron Paul on his website utterly distorts the meaning of Washington's Farewell Address. Knowing the text helps one to under stand that Washington meant only Europe. Understanding the man could lead one to believe that Washington's nature was far from dogmatic. He changed his approaches to problems in life, war, and politics readily. When someone uses a quote alone to argue a point, it may serve as a red flag that he or she has chosen the easy way out and does not truly understand.

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Can someone please explain why that beautiful evergreen tree on the Mineral County courthouse lawn is not decorated for Christmas?

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Sean Penn has visited the dictators of Iran and Venezuela. All three agree that Dennis Kucinich is the right president for the United States. With those kinds of endorsements, who could lose

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All baseball players found to have used steroids need their statistics and awards expunged from the record books. It would be nice to see the fans get their money back from these cheaters.

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The New York Times has a long history of looking the other way in the face of leftist terror. Seventy five years ago last month, their correspondent Walter Duranty reported at the height of the Stalin imposed famine, "there is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation." Reports of hundreds of thousands, even millions of deaths he called "Malignant propaganda." In Ukraine alone perhaps five million died during this crisis imposed by Stalin's desire to communize farming.

At the New York Times, bending over backwards to accommodate dictators has been tradition.

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Don't forget about the Harrison County Republican Club Dinner on Friday December 21. Tommy Phillips and the Harrison County Club have done an outstanding job putting together a Christmas dinner. The food will be terrific, the speakers and good times even better.

2007 Harrison County Republican Club Christmas DinnerDecember 21, 2007

Social - 5:30 P.M. -

Dinner 6:00 P.M.Cottage Corner Restaraunt in SalemGuest Speaker -

St. Senator Clark Barnes (R-Randolph)Auctioneer - Rocky PeckTickets - $20.00 per person

Please contact - HCRC President Tommy Phillips - (304)672-6890

Email - gopguy1980@verizon.net

HCRC Vice President Jack Pringle - (304)669-3781

Also in attendance will be Republican candidate for the 14th Senatorial District Gary Howell.

Ron Paul Redux

In my last commentary on Ron Paul, I was twice invited by "anonymous" to read Ron Paul's site. They apparently thought I had not done this in the first place. I did go back and look again at his positions and came away with the same feeling I had before. Some of his ideas are solid, but a few would put the country in danger.

Smaller government that puts more freedom into the hands of the people represents a positive good. We definitely need to roll back liberal cuts in property and education rights. As far as domestic ideas on individual rights are concerned, Ron Paul has good ideas. Fortunately Fred Thompson and other Republican candidates share Paul's desire to protect property rights, gun rights, and the right of every unborn child to live.

Paul's foreign policy ideas are, however, disastrous. They run absolutely contrary to the actions of the Founding Fathers when they assumed the presidency. Paul believes that military force ought not be used without a direct declaration of war by Congress. Again, the Founders themselves did not believe that this was reasonable. George Washington launched three wars against the Shawnee Nation and after his presidency supported an undeclared war against France launched by John Adams. Washington's Farewell Address warning about entanglements referred to alliances with Europe and most likely was meant to be a short term warning. Washington's actions throughout his life reflected those of a man who was flexible and adaptive to changing situations, never dogmatic.

Congress did not declare war against the Barbary Pirates in either the Jefferson or Madison administration. Each one of these men supported military action without the direct assent of Congress. Madison and Washington wielded powerful influences over the creation of the Constitution. If any men understood what it meant, these would be two. Jefferson advocated a very limited role for the chief executive, but still sent the Navy and Marines into action to protect US interests.

Paul's position on Iraq has no basis in reality and shows an appalling lack of any kind of sense about geopolitics. References to creating more enemies simply do not hold water and do not reflect the shifting and complex nature of society and politics in the Middle East. National Security means that the US needs to be involved in regions throughout the world. If a grease fire started in your kitchen, would you put it out immediately, or wait until your entire home was threatened? "No win police actions" and other uses of the military that Paul disdains head off more dangerous conflicts down the road. If we had the same foreign policy in the 1930s that we do now, millions of lives and trillions of dollars would have been saved. Paul has forgotten the lessons of 9/11, much less Munich and Pearl Harbor.

As far as NAFTA is concerned, neither the Canadians nor the United States want a European Union style system. Canada very jealously guards its cultural and political independence from possible US encroachment. That being said the EU represents a powerful economic competitor as a unified economic zone. Paul points out that France has blocked sales of US products. So be it. The best way to react is through a coordinated response with our primary trade partners. The European Union already shows signs of strain due to its increasingly socialistic regulations and is no model to follow. When BMW shows that Spartanburg, South Carolina is a better place to manufacture cars that their own country, it demonstrates that our system works. That being said, it is right to remain vigilant to make sure that Eurosocialism does not creep into our methods of doing business.

When it is all said and done, Paul is an idealist. Ideally the world's nations conduct their affairs reasonably, each nation peacefully advancing their own interest. In such a world Paul's ideas on foreign policy would be fine. The world has never reflected such a state. In both warfare and trade, the rest of the world does not play by the rules we would like to follow. We must follow a variety of strategies to protect our economic and political interests. Paul's ideas do not reflect reality. It is hard to tell what is more of a threat, Paul's dangerously ineffective idealism, or Obama's absolute vacancy. Likely we will never find out in either case.

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By the way, some over the years have bemoaned the fact that big money often exercises influence over politics. This is especially true in West Virginia. For the most part, convention delegates whether committed or uncommitted paid their own fees and travel expenses. The exception lies in Paul's delegates. As was reported by Gary Abernathy and Vic Sprouse, Ron Paul's campaign paid many of the delegate fees. Some of the travel expenses were also covered for Paul delegates. Imagine that, the outsider candidate trying to purchase a convention victory in West Virginia. They did nothing illegal, but it does explain why they hold a lead in "committeds." Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and others could not afford to send a bunch of folks on a paid junket to Charleston.

Paul's campaign may be one of outsiders, but they learned some inside tricks in West Virginia politics fairly quickly.