About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

God, Guns, & The Constitution

Thanks to a long time subscriber & frequent contributor for sending this surprising inspirational video re the Second Amendment & its relationship to guns, God, & when Americans will fight back.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Trilogy Shows Need For Americans To Regather Strength

"I wish you all much success, but I will not be participating.  After this past election cycle, I have decided that I am in need of some deserved rest and relaxation from all the political stuff.  I have also curtailed my e-mail access.  Good Luck!"  Sent to me last week by a deeply patriotic friend & FairTax supporter who obviously is worn out & still depressed almost five months after the election.
 
Counting the above note I received a trilogy of messages one recent day including - below "are links to a 2 part series by a Notre Dame Business School professor.  Many of his points are spot on.  He raises some points you have made on RTE such as the role public education has had in creating the uneducated voter."  The professor is a former Democrat.
 
Link #1 – begins with "Many Americans are wondering how their country, a supposed 'center-right' nation, reached the point of electing and reelecting the most radical leftist administration in its history."  Covers what readers of this blog know as Citizen Control Points 1 & 2.

Link #2 – excerpts – "If you are old enough, you can remember Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, in their rare candid moments, rhapsodizing that someday, when they could get 50% of the U.S. population plus one receiving a government check of some kind, they would never again lose a national election! The notorious but true 47% cited by Mitt Romney apparently is close enough....So the Democrats have a vested need to keep the poor down. Our permanent welfare class is no accident. Government incentives for people to stay poor may be well-calculated."  Covers Death Of Democracy.


The third message in the trilogy included a clip from the first episode of the HBO program The Newsroom that was originally televised on June 25, 2012.  The clip was sent by our SC businessman along with the note "The following includes use of some four-letter words that might offend some, but it should be heard by all. We must reverse this trend."   This clip & various versions of it have been making their way around the internet.  I replaced the version sent to me & present this one without the obscenities.
 
So there is our trilogy – 1) a real life message written by a friend who has worked tirelessly for America until the last defeat by BO took the starch out of him (& many others who have written to me), 2) a two part op-ed series written by an ex-Democrat who accurately defines many of our problems thereby offering solutions, & 3) a dramatization of a TV show that makes many points that need to be addressed.
 
Now we don't know how long it will take the citizenry & particularly people of substance to regather the strength to restore one of God's two great gifts to the world – America; but we do know what it will take to do so – the unleashing of the human spirit in the free enterprise system.  But as Mary O'Grady wrote in August 2006 "... what seems to be tempering the hope of even positive thinkers these days is the growing, sobering realization that the burden of socialism is exceedingly hard to throw off, even when patently obvious that it is the chief culprit producing underdevelopment, poverty, & misery." 
 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Republican Party Report Contrasts With Club For Growth Website

Shortly before the national Republican Party released a self-critique earlier this week that showed many if not most of their problems going forward The Club For Growth developed an excellent website entitled Primary My Congressman! on which initially nine RINO congressman have been identified that all too often vote against our interest & as such should be voted out of office.  These two presentations are poles apart.
 
The 100 page Republican Party document describes the party as not inclusive, narrow minded, & unwelcoming on social issues & concludes that Republicans must promote comprehensive immigration reform while reaching out to all minorities & young people.  The report also focused on ways to improve delivery of the party's message & copying most of the community organizing techniques used by the Democrats in 2008 & 2012.  In brief, the report recommends that Republicans act even more like Democrats than the do already. 
 
Instead of focusing on better ways to deliver the Republican message why not focus on the message itself & people who can naturally deliver it?  After fielding candidates like the two Bushes, Dole, McCain, & Romney for a quarter of a century it is little progress to issue such a report.  The question is has the citizenry slid so far into government dependency during this time, thanks to both parties, that it is too late for a candidate with the principles of limited government, self-responsibility & free enterprise to appeal to Hispanics, Asians, homosexuals, young single women, & blacks without the country deteriorating farther?
 
The one thing the report did get right was to say that "it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future" -  a position I have held since GW Bush won in 2004.
 
Contrast the above Republican report with the Club for Growth website selecting & targeting nine RINOs, for starters, by recognizing dozens of districts that were easily carried by Mitt in 2012 but whose respective congressmen would not be considered financially responsible by a child running a lemonade stand.  Detailed reasons for rejection are provided for each congressman on the website but they can be summed up by saying these RINOs joined Democrats numerous times to pass irresponsible legislation & as such certainly would not follow the growth part of the Club's name.  See for yourself just how bad they are by clicking on the website.
 
For those in this readership who are disgusted with Congress & the establishment Republican Party this website is a gold mine of both information & steps of action that can be taken to start a Primary process against your own congressman.
 
The Club for Growth was founded in 1999 by Steve Moore (& others) & a recent president of the Club was current Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey.  One of the main functions of the Club is to endorse and raise money for financially responsible candidates – like $5.5 million for Ted Cruz & $2.0 million for Jeff Flake – who both won in November & are now off to excellent starts as U.S. senators.  The Club has also supported Senators Jim DeMint (SC), Marco Rubio (FL), Rand Paul (KY), Tom Coburn (OK), Mike Lee (UT), Tim Scott (SC), & Ron Johnson (WI).
 
But the referenced website focuses on House Republicans who vote with Democrats to grow government & raise taxes thereby impeding economic growth.  One of the main points of the website is that there is no reason for a heavily Republican district to be represented by a RINO.  A good theme so have fun with it.
 
Also included on the website is the Club for Growth's Congressional Scorecard (shows both congressmen's & senators' scores over several years & provides the ability to call up entire state-delegations' records) which rates every elected rep from first to last.  Specific identification, not generalities, is a theme RTE encourages.
 
Only 39 members of Congress have lifetime scores of 90% or above on their voting records relating to economic freedom and pro-growth policy.  About the same as NTU & AFP.
 
Very disturbing on the 2012 Scorecard is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's ranking of 151 with a score of 66%, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy's ranking of 147 with a 66% score, & House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp's ranking of 165 with a 64% score.  These are examples of establishment Republicans that have got to go before they do more damage than they have done already.  How in the world do you think you will ever get significant tax reform with a W&M Chairman ranked that low?
 
But the worst is Paul Ryan – ranked 128 in 2012 with a 71% score.  Even before the 2012 campaign I posted time after time that Ryan's reputation as a financially responsible congressman was overrated.  For instance on July 28, 2011 I posted "'Rep. Ryan voted for TARP, felt the free market had failed when he chose to replace it with bureaucratic central planning (against competition) by supporting the taxpayer bailout of GM & Chrysler, voted for the 2008 Bush Stimulus bill, supported ethanol subsidies agreeing with the December 2010 tax deal with BO, & has also voted to support the confiscatory tax on AIG bonuses.'  I also reported some Ryan votes that went against control of the debt ceiling & the CR & against his own budget re student loan interest rates.  In essence Ryan kicked the can down the road on many occasions.  Hardly a Jeff Flake or Jim DeMint" who both have lifetime 100% scores from the Club.
 
With this record & his latest fraudulent budget proposal I wouldn't be surprised to see Ryan himself facing a Primary challenge in 2014.