Louisiana Tired of Do-Nothing Democrats?

The nation's youngest governor in history, and the first non-white governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction is 36 year old Republican, Bobby Jindal. Jindal received 53% of the vote in a race where 11 candidates duked it out for control of the post-Katrina state.

This event is significant for so many reasons... the biggest is that the people of the state are so tired of their local Democratic leadership's inability to solve the problems of the state after the Katrina disaster that they are overwhelmingly ready for party change.

How overwhelming and what is the significance? Jindal received 625,000 votes (53%), where the next closest candidate received 209,000 (18%). The remaining field (other than Jindal) split the votes between multiple Democrats and Independents, but no one clear alternative to Jindal and his leadership came about.

We are seeing the same frustration with the members of the US House and Senate, as their numbers remain in the low teens.

And with the 2008 presidential race on the front of everyone's minds, we have to look into message, content, and most importantly their ability for action.

With Democrats and Independents upset about the Pelosi/Reid do-nothing approach to leading the US Congress, and the results rippling into Democratic strong states like Louisiana, could we be looking for a Republican upset in 2008?

I say yes. The Democrats laid all their cards on the table in 2006. The US has taken this year to realise that Jokers are not wild, and that a pair of 4's does not beat a pair of Aces. I am not saying that Republican leadership is without fault, but the loss in 2006 has been cause for introspection, and in doing so the party is beginning to see the importance of being strong conservative action takers.

The outcome of the election in Louisiana should be closely observed... It may be foretelling of the attitude towards Democratic talking heads, and may be an indicator of how the 2008 election will go!

As always, comments are appreciated!

God Bless.

The Republican Presidential Field Shrinks Again

Firstly, I must admit that I was wrong in my latest prediction of who would stay, who would go... of course, that was a month ago and I predicted the next to go would be Duncan Hunter...

Well, FoxNews is reporting that Sam Brownback is exiting the race.

He has not stated an endorsement of any candidate, but we may see an endorsement when he officially exits the race tomorrow.

So the Candidate field is now as follows...

Rudy, Mitt, Thompson, McCain, Huckabee, Tancredo, Paul, Hunter.

My predictions for the shrinking field are as follows:

Tancredo will withdraw by the end of the month, giving him one more debate (this Sunday) to make his case on immigration. Then it is time for him to come home (to my district) and consider running for re-election into the House.

Though Hunter has little support, and little funds, it seems that he is willing to stick it out a little longer... perhaps until the early Primaries.

Ron Paul will continue his crusade through the primaries. Why do I think this to be true? Because he has no intention of running as a third party candidate... so this is his shot for the spotlight.

The other five will be the core group of vote-getters, and will continue to jockey for position.

Make sure to tune in on Sunday to see another great debate (i hope)

The Importance of Gun Ownership

When I mention the word TYRANNY, what does it make you think of? Perhaps you are reminded of the American Revolution, fighting against King George... or perhaps you think of our current involvement in Iraq, in which we are fighting the totalitarianism of islamofascism.

But what if I told you that our very own government is guilty of tyrant-esque behaviors?

Consider New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Law abiding gun-owners, lawfully carrying personal protection were subdued and had their fire arms unlawfully confiscated. That is right... if you choose to defend yourself, the government is guilty of taking away your endowed right of liberty.

And it is bound to happen nation wide unless we send a clear message to our elected representatives that gun ownership is not about hunting or sport, but about maintaining liberty!

Consider that the American Revolution could not have happened without an armed citizenry... In fact the Continental Army was made up of farmers using their own arms.

And consider that the founding documents were written with this very fact in mind, that a well armed citizenry is the only defense against tyranny, protecting our liberties, and defending ourselves against our own government!

And now consider the following two videos:





With conservatives who think like this, who needs liberals?

Implementing a nationwide gun ban, or gun confiscation is nothing less than a Casus belli for Revolution against a Tyrannical US Government. What is the last straw? This is... taking away my RIGHT to liberty... one of the three rights endowed by my Creator.

I hold the Declaration of Independence above the Constitution, because the Declaration of Independence establishes the rule of law as the continuation of our rights to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness... The Constitution merely sets up a government to protect the rule of law and outlines how the government can protect, but not infringe on our liberties!

We are now in a place where we fear our government... wire taps, spying internally, creation of the North American Union, and now the confiscation of our last means with which to protect ourselves.

I have five words for you:

FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS

How Free Men Squandered a Free Society

This blog was inspired by a BBC documentary call The Century of the Self

As a modern day conservative, it is expected of you to embrace the modern model of progressive capitalism. The Republican Party is clearly the party of business, and operates under the banner of a "free market society".

In fact, I am currently going through training on the free market system and the fundamentals of the conservative principles, called the Leadership Program of the Rockies. An excellent training course for future leaders, indeed.

However, I find myself observing a conflict with the fundamental founding principles and the concept of modern capitalism. Let me explain...

A free market, in it's simplest form, works when one person has a need and this person is able to freely choose how to fill the need... without government involvement. Where we are with the current form of progressive capitalism, is in an entanglement of government over-regulation of business and industry, and thus an alliance/power-share of government and business. The more government involvement in business, the less of a truly free market society we have.

As well, the founding principles discuss an endowment of natural rights, allowing the pursuit of happiness. Understanding that the original intent of the word "happiness" was property, one has to question why the word was changed to a broader term "happiness" and question if it was because the founders understood that property does not equal happiness. And I would go further to argue that today's society has confused capitalism with gluttony and greed, and as such the economy is crumbling under the hammer of credit and over-consumption. Therefore the pursuit of happiness is being hampered by the exit ramp of over-consumption and over-credit.

This is where the above video comes into play. The video discusses the surge of emotional marketing, and how it started a consumer nation in the US. It is a very interesting video, and to fully understand the state of the nation, and of the world, you should take a moment and watch it.

Now that you understand the original intent of the founding of this society, and understand the new consumer nation that has replaced the free society, you may understand my next argument.

I am surmising that the combination of government over-regulation of the businesses and the consumer crazed populous has created a situation in which we have freely offered up our fundamental freedoms in exchange for goods.

There is a reason that the approval rating of our congress, the freely elected "representatives", is in the 9% - 11% area. The reason is that the citizens of this great nation are being sold "success of the society" by economic and consumer reports. And the leadership of the country uses the same consumer based mindset to sell the people a bad product... themselves.

We have become trained to react to our emotional instincts... and marketing continues to reinforce these emotional responses.

And politicians have learned the same techniques. This is why you hear "vote for me, I can win", instead of "vote for me, I am a man of principles"... And thus we are left with the "lesser of two evils" vote. In doing so, we are continually perpetuating a strengthening ruling class who's ultimate goal is to, by keeping the people subdued with consumerism, change the face of the free society into a government protectorate, government dictatorship that intends to have ultimate control over the world citizenry.

I am not a conspiracy theorist... consider the following source: Video on Globalism.

Ask yourself... how free are you? Is this freedom perceived, or does it exist?

As a conservative, should you support a free market society, or a consumer nation masked as a free market society?

And, does Capitalism have borders? More importantly, SHOULD capitalism have borders? For instance, how free of a market is it if I want to enter the textile industry when all other textiles are produced in nations where free market is a pipe dream (China, Pakistan, Indonesia).

So to answer my heading, Free Men have Squandered a Free Society by submitting to their baser emotional instincts, and have submitted that as long as they have items to consume, and thus appear happy/content, the government can continue to increase in size and reach, reducing our liberties. By keeping the people Fat, Dumb, and "Happy", the leaders have succeeded in squandering our society around us.

Can Iraq Exist Without the US?

Reuters has published a new article discussing Turkey's increased drive for invading Northern Iraq, the most stable region of the country. Their main reason is because of a the US commented on an incident which happened in 1915. There is always the pesky business of controlling the Kurdish regions in South Turkey by controling the Kurdish north in Iraq.

So with Sunni Turkey chomping at the bit to invade from the north, and Shiite Iran already making incursions into the country from the East, the question is this: Can Iraq continue to exist without a strong US presence?

Considering that the central government will never have the complete control over the country as Sadaam did, and that national pride is lower on the totem than religious loyalty, it would seem that Iraq does not have a chance at survival.

Assuming that the US leaves, and the country is left without a national army able to defend it's borders, then the most likely course of events (as I proposed earlier this year) are that Turkey succeeds in moving into the north for "security" reasons against the Kurds - as they are already attempting to do, Iran moves into the Shiite strong holds of the South-East, and eventually takes the southestern region. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will have to militarize their borders for fear of a Shiite incursion into the Sunni lands, and another attempt at taking the oil fields of the region. The eastern half of the country is desert, and therefore would be claimed by one or the other invading countries...

Which leaves the security of the region up to the Turkish/Iranian relations... which are shaky at best.

So how is the country of Iraq going to be able to fight off invaders? There will be much resistance in the north, as the Kurds do not want to be ruled by the Turks OR the Iranians, but would rather form Kurdistan. There would be little resistance in the south, as the Shiites would most likely find comfort in the safety that Iran could provide against Sunni Al-Quaeda attacks. Iraq will be unable to sustain itself or defend itself without the protection from the US.

And the rest is history.

Find Your Perfect Candidate

I was forwarded a link to an USA Today "game" in which you are matched up with the candidate who most closely agrees with you on certain issues.

The way it works is that you answer a series of questions, then rate the level of importance. The level of importance is necessary because the way the answers are presented do not always seem to give you EVERY option available, rather a mix of certain quotes by the candidates.

My results were pretty predictable, though I figured that Bill Richardson would have been higher due to his stance on renewable energy... but it looks like USA Today is not giving him credit for renewable energy, instead they are sticking him solely with "carbon caps". So there are some flaws, but otherwise the results are pretty close.

My results are as follows. Click the image to take the test for yourself, and leave a comment on who your top three were!

(This poll is not showing an endorsement of any one candidate, rather the results of a poll showing issues alignment)

Republican Candidates Debate... The winner is...

Duncan Hunter, In my humble opinion. Duncan seems to have shown up to this debate with an aire of confidence, strong leadership, and excellent communication. After one of the last debates I had predicted that he would be the next to drop from the stage... however, he was surely digging his heels in tonight and sending a strong message...

What was the message? It was that 21% of Republicans STILL don't know who their candidate is... so it is still anyone's game!

The rest of the debate was interesting.

Ron Paul was given his "rant" time, and continues to get "boos" from the crowd. The thing that I love best about Paul is his staunch reconstructionist stance! If we had more conservative leaders who were more concerned with the constitution than the front page of the WSJ then we may have a Federal Government that is more in line with the visions of the Founding Fathers!

Sam Brownback made an interesting statement regarding the biggest problem with our future economy... when everyone else is concerned about China and trade deficits, Sam recognizes that the biggest problem is an uneducated workforce, with no work ethics... the cause, the destruction of the home.

Tom Tancredo did what he does best... and that is talk about illegal immigration. He is the strongest in the debates when he comes right out and lets everyone know that regardless of the question you are going to ask, he is going to talk about illegal immigration.

Fred Thompson made his debate debut... and it was about what I expected. The first hour seemed pretty scripted and patchy. He seemed to be trying to recall his talking points from his debate prep. I did not hear anything of substance from the Senator, which is seemingly his forte... speak, but say nothing... I think that he has a lot to prove in the coming debates... otherwise no one (still) is going to know where he stands on the issues.

Romney seemed more polished than usual, but seems to have begun attacking both Rudy AND Hillary. Breaking Reagan's 11th commandment can prove to be a negative to the campaign. Though when you are bashing liberals, it is hard to draw the line for RINOs.

Rudy continues to show that his policies will be a continuation of Bush policies. For anyone who understands that Bush has become a polarizing figure for the Republicans, it is curious to me why a candidate will almost come out and say that they are for the continuation and expansion of Bush policies. Rudy is also coming down harder and harder on Iran, and had some interesting things to say about the region.

John McCain, who enjoyed a bump in the polls following a HUGE win in the last debate will not see such an increase in the numbers this time. I was sad to see that John McCain changed up some of his lines... it was funny to be able to predict his debate answers after 5 debates. One thing that always concerns me about picking a president is picking a healthy president. McCain, being the eldest candidate, had several occasions in which he was unable to hear the questions.

And Mike Huckabee... Mike may have been given the least amount of airtime of all the candidates. Of course this is nothing new, as the spotlight usually rests on the "front-runners", however as of late the lines are beginning to blur for who is ACTUALLY a top tier candidate. In fact a poll was just released that shows Huckabee within 2% points of Romney nationwide amongst Republican voters. Huckabee is third in Iowa behind Romney and Thompson. And yet the early line of who is considered "top tier" is still in place.

Forgive my rant.

Mike Huckabee did another great job in answering the debate questions. As always he was an eloquent speaker, and let his conservative colors fly. He finally got some serious time to discuss the Fair Tax, which no other Republican candidate fully embraces (besides Hunter). I am a huge advocate for the Fair Tax, and I love listening to the candidates who truly understand the importance of REALLY FIXING our tax system.

The Republican Party was founded on radical ideas... and it is only on radical ideas that we are going to survive.

The Fair Tax is the ONLY way to save the American economy for the lower and middle class, and help ensure that the economic ladder is not missing the middle class rungs.

As well, it was great to hear candidates discuss Energy Independence... The best ideas, again, are the most radical. We need fast change, sweeping reform, and a new understanding of energy. Free markets be damned... This is one place where I would agree with a candidate like Bill Richardson (I know, I know)... we need drastic changes... mandatory market shifts to renewable resources. We live in a time where oil is not the only medium, yet oil has become so powerful that it demands that it is the currency of the world... Remember, Silver used to be the US standard before Gold... but alas, a radical change... and we are all the better for it!

In all, the debate did a good job of touching domestic issues. Still no discussion about education, and not the right kind of discussion about health. The audio was poor quality, and the moderation was almost as bad as Wolf Blitzer's...

But it gave us another data point...

God Bless.

Back from a much needed vacation

Sometimes it is essential to get away! Especially when my little sister announces that she is getting married! So a week in Maui has kept me from blogging, and from updating everyone on my other site.

For those of you who have asked to be invited to the "invite only" blog of Colorado 4 Huckabee, know that it is no longer an active site being operated by me. I have had one offer to transfer, so perhaps that will be taken care of sooner rather than later. The reason for the shut-down was not because of my lack of support for Mike Huckabee, but rather a new position to which I was elected - Secretary of the Douglas County GOP, where the bylaws restrict me, as an officer, of endorsing or supporting any candidates before the primaries. Once the blog is transferred, it will be public again, but run by another source.

As far as other political events... like I said, I took a well needed vacation, where I insisted that I remove myself from political news for the entire week. It looks like I really didnt miss anything...The 3rd qtr FEC numbers came in, but I have yet to look at all the candidates. I did hear that Taiwan is once again formally though unofficially declaring their independence... this time by officially changing their unofficial name to just Taiwan... no mention of China... This could be interesting... perhaps Taiwan is using the 2008 Olympics as their open door to declare Independence, knowing that the Olympic games will not be held in beijing if China decimates their island nation! Good Move Taiwan!

I will get back on track tomorrow, with great new blogs, and a refreshed look on life! I love Maui! It is a perfect place to go to refill the soul!

Cheers and god Bless!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: We are the same...

According to the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking from Columbia University, the Iranian people and the citizens of the US are the same and should be friends... if it wasn't for that pesky little Jewish state of Israel!

He said that he does not directly call for the destruction of the Jewish state, but for the Jews of Israel to live under Islamic rule of the Palestinians... much like Jews live under the Islamic Regime of Iran peacefully...

He believes that peace and freedom is limited to anyone who is non-Jewish... and I am sure that under his breath he said non-Christian too!

And he firmly believes that women in his country are more free than women anywhere else in the world.

Where I do agree with him is that if the problems with Israel would stop, then the middle east would be in peace... He believed that the region was at more of a peace before the 1948 creation of Israel... what he doesn't realize is that the British and French ruled the region at that time... and it was not until they left pinheads like him in charge of themselves that all the problems of the modern day middle east began.

So, I agree... all of the middle eastern countries should forfeit all of their power to the US, British, and French governments... let us go back to ruling them.

Or perhaps they should all "stop the problems with Israel" by leaving them alone. Israel is trying to defend itself... if there wasn't an outside force calling for it's destruction, Israel would not have to be in a constant state of war!

"President"... Stop your lies... your truth came out even after you attempted to sidestep the questions. You are an ignorant man... Hell, you believe that "the phenomenon of homosexuality" does not exist in your country... and that your subversion of women is because you respect them so much as the mothers of Iran.

I say to you, BAH! Your ambitions of world domination and submission of the Jews are very much in line with the psychotic pipedreams of Adolf Hitler... and your fellow countryman along with you!

You will never truly understand freedom... you will always represent the worst parts of human nature.

The State of the World *Amended for a friend

Firstly, I apologize to my two loyal readers for my long absence. Life has been so busy that I shan't even start down that path!

I wanted to discuss the state of the world. As a brief overview, these are the things that are really sticking out in my mind:

US/Russo relations are further strained by Russian response to European missile shield, and begin Soviet sorties over the Arctic ocean. They are also laying claim to the North Pole, dissolving their government, and instilling a strong sense of national pride in "youth camps". Sounds like the cold war isn't over... but I have to admit, Bush's foreign policies regarding Russia have been the protagonist in this epic play.

Iran is really being a pain in the rear... which is a double edged sword. The PEOPLE of Iran are unhappy with their leadership, like the US is with theirs... but the two governments are locking in to a war of words, and per Iran, a Final Answer (similar to the Final Solution of Hitler?) on October 12th. And the huevos that the Iranian President has, wanting to lay a wreath at the WTC Ground Zero site... really... like you would expect the US president to be allowed to lay a wreath at the old US embassy in Tehran in remembrance of the Marines killed and the hostage situation of the early 80's. PLUS, Iran has been working with Syria to mount chemical weapons onto missiles, pushing for nuclear weapons, and most likely trading nukes with North Korea. I was a little concerned about Iran before, but now I fear that war with them is inevitable... which is going to bulk up support for the government and eliminate any hope for change from the people.

Syria was just bombed by Israel for trying to smuggle nukes in from Iran. Of course Syria was the country of least concern, until the Nancy Pelosis of the world began visiting them and giving them any sort of legitimacy... now we are seeing assassinations by Pro-Syrians in Lebanon, inevitable war with Israel, and more problems in Iraq from the increasingly rogue country.

And I had a discussion with a liberal friend up in Washington State as I was visiting over the weekend. She was touting the Bush/McCain immigration "reform", i.e. amnesty plan. She was talking about how she was having construction done on her house, and the first group of union workers were crap, so they fired them and brought in (what were potentially) illegals, who worked longer hours for cheaper pay with better quality. My first thought was that the union guys are a product of the union environment... where you don't have to work long and/or hard to keep your job... you have strength in numbers and that trumps any working standard (I've seen this in action... ). Then she argued that we should work to build up Mexico so we don't have them running across the border. I told her that the problem with "world government mentality" is that the US becomes some sort of a nanny to the other countries. Our country ends at the borders, therefore our constitution ends at the borders, and our involvement should end at the borders. IF the Mexicans want a better living situation, go home and fix the problem. Please come back when, and only when, you plan to accept American culture and American Loyalty... but of course the liberal agenda has worked wonders in destroying American Culture... and expanding it around the world... so now borders are blurred, and it makes no sense that governments fight because "we are the people of one world"... well... needless to say it was an interesting conversation, and as I was discussing the issues I was being bashed for my views... a common liberal tactic. Of course if you try the same tactic you can expect a lawsuit or some crap like that. (In my humblest opinion)

Anyway... I have been gone, but I have not been uninvolved! I look forward to sharing some more ideas with you all more regularly now!

God Bless!