Secretary Condoleeza Rice’s speech was a needed dousing of cold water, needed to awake us from a stupor of liberal foreign policies.

Condoleeza was amazing, reminding us that as weary as we may be to lead, the options of chaos or leadership by others with evil intents is much, much worse.

Her recall back to 9-11 and how that singular day changed America forever. Our path is now different, but not necessarily worse. Different is not the same as bad. She was a breathe of fresh air, reminding us to honor those who VOLUNTEER to risk everything to protect all of us.

I had found the speeches boring and shallow tonight (except for the Governor of Puerto Rico who slashed government by 20% and deficits by 90% – the true role model). Condoleeza brought us back to topics of historic importance. It was a needed change to what was a drab and empty night.

She is a gem to this nation, and has truly carved out a special  place in history. We will not lead from behind (nor bow to any and all) after November.

Update: See the entire speech at Hot Air

Tags: 2012 Election, Condi Rice, GOP Convention

The Democrats will claim there is a rich white guy who demeans women (and will dump them when they need their partner most)…. They will prey on the idea men are self absorbed and will flee for greener pastures when times get tough (i.e., when cancer comes into the picture).

Somehow I think that one will back fire.

Here is the Democrat poster child of a rich, white guy:

And the 2012 rich, white, GOP candidate guy…

Nuff said

Tags: 2012 elections, Cads, John Edwards, Mitt Romney

So far the GOP convention  is doing well.  They are exploiting President Obama’s unforced and terminal error on small businesses and claiming businesses are not built by individuals.

We built our American Story. We built our company and employ people. I proudly proclaim with LJStrata “We Built This!”

Main Street is going to rise up this November, just as it did in 2010. And we will build a new America.

My hat goes off to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for defining the next phase of this election. Governor Walker nailed the Democrats by observing how we have a choice this fall. We will chose between those who measure success by the number of people relying on government to exist (dems), verses those who measure success on how many Americans are self sufficient and don’t rely on government (i.e., other peoples’ money) to succeed- the GOP.

Is success simply existing on the government dole? Or is success as created by the individual by achieving the American dream of financial independence? If that is the choice this fall, Obama and the Dems will be swept out of power at all levels of government, making 2010 look like a practice run for the upheaval that can come in 2012.

How do we want to measure success? I vote for success to be measured by the number of Americans who DON’T need government to barely exist. I want American success to be measured by the number who succeeded and can proudly say “We Built That!” Let’s Build That America!

Tags: 2012 elections, We Built That

I have thankfully been way too busy to delve into politics of late.  But that changes tonight as I dial into the GOP convention speeches.  If I can stand it long enough….

What I need to hear this week from the GOP is how they plan to forgo any social issue (i.e., use the power of the federal government for conservative intervention into the lives of Americans, which is only marginally less bothersome than liberal heavy handedness) and focus on trimming back government. The main theme better be serious Libertarian, no delays.

Not holding out much hope.

What I expect to see next week is a dramatic shift in the polls as the liberal news media shift from polls of ‘adults’ and ‘registered voters’ to polls of ‘likely voters’. This will cement Barackus Obama’s fate as a one term wonder. This is because Obama is hovering at 45-46% in a lot of polls of registered voters (see here for example), and when the likely voter screens come down he is going to drop like a rock. The GOP convention *may* give a bounce, but that depends on the thrust  of the convention message and how close it hones to the Tea Party, Libertarian, Insurgent Voter mindset.

So what I expect to see next week, as we go into September, is a series of awful polls for the incumbent. The doom will set in and become a fait accompli. Obama’s demise will become in September an unavoidable fact in the mind of the electorate.

No telling how long it will take the liberal media to clue in. My guess is in ‘years’…

Tags: 2008 Election, GOP Convention, Pollss

Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are the second coming of Jimmy Carter – no doobt about it. I have never felt this country has been in decline like I do this year. We have incompetent government run amok, and in the few areas where government has shined, the fools in DC have decimated the good performers to provide financial cover for huge bureaucratic missteps.

Take NASA for example. 4 years ago we had a vision of returning to the stars, exploring the solar system in a manner that would set the stage for exploiting its riches (instead of just staring at said riches through robotic cameras). We had just finished almost two decades of planning, designing and building the International Space Station, and we were poised to build efficient new crew vehicles that would allow greater access and exploitation of this 1st wonder of the modern world (a permanent human outpost in space for science).

But this President gutted the one area in government that was performing its mission (and on a shoe string budget). Obama’s annual deficits have been running around $1.3 trillion per year, but NASA spends a paltry ~$18 billion a year to perform its wonders (representing 0.48% of the federal budget and 1.4% of the annual deficit). Right now the United States of America cannot launch its own astronauts to the very space station we spent two decades building. We have not been in this situation since the days before Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.  Since I was born in 1960, America could send its astronauts into space.

Thanks to Obama, Reid and Pelosi we now outsource this to job Russia, while US engineers and their myriad of support staff are out looking for jobs. Instead of a high speed, expensive train from/to nowhere in the farmland of California, we could have been poised to launch our new crew vehicles in the coming two years. But no, Obama, Reid and Pelosi crippled our exploration of the final frontier.

I bring this up today because of the passing of an American hero, of a Human hero – Neil Armstrong.

First moonwalker Neil Armstrong’s death at the age of 82 marks the passing of a “reluctant American hero,” as well as the dimming of the Space Age’s brightest moment.

His death followed complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent this month, Armstrong’s family said today in a statement released by NASA. The first public report of Armstrong’s death came via NBC News’ Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree, a longtime friend.

Armstrong has been immortalized in human history as the first human to set foot on a celestial body beyond Earth. “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” he radioed back to Earth from the moon on July 20, 1969.

LJStrata and I are second generation space cadets since both our fathers worked to explore the universe (my father on Gemini & Apollo, hers in the Shuttle era).  I have had the pleasure, when I was younger and working on the earlier version of the Space Station (Space Station Freedom), to work under people like Fred Haise and Gene Kranz. I have a great picture of my father with Alan Shepard back in the early 60’s.

Some may call this biased, I see it has insight and first hand knowledge. I know NASA can screw things up and waste money, but  compared to the rest of the federal bureaucracy only the Military performs at the same level of competence and success. The rest of the bloated government could only hope to be half as good once  year.

The question for America in 2012 is whether we are done experimenting with liberal insanity and ready to hand this nation back to its people to run and live their lives as they see fit? I think the answer will be a resounding “Hell Yes!!” come November 6th.

Tags: Alan Shepard, Apollo, Fred Haise, Gemini, Gene Kranz, International Space Station, Mercury, NASA, Neil Armstron

As if to add emphasis to the need for a Tea Party/Libertarian revolution – the one that began in 2010 and will rise up again in 2012 – we have government running out of control and trampling on US Citizens’ rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Top of the list is the horrible news that Lance Armstrong has decided his legacy as the most amazing bicyclist evah! is not worth fighting an ego-maniacal bureaucrat:

Never one to back away from a fight, Lance Armstrong is finally giving in and the cost of quitting is steep: His seven Tour de France titles could be gone as soon as Friday.

The superstar cyclist, whose stirring victories after his comeback from cancer helped him transcend sports, chose not to pursue arbitration in the drug case brought against him by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

…

Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, left no doubt that was the next step. He said Armstrong would lose the titles as soon as Friday and be hit with a lifetime ban, even though he is retired and turning 41 next month.

…

On Friday, the International Cycling Union said not so fast. The UCI, which had backed Armstrong’s legal challenge to USADA’s authority, cited the same World Anti-Doping Code in saying that it wanted the USADA to explain why Armstrong should lose his titles.

The UCI said the code requires this in cases “where no hearing occurs.”

Armstrong clearly knew his legacy would be blemished by his decision. He said he has grown tired of defending himself in a seemingly never-ending fight against charges that he doped while piling up more Tour victories than anyone ever. He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests that he passed as proof of his innocence during his extraordinary run of Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.

So 100’s of negative drug tests are irrelevant and the mad and unsupported claims of a busy-body bureaucrat can over turn the concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. It is sickening that this American hero is hounded by this idiot. I hope and pray that a new administration comes in, reverses this fool, fires him and takes his dumb ass to court!

If you think this is an isolated case of one little-tin-dictator run amok, check out what is going on down the road from me in Fauquier Country:

Martha Boneta isn’t so fortunate, because when she invited her friend to stage a birthday party for her 10-year-old daughter at the farm, a few extra clowns showed up and issued her a citation for it — which could cost thousands of dollars in fines:

The clowns were government agents outlawing the birthday party. More on this mess here. In Fauquier, the county exec has been running around fining people for actions that are clearly legal under Virginia’s constitution and laws.

From the Senate not passing budgets (i.e., not performing their constitutional duty) to citizens being fined and bankrupted by red tape, the signs all point for a house cleaning in DC. We need to tear down the government to its minimal required size, and go back to allowing individuals making choices, not bureaucrats. We need to really take the country back from the mad hatters on both the left and right!

I implore our readers to fill the comments with other examples of bureaucrats run amok, and to point other bloggers to the cause. If we catalog the incidents of abuse of power, we will strengthen the support for downsizing government – which is now so big it can only fail.

Examples that come to mind (and I don’t have time to link to) are Bloomberg the Soda Nazi, Eminent Domain land grabs, California starving its farmers with government induced drought (not CO2), etc.

What a way to end a dismal summer (economics-wise), with dipstick pols going stupid on both sides of the fence.

Let’s begin with the reason the Tea Party is not a social-conservative movement – i.e., why the Tea Party movement is about reducing the power and scope of government, not for using that power for rightward causes (verses leftward causes). Our poster child is Todd Akin, who probably just lost the Senate to the GOP:

In the clip, Charles Jaco, of St. Louis Fox affiliate KTVI’s “Jaco Report,” asks Akin whether he thinks abortions ought to permissible in a situation where a woman is raped. While explaining his position, Akin claimed that pregnancy only rarely results from “legitimate rape.”

“Well you know, people always want to make it as one of those things where how do you slice this particularly tough, sort of ethical question,” he replied. “It seems to me first of all, from what I understand from doctors — that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

As a father of three daughters, a husband, a son and a friend to rape victims, I would prefer this moron resign now. There is no clean cut answer to rape, incest and difficult pregnancies that could harm the mother (or siblings in the womb). This is why there can never be a one-size-fits-all-situations ban on abortions. At some point the decision has to be left in the hands of the individuals.  I am all for educating people on the truth of the science (embryos are unique human beings and not some pack of cells) and providing support to reduce abortions of convenience. But the other class of abortions (i.e., not of convenience but of necessity) are too complicated to distill down to a simple rule of thumb. As Aikens just demonstrated.

The Tea Party movement is about the real choice here – shrinking government down so it cannot be abused by political movements.. This is a great example of what the Tea Party insurgent movement is not about. It is not about choosing left or right intrusive government. Watch this man sink like a rock in the polls. Let’s unlock Main Street from the bonds of Capitol Hill and let individual choice free again. That is the winning message for 2012.

Prior to this debacle we had “Smokin’ Joe” Biden and his moronic comment to group of Virginians from a predominately black community. This is where ‘ol Joe notices the pigmentation ratio of the crowd and wings one out there:

When Vice President Joe Biden warned a Virginia rally of hundreds of African Americans that Republican efforts to loosen bank regulations meant “They’re going to put y’all back in chains,” Stephanie Cutter, Team Obama’s deputy campaign manager, said the president would have “no problem with those comments.”

But imagine if Republican Paul Ryan uttered comments like that. Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president would be pilloried for racial insensitivity — and so would Romney. In the fight for civility and substance over pointless hyperbole, Biden may not be the worst offender. But he’s an offender nonetheless, and he should apologize.

Dumb. It is more an  indication of how the Dems lace their speeches with racial connotations and lies than anything about team Romney/Ryan. It is, in fact, a dumb pol exposing the reason the term “chain’ was being used in the speech, and deciding to emphasize this clumsy propaganda mechanism. I expect most African Americans to be insulted instead of feeling protected by the Dems.

And let’s stroll outside the world of politicians to movements that are politically inept. Which leads us to an egotistical thief and extortionists who wants to claim his crimes come from moral superiority (which is just a way to say his god-like crusade puts him above the laws of normal humans):

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange berated the United States on Sunday from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy where he has sought refuge from arrest, demanding President Barack Obama end what he called a witch-hunt against his whistle-blowing website.

This is pure ego running amok, and why we need to go back to limited government with checks and balances so a few zealots cannot go on a moral crusade and hurt, kill or maim millions in the process. Assange is the classic example of types like Stalin, Hitler and others who are the chosen ones sent to save humanity. Gag me. He is not a whistle blower, he simply dumps confidential data out on the net and hopes it hurts someone.

This is the nonsense that has me pretty much not posting much. This is politics in the first decade of the 21st century, and it is a disaster. No leadership, no nuance, no vision. A void filled with petty minds and simpleton agendas. From the nonsense of global warming to the war on birth control, the entire political spectrum is mad. And it is time to pull the chord on government run amok.

If this election is going to be a decision for the middle class – as the Democrats claim – then let them stand on the Obama-Pelosi-Reid approach.

David Axelrod is out today claiming the Romeny/Ryan plan will ‘lavish tax cuts in the rich’.

But the alternative is mountains of generational debt on the backs of the middle class.

That’s the choice: Tax cuts for the rich (which doesn’t help or hurt me one way or the other) or mountains of national debt (which will dog me and my children and grandchildren for decades to come).

The rich can afford to pay more in taxes to cover the Obama-Pelosi-Reid deficits.  The rest of us can’t. The rich have established numerous tax loop holes the middle class does not have. If this is the choice promoted by Dems – then watch for a landslide in 2012.

I will let the rich have more if it means cutting back out of control government and reigning in the deficits.

Addendum: I think we have the making of a sucker punch here. It seems Wisconsin is becoming the national example for 2012. One of the things I see today with Ryan is the same arrogant stupidity on display from the left that hammered them in Wisconsin. The left was so sure their union muscle could turn aside any effort to cut off the funds to unions, they staged massive rallies and recalls – all to no avail. And in fact, they came away so crippled that the unions in Wisconsin are not only broke, but the Wisconsin school system went from bankrupt to slightly flush – so no sane parent will ever (and I mean EVER) go back to the union mandated ways.

The left lost so much in Wisconsin it would seem they should be smart enough to stand back and not repeat.

But they don’t run on smart, they run on emotion. Which means the more you push their buttons, the faster the implode.

Tags: 2012 Election, Debt, Deficts, Romney, Ryan

As nauseating as it is, I am sitting through the mindless babble of the Sunday Morning Lame-Sound-Bite Shows. And the Democrats are in full lick-spittle mode. The whole ‘double-down’ meme ain’t working. We know what doubling down on Obama means – bankruptcy. So I am not impressed.

Rachel Maddow had the dumbest of all comments on Meet The Press. Paraphrasing: Democrats looked at the field and the their best hope was Paul Ryan. The idiocy behind this is when Democrats looked at the economic mess in 2008, they completely missed the issue and made it 100 times worse through trickle-down government incompetence. So Democrats’ screwed up insight is what has them on the ropes this cycle.

All of the Dems were in the same fever-pitched mode – claiming the soon to go bankrupt Medicare program would be destroyed by Romney/Ryan (as if the gutting of it for Obamacare is not well known). Sorry, but fool us once shame on us, fool us twice …

Ain’t going to happen.

I do believe we libertarian, tea party, conservatives do have one mission. We all must go to our elders (who are sadly brain-washed by the liberal media) and ask them one favor. As long as their benefits are safe (and they are), they should step back and let those of us still working to raise and support are families (biological and corporate) a shot at this election without their unfounded fears about their benefits. It is sad this wonderful generation is so easily preyed upon by phone solicitors, catalog mass mailings and BS political fear mongering. But I know if their children and grandchildren ask, they will put their fears aside his one time.

The easiest way to neuter the Democrat cries of “The End of the World is Romney/Ryan” is to get out and promise no one over 60 years old will see any changes. This is not about them – it is about the rest of us who are going bankrupt for the next 3-4 generations. Changes are needed to change our current path – they have to come. We need to wake up, grow up and stand up and get this fixed before it destroys this country.

If you can take it, there is a lot more debate on the Sunday Morning silliness over at Hot Air.

Update: A good read today is from Jay Cost.

Romney and Ryan have three powerful rejoinders this time around:

1. Medicare is already broken. We either reform it or let it destroy our public finances.

2. Obamacare exacerbates the problems in the Medicare system, since it takes $700 billion from Medicare to fund the newly created entitlement. Even the chief actuary for the Medicare and Social Security systems, Richard Foster, concludes that Obamacare will likely yield cutbacks in services to senior citizens rendered by Medicare.

3. While the original Ryan roadmap retains these Medicare cuts (though it eliminates the Independent Payment Advisory Board and uses them all to reduce the deficit rather than create a new program), Romney has indicated disagreement with this. Expect the ultimate Romney-Ryan plan to restore all funding to Medicare, just like the more recent Ryan-Wyden plan, which is cosponsored by Oregon’s liberal senator Ron Wyden.

Tags: 2012 Election, Medicare, Romney, Ryan

Mitt Romney made a bold move today – he picked a running mate that will easily overshadow him for the rest of the election cycle (like Sarah Palin rapidly overshadowed Senator McCain). And like Sarah Palin before him, Rep Paul Ryan is going to be the small-government, Libertarian, Tea Party voters’ rallying point on the ticket:

As the chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan gives Romney a link to Capitol Hill leadership and underscores Romney’s effort to make the election a referendum on the nation’s economic course. Romney also could see his standing improve in Wisconsin, a state President Barack Obama won handily four years ago but that could be much tighter this November.

Even so, Ryan has been a double-edged sword for Romney. The congressman’s endorsement of Romney came at a critical stage of the GOP primaries, giving him a boost in the Wisconsin race that effectively buried Romney’s final threat. But it also meant Romney was embracing the Ryan-sponsored budget proposal that Democrats fiercely target as painful to the poor and elderly.

The 2010 voter no longer has to hold their nose and vote for the father of Romneycare, predecessor of Obamacare. They can now put some energy and hope that the GOP VP will be strong and influential enough to be more than a bridge to the GOP establishment, but an educator and counter force to the entrenched interests who keep looking to DC for solution instead of masses of fiscal savings opportunities:

If Ryan can stay on the message he sent in Wisconsin before the recall election, a message of balancing fiscal reality (government living within its means) and government employee benefits that are not gold plated (and beyond the private sector) then we will have the leadership and focus we need in this election.

I too worry about the career pol who has polished the art of the bait and switch speech (see all of Obama’s 2010 promises). But Ryan has risen in DC while holding true to his fiscal morals – getting government back down to its needed, affordable size and eliminated failure and fraud in government execution (see US Post Office for the failure side). He rose by sticking to his guns, and has taken a lot of heat for it.

There is a lot of good discussion  on this over at Hot Air today, and I may even sit down to watch the Sunday morning news shows again (maybe….).

Update: The first salvo from the left-wing media shows promise for Ryan:

Meet the new addition to the Republican presidential ticket: Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan.

…

Under Ryan’s plan, the government would help seniors buy health insurance — rather than receive coverage straight from Medicare, as they do now.

And as much has been written already, there are a few surprises. For a guy who hates “Obamacare” so much, for example, Ryan doesn’t throw it all out the window. And in the latest version, seniors can still choose traditional Medicare — with a catch.

You can read the details at the linked article – but this is the EXACT kind of policy and fiscal surgery required to the out of control entitlements to avoid America turning into a Greece.

Update 2: BTW, no need to go out spending a lot of money on advertising – just run this clip:

What else needs to be said? Role portions, note the actual results, present the way out of this mess – win in November.  Best line – Hiding spending does not reduce spending.

Tags: Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Vice President