Where Has the Republican Party Gone Wrong?

For those who have not noticed we have a new liberal commenter on the site. Her name is Armywife and she has offered some different insight into the present administration and seems to me to be exactly the type of person we always seek on this site: Differing point of view, wiling to discuss rationally and respectfully, open to hearing a different point of view and actually considering it. This morning she asked a really good question about the feeling that people have about the Republican Party. And I was prepared to answer her question, but realized that I was in no position to answer for everyone, and I was hoping to hear everyone’s answers.

PigDookey… The Swine Flu “Crisis”

Can I use that word Esom? It is a derivative of yours. I have had just about all that I can take of the media coverage of the imminent pandemic of the swine flu. I have not seen this much of an overblown threat to mankind since… the economic crisis. The media ran the economy story daily with screaming headlines and eventually, in my opinion, CAUSED Americans to stop spending money, sending the economy into a tailspin. Thanks dumbass media. And now the media is going to help us all to feel massively threatened by an outbreak of the swine flu. This new deadly virus makes Ebola and Hunta look like the sniffles. Soon we will be in a “I Am Legend” world where the few immune are left to try to survive while the infected run rampant attempting to convert everyone they can. I am already pre-ordering my “Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide”. What, what’s that you say? It’s just a flu? Really?

Arlen Specter… Harbinger of Destruction

The news flash out of Washington today is devastating for those of us who are committed to smaller government and less interference in our personal affairs. While I continue to say that BlackFlag is correct that the color of shit these days doesn’t matter, it does matter in terms of what can be accomplished and what cannot. Any overwhelming majority of either color of shirts, especially the blue ones, radically speeds up the process of government involving itself in every aspect of private industry and personal affairs. So what is this news? Arlen Specter has defected from his party and announced that he is now….. a Democrat. This is bad, bad news for the country if you happen to be against the giant increase in the scope and size of government. The Democratic Party, is now virtually unstoppable.

Interrogation

The last couple of weeks have been dominated in the news cycle by the Obama administration’s de-classification and subsequent release of CIA documents around the enhanced interrogation techniques employed against high value terrorists. I have to say that I am a bit peeved about the whole thing. Probably not for the reasons that you may think, however. I am going to talk about interrogation here as I know it. I will talk about some of the allegations that have come up during the news cycles and what I know about them. I will attempt to discuss the morality of the situation and the line that we cross at some point. And I will discuss quickly the idea of prosecuting the folks that were involved in the interrogation of Khalid Sheik Muhammed and Al Zubaydah. Because it seems to me that these are criminals chasing criminals. So off we go…

Should I or Shouldn’t I?

OK, my wife says that submitting to a debate on the 9/11 conspiracy is akin to trying to reason with a table. To do so would hurt the credibility of my site, she says. JAC just brought up a great point that we don’t need to debate that insanity to agree that we all feel government has gotten out of control. I asked two friends I trust and they both said that I should definitely NOT even bother to engage in this debate. It will only degrade the site, they say. Those who believe 9/11 is conspiracy won’t change their mind, and neither will I. So at this point, while I am sure that it would be a fun debate, I am leaning heavily towards not covering the topic. I just don’t think it adds to the direction that we are trying to move. But I want to hear from all of you. Do you think I should be covering it? JUST WANTED TO FOLLOW UP ON THIS ONE. AFTER CONSIDERING MY THOUGHTS AND YOURS, I WILL NOT BE DOING A POST ON ANY 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES.

The March Towards Socialism Part 5

Really? I have found the ability to write enough on this subject to warrant 5 parts? As a matter of fact I have. And you know why? Because this march was not started recently. It has been a long and slow march. But we are in the home stretch of this series, which hopefully is not the home stretch for the country as well. Tonight we will handle the run-up to President Obama. He will certainly warrant his own post as that is the evil of socialism/fascism that we can confront. The rest of these folks aren’t in power any longer, so we can’t do much but look at what they did to help the cause along. It is not that I want to live in the past. It is only that I wanted, with this series, to provide some idea of the scope of how long this build-up has been going on, so that you will understand how we got here and how difficult it will be to change course. I hope that there are those among you noticing that a certain thing is missing from this march to socialism series…

Just Another Quick Re-Set

I wanted to take a second to make sure that we all take a second to breath here and remind everyone of what it is that I ask of those that choose to take part in our debates, discussions, and dialogues (all three just for you, BF). As you all know, my biggest requirement here is that we are always respectful of the opinions and feelings of others. Over the last couple of weeks we have been tackling some really tough topics that have hit on some really passionate nerve endings for a lot of people. Abortion, gay rights, Gun Control, Welfare. And we are going to continue to have these tough discussions because they are important to have. But I want to make sure that we keep “Stand Up For America” the very thing that made it a place you all wanted to come in the first place….

Punished For Her Views…

OK, so here we are on Friday night, and you know what? I don’t have a single guest commentary to post! I thought I had a couple to choose from but when I went back and looked at them they were the ones that have already posted. So I apologize that you are just going to have to deal with plain old me again tonight. Now, upon realizing my lack of a guest commentary, I am forced to very quickly find something to write about an insert into the program. I wanted to do something I was fired up about, but that wouldn’t require hours of research and tons of brain cells. After all, it is 2:00 am as I start this article. And then I realized that I already knew based on pure opinion what to write about…. The Miss USA fiasco. Because it is in line with the persecution of Christian beliefs that I have discussed in the past. And it deals a bit with gay marriage, which I have also discussed. Plus it gives me a free shot at Hollywood hate-monger Perez Hilton.

The Death of Self-Sufficiency

I have had this discussion with some of the people that I associate with. I was wondering whether I should write a post about it. Then I talked to Revolution2010 the other night and she brought it up out of the blue (we had not discussed it previously). And I decided that I was indeed going to write about it. Much of the problem in America today, in my opinion, comes down to two things, personal accountability and self sufficiency. Personal accountability is something that I have discussed before, and I am sure I will discuss again because I despise the victim mentality that has permeated the American soul. But tonight I am going to discuss self sufficiency, because I believe that the current system does not foster it. And Obama’s plans will unfortunately makes things worse….

You Can Just Call Me… “V”

You guys didn’t really think I was going to let this topic go by without covering it did you? I had to let myself calm down a little bit to be honest. Because it is this type of hate speech that is becoming an identifying trait of the modern day far left liberal politician. Today’s target is Janet Napolitano. And that means that you already know where I am going with this post. Janet is a far left loon. There are many far left loons currently serving in the United States Congress and federal government today. And this is why I keep warning my liberal friends and readers that they may want to start distancing themselves from the Democratic party now, before the real main stream America (as opposed to the made up one that the MSM keeps telling you exists) gets them completely figured out. Because once that happens, I can’t protect those who stood up and supported the policies these whackos were executing….

March Towards Socialism Part 4

We have reached the next section of the “March Towards Socialism” Series. This one is going to be significantly shorter as I simply did not have the time to research and write as much as I would have liked the last couple of days. Again I think it is important to understand what my purpose was in doing this series. First and foremost, I wanted to show that this is not a new movement that Obama all of the sudden switched on. He is merely operating at a quicker pace than than we are used to in the march. If we have been ordered on a march to socialism, he has merely issued the order of “Double Time… March”. And it looks as though we may be told soon to just sprint for all we can. The question is whether we follow his order and go on until we have a massive coronary, or whether we stop, look at the politicians and say “Enough”.

The Piece I Said I Would Never Write

I have to say up front that I despise that I am even writing about this topic. I told my wife when I started this blog that I was not going to get into it and would leave it alone. As many of you have seen I have stayed fairly hands off with it when it comes up in the comments. But there are many of you who are having these discussions in the threads of other posts so I have given up on ignoring it. I will give you my thoughts. on the subject, but I will not, I repeat I will not, pretend that I have a definitive answer or that I know the right path forward. I am just offering thoughts, nothing more, nothing less. And then you can all debate away….

A Delay in Socialism…

OK. I know I said I was going to have “March Towards Socialism Part 4″ finished this evening and posted. However I have run into more research than I can hope to finish tonight, so I will work on it tomorrow night as well and get it posted tomorrow. I hope that everyone can understand the delay. I could try to explain the sheer amount of stuff that I read in order to attempt to get things right when I write about them, but I couldn’t do myself justice. Needless to say it is taking much longer than I thought. So I have been faced with the decision to post nothing tonight and work on this until 4:00am or postpone and stop, instead offering up another topic for tonight instead. I took option two and will post my piece on abortion in about an hour and a half (3:30-4:00 am EST).

OK… DEEP BREATHS (Now Don’t Exhale… Carbon Tax)

OK there are a lot of different thoughts running through the different threads here so I am going to try to reign it in a bit. I know people are ready to have the abortion debate and the illegal immigration debate and others. Tonight I am working on Part 4 of the march towards socialism. It will post later. After that I will post on one of the big controversial subjects each of the next several nights. And that will give the forum to have those debates. But please, please, please…. I know things like abortion are a emotional topic. Please can we keep it civil? And can we keep it to facts not personal attacks? If someone asks a question can we answer with the assumption that it is being asked nicely and with respect? I told my wife I would avoid the abortion one at all costs 6 months ago. And now I am breaking my own rule…. can we agree that we won’t make me feel really dumb for it later?

Racist Rednecks Hold Tea Parties

Last Wednesday we saw the gathering of Americans across the country in cities far and wide to protest the out of control spending and expansion of government that they feel is ruining America. I have to say that I am proud of those that did so. The protests were peaceful (which is in direct contrast to most of the liberal protests that have happened over the years). The protests were non-partisan (despite the claims of those who opposed them). The protests were controlled and organized, and from what I could see, the protests were even cleaned up after, as those who protested made sure to pick up their mess when they were done. I can tell you the one thing that the protests were not….. Covered by major media outlets. Disgraceful. And I am now watching to see the reaction from the far left to the parties. I wondered how far they would go to disgrace or demonize those who held a different opinion. And I have to tell you, the far left has not disappointed me in providing example after example of why they are despised by many in America.

No He Can’t

I had this forwarded to me in an email recently. I read it and wondered to myself immediately if it was real. I have a mind to be skeptical of whatever it is that I read and I immediately assumed that this was probably written by a white Republican trying to make a point. So I researched a bit and found that everyone from Lew Rockwell to other WordPress sites have reprinted it. Once I found it to be verified, I decided that I was going to share it with my readers because this lady says it so succinctly and certainly better than I could have done if I had sat down and written a letter like this.

Guest Commentary – One Argument To Abolish The Political Party System In The U.S.A.

So here we are again on another Friday night at Stand Up For America. And we all know that we have turned Friday nights into guest commentary nights! I have to say that I really do enjoy the different articles that I get from people. They are well thought out and often have a different take on the issue than the one that I would have provided. When I did the first commentary with BlackFlag, I was skeptical about having others having such a voice on what was “my” site. What I have realized since is that this is not my site at all. It belongs to all of you. I post an article and you all have discussions. I get into them when I can, but the site is really about all of us learning, debating, compromising, and hearing differing opinions.

March Towards Socialism Part 3

So we have finished with the War between the states. A quick summary statement there was that this was one of the big moments in our march towards socialism, as it showed the power of the federal goverment to control the states, to the point of levying tariffs and not allowing states to secede from the union when they felt that tyranny was coming. However there is still much to cover before we get to the current administration and the moves happening today. Now, admittedly, I am able to cover the Civil War era fairly well. As I said, I grew up right next to Gettysburg, and a photographic memory coupled with annual field trips and reading can sink in quite well.

Tax Day Tea Parties A Success

I posted a quick thought on the Media Coverage of the Tax Day Tea Parties yesterday afternoon. I was suprised (although I shouldn’t have been) to find that there was almost zero coverage of the protests on any of the major news media outlets except for Fox News. We had some spirited discussions there with one commenter who failed to operate in the world of reality, while criticizing all the other readers on the blog for letting our silly notions of freedom and liberty get in the way of the realities of the world. It was quite comical. But overall, his sentiment was also that the Tea parties were a “non-event” that no one was really going to show up at and even if they did it didn’t mean anything. You can go read his comments. He is quite comical and clueless in his assessment.

Ahhh… Crazy Nancy Never Disappoints

You know when I have a week where I am just not getting enough crazy far left loon stuff, I start to get worried that they are being quiet as they build to something really big. I still think I am right on that, and we have not heard a lot from Crazy Nancy lately, which makes me suspicious. But the other night a friend sent me an email that was a forward. I often delete these without reading them, but coming from her I am certainly going to give it a read. And it was a quick blurb about a piece of legislation that Pelosi is pursuing. I read it and thought, that is too good to be true, she actually said that? Then I remembered it was Nancy. So I started researching, and here is what I found.

Just a Very Quick Thought

I am getting ready to head out for a while to attend the rally. Prior to doing so I decided I would look at the coverage. For those that don’t think the media has a bias. The Tax Day Tea Parties have begun. People are gathering nation wide. Already 2,000 in Boston and twice that in DC. Tens of thousands of protestors are taking to the streets today to stand up to government in over 300 cities. When 19 women from Code Pink protested the marine recruiting center in San Francisco, it garnered massive national media attention. Yet a visit to www.nytimes.com shows that the New York Times has not a single mention of the Tea Parties on its home page, not a single word. www.cnn.com has a single very small article. ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/ has not a single mention of them at all. But plenty of articles such as “Americans are glad to have big government back” I kid you not. MSNBC shockingly has a small article on the left hand side of the page. CBS News has nothing at all. Tens of thousands of people protesting in 300 cities and the major news outlets are refusing to cover it. Still think there is no agenda in the media?

March Towards Socialism Part 2 UPDATED!

So we continue on the path to understanding what exactly is going on in today’s political environment. I think this is an important series to be covering. Folks like Adam, who jump in and throw around insults and bemoan being called socialist, need to be educated. More importantly, everyone needs to be educated. The media and the Democrats tend to try to make anyone who applies the “socialist tag” to anything out to be right wing radicals who are just fear mongering “like Republicans do”. People need to understand that socialist isn’t meant to be a negative label, at least not from me. It is meant to be an accurate label, that accurately describes what is happening in today’s society, right under our noses. I am fine with socialism, just not in America under a constitution that expressly forbids it. If people want to give socialism a shot, I can roll with that, just not here, move to some other country and try it there. HERE, constitutional law forbids socialism.

The Return of Somali Pirates

Some of you may remember quite a while ago when I did a post on the pirates in Somalia. At that time I did the post for my mom because she wanted to know about the pirates, regardless of whether politics in America were pertinent or not. This time I am writing about the Somali pirates for two reasons. First because she wants to know about them, but second because now they are important to write about in terms of politics. As I discussed in the intro yesterday, the “March to Socialism” series will not run every day, but instead every other day or so, as it takes more research and time to write. On off days I am writing stuff a bit more from the hip. But I didn’t want to have a day without a bit of controversy….

March Towards Socialism Part 1

I was talking with someone the other day who had read my “Brownshirts” article and wanted to let me know how horrible it was of me to have insinuated what I did. They accused me of fear mongering and not giving a fair shake to the possible good parts of HR1388. I took pause to consider her thoughts, and eventually decided that I would write this post. Because I say to ignore what we are seeing is insane. I was not fear mongering, or even trying to make the President out to be a bad person. I was pointing out the realities of what is happening in Washington. Perhaps my viewpoints are wrong. But I would like for someone to show me where they are wrong. Her attempts were limited to basically saying passionately that “he just isn’t”. This is the mindset of the average American who isn’t paying attention. But perhaps one of the well read, smart folks here can enlighten me to where I am wrong.

Assessing the Rock Star’s World Tour

I have heard all of the hoo ha about the fact that President Obama bowed to the Saudi King during his “World Tour”. I have some thoughts on that particular moment. But I want to at least get a dialogue started about O’prompter’s overall performance on the international escapade he just undertook. I know conservatives have been fairly disgusted with his overall performance and the tone that he took with the world. Some of that was warranted, although I don’t know that all of it was. So I figure to throw my opinion out there for people to discuss and we can see where all of you fall. 

Why State’s Rights is a Flawed Argument

As promised we continue with my plan to publish the articles that people send to me. As a side note to this, please don’t be afraid to send me articles. I know that some of you are worried that you won’t have good spelling or grammar. If asked I am always willing to help with that. But more importantly, I would like to make this a weekly thing that I do every Friday night. So I will be needing commentary from folks to do so. The ones that people have sent to me thus far have been interesting. So onward to tonight’s guest commentary…

New Suggested Reading Page

Just a quick note to let you all know that I have added a “Suggested Reading” page up there at the top of the home page. If you make a suggestion in one of your comments, take a moment to jump in there and add it to the list. That way no one is trying to go back through 200 comments a day looking for the suggestion you made. I hope that some of you will take the time to find the suggestions that you made in the past and add them in there as well.

What Did Thomas Jefferson Know About the Internet?

I want to thank everyone for yet another spirited debate yesterday as we discussed the treatment of Christians in today’s America. For the most part everyone was respectful and stuck to the facts rather than going on a religious rant. We were fortunate to have many different views to learn from. I am always awed by the different perspectives and my ability to learn from them all. In particular I want to welcome Chris back because he made some great points today. I imagine he will be able to contribute to tonight’s topic as well.  The debates there were good and one particular one stuck out as I perused the discussions. So I wanted to cover it further tonight. That topic would be the Constitution and its interpretation….

Silencing Christianity

As many of you may recall, I recently wrote a post suggesting that the religious right be minimized in the Republican platform and stripped of power in setting the agenda. I laid out my reasoning. Some agreed and some disagreed. I was asked yesterday about a current trend in discrimination against christians in America. I offered to write a post about it because there were certainly a few different religious discussions threatening to break out. Couple this with the recent discussion I saw about Muslims and I feel like perhaps the time has come for a bit of a religious discussion. I enter into the territory with trepidation, however….

Class Warfare.. A Liberal Chess Game

Chris brought up some issues about fairness in one of his recent comments and it got me thinking. He stated that he absolutely promotes class warfare, because it is warranted. We are rapidly approaching a breaking point in this country that has been driven by the politicians in Washington. They have promoted class warfare as a tactic to gain power. And they are furthering that tactic as a means to intrude further and further into private industry and take away the rights of American citizens. They do it by making people think that life isn’t fair, and government is going to even things up for you. Well, I will not be fooled by yet more government claims of their willingness to help Americans. I didn’t buy it from the Republicans when they ran things, and I certainly refuse to buy it from the Democrats now.