“Democracy” and the Dismantling of Our Republic

By John Brewer on April 27, 2011

“This democracy we have is a precious thing…” — Barack Obama.

I suppose I’d be hard-pressed to find a soul among us who hasn’t committed a substantial amount of our adult life watching the news, reading magazines, blog articles, newspapers, listening to talk-radio or chatting with sea-bound grobians among the citizenry. And, I suppose I’d come up empty-handed looking for a soul among us who hasn’t heard or read the word“democracy” kicked around more frequently than a hacky sack at a marathon Grateful Dead-Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young-Phish-Mamas and Papas-Doobie Brothers-The Birds-Simon and Garfunkel-Jefferson Airplane reunion tour. I suppose that, at the tender drinking age of double-decade-uno, had I decided to create a drinking game contingent on the usage of “democracy” among politicians and analysts and generally-untutored droids, I wouldn’t have the capacity to write this right now, as my body would be 10 years dissolved into the dirt and photos of my liver would be circulating among medical journals worldwide. How did he die? If Joe Biden were to answer, he’d say it all came down to a three-syllable word: Democracy.

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Public Service

By Jennifer Stephens on April 25, 2011

‘The Hill’ blogger Christian Heinze recently posted this:

“John Weaver, who’d be a top adviser to a Jon Huntsman campaign, weaves a clever excuse for his guy’s service in the Obama Administration.

“If you’re asked by the president of the United States to serve your country in a foreign policy or national security role and you don’t do it,” Mr. Weaver said, “that’s disqualifying.”

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There’s a Storm Coming

By Craig Andresen on April 21, 2011

The immigration issue is brewing up a storm and nobody’s sounding the alarm. It’s off the front page and buried in the newscasts but, it’s lurking and it’s building.

Over the last several months, uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, budget and debt concerns at home, unions against the private sector flair ups, rising fuel prices and inflation and natural disasters have all taken the spotlight while illegal immigration has all but vanished as a headline story.

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Narrowing the Field

By Craig Andresen on April 19, 2011

To call the race to the republican nomination in 2012 a process would be nothing short of a gross understatement. The road to that destination is long, bumpy, full of twists and turns and full of speed traps.

Warning signs are also a key feature along this road and by all means, those signs should be heeded. The best course of action is…go slow…in order to avoid the hazards.

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Who Defines Your “Needs”?

By Margaret Smith on April 18, 2011

Many of you have heard the quote,” the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”; and recently you heard the President in a speech say this; “You can afford to pay a little more”. My question to Americans is. Who defines what the needs of the many are? Who defines what you can afford?

Ponder these scenarios.  I need a car. So does it mean my neighbor that owns 3 cars should give me one? I need a cell phone. Does that mean that the guy at the store who has a brand new cell phone should hand it over to me? I need clothing for my kids. Does that mean that the store at the mall should give me clothes for my kids? You are now paying from your hard earned taxes, the needs for those items to those who are not working or not seeking to take care of those needs on their own. But, did you want too?

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The Great Unifier Increases Party Chasm

By Patty Ewing Robichaud, April 14, 2001

Dan Gainor – Vice President for Business and Culture at Media Research Center, tweeted, “A great presidential speech instills a sense of national purpose. That one sapped a nation’s will to live.”

About 15 minutes into his speech, the Great “Unifier” and Chief, Obama, made a point of referencing GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget, remarking it was “embraced by several of their party’s presidential candidates.”

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Independent Impact

By Craig Andresen on April 14, 2011

Donald Trump has made a lot of noise over the last couple of weeks regarding the birth certificate issue which has propelled him to the top of many polls of possible GOP contenders. As I have said before, Trump is unelectable as his background, numerous bankruptcy filings, marriages and business dealings would preclude him as a serious candidate.

There is also his history of donations to democrat candidates in the past including his donation to Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral bid in Chicago. Add to that, Trump’s past advocacy of Obama and frankly, no matter WHAT he brings to show and tell in his investigation of Obama’s past, at best, Trump is a RINO and the conservatives will have little to do with him in the long run.

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Message Matters, Media Doesn’t

By Craig Andresen on April 13, 2011

As a kid, growing up in the 1960’s, there were two ways to get the news. You watched the network of your choice, ABC, NBC or CBS at dinner time for the news of the day and you read the morning paper to find out what happened over night. That was it.

In those days, Huntley/Brinkley and Walter Cronkite dominated the evening news. Cronkite was considered the most trusted man in America. To be honest, ABC wasn’t much of a player back then as they didn’t expand their nightly news to a full half hour until 1967 and then ran through a myriad of anchors through the years.

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Mis-Underestimated

By John Brewer on April 12, 2011

A funny thing happened on the way to serenity the other night: I dropped by for a quick look at my Facebook page to see what was up, to see if anything was new, to discover that some of my friends–propelled by the offal-slinging rotors of ever-mounting and oscillating media coverage about a looming campaign season–were engaged in wall-to-wall combat. At first, I was pulled in as a spectator and nothing else; that is to say, there are moments when I truly believe I’ve had my fill of contentious political slingery, moments when I’d rather just sink back into my settee, pull the plugs (earplugs, that is!), and let the steam whistle from my drums…moments when I’d much rather think of something else, something else like the health and happiness of my parents and siblings, something else like the wonderfulness of my daughter, something else like the well-being of a dear friend up North, something else like the probability of my beloved Cubbies ever managing to win a World Series before my time on this Earth is through.

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Who’s to Blame?

By Jennifer Stephens on April 11, 2011

So, the Media and Liberals want to blame the GOP, and especially the Tea Party, for this budget mess/pending Government Shutdown. Let’s look at that…

This budget was due September 30, 2010 – more than 6 months ago. Back in August and September of 2010 (when the budget should have been passed) the Democrats had the Majority in both the House and Senate. With those Majorities, they could have passed a budget they liked. They didn’t. They knew that the GOP/Tea Party would win the House in the mid-terms. (They didn’t want to admit it publicly, but they knew it.) They knew that could lead to this stalemate on the budget, and that they would them be able to blame the GOP, and even more so the Tea Party they hate so much, for the stalemate. Some would say the Dumbocrats aren’t smart enough to plan that far ahead. Yes, they are sneaky and clever enough to do just that; and I believe they did.

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