Getting ready for August 24

The choice in November is going to be clear. If I lived in District 8 I would examine the Grayson versus Non-Grayson portion of the ballot for about a millisecond before voting for the Candidate-Not-Known-As-Grayson with every fiber of my being. I’ve considered moving to the district just for that vote, but alas, my own district has one Suzanne Kosmas to deal with.

While the decision in November is easy, the decision in August is more difficult. The Republican primary is chock full of quality individuals, many of whom I have met and all of whom I respect. As one who was home schooled and is actively involved in the Tea Party, I deeply respect Patricia Sullivan. I was one of the first people to order Todd Long’s book “The Conservative Comeback” and was inspired by his passion for our founding principals. I have always respected Daniel Webster, and wish that he would have run for governor. In all of these cases, I wholeheartedly believe that anybody who wins the nomination and potentially defeats Grayson would bring some substantial change to our government.

I am, however, choosing to join a growing faith-based coalition supporting Bruce O’Donoghue to contest Alan Grayson in November. I’ve been impressed with with the no-nonsense approach he has taken in his campaign. He is not afraid of speaking the truth, exposing lies in the media regarding the registered TEA Party. His boldness in challenging the ethically questionable tactics of Mr. Grayson show me he’s the person we should send to confront the destructive habits of career politicians. Bruce is a man we desperately need to break the paralysis that strangles Washington and threatens our Constitution and our republic.

As a pastor and concerned American, I’m very aware of the need for someone who recognizes the danger of dependence on government. Bruce’s experience in small business and compassionate outreach through initiatives like House of Hope prove to me that he has the mindset and character Washington so desperately needs.

I know I’ve alienated some of you by supporting Bruce. I respect your decision to support your candidate. I would, however, encourage you to take time to learn about Mr. O’Donoghue. Look at his business background and the positions he has served to protect small businesses, the backbone of the American economy. Look at his track-record of social conservativism through the House of Hope, Vision Orlando, YMCA, FCA and more. If you do, I think you’ll find a man that demonstrates the character our Founders knew to be so vital to holding public office.

NOTE – Neither Citizen2Citizen nor my church have any interest in endorsing candidates. I am not speaking on behalf of any organization. My support is simply a function of my American citizenship.

Is Webster Out of Time?

Originally posted at the Orlando Political Press.

I thought I take a break from watching the compelling NBA playoffs to jot down some thoughts on Daniel Webster’s decision to enter the race.

Here’s my concern about Webster. I don’t want to rain on the party of all his supporters, but I’m concerned he entered the race too late. Todd Long has been at this a long time and seems to have tremendous Tea Party support. Bruce O’Donoghue seems to be raising a lot of money. Where does that leave Daniel Webster? Perhaps if he had entered earlier, more of the religious subset of the Tea Party movement would have held out before jumping behind Long, and more of the  establishment might have waited before backing O’Donoghue.

I could be wrong, but it seems a number of key individuals would love to support Webster, but because of his delay, have already lent support to other candidates.

Don’t get me wrong. Webster will be able to garner tremendous support, and will be a force to be reckoned with. In the end, I think this could break well for Todd Long. Because of how early he announced his campaign, and his Tea Party credibility, his campaign is not as dependent on the larger money sources. Webster could end up helping Long by depleting some donors who would have otherwise backed O’Donoghue. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.

In the end, we have three good candidates. My hope is that these fine gentlemen will run a clean, positive primary campaign, so that there is no lack of support for the victor. The last thing we need is for mudslinging among friends to hurt our chances at accomplishing the ultimate goal: kicking Grayson out of office.

“First of all, then we have to say the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama,” Sharpton said. “Let’s not act as though the president didn’t tell the American people – the president offered the American people health reform when he ran. He was overwhelmingly elected running on that and he has delivered what he promised” Al Sharpton.

Governor Chris Christie

Watch this is speech made by the Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. He is a brave man, standing for what he knows is the right thing to do. We need more men like this, ready to stand strong, and do the hard thing no matter how unpopular it is.

Do you believe in miracles? Yes!

In 1980, the US Olympic Hockey team defeated the mighty Soviets in the “Miracle On Ice” in Lake Placid, New York. In the final seconds of the historic upset, broadcaster Al Michaels famously exclaimed, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”

Fast forward nearly 30 years and history is being made again in New England. This time it’s no game. As the direction of our country hangs in the balance, Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley to win the Massachusetts Senate seat previously held by Teddy Kennedy.

This election is historic because Republicans have not won this seat since 1952. Just one month ago, Scott brown was down more than 30% in the polls. Massachusetts voted for Obama over McCain by 26%. This state is the bluest of the blue, and a Republican won convincingly (4-5%). This would be kind of like the Republican party winning California. Epic.

Conservative Principals Always Win

Here’s how it happened: Conservative principals always win, whenever they’re on the ballot. There are some social issues in which Scott Brown is perhaps not as conservative as one might like. But this campaign was not about social issues. It was about Health care, spending and defense. And even in liberal meccas like Massachusetts, if you are conservative, and if you explain your principals of limited government, fiscal responsibility, aggressive national defense, private sector solutions rather than government intrusion of our liberty, you can win anywhere.

When liberals win, it’s because Conservatives are not on the ballot. If people have to choose between liberal and moderate, conservatives stay home and liberals win. When conservatives are on the ballot, conservatives vote, and win. Even in deep blue states like Massachusetts.

Great Moments in the Campaign

In one of the pivotal moments of the campaign, Scott Brown was asked in a debate if he was really willing to stop Health care while sitting in Teddy Kennedy’s seat, when health care was an issue Kennedy championed. He said: “With all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy’s seat…it’s the people’s seat”.

Another great moment came when Scott Brown released the commercial below, highlighting his pick-up truck.

President Obama, in a last-minute effort to save Coakley’s doomed campaign, made a pretty foolish tactical error of slamming the pick-up truck.

If I ever run for office, remind me never to make fun of trucks. Far too many people have them, and like them. For that matter, remind me never to call Curt Schilling a Yankee fan, especially if I’m running in Massachusetts, like Coakley did. What a mistake!

As a result of these hilarious gaffes, Scott Brown now rides to Washington in his pick-up truck, sits down in Kennedy’s seat and stops socialized health care. Oh, this is rich.

Democrat Strategies on Health care

The big question tonight is whether this will truly stop Obamacare. The political significance is that the Democrats now only have 59 notes, one short of 60 which is required to stop GOP filibuster, and ram bills through. Also, many Democrats are taking notice and beginning to think that if Teddy Kennedy’s seat is not even safe, then nobody’s seat is safe, and they might need to re-think their radically liberal agenda.

Politico reports that Democrats are already getting nervous. The psychological impact of this election could reverberate and stall the Obama, Pelosi and Reid agenda.

Of course we can expect the White House to entrench itself even more, and pursue every option to get this bill passed. There are a number of options that seem to be on the table:

1. Start over
2. Try to get the House to pass the Senate version and then ammend it through a process called reconciliation, only requiring 51, not 60 Senate votes
3. Hurry and do something before Brown is sworn in

Every option seems to have fatal flaws and extreme political costs for the Democrats. The writing is on the wall. The people have spoken. The Tea Parties are turning this ship around.

Maybe now Congress will do the right thing and ram the 2,000+ pages of this bill through the paper shredder, and start focusing on lowering taxes so businesses can keep more money, hire more people and grow this economy the way it was meant to be grown, through the private sector, rather than government spending.

First there was Virginia, New York and New Jersey. Now there’s Massachusetts of all places. Conservatism is making a comeback. 2010 is going to be a very fun year.

Jesse Phillips
Citizen2Citizen, Founder

Obamacare: subsidizing his termination...

In the future years religious Americans who have a conscientious objection to abortion will be placed in the terrible predicament of having to choose between disobeying the law and paying into a system that compensates doctors for the gruesome termination of unborn children’s lives.

Previous laws had prevent this. But according to Democrat congressman Bart Stupak, the current legislation before the Senate, which will be voted on tomorrow, will approve “a dramatic shift in federal policy that would allow the federal government to subsidize insurance policies with abortion coverage.”

I am still thinking through this issue, but I’m not sure how I could justify giving my money to something that I knew would be used for this purpose. I pray it does not come to this, and this initiative fails.

Could you use a little global warming this winter?

I’m not sure I’ve ever been more alarmed at the level of corruption at every level of academia and government than when the colossal hoax of global warming was fully revealed over the last couple weeks. I always knew the alarmists were making illogical conclusions. What I didn’t know was the depth of the depravity of scientists who cashed in their integrity for government grants.

If you haven’t been following this, basically what happened is this: somebody hacked some computers at a leading climate research facility and stole a bunch of emails in which scientists discuss specific ways that they manipulate data to make it appear to be warming, when in fact, it is not. There was also some computer code stolen which was used for researching climate change. Analysts who have studied the source code say it’s pretty clear that the code was written in a way to skew things warmer.

This is written about in more detail on Wikipedia. All of the stolen data is available at this Climate Gate website.

This brings up a number of important lessons:

1) Don’t trust liberal interpretations of nature or history. For centuries people with common sense have accepted that it’s the sun that warms the earth, not people. Sorry, we’re just not that powerful. Only God is (and yes, he does exist).

2) Don’t trust liberals’ explanations for why they need more money. Cap & Trade is meant to control your freedom to produce under the pretense of stopping global warming, a problem which now only exists in the minds of ill-informed or downright deceitful researchers looking to make a buck by telling the government what it wants to hear to justify its trampling of our freedoms and liberty.

This whistle-blower who revealed these fraudulent documents might have saved an important document: the Constitution.

Active Army unit will be stationed within the United States starting in October.

They’ve been attacking Fox News.

They’ve been working on an Internet Takeover bill, to give themselves the power to order a shutdown of all Americans’ access to the Internet.

They’ve been working to control TV and the media.