It’s sad, but the Barack Hussein Obama has decided to take his West Point photo op at a time when children all across the country would be sitting down to watch Charlie Brown and his friend celebrate Christmas.  We sould have realized the unrestrained ego of this man  when gave the Queen of Great Britain an iPod filled with his speeches.  In any case, maybe it’s time to run out and rent the video to keep the young minds from being poluted the words that scroll by on the official teleprompter.

This is just one more time when our narcissitic “leader” presses forward with no consideration for the consequences.  For myself, perhaps I will just sit down with an OnDemand movie.  At least the movie is labled as a fantasy… but then, we know the speech is as well.  Unfortunately, some of our gallant soldiers are going to pay a much higher price for this fantasy than “Commander in Chief”.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

George Washington

Election Day 2009 brought some good news and presented us with a clearer picture of some of our struggles facing our nation. It showed us that a candidate does not have to run away from conservative values to defeat liberal opponents. We saw that when conservative values are presented in a logical and coherent manner, they can carry the day and and find their way into our government. All this is overlaid on an atmosphere of fear and frustration with liberal expansion and intrusion into the lives of individual citizens.

Looking first at my home state of Virginia, Republicans won with a trio of conservatives ranging from the real deal, Attorney General elect Ken Cuccinelli whose campaign adopted the Gadsden flag as its unofficial symbol to Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling to Governor Bob McDonnell, who is still a good man though not quite what he once was as far as strength of his convictions.

I’m expecting great things from this team, although I’m sure I’ll be disappointed in some areas, but feel we have a great chance for needed progress… and I’m looking for the new Attorney General to provide both the moral compass to the administration and a thorn in the side of the Obama administration as it continues its power grab at the expense of the good citizens of the commonwealth. He is one to watch for the future… and on top of this the team carried four more delegates into the General Assembly.

The New Jersey race was said to revolve around jobs and corruption. If this is the case, especially with corruption, it is surprising that the Democrat did not win, as they are so good at it… unless, it would be possible that the people of the garden state were tired of living in Soprano land. And they picked Chris Christie who, as a federal prosecutor, put somewhere around one hundred and thirty political types behind bars. For that alone, he deserves to be put in a position of authority and honor. The people of New Jersey, my former home state for eight years, were looking for change, but this time they did not see things through Obama’s rosy promises… they wanted a change back to sanity.

What we saw with Christie’s win is that even where the statists have control, there is hope. There is no reason to think we can’t move forward… there is hope, if we are willing to act on it.

The downer of the evening was the loss of Doug Hoffman in upstate New York. He came from being an uncharismatic unknown to within a few percentage points of winning a seat in congress. His case illustrates several problems that we can hope will be studied and resolved.

First was the hubris of eleven unit chairman who took upon themselves the task of selecting a candidate to represent the party. There are some exceptions, but in many cases party leadership tends to be more “moderate” (read liberal) than the rank and file party membership. This is in some ways, I believe, due to the differences in priorities. One may be a party operative and be conservative. However they will not come to the same conclusions as a conservative/libertarian who happens to be involved with the party. Compromises ensue and sometimes values are set aside for the “good of the party”.

This time, the “good of the party” called for nominating a candidate with political connections rather than an understanding of the people. The people spoke and the anointed candidate dropped out, endorsing the Democrat. Not being from the area, I can’t say if this was with the blessing of the powers that be. I do know that there was a day before the endorsement… time enough for consideration and discussion about ways to put this upstart outsider in his place. Whatever went on behind closed doors, it was a terrible example of collusion between the two parties to the detriment of the people. This proved what the rank and file Republicans had been saying… she was not the candidate for them. Unfortunately this chaos in their party combined with about five thousand people who did not get the memo about Scozzafava’s campain suspension cost the good citizens of New York’s 23rd district of suitable representation.

As the days and weeks pass, there will be many more lessons to be learned from Election Day 2009, but among them will be confirmation that the tea party people need to gain control of the party since fussing from the outside just is not getting the job done.

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How Appealing links to the ruling Watson v. Geren, No. 07-2563 (2nd Cir. Oct. 30, 2009)

Yesterday marked the 45th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s ascendancy to the national stage with his pre-election speech supporting Barry Goldwater. Goldwater did not win, but the country won when they began to recognize what a fountain of wisdom was within the future president. After reviewing this video, I believed the Great Communicator could express our situation and solution better than my feeble words. Listen and enjoy.

The video runs for about half an hour, but here are a few excerpts to take away and make your own if time does not permit a full viewing:

And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man.

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down—[up] man’s old—old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism…

We have so many people who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they’re going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning.

…anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we’re denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we’re always “against” things—we’re never “for” anything.

Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments’ programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.