The Democrat Congressional Creed – “Ubi Est Mea”

For those of us who were fortunate to attend public schools when they actually taught something, you will understand the title of this piece. For those who are product of the U.S. Department of Education, you may need some help.

"Ubi Est Mea?” is Latin (a lost language, as English is fast becoming) and the English translation is: “Where’s Mine?”

The late columnist from Chicago, Mike Royko, used this phrase a few years ago to describe Chicago politics. It is relevant today since the Chicago brand of politics has been fully implemented in the Congress of the United States. This is ample proof the only good thing to come out of Chicago is the pizza.

Bribery and extortion has been the ‘dirty little secret’ in Congress for some time and discreetly practiced by both parties to some extent. However, it has never been so blatant, in-your-face and arrogantly defended as now by the Democrats who are temporarily the majority party.

Some of the more egregious contemporary examples from the Health Care Cash-for-Cloture Bill are as follows:

“The Louisiana Purchase, circa 2009" – The reported $100 million in extra Medicaid money secured for the state by Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu to purchase her vote for the Senate Health Care train wreck. Not the least bit chagrinned by her extortion, she had to rub salt in the wound of the rest of the country and boast that she actually extorted $300 million from the rest of us for the welfare capital state of the nation.

“The Cornhusker Kickback” – A similar bribe/extortion for the pivotal vote of Democrat Senator Max Baucus of $100 million (the first year) and an exemption for Nebraska from having to pay increased Medicaid costs resulting from the Health Care bill – FOREVER! This is the same Senator who showed up drunk as a skunk on the Senate floor recently berating the Republicans for opposing the bribery and extortion of the Health Care Bill (http://tnconservative.blogspot.com/2009/12/democrat-senator-max-baucus-drunk-on.html).

“The U Con” – Here is $100 million for Connecticut extorted by Democrat Senator Chris Dodd (of the Kennedy/Dodd Waitress Sandwich fame) for a medical center at the University of Conn. Three guesses who it will be named after!

These are only three of the more public bribes and extortions larded up in this bill. It is still early, the damn thing is over 2,400 pages long and the footnotes are still being written therefore this number will surely grow!

The HC Bill, in all its monstrous glory, sired by the cadaverous Harry Reid made it out of the Senate and is now headed for the unholy union with the 'Spawn of Pelosi' in the House-Senate Conference. This is where honor and virtue magically appear and upright Senators and Congress-critters will strip out all the offending items forthwith.

Yea right! It is more likely a healthy dose of Ex-Lax curing cancer. What is more likely? More lawmakers extorting billions more of other people’s (yours and mine) money for their states.

Why do I say this? Simple – there are many more than three crooks in Congress. Just read the response from Senate Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid when asked about all the pay-offs contained in his bill: “I don’t know if there is a senator that doesn’t have something in this bill that was important to them. And if they don’t have something in it important to them, then it doesn’t speak well of them.”

In other words, in the Democrat's world, a senator is not doing his or her job if they are not extorting and accepting bribes for their votes. Only in Congress is bribery and extortion not considered illegal by the perpetrators.

“Ubi Est Mea” – “Where’s mine!”  -- No longer whispered in the cloak room, but now shouted out loud in the halls!

Democrat Senator Max Baucus Drunk on Senate Floor

This is the idiot in charge of the Senate Finance Committee and wants to run (ruin) our lives. He is also one of the main characters who wrote the Senate Health Care rationing bill.

Remeber this link for the 2010 campaign!

Can you just imagine if this had been a Republican Senator?  This would be running on an endless loop on MSM.

GMWinslow
The Tennessee Conservative

MERRY CHRISTMAS - delightfully politically incorrect!

Merry Christmas to each of you and your families.  I say Merry Christmas, first and foremost in the manner in which it is intended.  A warm heartfelt greeting and wish for your well being as bestowed upon our souls from God who gave them and celebration of the birth of His presence on earth...Jesus Christ.

I also say Merry Christmas as sign of my defiance to the unholy horde who purport to rule this country because the mere mention of those two words does so irk them!  I am sorry, it should not be that way...but it is what it is. 

America has reached a crossroads.  We either adhere to the values and great moral principles upon which this country was founded, and thereby continue to thrive and prosper; or we slide deeper and deeper into the deadly bog of 'diversity', 'political correctness', 'social justice' and forced dependency that demands the rejection of all that is good, true and just, and perish. We must return to the principles as taught in the Sacred Volume (for most of us, The Holy Bible)  we receive as the rule and guide of our daily lives. 

We are currently ruled by thieves and criminals hell-bent on destroying the country given us, earned by the blood, sweat, tears and treasure of our past and greatest generations.  We the "baby-boomers" let this happen.  Spoiled, demanding, arrogant and blissfully ignorant, we have let the government be taken over by those inherently dangerous and unfit to lead, but now have the power.  We have sat around and tut-tutted and rolled our eyes at the corruption and power grabs of our politicians then go out and buy the latest usless toy waved in front of our eyes without another thought about what is being done to us.

It is our time, albeit past due, to take up the mantle and reponsibility of keeping America free and growing.  Our brave troops are doing that abroad.  It is our responsibility ... no, duty, to fight just as hard here at home. 

Entire generations have succumbed to the siren song of the 'free-lunch of welfare' mentality and we (the ones who actually pay taxes) have provided it out of a manufactured sense of guilt foisted upon us by the people who believe in the re-distrubution of wealth. Unending welfare breeds unending hopeless dependency. Liberals promote welfare, not out of a sense of compassion, but as a means of maintaining power over people. This must end!  Responsibility, accountability and work ethic must be restored.  When help is deserved, it will be given . . . but not in perpetuity!  A 'hand up' . . . not a 'hand-out.'

The holiday period between Christmas and the New Year traditionally is a time of reflection on the past year and the making of resolutions of amendment for the coming year.  I urge all patriotic 'real' Americans to seriously reflect on how we got into this mess and whole-heartedly resolve to amend our present condition in 2010.  This means much more than the ususal "tut-tutting!" This means a very pro-active and un-relenting push to re-take the greatest country on earth ... our country... back from brink of destruction by the cleptocrats, theives and idiots now in control. 

November 2, 2010 is the day of reckoning.  This election will be the most important in our history.  Here we draw the line in the sand and halt this destructive downhill slide into socialism, dependency and despair facing us. On this day we can re-take control of the House of Reprobates and the Senate and start the process of  righting our badly listing ship of state.  To continue the maritime metaphor, we must pump the putrid bilge from Washington, affect the necessary repairs to our battered hull and, once again, sail proudly upon the seas of history.

We all all angry now! Angry at what we see happening in our Capitol. The lies, corruption, back room deals and complete disregard, and somtimes outright disparagement, of "We the People."  In 2010, let us reslove to maintain that anger and turn it into a force, never before seen, at the polls that will sweep clean the halls of power of the dispicable creatures which now inhabit them.  Channel this anger to the ends of restoring power to men and women of good and noble character.  These men and women are out there. We are not alone.  Find them, support them, work for them this coming year.  Donations are one thing and are necessary, but we need to do much more.  Educate your circle of friends, enlist them in the casue and get them and thier friends to the polls. One begets two; two begets four to create an exponential tsunami washing away the vermin infesting the halls of power.  Constantly write, talk and communicate the values of freedom, liberty, and fiscal and personal responsibility that is sorely missing in Washington today and must be restored.

A revolution is coming and we are the foot soldiers.  Read the history (the real history, not what is taught in our schools) of the untrained, uneducated rabble lead by the likes of George Washington who, despite all odds, won our freedom and created the greatest country in history.  We are much better equiped for our battle than they, except for one thing ... heart!  We must have that firey heart that drove the original patrioits to risk all and more for the radical idea of freedom and self-rule.  That firey heart is within us.  We feel it rising, burning, getting stronger everyday.  We must fan these flames, maintain the anger and turn it into action. 

I do hereby reslove to do just that.  Join me in the Second American Revolution.  Return America to its rightful place among the shining jewels of human history and banish, forever, from power the ones who would do otherwise.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

GMWinslow
The Tennessee Conservative

Don't Tell Me What Is Best For Me!

I know I am not alone in my irritation (quickly turning to rage) of being told by people who could screw up a one-car parade what is best for me and to shut up and do what I am told.  Didn't like it as a kid ... and really do not like it now! Especially by the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the temporary occupant of the White House, what's-his-name!

In their ideal world, everyone lives in abject poverty and stands in long lines, but we all live in the same abject poverty and stand in the same long lines -- (Except themselves.  who get excellent health care, food, housing, maid service and no lines.)

The bald-faced audacity of this cleptocracy is brewing a backlash that has not been seen since England's King George treated us the same way.  Just saying....

The American people have been chaffing at this attitude from our self-annoited betters for a long time.  It is with this Health Care Bill (a misnomer in that this is a thinly veild power-grab) is the catalyst that will make 1776 look like a Tea-Party!

The 'know better than the average voter, and more government is the answer to all issues' crowd (ie, Democrats) are pusing this unwanted legislation to implement their beliefs;  not those of the people they represent.  The polls cannot be ignored on this issue, no matter how hard Congress tries.

The temporary occupant of the White House is declaring 'victory.' "Health Care (socialism) reform is not a matter of if," said White House designated idiot / press secretary Robert Gibbs, "health care reform is a matter of when."  (So is the next election!)

When the House sent the Health Care  Bill to the Senate, the final vote included 176 Republicans and 39 Democrats voting no ... and one Republican voting yes.  Nancy Pelosi, in full botox and perpetually delusional, declared this a bi-partisian victory.  What a colossal jewel  of ignorance, she is!

What words in the U.S. Constitution allow the federal government to compel every American to purchase health insurance? Where does the Constitution allow the federal government to take money from some Americans and give it to others so that they may purchase health insurance?


Recall the anger at former President George W. Bush, who, to fight the war on terror, "trashed" and "shredded" the Constitution. The same people who railed against the Patriot Act, the terror surveillance program and "illegal" torture happily unleash the power of the federal government to redistribute wealth for ObamaCare, a socially desirable objective. Never mind the absence of authority in the Constitution.

The left tells us that "health care is a right, not a privilege." Surely the Constitution says so. No, it does not. Article I, Section 8 details the limited power, duties and responsibilities of the federal government. Extracting money from your paycheck and giving it back to you when you retire -- Social Security? Not there. Taxing workers to pay for the health care of seniors -- Medicare? Not there. Mandating that employers pay workers a minimum wage? Not there.

Folks, we MUST re-take control of the ayslum and send these overt socialists packing!  Get Up -- Get Out -- Get Mad and Get Involved in November 2010!

Constitutional Legal Challenges Looming for ObamaCare

Organizations and congress-critters are lawyering-up to field constitutional challenges to Obama-Care if it survives the sausage making of the House/Senate conference and makes its way to the desk of the temporary occupant of the White House.


The two key issues they are targeting are:

1. A mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance and;

2. The special treatment that states like Nebraska are getting in the bill.

Senator John Ensign, R-NV has called for an examination the constitutionality of whether the federal can require Americans to purchase a product.

“I don’t believe Congress has the legal or moral authority to force this mandate on its citizens,” Ensign said in a statement, raising what’s known as a “constitutional point of order.” Procedural challenges such as this are rare and typically lead to a vote. This will force the Democrats to publicly state which side of the constitution they are on, something they do not wish to do.

Groups such as the non-profit Fund for Personal Liberty, as well as a Virginia-based group called the 10th Amendment Foundation, already have threatened to file suit in federal court over this issue if the health care bill passes.

The Constitution allows, among other things, Congress to tax, borrow, spend, declare war, raise an army and regulate commerce.

"I personally do not believe the Congress has the authority to enact an individual mandate requiring a person to purchase a product from a private seller," said Kent Masterson Brown, lead counsel with The Fund for Personal Liberty. "I don't think the power is there. This is not regulating anything." "This thing may be stillborn, even if it passes," he said.

Even though Obama argues that the mandate is similar to laws requiring drivers to obtain auto insurance, opponents cite several key differences. First, the auto insurance mandate is avoidable, since anyone who doesn't want to pay doesn't have to drive. Second, auto insurance is mandated in large part so that drivers carry liability insurance to cover damages to other people and cars -- not themselves. Third, auto insurance regulation occurs at the state level.

Other legal objections are emerging in the wake of a concession that Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., won for his state as a condition for his support of the health care bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to provide for full and permanent federal aid for Nebraska's expanded Medicaid population. It was only one of a slew of hand-crafted sweetheart deals for those senators who agreed to support the bill.

But the Nelson deal swiftly drew the ire of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has asked his state's attorney general to give the issue a legal review. He told Fox News on Tuesday that other states can probably bring a "constitutional challenge" over the issue. He said it's unfair for one state to get special treatment while others pick up the tab.

"I don't believe most senators believe this is OK," Graham said. "I think it stinks. I think it's sleazy."

Graham said his state could file an equal rights suit under the Constitution. The Constitution calls for "equal protection" of all citizens.

Likewise, two Republican state representatives from Tennessee on Monday asked their state attorney general to look into the issue -- they called the Medicaid expansion an "unfunded mandate."

Rep. Debra Young Maggart and Rep. Susan Lynn claimed the Nebraska deal was unfair to other states and asked that Attorney General Robert Cooper take "appropriate legal action" against the federal government if the bill becomes law.

"It is clear by the wording of the legislation itself that not every state would face a similar and equal burden," they wrote. "We see this as a violation of equal protection of the law, an affront to our sovereignty, and a breach of the U.S. Constitution."

The non-profit Liberty Legal Institute is poised to assist states that are considering filing suit against the government over the health care bill. The group would not disclose where the suits might come from, but claimed great interest in putting health care reform to the legal test.

"There are a lot of states that are concerned that this violated the 10th Amendment and they are weighing their options," Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel, said in a statement.

The 10th Amendment declares that powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are "reserved" for the states or "the people."

Still another challenge is coming from Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who on the Senate floor raised concerns about a section in the health care bill that appears to say that the Senate cannot make changes to it in the future.

"It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection," the section says.

DeMint said he found that "particularly troubling."

"We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a Senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law," DeMint said. "I'm not even sure that it's constitutional."

It is time to us to take back control of our country.  The 2010 elections are the key.  But we must keep unrelenting pressure on our lawmakers until it is time to vote them out and get "real Americans" in their place.  Get mad - stay mad - vote and take a friend with you!

I Fear For My Country

I am now officially afraid.  With the passage of TARP at the end of the Bush administration, I was concerned.  With the election of the temporary current occupant of the White House, I was disturbed. With the passage of the so-called 'Stimulus Bill', I was worried.  Now, with the looming passage of a bill to take over 1/6th of a free-enterprise economy, I am afraid and on the verge of terrorized!

I am afraid we are losing the heart and soul that made America unique in human history.  Oh, this did not happen in a flash with the election of the temporary occupant of the White House, it has been incremental for the past half-century or better, just as planned by the Left.

Watching the freak show in Copenhagen last week, I was alternately furious and filled with dread.  Promises from Secretary of State Clinton that the US will help fund a fund to transfer $100 billion a year to third world countries out of some misguided 'climate guilt' is just one of the lunatic activities of the global leftists.  The world has gone absolutely bonkers and the lunatics are in charge of the asylum!

Need more proof?  Mugabe and Chavez are treated with respect and the United Nations is serious about wanting to regulate OUR industry and transfer OUR wealth to kleptocrats and genocidal maniacs. 

Even more frightening, our own leaders (and I use the term loosely) joined the circus. We seem to have a Congressional majority and a temporary occupant of the White House amenable to this idea. Marching to the beat of international drummers, they uncoupled themselves from the 'will of the people' they were elected to serve.

Many of those who voted for the temporary occupant of the White House now regard his campaign  as a sly bait-and-switch operation, promising one thing and delivering another.  (We, the rational, tried to warn the country but to no avail.)  Equally surprising to Obamaites, is that he has become an insufferable bore.  The grace and charm channeled from the teleprompter have vanished.  His default emotions are peevishness and petty spite ("Don't think we are not keeping score, brother.")

His much hyped rhetorical gift of teleprompter reading now serve his loathsome habit of fear-mongering.  "Time is running out," he says over and again. He said it on health care, on the stimulus, in Copenhagen, on Iran.  Chicken Little has a new avatar.

His assertion we will go bankrupt unless Congress immediately adopts the health montrosity, cooking in Harry Reid's caludron, marks a new low.  At least it did until he barged into a meeting, uninvited, in Copenhagen to insult the Chinese with the same 'do-it-now' arrogance on carbon emmissions.  Just how did that work out for you, B. Hussein?

Washington has its own freak show and is more dangerous than the preening and posturing done by wannabe world leaders jockeying for camera angels in the middle of a blizzard ironically hyping global warming.  No person of rational mind could possibly support a federal takeover of the massive health system.  But, it is now apparent, we are not represented by rational minds. 

In fact, it is a myth the fight is over health care at all.  Carefully concealed and orchestrated, it is a vulger power dispute between anti-capitalist liberals and extreme anti-capitalist liberals, with health care a convenient stalking horse for a socialist command-and-control of 17 percent of the our economy.  Whatever it is....it's definately not reform!

The still rational public intuitively understands the con-game being played, which is why it prefers the flawed status quo.  Voters tell pollsters, by as much as 3-to-1, they think a federal takeover will cost them and the country more money and will produce more red tape instead of better care.

Yet, because power corrupts, and one-party rule corrupts absolutely, dissenters are considered heretics and persecuted thusly.....until the next election!

Mother Nature seems to have delivered her  verdict on all this non-sense with a providentially epic blizzard in Washington.  We can now say, with certitude, hell has frozen over!

The 'Crisis-Monger' In-Chief

Barack Hussein Obama, the temporary occupant of the White House, grimly warned America this week that if HIS health care plans fail, the nation will go "bankrupt."  The sheer lunacy of this statement is only exceeded by its audacity.  He has already bankrupted the country!

Sure, adding another trillion dollar entitlement program to the credit-card bill B. Hussein has already run up may seem counterintuitive to staving off economic ruin, but who are we, the poor schlups who have to pay for it, to argue?  Don't we know this man is the smartest who has ever, or will, live.  If you do not believe it, just ask him!

As is the case with just about every issue raised, B. Hussein adorned his rhetoric with sharp warnings of calamity should he fail; fabricated consensus to buttress his case and a promise of rapture should he succeed.  Uuh-boy!

You'll remember it was B. Hussein who cautioned that failure to pass the stimulus boondoggle (aka the 'bribe-a-congressman' fund) would "turn a crisis into a catastrophe." He claimed that a failure to act on cap and trade (aka: crap and tax) will lead us to "irreversible catastrophe" and that a failure to pass a government-run health care system will mean "more Americans dying every day." 

Chicken Little now occupies the White House.  The sky is falling twice a day, it seems. 

Of course, IF you believe the bilge spewing from the White House (wonder when Michelle O will change the name), everyone -- and I mean everyone -- agrees with the presidential pretender.  B. Hussein stressed this week that can "talk to every health care economist out there (not 'some' or 'most' but 'every') and they will tell you that ... whatever ideas exist in terms of bending the cost curve and starting to reduce costs for families, businesses and government, those elements are in this bill."  Hell!  We have not even seen the bill yet.  How do we know? Oh, silly me, we know because O told us so.  And if you don't believe him?  As he told a recalcitrant Democrat congress-critter the other day, "Don't think we are not keeping score, brother!"

Guess he kinda missed the 200 economists from major universities, found by the Cato Institute, across the country who does disagree with his health care claims --  and juding from the stimulus plan's impressive impotence, perhaps the temporary occupant of the White House should have lent them an ear.

So when B. Hussein says that "whatever ideas exixt" to help with cost are featured inthe health care bill, let's chalk it up to his propensity to exaggerate, embellish ... oh hell, he just outright LIES!

There are several ideas supported by a Republican lawmakers who have been completely shut out of the sausage making process.  Among them are:

*  Re-importation of pharmaceuticals
*  Making premiums paid by individuals and families tax-deductiable
*  Medical malpractice tort reform
*  Allowing the sale of insurance across state lines and protability of coverage.

Just some of the ideas the DO NO exixt in the current bill written in secret and never to be seen until voted on.

Obama's fondness for creating imaginary consensus and offering false choices to the American people has been something to behold ... and must come to and end!

The temporary occupant is right about one thing...a catastrophy did occur.  It happened on the second Tuesday of November in 2008.

And These People Vote!

Remember, these folks reproduce and can be found on your highway...and even worse....they vote!

ONE
Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets.
I asked for a half dozen nuggets.
'We don't have half dozen nuggets,' said the teenager at the counter.
'You don't?' I replied.
'We only have six, nine, or twelve,' was the reply.
'So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?'
'That's right.'
So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets (Unbelievable but sadly true...)

TWO
I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those 'dividers' that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed.
After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the 'divider', looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it.
Not finding the bar code, she said to me, 'Do you know how much this is?'
I said to her 'I've changed my mind; I don't think I'll buy that today.'
She said 'OK,' and I paid her for the things and left.
She had no clue to what had just happened.

THREE
A woman at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly.
When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM 'thingy.'
(keep shuddering!!)

FOUR
I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. 'Do you need some help?' I asked.
She replied, 'I knew I! should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?'
'Hmmm, I don't know. Do you have an alarm, too?' I asked.
'No, just this remote thingy,' she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, 'Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk....'
PLEASE just lay down before you hurt yourself !!!

FIVE
Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, 'I'm almost out of typing paper.
What do I do?' 'Just use paper from the photocopier', the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five 'blank' copies.
Brunette, by the way!!

SIX
A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid had eaten ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and he should be fine, the mother says, 'I just gave him some ant killer......'
Dispatcher: 'Rush him in to emergency!'

The Myth of '08, Demolished

By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult. Sure, it makes it easier for resurgent Republicans to raise money and recruit candidates for 2010. But the most important effect of Tuesday's elections is historical. It demolishes the great realignment myth of 2008.

In the aftermath of last year's Obama sweep, we heard endlessly about its fundamental, revolutionary, transformational nature. How it was ushering in an FDR-like realignment for the 21st century in which new demographics -- most prominently, rising minorities and the young -- would bury the GOP far into the future. One book proclaimed "The Death of Conservatism," while the more modest merely predicted the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.

This was all ridiculous from the beginning. 2008 was a historical anomaly. A uniquely charismatic candidate was running at a time of deep war weariness, with an intensely unpopular Republican president, against a politically incompetent opponent, amid the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. And still he won by only seven points.

Exactly a year later comes the empirical validation of that skepticism. Virginia -- presumed harbinger of the new realignment, having gone Democratic in '08 for the first time in 44 years -- went red again. With a vengeance. Barack Obama had carried it by six points. The Republican gubernatorial candidate won by 17 -- a 23-point swing. New Jersey went from plus 15 Democratic in 2008 to minus 4 in 2009. A 19-point swing.

What happened? The vaunted Obama realignment vanished. In 2009 in Virginia, the black vote was down by 20 percent; the under-30 vote by 50 percent. And as for independents, the ultimate prize of any realignment, they bolted. In both Virginia and New Jersey they'd gone narrowly for Obama in '08. This year they went Republican by a staggering 33 points in Virginia and by an equally shocking 30 points in New Jersey.

White House apologists will say the Virginia Democrat was weak. If the difference between Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds was so great, how come when the same two men ran against each other statewide for attorney general four years ago the race was a virtual dead heat? Which made the '09 McDonnell-Deeds rematch the closest you get in politics to a laboratory experiment for measuring the change in external conditions. Run them against each other again when it's Obamaism in action and see what happens. What happened was a Republican landslide.

The Obama coattails of 2008 are gone. The expansion of the electorate, the excitement of the young, came in uniquely propitious Democratic circumstances and amid unparalleled enthusiasm for electing the first African-American president.

November '08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November '09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm -- and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.

The irony of 2009 is that the anti-Democratic tide overshot the norm -- deeply blue New Jersey, for example, elected a Republican governor for the first time in 12 years -- because Democrats so thoroughly misread 2008 and the mandate they assumed it bestowed. Obama saw himself as anointed by a watershed victory to remake American life. Not letting the cup pass from his lips, he declared to Congress only five weeks after his swearing-in his "New Foundation" for America -- from remaking the one-sixth of the American economy that is health care to massive government regulation of the economic lifeblood that is energy.

Moreover, the same conventional wisdom that proclaimed the dawning of a new age last November dismissed the inevitable popular reaction to Obama's hubristic expansion of government, taxation, spending and debt -- the tea party demonstrators, the town hall protesters -- as a raging rabble of resentful reactionaries, AstroTurf-phony and Fox News-deranged.

Some rump. Just last month Gallup found that conservatives outnumber liberals by 2 to 1 (40 percent to 20 percent) and even outnumber moderates (at 36 percent). So on Tuesday, the "rump" rebelled. It's the natural reaction of a center-right country to a governing party seeking to rush through a left-wing agenda using temporary majorities created by the one-shot election of 2008. The misreading of that election -- and of the mandate it allegedly bestowed -- is the fundamental cause of the Democratic debacle of 2009.

7 Lies In Under 2 Minutes !

Folks...do not try this at home. Only Professional Liars can do this safely and without recourse!

Amazing Performace of National Anthem

This is an amazing performance by a group of young Texas girls. The name of their group is the "Cactus Cuties". They have become a YouTube phenomenon with over 6 million hits. When you hear this you will know why.

With kids like this out there, there may be hope for our country yet!



The Tennessee Conservative

Glenn Beck & Pastor Broden: "We Are Losing Our Freedom"

This is a great clip. Pastor Broden is a black pastor from the Dallas-Ft Worth, TX area and nails our current situation.

I wonder how long it will take before he is vilified in the black community?

On The Brink !

Democrats are on the brink of a complete self-induced meltdown . . . and they are blaming US ... ordinary conservative, independent citizens (across the spectrum) who are terrified at what Washington is doing to this country.

They, and they alone, created this mess and just cannot understand how we, the American people, can be so insubordinate, so inconsiderate as not to approve, sheeple-like and without dissent, their every whim and misbegotten fantasy. How dare we, mere serfs, question our elected representatives! Unheared of! The nerve! This cannot be tolerated!

Liberal democrats put themselves in this very uncomfortable place through a combination of hubris, unmitigated arrogance and just plain old incompetence. Having won an election, not by a landslide but interpreting it as such, they mistakenly assumed a mandate for any and all whimsical, far-fetched, moronic plans for government expansion and centralized power. Never in their wildest dreams did they think there was a limit to the unquestioned acceptance of rule that was believed their birthright.

We accepted, reluctantly, the Stimulus Plan after being scared to death by the administration of the "dire and immediate" crisis that had to be dealt with ... damn the torpedoes and pass the bill... don't worry, we will fill in the blanks later!

We accepted, grumbling and figiting, the take over of the auto industry and the financial world, again, threatened with imminent Armageddon in failing to do so . . . Plan? We don't need no stinkin' plan! Remember, we are the government and we are here to help!

Cap and trade brought this witch's brew oh so close to the boiling point but now seems to have simmered, lost in the Senate chambers.

Emboldend by thier own self-importance and false sense of immortality, the three-headed Cerberus (Obama/Pelosi/Reid) went for the hat-trick: ObamaCare! BOOM!

Discontent, fear and just plain anger boiled the pot over and what a mess it has made. This is not just about health care. Healthcare is just the straw breaking the taxpayer's, heretofore, very sturdy back.

This is about the very fundementals of the American republic. Elected represetative government representing the wishes of the people. Or, in our present condition, the lack thereof!

Democrats, having been tharwted in the planned fast track passage before the summer congressional recess of this monstrosity by members of their own party (prior to the bribery, threats and intimidation), are now at home (or on taxpayer funded junkets) cowering and hiding from their constituents. The ones who made it home first and went out in public caught an earful! They really did not take into account the mood of the people in the midst of a great recession and how it has changed the national mood on spending, government control and politicians being accountable to thier public.

And so the abject shock on the faces of Congressmen who've faced the grilling back home. They had no idea, not a clue how people were feeling. The passions of the protesters are entirely understandable. They hired (elected) a person to represent them in Washington. Gave him a nice car and driver, a staff and lots of perks to listen to them and do what is best for them. That's all. Not very high expectations. Just represent our interests back here and take care of our business in Washington. Instead, the people are terrified at what their 'employee' is doing in the name of the company (country).

What has been most upsetting and freighting is not the congressmen's surprise, but their hard-nosed response to the will of the people. The Lib-o-crats and their media charged that the town-hall meetings weren't authentic, the crowds were ginned up by insurance companies, lobbyists and the Republican National Committee. But, as Peggy Noonan writes, :... you can not get people to leave their homes and go to a meeting with a congressman, of all people, unless they are engaged to the point of passion."

What the town-hall meetings represent is a feeling of rebellion, an uprising against change they do not believe in. And the Democrat response has been shockingly crude and agressive. It has been to attack. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in effect calling people who question thier congressmen Nazis. Union thugs, attending town-hall meetings at the behest of the DNC and the White House, rousting the elderly and beating up a black conservative voicing their opinions. But most potentially damaging to our freedoms and liberty, was the new White House email address to which citizens are asked to report instances of "fishy" information or conversations against the administration policy. That's right! A Snitch Line! (Please add my name to that list!)

All this is divisive and provocative. They are mocking, menacing and intimidating concerned citizens. But this will not work! Instead of allowing ourselves to be intimidated and slinking away to toil away at our jobs and happily send more tax money to these professional theives, we will, in the words Obama himself instructing Democrats how to handle us, "punch back twice as hard!"

Let your congress-critter know exactly how you feel and let no one silence you!

Health Care Reform All About HIM!

Despite what B. Hussein Obama says, he owns the health care reform issue lock, stock and barrel and it is all about him! With his job approval ratings now below 50% (Welcome back Carter), the Snake-Oil Salesman-in-Chief has become a regular sit-com on broadcast TV to air his infomercials for ObamaCare -- the cure for all ailments! With a practiced straight face he looked right in the camera and lied to America -- "This is not about me!"

Nonsense! It is all about him. Health care is his signature effort -- his line in the sand. And he knows if he produces nothing, the mystique of The One is forfeit. This is why Obama keeps moving the goal posts of deadlines and details. Universal coverage? Well maybe, maybe not. No middle-class tax increase? Well, maybe just a little, as long as they don't "primarily" bear the burden. It is all about him and he will put his signature on anything as long as the title says "health-care reform." So he just keeps putting lipstick on this pig and trots it out on stage almost daily.

If this is not about politics (and politics is all about him), then why is it that his grand-scheme for health care does not address in any shape, form or fashion one of the worst sources of waste in American medicine - - the outrageously insane cost and arbitray rewards of medical malpractice?

When a doctor, a neurosurgeon for example, pays $200,000 a year for malpractice insurance before he even turns on the lights in his office, hires his first employee or sees his first patient -- who do you think pays for this overhead? Patients, in higher doctor fees and insurance premiums. Why? One word answer -- Lawyers!

With lotto-like awards in which one claimant collects giga-bucks and 1/3 of everything goes to lawyers -- where do you think the money comes from? The insurance companies, which then pass it on to you in higher premiums. Unlike the Fed, insurance companies just can't print money to pay claims.

But the greatest waste is the hidden cost of defensive medicine. These are all the tests and procedures that doctors order for no good reason other than to protect themselves from the bottom-crawling, scum-sucking scavengers, and I am not talking about catfish! Every doctor's worst nightmare is a malpractice suit and the increased cost of unnecessary medical procedures is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law.

Tort reform, not ObamaCare, would yield tens of billions in savings alone. Yet it is nowhere in the Democratic bills. And Obama breathed not a word about it in his recent hour long infomercial. Why? Simple -- Democrats are parasitically dependent on the huge donations from trial lawyers.

I seem to remember The O promising a new politics that puts people ahead of special interests. What am I to believe? The reality of his actions-- or my lying ears?

Green Shoots of Hope

There may be some ‘green shoots’ of hope for Conservatives just six months into the nightmare called “The Era (Error) of Obama.” While his poll numbers remain fairly strong at 56%, they do not represent the kind of strength with which one can ‘walk on water’!

There are a couple of trends that should provide some encouragement to Conservatives and irritate the Obamaites. First of all, a recent Gallup poll found 40% of Americans described their political views as conservative. Compare this to only 21% who say they are liberal. That would indicate that 39% of Americans are independent. Guess who is becoming disenchanted with Obamaism? What’s more, Gallup also found that Americans, by a two-to-one margin, say their political views have become more conservative in recent years than liberal. And a Pew survey in May shows that there has been “no consistent movement away from conservatism, nor a shift toward liberalism” since the last election.

What does that mean for the good guys? (That would be we Conservatives, in case there is some Liberal interloper reading my blog). It means that the ‘American Idol’ election of Obama in 2008 did not represent an ideological shift toward Liberalism, as fantasized by the Cerberus of Obama, Pelosi and Reid. The “mandate” claimed by Liberals is simply not there!

Secondly, Republicans, while still working through an identity crisis, are gaining ground with the American voter on issues. Even the Obama mouthpiece, the New York Times, in a poll earlier this month, shows almost 70% expressed a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of concern about the expanding role of the federal government under Obama.

When it comes to party affiliation, Democrats have lost more support this year than Republicans. In addition, Republicans are closing the gap and, in some areas, pulling slightly ahead of Dummycrates in generic Congressional polls.

B. Husseins’ 56% approval rating, as noted earlier, is down from 65% in the last month. The decrease in his job-approval ratings is driven in part by a 15 point drop in support among independent voters. This must really have caused a ‘loose bowel moment’ in the White House!

These trends are now manifesting themselves in the views of lawmakers. For example, Blue Dog Democrats are growing a pair and bucking the Obama reckless spending agenda.

Now it would be wishful thinking on the part of Conservatives and Republicans (for the two are not necessarily the same) to pretend that Obama is in a free-fall. However, he is no longer skating on smooth ice. A public who bought into the ‘snake oil cure-all’ sales pitch are now having the first twinges of buyer’s remorse. He is much more liberal than advertised and his ‘jus words…jus speeches’ are beginning to fall a bit flat. Obama is sounding like politics as usual.

We Conservatives should take Obama’s advice to Congressional Democrats: it is time to “buck it up” and “not slow up or lose heart” in our fight to restore America to the country it should and can be. We are at a rare nexus in history when what we do now, really does have long lasting, even existential, consequences for “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Fight the good fight and let it be known, “We Will Remember In November!”

Put Me on the Health Care Waiting List Now Please: An Open Letter to My Congressman

The following is a great spoof about the 'waiting lists' under ObamaCare. It was written by fellow blogger, Annette Bybee. You can read more of her material at: http://pitchforkandtorch.blogspot.com/

Re-printed with permission:
________________________________________________________________
Dear Congressman,

I need to ask you a favor. I hate to bug you, because boy, are you guys busy back there in Washington! I mean, wow! You don't even have time to read your bills. Not even the ones you wrote yourselves. First there were all those bailouts, then there was stimulus, then that whopper of a cap and trade bill, and now you're getting ready to hit us with socialized medicine. I know, I know, you don't like to call it that. It's 'health care reform' or a 'single payer option' or a 'public plan'. Yada, yada, yada. It's socialized medicine. And you want me to have it, even if I actually like the health care plan I already have, like 70% of the population does. But never mind what we want. Just go ahead and push your agenda on us, under the whip cracking of Pelosi. Have you ever noticed how she has that self-satisfied smirk when she's in front of the cameras? And what's with those kindergarten wooden bead necklaces?

But I digress. I really need your help. You see, I like to plan for the future. And the future means possible unemployment because of all the stimulating you folks are doing to the economy, or if not unemployment, at least high taxes to pay for all that stimulating and all that 'free' health care. And because my electric bill will "necessarily skyrocket" I won't be able to afford heat or air conditioning, or TV, or lights. I'll be sitting around in the dark shivering or sweating, not listening to Rush because I'm sure you'll pass the fairness doctrine at some point.

There I go again, digressing. Okay, so I've heard that in countries with socialized medicine there are waiting lists for some minor frivolous health care procedures, like cancer treatments or necessary surgeries. And I'm kind of worried about it. So could you be a pal and ask that future Health Care Rationing Czar to put me on the waiting list to get on the waiting list? Just in case I actually get sick in the future. I like to plan ahead. And while you're at it, can you please put me on the waiting list for psychiatric treatment as well? I feel a nervous breakdown coming on, what with watching you destroy my country and all.

Sincerely,

Your Humble Constituent

P.S. You might want to put yourself on that list as well, because of course you'll be under the same health care plan as us peons, right?

When All Else Fails...Rewrite History!

Promises, promises! How does The One Who Can Do No Wrong handle the corner all his ‘jus words…jus speeches’ has painted him into? Easy! Just redefine your original goals and act as if America won’t remember what you said the first time. Neat trick, if we let him get away with it….but we will not!

When it came to the stimulus package, the president and his administration, in the words of National Economic Director Larry Summers, “You’ll see the effects begin almost immediately.” Huh? I guess that is why the unemployment rate ‘immediately’ went from 8% to 9.5% (unless that was the ‘effect’ Obama and Summers had in mind?). Those promised jobs and economic growth clearly has not materialized.

Earlier this year, Obama assured us that most of the stimulus money “will go out the door immediately.” But it hasn’t. Only about 7.7% of the stimulus has been spent in the SIX MONTHS since its passage, and more of it will be spent in the program’s LAST EIGHT YEARS than in its first year. No surprise, the current occupant of the Oval Office claims he said something different: “We also knew that it would take some time for the money to get out the door,” Obama said in his weekly radio address this past Sunday. So we are seeing Obama attempting to lower expectations retroactively, saying in an op-ed in Sunday’s Washington Post that his stimulus “was, from the start, a two-year program.”

It seems that the only money that Congress can get out the door immediately is the pay raises they vote for themselves!

As Obama is wont to do, he answers his critics by creating straw-men arguments. In his latest radio address, he attacked detractors as those who “felt that doing nothing was somehow an answer.” But many of Obama’s critics didn’t feel that way. They offered – and Obama rejected out of hand – many constructive ideas to jump-start the economy.

For example, House republicans offered an alternative recovery package of immediate tax cuts and safety-net measures that cost HALF as much as Obama’s failed stimulus plan. Furthermore, Republicans calculated that their plans would have created 50% MORE jobs than the failed plan of Obama’s.

Now, what are you to believe? His statements now or your lying ears when he first demanded the stimulus bill passed? Hmmmmm?

Beware the Siren Song of Change

As we all remember (I keep hoping it to be a horrible nightmare from which I shall awake) the last election was run, and won, on the theme of “Change.” But all “change” is neither good nor prudent. Even when declaring independence from England, the Founders recognized the dangers of imprudent change as it relates to governing. That is exactly what we got!

However, we Conservatives do not reject change. Edmund Burke, British statesman and thinker, wrote that “a state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.” What kind of change, then, do we Conservatives support?

Change for reform can be beneficial and is intended to preserve and improve the basic institutions of the state as the Founders intended. Change as innovation (which is what are being force fed now) is destructive and a radical departure from the past and the substitution of existing institutions of the state with potentially dangerous experiments, such as Cap & Trade and ObamaCare! Furthermore, the Liberal often justifies change as conferring new, abstract rights, which is nothing more than a Liberal deception intended to empower the state and deny man his real rights – those that are both unalienable and rooted in tradition and faith. Burke wrote, “By this unprincipled facility of changing the state as often, and as much, and in as many ways, as there are floating fancies or fashions, the whole chain and continuity of the commonwealth would be broken. No one generation could link with the other. Men would become little more than the flies of a summer.”

As Mark Levin in “Liberty and Tyranny” observes: The Conservative believes, as Burke and the Founders did, that prudence must be exercised in assessing change. Prudence is the highest virtue for it is judgment drawn on wisdom. The proposed change should be informed by the experience, knowledge, and traditions of society, tailored for a specific purpose, and accomplished through a constitutional construct that insures thoughtful deliberation by the community. Not the passing of Bills by a derelict Congress without even reading them! Change unconstrained by prudence produces unpredictable consequences, threatening ordered liberty with chaos and ultimately despotism, and placing at risk the very principles we Conservatives hold dear.

We Conservative must resist ‘Change’ for change sake. Any change in our governance must be necessary, prudent and designed to strengthen our liberty, freedom and safety. We must be active in the political arena and hold our elected representatives accountable to these ends. The elections of 2010 is THE chance to right this ship of state, even if it means throwing 535 politicians overboard! -- TO ARMS! TO ARMS!

Conservatism Under Attack

Conservatism is under attack and must be defended. But what does it mean to be a Conservative. Mark Levin in his “Liberty and Tyranny” has some thoughts on this subject. I agree and include some of my own:

Conservatism is a way of understanding life, society, and governance. The Founders were heavily influenced by certain philosophers, among them Adam Smith who espoused ‘spontaneous order’; Charles Montesquieu, separation of powers; and notably John Locke, a proponent of ‘natural rights.’ The Founders were also influenced by their faiths, personal experiences, and knowledge of history (actual history – not the revisionist swill taught in public schools and universities today). Edmund Burke, who was both a British statesman and thinker, is often said to be the father of modern conservatism. He was an early defender of the American Revolution and advocate of representative government. He wrote of the interconnection of liberty, free markets, religion, tradition and authority (most of these are in very short supply today).

The Founders believed, and the Conservative agrees, in the dignity of the individual; that we, as human beings, have a right to live freely and pursue that which motivates us, not because man or some government says so, but because these are God-given natural rights.

Like the Founders, the Conservative also recognize the rules of co-operation that have developed through generations of human experience and collective reasoning that promote the betterment of the individual and society. This is characterized as the civil society.

In the civil society, the individual is recognized and accepted as more than an abstract statistic or faceless member of some group; rather he is a unique, spiritual being with a soul and conscience. He is free to discover his own potential and pursue, to the best of his ability, his own legitimate interests; always tempered by a moral order that serves as a rule and guide for his life and being. Freedom to pursue happiness, success and prosperity – not a guarantee of equal outcomes is what drives the Conservative. He rejects the relativism that blurs the lines between right and wrong, good and evil, just and unjust, and means and ends.

In the civil society, private property and liberty are inseparable. The individual’s right to live freely and safely and pursue happiness includes the right to acquire and possess property, which represents that fruits of his own intellectual and/or physical labor. The illegitimate denial or diminution of his private property enslaves him to another and denies him his liberty.

In the civil society, a rule of law, which is just, known and predictable, and applied equally provides the governing framework for and restraints on politicians, thereby serving as a check and balance against the arbitrary use and, more than likely, abuse of power.

For the Conservative, the civil society has as its highest purpose its preservation and improvement.

The Liberal believes in the supremacy of the state, thereby rejecting the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the order of the civil society, in whole or part. For the Liberal, the individual’s ambition and pursuits for him and his family impede the objective of a utopian state.

The Founders understood that the greatest threat to liberty is an all-powerful central government, where the few dictate to the many. For much of American history, the balance between governmental authority and individual liberty was understood and accepted. Federal power was confined to that which was specifically enumerated in the Constitution and no more! And that power was further limited, for it was dispersed among three federal branches – the legislative, executive and judicial. Beyond that, the power remained with the states and ultimately the people.

This system is now dangerously out of balance and must be restored. Championed by the Liberal, judicial activism (legislating from the bench) is rampant and is a clear and present danger to the precise balance of power established by the Founders. That is why scrutiny of Federal and Supreme Court nominees is so very, very important, for what the Liberal cannot legislate, he decrees by judicial fiat!

Now a warning and a call to action:

The nation that our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought and died for; the nation we in which we were fortunate to grow up is in mortal danger! Not as much from a foreign enemy, although they are there, but from within. Never has there been a time when the individual voice has been more important; never a time when individual action has been more urgent than this moment in history. For far too long, the Conservative has allowed political activism to be dominated by the Liberal. This shall no longer stand. We can, and will, re-take our country and return it to the conservative ideals and principles upon which it was founded so long ago.

Stand up! Be heard! Be counted! It starts today. Constantly call, write/email your elected representatives and let them know enough is enough. Demand that your voice be heard and heeded! Insist upon a return to conservative ideals of smaller, more responsible limited government. Remind them just who they work for and let it be known -- the Boss is NOT happy!

The 2010 congressional elections will be when the second ‘shot heard round the world’ will be sounded followed by the 2012 presidential election. But it starts here, now, today. Study the issues, arm yourself with facts. Liberals scurry from the sunlight of the truth and the truth is on our side. Be relentless, forthright and persevere for the future of the United States of America depends upon you!

They Risked Everything - Now It Is Our Time

Rush Limbaugh' father, Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr., delivered this oft-requested address locally a number of times, but it had never before appeared in print until it appeared in The Limbaugh Letter. His dad was renowned for his oratory skills and for his original mind; this speech is, I think, a superb demonstration of both.

"Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor"

It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the wind was from the southeast. Up especially early, a tall bony, redheaded young Virginian found time to buy a new thermometer, for which he paid three pounds, fifteen shillings. He also bought gloves for Martha, his wife, who was ill at home. Thomas Jefferson arrived early at the statehouse. The temperature was 72.5 degrees and the horseflies weren't nearly so bad at that hour. It was a lovely room, very large, with gleaming white walls. The chairs were comfortable. Facing the single door were two brass fireplaces, but they would not be used today. The moment the door was shut, and it was always kept locked, the room became an oven. The tall windows were shut, so that loud quarreling voices could not be heard by passersby. Small openings atop the windows allowed a slight stir of air, and also a large number of horseflies. Jefferson records that "the horseflies were dexterous in finding necks, and the silk of stockings was nothing to them." All discussing was punctuated by the slap of hands on necks. On the wall at the back, facing the president's desk, was a panoply -- consisting of a drum, swords, and banners seized from Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the place, shouting that they were taking it "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" Now Congress got to work, promptly taking up an emergency measure about which there was discussion but no dissension. "Resolved: That an application be made to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania for a supply of flints for the troops at New York." Then Congress transformed itself into a committee of the whole. The Declaration of Independence was read aloud once more, and debate resumed. Though Jefferson was the best writer of all of them, he had been somewhat verbose. Congress hacked the excess away. They did a good job, as a side-by-side comparison of the rough draft and the final text shows. They cut the phrase "by a self-assumed power." "Climb" was replaced by "must read," then "must" was eliminated, then the whole sentence, and soon the whole paragraph was cut. Jefferson groaned as they continued what he later called "their depredations." "Inherent and inalienable rights" came out "certain unalienable rights," and to this day no one knows who suggested the elegant change. A total of 86 alterations were made. Almost 500 words were eliminated, leaving 1,337. At last, after three days of wrangling, the document was put to a vote. Here in this hall Patrick Henry had once thundered: "I am no longer a Virginian, sir, but an American." But today the loud, sometimes bitter argument stilled, and without fanfare the vote was taken from north to south by colonies, as was the custom. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. There were no trumpets blown. No one stood on his chair and cheered. The afternoon was waning and Congress had no thought of delaying the full calendar of routine business on its hands. For several hours they worked on many other problems before adjourning for the day.

Much To Lose What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the crown? To each of you, the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them? I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere. Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s. Of the 56 almost half - 24 - were judges and lawyers. Eleven were merchants, nine were landowners and farmers, and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers, and politicians. With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, these were men of substantial property. All but two had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th Century. Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. John Hancock, one of the richest men in America, already had a price of 500 pounds on his head. He signed in enormous letters so that his Majesty could now read his name without glasses and could now double the reward. Ben Franklin wryly noted: "Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately." Fat Benjamin Harrison of Virginia told tiny Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "With me it will all be over in a minute, but you, you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone." These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember, a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor. They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled. It was principle, not property, that had brought these men to Philadelphia. Two of them became presidents of the United States. Seven of them became state governors. One died in office as vice president of the United States. Several would go on to be U.S. Senators. One, the richest man in America, in 1828 founded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. One, a delegate from Philadelphia, was the only real poet, musician and philosopher of the signers. (It was he, Francis Hopkinson not Betsy Ross who designed the United States flag.) Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic in his concluding remarks: "Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law. "The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repost. "If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American Legislatures of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens." Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that two of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration. William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers' faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." Stephan Hopkins, Ellery's colleague from Rhode Island, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he declared: "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

"Most Glorious Service" Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered. · Francis Lewis, New York delegate saw his home plundered -- and his estates in what is now Harlem -- completely destroyed by British Soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse. · William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home they found a devastated ruin. · Philips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause. · Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family. · John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family. · Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country. · Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found refuge with friends, but a Tory sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers. Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally arranged for Stockton's parole, but his health was ruined. The judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live to see the triumph of the Revolution. His family was forced to live off charity. · Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met Washington's appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry. · George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine campaigns. · Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes. · John Martin, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were: "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that I have ever rendered to my country." · William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned to the ground. · Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage, he and his young bride were drowned at sea. · Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large landholdings and estates. · Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson's palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?" They replied, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give me the cannon!" and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson's sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at the age of 50.

Lives, Fortunes, Honor Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact. And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark. He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York Harbor known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the King and Parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No." The 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. "And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." My friends, I know you have a copy of the Declaration of Independence somewhere around the house - in an old history book (newer ones may well omit it), an encyclopedia, or one of those artificially aged "parchments" we all got in school years ago. I suggest that each of you take the time this month to read through the text of the Declaration, one of the most noble and beautiful political documents in human history. There is no more profound sentence than this: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness..." These are far more than mere poetic words. The underlying ideas that infuse every sentence of this treatise have sustained this nation for more than two centuries. They were forged in the crucible of great sacrifice. They are living words that spring from and satisfy the deepest cries for liberty in the human spirit. "Sacred honor" isn't a phrase we use much these days, but every American life is touched by the bounty of this, the Founders' legacy. It is freedom, tested by blood, and watered with tears. - Rush Limbaugh III ____________________ Follow the Tennessee Conservative on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TennConserv