MORT’s Meanderings

Hello, Tea Party:

It has been my observation that very few of the folks I’ve met ‘On the Corner’ with the Ft. Lauderdale TeaParty or at other gatherings of TeaParty folks, are political junkies.

For the most part, they are just plain patriotic American citizens who began to feel uneasy with the policies and direction of Obama & Co. and finally arrived at a point when they realized that our beloved nation and the traditional freedoms we’ve enjoyed since the founding of this country, were being stolen from us. Stolen by our very own elected administration and by our Government, at all levels. These citizens became ‘itchy’, looked around and found that they were not itching alone. They discovered their closest Tea Party group, became active – and began to open their eyes and ears to some of the painful facts of political life. They came alive; they became involved.

Fast forward to the 2010 election and the stunning achievement of Conservatism taking
over the U.S. House of Representatives and replacing some Democrats with of all things - Republicans. We were all flushed with this signal victory over one half the Legislative Branch. Score a big one for the Tea Party. And so many folks, having sent their candidate to Wash, DC, curtailed their activism or slowed their involvement. They sat back to await their victory to bear fruit.

Fast forward again, to the results of several controversial bills voted-on in the House by recently-elected ‘Tea Party’ freshmen. Supporters began to question the votes cast by ‘our’ Reps in Congress. Their votes differed from the gut feelings and unyielding positions of many of the Tea Partiers who voted them into office. Some expressed dismay and wondered aloud, “What the hell is going on, here?”

What was and is going on here, is that the Tea Party freshman are feeling the pressure from the ‘old boy network’ and the boiling cauldron that is, Washington politics. While it is perfectly true that we have every right to expect that each and every one of them will locate his or her backbone and core principles - and act accordingly, it up to each and every one of us as their constituents, to demonstrate to them our faith and support. It is up to us to back them up and to contact them directly to let them know in clear, concise, straight-forward language without rancor, that we are seriously interested in what they are doing. It is called, ‘interaction’. We have that obligation as voting citizens.

We are not privy to all the information they receive, either public or classified. We are not always aware of the pressures they are confronted with on a daily basis. We have no clue as to what other influences might be pressing them. They need to know that we are right behind them. Still, the same Team that voting them into office to represent us. We cannot expect them to perform with honor as our representatives, unless we stay in close touch with them and keep them aware of how we are feeling about the issues they are dealing with. And, we must let them know clearly, what we expect of them. We might not always see them vote as we would like but, there can be no space between we who elected them and those whom we’ve sent to Washington. We owe them that. We owe that to our nation. We owe that to ourselves.

So, I say to my Tea Party brothers and sisters: Stay involved. Stay with our Tea Party ‘freshmen’ and do what it takes to make those men and women, our Tea Party ‘sophomores’.

Steady. Steady.

Conservative Commentary by MORT KUFF © 2012

Grabbing Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

In an election for Republicans that should be a no-brainer, here we have a situation that fellow Republicans are trying to self-immolate by fighting amongst themselves.

In our quest for anointing a “pure” Conservative as our candidate, we have embarked on a campaign of self-destruction. President Obama, with his pitiful record of failure and poor choices, is licking his chops as the Republican candidates trash each other. The election in November should be a shoo-in for a Republican candidate. But, is it now?

All the Republican candidates, with maybe the exception of Ron Paul, would be better than what we have in the White House now. With Obama's massive campaign war chest, you can bet that his smear machine will be geared to trash whoever ends up as the nominee. Obama cannot use his record of “successes” during his first term, so he will have to use the “politics of personal destruction” as his modus operandi.

So who is most prone to be most hurt by these expected attacks? It would seem to be Newt Gingrich as he's had many more years of being in elected office and has many more votes to be vetted by the Democrats in a negative light. This will be an “anal exam” like no other. The biggest problem with Newt Gingrich is that other than his stellar debate performances and his political knowledge, he does not have the personal charm or lack of “personal baggage” that Mitt Romney seems to have in order to attract the Independents who generally decide elections. Could Gingrich motivate the conservative Democrats (referred to as Reagan Democrats) or will he be viewed negatively by voters who do not have a party affiliation or party loyalty? Nobody knows for sure, but all we can do is imagine what the Democrats will focus on in the general election.

There is no question that Newt Gingrich has hit a responsive chord in the Republican electorate and it has propelled him to the top or near the top. Once that “brashness” toward the media (which is well deserved) wears off, will Newt be able to fend off the quirks of his personality and his political missteps from his past? In other words, is he the most electable candidate we can put up?

In our opinion, either Gingrich, Romney, and Santorum are better for our country than what we have now disgracing our country, but the candidate we feel less likely to be demonized by the Obama smear machine and therefore be more electable, is Mitt Romney, therefore we urge you to support Romney for the Republican nomination as the one most likely to beat Obama in November.

If that will not be the case, we will support either Gingrich or Santorum, with gusto, as the better alternative to Obama. We cannot afford 4 more years of the Obama Marxist/Socialist policies.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

Who Are the New Scapegoats?

For the Nazi's, the scapegoats were the Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and priests. For the liberals it is the Tea Party - white, straight, working class men and women who proclaim they are “taxed enough already”.

The vile, untruthful adjectives used to denigrate the Tea Party sympathizers include the following - fascists, racists, gun-toting, red-neck, homophobes etc. all without merit or cognitive evidence to support those slurs. It seems the liberals are so frustrated by the fact that the Tea Party people were so successful in the 2010 elections, that they must now be brought down, come hell or high water. The truth has nothing to do with it - it has everything to do with the Democrats trying to regain power in both the executive and legislative branches of government. The “end does justify the means” is their modus operandi.

In order to try to combat the excitement that the Tea Party brought to the political process, the far-left liberals, which include most unions and radical political groups (ex: Communist Party U.S.A., Democratic Socialists of America, S.E.I.U., and ACORN (which has changed its name), organized a counter to the Tea Party called, “Occupy Wall Street”. All the negative descriptions that were attached to the Tea Party by the liberals, could've and should've been attached to the “occupy” protesters, but the media never equated the excesses of decorum and civil disruption to them as they did, falsely, to the Tea Party. The double-standard used by the media was quite obvious.

The leaders of the Democrat Party, President Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi etc., all heaped glowing praise for the rag-tag, Marxist/Socialist group of “Occupy” protesters, but ignored the violence, the anti-Semitism, the anti-American rhetoric and destructive actions that permeated most all the “Occupy” protests across the country.

The Tea Party and its adherents were chosen by the liberal left (and the Obama political machine) as scapegoats because they represented a threat to the chance of the Democrats holding on to the White House and the Senate come this November.

The Democrats cannot run on the “accomplishments” of the Obama presidency, so they must divert attention away from the obvious (Obama's failures), and concentrate on destroying, personally, the Tea Party and the Republican nominee. This is right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook as he wrote in his book, “Rules for Radicals” back in the 1970's.

Make no mistake, this presidential election will be the “dirtiest” in modern history. With the enormous amount of campaign funds available to the Democrats, they will use a great portion of those funds in the “politics of personal destruction”, by putting up “straw men” and scapegoats to try to confuse and distract us from the real issues facing all of us, and that is a stagnant economy and the complicity of Obama in it.

Turn around is fair play, so I would hope that the Republicans will turn the tables on the loony liberals and make them the scapegoats for what is happening to our once great country.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

MORT’s Meanderings

Commander-in-Chief Obama: Too busy; no time

At his recent retirement ceremony, four-star General David Petraeus, wearing ten rows
of ribbons that attest to his long and distinguished Army career in the service of the United States, couldn’t help but notice that neither the President and Commander-in-Chief or the Secretary of Defense were in attendance.

Now, would someone please tell me precisely what in the Hell Barack Hussein Obama
and Leon Panetta were doing at that time, that was so important to the state of the
nation that they couldn’t find the time to attend this signal event in the life of arguably the most accomplished, most revered U. S. Military leader since World War II?

Say what you will about President Obama, for all his inexperience in every aspect of the Presidency, the man knows how to hurl an insult. He is a classic narcissist who exists only to garner attention to himself; he is stunningly incapable of recognizing any event or any one who might be deserving of a moment in the spotlight. And in the case of General Patraeus, who pulled Obama’s chestnuts out of the fire in the Middle East, not once but, twice - - this snub is doubly insulting. Obama is a devout coward and his anti-military bias is nothing less than a deep-seated hatred for all branches of our armed forces - hardly a positive trait for someone who holds the title and power of, ‘President and Commander-in-Chief ’.

This example of the callous disregard for our military exemplifies the unconscionable
ignorance and arrogance of Obama and his like-minded enablers when it comes to our
national security. Is any further proof needed of the corrosive ideology of this man and his traitorous followers who despise our traditional American way of life?

Sadly, the greatest threat to our Constitution and to the freedoms we’ve known
since the Founding Fathers conceived this unique form of government, is the current
occupant of the Oval Office in the White House - in the Nation’s Capital.

We’ll have one, and only one chance to correct this blasphemy. It is the November
2012 Presidential election. My fellow Americans: Let’s not blow it.

Conservative Commentary by MORT KUFF © 2012

Why Some Animals Eat their Young!

We know, in the animal kingdom, that some animals do eat their young, but in politics, especially among politicians from the same party, it is self-defeating as it could tend to help the opposition in the upcoming campaign.

The situation that is occurring in the Republican primaries presently, is an exercise in self-flagellation whereby some candidates, because of pique and supposed anger at their opponent, use inflammatory language which could be used as fodder by the other political party (the Democrats) in the general election.

Politics has been defined as a “full contact sport” and participants should realize that things will be said and done that will not be flattering to a candidate. “Negative ads” are used by all candidates, when one candidate tries to put his opponent in an unfavorable light in order to create doubt in the mind of a potential voter so that the voter would think twice about voting for that opposition candidate. These ads tend to work very well.

The Republican Party infighting, as the nominating primaries have begun, is getting out of hand. Newt Gingrich was riding a tide of favorable poll numbers in Iowa when unflattering ads by Mitt Romney and Ron Paul appeared showing past positions that Gingrich took on certain issues, these ads caused a deflating of those poll numbers and the loss of eventual support for his candidacy. He has since become livid and extremely angry at the outcome and has lashed out angrily at the front runner, Mitt Romney. It seems that revenge is the motivation behind the scathing ads (by a group supporting his candidacy) that he's running against Romney, questioning his tenure at Bain Capital.

These ads by Gingrich are not comparison ads whereby one candidate compares his record on issues against the other candidate, but an indictment of Romney's business ethics and personal character in the running of his venture capital company. The rhetoric being used by this Gingrich PAC is rhetoric that would normally be used by Democrats in accusing Republicans of taking advantage of the average worker by laying them off while reaping big cash rewards or benefits. It is a blatant attack on capitalism, pure and simple, and in my estimation, is unfair to candidate Romney.

A venture capital firm is a company that invests in new start-up companies, companies needing an infusion of capital to expand its business, and companies headed for bankruptcy that needs some expertise and cash to turn it around. As with any business, there are successes and some failures. But, in the case of Bain Capital, the successes far outweighed the failures and to just magnify the failures is to do a disservice to the truth. On balance, the number of jobs created by Romney and Bain Capital far out weigh the job losses, because some company failed or went out of business.

The scorched earth policy, as being used by both Gingrich and Perry, is just what the Democrats wanted. An intramural fight between Republicans as they trash each other, is a gift the Democrats hope keeps up until November.

So Republicans, “don't eat your young”, agree to disagree without being disagreeable and let's keep our eye on the primary goal of making Obama a one-term president.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

MORT’s Meanderings

INDULGE ME, please.

Permit me to pose a question that I believe deserves a seriously-considered, honest answer.

This question is for every voter who intends to vote for Obama in the upcoming Presidential Election.

That includes all Democrats, Progressives and Liberals – Jewish, Christian, Mormon, atheist, agnostic or otherwise - who are tied by their umbilical cords to the party that gave us: the FDR New Deal; the LBJ Great Society and the War on Poverty; the Fair Deal; Obama’s Hope & Change; highly-questionable Bail Outs and an ever-growing national debt that is beyond all imagination; massive joblessness; out-of-control illegal immigration and a terribly emasculated Armed Forces that will soon be incapable of defending us against the threats posed by the Chinese, Iranians, the Muslim Brotherhood and the new breed of tyrants and despots now in-training and looming just beyond the horizon.

If all the above is okay with you, then I have my answer. You are quite satisfied that our nation is secure and in good hands, the economy is perfectly fine and the burden of debt that has been transferred to your Grandchildren is perfectly okay with you.

If there is even the slightest doubt in your mind that we are desperately in need of principled, far more experienced leadership to guide our nation out of this morass - leadership that bases its actions upon the tenets delineated in The Constitution of the United States by our Founding Fathers - here is my question to you:

What would you expect to change if you give Obama another four years?

If you can find it within yourself to search your soul and seriously address this question, I’m guessing you won’t get much sleep tonight.

Conservative Commentary by MORT KUFF © 2012

Blinded to the Facts!

Whenever I write about liberal Democrats (of which I was one many years ago), I am constantly reminded of a phrase that sort of describes them to a tee, it goes like this; “They are blinded to the facts by their loony liberal ideology”.

The term “cognitive dissonance” aptly describes their public pronouncements, and what they really know to be true, which is not what they said in public. Saying one thing, but believing something else. Many of the liberal Democrats are educated people who adhere to the “party line”, even though they know that what they are saying doesn't meet the “smell test” of verifiable facts.

A blatant example is when overly partisan Democrats continually state that lowering taxes to a reasonable level will cause huge deficits and a diminished flow of revenue to the government treasury. It is a well known fact that when marginal tax rates are lowered, the actual tax collections to the government coffers go up dramatically (ex: when JFK, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush lowered the tax rates, the revenue to the government went up). They always claim that our deficit increased during those periods of the lowering of the tax rates - that is correct, but it was not because we lowered the tax rates, it was because the Congress, with the complicity of the President, continued to spend more than we took in in revenue. What the liberal Democrats don't seem to grasp (or don't want to understand) is that the top 10% of income earners, who pay approximately 70% of our income taxes, have the means to take advantage of tax loopholes, or to move their money and their investments to places where it will generate more “bang for the buck”, in other words, they will vote with their feet to go to greener pastures with their money thus depriving the government of needed tax revenue. Even with that evidence, the liberal Democrats will not admit the obvious, but will stick to their erroneous beliefs because “they are blinded to the facts by their loony liberal ideology”.

This same “blindness” is evident by the liberal Democrats adamant denial of our country being able to become energy independent. It seems they are beholden to the “environmental wacko's” who are part of the collection of “special interests” that exert influence on the Democrat Party hierarchy. We have more natural energy resources within our own country than any other country in the world, but here we are importing 60% of our energy needs from foreign countries, thereby giving some of those countries billions of our dollars that should be spent right here in our own country. We should be an energy exporting country instead of an energy importing country if the restraints by the liberal Democrats, didn't throw “monkey wrenches” in our quest for energy exploration within our own borders. Are we stupid or what? Why don't the the liberal Democrats admit they are wrong and join the Republicans in unleashing our exploration and reclaiming of our energy so we can reverse our outlay of money to other countries, some of whom can be considered our political enemies.

So, as I've laid out, the liberal Democrats, as of now, are “blinded to the facts by their loony liberal ideology” and they must readjust their thinking, as to tax policy and energy, to help lead us into the 21st Century, and to return us to our former position as the pre-eminent country of the world. It looks like that will mean installing a new occupant in the White House this coming November. AMEN!

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

You Cannot Multiply Wealth by Dividing it

That's a phrase that Dr. Adrian Rogers coined (in 1984) which today takes on special meaning by the policies put forth by the Obama Administration and its affect on our society.

The complete passage that Dr. Rogers wrote is as follows:

• You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.
• You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
• The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
• Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving.
• When half the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, this is the beginning of the end for any nation.

Can any of you see any of these prescient ideas coming true in our society today?

The onslaught is real and the people pushing these Marxist/Socialist tenets, are active right now in the Obama Administration and in the Democratic Party.

The Democrats and Obama want to legislate higher than normal taxes on the wealthy claiming that they don't give their “fair share” to the government.

The Democrats and Obama believe the Marxist idea of “redistribution of wealth”, which was proclaimed by Obama himself to “Joe the Plumber” during the 2008 campaign.

The Democrats and Obama want to give to the poor and middle-class “goodies” that are extracted from the well-to-do and given to the masses as payment for their expected votes in future elections (for Democrats, of course).

The Democrats and Obama think they can generate wealth by taking from the makers and giving it to the takers (the Robin Hood syndrome). It looks like they missed that class in Economics 101.

And, the Democrats and Obama think that the 10% of the population, who pay almost 70% of the income taxes, will be willing to cough up more and more to be distributed to the less wealthy among us.

This is blatant foolishness as people don't like to be taken for fools, especially intelligent, hard-working people who made a success out of their lives through their trials, tribulations, and risk taking. If they feel they are getting “screwed” by their government, they have the means to move on or to vote with their feet by going to greener pastures, and that my friends will be the swan song for the once great country of the United States. We will then become the United States of Europe, who's failures you see unfolding right before our eyes today in the form of Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Once the “entitlement society” takes complete hold in a country, that country will ultimately fail because the burdens of the “entitlements” will be too great for the country to sustain.

Our only answer to prevent this from happening to us, is to vote out of office the present occupant of the White House and his lackey's in the legislative branch. It won't be easy, but it can be done. Maybe then we can “multiply wealth” for everyone who wants a piece of the pie and is willing to work for it.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann

MORT’s Meanderings

Five Easy Pieces

When I first viewed ‘The Five’, I got the impression that FOX programmers had cobbled the show together as an experiment born of an empty idea bin. But, after watching for a few weeks, I credited them with being onto something, either through genius or dumb luck. It doesn’t matter. The various personalities and talents began to jell. And, ‘filling-in’ for a missing member of the five with a guest from a cadre of familiar-face back-ups, provides variety without losing a step in quality. Sound programming.

The concept of a round table ‘occupied’ by four bright, young, intelligent and articulate conservatives - each of whom possesses wit, an active sense of humor plus, the ability to think on his or her feet (while seated) - to serve as foils to counter the resident politico-hack and bigoted Democrat buffoon in Larry King’s suspenders, works like a charm.

The talk-over and cross-chatter is always annoying. However, the rotation of segment lead-ins by the five participants, seems to mitigate the annoyance –somewhat. The show moves as such a brisk pace that the chit-chat and ‘asides’ actually add spice to the mix. I believe this formula works quite well.

I particularly enjoy the comments I hear myself making to the TV as I join in the conversations.

Conservative commentary by MORT KUFF