FED UP AND DETERMINED
Re: Jeffrey Lord’s Yes, They Really Are Mad As Hell:

True to form, the libs have responded to dissent on the administration’s move to take over healthcare with name calling, character assassination, and the like.

I believe that the opposition to the federal takeover of healthcare delivery should add one more thing to their tactics. I believe that every time someone is in front of these lily-livered politicians (forget Obama… he’s a waste of time), they should look them square in the eye, point their finger at them, and tell them that they are going to be sure to go to the polls on their next election and will do everything possible to remove them from office through the elective process. They will tell all their friends, work tirelessly against them and will mobilize everyone possible to put them on the street. We will then see how principled they really are. Let’s face it, this whole debate is about power and how Washington can control more of it and thus, continue to add to their job security. This administration is trying to fundamentally change every part of our lives in order to solidify their power.

This is getting scary and we should tell all these congressmen and senators that we’re going to bounce them out of office. They’ll cave!
— Duke A. Darrigo
Beltsville, Maryland

As many folks attended town halls this last Saturday, a small group of roughly forty-odd folks, attended a surprise celebration for my Father’s 90th birthday. It was held at the ranch outside San Saba, near a small little town we have come to love. I doubt that my dad ever saw himself finishing his life anywhere but his beloved ranch near Johnson City, Texas, but since the fall of 2007 he and my mother and my handicapped brother, have been on their “new” ranch. Some of the group journeyed to the celebration with a glad heart, others were somewhat sad, as they remembered happier days at our folks’ beloved hill country ranch. That ranch, owned some 53 years, had to be sold because Austin developers became possessed with frenzy and greed and grasped onto so much land that true agricultural concerns had to pick up and move further west, to avoid living next to millionaire gated communities. Ranching, it seems, came to an end, these folks say, when our family gave up and moved further west.

My father has his good days and we talk then more about things of earth than things of Heaven. A few weeks ago, as I stayed with them a week, Dad had a few really good days. We sat and watched some of Fox News before he dozed off in his easy chair, his main fixture these days. He looked up at the TV and exclaimed, “Each of these folks who are at these events probably represent another thousand of us who are at home angry and fed up. These Congress people better sit up, pay attention, and realize that this healthcare mess was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.” I knew what he meant by that statement, and that his views were given succinctly by that one statement, but the fuller meaning lay in how we as a republic had been somewhat tolerant of our foolish legislators and abided with their soft tyranny until now. Now, we are really mad. This is the summer we stand up and take back our country and corral our Congress folk into the short cattle chute and let them have the full measure of our discontent.

These elected officials must be made to remember they are not the ruling elite. They were chosen to represent us all. We did not elect them so they could receive perks, special privileges, or expensive tax payer junkets. We elected them to take care with the American way of life. They took an oath to defend and protect, NOT to rob, steal, and tax us to death. By the gathering of these brave Americans who represent us all, they’re telling these officials that they have awakened a sleeping dragon. We are all reminded of Patrick Henry’s, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” And maybe we need to be reminded. And, maybe, just maybe, we need to reclaim our liberty every two hundred some odd years, so we recall its importance, recall those who fought and died for it, and give that good swift kick to elected representatives and remind them they are not the head, but the tail.
— Beverly Gunn
East Texas Rancher

Mr. Lord is correct, we are mad as hell and hopefully we’re not going to take it any more. This latest promising popular uprising against Big Brother (or is it Sister?) shows that the spark of liberty still resides in the American breast, ready to ignite in united resistance to rightly perceived threats to freedom. But is also shows us a few things in the way of weaknesses on conservatives’ part and the growing strength of Leviathan.

First, where oh where is our next Ronald Reagan? Where is the effective conservative leadership who is firmly grounded in the political history of his own land, who possesses a vision of a free future and who can articulate that continuum? Why are we on the defensive about who is attending these meetings and raising their voices against our overreaching government? After all, Democrats and Liberals are the folks who’ve been “organizing” in the streets for well nigh 100 years now for one various cause or crusade or another and all with a view towards serfdom. In more recent decades the very leaders of the left spouting off today marched on order from the Kremlin or in league with Uncle Ho, Castro and Mao brandishing Little Red Books and waving the flags of our enemies in Days of Rage and other assaults on the republic. Later, they marched to disarm the west in the face of expanding Soviet nuclear deployments. Then came “anti-globalization” riots, “peace” marches, anti-war marches, environmental, million-mom marches and on and on and all “organized” and “astroturfed” by assorted front groups, unions and political organizations of the left and some under the direct control of a hostile Soviet Union. The goal was always and ever the same: servitude to an omni-powerful government. Finally, they stopped making pretense of mass popular support and forthrightly parachuted their shock troops directly into events to make a scene and inflict political pressure. Code Pink, MoveOn.org, Acorn, 9/11 Widows, Unions and many more will show up on demand with pre-printed signs and ancient slogans to shout down, drown out or divert attention from anything or anybody they oppose. Am I the only one who remembers just the other day busloads of the ignorant nuts of Acorn dispatched to the leafy suburbs of Connecticut and NYC to harass and intimidate private citizens and their children because they worked for bailed-out companies? The liberals invented and coined the term astroturf so why are we not decrying this projection with every breath. Even our radio talkers seem defensive and explanatory instead of taking it back to them. A Reaganesque figure would tell a few anecdotes about commie organizing and intimidation and point out the lurid history of the left’s so-called popular movements and their vanguards of violent mobs. Instead, we have Michael Steele sputtering and temporizing that the normal people at these town halls are really just everyday citizens.

Secondly, as if we needed any more, we see more plainly than ever that the so-called “mainstream media” have completely transitioned from unbiased, dispassionate referees (another cherished myth for another day) to cheerleaders for one side. And that side is liberalism, government and servitude which puts them on the Democrats’ sidelines. Here the self-proclaimed paladins of democratic liberty are actively dismissing and discrediting one of the few popular uprisings in their pathetic, radical lives. Our modern media also of the 60’s generation were always for government power, always against the “bourgeoisie” and always against America as it is embodied in its citizenry.

Finally, this episode shows beyond any doubt the Democrats’ totalitarian compulsion and that they mean to be the very party, exclusive party, of government. Not in the usual sense in that we can count on them, at least those of us with some sense of party ideology and politics, to instinctively reach for governmental solutions but a much deeper and total commitment to be one and the same as government. They mean to extend government into every aspect of our lives and to control as much as they can get their hands on — the means of expression and debate, to legitimize or de-legitimize opposition and they mean to be the sole arbiter of it all. If they get their way on all they’ve proposed in the last six months and all they’ve yet to unveil they will have achieved what they’ve achieved in many places around the globe. There will be an over-arching government in charge of most of American life, personal, economic and political, with them firmly in control of it all while safely ignoring a token formal opposition and there will be the people.
— Mark Shepler
Jupiter, Florida

I recently sent a respectful (I think) letter to my senator from Michigan, Carl Levin, asking him to resist the proposed takeover of 17 to 18 percent of the GNP in the guise of healthcare reform. In this mild letter I said that Pelosi, Reid and the ilk did not really understand this or probably many other issues. I guess I can accept the fact my letter was referred to this Montgomery woman in the White House as an example of some crazed idea circulating in the country. My God. I hope so. When the rest of the country comes to their senses and rejects these radicals at the ballot box I want to be on record with the good guys whether I am on a blacklist or whatever list Obama and his cohorts are putting together.
— Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak Michigan

RATIONING FREE SPEECH
Re: Peter Ferrara’s Shut Up, America!:

Obama takes no responsibility for anything, especially for his personal and professional history, which seems to be erased or sanitized almost daily.

But his and his thugs,’ including the Democrat Party leadership’s, deriding and ridiculing dissenters as “mobs,” “Nazis,” “un-American,” etc., only punctuates how deeply out of touch they are with the heart and character of America. And how much they loathe freedom and democracy.

Whether they like it or not, the “glorious left-wing revolution” that Obama, Pelosi and others now spearhead has ignited and significantly spread the Second American Revolution. Regrettably, their incendiary and insulting language, as well as their arrogance, may provoke pushback that could permanently damage our country and its citizenry.

Sooner than anyone might envision, though, Obama and his minions will likely learn how the motivations of the original American Revolution –but, especially, taxation without representation — apply to him and Congress, our modern incarnation of King George III and his parliament.
— C. Kenna Amos Jr.
Princeton, West Virginia

PROJECTING
Re: Ben Stein’s Expelled From the New York Times:

Talk about a whiner, poor Ben Stein has to find a scapegoat for all his personal failures. Geez. What a loser. Oh, and as for FreeScore, the company he was pitching for, the BBB gave it an F rating. In addition, poor Ben is not an economist by any means, his advice, if followed will lead anyone quickly into bankruptcy, just check the record.
— David Kerchner

I applaud you and your work on the documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” How ironic that those who claimed your documentary was ‘baseless’ have proven you right by their actions. This is a black eye on the New York Times…shine on Mr. Stein, shine on!
–Anonymous