Conservative Blog Reporting on Media Bias and the Liberal Agenda

A recent poll shows that 84% of Europeans have a favorable view of President Obama.  This relatively high favorability rating is not surprising, as Europe needs President Obama in order to survive.

The European Union is composed of socialistic states, characterized by very high tax rates, high social costs, and low or non-existent defense budgets.  Capital flows away from socialistic states and into capitalistic countries.  Indeed, Lenin himself conceded to the fact that socialism would not work unless implemented on a worldwide basis.

For many years, the flow of capital has all been toward the United States, one of the few countries unscathed after WWII and considered one of the most economically free countries in the world.  This capital fertilized a culture of innovation and risk taking, and, the rest, as they say, is history. Economically we became that “shining city on the hill”, with a standard of living unlike anywhere in the world.  Not only did capital want to flow here, but the best and brightest people from almost all other countries wanted to flow also.  Because of our great wealth, we also became a military superpower, and took on the yoke of world cop.

The fly in the ointment can be traced to Lenin’s observation.  Socialistic countries find it difficult to compete with free, capitalistic economies.  So, if you cannot raise the bridge, lower the river.

This has been President Obama’s historic mission, and he is applauded by European and American elite alike. Bring down the United States to the same level as the Euro economies by implementing their same recipe for socialism, we can all sing “com by yea”, and Europe will be saved.

However, unlike the past historic episodes when we bailed out Europe with our blood and treasure, this time they are asking us for something much more dear to us: our vary way of life and our standard of living.

There is one other little sticking point in this one world approach.  Even before the economic meltdown, the countries of the EU were barley able to meet their social costs.  The only way they could pull this off is that they existed under the defense umbrella of the United States.  So, if America will become like Europe, who will fill the historic defense role of America?

There certainly is no shortage of candidates who would like to apply.  Russia would like to play again on the world stage. China certainly is rising economically and militarily, and just today, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told us that he feels this to be Iran’s historic role.  Actually, any country with an atomic bomb could claim this role in the absence of a benign superpower.

So, as the United Nations begins to have its dreams of a post-American World, it might contemplate the resumes of the states that would take its place.

It seems that all of the news has been bad for the Obama Administration these days.  His approval rate has plummeted to an all-time low, the summer of recovery went in the wrong direction despite a trillion dollars of stimulus, un-employment rates refuse to budge, and, in a recent report of the competitive economies of the world, the U.S. has fallen from No. 2 to No. 4.  The U.S. had been No. 1 in this ranking as recently as 2008.

The report by the World Economic Forum stated that “There has been a weakening of the United States’ public and private institutions, as well as lingering concerns about the state of its financial markets”, and the report cited huge deficits, rising government debt and declining public faith in politicians and corporate ethics as the root causes of the problem.

This is bad news for the Obama Administration?  Peacock Watch thinks otherwise, and is waiting for President Obama to go to the floor of the U.N. and give his “mission accomplished” speech.

To briefly summarize a host of previous PeacockWatch articles:  Obama is the first “post American” president given to us by a cabal of American and European Elite, headed and funded by George Soros (“Our economy is broke.  We just do not recognize it yet.  Now is the time to replace it with something else.”)  With the fall of the Soviet Union, this group did not feel comfortable with the world leadership of one superpower, and their focus has been to knock the U.S. down several pegs and level the economic playing field.  Obama is just the talking head tip of this cabal, and his whole presidency was designed to be one term, enabling him to wreak as much damage on this country as possible in four years.

Let us hope that the American people in November will make a beginning at taking back the country, and prevent President Obama from ever giving his Mission Accomplished speech.

Peacock has long believed that people will meet your expectations.

Ronald Reagan’s expectations of Americans were high. Through him we finally shook ourselves loose from the lingering malaise of the Vietnam War and began to believe again in our greatness. American morale improved quickly and our great American machine started humming again. He believed enough in each of us that he wanted dramatically less government and more reliance on the individual.

Obama’s expectations of Americans are clearly very low. Time after time he has talked about how we have created problems around the world and how injustice is common within our country. His comments work to lower our morale and our faith in ourselves. He believes so little in each of us that he is aggressively creating a larger government that is restricting our freedoms more and more.

Peacock and Spouse took the long over road trip to the Glenn Beck Restoring Honor Rally on August 28th, 2010. We agreed that it was one of the best experiences in our lives.

It was an experience successfully designed to help us believe even more strongly in ourselves and our fellow Americans. This increased belief didn’t just come from the powerful words of those on the stage. It also came from those who were there. At least 500,000 people gathered enthusiastically, cordially, and respectfully to hear and share in the positive message presented. Peacock emphasizes that is was a positive message without negative references.

This massive crowd was the friendliest I have ever experienced. At one point there was a concern that a small child had been lost in the crowd. A woman near us commented that this was the safest and most loving large crowd possible for a small lost child. I have no doubt that she was right. It was almost the cleanest and neatest crowd. The grounds were clean and the trash cans full after the event was over.

People came from all over. We met attendees from California, Arizona (they all love Jan Brewer), Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, North and South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and other states. We saw old people in wheelchairs, on crutches, using canes, and using each other to stand upright and keep going. Everyone offered help.

The message to people who believe in the principals put down on paper by our founding fathers did not disappoint any of us.

We heard about restoring the America as it was founded. Restoring faith in our free enterprise system, in self-reliance, in community. This was briefly contrasted at one point with rejecting transformation of America to something that is clearly just the opposite. We heard about our inalienable rights originating from God. That government has no right to take those away and cannot grant new inalienable rights. They can only originate from God.

We heard a lot about unity rather than division. The most significant reference to race during the day was that we all belong to one race – the human race.

We heard the granddaughter of Rev. Martin Luther King, Alveda King, say “God Bless America”.

We heard about the greatness and relevance of our founding fathers in our daily lives. We heard about acting with honor in all things. We heard about faith, hope and charity and never heard one word about anger, division or hate.

However, in watching most of the news media after the event, particularly MSNBC, we were hearing nothing positive about any of these things. Even Fox news reported as if they didn’t even have anyone there. One has to wonder what the motivation of the news media is in not reporting the positive nature of this event and instead going on a personal attack against Glenn Beck and others on the stage. Some of the attacks by MSNBC were simply outrageous and in stark contrast with the positive, uplifting nature of the event. They bore no resemblance to what we saw and experienced first hand.

The contrast is striking. Glenn Beck has high expectations of Americans and America. He knows that we will meet those expectations. He believes our inalienable rights come from God and that they were excellently defined by our founding fathers. He believes that wealth is not redistributed through government but through charitable organizations and churches. He believes that we should be asking God to bless America, not damn America.

The message from our president, supported strongly by the mainstream media, is depressing. He wants to make government larger and have it take more control over our lives. He wants us to pass on massive debt to our children and grandchildren. He says the message of our founding fathers is no longer relevant, that we must transform America and put more trust in a government that moves itself farther from God each year. He wants America to have only a participatory role in the world rather than a leading role. In short, his expectations of us are low.

For Peacock and Spouse the Restore Honor Rally was a transformational event. We will meet Glenn Beck’s expectations and will spread the word to others through our words and actions.

God Bless America. And God Bless Glenn Beck.

A  previous PeacockWatch article, Our Great Tyranny Engine, explained how our federal government has gobbled up our liberty by creating a problem or crisis, and then passing more laws that require more government and more taxes to solve the crisis of their making.  This is the basic design of that engine, but as with any engine, fuel is required to power it.  That fuel for this engine is tax dollars, and the main provider of dollars to our government is our Federal Income Tax system.

This system not only creates the means to grow government, but worse, it gives the politicians almost unlimited power to barter away tax breaks and entitlements for campaign funds and votes.  Indeed, our tax code is the big litter box when it comes to transactions between lobbyist and politicians.

The tax code is used for everything from social engineering to pitting people who pay taxes against people who do not, again, for political gain. The system is rapidly approaching a tipping point where the amount of people not paying taxes and/or deriving benefits from the government will exceed the numbers of people paying taxes and receiving very little direct benefit from government.  This creates a perceived permanent majority for the party that is deemed to have provided the most benefits.

The tax code itself is hopelessly complex (even the IRS does not understand many parts of it), costly to maintain and enforce, and intrusive into the private lives of citizens.  It has been abused by Presidents and politicians alike, having been used for retribution against political opposition.  At its core, it punishes success and rewards failure.

Our tax code is all of the egregious things above, but first and foremost, it is the fuel for the engine designed to enslave us.

In 1903 Federal Government spending was a mere 6% of GDP.  The 16th Amendment was enacted in 1913, authorizing the federal income tax.  In the current fiscal year, spending is 45% of GDP, and climbing steeply in the out years of our current budget.

To maintain any semblance of liberty, and to strike at ever increasing federal power, this fuel must be cut off.  Yet, even a smaller engine of government needs some fuel.  If the income tax is repealed, it must be replaced with something that provides predictable fuel,  but takes power out of the hands of the politicians.

Over the past several years there have been alternatives proposed to eliminate the federal income tax, perhaps the most popular being the “Fair Tax”, basically a flat rate consumption tax which would replace the income tax, social security, and medicare taxes.  It has some popular support, but it will never see the light of day in our Congress, and very few politicians of either party will even take questions on it.  Again, it is the source of their power over us.  They will not cede this power, so it must be taken away.

Short of a bloody revolution, how can this be peacefully done?  Randy E. Barnett, professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University and author of Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty, has some ideas on this.

In his Op/Ed piece (Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2009, “How the Tea Partiers can make Washington pay attention”, Professor Barnett says that the states must take back power from the Federal Government.

Tea Party Peaceful Assembly

The states have the power to call a Constitutional Convention by a vote of two-thirds of the states, and any law produced from such a convention could be passed into law by a three-quarters vote of the states.  Such a move would be feared because its scope cannot be limited in advance.  All things would be on the table.  Yet, says Professor Barnett, “It is precisely the fear of a runaway convention that states can exploit to bring Congress to heel”.  The state legislatures could petition Congress for a convention to propose a specific amendment.  Congress could then avoid such a wide-open convention by proposing this specific amendment to the states before the number of state petitions reaches two-thirds.

What would this amendment be?  It would be a proposal to repeal the 16th Amendment.  Such a threat for a general convention has worked before, and resulted in the passing of the  17th  Amendment, according to Professor Barnett.

The message here is that the states must take the lead in changing the direction of this country.  In November, we may put conservatives back in charge of one or the other of our Congressional bodies, but can we forget what the GOP did when they were last in power?  Both parties at the Federal level are the problem.  Neither is the solution. The solution must begin at the state level.

Below are several charts that show the political make-up of the states as of October, 2009.  The first is a chart that shows state senators (red is GOP, blue DEMS), and shows a lot more red than blue.  The second is state representatives (white being evenly balanced).  Again, there is a similar pattern.

State Senators (Source: Webfoot.com)

State Representatives (Source: Webfoot.com)

We need 34 states to vote for such an Amendment, and it would seem that the best agency to mobilize the electorate state by state would be the infant Tea Party Movement.  This movement sprung from local roots, and before attacking the national level, it would appear that the best chance for success would be at the local level.  After all, all politics are local.

The Tea Party Movement could also take a lesson from what has happened in Colorado between 2006 and the present.  Colorado, for its entire history has been the reddest of states.  In that year, Republicans held both Senate seats, five of seven congressional seats, the governor’s mansion, the offices of secretary of state and treasurer, and both houses of the state legislature.  After the 2008 election, in one of the most stunning reversals of political fortune in American history, the exact opposite was true.

What caused this reversal?  In 2006, three internet multi-millionaire’s who were dedicated progressives conspired to buy Colorado for their cause by using 501 C type organizations, enabled by the new campaign reform laws, to shape their message.  With discipline and focus, they have pioneered a legal architecture designed to take advantage of the new campaign finance laws and an emerging breed of progressive donors who are willing to commit unprecedented resources to local races.

The interesting thing here is that very little has been written in the press on how this historic shift was engineered.  Perhaps this is because that in Colorado the progressives feel they have found a formula to create permanent Democratic majorities across the nation.

Fortunately, this story has been captured in a new book, The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care), by Adam Schranger and Rob Witwer.  The Tea Party Movement, who seems to be wrestling with strategies and organization, should begin with this book.

This is not to say that turning 34 states red will accomplish the constitutional strategy outlined above.  Republican or Democrat, state politics has become the minor leagues where the ambitions are to advance to the big leagues of Washington DC.   Somehow, the end objective of repealing the 16th Amendment needs to be uncalculated into the process of turning these states red.