The Conservative Soldier

Even as it slips into certain oblivion, swept away by the undercurrents of financial obsolescence, long-term strategic negligence and societal change, the mainstream media continues its droning about the legal rights of America’s enemies, the evil intentions of the George Bush presidency and still, unconscionably, denies the threat to our way of life posed by radical Islamic jihadists, a.k.a., terrorists.

I don’t know what is diminishing more rapidly, the media’s credibility or its relevance.

A recent example is a lengthy profile in the May 10, 2009, Chicago Tribune Magazine. Like the Sunday newspaper into which it’s inserted weekly, the Trib magazine is a flimsy imitation of meaty, compelling Sunday journalism of a nearly forgotten era. In the latest Trib Mag, the cover story is heralded by an ominous black-and-white photograph of the frail hands of a faceless prisoner, accompanied by a grim headline, The Guantanamo labyrinth.

As expected, the inside piece is thousands upon thousands of words of condemnation of the Bush Administration, and apologies for the United States of America, masquerading as a “profile” of a “courageous lawyer” from Chicago, Candace Gorman. Thirteen paragraphs set up the deliberately (I suspect) buried, and highly flawed, premise of the piece by Tom Hundley.

“In the months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the highest-ranking officials in the Bush administration … met in the White House and quietly agreed to override some of the basic provisions of the U.S. Constitution that protect individual rights. They also decided to disregard the Geneva Conventions and to sanction the use of torture …”.

Author and radio host Mark Levin said it best today. Some see this era as just that, a passing era of upheaval in our history. Others, like Levin and yours truly (and a growing throng of patriots), recognize we have arrived at a seminal crossroads for America. But when you try to engage an Obamatron in any serious analysis of what is happening around us, they dismiss you as angry, anti-Obama, and then they infer all of the tired “ists” — racist, sexist, elitist.

But I will not be deterred. I will sacrifice every (so-called) friendship. I will respond to every verbal taunt. I will not waver in my quest to chronicle and resist this seminal march toward Socialism, Progressive Secularism and Fascism. To wit:

1. The Wall Street Journal, 05/07: “The U.S. is spending hundreds of billions of dollars — including increased assistance to the unemployed — to prop up the economy, and wants Europe to follow suit. But most of Western Europe already has a strong, if costly, social safety net, so governments feel less pressure to spend their way out of trouble. The irony is that for years, Europe tried to rein in its own worker protections. … Now the U.S. is moving toward a more European system.”

Isn’t that mind boggling? The Europeans are more than happy marking time, waiting for a government check and their government’s instructions, while watching the world go by, even with the economy in the tank. Little wonder Obama loves speaking to his buddies in Berlin.

2. A Greek acquaintance posted a link on Facebook today heralding a profile by The Independent of a former UBS trader. It’s a tell-all, lamenting the excesses that, according to the reformed capitalist turned fiction author, derailed the U.S. economy. The author shamelessly embraces a “devil made me do it” defense for his greed-driven behavior. In other words, he’s a “victim”. Of course.

As we debated the merits of the trader’s account of his days on Wall Street, my Facebook friend finally became exasperated with me and fired back with a passage from the profile, quoting the ex-trader: “Give a small number of people the power to enrich themselves beyond everyone’s wildest dreams, a philosophical rationale to explain all the damage they’re causing, and they will not stop until they’ve run the world economy off a cliff.”

To which I, stunned by the insane logic, replied: “And what happens, do you suppose, when a devious federal government controlled by self-absorbed politicians, and led by a Socialist President disdainful of the U.S. Constitution, gives a large number of people (who do not pay taxes and rarely seek or maintain employment) the power to enrich themselves?”

3. Barack Hussein Obama did not engage in any formal observances today of the National Day of Prayer. Well, duh. Praying normally requires an acknowledgment of, you know, a God. Other than the false one in the mirror, that is. Don’t forget, BHO spoke at Georgetown University on the condition that all images and symbols of Jesus Christ were covered. When did we last have an atheist President? Even Nixon prayed.

4. I can’t think of a better outcome than the courageous Miss California, Carrie Prejean, being stripped of her “title” by the state’s pageant honchos. (This action is pending). It would free her of any formal connection to a state that has been stripped bare of American values by left wing radicals who loathe our country on every level imaginable. She is a patriot. She does not need the worthless Miss California sash. She can wrap herself in the Stars and Stripes and attract millions of new fans who strongly support her contention that marriage is a union between and man and a woman.

5. The old Ball game. The American values think tank known as American Vision is reporting that a Louisiana man was stopped by a police squad car in his hometown of Ball. He was asked to wait while the officer ran a background check. His offense? Apparently, the cop was alarmed by the “Don’t Tread On Me” bumper sticker adorning the man’s vehicle. The authorities wanted to make sure he was not one of those extremists our Department of Homeland Security has warned about.

So it has come to this. The dawning era of the DWP, Driving While Patriotic.

The famous Don’t Tread On Me flag was created in the pre-American Revolution days to draw attention to an ominous rattlesnake symbolizing vigilance in the face of potential enemies, in this case, enemies of American liberties.

A timeless sentiment. Let Freedom Rattle.

So weary am I, dear Conservative Patriots, of fellow Americans lacking conviction, resolve and spine that I willingly step into perilous territory, inspired by the challenge of my self-appointed task.  I was going to take a pass on courageous Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) until I was reminded of the words of Thomas Paine in 1776.

In the final days of that historic year, the revolutionary Paine said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”

Indeed, there is trouble, and it is of a magnitude rarely seen during these past 233 years. Again, to quote one wiser than myself, I was struck by the words of modern revolutionary Andrew Breitbart in today’s Washington Times: “On college campuses, in newsrooms and now in the highest corridors of power, with Barack Obama in the Oval Office, the politically correct left is wielding its weaponry with the confidence that it can take down any group, anyone or anything.”

Exhibit A: Perella Weinberg Partners, one of the investment banks carrying Chrysler Corp. debt.

Exhibit B: Rep. Foxx, who dared to call the premise behind a so-called hate crimes bill passed by the House last week precisely what the premise is, a hoax.

Exhibit C: Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL), who wrote to constituents by email warning of automated calls circulating through her Congressional district (13th) containing falsehoods about her voting record.

In Exhibit A, a bankruptcy lawyer told ABC News that a senior Obama White House official threatened to use the “full force of the White House press corps” to “destroy (the firm’s) reputation” if Perella Weinberg refused to support the White House-led Chrysler bankruptcy plan. The Obamatrons could not stomach the idea that the “greedy” investment bankers at this and other firms refused to forgive Chrysler’s debt at 29 cents on the dollar.

By the way, that’s 29 cents on a lot of dollars — 6.8 billion with a B.

More terrifying than the White House’s meddling is its absolute confidence that the press would readily comply with and be manipulated by Obama insiders passing out “tidbits” intended to the discredit the firm. But of course information consumers have come to expect no less.

It is sad to watch American media icons collapse under their financial ineptitude (yes, even the New York Times); it is alarming to see them becoming even more ethically bankrupt in their fervor to spread Obama’s tentacles everywhere to ensure his “greatness” will be firmly rooted.

Seems it is perfectly OK for Obamatrons to carry a deeply held hatred of Capitalists and their profit making ways. On the other hand, Democrats in the House of Representatives went on record last week that they have zero tolerance for disdain of other varieties.

The Liberal Dems want to redefine what it means to commit a hate crime in America, and to support their mission they re-visited the most extreme example they could find of bad guys doing really bad things to an innocent guy. They went back to the 1998 murder of a Wyoming resident named Matthew Shepard.

Rep. Foxx called upon the Audacity of Truth, in remarks on the floor of the House, in firmly rejecting the claim that Shepard is an authentic poster boy for hate crime legislation. He was murdered by drug-crazed punks coming off a “five-day (methamphetamine) binge,” as Breitbart describes them. There is no clear evidence that the meth heads knew Shepard was gay. But the brilliant Left believes it to be the truth, so beware dissenters, beware.

While Foxx said nothing to diminish the awful circumstances of Shepard’s death 11 years ago — he was beaten to death and the guys who did it are in prison for life — she boldly proclaimed that using this case to prove the necessity for tougher hate crime legislation represents the carrying out of a “hoax” by fellow lawmakers.

She was deriding their disingenuous agenda, and yet (can’t you see this coming?) was instantly accused of calling Shepard’s death a “hoax” in and of itself, which clearly it was not and never has been suspected to be. Nonetheless, Foxx decided she had to issue an apology and wander into the “what I meant to say” minefield, where only Vice President Joe (Ought to be Hidin’) Biden is safe, apparently.

If the rigid hate crime definitions become part of the law of the land — and this is where Foxx makes a legitimate objection — you can be sure that any political, social, religious or cause-driven position that opposes gay marriage or supports something as extremist as, say, the observance of the Christmas season, to name two, will be attacked by outraged liberals as “hate speech” and accused of inciting “hate crimes”.  Where this leads, as Breitbart concludes, is to tortuous, Orwellian political correctness and emboldened thought police squads around every corner.

The Obama thought police apparently are after Rep. Biggert of Illinois, who in her recent email expressed a concern that she is being punished for opposing Obama’s runaway spending. She is being punished, in other words, for standing firm on that principle the she will not mortgage the future of her grandchildren — or yours — to achieve ideological supremacy in the present.

“This past week a liberal 527 group paid for automated phone calls into my district lying about my record,” Biggert wrote. “If one stands up to the D.C. Democrat Machine, then they start rattling their sabers and sending their goons after you. In fact, they are using the web to spread lies that I am retiring. Their games are not about the issues.”

On one point, I disagree with Rep. Biggert. These are not games. What we see with more clarity, with every passing day, every hour, is a calculated assault on American values, a jack hammering of our bedrock principles.

If you defend Capitalism, you will be threatened in the remote corners of the corridors of power. If you embrace marriage as a legal union between a man and woman, you are stoking the embers of hatred. If you oppose massive federal spending intended to create an unsustainable Entitlement Class, you will be singled out, targeted, and maligned in your own backyard.

Take heart. We are here 233 years after Paine and his fellow founders welcomed the battles before them because Americans are not timid when staring into the face of freedom’s enemies. Indeed, we know we will prevail.