THE DRUM and CANNON |
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America today is suffering in the throes of hedonism and narcissism. Political correctness has impaired the expression of free and rational thought, and moral relativism has diminished our willingness to defend our freedom and liberty. Personal responsibility has given way to the accumulation of perceived "rights". The blandness of mediocrity has made the concepts of individual ambition and drive become embodiments |
of evil and objects of scorn to many. Civility and respect have been replaced by crudeness and vulgarity, patriotism and honor are regarded with contempt. Our schools are more concerned about teaching self-esteem and self-expression than they are in imparting an education. History has been revised so as to make our Nation's past a cause for self-flagellation. Never before has so much information been available, but most Americans remain as uninformed as ever. Are all of these the inadvertent fruits of unprecedented prosperity and freedom? Was this the intended goal of our nation's founders, who guaranteed to all of us the right to "the pursuit of happiness?" I think not. That is why I write. |
IN THIS ISSUE QUOTES OF THE WEEK
THIS WEEK'S ARTICLES BAD NEWS FOR JOHN McCAIN A NEW BATCH OF BUREAUCRATS TO
PROTECT THE COUNTRY? WILL OBAMA LEARN ANYTHING? COLORADO'S SENATE SEAT BATTLE
HEATS UP - PART 2 WHY DIPLOMACY WITH IRAN ISN'T
WORKING TONY
SNOW: 1955-2008 THIS
WEEK'S BEST ON THE WEB ===============
Vote for JOHN McCAIN for President "My commitment will be to cut taxes, reduce the size of government and bring the war to the swiftest possible conclusion without leaving the region in chaos, or an enemy emboldened to attack us elsewhere with weapons we dare not allow them to possess."VOTE FOR ACTION, NOT HOPE "Dreams"
are fine, but they are no substitute ============= ==============
Bring back responsible and effective government Elect Links to: Honoring and promoting proven and traditional American values ==============
JOHN LEREW for Colorado CD-7 ==============
Send the first combat veteran of the War on Terror to Congress
Service, experience, responsibility MIKE COFFMAN Colorado CD-6 Trust a proven leader ==============
ARCHIVES =============== MISCELLANEOUS (actually four tributes) to our nation's men and women serving in the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan ===============
Click HERE NOTE: Because this woman was courageous enough to express her views about radical Islam to the world, a fatwah was issued against her and she has been forced to go into hiding to protect her life. =============== Because we have received Add a comment HERE Read posted comments =============== BOOT MURTHA / VETS FOR THE TRUTH COALITION FOR A CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY (CCM) (NEW) SCHAFFER V. UDALL: 2008 COLORADO SENATE BATTLE VETS FOR THE TRUTH / BOOT MURTHA WESTERN STANDARD.CA =============== Contact ===============
SEE AND HEAR veterans and their families discuss their war experiences at ===============
Support our troops? Actions speak louder than words. =============== Sen. Susan Collins - ME =============== Unfortunately, it is time to Wake Up America before it is too late. CLICK
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CURRENT FEATURES: Week of July 20, 2008
Quotes of the Week I worked my way through college on a farm. We had an old phrase that went like
this: 'If you want the water to clear up, you've got to get the hogs out of the stream.' Politicians' top priority is to solve their own problem, which is how to get
elected and then re-elected. Barack Obama is a politician through and through, even though
pretending that he is not is his special strategy to get elected. -- Thomas
Sowell I have always wished that I could be a political cartoonist. Despite
having exhibited some artistic abilities in my younger days. Drawing people, even cartoon
characters, was not my forte, despite the efforts of my artistic sister who always
encouraged me. But mainly, I stuck to cars and airplanes, and eventually learned to merely
admire (or condemn) the talents and works of these graphical satirists, especially those
of my favorite cartoonist, Michael Ramirez. After reading the commentary by Ross Douthat entitled McCain's
Iraq Dilemma at The Atlantic.com, an
idea came to me for a cartoon that matches the storyline. Since I would not even attempt
to draw it, readers will have to use their imaginations. The cartoon features John McCain in a barrel, sans clothes and
dignity. The barrel is labeled “Iraq Policy”. In the background, running away
with McCain’s clothes, are To assert that McCain was mugged by recent events is an
understatement. After chiding Obama into visiting the war zones in the hope that he would
concede that McCain had been right all along, and that Obama would have to flip-flop over
the issue of timelines, it turns out now that the opposite may take place. Al-Maliki all
but endorsed Obama’s 16-month criteria, although an aide to the Iraqi PM quickly
denied that he had done so and that it is still too early to establish timelines,
Nonetheless, Obama left Iraq with a victory of sorts and no change in his position on the
withdrawal of American troops. The adulation that Obama received in Granted, after his John McCain made the most of it by proclaiming that, because Obama
had been wrong about What McCain needs to point out is that although 16 months could
indeed be a proper time frame, at this point we just do not know. The results of the
ongoing negotiations with the government of
A New Batch of Bureaucrats to Protect the Country?
He may as well have added the Boy Scouts of America to
the list, which illustrates how naīve and delusional liberals can be regarding national
security issues, not to mention their problems with spelling. Perhaps he thinks that some
persuasive Peace Corps volunteers would be able to coax Osama bin Laden to leave his cave
and surrender to American authorities, or that Energy Corps volunteers could protect our
nuclear power plants from sabotage by Islamic terrorists. In any event, any connection
between national security and the organizations listed is quite a stretch, even for a
Liberal. A discussion on the same issue took place this morning on one of the
local conservative radio talk shows. Apparently, the idea for a civilian national security
force came during a speech in which Obama was promoting the idea of having our public
school system getting students actively involved in community projects as a part of their
curriculum. Most of the callers to the talk show, being conservatives, expressed views
similar to those discussed above. One caller, however, took the opposite view. After
introducing himself as a member of the American Communist Party, he went on to vigorously
defend Obama’s proposal. That was not at all surprising. He stated that this
community activity should not be voluntary, but rather, mandatory for obtaining credit
toward graduation from high school. He said that it would give young people an
appreciation for community activity and teach them community responsibility—typical
progressive groupthink. If this new, civilian security force is to be “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the military, the logical question is how it would be funded. Mike Rosen, the talk show host, offered that no one in Congress, even among those on the left side of the aisle, would introduce legislation to establish a new $700 billion bureaucracy. As a later caller suggested, no doubt satirically, the solution would be to cut the military budget in half and give the other half to the civilian organization. However, that would not be at all surprising if Obama were elected President. He has already promised to slash the military budget and divert the money to social projects. It wouldn’t be surprising at all.
After months of pontificating about how debilitating More likely, he will take a straddle-the-fence approach by adopting
the position that, even though our involvement in Iraq is totally wrong, since we are
there now it would be wise to adopt a more flexible position and adopt and wait-and-see
approach to how the currently ongoing negotiations with the Iraqi government turn out
regarding the status of U.S. forces after December 31 when the UN mandate expires. This
way he does not have to take a definite position, hoping to somewhat appease his Far Left
supporters such as MoveOn.org, as well as the more moderate independent voters to whom he
has been pandering since his nomination was ensured after winning the primaries. Obama continues to assert
that The story in Because of our success in Joel Arends is an Army
Reserve Captain and served with the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division in
For some reason, it is difficult to envision Barack Obama sitting down with anyone and asking for advice, but for anyone who is intelligent enough to know what he or she doesn’t know, it is obvious. They say that Obama is an intelligent man. We shall see.
Colorado's Senate Seat Battle Heats Up - Part 2 Former Colorado Republican Congressman Bob Schaffer came out with
guns blazing in the first scheduled debate with his Democratic opponent, Congressman Mark
Udall. They are competing for the Senate seat currently held by retiring Republican Wayne
Allard. Nationally, it is projected to be one of the most closely watched Senate battles
in this year’s elections, with Democrats hoping to gain a veto-proof majority in the
Senate. The format was one in which the public submitted questions to the
candidates before the debate, and selected questions were then asked of the candidates.
Each candidate was allowed to respond to a question, and one rebuttal response was also
permitted. The debate focused mainly on energy issues, with “Big-Oil
Bob” trading barbs with “That Boulder Liberal”, epithets pinned on each
other during the run-up to the heat of the campaign season. Schaffer echoed the
conservative theme song, “Drill Now”, while Udall maintained that drilling for
new oil resources was not the answer to high oil and gas prices. Schaffer parried this by
claiming it was time to elect people to Congress who understood both fiscal policy and
energy issues. Udall’s standard general response to Schaffer’s more
frequent specificity was that the way to solve our problems is to work together rather
than to continue partisan divisions in Congress. Eventually, this frequent response drew
chuckles from the Schaffer supporters, who significantly outnumbered the Udall supporters
in an audience of an estimated 800 people. Schaffer pointed out that Udall’s repeated
calls for the further study of energy issues before issuing specific policy solutions were
simply more of the Democrats’ delaying tactics that have been so evident in Congress.
Using a little “down-home” humor, Schaffer referred to these tactics with the
observation, “I worked my way through
college on a farm. We had an old phrase that went like this: 'If you want the water to
clear up, you've got to get the hogs out of the stream'.“ Perhaps the highlight of the event came when the subject of the
questioning shifted to the War in Udall’s finest moment came when he called for a demonstration of
support for our troops, a tactic often used by political debaters who sense that things
are not going their way. As expected, supporters from both sides stood and applauded, one
of just two demonstrations of agreement during the hour-long debate. The other came when
both candidates expressed opposition to the Army’s desire to expand their southern When the questioning turned to their positions on healthcare, one of
Mark Udall’s sillier responses clearly illustrated how badly he realized he had been
doing in matching Schaffer’s knowledge of the issues. Regarding the importance of
universal healthcare, Udall said, "Because this isn't only about our economy, it's
about our national security. To win the war on terror, we have to have every American as
healthy as possible. By working together we can do that." Schaffer supporters had no doubt whatsoever who had won this debate,
Even Bob Schaffer’s campaign chairman, Dick Wadhams, reminded this observer of a
smiling pastor at the end of a Sunday service, broadly smiling and shaking hands with the
crowd as they were filing out of the auditorium. There were few smiles on the faces of
Mark Udall’s supporters. Related articles, pictures, and comments to be found at: schaffer v. udall: 2008 colorado senate battle 9News.com (0) Comments
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Why Diplomacy with The Bush Administration is rattling its sabers and the Israelis have
been conducting extensive military maneuvers. Meanwhile, the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee Barack Obama and his supporters continue to clamor for talks and
other diplomatic moves such as stronger trade embargoes. All three are committed to
putting an end to From an Iranian perspective, the Israeli card is probably the most
worrisome. Since Israel has the most to lose in the event that Iran acquires nuclear
weapons, an Israeli action would be the most likely to take place. That being said, A unilateral strike by the The current political situation not only in the U.S. but throughout
the world makes an American attack on Iran an unlikely occurrence, despite all of the
saber-rattling, unless Iran does something extremely rash like closing the Straits of
Hormuz or launching a first-strike attack on Israel. If such an attack were to take place,
it would not only have to eliminate Because of this, strictly diplomatic efforts alone to convince Recent reports of clandestine efforts within Related Articles: Israel, Iran,
and the Bomb Tehran's efforts to intimidate the United States and Israel from
using military force against its nuclear program, combined with yet another diplomatic
charm offensive with the Europeans, are two sides of the same policy coin. The regime is
buying the short additional period of time it needs to produce deliverable nuclear
weapons, the strategic objective it has been pursuing clandestinely for 20 years. Report: Bush Backs
Israel Strike Plans on Iran The Sunday Times of London reported this weekend that "President
George W. Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future
military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break
down." The Times report quoted a senior Pentagon official as its source. (0) Comments
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Tony Snow: 1955-2008 It was with shock and surprise to learn yesterday of the death of former FOXNews anchor and Presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow. While many of our nation's notables have already commented on his passing, and his outstanding personal qualities duly noted, we would add just one thought. While he has been widely acclaimed as an oustanding individual, a beloved husband to Jill and father to this three children, he was also a man that any caring man or woman would have wanted as a brother. Rest in Peace, brother. (0) Comments
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THIS WEEK’S BEST ON THE WEB The Rules For Democrats And Republicans By DOUG PATTON July 21, 2008 at GOPUSA.com I must have missed these rules before because, mea maxima culpa, I have been violating most of them by calling Sen. Obama inexperienced, vague, wishy-washy, vain, ostentatious, hypo- critical, and dangerous. I guess it's too late to change now, so I will just be waiting for his proposed Civilian National Security Force to come get me. ***************************** The
Audacity of Vanity For the first few months of the campaign, the question about Obama was: Who is he? The question now is: Who does he think he is? We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when "our planet began to heal." As I recall -- I'm no expert on this -- Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas. If Barack Obama was truly the Christian that he claims to be, he would know that humility is one of the religion's primary teachings. Instead, this clown seems to think that he's the Second Coming of Christ. ***************************** The Gathering Threat to Freedom By KEN BLACKWELL July 17, 2008 at Townhall.com The clauses (in the First Amendment) on free speech, a free press, freedom to assemble, and freedom to petition the government to allow us to express ourselves personally or through the press to speak about any issue. The clauses on the establishment of religion and free religious exercise protect our right to believe according to the dictates of our own conscience. These are the twin pillars of a society where hearts and heads are free. Alarmingly they are under siege by the forces of statism. ***************************** Inflation and the Bush Legacy Federal deficits have to be financed, and the debts of Congress, combined with those of state and local governments, business corporations and consumers, have taxed the investment powers of even trading partners like Japan and China, who hold huge dollar surpluses. The weak dollar, and inflation, particularly affecting the price of oil, is the end result. ***************************** Reid: No drilling votes in debate over oil speculation Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that he would not allow a vote on an amendment giving states new authority to seek oil off their coasts when he brings a Democratic energy bill to the floor later this month. ***************************** Are Facts Obsolete? Nothing is more frustrating than to hear friends or family members make what they believe to be statements of obvious fact that are based either on misinterpretation, a lack of understanding, or, most maddening, a lack of verification. This is especially true when the subject is political. ***************************** Political Diary -- Harry Reid's Position Paper on
Drilling Democrats may never have had the political courage to impose such towering European-style gasoline taxes directly, but Mr. Reid's policy diatribe at least explains why Democrats have found it so easy to sit on their hands rather than take steps to increase domestic supply and bring down $4 gasoline. ***************************** Political Diary -- Obama's Bear Market? Stephen Moore reiterates what conservative pundits have been saying for months--that an Obama victory in November will wreak havoc on the stock market and the U.S. economy in general. The effects of his probale success, in fact, has already been seen in the market downturn. ***************************** Heller's "Gaffe"
the Strong Medicine GOP Needs Longtime liberal columnist Michael Kinsley famously defined a “gaffe” in politics as “when a politician tells the truth.” If you accept that definition, and I do, then Nevada Republican Rep. Dean Heller committed a gaffe of canyon-sized proportions this week. I hope he keeps it up ***************************** A Falst Frenzy on Global Warming
He [weatherman John Coleman] blames the media for wanting a crisis and thus reporting pro-global warming stories. But when 31,000 scientists refuted global warming a month ago the media hardly mentioned it. He said that compares to 2,000 pro-global warming scientists on the UN climate change panel who claim that the issue is settled *****************************
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Liberals deny it or think that
9/11 was an aberration. There are nut-jobs who think it was a government conspiracy.
Elitist intellectuals deny that a threat even exists. The average American has put it out
of his or her mind. It is time to move on, they say.
