Trouble In Our Day

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.

Beauty and the Beast

We are reminded of two true-isms coming out of Sunday's Miss USA event.

1. Pin-ups are Americans, too. Carrie Prejean is a heroine. We know she is beautiful on the outside. But she is equally beautiful on the inside. Breathtaking, I'd say. Imagine the courage it took to face down this bitter, bating pageant judge. And bathe yourself in the clarity and authenticity of her words. Carrie would not throw her values under the bus. She could have weasled her way out of it. It would have been so easy. But she stood up.

"When asked by judge Perez Hilton, an openly gay gossip blogger, whether she believed in gay marriage, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, said, 'We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised.' "

2. Pinheads are still pinheads, and a good many of them reside in California. This one is "personally saddened" by the dynamic that makes humanity possible.

Keith Lewis, who runs the Miss California competition, tells FOXNews.com that he was "saddened" by Prejean's statement.

"As co-director of the Miss California USA, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss California believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman," said Lewis in a statement. "I believe all religions should be able to ordain what unions they see fit. I do not believe our government should be able to discriminate against anyone and religious beliefs have no politics in the Miss California family."

The New Piracy

Congratulations to the Navy Seals and their skilled snipers for doing what should always be done to dangerous terrorists.

We are incredibly fortunate that the strength and courage of the American military is still a force for good in the world, even at a time when the Obama Administration is hell bent on shrinking America’s global stature.

I can’t imagine the backache Barack Hussein will have after the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. By my count, there will be 33 heads of state before whom to bow later this week.

While I applaud Obama’s apparent zero-tolerance policy regarding brazen Somali Pirates, here at home we’re no less under siege. We have entered the age of The New Piracy We Can’t Believe In.

The traditional definition of piracy is an act committed by a non-state actor but the Somalis have made that obsolete, as no one believes they are true pirates, acting alone or without training. Here in the U.S., there are multitudes of state actors littering the looting and pillaging landscape:

Tax pirates on Capitol Hill and inside the White House.

Salary/bonus pirates on Congressional subcommittees.

Free-market pirates, most of them holed up in Larry Summers’ office at the White House.

Education pirates, a.k.a., lawmakers who’d rather stay cozy with teachers’ unions than open doors to educational opportunities in abysmal urban school systems.

First Amendment pirates, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed, who still think folks don’t get the twisted irony of something called “The Fairness Doctrine” that targets Conservative talk radio.

Family pirates, judges mostly, popping up in state after state, zealously targeting the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman with bench rulings that legalize gay unions. The pirates are still nursing rum hangovers in Iowa and Vermont.

Peace pirates, empowered by the President, who apparently believes that a little love sent Iran’s way will pay big diplomatic dividends down the road. Where’s the harm in a little unabashed uranium enrichment by Iranian “technicians”?

(Iran’s a small nation, like North Korea, remember? The junior Senator from Illinois said so last year when seeking the Piracy, ah, Presidency. They’re just a bunch of happy-go-lucky Johnny Depps, charming the ladies and dabbling in petty crimes).

Finally, we learned just today about the Freedom Pirates lurking inside the Department of Homeland Security. Seems they’ve issued an “assessment” that warns “rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues.”

The report compares present trends to a climate that spawned the various anti-government military militias of the 1990s (translation: during the last reign by a liberal Democrat President). There is no mention of what if any activities these extremists were suspected of in the past decade, as if there were no hidden factions that loathed George Bush. They existed, but they would mainly fall under the heading, “leftwing extremists”, and would thus have been of little concern to the DHS and beyond the scope, as they say, of this report.

The DHS further advises that, while there are righties who are “hate-oriented” (the militia types), the feds are also keeping an eye on “those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.” Imagine that? A failure to embrace big, smothering government control of … um … well … everything.

Let us not misunderstand the underlying message of this “assessment” (which is being discussed across the land tonight) and the intent of its publication. American citizens who are not pro-Obama are members of society who pose a “threat”. The DHS knows this because of its analysis of “rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet”. (Such as the post you are reading here).

You are not a Conservative if you oppose Obama’s radical vision, his Socialist agenda, or his apologies for America when he stands on foreign soil. You are not a Patriot if you believe in the Constitution as our enduring foundation, or if you would fight to preserve the First and Second Amendments.

What are you? You are a Rightwing Extremist Threat. It says so in the DHS “assessment”. It says “the historic election of an African American president and the prospect of policy changes” are stirring the right. It says our chatter focuses on “the perceived loss of U.S. jobs” (yes, it actually says “perceived”). It says the winds of extremism are blowing because you are “antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of (social) issues.”

Oh, and this. You are on the DHS radar because your “rightwing extremist views bemoan the decline of U.S. stature.” Shall we assume that a leftwing extremist bemoans the expansion of U.S. stature?

I think we know the answer. We hear it every time the White House teleprompter rolls.

Monday is Patriots’ Day. But at the DHS, every day since Jan. 20, 2009, has been Rightwing Extremist Alert Day. Get used to it.