Midnight Blue Says

MLK March August 28th, 1963

Restoring Honor, August 28, 2010

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, would be proud of the Americans gathered for Restoring Honor, keeping his dream alive.  His niece, Alveda King spoke to the 100,000 gathered on the anniversary of MLK’s speech.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the organizers at Independence Tea Party Association for organizing buses to this event. They filled 28 buses for this rally! They deserve a huge round of applause for this herculean effort.

This was a curious event for my to cover, as I’m not overtly religious and try not to mix politics with my faith. As most of the speeches were televised on CSPAN, I decided to take a closer look at the attendees. The crowds near the jumbotrons and the stage were nearly impossible to push through, so I wandered through the crowds between the WW2 Memorial and the far edge of the reflecting pool. Media of all description were interviewing attendees and I stopped to listen to some of the interviews. I even taped a snippet of one as well. Please note that you will have to turn your volume up to hear the interview; more importantly the focus of the interview was health care, not religion.  Every attendee interview that I encountered appeared well versed in the subject matter of the questions directed to them. The best interview I witnessed was one conducted by a French news agency with two counter protesters. The ‘man’ dressed as Sarah Palin, when asked by the reporter, admitted he felt safe to don his costume in this crowd. How ironic is it that another ‘man’ with the same political outlook as this tool feel free enough to assault me at a Sheepdog rally in 2008. It gives you a real clear idea of where todays political climate of hate and violence really stem from.

My good blogging buddy, Andrew Ian Dodge, has stated in his review of an event he did not witness:

As a result of this event ( Ed. Note: Restoring Honor), Republicans will not win the Senate and it may also hurt their chances to win the House.

I have to vehemently disagree with Andrew on this. What I found at this rally were American patriots from all walks of life who are concerned with this administration’s fiscal instability, over-reaching government intrusion in private industry, and the Obamacare disaster. Oh, they just happen to be openly religious and vote. So what. I’m not intimidated by their religiosity. Somehow, Andrew Ian Dodge finds that condemnation enough.

This gathering of  primarily evangelical Christians, most well informed on the issues, clearly and politely made their case to the lurking main stream media at this event.  I even spied GOProud stickers at this event and missed the opportunity to photograph the stickers as I’m damn sure the MSM ignored it.

What happened at this rally was one not-so-religious blogger found common ground with with the overtly religious.  No, no one tried to convert me (Thank you very much!), but common ground was found in fiscal responsibility, limited government intrusion in our personal lives and in replacing Obamacare.  Even from differing religious perspectives, the uplifting principle of Americans free to build their dreams and creating a better nation for all was clearly communicated at this rally. It is truly the resurgence of the American Dream.

That is the take home message from this rally. Martin Luther King, Jr would be proud of this day and proud of our nation.

I look forward to  November.

FYI: As always, the rally area was left cleaner than it was that morning and safer than normal. I had a great opportunity to remind folks of this at the rally. While walking to the rally, a woman a several feet in front of me unknowingly dropped a considerable amount of cash on the ground. A man behind me quickly alerted her and I could not resist in reminding the crowd around us that if that had happened at an anti war rally, her money would have been history. Quite a few chuckled in agreement, including the lady who recovered her funds.

UPDATES:

Doctor Zero at Hot Air claims 300,000 in attendance. I can’t argue that figure.

Voting Female – Professional race baiter’s are P’Oed.

American Power – Leftists Desperately Seeking Racists

Marooned In Marin has more photos and video of leftist infiltrators

Governor Jan Brewer is inviting Americans to send a postcard to the White House encouraging  Obama to visit Arizona and check out the border security for himself.

Click on this LINK or call the White House at 202-456-1111

Big news coming from House GOP leaders tomorrow!

The Hill reports:

House GOP leaders have planned a high-profile event at Washington D.C.’s Newseum Tuesday morning to launch the start of their “America Speaking Out” project.

Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is in charge of the initiative to result in the release of a set of policy items that Republicans would pursue if they won back control of the House in November.

According to officials involved in the effort, “America Speaking Out” will focus on gathering feedback from Americans on what items that lawmakers should be focusing on in the future.

GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) said on Monday “it’s part of a process of engaging Americans.”

Out of the box thinking – policy items derived from the people, not created in smoky back rooms and shoved down our throats. I will be following this project closely.

Now that Obama and the Dems are suddenly enamored with VAT (Value Added Tax).  There are a few details that need to be spread far and wide about this ever increasing tax. The office of the House Republican Leader has compiled a list of 7 key points every American should be made aware of.  After you are done reading the list, click HERE to find a local Tea Party group.  Not reported at CNN: Republicans have crafted common sense solutions to help create jobs and immediately cut spending so we can restore confidence in our economy – i.e. NO VAT.

Read the rest of this entry »

This would have been nice 4 years ago but I applaud House Republicans taking the side of the American people and making a clean break from the past.

House Republicans approved a conference-wide moratorium on earmarks on Thursday, one day after a House committee enacted a ban on for-profit earmarks.

The Republicans’ moratorium is more extensive than the House Appropriations Committee’s ban in that it applies to all earmarks for all members of the caucus.

Today’s earmark moratorium shows the American people that House Republicans are prepared to end business as usual and change the way Washington spends the people’s money.

The Real Adam Kokesh - Photo by Jonn Lilyea

Captain Larry Bailey, SEAL, USN (Ret.) presented to the citizens of New Mexico an open letter exposing the fraud of Adam Kokesh.  Adam Kokesh is running as a Republican candidate for the 3rd congressional district of New Mexico.  A Republican…now you know why I am conservative.

Captain Bailey spent time talking to G. Gordon Liddy about  the mired history of Adam Kokesh.  You can listen in HERE

Captain Bailey has spent his retirement from the Navy working to expose individuals falsely claiming military service. In a nutshell, Larry is very, very good at detecting posers.

Larry –  Luv Ya!

You can read Captain Bailey’s letter below the fold:

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Last week I read an article posted on Time.com speculating on which GOP candidates would be the next Scott Brown. Realizing Time is not known for fair reporting on the GOP or the Teaparty movement, I laughed out loud (LOL) at Pat Meehan listed as a potential ‘Scott Brown’.

Pat Meehan is a longtime GOP hack who initiated charges against former Representative Curt Weldon. His efforts have paid off, Pat has been tapped by the GOP to run for Curt’s former seat in Pennsylvania’s 7th district. All fun aside, news items like this should make one pause and take a closer look at candidates vying for Congressional seats in Pennsylvania and across the nation.

Scott Brown’s stunning win in Massachusetts (not Massachusettes) sent tectonic ripples through both parties. In three consecutive elections, Americans voted for a change in leadership they thought they voted for in November 2008. After the MA special election, many GOP candidates have been quick to adopt the brand of ‘Independent Leadership’ into their campaign. As this political tsunami breaks across campaigns, it would be wise to take a close look at the candidates allowing themselves to be swept up in this tidal wave. Too often voters elect candidates who claimed to be concerned about the cost of government and when sent to DC, betrayed the voters trust. Pennsylvania has witnessed this closer to home at the state level with the ‘Clean Sweep’ movement a few years back. Today, the stakes are far greater and the impact of sending a political opportunist to DC would be devastating.

With this in mind, lets take a closer look at the Republican candidates vying for a chance to run for a seat in the 6th congressional district in Chester County, Pennsylvania. This is a contentious race, with a stunning turnaround by the man who occupies the seat, Jim Gerlach,who bowed out of the Governors race to campaign for his congressional seat. This action forced the best candidate for the 6th congressional district to leave the race. In the interest of disclosure, I supported Curt Schroder’s campaign and will do so again when he decides to run for the seat in the future. For me there is no better candidate in this race. That being said, lets get to the candidates.

Jim Gerlach can best be described as the devil we know. An establishment politician who has a voting record that you can review at Project VoteSmart.

Pat Sellers, a Ron Paul organizer who favors a narrowly defined foreign policy and suspects Bin Laden is dead. Many red flags around a candidate who favors fringe foreign policy.

Then there is Steve Welch, a business man running in Pennsylvania’s 6th district. Since he has not held elected office, my opinion is based on the evidence of his past registration and donation records. Let me lay out the facts regarding this candidate:

In 2006, while still registered as Republican, he donated to Democrat Joe Sestak’s campaign. He subsequently changed party affiliation to Democrat after the disastrous 2006 election cycle. In an article in Philly.com from July 2009, Welch explains his donation was born out of frustration with the GOP leadership. He remained a Democrat, voting for Obama in the 2008 Pennsylvania primary and perhaps the General election, until May of 2009. At that time, he changed his party affiliation back to Republican and commenced his campaign in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional district. It is unclear if his decision to become a Republican again was based on his frustration with DNC leadership. A few months later,the GOP leadership directed him to run in the 6th district and he complied with their request. Yes, this is the same GOP leadership that he was so frustrated with a few years ago.

Some have stated that this is a competitive race and Welch is well financed. In an earlier post , I described the anemic public support for Welch’s campaign in the 6th district based upon donation receipts.

Despite such questionable actions, some groups have been swayed by his updated explanation for voting and financially supporting Democrats as being a ‘foolish vote’. I cannot help but wonder who’s fooling whom? It is irresponsible to ignore these action. His past actions reveal a candidate that is less of an independent leader and more of a political opportunist in the style of Arlen Specter.

With the best qualified candidate out of the race, Republican voters in the 6th district are challenged with an immensely difficult choice. Will they chose an establishment politician, a party jumping political opportunist or a Ron Paul candidate. This is one of the few times I’m glad I live in Philly.

Boston.com reports on comments made by the son of the dead Kennedy:

Kennedy (D-R.I.) told The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room on Thursday, “Brown’s whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today when he was sworn in early in order to cast his first vote as an objection to Obama’s appointment to the (National Labor Relations Board).”

The son of the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy alleged that his father’s successor is “in the tank for the Republicans,” but Brown has denied any hidden agenda in moving up by a week his Feb. 11 swearing-in.

With all due respect, Senator Brown has laid out a platform that puts him “in the tank for the American people“. Senator Scott Brown called the remarks ‘mean spiritied’ and I agree.  Patrick Kennedy’s statement provides more evidence of how out of touch with ordinary American are the Democrats these days.

Congressman Mike Pence on the Fiscal Year 2011 Budget - 3.8 Trillion in spending proposals.

You know, Mr. Speaker, when I look at the president’s budget for fiscal year 2011, I think about what Albert Einstein said one time. He said that ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’ is the very definition of insanity.

Well, after years of runaway federal spending under both political parties, and after promises by this administration of fiscal discipline and reform, the president’s budget more than doubles the debt, it drives spending to a record $3.8 trillion, it pushes the deficit to a record $1.6 trillion, raises taxes by more than $2 trillion by 2020, during the worst recession in 25 years. Despite future spending freezes promised and commissions doesn’t change the fact that by any measure this budget is insane.

The American people know we can’t borrow and spend and bail our way back to prosperity. They know that deficits and debt threaten our prosperity and our posterity.

House Republicans have a better plan, a plan built on hard choices, fiscal responsibility and entitlement reform. “On behalf of our families, on behalf of our economy, we say: let’s reject this irresponsible and unsustainable budget, and lets come together around the principles of fiscal responsibility and reform, and let’s put our house in order.

Check out Better Solutions – a compilation of policy proposals House Republicans have developed and introduced since January, 2009.

It has been one year since President Bush left the White House.  In the space of a year, the nation has come to realize the real measure of this man as the current administration quietly follows in his footsteps.

Andrew Breitbart  - Rethinking Bush

A year after he left office, it looks more and more like others will now not only start appreciating our 43rd president, they might start wishing they helped him when he had the toughest job in the world and they could only wish him ill.

Once again: thanks, President Bush.