Frank Salvato, Managing Editor

The Two-Faced Brutality of Hope & Change
April 3, 2009

As the leaders of the G20 assembled in London to discuss the economic woes of the world, so too came the dregs of the Earth. Under the ruse of assembling as tolerant, engaged and caring members of society – activists concerned with war, the environment and the economic crisis – anti-war activists, eco-zealots, anti-Capitalists and anarchists descended on the city by the Thames causing havoc, damaging property and, in one specific instance, interfering with life-saving emergency treatment of one of their own. Interestingly, these are the same throngs of adoring “citizens of the world” that greeted Mr. Obama when he went on his campaign swing through Europe; the same assemblage of inhumanity that then candidate Barack Obama embraced as the “future.”

Across the pond, leaders of ACORN were defending themselves against charges of corruption leveled against them in House Judiciary Committee testimony from a whistleblower, Anita Moncrief – a registered Democrat and former employee of ACORN. Ms. Moncrief accused ACORN and Project Vote of colluding with the Obama campaign to coordinate fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts. While ACORN has attempted to paint the whistleblower as a disgruntled ex-employee, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) was so taken with Ms. Moncrief’s testimony that he called for a full congressional investigation into the charges. Additionally, it is now being reported that the New York Times spiked a pre-election story on this very issue because its editorial board called the revelation “a game changer,” with regard to Mr. Obama’s chances of attaining the presidency. It can be successfully argued that both ACORN and The New York Times were staunchly in Mr. Obama’s corner during the 2008 election.

Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress – or more accurately stated, in the antechambers of the US House of Representatives – Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team continue to craft legislation based solely on a factionalized agenda, legislation that courts no input from the minority party. Further, instead of employing the age old process of promoting debate on legislation – a process designed to protect the rights of the minority and advance balanced legislation in the best interest of the country – Ms. Pelosi has repeatedly usurped the committee process under the guise of “emergency.” Instead, Ms. Pelosi moves proposed and, in most cases, opposed legislation directly to the House floor where her whips and lieutenants twist arms among their quasi-supermajority to assure passage.

Just down Pennsylvania Avenue, in the White House, the Obama Administration has literally forced solvent, responsible financial institutions – under the threat of IRS audit – to accept TARP bailout money so that the people exist under the illusion that the financial banking crisis is “across the board.” It is not. The Obama Administration also engaged in distracting the media and the public with the “bright shiny thing” of “inappropriate retention bonuses” paid to AIG’s Financial Products Division – bonuses meant to keep contracted employees on to finish the jobs they were doing past their contractual end date. This coordinated diversion served to allow corporations that have already benefited from taxpayer monies to double-dip off of AIG even while AIG exported billions of US taxpayers dollars to foreign banks. Additionally, the Obama Administration has now encroached into the private sector sanctity of the corporate board room, usurping the proprietary rights of the free market. The Obama Administration (and to a lesser extent Congress) now dictates how private sector corporations execute their day-to-day operations, how they craft compensation packages and with what companies they will partner. All this, while signing pieces of contentious legislation without informing the people.

These events and actions, both around the world and right here at home in the United States, beg the question: So, how’s that “hope” and “change” working out for you?

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Fifth Column inside the gates and at the seat of power, both here in the United States and throughout the free world. They gained their status and station because of only two reasons, apathy and an abdication of civic responsibility. We are experiencing the consequences of what a “Me First” society has to offer; the “rewards” of the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

It is the portion of our citizenry who “couldn’t find the time” to seek out the truth, to hold local, state and federally elected officials accountable for their actions and for overstepping their governmental charge, who have allowed the fall of Constitutionalism.

It is the portion of our citizenry who incredibly remain undecided on political contests until Election Day who have failed to stay involved enough, educated enough and informed enough with matters of government to thwart the factions who hold ideology antithetical to Americanism from gaining office.

And it is those of our citizenry who are informed, who are educated on the issues and who understand the threats to our governmental system who have failed: failed to have engaged our neighbors successfully enough to awaken their constitutional commitment to governmental oversight; failed to hold the mainstream media accountable for their propaganda; failed to protect the Charters of Freedom. We have allowed the politically correct to install a shadow set of tenets usurping the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The result is that the factions of neo-Marxism, Socialism, Communism and one-world governance are now seated in power. The result is a majority in federal government who place more allegiance to political correctness than to the US Constitution; than to the inalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The result is the direct imperilment of the continuation of the Great American Experiment.

We can right this wrong. We can achieve atonement for ourselves. But to do so we must abandon the “Me First” philosophy currently plaguing our society. We must sacrifice time and treasure to re-fight the American Revolution, doing so cohesively and with purpose.

To bring our government back to a constitutional path we must exercise strict governmental oversight. In order to do this we must:

▪ Make the time to understand proposed legislation. To do this we must become familiar with accessing and reading legislation and how to track its progress. Each of us must become familiar with how to use Thomas.gov. Another great tool exists in GovTrack.us.

▪ We must engage our elected officials not just on hot-button issues but on all issues. It can’t be just attending a tea party or sending a tea bag; we must achieve a sustained presence in their professional lives. This sends the message that they work for us and not the other way around. Remember, to a politician votes are currency. As they say, “when money talks...” If you don’t have your elected officials on your cell phone’s speed dial list and if you don’t have their email addresses in your address books you are not prepared to be engaged.

▪ We must abandon the habit of going back to the same old outlets for information. In the age of the Internet there is no excuse for allowing the propaganda of the mainstream media to craft an uninformed, uneducated and deceived citizenry. Seek out publications and outlets that offer first-source, fact-based information so you can make informed choices and decisions and then share them with your family, friends and neighbors. Learn, teach yourself how to discriminate between agendized informational sources and truth tellers. And stop confusing commentary with fact.

▪ We must be prepared to engage our fellow citizens who exist within the realm of the “undecided” in an effort to motivate them to be engaged, to be informed, to be educated on the issues and to be protective of our Charters of Freedom. This needn’t be done in a caustic or confrontational way, either. It can be done in a thoughtful and thought-provoking way; in the manner of the way Franklin, Madison, Washington, Adams and Jefferson engaged their fellow patriots to action. Identify, explain, expand and enlist.

We the People stand at a moment in time when the good people elected to office have no influence over the factions which have taken control of government. They are signaling a call to action.

“One if by land...”

We stand at a moment in time when we are not afforded the luxury of doing nothing; not afforded the luxury of letting the elected class take care of the problem. We stand at a moment in time when the elected class is the problem.

“Two if by sea...”

To abdicate our constitutionally mandated civic responsibility to governmental oversight now is to appease those who are leading our country down a path from which we will never return. We stand at a moment in time when individuals have to make choices between “Me First” and “America First”; between “My Political Party First” and “Country First.” We are all Americans and our nation is crying out for us to unite in preserving her! I, for one, understand that without our country, without our Charters of Freedom, we have no freedom, no liberty, no rights...we have nothing.

“They tell us, Sir, that we are weak – unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power...I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” -- Patrick Henry, March 1775

Those who have hijacked our Constitutional Republic have always been fond of asking, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” I would ask each and every one of you at this very moment, “Are you better off now than you were three month ago?”