American Decay

May 06, 2006
Will America Stop Its Own Decay?
Joe Bell
Nations, unlike a dead animal along the side of a road, do not decompose quickly. It takes time for the elements to have an impact but once the process begins it is difficult to stop. America is in the process of decomposing and it is a terrible sight. There is time to reverse the process but the work required is difficult and forces are laboring to ensure that the corrosion from within continues uninterrupted.When a nation loses respect for itself no one else, especially those who delight in the anticipation of its passing, will offer respect or comfort. America’s decay has been largely self-inflicted and the inventory of missteps is long.Due to the embrace of a myth called ‘separation of church and state’ God has been expelled from school. Liberals defend a student’s right to wear a prohibited tee shirt while opposing a school’s right to initiate the saying of a prayer at the beginning of the school day.America is struggling to find the will to control its borders. Behaving as though it doubts its right to be a sovereign nation, America appears incapable of even distinguishing between those who enter legally and those who enter illegally, further blurring the line between right and wrong and impairing the capacity to make judgments about important issues.Despite the public demand for increases in spending on health care, obesity has become a national epidemic, demonstrating that many Americans believe the government is responsible for their health and welfare. It costs no money to push the plate away.The people want, and so the federal government spends, millions of dollars on frivolities like bike paths and other items that have nothing to do with the constitutional obligation to “provide for the common defense … and secure the blessings of liberty.”Many Americans are engaged in self-loathing. They ignore that war was brought to the nation by a ruthless enemy who is dedicated to victory. A nation that is as concerned with the ‘rights’ of its enemies as it is with its own survival has placed itself on a collision course with its own demise.America will likely exist 50 years from now, but on its present course it will not be the nation that was molded by the vision, sweat and blood of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and their colleagues. Neither will it be the nation Lincoln said was the “last best hope of earth” nor the nation that President Kennedy said would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”Given its present course America will be a nation that has rejected its past, which was a monument to freedom and justice, in favor of a future in which it doubts its right to defend itself against a foe dedicated to its downfall.Today many are asking questions that have long been answered: “Who can say what is right and what is wrong?” “Who can honestly tell the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter?” “Who is to say American history is about freedom and justice and not about tyranny and oppression?”Those who ask such questions either know the answers and feign ignorance for political reasons, or are incapable of understanding the answers due to some innate incapacity to comprehend reality. When the good and bad in America’s archives are assessed there can be no denial that America is far more a bastion of righteousness and justice than evil and contempt. To deny such truth is to deny the force of gravity. America’s critics speak with reverence about the truth but they are immune to it and, consequently, are unable to engage in a meaningful dialogue. Enemies from abroad attempt to assassinate America by using force and deception, but America is being wrecked by those who burden the national psyche with guilt and misgivings. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it was often said that “the nation that defeated Hitler’s Germany will defeat international terrorism.” Sadly, this is not the America that defeated the Nazi war machine nor is it the America that engineered the downfall of communism. That America was confident in its mission, certain that it opposed evil and convinced, despite who else may have been claiming God was on their side, that He continued to shed His grace on America from sea to shining sea.It is the despair of America, and all people who treasure justice and freedom, that the nation is in the grasp of a spiritual and personal crisis from which it may never recover. As in Vietnam, America is again engaged in a war against a lethal enemy. As in Vietnam, it is a war America has the power to win. But the U.S. is fighting in Iraq in such a way that, even though the enemy lacks the power to achieve victory, America will not use the power needed to defeat the adversary. Shelby Steele, of the Hoover Institution, recently wrote this is because America, and the West, are consumed with white guilt and today conduct “war as the Great Society.” Steele observed, “White guilt makes our Third World enemies into colored victims, people whose problems … were created by the historical disruptions and injustices of the white West. We must ‘understand’ and pity our enemy even as we fight him.”Steele said it makes no difference that “there are no serious advocates of white supremacy in America today.” America’s enemies have cast the nation in an unwholesome light and continue to use its genuine goodness to bludgeon its conscience about past sins. Although America’s enemies, at home and abroad, have not been able to wither America’s power they have effectively hobbled its use.The continued preeminence of America is not assured. Like any great civilization, the United States is capable of collapsing from lack of faith and will. Those nations that endure are those where the people have confidence in their principles and traditions. They love their nation, believe it is worth defending and engage in the hard and sometimes dangerous work necessary to make certain the next generation will receive its inheritance. Detractors and enemies laugh at America’s inability to recognize its greatness and at its seeming impotence to halt its decline and advance freedom and justice around the world with the vigor that those great principles deserve.
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Joseph Bell has hosted a radio talk show and is a former editorial writer/columnist for several Connecticut newspapers. A former liberal Democrat, Bell has not been on the conservative side of the aisle for very long. He voted for Clinton/Gore in 1992. Abandoning the convictions that he had held and defended through adolescence and into adulthood was not easy. Sincere soul-searching and a commitment to distinguish fact from fiction compelled him to accept that liberal ideology was bankrupt.
jbellopedresponse@hotmail.com
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May 08, 2006
Who Broke the "Bully Pulpit?"
Lee Ellis
Remember when US Presidents could change the direction of the nation by using what pundits called the "Bully Pulpit"? A President could use whatever communication facilities he had available to reach out to the entire nation. His speeches could be heard over every radio station, headlined in every newspaper, and, after television came along, over all the TV networks. The networks always arranged to have the President's speech heard simultaneously at the same hour in prime time. Thus, the nation took seriously what their national leader had to say and most would act on it, whether major corporations, small businesses or just groups of citizens gathered together to hear what they needed to do to help or protect their nation.Many pundits still say that the "Bully Pulpit" should be used by President Bush and they criticize him for not doing this. But ---wait a minute ---what has happened to this pulpit? Does it really exist any more?I think that it is almost broken beyond repair. Can any American President really use it ever again? I don't think so. Why?To use this great ability, whether for energy, security, or anything that is important to this nation's people, a President must be able to reach all Americans at the same time through the media. Also the people must want to regard any message to them, from any American President, seriously enough to want to listen to it or read about it. We should put aside everything to hear that which might affect the very core of our existence. What our nation's leader says can affect our very lives and safety.This "Bully Pulpit" used to work, but doesn't now for two reasons:1. The TV media no longer will carry a Presidential speech in prime time unless it is a planned State of the Union address. There has been a weakening of the presidency by media, Congress and, perhaps, the lowering of educational standards2. We, as a people, have been trained over the past few decades to not honor or respect any authority figure. Thus, we are losing our ability to coalesce. We have become a fissiparous nation.Delving into these two problems:The media has weakened the presidency by categorizing everything said as mere political statements. It furthers this weakening process by always seeking out someone from the opposition party to teach us why everything uttered by the President is not true and might well be detrimental to the future of this country.This so-called "balance" used to be granted only for candidates during elections; now it is wrongly used to counteract actual leadership. In newscasts, reporters no longer tell us only what a president actually said; instead, they tell us what they think a president meant by what he said! No wonder the fissure in the old Bully Pulpit has been widening over the years. The new Bully Pulpit is owned and governed by the media, not a President.Then, look at what has happened to our American culture as the standards of behavior and education have been constantly lowered. The friendly and protective policeman on the beat or at the corner no longer exists. For his own safety, he (or she) almost always must be in a patrol car with a partner. Teachers complain now about receiving very little respect from most students. Discipline is the main problem. Few students really listen to their teachers in order to absorb some educational principles. Test scores show that too many have not learned history, civics, geography, English grammar, and math. Going out into the business world is hard for many because there is no knowledge of business ethics or how to succeed in life. Students, though, have learned much about sex, driving a car, and socialistic principles. Pastors of many main-line churches preach to fewer people, mostly gray-haired. Some clergy members report that some of those attending are there only as an expected duty rather than to take home any facts that can be utilized for the betterment of mankind. No wonder the nation is divided in half. Our famous America's melting pot has grown cold, old and is solidifying rapidly. Balkanization is occurring. True patriotism is lacking in many as enemy nations and al Qaeda take advantage of this and use our media to dilute our resolve to win any war.Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (who died in 1948) had taught that the seven blunders of the world were: "politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; commerce without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice."Might we add to this a U.S. Presidency without a "Bully Pulpit"?
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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.
indiolee@dc.rr.com
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May 08, 2006
Exposing America's Enemies: Social Justice Seeking Communist Left
Linda Kimball
On one hand, Americans were outraged and appalled by the 1 May immigrant demonstrations that clogged streets and virtually closed down some cities. Law abiding citizens saw lawbreakers who not only seemed to feel justified in their criminal behavior, but also believed they ought to be rewarded for it.On the other hand, Americans are more infuriated and disgusted with their duly elected government officials in both legislative and administrative branches for not enforcing the law and protecting the rights of citizens. President Bush and the weak-kneed GOP have deservedly come under fire. However, if our sovereign nation is to survive, I is of paramount importance that the harsh light of truth be focused upon the subversive element responsible for creating an atmosphere conducive to lawlessness and tyrannical militants brazenly declaring their intentions to ‘conquer’ the Southwest and to throw Americans out of their homes and off of their land. The subversive element—a motley collection of Marxists, Stalinists, Trotskyists, Maoists, anarchists and malcontents—organized themselves in the 60’s and became known as the New Left. For over forty years the New Left has been waging a Gramscian ‘quiet’ revolution for the overthrow of the America of our Founders. Today these subversives call themselves liberals, progressives and Democrats. Even though there yet remain good, decent Democrats such as Zell Miller, the majority as David Horowitz attested to, are social justice seeking communists. “The Democratic Party is very close to being the (Communist-controlled Progressive) party of Henry Wallace…The vast bulk of the American left is a Communist left and they’ve introduced some fascist ideas like “identity politics,” which is straight out of Mussolini.” (How Marxism Dominates the Left, Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com, June 1, 2005)Americas Communist Left operates in a vast interconnected matrix of revolutionary groups disguised as respectable civil rights and legal organizations. These front groups have consistently worked towards the transformation of America through subversion of America’s Rule of Law, Constitution, judiciary, and all institutions necessary to the longevity and health of our nation and civilization. These groups attack all national security measures, subvert immigration laws and procedures, lobby on behalf of terrorist and enemy combatants and engage in propagandistic apologetics for the most brutal dictatorships in the world even as they constantly vilify and demean America and Americans. As they do these things to destroy America and shame Americans, they hypocritically portray themselves as defenders of democracy and humanity.The purpose of this article is to expose, at least in part, some of the principal communist groups responsible for undermining and weakening America and who likewise serve as a power source, not only for the militant Marxist organizers of the recent demonstrations, but for Islamic jihadists as well. The Quiet RevolutionIn 1984, “The Power to Lead” was published. In it, author James McGregor Burns admitted: “The Framers of the US Constitution have simply been too shrewd for us. They have outwitted us. They designed separate institutions that cannot be unified by mechanical linkages, frail bridges, tinkering. If we are to ‘turn the Founders upside down’…we must directly confront the constitutional structure they erected.” (A Chronological History: The New World Order by D.L. Cuddy PhD)Turning the ‘Founders upside down’ and directly confronting the ‘constitutional structure’ are what the American Civil Liberties Union, National Lawyers Guild, and The Center for Constitutional Rights are committed to doing. Together, these three communist front groups comprise the “legal left,” and they slash and rip at the fabric of the constitutional framework.The ACLU was established in 1920 by Roger Baldwin, a Stalinist who candidly admitted: “I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately, for abolishing the state itself.” On the Communist Party USA website, the ACLU can be found at this link: http://www.cpusa.org/link/category/22/When not working with and defending terrorists like Sami al-Arian, the ACLU terrorizes towns into removing Ten Commandments monuments and crosses and persecutes and intimidates Boy Scouts and law abiding Christians. The ACLU’s Immigrant Task Force and Immigrant Rights Project are a dual driving force in the Open Borders Lobby. Among current projects: dissolving America’s borders, erasing all evidence of Christianity and God and requiring the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to provide free legal counsel to illegals while simultaneously demanding that illegals be provided with full welfare benefits.The ACLU and its partner groups receive funding from a large assortment of subversive leftist funders. Among them: Arca Foundation, Ford Foundation, George Soros Open Society Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, Woods Fund of Chicago (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1936 by the Communist Party USA. The NLG is an active affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which served as a Soviet front group during the Cold War. The NLG defines its mission as an effort to: “unite lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers of America (to) function as an effective political and social force…to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.” In other words, their mission is to ‘deKulakize’ America in the name of social justice.In 1999, NLG member Chip Berlet described a Guild ‘communist debate’ session: “The cacophony at some meetings (arises from) debates featuring…Leninist, Trotskyite, Stalinists…Maoist…Marxist, anarchists, libertarians and progressive independents…with multiple identities as lawyers, legal workers, labor organizers, tribal sovereignty activists, civil liberties and civil rights advocates, environmentalists, feminists, gay men and lesbians, and people of color.” Chip Berlet is an activist with Morris Dees Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), another communist front group and Open Borders member.Not coincidentally, it was the SPLC that ‘redistributed’—in the name of social justice—an Arizona ranchers’ property to some illegal aliens. This incident was detailed in an article entitled: “Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court,” New York Times, 8/19/05. Dees was quoted as saying, “…it’s poetic justice that these undocumented workers own this land”Like the ACLU, the NLG is a key member of the Open Borders Lobby. It’s National Immigration Project consists of a network of lawyers, law students and legal workers committed to “full democratic rights for all non-citizens”---in the name of social justice. The NLG receives funding from, among others, the George Soros Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation. (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)The last of the trio is the Center for Constitutional Rights. It was founded in 1966 by pro-Castro attorneys Morton Stavis, Ben Smith, Arthur Kinoy, and William Kuntsler.The CCR prides itself on using “litigation proactively to advance the law in a positive direction to guarantee the rights of those with the fewest protections.” This is communist code for: “We subvert America’s laws.” Among those deemed by the CCR to be in need of protection are terrorist organizations, enemy combatants, and illegal immigrants. The CCR receives funding from the Ford Foundation and George Soros Open Society Institute. (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)Two principal front groups, both of whom disguise their treachery as ‘civil rights,” are United for Peace and Justice and Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.The UFPJ is a rabidly anti-American, anti-war coalition co-chaired by committed communist Leslie Cagan. Cagan, who worships upon Fidel Castro’s altar, was an original founder of the Committees of Correspondence, a splinter group of the Communist Party USA. The UFPJ was created Oct. 25, 2002 in the Washington D.C. offices of People for the American Way, which played a key role in forming UFPJ. UFPJ is a sponsoring organization of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.UFPJ’s social justice agenda extends well beyond anti-war activism as it is also a pro-abortion, pro-open borders advocate that condemns nearly every aspect of American culture and our government’s foreign policy. (Source: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org) The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride (IWFR), another key player in the Open Borders Lobby, is supported by the ACLU and Communist Party USA. Additionally, it has the backing of Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean and Joe Lieberman.Among other groups listed as members of the IWFRC’s national sponsoring committee are ACORN, National Council of La Raza, National Immigration Forum, and United for Peace and Justice.At the link below are literally hundreds of sponsors of IWFR, such as: Democratic Senators, Representatives, County Board Supervisors, Governors, town council members, radical organizations, liberalized Christian and non-Christian churches, political parties (including CPUSA and Democratic Socialists of America). http://www.iwfr.org/endorsement.aspMany thousands of Americans have been taken in by a myth. The myth states that communism died when the Soviet Union imploded. It further says that in these ‘enlightened progressive times,’ only superstition-believing McCarthyite rednecks still believe in the communist boogieman. The myth of course, was created by New Left communists to whom seduction, deception, and psychological manipulation are the ‘rules of the game.’ Gramsci’s transformational revolution is very much alive. It’s spreading the cancer of godless communism—the ideology from Hell—throughout the length and breadth of our culture--corrupting and decaying everything it touches.President Ronald Reagan cautioned that: “…without God, there is no virtue because there’s no prompting of the conscience. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”Americans---awaken and remember!Copyright Linda Kimball 2006LindaKimball.comAdditional SourcesWhy the Left Hates America, Daniel J. FlynnUnholy Alliance, by David HorowitzThe Open Borders Lobby and the Nation’s Security After 9/11, by William Hawkins and Erin Anderson, FrontPageMagazine.com, Jan. 21, 2004About the writer: Linda is a writer and author of numerous published articles and essays on culture, politics, and worldview. Her writings are published both nationally and internationally.

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May 25, 2006
Senate Reveals Ugly Underside of the “Nanny State”
Chris Adamo
As the United States Senate continues relentlessly towards the goal of amnesty for illegal aliens, its political movers and shakers are illuminating the despicable realities behind the phony “compassion” of liberalism. In a stunning act of treachery against the American people, the Senate has set the stage to plunder America’s social security system and give the spoils to illegal immigrants.According to populist presidential “wannabe” John McCain (R.-AZ), illegals deserve access to the social security funds because they paid taxes. Yet nobody seems to know how much they paid, what percentage of their paychecks was withheld by the government, or how much more they have cost American society than they may have paid into the system.The lingering myth that social programs exist for the “good of the people” has just been shredded by the proposed Senate action. Such programs were never devised to assist those in need, but rather for the political empowerment of the individuals dispensing the “benefits.”Although liberals in Congress wailed that President Bush’s proposal to privatize a tiny portion of Social Security would bankrupt the system, they are now perfectly willing to give away an enormously larger portion of those funds to the millions of illegals working in the dark fringes of the U.S. economy.In truth, liberal abhorrence for the privatization plan never had anything to do with a possible lack of funds. Furthermore, every privatization proposal offered by the White House ensured that sufficient funds would be available for those who opted to remain within the present system.Rather, what the liberals could not stomach was the possibility that, by maintaining ownership of those funds, Americans might forestall congressional access to them. Had such been the case, no opportunity would exist by which the Senate could misuse the monies in this misbegotten attempt to curry favor and loyalty of the illegal population.Worse yet, the far greater returns historically reaped from private investment would mean that average citizens might gain greater independence from the government trough. Hence they would realize that they had little further need for the benevolence from liberals. The popular perception has been that Social Security constituted the “third rail” of politics, alluding to the idea that even barely brushing against it would be tantamount to committing political suicide. So, in comparison, the Senate action ought to equate to grabbing hold of that third rail, while standing knee-deep in water.The fact that such Senate pandering might bankrupt the system sooner than is presently expected, is apparently a “yawner” to the left. This is strange, especially when considered in comparison to the hysterics with which every mouthpiece of the “nanny state” responded to the President’s plan to bring fiscal sanity to the program through partial privatization. Yet this situation does not represent some incomprehensible dichotomy.In truth, the present system is, by design, a scheme to maintain a mentality of dependence on government among America’s seniors. Decimating the funds from within will not change this all-important status quo. And, by incorporating the twelve million illegals into the system, America’s dependent (and thus compliant) class can be enlarged to a breathtaking degree.Meanwhile, those gullible seniors who, on cue, expressed such vehement outrage at the possibility of privatization, and who insisted that all future generations of Americans be consigned to the same dismal system into which they have been sold, are relatively quiet as this theft of the funds is being perpetrated. Far from being mindful of how Social Security’s Ponzi scheme actually works, they are content to be demagogued by the nightly news and other liberal institutions who presume to do their thinking for them.Thus far, the liberal media has said little if anything of comparative alarm over the Senate plan. And, not surprisingly, other liberal institutions such as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), who have historically engaged in a charade of support for the cause of senior citizens, are instead conducting their typical, clandestine advocacy of liberalism.Here again, their rationale, while seeming totally contradictory on the surface, becomes entirely consistent when one considers where their real concerns and sympathies lie.Hardly true to the notion of bettering the lot for seniors the AARP understands that its own fortunes rely on the size of its membership rolls. And any horde of new “dependents,” regardless of the degree to which they constitute a drain on Americans, will nonetheless only increase those rolls.Thus it should surprise no one that, far from seeking to secure the nation’s borders and ensure America’s security and stability as a haven for seniors, AARP has in fact supported pro-illegal organizations such as MALDEF, the “Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund,” to which it has contributed thousands of dollars. In this it shows itself to be virtually indistinguishable from every other liberal institution presumably dedicated to the plight of the downtrodden, but in reality only exploiting such people as a resource to further its acquisition of power.Such outrageous betrayal of the American people by the “compassionate” members of the United States Senate (and virtually unopposed by the likes of the AARP) plainly illustrates the sinister mechanism fueling the massive growth of government in recent years. Furthermore, it could provide a backdrop against which President Bush might present his privatization plan with great success.Unfortunately, having been absolutely on the wrong side of the illegal immigrant issue from almost his first day in office, the present situation provides the President with no such political leverage.Thus Republicans once again cede the moral high ground, and in the process thoroughly undermine the conservative cause. And another golden opportunity to turn back the tide of liberalism is disgracefully squandered.
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Growing up during the turbulent decades of the 60's and 70's, Christopher Adamo saw, to his dismay, the nation's moral foundations being destroyed before his very eyes. But even then he was a staunch Conservative at heart, and rejected outright the tenets of America‚s counterculture revolution. After a hitch in the Air Force, where he specialized in airborne electro-optical systems, he pursued a career in the field of aerospace, working for major defense contractors in California, Florida, and Colorado. But his career plans abruptly changed during the industry-wide downsizing that followed the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Presently he is working in the field of industrial instrumentation in the state of Wyoming. Concurrently, he has become involved in that state‚s political process, attending state GOP conventions as a delegate, and serving as a member of the Wyoming Republican Central Committee. He has also aided in the candidacies of local legislators and state senators, as well as a U.S. Senator and Congresswoman. His archives can be found at chrisadamo.com
cadamo@wyomingwisp.com