The Source

Don't Forget What this Holiday is About

When most people think of the 4th of July, they think of barbeques, vacations and fireworks, but it is a far more momentous occasion than that. On this day, we celebrate our nation’s birth, the day our Founders signed the Declaration of Independence, the day our nation severed its ties with Britain and the day that marked the beginning of the greatest nation on earth.

On July 4th, 1776, our Founders stunned England when they declared:

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Although the seeds of revolution were sewn before this Declaration, the words in this document represented the hearts and minds of the brave men and women who challenged tyranny in the face of death. The freedoms and opportunities we have today are the direct result of the burden our Founders carried and the sacrifices they made.

This weekend, we need to remember why they fought oppression. We need to continue to protect the principles they gained for us all those years ago. We need to protect our choices, our freedoms, our property, and our democracy.

Because of our Founders, we have the privilege of living in the greatest country on earth. Let’s not let anything ever change that.

Want to know who will land which lucrative fee office? Why wait? All you have to do is follow the money…

Harvesters (St. Charles County)–
Put everything you have on Mark Miles getting this fee office. Miles lists his occupation as an assembler for Ford Motor Company, but has a history of operating Democrat money-laundering committees out of a dock in St. Charles.

Altogether he’s funneled almost $250,000 to Nixon and over $400,000 to other Democrats. Committees like his allow objectionable political donations to be concealed and otherwise to bypass contribution limits. Miles’ six competitors have donated less than $200 between them, making Miles the clear favorite.

South County, St. Louis- The South County St. Louis race isn’t quite as cut and dry – Brian H. May has donated over $10,000 to Democrats which would normally be a slam dunk for this office. But May has applied for so many bidding offices there’s no way to tell which one will actually be his reward. If it’s not May, look for Thomas J. Springer (just under $2500 donated to Nixon) to get the nod.

North Kansas City-
The top contender is James Ryan Williams, who has contributed over $2,000 to Nixon and $6,000 to other Democrats.

Williams has also put in bids for the Gladstone and Liberty offices, and that’s not all. He teamed up with fellow Democrat James Montee to make bids under Montee’s name. They’ve already been awarded the Lee’s Summit contract and are under consideration for St. Joseph. Williams is poised to be the biggest winner in the fee office sweepstakes.

Liberty-
We expect that Ed and Jane Quick, along with Lloyd Glover will get at least one fee office and our money is on Liberty. Ed, of course, is the Presiding Commissioner of Clay County and a long-time state Senator from Liberty.

Gladstone-
While it’s possible the Quicks could get this lucrative fee office, we believe it will be Don Dagenais of the Peironnet Company. Why? He made very generous donations totaling $15,000 to Democrats.

The bottom line is this- top donors to Jay Nixon and Democrats are mysteriously being tapped to run fee office after fee office throughout the state. It’s just more double talk from Jay Nixon who promised to reform bidding for fee offices.

From a Missouri Farmer...

A Soldier’s Duty

“I swear by almighty God this sacred oath: ‘I will render unconditional obedience to the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, and as a brave soldier I will be ready at any time to stake my life for this oath’.”

This oath was installed by Hitler in 1934 to replace the oath that was recited by soldiers loyal to the Weimar Republic. To freedom-loving people, this oath takes on an ominous tone, with loyalty sworn to the named leader rather than to the nation. This is a popular method of insuring the loyalty of the armed forces in nations sporting one-man-rule.

The United States soldier swears to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This is a common format among nations with democratic rule.

Honduras has a democratic government with a constitution. President Manuel Zelaya violated the terms of this Honduran document and was arrested and escorted out of the country by soldiers who had sworn to defend their constitution.

Zelaya was required by the constitution to leave the Presidency after this November’s election, but instead tried to hold a referendum that would allow him to remain in office. This too, was in violation of the law that stated only the Honduran Congress could call for constitutional change. The Honduran Supreme Court would not allow the referendum.

Zelaya promptly complained to his friend and mentor, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who eagerly supplied him with ballots for a referendum. The army refused to distribute them, which was their normal duty, because they were ordered by the courts to stand down. The President, urged on by Chavez, led a mob to raid a military facility where the ballots were stored, seized them, and began distributing them.

Zelaya, who had forced radio and television stations to broadcast two hours of his own propaganda each day, and who had alienated the Catholic Church, as well as several evangelistic church leaders, soon found himself without many friends. His own party complained that he was no longer in his right mind just weeks before he was arrested.

The Congress and Supreme Court ordered the Army to take him into custody in order to preserve the constitutional law, and with guns drawn, they performed their duty. An interim President was selected from Congress, Roberto Micheletti, who is a member of Zelaya’s own Liberal Party, and he reassured the Honduran people that elections would be held in November and that he would step down in favor of the new President. This was definitely an action designed to preserve the law.

Chavez immediately threatened to invade the small Central American nation. Castro, Daniel Ortega, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and Bolivia’s Evo Morales (all left-leaning Latin leaders) also rallied to Zelaya’s defense, calling the action a military coup. Chavez, Correa and Morales had all used similar referendums to remain in power.

The most surprising response came from our President Obama, who quickly described the action as a “coup,” stating he was “deeply concerned,” “that it was “illegal,” and “it set a terrible precedent.” This is the same guy who swore to refrain from meddling in Iran’s so-called tainted election when thousands of young Iranians were being murdered and jailed for exercising what we cherish as our rights of expression and assembly.

Nobody expected the President to invade Iran, but would it have been so hard for this “thoughtful” man to just expound on the rights we believe are inalienable, or could it be that he doesn’t feel the same about the Constitution as most Americans? If you remember, Obama stated that he believed the Constitution spent too much effort outlining what the government “can’t do to you,” and not enough on what it “must do on your behalf.” Do his beliefs sound like the Founding Fathers who valued individual liberties?

The President has never shied away from meddling in Israel’s affairs, but that is not surprising from the Islamophile Obama. However, to once again stand toe to toe with Chavez and Castro against a young Honduran Democracy that is fighting to not be swallowed up by the Chavez cabal, is disgusting and an abomination to free people.

What is Obama going to do next? Is he going to join Chavez and his buddies in an invasion to set President-for-Life-wanna-be Zelaya back on his throne? Will he want to expand his own term limits? Will the name President Barrack Hussein Obama become part of our soldiers’ oath?

America used to stand for democracy; we even supported the election victory of Hamas in Gaza. But this is a new day, and our President is resolved not to meddle in the affairs of foreign nations unless they are democratic, and then they had better watch their step!

Congratulations to the Honduran people; maybe your courage will remind Americans on this Independence Day of how fragile democracy can be and how vigilant we must remain in order to protect what we take for granted.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commision

The new selection for the 6-person Bi-partisan commission:

Jewel D. Scott

Executive Director for the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City

University of Kansas (Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees)

Political Contributions:

Yvonne Wilson ($100); Claire McCaskill ($500); Bob Johnson ($250); Matt Blunt ($1300); Mark Funkhouser ($1000); Shields ($500); House Republican Committee ($150); Jay Nixon ($250); MO House Democratic Committee ($250); Levota ($100); Emanuel Cleaver ($400)

Try to guess if she’s taking the place of a Republican or a Democrat…

Supreme Court Overturns Sotomayor Ruling: Reverse Discrimination

Earlier today, the Supreme Court overruled one of the few significant rulings made by Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor. She ruled in favor of the New Haven fire department’s decision to throw out examination scores for promotion purposes because the scores were unfairly skewed in the favor of white candidates.

Correcting Sotomayor’s ruling, the majority decision argued that although the white candidates performed better than minority groups, there was no intentional discrimination. Similarly, the New Haven fire department was discriminating against the white candidates by throwing out their scores.

New Haven officials who threw out the test could not point out any specific flaws with the test other than the white candidates performed better than minorities.

The Supreme Court corrected this flawed judgment by Sotomayor and the lower courts with which she agreed.

Although this is unlikely to change Sotomayor’s Senatorial approval to The Bench, it was an important ruling for employers who should not have to make promotions based on the fear of litigation from employees.

For Sotomayor, it is yet another warning sign about her plans to use the court as a policy-making tool.

The Healthcare Plan (Part 1 of a 4-Part Series)

President Obama’s healthcare plan is based on three main promises: 1) Reduce costs; 2) Guarantee choice through a public option; and 3) Quality care for all citizens.

While most agree that healthcare needs to change and few argue against the merits of these goals, we must first understand how Obama plans to achieve his promises and what that means for Americans.

The price for this program ranges from $1 to $2 trillion, a substantial sum, but Obama promises that the new healthcare program will not add to the deficit. He promises to remove the wasteful, unnecessary programs that some estimate take up to 1/3 of the healthcare industry. Unfortunately, except for a spattering of specific patient examples, he has no broad outline of what wasteful programs are removable. Similarly, adding large government bureaucracy to the already confusing healthcare system is unlikely to sharpen healthcare diagnosis and/or treatment.

Next, Obama plans to raise revenue through taxes and incentives (penalties is a more appropriate term). Staying true to form, he plans to raise taxes for those who manage to be successful in today’s economy. On top of that, Obama’s plan includes the removal of tax deductions for charitable contributions, thus hurting charities, universities and high-taxed cities.

His plan not only taxes the wealthiest, but also hurts businesses, big and small, as well as their employees, high income and low. Any household making 300% more than the poverty line (about $66,000) is in danger of having its healthcare benefits taxed. Even worse, small business owners who cannot afford health coverage for their employees will be penalized.

Larger businesses will be forced to make tough decisions as well. They will stop hiring low-income workers because of the penalties that result from not providing them insurance. Most businesses are also likely to switch to the government plan because of its economic advantages, forcing employees to change healthcare providers (something Obama promised wouldn’t happen) and destroying much of the healthcare and insurance industry (costing millions of jobs).

Obama’s healthcare plan is riddled with difficulties, inconsistencies, and impossibilities. As the debate rages on about the future of healthcare, we plan to keep a close watch on a plan that is likely to affect every citizen and business in this country. We will investigate three aspects of this debate that we found to be most worrisome: 1) Employer healthcare; 2) Government control; and 3) the effect on the people.

Give us your comments, and let us know how you feel about this situation.

From a Missouri Farmer...

Last week I watched an old movie, “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father,” starring Glenn Ford, Ron “Opie” Howard, and Shirley Jones. Little Eddie, attempts in this film to ignite a marital romance between his father, Ford, and Jones, a neighbor living across the hall.

The last scene depicts a phone call that Eddie arranges between the two adults. Eddie opens the door of each apartment and stands in the hallway listening to the conversation approvingly. What struck me as familiar was the way his head jerked back and forth as he looked from one conversant to the other. It was an exact replication of the tennis match neck movements of our President.

I really can’t believe that even the President’s most ardent supporters aren’t fatigued with his teleprompter-inspired gyrations. Mr. President, why not try just speaking to us, rather than to yourself while looking into a mirror seeking your own approval.

Buyer remorse is beginning to set in with those who voted for the President. I don’t mean you 22 percent who still believe him to be the messiah - rather the Americans who really believed in the hope and change he was scripted to promise. However, they are beginning to see the true nature of his policies, and it is being reflected in the polls.

The President talked a good game on education, but it is obvious that by walking away from the voucher program in D.C., he has sold out to his NEA supporters - the kids be damned. Not his own of course, they attend private schools.

He has claimed while in Turkey that we are no longer a Christian nation and claimed in Egypt that we are one of the largest Islamic nations – both untrue. The President has shown vacillation towards North Korea, acquiescence towards Iran, and total embarrassment for being American.

The President has been reluctant to accept any responsi¬bility for his actions; everything has been Bush’s fault. We haven’t had a president who blamed everything on his predecessor since FDR. However, Americans are becoming wise to his desire to make government so big that we can never go back to a day of individual achievement and success.

The President is spending us into a hole. Our children will never be able to pay-off the incredible debt, and it is still growing. If he is able to take over health care, grant blanket amnesty, gerrymander the census, and unionize all workers, he will be able to remain in power indefinitely.

Rather than being humbled by the office of President of the United States, he has become even more arrogant and haughty. If criticized, he retorts, “I am the PRESIDENT.” It is not as if we could forget that fact. He launches a new socialist spending program each week and then leaves on a foreign, feel-good tour, leaving the details to his army of czars, which are never scrutinized by Congress.

He has created no productive jobs (government jobs produce nothing), he is printing dollars to cover debt – thereby creating inflation, and he has prevented America from becoming energy self-sufficient with wild dreams of green energy, while Al Gore becomes rich from the panic he helped create. Americans will now be forced to drive tin-foil sedans that can be driven fifty miles between charge-ups, and industrious towns will produce plug-in stations, combined with motels to benefit their tourist industry.

He does not stand for the liberty and freedom our nation was built upon, seeming to be more comfortable creating a Byzantine network of bureaucracies that need not be staffed with the best America has to offer. The President is most at home among the dictators and kings who use all means to extinguish individuality.

I am happy to say I didn’t vote for this Sham-Wow president, who just doesn’t measure up when put to the test. But then again, the Sham-Wow president has really sucked up the press.