Tea Party RoundTable urges you to not vote for Romney.

A young bright star was extinguished on March 19, 2011.  Army Spc. Rudy Acosta a 19 year old from Santa Clarita was killed by a foreign national paid to guard our troops in battle.

Mr. Holt sites a letter from our Congressman Buck McKeon which was sent to the Signal and to Leon Panetta, our Secretary of Defense.  In it apparently Congressman McKeon expresses his “disappointment” about how long it took to get the report, and he “identified several areas and procedures that could be improved to prevent future insurgent attacks of this nature.”

Are you kidding me?  This is absurd and patronizing first to the Acosta family and secondly to us, whom the Congressman is suppose to represent!

First, let’s fix the immediate issue.  Don’t let citizens of nations that we’re at war with guard our troops.  Rather have either our troops guard themselves or at least US private contractors … Duh!  This is simply common sense.  Would you have criminal street gangs guard our police and sheriff stations?  Would you have child molesters guard our schools?

This is not a complex issue requiring committee meetings and reports.  When our troops are eating meals, sleeping, or enjoying some much needed down time, they should not have to worry that the person guarding them might kill them.

Second, the bigger issue … massive governmental incompetence from our local Congressman to the Secretary of Defense.

Congressman McKeon is the “Chairman of the Committee of Armed Services” for goodness sake!  Assuming he’s being truthful (which I doubt) this means that our government is completely inept.  If the Chairman of the Committee of Armed Services can’t get a simple report from the military than who can?

Moreover, according to the story the report was actually completed on April 14.  That means that Congressman McKeon sat on his hands for 8 months!  He should have demanded that as soon as the report was completed it is to be delivered to his desk.  Or at minimum McKeon should have been checking regularly on the status of the report, clearly he was not.

So what then was the catalyst causing the Chairman of the Committee of Armed Services to check on such an important report?  Well, he received on Friday, December 16, the day after the Signal reported a story on this issue, and three days after McKeon’s Chief of Staff was confronted by Mr. Acosta (Rudy’s dad) at a local GOP event.

Apparently it takes public disclosure of their incompetence for the McKeon machine to do their job.  Congressman McKeon has a duty to provide oversight to our military.  He is our voice to protect our young men and women serving in the military.  Congressman McKeon has a duty to provide answers to a grieving family in his district.  He has failed on both accounts.

It’s time to vote out Congressman McKeon and replace him with someone who will do their job!

My dear young friend, It’s not a “bubble” it’s a value system.  If someone is Republican they might be either liberal or conservative.

If you are liberal you believe that the federal government has the primary responsibility to protect you and provide for your needs.  They believe we are protected by government regulations, and we are provided for by taking money out of your paycheck and giving some of the money you’ve earned to other people.

If you are conservative you believe that the federal government’s responsibilities are outlined and limited to what is in the Constitution and the subsequent Amendments.  Specifically:

• Protecting citizens God-given rights (on-going)
• National Defense (on-going)
  
• Establishing Federal Courts (done)
  
• Copyright Protection (on-going)
  
• Establishing a national set of weights and measures (done)
  
• Establishing Post Office (on-going)
  

Everything else should be taken care of by the individual citizen or the state government.

The problem with getting outside a “bubble” is that requires destroying the bubble … and that bubble can never be restored.

If you think that you should make the decision about who to help with your money and how much you should give them, then you my young friend are not liberal, you are conservative.

The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Thus our right to keep and bear arms is not to hunt or to keep thugs from stealing our stuff … it’s to have citizens armed with weapons and able to form militias to protect our State from oppressive governments!

Funny how it seems to get back to an out of control Federal government usurping the rights of individuals and States.

These people are either woefully ignorant, or disingenuous at best.  The Tea Party supports the 10 Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  In other words the Federal governments powers and authority are limited to those few and specific things assigned to it.

A simple way to understand this is that your problems and needs should be handled as close to you as possible.  You are responsible to provide and protect yourself.  In some instances that job will be too big for you.  At those times those things should be handled by your family, then your community, then your State, then the Federal government.

Today we’ve turned that on it’s head and look to the Federal government first to fix our problems and provide for us.

The Tea Party is not for Anarchy, it is for each person and entity assuming its proper role and authority.
 

The principles of the Constitution are based on, or inspired by Biblical principles, Biblical principles reflect the character of God.  Many people won’t understand this but let me explain rationally and equivocally using one characteristic of God as an example.

God is love.  God wants us to love others as He does.  Life experience and logic tell you that if you kidnapped someone and forced them to “love” you, that would not be true love.  Love requires choice not force or coercion.

One application of that Biblical principle based on the character of God is that in America you have freedom of religion (not freedom “from” religion).  Each person has the right to choose to worship or not as he or she chooses. 

Why?  Because God loves you, He will not force you to love Him.

Moreover, the application of this Biblical principle is an example of America’s supremacy over many other nations.  In many nations today you do not have the freedom to exercise religion, or your choice of which religion to practice is forced upon you.  As I write this article there is a Christian father in Iran who is facing execution because he refused to renounce his Christian faith and return to Islam.

Thus The Tea Party, like our Constitution is not trying to establish a religion, it’s trying to protect everyone’s rights by relying on the wisdom of our Founders who based our laws on Biblical principles.

The bottom line is that if you are an Atheist, Muslim, Pagan, Christian, Agnostic, et.al … you have the Liberty to hold and express those views because that is your God-given right protected by our Constitution.

When it comes to our Libertarian friends two issues jump out at me right away; Morals matter and Religion matters.

While we share many concerns with Libertarians, especially when it comes to the economy, what distinguishes Tea Party members is that it is not ONLY about the economy.  Our Founding Fathers were clear, in order for this nation to survive it must by lead my moral people held accountable by moral people.

Character matters.  Social issues such as abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research are important.  What is taught to our children in schools about tolerance, sex and history are important.  And maintaining a strong military is essential.

We cannot be scared away from acknowledging the fact that America is a great, prosperous, tolerant, generous, law-abiding nation because she was founded on Biblical principles.  To the degree that we stray from that will erode our national character and benefits.
 

I understand the strategic need to use the Republican Party to get candidates into office.  However, some well-meaning GOP’ers simply can’t wrap their conditioned mind around the concept that we are not a “plank” of the GOP, we’re not a bunch of disenfranchised members of the Republican Party, and we’re not capable of being bullied by their usual tactics!

Let me state our relationship with the Republican Party plainly and clearly:  Like it or not we live in a two party system.  The Tea Party is strategically using the GOP to get conservative candidates in office.  We are doing that by replacing Liberal Republicans then winning elections against the other party.

Allow me to share two quick stories to illustrate this point.  My first meeting as a leader of our local Tea Party was in a friend’s house with about 20 other people.  As I shared this concept I was met with some blank stares and some confused people nodding their heads.  When this concept was applied to voting I asserted that I would not vote for a candidate who was not conservative simply because he/she had an “R” after their name.  There was a group gasp followed by days of angry and concerned calls and emails.

Several months later I was having a breakfast meeting with the Chief of Staff for my local Congressman.  He patiently explained to me how we needed to put up more liberal candidates in some areas so that we could win those seats to ensure a larger voting bloc in the house … blah, blah, blah.  I chuckled and told him, “That’s not the way it works anymore.  Here’s how it works.  You put up conservative candidates and we will vote for them and they will win.  You put up RJINO’s and we will not vote for them and you will lose.”

The GOP thinks the Tea Party is a fringe of the Republican Party that they can use.  They have it backwards.  The Tea Party is a distinct voting bloc that is resolute.  They are not using us, Rather we are using them!

This is epidemic when it comes to the Tea Party.  Liberals believe the Tea Party is just a fringe wing of the Republican Party.  Republicans think it’s the embarrassing Constitution carrying, Bible thumping element of their political party.  Libertarians and Independents are just as confused.

This week I will post a new article each day that briefly explains the differences.  I will provide clarity to the muddy waters by describing how and why the GOP, Libertarians, Anarchist, NRA and Christian labels can’t possibly summarize what the Tea Party is about.

Hold on … I’m about to offend just about everybody … that is, everyone who’s not truly a Tea Party member.
 

Most days I feel like I’m the only one going through hard times.  I hear talk about how most people are feeling the financial pressures these days.  I see the high unemployment rate.  But everyone’s still driving nice cars, wearing the latest fashions, and enjoying the amusements of life.

I don’t see food lines, unemployed people looking for work, or good hardworking people on the streets.  I guess it’s because today we have government assistance programs that puts a façade on the suffering and enables those of us experiencing the Second Great Depression to hide behind food stamps and unemployment compensation.

The result is that no one really sees the true magnitude of how bad things really are, and an increased dependency on the government to provide for our daily needs.  Tragically the silent consequences are also broken marriages, depressed individuals and increased suicides in people between the ages 40 and 64.

No, I’m not considering suicide, but I do go through times of depression and my marriage is on the rocks.  I’ve got a nice resume that includes management with a well known company, I have an MBA, I’m a hard worker, yet I’m working 3 jobs and earned less last year then I’ve earned in the past 20 years.

I understand that economies are cyclical and that perhaps part of the problem is just bad luck of being born and raising a family when the economy moved into a natural cycle.  But I think the greatest catalyst has been progressive fiscal and monetary policies from our federal government and the Federal Reserve.  Both political parties are to blame.  Power hungry permanent political class who care more for their carries than for our liberty is the problem.

Thus I guess the beginning of the solution is to vote ALL these arrogant and selfish idiots out of office and replace them with Patriots.  The road to health individually and as a nation is a long hard one.  I’m willing to walk it, if you’ll walk beside me.
 

But they have a crusade.  They’re true believers and will stop at nothing to get their point across.

Yesterday they stormed the Port of Longview which “plays an important role in economic development by creating jobs in manufacturing and international trade. It develops infrastructure to support these jobs at its marine terminals and industrial property, creating a positive economic ripple that strengthens the local community.” (Port of Longview website)

They held six guards hostage for hours, vandalized thousands of dollars worth of property, and dumped needed and valuable grain.

Who were these terrorists?  Radical Muslims?  Eco-Terrorists?  Tea Party?  No … it was the International Longshore and Warehouse Union!

• Of course no arrests were made!
  
• No mention of this domestic terrorist incident in the national news! (here’s a local report)
  
• No condemnation by any politicians!
  

In fact it’s only aluminum foil-hat-wearing basement bloggers like me reporting on this.

If this act of terrorism was carried out by any other group it would be national headlines.  If it was the Tea Party demands for arrests and federal indictments would be immediate.  I would have to go into my bomb shelter and lock the bank vault security door behind me.  Other conservatives would be rounded up and sent to Guantanamo Bay (or did Obama shut that down like he said he would during his campaign … oh no, he didn’t.  Yet another lie, but I digress)

These domestic terrorist organizations we call Unions have free reign to do and say whatever they like because they give money to politicians in both parties … it’s as simple as that!

Perhaps our war on terrorism needs to shift focus from the middle east to DC.

We will not support this.  Next year in November the RINO’s will once again see that we will vote them out and vote conservative in!

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