Category Archives: Conservative views

by starediting | June 11, 2014 · 6:18 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS — 119

HEY GOP, LISTEN UP (AGAIN)

(In light of Eric Cantor losing his seat in the primaries this week, I thought it prudent to republish this former blog. It’s important.)

Conservatives are tired of Republicans who turn to big government and unlimited spending to solve the nation’s problems. The Republican politicians who are too frightened to stand up for their principles and instead play the “go along to get along” game got their share of criticism. The message I hear from the conservative people is simple: control spending, limit the size and scope of government to what is necessary, maintain the strength of our armed forces, regain the lost respect for American power on the international front, and most of all protect our Constitutional rights.

A clear message. But I doubt the Republican establishment hears the message and those who hear it don’t understand it. The people who make this country work and finance the government are fed up. They aren’t demanding much, just the chance to have and keep a job, raise their kids in a safe environment, send them to a school that gives them the opportunity to get a good education, be able to find and pay for good medical care, live in a nation that honors and takes care of its veterans, have leaders they respect to maintain American excellence and military power, and, where possible, encourage the growth of individual freedom everywhere. That’s what they want and expect to get. Save “change America and transformation” for the make-believe world where it comes from.

There is strong support for term limits for Congress that would encourage citizen politicians to serve their nation for four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate. Our professional politicians get so wrapped up in the quest to get elected and stay elected, they lose sight of why they are there. They are not there to serve themselves, but to serve the people who sent them to Washington or their state capitals. There are a few who are trying to save the nation from an alien transformation but they are often criticized and ridiculed by their own party leaders who are truly professionals whose main task is to get elected for yet another term.

These same Republican leaders think that the transformation of America will fall of its own weight and are taking a terrible chance with our way of life. Instead of keeping their powder dry they need to get in the fray, protect their Constitutional right to make laws, and give the nation another vision of the shining city on a hilltop. Tell us your plans for health care, military force levels, foreign policy, tax reform, protection of social security, employment growth, and the reduction of the size and scope of a government that has outgrown its required role.

We don’t need or want class warfare, redistribution of wealth or any of the other parts of progressivism/socialism. We just need a common sense government that takes care of those who are too young, or too old, or too sick to work. We can work together. Government isn’t hard. Just listen to the people. Their voices can be heard.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels, a retired CIA agent and former adviser to President Reagan. You are encouraged to share this blog and leave comments.

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Filed under class warfare, Conservative views, political solutions, Politics

Tagged as Conservatives, eric cantor, GOP, politics, Republicans

by Barry Kelly | June 5, 2014 · 8:18 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 118

NEGOTIATOR-IN-CHIEF

The president has reached a new low in his role as our commander-in-chief. Maybe no one told him that even if he has the authority to make prisoner of war exchanges, the position of the United States government has been for several decades that we do not negotiate with terrorists. The terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay are not POWs. They are terrorists without the process afforded by the legalities associated with the holding and treatment of POWs. By negotiating with terrorists you encourage them to seize more hostages because you have raised the value of hostages. Exchanging one U.S. serviceman or woman for five top value Taliban commanders puts every American in Afghanistan at greater risk.

President Obama, photo by the New York Daily News.

The president’s motive for this exchange are not straightforward. The political spin is so fast the truth is blurred. Timing is nearly everything. He needed to change the debate from the failure of the U.S. government to take care of its veterans. He had nowhere to run. So spin out a tale of ending the war and rescue an American soldier captured on the field of battle defending America’s interests. Spin within spin. He also wants to close Guantanamo Bay by releasing all the prisoners into the custody of nations like Qatar. Even he surely can’t believe Qatar will keep an eye on prisoners released to its jurisdiction and prevent them from killing or planning to kill more Americans.

An additional motive is that president cares more about world opinion than he does of America’s opinion. No joke! Even our lukewarm friends in Europe would vote to close Guantanamo Bay in a heartbeat.

The reality is that the rescued army soldier is no hero. At best, he is a deserter. At worst, a collaborator. He wasn’t captured on the battlefield. He just walked away from his unit, leaving his weapon and body armor behind. How to set all this right? Call on Susan Rice. She doesn’t mind being called on to fall on her sword again. She is good at it. Surely she can’t believe what she said on all the Sunday TV shows. Unlike Benghazi, the truth here is not hidden. Just ask the soldiers who served with him or read the record.

But surely, you may say, the president knew he would be criticized by the Republicans. Yes, but he doesn’t care in the least about their criticism. He didn’t expect the followers of Harry Reid to chime in. The voters he doesn’t care about. He’s done running for office. It’s a good thing because I believe he could be elected again and so does he.

President Obama counts on the ignorance and disinterest of most of America’s voters to the nuts and bolts of the political process. A few good speeches, a manufactured story about improvement in the economy, ending wars, raising the minimum wage, the war on women, health care, and a super get out the vote ground effort with a 95 percent black vote, and a growing Hispanic vote could put the progressives in the Oval Office again. Hilary Clinton is counting on the same factors.

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Filed under Afghanistan, Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Politics, Progressives, Terrorism

Tagged as afghanistan, bergdahl, gitmo, guantanamo bay, Obama, prisoner of war, release

by Barry Kelly | June 3, 2014 · 8:00 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 117

WHAT IS A PROGRESSIVE?

The first check is: did you vote twice for Obama?

The first vote I understand. We all wanted change and many were willing to take a chance.

The second time is different. After seeing the president’s actions and listening to his teleprompter for four years and if you still wanted a second term for him, you are more than a moderate Democrat. You, my friend, are a progressive. You don’t agree? Okay, let’s run through some indicators.

You believe growing the size and power of the federal government is a good thing. You knew Obama would continue growing the size of government and gathering more power into the executive branch, ignoring the fundamental Constitutional powers granted to Congress. You accept having non-elected government bureaucrats make decisions impacting our lives rather than the people elected to decide on economic and environmental issues. Did you want the president and his cabinet to decide which laws to enforce and which to ignore? Do you feel good about the politicalization of the civil service, especially the IRS discriminating against conservative groups? Do you believe President Obama is managing a transparent governing process? Have you recognized the cover ups in the cases of the “fast and furious” gun running to drug gangs, the Benghazi affair where Americans were refused help and left to die in a terrorist attack, the failure to improve care for veterans in the five years of the Obama Administration, the IRS unlawful acts?

All presidents make mistakes, but have you heard the president’s lies on Obamacare, Benghazi, the IRS, the VA scandal, on budget issues, clean energy, climate change caused by humans, foreign policy blunders and wire tapping of journalists? Do you recognize he is always waiting for his investigation to be completed but never accepts that he is the problem and never fixes anything? He is in charge. The buck is supposed to stop in the Oval Office. Not here. It just picks up speed on its way to someone else.

Here are some fundamental beliefs progressives hold dear:

Government spending is a primary cause of a growing economy;
High taxes and constant regulation do not hamper economic growth;
Increasing the minimum wage stimulates the economy;
An intelligent elite knows best what the people need;
Voter I.D. is discriminatory and discourages voter turnout;
Government bureaucrats are good managers of the VA, and will be good managers of Obamacare;
Redistribution of income is the primary purpose of big government;
Citizens have no rights to guns regardless of the Second Amendment;
If the cause is just, the ends justify the means.

The president has been depending on a highly partisan media and voter support that blindly follows his socialistic agenda to protect him. If you can’t agree with most of this, you are a progressive and that is your right. But don’t expect your individual freedom and rights to survive. They never do in any socialist, one-party political system where the socialist elites are always in power and the opposition is referred to as the rebels or terrorists.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, class warfare, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Obamacare, Progressives

Tagged as Benghazi, Iran, Obama

by Barry Kelly | May 25, 2014 · 7:56 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 116

OBAMA AND THE VETERANS

Here we go again. In this administration, the buck stops nowhere. No one is ever accountable. No one gets ever gets fired. But there is a difference this time. The real democrats have added their considerable voice to the uproar while the socialists/progressives continue to protect and support their leader. General Shinsecki, regardless of his previous honorable record, has failed this time. He knew his mission five years ago and today the treatment of our veterans is worse than when he took office. A few more facts:

This is not a new problem and President Obama did not cause the problem. He has equally done nothing to fix it except make speeches about how as Commander-in-Chief he would make sure our vets were taken care of in the VA medical system. Instead after five years he is still studying the problem. The problem for the president and the progressives is that the VA is essentially a socialized medical system limited to veterans. The VA medical system is large but nowhere near the size of the Obamacare goal. The VA system, like all socialized medicine anywhere in the world, is run by the government. Government bureaucrats have an unblemished history of failure in every socialize medicine scheme ever tried. The government does some things very well, running a socialized medical care system for veterans is not one of them. If the government cannot run the VA medical system effectively, how will they ever be able to run the much larger Obamacare?

The answer is they cannot, and this is the reason for all the delays and cover ups of the systemic failure of VA care for veterans in the last five years. The American people, while they can be fooled by nice-sounding words from a ‘cool’ president, they will finally recognize the lack of any attempt to solve the VA problem. The truth is that the progressives are not and never have been in the market to fix problems. Instead all their effort is dedicated to gaining power in order to transform America into a one-party totalitarian socialist nation.

What is most vexing is that there is a solution. Give veterans a voucher to go to any medical facility of their choice. It is time to scrap the VA medical care establishment and stop the substandard medical care of our veterans. Socialized medicine in any form cannot be fixed. It can only be replaced. We have had since the end of the Civil War to study the effectiveness of the VA. That should be long enough even for this progressive administration.

This Memorial Day, remember those who fought and died and continue to fight and die for the freedoms of this nation, and honor them. Our president doesn’t seem to be doing so.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Obamacare

Tagged as health care, memorial day, Obama, Obamacare, Progressive, socialism, VA, veterans

by Barry Kelly | May 13, 2014 · 6:50 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 114

A DANGEROUS TOLERANCE

Tolerance is part of the American heritage and it has served us well. There are times when tolerance is a questionable response to a dangerous situation. There is nothing in our Constitution that tells us that we must be tolerant in the face of danger. Constantly showing tolerance for the excesses of radical Muslims is counter-productive. Jihadism or radical Islam is a threat to Americans and our way of life. They will not be satisfied until America and what it stands for is destroyed. The threat from radical Islam will not go away. It is not a fad or something that will go away if we just understand it and tolerate their hatred. Progressives led by President Obama, who also want to weaken American economic and military power, will someday understand that they, too, are marked by jihadists for elimination.

Show Muslims love, understanding, and compassion and you show them weakness and a lack of commitment to freedom and liberty, two concepts that do not flourish now and never have in any Muslim state. Muslims are not required to turn the other cheek in the presence of violence or love their neighbors or respect the weak. It appears their love and compassion does not extend outside of their faith. When the Twin Towers were brought down by Muslim terrorists, all the Arabs and other Muslims dancing in the streets of their various homelands were not al-Qaida members or jihadists. They were what progressives like think to represent moderate Muslims. These moderate Muslims tolerate and support radical jihadists by not speaking and acting to stop the senseless killing. These same moderates often support the imposition of sharia law, the mutilation of young Muslim girls, the abuse of Christian minorities and the lack of education for Muslim females.

There is nothing reciprocal about Christians showing kindness and understanding to Muslims. In America ,we allow Muslims to build mosques nearly anywhere they want. We believe in and practice freedom of religion. Name any Muslim nation that allows Christians to build churches with the freedom to convert Muslims to Christianity. There is an inherent conflict between the tenets of Christianity and those of Islam. Our leaders who have shown a decided lean toward Islam in the practice of foreign policy, need to recognize this conflict and demand reciprocity. When that doesn’t happen, which it won’t, then we have to examine the wisdom of a policy that provides freedom to a religion bent on destroying America and the West.