House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spent $2,993 in taxpayer money on flowers between June and October. House Majority Whip James Clyburn has a thing for Chantilly Donuts, spending about $265 at the Virginia shop in the past quarter. And Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), a fiscal conservative, decided to give about $2,000 in unused office funds back to the government to help reduce the deficit…..
Pelosi, who has come under fire in the past for spending on flowers, also spent roughly $30,610 in food and beverage and about $2,740 on bottled water, contributing to the nearly $120,531 total from all congressional leadership accounts.
But shortly before his announcement, hackers broke into the servers at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Great Britain and posted e-mails in which scientists dismissed climate change skeptics, expressed concern about the lack of evidence to prove the threat of global warming and even made one reference to a plan to “hide the decline” in temperatures.
No, I am not talking about Obamacare, though I probably could.
Gallup: “59% to 36%, more Americans believe accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried in a military court, rather than in a civilian criminal court.”
If I wind up finding one positive review of Sarah Palin’s massive-selling book, Going Rogue: An American Life, I might pass out. The liberal reviews are great, nonetheless.
The first one worth mentioning is a review written by Patricia Williams of The Observer. Past article-titles of such stellar unbiased reviewing include:
1.) My Family’s Debt to the Kennedys’ America
2.) Having Barack Obama as president doesn’t make America colour – blind
Ms. Williams is a professor at Columbia, so it’s not a surprise that she would attempt to give small-town folks the benefit of the doubt by stating: “America’s small towns are filled with vibrant, curious, diverse personalities” right before saying:
But Palin is committed to a romantic Disneyesque trope of “small town values,” a uniform, folksy fairyland where no one ever has to lock their doors or even disagrees.
That’s because; Ms. Williams, all of those small-town folks, including Ms. Palin believe in the second Amendment. Therefore; leaving our doors unlocked is no trouble.
One of the best nonfiction books I have ever read was written by Marcus Luttrell, a Navy SEAL who was the sole survivor of SEAL team 10 on Operation Redwing in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan. Luttrell relates his story as his team, sent to put eyeballs on a Taliban bigwig, ends up all but being stepped on in their hiding places by three Afghani goatherds. They knew by the way these guys were looking at them that if they didn’t kill them, within minutes of turning them loose they’d be set upon by all the Taliban soldiers in the village they were watching–and they’d end up dead.
In WWII, this wouldn’t have been an issue. The bad guys would have been killed and we’d have heard nothing about it. Luttrell goes into the realities they faced on the side of that mountain: if they let them go, the Taliban would kill the American SEALs as quickly as they could. But if they killed the goatherds, the SEALs knew that the Taliban would play it up, the US media would eat it up, and to quell the anger at killing unarmed people the military courts would chew them up and spit them out. They knew that their careers would be over if they did what they would have to do to save themselves.
Most of the country knows what happened by now. They let the goatherds go, and in no time the mountainside was swarming with Taliban killers. Luttrell was the only man to survive of the four-man team. The Taliban even managed to shoot down the helicopter sent to rescue them, killing all the souls on board.
We haven’t learned the lessons of that fight. It has just been announced that three Navy SEALs are being court martialed for supposedly abusing a prisoner, one who was a most-wanted terrorist in Iraq. SO-2 Matthew McCabe, SO-2 Jonathan Keefe and SO-1 Julio Huertas refused an admiral’s mast (a non-judicial punishment) offered in the wake of accusations that they punched Ahmed Hashim Abed.
The evidence? Abed had a bloody lip.
Cry me a goddamn river.
What’s worse is that the bad guy is claiming he was punched in the gut, but his LIP was bloody! Are we serious? They offered a non-judicial punishment and the SEALs decided to stand up for themselves. My Lord, what are we coming to when the media jumps on something like this and our troops, who are heroes for capturing this flab of human debris, are targeted instead?
I find it completely astounding that the FBI and the military weren’t willing to do a damn thing to stop a known jihadist within their own ranks before he carried out jihad on 14 souls (one of those soldiers was pregnant–the victim count should be FOURTEEN) but when our boys save the day by catching a murdering fiend, we move to protect the murderer. Abed, by the way, led the mob that murdered and burned the bodies of four US Blackwater employees, dragged them through the streets, then hung them from a bridge in Fallujah.
Shame on whoever thought this should be prosecuted. SHAME ON YOU.
I remember well when Madonna appeared onstage with Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards. At one point in the performance, Madonna turned and did a brief lip-lock with Spears. It was the kiss seen ’round the world, and everyone talked about it for months. It still gets more hits online than any other footage from the VMA’s.
I didn’t like it because neither of the women involved were lesbians and what they did was a blatant attempt at shock value. My life, who I am, is not political clout. I’m not here for someone else’s entertainment. The Madonna/Britney moment was deeply insulting to me because of the meaning behind it.
On Sunday night, Adam Lambert–the runner-up from the last season of American Idol–performed at the American Music Awards and turned in the raciest performance in the award ceremonies’ history. He didn’t just kiss a male dancer. He fondled one and ground his crotch on the face of another. Now Good Morning America has cancelled his scheduled performance, and the cancellation is making headlines. I can already hear the arguments coming from the gay-rights elite: “he was doing what’s natural to him! How dare you judge him! HOMOPHOBIA!!!”
I am thoroughly disgusted by the way homosexuality has been used as entertainment lately. I have no problem with someone being gay; I’m a lesbian myself and I see absolutely nothing wrong with it. I don’t sleep around, I don’t use drugs, and I’m not an alcoholic. I also don’t go to gay pride events very often because what Adam Lambert did is normal at those things. I’ve seen worse in both Phoenix and my hometown of Houston. I saw way worse in San Diego and Los Angeles the year I went to those.
Gay pride parades and festivals used to be about showing the world that we’re here. It was originally about having no fear of what others could do to us during a time when the mere mention of gay sex was a crime. Now it’s about shocking everyone to the point that we try to numb their senses. It’s become a vindictive thing, and that’s not what pride was meant to be.
I believe with all my heart that Adam Lambert meant to do exactly that–shock the entire country. I’m not okay with that. None of us should be. What happened to simply being allowed to live normal, healthy lives with the people that we love? When did that fall by the wayside?
We’re doing more damage than we realize by behaving in this fashion. Shocking the people we disagree with is not going to get us what we want; it’s only going to push us further from it. Like it or not, there’s a large portion of our society–both Republican and Democrat–who don’t like brazen displays of sexuality. Hell, there are interracial couples who openly voted against Prop 8 in California because they believe homosexuality to be wrong. Do you think this behavior is winning their hearts?
I wish CBS’s Early Show would cancel him, too, but they won’t. They’ve already announced that he’s still going to perform. I had considered buying his album, but now I won’t give him a penny of my money. Every single gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered person should be every bit as offended by this display as we seem to be by those who point to it as a sign of sickness. Like me and my significant other, what you do at home is YOUR business.
Being indecent is not going to win the war. The next time you want to make a show solely for shock value, ask yourself this: how often have I ever seen a straight performer doing this onstage?
If you can’t remember, chances are it’s a bad idea. If your talent can’t get people’s attention on its own, that’s your problem.
Have you ever wondered what Heaven was going to look like? I have, and I think I got a little preview Thursday when I went to Sarah Palin’s book signing in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (In the following video, you will see me at 0:26 looking horrible as my friend, Veronica, a liberal – laid exhausted at my side).
The signing was from noon until 3pm. We needed to be there, with our books - by 10am to obtain a wristband. Since this was Palin’s second stop from her kick-off in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we were sure to watch the news on Wednesday; during the day, to get an idea of how early to arrive. Boy, I am sure glad we did because Grand Rapids was quite a crazy event. In fact, folks who could not get to see her in Grand Rapids due to crowd issues, took a chance and left out Wednesday night to get to Fort Wayne, Indiana in plenty of time.
A few days ago, a filling came loose in a tooth of mine. Therefore; I was in quite a bit of pain. I had planned on attending the book signing with one friend. It was so annoying that I almost decided to stay home. But as the pain grew, so did my desire to put it aside and place mind over matter when seeing that this was my opportunity to meet someone so incredible. So without a lick of sleep; Wednesday night, I met Veronica in Indiana (my home is located in Illinois just on the border).
Veronica is one of my best friends. She voted for Obama and was apprehensive about meeting Sarah Palin. Nonetheless, we’ve had eachothers’ backs through a lot more than this, so she happily agreed to the three-hour road trip getting no sleep as well.
We arrived at Meijer in Fort Wayne, Indiana at approximately 3AM. It’s a large store popular in the midwest. Thank God it’s opened 24 hours because her and I brought blankets and pillows to camp out in “Karen” (my Lexus) with the heated seats to keep our bums from freezing. With luck, we went into the store and the folks in Fort Wayne were so nice…they allowed us to bring our pillows and blankets inside and to join the already multiple crowded aisles of folks who had been there since 9pm Wednesday night.
We then settled in “our aisle” and quickly noticed the vast crowding of folks outside. (We apparently got there just in time to get a final indoor waiting spot). People didn’t care. They brought blankets, coats, and even though we were all deathly tired, people kept smiling and chanting for “Sarah!” In some cases, people from the inside would temporarily switch places with someone from outside to allow small children to warm up, etc.
As I sat in the aisle (pictured below) among other people, a news reporter (who is also responsible for these images) approached me and talked with me about Palin and why we drove from Chicago to meet her. As a result I was quoted in her article covering the event.
Nearby, Stephen Flesher from Chicago leafs through the book as well.
“I think Sarah is very cool. She knows how to bring a lot of good people together. I think she is inspirational,” he said.
Speaking of media, many correspondents were there from Fox. Also, Norah O’Donnell from MSNBC was trolling around the crowds with her cameramen and microphones. But, since we all knew what she was up to from the day before in Grand Rapids, we were certain to chant Sarah! Sarah! Sarah! every time she came by our aisle trying to interview interrogate folks. Good Morning America was running around and Andrea Mitchell from Today was there as well.
The connection we all shared was amazing. I was thoroughly impressed with the store and its management. We were treated free coffee and refreshments and were allowed to save spots for one another so that people could go outside and smoke, use the restroom, etc. Out of thousands of folks who turned out, there was not one altercation or incident which confirms what I said: “Sarah brings good people together.” People were polite, smiling, and though we were all tired, we shared stories and ideas and talked a lot about politics and government. It truly was a nice time meeting other Palin fans in and of itself.
As Sarah Palin entered the building, everyone stood up and applauded loudly….tears streaming down faces of military wives who were holding portraits of their husbands who are overseas fighting for our country, little girls dressed up hand-in-hand with their parents, and some standing with gifts and flowers they had brought for the Governor.
Miraculously, MSNBC and Norah O’Donnell had disappeared before reporting that part of the event….the rest of the media were still there.
Palin immediately began signing books. We were all told that she would be able to sign two books each and had 20 seconds per person. This was not the case. Palin insisted on asking everyone’s name, asking where they were from, shaking hands with every admirer and sending well wishes as folks left.
…and whenever a military wife would approach, Sarah would always reach out for a hug and a kind word…
As I saw Sarah Palin hugging these various military wives, I thought of our very own AFW and noticed the raw emotion of these women. This was their time to shine and be noticed. They deserved it because of their selflessness they grant to us everyday. So AFW, again, thank you for your selfless contribution to our country!
As I approached Palin myself, I grew weak in the knees. However; Sarah made up for that with a surprisingly firm handshake and a smile. I told her I had driven from Chicago and she asked how long it took. I then told her I was so grateful to her for everything she’s done and how she had a lot of support in the Chicago area whether she realized it or not. She smiled and said “thank you, that is so encouraging” and said she was amazed I had driven three hours. She then ordered me to go get some sleep. (I must have really looked awful! )
No matter where Sarah Palin goes, I feel in my heart that it’s upward. She’s brave and she speaks our language. This day in my life was very special. I met some terrific friends and for about 10.5 hours total, I was reminded how peaceful and happy large groups of people can really be – especially when we all share a hope for something better. I then for two seconds wondered if this is how conservatives felt when they first discovered Ronald Reagan. Perhaps.
So, do I really think this encouraging day of mass familiarity was an indication of what Heaven is going to be like?
Has anybody heard the news out of California lately? The state, long in financial trouble, is facing bankruptcy. They’ve already issued IOU’s to state employees, creating issues over which banks would honor the non-checks. Now the state legislature has voted to approve a big increase in worker taxes in the hopes of boosting revenue. It’s not going to solve their problems, especially with unemployment being so high. In fact I daresay it will only exacerbate the issues facing the state. California faced a fair-sized surplus, and instead of saving, they started spending.
Massive changes in regulating manufacturing cost the state hundreds of thousands of jobs. The Governator couldn’t hold his own as a Ronald Reagan wannabe and tossed in his bid with far-left liberals who were fighting for global warming legislation. He also refused to stand up to unions, which had fought to gain the costliest pension plans in the country. Worst of all, though, the California government still has not managed to see the reality of one of its worst problems.
Illegal immigration.
Even with taxes paid by illegal immigrants in the State of California, the state pays an estimated $9 billion (yes, that’s billion with a B) for education, medical care, incarceration and other social services (such as unemployment). San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom has proudly bragged that his city is a sanctuary city, refusing to allow SFPD officers to inquire about a criminals’ legal status–even when they’re suspected of committing felonies. They’ll be sentenced and, once sentence is served, released into the general population most times rather than deported. The Governator, Arnold Schwartzenegger, has done nothing to stop this.
So the State of California now faces bankruptcy while the San Joaquin Valley turns into a dustbowl and the agriculture there goes the way of the dodo. That’s because of environmental activists claiming that irrigation was harming a minnow. Despite that, though, it seems the lack of irrigation has had another ill effect: the Valley is now highly prone to dust storms that cause a great deal of damage and other animal populations are dying off. Funny how that works, ain’t it?
Back to my original point, California has long been friendly to the moochers in America who come to take and never give back, and now they’re paying dearly for it. The federal government, however–in all their wisdom–haven’t seen the lesson this has taught. In fact, I daresay they’re ignoring it. There’s a debate set to begin on an immigration overhaul bill that will include amnesty for the estimated 12 million plus illegals currently in the United States.
We wonder why healthcare is costly. We wonder why we have other issues. Did you know that illegal immigrants cost the federal government upwards of $23 billion annually? We’re not forcing them to learn English to live here, and they want their kids to be taught in THEIR language. That costs more than a conventional education. There are entire neighborhoods–particularly in California–where you’d swear you were in Mexico with the signs, storefronts and general atmosphere. There are places you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who speaks English rather than Mandarin or Cantonese. How does this happen?
We’d be a hell of a lot better off if we’d stop being so helpful to this segment of society, pull the red carpet out from under them, and send them home with the instruction to ask permission before they come back. Go through the legal channels. America has just about the least-stringent immigration laws of any civilized nation on the planet. We don’t need immigration reform. Send ‘em back and save those jobs that Americans wouldn’t do for the millions of real Americans who don’t have jobs.
Dedicated to our Veterans, and in memory of the fallen at Ft. Hood:
Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha
Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little
Rock, did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the
permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building
supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.
When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that
there were no desks.
Looking around, confused, they asked, ‘Ms. Cothren, where’re our
desks?’
She replied, ‘You can’t have a desk until you tell me what you
have done to earn the right to sit at a desk.’
They thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s our grades.’ ’No,’ she said.
‘Maybe it’s our behavior.’ She told them, ‘No, it’s not even your
behavior.’
And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period.
Still no desks in the classroom. By early afternoon television news crews
had started gathering in Ms. Cothren’s classroom to report about
this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.
The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats
on the floor of the deskless classroom, Martha Cothren said, ’Throughout
the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to
earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this
classroom. Now I am going to tell you.’
At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her
classroom and opened it.
Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that
classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing
the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand
alongside the wall.
By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those
kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives,
just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.
Martha said, ‘You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These
heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now,
it’s up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good
students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you
could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.’
A picture of Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s calling card has been released. Take a good look. Notice something?
You should notice the SoA(SWT) on the card. “SoA” stands for “Soldiers of Allah.” SWT usually follows Allah’s name when written by a Muslim. It stands for “Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala,” or “glory to him, the exalted.” This is the card he distributed professionally. He also handed it out with the copies of the Qur’an he gave away before the shooting, including one in Spanish to his landlord.
Something else has been confirmed, too: Hasan told his landlord two weeks before the shooting that in two weeks, he’d be moving out. And on the day of the shooting he’d shaved his head. I’d be willing to bet his entire body had been shaved–this is common with Muslims preparing to martyr themselves.
General Casey still has the patent nerve to swear that the Army never missed the warning signs. If the warning signs had been this absolutely blatant before the latest school shooting, teachers and principals who ignored them would be tarred and feathered.
Oh…and another link. Here’s the powerpoint slideshow that Hasan used when he gave his speech on Muslims in the military, which repeatedly quoted the Qur’an and threatened “adverse events”:
Casey may well be right. They may not have missed them; they may well have ignored them.
Welcome to our blog. We won't agree on everything, but that is part of the human experience and we welcome the civil debate.
It is believed that around 75% of conservatives in America are supportive of the gay conservative movement. Even among that number, there are many who ask, "why do you need to flaunt your sexual orientation? Why do you rub our faces in it?" The answer is that we're actually not flaunting anything.
It is important to us that conservatives understand that not all gay people are in lock-step with the liberal movement. We do think for ourselves. It is also important to us that other gay people who feel ostracized for their conservative politics have a safe place to discuss their views and get support from others who understand how difficult it is to be conservative in our community. We don't wish to rub in anyone else's faces anything that isn't shown to us by straight people, either. We live, we love, and we want to share our happiness with the world the same way you do. That's all.
Whether you are among the 75% who support us or among the 25% who are trying to run us out of the movement, we all believe in a number of similar values and we ask that you join us in stabilizing America for future generations. The rest is in the details, and that can be dealt with (in a civil manner) later.
Our Message to Liberals
Welcome to our site. You likely won't agree with us, but you are welcome nonetheless.
The most frequent comment we hear is, "how can you be gay and be politically conservative?!?" That is generally followed by every political slur in the liberal vernacular - idiot, moron, brainwashed, traitor, deviant, and the ever-popular "self-loathing closet case." If you have a comment along those lines, then with all the respect we can offer, please stow it. We've heard it quite enough. If you wish to comment, you are welcome to; it is our policy not to delete comments regardless of whether they agree or disagree with our beliefs. Threats and abuse, however, will not be tolerated. Those type of comments WILL be deleted.
As for the questions about how we can be gay and politically conservative, the answer is simple...such ideas make sense to us. Limited government, individual liberty and patriotism are all a part of our beliefs. Not all of the five contributors agree on every single issue, but for the most part we do agree and none of us is willing to come to a conclusion about any issue lightly. We do not allow our emotions to drive our beliefs; rather, we prefer to see all sides of an issue and think about it rationally before deciding where we stand.
If you are a fellow homosexual, please treat us the way you would wish to be treated. Do not speak to us in condescension or make claims that you refuse to provide solid links for (by solid, we mean non-op-ed news from a valid source). Be the source of tolerance that you demand from others.
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steveflesher
Philip
Mel Maguire
Mark Ciavola
