A Comparison to the Other "One"

(Originally posted on FB Site February 13, 2009)


**The first part of this is a copied article from the Heritage Foundation. After it, I include my thoughts for today, as it ties in to the article and ALL that has happened this week.



COPIED Article from the Heritage Foundation
2/13/09
An Open Letter to the Congress and President Obama

Today at 1:07pmFor the last 35 years, educators and analysts at The Heritage Foundation have been intimately involved in the nation's great public policy debates. In all that time, we have never encountered legislation with such far-reaching and revolutionary policy implications as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act currently before Congress. And never have we seen a bill more cloaked in secrecy or more withdrawn from open public exposure and honest debate.

In addition to being the single most expensive bill ever proposed, this measure calls for a massive expansion of the federal government's reach into the day-to-day life of virtually every citizen, business and civic organization in the nation. That, in itself, should be the subject of an extensive public conversation and thoughtful debate. Instead, we have seen Congressional leaders schedule snap votes on a 1,434-page bill that no one—repeat, no one—has had a chance to read in its entirety, much less digest and deliberate.

This bill has been advertised as an economic stimulus bill—despite the fact that the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will actually weaken our nation's long-term economic growth. While the stimulative utility of the bill is, at best, questionable, it would unquestionably rewrite the social contract between the American people and their government. For example:

• The bill reverses the bipartisan and highly successful welfare reforms of 1996 and drastically expands the welfare state. For instance, it will start rewarding states for adding people to their welfare rolls, rather than for helping them find gainful employment. And contrary to long-established practice, it will entitle able-bodied adults without children to receive cash assistance.

•It does extreme violence to the concept of federalism—bailing out states that have spent irresponsibly at the expense of taxpayers in states that have been fiscally prudent.

• It greatly shifts the responsibility and power over health care delivery and decision making from individuals to government. Among other things, it would create a new federal health board to decide which medical services are "effective" in America, paving the way for government effectively to overrule the clinical decisions of private physicians.

• It deliberately censors religious speech and worship on school campuses by prohibiting use of any "stimulus" funds for facilities that are used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school of divinity.

The list goes on. These and similar provisions will mean fundamental changes in our society. In many instances, the bill would establish policies that directly challenge widely held American values.

We are appalled that Congress is even contemplating such profound changes with so little openness and due diligence. In the past, major policy changes in our welfare system, or health care, or trade policies, etc., were always, quite properly, preceded by extensive public conversation and full debate. That is how a democracy should make important decisions.

The failure of Congress and the Administration to allow that debate is damaging to our democracy. Both chambers of Congress suspended their budget rules to push it along. And both the President and the leaders of the House and Senate have violated their solemn promises that the bill would be available for several days of public review prior to voting, so that the American people might have a chance to learn what is in the bill and to make their views known to their elected officials.

This reckless approach to governance can only undermine public faith in our elected officials and our government as a whole. We call on Congress and the Administration to live up to their promises and stated ideals, and give the democratic process a chance to work.

Ed Feulner is president of The Heritage Foundation.
*************************************************************************
I am going to make a bold point here. I expect diverse, and perhaps even adverse reaction to it, whether or not anyone chooses to voice it. However, thoughts I have believed for over a year are now coming to pass, and doing so at a far more expedient pace than I even imagined possible. This frenzy gives me pause and cause to believe that perhaps where this "train" is leading is a location that does not bode well for this Country. God forbid I am anywhere near correct, but if I am, EVEN remotely, we are better served to smell the smoke from the fires burning afar, and do something about it while we still have the time and power to do so.

One word: Hitler. Oh I know, this is LOADED, so let me be clear what I am NOT talking about. It is not human extinction as was horrifically enacted upon the Jews. But it is extinction of our Country as we know it, and the tactics "appear" to be coming from the familiar Hitler Playbook. As in the beginning days of Hitler's reign, when no one could have imagined what was to come, not even I want to come near believing anything like that (conservative, Christian extinction) could, let alone slowly IS happening here in America. But the sad truth, so far as the evidence reveals, the paths are parallel. It is the whole "frog in the kettle" analogy. (At the end of this will be another article by Glenn Beck, who validated what I have been feeling all along, using another well articulated analogy.) You know how it goes: Put a frog in boiling water and he will jump right out. Put him in cold water and slowly simmer to a boil and the frog will never even notice, and thus, be boiled to death. I don't want to be THAT frog, and I do not want Americans to be that frog either. We need to smell the smoke we can't yet see. The stench of it is in my nostrils and I can't help but follow it to find out from where it is originating and do something about it while it is still a campfire. God forbid it ever has a chance to become a Hitler-like wildfire.

The Democratic Party/liberal victory and "agenda" are more than meets the eye. They are more than a new Party in Office and the enactment of the "things" they want to do with which we may not agree. Oh no, this is different this time. There is WAY more going on here and it behooves us to stand up and not only take notice, but take action. My firm belief has always been that President Obama is a Trojan Horse loaded with things that vast Americans obviously refuse to see. When he was inaugurated, I wanted with all of my heart to believe that perhaps I could be wrong after all. It is my nature to want our President to succeed FOR THE COUNTRY, regardless if he is my choice or not. From Day 1, the doors of the Trojan Horse have opened letting free the REAL "change" hidden inside. Within the first 3 weeks of his time in Office, he has moved at a record and deceptive pace (so fast that it has prevented me from keeping up on my Journal, trying to figure out what to address, how much, etc. It has been overwhelming - part of the effective plan but a subject I will address later.) that I have to quickly accept that, much to my chagrin, the "change that has come to Washington," is not anything we should be excited about let alone accept. Quite honestly, I feel like Alice, having just fallen down the "rabbit hole" into the proverbial "wonderland." Like Alice, I want out and I want out - NOW.

I have spent a very long time studying Hitler, specifically how he took patient, deliberate, and educated baby steps, using the "legal" system at the time, to effect a change that resulted in his dictatorship and a complete change to the face of the existing Government of his time. Every day for the past 3 weeks, I have watched President Obama and the Democratic Party, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, begin to execute a very similar, and clearly, a patiently constructed plan that will ensure that the liberal Left will rule America and shut out conservatives forever. Ironic how President Bush's Executive Orders designed to effectively protect America from terrorism on our soil was perceived as him being a war-mongering dictator. What is happening now, within ONLY the first 3 weeks, goes beyond the pale! And if this is a foretaste of what is to come, we should all consider ourselves sufficiently forewarned!

The REAL urgency of passing the so-called "Stimulus Package" is to mask the hidden agenda of a slow and progressive take-over, and the fact that the Bill itself serves to finance those plans. Additionally, I believe the money also serves to "pay back" all entities who contributed in helping President Obama get elected. But this "Stimulus Package," which contains little actual stimulus at all, a package even the CBO said will cause long term economic injury, comes under the cover of "rescuing our failing economy" and "meeting the desperate needs of the less fortunate people," so that anyone opposing it is perceived as the enemy. Sound familiar? The Bible tells us that the devil himself "appears as an angel of light, so that if possible, he could deceive even the very elect." President Obama ran his whole campaign on deception and lies, and continues his march forward with the same smoke and mirrors, bait and switch, and slight of hand (look over here while I do this other thing over there) tactics. He has blatanly lied, and has done so with such audacity and skill that it boggles those of us who know the truth and can (and have) proven him wrong. By now, what he says, and the far left agenda he is fulfilling, is no surprise. It is the pace of its execution which is alarming.

After making Americans beholden to the Government (i.e. create a financial need for which Govt provides the solution - Auto bailouts, Bank Bailouts, Wall Street Bailouts, etc./Nationalizing Banks, the Auto Industry) and I will talk about President Bush's part in this later), through the "generated crisis" to which VP Biden himself alluded (remember?), they will Nationalize everything like Health Care, Union Rule (card check), shutting down the conservative voice through a new "Fairness Doctrine," shutting the voice of Religion (also hidden in the Stimulus Package), Moving the Census to the President's Office, etc. They are doing everything they can to ensure that Liberals will rule America forever. They are shackling the conservative half of America in every "legal" and illiegal avenue they can, and doing so with unabashed deception and trickery in order to accomplish this! Never mind that the expansion of Government, and it's interference upon free will, is exactly why our Forefathers painstakingly and carefully framed the Constitution - because they feared becoming the Country they just left and fought a Revolution from which to become forever free.

The liberals have been angry ever since Al Gore and then Senator Kerry were both beat in the past 2 Presidential elections. I really believe that they were blindsided by the conservative voice during that time. It is as if, with the ushering in the era of all things "Clinton," they believed they had erased conservatioves from America forever. All that is going on now is a response to that; it is all in an effort to ensure that Republicans/conservatives will never rule in Office or the House ever again. They don't want to go through what they have gone through the past 8 years, feeling "cheated" of a "throne" they believe they are entitled to rule. Add to this a new President who, as far back at 10 years ago that we know of (you can find the video on YouTube if you have not yet seen and heard it), believes our very Constitution is flawed and therefore must be "updated" to fit "21st Century America," and you are looking at the emergence of a skillful American Dictator. Don't forget he is a Constitutional Lawyer. An oxymoron but nevertheless, he knows EXACTLY how to legally (and even illegally) work around the Constitution to make a Democratic Dictatorship (centralized, authoritarian Government) possible. He even has a legion of "frogs" willing to help make this happen - just like Hitler. (I will chronicle Hitler's legal rise at a forthcoming Journal entry.)

I am not saying any of this to add to the fear mongering. Nor am I anywhere near a Conspiracy Theorist. Yet, we cannot simply turn a blind eye and go back to sleep until the next Presidential Election. If we do not wake up, if we do not stomp the campfires, and if we do not DO ALL we can to thwart this march towards Liberal Dictatorship, THEN we ought to fear. And I am not willing to even consider THAT outcome. The evening of Election Day, when President Obama won, I had more clarity than I ever had before. Also, I had a premonition-like vision of the potential future of our Country... the potential of a new Civil War, as we have not been so passionately and clearly divided since then. (I wrote a letter that night to my fellow conservatives entitled, "We Mourn," sharing some of this sentiment, that I may share here one day.) I PRAY in earnest that we do not come to that. But rest assured, if we continue down this accelerating path, it will be a necessary evil. And like our Forefathers who gave their lives for this amazing Country, I am willing to do all I can with my life to do the same. Tyranny and Dictatorship are NOT acceptable - period. NOW is the time to be clear and informed, and now is the time to stand up and fight for our awesome Country as we never have before in our lifetime. Now is the time, while we still HAVE time. I can't even allow myself to consider anything else.