Today in History:

1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower effectively placed the words “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the National Ensign, making today Flag Day. (settle down, rosie, I said “flag”…)

Today could also end up being the day Bush twists the arms of the final GOP senators to force his twisted amnesty bill through. GOP senators who voted against cloture, and for the economy of the United States, have been told that they will need to vote for cloture if they want to be “relevant” in the final drafting of this bill.

Couple of points:
1) If the measure is defeated, there will be no need to draw up a final draft.
2) If the measure passes, you won’t be relevant at all after the following election.
3) If this country is sold up the river, We the People have no one to blame but ourselves. Call your GOP senators today, folks. Convince them that they need to keep this country sovereign, and granting amnesty to 12-20 million lawbreakers is not the path to follow. Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121. Go. Call. Take back this country from the power-hungry elitists who have their hand in your pocket!

In other areas:
The “Big Three” automakers are trying to back down the union. Good luck – that tiger was uncaged the first time you let THEM dictate the pay rates.

I have a little story for you. Once upon a time, a man named Fred discovered that he could build a pretty mean widget. He sold his widgets, and made a decent profit. He made more widgets, and sold more widgets, making more decent profit. One day, Fred figured that if he could train someone to make a widget as well as he could, then his output could double, allowing him to make more money. Fred trained a helper.

Life was good. Fred trained more helpers, and expanded his business to meet the growing demand for his widgets. Pretty soon, he had a formidable workforce. Fred took care of his employees, and made sure to increase the companies goodwill bottom line by spreading the wealth that the entire workforce was generating.

One day, Tom, a representative of the Brotherhood of Widgetmakers, visited Fred’s widget factory. Tom talked to the widget makers in Fred’s factory, and told them of the wondrous benefits of belonging to the union. Tom convinced the workers in Fred’s factory to vote for joining the union, making Fred’s widget factory a union shop.

The union, after gaining the upper hand, started making demands of Fred. First, the union demanded more pay for the widget makers. Fred was already paying his widget makers pretty good money, but to keep the peace he agreed to an increase in pay. In order to make up the difference, Fred raised the price of the widgets he was making. Fred’s customers weren’t real happy about the increase, but since Fred was the closest supplier of quality widgets, they went along with the price increase. Since the customers needed to increase the cost of their goods to accommodate the more expensive widget, the cost of living in the area rose.

The union, seeing the cost of living in the area go up, demanded another raise for the workers – this one to compensate for the rise in the cost of living. Fred agreed, and raised the price of the widgets once again.

This went on for a while, each time the increase in wages was accompanied by an increase in the cost of the widgets, which caused other goods to increase in price, which increased the cost of living – which caused the union to negotiate another COL raise.

Finally, Fred’s customers could not absorb the increased cost anymore, and stopped buying Fred’s widgets. They started buying widgets from overseas, where the quality was almost as good and the cost was much lower. Fred, having no customers left, closed his shop. The unemployment rate in his area went through the roof, since Fred’s factory was the only one around that had provided steady employment. The cost of living went way down. The union, no longer having any workers to band together, left town.

The moral of the story is: Let the free market work. If Fred hadn’t been paying a decent wage, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his workers. If Fred had charged too much for his widgets, he would have lost his factory. Oh, wait – that happened anyway. If the union had kept it’s nose out of Fred’s factory, everyone would still have their jobs.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

I received this e-mail from a close friend after he listened to the Political Pistachio Radio show from Saturday, June 2. Douglas Gibbs had invited me on as the primary guest. My friend (I’ll call him “Toby”) has some good points, and I will address them throughout:

Cary,

Thank you, Toby. I’d like to succeed, also.

Serious? I’m serious about getting attention paid to what We The People are trying to tell our so-called representatives. They don’t seem to be listening, and if my campaign gets their attention, and they think about what they are doing to this country, then my job is finished. No, I don’t enjoy campaigning – especially since I have a daughter I would rather be spending my free time with – but it is for her sake that I want this country to correct it’s course back to the conservative roots it was founded on.

How does one act in anticipation of uprooting his family, living in two places, and trying to run the country when one’s wife does not wish to travel? I am constantly struggling with what the future might bring. If I do end up in the Oval Office, what effect will it have on not just my family, but my church family? As you know, I’m involved in the leadership of the church – what will happen if I need to take a long break? How will the exposure affect my family and my church? Will the media dig into all the past details of everyone involved? They tend to have less compassion for past acts that have been forgiven than we as Christians do.

I can’t guarantee that voting for me would not be throwing away your vote, anymore than voting for any of the candidates would be throwing away your vote. I know that voting for me would be taking votes away from career politicians, which is a good thing in the long run, but my hope is that enough dissatisfied people in both parties, the ones who have common sense, and don’t like the direction the country is headed, will vote for me – and if that’s enough to land me in DC, then so be it. God is in control, and places our leaders in position. Maybe this latest iteration of leadership is God’s way of issuing a wake up call to this country – “See what happens when you don’t pay attention?” I don’t know.

Locally – I don’t use day labor. The majority of the day labor pool is in this country illegally. Yes, there are some legal residents who make themselves available through day labor, or Home Depot curb service, but I can’t see taking that chance statistically. On a state level, I communicate with my representatives on the issues. On a National level, I have managed to get Ed Pastor to send me a note saying he wasn’t going to respond to faxes that I have sent through a third party system – especially since he has made his position clear. So much for letting your “representatives” know how you feel. No, I didn’t vote for him – but since he does “represent” my disctrict, shouldn’t he know how I feel? I make my feelings known on my blog, http://www.itisobvious.blogspot.com (I’m Thinking of the “O” Word) and through comments left on other blogs.

Again, no guarantees. But, since I don’t have the clout, I also am not subject to influence by major factors – corporations, money funds, whatever. I am an average working joe – and I think that my outlook on politics is pretty close to what the rest of the working nation is – that this country is not the first concern of the Career Politicians.

Like I said before, Thank You – not only for believing in me, but for caring enough to give the feedback you have.

You are absolutely correct – political savvy goes a long way – in the environment that is in place now. But like I asked on the program, Why don’t WE THE PEOPLE know what it takes to run this country? Why the secrecy? Why the back-room dealings? Why can’t the average concerned citizen step up and take part in the representative republic we call The United States of America? I think it needs to change back to being a government OF the people, BY the people, and most importantly FOR the people.

I’ll let Doug know. I’m sure he’d appreciate the feedback – but it is his show, and he loves to talk. That’s why he has the show.

I also think I disagree with you on one fundamental point – once a society accepts law as having a place in that society the only thing that law can do is legislate what actions are acceptable in the legal sense – which is a form of morality. Law cannot by its very nature control one’s thinking of murder or theft, but can only hope to curtail such socially unacceptable behavior by enforcement of restrictions and punishments. Crime may not necessarily be a sin, but our legal system is without a doubt based upon a view of the morality portrayed in the Bible.

Good point. There is also the philosophy of “societal legal agreement” – that is, once a set of rules has been agreed upon, with agreed upon consequences if said rules (or laws) have been breeched, then all in that society must abide by the same laws. If authority allows certain segments of the population to ignore the rules, or if a certain segment of the population does not receive the agreed upon punishment for not following the rules, then you have other segments of the population that will start testing which rules are enforced. Once this starts, then the segment of the population that has the moral backbone to continue to follow the rules in spite of them not being enforced will start to get very upset with authority – and either revolution or replacement is the next step.

Thanks for taking the time to voice your concerns, “Toby” – without feedback, I am not sure if I am leading a parade or marching to my own drum solo.

For my loyal readers, a reading assignment. I’ve already alluded to the topic a couple of paragraphs ago. Swing over to Bill Whittle’s site and read “You Are Not Alone” (part one). Bill is a very good writer, even if he’s not regular, and he has been instrumental in inspiring some of my framework.

If you feel you are Out of Voting Choices, then choose to Make a Difference – write in Cary Cartter for President in November 2008. Please help me get the word out.

If you would like to know more about my stand, please visit my blog. If you have any questions you would like to see addressed, or if you would like to help spread the word about my campaign, you can e-mail me here.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

I had a goal, a while back, when I first put the “Religion of Peace” widget in my sidebar, that I would someday have more visitors according to my sitemeter, then there were islamic attacks counted since 9/11.

I recently surpassed that number.

Mostly, it was due to the article I crossposted from Warriors for Innocence. That managed to get the attention of over two hundred readers for two days. I’m sure that most of them won’t be returning since they came over here to see who dark_christian was talking about. (I’m not linking to dark_christian because I don’t believe he’s the kind of person I would hang out with, due to the topic(s) being defended.)

At any rate, I’m up past that goal. Now, my goal is 10,000 readers. If you happen to be the ten thousandth visitor, please drop me a comment or e-mail and I will announce your name. Sorry, no prizes for this one. Just fun and recognition for you!

In case you missed it, I was on Political Pistachio Radio this afternoon, please go and listen to the archive of the show. DVG promised he would e-mail the rest of the questions he didn’t get to ask, and I would post them and my answers. In the meantime, watch for a Monday Campaign Note.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

Happy Friday! Are you wearing your Red?

Go here. Buy a shirt, wear it on Fridays, and declare your support for the troops.

Saturday, June 2, (that’s tomorrow, folks!) at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern I will be the guest on Political Pistachio Radio. You are invited to listen in live and even call in at (646) 652-2940. Douglas V. Gibbs is the host, along with the lovely Mrs. Gibbs, and we will be discussing my candidacy for President of the United States in the 2008 election, along with what it will take to get this country back to conservatism. Be sure to tune in, and I look forward to hearing from you!

I seem to have hit a bit of a bump in the transition to night schedule – a certain young lady has chosen this week to start taking fewer naps, of shorter duration. Guess where that leaves me? You guessed it – depending more and more on Mr. Caffeine again.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

from Warriors For Innocence:

LiveJournal Says No to Pedophiles:

Setting a new precedent, LiveJournal, owned by Six Apart Incorporated, deleted over 500 of its sites or journals today. Responding to requests from Warriors For Innocence, LiveJournal chose to remove sites that promote pedophilia, child sex, child abuse, and other illegal activities.

LiveJournal has revised their Terms Of Service (TOS) to include new standards that will ensure that they protect the safety and well-being of everyone who visits LiveJournal.

As pedophiles and their sympathizers scramble to find new hosting options, we will be following them and contacting each web host in order to work to enforce a TOS that will ensure that these hosts maintain a responsible and respectable reputation.

LiveJournal and Six Apart have taken a very important step. They chose to maintain accountability for the content placed on their sites. By setting this precedent, they have opened the door for other web hosting companies like Blogger/Google, Blog.com, Xanga, WordPress, and others to follow in their footsteps.

Special thanks go out to Scott Kraft, the Executive Vice President of Marketing for Six Apart, and Denise Paolucci, the Manager of Customer Service for LiveJournal. They have both been very helpful.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors For Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008