Feds raid state political meeting, harass attendees

In what appears to be a wild display of overkill, federal and local police forces raided a political meeting in Bryan, Texas, fingerprinting and photographing all attendees as well as confiscating their cell phones, iPads, laptops, and personal recording devices. No arrests were made.

The Republic of Texas, a separatist group, was holding one of its regular meetings at the local VFW Post with 60 attendees. There was nothing illicit taking place. Yet according to this account in My San Antonio, an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office, the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI disrupted the meeting.

In the end, at least 20 officers corralled, searched and fingerprinted all 60 meeting attendees, before seizing their personal electronic devices in the raid.

In this video, Gov. Rick Perry says, “Texans know best how to govern Texas” as he commended the efforts of the 2009 legislature in introducing HCR 50, affirming that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. 

Seeing Red AZ is not advocating in favor of secession. But it’s a good bet that many regular readers of this site have attended countless political meetings of various stripes and cringe at the thought of being subjected to such tactics for exercising their constitutional rights.

Read more about the underpinnings of the raid here.

Jeb finds few friends at Conservative Conference

Jeb Bush, the wanna-be Number 3 in his family’s presidential dynasty, encountered protests at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday in National Harbor, Maryland.

The amnesty and Common Core supporter stands by his scheme to give drivers’ licenses to illegals. When he was governor of Florida, Bush also pushed for in-state tuition for children of illegal aliens. Few can forget when he referred to illegal immigration as “an act of love.”(video)

The Washington Times reported that conservatives who resent the GOP establishment foisting yet another squish Republican into prominence were organizing a protest of Jeb’s conference speech. In anticipation of such an embarrassing walkout, Slate reported Bush’s team resorted to importing supporters from downtown Washington, D.C. Chartered buses were scheduled to depart from K Street, the heart of the lobbying industry.

The walkout began shortly after Bush strolled on stage. As he continued to finagle answers to questions posed by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, greater numbers of attendees booed and then filed out. (video)

As the brother and son of the last two Republican presidents, Jeb Bush appears to think the presidency is now his due.  He’s obviously spent too much time listening to RINO strategist Karl Rove. Conservatives have been down this GOP Establishment path previously with mediocre or unrepresentative of the grassroots candidates —- Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney.

This time winning is more important than ever. In fact, it may well be crucial to our very survival. After two terms of Barack Obama and with Hillary Clinton looking likely to snag the Democrat nomination, there is no room for Republican blunders such as Jeb Bush.

Jeb a sure loser for GOP: Reject Bush imperial dynasty

The Sunday news programs parade a panoply of potential GOP presidential candidates, giving each their obligatory sound bites followed by analysis by the panelists gauging their viability. Each in turn is weighed as to suitability to run against the  already anointed Democrat—- a problem-plagued,  Cher-like candidate known far and wide by a single name.

Although the list of potential Republican candidates is long, the party establishment powerbrokers, strategists and the eager media, appear to have already selected their donor-amassing candidate. But for multitudes of “Bush weary” conservatives, Jeb Bush is a dynasty too far.

Phyllis Schlafly, still going strong at age 90, has long argued that the American conservative movement’s purpose is to influence, not echo, the Republican Party. In this column in the Washington Times, she warns against letting the party’s “kingmakers,” the Wall Street elite and their acquiescing political consultant class coronate former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

Mincing no words, Mrs. Schlafly makes her case in a 2015 update to her landmark book a half-century ago titled “A Choice, Not an Echo,” which in 1964 became the motto of Barry Goldwater’s grassroots movement.

In her update, Mrs. Schlafly -— founder of the Eagle Forum —- argues that her party too often picks losers as candidates because of a stranglehold by the political consultant-big business-Wall Street crowd, which makes a bundle from championing moderates over conservatives.

She warns that may be happening again in 2016 in the persona of Jeb Bush, noting “closed-door events have been held for Republican mega-donors to select who will get the big money that went last time to Mitt Romney,” and that the mainstream media already are cheering on Jeb Bush. Read the complete article by Ralph Z. Hallow here

Then carve out the time to acquaint yourself with Mexico-born Columba Bush, Jeb’s wife. The revealing article, “Bush Spouse Backs Jeb, but Is Wary of Family Business,”  in the New York Times is written by  Patrick Healy and Sheryl Gay Stolberg.  It’s easy to see why it took a trio, including researcher Kitty Bennett, to compile this informative piece.

Today we ask our readers to share who your “2016 Dream Ticket’ would be —- and why? We can do better than what’s being shoved our way by the Karl Rove elites.

Weekend reading guaranteed to make you smarter

Powerline’s John Hinderaker has written a must-read column titled, “Obama’s Amnesty: It’s even worse than you thought.”  This fact-filled commentary is guaranteed to infuriate, which is all the more reason you should read it. Knowledge is power and you’ll get an impressive dose on Powerline.

Author John Hinderaker’s bio can be read here.

Gallup CEO: 5.6% jobless rate “big lie” created by WH

Sobering truth: 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed

Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, minces no words in his assessment of the official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor. Clifton calls it “extremely misleading.”

“Right now,” he writes, “we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren’t throwing parties to toast “falling” unemployment.

There’s another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you’re an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you’re not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

Yet another figure of importance that doesn’t get much press: those working part-time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part-time because it is all you can find — in other words, you are severely underemployed — the government doesn’t count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.

And it’s a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual’s primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity — it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen’s talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.

Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America’s middle class.

I hear all the time that “unemployment is greatly reduced, but the people aren’t feeling it.” When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the truth — the percent of Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full-time and real — then we will quit wondering why Americans aren’t “feeling” something that doesn’t remotely reflect the reality in their lives. And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class.”

McCain’s 2016 pick a mirror-image non-starter

Ditches Hillary for another sweetie

Failed presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain is not exactly on the same page as most Arizona Republicans. He was the object of ridicule, receiving boos and turned backs at the annual Statutory Meeting of the State Committee of the Arizona Republican Party from many of the nearly 800 elected delegates, where he made a rare appearance last weekend. (A video of the spectacle is included under the link.)

McCain was censured in 2014 at the annual mandatory meeting of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, where the resolution to censure passed overwhelmingly — 1,150 in support with only 351 opposed. Arizona’s “unfavorite son” was censured again two weeks later by a 78% margin at the 2014 GOP Statutory Meeting.

The majority of Arizona counties also passed censure resolutions against the unpopular McCain. Few Arizona conservatives care what he thinks.

Now Bloomberg News reports that McCain —- who influences no one —- has announced his intention to support his longtime doppelganger, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, if he officially decides to run for president.

Last October, McCain began withdrawing his support from Hillary Clinton, whom he’d previously lavished with enthusiastic praise and referred to as a “Rock Star.”

The multi-censured McCain and Lindsey Graham have even more in common than their weak border security and amnesty positions putting them at odds with their constituents. Republicans in South Carolina passed this censure resolution publicly rebuking  Sen. Lindsey Graham. The censure, which passed by the identical 78% as the reproach of McCain, cites 30 examples of Graham violating the Republican Party platform. At the bottom of the page, are other censures against Graham going back to 2007.

The 30-point censure states: “Lindsey Graham has committed a long series of actions that we strongly disapprove of and hold to be fundamentally inconsistent with the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party.”

On the list of grievances is his McCain-like support of amnesty, which has earned him the label Lindsey Grahamnesty.

McCain and Graham are well-matched amigos. If he enters the race, we predict his effort will be as well received as McCain’s.  America deserves better.

Why not “Americans”?

“Default” white designation may become MENA?

The federal government is working on another way to further divide Americans. The U.S. Census Bureau is weighing the advisability of implementing a new classification to specifically designate another ethnic division. The acronym MENA would identify those of Middle Eastern and North African descent —- the majority of whom are Arab-Americans.

According to this report in U. S, News and World Report, these Americans “have previously been classified by default as white.”

The census is constitutionally ordered for the express purpose of enumeration for congressional representation. Article I, section II directs that the population be enumerated at least once every ten years and the resulting counts used to set the number of members in the House of Representatives from each state, and, by extension, in the Electoral College. 

In addition to enumerating the population, there is now intrusive data collection. Besides asking how many toilets you have in your home, the relationship of the residents, religion practiced and languages spoken, census data uses ethnicity to determine the configuration of race-based congressional districts, such as Arizona CD 3 and CD 7. Additionally there is $400 billion in federal aid programs and enforcement of civil rights laws to maintain these contrived districts.

A question about Hispanic origin, currently the only ethnic category, has been incorporated into the survey since 1980, though the census form instructs respondents that Hispanic is not a race.

CNN reports that during the 2010 census, some Arab-and-Iranian activists launched a campaign that urged people to check “some other race” on the form and write in their ancestry. The campaign’s slogan was: “Check it right; you ain’t white!”

This trend toward ethnic-based separation rather than unity as Americans is troubling. “Balkanization” describes the destructive process of fragmentation of formerly united regions into smaller regions or states that are often hostile toward one another. 

“E Pluribus Unum” was the motto proposed for the first Great Seal of the United States by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in 1776. The Latin phrase translates to, “One from many.” That’s who we are.