Those endorsements of liberals are starting to cause some pain – from Blackfive:

I have reviewed the Political Action Committee (PAC) Board of Directors’ response to our request to rescind this year’ s Congressional endorsements. I disagree with their assessment.

It is now evident to most of the VFW leadership, both National and especially the departments, that the VFW has been subjected to extreme negative publicity throughout the nation, and the recent endorsement decisions have, in fact, harmed the VFW’ s reputation and future ability to fulfill our mission.

I cannot let this erosion of public support for our great organization continue. The apparent lack of the committee to address these concerns will lead to a proposal by me, as Commander-in-Chief, to amend the by-laws at the 112th National Convention for the purpose of dissolving the PAC. Meanwhile, under the authority granted to me as

Commander-in-Chief in section 619 of the VFW National By-Laws and under section 620 of the Manual of Procedure, I am withdrawing all PAC appointments effective October 15, 2010.

Accordingly, I’ m asking the council for a vote of “ no confidence” in the VFW PAC as indicated on the enclosed ballot.

To: National Council of Administration

From: Richard L. Eubank, Commander-in-Chief

Date: October 14, 2010

I am glad to find that the leadership of the VFW is acting to promptly and decisively to deal with the issue of the VFW endorsing candidates who don’t represent the values of the rank-and-file membership of the VFW. I was astounded to hear that Harry Reid had got the VFW’s endorsement, disgusted when I found out about the endorsement of Nancy Pelosi. Now it appears that the VFW PAC was off the ranch, and that explains it all.

Criminal case against Kansas Planned Parenthood allowed to proceed. A good thing, too – they are nothing more than a criminal conspiracy against life, and its high time they started to feel the heat.

If you won your Senate seat by 54 points in 2004 and are only up 13 points in 2010, then even if you, personally, don’t face defeat, your party does.

Stoner thanks police for finding his bong. Now he’s all set to vote Democrat on November 2nd. Unless he spaces it…

California firefighters cannot be forced to march in gay pride parade. Rather surprising that we’d get a just decision these days out of our courts…

TEA Party victory: Democrat Senate candidate refuses to bash TEA Party. Ok, now that we’re going mainstream, we have to be wary of getting captured by the system.

Bacon attack on mosque: Hate crime, conventional vandalism, or something normal people shouldn’t care about? We link to report, you decide.

Wells Fargo prepares ground for Foreclosure-gate. Looks like they will still try to go forward with foreclosures, but now with some legal mumbo-jumbo to CYA. We’ll see how this works out – but with title insurers backing away from foreclosed or short sale properties, Wells Fargo’s action might be moot.

So, you’re not totally depressed about the long-term economic outlook? Well, Mish will help you get there.

Iowahawk strikes again.

From UPI:

Farm loan delinquencies have hit a 17-year high, and 2.3 percent of all agricultural production loans made by commercial banks were past due, up from 1.3 percent a year ago, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The number of Minnesota farmers defaulting on agricultural loans has swelled dramatically since 2008, reaching levels not seen since the 1980s farm crisis permanently altered the state’s rural economy, reported the Minneapolis Star Tribune October 4…

This is just another symptom of the way our economic policies – exacerbated by Obama’s socialistic extremism – are crushing the productive base of the American economy. Farming is the basis of all economic activity – oh, sure, people like to look at the glittering lights of high tech, but if we aren’t growing food then we really aren’t doing anything sustainable, now are we? If we don’t have farmers, we don’t have anything…and farmers are being squeezed by taxes and regulations which simply make it impossible to profitably farm. This is now showing up in the increasing defaults in agricultural loans.

The only way we can get out of this mess is to work our way out of it – production is the key. Until we start making, mining and growing more of our own stuff, we’ll never get better. And I know I’m going on like a broken record here: but it has to keep being said until everyone understands it.

America is still the richest nation in the world, by far – with our people and our resources there is simply nothing we can’t do. But we have to take the socialist shackles off, balance the budget and get to work. On November 2nd we get our chance for the first, baby step towards a revived America – we’d better not blow it.

From Sherman Frederick:

It’s hard to keep pace with the weird, almost delusional things Sen. Harry Reid utters.

This weekend, two days after his debate with Sharron Angle, the Sun reported this (and I use the term “reported” loosely):

“When asked if he thought the perception of an Angle victory would hurt him, Reid said he wasn’t aware of any journalists or pundits who declared her the winner …”

What? Are you kidding me?

The Sun just 24 hours earlier published a column from one of its own writers that said Angle won…

The best I’ve seen for Harry has been some people saying that neither won – which is essentially a victory for Angle as she only had to show herself as a minimally acceptable alternative to a horrendously unpopular incumbent.

In the end, I don’t even expect it to be all that close – by 9 or 10 pm Pacific Time on November 2nd, we’ll have Harry’s concession speech.

From Human Events:

Nationally-recognized pollster Scott Rasmussen last night predicted that Republicans would gain 55 seats in races for the U.S. House of Representatives November 2—much more than the 39 needed for a Republican majority in the House for the first time since 2006…

I’ve been wary of making such predictions this year and Rasmussen has always been cautious. But its time for everyone to really grasp how bad its getting for Democrats. I’m figuring that 55 is the low end – if turnout models prove correct, it could go a lot higher than that.

But let’s just fight as if we’re barely going to get 39. Anything beyond that is gravy. Our only purpose in 2010 is to stop the Obama Socialism Express. We can’t do a lot to reverse course while Obama is in the White House, but we must obtain the power to say, “thus far, and no further”. We can start working on the roll back in the 2012 campaign, which will start in the summer of 2011.

Don’t let up for a minute – and if you’re local races are all a lock for the GOP, then look around to find challengers elsewhere who can use some help.

Interesting article on just what should form the long-term basis of TEA Party activism from Quo Vadis:

…What is called for is an ideology that seeks to advance the cause of the common man, rather than elites, and which respects life, family and liberty.

The Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity is precisely that ideology. If a Tea Party Manifesto is created, its cornerstone should be the time-tested Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity.

In the political context, the principle of subsidiarity states that political decisions and other matters generally should be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Catechism (Sec. 1882 – 1883) clearly instructs Catholics to look to subsidiarity to protect against excessive intervention by the state which threatens personal freedom and initiative. This principle safeguards the ideals of limited government and personal freedom and stands squarely opposed to the welfare state’s goals of centralization and bureaucracy.

In the broader social context, subsidiarity stresses the importance of the common good and the values of family, life and community…

This is the time for the United States to catch up, as it were, to modern thinking. We’ve been going with a model first cooked up by 19th century social democrats crossed with Bismarckian statism. Our liberals are wedded to this antique economic and political model, but given that liberalism is about to be whacked on November 2nd, this is a good time to re-assess and figure out “where to?”.

Subsidiarity does not mean “no welfare” in the sense of no aid for the poor. In fact, aid to the less fortunate is an absolute obligation upon any society. What it does mean is that the workings of all organizations – families, businesses, churches and social welfare organizations – must be controlled at the lowest level possible. The only role the central government may have in welfare is to ensure that a dearth in one area is covered by a surplus in another – but how,exactly, such aid is to be expended must be left to the local people to figure out using their own wits and sense of mercy.

On the other hand, there isn’t much place in subsidiarity for large corporations – at least not like we’ve had them, and especially in high finance. While there are efficiencies in large corporations – such as Wal Mart – there are also problems; crushing of local economies, as well as things like ever more purchases from Third World nations at the expense of the American worker. The large corporations will have to be reigned in and the economy more geared to local needs rather than regulatory and tax ease on the part of the federal government and big business.

America was founded – by intent or by accident, it doesn’t matter – as a nation of Subsidiarity. The whole concept of sovereign States under a federal government is Subsidiarity in action. The primary government influence in the life of a citizen should be his city or county government. Only rarely should the State government come in to play, and only in times of emergency should the federal government take a hand. A properly run society is a society which runs itself, as it sees fit, and doesn’t try to create one-size-fits-all mandates upon everyone.

I do believe that the time is now for us to really consider just where we want to go. We know the model we’ve lived under for the past 80 years or so has failed. Our nation is bankrupt, our economy is devastated, our people are fearful of the future. By tapping in to the latent power and wealth of the people, we can restore ourselves to greatness – but this can’t be done as long as we’re waiting for decisions from the federal government, or a few well-connected corporate bosses in New York. It is time for the people to rule – themselves and their nation.

And every other Congressional candidate in Massachusetts – from the Boston Globe:

In a sign that he has caught the attention of Republicans in Massachusetts and beyond, GOP congressional hopeful Sean Bielat outraised every congressional candidate in the state in the latest reporting period — including his opponent, longtime US Representative Barney Frank — according to newly released campaign finance filings in most races…

As Bielat only started to catch national attention about a month ago, we can probably figure that most of his $379,000.00 came in fairly recently. All around the country, Republican challengers are doing this – significantly out-raising their Democrat opponents. Including such entrenched can-get-lobbyist-money-in-a-flash Democrats like Frank.

More importantly, the money is flowing in small amounts from average Americans. This is a sign of what is coming on November 2nd.

Let the Revolution begin!

HAT TIP: The Other McCain

From Fox News:

Drug smuggling gangs in Mexico have sent well-armed assassins, or “sicarios,” into Arizona to locate and kill bandits who are ambushing and stealing loads of cocaine, marijuana and heroin headed to buyers in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security has warned Arizona law enforcement authorities.

In a memo sent in May and widely circulated since, the department said: “We just received information from a proven credible confidential source who reported that a meeting was held in Puerto Penasco in which every smuggling organization who utilizes the Vekol Valley was told to attend. This included rival groups within the Guzman cartel.”…

This would not be an issue if we controlled our border. Unfortunately, we have resigned control of the border to the drug gangs and now they are reaching in to the United States to control the land beyond the border. How long before our border towns become like Mexican border towns? How long before our police chiefs and mayors are beheaded because they crossed a drug gang? How long before our law enforcement is intimidated or bribed in to turning the other way?

If we are to be a nation of laws, then we must enforce all our laws – unless we want to pass a law allowing anyone and anything to cross our border at will, then we have to resign ourselves to enforcing our border control laws. No pleas for the poor immigrants (which are false pleas, anyway), no references to political correctness, so storied fables of a nation of immigrants should deter us – our laws say you can’t cross the border without our express permission, and that is what we must do.

Because we don’t do this, people are murdered in great, big bloody batches in Mexico…because we’ve turned a blind eye to the massive illegality upon the border, the Mexican drug gangs have taken control. Because we don’t control the border the illegal immigrants our liberals supposedly care about are raped, robbed and murdered – with those surviving the passage then being ruthlessly exploited by American employers who can’t see a week in to the future. Enforcing our border laws is a matter of basic justice – to ourselves, and to the illegal immigrants.

I don’t care what it takes – if we have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars and build a wall 100 feet high from end to end, we have to do it. If we don’t do this, then we are an unjust nation. A nation of chaos and crime, not a nation of free people and laws.

Go here and help.

From the AP via Jihad Watch:

A soldier who recorded the terror of last year’s deadly shooting rampage in Fort Hood using his cell phone was ordered by an officer to delete both videos, a military court heard Friday.

Under cross examination, Pfc. Lance Aviles told an Article 32 hearing that his noncommissioned officer ordered him to destroy the two videos on Nov. 5, the same day that a gunman unleashed a volley of bullets inside a processing center at the Texas Army post…

The destruction of evidence of a crime is itself a crime – obstruction of justice. We have no reason to doubt this soldier’s statement, and a thorough investigation needs to be launched to find the officer in question and discover just why an order to break the law was given (the soldier, himself, should have refused to obey such an illegal order – but a Pfc. is not one to necessarily know where the law is at a time when a direct order is given by an officer). This story, if it is proved true, demonstrates that our military has been completely infected by political correctness as regards Islam.

We need to get a handle on this. As we saw at Ft Hood, the lives of our soldiers depends on it. Because of political correctness, the Islamist terrorist Hasan was permitted to be in the military, setting in train the events which culminated in mass murder. A non-politically correct military would have cashiered Hasan long before he had his chance to murder. Our military is to defend us, not to bow to liberal notions of what is most sensitive.

As we cannot expect Obama’s politicized Justice department to do anything, we’ll have to rely on Congressional oversight to get to the bottom of this – and come January, we might even have a Congress willing to do such a job.