So...Who Wants to Take a Vacation to D.C.?

Here's what happened Saturday night and in the wee hours of Sunday morning in Washington, D.C.



I've always thought of D.C. as my home town (as much as a Navy brat can have a home town). Every other tour of duty for my dad was in D.C. We lived in suburban Virginia and suburban Maryland. I went to college in D.C. right down the street from Catholic University. My friends and I used to walk the mile or so to Brookland in northeast to shop, or we'd take the bus "downtown" to go to Woodies and Hechts. I student taught in the Shaw neighborhood at Shaw Junior High School.

Comic Legend Cheers Clint Eastwood Performance at RNC

I think Clint Eastwood's performance at the RNC was hilarious, despite being a little vulgar. The use of an empty chair was brilliant. Let's face it, the oval office has had an empty chair since the man was elected. Between Obama's non-stop campaigning and fund-raising and his busy vacation schedule, he's hardly spent any time in the oval office working for the people. Nevertheless, he's been very successful at undermining the country 1) by his use of executive orders to usurp the legislative role of Congress and 2) his appointment of "czars" to cabinet level positions usurping the role of the Senate's constitutional right to advise and consent. I have no doubt that this president has committed more impeachable offenses than any president in history. But politicians are skittish to criticize the first black president because the media instantly labels them as racists. The use of the empty chair could also be seen as addressing a man in the dock. He's been tried and found wanting as Eastwood made so perfectly clear. When a man isn't doing the job, it's time to "let him go."

The liberal pundits went into overdrive to label Eastwood's unscripted comedy routine "weird" and paint him as suffering from "dementia." But a comic legend saw his act a little differently and I thought his remarks were interesting and on target. Eastwood sounded as "demented" as George Burns with the same sense of perfect timing. And that is what comedy is all about. Here's a snippet of what Jackie Mason said and you can listen to the rest on the youtube audio below:

“Clint Eastwood was trying to do one thing. He was trying to do a comedy routine and it was a brilliantly conceiv[ed] comedy routine. And he purposely put on an act of being a little frazzled, of being a little old, to make it sound like he wasn’t being intentionally abusive or directly attacking anybody.”
Mason said that Eastwood intentionally tried to convey the “meanderings of an older person who happens to be saying these things.”
“And this was so artfully, perfectly conceived,” Mason added. “[Eastwood] hit the nail exactly on the head and he made a total idiot out of Barack Obama.”

More on Corruption at the Republican National Convention

Conservatives talk about the Democrats' corruption? Are the Republican elite running the party any differently? Think about it. The pro-abort Democrats wouldn't let pro-life Bob Casey, Governor of Pennsylvania speak at the 1992 convention. In 2012, the Republicans froze out Ron Paul. The Democrats are notorious for their corrupt politics: vote fixing, keeping folks from the polls, etc. How is that any different that the Republican elite preventing Morton Blackwell from leading the charge against disenfranchising delegates by pushing through draconian rules changes. They kept the Virginia delegation including Morton Blackwell trapped on a bus that circled the convention center three times before heading away from it. The dirty politics kept the delegation away from the crucial vote. Then Boehner, in a clearly biased act, declared by fiat that the "the ayes have it" when the vote was taken. You can listen for yourself and hear that it is by no means clear. It was all fun and games and inspiration on the stage at the convention, but backstage it was manipulation and corruption. Just check out the links below.

The Republicans Have Sacrificed the Grassroots: This Cannot Stand! N.B. Note that Morton Blackwell begins speaking in the second video about minute 19 and goes until minute 31. He gives a powerful description of the danger of the rules changes. No wonder the Republican power brokers had to keep him away from the vote! He calls the rules change [#12] a "disaster," the worst thing he's ever seen in the Rules Committee. "It's what Democrats do all the time," he says. "It [Rule 12] takes away the stability of our rules between conventions." They also inserted a rule [16] that lets the presidential candidate "disallow" the delegates he doesn't like. Can you imagine - your state convention elects delegates who are then disenfranchised by the presidential candidate? And these totalitarians have the gall to call themselves conservative? This is dirty backroom politics at its worst. 

What I saw at the convention

Behind the Scenes at the Republican Convention: Doing the Dirty to Ron Paul

How petty can you be? Ron Paul was treated like dirt at the convention. Any grassroots Republican should be shocked and offended by this no matter how you feel about Ron Paul. It is sickening to see supposed grownups who are so committed to showing a love fest of unity (a lie in fact) rather than let there even be a hint that somebody else had support. Funny, I remember the days when the outcome was not preordained and conventions were actually interesting with all kinds of campaigning going on during the convention. Now, conventions are simply Hollywood -- and, frankly, not nearly as honest or as interesting.

What Did You Think of Marco Rubio?

Marco Rubio gave a great speech last night introducing Romney. What a pleasure to hear someone unabashedly discuss faith and family in such a positive way. And what a success story he related about parents escaping communism and coming to this country to make a better life for their children. I agree with those who called Rubio's speech the "best moment of the convention." Except for his mistake saying we need "more government" when he meant less government, his speech was perfect and pure inspiration. God bless him.

When Rubio talks about American exceptionalism, he's not talking about American supermen. He's talking about the unique history of our American government. Yes, we had the flaw of slavery and discrimination for a time, but America has never had a caste system where some are untouchable and can never rise. We've never had an "upstairs/downstairs" society where doors were closed to education and cultural improvement for the "underclass." Have we had exploitation? Yes. Have we had unbridled capitalism that exploits workers and tyrannical judges who imposed injustice like mandatory sterilization? Yes. But these evils have always caused a reactionary uprising. How? Because we have freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech, rights severely limited in most countries of the world.

The vision of the Founding Fathers works because it is based on the Judeo-Christian ethic. Our culture is coming unglued because of the abandonment of that ethic. To the degree we restore those principles to government, we will see a revival of America's greatness. To the degree we continue on the path of depravity and rejection of the natural law of God, we will see further collapse. Restoration begins with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. So pray and work, America. The hour is late!