I know money’s what makes the world go around – but is it the key to beating a constitutionally corrupt president?

If so, then this weekend’s three-day retreat in California, attended by some of the richest billionaires (is there really a poor billionaire?) is a step in the right direction.

The Huffington Post reports (read full story here) David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries pledged a combined $60M to defeat Barack Obama in the upcoming election. Some 250-300 other billionaires made the remainder of a pledge drive netting 100 million bucks to the overall effort (and what does it say, really that the majority of the pledges came from two men?).

To this I say, ‘Thank you billionaires for holding yourselves up in a plush hotel all weekend, buying out all the restaurants so you wouldn’t be discovered AND sitting around on overstuffed couches plotting how to take back the country … then deciding all you really had to do was throw a hundred million dollars into the fight and you’ve done your job.’

If it were really that easy (and if we all had that kind of dough to throw around at our problems) … then would we really be in this predicament right now?

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I really hate mice, but even I felt for the freakishly disgusting rodents when I was walking around Target and saw mouse traps with FAKE cheese on ‘em. Are mice so freaking stupid they’d actually fall for something pretending to hold the most coveted of cuisines within a mouse’s palette?

There’s a political parallel there…

Monday, President Obama announced a plan to force banks to refinance home mortgages for those who are upside-down in their property. For those of us who bought high and now couldn’t dream of selling at a profit, this is a wonderful way for us to benefit from a government that seems to spend on programs that’ll impact us, right?

But then we take a few steps closer and realize if we fall for this, we’re being sucked into something we already kinda fell for a few years back.

The original mortgage plan, put into effect in 2009, was designed to allow those who are current with their payments but have little or no equity in their home to secure lower mortgage rates. The President’s Home Affordable Refinance Program has helped only 894,000 borrowers since the spring of 2009. The administration had originally hoped up to 5 million homeowners would benefit. I guess this didn’t work as planned. This revised plan is supposedly going to help up to 1.6M homeowners and will force banks, on paper, to take a loss on the mortgages of people who over-extended themselves.

What the President is really feeding us is nothing more than a petrified piece of cheese that’s sat out in the sun way too long and has now been spray-painted and re-molded so as to broaden its appeal (so he hopes) in order to garner votes from an electorate who would otherwise NOT vote for him. (more…)

Have you ever been told to settle for something you weren’t happy with or to ‘just deal’ with the hand you’d been dealt because … well, it is what it is?

Yeah. I’ve been dealing with that a lot lately – especially when the talk turns to politics. So it comes as no surprise that while I was enjoying my manicure earlier this week, CNN’s John King was smugly billowing orders to all Conservatives and Republicans alike to stop complaining and get used to the current Republican Presidential Candidate field.

King, who by his very nature gets on every last nerve in my body, went on to spout his wisdom by indignantly proclaiming ‘this is the hand you’re dealt and these candidates are what you have to work with.’ One could almost see the smile playing on the edge of his lips as he foresaw the future – the future of another four years of Obama-Nation …

Hum. Is this really OK? Are we stuck with what we got out there now? After the last several debates, I’d say the option of having a super-candidate to defeat the current Presidential Disaster is slim … but not hopeless. Never. Ever. Hopeless.

See, this is where we Conservatives – and a lot of Republicans – differ from the gloom and doom of our liberal counterparts. Some might call it always ‘believing the grass is greener on the other side’ or wanting something we see as not possible (i.e., Chris Christie entering the race … But what’s up with this new announcement? Can’t the drama end soon?). But it’s not. It’s simply knowing what is possible and fully understanding what we want in a candidate.

Right now, it may not seem any one candidate fits the bill for our total agenda – i.e., Perry’s lax immigration policy; Ron Paul’s older than a dinosaur; Gary Johnson, being from a state most people don’t even realize is even a state (hey, I am from NM and people still ask me if I am from MEXICO when I say NEW MEXICO) …and Mitt Romney’s joke called RomneyCare … And let’s not forget Bachmann … whose main strike against her is lack of experience and her inability to let a subject just drop (you won’t ever hear me say her biggest issue is she’s a woman … because it’s just not. A Conservative woman in a place of power can perform miracles … I believe it truly.).

So do we settle? Well, that’s not the American way, is it? In fact, we are taught throughout history that settling gets you communism, socialism and slavery.

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I have a deathly fear of water.

I’ve always been kinda shy around it – even as a kid. But this turned into a full-blown fright fest when I was working at my first newspaper as an obituary clerk.

In my first few weeks at The Farmington Daily Times (Farmington, NM), I wrote the obituary of my high school friend, Chelly, who drowned in Navajo Lake near my hometown, while trying to save a little girl’s life. So, that, coupled with an already slightly ridiculous inability to back float, spiraled into me spending more time tanning on the side of the pool while my friends played Marco Polo and water volleyball. Such is the life of a land-bound girl with tan lines …

I talk about fears today because I am seeing fear throughout our Conservative ranks right now. We are a group who is more prepared for the upcoming Barackolypse (“If Obama is elected again inflation will make food and energy prices so high we won’t be able to buy bread!”) than we are in actually trying to mount an offensive and defeat him.

We have respected leaders in our own movement, telling us to head for the hills and store up food in order to take care of you and your own should the worst happen and Obama become reelected as president. I am reminded of the mania surrounding New Years Eve 2000 when everyone thought the new millennium might bring earthquake, death, destruction and a need to retreat to the caves and caverns of the Midwest. Have we already succumbed to the fear of fears here? Are we not even willing to see what we can do as a group large enough in number to actually make a difference?

As a group, it seems we have let our fears consume us. We have decided we don’t have a voice big enough to beat the bias of the media, take down the liberal mob or counter-act the power of the current government.

In watching the Republican debate earlier this week, I was yearning for a message of hope – a message OBAMA seemed to give so many people in 2008 – that actually made them vote for him. But I was left with nothing. All I heard were the problems this country had – not the potential. ‘ObamaCare will ruin the economy,’ ‘Withdrawl of troops jeopardizes our safety,’ ‘Our borders aren’t safe despite what Obama says ..’

Let’s face it. There’s not a person reading this who is involved in our Conservative circles who thinks President Obama has done a good job. We all know he’s sucked horrendously as Commander in Chief and we would like nothing better than to run him out of Washington on a rail … But I don’t need our Republican candidates to remind me of this time and time again. Tell me the problem. Tell me your solution. And lastly, tell me what we have to look forward to.

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Talking points. Anyone standing in front of a group of people, representing an organization or focused message has ‘em, just in case the person speaking decides to veer off topic and start discussing the lunch that gave him heartburn.

Yeah, most of us see the need for ‘em.

But when our own government sends out a list of  9/11 talking points in order to curb and dilute the message of this terrible sacred day, it shows how far gone this administration really is when it comes to knowing the pulse and sentiments of its people.

According to a the New York Times report, the adminstration said its goal in issuing 9/11 talking points is to “present a positive, forward-looking narrative.”

“As we commemorate the citizens of over 90 countries who perished in the 9/11 attacks, we honor all victims of terrorism in every nation around the world. We honor and celebrate the resilience of individuals, families and communities on every continent, whether in New York or Nairobi, Bali or Belfast, Mumbai or Manila, or Lahore or London,” the guidelines state.

We all understand people of many different nationalities perished on 9/11. We also understand the global impact of 9/11 and how it changed the face of terrorism in the world. Suddenly, we were all acutely aware of the danger out there – the fact we, as Americans were being targeted and hated as a country for our beliefs in freedom, independence and liberty. So, to globalize the 10th anniversary into a memorial to victims of terrorism around the world seems to demean the significance and importance of this one, very real event in America’s history.

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In Thursday’s FOX News GOP Presidential Debate, a resounding roar of ‘boos’ filled the auditorium when debate moderator Washington Examiner Columnist Byron York asked Congresswoman Michele Bachmann whether she would be “submissive to her husband” if she were elected president.

This question was framed after a comment Bachmann had made a few years back about how she didn’t want to do something her husband had asked her to do (return to school to become a tax attorney), but she buckled down and did it because he asked. She said she was ‘submissive’ to his wishes.

The idea of wives submitting to their husbands is a Biblical-based principle ingrained into fundamental Christians since Paul wrote the words in Ephesians 2:22-24:

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

The writer of Ephesians, Paul (formerly a soldier known as Saul who persecuted Christians in Rome), was writing letters to churches he supported while he was in prison and during his vast travels to support Christians in the region. He was outlining instructions/guidance to keep the people of the church focused on God in a society not all-together friendly to the Christian faith.

Let’s not forget Christians were being herded up and thrown into arenas and into Lion’s Dens. His words were those of comfort and of unity and were spoken out of a desire to allow Christians a support system. In the social class present back in the day, men were revered as the leader of the home and of the society in which they lived. Therefore, Paul instructed women to listen to their husbands (who were often more educated and world wise than they were) and then in turn, for husbands to support the church as Christ had.

There is still a place for this, but it is different now as times are different and a woman’s role in this society has astoundingly changed.

In our culture, meanings change through the years based on the times and the interpretation. If they didn’t, “gay” would still mean “happy”; “cool” would only mean a temperature and a rainbow would still represent God’s promise to Noah.

Times have indeed changed.

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I believe in girl power. I’ve been a proponent of it long before the ridiculous Power Puff Girls and those sassy Spice Girls made the term part of our vernacular.

I’m of the mind a woman can do anything she puts her mind to – and isn’t limited by the fact that she is a woman.

Don’t get me wrong. I do believe some things are meant to be done by men only – err taking out the trash or mowing the lawn to name a few, but hell- if I wanna do them I’m perfectly capable of it and don’t you doubt it (I really despise taking out the trash. Don’t know why … I just do).

Women can fight in wars. They can die for their country. They can fly planes, build bridges, perform brain surgery and even help build the space shuttle (Sing it with me now: ‘bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never ever let you forget you’re a man …’). But apparently, they’re not equipped to be significantly represented on the ‘Super Committee.’

We represent 50.7 percent of the population in the United States. The Democrats, claiming to be progressive, placed only one woman on the 12-person Debt Reduction committee. If the committee, appointed by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, didn’t want to be representative of the American population, it could’ve at least been sensitive to the 93 women serving in Congress. This would’ve required the placement of at least 2 women on the panel. But no.

Reid and Pelosi were too concerned with making sure all minority groups were represented. One African-American Congressman was chosen (According to the Census, 12.6 percent of the population is African American. 44 are in the 112th Congress — or 8.1 percent of the total membership) and one Latino is on the committee (There are 31 Hispanic or Latino members of the 112th Congress, which is 5.7 percent of the total congressional membership. Hispanics and Latinos make up 16.3 percent of the U.S. population.)

What is the significance of this? To me, it’s clear. The democrats care more about the minority vote than they do about the gender vote because they feel they’ve already got it in the bag! (more…)

Don’t you just love it when a political figure opens up his or her mouth and out comes STUPID?

Unfortunately, the blubbering of absolute absurdity happens on the left AND the right, but former DNC chairman Howard Dean, appearing this week on ‘Face the Nation’, barfed up something so ridiculous it spawned many Google searches on my part.

In discussing this nation’s debt crisis, Dean joined John Kerry, Charlie Rangel and even John McCain to some extent, in throwing the Tea Party Conservatives under the proverbial bus, blaming them for the inability to reach better deal on the debt ceiling. Dean’s comment went a little somethin’ like this:

“I think this is [the] Tea Party’s problem. I think they’re totally unreasonable and doctrinaire and not founded in reality. I think they’ve been smoking some of that tea, not just drinking it,” Dean said …

Smoking tea … Well, call me sheltered (and not many do …) but I certainly hadn’t heard of any such thing … Smoking tea? Do people do that?

And if they do, what kind?

Lipton? Nestea? Celestial Seasonings? Herbal?  Green tea? Will a Target generic brand suffice? I just had to find out exactly what would happen if one did actually fire up a tea doobie instead of steeping and drinking tea (I’m a journalist … don’t knock me for being curious.).

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“Wait a second, you’re a singer. You’re a journalist AND you’re a conservative,” he said, rather surprised.

“Yeah … is that wrong?” I said.

“No, it’s just unexpected … and rare,” he responded.

I’ve been meeting a lot of new people lately. This is a blessing and a curse in Washington DC, as sooner or later politics WILL come up. It’s just how things are around here. And as a singer in a band, I encounter a ton of people who gravitate towards the band’s sound, my voice or something I’ve said on stage and conversations start.

Sometimes, these conversations are uncomfortable and the person I am talking to kinda backs away slowly when I mention conservatism or anything seen as ‘right-wing’ .. And other times, intense conversation takes place.

What I find though, is we as conservatives are bound to stereotypes so entrenched in the mind of the general population it’s hard for anyone to see us as who we really are. It’s like the minute I voice my political views and they’re of differing opinion, I am no longer the cool person who just caught their attention singing ‘Kiss Me’ or some other fun-loving song on stage. I’m now…just a conservative. Not a person. Not a pretty voice. Just a conservative, as defined by the media.

I know it all goes back to getting rid of labels and we can preach until we turn blue about how we want the left to see us for who we are and not the fanatics within our faction or the way the media paints us. But that’s a passive way of getting other people to take responsibility for the change we need to insight. Our preaching at, or to each other doesn’t get the job done. It just passes the buck, so to speak. We need to live the change we want to see and work towards it.

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