Note on Cuban Relations

With the Congressional Black Caucus’s trip to Cuba this last week, and their glowing review of the Castro Bros. the question of whether or not we should lift the embargo on Cuba, allowing travel to and trade with the country.  The answer is unequivocally “no”.

Both of the Castro dictators are guilty of terrible human rights violations, imprisoning many of their own people for political reasons.  These Cuban Gulags are not the pristine, friendly prisons we have in the US.  The political prisoners in Cuba are held in deplorable conditions and tortured constantly for their opposition to the dictatorship.

Many people say that the embargo on Cuba is only hurting the US and the citizens of Cuba, not the actual government.  I say this is wrong.  Lifting the embargo will only provide Castro with more capital to line his pockets, pay guards, and continue to oppress his people.

There is also claim that if we allow free travel into Cuba, he will be forced to lessen his atrocities against his own people.  But, as Rep. Chris Smith pointed out, just before and during the Olympics, the world went to China, and the Chinese government only cracked down harder on political dissidents.

We need to have a policy towards Cuba which promotes freedom.  We need to support the dissidents, and make sure that opposition isn’t punished by Castro.  We don’t need to encourage the dictatorship, we don’t need our representatives giving the secret police a glowing review when they come back stateside.  I would love to see a world were we are able to freely cross the boarder into Cuba.  However, there will have to be massive changes in the way the country governs its people.  There will have to be a free Cuba.

I’m not always a Negative Nelly.

In good news today, the Commie News Network is reporting that even fewer people support stricter gun countrols, down 15 percentage points from 54% in 2001 to 39% today.  Of course, C(CCP)NN tries to blame recent shootings on not enough gun control, but surely people realize that spoons didn’t make Micheal Moore fat.

Back, by unpopular demand: Amnesty

According to hobo toilet paper, Obama is going to start pushing amnesty on all of us again.  Is this isn’t so much an immigration issue as it is that of a lawless society issue.  We do not reward people for selling drugs, murdering, or speeding just because we can’t stop them, illegally entering our country is not any different.

I do like the idea of simpler immigration, maybe some form of migrant worker program where someone could apply to be in the country for a short period of time to work, there would have to be some logistical things worked out to make it work, but it would still be a much better solution than mass reward for bad deeds.

Our country is in a time of war right now, and knowing who is in our country is pinnacle to our security, and these types of policies will do nothing but undermine that security.

You may ask, “but, Cullin, when we allow these people to become citizens, will not that allow us to know who is here?”

This might sound like it works, but the simple fact is that you will only encourage people to illegally cross the border so that they will be guaranteed a place in the line for legal access to the country, that is if the intruders even want to be a legal citizen.  If we enact these policies, we will surely see an increase in illegal immigration.

The democrats do not have our interest at heart with these types of policies.  The simple fact is that illegal immigrants tend to favor democrats in the voting box, plus they tend to immigrate to democratic states and areas, California being a major one.  This would lead to greater census numbers, and a greater proportion of the electorate come election day.  This isn’t an act of humanitarianism, altruism, justice, or one that would increase the effectiveness of American law, it is simply a way for the democrats to maintain their power in quite nefarious means.

But, the biggest mistake in these policies is the fact that we are rewarding illegal actions.  We can’t find ourselves in a safe or free country when actions which cost others pain to be glorifies and actions which prohibit our pursuit of happiness are demonized.

Mass illegal immigration causes many young men and women to be placed in impoverished areas, where gang and other illegal activities flourish, leading many more people to be influenced by  these sorts of activities, putting these children and everyone in a near area in more danger for life or property.  It is not that illegal immigrant automatically equals evil-doer, but illegal immigrant does almost always equal of little means, which causes both the immigrants and their children to increase the number of people at risk of becoming involved in illegal activities.

This sort of immigration also acts as a way to mask, not of their own volition, the entrance of those who do wish to do harm to those in the US.  When we have this many people crossing the border without documentation, we inevitably miss many of those who should not, under any circumstances, be allowed into the country.  Many of the terrorist involved in the September 11th attack were here illegally because we did not have the resources to actively pursue  those who wish to do us harm.

Under Obama’s plan for America, all of this is to be exonerated, even exalted, while those who work hard for their property, using their faculties given to them by Providence to build whatever they have, are finding their treasures plundered by the government in the name of egalitarianism, a false philanthropy.  And, those who do try to come to our country legally will be treated the most unfairly, having to wait for many months, and sometimes even being denied, because they wished to follow our laws.

Immigration and immigrants are great for our country.  It provides a great amount of human capital in America, it builds on the glory that is a country of the free, where one can come to escape the multitude of dictators and instability in other countries.  And, in May, when Obama starts pedaling this to congress, we all need to call our representatives in Washington and let them know that we stand for a just society, where good deeds are not punished, and theft of resources is not deemed noble.  We need to let our representatives know that we stand for the sanctity of the American dream, and that we want to protect the rights of all of our citizens, native born or naturalized.

Democrats now Am-Coms

A group of congressional democrats traveled to Cuba to apparently help usher in the new era of Marxism in America.  This congressional delegation had nothing but glowing remarks about the communist country.  From Fox News

“For the past 50 years, the United States has been swimming in the Caribbean Sea of delusion,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who described the United States as “the isolated nation” compared to European countries which have diplomatic ties with Havana.

“This is the dawning of a new day,” Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., declared. “Fifty years of foolishness is over. It’s time for the children to sit in the corner and the adults to take over.”

Rush was one of three members of the delegation to meet with Fidel Castro. A meeting with his brother, Cuban leader Raul Castro, took place Monday.

Tuesday afternoon, the Cuban government released a statement that it indicated was Fidel Castro’s assessment of a session he had with the lawmakers. In the statement, Castro said that one of the Members of Congress told him that the United States should “apologize” to Cuba. And another lawmaker told the former leader that despite the victory by President Obama, U.S. society is still “racist.”

All members of the delegation denied that those two exchanges took place during their time with Fidel Castro.

The lawmakers encouraged the U.S. to launch a dialogue with Cuba and relieve trade and modify a 47-year-old American trade embargo against the island nation.

“You can’t not talk to people and expect to get a desirable result,” said Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., who added that the embargo “was not effective.”

Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., was one of three lawmakers who requested and met with Fidel Castro. She described him as alert and said the former Cuban dictator “looked directly into our eyes, quite aware of what was happening. He said to us, ‘how can we help President Obama?’”

Rush indicated that it was time for Washington to remove Cuba from the list of terrorist nations. Rush dismissed Cuba as a security threat to the United States. He said that when he was a member of the Black Panthers in the 1960s, former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover warned that his organization as “the number one threat to national security.

“So I know foolhardy approaches and asinine labels when I see them, ” said Rush. “American people need to be told the truth and they have been lied to for too long about the threat from Cuba.”

Both Rep. Rush, an ordained Baptist minister, and Rep. Cleaver, a Methodist pastor, delivered sermons at churches while in Cuba.

The CBC members conceded there were limited discussions about human rights abuses in Cuba.

“We didn’t talk about it much,” said Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio. “You don’t go into someone’s house and insult them.”

But Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who led the delegation said that Raul Castro indicated to her that “everything’s on the table.”

“Two sovereign nations should be able to sit down and talk about their differences, ” Lee said.

The U.S. Air Force flew the Congressional Black Caucus delegation directly to Havana and not the American military base at Guantanamo Bay. The Air Force then gave each lawmaker a pin featuring adjoining American and Cuban flags to help identify them as members of the delegation.

Obviously Obama isn’t the only democrat who doesn’t understand the nature of the world.  To think our elected representatives would apologize to a man who has killed many thousands for his political gain and keeps his people in disparaging poverty.

Obama: I’m sorry, America sucks. I hate it, too.

Obama is wrapping up his trip to Europe and the G20 meeting, so what was accomplished, what did we learn?

We learned that Obama tries to act tech savvy, he decided to give the Queen of England an iPod most likely because he gave Gordon Brown 25 DVDs with the wrong region code.  Anyone who knows anything about anything knows that DVDs generally don’t transfer across seas, of course, it’s fine because he’s no John McCain, he knows what an iPod is.

But, more importantly, we now know that he really does hate America and it’s values, or he’ll do whatever it takes to appease other countries.  Either way, this is not the kind of leadership we need.

When asked who was to blame for the financial crisis, Obama placed blame on the US, he called Americans arrogant, and belittled the religious institutions of the country.  Now, if Obama wants to throw all of his friends under the bus for political gain during the campaign, that’s fine.  But, now he is the number one elected official of our country, and our face to the rest of the world, his antics of passing the blame are going to do nothing but blemish our report with other countries.

Obama’s international policy will be the downfall of our country if he refuses to take a stand in opposition to foreign leaders.  If not for the president handing our sovereignty and our economy to the UN, his weak appearance on national security (answering N. Korea’s missle launch with allowing American missle defense funding to be slashed) will enourage our enemies to stand up against us.

Sadly not enough people saw this coming during the elections, and now we’re stuck with him for the remainder of his not even 100 day old presidency.  If anything is right in the world, and the democrats haven’t suspended the right to vote, 2010 will lead to a much more conservative congress.

Obama’s Nuclear Stupidity

Yesterday, North Korea started the testing of Obama’s mettle as predicted in Biden’s famous “Gird your loins” speech with the illegal launching of a missile which could possibly be used to fire long range.  When this was predicted to happen by Biden, he gave us the picture of the all so glorious leader rising to the challenge and quelling any fear that may be in the hearts of the people.  Instead, Obama makes the worst national defense decision since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Five hours ago, the Daily Fish Wrap reported that Obama wants to see a United States that is without means to protect ourselves.  He states that in his magical utopia, countries with nuclear weapons will disarm, countries which don’t have them will cease trying to acquire such weapons, and we’ll all run around and play with the majestic unicorn.  Okay, I lied about the unicorns, but the rest of his idea is just as much of a nonsensical farce.
When Obama removes the treat of the nuke to our enemies, he removes all of the deterrent from our would be harm doers.

If Obama truly believes that this sort of national defense is effective I think we would see a much different form of security for the president.  By his theory, he doesn’t need armed secret service officers, because if you don’t have weapons, your enemy will lay them down as well.  Actually, he wouldn’t even need the service, by his theory on international relations, he could simply just get everyone who would want to do him harm to meet him in a room where he could talk.  They could even bring their weapons and their threats, because he doesn’t need any preconditions for meeting with our, or his, enemies.

Obviously, the POTUS wouldn’t take these sorts of lackadaisical security measures for his personal security, why would he do this for an entire nation that he is responsible to protect?

Young Conservatives Do It Right

This weekend I attended the 29th annual State Convention for the Young Conservatives of Texas.  As always, the convention was a great opportunity to learn and refresh one’s commitment to principles.    We were lucky enough to host both current Texas Governor Rick Perry and the former Treasurer for Ronald Reagan, Bay Buchanan.  Along with the keynote speakers we had attended several forums on everything from communication to making sure we are able to maintain a majority in Texas.

The event served as a wonderful reminder that just because the election season’s over, it doesn’t mean our work is finished.  If anything, our work has really just begun. With a new POTUS who is farther left than the self proclaimed socialist, and a congress controlled almost completely by the democrats, we are going to be fighting corruption on top of an ideological battle.

With the president firing officers at automobile companies and refusing to accept repayments of bailout money for banks (which is solely so he will be able to retain his control of these companies), and Geithner assuming the ability to set pay rates for private firms, we see our country quickly moving towards Soviet style communism.  Though it’s no surprise to me that this movement is happening, it’s really the ease of which it is occurring that surprises me.  Of course, it’s simple to sink a boat if no one is reporting the leaks.

Never have I heard of American press being so obviously a propaganda tool of the administration.  Matthews constantly has “thrills up [his] leg” at the sound of Obama, and the press fawns over Obama in blue jeans.  Yes, he truly is their messiah, a benevolent leader if you will.  Almost nothing of any bill in congress is being reported on major news networks, and the only time I hear news of tea parties, which show the blatant distaste for the policies of the administration, is when I get an email from some contact who wants to know about the tea parties.  However, the MSM was able to report that Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod.

If we want to see a better future, with liberty and prosperity, and if we don’t want to have the government regulating and mandating all of our actions, we need to all be involved, to stand up and let our voices be heard.  And, if you’re a college student in Texas, YCT is your best way.

John Cornyn Named NRSC Chairman

Yesterday Sen. Cornyn was chosen to lead the republican senatorial committee.  The big job of the senatorial committee is getting republicans elected into senate seats, and this is going to be a huge burden given the current political climate.

What Sen. Cornyn and the rest of the committee needs to do is focus not on winning elections for the pure fact of getting republicans elected, but on making sure that our candidates are running the right ticket.  Every year, after primary polls are closed and we have our great race for the middle, both parties start to turn into one in the same.  And, this is not how we’re going to win elections in the future.

Both George Jr and Sr, and McCain ran on this platform of compromised conservative values.  True, they were closer to conservative than their opponents, but that’s simply not enough.  As the two parties melt into the same philosophy with different animals, Americans become apathetic.  The only way to win with these types of elections is to have the candidate that more people like for a person.

Sure, running for the middle will gain you a lot of the undecided votes and maybe a couple of the opposition, but at what cost?  You lose the core of your party and your strength.  Elections are won by who can turn out the most supporters.  Obviously that sounds almost oversimplified, but the implications thereunto are grave.  The candidate who wins is not necessarily the person who most people would have voted for, but it is the person who had the most supporters actually show up.

When the core of your party is disinterested or feels alienated, you certainly will not have the numbers at the polls that you should have.  This is the latest ailment of the republicans.  As they strive to keep their votes up, they have been saying whatever the polls do.  Sure it seems like the logical thing, but when you’ve loosened your stance on abortion, illegal immigration, gun rights, government spending and government size for the sake of the poll numbers, those who trusted you before will lose their confidence in you.  As a result, you lose those people actually showing up, and worse yet, you lose the influence of those people who would have supported you around their friends and families, which could have been a deciding endorsement.

Hopefully in these next two years, senate republicans will realize the errors they have made and return to the conservative principles of the party we knew under Reagan.

The America We Deserve

We deserve to have 4 years of terrible administration, relentless government growth, and our freedoms and rights taken away from us if the elections turn out as polls are forecasting.  We’ve grown lazy and we’re not holding anyone accountable.  The news tells us something, it must have happened, if they omit it, or say that it’s not really an issue, they must be right.  If we refuse to vet a candidate because he’s going to bring “hope” and “change” and that’s all we care about, we deserve our government.

Biden has promised us an international crisis within six months, if Obama gets elected.  He said that we’ll need to support him, even though it’s not going to look like he has made the right decision at first.  I can promise you that this will be an opportunity for the Obama administration to take away some powers from the congress or the judicial, or possibly state governments or even the people.  He’ll be able to further centralize the power flow in the US.  I wouldn’t be surprised if term limits got over turned either.  We’ll start to see even more rampant voter fraud, because now democrats will control every part of the voting process, guaranteeing democratic majorities for the rest of time.  We deserve our government.

No one will do better under an Obama tax plan.  Redistribution doesn’t work.  They’ve tried it in many countries, but for some reason they think it’s going to work better here.  He says that he’s only going to tax the wealthy.  Which, at best, only sounds good to people who don’t realize that he’s disincentivising upward social mobility.  But, who cares about social mobility right?  I mean, my dad was poor, I should be poor too, it’s only right.  In reality his tax plan is the same as saying that he’s only going to draw water out of your neighbor’s side of the well.  But, it doesn’t matter as long as he’s yelling about how two legs are bad and four legs are good, and as long as he keeps pushing our country to build this windmill that we so desperately need, people will follow.  We deserve our government.

My Letter to the Cornyn Team

Cornyn’s vote on the bail out plan has made me lose a great deal of confidence in him.  Just the other day I had sent a letter to Rep. Gohmert expressing my gratitude that he had voted against the initial bill, and I hope that I get to keep him in such great accord after tomorrow.

This bill is not what we need to fix our financial problem.  It is only a big government reaction to a problem which was caused by previous, similar big government programs.  The government cannot and should not regulate the markets.  They work very well on their own, but as soon as we start trying to artificially bolster them, we will keep having to increase our stimulation and regulation, until we slowly work our way into the same type of socialist governments of Venezuela and the like.  On this day, I would have higher approval ratings for the French government than that of my own country because they have been moving away from the bureaucratic theocracy where the almighty regulator is our lord and saviour that we are ever so steadily starting to embrace.

For the last several weeks and months I have been greatly pushing Cornyn as the candidate for the Senate from Texas.  However, my heart broke and I was not able to continue advocating for his re-election this day whenever I had to tell a curious voter that he did indeed vote for the bail out.

The initial bill was not a good idea at 700 billion.  When it was pushed through with another 150 billion dollars worth of pork and pet projects that otherwise would cost the taxpayer next to nothing, it was an even worse idea.

It is too late for this senate bill, the damage is done in that governing body.  Hopefully, the bicameral nature of our legislature will hold true to its intention and kill this atrocity of Keynesian thought.  And, hopefully Cornyn will have a chance to redeem himself by not voting for another such bill, which would cost us too much, and benefit us much too little.

I would hope that you would relay the fear and lamentations of those like me.  Those who wonder what happened to Cornyn’s principles.

“The government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could conceivably put taxpayers on the hook for $200 billion. Taxpayers should not be in the business of rescuing shareholders, CEOs or those who made bad business decisions. Both institutions have demonstrated spending habits that should not be underwritten by taxpayers. We must hold fully accountable those individuals at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who failed to live up their responsibilities. This is why I could not support the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 (H.R. 3221), which provided Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an unlimited credit line to the U.S. Treasury.” – Sen. John Cornyn, September 8, 2008