Is It Time to Get Rid of the Constitution?

By Spartacus Thrace

As 2013 dawns across America, the Progressive Movement appears to be at the zenith of their power within the federal government and throughout major sectors of American society and culture.  Buttressed by decades-long control or domination of the academy, the theater, the press, labor, and the Democratic Party, the Progressives have fundamentally changed the state of the nation by creating a secular utopian statist path as an alternative to the religious individualistic minimalist government path set down by the Founders two centuries ago and expressed in the obligations of the government to the governed they enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The Declaration has long been treated by many in power as an irrelevant historical relic.  The radical notion that the Constitution is a “living document” has gained wide adherence across several parts of the societal spectrum, even among those who hold themselves out as experts on matters of constitutional law.  America is now governed by a semi-permanent ruling class, engaged in rampant self-entitlement, seeing itself as separate and apart from — and superior to — the governed.  The notions of the American melting pot of disparate peoples and American exceptionalism have been lost to Balkanization of the population along the classic imaginary socialist fault lines of race, ethnicity, gender, and class.  The fundamental concept of minimalism — where the power of government is a revocable grant from the governed and the government has only that power and authority necessary to perform the essential duties entrusted to it by the governed — has long been smothered by massive growth in the size, power, and reach of the federal government and the concomitant decrease in individual liberty.

The Obama Campaign Follows a Porn Feed on Twitter

By Spartacus Thrace

We rightfully expect political candidates and the people around them to be morally upright and of excellent character as a condition precedent to the ability to properly conduct themselves in the affairs of government if and when elected.  The fact that a candidate for public office has pornography on his or her computer or subscribes to a pornography feed should be big news in any election, as it says a lot about the morals and character of the candidate.  Presidential candidates and their committees are no exception.  That is why it is significant and relevant to the election of our next President that the Barack Obama campaign subscribes to the pornography feed, https://twitter.com/ILikeTitsDaily, which features a daily posting of (often gaudy) photographs of the exposed breasts of women. Sometimes the breasts are not completely exposed, often the breasts are framed without showing even the faces of the women, and the sexual organs are exposed in some of the photographs.

Screenshot from @ILikeTitsDaily, showing image dated September 25, 2012.

Anita Perry: The Next First Lady?

By Allah Palooza

Anita Perry, wife of Texas Governor Rick Perry

Some of us have already started wondering (and even hoping) about who the next First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) will be. Most of us are thinking that Michelle Obama won’t be getting another four years, and that just about anyone else would be an immense improvement.

With the critical 2012 election still more than a year away and Texas Governor Rick Perry surging in popularity among Republicans, Governor Perry’s wife, Anita Thigpen Perry, came to Pinellas County Saturday night, September 17th, to be the keynote speaker at the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee (PCREC) Reagan Day Dinner.

According to her official biography, Anita Perry is a native Texan from Haskell. Mrs. Perry earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from West Texas State University, now West Texas A&M University, and a master’s degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She worked as a nurse for 17 years in surgery, pediatrics, intensive care, administration and teaching. She and Gov. Perry have been married for almost 30 years and have two grown children. She has been a strong partner with her husband, who presently is the longest-serving governor in the history of Texas, and she has been actively involved in supporting a variety of economic initiatives and innovations in her home state.

So, is Anita Perry ready for prime-time, in the sense of filling her place on the national and international stage, should her husband become the next President of the United States?

If her Reagan Day speech is an accurate measure of her talents and abilities, she has great promise but still has some work to do.

Anita Perry is a good person, and goes out of her way to make those around her feel comfortable. She is sincere, down-to earth (unlike the current FLOTUS), and very family-oriented. She devoutly believes in her husband and shares traditional American values. She is smart, and did an excellent job setting out her husband’s record as a jobs creator. She was, however, a bit too folksy, spoke about five minutes longer than she should have, told the audience too little about her husband, and had some difficulty wrapping up her speech. Yet, it was refreshing to listen to a  person speaking from the heart who connects with ordinary people, and who shows neither aloofness nor a desire to take on the trappings of elitist condescension. I, like many others in the room, went away from her speech hoping that she will be the one measuring the drapes in the White House in January 2013.

Mrs. Perry’s speech in its entirety may be viewed in the following video [Courtesy PCREC]:

Everett Rice and Bob Gualtieri Vying for Republican Nomination for Pinellas County Sheriff

By Spartacus Thrace

With the coming retirement of Sheriff Jim Coats the office of Pinellas County Sheriff will be on the 2012 ballot. The five announced candidates to date are Bob Gualtieri, a Republican; Randy Heine, a Democrat; Stephen W. Reilly, another Democrat;  Greg Pound of the Constitutional Party of Florida; and former Pinellas County Sheriff Everett S. Rice, another Republican.

More information about Gualtieri can be found on his campaign website. Candidates Heine, Reilly, Pound, and Rice did not have identifiable campaign websites as of June 13, 2011.

On June 13, 2011 Gualtieri made the following statement about his candidacy to the members of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee (PCREC):

(Video Courtesy PCREC)

On June 13, 2011, Rice made the following statement about his candidacy to the members of the PCREC:

(Video Courtesy PCREC)

Leslie Waters and Jim Frishe Vying for Republican Nomination for State Senate District 13

By Spartacus Thrace

Florida State Senate District 13, comprising parts of Pinellas County, will be up for grabs in 2012 due to term limits precluding incumbent Republican Dennis Jones from running again. There presently are two announced candidates, and both are Republicans.

The first announced candidate is James C. “Jim” Frishe, currrently State Representative for District 54 in Pinellas County and Majority Whip in the House of Representatives. More information about Frishe can be found on his campaign website. On June 13, 2011 Frishe made the following statement about his candidacy to the members of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee (PCREC):

(Video Courtesy PCREC)

The other announced candidate is former state representative Leslie Waters. More information about Waters can be found on her campaign website. On June 13, 2011, Waters made the following statement about her candidacy to the members of the PCREC:

(Video Courtesy PCREC)

George LeMeiux Campaign Speech at the PCREC

(June 13, 2011) Candidate for United States Senator from Florida George LeMeiux brought his campaign to the June meeting of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee (PCREC). LeMeiux, who briefly served in the Senate after being appointed by then-Governor Charlie Crist to complete the term of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Florida) after Martinez vacated the seat, laid out for his audience why he thinks he is the best qualified candidate to defeat Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) in 2012. This is what he said:

(Video courtesy PCREC)

More information about George LeMeiux and his candidacy can be found at his campaign website, linked to here.

St. Petersburg Times Continues to Create False Controversies Involving Republicans

David DeCamp (St. Petersburg Times)

By Spartacus Thrace

David DeCamp, Staff Writer for the St. Petersburg Times, is trying to create the impression of controversy involving Republicans where none exists, as he has in the past.

Res Publica gives the DeCamp story on the PCHA 2 out of a possible 5 hatchets.

In a June 7, 2011 article titled “Pinellas Housing Authority land purchase could yield commission for former member,” DeCamp does not state, but strongly suggests without foundation, that members of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee (PCREC) engaged in illegal or unethical activity involving a proposed real estate purchase. The truth of the matter is clearly and demonstratively otherwise.

The facts are straightforward: The Pinellas County Housing Authority Board of Directors has been looking for land for a housing complex for veterans. Housing Authority Chairman Joseph Triolo asked Jay Beyrouti, a Florida licensed realtor for over a decade, if he knew of any land the Authority could purchase. Beyrouti told Housing Authority Board Executive Director Debbie Johnson about a 13-acre plot on Lake Seminole (about a mile from the Bay Pines Veterans Hospital) owned by Cornerstone Community Bank which had originally been purchased for $4.3 million and for which the bank wanted $2 million. Johnson recommended the purchase to the full Housing Authority board of directors at an open meeting on the record, and the Authority made an offer to the bank of $1.5 million. The bank refused the offer and the land was not purchased. No money — taxpayer or otherwise — changed hands and, if the deal had gone through, any rightfully-earned commission paid to Beyrouti would have been paid by the bank in accordance with standard business practices. Everything was done out in the open and on the record, and there was nothing illegal, unethical, or immoral about anything that any of the persons involved did — period.

Political Warfare and the Mainstream Media Hatchet Job

By Spartacus Thrace

One of the most enduring and effective weapons employed by the radical statists who comprise the mainstream media (MSM) is the political “hatchet job.” Wielded for decades with near-impunity by the MSM against conservatives, Republicans, and other political enemies, the hatchet job has been a potent force for the Left in its efforts to reduce or eliminate political debate at the national, state, and local levels. This article is a primer for conservatives and members of the New Media on what a hatchet job is and how it is employed.

Hatchet Job Defined

A hatchet job is a biased, maliciously destructive, and often cruel written or spoken critique or attack on the character or activities of a person, organization, or institution. In its most common form, a hatchet job comprises a printed attempt disparage, discredit, and ultimately destroy a targeted person’s or organization’s reputation in the eyes of the public and to deny the target public sympathy or support through the use of innuendo, inaccuracies, and misleading statements. It is also used for the inherently undemocratic purpose of intimidating and stifling political opposition or dissent.

The hatchet job is a work of pseudo-journalist art, psychological warfare, and political disinformation. Hatchet jobs are in derogation of the ethical rule that journalists should always be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.¹ While some hatchet jobs are one-time efforts, many are part of a sustained political campaign. The smear campaign waged by the MSM against Sarah Palin is an example of the latter. Few are blatant, and most are quite subtle. Sometimes, for example, a direct accusation against the target is merely the carrier for darker and more ominous insinuations. In many more cases, however, factual errors, innuendo, and implications of wrongdoing are placed alongside, and draw plausibility from, scattered truths to create a grossly distorting effect on the reader or viewer.

Leslie Waters Kicks Off State Senate Campaign

Leslie Waters kicks off her campaign for State Senate.

(June 11, 2011) Leslie Waters, Republican candidate for State Senate District 13 in the 2012 elections went back to her roots and kicked off her campaign today before a crowd of about 100 enthusiastic supporters at Gulfport’s Habana Cafe, the same location where in 1997 she kicked off her successful campaign for the Florida House of Representatives. She is running against State Representative James C. “Jim” Frishe, who is also a Republican. Waters is considered a political moderate, is well-connected with the political establishment in Pinellas County, and is running on a “good government” platform that stresses her extensive experience in public service. More information about her campaign can be found at the Waters campaign website, located here.

Leslie Waters among her supporters.

Eye on the Prize: The PCREC Prepares for 2012

Jay Beyrouti, Chairman of the PCREC

Jay Beyrouti, Chairman of the Pinellas County Executive Committee (PCREC) is not satisfied.

He is not content that the PCREC’s fundraising efforts have been immensely successful. He is not ready to relax given that that Republicans occupy the majority of elected positions in Pinellas County, and dominate the county board of commissioners and the state legislative delegation. The fact that a Republican occupies the Governor’s mansion does not make him complacent.

A believer in the Republican message of smaller government, lower taxes, and more individual freedom, Beyrouti points to the facts that registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 19,000 in Pinellas County, and that the county is home to 150,000 registered Independents. Beyrouti thinks the vast majority of the adult inhabitants of Pinellas County are conservative in their political and social views, that the Republican message resonates with a lot of people who are not members of any party as well as many who are members of the Democratic Party, and that the radicalization of the Democratic Party is a source of ongoing concern for these people.  He thinks this is so because, as a longstanding businessman in the community, he deals with such people on a daily basis, and he knows that many of them are ripe to be brought over to the Republican fold with the right approach.

Beyrouti’s goal is the defeat of President Barack Obama and Senator Bill Nelson in the 2012 elections.  He points out that Obama carried Pinellas County by 30,000 votes in 2008, and he does not want to see that repeated in 2012.  To accomplish this, he has begun a new Republican voter registration initiative, and has placed responsibility for its implementation squarely on the hundreds of precinct officers, club presidents, and other activists who make up the soul of the PCREC.