You’ve done it… you’ve worked 14 hours a day for 6 days a week… you’ve sacrificed time with your family and friends in order to make sure that one more project was completed, or one more contract was signed, so that you could earn just a little more for your son’s college, or your daughters braces, or just to put food on the table… and now you’re crossed the $250,000 per year mark.  You’ve worked hard and earned your success, right?  Not according to Barack Obama – in his view you’re  ”fortunate”.

Webster’s dictionary defines the word fortunate in this way:  “fortunate: 1) bringing some good thing not foreseen as certain 2)receiving some unexpected good.”   Did you get that?  A good thing that was not forseen or was unexpected – YOU GOT LUCKY!  All that hard work, all those long hours, all that sacrifice and effort, but Barack Obama says that it was ALL LUCK! And because you’re ’fortunate’  you get to participate in his NEXT  semantic subtrefuge – “Fair Share”

You have worked hard, EARNED the money you have made, whether by the sweat of your brow, or by the cleverness of your mind – perhaps some melding of the two.  Now that you have earned those profits through hard work, risk, and individual effort, you should be able to keep it – or at least MOST of it, right?  Not according to Barack Obama and his administration.  From their view, you have to pay a larger amount for your success than a person who has made less than you, REGARDLESS of whether that person has worked less, risked less, and put in less effort.  Barack Obama has taken the fundementally unconstitutional view that we have a right to equal results – the Constitution only guarantees equal opportunity.   That is so important that it needs to be repeated – The U.S. Constitution guarantees Equal Opportunity NOT Equal Results! 

The Obama administration continues it’s attempt to drive a wedge between Americans by using the phrase “fair share”. Obama defines “fair” differently than the dictionary though.  Obama defines “fair” as a percentage that increases the more you earn.  The dictionary defines “fair” in this way:  fair: marked by impartiality and honesty; free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism.  Hmm… ‘free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism‘.   Obama has created predjudice using a word that is essence of equality.  If the Obama administration was truly interested in “fair shares” they would equalize the amount of taxes being paid by American citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, or income level.

It is essential that Republicans combat this new form of divisive language by addressing it truthfully.  When Barack Obama and his administration use the word “fortunate” to minimize or marginalize hard earned success, clarification must be made by Republicans.  When Barack Obama and his adminstration use “fair share” to justify inequality in taxation, that prejudice must be addressed.  Moreover, it must be addressed by conservative thinkers and pundits at every opportunity.  

When the words “fortunate” and ”fair share” are used by those towing the line for the progressive agenda, we need to consistently ask them to define those words in their own words.   The American citizenry is already well aware that words are used to spin an agenda.  By forcing the left to define those words, we bring clarity to their motivation and goals.  Barack Obama has said on numerous occasions “Let me be clear…”  It is high time that we as a nation demanded that he follow through on that statement.

Keep Watch and KEEP DEFINING!

First there was the alleged ‘leaking’ of results not hours but DAYS before the actual caucus.  There have been numerous reports of charts/results being accidentally put out on line well in advance of the actual day of caucus.  Granted, the caucus voting period is several days long, so it is plausible that some early numbers could be released in advance.  These allegedly leaked numbers showed Romney well ahead of all other contenders and considering that Maine and New Hampshire border each other, that would not be a surprise.  The surprising thing is that the allegedly leaked numbers showed Ron Paul coming in 3rd place. 

On the actual caucus “final date”, one of the prime caucuses was cancelled due to snow, and was rescheduled for February 18th – this precinct reportedly was very much in favor of Ron Paul and also Gingrich.  The state was called as a victory for Mitt Romney, but at the time of this writing, all the ballots have yet to be counted.  It should also be noted that the caucus delegates do not have a formal ballot, but they can write whatever name they choose on any type of paper they choose – even if it were to be a bar napkin.

So with 84% or so of the vote counted, and the votes written on scraps of paper, and caucuses being given a “snow day” – it is easy to see how someone might think that sorting this caucus out is an excercise in futility.  Then again, it’s 20 delegates and if you’re the candidate down by 19 on Convention day, the main thing will be to keep the Maine thing the main thing.

Keep Watch!

Update February 13, 2012 – For the past few days the Maine GOP has been considering NOT counting the votes from the caucus that they themselves rescheduled.   Now, after several days of curious inquiry, they are considering including the ballots -  It would be a shame if the Maine GOP did not keep to their word, and the date that they scheduled, because if they do not, I humbly suggest that ALL Maine Delegates be removed from the Convention.  It is the responsiblity of a state to get their caucus in order… if they cannot do that for their own state, what confidence can the voting public have in their ability to select the right GOP candidate for the Republican Nomination.

 

Still Watching!

 A strange thing happened to me the other day when I was driving past the Federal Building in Los Angeles.  There were a crowd of people assembled there with signs which said that Israel is an aggressive force in the Middle East and that Iran is being picked on.  As I stopped at a red light I heard a man with a mega phone lead the protesters in a chant charging Obama with genocide.  I saw many young people and several Muslim women with their heads covered.  It was an anti-war demonstration that probably a year ago I would have supported.  But although I am not in favor of military action, I know that Iran is not another Iraq, and that in fact there is more going on here than the overly-simplified picture that the protestors were painting, as cars drove by honking in support.  As the light turned green another sign caught my eye – a picture of the Twin Towers burning which read “911 Was an Inside Job”.  As I looked at a sea of Palestinian flags and college kids banging on drums I felt a certain frustration – frustration based on a series of events that have changed my world view.

In the Summer of 2010, having recently escaped Hollywood, CA to take a much needed break from my profession as a film maker, I was driving in my car listening to a story on NPR.  It seems the people in my new home of Murfreesboro, TN were up in arms over the proposed construction of a 53,000 square foot mega mosque, to be built in their small town in the middle of the American Bible Belt.

I listened carefully, to the sound bytes, of those who had shown up to a town hall meeting to voice their opposition and, as someone who was rather new to the South, I was surprised by what I was hearing.   “America is a Christian nation and there is only one God and his name is not Allah and his son is Jesus Christ” and “America is a Christian Nation” and “These Muslims do not share my values and I don’t want them in my backyard”.  Growing up in Southern California, I had never heard anything like this before in my life.  And I started to follow the story with great interest.

On the outer edge of town, off a small country road, there was a large parcel of land, right next door to a Baptist church, with a big sign that read, “Future Home of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro”.  Over the past 6 months that sign had been defaced twice.  Once it was broken in half and another time the words “Not Welcome” were spray painted over it.

Rutherford County, which includes Murfreesboro, only has a little over 100,000 residents and yet the area boasts nearly 200 Christian churches.  Having not been much of a fan of Islam or Christianity or religion in general (and that’s putting it mildly) I saw this as something of a David vs. Goliath story – with fanatical Evangelicals bullying a peaceful Muslim population, which had been in the community for over 30 years without there ever being any trouble.  And, after learning that in July there was to be a big parade down Main Street to the town square, protesting the construction of this new mosque, I decided someone really needed to make a documentary about this.  And even though I had gone to Murfreesboro to escape the film world for a while, it seemed pretty clear that if I did not document this in a movie, no one else would.  I wanted to show the world what I was seeing.  So I put together a small film crew and began production on a documentary I would title, “Not Welcome”.

I had never seen more American flags assembled together in one place than I had on that hot July morning as the anti-mosque crowd gathered at the base camp to prepare for the parade.  Many of the marchers showed up wearing red, white and blue.  I had 4 cameras covering the event with one crew embedded with the Liberal activists who were going to counter-demonstrate and the rest of the cameras with me, embedded with those who were to march against the mosque.  I conducted several interviews in the school parking lot where locals and those who had driven for hours gathered, prepared to march against what they perceived to be not only a threat to their way of life, but also something of an insult given the events of September 11, 2001.  Two Congressional candidates, both promising to “stop the Islamic training camp” showed up and used this opportunity to campaign, one of whom even gave a speech through a mega phone reminding folks to vote for him if they wanted to stop Sharia Law from coming to Murfreesboro.  The pastor of Baptist church gathered everyone together in prayer, and the parade took off down Main Street with signs that read “Google the Koran” and “Stop Homegrown Terrorism” and someone in the crowd handed out hundreds of small Israeli flags as several hundred Southerners marched against the mosque.

About six months later I had accumulated over 300 hours of footage, interviewing the parade organizer, both Congressional candidates, the Mayor, the Imam at the mosque and several of its board members, numerous concerned residents on both sides of the issue, Muslim residents, city council members, a Christian Zionist lobbyist who was organizing the opposition to the mosque – and I had even filmed weeks of court proceedings, as a local group had filed suit against the County to stop them from issuing any construction permits to the Islamic Center.  The court proceedings were truly a circus with a country lawyer in loud suit with a bow tie argued that Islam is not a religion and that he was prepared to take this matter to the Supreme Court if necessary.  That legal action had failed and failed miserably.  And although many of the townspeople did in fact have a number of very valid concerns, I felt that those whom they had chosen to represent them were not their best foot forward.  In many ways, for the people of Murfreesboro, TN this turned out to be an international embarrassment – given the level of interest from the press.

Also, someone tried to set fire to some construction equipment at the site of the new mosque and the student activist group, calling themselves “Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom” put together a candle light vigil where hundreds of townspeople showed up in support of tolerance.  A few young men showed up in a pickup truck and honked their horn repeatedly throughout the vigil.  Their clothes seemed to indicate they had spent the work day hanging drywall.  And when they put up a huge sign in the back of their truck which read “No Mosque” while misspelling the word mosque, I did not hesitate to film them but to also sort of taunt them, in order to provoke a good response on camera.  And I got it.  One of them said we should suspend the Constitution and went on to say that “All them Mooslums should be shipped home” even the ones who were born here.

Adding more fuel to that fire was an incident that took place when I attempted to interview Kevin Fisher at a Tea Party event on the town square.  It was my opinion that in order to avoid accusations of being bigoted, the money interests (a Christian Zionist organization called Proclaiming Justice to the Nations) chose the only person of color, already involved in this issue, to lead the parade and to be a plaintiff in the lawsuit.  Kevin Fisher was an African American college dropout, who worked as a prison guard and became a passionate opponent of the new mosque, after his wife divorced him and became, you guessed it, a Muslim convert.  When I approached him on the square with a crew that included 4 cameras, saying only “Hi, Kevin” he dialed his cell phone and called 9-1-1 saying that he was being “racially harassed”.  This not only made the headlines of the local paper but the incident, including audio from the 9-1-1 call was played over and over that night on the local evening news.  This became something of a running joke, when I was recognized at the grocery store in Murfreesboro for instance, people would often point at me and say, “Hey, stop racially harassing me” and then we would all have a big laugh.  And Islamic blogs such as Loonwatch.com were only too happy to run an article about how an opponent of the mosque was “playing the race card” against a filmmaker who was just trying to ask questions.

CNN breezed through town and produced a quick hit piece painting all of the mosque opponents as uneducated rednecks and the Islamic community as everyday people who were being wrongly persecuted.  Soledad O’Brien’s producer offered to buy some of my footage from me with the explicit promise that their piece was going to be called “Islam: In America” and would not focus more than a few minutes on Murfreesboro.  After an inside tip that this producer was lying to me, I confronted him and got some rather vague answers.  So I declined to license him any of my material.  And sure enough, the CNN documentary did in fact focus exclusively on Mufreesboro and was called “Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door”.  Somehow Hollywood, with its usual backstabbing tricks, had managed to find me hiding out in Tennessee.

I had accumulated a lot of good quality footage.  That, combined with the increasing number of physical threats to me personally while filming in large crowds, and death threats that had arrived via email (causing me to look over my shoulder everywhere I went and making it necessary to spend a small fortune on private security) told me it was time.  The writing was on the wall.  It was time for me to leave Murfreesboro, hire a professional Editor and get to work on assembling my footage to create a feature length documentary for theatrical distribution.

Before I go any further, I should mention that, while all of this was happening, I had become involved in the story itself.  I took sides.  I sided with the Islamic community in their legal right to build a house of worship and when I was interviewed by the local papers (it’s not every day that a small town like this has someone shooting a documentary there) when I was asked where I stood on the issue I never hesitated to give my point of view.  And after a time my point of view was sought out by larger newspapers and several local and syndicated radio programs – mostly Conservative and mostly taking issue with my stance.  And I was also invited to write several pieces for Michael Moore’s blog as well.

Although I had left town to edit, there continued to be letters to the editor on a few of the local papers saying that I should leave TN and go back to where I came from.  I could not believe the cartoonish way in which those who opposed the mosque were making their case.  I felt like I was on the right side of this thing – absolutely certain.  But in fact, I was wrong.

Everything I have told you up until now – this version of my story – is exactly how I was seeing things up until something changed.  I went home to Los Angeles, showed my 25 minute short version of the documentary to some distributors and backers, and did the usual dog and pony show that had worked so well to raise funds, for other motion picture projects I had been involved with in the past.  And sure enough someone said they would back the completion of the movie.  It was decided that the focus would be on “the enemy at home” that being what we were calling “Apocalyptic Christianity” (as there was concern about using the word “Zionism” in “Christian Zionism”).  The Murfreesboro issue was to be used as something of a jumping off point to take a look at the expanding influence of the End Times Evangelical lobby in the United States and how they use their influence to manufacture consent for the bombing of oil rich Islamic countries and to influence policy on social issues.  The theme would focus on the problems we have in America, with our own religious lunatic fringe, rather than on a peaceful group of non-Christians who just wanted to build a place of worship.

After writing a few articles for Michael Moore, I also wrote for a liberal blog called Common Dreams and I wrote over a hundred articles for the Daily Kos, a liberal blog so popular that they receive over one million visitors a day.  I felt I was protecting the underdog, going after the bullies.  I really believed that I was on the right side of this thing.

But something kept nagging at me on a gut level.  Something about all of this didn’t quite feel right.  The Arab Spring, which I supported, started to degenerate into the Islamist Winter, and I grew more and more concerned.  I flew back to Nashville to shoot a conference on whether or not Islam was conducive with Democratic Values and on the way to my hotel room I learned that my cab driver was from Egypt.  I asked him how he felt about the fall of Mubarak, a dictator worth over $70 billion dollars while so much of his country was living in poverty and he told me he was concerned.  Concerned?  Wasn’t this good news?  The cab driver was a Coptic Christian and he told me that he feared for his family back home.  “If the Muslims take control, and they will, it will be very dangerous for my parents and my sisters.  I’m scared for them right now”.  After that conversation, I started to pay more attention to the news coming from the Islamic world in the Middle East.

Over the coming months I watched as the Muslim Brotherhood gained political power in Egypt.  I saw that cab driver’s worst fears come true as Coptic Christians were attacked by Islamic mobs.  I saw Tunisia institute Sharia, the brutal Islamic Law.  After Libya fell, the Transitional Council also instituted Islamic Law.  The nuclear armed Islamic government of Pakistan arrested and punished those who cooperated with the United States in killing Osama Bin Laden.  A woman under the Islamic government of Afghanistan faced execution for the crime of being raped.  Similar news stories emerged from Iran.  A man who typed “there is no god” as his Facebook status in Indonesia, the largest Islamic country in the world, was arrested for blasphemy.

Several Muslim men in England were arrested for handing out leaflets to Londoners demanding that homosexuals be executed by hanging for violating Islamic Law with their lifestyle.

And it struck me.  Even though these angry townspeople in Mufreesboro, TN had not articulated their concerns very well, they were only half wrong.  I remember meeting Frank Gaffney and interviewing him in front of the courthouse and asking him if he really thought that the peaceful Muslims here actually presented a real threat to America and he said no.  That caught me off guard so I asked if he really thought it was a credible threat that a community that makes up about one percent of the United States population was just going to suddenly rise up one day and try to take over the country and force Sharia Law onto all of us.  Again he said no.  Then he told me I was asking the wrong questions.  He suggested that I was only looking for answers that would support the conclusions I had already arrived at.  He said he had, after much research, arrived at a different set of conclusions and he challenged me to look a little deeper.  He gave me a report to look at and many, many months later I did look at his report.

It was at this time that I went to my backers and told them that we were not making an honest documentary.  I felt that everything I had put into the 25 minute short version (the one I used to raise the completion funds) was true, but only half true.  It was critical that we also show the very real threats that exist within Islam.  We needed to show that what is happening to these small communities of peaceful Muslims in America are the exception to the rule.  I wanted to show what happens to countries when they gain a Muslim majority, how women are treated, that homosexuals were executed, that free speech did not exist, that the forced Islamic Law was not consistent with Democratic Values – anything and everything I could think of that ought to strike a chord with the Liberal mindset.  And the response I received was, “Eric you are starting to sound like an Islamophobe.  We don’t want to make a movie that promotes fear.  Let’s just stick with the existing plan, okay?”

I fought and I fought.  I showed them a book called “The Truth About Mohammed” but was struck down since the author was a man named Robert Spencer and my backers pointed out that the Southern Poverty Law Center named his “Jihad Watch” site as part of a hate group.  I asked them to watch a documentary called “Islam: What the West Needs to Know” and pointed out that I had researched independently and verified the truth of what was being presented there, but they would not even watch this documentary as they were sure in advance that it was “hate speech” and “propaganda designed to spread fear”.  It probably goes without saying that by now I was very frustrated.  I showed my new backers several verses from the Koran that call for the killing of infidels and was told that these verses were probably being taken out of context.  I showed them a video clip from MEMRI TV of a young Egyptian child reciting a Hadith that calls for the killing of Jews and was told that “you can’t trust MEMRI because they have an agenda”.

I mentioned the popular Islamophobia watchdog site “Loonwatch” and how I had noticed a pattern of deflection all criticisms of radical and violent Islam by calling anyone who publicly raises these concerns a “Loon” and how I felt this was an intentional effort to provide a smoke screen for the terrorists.  I also noted that everything Loonwatch said was in lockstep with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and now CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation – the largest Islamic charity at one time, which was found to be funneling monies to Islamic terrorist organizations.  I also noted that CAIR had ties to both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and that Al Qeada had come out of the Muslim Brotherhood.  I expressed my concerns that the Egyptian Imam of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro might have ties to the MB, something I had failed to properly investigate.  But since CAIR had the support of Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman’s show, Democracy Now, I was told that I had my facts all wrong.  It was also pointed out to me that if CAIR was allegedly some kind of terrorist front then why do they still have a special tax status and why are they still around?  When I said I do not know but it was possible that the government might prefer to watch them out in the open rather than risk them going underground I was told that my judgment was sounding less and less clear and that maybe I needed to take a step back from the project for a while.

As a last attempt I showed them footage of the Imam in Murfreesboro condoning stoning, admitting that Mohammed had stoned someone to death, saying that women cannot be trusted with money because they are irrational.  Then I pointed out that a board member of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was investigated after pictures from his MySpace page had surfaced indicating his strong sympathies for Hamas.  I was reminded that Hamas was also a political party which was voted in Democratically and that I needed to make a choice – either stick with the original blueprint or else give the money back and go find myself another backer.  So I did.  I walked.  If I can’t make an honest documentary then I’m in the wrong business.  I didn’t want to add to more of the noise that’s out there – I wanted to make something that told the truth, even if that truth is hard to swallow.

It’s funny because I run a website called Global One TV, which has had about 23 million visitors so far, and the theme of this blog is that “Inward Revolution Creates Outward Revolution”.  And here I was having to take my own medicine.  My own inward revolution – the questioning of one’s conclusions in search of a deeper truth – had led me to a very strange place.  I thought of the famous Nietzsche quote that says “When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you”.  And with nothing left to lose, I used my position at Daily Kos to go about telling the truth.

In January of 2012 I wrote 3 consecutive articles for the Daily Kos.  The first was entitled “Loowatch.com and Radical Islam”.  Here I pointed out the how Loonwatch only deflects criticism of radical Islam.  I was also critical of Islamic theology while noting over and over that most Muslims were peaceful.  The comments section of Daily Kos made me feel like I was attending my own funeral.  It was like a public stoning.   There wasn’t much in the way of responding to any of the points laid out in my article but hundreds of comments accusing me of being “right wing” a “bigot” and an “lslamophobe”.  This was disappointing.

The next day I received an email from Loonwatch.com with an article showing my name and a photograph of my face, going out to much of the Islamic world, calling me the “Loon at Large”.  This article was picked up by IslamophobiaToday.com and TheAmericanMuslim.org – later being repurposed by numerous Islamic blogs around the world, including in places where we all know what happens to anyone who is perceived to be the enemy of Allah or who dares to “insult” Islam.

My next article sought to further substantiate my point with regard to these wolves in sheep’s clothing calling themselves “Islamophobia Watchdog sites” and their first line of defense, that being a blogosphere of liberal lemming infidels who are pre-programmed to blurt out the word “Islamophobe” on cue.  That article was called “How and Why Loonwatch is a Terrorist Spin Control Network”.  And as you might have guessed, this piece was met with the same mob mentality of those who, rather than read the article and criticize it on its merits, instead shot the messenger with charges of “Islamophobia”.  There were also 2 Daily Kos articles written in response attacking me personally, another Loonwatch article where someone suggested I must be from TN and have no education, etc.  And once again, my name was put out on the street through a network of Islamic Blogs, including the landing page for CAIR, using a form of Islamic double speak which translated to any serious Jihadist means “enemy of Allah” and “insulting Islam”.

Given the incredible density of the popular Liberal mind, how the readers of my articles were unable to see how the beliefs of Islam were in direct conflict with human rights, gay rights, women’s rights and basic Democratic Values, I wrote a final piece called, “Are You In Favor of Human Rights?” and that one of course got me banned from Daily Kos.  It should be noted that in one of the Loonwatch.com articles the author, a person simply calling himself “Danios” demanded that DKOS silence me and provided a link for its readers to email the editors of the Daily Kos, demanding that this “Islamophobe” be censored.  And it worked – once again proving the oil and water relationship between Islam and tolerance for free speech.

Things got even stranger from there.  Robert Spencer himself wrote me an email and we had a rather interesting dialogue.  It became apparent almost immediately that there was nothing about this man that was even remotely hateful.  So when Robert Spencer asked if I minded if he reprint my email in response to his on Jihad Watch, I said “sure, why not?”  Once that surfaced, the friend count on my Facebook fan page dropped suddenly.  Friends and acquaintances told me I had become a hatemonger, a fear monger and an Islamophobe.  I pointed out that an Islamophobe is someone with an irrational fear of Islam but there was no reasoning with anyone so deeply indoctrinated into the tyranny of political correctness.

And almost right on cue the news story broke about the NYPD using as a training video a documentary narrated by a devout Muslim who opposes terrorism and jihad, someone who has advised law enforcement and served in the military and as a physician to highly placed members of the United States government.  That documentary was called “The Third Jihad” and the story surfaced that CAIR was calling this film “Islamophobic” and demanding that the NYPD pull it right away, which of course they did.  CAIR demanded the removal of the head of the NYPD and the liberal blogosphere sang backup – most notably with articles on Huffington Post calling “The Third Jihad” propaganda, hate speech and of course more “Islamophobia”.  When I posted a link to this documentary on my Facebook page I was met with more charges of being an Islamophobe by  people who had only recently told me how much they had been inspired and influenced by my writings.

After Jamie Glazov of Frontpagemag.com – part of the David Horowitz Freedom Center – reached out to me to ask me to be on his radio show (which I agreed to) I surfed the web a bit trying to get a better sense of who exactly David Hororwitz was.  It became clear almost immediately that we do not share the same political views, but one thing Horowitz did say that came through with stunning clarity was an assertion that there was an unholy alliance between the Left and Islam, with radical Islam using the Liberal media to create a smoke screen for it – a place where radical can appear moderate and receive Liberal support.  He also went on to say that in many universities across America that students were being radicalized, indoctrinated into the far Left.  And I remembered something.  Nearly all of the organizers for the college aged activist group who demonstrated in favor of the new mosque in Murfreesboro were either Socialists or Communists.  These were kids and they all seemed to share one Professor in particular who was something of a mentor to them, a Socialist who always seemed to be hanging around their college parties, infiltrating into their social scene, taking the smarter and more articulate ones under his wing as their campus group called simply “Solidarity” grew in numbers – in fact recruiting quite a few students while organizing in favor of the mosque.  Yikes.

So here we are today, as news that Kuwait goes Islamist and the NYPD answers to CAIR, an arm of a terrorist organization, out of concern for political correctness.  Have I become a Conservative out of all of this?  Not really.  I still oppose the invasion of Iraq.  I still feel that all wars should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.  I still think that George W. Bush was one of the worst things to happen to America in my lifetime.  I still support marriage equality.  But I’m also still pro-life.  Do you see a trend here?  I support human rights and oppose anything which I perceive to be in violation of human rights.

Where do I stand on Islam?  Let’s look at its founder – a man who raped a 9 year old girl, a slave owner, a leader who ordered people to be tortured, for adulterers to be stoned, for countless nonbelievers to be beheaded, a killer, a warmonger who spread his “religion of peace” by the sword, a man who suffered from hallucinations of voices telling him to do violent things, a tyrant, a homicidal maniac perhaps the equivalent of 100,000 Osama Bin Ladens.  And this sadistic lunatic is considered to be the “ideal man” in Islam.  What more needs to be said about Islam than that?

So in this climate where innocent people are killed when Korans are burned, when there are riots and bomb threats and killings over cartoons that offend Muslims, when a novelist such as Salman Rushdie is advised by Indian intelligence authorities that it is unsafe for him to enter the country to attend the world’s largest literary festival, when Muslims outside the festival threaten violence such that the festival organizers decide to cancel even patching in a video of Rushdie for the conference, in a world where a man, Theo Van Gough, was shot a couple dozen times in broad daylight, then stabbed, then had a sword rammed into his heart on the sidewalk of a European street simply for making a 10 minute film about the mistreatment of Muslim women – in such a world that is constantly terrorized by Islamic militants whose insanity is co-opted by an army of Liberal bloggers who make excuses for them – who tell us that 911 was probably our fault – what will become of my documentary when I finish it?

How will “Not Welcome” be received?  Will movie theaters refuse to show it, just like those many bookstores who removed the Danish cartoons from their shelves?  Will film festivals be afraid to screen it?  Will my life be in danger?  Will some lunatic Islamic cleric issue a Fatwa ordering my death?  Will CAIR gain even more political influence and work within the system to get it banned as “hate speech”?  Will critics fear for their lives and thus refuse to review it?

Is the Liberal view that Stealth Jihad is just some whacky conspiracy theory really true?  Who will win – free speech or the savagery of a growing mob hell bent on Jihad?  I can only tell you this.  I will not back down.  I will not be bullied, threatened, coerced or terrorized by the “religion of peace”.

We each have a responsibility to the other people on this planet, and especially to those whom we will leave this planet to after we are gone.  And this sometimes means taking an unpopular stand in order to protect the rights of innocent people.  Loonwatch, CAIR and the other numerous terrorist spin control networks – you’ve not seen the end of me.  Not by a long shot.  As the saying goes, “You have a right to swing your fists, but that right ends when your fist connects with my nose”.

And by the way, I still believe that unless they break the law, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has a legal right to build their house of worship.  We don’t have to like it, but then again the First Amendment was designed not to protect popular ideas – as they don’t need protecting – but to protect unpopular ideas as well. This is something you won’t find in any Islamic country and it is also something worth protecting  – even when the so-called “religion of peace” tries to shut you down.

Peace,

Eric Allen Bell

Politics has that same potential, but an increasing number of Americans don’t view it that way.  In politics, if our favorite team is not playing in the championship game, we don’t watch, we don’t vote, we don’t participate, and in doing so we miss out on an event and a process that is amazing – it is distinctly American!  Politics and Elections can bring us together as a country.

For football, many Americans get the stats of our favorite teams, we do competitive research on opposing teams, we call out bias in commentators, and we boo when a ref makes a bad call.  Can you IMAGINE how dynamic our political landscape would be if we did that same kind of research on the candidates?  It would be amazing!

This election season, get involved like it’s a football game –  we are still in the very ‘early minutes’ of this political football game.  Invite your friends to be a part of it, do the research on the opponents, find out the stats on your candidate/team and don’t be afraid to like a team/candidate that may not be your favorite!

Bottom line, go out and get involved !  Watch the plays that are made, do the research, find out the best plays to lead to our victory.  You can participate and get involved – you’ve GOT to – because this isn’t just two hours, a trophy and a ring we’re talking about… This is the future of our great nation!  The playclock is counting down.  Treat this election season with the same passion you would the Superbowl, and get involved!

Keep Watch!

That being said, as the staff sat around the conference table on Wednesday, we asked each other what the GOP Primary showed us both good and bad – here’s what we came up with…

First, we learned that Romney is not a pushover when he is behind the 8 ball. Coming off of a pretty crummy showing in South Carolina, Romney was determined to make a good showing in Florida and did so. He exercised good strategy in spending a massive amount of money in the more populous areas for advertising. Outspending Gingrich by 5 to 1*, Romney blanketed the airwaves, and his numbers in these areas showed the results.

Second, we learned that Romney can get Florida Republican voters. Well, half of them at least – in the areas where there is a large portion of Republicans of a more moderate demeanor. This worked well for Romney in the Primary, where only Republicans were able to vote. Florida (particularly SOUTH Florida) has had a tremendous upsurge in voters who have switched their party from Republican to Independent. Like much of the country, this switch in Party affiliation is not to demonstrate ‘Centrism’ but instead to voice a lack of confidence in the Republican Party’s Conservativism. While this bodes well for a Republican candidate in the General election, Gingrich and Santorum were much more heavily favored in his group. It should also be noted that despite an increase in membership numbers, the Republican Party is now the 3rd Party in Broward County from a membership perspective.  The independents are often members of conservative grassroots organizations such as 9/12 and the Tea Party and their focus is constitutional Conservativism, which is by all indications is to the right of where the bulk of Romney’s platform sits.

Also, we learned that Romney can perform well in a debate. Romney took Gingrich to task during the Florida Debate about the negative ads that Newt’s campaign had run. Instead of taking the most expeditious and genteel route, an immediate apology, Gingrich responded with further attack, giving Romney greater latitude. Furthermore, Romney was able to justify the significant attack ad spend as a response to Gingrich’s truculent attitude in the debate. It was a well-played debate by Romney, and may have cost Gingrich all 50 of the Florida Delegates (at least at the time of this writing). Gingrich is normally very strong in a debate, but had an off night, and came under serious attack. We will state for the record that BOTH Romney and Gingrich are entirely too thin skinned in the debates. All of the candidates are politically experienced, and should be beyond this kind of rattling

Finally, we learned that Romney is good on the economy, but will run into difficulties with the Government-provided healthcare issue. Senator Rick Santorum pointed this out in the debate, and it is likely that no matter how many times Romney says he will make the repeal of Obamacare his primary mission; all it will take is Obama demonstrating the similarities between the Massachusetts plan and the Federal Plan to effectively hamstring Romney’s arguments. Romney needs to strengthen his case on this issue.

The primary also showed us that Gingrich can rally Tea Party support, but that he needs a more effective ground team in each of the states. We also learned that establishment Republicans are worried about having Gingrich as the Republican nominee. It can be inferred that this concern is due to his knowledge of the way things work in DC. Bottom line, they won’t be able to pull one over on Gingrich. Gingrich has need of a good, trustworthy, consistent ground team – and it is not too late to have one. If he gets that in the next few weeks then FL becomes a hiccup, rather than an ulcer.

Additionally we learned that Santorum can give a good accounting of himself when he is given the chance, but that unless he is able to canvass the state, his election performance will be curtailed.  Santorum has strong convictions, and is, by all acounts, a very ‘nice guy’.  Some of the moderate elements of the Republican ‘Big Tent’ have differences of opinion with his personal beliefs, but outside of Florida that group will not be as significant. 

The Florida GOP Primary was tough for many of our staff to watch, because every one of the candidates has one or two (or several) supporters on our team. All of the candidates have strengths and despite our internal preferences, we are all committed to supporting the eventual nominee when the National GOP Primary process has been completed. Each of us has our own “favorite” candidate, but we recognize that this election is too important to let our 20% differences derail efforts to turn this country from the dangerous path it is on.

Hopefully all Republicans, both Moderate and Conservative will be able to accomplish that same unification when the dust from the GOP Primary has settled!

Keep Watch! 

*There is a rumor going around that Romney spent 65 to 1 against Gingrich - all our research shows this to be very skewed mathematics.

Romney took time to introduce his family before beginning his speech. Despite the numerous polls showing a significant Romney lead vs. Newt Gingrich, the former Governor criticized Gingrich’s explanations for the Florida polling saying “ The excuses are over and it’s time to produce.”

Although Romney directed a portion of his speech at Barack Obama, he first talked about Gingrich’s work with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac citing it as the real reason for the former Speaker’s polling numbers in Florida “Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac, at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American People.”

Romney went on to strike out at the President, and gave his word that Obamacare is first on his list – “On my first say I want to appeal ObamaCare and get back to free people making free choices for their own healthcare…”

The audience cheered and applauded throughout the speech, and Romney seemed very much at ease, secure in a victory indicated by many polls. With multiple ads running in every media, Romney has made a significant media spend in Florida with the assumption that it will narrow the field.

Gingrich however has made it clear that he is in it for the long haul, and will go all the way to the convention.

Both Romney and Gingrich have drawn sizable crowds in Florida, and many of those in the crowd today were from other parts of the country, and will be preparing for their own state’s primary dates.

For the Romney campaign, it was a positive day , and the GOP candidate’s mood and attitude clearly demonstrated that he believes the state is already a victory.

We’ll keep watch!

At the Lincoln Day event in West Palm Beach, Herman Cain endorsed Newt Gingrich for President to much applause and cheering it was broadcast by CNN and immediately picked up by the mainstream media.

A mile or so down the road, a smaller event hosted by the Tea Party Express was going on. It was outside, and didn’t have a hefty price tag. It would have been an easy event to overlook, as the mainstream media did, or for a presidential candidate to make sincere apologies for not being able to attend, but Newt Gingrich had given his word that he would be there. He kept his word.

The Tea Party Express bus rolled into West Palm Beach.   Mitt Romney sent his surrogate, and there were numerous other candidates there from federal races. Adam Hasner and George LeMieux, who are battling to run against Bill Nelson for the Senate seat were there. Joe Kaufman, Karen Harrington, and Ozzie de Faria, – the candidates who are vying for the Republican spot on the ticket to run against Debbie Wasserman Schultz, were present as well. Rick Santorum had flown back earlier in the day to be with his  family and hospitalized daughter, Bella. Ron Paul had not campaigned extensively in Florida.

It is very likely that advisors and handlers had told Newt Gingrich to pass on the event. They would have said things like “It’s not that important an event” or “You can make your apologies, they’ll understand that you’re busy”. Newt Gingrich showed up though. He had given his word, and kept it.   Here’s the Video

I have had the opportunity to speak with Grassroots leaders and participants across the entire nation, and there is a common pulse in all of them.  They love this country!  They have a profound love and respect for the founding fathers and the founding documents that make this country great!  With every event, every effort, and every vote, they turn our great nation back onto the path of freedom. They believe that every American bears a personal responsiblity for the rights and freedoms that we enjoy in the United States. That is an amazing and powerful thing! 

The incredible  of the Grassroots/Tea Party participants at Gingrich’s Coral Springs event and other events is baffling to the mainstream media and the liberal left.   They cannot comprehend that to many of those in the Grassroots/Teaparty movments,  Gingrich is the candidate that best embraces Constitutional principles and responsiblities.  Gingrich is a passionate student of history, and the Grassroots/Teaparty participants know at their core that “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”  

The participation of so many Grassroots/Tea Party members from so many organizations is evidence of the support Gingrich has earned from these groups, and that support can bring Gingrich victory.  With that victory, the Grassroots/Tea Party will have done what has been brewing in America for the past 4 years - the return of conservative leadership to the United States . 

Grassroots/Tea Party particiapants and leaders from across Florida and the nation came to Coral Springs to hear the Former Speaker express his dedication to putting the country back on track by getting back to the bedrock of the Constitution.  The Grassroots/Tea Party groups present at the event are strong, passionate, patriotic groups, and while they don’t always agree on every point, they stand together in the belief that the country can be saved.

The Grassroots/Tea Party groups in attendance are the best and brightest in America.  People from Freedom Works, 9-12 Project, and “Tea Party” groups from counties across Florida and America, Americans for Prosperity, Faith and Freedom, American Majority, DC Works for Us, and many others came to listen and cheer.

Gingrich has been facing a significant fight against Romney and the warchest backing him.  Romney also seems to have the support of the GOP establishment.  Both of these fights are well known to Grassroots/ Tea Pary groups, and they are battles that have been won before, but never with so much at stake. 

Video provided by EyesOnPolitics 

To many pundits and politicos, it has already been decided that Mitt Romney is the Republican Nominee, and that may be the final result of the GOP Primary race.  Newt Gingrich believes that decision will not be decided by the Mainstream media, or the GOP establishment.  He believes that the Grassroots and Tea Party groups reaching out and connecting with Americans across the nation will carry him to the Republican Nomination, and the White House.  If Gingrich is right, then every call dialed, every sign made, and every vote cast by the patriots in Grassroots and Tea Party groups made his victory a reality.

Keep Watch!

The final tally from the mainstream media will most likely show that Mitt Romney was the clear victor in the battle of words in this 2nd Florida Debate held on the University of North Florida campus.  They will most likely state that Rick Santorum was fiery, passionate and eleqount (they will say so with a measure of surprise).  Finally the mainstream media will say that it was an abysmal night for Newt Gingrich, and they will completely fail to even notice that Ron Paul was on the stage except as comic relief.

What will not be seen is the evil snickers and hand rubbing going on in the production rooms of mainstream media nationwide, as the two top Republican contenders allowed themselves to be lead by the moderator into tearing each other to shreds.  Sadly Newt and Mitt fell for it… hook, line, and sinker.

Liberal bias in the majority of the mainstream media is well documented and has been well-covered in a number of books, such as Bernard Goldberg’s “A Slobbering Love Affair” , Ann Coulter’s “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America“, Michelle Malkin’s “Culture of Corruption“, and Dick Morris’ “Catastrophe“.  (All of these are exceptional books and are true eye openers).  What is not being recognized though, is the more subtle efforts to lead Republicans and Conservatives into destroying each other.

Tonight’s debate was a prime example.  Gingrich and Romney, (both of whom I have profound respect for their experience and success) allowed themselves to fall for a rookie mistake.  They let the moderator, Wolf Blitzer, control the course of the debate, and both Romney and Gingrich allowed their egos to get in the way of the goal for ALL Republicans, a Republican President in the next election. 

Instead of  running into the deadfall set up by the media, both Gingrich and Romney had the opportunity to take a higher, nobler road.  Gingrich could have taken that road by apologizing for his immigration attack ad on Romney by saying “You know, that ad was probably not in the best of taste, I apologize, Mitt.” then holding out his hand in friendship.  Romney instead of saying “I doubt that’s my ad” in reference to his ad attacking Gingrich, could have said “You know, I know that things have been getting intense the farther along in this Primary”. Both Romney and Gingrich would have shown themselves to be the bigger man, and it would have been the “Presidential” thing to do.

Sadly, even when Former Senator Rick Santorum pointed out after a Romney vs. Gingrich interchange on  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac…

“The bigger issue here is, these two gentlemen, who are out distracting from the most important issues we have been playing petty personal politics, can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies — and that’s not the worst thing in the world — and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy because worked hard and he’s going out and working hard? And you guys should that alone and focus on the issues.” 

… the friendly fire still continued between Romney and Gingrich – fueled by questions from the moderator, Wolf Blitzer.  Santorum was right on target with his assessment, and it should have set off alarm bells for the other two, but they continued to make thrills go up the collective legs of the Mainstream media.

All the Republican Presidential candidates are experienced leaders, and have had measures of success, but the Mainstream media has a liberal bent.  The Mainstream Media is NOT looking to put up the strongest, best Republican up against Obama.  They want the eventual Republican candidate, whomever that may be, to be a wounded, tired candidate, so that it is less of a fight for Obama.

To all the Republican Presidential candidates: Be “Presidential“!  Let your words and interchanges match the traditional respect of the office you aspire to!  Americans WANT a leader who will be willing to sacrifice his ego to bring the country back on track.  Americans have had enough of the arrogance and eliteism of many politicians and public figures.  Stop falling for the traps and barbs of the Mainstream media!  The four candidates need to get together in a private meeting and be heroic by agreeing to only focus on the issues. 

The mainstream media will continue to attempt to play ‘gotcha’ journalism.  They will continue to cackle gleefuly when a Republican trips up, and plot questions to ensnare the candidates and distract from the issues.  The Republican candidates, especially the frontrunners, Romney and Gingrich have to keep their eyes on the goal, rather than on petty squabbles.

In the war of words, Romney won the debate tonight, but in the battle for the votes and hearts of  Republican and Conservative voters nationwide the Mainstream media scored a significant blow.  That blow from the mainstream media does not have to be fatal if the Republican Candidates can focus on the issues, and put ego aside. 

Kudos to Rick Santorum for seeing the trap, now it’s up to all of the GOP Primary candidates to avoid that trap. 

We’ll all be watching to see what happens!

Taking a break from his standard stump speech, Gingrich talked about bold, imaginative plans that fired the imaginations of a segment of Floridians that have been cast aside by the decisions of the Obama Administration.  Obama’s decision to moth ball NASA has left the once active and tourist-friendly Cocoa Beach area reeling under the weight of a stagnate economy.  Gingrich’s speech described a vision that lit fires in the eyes of more than a few  of the more than 600 attendees.

“I am sick of being told we have to be timid and I’m sick of being told we have to be limited to technologies that are 50 years old, Gingrich said.

Gingrich spoke of resurrecting the space program through privitization and competition, making the goal of a return (and yes, colonization) to the moon a prime goal.  The former Speaker of the House also spoke of making Mars one of the missions, calling to mind memories of  John F. Kennedy’s challenge to Americans on our reach to the moon.

Though his ideas have been called “grandiose” (a designation he does not dispute), there can be no doubt that Gingrich HAS ideas.  The question that his competitors and Democrats must be asking themselves is “Can he back those ideas up with action?”.  If history is any indicator, the answer is “yes”.

The claims that Gingrich makes regarding working with Reagan and other politicians to cut spending are matters of historical fact.  It is also a matter of history that he worked to pass the Balanced Budget Amendment of 1997 – leading to 4 consecutive years of a balanced budget.  It can be argued that the former Speaker of the House is aggressive in getting things done, sometimes with conflict, but he does get them done. 

So when he is quoted in Cocoa Beach, FL saying  ..” By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American”, it may be that astrophysicists and engineers start dusting off their résumés, while GOP competitors and Democrats start listening for the sonic boom of a rocket launching.  If the positive reaction of the crowd on the Space Coast was any indicator, Gingrich’s Republican nomination is a ‘GO’ for launch and victory.

Keep Watch!