I want to take a moment to apologize for up and disappearing on all of you several months ago. I’m afraid that shortly before the Christmas holidays, things got kind of crazy around my house. I found myself having some health problems, and in the midst of doctors and tests and things, I just couldn’t handle politics.

I kept meaning to come on here and write a post, explaining where I was and that I’d be taking a short break. But honestly, I was so mentally loopy from all the pain medication and just being under the weather, that I literally just forgot!! I’m so sorry!

I feel especially bad about all my friends who were concerned about me. I’m so sorry to make you all worry! But thank you to everyone who sent me concerned emails, checking in on me to make sure I wasn’t dead, hehe. Don’t worry, I’m still here!

Despite taking my little siesta from politics, I was kind of snapped back into it with all the drama surrounding the special election in Massachusetts for the late Ted Kennedy’s seat. I’m sure like many of you, I was glued to the news Tuesday night, waiting to see which way the voters of Massachusetts would go.

Let me just say, holy crap, was I ever shocked!! I mean, obviously I had hoped that the tides would turn and people would start to wake up to what the progressives have been doing within the Democratic party, and the effect their policies have been having on our nation after only one year of the Obama administration. But I seriously didn’t think that enough people had woken up yet to really sway an election away from the Democrats in Massachusetts!! It’s Massa-freaking-chusetts!!

But wow, I seriously couldn’t be more proud of my fellow Independents in Massachusetts! I’m not excited about this election because of Scott Brown, or because he’s a Republican – I refuse to put hope in a single candidate, or even a single party.

Rather, I’m thrilled with the outcome of this election because of the Independents of Massachusetts, taking a stand against monarchistic politics, rising up and declaring their independence from anyone’s political machine. Way. To. Go! The news kept making a big deal about how Democrats out-number Republicans something like 3-to-1 in Massachusetts, but what most people need to realize, they’re ALL out-numbered by Independents like me. And that’s what made the difference: independence.

I wish more people in this country would wake up and realize that loyalty to a single party or a single candidate isn’t the answer. Any one person can – and most likely will – let you down. And worse, party loyalty I think is just a tool to drive us apart.

Rather, I think the answer should be loyalty to principles. Loyalty to standards, beliefs, convictions; loyalty to our country, to what it stands for, its history, and how very bright its future could be if we stand by the principles we were founded on and the principles so many of us still believe in today.

But that can’t happen until more of us wake up and realize that our history has been skewed by far too many people with far too many agendas. We need to wake up, we need to familiarize ourselves once again with our own true shared history, and realize the legacy that we’re risking because of our complacency. We simply cannot be the generation that ends the dream of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Adams, Paine, and all the other brave men and women who risked their lives, honor, and sacred fortunes to give us all freedom, liberty, and the prosperity we have all enjoyed for so very long.

So let’s keep it up! Let’s keep learning, keep educating others, keep rediscovering our principles, and keep fightin’ peacefully – but purposefully – for what we believe in. Massachusetts is just the beginning. We simply cannot stop now!!

I have so much more to say over the coming days. During my little siesta I had lots of time to think and I have a lot of thoughts I’d like to share with you. Particularly some thoughts I had recently about the other side of Alinsky’s influence on Progressives and the Democrat party. After having what I thought was just a friendly political discussion with a liberal friend – which he interpreted to be an argument – I was struck with an interesting thought about the other side of Alinsky’s tactics that I don’t think many people notice. Or at least, they don’t seem to talk about. Meaning, the effect those tactics have on Democrats, on liberals; what it means to them.

But I shall save that for another day, since this is long enough and I have to get some sleep! Congratulations to Scott Brown, but you should know, sir, we’re gonna watch you like a hawk!

But most importantly, congratulations to the people of Massachusetts! Congratulations on your hard-fought, hard-won independence!!

This just churns my stomach. On September 8th, for the first time in history (correction: see below), a sitting President is going to deliver a speech to all students in the nation, from pre-K straight through to 12th grade. The White House isn’t giving any details on what exactly Mr. Obama’s speech will involve (see below), but we can at least take a guess based on the teaching guide that was sent out to principals and teachers. Here are a few sample questions that the children are supposed to think about while listening to Barry:

• What is the President trying to tell me?
• What is the President asking me to do?
• What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?

After the speech, teachers are going to ask students to answer even more questions, such as:

• What do you think the President wants us to do?
• Does the speech make you want to do anything?
• Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

Call me crazy, (oh, and I can think of several liberals who will) but I don’t exactly want the Dear Leader asking my children to do anything for him personally. Hey, I have an idea! How about we just keep politics outside of the classroom? Like I always say, I think it’s slightly more important that kids learn to read before they’re schooled in political agendas. But then again, that’s just me.

And of course, I’m getting awfully tired of seeing situations where this sentiment keeps cropping up in my mind, but it’s worth repeating yet again: can you imagine the uproar if President Bush had done something like this? If he’d announced it so suddenly, less than a week before it would happen, and given so few details about the contents of the speech? We all know the furious screams from the left would have dominated every single news broadcast until the White House relented. And you know what? They’d be right!
But where are they now? Yet again, their silence is deafening.

I was looking for a good synopsis of this story, since I heard about this on the news as well. I’ve really got to get some sleep, so I didn’t have much time to search. But it seems Michelle Malkin’s done a pretty good job of summing it up.
Click here to check out ‘No Junior Lobbyist Left Behind’.

It looks like lots of people are planning on conveniently calling their kid in “sick” that day. If I had kids, that’s what I’d do. I’d like to encourage you to do the same. Heck, let’s make a party out of it! Keep ‘em home, talk about freedom, get the family together to read the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, maybe even some of the writings of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and other founding fathers. Sing some patriotic songs, watch ‘1776′, eat a hot dog! If it’s legal in your state, set off some fireworks! Or hey, maybe even do a little service project for our service men and women – let me tell you, they sure love to receive cards and letters of thanks from kids back home. Make it a day of American patriotism they’ll remember!
And maybe, just maybe, if we all do this together, there’ll be record number of sick kids that day. At least, we sure can hope.

09-06-09 – Update & Correction: I wanted to let you all know that I need to issue a correction to a tidbit of information included in this post, and also there’s a bit of an update on this issue.
So, first off, I want to apologize for getting a fact wrong on this issue! I have since found out that two prior presidents have delivered speeches to school children while in office; the first was Ronald Reagan, the second was George H. W. Bush. Apologies for that!! The very first news blurb I saw on this issue didn’t mention that fact, and as I said, when I first posted this I didn’t have much time to do more searching. Shame on me for posting so quickly without doing a thorough enough job vetting the info! I promise to try harder next time.
Now for the updates! The Department of Education has reworded one of the offending questions in the lesson plan having to do with how children can “help the President.” I thought I’d included that in this post, but apparently I neglected to include it. So all’s well there. Although I still think some of the other questions are bothersome as well, and as far as I’ve heard, haven’t been amended.
Lastly, President Obama has finally relented with regard to releasing the content of his speech prior to delivering it to the school kids. I believe it will be released tomorrow. Once I find a link for it, I’ll post it here.
Thanks! And once again, apologies for getting that fact wrong! What can I say? I’m human, and alas, make mistakes. I can promise you, though, that I will try harder in the future!

09-07-09 – Update: Obama released the speech today. Click here to check it out in pdf format. In my opinion, if the White House had simply released this speech in the beginning, without any of the quasi-political lesson plans, there would have been no major controversy at all. Chalk this one up to unbelievably bad planning by the administration and officials at the Department of Education who, frankly, should have known better that releasing lesson plans at all was in violation of the department’s own charter.
Lastly, the folks over at HotAir have some interesting insight into the contents of the speech. Check it out. (Also, if you’d rather not have to deal with a pdf version of the speech, HotAir provides it at that link as well.)

You have to see this to believe it. It’s that bad.

As if that isn’t bad enough, check out the plaque she presented to the school.

This is one of the saddest, most pathetic things I’ve witnessed come out of Congress in a long time – and that’s saying something. She’s seriously, seriously, a part of the US House of Representatives? Seriously!? Her vote in that respected body actually has a sway over each and every one of our lives?
And yet she can’t even manage to form a proper sentence? She can’t even congratulate someone without pulling made up words out of her butt? What in the hell is she doing in that esteemed chamber?!
What the hell is this country coming to? Not only that so many people come out of our schools this illiterate, but that they somehow manage to become representatives in Congress?! Is this seriously what the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King, Jr fought so hard – and died – for? Are representatives like her really going to bring us closer together racially? Is she really the best example of African American success this nation could produce?
Is she really the type of person we should be electing as a representative of ourselves and our communities? I sure as hell hope not, because that’s just pathetic. If we can’t expect more than this from our representatives, if we can’t even expect them to have a basic, elemental grasp on the English language, how could we possibly expect anything from our system of government?

You know, this might be funny, if it weren’t for the fact that she’s voting on vitally important legislation that affects the future of our nation. That kind of takes all the fun out of it, doesn’t it?
Hehe, although, it is kind of funny that she’s part of the Democratic party, which has been so thoroughly savaging President Bush for the past 8 years for mispronouncing “nuclear” (in the exact same manner that President Kennedy did, by the way.) That is at least worth a chuckle.

Congratulations, Ms. Brown, for making a complete and utter fool out of yourself.

(Thanks to Iowahawk for the information!)