californiasam's Diary

The Woman in The Arena

Last Saturday, my older daughter received her commission as a 2nd LT into the United States Marine Corps, surrounded by friends, family and fellow marines. A friend of mine from high school wrote a lovely piece about it on Sunday.

During her ceremony, my daughter recited a passage which she had called as a cadence during her platoon’s march to the chow hall at Officer Candidate School. While I don’t agree with all of Teddy’s politics, I do agree with the sentiment of this passage from his speech in Paris, 23 April 1910:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

After reciting the passage, my daughter said, “I guess, I am the woman in the arena.” Indeed she is.

Having thought about it for a couple of days, I have come to the conclusion that there are many women who are fighting for our country abroad and at home, in the military as well as civilian life. In ways that often are not recognized, we, too, fight the good fight as we raise patriots, nudge our friends with Facebook postings, vote for conservatives on school boards, make our community a better place with small kindnesses to others instead of reliance on government. We do not take steel bullets, but we fight as we walk the conservative walk.

But, now, the time is short, as we are headed for fiscal ruin and the loss of our country’s moral foundation. We must wrest control from the statists who have put us on this path to oblivion. There is so much that we can do – register conservative voters, become active with your local tea party, join the longstanding volunteer force for conservative candidates, become a precinct committeeman. It is time to take the next step, and even if we stumble, to know that we are striving valiantly.

It is time for us all to be The Woman in The Arena.

Every dollar counts as we head down the final stretch

Talking to the local GOP GOTV reps today, I learned that campaigns will still be able to process and use donations between now and election day. Since so many donations now come in via the candidate’s website and can be transferred to the campaign’s bank account immediately, funds can change the campaign’s tactics overnight.

With so many newcomers in the GOP field, name recognition might well be what’s holding some of them back. So… here’s what some smaller donations can do for your candidate(s) of choice:

$25 – 20 yard signs

$50 – 500 door hangers for final GOTV efforts

$100 – lunch for a Saturday phonathon

$200 – all supplies needed for a Super-Saturday door knocking extravaganza

$250 – 30sec local cable tv commercial

All donations, even those of $5 to $10 can make a big difference for the smaller races. Even now.

Redstate is filled with links to candidates’ websites – choose 1, choose 10, just choose.
You’re not too late.

If it’s going to be hand-to-hand combat, let’s go prepared.

According to the LA Times, Obama said that “A Republican majority in Congress would mean ‘hand-to-hand combat’ on Capitol Hill for the next two years.”

I say – bring it on! Election Day is coming right up and that gives us a great chance to send tested warriors.

I’ve gone through the list of House seats that are still in play according to RCP and have highlighted those where the candidate is a veteran, according to their webpage bio. I have listed them in order from most at risk of a Democratic win to least at risk, but ALL of these races are still close and the candidates could use your help. Each candidate’s name links to their website.

MA-4 Sean Bielat US Marine Corps

OH-6 Bill Johnson US Air Force

RI-1 John J. Loughlin US Army Reserve, RI National Guard

OK-2 Charles Thompson US Army

MN-8 Chip Cravaack US Navy

WI-3 Dan Kapanke US Marine Corps, WI National Guard

ME-2 Jason Levesque US Army

WV-3 Spike Maynard US Air Force

MS-4 Steven Palazzo US Marine Corps, MS National Guard

IA-2 Mariannette Miller-Meeks US Army

WA-9 Dick Muri US Air Force

NY-20 Chris Gibson US Army

KY-3 Todd Lally KY Air National Guard

CO-7 Ryan Frazier US Navy

NY-13 Michael Grimm US Marine Corps

NM-2 Steve Pearce US Air Force

NC-7 Ilario Pantano US Marine Corps

MI-9 Rocky Raczkowski US Army

HI-1 Charles Djou US Army

NV-3 Joe Heck US Army

IN-9 Todd Young US Marine Corps

FL-22 Allen West US Army

AZ-8 Jesse Kelly US Marine Corps

OH-15 Steve Stivers OH National Guard

MD-1 Andy Harris US Navy

AR-1 Rick Crawford US Army

NC-8 Harold Johnson US Marine Corps

IN-8 Larry Bucshon US Navy

FL-24 Sandy Adams US Air Force

IL-11 Adam Kinzinger US Air Force

WA-8 Dave Reichert US Air Force

LA-3 Jeff Landry US Army

AR-2 Tim Griffin US Army

There are some truly inspiring stories of patriotism and heroism in the biographies above. I hope that you find some new Republicans to support, I know that I have.

And, you libs who’ve gotten your panties into a bunch, I’m speaking figuratively, if Obama was.

Voter shift in California??

There’s a new poll out by Pajamas Media that shows a dead heat between Fiorina and Boxer and between Whitman and Brown.

That’s good news, but not really the interesting part. They go on to say:

In a surprise result, party affiliation reported by respondents showed a 3% majority for the GOP; these results were adjusted to match the usual proportion of a 7% Democrat majority. If party identification has really shifted by 10% toward the GOP in California, this would have dramatic implications for the election in California and for the United States as a whole.

Wow. No counting chickens yet, but , wow.

There’s the leak, and then there’s the spill.

In my mind, these are two very different things.

With the leak, which began with the explosion and was followed by the ensuing leak of millions of gallons of crude oil, we can ask many questions…
Why did it happen? How can we keep it from happening again? How can we fix it now? What the beegeezers were we doing drilling so far out and so deep? (Was it because we’re not allowed to drill any closer to land??) Were there adequate plans in case of a problem (that didn’t reference Alaskan wildlife?) Vladmir has elaborated on this.

We’ve never had a leak like this, so deep and so large, so it makes sense that the answers aren’t all readily available. Having said that, these answers mostly lie with BP, the MMS and experts in that arena.

Then, there’s the spill. Under the Oil Pollution Act, the President has nearly dictatorial authority to take over the cleanup. It is the President’s responsibility to react to the spill with the Coast Guard in charge. (the EPA handles spills inland and the CG handles spills in open waters.) It’s clear to me that BP should PAY for the clean-up, but it is not clear to me that BP should RUN the clean-up. Obama using the word ‘responsible’ is too vague here, I think. It is Obama trying to muddy the waters and hide from the fact that it is HIS RESPONSIBILITY to clean up the spill.

Can he suck it up with a straw? NO!
Can he suspend the Jones Act, suspend environmental review for barriers, suspend competitive bidding for containment boom and actually empower Thad Allen? YES! These answers are much easier as we have had spills before, this one is just a lot bigger.

Let us have two different discussions about the leak and the spill, as they are very different things with very different solutions and responsible parties.

Don’t wait for lame duck Arlen to re-find his Republican roots.

I had a little hope when I read the Daily Caller today.

As for Specter, he’s now a wild card in the Senate, free to vote as he wants. He spent most of his career in the Senate as a Republican, and is notoriously pugnacious.

But it wasn’t even a full day before my hopes were dashed while happening across this discussion on the Financial “Reform” Bill on CNBC (just watching the DOW plummet.)

Another difference in the outcome was that Democrat Arlen Specter, who was absent for Wednesday’s vote having remained in Pennsylvania following his primary defeat in Tuesday; voted yes along party lines.

What will it be like in November and December when we (hopefully) have a house and senate just filled with lame duck democrats? Somehow I don’t think they’ll find their conservative roots, either.

A mom, a double E and a witch walk into a bar…

So, my husband and I, while waiting for our dinner table in Northern California, decided to have a drink at the bar. A gentleman sat down next to us and started up a conversation. He asked me what I did for a living, and I let him know that after spending nearly 20 years in Silicon Valley, I had decided to take time off to raise my children. Now that my girls are both in college at fine institutions, I have decided to get more involved in politics because I am concerned about our nation. I have been volunteering for local conservatives running for office and have been active on this and other conservative websites while I decide what my next step will be. I asked him what he did, and he told me that he is a witch. Ok… so this is Northern California.

The conversation turned to religion and the witch asked me if I believed in God. He does, in fact, believe in a God, and, I told him so do I, though, frankly, that wasn’t always the case. He asked me why, and I responded that I believe in God because if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t believe in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. I recently read the Patriots History of the US and quoted to him the beginning of the Declaration of Independence and let him know that if I didn’t believe in God, then I wouldn’t believe in the founding of our country and our liberties. The interesting part is that the other folks at this Northern California bar at first looked a little stunned, and then agreed with me. If we were, in fact, free people, then we were free because we were free UNDER GOD. I talked about how health care couldn’t be a right, since it meant, then, that somehow we would have to have healthcare magically given to us for free by doctors ( I used the stranded on a desert island example.) There were many nodding heads and smiles in this restaurant in one of the most progressive parts of our country.

Some of us are not active in politics, but we still make a difference by voting and encouraging others to vote for conservatives or conservative principles. Some of us help others to win office, and some of us actually run. Each of us on RedState, in our own way, across this great nation, are taking us back to our founding principles, to where we need to be as a nation. God bless us all and God Bless America, even the witches.

Birfers, you’re being played.

I must admit that there was a time when I thought that Obama might have been born overseas, and that perhaps he was trying to hide that fact from the American people. If not, then why the secrecy about his birth certificate? And, why was all of the money spent on lawyers trying to find a way around the citizenship requirement? (Or so I’d heard)

But after his birth announcements in Hawaiian newspapers were found, that really settled the issue for me. There simply is no way that anyone could have foreseen his political future and therefore have conned his citizenship that long ago. And, after his election, it was highly unlikely that he would actually be removed from office, so I considered it a moot point.

With all of the Birfer talk lately, I began to wonder, why would Obama continue to allow this to be a point of contention when it could so easily be resolved? And it hit me – it’s just a distraction. If folks are up in arms about his birth certificate and are spending time trying to track down relatives in Africa or school entrance forms in Malaysia, then they AREN’T FOCUSING ON THE ISSUES.

If you’re busy discussing a certificate of live birth vs a birth certificate, then you aren’t noticing his domestic policies that will bankrupt our nation. If you’re busy worrying about when the next lawsuit is going to come up, then you’re not going to have the time to investigate his appointments who will be working behind the scenes to force our country into socialism. Obama is waving this red flag in your face and counting on it to distract you from the real issues.

Fight on the issues. We will win on the issues. If you continue to insist on dragging all of those around you into ‘Crazy Birfer Land’ then you’re just being played.

I’m a Capitalist, but REALLY, is this what California’s come to?

I thought it was bad when they started selling the names of the sports stadiums (beginning with San Francisco’s Candlestick Park) to raise money back in 1995. As the names changed with each new contract, and sports casters bumbled and/or mocked the names, the cheeziness of the whole thing really got to me. Finally, in 2004, the voters decided to end the whole sordid affair and passed an initiative that required the name to remain ‘Candlestick Park’ at the end of the current contract, and so it has since 2008.

But, there is a new ‘revenue enhancement’ scheme that is dreadful on a whole different scale. The Gubinator (who I admit that I voted for) wants to raise money in cash-strapped Cali by selling space on the freeway electronic signs. The original intent of freeway electronic traffic signs was to provide ‘emergency information.’ The first Amber Alerts that went up were fantastic and many have resulted in the rescue of the child involved. Bridge and freeway closures are announced in advance and this has allowed Cali drivers to plan alternate routes- it’s great! Occasionally, the signs have also been used for driving related public service announcements like “turn in the drunk bum driving next to you by calling 911″, ok, maybe they used a little different wording. But, whenever there was a message on the sign, you could count on it being either important or useful, or both. Now, that just won’t be the case.

I find this money grubbing just too embarrassing, but that’s not what worries me. I have 3 main concerns.

1. Are we actually going to set up an entirely new bureaucracy to interface with companies to find advertisers, gather the ads, decide which ads are appropriate, bill for the ads and then collect the revenue from such ads? In the real world, companies are told to focus on their ‘core business’ and not get distracted. Sounds like a distraction to me and, really, how much revenue could be gained when all is said and done?

2. If we set up this bureaucracy, what’s to stop the legislature from deciding to build billboards or takeover abandoned billboards to get more revenue to pay for the bureaucracy? In this age where we, the people, own GM, Chrysler and AIG, that’s not so far fetched, I think.

3. If there are advertisements on the signs, then folks will just stop looking at them, just like we all skip the commercials on t.v. And if we stop looking at the signs, then haven’t we just undone the good work that was done by implementing them? Could we possibly make enough money to make up for the tragedy that would occur when the next Amber Alert is posted and no one pays attention to it and a child’s life is forever changed, or even ended?

The problem, I think, is that our government SPENDS too much. So, rather than looking at creating new bureaucracies that compete with private business and put lives at risk, how ’bout we put the brakes on runaway spending? (like the $200 billion single payer healthcare bill the Cali Senate just passed!)