michaelzak's Diary

Keith Olbermann v. Full Disclosure

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:31:22 +0000

In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, I have been watching the Democrat media – strictly for entertainment value.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down part of the McCain-Feingold law. Now, thanks to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, corporations can spend money on political purposes. Keith Olbermann was outraged, OUTRAGED that big corporations would get involved in politics. I forced myself to listen closely, waiting for him to disclose something very relevant. Olbermann never did mention the fact that the network he (and Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz) work for, MSNBC, belongs to a big corporation, General Electric.

In truth, Keith Olbermann is a corporate spokesman for General Electric. He has no problem with his big corporation owning a network that spews Democrat talking points 24/7. But, if another corporation is able to buy a 30-second political commercial on MSNBC or another network, Olbermann says that would endanger democracy.

Olbermann even compared Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to Dred Scott v. Sanford. He also failed to disclose the fact that the author of that infamous decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney, was a Democrat. In fact, all seven Supreme Court justices who voted for Dred Scott were Democrats.

In the interest of full disclosure, let’s remember that Ronald Reagan got his start in politics as a spokesman for General Electric.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. His Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See http://grandoldpartisan.com and www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Scott Brown won the Charles Sumner seat in the U.S. Senate

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:11:54 +0000

As the new senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, said: “It’s not the Ted Kennedy seat. It’s not the Democrat seat. It’s the people’s seat.”

Instead of Ted, let’s remember an honorable and courageous Republican senator who once held the seat to which Scott Brown was elected.

Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) was one of the founders of the Republican Party. Angered by Sumner’s denunciations of slavery, a Democrat congressman beat him nearly to death on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Sumner responded with a classic denunciation of the Democratic Party for promoting The Barbarism of Slavery.

During the GOP’s 1860 election campaign, Senator Sumner gave a speech that speaks to us today:
“If ever there was a moment when every faculty should be bent to the service, and all invigorated by an inspiring zeal, it is now, while the battle between Civilization and Barbarism is still undecided.

Happily, a political party is at hand whose purpose is to combine and direct all generous energies for the salvation of the country. The work must be done, and there is no other organization by which it can be done. A party with such an origin and such a necessity cannot be for a day, or for this election only.
If bad men conspire for slavery, good men must combine for freedom. And when this triumph is won, securing the immediate object of our organization, the Republican Party will not die, but, purified by long contest with slavery, and filled with higher life, it will be lifted to yet other efforts for the good of man.
Others may dwell on the past as secure; but to my mind, under the laws of a beneficent God, the future also is secure, on the single condition that we press forward in the work with heart and soul, forgetting self, turning from all temptations of the hour, and, intent only on the cause.”

The day he died, Charles Sumner urged Republicans to stay true to the principles of our Grand Old Party: “My bill, the civil rights bill – don’t let it fail.” The Republican-controlled 43rd Congress honored his memory by passing the 1875 Civil Rights Act.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. His history of the GOP, Back to Basics for the Republican Party, was cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. See http://grandoldpartisan.com and www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Michael Zak wrote the RNC website’s Heroes and Accomplishments sections

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:52:07 +0000

Republicans welcome a comparison of the history of the GOP with that of the Democratic Party – the party of slavery and socialism, Big Government and the Ku Klux Klan. To quote Back to Basics for the Republican Party: “The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more the Democrats will worry about the future of theirs.”

The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Ronald Reagan

The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite.

If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Abraham Lincoln

Michael Zak wrote the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. He also provided information from Back to Basics for the Republican Party and his Grand Old Partisan blog that became the Heroes and Accomplishments sections of the RNC website. Here, at Grand Old Partisan, for the benefit of Republicans nationwide, is the information in a useful format. And, this website will be updated often, with even more Republican heroes and heroics.

Democrat Corruption has turned Capitol Hill into Tammany Hill

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:26:30 +0000

Tammany Hall, now a metaphor for Democrat corruption, began as a real place. It was a building, in fact, the headquarters of the New York Democratic Party. During the 19th century and early 20th centuries, Tammany Hall was the foremost center of power and financing in the Democratic Party nationwide.

The origins of Tammany Hall date back to the 1790s as a fraternal organization, The Society of St. Tammany. No, there was never a real Saint Tammany. Anyway, along came one of the archvillians of American history, Aaron Burr. Senator Burr took over the society and made it a political organization, which evolved over time into a pillar of the Democratic Party.

In the late 19th century, Tammany Hall, aka the New York City Democratic Party, stole staggering amounts of taxpayer funds – billions of dollars in today’s money.

The head honcho of Tammany Hall was William “Boss” Tweed, a former Democrat congressman. In addition to larceny, Boss Tweed’s Democrat gangsters also excelled in vote fraud.

Tammany Hall faded in the 1930s as it lost its reason for existence. With the New Deal, why should the Democrat leadership have a stand-alone organization devoted to shifting money from the government to their own coffers when the federal government could do it for them? It was at this point that the Democratic Party became the Party of Government.

Now, seven decades later, the Democrat leadership, indeed all Democrats in Congress who vote for the stimulus package and socialized medicine and all the payoffs of Obama’s agenda do so knowing full well they are shovelling billions of dollars from taxpayers to their own coffers. They’re all Boss Tweed now.

By the way, Boss Tweed died in prison.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. His Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Obama and “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:11:47 +0000

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel that envisioned a political tragedy akin to the Obama presidency. It Can’t Happen Here is the story of Berzelius Windrip, a charming, charismatic demagogue who, in the midst of an economic crisis, is elected president by promising lots of free goodies for everyone. Once in power, he neutralizes Congress, ruins the economy and cracks down on dissent. He makes himself dictator, with assistance from a civilian national security force.

Berzelius Windrip… mmm, mmm, mmm!

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. His Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

the Healthcare bill would be Obama’s Enabling Act

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:42:49 +0000

Why are Barack Obama and other Democrat leaders so intent on passing a government takeover of healthcare now Now NOW?

They must know that costs will rise and the quality of care will fall, right? They must know that Obamacare would destroy the economy, right? Of course they do. But, they also know that the federal government would tighten its grip on the nation. They know that Obama’s czars and other appointees would be authorized to bypass Congress in enacting sweeping regulations on nearly every aspect of a person’s life. And, they know that these new powers of the federal government would be concentrated in the hands of the Democratic Party and the President.

Here’s what else they know. History affords many examples of regimes whose motto was “Never let a crisis go to waste.” In 1933, having campaigned for “hope” and “change,” the National Socialist Worker’s Party forced through the German parliament a Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation.

This new law enabled the German chancellor and his appointees to bypass parliament in imposing sweeping regulations on the people:

“In addition to the procedure prescribed by the constitution, laws of the Reich may also be enacted by the government of the Reich [i.e., the Cabinet].”

It was by this vote that the National Socialist Workers Power assumed absolute power and the Chancellor made history.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. His Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Seven Score and Four Years Ago

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:01:43 +0000

The United States emerged from the Civil War a vastly different county. No longer could Democrats hinder economic progress so as to protect the slave system. Once most Democrats in Congress had gone with the Confederacy, Republicans met little opposition in enacting their pro-growth economic agenda: a national banking system and a national currency, free land for farmers in the Plains states, land-grant colleges, the transcontinental railroad, and other structural reforms that soon made the United States the wealthiest country in the world.

But what about the South? Was the Republican Party able to carry out its agenda there – to free the slaves and guarantee their constitutional rights? You already know: yes to freeing their slaves but no to guaranteeing their constitutional rights. Why was that? What stopped the Republican Party was the murder of the Great Emancipator in 1865.

The man who took over the presidency for the next four years was a racist Democrat. Andrew Johnson did all in his power to prevent African-Americans from experiencing Abraham Lincoln’s “new birth of freedom.” The Democrat state governments set up by that first President Johnson quickly reduced African-Americans to near-slavery with “black codes” shockingly similar to their previous “slave codes.”

Knowing that 64 of 80 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives had voted against passage of the 13th Amendment, congressional Republicans feared that once the southern states were back in the Union, a new Democrat majority along with a Democrat such as Johnson in the White House might undo all they had accomplished for African-Americans. What if they rescinded the Emancipation Proclamation, as many Democrats were demanding, or repealed the Republicans’ 1866 Civil Rights Act? To keep the precepts of that law safe from any future Democrat Congress, the GOP drafted and enacted the 14th Amendment. Let’s remember that Republicans voted unanimously in favor of the 14th Amendment, and Democrats voted unanimously against it.

Republicans today should bear in mind that the reason the Republican constitutional rights agenda was not carried out in the postwar South was that until they managed to override a Andrew Johnson veto to pass the Reconstruction Act of 1867, President Johnson and the former Confederate leadership were almost completely in charge of the South.

That’s right, two years elapsed after the war ended before our Republican Party’s Reconstruction even began. To illustrate, how would Japan look today if General Douglas MacArthur had not instituted land reform, restructured the economy and extended voting rights to women? No way that every vestige of Imperial Japan could have been rooted out if he had been forced to wait until 1947 to began his reforms.

Fortunately, this tragedy did not occur in the 1940s. In reality, the U.S. military swept aside the conquered regime and “reconstructed” it as a modern, free market democracy. Unfortunately, this tragedy did occur in the southern United States in the 1860s. The subject people were never fully liberated and Lincoln’s “unfinished work” never completed. Just as sadly, the Republican Party was forced off its original course. Now you may appreciate that most of our nation’s social problems are due to the lamentably inadequate resolution of the central conflict in our history.

Similarly, we are burdened by ignorance of our past with the mistaken impression that now and in the future we have but a limited set of policy options to deal with these problems. The Grand Old Party is an athlete who has lost his balance – we are in good shape, with plenty of drive, but not until we regain our footing will the nation fully realize Lincoln’s vision for a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

This article is adapted from Back to Basics for the Republican Party, Michael Zak’s acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. Mr. Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. His Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama will live… in infamy

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:05:27 +0000

Has anyone heard from Colin Powell lately? Since Barack Obama became president, there has been complete silence from Colin Powell about a man he described as having “great insight into the challenges we’re facing of a military and political and economic nature.” When can we expect Powell to show the courage to admit his mistake, his blunder, his betrayal?

Just weeks before the 2008 presidential election, Powell went on television to attack John McCain and the Republican Party. He then, in his wisdom, endorsed Barack Obama:

“I watched Mr. Obama during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well.

Mr. Obama has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing lines–ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He’s thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.

I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities–and we have to take that into account–as well as his substance–he has both style and substance–he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world–onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.

And I have watched him over the last two years as he has educated himself, as he has become very familiar with these issues. He speaks authoritatively. He speaks with great insight into the challenges we’re facing of a military and political and economic nature. And he is surrounding himself, I’m confident, with people who’ll be able to give him the expertise that he, at the moment, does not have. And so I have watched an individual who has intellectual vigor and who dives deeply into issues and approaches issues with a very, very steady hand. And so I’m confident that he will be ready to take on these challenges on January 21st.”

Are you still confident, General Powell? If not, the nation deserves an apology from you. General Powell, Douglas MacArthur’s words from 1962 speak to you today: ”the very obsession of your public service must be Duty, Honor, Country.”

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. His Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

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Bush v. Gore, score one for America !!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:43:06 +0000

Nine years and one day ago, the U.S. Supreme Court squashed the Democrats’ attempt to steal the 2000 presidential election. The vote-counting procedure prescribed by Florida law determined that George W. Bush had carried the state, but the Democrat-controlled Florida Supreme Court tossed out the state’s own election laws and made up new rules, in order to throw the election to Al Gore. This Democrat scam embarrassed the nation before the world with a sorry spectacle of hanging chads and military absentee ballots tossed out and a recount only of selected Democrat-controlled counties.

In the decision Bush v. Gore, the Justices handed down two rulings. By 7-2, the Justices ordered that the Florida Supreme Court had to obey Florida law. Then, by 5-4, the Justices ruled that the Florida election result was final.

With his victory in Florida upheld, George W. Bush won the electoral college and became the 43rd President of the United States.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the nation, showing office-holders and candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. His Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Hey, Harry! The supporters of slavery were DEMOCRATS

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:59:34 +0000

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) says that people who oppose socialized medicine are comparable to those opposed freeing the slaves. Another outrageous lie from the Democrats!

Just as outrageous is that, by ignoring their party’s heritage, the Republican Party has allowed Democrats and their lefty media allies to mislead millions of Americans about the true history of the Grand Old Party.

Every Republican, and I mean every Republican, should know that it was the Republican Party that freed the slaves and that it was the Democrats who wanted to keep African-Americans in chains. Democrats denounced President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) for his Emancipation Proclamation, and congressional Democrats voted unanimously against the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. In fact, so long as the GOP appreciated its heritage, the Democrats were known as the ‘Slaveocrat Party.’

To quote Back to Basics for the Republican Party: “The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more the Democrats will worry about the future of theirs.”

See www.RepublicanBasics.com and the Grand Old Partisan blog for more information.