By Richard Larsen

While Thanksgiving is a time to pause and give thanks to God for the things that we have, Memorial Day is a time to pause and give thanks to God for the people who have fought for the things we have, the most important of which are intangible. That was the way my parents inculcated into me the important role of Memorial Day in our holiday observance. The picnics, family weekend getaways, and outdoor excursions are fine, but the reason for the day should never be lost to us.

Having just finished perusing “House to House: A Soldier’s Memoir,” by David Bellavia, my immense gratitude and respect for those who wear the nation’s military uniforms is reaffirmed. Bellavia was in an infantry unit involved in the battle for Fallujah in 2005. Not for the squeamish or the fainthearted, the account is riveting, poignant, and awe-inspiring for the heroism, gallantry, and humanity of our service personnel.

His perspective on his job there was clear. Regardless of the reasons that brought them to Iraq, there are “bad guys” (the way he describes the enemy to his young son back home in New York) trying to kill innocent people and his fellow soldiers. His job, which he and the others volunteered for, was to eradicate the threat to the innocents, which by default was mitigating the threat to America. As he says it, with his brothers in uniform, his rifle, and the American flag on his sleeve, there’s nothing he can’t do.

Undoubtedly many of our returning champions of freedom wonder why they made it back and some of their fellow soldiers did not. Bellavia writes, “I know that there are families out there right now, mourning the empty chair. I am guilty for having lived when my brothers did not. I mourn them, and do not feel worthy to live on without them.”

Bellavia describes a sobering experience after his two tours in Iraq. He returned to Fallujah as a civilian, walking the streets, observing the normal daily routines of those who had returned to their homes. He was on another type of mission on this trip, however. He was going to the streets, fields, and houses where he had lost some of his closest brothers. On one street he placed a carnation for his fallen captain whom he had held in such high regard. He muttered a prayer, and then was startled by an Iraqi woman watching him. He started to leave, and after several steps stopped, and turned back to watch the woman. In his words, “She was kneeling in front of my flower. Tenderly she placed her own weeds alongside my cheap carnation. She touched her heart, then the ground, and uttered a prayer. She kissed her hand and touched her heart again. My mouth fell open. She looked over at me, and as our eyes met again, my heart broke. All the emotions suddenly broke free. Tears rushed down my cheeks and I began to sob uncontrollably. She regarded me sadly, then left without knowing the gift she’d given me.

“She wasn’t the reason I came to fight in Iraq. But she reminded me of the importance of why we fight. The soil in Fallujah and all of Iraq has been consecrated with the blood of our dead. And her reverence reminded me of that. This old woman showed me that my time in Fallujah was a life-altering privilege. It was here that we fought for hope. It was here that we fought to end the reign of terror that had descended on the innocents of a city.

“Through it all, I witnessed the best of human condition – the loyalty, the self-sacrifice, the love that the brotherhood of arms evokes. I realized then that I am complete for having experienced that. Those who died gave their lives for their brothers. They gave their lives for a noble ideal: that freedom from tyranny and oppression is a basic human right. We were the force to do that, and my brothers paid the price.

Regardless of the reasons for entering the Iraq conflict, and the Bush administration offered several, those who objected to it have focused on the most questionable of them, the purported presence of weapons of mass destruction. The weakness of that one argument does not negate the others, and most importantly, does nothing to diminish the immense contributions of Bellavia, his brothers in arms, and our own local heroes who have served there, including Blake Stephens and Nick Gummersall, who consecrated that barren Iraqi soil for freedom, with their own blood.

There is nothing glorious in war. Would to God that it would never be necessary. However, as long as there are evil men in the world who tyrannically seek unrighteous dominion over others, war will necessarily be a part of the human experience. Regrettably, contrary to the naïveté expressed in bumper stickers, sometimes war is the answer. And we should be ever grateful for those who through the years, whether willingly or unwillingly, sacrificed for us. America and all who love freedom thank you and your families for your sacrifices in our behalf.

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By Andrew Richardson, of Richmond, VA

Who ARE these people running for public office? How can they have
failed to notice that the government stopped doing things “for” the
people and started doing things “to” us long ago? Yet, somehow, they
still think it is ok to tell us how they are going to spend the
fictitious tax money they hope to extort from the few remaining
productive citizens.

Have they truly failed to notice that our country is broke – that any
money we spend now has to be borrowed from our children and grand
children yet to be born? Is our standard of living truly so valuable that we are willing to
burn the future of the country in the fires of fascism to keep it
going for just a bit longer?

The men who created this country would have been appalled; Thomas
Paine knew the kinds of people it would take to keep his dream alive
and wrote about them. “A generous parent would have said, if there
must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
How far from those noble ideals we have fallen. Today, our politicians
are content, not only to send trouble to their own children – which in
itself would make them a rotten parent – but they are sending trouble
to all of our children and grand children for the entirety of the
foreseeable future. How is that just? How could that possibly be good?
IF by some miracle those people running for public office actually
cared about something as crazy as the good of the country they would
at least show it by looking for solutions to the real problems facing
us - the biggest problem being obviously, the burden of government
crushing the spirit of the individual.

“If elected I pledge to do __________.”
NO!!! Try, “If elected I will restore to you the freedoms you were promised.”
Or perhaps, “I will get the government out of your way.”
Or even, “I will fight to REDUCE the burden of the frivolous laws on
you and especially on businesses.”
James Madison said, “It will be of little avail to the people that the
laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous
that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be
understood.”

Did our politicians think he was kidding? Point to me a place in
history where more laws have been a good thing. Are we truly such
children that we need the government to tell us every single thing we
should and shouldn’t do ‘for our own good’?
If you see a problem that needs fixing fix it yourself? You are an
American, the government doesn’t fix our problems, WE DO.
Really, who are we if we cannot solve the problems we have created for
ourselves? Are we children – so undisciplined in our daily lives that
we cannot endure the natural consequences we have incurred?

I am tired of politicians answering questions that are framed by
themselves. Perhaps they should answer the questions that tell us who
they really are. I have a few questions I want to see answers to:

Question 1. “What principles do you live your life by?”
Question 2. “What will you do to take power AWAY from the state and
federal governments and return it to the people?”
Question 3. “At what point in our history do you see the tide of
government turn decidedly against the liberty of the people ‘for our
own good?’”
Question 4. “As _______ what will you do to encourage personal
responsibility, and will you return the freedom to fail to the
people?”

Just a beginning, but tell me, have you ever seen those questions
asked, let alone answered without spin?
We are Americans, the power of our country rests in us, not in those
that use our resources to pay off just enough people to get elected
time and again.

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Please join us at the following event:

This is a continuation of the tea party rally and to honor our veterans. Walk the freedom mile and/or attend the program.

WHO: All patriots who want to honor our veterans and become more involved in restoring our liberties.

WHEN: Monday May 25th

TIME: Assemble at the Veteran’s Memorial on Memorial Drive in Idaho Falls at 5:15 PM.

WHERE: Walk from the Veteran’s Memorial in Idaho Falls on Memorial drive at 5:30 PM. Bring posters, banners, signs, flags. A one mile walk from this location; turning west on Broadway; then turning south on Utah till we reach the rotary at Taylor’s Crossing; then turning east to the smaller rotary at Bridgeport and Riverwalk Drive ending at the grassy amphitheater.

PROGRAM: A 1 hr. Program starting at 6:15 pm. at Bridgeport and Riverwalk Drive, at Taylor’s Crossing will include veterans’ stories of inspiration, a presentation on the Christian/Biblical origins of the Constitution, what you can do to help save your freedom. Brings lawnchairs or blankets to sit on. There will be hot dogs, music and much, much more.

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So, how’s the “hope and change” working out for ya? Let’s summarize the changes that have taken place in the last 100 plus days.

America is being transformed from the most successful country in the entire history of the world AND one with the highest standard of living AND one with the most effective health care system into a Fascist (Socialism with a smile) soon to be, European-style third world country.

We have a president who hires and fires corporate CEO’s, destroys auto industries, injects trillions of dollars of worthless paper into our economic system (can we say “massive inflation”), spends like he has no limits (oh wait…he doesn’t), pits Americans against Americans, vows to “redistribute wealth”, presides over a “Crooked Cabinet”, and is adored by a part of the population which does not have the wherewithal to overcome decades of an education system driven by a liberal agenda and that has conditioned them to become ignorant “American sheeples”. AND, all this is supported by a willing media who are content to be told what to publish…truth or fiction or photo-shopped… for the purpose of pure manipulation of the masses.

But more importantly, all of this has inspired people to begin publicly admitting to experiencing “buyers’ remorse”. Our government is overlooking the fact that this daily egregious assault on our Constitution is serving to awaken a “sleeping giant”….We The People…who will not stand quietly by while our government deliberately reduces American to third world status circumventing the very guiding principles upon which we were founded and that have contributed to our greatness.

Meanwhile, the European media is dumbfounded that our US media continually represses information on this president who has yet to “prove his citizenship” and “hates his country” as is being reported in foreign countries. Obama’s anti-American policies are obvious to those of us who wake up on a daily basis to new government entanglement in our lives. AKA Obama is not an American in the true sense…one who loves and respects and is proud of his country and obviously has contempt for “We the People”. His urgency to transform America and implement his agenda is driven by the fact that “We the People” are beginning to stir and “We” are making it known that “We” will not go quietly into the boxcars.

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By Richard Larsen

It has been entertaining to witness the unsolicited counsel pontificated from the left telling the Republican Party what’s wrong with it. Not just nationally, but locally, with a liberal high school teacher and a liberal physics instructor lecturing Republicans on what they’re doing wrong. Since many liberals don’t view Republicans as different-minded Americans, but as enemies to be vanquished, isn’t that a bit like the U.S. accepting counsel from Iran or North Korea on what we’re doing wrong? Theirs is the last counsel I would give credence to on the issue.

How about a little counsel to the Republican Party from one who considers himself a conservative? After all, I have a vested interest in its success, unlike the querulous ones barking from the left’s sidelines who cheer the current transformation of America, and would just as soon see an American uni-party system continue control in perpetuity.

The problem with the Republican Party is that it has allowed the liberal wing of the Democrat Party to dictate the discussion. Rather than leading on Constitutional and founding principles upon which this nation was based, those seeking to transform the country into something it was never intended to be have set the political dialogue. As a result, the discussion is not whether we should have a deficit at all, it’s, “How much is too much of a deficit?” Rather than all human life is sacred and should be protected, it’s, “How many innocents’ lives are too many to abort?” And instead of government should not be bailing out any businesses, it’s, “How big is too big to fail?”

Democrats do an excellent job of making promises to niche political groups, and then not fulfilling them. But they’re judged not on results, but on their intent, and their expressed fealty to them. The “Great Society” has redistributed trillions of dollars over the past four decades, and poverty levels remain, as a percentage of the population, about what they were when the “war on poverty” was declared. Promises to political niches are no more than efforts to buy votes, with someone else’s money. If Republicans want to win elections again, commit to doing what’s best for the country, and all people, and don’t try to outbid for their votes, or dissect the electorate based on clichéd parsing of issues or catering to special interest groups.

Return to the basic Constitutional premise that government is to “promote” the general welfare of the nation, not “provide” it. In our republic, government was intentionally created to maintain law and order, ensure our national security, protect life, facilitate interstate commerce, and preserve freedom. Our republic was never intended to be a panacea or balm for all the ills and travails of society. It was intended to provide a legal structure for the protection of liberty and rights that would allow individuals to get out of life what they were willing to invest personally into it. If you want to succeed as a party, distinguish yourselves from the other one, don’t be content to be “Democrat Lite.”

A great barometer by which to gauge the potential efficacy of a national leader who espouses basic conservative principles, is observing the ferocity with which the whiners from the left and the mainstream media attack them. Even today, long after the 2008 election, mainstream media are doing all they can to not just demean and belittle, but destroy Sarah Palin. Since conservatives were not energized behind McCain until after Palin came on the national political stage, and the media continue to attack her, it’s a safe bet that they fear her, or someone like her. There’s your political barometer at work.

Moving to the left will not save the Republican Party, moving to the right will. Republicans had arguably the most liberal presidential candidate ever this last cycle as he tried to stake out the moderate ground, and he lost. He was also the mainstream media’s darling since he frequently bashed conservatives, until they had their own horse in the race, their own “anointed one.”

Question D3 on the bipartisan Battleground Poll provides the evidence. It reads, “When thinking about politics and government, do you consider yourself to be… Very conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate, somewhat liberal, very liberal, unsure/refused.” In the August 2008 results, 20% of Americans considered themselves to be very conservative; 40% somewhat conservative; 2% moderate; 27% somewhat liberal, and 9% very liberal; and 3% didn’t know for sure. Those results have varied only slightly over the past 10 years. Do the math, and 60% of the American electorate considers itself to be at least somewhat conservative. Maybe the reason you Republicans are losing elections is because you’re abandoning the core conservative principles that the Republican Party was founded on.

Does that mean that the Republican Party must be a monolithic entity that only accepts for membership those who completely agree? Of course not. Ronald Reagan, our last truly conservative national leader, once said that someone who agrees with him 80% of the time is not his enemy.

Reagan won two landslides based on fundamental conservatism, or classical liberalism, if you will. You Republican leaders should not listen to the pundits who continually harp that the “era of Reagan is dead,” while to them the era of FDR will never expire. Return to your roots, genuinely, steadfastly, and faithfully, and you may be able to come out of the political wasteland you now find yourselves in.

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CONSERVATIVE STATES OFFER THE MOST FREEDOM

According to a new study released by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Idaho is the fourth best state in the country in offering personal and economic freedom to its residents.

So if you think it’s bad here, imagine what it would be like to be stuck in Rhode Island, New Jersey, or New York, which bring up the rear.

Significantly, there is a strong correlation between conservatism and freedom on the one hand and liberalism and bondage on the other. The states that are most free tend to be the most conservative politically: S. Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Arizona, Virginia and N. Dakota join Idaho in the top ten, while the least free states are without exception bastions of statism run wild: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii and California all have the dubious honor of being in the bottom ten.

This gives the lie to the myth that conservatives are the repressive ones. The truth, as is often the case, turns out to be the exact opposite. The more liberal a state is, the less likely it is to offer its residents genuine personal and financial freedom.

The basic instinct of the conservative is to be left alone, while the basic instinct of the liberal is to meddle. Conservatives have a high regard for individual autonomy, choice and personal responsibility, while statists, thinking they are smarter than everybody in the room, want to dictate lifestyle choices to as many of the benighted and unwashed masses as possible.

Freedom as defined by the Center is “the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual’s ability to do the same.”

New York, the least free state in the union, has the highest taxes in the country, high spending on social services, extremely high government debt, restrictive gun laws, and burdensome home school regulations.

Idaho, in contrast, has the lowest government debt ratio in the U.S., below average taxes and spending - although Mercatus says “Idaho could … improve its record here,” which gets no argument from me -, comparatively relaxed gun control laws, and no regulations on private or home schooling. The Center does point out that, in Idaho, “Individual income taxes are actually rather high,” so there is clearly room to make things better.

But this study reminds us we have many reasons to be grateful to live in Idaho, and plenty of incentive to work to keep it that way. Our mission at the IVA is to keep working to make Idaho the friendliest place in the world to raise a family, and we’d like to see Idaho in time occupy the top spot on the freedom poll.

Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom

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Idaho Chooses Life

Congressman Walt Minnick and his allies in the state’s press corps have done such an admirable job of portraying Minnick as a “conservative maverick”, it may be well to explore the question left begging: If Minnick is so conservative, so at odds with the leadership of his party – then why is he a Democrat?
It is probably fair to say that his years in the private sector and intellectual integrity have made him fairly immune to the anti-capitalist agenda which apparently drive Democrat leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. As a person who has managed successful companies in the private sector, Minnick has enjoyed firsthand the fruits of private property and individual initiative. In the first weeks of his term, Minnick’s voting record suggests that he does not share Obama’s obsession with eliminating the private sector as a major component of America’s economic future.
If one uses Congressman Mike Simpson’s voting record as a standard by which to judge “fiscal conservative”, then Minnick seems so far to meet that standard. So presumably, Minnick is a Democrat despite his disagreement with its position on fundamental economic matters.
And, we are informed by reliable sources, Minnick has been very aggressive in courting the gun lobby and Idaho gun owners. It is even possible that he will secure the endorsement of the NRA as that national organization seeks for Democrat support in the days of “Storm Obama”. So it can’t be gun control which inspires Minnick to tie his name to the Donkey’s tail.
That brings us to the heart of the matter – or perhaps we should say, to Minnick’s heart.
Based upon all we have seen from Minnick, it is fair to say that his passion for the environment and his heart-felt belief in the Democrat’s liberal social agenda explain his otherwise odd allegiance to the national Democrat Party.
Minnick has been a generous donor to organizations like the Idaho Conservation League. In fact, we are fairly certain he served for a time on its board.
We also know that Minnick has taken money from abortion providers – the guys who actually earn a fortune whacking babies while they sleep in the womb – so his radicla abortion politics are known, only waiting to be proven by his votes in coming months. Already he has voted to grant homosexuals special legal status, in defiance of Idaho public opinion.
While some Democrats will not be happy with Minnick’s fairly sane economic philosophy, we predict they will easily forgive that transgression because of his zealous defense of abortion-on-demand and the homosexual agenda. (In a speech at Pocatello a couple weeks ago, Minnick attempted to cloak his social radicalism by saying he believed in “constitutional and civil liberties”.)
The only question facing Idaho Republicans is whether they can find a candidate able to mount a challenge built around Minnick’s dangerous threat to Idaho families and the moral foundations of our communities.

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By Richard Larsen

The inimitable Mark Twain once quipped, “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the congress is in session.” In few areas is that more self-evident than in the attempt to criminalize what is in one’s heart. For some in congress, it’s not enough to put someone in jail for harming another, but if they have “hate” or a prejudice in their heart they should be incarcerated even longer and prosecuted by federal prosecutors. Not only does this tread dangerously on the ground of law enforcement essentially serving as “thought police” but it is also unconstitutional.

This week the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 was passed by the House and will undoubtedly be signed by the President. It identifies crimes which may have been perpetrated due to potential prejudice as federal criminal offenses, with the possibility of life imprisonment. According to the legislation, crimes motivated by the “actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person” will be prosecuted at the federal level.

Legally, legislation like this is unnecessary. Under the 14th Amendment all citizens are treated equally under the law. If one is assaulted, it legally makes no difference whether the perpetrator was motivated by animosity, prejudice, or abject hatred. And ideally it makes no difference what color, sex, or sexual orientation the victim is. Most states already have hate crime legislation on the books, but by federalizing it, it takes us dangerously one step closer to “hate speech” regulation like Canada has.

Since this legislation is not legally necessary, the most likely motive behind it is the enforcement of political correctness or PC. PC is perhaps the greatest culprit leading to a degeneration of our culture and diluting our freedom of speech. Initially intended to make us more sensitive to issues of ethnicity and sexual orientation, which in and of itself is not only desirable but necessary in a society such as ours, it has advanced to an illogical extreme and elevates those protected by PC protocol to a level disallowed for the population at large. Such extremism can lead to the restriction of pastors from preaching publicly against homosexuality using verses from the Bible, as has occurred in Canada. It is one more example of the fact that those claiming to be “tolerant” are the most intolerant of all.

Judiciary Committee member Steve King (R-Iowa) confirms my fears. He said last week, “Their agenda is to shut down preaching of faith from the pulpit. Their agenda is to force public approval of the homosexual agenda. And destroying marriage nationally is the follow-up piece of this.”

King affords evidence of the proponents’ motives by the fact that he introduced an amendment that would have barred pedophiles from special protection under the Act. Majority members of the House Judiciary committee rejected his amendment. King continues, “I just think that tells you that this breaks down the logical approach to law. If we move away from punishing overt acts to punishing thoughts — which is what this legislation does — heaven help us [because] we’ve crossed a line from which it will be awfully hard to ever get back again.”
The Family Research Council has said of the legislation, that “…it would be used against individuals and churches who speak out on issues such as defending marriage and religious liberty.” That would mean that in any future efforts to legalize same-sex marriage as California experienced last year, any individual or organization, including churches, supporting traditional marriage, could be prosecuted under broad interpretation of the statute, even though verbiage in the bill ostensibly disallows it.

Anyone with a semblance of intellectual integrity should see this as one more step in enforcing PC. It’s just one more step toward stifling dissent and curtailing freedom of speech. Radical leftists already presuppose that the reason many of us support traditional marriage is because of “hate,” even though our reasons have nothing to do with it. This type of legislation affords statutory cover for officials to quell dissent and silence traditionalists. With everything else that is being done to “transform” America, nothing strikes so fatally at the heart of America’s freedoms then enforced political correctness does.

It is increasingly obvious that officials in the federal government have no idea what the Constitution says. And as a dear friend of mine, a high school history teacher reminded me recently, Niemoller said of the Nazis, “First they came for the Communists…” Then they came for everyone else. It appears the tactic is now being employed right here in America.

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Idaho Values Alliancef

A friend pointed out to me yesterday that at a cost of $30,000 a day it would cost us another $8 million to keep the legislature in session for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, the governor and the Senate want to raise our taxes by about $75-80 million. It would be less expensive for taxpayers by far to have them stay in town until Christmas than for us to let them raise our taxes.

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Idaho Values Alliance

The governor, despite being dressed down by a grandma in Midvale - “If I had been your mother, I would have come up there and spanked your little butt” - seems foolishly and mindless determined to raise our taxes in the midst of the worst Idaho downturn in decades.

Rep. Raul Labrador said yesterday on the Nate Shelman show (on KBOI, 670 AM) that the messages from his constituents are running 4-1 or 5-1 against any gas tax increase at all. The governor and the senate are simply on the wrong side of the people, the wrong side of history, and the wrong side of economic policy on this one.

Since the House leaders I have talked with indicate that the House is not prepared to budge, an Idaho stand-off looms, with the likelihood that the Senate will call the House back into a fruitless and expensive extended session on Monday.

Remember, the meter will be running at $30,000 a day - of your money - and you will have the governor and the senate to thank.

If the House gets called back, please come if you can to the Capitol Annex - adjacent to the state capitol, which is being renovated - for a 30 minute rally from noon to 12:30 p.m. on Monday.

Several fiscally conservative lawmakers have already confirmed that they will speak at the rally on Monday, should it become necessary, and Nate Shelman has agreed to serve as the M.C.

It’s time for the people to let the governor and the senate know that we, the people, want them to keep their hands out of our wallets. Plan to bring your selves, your babies in strollers, your signs, and your energy.

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