People who accuse Ronald Reagan of raising taxes, the debt ceiling, big spender, etc. as if he really believed in fiscal irresponsibility do so to justify Democratic liberalism of the most banal stripe. They are both uninformed and willing participants in mis-information campaigns. You who so accuse Reagan of insipid fiscal practices don’t understand the “Governor Reagan” who fought a totally liberal CA legislature for 8 years and then the same as President for another 8 years. You rarely seek to understand anything but “talking points” nor do you libs seem to understand the basics of government operations.

CONGRESS, not the President, levy’s taxes, authorizes expenditures, and is essentially the nation’s CPA, tax attorney, and Loan Officer. CONGRESS is mandated to create budgets (except for Pelosi- Reid-Obama era.) Presidents only approve or disapprove. President’s aren’t Gods or rulers (well most.) This is Constitution 101, which most news media (so don’t feel too bad if you qualify) and Americans in general do not comprehend nor care to find out.

Congress was 100% Democrat (liberal big spending no budget producing entitlement creating, etc…) from 1954 to 1994. Republicans never controlled spending. Congress did. Ergo – all programs, out-of-control government was their creation! When Reagan inherited the 21% interest rate, high unemployment, malaise-world from ultra-lib Jimmy Carter he was up against (as he was in CA) a full legislative body controlled by big spending, with either collective low I Q math-accounting skills or selective I Q with regards to basic math. Who were these controllers of our national financial health? Democrats.

When Tip O’Neill (Dem Speaker) asked Reagan to sign bills raising taxes, Reagan replied “$1 tax for $3 cuts.” Our country did need revenue – the Democrats had spent us into an enormous hole. To Reagan’s everlasting regret he believed lying Tip O’Neill would hold up his end of the bargain. O’Neill mocked, ridiculed and then “played Reagan.” We got the opposite of the promise.

Even at that, once Reagan understood he couldn’t deal with federal liars in control of both houses, the economy, under his Presidency, rebounded with startling success, as top marginal tax rates were lowered, capital gains lowered, and confidence with an “adult in charge” giving the world something to rally around.

You folks willing to believe lies, talking points of the left and moderate media without so much a cursory study of history and the Constitution will suffer along with everyone else. Those of us who can add and subtract, cut through the bull and establish fundamental accountability for Congress, the President, and our national fiscal house, will help get things turned around. Mock, suck your thumbs, scream, or crying about things won’t help. Only reality in terms of adding and subtracting, then doing what is right.

The Tea Party ‘hobbits’ from middle earth, as described by liberal Republican McCain two days ago, are just normal people from middle America. We have arrived to fix things for your own good and the solvency of the USA. We quietly add and subtract and keep our word on debt in our own homes. Once we do all we can to help the rest of you with math basics, we’ll leave you alone and go back home.

This article originally appeared on JasonWHoyt.com here.

About the National Day of Prayer – From NationalDayOfPrayer.org.
The National Day of Prayer has great significance for us as a nation. It enables us to recall and to teach the way in which our founding fathers sought the wisdom of God when faced with critical decisions. It stands as a call to us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a people. The unanimous passage of the bill establishing the National Day of Prayer as an annual event, signifies that prayer is as important to our nation today as it was in the beginning.

The National Day of Prayer tradition predates the founding of the United States of America, evidenced by the Continental Congress’ proclamation in 1775 setting aside a day of prayer. In 1952, Congress established an annual day of prayer and, in 1988, that law was amended, designating the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May.

The National Day of Prayer is a vital part of our heritage. Since the first call to prayer in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to prayer has continued through our history, including President Lincoln’s proclamation of a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual, national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May. Each year, the president signs a proclamation, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day. Last year, all 50 state governors plus the governors of several U.S. territories signed similar proclamations.

For a National Day of Prayer historical timeline, visit here.

Rev. Bill Shuler, in his opinion piece published on FoxNews.com, tells us 10 Reasons Why We Should Pray:

1. Prayer reminds us that we are not the solution to the challenges that grip our world but we have access to the one who transcends those challenges.

2. A prayerless nation has no hope beyond the headlines.

3. Prayer aligns us with God’s heart, purposes and blessings.

4. Prayer is an act of humility that precedes honor.

5. Prayer enlarges the heart beyond selfish motive.

6. Prayer provokes the heart to consider not only what is but what can be with God’s help.

7. Prayer is best prioritized when one asks God to change one’s own heart first.

8. No matters of eternal value will be accomplished outside of prayer.

9. Prayer is properly prioritized vigilance in a spiritually passive world.

10. Prayer at its best is an offering of one’s self to be used by God as a part of the answer.

Daring times challenge us to pray daring prayers as bold as those prayed by the pilgrims when they entered the new land or Abraham Lincoln as he called upon God amidst the dangers of a Civil War. As the threat of terrorism looms and the economy is uncertain we pause on the National Day of Prayer to not only ask God to intervene in world affairs but to move upon our hearts and make us catalysts of change.

The Bible reminds us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

To read the entire article, visit: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/05/national-day-prayer-10-reasons-pray/

April 6, 2011

Media elites and respected commentators both left and right, are guilty of ridiculing and making light of citizens who question the constitutional requirement to prove birth status for holding the highest political call in the land, President of the United States.

Called “birthers” as if a pejorative term, these journalists are supposed students and purveyors of facts and evidence which tell a story; a story that affects the welfare of the public at large.

This issue has always been a “trump card” for someone brave enough to challenge elitist mockery. America’s newest birther now weighs in. Donald Trump has thrown his hat in the ring over the last several weeks with those ridiculed for asking if a cover-up is, in fact, occurring regarding the most basic qualification for holding the highest office of public service in the land. Good for him.

Journalists from the main stream and those of select independent online, radio and television outlets have chosen to sweep under the “proof of truth” rug a question asked of millions of Americans daily; and in the case of a President the most important single first qualifier to hold public office of trust per the US Constitution.

The simple question, “Where is your birth certificate?” has been asked of me for far less sensitive positions than Chief Executive Officer of our government and Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces.

May I point out the average citizen’s requirement? This is the short list of those occasions in which I was required to provide a birth certificate:

Elementary School

Los Angeles County Marriage License

Social Security Number application

Driver’s License

First post- high school job, government clerk with the FBI.

University enrollment

Joining Army ROTC in college

US Passport application

Reserve Officer with a Southern California Police Department

Yesterday a personal friend of mine and I were in a discussion and he was in a hurry to find his birth certificate for qualification to teach at a state university. We joked, of course, about him running for President. “Then it wouldn’t matter,” I quipped.

Fraud is rampant. For years someone has used my social security number requiring me to file a paper tax return to the IRS each year. I asked an IRS employee what I could do. He chuckled and just said, “Good luck.”

If the government can’t help the citizen in his legitimate rights to identity, can it protect the citizen from someone pretending to be other than they really are?

What is so damning about citizens asking a candidate for President of the United States to offer proof of his status as required by the constitution? I had to do so in order to become a Federal employee.

The Constitution is clear: “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President…” (Article 2, Section 1)

There are witnesses in Kenya who assert Mr. Obama was born there. His own grandmother makes that assertion. There are witnesses in Hawaii who say no record of birth exists for him there. In fact, a birth certificate shares what hospital, doctor, and so forth an American is born in and delivered by.

Not so with the “Certificate of Live Birth” Mr. Obama provided to qualify for his job. Any document counterfeit shop in East LA could create one of those. This is simple.

Either proof of birth as prescribed by the Constitution of the United States matters or it does not.

A legitimate opportunity for the judicial branch of government to make inquiry and interpret the meaning of Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution exists regarding constitutional authority to serve in the highest office in the land.

If this goes unasked when doubt is cast, what of great importance for office qualification shall ever be asked?

This isn’t even necessarily a question of being anti-Obama.

How about it being a question of pro-constitutionality and honest journalism?

News flash to news employees and their employers: If you are going to disrespect journalistic integrity by avoiding hard questions then quit calling yourselves journalists. You have already lost respect of millions in the country. Why not be bold and ask tough questions, controversial questions, questions of Constitutional significance?

Mr. Obama will clearly serve out his term. A wonderful opportunity now exists for an honest journalist to step up to a challenge. Study Mr. Obama’s constitutional authority for serving. Study if Article 2 Section 1 has been circumvented, either innocently or intentionally, and by so doing cement the standard in constitutional concrete for those seeking high office in the future by clearing up a nagging question:

Perhaps I have sunk to a new low in asking this simple question. Without a doubt I have eliminated myself from being taking seriously, for now I will be called a “birther.”

Simple, easy, but apparently also too hard a question for those self-serving talkers of the media elite, who with pride, call themselves “journalist.” So I’ll ask the really tough question:

Where is Mr. Obama’s official birth certificate?

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. His creative work may be reviewed at www.jmpratt.com. Email: james@powerthink.com

James Michael Pratt

We are at a crossroads leading to greater freedom or more government control as we celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Ronald W. Reagan’s birth. Even Barack Obama intuits that studying and channeling Reaganesque speak, attitude, and likability is the only chance he may have of rescuing a 2012 re-election bid.

Since 2009 Americans have risen from passive participation in elections to grassroots active proclamations that we are a Reagan country and not an Obama nation. Interviewing these Americans at rallies for two years leaves me with the opinion that the American people will elect a person and legislature more Reagan-like in tone and principle in 2012. Here’s why:

The 2010 elections evidence a deep public hunger for men and women who cherish traditional values and constitutional guarantees of freedom, and who will behave with an optimistic belief in them; the kind Reagan offered as their servant.

Reagan offered his commitment and vision of what an American should be in his famous Goldwater speech of 1964, adding his favorite line from the Declaration of Independence:

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny; we’ll meet the challenge in the days ahead or we’ll trail in the dust as the golden hope of mankind for years to come. Are we a different breed of American? Has life become so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains of slavery? Or, will we ‘pledge our lives and our sacred honor?’

In the course of my research surrounding conservative values and constitutional governing, I have interviewed both former Lt. Governor, John Harmer, author of Reagan, Man of Principle, and Edwin Meese III, former US Attorney General and author of The Heritage Guide to the US Constitution.

Mr. Harmer stated that whenever Reagan quoted the line including the words “to pledge our lives and sacred honor,” a noticeable emotion filled his voice. His years of conduct as a governor and president, including taking a bullet in 1981, evidenced this personal belief to an American public.

I asked Mr. Meese about a Reagan versus Obama attitude on the Constitution and he very forthrightly offered this:

“Obama’s idea of the Constitution is more like those I believe in Europe where under their ideas of government people cannot do anything unless permitted by the government. Ronald Reagan’s idea of government is people could do anything they please as long as it doesn’t violate the Constitution.”

Ronald Reagan further clarified his feelings succinctly, exclaiming:

“The US Constitution is a document where we the people tell the government what it is allowed to do. We the people are free.”

The people knew an optimistic Reagan who offered hope for a change back to expansion of personal liberty, limiting government to its fundamental constitutional role, fiscal responsibility, and empowering the states where governing is always done best – at the local level. He understood the empowering entrepreneurial drive epitomized by American exceptionalism. Obama’s two years in office evidences hope for a change to the opposite and in his words, “A fundamental transformation of America as we know it.”

Reagan knew how to appeal to the American spirit and love for constitutional guarantees. He proclaimed an imagery of freedoms’ polar opposite with these lines from the same Goldwater speech of 1964:

“‘Daniel Webster said, ‘Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster. What has happened once in six thousand years may never happen again. Hold on to your Constitution for if the Constitution shall fall, there will be anarchy throughout the world.’

It has been said that if we lose this way of ours, this traditional freedom, history will report with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent it happening.”

What Reagan had was principle and honor backed by sixteen years of action and proof as a chief executive officer of a state then a nation. What Obama has is a record of teleprompter shattering talk with style but no substance.

People are looking for the next Reagan. The next President of the United States will be elected based upon how close to a Reagan “gold standard” for conduct, principle, conservatism and constitutional governing he or she can come; I guarantee it.

*Watch movie trailer on Homepage: http://www.reaganrevolution2.com

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist of Hallmark Hall of Fames’ The Lost Valentine, a non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. His creative work may be reviewed at www.jmpratt.com. Email: james@powerthink.com

You only have to review history for a solution to the pressing problems we face under leadership which looks everywhere but history for answers. Our 40th President put things simple in his 1988 State of the Union speech. No need for me to expound or try to dress up his meaning. Imagine if Congress had listened to Mr. Reagan and taken him seriously twenty-three years ago. Here’s a sample:

FISCAL DUTY: “Now, it’s also time for some plain talk about the most immediate obstacle to controlling Federal deficits. The simple but frustrating problem of making expenses match revenues–something American families do and the Federal Government can’t–has caused crisis after crisis in this city. Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, I will say to you tonight what I have said before and will continue to say: The budget process has broken down; it needs a drastic overhaul. With each ensuing year, the spectacle before the American people is the same as it was this Christmas: budget deadlines delayed or missed completely, monstrous continuing resolutions that pack hundreds of billions of dollars worth of spending into one bill, and a Federal Government on the brink of default.”

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM: “In international relations, too, there’s only one description for what, together, we have achieved: a complete turnabout, a revolution. Seven years ago, America was weak, and freedom everywhere was under siege. Today America is strong, and democracy is everywhere on the move. From Central America to East Asia, ideas like free markets and democratic reforms and human rights are taking hold. We’ve replaced “Blame America” with “Look up to America.” We’ve rebuilt our defenses. And of all our accomplishments, none can give us more satisfaction than knowing that our young people are again proud to wear our country’s uniform.”

SANCTITY of LIFE: “Tonight, I call America–a good nation, a moral people–to charitable but realistic consideration of the terrible cost of abortion on demand. To those who say this violates a woman’s right to control of her own body: Can they deny that now medical evidence confirms the unborn child is a living human being entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Let us unite as a nation and protect the unborn with legislation that would stop all Federal funding for abortion and with a human life amendment making, of course, an exception where the unborn child threatens the life of the mother. Our Judeo-Christian tradition recognizes the right of taking a life in self-defense. But with that one exception, let us look to those others in our land who cry out for children to adopt. I pledge to you tonight I will work to remove barriers to adoption and extend full sharing in family life to millions of Americans so that children who need homes can be welcomed to families who want them and love them.”

FREEDOM: “As totalitarianism struggles to avoid being overwhelmed by the forces of economic advance and the aspiration for human freedom, it is the free nations that are resilient and resurgent. As the global democratic revolution has put totalitarianism on the defensive, we have left behind the days of retreat. America is again a vigorous leader of the free world, a nation that acts decisively and firmly in the furtherance of her principles and vital interests. No legacy would make me more proud than leaving in place a bipartisan consensus for the cause of world freedom, a consensus that prevents a paralysis of American power from ever occurring again.”

BOTTOM LINE: Adjusting to more centrist talking points by the Obama Administration such, as spending freezes and “investments” in infrastructure and education (code for debt & deficit spending),  are frankly conciliatory gestures to recover lost ground surrendered during two years of extreme liberal and heavy-handed legislative policy making. The era of bigger-than-ever government is not over, if the currents crop of liberal intellectuals have their say.

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. His creative work may be reviewed at www.jmpratt.com. Email: james@powerthink.com and james@jmpratt.com.

“The constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government, lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”

A Constitutional Congress? The 112th Congress was sworn in and called to order this week through the reading of the US Constitution. The new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, supported the reading as a fundamental act of loyalty and pledge to the people of the United States. Roughly half of the members of this congress session approved while the others openly rebuff, mock, or at best begrudgingly approved. It may be that the elected DC rulers and elites finally get it; the people have had enough, and having sent in new representatives, they demand Congress adheres to the ultimate rule of law, The US Constitution.

Back to the future: A stirring line from the 1776 Declaration of Independence set the tone for the definitive creation of the Constitution. This line, above all others, helped the Founders focus as they produced the document creating a new nation ruled by the consent of the governed. It reads:

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

These were revolutionary ideas, never before practiced in any formal democratic society. In Matthew Spalding’s outstanding book, We Still Hold These Truths, the Heritage Foundation author and researcher offers words from John Adams:

“What do we mean by an American Revolution? The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people… This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”

The power behind the Constitution: The first oath I took out of High School was to the Constitution. I subsequently took it two more times in my life. Swearing an oath is a powerful elixir affecting the deepest of motivations and beliefs. Any living American who has experienced raising their right arm with a willingness to give their life for it does not easily put it aside. “This radical change” as Adams put forth, was in the hearts of the people then as it is now, and remains enshrined in a document for which over a million Americans have died defending. The people’s loyalty and love for the US Constitution is deeply embedded into their hearts and visceral, something the left can hardly understand.

2011, The Year of the Constitution: We are between election cycles. A testing of wills ensues. I predict that America will someday look back upon 2011 as the year we celebrated the vital substance and meaning of the 223 year-old Constitution.

This, in spite of irrational liberal posing of its meaning as archaic and unable to be understood by such biased newspapers as the Washington Post via its youthful blogger Ezra Klein, who said last week: The Constitution, “is confusing to some because it was written more than 100 years ago…” In the interview with MSNBC he added that the Constitution, “has no binding power on anything.” Mr. Klein neither understands American history nor respects the depth of rights guaranteeing him his freedom to lecture, as seems universal to leftist political theology.

These anti-constitutionalists sycophants seeking a strange form of electoral monarchy offer the wind behind the sails of the founding document’s present day defenders. Just as they know it holds the key to people’s liberty in every aspect of life in the American republic—from commerce, to faith, to politically correct speech, charity, property and personal rights, etc., they know it threatens their big government hopes of total control and citizen management. To win dominance over the constitutional powers the people defend, the left must either control via disobedience to the Constitution or rule by regulatory and executive powers.

Said Jefferson: “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

The GOP is entrusted: Congressional violation of constitutional rights from 2008 through 2010 was brilliantly laid out by Paul Skousen in his Daily Caller piece, The Top Ten Violations of the Constitution by Obama and the 111th Congress.

The people understood their constitution was being torn to shreds by corrupt DC power-mongers. What we witnessed in the 2010 election cycle was not a Republican led victory but the people’s victory, led by the patriotic Tea Party, who have entrusted the GOP with their Constitution. What they do with it will define their continuance as a viable defender of it.

If the GOP continues with what they started, reading the Constitution in the House chambers with the intent to obey it in all matters of legislation, the country has a chance at survival and return to its position as the bright hope to all mankind.

Writes Matthew Spalding in We Still Hold These Truths: “When Benjamin Franklin departed the Constitutional Convention he was asked by an acquaintance if the framers meeting in Philadelphia had created a monarchy or a republic. “A republic” he famously replied, but then added, “if you can keep it.” Our nation’s Founders knew that the perpetuation of liberty would always depend upon spirited citizens and patriotic statesmen actively engaged in the democratic task of governing themselves, holding to the truths of 1776.”

Reading and understanding the Constitution is not as hard as young Mr. Klein of the Washington Post proposes to his legion of American heritage challenged followers. A free copy of the US Constitution is available at www.heritage.org and at my publishing site: www.powerthink.com. And because millions still love it, trust it, and do understand its value, they will continue to defend it.

With a sentiment of fidelity to their heritage of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, millions of Americans will continue to affirm, as I did at eighteen years old:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. His creative work may be reviewed at www.jmpratt.com. Email: james@powerthink.com

Pure magic…the greeting of faith and fantasy evokes kind responses from friends and strangers alike as it smoothes the edges off the daily grind in the final month of the year. Yet even in this magical season there are those in the world seeking to take the manger from the town square, put the ‘X’ over Christ, remove mottos from coinage, call religious beliefs “hate speech,” and like Seuss’s Grinch Who Stole Christmas, pilfer the simple joy proclaiming a child’s birth which has given hope to millions for 2,000 years.

E Pluribus Unum: “Out of many one” the Latin suggests; the national motto found on the seal of the United States. The same motto is provided on the coins of the United States along with, “In God we trust.”

Our American heritage includes people from all ethnicities, nationalities and faiths, melding into “one.” Brave young men and women have been dying for two centuries to protect the unique dream of E pluribus Unum, and freedom to believe as their conscience dictated, not the least of these including faith in God.

Founder’s Faith: It is absurd to offer credence to baseless claims the voices from the liberal world offer about the American founders not acknowledging God in their personal lives and in the development of original founding documents. Matters of indisputable historical fact, the Judeo-Christian work ethic and moral code was religiously studied in schools and universities, applied to law, with the Christian Bible the most universally owned and sold book of those times.

Whether religious or not, all Americans who have spent US currency have passed the tender with the testimonial inscribed, “In God We Trust.” Accidental or intentionally so inscribed?

Values & the Five & Dime: I can still recall our parents giving us $2.00 each that Christmas in 1960 and taking us to Franklin’s “Five and Dime” department store so we could purchase gifts for everyone in the family. Perhaps it was then I first learned the value of a coin.

I now enjoy collecting coins dated before 1970. That was the year where a boy transitioned to man, and the penny, nickel, and dime still had value enough to purchase a stick of gum, a candy bar or make a phone call.

I took one of my special coins, a 1966 nickel, to a Sunday School class of 13 year-olds a few months back. I was thirteen in 1966, and I wanted to make a point to the youth who will become faced with earning and the use of money. I shared the Franklin “five & dime” Christmas story and the joys that giving brought my little six year-old heart.

I finished with, “…the coin’s message is the value.” I explained, “What the coin bought then and what it might purchase now are completely different, but values always remain.”

I then gave each a nickel, minted in 2010, and said, “Maybe forty years from now one of you will share with other boys and girls the message and values inscribed on this nickel.”

The DC nickel and dime dance: Current news bureaus announce the indignation of the politically self-righteous, who from their pulpits in Washington, piously preach about the proper use of citizen generated tax revenue. Coincidently, this is not without playing upon sympathies in connection to this season of giving and hope.

Class warfare and scarcity: This very week voices of the political left loudly decry the wealthy elite and their evils as they piously brag of their concern for the entitled poor and working class. Offering pork for value, as they sanctimoniously thump their charitable chests, they define “fairness” as a needed tax to even the playing field shouting the rich having too much, and assigning themselves the arbiter between classes of wealth and all it means.

These Machiavellian angels of mercy take money not theirs, foment class warfare and discontent, and enslave generations with the chains of entitlements instead of hope of wealth and self-reliance. They have no concept of the “five and dime” lessons our forbearers taught. Their offer of pecuniary daily bread demands support for them at the ballot box; little more than a sell-your-soul pact with the dark side.

Real charity is one thing; freely offered, a hand up, with no strings attached. Intentionally building a citizenry of government dependents is simply another kind of evil.

Abundance and charity: The world is filled with abundance of precious metals, good soils, water, and raw materials available for man to use, create wealth with, and provide for the benefit of others.

No other nation in the history of the existence of the written record has done so much with its resources to alleviate suffering of those in need, both within its own borders as without, as have the people of the United States. Leave the people to their faith and goodness and they will rescue anyone in need any time and anywhere.

Could it be that it is heart-felt charitable giving at work, which causes Americans to be the first in the giving-line to those who suffer calamities worldwide?

Could it also be that we have learned charity from needing it ourselves from time to time and from the “five and dimes” we spend which proclaim, “Out of many one” and “In God we trust?”

“Render unto Caesar which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s,” is a New Testament theme well known to all with rudimentary knowledge of biblical content. Isn’t it interesting that God sent three wealthy wise men, not the government, to offer gifts and support, (not to mention a means of escape from King Herod’s death decree for Bethlehem children) to a poor carpenter’s family?

Christ made it clear, however, that Caesar has a way of doing things and God has a way; that Caesar trades bread for support even while the chains of slavery are securely fastened, but that true charity proceeds from the individual heart, without thought of benefit in return.

Lasting Values:

I still recall the simple pleasure of giving freely that Christmas 1960. A little boy’s heart was filled with anticipation at the Franklin “Five & Dime” where I stretched my two dollars to bring surprise and joy to my eight family members—learning then what I know so well now, “e Pluribus Unum.”

And perhaps it was also there I first realized the coins in my blue jean pockets were associated with the Christ child’s freely given gift of sacrifice, as I handed over nickels and dimes to the cashier declaring, “In God we trust.”

Visit my personal website for something I choose to offer this Christmas. I freely give away the one thousand hours it took to write The Christ Report, a simple novel of hope, magic, love, and what happens when one listens to their heart. Found at: www.jmpratt.com for free electronic download. Share it with all you know. I liberally offer it as a greeting and in hopes of lifting a soul here or there.

Isn’t it awesome being an American, and unafraid to pass along In God we Trust, and these sometimes politically incorrect words… MERRY CHRISTMAS!

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. His creative work may be reviewed at www.jmpratt.com. Email: james@powerthink.com and james@jmpratt.com.

The other reason for the change of political wind in favor of Republicans is their number one antagonist, the hope and change-meister self-destructing before their eyes—Barack Obama. But even Obama’s misjudgments, arrogance, over-reach, broken promises of transparency and better ethics, backed by a corrupt and incompetent team Pelosi-Reid, couldn’t hand the overwhelming win to the GOP which shall surely come this mid-term election cycle.

Consider: Off-year elections are supposed to favor incumbents. So why do the pollsters predict electoral slaughter of Democrat incumbents on November 2nd by a crop of largely new citizen politicians?

1. Democrats have run the government for two years on policies of radical left, liberal, and progressive agendas, with only 20% of the country identifying themselves as “liberal.”

2. The people of the Tea Party identify themselves as independents, moderate, conservative, Republicans, Libertarians, and Reagan Democrats. The other 80%.

3. With 75 million anxious baby-boomers and their children fed up with off-the-charts fiscal irresponsibility at both parties’ hands, then add that ire to the current political fire…

…and simply do the math. The story could simply end there.

The Offer: The arrogance that exists in Washington and among the ruling class elites of both parties is the real reason for a “one time offer” to the Republicans. The Republicans are winning over the grassroots movement only because the Tea Party is creating candidates for the Republicans.

The day has come for the GOP to step up and understand who gives the power, and where the consent to govern begins. Sound bites from their leadership indicates they “get it.” But do they?

“We the People”: Sacred words from the opening line of the US Constitution, has become embodied by the Tea Party coalition through action, not mere philosophy. The “people” who constitute much of the not liberal 80% demand Americanism embodied in action by their representatives.

If Republican politicians don’t understand quintessential and traditional conservative values, they may well find that they have not only lost support of American patriots, but will have also forced the Tea Party coalition to create an actual political party.

To the Democratic Leadership: You are going down for antipathy for the Constitution, a socialist agenda, corruption, and lies; not to mention shutting the door to our appeals through your obscene sexual pejoratives from the President on down cast upon the American people of the Tea Party.

To the Republican Leadership: Please don’t misjudge the reason for your coming victories. The Tea Party common folk understand the two party system. If you let us down this time, we’ll remake the two party system in the image of real conservatives verses the liberal-progressives.

For Whom the Bell Tolls: John Donne, the 17th century English poet offered well-known lines regarding valuing life and death. In this case it is well to consider the death of a party or power and valuing a constituency:

“No man is an island. Entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore—

…Never send for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, Founder of Reagan Revolution 2 and editor of popular US Constitution Coach Kit – Reagan Leadership Edition. Email: james@powerthink.com.

Willful and intentional disregard for the US Constitution has been the name of the game in Washington for decades now. Scheming elected elites, having drunk from the wells of power, have become intoxicated by it.

Having finally circumvented the constitutional system of checks and balances, they ridicule citizens who call upon them to exercise restraint and wisdom. Edwin Meese put it well, regarding the current crop of political miscreants:

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” Edwin Meese III, Former Attorney General

Citizen Blow Back: This condescending attitude, finally becoming intolerable to the average citizen, has given rise to the people’s movement of 2009-2010 known as the Tea Party.

Constitutionally focused and concerned about fiscal responsibility, this people’s movement is the natural response to the hated “ruler mentality” dominating government as we have known – unchecked spending, waste, fraud, deficit spending and unparalleled debt creation, and 1,000’s of pages of unread legislation rammed through congress with presidential approval at breakneck speed, a late-night back-room deals ad infinitum.

Not only do we suffer the insults of congressmen and women who either can’t understand the US Constitution or do not care to in their striving to control the people through legislation, but for decades we have suffered from another kind of evil in the land…

Rulers de jour and Law by Decree: Reminiscent of mythological Gods toying with earthly subjects, evil is now dressed in robes of priestly sanctity, pontificating from their thrones high on a Capitol Hill and picking which children to bless with their whim of the day rulings from the hallowed halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Knowing all and all-powerful, they rule by “Executive Orders” and “regulatory policy” decrees which become de facto laws, completely making the constitutional process mute and irrelevant.  These two dictatorial processes, in play since the early 1900’s, are worth serious study and review by our legislative and judicial branches. Becoming laws with the stroke of the pen they also become weapons by the rulers de jour.

Clear and Present Dangers – vital considerations: The real dangers are not past but present, i.e. the ability by Barack Obama to enact law by decree or administrative fiat. Consider the following:

•    On one hand present-day congressional one party rulers are content to use legislation, even if bills and laws violate the Constitution, as long as they may being able to disguise their effort as constitutional.

•    On the other hand, the chief executive Barack Obama has labeled the Constitution a “charter of negative liberties,” meaning it “restrains” what the government can do to you.

As a restraint, the constitution’s checks and balances serve as a nuisance to these liberal-progressives seeking a radical “transformation of America as we know it.”

To the point: The White House and a President’s coterie of non-legal but appointed “czars” may create the set of laws by which states and individuals play, all the while chuckling as Congress uses legal constitutional methods to repeal or create laws which impact the general welfare of the American citizen.

The day may come that individual and state rights once guaranteed by the US Constitution are mere memories as they become diluted with illegal administrative rule, policy, and law creation by elected and appointed federal government officials.

States and Individual Rights: States are left defenseless in the case of “ruler’s law” as Executive Orders or federal regulation may become, without another mechanism whereby they may fight unconstitutional overreach. (See Amendments 9, 10 & 14)

A new check is needed to right a ship of state turned upside down through licentious legislative sovereigns and executive department autocrats; privileges never intended by the framers of the Constitution.

The “Repeal Amendment”

“Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed.”

This language will be considered in January by the Virginia state legislature, and is just a beginning step to offset the rabid hunger of federal politicians of the liberal-progressive stripe seeking to not only circumvent constitutional processes but also destroy the US Constitution as the authoritative voice for governing.

For further enlightenment on merits of a “Repeal Amendment” I recommend the Cato Institute article by Randy Barnett & William J. Howell at the following link:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12144

One need not be a constitutional scholar or legal mind to understand when something is out of sync with the framer’s intent found in the US Constitution. Any citizen can examine the facts of recent history and come to the conclusions as I have.

A “Repeal Amendment” adds a needed restraint in a day of  legally inept and ethically unrestrained politicians seeking the destruction of the US Constitution, with state and individual rights therein guaranteed.

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, Founder of Reagan Revolution 2 and editor of popular US Constitution Coach Kit – Reagan Leadership Edition.

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