25th Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall … Nov. 9, 1989

It is hard to believe it has been 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall …

Nov. 9, 1989, 25 years later and it seems like yesterday I can remember watching the news of the German people hammering, chiseling and tearing down the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the freedom of the East German people and the defeat of Communism. Thousands of East Berliners poured into West Berlin and freedom.  It was a moment in history that you remember where you were when you saw the images of the fall of Communism and the rise of freedom. It is a forever remembered moment in history for the world, not just Germany. The people celebrated in the streets, as Germans shed their hammers and sickles for hammers and chisels and brought the wall down forever.

White balloons spanning a stretch of the former death strip floated over hundreds of thousands of revelers in the German capital on Sunday, culminating a day of celebrations to mark 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

More than 300,000 people gathered in Berlin to watch a light installation of 8,000 helium balloons tracing a nine-mile stretch be released into the night sky, police said. The illuminated balloons snaked past historic locations such as Checkpoint Charlie as part of a celebration that included music and fireworks at the city’s Brandenburg Gate—a location once circumvented by the wall.

Speaking earlier in the day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the fall of the Berlin Wall proof that dreams could come true during a ceremony to mark the event’s 25th anniversary. She added that its collapse offered hope to regions where “freedom and human rights are threatened or even trampled on.”

For days, celebrations throughout Germany have been commemorating the opening of the East German border on Nov. 9, 1989. The breaching of the border heralded the collapse of the Communist system and led to German reunification less than a year later.

The Iconic Photo of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

National Geographic on the Berlin Wall, pretty good documentary.

The Guardian: A city undivided: the fall of the Berlin Wall commemorated 25 years on.

This year’s commemoration of the fall of the Iron Curtain may also feel more poignant because there is a palpable sense that peace in Europe in 2014 is more fragile than it was at the 20th anniversary in 2009.

In her speech at the wall memorial on Bernauer Strasse on Saturday afternoon, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, had explicitly emphasized the geopolitical resonances of the event, instead of indulging in personal reminiscences.

“We have the strength to shape things, to turn things from bad to good, that is the message of the fall of the wall,” she said. “These days, that message is directed at Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and many, many other regions in the world.”

Let us never forget what real leadership looks like. Where US President Ronald Wilson Reagan not only went to Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987 and gave his famous speech when he uttered those famous words  that would eventually come true … “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall,” but also helped bring about the fall of Communism. Wow, imagine that, a president with a spine and resolve to effectuate real change that brought liberty to millions, not one apologizing for America’s actions. A president that looked to unify people, not divide them. A president that looked to end Communism, not partake in it. God bless Ronald Reagan. These days we can only say, what a novel concept.

President Ronald Reagan – Speech at the Brandenburg Gate – West Berlin, Germany – June 12, 1987:

Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself, make my second visit to your city.

We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it’s our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom. But I must confess, we’re drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents. You see, like so many presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin. [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: “We will bury you.” But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind–too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.

Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Texas Senator Ted Cruz Wins 2016 Presidential Straw Poll at a Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana

If Ted Cruz is Constitutionally allowed to run for President … He will be a real threat to Democrats and establishment Republicans …

Texas Senator Ted Cruz won the 2016 Presidential straw poll at a Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Cruz finished first with 30.33%, Dr. Ben Carson second with 29.38% and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul finished third with 10.43%. They were followed by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Texas Governor Rick Perry rounded out the top five, at 5.06% and 4.90%, respectively. Moderate RINO’s Florida’s former Governor Jeb Bush came in 7th with 4.42% and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie came in dead last with 1.11%. During his speech Cruz said that Republicans would take back the Senate, they will retire Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and remove Harry Reid as Majority Leader.

Cruz finished in first place in the annual conference’s presidential straw poll at 30.33%. Dr. Ben Carson, a Fox News commentator and conservative activist, finished in second with 29.38% while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was third with 10.43%.

Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Governor Rick Perry rounded out the top five, at 5.06% and 4.90%, respectively.

Neither Carson nor Paul spoke at the conference, but their support was a show of confidence by the traditionally more conservative crowd. The annual meeting of activists features of who’s who of big-name Republican politicians. It is an important appearance for potential presidential candidates to make.

More moderate Republicans also skipped the conference, but many fared much worse in the straw poll. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came in dead last with 1.11% while Florida’s former Gov. Jeb Bush and current Sen. Marco Rubio and came in seventh and eighth at 4.42% and 3.32 %, respectively.

Nobody Cares what any politicians in Washington says. Power in politics, sovereignty in America is with We the People!

MUST WATCH VIDEO

Ted Cruz, an ardent defender of The Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment said during his speech, “In Texas, we define gun control real simple. That’s hittin’ what you aim at.” Cruz Also went on to say, “that following the tragic shooting in Newtown, CT the president didn’t do  what she should have done. What he should have done is he should have stood up and said we are going to go after violent criminals  and we are going to come down on violent criminals like a ton of bricks.    instead he used it as an excuse to come after the rights of law abiding citizens.”

Cruz consistently pointed out that Democrats and establishment gray-beard Republicans both says that things can’t get done. Yet time after time in examples of drone strikes against Americans, Second Amendment gun control, foreign affairs and provisions in the International monetary fund.  All won by conservatives.

Too often the establishment GOP says it can’t be done because they are afraid to take a position. In order for there to be change, not only must Democrats go, so must the establishment Republicans who have long forgot what they were sent to Washington, DC to do.

THE CONSERVATIVE BATTLE AGAINST OBAMACARE:  HOW DO YOU WIN ELECTIONS … YOU DON’T WIN IT BY STANDING FOR NOTHING …

Cruz went on to blast the establishment same old-same old way of doing things within the GOP of trying to win elections. There is a cluster of political consultants who keep running losing campaigns, making the same mistakes and keep coming back to donors to make the same failed mistakes that did not win the previous times. He stressed that the way you win elections is you stand for principle and you empower the people.

Nancy Pelosi Says the Founding Fathers Would Totally Support Obamacare … NOT A CHANCE!!!

Three words that should never be used in the same sentences with Our Founding Fathers, that would be … Nancy, Pelosi and Obamacare!

How is this babbling, lying hack actually voted to office? It certainly says much about the district she represents. Unbelievably, she says that the Founding Fathers would support Obamacare because the virtues espoused by The Founders of  life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are also in Obamacare. NO THEY ARE NOT!!! Pelosi and her ilk will lie, cheat and steal to misrepresent what Obamacare is and they hope that Americans are too ignorant and apathetic to care.

America’s Founding Fathers fiercely held to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—values which Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) claimed align seamlessly with Obamacare.

Pelosi explained why the law is “very sound policy” during a press conference Friday:

To go to back to our founders once again, they sacrificed it all for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This law, the affordable care act, is about a healthier life, the liberty to pursue your happiness. That is solid policy, and the mandate is central to that.

 San Fran Nan made the same ignorant comments last July 4th …

As stated at Town Hall, Obamacare is the very type of overbearing government policy that the Founders would have fought against. Amen! A note to former Democratic Speaker Pelosi as it would appear she needs a history lesson. We fought a War of Independence to rid ourselves of an overbearing, authoritarian central government. The American people might want to remember that as well.

“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.” – James Madison

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.” – Benjamin Franklin

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.’ To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition.” – Thomas Jefferson

Presidents Day 2014 … Great Presidents & Great Speeches (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Reagan), And Other Presidents & How History Will Remember Them

Never has America needed a president more who was a true leader and statesman who cared more about the United States of America and “We the People” than they do about themselves, their own power and their agenda. How far have we come from a first president who feared the impression that he would have the appearance of a king and had to be talked into a second term. George Washington left office on his own after two terms, there was no legislation that told him to do so. Compare that to today’s power grabs by presidents and their purposeful and willful ignoring of the US Constitution.

Please America, you have one more chance to get it right in 2016 and follow the path of the great presidents of our past and what America was intended to be.

1. President George Washington – George Washington Speech – First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years–a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. (more)

Also read Washington’s Farewell Address, September 17, 1796.

2. President Ronald W. Reagan – ‘Tear Down This Wall’ speech from  June 12, 1987 in West Berlin, Germany at the base of the Brandenburg Gate.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent– and I pledge to you my country’s efforts to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.

Government is not the solution, Government is the problem

There are just so many great and historic moments from the Reagan years, go HERE to watch and listen to many of them from the space shuttle Challenger tragedy to his Evil Empire speech.

3. President Abraham Lincoln – Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, November 19. 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate— we can not consecrate—we can not hallow— this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us— that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion— that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of free- dom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

4. President John F. Kennedy – “I am a Berliner – Ich Bin Ein Berliner” … read Text HERE.

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.

When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe.

When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

Ask Not What your Country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your Country

And then we have those presidents who no matter what they had and have said during their terms in office will forever be known for the following comments and speeches. One inspirational and two, not so much.

President George W. Bush -Bull Horn speech at Ground Zero following 911 terror attack ... “I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

President Bill Clinton -  I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Could also have used, “it all depends on what is, is”.

President Barack Obama – “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period! If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan, period!”

VP Joe Biden Tells Democrats, Be Optimistic on State of the Nation ‘In Spite of Who’s President’ … “The American People Are With Us”… Really, The American People Are Against Obama!

HE SAID WHAT? … Did Vice President Joe Biden just diss Barack Obama and then say Americans Agree with Democrats?

Joe Biden told fellow Democrats at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference in Cambridge, MD that they should be optimistic about the state of the nation, “in spite of who’s president.” Hmm, kind of an interesting word choice when the current president is Barack Obama, a Democrat. This was Biden’s best effort to rally the beleaguered Democrat troops who face a tough uphill climb in the upcoming 2014 midterm elections thanks to the policies, agenda and signature piece of legislation from who is president.

“It always surprises me when we don’t have the degree of optimism that we should about the state of the nation,” Biden said. “And in spite of who’s president, in spite of who’s in the Congress, the American people are so much stronger, so much more resilient, so much more capable, that even the ridiculous policies of our friends on the right cannot keep them from moving forward.”

Baghdad Bob  a delusional Joe Biden went on to say, “I can’t imagine our prospects being viewed by the press and everyone else as being a whole hell of a lot brighter by the time we turn in September then now. The American people are where we are. Let’s go out and make every single effort not just to defend, but to aggressively push, aggressively push our agenda.”

Isn’t it interesting that Biden would reference the MSM viewing the Democrats prospects first and then calling “We the People,” the Americans who are adversely affected by Barack Obama’s and Democrat’s policies as … “everyone else”.  Not like we do not know that the liberal MSM is in the tank for Obama and has been since the beginning. The media has been AWOL on vetting Obama, holding his feet to the fire, questioning his failed economic and domestic policies and investigating the all too-numerous scandals like IRS-gate, Benghazi-gate, “Fast & Furious” and NSA-gate. It would appear that Biden and Obama believe that the MSM will continue to be their own personal Gunga Din heading into the 2014 midterms.

But it does not stop there when it came to Biden’s head in the sand comments. Anvil Joe made the preposterous comment to Democrats that, “The American people are where we are.” Really, in what sense, in the United States? The American people are in no way any where near where Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their lock-step, rubber stamp Democrats have lead this country. In fact, they more the American people learn the truth of the lies that have been told to them and adversely affected by Democrat foreign and domestic policy, the more they are not with Democrats.

A question to Joe Biden, exactly what are the people with you on? The fact of the matter is that the American people are not with Democrats and it is scaring them silly that they may lose even more House seats in 2014 and talk of losing the Senate to the GOP is a real possibility. Vulnerable Democrat candidates are running from Obama, his agenda and their vote. Obama is also acting as Emperor in arbitrarily extending Obamacare deadlines so to protect Democrat politicians, not to help the American people or America.

THE FACTS … The American People Are NOT with Democrats.

I. Barack Obama’s Overall Job Approval rating is barely above 40% with the American people. (Average of polls: 41.4% Approve – 52.4% Disapproval [-11% Disapprove])

• Gallup: 40% approve – 52% Disapprove
• FOX News: 42% Approve – 53% Disapprove
• McClatchy/Marist: 42% Approve – 52% Disapprove
• Reuters/Ipos: 40% Approve – 54% Disapprove
• NBC/WSJ: 43% Approve – 51% Disapprove

II. President Obama Job Approval – Economy. (Average of polls: 40.6% Approve – 55.7% Disapprove [-15.1% Disapprove])

• McClatchy/Marist: 41 Approve – 54% Disapprove
• ABC News/Wash Post: 43% Approval – 56% Disapprove, -13
• FOX News: 38% Approve – 59% Disapprove, -21
• Associated Press: 42% Approve – 56% Disapprove, -14
• Quinnipiac: 39% Approve – 56% Disapprove,  -17
• GWU/Battleground: 40% Approve – 57% Disapprove,  -17

III: Public Approval of Health Care Law. (Average of polls: 36.3% Approve – 51.3% Against/Oppose [-15 Oppose/Against])

• FOX News: 37% For – 55% Against/Oppose
• Gallup: 41% For – 51% Against/Oppose
• NBC News/WSJ:  34% For – 48 % Against/Oppose
• Associated Press: 27% For – 42 %  Against/Oppose
• Quinnipiac: 38% For – 56% Against/Oppose
• GWU/Battleground: 41% For – 56% Against/Oppose

IV: Direction of Country. (Average of polls:  29.6% Right Direction – 63.6% Wrong Track [-34.0 Wrong Tack])

• The Economist/YouGov: 29% Right Track – 62% Wrong Track
• McClatchy/Marist: 31% Right Track – 66% Wrong Track
• Rasmussen Reports: 29% Right Track – 63% Wrong Track
• Reuters/Ipsos: 23% Right Track – 62% Wrong Track
• NBC News/WSJ: 28% Right Track – 63% Wrong Track
• ABC News/Wash Post: 34% Right Track – 64% Wrong Track
• CBS News: 33% Right Track – 61% Wrong Track
• Associated Press: 35% Right Track – 64% Wrong Track
• GWU/Battleground: 24% Right Track – 67% Wrong Track

V: The American people, including Democrats, are overwhelmingly opposed to how Obama is conducting executive orders and circumventing Congress is how government is supposed to work.

FOX News poll

VI.  The American people are against Obama going around Congress, except if you are a Democrat or Black, and of course if it were a GOP president.

FOX News poll

VII:  Barack Obama and Democrats rail about income inequality and the income gap, yet every single demographic in America believes that it has increased under Obama.

FOX News poll