Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2014 … A Dream that All Can Embrace … “Will One Day Live in a Nation Where They Will not be Judged by the Color of their Skin but by the Content of their Character”

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY – 2014.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day let us all reflect on “The Dream” and the fact that we as a Nation have come a long way since the 1960′s. We are a much better country for it. However, that does not mean that we do not still have more to do and will most likely always will.   MLK Jr’s message goes out to all people, not just one message to blacks or another to whites.  Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, do not let others interpret that dream for you. Do not let those with an agenda that is far from “The Dream” to make you feel less or call you something that you are not. Martin Luther King Jr. was correct, it is never about the color of one’s skin, it is always about the content of one’s character. Always! That means the character of those who would lie to you or highjack “The Dream” for their own purposes. Those who are divisive and keep races at each other do a disservice to Martin Luther King, Jr.

August 28, 1963

Full text of MLK Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech can be read here.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

From CNN comes the unheard tapes from MLK Jr. circa 1960. Martin Luther King Jr. discusses the peaceful Civil Rights movement and called the movement represents struggle on the highest level of dignity and discipline.

From FOX News: On MLK Day – let’s celebrate all that has changed in 50 years.

On Sunday, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March, spoke to that startling reality:

“I feel more than lucky but very blessed to be able to stand here 50 years later and to see the progress we have made,” Lewis said. “And just to see the changes have occurred. If someone had told me 50 years ago that an African-American would be in the White House as the president, I probably would have said ‘You’re crazy. You are out of your mind. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ The country is a different country, and we’re better people.”

In fact, outstanding African-Americans have broken through doors previously closed to all people of color in the past 50 years.

In government, we have had two black Supreme Court Justices, several Cabinet secretaries, two governors, six senators and dozens of people in Congress. We have a black president twice elected by the Americans people – who, as many have noted, could have been owned by our first 16 presidents as property.

The following VIDEO has excepts from from many different MLK speeches and this interview and has some incredibly interesting comments that all should take a listen to. What many do not understand is that MLK’s words do not just speak to the black Civil Rights movement. They speak to everyone.

• “We are in a separate phase where we are seeking genuine equality. Where we are dealing with hard economic and social issues.”
• Its more easy to integrate a lunch counter than it is guarantee an annual income. [...] It’s easier to integrate a bus than it is to get a program that will force a government to put billions of dollars to ending slums.”
• “I weight the criticisms that I would get. I thought about even the fact that some Negros would not understand.  And some respectable Negro Leaders who are more concerned about being invited to the White House than invited to the cause of justice would be against me.”

Unlike others, I do not begin to speak for Martin Luther King Jr. and how he would act or what he would say in today’s world. So many are quick to say that he would be for increasing the minimum wage because he spoke of the Poor People’s Campaign which was a multiracial effort to address poverty in the nation by demanding a $30 billion antipoverty package, including full employment and the annual construction of 500,000 affordable residences. I don’t think so. The US has had a ‘War on Poverty’ since 1964 and the LBJ years. However, 50 years later it has been a failure.

I believe that Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of his word and wanted true equality for his people. I do not believe that he wanted them back on the plantation and subject to a life of dependency on welfare programs. True equality does not come from a hand out, it comes from  a hand up. Equality does not come from being forced to live in government housing. Equality comes from a strong family unit, an education, morality,  a want and desire to get ahead and believing in something greater than yourself.  The US has spent trillions in the War on Poverty and has gotten no where. The welfare state has been a disaster for “The Dream”.  Sorry, I do not believe for one second that MLK’s “DREAM” had the notion that blacks would become part of a voting block and completely dependent upon the government. JMO.

Barack Obama, the Divider in Chief: Obama Blames Racism Rather than Poor Job Performance For His Lower Approval Ratings

Once again Barack Obama cries racism instead of taking responsibility for his poor job performance … Obama plays the race card yet again.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Barack Obama blamed racism for his falling job approval and popularity numbers. Racial tensions is the reason why his popularity among white voters has waned within the past two years, are you kidding me? Sorry, but this man is a despicable human being and a poor excuse for a president who would continually try to divide a country between races and blame racism for his poor job as president. Disgusting!!! Obama thrives off of using the race card. This is why you never elect a community agitator as president.

Of course Obama could not look at the obvious to determine why his popularity among white voters has fallen in the past couple of years. Certainly it has nothing to do with the on going disastrous economy and Obama’s failure to create jobs. Also, it has nothing to do with Obama’s lies to the American people regarding Obamacare and that you could keep your insurance plan, if you liked it. It has nothing to do with other scandals like IRS-gate, Benghazi-gate and NSA-gate, where Americans no longer consider Obama trustworthy. And of course his failure in foreign policy has nothing to do with it either.

A note Barack Obama, when one is given the benefit of the doubt and then fails miserably on all aspects of their job, including their signature piece of legislation, you are deemed a failure and lose the support of the people.

President Barack Obama said that racial tensions may have softened his popularity among white voters within the last two years, according to a story posted on the New Yorker magazine’s website today.

“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president,” Obama said in the article by David Remnick, appearing in the magazine’s Jan. 27 edition.

“Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president,” Obama said in his most direct comments on how race has affected his political standing since he’s been in office.

By the way, it is not just white voters where Obama has fallen badly in the polls. Barack Obama is down 23 points with Hispanics as well. Is that racism too? So are all of the following from the chart below racist too … they all have lower Obama approval numbers than 2012, including Blacks, Hispanics, Non-whites, women, men, Independents, moderate Democrats … pretty much everyone.

Chart from Gallup.com

Barack Obama, The Imperial President: Who Needs Congress as He Threatens Executive Orders, “I’ve Got a Pen and I’ve Got a Phone”

WHO NEEDS CONGRESS SAYS EMPEROR OBAMA: Once again Barack Obama could care less that there is a little thing called a US Constitution or a provision called separation of powers. America, Barack Obama is the president that the Founding Father’s feared when they created a checks and balance of federal powers.

Sadly, it looks like it is going to be more of the same from Barack Obama in 2014 and the remainder of his second term as president.  Obama said that he looked forward to working with Democrats and Republicans. Yeah right, because he has done such a great job working with the GOP in the first 5 years of his administration. There is that little thing called Obamacare that was passed by “ZERO” Republicans in the House or Senate. How’s that working out for you America? Now Obama says in 2014 will be a “year of action” and that he has a pen and a phone. This is a direct reference that he will use executive orders to circumvent the Congressional process of passing laws. 2014 will not be a year of change, it will be the final year that Obama and liberal Democrats can further devastate America before they are slapped down in the midterm elections.

President Barack Obama’s path around Congress will be a pen and phone, he said in remarks before a cabinet meeting Tuesday, affirming his ability to take executive action when Congress blocks his legislative goals.

“So Congress is going to be busy, and I’m looking forward to working with Democrats and Republicans, House members and Senate members, to try to continue to advance the economic recovery and to provide additional ladders of opportunity for everybody,” Obama said. “But one of the things that I’ll be emphasizing in this meeting is the fact that we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.”

Click here or on pic for VIDEO

Barack Obama is incapable of communicating with others or presenting his views to Republicans, let alone the Democrats. Now that he is a lame duck president with an approval rating in the low, low 40′s he is toxic and even Democrats will most likely not support his agenda for fear of losing their elections in 2014. Barack Obama thinks he can do anything he damn well pleases and could care less about America, its laws, its political processes or the US Constitution.

A note to Obama, check out the “separations of powers” clause.

Hillary Clinton’s Hit List: She Kept a File of Sinners and Saints … A Special Circle of Clinton Hell Reserved for People Who Endorsed Obama over Hillary

So Democrats, are you on Hillary’s Hit List?

This morning The Politico writes about Hillary Clinton’s hit list. Who would possibly believe that some one so warm, kind and compassionate like Hillary Clinton could have a “hit list” for paybacks against individuals who abandoned her in favor of Barack Obama for the Democrat nomination in the run up to the 2008 presidential election and thus devastating her life-long political aspirations of becoming president? Hell hath no fury like a Hillary scorned. According to the Politico, those that stabbed the Clinton’s in the back after all the fundraising and political favors. Individuals were rated on a scale of 1 to 7, where 7 was considered Hilary’s “SH*T” list.  Interestingly enough, then, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who would succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in the Obama administration, was among those who received a “7″. The list also contained, the late and former Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.

For Hillary it is all about 2016 and her ambition to be president at all cost.

As one of the last orders of business for a losing campaign, they recorded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet the names and deeds of members of Congress. They carefully noted who had endorsed Hillary, who had backed Obama, and who had stayed on the sidelines—standard operating procedure for any high-end political organization. But the data went into much more nuanced detail. “We wanted to have a record of who endorsed us and who didn’t,” a member of Hillary’s campaign team said, “and of those who endorsed us, who went the extra mile and who was just kind of there. And of those who didn’t endorse us, those who understandably didn’t endorse us because they are [Congressional Black Caucus] members or Illinois members. And then, of course, those who endorsed him but really should have been with her … that burned her.”

For Hillary, whose loss was of course not the end of her political career, the spreadsheet was a necessity of modern political warfare, an improvement on what old-school politicians called a “favor file.” It meant that when asks rolled in, she and Bill would have at their fingertips all the information needed to make a quick decision—including extenuating, mitigating and amplifying factors—so that friends could be rewarded and enemies punished.

Their spreadsheet formalized the deep knowledge of those involved in building it. Like so many of the Clinton help, Balderston and Elrod were walking favor files. They remembered nearly every bit of assistance the Clintons had given and every slight made against them. Almost six years later, most Clinton aides can still rattle off the names of traitors and the favors that had been done for them, then provide details of just how each of the guilty had gone on to betray the Clintons—as if it all had happened just a few hours before. The data project ensured that the acts of the sinners and saints would never be forgotten.

There was a special circle of Clinton hell reserved for people who had endorsed Obama or stayed on the fence after Bill and Hillary had raised money for them, appointed them to a political post or written a recommendation to ice their kid’s application to an elite school. On one early draft of the hit list, each Democratic member of Congress was assigned a numerical grade from 1 to 7, with the most helpful to Hillary earning 1s and the most treacherous drawing 7s. The set of 7s included Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Baron Hill (D-Ind.) and Rob Andrews (D-N.J.).

Yet even a 7 didn’t seem strong enough to quantify the betrayal of some onetime allies.

When the Clintons sat in judgment, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) got the seat closest to the fire. Bill and Hillary had gone all out for her when she ran for Senate in 2006, as had Obama. But McCaskill seemed to forget that favor when NBC’s Tim Russert asked her whether Bill had been a great president, during a Meet the Press debate against then-Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) in October 2006. “He’s been a great leader,” McCaskill said of Bill, “but I don’t want my daughter near him. VIDEO”

The book by Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen is called “HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton.”

UPDATE I: I could not agree more than with Jammie Wearing Fool who says that this jit list most likely goes back decades. Amen brother. An excel spreadsheet? More likely a Tera-byte hard drive of enemies.

Robert Gates: I Was “Disturbed” By Barack Obama’s “Absence of Passion, This Absence of Conviction [on Afghanistan] of the Importance of Success that Disturbed Me”

Barack Obama, Commander in Chief?

More from Gates-gate: Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates did his first TV interview with CBS this weekend  following the release of exerts from his soon to be released book, ‘Duty.’ Gates said was disturbed by Barack Obama’s lack of conviction on success in Afghanistan. Gates was also critical of Obama’s absence of passion when it came to his making the troops believe that Obama supported him. Gates went in to say that this was not the case when he was secretary of defense under George W. Bush. Gates is basically accusing Obama of just providing lip service to the troops. Gates defended his statements in his new book as the liberal MSM looks to discredit him. However, Gates is getting it from both sides of the aisle as some Republicans are criticizing the former Secretary of Defense for not disclosing his tactical disputes with the Obama administration during his tenure as secretary.

“It’s one thing to tell the troops that you support them. It’s another to work at making them believe that you believe as president that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just, that what they are doing was important for the country, and that they must succeed,” said Gates. “President Bush did that with the troops when I was Secretary. I did not see President Obama do that. As I write in the book, it was this absence of passion, this absence of a conviction of the importance of success that disturbed me.”

One would think that it is a presidents job when you are the Commander in Chief and sending America’s sons and daughters, mothers and fathers into harms way and potentially make the ultimate sacrifice that a president have convictions for a mission. It is just too bad that Obama did not have the same passion and conviction toward the individuals that protect our freedoms than he does for Obamacare or campaigning.

CBS NEWS:

Gates praises Mr. Obama for facing down political opposition from his own party. Yet he also offers some tough criticism of the president, suggesting that at times he was skeptical of his own strategy in Afghanistan.

“You say about President Obama that as much as you admired him on so many levels, he never really had a passion for pursuing the war in Afghanistan, and that kind of bothered you,” said Braver.

“It’s one thing to tell the troops that you support them. It’s another to work at making them believe that you believe as president that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just, that what they are doing was important for the country, and that they must succeed,” said Gates. “President Bush did that with the troops when I was Secretary. I did not see President Obama do that. As I write in the book, it was this absence of passion, this absence of a conviction of the importance of success that disturbed me.”

What’s more, he is harshly critical of some of the president’s staffers.

He called the national security staff under President Obama the most micromanaging and controlling since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Braver asked, “Did you ever tell the president about it directly?”

“No,” Gates said. “And I acknowledge that in the book.”

“Should you have, do you think?”

“Well, first of all, things don’t happen that way if the president doesn’t want them to happen that way.”

“Do you have a sense that’s changed? Or do you think they are still running things from the White House?”

“I actually think it’s gotten worse,” Gates laughed.

And then there were his disagreements with the Number 2 man in Washington.

“You are not very flattering to Vice President Biden in this book,” said Braver.

“Actually I think I am in some areas complimentary of him,” Gates responded, “but where I had a particular problem with the vice president was in his encouragement of suspicion of the military and the senior military with the president: ‘You can’t trust these guys. They’re gonna try and jam you. They’re gonna try and box you in,’ and so on. And that did disturb me a lot.”

The outcry over Gates’ criticism of Biden led to that White House solidarity photo op of the president and vice president this past week.