Thirteen Stars

Be back soon

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:19:00 +0000

Not that I'm a heavy blogger or that I have many followers, but I thought I ought to mention that I won't be around too much for the next couple of weeks. My mother in law is visiting and I am limiting my time online to late evenings, which isn't exactly conducive to writing anything worth reading. :)

I'm sure you're all crushed and heartbroken, but try to keep the weeping and wailing to a minimum. ;) I will probably be back in a couple of weeks with my crazy, paranoid, delusional conspiracy theories. Don't forget your tinfoil hat!

New TBF Poll for the week of July 11

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:37:00 +0000

POLL CLOSES 12:01 A.M, Friday, July 16

Due to some controversy as to whether he is really conservative, last week's winner was changed from Eric Wargotz to Charles Lollar.

And, as stated in my last post, any nominations for inclusion in next week's poll will be duly passed on.

Ten Buck Fridays

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:19:00 +0000

A few weeks ago my friend Fuzzy Slippers pointed me in the direction of something called Ten Buck Fridays. The idea is that every Friday we, as conservatives, donate $10 to a conservative candidate running for office this November. Brilliant idea, no?

Here is the latest poll going:

Vote now! And please feel free to list nominees in the comments for inclusion in the next poll. I will be sure to pass them along.

Happy Independence Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:50:00 +0000

The Unanimous Declaration

of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

This Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:31:00 +0000

Let us never forget the sacrifices made by those who have fought to keep our country free.

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

America the Beautiful ~ Katharine Lee Bates

Greece is considering legal action

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:05:00 +0000

I was sitting outside watching my kids play in their sandbox and waiting for my husband to come home with our (probably soon to be illegal) breakfast of doughnuts, when I decided to check out Twitter. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a tweet proclaiming "Greece considering legal action against US banks." Unfortunately I can now not find that tweet, but I was able to google the story, which is here:

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou declared he is not ruling out taking legal action against U.S. investment banks for their role in creating the spiraling Greek debt crisis.

What?! Is it just me or does this seem incredibly ballsy? "...Greece has [been]...running unsustainable budget deficits with lavish government spending on unions, early retirements, impossible labor laws, subsidizing failing businesses, Madoff-like accounting practices and socialized health care." (Read more: A Euro of living dangerously) According to this Wikipedia entry, "[t]he public sector accounts for about 40% of GDP." Where do the evil U.S. investment banks come in to this equation? Yeah, I don't see it, either.

A couple of paragraphs down in the same article:

The 2009 budget deficit stood at 13.6% of GDP. This, and rising debt levels (115% of GDP in 2009) led to rising borrowing costs, resulting in a severe economic crisis.[22] Greece falsified its financial data to try to cover up the extent of its massive budget deficit in the wake of the global financial crisis.[23]

I'm no economist, but it seems to me that if you continue to borrow money without making any new money to pay it back, you're going to eventually run into trouble. It's like trying to pay your Visa bill with your MasterCard. But what do I know? I'm just a dumb, conservative hillbilly.

Besides that assault on our taxpaying checkbooks, (because we all know who will ultimately be paying for that lawsuit, if it's brought) we are already on the hook for $40 billion to help bail Greece out of their predicament thanks to the IMF. We're already going down the same path as Greece, but, hey, what's $40 billion among friends? Ugh!

The only hope we have as a nation, if we want to avoid Greece's fate, is voting the lefties and the RINOs out of office and replacing them with politicians willing to support the Fair Tax. You knew I'd have to throw that in at some point, didn't you?

My head is spinning

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:36:00 +0000

My head is spinning with everything going on in the news these days. I wish I could stop time and have a chance to catch my breath and regroup. I've had to go from barely having enough interest in politics to be able to vote each year to trying to immerse myself in as many news/political websites and blogs as I can to try to get some sort of understanding of what is happening.

And I worry about how our country is going to survive this move into Socialism. Even if the health care bill is repealed, what will we do about all the crazies? I mean, I'm sorry, but most liberals seem foam-at-the-mouth crazy. You can't reason with them at all, they tune you out and start screaming "RAAAACIST!" at you. I don't have to look any further than my own sister for proof of this.

A few months ago she caught me on Yahoo messenger and told me, with the utmost delight, about how she was antagonizing the 70-something mother of one of her friends. She justified it by saying her friend told her that his mother was a bigot. I could almost see the nasty gleam in my sister's eyes as she told me how she liked to go on the woman's Facebook page and leave comments about how great Obama is as a president and how great the economy is doing, etc., etc. Not sure what she was basing that last bit on, either, because the economy has been in the tank for over a year.

The only glimmer of hope, at least in my eyes, is the Fair Tax. If we can get the Republicans back in the majority, and we can convince them that we want the Fair Tax, we might be able to save our country from destruction.

Weird synchronisity...

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:11:00 +0000

...or bizarre coincidence? I don't know what you'd call it but I just read this article on Gateway Pundit:

13 states sued the federal government this morning after President Barack Obama signed his Obamacare bill into law.

I didn't put a whole lot of thought into my blog name because I figured I could change it later if need be. I kind of like it a lot more now, even if more states are added to this law suit.

What do we do now?

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:09:00 +0000

This is what I've been asking myself. What do we do now that this fiasco of a health care bill has passed?

Besides cleaning house (snicker) come November, I think the next thing that needs to be focused on is our tax system. Because, if you haven't noticed (and who hasn't?), it stinks. And if we want to have any hope of being able to pay for all this entitlement crap, we've got to find a way to generate the money. The way things stand now, we've got no chance in hell of being able to support any entitlement programs. And like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, we'll probably never be able to repeal Obamacare. Even if it were possible, I like to be practical.

So, what's the answer? The Fairtax. Oh my goodness, I've never been so in love with an idea. It is brilliant in it's simplicity.

From their site:

Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
Allows American products to compete fairly
Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
Abolishes the IRS

It really is a beautiful thing. /Sigh/ But if that's not enough to convince you, try this handy-dandy little calculator.

Tell me you don't love this idea after using the calculator! Can you see the possibilities? We need to get HR25/S1025 passed. We need to tell our Senators and Representatives we want this passed. I've already written to my Congressman urging him to support this bill. I will continue to do so. If he wants my vote, he needs to support this bill.

The Republicans said they were listening, let's make them prove it!

An Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Betsi Rauss) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:36:00 +0000

I'm an American. And yes, I've been a lazy American. I've floated along for the past thirty-something years taking my country and my freedom for granted. Then came the great "Hope and Change".

And now I'm scared.

I'm scared for my country. I'm scared for my children. I must re-awaken my inner patriot to protect both. This blog will be a chronicle of that journey.