A CONSERVATIVE VOICE

Dear Friends,

Several weeks ago I was offered, and after much prayer and reflection, have accepted an incredibly challenging opportunity. I am now Leader of Men’s Ministries at Steamboat Christian Center. This will allow me to devote my energy to serving my community and I am already finding it fully consuming.

Phyllis tells me that over the past several years, I have produced almost 200 articles, posts or blogs. While this work and the dialog it created brought me great joy, and personal growth, I can no longer continue. I will miss that, and thank each of you for sharing this journey with me, whether we have agreed or disagreed.

I pray every night that our “leaders” will grasp and embrace these fundamental concepts. God created each of us with free will, the freedom to succeed or fail, to do good or bad, and to reap the rewards, or suffer the consequences which result. Government has no legitimate function other than to protect our freedom. Government has no business trying to “help us”, any of us. Give us our freedom. We will help ourselves and we will help each other. Our Founders enshrined those concepts in the Declaration of Independence, and codified the limits we placed on our government in our Constitution. I pray that our leaders will read the Constitution they have all sworn to uphold, every day. Amen.

I believe until that prayer is answered, electing Obama or Romney, Pelosi or Boehner, Reid or McConnell will make precious little difference in whether the Republic survives.

I believe that persistent, united prayers are answered, and ask you to join me.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

Looking at the field of GOP presidential candidates we should ask: is this the best conservatives can do? The same question should be asked about the senior “leaders” of the GOP, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell (no relation). Of course it’s not. We all know outstanding leaders, smart people. They are our friends and neighbors. So why do the best and brightest among us shun political office like the plague? I believe it is because all politics is local. What happens here in Western Colorado is a microcosm of the problem we conservatives find ourselves in at the national level.

Tisha Casida, a bright, young entrepreneur from Pueblo believes that party politics as usual has let us down. More than just this belief, she has courage and determination. She has taken the next bold step. She is an Independent (unaffiliated) candidate for the US House here in the Third CD. In the land of the free, the home of the brave, in the nation that was once an inspiration for the rest of world, her boldness would be seen as refreshing. Then her ideas would be reviewed and discussed by the people she wants to represent. The People would then either agree with or reject her ideas.

However, getting to a discussion of issues is very threatening to some here in the Third CD. So the machine – the power brokers, the king makers – try to prevent that from happening. It starts right here and it results in choices between Obama and McCain, Pelosi and Boehner. Nine months into her campaign Casida has made national news. Yet here in Colorado, the machine, people you know, label her a “criminal” and a “puppet.” Unable or unwilling to engage in intelligent discussion of ideas, they engage in lies and deception and the cycle continues. What sane, decent person would subject themselves to this cesspool?

It is time to call out people like Marjorie Haun and others. Expose them for what they are. Challenge them to engage in honest debate. Reject their lies and deception. Enough is enough.

You may not agree with her, but Tisha Casidais not a criminal or a puppet. Listen to her ideas. Look at your choices and then decide. The Democrats offer you Sal Pace with his penchant for peeing in public. The Republican candidate, incumbent Scott Tipton has been a disappointment to the conservative base that mobilized to elect him in 2010. Independents will determine the outcome of this election. The question is whether 20% of Democrats and Republicans will reject their Party candidate and make their own decision based, not on lies and deception, but on ideas.

Do you wonder why DC is a mess, why we are no longer the leader of the free world? Look no further than our own congressional district, because all politics is local. The power brokers, the king makers need to be stopped. They need to be shamed. And they need to be reminded of the power of the People.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

Ronald Regan famously opined the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” That was about thirty years ago. Today the most terrifying words we can hear are: “this initiative has broad, bi-partisan support.” Those words mean all rational thought has been thrown out the window. Katie, bar the door. It is an election year and we are about to be screwed again

Last Friday the House (293-132) and Senate (60-36) passed The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. How they come up with these names is beyond delusional, but I guess it makes them feel better. This is the Bill I talked about last week which robs the Social Security “Trust Fund” and extends unemployment benefits among other boneheaded economic moves. Broad bi-partisan support is code for sell out the Republic to get reelected. That is exactly what this Bill, by now probably already law, is meant to accomplish. This is out and out bribery of voters who are easily bought. Here in the Third US Congressional District of Colorado, Representative Tipton, joined Senators Bennett and Udall in casting “ayes” of broad bi-partisan support. See how those you have entrusted to protect your unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness voted.

The Boehner bunch begged us in 2010 to give them another chance. “Trust us, we have learned our lesson” they said. They even put their Promise to America in writing . Cut the budget by $100 billion in the first year jumps out as just one promise. We bought it and gave them overwhelming control of our House, the People’s House, the House which controls the purse strings. The $100 billion became $1 billion in the photo op, and about $350 million after the CBO took a closer look.

“Broad bi-partisan support” is code for another Boehner sell-out. Shudder every time you hear those words my friends.

We’ll remember in November, hey, hey, hey, good bye.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

Tuesday as I drove to work, I listened on CNN as a White House spokesman asked “who will the American people blame?” I switched to Fox and heard that “after the beating Republicans took last December, they have to be asking themselves who will the American people blame.” Who they will blame for what? As I write this our leaders in Washington – whose incompetence is exceeded only by their lust for power-are deciding how to con the American people, yet again.

This is a rerun of the “extending payroll tax cuts” con job from last December. Unless the cuts are extended, millions of American families will get a tax hike next month. That would be a disaster because this is, oh yes, an election year. My friends, one half of our life is an election year. During election years common sense, sound economic policy, indeed, the survival of the Republic all fade into meaninglessness before the mantra, REELECT ME.

Let’s blow away the smoke. We begin our story about seventy years ago with the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history, Social Security. The con job then was that the government would take your money and put it in a Trust Fund (the lockbox) where it could grow. Then it would be given back to you in your retirement years. The plot thickened when about forty years ago the lockbox became an off-line Reelect Me Slush Fund. “You mean we can give people stuff without raising taxes”? Our leaders’ collective noses grew over the last twenty years as we heard over and over, “Social Security is solvent”. Then last summer Obama let the cat out of the bag. Remember him telling us that if Congress didn’t raise the debt ceiling by Friday, Social Security checks wouldn’t go out on Monday? Social Security not only is insolvent, the only way we will ever get our money back if for the government to borrow money, tomorrow, the next day, and the next, forever, because our money is long gone, spent to get the goofballs reelected.

So that brings us to the payroll tax cuts. A year and a half ago, Republicans merrily danced to Obama’s tune that the best way to get the economy back on track (aka get reelected) was to give every American family about $1,000. They couldn’t just mail out checks because folks might see that for what it clearly is, a bribe. So instead, our leaders lowered the percentage of wages taken from Americans to put in the non-existent Social Security lockbox, but just for a year. Voila, families have a $1,000 bucks to spend. However, it trickles in over twelve months. The reality is it made little or no difference to the economy, as we have clearly seen. Meanwhile, the money going into the already bankrupt Trust Fund was reduced by over $100 billion. “But guys”, now say Obama, Reid, McConnell (no relation), Pelosi and Boehner, if we don’t extend it none of us will get reelected. So next week one of the dumbest things our leaders have done in my memory will be extended, at least until after the election. Who will the American people blame?

I have just finished reading Atlas Shrugged for the third time, and it gets better every time. Turn off the airheads and read it. Go to the library and start with Chapter VI. It will hook you. Ayn Rand wrote almost sixty years ago about the bridge collapses, power outages and rampant crime we see today. She wrote about the failure of European socialism. She wrote about moochers and maggots destroying America. Our leaders today are literally giving speeches she wrote in 1957. The lights went out in the America she wrote about, and they are slowly going out in America today. Who will the American people blame? Look in the mirror. We, the People, have a lot of work to do.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

This is a reminder for those of you in Colorado, just in case you didn’t get a reminder from your County GOP officials. Tomorrow at 7pm, Republicans across the State will meet in caucus at their precincts. Please take the time to go. Vote your conscience, not the Party line. I will be raising my hand for Ron Paul.

The Republican Party has been largely pushed aside as irrelevant in Colorado. Democrats hold the governorship and a majority in the State Senate. Our entire Supreme Court and most of our other State judges were appointed by Democrats. Republicans are in danger of losing their one vote majority in the State House over a DUI ticket. We can and must do better. The caucuses offer an opportunity to start the process of reforming the Colorado GOP and making it more accountable to the People. Consider offering one or more of these Resolutions for consideration at your caucus, then your County Assembly, then the State Assembly and then, where relevant at the Republican National Convention.

OPEN VOTING

Whereas, the State Constitution delegates the authority to fill vacancies in elected offices to the political party with which the prior holder of that office was affiliated; and

Whereas, this is a duty which should be performed in a manner open to the constituents the new incumbent will represent; now

Be it Resolved that all vacancy committees appointed by the Republican Party in Colorado shall perform their duty by open and public voting.

OPEN CAUCUSES

Whereas, the caucuses process is designed to let neighbors be heard in their individual precincts; and

Whereas, present rules limit those who may be heard and vote at their precinct caucus to those who have been registered as a Republican for no less than sixty days prior to the caucus; and

Whereas, this places an unnecessary burden on citizens who may wish to be heard and vote as a Republican in their caucus; now

Be it Resolved that any registered voter, regardless of their previous affiliation, or lack thereof, be allowed to register as a Republican at their precinct caucus, and participate fully in that caucus.

TERM LIMITS

Whereas, the US Constitution fails to limit the terms in office of Senators, Representatives or Federal magistrates, judges and justices; and

Whereas, this has limited the accessibility to these positions of citizens, and led to other abuses; now

Be it resolved that the Republican Party Platform should call for both the US Senate, and the House of Representatives to pass amendments to the US Constitution limiting Senators to two terms in office of six years each; limiting Representatives to three terms in office of two years each; and limiting Federal magistrates, judges and justices to one term of ten years in any such office.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (thanks to Jim Huffman in Archuleta)

Whereas, the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v F.E.C. has opened the final floodgates for special interest corporate, union, and Super PAC funding of campaign ads that are distorting our political process; and

Whereas, 527/PAC, corporate, and union money in local, state, and national elections has produced mostly ads that are, in general, misleading or untrue and for which no one can reasonably identify the source or agenda of the money; and

Whereas, this has allowed candidates to avoid responsibility for the content of and accountability for false information in the ads being run either in their favor or attacking their opponents; and

Whereas, “Human beings are persons, and it is an affront to the inviolable dignity of our species that courts have created a legal fiction which forces people-human beings-to share fundamental, natural rights with soulless creatures of government”. (Justice James C Nelson, Montana Supreme Court, dissent in Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana, December 2011); and

Whereas, it is virtually impossible for the average voter to distinguish between the truth or falseness of these ads; now

Therefore, Be It Resolved that the Republican Party supports a US Constitutional Amendment that clearly and unequivocally states the following:

1. No corporation, union, or any other organization is a ‘person’;

2. The first ten amendments to the Constitution were included solely and exclusively to enumerate certain natural rights of the people (humans) of the United States and protect them from government intrusion (?);

3. A person may only contribute to the campaign of a candidate in whose district they reside, but the contribution may be any amount;

4. Only a candidate’s election committee may collect and bundle money for campaign ads and only a candidate’s election committee may run ads, or send out material, supporting that candidate or opposing the candidate’s opponent;

5. Contributions made in violation of this Amendment shall be turned in to the Internal Revenue Service and used exclusively to pay down the National Debt

Tomorrow is the time to stand up and be heard, the time to make the Republican Party in Colorado more accountable to the citizens it hopes to represent, the time to let the National GOP know how dissatisfied we are with career judges and politicians. Tomorrow is the time to raise a ruckus!

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

The country is frustrated by a stalemated war. Americans are being killed and wounded in a conflict with no end in sight. Some want to win it. The President, hugely unpopular, only wants not to lose it. The economy is in the doldrums. As the war ends with a whimper, hundreds of thousands of vets will return to the private sector. Primaries have begun to select the next President. The Republican party is split between conservatives, and moderates who believe that in order to win this time the party needs to be less dogmatic. People fear the in-fighting will lead to Obama being re-elected.

The winter of which I speak was 1951-52. The President was Truman. The war was Korea. Conservatives, led by Senator Taft and moderates led by Henry Cabot Lodge were at each other’s throats. A small group of Americans reached out to a man who had dedicated his entire adult life in service to his country. He resisted their advances insisting that he had no aspirations for political office. He would not even acknowledge whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. President Truman offered to share the ticket as his vice-president if he would only run.

Finally, in January, he announced that he would run for president as a Republican. He would serve if the people elected him. Buttons reading “I Like Ike” were worn by people who didn’t have a clue about his position on “the issues.” They voted for him because they knew he would put the good of the country ahead of his personal ambition. He served eight years as the 34^th President. He ended the war in Korea, stopped the advance of communism at the Iron Curtain that had dropped over Eastern Europe, and brought economic prosperity to America. He made sure the veterans who had saved the world’s bacon were treated fairly. The man was General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

As we watch the GOP elephant blunder through the winter of 2012, squashing every fresh idea, stomping on every candidate who hasn’t paid his dues, mocking integrity and demonstrated success and true leadership, trumpeting displeasure at those who haven’t put Party first their entire lives, maybe we should take a lesson from 1952. Maybe we should look at another man who has spent his entire adult life in service to the country . Maybe we should look at General David Petraeus.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

According to the Founders:  “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Article III, Section 3, US Constitution. So when does an act become treason (defined by Webster’s to include “betrayal of a trust”) not against the United States, but against the People of the United States?   Does such an offense exist? If so, where do we take our case? What remedy do the People have?

I submit that our elected representatives, both in Congress and in the White House, have over many years betrayed our trust. In my view these are acts of treason against the People of the United States.

Tonight we will watch and listen as the President complies with his Constitutional duty to report his view on the State of the Union. I haven’t seen the speech as I write this afternoon. However, my heart is heavy. I believe both his view on where we stand, and his vision for where we should be going will be in dramatic conflict with my view of either issue.

My heart is heavy because we worked hard in 2010 to give Republicans overwhelming control of our House. The men and women we elected to stop the Obama offensive against our way of life have failed us. They have betrayed our trust. I needn’t recite the long litany of failures about which I have written over the past year, but remind you that it started with failing to remove John Boehner as Speaker when the 112^th Congress was sworn in a year ago. Their betrayal continues when this Friday the national debt ceiling will “automatically” increase by another $1.2 trillion. This is the same national debt that was capped at $15.2 trillion in the grand compromise last Spring. The Super Committee that was to save us betrayed us instead. What happened to the draconian cuts that were part of the deal? Friday the debt ceiling will become $16.4 trillion, “automatically”. Watch and listen carefully tonight to the President, to the Republican response, and to the airheads as they pontificate on what it all means. My bet is you won’t hear a word about the debt ceiling increase. “We don’t need no stinking budget.” When is it treason?

My friends please reread the last chapters of Genesis, particularly Chapter 47: 13-23. Joseph’s plan to save the people from seven years of famine resulted in all their money, all their land, and all their animals belonging to Pharaoh. The cost of being fed by the government for seven years was four hundred years of slavery. Pray with me tonight that we shall once again become one Nation under God, in whom we trust. Pray with me that God will lead our elected representatives to put our trust in them ahead of their reelections. Pray with me that seven years of economic hardship will not result in four hundred years of slavery. Pray with me, and then read the book I mentioned last week, The Political Imperative.  We have a lot of work to do. It starts with prayer, but it doesn’t end there.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

Welcome to 2012, an election year. I am already so tired of hearing “we can’t do that, it is an election year” I am about to scream. Hiding behind the convenient smoke screen of the Republican primaries, Congress is about to sell us yet another bill of goods. I hate to remind you, but just before Christmas, Republicans caved in and voted to kick the can two months. Now it is about time for John “No More Tears” Boehner to buddy up with Barack “We Don’t Need No Stinking Budget” Obama. Together they will convince Americans it is really in our best interests to combine two of the stupidest things we could do right now in one piece of legislation. What they are about to do makes no sense economically, and I would argue is immoral, but, it is an election year, and their cushy jobs are on the line.

First, for working Americans Congress is about to extend the employment tax cut. Otherwise, “every working American would have about $1,000 less to spend this year”. What that means is that the Social Security system will have several billion dollars less than it would otherwise have if Congress let the employee portion of FICA go back to where it was before it was reduced “for just one year to stimulate the economy”. Guys, the cat is out of the bag. Think back to last summer, Obama told us that unless Congress increased the debt ceiling by Friday, he couldn’t guarantee Social Security checks would go out on Monday. In other words, Social Security would be bankrupt in forty-eight hours if we didn’t borrow more money to prop it up. Even better, for seventy years we have been told that if the government didn’t seize some of our money every year and put it in a “safe place” we wouldn’t save for our retirement. Now we are being told we should take the $1,000 that should go towards our retirement and buy a new flat screen TV, or a new video game or whatever. What possible economic sense does it make to extend the decrease in funding for an already bankrupt system that was put in place to protect us from ourselves? Oh yeah, almost forgot, it is an election year.

Second, for non-working Americans Congress is about to extend unemployment benefits. Otherwise, “millions of Americans will be unable to pay their heating bills this winter”. Or put another way, those same Americans will be forced to find a new line of work, probably making less money than they were before they got laid off. What possible economic sense does it make to borrow money to pay people not to get back to work, even if they have to change careers, or move, or even make less money? Oh yeah, almost forgot, it is an election year.

Welcome to 2012, an election year, and we do have a choice. Shall we reelect incompetent, or incapable? Or shall we start over with a new team?

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

During the past two weeks, everything Republicans did in Iowa was the subject of intense scrutiny in national and international media. Why is that? Well obviously Iowa is first. However that is only part of the answer. The Republican Party in Iowa is not only alive and well, it is vibrant. It is open and transparent. It welcomes everyone to their caucuses. While you must be registered to vote, you can become a Republican the night of the caucus, at your caucus location. Data from this year isn’t in yet, but in 2008, sixty percent of people who attended were at their first caucus. Republicans in Iowa hold the governorship, a two-to-one majority in the State House and both US Senate seats. Iowans are represented in the US House by two Republicans including conservative stalwart Steve King.

Let’s compare that with Colorado. Next month, our caucuses will be a footnote in the national media, if they are mentioned at all. If past trends hold true, as I write, GOP County Committees are still wondering if they will even have Chairs for every precinct. So how are we doing with Hickenlooper, Bennett and Udall? Where is our conservative stalwart in the US House? Will we hold onto our one vote majority in the State House?

This should be a wakeup call for the GOP in Colorado. It is 2012, yet the Colorado GOP seems to act like this is Chicago in the 1940′s. It is way past time to open the membership in what the good old boys treat like their exclusive club. What, other than a means of exclusion, is a rule requiring people be registered in the GOP sixty days before our caucuses on February 7^th? What were you doing a month ago? December7^th, most people were probably still counting calories from Thanksgiving and planning Christmas celebrations. How many Republican “front runners” have come and gone since then? Why should any registered voter be excluded from the caucuses in Colorado? Amend the State GOP Bylaws to match those in Iowa. Invite every voter to the caucuses. Let them have a say in which GOP candidates will be on the ballot.

The stakes are high, and we must communicate our message without compromise.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com

I started to write about Obama. He is perhaps the first President in history who will complete four years in office and never have a budget approved by Congress. Yet in three years he has done what it took Bush-43 eight years to do. He has doubled the size of the federal government. He did it with two Congresses willing to give him continuing resolutions and emergency appropriations, and lacking the courage to hold firm on the debt ceiling. Obama is living his dream, and our nightmare: “We don’t need no stinking budget.”

I started to write about the ninety “firebrand” freshmen we sent to Congress last year and how many of them have already drunk the heady water of the Potomac. Even Alan West who went viral with a speech exhorting us to “fix bayonets” voted to increase the debt ceiling.

I started to write about the gross incompetence of the GOP leadership in Congress, but the Wall Street Journal has pretty well nailed that.

Instead, today I remind you that about 2,000 years ago, an angel appeared in a field near Bethlehem and said, “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news, news of great joy for the whole nation.” My friends, we search in vain for politicians who will deliverer us from this time of trial. We will continue to search in vain until we surrender our vanity to reality. Like so many nations before us, we have lost our moral compass. We search in vain because we reject those who like our first president get down on their knees and pray for help from Divine Providence. We will search in vain until we do what Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, and Roosevelt did when it looked like the Nation would not survive: pray for help and guidance from our Creator.

Whatever your faith, I ask you join me as I pray for our leaders, and for this great Nation, that we may become one Nation under God, that the peace of the Lord may rest on our shoulders and guide our thoughts, our words, and our actions, and those of our elected representatives in the year ahead. Pray that once again, in God may we trust.

Refresh yourselves in the good news of Advent, because we have a lot of hard work to do in the year ahead.

Keep the faith,

Bob McConnell

beawatchman@aol.com