Last week, conservative leaders of a North Carolina-based group, Wake Up America, launched an advertisement criticizing Democratic leaders for approving the latest national budget and higher taxes. "We're going to continue to have a budget crisis as long as we have leaders in Raleigh that continue to spend inappropriately," said junior Nick Ochsner, president of Elon's chapter of College Republicans. The advertisement has received national attention, as Wake Up America looks to extend its message beyond the North Carolina border. "The make up of our state is the make up of a lot of people in the country: hardworking people, industries, a lot of different backgrounds," Ochsner said. "What you are going to see is that people are looking to North Carolina for common sense issues." The advertisement group calls Democratic leaders socialists. Mileah Kromer, assistant professor of political science, said this message isn't going to appeal to moderates. Wake Up America is the conservative counterpart to the liberal group Moveon.org. Wake Up America is a 527 group, which is an independent political group. These groups can receive unlimited contributions from business and individuals as long as they don't endorse a specific candidate and focus on issues. "Depending on what campaign you are for, these can be really beneficial," Foshee said. "The groups have the ability to raise money and donate in a different capacity." These smaller grassroots movements are a type of microcampaigning, which means it targets a specific group of individuals to get a message across. Wake Up America and other microcampaigning groups have proven effective on grass roots issues, Ochsner said. "These groups are bringing attention to issues," Ochsner said. "They are motivating people on issues. These are the groups that do most of the labor on the ground now." These types of political grassroots movements became more popular in the 2000 election and have been built upon by both Democratic and Republican leaders since that time. Foshee said the Obama administration used microcampaigning in the 2008 election through different types of media. "I think it's the new wave of campaigning," Foshee said. "It was really effective in 2008 and will be effective in the Senate and Congressional elections as well." Kromer, Foshee and Oschner all said they agree these types of movements may become more popular in the near future. But there may be some more restrictions for them as well. "There are going to be more restrictions as it becomes more of a role in the campaigning process," Foshee said. "Keep it fair in terms of the political issues and manage these groups that have come along." by Pam Richter, The Pendulum - September 29, 2009
"They aren't going to get everyone," Kromer said. "What they'll do is appeal to a real passionate minority."
Junior Taylor Foshee, president of Elon's chapter of College Democrats, said she doesn't believe it's a fair statement for the narrator in the ad to call Democrats socialists.
"I think that's been a term used to polarize Democrats and build the conservative base," Foshee said. "There's an ideological difference between Democrats and conservatives around the budget."
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The number of people apprehended illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is down more than 25 percent, according to Customs and Border Patrol, but the rate of people dying while trying to cross is up. No one knows whether the decrease in crossers is due to the recession keeping people home, the thousands of new border patrol agents or the more than 600 miles of new border fence that has been built. But what is clear is that over the past decade, easier places to cross have been closed, so people are being pushed into isolated areas. No Way To Prepare U.S. Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue teams perform hundreds of rescues each year. They also discover the bodies — or skeletons — of those who didn't make it.One scorching afternoon last month, Paul Dubois, a Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue agent, and his team were trying to catch up with a group of a dozen illegal crossers about 50 miles north of the border. The terrain is remote and rugged, so a helicopter helped Dubois search for the group, and given the intense desert heat, delivered jugs of water to the team and to the crossers. When Dubois and his crew finally caught up to the group of crossers, all but three had escaped — including a girl the helicopter pilot said he had spotted. Two women and a man remained, sitting on the ground in custody. The man said his name was Elario. He said he was from Michoacan, Mexico, on his way to Florida for work. Led by a coyote — a human smuggler — they had been walking four days from la linea — "the line" or the border — in the desert. They were not injured but were dehydrated. Dubois says there's no way anyone can prepare for this. "I think you're dealing with individuals in most cases that are dealing with a dire situation at home. And they think this is the best situation," Dubois says. "And they may be blinded to the reality of what's in store for them. You can't carry enough water. You can't carry enough food supplies. You're gonna have medical complications perhaps." 'A Steady 200 Bodies A Year' The Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of Humane Borders, a group trying to reduce the number of deaths at the border, does not think the U.S. border policies are effective. Hoover pulls out maps of Arizona that show bodies discovered at the border. He has noticed a trend. No matter how you measure it, Hoover says, bodies are being found farther and farther from roads. It's been a steady 200 bodies a year, despite the drop in illegal crossings. In other words, the rate of deaths is higher. It's become more dangerous to cross. David Hoffman, head of the Border Patrol's planning, policy and analysis division, doesn't dispute Hoover's numbers. But Hoffman blames the human smugglers for leading their customers into harm's way. "As we have taken away, denied areas where they traditionally worked in the past, they are going to some of these remote areas," Hoffman says. Hoffman says the Border Patrol will continue the strategy of pushing people into remote areas as long as Congress and presidents since Bill Clinton order the agency to. Hoover calls that Washington policy short-sighted. "We've already demonstrated in this corridor that if you double the number of agents and technology out here, it doesn't have an effect on the migrant deaths," Hoover says. "This is an immoral policy. It's a deadly policy. It lacks imagination, and it cannot be morally supported." As for the three captured crossers in the Arizona desert, they were escorted along a dry wash to a waiting SUV where they were taken to Tucson, Ariz., and processed through the system. Then they were most likely driven or flown back to Mexico — perhaps to try the deadly crossing again. Source: NPR
Monday, September 28, 2009
Osama bin Laden perhaps described it best in a media interview gloating about how when the US pulled out of Somalia – he and his terrorist friends saw weakness, and a prey, the US, being vulnerable to attack.
If you can count on anything from psychotic terrorists and totalitarian dictators, it is their proclivity to pounce when their prey displays weakness.
Whenever Israel has extended olive branches such as exiting Gaza, Lebanon, offering statehood – the radical extremists only see weakness and answer with suicide bombers and rocket attacks. When North Korea sees an opening, zoom their long-range missile tests go. Turn your head for a second, and Russia rolls out the tanks.
Bog us down in bogus talks or negotiations that are a rouse from the get go, while building weapons, rockets and preparing for terror.
The only people who don’t seem to understand these radicals seem to all be working either on Pennsylvania Avenue or at the MoveOn.org.
Now, after cutting US defenses, appointing a US Attorney General whose law firm used to represent terrorists, appointing radical communist advisors to key Czar positions such as running our entire Green Economy, selling out Israel where Obama has a single-digit approval rating, removing war on terror from our discourse, and a weaker speech at the UN than even our weak-kneed European friends, the sharks are circling.
No wonder we are now reading about terror plot arrests all over the United States! It’s no wonder that the North Koreans are shooting rockets over Japan, it’s no wonder Taliban terror is increasing in Afghanistan, it’s no wonder the new Evil Alliance has developed between Hugo Chavez, Iran’s Ahmenijad, Kim-Jong-Il, with a new behind the scenes cooperator in Putin’s Russia.
A Putin’s Russia who finally, miraculously, just saw one of their main obstacles to regional domination removed by their new ally Barak Obama. His removal of missile defenses in Poland and elsewhere emboldens Russia and makes Europe itself more vulnerable to rogue missile attack. Why?
Now , after a historic and frightening UN meeting, a half dozen countries are threatening a nuclear arms race, and why?
Because the world’s defender of freedom, the world’s beacon of freedom, the one and only leader for the basic human values we know are endowed in all of us is now absent.
Our naïve President has is trying to usurp our position as the shining city on the hill, and on defense and foreign policy we are fast becoming not only another irrelevant international left wing player – but worse.
Our policies are literally making the American people more vulnerable to attack and this is absolutely unacceptable yet the left wing of this country is still willing to compromise our security because of some hysterical hatred of George Bush.
All we have to do is pick up the newspapers to see terror plots around us springing into action and the world around us a much more dangerous place because many have their heads in the sand.
Churchill warned about free democracies not recognizing mortal threats until they are at our doorstep. Friends, they are here.
The responsibility for not understanding how radical terrorists and totalitarians prey on weakness is the sole responsibility of our inexperienced and naïve President.
The more leftists claim anyone speaking the truth about our diplomatic plunge is either a racist or part of a right-wing conspiracy – the more dangerous a place our nation becomes, the more of our freedoms are lost, the more our enemies portray weakness and vulnerability.
-WakeUpAmerica.com
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The ad notes a newspaper editorial citing how no real cuts were made in the state budget, while the largest tax increase in history was passed during a recession. Columnists such as John Hood have noted that it's just not reasonable that taking a billion dollars out of the state's economy isn't harmful especially as our state suffers from job loss. Democrat leaders have been jailed continually in recent years, with countless FBI investigations and Grand Juries, including ongoing probes into the recent former Democrat Governor Mike Easley. Click here to view.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
THE PUBLIC IS UNAWARE OF THE LIBERALS' ASSAULT ON FREEDOM.
THE ONLY WAY TO INFORM THEM -- WITHOUT AN HONEST MEDIA -- IS THROUGH TV ADS speaking to citizens directly!
Obama said he wouldn't raise taxes on the middle class, now his own Treasury department says taxes will go up $1700 a household. Just one of many lies about which the liberals must be held accountable!
We can't do that without your financial help -- either as a donor or as a Team Leader fundraiser.
Please let us hear from you as soon as possible!
America doesn't have another second to waste!
Friday, September 25, 2009
The radical socialists have taken over banks, automakers, insurance companies, and are now threatening a government health care takeover that will destroy the highest quality care in the world. We are witnessing the biggest liberal government power grab in the history of America. Spending with no regard for the debt on our grandchildrens' backs.
Never before have our individual liberties been this threatened. Obama taking over the private sector, waging war on the free enterprise system, trying to eliminate competition and the financial incentive for individuals to achieve and create. Socialist liberal leaders attacking and insulting regular American citizens simply for disagreeing with their policies? If you disagree on an issue with Obama, you're a racist? A media that protects Obama by ignoring their duty as a check and balance and abandoning any sense of honest journalism. If we don't stand up and take action, we might as well be living in Canada if Obama and the radical socialists have their way.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
In 2008, the radical socialists at MoveOn.org organized themselves and took over America.
Now we see where that has led:
Freeing terrorists to beach resorts and cutting defense.
Naming a shadow government, yes here in America, of issue Czars -- some are admitted communists, some even thought the US might be behind 9-11. Along with terrorist Bill Ayers and friends who curse America -- these are the people who President Obama has surrounded himself with.
We've seen the worst recession since the great depression. Yet the radical socialists in Washington went on a spending spree of historic proportions.
Radical Democrats tripled the national debt in 8 months.
Taxes are going up on American families. Billions of our tax dollars are being wasted.
The radical socialists have taken over banks, automakers, insurance companies, and are now threatening a government health care takeover that will destroy the highest quality care in the world.
Cap and tax legislation, based on the bogus theory of global warming that has been roundly disproven as false, will raise taxes on every living breathing American because everything we buy will cost more.
Our Constitution has been corrupted by the radical big government liberals who are turning America into a bloated and failed socialist state. All for power. All because the radical liberals who think they know best are attacking our individual freedoms.
Who we are as a country, the right to choose for ourselves and control our own destiny, is being taken away by Barak Hussein Obama and the socialists he's surrounded himself with.
It's time to take our country back. Enough is enough.
How did MoveOn.org take over America for the radical liberals?
They organized millions across America to whom they spread their lies in an attempt to reshape America into Canada. Now we're going to Wake Up America, and take our country back, take our freedoms back, take our economic opportunities and security...back.
But we're going to do it with the truth. We're going to take this country back not through lies like MoveOn.org, but through exposing the truth about the corrupt radical socialist machine attacking this country.
Conservative leaders across America are joining us. Wake Up America is a unique effort, because for the first time conservatives everywhere, not just professional politicians, can earn income from organizing our fellow conservative supporters.
The time has come to take back America. Join us today at Wake Up America.com.