Taylor Jones / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Jones)

Currently, the various scandals within the Obama administration have put Progressives in defensive mode to protect an ideology built on lies. Each day brings with it a new scandal or a new angle to a previous scandal. Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS, and the DOJ’s seizure of phone records have one thing in common: suppression of truth.

Americans are discovering Progressivism isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Even the coolest of Progressive presidents can’t deliver the goodies they promise if what they really intended to deliver was hidden inside a bag of lies.

By now, most everyone understands Progressive-speak for “hope and change” translates into high unemployment, an abysmal economy, a disastrous healthcare bill, excessive poverty, starving children, ridiculous food prices, losing wars, and terrorist attacks on our homeland. Four bucks gets you a gallon of gas, a college degree gets you nowhere, and with each new scandal, the White House deflects the blame on someone else and runs off to play another round of golf. That, my friends, is Progressivism in a nutshell.

In a most enlightening article, “Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression,” author David Martin nails it when he states “strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government” and “the success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press and a mere token opposition party.” Without a doubt, we have the makings of a perfect storm.

If you’ve never understood the connection between Progressivism and lies, all you need to do is take an objective look at the current administration’s scandals. While all investigations are still active, a common thread weaves through each in that either the truth was suppressed to cover an action or an action was taken to suppress the truth.

In Benghazi it appears the administration suppressed the truth about an act (an al-Qaida-linked terrorist attack) to fit its pre-election “al-Qaida-free” story line. The same rings true regarding the seizure of reporters’ phone and email records by the Department of Justice. Attorney General Holder claims records were seized for national security reasons, but that doesn’t gel with what the Associated Press describes as an “unprecedented” seizure of records. In a recent statement, AP president Gary Pruitt said his organization held the in-question article describing a terrorist plot by an al-Qaida-linked group in Yemen “until the government assured us that the national security concerns had passed.” With that in mind, might a more reasonable reason be that administration officials spent an awful lot of time traveling around the country pre-election reporting al-Qaida was no longer a threat?

Each day carries with it new discoveries about the heinous IRS scandal wherein acts of suppression served to squash the voice and rights of those who, unlike Progressives, have the intelligence to differentiate between the U.S. Constitution and a roll of toilet paper and embrace the freedoms and protections therein.

If you don’t like what you see, it’s time to get loud (not violent) Americans. Silence is acceptance. And so far, your silence is deafening… and dangerous…because silence becomes the well-insulated womb to which tyranny is given safe harbor to grow.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Certain things are absolute. As Newton said, what goes up must come down. The wrinkles you see staring back at you in the mirror validate the second law of thermodynamics: eventually things fall apart. And, as any farmer will tell you, if you plant cucumbers in the spring, no matter how hard you try, you will never reap watermelons in the summer.

David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star (click to view more cartoons by Fitzsimmons)

It’s the same with deeds; good and bad, we reap what we sow. From the onset, the Obama administration has woven a web of fabrications so thick it is hard to see where reality ends and make-believe begins. Over time, Obama has woven that web tighter by installing a gang of Chicago allies, confidants, tongue-biters and tale-tellers as a “shadow government” answerable only to him. There was safety in this tight-knit crew of like-minded associates, or so they thought, until recently when parts of Obama’s web began to unravel.

As the old time pastor R.G. Lee once said, “Nature keeps books pitilessly. Man’s credit with her is good. But Nature collects.” And now it seems Nature has come knocking on the front door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It all began with Benghazi. We now know celebrating in the end zone about bin Laden’s death made for good re-election bumper stickers and water cooler conversation but had little impact on America’s security or the security of the grossly under protected consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Farfetched stories about a video spun by a circle of close confidants desperately desiring four more years of power fell apart during recent testimonies. We reap what we sow.

Now we hear the IRS was party to Soviet-style scare tactics in the inappropriate targeting of conservative groups prior to the 2012 election. The Washington Post reports the tentacles of this scandal reach beyond the supposed few rogue agents in Cincinnati to Washington. Doing what they do best, Progressives deflected the blame to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — purporting had it not been for it, there would be no need for the IRS’s intrusion into the private lives of conservatives. Had the IRS targeted liberal groups, Democrats would have blamed it on a Republican plot to steal the election. And of course, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney remains steadfast: the administration is beyond reproach. Sure.

So, how about a sprinkle of invasion of privacy to go with that healthy those of scare tactics? The Associated Press (AP) discovered Attorney General Holder’s Department of Justice secretly seized two months of reporters’ phone records, including both work and personal numbers; something the AP called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering. While the jury’s still out regarding motives, it should be noted this was not the first time for this administration. As originally reported by Breitbart.com, former Holder spokesperson Tracy Schmaler colluded with the far-left group Media Matters for America to “smear media figures, whistleblowers, and members of Congress.” Transparency? Not.

Scandal by scandal, the president remains resolute and does his sanctimonious best to remain blameless. The dominoes are dropping it is harvest time for this corrupt administration which believes justice is due for everyone but itself and will do everything in its power to avoid reaping the consequences for which it has sown.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com, Facebook or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2013 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com.

Gary McCoy / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by McCoy)

Days later, on September 14, a somber-faced Obama and his sullen-faced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood in front of four flag draped coffins at Andrews Air Force Base, assuring the small group of grieving family members their loved ones did not die in vain. Their ill-informed message suggested these patriots weren’t killed by terrorists; they died because of protests about a YouTube video.

Since then, the administration has done its best to dodge questions and distance itself from the events of September 11, and acquired a convenient case of amnesia along the way. Nine months-in and Americans still have no clue why initial talking points from top officials’ claiming the attacks were most likely executed by al Qaeda-linked terrorists were reduced to “a YouTube video.” Did they fear acknowledging such a claim so close to the 2012 presidential election? Or did they actually believe the video story?

Hopefully, some of these questions were answered by way of three courageous State Department whistle-blowers scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee May 8. Pre-hearing interviews from one of the whistleblowers, Gregory Hicks, the second highest diplomat in Libya at the time of the attacks, were released to the press. Hicks claimed a Special Forces team which could have saved lives and protected evidence was ordered to “stand down” despite multiple pleas for help. Contrary to the administration’s claims, Hicks also said, “…everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack” from the beginning.

Hicks’ statements seem to fit in with the timeline obtained by the Weekly Standard from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The Weekly Standard article “The Benghazi Talking Points,” describes how “senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened” and made “substantive revisions” to the “CIA’s talking points” six weeks outside the 2012 presidential election.

So where’s your thirst for truth, America? Why aren’t we outraged? Maybe because, as White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “Benghazi happened a long time ago.” Maybe Carney should ask grieving family members wanting answers and longing for closure how long it’s been since their loved ones lost their lives in Benghazi. Or maybe we are at a point in this country where a politician’s political aspirations trump everything else.

The last time something of this magnitude happened, a U.S. president stepped down. But that was during a time when good men who made bad choices still had the intestinal fortitude to accept personal responsibility for their actions. It was also a time when journalists were principled enough to set aside politics to do their job and make politicians accountable.

Some in the mainstream media are reluctantly pulling their heads out of the ground. On May 5, CBS news anchor Bob Schieffer acknowledged the possibility the administration might have been involved in a “cover-up.” Others are unenthusiastically following suit because they have no choice. Of course, the illegitimate diehards will remain with their heads in the sand until the storm passes.

As the pieces of this puzzle come together, one thing is certain: Full and honest disclosure is always the best policy. Regardless of how Benghazi pans out, we will discover that either the Obama administration was involved in a cover-up and played us as fools, or our government is run by fools who actually believed the Benghazi attacks were in response to an uprising over an amateurish anti-Islam video by a man now serving jail time for a separate issue. Either way, we lose.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com, Facebook or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2013 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Cam Cardow / Ottawa Citizen (click to view more cartoons by Cardow)

By employing his consulting services, and as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama is effectively endorsing Weinstein’s recently voiced and written views such as: “Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized [sic] and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces.”

Weinstein’s inflamed word picture helps the rest of us understand what the world looks like to those who live with their eyes wide shut and sort of sounds like that old cereal commercial… except this time Mikey doesn’t like it — Christianity, that is, so no one else should. And Mikey’s giving the rest of us an object lesson in intolerance by showing us what liberal secularists are about: “It’s our way, or we shut you down.” In this case, Obama’s anti-Christian hit man, Weinstein, proposes that honorable men and women in the military who speak about their faith should be charged with a crime worthy of capital punishment. Smells like bull to me.

In recent months, there has been a push against Christianity in the military. A few notables include a military training instructor labeling Jews, Christians, Catholics and Mormons as extremists alongside al Qaeda. The Army blocked a Southern Baptist website, citing it displayed “hostile content,” (the Pentagon has since blamed it on a malware glitch), and an Army email was distributed warning fellow soldiers to beware of Christian ministry “hate groups.” Each of these incidents could be reasoned-away individually, but they all have one thing in common: Intolerance has an unmistakable stench.

News has it that Mr. Weinstein endorsed the Southern Poverty Law Center’s recent statement listing certain Christian organizations as hate groups. He also whole-heartedly agreed with comments made by radical Army Lt. Col. Jack Rich, who told his subordinates to be on the lookout for dangerous Christian soldiers who should be expelled from the military for their beliefs.

Lauding the Lt. Colonel’s statement in a Huffington Post anti-Christian hit piece April 16, Weinstein said, “We should as a nation effusively applaud Lt. Col. Rich,” and said America should go further to “vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose pathologically anti-gay, Islamaphobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are: die-hard enemies of the United States Constitution. Monsters, one and all. To do anything less would be to roll out a red carpet to those who would usher in a blood-drenched, draconian era of persecutions, nationalistic militarism, and superstitious theocracy.”

Gee, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was speaking about why we are fighting the war on terror.

Religious intolerance reached the proverbial Foggy Bottom in the same article when Weinstein described Christians as “those evil fundamentalist Christian creatures” who hide behind the “facades” of “family values” and “religious liberty.” The same attributes could be also pinned to America’s founders, whom I suppose Mr. Intolerance would also deem as subversives.

It is obvious, foamy-mouthed Mikey has a bone to pick with Christians, and he’s found an effective way to get what he wants by working for the president and the president’s new military “yes man” Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Our fine men and women of the military, who are part of a historically noble institution, deserve so much better but are once again the punching bag at the expense of this intolerant administration.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com, Facebook or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2013 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Paul Zanetti / Australia, Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Zanetti)

It’s really that easy. After all, this is America; that “Shining City on a Hill” — a nation of immigrants, magnificently colored by a diversity of persons and cultures amalgamated into “one nation under God.” That’s who we are and how we roll. The beauty of it is…those who are uncomfortable with that… are free to leave. No harm, no foul. Something the Tsarnaev brothers should have done long ago. Lives would be saved, limbs would be intact, a little 8 year-old boy would still be smiling, and I’d have no need to write this column.

While we search for answers, it is human nature to cast blame. But it is unacceptable to blame the American way of life as some liberals are doing.  Killing or maiming innocent people is not how we resolve personal conflict.

With that said, I also believe left-wing knuckleheads in the media, schools, and universities need to accept their share of responsibility. Relentless anti-American diatribes will eventually work their way into the hearts and minds of those already struggling to assimilate.

A perfect example is former NBC anchor and author of “The Greatest Generation,” Tom Brokaw, who recently suggested America is partly to blame for the Boston bombings because the Tsarnaevs may have felt “alienated” and upset over U.S. drone strikes on “innocent civilians.”  What an odd statement coming from a man who profited by praising a generation who fought wars to win, political-correctness-be-damned. The difference then was America was willing to do whatever it took to halt evil in its footsteps. And now he seems to find it politically correct to damn America. What’s up with that?

It also doesn’t help that terrorism sometimes pays off. If you wait long enough, you could end up like former homegrown terrorist, err, activist, Bill Ayers. Without repenting for his deeds, Ayers found a way to weasel into the American education system and was awarded the title of “Distinguished Professor.” Apparently so distinguished, he was granted the privilege of hosting a fundraiser for the then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008. Hold on little Tsarnaev, there’s still hope.

I am a conservative, so I have a heart, and because I am a Christian, I have a bleeding heart. And my bleeding heart breaks for those who don’t realize the gift they have and deliberately refuse to be woven into the fabric of this nation of immigrants.

Everyone seems relieved that the Tsarnaev brothers were most likely not connected to a large terror network somewhere else in the world. If this is true, this suggests this evil came from within themselves, despite all they had going for them. This battle they seemed to have going on between two very different worlds was powerful enough to convince them that even an innocent 8 year-old boy is fair game. How many more are there?

This seeming inability to assimilate came into clearer focus for me this week during a White House press conference when Muslim reporter, Amina Ismail’s, question seemed to liken an act of war in Afghanistan to an act of terror. “…President Obama said that what happened in Boston was an act of terrorism,” said Ismail, “I would like to ask, do you consider the U.S. bombing on civilians in Afghanistan…a form of terrorism?” Of course, the correct answer is “no,” but the obvious disconnect begs a more troubling question:  Is assimilation even possible?

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

It is a fair question. I’ve asked it myself a time or two; especially after losing my husband some years back. There is something about death that shocks the rest of us into reality. We want answers…we need answers. We need to know that somehow in some way the pain we are feeling in that moment is of some significance to someone, somewhere in the universe.

Meanwhile, the clock’s pendulum swings, the sun rises and falls, the seasons change and life moves forward…whether we like it or not. At some point along this pain filled journey we call grief, we wonder where, exactly, was God during our time of suffering? Did he hear our cries? Did he see our pain…or was he too preoccupied with bigger concerns to notice?

We cast blame. We want justice. What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? Through the pain, we begin to understand how small we actually are… and how precious life is. We begin to recognize the reality of our own mortality. Like it or not, death is a reality for all of us. It comes for us many times when we least expect…and always too soon…in the blink of an eye or the blast of a bomb.

We must come to grips with the reality we live in a fallen world with all kinds of evil, and there’s nothing we can do to separate ourselves from it. Whether we like it or not, the world is full of people who are bent on taking out their anger and frustration on the innocent. Take heart; the short time we spend on this planet is not all there is to living. There is a hereafter, so it might be wise for each of us to figure out where we are headed here after.

In the meantime, instead of focusing on all the evil which seems to permeate every crack and crevice of this planet, we must look for the goodness around us. Like in the marathon runners who ran through the smoke and risked their lives to help the injured and others who crossed the finish line and continued running to the hospital to donate blood for the victims. Where was God? He showed up in the form of first responders and everyday bystanders who applied makeshift tourniquets, carried victims, or simply prayed.

God gets it. He understands our hurts. He feels our pain, empathizes with us in our grief, and hears our cries � because He knows what it feels like to watch a loved one die. He’s been there. So he cries along with us, reminding us along the way to breathe in… and breathe out… as we wait for history to finish the last pages of the story. Someday, we will look back at this brief moment we called life… and exceptionally bad days like Monday in Boston will somehow make sense…in light of eternity.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

�2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Early on, in the first term of the Obama administration, we felt the rumblings of the earthquake that always precedes the storm, when President Obama set the tone for how he expected sensitive issues to be handled. It wasn’t long before the Global War on Terror was renamed “Overseas Contingency Operation.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly followed suit when it redefined terrorist attacks as “man caused disasters.” A case of trickle-down idiocy, I suppose, considering that changing a name only makes for a temporary fix.

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

I learned that lesson as a kid, having been blessed with two sets of teeth, requiring a number of dentist visits to remove the stubborn baby ones. After the first disastrous visit (for all parties involved) because I kicked the dentist when he gave me a shot, my mom decided to change the name “dentist office” to “ice cream stand” to get me in the car. It worked once, just up until our car pulled into the dentist office parking lot rather than the ice cream stand.  Fool me once…

That night, my parents had a grownup conversation with me, (at me, really) explaining it was going to be unpleasant, but had to be done. To their credit, I have a decent smile today, but still get a weird feeling inside when I see an ice cream stand. Although I didn’t realize it then, that experience taught me a valuable lesson about political correctness, in that switching labels doesn’t change traits.

Currently, there is a strong push by the left to change America into the opposite of everything that makes this country exceptional. They are using political correctness to get there by relabeling things once considered honorable and wholesome as inappropriate, and things once considered immoral as good. What they do not realize is they are trapping themselves in the process. Exchanging God-endowed freedoms for man-made rules is never a fair trade.

This was recently on display in a smaller, but still toxic, military reservist sensitivity training workshop in Pennsylvania that would make Bill Maher proud (here) when the person in charge listed Jews, Catholics, and Christians as religious extremists alongside al Qaeda and the KKK. As you can see, inclusivity is not always a good thing.

The military was quick to respond promising it was an isolated event, but it seemed a bit misplaced considering the magnitude of faith-filled military veterans out there who have managed to love God and serve their country without pulling a “Nidal Hasan” on fellow soldiers. In the name of political correctness, Hasan’s alleged heinous act was kindheartedly labeled “work place violence” by the Obama administration, which also denied Purple Hearts to well-deserving soldiers at Fort Hood. Rather than calling it for what it is, the administration treated the massacre as if it were a mass pencil stabbing.

It works both ways. Obama had the opportunity to taste his own bitter medicine when he recently complimented California’s Kamala Harris by telling her she is “by far the best looking attorney general in the country.” The PC police swarmed, demanding Obama take gender sensitivity classes. He apologized, and the tsunami grew….and increased when free speech was culled after news journalists were told they can no longer use certain terms like “illegal alien” And the tide will expand further, if the two gay students at George Washington University, who demanded the ousting of a Catholic priest because he spoke about his church’s not-so-politically correct teachings about homosexuality, get their way.

The monstrous PC wave will continue to rise until it can no longer contain itself, and then will explode across America, drowning our freedom and leaving fascism in its wake.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com, Facebook or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2013 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Mike Keefe / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Keefe)

The abject failure of the VA under the leadership of the three-ring circus we know as the Obama Administration is a case in point that increasing funding does little to inject competence or efficiency.

Recent documents from an Internal Veterans Affairs Department reveal some veterans actually die before receiving the care they need and others are forced to wait up to eight months to see a doctor, well beyond the VA’s standard of 14 days.

A House Veterans Oversight and Investigations committee appointed to look into the problem found evidence the VA is falsifying numbers and closing out veterans’ appointment requests in response to the backlog. According to the Military Times, the committee chairman, Rep. Mike Coffman, R-CO, cites reasons for the closeouts include: “the request was years old, too much time had elapsed, or the veteran had died.”

A March 14, 2013 witness testimony by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Health Care Director, Debra Draper stated no one actually knows how long veterans are waiting for care because “the reported dates are unreliable” — a large number of VA appointment schedulers don’t know how to do their job, the whole system is obsolete, and dates are massaged to “show clinic wait times within VHA’s performance goals.”

I digress to note that similar complaints are also documented within Britain’s National Healthcare System where workers manipulate numbers to meet quotas to keep their jobs. If the VA can’t provide benefits to our nation’s veterans, how does the Obama administration plan to deliver healthcare for 30-plus million Americans?

Liberals would have us believe that a bloated federal government has the ability to play a meaningful role in nurturing people’s lives, but if they can’t get this one right, they should just fuhgeddaboutit. Case closed. Done.

Additionally, internal VA documents secured by the Center for Investigative Reporting found wait times for first-time disability compensation claims and other benefit claims are much longer than the VA cares to admit, with claims taking anywhere from 316 to 642 days.

In the first year of President Obama’s presidency, 11,000 veterans were on a claim waiting list for more than a year. Five years later, despite promises for improvement, and massive dollars “invested,” the situation has deteriorated.

Those on a one-year waiting list for claims rose by more than 2000 percent, to 245,000 in 2012. Currently, the average wait time for 900,000 veterans who have been willing to sacrifice life and limb for our freedom is 273 days. With that kind of malfeasance taking place under my watch, I think I’d do a little less golfing if I were president.

If you think this has something to do with “the mess Obama inherited,” then think again. The Center for Investigative Reporting found, “the average wait time for veterans filing disability claims fell by more than a third under President George W. Bush, even as more than 320,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans filed disability claims.” It’s actually about priorities, wouldn’t you say?

Jon Stewart effectively nailed it using humor March 27 on The Daily Show when he said, “McDonalds handles ten times that many customers in an hour, and may I remind you, they are run by a clown.” Sadly, though, the ineptitude of this administration is no laughing matter.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Gary McCoy / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by McCoy

Afterward, I met some friends for a burger at an oddly place beer-serving McDonald’s Café restaurant just across the road from Dachau. I ordered but couldn’t eat much. It felt wrong, sacrilegious even. Looking around the café that day, at all the people scarfing down their food seemingly unaware Dachau was across the road brought to mind the story my tour guide told about those who lived nearby who went about their daily lives, later claiming they were unaware of the atrocities taking place, despite the sounds, sights, and putrid odors just a stone’s throw away.

This blonde journalist included, all humans have a propensity for that kind of selective ignorance, which shelters us from pain or personal responsibility. How easy it is to be convinced that a homeless person or wandering dog doesn’t need our assistance, someone else will help. Or, maybe something sinister is happening next door, but we don’t want to get involved, like what investigators found to have happened at the Women’s Medical Society abortion clinic in West Philadelphia.

Only God knows why it took so long for the abortion clinic’s owner, Kermit Gosnell, to be charged with murder. Besides the Third World conditions at this clinic likened to a serial killer house of horror, FBI investigators discovered a vast collection of hewed babies’ feet and other parts dispersed in plastic bags, juice cartons and containers.

By the time I finished reading the more than 260-page grand jury investigation, I was overcome by nausea, much like I felt at Dachau. If you are up for it, you can read it online at: http://www.phila.gov/DistrictAttorney/PDFs/GrandJuryWomensMedical.pdf. Prepare to be sickened.

The report states, “This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these babies by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out his business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels – and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths.”

One former employee’s account claims the doctor joked about the large size of one of the children he allegedly snipped to death.

So why’d he do it? Doctor Gosnell, an African American, claims it was his way of giving back to his community. Seems it was more about money, allegedly pocketing millions of dollars, primarily from poor minority girls and women.  Nonetheless, and really to no surprise, his attorney is playing the race card, accusing officials of “an elitist, racist prosecution.”

There were many opportunities to expose this death factory but, sadly, no one did. The chilling grand jury investigation stated, “Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it….”

Why?  While no one can speak for those involved, one thing is for sure. The “nothing to see here” mentality is as dangerous today as it was during the Holocaust. We have a culture full of conscience-seared Americans who devalue human life to the point the whimpers of slaughtered children on abortion tables in Philadelphia are muffled out by the selfish cries of those demanding “convenience” and “choice,” and ignored by others so self-absorbed, they believe their selective ignorance exempts them from responsibility.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com, Facebook or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2013 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Obama has a terrible track record when it comes to Israel. In fact, a recent survey done by algemeiner.com shows most Israelis don’t like him. Of those surveyed, just 10 percent held a favorable opinion of Obama, 17 percent held highly unfavorable regard, 19 percent, unfavorable, and 32 percent said they respect him, but don’t necessary like him.

But, who could blame them? Obama is the first American president in history to demonstrate indifference toward them with both words and deeds. Israelis didn’t just wake up one morning and decide they don’t like our president. Actions have consequences. Israelis listened when Obama made disparaging remarks about their prime minister to the French president. They were offended when, according to The White House Watch, Obama rudely walked out of a meeting and left Prime Minister Netanyahu “to his own devices” to eat alone. They’ve watched when Obama repeatedly fanned the flame of animosity between Israelis and Palestinians by swelling settlement issues. Most recently, they were taken aback by Obama’s choice of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who many label as anti-Semitic.

When it comes to settlement issues, one would like to feel empathy for the pitiful predicament the Palestinian people find themselves in nowadays, but it is vital to separate feelings from facts. After all, Israel is a miniscule speck on the map about the same size as Houston, Texas, hemmed in by those who refuse to acknowledge her statehood and habitually threaten her.

There is not, nor has there ever been, a country of Palestine. Technically speaking, both the West Bank and Gaza Strip lack the criteria recognized by the international community defining a state. No matter how vociferously they shout, or how sorry we feel for them, it is wrong to give the Palestinian people something that is not theirs to begin with.

Also, Israel is not the warmongering state some make her out to be. As I’ve written before, prior to the infamous 1967 Six Day War, Israel made every effort to avoid conflict by attempting negotiations with its hostile neighbors only to be met with threats, taunts and harassments.

In 1963, the Arab League organized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), whose charter called for Israel’s destruction. The PLO’s guerillas attacked Israeli citizens 35 times in 1965, 41 in 1966 and 37 in the first quarter of 1967, infiltrating Israel from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Shedding light on the motivation for the attacks, Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, explained, “The danger of Israel lies in the very existence of Israel,” promising Arabs would enter Palestine “with its soil saturated in blood.” From 3000 feet above Galilee atop the Golan Heights, Syria joined the attacks by shelling Israeli farms and villages forcing women and children to live in bomb shelters. With threats of “soil saturated in blood,” the UN’s refusal to intervene, and America’s decision to remain neutral, Israel was forced to go it alone. In the end, Israel brilliantly captured the Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights; finally uniting Jerusalem.

Now, every action taken by Israel in self-defense is twisted to conform to, as one of my friends describes it, “the legitimacy of the emotional and hysterical Muslim view of the world, which bears no resemblance to historical or political reality.”

If Obama’s goal is peace in the Middle East, he must begin with his emphatic and unwavering support for our longtime friend and ally, Israel.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com, Facebook or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Relax.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is close our eyes, inhale the elevated CO2 levels in the air, and chill out. Although climate change alarmists want us to believe the contrary, fear will kill us before climate change will. Some things aren’t worth the hassle, especially if you already know how the story ends. One day the earth will be renewed. Until then, we should enjoy life and do our best to maintain the planet.

Paul Zanetti / Australia (click to view more cartoons by Zanetti)

The biblical truth “To everything there is a season” is valid and remains constant. Whether it is scorching summers or frigid winters, the earth continues to rotate while seasons change. From plant life forcing its way through volcanic ash to oceanic microbes swallowing up spilled oil, the earth has the Creator-granted ability to heal itself from wounds sustained by acts of man or God.

Of course, any mention of biblical principles in relation to scientific argument is consistently mocked by those who crow the sky is falling every time a cow passes gas or air temperatures fluctuate.

Indeed, carbon dioxide levels are on the rise, according to recent data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), but there is no reason for panic.  According to The Australian, the chief of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, recently confirmed despite elevated CO2 levels, there’s actually been a “17-year pause in global temperature rises.” On a lesser level, the University of Alabama’s Earth System Science Center in Huntsville also confirmed what those weary from snow shoveling already knew: the planet experienced a rapid cool down in February from the month prior. Whew. Good news. It’s okay to pull out your gas guzzling snow blowers.

Dr. Pachauri also said, “…science only thrives on the basis of questioning.”  If that is the case, then why do climate change alarmists not ask more questions? If they truly desire answers leading to solutions, why are they afraid to include the “God factor” in their line of questioning? Seems every time there’s a drought, hurricane or snowstorm, alarmists suggest the planet is intentionally regurgitating on mankind for its ecological malfeasance. It seems laughable environmentalists and presumed scientific experts regularly talk about the planet having the ability to execute vengeance on global sinners, but scoff at the very mention of God playing a role in climate fluctuations.

Alarmists are quick to ridicule those embracing Biblical teaching suggesting an apocalyptic ending preceding a renewal of the planet, yet themselves promote a similar end, bereft the grace and hope for renewal. While they’d never admit it, they practice their own religion, coming across like Greek gods who can control the earth’s climate and create weather.

Man can do neither, and the more we try, the more we hurt ourselves and the planet. A wind energy group, for example, is seeking permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to kill bald eagles and protected birds and bats through “Incidental Death.” The USFWS claims a viable alternative to reducing those deaths is sporadic shut downs during certain migratory seasons, effectively reducing efficiency, and raising consumer energy costs. In a rare collision of liberal signature issues, fossil fuel wackos are willing to sacrifice bald eagles in the name of clean energy.

To understand the environmentalists’ theology you must check common sense at the door. On the surface, wind turbines seem like a great alternative to fossil fuel. But the dirty little secret is fossil fuels are used to fill in during down times. And there are a lot of down times — because the wind doesn’t always blow…if only we could learn how to harness the hot air rising from the mouths of those who think they have the ability to change the climate.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com, Facebook or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

I write “odd notion” because since taking office, Obama and Team Pelosi-Reid have effectively used the U.S. Constitution for White House toilet paper. They consistently write checks which can’t be cashed and operate on budgets which cannot be balanced. Not exactly what the founders had in mind. Need a more specific example? All one needs to do is remember the spending spree Democrats went on when they were in control during 2009-2010, leading to the Obamacare fight which Republicans and a majority of Americans went on to lose.

As a result, the electorate said, “yes” to checks and balances when it said, “no more” to Democrats-Gone-Wild, awarding Republicans the House majority during the 2010 midterm elections (and again in 2012). It’s been a miserable two years for debt-addicted Democrats. Addiction is the right word to be applied here. Addicts (insert Democrats) lose control of their sensibilities; never attaining satisfaction because they always need more.

To heck with the electorate’s wishes and checks and balances; many of these archetypal addicts have convinced themselves any way but their way is downright immoral. According to the Washington Post on March 2, President Obama told reporters he can’t “force Congress to do the right thing” regarding the sequester he originally initiated. Right thing? Seems to me Congress is doing the right thing when they say no to what they believe is the wrong thing for those they represent. Right… err…correct?

Not on your life — if the goal is to eliminate all things traditionally American. And if that’s the case, brace yourself for more Chicago-style gangsta’ politics to regain control of the House of Representatives in 2014. That’s why we will continue to hear incessant rants flowing from Obama’s mouth articulating a dishonest portrayal of the “checks” (Republicans) placed to keep him in balance.

We also see the creepy metamorphosis of Obama’s “Organizing for America” into “Organizing for Action” (OFA), which, according to The Weekly Standard, exploits “a loophole in campaign law and ethics regulations” by claiming it is an ostensibly nonpolitical “social welfare group.” Considering some of the emails they’ve sent and I’ve received, they’re about as nonpolitical as the 501c(3) organization Media Matters, Fox News claims is bias to Democrats and “maintains a close working relationship with the Obama White House.”

OFA is pimping out the POTUS at $500,000 a pop. Regardless of legality, OFA is raising “pay to play” to a whole new level. “You can buy four audiences per year with President Obama,” according to the Washington Examiner. And $500,000 is for what? A means to an end I guess.

Those beholden to common sense can glance beyond the peripheral to see what’s undoubtedly happening. Had public welfare, by way of job creation or relief from exorbitant food and gas prices, been a priority, the momentum would be moving in the other direction five years in. Instead, Obama is bent on destroying the one thing, the GOP, which is keeping him from his dream of radical change.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

You see, America was founded by a handful of God-fearing patriots who didn’t always agree but believed certain things like life, liberty and the personal pursuit of happiness were worth dying for. And to ensure their ideas would survive the ages, they crafted one of the most revered documents ever put to paper, the United States Constitution.

It wasn’t long before this exceptional nation became the envy of those who thirsted for freedom and the enemy of those who despised it. Some loathed America to the point of making threats while others declared war. But a certain few understood defeat was increasingly less likely and instead devised a plan to take down America from within, one small step at a time.

The leader of the former Soviet Union Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev promised his beloved Communism would bury the capitalistic West without declaring war. The plan was outlined in a fascinating book called “The Naked Communist,” written in 1958 by a man named Cleon Skousen who accurately warned Americans of troubles to come unless things changed.

Skousen laid out the dangers Americans faced, point by point, almost as a Communist roadmap to America’s demise: Progressives captured the Democratic Party (goal number 15), civil rights actions were taken in courts to “weaken basic American institutions”(16), the educational system was infiltrated (17), rioting like the Occupy movement was encouraged (19), the press was infiltrated (20), domination of the big screen and television waves (21), cultural standards of morality were broken down (25), homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity were presented as “normal” (26), churches were infiltrated by those promoting social justice (27), prayer in schools was eliminated (28). Moreover, the Constitution and founding fathers were discredited (29 & 30) and American culture belittled by those promoting “cultural sensitivity training” seminars similar to one recently uncovered by a video showing employees pounding on tables while chanting anti-American rants led by a man representing the organization, Souder, Betances, and Associate, reaping more than $3.3 million taxpayer funds, according to USASpending.gov.

Skousen may have been a prophet, seeing that most of his predictions came to pass. Too clever to be labeled Communists, they chose the name “Progressive” and in the name of change set out to dismantle the Constitution, piece by piece. Progress was slow but steady, that is until their savior, Barack Obama, arrived.

And no one was outraged because the Communist mission was complete. As former KGB agent, Yuri Besmenov so eloquently described, without war or bloodshed, America and her people were demoralized, no longer having the reasoning ability to distinguish right from wrong, or to comprehend the immensity of the treasure they’d buried just outside the gates of Hell.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Obamacare is a good example. Its European-styled socialized healthcare system will fail the American people just like Britain’s National Healthcare System (NHS) has failed many of its citizens. When we allow the government in the name of compassion do for us what we should do for ourselves, individuals become numbers, treatments become quotas, and lack of funding sparks rationing.

I learned a similar, albeit much smaller lesson, recently while adopting a sweet little dog from a rescue organization, which I soon found, has more compassion than capability. As is typical with many online advertisements, the dog shown on their website was nothing like the sickly, tartar-mouthed, urine-drenched dog I picked up. As I write, my pup rests in my lap, just happy to have a home. Her first 24-hours included several baths, a vet visit, administering meds, and lots and lots of hugs in between. Although I’ve had to give up time and money, there is peace in my heart that only comes from personal sacrifice.

Arguably, liberals are far more well-known for their love of animals, but that same affection doesn’t extend to those of us walking on two legs. Most liberals actually believe the ill-equipped and incapable federal government is better suited to meet our needs. In Britain, however, some patients are in worse shape than my dog.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, a 2010 report found many “NHS patients were left unattended ‘for unacceptable amounts of time’ in urine-and feces-soaked beds.” The NHS system is in a death spiral. Costs are on the rise and funds that should be used for improving healthcare are reserved for negligence claims, which rose more than 30 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the UK Telegraph. And there’s no reason to believe Obamacare will be any better.

It’s easy to say you care when you see a need, but caring is only half the answer. There must be individual action tied to a bleeding heart. The question is: Do you care enough to do something about it yourself?

Awhile back, Author Arthur Brooks wrote an unbiased book titled, “Who Really Cares,” based on sound research finding conservatives to be 30 percent more generous than liberals and a Google study a few years ago found conservatives were twice as charitable as liberals. Of course, there’s an exception to every rule, so if we searched long enough, we’d find a few tightwad conservatives and a charitable liberal or two.

To be fair, liberals do give liberally, especially with other people’s time and money. Otherwise, the closest many would come to a homeless or hungry person is if they accidentally hit one with their government-subsidized Chevy Volt while texting on their federally-funded Obamaphone.

Statistics prove liberal programs like the war on poverty do much to line the pockets of bureaucratic administrators, but do little to help those most in need. Don’t believe me? Then take a walk around the White House after dark to watch the dumpster diving taking place near the First Family’s organic garden. A few years back, in D.C., my husband and I bought books of McDonald’s gift certificates and spent Christmas Eve walking in the vicinity of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue passing them out to homeless people. We figured we could get away with giving out greasy hamburger gift certificates to the Obama’s next-door neighbors while they were off eating healthy stuff on Hawaiian holiday.

As much as this is going to upset liberals, the only solution to poverty, homelessness and all other social ills affecting this country is charity motivated by courage and conviction, not penalty of law. We each have a responsibility to put feet to Jesus’ words about caring for the least among us.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star (click to view more cartoons by Fitzsimmons)

It seems the administration danced its way around case law and the Constitution in an attempt to justify the assassination of three American citizens it refuses to acknowledge it had any part of, post execution. In September 2011, Anwar al-Awlaki, the mastermind behind the failed December 25, 2010 airplane BVD bombing, and his cohort, Samir Khan were killed. Two weeks later, in a separate drone attack, Denver native and 16-year-old son of al-Awlaki followed his father’s fate.

According to the Washington Post, “a recently leaked ‘white paper’ from the Justice Department…permits the government to kill its citizens in secret while refusing to acknowledge, even after the fact, that it had done so.”

No matter how evil someone is, it is unnerving that any president wouldn’t hesitate to blatantly disregard an American citizen’s constitutional right to a trial and then make the decision to become prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner of that same citizen — and not man-up afterward.

To be clear, the use of drones on the modern battlefield has proven effective, but great ideas in the wrong hands can sour quickly.

In the recently crafted and leaked white paper, the administration makes a weak argument to justify its extrajudicial power grab by suggesting “the use of lethal force” against an American citizen is equivalent to George W. Bush’s detention of foreign enemy combatants.

It seems like only yesterday a then-junior senator from Illinois repetitively repudiated Bush’s actions that included the capture, detention, and questioning of non-American enemy combatants, and a military-style christening of a few. Many say Bush’s actions led to information regarding Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts and eventual elimination.

What a difference a little (or a lot of) power makes. There’s a new sheriff in town and, suddenly, the North Star we Americans call the Constitution is no longer the effective navigational tool it once was. Now it’s okay to assassinate citizens and grant due process to non-citizens.

After Obama’s election, his administration became obsessed with lavishing constitutional rights on Guantanamo Bay terrorists and tried to move them to New York City where they’d be granted due process. Back in August 2012, Attorney General Holder told Bloomberg he still regrets the “missed opportunity.”

To complicate things, the white paper extends the battlefield to any foreign country. Page 7 suggests “clear evidence” — that a specific act will occur in the near future — is not required. Page 11 supports killing those simply in the scheming stage, leaving no room for a change of heart. They are guilty because they thought about it. To be fair, the paper does identify potential targets as high level leaders, and it also lists “capture” as an option, but contradicts itself considering what supposedly happened to the16-year old Denver resident. Guilty by association?

Throughout the 16-page document, the white paper intermittently leaves out the word “al-Qaida,” and uses  the term “terrorist groups” (or variants thereof), which would be of no concern were we dealing with a more transparent and less paranoid administration. Lest we forget, they put out the “Right-wing extremists” watch list in 2009 secretly informing police forces to look out for those who love God, celebrate freedom, adhere to wholesome values, and cherish the Constitution.

What one generation does in moderation the next does in excess; the same goes for presidents. Baby steps. As simplistic as it is, two wrongs will never make something right. We are now witnessing liberals using Bush’s so-called extra-judicial activities as case law to justify stepping deeper into the darkness in support of third world-like capital punishment without trial. So what might this president, or his successor, try next?

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Or maybe it was the unvarnished idea of the farmer, which is so often identified with America. It is the image of a tough life, one marked by hard work and honest living. A time when men were men, and that was okay. A time when workdays didn’t end until the work was done.

When was the last time anyone gave a second thought as to where their groceries came from? Or, even cared? I haven’t in a long time, at least not until this commercial aired. When I need food, I drive to the nearest grocery store and buy some, and become irritated when the date on the milk isn’t as new as I’d like it to be. I’ve never had to provide milk for myself, and I’ll bet farmers feel a certain sense of pride when the shelves are full, and dates are fresh.

But why should we care? Because besides feeding us, American farms feed the world. According to the American Farm Bureau in 2010, one third of the farms in the U.S. exported upwards of “$115 billion worth of American agricultural products.” All this from more than two million farms across the country. Not too shabby, until you consider in 1935 there were nearly seven million farms. And it’s getting worse.

Farming, like manufacturing, has begun a slow death in this country, sped along by a lazy younger workforce, many of which would rather stare at, as my niece so describes, “glowing rectangular objects” (smart phones), than produce something with soiled hands. According to the EPA, around 40 percent of farmers are 55 years old, or older. And according to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture, farmers under the age of 45 dropped 21 percent in five years.

The EPA report stated, “The graying of the farm population has led to concerns about the long-term health of family farms as an American institution,” therefore the direct attack of family farms in 2012 by the Progressive-leaning Obama administration should have come as no surprise to anyone. After massive outcry, the DOL dropped its oppressive imperative banning children from working on their parents’ farms.

In their quest to upend all that makes this country great, Progressives have hijacked the word “progressive” in hopes to paint buttercream icing over the cow dung they call ideology. And many of us have theoretically ingested it, without thought, and have no idea why our stomachs hurt and souls feel empty. It came as no surprise liberals attacked the Paul Harvey Superbowl commercial. The Atlantic called it “racist,” The LA Times, “retro,” and some bloggers deemed it “religious.”

All is not lost though because a real and present war still wages for the heart and soul of America. On one side, there are those who would have us wholeheartedly embrace hedonism, self-worship, and bowing down to the god of government. And on the other side, there are those who provide for the needs of the others, and still find time to quietly celebrate God, family, country, sacrifice, and the virtues of hard work and self-reliance.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Chris Weyant / The Hill (click to view more cartoons by Weyant)

The recently released official White House photo of a predominately pale-faced and testosterone-filled cabinet (which I have no problem with) is enough to cause any misinformed voter into wondering what has become of the so-called party of women.

To be fair, women fill about half the White House staff positions, but the highest- level cabinet positions are currently extremely male and predominantly white. This seems a bit odd, considering the media narrative over the past 50 years has painted Republicans as the party of rich white men. But that’s not the case, if you look at the actual highest-level cabinet positions women were appointed to since Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR).

FDR appointed Frances Perkins as the first female cabinet member in 1933. Democrat presidential successors Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, appointed zero.

Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Oveta Culp Hobby as the first secretary of the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare and Republican president Richard M. Nixon, zero.

At that point in history, after four Democrat and two Republican presidents, two female cabinet members were appointed, one per party.

Republican president Gerald Ford appointed Carla Anderson Hills as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and then Democrat president Jimmy Carter appointed Shirley Ann Mount Hufstedler as Secretary of Education, Patricia Roberts Harris as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, and Juanita Morris Kreps as Commerce Secretary. The score: Democrats 4 and Republicans 2.

Republican Ronald Reagan appointed Margaret Heckler as HHS Secretary, Ann McLaughlin Korologos as Secretary of Labor, and Elizabeth Dole as Transportation Secretary. Reagan’s successor Republican president George H.W. Bush, appointed Elizabeth Dole as Labor Secretary, Lynn Morley Martin as his second Labor Secretary, and Barbara Hackman Franklin as Secretary of Commerce. Democrats 4 and Republicans: 8.

Democrat president Bill Clinton, who thoroughly enjoyed women in the White House, only appointed five women to his cabinet during both terms. Clinton appointed Hazel Reid O’Leary as Energy Secretary, Alexis Margaret Herman as Labor Secretary, Madeleine Albright as Secretary of State, Janet Reno as Attorney General, and Donna Shalala as HHS Secretary. Democrats: 9.

And then there was George W. Bush, God love him. Bush haters may want to take a deep breath before reading how many women he appointed to his cabinet. Gale Ann Norton was the first female Secretary of the Interior, Condoleezza Rice became the first female African American Secretary of State, Elaine Chao enjoyed two terms as Labor Secretary, Ann Veneman was appointed as US Secretary of Agriculture, Margaret Spellings as Education Secretary, Maria Cino served as acting Transportation Secretary until another female, Mary E. Peters, was nominated to that position. Christine Todd Whitman was appointed as EPA Administrator and, for a total of nine female appointees, Bush appointed Susan Carol Schwab as US Trade Representative in 2006.  Republicans: 17.

This takes us to President Obama, who, in his first term appointed to his cabinet six women including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. So far, Obama’s appointed zero new women for his second.

Since FDR, the Democrat Party has governed over 12 presidential terms with seven presidents, who combined, accounted for 15 female nominees as compared to the GOP’s nine terms, six presidents and 17 female nominees. It seems the “Party of Women” is actually the Republican Party, which doesn’t fit the mold cast by Democrats of a party filled with pregnant, barefoot soccer-moms who forgot to pay for their birth control.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2013 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Daryl Cagle / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Cagle)

It is incomprehensible that this former constitutional lawyer would argue during his speech that America has evolved to the extent “our founding documents” no longer require us to “define liberty in exactly the same way.” But then again, it’s not so far-fetched considering what he’s done so far as well as the radicals he’s wrapped his life around. Some in the mainstream media have pondered if compromising with Republicans will be part of his second term agenda, but based on his address, the short answer is “no.” Put on your seatbelts; we’re headed for four more years of divide and conquer politics. The carnage will be immense, considering the majority of Americans are not far-left radicals.

Clearly, our founders defined liberty as the right of individuals to pursue their own interests with minimal interference from a limited government. To suggest otherwise either shows a lack of understanding of America’s founding principles or a disregard for the same. Obama seems intent on widening the already colossal ideological divide.

And herein lies the complexity of a community organizer turned president: his ideology contradicts the constitution he is sworn to uphold.

If the ultimate goal is to shake up, tear down, and fundamentally transform America into the collectivist society Obama’s honey-filled words dripped of, he will do so without the support of half the country. As the rest of us find ourselves scratching our heads trying to figure out where the constitutional authority exists to achieve this transformation, Obama moves forward, motivated by a ludicrous notion that the Constitution must change because times have.

Obama’s inaugural speech words echoed similar thoughts from his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” suggesting the Constitution “is not a static but rather a living document, and must be read in the context of an ever-changing world.”

At least he is consistent. On WBEZ-FM, Chicago, 12 years ago, making a case for wealth redistribution and social justice, suggesting it would be found in what the Constitution did not say. Citing a previous court case, Obama said, “the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties” mandating “what the states can’t do to you” and “what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.”

And he’s lived in the gray ever since. Black and white have given way to ever-expanding shades of gray so much that listening to a policy speech from the president requires an interpreter. The inaugural speech was replete with duplicitous and eerily conservative phrasing like “equality” to conceal wealth redistribution and “safety” in “the quiet lanes of Newtown” to mask expanded gun control.

It might be time for citizens to grasp an understanding of what our founders meant when they wrote and spoke about liberty. Let me leave you with former congressman Ron Paul’s definition: “Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks…Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety…Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen, and a false government security blanket beckons.”

I still believe. How about you?

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Toward this end, they will tell you anything to get what they want. For example, they say they are multiculturalists, right up until election season when cultures become pawns to move around the political battlefield. .All non-compliant free-thinkers are dealt with accordingly.

Consider the war on women last year contrived to convince women the Democrat Party is the place for them. In the end, they made women look more like sex objects best left in the bedroom. It was demeaning to listen to all the noise made about free birth control at the DNC last summer; I fully expected to see birth control pills and NuvaRings rain down from the ceiling at convention’s close. And how about President Obama’s new near estrogen-free cabinet? The party for women? Hah.

So now they say we urgently need gun control.  And, they are exploiting children the same way they exploit minorities and women to get it. The Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre is a means to an end. On MSNBC recently, guest Patricia Maisch said, “It’s a shame we had to get to the 20 little martyrs” at Sandy Hook to take action regarding gun control. Little martyrs? Martyrs for what? The religion of gun control?

The time has come for Progressives to come clean about gun control. Drop the word “gun” and we’ll be a little closer to having an honest conversation. But since they won’t, please let me help. I recently visited one of my favorite Progressive websites, where I ran across an article claiming gun control measures would do little to change anything because Americans at large are too evil and violent. It’s hard to reconcile all the America-loathing out there, but there is a simple solution: Renounce your citizenship and purchase a one-way plane ticket.

The article failed to present an honest assessment of facts and figures, most likely to incite an emotional, rather than rational response, hence inspiring me to go fact digging, which led me to the FBI’s Expanded Homicide Data Table number 8.

According to the FBI, in 2010, there were 8,775 gun homicides. Of those, 6009 were from handguns, 358 from rifles, 373 from shotguns, 96 by “other” guns, and 1939 “not specified.” This breakdown doesn’t bode well for those promoting re-regulation of assault weapons. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, most mass murders are committed with “firearms that would not be restricted by an assault weapons ban.”

The same FBI report disclosed that knives and cutting instrument deaths (1704) quadrupled rifle deaths and 540 people died from blunt objects, similar to the Golden Globe award Anne Hathaway just received and labeled as a “lovely blunt object that I will forevermore use as a weapon against self-doubt.” Knock yourself out, Anne. Anyway, I digress.  If one applied the same twisted logic as Vice President Biden who recently said, “If only one life is saved, it’s worth it,” then I suppose we need to ban big shiny club-like award objects. Or maybe we need to ban the use of appendages, since almost twice the amount of people who died from shotgun wounds were killed by hands, fists or feet. While we’re at it, we need to do something about falling because, according to the CDC, 24,792 people died as a result, in 2009.

Progressives’ logic on this issue is ridiculous and it is ridiculous for Conservatives to participate because in the end, Progressives may not get everything they want, but will get more than they should. In reality, according to the aforementioned FBI report, firearm murders dropped significantly from 2006 to 2010; while, according to Bloomberg Business , gun sales have exploded since 2009, meaning the real answer to less gun deaths is more guns.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Randy Bish / Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (click to view more cartoons by Bish)

It took about three hours to replace every CFL bulb in my house and carefully place them in a huge plastic container used to transport them to the recycling center at a local home improvement store. I said a quick prayer for safety while coasting down the road in my SUV. A HAZMAT decal would have come in handy because had I been in a collision, I had enough mercury on board to make the evening news. And because I am a Conservative, they might have labeled me a home-grown terrorist.

CFLs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Back in 2008, some Yale University scientists isolated CFLs’ benefits down to one: lower energy bills. The scientists questioned whether a little savings was worth the danger attached to mercury exposure and “runoff downstream.”

Besides making the environment sick, researchers recently discovered these “environmentally friendly” light bulbs aren’t friendly to humans either. According to the UK Telegraph, CFLs “should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head” because “they emit poisonous materials when switched on.” The report found those “carcinogenic substances” should be “kept as far away as possible from the human environment” because they may cause migraines, skin problems and breast cancer. Great.

It really makes no sense. Somehow it’s okay to have mercury housed in delicate glass bulbs inside every home in America, yet the EPA feels compelled to enact new regulations like the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) limiting mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants promising MATS would raise kids’ IQs, prevent a substantial amount of premature deaths, reduce heart attacks, and lessen childhood asthma. I’d settle for weight control and whiter teeth.

Sounds wonderful. Problem is, the EPA’s logic is about as twisted as a CFL, considering most people don’t live next to a coal-fired plant, but every home in America using CFLs is at risk of mercury exposure.

They say the pricey CFL’s are cost efficient, but fail to mention their measure for efficiency decreases if the bulbs are switched on and off.  Nor do they discuss the outrageous price per bulb or the gas usage (carbon footprint) involved in transporting old bulbs. They also fail to factor in human nature; most people will simply discard old bulbs instead of spending their Saturday driving to the recycling center.

Seems to me, enacting the most expensive EPA rule revision in history, MATS, has less to do with people and more to do with coal-fired plants. Back in January 2012, the Washington Times said the rule will cost power plants up to $18 billion a year and “will be passed directly to consumers.”  I’ve always believed Progressives love the planet but hate the people who live on it.  Think about it.  They are quick to condemn environmental violators but conveniently ignore the massive amounts of mercury Mother Nature herself spews out by way of volcanoes, deep-sea vents and geysers. Maybe we should tax the planet, just for good measure.

According to Power Engineering Magazine, by 2016, EPA rules will force the shutdown of “32 mostly coal-fired power plants” in 12 states, and possibly 36 others. The shutdowns will lead to higher power costs, less jobs, and potential rationing.  Before long, we’ll be rubbing sticks together to cook food, stay warm, and find our way to the community outhouse.

But, in the meantime…tonight I celebrate. I purged my home of all those hazy mercury-filled bulbs and I’m switching on every last one of my incandescent bulbs to celebrate — in hopes the Google Earth satellite will drift my way and snap a picture. My house will be one of the brightest spots on the planet, second only to Al Gore’s.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2013 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Cam Cardow / Ottawa Citizen (click to view more cartoons by Cardow)

This present darkness has its roots in our nation’s moral decline, and the further we get from our moral center, the worse off we are as a people — and a nation. It has taken some time to get where we are today. Over the years, Conservatives have allowed Progressives to hijack the conversation about our founding principles. Liberals have replaced morality with moral relativism in an attempt to justify their own moral ineptitude. For example, a group recently sanitized the King James Bible from any reference to homosexuality, replacing it with their own politically correct version they titled the “New Queen James Bible.”

Moreover, we’ve allowed liberals to distort our founders’ intentions concerning the separation of church and state. Consequently, prayer and most other references to God have been banned from the public square; yet they see no plausible correlation to those actions and recent mass shootings.

Mum’s the word when it comes to God, but the roof is raised by right to choose discussions — just as long as the conversation stays within the confines of the human life women should be allowed to extract from their bodies. But choice flies out the window when the discussion changes to things the rest of us put in our bodies — like soda, fats, salt, and caffeine. They’re all about women’s rights — until you mention Islamic extremism or third-world barbarism in places like Darfur. And to them, capitalism is reprehensible, but taking hard-earned money from a capitalist is okay.

Progressives’ ideological inconsistencies will be their downfall and their ideology will most certainly crumble beneath the weight of truth just as the Iron Curtain did in 1989.

What is wrong in America today is what went terribly wrong in Russia many years ago when the Soviet Union tried the Marxist way to go it on its own without God. While many cast the blame for their problems on poor economic and political choices, Russian writer and Nobel Prize recipient Alex Solzhenitsyn blamed it on the fact “men had forgotten God.” He was right, and the world discovered how wrong Marx was when men (and women) who refused to forget God played a monumental role in crushing Communism in Eastern European countries.

The story is told in Philip Yancey’s book, “Finding God in Unexpected Places,” in East Germany every demonstration began with worship. (I’m not getting all spiritual on you here; I’m simply restating history.) Small groups would throw prayer meetings filled with political dissidents, concerned citizens, and some of those reprehensible Christians. After a period of prayer, pastors spoke while holding newspapers in one hand and Bibles in the other. Afterward participants went outside to walk peacefully through dark streets holding banners and candles.

In October 1989, as East Berlin was celebrating the 44th year of its communist regime, police were instructed to shoot demonstrators in Leipzig, where crowds had grown to nearly 500,000, but thankfully never did. On November 9, the crowd had doubled to one million when the unimaginable happened; a gap in the Berlin Wall opened. Without incident, candle-carrying East Germans peacefully filed through and over the wall, effectively bringing down the East German government in the process.

By years’ end, multiple Eastern Bloc countries joined East Germany’s fate, and by the end of 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved. Hope sprung eternal and the world experienced a long-anticipated fresh breath of freedom because people put their faith and longing for freedom into action thus allowing the world to witness a miracle.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

As heartbreaking as it is that 20 children in Connecticut will not have the chance to open Christmas presents, celebrate birthdays, go on a first date, drive a car, graduate, get married, and have kids, there are millions of kids out there who will. And they are the reason why the rest of us need to fight for the freedoms guaranteed to us in the Constitution which Progressives are so predictably willing to give away.

Before Americans were able to corporately exhale upon hearing the news about the Connecticut shooting, liberals hopped on the gun control bandwagon. One of MSNBC’s many loose cannons, Ed Schultz, went on a rant saying, “Hiding behind the Second Amendment doesn’t cut it anymore,” and described our founders as slave-owning bigots. It’s real hard to wrap your hands around the hypocrisy of those who cry giant crocodile tears over the loss of these 20 precious children (and they should), but care little about millions of children who will never see the light of day due to abortion.

And here we go again; Progressives are manipulating the Sandy Hook massacre as a way to strike down the Second Amendment. Truth is, gun control is like putting a bandage on a gaping wound. Seems to me a better solution is to do something about the culture of violence currently destroying our society from the inside out — and place armed guards in schools in the meantime.  Chances are, had one been at Sandy Hook, I wouldn’t be writing about it today.

I may date myself here, but when I was a kid, I didn’t stay inside playing violent computer games or watching violent movies; I played outside with real people who picked flowers in the spring, climbed trees in the summer, jumped in leaf piles in the fall, and ice skated on frozen ponds in the winter.  And I grew up to be a responsible citizen and gun owner.

As I’ve written before, if you listen to liberals long enough it’s not too long before you find yourself in Bizarro World. And in the case of the Second Amendment, Progressives like Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pretzel it into something it is not. On “Meet the Press” December 16, Feinstein inferred arming school guards is a crummy idea because “the rights of the few” (i.e. the millions who own guns) would, in her world, somehow “overcome the safety of the majority.” Say, what? Bizarro.

As brokenhearted as we all are over what happened in Connecticut, gun control will not stop those lacking certain emotional filters from doing bad things to children – and others.  Policies in China, for example, make it largely illegal for private citizens to own and sell guns. Possession or sale of a gun can lead to anywhere from a 3 year prison term to the death penalty. I digress to mention that because the Chinese government has little regard for human life, gun laws were devised to protect the tyrannical Chinese government from its citizens rather than the other way around.

Nevertheless, people find a way to do bad things, and in the case of the Chinese, crazy people are still hurting children. Oddly, on the same day the Sandy Hook massacre took place, a knife-wielding Chinese man stabbed almost two dozen children at an elementary school in central China. And he found a way to do it although the Chinese government recently enacted strict knife regulation measures after a spate of deadly knife and cleaver attacks on school children in China in 2010, killing 20 and wounding 50.

Before long, the Chinese will be eating steak with teaspoons, and so will we — if we relinquish our Second Amendment rights to those who would rather steal the rights of the masses than address our society’s moral decline. With that in mind, the best gift we can give our kids this Christmas is a future filled with the promise of freedom.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Jimmy Margulies / The Record (click to view more cartoons by Margulies)

You’d think Obama would try to mask the animosity he has toward America’s successful. According to the president, the rich can save this country if they would repent of their greed and fork over the money stuffed between the mattresses in their devalued formerly million dollar homes.  All the while, the carefully vetted crowds he rouses rant and cheer to the shrewdly crafted catch phrases obviously meant to rile them.

So let me throw this little piece of wisdom out there pro bono to educate the uniformed: Financial experts including Senate Budget Committee member John Thune, R-S.D., say raising taxes on job creators would only generate enough revenue to support the president’s spending habit for about a week.  Surely something else is at play here.

Without a doubt, in these tough economic times, any policy decision that could harm charitable organizations, in turn would hurt the poor. Could it be Obama views charities as an obstacle to universal dependence on government? He shouldn’t, because the government has done a lousy job helping the poor thus far. It’s no secret our government has lost the war on poverty. According to the White House’s own website, billions of dollars were designated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Stimulus) to “alleviate the poverty made worse by the economic crisis.” The result? Drumroll please….

Poverty got worse.

According to the Washington Times somewhere around one-sixth of our population or 46.2 million people have descended into poverty and 2.5 million of them joined those ranks between 2010 and 2011. And now we hear murmurings that the administration is considering yet another stimulus funded by none other than those repugnant rich people Progressives love to hate (unless their last name is Gates, Buffett, Gore, Clinton, Kennedy, Kerry, or liberal Hollywood stars).

Oh, the unabashed hypocrisy of those who label the rich as “greedy” yet believe it morally justifiable to take someone else’s hard earned money to redistribute according to their own freakish fancy.

The bottom line here is raising taxes on the successful and tinkering with charitable contributions deductions means less money for organizations — which actually do something to help the poor. I guess that’s how liberals define tough love.

Whatever the case, the Salvation Army needs our help. According to CBS News in Minnesota, Salvation Army has received a record number of requests for assistance from families this year. Many of these families will receive much needed food, toys, money and other needs, thanks to the army’s red kettles and a new nationwide “Fill the Truck” campaign co-sponsored by another organization liberals hate: non-unionized Wal-Mart.

I challenge you to do what I’m doing this year to aid their cause by setting aside all the money I would have spent on my liberal friends who think helping the poor is always done with other people’s money. I’m simply putting their words into action by redistributing the money I would have spent on them – to the Salvation Army.

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Gary McCoy / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by McCoy)

Yes, these are the same people who think goodness exists without God (with a capital “G”) and lose their free-thinking minds at courthouse displays of the Ten Commandments. Nothing against all the free thinking atheists out there, but what rational argument can be made against “Thou shalt not kill” or “Honor thy Father and Mother”?

You’d think free thinking would involve thinking outside the box a bit. It would have saved an atheist group time, money and the embarrassment of recently losing their lawsuit to remove a statue in Whitefish, Montana. One person, out of the countless thousands having skied past the 57-year old statue over the years, found it offensive. Had a little of that “free thinking” been conjured, maybe they would come to the same conclusion the judge overseeing the case did in late November deciding the “Jesus” statue should remain because it is of a historical nature having been erected as a World War II memorial for veterans who saw a similar one in Europe during WWII.

Indeed, America’s founders separated church and state because of the tyrannical mess they escaped from and fought against, but it is a ruse to suggest God was removed in the process. Au contraire. Judeo-Christian morality is woven through the very fiber of the U.S. Constitution. The founders under-pinned our nation’s laws with morality to maintain a steady framework that has been systematically chipped away at by individuals, a tiny minority I might add, forcing the masses to conform to their own religion of worshipping themselves, i.e., “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”.

So now they are going after Charlie Brown. An atheist group is upset an Arkansas school offered students an optional, meaning not required, school field trip to see a production of “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown” which just happened to be showing at a local church. The November 29 letter sent to the Little Rock Arkansas School District by the Appignani Humanist Legal Center speaks to separation of church and state and complains: “The message of the play is clear: Jesus Christ is the son of God and the messiah, and the real meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the anniversary of his birth. It is completely sectarian in nature and expressly rejects any secular version of Christmas…”.

Well, duh. The group claims they are standing up for the rights of children, but what child, after watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” has a conversion experience? But… if they do…good for them. I’m thinking these people might need to deal with their own Christianphobia. Charlie Brown? Come on.

The American Humanist Association’s (AHA) website unveiled its latest un-Christmas campaign, “Bias Against Atheists Is Naughty, Not Nice,” which accuses Christians of intolerance and depicts Santa Claus drafting a naughty list in the towns where the AHA claims atheists experienced discrimination because of their disbelief.

At the expense of sounding nit-picky here, on what basis would these particular free thinkers claim discrimination is wrong? In doing so, aren’t they inadvertently acknowledging a belief in Judeo-Christian morality and a fortuitous belief in God? Check out Deuteronomy 10:17 which states God is against partiality (discrimination). Humanists say humans can be “good without God,” but fall back into the same trap about the definition of good and how they arrived at that definition.

They claim they want freedom from religion, which they already have because it is one of our founding principles. Besides, Christianity is not a religion. Never was. Never will be. It’s a relationship. A way of life. A choice.

But freedom–from God–is another matter altogether, and that’s something they’ll have to work out with the man upstairs.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

Gerard said those who compromise are not “real Democrat[s],” proof that extremists have taken over the Democrat Party. It should come as no surprise to anyone that some of the most frequent White House guests are union bosses. Granted, there was a time when union bosses were considered the “good guys” looking out for the working class, but somewhere along the way they’ve become the epitome of the very things they once fought against.

Even still, President Obama continues to consult with labor leadership regarding job creation and economic issues as he recently did November 13. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka walked away saying he was pleased with the outcome, and now we hear labor unions are investing big union dollars to promote President Obama’s tax the rich propaganda. And, in return? According to the Washington Examiner, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is working on a special rule forcing non-union employers to disclose to union organizers the private contact information of workers in order to facilitate union expansion. So much for a worker’s right to privacy. While we’re at it, why don’t we rename the country “Cuba-West?”

According to Front Page Magazine, Gerard has threatened to “hit the streets, kick some a–, and mobilize” to encourage Obama to move forward in creating big spending plans. Obviously, Gerard’s animosity toward free market capitalism fuels his gansta’-like comments. According to the magazine, Gerard perceives capitalism as economic “inequality” that “leads to instability and violence.”

Sure wish the Baker’s union had considered the whole economic inequality thing when representing the 18,000 Hostess Brands workers who lost their jobs just before Christmas in part because the union demanded that cake and bread be transported in separate trucks. What does it matter as long as they can turn a profit? The idea that in this country it is somehow acceptable to destroy a company and its workers’ livelihoods in order to prove your point suggests it might be time for organized labor to go by way of the dinosaur.

It should not shock anyone labor union participation has dwindled to nearly single digits, nor is it a surprise that union vultures continue to target Wal-Mart in hopes of increasing those dwindling numbers. If only this was about bailing workers out of austere conditions. Not even close. Truth be told, a unionized Wal-Mart is a bail-out for unions whose pensions for the rank-and-file are currently unfunded by up to 55 percent. It’s a different story for union bosses, most of which boast six figure salaries, fully-funded pension plans and perks fit for a king and always find a way to squeeze out money for Democrats.

Wal-Mart workers are much smarter than liberals would make them out to be. Just 50 or so employees bit on Big Labor’s Black Friday bait encouraging workers to join them on the picket lines. Despite the chaos, Wal-Mart fared well. According to Fox Business, on Black Friday they sold “more than 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million televisions, 1.3 million dolls, and 250,000 bicycles” and Wal-Mart shares “ticked up 0.15% to $68.99.” Obviously, the union vultures failed on Black Friday, but they’ll be back.

But I have a better idea. Since union bosses seem to be so concerned about everyone paying their “fair share,” why don’t they put their money where their mouth is and lobby Congress to eliminate unions’ tax exempt status and create a union tax?

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Curiously, the shake-down here in the U.S. began just after the September 11 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, begging the question: Who benefits when great military leaders like Petraeus fall.

Daryl Cagle / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Cagle)

According to ABC News on October 27, “In an unusual move” the Navy replaced Rear Adm. Charles Gaouette who commanded a task group near Benghazi. Gaouette is under investigation for “allegations of inappropriate leadership judgment” they say is “not related to personal conduct.”

A few days later on November 2, the captain of the frigate Vandegrift, Commander Joseph Darlak, was also relieved of his duties for “alleged drunkenness,” according to Fox5 in San Diego,

In addition, the Commander of United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), General Carter Ham, who was at the center of the Benghazi incident on September 11, was precipitously scheduled for early retirement, according to the Washington Times.

If those losses are not devastating enough, enter the rapidly developing story about ISAF Commander General John R. Allen whose promotion is currently on hold until investigators can make sense of thousands of emails purportedly shared between Allen and an attractive Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, who, according to the UK Daily Mail, “flirt[ed] outrageously with senior military figures invited to lavish parties at her $1.3 million Tampa mansion.”

The plot thickens when you add to the mix Kelley and her husband purportedly had financial troubles. According to TampaBay.com Kelley and her husband were “subjects of lawsuits nine times” including “an indebtedness case from Chase Bank; a foreclosure case from Regions Bank, a credit card case from FIA Card Services” and “an $11,000 judgment against them” from when they lived in Pennsylvania.

Petraeus and Allen share much in common in that they are married, are highly decorated generals, are under investigation for inappropriate behavior, and also share a friendship with Jill Kelley. According to the UK Daily Mail, Kelley and Petraeus exchanged non-romantic “near-daily emails and instant messages” while Petraeus was commander in Afghanistan. The same thing allegedly happened to Allen.

We are told Petraeus’ alleged mistress perceived Kelley as a threat and sent disturbing emails to Kelley who then contacted a “friend” at the FBI, and the next thing we know, prominent military leaders are dropping like dominoes. While there is no justification for inappropriate behavior, it is fair to question if Petraeus and Allen were set up.

All this drama reminds me of a historical event that took place in 1941 when Joseph Stalin purged the Soviet Union’s Red Army of its best officers and leaders because he feared a military coup due to growing opposition to his highly unpopular policies. Putin’s doing the same thing today, save the bloodshed – we hope.

Hopefully, in our case, it’s a bit less nefarious; Obama is sitting idle while the Benghazi scandal makes its way through the ranks and does nothing to slow it down. Or, maybe, we are dealing with something as simple as a convenient distraction, wherein Obama hopes the more we focus on sexy, the less we’ll search for truth. Either way, Obama benefits and we lose.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

Mindboggling is the word that comes to mind when I swallow the fact that a majority — almost 60 million people — voted to affirm the antithesis of America’s Judeo-Christian values and sound economic reform. It is as if people checked their brains at the door prior to pulling the polling booth’s curtain.

The chickens will most certainly be coming home to roost in America, so it sure would be nice if there were a way to protect those of us who voted with all our faculties intact from the looming collateral damage. But it doesn’t work that way. Until the bottom drops out and we become Greece West, we are still America, and Americans do not give up just because times are tough.

Failure is not a bad word — just as long as it is followed by a comma or semicolon and not a period. History is filled with examples of failure transformed into achievement. The 2012 election should serve as an opportunity for introspection as well as inspiration because conservatives can do better.

One takeaway from Romney’s defeat is we conservatives must invest our time and energy on America’s youth. Analysts say more youth voted in 2012 than in 2008 and Obama was the recipient of more than 60 percent of the youth vote.

While many of us have been preoccupied making big bucks and moving up the corporate ladder, liberalism has wormed its way into our school systems and universities; hence infiltrating our children’s minds. We’ve been too busy for family dinners during the week and no time for worship on the weekend. We’ve sent our kids onto the battlefield unarmed and defenseless. No wonder so many of them voted for Barack Obama.

How easy it is to cast blame on everyone but ourselves when bad things happen. Sure, 60 million people decided to give Obama a second chance, but until conservatives take responsibility for their own missteps, they will never become the better version of themselves America’s children deserve.

I can’t help but wonder had we done our job; maybe the youth would have noted an inconsistency in a president who blatantly betrayed the Christian faith he claims to be part of, when he mandated a plaque with Jesus’ name on it be covered during his Georgetown University speech in 2009. And they should have at least questioned why a smart Harvard graduate would strategically omit the word “Creator” from the Declaration of Independence in recent years. And if we’d taught them sound economic values like balancing a budget or how to balance a checkbook, maybe they wouldn’t have been so mesmerized by one who uses taxpayer funds like Monopoly money and offers handouts as if they grow on trees on the White House lawn.

Elections have consequences, and we will reap what we sow, so we may as well busy ourselves in the meantime investing in something that will undoubtedly pay off in the future — our children. The Republican Establishment will say it’s time to go back to the drawing board, but I think we need to go back to the dining room table.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Given his presidency has been a complete failure when it comes to the economy, foreign policy, transparency, and job creation, one could only hope Obama would have tried a little harder to show us he can feel our pain. But, some things can’t be faked. Empathy is one of them.

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

Ask Charles Woods, the father of the slain Navy Seal hero Tyrone Woods, who was killed during the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Sure, Obama appeared to be empathetic when standing near the four flag-draped caskets at the highly publicized memorial service at Andrews Air Force Base, but behind-the-scenes – not so much.  Mr. Woods went public to say Obama refused to make eye contact with him at the service and said Obama mumbled a “totally insincere, more of a whining type, ‘I’m sorry.”’

Woods said Obama’s handshake was “like shaking hands with a dead fish.”

Dead fish.  Okay, I get the lack of eye contact, considering certain facts and emails continue to surface pointing toward a full-fledged cover-up, but, a “dead fish” handshake? Wow.

According to an interview with Fox News last weekend, retired Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer claims, according to his sources, President Obama was watching the attack go down, “in real time.” According to the Weekly Standard, Mr. Woods concurs alleging, “the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time.”

We now know the CIA was denied the help they needed, although assistance was not far away. Presumably under the direction of CIA director David Petraeus, the CIA put out a statement on October 26 clarifying that the CIA had nothing to do with the decision to deny help, hence bouncing the blame back in the lap of the one whom the buck is always supposed to stop (the president).

After being told to “stand down” twice, Tyrone (and five others) made the gutsy decision to disobey orders to rescue those in harm’s way. Tyrone’s father told Fox News, “For seven hours the cowards in the White House were watching something they knew that was going to potentially kill those 30 people and potentially kill my son…they had a moral duty to send support and they chose not to…”.

Hours later, President Obama hopped on his jet to entertain followers at a campaign rally in Las Vegas. He began his remarks speaking to the “tough day we had today…”. How nice it would have been if Tyrone Woods and three others could have lived to talk about theirs.

Soulless.

Lest you think President Obama’s bizarre handling of Benghazi is an anomaly, think again.  Remember Fort Hood?

Just hours after the attack and while Americans were glued to their TVs in shock as death tolls and injury numbers rose — an obviously disconnected and fairly jovial Obama made his first public statement about the shootings.

Obama’s short statement sounding much like an afterthought about “a tragic shooting,” came after his two minute lighthearted “shout out” (his words) to an audience member and talk about the necessity for healthcare reform.

The obvious disconnect between what happened at Fort Hood and the words flowing from the president’s mouth was shocking. Jolting, even.

Providence, by way of Hurricane Sandy, has granted Obama one last chance to show us that he is not the heartless clod he comes across as during times of crisis. I was almost impressed to see him at FEMA headquarters Sunday – just up until he jetted off to Florida for a campaign rally Sunday night; he was “coming early to try to beat the storm” according to the Huffington Post. Sure, he returned to DC hours later, but isn’t that the least he could do after four years of campaigning?

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

Sure, today’s ideological war is waged with words rather than muskets and canons, but it still reaps similar results when extremists on both sides of the political aisle refuse to consider any common ground –simply because they want to get their way. All this tugging left and yanking right does is extend the already-gaping hole in the middle. The only way we will ever experience relief from the partisan gridlock in Washington is if we choose a president who will help us find common ground by leading us from the middle. (There is nothing wrong with compromise, just as long as sound principle is not forfeited along the way.)

Before he was president, Abraham Lincoln spoke to the value of compromise. During a speech to the House of Representatives in 1848 Lincoln said, “The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject anything is not whether it has any evil in it; but whether it has more of evil than of good.”

Food for thought: Lincoln’s “rule” was the measuring stick used by former President Bill Clinton, when he signed the sweeping welfare reform bill in 1996. After signing, Clinton said, “I signed this bill because this is an historic chance, where Republicans and Democrats got together… We should not have passed this historic opportunity to do what is right”. And Mitt Romney did the same thing when he, as a Republican governor in a Democratic state, passed a healthcare bill in partnership with the late Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy. Dissimilarly, what could have been his shining legacy, Obamacare, became a conspicuous black eye on the one, President Obama, who chose partisanship over compromise to deliver healthcare legislation.

In sharp contrast, Romney has promised to carry a Lincolnesque spirit back to Washington. During the first debate, Romney said, “We have to work on a collaborative basis…we need to have leadership…that will actually bring people together and get the job done….I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again…”.

Two candidates. Two records:. One led from the middle and promises to do it again, and one consistently leads from the left, behind, or in some cases,  from an island all by himself. One promises unity; the other delivers discord.

The choice is ours.

In 1861, Lincoln said the future of our nation is “with you, and not with politicians, not with Presidents, not with office-seekers, but with you, is the question, ‘Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be preserved to the latest generation?’”.

Suddenly feeling a heavy burden? This country is worth it.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

The 1957 clip I saw featured three contestants each claiming to be a letter carrier. Four panelists had the task of questioning the contestants to sift out the two imposters who were allowed to lie while the actual mail carrier was sworn to tell the truth. In the particular clip I viewed, all four panelists were hoodwinked by the two imposters and missed out on the real deal because they made assumptions and asked the wrong questions. The panelists said they voted for the wrong guy mainly because of his appearance and the way he spoke. They were shocked when the real letter carrier stood up to reveal himself at game’s end.

Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Thus far, President Obama’s debate performance has been astoundingly weak and Mitt Romney’s — strikingly strong. David versus Goliath. Substance versus fluff. Straight talk versus talking points. Most peculiarly, and much like the “To Tell the Truth” panelists, debate moderators and most of the mainstream media have not asked Obama the right questions and have done their best to protect his presidential image.

Even still, that isn’t enough to mask voters from the truth. Obama’s poor performance filled with platitudes and clichés reminded me of a quote by Mark Twain, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to — remember…” You truly don’t. Obama performed poorly because telling the truth about his failed first term would pretty much repudiate his lofty promises of hope and change. And that is why the Obama campaign has resorted to a strategy of all-out mudslinging.

Why discuss job creation when you can lie about Bain Capital? Why talk about tax policies when you can yuck it up about Romney’s taxes? Why carry on an adult conversation about Benghazi when you can falsely accuse Romney of exploitation of the matter? Why participate in a cerebral conversation about the economy when you can talk about Big Bird? Why discuss the fact that our senior citizens are about to lose certain Medicare benefits under Obamacare when you can twist the facts about Romneycare in Massachusetts? Why discuss job creation and high unemployment when you can alter the meaning of Romney’s “47 percent” statement and create a fake war on women? Why discuss your policies which hurt the middle class when you can pin your opponent as out of touch?

In an attempt to regain lost momentum, operatives sequestered Vice President Blabbermouth, I mean Biden, for six days to prepare for the Vice Presidential debate with Paul Ryan. When he wasn’t rudely interrupting and behaving condescending, Biden acted as if he’d overdosed on nitrous oxide. In my opinion, Biden lost the debate — by an arrogant grin. You can’t fix stupid. Nor should one try because it’s futile. Proverbs 29:9 nails it: “If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.” Hah.

We are witnessing Gotham City, err, Chicago politics, in all its glory here: When all else fails, shift focus, change the subject, and assassinate your opponent’s character. The Obama team is hoping it will work because — they’ve….got…nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

The reason why Romney comes across as competent, believable and consistent is because he is. The same Romney that came out for the first debate will be present at each one following. All the while, the Obama team and its mainstream media cohorts are in scramble mode doing their best to prop up an empty suit wearing golf shoes that sits in an empty chair in an empty Oval Office. And the electorate cries out: “Will the real American president please stand up!”

To tell you the truth, I believe he already has.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

According to the Weekly Standard in July 2011, a report by the administration’s Council of Economic Advisors found Obama’s method of job creation via economic stimulus was relatively ineffective and quite expensive, costing taxpayers, their children, and grandchildren $278,000 per job created.

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

More than three years ago, a fresh-faced and hope-filled President Obama said our ailing U.S. economy could be fixed if taxpayers would allow him to spend what is now more than $800 billion in “stimulus” funds promising this “investment”  would create a ginormous amount of shovel-ready jobs, and would reduce unemployment to at or below 5.6 percent.  Three years later, even President Obama admitted the jobs were “not as shovel-ready as we expected.”

As good as all that sounded to the unassuming ear, the latest October 5, 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report  showing 7.8 percent unemployment pretty much proves, as well-intended as it is, the federal government cannot replace human ingenuity and hard work to create jobs.

The White House would like us to believe the slight drop to less than 8 percent unemployment is proof positive the economy is headed in the right direction, and all this administration needs is four more years of economic experimentation to get it right.

The slight decline in unemployment is nothing to brag about if this is all the administration has to show for after four years of effort. The BLS reported that, in September, 12.1 million people were unemployed; 6.5 million people lost their jobs, an additional 2.5 million were unemployed for less than five weeks, 4.8 million had been unemployed 27 weeks or more, and 2.5 million were “marginally attached” (unemployed and not seeking employment in September).  Approximately 600,000 joined the ranks of “involuntary part-time workers” because their hours were cut back or they could not find full-time work and accepted part-time work — raising the number of involuntary part-time workers to 8.6 million people.

Moreover, a study performed by the National Employment Law Project found that although more than half of the jobs lost from first quarter of 2008 through first quarter of 2010 were “mid-wage occupations” most of the jobs created by the Obama administration from first quarter of 2010 through first quarter of 2012 were “lower-wage” jobs.

The bad news for the middle class and especially single-wage households is that during the recession, 21 percent of jobs lost were lower-wage, yet a breathtaking 58 percent of new jobs created by Obama were lower-wage. Additionally, while 60 percent of mid-wage jobs were lost during the recession, only 22 percent of them were recovered. It is no surprise the amount of food stamp recipients has skyrocketed under this administration. The sad thing is, we can’t honestly say the tab for all this so-called “recovery” spending is being funded by taxpayer dollars anymore, but also Chinese yen.

Borrowing money to create jobs is unsustainable long-term.  The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) August 22, 2012 report projects 2013 will be worse than 2012, leading to “economic conditions in 2013 that will probably be considered a recession” with unemployment rising to around nine percent in late 2013.

The same report predicts that if “many current policies are continued”  the “debt held by the public would climb to 90 percent of GDP by 2022—higher than at any time since shortly after World War II,” and would eventually “lead to a level of federal debt that would be unsustainable from both a budgetary and an economic perspective.”

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Regrettably, the Democrat Party has drawn a line in the sand forcing Christians of all colors to decide whether they will stand for their faith or against it if they stay in a party that blasphemes God when giving standing ovations for platform planks like same-sex marriage and abortions.

Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Divorcing the Democrat Party has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with “saving a generation” as Bishop Jackson said during his speech. Realistically speaking, it truly is, considering the damage done to the black race via abortions thanks to the Planned Parenthood organization Democrats enshrine. Democrat hero and founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was racist to the core; Sanger was photographed at KKK meetings sharing her dream to rid the planet of society’s “undesirables.” Liberals do their best to spin facts, but there really is no coincidence black population has decreased in large cities where Sanger’s clinics are planted. Even President Obama said unplanned children are “punishments.” No, Mr. Obama, unplanned pregnancies are children, not punishments.

Even still, there are those who cannot see beyond the freebies Democrats indiscriminately toss to them. Listening to the rants of a black Ohio woman over the weekend singing the praises of a party and president she hasn’t a clue is taking advantage of her disadvantages reminded me that bigotry has a new face that looks nothing like an elephant and an awful lot like a donkey. The Ohio woman can be viewed on the internet at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio&feature=related .

Though she meant well, her words are an indictment on everything that is wrong with a party gone awry. Here, in her own unabridged and unedited words, is why she’s voting for Obama:

“Everyone in Cleveland, low minority got Obamaphone…keep Obama in President…you know, he gave us a phone; he gone do more.” When asked how, specifically, she qualified to get her tremendously special Obamaphone she answered, “You siiiiign up, if you on food stamps, you on social security, you got low-income, you on disability.”

Martin Luther King (MLK) would roll over in his grave to see the state of his people today, who, for an Obamaphone, have sold their souls to a devilish lie that entitlements are free. King’s pivotal words “Free at last, free at last” have become “free stuff at last, free stuff at last.”

Despite the color of his skin, President Obama’s job creation policies have been no friend to minorities generally, and blacks specifically. A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report found black and Latino unemployment numbers continue to lead the pack and remain dangerously elevated.

With all the evidence stacked against them, Democrats continue to label Republicans as racists with ridiculous statements that a vote for a Republican would be a vote to end civil rights, entitlements, and the MLK holiday. Even our beloved Vice President said Mitt Romney would “put ya’ll back in chains.”

It is as if Democrats quietly believe blacks cannot reason or care for themselves and excuse those like the black Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, Mia Love, as anomalies. Many liberal networks blacked-out (pardon the pun) Love’s speech at the Republican National Convention telling a compelling story of self-reliance as the daughter of conservative immigrants. Before the night was over liberal bloggers had labeled Love a “worthless whore,” an “Aunt Tom,” and “house nigger” — once again displaying an “irreconcilable conflict” between a party and its people who deserve much better.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Although Romney’s message was lost in the chorus of complaints coming from media and the Obama Campaign, the fact still remains: success is not a dirty word. When America’s citizens are successful, everyone wins — with the exception of those politicians who are chronically dependent upon the votes of government’s cradle-to-casket dependents.

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

To be sure, the more “makers” we have paying income taxes and creating jobs, the less people we have on unemployment and the more money we have to pay down our nation’s debt and provide assistance to those in need, especially during these tough economic times.

To his credit, the man I fired seemed to be making an attempt at being a maker, but there is something to be said about striving for excellence whatever your lot in life or vocation. My father once told me growing up; his hand-me-down patched pants were always clean and well-pressed. I must admit, the tile man having shown up to make a bid driving a dilapidated truck, donning messy clothes and toting a tattered scrapbook “portfolio” played to this conservative’s compassionate nature. I fell for his toothless grin and gave him the benefit of all my doubts. I had hoped my giving him this opportunity to make some money would serve as a helping hand-up to lift him to a better place. Boy, was I mistaken.

It was not long after giving him an advance to cover his delinquent water bill (feel free to call me a sucker), coupled with a series of events including tardiness, extra-long lunch breaks, and failing to provide proof of insurance — did I realize this guy was a mess, and I was going to be in one for hiring him. So, standing eye level to his chest, I pulled a Donald Trump and said he was fired. I had hired him because I felt sorry for him and fired him because I knew if I didn’t, I would soon be feeling sorry for myself.

One never knows what another person is going through, so it is always best not to judge, but at some point we must accept the fact that we can only do so much to help those who refuse to help themselves.

In truth, during this journey we call life; every last one of us will find ourselves caught up as victims of a circumstance outside our control. It is in our response that we discover who we really are, makers or takers. If we allow that circumstance to define us, we become forever the victim, or if we instead decide to define the circumstance as a lesson learned we will become a better version of ourselves.

Enter: the next tile man who showed up in professional attire to present his bid. His employees showed up on time, worked through lunch and late into the evening without complaint or excuse. They got the job done and provided excellent results, and everyone except the guy I fired is happy. Despite what the lazy anti-capitalist crowd says when they complain about the rich getting richer, success is typically earned in this country. Ask the tile man who just left after taking photos of his work. He’s proud of what he does because he’s good at it and from the lowliest worker on his payroll to the blonde who hired him (because she hasn’t a clue about tile work)–everyone benefits. That’s how you spread the wealth around.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

Of all the terrible scenes portraying the violence this past week, the picture most concerning is that of the video’s creator — an American citizen protected by our Constitution’s First Amendment — being ushered away by federal agents purportedly due to a potential parole violation. Sure. Got it. Or, maybe… it was an attempt to throw red meat to those in the Mideast region who seem to wear their religious sensibilities on their sleeves, since repeated apologies have not worked… Just thinking out loud here.

Let’s be honest; the Obama administration’s “Mr. Nice Guy” approach has failed miserably; those teethed on bloodshed view congeniality as weakness rather than strength. As a result, the Mideast region burns today with a raging fire kindled by fear and uncertainty because, as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice so eloquently stated during the recent Republican National Convention, the world no longer has an answer to a most pressing question “Where does America stand.” Every which way but loose, it seems.

In the past, America has always stood against evil regimes and ideologies, and stood for, as Ms. Rice said, “free peoples and free markets.” Because we have an administration that wishes to stand on all sides of every issue, the world is more dangerous than it was when everyone clearly understood our position.

Attempting to have it both ways eventually forces us to either stand for our founding principles or reject them — as recently happened when the Obama administration made the preposterous decision to sacrifice our First Amendment rights on the altar of political correctness. For the unaware, the administration recently asked Google to remove the YouTube video from the internet. Thankfully, Google refused. In so doing, the Obama administration sent a loud and clear message to Muslim extremists that our Constitution is subservient to their extremist beliefs.

The leader on the ground, Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif, story doesn’t mesh with the White House’s canard regarding the video. el-Megarif told Al Jazerra he believed the attacks on the embassy in Libya were preplanned by “experienced masterminds” quite possibly connected to al Qaeda. From the BVD bombing attempt, to the failed Times Square bomb plot, and the Fort Hood massacre, the Obama administration has tried to paint a picture that Islamic extremism is a non-issue.

Sure, bin Laden’s dead (and GM’s alive, lest we forget), but getting one heckova lucky opportunity to sign your name to a military operation does not sound foreign policy make.

During his Cairo speech in 2009, Obama promised his leadership would be better than his predecessor’s. Obama vowed, “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.” One look at the flags, as dark as the Jihad they represent, rising across the Middle East will tell you who appears to be winning.

The world longs for and urgently needs American leadership but it is missing in action. The gut-wrenching scene at Joint Base Andrews last week of four American flag-draped coffins holding the remains of patriots savagely murdered in Benghazi is proof-positive as to how badly the world needs to know where America stands.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Bill Day / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Day)

You see, I speak with experience, having been forced to join the ranks of the widowed some years back. Those of us left behind tend to cling to our loved one’s last gifts, last words — pretty much last anything. As I write, I am wearing an old brown Ann Taylor sweater, size “smaller than it used to be.” It’s the last gift my husband gave me. His last piece of advice before taking his last breath? “Susan, take a deep breath…just inhale.” I feel as if I’ve been inhaling ever since. Over time, this radical event helped to mold me into a better version of myself, or so I’ve been told. However, this is not about me.

A handful of Americans learned a similar lesson as well, on what began as a normal Tuesday morning in September of 2001, when they learned the airplanes they boarded would not reach their planned destination, but would instead rocket them to an unplanned and final one. Most had no idea the goodbyes they shared with loved ones that morning would be their last. Nor did the rest of us realize the savage acts of a malevolent few would change our lives forever.

In an instant, American patriotism seemed to be resurrected from Ground Zero’s ashes when people of all stripes laid aside their shallow biases to focus on things that really mattered, to wit, our unity as “one nation under God.”

But that was then. Watching the Democratic National Convention last week, I found myself asking the question: How did we go from two mile-long lines to donate blood at Ground Zero to Democrats losing their minds over the insertion of the word “God” in the party’s platform? Baby steps, I suppose.

For the past five or so years, President Obama has preached to the country about what he views as a dire need — to bring fundamental change here in America. It really should come as no surprise to anyone that mentioning God’s name at the Democratic Convention would inspire booing. I guess the sacrifice of his son wasn’t enough for them; maybe they think God has not yet paid his “fair share.” Hah.

Obviously, not all change is positive. The “change” that President Obama and now former President Bill Clinton espouse should give all freedom-loving Americans reason for pause. In case you are not quite sure what Obama’s definition of change is, President Clinton spells it out in a new campaign advertisement. The part where Clinton says, “President Obama has a plan to rebuild America from the ground-up” tells us everything we need to know about what an Obama second term would entail.

You see, one cannot build something from the “ground-up” unless there is a “ground zero” to start with. Look back over the past four years of the Obama presidency, and you will see the handiwork of a Progressive wrecking ball which has wrought havoc on the very essence of much of which makes this country great.

Writing about change, C.S. Lewis once penned the words, “And what matters is the nature of the change in itself, not how we feel while it is happening.” Unplanned events leave us with little choice except to decide whether we will wither in its wake…or flourish. However, some things we can control, specifically Obama’s plans for “change,” wherein both “the nature of the change” and its process stinketh to the core.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Cam Cardow / Ottawa Citizen (click to view more cartoons by Cardow)

That Obama owns the word cool is nothing new, but it is quite unbecoming of the office he holds. If his “coolness” is authentic, the best thing the most powerful man on the planet could do is tone it down a bit, so the rest of us can feel better about ourselves. But he cannot help himself, or so it seems, which makes one wonder if his attempt to act hip is a thinly veiled intentional act distracting us from an exceptionally small man who is in over his head.

I am reminded of a story about a man named Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs — much better known as, “Oz” — in author L. Frank Baum’s multiple-book series on the Land of Oz. A circus magician by occupation and supreme leader by chance, Diggs was raised to extra supercool status when fate allowed his hot air balloon to get caught in a jet stream and touch down in the Land of Oz.

First impressions are lasting. As the story is told, the people in the Land of Oz quickly elevated Diggs to top potentate because they thought Diggs’ grand entrance was divine, and worshipped him as such. Understanding he had large shoes to fill, and desperately desiring to look the part, Diggs shortened his name to an acronym using his initials: OZPINHEAD. Obviously, the acronym did not serve him well, so Diggs made the astute marketing decision to steer away from any references of “pinhead” by retaining just the first two initials; thereafter being fondly known as, the great wizard, of “Oz”.

The aspiring politician he was, Oz desperately desired to be all things to all people. Oz became a master of disguise — appearing as balls of fire, big heads, and disembodied voices. Before long people realized this wonderful wizard wasn’t as wonderful or as wizardly as they once thought he was, but rather a lovely little man more fit for the circus than political leader.

The crackpot left town the same way he arrived, floating beneath a bag of hot air, which brings us to our current and very cool president. You see, fairy tales are for big people too, because they have an allegorical way of teaching us life lessons without all the drama. To be clear, America needs a lot of things in a president, but “cool” is not necessarily one of them. Authenticity would be a refreshing start. Cool is better left to cucumbers and drinks, not politics and presidents.

To be frank, something is not… quite right… that the leader of the free world feels the need to puff himself up. That he uses media gossip outlets like People magazine and Entertainment Tonight to beef up his own “star wattage” as it is called, probably tells us more than we really want to know about the president’s psyche. Really.

While at an “NBA Heroes” fundraiser in New York City on August 22, Obama seemed, shall we say, visibly troubled that he was not the center of attention. “It is very rare,” Obama jokingly poked, “I come to an event where I’m like the fifth or sixth most interesting person. Usually the folks want to take a picture with me, sit next to me…talk to me”.

Soldiers are being killed in Afghanistan, unemployment is historically high, the national debt swells, gas and food prices are on the rise, yet our president ponders puerile questions like “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the coolest guy of all”. You are Mr. President. Now step aside to make way for some dull grown-ups to come in and clean up your mess.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

It happened to me yesterday when I found myself out of sorts because my best friend was en route to harm’s way via a military deployment, but still took time to call to tell me the sunset he’d just witnessed reminded him of me. Busted. I missed out on the greatness of the moment because I was focused on myself.

Gary McCoy / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by McCoy)

If anyone had an excuse to fail to see greatness, it was President Abraham Lincoln. As war-weary as he was with a country in the throes of collapse, Lincoln still saw greatness when he gazed beyond the bloody battlefields and divided mess that was post-Civil War America and envisioned a nation our founders could be proud of that was once again “one nation under God.”

One Thursday afternoon in 1863, Lincoln attempted to share this vision in a little more than two-minute speech that forever became known as The Gettysburg Address. Lincoln reminded those on both sides of the war no one had died in vain because their shed blood offered everyone, regardless of skin color, the opportunity for “a new birth of freedom.” He explained that moving forward as a united people would allow our “government of the people, by the people, for the people” to be preserved.

To no surprise, Lincoln was hammered by some in the media for his vision. An editorial in the Harrisburg Patriot and Union stated, “We pass over the silly remarks of the President, for the credit of the Nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of.” The Chicago Times detailed, “The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwattery [sic] utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States.” Boy, were they wrong; Lincoln’s address became one of the most famous presidential speeches in American history.

So here we stand today, the Shining City on a Hill dimly lit and despondently divided. Though words have replaced muskets, and name-calling replaced cannons, the damage is about as severe. Unlike days of old, when President Lincoln lay awake at night trying to unify a divided people, we have a president and Democratic leaders in Congress who preach civility, yet wage their own wars on class, race and gender. They would do well to consider the words of Patrick Henry who said, “Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand divided we fall. Let us not split into faction which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”

President Obama and his ilk almost root for America’s demise. They obviously do not believe in the rare and precious gem that is America because they do not recognize the essence of what she is as so amply described in an old adage: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, and it was not there…in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there…in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there…in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power: America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

Regrettably, greatness has passed before them, and they have failed to recognize it.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

R.J. Matson / Roll Call (click to view more cartoons by Matson)

RFS, signed into law by George W. Bush and supported by then-Senator Barack Obama, was a dud from the beginning because it was based on an assumption. (You know what they say about assumptions.) Congress was led to believe most of the ethanol would be derived from inedible substances rather than corn. Seven years in, and billions of research dollars later, nothing has changed — except the more we learn about ethanol, the less we like it. Corn-based ethanol drives up food prices locally and globally, reduces gas mileage performance and produces more greenhouse gas than petroleum.

Even green energy gazillionaire and former Vice President Al Gore admitted corn-based ethanol was a foolish endeavor. For him, it was all about votes. Speaking about his previous support of corn-based ethanol to a crowd at a conference in Greece, Gore said, “One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”

At least Gore was honest about lying, which is more than can be said of the Obama administration, which has all the facts laid before them regarding ethanol yet obviously capitulated to lobbyists awhile back by upping the ethanol blend requirement from 10 to 15 percent. This change forces gas stations to purchase new pumps to process the E15 blend, and automakers are questioning the impact it will have on automobile engines. According to Consumer Reports, nine automakers voiced concerns to Congress stating they cannot honor warranties for older cars running on E15.

The recent drought should give all Americans, and especially those in elected leadership reason for pause to reexamine our priorities as a nation. Farmers and ranchers are forced to slaughter livestock prematurely because there is not enough corn feed to keep them alive. The ethanol mandate currently requires around 40 percent of corn crops be used for ethanol production leaving roughly 34 percent for livestock feed, 13 percent for exports, and humans get what’s left. Might our priorities be a tad out of whack?

To be honest, Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” got us into this mess with the act he signed into law, but I have to believe that same compassion would have most likely convinced him to relax the production requirements based on the reality of today’s dire situation.

And then there is our sitting president, whose response to the drought crisis is another bailout. On the campaign trail in Iowa August 13, President Obama committed to doling out more of his Obama “stash” by buying up millions of dollars in prematurely slaughtered meat. And the taxpayers responded with a hearty, “You’re welcome.”

So where’s the beef? Apparently the government has meat lockers sitting idle because Obama told the crowd the government has “a lot of freezers“. Even if they do, I’d think twice before eating anything the government supposedly kept on ice, based on the Obama administration’s own guidelines for freezing meat. Foodsafety.gov, (another government creation from 2009), states frozen meat loses its quality (not safety) after four to 12 months. So who would we complain to if there were a problem with this meat? The government? It’ll never happen.

The price of ethanol has risen 33 percent since May, not to mention exorbitant grocery prices and an upcoming corn and meat shortage. Rather than addressing consumer price pain, the administration responds with yet another bailout, which sends the message: “When the going gets tough, we make things worse.”

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

John Cole / Scranton Times-Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Cole)

There’s a certain truth to the old nursery rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me,” but in the game of politics, names are like mud, and mud sticks. The Democratic Party is replete with lazy cowards who choose to sling mud rather than debate issues. Why waste one’s energy hurling sticks and stones when slander will do the job without lifting a finger?

The Obama administration has nothing to run on, save a campaign of character destruction, given its deplorable record of supersized governmental policies leading to high unemployment and an economy teetering on the brink of insolvency. As juvenile as it is, mudslinging is the only hand desperate liberals have left to play. They’ve got nothing.

According to Politico, Obama’s plan is to “destroy Romney” utilizing the same methods he’s used in previous races. Former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said the campaign will focus on attacking Romney’s character to “portray him as “inauthentic, unprincipled and weird.” Here is weird: to date, liberals have painted presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney as a liar, a miser, a felon, a tax evader, an accomplice to a woman’s cancer death — without a shred of evidence.

Circumstances are no different for Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI). Prior to being chosen as Romney’s running mate, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan was already a source of liberals’ angst and a target of their attacks simply because he is a freethinking financial genius who embraces the free market.

Liberals are already hollering Ryan doesn’t have enough private sector experience to be qualified to be Vice President. Prior to his public service, Ryan was employed at a variety of jobs, including a stint driving the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, making him better qualified than our president was in 2008. And then we have as next in line, Vice President Biden. Biden has his mindless blundering, and Ryan has his arithmetic. You do the math.

Some label Ryan as a flip-flopper for his support of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and auto company bailouts Ryan justified as a way to halt the raging economic firestorm. Responding to the Daily Caller, Ryan said he believed the economy was “on the cusp of a deflationary spiral which would have created a Depression” and had that happened, we would have had “a big government agenda sweeping through this country so fast that we wouldn’t have recovered from it.”

With time ticking closer to the November elections, frantic and radical liberals will ramp up their attacks to paint a proven job creator and a budget hawk in the most unattractive light possible in hopes voters will be distracted from the real issues surrounding a failed and visionless presidency.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Once upon a time in America, and not so long ago, my dad’s can-do attitude toward life was common place, until liberals and their faithful following began to understand that immense and everlasting power could be bartered by peddling handouts in exchange for votes.

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

If liberal politicians know anything, it’s human nature. If you give people things they did not earn from sources from which they did not contribute, those same people will soon become dependent on whatever you give them. Add to that a bit of Machiavellian trickery to redefine those handouts into rights, and voila! You have just created a permanent voting base.

In truth, liberals simply rebranded the definition of what our founders meant when they scribed the words, “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.” Spinning and twisting the interpretation by suggesting “unalienable rights” are tangibles like health insurance, college educations, and food stamps rather than the intangibles our founders envisioned as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” liberals transformed the Declaration of Independence into a Declaration of Dependence. Before long, people bought into their lies, believing they had rights to certain “entitlements” simply because they breathed.

Sadly, these lies metastasized within today’s Democratic Party; chock full of liberals so extreme, Blue Dogs have all but disappeared. Now the entire Democratic Party platform revolves around the dangerous and devilishly un-American idea that individuals cannot achieve success without government intervention. They are dead wrong.

That the Democratic National Convention (DNC) would ask Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren to speak at its national convention in September tells us all we need to know about the DNC’s vision for America. Warren’s words spoken in 2011, and so echoed in recent days by President Obama, suggesting it is impossible for Americans to attain success devoid of the federal government is an indictment on how far from the American dream they have fallen.

Ms. Warren further suggests that successful job creators are obligated to an “underlying social contract” in order to “pay [it] forward for the next kid who comes along,” thereby ensuring future generations will never have the ability to stand on their own without the government.

The fact that unemployment rose to 8.3 percent last week is an indictment on President Obama, Elizabeth Warren and big government Democrats who believe rights are endowed by government. The ridiculous notion that business owners didn’t build their businesses speaks to their ineptitude and explains why unemployment numbers continue to move in the wrong direction. Obviously, Ivy League school attendance and acumen are not always mutually inclusive.

Had our founding fathers believed in entitlements over ingenuity, this “New World” would be just like the old one, which is a case study in what happens when liberals are left to themselves.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Whether it is college campuses, Amish communities, or other gun-free zones, bloodthirsty maniacal men will find a way to quench their cravings. Therefore, gun control laws do not work — because they are based on the erroneous assumption that criminals will obey the law. They don’t and won’t; hence leaving law-abiding citizens defenseless in the face of danger, as so happened that tragic July evening at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater where guns were not permitted, and a man who called himself “The Joker” went on a shooting rampage.

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

In addition to the need for self-defense, our Founders understood the bearing of arms was essential to protecting this country from tyrannical governments. Fresh on their minds was the revolutionary clash between the tax-happy British government and a population of armed and ragtag citizens with the dream of freedom burning in their souls.

Much to the dismay of gun law activists who claim the Second Amendment pertains solely to “militia” (military) service, and who predictably crawl out from underneath their rocks after every mass shooting, the 2008 Supreme Court Case, District of Columbia v. Heller, ruled the Second Amendment indeed secures an individual’s right to possess firearms, regardless of military service. Nonetheless, these activists continue their march ever forward, in an endeavor to infringe upon that which “shall not be infringed.”

It is really about perspective. Every life is precious. Each of the 12 lives snuffed out in that Colorado movie theatre is 12 lives too many representing untold numbers of family members whose lives are forever changed. No amount of gun control will bring them back nor will it stop the next psychopath from taking his rage out on society. Zip. Zero. Zilch. If every last gun was shipped across our borders fast and furiously, murderers would still find a way to kill.

This conversation is not about gun control; it’s about people control. Gotham City, er, Chicago, has one of the strictest gun laws in the country–so severe, the laws were deemed as unconstitutional awhile back. But that didn’t stop former Mayor Richard Daley and current Mayor Rahm Emanuel from attempting everything in their power to maneuver through the gray areas and around the red tape, God bless them. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, over Memorial Day weekend 12 people were killed by gunfire and 45 were shot and wounded. In the time it takes to play a major league soccer match (90 minutes), 13 people were shot. By mid-June, murder was up 35 percent from last year with 228 people killed. Statistically speaking, our troops are safer in Kabul, Afghanistan than in Chicago. Where was that story in the national news?

Less might be more when it comes to gun regulation. According to the Washington Times, violent crime peaked 25 years ago when just “a handful of states” had conceal-carry laws. To no coincidence, gun sales have increased over the past four years, and currently 41 states have differing versions of gun-carrying laws, yet violent crime has decreased according to the FBI in June. According to Pajamas Media, “States with the highest gun ownership have the lowest firearms homicide rates” and “States with the lowest firearms ownership average the highest firearm and non-firearm homicide rates.”

Gun control activists have it all wrong because they make incredibly naive assumptions about human nature. Given the chance others were packing heat in theater number 9 at the Century 16 in Aurora, Colorado; the story may have ended much differently for the cold-blooded killer.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

With all the clucking coming from these activists, one would think Chick-fil-A contributed humanitarian meals to Hezbollah or money to a militant anti-gay group like the group of Muslim men on trial in the UK for allegedly handing out leaflets calling for the murder of gay people and purportedly describing methods to eliminate them. According to the UK Guardian, one of the men claimed the brochure simply “expressed what Islam says about homosexuality, adding that it was his duty as a Muslim to condemn it.”

Then there is Chick-fil-A. A family owned and led organization committed to strengthening individuals, the family, and the community at large. The company reiterated their values in a recent statement articulating in part: “The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1600 restaurants run by independent owner/operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena….”

The end. Curtains. Done. Forgetaboutit.

Oh, if only life were that simple. People are dying in other parts of the world because of their sexual preference, and people are worried about a chicken-serving fast food restaurant? That’s ridiculous on so many levels. Why can’t we celebrate the diversity we enjoy here in America over a chargrilled chicken sandwich and waffle fries?

The blogosphere is teeming with same-sex marriage activists labeling Chick-fil-A as a “hate group” and encouraging people to join them in a boycott against a company which is the antithesis of hate. Their public statement reflects their position, and the superior customer service I’ve personally witnessed over the years — to every customer, regardless of their size, shape, color, religion, sexual preference, or scent (I’ve eaten breakfast there after a few of my long runs, and I’ve never been turned away) – speaks volumes as to the character of this company.

Chick-fil-A donates millions of dollars annually to various organizations besides pro-traditional marriage groups. It provides food during times of crisis, similar to what they did last week for the Aurora, Colorado police after the horrendous movie theatre massacre. It provides college scholarships, sponsors the Chick-fil-A Bowl, donating much of the proceeds to a range of charities and universities, and founded the WinShape Foundation which helps, among many other worthy causes, to support 11 foster homes.

We live in a free country, so we have the right to do just about whatever we want — within the boundaries of the laws of the land and our personal convictions. Despite what we’ve been led to believe, politics is not everything, so why do so many of us (including the conservative anti-Oreo cookie crowd) feel compelled to politicize everything, including businesses?

Somehow I don’t think we’ll ever get an answer to that question. Oh well, I need to put my money where my mouth is, so I’m off to the grocery store and drive-through to pick up Oreos and a chicken sandwich. Chop-chop.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

Without a doubt, George W. Bush received a lot of flak over what some viewed as ineptitude in communication skills, but anyone can be made to look like a chump if everything he says is scrutinized under a host of antagonists’ microscopes.

It’s quite entertaining to observe the grace now bestowed upon President Obama by the same people who had nothing positive to say about Bush. Obama has had his own share of gaffes — with and without his most beloved teleprompters. Mainstream media have pretty much overlooked occasions when Obama has lost his bearings like the time he said he had visited all “57 states“. Or his verbal slip-up in Las Cruces, New Mexico, when he said he saw “fallen heroes” (dead people) sitting before him in the audience, or when he mispronounced the word “corpsman” as “corpse-man” during a prayer breakfast.

Innocent communication blunders by our leaders are funny, and should not be turned into character assassination tools by the mainstream media or by overweight, BVD-adorned, middle-aged basement-dwellers (bloggers).

Liberals also criticized Bush for the way he communicated his foreign policy and claimed the world loathed us because of it. Bush’s strong-armed approach effectively protected us from another 9/11 for nearly a decade. Bush understood that pansy-bottomed diplomacy antics like bowing and apologizing foster disrespect, and do little to promote America’s image globally. Communicating niceties like “please or thank you” may not compute in the minds of those living in a part of the world where the chopping off of body parts aptly communicates just punishment for theft.

As good as that moment was, the taking out of Osama bin Laden did not sound foreign policy make. Peace has not come to the Middle East from the marginalization of our long-term ally Israel while buddying-up to her enemies. Nor has it come with the betrayal of former friends like Egyptian ally Mubarak. Diplomacy has not reduced the saber-rattling of Iran’s trigger-happy nut job Ahmadinejad.

A June 2012 Pew Global Attitudes poll “Global Opinion of Obama Slips, International Policies Faulted,” found global approval of Obama’s policies has “declined significantly” since 2009. Of 19 countries including Europe polled, just 23% approve of Obama’s drone war tactics. Although Obama’s approval ratings in Muslim countries are better than Bush’s 2008 numbers, 69 percent of Muslim countries polled (including Egypt) have no confidence in Obama.

Despite his Cairo speech and his effervescence, healing of the nations has not occurred under Obama’s watch.

Another Pew poll on July 10, 2012 conducted in 21 countries found Obama’s policies have hurt our image and his in the Arab Spring countries of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, as well as in Turkey and Pakistan. 55 percent of those polled said they consider America an enemy of democracy! In Tunisia, where the Arab Spring purportedly began, 57 percent said they had zero confidence in Obama’s ability to handle international affairs.

To no surprise, Obama remains a rock star to youth in the nanny states of Europe, but his approval numbers are nearing rock-bottom in countries he bent over backward to not offend and forward to befriend.

The administration’s ham-fisted communication skills and foreign policy blunders have left citizens of the world with the task of muddling through mixed messages sent by way of sugary speeches, ally betrayals, and drone attacks. The Obama era has not made the world a safer place, and as to being more dangerous, history will reveal in due time.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Daryl Cagle / msnbc.com (click to view more cartoons by Cagle)

To be fair, climate change is real. It occurs four times a year when winter turns into spring turns into summer turns into fall. Alarmists don’t see it that way, so they squawk “The sky is falling” every time conditions vary outside their interpretation of what they think is normal.

If there was ever a case to be made for global warming, it would have been in 1936 — back in the days when no one worried about how cow flatulence or greenhouse gas affected the atmosphere.

Unlike anything we’ve experience since; the three-month long 1936 North American heat wave wiped out crops and snuffed out lives during the Great Depression’s “Dust Bowl” days. The heat wave that began in June largely ended in September, leaving in its wake over 5000 deaths, drought, and widespread destruction. Even as hot as it’s been, many of the record-high temperatures experienced then are unmatched today.

To make matters worse, the 1936 heat wave was preceded by one of the most severe cold waves of the 1930s. The 1936 North American cold wave included recorded wind chills of minus-100 degrees Fahrenheit in the Midwest, ending with March floods. People concentrated on how to put the next meal on the table rather than obsessing over things like air temperature fluctuations.

It’s good they didn’t obsess, because temperatures returned to normal that fall, just like the cold front making its way across the country is doing today as I write.

The planet spins, the seasons change, temperatures fluctuate — and mere mortals are foolish enough to think they can control the forces of nature on a global scale and believe they can turn back the tides by the sound of their voice. Four years ago, then-Senator Barack Obama proclaimed his policies would lead to future generations acclaiming “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal,” attributing zero credit to the planet’s creator in whom Obama professes to believe.

It’s funny how nature has a way of rebounding all by itself. The BP Gulf Oil Spill illustrates this “God Factor” in contradiction to everything alarmists believe. A most informative January 10, 2011 Time Magazine article, “After the Great Spill: How the Gulf Cleaned Itself” explains how it did just that when “microscopic bacteria” digested “much of the hydrocarbons while they were still deep under the surface.” Texas A&M University chemical oceanographer John Kessler said the spill “helped us understand the capacity of a natural system to handle this kind of event by itself.” Wow.

Kessler’s study also found formally “significant amounts of methane” scientists thought might impact global warming and assumed “would be around for years” had “largely disappeared” when “methanotrophs (bacteria that feed off methane)” mopped up most of the mess.

Reasonable stewardship of the planet is a non-partisan no-brainer, but there is a line to be drawn at the point where choices inflict indelible injury on mankind — making man subservient to the very things created to serve him.

According to The New Yorker, Obama has said “the most important policy he could address in his second term is climate change.” Unemployment numbers are abysmal, and the economy is in tatters, so the Alarmist-In-Chief elevates his pay grade to do something a little more vexing like healing the planet. Amazing.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

For years, Americans have been abundantly blessed with a mostly free-market healthcare system in which competent physicians at state-of-the-art healthcare facilities deliver the latest medical care. Yes, that care comes at a cost, but the alternative, which Obamacare will certainly create, is rationing.

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

Now that the Supreme Court deemed Obamacare’s individual mandate for what it is — a tax, Democrats are attempting to redefine it as a penalty. It’s just their nature. Why call it a baby when you can reduce it to a fetus? Why bother worrying about illegal aliens when the term “undocumented workers” sounds so much more nebulous? I’ll go halfway; let’s call it a “penalty tax.”

Lies, lies, and more lies

No tax increases on the middle class: Has anyone noticed Democrats are always talking about strengthening the middle class, and yet almost all of their legislation ends up hurting it? It’s the new “trickle down” theory. Take money from the top and sprinkle it over everyone else with no plan for growth. What you get is an increased lower class and a dwindling middle class. To make matters worse, Obama’s administration keeps redefining down the definition of middle class.

President Obama pledged (his word, not mine) “No family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.” Wall Street Journal’s senior writer Stephen Moore claims almost 75 percent of Obamacare expenses will be funded by those making less than $120,000 annually.

Trying to get ahead by doing a little investing? Think again. Section 1411 of the law will levy a 3.8 percent “Medicare tax” on capital gains, dividends, rents and royalties. The plan also penalizes “Cadillac” insurance plan holders by charging a whopping 40 percent excise tax — unless they are part of the White House’s chosen few who were given permission to opt out. Overall, Obamacare imposes 18 tax increases at a cost of $503 billion mostly funded by the middle class and the elderly via Medicare cuts.

In other words, there are no freebies that aren’t paid for by the same middle class taxpayers Obama purports to defend. Odds are, many of you reading my column will be recipients of this broken promise.

Medicare will be protected: Well, not actually. Funding cuts of more than $500 billion, in addition to more than 150 new provisions, will affect quality care. Like any business, physicians cannot remain in practice when their profits don’t keep pace with costs to do business. Obamacare will bleed them dry. It may not happen overnight, but rest assured, it will happen, and when it does, the government will be right there to fill the gap with government-run facilities. Ask veterans and their families how that’s working out for them.

Medicare’s Patient-Doctor relationship will be preserved: Much like the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), Obamacare is more about cost control than quality care. The NHS determines medical needs based upon a calculation created by economists, and uses it to determine who does or does not receive treatment. We’re not there yet, but Obamacare pushes us in that direction. Baby steps. And former Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) had the audacity to suggest the Republican vision for healthcare boils down to letting people die. Physician heal thyself!

Obamacare will not add to the deficit: Democrats’ pants should be on fire for this promise. Research done by experts at the Heritage Foundation reveals Obamacare is “a trillion-dollar budget buster” and claims Democrats rigged their numbers using “budget gimmicks, sleights of hand, accounting tricks, and completely implausible assumptions.”

One of the greatest things about America is that we have the opportunity to right our wrongs by way of the ballot box. What the Supreme Court declared as constitutional voters can declare as history come November.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Obama was against the vexing mandate found in Obamacare that forces everyone to purchase health insurance before he was for it. In 2008, then-candidate Obama said healthcare reform should be devoid a mandate. “If a mandate was the solution” Obama stated, “we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house.” Brilliant. It’s too bad he didn’t hold to that thought after he became president.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

I’ll bet Republicans would have supported certain aspects of the bill had they not been excluded from the one-sided discussion Democrats dubbed as a “debate.” The next thing we knew, the 2700-page pile of constrictive and nonsensical garbage was shoved down the throats of freedom-loving Americans who largely loathed the bill then, and still do.

Liberals hoped over time we’d warm up to this infringement of our freedom, but recent polls show quite the opposite is true.

A June 20, 2012 AP-GfK Poll found only a third of Americans support Obamacare, 47 percent oppose it, and only 21 percent of Independents polled favor it.

Back in February, a Gallup poll posed a question as to the constitutionality of Obamacare. Of those polled, 94 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of Independents said they thought the bill is unconstitutional.

A stunning 56 percent of Democrats sided with those Republicans and Independents, but inexplicably 71 percent of those same Democrats admitted they are pleased of its passing, despite the legislation’s assumed unconstitutionality.

As I write, the countdown to the announcement of the Supreme Court’s decision is hours away. Demonization of the SCOTUS justices has already begun. Pundits suggest the court will be swayed by public opinion based on polls citing public confidence in the SCOTUS has deteriorated in recent years. Others suggest the decision will be based on partisan political views rather than the law.

Mark my words: if Obamacare is defeated, liberals will demonize certain justices rather than acknowledge their opinion was based on the case’s merits. That’s just how they roll. Their leader is no different. President Obama shows about as much respect for the SCOTUS as he does the Constitution. Obama’s dysfunctional administration has shown us by its actions that the court and the Constitution are nuisances that stand in the way of getting his way.

During his 2010 State of the Union address, the Agitator-in-Chief publicly disparaged the SCOTUS justices while they were graciously seated before him. Obama’s dissing roused a standing ovation from like-minded misguided Democrats whose lack of decorum made them look more like jesters than legislators.

Obama did it again this April when he disparaged SCOTUS justices calling them an “unelected group of people” and branding them “judicial activists” should aspects of Obamacare be overturned. Normally, only punks make cheap shots.

If Obamacare is not overturned by the SCOTUS, and voters give Republicans the opportunity, the GOP plans to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a constitutionally compliant plan that will contain costs without expanding the size of government as well as provide individuals the freedom to keep healthcare decisions personal. Funny, isn’t that what we’re all after anyway?

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

According to the Lincoln Journal Star, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has been overseeing the health of Nebraska’s waters for more than 30 years, and its director, Mike Linder, says he’s not sure why the flyovers are taking place. Why let the states do for themselves what our all-knowing, all-seeing government can do for them?

Eric Allie / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

At an agricultural conference in November 2011 keynote speaker and environmental attorney, Harriet Hageman, warned “The EPA is one of the most insidious organizations in the US.” and is “a prime example of regulation without representation.”

Farmers and ranchers have similar concerns about Obama’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). During a bus tour across rural America last summer, Obama was confronted time and again by ranchers and farmers concerned that unsubstantiated regulation was regulating them out of business. According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, proposed USDA regulations “would cost 114,000 jobs nationwide and increase retail meat prices more than three percent.” A statistic likely lost on a president whose discriminating palate includes $100 steaks.

Certainly no one can forget the USDA’s attempt to impose a Christmas tree “tax” (fee) to “improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.” Bah humbug.

Last fall, the Department of Labor (DOL) attempted to regulate the relationship shared between parents and their kids on family farms. According to Politico, the proposed rule would have prohibited those under age 16 from manual labor like stall cleaning using a shovel and using a battery-operated screwdriver. When I was a kid, this type of manual labor was called Saturday morning chores. The bill also limited exposure to sunlight based upon wind speed and humidity as well as participation in 4-H clubs. And Mrs. Obama wonders why our kids are so fat.

Last but not least, the Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed a rule that would reclassify all farm vehicles as commercial motor vehicles meaning anyone driving a tractor or operating certain farm equipment would require a commercial driver’s license. Never mind the fact that many farm workers are migrant workers who do not qualify for drivers’ licenses, let alone commercial drivers’ licenses.

Admittedly, farmers have their hands dirty in this corner they find themselves backed into. Farming subsidies almost invite the government to meddle in an industry it plays such a big role in propping up. But farms are not just part of the fabric of this country; American farms provide much needed food aid to the third world. When you apply bureaucratic pressure to any industry, you run the risk of driving those same workers out of the industry, which becomes self-defeating.

Government control of the farming industry is illustrative of the Obama Administration which operates more like a dictatorship than a representative democracy. Whether it’s farming, healthcare, the auto industry or energy production, there is no amount of government intervention and overreach that can replace good, old-fashioned American ingenuity and hard work.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Randy Bish / Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (click to view more cartoons by Bish)

If you are a pro-capitalist, you are a fascist. If you are a Christian, you are an extremist. If you are a Mormon, you are a polygamist.  If you reject Obama’s liberal policies, you are a racist. And, if you are Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, you are a liar.

Liberals are so busy trying to get their way they fail to see the yearning for fiscal integrity rumbling across the highways and byways of this great country. They have no idea this real and present dissatisfaction is non-partisan in nature. In this unstable economy, many Americans have lost their appetites for labor unions and the ginormous government budgets they inspire.

Liberals would love to blame this dissatisfaction on those right-wing nut jobs, but they cannot. A good example is what happened in South Florida in March 2011 when Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a Republican, was shown the door for doing for doing the opposite of what Walker is attempting to do in Wisconsin.  Alvarez raised property taxes by 13 percent to fund public-sector union expenses.

In an attempt to discredit him, liberals label Walker as “too extreme.” I partially agree with them; Walker is extremely effective. Wisconsin was drowning in debt until the governor’s fiscally conservative measures erased Wisconsin’s $3.6 billion deficit. Rather than adopting the Democratic Party’s “cure-all” prescription of raising taxes, Walker lowered them, signing a property tax freeze and lowering school property taxes. Wisconsin is expected to have a budget surplus by 2013.

Governor Walker made tough decisions during tough economic times. Walker’s proposal allowing union participation to be voluntary and requiring union workers to contribute to their generous benefit plans sent Wisconsin state senate Democrats reeling – literally. Once they realized Walker wasn’t going to back down, they absconded to a neighboring state in a childish display of political theatrics.

Once it was enacted, the bill President Obama once described as “an assault on unions,” became a pathway to independence. Wisconsin schools and local governments were given the freedom to live within their means when they were granted the ability to hire, fire and compensate based upon performance. The nonpartisan group, Wisconsin Taxpayer’s Alliance, reported that the savings from employee benefits “allowed districts to reduce costs” allowing districts like the Kaukauna school district to control their own destiny and convert a $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus.

Walker’s success in Wisconsin is a threat to labor unions, Progressives and the Democratic Party. According to the New York Post, New York unions are sending resources “to oust the union-busting Walker on June 5 and stop the anti-union movement from spreading to other states.”

For political zealots, truth is a wonderful thing to twist, spin and slant – especially if it means discrediting a sitting governor prior to his recall election. Why debate an issue when you can call your opponent a liar? To no surprise, Walker has been accused of misrepresenting the truth over a variety of issues for the actions he’s taken to regain fiscal stability. Nevertheless, the best defense for Walker is the truth, which has manifested itself in Wisconsin’s economic recovery.

A win for Walker will be a win for the rest of us because his policies could serve as an antidote to the economic contagion spreading across this country. No matter who wins in Wisconsin on June 5th, or in Washington this November, our economy will not improve without making tough choices. Either way, the job requires a strong leader and skillful surgeon, and Governor Scott Walker has proven he is up to the task.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown.  Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

“President Obama, this is new French president Francois Hollande. President Hollande, c’est le president americain Barack Obama.” “Tweedledum meet Tweedledee.”

If, as they say, a picture paints a thousand words, then it is obvious it was amour at first sight for Obama and Hollande — ahem — as compared to snapshots taken of Obama with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which Obama’s body language expressed he’d be more comfortable sitting next to a rattle snake.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

It isn’t every day an American president hits it off so jovially with a staunch socialist leader, but these are strange days we are living in. Ignoring the obvious is supposed to be the norm.

Obama and Hollande share much in common including the way each coasted to victory riding on the winds of social unrest and economic uncertainty while using slogans promising change. Obama used “Hope and Change” and Hollande, “Change is now.” Does it actually matter? Not really. Except for the fact that both cases show us how people are willing to compromise core beliefs when times get tough.

At the G-8 summit last week, both leaders left German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the lone voice promoting the common sense approach to fixing Europe’s economy by living within one’s means. Instead, the not-so-dynamic duo promoted a plan for “growth.” The same kind of “growth” America experienced after implementing the stupid stimulus bill which grew the deficit instead of “shovel ready” jobs.

The type of “growth” Hollande and Obama espouse translated into layman’s terms means: The government has license to steal money from job creators so it can spend like hell.

Obama calls it “paying your fair share.” Hollande calls it “socialism.” Simintics, semantics.

Obama later joked about his failure saying, “Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected,” which was about as funny as Obama admitting he’s in over his head. Rather than admit failure, Obama whitewashed over his “Hope and Change” slogan and replaced it with the word “Forward.” Despite obvious failure, Obama wants us to proceed forward, in lemming like lockstep, over the cliff.

Thanks to a tip from a reader named Ted, I discovered the “forward” shtick has a dark side. According to Russian immigrant Svetlana Kunin who writes for Investor’s Business Daily, Obama’s new slogan, “Forward,” is the same motto (when translated) used by a Russian anti-capitalist left movement founded in 2005 which merged with the “Socialist Resistance” in 2011. You can see her enlightening article here.

To the unaware, Hollande’s plan for “growth” includes raising taxes on job creators from 41 percent up to 75 percent. Lord knows what will happen here, should Obama be entrusted with a second term.

In the meantime, we’re already hearing talk about the need for additional stimulus spending to fix those rickety roads and wobbly bridges the first stimulus bill failed to repair. Just like an addict promising that one more hit will be his last, it’s time to admit Washington has a spending habit that cannot be fixed with another fix.

Once upon a time, personal responsibility ruled the day and living within one’s means was honorable. Purchases extended on credit were the exception to the rule, and saving for a rainy day ensured personal “bailouts” in cases of emergency.

But that was then. We’re not in Kansas anymore, and it will take more than clicking a pair of ruby shoes together to get us home. Blindly proceeding forward into the unknown is a dumb idea when you know you’ve lost your way. The best thing you can do is go back to a point of familiarity and then proceed with caution.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Gary McCoy / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by McCoy)

The wave upon wave of “wars” on race, women, class and now gay marriage — were devised to sink this magnificent “city on a shining hill” into the depths of the sea and replace her with a European-style socialistic utopian theme park I affectionately call “Progressive World.”

Progressives, there is a much simpler way to get to that happy place filled with e-ticket rides and no work: Hop on a plane to Greece and send us a postcard to let us know how it’s working out for you.

God bless them, it seems Progressives honestly thought the sun, moon, and planets had lined up just for them that magical Greek column-themed Inauguration night in 2009 when Democrats owned Washington.

President Obama and Democrats had two years to do something about gay marriage, if they wanted to. Instead, the president waited to make his “public service announcement” until now. Obama made no promises; he simply stated his opinion. The shrewd politician he is, Obama understood the power of words and threw out a few to rally his base and raise Hollywood big-dollar campaign donations — which goes to show you intelligence is not a prerequisite for fame.

Rally, he did; within days, Newsweek canonized Obama as America’s “First Gay President,” and plastered his face on their front page, rainbow flag colored halo and all. I shall bite my tongue here for further comment, and leave the editorializing to readers.

Especially during these days of pending economic ruin, the “war” on gay marriage is a waste of time. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that as long as gays stay within the same legal boundaries we are all bound to; they can do whatever they want behind closed doors. It’s their business. I’m sure the GOP would be happy to accommodate them with reasonable things like hospital visitation rights. Sexual activity is between an individual, God, and the fly on the wall and has nothing to do with civil rights.

Conservatives must sit this one out and let nature take its course. If liberal men marry men and liberal women marry women and those who want to abort their babies do so, it won’t be long before liberals will “social right” themselves out of existence. In this case, patience is a virtue conservatives should wholeheartedly embrace.

Meanwhile, our ship is sinking, and Democrats are dressing themselves for dinner.

Focusing on non-issues intended to pit Americans against each other rather than acknowledging the iceberg we’re about to crash into was an exercise in futility. How far this one, who once promised to bind us together, has fallen.

It truly is “still about the economy, stupid.” Maybe someone needs to declare a war on “stupid.”

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Gary McCoy / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by McCoy)

Mathematicians Congressional Democrats are not. Democrats failed to inform seniors nearly half of Obamacare’s cost would be funded initially by taking more than $500 billion from Medicare. When this information was made public, Democrats promised the cost-shifting would not in any way lead to benefit cuts. In addition, they were told Obamacare would reduce the deficit and were told everyone could keep their doctors. If Democrats genuinely believed what they were saying, they obviously failed to factor into their quirky calculations that pesky little fact that Medicare reimbursement cuts to doctors would send them packing in droves, making it a bit tricky to use the same doctor if he or she no longer treats Medicare patients.

Moreover, another side effect from this pernicious legislation is what seems to be the ultimate destruction of the Medicare Advantage (MA) program as seniors know it today. It is to no surprise that this program elected by millions of seniors has been in Obama’s crosshairs for quite some time. After all, MA allows beneficiaries the ability to receive Medicare benefits via private health insurance plans. In Obama’s world, MA is a waste of money but spending countless tax dollars on green energy pipedreams is considered smart investing.

Obviously, Democrats failed to consider the timing of these cuts when Obamacare was enacted. Many seniors are in the process of losing their MA plans or will discover they are about to lose them — just before the 2012 election. Most sadly, according to the Heritage Foundation, low-income seniors and minorities will be the hardest hit by these cuts. Once again, Democrats claim to be the party for minorities and the poor, but contradict their claims with stunts like this.

More than 25 percent of Medicare recipients are MA participants. Of those, a large percentage lives in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. The Obama administration knew they had to do something to protect the senior citizen vote so they pulled another trick out of their trusty Chicago politics top hat when they conjured up $8.3 billion taxpayer dollars to supplement MA benefits until after the 2012 elections. After the election, all bets are off and seniors will be left to figure it out.

The Weekly Standard suggests this ploy is illegal in that “a president isn’t generally thought to possess the power to reallocate American’s resources to shore up his political vulnerabilities.” The Government Accountability Office (GAO) apparently concurred, recently telling the administration to stop this charade the administration fronts as a “demonstration project.”

This Medicare funds siphoning will continue, according to a January 3, 2011 Wall Street Journal article, “Obamacare’s Medicare Cuts in the New Year.” The article discloses that Obamacare will extract from “Medicare and related federal programs,” $638 billion over the next ten years, and an additional $1.6 trillion in the seven years thereafter, “for a total of $2.2 trillion” in cuts.

Democrats will use their best “Mediscare” tactics to deflect the blame to Republicans for the mess they’ve created. You can read an informative article about this “mess” at the Galen Institute online here.

In stark contrast, Republicans have common sense solutions that will leave Medicare benefits intact for today’s seniors and those nearing retirement. The plan also gives younger Americans the opportunity for a far superior program to work toward, while allowing today’s seniors the ability to rest in the promises America made to them long ago.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Dan Savage told teenage journalists, "We can learn to ignore the bulls—t in the Bible about gay people."

The organization’s founder, Dan Savage, seems to have become the very thing he fights against. Recently speaking about bullying before a group of teenage journalists, Savage went on an anti-Bible rant and said “We can learn to ignore the bulls—t in the Bible about gay people,” and then called the teens that walked out of the lecture in protest, “pansy-as-es.”

This case is not isolated. While on the Bill Maher’s “Real Time” television show awhile back, Savage said he “sometimes thinks about fuc-ing the sh-t out of” former GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum. It is one thing to disagree with someone’s religious beliefs and quite another to suggest punishing them for those beliefs by committing a homosexual rape crime.

Savage’s contempt extends beyond the Bible and Christianity to the Republican Party. It obviously makes little difference to Savage that the GOP has rejected two Evangelical Christians and currently leans in favor of a Mormon to be their presidential nominee. Savage continued, during the same teen journalist conference, with an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek comment, “We don’t know where the GOP is going these days” — referring to the ancient practice of stoning to death sexually active unmarried women.

Much like what the Westboro Baptist extremist group does, Savage cherry picks scriptures and provides twisted, if any, context. Bullies like Savage are cowards and pick on those whom they feel they have power over. Christians are easy targets because they normally do not retaliate, unlike some in the Muslim world who still practice stoning.

Bible believers do not stone people because of the example set by Jesus. Jesus addressed the practice of stoning the time he approached a group of religious zealots that had surrounded an adulterous woman. The Bible tells us Jesus knelt down and scribbled in the sand. My guess is he was listing the names of her sexual partners, which may have included those standing in the circle. Jesus told them the only ones qualified to throw stones were those without sin. Jesus shined the light of truth and, with stones in hand, the bullies fled the scene in shame. As was the custom at the time, Jesus was within his rights to pick up a stone, but instead offered grace and mercy. Context is everything.

I don’t have to politicize this issue because the gay conservative group GOProud has done it for me by demanding Savage renounce his bigotry. According to the website, examiner.com, GOProud executive director Jimmy LaSalvia went on the record saying, “Dan Savage’s outrageous anti-Christian tirade hurts, not helps, the fight for gay rights in this country.”

The Obama administration should renounce their support for this organization that seems more like a front to vent hatred than a vehicle to advance understanding. As I write, two videos recorded by President Obama and Vice President Biden in support of “It Gets Better” still remain on the White House website and can be viewed online. It is good the administration speaks out against bullying, but should do so free of ties to one using his organization as a bully pulpit to assert personal prejudice.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

President Obama attempted to dull the pain young Americans are feeling when he recently told a group of college students in Florida he “wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth” then went on to blame the mess we’re in on capitalism. He described capitalism as a “broken down theory.”

Jeff Parker / Florida Today (click to view more cartoons by Parker)

Obama’s “broken down theory” statement is wrong on many levels, but chiefly because his statement conveniently erases a significant chunk of American history. — that time when Ronald Reagan inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression. It is the “worst” because Reagan and Obama inherited extremely similar recessions, but Reagan’s was coupled with double-digit inflation and a 20 percent prime interest rate. Reagan did a lot of things right, including lowering taxes, and before long, the economy boomed.

In sharp contrast, Obama has executed what many describe as “anti-Reagan” economic policies that have largely failed. His latest tax the rich scheme, the “Buffett Rule,” was defeated by the Democrat-controlled Senate last week. The Wall Street Journal, says it would have added “$793.3 billion to the deficit over the next decade” I reiterate: it would have increased, not decreased, the deficit.

It is as if liberals are caught up in a constant love-hate relationship with the successful, the job creators, and the “rich” — in that they despise their success, but know full well they’d be unable to spread the wealth around without their money.

At this point in time, Obama can’t help himself because he has surrounded himself with people that share the same anti-Capitalism value system. One of those people, Bill Ayers, was recently caught on camera at an Occupy Wall Street rally in New York saying, “I get up every morning and think today I’m going to make a difference, today I’m going to end capitalism.” At least he said it with a smile.

For the unaware, Ayers was involved with a group which bombed the U.S. Capitol and Pentagon during the Vietnam years, and openly admits he’s a “radical, Leftist and small ‘c’ communist.” Ayers has wasted much of his life polluting the minds of naïve college students, similar to what Obama appears to do when he stands before young audiences cherry-picking history and belittling the American Dream.

How disillusioned this group, who flocked to the voting booths en masse for Obama in 2008, must be. Most had no idea Obama’s “hope and change” would mean they’d not have the resources to pay for the federal deficit he’s piled on their backs, as well as the student loan debt they’re drowning in. They never dreamed “change” meant the end of their freedom of choice because Obamacare mandates that all must purchase health insurance, period. Most did not anticipate a lack of ample-paying jobs would force them to live in their parents’ basements post-graduation.

Young Americans deserve better and need to understand that the noise coming from the Left is just that. Statements suggesting that capitalism is “a broken down theory” are meant to dumb down their expectations to encourage them to exchange the hope of silver spoons for plastic forks. Frankly, the Democratic Party’s message of perpetual mediocrity is discouraging to young Americans who have a whole future before them and deserve the opportunity to pursue their version of the American Dream.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

West is feeling the heat for a pregnant pause he took during a town hall meeting after he was asked “What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists or International Socialists?”

“It’s a good question,” West responded, “I believe there’s [sic] about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. (Long pause) “They don’t actually hide. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.” The left became unhinged.

Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Obviously West touched a nerve; before long, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) drafted their response: “Calling fellow Members of Congress ‘Communists’ is reminiscent of the days when Joe McCarthy divided Americans with name-calling and modern-day witch hunts that don’t advance policies to benefit people’s lives…”

The CPC’s response is just another sign of the political times we live in. But something about their argument doesn’t pass the “smell test.”

While there may not be large numbers of card-carrying communists lining the halls of Congress, there is a clear tie between the Democratic Party’s Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

It really boils down to marketing. In marketing, many times the same product is given a different name or label in order to increase its appeal to certain groups. Names are sometimes changed due to the product’s connection to other products, or the public’s association to a prior name.

Although Progressive share much in common with CPUSA and DSA, they are shrewd enough to understand the terms “communist” or “socialist” are unpalatable for most Americans. Hence, the word “Progressive” was injected into American political verbiage. While the words are not interchangeable, one thing is for sure: The CPC is doing its part to further the goals of modern Communists and Socialists who have found a voice in the Democratic Party.

In 2002, Communist Party USA PAC leader Joelle Fishman reported CPUSA uses the Congressional Progressive Caucus as “an important lever” to “move the debate to the left.” A February 2, 2010 Communist Party USA article “Convention Discussion: A Time to Grow” explained they plan to meet their goals by running for office “within the auspices of the Democratic Party” because “conditions rarely if ever allow us to run open Communists for office.”

The same article praised Obama’s election asserting, “We have the opportunity to build something big, a large, influential and effective Communist Party USA. After the incredible movement to elect Barack Obama, more far-reaching solutions and socialism in particular are back at the dinner table for discussion.”

It seems they are moving toward attaining their goals. Obama’s election, in conjunction with Progressives cannibalizing the Democratic Party by ousting common sense Blue Dogs, aided in a severe shift to the left. Americans have witnessed the deterioration of this nation by way of the same type of race-baiting and class warfare Communism cannot exist without.

Unbecoming to an American president, Obama has led the charge in attacks against job-creators, extended the olive branch to “99 Percent” anarchists, and publicly castigated the third (and his equal) branch of government. Americans have had zero control over the appointments of unsavory anti-capitalist cabinet members like former “Green Czar” and avowed Communist Van Jones.

All things considered, “Washington’s newest breath of fresh air,” West, is dead-on in his assessment of Democratic Party Progressives. West once said Progressive’s should take their message “and get the hell out of America.” I think most of us would be happy if they would just “get the hell out of” the Democratic Party and run on their own ticket.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

I’m a bit disappointed that some of my fellow women have bitten the bait thrown to them by Democratic operatives promoting a so-called “Republican war on women.” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, women have been easily deceived since Adam and Eve. Ever since a snake convinced Eve to eat forbidden fruit, women have been willing to accept lies about who they are and what they’re capable of accomplishing.

In a way, Democrats have conducted a psychological campaign to fool many women into believing they are an eternal minority, destined to eat the scraps fed to them by a Democratic party more concerned about their votes than their contribution to society.

The war is contrived, by the way. On the O’Reilly Factor April 6, Democrat news analyst Juan Williams described the scam as a “phony war on women.” Speaking to another Democrat strategist, Williams said, “I mean, you couldn’t make anything up better than the Democrats have done to try to fool women.”

From start to finish, this con on women was created to distract us from seeing the truth: The Obama administration’s economic policies have caused women to lose ground previously won by women under administrations from both parties. Bureau of Labor Statistics data reflects that since Obama took office, women’s unemployment numbers have moved in the wrong direction, from 7 percent to 8.1 percent. Democrats have tried, and will continue to try, to blame Bush and the GOP, and apparently there will always be a few women ready to believe it every time.

With Democrats in control for the first two years of Obama’s presidency, you’d think women would be advancing across the economic battlefield with boldness, but, just like in war, when your leadership is run by “girlie men,” things don’t end well.

Information from a July 2011 Pew poll based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data casts Obama’s economic policies as chauvinistic, considering men have fared much better than women under his leadership. From June 2009 through May 2011, men gained 768,000 jobs and lowered their unemployment rate 1.1 percent, while women lost 218,000 jobs, and their unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percent.

Overall, Democrat economic policies “favored men over women in all but one of the 16 major sectors of the economy.” In five sectors, women lost jobs while men gained them. In other sectors, men gained jobs at a faster rate than women and lost them at a slower rate than women. State government was the only sector favoring women.

According to the poll, “The recovery from the Great Recession is the first since 1970 in which women have lost jobs even as men have gained them.” But Obama did promise to be a different kind of president.

Undeterred, some women prefer to stick their head in the sand. Another recent Pew gender gap poll shows women now support Obama over the proven job creator Mitt Romney by 20 percent. As a woman, I grow weary of a Democrat Party spin machine which uses females as pawns in their political chess game, and the women who fall for it — every time.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

It is obvious President Obama has not figured out that speaking with a forked tongue is unbecoming of the one who promised to be a different kind of politician, let alone the leader of the free world.

The president recently proved this when a hot mic allowed the world to hear Obama asking Russian president Dmitry Medvedev for a little “space” and “flexibility” — until he wins his next election.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

Please do your best to disregard Obama’s arrogant assumption that he will win re-election long enough to see the dangers of Obama’s foreign policy doctrine of “Placate and Cave” when it comes to our ally, Israel. It is becoming a bit awkward to connect the dots between President Obama’s words and his actions because Obama’s words defy his actions, his actions defy his words, and his words and actions together defy America’s relationship with Israel.

Russia and Iran have been in a relationship since the late 1500′s. According to the Tehran Times, since Obama’s election, the two countries have buddied-up in costly telecommunications, agricultural, and oil agreements. Because Iran is no friend of Israel’s, it makes zero sense that an American president would cut a backroom deal with one of Iran’s favorite playmates. Iran is Israel’s avowed enemy and has declared, in no uncertain terms, “Israel must be wiped off the map.”

German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote, “If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.” Had Germans listened better in the 1930′s, Hitler’s rise to power may have been short-circuited, and the Jewish race protected from the appalling atrocities dealt to them by one who meant what he said.

History, like life, is best understood when it is viewed from a rearview mirror. The best way to prevent past mistakes is to gaze long and hard at the road we’ve traveled, and then take a different course.

It is clear that history does not matter to the one who believes he can change its course because he breathes. Ignoring all that “enemy of my friend” nonsense, Obama hops in his foreign policy hot rod headed toward hell, rolls the top down, puts the pedal to the metal, and spits into the wind.

In the meantime, that little speck-on-a-map known as Israel is left to defend itself and prevent another holocaust (of the nuclear kind) — alone.

Israel recently attempted to do just that, and the one who promised in early March, “we have your back,” ostensibly stabbed Israel in the back. According to the Jerusalem Post, senior U.S. officials leaked, “Azerbaijan has granted Israel access to airbases in its territory along Iran’s northern border for potential use in a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.” What were they thinking?

It gets worse! According to the same March 29 article, Azerbaijan also helped America when “Azerbaijani police arrested 22 people, including one Iranian citizen suspected of plotting attacks against US and Israeli targets across the country.”

So let me get this straight. Azerbaijan purportedly stops potential attacks against the US and Israel, and the administration does what any duplicitous ally should do and sells them both out with a leak — most likely executed in order to buy time until after the November elections.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach nailed it in a recent blog when he wrote, “…he [Obama] cannot be trusted to refrain from exerting undue pressure on Israel after the election to push through a peace deal that will likely not lead to peace but will simply compromise Israel’s security.”

With friends like that, Israel may want to come up with a new definition for the word “enemy.”

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Taylor Jones / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more Trayvon Martin cartoons)

Certainly the situation grows more complicated as emotions soar, but a look into the crime statistics in Sanford, Florida might help to answer this question. According to neigborhoodscout.com, Sanford has a crime index of 3 out of 100 (100 being safest), which is one of the highest crime rates in America “compared to all communities of all sizes — from the smallest towns to the very largest cities.”

With a population of just over 50,000 Sanford has 59 crimes per square mile, 69 crimes per 1000 residents, and one in 15 for property crimes. The prospect of having your car stolen is one in 255, and the probability of someone becoming a victim of murder, rape, robbery and assault, is one in 150.

These crime statistics do not necessarily give license for vigilante justice, but they certainly help to paint a picture about the conditions of a place that most of us would not want to raise a family, if we had the choice.

There are always two sides to every story, and, according to the Sun Sentinel, there is much more about this story to be told. Police told the Sun Sentinel that eyewitnesses claim there was an altercation between the two men. Witnesses said Zimmerman “was punched to the ground by Martin, and his head [was] slammed into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered.”

Was this alleged altercation grounds for shooting? The Sunshine State’s “Stand Your Ground’ law says it is. Because Zimmerman claimed, and initial evidence showed, he acted in self-defense, Zimmerman was not arrested. You can view the Sanford Police Department’s official statement on the city’s website that states Florida Statute prohibited the department from arresting Zimmerman based on facts and circumstances they had at the time.

Sadly, but to no surprise, the tragic death of this 6-foot-3 teenager has been turned into a political opportunity, a circus even, by those who prefer to paint the world in black and white. But it’s seldom that simple.

Had an adult been in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, cooler heads would have certainly prevailed. President Obama’s public statement, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” did little to help matters, because soon after, conditions deteriorated. This race-baiting rally cry granted us the opportunity to peer through the same monochromatic lenses Obama uses to see life. (Remember his Boston cop comments and the ensuing beer apology party?)

Not long after Obama’s statement, activists declared war against white people. Despite the fact that Zimmerman is Hispanic, the New Black Panther Party pegged the incident as a white man’s crime, and offered a $10,000 bounty for Zimmerman’s capture. Adding insult to injury, the Rev. Jesse Jackson told a large Central Florida crowd, “If it’s a moment, we go home, if it’s a movement, we go to war.”

Yes, Reverend, we should all “go to war.” But, before we do, it would be beneficial to wisely choose our enemy. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2005, among one-on-one homicides, “93 percent of black victims were murdered by black offenders” meaning the biggest enemy of African-Americans is African-Americans.

Trayvon’s death is an indication of a serious problem brewing beneath the surface. As the saying goes, “United we stand, divided we fall.” The first item on the agenda should be a commitment to stand against those who would attempt to divide us by playing the race card. The next order of business would be to double down against crime in communities like Sanford, so residents would not feel as compelled to take matters into their own hands and “stand their ground.”

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at www.susanstamperbrown.com and her new Facebook account.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Before his decision was overturned, the judge overseeing the case denied the restraining order because, according to Fox News, the man “felt he had behaved according to his Muslim beliefs.”

Bob Englehart / Hartford Courant (click to view more cartoons by Englehart)

It is no wonder that states like Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee are attempting to block judges from considering International and/or Sharia law in their decisions, while groups like the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) work on damage control.

The ICNA recently launched a nationwide campaign, “Defending Religious Freedom, Understanding Sharia,” which includes college campus seminars, billboards, radio advertisements and a 25-city “education tour to introduce the Islamic Faith to the American public.”

More power to them. After all, this is America, “the land of the free” and the home of religious freedom. But, as the old saying goes, “your freedom ends where mine begins.”

You may recall ICNA drew a lot of attention after five young men belonging to this organization disappeared, and then showed up in Pakistan to allegedly join the jihad. One of the men, Ramy Zamzam was quoted saying, “We are not terrorists. We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism.”

ICNA has a sympathetic ear at the White House by way of Obama administration appointee to the U.S. Homeland Security Council and White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Dalia Mogahed, who spoke at ICNA’s 34th convention. Investigativeproject.org claims Mogahed “has worked quietly” to ensure “radical Muslim groups” are “active participants” in her work.

Mogahed, who claims she was instrumental in the composition of President Obama’s infamous Cairo speech to the Muslim world, was on a controversial television show in London awhile back. The UK Telegraph reported that this White House advisor remained silent as others bantered about the West’s “secular man-made law” (the Constitution) and talked about the “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism.” Mogahed told the show’s host the West’s view of Sharia, is “oversimplified,” and “not well understood.” It would be nice to hear the poor Moroccan woman’s take on that one.

As a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and filled with immigrants from every walk of life, Americans are some of the most tolerant people on the planet. Think about it. Standing tall in New York Harbor, Lady Liberty beckons, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

The word “free” is key here. That’s what the bloodshed was about during the American Revolution. Our Constitution charges our government with the task of preserving the “unalienable rights” endowed by our Creator. The U.S. Constitution is superior in that restrains tyrannical governments, whose religion and politics are virtually indivisible, from overtaking ours. Nonetheless, there are those who would seek to present Sharia law as a Muslim religious prerogative under the protection of the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Earlier this month, Thomas More Law Center president Richard Thompson told World Net Daily, “Islam is more than a religion; it is a political ideology that regulates every aspect of human existence and calls for the Islamic domination of the world. Since radical Muslims know they can never defeat our military on the battle field, they devised the strategy of internal subversion.”

Some things were never meant to be fused together. As Rudyard Kipling once wrote, “Oh East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” In my humble opinion, the fusion of Sharia with our Constitution is like attaching a lawn mower to your bicycle. Sooner or later they will self-destruct, and everyone gets hurt.

On a side note: I recommend checking out the amazing work that is being done by the nonprofit Thomas More Law Center at www.thomasmore.org.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

It did not matter to the DOJ that an estimated 160,000 to 333,000 non-citizens were illegally registered to vote in Texas in 2008. But then again, this is the DOJ of Attorney General Holder — who was all about repressing the white vote when he dismissed the Black Panther Party case — because he thought it demeaned “my people.” With that in mind, no one should be surprised by Holder’s state-by-state whack-a-mole game to exterminate voter ID laws.

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

Because the Obama administration cannot run an honest election based on accomplishments, its lust for power has resulted in yet another Constitutional overreach by preventing individual states to do their job to preserve ballot box integrity. In this attempt to dismantle voter ID laws state-by-state, the administration is, in essence, stealing away one of our most basic freedoms — the right for free and fair elections — for which many Americans have fought and died.

Is it bigoted or racist to expect that Constitutional standards be upheld? Many on the left think so despite reputable research revealing that in states where voter ID is required, voter turnout improves.

One such study completed in 2006 by University of Missouri professor of economics and public affairs Jeffrey Milyo, found turnout in “Democratic-leaning counties actually increased” with the new photo ID requirements. There was no “significant evidence” that it decreased turnout in locations having higher percentages of “minority, poor or elderly voters.” Another study completed by the Universities of Nebraska and Delaware, “The Empirical Effects of Voter-ID Laws: Present or Absent,” came to a similar conclusion.

I could go on with many additional examples, but the truth matters little to those bent on twisting it to their own political advantage. Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, rivals of voter identification (ID) laws continue to participate in a careless exchange of rancorous rhetoric suggesting the requirement for voter ID is suppressive.

As I write, representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are sidestepping these undeniable truths, and crossing the ocean to file a voter ID law complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

To the unaware, this “human rights” council’s roll call includes some extremely repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia, Cuba and China. Nonetheless, President Obama threw America’s hat into the ring for membership in 2009. Former president George W. Bush boycotted participation with the HRC because doing so would legitimize this ersatz human rights organization that has overlooked barbarisms in places like Sudan’s Darfur, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

So let’s get real now. We need photo ID to get a job, cash a check, use a credit card, purchase alcohol and cigarettes, board a plane, buy medicines, watch an R-rated movie, get a passport, go to a bar, buy a house or car, buy a gun and rent an apartment. Laws are already on the books to prevent election fraud, and the Constitution puts the onus for the oversight of elections on individual states, which have the right to mandate voter ID.

Unless concerned citizens speak out by sending letters to their state’s governors demanding that they take rigorous action to ensure honest and fair elections by enforcing voter ID laws in every polling place, legitimate votes will be negated by unregistered voters, criminals, illegal aliens and the deceased. This is, after all, America — that special place on the planet where our constitutionally protected free and fair elections serve to keep us free.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

There is no doubt that this Nobel-prize winning scientist is an exceptionally smart man. Yet watching Chu in action goes to show you that one can be as sharp as a tack and dumb as a sack of hammers simultaneously.

Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

During a Wall Street Journal interview in September of 2008, Mr. Chu said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe” to encourage consumers to sever their addiction to petroleum. Chu’s comment reminds us that earned degrees do not amount to a hill of beans if you lose your ability to understand common sense and fail to relate to the common man. Chu, who is part of the “1 Percent” that Liberals get their panties tied in a wad over, can easily afford Europe’s $8 per gallon of gasoline.

Chu stands resolute in the face of average gasoline prices nearing $4 — forcing everyday Americans to choose between a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk. In Congressional testimony February 28, 2012, Chu said his overall goal is not to lower gas prices, but to lower, or “decrease our dependency on oil.” No wonder the administration is doing everything in its power (and pocketbook) to have us “buzzing” around town in Chevy Volts — which are about as exciting as an electric sardine can on wheels.

While Chu’s earnestness is without question, his hands-on approach gave cause for question in a July 16, 2010 New York Times piece: “Energy Secretary Emerges to Take a Commanding Role in Effort to Corral Well.” The article said Chu inserted himself into the BP oil spill disaster and repeatedly took “command…ordering company officials to take steps they might not have taken on their own” though he had “no training in geology, seismology or oil well technology.” According to scientific calculations made by American Thinker’s Bruce Thompson, “BP’s top kill probably would have succeeded” and the “hole would have been plugged” long before it was — had Chu not intervened.

The Times article stated Chu did admit that “if he had understood geology and well technology better…he might have urged a faster attempt at the top kill…The delay, he said, might have allowed pressure to increase in the well.”

While the administration overflows with “could-haves, should-haves and would-haves” when it comes to BP’s mistakes, I’ll be fair and not go there concerning Dr. Chu. I’ll instead stick with the facts: Chu’s post-spill decisions by way of permit delays and moratoriums heaped untold collateral damage to the economy when it killed jobs and damaged domestic production.

Incorporating a comprehensive energy policy is a non-partisan no-brainer which most Americans would wholeheartedly embrace, given they were allowed to embrace it — voluntarily. Instead, the administration is bent on assuming a parental role in our lives, and Dr. Chu seems to take this role quite seriously. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2009, Chu likened the American public to teenagers when he said, “The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act” and must “really understand in their core how important this issue is.”

All this coming from the green energy zealot who gave us the Solyndra debacle. Americans are not the senseless teenagers Dr. Chu implies. We may not have as many degrees hanging on our walls, but we are steeped in common sense, and understand that raising gas prices “to the levels of Europe” is not a smart move.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

The more the Obama administration apologizes for the burning, the more it fuels the sweltering rage within those who would much rather watch the world burn than to live in peace. Ahem. So, why are we apologizing, yet again? Because we have an administration that would rather bow to Saudi kings or to political pressure than stand up for the men and women who stand in harm’s way.

Gary McCoy / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by McCoy)

What was the Obama administration thinking when it sent senior Pentagon official Peter Lavoy to apologize to a group of D.C. area Muslims during their prayer services at ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia on February 24, 2012? Reports say Lavoy apologized numerous times during his brief speech at the Adams Center, which, incidentally, is one of the largest mosques in America.

According to a February 25 Fox News report, Lavoy told the group, the books were burned “unknowingly and improperly” and said our military “neglected, out of ignorance, long-established, correct procedures for handling religious materials.”

The Defense Department procedures he was most likely referring to instructs our military to handle the Quran using “clean gloves” that must be “put on in full view of the detainees prior to handling,” using two hands “at all times…in manner signaling respect and reverence,” and handling it “as if it were a fragile piece of delicate art.”

Lavoy reminded listeners that a string of Obama administration apologies to the Muslim world had already been lifted up by way of ISAF Commander General John Allen and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as well as a personal letter written by President Obama and personally delivered to Afghan President Hamid Karzai via U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Lavoy reiterated “that apologies are never enough and do not erase this incident,” and then really stepped in it when he promised “We will hold people appropriately accountable.”

Sounds good. But, there are two sides to every story. Promising that people will be held “appropriately accountable” without full disclosure as to the circumstances surrounding the incident is disingenuous considering that the people to be held “accountable” may very well be scapegoats. I’ll admit I’m a bit defensive, because I have family members who faithfully serve.

Here’s the skinny:

CBS News reported February 21, 2012 that an anonymous “military official with knowledge of the incident” said it appeared the Qurans and “other Islamic readings were being used to fuel extremism, and that detainees at Parwan Detention Facility were writing on the documents to exchange extremist messages.”

Representative Allen West (R-FL) who was appointed to both the House Armed Services Committee and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee concurs with the CBS report. In his February 26, 2012 newsletter, West said the Parwan detainees “used the Koran [Quran] to write jihadist messages.”

Based on this information, the detainees, and not the military, are to blame for the incident because they defiled their own sacred books, hence violating both Islamic cultural practices and the Parwan Detention facility contraband rules.

According to the same CBS report, Islamic teaching mandates that defiled Qurans be “burned or buried” meaning there is much ado about nothing because the military followed Islamic teaching as well as their own procedures for disposal of contraband.

I just put my boots on because it’s getting quite deep around here; shoveling manure is dirty business. As I see it, the only apology needed is to the U.S. military, which once again did their duty and are being blamed for it.

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© Copyright 2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Taylor Jones / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Jones)

As I understand it, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food consumption guidelines are based on net daily consumption, and school lunch recommendations are designed to enhance an already healthy diet consisting of two additional balanced meals and healthy in-between meal snacks.

Every child is unique. Johnny may prefer his milk at breakfast and dinner rather than at lunch, while Susie may prefer yogurt in lieu of milk. Joshua may hate vegetables, so his Mom sneaks them in by serving veggie burgers at dinner.

Enter: An unnamed (for her protection) 4-year old North Carolinian girl whose “mom packed” lunch consisting of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and apple juice was apparently deemed unacceptable according to USDA nutrition guidelines and was given a whole school cafeteria lunch to supplement the already plentiful lunch — by someone I affectionately call “Mr. Tubby.” The effort backfired when, according to the John W. Pope Civitas Institute, “the girl was so intimidated by the inspection process” she only ate the supplemental chicken nuggets.”

At the time of this writing, the circumstances surrounding the incident have all the makings of a “whodunit.” The Carolina Journal said the alleged “inspector” was a “state agent,” others said it was a “state inspector,” and some school officials say the teacher was to blame. I just got off the phone with District 46 Representative G.L. Pridgen, who said he was still caught in the crossfire of information in an effort to assist the girl’s parents.

When it comes right down to it, “whodunit” doesn’t matter as much as why “whodunit” did it. Most likely, the USDA did not send an inspector to pick through sack lunches. Furthermore, it is admirable that the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services has rules requiring all pre-K programs serve nutritious meals according to USDA standards — but those guidelines and suggestions should end where the role of the parent begins.

It is as if some of those in leadership genuinely believe they know better than we do what is best for our kids. They don’t. With that in mind, it is reasonable to assume that USDA-recommended lunches served by schools may or may not be healthy — simply because officials haven’t a clue what kids consume before and after school. Giving a child a school meal that was designed as a prototypical meal for the general population could, in reality, be a recipe for obesity based on an individual’s overall eating habits.

Inspector Tubby’s actions should serve to remind us how well-meaning rules or guidelines become grotesquely out-of-whack when the government sees fit to meddle in matters deemed personal. What was meant to help us hurts us when the government casts out a rule “for the greater good” and individuals get swallowed-up in the process.

A guideline is only as effective as its implementation. If there are other “Inspector Tubbys” out there doing the implementing, the well-meaning USDA guidelines the First Lady created to “improve the health and well-being of 32 million kids nationwide” could do the opposite to facilitate rather than impede childhood obesity.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Moses lifted his eyes and his staff toward heaven while George Washington bowed his head and bent his knee. And, Barack Obama? Why ask for help when you can take matters into your own hands by assuming the role of the Almighty? This attitude was on full display recently, when Obama attempted to drum up the female vote by forcing religious employers to dole out contraceptives despite their convictions.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

In 2008, women outvoted men for Obama by 7 percent (or 56 to 49). Obama won the unmarried female vote by 70 percent and 56 percent of females overall — but those numbers have been moving in the wrong direction ever since.

Overall, Obama’s approval numbers have inched upward to put him in a more favorable position for re-election. Nonetheless, statistics from a Gallup poll indicate the female voter block is up for grabs come November. The weekly presidential approval poll by Gallup (broken down demographically by age, marital status, church attendance, region, race, education, monthly income, party identification, ideology, and gender) should give everyone reason for pause.

Since the 70 percent approval number that peaked February, 2009, female approval numbers plummeted to 52 percent in February 2010, 49 percent in February 2011, and to 48 percent last week. (The multiple-year poll can be viewed here.)

These numbers shed some light as to why the administration would suddenly toss a false “female rights” contraception issue into the mix without anticipating the blowback. The real issue at hand is that the president intentionally stomped on the Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause that inhibits the federal government from interference in church matters.

It matters little that the administration recently “compromised” on its stance by placing the onus of offering free contraceptives on insurance companies rather than religious organizations. This so-called “compromise” was moot in that many religious organizations are also self-insured, henceforth placing them in a “darned-if-you-do-darned-if-you-don’t” position to either compromise on their beliefs or get out of the insurance business altogether. In the end, liberals get what liberals want, and the rest of us are left to clean up the mess.

Most troubling is that so few people are keen enough to notice the prowling lion roaming about: The contraception issue is eerily similar to the Obamacare discussion (not) — which began with the faux assertion of a looming national crisis. Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress offered the electorate variant versions (orally and written) of Obamacare — to the point that everyone forgot about real issues at hand like the failing economy. Democrats wanted to talk about healthcare, and so they talked about healthcare, and they talked, and talked and talked. Like a nagging wife who refuses to take “no” for an answer, Democrats wore us down to the point that everyone was relieved when it was finally over without fully understanding the ramifications.

With a self-appointed “higher-than-the-Constitution” authority, Democrats began, controlled and ended the healthcare “discussion,” (mandate) without consideration for the majority of Americans who stood (and remain) in stark opposition to Obamacare.

And they are doing the same thing to us again, but this time they say it is about contraception and after that, it will be about something else — because this is what happens when the federal government tosses aside the Constitution and crosses into territory the Constitution was meant to protect.

Unless the Supreme Court deems Obamacare unconstitutional, all Americans, regardless of their religion (or irreligion), will have their own version of the Red Sea to cross. And if Barack Obama is still in charge, it might be smart to bring along your scuba gear.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Michael McParlane / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by McParlane)

Now let’s get real. Decision after reversed decision like the administration’s recent choice to ditch its (supposed) “core values” in support of the pro-Obama Super PAC, “Priorities USA Action” pretty much betrays everything that President Obama said he stood for. Liberals think this fundamental change of position is acceptable because “all is fair in love and war” — and Chicago politics.

To be fair, the GOP pretty much owns the whole Super PAC concept and the morality of Super PACs within the campaign fundraising system is another issue for another day. The matter at hand (literally) is that every time President Obama decides to point a finger at his opponents, there are three fingers pointing back in his direction.

To be clear, Obama was against Super PACs before he was for them, just like he was for public funding of campaigns before he was against it. In June 2008, Obama detached himself from his own words (and hoped we would as well) when he did an about-face regarding his campaign finance stance. He gave us a squeaky-clean window with which to peer through when, in a video message, he expressed his condolences for the necessity to change his position. Promising it was “not an easy decision” to make because he still supported “a robust system of public financing of elections,” Obama claimed it was a decision driven by necessity. The public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken,” Obama complained, “and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system.”

After much bloviating, Obama stepped down from his soapbox and became part of what he described as the “broken system” when he opted out of public campaign financing — and the naïve blindly followed in lockstep — because that is how Chicago rolls.

Everyone changes his or her mind on occasion, and it is acceptable for a politician’s stance on an issue to evolve over a period of years. It is quite another thing for one’s viewpoint to change on a dime for political convenience. To gain an understanding as to what this administration actually stands for, all one needs to do is figure out what it previously stood against.

During his 2010 State of the Union speech, Obama defiantly smacked-down the Supreme Court for its Citizen’s United v. Federal Elections Commission decision because it opened the “floodgates for special interests.” Obama said, “I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests.”

In light of its newfound adulation of Super PACs, in fairness, Obama’s statement should be revised: “I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests –unless you are a Democrat.”

This stark volte-face does not bode well for an administration which once promised to be different, superior –even transformational. It is dizzying to listen to the cacophony of disjointed explanations as to the administration’s recent move to the Super PAC “Dark Side.” Both senior campaign advisor David Axelrod and Obama for America campaign manager Jim Messina implied it was acceptable to chuck core values and make this logic-defying and ethics-denying decision because the administration could not “afford to play by two sets of rules” meaning theirs and ours — and swapped them for something a bit more user-friendly, namely, “Ours and Ours.”

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Daryl Cagle / msnbc.com (click to view more cartoons by Cagle)

But that was then. Today, we have an administration that embraces a “Loose Lips For Political Expediency” philosophy. (No, I’m not talking about Vice President Biden.) Case in point: A headline I read the other day titled “SEALs becoming [the] face of Obama’s defense strategy.” Say, what?

Until this administration drew them to the light (like a bug zapper), SEAL Team Six was, for all intents and purposes, a figment of our imaginations — the stuff little (and big) boys dream about, and a terrorist’s biggest nightmare. This group of “quiet professionals” is quite content doing their job backstage without a spotlight and would prefer to keep it that way. Nonetheless, they were mentioned yet again in the State of the Union address. Obama claimed the mission was successful ” because every member of that unit trusted each other” knowing someone was “watching your back.”

Obama was partially correct, but someone with a bit more (38 years) experience has another take as to why the operation was successful. Admiral Eric Olson, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and former Navy SEAL, spoke to a group at Aspen Institute last summer. Olson explained the raid was successful “because nobody talked about it.”

Oh the shock and awe one must experience after accomplishing such an extraordinary feat only to discover your commander-in-chief cannot “watch your back” because he won’t keep his lips zipped. (To the unaware: unzipped lips are worse than unzipped pants. Ask Bill Clinton.)

In the address, Obama accurately quantified getting bin Laden was apolitical and said everyone in the Situation Room was unified in purpose. He failed to mention the “Loose Lips” pact agreed upon by those in the room. (I guess he left it out because it didn’t last long.) Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said everyone agreed to “not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden.” Gates said it “all fell apart on Monday, the next day.”

What about the word “secret” does the Obama administration not get? They are now under investigation by the Inspectors General of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) per a January 5, 2012 press release by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Representative Peter King (R-NY).

The investigation is underway because the administration purportedly granted “high level access” of information to Hollywood filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow and Sony Pictures for the making of a film about the bin Laden operation. King claims the information may put operators and their families in danger and said some “in the intelligence and special operation communities express support” for the probe.

In earlier correspondence to DOD and CIA Inspectors General, King questioned another alleged controversial decision, which by all intents and purposes blew the cover for special operators, when filmmakers were invited to attend “a meeting with special operators and Agency officers at CIA Headquarters.”

While everyone involved rejects the idea of foul play for political gain, it should be noted the film was originally scheduled to be released just three weeks before the November 2012 elections, which could have been an “October surprise” of Chicago politics proportion.

Obama himself said taking out bin Laden was not political, but actions subsequently emphasize the importance of having a person of sound character and disciplined tongue in the Oval Office. Had one of those been in charge, he’d have mostly like gained the trust of these clandestine cohorts by congratulating them in private — because they do what they do for love of the country, not for glory or praise. If they needed that kind of stuff, they’d run for president.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Unlike children, who often surprise parents with their simple logic, adults have the propensity to over-think things. So often, the answers we seek are directly in front of us, but we fail to see them because they are too obvious. Politicians take advantage of this nearsightedness when they distract us with hoards of information labeled as fact, but in the end, it doesn’t really give us an accurate picture of anything. George Orwell described this political-speak as a “Political language… designed to make lies sound truthful,” and he wasn’t kidding.

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more State of the Union cartoons)

These days, many politicians win elections because they’ve honed their political-speak skills to the point that lies and half-truths appear credible. Truthful politicians are personally attacked as “extremists,” while others are run out of office over time. Take a look at the Blue Dog Democrat Congressional roll call and you will see Blue Dogs are near extinction. No wonder there is a shortage of honest people willing to run for office.

President Barack Obama has made an art form out of political-speak. He once said if he had not turned things around in three years, his presidency would be a “one term proposition.” Because “things” have not turned around as planned, it only makes sense the powers-that-be chose to theme his re-election campaign as “a choice between two paths” in order to deflect attention away from an up-or-down referendum on his job performance.

Obama had the luxury of a Democratic Party controlled Congress for the first two years of his presidency. Rather than take action to fix a hemorrhaging economy, two years were squandered as the president ran around the country with new, updated, re-worded, and re-updated political speak. Instead of using simple, effective methods to affect real solutions, he chose Stimulus, Obamacare, Green Jobs, Czars, Committees, and a host of other bandages that have arguably made the situation worse. And here we sit.

All it takes is childlike reasoning to understand the outcome of these reckless choices. Take a moment to consider the increase in food stamp recipients, bankruptcies, foreclosures and unemployment and then take a quick trip to the gas station and grocery store. Lest anyone forget, the price of gas has nearly doubled. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that on January 23, 2009 the price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $1.81. On January 23, 2012, it was $3.31. Food prices are not much better.

According to a recent (December 2011) report released by the United States Department of Agriculture titled “Food CPI and Expenditures: Analysis and Forecasts of the CPI for Food” finding that in 2011, grocery store prices rose nearly 4.5 percent, and they anticipate that 2012 will experience another increase of 3 to 4 percent. The L.A. Times reported beef prices rose by 9.8 percent, pork prices 6.9 percent, poultry 3 percent, dairy 8.7 percent, and egg prices up 10.2 percent — in 2011 as compared to 2010. Chief economist for the National Restaurant Association Bruce Grindy says wholesale food prices are “on pace to post their strongest annual increase in more than three decades.”

There has been much mentioned during debates and stump speeches from both sides of the aisle reminding Americans there is a “choice between two paths” to be made come November. As confusing as politicians like to make it, the answer which stares us in the face can be found by asking a childlike question: Are we better off today?

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Given the increase in the size of government since Obama took office, he’ll need an earth mover to make any real difference. Next week he’ll be selling snake oil in the Rose Garden to reduce the deficit. There are many areas in government to cut, chief among them are excessive regulations, which are choking the life out of small businesses in this country. The Obama administration cannot be part of the problem and the solution at the same time.

Eric Allie - CagleCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

Awhile back, my brother Pete decided to chase his version of the American dream. He did his homework; purchased quality used equipment via the internet, and signed a lease — in hopes of opening a small mom and pop style yogurt shop near Charleston, S.C. He’s a smart businessman, who tries to calculate his decisions carefully. Nonetheless, it wasn’t long before he found himself tangled in a web of regulatory red tape. He was told he needed to purchase environmentally friendly grease trap equipment, although no frying is involved in serving non-fat yogurt. It didn’t stop there. Additional environmental requirements like the installation of specialized wastewater drains, and tens of thousands of dollars for more unessential equipment left him watching his hopes of the American dream go down the drain, along with any hopes of hiring new people should his business succeed.

My brother is not alone; his experience has become all too common in the Obama administration’s new regulatory normal. South Carolina’s Nikki Haley said it best when she recently told Fox News’ Sean Hannity, “I need a partner in the White House.” Haley claimed the hardest thing about her job had been the federal government intrusion into South Carolina’s business. Though she was a Tea Party favorite, Haley endorsed presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. She said Romney promised to keep the federal government out of South Carolina’s way, so it can create jobs.

My brother’s experience, along with the Department of Labor’s January 7, 2012 unemployment report showing an increase in unemployment by 24,000 over the last week makes it quite clear increased regulation is making matters worse. Over-regulation has turned the country once hailed as the Land of Opportunity into a place where opportunity only happens in your dreams.

According to a July 25, 2011 Heritage Foundation article titled “Red Tape Rising: A 2011 Mid-Year Report,” the Obama administration has enacted “75 new major regulations from January 2009 to mid-FY 2011, with annual costs of $38 billion.” Between October 1, 2010 and March 21, 2011, the administration completed 1827 “rulemaking proceedings,” environmental and otherwise, some of which will directly affect private sector start-ups.

The Heritage report found that Obama has outdone his predecessors in that “no other president has burdened businesses and individuals with a higher number and larger cost of regulations in a comparable time period.”

And the worst is yet to come when you look at the job-killing, business-quelling regulations under Obamacare’s 159 new government offices and programs, the EPA’s seven new environmental regulations that will cost businesses $38 billion annually, in addition to compliance costs of $100 billion, and the 2400-page Dodd-Frank bill the Harvard Business Law Review cites as “the most significant regulatory overhaul since the New Deal.”

The cost of overregulation is compounding exponentially, and in the process, is destroying the Land of Opportunity, dream by dream.

But don’t just take my word for it, ask my brother.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

The voice of reason beckons those who are willing to listen: Czech Republic president Vaclav Klaus sounded the warning bell regarding our economy last summer while in Berlin. “With the way your American government has been going,” Klaus said, “you might be able to catch up with us — in terms of our problems — very soon.”

Klaus was not kidding. Klaus was referring to America’s snowballing debt and unbridled spending as compared to the dilemma faced by our European neighbors across the pond. Klaus said much of Europe’s demise is due to over-regulation, an out-of-control welfare system, “new and more sophisticated forms of protectionism, and continuously growing legal and regulatory burdens on business.”

Sound familiar? Klaus may as well have been describing policies under the current administration, and left unchecked, it would be arrogant for us to expect a better outcome.

Klaus has clout and knows what he’s talking about. He earned a doctorate in economics, but it is the degree he earned from the school of hard knocks that carries the most weight. Having survived both the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and later, Soviet communism, Klaus has a comprehensive understanding of good and evil and liberty and suppression; his words should be taken seriously.

During the speech, Klaus blamed Europe’s severe economic plight largely on its social democratic system drenched with entitlements that has all but choked the last breath out of the Eurozone’s economy. Czech central bank Governor Miroslav Singer concurred in a January 8, 2012 Reuters interview expressing that bailouts have done little to solve problems in Europe, but much to feed them.

Recent history does not bode well for those following the Keynesian economics theory that ramped-up government spending spurs economic growth. Speaking about the deficit spending during the Great Depression in 1939, FDR’s Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. said, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we ever spent before and it does not work.” Morgenthau went on to say, “After eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…and an enormous debt to boot.” Japan tried the same thing in the 1990′s — to no avail.

Sure, it’s tempting to cherry-pick snippets of positive information like the recent drop to 8.5 percent unemployment to make the case that the European bailout prototype viz-a-viz Obama Stimulus bill helped the financial state of our union during a time of crisis. This line of reasoning suggests that a federal program paying someone to tear up a road and then to rebuild it in effect injects cash into the economy, thus creating more jobs. It didn’t work during the Great Depression, it didn’t work in Japan, it isn’t working in Europe, and the wasting of billions of dollars on an ill-conceived Stimulus bill did not spur healthy growth.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is bent on the myth that the extension of unemployment benefits will miraculously create jobs and stimulate economic growth. I’m tempted to send Ms. Pelosi a beach bucket with a note attached asking her to use the bucket to “bail out” water from the deep end of one of her California constituent’s swimming pools and then try to “redistribute” that water to the shallow end of the pool to see if it makes a difference. It won’t. Despite popular belief, there is no “Obama Stash” buried in the White House Rose garden, therefore, shuffling around the same money cannot grow the economy.

Left alone, our economy was designed to heal itself overtime, but, unfortunately, without apology or regret, Obama’s European-style intervention has muddied the waters and the process — leaving in its wake, the hope that he is limited to one term — or America may indeed “catch up” with Europe as Klaus so warned.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

The cost of CSAPR is extremely high according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which released a December 31, 2011 statement claiming had the ruling not been blocked, CSAPR combined with other current and pending EPA regulations, would have raised consumers’ electricity bills and jeopardized up to 1.6 million jobs — at a consumer cost of nearly $21 billion annually. Very much like the administration’s “jobs saved or created” verbiage, the administration makes “lives saved” or illnesses “prevented” claims on its EPA website. One can make a case for anything until, over time, facts prevail.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

The delay buys Americans some time, and one can only hope it is enough time to get a new president in office to change the atmosphere in Washington. After all, don’t we have more pressing matters to attend to? Iran’s recent threat to seal off the Strait of Hormuz could, in effect, interrupt the shipment of nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. And while Iran’s threat will likely remain just that, there is no time like the present to ratchet up domestic oil drilling and explore cleaner ways to produce energy from our own natural resources.

But it won’t happen on Obama’s watch. Nor will it happen until the EPA’s power is either reduced or nullified altogether. The Gulf Oil spill was a dream-come-true for many, in that the crisis gave the administration an excuse to tighten regulations and put a choke-hold on future production. There is no doubt, that when it comes to matters that truly matter to him, President Obama is an uncompromising ideologue. I recall no one, save a minute percentage of Americans, who wanted Obamacare, but we got it anyway — because the Democrat-controlled Congress handed it to him on a silver platter. Not to mention the Stimulus plan and the government takeover of banks and the automobile industry. He promised “fundamental change” and he meant what he said.

And here we stand at the precipice of what could become a real energy crisis, and we have an ideologue at the helm and an EPA on steroids. Consider the words spoken to the Governor’s Ethanol Coalition in 2006, when then-Senator Obama said, “…for all of our military might and economic dominance, the Achilles heel of the most powerful country on Earth is the oil we cannot live without.” There is a lot of truth to Obama’s statement, and it would be one of those seminal moments if followed up by an inspirational call to sensible action. But most understand that the green energy movement is not a call to sensible action but rather to irrational policies and irresponsible spending at our expense. Think: Solyndra.

Liberals love to argue that Republicans are anti-environmentalists who are in bed with the oil industry. Not true; they instead typically provide a more measured response to issues. In the case of this ruling, the GOP looked out for “the folks.” In a December 31, 2011 press release, House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) said there must be “a more sensible approach to regulations” to make rules “achievable in the real world.” Attorney General Pam Bondi (R-FL) concurred in a similar press release saying, “We cannot allow Floridians, many of whom are already suffering financial hardships, to bear the brunt of costly federal regulations.”

In stark contrast, an empty Air Force One touched down in Hawaii the other day, and then the President stepped out. This man, who is more in love with his self-image than America, and more occupied with his re-election campaign than the health of our republic, is chronically AWOL when it comes to doing the right thing by the American people, and in particular, repressive EPA regulations.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook. 

Family is a lot like praline candy – extremely sweet with a few nuts. No matter how crazy some of them make us feel or how crazy we make them feel, when it is all said and done, our family remains the most basic source of strength for our country. Winston Churchill once said, “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society are created, strengthened and maintained.”

Bill Schorr / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Schorr)

Churchill could well have been describing America, once upon a long time ago, when divorce and unwed pregnancies were not normal, and two-parent families helped children to establish a moral compass by teaching them right from wrong and self-reliance by way of hard work.

“Once upon a time” seems light-years removed when one takes into account Hollywood’s interpretation of “family” plastered across prime time television time slots. Most telling are statistics found at the Childstats.gov website, including a graph showing the percentage of births to unwed women from 1980 through 2009. The period experienced an increase in unwed births in every age category, and overall, the numbers doubled.

Another study, completed by the Pew Research Center in January 2010, exhibiting the “values, attitudes, behaviors and demographic characteristics” of young people ages 18 to 29 of the “Millennium Generation,” uncovered that only 60 percent of this age group were raised by both parents, and in the year 2006, this group far-exceeded earlier generations in unwed birth percentages.

Before you roll your eyes and succumb to your holiday break slumber, please humor me for a moment. Before you discount what I’m saying, think about the last time you poured yourself a much too hot bath. You suffered through what would otherwise be intolerable until your body adjusted, or the water cooled, whichever came first.

In the same way, this trend of not-so-normal families did not happen overnight; society has become so desensitized that shows like Leave it to Beaver are considered strange and dangerous, and Family Guy is classic. The decrease in the traditional families Churchill alluded to has also led to a decline in values like self-reliance (versus government reliance) that once strengthened this nation.

The 2010 Index of Dependence on Government report prepared by the Heritage Foundation found that government dependence in America grew by 13.6 percent in 2009 and by a jaw-dropping 49 percent since 2001. What has also increased, according to the Pew poll, is that young Americans are relatively supportive of letting the government fill the economic gap created by single parent homes.

While it is true that a whole lot of great kids can come from single parent homes and some downright crummy kids can come from a two-parent home, it is both reasonable and fair to conclude that America is paying the price, good and bad, for each generation’s choices. No matter their flavor, it cannot be denied that one of our most precious commodities is found seated around America’s holiday tables, be it that Great Depression grandparent who eats what’s left on your plate or that disgusting at her age, braless peacenik aunt.

With that said, this nut is signing off for 2011 and hitting the road in my dirty SUV for another round of family.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook.

©2010 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

The holiday celebrations this year should extend to include honoring the many soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who have sacrificed so much for the liberation of Iraq. Given the current political climate, it is unrealistic to expect the ticker tape parades of days-gone-by that took place to commemorate war’s end.

Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Frankly speaking, the word “victory” is all but missing from the vocabularies of those in leadership who originally voted against the surge leading to success in Iraq. Thankfully, sound wisdom prevailed. At this point in time, it seems it is safer for those who could not militarily strategize their way out of a paper bag to err to the side of caution. After all, the mission in Iraq is as accomplished as it can be — considering the commander in chief had promises to keep with an anti-war constituency, thereby closing down operations prematurely and against the wishes of commanders with boots on the ground.

At the moment, conditions look favorable for the people of Iraq, but enduring freedom in this country bordering the saber-rattling Islamic regime of Iran is a crap shoot at best. Albeit the existence of a free Middle East devoid an American presence there may be atop our president’s Christmas wish list, a wish it shall remain — until history does its part to tell us the rest of the story.

Unlike what seems to be happening in some “Arab Spring” countries, which may soon succumb to the weight of their own ineptitude, America’s presence in Iraq has unequivocally contributed to the birth of a fledgling democracy in a region known for and surrounded by deep and widespread oppression.

There is much in Iraq for America to be proud of despite the comments coming from isolationist naysayers like Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul, who has all but pissed on the graves of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for a war he recently described as “useless” during the GOP Presidential Debate in Iowa.

As nonsensical as it may be, Paul is entitled to his own opinion, but it might be much wiser to heed the voice of common sense coming from those whose boots are soiled with Iraqi desert sands — like U.S. General Lloyd Austin — who recently said America’s sacrifice gave the Iraqi people “an unprecedented opportunity to live in a relatively peaceful environment.” Similarly, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged “the cost was high in blood and treasure” but “those lives have not been lost in vain” because “they gave birth to an independent and sovereign Iraq.”

As many of us pause during this busy holiday season to reflect on the birth of freedom for mankind offered to us by way of a lowly Bethlehem manger, we should offer a prayer of thanks for the birth of a sovereign Iraq and the soldiers who gave her a chance.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

Last week, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama administration took what appeared to be an extraordinarily conservative position to block a FDA recommendation that would have allowed young girls, age 11 and older, to buy a morning-after pill over the counter without parental consent. Predictably, the abortion crowd threw a temper tantrum, but Sebelius’ explanation of her position leaves little doubt that, with a little more research, her office may have given this bad idea a green light.

Jimmy Margulies / The Record (click to view more cartoons by Margulies)

Sebelius stated that essentially the FDA had not done enough research on this young age group resulting in insufficient data “to support the application to make Plan B One Step available over the counter for all girls of reproductive age.”  So let’s get this straight, with a little more information, a young child could stroll into the drug store for her pregnancy pill, yet I have to present an ID card and a doctor’s prescription to obtain insulin for my diabetic dog?

Back in 2009, the Obama administration did its part to hijack parental control by lowering the age limit for this drug to allow minors as young as age 17 to purchase the pill without parental or physician consent. Lest anyone think Sebelius’ recent decision represents a reversal in abortion policy, it would help to examine Obama’s own words on the subject. Back in 2008, Obama said, “I’ve got two daughters, nine years old and six years old, I’m going to teach them first of all about values and morals, but, if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” It paints an odd picture where a father lectures his daughters about values and morals yet refers to an unborn child as a “punishment.” Obama painted a similar picture during a 2008 DNC presidential debate when he was asked to give his opinion regarding the Supreme Court’s then-recent decision making partial birth abortion procedures illegal. Describing it as “a profoundly difficult issue,” Obama said, “I trust women [not the courts] to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors, their families and their clergy.” And then he changed the subject.

The supposed logic behind the Plan B push to provide easy access for children is in the hope that it will reduce teen pregnancy numbers, but does little to address sexually transmitted diseases. The Center of Disease Control has found  that Chlamydia cases have risen by 24% and Syphilis by 36% over the past four years.

Besides a rise in STD’s, back in 2007 HealthDay magazine did a study based on ten separate studies finding that emergency contraception use in Britain had increased by two to three-fold, “yet had no measurable effects on abortion or pregnancy.” The report found similar results held constant in both Sweden and France. It seems that the only thing morning after pills do is increase promiscuity and disease.

America is rapidly sliding down the road of no return unless we do something to quickly change direction. The Plan B pill debate has little to do with birth control and much to do with losing control. Parents, there is something strangely missing in this conversation. Shouldn’t we be talking about how 11 and 12-year- old girls are getting pregnant in the first place? Last time I checked, sex with a minor was a crime in every state in the union. Maybe we should talk more about abstinence and how our actions have consequences. Instead of a pill, maybe “Plan B” should be a discussion about personal responsibility and adoption.

John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” It’s true. While we’re busy planning careers, families, and finances — life “happens” – thus reducing our “Plan A” to a mound of rubble. All any of us can do is roll up our sleeves and come up with a moral and sensible Plan B, because life does happen; it’s what we do with what happens that matters.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Mike Keefe / Denver Post (click to view more cartoons by Keefe)

The persecution of Christians has been going on since the days of the Roman Empire; it continues today in many third world countries, brutally, and here in America, more subtly. Tolerant of most other religions, pre-fall Rome viewed Christianity as a fanatical Jewish sect which was so easy to hate they made a sport out of it. Sure, it’s a stretch to make an absolute correlation between 21st Century America and first Century Rome. Nonetheless, replace sticks with diatribes and stones with denigrations for similar results. One kills the body; the other slays the spirit.

Enter Denver Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow.

Tebow is first college-level sophomore to receive the Heisman trophy and carried more awards into his professional career than most college players could only dream of. His leadership and running game converted the Broncos’ losing streak into a winning one, effectively moving them into a first-place tie for the AFC West position. Tebow has a better first-eight starting record than John Elway. An ESPN commentator recently wrote that Tebow is not only winning but also accomplishing “historic quarterback feats” like having the most rushing attempts by a quarterback in any game since 1970 and owning the “longest game-winning touchdown run by a quarterback in the final minute of the fourth quarter in NFL history.” Dare I mention he’s a virgin?

Under normal circumstances, Tebow would be praised for his accomplishments, talent and leadership from around the Monday morning water cooler, but in these days of pseudo political correctness (PC), the words “normal” and “Christian” cannot run together in the same sentence. Those who praise their maker for their talent are not considered talented; they are just creepy.

You’d think with all the PC legalese injected into our lives at every turn, there would be a bit more tolerance. Think again.

Consider these choice samplings from the peanut gallery: “Maybe he can cure leprosy.” “He’d be a better passer if he’d give in and sleep around town.” “Where’s your Messiah?” “I don’t want to hear about his faith every other sentence.” “Okay, here we go, the Jesus Gates are open now.” “His deeds should speak for him, not his praising Jesus after every snap of the ball.” “Even Jesus is telling Tim he has had enough.” “God wants you to be a back-up.”

Puleeeeease.

According to NFL Crime Watch, the National Football League employs quite a share of malcontents. Americans loudly worship these tights-adorned gods despite their delinquencies including: drunken driving, torturing and killing animals, drug possession, DUI, manslaughter, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, battery on a person 65 years and older, domestic violence, and cocaine possession — to name a few.

With that kind of lineup, you’d think this son of missionaries and walking miracle would be welcomed into the fold in hopes that some of this saint’s goodness would rub off on the sinners. For the unaware, Tebow is a “walking miracle” because his mother refused her doctors’ life-saving advice to abort her presumed-to-be stillborn son while still in her womb. They both lived. And Tebow’s been beating the odds and his critics ever since.

What is it about Tebow that brings out such nastiness in so many of us? Why does the Jesus in Tebow bring out the Devil in us? Why is Tebow a lightning rod to those who haven’t seen the same

light? Might it be that we can’t sit back to enjoy the game and appreciate Tebow’s talent because Tebow’s goodness makes us uncomfortable with our own not-so-goodness? If that’s the case, Heaven help us.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

Unlike the Tea Party movement which is largely responsible for changing the nature of the debate in Washington, and in 2010, changing the face of Congress, OWS will most likely have zero impact on the political process due to lack of substance and provocative style.

For a short season, the silent majority caught liberals by surprise when they rose to the occasion and publicly expressed their views against Obamacare and other far-left policies. They learned in short order that protests alone were useless having fallen on the deaf ears of a Democratic Party-controlled Washington. Henceforward Tea Partiers became involved in the political process. While there are whispers around Washington suggesting the Tea Party has seemingly lost its punch, it would be wise to remember who controlled the debt ceiling debate a few months back.

I genuinely feel sorry for so many of the OWS protestors who still haven’t a clue that they were played like pawns on a grand liberal chessboard by those who care little about financial inequality. Liberals are quick to come alongside protestors and claim solidarity, but fail to mention they are responsible for much of the mess the protestors are marching against. It’s all about political power — and naive, disenfranchised youth, brainwashed by college professors, bought into the whole “99 percent” marketing ploy.

The OWS movement was painted to portray protestors as representative of “the 99 percent” of Americans, but, evidently the paint was not permanent. After untold reports of public nudity, orgies and masturbating, personal property defecation, drug overdoses, robberies and rapes, Americans have discovered, with immense relief and much thanksgiving that these occupiers are not at all like the rest of us.

I can only imagine the protestors originally wanted to create some sort of “American Spring” where CEOs and Wall Street Bankers across the country turned in their resignation under duress and gave in to the protestor’s demands. Then what? Are the same dredlocked do-gooders going to hold a shareholder’s meeting to discuss the way ahead? Not likely. Likewise, during the Arab Spring protests, protestors fought for change, but when it arrived they didn’t have a clue what to do with it. As I’ve watched the coverage of the Occupy protests, I have tried to gleam some sort of common thread binding them all together, and all I can come up with is anger. But to what end? Anger without purpose is dangerous.

Democrat leaders seemed to hope the OWS movement would sweep across the country and not fizzle out as it has. What they fail to understand is protests absent a purpose, don’t accomplish anything. There’s no lasting energy. The Civil Rights movement had a singular focus which captivated the nation, and as a result, the movement affected a change in national policy. Similarly, the Tea Party movement succeeded in changing the political focus in the country to fiscal responsibility and smaller government. The Occupy movement has only succeeded to annoy and disrupt the lives of innocent people who happen to make a living in the vicinity of the Occupy parks, and expose the underbelly of the Left as to who they really are — agitators.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

As the saying goes, “Sometimes the remedy is worse than the disease,” and this could not be truer than with this administration’s intervention into companies afflicted with the economic cancer spreading around the globe. Many of these companies were deemed “too big to fail,” and without our help, we were told the economy would implode. Are we better off considering the sputtering economy, high unemployment, rising poverty, and a worsening mortgage crisis? Is this remedy worth the economic misery? I, for one, think not.

Mike Keefe / Denver Post (click to view more cartoons ny Keefe)

Three years ago, had the administration focused on job growth and pro-business policies, Obama would have had a second term all but locked up by now. But, that is not how they roll. Instead, they make decisions based on the assumption they know what’s best for us, and then go one step further to insult our intelligence by repackaging with shiny paper and glitzy bows a different version of the same failed policies.

A perfect example is the Obama administration’s “cure” for the underwater mortgage crisis. You might remember back in 2009, the administration introduced, with much pomp and circumstance, the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HAMP), promising that roughly 4 million of the estimated 11 million underwater mortgages would be saved from certain death. The end results were startling.

Back in March, the National Taxpayer’s Union (NTU), self-ascribed as “America’s independent, non-partisan advocate for overburdened taxpayers,” urged lawmakers to terminate HAMP because they claimed it “has proven a colossal failure that has done more to harm than help debt-laden homeowners.” At a cost of $75 billion taxpayer dollars, NTU found that only a little more than a half million mortgages were saved through loan modification, and, of those, the U.S. Treasury anticipates 40 percent to default.

NTU claims that the program is an abject failure as participants “will often be left with larger outstanding debt, worse credit scores and less home equity.” It might make you sterile too, but that’s all. I am often reminded these days of the late President Ronald Reagan’s opinion that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

One could only hope that this is the end of the story, but it gets worse. Now there is a new version of HAMP that involves two pillars of financial success: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Heritage Foundation’s senior research fellow in retirement security and financial institutions, David C. John, predicts the new version will be equally unsuccessful, but the side effects could be disastrous considering that the cost of the refinancing the underwater loans “will be borne by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

The government already controls Fannie and Freddie; taxpayers get a double bill when the cost of the loans will be added to the cost of the never-ending Fannie and Freddie bailouts.

Having already received upwards of $160 billion in bailouts from overburdened taxpayers who may not live long enough to see it repaid, Fannie and Freddie recently requested $13 billion in additional bailout funds. It is estimated that taxpayers may be on the dole for another $50 billion in bailouts by 2014; nonetheless, twelve executives were recently rewarded with salary and bonuses totaling around $35 million for the years 2009-2010.

Using mismanaged and dysfunctional organizations like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are currently on life-support, as a tool to rescue drowning mortgage holders is not the cure this country needs. A simple home remedy in the form of allowing free market capitalism to work its magic might just do the trick — and maybe a bowl of chicken soup for good measure.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

When gasoline prices hit their peak at around $4.00, Democrats were demanding Bush’s head on a platter, but under Obama the higher prices are simply the new normal. Rather than take steps to curb rising fuel prices, the administration is waging its own ideological war – against energy independence – by drilling regulations and moratoriums that, according to Steve Forbes, “is fueling an energy crisis that could bring this nation to its knees.”

We hear much these days about all the jobs “saved or created” but hear little about jobs slashed or destroyed. In many ways, the Obama administration has become a job-wrecking machine. According to Forbes in the same Politico op-ed piece, the six-month gulf drilling moratorium alone cost 8,169 jobs and $487 million in wages, not to mention the sweeping effects on the trucking and agriculture industries.

In this struggling economy, the obvious solution would be to reduce regulations and tap into our own natural resources, which would strengthen our economy on many levels. But, for liberals, it is less about jobs and more about pleasing environmental constituencies.  What is Obama’s grand plan to get America back on the road to energy independence? One million electric cars on the road by 2015.

Money is tight as we enter this holiday season, so few of us will wake up on Christmas morning to find a Chevy Volt, wrapped in a large green bow sitting in our driveway.  But, that may be a good thing, considering recent incidences involving Volts or their chargers, catching fire. One such fire in North Carolina nearly burned a house down. On the up side, this could be the answer to many upside-down mortgages across the country – buy a Volt and plug her in.

The Volt was supposed to be the bright and shining symbol of the Obama administration’s green energy revolution, but instead has become a reminder of what happens when the federal government over steps its Constitutional boundaries to meddle in private industry.

Like most ideas coming from the ideological left, electric cars are great in theory but fall short in application. For one, the people who need them most can’t afford them.  Even with the $7500 (taxpayer-funded) federal rebate, thousands of unwanted Volts, priced from $32,000 to $57,000, remain parked on dealership lots across the country. Many more would be sitting on those lots, were it not for Obama’s buddy, General Electric (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt’s decision to purchase twelve thousand Volts.  Immelt also joined Obama’s electric car revolution with the development of the GE WattStation electric vehicle charger.

The Volt, just like everything else the government produces, underperforms and is overpriced.  (I cannot wait for Obamacare!)  In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, automobile expert Edward Niedermeyer wrote the Volt “offers the performance and interior space of a $15,000 economy car.”

Niedermeyer claims the Obama administration knew from the get-go that the Volt would likely be a financial flop. Nonetheless, with pockets stuffed full of taxpayer funds, the administration merrily doled out Energy Department grants and loans, and in essence, chose for us the type of cars they believe we should drive. On a positive note, the electric vehicle industry might have the unintended consequence of creating more jobs as fire stations hire more firefighters to handle the increased workload.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

Adam Zyglis / Buffalo News (view more cartoons by Zyglis)

If the budget committee fails to reach an agreement, the military stands to be cut by epic proportions, which they seem poised to do, barring any eleventh-hour deal. These cuts should come as no surprise to anyone considering that this is what usually happens when a liberal Democrat is in the Oval Office.

With dollar signs in their eyes, liberals ignore the federal government’s core responsibility of defending its citizens, and instead salivate over the opportunity to get their hands on what they perceive as the Pentagon’s “pot of gold.”

Military recruitment requirement numbers are already down, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has been given a deadline from on high to slash defense spending by $450 billion. According to the New York Times, Panetta described “the president as closely involved” in the discussions to reduce Pentagon spending, which may include a reduction in military medical and retirement benefits, additional base closings, pulling troops out of Europe, cutting the nuclear arsenal, reducing the overall troop force, and reducing weapon purchases.

It is customary to reduce defense spending between wars. Budget hawks from both sides of the isle would agree that trimming excess fat is necessary, but, when it comes to defense spending, cuts should be painstakingly executed, considering that the War on Terror is ongoing, and defense spending is not the reason for America’s current economic predicament.

In fact, defense spending has gone down, according to House Committee on the Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-WI. In his “Pathway to Prosperity” budget, Ryan says it is essential to put defense spending into perspective. “Defense spending as a share of the budget has fallen from around 25 percent thirty years ago to around 20 percent today. Like all categories of government spending, defense spending should be executed with greater efficiency and accountability. But responsible budgeting must never lose sight of the fact that the first responsibility of federal government is to provide for the defense of the nation.”

Unlike Ryan, and particularly like former president Bill Clinton, president Obama views the defense budget as a potential Pentagon windfall. Liberals fail to make the connection between gutted defense spending and compromised military readiness.

Bush 41 was in the process of making sensible defense budget cuts when he passed the baton on to Clinton. In contrast, Clinton slashed troop numbers by more than half a million and removed $50 billion (inflation adjusted) in defense spending while at the same time dramatically increasing the operational tempo, thus sending fatigued troops into harm’s way without the equipment and support they needed to get the job done. This myopic view of defense spending left our military with serious morale and readiness issues, thereby handing off a military to his successor that paled in comparison to what Clinton inherited from Bush 41.

Speaking about Clinton’s foreign policy during a radio interview in 1998, former Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said, “Mr. Clinton doesn’t understand the military. He doesn’t like the military except when he has to use it.” Weinberger’s words ring true today describing both this administration’s and liberals’ love-hate relationship with our military. They love the military budget – just as long as it can be redirected to fund entitlement spending. And, they love the troops – just as long as they all salute sharply when told to do more than ever before with less resources.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view our Cartoon Blog)

Recently, after reading a few articles in Sojourners magazine, written by President Obama’s spiritual advisor, Jim Wallis, I was reminded how far away from these basic values we’ve strayed as a nation. An October 20, 2011 article, “The Un-Economy,” which can be read online at blog.sojo.net, depicts the economy as “unfair, unsustainable, and unstable,” and made the spiritual case for resolution through collectivism. “If you search the scriptures,” Wallis wrote, “you’ll find that God not only cares about poverty, but especially, unfairness and equality.”

Of course, God cares about poverty. Taken at face value, Wallis’ statements are harmless enough to those who have no knowledge of his background. Like Jeremiah Wright, Wallis has been preaching the “gospel” of collectivism for more than 30 years, convincing many that it is morally acceptable to deploy American tax dollars to alleviate suffering the world over. And now, Wallis’ has both a bully pulpit and the ear of our president to further his anti-capitalism cause.

In another article, “An Open Letter to the Occupiers from a Veteran Troublemaker,” Wallis referenced a “moral economy” and told Occupy Wall Street protestors they had created “new safe spaces” for Americans to examine “who we are, what we value most, and where we want to go from here.”

I’m not a theologian like the good reverend, but I dare say the same God who cares about poverty and inequality provided an effective way to administer remedy by way of a small, four-letter word: WORK. Since Wallis began the conversation about mixing the toxic brew of church and state, I thought it would be an opportune time to mention the Bible he references makes it quite clear in II Thessalonians that each person has the responsibility to care for himself, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” It also specifically charges the church and not government with the responsibility of caring for the poor, widows and orphans.

The same Bible Wallis uses also encouraged “reverends” to live exemplary lives by supporting themselves in lieu of receiving financial support. The apostle Paul was a tent maker. Jesus was a carpenter. Times have obviously changed. According to the online source dynamodata.fdncenter.org in 2009, Sojourners, Inc. gross receipts were over $5 million, and as an executive director, Wallis received $196,244 in compensation plus $21,918 in other compensation.

According to Christianity Today, George Soros’ organizations “bankrolled Sojourners with a $200,000 grant in 2004,” and “received at least two more grants from Soros’ organizations later on.” On October 14, 2011, a blackchristiannews.com article claims Sojourners received an additional $150,000 from Soros’ Open Society. The article said Sojourners “is a useful tool in reducing evangelical support for conservatives.”

Three years ago, I was taken back over the number of so-called evangelical Christians supporting Obama, but came to realize that well-funded organizations like Sojourners were able to convince badly informed Christians that Obama was some sort of global savior sent here to solve all the world’s problems. Secular leftists such as atheist George Soros obviously jumped at the opportunity to take advantage, using the “religious left” to help elect Obama.

Wallis’ heart seems to be in the right place, but fails to understand that prodding young Occupy protestors toward what he perceives as one of those open door moments Graham Greene wrote about, would usher in a future none of us will recognize, not even Wallis.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

Petar Pismestrovic / Austria (click to view our Cartoon Blog)

Even more troubling is statements made on film by Invisiblechildren.com activists/lobbyists who claim they influenced Obama’s decision to send troops and claim they received a “heads-up” call from the White House letting them know boots would soon be on the ground in Africa. The video can be viewed online at vimeo.com/30575828. The implication is the activists had a direct line to an administration that is more than willing to do their bidding. But interestingly, with Obama, activists seem to find a savior, when only a few short years ago; President Bush was clearly a target for their venom.

Overall, it seems the Cindy Sheehans around the country have been missing in action and conveniently lost their voice sometime in early 2009. Most have remained relatively quiet during recent troop surges, drone attacks, the assassination of a U. S. citizen (Anwar al-Awlaki), Gitmo’s non-closing, and military intervention in Libya.

The president was one of them once. Doing what anti-war activists do best at an anti-war rally in 2002, Obama admitted Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, “butchers his own people” and “developed chemical and biological weapons and coveted nuclear capacity,” yet reasoned Hussein was “no imminent and direct threat to the United States or to his neighbors.”

I suppose that analysis makes sense if you set aside certain facts surrounding Hussein’s reign of terror such as village razing(s), kidnappings, tortures, rapes, gassings and executions of Iraqis. Nor should one forget that Bush’s wars were waged with Congressional approval. Even still, Obama defined the Iraq war as a “dumb war” because at that time he believed our military should not be in the business of disposing of disreputable dictators.

But that was then, and Barack Obama was not the leader of the free world. It is astonishing what a little power can do to influence one’s perception. Now, with the presidency plus a couple of “dumb wars” under his belt, he’s found a way to convince feckless followers that it is morally acceptable to deploy America’s sons and daughters into harm’s way as “advisors” to meddle in Africa’s business – without Congressional consent. Let’s not forget, America’s involvement in the Vietnam War began by advising the country of Vietnam.

Our military should be applauded for their selfless dedication and unwavering devotion to duty in defense of our Constitution, but as John Adams once argued, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” While most would agree the world would be in a much better state were it devoid of murdering thugs like Africa’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony, fact is, similar to deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Kony is not an imminent threat to our national security.

During his August 27, 2008 Democratic National Convention speech, Obama vowed, “I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission.” First was Libya and now Africa. Just like the rest of us, the political left cannot have it both ways. No matter how tragic the case or seemingly noble the cause, America should not be in the practice of international meddling, nor should our president be in the business of using our military to appease well-intentioned activists.

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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Reach Susan at susan @susanstamperbrown.com, her Web site www.susanstamberbrown.com and Facebook.

©2010 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more Beeler cartoons)

Odds are you haven’t heard much about the results from the portion of the October 5, 2011 Gallup Poll that asked young people from the age of 18 to 34 the objective question: “Some people think the government should promote traditional values in our society. Others think the government should not favor any particular set of values. Which comes closer to your own view?”

With media hype surrounding the “Occupy” protests suggesting America is on the throes of revolution, and this purported revolution is being executed by young Americans speaking for the majority of their age group, you’d be surprised to find that 53 percent of the young people participating in the Gallup poll said they believed government should promote traditional values.

Most intriguing is that Gallop found what appears to be a sure and steady climb toward traditional values over the past three years by the same age group that had overwhelmingly embraced the antithesis of traditional values when they backed Barack Obama’s hope and change campaign. Prior to the election, in September 2008, just 38 percent thought the government should promote traditional values. In 2009, the numbers rose to 41 percent, 47 percent in 2010, and climbed to 53 percent this year.

I’m not a statistician or a pollster, but I do know if one takes this poll seriously, it seems the word “revelation” rather than “revolution” better describes what’s going on in the minds of tomorrow’s leaders who have witnessed firsthand what happens when an ideologue takes over the Oval Office.

The evolution of the grassroots TEA Party movement taught us that disciplined anger expressed by way of peaceful protest or sensible debate is both healthy and productive. Given the current state of the economy, no one can blame young people without jobs for being angry. Problem is, their anger is misdirected.

Young Americans should also be angry that they were lied to about green energy being the industry of the future and then watched more than a half billion dollars to fund it disappear overnight. They should be outraged that the president they adore saddled them with more debt than could be paid off in a lifetime. They should be livid they were promised a strengthening of America’s economic standing in the world instead made it the laughingstock.

Young Americans should be infuriated at the one who promised to transform the way Washington worked but instead became its biggest offender. They should be incensed that a Constitutional lawyer promising to work for the common man provided the environment for the common man to lose his ability to work. They should be irate that a Chicago community organizer promised to bridge the gap between the Left and Right has only served to agitate either side, thus creating what now seems like an insurmountable divide.

C.S. Lewis once wrote: “What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what sort of person you are.” Digging for truth takes much effort, but from where I’m standing, it makes a lot of sense for young Americans to take GOP presidential-hopeful Herman Cain’s recent advice and move their protests to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

A few years back, I found myself also staring — down the gaping hole that would soon become “home” to my deceased husband. The events of that day are blurry, with the exception of the drive from the cemetery. The sun was quickly fading in the western sky as the funeral home limousine whisked me due east into the darkness of night and concurrently into the darkest season of my life. Peering through the window, grief-stricken, I explicitly remember thinking my life would never be the same. It wasn’t. And, over time, I realized how much I had taken for granted.

Though not as dramatic as grieving the loss of loved one, or as superficial as grieving the loss of an inanimate object like the Mona Lisa, it seems a growing number of Americans are now in mourning for the America they didn’t fully appreciate until it was gone.

They are longing for the time when civility and unity had a place in Washington politics and America led the world economically, ethically and militarily. A time when planning for the future was a positive thing. Gas and food prices didn’t force you to choose between basic necessities and your mortgage payment, and jobs were in surplus and unemployment low.

If anything positive could be said about the upheaval that has marked the past few years, it’s that it sparked a reawakening to our national identity as a “shining city on a hill”, as Reagan so eloquently put it. At the same time, the Progressive left has seized the opportunity to peddle their own propaganda and promote the “fundamental change” Obama so eloquently promised.

Karl Marx once argued in 1859 the process for social revolution must include the economic unraveling of capitalism before “A socialist society based on democratic cooperation thus arises.” The winds of change are again blowing as the 2012 election nears; Progressives understand the window for advancing their ideas under the Obama administration is rapidly closing. As a result, leaders are doing their best to convince the rest of us that America is in need of another revolution by manufacturing anti-Capitalism protests around the country.

Back in 2010, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said labor unions must control the “national conversation” and help to “fundamentally restructure our economy,” and former Obama administration environmental advisor (and avowed communist), Van Jones, echoed Trumka’s charge and recently promised an “American Fall” similar to the recent Arab Spring protests. True to their words and their cause, “anti-everything” protests have broken out across America making the rest of us even more homesick for the land we once knew.

Problem is, these twenty-something protesters simply don’t know what they have in America. If rewarded for their efforts after protesting for the sake of protesting, they will find themselves staring at the empty hole that was this great country and will not even know why.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

These lessons are the reason why I have knee-jerk reactions when I hear statements suggesting that government should do for us what we should be doing for ourselves. Progressive Democrats’ sacrosanct belief that the government was created to control how wealth is spread around is nothing more than a modern-day attempt to re-invent Robin Hood, only without all the chivalry and green tights.

Those supporting the president’s new plan to “ask” (Progressive-speak for mandate) the wealthiest Americans to “pay their fair share” romantically embrace the concept of social justice – the idea that progressive taxation and wealth redistribution will result in some sort of economic egalitarianism – and to get there, we must take from some and pass it on to those whom “should have had it in the first place.”

Offering a helping hand to the needy is right, but the ends must always justify the means.

Democrats do not own the market on charity. I know many charitable Conservatives who combine their compassion with common sense. They bring food in one hand and a fishing pole in the other. How true the saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

In contrast, preaching the gospel of wealth redistribution, Progressives bring food in one hand and a voter’s registration card in the other. Seizing the opportunity to convert victims into non-thinking entitlement aficionados, Progressives will stop at nothing to lead their followers to some mystical Shangri-La, where rich people roam the earth laden with bags full of loose cash, desperately looking for a place to unload it.

Warren Buffett, as the left’s favorite compassionate rich guy, is like Robin Hood in reverse, in that he cannot seem to give his money away fast enough — with the exception of a little back-tax squabble they say he has going on with the IRS – to the tune of an estimated $1 billion. Of course, all rich guys are wicked, unless they agree, as an act of obedience to the government, to help bankroll the administration’s spending addiction by signing onto the proposed “Buffett Tax.”

I know, the devil is always in the details, but I’ll go ahead and say it anyways. Buffett’s billions are his. Not the government’s. Not mine. Not yours. The money is his. Those inclined to contribute their resources to help the poor, should. It’s called charity. People are generally more inclined to be charitable when they do it on their own.

The truth is, when the government takes money from the rich, it simultaneously hurts the poor when charitable organizations, like rescue missions, dependent upon gifts from society’s successful find themselves with fewer resources to share with those in need. There is a cascading series of events, which leads to more poverty and less prosperity. Likewise, high taxes choke the life out of creativity, undermine manufacturing, and weaken the middle class. In contrast, lower taxes enable business owners to increase job creation, salaries, and benefits.

Forced “charity,” only creates animosity between the less fortunate and those being charged with their fortune, under penalty of prosecution. There is a power in authentic generosity that no amount of government social-engineering will ever match.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

R.J. Matson / St. Louis Post-Dispatch (click to view our Cartoon Blog)

As I wrote in an article, “Obama Standing on Bush’s Shoulders,” written just after Osama bin Laden’s death, it seems like only yesterday when the eyes of the world were fixed on television screens filled with ghastly scenes of fellow Americans forced to make the decision as to how they would die that dreadful September 11, 2001 morning. Some chose skull-splitting skyscraper-to-sidewalk jumps, while others chose to be charred-alive in a steel-melting inferno. On airplanes, some decided to sit in their seats and silently pray, while others shouted “Let’s roll,” and took matters into their own hands.

As the stench and smoke from human infirmaries colored the skies gray, a cloud of grief descended over the country — and America’s enemy celebrated. Pictures of Old Glory intermingled with homemade signs displaying the words “Never Forget” sprang up on street corners and front yards throughout America. And, for a brief moment, it appeared that the patriotism of yesteryear was awakened from its long slumber as Americans chose to cross racial, political and religious barriers to join hands and hearts to celebrate our commonality. The nasty partisan divide resulting from the 2000 presidential election seemed to be temporarily patched with the bandage of brotherhood, as our nation swallowed a bitter pill of truth: We were at war with Islamic extremists seeking to destroy our freedoms. These extremists strategically attacked when we were distracted and weak from political divisiveness.

Time seemed to stop for most Americans who found themselves caught up in grief. Nevertheless, the sun continued to rise and fall, and the seasons changed. We bandaged our wounds the best we could, and were forced to move forward, although it seemed inappropriate. Ten years-removed, and amidst wars on three fronts, war-weary Americans have fallen into a regimen of “normalcy” and have adapted to a necessary post-9/11 mentality.

Great strides have been taken to weaken our self-avowed enemy, but we are still at risk. Only months into President Obama’s presidency, Americans grew to understand that having an American president with Muslim heritage makes little difference to a terrorist. Attacks and attempts continue; just last week, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a five-page bulletin, warning of potential homeland al Qaeda attacks via small aircraft.

Nor does a president possessing a Middle-Eastern name improve America’s standing in the Middle East. A July 13, 2011 poll conducted in six Middle Eastern countries by Arab American Institute found Obama’s approval rating never got above 10 percent. Ninety-nine percent of Lebanese, 90 percent of Egyptians, 88 percent of Moroccans and 77 percent of Saudis believe Obama did not meet his 2009 Cairo speech expectations. The survey found Obama’s approval ratings lower than George W. Bush’s second term and lower than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s, with the exception of Saudi Arabia.

Be it war-weariness, human nature, the divisiveness of the current administration, or a little of each, patriotism has paled, and our unity, diminished. This writer included, many have forgotten who the real enemy is, and have forgotten to remember those who willingly pledged our freedom with their blood. We are eternally indebted to those who satisfied the yearning for freedom within their souls by running headlong into the face of death, realizing they would never fully taste the freedom for which they were dying. And, most certainly, in that moment of self-denial, their souls inhaled freedom in its purest form.

May we never forget.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

Gary McCoy / Cagle Cartoons (click to view our Cartoon Blog)

It is difficult to determine who it is this administration is particularly interested in protecting. Law-abiding, hardworking folks who mind their business and turn their attention to providing for their families, seem to fall by the wayside, while the administration focuses on fulfilling President Obama’s commitment to “fundamentally transform” America.

As our president jets off to Martha’s Vineyard on yet another posh family get-away, it’s reassuring to know that in his absence, someone in Washington is watching out for us, or at least they say they are. God bless them, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working their fingers to the bone to keep us safe – and at the same time, they find a way to justify that ignoring the rule of law regarding the deportation of illegal aliens is for our good, rather than an opportunity to shore up the Latino vote.

To give them credit, the Obama administration was on quite an impressive roll, having deported some 800,000 illegals from 2009 to 2010. Skeptics such as I believed the only reason the administration was following the rule of law regarding illegal immigration was to secure bi-partisan support for the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act. The act failed in the Democratic-controlled Senate in December 2010, in good part, because the bill was perceived nationwide as amnesty for lawbreakers.

Afterwards, it seemed the Administration appeared to continue down the straight and narrow, until, like children who play one parent against another when they don’t get their way, leading Senate Democrats begged Obama to adopt the Dream Act as national policy, despite the bill’s failure in Congress. Speaking to a think tank event as late as April 2011, DHS Secretary Napolitano reinforced the administration’s stance when she said, “I am not going to stand here and say that there are whole categories that we will, by executive fiat, exempt from the current immigration system — as sympathetic as we feel towards them.”

Either the administration was lying, or as I have mentioned in previous columns, they are living in “Bizarro World,” where everything is the opposite of normal. Whatever the case, the deportation bus came to a screeching halt August 18, 2011, when the administration announced that the DHS will now re-consider the fate of approximately 300,000 illegals currently facing pending deportation — just as long as they do not have a “criminal record.”

Let me get this straight. Those who crossed our borders in a criminal, felonious, illegitimate, illicit, lawless, unlawful, and wrongful way – can stay in our country because they do not have a criminal record? Bizarro.

Dry wells can teach us the worth of water, and in an election cycle when the Obama administration is scraping the bottom of the well for votes, exploiting the Latino electorate makes as much sense in the world of Chicago politics as it does in Bizarro World. Suddenly, and quite conveniently, lawbreakers were morphed into impoverished victims in need of a Democrat Party savior.

America will continue to be the “melting pot of the world,” as we welcome with open arms those who cross our borders — legally. Rather than doing the right thing by considering the moral aspects of illegal immigration and its effect on American citizens, it seems Democrats are only concerned with enlarging their voting base. Applauding the administration’s immigration flip-flop, Representative Luis Gutierrez, D-ILL recently said, “This is the Barack Obama I have been waiting for and that Latino and immigrant voters helped put in office.”

Once again, the administration is doing what it does best by burying its true intentions under mountains of words, and burying words like “illegal” under mountains of loopholes found in the Democratic process.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more Allie cartoons)

Proponents of President Obama’s new vehicle cafe standards might argue that his policy makes it affordable to get back out on the road in this day of almost $4.00 per gallon of gasoline. While vehicles that sip gasoline like we sip our coffee on road trips sounds enticing, do not be fooled; this sipping will come at a cost quite unaffordable to most Americans.

Consider the $40,000 Chevy Volt that was declared the Motor Trend 2011 Car of the Year for its advanced engineering that allows the car to run as a series hybrid, parallel hybrid, or as an electric vehicle. Sounds nice – until you realize the car’s price tag is higher than the average per capita income of $39,000, and the cost of electricity is on the rise.

General Motors may indeed deserve credit for Volt’s technology, but GM’s partnership with Motor Trend’s publisher, Source Interlink, calls into question if the Volt received the award standing on its own four wheels, or “Government Motors” had a little help from its Uncle Sam – and now must convince taxpayers that our “investment” was worthwhile, as well as set the stage for the next phase of this administration’s back door approach to “Cap and Trade.”

The administration assumes its new cafe standards of 54.4 miles per gallon by 2025 will somehow spur economic growth when auto makers begin to crank up the assembly lines to make automobiles most of us cannot afford. In the first two months of this year, out of 268,308 Chevrolets sold, the Volt accounted for one-fifth of 1 percent, or 602 — indicating that most American’s are not interested in the 4 cylinder sardine can on wheels — even if it is the “car of the future” as described by Obama.

Quite honestly, each American should get one wrapped in a giant red ribbon delivered to our driveways for free, since we’ve already paid for one several times over. Consider how much taxpayer money was “invested” (a.k.a. wasted) on the bailout, development and research costs, outsourcing to the Korean battery supplier, federal loans for plant retooling, Energy Department grants, and consumer tax incentives. Not including dealerships in California caught gaming the system by selling Volts to each other and each collecting the $7500 tax credit.

Don’t let my credentials as a SUV driver make you think that I do not see the value in fuel-efficient cars built in America. When the time comes that automobile manufacturers can produce vehicles that are not only fuel-efficient and affordable, but also fun to drive, I will be first in line to buy one. Until then, I’ll be perfectly content cruising down the highway sipping my tall, extra-hot, nonfat latte’ with one shot of peppermint.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

The planet is filled with good people born into this world of various sizes, shapes, colors and personalities. Like salt is to a freshly peeled garden cucumber, so is human diversity to an otherwise bland society.

Martin Sutovec / Slovakia (click to view more Norway Terrorist Attacks cartoons)

One of my favorite inspirational hymns is the song “Just as I am,” which speaks to the grace extended to each of us by a holy and perfect God, willing to take us into his fold, just as we are – “poor, wretched, and blind.” God is incapable of prejudice. How dare we not do the same?

Some of my dearest friends and family members stand on the opposite spectrum politically; we find our deep bond of kinship, not in the superficiality of politics, but in the profundity of our bond of human compassion. When we gather around the holiday table, our prejudices are left at home.

Be it race, religion or socioeconomic status, by nature, we humans find comfort in the companionship of our own kind. Some would label this companionship as prejudice, which in and of itself, is not wrong. However, succumbing to our prejudices can lead to fear, and fear left unchecked, to hatred – until we become the lowest form of ourselves, as did Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

Breivik’s fear of Islamic and Marxist infiltration into Western culture led him to commit atrocities far worse than anything he feared they might do to him and his fellow blonde-haired, light-eyed Scandinavians. Driven by the same kind of prejudice and fear, Hitler annihilated Jews, white southerners enslaved “negroes,” and Muslim extremists kill “infidels.” Predictably, the left sees Breivik’s actions as an opportunity to cast the right under the same light.

Searching through Breivik’s manifesto, it could be tempting to draw the conclusion that Breivik is a “fundamental right wing Christian wacko.” Christianity does not make one a fundamental wacko, any more than being a Boy Scout makes you Ted Kaczynski.

Christian and right-wing bashing is the current modus operandi of the left, and if conservatives are not careful, we will fall into the same vicious cycle of blaming the other side as a matter of muscle memory, regardless of the facts.

The Hitlers, McVeighs and Breiviks of this world have detached themselves from the human race and belong in a league all their own. Veiling themselves behind layers of religion, philosophy, and prejudice, they each share a common trait that has little to do with reality. In the end, their actions defy reality, and leave the rest of us to question why.

It kind of reminds me of a provocative scene in the Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” where Bruce Wayne asks Alfred the same question, and Alfred responds, “…some men aren’t looking for anything logical…They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

If indeed the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, President Obama and his cohorts in the Democratic Party must be feeling the heat on their backsides on the eve of the Cut, Cap and Balance (CCB) vote.

In response to the GOP’s proposal, it should come as no surprise that White House spokesman Jay Carney would use scare tactics to suggest that the CCB bill would impose egregious cuts to Medicare. Democrats currently engaged in the debt ceiling budget debate refuse to tell the truth about the financial state of our union, and choose to continue down their spendificant pathway — which is expected to dead-end by way of a brick wall in 2019.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more Allie cartoons)

Republicans have done their part to sound the warning bell, and offer an alternate route, via Rep. Paul Ryan’s, (R-WI) “Pathway to Prosperity,” and more recently, Cut, Cap and Balance. Both proposals tell the unvarnished truth about America’s date with financial destruction and provide a sensible, alternative.

In April, the Congressional Budget Office produced an analysis showing Ryan’s plan would “reverse the course of fiscal history by lowering federal health care spending from 8 percent to 5 percent by 2050,” as compared to a 14 percent spending hike, should we stay on the current path toward insolvency.

Whether the irresponsible spendaholics admit it or not, Medicare is one of the largest (and fastest growing) federally funded programs, with federal spending expected to reach 20 percent by 2016, exceed the cost of Social Security by 2018, and exhaust trust funds by 2019.

Medicare’s funding is out of actuarial balance in significant part because the number of workers paying Medicare taxes is shrinking while the number of retirees is on the rise – as America’s baby boomers retire. Is it not ironic that the same generation that pushed Roe v. Wade on American society, resulting in over 52 million abortions since 1973 — and ostensibly 52 million fewer taxpayers – is now facing an unprecedented budget shortfall to pay for their incessant list of taxpayer-funded programs-the same programs they now need?

Unfortunately, the GOP’s attempt to warn Americans about the pending budgetary derailment has fallen upon deaf Democrat ears, which are in tune only with causes promoting their own political expediency, rather than our nation’s financial health.

What Fortune Magazine’s senior editor-at-large, Shawn Tully describes as “the best choice in a world of poor alternatives,” Democrats view as an opportunity to manipulate facts, misrepresent the truth, and mask the outcome.

Speaking on behalf of the party bereft a conscience, during a recent appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Democratic National Committee chairperson, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, argued the GOP plan will “throw you to the wolves and allow insurance companies to deny you coverage.” In reality, the GOP plan will provide seniors more control and promote health insurance company competition to drive down costs.

The only political party that has voted to cut Medicare is the Democrat Party – when they voted to cut $500 billion out of Medicare in the Obamacare bill.

The Democrats want us to climb aboard their bandwagon headed to the Promised Land; only problem is, this bus is headed over a cliff the size of the Grand Canyon. Along the way, a few Republicans are trying to give us warning of the dangers ahead for Medicare and a host of other similarly periled programs. We can heed the warnings and make a U-turn, or we can keep going with the pedal to the floor, off into financial oblivion.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

This is true in the court system, as we have witnessed this week with the Casey Anthony verdict. It’s all about perception and persuasion. The same is true in the world of politics. It’s rarely about righting wrongs or serving humanity; it’s about the furtherance of an ideological agenda.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)

A classic example is the ongoing debate over whether wages earned by an individual is fair compensation for his or her hard work, or is that compensation actually owned and controlled by the government.

How many times have we heard Democrats tell job creators it’s time to cough up a little more cash, and then complain that the government is somehow “losing” money — unless it raises taxes?

How can you lose money that was never yours to begin with? You can’t. But a whole lot of Americans have bought into that perception – because they’ve heard it repeatedly, and now perceive it as fact.

The demonization of corporate jet owners, the favorite evil corporation of the week, or small business owners for their success, is not just an exercise in futility, it’s a distortion of reality and feeds into the perception that successful corporations or successful people are evil; therefore it is okay to take what is theirs.

Those who think all wealth is theirs for the taking, and determine intervention is required to spread that wealth around should periodically raise their eyes beyond their academic books to note that this ideology, historically, has never ended well.

Look at Russia, Cuba, and Eastern Europe, and you will see economies built on the same failed premise of rewarding sameness at the expense of individuality. Soon the pockets of the wealthy are empty, and everyone is truly on the same level. And for those who sing the praises of modern China, look beyond the city limits of Beijing and you will find a populace that lives in the third world.

If a professor said it, or a politician promotes it, then for some, another’s perception becomes their reality. How much wiser it is to fact-check what we hear in the media, classrooms and pulpits, or even read in opinion columns. A little investigation combined with introspection would serve to clear the fog to reveal that ideas like “what’s yours is mine because you don’t deserve it” are in fact rooted in greed and arrogance- the same sins which the successful are accused of committing.

A little introspection would lead to the discovery that the arbitrary transfer of wealth, in reality, breeds complacency and laziness. There is a perception in America that the poor cannot succeed, and to correct this “injustice,” the wealthy must be compelled to give to those who do not earn. As a result, a sense of entitlement builds, while taking away motivation from those who just want to work hard and make a decent living. Over time, everyone ends up living on the same “plantation,” subservient to a flawed ideological “master.”

Penalizing success and rewarding failure leads to hopelessness — the opposite of what our founder’s intended when they penned the words that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

A good reminder that we each have an equal opportunity for success, but the outcome is determined by individual choice — a hard thing to perceive for those whose beliefs are shaped by another’s opinion.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

Eric Allie / CagleCartoons.com (click to view more ObamaCare cartoons)

Let this Conservative go on record: When used properly, welfare can be a force for good for those most in need. Unfortunately, we have an administration, whose failed (0-97 in the Senate) 2011 budget bulged with middle-class handouts meant to expand the welfare state. Democrats are bent on making addicts of otherwise perfectly capable citizens to the designer drug of taxpayer dollars. In an attempt to make this addiction permanent, the administration rolled out Obamacare.

In 2008, anxiety over a failing economy and soaring costs of healthcare helped to propel Obama to the White House, but, three years later, and after the passing of Obamacare, the anxiety has morphed into anger – as the truth about this poorly constructed bill unfolds to find that it is nothing more than a compilation of mistakes, bloopers, paybacks and blunders that fix healthcare about as well as handing a bandage and bottle of blood thinner to a gunshot victim.

The most recent “blunder,” which involves dropping people from the middle class and rolling them onto the welfare rolls, will not only add billions of dollars of cost to the bill; it will throw millions of middle class retirees into the Medicaid program. Medicaid was created to help the most needy in our society. Medicare actuary, Richard Foster, told the House Budget Committee that a provision in Obamacare did not consider social security benefits when calculating eligibility for early retirees, effectively branding those making up to $64000 per year as destitute. Talk about the destruction of the middle class.

Most troubling is the White House admits Democrat lawmakers knew this provision was in the bill and passed it anyway. Come hell or high water, the Democrat-controlled Senate and House insisted on ramming Obamacare down the throats of Americans against our wishes, and did not care that it would apply more pressure to state budgets already buckling underneath the weight of exorbitant Medicaid costs.

Additionally, Obamacare adds an estimated 16 million to 20 million low-income childless adults to Medicaid programs that will be initially funded entirely by taxpayers. Although it was their desire to have a European style socialized healthcare system, Democrats created some sort of “Frankenstein” system that is bloated, clumsy and solves health issues like a wrecking ball helps to remodel a home. In this case, the US economy is a house of cards.

It seems like only yesterday Obama promised that everyone could keep their own healthcare plans, nor would he write any healthcare plan into law which added to the deficit. But, that was yesterday. Here is what’s happening today: The release of a McKinsey & Company survey found that due to Obamacare regulations, some 1300 employers will drop their employer health insurance plans, forcing as many as 78 million workers and families into Obamacare. A Price Waterhouse Cooper survey found half of all employers “indicated they were likely to change subsidies for employee medical coverage.” In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Former Governor Phil Bredesen, warned that dropping employer coverage and forcing employees into taxpayer-funded Obamacare will become “very attractive to many employers, both public and private.”

“The problem with socialism,” said Margaret Thatcher “is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” The sand in the hourglass is getting low. Either America’s flirtation with socialism will run out of support, or America will run out of money.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more Afghanistan cartoons)

And it is – weird. To the average onlooker, hauling around a seemingly perfectly healthy canine in your backpack while making your other dog run beside you is weird unless, of course, they understood the extremely pampered pooch only appears to be capable. In reality, she’s a diabetic, whose glucose levels drop off the charts – with anything more than a casual walk. So, while my other dog and I do all the work and huff, pant and sweat our way through each hard and hilly mile, the “princess,” in all her alpha-dog glory, thinks she’s running the operation from behind – and wears herself out barking at cars, people and other dogs. Cars slow, windows roll, people smile and hands wave. We do all the work, and she gets all the attention, sitting upright and mighty from her backpack command post.

While I am in no way comparing our current president, Barack Obama, to my diabetic pet, it is not a stretch to draw a similar parallel to his leadership style – that one could find as entertaining – if we were discussing the local Boy Scout leader, rather than the leader of the free world.

Obama’s tendency to lead from behind has been magnified during the recent debt ceiling discussions, but that same tendency has been painfully obvious in his duties as commander in chief of our military.

I was perplexed with President Obama’s prolonged dithering back in 2009 after General Stanley McChrystal warned in a 66 page report that the war in Afghanistan might be lost unless additional troops were sent. Obama was labeled as “analytical,” and General Stanley McChrystal, a “renegade,” because it appeared he forced Obama’s hand. I called him a hero for lighting a fire under the behind of the one who leads from behind.

After McCrystal was fired after the release of the now infamous Rolling Stone article, “The Runaway General,” McChrystal was exonerated when a Pentagon investigation into the matter failed to prove McChrystal guilty of any wrongdoing. Obama followed the lead of the Rolling Stone, rather than giving the benefit of the doubt to a man who devoted 33 years of his life to serving our country, and was known for consuming four hours of sleep, one meal and 7 miles, every day.

Albeit tense at times, you’d think Obama would lean on his generals’ wisdom and experience – because the closest Obama has personally come to combat is facing the First Lady after being caught on camera indulging in one of his frequent hot dog feasts. Most effective leaders understand the importance of surrounding themselves with people who make up for their weaknesses – and occasionally step aside (not behind) when necessary.

The President’s appointment of General David Petraeus seemed to be a step in this direction last year. Now it appears Obama has discarded the advice provided for a responsible withdrawal timeline from Afghanistan and thrust the weight of an accelerated timeline upon the backs of our military who serve at his discretion.

As I completed my run this morning, a man on a bicycle yelled in passing, “You’ve got it all wrong! Your dog should be pulling you!” I responded in kind with a nod and a smile while remembering the words of the little boy on a scooter.

Life truly is full of unexplainable weirdness – like dogs in backpacks and leaders seeking to lead from the back of the pack.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.

John Cole / Scranton Times-Tribune (click to view our newest cartoons)

We are fooling ourselves to believe our enemies aren’t smart enough to use Habeas Corpus against us – which the Constitution does not extend to noncitizens held outside U.S. boundaries. While the good cop routine might work on some of the more impressionable, the determined fanatics will take advantage of the situation. Sometimes you need a “Jack Bauer” to intervene to make these people sweat.

Holder’s implied moral high ground originates from the assumption that captured enemy combatants will be mistreated – unless they are blanketed by the security of our Constitution. Holder fails to recognize that our military is bound by the same Constitution, as well as the Geneva Convention.

The last time I checked, those who strayed away from their obligations to constitutional rule of law were duly convicted of crimes. Their actions, along with those of Attorney General Holder, do nothing but undermine the efforts of so many charged with keeping the rest of us safe from the criminals they imprison.

A lack of confidence in the military tribunal system seems to pervade the Justice Department under Holder as service members assigned to Guantanamo Bay do their duty honorably and faithfully, every day.

Case in point is the recent indictment of the two alleged terrorists, Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, who made their way to Kentucky after they were mistakenly granted refugee status in 2009 – despite being involved in insurgency activities against American troops, in Iraq.

Last month they were indicted for allegedly providing support to Al Qaeda in Iraq, from Kentucky. Alwan was charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill U.S. nationals and attempting to provide material support for terrorists. Hammadi was charged with conspiracy to transfer and possess weapons and with attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

An ABC News May 31, 2011 report disclosed that Alwan told a FBI informant that his “lunch and dinner would be an American soldier” and found that his fingerprints “matched an unexploded IED that U.S. troops recovered” in Iraq in 2005. Regardless, AG Holder believes these quasi “citizens” should be afforded Constitutional rights rather than having their refugee status revoked and be given a one way ticket to Cuba.

Meanwhile, you can’t throw a rock without hitting someone who thinks the prisoners at Guantanamo spend every day within an inch of their lives, existing in some hellish, Abu Ghraib nightmare.

In reality, Gitmo detainees have quite the gig. Gitmo is a state-of-the-art facility with a $12 million courtroom located on a tropical island where balmy breezes blow. Detainees receive first class medical and dental care, educational opportunities, outdoor recreation, have access to satellite television stations, balanced meals and have hordes of civil rights lawyers at their disposal.

It should be noted that actionable information was gathered from Gitmo that aided in Osama bin Laden’s capture, and whether we like it or not, Gitmo is a necessary evil that was built to protect American citizens from the evil ones who reside there.

Civil rights groups whine about abuse concerns for the detainees, yet sit in silence when the real abuse is suffered by our own military – at the hands of the detainees. Former US Marine and Department of Defense contractor Rajai Hakki described the abuse taking place at Gitmo in a May 31, 2011 Huffington Post article, “The Other Side of Guantanamo.” Hakki describes the horror of guards having “urine and feces thrown in their faces,” others being bitten and spat upon, and black guards were recipients of “racist and demeaning” words. Hakki also witnessed detainees injuring themselves in order to make false torture claims.

At some point, Attorney General Holder must be held liable for decisions he’s made that favor America’s enemies over American citizens. His resignation would be a reasonable step in that direction.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (view more cartoons by Allie)

The media’s 2008 Freedom of Information Act request for the release of Governor Palin’s tens of thousands of work-related emails has failed to turn up anything significant, and yet they continue. The media are obsessed with a petite 5-foot-something female who apparently wields more power with her one-line internet “tweets” than Moses’ staff.

What initially seemed like a reasonable request (in 2008) to learn more about the then relatively unknown Alaskan governor who could have been “one heartbeat away” from having control of America’s nuclear arsenal, has turned into a chronic witch hunt as these same professional “journalists” fail to hold the man who currently has his finger on “the button” to the same standard.

Three years post-election and the bias continues  as enormous  media outlets spend untold amounts of energy and resources chasing the bus of a non-candidate and rooting through emails  for non-news like drooling  hunting dogs on a cold trail. Sort of reminds me of the old “Beggin Strips” television commercial – with a twist: “Palin, Palin. It smells like Palin! Yummy, Chewy! Palin!”

With his 2012 re-election campaign in full throttle, it is curious that Americans are still waiting to get to know our 44th president, the supposed epitome of transparency – who has yet to release certain school and medical records, college theses, law reviews and scholarly articles, and files from his years as an Illinois state senator.

Unreleased school records and university theses pale in comparison to more pressing issues.  Obama’s undeniable connections to the convicted felon, Tony Rezko, whom Obama called “friend,” should be explained. Obama once dismissed his relationship to the unrepentant domestic terrorist, William (Bill) Ayers, as just “a guy who lives in my neighborhood” – but failed to mention how Ayers helped him become a political Chicago “insider.” Americans are also due an explanation as to why the Los Angeles Times refuses to release a 2003 video of Obama toasting guest of honor and former mouthpiece for Yasser Arafat, Rashid Ismail Khalidi, at a farewell gala sponsored by the Arab American Action Network.

While most of those questions will most likely remain unanswered, one thing is for sure: The left has overplayed its hand this time.

Relentlessly attacking Palin simply because they fear who she is and what she represents has done nothing but helped to elevate her status. Most likely, Palin will not run for president, but she qualifies to join the ranks of esteemed conservatives like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher who each found a way to rise above the relentless attacks of those who hated them. One would even argue they thrived on the challenge.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com

Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more Weiner cartoons)

As if the country’s economic woes were not enough to keep American lawmakers busy, Representative Anthony Weiner, D-NY, reminds us this week that sometimes politicians have the unique ability to find time for “other” activities. Weiner’s lurid behavior is not unique, however, to his party. Republicans have had their fair share of moral pitfalls, but there tends to be a difference in how the two parties normally respond when their members stray from the straight and narrow.

A few months ago, Representative Chris Lee, R-NY, had the decency to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives, after information surfaced that Lee had emailed a bare-chested photograph of himself to a woman he’d met online, which is much less than what Representative Weiner has already admitted to.

Lee’s indiscretion was dwarfed on June 6, 2011 by the indiscretions of the Democrat’s most outspoken point man, Representative Anthony Weiner, D-NY, who fessed up- after he was caught with his pants down (literally).

After lying about his online “sexcapades” because he was “embarrassed,” and describing his crotch picture as a “joke,” Weiner claimed he did not violate any law or his oath of office, and passed off the three or so years of inappropriate behavior as “just me doing a very dumb thing.” Further highlighting a lack of integrity, Weiner claimed to take “full responsibility” for his behavior, but refused to resign. Maybe he could pursue a career using his newfound skills in photography.

While all humans are prone to wander and have the propensity to do “dumb things,” is it asking too much to expect a bit of dignity and statesmanship from those elected to lead? Do we want to trust national security secrets with those who expose, not only their privates, but also themselves to potential extortion – when they choose to barrage pictures of their “junk” across the cyber world?

Most ironically, in 2007, Rep. Weiner cosponsored a bill that made it through the House of Representatives called the KIDS Act of 2007 (Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators) – a bill intended to protect children from online sexual predators. Speaking about the bill, Weiner said, “Sadly, the internet is the predator’s venue of choice today. We need to update our strategies and our laws to stop these offenders who are a mere click away from our children.”

The next logical question is: Was Weiner party to the said predatory behavior aforementioned in his own bill? Where’s the sound judgment one would expect from a grown adult, less the cosponsor of an online sexual predator bill?

If Pelosi, who once promised to “drain the swamp” of morally-challenged lawmakers, decides to slap Wiener’s hands in order to retain a seat, the electorate will once again lose and be forced to wonder who will protect us from the lawmakers as those very same lawmakers ignore our interests and seemingly live above the law.

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© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com.