Less than $6.4k to go!!
Posted on 03/01/2015 2:00:45 AM PST by Dave346
BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Washington on Sunday on what he said was a “historic” mission to try and stop a nuclear deal with Iran, an AFP correspondent said.
The controversial 48-hour visit will see the Israeli leader addressing a joint session of the US Congress in a bid to garner last-minute support to halt an emerging world deal with Iran over its nuclear program, in a move which has infuriated the White House.
But Netanyahu, who will also address the annual policy conference of the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby, has refused to back down.
“I’m going to Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission,” he told reporters on the tarmac at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv shortly before his plane took off.
“I feel deep and sincere concern for the security of Israel’s citizens and for the fate of the state and of all our people,” he said.
“I will do everything in my power to ensure our future.” Netanyahu will address AIPAC on Monday before heading to Capitol Hill on Tuesday after which he will fly home.
Israel believes Iran and world powers are likely to reach a deal that eases international sanctions on Tehran without applying sufficiently stringent safeguards to stop it developing nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu’s trip comes just four weeks before a March 31 deadline for a political framework, with negotiators intending to pin down the final technical details by June 30.
It also comes just two weeks before a March 17 general election in Israel where Netanyahu is hoping to be re-elected for a third consecutive term in office.
Good. The dems are doing everything they can to discredit him and support the man who loves Iran more than this country.
I hear the sound of hammers. Word is Haman is constructing a gallows. Perhaps this will end the same way.
What kind of fool could read Esther and align themselves with Persia against the Jews, especially in the month of Adar. There are no coincidences.
It is said that when the verdicts were read at the Nuremberg trials, one of the Nazi defendants, yelled, “Purim Spielâ€!!! Referring to the fact that there were 11 Nazi defendants hung just as in the Purim story where Haman and his 10 sons were hung. Not sure this is true or exact according to the numbers but it is interesting...
“Now that is real honest to God pessimism
the question becomes, what will tip the balance?
so long as conservatives remain fragmented and apathetic,...... nothing”
The founding fathers attempted to work within the system in the early 1770’s, presenting their grievances to Parliament and the King. Not only were their pleas ignored, the government of England responded with more oppression.
Conservatives have no home in the Democrat Party. The blue dogs have been forced out and the leftists who control that party today are ideological purists who will tolerate no independent action or thought.
The behavior of the House of Representatives since Republicans captured a majority in 2010, the behavior of the Senate since the election of 2014, and the pronouncements of the leaders of the Republican Party demonstrate conservatives do not have a home in the GOP and are disdained by the party leaders.
There has not been one truly conservative GOP presidential candidate since 1984, Reagan’s last run for office. Until Romney in 2012, GOP candidates gave lip service to the conservative base when running but if given the chance to govern, behaved as moderates or liberals. Romney in 2012 actually fought conservatives bitterly in the primaries. Upon receiving the nomination he refused to engage the Tea Party and pushed conservatives to the side. He lost.
Jeb Bush, the favored son of the party elites, has clearly communicated he is not a conservative and does not intend to even provide lip service to conservatives. His vision for the party, and that of the establishment, is for a party that does not need conservative votes. They see the future as a two party America with the Democrats representing the Marxist redistributionists and the socialist corporatist Republican statists being effective managers of the nanny state for the benefit of large corporations. Both parties are run by globalists who disdain the concept of the nation state and embrace the utopian idea of the “global community”. Neither party’s leadership understands or cares about individual liberty. They are all collectivists.
The current two party system is not working. We have a dominant one party system in which the Republican Party acquiesces to the policies of the Democrat Party, even when it controls the legislature or White House.
A vibrant three party system would completely change the dynamic. In a multi party system, where no one party has an overwhelming majority, coalitions are required to govern. To form a coalition, the larger partner in the coalition must come to terms with another party in able to obtain support in the legislature. Coming to terms means advancing some of the agenda of the minority partner(s). Perhaps in a coalition government, the initially small, but passionate, conservative party could achieve guarantees the 2nd amendment will be left alone or real work will be done on addressing the national debt. Longer term, as the conservative party grows, it will gain more power. Something is better than the current nothing.
In Europe the corruption and ineptitude of the traditional large parties is resulting in the formation of new parties and shift in the political calculations and dynamics. In the UK for example, Nigal Farage and his party are becoming real factors. In Greece a minority party (leftist) has captured the government. Merkel in Germany is having to make policy with an eye to the growth of political parties on the right. Even in socialist Europe, citizens crave liberty and are taking action to push back on the oppression of the collectivist state.
Today conservatives are essentially powerless in national politics. The problem is not apathy, it is institutional. We are trying to influence policy inside a political party financially controlled by people and institutions opposed to us. They view us as a cancer cell, not partners. From the perspective of the professional political class who cares more about exercising power than ideology, money triumphs over passion or ideals. Pressing the case for conservative principles with Karl Rove, the Bush family, Mitt Romney, or the head of the Chamber of Commerce is no different than Benjamin Franklin presenting the English King a list of grievances. Their interests are not aligned with the people so they just don’t care and really don’t want to listen. Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell have more in common with Charles Schumer, with respect to lifestyle and social mores, than they have with the average middle class taxpayer in Mitch McConnell’s district. If Jeb Bush were honest, he’d tell you he would prefer to have dinner with Bill and Hillary Clinton than with a couple selected randomly from a middle class neighborhood within a few miles of his home.
At this point I see no way to reform the Republican Party from within. The fight inside the party is sapping the passion and energy of the conservative movement. People become apathetic when they see no reward from their best efforts.
The timing is right and the ingredients exist to form a viable new party. While conservative leaders may differ on policy, they are united in the knowledge the nation is going the wrong way and the uniquely American experiment in freedom is coming to an end. If they were put aside minor difference to unite on the core principles, as our founders came together in Philadelphia in the mid 1770’s to form a new party, I believe they could rally most conservative voters to come with them. There are no emotional bonds or economic bonds between conservatives and the Republican party, unlike the Democrat party which binds its voters with privileges and money drawn from the public treasury.
Leadership requires risk and personal sacrifice. Breaking free of the established order to form a new political entity requires personal risk and potentially great sacrifice. For some leaders it might mean putting aside forever personal ambitions for the greater good. For all of the current office holders it may initially mean loss of power and prestige as the established order goes into full attack mode to destroy them.
However, history shows that when leaders demonstrate courage and put their lives, fortunes, ambitions, and sacred honor at risk, people will follow. The question for our time is are the conservative leaders of today cut from the cloth of the founders or are they simply ambitious political hacks who can occasionally give a good speech?
Obama has worked for that his whole life, an American Hiroshima. He will be the proudest man in the world if it comes to pass. Ironic thing is though, that it will be his own supporters, in the cities, that will be annihilated.
They should launch Tuesday while Bibi is speaking.
G-dspeed PM Netanyahu. May G-d put the words in your mouth that will remove the blinders from our leader’s eyes and the ignorance from their minds.
——The problem is not apathy, ——
I chose apathy to mean lack of will to act or engage. To form a new party requires action and mental, financial, and physical engagement. I see no realistic possibility of the coalescence of those three to develop a third party with any significance.
Free Republic is a good example of cross sectional conservatism. There is lots of hot air but there is no desire to act, there is not even a large desire to make a financial commitment. most of the money comes from a rather small percentage of Freepers.And were it not for some big donations from a very few, even that might not be adequate to keep the servers humming. (analyze the oft posted list of donations) Most importantly, there is wide disagreement on key matters that is so selfishly guarded that there is no coalescence to produce political power. Most importantly, there is apparently no money for a third party.
The most common action on Free Republic besides typing is to pray. Prayer is an excuse..... let God do it, and then having made that action ....nothing. If God won’t will it, then well, not really anything I am willing to do either
Then there is the Tea Party. The TP was never and is not now a party. the TP is an idea, a concept, a desire. I live in one of the most conservative congressional districts in the country, a Republican district, nary a Democrat need run for congress. I was flabbergasted at the turnout for Tea Party rallies a year or so back. But now? No action, no leadership springing from the grass roots, no demonstrations, nothing. We sent a conservative to congress but he defeated the super conservative evangelical that was elected in a race of 5 candidates. He lost to the present congressman Dr Roe in the next election
If there is to be a weilding of conservative power, it will not be by a third party. The power will be, must be, wielded from within the Republican party. Those wielding the power are the GOPc, the conservative wing. We have seen just this week that there are enough to disrupt and cause negotiation to at least temper legislation
Lastly, regarding leaders, those running for President know that a third party serves no purpose. Were it so, Ted Cruz would not bee a Republican
The founders came together from throughout the thirteen colonies to found a new nation and defeat the British empire. Since then the Federalist and the Whig parties have come and gone. Organizations grow, proper, decline and die just like people. Why should it be different with political parties?
I agree with you on the money issue. Huge amounts of money are required to fund elections today. A presidential race costs a billion dollars for each candidate today. The wealthy people and organizations who raise millions for candidates expect a return on their investment. The actions of a political party align more with the interests of those who fund the party and its candidates than they do with the voters. Hence George Soros has more influence in the Democrat Party than the community organizer in an impoverished neighborhood of a medium sized city and Sheldon Adelson will have more influence on the direction of the Republican Party than my local Congresswoman who moves in lock step with John Boehner.
I actually see the money issue as the major impediment to the formation of a third party as well as the major impediment to the takeover of the Republican Party by conservatives. The truth seems to be most wealthy people having sufficient money and influence to raise millions of dollars for political campaigns have more in common with their progressive neighbors than they do with the average conservative voter in red states. Regardless of political affiliation the wealthy send their children to the same schools, read the same newspapers and books, eat in the same restaurants, rub shoulders at the same charity events and private clubs, and vacation in the same upscale resorts, not to mention live in the same communities. Wealthy donors tend to be concerned about economic issues not social issues. In addition their money insulates them from the very real pressures the middle class citizen faces every day. It may even be wealthy Republicans are supporters of welfare programs because these programs offload on others the very real social costs of business decisions such as offshoring jobs.
In any event, the monied classes of large urban areas today have more empathy for the urban poor than the struggling middle and lower class families of suburbia and rural areas. They do not understand conservative thought, conservative principles, or the concept of living a virtuous life grounded in religious principles. Their own narrow economic interests drive their participation in the political process. Money gives them freedom, not a fading piece of parchment written over 200 years ago.
If conservatives were to wield real power in the Republican Party, and nominate a Ted Cruz for president, I suspect the big money donors would close their wallets and allow Mr. Cruz to be outspent 5-1 in a race with Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren. Rolling back the leviathan state is not in their economic interest.
Perhaps I am wrong but most wealthy people I know are social liberals, even if they vote Republican for purely economic reasons, and very much self centered. Few understand US history and fewer still even care about the concept of individual liberty. To them, government is an all powerful institution they can influence to their benefit by sharing some of their wealth with politicians. Most are preoccupied with earning more money, not living a virtuous life in a free society. Granted, I don’t travel in the circles of the Koch brothers, Tom Steyer, Warren Buffett or Sheldon Adelson so it is certainly possible they have other motives.
It may be most real conservatives of today are average people who lack the time monetary resources to fully engage in changing the political process. If holding onto a job, educating children, and putting food on the table consumes most of the hours of the day, as well as dollars in the paycheck, there is no time or money for meaningful engagement in the political process. It may be the grass roots tea party movement was their best effort for concerted action. When both political parties shunned and opposed them, they concluded political action was futile and returned their focus to day to day survival.
Likewise, if the wealthy view political engagement as a vehicle for increasing wealth, and not social or societal change, the wealthy will not be funding a return to founding principles, either inside the party or through a third party.
While I would like to see a third party, I see little prospect of a conservative renaissance through a third party or capture of the GOP. Ted Cruz can talk all he wants. Without the support of big money, there is no game.
I will.
Leni
—— the monied classes of large urban areas today have more empathy for the urban poor———
they empathize with the poor in much the same way as the moderate Arabs empathize with Gaza........ the empathy is money .
When assessing the problems, it is best to ignore the presidency and concentrate on the states and the house.
although perhaps not pristinely conservative, the states have acted to remove Obamacare and are successful in the effort to halt the executive order. In my mind, these actions in concert with similar action in the houe are the proof of a GOPc
The current efforts seem to be working albeit slow
Full transcript of Bibi’s remarks:
“A few days before the Fast of Esther, I am leaving for Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission. I feel that I am the emissary of all Israelis, even those who disagree with me, of the entire Jewish People. I am deeply and genuinely concerned for the security of all Israelis, for the fate of the nation, and for the fate of our people and I will do my utmost to ensure our future.”
http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Spokesman/Pages/spokeDC010315.aspx#
Video available here:
May God bless Netanyahu on his way, and may he achieve all his goals of peace for his people.
If anything bad should happen, I’m holding Obama personally responsible.
Oh, my! What a pessimist you are.
God is with Israel and Netanyahu. The age of miracles is not past.
TG, most people are more hopeful than you!
So will MOSSAD!
God is traveling with beloved Bibi, the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD.
Pray for him, pray for Israel and pray for our Republic.
Obama is as much an enemy of Israel as the mullahs.
No other way to see this.
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