Many Talk; But Duncan Hunter Does

In the lead story for Tuesday’s USA Today, several U.S. Legislators were highlighted for taking action in making sure much needed armor and protection was provided to U.S. troops in Iraq. The bureaucratic-filled Pentagon was moving too slow, so some Representatives and Senators took matters into their own hands. These Congressmen/Congresswoman include Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI).

Read how these legislators really showed they support the troops and their safety:

How Congress Prodded the Pentagon to Protect the Troops

Also, along with yesterday’s feature, Robert Simmons, one of the staffers for then-Armed Services Committee Chairman, Duncan Hunter, was recognized for working with steel contractors and unions to speed up the manufacturing of much needed Humvee steel.

House Staffer Sped Up Humvee Steel

All of the legislators highlighted in yesterday’s articles, and their staffs, should be commended for taking action to help protect our U.S. soldiers. Every politician and legislator talks about supporting the troops, but Taylor, Hunter, Landrieu, Graham, Biden, and Levin PROVED that they do by their actions.

Chalk this up as more proof that Congressman and GOP Presidential hopeful, Duncan Hunter, is more than just political BS talk.

Presidential candidates talk about securing the border and solving the illegal immigration problem. Duncan Hunter led the effort to build the double border fence along the San Diego County border, cutting down drug smuggling in the county by 90 percent. Duncan Hunter authored the bill to build over 700 miles of that same fence along the southern border, which was signed into LAW by President Bush.

Presidential candidates talk about protecting the American consumer and making sure the U.S. benefits from trade. Duncan Hunter has been on the forefront warning Congress about the dangers of current “free” trade policies with China. Many wrote him off as nothing but a caveman in regards to international trade, but in the last few months, we have seen from China poisoned dog food, seafood containing hazardous chemicals, and now children’s toys containing unhealthy levels of lead paint.

Presidential candidates talk about being able to fight the War on Terror. Duncan Hunter is a former Army Ranger, respected by many military and ex-military personnel, and has served as chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Presidential candidates talk understanding the current hardships of families whose children, spouses, siblings, and parents are currently in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan. Duncan Hunter’s son, Duncan D. Hunter, who is running for his dad’s seat, is a Marine who has served two tours in Iraq and is currently in Afghanistan.

Presidential candidates talk about supporting the troops. As recognized in the above two articles, Duncan Hunter has cut through the bureaucracy of the Pentagon to ensure that the vehicles carrying our brave soldiers has the proper armor to help protect them from IEDs.

Someone please tell me again why Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and/or John Edwards are more qualified to serve as our Commander-in-Chief.

Duncan Hunter for President 2008

Say no to Fred Thompson

When the modern day guru of conservative politics talks, you would be wise to pay attention. Fred Thompson has been the subject of a lot of press the last few days. My friend Riley says it is mostly the “drive by media” attacking Fred. I disagree, there are many true conservatives that don't trust Fred. Today Richard Viguerie author of the best selling book Conservatives Betrayed and leader of ConservativeHQ wrote over four thousand words about Fred Thompson. He titled the article - Conservatives, Beware of Fred Thompson. He begins with:

“He disappointed conservatives during his eight years in the Senate. Is there any reason to think this Washington insider and veteran trial lawyer would be any better as President?”

He continues with a step by step look at Fred Thompson from a true conservative view point. Is Fred Thompson conservative? It depends on who you compare him with.

“Fred Thompson’s record may appear to be “conservative,” but only by comparison with Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, or Mitt Romney, and a Less-of-a-Big Government Republican is still a Big Government Republican. And given his lack of conservative leadership as a Senator, it would be a grave mistake to expect conservative leadership from him as President.”

Indeed. Viguerie looks at Fred's senate record and American Conservative Union (ACU) ratings to reach this conclusion. He writes:

"Conservatives who look to Thompson for salvation need to pause and consider his record—a record that includes these votes:"

♦ FOR restricting the rights of grassroots organizations to communicate with the public. See ACU’s vote 3, 1998.

♦ FOR allowing the IRS to require political and policy organizations to disclose their membership—a vote against the constitutional rights of free association and privacy. (The Clinton Administration used such IRS intimidation against conservative groups that opposed them.) See ACU’s vote 11, 2000.

♦ AGAINST impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, specifically the reappointment and reauthorization of managers (drawn from the Republican membership of the House Judiciary Committee) to conduct the impeachment trial in the Senate. See ACU’s vote 1, 1999.

♦ AGAINST an accelerated elimination of the “marriage penalty.” See ACU’s vote 10, 2001.

♦ FOR handouts to politicians, specifically taxpayer funding of presidential campaigns. See ACU’s vote 6, 1995.

♦ FOR handouts to politicians, specifically congressional perks such as postage and broadcast time funded by taxpayers. See ACU’s vote 13, 1996.

♦ AGAINST restraints on federal spending, specifically the Phil Gramm (R-TX) amendment to limit non-defense discretionary spending to the fiscal 1997 levels requested by President Clinton. See ACU’s vote 6, 1997.

♦ FOR affirmative action in federal contracts. See ACU’s vote 9, 1995.

♦ FOR the Legal Services Corporation, the perennial liberal boondoggle that provides political activism disguised as “legal services” to Democratic constituencies. See ACU’s vote 16, 1995, and vote 17, 1999.

♦ FOR an increase in the minimum wage, which, of course, increases unemployment among the young and poor. See ACU’s vote 16, 1996.

♦ FOR President Clinton’s nomination of Dr. David Satcher as U.S. Surgeon General. Among other things, Satcher opposed a full ban on partial-birth abortion. See ACU’s vote 1, 1998.

♦ FOR open-ended military commitments, specifically in regard to U.S. troops in Kosovo. See ACU’s vote 8, 2000.

♦ FOR corporate welfare, specifically the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). See ACU’s vote 23. 1999.

♦ AGAINST worker and shareholder rights, specifically the Hatch (R-UT) amendment to require unions and corporations to obtain permission from dues-paying members or shareholders before spending money on political activities. See ACU’s votes 4 and 5, 2001.

♦ AGAINST property rights and FOR unlimited presidential power, specifically by allowing President Clinton to implement the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, which he established by executive order, without congressional approval. See ACU’s vote 20, 1997.

♦ FOR restricting the First Amendment (free speech) rights of independent groups. See ACU’s vote 23, 1997.

♦ FOR the trial lawyers lobby, and specifically against a bill that would put common-sense limitations on the medical malpractice suits that increase health costs for all of us. (Of course! He’s been a trial lawyer himself for some three decades.) See ACU’s vote 18, 2002.

And, last but not least:

♦ FOR limitations on campaign freedom of speech, by limiting contributions to national political parties to $2,000 and limiting the rights of individuals and groups to participate in the political process in the two months before elections. See ACU’s vote 7, 2002.

“There you have it. The actor who talks like a tough conservative has, in his real political life, voted in all these ways to increase the power of the federal government, limit the rights of taxpayers and individual citizens, and shut grassroots activists out of the political process.”

Fred Thompson championed McCain/Feingold....I encourage you to go read the whole article here. It also covers the abortion issue that is in question. That part will leave you wondering just where the hell this guy stands. No drive by media views here. This is the real Thompson record viewed by one of the leading conservatives of our time.

Duncan Hunter For President

Still Trying to Sell Us Out

The American people stood up and achieved a great victory two weeks ago when the Kennedy/Bush/LaRaza/Big Business immigration “reform” bill was stalled in the Senate. However, as sure as the sun rises ever day, our politicians seem hell-bent on selling our country up the river to cheap, illegal labor and Democratic-leaning immigrant votes.

Columnist William Rusher nails the problem on the head that is facing conservative Republicans who want real immigration reform, not necessarily deportation of 12 million people, but real, true reform and border enforcement.

He echoes exactly what I have been saying for over a year about this issue. The Republican powers pushing this all amnesty bill are doing so to please their big business supporters, meanwhile, joining teams with Democrats motivated by automatically legalizing 12 million immigrants and rapidly bringing in their 30 million family members to create a large, Democrat voting block.

Meanwhile, the conservative stalling of the Kennedy/Bush/LaRaza immigration bill is being aided by far-Left interests who want ZERO borders, thereby causing a problem for conservatives alone to depend on their congressmen to do the right thing and make sure an immigration bill tough on illegal immigration is passed.

The recent Senate bill that failed was a piece of junk right off the bat. Last year, President Bush SIGNED INTO LAW a bill, authored by Congressman Duncan Hunter, that mandated that the double fence currently bordering southern San Diego County be extended across the whole 845 mile southern border. According to Hunter, the project has supposedly been funded, but only 11 miles has been built. The recently defeated Senate bill had mandated that only 350 miles of the border fence be built.

Now, apparently this new immigration “reform” bill will mandate the full 845 miles, but as Congressman Hunter recently stated, “The idea that we will have border security only if it is paid for by illegal immigrants is unacceptable.” Hunter is dead-on in expressing outrage that the building of the fence, which is already law, has been tied to passing the Kennedy/Bush/ACLU immigration reform bill.

Republican whip leader, Trent Lott, decided to butt in by blaming talk-radio for the unpopularity of the LaRaza/Big Business immigration bill.

Well Mr. Lott, if you and your buddies would bring forth an immigration bill that mandates the fence be constructed within the next year, levies extremely harsh penalties on employers who hire illegals, increases the “fines” illegals have to pay to gain their amnesty, throw out ALL illegals convicted of a criminal offense, and do something about the provisions allowing tens of millions of family members of illegals to jump in line ahead of other immigrants, then maybe the majority of the country would look favorably upon such a proposal.

Meanwhile, there needs to be a separate bill dealing with the 14th Amendment to rid the Constitution of the current Anchor Baby loophole.

But the Big Business paid GOP and vote-seeking Democrats know that in this current culture of American Idol, where more Americans seem to care about Paris Hilton’s jail sentence than the war in Iraq, the attention span of the American public to stay fired up on a political issue is weak. We stood up on our hind legs the last four weeks and told our legislators NO. Will we keep that same drive, or allow the politicians to screw our country again?

George Bush, Ted Kennedy, et al, this man is talking to YOU:

“Now I’ve been trying to figure this out, but there’s something that I just don’t know.
How can you make things better when you take our jobs and send them down to Mexico?
And then there was this big shot, from the Land of the Rising Sun,
He said the working people in America were lazy and dumb.
Well let me tell you something, Jack!!
The next time I go to Shopping Tree and take something off of the rack,
If it don’t say made in the U.S.A., I’m just gonna put it back.
We can’t leave it to the politicians, cause they don’t do nothing but talk,
And it’s We the People who are gonna have to walk the walk.” – Charlie Daniels

Duncan Hunter for President 2008

Paid for by the Conservative Cajun Political Action Committee

Duncan Hunter at work

Lest we should all fall into the trap of thinking that all Mr. Hunter does is campaign, this is proof positive that the man is doing his job, and doing it well I might add. Mr. Hunter's opening statement in hearings on China's security apparatus and potential challenges in the area is articulate. We should be paying attention to these hearings. The opening statement can be found here.

Post GOP Debate Thoughts

My observations about Tuesday night’s Republican Presidential Debate in New Hampshire:

-- Rudy Giuliani has got to be the most aggravating person on stage in these debates. During the first two debates, he did nothing but dance around questions about his views on abortion and whether or not he supported taxpayer funded abortions. Tuesday night, he was arrogant and paid no attention to questions and/or time restraints. I know all the candidates go over their time and try to fit in their statements, but at one point, the candidates were asked “Yes” or “No” to whether or not they’d pardon Scooter Libby. The first five asked all give one or two word answers, until Mr. Giuliani, who decided he was important enough to give a dissertation on the whole damn case and completely ignored the moderator’s insistence that he stick to a simple answer. Then of course, Mitt Romney followed and had to give a frickin speech as well.

I think the moderators should be allowed to cut the candidates’ mics in during stunts like Giuliani’s. It shows a complete disregard for the debate, the question, other candidates, and is irritating as hell to watch.

-- Giuliani was once against asked about his views on abortion and asked to respond to a comment from a Catholic Bishop. Just a few words into his answer, lightning hit close and caused the audio at the facility to briefly malfunction. The rest of the candidates quickly backed away from Mr. I’m to Important to Follow Your Debate Rules. That was the best part of the whole night. God IS listening.

-- Mitt Romney is definitely the GOP’s John Kerry. When running for Governor of Massachusetts, he ran on a pro-gay marriage, pro-choice platform. Now that he’s running for President, he’s suddenly this hard core pro-life conservative. What he is, is the most well polished politician in the Republican primary.

-- John McCain and Sam Brownback appear to be the only Republican candidates who think the Ted Kennedy/LaRaza/Chamber of Commerce immigration “reform” bill is good for the country. It’s a real shame Senator McCain is so spineless on the immigration issue because his military leadership and apparent willingness to eliminate earmarks from Congressional bills gives him the potential to be a very good leader in the White House. But we should expect our leaders not to sell the country down the river to money interests and votes.

-- Back to Mr. Giuliani, who actually had the audacity to say the immigration bill was weak on illegal immigration. This coming from a man, who as Mayor of New York City, pushed legislation to make it EASIER for illegal aliens to receive free government services.

-- Duncan Hunter called out the Bush Administration when he flat-out accused them of slowing down the construction of the double fence across the southern border so “they could come out with the amnesty at the same time, put the two together, and the Bush-McCain-Kennedy bill would then be accepted by conservatives and liberals alike.”

Congressman Hunter also debunked the well spouted line that the illegals are “taking jobs Americans won’t do” by citing the example of Americans lining up to replace the 850 illegals removed from the Swift plant a few months ago.

-- Tom Tancredo spoke of actually shutting off not only illegal immigration, but all LEGAL immigration except for that of family members of current legal U.S. residents and political refugees. So the criticisms of this guy are correct, he’s not just anti-illegal immigration, but anti-legal immigration. That’s where my views on immigration separate from Rep. Tancredo.

-- A woman in the audience stood up and explained that her brother was KIA in Iraq back in 2005, and asked what the candidates would do to bring this conflict to an end in the Middle East and to bring our troops home.

Of the ten men on stage, Duncan Hunter was the candidate, due to his own military experience and his son serving 2 tours in Iraq and currently a 3rd in Afghanistan, who could closest relate to the young lady and her family.

Hunter made the point twice during the debate that there are currently 129 trained and equipped Iraqi battalions, and within the next few months, these Iraqi battalions need to be rotated into the heavy lifting in the battlefield so U.S. troops could soon be relieved and come home.

-- Towards the end of the debate, the candidates were asked about moderate Republicans, and Congressman Hunter was specifically asked if Republicans should follow the “Arnold Schwarzenegger example in California”.

Duncan Hunter’s response was a firm “No” and called out the Big Three:

“And let me just say, you know, I look at Governor Romney, Mayor Giuliani, my good friend John McCain -- Governor Romney joined with Bill Clinton for the 1994 gun ban when I was fighting that. Mayor Giuliani stood with him at the White House on that. Governor Romney has passed what I consider to be a major step toward socialism with respect to his mandated health care bill. John McCain is standing strong with Ted Kennedy on this Kennedy-McCain-Bush border enforcement bill.

I think the guy who's got the most influence right here with these three gentlemen is Ted Kennedy. And I think we need to move away from the Kennedy wing of the Republican Party.”

No wonder I like this guy.

Duncan Hunter for President 2008

Paid for by the Conservative Cajun Political Action Committee

A Memorial Day Message from Duncan Hunter

On this Memorial Day, let us remember the Americans who died on the battlefields of the world for us.

You know the Bible tells us “greater love hath no man than he who lays down his life for another.” In the last century alone 619,000 American service members laid down their lives for us. They fought in Bellawood, Guadalcanal, the Chosin Reservoir and Kason Vietnam. Today they fight in places called Fallujah and Baghdad and Kabul.

They are America’s greatest generation. We owe them our heartfelt support and the gratitude of a free nation.

In 1945, a young Marine returned from the South Pacific and he wrote these words to his wife, “I think just to be with your wife and family; to take care of your family every day is your greatest privilege a person can enjoy.”

Sixty-one years later, another Marine returning from a place called Fallujah wrote these words. He said, “At some point in a dangerous environment, you forget about your own safety and you try to take care of your men and you place your own life in the hands of God. But your family, your wife and kids, never leave your mind.”

Families lift our country up. They provide us with fidelity, morality, faith in God and raising the next generation of Americans.

God still loves this nation. We are still a people of character, of faith and courage.
On this Memorial Day, let us thank others who gave us our freedom.

U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter

America Needs Duncan Hunter

I firmly believe that Duncan Hunter is the man most qualified to lead America at this point in the life of our nation. For those of you who don't know me, I am Charlie Fugate from the blog Good Sense and I am proud to be a new supporter of Duncan Hunter's presidential campaign. I believe Mr. Hunter will provide leadership, vision and integrity in an hour where these qualities are needed. Let me explain why I support Mr. Hunter.

1.) He is Pro-Life - Mr. Hunter is explicitly pro-life and has the votes in Congress to back up his stance. From cloning to embryonic farming to the partial birth abortion ban, Duncan Hunter is committed to protecting the sanctity of human life. We owe the next generation of Americans nothing less than a committed pro-life President.

2.) He is Pro-Defense - Mr. Hunter has served as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and is a recognized leader in Defense and Homeland Security issues. Mr. Hunter understands what is required to properly defend our nation in uncertain times. In addition to this service, Mr. Hunter is a decorated Vietnam veteran. I would submit that Mr. Hunter's service has prepared him for understand intricate and complex defense issues.

3.) He is Fair Trade - Mr. Hunter understands that to expect high wage American workers to compete with low-wage workers is unrealistic and counterproductive. Mr. Hunter believes in Fair Trade where both sides honor committments to be equitable in trade. China has accumulated a huge trade surplus at our expense and is now building weapons that are trained on our shores.

4.) He is Fair Tax - To me, this was the deal maker. Mr. Hunter supports the Fair Tax which would eliminate the IRS and the income tax and replace it with a National Retail Sales Tax.

These are but four main areas why I support Duncan Hunter for President. I would like to thank Bloggers 4 Duncan Hunter for inviting me to contribute here.