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“Risk” and “Sacrifice” – two words alien to Obama

By Josh First
July 16, 2012
Nothing on this planet defines a person more than when they take risks and make sacrifices to try and achieve some greater goal.

Both are at the core of American opportunities, of America’s promise. Both are at the core of making people great, of defining and forging great character. And Obama just demonstrated that he doesn’t understand them.

Lack of understanding of what it means to take risks and make sacrifices isn’t limited to Obama, however. Plenty of Republicans have impressed me with their ignorance of what it takes to get ahead. For better or worse, I have spent many years close to the Republican “establishment,” and seeing the weak sycophants who populate that nether world is pretty damning. Watching people benefit from the Party machinery, people who have never taken a risk or made a sacrifice in their lives, but who get ahead nonetheless because they are loyal robots and fulfill some functionary position, it is tough to take. One example is a guy named “Jerry,” an older man who has harangued me during my two roles as political candidate. This is a guy who has performed functionary duties throughout life, but he hasn’t stuck his neck out there. But neither I nor many other candidates are “Republican” enough for him. Another person occupies a public role in the Corbett administration. His claim to fame is that he hid behind mama’s apron (a state senator) for his entire career; but he has never been tested. He is not a worthy or meritorius person, and his character is dark, weak, angry, vicious. But he’s a ‘rock star’ to insiders who value complacency. The list goes on.

But the difference is that none of these Republican Party hacks are president of the country, and Obama is that person, at least until next January, and so the heavy burden of proof of worthiness falls onto his rather thin shoulders.

Obama has recently stated that business is doing just fine, and that small business owners are not responsible for what they have earned. Rather, argues Obama, many other people are responsible for the success of the few. And thus, he argues, so many more people are deserving of the fruits of their labor.

These statements are proof that Barack Hussein Obama is a socialist at best, and more likely that he is a communist in principle. Having never taken risks or made sacrifices himself, and having never started, run, or worked for a business, Obama doesn’t have the background to comment on the state of America’s economy, nor on what it takes to be a successful business person here.

But his Inner Marxist sees government and “the collective” as the sources of all good, and therefore, as the sources of businesses’ success. Business is not doing well right now, but Obama sees fruits dangling for the taking and redistribution. Individual success is a problem for Obama, not something to celebrate.

I am a small business owner, happily, and I will probably be one for the rest of my productive life. Countless nights I have woken up at three in the morning, with my mind racing way out ahead of my consciousness, anxiety pouring through my veins as the reality of a given challenge once driven into the recesses of my brain now claws its way out and forces me to confront it. On those nights, I draw great comfort knowing that many other business owners are out there, sweating away over the details, just like me. Misery does love company.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Obama wants everyone to go to sleep and have sweet dreams, at my expense.

I cannot wait to cast my vote against this incompetent fool.

Is Islam Compatible with American Freedoms?

Watch this interview with Imam Rauf, the best known advocate for Islam in America, and you’ll come to the same conclusion all other freedom-loving Americans have reached. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/07/michael-coren-exposes-ground-zero-mosque-imam-rauf-robert-spencer-gives-postgame-analysis.html

One-Minute World-Wide Racism Round-Up

One-Minute World-Wide Racism Round-Up
July 12, 2012

By Josh First
www.joshfirst.com

Racism is a significant fault. Judging an individual or groups of individuals, or ascribing to them inherent flaws or evil character because of their skin color, ethnicity, or religion, is a most primitive human trait. It has no place in the civilized world. Well, let’s be accurate: According to the Left’s political correctness, judgmentalism, racism and discrimination are acceptable if the person doing them is a purported victim, or a member of certain classes of purported victims. Arch-racists Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright are two good examples of this double standard; they oppress people because of skin color, but get a free pass. However, in general, to accuse someone of racism is the highest form of criticism in free societies, because free societies are supposed to hold all citizens to an equal standard and equal treatment under the law. To be racist is to stand against everything that makes free societies great.

America is supposedly a terribly racist place, according to the Left. Certainly it was, 150 years ago, and even 50 years ago. Now? No. The greatness of America is that the ability to change, evolve, and improve is built into its political system. Reverse racism is the main source of racism today in America. For purposes of comparison, let’s do a quick trip around the world and sample some of the racism on display, and see how America stacks up.

Let’s start in the lovely, free, butterflies-and-bunny rabbits Iran, where freedom protestors were gunned down en masse in the streets just two years ago, allegedly gay men are slowly hung to death in public (go online and watch the videos), and famous women’s rights advocates are personally tortured to death over weeks by high-ranking political leaders. I was being sarcastic before. Iran is not a great place; Iran is a swamp of sadistic racists. But because it is a Muslim nation, and therefore a member of one of the purported victim classes, the Left hardly lifts a finger against them. This week, Iran’s annual “International Wall Street Downfall Cartoon Festival,” an officially-run cartoon competition, resulted in first prize being awarded to brutally anti-Jewish cartoon. That ranks a 10 on any racism index you care to use. Muslims who convert to Christianity are put on trial and killed. That ranks a 10 on any racism index you care to use. Iran: Racist place.

A few hundred miles to the West, the minority Muslim Alawite community, which controls Syria, is on a serial killer’s dream rampage across Syria, hacking, hanging, burning, drilling, kicking, sawing, beating, bombing, and shooting the population into submission. Again, go on YouTube and watch the videos. It is pure savagery. Syria is officially, by law, run by the Alawite Muslim population. But, Muslims can’t be racists, so…well, by now you know the Left’s story on dealing with Islamic discrimination. In any case, no one on the Left really says anything about it. But it is a racist place. Incidentally, all of Syria’s Jews were dispossessed and kicked out, despite living there far longer than anyone identified as Arab or Muslim. Syria: Racist place.

A few miles more to the west, the Palestine Authority has once again officially rejected the notion of any Jews ever living in a state of Palestine, even Jews whose families and communities have lived in Judea and Samaria for thousands of years. Adolf Hitler also said that there was no place for Jews in his country. Is Israel, or any other nation for that matter, allowed to say that no Muslims will ever live within its political boundaries? No. But then again, the Palestine Authority is mostly Muslim, and despite a nearly two-to-one Jewish refugee to Arab refugee disparity, Jews are considered the bad guys and Arab Muslims are the purported victims there. Thus, arch-racist PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is given a pass by the Left (Abbas wrote his PhD thesis on the ‘falseness’ of the European Holocaust, even as the Arab ethnic cleansing of nearly a million Jews from across the Middle East was in full swing. Talk about a double standard…), and racist ethnic cleansing is now official policy of the Palestine Authority. That ranks right up there with Exceptional Levels of Racism. By contrast, even appearing to ‘Redline’ a home in America can get a bank, an appraiser, and a realtor in hot water. Palestine Authority: Really racist place.

Over a thousand miles to the west, Bosnia’s constitution explicitly institutionalizes racism. Remember Bosnia, the place where Europeans were once again joyously killing each other in droves just 20 years ago? Well, the Bosnian constitution only allows “constituent peoples,” which are Bosniaks (Muslims), Croats, and Serbs, to serve in elected posts. Jews, Gypsies (“Roma”), and other minorities are classified as “others” in that constitution, and they may not serve in Parliament. Recall that these were the same Bosnians who were subjugated by the Serbs in the 1990s, and who, in a sane world, might have learned a thing or two about the evils of racism from their own recent experience. But recall that they are….Muslims, and therefore above criticism and way off the Left’s radar screen. On our radar screen here, constitutions that officially prevent minorities from serving in government ring the bell on “Most Racist Places,” and thus Bosnia ties Iran, Syria, and the Palestine Authority on its racism index. Bosnia: Racist place.

A few thousand miles more to the west, presidential candidate Mitt Romney is booed several times at the annual NAACP conference. Romney made the pledge to repeal “ObamaCare,” and immediately reaped the heaped scorn of most of the thousands of blacks in the audience. Now, if a mostly white audience booed a black speaker, would that be racist? Well, it would surely be represented by the Left to be racism. If that’s the case, then why isn’t it racist for the NAACP attendees to boo a white speaker?

Even more to the point, NAACP leader Charlotte Stoker-Manning (chair of Women in NAACP ) was quoted this week in BuzzFeed and The Daily Caller with the following golden nuggets: “I believe [Romney’s] vested interests are in white Americans”; and, “You cannot possibly talk about jobs for black people at the level [Romney is] coming from. He’s talking about entrepreneurship, savings accounts — black people can barely find a way to get back and forth from work.”

Charlotte doesn’t appreciate how racist she sounds. Ascribing racist intentions to Romney because of the color of his skin is…racist, pure and simple. Second, why does Charlotte have so little faith in the black community? In the years following Emancipation, blacks thrived. Some of America’s great inventors from the 1870s through the early 1900s were black. During that period, whites elected blacks to higher office across the country; blacks proved themselves to be the intellectual and entrepreneurial equals of their European neighbors. Today, Prince George’s County in Maryland is loaded with middle-income blacks. Entire communities there are black, safe, and thriving, populated by people who have entrepreneurial small businesses and savings accounts. They are breaking with Charlotte’s racist portrait of blacks as incapable dependents.

So, in our one-minute world-wide tour of racism, we see that there are whole nations whose constitutions give sole political power to select ethnic or religious groups. There are groups who abused, robbed, and ethnically cleansed religious minorities from their midst and yet now complain that that same minority found another place to live near them. But despite all this, according to the Left, America has a racism problem. I might agree, because the racism here in America may not be from the usual sources, but it’s racism nonetheless.

Do I think the self-appointed guardians of anti-discrimination are onto it?

Nope.

Neither do you.

Up Next: Why Conservatives Love African Americans…

Republican Establishment Owns ObamaCare

The Republican Establishment Owns Obamacare
June 28, 2012
By Josh First

By a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court today has upheld Obamacare “as a tax.” Chief Justice Roberts has joined the other four liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court in upholding Obamacare, that disastrous imposition of Marxism upon what has been a healthy, vibrant capitalist nation. Because Congress has the authority to levy taxes, Obamacare’s mandate is held not unconstitutional. It stands.

Obama sold Obamacare as “not a tax.” Obama lied. You are now even more greatly taxed by the Federal government. A panel of bureaucrats now stands between you and your doctor.

The basic takeaway is that the Republican establishment owns this decision.

The Republican establishment did not create Obamacare (well, maybe Massachusetts’ RomneyCare contributed to it…), but it aided and abetted it by not standing up when it counted. For decades, Republican senators, leaders all, have taken “the high road,” and remained “high minded” during court nominations, according to the mainstream media whose approval these moderate Republicans always seek.

Republican senators have always allowed Marxists and other unqualified nominees to the Supreme Court to be confirmed for a hodgepodge of lame reasons, like “She is just so smart, like really, really smart!” Sotomayor and Kagan were not filibustered. No Republican senator stood in front of their locomotive and declared them to be far outside the mainstream of American values and thinking, which they are.

But Democrats fight conservative nominees tooth and nail, always proclaiming their views to be “outside the mainstream.” Or they lie about them, like Justice Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork experienced. Democrats fight to win, not to appease the media.

Republican “moderates” are in fact liberals with a conscience, meaning that on big issues of vision and founding principles, moderate Republicans are not on your side. They are not on America’s side. During the Revolution, they would have been the business owners who gladly talked up insurrection to save their businesses, but who helped King George on the side as much as they could. Moderate Republicans would not have been at the Boston Tea Party.

The result is that we now get a Supreme Court stacked with justices who do not share the views of America’s founders, who think that the US would be better served with a Constitution like that of South Africa (Ginsberg), and that requiring US citizens to buy something is just fine and in keeping with the way America has always been run, which it hasn’t.

The result is that conservatives must now work twice as hard to elect leaders who will undo, de-fund, undermine, and otherwise overturn Obamacare through the legislative process.

What can you do?

For starters, actively support and vote for conservatives, only, at all levels of government. Moderates will sell you out on the key issues. When the Republican Party of __________ says that they have endorsed a candidate in a primary race, run screaming in the opposite direction. You know that their candidate will be yet one more go-along, get-along, spineless, gutless weasel owned by Party bosses, unable to stand up for basic conservative principles.

Second, you can also encourage current US senators to fight future liberal nominees to the US Supreme Court (and Federal courts) on the grounds that they are out of the mainstream and therefore unqualified.

Finally, conservatives must work hard to elect U.S. senators who have the backbone necessary to both reject leftist candidates for the Supreme Court and also confirm true, principled conservatives. You can easily identify a principled conservative: They stand and run on their own merits; they don’t seek Republican Party approval.

Justice Roberts is a prime example of the “moderate” Republican. Ultimately, he sided with people whose vision for America is dramatically at odds with its founding principles. Justice Roberts should be impeached from the high court, along with the other liberal Justices who have failed to hew to their oath of office.

It’s a sad day for America, and a reminder that freedom does not come easily. Take back your country, folks! See you on the barricades!

Josh
Josh First
www.joshfirst.com

What to do with Republican “Moderates”

By a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court has upheld Obamacare “as a tax.” Because Congress has the authority to levy taxes, Obamacare’s mandate is held not unconstitutional. It stands.

Obama sold Obamacare as “not a tax.” Obama lied. You are now even more greatly taxed by the Federal government.

Two takeaways:

1) Republican “moderates” are in fact liberals with a conscience, meaning that on big issues of vision and founding principles, moderate R’s are not on your side. SO: Actively support and vote for conservatives only. Moderates will sell you out on the key issues.

2) Republican senators have always allowed Marxists and other unqualified nominees to the Supreme Court to be confirmed for a hodgepodge of technical reasons. These R senators are always lauded by the press as being “high minded.” Democrats always argue that conservative nominees are “out of the mainstream,” and they fight them tooth and nail.
The result is that we get a Supreme Court stacked with justices who do not share the views of America’s founders, who think that the US would be better served with a Constitution like that of South Africa (Ginsberg), and that requiring US citizens to buy something is just fine and in keeping with the way America has always been run.
SO: Encourage US senators to fight liberal nominees to the US Supreme Court on the grounds that they are out of the mainstream and therefore unqualified.

Take back your country, folks!

Obamacare is a tax?!

Chief Justice Roberts has joined the other four liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court in upholding Obamacare, that disastrous imposition of Marxism upon what has been a healthy, vibrant capitalist nation.

The result is that conservatives must work hard to elect leaders who will undo, de-fund, undermine, and otherwise overturn Obamacare through the legislative process.

And just as important, conservatives must work hard to elect U.S. senators who have the backbone necessary to both reject leftist candidates for the Supreme Court and confirm true conservatives.

Justice Roberts is a prime example of how “moderate” Republicans are nothing more than liberals with a conscience. Ultimately, he will side with people whose vision for America is dramatically at odds with its founding principles. Justice Roberts should be impeached from the high court, along with the other liberals who have failed to hew to their oath of office.

It’s a sad day for America, and a reminder that freedom does not come easily.

Patriot News publishes op-ed by First

http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2011/12/new_state_senate_map_is_a_bad.html

BY JOSH FIRST

With the creation of the new state Senate seat in Dauphin County, presently held by Jeff Piccola but soon to take on a new shape, citizens of Pennsylvania’s capital city and the Republican Party have just been handed a defeat.

Harrisburg might be the capital of Pennsylvania. The city might be a significant part of Dauphin County, with which the city shares many business, tax, cultural and infrastructure relationships. City residents’ personal lives will be strongly influenced by the new state Senate seat that lies just across Vaughn Street in uptown Harrisburg. Yet despite these multiple bonds of steel, Harrisburg citizens are now cut off from that new district and have no voice in an elected position next door that is otherwise going to be a huge part of their lives.

The boundaries of this new district might be a problem simply for the artificially bifurcated relationship between the county and the city alone. But what is really irksome is that uptown Harrisburg is a demographically rich, heavily Republican area. In other words, it’s safe for Republicans.

The 14th Ward, specifically, is the most Republican precinct in the city, and it is home to many gay Republicans, lesbian Republicans, black Republicans and the largest group of Jewish Republicans between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

I know this because as a conservative Republican activist, I routinely collect ballot signatures for Republican candidates in this ward and am on a first-name basis with many of these neat people. On evening walks with my wife through uptown, I quietly mutter “Republican. Democrat. She’s Republican, and he’s a Democrat, Republican. Republican,” as we pass by each house.

Had the new Senate district included this area, then any or all of these Republicans could have been compelling candidates for the Senate position. Sadly, every one of them is now eliminated from consideration for the new seat, a rare opening in a state where elected officials camp out in seats for what feels like a lifetime.

Including uptown Harrisburg in the new Senate district would have included enough of Harrisburg to give city citizens representation while easily protecting the Republican character of the new district and creating opportunity for greater diversity in the Republican Party. An opportunity has been missed, and who knows how many decades will pass before another one occurs. To those of us who toil in the trenches of the Republican Party, it’s a self-inflicted wound in the foot, easily avoided.

Josh First is a businessman living in Harrisburg.

Josh First begins campaign for State Senate

With Tuesday’s historic decision by the Supreme Court to overturn the recent redistricting, the former PA – 15th senate district remains intact.  That means that I am now back in a district from which senator Jeff Piccola is retiring, and for which I can run.

The Pennsylvania 15th Senate District is a beautiful place, really the heartland of America. It also includes Harrisburg, the state capital and one of the major Underground Railroad thruways, with one of the nation’s most majestic public edifices, the capitol building.
It is an honor to declare my candidacy for the 15th Senate District.
Please let me know if you can volunteer to circulate petitions, which are due by February 15th.

Email: info@joshfirst.com, or call 717 232-8335.

Thank you!

–Josh

Josh First

Red Light Cameras vs. The People

Last year I was nabbed by a red light camera in New York City. Wondering why, at the time, the yellow light lasted all of about half a second, I found out a month later when the neatly packaged “fine” arrived by US Mail.
Turns out that red light cameras are big business. Municipalities have been caught rigging yellow light times to blink-of-an-eye spans so that more drivers qualify for red light tickets. Never mind that shorter yellow lights cause many more drivers to slam on their brakes, and then get hit from behind, so that safety is not increased. Rather, these cameras are all about the money, for both the private companies that install and maintain them, and for the municipalities that have their hands in your pocket.
Across the nation there has been a citizen-led fight to reclaim red lights from the Nanny Staters, and below is a link to an outstanding Weekly Standard article about red light cameras written by Jonathan Last (yes, yes, our names are the opposite).
Read it and learn how to return at least a smidgen of control to We The People, and how the red light camera companies are fighting back to retain their huge profits.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/rolling-back-nanny-state_577297.html?page=1

Keystone Pipeline Needs Conservation

President Obama has nixed the Keystone Pipeline.
Environmental advocates applaud as the project dies, even as America continues to depend on foreign oil from people who hate us. It doesn’t make much sense.
What’s needed is a good dose of old fashioned conservation. You know, mitigate the pipeline’s impacts by protecting the land around it, thereby turning it into a permanent wildlife corridor and greenway.
Maybe even a transcontinental trail can run along it.
If I had anything to say about it, these kinds of solutions would be on the table, and the project would be moving forward.