Early Voting in Texas

Early voting starts tomorrow for Texas in the primary run-off election. No, these elections are not sexy. They suck up a lot of money and create greater anxiety for candidates who would normally be gearing up for the general election in November. However, these are the cards we are dealt.

As much as I would love to devote a lot of time to all the runoff elections going on in the Republican primary, the two main ones are obviously the race for Senate - to fill Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat - and the race for Harris County Sheriff. These have been the two most contentious races, and have probably broken all kinds of records for shoe leather worn.

In the Senate race, I won't try to hide my disdain for David Dewhurst. I have called him everything from "Dew-Hurts" to "Dew-Nothing" to "Dew-Worst". He has done a shitty job (forgive me for the cursing, but I am calling a spade a spade here) as Lieutenant Governor. My fellow blogger and political junkie, David Jennings, calls Dewhurst the true conservative, but then again Jennings also has a love affair with renowned RINO Joe Straus, so how much credibility can you give ol' Big Jolly? Dewhurst, Straus, and Texas Senator Dan Patrick have made careers out of being passive-aggressive. Much of that was evidenced in the past debate, in a masterful turn by Mr. Ted Cruz, Dewhurst's opponent in this race.

Dewhurst, et al., has driven up the state budget while at the same time claims to have cut taxes. However, he was the advocate of a state income tax. He pushed for it and nearly got it. But seeing as he couldn't get anything that resembled a state income tax, he instead pushed for - and got - a new business franchise tax. If you don't believe me on this issue, then you can see all the dirty details here.

As for Cruz, his golden child story has been told often on every talk radio show from Glenn Beck to Mark Levin to Michael Berry. He is a great communicator and has an appealing message regarding his upbringing in Houston, the product of an immigrant from Castro-led Cuba. He became a lawyer and in doing so, Dewhurst has told some stories about how Cruz represented a Chinese tire company and in the process prevented jobs from being created or some such thing. The story is so convoluted you have to be Chinese to understand the connection. However, I can hear the GOP True Believers talking: "where there's smoke there's fire! He done somethin' with them thar Chinese! He's a damned Communist - his daddy's from Cuber, after all!" And so it goes.

A lawyer has to advocate for his side, regardless of his own biases. He must not only be an advocate, but a STRONG advocate, otherwise he can be disbarred. Dewhurst was a law school dropout, otherwise he would know these things. He also has about  150 million dollars at his disposal through his "business" which he has never gone into great detail about during the campaign. We hear all the time about how his FATHER was a bomber pilot in WWII and died when the Lieutenant Governor was young, but we never hear how he obtained all his money. Perhaps he may have done some business with the Chinese at some point, but who can really tell?

The bottom line is, that Ted Cruz is a tremendous advocate for the Constitution and he seems to "get it" as far as the problems that we face as a nation. Dewhurst - while pointing the finger at Cruz, calling him a Washington insider - doesn't realize that he has become a comic version of himself. All he would do is take his passive-aggressive, bully-and-pander nature to Washington. That is where he would shut out the tea party and anyone else that doesn't have a few million dollars in their hand. Then we would be told with whatever letters or phone calls that we write that he would "consider" our concerns come voting time. We have had enough of that from Hutchison, thank you. Time for a change! Cruz for Senate.

Obama: 2016 Will Change Some Minds

The new buzz in the theater world is that "Obama: 2016" is a good film and worthy of note. It may not play well to the true believers, but college president and author Dinesh D'Souza has used this film to play off his successful book, "Roots of Obama's Rage", in which he analyzed Obama's agendas as being more post-colonialist and neo-globalist rather than run-of-the-mill communist/socialist.

The first part of the film does a comparison sketch between D'Souza and Obama. The two men were both born the same year, married the same year, and attended Ivy League schools the same year and graduated at the same time.  The most fascinating similarity, however, is that both D'Souza and Obama have a background in third world, post-colonial countries. However, that is where the similarities end. 


While Obama fought hard to be the editor of the Harvard Law Review, D'Souza was the editor of the alternative conservative newspaper at Dartmouth, called The Review. While Obama was moving into a career as a community organizer and lawyer in Chicago. D'Souza was working at the Reagan White House.Obama spent a great deal of time in Kenya (and no, he does not dispute the fact that Obama was born in Hawaii) and devoted nearly a third of the book "Dreams from my Father" to his trips there, particularly after his father Obama Sr. had passed. Obama also spent a lot of time in Indonesia, as has been well-documented and is not in dispute. The most interesting thing about his growing up there was that that appears to be the wellspring from which Obama began to understand that all capitalism was rooted in colonialism, and that colonialism is evil. This was the viewpoint supported by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and his grandparents. It was when Ann Dunham had contentions with her then-husband, Lolo Soetero, concerning his ties to business ventures with oil companies in America that they began to have problems. It was at this point that Dunham sent her son back to Hawaii so that she could get a "good" male influence. 

Grandfather Stanley Dunham found one - Frank Marshall Davis. Davis is documented over 20 times in "Dreams" as "Frank". Frank held more influence over Barack Obama than any other person other than Sr., and was in many ways a surrogate father. Frank was also a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA and wrote for many Communist newspapers and magazines. Barack Obama Sr. also wrote for many of the same type of newspapers and magazines, even advocating at one point a 100-percent tax rate. 

It is also interesting to note - without giving too much of the movie away - that Hawaii has a movement that started in the late 60s and early 70s that wanted to abolish the annexation treaty that President William McKinley had signed in the 1800s. No doubt Obama Jr. felt that Hawaii was unfairly taken by the evil American colonists and the natives were given little to nothing in return - because that is what the prevailing underground wisdom was during his formative years.

The visits to Kenya were with family members and friends of Obama Sr. who mostly supported and encouraged his support of the Mow-Mow uprising (a communist-led revolution against the colonial British). The return of the Winston Churchill bust to the British from the White House was cloaked in resentment towards the British for putting down that revolt.

One of the more striking interviews was with one Obama family member who was none to keen on his famous half-brother's chosen path. George Obama lives in a tiny hut in Nairobi, a few hours from the village that houses the rest of the very large, extended family (Obama Sr. had several wives and children). Despite his well-documented poverty, he was well-dressed, intelligent, humble, and not resentful of his brother in the least. He even wrote a book of  his own. The book is complimentary of white people and their influence in the country of Kenya, and generally feels that colonialism only helped; it didn't detract from it at all. Naturally, this has not made George a popular family member.

Basically, the film documents the types of influences that Obama was surrounded by as a child, culminating with Obama Sr.'s tragic yet predictable death (given his habit of drinking and driving) in the early 80s. Even though Ann Dunham's marriage to Obama Sr. had been a wash, she continued to talk him up and promote him as a person that Jr. should emulate. It was this kind of guiding principle that led Obama to Kenya, that led him to Frank Davis, that led him to Bill Ayers, that led him to Valerie Jarrett. It was this influence that has led to his build-up of third world nations at the expense of the U.S. and allies, it is this influence that has led him to block offshore drilling in this country and other energy expansion while financially supporting it in others.

It is an educational, thoughtful film that makes no accusatory statements, and has no inflammatory rhetoric. It takes you on a long journey, shows you who Obama spent most of his time with, and uses his own words to paint a picture of why it is he has done what he has done. It also shows you, emboldened by an affirmation of what he has done already - what he would do given a second term. D'Souza doesn't give us much room for hope, but there certainly has been and will continue to be change. What kind of change, he leaves up to us as the audience and potential voter.

If you would like to see this film shown in other markets, please go to www.michaelberry.com and send a donation. About 50,000 dollars needs to be raised in order to get it into five markets and properly promote it. It is a movie that needs to be seen, even by the true believers.

You Didn't Build That, Either

Shocking, but not surprising.


 This is the turn of phrase that I have used more often than not to describe things that come out of the mouths of persons in the Obama administration and their many, many apologists, hangers-on, and cheerleaders. However, I have to say that the statement that the President himself made the other day in Virginia - a battleground state - blew me away. If you have been away from a computer or TV news for awhile (I envy you), then I will enlighten you. To whit, Obama stated the following:  "You know, there are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me, because they want to give something back," Obama said in a campaign speech. "They know they didn't -- look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own."

"I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be becauseI was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there."

"It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something --there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there."

"If you were successful, somebodyalong the line gave you some help."

"If you've gotta business -- you didn't build that.  Somebody else made that  happen." 

Now, people like Fox News Paid Obama Apologist Juan Williams have tried to shrug that off as a statement that has been taken out of context or blown out of proportion. But no, I don't believe so. The above quote is entirely in context. What it DOES NOT do is give you the effect of the words he used - he sounded very angry, very upset. He sounded like he had a lot of pent-up resentment. If I had been Bo the White House Dog, I would have been looking for a safe place to hide that morning. 

The prevailing wisdom in Washington is that there is some invisible money chute that comes straight across from China and dumps a load into the U.S. Treasury whenever the rent comes due. These are the same people who poo-poo the notion that some "invisible man in the sky" keeps us safe and warm. Our God is certainly more tangible and real than the Magic Chute.

 More often than not, the citizenry is coddled into believing that they will not have to make any sacrifices. Leave it for the Evil Rich Corporations and Business Owners to do that for you. No worries. The only problem is, there are too many of us and too few of the Big Evil people to pay for the big progressive leftist fantasies. As Margaret Thatcher said about socialism: at some point, you run out of other people's money.

Already, the President has removed most of the barriers to getting welfare, and food stamps have increased to 45 percent.  Radio ads on Spanish language stations - done in the style of a novella - promoted even more participation. The actors made it clear that even people who made enough money should apply! Hey, there's enough free stuff to go around for everyone. Pride and hard work is so passe'. These ads were pulled due to the righteous indignation of the people that paid for those ads (us), but there are still large efforts out there to ensure that as many people as possible get on the dole in some way, shape, form, or fashion. 

If the new book, "Fool Me Twice" by World Net Daily writer Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott  is to be believed, this is what is in store for those running the Magic Chute in the next term should that come to pass (h/t WND):

• An expansive, de facto amnesty program for illegal aliens via executive order and interagency directives linked with a reduction in the capabilities of the U.S. Border Patrol and plans to bring in untold numbers of new immigrants with the removal of caps on H-1B visas and green cards.

• Government-funded, neighborhood-based programs to better integrate the newly amnestied immigrants into society, including education centers and healthcare centers. A “federal solution” to ensure that the amnestied immigrants are treated “equitably” across the United States.

• The recreation of a 21st century version of FDR’s Works Progress Administration program within the Department of Labor that would oversee a massive new bureaucracy and millions of new federal jobs;

• Specific plans for a National Infrastructure Bank. This entity would “evaluate and finance infrastructure projects ‘of substantial regional and national importance” and would finance “transportation infrastructure, housing, energy, telecommunications, drinking water, wastewater, and other infrastructures.”

• Wresting control of the military budget from Congress by attempting to place an ”independent panel” in charge of military spending while slashing the defense budget in shocking ways.

• The vastly reduced resources of the U.S. Armed Forces will be spread even thinner by using them to combat “global warming,” fight global poverty, remedy “injustice,” bolster the United Nations and step up use of “peacekeeping” deployments;

• A new “green” stimulus program and the founding of a federal “green” bank or “Energy Independence Trust,” which would borrow from the federal treasury to provide low-cost financing to private-sector investments in “clean energy.”

• Detailed plans to enact single-payer health care legislation controlled by the federal government.

As if this is not enough, let's not forget that the UN Small Arms Treaty and Cap and Trade legislation will again be on the agenda. As they say in the movie trailers - this time, it's for keeps. 

Former New Hampshire Governor said last night on Fox News that business owners are "scared" of further investment and hiring because of all the bills that are coming due. Williams, of course, was dismissive of that notion. 

No, Mr. Obama, business owners didn't build THAT. They didn't want THAT. They don't want what you're  cooking because they know that if they are on the hook for all your schemes, then they won't be able to build anything at all. And if they don't build anything - what you fail to realize is - you can't either.