Got an email today from Terry Funderburk, the South Carolinian construction worker whose business is going down the tubes because he can’t compete with those who hire illegals. It reminded me that we have the government we deserve.

Thomas Jefferson said on many, many occasions that an informed citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. He knew something that we have evidently forgotten or chosen to ignore, and it’s this:

Self-government isn’t possible unless we, you and me — the citizens — are sufficiently educated and aware so we can exercise oversight. Jefferson said it is imperative we be suitably educated — aware and alert to the legislative process and what our elected representatives are doing. It is our responsibility. And it’s not optional.

Well, herein lies the problem. See, we’ve been asleep at the switch for decades, ignoring what’s been going on in our schools, our courts, our halls of congress, allowing those with a lust for power to remake our republic into what it is today — a socialist “utopia”. Lately, more and more of us are discovering we don’t like it. Some of us, like Terry Funderburk, are looking around asking “What the hell has happened to my country?”

We have forgotten that we are supposed to bind men down by the chains of the Constitution. Hell, we can’t even protect our homeland.

Woe, woe, woe to us.

Now, it’s awfully tempting to blame “the government”. Many do. But where were we when all this was evolving into the mess we have today???

Why, shopping… of course.

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“But I’m busy! I don’t have time! Throw the bums out! Secede from the union! ”

Sorry. Not acceptable. You failed Jefferson’s Good Citizen test.

Yeah, we’re busy putting a roof over our heads, food on the table, gas in the car, paying the health, life and homeowner insurance premiums, forking it over to the IRS gestapo before we even put it in our pocket, making ends meet, and on and on…

We’re so overextended on our credit cards and house payments we can’t breathe, much less look up long enough to pay attention to what our elected reps in Congress and state capitols are doing.

So here we are. Frustrated. Angry. Depressed. Divided as a nation between those who think government is The Answer and those who understand the danger in that thinking.

Terry Funderburk — the “everyman” who represents each of us — has taken a stand. He told us about it on my radio program last night. He’s taken to writing about it. He’s found a good man to represent him in court, and he’s ready to take it all the way to the top if he has to. He says,

“Just imagine a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Imagine a justice system that favors no one and treats everyone the same. Imagine a legal system that enforces all the laws fairly. Boy, that sure sounds like a place I know that was called America.

But wait, this is America. But, if this is America, then what in the hell is going on? If this is America why aren’t our laws being enforced? If this is America why are certain classes of people being treated different than others?”

Thomas Jefferson knew the answer to those questions. He predicted it.

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.”

Back to Terry Funderburk:

“In my last article I mentioned the Statue of Liberty sitting in New York Harbor. What I didn’t mention is that she now has tears in her eyes. Tears for the way her leaders are tearing away the foundations of this great country. Tears for the way that most of her citizens are treated as second class. Tears for the way that her justice system is being manipulated by some for the benefit of a few. Tears for the way that her citizens are just allowing these things to happen.”

Thomas Jefferson told us nearly 200 years ago that “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

Terry Funderburk:

“It is time to get angry, fellow Americans, it is time to get out of your homes and start setting things right again. It is past the time to vote out of all the bums who are profaning this great nation and to set her right again. It is time to take back our country.”

Hey, Jefferson would have agreed. “No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity,” he warned us.

Here’s what you need to do. NOW. Start learning the history of our great nation. Of other ages and nations. Make sure your kids are learning it. Check their history books. If they don’t contain enough information about what made this nation great, if they’re not learning the principles that this nation was founded upon, TEACH THEM! It’s your responsibility as a citizen and a parent of future citizens. Prepare yourself and them. It is critical to understand where we’re headed and what needs to be done about it. And we can only know that for certain by learning what history teaches us. Ignorance is NOT bliss. It’s dangerous.

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787 Alexander Tytler, a Scottish history professor had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

“A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been about 200 years. These nations always progressed through this sequence:

from BONDAGE to SPIRITUAL FAITH; from spiritual faith to GREAT COURAGE; from courage to LIBERTY; from liberty to ABUNDANCE; from abundance to SELFISHNESS; from selfishness to COMPLACENCY; from complacency to APATHY; from apathy to DEPENDENCY; from dependency back into BONDAGE.”

It’s time for you to become informed. And involved. Our country’s viability depends on you. GET BUSY!!!

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J-Ger is shocked - shocked! - that the nutroots are unable to bring down Hillary!:

You know, I realize the netroots crowd isn’t unified behind a candidate the way they were behind Howard Dean in 2004. And maybe they were never quite as powerful a force in Democratic politics as the hype suggested. But right now, Hillary is probably their least favorite candidate in the Democratic field (unless it’s Biden?), and they haven’t even amounted to a speedbump for her, in any state. Their inability to take Hillary down a peg or two is really striking.

Or perhaps the Kos kidz and Sorosians and DUmmies have just been allowed to think they were running the Donk show until La Clinton Nostra decided it was time to take back the reins.  And now they have.

Trust me, the fever swamps are not and will never be even a pimple on Mrs. Clinton’s ample posterior.  When she clinches the nomination, they will either fall into line or be rendered summarily - and permanently - irrelevant.

My guess is the former.  After all, the once co- and future solo president was radicalizing when the vast majority of the Kos-hacks were either in diapers or in utero.  She wrote the book they’re coloring in.  They know - or will sooner or later find out - she’s one of them behind the six degrees of seperation she needs to win in November 2008.  And after that, she’ll be their goddess, to whom they’ll eagerly offer sacrifices for years to come.

We’ll be those sacrifices, but that’s another post.

Sometimes I go over to Daily Kos. I admit it. I don’t visit there out of a sense of “fairness,” or because I think I need to see how crazy the other side of the fence is. I’m well aware of the Left’s inability to string together anything coherent.

The reason that you can find me at Daily Kos, Democratic underground, and other cesspools of breeding “progressive” bacteria is simple. Entertainment. Where else can you read about the adventures of Bush the Weathermaker and his hatred of “black people?” How else would I know that hurricanes aren’t caused by nature but by Republicans?

So, imagine my non-surprise when I read at LGF that the moonbats at Daily Kos stayed up too late again with the strobe light on. Titled “I would rather die in a terrorist attack,” the following missive is beyond priceless. It’s not really amusing, because idiocy is genetic, and no one has kids faster than a liberal idiot sucking off the government welfare teat. (And no, I’m not accusing ‘duvallbuck’ of being on welfare. But those of you who have two brain cells to rub together don’t need this disclaimer.)

The beauty of all of this is that he even says the chances of him actually dying in a terrorist attack are pretty small (of course, his just-as-tiny mind can’t quite figure out why that is). Therefore, his grand and bold and “noble” gesture was just that–a gesture. A fake little showoff for a few strokes of the ego by other shallow, like-minded idiots who think nothing is truly worth killing over. Because yes–freedom is worth dying for…but it’s also worth killing for.

Check out this moron.

I would rather die in a terrorist attack then allow the domestic surveillance of any citizen’s email, phone calls, medical records, library usage or financial transactions.

What about the foreign nationals who are here and actively working to defeat the U.S.? Is this guy really that stupid? Does he really believe that the only people we’re “spying on” are citizens? This alone should get him an hour with an X-ray pointed at his unshielded gonads.

I would rather die in a terrorist attack then forsake the Geneva conventions in the name of our nation. To describe these international laws as ‘quaint’ and say that terrorists are non-combatants lessens ourselves and this nation.

I never said they were quaint. It is, however, a proven fact that terrorists do not follow the Geneva Conventions. This is obvious to the point of asinine. Tack on another 15 minutes under the gonad X-ray.

I would rather die in a terrorist attack then have a CIA operative outed by the Office of the Vice President because her husband wrote an op-ed telling the truth about lies told by President Bush.

Seriously. He says he’d rather die than have Valerie Plame outed. She’s not that hot, for God sake. And I doubt she’ll date this guy just because he’s on the internet proclaiming his undying devotion to her “rights” and “safety.” I could be wrong, though.

I would rather die in a terrorist attack then give up anyone’s right of habeas corpus. To argue that this war without end somehow suspends this right because it is not ‘guaranteed’ to all citizens is just absurd. The non-combatants held in Gautanamo or other ’secret’ prisons should have their day in court and representation by legal counsel.

First off, it should be a rule that you cannot argue against something as though you have a clue when you can’t spell the thing you’re arguing about. This is just basic, people. Secondly, I laugh uproariously to hear the word “secret” in relation to Gitmo. It’s been a while since I’ve heard that one. Is there anything “secret” at Gitmo?

Here’s what I’d rather die for.

- I would rather die than see anything fly besides Old Glory on a flagpole in this nation.

- I would rather die than see our men and women come home defeated and rejected by the very people they keep free.

- I would rather die than convert to Islam.

- I would rather die than give up my freedoms–not the “civil rights” that the Left claims are being taken away, but the unalienable rights given to me by my Creator–the freedom to worship, to choose my destiny, to choose my beliefs.

- I would rather die than see the Left ever have full control of this nation.

- I would rather die than be anything other than an American.

Put that in your “peace pipe” and smoke it.

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Well, I see that nobody else on the Channel live-blogged (not here, anyway) or called in to hash out yesterday morning’s GOP primary debate in Iowa.

Neither did Commodore Hewitt.  But aside from Mitt Romney’s house-bringer-downer, his bigger-picture summation, I think, captures the state of the GOP race:

Clearly the race has entered a stage where Romney and Giuliani are locked in a tight, compelling contest with Romney holding an advantage in Iowa and New Hampshire that he will hope to use to catapult past the mayor in Florida. Senator Thompson’s fan dance has gotten old, and I suspect skipping this and future debates sours more than entices the electorate. 

That’s always been the risk FDT has run with this approach.  What made his dalliance with running so alluring in the first place - the underwhelming-ness of the in-race Republican top tier - would lose that allure quickly if and when Rudy and/or Romney picked up their games.

Well, Romney’s “Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove” crack at Barack Obama is just the sort of line that had heretofore shown up almost only from the Thompson sidelines.  As long as the latter could continue his one-upsmanship without actually declaring, he could keep stealing the show.  That “honeymoon period” appears to be over.

In retrospect, it looks more and more like Fred should have tossed in his hat a month ago when he had the PR wind at his back.  Now it’s dissipated, and remaining on the sidelines is becoming a liability for him.

I actually downloaded a bunch of Thompson banners and such in anticipation of his candidacy.  I haven’t done anything with them because he hasn’t gotten in.  Not that that is in itself a crippling blow to the FDT machine, but I think it’s symptomatic of what he’ll find if and when he ever does declare, and if that date isn’t awfully soon.

“The 7th season of “24″ will take steps to reduce and offset the carbon emissions from the show’s production, with the goal of having the season finale be entirely carbon neutral.”

Not kidding. A Fox spokesman says they’re publicizing the show’s “commitment to climate change” for two reasons: to inspire you and me to take global warming seriously and motivate other studios to make changes to their production practices too.

Please…

So, we’ve asked avid “24″ fan and president of Grassfire.org STEVE ELLIOTT to join us tonight for “A Conversation with Andrea and…” on Blog Talk Radio to give us his reaction to the news.

Some of the topics we’ll touch on — is the Greenland Ice Cap melting? And Mexico’s claim that the border fence is bad for the environment.

We’ll talk about Grassfire.org’s recent TV commercial “Where’s the Fence?”, a send-up on the memorable Wendy’s Burger chain spot featuring the late Clara Peller who demanded to know “Where’s the beef?”

Steve Elliott is a familiar face on cable news channels. He’s been a guest on dozens of radio and TV shows, and recently appeared on Lou Dobbs’ CNN program; Fox News’ “Your World” with Neil Cavuto; Hannity & Colmes; Fox & Friends; and Glenn Beck’s nightly program on CNN Headline News.

Tonight, Steve takes time from his busy schedule to spend some of it with us on “A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREA and… “ on Blog Talk Radio. The CHAT ROOM will be open for your comments and participation.

Tune in at 9 p.m. ET. Get there from here:

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