A Liberated Mind

This week was a long and winding road filled with travel, phone calls, appointments, and the other normal trapping of the normal work week…But, some stuff did pop up that I thought was worth noting, and now I want to give you a summary of some of those things in today’s edition of quick hits…

And if you haven’t noticed, it is hard for me to blog everyday…My apologies…That is why I try to make Friday entertaining for all…

So on with the show…

The Fall Classic wrapped up this week with the Phillies beating the Rays 4 games to 1…I generally like the postseason of baseball, and if I had one dime for every inning I watched of the World Series, I would, well, have a dime…Just didn’t do much for me…Sorry, Doug…

However, the Oklahoma City Thunder did tip off this week to sold out crowd at the Ford Center…and promptly lost to a pretty average Milwaukee Bucks squad…Come to find out, the crowd was a little too energetic for the Thunder players…What?!?!

And not to sound like a bandwagon fan (although if you ever preface a sentence with that, guess what? Yeah, you’re probably a bandwagon fan), I may not be able to really get into this whole NBA in OKC thing if the product continues to be like it was the other night…Just horrible…

And, yeah, I know – me actually verbalizing that thought was pretty horrible, too…

And in a strange bit of NBA news (which will transition us to election stuff), it seems certain NBA players are urging folks to vote by putting messages on their shoes…Guess we know who Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady are for…But don’t you know the tax implications for you guys if your guy wins?  Love them higher taxes…

Yeah, so about the election: Evidently, lots of folks are voting early this year for the election…Is this new?  Did I just miss the memo on it?  Can someone explain why this is necessary?  I am so confused…

And keep kicking people off your plane, please…It makes you look bad…Thanks…

Speaking of the election (and this will be it, promise), why is the CBS/New York Times poll still 11 points?  Seriously, all of the other polls have tightened a bit, but this one is still double digits?  And I have never gotten polled…Wish someone would call me…

And this week I made the mistake of getting sucked into “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” one night, and just as I turned there he was ripping Bill O’Reilly and saying he had beaten him in the ratings for the third straight night…I was flabbergasted by this, and so I did some research on this issue…Come to find out, MSNBC only counts the demographic of 25-54 as viewers and according to this AP article, “essentially ignores older viewers” which “O’Reilly dominates”…

Thus, while it is true that Olbermann may have won the other night in the demographic of 25-54 year old viewers by a score of something like 1.7 million viewers to 1.6 million viewers, it is categorically untrue that he beat O’Reilly in the ratings…This is because if you add the older viewers in (like a certain aunt of my wife’s who is staunch O’Reilly supporter), then O’Reilly essentially crushes Olbermann by something like 3.7 million viewers to 1.8 million…Almost 2 million more…

But yeah, Keith, if you want to say you beat him, you go right ahead…Now if McCain ends up beating Obama because of the older vote and yet Obama wins the 25-54 year olds, are you going to say Obama won the election?  Hmm…

And just to make sure everybody is aware, I do like O’Reilly…A lot…Hannity I can kind of do without, but O’Reilly is just fine…

Glenn Beck is still the best, though…

Speaking of countdowns, too: it is officially 2 weeks until I see Chris Faulkner in the flesh…Oh, the excitement…

Oh, and if McCain loses, then Palin in 2012…Who’s with me?  Love that quote to ABC News by the way…

And yeah, I still think McCain is going to lose on Tuesday…Alas…And if McCain does happen to pull it out, let us all pray that folks keep their heads about them and not fall into the trap this lady is setting…Seriously, we are all better than that…

Oh sorry, that was more election stuff…My bad…

And on a really random note, I decided this week to do a little research on “Atlas Shrugged”…I had been hearing about this book from libertarian folks I know, and I had no idea what the book was about…After reading this Wikipedia account, I am even more confused now and not sure I am willing to read the book after finding out it is over 645,000 words…For reference, this blog posting is only 708 words so far (okay, now we are up to like 720), and yeah, this posting is almost too long for my liking…

Now multiple this by a whole bunch until you get to 645,000…Wow…“War and Peace” was not even that long…

L. Ron Hubbard has a book on that list if you hadn’t noticed…I don’t know why I mention that besides the fact that Scientology creeps me out…a lot…

So lastly about “Atlas Shrugged” – George, can you explain the draw lots of people have to this book?

Moving on once again, love this cartoon…He he…It does us all to have a good laugh at the press’ expense before the drama unfolds next week…

And to conclude this “Artamene” length blog posting, my beloved Sooners take on Nebraska on Saturday night on ESPN, and I should be a lot more excited about this traditional rivarly than I am…But yeah, can’t quite get all pumped for some reason…Could be because Nebraska is so bad, but still…Anyway, I see this game being somewhere in the neighborhood of OU 56/Nebraska 36…Our defense gives up lots of points once again, but our offense rocks…

Until Monday, enjoy your weekend…

WAIT: BREAKING NEWS ALERT!!!

Evidently McCain is going to be on SNL on Saturday…Seeing that he is the funniest of all the candidates, this may be a good thing for him…I will be watching for sure…

S

Yeah, I watched some of the Barak Obama Infomercial that most of the networks showed…And yeah, it was very well produced with middle American images and values and stories and such…Plus, he was his normal eloquent self as he narrated the “show” himself…

But to me it was kind of choppy and filled with too much information…It looked like he tried way too hard to get in every single on of his policy points into the thirty minutes…Thus, it created a sort of chaotic mishmash of ideas and plans – consequently, that made the transitions to the different topics very unclear and forced…Plus, he never even mentioned Iraq…Huh…

I say all this because I don’t think it will make much difference in the grand scheme of things…Both party bases will be fired up about the infomercial – the right because of the vast arrogance of it all and the left because of the hope Obama brings to so many…

I would assume for independents, though, this very planned and very blah 30 minutes was nothing but a stump speech on film due to the fact that there was nothing new or surprising…At least that is what I am hoping…

But at the end of the day, it might have been a waste of around $4 million…Otherwise, it was a pretty forgettable made for TV stunt…

S

With today being a travel day for me, I did not have a chance to post anything (and there was absolutely no way I was going to try to do a post on my Crackberry), and thus I feel like I should bust something out tonight before bed…

So in the spirit of David Letterman and with the election now just a week away, here are the…

Top 10 October Surprises that Could Happen Between Now and Next Tuesday…

10. With Joe Biden suddenly coming down with a mysterious infection in the area around his temples and eyes, Hillary Clinton is brought in to sew up the election for Obama…THE CLINTONS JUST WILL NOT GO AWAY!!!

9. In the most awesome music event of all time, Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and William Ayers unexpectedly release a rap album as a group called “Barack Who?”  Rolling Stone gives it 5 stars and proclaims it “revolutionary and inspiring to fellow Marxists everywhere”… 

8.  Just to throw a wrench into the election and finally destroy his legacy for good, President Bush shows up at all of Obama/Biden rallies on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and declares he is “Ready to pass the torch to my bestest friend in the entire world, Barack Obama”…

7. Impromptu rallies spring up all across the countries where the wealthy and the homeless can meet up and iron out the details for the wealthy to send most of their upcoming paychecks directly to the homeless without going through the middleman known as the government…The process may as well be efficient, right?

6. Getting a bit ahead of himself, Barack Obama unexpectedly releases his third memoir entitled “How I became the Best President in the History of the United States During My Two Terms in Office”…

5. Unfortanately the only news outlets that cover this event are Fox News, conservative radio, and a blog called, “A Liberated Mind”, automatically making the writer of that blog a worldwide celebrity…

4. Somehow a massive spam e-mail gets sent to everyone in the country who is registered as a Democrat that the election has been moved to Wednesday due to “bad weather”…MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, and blogs like the Daily Kos run with the story without checking the source, and Republicans then wonder why they are the only ones at the polls on Tuesday, November 4th…Oh well…

3. A photo of Karl Marx and Barack Obama drinking together while Obama was at Columbia surfaces even though Marx has been dead since 1883…Stranger than that, though, is the note on the back that says, “Barry and Karl – BFF”…

2. To show her willingness to tackle the hard questions, Sarah Palin agrees to do a joint interview with Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann.  However, during the interview Rachel and Keith begin becoming violent toward her, and in the greatest show of force the country has ever seen, Sarah Palin drops each of them with a kick in the, um, place where it really hurts both of them…

1. The Greatest 24 Words Ever Typed on a Blog: John McCain and Barack Obama simply arm wrestle for the presidency and McCain goes over the top in under 3 seconds for the win…

Enjoy the next week!

S

If you have looked at Drudge or listened to conservative talk radio today (remember – moderation is the key), then you have no doubt heard the sound clips of Barack Obama in a 2001 interview on a Chicago radio station talking about, amongst other things, his belief that the courts need to take the lead in the redistribution of wealth and about his desire to break the essential constraints that the Founding Fathers placed on the Constitution and so on and so forth…

I, like many other bloggers, could work my way through these recordings and sift through the dangers these trains of thought lead us to and all that, but I am not going down that road today…To be honest, I much rather leave that to the folks out there who are smarter than me and have more time than me…Frankly, I would do them no justice in my regurgitating what they are saying much more eloquently than I…

But in reading this article on the National Review website about the sound clips and the threat the ideas set forth in them pose to free markets and economic freedom, something near the end of the article struck me as fantastically inspirational…

Here, let me set the quotes off so that you can read them for yourselves:

Mercifully shorter than the first, and simply this: I happen to know the person who found this audio. It is an individual person, with no more resources than a desire to know everything that he or she can about who might be the next president of the United States and the most powerful man in the world.

I know that this person does not have teams of highly paid professionals, does not work out of a corner office in a skyscraper in New York, does not have access to all of the subtle and hidden conduits of information … who possesses no network television stations, owns no satellite time, does not receive billions in advertising dollars, and has a staff of exactly one. 

I do not blame Barack Obama for believing in wealth distribution. That’s his right as an American. I do blame him for lying about what he believes. But his entire life has been applying for the next job at the expense of the current one. He’s at the end of the line now.

I do, however, blame the press for allowing an individual citizen to do the work that they employ standing armies of so-called professionals for. I know they are capable of this kind of investigative journalism: It only took them a day or two to damage Sarah Palin with wild accusations about her baby’s paternity and less time than that to destroy a man who happened to be playing ball when the Messiah decided to roll up looking for a few more votes on the way to the inevitable coronation.

We no longer have an independent, fair, investigative press. That is abundantly clear to everyone — even the press. It is just another of the facts that they refuse to report, because it does not suit them.

Remember this, America: The press did not break this story. A single citizen, on the Internet did. 

Now if I wanted I could write yet another 2,000 words screed about how biased the media is toward Obama and how overt their plan is to get him elected…And sure, I could trot out links, quotes, and video to back up my argument…And I would be one of many on this bandwagon…

But let me instead hit on the other part of the quote that is highlighted in bold so that I can applaud and encourage the guy or girl who dug up this interview so that I can motivate others to get involved as well…To put it bluntly, that is really impressive…

In a humbling way, finding something like that just goes to show the power and the opportunity the internet gives us to make an impact both locally and nationally…And sure, it may not change the outcome next Tuesday (or it might – you never know), but if nothing else, it adds something else to the conversation that was previously missing…

And if we attempt to this on not only a national level but a local one as well, who knows what we could find and dig up on our local officials?  That thought is worth getting excited about in my book…

So let’s be honest: for a regular guy like me to find something as big and potentially earth-shattering as that is probably a long shot…But if we as the New Media don’t ever take the time to look for that stuff, we are for sure never going to find it…

And as we all know, if we don’t find what’s out there, it won’t be found considering that no one else is looking for it…

Lastly, think about this: having this type of deal come out by the hands of a one-person show gives us a glimpse at what one person can do to change the tone of a campaign and perhaps the future of our country…The more people we have looking, then, the more we can find…Which means we need more people looking!

So happy digging, New Media members…Good luck in finding your gold, and encourage those around you to do some searching of their own…

S

Considering I wrote that previous post last night at 1:00 in the morning (was that an oxymoron?), I left a lot out about what I wanted to open for discussion…But now it is 11:00 in the morning, I am feeling good, I am about to go to lunch, and here are some more quick thoughts…

In reference to “Camp Rock”, I am proud to say I have never heard a Jonas Brothers song before…And I only know of their association with Camp Rock because it is all over Target…Seriously, it is horrible…Kind of like The Jonas Brother’s hair…

The New Kids are back, and for some reason I am just as jealous of them now as I was during their heyday when I was 13 years old…That smells of irony…

Speaking of the New Kids, I gotta give it up to Donnie Wahlberg (is that two Wahlberg references in two posts?  Wow)…The guy has a pretty decent Hollywood career going (just great in “Band of Brothers”, brilliant in the now-cancelled “Boomtown”, and he stood out in the otherwide awful “Annapolis”), he gets to travel with the Boston Celtics to games outside of Boston, and he has basically become the de facto leader of the New Kids – which means he gets to talk in all the interviews…For my money, that is a pretty decent living…

And I will never mention he or the New Kids again…ever…promise…

And yeah, I have a Blackberry…Yeah, I carry it even when I am not “working” even though I have another cell for personal use…Yeah, I check sports scores on it and use it for directions…And yeah, I even love when it tells me I have an e-mail…But, no, I am not addicted to it…And no, you cannot take it away from me to prove it…

I bought gas today for $2.09…Ah, to live in Oklahoma…

New Vince Flynn book came out this week – for those of you into post 9/11 covert op thrillers, you can’t be Mitch Rapp…But this is the 10th book in the series, so yeah, if you really want to get into it, you gotta read 9 other books…Ugh…

What else?  Oh, saw Bill Cosby on TV this week, and he is looking aged…And I am not saying that is a bad thing – just the picture I have in my mind is him on “The Cosby Show” or even as a younger man on the cover of his comedy albums…Which are genius by the way…

Speaking of which, how did Frank Caliendo get so famous?

And just to let you guys and girls know, I average about 25 visits to my blog per 24 hours and around 100 views per 24 hours…This should be higher…So here is what we are going to do: If I can get it up to 50 visits per 24 hours and 150 views, everybody will get free postings for a year from “A Liberated Mind”…Sound like a deal? Alright!

How great is the fall foliage? Seriously, this is why the fall is the best season of the year…Heck, even the Today Show had a map of where the foliage is best right now during the show this morning…Just tremendous…Ah, to live somewhere other than Oklahoma…

Three words that will change a city: Oklahoma City Thunder…

That is what Seattle gets for having one of its citizens steal my in-laws camcorder out of our rental car when were there for our honeymoon several years ago…Okay, that had nothing to do with them losing their team, but still…

Most underrated American city I have been to: Durham, NC…

Most overrated American city I have been to: Columbus, OH – looked kind of dumpy to me…

And lastly, do you like the new season of “The Office”?  It has sort of lost its way to me…I think it is because Pam is not there…Yeah, she definitely needs to come back and come back now…

Okay, I am done…Promise…

Oh, and I love comments so post them if you got them…

S 

Upon receiving some good advice from the person I care the deepest about in this entire world, I am avoiding politics in today’s post…Like Southwest asks, “Wanna Get Away”?  Well, in reference to politics (especially the presidential campaign), today I do wanna get away…

On with the quick hits:

Went to Target this evening and everywhere I looked it was all about Camp Rock…Which made me wonder to myself, “What the heck is Camp Rock”?  I know, I know – I am 30 years old, completely out of the teenie-bopper loop, and overall a pretty big dork, but still…It makes me wonder if this has anything to do with High School Musical…Which is another massive deal I just absolutely missed out on…

Found out this week that my favorite show on televsion – CBS’ “The Unit” – will probably not make it out of the fall season intact…It is a pity, that show is pretty good…But maybe this is part of one of Jonas’ master plans that always seem to come together in the end when Bob and Mack end up killing all the bad guys with him…And since most of you (okay, all of you) didn’t recognized those names I just referenced, that just shows why “The Unit” is about to be killed off the air…

I am, however, getting into “My Own Worst Enemy” with Christian Slater…Yes, it is a bit (sarcastic “bit” by the way) far fetched, but still, it is quite entertaining and quite imaginative…Plus, there is a lot of shooting and covert ops stuff…Right up my alley…

It got cold in Oklahoma this week…I like the cold…Eh, just thought I would throw that out there for no apparent reason…

Oh, but my daughter did turn 2 this week…Yeah, that was a good time…Big party for the family coming up on Sunday…And with her being two now, we are noticing her repeat A LOT of what we say…During the aforementioned Target trip this week, I noticed my daughter had ripped a price tag off an item and I say, “Oh, crap”…No biggie, right?  Well, not until my daughter innocently repeats said phrase back to me as “Oh, twap”…Oh, twap indeed, little girl…

The World Series started this week with the Phillies taking the first game and the Rays tying the series up with a win tonight…And a total of 8 people outside of Philadelphia and the Tampa/St. Pete region knew about it…

Caught the SNL bit with Mark Wahlberg confronting Andy Samberg about his depiction of Wahlberg talking to animals…Didn’t really get it until I went back and watched the original skit that, again, depicted Wahlberg talking to animals…The first time I saw the “confrontation” between Samberg and Wahlberg, I was slightly amused…But then after I watched it the second time after having a little context to go along with it, I was again only slightly amused…Which begs the question: Where is Toonces the Driving Cat when you need him?

Is it is a reflection of Hollywood’s horrible movies or my lack of giving a crap that the last movie I say in a theater was the new Indiana Jones movie?  Is there good stuff out there right now that I am missing?  Seriously…

And “Saw 5″?  What?!?!  Did versions 2-4 go straight to DVD?  I remember when the first one came out, but now we are up to 5?  Really?

For some odd reason I rediscovered The Monkees as I was wasting time during lunch one day this week…Goodness, that show was freaking awesome!  And those guys actually were pretty talented…If you have iTunes, take my advice and go to the Music Store, do a search for The Monkees, find the album called “The Monkees Present”, and for 99 cents, download the song called “Listen to the Band”…Simply genius…

Speaking of music, after The Monkees broke up, Michael Nesmith (the guy in the show that wore the winter hat) broke off on his own and made some wonderful country-rock stuff…This blog posting has lots of info and lots of samples…Really extraordinary and wonderful “alt-country” stuff…

Speaking of music 2, Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish fame (by the way, “Cracked Rear View” was good, but their next two albums - ”Fairweather Johnson” and “Musical Chairs” were even better) just released a country album, and hearing the first single off of it (”Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It”), it is pretty decent country fair…While not a huge country fan, I still love his voice and his ability to lead a song where it needs to go…I can’t wait to check out the rest of the album – aside from the slide guitar I know is coming…

And finally, my beloved Sooners travel to the Little Apple of Manhattan, Kansas, to take on the Kansas State Wildcats this weekend, and I had honestly almost forgotten about this game this week because frankly it should not be close…The Sooners are very good, and the Wildcats are not very good…

After dispatching the Jayhawks last week at home, OU does the same with the Wildcats on Saturday…Final score is OU 49/K-State 14…And OU officially becomes the state champion of Kansas…

That is it for now…Everybody have a good weekend, and try your best to avoid that word that starts with ”pol” and ends with ”itics” if at all possible…We’ll pick that flag back up on Monday and run with it then…Oh boy, can’t wait for that…

S  

Can you recall the first time in your life when your eyes were opened to how unfair life can be?  Do you remember just one time when you have been shaken to your core by the stark reality of unfairness in this world?  Can you think of any of the hundreds of times this truth has cast its shadow over you?

I remember one of the first times I truly realized the unfairness of life…I had just made the “travelling team” in our town’s summer baseball league as a 12 year old, and the first 3 games I didn’t play at all; it was only in the fourth game that I got off the bench and got one at-bat…I was so frustrated and upset that I ranted and raved to my mom that it wasn’t fair…

Well, this was one of many times my mom would look at me and say, “Seth, you know what?  Life isn’t fair”…

She, along with millions of other parents, had to reinforce this lesson through words because unfortunately our teachers of this lesson are our own difficult experiences…

This then leads us to the Fairness Doctrine…And without getting into too much of it, the Fairness Doctrine basically says that if there is an opinion given on the radio then equal time must be given to the opposing opinion…Simplistically, radio must be fair to both sides in the time that is allotted for the discussion…

Regardless of the details, I am more concerned with the thought behind the fairness of the doctrine than exactly what it will mean for radio stations and talk show hosts…

Those who support the Fairness Doctrine want exactly what it sounds like they want: fairness in media…But when you think about it, why should it be fair?  Again, life isn’t fair…

Apart from the obvious reasons certain people are for radio going back to the Fairness Doctrine – the left’s anger about talk radio being dominated by conservatives is the most apparent reason, which has been talked about countless times elsewhere – there are other reasons for the desire of fairness in media…

Frankly this desire for fairness is seeping into all areas of life it seems…

For example, lots of youth sports leagues are not keeping score any longer in games to make things seem more fair…And a court decison last year gave the Univesity of Michigan Law School the right to use race as a qualification for admission…That ruling was to try to make the law school more diverse and fair to minority students, but then is that fair to non-minority students who are just as qualified?  And some people earning lots of money while others do not is even seen as unfair by many - they call for the redistrubtion of wealth.

But, again, if you try and make it fair for some, others suffer…Is that fair?

I think if we all took a long, hard look at fairness, we would all agree that we should try and be as fair as we can in everything we do…But utopia is not ours because it is not possible…Regardless if we attempted to do everything we could to make everything as fair as possible for as many as possible, there will still be those amongst us who will not treated fairly…

And if you think about it, if all we did was try to pursue fairness we would spend all of our time at it, and nothing would get accomplished…

Instead, why don’t we instead encourage competition, imagination, and hard work?  Why don’t we push people to be their best in all they do?  If they fail, it would only be fair to teach them to get back up and try again…

The goal should not be to force fairness and to do our best to make sure people never get hurt…Rather we should all strive to do the best we can in everything we do…Will we lose sometimes, and will that suck?  Sure, but we will also win sometimes, and all of our hard work will be worth it…And folks, that is fairness to its utmost…

Getting back to the Fairness Doctrine, why should this sense of fairness be forced upon radio stations?  Why can’t good old American competition be the driving force to keep on both sides of an argument on the air if both sides have listeners?

The fact is that we need competition in all areas of life…We need to be hard working people who look to help others in there time of need as we encourage them get back on their feet…But, we also need to figure out that life isn’t always fair…

So why try to force it to be? 

S

If this presidential election has taught us anything about the media, then a great many of us have learned that the traditional media as a whole is no doubt entering an age of overt and unabashed bias…

For years and year conservatives have harped on the media’s covert and hidden agenda, but it has not been until the past few years as we have entered into this presidential race that we have seen it come out of the darkness of newsroom discussions into the light of our daily papers and television reporting…

The left can do the same thing as the right and complain about the same type of bias and unfairness to their camp (and they have through websites and organizations such as Media Matters), but in reality, their argument holds no water once you get past their obsession with getting Fox News taken off the air…

That being said, there is an article floating out there today authored by a writer who is described as a Democrat but who is also a newspaper columnist living in Greensboro, NC…I found the link on Drudge, but you can find it here…

In the article, this journalist takes on the rest of his brethren in a very hard-hitting, detailed, and calm sort of way…He does not attack personally, but rather he carefully and easily lays out his case for a media failing to do its job and live up to its role starting with a look at the financial crisis and a subsequent look at the presidential race…

Here is a sampling:

“These are facts.  This financial crisis was completely preventable.  The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was … the Democratic Party.  The party that tried to prevent it was … the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie.  Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What?  It’s not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let’s follow the money … right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate’s campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an “adviser” to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama’s people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn’t listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.”

Simply put, it is a very well-written and insightful article regarding the current hypocritical bias quickly killing the mainstream media…

So check it out if you want; hopefully you will enjoy the article as much as I did…

S

Here is the question: What should we as Conservatives do if the time comes when after the election we face of an overwhelming Democratic House and Senate and a newly elected Democratic President?

Simply put and without any additional fanfare, here are 5 Things I am Going to Try to do During LUPO – Life Under President Obama:

Number 1: As a conservative, Barack Obama’s election means I must stand firm in my convictions and be ready to defend my positions…

History tells us that capitalism, free markets, increased liberty, and smaller governments means more prosperity for a country’s citizens…However, massive government, higher taxes, more regulation, and increased government interference in its citizen’s lives leads to this: BAILOUTS…Hmm…Which one is better? 

The point is that as the country goes further into socialistic type endeavors, conservatives must be able to defend their positions for the free market and more limited government…Thus, they must understand these positions and be able to communicate them clearly…

Number 2: As a conservative, Barack Obama’s election means I must be creative in how I get my message to the masses…

Yeah, we’re a bit behind on the whole New Media Revolution thing, but think about this: the old media, which has been dominated by the left for a long time, is dying…Talk radio, which has been dominated by the right for a long time, is being threatened by the Fairness Doctrine…What does that leave?  Well, for right now that leaves the internet as the yet untamed western frontier of media… As more and more conservatives turn to all of the New Media tools, catching up to the left will not be as difficult as it might seem…And as more of the general population begin using the internet as their source for opinions, social networking, and current information, the right has the chance to meet these people on their way in, shake their hands, and welcome them to the party…A gracious host is much more enjoyable than a bitter one…

Number 3: As a conservative, Barack Obama’s election means I must unite with those around me who believe as I do…

My hope is that the right could be the folks known for independent thought…But right now we are known as the folks who have an issue with uniting unless every single issue is agreed upon…

This should not be so…

As conservatives, we need to look past our sometimes differing social views (i.e. hot button issues that can be influenced by religion, logic, or experience), and unite under the flag of liberty, freedom, and our desire to see the government stay out of our lives except when to defend us and keep us safe…In this, coalitions must be built that show a united front and a powerful voice…

Number 4: As a conservative, Barack Obama’s election means I must not give into the lie that conservatism is dying…

Working where I do for an organization who is constantly looking for and training young conservative voices, we have a great foundation being built…But maybe these are the folks who have never had their voice heard or have never taken the time to make the decision to use that voice to change their worlds…Regardless, they are out there, and they are growing in their frustration…And honestly, the left has the same thing within their ranks but the only difference is they have already mobilized and motivated…

This is what needs to happen on the right…When more and more of the next generation raises up and fights for what they believe in, people will take notice and will realize that conservatism is alive and well…We just need a spark to light that fire…Maybe Obama winning will do this…One can only hope…

Number 5: Lastly, as a conservative, Barack Obama’s election means I must embrace the hope that even though things look dark now, there is a light upon the dawn…

Frankly, our movement needs a wake up call…We need a call to arms…We need a catalyst to spur us out of our slumber and into the fight…Maybe Obama’s election will do this because sometimes it has to get worse before it can get better…We know that socialistic solutions will not solve our problems…We know that bigger government and more spending will not fix the issues that we have…And we know that when ingenuity and creativity are stifled, cultures deteriorate…

Thus, our philosophies are the solution for the deeper problems we are about to walk into…And at some point down the line, those people whose lives and dreams only worsen under the other side’s leadership will understand again that more government involvement in their lives is not the answer…They will look to conservative thought as they have before…

And friends, that ought to give us a real hope…

Fear not, for the dawn is breaking, and the light of our time will shine again…Until then, stand firm in your beliefs, get creative in how you relay your message, unite with like-minded folks around you, know that conservatism is alive and well, and do not give up hope for a brighter day tomorrow…

If we do these things now while our world is slipping away, we will thrive after the difficult time is gotten through…We just have to have the patience to get there and an unwillingness to ever give up…

S

Loving the four day work week…Isn’t this what they tried in France?

Digging Joe the Plumber and feeling sorry for him all at the same time…Wow, what a media…

Saw a pretty decent debate (finally)…Which said media claims Obama won?  Really?  Makes you wonder what they were watching…

Got to know ACORN and William Ayers a little better…According to Obama, he doesn’t know them at all…

J-O-B-S…Three letters Joe Biden knows all too well…

A tightening race means I could be wrong…Not the first time, not the last…

Having two new shining faces in the office means both more stress and more fun…How is that possible?

Try having breakfast at a community airport on purpose with about 8 other guys at 6:00 on a Tuesday morning…You would be surprised…

Writing my longest post ever and still not being happy with the result shows how much of a perfectionist I am…Which could be good or it could be bad…

Hearing about Devon’s plan to take property taxes away from the county kind of got me all worked up…Good thing the local media picked up on it…What?  They didn’t?  No way!

Taking a trip to the Tulsa area to meet a future City Council candidate who is a solid conservative choice was encouraging for a couple of locals struggling to have their voices heard…

My favorite Major League Baseball player, JD Drew, coming through in the clutch for Boston - twice! – was about the best sports news I have had in a long time…And yeah, I stayed up and watched it…

Finding out about St. Vincent today was a welcomed surprise…

Lows in the upper 30’s means it’s time for sweaters…Finally…

And yeah, there is way too much other stuff on my plate that would be boring to discuss…So I will spare you…

But as you can see, this week has been long, it has been exciting, and it has been fast…And let me elaborate on some of the stuff above because a few of those items relate (somewhat) to my job… 

Just to clarify, I work for a company, American Majority, that is a non-partisan and non-profit organization that identifies and trains conservative candidates for public office ranging from city council and school board to state Senate and state House…

My job is to find these folks, train them on how to run good campaigns, and then prepare them to hit the ground running once they are elected…And it’s a fun job…Really fun…

And just to let everybody know, American Majority will be hosting two FREE candidate training seminars on November 14th and 15th in Tulsa and Oklahoma City…If you read this and want to find out more about getting involved in local government, running for a municipal office, or know anybody else who might want to, ask for more info in the comments section…

So yeah, that is what I am working on at work right now – and hence why I was travelling this week…Plus I am trying to keep up the blog – which was not updated yesterday for those very travel reasons…Sorry about that…

And since I missed my weekly Wednesday spotlight again this week (for the second week in a row as a matter of fact) check out the St. Vincent link above for some cool music you have never heard of…Great indie band with a cool sound…

Anyway, before I get on with the OU/Kansas score, I did want to mention that I am excited about a couple of ideas for next week’s blog postings…One of them will be a look ahead to post-election “A Liberated Mind” which will include some thoughts on how to make the blog a little more state based and a little more media bias focused in the future…

Another blog idea I have is about what we should do as conservatives if our candidate loses in November (and trust me, it will be as bad as we think – which might be good in the long term)…

And so, yeah, I got ideas floating around up there, I just need to take the time to get them out onto the blog…

But if you have anymore ideas, shoot them my way…And if nothing else, I need to keep in mind that a blog posting about Chris Faulkner and his hair always boosts readership for some reason…Interesting…

So to wrap this thing up for the weekend, look for a score of around OU 45/KU 21 tomorrow…Sorry, Ned and Beka…Looks like pizza for the OK office if Ned agrees to the terms…Nice…

And on that note, enjoy the weekend, and try not to do anything productive until Monday…

S