Salt and Light

All right you Obama supporters and I know you’re out there. Read about Senator Obama Global Poverty Act at the Center for Individual Freedom and please explain to me why I should vote for this guy?

If you are not familiar with the Center for Individual Freedom, I encourage to get on their email list and through some latte money their way once in awhile.

I’ve added them to our Citizen Action link; these folks do great work.

Hey folks - This is a quick post to say howdy and thank Dave for the opportunity to be a contributor to his blog. I will do my level best to be the “lighthouse” he spoke of in an earlier post. Here’s a little bit of info about me so you’ll have an idea about the man behind the keyboard. I’m much younger, handsomer, and almost as intelligent as Dave. Not really. He is probably the best friend I’ve ever had and more like a brother than anything else. I’m sure many of you feel the same way.

I am a born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe the Bible is accurate, complete, and trustworthy. I have studied God’s Word for nearly thirty years and have yet to find it wanting in anything. I am a little different than Dave in some respects (apart from the age and good looks). He is much better than I am at discerning the political winds blowing through our country. I am up to date with political happenings but not to the level Dave is. I’m more in touch with religious happenings, trends, and apologetics. That’s one reason I’m so excited to be a part of Salt and Light.

Like Dave, I’m a retired Army guy. I’m intensely patriotic and very grateful for the blessing of living in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Most of my career was spent in aviation operations. I met Dave while we were both instructors at Ft. Rucker. He took me under his wing and has been my friend ever since. I taught a Sunday School class there and Dave started attending. It’s where he met his lovely wife Karen and where they were eventually married.

Oh yeah…I’m the world’s biggest UK Wildcat fan. I’ll leave it at that for now.

So…in the beginning was the blog. And the blog was Dave’s and he did some typing and decided to call it Salt and Light. What a perfect name for a blog that encourages all of us to be the salt and light that is so needed in our world! Like many of you, I sometimes end up being a salty light or just lightly salted. Sometimes something strikes a nerve and I’m a bit more “salty” when trying to shed the “light” on someone who’s just not “getting it”. Sadly, at times I’m only lightly salted and of no real use. Sound familiar?

I think Dave would agree that this should be an encouraging place. We should be encouraged to be involved in what’s going on around us both politically and socially. We should be encouraged to actually BE Salt and BE Light because there’s never been a time when both are needed more. Dave can’t do it, I can’t do it, and you can’t do it either without the Lord’s blessing, guidance, and help. Sometimes that help comes from one another. Dave has a lot of irons in the fire right now. I’m blessed to be able to help by working with this blog. There’ll be times when I need his help and the help of those on this blog. I thank God in advance for the peace that comes from knowing that the help is there from those who read these words. You can count on my being there as well.

My prayer is that, together, we’ll be more than just salty light or lightly salted. Again, I’m grateful and look forward to the journey!

Billy Ray

Note: Below is a response I wrote in an email to my good friend Dino Minutillo inquiring about the new “Christian movement” within the Democratic Party…

There is a very easy way to weed all these CINOs out (I like that Dino!). The Bible says: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3)

If a person will not acknowledge this about Christ, he or she is an antichrist, not the Antichrist. Being an antichrist means you are against Christ, in other words you do not accept the Truth about Him that the Bible proclaims. If the person answers yes but embraces teachings contrary to the Bible, he or she is also a false believer. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Hey Everyone!

Some exciting things happening at TheVanguard.org! First founder and chairman Rod Martin and TheVanguard.org have an excellent article written about them in Human Events Online.

Next, Rod Martin announces that Jerome Corsi has joined TheVanguard.org! This is big!

For those of you not familiar with Jerome Corsi, he is the co-author of the book “Unfit for Command,” detailing John Kerry’s Viet Nam record as told by his fellow Swift Boat veterans. If you haven’t read that book yet, buy it today and you’ll understand why John Kerry “never fought back.” (Kind of hard to do when the truth is dead against you)

Mr. Corsi has written an excellent article titled, “TheVanguard.org Plans Conservative Challenge to MoveOn.org”, and he explains why has joined TheVanguard.org and what role he will be playing. He also closes with a morally and politically clear (the goal of “Salt and Light”) explanation about his involvement with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Please don’t miss any of this!

“It’s one thing to have a sizable minority like the Democrats stand in your way, but it is just unacceptable when a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of Republicans in Congress also rear up in opposition and join the liberal Democrats to derail an agenda. At some point that has to be faced. It has to be faced because these RINOs, these moderates, are undermining our agenda on taxes; they are undermining our agenda on spending; they are undermining our agenda on oil drilling, and they are undermining the war on terror…”

—Rush Limbaugh, November 11, 2005

Excuse the long quote, but Rush has wrapped up the problem with RINOs and how we the Republican Party are going to get the heart beating again and stop the bleeding. Too many disgruntled conservatives have left the Party or are voting for “conservative” Democrats. The Republican Party’s heart is barely beating and it is bleeding profusely and immediate first aid is required.
How do we restore the Republican Party’s heartbeat? We need to pump new life into it and that means new, healthy candidates. We need to remove the RINOs—Senators Arlen Specter (PA), George Voinovich (Ohio), Chuck Hagel (Neb), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Warner (VA), Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (this will be hard to do in Maine). And that’s just the Senate; I’m keeping my eye on the House too!

We also need to be concerned with stopping the bleeding. In what I consider that greatest betrayal by Republicans to a Republican President, the Commander-in-Chief, and also to the new commander in Iraq, and the troops in Iraq, the Senate is considering a resolution denouncing the plan to send more troops to Baghdad. This blood-letting must stop! Republicans are scared that they may not get reelected if they support the President in his efforts TO WIN THE WAR! Sorry for shouting, but I’m absolutely fed up.
I need everyone to email and call their Senators and the National Republican Senatorial Committee and let them know that if Republicans, all of them, do not get behind the President on this, the money and support stops. Not a penny!
Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman and 2008 Democratic Presidential hopeful, said that this is not to embarrass the President or to tell him he’s wrong, but to rebuke him. HELLO! (sorry) Senator Biden, it is not only an embarrassment to the President, it is an embarrassment to our country and the troops. And guess what gentlemen? Al-Jazeera thinks what you’re doing is very newsworthy! (Just hit the link and read)
General Petraeus, the new commander in Iraq, believes the surge will work because security to Baghdad is vital. At least one Senator gets it; Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said the following to the general: “I want to urge my colleagues to consider your testimony this morning and to put the brakes on’ such resolutions. ‘You, in my opinion, will receive unanimous or near-unanimous support… [for the nomination] from this committee and from the [full] Senate. But I fear that a resolution of disapproval will send you [Petraeus] over there” to Iraq with mixed signals to the Iraqis.”

Obviously I could on at great length writing about the examples of the RINO effect in Congress and how it is weakening our country, but space and time will not allow. Suffice to say, that if we can at least take the immediate first-aid steps to keep our patient alive, we can then administer the antidote to cure the sickness that is within the Republican Party. More on that in Part 5.

Hey Everyone!

You may be thinking that I’ve given up on my 5-part series, “Reviving the Republicans,” but I’ve been sitting back to see what House Democrats would do in their “first 100 hours” and how the Senate responds. I’ve also made some observations about the “Mini-Me RINOs” that the Dems have on a leash with a big lollipop in their (RINOs) hands. You getting my drift?

The main reason for this post is that there is an outstanding article on Human Events Online written by Stephanie Dube titled, “The Next MoveOn.org?” It is about my dear friend and founder of TheVanguard.org, Rod Martin. Please take a moment to read it and get to know Rod better; I learned some things about him I did not know. The heartbeat of TheVanguard.org is to be the antidote to MoveOn.org and we at TheVanguard.org are working hard to mobilize an army of conservatives to stand in the gap.

Thanks for your time and be looking here in a couple of days for me to post Part 4 of “Reviving the Republicans.” If you haven’t already done so, please sign up to receive RSS feeds for the entries and comments that are posted on “Salt and Light” and you will automatically receive an email notifying you. God bless!

Dave Jeffers

“This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”

—Ronald Reagan, from a speech delivered 27 October 1964, Los Angeles, CA

Mind you that wasn’t just a speech; that was “The Speech,” as it is now known but was actually titled, “A Time for Choosing.” This was a nationally televised speech that Ronald Reagan gave on behalf of the Republican presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. Ronald Reagan was once a staunch Democrat but he became Republican because he was foremost a conservative and he knew the Democratic Party no longer held conservative views.

Today’s Republican Party is not breathing; oh it may be on life-support, but it is definitely not breathing on its own. Today’s Republican Party does not hold to the ideals of limited government; government has grown with Republicans in power, particularly in the area of discretionary spending. Hard as this may be to believe, discretionary spending under the Bush Administration is more than double that of the Clinton Administration. (Has anyone seen the President’s veto pen; it’s been missing for six years!)

Whenever you try to revive a patient who is not breathing, once the airway is clear, you must first give two full breaths and see if the patient’s lungs fill up and then deflate. The two breaths needed for the Republican Party is getting discretionary spending under control and out in the open, and securing the border.

Discretionary spending needs two fixes: 1) the line-item veto; and 2) the greatest abuse of discretionary spending is the use of earmarks and yesterday President Bush finally called for an end to this pork-barrel form of spending: “Congress needs to adopt real reform that requires full disclosure of the sponsors, the costs, the recipients and the justifications for every earmark. Congress needs to stop the practice of concealing earmarks in so-called report language. And Congress needs to cut the number and cost of earmarks next year by at least half.” (President’s remarks in Rose Garden, Jan. 4, 2007) The President also called for the line item veto.

The second breath needed is securing the borders. Now many politicians believe that the immigration issue is more important, but we must first secure our borders and then come up with a comprehensive immigration plan, or at best simultaneously. But securing our borders must happen; it is a matter of national security. Many voters stayed home because of the border issue and it can no longer be politicized or obscured by political correctness.

Here are two easy ways to fix the immigration issue: 1) stop calling illegal aliens “undocumented workers.” That’s a bunch of PC mumbo-jumbo. An alien is defined as “a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization; a foreigner,” and they are not here legally; hence the term “illegal alien!” 2) If you’re going to give amnesty as part of a guest worker program and/or “comprehensive immigration reform,” then call it amnesty. Americans aren’t stupid and you can slap whatever PC label you want on amnesty, but we know what it is.

Whichever Republican politician or candidate takes these two issues as two of their main goals to fix, that person will take a giant leap forward and attract much attention from the mass of disgruntled GOP voters. After that, we can return to the patient and check for circulation. The GOP is bleeding and its circulation is weak.

Next, we’ll look at stopping the bleeding and restoring the “circulation” of the GOP!

“To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.”

— Margaret Thatcher, Former British Prime Minister

Why the Maggie Thatcher quote? Well, first of all she is a great, conservative woman and since “Reviving the Republicans (Part 2) is about “clearing the airway” of RINOs, I thought it important to give some examples of RINO thinking and juxtaposition it (look it up) with what real conservatives believe. And since the patient (GOP) was severely wounded by the 2006 election, let’s see what RINOs and other pundits are offering as the antidote (I’ll provide that in Part 5).

In the Washington Post article, “Republicans’ Angry Factions Point Fingers at Each Other,” dated November 9, 2006, reporter Michael Grunwald writes, “In the aftermath of the historic GOP losses Tuesday night, moderate Republicans quickly concluded that the party needs to be more moderate. Conservative Republicans declared that it should be more conservative.” To the Moderate Republicans I say “absolutely not!”, and to the Conservative Republicans I say “absolutely!”

Does anyone remember Ronald Reagan? No really, I mean what he believed in as far as conservatism was concerned? Do you? Here’s a quote from the greatest 20^th Century President: “The American new conservative majority we represent is not based on abstract theorizing of the kind that turns off the American people, but on common sense, intelligence, reason, hard work, faith in God, and the guts to say, yes, there are things we do strongly believe in, that we are willing to live for and yes, if necessary, to die for. This is not ‘ideological purity.’ It is simply what built this country and kept it great.” (From Reagan’s 1977 speech before the American Conservative Union)

Moderates are always looking for “consensus;” leaders are always leading. Does that Reagan quote sound “squishy” to you? “Squishy” is the word used by Rod Martin of TheVanguard.Org to describe RINOs. Squishy is what John McCain and the Gang of Fourteen did with killing the “nuclear option” for judicial nominees. I’m tired of squishy; I’m tired of “abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies,” to again quote Madame Thatcher. No more RINOs! It’s time to elect real conservatives.

If we want to get the GOP breathing again, we need to clear the airway; that means clearing out all the RINOs. After that we check for breathing, and our patient is not breathing.

Next, we’ll look at restoring the “breathing” of the GOP!

“Study the history of revival. God has always sent a revival in the darkest days. Oh, for a mighty, sweeping revival today!”

— Adrian Rogers

Recently our church had a two-week revival conducted by Life Action Ministries. The revival leader Steven Canfield described revival as “the presence, power, and peace of God resting on a life, a family, a church, a nation.” Additionally, Dictionary.com defines revival as the “restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.” Finally, the American Heritage Dictionary’s second entry defines revival as “A restoration to use, acceptance, activity, or vigor after a period of obscurity or quiescence.”

Election 2006 was a bloodletting for the Republican Party. Many conservative and evangelical Christian voters were disenchanted with the Party and its candidates: many decided to stay home; others voted for conservative Democrats. The GOP suffered a devastating blow and while the wound is still bleeding and the patient still groggy, it’s time to diagnose what went wrong.

The ABC’s of first aid calls for clearing the Airway, checking for Breathing, and then checking for Circulation. If the patient is not breathing and/or does not have a heart beat, then you must take measures to revive the patient. The GOP clearly needs to be revived and the first step is to clear out all foreign matter; in other words, the Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) must go!

Now this may sound exclusive and not of the “big tent” approach to politics, but if we going to have Republicans describing themselves as Reagan Conservatives, then they need to act like it. The GOP is too crowded with RINOs and with any narrowed or blocked airway, life as we know becomes difficult to maintain. A blocked airway causes a person to stop breathing, and a party blocked with wannabe, albeit counterfeit conservatives will cause it to lose its life.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at clearing the “airway” of RINOs!

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for viewing my blog.  I’ll be posting my first series called, “Reviving the Republicans” on Jan 1st and I believe it will be a five-part series.  Look forward to your comments and am hoping you will pass the word as much as possible.