Defunding Obamacare

       I'm bringing this post back after only a few weeks because of reported developments in the House of Representatives today on the defunding of Obamacare. In a change of heart, House leaders will bring a "continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare" up for a vote. This is a necessary first step in the defunding process and very good news but as Jim DeMint wrote today..."the hard work is just beginning." There is a very real possibility that this monstrosity of Obamacare will be shelved, and if it is, with a head of steam, it may only be the beginning of Congress saying no to the politics of tyranny!
              
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August 30, 2013

DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP

        "We have met the enemy, and he is us," was the comic strip character Pogo's comment on the frailties of humankind. Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo, borrowed a phrase from history and changed it a little bit for his main character.
         It's just about two hundred years since the Battle Of Lake Erie. As a matter of fact the Bicentennial celebration is about to begin at Put-In-Bay, Ohio on the lake. My wife and I were there this past weekend for a little getaway. We parked our car at the dock and took the ferry across to South Bass Island, stayed two nights at a bed and breakfast and rented a golf cart, the highlight being visiting the 352 foot Doric column victory monument to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry who commanded the American naval forces in the battle that would have a dramatic influence on the outcome of the War of 1812.
         Let me give you a little perspective on the battle. Control of the Great Lakes was vital to both sides, the Americans and the British. There were not many ships involved but the victorious side would indeed control the lakes.  Perry's flag ship was the Lawrence which was named after naval Captain James Lawrence, a friend of Oliver Hazard Perry who had died in battle and reportedly uttered Don't give up the ship as his last words. Blue flags with these words, DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP, are  literally everywhere on the island and particularly the little community of Put-In-Bay on the north end.
      The Lawrence was incessantly battered early in the battle and four fifths of its crew were either killed or wounded. The ship was expected to surrender but Perry and its remaining able bodied men boarded a skiff and rowed a half a mile through cannon fire to the Niagara. Perry then continued the battle and by the Almighty's blessing, as he worded it in his report, brought victory to the American forces. He wrote the following words, which would be etched in American history, in pencil on the back of an envelop and sent it to then General William Henry Harrison, "We have met the enemy and he is ours."
         I was in the back of a crowded hall last night in Pittsburgh, it was standing room only, and listening to former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint in his Heritage Action For America tour to defund Obamacare, and afterwards the actions of Commodore Perry came to my mind as I thought they relate to Jim DeMint who was himself battered in the United States Senate and who when his time there had achieved all that it could, he, like Perry in his skiff, took command of another vessel, The Heritage Foundation, to continue the fight. I have written a lot on Jim DeMint throughout this blog. I wanted him to run for President and think that he would have won, and I've written that he is not  only another Reagan but a better than Reagan! Unfortunately, as I have witnessed, there are far too many who talk a good game on opposing Barack Obama but don't show up..... and I sometimes see evidence of Pogo's lament.....we have met the enemy...and he is us.

www.heritage.org