Gretchen Morgenson: "Absence of Accountability for the 2008 Financial Crisis"

Gretchen Morgenson addressed the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Monday, June 4, in Washington, D.C.

Why Ronald Reagan Towers Above Barack Obama as a World Leader

From The Telegraph

By Nile Gardiner

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: standing up to the Evil Empire

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s famous “tear down this wall” speech delivered before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on June 12, 1987. It is a reminder not only of President Reagan’s oratorical brilliance but also of his steadfast leadership on the world stage. For the Gipper was a president who, together with Margaret Thatcher, brought down the might of the Soviet Empire, liberated hundreds of millions from Communist tyranny, and restored US leadership after the decline of the Carter years and the Vietnam era. Reagan was uncompromising in his opposition to the Soviet Union and his defence of freedom, driven by his belief in American exceptionalism and the unique role the United States must play in standing up to tyranny and advancing the cause of liberty.

For Ronald Reagan in 1987, West Berlin was the frontline in the war against Communism, a city the Russians had tried to strangle in 1948. He was determined to see the wall that divided Berlin’s three million inhabitants brought down, and the biggest symbol of Communist tyranny smashed to the ground. In his speech in Berlin, Reagan memorably declared

In the 1950's, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind-too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

…. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Two decades later, for Barack Obama in 2008, Berlin was little more than a hubristic campaign stop where he could bask in the worship of adoring German youth en route to the White House, introducing himself as “a fellow citizen of the world.” A year on, as president, he could not even be bothered to attend the city’s celebrations commemorating the 20th anniversary of the downfall of the Berlin Wall in 2009, which National Review Editor Rich Lowry appropriately described at the time as “the most telling nonevent of his presidency.”

In so many respects Reagan’s firm leadership in the 1980s towers over that of Barack Obama today. It would be hard to imagine President Obama delivering an address with the power and moral conviction of President Reagan’s Berlin Wall speech. While Obama has apologised for his nation, Reagan stood tall for American greatness. While Obama has sought accommodation with some of America’s key adversaries, Reagan vowed to defeat them. While Obama is cutting US defence spending, closing several US bases in Europe, and scaling back American global power, Reagan believed in peace through strength, and rebuilding America’s military might.

Ronald Reagan will always be remembered by the people of Berlin and millions more across eastern and central Europe as the steadfast leader who fought for their freedom and refused to back down in the face of a brutal enemy that had oppressed a continent for nearly half a century. It is thanks to his vision and determination that the Soviet Empire was brought to its knees. As his closest friend and ally Margaret Thatcher put it in her eulogy to Reagan at the Washington National Cathedral in 2004:

Others prophesied the decline of the West. He inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom… With the lever of American patriotism, he lifted up the world. And so today, the world – in Prague, in Budapest, in Warsaw and Sofia, in Bucharest, in Kiev, and in Moscow itself, the world mourns the passing of the great liberator and echoes his prayer: God bless America.

Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, and Fox Business Network.

Gary Glenn Addresses Ronald Reagan 2012 Dinner in Michigan

Concerned citizens throughout Michigan are working their hearts out to ensure that this good and gifted man represents them in the United States Senate.  But all Americans have a stake in this battle against well funded, establishment Republicans and the radical Obamunist, Debbie Stabenow.  If you can help and want to join Governor Mike Huckabee, the National Right to Work PAC and the Term Limits America PAC in supporting  a genuine Reagan conservative in one of the key races of 2012, please go to Gary's website and give what you can today.

US Bishops’ Religious Liberty Campaign Taking shape

From Catholic World News

Masses, holy hours, Eucharistic processions, rallies, concerts, and lectures are among the activities planned by various dioceses as part of the Fortnight for Freedom campaign announced by US bishops in April. The campaign will begin on June 21 with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and conclude on July 4 with Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. 

"Culminating on Independence Day, this special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action would emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty," the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty said in April upon announcing the campaign. "Dioceses and parishes around the country could choose a date in that period for special events that would constitute a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty." 

Additional sources for this story
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• Dioceses Gear Up For Fortnight For Freedom, June 21-July 4 (USCCB)
• Archbishops Lori, Chaput to preach during bishops' religious liberty campaign (CWN, 5/21)
• US bishops launch major offensive to protect religious liberty (CWN, 4/12)

Obama Regime Purges Religious Freedom Section from Its Human Rights Reports

Clearly the Obama regime does not want to admit that their celebrated "Arab Spring" has resulted in the murder, persecution and displacement of Christians in Africa and the Middle East.  Or perhaps they also recognize the plank in their own eye.

AP Photo

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.

The new human rights reports--purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered--are also the human rights reports that include the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

International Eucharistic Congress Opens in Dublin

From Catholic World News

The 50th International Eucharistic Congress opened in Dublin on June 10 with an address by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and a Mass in a sports stadium, the RDS Arena.

Today's Democrats - This NY Democrat Should Fit Right In

It will be interesting to see what kind of support this brutha receives from fellow party thugs in the White House and at the DNC.

From The Weekly Standard

By Michael Warren

New York City councilman Charles Barron may be on his way to winning the Democratic nomination for Congress in New York's Eighth District, despite a history of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel rhetoric. Barron, who has earned the support of retiring congressman Edolphus Towns, would be representing a district with a sizable Jewish population.