Happy Centennial And A Half

(This article is adapted from Back to Basics for the Republican Party, Michael Zak's history of the GOP from the civil rights perspective. See www.republicanbasics.com for more information.)

Saturday is the 150th anniversary of the first Republican National Convention, which opened on June 17, 1856.

The Republican Party held its first national meeting in February 1856, in Pittsburgh, and established the RNC. Four months later came the first Republican National Convention – in Philadelphia, where the Constitution was written. No accident that it took place there. The message, true then and true today, is that the Republican Party is the defender of the United States Constitution.

Outraged that the Democratic Party had been violating the Constitution in order to advance its pro- slavery agenda, early Republicans were committed to preserving the legacy of the Founding Fathers. Seven of the nine planks in the 1856 Republican platform adopted by that first convention were resolutions in support of civil rights, along with two planks for pro-economic growth policies. The platform concluded with an affirmation that “the spirit of our institutions as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens.”

Though most of the 600 delegates were from the north, they chose a southerner as the Republican Party’s first presidential candidate. Born in Savannah, Georgia and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, John C. Fremont had won fame for exploring the Rocky Mountains and for helping to conquer California during the Mexican-American War. Fremont then served briefly as a U.S. Senator from California. It was he who christened the entrance to San Francisco Bay as “the Golden Gate.”

This military hero was also a dedicated abolitionist. Another enemy of slavery, Abraham Lincoln, came in second to Senator William Dayton for the vice presidential nomination. Six years later, Fremont would be one of the Union generals outmaneuvered by Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, while Dayton would serve as President Lincoln’s ambassador to France.

Here is what the first African-American Congressman, Joseph Rainey, a Republican and former slave from South Carolina had to say back in 1871: “We love freedom more, vastly more, than slavery; consequently we hope to keep clear of the Democrats!” The next year, Frederick Douglass proclaimed: “The Republican Party is the ship; all else is the sea.”

Remember, slavery was Democrat. The Confederacy was Democrat. The Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party. In contrast, the mission of all Republicans has always been to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” – so help us God.

The Salutation

In the May 23, 2006 post "'Heart of Glory' Part Two" (http://arlingtonian.blogspot.com/2006/05/heart-of-glory-part-two.html), Cpl. Ken Melton--2nd Marine Division-- profiled a fellow Marine for the U.S. Department of Defense News About The War On Terrorism.

Republicus reproduced the article and noted it.

The showcased Marine's name was Lance Cpl. Sajjad H. Rizvi, both a bona fide American warrior and a practicing Muslim, and Republicus likened him to a "real-life Lieutenant Worf" (from Star Trek: The Next Generation, as profiled in the preceding post "'Heart of Glory' Part One").

Like milblogger CaptB, the Lance Cpl.--in the commentary section of the last post-- saw fit to personally stop by the blog of Republicus and thank him for the tribute, and the honor to serve.

Republicus thanks him, and salutes him, for his service, and for the honor of his visit.

May God Bless him, his fellow servicemen, and his family.

In Praise Of Ann

The mighty Greek Olympian goddess Pallas Athena sprang--fully armed-- from the very mind of Zeus.

She is the goddess of the Arts & Crafts.

And of Wisdom.

Yet she is also the warrior goddess, and could best her male counterpart--Ares, the very god of war himself-- in a fight, any day and anywhere, sending him off defeated and howling in short order.

She had no husband, yet stood tall, proud, and undaunted in the "Man's World" of Olympus, and won her own city in a contest of practical ingenuity against the mighty sea-god.

That is Ann Coulter, a women who--by her brains-- went to law school in the days when the field was very much dominated by males.

Standing on her own, she is a woman who intrepidly spoke Truth to vicious political power, unveiling the character of a sitting, liberal president known for his far-reaching, destructive vindictiveness--especially towards "trouble-making" women.

She is a woman who--on her own-- detoxified and refreshed an entire culture poisoned by liberalism, herself resetting the record straight by boldly slashing and overwriting decades of revisionism, as scribbled by entire armies of liberal liars.

She is a woman who, by reading books, by empirical observation, by her own busy hands and keystroking fingers, by her own talent, by the fire of her own creativity--again, by her brains-- became a self-made millionaire.

She is a woman who fearlessly speaks her mind.

She is a woman who emasculates men who try to bully her.

She chides other women for forsaking their femininity and betraying their womanhood.

She is a strong woman who fights back like a valkyrie against the seething, wailing hordes of liberal demons and harpies, who claw and gnash their teeth at her, trying to discredit and silence her, and destroy her.

And all along she is a woman who is unafraid, and laughs, because she knows.

She knows.

She dances in a ring of fire
and throws off the challenge with a shrug.

Jim Morrison

And the liberal feminists hate such a woman.

Go figure...

Meanwhile, In Mudville...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy Pleads Guilty to DUI

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
(Associatedf Press)

WASHINGTON — Rep. Patrick Kennedy has reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs in connection with his middle-of-the-night car crash last month near the U.S. Capitol.

Surprise!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
(Foxnews)

BAGHDAD, Iraq — President Bush was meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki face to face on Tuesday after making a surprise visit to Iraq to bolster the newly-formed government and discuss the next steps in trying to shore up Iraqi security after three years of war.

"I've come to not only look you in the eye," Bush told al-Maliki. "I also come to tell you that when America gives its word, it keeps its word."

No Joy In Mudville

Casey At The Bat
(A Ballad of the Republic)

1888, by Ernest L. Thayer (with apologies to him)

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville blogs that day,
The score stood four to zip, with but one inning more to play.

And then when Dowd died at first, and Krugman did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.
The rest clung to that hope which made them sit and stare.

They thought, "if only Fitzy could but get a whack at that.
We'd put up even money now, with Fitzy at the bat."

But Clarke preceded Fitzy, as did also Joe III;
and the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a turd.

So upon that stricken multitude, grim melancholy sat;
for there seemed but little chance of Fitzy getting to the bat.

But Clarke let drive a single, to the wonderment of all.
And Joe, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball.

And when the dust had lifted,
and men saw what had occurred,
there was Joe safe at second and Clarke a-hugging third.

Then from a thousand blogs and more there rose a lusty cheer;
it resounded through the WorldWideWeb and in the blogosphere;

it pounded on the radio, was stamped down by the press;
for Fitzy, mighty Fitzy, marched into the mess.

There was ease in Fitzy's manner as he stepped into his place,
there was pride in Fitzy's bearing and a smile lit Fitzy's face.

And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
no stranger in the crowd could doubt t'was Fitzy at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.
Five thousand keystrokes typed when he wiped them on his shirt.

Then, while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
defiance flashed in Fitzy's eye, a sneer curled Fitzy's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
and Fitzy stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.

Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped --
"That ain't my style," said Fitzy.

"Strike one!" the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
like the beating of the storm waves on a stern and distant shore.

"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand,
and it's likely they'd have killed him had not Fitzy raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity, great Fitzy's visage shone,
he stilled the rising tumult, he bade the game go on.

He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew,
but Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two!"

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!"
But one scornful look from Fitzy and the audience was awed.

They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
and they knew that Fitzy wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer has fled from Fitzy's lip, the teeth are clenched in hate.
He pounds, with cruel violence, his bat upon the plate.

And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
and now the air is shattered by the force of Fitzy's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.
And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,

but there is no joy in Mudville --
mighty Fitzy has struck out:


TOP WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR KARL ROVE IS CLEARED OF ANY CHARGES IN THE "CIA LEAK" INVESTIGATION.

[P.S. What the poor, unhinged Bush-Haters were never able to grasp is that Investigator Patrick Fitzgerald was never on Mudville's team, was never Casey: He was the umpire.]