The right to property is among the most important rights of a free society, because it means that individuals are the owners of the fruit of their labor.

Labor is not simply something we do to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves, but something we do to enjoy our lives and our liberties the way we want on our land, in our house or business, with our time. It is something we do now to free us up later for enjoyment and for spending our time the way we want. Whether that involves helping others is up to us, and most often it is a course we as Americans choose to take.

This prayer was first read by the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, Kansas in January 1996. He offered the following prayer (with one exception in brackets) to the Kansas House of Representatives. It was first written in 1995 by Bob Russell, who offered it at the Kentucky Governor's Prayer Breakfast in Frankfort, Kentucky. I endorse it.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.

We know your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good" (Isaiah 5:20), but that's exactly what we've done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute Truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and have called it building esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked ways in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

[Guide and bless the men, women and children of the United States of America and those who have been ordained by you to govern this great nation.]

Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen

I want to say here right now that Barack Obama is my president, and I will respect him as such. 

I'm happy that we have grown as a country and have elected our first black president — truly I am. I think the occassion is momentous and worthy of our respect and admiration. It shows that we have grown as a nation and a people. May President Obama serve out his four years and may God protect the country while he does.

In saying the above, however, I am not saying I agree with Barack Obama's policies or agenda, and it is my right to express opposition to such in a free country. Expect to see such objection here.

To get started, I cannot tolerate the unparalleled bias in the media that got him elected and the bias that we are seeing as he prepares to take his oath of office. Any person of any political background should have a problem with this quotation from Chris Matthews: "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work." Accurate reporting certainly won't be one of those things (SOURCE).

On the jump, I've listed some facts that Glenn Beck has dug up as well as some other commentary that should make anyone shudder:

Dear Rep. Carol Shea-Porter,

I am writing to thank you for voting against the Wall Street bailout on Monday and to urge you to vote against the bailout plan crafted by the Senate tomorrow and any other bailout plan in the future. Wall Street simply does not need it. The market will fix things on its own.

The problem is, the Senate, including Sen. Sununu and Sen. Gregg, voted for a new bailout plan that is even worse than the first one that you voted against on Monday. It has all the pork and riders that has given Congress its 9 percent approval rating. I am quite upset with our Senators and will let them know about it. But the House acted responsibly on Monday and hopefully will act responsibly tomorrow.

I have heard that you are facing a lot of pressure from Speaker Pelosi to vote for this new bailout plan and I urge you not to heed her pressure. Please remember that you don't represent Rep. Pelosi or the Democratic party. You represent District 1 in New Hampshire; Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike.

An open letter to Congress,

I am writing to ask you to join me in opposing any bailout for banks or any financial institutions or any private company. No institution is "too large to fail." The free market should be the only judge of what institutions survive, which fail, and which replace the ones that fail. The economy will be healthier for it.

I would urge you to do nothing and allow the market to correct itself, even if that means that we go into a recession or worse. I believe that bailing out banks at taxpayers' expense will only prolong the bubble that will ultimately burst regardless of what Congress does. Make no mistake, the market will correct itself whatever you do. I'd rather get it over quickly than have a prolonged artificial period of suffering. Let it bottom out so we can head back toward the good times.

The headline says it all. Sarah Palin should be on top of the ticket. She is the person who is best suited to take this country forward. She represents the conservative values of our nation's founders and all the people since then who have made America the world's best hope. Like she has in Alaska, she will stop corrupt power brokers from buying their influence in Washington and will direct that power back where it belongs: with the people.

I must, however, give John McCain credit for choosing her as his vice president. I wasn't fond of McCain as the nominee, since I felt he tended toward the liberal-progressive (read: socialist/big government) side of politics. I must have been somewhat mistaken about McCain, however. His choice of Palin truly does make him the Republican maverick that so many have said he is. His choice for vice president to me shows that he has the wisdom and courage to fill the top job in the country and lead this nation in a period of great turmoil, which we now face.

With Russia posturing with Iran to take over the world's energy supplies and threaten smaller neighbors, an Iraq War (though ill conceived) close to victory, and a domestic environment where Congress is ever encroaching on our personal liberties and choices, a McCain-Palin ticket is what we need to stand up against Russia and drive competing domestic energy production, finish what we started in Iraq and leave the Iraqi people better than we found them, and reduce the size of the federal government and its nanny state principles.

Palin is an outsider, a conservative and a strong leader for all the people in this country, as her record in Alaska shows. On top of that, she is a strong woman who will serve as a role model for all women in America. She is a mother of five children, married to the same professional man since high school, and she also has been able to succeed professionally and politically during that time. From maverick mayor to governor and now possibly to the vice presidential mansion, Palin is nothing but a success story.

The media's attempt to smear this candidate because of her daughter's pregnancy shows their Democratic bias like no other time. Palin, as a mother, raised her children according to the moral principles that she publicly preaches, but children do not always listen. It is not Palin's fault that her teenage daughter is pregnant, but it is to her credit that she is encouraging her daughter to marry the father and standing by in support. She is showing an example in her personal life, too, of how American family members should support one other.

But Palin does a good enough job in her acceptance speech defending her own record. It's posted here so you can see for yourself:

The United States of America was founded as a Constitutional Republic to guarantee freedom with the rule of law, and we are losing it. If we lose it, freedom will be a vacant word that the government will throw around to placate us.

We must relearn our history and enforce our Constitution so we can keep what our founders were willing to give their lives and sacred honor to create.

This video should be seen by every American citizen, from the youngest child to the oldest adult -- It is Truth.

An Overview of America: Why it is a government, We the People, must keep

I now understand why Mitt Romney is my next choice after Fred Thompson for president of the United States of America.

Not long after I voted for Romney for Massachusetts governor, I  met the man in person. I sat in a private conference room with him during an editorial board meeting with the newspaper I worked for at the time. I've met him in other forums as well in my journalistic capacity, and found through experience and intuition that the man is honorable, honest and means what he says.

Because most members of the media do not understand Federalism - the difference between the powers of the U.S. government and the states - they have labeled Mitt a flip-flopper for passing a rather socialistic health care program in Massachusetts where he was governor and for now proposing market-based fixes on the national scale.

Massachusetts is a socialist state - which is why I later moved north to the more Libertarian State of New Hampshire. While Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he gave the people of the Commonwealth what they wanted: a state-mandated health care system. Believe me, he also pursued a Conservative agenda to the best of his ability. It wasn't easy. Even his Massachusetts system is somewhat market based.

As a candidate for president, Romney has proposed changes to the health care system that are in the spirit of the federal government's authority. The Federalist proposal opens interstate commerce and allows our capitalistic system to do its job - using competition to bring the best products forward for people who freely choose what they believe is best for them. His plan is based in Conservative/Libertarian principles.

While Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter were certainly the strongest Conservative candidates for president, Romney is strong on Conservative principles as well. He is also the only Conservative left, and he can win.

Use the following link to download a PDF of his platform. 

What really sets Romney on top of my list as a presidential candidate, however, is the "Faith in America" address he gave back in November. At the time, I almost considered leaving Fred Thompson behind because of it. Now that Fred is out of the race, it is the top reason Mitt Romney is my pick for president.

As a journalist and a Christian man, no freedom matters more to me than the First Amendment. Romney's "Faith in America"  speech represents my beliefs completely about how any American should view his or her religion.

Not only does the speech set the record straight about what role faith has in America and what role government does not have concerning faith, it also explains how the incorrect interpretation of our nation's Founding principles and asserted inalienable freedoms has led to the degradation of our society.

In my view, Romney's speech sets the only course this nation can take to resurrect its mission.

Please move on to the next page to read Romney's speech in full.

I read a fantastic editorial in the Dec. 24 edition of The Wall Street Journal. It was originally published in 1949 and reprinted annually ever since. The editorial is a story about the time after Christ's resurrection when Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, set off when called upon to spread the Word of Christ, which is the Word of God.

In that time, most men expected God to send a promised Messiah to conquer their oppressors in a violent battle then take over and rule the world in righteousness. Many still believe this. The Muslims created their religion around such a false profit who claimed he could do this. But the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in Bethlehem some 2008 years ago, did not act according to humanity's expectations. Why would anyone think that He would?

The Messiah promised by God taught humanity how to serve The Father and sent His Holy Spirit to forever unite all men and women who would accept Him by thier own free will into His Kingdom. He said that His Kingdom was not of this world, though one could learn to live under its loving dominion while also living in this world. He taught that humanity comprises God's children, whom are deserving of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that has since been inscribed in the founding of the United States of America (the world's last best hope). He taught that no man or woman can enslave or oppress another so long as that second person's heart belongs in God's domain.

The following editorial, by Vermont Royster, tells this story very eloquently in the style of old. I have used parentheses around a few words that I have changed in order to align them to my own philosophy. You may download the original to read Royster's original diction.

When presented with a complex question Wednesday that can not be answered with a "yes" or "no," Fred Thompson said he wasn't going to play into the trickery of the Iowa debate moderator.

The moderator asked for a show of hands from candidates on how many of them believe "global climate change is a serious threat caused by human activity." While the rest of the candidates either raised thier hands or didn't like the lemmings ready to lead America off a cliff that they are, Fred Thompson was the true leader who pointed out that the question could not be answered so simply. 

Thompson's response is one I would expect from a man who is ready and willing to lead the country through difficult choices and able to withstand political pressure to make the right decision. He is the right choice for this country. Take a look....