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Lisa on Cavuto Today (11/17) at 3pm CT/ 4pm ET

Lisa will be comment on the GM IPO and how the little guy and the taxpayer are being left out in the cold. Tune in to Cavuto on Fox Business Channel

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/index.html

And, They Didn’t Want a Walmart

I never understood it. Austin Residents huffed and puffed themselves silly over a proposal for a massive super Walmart to be built in their aging and barren community. In a part of town that once thrived with activity, shopping, and restaurants, the little strip between Anderson Lane and Mopac was in need of a network style makeover. Where there was once Bealls, a skating rink, Hooters, and a huge sporting center surrounded by a mall, now, it was a mass of fried food drive through eateries and kids toys.

            So when Walmart stepped in to build one of their largest stores complete with groceries, a garden and automotive center, one would think residents would have been pleased. Au contraire.  Residents and Austinites were indignant and opposed to a greedy company like Walmart taking up space in their community.

            Well, you wouldn’t know they were so offended by the line of people and smiling faces over the .68c per pound turkey, or the .25c per pound navel oranges I saw today. This new Walmart created jobs and could have created more had the community not stifled its development to just products and groceries, smacking down the garden and automotive centers. As a major anchor vendor, new businesses have rented spaces in the shopping center getting traffic moving again in both directions rather than just out of the neighborhood.

            I know I’ll be shopping there. And, I know those same people who thought they were so repulsed by the idea of Walmart will be too.

The 17th Voter

Exactly a week after an “extreme” showing of conservative clout and solidarity, we found out today in Austin that conservative Dan Neil lost his run for the Texas House by a mere sixteen votes. This is one vote more than before the recount.  More stunning is that Mr. Neil still came up short by such razor thin margins after provisional and overseas votes were counted.

If anyone wants to know if their votes matter, this particular election is a billboard for the mantra that every vote counts.  Texas House District 48 is a conservative district with a moderate template. What could have been done differently? Well, for starters, spoiler Ben Easton running as a Libertarian received more than 1500 votes – an eye-popping number considering that Neil lost by only 16 votes.

I’m all for Independent candidates, but, when said candidate has run for the same office numerous times and has not garnered a significant electorate, they should graciously bow out during those clutch elections such as the 2010 race between Neil and Howard. For Easton to throw his hat in the ring this particular time only to steal away precious votes that would have gone to Neil except for the loyalty of close friends and family who threw away the power of their vote to check Easton over Neil, was a wasted opportunity for our district. Surely, Easton would have preferred Neil over Howard himself. I suppose he didn’t find the idea of her being re-elected again repulsive enough to give Neil a better chance. And, that is a shame.  

The New Tea Party Challenge-Stay on Message

The Tea Party has obviously hit a nerve in the political bedrock. First, Karl Rove got in a tizzy over O’Donnell besting the establishment Republican in Delaware. Rove blamed Tea Party candidate O’Donnell for a failure that hasn’t even occurred. “We were looking at eight to nine seats in the Senate. We are now looking at seven to eight in my opinion.” Rove said. Then, Bill Clinton accused the Tea Party of wanting to weaken the Government and leave big business unsupervised – maybe Clinton supposes that big business might go wild making profits, manufacturing new ideas, and HIRING people without the Government there to regulate and tax them to death. A few days later, President Obama wants the Tea Party’s expertise in cutting the national debt and creating jobs.

The Tea Party would be wise to avoid these distraction tactics put on by triangulating politicians. There are very simple ways to answer all these critics, particularly Clinton and Obama without taking the bait of getting off message on the heels of the November elections.

To answer Mr. Clinton the Tea Party members certainly want a strong government. Tea Partiers want a Government strong enough to secure our borders, build up our military, and govern based on the Constitution. Where our Government has atrophied and gone astray, the Tea Party would like it to work the muscles of defense and fiscal responsibility again. As it relates to big business, I think most members of the Tea Party are willing to take the risk of big business gone wild.

The Tea Party has no beef with the private sector as Clinton would try and have us believe. Just who does Clinton think the private sector is? It isn’t just Wall Street and big automobile manufacturers and their mogul friends like Warren Buffett and George Soros.

The private sector is your neighborhood eatery just barely scraping by charging for extra salad dressing these days and to-go containers. They are your stay at home moms working Mary Kay or running an on-line business part-time. The private sector is full of Americans struggling to find a business to hire them. The private sector is full of Americans with great ideas hoping to turn a small business into a BIG business someday. Besides this, the Government is doing a fine job all on their own in revolting against the private sector.

In an effort to deflect attention from his responsibility President Obama was next to breathe down the Tea Party’s neck. "The challenge, I think, for the Tea Party movement is to identify specifically, what would you do?" "It's not enough just to say, 'Get control of spending.' I think it's important for you to say, 'You know, I'm willing to cut veterans' benefits,' or, 'I'm willing to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits,' or, 'I'm willing to see these taxes go up.'"

The lady at the town hall last week spoke eloquently for everyone when wondered if she was returning to the days of beans and weenies. “Is this our new reality?” She asked President Obama to answer this most of all and of course he did not. Obama rambled diffusely about having two kids to put through college and how the Government would make it easier for her and others to borrow money to achieve this goal. The problem in this answer is twofold: borrowing money and getting student loan grants for the Government is yet, another overreaching program spending money out of our very own thinning pockets. Secondly, this lady didn’t stand up and ask President Obama for a hand-out. She wanted to know how she would be able to have control over her own destiny – pocketbook – again.

The Tea Party would be wise to sit tight on responding to challenges Clinton and Obama posed. The Tea Party is a philosophical movement designed to restore us back to our small Government roots.

What is so effective about the Tea Party and so very frustrating for the good ol’ boy network of Democrats and Republicans is that the Tea Party is truly a movement of the people. Without a leader to call by name, or, a platform to criticize based on rhetoric, the Tea Party leaves the Democrats and Republicans flat footed in their triangulation efforts. The minute the Tea Party responds to these notions by changing their fundamental platform, they will fall into a political trap of petty finger pointing in place of action.

Obviously the Tea Party is close to accomplishing goals that neither, Democrats or Republicans thought possible: raising money and getting seats. The Tea Party activists and supporters are doing just what they need to do: call Americans back to the safety of our Constitution and shine a light on the Government’s overreaching and over spending hand. Voting values November 2^nd will tell Clinton and Obama all they need to know.

Lisa Fritsch is a writer and national television and radio commentator who has appears regularly on Fox News Channel and radio programs all over the country. www.lisafritsch.com

Who Owns 8/28?

First Published in The American Thinker on August 28, 2010
"Whites don't own Abraham Lincoln and blacks don't own Martin Luther King," says Glenn Beck as he defends his right to rally and restore honor at the same place and on the same date as Martin Luther King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech. That Beck has to say this seems ridiculous in itself, for most of us know that Martin Luther King is an American legend, with cherished monuments and a nationally celebrated holiday honoring his birthday each year. But Beck has to say this because he is white. And sadly, he is addressing the same critics: certain black reverends who never miss an opportunity to exploit race and black history.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, the Reverend Walter Fauntroy, and the Reverend Timothy McDonald have been recently quoted in an uproar over Beck's 828 rally this weekend. They are suggesting that Beck is "hijacking" Dr. King's dream. Says Reverend McDonald, "To use this weekend when we remember that great march on Washington in 1963 as a pretense to give credence to their cause and their agenda is insulting. We were there." Had the hijacking of the dream been a sincere concern for the reverends, they would have had a standing reservation to obtain a permit in order to honor the legacy of Dr. King and the "I Have a Dream" speech that made history on August 28, 1963. But they did not.

Furthermore, Beck has been talking about 828 since the beginning of the year. Why are the reverends only now, the week of, coming out, arms blazing, over the rally when they have known for months that it was planned? The reverends are quite simply embarrassed, bitter, and angry that Glenn Beck is showing them as posers. The truth is, before Glenn Beck planned the rally and selected the date that coincidentally coincides with the date of the "I Have a Dream" speech, no one was even thinking about Martin Luther King on August 28. And certainly, many of us would be stuttering to come up with the year. Yet the reverends will tell you that they "were there." So were hundreds of thousands of others, of every race. But where are they now? And what exactly is the dream that they remember? And oh, how vastly different their dream seems for us today from the visionary and hopeful Dr. King's.

If we want to skip the nonsense and cut to the chase, it all boils down to this. The reverends had no plans on 828 of 2010 to honor the legacy of the "I Have a Dream" speech with a rally, a parade, or any such celebration of the sort, and now a white man is showing them up with a non-political rally honoring servicemen and paying tribute to Dr. King by talking of peace, love of country, and honor. Glenn Beck is doing what they did not have the foresight, the will, or the heart to do. They have not lived up to the dream, and these reverends have not forged ahead in victory and giving justice to the 828 date.

The reverends, having been there, should be standing with Glenn Beck, but they don't, and here is why: Their dreams differ greatly from those of Dr. Martin Luther King. They don't share his vision of peaceful solidarity, equality, and standing hand in hand in unity and love with brothers and sisters of every race. If the reverends shared those dreams, ironically, they would be overjoyed that Beck -- who is white -- is holding a non-political rally of honor on this date. Dr. King's niece, Dr. Alveda King, is standing with Glenn Beck, after all.

So exactly is the dream of the reverends? Their dream is simply to keep fear flowing like a river in black communities. When one listens to them, it is difficult to believe they are remembering the same speech of Dr. King. Did they miss the part of the speech that asks that the black community not have a "distrust of all white people"? The only white people they seem to trust are the ones writing them a check from their latest shakedown. In Dr. King's speech, he lamented that "one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination." Sadly, today, our communities are being crippled by the bitterness of these reverends. We are being segregated by their own selfish desires of power and control. We are being shackled by their anger and desire for vengeance over the past. They refuse to move forward in love and hope; instead, their muddled logic and twisted pride stifles us all like heavy sand. Today we are crippled by the weight of victimization bestowed up on us by these so-called reverends, who, instead of love, preach malcontent; who, instead of preaching peace, look and find contention and ill will in every act and deed of those who don't bow down to their authority; reverends who, instead of preaching honor, look for the quickest place to lay blame.

If these leaders really want to Honor Dr. King's dream and his legacy, then they will celebrate hand in hand with Glenn Beck and the thousands of Americans projected to turn out to restore honor. They will keep the dream alive by marching ahead and not turning back, as the "I Have a Dream" speech asks of us. This would be a great gift to our children. For our children to see that so many of those dreams have come true is the way towards honor and fulfillment of the whole dream.

For this one moment can these reverends put their bitterness and fear aside and have a moment of solidarity and celebration? Can they honor the victory without continually throwing the struggle in our faces? Can they take a break from race-baiting and divisive politics to enjoy a moment of reverence for the fallen soldier and be grateful for our many freedoms that just 47 years ago went unknown? Can they take the high road just this once and allow us to recognize just how far we have come without nitpicking us to think about how much farther we may have yet to go and who may hold us back? Let us have a moment as a nation to stand together and hear the ringing of freedom, honor, and courage. Let this moment be for Dr. King, our men and women in service, and for "all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Lisa Fritsch is a writer and national television and radio commentator who has appeared regularly on Fox News Channel and radio programs all over the country. Follow her at www.lisafritsch.com.