CPAC’s kickoff speaker this morning is Marco Rubio, who is running for the Senate from the state of Florida and is a rapidly rising star in the Republican Party, here is some of what he had to say:

“We will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes to defeat radical Islam.  We will stand with our ally Israel.  We will target our enemies in states that harbor them.  We will capture them and bring them to justice IN FRONT OF A MILITARY TRIBUNAL IN GUANTANAMO, NOT A CIVILIAN COURTROOM IN MANHATTAN.

For many of us who were born in this country it’s sometimes easy to forget how different America is from the rest of the world.  What makes America great is that there are dreams that are impossible everywhere else which are possible here.  Why is this?

When government controls the economy, those that can influence it control the game.  In other countries where this is the case, you are limited.  Americans made a different choice.  A free enterprise system designed to provide equality of opportunity.  This is they only country in the world where today’s employee is tomorrow’s employer.

My parents came to America with virtually nothing.  Both of my parents worked jobs so that their children could have careers.  How many mornings would I wake up and run into my Mom who was just coming in from an overnight shift as a stock clerk at K-Mart?

My parents were once my age, but because of where they were born, because of who they were born to, because they lost their country, they were denied opportunity.  So they came here to make a better life for themselves and for their children.  Everything I have I know I owe to my parents, my family and to the United States of America.

Our leaders are now asking us to choose something very different.  Those who came here made their choice.  Now we must make ours.  Do you want your children to inherit your hopes and dreams, or your unfulfilled dreams and problems?  The task this year for us is to make sure that Americans choose the right path.

This generation is the most important in American history. If we fail, they will be the first to inherit a very different country.  We have fought for and held onto those things that made us exceptional.  Because we did, there is still one place in the world where where you come from does not determine where you will go.  We must keep that dream alive so that the American miracle will continue.”

You can watch CPAC live here.

Dear Friends,

Welcome to a News Real Blog exclusive pre-oration analysis of President Obama’s State of the Union Address. Having obtained excerpts of the actual speech, we turn for perspective to one of history’s most experienced and consulted statesmen, Niccolo Machiavelli. Mr. Machiavelli has graciously agreed to comment on the highlights of Mr. Obama’s dissertation. We hope that you will find his insights enlightening!

President Obama:

“For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds and different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared. A job that pays the bill. A chance to get ahead. Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life.”

Mr. Machiavelli:

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”

President Obama:

“You know what else they share? They share a stubborn resilience in the face of adversity. After one of the most difficult years in our history, they remain busy building cars and teaching kids; starting businesses and going back to school. They are coaching little league and helping their neighbors. As one woman wrote to me, “We are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged.”

Mr. Machiavelli:

“People are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded. Is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer, it may be possible to make them believe by force.”

President Obama:

“To do that, we have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now. We face a deficit of trust – deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years. To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.”

Mr. Machiavelli:

“A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when doing so would be against his interests.”

President Obama:

“That’s what I came to Washington to do. That’s why – for the first time in history – my Administration posts our White House visitors online. And that’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.”

Mr. Machiavelli:

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

President Obama:

“But we cannot stop there. It’s time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my Administration or Congress. And it’s time to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office. Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign companies – to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

Mr. Machiavelli:

“Though fraud in all other actions be odious, yet in matters of war it is laudable and glorious, and he who overcomes his enemies by stratagem is as much to be praised as he who overcomes them by force.”

President Obama:

“I’m also calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform. You have trimmed some of this spending and embraced some meaningful change. But restoring the public trust demands more. For example, some members of Congress post some earmark requests online. Tonight, I’m calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single website before there’s a vote so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.”

Mr. Machiavelli:

“The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”

Mr. Machiavelli offered this final remark concerning the President’s first year:

“He who, blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.”

Related posts:

1. State of the Union or State of Denial?
2. FULL TEXT of President Obama’s State of the Union Address
3. Obama’s First State of the Union: Rhetoric but no Substance

FP: Ines Laufer, welcome back to Frontpage Interview.

In our last discussion, we focused on how Germany has exposed a young girl to female genital mutilation and how Germany, and Europe in general, is not protecting young girls from this barbaric crime.

Today I would like to talk to you about a new campaign you have started. Tell us about it.

Laufer: Thanks Jamie.

Our research brought to light that to up to 400,000 sponsored girls who are marketed by the big development organizations PLAN International, World Vision, Kindernothilfe and ChildFund do not receive protection from female genital mutilation. We have started a new campaign, at sponsoredgirl.com, to protect the girls from female genital mutilation. We invite your readers to come join us.

These children are marketed in order to acquire money from trustful donors. The donors pay about 30 Euros per month – which means 360 Euros per year, in the belief that the organizations do all they can for providing a better life — including health for the sponsored children. PLAN International for instance, acquires about 72 million Euros every year, just by marketing the 240,000 concerned girls.

But asked about female genital mutilation on the sponsored girls, these organizations openly and publicly claim that demanding the safe protection of the girls would be against their approaches and against their policy.

So, by failing to demand, to stipulate and to control the protection of the sponsored girls from FGM, the organizations must be considered complicit in every single crime perpetrated against a little girl in this regard.

We are The Alliance for Protection of Girls from Female Genital Mutilation. We consider this simply scandalous and unacceptable. It is a crime against the girls and also a system of defrauding the donors.

That’s why we launched this campaign. It is suited to go the largest step forward in the direction of an end of FGM since the beginning of the fight against these practices. It could lead to true and immediate protection of a few million girls.

FP: Ok, what concretely does the campaign demand?

Laufer: It demands that all organizations who work with the sponsored-child-system, should make sure that all girls in their projects – in the relevant regions – are safely protected from violence like female genital mutilation.

This demand is based on the cognition that it is not only possible but very easy to achieve that goal – and even more: It does not cost any money.

It is just about the change of the attitude, approach and policy of the organisations. We call for:

[1] The stipulation of the safety and protection from FGM of the sponsored girls in the preconditions for support for the communities – and regular check ups.

[2] A careful selection of the project partners, which means that only those communities that support children’s rights will be targets of help. This means an investment of donations in the most economic and effective way.

[3] The complete solution – the two steps to safe protection – you find here.

FP: How do the mentioned organizations react to your activism on behalf of the victims of FGM?

Laufer: To be honest, Jamie, they all react quite similar so far, with a mixture of ostrich behavior (putting their heads into the sand) and helpless efforts to defend their current policy of tolerating and accepting the mutilations of thousands of sponsored girls.

But in fact, they deliver us one proof after the other that confirms how much this campaign is needed – how important it is and that it will have a deep impact to truly stop FGM.

To the people who sign and send the petition letters, they send standard-answers which make clear that they did not even read or understand what we demand. They still refuse to admit that they are fully responsible for every single mutilated girl in their projects because of their failure to implement the adequate protection measures. And they do not have any scruple to simply tell tales.

We can sum it up as following: There is much ignorance and denial and no adequate seriousness or goodwill to even understand what should be changed and how.

But I am sure this will change soon.

Only, it doesn’t lie in our hands anymore. Now, the world public – every person who feels concerned and disturbed by the knowledge that every day, thousands of little girls are mutilated by FGM – is asked to help the campaign.

FP: What exactly can people do to help the campaign? Is it about money and donations?

Laufer: No, Jamie – it is absolutely not about money or donations. It is about something much more important: It’s about the power of everyone’s voice. By investing exactly two minutes of time and a few clicks, everyone can help – while comfortably sitting in front of the computer. Every reader can help free this world from the nightmare of female genital mutilation. It has never been so easy.

At the www.sponsoredgirl.com website, you find four prepared letters, addressed to PLAN International World Vision, Kindernothilfe and ChildFund, see here.

Every person who signs and sends the letters – and who even steps back from current sponsorship-contracts, enlarges the pressure on the organizations. And this helps us to strengthen our efforts in demanding them to consequently protect the children.

That’s why: Please sign the letters and send them to your friends that they can do it too.

FP: So how has the campaign been going?

Laufer: Well, let me tell you this. In the last ten days, more than 750 letters have been sent to the organizations already. But we would like to achieve at least 5,000 to put the campaign at the next level of public pressure.

FP: Ines Laufer, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview. I encourage all of our readers who want to help stop this genocide against girls to go to www.sponsoredgirl.com.