It’s two weeks until the election! Both sides are doing what they can to drum up support. I caught up in Pueblo, Colorado with the Stop Obama Tour, organized by the  Our Country Deserves Better PAC. 

Deborah Johns, mother of Marine Sgt. William Johns, is on board the bus, traveling from her home in California across to Washington, D.C. because she feels that Obama is not fit to lead our country or our armed forces. The two little girls are supporters who came to the rally. Deb’s own kids are old enough to care for themselves now, but when she was left as a single mom of three very young children, she got two jobs and worked her way through school to support them. She believes that welfare and other entitlements are bad for the recipients as well as for the country. 

Lloyd Marcus is a wonderful singer and talented painter. He grew up in the projects of East Baltimore. The tragedies he saw there as a child made him realize that Great Society projects and welfare destroy people’s lives and their communities. 

Marcus’ drift toward the right of the political spectrum began when he was about 10 years old. His parents moved with their five children into a brand-new, high-rise apartment building in the Baltimore projects. Then came their neighbors. Most of them were on various types of governmental assistance. Many were drug addicts, alcoholics and criminals. They destroyed the apartment building.”Within one year, it was ruined,” Marcus said. “It taught me a lot about liberalism. If you don’t work for something, you don’t care about it. People blame the white man. It wasn’t the white man in the halls raping people.”

He is now a civic leader in his adopted home town in central Florida. Lloyd won a victory for freedom of expression when he forced a reversal of the ban on his paintings at the Black History Month art show at Deltona, Florida’s City Hall. The works were reflective of his childhood as a preacher’s son. Apparently the images of a Bible in one, and a Christmas charity basket in another were not an acceptable version of history for the liberal political commissars in charge. 

Mark Williams is a nationally known radio talk show host. He has been a true conservative activist throughout his career. His interviews/exposés of anti-war protesters for KFBK in Sacramento stand as pioneering triumphs in the Moonbat on the Street genre. Broadcasters nationwide should take a page from Williams’ manual and move their microphones out on the street to confront the left wing hordes. Excellence in broadcasting award from El Marco goes to Mark Williams.

Lloyd Marcus opened the event with a beautiful song he wrote about America, then gave an excellent talk. “We should stop calling it ‘conservativism’ and just call it what it is: ‘common sense’ “.

Lloyd then sang his amazing version of Sarah Smile. His heartfelt lyrics are superb. Enjoy his wonderful voice and share this video with your friends. 

Lloyd promotes the book Sarah – How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down.

Our Country Deserves Better is putting TV ads on in major markets. The ads focus on Obama’s complete lack of executive experience, “wrong values”, patriotism problem, tax policies, etc.

Deborah Johns brings a mother’s love and an activist’s passion to the podium. 

Excerpts from an interview with Johns on the blog Red County:

 Casey Sheehan was killed in April 2004 (on his way to deliver supplies to) my son’s forward exploratory unit. In May of 2004, Cindy Sheehan had begun to make a lot of noise against President Bush and the War. My son called home at Mother’s Day, and asked what was going on back in the states, and questioned why the American people don’t support the troops any longer. William told me about all the good things that the troops were accomplishing, and asked me, “Mom please don’t let us come home to another Vietnam.” So that is when I began to appear on talk radio shows, television news programs, and speak out at public events and rallies – to tell the stories of what the troops were doing. Things have just blossomed from there and others have been inspired to start up their own non-profit organizations to support the troops, and their families

 I certainly do not stand in judgment on how Ms. Sheehan has handled the death of her son… However, let me make it clear that I certainly do stand in judgment on how Ms. Sheehan has attacked our country and our military. I take issue with the fact that she has made statements calling the al-Qaeda terrorists, “freedom fighters from other countries.” I take issue with her attacks on U.S. troops who went to New Orleans to help in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – she declared their presence made it “occupied New Orleans.” I take issue with her endorsement of the murderer, Marxist dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who Ms. Sheehan praised: “I admire President Chavez for his strength to resist the United States” and “I’ve always admired President Chavez for standing up to imperialism.” Finally, Ms. Sheehan has called President Bush, and U.S. troops the “real terrorists.” Well, just as Cindy’s son, Casey, wore the uniform of the United States Army, my son wears the uniform of the United States Marines, both boys were in Iraq at the same time, and neither of them are murderers or terrorists. I am completely offended by these statements and that she had gone around the world and supported dictators like Hugo Chavez saying she wishes he was her President. Her hateful, anti-American rhetoric has inspired insurgents and terrorists to continue to pick up their weapons and kill our American Soldiers and Marines and that is Ms. Sheehan’s cross to bear. Her actions since the death of Casey and taking it out on the Soldiers and Marines who gladly serve this country are deplorable.

Here is Deborah in a TV ad produced by Our Country Deserves Better:

When the Obama campaign attacked John McCain for not using a computer, they were awfully insensitive to the fact that it’s difficult for McCain to type because of injuries and torture by the Viet Cong, sustained during service to our country. Well, here’s a good natured comeback to that left wing attack. As Jonah Goldberg wrote about this:

 how stupid is it for the Obama campaign to claim that McCain is unqualified to be president because he can’t grasp cyber-security issues based on the fact he has never sent an email when the McCain campaign can just as easily say Obama can’t understand first order national security issues because he’s never fired a rife, flown a plane, commanded men in battle, or faced an enemy? I mean which prepares someone to be commander in chief better, hitting “send” on AOL or fighting a war?

Mark Williams reported to the crowd in Pueblo that they’d been told by locals, a few hours earlier, in Raton, New Mexico, that shots had been fired at McCain’s campaign bus. The windshield of McCain’s bus was shattered by a .22 caliber bullet. Does this qualify as an assassination attempt? I think so. The Secret Service is investigating the incident, but where is the news on this one, where is the outcry?

Mark did not pull his punches talking about why Obama must be stopped, but like the other speakers, there was also a lot of positive talk about McCain and Palin. Mark also talked about the Obama campaign’s attacks on people who criticize “The One”. He denounced the threat of Fairness Doctrine legislation coming from Democrats in Washington. 

Liberals had no interest in balance before the advent of conservative talk radio. They don’t have any interest in balance now; indeed we’re finally approaching a balance: new media versus old media. But to them “balance” means dominance, just like “bipartisanship” means Republican capitulation.

With the Fairness Doctrine liberals would use government to micromanage the content of talk radio, realizing that they simply can’t compete on an equal playing field in that medium. Notably, they aren’t advocating balancing the messages of the major print or broadcast media giants.

Above is a quote from David Limbaugh’s 2007 article which can be found on Michelle Malkin’s Fairness Doctrine Archive page.

Sal Russo worked for Ronald Reagan before Reagan was governor of California, and has worked for Republican campaigns for over 30 years. He helped Violetta Chamorro win her election victory in Nicaragua. He has been an acclaimed advocate for the pro-American Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan.  He was also active in helping the Ukrainian independence movement to obtain freedom for the people of Ukraine.

Sal is a founder of Our Country Deserves Better and of Move America Forward.

Many interesting people came to support the Tour. This couple getting up to shake Lloyd’s hand are the grandparents of the first Navy Seal killed in Iraq, Marc Lee. They live in Colorado Springs, and this picture was taken on the third rally of the day, at America the Beautiful Park, in Colorado Springs.

In Pueblo, Colorado, which is not far from New Mexico, the population is 44% Latino. About half of the supporters who came to the rally there were indeed hispanic. One of them was Silver Salazar. His cousin Ken Salazar is Colorado’s Democrat U.S. Senator, and another cousin is a Democrat member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Silver was a life long Democrat, and he was a Hillary supporter during the primaries. He decided that he can’t support Obama because he is an inexperienced candidate who is too far to the left on all the important issues. He feels that today’s Democrat Party has left the values of Hispanic Americans behind.

The bus has an amazing vinyl graphic wrap on it. The back features the stops on the tour. The one in Chicago should be especially exciting!!
If you have friends at any of the cities still coming up on the tour, please email them and tell them to grab their friends and neighbors and go meet the bus when it visits their city. Here is the complete schedule, with times and specific locations.

Heading north to the next stop in Denver, passing the exit for the Air Force Academy.

One supporter, a retired veteran from California, wore this T-shirt.