Ted Cruz Recites the VICTORY OR DEATH Speech

During the Rand Paul filibuster of John Brennan's appointment as CIA chief, US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas read the stirring letter of William Barret Travis as he was under siege at the Alamo.  (Full text follows video).

Full Text from Texas Heritage Society:

Commandancy of the The Alamo

Bejar, Feby. 24th. 1836

To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World—

Fellow Citizens & compatriots—

     I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna — I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man — The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken — I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls — I shall never surrender or retreat.  Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch — The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days.  If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country — Victory or Death.

William Barrett Travis.

Lt.  Col. comdt.

P. S.  The Lord is on our side — When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn — We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.

Travis

Again, from Texas Heritage Society:

The Travis letter is dated February 24, 1836.  Some have mistakenly referred to this as Travis' last letter from the Alamo. He wrote at least four more letters. Travis wrote a letter to General Sam Houston dated February 25, 1836 and three letters dated March 3, 1836.  One of Travis' letters dated March 3, 1836 which urgently requested aid for the Alamo was received by the Convention at Washington, Texas on March 6, 1836.  The delegates to the Convention at Washington had declared the independence of Texas four days before on March 2, 1836.

   Travis never did surrender or retreat.  After a thirteen day siege by thousands of Mexican soldiers under the command of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the Alamo fell on March 6, 1836.  All of the Alamo's 189 defenders, including William Barrett Travis, were killed.  The country he and the others died for, the Republic of Texas, was only four days old.

   The original "Victory or Death" letter written by William Barrett Travis on February 24, 1836 is located in the Texas State Library and Archives in Austin, Texas.

The original letters are below:

  .

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Meet the BLACK Jesse Helms

This fund raising letter sent out via Dick Morris is so good I had to post it on the blog.  


Like Cain, Robinson presents a glaring contrast of a road to leadership based on personal responsibility.  I'm tired of the Black/White thing.  This man is inspiring to us all.

Dear Fellow Conservative:

I happen to be a black man, but the only thing I have in common with Barack Obama is a good tan! If you share my belief that that socialist and his Democrat allies in Congress are destroying America, please read every word below.

While Obama was smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine, I was earning badges to become an Eagle Scout. While Obama was being mentored by Communist Party Member Frank Davis, I was taught to love God and country by my parents. While Obama was consorting with Marxist professors, Black Panthers, trial lawyers, union bosses, hippie peaceniks, anti-Christian atheists, militant homosexual agitators, radical pro-abortion feminists, gun grabbers, amnesty zealots, Chi-Com sympathizers, globalists who worship at the altar of the UN, and environmentalist wackos, I was earning my bachelor's degree alongside my fellow cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

While Obama was hanging out with terrorists such as Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers (who bombed the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon), I was serving my country as a Missile Combat Crew Commander and Intelligence Officer. While Obama was attending "Socialist conferences" at Cooper Union, I was reading Milton Friedman, watching William F. Buckley, Jr., and attending the 1980 Republican National Convention that nominated Ronald Reagan. While Obama was learning his redistribution-based economics theory from law professors at Harvard, I was earning my MBA and learning the virtues of free market principles and pro-growth policies. While Obama was following in the footsteps of Saul Alinsky to become a Chicago-based community organizer, I was working as a business professor and serving in the first Bush Administration.

While Obama was saying Amen to the loony, vile, anti-America, anti-Whitey, anti-Semitic, pro-reparations, black liberation theology spewed by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, I was worshipping at a church that preaches the Gospel and erecting a Ten Commandments monument on municipal property (to the dismay of the government bureaucrats and high priests of political correctness who insist that God must be ejected from the public square). While Obama was supporting the NAACP, the ACLU, the NEA, and ACORN, I was filing the successful lawsuit against the University of North Carolina that put an end to its practice of electing trustees according to strict racial and gender quotas and providing blacks-only scholarships at taxpayer expense.

The most dangerous special interest in Washington is BIG government and Barack Obama is its chief lobbyist.

I am running for Congress in North Carolina's newly redrawn 8th District because we cannot shrink big government and grow the economy unless we replace the Democrats in Washington with stalwart constitutional conservatives

As you may know, Republicans are expected to lose TEN congressional seats in California and Illinois alone as a result of the Democrats' extraordinary gerrymandering of those states' congressional district maps. In order to prevent Nancy Pelosi from becoming Speaker again, Republicans must pick up four Democrat seats in North Carolina. Because North Carolina Republicans controlled the redistricting pencil for the first time since the 19th century, four incumbent Democrat Congressmen now find themselves drawn into Republican districts.

To appreciate how conservative my district has become, consider this. In the old 8th District, Obama won with 52% of the vote. In the new 8th District, Obama lost with 42% of the vote. That ten point improvement (i.e., Obama losing by fifteen points instead of winning by five points) is especially good news for me because my opponent -- Democrat Larry Kissell has been a rubber stamp for Obama's socialist agenda.

For example, job-killing Kissell voted FOR higher taxes, the $825 billion stimulus, raising the debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion, taxpayer financed abortion on demand, and special rights for homosexuals. He co-sponsored Card-Check And he voted AGAINST Cut, Cap and Balance, the bill to repeal Obamacare, the bill to allow us to buy light bulbs of our choosing, school choice vouchers for inner-city children, and the bills to defund ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and National Public Radio.

Not every Republican who claims to be a constitutional conservative will stand up and be counted when the kitchen gets hot. You know I will, because I already have during my eight-year stint as a councilman. Unlike squishy RINOs, I will never become a tax collector for the welfare state. I will never become an enabler of Obama's fiscal child abuse by joining those Republicans who aid and abet the Democrats' burglary of our grandchildren's piggybanks.

For example, I opposed Obama's debt hike tax trap. Washington Republicans caved when they gave Obama a $2.4 trillion dollar increase in the debt ceiling, the largest increase in the debt limit in U.S. history. That agreement guarantees that Republicans will ultimately be put to a choice between raising taxes and cutting defense spending in a time of war.

Instead of cutting up Uncle Sam's maxed-out credit card, the Republican congressional leadership agreed to add more than $7,000,000,000,000 (seven trillion dollars) to the debt over the next 10 years! Those Republicans didn't compromise; they capitulated. I applaud the 66 GOP Congressmen and 19 GOP Senators who had the courage to vote no and stood by the "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge I have signed.

If you haven't heard of me before, you are probably familiar with folks I have supported or who have supported me.  As an employee or consultant, I have helped meet strategic challenges for numerous candidates, corporations, and causes including George H.W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Joe Arpaio, Sharron Angle, Pat McCrory, N.C. Education Reform Foundation, Civitas Institute, and John Locke Foundation.

In my previous campaigns, I was humbled to have the support of: Richard Petty, Richard Burr, Elizabeth Dole, Lauch Faircloth, Robin Hayes, Howard Coble, Virginia Foxx, Pete Sessions, Tom Tancredo, Bob Barr, Dick Armey, Pete DuPont, Jack Kemp, Bill Bennett, Jeb Bush, Pat Buchanan, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, Right-to-Life, NRA, Gun Owners of America, Citizens Cmte for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Police Benevolent Ass'n, Int'l Association of Fire Fighters, Immigration Reform PAC, English Language PAC, Republican Liberty Caucus, and National Republican Congressional Committee.

I earned the confidence of both the voters and national conservative leaders by proving that I am willing to stand up for my traditional American conservative principles -- no matter what the political cost, and no matter what the liberal media say about me. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann dubbed me the "Worst Person in the World" runner-up and the radical People For the American Way (PFAW) group put me at the top its "Right Wing Watch" target list.

I am ready for the fight, my friend, but I cannot win it without your help. I do not come from money. My father was a Tuskegee Airman, my mother was a nurse, and I have devoted much of my life to public service. I have no quarrel with those whose entrepreneurial pursuits have netted them tremendous financial rewards -- even speculators like George Soros, I am just not one of them.

I hate asking for contributions, but I've been around elections long enough to have learned this simple truth: if I do not ask you for money, a liberal Democrat will have this seat in Congress next year. I have to rely on the contributions and prayers of thousands of likeminded Americans like you, in the hope that you care enough about the values we share to contribute to the effort.

Will you send me a contribution today so that we can defeat Larry Kissell? I have to begin raising and spending money now because my opponent already enjoys the residual benefit that comes from three years of incumbency. I cannot wait until next year because Kissell's campaign has spent several million dollars on staff, TV ads, radio ads, signs, and mailers, his allies in the liberal media have made a six-figure in-kind donation in the form of gushing coverage, and the unions and sundry left-wing special interest groups have spent several million dollars in independent expenditures on his behalf.

Can you send my campaign a donation of $500, $1,000, or even $2,500, the legal limit? Such a large donation will help pay for several TV and radio ads exposing my opponent's radical record. Or if this is more than you can afford, could you send a donation of $250, $100, $50, or $35?

Rest assured my new crop of TV ads will be as effective and attention getting as the ads in my previous campaign for Congress. Rush Limbaugh said: "You've gotta hear this campaign commercial ... one of the best political ads in a long, long time just a great, great ad." MSNBC's Chris Matthews said: "This is an amazing ad. ... I mean, I've never seen ads this tough. it's strong, it makes fun of the other side viciously. I'm going to remember this ad." One left-wing blogger wrote, "My head just exploded!" Another wrote, "It's worse than the Swift Boat and Willie Horton ads combined."

Indeed, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition and Al Sharpton's National Action Network both demanded I take down one of my TV ads. Speaking of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, I have even less in common with those clowns than Obama. While Sharpton was defaming law enforcement officers by falsely claiming they had raped Tawana Brawley in an alley, I was working on the Winston-Salem City Council to get pay raises for our policemen. And while Jesse Jackson was shaking down companies for donations so he could pay hush money to his concubine for their love child, I was serving my country, earning an honest living, and working with my wife of 28 years, Helene, to raise our three children.

I don't head for the high grass when the Left turns up the heat. That's just not my style. I put my trust in God, not my finger to the wind, and my record proves it. I want to put a burr in Barrack Obama's saddle. I want to put a bee in Nancy Pelosi's bonnet. I want to give Barney Frank a Maalox Moment. And I want to embolden Republican Congressmen to buck up instead of buckling.

Please send your most generous gift $2,500, $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50, $35, or whatever you can afford to my campaign today.

For God and Country,

Vernon Robinson

Republican Candidate for Congress (NC-8)

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The World Needs A Daddy

I wish I could write something funny about this week's headlines. I can't. Rioters in London are upset someone is cutting their benefits...and they hate rich people or something.  Here in America, taxpayer money went to provide guns to Mexican drug dealers that ended up killing a border guard.  Even members of the supposedly "grown up" party refuse to seriously look at evidence that the chief executive to enforce our laws - is himself a forger-er and identy thief. The world is so much in debt that the lenders would default if they actually foreclosed on those debtors. And a mom gets off with 1 year probation for either killing her little girl - or covering up the fact she was killed.  Meanwhile, our own government and media yell and scream and demonize those who merely want to balance the checkbook.


Many of us have the look of our grandparents trying to figure out WHY people WATCH Snoop Doggy Dog, much less try and figure out what the heck he is saying. 


It seems incomprehensible a Wisconsin union member would LET the state go bankrupt trying to pay ALL of their personal health expenses - rather than pony up a fraction of what others pay so A) Other necessary teachers won't be laid off and B) their own jobs won't be in jeapordy.  Never mind that they will actually have less resources to do the job they kept!!  And the rest of us shake our heads and we dont' understand how this decision can take longer than ordering a Chalupa at Taco Bell.


It's like 8 year olds have taken over all of the powers of the world.....  And they need a beatin'.


You heard me.  A good, bare butt, belt induced, red welt whipping!  


This is what the whole Dr. Spock-self-esteem-no competition-permissive-'do what makes you happy' crap has gotten us. A world that is so worried about how things "look" or how they or someone else "feels," that common sense has become a concept instead of a lifestyle.
  
(why do I sound like Grumpy Old Man right now?)


My parents did a lot of amazing things for me.  I only remember my dad saying more than one sentance to me when he (painfully) tried to explain the facts of life to me.  But the man took 2 and 3 jobs his entire life so that I could be in Boy Scouts, 4-H, and have pucca shells and a silk shirt for my high school dance. (I know - I'm old enough to be part of the disco duck generation.)  My mom got caught up in the whole "Dr. Spock" mass-hypnotism of the 70's which seemed great when they were telling me how I could run the universe someday - but really sucked when I got to college and couldn't balance a checkbook.


It took me a week to realize the bank wouldn't cover my checks for pizza stromboli's and blue jeans like my parents did. WTH!??  My battle with money skills has been a life-long campaign but I have no problem jumping into projects that would intimidate Donald Trump.  Why?  it's how my parents trained me.  (Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it!)


I was already too long gone into rebellion when they tirelessly failed to coerce me into the army - likely suspecting that they'd missed the boat on creating discipline in me.  But hard knocks, and and a loving God who allowed me to get banged and bruised in life helped me to cobble together some sense of integrity, discipline, hard work and propriety.  All elements that are badly needed in the world today.


I'm jealous of a number of friends of mine who are not insolated from the troubles of life, but they have a built in 'sense' about risk taking and propriety. They KNEW it was better to wait until they had a nest egg before considering going into business themselves, rather than 'rolling the dice' with no safety net. All these friends had strong fathers who INTENTIONALLY made them work hard and deprived them of "fun"many of their classmates had growing up.

Do you remember the TV ad campaign for FRAM OIL FILTERS back years ago? (http://bit.ly/quU0Hf)  It showed an auto mechanic explaining to some nitwit (like me), that although it wasn't an emergency - it would be wise to pay a bucks now for preventive maintenance on the car instead of having to pay thousands when it inevitbably would fall apart.  The tagline was epic.  "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later."


Our society for 60 years has been focused on the "pay tomorrow but take it home today" mentality.  Someone who suggests you postpone a purchase until you have cash for it is dissmissed as a "radical" or "extremist."  But they don't stop to think that although they are enjoying that new "mattress" or HD TV the 'same day' as their credit approval, they've often paid TWICE or THREE times it's real value!  They could have bought a SLEEP COMFORT bed for the price of their SEALY or bought a 72" HOME THEATER instead of their 32" Flat Plasma!  Only with a little patience.


Whether it is PERSONAL or NATIONAL money management - it's NOT just that the liberals don't understand they are robbing their children's lifestyle and safety - IT IS THAT THEY DONT WANT TO!  When I deprived my 6 year old daughter of ice cream before her birthday dinner I was "MEAN." But she eventually got her ice cream AND pizza AND had the proper energy to stay up for 4 hours playing with her Barbie Space Station (or whatever it was.)


There is almost a demonic addiction all around us to instant gratification.  When one casually suggest a calm, objective look at spending ONLY what we have (and not robbing future generations), you are met with vulgar, emotional outbusts of rage in some quarters.  (Yes. That is THE symptom of "demonic.")


And we WILL 'pay' one way or the other.  Every society that has fallen into a lack of moral discpline - whether sexual, financial or behaviorial - crumbles.  ALWAYS!  Wars are ALWAYS started because of some perceived injustice.  Whether it is through lust of acquiring something that is NOT rightfully theirs (Hitler) or, to cast off immoral control (Revolutionary and Civil wars) - there is always a battle for enforcing what is "right."  And you notice after the 'evil' side looses (eventually) - there is a period of growth.  Just like after spanking our children, they behave themselves until their litlte thoughts get back out of control!


How do you know WHICH is the "right" and which is the "evil".  Pretty simple.  Look at the outcome of their decisions after 20 years.  But we are in a time when people call "good" bad and "bad" good.  And I'm not just talking about Michael Jackson (you know it).  A BUSINESS jouranlist - called Michelle Bauchmann's statement that she was vindicated in her desire to NOT see the Boehner bill passed as a lie. WHAT?  We were told that passing the Boehner bill would keep us from defaulting. (a lie).  It would keep us from being downgraded (a lie).  And that Republicans we be well thought of if they just went along and compromised.  Hmmm.  Seems now everyone admist there would NOT have been a default, we were still downgraded and the Republicans are STILL evil the eyes of the main stream media!  Even the noted economist Thomas Sowell, retracted his "pro-Boehner" deal position this week!


It just astounds some of us that Harvard educated "enlightened ones" - and those who are too lazy to do their own reserach - can't see this pattern.


In his book, Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem, Jay Richards talks about the seduction that socialism or communisim is more "caring." (and not in the @KurtSchlicter way).  Without an understanding of the "laws" of economics, that argument seems right.  Why should someone suffer without the guarantee of medical help or the fear of not having money for groceries in a country that creates 25% of the world's wealth?  Are we not caring? If we are Christian, are we not commanded to "love" one another?


The problem is that those of us who are maturing - understand 2 things.  First, there isn't enough financial, emotional or time capital to 'help' on a continuing basis. Those who have had friends ask for a loan find out quickly - that if you don't say 'no' YOU are the one who will need help!  Ask MC Hammer! Now he really does mean, 'Ya Can't Touch This!" And second, welfare will addict a person to the point they have NO control or freedom in their life.  They become a slave to those who be their source without an ability to create and sustain others - like their OWN family.


Richards says that he initially bought into the socialist argument, but as he studied 3 more years, the evidence was indisputable in the real life fall of the USSR.  And, like many of us, he thougth the argument was over.  Capitalism gives a much better life in every way to those in "it's" society than any other form of governmnet.  It is stunning to see we are fighting the same battle Ronald Reagan argued all over again.


But too many are too sheepish to realize WHY this argument has come back.  Jefferson, Adams and others made it VERY clear. Adams wrote,  


"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."


Like the small print about backing up your computer data, we think that is for OTHER people who might use their computer for frisbee practice or something.  Then when it happens to us - we realize we weren't all that wise in "paying" at the start so we didn't have to pay now!  (and that reminds me I haven't run Carbonite for 2 weeks.)


This statement by Adams wasn't a casual religious sacrifice by an old fuddy duddy who wasn't 'enlightened.'  In truth, Adams and Jefferson might have been more well read than any thousand modern economists, philosophers or college professors.  They both had a burning desire to figure out WHY some civilizations succeeded and why many great ones failed.  They spent more brain power studying the cause and effect relationship of human nature and it's governance than almost any modern day pschological researcher or anthropologist. And others have had similar motivations and education, but their track record is pretty damn good - suggesting they actually WERE right.


What they learned was that people would need to trade immediate comfort for future security.  They would need to trust in a God that would not only be merciful where they 'missed' it, but they would strive for moral 'right' to not incur the inevitable discipline that would create affliction.


For whom the LORD loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights (Proverbs 3:12)


God isn't this mean guy waiting to swat us like a fly when we screw up.  He is loving and merciful.  However, as we know with our children, if we don't TRAIN THEM to self regulate themselves - they will suffer WORSE pain down the road.


I have not followed the Casey Anthony story excpet for a few headlines and the observation of my 'tweet-stream' - but I gather that most are appaled she would go dancing the night of her daughter's appearance.  I don't know anything about her upbringing, and it still very possbile with parents who whipped her butt at a young age - she still might be bent toward evil.  By it is guaranteed it is much less likely.


And God in His wisdom understands this.  Greece, Italy, France and even Great Britain could completely collapse.  And out of that horrible pain, discipline will be learned. A large number of people will not want to go through that again, and will at least - temporarily - put in the work necessary.  When those "on the dole" no longer have a government check, they will keep stealing or be killed doing so.  Most others will adjust to finding a way to farm or earn SOMETHING the honest way and life will go on.


DIdn't we learn this during welfare reform? Weren't we told how AWFUL it would be to force this pressure on the poor - but instead even THEY began proclaim how much more self-worth they had?


Any GOOD parent will do everything they can to TRY and get their child to listen to how to avoid it - and EMBRACE it as a lifestyle.


And some parents are much more instant and severe in their discipline in hopes that they will 'self govern' themselves later in life.


The world needs that Daddy.  And the world needs to be listening to Him now.

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