ooops.... I meant HASSAN NEMAZZE!!
Okay... this democratic fundraiser has been found guilty of a 292 MILLION DOLLAR fraud.
He raised money for both Clintons, John Kerry and Obama.
I'm sure this will be all over the press as the Abramoff scandal was. Should I start holding my breath?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
STEVE WINN THREATENS TO MOVE HIS BUSINESS TO CHINA
April 24, 2010
The logic of this should have been seen from a mile away. Businesses have been flocking to Nevada from California because the tax environment in California is horrendous! But now, the Federal Government is stepping in and raising taxes nationwide, including in states have been wise enough to keep them low. As with any other Socialist country, equality of misery is the first mandate.
As the Federal government raises taxes and regulations, even the flourishing states like Nevada and Texas will see their industries (in the words of Ronald Reagan) ‘voting with their feet’ by moving to more tax friendly countries. It’s not a case of being anti-American or unpatriotic, it’s a case of survival. There’s nothing Patriotic about laying off worker after worker so you can pay your taxes.
The job of any business is to succeed; to make profits and grow. The positive collateral of success is increased workforce, increased wages, and true “spreading of the wealth.” However when the government comes in and dictates (Hmmmmm… isn’t that the sources of the word ’dictator’?), businesses can’t grow, can’t hire new employees, and therefore can’t contribute to the economy.
“But rich big wigs don’t care about the workers, they just wanna get richer. Increased profits doesn’t mean increased labor force or pay,” I hear you say. Really? That’s like assuming someone with a really expensive tricked out, exotic car is never gunna’ put gas in it. History has shown the exact opposite. Look at the most successful businesses, MicroSoft, Wal-Mart, Oracle… they all expanded. And business can’t expand without more employees. Even after their founders grew filthy rich, they continued to expand, continued to hire new workers, and continued to grow. Today, Google has the most outrageously plush, nearly decadent, offices in the world (outside of Royal palaces) and because of this ‘pampering’ of their employees people are pounding down the doors of Google just to get the opportunity to work there! Google didn’t need some government regulation to make them offer onsite massuses or meditation rooms… they did it because it attracts the best of the best employees! They did it on their own.
But even these true havens to the workers will be fleeing overseas if punitive Federal taxes force Google to fire their massuses and daycare providers. Like most government programs, it will have the EXACT OPPOSITE effect of the intent!
Now… let’s say for argument that if the government backed off of regulations and did something that would jumpstart the economy like a shot of adrenilin to the heart… that the big mucky-mucks in corporate America didn’t hire new workers, they collected higher profits and just sat on them. I don’t think for a moment this would happen – businesses want to grow, you can’t grow by putting your profits into a mattress, and the corporate bosses know this – but let’s just play this game and accept the premise for argument’s sake. When corporations “sit on” their money, they do it in one of three ways…. 1) They give bonuses to their current employees and administrators 2) they invest their profits in the stock market and other negotiables or 3) they just put the money in the bank.
NONE of these three actions is some dead end or black hole to the economy (and therefore your wages/employment!)
1) Bonuses… those bonuses are spent on big yachts, fancy cars and other big ticket items. This employs thousands of boat builders, auto workers, tire manufacturers, windshield makers, big-screen TV makers, Bose employees, construction workers needed to create huge estates… &tc.
2) 2) Investments – the money put into stocks of ‘public’ companies funds research, development, and expansion IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR. Stocks are a type of loan from the individual to a company that fund the further growth of that company. If people would jump into the stock market and buy stocks of nanotech companies we would see a growth in cancer prevention/treatment, cleaner energy, and a host of other advancements. When mankind enters the nanotech era, we will see an advancement not seen since the invention of language… and it will be funded by stocks and stockholders… not the government. With all that is being said about “green job” potential, it doesn’t hold a match to the potential for nanotechnology!
3) Money in the bank. This is where the money that funds your home mortgage comes from. Your car loan, your small business loan, your home improvement loan; the funds for these all comes from individuals who have put their money in a savings account, a certificate of deposit, or other bank program. So you WANT people to put money in the bank… it gives YOU more money to borrow.
Now, what is REALLY the dead-end and black hole of the economy is the Federal government. The waste, fraud, and abuse present in the federal government is unmatched! When you send your money to Washington (in taxes) it truly DOES go down the drain. This is the entity that was paying four-thousand dollars for a toilet seat and thousands for a hammer!
The solution to a sluggish economy and unemployment? Easy. Elliminate all, or most, corporate and business taxes! Just bare with me here. Imagine the result of the United States becoming the most business-friendly country in the world.
First – Businesses start flocking to the United States in droves, eager to take advantage of an entire tax-shelter country. The exedous we’ve witnessed from California and New York would now be an exedous from the entire planet TO the United States as a whole.
Second – Employment skyrockets towards 100% as there are so many jobs, and only so many workers to fill them. As someone who has spent the last year trying to land a full-time job, I can’t tell you how nice it would be to hear “yes” at a job interview!
Third – Because of a worker shortage, businesses offer incentives, better workplaces, and better benefits. They are so desperate to get the limited available workforce they will bend over backwards to recruit new workers and do almost anything to keep the workers they already have. They whole idea of ‘taking advantage’ of a workforce would be ludicrous! No company will take a chance at losing even one employee! Quite the opposite, they will offer better benefits, better wages, better hours, more flexibility , onsite daycare and other amenities to attract the best workers.
Fourth – Inflation. Workers are in demand, and can therefore demand higher wages. They also have more disposable income and have no problem paying another five thousand dollars on a car. Many people view inflation in the same light as terminal cancer or homeless individuals… to be avoided at all costs. But just like the homeless person, inflation actually has a great deal to offer. Namely, it makes our astronomical debit easier to pay off. As long as wages rise at the same rate as inflation (which in a worker-friendly environment it would) there really wouldn’t be an inflation rate at all. If the price of a car goes up 10% but your wages also increase by 10%, technically you have 10% inflation, but you personally you haven’t felt any pinch. Along those same lines, I would love to see a study comparing inflation over the past decade with wage increases and standard of living. I would bet that when the realities are compared we would find we have been in a trend of DEFLATION which is even more devastating than INFLATION!
Fifth – Increased tax revenue. “How can that be if you’re cutting all taxes on businesses?” Okay, first of all I think few would argue that businesses are paying their full share of taxes as it is. Tax shelters, legal loopholes, subsidies, federal incentives… they all go to making sure that well-connected businesses bear less of the tax burden than the other guys. That’s why these bills are 2000 pages long, to define who is, and is not, favored by the government. Sure, some get socked with the taxes, but others like GE and others that are in bed with the feds get sweetheart deals. (Countrywide anyone?) Secondly, an unemployed American is an American not paying taxes. In fact that person is being PAID by the government in the form of unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and Social Security. So right there you have a double-hit to government expenditures – you are drawing taxes FROM, and no longer PAYING one individual. Now multiply that by a few million. The increase in productivity that would result from a tax-shelter country drives up production (GDP), growth, investment, and wages… those all bring fresh new revenue to the government.
But these rosy scenarios can NEVER EVER come to pass if we are chasing our companies overseas with higher taxes and regulations. We will become a national version of California, watching our wealth, our jobs, and our investments pour to other countries like rats fleeing a sinking ship!
The logic of this should have been seen from a mile away. Businesses have been flocking to Nevada from California because the tax environment in California is horrendous! But now, the Federal Government is stepping in and raising taxes nationwide, including in states have been wise enough to keep them low. As with any other Socialist country, equality of misery is the first mandate.
As the Federal government raises taxes and regulations, even the flourishing states like Nevada and Texas will see their industries (in the words of Ronald Reagan) ‘voting with their feet’ by moving to more tax friendly countries. It’s not a case of being anti-American or unpatriotic, it’s a case of survival. There’s nothing Patriotic about laying off worker after worker so you can pay your taxes.
The job of any business is to succeed; to make profits and grow. The positive collateral of success is increased workforce, increased wages, and true “spreading of the wealth.” However when the government comes in and dictates (Hmmmmm… isn’t that the sources of the word ’dictator’?), businesses can’t grow, can’t hire new employees, and therefore can’t contribute to the economy.
“But rich big wigs don’t care about the workers, they just wanna get richer. Increased profits doesn’t mean increased labor force or pay,” I hear you say. Really? That’s like assuming someone with a really expensive tricked out, exotic car is never gunna’ put gas in it. History has shown the exact opposite. Look at the most successful businesses, MicroSoft, Wal-Mart, Oracle… they all expanded. And business can’t expand without more employees. Even after their founders grew filthy rich, they continued to expand, continued to hire new workers, and continued to grow. Today, Google has the most outrageously plush, nearly decadent, offices in the world (outside of Royal palaces) and because of this ‘pampering’ of their employees people are pounding down the doors of Google just to get the opportunity to work there! Google didn’t need some government regulation to make them offer onsite massuses or meditation rooms… they did it because it attracts the best of the best employees! They did it on their own.
But even these true havens to the workers will be fleeing overseas if punitive Federal taxes force Google to fire their massuses and daycare providers. Like most government programs, it will have the EXACT OPPOSITE effect of the intent!
Now… let’s say for argument that if the government backed off of regulations and did something that would jumpstart the economy like a shot of adrenilin to the heart… that the big mucky-mucks in corporate America didn’t hire new workers, they collected higher profits and just sat on them. I don’t think for a moment this would happen – businesses want to grow, you can’t grow by putting your profits into a mattress, and the corporate bosses know this – but let’s just play this game and accept the premise for argument’s sake. When corporations “sit on” their money, they do it in one of three ways…. 1) They give bonuses to their current employees and administrators 2) they invest their profits in the stock market and other negotiables or 3) they just put the money in the bank.
NONE of these three actions is some dead end or black hole to the economy (and therefore your wages/employment!)
1) Bonuses… those bonuses are spent on big yachts, fancy cars and other big ticket items. This employs thousands of boat builders, auto workers, tire manufacturers, windshield makers, big-screen TV makers, Bose employees, construction workers needed to create huge estates… &tc.
2) 2) Investments – the money put into stocks of ‘public’ companies funds research, development, and expansion IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR. Stocks are a type of loan from the individual to a company that fund the further growth of that company. If people would jump into the stock market and buy stocks of nanotech companies we would see a growth in cancer prevention/treatment, cleaner energy, and a host of other advancements. When mankind enters the nanotech era, we will see an advancement not seen since the invention of language… and it will be funded by stocks and stockholders… not the government. With all that is being said about “green job” potential, it doesn’t hold a match to the potential for nanotechnology!
3) Money in the bank. This is where the money that funds your home mortgage comes from. Your car loan, your small business loan, your home improvement loan; the funds for these all comes from individuals who have put their money in a savings account, a certificate of deposit, or other bank program. So you WANT people to put money in the bank… it gives YOU more money to borrow.
Now, what is REALLY the dead-end and black hole of the economy is the Federal government. The waste, fraud, and abuse present in the federal government is unmatched! When you send your money to Washington (in taxes) it truly DOES go down the drain. This is the entity that was paying four-thousand dollars for a toilet seat and thousands for a hammer!
The solution to a sluggish economy and unemployment? Easy. Elliminate all, or most, corporate and business taxes! Just bare with me here. Imagine the result of the United States becoming the most business-friendly country in the world.
First – Businesses start flocking to the United States in droves, eager to take advantage of an entire tax-shelter country. The exedous we’ve witnessed from California and New York would now be an exedous from the entire planet TO the United States as a whole.
Second – Employment skyrockets towards 100% as there are so many jobs, and only so many workers to fill them. As someone who has spent the last year trying to land a full-time job, I can’t tell you how nice it would be to hear “yes” at a job interview!
Third – Because of a worker shortage, businesses offer incentives, better workplaces, and better benefits. They are so desperate to get the limited available workforce they will bend over backwards to recruit new workers and do almost anything to keep the workers they already have. They whole idea of ‘taking advantage’ of a workforce would be ludicrous! No company will take a chance at losing even one employee! Quite the opposite, they will offer better benefits, better wages, better hours, more flexibility , onsite daycare and other amenities to attract the best workers.
Fourth – Inflation. Workers are in demand, and can therefore demand higher wages. They also have more disposable income and have no problem paying another five thousand dollars on a car. Many people view inflation in the same light as terminal cancer or homeless individuals… to be avoided at all costs. But just like the homeless person, inflation actually has a great deal to offer. Namely, it makes our astronomical debit easier to pay off. As long as wages rise at the same rate as inflation (which in a worker-friendly environment it would) there really wouldn’t be an inflation rate at all. If the price of a car goes up 10% but your wages also increase by 10%, technically you have 10% inflation, but you personally you haven’t felt any pinch. Along those same lines, I would love to see a study comparing inflation over the past decade with wage increases and standard of living. I would bet that when the realities are compared we would find we have been in a trend of DEFLATION which is even more devastating than INFLATION!
Fifth – Increased tax revenue. “How can that be if you’re cutting all taxes on businesses?” Okay, first of all I think few would argue that businesses are paying their full share of taxes as it is. Tax shelters, legal loopholes, subsidies, federal incentives… they all go to making sure that well-connected businesses bear less of the tax burden than the other guys. That’s why these bills are 2000 pages long, to define who is, and is not, favored by the government. Sure, some get socked with the taxes, but others like GE and others that are in bed with the feds get sweetheart deals. (Countrywide anyone?) Secondly, an unemployed American is an American not paying taxes. In fact that person is being PAID by the government in the form of unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and Social Security. So right there you have a double-hit to government expenditures – you are drawing taxes FROM, and no longer PAYING one individual. Now multiply that by a few million. The increase in productivity that would result from a tax-shelter country drives up production (GDP), growth, investment, and wages… those all bring fresh new revenue to the government.
But these rosy scenarios can NEVER EVER come to pass if we are chasing our companies overseas with higher taxes and regulations. We will become a national version of California, watching our wealth, our jobs, and our investments pour to other countries like rats fleeing a sinking ship!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
STATE !!!
April 21, 2010
STATE! For a man to take a State Championship in his Senior year… there is NOTHING better! Congratulations, Chaz. I can’t yell WAY TO GO loud enough!!!!!
Chaz took first place in Economics at the FBLA Competition in Vail on Tuesday!
And it couldn’t have come at a better time! Naturally, with the end of High School just 5 weeks away, the stresses of graduating, college (Chaz was accepted to CU!!) as well as other stresses… this has been a tough few months for Chaz. This well deserved and well earned accolade couldn’t have been better timed!
Congratulations, Chaz! You earned it, you deserve it. This is all yours, you own it… and no one can EVER take it away from you! You are the best in the State!
WTG CHAZ!!!!!!!!
STATE! For a man to take a State Championship in his Senior year… there is NOTHING better! Congratulations, Chaz. I can’t yell WAY TO GO loud enough!!!!!
Chaz took first place in Economics at the FBLA Competition in Vail on Tuesday!
And it couldn’t have come at a better time! Naturally, with the end of High School just 5 weeks away, the stresses of graduating, college (Chaz was accepted to CU!!) as well as other stresses… this has been a tough few months for Chaz. This well deserved and well earned accolade couldn’t have been better timed!
Congratulations, Chaz! You earned it, you deserve it. This is all yours, you own it… and no one can EVER take it away from you! You are the best in the State!
WTG CHAZ!!!!!!!!
The international slut
April 18, 2010
I’ve got something to ask the guys. Do you remember the girl in High School who seemed to throw herself at any guy willing to give her a lingering glance? Perhaps there were guys who acted the same way, but I, naturally, wouldn’t have noticed them. These were the girls that were soo desperately in need of affection they would do quite literally anything for a moment of feeling special and ‘loved.’ Personally I was such an unattractive geek in High School, I never gained even their affections, so I never dated one. But we all knew who they were.
In short, they were the girls who everybody knew ‘put out,’ and not just for one steady guy… they would get passed between a group of friends like the latest cassette tape.
Some onlookers gazed down their holier-than-thou noses at them; others used them for everything they could. And others looked upon them with sadness and pity. We knew they were only starving for affection… no matter in what form that affection came. They just wanted to be loved.
Most were eventually slapped in the face by reality when, at some point, they realized the guys who were bedding them on a regular basis didn’t really care about them… they were just getting off. They were using them. This realization had to be profoundly devastating on an emotional level. Akin to thinking you have a million bucks in the bank, only to wake up and realize you’re a few million dollars in debt. Betrayed, violated, abused, used. Can you imagine what it would be like; how humiliating and degrading it would be when realization and reality finally kicked in?
Well, you better think about it! Right now, the United States is exactly that girl, spreading her legs just to be loved by the likes of Hugo Chavez, Acmdinijad, and Vladimir Putin! Barack Obama has such a deep need to be loved, he will throw away any thought of American Exceptionalism, our ‘unfair’ capitalist system, and our military and scientific dominance just to gain the affections of the world. He is willing to be a slut and a whore just so Kim Jung Il will give him a kind word or two.
And like those poor lost girls in High School, we’re gunna’ get screwed. If you asked any of those girls what they were getting out of the arrangement, they would have been hard pressed to come up with a tangible benefit to their relationship. In fact, they were fulfilling their need to be loved, only not realizing the ‘love’ they were receiving had nothing to do with care, concern, or compassion.
Obama’s bowing and cow-towing to the world’s despots hasn’t gained us one more batallion of help in Afghanistan, or any more assistance in Iraq. None of the countries we are cozying up to have taken a single Gitmo detainee off of our hands, and no one is forgiving our debts as we forgave the debts of the Marshall Plan. OPEC hasn’t lowered the price of a barrel of oil, and no one is jumping to lower interest rates on our loans. So what have we gotten from the Almighty Cairo speech, or the Extended Apology Tour?
The world “loves” us more than they did when Bush was in office. Well, I remember those girls in High School thought they were “loved” too… in fact, all they were in reality, were individuals willing to be used. Like them, we’re f****** in so many ways!
I’ve got something to ask the guys. Do you remember the girl in High School who seemed to throw herself at any guy willing to give her a lingering glance? Perhaps there were guys who acted the same way, but I, naturally, wouldn’t have noticed them. These were the girls that were soo desperately in need of affection they would do quite literally anything for a moment of feeling special and ‘loved.’ Personally I was such an unattractive geek in High School, I never gained even their affections, so I never dated one. But we all knew who they were.
In short, they were the girls who everybody knew ‘put out,’ and not just for one steady guy… they would get passed between a group of friends like the latest cassette tape.
Some onlookers gazed down their holier-than-thou noses at them; others used them for everything they could. And others looked upon them with sadness and pity. We knew they were only starving for affection… no matter in what form that affection came. They just wanted to be loved.
Most were eventually slapped in the face by reality when, at some point, they realized the guys who were bedding them on a regular basis didn’t really care about them… they were just getting off. They were using them. This realization had to be profoundly devastating on an emotional level. Akin to thinking you have a million bucks in the bank, only to wake up and realize you’re a few million dollars in debt. Betrayed, violated, abused, used. Can you imagine what it would be like; how humiliating and degrading it would be when realization and reality finally kicked in?
Well, you better think about it! Right now, the United States is exactly that girl, spreading her legs just to be loved by the likes of Hugo Chavez, Acmdinijad, and Vladimir Putin! Barack Obama has such a deep need to be loved, he will throw away any thought of American Exceptionalism, our ‘unfair’ capitalist system, and our military and scientific dominance just to gain the affections of the world. He is willing to be a slut and a whore just so Kim Jung Il will give him a kind word or two.
And like those poor lost girls in High School, we’re gunna’ get screwed. If you asked any of those girls what they were getting out of the arrangement, they would have been hard pressed to come up with a tangible benefit to their relationship. In fact, they were fulfilling their need to be loved, only not realizing the ‘love’ they were receiving had nothing to do with care, concern, or compassion.
Obama’s bowing and cow-towing to the world’s despots hasn’t gained us one more batallion of help in Afghanistan, or any more assistance in Iraq. None of the countries we are cozying up to have taken a single Gitmo detainee off of our hands, and no one is forgiving our debts as we forgave the debts of the Marshall Plan. OPEC hasn’t lowered the price of a barrel of oil, and no one is jumping to lower interest rates on our loans. So what have we gotten from the Almighty Cairo speech, or the Extended Apology Tour?
The world “loves” us more than they did when Bush was in office. Well, I remember those girls in High School thought they were “loved” too… in fact, all they were in reality, were individuals willing to be used. Like them, we’re f****** in so many ways!
Monday, April 19, 2010
First they came for.....
First they came for the financial CEO’s and Wall Street big wigs, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a rich CEO. Then they came for the auto industry, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t part of the auto industry. Then they came for student loans and I didn’t speak up because I had already graduated. When they come for me and my business who will be there to speak for me?
With all due apologies to Martin Neimoller,
Edit: Hey HEY! This got published in the Denver Post on April 24th ... yeaaaaahhhh!
http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2010/04/23/who-will-stand-up-for-america%E2%80%99s-businesses/
With all due apologies to Martin Neimoller,
Edit: Hey HEY! This got published in the Denver Post on April 24th ... yeaaaaahhhh!
http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2010/04/23/who-will-stand-up-for-america%E2%80%99s-businesses/
Open letter to Glenn Beck
Mr. Beck,
You’re losing me! I was a staunch supporter and advocate of your seemingly unbiased and honest arguments, and often I still agree with you. But when your obsession with “a pox upon both your houses” went beyond “fair and balanced” to demagoguery unsupported by facts, I began switching around to other channels during your show. Now, you’ve taken a further step and pretty much lost me entirely.
When you summarily dismissed the motives of the IRS suicide pilot, I chose to take you off my DVR list. In no way should violence be condoned, but having been trained as an interrogator, I can assure you, to dismiss a person’s motives because of their actions only increases the furtherance of those actions.
Al Qaeda has valid complaints regarding our Godless culture and (in their eyes) Satanic embracing of pornography, promiscuity, abortion, secularism and divorce.
The IRS suicide bomber apparently has valid complaints regarding an overbearing government, (in his eyes) heartless corporations, and the complex and confiscatory tax system.
Timothy McVey had valid complaints regarding the fascistic invasion of the Branch Dividian compound at Waco – which, if we were honest about it, was really not much different than the attack on Concord by the British Regulars in 1775.
THIS DOES NOT EXCUSE THEIR ACTIONS, but neither can we just bury ourselves in denial, pretending their respective actions were the result of mental disorders.
In each of these actions, these very normal (and mentally sound) men felt pushed to a point of helplessness; a point of no alternative. You were blessed and fortunate that night you lay on the kitchen floor in the fetal position inasmuch as you saw a way out. These men saw no alternatives, no other choice, and no other course of action. Their honest beliefs and opinions shouldn’t be either dismissed or unquestionably accepted, but at least addressed. Remember, even in our own revolution, it wasn’t the Tea Act, the Townsend Acts, or even the Stamp Act that was intolerable, but the continued apathy and disinterest of Parliament and the King.
As far as your ‘pox on both houses’ attitude; comparing GW Bush to Obama is akin to comparing a Pinto to a Lamborghini, your continued equating of the two reflects more on your biases than on presidential policies. I mean really? A man who wanted to privatize Social Security was some closet Progressive? Really? Come on Glenn, get some perspective!
You’re losing me! I was a staunch supporter and advocate of your seemingly unbiased and honest arguments, and often I still agree with you. But when your obsession with “a pox upon both your houses” went beyond “fair and balanced” to demagoguery unsupported by facts, I began switching around to other channels during your show. Now, you’ve taken a further step and pretty much lost me entirely.
When you summarily dismissed the motives of the IRS suicide pilot, I chose to take you off my DVR list. In no way should violence be condoned, but having been trained as an interrogator, I can assure you, to dismiss a person’s motives because of their actions only increases the furtherance of those actions.
Al Qaeda has valid complaints regarding our Godless culture and (in their eyes) Satanic embracing of pornography, promiscuity, abortion, secularism and divorce.
The IRS suicide bomber apparently has valid complaints regarding an overbearing government, (in his eyes) heartless corporations, and the complex and confiscatory tax system.
Timothy McVey had valid complaints regarding the fascistic invasion of the Branch Dividian compound at Waco – which, if we were honest about it, was really not much different than the attack on Concord by the British Regulars in 1775.
THIS DOES NOT EXCUSE THEIR ACTIONS, but neither can we just bury ourselves in denial, pretending their respective actions were the result of mental disorders.
In each of these actions, these very normal (and mentally sound) men felt pushed to a point of helplessness; a point of no alternative. You were blessed and fortunate that night you lay on the kitchen floor in the fetal position inasmuch as you saw a way out. These men saw no alternatives, no other choice, and no other course of action. Their honest beliefs and opinions shouldn’t be either dismissed or unquestionably accepted, but at least addressed. Remember, even in our own revolution, it wasn’t the Tea Act, the Townsend Acts, or even the Stamp Act that was intolerable, but the continued apathy and disinterest of Parliament and the King.
As far as your ‘pox on both houses’ attitude; comparing GW Bush to Obama is akin to comparing a Pinto to a Lamborghini, your continued equating of the two reflects more on your biases than on presidential policies. I mean really? A man who wanted to privatize Social Security was some closet Progressive? Really? Come on Glenn, get some perspective!
the end of don't ask, don't tell
I’m quite sure our female readers would be terribly uncomfortable taking a shower in a room with fifty or eighty men! They would understandably feel vulnerable, possibly threatened, and deem the situation a horrible violation of their privacy.
During the Democrat National Convention, as a member of the Colorado National Guard, my fellow soldiers and I showered daily in a common room with dozens of men. We also were housed in the massive drill hall of the Denver Armory – 400 men on cots, shoulder to shoulder under a single roof with no partitions. Privacy is a luxury in the armed forces, and is often discarded if the mission dictates. Tents, latrines, barracks, forward positions (“foxholes”) and the like are gender-segregated as much as possible to lessen the sexual opportunities and sexual unease between genders.
Yet sexual tensions, the unnerving lack of privacy, and the distress of confinement will explode with openly gay soldiers placed into the mix. What is the purpose of separate latrines, if not to prevent sexual tensions?
Would you consider having common latrines and showers for men and women? Of course not! And yet (short of having separate latrines/showers for men, women, gays, and lesbians) the end of ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ will place every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine in an environment no different than forcing both genders to shower together. Last week, after serving in the National Guard for three years, I stepped away – not even considering reenlisting (nor will I until Obama is out of office.) I won’t be the last to leave over the elimination of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell!” The soldiers I’ve lived with, known, and talked to for three years are nearly unanimous in their disdain and frustration with this President and his inane policies… but they can’t speak because it is illegal to criticize or even disagree publicly with the Commander in Chief. I am no longer under that gag order, and I can tell you without hesitation that ‘friendly fire’ incidents, ‘code red’ blanket parties, an exodous of good soldiers, as well as the disintegration of troop cohesion will skyrocket as soon as ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is repealed!
We don’t blame civilians for this ill-conceived idea, we understand you can go home and enjoy your privacy as you use the toilet, or take a bubble bath; you aren’t privy to the overcrowded and intrusive nature of the military. But the next time you close that glass sliding door on your shower, ask yourself how you would feel if there were a homosexual, or heterosexual member of the opposite sex, showering right next to you.
During the Democrat National Convention, as a member of the Colorado National Guard, my fellow soldiers and I showered daily in a common room with dozens of men. We also were housed in the massive drill hall of the Denver Armory – 400 men on cots, shoulder to shoulder under a single roof with no partitions. Privacy is a luxury in the armed forces, and is often discarded if the mission dictates. Tents, latrines, barracks, forward positions (“foxholes”) and the like are gender-segregated as much as possible to lessen the sexual opportunities and sexual unease between genders.
Yet sexual tensions, the unnerving lack of privacy, and the distress of confinement will explode with openly gay soldiers placed into the mix. What is the purpose of separate latrines, if not to prevent sexual tensions?
Would you consider having common latrines and showers for men and women? Of course not! And yet (short of having separate latrines/showers for men, women, gays, and lesbians) the end of ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ will place every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine in an environment no different than forcing both genders to shower together. Last week, after serving in the National Guard for three years, I stepped away – not even considering reenlisting (nor will I until Obama is out of office.) I won’t be the last to leave over the elimination of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell!” The soldiers I’ve lived with, known, and talked to for three years are nearly unanimous in their disdain and frustration with this President and his inane policies… but they can’t speak because it is illegal to criticize or even disagree publicly with the Commander in Chief. I am no longer under that gag order, and I can tell you without hesitation that ‘friendly fire’ incidents, ‘code red’ blanket parties, an exodous of good soldiers, as well as the disintegration of troop cohesion will skyrocket as soon as ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is repealed!
We don’t blame civilians for this ill-conceived idea, we understand you can go home and enjoy your privacy as you use the toilet, or take a bubble bath; you aren’t privy to the overcrowded and intrusive nature of the military. But the next time you close that glass sliding door on your shower, ask yourself how you would feel if there were a homosexual, or heterosexual member of the opposite sex, showering right next to you.
The more liberals change.....
Feb 1st 2010
From the powerful Copperheads of the Democrat Party during the Civil War (1860’s), to the micromanagement of Vietnam by Democrats in Congress (1960’s and early 70’s)… from leaving embassy employees and military personnel unprepared to defend our embassy in Tehran (1978), to the second-guessing of Generals in the field during the “Black Hawk Down” disaster (1992) and the defeatist anti-surge policies of Harry Reid and then-Senator Obama during Operation Iraqi Freedom… there is a clear and undeniable pattern going back over 150 years. Are we just too ignorant of American history to realize that (with the exception of FDR), when Democrats control the military they consistently choose defeat over success, retreat over victory, and humility over --------? Once again, Democrats are second-guessing the advice of military leaders on the ground who have decades of experience and learning in tactics, techniques and strategies of war. Their audacity and arrogance is akin to telling Bill Gates how to run a successful computer business! General McCrystal knows how to fight and win a war, while the Democrats seem to have a history of only cowardice and defeat. When will we learn?
From the powerful Copperheads of the Democrat Party during the Civil War (1860’s), to the micromanagement of Vietnam by Democrats in Congress (1960’s and early 70’s)… from leaving embassy employees and military personnel unprepared to defend our embassy in Tehran (1978), to the second-guessing of Generals in the field during the “Black Hawk Down” disaster (1992) and the defeatist anti-surge policies of Harry Reid and then-Senator Obama during Operation Iraqi Freedom… there is a clear and undeniable pattern going back over 150 years. Are we just too ignorant of American history to realize that (with the exception of FDR), when Democrats control the military they consistently choose defeat over success, retreat over victory, and humility over --------? Once again, Democrats are second-guessing the advice of military leaders on the ground who have decades of experience and learning in tactics, techniques and strategies of war. Their audacity and arrogance is akin to telling Bill Gates how to run a successful computer business! General McCrystal knows how to fight and win a war, while the Democrats seem to have a history of only cowardice and defeat. When will we learn?
Isolated Incidents
Dec 30 2009
On June 1st, 24-year-old Abu Hhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed Private William Long and injured Private Quentin Ezeagwula when he opened fire on a Little Rock recruitment center. It was termed by the Administration “an isolated incident”
On November 5th, Major Nidal Malik Hasan shot and killed 13 individuals and injured thirty more while shouting ‘Alluh Ackbar’ at Fort Hood. It was termed by the Administration an “isolated incident.”
When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallb ignited, but failed to detonate a bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 he injured two other passengers, but very nearly killed 289 passengers and countless more on the ground. The Obama Administration has called it an ‘isolated incident” even though Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the planning, funding, and implementation.
So why are the President and his Administration so reluctant to see what is so obvious to the rest of us; Al Qaeda is still at war with us, even if we no longer use the term “War on Terror.” Are they in denial, or just ashamed that the horrible George W. Bush kept us safe for seven years and this Administration has failed three times within the first year?
On June 1st, 24-year-old Abu Hhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed Private William Long and injured Private Quentin Ezeagwula when he opened fire on a Little Rock recruitment center. It was termed by the Administration “an isolated incident”
On November 5th, Major Nidal Malik Hasan shot and killed 13 individuals and injured thirty more while shouting ‘Alluh Ackbar’ at Fort Hood. It was termed by the Administration an “isolated incident.”
When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallb ignited, but failed to detonate a bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 he injured two other passengers, but very nearly killed 289 passengers and countless more on the ground. The Obama Administration has called it an ‘isolated incident” even though Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the planning, funding, and implementation.
So why are the President and his Administration so reluctant to see what is so obvious to the rest of us; Al Qaeda is still at war with us, even if we no longer use the term “War on Terror.” Are they in denial, or just ashamed that the horrible George W. Bush kept us safe for seven years and this Administration has failed three times within the first year?
Por Que no hablo?
November 15th, 2009
Editors,
Russian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Hungarians, Irish, English, Italian, Ethiopian, French, Belgium, Greek, and every other emigrant group that has come to America has learned the common language and actively striven to be adopted into the American family – save one. Why must one group consider themselves better than all the others? Why must I walk the streets of the city in which I was born, in my own country and feel as if I am walking through the trashed alleys of Juarez or Ensenada? Why must I feel like an alien in my own country?
Are they, as a culture, too ignorant and stupid to learn a new language? Do they not wish to become Americans, as our ancestors did? Do they just want to suckle at the tit without buying the American cow? Do they think they are better, or more entitled than our grandfathers and grandmothers were? What is the reason that one group feels they don’t need to pass the same rights of passage every other immigrant group has?
And furthermore, why do we say nothing? Why do we encourage this separation, this segregation, and this sense of entitlement? I am an American, and I shouldn’t feel like a foreigner in my own home town! Hablamos Ingles in Los Estados Unidos! And if you can’t read this, volver a Mexico!
Charles Byrne
Editors,
Russian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Hungarians, Irish, English, Italian, Ethiopian, French, Belgium, Greek, and every other emigrant group that has come to America has learned the common language and actively striven to be adopted into the American family – save one. Why must one group consider themselves better than all the others? Why must I walk the streets of the city in which I was born, in my own country and feel as if I am walking through the trashed alleys of Juarez or Ensenada? Why must I feel like an alien in my own country?
Are they, as a culture, too ignorant and stupid to learn a new language? Do they not wish to become Americans, as our ancestors did? Do they just want to suckle at the tit without buying the American cow? Do they think they are better, or more entitled than our grandfathers and grandmothers were? What is the reason that one group feels they don’t need to pass the same rights of passage every other immigrant group has?
And furthermore, why do we say nothing? Why do we encourage this separation, this segregation, and this sense of entitlement? I am an American, and I shouldn’t feel like a foreigner in my own home town! Hablamos Ingles in Los Estados Unidos! And if you can’t read this, volver a Mexico!
Charles Byrne
Feb 25th 2009
Personal Response to Barack Obama’s first address to Congress
The debate before us is an ages old one dating back to our founding fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, to the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, to the Union States and to the Confederacy, to every Presidency and every Congress in our history.
The eternal question it seems in American governance is to which side the scales of power will tilt. Wise founders like Jefferson envisioned a union of individual states that teetered precariously close to controlled anarchy, others in history, such as FDR imagined a country in which the federal government guided, protected and influenced nearly every aspect of our daily lives.
Our job, our sacred duty as citizens of this incredible country is to instruct our elected representatives and provide guidance; dictating to them exactly which course we (as a nation) shall take. Whether that course be one of Capitalism or Socialism, government control or restraint, expansion or contraction we, as American citizens control that destiny.
As a nation built upon capitalist philosophies, or economy is intricately woven into our democracy, to address one aspect while ignoring the other is not only naive, but inexcusably foolish.
In any form of government, (but most predominately in ours) there is a perverse but undeniable version of a golden rule – whomever holds the gold makes the rules.
So it is even in a republic such as ours. When the Federal Government holds the gold and lends the gold, it can place strings, restrictions and controls on how that money is spent. And with each string, with each restriction and with each control the liberty and freedom of the recipient is compromised.
It is every American’s right to place the power and responsibility into the hands of their government if they so choose, but please, do not do so without a full understanding of everything it entails. Freedom IS a zero-sum equation; the more gold, the more power a citizen relinquishes to the government, the less they retain for themselves.
I had a friend when I was younger whose parents bought him a car, paid his insurance and faithfully filled the tank with gas. In exchange for their generosity, he had to run errands for them, couldn’t drive the car beyond a certain distance, and had to have any venture he took approved in advance; after all… it was really their car. They paid for it and had every right to dictate how it would be used. If he wanted the freedom to drive where he wanted, how he wanted, and when he wanted he would have to purchase and maintain his own car.
Many of us as parents have uttered those dreaded words “while you’re living under my roof you will abide by my rules.”
Every cent of tax we allow our representatives to strip from our paychecks is one more step we take back into that environment of parental dictatorship… only we have exchanged the warmth of a loving and concerned parent for the dictates of a cold and self-interested machine called the government.
Most of us don’t even grasp just how controlling and dictatorial this intrusive parent already is in our lives. You brush your teeth with a toothbrush that has gone through months of scrutiny before it is approved by our ‘parent’ the government, the fuel we place in our gas tank must meet an inordinate number of examinations and regulations before we are graciously permitted to use it.
To the extraordinarily wise founders such as Thomas Jefferson, this subtle intrusion into our liberties would be unconscionable enough in and of itself, but realize that with every inspection, every regulation and every invasion into our freedom comes a bureaucracy that sucks even more of our personal income in order to maintain itself.
Our local sales taxes are obvious and evident on our sales receipts; seven, eight, or even ten percent of our purchase is added directly to the cost and printed clearly for us to see. But what isn’t noticed is the sneaky and insidious ten or twenty percent that is already covered by the cost of the item. You may think a shirt costs twenty dollars quote-unquote ‘before tax’, but how much of that twenty dollars goes to the gas tax paid by the trucker who brought the shirt to the store, or the tax the shirt maker paid when they bought the fabric, the property tax the store pays, or the employment tax each and every person involved with making that shirt pays? All of those taxes are lumped into the twenty-dollar cost of that shirt. The cost you think is ‘before tax.’ Again, I remind you… wherein lies the gold, lies the power.
Many may think that government oversight keeps us safe, and is worth the various taxes, the costs of those oversights and regulations… they contend that without government regulations companies would be selling snake oil and unsafe or even deadly products. They will loudly protest that without such government oversight toys would be covered in lead-based paints, toothbrushes would suddenly become unsafe and poison would instantly appear in household products. Ignoring the fact that these horrendous events have taken place even with government regulations in place, keep in mind Consumer Reports and Underwriters’ Laboratories are NOT government institutions, and yet they do more on a yearly basis to keep us safe than billions of dollars of ‘government oversight.’ Furthermore, in this day and age of massive and instantaneous communication, word of mouth is no longer just neighbors talking over the fence… it is blogs, websites, text messaging, and untrammeled sharing of warning and opinions never before seen in history. Ask Cathy Lee Gifford what devastating effects ‘word of mouth’ can have. Her reputation and business were destroyed with unfounded accusations, and all the government oversight in the country didn’t defend her.
I am in no way saying we don’t need any government, any regulations, or any oversight. What I am saying is that, like a patient that has been overdosed with a beneficial drug, too much will kill us. It will kill our economy, and thereby our country, in many ways it already has.
The perception that companies are flocking overseas so executives and CEO’s can merely pad their wallets and satisfy an insatiable sense of greed is disingenuous at least and class-baiting at worst. Companies flock to greener pastures just as any entity will migrate to a friendlier climate… friendlier work environments with lower tax burdens, less regulations and less government and union interference.
They don’t flee tax burdens because they are unpatriotic; many do it because the very survival of their company depends on it. When union shops are forced to pay ten dollars or more per hour than their non-union competitors, and when companies must pay millions to conform to government regulations it is not a question of greed, it is a question of unsustainable overhead. If there is a question of greed, it is one that should be asked of the worker who would prefer to see his employer go under rather than take a five dollar an hour pay cut… who has no problem with every one of his coworkers being thrown out of a job as his company goes bankrupt, but can not bear the thought of seeing a reduction in his pension. Therein lies the true greed! When union workers can not be fired or laid off, and must be paid overly generous pensions one can not lay the accusation of greed on the administration alone.
Many will say this is a country of the “haves” and the “have nots”; they will say it is a country of the “rich” and of the “lower and middle-classes.” They refuse to see it is a country of the employers and the employees, and it is indisputable that each group needs the other. Employers need to create work environments in which workers are proud to contribute to the goals of the company, they are compensated fairly, and their concerns are heard and addressed by the higher-up’s. In return, the loyalty and productivity of the worker rewards the employer. But as with every aspect in our lives, government intrusion does not help to build this amicable relationship, in fact it creates a situation where either side tries to influence the third party, the government, in order to gain an ally against the other. Managers and executives contribute to campaigns to gain favor, and unions do likewise. The candidates and the government make out like bandits by playing both sides against each other and reaping the benefits of the battle.
In every aspect of our lives, one must recognize that the heartless, cold, and calculating government serves little purpose except to perpetuate its own existence. It may dress itself up in the flag, in grandiose and benevolent facades of servitude and reverence to populace ideals, but the heart and soul of America are not in Washington DC! Our elected representatives talk of a two thousand dollar tax credit when most wouldn’t blink at dropping two thousand in an hour or two of shopping! Not one person in that chamber – Congressmen, Senators, or the President – would consider two thousand dollars anything but petty change in their own lives. How can they possibly understand our hopes, needs, or even our lives? They have valets, drivers, staffs, consultants, second houses and lavish two-hour lunches. Obama praised his $13 a week relief checks when he himself wouldn’t know what it feels like to thrill at finding thirteen dollars in a pocket. To him and the other millionaires in the chamber, bending over to pick up a ten-dollar bill would be a waste of effort.
The values, the ideals and the very essence of America will not and cannot be found within the beltway. Honesty integrity, courage, innovation, neighborly concern and self-sacrifice… those things are found in the farmlands from Ohio to Nebraska, the ranges of Texas, Oklahoma and Montana. They are found in the high altitudes of Colorado and South Dakota when perfect strangers help dig a fellow citizen’s car out of a snow drift. They are found in Kansas when you see scores of people gathering to distribute food and water to tornado victims. The spirit of America… that spirit of fellowship, of dreaming, of hard work and just rewards… the spirit that drives the American Dream (a spirit not shared by our illegal visitors from the south I might add), is found in Americans… those millions of unexalted and unrecognized American citizens that don’t consider themselves above the law or too important to play by the rules… those that aren’t in a Presidential Cabinet or sitting in a Congressional Chamber.
And so we must recognize that the solutions to our problems will not and cannot be found in Washington DC. The survival of our nation is now and always has been most assured when it is in the hands of the American people.
If we relinquish our money, and thereby our power and our freedom to the cold machine in Washington it will only spend that money to perpetuate its own existence, to feed its own unslakable appetite, and to claim more power for itself. The solution, the ONLY solution is to elect representatives who would return the gold, the power, and the control of this country to the people who the founders intended… us the citizens.
I only fear a day will come when the people can no longer ask for that return of power and will choose to wrest it by force!
The debate before us is an ages old one dating back to our founding fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, to the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, to the Union States and to the Confederacy, to every Presidency and every Congress in our history.
The eternal question it seems in American governance is to which side the scales of power will tilt. Wise founders like Jefferson envisioned a union of individual states that teetered precariously close to controlled anarchy, others in history, such as FDR imagined a country in which the federal government guided, protected and influenced nearly every aspect of our daily lives.
Our job, our sacred duty as citizens of this incredible country is to instruct our elected representatives and provide guidance; dictating to them exactly which course we (as a nation) shall take. Whether that course be one of Capitalism or Socialism, government control or restraint, expansion or contraction we, as American citizens control that destiny.
As a nation built upon capitalist philosophies, or economy is intricately woven into our democracy, to address one aspect while ignoring the other is not only naive, but inexcusably foolish.
In any form of government, (but most predominately in ours) there is a perverse but undeniable version of a golden rule – whomever holds the gold makes the rules.
So it is even in a republic such as ours. When the Federal Government holds the gold and lends the gold, it can place strings, restrictions and controls on how that money is spent. And with each string, with each restriction and with each control the liberty and freedom of the recipient is compromised.
It is every American’s right to place the power and responsibility into the hands of their government if they so choose, but please, do not do so without a full understanding of everything it entails. Freedom IS a zero-sum equation; the more gold, the more power a citizen relinquishes to the government, the less they retain for themselves.
I had a friend when I was younger whose parents bought him a car, paid his insurance and faithfully filled the tank with gas. In exchange for their generosity, he had to run errands for them, couldn’t drive the car beyond a certain distance, and had to have any venture he took approved in advance; after all… it was really their car. They paid for it and had every right to dictate how it would be used. If he wanted the freedom to drive where he wanted, how he wanted, and when he wanted he would have to purchase and maintain his own car.
Many of us as parents have uttered those dreaded words “while you’re living under my roof you will abide by my rules.”
Every cent of tax we allow our representatives to strip from our paychecks is one more step we take back into that environment of parental dictatorship… only we have exchanged the warmth of a loving and concerned parent for the dictates of a cold and self-interested machine called the government.
Most of us don’t even grasp just how controlling and dictatorial this intrusive parent already is in our lives. You brush your teeth with a toothbrush that has gone through months of scrutiny before it is approved by our ‘parent’ the government, the fuel we place in our gas tank must meet an inordinate number of examinations and regulations before we are graciously permitted to use it.
To the extraordinarily wise founders such as Thomas Jefferson, this subtle intrusion into our liberties would be unconscionable enough in and of itself, but realize that with every inspection, every regulation and every invasion into our freedom comes a bureaucracy that sucks even more of our personal income in order to maintain itself.
Our local sales taxes are obvious and evident on our sales receipts; seven, eight, or even ten percent of our purchase is added directly to the cost and printed clearly for us to see. But what isn’t noticed is the sneaky and insidious ten or twenty percent that is already covered by the cost of the item. You may think a shirt costs twenty dollars quote-unquote ‘before tax’, but how much of that twenty dollars goes to the gas tax paid by the trucker who brought the shirt to the store, or the tax the shirt maker paid when they bought the fabric, the property tax the store pays, or the employment tax each and every person involved with making that shirt pays? All of those taxes are lumped into the twenty-dollar cost of that shirt. The cost you think is ‘before tax.’ Again, I remind you… wherein lies the gold, lies the power.
Many may think that government oversight keeps us safe, and is worth the various taxes, the costs of those oversights and regulations… they contend that without government regulations companies would be selling snake oil and unsafe or even deadly products. They will loudly protest that without such government oversight toys would be covered in lead-based paints, toothbrushes would suddenly become unsafe and poison would instantly appear in household products. Ignoring the fact that these horrendous events have taken place even with government regulations in place, keep in mind Consumer Reports and Underwriters’ Laboratories are NOT government institutions, and yet they do more on a yearly basis to keep us safe than billions of dollars of ‘government oversight.’ Furthermore, in this day and age of massive and instantaneous communication, word of mouth is no longer just neighbors talking over the fence… it is blogs, websites, text messaging, and untrammeled sharing of warning and opinions never before seen in history. Ask Cathy Lee Gifford what devastating effects ‘word of mouth’ can have. Her reputation and business were destroyed with unfounded accusations, and all the government oversight in the country didn’t defend her.
I am in no way saying we don’t need any government, any regulations, or any oversight. What I am saying is that, like a patient that has been overdosed with a beneficial drug, too much will kill us. It will kill our economy, and thereby our country, in many ways it already has.
The perception that companies are flocking overseas so executives and CEO’s can merely pad their wallets and satisfy an insatiable sense of greed is disingenuous at least and class-baiting at worst. Companies flock to greener pastures just as any entity will migrate to a friendlier climate… friendlier work environments with lower tax burdens, less regulations and less government and union interference.
They don’t flee tax burdens because they are unpatriotic; many do it because the very survival of their company depends on it. When union shops are forced to pay ten dollars or more per hour than their non-union competitors, and when companies must pay millions to conform to government regulations it is not a question of greed, it is a question of unsustainable overhead. If there is a question of greed, it is one that should be asked of the worker who would prefer to see his employer go under rather than take a five dollar an hour pay cut… who has no problem with every one of his coworkers being thrown out of a job as his company goes bankrupt, but can not bear the thought of seeing a reduction in his pension. Therein lies the true greed! When union workers can not be fired or laid off, and must be paid overly generous pensions one can not lay the accusation of greed on the administration alone.
Many will say this is a country of the “haves” and the “have nots”; they will say it is a country of the “rich” and of the “lower and middle-classes.” They refuse to see it is a country of the employers and the employees, and it is indisputable that each group needs the other. Employers need to create work environments in which workers are proud to contribute to the goals of the company, they are compensated fairly, and their concerns are heard and addressed by the higher-up’s. In return, the loyalty and productivity of the worker rewards the employer. But as with every aspect in our lives, government intrusion does not help to build this amicable relationship, in fact it creates a situation where either side tries to influence the third party, the government, in order to gain an ally against the other. Managers and executives contribute to campaigns to gain favor, and unions do likewise. The candidates and the government make out like bandits by playing both sides against each other and reaping the benefits of the battle.
In every aspect of our lives, one must recognize that the heartless, cold, and calculating government serves little purpose except to perpetuate its own existence. It may dress itself up in the flag, in grandiose and benevolent facades of servitude and reverence to populace ideals, but the heart and soul of America are not in Washington DC! Our elected representatives talk of a two thousand dollar tax credit when most wouldn’t blink at dropping two thousand in an hour or two of shopping! Not one person in that chamber – Congressmen, Senators, or the President – would consider two thousand dollars anything but petty change in their own lives. How can they possibly understand our hopes, needs, or even our lives? They have valets, drivers, staffs, consultants, second houses and lavish two-hour lunches. Obama praised his $13 a week relief checks when he himself wouldn’t know what it feels like to thrill at finding thirteen dollars in a pocket. To him and the other millionaires in the chamber, bending over to pick up a ten-dollar bill would be a waste of effort.
The values, the ideals and the very essence of America will not and cannot be found within the beltway. Honesty integrity, courage, innovation, neighborly concern and self-sacrifice… those things are found in the farmlands from Ohio to Nebraska, the ranges of Texas, Oklahoma and Montana. They are found in the high altitudes of Colorado and South Dakota when perfect strangers help dig a fellow citizen’s car out of a snow drift. They are found in Kansas when you see scores of people gathering to distribute food and water to tornado victims. The spirit of America… that spirit of fellowship, of dreaming, of hard work and just rewards… the spirit that drives the American Dream (a spirit not shared by our illegal visitors from the south I might add), is found in Americans… those millions of unexalted and unrecognized American citizens that don’t consider themselves above the law or too important to play by the rules… those that aren’t in a Presidential Cabinet or sitting in a Congressional Chamber.
And so we must recognize that the solutions to our problems will not and cannot be found in Washington DC. The survival of our nation is now and always has been most assured when it is in the hands of the American people.
If we relinquish our money, and thereby our power and our freedom to the cold machine in Washington it will only spend that money to perpetuate its own existence, to feed its own unslakable appetite, and to claim more power for itself. The solution, the ONLY solution is to elect representatives who would return the gold, the power, and the control of this country to the people who the founders intended… us the citizens.
I only fear a day will come when the people can no longer ask for that return of power and will choose to wrest it by force!
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