Pres. Bush and Pres. Obama

  Yesterday in an interview with Katie Couric, Pres. Obama made a startling claim.  He was defending his desire to hold civilian trials for terrorists.  It was interesting to hear his reaction to the objections to those trials.  He mentioned the security concerns for New York, the cost concerns, etc.  He also continued to push for his desire to have those trials.  And guess what?

  He said that he is doing what Pres. Bush did after 9/11.  Remember the shoe bomber Richard Reid?  He was tried in a civilian court and convicted.  So, now Pres. Obama is using Bush as an example for his policy?  What, I thought Bush was a war criminal.  The left wants to lock him up for life for defending the country.  They want to show to the world that we are better than how Bush treated people who were trying to kill us.  They want to use Bush/Cheney as an example of what is wrong with the world.  What will they say about this?

  This is what happens when you freak out and go off the deep end.  Instead of criticizing a specific policy, the left went after Bush as a terrorist in his own right.  Now, when it appears he actually did some things Obama agrees with, they look like they are on the fringe.  Don’t get me wrong, the right does it too.  And this is the problem.  Instead of focusing on the issue, we get into personal attacks and when something like this happens it is too late to come back.  Sorry left because I am sure you are disappointed that Pres. Obama agrees with Pres. Bush.

Do you cut spending when times are tough?

I read an article recently talking about how ridiculous it is for the government to cut spending during a recession.  The author went on to imply normal citizens do not even cut spending during tough times because ‘the bills have to be paid.’  Either this guy is a rich man who has never seen tough times and/or he is clueless on how most of us work.

Do you cut spending when times are rough?  We do and we have.  What have we cut?  I mean, the bills have to be paid right?  Well, what about cutting the bills?  Now that would be something the government has never tried.  For example, how about dropping your cable service down a notch or two?  That would save some cash.  My wife and I dropped our cell phone plan to the next level of minutes and have saved over $20 a month.  What are some other things we have done?

How about not eating out every other day?  Using redbox.com instead of Blockbuster.  Going to a matinee instead of the Friday or Saturday showing.  These are just some of the small things we have done to cut back.  We also use tons of coupons, pay more of the generic stuff such as chips, cheese, etc.  Our last trip to the grocery store saw over $26 in savings due to coupons.  Why am I bringing all of this up?

I am tired of ‘economists’ pulling the ‘we must spend during a recession’ card.  I understand there are complex issues involved and a massive economy such as our nation’s is different than our personal one.  However, there is no reason we must keep spending trillions and trillions of dollars we simply do not have.  The debt is continuing to rise and there is no end in sight.

Stop the stimulus money now.  Pull the excess that has not been spent off the street.  Take all TARP money that is returned and throw it on the debt.  Which, by the way, is the current law.  Immediately cut taxes on small businesses who are hiring.  Not tax credits, but real and deep tax cuts.  I will not continue to sit by and listen to this notion we must spend when we do not have any money.

Entitlement mentality

  Our elected officials these days are so out of touch with reality it is scary.  There is this mindset that somehow they deserve to be treated like royalty.  Treated with respect?  Yes, without a doubt.  Treated like royalty?  Never, remember 1776?  When did we move from civil servants serving their fellow man to leaders who are so smart they must rule us? 

  One example of this is the news concerning House members flying to Copenhagen on the taxpayer dime.  Not only did they fly, eat, and stay there, they brought along guests.  Aren’t we in a recession?  Isn’t the average person doing everything they can go save money?  And, isn’t the Senate the ones who ratify treaties in the first place?  Maybe we should require our leaders to read the Constitution if they are going to rule over us.

  This mentality is also apparent in Massachusetts. (I spelled that right unlike the Democrat running for Senate)  The story goes like this…since Ted Kennedy held this seat it should go to someone (a Democrat) who will uphold his values and vote for health care.  This is absolutely the exact opposite of our system of governmetn but they don’t seem to care.  How about voting for the most qualified person who best represents your views?  If that is the Democrat then great.  But please don’t vote for them just because of the letter behind their name. 

  Both parties are guilty of this.  It makes me sick to my stomach.  It has gotten so bad now that when a ‘regular’ person runs they are labeled as unqualified.  Really?  You mean, owning a business, making payroll, balancing a budget makes you unqualified to be a congressman?  And, never holding a real job and living off taxpayer money makes you qualified?  Give me a break.  And we wonder why we are in the shape we’re in.

Waiting on Sen. Harry Reid’s resignation

Former Sen. Trent Lott resigned in 2002 over racist comments at a ceremony for Strom Thurmond.  Sen. Reid at the time said Lott had no choice and made the right decision in leaving office.  Then Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama also chimed in and called on the Republican Party to do the right thing by removing Lott.  Now we come to 2010.  During the election cycle in 2008 Sen. Reid called Pres. Obama ‘light-skinned’ with ‘no negro dialect.’  Can you imagine what would be happening if Reid was a Republican?

My initial reaction to this was to assume it was overblown by the media.  Then I read the stories and realized the media wasn’t asking for Reid to do anything, they were excited he apologized.  When did he apologize?  Within the last 36 hours.  That’s right.  He felt so bad over what he said in 2008 he waited until a book comes out in 2010 to apologize.  Class act.

I ask anyone and everyone to hold our elected officials to the same standard.  If a Republican has to resign over comments then so should a Democrat.  Lott apologized within the same week after his comments and tried to explain.  It took Reid over a year to apologize.  I am not holding my breath on the resignation but I am watching his poll numbers.  And they are dropping like a rock.  So, either Reid will grow some character and do the right thing, or we will just have to beat him in November.

Sen. Chris Dodd, we hardly knew ya

Bye bye Mr Dodd.  It has been fun getting to know you over these last several years.  Being from Connecticut and all doesn’t give you the attention other senators get from the big states.  However, you made a name for yourself and served your party well.  What you did for and to the country, well that is another story.  But hey, being a good Democrat is more important than serving the people isn’t it?

Your ‘friends of Angelo’ mortgage with Countrywide should have landed you in prison and definitely gotten you removed from office.  But hey, what’s a little kickback among friends right?  I mean, the way you and Barney Frank pushed those bills through Congress freeing up those clowns to offer sub-prime loans was great work.  You guys are the masters at ripping people off and getting away with it.  You even managed to lay the blame elsewhere even though your fingerprints are all over the housing crisis we have endured.

But, people started paying attention, stopped listening to your party line crap and investigated for themselves.  Democrat or Republican, when you guys start living and acting like you are above the people you serve, the kitchen gets a little hot.  People in Connecticut were waking up to your ways and you were trailing badly in all the polls.  Even the all wise VP Biden said you were getting your ‘***’ kicked.  Not much confidence in you from on high.  So, you headed for the exits like any brave, courageous leader would.  Instead of trying to defend your actions and record, you bolt for the huge private sector salaries.

Countrywide is now forever linked to what happened and is still happening in our nation.  And, hopefully if things keep going well and people keep reading, you will be as well.  Sen. Chris Dodd, we are really starting to figure you who you are.

You said it Mr. President…

  During the campaign Pres. Obama said he wanted the health care debate to be televised on C-Span so the American people could hear who was standing up for them and who was standing up for the insurance companies.  Well, word is out now that Democrats are planning on have closed door meetings to iron out the different bills between the house and senate.

  This is a shock to me.  How could these congressional Democrats go against their President?  He said he wanted the hearings to be public and open.  Not only are they going to have closed door meetings, they are going to bypass the normal committee rules.  And, they are not inviting any Republicans in to confer with them.  Great bi-partisan spirit in Washington these days.

  I can’t wait for Pres. Obama to address this and demand congress follow his words.  He will admonish them to open the hearings so the American people can see and understand all that is going into this bill.  He will ask for the bill to be posted on the web for 72 hours, another one of his promises.  He will demand Republican ideas be considered due to his pledge of more bi-partisanship. 

  Well, he probably won’t do any of that.  He will let the congressional leaders continue to ignore the wishes of the American people.  He will allow Pelosi and Reid to push through a terrible bill with secret meetings behind closed doors.  Remember how open everything was going to be once we got the evil Bush out of Washington?  Yup, very open…so open C-Span has written a letter asking the leaders to show the hearings.  Don’t hold your breath guys.

Politics and Terrorism

There is a lot of talk going on since the attempted attack on Christmas.  Both parties have been going back and forth to lay blame and point fingers.  The republicans accuse Pres. Obama of being slow to the dance and not taking the threat serious enough.  Pres. Obama’s DHS secretary didn’t help matters when she said the ’system worked’ when it clearly didn’t.  Pres. Obama himself said things that seemed odd like ‘isolated extremist’, ‘allegedly tried to light explosives’, and not directly referring to it as terrorism.

Now, using the word ‘terror’ is not some magic formula to make everything right.  But, I am all about calling it like it is.  This kid was from Yemen and was a terrorist.  That is not a racist statement or in anyway a shot at a specific religion or country.  It is a term to describe actions like trying to blow up an airplane.  Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, white, black, it doesn’t matter.  You try to blow up a plane with 300 people on board and you are a terrorist.  Period.

The democrats have also laid some blame at the feet of Sen. DeMint.  He is holding up the confirmation of Obama’s nomination to head the TSA.  Why?  Because the TSA nominee seems to favor the unionization of the administration.  Unions are another conversation but in this instance that would be a terrible idea.  Federal employees should not be allowed to unionization.  Especially employees in charge of securing airports.  Imagine the lines if these guys decide to go on strike!  DeMint has every right to disagree with a specific issue with a nominee, that is his job as a senator.  And, the position is not empty as the liberals would have you believe.  There is an acting director.

But this brings me to my finally point.  Why is everything so complicated?  Have you seen the organizational charts for the TSA, the Homeland Security, etc.?  No wonder these agendas can’t talk to each other and get their facts straight.  We if as a nation are going to seriously address this issue and combat it, we must streamline our defenses.  Homeland Security was supposed to do that and Pres. Bush’s administration wanted all the agencies to communicate.  But it is not working.  We are seeing the same turf wars and in-fighting as we did before 9/11.  I don’t have many answers but I am frustrated at the inefficiency of our government.  We need to take politics completely out of security and get to work.

Taxes, taxes, and more taxes

I read an article this morning about America’s allergic reaction to taxes.  It talked about how the wealthiest Americans were paying 90% during WWII and not complaining.  Pretty unique circumstance in my opinion but anyway.  The author went on to talk about Pres. Reagan describing Walter Mondale as a ‘tax and spend liberal’ (which he was by the way).  The point of the article was we need to get past this negative reaction we have to taxes in order to move forward as a society.  You know, to have enough money to pay for everything.

I feel like this author does not really understand why some of us (most of us) do not like paying taxes.  Its not because we hate people less fortunate than us.  Its not because we don’t want to fund things we need like defense, clean water, and paved roads.  Its not because we are selfish and greedy.  One of the main reasons is because we aren’t getting anything for our money.  We feel like we are flushing money down the toilet every year at tax time and every week as we see our check.

The roads are not paved…I don’t know how many times I have ran over a pot-hole.  Most people drink filtered or bottled water because they don’t want to drink water straight from the tap.  Anyone under 40 can forget about drawing anything from social security that will sustain them in retirement.  Yet we pay taxes every week to that end.  We are paying into a system to fund those that are currently drawing from it.  You see my point?  We will pay taxes as long as we feel like we are getting value for our money.  We pay for lots of things because we see the value they bring to our lives.  Taxes is not one of those things.

Until the government shows us it can effectively manage money we will feel this way about taxes.  It is funny to read these things and think about how ‘progressive’ they are.  Haven’t we been talking about more taxes for a long time?  I thought a ‘progressive’ society would be able to come up with new ideas and new strategies for raising money.  The only strategy coming from our government now is spend money and raise taxes.  Let’s think of some new things boys…this is getting really old.

Quick question?

Did they read the terrorist who tried to blow up an airplane in Detroit his Miranda rights?  Was he booked at the local police station and given a phone call to his attorney?  Does he have an attorney yet?  If not, are officials allowed to talk to him to find out who he has been in contact with regarding this incident?

I ask these questions in a very serious manner.  There is no sarcasm here.  Because, if we are now having trials for these terrorists a judge may throw it out on a technicality.  If a judge will not give these guys the same trial he would any other criminal, what is the point of a civilian trial?  You see the point I am trying to make?  We are in limbo on these things if they play out this way.

The example of the blind sheik in 1993 is always used.  He was tried and convicted to spend life in prison for the first World Trade Center attacks.  Can it be done properly?  Sure.  But, due to our court system and the massive amounts of rules designed to protect civilians, there is always a chance.  Do I trust our judicial system to ‘get it right?’  Not really to be honest.  How many guilty people have gotten off because some cop forgot to do something?  And, a favorite of the liberals, how many innocent people have been locked up?  So I do not trust our judicial system to handle these terrorists.

This is not a criminal act.  This is a war.  Whether you want to deal with it or not is not an option.  We launched cruise missiles into Yemen just a week or so ago.  We are in Afghanistan right now trying to stop terrorists.  And remember, Pres. Obama sees the need in Afghanistan and he ordered the missiles into Yemen.  You don’t launch missiles at criminals.

Is shoplifting ok if you are broke?

  Recently, a priest in the UK told his congretation to shoplift for food or other necessities if they couldn’t buy it.  His reasoning was there are violent acts taking place such as robberies in the effort of obtain goods, at least shoplifting is non-violent.  He also said to rob the big stores and not the mom and pop places.  He mentioned how the Lord would understand that you were stealing to feed yourself and your family and not to just commit a crime.

  What he didn’t mention was how his church was helping the poor.  They very well may be, I do not know.  My purpose is not to bash them or question their hearts in regards to giving.  But, when you say something as out there as this you open yourself up for questions like:  Why are you suggesting this and not suggesting they come to your church for a meal if they are hungry?  Instead of stealing to feed themselves, why not suggest members of your church bring in can goods to give away to those in need?  Perhaps you are doing this but surely you could mention it at the same time you are advocating committing a crime.

  Now, I understand there are those who are slipping through the cracks and are hurting.  This is precisely why we need churches and charities to step up and offer some assistance.  Our local churches do something called Room in the Inn.  In the colder months each church takes turns housing the homeless in the area.  Every night they are given a bed, a meal, and a warm place to rest.  In the other months there are constant food drives, clothes drives, and various other activities.  We are not perfect and do not do enough to meet the needs of others.  But, this is what we are called to do if we really believe what Jesus says. 

  Since this is Christmas, it is the perfect time to reflect on all of these things.  When people fall through the cracks, and they will because we are an imperfect society, who is there to pick them up?  Do we wait on others or do we step up to help?  It could be us in that same boat someday.  We need to serve our fellow man in any way we can.  Not because the government tells us to or implements some program.  We need to because it is the right thing to do.  Period.