Rants and Raves

    

There has been a haunting chain of events taking place as our new President chooses the people who will rule this country, and I wonder just exactly what any of us can do to stop it. Certainly, these events began long before our current leader’s time, and have continued for generations, but never before has such a level of corruption been so transparent. And so unanswered.   

We now have multiple officials being placed in the highest offices in our nation despite not having paid their fair share of tax contributions for excessisve amonuts of time. There are even more officials who have openly recieved appalling amounts of money from various corporations and foreign countries in exchange for political favors that may or may not be harmful to the American people, all without any sort of reprimand or recourse. We have “former” terrorists teaching in our schools, proclaiming the righeousness of past bombings on American soil, and being given the highest level of credibility from the same highly corrupt institutions who will instantly terminate anyone who might speak of God in their classroom or refuse to teach “soft” science (global warming, for instance) as hard fact despite the growing number of opposing scientific viewpoints. 

What have we come to in this country when we no longer allow our young scholars to openly debate both sides of these important issues? What do we tell our veterans who fought and bled for us, losing friends and family alike to the enemies of freedom when we demonize them without justification for performing their duties to the best of their abilities? And there should be no doubts as to who those enemies are when they have openly declared their opposition to allowing any Americans to continue to breath as long as cold blood runs through their veins. What can Christian parents tell their children when the school teaches them morals that are exactly opposite of those they learn at home? Or when they aren’t allowed to pray or even speak God’s name for fear of some thin-skinned God-hater taking offense?

All of the American offenders would be the worst sort of criminals if they didn’t have the endless resources to avoid any kind of scrutiny or investigation. All of the foreign enemies would be as good as dead as they plot against our citizens and successfully kill our soldiers if they didn’t have so many friends in high places to smooth things over for them. In both cases, the media, (if we can even call them so anymore) gives passes freely as they sympathize with every anti-American agenda. And why not? Those criminals make them money, and give them opportunities for fame; who wouldn’t betray their country for that?   

I wouldn’t, for one. And there are millions of people like me who wouldn’t either. Millions of us are disgusted with the place that these people have brought us to, but we feel helpless in our tiny abilites to make a difference. Are any of us perfect? No. Absolutely not. But to all people who would listen, I have a message that needs to be heard loud and clear. For conservatives and liberals, Christians and atheists, freedom lovers and terrorists, democracies and dictators, the message is the same: 

Absolute power corrupts, absolutely. Hatred blinds, no matter its percieved justification. Lies only breed more lies until no one can trust anyone. We have gone too far, and it is time for a massive correction. We must turn from our ways or be destroyed by our own addictions. We must stop! I can say it no other way. 

I was always confused by the expression “History repeats itself” until I looked around and started comparing our “unprecedented” times to the same ones we experienced not so long before. We have been here before, and countless nations have been here before us. The actions have always been similar, if not identical, and the results have always been the same. When a cancer grows unchecked, or even fed to the exclusion of the rest of the body, it will grow to obstruct every healthy thing until nothing is left but the cancer. 

God help us all if we cannot, or will not, listen to His reason.   

   

Isn’t it interesting that the people who proclaim loudest that they are reaching out as bipartisans to accomplish their agendas are also the quickest to ditch the proclamation when they don’t need it. In the latest stinkulus bill discussion, the Republicans were certainly invited to attend the meeting; they simply weren’t allowed to participate.  

“I won” Barack said to the top Republicans when they pointed out that 90% of the legislative abomination is nothing more than pork. In other words, too bad. You can’t do anything about it, and your input means nothing here. Barack certainly did win. And now he has successfully outraged every conservative with a voice and every taxpayer with the ability to see what his great stimulus plan is really funding. Beginning with that comment, many of us are already counting down until the next round of elections in 2010, when the pork bill won’t have done anything more for the economy than the last pork bills did, and the “I won” statement can be stuck right back in his face by American voters.   

Having secured their positions and having eliminated the opposition, Barack and Pelosi have no need to be bipartisan anymore. They’ve got that good old feeling of invincibility as they look at the next two years without checks or balances to stop them; they can see no end to the amount of taxpayer money they can spend. For now.    

As for the truly bipartisan position, as conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh so elequently points out, 11 democrats and every last Republican with a vote said no to the stinkulous bill, teaming up in an attempt to deflate a number of dangerously pressurized political egos. Naturally, the side of reason was still not powerful enough in this climate, but I wonder exactly how hypocritical Obama and Pelosi feel today with that knowledge, considering their constant outcries of bipartisanship. My guess is not at all. That would, after all, require a conscience combined with the ability to logically think.  

   

I write this post today with the hope of understanding exactly why socialism seems so appealing to so many people today. Is it that other people’s money is simply better than our own? (Lord knows my bank account ain’t too pretty…) Or maybe it is because the upper class people in our society have attained a reputation for being particularly low down and dirty. Whatever the reason, I just can’t bring myself to believe that “taxing the rich” equates to anything but legalized theft.   

Maybe I’m just a dumb conservative, but isn’t this the land of equality, where the color of your skin, and your religious preference shouldn’t influence your chances for success? It seems incongruous to me that we should work so hard to ensure equality among ourselves, but then look the other way when we decide how much of our incomes we should have to give away to an already top-heavy government. There is no logical justification for taking 70% of a rich man’s money (as Carter did) while taking 15% of a lower-middle classman’s. I can only think of greed and envy as motives, which is perhaps why I’m still against the idea.  

Here in America, our greatest hope, and even our foundation, is our freedom. The sky is no longer a limit to the things we can achieve if we set our minds to do so. But if we continue down this path, we will do nothing but break the wings of anyone who dares to try. Equality doesn’t mean that we all have to be chopped down to the same level; it means that we all have the same freedom to pursue our ambitions, and it’s up to us to come up with the determination and the know-how.   

Please, share your thoughts on the issue and, if you’re a hardcore tax-the-rich liberal, help me understand your justification for your beliefs. 

  

I’ve got two words today that are sure to aggrevate anyone with an ounce of sense or a drop of integrity. Now that we’ve ruled the liberals  out, those words are Tim and Geithner.   

We might as well dispense with the overplayed rhetoric and sidestepping of every crooked politician who supports the appointment of yet another crooked politician. Geithner is a tax-dodging greed machine, much like every other suit in Washington, which is exactly why no one is pointing the finger at him. When in Rome, I suppose, you gotta eat your heart out and then barf like the rest of them or you don’t earn the official golden seal.  

The new political catchphrase to justify Geithner’s tax evasion is “sloppy.” “He’s a sloppy guy, which I can appreciate because I’m sloppy too…”(paraphrased). …Know what that  means? He’s not considered sloppy because he “forgot” to pay his taxes; he’s sloppy because he got caught. For four years. After he got paid extra money for the sole purpose of paying his taxes.  

The only reason this guy is not in jail is that he’s a politician, and when politicians commit crimes-even Federal offenses-they’re not really crimes anymore. They’re momentary judgement failures, or coincidental slips of the [lack of] mind, and nobody would hold a guy accountable for only four years of consecutive Federal crimes. Come on guys, is this America, or isn’t it? Just look the other way like the rest of us….    

So, despite the public outcry for something approaching sanity, Geithner is going to head up the IRS. And the next time the IRS sends a letter to a citizen who didn’t pay their taxes, the reply will read something like “I’ll pay mine the same way you paid yours. See ya in about 4 years, sucka, and I’d better get a nice position in the government for my trouble.”   

Does anyone even realize that Geithner doesn’t even qualify to work the offender’s line at the IRS? Doesn’t it seem odd for someone who couldn’t obtain one of the lowest positions available to take charge of the whole operation? Maybe we should all follow the example and oust the existing corporate leadership structures in America, to replace them with janitorial temps. (Wait a second, that’s actually not a bad idea…)  

For anyone out there who doesn’t have their head buried in the sand (again, just plug your ears, lefties, this won’t take a minute), I pray that people like you, who still choose to think and use reason, can take and hold positions of influence before we all find ourselves subjects to King George Obama III the all-merciful.  

Maybe I just can’t stand all this because it seems like we’ve been here before. As  a matter of fact, it seems like we’ve fought and won wars, simply to remove ourselves from corruption. United States Constitution sound familiar to anyone? No? I didn’t think it would. They say history repeats itself, but I’m personally not a big fan of deja-vu.   

 

As difficult as it sometimes is, I decided to watch Chris Matthews for a few minutes today, asking his panel of “top journalists” about how history will remember president Bush. Of course, the usual suspects were once again marched out in the debate, blaming Bush for everything from Katrina to acquiring a reputation for indecisiveness. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the overly obvious, extremely overplayed attempt to once again pin these issues on Bush, and here’s why:

 Regarding the whole Katrina issue, the response to the hurricane gave residents ample time to evacuate, as they were mandated to do. How exactly is it Bush’s fault that so many people decided to stick around anyway to pillage the place while everyone else was gone? And who, I might ask, was responsible for forcibly disarming the only citizens left who were trying to protect themselves and their property from the looters? It certainly wasn’t Bush. How is it that ordering an immediate rescue response, which removed more than 30,000 stubborn residents despite being shot at for their effort, was anything short of fulfilling his responsibility?

Sure, FEMA royally screwed up the distribution of supplies being sent in, but I still fail to see where Bush played a role in their debacle. It kind of reminds me of the whole oil conspiracy supposedly being the reason for sending troops into Iraq. If you want to swallow thinly veiled propaganda whole and call it a nutritious meal, be my guest, but don’t try to sell me the crap. Newsflash: if Bush wanted to control the middle-eastern oil supply, the Iraqi takeover would have lasted about a month at best. Not to mention that the Bush family net worth would be a heck of a lot more than it is today. What a bunch of unsubstantiated garbage.

 As far as indecisiveness goes, no American president makes decisions as big as an Iraqi war or ordering a structured relief effort without first consulting their cabinet members. That’s what the cabinet is there for. They advise the president. If Obama had acted in exactly the same way, these same cronies would be clapping their hands and pointing out how deeply he thinks and how masterfully he handled the situation. Then, when things went sour, they would point their fingers at anyone but Obama, and say “Look there, he’s the one who dared to foil our great leader’s plans!” Good Lord, aren’t these people getting just a little sick and tired of trying to make the guy look like a cross between Abraham Lincoln (who, by the way, would be rolling in his grave if he heard anyone comparing him to a socialist liberal) and the return of the Messiah?

You want to see undecisiveness? What did Clinton do when the same terrorists attacked the U.S.S. Cole? Nothing. “Defend the country? Nah, that’s too expensive. Let’s raise taxes and cut the military instead. That’ll show ‘em. Can somebody please send in the new intern?” And that’s the guy they keep raving about as a great American president. Give me a break.

Will there ever come a time when the media realizes exactly how ridiculous they look right now as they struggle so hard to achieve their political goals? Perhaps it will, but I fear that it will be far too late to help with today’s problems. And as far as the government goes, Bush included, we now live in a system that is created “of the politicians, by the politicians, and for the politicians.” And until America wakes up and smells the coffee, there is absolutely nothing that will change that. Sorry, founding fathers, and please excuse us, constitution and bill of rights, we’re just too busy right now to pay much attention.

 

What is goverment? What purpose does it serve? Why should I have to pay a hefty percentage of my income to support it? These are all valid questions that our founding fathers considered heavily as they drafted the United States of America’s Constitution that was intended to direct the growth and progression of the governement. 

Government is mainly necessary for two reasons: We need protection from those who wish to conquer or destroy us, and we need protection from ourselves as there are always those who would disrupt the lives of their neighbors for malicous resons.

The U.S. military currentlly performs a fantastic job of protecting Americans from outside harm or malicious influence, and has maintained superiority throughout the world for a very long time. The downside to this, which has glaringly become apparent in the media and throughout a number of peace organizations, is that many Americans can no longer see a reason for war, and will go to great lengths to make their opinions known, even to the extreme of inflicting harm on the U.S. military.  Sadly, if these efforts were to prove themselves to be extremely effective, those same people who inflicted harm on their protectors would very quickly discover the kinds of things they were being sheltered from.

Protection from ourselves is derived mainly through the enforcement and passage of laws that require us to act in ways that, for the most part, respect our fellow Americans as well as the outside world. While these laws are never perfect, nor the systems that create and enforce them, they are our most effective tool with which we can fight the corruption and anarchy that sometimes topples entire infrastructures in less regulated countries. 

So here’s the question: Why does the government require us to pay so much more of our incomes toward every little program they can think up? There are multitudes of charities, not-for-profit aid organizations, and plain old decent people to help reduce things like poverty and addiction as it runs rife through the population. Why is it that government must try it’s ever-failing hand at these things as well?

There are things that the government is very good at, and things that it should simply leave to the citizens. Protection is absolutely essential, and must always be at the highest of priority levels. Nearly every other pursuit, however, has been proven time and again to be handled 10 times more efficiently by private organizations.

The bottom line here is that we the people are watching as trillions of our dollars are squandered away in perhaps the most inefficient manner possible, and we are doing nothing about it. It’s time to wake up, America. It’s time to reform the system before it collapses from decay and falls to crush us all. 

The New American Reserve Fund 

With the subject of bailouts continually flooding every news network and internet site of late, it’ been hard to keep track of just exactly how many $700 billion + packages we are planning to crank out in the near future.

Some say that the national debt has grown by 6.4 trillion in the last few months while others say it’s more like 8 trillion. Whatever the real number may be, I would certainly like to know why the public doesn’t have the right to vote on it.

 How is it that the government can take our money, and as much of it as they deem proper, do what they wish with it, and then fail to publish the grand total or the amount of money being printed? Is anyone even aware of the gross level of overspending that is going on, or what the consequences for it will be? The answer is as close as the nearest history book.

Dumping money into the economy in this way didn’t help out during the great depression. In fact, according to most economic historians, it extended it. The rest of the world during that time suffered a standard economic depression, taking far less time and dealing significantly less damage than that of the American “Great” Depression. Why? Because they didn’t try any socialist methods to “stop the momentum of this economic downturn.” Because Americans used public money to fund unprofitable businesses in a futile attempt to get the ball rolling again.

The problem with the American strategy-take notes here, Washington-was that the businesses being bailed out WERE STILL UNPROFITABLE! Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. They just sucked down all that extra money and nothing really happened. And if you can believe it, people and businesses used the bail out as an easy excuse to grab as many taxpayer dollars as they could get their hands on. That reminds me, has anyone heard about American Express opening up hoardes of local banks across the country? I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Really. I mean, these days we have our histories to look to for guidance. All we need now is for a politician to actually read them and we’re rock solid. …Ah crap, who are we kidding? We’re toast. 

 

 

I began this post as a comment in response to the comments on Polianiac  but the rant took me away and it quickly became a post of its own. Check out Polianiac’s blog to get caught up with the debate, and feel free to respond here or there. This response was to Jason’s comment, which I am unsure if I can repost here, so I will simply begin. 

I think we are all tired of both Clinton and Bush. Clinton was president during a great economy. Great. It had absolutely nothing to do with him, but if people want to credit him for it then fine. We can argue economic policy and cite the leading experts until we’re blue in the face, but the fact is that none of them can agree in those areas because there are too many political statements to be made. Clinton cut military jobs, raised taxes, increased the size of government programs, and generally annoyed the crap out of me with his playboy approach at the presidency. But that’s just me.

Bush kept the country safe after 9-11. For that, I give him great credit in addition to my thanks and admiration. At least he had what it took to take action when we were attacked instead of simply ignoring it like Clinton did. If Clinton had possessed the gumption to break away from the party for a few minutes and act like an American president, the war would have began under his watch instead of Bush. Would it have begun in Iraq? Who knows? The intelligence said that Iraq was a good place to start, but Al Qa’ida infests so many countries like a plague that it could have began in a number of locations.  

Liberals love to say that the wars we are fighting are for nothing, or that Bush sent the troops in for the oil because he’s a huge oil tycoon, blah blah blah, I saw it all on the Communist News Network. Say what you will, but until you have read the intelligence reports(that even Obama wants to send troops into Afghanistan for) and sat in the chair to make the decision of how best to defend against terrorists who hide in camps scattered around the world, training young boys to hate Americans to the death, the whole load of crap is just more rhetoric to be tossed about and scattered to the wind.

The fact is that it is anyone’s right as free Americans do say the things they wish to say and either back them up or spin the facts so that they look like something akin to real proof. That right is continually preserved by the blood and the backbones of the very soldiers who are the targets for their scorn, and if you ask those fighting men and women who they voted for, the vast majority never sided with Barack Obama, contrary to the so-called media pollsters that sat and waited around for enough Barack supporters to filter through to justify turning the cameras on.

But Bush didn’t stick to the principles that I voted him in for. By the end of his latest term, he has chosen to bow to the socialists as though the New Deal was something that actually helped the country instead of prolonging the great depression. What I think we are all looking for is a politician who can stick to a set of principles for a change. Our ideas of what those principles are might vary greatly, but the best leaders in history have been those who didn’t care about being popular. They only wanted to make the right decisions for America and preserve the Republic for which they stood. Personally, I would rather vote for a left wing politician who stands clear on issues and has good reasons to back them up than for a right wing politician who regurgitates the same old wishy-washy euphemisms, rhetoric, and red herrings that everyone else in Washington loves to confuse their voters with.

And, yes, I am a right wing conservative and a Christian to boot. I believe that the courage and values in an American president were rarely so clear as they were in Ronald Reagan, who defiantly spit in the face of dictators and communists that starved their people while their bellies burst from their own gluttony. Reagan stood for what was moral and just, and to the birds with the constant dissenters who could never be happy or reach agreement about an issue. Reagan was respected. He was feared by his enemies. And it was his values and policies that got the country booming like it never has before, after the failed socialist experiment that Carter put us through.

If ever a presidential candidate arises with those same clear principles and attitude, who is willing to back statements with real facts, and strives to speak clearly so that Americans understand the reasoning behind them, I believe that we can arise from our current state of affairs and become again the great nation that is quickly fading in the murkiness. Until then, we are stuck with what we are stuck with, and it is our own citizens who put us there because “he’s a powerful speaker” or “I have to side with my race or gender.” Maybe someday, we’ll realize that there is significantly more to a leader than looks and words.

 

 

 

What is it about Israel that the Media seems to hate so much? Israel has endured rocket attacks and the stealing of her land with rarely a blink as her women and children became prime targets for terrorist attacks. Hamas openly insults Israel on an hourly basis, declaring jihad on a national level and placing civilian homes and schoolbuses in their croshairs to make a statement. For years, Israeli civilians have lost life and limb at their hands, and yet the mainstream media doesn’t see fit to tell anyone about it. 

When Israel is finally provoked enough to respond and the bombs begin to fall, the media puts front page focus on the number of civilians killed and the overwhelming attack against the helpless terrorists. Every story tells of the tragedies in Palestine and the Gaza strip, showing endless pictures and footage of young boys and their mothers fleeing in the streets. Where were those cameras when Israel’s women and children were maimed and killed? Where was the media’s interest in attrocities against the Jews? 

Hamas is an organization with no respect for human life outside of their insiders and their religion. Apparently, it is exactly these kinds of people that the mainstream media sympathizes with most, taking extra efforts to portray their struggle against the world as something that has been more than justified and long overdue. 

It is for exactly this reason that the mainstream media is quickly dwindling, with a percentage of trusting followers that is lower than Congress’ approval rating. The real mystery is how they can find so many anti-Americans  to cover their overly-biased stories from among the American population. Then again, it seems to be a liberal requirement to be exactly that. Anti-American. And there are certainly plenty of those to go around, none of whom seem to mind a little bending of the truth to accomplish an agenda.

The curse of the American liberal is that he is ashamed of his country nearly as much as he is ashamed of himself. I cannot and will not tolerate the mindless bumper sticker propaganda of liberals, enforcing their twisted versions of fairness on people who support them because they have been duped into the belief that it is for the greater good. Freedom is for the greater good. Free markets. Free people. Free spirits. 

Freedom is the arch-enemy of liberalism because it cannot be controlled by governments and laws, making it impossible for the soulless users of other people to profit from. Freedom is in the heart and the mind, and it is for freedom that this country was founded.

I, for one, will continue to stand for freedom as an American and as a conservative, and as a Christian. Before there ever was an America or an Israel, or even an Earth, there was God, and He gave us our freedom in a way that no liberal can outlaw, no matter who it offends or what laws it breaks. Freedom is our choice, but it is up to us, and only us, to choose to keep it.  

 

There has been a great deal of heatead debate lately about who should fill the recently vacated Senate seats of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Without getting into the blatantly corrupt processes involved there(see Only In Politics  for that rant), the biggest and loudest voices of outrage cry out for Hillary’s slot to be filled by a woman and Barack’s to be filled by an African American. My big question about that is: Why?

 Why not choose a political candidate(or any other) based on real qualifications and experience for a change? No bribes, no racial profiling, just the facts. Here’s my proposition to solve this little problem: From this point forward, every potential candidate for office will be known to the public as candidate a, b, c, etc., revealing no name, no picture, and no soundbytes to anyone for any reason until the decision has been made through a public vote. Each candidate’s skills, abilities, and years of experience will be listed for different types of jobs while keeping the job titles and locations a secret so that the candidate’s real identity will be subject to a best guess, if that.

 Why would this be a better process? Because it’s cleaner. It takes out all of the garbage that tends to baselessly swing votes around, such as “oh, he’s a great speaker” or “I have to support my race/gender.” The whole idea of a public vote is so that candidates will have a better chance of being judged fairly instead of being subject to corrupt processes that can be controlled by those in power(again, see Only In Politics  for that rant). What the public vote has instead turned into is a fashion and eloquance contest that has nothing to do with who can govern better or more fairly.

Where has the ideal of America gone to be replaced by such rabble? Why don’t we teach the real histories of our founding fathers and discern their intent through the Constitution anymore? Since when does a judge or any other governing body have the right to eliminate constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms? America badly needs an operation, else I fear she won’t make it through the next night. When she wakes, she’ll be a horribly disfigured semblance of her former majesty, and she’ll be helpless to the domineering machinations of the outside world.

We need a change, America. And the only way to bring it about is to get off our keesters and make it happen ourselves. Or should we simply entrust it to a governing body with a single digit approval rating?