PIPA and SOPA

There are two bills in congress right now that must be stopped. PIPA (Protect IP Act) in the Senate, and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the house.

These bills can (and knowing Obama/Congress, will) censor the Internet, something explicitly they are not supposed to do by the Constitution.

While the supporters of the bills say “that will never happen,” all we have to do is look at the history of our government and see that when they give themselves power over something, they take it and use that power.

Contact your congressman/senator and tell them you are opposed to these bills. Here are the websites for the House and Senate. Follow the links to your representative’s webpage. Call, email, fax or all three.

The object of a citizen is to keep his mouth open. I highly suggest you do that in this case. The consequences of not doing so are dire indeed.

I told you about this two years ago!

All I can say about the OWS and all of the other Occupy movements, Cloward-Piven is winning. Who are Cloward and Piven? Why, two Liberals who came up with a way to crash the American economy. I wrote about this two years ago. Here is the proof.

These Occupy movements are starting to strangle the budgets of the cities they are “occupying.” Extra police, clean up, and all of the other things are adding up and they are getting ready to collapse the cities. Once 4 or 5 cites have devolved into chaos caused by these “useful idiots,” Obama can order martial law and then all bets are off. He gets his wish and becomes Dictator-for-life. America becomes a third-world country and not only the US, but the world will be finished.

This must be stopped. Our future depends on it.

The “Workers Paradise” is going down the tubes

It seems that the “Workers Paradise” of Zuccotti Park is not quite all it’s cracked up to be.

“Professional homeless” (their words, not mine) have been invading the OWS camp to partake of the wonderful food. So, whatever happened to Lenin’s words? “From each, according to their means, to each according to their needs,” or something like that. Turning away the homeless to soup kitchens or just feeding them PB&J is not very nice.

Just another part of the hypocrisy that is exhibited by the OWS crowd every day. You mean the homeless can’t get the same nice food that everyone else gets? Nice treatment of those who need it the most.

Just as a side note, Tea Party organizations in some cities like Atlanta have sent letters to their mayors demanding the same treatment as the Occupy movements in their cities. I mean, there are no permits for the gathering, no permits pulled or fees paid to squat on the parks. The Tea Party wants nothing more than equal treatment under the law, which is what this country was founded on. Will they get it? Probably not, but it will expose those in office as the hypocrites they are.

This list goes on, and on about how the Tea Party are “violent subversives,” but the (armed) Tea Party people hold peaceful demonstrations, all within the law and do not squat and set up camp in public parks. You don’t see clashes with the police, rapes (yes, women are leaving the OWS encampment because of the rapes) or other disruptions of the peace found at the various Occupy places across the country.

And yet the OWS is being compared to the Tea Party. It’s kind of like comparing Rush Limbaugh to Air America. That dog won’t hunt.

Occupy Wall Street

I wanted to weigh in on this subject. My feelings and thoughts have finally come to a head.

It seems to me that this “movement” is nothing more than a disorganized mob. They can’t agree on a common message, they have no significant reason to protest, except to protest itself. It stated on Wall Street, where the protesters purchase products from companies traded on Wall Street, if they have a 401(k), it is most likely invested in that very same Wall Street. The ignorance and hypocrisy is blinding.

The reason for this post is the following two photographs. I don’t know their names, but let’s call them Ashley and Karen.

Ashley looks like she came into a comfortable amount of money because of the hard work of her parents. She is calling for her to be taxed more. “She is the 1%, and she stands with the 99%.”

Next comes Karen. She has dire medical and financial problems. I am not going to get into the complexities of medical insurance here. Just the fact that she doesn’t have, and is very likely never to have medical insurance.

I would now like to introduce them to each other. Ashley, meet Karen. Karen, Ashley.

I would then say, “Ashley, if you want to help other people, here is a person that will gladly take any money you want to give her because it will keep her alive.”

Why give money to the Government for “redistribution” when 83% gets absorbed into the government for overhead? Ashley could give $275,000 to Obama, who would let only $47,000 actually make it to a person or persons. Or, she could give all of it to Karen, who would be able to use 100% of it.

Besides, when Ashley calls for takes to go up on “her,” she is also calling for taxes to be raised on many other people as well. Ashley, if you want to pay more to the government, please, write a check and send it in. I’m sure they will cash it. BUT DON’T GET MY TAXES RAISED WHILE YOU’RE AT IT. You may be swimming in money, but I’m not.

Liberals. Bah. The view that government can be the parent to everybody is not what this country was founded on. Stand up on your own. Take what comes your way, good and bad. If you get knocked down, stand up and try again, and again, and again until you win. That’s what America was founded on. That’s what made America great. These Liberals want to tear that ideal down. I don’t know why, no Liberal has ever been able to hold a coherent conversation with me. When faced with facts, they start screaming epithets and attack me rather than calmly debate the facts.

 

That darn Constitution

Just keeps getting in Barry’s way! Because the DEMOCRATS in the Senate won’t pass President Obama’s “jobs bill,” Barry had this to say:

“Scour this report, identify all those areas in which we can act administratively without additional congressional authorization and just get it done,” President Obama said today to a “Jobs Council” meeting.

From what it sounds like, (and if it walks like a duck…) Mr. Obama doesn’t want to be President, but rather Dictator-for-Life! That way he could get what he wants done, done!

Of course, what he wants to do (and he is succeeding) is to wreck this country. Saddled with $14,000,000,000,000 worth of debt that didn’t produce squat but to make some people rich before they took the money and ran (like Solyndra), Barry wants to do it again with his “jobs bill.”

The definition of insanity is to repeat the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. No matter how many times you use the recipe for Cinnamon bunt cake, you will never get a devils food cake out of it!

Let’s get this guy out of office in 2012. At this point, I am almost convinced that a chimpanzee throwing darts at a wall could do a better job than what Barry is doing now.

An American before becoming an American

I want to share this video with you. This man was an American as a child, even though he was born Vietnamese. He saw American troops fighting for him, and at that moment he became an American. It took him years to actually get here and get naturalized to become a true American citizen. But he has been an American citizen for longer than he realizes.

He gets it. America is not a location on a map. It is an ideal held in the heart, a desire to be free and to live ones life without the encumbrance of government.

He also understands the difference between Socialism and Communism. “An AK-47 pointed at your head.”

Ten Years After

Pearl Harbor. The JFK assassination. The attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. 9/11. These were all moments that changed America. Those alive at that time remembered where they were at that moment. Each moment took away a measure of innocence.

In 1941, all we had was radio. We had to conceive with our minds the images of Pearl Harbor. The images, which came days later were black and white photographs.

The JFK assassination we had black and white television, of breathless journalists reporting the event. It wasn’t until later that the Zapruder film came out, to give us the last moment of that man.

The attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan was brought to us within minutes of when it happened, with the actual events unfolded for us.

9/11 was brought to our workplaces and living rooms, live and as it happened. We watched the second aircraft actually hit the South Tower. Sorrow turned to abject horror as the two towers fell.

For the past ten years, I have cried on this day. Tears of sorrow, tears of remembrance, tears of rage. I almost can’t see my monitor through the tears at this moment.

On this anniversary, however, I wonder if the terrorists have won. Our airports are microcosms of police states. We jump at the slightest hint of another “terrorist attack.” Their goal was to change us. In that aspect, I do think they have won. But not in the way that they imagined.

If you tear your eyes away from Washington, where we have a Socialist President and a Congress held immobile by partisan politics (not that an immobilized Congress is a bad thing, mind you), look outwards to what the liberals call “flyover country.” That is literally the heart of our country. It is where the young men and women volunteer to join our armed forces and put their lives on the line to protect us. Most will come home to joyous reunions with their families, others to be laid to rest to streets lined with American flags.

It is this patriotism that I wish to leave you with. The willing sacrifice of not only our men and women of the armed services, but with the passengers of Flight 93. The last words heard by Todd Beamer’s family from him. Words that have turned into the battlecry of every American military member, first responder and anyone about to go into harms way. They are the powerful words that have defined us over these past 10 years. It means we still have terrorists to kill, people to help and hope to inspire. It means so many things I cannot write them down, because some of the feelings don’t have words. Let us never forget those who died on this day, the sacrifices made since then and the long road ahead of us.

Let’s Roll.

Using the constitution as a weapon

I see all of this uproar about a Constitutional Amendment to require the federal government to have a balanced budget. This is one of those “sound good” ideas that isn’t a “good, sound” idea.

Our Founding Fathers were totally against having any debt that is owed to other people or governments. It says in the Bible, “the borrower is slave to the lender.” This is so true. Without a good, sound fiscal policy debt can eat up your life. I know, I’ve been there. I’m still there, but I’m working my way out of it.

But our Founding Fathers also knew that there would be short, specific times when it would be necessary to go into debt, temporarily for some significant reason, such as a large scale war. Which is why Article I, Section 8 reads in part, “[T]o borrow money on the credit of the United States.”

But with the advent of Keynesian economics, where you are to look to government instead of yourself for help, the idea of perpetual debt became acceptable. So, in order to buy votes, over the last 50 years, the Congress has given bread and circuses to the people today, in exchange for their children and grandchildren paying for their excesses.

It took a Republican Congress to balance the budget. It can be done, as long as we’re not trying to pay off the unions and other special interest groups who all have their hand out.

So, now we look at amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget. This is very similar to the idea of legislating behavior with Prohibition. I know the Tea Party is going for it, and it may be time to require this, but I don’t like it. There will be times we will have to go into short-term debt, and if we are required to balance the budget every year, either other programs will have to be cut in the short term, or taxes will have to go up. And as you know, it is a very rare case when taxes go down.

There is no “special” language to let a short-term out that greedy politicians won’t hang their hats on. “3 out of 5 annual budgets must balance,” or “only during declared war” will leave that foot in the door for a return of the excesses of today. For haven’t we had “wars” on drugs, poverty, homelessness, et. al for the past 50 years?

The best way to safeguard the public treasury is to elect those who will work to balance the budget without external limitations, and to change the guard often. This is why the entire House is up for election every two years and why spending bills must originate in the House.

We must divest ourselves of a professional political class, for this is where our problems lie. I would rather see a term limit amendment than a balanced budget amendment.

But we, as a People, must also divest ourselves of the entitlement mentality, looking to government to solve our problems. When a person screws up, there must be negative consequences or they don’t learn. We have forgotten the lessons our Founding Fathers taught us. Let us learn them again, and teach them properly to our children so the United States can continue to be the shining city on the hill for the rest of the world. There is no other country where immigrants from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe come to for a new life, one where hard work is rewarded and there is no secret police to lock you up because you are “too rich” or for any other reason. There is no other country in the history of the world where the people give power to the government, rather than the government granting freedoms to the people.

Let us therefore be diligent, prudent and circumspect and keep it that way.

The stalemate in Washington

I watched the Presidents speech Monday night, and was not surprised to see the Socialist peeking around the curtain. No significant cuts in spending, with more taxes on those who make over $250,000. He even had the audacity to say “people like me” need to pay more in taxes. Well, Mr. President, PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS! How about returning your entire salary and get paid ZERO for the rest of your term.
Just take a look at this table. It shows by income how much of the total federal taxes are collected.


Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid

Top 1% $380,354 38.02%

Top 5% $159,619 58.72%

Top 10% $113,799 69.94%

Top 25% $67,280 86.34%

Top 50% $33,048 97.30%

Bottom 50% <$33,048 2.7%

The people who make over $250,000 already pay HALF of the total income taxes collected. How much should these people pay, Mr. President? 75%? 80%? 100%?

And the argument “Warren Buffet pays at a lower rate then his secretary” is a straw man. Look at it this way: If the secretary paid 15% of her salary (say, $50,000), and Warren ($100,000,000) paid 10%, then 15% of $50,000 is $7,500 and 10% of $100,000,000 is $10,000,000. Big difference between $7,500 and $10,000,000, isn’t there?

I am proud of the Republican Party at this moment. They are acting Conservative. They are calling for smaller government, no more taxes and working off the debt.

The thing I am not happy about is the cuts are spread out over ten years. It’s called “baseline budgeting.” When you and I talk about cutting something, we are talking about next year will have a smaller budget than this year. But that’s not how it works in Washington. Say a particular department or program has budgeted an increase of 12% in their budget next year. If you cut the growth back to 7%, then you have “cut” 5% of their budget. See how that works? There have been almost no actual cuts in spending in government programs, only cuts in growth. This is why our debts go up by the trillions, but only go down by the billions. We need to produce actual reductions in spending, not reductions in growth. That’s the only way we are going to balance the budget.

If we can provide a stable outlook, where businesses are not uncertain as to expand or not, then our economy will grow at a steady and healthy pace. This will put people to work, collecting more taxes and reducing the costs of government and the income of the government will go up, and significantly.

Keep it up, Speaker, you have the support of the House and the People. Don’t fold now.

To break or not to break…

…The debt ceiling that is.

This entry from “Evilblog” is railing against the Republicans for not raising the debt ceiling.

I’m actually kind of proud of the Republicans at this moment. They are sticking to good, solid Conservative values. Fiscal responsibility and just plain keeping your word.

Evil blog says,

They could just raise the damn debt ceiling tomorrow like Congresses in the past have done 74 times without any problems.

And he’s right, they could. Just let America get deeper into debt, and make it just that longer to get out of debt. But the House has finally cut the alcoholic off by refusing to serve the government any more booze, because the Government spends money like a drunken sailor.

“But it will wreck America’s Credit!!!!11!!!” And….? Maybe it needs wrecking, to tell you the truth. It’s already so bad that we are printing money to buy our own Treasury notes so the spending can continue because no one, not even the Chinese, will buy our debt.

I’ll admit, I and my company will be drastically affected if Medicaid spending is drastically cut. I could lose my job. But something has to be done about America’s debt problem.

Adding taxes is a great way to ruin an already weakened economy. A long term stabilization program needs to be laid out. At a minimum, the next 10 years needs to see a promise to cut, or at least not raise the tax rates on businesses. It is this uncertainy that is preventing small business (which is 80+% of the employers in this nation) from hiring and expanding their business.

This is the place, and now is the time to hold the line and start being fiscally responsible.

Go get ‘em, Boehner. You have my support.

Whatever happened to the concept of….

…Those who earned the money should keep it?

I happened across this article, “America Needs Taxes,” and I find it a bunch of hooey.

Like this statement:

In fact, Eisenhower, a Republican, presided over an era where corporate taxes accounted for a quarter of all federal tax receipts, and the richest Americans still enjoyed their wealth while paying a 90% top tax rate. Americans were never more prosperous as a whole than during that era.

It took some digging, and it’s like comparing Granny Smith apples to McIntosh apples, but I found that Federal tax revenues declined under Eisenhower. However, under JFK’s posthumous and Reagan’s tax cuts, Federal revenues increased. I can’t dig up W’s tax rate numbers, But I do know that the revenue numbers were mixed. But considering what the country was going through in our post 9/11 world, it could have been much worse.

Keynesian economics suck. Debt is not acceptable as a “percentage of our GDP.” Especially when you’re talking about $7,000,000,000,000. Yes, that is the number for $7 trillion. Why? Because if the GDP falls to a disaster, we default on our loans. Let’s put it this way: No debt, no risk. As Dave Ramsey says, “100% of the home foreclosures had a mortgage on them.”

Getting back to taxes. If you let people, especially business owners, keep their own money, they will likely invest it some way. The smart ones at least. If business owners can believe things like, the government won’t take over their business, or taxes aren’t going up, then they will invest their money back into the business. This will grow the business, and he will have to hire people. When you hire an unemployed person, they go from being a “tax consumer” (i.e., on food stamps, unemployment, etc., consuming governmental services) to being a “tax producer” (someone who pays taxes). This lowers the costs of the government and increases their tax revenue. The person has a job, the business owner gets more money because his capacity (and business) have expanded, and the government gets more money. Win-Win-Win.

Now, let’s look at it the other way. The government raises taxes, the business owner cuts back on his business because he can’t afford the tax burden, so he lays people off. They go from tax producers to tax consumers. The business makes less money, so the owner pays less in taxes. Sure, tax revenues go up, for a while. Until the downturn hits, then the death spiral starts, more taxes leads to less people working, and so on.

We see this in all the Liberal cities. Detroit, New York, Chicago and so on.

So, we come back to my original point, whatever happened to the concept of letting the people keep the money that they earned?

To think that America is a static pot of money where someone has to lose for someone else to win is ludicrous. America is an ever growing pie, and everyone has pretty much the same chance to get ahead that anybody else does. It all depends on how much you are willing to work. Liberals have the opposite view. They believe that everyone needs to cross the finish line at the same time, no matter how far you have to run. Some will have to run a marathon, while others may only have to walk a foot.

Think about that.

The Wall

I visited The Wall today.

Actually, it is the traveling Wall. It visited Memphis this weekend, and I took my son and we went to see it. If you still don’t know what I am talking about, I am referring to the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. An inverted “V” with the names of over 57,000 of our best and brightest who never came home.

I used to have a copy of “Reflections” hanging in my hallway of my first home. Here is a picture of it:

This exactly how I felt when I saw the wall.

Here is how it looked this weekend at Memphis Memorial Gardens in Bartlett:

Here is a view from the other side

A close up of one of the panels.

A memorial in the same style of the 249 who did not return to Shelby County.

A memorial to those who are still missing:

The plaque on the table reads thus:

Missing Man Table

This dining area is reserves to honor our missing loved ones. Set for six, the empty places represents Americans still missing from each of the five services – Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard – and civilians. This honors ceremony symbolizes that they are with us, here in spirit.

The Table is round- to show our everlasting concern for our missing men.

The Tablecloth is white-symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call to duty.

The single red rose- displayed in a vase, reminds us of the life of each of the missing, and their loved ones and friends of these Americans who keep the faith, awaiting answers.

The Vase- is tied with a red ribbon, symbol of our continued determinations to account for our missing.

A slice of lemon-on the bread plate is to remind us of the bitter fate of those captured and missing in a foreign land.

A pinch of salt- symbolized the tears endured by those missing and their families who seed answers.

The Bible- represents the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God.

The glass is inverted- to symbolize their inability to share this day’s toast.

The chairs are empty- they are missing.

———————————————————————————————————————————-

If you ever, ever, have the chance to visit The Wall, be it Traveling or the memorial in Washington, D.C, do so. These men and women answered the call of duty, and were put into an impossible situation, trying to achieve impossible objectives, while being hamstrung at the same time. With no public support, the continued to go and do so, while being called baby-killers by the Left.

Caught in a political war, our troops were not allowed to win. We fought a defensive war, and we all know what happens when you do that.

The next time you see someone wearing a Vietnam Service Medal, please stop, shake their hand and thank them for their service.

Remember the fallen

This weekend is not about barbecues, or car sales, or furniture sales.

This weekend is meant to remember my battle brothers and sisters, who went out to protect our country and our way of life, and who never came back.

Please visit a veterans cemetery this weekend, and thank them for your freedom. Tread lightly, heroes lie sleeping there.

Always remember this:

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN, not the politician,
who has given us the right to vote.

It is the VETERAN who salutes the flag,
who serves under the flag, and who’s
coffin is draped by the flag.

The Mississippi Way

Take this story with a grain of salt. I heard it third hand, but it sounds not only plausible, but probable.

If you don’t know who the Westboro  Baptist Church is, then you’ve been living under a rock. This is a group of idiots who protest the funerals of our fallen heroes with signs like “Thank God for IED’s” and other idiotic thoughts. Their position is because the government supports gay marriage and other gay rights, our brave soldiers are getting what they deserve.

Well, one of these heroes was from the deep part of Mississippi. Several cultists members of this church came down to protest the funeral. One found himself alone at a gas station, where he had the crap beat out of him. When the police showed up, the twenty or so people milling around the area didn’t see or hear a thing, and had no idea that anything had happened.

The day of the funeral, pickup trucks mysteriously parked themselves behind any car with a Kansas license plate at the local hotel, blocking the vehicles in. The police came and called for some tow trucks, but it seems they were all busy and could not show up for several hours. One carload did manage to get out of the hotel parking lot, and when the nutjobs protesters made it to the funeral site, the Sheriff promptly detained and questioned them for several hours concerning a crime in the area. After several hours of questioning, and well after the hero was laid to rest, the Sheriff determined the protesters had no connection to the crime and released them.

You will find no bigger proponent of the Constitution, especially the First Amendment than myself. However, I also believe your right to swing your arms however you want to stops at my nose. When you protest a funeral, you add unnecessary anguish on top of already unbearable agony of those left behind. While I might do a Snoopy dance if certain people drop dead (nobody in particular), I would not do it publicly, especially around the mourners.

Too bad this doesn’t happen more often. The protesters might get a clue and stop and keep their opinions to themselves.

Yay and Boo

Well, President Obama finally showed some guts and okayed the operation that killed Bin Laden. I will give the President props for that.

What gets me upset is they treated the body with respect and buried it in Muslim fashion. Since the Muslim extremists have no trouble desecrating the bodies of our dead, I personally think they should have rubbed the body up with bacon grease, put a strip of bacon in his mouth, and chummed the water well before dumping the body into a pack of hungry sharks.

I was told a story a while back about General “Black Jack” Pershing. It seems that he had a Muslim insurrection somewhere (I can’t find anything on this story). He desecrated the bodies similar as to what I described above. It seems the other side lost their will to fight when they found out they weren’t going to heaven and their virgins because they were buried with pork in their mouths. Like I said, I can find no evidence supporting this story, but I think we should start treating the bodies of the Muslim extremists with the same level of respect they treat ours.