THE MAGNIFICENT REPUBLICANS

I was sitting somberly behind the keyboard at the close of 2010 and the precipice of 2011 and wondering what to write for a blog post between Christmas and New Years,  when the phone rang and put me out of my quandary. Yes, it was the wondrous Republican National Committee asking for money.

Now, I am a registered Republican. That’s probably why they called me instead of James Carville. And, right off the bat, the lady goes into a pious speech about what great gains the Republicans made in 2010, how they have the Democrats on the run and how they are going to save the nation. Good God, have the dragon slayers on white horses finally arrived at the scene?

Let’s get a few things straight. Let’s have a few reminders about the illustrious Republican Party. Let’s go back to the years of George H.W. Bush who took over a nation that was almost ticking like a clock, single-handedly turned the economy upside down and got us into a battle in Iraq that did not accomplish what should have been accomplished: Hussein should have been finished off then. There’s four years of Republican shame, as far as I am concerned.

Let’s mention Bill Clinton, not because he was a Republican, but because he was a President who ended up with a Republican do-nothing Congress. Then, along came George W. Bush, a nice guy who single-handedly turned the economy upside down again and, with a Republican-controlled Congress led us into a war with Iraq that did not produce the weapons of mass destruction but did, finally, get Hussein. That was his chief claim of accomplishment, although his historians are also claiming he kept us safe from another massive terrorist attack. Well sorry, folks; he did not do that. Thousands of men and women in the CIA, FBI, NSA and DHS did that.

Then, along came Obama. When his term first started, what few Republicans were in Congress rolled over and played along until the fire in the belly of Americans started to bellow; they then started, with a small and timid voice, to protest what was going on in Washington. It was only when millions of Americans stood up and started demanding an end to “business as usual” and some fiscal responsibility in Washington that the Republicans finally started to stand up against the establishment.

But, it was the people who got this ball rolling, not the Republicans.

The distinguished Republican National Committee, in the meanwhile, was busying itself with junkets to topless bars and grope joints in southern California. They had absolutely nothing to do with the November election results; the Tea Party and millions of ticked-off Americans did, however. How the RNC can have the utter audacity to suggest that the Republicans have turned into guiltless leaders of the future simply because we Americans stood up and started putting an end to “business as usual” is beyond me.

Here’s where I stand. Depending on how the Republicans handle themselves during the next 12 months, I might consider helping them in 2012. They are not going to get one damned dime of my money until I see the color of their testicles, because their record in Washington over the past 20 years has been far less than venerable. As far as I am concerned, they are almost as much to blame for letting this country down as the Democrats. They are going to have to earn my trust back. If they don’t step up to the plate and do just that, they can say goodbye to their marvelous party as far as I am concerned.

IRS WISHES YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

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Oozing out of the Washington cellars on Christmas Eve, no less, came the news that IRS refund checks will be delayed six to seven weeks this year.  They blame it on the late vote in Congress, but here's my question: if we ended up with the same rates we had last year, why the big delay this year?  Is it, like, they have to redo their charts?  Do they use computers for this, or parchment paper?

Government keeps feeding us this steady diet of lies and bullshit; when will we learn? 

HERE'S HOPING

That those who are to blame didn't get a Christmas gift this year. 

GESTAPO SEIZING INTERNET

The United States Congress voted not to stick its Federal nose into the Internet. Courts have ruled that the Feds must stay out of it. Nevertheless, the Federal Communications Commission, under the direction of the Obama Administration, is now determined to seize control of the Internet.

You know and I know that the freedom of the Internet is directly responsible for allowing our country to communicate its ideas and beliefs through emails, blogs and websites. This freedom of the Internet and the exchange of ideas played a key role in the 2010 elections. Now, we have an agency that has proven itself to be grossly mismanaged, particularly when it comes to the media, poised to insert itself into the equation.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a political appointee and Harvard Law classmate of President Barack Obama, is leading the FCC’s charge for new powers over the Internet so it can enact a policy known as “net neutrality.” In reality, the policy will limit consumer choice while granting the federal government unprecedented power over the Internet, power that could force bloggers like me to allow equal time to opposing views on my blogs, in spite of the fact that all someone has to do to find a view opposing mine is to Google “anti-American” and they will have a plethora of opinion available to them.

In recent months, the Feds have shut down thousands of websites without Court hearings or orders and without giving the websites and blogs the ability to defend themselves. The Feds have said they were terrorist websites or selling counterfeit items or violating copyrights, but they don’t have to prove that? New proposed powers will give them the power to shut blogs such as mine down, or to require me to pay a license fee or pass some bureaucratic test before I can voice my opinion.

These actions run contrary to every principle of liberty upon which this great country was founded. We, the people, need to make ourselves heard loud and clear again. This move by the FCC makes the Health Care Plan look like child’s play. If we don’t stand up and raise hell, we will be to blame for losing another aspect of our freedom, freedom fought and paid for with the blood of our forefathers.

Send an email to your Congressman today. 

HOW'S YOUR DIET?

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There must be 1,000 surveys out there with the same question: “Do you believe you are better off this year than at the same time last year?”

You have a tendency to answer that question in economic terms only, but I think it encompasses more than just that. The question might better be several questions: “How do you feel about the following aspects of your life this year compared to the same time last year?”

• Economy
• Jobs
• National Security
• Congress
• The Future

In just those issues, we’ve been declining in confidence since about 2007, maybe even 2006. However, there are those out there in the audience who are saying they things are going to get better in 2012. Here’s my take:

While the stock market has been going up, I think the overall economy will stay the same or get worse in 2011.

The jobs situation is going to get decidedly worse in 2011, with unemployment reaching as high as 15% when state and local governments are forced to lay off in order to balance budgets and pay for federally imposed unfunded mandates. 

National Security is very scary. Remember that we have a President who wanted to prosecute CIA agents over GITMO, who had his back pushed to the wall before he agreed to surge in Afghanistan and who bows to foreign leaders in subservience as opposed to standing tall and erect in a position of power. We have North Korea to deal with, as well as Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico and terrorism and it does not seem to me that we have leadership capable of handling all of these details.

Congress? Here’s a bright spot, I think, especially considering how the lame duck session is ending with the renewal of the tax cuts, the downright defeat of a pork-laden Omnibus spending bill, and the solid failure of the “Dream Act.” We haven’t gotten rid of all of the ugly crap in Washington, but I feel a breath of fresh air and the possibility that our message is finally getting through. Who knows, in 2012 we just might finally take our country back.

As for the future, I think it is overall going to get worse before it gets better, but I do think it will get better. Truly, the future is in our hands; it’s up to us. If we can continue to stay aware of what is going on in our country and to overtly speak our minds, we have a fighting chance of turning back the tide of government arrogance and elitism that has come so close to destroying our country. It’s like your weight; you can go weeks and months without being vigilant about what you eat but, when it comes time to trim off the fat, it’s difficult as all get out.

We have to stay vigilant.

DESPICABLE CONGRESSIONAL TRICKS

While the nation has been focused on the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts and extension of unemployment benefits, the Democratic controlled Congress has been quietly working in the background to advance a new omnibus spending bill that calls for $1.1 trillion in new government spending for a total $3.5 trillion budget. The bill is 1,924 pages long, had not been read by anybody, and has some 20,000 earmarks.  No wonder they are trying to rush this through both houses without the benefit of floor debate. 

Plans are to ramp up the "business as usual" system and cram this through within the next three days. 

The country has made its opinion of this type of activity clearly known.  Poll after poll after poll shows that we are totally ticked off at a Congress that is enjoying an 11% approval rating.  The November elections spoke volumes about how we feel about this government and what it is doing to our country.  Yet, the Democrats who currently control both houses of Congress as well as the White House have made it abundantly clear that they do not give a damn.  

You know, I'm sorry that I suggested that anyone vote for a Democrat at all.  These guys are raping and pillaging our country; it is obvious that they intend to leave the country in a shambles when they exit in January.  While I have been no lover of the Republican Party, the conduct being put forth by the Democrats right now is beyond the pale.  Not only are they destroying the country, they are destroying the Democratic Party.  

I think that the majority of Americans know fully well right now who is to blame for the mess we are allowing to engulf us.  I think we're getting more angry every day; in fact, I think things are in danger of getting ugly.   

ARE WE TO BLAME FOR THE CONSTITUTION?

Judges throughout the country have taken the attitude that circumstances change and that, therefore, the Constitution has to be a fluid document that changes with the time.  They reserve the right to interpret those changes for themselves. 

The framers of the Constitution knew that things change with time and they provided that the Constitution could therefore be changed through the Amendment process; there is no language that authorizes the Judiciary to rewrite or alter the meaning of the Constitution through a contemporary interpretation.  After all, the function of the judiciary is to apply the Constitution as it stands and the function of the legislative branch is to write the laws in conformity with the Constitution. 

The Constitution is ours, not theirs.  It belongs to the governed and not to the government.  Yet, there are those in all three branches of government who look sternly down their noses and seize for themselves the right to tell us what the Constitution says or should say.  It's almost as if they blame us for the Constitutional dictates that get in the way of their individual agendas.  

THE UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ENIGMA

In my day, say about 12 years ago, if you were on unemployment you had to file a weekly report showing at least three people at three different jobs you applied for and what the results were. These days, all you have to do is say that you have been looking for work. Today, you have the Republicans pushing for an end to extensions for unemployment compensation and you have Democrats insisting that everyone be covered until the end of time.

I firmly believe that every person who is out of work through no fault of his own and who is actively looking for a job should have some unemployment compensation. So, what’s wrong with asking them to show at least three places where they have applied, including a signature and company tax identification numbers? This could be subject to spot checks by the IRS, since they now have total power of the Gestapo anyway. 

As a matter of conjecture, the day may be close at hand when an I.R.S. auditor moves in with you so he can keep you honest.  

Would that not resolve all issues? Why is it not being done?

You have a President who wants to do away with tax deductions for charitable contributions. The fact is that the rich, the ones he is trying to soak in the Bush Tax Cut controversy, give substantial amounts to charitable organizations which in turn meet most of the demands for help for the poor and the unemployed. No one is going to get rich off of $400 or so per week in unemployment benefits; they need all of the help they can get. There’s no law that says debt collectors have to back off if you are on unemployment.

Yet, and I agree, there are those who will scam the system and not look for work as long as they have some income; by and large, they are left-wing extremists who are trying to change this country to their way of thinking.  But, the answer is not to discourage charitable donations or to totally cut off unemployment extensions. The answer is to find out where the real need is and to address it.

I know that I am barking in the wind, but why can’t we set politics aside and work together to find realistic solutions to today’s problems? Those in charge are to blame because they just simply don’t care. 

I must be right because there has been no progress...zero, zilch and nada, toward meaningful job creation programs in two years, not even after this "compromise" that doesn't address the problems, but simply kicks the can down the road. You know it and I know it.  

 

ILLIGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM

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Sometimes, with all of the crappy things our government has been up to… Sometimes, when they do these things in the face of public outrage, you just have to wonder what their game plan is. Here they are, just after having the worst shellacking in American political history, and they’re acting as if they are high potentates sitting on thrones and ruling the lower class.

In recent days, I’ve heard several people ask who the President is listening to. I don’t think he listens to Michelle… he certainly doesn’t listen to America. I’ve heard another several people come out and say they think Obama is doing what he feels is best for the country.

Let ME make it clear; Obama doesn’t do anything that doesn’t further his own distorted agenda. And all of the rest of the bimbos in his party conduct themselves in the same manner.

Traditionally, what happens in this country is that we Americans get our backs up about something and the politicians temporarily back down until we cool off, then they go ahead and do what they intended in the first place. What’s different now is that we Americans are not cooling off. Their old tricks of wearing us down and wearing us down until they get their ways are not working.

So, they have become dysfunctional. The fabric of their security blanket of self-created Washington culture is wearing thin. In the waning hours of their lame duck session, they are trying to get their way again, but the outcry of public opinion is not dying down. And, obviously, they don’t know how to deal with the situation.

Illigitimi non carborundum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. We ARE taking back our country.

FEDS VIOLATE CONSTITUTION AGAIN

The news in July was that the Obama Administration had shut down 73,000 blogs. That story got covered up and died almost overnight. The official line was that the blogs were using purloined video and copyrighted content illegally. Now comes the latest assault on the Internet: the Department of Homeland Security has shut down 82 websites for allegedly selling counterfeit merchandise and copyrighted materials.

My initial reaction is: What does Homeland Security have to do with this? Doesn’t this fall under the territory of the Justice Department?

Let me say that I don’t think that blogs or websites which use copyrighted materials without permission or sell counterfeit merchandise should be allowed to stay on the Internet. However, there is the presumed right of the accused to have a hearing or a day in Court. There is the right called Freedom of the Press. The government can’t take a person’s property without due process.

Once again, these principles have not only been violated, but Administration officials are trumpeting their successes. None of those who lost their blogs or websites had a hearing of any kind. Presumably, some obscure government official in some obscure office in some obscure building popped up and said that these guys were violating the law and needed to be shut down. Remember the hordes of automobile dealerships that were forced to shut down last year without hearings and without recourse?

Does this not sound like Marxism, Communism, and the Gestapo?

The manner in which these actions are being undertaken is totally against every brick in the foundation of our national liberties. If they can use Homeland Security to shut down a website, they can use the new Health Care Plan to deny you medical care because you voted the wrong way. Do you suppose that the next move will be to shut down Fox News?