Attention Trick-or-Treaters!

Have fun and be safe out there Friday night, but for goodness sake, remember to avoid all houses that don't turn on the front porch light or have a Obama/Biden sign in the front yard...

Is This What We Have to Look Forward To?

OK, time to rant.

I've been really pondering over the last few days what an Obama, or Sen. Government, administration and presidency would look like. I've decided the thought really scares me. I knew that there was a segment of our population that is pro-socialist. I never realized it was this big though. Has there been that large a shift in the mindset of America that they prefer the ideology of Marx to Jefferson? I just finished watching the HBO miniseries "John Adams". It was amazing to look at these men and their thirst for freedom. Even though Adams and Jefferson disagreed on many things politically, they shared a love of liberty. It seems we've lost that as a nation. Here are a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson:

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are
willing to work and give to those who would not."

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie
the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not
become the legalized version of the first."

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but
only those specifically enumerated."

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the
government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking
care of them."

Now one from Adams:

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as
sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public
justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."

How do those jive with the idea of "spreading the wealth around"?

Contrast those quotes with Rep. Barney Frank below. My fear is that this is the kind of socialist crap we have to expect if Obama becomes president with a large Democrat majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.



On top of that, it seems from the "Joe the Plumber" hoopla that we will live in a society where if you ask a question of a democrat politician (who comes walking through your neighborhood no less), you will have to worry about your finances and taxes being dug through, plus your reputation publicly dragged though the mud. I can't believe there are so many people that have decided to cast their lot with this guy. Mr. 57 States himself. WAKE UP PEOPLE! We're on the edge of a major shift in our country that will affect you in a negative way, regardless of what the Chosen One tells you in public! Think about it:

A tax increase on that evil rich guy who owns your company isn't going to help you if he has to lay you off.

"Free" health care doesn't do you much good if it sucks like virtually everything else the government tries to run.

Taxing large corporations billions isn't going to help you or the country if they decide to move overseas to more business-friendly environments.

Come on, let's get a clue and act/think like adults living in the real world, not an idealized world of "hope". Let's be blunt. Obama isn't for the middle class. He looks down his nose at the middle class. He and Biden have both mocked Joe the Plumber, a private citizen, for being a plumber and having the "audacity of hope" to try to buy a business that makes over $250K a year and build it without getting cut off at the knees by taxes.

I'm sorry to keep harping on the guy, but like it or hate it, Joe represents a large portion of middle-class America. He gets up everyday, puts in a hard day's work, tries to better himself, earns enough to get by and not be a leech on the taxpayer, and tries to spend as much time as possible with his kid. Through his own words in San Francisco when he thought no one was recording, Barack sees middle America as "bitter" and "clinging to guns and religion with antipathy to those that aren't like them". In other words, we're all racist angry gun-toting religious zealots.

This guy is in NO WAY qualified for the office he is trying to inhabit. He's got no real record to speak of. The dems and media are tearing into Sarah Palin about how she doesn't have the experience to be Vice President, yet they turn a blind eye to the fact that she has more relevant experience than Obama, and he's at the top of the ticket! Even though he really doesn't have a record, we're also not allowed to discuss his character and the character of those with whom he chose to spend his time. And for everyone who dismisses the connection to Bill Ayers, I want you to stop and think about what the headlines would be if McCain had started his political career in the home of Timothy McVeigh. There would be outrage, and with good reason.

It seems that a large portion of those voting for Obama have been captivated by his soaring rhetoric of hope and change. He moves them. However, it's my personal belief that you place your hope in Christ, not a politician. They, especially presidential candidates, have to prove themselves before they are given that kind of power. They shouldn't be worshipped, but feared for their ability to stifle your liberty.

Many Obama supporters are blind to all this. They follow him with their hearts and not their heads. Follow your religion with your heart, but when it comes to electing a president, you better use your head and look at the facts. If everyone did this, there's no way Obama would have even been nominated which is why my last John Adams quote is the following:

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our
inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of
facts and evidence."

If more people don't start looking at the cold, hard facts concerning Obama, I truly fear for the country that my daughter will be left with.

Wow. Just....wow

This is a clip from the Howard Stern Show. He sent one of his guys to Harlem to interview people about the election. Now I know there are people like this on both sides, but I have this hunch that there are far greater numbers of them leaning toward Obama. Sometimes, I really wish that you had to pass a test of EXTREME basics to be allowed to vote in a presidential election. Enjoy.

Final Debate

After watching the final debate last night, I have to say that I thought this was by far McCain's best performance yet. Even in mistakenly calling schmObama "Senator Government" (which he shall from henceforth be called by me), McCain had perhaps one of the most accurate slips of the tongue in history. He had Sen. Government on the defensive for most of the night. I also think by bringing Joe the Plumber into the mix, he was able to penetrate the myth that the only people having their taxes raised under the Obama plan are the millionaires and billionaires which class envy-crazed liberals love to hate.

On a side note, I still can't fathom why in our current financial situation you would want to raise taxes on anyone, especially the group of people that provide a HUGE number of jobs in this country. That to me is just pure economic stupidity. Of course, the more probable alternative is that Sen. Government is a socialist at heart. He accidentally let his guard down with Joe and let slip his true agenda of the government "spreading the wealth around", which at it's core is pure socialism. He wants to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those who have not. It's really just that simple. All this soaring rhetoric about fairness and such is really just cheap smoke & mirror sleight-of-hand parlor tricks. I do have to point out that it says something about the ineffectiveness of McCain's campaign that it took a plumber on the street about 2 minutes to cut through the crap of Sen. Government's redistribution scheme and expose it for the world to see, but McCain hasn't been able to effectively do so after months of trying. But back to the debate.

Although I do think this was McCain's best performance, he did miss several opportunities to really take Sen. Government down. Two in particular stand out in my mind, and I'm not even talking about Barack's history of choosing to associate with radicals and criminals or his votes in the Illinois State Senate against a bill to protect babies born after a botched abortion.

First, when Sen. Government is going on about how he is going to give 95% of America a tax cut, McCain should have asked him about the 35-45% of Americans who have no income tax liability. How is it possible to give a "refundable tax credit" to those that don't pay taxes? The simple answer is that it's not. It's called welfare. Pretty simple stuff.

Second, when the Chosen One was explaining his tendency to vote "Present" on tough issues while in the state senate, he said that many times there were two bad alternatives to vote for. I was yelling at the TV for McCain to pounce on this, but his didn't. He should have said, "Senator, if you are elected Commander in Chief, you will face many decisions where you are dealing with two bad alternatives. You cannot vote "Present" if you're President, and quite frankly, your unwillingness to make a tough call in the state senate proves that you are simply not ready for the incredibly difficult decisions that are made in the Oval Office every day."

Also, I haven't counted for myself, but according to an email to Neal Boortz, a listener who was evidently very bored counted 238 Obama "uh's" while there were 26 for McCain. I'm sorry, but I find Barack's manner of speaking when off teleprompter extremely annoying after about 3 minutes.

To be fair, I will give Sen. Government credit for not losing his cool, as McCain did come at him pretty hard a few times. That being said, it's my opinion that McCain won this pretty handily. He looked informed with a good grasp of the facts, and Obama looked defensive for most of the debate. At the very least, it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks until Election Day.

SNL Political Skits

OK, regardless of your political affiliation, these are funny! They take shots at both sides, which is all I ask for, and spoof the VP Debate and the Pelosi press conference announcing the bailout.

Why Health Care is Not a "Right"

In my last post, issue was taken with my repulse at calling health care a right. Cody, I posted a response to the specific situation you are addressing, but I also said I'd comment on why I don't think health care is a right. Well, I was pondering how to put this into words when the (beautiful) wife sent me this. It's from the Neal Boortz website which I link to, and he pretty much voiced my thoughts to a tea today when he was commenting on the debate. Since I'm feeling somewhat lazy (today is my Friday), I just decided to copy and paste it below rather than reinvent the wheel. Enjoy:

"Question was whether or not health care was a right, a privilege or a responsibility. McCain answered that it was a responsibility. Imagine that. How out of touch can you get? This guy actually thinks that people should exercise some personal responsibility in arranging for their own and their family's health care?

Obama, to absolutely nobody in the universe's surprise, said that health care was a "right."

Let's run through this again:

The standard rights guaranteed and protected by our Constitution are such things as freedom of religion and speech. The right to peacefully assemble and gripe about government. You have the right to keep and bear arms, and then there's the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The point here is that all of these rights can be recognized and honored without any other party having to give up either a portion of their lives or their property. It doesn't cost anyone anything for you to own a gun, speak your mind, worship your God, or stand on the street corner with a like-minded group to gripe about government.

Now what about this "right" to healthcare thing? Healthcare comes in the form of both treatment by health care professionals and the administration of therapies or drugs. For you to exercise your "right" to healthcare some other individual must sacrifice some of their time attending to you, and some other individuals must surrender some of their property (drugs and treatment devices) to be used in your care. So, in saying that you have a "right" to healthcare you are saying that you have a right to a portion of someone else's life as well as a portion of their property."

Presidential Debate Rd. 2

Before this debate started, I was convinced that McCain would absolutely destroy schmObama. This town hall setting, after all, is the format that McCain has been clamoring for. I will not go as far to say that McCain lost, but he did not win in my view. I still think he had schmObama on the defensive for much of the debate, but he didn't seem entirely comfortable at first and tended to veer off track when answering questions. In my opinion though, McCain won on substance, schmObama on style (except for his stuttering).

I'm actually a little upset and taken aback because from out of left field, McCain has announced that we're basically going to be nationalizing mortgages. Excuse me? It's really as simple as this. Even if people's home values have temporarily gone down, they still should not be in a mortgage they cannot afford to pay. We've passed in the last few months over $1 trillion in aid, both to mortgage holders and financial institutions, and we don't need more. I swear, twice now Sarah Palin has grabbed the defibrillator paddles, yelled "Clear!", and shocked this campaign back to life, and McCain seems so determined to keep pulling the plug.

So now the government (read "you and me") will buy up mortgages which have decreased in value from people and reissue them at a lower principle balance. From a guy who won the primaries saying he was a "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution", he's sure playing pretty fast and loose with our money. I'm only voting for him because I believe that if he wins, in four years we will finally have someone at the head of the ticket with real conservatism and a little of that common sense that those of us "bitter clingers" outside DC seem to possess in droves.

That being said, I still agreed with McCain on most of the issues. I am appalled to hear schmObama call health care a right. It sure as hell isn't. No more so than a health club membership or a new pair of running shoes is a right which taxpayers can pay for. Also, schmObama's statement that his spending and tax plan would result in a net decrease in spending is just plain laughable. Uhh, Bary, I think you might have accidentally hit a few wrong buttons on the calculator if you came to that conclusion.

Quite frankly, I'm on board with McCain's idea of a spending freeze on the vast majority of programs. Whenever any of us bitter clingers encounter a time of decreased income, we (usually) cut our spending to match. I still can't see what's so hard about balancing a budget. I still maintain that most of these politicians aren't particularly bright. Part of the reason I like Palin so much is that I swear she's the only one amongst the four of them who's ever grasped the idea of spending less than you take in. Wow, what a concept!!! As for Barack's idea that you need a scalpel, not an ax to balance the budget, I'd totally disagree. It takes a lot longer than 4 or 8 years to trim off a half trillion dollars a year with a scalpel, Senator.

Off subject, has anyone noticed that schmObama's hair seems to get grayer each week? Is he slowly stopping the use of Just For Men, or is the campaign just weighing on him? If it's the latter, I'd hate to see how he looks after those White House meetings with Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez that he promised. But I digress...

Finally, I heard some talking heads say that schmObama's final answer to the last question was great, when he talked about his mom having to use food stamps to put food on the table and how through scholarships he was able to attend the best educational facilities in the country, as well as get to where he is now. I have one question to ask. If this country is so great to give this clown a chance to rise to the level he has attained and be within steps of the White House, exactly why do we need "change to believe in" so badly?