Iran's Flexing

Iran is currently conducting a five day long war game. The purpose behind these war games is to show that Iran could , if needed, protect their nuclear sites. Which are still claimed to be for peaceful purposes.

But that doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Despite the fact that our intelligence shows that Iran is making nuclear weapons Iran continues to claim that their program is for energy purposes. If it's for energy why are war games being held to practice the defense of these facilities?

The simple truth of the fact is that Iran and Ahmadinejad speak out if both sides of their mouth. We can't trust Iran to do or mean anything so we definitely can't trust them with nuclear weapons.

We, as a nation, must realize that nuclear weapons in Iran's hands is a great threat, and if we allow Ahmadinejad to have such power we can only wonder what he'll do with it.

Senate Says "Yes"

Yesterday, the Senate passed a measure to bring the healthcare reform bill to debate. This is a landmark decision, but it is by no shade of the imagination the end of the road. Multiple votes remain in the Senate, each one us an opportunity for the bill to be rejected.

Democrats are most definitely celebrating, but the American people are far from happy. Few Americans are in favor of a government takeover of healthcare yet our representatives continue to push reform further and further up the legislative ladder.

The Senate bill would cost close to one trillion dollars and as population grows so will the cost, I mean, have you ever known a government program of this magnitude that didn't grow in cost over time? This bill would also raise taxes, in the middle of a recession! To put it simply, this isn't a popular bill, and it won't help healthcare at all.

Voters won't forget this in a year from now. In fact this single issue could be the end of a lot of careers if reform gets passed.

Palin's Media Blitz

Former Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has recently published her book, and to spread the word she has made several interview appearances, but has her media campaign been effective at changing opinions?

In short the answer is yes, a recent poll shows that 47% of Americans approve of Governor Palin while a smaller ammount disapprove, but there is of course a significant ammount of people who simply don't know. Palin has been asked dozens of questions throughout this process, but the quality of her answers has been varied.

Fox's Bill O'Reilly asked Governor Palin if she thought that she has the qualities necessary to be President. Palin responded essentially with a yes and that she wouldn't have run for Vice President if she wasn't capable of being President.

I plan on reading Governor Palin's book and I think that it will be very interesting to see how her popularity fluctuates over the next few months.

Obama and China

President Obama landed in China recently but has been rather quiet in terms of China's repeated violations of human rights that we are granted at birth, and even before birth. To me it is really rather disturbing that Obama us being so silent, but he has his reasons.

First, the debt, President Obama can't afford for China to stop buying our debt. Pun intended. A statement was released that said that the President would push his concerns in private, but not in public, but we'll never know the full details of what happened in those meetings.

Another explanation for the President's silence is that he wants China to work with him in terms of climate change. Despite whatever the President says or doesn't say I'm positive that China won't put Cap & Trade in place.

I understand some of President Obama's reasoning, but China's blatant crimes against humanity can not and should not go unpunished.

Safety?

In the aftermath of the Fort Hood attack many Americans are asking if we are safe from domestic terrorist attacks. Some people believe that the attack at Fort Hood was a freak accident. Others, however, believe that Major Hasan's actions are a prime example of our vulnerability to attack.

The administration has never been very tough on terrorism. Secretary Napolitano even refused to call terrorism, terrorism, instead she named it as "man-caused disaster". A fire can be a man-caused disaster something like 9/11 is terrorism.

Being, for lack of a better term, soft on terrorism and terrorists gets us nowhere it simply digs us a deeper hole. We've seen that time and time again yet some Americans still don't realize it.

I do think that we are safe, as safe as we were in the Clinton years, but in comparison to just a year ago, I think we could do better.

A Civilian Trial

Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees would soon face trial in New York. This announcement raises concerns with many Americans and multiple 9/11 families have come out against this. I'll tell you why.

Many on the left feel that it is a violation of the laws of the United States to try terrorists in a military tribunal. The problem with that idea is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and most Gitmo detainees were captured in foreign lands, which in itself raises concerns. If we are going to try terrorists in civilian courts we would have to read these men their Miranda rights on the battlefield, and would have to follow dozens of regulations that have never been given to war criminals.

If Mohammmed is acquitted he gets to walk free. If any Guantanamo Bay detainee who is tried in a civilian court is acquitted they can walk away and continue to commit or aid terrorist acts against us. Furthermore, Mohammed's lawyers have another venue for undermining the trial-he is guaranteed a jury of his peers. Well how many people reside in New York City that are enough like Mohammed to be considered a peer? None, that would serve on a jury.

Using a criminal justice system for terrorists will only energize their base. If they can commit acts of terrorism very discreetly they have the possibility of facing zero consequences. To take this farther, in order to indict some of these people judges may look the other way on certain things which will only result in the deterioration of the rights of American citizens.

We simple can't try these men in civilian courts. Our civilian justice system was not made with terrorism in mind. It's just that simple. If I wanted to see people attacking the techniques and the people who saved lives I simply turn it on to certain talk shows shows not a courtroom.

A Sad Announcement

Due to recent events I will have to lower the frequency of my posts. Instead of everyday I will only be posting every Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I hope that this is a temporary change and I appreciate your cooperation. Sadly there isn't another post for today. Thanks again!

China is Not an Ally

The administration and many Americans seem to think that we are not put at risk because of the fact that China practically owns the United States. But we should all be worried and we should all recognize that China is not our friend, and likely won't ever be. The People's Republic has done some things that many Americans have never heard of, and yet these things put our lives at risk.

As reported by 60 Minutes the Chinese have infiltrated our power grid and it's quite possible that they could cause the grid to self-destruct leaving us without power for months. Are you worried yet? Our lives are so dependant on electricity pulled straight from the grid, but what worries me is how dependant is our government? Honestly, most government buildings have back-up generators, I'm sure, but now do you see how dangerous this could be?

Furthermore China is one of the few countries lending us money so that our government can operate. I tend to think that they don't loan us money out of kindness but rather out of some plot. "People become slaves of their debt" this is one my favorite quotes and sadly it's becoming more and more relevant. What does the White House think that China's gonna do when we can't pay-off our debt, because I guarantee you they won't be to kind or forgiving, these are the same people that burn Buddhist monks alive.

So what do we do, how do we secure our country from the PRC? Well the obvious course of action is to cut spending, because if we can pay off our debt (sounds impossible right?) China will no longer have any ability to blackmail our government into doing something-an action that can't be allowed.

China wasn't our friend in Korea, they weren't our friend in Vietnam and they aren't our friend now. That's a simple concept that is completely true, but many people in Washington can't grasp it. We must secure our power grid, and we must pay-off our debt otherwise we will become "slaves to our debt".

How Cap & Trade is Bad for America

The administration and Congressional Democrats continue to insist that a cap and trade system will pull us out of our recession and would be beneficial to our nation. Quite frankly, they're probably wrong. Cap and Trade will cost jobs, raise taxes and potentially threaten our national security.

Cap and Trade is designed solely to move America away from a carbon-based economy to a "green" economy. While I have no problem using "green" sources of energy, I do have a problem with government causing people to lose their jobs. In other words, to create one "green" job you destroy two other jobs. Not only will Cap and Trade eliminate jobs it will cause much of the remaining jobs to move overseas to places like India and China where no equivalent regulation exists.

Under the current proposal families would see a rise in their electricity bills (as if the bills are reasonable as is). Economists estimate that the added costs families will pay each year could be as high as $3,500. The Congressional Budget Office, however, places it at $175. Either way, electricity is very expensive and there's a lot of people who could not cope with raised prices. Furthermore, if the goal is to help our economy will raising costs on families better anything?

I have claimed in the past that our dependency on Middle-Eastern oil is a threat to national security, I stand by that statement, but the current Cap and Trade proposal would threaten our security in an equal way. Under Cap and Trade we might be able to move America to a "green" economy, but we would cause most major manufacturing to leave, including steel production. Steel is a vital resource needed for the war effort, if steel moves to China we will be slaves to the Chinese in multiple ways.

With the facts presented it is reasonable to say that Cap & Trade will make unemployment skyrocket, will cost families money that many desperately need right now and will hurt our national security. Cap and Trade is not something that the United States can afford to take a risk on. The Senate has yet to vote on cap & trade so there is still time to contact your Senators.

Go here to find your Senators:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

How To Lower Unemployment

Government can't solve everything, they can't even run the Post Office without losing money. Yet the administration and members of Congress seem to think that they can fix unemployment by passing a second stimulus package, even though the first one hasn't even been spent! There is an endless multitude of ways that government can simply push the free-market, without forcing it, to lower unemployment. If the government will bow out and let freedom work we can get people back to work.

First, government spending must be lowered significantly and it must be lowered now. When government grows, government spends more and when government spending exceeds 20% of our Gross Domestic Product(GDP) the economy begins to shrink. Well, as you probably guessed spending exceeds 20%, in fact government spending is nearing 45% of our GDP, so will another stimulus package help? Probably not.

An equally important step that must be taken to get people back to work is to lower taxes. Earlier this year Congress passed, and the President signed a measure that raised taxes on small businesses-who employ 75-80% of all Americans. In the middle of a recession it's simply insane to raise taxes on businesses, especially not small businesses when they will already feel the effect of the recession by having to pay higher prices for goods.

Along with higher taxes the federal government raised the minimum wage by 70 cents. Almost immediately after this wage hike the teen unemployment rate skyrocketed. If we want Americans to get back to work we can't put extra pressure on the wage-payer.

If we want our economy to bounce back we must use commonsense principles that have always served us well. The free-market is the most successful economic model in the history, socialism isn't. If government backs down and let's freedom work we can get people back to work.

The House has Failed to..

The People's House, the House of Representatives, the Congressional body that was meant to represent the people most accurately has failed to represent a majority of Americans. Last Night, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would create a government health insurance program, despite large opposition. The bill would not only fail to improve medical care but it would extend federal power to unconstitutional levels.

Not only does the Constitution fail to provide outright authority to have a government-run health insurance program, but the bill itself grants unconstitutional authority, according to some. H.R. 3962 which passed 220-215 grants government authorities to search a home under the pretext of making sure that you raise your kids appropriately, because government is obviously a great role model. Some are vehemently arguing that allowing such searches is unconstitutional due to the fourth amendment which reads as follows:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Despite a long search of the Internet I can not find the exact text of the section of the bill in question therefore I won't make an opinion on its constitutionality. Although, from what I've read allowing such an action might breach the constitution-but government hasn't cared about our constitution for years.

President Obama and members of Congress have repeatedly stated that H.R. 3962 is paid for by cuts in Medicare, but in the long-run this bill will cost us an arm and a leg-possibly in multiple ways. The bill has a one trillion dollar price tag and as population grows so will the cost. In 2040 Medicare will require half of all income taxes just to be operational, if we add that to what H.R. 3962 would cost we would surely get a larger deficit and higher taxes.

In passing this unprecedented bill the House ignored the voice of the people. It is completely within Congress' rights, however, to ignore the people but is it very smart? No. Did our founders intend for the people to be ignored? Of course not. Democrats in Congress will definitely feel the effects of their votes at the ballot box.

The American people have not been defeated, the Senate has yet to vote, and Harry Reid has a challenge in front him-getting the votes necessary to pass the bill. H.R. 3962 is a power-grab for the federal government, and will result in larger deficits and high taxes.

How We Must Respond

In the aftermath of the the Fort Hood Attack a plan on how best to respond and how to prevent a similar event must be developed. We can not ignore the fact that religion had something to do with the attack, but neither can we ignore that Hasan may have been motivated by the way he was treated, despite the fact that Hasan might have been treated wrongly he was in many ways a radical, and I think some people are losing sight of that.

Many people will look at this tragedy and use it to push for more gun control, but guns did not create the anger, and did not cause the alleged mental issues that Hasan had. Military bases have perhaps some of the strictest gun control rules in the country. While I am against gun control I can understand such rules on a military installation, so how can we prevent this from happening again? We need more MP's on bases and more civilian cops in the area, this simple fix can do wonders.

As I said yesterday much can be done to crack down on homegrown Islamic extremism. Specifically the Islamic Saudi Academy must close it's doors, no government should determine a curriculum on foreign soil, not even our own government should do this. Mosques should offer programs to teach children that America is not bad, and that the actions we took in the aftermath of September 11 were warranted and most were necessary.

Guns can not be blamed for this massacre, not even the war should be blamed for it, nothing forced Hasan to hold radical beliefs. Yes, the way he was treated in some instances was undeserved but if you're going to voice an opinion you had better be able to competently argue your point against any kind of backlash, it's that simple.

A Day of Great Loss

Yesterday, our nation and the State of Texas experienced a great tragedy. Americans serving our nation came under fire yesterday, by one of their own. Americans have seen more and more of shootings and violent attacks in recent years but never has a member of the military attacked others who were serving our nation. If any doubt existed about our vulnerability to radical Islam I think that this can clear the confusion away.

Major Hasan was a doctor, who was very unhappy with his orders to be deployed. Hasan had worked at Walter Reid Army Medical Center, but had been transferred to Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas about five months ago. Major Hasan killed eleven people using two handguns, he killed Army personnel that he interacted with on a daily basis. Hasan had voiced staunch opposition to our military involvement in the Middle East, we will never know if this contributed to Hasan's reasoning, but it is reasonable to draw a connection.

Millions of Americans, myself included, are wondering what caused a natural born citizen to turn against his brothers in arms. Well obviously it could be from whatever happened in his personal life, but the question is why are Muslim Americans turning against America, and aligning with radical groups?

The answer to my above question is complicated, but there are few things that may ro may not be the answer. The government of Saudi Arabia operates a school in Alexandria, Virginia with an enrollment of 1200 students. The school has used textbooks indicating that it's okay to kill those who convert away from Islam, textbooks also said that "Jews conspired against Islam and its people."

Islam has high respect for Moses and the ten commandments, so I once asked a convert to Islam how Jihad(holy war) is acceptable under Islam's respect for the commandments-he could give no substantial response. The Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA)has grauated multiple people who have been investiagted or convicted of terrorist acts. The simple truth of it is that no governemnt should be determining a curriculum here in the United States, just as we should not be determining a school curriculum overseas.

If Fort Hood can be attacked, anywhere can be attacked. While Hasan might not have had any ties to Al Qaeda, he sympathized with them, and this incident will definitely energize their ranks. We are not in the clear, to keep our homeland safe we have a long road ahead of us, and we must stay the course.

My prayers will be with the victims an their families in the coming weeks. I hope that you will stand with me and honor the dead. We all have a responsibility to honor our men and women in uniform but we must also work to ensure that this never happens again.

Note: If I insinuated that Hasan attended the ISA, I apologize he did not.

Time For A House Call...

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota is calling for people of all parties who object to the government's proposed takeover of healthcare to come together to make a "housecall" today at noon. The intended result of this protest is to get the message across to members of Congress that Americans don't want government to run their healthcare!

According to a November 2 Rasmussen poll only 42% of Americans approve of the proposed government healthcare reform legislation, with 54% disapproving. Americans overwhelmingly believe in the free-market and a majority of Americans believe that the free-market gives us the best products at the lowest price. Congress, however, thinks that they can do better, and there lies the divide. Americans gave Pelosi and Reid their power, yet Pelosi and Reid give their allegiance to Party and President before the people who elected them.

Hopefully after Congresswoman Bachmann's housecall democrats in Congress will understand that their political future is over if they vote "Aye". Americans don't want this, Congress seems to be out of touch with average Americans. Since August voters have been making their voices heard in townhalls, in tea-party protests and in letters, but the louder we yell the crazier Pelosi thinks we are.

When the Representatives of a Representative Democracy fail to represent, there's a problem. Is it still a representative demcoracy? Or, does the form of government change? That's all up to you, as for me, I beleive that Congress needs to start showing some intelligence, and realize that they work for us.

The handful of elections that were held yesterday have great impacts on the national stage, and could very easily influence next year’s midterm elections. Doug Hoffman, a man who isn’t afraid to stand for his beliefs and the beliefs of his friends ran against the odds. Bob McDonnell ran in a democrat trending state, and Chris Christie ran in a heavily democratic state, and now the results are in.

First to New York’s 23 District. I honestly called this one for the Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, but that was not meant to be. Bill Owens (D) has been declared the winner, by four points. This race was something that I was very interested in because of the number of national figures who came out to endorse Hoffman, but those endorsements might not have made a difference.

In New Jersey I called it for the Republican Chris Christie. This race was a real upset and should definitely worry President Obama. While the voters of New York didn’t reject President Obama the people of New Jersey did. President Obama made three stops in New Jersey and his man, Corzine, lost.

Virginia’s gubernatorial election was never in question. Bob McDonnell won in a landslide, he seems to have reversed the democratic trend that Virginia has been plotting. McDonnell ran on job creation and fixing Virginia’s economy, apparently that message struck a chord and it if thigns don’t improve between now and next year Republicans might imitate that strategy.

Yesterday night was a good night for Republicans, and may or may not foreshadow greater victories in 2010. Only twice in the past century has the President’s party not lost Congressional seats in the midterm elections, and in all likelihood next year won’t be an exception, but it’s too early to predict. Yesterday was a good day for the GOP, but how will they turn things around in Virginia and New Jersey?

Medicare is a Bad Model

Recently I've been talking to self-proclaimed liberals who use Medicare as an example of how the public or as Speaker Pelosi puts it, "Consumer" option should function. Medicare, however, is not a good model for much of anything. Medicare and the liberal philosophy as a whole is a good idea, they try to do a lot of good, but Medicare is not very effective at helping seniors or being efficient with taxpayer funds. In the next few paragraphs I'll elaborate on Medicare's shortcomings.

Medicare tries to do a lot of good, it's a nice idea, but it loses a lot of money. It is very, very easy to commit fraud against Medicare. In fact on average we lose sixty billion dollars (60,000,000,000) a year to fraud. Sixty billion dollars is a lot of money, we could all live quite nice off of that ammount, but do we want government healthcare to mirror this loss on a greater scale? Of course not! We're already in 12 trillion dollars worth of debt, we need to be scrimping for every penny not losing billions or spending trillions!

Medicare was created to help seniors pay for healthcare, and it wasn't expected to cost a lot of money,that expectation didn't work out well. The 2008 budget for medicare and medicaid was more than defense! The United States, sadly, doesn't have an unlimited bankroll, and eventually we will have to pay the consequences, almost literally.

Medicare exists as an insurance for seniors, but it doesn't reimburse doctors enough, it's almost silly how little it reimburses physicians, when compared to normal costs. Due to this large gap some doctors are refusing to see seniors, simply because otherwise they would lose money. In a free-market society people can't be expected to do something that threatens the existence of their business. I don't want a public-option to mirror the exclusion of seniors, but death-panels just might do it.

Medicare continues to not do enough to help seniors, and it continues to cost more. I really believe that if government were to butt out and enact a few commonsense reforms we could offer a variety of insurance companies in each state and allow consumers to have their choice, not the "consumer" option. The free-market is the most successful economic system in history, and yet it seems that it is being dismantled and taken over by government's greedy hands, when people with initiative in the private sector could solve our problems themselves.

Small Business is the key

Small Businesses are the key to rebuilding our economy. Small businesses employ the majority of Americans yet are taxed and hurt by government without much regret. Several recent actions of our government are having far-reaching effects on the ever important small-business.

Congress recently passed a bill that raised taxes on small businesses to 39%. Furthermore Congress also raised the minimum wage. Due to the wage hike the number of unemployed teenagers has jumped, and the heightened taxes won't help. That's not all-Congress and the President haven't taken a stand on taxing small businesses because the President is pushing to give a rebate to the same businesses he raised taxes on.

Small businesses provide for 75-80% of all jobs in the United States. To have a vibrant, growing economy you have to support the small businesses in America because they are what fuel growth and drive innovation. Everything that the administration has done so far (stimulus) hasn't worked, it might, but it hasn't so far, they must change their strategy to better our economy.

If we want a stable, growing economy we can't continue to hurt and punish those who create jobs. That's a simple concept, and you'd think those in Washington could grasp it.

The Economy is...

The White House recently stated their belief that the stimulus package has worked and that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been saved. I and many experts have wondered how this can be because unemployment has continued to rise or stand still. Only 15% of the stimulus has been spent, and it seems that the economy has not responded very well.

It's true that the economy responds and rebounds slower than the stock market, but almost none of the stimulus has been used as the President and members of Congress promised. We have not seen many infrastructure projects as we should. Every road and every bridge in America is not being repaired as promised.

If the stimulus was absolutely necesary to saving our economy in the present why is it not spent in bulk until early 2010? The reason is quite simple: to try to ensure the reelection of Congressional democrats. The real question is whether or not it will work, will the people who approved massive spending, massive takeovers of the economy and who are trying to pass healthcare reform be reelected?

The stimulus was shoved down our throats with the assurance that it would avert a crisis, that was a sham, so how can be expect to trust the healthcare reform plan? The President is allowed six months to find a dog for his kids, he's allowed months to make a decision on Afghanistan, so why don't the American people deserve time to read up on the healthcare bills?