1/19/2010

Life, Liberty, & Happiness

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
These lines are some of the most popular lines in the Declaration of Independence. I wanted to focus on just one part and a possible new meaning on "...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men..." Especially the "life" aspect of the declaration.

Life is an unalienable right "endowed by [our] Creator" and governments are instituted to secure this right. Am I wrong making that statement? For me "to secure" means "to protect." To protect life...including the unborn. Yes, I'm talking about abortion.

I believe life begins at conception. The ONLY time I think where abortion would be okay is if a pregnancy was due to rape, incest, or threatens the life of the mother. "From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions have occurred in the United States." Source 45 MILLION!!! That is an astounding number! 45 million souls who do not get to experience mortal life. Lives who won't get to know right from wrong, know the love of family, experience love themselves, and not know the joy and happiness of creating life themselves. The thought sickens me to the very core.

Our government has the duty and responsibility to protect life. Abortion has been a hot topic in current health care reform legislation in Washington D.C. this past year because there are some that say that tax dollars should not be used for abortions and some say that it should. To protect life, abortion needs to be made illegal (except for reasons as previously mentioned).

I personally haven't read the proposed House or Senate health care reform bill, but I found somebody who has read the entire House document. On his Website, Believe All Things it says,
"[this bill] does provide for rationing of health care...free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation of abortions by members of the medical profession."
Isn't this the opposite direction our government should be going? I do not want MY tax dollars going to fund abortions! The only place abortion has in any piece of legislation is to ban it and make it illegal.  I am going to do my own research and find out for myself if tax payer funded abortions would be in this bill, and if it is do everything in my power to fight against it and hope you would too.

Word of caution: DO NOT do a Google image search for "abortion" - almost made me throw up and brought me to tears. But if you think abortion is okay, go ahead and do it...make sure the "safe search" is off.

1/18/2010

All Eyes on Massachusetts

***UPDATE*** Scott Brown is victorious in Massachusetts sending shock waves through Washington and the whole Democratic base.  Will this make them rethink their plans?  We'll just have to wait and see.

It’s not very often that the eyes of the entire nation are looking on individual State Senate races, but in Massachusetts it is different this time around. As you may be aware, Senator Ted Kennedy passed away little while ago and tomorrow is the special election to fill his empty Senate seat. Massachusetts is a Democratic leaning state and has not elected a Republican Senator since 1972. This may all change tomorrow.

What was to be a shoe in for Attorney General Martha Coakley is now desperation to win. The latest poll from Politico.com shows Republican Scott Brown ahead by 9 percentage points at 52% while Martha Coakley at 43%. Democrats in Washington are frantic and pulling all the stops to help Coakley. I mean the President made a special trip to Massachusetts to campaign for her, the President’s buddies at SEIU donated $687,000 toward her campaign last week, Ed Schultz (Liberal talk radio host) is encouraging liberals to participate in voting fraud by trying to vote more than once to cheat the system, and ACORN is doing their thing (may or may not be helping underage prostitutes). Why are the Democrats/Liberals/Progressives pulling out all the stops and desperate that Martha Coakley wins?

Health care reform. It’s all about health care reform that is currently being reconciled in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Democrats currently have a super majority in the Senate with 60 votes of 100, which effectively stops any Republican filibuster. If just one vote is lost health care reform is also lost. Republican Scott Brown has surrounded his campaign on one specific issue: “I will be the 41st vote to stop universal health care.”

A couple of years ago this would have been impossible, but Massachusetts is different. The state has already tried universal health care…they’ve been there and done that. It has failed miserably. For the residents in Massachusetts health insurance premiums have skyrocketed, budgets have been exceeded, and benefits have been slashed to cut costs. The residents have seen and experienced this first hand and are not impressed and do not want this to go national.

A victory for Scott Brown would be huge wake up call for Democrats in Washington and hopefully for President Obama if his pride and arrogance doesn’t get in the way. I know this is wishful thinking, but maybe Obama will rethink his progressive agenda and govern in the best interest of all the people instead of his special interest groups like SEIU. It will be interesting on the outcome tomorrow and the reaction on both sides.

1/16/2010

Obama Cuts Deal With Unions


My previous post explained how President Obama wants to tax high end insurance plans also known as the "Cadillac Tax." This 40% tax would apply to insurance plans over $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families...except for big labor union workers, like SEIU. Don't know who SEIU is? President Obama does...




Did you hear that? He said, "Your agenda has been my agenda in the United States Senate. Before debating health care I talked to Andy Stern [CEO, SEIU] and SEIU members...we've worked together over these last few years, and I'm proud of what we've done. I'm just not satisfied. Because I know how much more we can accomplish as partners in an Obama Administration. Just imagine...just imagine what we can do together."

Who's running our country? Barack Obama or Unions? (aka special interests, lobbyists, etc.) Hey? Didn't Obama promise that he wouldn't have any special interests or lobbyists in his administration? Another broken promise. If this health care bill gets passed Unions will be exempt for the 40% Cadillac tax until 2018, but we all know that it will be a lot longer than that. Because of unions being exempt, it is estimated that $60 billion will need to be found somewhere else? Where will it come from? You, I, and everyone else...except you know who.

By the way, SEIU has donated $687,000 to Martha Coakley's campaign in the Senate Massachusetts race due to an unknown Republican, Scott Brown climbing ahead in the polls. Why? To help protect the 60th vote in the Senate to pass this health care bill. If Scott Brown gets elected he's determined to be the 41st vote against the bill to stop it dead in its tracks. President Obama is even making a trip there tomorrow to give his "helping hand." The election is Tuesday...let's pray Scott Brown is victorious!

1/12/2010

Promise, Lies, & Health Care

According to Wikipedia, a "Cadillac" health insurance plan "is defined by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee...with yearly premiums higher than $8,000 for individuals or $21,000 for families, but colloquially refers to any expensive plan."  During the campaign trail, Barack Obama attacked John McCain because he wanted to tax the high end health insurance plans in which Obama "firmly pledged" he would not do himself.

The first part of this YouTube video is an NPR interview with President Barack Obama on December 23, 2009 basically saying he's going to move forward with the "cadillac tax" and the second part is the video on the campagin trail where he attacked John McCain for wanting to do the same thing.


Who or what companies provides the majority of the plans, and what would the effect be if these plans were suddenly taxed? Large corporations, labor unions, and independently owned companies that want to provide the best possible health insurance for their employees and are willing to pay for the majority of it.

One of thing things could happen if these Cadillac plans were taxed that the corporations, labor unions, or independently owned companies were required to pay? (1) Employers would increase premiums to pass on the added cost on to employees to keep the same coverage. (2) Employers would drop Cadillac plans to avoid the tax, which would result in more out-of-pocket costs for employees because they don't have the same coverage as before. Either way, it ends up costing us, the employees more. We would pay the Cadillac tax, not the companies. Eventually, over time, this would lead employers to dropping coverage to their employees all together which would cause a "crisis" where the government would have to step in and provide a government run insurance plan so individuals will still have health care coverage which would lead to a universal health care plan and drive the private insurance industry out of business, just like Obama has always wanted.


I no long believe anything Barack Obama says to be true (not that I did in the first place). Just like on the campaign trail, he will say anything that appeals to the American people to get elected and he will keep saying anything to push through his radical agenda regardless if the people are against it. Whenever Obama starts off something with, "Let me be clear" you know the next words out of his mouth is a lie. It's all about broken promises, lies, and do anything to get health care reform passed.

1/09/2010

Senator Chris Dodd Resigns


Name: Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut)
          • 1974-1980, elected to the House of Representatives
          • 1980-2010, one of the longest serving Senators in Connecticut's history and the 9th most senior of current Senators and one of the three from the 1980 freshman class still serving.
          • 1995-1997, General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee
          • Currently appointed as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee - one of the most powerful positions within the Senate
          • 2006, ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, but eventually withdrew after running behind several other competitors
          • 2010, announced he would not run for re-election in the 2010 mid-term elections.


I find the announcing of his retirement very interesting.  I mean Dodd is a very liberal Democrat, and it seems that all that liberal Democrats want is power and more power.  He's been in the Senate for over three decades and holds one of the most powerful positions within the Senate and even made a run for President of the United States in 2008 and suddenly from his own words, "to step aside so that someone else can step up." It doesn't make sense besides that fact that there was no way he was going to be re-elected anyway with sagging poll numbers over the past year. I believe that he knows this and decided to resign with dignity rather than lose with shame. But maybe it was something else?

In a news piece by the Associated Press, "Embattled Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd was all but forced to quit, and North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan also ditched his re-election effort in the face of a difficult race. Dodd's announcement Wednesday may actually save the Democrats' hold on his seat — the party quickly recruited a stronger candidate — but Dorgan's retirement may cost the party a seat in his Republican-leaning state. And that would mean the loss of a critical 60th vote in the Senate."

I think the powers that be (a.k.a. the Annointed One (i.e. Barack Obama)) asked him to resign. Obama knows there is no way that if Senator Dodd ran for re-election he would, which would then lose a seat in Senate to a Republican, which then would be unable to stop a Republican fillisbuster, which would then prevent Obama from moving forward with his radical agenda he has for this country. By asking him to resign gives the opportunity for a young, strong, untainted Democrat to take his place and still hold that "critical 60th vote in the Senate."

After over thirty years, suddenly he's just going to give up all that power that took him so long to gain? What golden parachute, if any, did he receive by doing so? What did he get? Or should we just give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure as the days and months progress something will be learned on the true reason and deal that he made to resign without a fight. I just hope that this alleged plan backfires and a Republican or Conservative sweeps the upcoming race and wins the vote. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

1/07/2010

A Right or a Privilege?

You have the right and privilege to make more money! Click here.

Senator Tom Harkin said this just before the December 24, 2009 Senate vote on health care reform:
"On one side is health care as a privilege; on the other side is health care a right. With these these votes, with the vote that we'll take before Christmas, we will cross that line finally and say that health care is a right of all Americans." Source
He is of course referencing the Declaration of Independence where it says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." What is an unalienable right? When is a right unalienable?

"...natural rights (also called moral rights or unalienable rights) are rights which are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of a particular society polity. Natural rights are thus necessarily universal..." Source
"The Founders did not believe that the basic rights of mankind originated from an social compact, king, emperor, or government authority. Those rights, they believed, came directly and exclusively from God. Therefore, they were to be maintained sacred and inviolate." (W. Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap.)

When the Left like Senator Harkin says that health care is a right, is he referencing that providing affordable health care for everybody is endowed by our Creator? Or is he and our government taking the place of God and creating this right for everybody? If so, that is a scary thought because they would also have the power to take that right away (i.e. death panels, rationing of health care benefits, etc.).

I personally believe that health care is a privilege, not a right. We are responsible for our own personal health. We should not rely on anyone else, especially the government, to provide or make sure that we have health care coverage. History has shown over and over again, the more the government gets involved the bigger the problem and usually more expensive. In the words of President Ronald Reagan, "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem."

This monstrosity health care reform bill (over 2,500 pages) that is currently being reconciled between both houses of congress is just a political structure that the Left have been wanting for nearly a hundred years to have more control over our lives. It is a doorway to socialism, and all they need is to their foot in the door and then they will be able to expand and add things like a public government run health care system. Health care is not a right and should not be treated as one and we must not let our government put in place the structure they want to take even more control of our economy and lives.

Recommended reading: The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen. One of the best history books you'll ever read.

1/06/2010

Obama's Freshman Year

During the campaign for President of the United States, then Senator Barack Obama said it was going to do a lot of things and made a lot of promises. I came across this Website - http://www.politifact.com/ - tracking Obama's campaign promises to see if the promises are being kept, broken, compromised, stalled, or in the works. There's over 500 promises they are tracking. I want to discuss some of those promises and what Obama has done in 2009, his Freshman Year.
"As president, Barack Obama will close the detention facility at Guantanamo."
"On his second full day in office [January 22, 2009], President Obama issued an executive order to review the disposition of prisoners being held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and ordered that the detention facility be closed within a year." Technically, President Obama still has 17 days to make good on this comittment, but it probably won't happen. Obama advisors/spokespersons have recently said it could take another year or two. There also continues to be a lot of controversy if closing of Guantanamo Bay is the right thing to do.
"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government."
That quote is taken directly from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment/ Website. President Obama and his administration is currently under fire for transparency due to his promise not being kept for allowing health care negotiations from all sides and being broadcasted on C-SPAN so the public can see what is being done. As the Senate and House reconcile their respective bills Obama and the Democrats have opted to shut everybody out and make their back room deals as usual. These negotiations will not be broadcasted on C-SPAN or be made available to the public for review before vote either. In fact, public review shows the majority of Americans are against the current bill for health care reform, which was displayed all over the country in townhall meetings and Tea Parties for most of 2009.
I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income taxes, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.
Let's start with the "Cap and Trade" plan that Obama is proposing. During a videotaped interview he did with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board very early in his presidential campaign, January 2008: "Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers." The Cap and Trade bill is currently stalled and not being debated in either branch of congress, but I gaurantee that it will be back soon...health care reform is at the top of the agenda. Speaking of health care reform, passage of this bill will most likely raise taxes. With the bribe, I mean the deal that Senator Ben Nelson got for the state of Nebraska (i.e. fully fund his state's expanded Medicaid population for the first three years like other states, but the only state to continue after the three years forever and ever) will raise payroll Medicare taxes for every working citizen.
I will promise you this...that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am President, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank. 10/27/07
It is clear that Obama knows nothing about being in a war or managing one for that matter. A total lack of inexperience and for him to promise something like this is foolish. Well, he became president and ending the war was not the first thing he did, rather it was signing an executive order to close Gitmo, which by the way isn't going to happen either as previously discussed. Not only he hasn't ended the war, it seems like it's at the bottom of his "to do" list. Toward the end of August 2009, General McChrystal, that Obama appointed, sent a report to his Commander and Chief recommending a minimum of 40,000 additional troops or there won't be the man power needed to overcome the enemy. It sat on Obama's desk until early December when he finally decided to send 30,000 troops at the same time planning to bring our troops home. Does that make sense to you? Yah, me neither. He's trying to appeal to both sides. Either do all that we can to win the war and end it or bring them home.

These are just a few items I decided to review. There's actually a lot of promises that OBama has actually checked. Go to http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/ to see the complete list, but the items discussed have been most talked about and at the top of President Obama's agenda. Oh yah, he did get the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing...that's gotta count for something right? Doesn't it? Guys?
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