Obama is now considering another prime-time address to the American people.  He has now had so mush prime-time hours he should really get a regular slot on NBC.  While people are tiring of these constant "Infomercials" that are trying to sell Obamacare as the next best thing since the George Forman Grill,  there may be a call for a new drama/sitcom that NBC may want to explore.

Title - "The Obamas"  (a small takeoff on an HBO drama you all may be familiar with)

Cast of Characters

Obama - the patriarch of this family.  He will have to constantly take on radical ghosts of his past who will come into play on a regular basis.  Some will be given high-level czar positions and have billions of stimulus dollars at their feet with little or NO oversight. Obama will be torn as he must appear to be "moderate" when down deep he is as left as left can get.  He will struggle with tele-prompters that will fail in the middle of critical speeches and low level support staff will "pay" for their stupidity.  He will of course be followed by a large group of lap-dog reporters constantly asking for his autograph and a chance to have a photo with him (and maybe even an interview).  He will tire of these idiots from time to time as they are such suck ups (See Joe Gibbs later on)

Michele - the matriarch of the family.  She will struggle trying to keep the strong yet feminine view in front of the public.  She will need to have constant workout regimens to keep her arms in great shape.  She will be torn between being the mother she knows down deep she needs to be but yet be the inner-city power broker she also sees as her higher calling.  She must also be constantly channeling her inner-Jackie at all times and be forced to wear overpriced clothes from French fashion designers (even if she's handing out secondhand clothes at the local Salvation Army).  She will lament that it, "It's a tough life, but someone's got to do it".

The Children - they will give lighthearted situational comedy as they throw sleep-overs with the Jonas Brothers and have food fights with the White House staff.  They can also provide "teach-able moments" to the viewers as they struggle to understand the history they are being taught at school with the radical history their parents had long taught them back in Chicago.

"Crazy" Uncle Joe Biden - Crazy Uncle Joe will spend most of his time strapped to a chair with a sock stuffed in his mouth. When allowed to, he will provide additional comedy relief as he speaks moments of "liberal truth" that will ultimately end with the sock being shoved quickly back into his mouth and his chair rolled back into the closet.  From there, muffled cries of "I'm sorry!" will emanate throughout the White House.  Note: its is not certain if Uncle Joe's role (contract) will be continued for a 2nd term or not.  But for now he is of little threat (or use for that matter) to the current administration.  We will just have to wait and see...

"Clueless" Joe Gibbs - Joe's character will mostly be based on Mr Burn's assistant "Smithers" from "The Simpson's" as every sit-com needs a stupid, gutless, suck-up to follow them around.  Joe's favorite line will be:   "What do I say?  What do I say?  I can't handle logic!" which will get rounds of laughs from the fake audience.   He will of course get no respect from either his boss or his suck-up counterparts in the media (who know they can do his job better than he does it).  He will be mostly used as a "tool" for the administration and will be constantly in fear of being terminated only to be saved by the public's short attention span and a constant barrage of FAKE crisis situations. 

Side Characters

Rahm Emmanuel - Rahm will play the foul-mouthed "business" associate.  Known for his long tirade of 4 letter words (he once said that "the Republicans can go F--- themselves")  he will act as the White House bulldog and beat down any person who threatens the president's agenda.   He will make calls to "educate" a variety of governors who receive stimulus money as to what their role is in this country (he actually did this).  He and Obama will have quiet moments in the "O"val office reminiscing about the good old days back in Chicago when all you needed to get things done was a pre-stuffed ballot box and a baseball bat. 

Nancy Pelosi - no sit-com would be complete  without the nosey neighbor who is constantly coming around uninvited and wasting their time with long drawn out stories of having to sit on a lear-jet for hours making trips back to the left-coast to see her "constituents"  (some times referred to as "astroturf").   She could fly in on a broom or appear in a puff of smoke (we won't even need special effects either), but that would come too close to the Bewitched show of the 60's.  She will constantly get into fights with Rahm and will remind the president that she is just 1 heart beat and a declaration of insanity (see Uncle Joe Biden) from the presidency.  Of course these will always be said "in jest" so as to not require the help of the Secret Service.  She will also remind Obama that while he is "currently" limited to two 4 year terms, she has NO SUCH LIMITS and that given the culture of her district she is essentially QUEEN-FOR-LIFE .... Ha Ha Ha Ha... and POOOF!  She's gone!

Andy Stern (head of SEUI) - what Mob drama would be complete without the "union boss" to kick around from time to time.  Andy's lines however will be limited to: 

    - How much money?
    - How many people do you want to show up at ______?
    - Who do you want educated?
    - YES SIR!  YES SIR! YES SIR!

Reverend Wright - as another "crazy uncle", Rev Wriight will show up from time to time just to say HI to the family and will inquire why he hasn't seen them in church recently (or EVER for that matter).  There will be muffled, low-tone discussions between him and Obama about that "M-thing" and certain service videos that may be damaging.  But the two will remain friends and each of their meetings will end with "handshakes" and winks of their eyes to each other.

Mark Lloyd (FCC diversity czar)- Mark will call in most of his dialogue from Venezuela as he receives his training from the Jedi-Master of communication control, Hugo Chavez.  When he has mastered the art of "community mind control"  he will return to implement "the Plan" to control the evil Talk-Radio system that has been a thorn in the side of liberals for decades.  (sorry if this is decaying into a Star Wars theme, I just could not resist).

The Czars  - Obama could be shown preciding over meetings at a large round table with all of his czars in full attendence.   He can give speeches to them reminding them of who they owe their allegiance to and how they answer to no one BUT him!   He can talk about how the other "secretaries" are nothing more than window dressing and that THEY are the real wheelers and dealers.   Occasionally one of these czars could get into trouble by being too "greedy" or "too loud" and be replaced at the will of the president.  

Hilary Clinton - Hilary plays the constant competing democratic "boss" whose real goal is to ultimately replace Obama.  Obama, in his wisdom, follows the Mob's cardinal rule:  Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.   By giving her a position as Secretary of State he accomplishes that goal at the same time having reasons to send her away to places like Zimbabway or Nigeria and too busy to re-ignite her political base here at home.  She will on occasion be seen trying out "the chair" in the Oval office pretending to be the president and gaining great satisfaction from it  (could make for some very funny "dream sequences").  Her husband, Bill, will make occasional appearances and will be seen hitting on various staff members (maybe even Michele?  We don't know yet) and searching the White House for hidden playboy magazines.  Obama will also have to endure long drawn out "speeches" from Bill on what he did during "similar situations" when he was president.  For comedic relief the president could call on the Secret Service to remove Bill from the office.

As you can clearly see, the plot lines would almost write themselves and given the crappy writers at NBC these days, I think they should look good and hard into this to help them boost their ratings.

oh but wait.... they may get a visit from Rahm ..... just forget it!

Vote Out The Elitists!!!

     I am tired of seeing politician after politician on BOTH sides of the aisle that seem to think THEY know better than US.   I know that many republicans are rubbing their hands together in glee as they see the town hall attendees shouting down their democratic "tax-masters" and they think that 2010 is "in the bag for them".   But let us not forget that we gave them 8 years to "do the right thing" and what did THEY give us?   They gave us:

   - NO change on immigration
   - TONS of pork-barrel spending
   - NO Legal reform (this is needed 100 times more than health-care reform)

    We need to be as vigilant with them as we are with the democrats for they very are difficult to tell apart these days.  We need to look beyond petty single issues such as abortion, gay marriage and school prayer.   Many will vote WHOEVER will sign up for these issues but not look beyond to more pressing issues such as:

   - Taxes (when are were going to simplify our tax code?  ITS A BLOODY MESS!!)
            - why don't we go to a Federal Sales Tax instead and get government out our pay checks?
   - Government spending
              - Just how much are we in debt anyway???
   - Immigration
              - All I will say here is:  BUILD FENCE
   - Federal Reserve Reform
             - Why can't we audit their books?
   - Legal Reform
             - We need "LOSER PAYS" and caps on "Pain and Suffering"
   - Energy Reform
             - We need NUCLEAR energy NOW!

     It's not the RICH that are screwing us, it is the ELITISTS.  The ones who have gone to "Harvard" or "Yale" and think that their breading and education make them superior to everyone else.   They dictate which candidates (on both sides) we are going to choose from and who is going to be nominated.   I am reminded of an interview with Karl Rove on Glenn Beck a few weeks ago.  When the name "Sarah Palin" came up in the discussion you could see the blood leave Karl's face as he tried mention that the Republican party has "many good up and coming candidates for the future".  It was almost as if Karl was saying "No! No!  Not Sarah Palin!   She's not polished enough!  She's too simple!"  Well sorry Karl, you had your turn (8 years if I remember well) and all you could give us was George Bush.  

     Let us not forget that one of the best Presidents we ever had did not have a law degree or attend an ivy-league college but instead went to a simple state school by the name of Eureka College where he majored in economics and sociology.   That president was none other than Ronald Reagan.  While Reagan was often chastized as looking at the world too simply, he gaves us the strongest economy and took down one of the most tyrannical countries this world had ever seen, the Soviet Union.

We don't need ELITISTS we need people with "COMMON SENSE"

   We need to all write our beloved president and thank him for what he has been able to accomplish in his first 6 months of office.  Here we were (me included) in America slowly being boiled alive like the proverbial frogs in a pot of hot water.  Both parties were slowly ratcheting up the spending and growing the federal governments powers while we were completely  unaware.  We were (at least we thought we were) happy to just do our "civic thing" and go an press a button for his senator or congressman every 4 or 6 years and then go on living our own lives unaware as to what was REALLY happening in DC.  We may have complained from time to time and written a letter to the editor or to our congressman, but as long as it didn't cause us to take action our government didn't have to worry about what we thought of them.

   Then came along President Obama who in his own arrogance and impatience decides now is the time to turn the heat from medium to high as his assessment was that the American people were "ready for change"  (I think that is code word for "dead").   But we were not "dead" but were lying motionless on the bottom of the pot and doing nothing.  Now we have realized that someone is trying to kill us and we are desperately trying to jump out to save ourselves.   If it had not been for Obama, we may have never realized.   Had he taken the patient route that all the other previous presidents had taken nothing would have changed and the water temperature could have been raised by a couple of degrees.

    Now there is nothing he can do.  Turning down the heat will not change our view of our predicament.   We have been allerted now and we are not going back into that pot again.   Obama's views and friends which were ignored during the election are being more thoroughly examined and studied.   The mainstream media may still be his friend (probably always will be), but their influence on our country is waining quickly (who cares how many stations GE controls if nobody watches them).  People are confronting their "tax masters" and demanding answers in town halls ( I am going to my first one tomorrow at Granite Bay High School).  People are gathering for tea parties across America and forming 912 groups to "organize" (yes TWO can play that THAT game Mr. Obama).     

   Thank you Mr President for waking us up!   Keep up the good work you are doing!
 

   My son and daughter both love the "Transformers" movies.  I am not from that generation, but I can appreciate the movie magic used to make simple cars transform into large robots with personalities. 

   Somehow I feel our country is like these movies.   In the movies, these cars and other forms of machinery are sitting around being used by us humans.  They are docile and mostly devoid of any threat to us here on earth.  Then, one day, without any warning, these machines come to life and begin to threaten our very existence.  

   Now today, seemingly harmless legislation and policies and political groups put into place  (and being added to by the minute) are "coming to life" and are threatening our very way of life as Americans.   Czars (interesting name since most of his czars are open communists to start) which "shadow" other department secretaries, who have MORE POWER and LESS OVERSIGHT are added to the Obama administration.  Millions and billions of dollars from the stimulus plan are being funneled to these czars for their own use and no one is saying a word.    Obama, who was against the wire-tapping program of the Bush administration is EXPANDING its scope and is calling for his followers to inform on "fishy" emails.   Also, Obama now wants to build a "youth army" to do his bidding and make them as well funded as our regular military.  

    Are you ready to be "transformed"??   I'm not.  We need to link arms and hold the line on this administration and say "THIS FAR YOU SHALL GO AND NO FURTHER!!!!".   

    1) Write your congressman and senators on a regular basis (don't wait for another crisis to hit).  Even if they are democrat, they need to hear from you.  Tell them you will stand out on street corner and call for their removal during the next election. 

    2) Write your newspaper or write a blog like this one

    3) Attend a Town Hall even if you don't get inside.  Make your voices heard (just like in "Horton hears a Who") 

    4) Attend a Tea Party even if its just for a few minutes or an hour.  Make a sign.  Make yourself visible.
             - if you can, take vacation time and go to the Sept 12th Tea Party in Washington

    5) Use bumper stickers to get your message across.

    6) Talk "politics" with your neighbors and friends.  I know we don't like to, but WE HAVE TO.

    7) Fund the opposition.   Give money to another campaign.  Even if you "like" your congressman.  If they ahve been there for more than 2 terms, its time to get them out  (especially if they are a lawyer by trade).

    8) Call into a talk radio show

Now is not the time to sit and let someone else do it!

    There seems to be more at play here than what meets the eye.  On the surface it looks like Obama is in charge as President of the United States.  But below the surface there seems to be other people who are pulling the strings.

    First let's look at Obama's over use of the teleprompters.  He seems to rely on them as if he has no idea what he is supposed to say until the prompter turns on.  He hardly ever gives a speech without them being by his sides.   One must wonder,  is he being told what to say?   For when he is "off-prompter" he fumbles and misspeaks as he is not fully aware as to what his handlers want him to say. 

    Next, let's look at how Obama is not in "sync" with other people in the administration.  He says, AARP is "endorsing his healthcare plan" yet AARP has done no such thing.   His Health-and-Human-Services Secretary, Kathleen Reuters, says in an interview that the "public option" is "optional" and doesn't need to be part of the health-care bill.  But the next day, Obama makes the press statement that nothing has changed and that its is a MUST-have for the bill to pass his desk.  Another example, Obama says he is not going to prosecute people of the previous administration for any "war crimes" or "torture crimes", yet his own AG William Holder comes out and says he is going to assemble panels to investigate wrongful torture used by the CIA.   Are these people not communicating to each other (boss to employee) or are they not getting the same memos from "on high" ( BIG-boss to employees).   Maybe there is some disagreement between Obama and his "bosses" on this issue.  Maybe he doesn't want to prosecute, but "they" do.

   Also, there is the question of the people who he has assembled around him in his administration.  People like his Green-Jobs czar, Van Jones, who is openly espousing COMMUNIST.   There is also, Mark Lloyd his "diversity officer" in the FCC who also espouses communism (he especially praises Hugo Chavez and his revolution in Venezuela) and wants to "fine" radio companies that are not "diverse enough"  100% of their operating costs for the year (essentially put them out of business).   There is also his science czar, John Holdren, who thinks what China has done with force sterilization and 1-child-per-family is a "good thing".    So why would the first black president want to smear his image with people like this?   Wouldn't Obama want to go the route of Jackie Robinson and set a good example for those who follow him?   Unless of course, he had no choice in the matter and other people are telling him who will be in his administration.  He may be like a football quarterback with a microphone in his helmet, he may be given the "game plan in the locker room, but is not being allowed to "call the plays on the field".

   Finally, are these very LARGE bills that appear out of thin air that most on the democrat side have no interest in reading as if they "know who wrote them and therefore trust their direction".   Here we are just 6 months into the Obama administration and we have had 1073 page bill for the stimulus bill,  1200 page Cap-and-Trade bill and 1300 page Health-Care bill.   Where did these come from?   Who wrote them?  They certainly did not write themselves!    Do the democrats have magic little elves running around whipping these up for them?  I seriously doubt that.   No!  Instead these were written up by groups like ACORN and the SEIU and communist groups like "The Apollo Project".    And who is funding these groups?   Is George Soros?   Probably.   Also, one has to wonder when the President has his weekly meeting with the head of the SEIU, who is talking and who is listening?

We need to ask these questions and need to find out ....

WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE?

   Marie Antionette's famous last words were... "LET them eat cake".   These words showed the arrogance of the ruling class in France and she paid dearly for it later on by literally losing her head.   Of course the "ruling class" has never learned its lesson.   By the early 1900's in America a new ruling class called "Progressives" had come on the scene.  These elitists thought themselves to be better educated and and also better "bread" than their working class rivals.  They made inroads into politics with the likes of Teddy Rosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and later FDR.  These elites pushed secular programs such as forced-sterilizations, birth-control and alcohol-prohibition thinking they could stem the tide of uneducated ill-reputes with poor genetic backgrounds.  They thought themselves to be of higher standards than the rest and felt they needed to "guide" these poor souls as "parents". 

   Today these progressives are still alive and well.  They still see themselves as better than the average American who are too stupid to care for their own needs.   Out of their own benevolence they decide what freedoms we will enjoy and not enjoy.   If they see a freedom as potentially harmful to us as their subjects they are sure to swoop down as a "helicopter parent" and remove it from us for our own good .  

   Recently, Obama made the statement at a town hall meeting that government is "going to LET you keep your insurance and your doctor".     Isn't that amazing?   The all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-benevolent Obama is going to LET us keep our freedom of choice of our health-care.   They have decided for now to LET us decide for ourselves what is good for us.   Can you hear the arrogance in that message?   For how long will they LET us keep this freedom?    Until they think we are not fit to make that choice anymore?  Where do you get the POWER to take that freedom from us?  It is NOWHERE in the Constitution Mr Obama!   You have no power in any of the articles and YOU KNOW IT!   But you have pushed your limits as far as they can go, hoping no one every calls you on it.  But now we are wising up and we are re-learning our rights under the Constitution and we are going to hold you and all your ilk to the oaths (which you must have had a terrible time keeping a straight face while you were reciting) you made when you took office.

   It's not health-care that needs reforming.  It's our whole government that needs to be thrown out.   We needs leaders who don't look down their noses at us and treat us with disdain and click their tongues on the roof of their mouths as they wag their heads back and forth like disappointed parents.   We need leaders who will leave us alone.  Who will allow us to be free once again from their rules and their taxes and who think that we "need to be saved".     We don't need saving Washington!   We are more than capable of taking care of ourselves.

   LET them be voted out of office!

    So now Obama is trying to channel Jesus Christ into the healthcare debate.  Arguing that opponents are "bearing false witness" and that "we are our brothers keeper" and therefiore making opposing his bill a "sin".   Wow!  Ca you imagine George W Bush trying to pull the same argument for the Iraq War or his failed Immigration Bill ??    The media would be having a field day and the late night talk shows wouldn't need to have guests appear on their shows as they could fill an entire hour with "W" religious jokes. 

   Maybe Obama should review the commandments first, especially the 2nd commandment which says:  Thou Shalt Not Take The Name Of The Lord Thy God In Vain".   Often this is mistakenly seen as thou shalt not use vulgure language such as damn or other 4 letter words.  But in its truest sense of the word it means to not use God as your witness or your way to influence others.   You see, God's name invokes a sense of "fear" in all of us.  That can be a good thing.  But when used as a form of "persuasion" then it can become a tool.   Imagine you are in ancient Israel and a prophet has just told you that God will destroy your city unless you give so much of your wealth to him or to the temple.   The city leaders would be scared into following the "prophets" demands as no one would want to take the chance of  upsetting God.  That would be using God's name in vain.  

    Today, leaders are doing the same thing.  Using God's name to conger up fealings of sympathy or fear to make us "give them our gold".  What angers mean even more is that this president (who I have yet to hear anything about him going to church since he has moved to Washington DC) is so desparate now thay he is willing to go this route.   Had he been making this argument all along, it might be a different thing.  But he is pulling this out of his bag of tricks only as a last ditch effort. 

    As a Lutheran, I have learned that we as Christians live in 2 kingdoms.  As Marthin Luther once said, we have one foot in God's kingdom on the right and one foot in the world's kingdom on the left.   The problem has always been when we try to mix the 2 kingdoms together and that is why our 1st ammendment prohibits Govermnent from getting involved in religious affairs (government cannot tell me what to believe or not believe).   To me, Obama is violating this 1st ammendment by his pronouncement that opposing his healthcare bill is a "sin".   Is he telling me what to believe as a Christian?   Did God speak to him in a dream?  Does he see himself as a new Messiah?   Even Bush didn't take his faith that far!  

   I am sorry Mr President,  you are not my Pastor-In-Chief.  I think you spent too much time in your Chicago church listening to Rev. Wright and so you think you can manipulate the masses the same way Rev Wright manipulates the people of his church.  We are not so easily fooled by this thinly valed lie you are putting forth.  While, yes, I am my brother's keeper.  That is my responsibility as a person to take care of his needs.  But it does not give YOU the right to take from others who may not want to be their brother's keeper and give it as you wish.  

While we are at it, let's review some other other commandments YOU may be violating as well

1st commandments:  Thou shalt have no other gods before me

• As in your own word's Mr President when inverviewed on TV you said unwittingly: ".... my Muslim faith"

2nd commandment:   Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

• already covered earlier

3rd commandment:  Thou shalt honor the Sabbath day and keep it Holy

• Like I said earlier, I have yet to see a media-op on you going to church with the family.

4th commandment:  Thou shalt honor your father and your mother 

• How does allowing 13 year old girls to get an abortion without their parents consent keep this commandment?
• How does making abortion only a "mothers" decision but leave out the "fathers" will?
  

5th commandment:  Thou shalt not kill

• How does allowing a baby of a botched abortion to die in a hospital linen closet not MURDER?  
  

• How does allowing a 9 month pregnancy to be terminated using "partial-birth-abortion" not MURDER!

6th commandment:  Thou shalt not commit adultery

• Why cannot the goverment do anything about the rise in internet pornography?  Why cannot our own libraries prevent this from being viewed?

7th commandment:  Thou shalt not steal.

•  I could write a whole book on how government violates this commandment.  You steal from the taxpayers and give to your chronies in ACORN and the SEIU to do your dirty work for you. You play favorites with companies as to who gets TARP money and who doesn't (I say LET THEM ALL FAIL).   Now you are stealing money from those who work hard and risk it all to give to those who are lazy and risk nothing.   You let people in your own staff get away without paying their taxes that they owe saying they are too important to not hired. You stole from the secured bond-holders of Chrysler by giving them 20 cents on the dollar for their investments when by LAW they are guarranteed 100 cents on the dollar. 
  

8th commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor

• You used this as a an argument against those who oppose your bill.  But lying has seem to become a way of life in DC.  You lied when you said AARP was "endorsing your bill" when in fact they are not.   You say you have no idea how people are getting emails from the WH when in fact you do know why.  You say you want "competition in healthcare" but you have been caught saying "you are a proponent of a single-payer system".  You lied about how your parents met saying they met on a bridge in Selma Alabama during a Civil Rights march which occured in 1965 but you were born in 1961.   You lied about being a moderate during the campaign, but you are nothing of the kind.  
  

9th and 10th commandments:  Thou shalt not covet.

• Goverment is promoting covetous behavior in our country whenever you pit the rich against the poor. You say, "Look at what THEY have and look at what you DON"T HAVE.  You deserve to have the same things they have.  It's not fair!!  We should take what they have (breaking the 7th commandment) and give it to you".  Our country was built on individual responsibilty.   You want what they have, then go work for it. 
  

   Now, how do you look Mr Obama?   Is government on God's side?   God doesn't need you to get things done for him.  As Jesus said to Pilate,  "My kingdom is NOT of this world.  If it were my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place".   Jesus also said, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will be people say 'Here it is' or 'There it is' because the kingdom of God is with YOU".   So it won't be with trumpets and fanfare or with a full-on media campaign blitz and a photo-op with the president.  No, God's kingdom advances in the hearts of men and women without your seeing it and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

    It has come to my attention that WalMart (and GM) have decided to pull their advertising from one of the HOTTEST shows on TV, the "Glenn Beck Program".  The reason they sight is that Glenn supposedly called the president a racist.  Now I watch the show all the time and I have never seen Glenn say anything of the sort.  He did say once that he thought the president was using the stimulus and healthcare bills as a form a "reparations for slaves"  but that is about as close he came to calling the president a racist.
 
   What I really think this is about is the health-care bill.  WalMart has gotten into bed with the Obama administration and has worked out a sweetheart deal that will give them an un-fair advantage over their competitors.  Now that the bill is looking like its going down to defeat, the Obama administration is working furiously to shut down all discenting voices and is using GM (Government Motors) and WalMart to make that happen.  Why else would WalMart care?  Like I said earlier, the Glenn Beck show is one of THE HOTTEST shows on TV and that is all companies like WalMart care about. 

   We need to stand up for voices like Glenn and boycott (loudly) WalMart and let them know who really matters in this country!!

    This post is going to be very short but to the point

    It has come to my attention that WalMart has decided to pull their advertising from the "Glenn Beck" program on Fox News.  The reasons they sight are that "Glenn Beck called the president a racist".   But I watch the show religiously and have never heard Glenn say anything of the sort.  He did mention that he thought that Obama was using the stimulus and healthcare bills as a form of "reparations" but that is about as close as I could find him calling Obama a racist.

    I think the REAL reason for them (and also GM) to pull their advertising is that they are both bowing to pressure from Obama to shut down the Glenn Beck program and to silence the oppositions voice on health-care (or should I say  Health Insurance?) reform.  WalMart has gotten into bed with Obama and has made a sweetheart deal with them if the bill is passed.  But now that looks unlikely and Obama is  telling companies like WalMart, that if they want this to go through they better drop advertising through channels like Beck.  Let's face it!  Why else would companies like WalMart drop advertising on one of THE HOTTEST SHOWS ON  TV??? 

   My answer to WalMart is this.   Prepare to be boycotted yourself!  I am doing all my shopping at KMart and Target and writing WalMart to let them know as well.   We cannot let this administration BULLY its way in our country.

   Send this out to your friends and family.

    Have you ridden a train lately?  For most people reading this post the answer will most likely be a resounding NO! AmTrack has been for years a giant waste of American money as another "government-owned-corporation since 1971".  Designed to somehow rescue the passenger train industry from the pesky takeover by the airlines flying all those passengers from here to there in hours instead of days it has been nothing but a major failure.   It constantly requires influxes of cash from the U.S. government to keep it from collapsing under the weight of its own rusted-out-of-date-deisel-engines. 

   Now the government which is gettting the message from the voters that we don't want socialized healthcare, is trying to do an end-run around by saying they are willing to explore government "co-ops" to supply healthcare to the American people.   This is nothing different from what AmTrak did for the rail systems.  It's merely re-branding "socialized-medicine" as "health co-ops" in which the government under they disguise of a so-called independent corporation will be controlling our healthcare.  This discussion might also being used to throw us "off-the-scent" and make the town-hallers back-off or not show up anymore making it look like there isn't any more discent on the subject of Obama-care and provide the assurance to the legislature that it's now OK to pass the bill through Congress.

    On a separate but similar note, I was listening to Fox News and they were discussing how healthcare now takes up about 17% of our GDP and will most likely be rising in coming years.  It then occured to me why congress is so interested in taking it over.  Not because they want to help the American people, but because it threatens THEIR piece of the pie.    For if there is one thing the federal government hates more, its competition for your dollars!   Lets say the 17% is correct and that for the average American the federal government takes 25%.   If the healthcare grows to 20%, then something has got to give and most likely that will be the people demanding lower takes.    In short, healthcare is competing with the federal government.  So as with anything else, its easier to BUY the other piece of the pie than to compete with it.   That is the real reason our politicians are so worried about the rising costs of healthcare and also why they want to buy NOW and not later.  Because its cheaper to buy it today than to wait later and buy it for more tomorrow. 

    We can't let these morons make us think that the war is won!  We need to keep fighting them until this bill is DEAD on the house floor!

Well Obama got his way.  He got the GREEN car of his dreams.  The recharge-able Chevy volt said to get an estimated 230 mpg.  Of course the car goes for a whopping $40,000 (but according to Al Gore.... saving a planet....priceless).   There's some dirty secrets about this car that needs to be pointed out first.

If you do the math (and as a computer engineer, I can't pass it up) the car will on average take about 26 years to pay for itself.  That's right!   26 years!!

Here is the math.
First lets assume the average driver drives 12,000 miles per year and currently drives a car getting 15 mpg and the price of gas is $3.00 per gallon.

Doing the math, the average person will save about $2200 per year in gas (I don't know how much they will spend in added electricity bills at home however so I won't take that into account).

If the Chevy Volt costs 40,000 and the person gets the $7500 back from the government and trades in their car for say 5,000 they will have a bill of about $31,100 (including tax).   Now assume they take an car loan for 8% at 5 years the total amount paid becomes

$37,800

Now divide that by $2200 and you get 17 years.    But wait there is more!   You will need to replace the battery pack every 10 years and they are estimated to be $10,000 a pop.   So doing a little more math you will need to replace the batter 2 times so in the end it comes out to

26 years

Longer if I took into account your increased electrical bill at home (unless of course you run an extension cord from your neighbors outdoor outlet at night and use HIS electricity).

Let's face it.  Cars like the Chevy Volt are nice but not practical for most people.  If you think buying one is going to save you money in the long run, think again.   Also if you think driving one will some how save the planet, think again.  Just where do you think this car will get its electricity from?  The air?   No!   Most likely from coal-fired generation plants... that's where!   All you did was shift the problem from one location (under the hood of your car) to a plant somewhere outside your town. 

Now of course the price of these cars will come down and make the math more amiable to getting one.     Also, if gas were to jump back up to $5.00 then it would take less time (13 years in all) to pay for itself but given the current economic climate.   But I don't see either of those happening anytime soon.

NOTES:

• If you trade in a car for 5000 that gets 25 mpg, the car NEVER pays for itself  as the battery replacement costs every 10 years can never be recouped.  
• If you trade in a car for 20,000 that gets 25 mpg it will still take 39 years to recoup the costs
• If you trade in a car for 20,000 that gets 15 mpg then it will take 9 years (this is the best case scenario)
  

     Recently a woman lectured Sen Specter about what she saw as the systematic dismantling of the Constitution and running up huge deficits that will bankrupt our country.   Another woman at another meeting lectured the senator on how she felt that government has failed at Social Security, Medicare, Welfare and now they want us to believe they can get Healthcare right.   "No Senator" was her final strong words to the senator. 

    Senator Specter today was asked about the anger being voiced by the people at the town hall meetings and what people are angry about.  His response was that the same old line that" people are angry about the partisan politics of Washington and not getting anything done".  WHAT???

Is he   a) DEAF
Is he   b) STUPID
Is he   c) DRUNK

    No.  I don't think he is any of the above.   I think real answer is:   d)  HE'S ARROGANT.

    Most of our politicians take offense to us, less "educated" and less "sophisticated" members of society to tell them that they are wrong and that we know what's better for our lives than they do.  That is the way it is with the progressive movement, for progressivism has at its heart a "class system" in which upper-class (ruling class) are smarter and more educated and enlightened about the world and what is better for the lower-class (working class) members of society.   Therefore anytime the lower class tries to tell the upper class to "shove it"  they don't hear what we are saying but instead look at us as "angry mobs" that need to be "dealt with" and "educated". 

    My hope is that Pennsylvania will throw this guy out on a rail in 2010.  They deserve better than an arrogant A-hole like Specter who only APPEARS to be listening to us but in reality could care less about what we have to say.  It reminds me of a "Far Side" cartoon in which the first panel says "What we say to cats" and the person is yelling at their cat saying "Bad Fifi! Bad Fifi!  I don't want you scratching the furniture!  Bad Fifi!".  Then in the second panel it says  "What cats hear us say" and there is a blank cartoon bubble above the persons head showing that they don't hear anything we say.   Sadly, the same is true for politicians today.

     Government is a expert player at what I call "The Waiting Game".   Simply put, any time government wishes to take over a part of our society it merely has to put into place a system by which over time other competitors are drained slowly out of business until they are the last one standing.  It can do this only because its rules are different from the rules played by private companies.

For example
Lets compare the difference between CIGNA and the Obama-Care plan.

Payers
     With CIGNA, people who opt for the coverage pay premiums (and co-pays) along with their employers to gain coverage so they have skin in the game. But the Obama-care plan gets it money from OTHER people (not the ones using the service), so they have NO skin in the game.  In fact, if needed, those people (taxed on their health-care benefits) will get taxed MORE if more money is needed to cover Obama-Care.  Also as more people go on the Obama-care plan, the HIGHER the tax burden will be on those with prvate health insurance. Eventually a "critical mass" will be hit where those people will be so over taxed they have no choice but to move to Obama-care as well.   That's the way always is when you have people RECEIVING a benefit paid for by those NOT RECEIVING the benefit.  There comes a tipping-point where there is not enough people paying into the system as those taking out (just look at Social Security). 

      To put it another way, lets say 70% of America pays for the other 30%.  If the 70% pays an extra $5,000 per year in taxes to cover the 30%, what happens when half of the 70% leaves and joins the 30%.  You now have 35% paying for the other 65%.  If the costs of covering those additional 35% don't change, the 35% left holding the bag will see their taxes go up to $22,000 per year to cover the ones recieving the care.   That is just not sustainable and the ones remaining will have no choice but to join the others as well.

    Also, CIGNA has no ability to make other health-insurance plans MORE expensive to make theirs look LESS expensive.  But the Government can very easily make all the other insurance providers much more "expensive" by simply racheting up the taxes on the prvate insurers.  No other company can do that and it puts the governement on unfare footing.

Providers
With CIGNA, they work closely with medical providers (such as doctors and hospitals) to insure that

1. Payments to providers are acceptable to both parties
2. The payment system (paperwork) is streamlined so that providers are reimbursed on a timely basis and with minimal hassels

    If either of these 2 are not met, doctors and hospitals can opt to drop CIGNA from their accepted plans list as its not worth it to them to carry them anymore.  This of course would force CIGNA to get with the program and fix their problems and make things better again.

    For the Obama care, the governement does not have to work with the providers to may sure the payments are "fair" as they will be REQUIRED to take the Obama-Care plan.  There is no opt-out for them.  The payments are whatever government decides and the system can be as muddied as it needs to be.  The government can always add more workers on their side as necessary and print more money to cover those costs.  CIGNA can't do that.   Therefore the doctors office has only one solution for their problem:  drop the other providers to give more resource to handling the Obama-care system.  Let's say a doctors office has 3 workers for handling the variety of heathcare companies.  Obama-care comes along paying much less than the other providers, the doctor cannot afford to hire more help to support the  Obama-care system.  Instead they will need to move resources from other providers to haldle the Obama-care paperwork.  Eventually, as the Obama-care becomes more and more convoluted it will need more and more workers and in the end cause most healthcare providers to drop their other plans.  Not because THEY are so BAD, but because the government plan is so HORRIBLE! 

To accelerate the process of taking over all of healthcare all they only have to do is:

1. Increase taxes on the private healthcare users which will accelerate the numbers of people being thrown onto the Obama system as it will be "cheaper" than private health-care  (also maybe make sweetheart deals with large corporations that they will get more of the governments business if they drop their employee healthcare benefits)
   
2. Increase the paperwork and decrease the payments to healthcare providers to force them to drop other plans in order to stay above water as that will be their only choice.

Then just sit back an WAIT and WAIT and WAIT.

As Obama said, "It may take 10, 15 or 20 years. But we will get there"

    Today, normal people showing up at town halls across America are making their voices heard.  They are angry and letting their congressmen and senators know how they feel.  Yet, the left calls them "AstroTurf" and not "real people".   They call it "fake anger" and staged by the hard right.  Why do they think that?  Because they play that game all the time and they think we do too.  They call on their minions from ACORN and SEIU to ask staged questions that they just so happen to have the perfect answer for.  People in the audience hold "prepared signs" chear their every word.  That's the kind of town halls they are used to and so they don't understnad when REAL people who are not paid, take time off of work to come and as questions.   Their first thought is "Who are you and who is paying you to be here!".   

     It will be interesting to see how Obama handles the town hall in New Hampshire.  Of course we know the deck will be stacked in his favor.  Maybe the college kid from Florida will be there who so profusely thanked the President for taking time out of his busy day to come and talk to them.   Or, maybe the lady who was homeless and needing a home will be there too?   Who knows from this crowd the President will "connect with"  and give a presidential "hug" to.    I can't wait to see!   It's like watching "The Hills" which my daughter calls "scripted reality".   Surely some person, probably a woman, will be there that has suffered innumerably under the current system and will be comforted by "The One".   Tears will be shed as she can barely get her words out to ask her question.  "Ahhhhs" we be heard throughout the room followed by distant chants of "Yes we can! Yes we can" that will grow slowly and then reach a deafing roar until "The One" raises his hands to tell the crowd that he has been inspired and heard their outcry.      He will then take the mic and look directly into the camera (first glancing at his teleprompter to remind him of his next line of the script) and then proclaim to the American people that he will make sure that the healthcare bill passes (no matter how many people polled are against it).  He will then stroll slowly over to the woman and put his arm around her back and assure her that all will be well and he will take on the evil insurance companies who have hurt her in the past (though smoking 2 packs a day and eatnig fast food for breakfast lunch and dinner didn't help her either).   The woman will then faint in his arms like a scene out of some lame religious "Healing Service" where the pastor says "BE HEALED" and the person faints on the floor.  She will need assistance by the secret service and be escorted from the building never to be seen or heard from again (hmmm wonder why?).  The cameras will pan the audience for their reaction as people put their hands to their mouths and their eyes open wide in amazement.  Then the MS-NBC reporter will say (on queue),. "The president has done it again.  Reaching the American hearts and leading our nation in ways we have not seen for a very long time, if ever.  It's no doubt in my mind that the American people are behind him and this legislation now".

That is how it's going to go down.   Mark my word!

If I could add a Right to the Bill of Rights it would be this

The Right to a Slow and Deliberate Government

It would read as follows:

Congress shall pass NO law that:

1. Has less than 70% approval (90% if the bill requires funding of any kind)
   
2. Is longer than 1 page, single sided, single spaced, 14 point Courier font with one inch margins (top,bottom, left and right)
3. Has not been read out loud by every member of congress on CSPAN
   
4. Has not had a 30 day waiting period from the time it was first introduced out of committee to the House floor to give the American people an opportunity to contact their representative to voice their opinion.
   

By enacting this, our country would be saved from the tyranny being inflicted by the thieves in the dead of night who try to push through this kind of so-called legislation.   It would stop our government from making us lose sleep and basically scaring the hell out of us.  Yes, that's right congress!   You scare the hell out of us!  And what amazes me even more is that you are so blinded by power and corruption that can't see why!   You don't think we should be scared when:

• Bills are not measured in pages, but by the POUND.
• You think that everything in that bill is "good for America"?
• Bills cannot be read and understood even by your own lawyers
• Bills are being pushed through committee and through congress at LIGHT SPEED like they have some sort of expiration date on them.
• Common citizens (grandmas and grandpas even) are referred to by you as "angry mobs"
  
• sounds like you are 2 seconds from pressing the panic button and sending in the National Guard (or ACORN)
• Members of the Administration are on the record for supporting things such as:
• rationing health care for the young and old and disabled..
  
• assisted suicide
• Obama himself has said in the near past, that he wants America to "eventually" have single-payer (ie taxpayer) system
  
• it might take 10,15 or 20 years but we will get there (his words... not mine)
  
• The CBO places the cost of this bill at 1.7 TRILLION DOLLARS over the next 10 years
• the even worse news is that is probably a BEST CASE figure and the real cost will be 2 or 3 times that figure
• Government run healthcare has destroyed every other country's economy that has tried to do it (but of course that won't happen to us)
  

These are the truths that congress must confront.  These fears are as REAL as the blood pumping through my veins.    

Another Right I would introduce is:   The Right to NOT BE AFRAID of the government.
(but this is already covered by the 2nd Amendment)

As Thomas Jefferson once said, "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty"