Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Message

It's Martin Luther King day tomorrow. Rather than exploit the message for political points as many will do today I figured I'd try something different. We all know of the "I have a dream speech" but think for a second, how much of it do you really know?

Most will answer that question with the same few infamous lines we've know since childhood. I'm going to provide 2 speeches here today. The first being his partially infamous "I have a dream speech" you'll be surprised by how much of this speech you don't know.

The other speech is called, "I've seen the promised land", it was delivered the night before an assassin's bullet would end the life of this great man. Here's the entire I have a dream speech. Note: I am presenting these 2 speeches as exact quotes and haven't changed so much as a single word. This is what a true civil rights leader believes.

I Have A Dream (August 28, 1963)

"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds".

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?". We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of it's creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with it's vicious racists, with it's governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country ti's of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to become a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring, from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Now that's a civil rights speech for equality. It's amazing how much of this speech is not known to so many people. The next speech is far less famous but no less important.

This speech was delivered on April 3rd, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee the day before he was assassinated.

I've Seen The Promised Land (April 3rd, 1968)

"You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?"

And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood - that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget.

I had received one from the President and Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try and tell America about a dream that I had had.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me, now it doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has it's place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. and I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord."

The next day Martin Luther King would be assassinated. I find it interesting that a letter from a 9Th grade white high school student meant more to him than a letter from the president. Perhaps he knew that politicians will use a crisis for political purposes. After all you never waste a crisis, right Rahm Emanuel. Yet he was touched by a white high school girl's genuine concern for him. They just don't make civil rights leaders like they used too.

Take these messages to heart and don't let what this man truly stood for be lost from memory. Don't let the message be twisted into something that it so clearly wasn't.

As he stood for equality and peace in life. May he rest in peace in death. Hopefully, we will all be able to remember his message now, and embrace that message in the name of justice and equality for all.

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Forget Red State vs. Blue State, Mass May Turn Brown

Whether you live in Mass or not doesn't matter at this point. Everyone is paying attention to the special election on Jan. 19th. Stopping the health care nightmare is the obvious reason for the interest. Not to mention that replacing Ted Kennedy with Republican Scott Brown would send a message to Obama that simply can't be ignored. Governor Deval Patrick is doing all he can for Martha Coakley:

Friends:

I am proud to support Martha Coakley in the upcoming election for United States Senator on January 19th, and we need you to become an active part of her campaign, too. Because we have a fight on our hands.

Forces mobilized to derail our progress towards meaningful health care reform are lining up in support of one of Martha's opponents. These are the same forces committed to opposing reproductive freedom and weakening civil and human rights. These are not just Martha's challenges. They are challenges to all of us and to our values.

Martha has been a strong partner and friend over the past several years. She shares our commitment to fairness and to equality for all people in our Commonwealth and our country. She has a strong vision for the needs we face: access to good jobs, environmental stewardship, strong schools, and our clean-energy future. She is totally committed to passing meaningful health care reform at the national level--the cause so central to the life and work of our beloved Senator Ted Kennedy--and will be a proud and essential 60th vote that ensures its passage.

I cherish your support and friendship, and I hope you will consider giving generously in the ways you can to help her candidacy. There are two big ways you can make a difference:

1. Please make a contribution to directly fund Martha's campaign. Martha needs resources to compete on television in the final days, and to fund her grassroots get-out-the-vote operation leading up to and on January 19th. Can you give $25, $50, or even $100 now?

2. Please dedicate two or more hours to Martha's volunteer operation. Martha's Republican opponent has tapped into a national network committed to derailing our best chances at health care reform, and they are making thousands of telephone calls to Massachusetts voters each day. Martha needs your help to make sure that our neighbors, friends, and colleagues hear her positive message and turn out to vote on January 19th. Can you join one of Martha's phoning operations around the state for two hours over the next ten days?

To help in other ways, please call the campaign directly at (617) 241-0200 or e-mail Martha's field director, Katie Sullivan, an alum of our 2006 campaign, at volunteer@marthacoakley.com.

You know the gravity of the challenges before us. With Martha Coakley as our partner in the U.S. Senate, we will make progress on January 19th and beyond.

Please vote on Tuesday, January 19th, and join me in supporting Martha in this critical and historic election.

Sincerely,

Deval Patrick

He's right about one thing, this is a "critical and historic election". I can't help but be pessimistic. This Rasmussen report accurately describes why.

If you're in MA and have doubts about the health care bill this election is your only chance to make a difference in the national debate. Make no mistake, as the entire country realizes, if Martha Coakley wins this election Obamacare will pass.

Given the fact that the above Rasmussen report shows that only 32% of Mass voters approve of the Romneycare disaster I find it interesting that 53%, again according to Rasmussen, approve of the current health care bill going through congress.

"In 2006, Massachusetts implemented its own statewide version of health care reform which has been cited as a model for the national plan. But just 32% of the state’s voters consider that reform a success. Thirty-six percent (36%) consider the plan a failure, and another 32% are not sure."

"In the Bay State, 53% favor the plan working its way through Congress and 45% oppose it."

If those statistics prove true then it's a problem for us regarding this election. There are far too many Democrats that will vote for Coakley regardless of her views simply because of the D next to her name. It's simply a sad reality of modern day politics in states that are heavily tilted toward one party or another.

Scott Rasmussen summed up this race perfectly in this article.

"Clearly, his supporters are more enthusiastic about the race and that gives him a chance. But, as they have from the beginning, the dynamics of the race still make it likely that Massachusetts voters on January 19 will send another Democrat to Washington"

That pretty much sums it all up. We will do everything we can to get as many votes for Scott Brown as possible. There is a glimmer of hope in all this. After all, this is the state that elected Mitt Romney as governor.

Also, Martha Coakley is an extremely weak candidate who should be miles ahead of her Republican challenger yet she isn't. An endorsement by now governor Deval Patrick can't mean much since he's lost a lot of support due to his performance as governor since he was elected.

Paul Kirk, the Deval appointee currently representing MA in the senate until the election has already stated that even if Scott Brown wins the election he'll vote for the health care bill. Congress has also vowed to stall Brown's appointment to the senate so they have time to let Kirk do just that. Nothing like typical corruption in Washington in order to go against the will of the people.

We'll see how it all plays out 8 days from now when we go out to vote. Will we be the state that votes for the status quo and hands the health care nightmare bill to the entire country or will we remind this great country that this was the state of the original tea party?

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Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a happy new year. This is a big year for conservatives. With CPAC right around the corner and Liberals popularity tanking as they head into this big election year this is where we will see just how big the tea party movement really is.

It's only taken 1 year of Obama with the Pelosi-Reid congress to revive Conservatism in this country. Art Laffer, former top Reagan economist, usually says, "without Jimmy Carter there would have been no Ronald Reagan". The point shows a trend that comes when our government gets too Liberal.

Ultra-liberalism doesn't work. Unless you count rising unemployment, rising welfare, rising poverty, weaker defense, out of control wasteful spending, and a tanking economy as working. No free pass for Bush and the "neo-cons" either though. After all, he was also passing massive wasteful spending projects filled with pork. Obama and the Liberal congress have just pushed it to a whole new level.

Take health care for example, they've now passed a bill that nobody seems to like just for the sake of claiming victory on the health care debate. On the one hand, even though I'm no fan of the bill I'm to a point glad it was passed. The reasoning for this is simple. I think many Democrats who've voted to pass this bill have in fact voted themselves out of office this year. That's great news for us.

We all watched the special interest deals made at the last minute in order to secure votes and nobody is happy with that. Even the people in the states that will benefit from these shameful deals are speaking out against the bill.

Washington obviously doesn't get it. The tea party protests and town hall anger transcended party lines. It was not just about being angry with Obama or Bush. It was about anger with how D.C. does business now. It's us, everyday Americans who pay the price when the government screws up.

The politicians obviously don't care for one simple reason. They are completely convinced that they are smarter than you are. They feel it is their duty to take care of you, even when they suck at it, because you are too incompetent to take care of yourself.

However, let's look at the results and see who has it right. In the last few years millions of everyday Americans have lost their jobs. Yet only a handful of politicians have. The politicians pay has skyrocketed along with the national debt while everyday workers wages have gone down.

How about the bailouts...irresponsible business practices are being rewarded right along with irresponsible personal decisions by politicians and we are being left with the bill. I don't know about you but I don't like paying bills that I get nothing for.

When I pay my electric bill I get electricity, when I pay for my food I get to eat, when I pay for my mortgage I get a place to live. What are we getting out of paying for all of these bailouts, pork projects, and 2,000 page bills filled with god knows what?

We as a nation are paying more for the mistakes of Obama and company than we've ever paid for anything else. What have we gotten? Certainly not jobs or a growing economy, although government's been growing nicely.

There hasn't been an increase in confidence in America on the world stage. Despite Obama's appeasement award, I mean peace prize, the world is still worried about our debt and what it could mean for our dollar's value. Given the kinds of policies we are pursuing there will have to be inflation. It's coming, you can't print and spend this kind of money, combine it with a lack of confidence, a continued slipping economy, and an explosion of our debt without inflation. Yet nobody in Washington seems to be the slightest bit concerned about it.

It's time to revive Reagan conservatism in this country. We are watching liberalism fail, (as usual), and everyday more and more people are beginning to see what real conservatives are about. The message has a broad appeal that can easily win.

Perhaps it's a good thing that Obama won the election. After all we haven't seen a true Liberal controlled failing of America since the Carter 70's. It was that failing that gave us Ronald Reagan.

Much of Obama's base, younger voters, never lived through the 70's. Of course they aren't being taught much accuracy when it comes to history since many teachers, (not all but many), are pushing an agenda in order to make youth line up for liberals as they did in November '08. We are now seeing the flaw in that measure of thinking.

Attacking Bush and the Republicans for 8 years was easy. It seems that Liberal Democrats are now having trouble putting their money where their mouths have been. So keep it up Pelosi, Reid, and Obama because the results of your policies are proving to be the best thing to happen to Conservatives since Ronald Reagan.

So here's to a happy new year and an even happier 2010 election cycle.

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Kennedy's Replacement

As most of you know we will be electing a replacement for the late Ted Kennedy in January. We now know the 2 major party candidates for that race, Scott Brown (R) and Martha Coakley (D).

Since Martha Coakley will most likely be victorious in January I'd like to share a few thoughts about the debate from Dec. 1st between the Democratic candidates. As a side note it will be interesting to see if Joe Kennedy, no relation to Ted, who will be on the January ballot as a independent candidate, will hurt Coakley enough to give Scott Brown a fighting chance here in Mass. I'm sure Kennedy's just counting on his name to get him a good chunk of votes. Sadly, that will most likely be the case as uninformed voters head to the polls. However, if his name on the ballot hurts Coakley then I'm all for it.

Let's start with her position regarding an increase in troop levels for Afghanistan. We now know that the president is sending half of what was requested by General McCrystal, (30,000 instead of the 60,000 with a minimum of 40,000 that was asked for).

Martha Coakley has an even worse position than the president does here. She gave a flat out no for any more troops and compared Afghanistan to Vietnam. Of course that position puts her at odds with candidate Obama who called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" and who worked hard to convince us that Afghanistan was a war we had to win. Coakley claims we need to "use intelligence not troops" in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Simple question for you: given all we know about what's going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan don't you think we need to use intelligence AND troops? For the record I have a cousin who's a recent marine and will very likely end up being sent as part of Obama's limited surge in Afghanistan. I will of course continue to hope for the safety of all our troops whether he's sent or not.

When asked about the Patriot Act all Democratic candidates said no. Capuano thinks it has to be "totally rewritten", Pagliuca said no and that it "didn't work", Coakley thinks the act violates rights and needs to be restructured. They apparently weren't paying attention to the wiretaps allowed by the Patriot act that helped uncover the Brooklyn Bridge plot. Remember, the Patriot Act didn't work.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed first connected Iyman Faris, the man behind the plot, to Al Qaeda during interrogations. I'll bet being nice and saying please is what broke him and got KSM to talk how about you?

When the subject of the 320,000 jobs lost in Mass alone came up they were asked to give specifics on how they will create jobs. Coakley's master plan...

1. Force state banks to loan to business.

While I see the point here haven't we learned that forcing banks to loan leads to many bad loans?

2. A "research tax credit".

I suppose it will depend on what you are researching, like how to keep people on welfare indefinitely. Liberals have mastered that one. It's funny how Liberals are so afraid of the words tax cuts. They substitute tax "credits" in order to save face I suppose. After all, when your platform consists of mostly tax increases and you've spent your entire political career against tax cuts it must be hard to talk about lower taxes as a positive economic policy.

3. Stimulus 2

Have you stopped laughing yet. It's amazing that these people get any votes at all. Bush's stimulus failed. Obama's first stimulus has failed, of course Obama's was never meant to stimulate anything, it was a way to payoff political partners, unions, and I guarantee it will be used to help with the re-election of liberal democrats. The same way FDR's New Deal WPA was used to help Democrats get votes during the 30's.

For the record why would we be talking about stimulus 2 when we haven't spent all of stimulus 1 yet? Coakley claims she wants to "look at stimulus mistakes" and make sure the next stimulus is "used properly". That's interesting, it seems to imply that she realizes stimulus 1 has failed. I'm sure having the same group of people who were responsible for those mistakes of the past stimulus bills will be perfectly capable of making another stimulus package work.

When asked about what they've done to adjust to this recession some of the answers were downright embarrassing.

Capuano is using more energy efficient light bulbs, great job.

Pagliuca claims to be doing more charity work. That seems like the only halfway decent answer.

Khazei said less gifts for the holidays. That actually makes him sounds like and average citizen doesn't it?

Coakley claims to be eating in more and not going out to eat as often. Looks like this recession is really hitting these folks hard huh?

When it comes to health care Coakley supports Romneycare, which is failing and proving to be much more expensive than first expected, surprise, surprise. At least her answer was better than Pagliuca's. He said he'll vote for any health care reform bill regardless of what's in it. At least he didn't win the nomination, good thing.

All of the candidates including Coakley support $20 million to be spent on a Kennedy Institute honoring Ted Kennedy. I have an idea, why don't we go after the unpaid taxes Ted Kennedy keeps in offshore accounts to pay for it?

"Why do you think U.S. Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy has moved his entire personal estate assets to an offshore trust located in Tortola, BVI? Possibly because BVI has no estate or death tax? Kennedy has few personal assets in the U.S. The family pays an annual rent (to cover property taxes, insurance, maintenance, operations, etc.) to his BVI trust for his considerable luxury compounds located in Martha's Vineyard, Palm Beach and elsewhere. I am a man of modest means, but when we both die I suspect my death tax bill will be larger than his."

Full Story

Given that, why should we pay for an Institute honoring Ted Kennedy? Why doesn't his family pay for it? They obviously have the money.

In closing Martha Coakley turned to her usual Wall Street bashing,predatory lending criticism, support for the "public option", the environment, and global warming rhetoric.

It's funny how politicians bash rich businesses who create jobs but not rich politicians who don't create any jobs. When it comes to predatory lending it seems Coakley forgets that it was the government that forced risky loans to be given in the first place. It was predatory government not predatory lending.

She supports the "public option" and would probably use some polls to make the argument that the public agrees with her on that.

"But past experience shows that polls on the public option can be highly misleading in the way the questions are framed. For example, when Consumers Union polled on the public option, it prefaced its questioning with a highly positive description of a public option designed to achieve positive answers."

Public Option

As far as the environment and global warming, all I need to say is Climategate.

It's no surprise to anyone who knows my views on politics that I'm no supporter of Liberal Democrats and Coakley is no exception. I hope the various mistakes her views represent give Scott Brown enough ammunition to make a difference. While I seriously doubt it I'll just hope for the best and vote in January.
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On an unrelated and happier note:

Happy Hanukkah to all of the Jewish folks out there.

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Uninvited Guest At The White House Dinner

Just a quick post about the White House dinner the other day. We've all heard by now about the couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who got into the White House dinner even though they weren't on the guest list. The story.

"I want to stress that these individuals went through magnetometers and several other levels of screenings just as all of the guests attending the dinner did," - Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan

While this may prove to be a mistake by the Secret Service I believe they do a great job. Donovan has also ensured that no one was ever in any danger. However, there's a book you should all read about what the Secret Service actually do and how the problem's they face are made more difficult by the administrations they protect.

For example, the Secret Service thinks it was a mistake for George Bush to make the Secret Service part of the Department of Homeland Security. As for the magnetometers mentioned above, Obama staffers told the Secret Service to just let people go through without screening if the crowds were too big when he was on the campaign trail. This was potentially dangerous.

Remember when Joe Biden threw the first pitch at the Yankees vs. Orioles game? What if someone in the crowd had a gun and was able to get off a few shots?!! It's all talked about in a fascinating book called In The Presidents Secret Service. If you get a chance you should read this book.

This may be a slip up of the Secret Service but the administrations they protect cause more problems for the Secret Service than many of us realize. Here are some samples from the back cover of the book. (The Jimmy Carter one would be funny if it weren't so pathetic):

"Threats against President Obama are up 400% compared with those against President George W. Bush."

"Barack Obama met secretly with Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., during his presidential campaign."

"Vice President Spiro Agnew, a champion of family values, had extra-marital affairs while in office."

"George W. Bush's daughters, Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, gave their Secret Service details a hard time and would try to lose their agents."

"Based on a psychics vision that a sniper would assassinate President George H. W. Bush, the Secret Service changed his motorcade route."

"To make the press think he came to work early, Jimmy Carter would walk into the Oval Office at 5 a.m., then nod off to sleep. He refused to allow the military aide with the nuclear football to stay near his home in Plains, Georgia, jeopardizing the nation's safety when he was staying there."

"Lyndon Johnson gave dangerous instructions to his Secret Service agents and engaged in extensive philandering at the White House and at his ranch."

This book is a real eye-opener for what the agents go through and what the Secret Service goes through with some administrations. I hope that both this and all future administrations begin to do a better job of listening to the advice of the Agency.

For the record the Agency wanted to put 2 agents on the back of JFK's car and he said no. We all know what happened to him. The 2 extra agents may not have saved JFK but it makes you wonder.

"Kennedy - code named Lancer - himself told agents he did not want them to ride on the small running boards at the rear of the car."

"An analysis of the ensuing assassination - including the trajectory of the bullets which struck the president - indicates that it might have been thwarted had agents been stationed on the car's running boards."

I have great respect for the Secret Service and hope most others agree. It'll be interesting to see how this story of the uninvited guest's plays out.

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So Many Issues, So Little Time

I've been thinking about what I should talk about next for awhile. With so much happening so fast sometimes it's hard to decide what issue I should cover next. I'm going to try and cover several things here that have been on my mind.

Have you ever heard liberals trying to teach what conservatives believe. Here's an example from Alec Baldwin.

"Health care reform means less money for insurance companies. Thus less money for the GOP. We should pass this bill for that reason alone."

What about the fact that health care reform also means much more money for lawyers and unions. Thus more money for the Democrats.

How's Obama's stance against lobbyist coming along? Liberals will tell you he's doing great.

"The OMB Watch-CRP study found 1,418 "deregistrations" of federally registered lobbyists during the second quarter of 2009, a marked increase for any reporting period during all of 2008 and 2009. This occurred shortly after President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13490, which created new restrictions on former lobbyists appointed to the executive branch."

Sounds great right? Like everything else in politics these days though it's a trick.

"Another troubling issue highlighted by the organizations is that the thousands of lobbyists who appear to have left their line of work may not have actually done so. At the federal level, many people working in the lobbying industry are not registered lobbyists, instead adopting titles such as "senior advisor" or other executive monikers, thereby avoiding federal disclosure requirements under the Lobbying Disclosure Act."

Are you getting angry yet? Here's the story those quotes are from. Maybe that shines some light on who a few of Obama's "advisers", "czars", or whatever else he wants to call them really are.

We have a 2,000+ page health care bill now, (and we thought HR 3200 was bad with roughly 1,100 pages), and we already know about some bribes in the bill. Like the $100 Million for Louisiana.

That's just one thing. After seeing what happened with the failed Stimulus bills and the earmark filled Omnibus bill I can only imagine what else lurks in those 2,000 pages. The government is asking for us to trust them with this reform bill.

Massachusetts will get to keep Romneycare. So now, if it passes, I'll have Romneycare, Obamacare, or ....I'm not sure. They should just call this the Healthulus bill.

Were you happy when you found out about all of the wasteful spending in the stimulus bill? I doubt it but here's the key: You didn't find out about it until after it was passed. I suspect this health care bill will work out in a very similar way. We won't know about all of the problems with this bill until it becomes law and we can't stop it. Regardless of your political affiliation would that surprise you at this point?

Now I'm starting to see the campaign signs and hear the ads for the people who want to replace Ted Kennedy in the Senate. I'd like to see Scott Brown win here but I don't think it's possible. Massachusetts is just too liberal. Of course we did vote Romney in for governor so maybe there's a better chance than I'm giving credit for Scott Brown to put in a good fight. I doubt it though.

The government's lying about job creation and the economy, no surprise there. A big we told you so is due for that one but don't expect Obama to admit his stimulus critics, like us, were right.

Let's talk a little bit about what you can do. If you can make it to a tea party rally that's great but many of us can't. One thing you can do is keep up as best as you can with history and current events. The politicians are counting on you becoming too frustrated to pay attention to what they are doing. They get frustrated when you do pay attention though. It is for that reason that they no longer allow us to read the bills online, even though it was a campaign promise of Obama's.

The other thing you can do is communicate with everyone you can. Talk politics wherever you can get away with it. I talk politics all the time as you can see from this blog. Use social networks, e-mail, blogs, etc. Attend any town hall meetings you can, get to or at least support the tea parties.

Stick to the message that we know works. Stand by conservative principles regardless of any criticism you will face from the other side. History is on our side. The facts and results will be on our side. Ignore political correctness and substitute it for actual correctness. Call terrorists what they are...terrorists.

Last but certainly not least. Make sure you take a minute to think about all you truly can be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Family, friends, your ability to stay sane despite all the craziness going on at the moment, eggnog, or whatever else makes you happy. Have a great Thanksgiving.

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Swine Flu Shots, The Final Verdict.

I've posted before about the swine flu shot. The last time I talked about it I talked about the government considering forcing you to get the shot by law. I of course opposed it then as I do now.

I never told anyone not to get the shot as I don't believe it's my place to do so. In fact what I said in my last post about the swine flu was this:

"If you choose to get the flu shot then that's fine as long as YOU CHOOSE."

My position has not changed there. We're hearing stories from both sides of this issue regularly. Legitimate doctors on one side will say you're crazy if you get the shot while other's say you're crazy if you don't.

I was critical of President Obama for not getting the shot and for not having his kids get the shot. While the president still hasn't since he claims to want "priority" people to get it first. His children have now gotten the swine flu shot.

In a previous post about Obama's health care plan I mentioned that my mother is an RN so I called her to get her opinion about the swine flu shot.

Here's the deal. Do not get the inhaler version of the virus, the injection is safer. The inhaled version is mostly for people terrified of needles. The injection is a dead version of the virus and the inhaled vaccine is a live version of the virus.

I've heard about some people getting rashes etc. from the vaccine and she explained the most possible explanation for that as well. The vaccine is made inside of eggs, (don't ask me how since I have no idea), therefore it's possible for people to have an allergic reaction to the vaccine. It's actually a reaction to the eggs used in making the vaccine, an allergic reaction to eggs may cause an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

If you get the vaccine and still end up with the flu it's most likely that you had the flu to begin with but it can be in your body for several days before you come down with the symptoms. You'd be in worse shape without the vaccine.

The biggest risk for those of you with kids are whether or not they are in school. I have one in school and due to all of the interactions with other kids and germs in general it puts children in school at higher risk.

If you have children who are too young to be in school the risk comes from the risk of an older sibling who is attending school or you getting the virus at work etc. and bringing it home.

Now that I've been given this information from a source I trust I will be getting the swine flu shot's for my kids. I can't tell you to do the same any more than I could tell you not to. It's your family and therefore it's your choice. I can only pass on the information I've received and give you my thoughts on the subject.

I asked about the vaccine in the '70's making more people sick than the actual virus and was assured that the advances in medicine make the current vaccine safer so we shouldn't have to worry about a repeat of the past with this one.

This vaccine was tested on children around 5 years of age whose parents were doctors and the testing was successful. While I've now made up my mind to give my children the vaccine I have another problem....supply.

Remember the outrage over the seasonal flu shot shortage during the Bush administration? Example.

"This may be Bush's Waterloo!"

That's just one example and of course there are many. Even though that vaccine wasn't developed in America and we got a bad batch. Besides that was just for the seasonal flu.

Now the government has scared the crap out of everybody convincing us all that our kids will die if we don't get them the swine flu shot and when many of us actually listen we show up to hear that there aren't any vaccines available. In fact the Obama administration is millions of doses behind schedule.

"But the administration, and in particular Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, have come in for strong criticism from those who say they created a false sense of expectations with overly optimistic predictions about the availability of the vaccine."

Bush was criticized for the shortage of the flu vaccine before and it's rather amusing to see the Obama administration take the same kind of heat. What's not amusing is the fact that people, especially children, are dying because of the swine flu incompetence of this administration.

Mr. Obama is learning rather fast what we've known for years. To criticize an administration you oppose, (like Bush's), is easy. To defend your own failures is much harder.

This administration has spent months worrying us about the swine flu. They've spent months warning us to get the vaccine and especially to give it to our kids. They claimed there would be plenty of vaccines in the previous link I provided.

Early on, Mr. Obama told his aides he wanted them to “learn from past mistakes,”

The biggest question to ask is this:

If the government can't handle distributing a flu vaccine they had several months to build a supply of and prepare for do you really think they can handle controlling the entire health care system of the country?

I don't.

This post wasn't about the health care debate but I think that last question is one that had to be asked.

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MoveOn.org's Godfather Tactics

Dear MoveOn member,

$3,578,117!

That's how much progressives pledged this week to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who blocks an up-or-down vote on health care reform with a public option.

It's a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots.

Here's another way to make sure conservatives think twice before joining with Republicans: Many of these senators hold coveted committee chairmanships that give them significant power within the Senate.

Our friends at Democracy for America have launched an open letter urging Senate Democrats to strip committee chairmanship from any Democrat who filibusters health care. Will you join in? Clicking below adds your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/norewards/o.pl?id=17815-17182837-6INyX.x&t=3

The message of the letter is simple. It says, "If ANY member of the Democratic Caucus joins a Republican filibuster of health care reform with a public option, the Caucus must immediately strip that Senator of all Committee Chairmanships."

In the Senate, the majority caucus has control over who chairs committees. Committee chairmanships are highly coveted because the chairperson has a lot of power over which bills get considered and what's in them.


But chairing a committee is a privilege, not a right. So if a member of the Democratic Caucus joins with Republicans on the most important vote in a generation, then they certainly don't deserve a position of power controlled by Democrats. The Democratic Caucus needs to make that clear to its members.

The fact that 66,000 MoveOn and Democracy for America members pledged more than $3.5 million to a primary challenge makes clear just how angry they'd be with any Democrat who helps Republicans doom health care reform. But as conservative Democrats decide what they're going to do, they should know that it's not just the grassroots they'd have to worry about if they filibuster, but also their colleagues.

Can you sign the open letter to the Democratic Caucus? Clicking below will add your name.

http://pol.moveon.org/norewards/o.pl?id=17815-17182837-6INyX.x&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Laura, Kat, Daniel, and the rest of the team

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I didn't know Don Corleone was advising moveon.org. Obviously I didn't add my name to the letter but I figured you'd all like to read this one.

"It's a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots."

I think that after the recent elections where 2 out of 3 major races were lost by the Liberals, Conservative Democrats, (yes, they do exist), are a little more worried about this grassroots movement.

Great job raising your $3,578,117 MoveOn.org but anyone can send a $54.21 check to you, (that's the average given by the 66,000 members), and claim they represent the country.

However, real grassroots shows when thousands of people attend town hall meetings to voice their concerns to representatives. It shows when thousands attend tea parties to show discontent with government. It shows with D.C. rallies and protests. It shows when the President's approval rating drops 15 points in 9 months, and it showed last Tuesday when voters turned against the "progressives".

The fact that New Jersey went Republican even though Obama repeatedly campaigned for Corzine and he lost is huge. New Jersey is a Liberal state that voted for Obama yet the Liberals lost. The president and company can pretend it means nothing all he likes if it puts a smile in front of the camera but I think he's too smart to see what's happening and not think it matters.

2010 will be the real test of Obama's agenda and the "progressive" agenda in general. Many seats are up for grabs in 2010 and if we see a repeat of '94 then perhaps the Liberals will start to pay attention.

The "progressives" have pushed us far enough......

all of the tea parties etc. have scared them into calling us extremist for one simple reason......

they are seeing how strong our conservative message can be, and they are realizing how powerful the Conservatives can be when we push back.

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By the way I know it's been awhile since there's been anything new on this blog and I apologize for that. We have families too. Besides, even a political junkie like me needs a brain break for the sake of sanity once in awhile.

As always thanks for reading and following this blog. It helps to know there are those of you out there who support what we do here at he counted wrong.

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Republicans vs. Conservatives Welcome To NY

We're hearing a lot about the 23rd district in NY about the current disagreements between the Republicans and Conservatives. I find it fitting that they have started acting as if they are 2 different parties. I'm a Conservative first and a Republican second.

I have been listening to the debate in these last few days regarding this race and figured I may as well give my thoughts about this race, (everyone else is). I'm worried about all the faith being given to the polls regarding this race.

First thing we should do is read this story. Note the first 2 words in the title of that article, "Conservative Pollster". That's where the problems begin.

The polls being used in Hoffman's defense that show him in the lead were all conducted by groups that back Hoffman. While more independent polls show him in third.

"the Minuteman PAC -- which is supporting Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman -- finds Hoffman in first place, and the moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava in third."

"This runs contrary to independent polls, which have put Owens in first, Scozzafava second, and Hoffman third, while it's consistent with a poll from the Club For Growth (which also supports Hoffman)."

Do you see my concern here? The polls that show Hoffman gaining the most in New York are being conducted by groups that have backed Hoffman. I'm worried that the bias they understandably have may be clouding their judgement of how well Hoffman is in fact doing.

Hoffman is no doubt gaining steam on the national stage since conservative heavy hitters like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck have publicly backed Hoffman but this race isn't about the national stage, it's about the 23rd district in NY. I'm no big fan of Scozzafava but if she ends up split with Hoffman and the Democrats win, it will present 2 major problems between the Republicans and Conservatives.

1. The Democrats will treat this as though the party is divided when it isn't.

Remember how great it was to see Hillary Clinton and President Obama going after each other in the debates? We are giving the Democrats the same kind of satisfaction that we had watching those debates.

2. Conservatives are presenting an image that there is no room for moderates in the Party.

That is the angle Newt Gingrich is trying to point out. The next year leading up to the 2010 elections will be played out much like a political chess game. In some areas we have to help moderates where Conservatives are likely to lose. The Conservative criticism of Scozzafava will be remembered by her. In that regard it's good that this controversy exists, if she wins she will remember how disappointed the conservatives are with her and how close she's being watched by the party.

I agree with the conservative critics of Scozzafava on some of the things she supports. Card check being one of the worst. However, one thing you can be sure of is that if we hand this election to the Democrats because of this rift between the Conservatives and the more moderate Republicans, then you can be sure that everything you dislike about Scozzafava and more will be supported by Bill Owens.

Given the fact that so many of you backed McCain in '08, even if it was only for Palin it looks hypocritical. Remember this? The point of showing you that reminder is simply that we will never get a perfect candidate.

The same could be said for Romney fans, remember Romneycare? Glenn Beck is a vocal critic of Romneycare in MA yet he was backing Romney for president. How about Ronald Reagan? He had to work with the Democrats for the good of the country since they were in control. Newt Gingrich had the same experience with Bill Clinton. I think it's that experience that is guiding his decision here.

You can bet that Newt Gingrich hasn't abandoned conservatism. After all, he stepped down as speaker and formed American Solutions because he saw Republicans shifting from conservatism, (and other reasons). He was right. The Republican party did abandon conservatism.

The leaders of the Republican party must be conservative but think of this. I mentioned earlier in this post that the next year must be played like a political game of chess. Let me explain that.

Think of the pawns in a chess game. They are the weakest pieces on the board but if cleverly used they can set up the win with the more powerful pieces. I think that Newt, and John Boehner by the way, are trying to place Scozzafava in Congress to act as a pawn. If cleverly used against the Liberals it can set up a Conservative victory in the bigger and more important races in the future.

I'd love to be able to elect all conservatives across the board but it's not possible. Without some moderates helping in more Liberal areas we will lose.

Many Conservatives stood up for principles in the November election and cost McCain a few states by voting for Bob Barr. It wouldn't have won him the election but it did make a point. Standing up against the "moderate" may have sent a good message to the party about returning to conservatism in '08 but did that make you feel any better when you realized that Obama had been elected?

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Palin Endorses Doug Hoffman in NY-23

Sarah Palin has endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 congressional race. Hoffman is running against liberal Democrat Bill Owens and liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava.

Doug Hoffman is the only conservative in the race. See his website here.

More to come soon...

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Swine Flu Shots Or Jail!!!

As previously stated by me several times on this blog I'm no fan of Deval Patrick of MA, my home state unfortunately. If Deval signs the new law, which he has already stated that he will, the repurcussions will be grave.

This goes out to other Mass residents specifically. Are we going to put up with this? There should be outrage over this and EVERYBODY whether you're a Republican, Democrat, Liberal, or Conservative should be calling, protesting, blogging, e-mailing, and anything else you can think of to stop this. Even if your not from MA we may just be a testing ground for what's to come in your state.

This should be considered political suicide for ALL legislators of MA and for Deval Patrick as well. I don't think Deval wants to keep his job though since Obama probably has something lined up for him in D.C. so it's up to all of us. I wonder if the police have the courage to stand against this law. Will police, who are charged with serving and protecting the citizens really come to our houses and force vaccinations on us? I pray that they will stand by people like myself who refuse to accept this blatently communist law.

This video from fox shows what I'm talking about.

If you don't trust Fox with this that's fine. CNN has reported about forced vaccines for healthcare workers. It looks like a good start for NY to inch it's way closer to the Mass law.

Here are some tips from Dr. Russell Blaylock about swine flu and the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Obama says he'll wait to get the swine flu shot! He claims to want "priority groups" to get the shot first. Isn't the president a priority?!!

If this law is passed in MA then I think the legislators and Devil PaTRICK, (Misspelled on purpose of course), should have to get it first. Don't pass laws on others unless you're willing to be first in line to comply with your own law.

We know legislators don't abide by their own tax laws etc. that they impose on us but this is far more serious. This is about injecting a largely untested new type of flu shot into our bodies. If they are going to try and force us to take the vaccine by a law we didn't get to vote on and they passed regardless of public opinion then it's only fair to ask for them to take it first.

I know Deval won't read this but I wish he would. It would be nice to have a governor that listens to the people. As a former lawyer, like most politicians unfortunately, he should be among the first to speak out against such a radical law.

"Every dictator who ever lived has justified the enslavement of his people on the theory of what was good for the majority." - Ronald Reagan

Isn't that basically the logic of Deval and company for forcing the flu shots on Mass residents?

If you choose to get the flu shot then that's fine as long as YOU CHOOSE. Remember these are the same folks who thought President Bush wiretapping suspected terrorists violated people's rights.

If you thought wiretapping was a violation of rights then what do you call this? Where are you now? What's worse? Listening to phone calls or forcing injections of a new form of flu shot under threat of jail and removal from your children?

All that's left is to see if the Liberal majority in this state will stand against this law that is so clearly a violation of our rights. Standing up for our individual rights as citizens is what's really best for the majority. I just wonder if the majority will remain silent here in MA with passive acceptance or will there be enough of a reaction to make a difference? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

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Health Care Lobbyists, Unions, Special Interests, and Politicians...Where Do We Fit In?

The health care debate has become less and less focused on health care in recent months. Lobbyists and special interest have always been the focus of health care reform to many in Washington D.C.

"Labor unions, business organizations and conservative and liberal advocacy groups have timed advertising and grassroots campaigns to coincide with the Senate Finance Committee’s 14-9 vote that approved the bill."

"Groups such as Working America and Health care for America Now (HCAN), a coalition of liberal groups and labor unions, plan to intensify grassroots campaigns."

I don't think liberal groups and labor unions represent grassroots movements. Average citizens questioning politicians at town hall meetings about real concerns that affect their lives represent grassroots movements.

While some people are thinking of real health care reform others are just playing games.

It gets better.

"There are other massive earmarks in this bill. Up to $10 billion will go to VEBA, such as the underfunded retirement health care package of United Auto Workers retirees. This may or may not be a good idea, but it clearly does not belong in this legislation."

"Most importantly, and this is what the legislation is really about, the Baucus bill will transfer power from the American people to Washington elites — a power grab far more massive than it appears. Just think about it, the fiction (yes, some would call it lies) you're hearing about today is happening while people are watching."

"Imagine what will happen with earmarks, political favoritism and social engineering when the details are negotiated by government bureaucrats, lobbyists and the Obama administration's "health czar" behind closed doors."

The above comments come from this story.

It's amazing how little these elitist politicians have learned. Despite our growing outrage and their plummeting poll numbers they still don't seem to care about what's truly best for the country. It has become Washington D.C. (District of Corruption).

It's time to start voting many of these overpaid reckless elitist out of office. I'm tired of hearing campaign speeches about getting lobbyists and special interests out of Washington from politicians whose campaign's were funded by those same lobbyists and whose bills take care of the special interests.

We pay for it all and, like always, we end up with the short end of the stick. Left with nothing to show for all the money of ours that Washington wastes. CNN reported today that 30,383 jobs have been saved by stimulus. How about the millions that have lost their jobs? For all the money we're spending 30,000 jobs is a joke.

One last thing to think about. We keep hearing from the Obama administration that recovery will be slow etc. Some even claim as late as 2013. That unemployment will remain high until 2013 etc. Do you think that President Bush would have gotten away with saying in 2001 that we will have rising unemployment etc. until 2005? It would have been the end of him.

Every time we hear bad economic news while Obama's in office it turns into the argument that it would've been much worse if we didn't pass his stimulus plan. What do you think they'll say when health care doesn't go as planned? Something along the lines of "we'd have even worse health care if we didn't act". Will you let them off the hook with that kind of excuse?

Where's the lobbyist for the American people? Where's the working middle class special interest? As the title of this post asks.....where do we fit in?

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Future Inflation Worries

I've wanted to bring up a few things about inflation for awhile. Maybe you've been thinking about it and maybe you haven't. After all, we've yet to see rampant inflation hit us yet. I for one think it's coming.

I'm going to approach inflation starting with a story from when I was a bit younger. I remember when I was an early teenager my father would always be yelling at the news. I didn't care as much then but I sure understand the frustration now that I'm probably following it even more than he ever did.

Not understanding much about inflation or economics at the time I innocently asked my father, who has a master's degree in accounting, why can't we just print money if we need it? After all to me at the time a dollar was a dollar. Why wouldn't a candy bar be .50 cents anymore just because of some more money circulating out there?

The answer I got was simple and made perfect sense to me. "If we just print more dollars then the dollar becomes worth less because there's more of it." It's a pretty simplified answer to inflation but one that explains it perfectly.

What makes a rare baseball card or stamp worth so much?...The fact that it's rare. The more dollars we print then the less rare a dollar is. Therefore, the less rare a dollar is the less it's worth. We haven't increased our supply of anything, (like gold), that can back our dollar up. We just keep increasing our supply of dollars.

Now, we do have to print money at a certain controlled pace because of a growing population and a growing cost of living. We can't have more and more people chasing the same few dollars. However our monetary policy has to be sound and carefully controlled. At the moment our monetary policy is nothing short of insane and never mind controlled, the government for the most part doesn't even know where a lot of the money is going.

"We know from centuries of evidence in countless economies, from ancient Rome to today's Zimbabwe, that running the printing press to pay off today's bills leads to much worse problems later on. The inflation that results from the flood of money into the economy turns out to be far worse than the fiscal pain those countries hoped to avoid."

Source.

Notice that this is from June of last year. It's the Democrat controlled congress and former president Bush.

Ok, so that's a story worried about inflation and here's one from Paul Krugman that isn't, gotta love the NY Times.

And the United States itself emerged from World War II with debt exceeding 120 percent of G.D.P. In none of these cases did governments resort to inflation to resolve their problems.

Mr. Krugman forgets some major factors that make the difference between FDR's New Deal America and today's Obama New Deal 2 America. For one thing during WW2 the dollar began to stand out as the top world currency. Other countries involved in the war invested in the dollar which made the dollar strong despite heavy deficits.

We took gold etc. and they took dollars. We have the opposite happening now. Instead of the world turning to the dollar and thus helping to stabilize our money, many like BRIC, (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), are thinking about what to do about the decline of the dollar.

The only thing helping to stop rampant inflation of the dollar is the fact that so many other countries like BRIC are so heavily invested in the dollar, especially China. They are currently trying to think of a way out of it.

"The Chinese see that America’s economic policy could drastically reduce the value of their holdings in dollars. China cannot completely abandon the U.S. dollar without severely damaging the value of U.S. dollar assets that it already holds.

But now that America is creating trillions of dollars of more debt, China’s U.S. investments are going to get damaged anyway. With that realization, China is thinking about spending its money elsewhere."

China stops buying U.S. debt.


Some of Obama's economic advisers, who convince me more and more each day that they got degrees in economics out of cereal boxes or Cracker Jacks, helped cause this mess even though they take no credit for it now.

"As treasury secretary in 2000, Mr. Summers championed the law that deregulated derivatives, the financial instruments — a k a toxic assets — that have spread the financial losses from reckless lending around the globe. He refused to heed the critics who warned of dangers to come."

"Mr. Geithner, currently the president of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, also has helped shape the Bush administration’s erratic and often inscrutable responses to the current financial meltdown, up to and including this past weekend’s multi billion-dollar bailout of Citigroup."

Full article.

Does any of that give you confidence in President Obama's economic advisory team?

The problem is that so many believe in the myth of FDR. Many think that FDR's New Deal helped end the great depression. Even Newt Gingrich, who I'm a big fan of, has stuck up for FDR. The problem most seem to ignore is that as a wartime president FDR fought to win and he was obviously a good wartime president. After all he fought to win, unlike Obama plans too.

Before WW2 though FDR was a catastrophe. His economic policies failed miserably and unemployment skyrocketed to 25% with the New Deal in effect. Obama seems to embrace all of the economic failures of FDR but none of his wartime will to win.

Here's a great book about the New Deal. As I read it I was amazed how much compares to President Obama's current policies. If President Obama's New Deal 2 yields the same kinds of results as the previous one we may be in more trouble than anyone realizes.

Many Americans today have never lived under a true depression, myself included. If our dollar collapses then this current recession will seem like the tip of the iceberg. I for one would rather not be on that ship.

World War 2 truly ended the great depression. I hope for all of our sakes that World War 3 isn't necessary to end this one. Sorry to end on such a grim note, but like all of you I fear for the future we may be handing to our children.

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Obama Loses the Olympics, Or Did He?

It was announced late this morning that Chicago was eliminated from hosting the 2016 Summer games. This was a surprising turn of events, especially given that President Obama traveled to Copenhagen to lobby for the games. Allahpundit from HotAir has analysis here. This has been viewed by many conservatives as being a disaster for the Obama administration, attributing it to his inability to earn the respect of the rest of the world.

I am not a conspiracy theorist. But on a day when the U.S. loses another quarter of a million jobs, with the official unemployment rate skyrocketing to 9.8%, could this have been intentional? Think about it. Obama goes to Denmark to lobby for the games, generating media coverage of his move. If he gets the games; he looks like a hero. We now know that he didn't, but he seems to have won a consolation prize. Virtually all of the media is spending time talking about his failure to get the games, not the skyrocketing unemployment rate. We all know which story should be more important to the American people who are struggling to get by each day.

You aren't fooling me, Barack. And the number of Americans you are able to fool decreases every day. See you in 2012, chump.

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2010 (Read: 1994) Update

It appears that things have gotten even worse for the Democrats in next year's midterm elections. Most alarming, however, is that independents are breaking for the Republican candidate in a general election matchup by wide margins in most cases.

Connecticut:

Chris Dodd is being crushed by the front runner for the Republican nomination, Rob Simmons, 49% to 39% in deep blue Connecticut. He is in a statistical tie with my personal favorite candidate, hardline libertarian Republican Peter Schiff. Schiff has little name recognition outside of hardcore political junkies and Ron Paul fans, so for him to be tied with an incumbent speaks volumes about how dissatisfied Connecticut voters are with Dodd.

Nevada:

Harry Reid is truly out of touch with voters in his home state of Nevada. Nevada has trended blue over the last two election cycles, but evidence suggests that that may be coming to an end. Reid loses by 7 points to businessman Danny Tarkanian, and 10 points to former Nevada GOP Chairperson Sue Lowden, who declared her candidacy today.

Colorado:

Appointed Democratic Senator Michael Bennet's bid to win the seat on his own is in jeopardy. He loses the seat to former Lt. Governor Jane Norton by 9.


New Hampshire:

It looks as if Republicans have a good chance of holding the seat being vacated by retiring senator Judd Gregg. Republican Kelly Ayotte leads Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes by 7 in the ARG poll and by 8 in the Rasmussen poll

Arkansas:

Conservative Democrat Blanche Lincoln seems to be in trouble in Arkansas. Arkansas has moved hard to the right in recent years, but traditionally elects Democratic senators. Lincoln loses by narrow margins to 4 hypothetical contenders One of the people she loses to is Tom Cox, who is the head of the TEA party in Arkansas. Certainly not to denigrate Mr. Cox, but this is a clear sign that people in Arkansas are simply going to vote Republican. Lincoln is in more trouble than these numbers suggest. Expect her to move fairly hard to the right over the next year to attempt to hold the seat. This makes it seriously unlikely that she supports ObamaCare.

More soon....

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Obama's Latest CBC Speech

Perhaps you saw President Obama's speech at the CBC, (Congressional Black Caucus), the other day. If not you can view it here split into 2 parts. I'm going to discuss a few things he said in this speech on this post. Including parts where I both agree and disagree.

I will provide the exact times in his speech where you can find exactly what I'm talking about without having to watch the whole thing. Feel free to watch it all if you wish though. I will say either part 1 or 2 then the minute and second of that part where Obama mentions the issue I'm talking about. I will then put part of the quote up to center each issue I have on that particular section of speech. Here we go.

part 1 3:35

"Some folks seem to have forgotten how bad things were when I took office. They seem to be exercising some selective memory"

Actually, our memory is just fine, we remember that you didn't fall from the sky and were a part of the do-nothing congress whose earmarks and misguided legislation helped cause this recession.

part 1 4:03

"Our entire financial system was poised on the brink of collapse."

Now thanks to misguided bailouts due to both Bush and Obama it's our currency, government, and therefore our entire country poised on the brink of collapse. Just ask Arthur Laffer, Reagan economist.

part 1 4:36

"We're cutting taxes for 95% of working families. Not for the rich folks but for ordinary folks."

What good is a few bucks for the folks when your Cap and Trade bill will make our "energy prices skyrocket"? Those are your words Mr. President and you should stop slapping the public across the face by talking about your fake tax cuts. The things your making more expensive in our lives are far more than any supposed "tax cut" you think you passed.

part 1 4:49

"We're extending and increasing unemployment insurance for 12 million Americans to help them weather this economic storm."

The best tool to weather an economic storm is a job. How about you stop talking about "saved jobs" because they mean nothing if unemployment keeps rising rather than decreasing. Start creating real jobs by working with (rather than against) businesses. A stable job will help someone much more than "increasing unemployment insurance".

part 1 5:11

"We are saving the jobs of teachers and police officers that Americans rely on all across the nation"

Nothing wrong with this one, except for the fact that it's taxpayers in local communities whose taxes help pay for teachers and police officers salaries. If you create more private sector jobs then the tax revenue from those jobs will increase and there will be enough money to save teachers and cops from being fired without a "stimulus" check.

5:25

"with the largest investment in our infrastructure since the interstate highway system was built in the 1950's"

Then why aren't we repairing the roads where it's most needed?

part 1 6:05

"This recession has hit communities of color with particular ferocity"

Aren't most of those same communities run mostly by Democrats? Haven't they been run by Democrats for years? Just an observation. Weren't the ghetto's still ghetto's in the 90's? Obama was a community organizer in Chicago and aren't crime and poverty still relatively high there? I hope he has better success with the nation than he had in Chicago but so far I'm not impressed.

part 1 6:32

"we all know that these problems have been there for a long time"

Exactly.

"That's why my administration under the leadership of Eric Holder is serious about enforcing our civil rights laws and tearing down barriers to equal opportunity"

Who isn't?!! We should all be in favor of enforcing our civil rights laws but these "barriers to equal opportunity" within the African American community can only be solved by leaders within those communities. Business leaders to create jobs and loving parents pushing morals, values, hard work, and serious schooling to the children of those communities. An embracement of personal responsibility and tough policies against crime. For crime brings with it poverty and destruction to any community regardless of race.

Part 2 1:17

"your trying to make sure everyone has health care and they're putting a Hitler mustache on you that doesn't make sense to me explain that to me"

Anyone who does that is an idiot. However, it's also not wise for Obama and others on the left to label anyone who disagrees with them "extremist".

Part 2 2:00

"It will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition"

I'm not against this, just like I'm not against it being illegal to deny coverage based on race etc.

Part 2:11

"It will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most. They won't be able to place some arbitrary cap on how much coverage you receive in a given year or a lifetime."

That's great, but the government will be able to do all of these things, and senior citizens will bear the brunt of it.

He mentions requiring insurance companies to cover preventative care at no extra cost.

Part 2 2:50

"There's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer before they get worse."

I agree again, but it will be very expensive because of all the extra preventative tests. Aren't they currently criticizing the insurance companies for this. If there's no compensation for these tests yet they are required then it will severely damage the insurance companies. That's of course the hidden agenda because if private insurance goes down and you can't change insurance (remember you can keep your insurance but you can't change it, Obama only likes to mention the first part of that), not being able to change your insurance is in the bill.

Part 2 3:56

"They said the same thing when we tried to pass Social Security. They called FDR all kinds of things." "They said the same thing about Lyndon Johnson when he tried to pass Medicare."

When Social Security was passed by FDR under the economically catastrophic New Deal the average life expectancy for whites was 59 years old. For Black Americans the life expectancy was only 48!! You couldn't collect until you were 62. It was an FDR trick designed to take money from working people but never intended to pay them. Now that the life expectancy has greatly increased in this country, (thanks to our awful health care), the program is going broke. Therefore, critics of the Social Security program were right even if Obama disagrees.

Also, isn't Medicare riddled with fraud and waste? Obama's plan doesn't increase fraud prevention. What do you think will happen when millions of people are added to it?

At about 4:45 in part 2 he talks about education. I agree with most of what he says for the next few minutes about education. The only problem is that the teachers unions will prevent much of what he talks about, like getting rid of teachers that aren't performing well.

Part 2 7:00

"Government can't put away the Playstation, government can't put our kids to bed at a reasonable hour, government can't attend those parent/teacher conferences, government can't help them with their homework, government can't make sure they leave for school on time. These are things only a mother can do and a father can do. These are things that a parent can do."

I agree 100% with this as well as most that comes after it. I don't like the term "shared prosperity" at about 9:30 in the speech. Then he closes with the usual style we've become accustomed to with Obama. There's a quick skip toward the end and someone accused Fox of editing the speech. I watched it on Fox and there was no such edits.

One last point before I end this. We all know of Martin Luther King Jr's. famous I have a dream speech. I'd like to share some of that speech that you may not know.

"In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

"The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone."

President Obama and the CBC have great opportunity at this time to inspire the African-American communities in ways no other American leaders could before. Mr. President I agree with you when it comes to all of the things in this speech that talk about what the government can't do. You actually sent a very conservative message of personal responsibility toward the end of the speech.

Government has spent decades trying to fix our poorest communities. Government has spent decades trying to solve poverty and crime in the African-American communities. It's time to use your outstanding communication skills to inspire those communities to help themselves. After all:

"The government declared war on poverty and poverty won." Ronald Reagan

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Massachusetts Priorities

Massachusetts, like many other states is feeling this recession. It doesn't seem like that matters much to some of our legislators, they have bigger problems to worry about like picking our official state sandwich.

The Fluffernutter, a gooey combination of peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff that has given countless children a sugar rush, is again being proposed as the state sandwich.

Shame-full story.

It's amazing that this is the state of the original Boston Tea Party.

Maybe when we're done talking about state sandwiches we can start talking about health care or the economy again. I think it's a little more important than establishing a state sandwich don't you?

Let's use Mass as an example for health care, it's making the recession worse here.

"some legislators believe the current law is unrealistic given current economic conditions and should be waived for the newly unemployed, but Democratic Governor Deval Patrick vows to continue the program and cut other spending to balance the budget instead."

Mass care increasing recession.

Now, some news on economics. A few months ago I attended a town hall meeting with Deval Patrick, I've posted about it previously. While he didn't pick me for a question at the event I did get to submit a Youtube question with one of his staffers after the event.

The question was never posted or answered, (no surprise there), even though I was assured when I called constituent services that even if it wasn't posted I'd at least get a phone call or e-mail answer. It's been 3 months and I'm still waiting.

First, read this.

Ok, now it's almost laughable that the title of that story was, "Tracking the recession: Stimulus helps revive summer youth jobs programs." However, the last line of the story was, "Don’t expect any growth in teen jobs until 2012."

So let me get this straight...stimulus is reviving summer job programs with no growth in summer jobs!! Was this story written by Joe Biden!!!

There's another point to this story though that ties directly into my question for Deval. All of the so called jobs being talked about by most stimulus supporters are funded with stimulus dollars, like the story you just read. What happens when the stimulus money runs out?

The way I put it to Deval in a question you'll never see him answer was something like this, I don't remember my exact words but I'll be pretty close here.

When you came out tonight Deval you started by talking about jobs being created here in MA. They were all stimulus jobs created with stimulus dollars. When the stimulus money runs out you'll be right back where we started, needing more stimulus dollars to keep funding those jobs.

I'd like to know how you plan to create long-term jobs in the private sector? It was JFK who said you decrease revenue when you increase taxes because you kill jobs.

I used JFK because I knew it would be harder for Deval to criticize a Democrat than a Republican like Reagan and Coolidge. For the record here's the JFK quote I was referring to. I doubt Deval knows it:

"Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large federal deficits on the other. It is between two kinds of deficits, a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy, or a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, produce revenues, and achieve a future budget surplus. The first type of deficit is a sign of waste and weakness, the second reflects an investment in the future"

The economy here on a state level is much the same as the national level. Rising unemployment, decreasing revenue, tons of wasted money, and absolutely no quality leadership.

It's not all bad though. At least we may soon have an official state sandwich, the Fluffernutter. WOO HOO!!

Thanks for reading.

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I Reply To MoveOn.org, Regulation, and Critics Of We The People

Dear MoveOn member,


Dawn is a few years younger than me. She lives in Atlanta. She's an aspiring playwright. And four years ago, she was diagnosed with a rare, but treatable brain tumor.

Dawn's doctors are ready to treat the tumor, but they can't. CIGNA, her insurer, refuses to pay for the care she needs because the only hospitals qualified to treat her are out-of-network. And after years of fighting, Dawn just received her final denial letter.

For me, the scariest thing about Dawn's story is that it could happen to any of us—to a friend of mine, or someone in my family. After all, Dawn has insurance. But as long as private insurers are the only game in town, they'll continue to have the power to deny Americans the care they need.

Dawn is fighting back. And while CIGNA may be able to ignore Dawn, they won't be able to ignore millions of us standing together with her. I'm joining Dawn's fight to shine a light on Big Insurance's abusive tactics, get Dawn the care she needs, and make sure they don't do this to anyone ever again. Will you join me by signing a statement of support? Clicking below will add your name:


http://pol.moveon.org/dawnsmith/o.pl?id=17257-17182837-pwxAqdx&t=3

The statement says, "I stand with Dawn Smith. CIGNA must provide the treatment she needs and stop rejecting legitimate care for all the others who are suffering."

Unfortunately, Dawn's story isn't unique—she's one of the millions of Americans who are suffering—but what she's doing about her situation is. Instead of suffering in silence, she's sharing her painful, powerful story so that, as she says, "no one else has to go through what I have."

I've been really moved by Dawn's strength, given everything she's going through. She has terrible pain and sudden seizures that can knock her off her feet. She's had to move back in with her mom so she can have constant care. But through all that, she's kept her spirits up.

The heart-breaking part is that her condition is treatable. But CIGNA's refusal to treat her has brought her to "the end of my rope," as she puts it. CIGNA gladly accepts Dawn's premium payments, but when she needed care, they refused to pay for it, coming up with new reasons as they went.

Dawn's story is a symptom of a much bigger problem. But if we all rally behind her, we can help not just her, but everyone else who's suffering under our broken system, too. Together, we have the power to make Dawn's story different, and in the process, to remind Congress and the American people why we so desperately need health care reform.

I'm standing with Dawn. Will you join me? Clicking below will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/dawnsmith/o.pl?id=17257-17182837-pwxAqdx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Marika, Daniel, Kat, and the rest of the team

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Ok, first things first, I have Cigna insurance through my employer and for about $45 bucks a week they cover my wife, myself, and all 3 of our kids. I certainly can't complain about that coverage as I also find the co-pays reasonable.

Having said that it's also true that I don't have a brain tumor so I haven't had first hand experience with Cigna on how they handle such problems. So far though I trust my insurance company more than MoveOn.org don't you?

"CIGNA gladly accepts Dawn's premium payments, but when she needed care, they refused to pay for it, coming up with new reasons as they went." Think about that for a minute. It's truly a case for reform. Now take the same quote and replace the word CIGNA with The Government. Isn't that one of the major cases against the government takeover of health care?

The government will have the ability to deny care, especially to the elderly, by "coming up with new reasons as they want" also.

I don't disagree with the fact that we do need reform. What we don't need is a government takeover. Name one thing the government runs better than the private sector? Our military is amazing because the politicians largely stay out of it. They control funding etc. but when it comes to missions our military leaders are left largely in charge of what's done. THAT'S WHY OUR MILITARY IS SO AMAZING, THE POLITICIANS ARE NOT TELLING OUR MILITARY EXACTLY WHAT TO DO, THAT'S LEFT TO OUR MILITARY EXPERTS!!

Could you imagine if the likes of Nance Pelosi were in charge with our military? Are you ready to put her and others in congress like her in charge of health care?!!

Think about it....The government's case for taking over health care has never been weaker. Congress and Obama don't think that's the case but let me explain.

Even before Obama became president the government began getting involved in taking over more and more of our country and our personal lives. From Tarp, to Stimulus (1 and 2), Cash For Cars That Work Fine (Clunkers), the bankrupt Post Office, the ever-frustrating RMV, the "pork" added to various bills over the years from BOTH PARTIES,Cap and Trade (Energy Tax), and on and on and on.

Given that track record they dare to label opposition to the health care plan as a Republican conspiracy, they call us extremist, they think we're just being racist against the President. I know most people reading this are smarter than that, what's amazing is how few politicians are smart enough to understand that. How can they be so blind to the feelings of a majority of the people?

If disagreement was solely based on race then there's no way he would have won the election in November it's as simple as that. Were the African Americans who opposed the Bush policies labeled as racist extremists?...Of course not, American opposition and distrust of government is to a point natural and healthy for Democracy. It is one of the greatest things about our great country. Look at how Iran reacted to the protests by it's people.

This is not about right versus left, or black versus white. This is about right versus wrong. This is about average Americans from all areas, all races, and all political parties standing up to our elitist politicians.

We put our trust in the politicians long enough. We were betrayed by the parties enough times. The time has come for the politicians to put their trust back in we the people.

If we say no to trusting the government with our money then in the interest of representing we the people the government should take less of our money, not more. If we say no to trusting the government with our health then they shouldn't takeover the health care industry.

Ronald Reagan believed in deregulation, keeping the government from intruding as much as possible while still upholding the law. We should go after the Bernie Madoff's of the country, however, the fact that people like that do exist is no basis for labelling all investors as con-men criminals.

Obama is the anti-Reagan, he believes in regulating everything:

Ben Bernanke isn't waiting for Congress to expand the Fed's regulatory powers. Instead, he wants to put regulators directly inside banks to monitor (and possibly reject) pay packages.

The whole story.

Here's another:

The FCC rules "would bar Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. or AT&T Inc., from slowing or blocking certain services or content flowing through their vast networks," according to the AP.


But critics contend that the proposals are nothing more than a backdoor way for the FCC to tighten federal control over the Internet by beginning with the regulation of Internet service providers.

Full story

If we're extremist for being concerned about the power of government then every founding father of this great nation were extremists. If that's the case then I'll wear that label proudly.


"Every dictator who ever lived has justified the enslavement of his people on the theory of what was good for the majority." Ronald Reagan's CPAC speech 1974.

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