What else could we buy with the Stimulus Bill President Obama just signed?

• We could give every man, woman and child in the US (303,824,640 people) $2,590 each
• We could give each of our 138 million taxpayer  $5,702 each
• We could pay for 5.3 Apollo moonshots
• We could buy 403.5 billion gallons of gas (AKA  a 12 minute drive in a Hummer)
• We could buy 143.3 billion 6 packs of Bud Light
• We could build 56 Two-unit Nuclear Power plants
• We could construct 314.8 million wind generators
• We could pay the GDP of Micronesia 3,392 times
• We could pay the annual salary (approx. $1,700) of 462.9 million Indonesian sulfur miners
• We could put 7.8 million children through all 4 years at a private university
• We could put 29.8 million children through all 4 years at a public university

Just sayin….

I got an email from a friend of mine today asking if I had seen this email being passed around the internet, supposedly written by an angry housewife in NJ. While I didn’t check it against snopes for authenticity, I know it doesn’t matter who the actual author was. The fact is, this letter has been around for a while and it does refelect the way some people feel.

‘Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?

Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation’s capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania ? !

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn’t they?

And I’m supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was ‘desecrated’ when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?…Well, I don’t. I don’t care at all. 

I’ll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11. 

I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia 

I’ll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for chopping off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat. 

I’ll care when the cowardly so-called ‘insurgents’ in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques. 

I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide . 

I’ll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights. 

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care. 

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don’t care. 

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don’t care… 

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed ’special’ food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being ‘mishandled,’ you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don’t care. 

And oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled ‘Koran’ and other times ‘Quran.’ Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and-you guessed it-I don’t care !! 

If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your E-mail friends. Sooner or later, it’ll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior! 

If you don’t agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don’t complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add: 

‘Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don’t have that problem’ — Ronald Reagan 

I have another quote that I would like to add AND…….I hope you forward all this. 

‘If we ever forget that we’re One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’ Also by.. Ronald Reagan 

One last thought for the day: 

In case we find our selves starting to believe all the Anti-American sentiment and negativity, we should remember England ’s Prime Minister Tony Blair’s words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America , he said: ‘A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.’

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The American G. I. 

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON,

AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM.

 

AMEN! ( I’m passing this on Lady. God Bless You and God Bless

 

When you refuse to respect others and their traditions, you make them mad. When you purposefully and remoreselessly humiliate an entire race of people, you make them mad. Yes, 9/11 was a terrorist act that killed thousands of innocent people. Yes, America was right to respond with force. Yes, we have every right to defend ourselves and do everything in our power to ensure our own future safety.

But how do we get to stand here and claim that we are standing on the moral high-ground while we do everything we can to insult and humiliate those that didn’t even attack us? How do we respond when somebody disrespects the bible, or our holy ceremonies? Why, then, do we think it’s ok to do the same to them, and then act surprised when they yell at us? We are the greatest and most powerful nation on the Earth, why do we need to make prisoners of war make a naked human pyramid? We should be treating these enemy combatants at least as well as we treat our own criminals. It’s nothing short of what we want for our own soldiers held captive.

Also, the whole “if you don’t agree with me you support terrorists and hate America” part of the letter is insulting to those of us that believe in human rights and this country. The pro war, anti-non-Christian-brown-people sentiments expressed in this letter are the exact reasons we will be attacked again. When you make yourself the worlds largest target, don’t be surprised when everybody starts taking shots at you.

Dear Mrs. Clinton,
It is time to unite the party before we lose the entire election. I understand, we all understand, wanting to fight to end because you believe you can win it, but at what cost? History has shown us over and over again that parties which extend the fight all the way to the convention ultimately lose the White House. We cannot afford to lose this election in November. We cannot take another four years of Republican rule. You cannot let your pride get in the way of this country winning the prize.

Right now, we are a house divided. The bitter fighting between you and Obama has polarized the Democratic Party tremendously. You are teaching your supporters to hate Obama. You are telling your supporters that Obama is not fit to run this country. So what happens when Obama gets the nomination? Your supporters will not vote for him. If your supporters don’t vote for a Democrat, who will they vote for? Can you, in good conscience, leave this country in the hands of the Republican Party simply because you don’t want to acknowledge that the Democratic Party has spoken? We have chosen our nominee, and it’s time for you get behind him with the rest of us.

When you sow the seeds of dissent, you will reap what you sow. If you take this fight to the convention you will be handing this country to McCain on a silver platter. Only you can close the rift that has been opened in our party. Only you can ensure a democratic victory in November. Please, please, please, get to work.

Brett Matthes
AZ Democrat

If you spend any time reading forums or blogs on the internet these days you will almost inevitably run into somebody claiming that the problem with the leadership (or lack thereof) in this country is the fault of the voters, because, after all, they are the ones that put the current administration in office. While technically true, I have to ask, “Who were we supposed to elect?”

The 2008 Democratic Primary Election Ballot here in Arizona had 24 names on it. So even with 24 choices, nearly 93% of the votes were cast for Hillary or Obama (the only other candidate to get more than a fraction of a percent was John Edwards). So why, with that many to choose from, did we still only go for the top two player? That’s easy to answer, it all comes down to the almighty dollar. In this day and age you cannot get elected unless you have some incredibly deep pockets. We vote for Hillary and Obama, not because we are certain they are the best candidate for the job (how can we be certain when there are at least 18 names on the ballot we’re seeing for the first time?) but because they have the most most money, get the most TV/radio-talk-show time, get the most media attention, and the most print-space. We don’t get to choose the best person to represent our party in the big election, we get to choose the richest.

We’ll likely never know who the best person to be president is because that person doesn’t have the dough to make themselves known. The best thing we can do, as voters, is vote our conscience instead of our political party line, and fire those that betray us.

Get registered to vote and make your voice heard in November.

I would

• Abolish the electoral college – I would give the power to elect to the people.
• Ban lobbyists from giving even a single dime to anybody in a position to influence laws – laws should be passed on their merits alone, not on the depth of corporate purses.
• Ban “riders” on bills – One law per bill. Laws should be passed because they are right, not because it has some hidden provisions and back room deal attached to it. If you like it, vote for it. Otherwise vote no.
• Severely restrict the FCC – I would put the responsibility of raising children back on the parents and stop dictating what the entire population can see, hear, or say simply because some parents choose to use the tv as a babysitter.
• Stop abuse of “executive privilege” – prosecute those that break the law no matter what office they hold. And when the court says you are required to produce documents, you produce them, no excuses. Failure to comply has strict consequences.
• Remove the church from the state – I don’t care how many people believe in creation, it’s not science, it’s religion. As such, it doesn’t belong in our schools. Same with abortion. Keep your invisible sky wizard to yourself.

I would give this country back to the people, and reintroduce freedom to our culture. We may still live in the greatest country on Earth, but those in charge are doing everything they can to ruin it.

Be sure you vote in November. And make sure you vote your conscience, not just along your party line.

Today the US Supreme Court will be hearing a case that will put the 2nd Amendment to the test. What’s happened is the District of Columbia has banned handguns in an attempt to get some control of their ridiculously high murder rate. Their position is that 80% of the murders in DC are done using handguns, therefore we need to ban handguns. The subjects citizens of DC are allowed to have other guns in their house, so long as they are disassembled or trigger-locked. The controversy in this case stems from the differing interpretations of the 2nd Amendment itself, which reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Those against gun control see the words “right of the people” and say this means every individual has the right, as one of those “people” to arm themselves. Those for gun control see the words “a free State” and say this means the State, with it’s collective people, has a right to arm themselves; in other words, the right to keep an armed militia, but individuals are not covered by this amendment. As a proud owner of a number of guns, handguns included, I am firmly on the side of the former.

As part of their fear campaign, anti-gun supporters love to throw around statistics about the number of death attributed to handguns. They like to tell us how dangerous they are to police and, especially, children. They would like us to think that nothing good has ever come of handgun ownership, and they love to say “Look at England, it has a a tiny murder rate because of its gun controls!” So let’s look at England. In 1997, England passed the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 which, with some exceptions, banned the private ownership of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of caliber. In 2005/2006 there were 50 reported firearms murders in England. This means that gun control laws stop firearms related murder, right? Well, no. Let’s look at some other numbers for England.

• 1990: 661 homicides. 60 from firearms, 22 (36%) from handguns
• 1995: 753 homicides. 70 from firearms, 39 (55%) from hanguns
• 1997 (year of the new law): 753 homicides. 59 from firearms, 39 (66%) from handguns
• 1998: 731 homicides. 49 from firearms, 32 (65%) from handguns
• 1999: 761 homicides. 62 from firearms, 42 (67%) from handguns
• 2000: 850 homicides. 73 from firearms, 47 (64%) from handguns
• 2001: 858 homicides. 97 from firearms, 59 (60%) from handguns
• 2002: 1045* homicides. 81 from firearms, 40 (49%) from handguns
• 2003: 858 homicides. 68 from firearms, 35 (51%) from handguns

 * 172 homicides from 2002 are attributed to Harold Shipman.

So the gun ban had no effect on firearms related murder, in fact the rate increased by 14% between 1997 and 2003.

Let’s look at some other numbers

• 1990: 3,939 armed robberies, 2,233 (56%)with handguns
• 1995: 3,963 armed robberies, 2,478 (62%)with handguns
• 1997: 3,029 armed robberies, 1,854 (61%)with handguns
• 1998: 2,973 armed robberies, 1,814 (61%)with handguns
• 1999: 3,922 armed robberies, 2,561 (65%)with handguns
• 2000: 4,081 armed robberies, 2,700 (66%)with handguns
• 2001: 5,323 armed robberies, 3,841 (72%)with handguns
• 2002: 4,776 armed robberies, 3,332 (69%)with handguns
• 2003: 4,117 armed robberies, 2,799 (67%)with handguns

(source)

After an initial decline, the number of armed robberies skyrocketed. Once again, the gun control laws had zero effect on the crimes commited with guns, with armed robberies increasing 35% over 6 years.

• In 1997 in the USA, there were an estimated 10,137 firearms related murders of which 7,904 (78%) were with handguns.
• In 2003, there were 9,659 total firearms homicides, with 7,745 (80%) from handguns. Over the same time period as above, the US homicide rate dropped almost 5%.
• In 1997 in the USA there were 175,710 firearms related armed robberies (no breakdown on number of handguns)
• In 2003, there were 172,802 firearms related armed robberies, a drop of 1.6%

(1997 source) (2003 source)

 The bottom line here is that gun control does nothing to prevent violent crime. Think of things this way, murder is already banned. Has that stopped criminals from murdering people? No. Robbery is against the law, but it still happens. Gun laws won’t reduce the number of deaths, in fact, as has been shown, they don’t even decrease the number of gun related deaths. We have a right in this country to carry guns. We have the right to defend our selves, our family, and our property from individual criminals as well as safeguard our freedom from an aggressive government. Our country was founded by rebels and revolutionaries and they made sure those behaviors would not only be allowed, but encouraged by our constitution. Don’t let them take our guns. An armed person is a citizen; an unarmed person is a subject.

The other day I was talking to my girlfriend about some of the things that bother me in regards to our administration and the apathy my generation takes towards it. Towards the end of one of my rants she asked me “Well what are you doing about it?” My answer was simple. I’m doing what I wish everybody else would do. I’m talking about it, I email my congressman and senator about it, I send messages to my governor, I send stuff to the newspaper, I write to the President, I write to the majority and minority party leaders, I write to the DNC and the RNC. I also write a blog and try to reach people here on the web. In short, I’m doing what I can to make noise. The problem is not enough people are joining us.

I find it amazing that there are people out there, adults, with children of military age, that have no clue about the war. If you were to ask them how many Americans have died on the battlefield of an illegal war they couldn’t do anything but guess. We need to wake up! Yes, it’s unpleasant to think about. Yes, it’s frustrating because it doesn’t seem like there is anything we can do. But we can. Listen to the news, do some research, read some books, form an opinion, and tell you government to obey you. I’ve said it before and I know I will say it again: We the People control this country, not the group of would-be-dictators sitting on their over inflated wallets in Washington. Tell your government what to do, and if they refuse, FIRE THEM! It’s not just our rights as Americans, it’s our duty.

Log off, hang up, tune in, and make some noise.

NASA’s budget: $17 billion annualy

The War in Iraq: $12 billion per month

That is all.

The more news I listen to the more depressed I get. This country has been taken over by greedy, power hungry, tyrants. I, of course, use the term “taken over” somewhat loosely. The reality is we have allowed these people to keep their jobs. The founders of this country had a brilliant idea for government. It even worked for a while. Those days, however, are dead and gone.
Back in the early days of the USA the people loved their leaders. There was passion and love for their congressmen and presidents. Today kids can name more rock bands and sports stars than senators. No, that’s not true, it’s tax paying, voting adults, not children, that can’t name their own district’s congressman. Our goverment is breeding complacence and apathy. They are doing this because it makes their job of subverting our civil rights much easier. If we don’t care, we won’t stop them. And the media, one of the only ways people get their information, makes sure they toe the company line, staying on target (Britany Spears, the War on Drugs, the Surge is working) because if they don’t they might lose their almighty advertising dollars.
How do we get people to put down the xbox controller and find out what their government is actually doing? How do we get our country back on track? Do we vote for Hillary? Do we vote for Obama? Do we vote for McCain? Does it even matter which talking head we put in office? Every single elected official has made a promise to forget bipartisan politics and work for the greater good of the people, and then every single bill that comes across the table, the lines are clearly drawn. If a Democrat wrote the bill, the Republicans vote NO and vice versa. If, by some miracle, a bill is passed by both the house and senate, it dies on Bush’s desk.
Speaking of the President’s veto practice, lets take a look at his record. For his first term, with a Republican house and senate, Bush vetoed a total of one (1) bill. In fact, for the first 6 years of his Presidency, he did not issue a single veto. Not one. In November, 2006, the Democrats took control of the House and Senate. Bush met with top Dems and said “My attitude about this is that there is a great opportunity for us to show the country that Republicans and Democrats are equally as patriotic and equally concerned about the future and that we can work together.” By the end of 2007, he had issued 7 vetoes, a 600% increase. Perhaps he misunderstands what “work together” means.
Our country is off track, it has lost the moral high ground that we used to be able to wave proudly. We are allowing liars and tyrants to destroy our homeland and walk all over the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We allow the President to get away with outright criminal behavior without so much as a blink. Nobody seems to care. If this were happening 30 years ago, the people would have stood up and taken to the streets. My generation, however, can’t be bothered. That has to change. We need to show those in charge that we won’t allow this to happen anymore. We need to change it. We CAN change it. Log off, hang up, tune in, and make some noise.

This week President Bush asked Congress to make permanent a bill that will allow government agencies to perform wiretapping on American citizens without the need for a warrant. It seems the President has forgotten one of the most important parts of the government dreamed up and put in place by the founders of our country: checks and balances. We, the people, through our congressional representative, make the laws which bind not only us, but those that run the government as well. As such, we have created laws which make it necessary for any law enforcement agency to require a judge to approve any request to spy on, or in any way violate the right of privacy of, a citizen of the United States of America. Bush is now trying to remove this “barrier”, making it perfectly legal for his agents to spy on the citizens without judicial oversight. This is the Black Diamond of slippery slopes.

After the collapse of socialist Germany in the early 90’s, the free world was stunned to learn of the amount of documentation that government had held on individual citizens. In the offices of the secret police there were dozens of rooms containing hundreds of cabinets of documentation obtained by spying on the everyday activities of thousand upon thousands of citizens that were not under investigation for any actual crime. The German police were tracking these citizens for the sole purpose of making sure they were behaving as they were told. This is the same thing that is happening now in the United States.

Congress has already allowed this President to perform warrantless wiretapping. While uncomfortable, it wasn’t a surprise based on the mood and panic felt in this country post-9/11. Think, however, what it means that the wiretapping has to be done without court approval. It means the government does not have the evidence required for judicial approval. It means the agents of this government are obtaining and storing information on citizens that have done nothing wrong. They are violating the Privacy Act, a law put in place by us to protect ourselves and our freedom, for no other reason than because they think these citizens might be doing something the government doesn’t like.

As American citizens it our duty to ensure our President doesn’t forget his role. His job is to serve the people of the country. This President has been working very hard since 9/11 to change the meaning of the Presidency. It seems that instead of a tie, he believes he should be wearing a crown. He has abused the powers we granted him many times over. He has broken dozens of our laws and, when our representatives tried to question him and his agents about those violations, he abused his powers again to keep those agents from talking. He is violating our rights, he is violating our trust, and he is trying to take away our freedom. Our representatives must not allow him to take advantage of the American people any longer.

It’s true we will replace our President soon, but there is untold damage he can do if he is allowed to break any law he chooses between now and January, 2009. As a country it seems we’ve forgotten who is in charge. Our constitution says this is a country “of the people, by the people, for the people”. This is our country. We need to send a message today that we will no longer allow Bush to run this country as if it were his and his alone. The office of the President answers to us, not the other way around. We exact this control through congress and the senate. It is their job to run the government as we see fit. If they are not doing their job it’s not our duty, it’s our right to fire them and replace them with somebody who will do the job as we say. As such, every citizen in this country that values their privacy and their freedom needs to call or write their representative and senator and, as their boss, order them vote NO on the President’s request. It’s our country, let’s take it back.