Text Books in Texas

Proposed Changes to School Text books supported by the Texas Freedom Network

• Eliminate Any mention of Independence Day
• Ban Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone and General Patton
• Remove the Liberty Bell as a historical symbol
• Remove any mentions of Religious views held by out Founding Fathers

The Texas Board of Education is holding public hearings over these proposed changes.
The Liberty Legal institute is helping in the fight against these changes. Changes by the Texas Board of Education could impact changes all over the country since Texas is the largest state which uses the adoption system for school text books. This means text book publishers follow their lead and push these books to other smaller states. States which use the open Territory system then have incentive to use these books as well since they are readily available and already widely used.

The Texas Freedom Network suggests that the current curriculum is dominated by right wing religious extremists. I guess only religious extremists want children to learn about things like the Liberty Bell and Independence day. These changes should scare the hell out of anyone who actually cares about freedom and liberty as well as anyone who simply cares about our children's ability to continue to learn actual history in school.

Cheers,

Mike

Going Rogue By Sarah Palin

Sarah Palins book about her rise into the publics eye is a warm story about her life and her struggles as well an inside look at the inter working of a presidential campaign. She fully explains her side of the story on what really went on during her run with John McCain as the Vice Presidential candidate during the 2008 presidential election. The book is also loaded with inside information on Sarah Palin the person and what made her the Hockey mom that America fell in love with. This book is a must read if you want to learn more about Sarah Palin than what SNL and the Daily Show had to offer.

Oregon Referendum to Raise Taxes on "The Rich" Those making over $125,000.00

Today in Oregon they are voting on referendum measures 66 and 67. 66 would raise the Oregon income tax on individuals that make more than $125,000. Measure 67 would raise corporate income taxes. The state is looking to bank on an additional 727 Million dollars rather than balance it's 14.3 Billion dollar budget.

Aside from the implications of a class warfare situation brewing over higher taxes for those "greedy rich people" are the ramifications of taxing business during a recession. It's unclear what impact a tax increase on the job creators will have but many economists have made clear that this is never a good idea. Today the people in Oregon will decide whether to target the rich or to hold their government accountable.

You better believe Washington will be watching the results of this vote.

1-27-2010 Update

It appears that a new era in class warefare and wealth envy has begun in Oregon. The voters have approved both measures 66 and 67 with a slight edge. People and business will likely begin to move our of the state now. Then Oregon will have a real budget short fall.


Cheers,

Mike

Supreme Courts say NO to McCain Feingold Provision

This is an interesting development, the highest court of the land has decided to overturn a major provision of the largest and most comprehensive campaign finance reform to date. The court in a 5-4 split said Corporations can now spend as much as they like on Presidential and Congressional elections but keeps the restriction on individual candidates. The first thought that comes to mind is that this is a huge win for Republicans, who are usually the supports of big business. This would not necessarily be the case. Even though the court split down a familiar line the supporters of this do not.

It turns out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO both urged the court to strike down the provision, as did the NRA and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Democratic National Committee and Sen. McCain both argued for the law's constitutionality. Did that make sense you? It didn't make sense to me at first either but upon closer examination it may make more sense than it seems.

If you believe John McCain's words of the last several years he really believes in campaign finance reform. The Democrats as a party know that dollar for dollar they can't compete with the republicans in each and every election. They were able to raise record dollars for Obama and several others in 2008 but that's with the McCain Feingold provision in place. If that were not in effect in 2008 corporate donations would have been a major game changer.

The National Rifle Association for the most part supports Republicans but has on occasion been known to champion a democrat with a positive voting record on gun rights. The AFL-CIO mainly backs Democrats as the main supporter of Labor Unions even though they will endorse a republican from time to time if they pander to labor. Similar splits down party lines exist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Civil Liberties Union.

What does this mean? Well simplified it means that both sides realize that they can muster more support for their individual causes by using corporate dollars on their side of any given piece of legislation or on a particular candidate running for office. Who really looses? Well in my opinion the American People do. Once again we move backwards instead of forwards on an issue that has major implications for the future of our nation. We really need tighter campaign finance reform that removes money from the equation.

I understand the 1st amendment argument of removing corporations ability to voice their support but what's wrong with running a commercial or an advertisement that says, "My Corporation supports John Doe for president." They could use their own money and put it all on the line right there for everyone to see rather than doing it behind the scenes by donating to the national convention where donations are only visible to those who choose to do the research.

This is another issue that I would like to see the TEA Party movement embrace in the near future. In the short run the court decision will probably benefit my side of the argument but in the long run we need to realize this only damages our freedom by allowing big corporate dollars to have more influence than individual citizens.

Cheers,

Mike

Financial Collapse

Sometimes it’s not always as simple as going to the statue to determine if a piece of legislation is honest or effective. You also need to consider how the statue is enforced and where it's enforced as well as who is really benefiting from the enforcement.
I believe the CRA and laws like it, were designed to break the system.
(Look up Cloward and Piven)


This borders conspiracy theory so there are people who will not follow this. I have believed for many years now, that there is something going on in our government. Something has not smelled right and it's now starting to make sense. I don't believe Democrats meet in some secret bunker and plan on world domination. I do believe there is a movement that is using the Democratic Party and some elements of the Republican Party to move an agenda that is just outside the view of most Americans. I believe people like George Soros and the Saddlers are using their money, power and influence through organizations like ACORN to move America in a direction that we would never otherwise move.

When you combine this theory with laws like the CRA, where the government "encourages" banks to lower standards and ACORN holds protests at the banks to force them to comply, what choice do they have? Resist and the Media is all over them,
(Racist Banks won't give loans to blacks!!!) So they make what they can out of it. Then they find a loophole and The Government says, sure go ahead and use Mark to Market rules. Go ahead and use the lower standards for all customers so the middle class can now not only buy homes, they can McMansions, what could go wrong?

Then GW Bush tells the nation, go out spend, buy houses and cars!!! SPEND SPEND SPEND!!!

The Banks are all too happy to comply.
Did Banks tell people to spend of did our president?

Some republicans said wait a minute; this seems too good to be true. We need to look close at some of these loans and make sure we're not building another bubble here.

The democrats say, NO, NO, NO everything is fine, Don't look over here.

The Bubble bursts, A republican happens to be in office so that makes it twice as hard for a republican to win election in 2008. That gives the democrats a few extra brownie points, Then they decide to run a women and a black man. (CAKE!)

This is going to be sweet, the Democrats have used race and sex to divide the nation and solidify their base for years, decades even!

The black man wins and goes to Washington. Then he says we're going to punish those involved. Does he look at Barney Frank, NO? Does he look at Chris Dodd, NO? Does the administration go after Fannie and Freddie, NO? Are the institutions that failed allowed to dissolve and restructure? No, they get bailed out. Can't upset them, we might need them later. Are the Car companies that have failed, allowed to reorganize and restructure? No, they get bailed out, can't upset the Unions? So what do they do? They don't allow the system to work the way it was intended to work. Instead they bail them out and then scold them for using Jets and paying bonuses.
The Media gets “the people” to eat all this up. YEAH!, Those Greedy Rich people, they don't deserve bonuses. Throw laws and contracts out the window, what's really important is that rich people get screwed over!

If we wanted the companies and or the people who ran them into the ground to suffer, we should have let them loose their jobs. Instead, "The Government" bailed them out and then used the whole situation to showboat in the media, look what we can do...

We're going fix the economy and punish those rich bankers. Then we're going to tax those rich people and make them pay for your health care. Is this not Class Warfare?

Politics is very exhausting and takes a lot of time to understand. But once you do, it's like a whole other world opens up to you. Part of the problem in America right now, is that most people don't care to take that time, and when they do they get treated and treated like dog food or worse dog food that’s already been through the dog.

They rather just watch American Idol, go to parties, have fun and watch the Daily Show, Colbert and Letterman. They might watch a little News now and again, but if they don't watch Fox or maybe a little CNN, everything they hear is left wing and Fox lies. Then when they hear someone say something from Fox, they are automatically conditioned to turn off and assume this is one of those crazy people.

Then we have people on the Left who do take the time to learn but then many of them choose the Liberal School of thought of attack and discredit. I don't deny some republicans use this strategy as well but overwhelmingly if you go looking for it, you'll find those on the left use it far more often. We have many problems to overcome right now, and allowing ourselves to fall for these cheap parlor tricks needs to stop.
People all of political persuasions need to learn how to read between the lines. They need to see when someone is being baited and they need to realize there is difference between real News, Opinion and Entertainment.

Cheers,

Mike

Fee's or Taxes?

Obama called for fee's on the banks to recoup "Our" funds from the bailout. These fees are to be collected by the IRS. This begs to ask what fees do the IRS collect? Are those not taxes? Secondly, why are these fees being collected by banks who did want to take bail out money in the first place and who have already paid it back with interest. If the money is paid back, what additional fee can or should we collect from them? And why is President Obama calling for a tax when our constitution clearly gives the power to tax solely to the Congress?

Another important question we need to ask is why are we not collecting these fees from Fannie May and Freddie Mac as well as GM and Chrysler who have not paid back the funds and have little chance of ever being able to pay it back? Many of us on the right said those organizations should have been allowed to fail in the first place. We also said this bailout would essentially amount to the government taking them over but were told by the left that this was crazy.
On Christmas eve the Congress lifted the Debt ceiling on both Fannie and Freddie.

Last week on 1-5-2010 Barney Frank said, The two mortgage lenders are essentially a "public policy instrument of the government,".

Crazy huh? See the story on the Left's own beloved Huffington Post.

Where is the CSPAN coverage on Health Care Obama Promised?

Even after Fox News and other pundits have hammered the president over his promise of opening the Health Care negotiations all we get is an hour of coverage. They opened the talks to 1 hour and have now closed the remaining talks. Senator Russ Feingold was nailed on this by many of his constituents from the very Blue state of Wisconsin. Some of his constituents were actually questioning the constitutionality of the Health Care reform being proposed. Nancy "Laughing in our Face" Pelosi actually laughs at the idea of fulfilling Obama's campaign promise of open debate on CSPAN.

Is this really still our country?

Cheers,

Mike

What's Wrong with Liberalism?

What's Wrong with Liberalism?
http://www.dogchurch.org/scriptorium/LeftState.htm