tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78946196056882700392024-02-20T08:46:50.326-05:00I'm a Pundit TooI know you don't wanna hear me cryin',
An I know you don't wanna hear me deny,
That your satisfaction lies in your ILLUSIONS,
But your delusions are yours and not mine,
We take for granted we know the whole story,
We judge a book by its cover,
And read what we want,
Between selected lines -- Axl RoseDoug Raganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00986799744980340192noreply@blogger.comBlogger418125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-81760464989282422762010-04-19T20:41:00.001-04:002010-04-19T20:43:04.006-04:00Speech For The April Fools Day Rally At Dutch Ruppersberger's OfficeThank God we live in a country where we can gather together to let our elected officials know that we are not happy with their job performance. Throughout the past year and a half they have tried to ignore us, marginalize us, and discredit us while they pushed through bailouts, a fake stimulus, Cap and Trade, and the Health Care debacle. We, as their employer, refuse to sit idly by and watch these career politicians pass legislation that erodes our freedoms and violate the constitution. John Adams wrote in 1776, “Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” If we, as citizens of this great country do not hold our elected officials accountable for their actions and votes, then who will? We certainly cannot entrust them with that responsibility. <br />Elections have consequences, and we are experiencing the consequences of the past several elections. Elections where we watched as the same career politicians were elected to fix the problems that they created. The time has come to remind Dutch and the rest of the bureaucrats in DC and Annapolis whom they work for. This coming election is about more than Dutch Ruppersberger, it is about the future of our country. The national debt that they have rung up is astounding and they show no signs of stopping. Last year alone they had a $1.5 trillion deficit. This year is projected to be just as bad if not worse. Their solution is to throw more of our money at the problem and hope that this time a government solution will work for the first time in human history. We need to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of the free market. The Federal Government needs to remove the burden from the backs of the taxpayers and small businesses; and then get out of the way.<br /><br />Dutch and his cronies in DC told us last year that the government was the only one to save us from the declining economy. Now that we have had 10% unemployment for months, why should we trust that they now know how to fix the problem that they created? November provides us as voters the opportunity to send a crystal clear message to the career politicians in our state house and our Congress. We can tell them that business as usual will no longer be accepted. If you vote for legislation that increases our debt, increases our tax burden, decreases our freedom, violates the constitution, or threatens our sovereignty, you will be unemployed after the next election. My name is Troy Stouffer and I am not a career politician nor do I want to be one, but I would love the opportunity to serve you in Washington DC. Thank You!Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-41752494126640866652010-01-21T20:59:00.000-05:002010-01-21T21:00:45.959-05:00How Much Can They Ignore?On January 19, the people of Massachusetts actually elected a Republican to the United States Senate. Senator Scott Brown was elected to a seat that was held by Senator Teddy Kennedy from 1962 until his death late last year. The Democrats and the media have tried to spin the Brown win as everything from a result of a bad candidate, Martha Coakley, running a bad campaign to the voters of Massachusetts electing a Republican because they hate Bush. They can spin it however they want to help them sleep at night, but the fact remains that Brown was elected because the majority of the public have rejected the President’s socialist takeover of the Health Care system.<br /><br />I find it a bit ironic that Brown’s election night victory comes a day before the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Inauguration. In the ensuing 364 days leading up to the special election in Massachusetts, the President and Congress have taken over the banks and two of the “Big Three” automotive companies, spent $787 billion on a “stimulus” bill that did nothing to stimulate the economy, and tried to takeover the Health Care system. In a practical sense, the first year of “Hope and Change” has come up extremely short. Unemployment has risen above 10% and the latest numbers have “surprised the experts” by rising even more. The Democrats lack of accomplishments over the past year ought to make next week’s State of the Union speech very interesting.<br /><br />Some speculation in the wake of the Massachusetts humiliation has suggested that the Democrats did not go “progressive” enough in their drive to destroy our economy. MSNBC political pundits suggested on Tuesday evening that the Democrats should now push forward with every liberal ideal. They believe that the best course for them is to completely ignore the will of the people for yet another year. Isn’t that what they have done for the past year? They ignored the public on Cap and Trade, the bailouts, and Health Care Reform. The poll numbers for the President and the Democratic controlled Congress have been a gradual decline since early summer and now they are in real danger of losing their majorities in both houses of Congress.<br /><br /> Will the Democrats pay attention to the results in Massachusetts or will they dismiss it as insignificant? Some early signs show that they will stay the course. After raising the national debt ceiling by $290 billion in a quiet vote on Christmas Eve, the Democrats are poised to raise it yet again by a stunning $1.9 trillion. The national debt ceiling will be $14.29 trillion and that is only expected to last until the end of the year before it will need to be raised again. That coupled with the President’s plans to takeover all student loans, leaves the voters to wonder, when will they stop? The answer to that question is when they are voted out of office and sent home to learn what real life is all about. In November, I believe there will be a surprising amount of politicians updating their resumes and looking for a new career.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-60447171626805960332010-01-14T22:39:00.000-05:002010-01-14T22:40:51.727-05:00The Panic In MassachusettsThe Health Care Reform bill is continuing to plummet in the polls as more and more information is revealed to the public. The Democrats have refused to listen to the American people on virtually every issue that has arisen over the past year. As a result, they have lost the Governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, and now the U.S. Senate seat that was occupied by Teddy Kennedy of Massachusetts is now poised to be won by a Republican.<br /><br />Republican Scott Brown has closed in the polls against Democrat Martha Coakley. Two weeks ago, Brown trailed in the polls by nine points, but Coakley’s ineptitude and the growing discontent with the horrendous policies of the Democrats in Washington D.C. have turned the tide of public opinion to the point where Brown leads in some polls and is tied in others.<br /><br />The prospect of losing a “safe” Senate seat in Massachusetts has caused an all out panic within the Democrat party. The Democrat National Committee has had pour money into Massachusetts in hopes of saving the seat and ultimately their plans for destroying our health care system. If Brown wins next week, he will effectively kill the prospect of passing the current bill that is being worked out in conference. I believe that the type of fraud on display in Minnesota last year will be pulled out again if this race remains close after Tuesday’s special election. We will again hear of boxes of ballots “found” in the trunks of election workers cars. The Democrats know what is at stake in this election and they will stop at nothing, legal or illegal, to ensure that Coakley wins that race.<br /><br />The Massachusetts race is highlighting the discontent with the extreme lack of representation in Washington D.C. The American people have watched Congress spend $1.4 trillion in deficit spending, bailout automotive companies and banks, pass legislation that will destroy our health care system and hamstring our economy, and pass a stimulus bill that has caused our unemployment rate to climb above 10%. The voting public is fed up with our elected representatives ignoring our wishes to blindly follow their party leadership steer our country toward ruin.<br /><br /> 2010 will be a remarkable year. The politicians that have played a part to the budgetary idiocy of the past year are in for a very rude awakening in November. I believe there are no safe seats in the midterm elections. Every seat is available to won by a citizen legislator. Voters are tired of career politicians who seek only to extend their power and their careers, instead of actually representing their constituents and following the Constitution. 2008 was the year of “Hope and Change”. 2010 will be the year “We the people” change the Congress.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-87955377612948800882009-12-30T10:15:00.001-05:002009-12-30T10:16:51.797-05:00The Love Sacrifice Of Leonard And Ray Ethelyn StoufferI had planned to write a summary of 2009 with my thoughts, but the events of the past week in my family changed my plans. I hope that you will forgive my abandoning of politics for this week.<br /><br />After 72 years of marriage, Leonard and Ray Ethelyn Stouffer simply refused to be apart. At 7:10 P.M., December 29 my grandmother passed away, followed shortly thereafter by my grandfather at 9:35 P.M.<br /><br />Early last week, my grandmother was placed under hospice care and a hospital bed was moved into the living room of their apartment. I saw them both on the morning of Christmas Eve and they were happy and talkative. On Christmas night my grandfather had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital where a catheterization was performed and revealed that three arteries were completely blocked and a fourth had minimal blood flow. The cardiologist believed that he had less than a week to live. He was moved back to their apartment to be near the love of his life.<br /><br />They were both awake enough last evening to realize that they were together again. When the nursing staff pushed their beds side by side, my grandfather reached out and took his bride’s hand and held it. He tried to talk to her but she was not awake enough to respond, so he tried to get into her bed with her to hold her. He eventually settled down and rested.<br /><br />As his wife’s breathing became more labored, his breathing remained steady. At just after 7 we noticed that her breathing had changed. My father took her hand and she took her last breath. At just after 9 the funeral director left the room with my grandmother, and my sister, Lisa, noticed that there were tears in the corners of my grandfather’s eyes. We also noticed that now his breathing had changed from steady to labored. My father took his hand told him that he loved him and that his wife was waiting for him. A few minutes later he opened his eyes and looked at my father and took his last breath.<br /><br />This has been a long hard week of emotions. It is painful to lose any loved ones, but it is also painful to watch loved ones suffer. It has been particularly difficult to watch my father suffer the loss of both of his parents in such a very short time. The grief will subside, but I want to remember the love that they shared and his strength and love for his wife. By all accounts, he probably should have gone first. His heart should have given out first. I believe that he held on and stayed conscious enough to know when she had passed away. He refused to leave his wife behind. Their love was their bond and he would have found a way to survive as long as his bride lived.<br /><br />As I left the retirement home this evening, I was struck by the love and the love sacrifice that my grandparents displayed the last few days and their entire married lives. I also realized that they were just following the example of the love sacrifice of Jesus Christ. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The day that God sent his Son to earth to become a love sacrifice for all of us. He endured our rightful punishment so that we would have the opportunity to accept His sacrifice and receive eternal life in Heaven.<br />Ray Ethelyn and Leonard Stouffer are together in Heaven. They have met their Savior face to face. My prayer tonight is to follow their example of love in my own marriage, but more importantly to follow my Savior’s example of love. Is He your Savior tonight?Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-37400128334045063482009-12-17T21:32:00.000-05:002009-12-17T21:33:18.178-05:00Welcome To The Era Of Ignorant ArroganceAs the Senate winds down with their plan to further destroy our economy with healthcare reform, they have thrown away any semblance of transparency or desire to actually reform healthcare. The pressure is turned up for every day that we get closer to Christmas. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desires to pass any bill, whatever the cost, before Christmas to present to President Obama. All of this maneuvering is to enable the President to point to at least one accomplishment when he delivers his State of the Union speech in late January. After all it isn’t exactly a great accomplishment for the President to point to 10% unemployment, his historic spending deficits, or even the newly increased debt ceiling. <br /><br />With just a week before Christmas, the final version of the 2000+-page bill has not even been released to the full Senate for them to read. The majority has rushed this bill to try to get it passed for not only the President’s own selfish reasons, but also because the longer this monstrosity of a bill sits out there, the less the American public supports it. As a matter of fact, there is less support among the public for this reform bill, than there was for Hillary-care back in the early 1990’s. The severe lack of support for this reform bill is more than likely the catalyst for Reid’s desire to keep this bill hidden until it is passed.<br /><br />Even the amendment process is too politically charged for the majority to allow an amendment to be read aloud on the Senate floor. The admitted socialist from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, proposed an amendment to the bill that would supersede the entire reform bill and replace it with a socialist health care system. When Senator Cobourn of Oklahoma asked that the clerk on the floor read the 767-page amendment, Sanders came down to the Senate to break Senate rules and end the reading and remove the amendment. The break in rules came when Sanders removed his amendment and ended the reading. The problem is that once the bill reading had started, only unanimous consent can end the reading.<br /><br />It is a rare moment when I praise Senator Olympia Snowe, but I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with a recent statement that she made. “I don’t see anything magical about the Christmas deadline if this bill is going to become law in 2014.” Her words ring very true. What is the rush to pass this disastrous bill if none of the reforms actually take effect until 2014, conveniently after the 2012 elections? Of course the urgency of the matter has become the party line for all Congressman who have supported it. My own embarrassment of a Representative, Dutch Ruppersberger, explained in his form letter reply to my query about his vote that the urgency of the matter played a very large role in his decision to vote for it. I suppose that when a bureaucrat sees his political career coming to an end, his urgency may be a bit skewed. I believe it is time to end the era of ignorant arrogance.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-37124411892322025952009-12-10T22:47:00.000-05:002009-12-10T22:48:13.394-05:00The Obama Deficit LiePresident Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have hypocritically promised since taken office in January that are going to be “deficit hawks”. We have not even reached the one-year anniversary of the Inauguration and the same Democratic leaders are raising the debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion. The national debt is already nearing $12.1 trillion and the economic geniuses in DC have realized that their historic deficit spending has made it imperative to raise the ceiling.<br /><br />The federal deficit for last fiscal year that ended at the end of September was around $1.4 trillion. To put that into perspective, the federal budget for all of 2008 was $2.9 trillion. To be fair, and to prevent my left-leaning friends from hyperventilating, some of that deficit belongs to President Bush, but in the first 2 months of this fiscal year the Obama administration has spent $296.7 billion in the red. Project that out for the next 12 months and the 2010 federal deficit will be about $1.8 trillion. Of course we have to consider that the “emergency” stimulus spending has not really even started to be spent. <br /><br />Based on President Obama’s penchant for socialist government, you can guarantee his response to the crippling deficit and ever-increasing debt will be to raise taxes. His tax increases will be “targeted” towards only the “rich”, but it will soon become apparent that the definition of rich will be continually redefined until the majority of the middle class will be hit as well. Of course the net result of his tax hikes will be an even bigger hit to the economy than his disastrous policies have already been. "There is no such thing as government money - only taxpayer money." William Weld<br /><br />The bureaucrats in Washington have expelled so much hot air making promises about deficits, bailouts, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and health care that if I believed in the global warming hoax, I would be worried about a real life Day After Tomorrow. Thank God the carbon dioxide being spewed out in DC has no effect on our climate. Unfortunately the idiotic economic policies coming out of Washington will have lasting effects that our children and grandchildren will feel. To borrow a line from the President’s campaign, “It is time for Change!”Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-65509972933427414242009-11-10T23:24:00.000-05:002009-11-10T23:25:19.809-05:00Thank You Veterans!Last Thursday as the country watched in horror the extreme cowardice of Major Nidal Hassan at the Fort Hood Army Base, I was reminded of the sacrifice that the men and women of our armed forces make each and every day. Since our great country’s inception, men and women have put their lives on the line for the cause of freedom. More than 1,314,000 lives have been lost in the 233 years since our forefathers declared their independence from tyranny.<br /><br />I have the honor of visiting Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center on a weekly basis to perform the duties of my job. As I walk the corridors of these hospitals, I see the men and women who have lost limbs in combat and I am humbled and inspired by them.<br /><br />Veterans Day grew out of Armistice Day that commemorated the end of World War 1. In 1954 it became Veterans Day to honor all veterans from all wars. 22 years ago, I was standing at attention in Navy Boot Camp listening to our Company Commander vent her anger and frustration at some local radio personalities who failed to show the proper respect for the meaning of the holiday. Sadly, not much has changed in the past 20 years.<br /><br />Today we observe Veterans Day and for many people, this is a day that they will not even realize is a holiday. They will probably wonder why the bank is closed at lunch or why their mail didn’t get delivered. To many it is merely a nuisance vice a sobering reminder of the honor, integrity, courage, and patriotism those veterans from every generation of our nation’s history have displayed. <br /><br />The members of our armed services, both past and present, are a rare breed; they truly are the bravest and finest that our country has to offer. They deserve our admiration and respect. The United States of America is a great country because of our freedoms and we are free because of the sacrifices of our veterans. At the funerals of veterans, a flag is presented to the family of the fallen with the words, “On behalf of a grateful nation.” Those should be our words every day of the year to our veterans. Today I stand and salute the veterans from every branch of service that have come before me, and those who have dutifully followed after me. I humbly say, “On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you!”Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-24510849760682314992009-11-05T21:22:00.000-05:002009-11-05T21:23:29.374-05:00Thousands Draw A Line On The Capitol Steps Over Health CareHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to try to strong-arm through her plan to destroy our health care system, even in the face of overwhelming signals that she is fighting a losing battle. In the process she has continued her annoying little habit of breaking promises to the American people. She had promised to not hold a vote on the “health care reform” legislation without posting the final language of the bill online at least 72 hours prior to the vote. Apparently she is afraid that the final version of her 2000 page behemoth will further outrage the voting public.<br /><br />The public has made their frustration and anger known all summer long, all the while congressional leaders have pretended to not hear them. The public outcry has prolonged the debate from something that the White House expected to be passed quickly and quietly by mid summer into an eternity for lawmakers. After the congressional switchboards were jammed with phone calls demanding that their elected representatives listen to them, the bureaucrats ignored their constituents. After millions of emails clogged the politicians’ inboxes, they sent out their canned responses claiming to represent their constituents. Tired of the unprecedented arrogance filling the Capitol Building, thousands of people showed up on the steps of the Capitol to hold a rally against the destruction of our health care system. After the rally they stood in line for hours to enter the Capitol to meet their elected representatives face to face. They wanted to ask one simple question, “Are you going to vote for this health care reform bill?” Several reports emerged showing the arrogance and superiority complex from which members of Congress are suffering. They could not spare even a few moments to “lower themselves” to the level of the common man.<br /><br />It is most surprising that House leaders are pressing forward this week, of all weeks. Tuesday showed a dramatic reversal of the political leanings of the country. Democratic stronghold New Jersey saw their incumbent Governor Jon Corzine lose to Republican Chris Christie by 5 percentage points. New Jersey is a state that President Obama won easily by 20 points just one year ago. Virginia saw a political drubbing when Republican Bob McDonnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds by 19 points. President Obama again won Virginia a year ago by 6 points. Right on cue, the White House downplayed the results saying that the outcomes had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his socialist agenda. The problem is that the President and his minions spent a lot of time and political capital in both states campaigning for both losers.<br /><br /> Whether or not the President or Ms. Pelosi are able to twist enough arms on Capitol Hill this weekend to pass their health care debacle is yet to be seen, but the damage has been done. The voting public has awakened to the fact that after the numerous bailouts already this year, the government now owns or controls 30% of our economy. They also see that if the power hungry bureaucrats are successful in destroying our health care, they will add another 18% of our economy. That will give them power over nearly half of our economy and they are just starting to erode our economical freedoms.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-40030610508297742352009-10-22T23:33:00.001-04:002009-10-22T23:34:12.517-04:00The War That The White House Does Want To FightOver the past few weeks the White House has openly declared war on the Fox News Channel. It has been going on since before the election when the Obama campaign refused to send campaign staff to appear on Fox. Now the senior staff and even President Obama have openly criticized an entire news organization. The President was asked about the squabble during an interview with NBC on Wednesday. He responded that he is not losing much sleep over it, and that he believes that the American people are more concerned with the war in Afghanistan and unemployment.<br /><br />It is interesting that the President would choose to bring Afghanistan and unemployment. The Labor Department reported that in September 23 states saw a rise in unemployment. They also reported that 43 states lost jobs in September. The national unemployment numbers reached 9.8% for the first time in 26 years. It could be that my memory is failing me, but I seem to recall an unequivocal promise from the administration before the “stimulus” package was passed that if Congress passed the bill that no one read, unemployment would not go higher than 8%. Now economists are predicting unemployment above 10% and it will be at least the middle of next year before we start to see any type of turn around. Of course, those predictions could be proven wrong if the administration decides that they just haven’t spent enough money; money that we do not have. It has gotten so bad that Congress had to raise the federal debt ceiling to $13 trillion.<br /><br />Afghanistan is another ignorant remark to make because the President is continuing to drag his feet in deciding whether or not to send the 40,000 requested troops. The administration is still trying their tired excuse of blaming Bush and Cheney for their woes. The problem is that they were fully briefed on Afghanistan during the transition time before the Inauguration. Obama had claimed all along that we were following a flawed strategy in Afghanistan and that he had the solution. He even picked his own commanding General to lead our soldiers in Afghanistan, but now he can barely seem to find the time to talk to the man. He refuses to make a decision on sending troops because he is terrified of angering his radical left-wing base by sending more troops. The problem is that the longer he waffles, the more danger our troops will face. This decision should be based solely on the intelligence from the commanders on the ground in Afghanistan, and not by Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod. This is a military strategy decision, not one to be made for political gain.<br /><br /> The administration has decided that going after Fox News is one of their top priorities. Shouldn’t they be trying to repair our flailing economy? Or speaking to General McChrystal about getting him the resources and troops he needs to fulfill his mission? I suppose they could be using their war on Fox as a way show that they do know how to fight a war. Unfortunately for the administration, they are losing that war. Every time they send some administration lackey out to bash Fox, the ratings for Fox climb. By the way, recent surveys have shown that independents and Democrats make up more than 50% of the Fox news audience.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-11968893947342915352009-10-08T21:17:00.000-04:002009-10-08T21:18:15.716-04:00The Inevitable Vietnam-Afghanistan ComparisonAt nearly the same time that the ground war began in Iraq, the Democrats began comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam. They claimed that Iraq was an un-winnable war. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared that we had lost the war, while our troops were still in combat. The bureaucrats in DC tried everything they could to drive down public support for the war. It took them about 4 years to finally depress the American people on the war. President Bush remained resolute in his commitment to our troops in battle and peace in Iraq. Against growing, outspoken negativity by the Democrats, Bush installed General Petraeus as the commanding General in Iraq and fully supported the General’s plan for the “Surge” in Iraq. The result was the declining insurgency and the Iraqi government and security forces standing up to take control of their own country.<br /><br />President Obama campaigned on the belief that we should never have been in Iraq and that we should be committing more troops and resources to Afghanistan. He believed that Afghanistan should be the center of the fight with Al Qaeda. He promised that as President he would recommit the fight to Afghanistan, sadly he seems to have a very short memory. In August General McChrystal, the General that he personally picked to lead the troops in Afghanistan, asked for a minimum of 40,000 more troops to prevent the country from slipping into chaos. Nearly 2 months after the request, the President has yet to decide whether or not to support our troops with sending the additional forces.<br /><br />It wasn’t until 60 Minutes aired an interview with General McChrystal, where the General answered a seemingly innocuous question about how often he speaks to the President. The answer touched an embarrassing firestorm for the administration. The President had spoken to his General only once since he sent him to Afghanistan 3 months ago. The President’s reaction was an extremely obvious and rushed set of meetings on Afghanistan. <br /><br />Since the Democrats were so eager to compare Iraq to Vietnam, I thought it would be appropriate to point out their folly. Their bureaucratic reaction to Afghanistan is precisely the kind of mistakes the politicians of 35 years ago made. The Vietnam era politicians decided that they knew more about fighting a war than the commanders on the ground in the theater of war. It is eerily similar to the idiocy of the DC politicians of today. They are more interested in holding hearings to discuss every possible contingency than to actually support the brave men and women that they claim to care about. <br /><br /> President Obama needs to realize that his role as Commander in Chief is not a political position that he can waffle back and forth on the decisions that affect our troops. It is time for him to grow up and actually make a decision and stand by it for better or worse. He needs to decide if he is going to support the best and the brightest our country has to offer and give them what they need to win the war. Or decide that this is not a battle he thinks is worthy and pull our troops out of there. Although I believe that it will be disastrous for him to pull out of Afghanistan, it would be better than sacrificing our military men and women while he “phones in” his duties as Commander in Chief.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-10278925637858456332009-10-01T21:09:00.001-04:002009-10-01T21:10:45.195-04:00President Obama Thinks He Is Still In The Illinois State SenateThroughout the Presidential campaign, the legislative record of President Obama was looked at in an attempt to understand how he would lead as President. There was a common theme through out his time in the Illinois state Senate; it was his penchant for voting “Present”. I suppose it should be no surprise that he has continued that them during his tenure in the Oval Office.<br /><br />He has become very non-committal when it comes to actually making hard decisions or backing up his flowery rhetoric. During his speech to Congress a few weeks ago, he announced a new plan for health care reform; unfortunately he has yet to deliver any such plan to Congress. He claimed that there would be no coverage of illegal immigrants in “his” plan, but yet the plan being worked on in the Senate had an amendment proposed to require a picture ID to receive the government option of health care. The amendment was voted down along party lines in the democratically controlled Senate.<br /><br />Last week the U.S. General in charge in Afghanistan, that President Obama put in place 2 and a half months ago to implement “his” plan, was on ABC’s 60 Minutes during which he was asked how often he speaks to the President. His answer was shocking at first, but in light of the President’s history it was to be expected. He has spoken to his hand picked General once since he put him in place. If President Obama had downplayed the importance of Afghanistan then we could expect that it would not be that important to him, but he talked at length throughout his campaign about how important Afghanistan was in the “overseas contingency operations”(War on Terror to the rest of us). In August General McChrystal requested 40,000 more troops so that Afghanistan would not slip into failure. Is it too much to ask for the President to call his commander in Afghanistan when he provides such a grim assessment? Maybe the President was busy talking to David Letterman or taking in one of the weekly concerts at the White House.<br /><br />Last week the President went before the United Nations to apologize yet again for the arrogance of his country. Also performing his stand up routine before the U.N. comedy club was Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad took the opportunity to deny the Holocaust and then later told the Iranian press that the U.S. President agrees with him on the U.S. being a “bully”. President Obama even said at the U.N. that the U.S. would no longer tell other countries how they should act. I can’t help but wonder how he will negotiate with Iran over nuclear weapons if he will not be telling them to not build nuclear weapons. It was also revealed last week about another nuclear enrichment facility that was previously undisclosed. The international response was surprising in the fact that embattled British leader Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were much more forceful and decisive with their response than President Obama. Sarkozy even pointed out “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions. President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.” For generations the French have been a joke on foreign policy issues and their penchant for surrender, now President Obama is looking to them for leadership.<br /><br /> President Obama has shown that he will make a decision when it concerns stealing our freedom, making a television appearance, or “sacrificing” by flying to Copenhagen to pitch for the 2016 Olympics for his cronies in Chicago. The American people expect the President to lead our country to prosperity not to wait for the international community to decide what he should do. His lack of leadership or ability to make any decision, along with the Congressional plan to slip the behemoth socialist health care reform into an unrelated bill as an amendment just to get it passed will surely spell disaster for our country. The United States of America will recover from Jimmy Carter Part 2 after 2012 when the current crop of bureaucrats in Washington are sent packing back to Chicago to cash in on their Olympic scam.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-32950083995846388432009-09-17T21:18:00.001-04:002009-09-17T21:19:49.148-04:00The House Celebrates Constitution Day In Typical Hypocritical Fashion222 years ago 39 delegates gathered in the city of Philadelphia to sign Constitution of the United States of America. On September 17, 1787 our Founding Fathers created the greatest and freest nation on the face of the earth. I find it extremely ironic that the House of Representatives decided this week to limit free speech on the floor. Their actions this week were in response to South Carolina Congressman, Joe Wilson, calling out “You Lie!” during President Obama’s speech last week before a joint session of Congress. Wilson immediately apologized after the speech for his outburst.<br /><br />While I felt that it was probably not the best opportunity to point out the false claims of the President, I agreed with Wilson’s sentiment. I was not alone in agreement, the Nancy Pelosi led House agreed with Wilson by passing an amendment to the Health Care reform bill that specifically states that illegal immigrants are not to be covered under the reforms. <br /><br />The House also decided to dole out the moral equivalent of wagging their hypocritical finger at Wilson for having the audacity of speaking the truth about the President. They formally rebuked Wilson and laid out new rules covering what is not permissible to be said about the President in the chamber. No member of the House may refer to the President as a “liar” or a “hypocrite”, or describe his veto as “cowardly”, or describe him as “intellectually dishonest”, or refer to any alleged “act of sexual misconduct on the President’s part”, or describe the President as “giving aid in comfort to the enemy”.<br /><br />I find it interesting that the Democrats took such offense to Wilson’s remark. Especially when considering their own rather sordid history of debasing a President and our troops from the floor of both chambers. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood on the floor of the Senate after 9/11 and demanded to know what President Bush knew and when he knew it. She questioned whether or not our President knew about the 9/11 attacks before they occurred and did nothing about it.<br /><br />House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Bush a total failure. California Representative Pete Stark called Bush a liar from the floor of the House. Senator Harry Reid declared that our military had lost the war in Iraq from the floor of the Senate. Pennsylvania Representative Jack Murtha accused our military of murder and rape in Iraq. President Obama claimed our military was air-raiding villages for the war on terror.<br /><br /> The actions of the House this week are just another tactic to divert attention away from the failing Health Care reform. They have also intensified the calls of racism for anyone who opposes the President. What the administration and the Democratic leadership fail to realize is that there is a growing tide of discontent against the plans for health care. As of this week, the approval ratings for the health care reform have reached their lowest point at just 42%. That approval is even after the latest “major” speech by the President to both chambers of Congress. If the administration pushes forward in the face of the growing objections of the public, it will be the end of any hope for reelection for the President. As for Congress, I believe their fate has already been sealed. Their will be a surprising amount of Democrats looking for new professions after next years midterm elections.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-70146768510165442712009-09-10T22:19:00.000-04:002009-09-10T22:20:04.328-04:00Is The President Lying, Or Is He Just Clueless?Since January 20, President Obama has made more than 110 speeches or remarks concerning his push for Health Care Reform. On Wednesday evening the President addressed a joint session of Congress to once again plead for support for his unprecedented and unconstitutional power grab. His speech was heralded both before and after as providing clarity on the details of his proposal. Not surprisingly though the speech was basically a rehash of everything he has said over the past 8 months.<br /><br />He continually perpetuates the same tired lies that his administration and the congressional leadership have been pushing since the debate began. He claimed that, “We are the only advanced democracy on Earth – the only wealthy nation – that allows such hardships for millions of its people.” Are these the same hardships that the citizens of Canada and the United Kingdom endure under their state-controlled health plan? DO we have 4000 women giving birth in stairwells, bathrooms, and broom closets as they do in the United Kingdom because there are not enough rooms for these women?<br /><br />He claims that the reforms will not cover illegal immigrants, but yet 2 separate amendments were offered up in the House that added specific language to exclude illegal immigrants. Both amendments were voted down along party lines. <br /><br />He claims that they are open to any and all reasonable ideas on reform, but yet the President last met with any Republicans on the issue of health care reform in April. That would be a full 3 months before the push started in Congress. The Republicans have offered options that would call for Health Savings Accounts, Tort Reform, and making health insurance portable among other ideas, but yet none of their options have been made part of the bill.<br /><br />He claims that abortions will not be paid for with government money, but yet again the President is not being truthful. Again amendments have been offered that specifically added language to the bill that forbade abortions being paid for with tax dollars. Predictably, the amendments were defeated along party lines. In fact, they added an amendment that required that at least one insurer in the federal plan would cover abortions. <br /><br />He claims that the reforms will be deficit neutral, but this claim has been proven time and time again to be false. The Congressional Budget Office looked at the proposal and concluded that the proposal would add at least $245 billion to the deficit. Of course, after his economic policies have added $9 trillion to the deficit, I guess it is easy to discount $245 billion as being insignificant.<br /><br /> The President is trying to sell the health care reform to not only the American people but also to his own party. The President does not need a single Republican to vote for this bill for it to pass, but yet he is trying to sell the notion that the evil Republicans are standing in the way of his socialist utopia. He has been unable to convince his own party to back him unconditionally in this fight. What he fails to realize is that the American people do not want this reform. They have read the bill and we know what is in the bill. We do not want to give away our rights and freedoms so that he can build a socialist legacy. His assertions throughout his speech are patently false, so we are left to assume he is either grossly misinformed about on which Congress is working or is boldly lying to the American people. Maybe it is time his health care proposal takes the blue pill instead of trying to revive it once again.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-29404533618388309222009-09-03T20:31:00.000-04:002009-09-03T20:33:04.165-04:00Why Not Try "Cash For Real Change"?Over the past 12 months we have seen unfettered spending out of Washington D.C.. The reasoning for the fiscal recklessness has been attributed to the declining economy. The “drunken sailors” in our nation’s capital believe that the best way to stave off a recession is to spend our tax dollars on a myriad of government programs to spur economic recovery. They have bought into this misguided notion to the point of quadrupling our budget deficit, but yet our economy still lags. They have bailed out banks, automobile manufacturers, and labor unions. They have spent more than $1.5 trillion dollars over and above any budgetary spending and have proposed spending another $4 trillion in next year’s budget along with at least another $1 trillion in deficit spending.<br /><br />Along with their disastrous economic policies, the politicians are trying to further hamstring our economy with an ill-advised “Cap and Trade” plan. The plan will in effect cause the price of energy, which is your gas and/or electric bill for the government Kool-Aid drinkers, to skyrocket. Not only will your energy bill dramatically increase, but also the cost of virtually every product or service that you currently buy. To put it simply, after you spend more money to heat/cool and light your house, you will have to spend more to buy food, drive to pick up the food, and clean up after your food is consumed. The House of Representatives passed this bill with an overwhelming public outcry against it.<br /><br />The self-proclaimed smartest people in the world are trying to pass a “Health Care Reform” bill that will bankrupt private insurance, raise all of our health care costs, decrease the quality of health care, and help struggling labor union’s retirement accounts. Again they press on in the face of overwhelming public opposition. <br /><br />The American public has grown weary of politicians who pass legislation without reading the bill, which they did for a massive stimulus bill passed earlier this year. The voters have educated themselves on what the legislation actually says and have begun to demand answers from their elected representatives. Recent polls by Rasmussen Reports shows that 57% of voters would like to replace every member of both houses of Congress, while 42% of those polled believe that just randomly picking names out of the phone book would be more productive than the current Congress. Public opinion is showing that very few members of Congress, regardless to which political party they belong, are safe in their re-election bids next year. Those numbers will drop even further if Congress passes their freedom limiting Health Care bill.<br /><br /> I have a proposal to replace every member of Congress, even those in the Senate who are not up for re-election in next year’s midterm elections. I propose “Cash for Real Change”. I think we should pay every member of Congress $1 billion to leave Washington immediately and never return. The $535 billion it would cost pales in comparison to the more than $1.5 trillion this Congress has already spent. I think we should then replace the new billionaires with citizen legislators that have never served in political office at any capacity. Before the new Congress can begin any legislative work, they will attend classes on the Constitution. The classes will not try to decide what the founding fathers intended or what they would have done if they lived in 2009, the classes will concentrate on what the Constitution actually says. After the new Congress understands what their duties and responsibilities are under the Constitution, they will now begin to undo the constitutional damage the current crop of political reprobates have done.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-55778272078212482452009-08-27T22:10:00.000-04:002009-08-27T22:11:31.933-04:00The Democrats ARe Becoming Desperate Over Health Care ReformAs I returned from vacation last weekend I became aware of the desperation of the Democrats and the White House over their socialist takeover of our health care system. After weeks of plummeting poll numbers and running scared at town hall meetings the administration and the Democratic leadership have resorted to the same tired tactics they have used for years. The politics of fear and race baiting has returned in full force in a feeble attempt to resurrect the health care power grab.<br /><br />The Colorado Democrat Party headquarters in Denver was vandalized this week and immediately state party officials attempted to spin in into an attack by political opponents of the health care reform proposed by their party. Unfortunately the facts of the case tell a slightly different story. One of the two vandals was caught shortly after the attack and his name is Maurice Schwenkler. He worked in the 2008 elections for a Democrat running for the Colorado state house. He has a history of working for liberal 527 groups and was arrested for unlawful assembly outside of the Republican National Convention in 2008. Of course the Colorado Democrat Party Chairwoman was quick to back away from her initial statements accusing Republicans of the vandalism.<br /><br />New York Governor David A. Paterson blames racism for his unpopularity in the sate of New York and added that President Obama will be the next victim of racism. They believe, or are at least trying to convince the public, that the reason for the disapproval among the voting public is that we are not comfortable with a black man in power. They want us to forget that the health care reform proposal is an unconstitutional power grab and will further drive our country into economic disaster. Governor Paterson is presiding over a state that is in dire economic straits, but he wants us to believe that it is not his fault but the fault of his racist political opponents. I have been called a racist more times in the past year than in my entire life; all because I have not supported Barack Obama. I have not and will not support any candidate or politician that I do not agree with on the issues. Was I a racist when I supported Michael Steele for Lt. Governor and Senator in Maryland? I supported Steele based on the issues, but because he is a Republican, the left believes that he has betrayed his race.<br /><br />President Barack Obama said last week that there is a “right wing conspiracy” to defeat his health care reform proposal. It is interesting that he would use those words to describe the opponents of socialized medicine. It is interesting because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referenced a “vast right wing conspiracy” while she was the First Lady to explain the accusations of infidelity against her husband President Bill Clinton. Of course a few weeks later her husband had to admit his extra-curricular activities with a White House intern. I know the same is true in the current reference to a conspiracy. The facts are that the current health care reform will ration medical care, raise costs, reduce the quality of care, and will give the federal government unprecedented and unconstitutional power over our lives. I do think it is funny that they will try to pin this on the Republicans, but yet they do not need a single Republican to support it for it to pass either chamber of Congress.<br /><br />The most disturbing, but not surprising ploy being used by the Democrats to force through this debacle is the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. No more than 2 hours after his death, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was calling for the reform to be passed as a tribute to Kennedy. They are hoping that they can guilt the “Blue Dog Democrats” into supporting the legislation despite the growing dissatisfaction with the proposal. It is ironic that they would seek to tie this reform to Kennedy who sought out the best treatments and doctors available for his disease, but he would not have had that opportunity if the current proposal were passed into law. The attempt to capitalize on the Senator’s death does bring to mind a similar attempt in 2002 when the Democrats tried to turn a memorial service for Senator Paul Wellstone into a political pep rally. The result was a defeat for the Democrats. The early reports of the coverage of Kennedy’s death have shown that the ratings numbers are very low, which points to the public’s cynicism over the political class trying to push this albatross onto our backs. <br /><br />A side note to the death of Senator Kennedy; in 2004 Kennedy sought to have Massachusetts law changed so that a vacant U.S. Senate seat would be filled by a special election to be held within 5 months of the vacancy. He fought to have it changed because he was worried that Senator John Kerry would win the presidency and Republican Governor Mitt Romney would fill the vacant seat with a Republican. Now that there is a Democrat in the Governor’s mansion, Kennedy wrote a letter state legislators before his death to have the law changed so that Governor Deval Patrick could fill the vacancy immediately. I believe the frenzy to change the law and name a replacement will be more entertaining than any of the mind-numbing reality TV shows currently on the air.<br /> As the summer recess winds down, the race baiting and fear mongering from the administration will continue to heat up and the politicization of Senator Kennedy’s death will reach nauseating levels. I fully expect President Obama to turn the eulogy on Saturday into a campaign-style stump speech for health care reform in memoriam for the good Senator. I also believe that the American public has wised up to the empty promises of the President. They see the economic trouble in which the country finds itself. They hear the reports that the federal deficit has quadrupled since President Obama was sworn in as President. The heard the administration admit that their estimates of the federal deficit’s growth was off by $2 trillion to a total of $9 trillion. They are unable to understand why we need to rush this legislation through now, when it will not even take effect until 2013. The more the public learns about the health care reform proposal, the lower the approval numbers drop for the President and the Democrats. The problem for the White House and the Democratic leadership is that they have sold themselves for this reform to the point that they are unable to stop now. I believe that 2010 will be a very bad year to be a politician in D.C..Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-13970878647065905822009-08-13T20:55:00.000-04:002009-08-13T20:56:20.307-04:00The Dog Days Of Summer Are Hard On The PoliticiansAugust is turning out to be a very hot, and uncomfortable month for the White House and especially the Democrat-led Congress. Members of Congress have been met with outrage and frustration over the rush to socialized medicine. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the White House have tried to spin the opposition as anything from Nazi-like to “Astroturf”. Throughout it all the public has continued to voice their displeasure over the sudden and severe hearing loss that has gripped Washington DC.<br /><br />President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to a new low for him, down to 47%. His Presidential Approval Index has been hovering in the negative range for several weeks and currently sits at a –8, with a mere 29% strongly approving of the President and 37% strongly disapproving. His plummeting poll numbers are a result of several factors, but his push to socialize the health care system is the main catalyst for his decline. <br /><br />Another factor for the public’s growing discontent is the unprecedented spending that the Congress and the President have engaged in over the past 7 months. The Treasury Department released it’s latest figures that showed that the Federal Government has spent $3 trillion in the past 10 months. Before my Bush-hating readers start to scream, allow me to say that Bush started this idiotic spending spree late last fall, but the current administration has more than followed suit. This year’s Federal deficit is projected to be 4 times that of last year’s deficit. Instead of working to reduce the deficit and release us from the stranglehold in which our creditors have us, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner went to Congress to raise the Federal debt limit above the current $12.1 trillion limit. The administration has further driven our country into bankruptcy and instead of changing their drunken-sailor spending habits; they ask to increase their credit limit. I suppose they need to raise it in order to pay for the economic fiasco known as health care reform. The American taxpayer had to work nearly an entire month longer than last year to pay for the ludicrous spending habits of Washington. The <a href="http://www.fiscalaccountability.org/index.php?content=cogd-teas">cost of government</a> is 61.9% of our national income and these politicians want to raise it even higher.<br /><br />The President has tried to portray his “townhall meetings” as open and fair minded, but yet there is never anyone who is opposed to his health care nightmare. Meanwhile, every member of Congress that goes out to meet the voters is met with overwhelming opposition. A recent Rasmussen poll has shown that 53% of voters are opposed to the Health Care Reform plan. Worse yet for the politicos in DC is that the much-coveted “independents” are opposed to the plan by a wide margin. President Obama has even tried to assuage our fears about a government run health care system putting private insurance out of business, by equating it to the post office. He said that UPS and FedEx are doing fine, it is always the post office that is in trouble. Can the President be that naïve? Does he really believe that the American public want a health care system that runs as efficiently as the post office? <br /><br /> The White House and Congress have severely overestimated the charm of President Obama. They believe that when the President speaks the public all feel a tingle running up their legs and they forget all about the actual words that he is speaking or the actions they are undertaking. The public is smarter than for which the bureaucrats in Washington give them credit. The public knows what is in the legislation that Congress is considering. The Congressional switchboards and email servers are being stretched to their limits with opposition calls and emails, but yet our elected representatives ignore our wishes and vote for the socialist agenda of the President. I believe the folly of the White House and Congress will be shown in next year’s midterm elections.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-43849669454286350242009-08-06T21:38:00.000-04:002009-08-06T21:39:29.632-04:00Was Orwell's Vision Off By 25 Years?The debate surrounding the Obama administration’s and Congress’ plans to reform our health care system has exposed the folly of the media proclamation of the President as some sort of messianic figure. They have built him up to the pinnacle of power in the world, only to have his approval numbers rapidly fall due to the public growing weary of his socialistic “hope and change.” The American people in poll after poll have stated that they absolutely do not want the government to run our health care system. The disapproval of the reforms is growing on a daily basis as more of the details become known.<br /><br />Congress is becoming aware of their constituents’ displeasure over the proposals currently being worked on in Washington. As the members of Congress travel home for the summer recess, they are being met with a voting public that knows more about the reforms in Congress than the President claims he knows. The American people have informed themselves on individual aspects of the bill, such as the fact that Congress has specifically exempted themselves from the government plan. Another aspect is that the government plan will force all private insurance out of business, by setting prices at such a level as to make it financially impossible for private insurance companies to make a profit. <br /><br />The President claims that he does not want to take over the health care system, but unfortunately the President seems to suffer from memory loss. In March of 2007, then Senator Obama proclaimed that it was his goal to have “Universal Health Care for all” by the end of his first term in office. He also stated in 2003 that he is a proponent of a “single payer universal health care plan”. <br /><br />Congressional leaders are vilifying the American people, who are voicing their opposition at the town hall meetings. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week that these citizens were waving swastikas at the town hall meetings. The White House is asking people to email them about anyone who are “telling lies” about the Health Care proposal. It has been a few years since I read George Orwell’s classic 1984, but I seem to recall Orwell writing about children turning in their parents to the government for “thought crimes”. Isn’t the administration asking for names of people discussing the plan, even in casual conversation, sound eerily similar to Orwell’s vision? <br /><br />Congress is in for a very rude awakening in 2010, especially if they pass this disastrous plan. The Democrats are running themselves right out of office and all the Republicans need to do is stay out of the way. There are a few Republicans that seem to believe that compromising with the Democrats on this plan is the best course of action, but a compromise that produces bad legislation is never a good idea. There are Republican proposals out there that actually will reduce costs and actually provide meaningful reform, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would rather claim that the Republicans are the party of ‘No’, than to actually allow any of their proposals see the light of day.<br /><br /> The voters are more aware right now than at any point in recent history. They have watched the Congress pass a monstrous “stimulus” bill, and spend more than a trillion dollars more than the government will collect in tax revenues, all against their expressed wishes. They have seen the House of Representatives pass the “Cap and Trade” bill that will stifle the economy more than they already have, again against the will of their constituents. It is time Congress is asked the question, whom exactly are they representing? Were they elected to carry out the extreme socialist agenda of the President? Or were they elected to represent their constituents? I believe in 2010, there will be many members of Congress looking for a new career.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-69552703477948810172009-07-23T22:21:00.000-04:002009-07-23T22:22:22.902-04:00The President's Health Care Reform NightmareThe Health Care Reform debate was ordered to be complete by the August recess of Congress. President Obama declared that Congress needed to pass Health Care Reform by the time that they departed Washington for their summer recess. He has placed urgency on the reform stating, “If we fail to act now, we will lose an opportunity that only comes around every few generations.” My cynicism impels me to ask; of what opportunity does the President speak? Is he speaking of our impending national bankruptcy?<br /><br />The President has applied more pressure on Congress to pass Health Care Reform as more and more Congressman express their concerns over passing such an expensive power grab. He has repeatedly expressed that more than 46 million Americans are living without health insurance. The number in and of itself is staggering, but it is a fabrication on the part of the administration. Investors Business Daily recently published an editorial exploring the facts behind the 46 million uninsured figure. Roughly 10 million of the uninsured are not U.S. citizens and about 17 million of the uninsured reside in households whose annual income is more than $50,000. The editorial further explains that 40% of the uninsured are between the ages of 18 and 34 and simply choose not to spend money on health insurance because they are young and healthy. <br /><br />President Obama has also provided some enlightening clues as to where his vision for Health Care Reform will take us. In a town hall meeting in June, he was asked about a woman’s mother, who at the age of 100 her doctor informed her that she would need a pacemaker. 2 doctors refused to do the surgery to implant the pacemaker because of her age. The third doctor, after meeting the patient, realized that the woman had a zest for life and performed the surgery. That was 5 years ago and she is still going strong. The President was asked whether under his plan, she would have been allowed to receive the surgery. Would the plan take into account a person spirit and will to live? The President eloquently said that the plan could not evaluate a person’s spirit, but perhaps they would be better off taking medication to dull the pain. His plan is to provide “end of life” counseling instead of senior care. So we can expect that after we reach the government determined age, we will be evaluated on our viability before we will be treated.<br /><br />Who are the people who are pushing to control our health care? President Obama has a record of voting in the Illinois Senate for allowing babies who were born alive after a failed abortion to die alone in a dirty linen closet. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg recently said that she understood that the Roe V. Wade decision was decided to control “populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” Former Vice President Al Gore said during the 1990’s that one of the best ways to control “global warming” was to establish an aggressive abortion policy in the third world. His words are chilling, “it is time to ignore the controversy over family planning and cut out-of-control population growth.” President Obama’s Science Czar, John Holdren, has made similar statements regarding population control. In 1977 he wrote, "It has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society." I realize that these will not be the same people actually making the decisions, but they all share the same twisted view on life. Who are they to decide who lives and who dies?<br /><br />As a side note, I do find it a bit amusing that the abortion rights advocates have for years been crying to keep your laws off of my body, but yet now they are crying that the government needs to control every aspect of our bodies.<br /><br />The administration has repeatedly asserted that no one will be required to join the government run plan. They claim that they are merely providing a government option to compete with the private market. The problem is that there is no government program that has ever produced a profit. For those less economically inclined, the government plan will not be required to provide services at a fair market value. This will then cause private market competition to either close before bankruptcy or operate at a loss to try to compete that will inevitably cause them to go bankrupt. For those citizens who choose not to enroll in the government plan or any private plan, will be fined by the federal government about $2500, or whatever it would normally cost to buy health insurance, a year for every year you go without health insurance. <br /><br />This Health Care Reform debate is turning quite embarrassing for the Democrats and the administration. The President is taking the prospect of his proposal falling to defeat rather personally. He is repeating the statements from Republicans about defeating his plan as an attempt to rally support for the reform. He is apt to refer to Republican opposition to his proposal, but the truth is that the President does not need 1 Republican to vote for the measure for it to pass. He has enough Democrats in both chambers of Congress to pass this debacle, but yet he points to the Republicans as standing in the way of his power grab. The truth is that all members of Congress are hearing from their constituents and they do not want this plan. An increasing majority of Americans do not want any type of government run health care plan and they are expressing their displeasure over this proposal. Politicians, from both parties, are all generally the same. They all are worried about their next election. When public outcry reaches a point where the politicians realize their political career is on the line, they tend to take notice.<br /><br /> The Senate has postponed any vote on Health Care Reform until at least September and the House will more than likely follow suit. The administration’s push to pass the enormous measure while we are already operating under historic deficits is ludicrous. They are working under the assumption that, “It is better to beg for forgiveness, than to ask for permission.” They believe that we will forgive them for further destroying our economy and our country. They need to realize that if they act with that philosophy within their marriages, they will soon find themselves in Divorce Court. The same holds true for the political realm, if they follow through with this unconstitutional eroding of our personal freedoms, they will soon find themselves as unemployed politicians.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-88050238725185494942009-06-26T21:17:00.001-04:002009-06-26T21:18:49.590-04:00The House Passes H.R. 2454, The Economic Destruction Act Of 2009Today the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The mammoth bill consisted of more than 1500 pages and would be more aptly named the Hamstring the American Economy Act. The bill will now head to the Senate for their take on the issue, where I cannot help but wonder if the Senators will actually read the bill before reading it unlike their counterparts in the House. <br /><br />President Obama and the Democratic House leadership claimed that this bill was a “jobs” bill. Their claim is based on the premise that the legislation will create green jobs and will help the economy. The dirty little secret is that the cost of the bill to the American taxpayers will be astronomical. Everyone will pay more for their energy consumption. This may not appear to be that big of an issue for the millionaire bureaucrats in Washington or the hypocrite Al Gore, but for those citizens who already struggle to pay their energy bills on a monthly basis, it will be a major problem. Over the next 25 years electricity rates will increase an estimated 90%, gasoline prices will increase an estimated 58%, natural gas rates will increase an estimated 55%, add an additional $28,728 per person in the U.S. to the national debt, and reduce the gross domestic product by $9.4 trillion<br /><br />As for the jobs that they are claiming that will be created, we only have to look to Spain to foresee the outcomes of the very same policies. In Spain the unemployment rate is at 18% and for every green job created 2.2 jobs are lost. The cost of creating the green jobs is a bargain as well, a mere $774,000 per green job “created”. Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at King Juan Carlos University who authored a report on Spain’s green jobs initiatives said, “The loss of jobs could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices”. Several U.S companies have already stated that it will be cheaper for them to move their entire operations out of the U.S. than to stay and pay the stifling taxes and penalties for doing business in the Obama led United States.<br /><br />What I find most amazing about this legislation is the unmitigated gall of the President concerning its inevitable outcome. During his campaign, before the he became the media-anointed messiah of all people, the President said that his clean energy proposal would bankrupt the coal industry. This may not seem to be that big of a deal for most of my “green” readers, but the U.S. depends on coal to supply roughly 50% of our energy. Now how will we supply energy without coal? We could use nuclear power; you remember the cheap, reliable energy source that the President favors for Iran. The only problem is that the very same people who are trying to hamper our economy with this legislation are also the same hypocritical bureaucrats that have prevented any new nuclear power plants from being built in the past 30 years.<br /><br /> While the concept of wind and solar energy providing all of our energy needs is a laudable one, the simple fact remains that the technology does not exist today to make these economically viable. Provide funding for research if you want, but do not punish the American people and our economy for the sake of flawed science. As the Senate takes up this legislation, we can only hope that the Senators will put aside their party loyalty and actually vote to protect the American economy and our pocketbooks. I realize that this may be too much to ask for many of the lifelong politicians, but can’t we at least expect them to read the bill before they vote on it? After all, the author of the bill in the House, Henry Waxman, admitted that he had not read the bill and did not know all of the details of the bill. He was content to rely on the scientists that wrote the bill. I suppose the only ones that will be laughing and cheering about this legislation in the years to come will be China, India, and the rest of the world who will reap the economic rewards for the folly of our elected officials.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-27570089174261556402009-06-19T21:59:00.001-04:002009-06-19T22:00:28.230-04:00New Hate Crimes Legislation Poised To Muzzle Your PastorAccording to the United States Department of Justice, a “Hate Crime” is “the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability. The purveyors of hate use explosives, arson, weapons, vandalism, physical violence, and verbal threats of violence to instill fear in their victims, leaving them vulnerable to more attacks and feeling alienated, helpless, suspicious and fearful.” I have always been one who questions the need for “Hate Crimes” legislation. Before I am called everything from an insensitive bigot to my personal favorite, a reich-wing hate-monger, I am not saying that there is no racism or hate in our country. There are clearly ignorant, hateful people in our world that will commit some very heinous acts in the name of hate. My difficulty with “Hate Crimes” legislation is that it seems redundant. How do you punish the killers of James Bird, who was dragged to his death behind a truck, when two of his killers were executed and the third received life in prison? There are already laws on the books regarding murder, assault, and every other crime that could be considered a “Hate Crime”.<br /><br />Over the past two and a half years since Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid assumed control of Congress, they have tried in vain to pass a new “Hate Crime” bill that would include sexual orientation, disability, and gender identity to the list of protected people. The Democratic leaders attempted to conceal the “Hate Crimes” legislation in a critical Defense spending bill in 2007. They later removed the measure from the Defense bill. Bush had vetoed the bill during his Presidency citing the constitutionality of the proposal. He believed that the existing laws on the books in the individual states were more than adequate and that any measure by the Federal Government would be overstepping their constitutional boundaries. Of course, the current administration believes that our constitution is “fundamentally flawed”.<br /><br />Conservative groups have longed questioned the reach of such legislation. The main concern is how the law would be prosecuted. Would a pastor be charged with a “hate crime” for preaching in his church that homosexuality is a sin and that the Bible clearly says as much? What other types of speech would be limited next? Would it then be a crime to criticize the President or his policies? Of course the news media is already terrified of criticizing anything that the media anointed messiah says or does. After all, ABC News is turning over all of their prime time airtime on Wednesday to President Obama to pitch his socialist dream of health care to the American people without any opposing viewpoint. Another concern is that the new law will rescind the “Federal activity” clause of the current law. The existing law requires that the offense take place during a “Federal activity” such as at a school, but the new proposal will strip that requirement from the law, thus opening the door for a broad range of interpretations of what constitutes a “hate crime”.<br /><br /> It remains to be seen what the Senate will do when the measure comes up for a vote, but past history has shown that this Congress is at ease with trampling states rights and the constitution. Senator Harry Reid and President Obama need to realize that redundant laws with the aim of making headlines do not solve racial tensions. This law will only serve to try to muzzle free speech rights of Christian organizations with the end goal of either shutting down churches who preach the Bible. I do find it amazing that those who want to limit the free speech and the freedom of religion of Bible believing churches, applauded the racist comments of Obama’s own pastor Jeremiah Wright.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-11617466843062312552009-06-11T22:53:00.000-04:002009-06-11T22:54:53.372-04:00More Political Posturing By Obama On SpendingPresident Barack Obama has decided that all of this reckless spending has to stop. He has told Congress that they must now cut $1 from somewhere else in the budget for every $1 that they spend. The concept is not an original idea; in 2006 the Democrats gained control of Congress with promises to turn the tide of Republican spending. They promised to never introduce a spending measure without a means to pay for it. Of course, in the 2 years following their takeover of Congress they simply ignored their own rules. They added $398 billion in deficit spending without any concern for being seen as hypocritical.<br /><br />For a bit of perspective, $398 billion is a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the $1 trillion forecasted by the Congressional Budget Office to be added to the deficit spending for every year for the next decade. Of course, the President added a few caveats to his “pay-go” requirement. He conveniently provided an exception for his health care reform spending which has been forecasted to cost the taxpayers at least another $1 trillion in deficit spending. To make matters worse, Obama warns that now is the only time to pass health care reform. He is trying to gin up fear to provide pressure on Congress to pass yet another disastrous spending measure. At this point with nearly $12 trillion in projected deficit spending over the next 10 years, why should we care about spending an additional $1 trillion of money we don’t have?<br /> I believe that the rush to pass the President’s socialist dream is because the administration knows what 2010 will hold for the party in power. They realize that sooner or later the American people will wake up to how disastrous the policies of throwing taxpayer money around to seize control of more of the private sector really are. They are petrified of trying to pass this health care boondoggle during an election year. Recent polls have shown that while approvals of Obama personally remain in the 60% range, approval of his individual policies is dismally low. I fully expect the White House and their loyal sycophants in Congress will try to ramrod health care reform through with very little chance for the voting public to actually read and understand what is in the bill. Early in President Clinton’s first term, health care reform was one of the primary goals on their agenda. Their reform did have broad support until the voters knew the details of the reform. The voters expressed their opposition to the government power grab and the Democrat controlled Congress quickly folded under the pressure. I believe that the Obama administration will try to force their reform quickly through with very little debate to try to avoid the inevitable voter backlash. Of course, as much as Clinton was loved by the left, he never enjoyed the near religious following that Obama does.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-68551702523251855162009-06-04T16:49:00.001-04:002009-06-04T16:50:48.371-04:00Will Obama Say Anything To Distract From His Disastrous Domestic Policies?President Barack Hussein Obama, formerly known as candidate Barack Obama, has proven once again that his own Vice President, Joe “which government secret should I reveal this week” Biden was correct when he said that the President of the United States is not a position in which you can learn foreign policy with on the job training. Biden chided Obama during the Presidential primaries for his extreme lack of foreign policy experience or even the vaguest idea of what foreign policy entailed. You may recall that Obama tried to separate himself from the pack of Presidential aspirants by promising to negotiate with Iran without any preconditions. He then quickly revised his foolish statements by saying that a nuclear Iran was unacceptable to him. Either the President has a very short memory or this is just another example of his desire to be all things to all people.<br /><br />The Obama administration was hailed during the campaign and after the election as an administration that would regain the respect of the world. Over the past few weeks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made a trip to China to reassure the Chinese that the investment in our skyrocketing debt was a safe investment. His speech before Econ students at a Chinese University was met with disbelieving laughter. How could anyone believe the Treasury Secretary when he tells them that the dollar is strong and will continue to be a safe investment, when the administration he works for and the Congress have shown no signs of reigning in spending? Or shown any signs that they have the slightest inclination to allow the free market to work through the problems that governmental interference have caused? Even Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez sees that the current policies of the Obama administration have clearly positioned Obama to the left of Chavez.<br /><br />Maybe it is the 9.2% unemployment rate that has caused the President to make some outrageous statements over the past week while traveling abroad. How else can anyone explain why President Obama would claim that the Muslim population in the United States would make our country one of the largest Muslim nations in the world? A Pew Research poll puts the Muslim population in the United States at about 1.8million, which would make the U.S. barely in the top 50 of Muslim nations if we counted just the people who identify themselves as Muslim.<br /><br />Maybe it is the soaring national debt, or his government takeover of the banking industry, the mortgage industry, and the auto industry, or his plans to nationalize our healthcare system that caused him to say that Iran has a legitimate claim to their nuclear aspirations. I realize many of his cult-like followers will claim that he was talking about their plans for nuclear power, but how can you disregard Ahmedinejad’s claims of having more than 7000 centrifuges for nuclear missiles? Do we ignore the Iranian leader’s claims that they will wipe Israel off the map in a matter of days, if they are provoked? Does anyone believe that Iran will not try to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons if they have them?<br /><br />Iran knows that the U.S. is nothing more than flowery, but empty rhetoric condemning their actions against Israel. After all, North Korea has totally ignored all of warnings coming from Washington. Iran has also turned a deaf ear to the laughable condemnations from the U.N. and the U.S.. Why should they be concerned about any action from the impotent U.N. or the U.S.? Obama said as much in his speech in Cairo when he delivered yet another apology for the war in Iraq. He claimed that we had learned that taking action without broad international support was a mistake. Don’t we teach our children that they need to do the right thing no matter what their friends are doing or might say? I suppose that may be a lesson that is not taught in the school of appeasement and apology. I am still waiting for the President to apologize to Great Britain for our unlawful war in 1776.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-44573740547132197292009-05-27T21:04:00.000-04:002009-05-27T21:05:22.351-04:00Is There Any Backbone Left In DCOn Election Day, Barack Obama and the Democrats won control of Washington DC. Since the inauguration of Barack Obama, the President and the Democrat controlled Congress have set forth legislation that actually delivers on a campaign promise. They promised to change the country, and they are well on their way to accomplishing that feat. The problem, of course, is that the change will remake the United States into a country that is far from what our founders had intended. The Republicans in Washington DC and the party leadership seem to be more concerned about offering a “lite” version of the disastrous policies of the left. They appear to be more focused on not angering their political opponents or the media, than actually offering true conservative alternatives.<br /><br />The current political season is ripe with opportunity for a strong, truly conservative leader to point out the lies and fallacy of the Democratic agenda. The massive stimulus bill was just the beginning and the Republicans in the House did unite against that bill, as well as the majority of the Senate Republicans, but merely voting against the earmark laden stimulus bill is only half the battle. What happened to educating the voting public about why you are against the historic demolition of our economy? Then there was the bank bailouts, the Chrysler and GM debacle, numerous appointees that were incapable of paying their taxes, Obama’s magical apology tour of the world, Iran’s and North Korea’s defiance of Obama and the world, the monstrosity that will be universal/socialist healthcare, and now even his pick for the Supreme Court. All of these are sitting ducks for a conservative response from the Republican leadership.<br /><br />Instead, what we have seen is attitudes of appeasement settle over the leadership. There have been a few bright spots of conservative Congressman standing up and fighting, but from the elites of the party we are told we need to be a “Big Tent” party. Colin Powell, who has voted for more Democrats in Presidential elections than Republicans, lectures the party that we need to be more moderate and inclusive. Isn’t that what he got in the last election with John “Amnesty” McCain? The same group of elitist Republicans is now preaching that we cannot oppose Sonia Sotomayor because we will be seen as anti-Hispanic because of her Puerto Rican heritage. First of all, were the Democrats seen as anti-Hispanic for their opposition to Miguel Estrada? Secondly, the Republicans received very little of the Hispanic vote last year, why would anyone believe that if we support Sotomayor for the Supreme Court that the numbers would change? Sotomayor is an easy target for criticism based solely on her judicial philosophy. She is on record stating that it is the role of the court to make policy. She is on record stating that she believes that a “woman of color” would more often make better judicial decisions that a white man. Her judicial decisions have been overturned 60% by the very court to which she has been nominated. I believe it is telling that her supporters are touting her inspiring life story as a great reason to confirm her, but yet the very same people were vehemently opposed to Justice Thomas whose story is equally compelling. A supreme Court Justice should be considered based on their record of opinions and their judicial philosophy, not whether their life story would make for a great Lifetime movie of the week.<br /><br /> I don’t expect that the Republicans to be able to stop all of the Marxist plans for our country, but they have an excellent opportunity to stand up voice their opposition and educate the American people on why these plans are bad for our country. Ronald Reagan was able to push his tax cuts through a Democrat controlled Congress, with a hostile media covering the news, and no Internet to aid in the dissemination of the facts. The Republican leadership needs to wake up and realize that the Tea Parties on April 15 were just as much a protest of their lack of leadership as it was a protest of Obama’s spending spree in Washington.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-49594290030250016932009-05-14T21:04:00.001-04:002009-05-14T21:06:23.377-04:00Pelosi Changes Her Story Yet Again On TortureFor the past several weeks, the media and the Democratic leadership in Congress have screamed and yelled about the enhanced interrogation techniques employed after the September 11 attacks. These techniques have been attributed to saving lives by their proponents, and have been condemned as torture by their opponents. Probably the most out-spoken opponent of the EIT’s in the past few weeks has been House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. <br /><br />Ms. Pelosi initially feigned outrage at the news that techniques, such as “waterboarding”, had been used against the mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. She claimed that she did not know that these techniques were even being considered. Then the reports came out about numerous congressional briefings by the CIA, to which Pelosi responded that they never told her about any techniques. As more staffers, congressman, and CIA reports came out, Pelosi proceeded to change her story as quickly as Arlen Specter changers political affiliations.<br /><br />At one point, she claimed that she did know about the interrogations but did not object at the time because she wanted to follow the “legislative process”. As the heat continued to increase, she decided to try to claim that the CIA lied to her and the rest of Congress. She now claims that the CIA deliberately misled her and Congress by withholding the information about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. She sounds like a child caught in a lie, and instead of owning up to the truth when questioned, she continually piles lies upon lies.<br /><br />With Pelosi flailing about with her myriad of stories of what she knew and when she knew it, the Democrats were having a bad enough week on national security, but then just before the 40 some pictures of the “torture” of detainees were to be released, President Obama reversed course and decided not to release them. I applaud Obama for not releasing the pictures. The only purpose it would serve would be to incite our enemies. For the record, I am not saying I am opposed to the use of EIT’s, but you can guarantee that Al Qaeda would propagandize the pictures and use them against us. Another surprising twist arose this week when the Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration is considering leaving the Bush administration policy of detaining enemy combatants indefinitely intact. Can you hear the screeching from MoveOn.org?<br /><br /> The fate of Speaker Pelosi is still unknown, but I do believe that if she continues down this self-destructive path she will be forever politically damaged and her days as Speaker will be numbered. As for the Obama administration’s national security policy, it will be very interesting how they proceed. The calls for a defined Afghanistan policy have begun from they typical cast of characters, led by PA Representative John Murtha. Will Obama be able to hold his party’s anti-war elements in line? Will Obama choose to appease his rabid anti-war followers or choose a competent national security policy? I pray, for the sake of our country and all of our safety, that he chooses the latter.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7894619605688270039.post-60340874532119830082009-05-07T22:12:00.001-04:002009-05-07T22:13:46.046-04:00Who Is Watching How Our Money Is Spent?Back in February, after President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress passed the $787 billion stimulus bill, we were told no to worry about massive fraud and waste because they government was going to closely monitor where the money was going. Vice President Joe Biden even went out and threatened the local and state government officials that if they spent the stimulus money unwisely, he would personally go out and name names of the wasteful spenders. We were assured that the government would set up a website so that we could check for ourselves where the money was going. Shockingly, the truth is that the government has no clue as to where the money is going and the elected representatives who signed the check don’t seem to care.<br /><br />This week the House subcommittee tasked with oversight of the massive amounts of money hemorrhaging from the Treasury Department, held a hearing to get an update on the progress of the website and other tracking methods. The chairman of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board, Earl Devaney, told the panel that the website is not ready and probably will not be ready until maybe next year. One would think that this news would raise some eyebrows of the Congressman on the panel, but unfortunately the most of the members decide dthat it was not important to even show up for the hearing. Of the 10 members only 3 showed up in the beginning, with 1 other member showing up late. I suppose that this should not be surprising, especially when you consider that no one in either chamber of Congress actually read the “stimulus” bill before voting on it.<br /><br />At least we can count on the President to follow through on his promise of going through the federal budget line by line to find areas to cut the spending. This week the President did come out and announce his proposed budget cuts from his $3.55 trillion budget. He plans to make more than 100 cuts in his budget that will save the taxpayers $17 billion. To put it in perspective, if the federal budget were just $355, the President’s cuts would equate to $0.17. How excited would you be if you were buying a new TV and the salesman told you that he could save you 17 cents? Obama’s proposed budget cuts out of his budget amount to less than .5% of his total budget proposal. Do you feel that the government is effectively watching out for your hard earned money?<br /><br /> With a Federal budget deficit forecasted to be more than $9 trillion by the Congressional Budget Office over the next decade when can we expect the President’s promise of fiscal responsibility to be fulfilled? I suppose we could just hope that Congress and the President will change the drunken sailor spending habits. Then again, didn’t thousands of people show up in cities across the country to protest the ludicrous spending and overbearing taxation? Maybe elected officials will take notice of the groundswell of discontent over the tax and spend policies of the current administration. I believe members of both parties need to wake up and see the disastrous future they are preparing for our children. Otherwise they will all find themselves out of work in 2010.Troy Stoufferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294242807958874910noreply@blogger.com0