Memorial Day, what's it all about?

Memorial Day is the most intense holiday we have.  I say that because just stop and think what it’s all about.  Young men and women just like the ones you see every day at the mall or on the street laughing and enjoying life have unselfishly given theirs so that we can go on enjoying ours.  Few of you given the choice would be willing to lay down your life just so others you don’t even know can live theirs in freedom?  Having been raised in the forties and fifties I know quite a few who made that ultimate sacrifice, they were just like you, happy go lucky kids they loved life, enjoyed family and most of all they wanted to live just as bad as you do right now.  When I hear the words Memorial Day it sends a chill up my back that so many think it’s just another day to relax and have a beer.  I’m not saying that you should curl up and cry but before you go have that relaxing day and drink a few beers all I ask is that you say a special thank you for those who helped make it possible.  I just wish we could do more just to let them know how much they were appreciated.  Thank goodness we have a God that will do that for us, I know they will always have eternal life by his side.

God bless those who have made the ultimate sacrifice

Who's running things?

 Our judicial system has been consistent for the last few years, consistently bad.  This latest fiasco with Jody Arias is just the frosting on the cake.  What needs to be done to convince some people of guilt, the participants of the jury all submitted to questions prior to being installed on the jury one of which was the death penalty question. (Could they sentence someone to the death penalty). They all answered in the affirmative that they could convict if the case was proven.  Let see, admittedly she shot him, cut his throat ear to ear and stabbed him 27 times and then took pictures and left him there in a pool of blood for his friends to find him.  Gee, guilty or not guilty, how could any member of the jury who told the truth going into this hearing about the question of the death penalty find not enough evidence to sentence her to the ultimate?  I guess when we have a government that can’t seem to find the guts to tell the truth it spreads to the populace.  Attorney General Holder our chief law enforcement officer seems to have memory problems, our leader President Obama answers questions that weren’t asked just to skirt the actual question.  Our Secretary of State can’t find the courage to tell us what happened in Benghazi, the head of the IRS compliance division takes the 5^th and the head of the IRS finds himself in a complete fog and knows nothing like Sgt Schultz of Stalig 13. 

Who’s running things?  Is everyone just acting on their own without having to report to anyone?  Why would the Justice Department charge a well known and respected reporter as an accomplice and as a flight risk in a leak case?  Intimidation is why and that is the worst case you can have, when the people cannot get the truth because reporters are being intimidated is exactly why our fore fathers added the 1^st amendment.  Without a free press we have no checks and balances in our land.  When government feels it can make up its own rules without consequence we the people are the ones who lose.  Whether you are a republican, democrat or independent you have to be worried when we find that either the whole political arm of our government bold faced liars or they are just too damn incompetent to do their jobs.  Even the staunchest liberal has to be concerned and should be able to see right through this charade. 

We used to hold our elected officials to a higher standard, even in the case of Watergate where some bumbling idiots that worked for Nixon’s campaign tried to steal information from the democratic committee’s office brought down a sitting President.  Now we have at least 3 or 4 things that make Watergate look like a kids prank and nobody knows anything.  The Presidents chief counsel and his chief advisor admittedly knew about the IRS scandal and we are expected to believe that neither one told the President for months.  Several democrat congressmen are even on record asking the IRS to checkout these groups during the presidential campaign.  During the Benghazi attack no one knows where the President was that night, he wasn’t in the situation room where it would be expected he would be.  We know however he was in Las Vegas for a campaign stop the next day.  

God help us people we all can’t be that dumb, something is wrong and we are letting it slide by like it’s nothing.  

Tragedy brings us together

Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the people of Oklahoma this week.  We many times wonder  how God can allow such carnage among so many innocents.  I was always taught that God tested our faith constantly and when something like this happens he takes those who perish into his arms and gives them eternal life in heaven.  The real sufferers are those that are left behind to deal with the tremendous hurt.  We people on this continent of North America are subject to many potential catastrophes. The west coast and Alaska are subject to massive earthquakes and in some cases the possibility of volcanic activity.  The Heartland has its tornado alley, the south its hurricane and tornado potential.  The east coast has been hit with terrible storms causing chaos and costly damage to the infra structure of the entire area.  In each case the people of America have stood by ready to help.  It does not matter the politics of the people involved, the American people will stand with the people of Oklahoma as they rebuild their lives.  This will be a real test for FEMA as they are still reeling from hurricane Sandy.  There is an opportunity to learn from this and any tragedy as specialists in construction will be pouring over the wreckage to develop new and stronger methods for home construction in the tornado prone areas. 

Why not community shelters in prone areas where when we have a 10 to 15 minute warning the people could go to.  This could be at park or any green space in the area.  It would not be an expensive project if they would do away with the red tape and union interference and allow the counties and residents to work together to build it.  Many lives were saved in London during WWII by having bomb shelters that were accessible to the public.   The tornado's may never come through again but just knowing that there was shelter available would be a blessing.  All schools in tornado prone areas should be built with a subterranean shelter offset from the school large enough to house the students and teachers; equipped with water, first aid stores, blankets and enough M.R.E.  meals to see them through a 48 hr period.  Each should have a propane generator piped to the outside large enough to support lighting and supplying outside air and a port-a-potty wouldn’t hurt.  This could be constructed under the playground in an area that would not be potentially covered by massive debris.  

In the past we had Air Raid Wardens whose responsibility it was to organize and control shelters.  These were selected by the community.  It could be a similar post in the case of tornado shelters as someone has to be responsible for the distribution of food etc. 

If these sounds too expensive just ask the parent of child lost during this storm and they will tell you they would do anything to undo what has happened.

I just want to say God Bless America, we are a unique society that is always ready to come together for each other regardless any of differences in our backgrounds, religion or political belief when tragedy strikes.  

That’s my opinion, what’s yours today?

When is a cover up a lie?

I have been listening to the Congressional hearings on the IRS scandal this AM, much to the chagrin of most who listened all it was is a back and forth of condemnation and praise by the Congressmen based on party lines.  The witness's are also very adept at having memory problems and much like Obama's answer about when was the Whitehouse's notified regarding this problem, each answer was carefully crafted and non committal.  When asked for the name of who was responsible for the IRS in this Miller the acting head of the IRS said he couldn't recall. When asked if anyone in the Whitehouse had been given information on this situation before it hit the press, Obama simply said the until it was in the press he didn't know anything about the IG report.  That wasn't the question was it?  To me it is clear when a person knows the answer to a question and they answer by skirting the issue using semantics it is a sure sign of guilty participation.  Our country needs a fair and balanced government, what we have is a totally political environment in Washington that will never be able to solve our tremendous problems.  When a person is elected to a National or State office they need to forget their political affiliation and play with honesty and integrity on the peoples team.  The clout held by these very few in power has led to a corrupt system that is continually whitewashing important details regarding our safety and our lives in general. 

I condemn both Democrats and Republicans for doing the chicken dance around pertinent questions.  When you can tell it's strictly a party line issue you can't help but feel like we as "The People" are being cheated.  The truth is the truth and any deference to party affiliation is like telling us the voter that we don't matter.  I am ashamed for these people that will lie to cover up a problem, haven't they heard that the cover up is worse than the problem in the end?  I can respect a mistake, I can understand a misunderstanding but I can't fathom a liar who hides behind semantics to avoid an honest attempt to get at the truth.

Our goal and the goal of our legislators should be to use moral judgment in these situations and have no regard for party affiliation what so ever.  How refreshing would it be to have legislation based on fact not how will this affect me in the next election.  It could start by making sure our elected officials live by the same laws they make for the rest of us. 

That's what I've got today, how about you?

Enough of this, I lived through the Nixon years, now this?

Having lived through the Nixon years I am finding a strong comparison with all the scandals coming out of this administration.  I find it hard to believe that all these things are just happenstance and the top echelon wasn't aware of the doings of the rest of the organization.  Having lived in Chicago for a period of my life I recognize the fingerprints of the machine in all of this.  I wonder if Michelle is still finally proud of America as she stated just after the first term election. 

Why is it that American voters do not learn from history, the reason we have a free press is to vet our candidates completely as well as those they choose as a support staff.  Whatever happens with all this you can definitely blame most of the major media for the outcome.  It also inexcusable for anyone on the street not to know the names of the leaders of the House and Senate or even the Secretary of State.  The reason we have this problem is that we have a 50% uninformed population that goes to the polls and votes a straight line ticket without studying the ballet or even knowing the candidates background.  How else can you understand how a man who has never had a real job nor any outstanding legislation in his name be elected to the office of President and be expected to succeed.  An uninformed public elected Hitler because he sounded great and said all the right things during the campaign, if they would have checked they would have seen his blatant flaws  and more recently the election of the President for life Hugo Chavez and look how that worked out.  We can thank God for the end of that regime.

I really don't care what your politics are you have to be scratching your head about all the corruption we've seen from this administration.  Targeting the opposition with IRS flunkies is just the latest revelation in this book to be exposed with many more chapters yet to be written.  It's time to wake up people, this all can't be someone else's fault, somewhere along the way things have to be answered for.  Benghazi, the IRS, and now the Associated Press.  The cover up of facts that have been discovered during the Benghazi investigation show at the very least an incompetence from the top down.  The fact that top officials in the Whitehouse knew about the IRS corruption and supposedly didn't tell the President is a little hard to believe, if it's true they should all be fired immediately.  The Attorney General not being able to answer basic questions about the Associated Press scrutiny by his department claiming not to know any of the facts shows either total incompetence or he was just bald faced lying.

I've said what's on my mind, I'd better quit now so I don't get audited or have my phone records attached, I'd hate them to find out that I gave $100 to Romney.

That's my opinion and it's not stretching the 1st Amendment to state it.

Has America lost its identity?

I don't know how you feel but I think it's time to look deep inside our society and find out the rooted cause of things like the New Orleans Mothers day shooting, the random drive by's in Chicago and L.A..  Something is amiss with the basic human instincts in some people that is driving them to do these things.  In my own mind I think a lot of it has to do with the violence we portray on TV in the movies and in the so called games that have taken over the lives of our kids.  The acceptance of, rather than a real war on drugs.  When I was a child a million years ago yes we played soldier but it was against a common enemy of all people.  We didn't blow things up or randomly shoot into crowds to hurt as many people as we could.  We know we have an enemy in the Radical Jihadists and the Drug Lords of Mexico and South America but killing to solve a dispute among everyday people or just randomly shooting into a crowd is a cowardly trait, one Americans just didn't have in the past. 

Are our children being desensitized to killing through these games they are playing?  Is our society becoming so obsessed with violence that it is becoming common to them?  It's time we quit coddling the perpetrators of these horrific media's and clamped down on what our kids are seeing.  This isn't what our forefathers were considering when they wrote the 1st amendment to the Constitution.  These people have stretched the imagination of the meaning of the Freedom of Speech to the outer limits.  The entertainment industry is building its wealth and political power by poisoning the minds of our people. 

What are we broadcasting to the world on our television that is forming opinions of what we are as a people.  It used to be entertainment, shows like the Jackie Gleeson Show, Ozzie and Harriett or Carol Burnett.  Now the rest of the world is watching the sickest of our society perpetrating crimes against innocent people.  What must the kid in a foreign country think of Americans when all he see's on his TV about our country is violence and killing?  America was a place that people dreamed of coming to in order to change their lives and have a chance to raise their families leaving tyranny behind.  Now they tune into The First 48 and see a land of crime and punishment. I blame TV evangelism for some of the problems that have driven our youth away from the community church.  They have become money grubbers that have put a false front on religion.  The religion I grew up with was based on values, the value of a human life, the value of helping one another, having respect for one another and of course above all the knowledge that God was always watching over you.  Now on TV it's just how rich and powerful can the preacher get.

Now that they have successfully  taken God out of our schools we find it has also affected respect for the teachers, parents and society in general.  They have replaced any form of religion with political correctness as if it were a religion itself.  We have taken away competitiveness, personal achievement and replaced it with a philosophy of holding everyone to the same standard as the weakest in the group.  America wasn't built by the weakest in our society but the strongest who led by example.  Our politicians have proven they are not able to shake the political correctness that our progressive friends have installed so it's time once again for parents to become parents and not leave the raising of our children to the teachers and the entertainment industry.  How long has it been since you heard the words PTA?  (Parent Teachers Association) How many actually spend the time to see what's going on in our schools and having a voice in the curriculum? How many try to be friends with their kids before parenting?  Of course making a friend of your child and not having to face the confrontation involved with discipline is much easier.  America needs leaders and we are producing generation after generation of mind numbed robots addicted to their IPods.   The first words out of many job applicants has become; what are the benefits, the idea is not what they can bring to the company to make it better but what can the company do for them.   America has lost its identity and like Rome of old it will without a change soon lose its place of power in the world.    

What a strange language they use in politics

The strange language of politics can sometimes mean exactly the opposite of the words used.  What I mean to say is; have you ever noticed that when a politician realizes he is probably out of step with his constituency they tend to word a bill as to sound like it has the opposite meaning.  This is especially so in bond issues, you have to vote yes to say no to an additional tax.  We have seen this in our national politics in the last few years.  I have tried to listen and understand the words used in political speeches but many times there are so many contradictions that understanding is next to impossible.  I listened to the Gang of Eight who are pushing the immigration bill, what I heard was four different scenarios having opposite meanings.  It just depended what crowd they were speaking to.  How hard could it be; close the border first, hell Russia did it in East Germany to keep their people in, we'll be happy to let anyone out that wants to go.  We just have to do the opposite of the Russians.  

Getting back to reality and the immigration problem; we close the border first, then document the aliens who have been here for over five years and have been productive in our society, not constant welfare participants and abusers of our system.  Those who do not qualify for amnesty would be allowed 90 days to close their affairs and leave the country.  Anyone with a violent criminal record or a proven habitual drug problem is deported immediately and the rest who qualify would be given temporary green cards and a temporary social security card so they can work and pay taxes.  Anyone caught re entering after deportation is locked up for a minimum of five years and re deported. Those who have not been here for over 5 years but at least 3 years would be deported and put on a fast track to immigration if they have been productive and have no criminal record. 

The process for those who meet the criteria for this amnesty would take about 4 years and during that time there would be no benefits other than those earned by employment. No welfare, no Medicaid, Medicare or any other government paid benefit.  Private organizations, churches and other groups would have to fill the void.  Once they reach the final stage in preparation of citizenship they would be issued a red card that would be good for a one year probationary period showing their status.  If no problems arise they would be then authorized to take the time honored citizenship test in English without translation and be sworn in when passed.  Once they are legal United States citizens they will have the right to vote and partake of national programs just like any other citizen.      

Anyone attempting to cross the border illegally from the time this bill is passed, will be considered an armed smuggler and treated accordingly.  Drug or human smuggling on the border should be considered and invasion of our sovereign territory and should be met with armed force.

That's my opinion what's yours?