Why not a shutdown

We're being threatened with a "Government Shutdown." Hmmm...imagine if that were really to happen and the American citizenry could pick and choose how it could be reassembled. What would you want to leave out of the new one? Maybe the following will give you some thoughts . . .

•  “We only have one goal, and that is to have all of Detroit working together for one Detroit, with the Obama administration as a key partner.”  That's from Director of the National Economic Council, Gene Sperling. He and Detroit's key partner, Barack Obama, gave $320 Million of our money to the city of Detroit Friday.

•  The Army sent checks totaling $16 Million to AWOLs and deserters over the past two years. Said it was a "glitch" and they're working to correct it. Who could be so dumb as to allow a 16 million dollar glitch?

•   In 2010, the Internal Revenue Service spent $4.1 million on a lavish party for 2,609 of its employees in California. Expenses included $50,000 for line dancing and "Star Trek" parody videos, and $64,000 in conference perks like rubber duckies for employees ... plus free meals, cocktails and hotel-suite upgrades.

•  In 2012, the Department of Agriculture spent $300,000 on activities pro­moting caviar produced in the land-locked state of Idaho.

•  The Federal Communications Commission spent $2.2 BILLION in 2012 to provide cell phones to low-income Americans, up from $819 million in 2008. This despite a review that found that 41 percent of the over 6 million recipients were either ineligible or failed to prove their eligibility for the program!

 

•  The Department of Energy's Savannah River facility spent $7.7 million on severance pack­ages for 526 temporarily hired contract workers instead of issuing layoff notices. That's over $14,600 per "temporary" employee. Pretty nice "gratuity."

•  Taxpayers spent $700 million in stimulus funds on the Department of Energy's Smart Grid Demonstration Program. An audit found that $12.3 million in reimbursements lacked required supporting documentation.

 

•  The U.S. Secret Service spent $23 million to purchase a new fleet of luxury parade limousines. They didn't bother asking for competitive bids ... paid full price to the dealers.

•  The White House is currently spending $376 mil­lion on a four-year renovation of the Executive Mansion, which includes a second Oval Office for the president to use during the dusty renovation.

•  The General Services Administration's inadequate oversight of 33 courthouse-construction proj­ects from 2000 to 2010 cost taxpayers $835 million in extra building expenses.

 

•  The National Endowment for the Arts gave a $100,000 grant to fund development of a video game about a female superhero sent to save planet Earth from climate changes (darn, I missed it!)

•  The Transportation Security Administration has let 5,700 pieces of unused security equipment worth $184 million sit idle in a Dallas warehouse, costing taxpayers $3.5 million annually to lease and manage.

 

•  This year the U.S. government will pay $65 per year EACH  in service fees to keep 13,712 of its empty bank accounts on the books, costing taxpayers $891,280 (gee, that's almost as much as the Postmaster General earns in a year...).

 

•  Medicare was found to have OVERPAID hospitals and clin­ics for one kidney dialysis drug to the tune of $800 million per year, a continuing error that they won't get around to correcting until new rates are established in 2014.

 

•  In 2012 the Treasury's Inspector Gen­eral for Tax Administration admitted to $757 mil­lion in fraudulent income-tax refunds to prisoners in 2010.

 

•  Due to poor oversight, over 1,000 Pennsylvania prisoners were able to collect weekly unem­ployment benefits over a four-month period, costing taxpayers $7 million.

 

•  A fis­cal 2011 Performance and Accountability Report from the Social Security Administration (SSA) found it overpaid $2.11 BILLION in Social Security benefits.

 

•  The same report found that the SSA OVERPAID old-age, survivor and disability insurance benefits by $934 million in fiscal 2010 alone.

 

•  Also in 2010, 117,000 individuals received $850 million in cash benefits by double-dipping into Social Security's disability insurance pro­gram AND the federal unemployment insurance program.

 

•  The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $149,992 grant to researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey to study college students' on-campus dining selections.

 

•  The Office of Naval Research conducted a $450,000 study to determine whether babies would pay attention to unin­telligent robots.

 

•  In a study costing $681,387, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research confirmed that men bearing firearms appear taller, stronger and manlier than those who don't carry firearms (wonder where I could rent a bazooka?).

 

•  The same U.S. Air Force office also conducted a $300,000 study that concluded that the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.

 

Now come on, fess up. Couldn't we get by without all of these government guys for a few days? So far they've managed to run up an unpaid bill of $16.8 TRILLION (and look at the great job they've done!). Of course, it won't happen ... at least for long. Where else could a bunch of dimwits have so much fun mismanaging OUR money?

 

Please read this article

  www.supertimes.com/sad.htm

It's time to stand up for America

How long are we going to put up with Radical Muslims recruiting and training terrorists right here in our country.   We have enclaves of disenfranchised groups that are prime targets for these ghouls to go after.  The question is why.  Many of these ghettos are self imposed because the people who live there are unwilling to participate in the American way.  They have not taken advantage of the liberal educational programs that have been offered, they have not tried to assimilate into American society or even learn our language yet they have their hands in our welfare system and other so called entitlements.  Mosques have been the primary place where recruitment has taken place yet we still allow them to continue to preach their hateful rhetoric. 

Solution; if the so called moderate Muslims will not do anything to rid their Mosques of this cancer we as Americans must.  The concept that is being taught by these radicals is not a religion, it is a lifestyle and a criminal one according to our laws.  It’s time to quit sheltering it under the laws of the 1^st Amendment and call it what it really is.  Our laws prohibit multiple wives, they prohibit Sharia Law or the killing of women in the name of family honor, yet in these conclaves it is being practiced daily.  The local police in areas of Michigan, Minnesota, Kansas and   Massachusetts just to name a few have given up even patrolling these areas.   You may remember the little girl who fled her home and had to go through a big court hearing to get away from a forced marriage arranged by her father.  I believe she was like 12 years old.  Or about the two daughters in their late teens who were killed by their father for dishonoring the family by going on a movie date with non Muslims.  The recorded pleas from these girls fell on the deaf ears of their enraged father yet brought those who heard them to tears.  The freedoms that are inherent to our American way of life have escaped these people, yet they live here in the United States.  This is not a religion it is a forced way of life dictated by radicals who hide under our 1^st Amendment for protection.  It’s a huge problem and it’s growing at a rate faster than our own population.  Soon they will be sending their own to Washington to regulate and initiate our laws. 

America was built by the assimilation of many cultures who came together to form the greatest free society in world history.  Emigrants from all across the world fought to preserve the freedoms promised in our Constitution and Bill of Rights in World War II.  The immigrant today many times is not here to become part of the world’s greatest free country but to use it for nothing but personal gain or in many cases to spread hate and discontent among the susceptible in these communities. 

What have we become?

I’ve worked hard all my life to bring comfort to my family.  I’m not rich by any means yet I do not resent those who are.  Everyone has a different level of ambition, some are obsessed with material things that show their wealth to the point that they tend to be obnoxious.  Some have no tendencies for ambition and go through life on the back of others.  In either case they do not represent what the average American family is all about.  We are not looking for a free ride nor will we stand by and be taken advantage of.  We talk about the greatest generation being that of the decades from the 20’s through the 40’s.  They lived through the Great Depression plus while they were still recovering from it they helped save Europe from the horrific mad man Hitler.  I remind you of this because as we sit now we are becoming Europe and we are ripe for history to repeat itself.  We are becoming a 2^nd rate power with little or no clout in the world.  We are in the process of reducing our military to a level below that of tactical requirements.  We are surely going to wake up one day and be in the middle of a fight for our survival in the world.  We will need to call upon the inherited strength of those who have gone before us.  One huge problem though is that too few are left who have the ability to call up that personal strength as so many have become weak and dependent on others for their subsistence. 

America by nature is a capitalist country that was built on investment and the risk of those who aspired to wealth by building powerful corporations.  The Carnegies, the Rockefellers, Henry Ford or Thomas Edison were all extremely ambitious and built a huge amount of wealth.  In doing so they built the foundation of our industry and with it the strength of the United States.  Yes they were cruel task masters taking advantage of a population starving for work, in many cases working men to death in unfit conditions for little wages and even less humane treatment.  The saying that power corrupts comes from these examples, Rockefeller hated Carnegie and Carnegie hated Rockefeller over power and money and they set out to destroy each other squandering millions in the effort.  America found a solution for tempering these icons of industry by forming together in unions giving a voice to the common man once again.  These unions were not designed to control their workers but to bring safer working conditions and livable wages to their members.  For a few decades America flourished the 50’s and the 60’s brought a pride in workmanship that was felt throughout the western world.  When something had a Made in America label you knew it was a good product. 

Remembering what I said about power corrupting we fast forward to the unions of today where so much power is wielded by so few that even elections are won or lost by their support.  Where deals are made that the common worker has no say, where the dues money collected is used to further the power of the union and their political cohorts rather than the premise of creating better conditions for the workers.  To maintain their power these leaders have bullied companies into benefits that they cannot afford to maintain.  Retirement packages that were never the original intent of the founders, contracts where the employer has no power to replace lazy or problem workers.  The Progressive Movement in the United States found its start in these organizations and have brought the concept to our elected officials throughout government unionizing city, state and federal workers.  State and federal pensions have become so encumbering that whole cities have filed bankruptcy destroying the fiber that was America. 

Now we have a situation where our political parties have neutered the whole process of government with stalemate and political pandering.  The progressives have the power of the press gained through years of infiltration of our educational system.  It is now to the point that the information coming to the people is so tainted that it will take a giant wake up to shake the slumber from our huge silent majority.  It will most probably take another stab at once again being the Greatest Generation ever and I’m sure those who have gone before us would rise up and cheer at the site.  Please wake up America, soon we’ll be lucky to be able to find our way home.      

The Navy Yard affair

Once again we are faced with senseless violence that should have been avoided.  Whoever was responsible for the vetting for security of this person should be held responsible for his actions.  These companies that take on the responsibility for security clearances must be held to higher standards.  The last affair with the NSA leaker Snowden, (The Spy who loved us so much he gave all our secrets to our enemies) should have set off red lights everywhere in government.  We have many shrill voices in the legislature screaming for gun control every time something like this happens.  Just once I’d like to hear a reassuring voice of reason calling for a commonsense approach the problems.  For example; something as important as the security of the United States should not be left in the hands of a contractor because he has presented the low bid on a government contract.  I would like to see how these bids are awarded and what criteria are used in allowing companies to be involved. 

In my mind the problem doesn’t lie with the gun but with the ability to ferret out individuals who are mentally ill.  A sane person doesn’t just walk into a building and start shooting people, something in his background will show a tendency for violence and should have been identified by the security firm charged with his clearance evaluation.  Of course if we adhered to a program of stringent evaluation most of our legislatures and White House officials would be unable to buy a gun.  In the past the FBI looked into drug use and other illegal activity like draft dodging and falsifying documents when checking security clearances.  Barry Soetoro might have had some difficulty himself being a foreign exchange student and all.

Until we bring commonsense into the equation and eliminate the fog of political correctness government will continue to produce possibilities for these type events.  As a young man in the Navy even as common yard birds we were held to a much higher standard than many today.  The definition of Treason was clearly defined in the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) and believed by all to be real.  In that era under the same circumstances had I done what Jane Fonda did I could have been executed and had I done what Edward Snowden did I surely would have been charged with treason.  The more we weaken our penalties the weaker we become as a nation.  Right is right and only commonsense provides the answers not the political correctness that is being shoved down our throats by a progressive society that is trying to alter the direction and definition of America.   

September 11, 2001

Each of us in our own way will always remember where we were on that horrifying day in September 2001.  Each of us felt the loss and recognized that our world would never be the same.  I pray for my children and grand children that they may solve the puzzle that is the Middle East, that they will find leaders who through strength of character with a real commitment to our way of life will defend their existence as freedom loving Americans.  We as a country have for decades survived through strength, strength of commitment to our military, and with a strong commitment to patriotism taught at every level of our growth.  The pride that accompanied the singing of the National Anthem or the presentation of our flag, I still remember how proud we were when chosen to lead the pledge of allegiance as a child in school.   Now we are plagued with what many call political correctness a scourge that weakens our society.  We can no longer choose and go after our enemies but are forced to wait for them to strike even when we know who they are and what their goals are. 

Our forefathers must be so proud, they hand us a glorious country with a wonderful Bill of Rights and a Constitution that protects and serves all mankind and we have surrendered it for what, political correctness so we don't insult our known enemies.  We have taken the God that they called upon while building this nation and thrown him out as to not offend those who seek to tear us down.  We have elected to allow our representatives to become an elite group who have used their power given them by us to insure their future existence.  They are more concerned with their personal power than the welfare of those they represent.  They buy their power by offering benefits to their constituents that our system cannot afford.  They have made us weak and meek in the eyes of our foes and it's just a matter of time before we are tested once again, the only question remains is when and where will they strike.

There will never be peace as long as it is the goal of one side to devour the other.  The religious fervor that emits from the Middle East is the cancer that will destroy the world if it goes unchecked.  We must find the will to say no to the false security offered by those who use us for their own benefit and demand to return to the strength of the eagle who our forefathers so proudly chose as our symbol of freedom.  Peace through strength, peace through personal commitment means a lasting peace for our children and the world.