In the string of amazing decisions made during the first year of the Obama administration, nothing seems more like sheer insanity than the decision to try foreign terrorists, who have committed acts of war against the United States, in federal court, as if they were American citizens accused of crimes."
Thomas Sowell
Monday, November 23, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Future Co$t$.
The Conservative View
'The Future Costs.'
by Russell Turner
A couple of nights ago I watched the History Channel documentary about World War 2. Most of the people today do not appreciate the sacrifice that our parents and grandparents made to protect this nation and our way of life. Our way of life was paid for with the blood of that generation. With hard work and good fiscal policies the United States became the dominate power on the earth militarily and economically.
It is sad that today many Americans do not understand the meaning of sacrifice and the duty that we adults of today have for future generations. We Americans had better start to wake up and see that our stature as a nation is shifting away from us because of our poor, or lack of, spending discipline.
We're in hock as a nation like never before. Neither the current administration nor Congress has any viable plan to change that fact. And both the actual and hidden costs of our debt are rising every day. Our public debt can boggle the mind, currently it is over 12 trillion dollars. In 2009 alone we have added an additional 1.4 trillion debt. Even with the cheap interest rates we have now, the interest on the debt is 202 billion dollars. If that 202 billion was divided up to the entire population of the United States, every man, woman and child would receive a check of $656.00.
While there are some people who are obsessed with the health care legislation, they need to realize that if we don’t get a handle on our spending problem all of the taxes we pay will go just to pay the interest on the debt. In a very short period of time we can forget about defense, health care, Social Security or anything else. We will experience the biggest shift of the balance of power that the world has ever seen.
Today we have an unhealthy reliance upon the nation of China; already they are the largest owner of U.S. debt. If the Chinese ceased to buy any more of our debt it would send our economy into a tailspin. We won the cold war with the former Soviet Union, but I have found that the bigger enemy can be the country that controls the purse strings.
If we don’t learn some spending discipline the legacy that we leave future generations will be a nation that has lost its world influence not because of losses on the battlefield but because of poor finances.
Russell Turner is from Stillwell area and writes a weekly column for several area newspapers.
'The Future Costs.'
by Russell Turner
A couple of nights ago I watched the History Channel documentary about World War 2. Most of the people today do not appreciate the sacrifice that our parents and grandparents made to protect this nation and our way of life. Our way of life was paid for with the blood of that generation. With hard work and good fiscal policies the United States became the dominate power on the earth militarily and economically.
It is sad that today many Americans do not understand the meaning of sacrifice and the duty that we adults of today have for future generations. We Americans had better start to wake up and see that our stature as a nation is shifting away from us because of our poor, or lack of, spending discipline.
We're in hock as a nation like never before. Neither the current administration nor Congress has any viable plan to change that fact. And both the actual and hidden costs of our debt are rising every day. Our public debt can boggle the mind, currently it is over 12 trillion dollars. In 2009 alone we have added an additional 1.4 trillion debt. Even with the cheap interest rates we have now, the interest on the debt is 202 billion dollars. If that 202 billion was divided up to the entire population of the United States, every man, woman and child would receive a check of $656.00.
While there are some people who are obsessed with the health care legislation, they need to realize that if we don’t get a handle on our spending problem all of the taxes we pay will go just to pay the interest on the debt. In a very short period of time we can forget about defense, health care, Social Security or anything else. We will experience the biggest shift of the balance of power that the world has ever seen.
Today we have an unhealthy reliance upon the nation of China; already they are the largest owner of U.S. debt. If the Chinese ceased to buy any more of our debt it would send our economy into a tailspin. We won the cold war with the former Soviet Union, but I have found that the bigger enemy can be the country that controls the purse strings.
If we don’t learn some spending discipline the legacy that we leave future generations will be a nation that has lost its world influence not because of losses on the battlefield but because of poor finances.
Russell Turner is from Stillwell area and writes a weekly column for several area newspapers.
Monday, November 2, 2009
GOP must find NEW Faces!
Below is a very important post by veteran newsman Mike McCarville via his news blog http://wwwtmrcom.blogspot.com/
Mike says what has needed to be said for some time.....time to quit recycling candidates at ALL levels and look for (must find) NEW faces capable of bringing all the attributes of the once great GOP BACK to the table and the voters! Especially for the highest office in our land!
Time For A New Face: The list of those Republicans now considered possible candidates for president in 2012 is depressing. While Sarah Palin was once a fresh face (just a year ago), she now is the face we see almost every day and the bloom is off. The tawdry, sophomoric actions of the father of her daughter's child is unseemly and, as unfair as it is, diminishes her as well.
Forget John McCain.
Newt Gingrich has too many scars.
Mike Huckabee is yesterday (God love him).
Mitt Romney can't win.
Barack Obama will be a formidable foe in 2012; the mainstream media will ensure that.
The challenge facing the GOP is monumental; finding a fresh face to meet the challenge will be a grueling, laborious process, but it's the only way the GOP stands a chance three years hence.
Mike says what has needed to be said for some time.....time to quit recycling candidates at ALL levels and look for (must find) NEW faces capable of bringing all the attributes of the once great GOP BACK to the table and the voters! Especially for the highest office in our land!
Time For A New Face: The list of those Republicans now considered possible candidates for president in 2012 is depressing. While Sarah Palin was once a fresh face (just a year ago), she now is the face we see almost every day and the bloom is off. The tawdry, sophomoric actions of the father of her daughter's child is unseemly and, as unfair as it is, diminishes her as well.
Forget John McCain.
Newt Gingrich has too many scars.
Mike Huckabee is yesterday (God love him).
Mitt Romney can't win.
Barack Obama will be a formidable foe in 2012; the mainstream media will ensure that.
The challenge facing the GOP is monumental; finding a fresh face to meet the challenge will be a grueling, laborious process, but it's the only way the GOP stands a chance three years hence.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
State Dims Move (farther) to Left with Choice....
In a decided lurch to the left side of the political spectrum, the Senate Democratic caucus has chosen Andrew Rice as leader designate for the 2011-2012 legislative session.
The current Democratic Leader, Senator Charlie Laster (D-Shawnee) will continue serving as leader for the upcoming session slated to commence in February 2010, but will step down as leader after the Nov. 2010 elections. Laster has served as Democratic Floor Leader since January of 2007.
Rice, the Oklahoma Cityan who lost a U. S. Senate bid against incumbent Republican Jim Inhofe in 2008, is noted for his social activism and votes for liberal issues, including votes in favor of abortion and against tort reform.
-posted: McCarville
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Why Do 'WE' Have to Pay?
In case you missed it, this letter to Editor printed in the Oklahoman makes an excellent point. And, might 'we' suggest...how about politicians running for office being required to be bonded or required to carry errors and omission insurance - with them paying for it out of their pocket - to cover any judgements or situations such as we read below. And if wrongdoing causes them to lose coverage, well, then they also lose their job! A lot of other 'workers' in Oklahoma are required to carry insurance.
Letter to Editor...
Regarding "Labor Dept. paid $200,000 settlement over ex-workers dismissal; Alleged reprisal costs agency" (news story in Oklahoman July 3);Why must taxpayers fund huge settlements when politicians are caught in a wrongdoing?
Democrat State Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields was [recently]caught in a partisan and illegal employee termination and the taxpayers must shell out $200,000 to cover Fields wrongdoing.
And this is one of many cases in which wrongdoing/crimes by Democrats have cost Oklahoma taxpayers big time. David Hall, David Walters, Gene Stipe, Mike Mass, Carroll Fisher, and now Fields have cost taxpayers huge amounts of money.
The law should be changed to force any politician caught in wrongdoing to pay for it themselves. This would mean the guilty politicians would pay any settlement out of their own pockets. And they should immediately lose their job.
Allen Hill, OKC
Letter to Editor...
Regarding "Labor Dept. paid $200,000 settlement over ex-workers dismissal; Alleged reprisal costs agency" (news story in Oklahoman July 3);Why must taxpayers fund huge settlements when politicians are caught in a wrongdoing?
Democrat State Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields was [recently]caught in a partisan and illegal employee termination and the taxpayers must shell out $200,000 to cover Fields wrongdoing.
And this is one of many cases in which wrongdoing/crimes by Democrats have cost Oklahoma taxpayers big time. David Hall, David Walters, Gene Stipe, Mike Mass, Carroll Fisher, and now Fields have cost taxpayers huge amounts of money.
The law should be changed to force any politician caught in wrongdoing to pay for it themselves. This would mean the guilty politicians would pay any settlement out of their own pockets. And they should immediately lose their job.
Allen Hill, OKC
Friday, July 17, 2009
Good for the Gander OR our goose is Cooked!
[OK] Senator Tom Coburn is a physician who until recently still went home to Oklahoma to deliver babies. He believes Congress should weigh the dangers of a nationalized health system much more seriously than it has.
In the tradition of someone using a 2x4 to win the attention of a mule, yesterday he successfully pressed the Senate Health Committee to approve his idea of requiring Members of Congress themselves to enroll in whatever "public plan" is passed to compete with private insurance companies.
"Let's demonstrate leadership -- and confidence in the system -- by requiring that every member of Congress go into it," Mr. Coburn told his colleagues as they were marking up the health care proposal championed by Senator Ted Kennedy.
His idea wasn't exactly greeted warmly by many public plan supporters. Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, responded: "I don't know why we should require ourselves to participate in a plan that no one else needs to participate in. This bill goes to great lengths to show that the choice is there for everybody."
But Mr. Coburn disagreed, saying his reading of the 1,000-page health care bill convinced him that everyone would end up being forced into the public plan as private insurance carriers were squeezed out of the market by mandates and regulations. Therefore, if Congress decides a government-run health plan is good enough for the American people, it should be willing to put itself under its care umbrella.
By a 12 to 11 margin, the Senate Health Committee agreed.
Senator Chris Dodd, the committee's acting chairman, and Senator Kennedy were absent from the committee but sent in proxy votes in favor.
Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski was the only other Democrat to back the measure. Every Republican save for New Hampshire's Judd Gregg voted in favor of the Coburn mandate.
Obviously, many members of Congress -- who are used to a generous and flexible set of health benefits -- have no intention of letting the Coburn mandate become law.
They will undoubtedly try to strip it from the bill at some point, in a conference committee between the two houses if necessary. But for now it is embedded in the bill and any overt attempt to remove it would be met with howls of public outrage.
--John Fund, WSJ
Be interesting to know how many hours Hillary Clinton sat in an ER waiting room to get her broken elbow tended!
In the tradition of someone using a 2x4 to win the attention of a mule, yesterday he successfully pressed the Senate Health Committee to approve his idea of requiring Members of Congress themselves to enroll in whatever "public plan" is passed to compete with private insurance companies.
"Let's demonstrate leadership -- and confidence in the system -- by requiring that every member of Congress go into it," Mr. Coburn told his colleagues as they were marking up the health care proposal championed by Senator Ted Kennedy.
His idea wasn't exactly greeted warmly by many public plan supporters. Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, responded: "I don't know why we should require ourselves to participate in a plan that no one else needs to participate in. This bill goes to great lengths to show that the choice is there for everybody."
But Mr. Coburn disagreed, saying his reading of the 1,000-page health care bill convinced him that everyone would end up being forced into the public plan as private insurance carriers were squeezed out of the market by mandates and regulations. Therefore, if Congress decides a government-run health plan is good enough for the American people, it should be willing to put itself under its care umbrella.
By a 12 to 11 margin, the Senate Health Committee agreed.
Senator Chris Dodd, the committee's acting chairman, and Senator Kennedy were absent from the committee but sent in proxy votes in favor.
Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski was the only other Democrat to back the measure. Every Republican save for New Hampshire's Judd Gregg voted in favor of the Coburn mandate.
Obviously, many members of Congress -- who are used to a generous and flexible set of health benefits -- have no intention of letting the Coburn mandate become law.
They will undoubtedly try to strip it from the bill at some point, in a conference committee between the two houses if necessary. But for now it is embedded in the bill and any overt attempt to remove it would be met with howls of public outrage.
--John Fund, WSJ
Be interesting to know how many hours Hillary Clinton sat in an ER waiting room to get her broken elbow tended!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
America - 1776 ~ 2009!
Happy Birthday America! God Bless America!
Statue of Liberty Crown opens TODAY for first time since September 11 attacks!
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