On the Mike Broomhead show this morning, a caller mentioned one aspect of the Obamacare bill that should frighten everyone who has a bank account. The provision gives the government the authority to tap into your bank account if the bill becomes law. Democrats screamed bloody murder when the Bush Administration wanted to listen to terrorists from overseas call Americans. The liberals claimed that the tactic of listening to phone calls was essentially tyranny. They stomped their feet and screamed at the top of their lungs that they would never stand for this kind of interference with American privacy. Then, when they get in office they want to tap into your bank account. Talk about hypocrisy!

This just brings us to a larger question: What exactly IS in the bill? Democrats tell us that it will be business as usual. But, every time we check up on what they say we find that it is incorrect. So we cannot believe the Democrats story that it will be business as usual after the Obamacare bill is passed. The people that show up at the Townhall Meetings that question the Democrats seem to be accurate in what they say. They tell everyone exactly where to find the information they reference. What do they say about this issue? Well, those that have commented on this issue agree with the caller that passing the bill as originally passed in the House will give the federal government access to your bank account.

That is a really scary thought to me. I do not like people poking around in my bank account unless I know who they are and that I can trust them. One thing I know about the federal government, because I worked for them, if it is possible to screw it up, they will. That means that if it is possible to screw up your bank account, the federal government will manage to do just exactly that. The problem will be caused by them, but you will have to solve it. That thought just warms my heart and makes me want to jump up and support this bill, NOT.

The bigger question is what else is hidden in this bill? Glen Beck has a series of reports this week asking about who is advising the President. One of the reports highlighted the fact that ACORN and other fringe groups wrote the “stimulus” (Porkulus) bill. We can assume that these groups probably also had a hand in writing the Obamacare bill. We can say that because it obviously was not the Democrats in Congress. They have absolutely no idea what is in the bill. If they had any hand in writing the bill, they would get their stories a little closer to the truth. Because they are all over the place and are almost always 150% wrong, we can safely assume that they did not have any hand in writing the bill.

The fringe groups that Glen Beck is exposing on his show are almost all radical or communist or both. There is not one patriotic American group that is currently advising the President. That is a really scary thought. These groups are providing the “Czar’s” that are advising the President on different parts of the government. So far, each and every one has been a committed radical and/or communist. You have to wonder about the quality of the advice coming from a communist about how to improve capitalism. Communists hate capitalism and want it to disappear. Obama has been committing acts that harm capitalism and might cause it to disappear. There seems to be a pattern emerging. This pattern is not encouraging to any patriotic American.

We have people that are from groups that we cannot trust, writing the Obamacare bill that was passed by the House. We have Democrats telling us things that are easily disproved about what is in the Obamacare bill. We have a White House that cannot seem to get its numbers correct from day to day, saying it will only add $1 trillion over the next 10 years. If you look at how far they are off with their other numbers, this $1 trillion becomes $6-7 trillion real fast. We cannot afford $1 trillion. We really cannot afford $6-7 trillion. This Obamacare bill needs to die on the vine and we need to start over using supply and demand principles. When you apply capitalism to any problem, you get the solution for much less than you imagined. If you doubt me, just look at computers. Government basically stayed out of the computer revolution and they have gotten better and cheaper. If the government had been involved, the price would have gone up and the quality would have gone down.

Keep the government out of my bank account. Keep the government out of your bank account. We have a right to privacy, even Democrats agree. Let us exercise our right to privacy and keep the federal government out of our financial affairs.  

While driving to work today, I listened to Mike Broomhead on KFYI. His topic was on the hate some Muslims feel toward America. Mike received a phone call from a man who said he lived in Saudi Arabia outside of the military base. In other words, he was living in the Muslim sector of Saudi Arabia proper. His point was that we as Americans cannot understand the hate that some Muslims have for America. Mike got huffy about that point as he had been talking about it all morning, but the caller did have a point. We can say we know that Muslims hate us. We can believe that we know Muslims hate us. But until confronted by the hate, you have no idea how bad it really is.

A couple of times in my life I have been confronted by someone that truly hated me or what I stood for. No matter how much I was intellectually prepared, I was always surprised at the level of hate. I would have said that I knew that these people hated me. I would have said that I knew that they wanted me dead. But until confronted with the hate, I did not understand. I think that is the point that the caller to Mike Broomhead’s show was trying to convey.

When you put the level of hate involved in radical Islam with nuclear weapons, you have a situation that is untenable. Radical Muslims can never be allowed to get a nuclear device that works. They also can never be allowed to use the nuclear device. With Nero (Obama) fiddling while Rome (the United States) falls down around him is a sorry state to be in.

Barack Obama has telegraphed to the radical Muslims that we are the weak Americans that they thought we were by going after the people that did the interrogations while George W. Bush was President. He is doing it for a couple of reasons. The first is to get people to stop talking about Obamacare. That is working as I am not talking about how bad Obamacare is for the country. The second is to throw a bone to the far left nuts in his party. They cannot get over George W. Bush and probably never will. Feeding them the interrogators is a way of placating them at this time. It keeps them happy and on board at a time when Obama needs them to be on board.

The interrogators did nothing wrong. They deserve medals for what they did since 9/11. They do not need a witch hunt led by nut jobs on the left. The interrogators followed the rules as they understood them for the past 8 years. The Bush Justice Department decided not to prosecute them for any alleged crimes. That should have been the end of the investigations into their actions. But the left wing nut jobs have to have their red meat, so Obama delivers them up on a silver platter.

What should happen out of these investigations is this: Any investigator that recommends that an interrogator be charged with a crime should be fired for incompetence. Under the Obama administration rules for torture, my employer could be charged with torture. My work hours are such that I am required to be at work late Tuesday night and I have to be in early on Wednesday morning. According to the guidelines for sleep deprivation that the Obama administration put out, that would constitute torture? Of course that is a silly argument.

Obama is going to get us into a hole so deep that I am not sure we will be able to get out of it. He seems bent on allowing terrorists to get nuclear weapons. If they get nuclear weapons, we are in big trouble for a long time. This is especially a problem since Obama wants to reduce or eliminate military programs that are designed to keep us safe. It is going to take a very strong President to get us out of the hole, if it is even possible.

One thing that we have not heard much about since January 20 is Iraq and Afghanistan. There are new rules of engagement for both countries. In Iraq, there is also the anticipation that the Iraq security forces will take over most of the security in the major cities. With the bombings in Bagdad yesterday, it is time to look at Iraq and Afghanistan and see how we are doing.

While President Bush was in office, the news media told us every day that the policies that the Bush administration had taken were failing. Every day they gave us body counts on how many American soldiers were killed and injured. They also included totals for Iraqi citizens as a total, not separating out civilians and terrorists. It was all designed to show that George W. Bush was failing. Since Barack Obama has taken office, there has been a virtual news blackout. You would hear a story every now and then. But for all intents and purposes Iraq and Afghanistan have almost ceased to exist.

Yesterday, there was a series of bombings in Bagdad that has killed at least 75 people and wounded 300. Had George Bush been President, we would have almost non-stop news coverage. With Barack Obama as President, it is reported, but not pumped up. The bombings do bring into question the Iraq strategy of having the Iraq Security Forces supply security in the populated areas of the country.

In listening to the Mike Broomhead show on KFYI, I learned the rules of engagement for our soldiers in Afghanistan. The soldiers are not to fire unless they can GUARANTEE that there are no civilians in the area that will be hit by a stray bullet. The priority for the soldiers is to withdraw from the scene. The nonofficial term would be retreat. American soldiers do not retreat, they withdraw. The effect is the same. We are perceived as weak by the Taliban and others that we are fighting when we withdraw instead of fight. There is nothing worse for a soldier than withdrawing when the soldier knows he/she can win the fight. That will destroy morale more quickly than anything you can imagine. I am not sure that is the goal of the Obama administration, but it sure seems like it from where I sit.

I am not privy to all the ins and outs of the rules of engagement. All I know is what I hear on radio, TV and the internet. But, I put what I lean from those sources with what I see happening with the rest of the country under Barack Obama and a pattern becomes very clear, very fast. Every time Barack Obama has a chance to put Americans first, he puts them second. Every time there is a chance to advance the interests of the United States, he rejects it. Every time there is a chance to improve the economy of this country, he tries to destroy it. That, to me, is a pattern. The pattern I see is not good. I would have to say that from the pattern I perceive Barack Obama does not have the best interests of the United States at heart. I could be wrong. There may be some plan going on that I am not able to perceive at my level. But, every time Obama has a chance to boost Americans he cuts them off at the knees. Every time he has a chance to boost our long time friends and allies, he cuts them off at the knees or ignores them. Every time he has a chance to help our enemies, he gives them a hand. When a friend and ally acts within its Constitution, he comes out for the person who wanted to be a dictator. It is like we went through Alice’s Looking Glass on January 20. In Lewis Carroll’s, story about Alice and the Looking Glass, everything was backwards when she went through the looking glass. I am getting that impression more and more as time goes on.

One good thing that is happening right now is that Americans are waking up. Americans are standing up to their elected representatives and telling them that they are going too far. This is gratifying to me. It makes me think that there is hope that we will get out of this backwards land at some future time.

The Democrats cannot take criticism. When the protests against the socialist takeover of our healthcare system began, the Democrats sat in stunned silence. Then, they started crying that it was unfair. Their next tactic was to declare that the protesters were Nazi’s or Nazi sympathizers. Their next tactic was to pack the rooms with people that supported the takeover of the healthcare system and union thugs. All of those tactics did not work and just dug the Democrats into a deeper hole. What are they to do?

If you think that I am going to answer that question, you have another thing coming. My thought and one that I gleaned from Mike Broomhead of KFYI is to let the loony left have their chance to speak. The more that they speak; the deeper they dig a hole that it will be difficult to get out of. The harder it is for them to get out of the hole, the better I like it.

In all the reports from the Townhall meetings between the Representatives and the people, the worst has to be the meeting in St. Louis, MO. That is where the meeting was packed with people from SEIU, a powerful union. When people protested that they were not being let into the meeting, the union thugs decided to beat up the people that objected to having their Constitutional rights trampled. The worst part of that report is that the police on duty for crowd control did nothing to stop the union people from beating up the elderly people objecting.

There is no bigger supporter of the police than me. I was a Deputy Sheriff in Colorado for four years. I also worked part-time in North Dakota as a policeman. To say I support the police is an understatement. I know that if I had been on duty, the union people would have been going to jail with a felony assault on the record. Any policeman that I have known and any department that I have had contact with would not condone the police standing by and allowing innocent citizens to be beaten up. Any department that I have had contact with would have fired the policemen in question as soon as the report got in. They would not have put them on leave awaiting an investigation into the incident. That kind of conduct smells of corruption and corruption cannot be allowed at all, ever. It is like the 1930’s in Chicago, New York or Boston, where the mob ran the police. I am not sure where this incident will lead. But, if there is footage of the police standing by while the beatings took place, I look for heads to roll. The heads will be the police that stood by and the police leaders that told them not to interfere with the union actions. If there is a connection between SEIU and the police union, then all involved should go to jail for corruption and racketeering as well as conspiracy to commit assault. Since this is a Democrat run state, I do not look for much to happen. Democrats are good at covering up their messes. If the tape gets out of the police standing by, then something will have to happen.

We need to let the Democrats on the far left continue to have their say. The more they talk the better it is for our side. If they ever shut up, then we have to do the heavy lifting. In this issue, the heavy lifting will be easy. People like their medical care. They want some tweaks to make it better. They do not want wholesale changes that will make everything worse. That is why this is not selling for the Democrats. They thought the idea of covering everyone would sell, and it hasn’t. It hasn’t because people like the insurance plans they currently have. The plan the Democrats are proposing will make most of them change insurance coverage. If the Democrats had come up with something that just addressed covering the uninsured, the plan would already be in place. But, the Democrats saw an opportunity to have the whole loaf instead of the half loaf that covering everyone would have meant. Their greed was their undoing. Thank heaven for the greed of the left.

The worst part of this whole thing is that if the Democrats in Congress wanted to pass their health destruction plan, they could do so today. The problem is that it would mean that almost all of them would lose in 2010. They want some Republicans to give them cover so the debacle will not be so bad in 2010. So far, the Republicans have stood firm. Let’s hope they continue to do so. Standing on principle on this issue is a winning idea for 2010 and 2012.