Over the weekend, I saw a video of a former Marine taking his Congressman to task in Washington State. The question he asked that I felt was the highlight was: “I lived up to my oath. When are you going to live up to yours?” I may have misquoted him a little, but the point is the same. The ex-Marine felt that his Congressman had not been living up to the oath to protect the Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

All members of the military take an oath to defend the country against any enemies, both foreign and domestic. The President, Senators and Congressmen also take an oath that says pretty much the same thing. They are to defend the Constitution against any enemies, both foreign and domestic. We then have to ask, what does that mean?

For a member of the military, it means that the soldier, sailor or marine has to be ready to fight against any enemy that might threaten the United States. That responsibility is rather easy to see and understand. The threats basically come from foreign sources, so the people involved are not Americans.

For a President, Senator or Congressman, the situation is a little more nebulous. They do not have the specter of some enemy coming over the hill. They have more subtle pressures to deal with. For them to defend the Constitution, they have to understand the Constitution and be aware of any threats. They do not have to face real bullets. They have to face words and pressures to bend the Constitution to fit the wants of different constituent groups. Once they learn they can bend the Constitution to whatever issue they want, then it is almost impossible to put up any kind of defense against these threats.

Thomas Jefferson said that if the public ever discovers that it can vote itself money and power from the public treasury, the country will fail. The country discovered that gift a few short years ago. As a result, we are finding it more and more difficult to keep the wants of the public within proscribed bounds. We who study such things call it socialism when this situation gets out of control. With the Obama administration, the situation has gotten out of control.

The public has some responsibility in this mess, too. We elect these “servants of the people”. If we elected people that actually knew what the Constitution was and what was contained in it, we would not be in the trouble we are in now. The problem is that we have elected far too many politicians who have no idea what is in the Constitution. If you run quotes from Karl Marx in front of them, they think they come from the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. We need politicians that know what the Constitution says and how to get there. We may not like the medicine required to get us where we are supposed to be, but it would be better for us in the long run. That would require about 75-80% of the members of the House and Senate be voted out of office. That would be 100% of the Democrats, 100% of the Socialists and about 50-60% of the Republicans.

I am not advocating a one party rule by any means. I believe in a two party system of government. We need open and honest debate in this country. We just need people in office that believe in the Constitution at every level in and out of the elected bodies. An example of two people that understood the Constitution and disagreed on how to implement it was Hamilton and Jefferson. Both were strong supporters of the Constitution. Both understood how important it was to have a Constitution. Yet, both disagreed on what the role of government was in this country.

We need to get back to the Constitution having a central role in our government. Right now, people talk about the Constitution as if it was some sort of document that would bend to every wind of doctrine. That was not the intent of the Constitution. It was intended to be the rock upon which we could build the country.

One time I was asked a question that made me think. The question was: “If Christianity was outlawed, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” I had to think long and hard to determine if the answer was yes or no. I came up that my answer had to be a yes, because I leave a very clear path to show that I am a Christian.

But, I would like to modify that question today just a little. If freedom was outlawed, would there be enough evidence to convict you of supporting freedom? Since I blog and write frequently about freedom in its many forms, the answer for me would be yes. But, do I always support freedom or just when it is convenient? Do I support freedom for those that I disagree with or do I only support freedom for my side? Now, I have made the question much tougher to answer in the affirmative.

All of us support freedom for those we agree with. That position is easy because if you agree with someone, that person is not a threat of any kind. The hard question is whether I support freedom for those that I disagree with. As a kid I learned a statement that I used frequently. It was: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I have always tried to live by that ideal. When I see someone obviously trying to do harm to the country I love, it is sometimes hard not to want their freedom of speech or assembly curtailed.

An example of wanting someone’s speech curtailed is when I hear Barack Obama tell lies about what is in the subprime healthcare bill. I want someone to come up to him and say that he cannot tell lies about the bill in the House or Senate. But, he has the right to tell lies about what he believes if that is the only way he can sell it to the public. It is the job of the public to find out the truth. They should not just rely on the words of politicians that will often distort the truth to fit certain groups. Wanting his speech curtailed would be a restriction on freedom of speech and is beneath me. Therefore, I allow and even encourage others to speak in opposition to what I believe.

In watching and listening to the news and blogs, it is clear that one side in this debate believes in freedom and one side does not. One side speaks about what they believe and tries to bring out arguments to rebut the arguments of the other side. The other side generally cannot win in any debating situation, so they generally try to curtail the free speech of the person or group that is giving them trouble. The people arguing from the right are the ones that provide arguments and allow the other side to have their say. The people on the left are the ones that generally call for a law or some other infringement on the right of the opposition to speak.

Another example of this playing out is the response to the subprime healthcare bill. With all the opposition to the bill, the Democrats are saying that the people protesting do not have the right to protest or that they are using Nazi tactics. When Democrats were doing far worse in protesting against everything George W. Bush was doing, that was just fine. Republicans generally did not appreciate the protests against George W. Bush, but accepted them as part of the price of freedom. Republicans did not call for restrictions on the right of the protesters to protest. Look at the contrast with the Democrats and the subprime healthcare debate.

We, as Americans, should celebrate freedom in its many forms. That some Americans object to other
Americans voicing their opinions, it is wrong. That is the problem with many of the bills coming out of this Democrat led Congress, they generally try to curtail one freedom or another. This subprime healthcare debacle is trying to restrict an entire bunch of freedoms at one time. That is why people are protesting. When Democrats were cutting them off one at a time, people did not always notice. By doing it a bunch at a time, people are noticing and objecting. It also takes the mask off of the Democrats at the same time. That is why it is so great to see it finally come to pass. Democrats are being shown for what they are instead of what they pretend to be. They pretend to be the friend of the people and are the friend of the powerful. We can hope that this continues and the unmasking continues.

The amount of disinformation coming from the White House, Democrats in general and the President in particular is astounding. They know that we have “hot buttons” that if pressed would immediately destroy the subprime healthcare bill. (The term subprime healthcare bill is borrowed from Hugh Hewitt) So, in the interest of saving their bill, they tell us what we want to hear, regardless of what is really in the bill. Some people might call that making mistakes. But, the consistency with which it happens makes me think that the intent is to tell something that is not true. By definition, telling something that is not true is a lie.

Let’s look at a few examples of what I am talking about. First would be the insistence by the President that if we like our insurance carriers we can keep it and if we like our doctors we can keep our doctors. Anyone with half a brain knows that cannot possibly be true. Since over 80% of people are happy with their current insurance coverage there would be no possible space for a “public option”. The estimates are that the “public option” will cover over half of the country initially. The two ideas are not compatible. Either we keep our existing coverage or we will be forced into the “public option”. Since the obvious goal is to get everyone in the public option, the truth has to be that the public option would cover most Americans initially and all Americans eventually.

The second part of the President’s statement is that we would be able to keep our current doctors. Listening to talk radio and doing research on the internet, I understand that doctors that are currently near retirement age would retire if this subprime healthcare bill gets passed. That would lower the number of doctors available to see patients immediately. Since this number would greatly exceed the number of doctors that would enter the workforce in that first year, the total number of doctors available would go down. Also, many doctors have said that under no circumstances would they take payment from any “public option” patients. That means if you are forced to the public option you would most likely lose your doctor at the same time. Democrats have to know this as they are much more connected to this information than I am. They also have large numbers of employees that can check the information as it becomes available.

The next one I want to look at is funding for abortions. Since over half of the country does not believe in public funding for abortions, the Democrats have been telling everyone that there are no provisions in the bill to pay for abortions. The wording in the bill is a big ambiguous, but bills that attempt to clarify the language by making it policy that there is no public money spent on abortions is immediately rejected by the Democrats in Congress. If there was no language in the bill to fund abortions, there should be no objection to clarifying the language. Since they obviously did not want the language clarified, it can be assumed that the Democrats want the language to be interpreted to mean that there CAN be public money spent on abortions.

The other thing that really amuses me is whenever Barack Obama brings up an example of a government program that works well, it never does. Even the “Cash for Clunkers” program that simply gave money to people to buy cars could not be done right. If the Congress cannot get a simple program like giving away money correct, what are the chances they can get a complicated program like the subprime healthcare bill correct?

Democrats are not telling the American people the truth. There is no reason for them not to know what is contained in the bill, as they wrote it. Republicans might get things wrong every now and then because they did not write the bill. But Democrats should have a record of getting their facts correct almost all of the time. Since their record of getting the facts on the subprime healthcare bill is near zero, there has to be a reason for the discrepancy. Either they truly do not know what is in the bill or they are lying. Since there is no excuse for them not to know what is in the bill, the only conclusion is that the Democrats are lying about what is in the bill. They have to be lying for a reason. The only reason I can think of is so that they can get some Republican support for this subprime healthcare bill. That would give them some cover when the bill goes belly up within a few months of implementation.

Plus, I still do not know why the emergency when the bill will not be implemented until 2013. If it will take that long to get it implemented, we can take a year or two to get it right. The only reason for speed is to pull a fast one over on the American people.

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 wheels are definitely coming off of the Obama Express. In November, 2008, he seemed unstoppable. He had a Democrat Congress to work with and the news media in his back pocket. Then, on inauguration day he seemed to step in it a bit with his speech. Still, with a fawning press, what could go wrong?

Today, seven months into the Obama Presidency, the wheels have come completely off the bus. His healthcare proposal is facing opposition from the public and even members of his own party. There are polls out today that show that for the first time in a very long time, more Americans consider themselves conservative than liberal in every state in the country.

Also 57% of the public does not believe that the stimulus bill has done anything to stimulate the economy. Only 19% think that the stimulus bill has actually stimulated the economy. Looking to the future, 60% of the public does not think that the stimulus bill will do anything to stimulate the economy. These are not the kind of numbers that help keep Democrats warm at night. They are the kind of numbers that give Democrats nightmares of election debacles. They appear to be staring at one in 2010.

There is a report out that Senator Barbara Boxer is likely to face stiff competition for her seat in the Senate. She is likely to face a Republican that will have enough money to at least match her dollar for dollar, if not outspend her. Also, the potential Republican challenger is articulate and obviously intelligent. She has run major businesses in the past. Barbara Boxer is widely known to be one of the Senate’s least intelligent Senators. This would be a major pick-up of a seat in the blue state of California.

Other Democrats across the country are looking at potential challengers and are seeing people that are well-funded and articulate. Democrats are known for walking in lock step with the Democrat leadership, which makes them vulnerable to quick thinking challengers in areas that are not solidly Democrat blue. In marginal districts or districts that generally vote Republican, Democrat Congressmen and Senators will face opposition that could easily dislodge them from their cushy digs.

I also read an article on World Net Daily by Hilmar von Campe. He grew up in Germany during the 1930’s and saw the rise of Hitler. He has written a book about his experience called, “Defeating the Totalitarian Lie”. His parents were forced to enroll him in the Hitler Youth at age 10 and the army at age 18. According to Mr. von Campe, the steps Hitler took in the 1930’s and the steps Barack Obama is taking today are remarkably similar. He is particularly worried about the euthanasia program that Hitler endorsed and implemented and the one that Obama has written into the healthcare legislation. Neither was called euthanasia by their authors. Once Hitler got his plan approved, he started with making the Jews non-people. Obama hasn’t had his plan approved, but he has talked about needing to reduce the cost of medical care for seniors. The easiest way is to deny services to those deemed too old to be useful to the country. That would make the healthcare plan delivery unequal.

We can only hope that the Democrats cling to this failing health care proposal for a while longer. The more they talk about implementing government healthcare, the lower their polls go. Pretty soon, we might even hear about Democrats in the Northeast being worried about their seats. That would be a good thing. Fear of losing your seat makes you a better Senator or Congressman. You suddenly take an interested look at what the people in your district (state) are telling you.

I always thought the wheels would come off for Obama. I just never thought they would come off so fast. The fact they have come off so fast gives us some clear shots at cleaning up the current mess. It also minimizes the amount of mess that he could create. Those are good things.

Today, the accomplished world traveler, Barack Obama, is visiting Phoenix to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention. He is expected to try and mend fences with the military and maybe speak about his government healthcare takeover.

Yesterday, Barack Obama visited the Grand Canyon. I have no objections to him visiting the Grand Canyon. I also understand that when a President visits somewhere, there are understandable restrictions on the people that are in the area. What made the event memorable is that Obama tried to play himself off as some sort of a westerner. He looked and acted so out of place that when he put on the act, it was truly laughable. Those in the east might not pick up on it because they do not live out here, but we in the west know what a true westerner acts like.

One bit of good news is that Senator Kent Conrad (ND) announced that the “public option” will be dropped from consideration from any healthcare reform bills. That is good news on the surface. They can still achieve their goal by government regulation, but the easy way through insurance is not on the table right now. The fight is not over as any revision that allows the government to stick its nose in the business of health care is not good for the country. I hope that most people are not disarmed by this “sop” to the masses. It is a victory and it should be savored, but it is not final victory. It is like winning a battle in a war, it is good, but not the final objective. Right now, the Democrats are on the run. If we keep the pressure on, we can achieve a lasting victory. If we take the pressure off, we will lose everything we ever won.

What we need to do now, is get government out of the business of regulating health insurance. Licensing companies and agents who sell insurance is still a good thing. You want to make sure that the insurance you get is legal. But, that is where government regulation should end. We need to be able to buy our insurance anywhere we want. If I find a policy in Vermont that is cheaper and gives me what I want, I should be able to buy it. Right now, that would be illegal.

I should also be able to pick and choose what is included in my policy. That way I am paying for what I might potentially use. My wife and I are over childbearing age. We have no need for maternity services. Why should I pay a fee each month to pay for maternity services that I will never use? Why can’t I drop maternity services and save a small amount each month? The same can be said for many of the other required things in health insurance. Some things I want included are not included. Some things I want excluded are included. I should be able to pick the things I want included and then pay what I want to pay. If I want cheaper insurance, I could choose to have fewer things covered or lower amounts. The choice would be between me and the insurance company. The government would not be involved. This would not cost the government any money. In fact, it would save the government a lot of money because the cost of health insurance for government employees would go down. The Democrats would never go for this option because it gives them less power, not more power. Democrats are into power. Anything that gives them more power, they support. Anything that takes power away from government they are against.

That is just one simple idea that would save at least millions of dollars each year. It would most likely save billions. There are other ideas that are simple to adopt that would save people billions. As the costs go down, more people would have health insurance. But, only the people that want health insurance would have health insurance. If you do not want health insurance, you should not be forced to buy health insurance. People should not be forced to do something that they do not want to do, just because the government says they should do it. We should support freedom for Americans. More freedom means a stronger America. It also means some people will not choose to do things the way that we want them to do them. That is just fine as long as they are not harming anyone by making those choices. We own ourselves and as long as we are making choices that affect just us, the government should stay out.

At least that is one man’s opinion, as long as there is still freedom to say what you believe. That time is rapidly closing, but it was fun while it lasted.

On the way to work today, I listened to Mike Broomhead on KFYI. Just as I got to work, he was reporting on some tracking polls about Barack Obama. Those polls tell an interesting story on what is happening to Obama’s presidency. It also underscores why he is so intent on getting his government healthcare proposal through Congress right now.

The polls show that 37% of the voters in the country do not like Obama at all. They are listed as strongly disapproving of the President. There are 29% that strongly approve of the President. When you look at where those numbers come from, the results are very scary for the Democrats. As expected, Republicans have 77% that strongly disapprove. Democrats have a similar number that strongly approve. The independent voters, the ones that generally make or break Presidential campaigns, have 65% that strongly disapprove. What makes this so frightening for Democrats is that this independent group has a strongly disapproval number that is growing rapidly as the government healthcare bill is being discussed.

The top leadership in the Democrat party is all on board with Barack Obama and is pushing for government healthcare. The Democrats, that are not highly committed far left members of the party, are starting to have second thoughts about the matter. They see their chance of re-election going out the window and they do not like that at all. The top leadership is ignoring all that and is directing full steam ahead for government healthcare.

Republicans have an opportunity to regain the leadership in the House and Senate in 2010. They have to get their act together and put forward a coherent package of proposals that are not “Democrat Lite”. Republicans have a tendency to think that people want “Democrat Lite” instead of conservative ideas. This is rooted in the fact that many of the old stalwarts in the party hail from the northeast. Northeast Republicans tend to be liberals in disguise, like Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. What the country really wants this time is a return to conservative principles like those of Ronald Reagan. That does not mean Ronald Reagan’s ideas and proposals. It means conservative principles used to solve problems in our day.

There are a number of people and groups that have conservative principles solving problems in our day. The problem is that these are not coordinated. All of the ideas cannot be adopted because some of them would clash and not work together. The party needs to get together and adopt many of these ideas that can work and can be implemented easily. Getting the House and Senate leaders together for a few days could get a framework for this to occur. Then, all Republicans could run on solutions to problems caused by the overspending by the Democrats in this Congress. The result would be Republicans elected at almost all levels and in districts that would not always elect Republicans. Even long term Democrat Senators could easily be defeated if the right platform was put together. Then, you have to find the best candidate to run to defeat the Democrat. This 2010 election will be an opportunity of a lifetime. The Republicans should not let it go to waste.

Barack Obama will be a one-term President. The more people find out about him, the less they like. That will cause a congressional change in 2010 and further changes in 2012. Since Obama has the reins of power in the Democrat party, he will be the nominee in 2012. It gives the Republicans a chance to have in 2012 what the Democrats have in 2009. Let’s hope that they do not blow it like the Democrats are doing right now.

Barack Obama handed out the Presidential Medal of Freedom to some recipients at the White House yesterday. In doing so, he highlighted why we should not trust this administration with facts. He also highlighted his position on Israel with a controversial pick.

One of the medals went to Billie Jean King, the tennis player. Whether she should have received the award is debatable, but not something I am going to discuss today. It was in announcing the award that Barack Obama made some interesting mistakes. The biggest mistake was completely misrepresenting Ms. King’s accomplishments as a tennis player. Mr. Obama said she won 12 Grand Slam events, she won 39. He also butchered all of her other records. If you cannot get career statistics correct, you have a big problem with getting correct information. Ms. King’s records have been final for some years. Any grade school child would run a Google or yahoo check to find out what the statistics are. Mr. Obama has a White House staff that is supposed to do those kinds of things. Somebody just put in some numbers that sounded good and everyone ran with it. Nobody checked to make sure that it was correct. Ms. King is a flaming liberal, so she thought it was cute that he misrepresented the facts. Had it been President Bush that mangled the facts, Ms. King would have been correctly outraged. Because it was Barack Obama, she let him off of the hook.

If Barack Obama cannot get the facts right on a simple thing like career records, what confidence can we have when he starts quoting facts on complicated things? He spouted off the incorrect career records as if he was closely connected to the facts. He does the same when he spouts healthcare statistics. My guess is that the healthcare statistics he uses are about as accurate as the career statistics of Billie Jean King. In other words, when he uses “facts” don’t believe them. They are probably so far away from the true statistics as to be completely made-up. The reason I say this is because his “facts” always conveniently match exactly what he says. If you are using “facts”, they are usually close but rarely match what your premise is. Obama’s facts always match his premise. The odds on that happening are so long as to be impossible to measure. With luck like that, he should quit the Presidency, go to Las Vegas and win enough money to own Las Vegas in a couple of weeks of work.

The second medal was to a former Irish President and a former head of a UN commission on civil rights. She has been accused of anti-Semitism in the past. This award was a direct slap in the face to all of the Jews that voted for Barack Obama. The vast majority of the people that identify themselves as Jews voted for Barack Obama. Now they should question whether they will continue to support Mr. Obama, should he run for a second term. This award is also a wake-up call to Israel on where they stand with the current administration. In other words, Israel knows that it is acting on its own while Barack Obama is President. That means they have to take action when they feel it is time, not wait for the Americans to do anything.

The other awards were given to the usual collection of liberals and liberal supporting people. Mr. Obama tried to tell us that these people had significant achievements to help Americans. Most were involved in situations where they divided people into groups in order to get ahead. With the exception of Billie Jean King, none of these are the type of people that encouraged people to improve themselves as individuals. Billie Jean King did cause many girls to get involved in tennis and improve themselves as individuals. She did actively promote tennis and the fact that women can be good tennis players. When she played and beat Bobby Riggs, she helped a lot of women think better of themselves. She did deserve the medal.

The more that Barack Obama does the more he exposes himself to the American people. Who he honored tells volumes on what and who he thinks is important. If this group is what is important and great about America, we are in deep trouble.

Articles are starting to appear in the main stream media about the incompetence of the Obama administration. Those articles usually follow a script. They first say they voted for Obama in the last election and that they still support him. Then, they start ripping into the people that surround Barack Obama and how incompetent they are. They will also rip into Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid at this point. What the writers of these articles fail to realize or they realize but fail to articulate, is that the President appoints those around him. If the people surrounding the President are incompetent boobs, then that reflects badly on the person that appointed them. It is not all the fault of the person that they are incompetent. The person doing the appointing should have done their homework and discovered that the person was an incompetent. That the person doing the appointing did not do their homework reflects badly on the person doing the appointing. It also tells us a lot about the person doing the appointing. If they make mistakes at this level, how are they going to be when it comes to appointing people for important positions like Supreme Court Justice?

Those of us who did not vote for Barack Obama were warning of many of these problems before the election. Not in any of our wildest imaginations did we guess that he would have been as bad as he has been. We all assumed that he had a level of competence because his campaign went off almost without any flaws. The fact that he is a total incompetent boob at virtually everything to do with the Presidency is a surprise to everyone. Many of his faults were telegraphed and identified, but not all by any stretch.

What do we do about it now? The election is over and another is not scheduled for another 16 months. We have to hope that the gridlock among Democrats continues. The way things are the Democrats do not need Republicans for anything, not even a quorum. That means that they can push any idea through Congress that they desire. Since assuming total power, there has been a decided lack of progress. This is great as far as the country is concerned. If you are a Democrat, this has to highlight a problem. As Will Rogers used to say, “I don’t belong to any organized political party, I’m a Democrat”. That statement seems to ring true, even today.

The public is currently riled up over the health care bill being considered by Congress. Democrats do not understand the opposition. In their mind, everyone believes like they do. The Democrats live and die by the poll. They know that public sentiment is running against the health care proposal right now. They also know that the longer that the proposal is out in public view, the more opposition there is against the bill. They do get the message that if they vote for the bill that they will be looking for work in November 2010. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are pushing hard to pass the bill. They will undoubtedly attempt to buy off as many Democrats as they need to buy to get the bill passed. It remains to be seen if they can pull off passing a bill when the public is rising up in opposition. That would be a neat trick, but political suicide.

Harry Reid may not be re-elected to the Senate from Nevada. He is getting pushed hard from the Republicans in Nevada. The race is currently a toss-up. As an incumbent, the race has no business being a toss-up. Harry Reid should be way out in front, but he is not. That means he could actually lose this race.

Nancy Pelosi is from a “safe” House seat in California. It is highly unlikely that she would be defeated, even if she were to destroy the American way of life in the process. That is a shame, as it would be wonderful to be rid of Nancy Pelosi. Having her lose her House seat would be poetic justice.

Here in Arizona, the Congressional delegation will be all Republicans after the 2010 election, except for Pastore. He is from a safe seat in south Phoenix. That would restore Arizona to its natural Republican roots. At least, that is how I see the election turning out in August 2009 more than a year away. If a week in politics is an eternity, what is 16 months?

The liberals are always talking about free speech. They constantly say that they believe in the importance of all views being heard in the debate. They even came up with a slogan during the Bush years, “dissention is patriotic”. Now their views on free speech are being tested and they don’t like it very much.

What liberals mean by free speech is that all liberal views should be heard. No conservative should ever dare question any liberal position on anything. When liberals say that dissention is patriotic, they mean that dissention is patriotic when it is a liberal protesting against a conservative. That is the natural order of things, so of course it is patriotic. When a conservative questions a liberal the natural order of things has been upset and so it is not patrioti

Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer signed a statement the other day that basically said that there is no free speech for conservatives. Now, I am reading between the lines and making conclusions from their arguments, but I think that most liberals would agree with that assessment. If they were two people off of the street, it would be a dangerous document. But, because they are the top two Democrats in the House of Representatives it is radioactive in its impact. The White House and Barack Obama seem to agree with that sentiment as they continually talk about being attacked by right wingers.

Democrats from the House and Senate on recess are cancelling Townhall meetings at a record pace. They are being confronted at every event and always come off looking like the fools they are. I saw a You-Tube video of a man with a handicapped child in Michigan who confronted his Congressman. He was removed from the room for his efforts. There was a doctor in Atlanta, GA that was accused of being from outside the area and a Republican. Both charges were completely false. Democrats are hiding behind closed doors or accusing their constituents of being paid by the insurance companies. Their fear is showing. That is a good sign as it might tell them that this so-called healthcare bill is not something they want to support.

Hopefully Democrats are getting the message that people are upset. I know that around here people are upset enough to vote the person out of office in 2010, if they vote for the bill. To pass the bill, Nancy Pelosi needs almost all the Democrats to vote with her. She is unlikely to get any Republican votes. That makes the move a Democrat Albatross. If it is as bad as advertised, and it is most likely worse, Democrats will be on the outside of power rather quickly.

So far, the Democrat leadership has been completely tone deaf on this issue. They are determined to pass the bill, regardless of the lack of support. Some of their members have their ears to the ground and know that to vote for the bill is political suicide. The leadership will try to pay the members off with millions or even billions of our dollars to get them to agree to vote for this monster. That will just add a fiscal irresponsibility tag to the arrogant politician tag. Those tags will not fly very well in the 2010 and 2012 elections. People want fiscally responsible politicians in Washington and the Democrats have proven themselves unworthy of the public trust.

The Republicans have not taken the lead on the issue as of this date. They can take the lead, if they desire to. So far, all the Republican response has been fractured and disjointed. Of course, it has been filtered by the news media. An election cycle will take care of that problem. It is just that there is no unified voice of the party. That person needs to emerge, and quickly. Whoever takes the lead on this issue will be the next President in 2012. But, that window of opportunity is open only for a short time. If you don’t grab the bull by the horns now, it will take more work in 2012. Let’s hope that someone decides to get out in front and be willing to take the arrows. Arrows from Democrats may sound terrible, but are really nothing of consequence.

Yesterday, I heard some stirrings from Mitt Romney on the Hugh Hewitt show. The scenario is written as a perfect script for Romney. If he wrote up his dream scenario, this would be it. I am not sure why he has not jumped out in front and said here I am, follow me. If he says it now and provides real leadership, then the bigots will have no impact on his campaign.

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.

That the Democrats “government option” is in trouble showed another sign. The White House website is asking for people to make comments to the White House if they hear or see any comments against the healthcare proposal. Basically, they are asking people in the United States to snitch on one another. When you stoop to that level of activity, you have lost the debate.

Democrats continue to be hammered when they hold Townhall meetings in their districts. They continue to complain that the people that are giving them trouble are paid by the insurance industry. They are wrong. These people are local people. They are motivated to do something because they see a loss of liberty and feel a need to act.

Last night, I had to move my car and heard Mark Levin talk about why people are turning out to these Townhall meetings. I wish I could repeat what he said because he put it so powerfully. Basically, Mark said that people are motivated by that same force that helped us win WWII and all the other wars. Americans are a forgiving people. We can take a lot of abuse without reacting. People continually mistake this lack of reaction as a lack of resolve. As Admiral Yamamoto put it after Pearl Harbor, “I fear we have awakened a sleeping Giant.” The reaction that the Democrats are getting at these Townhall meetings is the awakening of the sleeping Giant. We have taken all we are going to take. From now on, we will fight for every inch of ground. Anyone who opposes us will be defeated, just as the Germans and Japanese were defeated at the end of WWII.

The Democrats have not figured out what is happening. They look out at the landscape and see an America that will take a lot of abuse. They also believe that America will take this abuse because she has been conditioned to take it after 70 years of liberalism in our schools and courts. They cannot see what is happening because it is not happening to them or to their liberal allies. It is only happening to conservatives, independents and even liberals that believe in liberty. The Democrats are looking at the America they want to see, not the America as it is. That will be their undoing. They are acting defiant in the face of this opposition. That would be the correct action if this were isolated grass fires. This is not a situation where there are isolated grass fires. This is a situation where there is a truly mass movement.

This mass movement is not a Republican movement or a movement by any other group. Whoever gets out in front of this movement and grabs the reins will have a platform to truly make major changes in 2010 and 2012. That would take a politician with vision and one that is willing to take risks. Right now this movement is still in its infancy. Getting in front of it now will reap great rewards down the line. Waiting until it is fully formed might yield big results, but much less than getting on board in the beginning. The risk is also there if you get in front in the beginning. You have to read the American people clearly. You have to articulate what they want. If you get it wrong, you will crash and burn and never be heard from again. It is much safer to wait until the movement has taken form. You also take the chance that someone else might take the lead. This is a great opportunity for someone to show us his/her mettle. Who will be that person?

I hope that the Democrats continue to misread the movement up through the 2010 elections. If they continue to misread the movement for that long, conservatives will be elected to erase much of the terrible things done in 2009 and 2010. Notice that I said conservatives, not Republicans. It remains to be seen if the Republicans can harness the energy this movement is generating. If they can, then Republicans will be transcendent. If not, some other party will take over for the Republicans.

Democrats are finding out that people do not like their planned takeover of the healthcare system. From coast to coast and border to border, Americans are turning out to let their Senators and Representatives know how they feel. Some of these meetings have become rather heated, but the tone has remained the same in all that we do not like what you propose.

What is the Democrat response to an almost unanimous rejection of their ideas? They say that it is all paid for by the insurance companies. They want to try to let “real” Americans show up at these meetings, instead of those bussed in by the insurance companies. They are also cancelling many meetings for fear that this reaction will happen in their district. In other words, the Democrat response to the rejection of their healthcare proposal is to bury their head in the sand.

Many Democrats have come out with statements that the nearly unanimous rejection of their ideas at these Townhall meetings has made them more resolved to pass the legislation approving the plan. What do these Democrats not understand? Don’t they see the handwriting on the wall? If they pass this bill they are writing their defeat in 2010. We may take some time undoing the damage that these Democrats will do, but it will start with a sound rejection of Democrat politicians in 2010.

What happens at the meeting is that people listen to the politician go on about the health care proposal. Then when the time is open for questions, the politician is asked about specific parts of the proposed legislation. The politician does not know the answer, as they have not read the bill, so they get defensive. Question after question comes in and then it becomes a near riot as people express their frustration at the fact that the Democrat at the podium (their legislator) is not listening to them. After the meeting, the Democrat blames the insurance companies over what happened. Also, there is the Democrat version over what happened at these meetings and there is the version that the participants at the meeting remember. Far more people remember the participation version. Only the Democrat politician remembers the Democrat version. I am not sure which is right, but I will take the participants version over the Democrat politician version. There are more people that remember it one way than the other. That is usually a good rule to follow when trying to find out which is the truth.

Democrats who are not up for election in 2010 are urging passage of this monstrosity of a health insurance bill as soon as possible. Those that are up for re-election are now having second thoughts. They will undoubtedly be brought to the Democrat position, as Democrats do not have independent thoughts. But, just like Bill Clinton in 1994, Barack Obama may see the Congress change hands in 2010. That is why he is pushing hard to get is far left agenda passed as soon as he possibly can. He knows that in 2010 the window of opportunity will have closed. That gives him about 5 more months to pass far left agenda items. The problem is that people have been stirred to action on this health care bill. That will mean more action in legislative districts in the 2010 election. The new Congress might be an almost 100% Republican victory, if they play their cards right over the next 12 months. That is not necessarily a given as Republicans have a tendency to fumble the ball on a regular basis.

There is a petition being championed by Hugh Hewitt and Mike Gallagher, among others. This petition has over 1 million signatures as of yesterday morning. If you have not signed the petition, please click on the link I shamefully stole from Hugh Hewitt’s website. And well over a million of our listeners signed the "Stop Obamacare" petition (you can still add you signature.)

One thing that gets left out of the debate on health care is the absolute inefficiency that dominates government programs. I should know, as I was a federal government employee for 20+ years. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of dedicated, hard working federal employees. The same goes for state and local government employees as well. But, any person who has worked in government can tell you, there are a lot of people who basically just take up space. That is what leads to the shockingly poor record of efficiency in any government program.

There is a report out about the Postal Service. The Postal Service is one of our better run government programs. It has competition from Fed-ex and UPS. If it does not at least attempt to compete, it would not have any market share at all. So as a result, you get better service out of the postal service than any other government program where there is no competition from the private sector. That being said, there is a lot of room for improvement. If the Postal Service was a private company and was run this bad, it would have been out of business long ago. It is only still functioning because of the money it receives from the federal government.

The head of the postal service received pay raises and bonuses that totaled close to a million dollars over the past three years. From that sentence, you would assume that the Postal Service was running a profit or at least cutting the profit down to a number where they will break even soon. Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the past three years, the deficit run by the Postal Service has doubled each year. In the private sector, you do not receive bonuses for running up huge deficits, you receive pink slips. These huge deficits are even after the Postal Service increased the price of a stamp by two cents. Something is drastically wrong with that picture.

During this economic downturn, it is understandable that a company will have a difficult time making ends meet. In a private business, there is no tomorrow. A private business has to make a profit, break even or go out of business. You can run a deficit for a year, maybe two, but no more. The Postal Service is not under those restraints. They can run a deficit every year and there is nothing wrong with that picture. The same goes for any government agency.

Health care would be no different than the Postal Service. Once the government option became the only option, there would be no incentive to make a profit. There would only be an incentive to cut costs. For a government agency, cutting costs means cutting benefits. For a health organization that wants to cut benefits, the easiest way to achieve a cost savings is to reduce what they spend on the elderly. A person spends about half of what they spend on health care in the last couple of years of their life. If you can cut that out, you could cut your costs per person in half. The trick is to know when the end is near. For the government that is easy. You just make up a chart that says that everyone below this line gets the service and everyone above this line does not. In effect, you would be creating an arbitrary “Logan’s Run” line. Logan’s Run is from the movie where everyone over a certain age is killed. These people would not be killed. They would just be allowed to die. The net effect is the same. The population loses those it determines as unnecessary or a burden.

Government inefficiency is the primary reason that socialist programs always fail. Socialized medicine has failed in every country that has tried it over the entire history of the world. What makes you think that we are far wiser and more disciplined than everyone that has tried it in the past or that are trying it today? We are anything if not as wise and less disciplined because that is how we got to this point. If we try this experiment, it will fail far faster in the United States than it failed in any other country precisely because of the lack of discipline and lack of education that the left has rammed down our throats for the past 50 years.

If you like the government option idea, go to the DMV and see what health care will be like. The DMV office is just like the medical offices you see in Canada. Since that is the model we are using, it is a good place to see what the model will bring. If you still like health care as a government option, then there is no hope for you.

Here in Arizona, we had two members of the Women’s health board quit last week. They were both members of Planned Parenthood. Their statement on why they quit the board said that since Governor Brewer had taken office the policies that were being pursued by the Governor were not in the best interest of women’s health.

What these two were talking about was the fact that since Governor Brewer had taken office that there has been a reduction in the emphasis on abortion. In fact, the support for abortion by the Governor’s office has gone down to zero. As a result, Planned Parenthood was feeling an income crunch because of this lack of support. The two Women’s Health Board members felt they needed to resign from the board and make a public scene. In making the scene, they would not tell the truth about what their real issue was with Governor Brewer. That is basically a dishonest position to take. I feel if you have a position, you should state it openly. Trying to hide your real agenda just postpones the time when people figure out what the problem really is. Sometimes you can get funding during the interim and sometimes not. But, you always end up losing support when people find out that you were less than honest in what you were doing.

Planned Parenthood gets a lot of government money to help fund their services. Planned Parenthood charges the women that come in for their services. It can be rather expensive for a woman to come in and get many services from Planned Parenthood. I do not know where the government funding goes, but it does not seem to go to provide the services to pregnant women.

The CPC is a private, non-profit organization that provides essentially the same services as Planned Parenthood, except for abortions. The CPC does not advocate that women get abortions, so they do not provide any abortion services at all. The CPC does not receive any government funds. All money they receive is privately donated. Many people that donate also feel that they should do more, so they volunteer to work at CPC offices. Services provided to the women that come in are almost all done at no cost to the women. There may be a charge on something, so I cannot say that all services are free. I do not know of any services that have a service fee attached. The CPC also has a program where the mother or the couple can take some classes and earn credits towards furnishing a room for the baby.

The difference between the CPC and Planned Parenthood is a study in contrasts. The CPC is privately funded. Planned Parenthood is funded through grants from the federal government and private foundations. The CPC does not charge women anything for its services. Planned Parenthood charges women for everything. If I was a woman and pregnant, I know where I would go to receive help. The only difference is that Planned Parenthood has better press credentials.

Personally, I am happy these two dishonest individuals resigned from the Women’s health board. This gives Governor Brewer an opportunity to select two individuals that are honest and do not have ties to Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood has political hooks into just about every politician, so I do not hold much hope that the two new selections will be truly independent of Planned Parenthood. The only plus is that as new members they will have less clout on the board than did the two that resigned.