All Posts from September, 2009
Swine Flu - Pandemic Disaster Bill
September 30th, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »A Great Moment in my life with Mr Lincoln
September 25th, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »I left the station this morning and remembered going to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland when I was very young. I recall not wanting to go and being forced to do so by my Mom. I can recall the exact day and how I felt. I didn’t want anyone making me sit through some boring speech. Today, I can still hold that feeling in my heart of how I felt when I walked out of the theater with tears in my eyes after hearing his words. It was so powerful. Blessed am I to live in such a great, free country! Thank you Mom for telling me to listen and pay close attention to the words of President Lincoln. His words are what I needed to hear again today. A quick YouTube search, and there is the speech, exactly as I heard so many years ago on Main Street U.S.A. Maybe they should bring back this attraction…
Do you find anything wrong with this video? Why or why not?
September 24th, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »Charles Krauthammer Syndicated Columnist
September 23rd, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »You lie? No. Barack Obama doesn’t lie. He’s too subtle for that. He … well, you judge.
Herewith three examples within a single speech – the now-famous Obama-Wilson “You lie” address to Congress on health care – of Obama’s relationship with truth.
(1) “I will not sign (a plan),” he solemnly pledged, “if it a dds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future. Period.”
Wonderful. The president seems serious, veto-ready, determined to hold the line. Until, notes Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, you get to Obama’s very next sentence: “And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize.”
This apparent strengthening of the pledge brilliantly and deceptively undermines it. What Obama suggests is that his plan will require mandatory spending cuts if the current rosy projections prove false. But there’s absolutely nothing automatic about such cuts. Every Congress is sovereign. Nothing enacted today will force a future Congress or a future president to make any cuts in any spending, mandatory or not.
Just look at the supposedly automatic Medicare cuts contained in the Sustainable Growth Rate formula enacted to constrain out-of-control Medicare spending. Every year since 2003, Congress has waived the cuts.
Mankiw puts the Obama bait-and-switch in plain language. “Translation: I promise to fix the problem. And if I do not fix the problem now, I will fix it later, or some future president will, after I am long gone. I promise he will. Absolutely, positively, I am committed to that future president fixing the problem. You can count on it. Would I lie to you?”
(2) And then there’s the famous contretemps about health insurance for illegal immigrants. Obama said they would not be insured.
Well, all four committee-passed bills in Congress allow illegal immigrants to take part in the proposed Health Insurance Exchange.
But more importantly, the problem is that laws are not self-enforcing.
When Republicans proposed requiring proof of citizenship, the Democrats twice voted that down in committee. Indeed, after Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” shout-out, the Senate Finance Committee revisited the language of its bill to prevent illegal immigrants from getting any federal benefits. Why would the Finance Committee fix a nonexistent problem?
(3) Obama said he would largely solve the insoluble cost problem of Obamacare by eliminating “hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud” from Medicare.
That’s not a lie. That’s not even deception. That’s just an insult to our intelligence. Waste, fraud and abuse – Meg Greenfield once called this phrase “the dread big three” – as the all-purpose piggy bank for budget savings has been a joke since Jimmy Carter first used it in 1977.
Moreover, if half a trillion is waiting to be squeezed painlessly out of Medicare, why wait for health care reform? If, as Obama repeatedly insists, Medicare overspending is breaking the budget, why hasn’t he gotten started on the painless billions in “waste and fraud” savings ?
Obama doesn’t lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads – so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness.
Obama
September 23rd, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »With the plans to scrub the missile defense, do you think Obama is hurting or helping the United States’ relationship with our allies?
The open letter I read at the We the People event.
September 12th, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 17 Comments »I’m a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election, I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party neither represented my views nor worked to pursue issues important to me. Now, I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is, I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone who can represent me. Please tell me who you are. Tell me you are there and you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties.
Briefly, these are my views and issues for which I seek representation:
Illegal immigration. This isn’t to be confused with LEGAL immigration or that pathway. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. We’ve been there and done that with no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist.
The TARP bill. I want no further funding supplied to it and I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. We did not want the TARP bill. We told you “NO!” but you did it anyway.
Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.
NO cap and trade. The debate on global warming is far from over. There is more to say.
Universal health care. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break? (Slow down!)
Growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you just start right there?
ACORN. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates, pending impartial audits and investigations. I want them investigated. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello? I DO NOT want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I DO NOT trust them with control over the census using our taxpayer money. I DO NOT want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time a real estate deal closes. Stop protecting your political buddies. Again I say, Investigate. You work for WE THE PEOPLE.
Redistribution of wealth. NO, NO, and NO. I work for my money. It is mine. Why do you want me to hate my employers? I never got a job from a poor person. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. This is the only redistribution of wealth I will support. And, what do you have against shareholders making a profit?
Charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
Corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim just like the rest of us. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? Quick and painful. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. We will pull together.
Great things happen in America under great hardship. We know this. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
Transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. Stop hiding things from me. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around back rooms, making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation.
Unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now! Stop making everything an emergency. Take a breath. Listen to the people. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble through a bill you signed into law without knowing what it contained? Well, I can’t. Slow down and get some input from nonpoliticians on the subject.
I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer, nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I’m busy. I work and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawns, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society while teaching our children to do the same. All of the above, while living in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believe in checks and balances to keep us from getting far off course. What happened? Not only are we off course, we’re not even going in the same direction. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face and I am not laughing at your arrogance.
Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it, yet you expect I should trust you with the debt you have laid on all of us, our children, and future generations? I know I am far from alone in these feelings. From my perspective, it seems all of you have gone insane. We want it to stop. Do you honestly believe your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us, and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had, and use money we cannot afford to spend, to bring our concerns to you in Washington.
Our president often knows all the right buzzwords to use like ‘unsustainable’. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.
We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job you were sent there to do; not the job YOU want done, or the job YOUR PARTY wants done. You work for us and at this rate I can guarantee you it is not for long because… we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we aren’t paying attention and won’t come after you or hold you accountable? We were formerly known as the silent majority. Take note, we are silent no more. All of us, who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone each and every day…are now looking up at you. Our patriotic spirit, so strong and so powerful, has been sleeping too long. You have awakened us.
You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may even surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more who could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, on that you can rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. Remember, we have cancelled vacations. We will have used the last few dollars that were saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaigns will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight but the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but yes we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes you have made of our constitution.
Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, please understand this; Political parties are meaningless to us. We don’t care. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. It is not your power, it is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable and dishonest. As Americans, we are ashamed of YOU. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency, loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear me? You need to be loyal to US, not them. When you lose your job, they will not save you. Who do you represent? What do you represent? If you can represent me, my issues and views, please stand up. Make your identity known. Speak up. We need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole congress, if need be, one by one. Listen, because we are coming. WE THE PEOPLE are coming. Are we coming for YOU?
Great Video - local couple
September 4th, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »This local couple had their video posted as MSN’s video of the day yesterday. As I was watching the video early this morning I realized that the man standing next to the pastor was Mark Warren, a pastor from CTK right here in Bellingham.
This was sent to me. What do you think?
September 1st, 2009 | By patti-kgmi in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »Good idea . . . one light bulb at a time . . . .
A physics teacher in high school, once told the students that while one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn’t slow a train very much, a billion of them would . With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously written by a good American .
Check this out . I can verify this because I was in Lowes the other day for some reason and just for the heck of it I was looking at the hose attachments . They were all made in China . The next day I was in Ace Hardware and just for the heck of it I checked the hose attachments there . They were made in USA . Start looking .
In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else - even their job . So, after reading this email, I think this lady is on the right track . Let’s get behind her!
My grandson likes Hershey’s candy . I noticed, though, that it is marked made in Mexico now . I do not buy it any more . My favorite toothpaste Colgate is made in Mexico now . I have switched to Crest . You have to read the labels on everything .
This past weekend I was at Kroger. (Can be true for any store.) I needed 60W light bulbs and Bounce dryer sheets . I was in the light bulb aisle, and right next to the GE brand I normally buy was an off brand labeled, “Everyday Value . ” I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats - they were the same except for the price . The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO and the Everyday Value brand was made in - get ready for this - the USA in a company in Cleveland , Ohio .
So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every day that are made right here .
So on to another aisle - Bounce Dryer Sheets . . . yep, you guessed it, Bounce cost more money and is made in Canada . The Everyday Value brand was less money and MADE IN THE USA! I did laundry yesterday and the dryer sheets performed just like the Bounce Free I have been using for years and at almost half the price!
My challenge to you is to start reading the labels when you shop for everyday things and see what you can find that is made in the USA - the job you save may be your own, family and neighbors!
If you accept the challenge, pass this on to others in your address book so we can all start buying American, one light bulb at a time! Stop buying from overseas companies!
(We should have awakened a decade ago . . . . . )
Let’s get with the program . . . . help our fellow Americans keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the U . S . A .
