Transparency

In the 2008 campaigns we heard a lot about "transparency" and how it would become part of the new change being promised. Transparency is one of those fancy buzzwords that is part of today's "hip" culture.

Our political leaders all promised transparency. Transparency meant that the government would be honest, disclose the facts, and promised to publish proposed legislation on the Internet prior to Congressional voting so that citizens could read it.

What We Got
After the elections, America awoke to discover they had voted for a big change. They gave up the power of the checks and balances to give Democrats control over the House of Representatives and the US Senate as well.

We were in a major financial crisis and we were told that we needed to pass the Stimulus bill in order to save the economy and to create new jobs for Americans. The Stimulus passed in record time even though no one read it. It wasn't written by Congress, but rather by special interests and the unions. Now we are finding-out what actually was in the Stimulus. It clearly wasn't new jobs- at least not permanent ones. It contains more waste and pays the special interests for their political favors in the 2008 elections.

Next came the Omnibus bill which was the new budget for the coming fiscal year. Again, no one read it and it was passed without the opportunity for Americans to read it either. Shortly after it passed we began to find-out what was in the legislation. It contained over 9,000 earmarks (pork projects) that had special interests in mind – not the American public.

Same thing happened with the Cap and Trade (alias Climate Change) legislation. Citizens were not allowed to read it while the House passed it in a big hurry. Now we are beginning to discover some of the contents and realize that this is nothing but a huge tax increase on ALL Americans. It taxes energy usage and makes it financially impracticable to generate electricity using coal (which is by the way, the largest untapped resource we have in this country). Cap & Trade re-distributes wealth by imposing energy credits for energy usage. It's a complicated means to try and control the earth's temperature. This of course, remains a theory and the science of global warming is not yet proven – let alone fully discussed.

So why the big hurry? Several politicians, (including Al Gore) stand to gain financially if this legislation passes. This legislation will impose heavy taxes on everything and everyone who uses energy.

It's crazy to do this to the economy when it is in such a fragile state. And yet, Congress is now considering passing it in the US Senate.

Finally, we turn to government health care. What a fiasco. The majority of Americans let it be known last summer during the town hall meetings that they do not want the government to control their health treatment. Congress ignored us and still continues to work on jamming this legislation down our throats because THEY WANT IT!

They meet behind closed doors in secret and make votes on Illegal Aliens and Abortion. They hide in committees and make these decisions. There is NO TRANSPARENCY!

Action To Take
We need to start planning for the mid-term elections – now. We need to support candidates – not for their political parties, but for their political ideology. We need to get rid of the business-as-usual politicians who have lived in Congress for more than 20 years or the ones who have ignored is. We need to find individuals who will support conservative principles and ideas. We need to get rid of politicians tied to special interest groups and elect ones that support OUR INTERESTS INSTEAD!

The Purpose of Net Neutrality

The FCC is now pursuing a new policy. They are promoting what they call Net Neutrality. The new Chief Diversity Officer (Diversity Czar) and FCC Associate General Counsel, Mark Lloyd wants to begin managing the ISPs (Internet Service Providers). They are privately held companies. Lloyd is on the record for having a problem with capitalism and conservative media outlets.

He co-wrote a 2007 report entitled "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio". This report calls for the FCC to create and enforce new definitions regarding "media diversity" and "localism" to maintain FCC broadcast license requirements. The sole intent of these requirements is to force conservative talk shows off the air and be replaced with a leftist point of view. How can the government legally (and objectively) manage privately held companies? They will regulate them. Is that legal? Is it constitutional? What is the real objective here with this man running the operation?

The Internet has been neutral since its inception, thus leveling the playfield for all participants. Major carriers (and the government) want to eliminate this neutrality in order to charge large popular sites for their respective heavy traffic. Should the government censor the Internet's content like China does?

In his new position, Lloyd wants to begin by policing the content that the ISPs provide and then initiate his version of the Fairness Doctrine over the Internet. The idea is to "make sure" that all individuals' rights are respected by looking at the freedom of all broadband (Internet) participants. Isn't that censorship?

Unchartered Waters
Is it safe to allow the government to regulate Internet content? Even with the best intentions, this could turn out poorly. Should the government have any say over what goes on the Internet? Is the Internet the government's property?

We believe not. The government should remain hands-off the Internet. It is NOT their jurisdiction and not theirs to control.

Political Correctness is Stupid

Everyday we see examples of political correctness clashing with our lives. Progressives believe that they know best and that if something found to be “offensive” by one individual that is reason enough to change the whole system. It’s a self-righteous approach to supposedly end prejudice. Now that’s real sound logic. It’s always for the common good to correct injustice which in itself, is a political motive.

What is Political Correctness?
In brief: Political Correctness is language modification. It is a powerful form of censorship. It is a doctrine to attempt to control public speech and thoughts under the guise of trying to correct prejudice.

Here are some examples of political correctness run amuck:

• Holiday or Season’s Greetings = Merry Christmas
  
• National Holiday Tree = Christmas Tree
• Winter Concert = Christmas Concert
• Undocumented Worker or Guest worker = Illegal Alien
• Chalkboards = Blackboards
• Native Americans = Indians
• African American = Negro
• Financially Inept = Poor
• Sexually Dysfunctional = Perverted
• Laid Off = Fired
• Sanitation Engineer = Garbage Man
• Gay = Homosexual
• Factual Incorrectness = Wrong
• Visually Challenged = Blind
• Mentally Challenged = Retarded
• Person of Color = Minority
• Elderly = Old
• Having unisex bathrooms in public facilities
• Muslim prayer rooms in airports
• Women attending all male schools - but not the other way around!

There is nothing left in our daily lives that is not under attack of the “Word Police“. If you control the words, you control thoughts. Why even President Obama cannot call a terrorist what he really is. Instead he tells us we shouldn't jump to conclusions and skirts around trying not to “offend” Muslims. Why even a child knows that the Fort Hood Massacre was done by a Muslim terrorist and was not a merely a crime by a mad man, but a terrorist act.

Stop The Insanity
End political correctness. It’s abusive and attacks basic American Traditions as well as free speech.

Department of Justice Breaks Law

The Department of Justice under the Obama administration tried to intimidate and muscle a left-wing news organization. They issued a subpoena to indymedia.us demanding several things including:

• The names of all visitors to their web site
• The addresses of all visitors to their site
• The bank records of all visitors
• The Social Security numbers of all visitors
• The IP addresses of all visitors

Since indymedia.us is a news organization they are not obligated to provide this information to the government even under a subpoena. It violates the case of Anonymous Pamphleteering among other things.

To make matters worse, the Department of Justice issued a gag order to the website instructing them not to disclose the government subpoena! The Federal attorney threatened the site and told them that they would be putting people's lives in jeopardy and that people could get hurt. THAT'S THE VOICE OF THE US GOVERNMENT SPEAKING!!

Violations Committed
Clearly overreaching any reasonable authority, this incident was a giant step towards totalitarian snooping. It violated the First Amendment. It violated the Department's own guidelines, and it violated political speech.

When other attorneys in the government realized what the DOJ was doing, they suggested that the DOJ back-down and withdraw the subpoena and cease their actions. The realized that the DOJ attorney was intimidating a news organization!

This is yet another attack on America's freedoms. Recall that the White House created a Snitch website where individuals could report on people who were giving "misinformation". By the way, after the public spoke out the White House closed-down that website and the director quit. Recall also that the President and his close administrative staff all attacked FOX News. This is a frightening pattern evolving and it needs to stop. We won't tolerate this BIG BROTHER attitude from any administration!

Pelosi Version Has Serious Penalties

The Pelosi version of ObamaCare contains serious penalties for those who do not carry health insurance. This article briefly details them for you.

There is a provision in the bill for those who do not carry health insurance. It states that you will be fined 2.5% of you annual income for not having any insurance. If you willfully fail to pay for insurance you will be sentenced to one year in jail.

• Section 7203 - misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

If they find you guilty of willful evasion, the penalty besides the 2.5% fine the prison time is five years in jail.

• Section 7201 - felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.”

President Obama is on the record for going along with these penalties. Question: Why should ANYONE go to jail for not buying health insurance?

It's not clear in the bill just how much it will cost to buy the insurance. The latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that “according to a recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the lowest-cost family non-group plan under HR 3862 (the Pelosi bill) would cost $15,000 by 2016.”

This bill only provides subsidies that pay for this sum after families making $45,000 have paid 8% of their income for insurance and after those earning a household income of $65,000 have paid 12%.

Anyway you look at it, it remains quite confusing. One thing is clear, there are jail penalties and they won't be going away anytime soon.

Weekly Polls

Let's see how we are doing this week. We will visit these figures on a regular basis.

The Rasmussen Reports is an independent electronic publishing firm that specializes in public opinion polling. Here are some current results on some main issues:

Presidential Tracking Poll
This tracks how the President is doing by those surveyed.

• Strongly Approve... 32%
  
• Strongly Disapprove... 40%
  

Presidential Approval Index
This chart is from RasmussenReports.com:




Job Approval Rating Since Election


Health Care Reform

• Support ObamaCare... 45%
  
• Oppose ObamaCare... 52%

In Honor of American Soldiers

We would like to honor the families and victims of the Fort Hood Massacre. They have our deepest condolences.



We would also like to thank American soldiers everywhere for their service.