Townhall meeting on 8/31/09 ( aka me on the news)

Townhall meeting on 8/31/09

On Monday night I drove to Holland Michigan to attend a town hall meeting held by my Congressman Pete Hoekstra, he has held two other meetings in his district during this recess, and has held three of the four in Michigan with only one other member of congress having the nerve to face his constituents and answer questions about the health care proposal. Now unlike alot of these meetings all over the country, this one was rather civil. There where none of the radicals holding up obnoxious signs calling President Obama a nazi, nor was there any of the tambarine banging, no bathing and shaving hippies trying to shout anyone down.
There was a stranding room only crowd, and lost of questions from a mixed crowd, I even got called on and asked basically " with the purchase of GM, the money for cars, the money to help people pay there morgages what shouldn't we expect the government to do for us and if the public option is passed in ten years you wont beable to by health insurance because no company can compete with a government that doesnt need to makea profit" my point was that there is too much government intervention, so it was nice to be involved in government and the whole process, it also made made me realize that Pete Hoekstra is a stand up guy, I was on the fence about him but not anymore, I added the clip of me on the news give it a listen and tell me what you think.

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/politics/Hoekstra_holds_health_care_town_hall

A liberal friend of mine asked me to write a blog about this subject so I thought I would swing for the fences and see if I couldn't make his head explode. I am not blind follower of the Governors but I do admire her and can also see some area's where she needs work. Tell me what you think.



Sarah Steps Down

The major news of the forth of July weekend was the announcement that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would resign as Governor of Alaska before July is over. Well immediately all of the talking heads in the media claimed that Sarah Palin was done politically, they all began to call her a quiter they claim she was and is a flash in the pan and will now be nothing more then a foot note in history. I could not disagree with this assessment more, although my opinion of the Governor has always been divergent from that of the main stream media. I don't think she is stupid because she is from Alaska, because she didn't go to an ivy league school, or because she hasn't spent countless hours mingling with the "right people" at cocktail parties in New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. I think she has a real world common sense that is lost on most of the establishment in this country in both parties.

The powers that be in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike have a vested interested in keeping the status quo operating, in making sure that someone like Governor Palin is either marginalized or brought into the "insider" fold, you see because insiders have a very narrow range of vision, weather its to the left or the right they only see insider solutions to Americas problems. They are the ones who have gotten America into the mess we are in now, people like John McCain ( Who I voted for and respect as a leader and an veteran) Harry Reid, Newt Gingrinch, and Nancy Pelosi, they have on what I like to refer to as Washington blinders, they can't make header or tail of people like Governor Palin or those who support her because her and people who supporter her don't think likey they do. While I believe Governor Palin still has some work to do before she earns my vote should she run in 2012 I respect and like her because she is an outsider, she is relatively new to the process, she thinks like a person who has been living in the real world not the washington/new york bubble.

Was resigning as Governor a good idea? If she had been the governor of any other state save Hawaii, and had not been the '08 Veep nominee I would have said it was political suicide, however if you are Sarah Palin and you want to one day possibly be President, this idea of having to fly sixteen plus hours everytime you want to give a speech or raise money or campaign for a candidate for office to bank some good will is not tenible, and this is a big one the vile rage and hatred that the left has shown towards this women and her family since she was announced boarders on insane, from the moment she was announced in Ohio the left and their allies in the media set out not to defeat her but to destroy her. Why would they want to destroy this women you might ask? Here are just a few of the reasons for the vile illogical rage towards this women.

1) First she broke the identity politics mold, which to elite liberals is the worst thing a person can do. She by the way for doing this is in the same class as people like Clarence Thomas, and Joseph Liberman. How might you ask did she break the mold? She was at the time of her selection an elected women who was actually a conservative. That breaks the mold that women, especially middle class women are all a bunch of left leaning kooky liberals.
2)Class Warfare; She is from middle/working class roots and dares to be a conservative, she is a genuine christian, she seems by all accounts to be in a happy marriage ( that pisses off liberals to no end for some silly reason).
3) She is unapologetically Pro-life, proving it so by actually giving birth to a special needs child.
4) She was not educated on the east coast, as a matter of fact most if not nearly all of her life has been spent away from the east coast which by its self makes liberals think people are stupid simply because you wheren't educated on the east coast, or at a few santified colleges on the west coast. Her values are not theirs and she can fire up millions of her fellow citizens. Over fifty eight million Americans voted for Sarah Palin.

These are just a few of the reasons why liberals hate the Governor, and let me just say their are a lot of us who like the Governor, who like her even more because of how much and by whom the Governor is hated by.

Now let me tell you why the governor resigned. It was not because she is not smart, it is not because she didn't want to do the job. It was because she felt that she was mafinalized by those who where out to destroy her, the fact that she and her family had to spent over half a million dollars fighting frivilous ethics complaints all of which where dismissed, and the state had to spend millions to defend against these people who have taken a page out of the Saul Alinsky playbook by trying to bury this women and her family for political reasons.

Also she resigned I think to give her family a slight break, because as along as she was in the Governors office the media will continue to try and destroy this family, they will continue to say horrible things about her children and her family as a way to try to destroy her. It is disgusting, that anyone could attack children like this for political reasons.

I believe Sarah Palin has a vision for where she wants to lead this nation. She is genuine, and that can't be faked. She has a lot of raw talent and gifts that where being waisted in Alaska. Oh and her resignation speech was genuine, and while it was not the most polished speech ever it was genuine. She knows what its like to be an independent women, she knows what its like to live west of the mississippi, she knows what its like to not go to an ivy league school. That is the magic of the Governor.

While I don't know what the future holds for Sarah Palin, I think the liberals are doing it again and that is underestimating her, and its gonna cost them. I think if she can prove she has the chops, if she can keep from being destroyed by the liberal media, if she can stand on the stage with serious men and women on the issues I think she could be a force to be dealt with.

Birth Certificate Nonsense

It seems that there is a small but very vocal and obnoxious group of people out there on the internet, they are passionate and horribly miss guided. They are the group of people who claim that Obama is not eligible to be President because he was not born in America, they claim that he falsified his birth record, that he was actually born in Kenya or if he was born in the U.S. the fact that he lived in Kenya forfeited his U.S. citizenship there by making him ineligible to serve as President. I believe this theory to boarder on insanity. I see this group of people in the same light that I saw those groups that claimed that Bush new about 9/11 or the ones that claim that his whole reasoning for going to war was to make Haliburton money.

These sorts of theories are the result of PDS ( Political derangement syndrome) by which some of the most ardent opponents of a politician seem to develop an adversion to the very existence of said politician, they believe that every motive of the person is evil, that who conspiriacies where masterminded by them, that they want to harm America and they oppose this person out of hand no matter what he or she does.

Some great examples of this are Bush Derangement syndrome by some on the left and in the media, which resulted in abandonment of any logic or reasoning when talking about George W. Bush or anything surrounding him and manifested it's self in pure hatred of him, causing in many case the loss of political fights by these people because do to their syndrome they where unable to formulate a cognitive political alternative other then to spew "BUSH IS A NAZI""BUSH LIED KIDS DIE' "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" this caused them political defeats at the ballot box and only fueled their illogical speculation that there was a conspiracy.

Now there are already some signs of ODS (Obama Derangement syndrome) among some mainstream conservatives such as Sean Hannity and this is a bad sign but after reading and listening to some of these kooks rave about how Obama isn't a citizen I realize that those of us who are conservative must quell this kind of talk as it only harms our cause. See I oppose most of Obama's agenda but I don't think he is a bad person, I don't think he sits around with his advisers rubbing his hands together and laughing in an evil manner wondering how he can sell out America, and I don't think George Bush did either.

Both men had there countries best interest at heart as they saw it threw the prism of there own political philosiphies we must not forget that. We, those of us who have strong views and an interest in politics I mean, must stop seeing those who have different views as us as bad, or evil or wanting to do harm to America or Americans. They are simply of a different philosophy, that we might think is wrong but not evil!

We must resist the urge to give in to the fringe of each political extreme and party, we must realize that the extremes on both sides to do not speak for the mainstream. For example on the conservative side Sean Hannity does not Represent me, I may agree with him 90-95% of the time but he never wants to find conservative solutions or talk about how to bring people back to conservatism he wants to talk about reverend Wright and Bill Ayers ( We get it Sean, Obama showed poor judgment in some of his associations can we now talk about the war, the deficit, taxes, and the economy PLEASE?) or on the liberal side people like George Soro's or Al Franken who are far left zealots who assume anyone who believes in low taxes, balanced budgets, and gun rights is a racists, sexists, bigot, homophobe, anyone who strays from liberal orthodoxy must be destroyed both politically and personally, look at the way Joe Lieberman was treated in 2006, this was a man who in 2000 was nominated by the Democratic party to be Vice President, he has championed liberal causes all of his adult life from woman's rights, to civil rights, to higher taxes on the rich, to larger involvement of government in the day to day lives of Americans yet because he came out for the war in Iraq, because he has been a strong supporter of the war on terror he was attacked viciously, he was primaried with millions spent to defeat him, he lost the Democratic primary and ran as an Independant and won. He then endorsed John McCain because the two men are friends and because he felt McCain was better qualified to be President and for this he has been adandoned by the left, ravaged politically and personally and it is a shame.

Now it is groups like this one, the anti-Obama citizenship group that foments political hatred and polarization. I call upon rational conservatives to denounce this theory. If you oppose Obama that is fine, I oppose much of his agenda but I do it with logic and reason and from a place of respect. He won the election for the most part fair and square now he has the chance to govern, we must oppose him when we disagree but never be disagreeable.

Newt might very well be the man

As I watch the current goings on in Washington D.C., as I see the Federal government pour more and more tax payer money into "bailing" out failing business and getting the governments tenticals into the private sector, as I also watch the opposition party lay down to the massive government intervention in the free market as our government veers wildly to the left of the political spectrum, I am more and more convinced that we as conservatives as those who believe capitalism is the best way to prosperity and freedom for people that we need an idea man to step forward, someone with great intellect, someone who can come up with conservative solutions to Americans problems and that man may very well be Newt Gingrinch.
The former Speaker of the House is a PhD is brilliant, he understands how government works, he is willing to think outside the box, he has a strong mind and is willing to make hard decisions, so while I have doubts about his electablity simply because of the amount of baggage he has and the fact that the media has such vile rage and hatred towards him they would throw everything at him, if you think they hated Sarah Palin let Newt be the nominee and watch the foaming at the mouth of the MSM.
So while I don't know if Newt can win I do know he can articulate Idea's and challenge with authority those who are veering left with great passion. So Newt might be the man the GOP needs to help to come up with a clear conservative voice.

Government motors

Well today General Motors a once great American company announced that they where filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and of course they also mentioned that they would need yet more money from big daddy government, somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty billion dollars, and of course the government has agreed to give them the money in exchange for more common stock in the company bringing the governments ownership stake in that company to a whopping sixty percent, that's right the government using tax payers dollars owns sixty percent of a major American company, the same government that since ninety fifty four only balanced the federal budget four out of the last fifty five years, the same government that has bankrupted social security, has passed entitlement after entitlement without coming up with ways to pay for it without taxing the citizenry into poverty, the same government that is over run with bureaucrats and politicians many of whom have never run any for profit business prior to their rise to power are now in the business of telling private companies how to make money, private companies that where run by people who where actual business professionals and they still failed, yet now these self appointed saviors in Washington, most of whom know nothing about how to build or sell cars, or even what it takes to run a successful business have invested tens of billions of dollars more in tax payers money into a failing business.

The President gave a major speech today on the GM filing, stating that while the government would own sixty percent of the company that his government in no way wanted to be "in the car business" he reassured the American public that GM would remain a company run by private sector individuals. While this speech was designed to put the American people at ease it rings hollow to me as the man appointed to run GM thought bankruptcy has been appointed by the government, anyone who thinks that the government will not be running GM is living in fantasy land.

I believe in the free market, in the idea that if a company is gonna fail it should be allowed to fail, that is how the free market works. Bailing companies that do bad business is a horrible message to send it gets the government into the private sector, it also rewards failure, I am worried about the course of our nation and world, the fact that government is taking a larger role in the private sector is a slippery slope on the road to tyranny.

Ode To Jack

Last week former NFL football player, former Congressman, and former Vice Presidential Candidate Jack Kemp died at the age of 73 after a bout with cancer. Kemp played Quarterback for the Buffalo Bills before Running for Congress in 1979, serving in Congress for ten years. As a congressman he championed conservative causes like low taxes, supply side economics, pro-life, and was an all around decent fellow.
He also ran for President in 1988 losing the nomination to Vice President George Bush. He was then appointed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George H.W.Bush and served distinguishably. He left public office in 1993 when President Clinton took office, however he continued to be a champion for conservative causes. In 1996 the Republican party nominee for President Senator Bob Dole of Kansas broke with conventional wisdom and choose Kemp as his running mate. The Dole /Kemp ticket lost to the Clinton/Gore ticket but during the election Kemp proved himself to be a smart and able campaigner and public servant.

Now that he is gone, I hope that this man will be remembered as a good American and a good champion of conservative causes and I pray for his family in this their time of loss. Also the Dole /Kemp ticket was the first one I voted for so it has a special place in my heart.

Updates from Specter to Tea Parties to Kemp

(Well a lot has happened since my last post on this blog so I will be updating tonight and the next few days so that my reader(s) don't think I have started go go soft.)

April 29,2009

Run Tom Run

Monday was a big day in American Politics, the U.S.Senate just became filibuster proof. The Democratic majority was just increased by 1 to 60, well it will be 60 once Al Franken of Minnesota finished "Finding" all of the votes in that contested race. This means that there will be no checks on the Democrats as they push there agenda over the next two years. Who might you ask did the Democrats gain? Well they gained a seasoned Senate Veteran, thats right Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched from the GOP to the Democratic party, stating that the party had tacked decidedly to the political right over the last 29 years. Now this puzzeled me as a student of history and especially political history I find this answer to be dishonest as Specter first ran for the U.S.Senate in 1980, on the top of the Republican ticket that year was a man named Ronald Reagan, one of the most conservative Presidents in the last seventy-five years, the GOP has been dominated by Conservatives since the late 1970's whenever we have nominated moderates we have lost, Gerald Ford 1976, Bob Dole 1996, and John McCain 2008 and Specter has always had a liberal to moderate voting record.
Yet now suddenly he seems to think that the conservative party that was conservative when he first ran is now to conservative. The reality of the situation is that Specter, who voted for the Presidents stimulus package which millions opposed is now facing real political heat from his parties base, let me put it in a way my Democratic Friends can understand, remember how you felt when Joe Lieberman came out on America's side in the war on terror and voted with the Bush administration on the war and supported the troops, remember how enraged you where at him and how you vowed his defeat in his reelection primary, well that is how conservative Republicans in Pennsylvania felt about Specter voting for the stimulus package, it was a betrayle, only difference between the two was one was a principaled stand that would make the world safer and the other was Washington business as ususal, however I digress.

So Specter flipped and became a Democrat, now he will run for reelection as a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. He will ask Democrats who have been voting against him for 29 years ( although he has gotten a decent plurality of the Democratic vote in his last few campaigns) to now allow him to be their standard bearer, I think he will win the Primary easily. Now if he faces his former primary opponent he will win easily and go on to be another rubber stamp for the Obama Administration in the U.S.Senate. There must be a check to the power of the Democratic party, as of right now there is not. The White house is Democratic, the House is Democratic by a large majority and now the Senate is Filibuster proof and the media well it is a lap dog to this White house so in order to maintain some checks we must maintain at least 41 Republican Senators. To do that Pennsylvania must be competative I believe that the only candidate that the GOP could run with any chance of winning is former Governor Tom Ridge, he is moderate on social issues, conservative on Fiscal issues, a proven leader as a governor, and an able administrator as a cabinet secretary, he also has won three times state wide in that state is well respected and is only slighly hated by Democrats and can appeal to cross over voters, he also has been out of politics since 2005 which means that it is likely some logic has found its way back into his mind. So If I where advising the Pennsylvania GOP I would tell them to go to Tom Ridge with hat in hand and 20 million dollars and beg him to run for the Senate it is the only hope to maintain some sort of fire wall against the coming storm of Obama style Big Government. We shall see how things unfold in 2010, hopefully I can use the phrase Senator Ridge one day.

April 15, 2009

Today all around this great country of ours tens of thousands of Americans gathered to protest this governments massive deficit spending. Many of those involved where people of a conservative political bent, however it was not exclusive there where many liberals and democrats in the protest as well. One of the symbols of this movement was a tea bag, to symbolize the Boston tea party when American's protested the unfair taxes by Great Britian by throwing crates of tea bags into the Boston harbor. Now these protests where peaceful and for the most part respectable, many politicans showed up and countless real Americans took time out of there jobs to attend and even bring their children. These where not protests that blocked traffic, or harassed the families of fallen service men and women, or that threw rocks at police, they where simply Americans exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and to peaceably assemble and redress their Government of their greivences, and yet to listen to much of the mainstream media these protests where made up of nothing more then a bunch of feeble minded bigots who hate children and orphans, and are all simply grassroots Republicans, the media made fun of these protests while covering them sparingly, now allow me to remind you that this is the same group of people who sent camera crews out to cover nearly every anti-war protest, it was so bad that it seem anytime six members of code pink met within five hundred miles of each other MSNBC would dispatch a news truck to show the "Ground Swell" of support against the war. Yet when Americans meet on tax day to say to their government ENOUGH! STOP MORGAGING OUR CHILDRENS FUTURES that some how was insignificant.
While these Tea Party Protest did not have the numbers of the anti-war protest they where significant, for the fact that most of the people who where there where actually employed, not simply retired hippies and college students, these people had to take time off of actual jobs to attend these protest. Something to mull over for the MSM when they start to look down on Americans actually wanting a say in the running of there government.