O Happy Day?

While I was seriously upset last night at the election results, this morning I tried to look at the glass as half full. I realized that, hopefully, this will be the start of something good for Conservatives. The obvious and widely accepted "problem" with the Republican party has been its move away from Conservatism and towards a more centrist philosophy. I realized that I was in fact voting against Obama and Landrieu more than I was voting for McCain and Kennedy. Had these two been put in office, the Republican party would have continued to be watered down by "non-Conservatives". While I obviously think that anyone (well almost) would be better than Obama and Landrieu, the Conservative brand would not have been helped, fundamentally at least, by their election. Hopefully now the Republican party can find their "Reagan Conservative" that will not only energize the base (instead of just using it for votes) but actually apply fundamental Conservative principles to our National and State Governments.
My other reason for optimism is the "tall order" for the future President. Many promises have been made and there are a lot of problems to be ironed out. There could be a huge letdown if the "ship isn't righted" pretty quickly, or at all, by President Obama. Had McCain been President as all this continues to sour, then once again Conservative principles would be blamed because Republicans were in power, whether Conservative principles were applied or not.

Life Stinks

Has anyone noticed how bad their life is lately? Americans as a whole really have little reason to even get out of bed every morning because our lives are so horrendous. At least that's how I felt watching Obama's Prime time special and listening to the Democratic campaign machine and media for the last few months. Is it me, or every four years do we hear just how horrible it is to be a middle class American in the troubled times we are having? One lady last night even talked about having to ration her kids snacks throughout the week which may sound legit enough but it sure did not look like she was living in poverty (Sorry Connor, you only get a half of a fruit roll up today). And apparently people just started getting arthritis in the last 8 years thanks to President Bush's policies. I am not saying things are not tough for some people, because they are. But where are we guaranteed an easy life where all of are needs and desires are delivered to us on a silver platter? What gets me the most, are the people who are claim hardship because they simply are living beyond their means. Where is personal responsibility? We should be thankful we have the freedoms to go out and make ourselves into whatever we want. While I am not trying to belittle the people who may not see it that way, sometimes we lose perspective. This Article is pretty powerful and may help with that. The people that are waiting and expecting the government to step in and raise their standard of living will be the same ones in economic crisis during the next Presidential election because government will never be able to make a true impact on your standard of living(to the positive, at least). Of course, there are people who are never going to be happy no matter where they are in life. They always find the negative in everything. There will always be something wrong with their job or church or government or country, and they will always be able to rattle those things off at a moments notice. As for me, a little perspective on things will never hurt.

A Star is Born!

Wow! OK, for the first few minutes of the debate I felt Biden had the flare and energy, and Palin sounded nervous...but it did not last for long. The debate completely snowballed in her favor from there on out. As the debate went on, Ol' Joe's smile began to fade and it seemed the air was quickly leaving his sails. Palin, on the otherhand, built momentum as the debate wore on. Her tone was strong, she was witty, knowledgeble and very prepared. I swear that the twinkle in Biden's eye said that he knew his hands were full. It's amazing how effective she is when she is being herself and not being presented to us through the prism of the mainstream media. She was feisty and articulate and connected directly to the American people while Biden seemed to talk directly to Ileff the entire time. Whether this is a game changer or not in this election remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, The conservatives have found their "Reagan Conservative" that will hopefully restore the party to the days of old. Watch out 2012!

Democrats on an escalator

enough said!

The Sky is Falling!!

"The Fundamentals of our Economy are strong." -John McCain, Agree or Disagree? What are the fundamentals of our economy? He explained the fundamentals of the economy is the American people and capitalism, and he is right. The problem has not been the fundamentals, or foundation of our economy, but Government bureaucracy, and dare I say, socialism, that has counteracted the effects of the free market in a disastrous way in recent History. Housing, Energy, and Manufacturing (specifically Automobile) are three of the obvious problem areas. Government paved the way for lenders to lend to the "unqualified" borrowers by guaranteeing these loans with taxpayer money, which not only produced billions in bad loans, but putting the risk on the taxpayer. Everyone should own a home right? (who cares if they can afford it) No risk sounds like a wonderful reason to overextend yourself if you are a bank. Lenders are thinking, Hey, with house values going up who cares if we foreclose on bad loans, we get a free house right? Except that because of the run on the housing markets, house values were inflated, and when these "interest only" adjustable rate loans were "adjusted" upwards because of rate increase the bubble burst and banks are getting stuck with devalued houses.
Has anyone noticed that oil is around $95 a barrel but Gas prices are Still $3.80? Raise your hand if you know why! Whats that? we have no refining capacity? I support the Drill Baby, Drill, but once we get the oil out of the ground, who is going to turn it into gasoline? Oh yeah, nobody! Anyone ever heard of the Government imposed Clean Air Act of 1990. So what has caused our Energy crisis? It starts with a G and ends with overnment. I will let you figure it out. I am tired of hearing that oil companies are raping us, when their actual $ per gallon profit margin is a fraction of the government's take per gallon of gas.
GMAC is tearing it up in China, Europe and Latin American but not here in the US. Once again our politicians and the EPA have felt the need to shackle the Auto industry with over burdensome fuel mileage restrictions. This was their excuse for asking for a $50 billion bailout. They claimed that adhering to these government regulations have caused them twice that much in recent years. But all of this is Bush/McCain/Capitalism's fault. So I do agree that the fundamentals of our economy are strong. It is government that has gone beyond oversight and regulation into tampering with the free market. They have a wonderful track record with Social Security and Medicaid, and now Mae and Mac. I can't wait until they control universal health care! By the way check out this article from 3 years ago about Mae and Mac! Also take a look into this bill that McCain sponsored 3 years ago on this issue!! WOW! I also wonder what impact 2 wars, 2 of the worst natural disasters in our country's history, and 9/11 have had on our economy in the last 8 years??

The Least of These

"We must take care of the Least of These"......"except we are gonna do it with your money" - Barack Obama. (OK I added the last part). I am tired of being told from Mr. Obama that the American people need to do a better job of "being our brothers keeper", "and taking care of the least of these". Well it is obvious that the Democratic ticket does not follow that mantra. Over the last decade, Sen Biden has given an average of...get these numbers... $395 per year in charitable donations. When compared to his income this amounts to 0.1% to 0.3% of his income. WOW, way to go Joe!! Obama's "big heart" is not much bigger! he contributed around $240,000 last year. Sounds like a lot except for the fact that he made over $4,000,000 last year. His contributions equaled almost 6% of his income....astronomical numbers compared to his VP pick. I won't even get into the story of Obama's younger brother who lives off of $1 a month. The point is that I am tired of being preached to about taking care of others when the people who are doing the preaching are not doing the practicing. Just for the record, John McCain gave 27% of his income in charitable donations last year. OK here is the rant. Look back at the times of "real" change in our Country's history such as the end of slavery, women's suffrage, desegregation and the end of the Cold War and see which party had a leading role in facilitating that change. When you look at the rhetoric in politics today, you may be surprised by what you find.

Qualified Dissenter

I saw this ad today and it really hit home with me. Pretty simple but effective. My question is why have we let the media and self serving politicians define the current state of this war instead of the people who are actually fighting it? I realize that not all the soldiers who have served in Iraq share this soldiers view, but In the past few years I can't recall hearing many of their viewpoints at all. In Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf's autobiography "It Doesn't Take A Hero", he shares his frustration with polititians, both Democratic and Republican, who tried to interject their ideas and influence onto the battlefield despite their absolute ignorance of any military strategy, during Vietnam and the first Gulf war. How is it that the voices that matter the most seem to be the ones that are never listened to? Regardless of this guys opinion one thing is for sure, he earned his right to share it.