Tuesday, October 27, 2009

John Kerry Taliban Best Friend

by Ron Spangler


Talking to my neighbors and friends who are in the military and have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, some have served 2 and 3 deployments, one thing is very clear, moral for our military in Afghanistan is at an all time low. It is not the mission or the thought that they could lose this war and suffer defeat at the hands of the Taliban but rather they are starting to feel like the politicians will repeat their cut and run strategy of Vietnam. They are worried the President will continue to waiver back and forth. They worry this will give the Taliban time to consolidate their strength and numbers in all parts of Afghanistan. They know this will make the chance for a complete victory by our military more difficult and cost more lives.

The military cannot speak publicly on how they feel about President Obama's indecisive way of running the military or the preposterous idea that we can somehow live with the Taliban controlling parts of Afghanistan. If you talk to them one on one as a neighbor or friend you will find they do not believe this will work.

Upon John Kerry's recent return from Afghanistan he put forward the idea that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to let the Taliban control some of the tribal areas around Afghanistan while we devote or time building up the Afghan military and police. Kerry evidently believes the Taliban will be content to run these areas separate from the rest of Afghanistan and allow us to stay in the major provinces building modern cities with schools and a more moderate Islamic ideology. This is absolutely insane and our military knows it best. Either Senator Kerry has no clue of how much hatred the Taliban has for the United States and our allies or he knows and just doesn't want to admit the real enemy in Afghanistan is the Taliban.

What Senator Kerry is saying is not new. President Obama has said something similar in the past, when he talked about "peeling away moderate Taliban." Number one there are no moderate Taliban, either you are Taliban or you are not. Taliban is not simply a political party like we have in the United States. It is a Islamic theocracy that follows the strictest form of Islam and Sharia Law. They will not tolerate any religion, government, or laws that are in conflict with their warped since of governance over the Afghan people. It seems Senator Kerry and President Obama have no compassion or humanitarian concerns for the people, especially the women and children, that they would allow the Taliban to govern. Under this plan they are willing to stand by and watch while the Taliban returns to its old repressive and brutal ways. They are willing to watch while women and young girls are raped and murdered simply because they are less important than the animals owned by everyday Afghans. The President and Senator have forgotten that the Taliban does not believe in or have any respect for Constitutions or Civil Rights, they only believe in Sharia Law and their extreme interpretation of it.

This whole idea of dealing with the Taliban and allowing them to control and thereby govern any part of Afghanistan is eerily reminiscent of the Biden plan in Iraq. If Senator Biden had his way back when similar discussions were going on over Iraq, that country would be partitioned today with the United States acting as the peacekeeper and arbitrator over each of the warring factions. Fortunately his idea never received any real consideration, not because it was simply stupid but because everyone knew it was not feasible. What Senator Kerry is proposing is not that much different from the Biden plan for Iraq. The plan would not work in Iraq and it will not work in Afghanistan.

Some will argue that Senator Kerry never said that his plan was to work with the Taliban or allow them to remain in power in some of the areas around Afghanistan. To some extent this is true, however he did say: "Amazingly, the Taliban actually have ombudsmen to hold their shadow government accountable to the people. The legitimate government of Afghanistan cannot be less accountable than the Taliban, or we cannot be successful." This sounds like praise and it is absolutely not true. To think the Taliban could be held "accountable to the people" is the most naive statement I have ever heard.

Senator Kerry acts like Afghanistan is a country built around cities with modern roads and easy access from the rural areas to the larger towns and cities. He equates it to the United States with local and state governments running their particular state and providing security for it. He forgets that this is a 19th century country with rural areas still living in the 18th century. On one hand he says we must defeat the Taliban but on the other hand he says Al Qaeda is the biggest threat to the United States. He says we must not allow a return of Al Qaeda into Afghanistan but we do not need to increase our military strength. He says we must continue training Afghan military and allow them to gain security for Afghanistan without increasing our military. He says we must concentrate on building up Afghanistan cities, roads, schools and infrastructure thereby winning over Afghan support for a Taliban free Afghanistan without expanding the war inside Afghanistan. He says we should carry out a smaller counter insurgency plan that is more "doable" and "is “good-enough” governance, basic sustainable economic development and Afghan security forces capable enough that we can draw down our forces." This sounds like we only have to halfway win the war. I have never heard of halfway winning a war and I'm certain none of our enemies have this type of mentality. Either you are in a war to win or you are not. If you are not then please don't ask our military to sacrifice their lives for a mission that has no end.

In the end all the lofty goals that Senator Kerry set out in his speech can never be achieved if there is not enough security for the Afghan people. If we continue to allow the Taliban and Al Qaeda to terrorize the population we can never win their hearts and minds. If we do not have enough forces in place to protect the people while we are training Afghan forces, then the Afghan forces will find very little left to protect. Senator Kerry, like most politicians, is talking out of both sides of his mouth and has lost all respect of the military that have served and are now serving in Afghanistan. Kerry, Biden and Obama were all three against the surge in Iraq and they were proven wrong. If President Obama follows the plan of Biden or Kerry they will be proven wrong again. The stakes are too high to play a game out of something as serious as war. If any Commander In Chief loses the respect and support from his military or military commanders then he will surely lose the war. War is war and must be left to the men and women fighting the war. Mixing politics with war only leads to another Vietnam.

General McChrystal, and more importantly my neighbors and friends that are fighting the war, has said we can win this war with more troops. It is past time to stop the politics and support our troops. Even our NATO allies have said they support General McChrystal's plan and some are sending more troops. I cannot understand how our President can have less faith in his own general than our allies have in him. It is no wonder our President and by default the United States is looking weak in the eyes of our enemies and allies.

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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Obama Health Plan Another TennCare Fiasco

by Ron Spangler

TennCare in Tennessee has been hitting the news more today than at anytime since its conception. Critics of the proposed Government Option for all Americans point to the failure of TennCare to provide a government run program that would insure everyone that did not or could not not be covered by a private insurance company in the state of Tennessee. As a resident of Tennessee I believe the nation as a whole should listen to what people with experience in these government run programs have to say before they accept the proposed government option at face value. Trust but verify should not only apply to your enemies it should apply to all politicians.

Everyone must understand what TennCare is in order to understand how it failed in the past and continues to fail today, yes I said fail today. Tennessee was looking for a way to cut the high cost of heath care and decided to get out from under the Medicaid program. TennCare is basically Tennessee’s version of Medicaid. Contrary to what some people around the country may think, TennCare is still alive in Tennessee. It’s biggest private insurance company that is propping it up is Blue Cross Blue Shield. With the influx of new money being provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the American taxpayer and Federal Government is the biggest public entity that is keeping the program afloat.

According to Darin Gordon, Tennessee Deputy Commissioner the $1.1 billion in additional federal Medicaid matching aid will help TennCare avoid immediate budget reductions and allow the state to continue the program through December 2010. Another blessing for the state was the change in federal reimbursements. Before the act was passed for every dollar TennCare and ultimately the private insurers spent the federal government spent 65-cents and the state spent 35-cents. Now the federal government spends 75-cents and the state spends 25-cents. This has helped Tennessee since we are no longer facing a mandatory statewide agency reduction of 15% budget cuts for FY 2010. This does not mean TennCare can add any new services to its program, instead they must continue to cut cost by reducing the numbers of people currently covered that the state suspects or can prove are being fraudulently covered under the TennCare Program.

What all of this means is if the Federal Government and past actions of the Tennessee Democratic Governor and State Legislators had not come to the aid of TennCare, the program and the state would have been bankrupt back in 2005. Back then Governor Bredesen removed 170,000 Tennesseans from the TennCare program and reduced benefits and reimbursements to doctors and hospitals to save the program and keep the state from going into bankruptcy. While the efforts of Governor Bredesen, with help from the Federal Government, have succeeded in keeping the program alive fewer and fewer doctors and hospitals will accept TennCare patients. Under the Act, TennCare cannot expand the eligibility for coverage which means fewer Tennesseans can be covered by TennCare. As a result the governor has come up with another government insurance option called Cover Tennessee. This program relies on voluntary partnerships between the state, individuals and employers where each commit to pay one-third of the monthly premium of the low-cost product. With unemployment at 10.5% the program is running into trouble and the state may be facing another 2005 TennCare like crisis. Under both programs very few doctors will accept new patients so most people that are covered by these programs continue to use the emergency rooms for their primary care. By law the emergency rooms cannot turn people away but all they have to do is provide minimal care to stabilize the patient until other care can be found. This often means the patient is released immediately after they have been stabilized or transferred to a substandard medical facility like a nursing home, sometimes referred to as a rehab facility.

The bottom line is Tennessee’s government run experiment has been a dismal failure and if the President’s new Health Care Czar Nancy DeParle refuses to speak out against the public option she will be doing the President and her country a disservice. It is possible that due to the current outbreak of swine flu in Tennessee, both the TennCare and Cover Tennessee programs may go broke by the spring of 2010. It is also possible that if the unemployment rate continues to rise and the pandemic gets worse, Tennessee and other states may be facing another crisis similar to the 2005 budget crisis we faced in Tennessee.

It is unclear what will happen to TennCare if the federal government passes a national government option health care plan. It is clear that Nancy DeParle is going to have a large impact on what the government option looks like. DeParle served as Human Services Commissioner in Tennessee and should be well aware of the TennCare fiasco. Since the President has gone after the private insurance companies it is uncertain they will be part of a plan that is similar to TennCare. In all likelihood the federal government will have to design the program after Medicare. This in fact will be nothing more than a single payer plan. With Medicare already over 30 Trillion Dollars in debt I cannot see how the country can afford it, especially with the economy on the brink of disaster. DeParle knows that TennCare is nothing more than a huge albatross hanging around the necks of Tennesseans and it may get passed on to the rest of the country. If it does heaven help us all.

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Isolate Obama Take Back America 2010

by Ron Spangler

President Obama has made it clear. The way he has chosen to rebuild the country is force the population into a total state of depression and government dependence. This will allow the next great United States President to come to the aid of the country and lead the country, and the world, to a state of utopia with peace and prosperity to all mankind. This is the delusional mindset of President Obama and his secret Czar government.

It seems there is only one commentator on the cable networks that is coming close to admitting the true desires of President Obama. Glenn Beck has done a lot to bring light on this shadow government but he hasn't yet come around to admitting that Obama wants to follow in the Mao Tse-tung. He has shown all of the the close associations with members of the Czar government to Mao but he has not linked Obama to any direct quotes or statements of Obama supporting Mao. This in no way means Obama doesn't believe in the teachings of one of the greatest mass murderers of the twentieth century.

Americans are experiencing buyers' remorse as we watch the total destruction of the American way of life. This President and Congress are determined to rebuild America according to Obama and the Socialist way of thinking. It is no secret that the far left of the Democrat Party has always had a tie to Mao and the Marxist idea of communism. They may not understand the total concept of Marxist ideology but they like the fundamental idea of redistribution of wealth by giving the government complete control of the markets and business. They fail to see how repressive this form of government can be on the population they govern. They dismiss the torturous and genocidal acts committed by people like Mao Tse-tung, Stalin , Pol Pot, Lenin and other dictators that followed Marxist communism or Socialism. To a certain degree all of these murderers have something in common with some of the world's greatest con artist. They were all able to manipulate enough people into following them to overthrow their government and rebuild it under a complete communist or socialist doctrine.

President Obama has turned out to be the greatest con artist of the 20th and 21st centuries. He will also have the honor of being the President that destroyed America. Looking at Obama one can see the perfect confidence man by the way he manipulates people and is able to keep himself a safe distance away from anything that could be controversial. He is also great in cutting ties with any of his followers without encountering the wrath of the followers he has discarded along the way.

Throughout history we have always had confidence artist. Some common names for them are flim flam, grifter, shyster, hustler and sham artist. When it comes to manipulation and conning the media President Obama has far exceeded anyone in the past. He is a master at his game but like all great cons sooner or later the people being conned finally see reality.

One of the biggest misconception about the perfect con is that the con man is in it only for the money. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Money is only a means to the end for those that want to gain power and change the world. The biggest con games practiced in any society is practiced by unscrupulous politicians.

In America we believe in "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." We believe this means limited government intrusion into are personal lives. We know it means we have the right to decide how we live, where we live, and the path we will take in the pursuit of our individual idea of happiness. To Americans it means we tell the government how they should govern. We do not allow the government or the President alone dictate to us how much liberty we can enjoy. The con we are witnessing today is a President and a party preaching these concepts in public while they are ripping these ideas into shreds behind closed doors and in the darkness of their shadow government.

To perfect his con the President has fabricated one crisis after another and in his effort to solve these crisis he has spent America to the brink of bankruptcy. Since we are not quite there he must create another crisis that will shove us over the edge and then he can gain support for his grab for absolute power. FoxNews has been asking the tough questions like why and reporting on some of the things that are being done behind closed doors. For this President Obama has declared war on their network and is secretly working on a plan to bail out or take over failing newspapers in America. By doing this he can control the media and continue to consolidate power behind America's back. After he accomplishes taking over print media he will turn his attention to the internet. All of this is being done at breakneck speed. He must succeed in creating enough despair in America so the voter will turn to the government and President Obama to save them from financial ruin. Having the population completely dependent on government is key to his plan to fundamentally transform America into a Socialist state.

All is not hopeless and all is not doom and gloom. America has been through some very rough times in the past and has always come out the better for it. We still have our Constitution and our will to be free. When Americans come together and make their voices heard in Congress our Congressmen and Senators will listen just from the simple threat of being voted out of office. By calling, sending letters and emails to our representatives in Washington letting them know we are sick and tired of everything they are trying to do behind our backs we can make a difference. By voting the majority of Obama's supporters out of the House and Senate we can isolate him and stop his mad dash for power. With enough support a new Congress can force the President to rescind and repeal most of the laws that have been passed and that could possibly bring America to her knees.

Now is the time like no other for Americans to make their voices heard throughout the halls government. We cannot continue to buy into this con that is be perpetuated on us. We have the power and the government only has the power we relinquish them. It is time to stand up, unite and tell Washington we are not blind. We see what you are doing and we will stop you.


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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Advisers Biden Kerry Means Afghanistan Lost

by Ronnie Spangler

First President Obama had Vice President Biden advising him to reject General McChrystal and fight the war in Afghanistan with a small military footprint. Now we have Senator John Kerry advising the President to continue to delay and thoroughly think through any decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. With advisers like this the war in Afghanistan is destined for failure.

Senator Kerry stated on CNN “It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country, when we don’t even have an election finished and know who the president is and what kind of government we’re working with.” Vice President Biden and others have stated the same sentiment in previous interviews. What they really mean is the present government in Afghanistan may not be a government that will be a puppet to the Obama administration. They may not follow orders coming from the White House and our Democratic led Congress.

The question of whether the Karzai election was ligitiment or not is a totally different issue than the request for more troops. This is the same government we have been working with ever since the overthrow of the Taliban government. The one question Senator Kerry posed and seems to want an answer for "what kind of government we’re working with,” should have been answered back in March when President Obama laid out his first strategy plan for Afghanistan. Their idea of a peeling off and reaching out to moderate elements of the Taliban and making them part of the new government is a disaster waiting to happen. This is nothing new. Even the President said during his campaign that the possibility of breaking away some elements of the Taliban “should be explored,” and he repeated this idea aboard Air Force One during a Times interview. From the New York Times March 7, 2009 article:

"President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, much as it did with Sunni militias in Iraq."

This more than anything could explain the delay in making his decision on General McChrystal's request. He is desperately hoping things will turn around with the Taliban like it did with the Sunni militia in Iraq. He is hoping that if he just waits long enough the Taliban will get tired of fighting and another government will form under a new leader that will fight Al Qaeda for us. This will not happen. The Taliban hates America and anyone that does not believe in a puritanical caliphate that neither recognizes nor tolerates forms of Islam divergent from their own. A simpler way of looking at it is if you are not of the true Islamic faith and you do not follow Sharia Law in the most strictest sense, then you must be their enemy.

To some extent the Taliban is similar to the Khmer Rouge that devastated Cambodia. When it came to religion the Khmer Rouge was the complete opposite of the Taliban but, when it came to tactics used to control the population both were ruthless and genocidal. If we want to see a return of the killing fields in Cambodia, only this time in Afghanistan, then all we have to do is pull our troops out and let the Taliban regain control of Afghanistan. For the younger generation that don't know or have not been taught about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge they committed genocide of over a million of their own people after taking control of Cambodia.

Under both systems of rule the population must remain uneducated and women are nothing more than property that can be killed for the simplest of reasons. Any perceived threat to power or in the case of the Taliban any deviation from Sharia law by any individual, can mean instant execution or imprisonment. Under both systems of rule the government controls all aspects of life. The Taliban used the Quran and Sharia law to control the population and the Khmer Rouge used the purist form of communism to control the population. To remain in power neither system of government could allow the population to have any individual rights, freedoms, or to take part in a modern society. Any form of capitalism was and still is strictly forbidden. Modern cities with factories, schools, or modern technology cannot be tolerated since they could be a future threat to the government. In Afghanistan the schools that were permitted were only for boys teaching them Islam and Sharia law. In Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge they were indoctrination schools teaching true Marxist Communism.

With all the talk about how knowledgeable Vice President Biden and Senator Kerry are on foreign affairs, one would think they would advise the President not to consider making deals with members of the Taliban. With Pakistan conducting a all out offense against the Taliban, now would be the perfect time for our NATO forces to do the same. If the Taliban were hit from both the west and east they could be isolated in the mountainous areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan and eventually destroyed. Having to fight on two fronts the Taliban could not hold out for a long period of time. As the Taliban is destroyed so will Al Qaeda be destroyed and we can leave Afghanistan knowing the world will be a little safer without them.

Time may have already ran out for President Obama. If the Pakistani offense is successful the Taliban may be pushed out of Pakistan and back into Afghanistan. If this happens the Taliban can have time to regroup and regain in their strength. Without sufficient forces for General McChrystal to attack and deal the Taliban a fatal blow in the mountainous regions around Afghanistan, they will be able to increase their attacks on NATO forces all around the country. If the President and Vice President believe they can rely on air power and drone aircraft to dislodge the Taliban from these mountainous areas they will find their efforts to have minimal success. By the spring of 2010 their numbers will be sufficient enough to create havoc in every area of Afghanistan. As the attacks increase so will NATO casualties. As the casualty numbers increase our NATO allies will be forced to leave and as public sentiment in America turns against the war Afghanistan will be lost.

The longer the President takes to make a decision and the more Senators that speak out advising the President to go slow, the weaker the President looks. Indecision by any commander leaves the perception of weakness in the eyes of the enemy. This increases the enemy's morale and emboldens them to fight the war longer than they would have fought if they did not see an end in sight. The enemy will begin to believe that if they continue their struggle and their attacks we will become disillusioned and retreat from Afghanistan.

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Friday, October 16, 2009

Next Major Obama Crisis


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by Ronnie Spangler

Since taking office as the President of the United States, President Obama has encountered crisis after crisis. His next major crisis will be oil prices.

If you listen to this White House this President has faced and solved more major crisis than any former President has faced during the 1st year of their Presidencies. People are getting tired of the boy who cried wolf and beginning to wonder if maybe some of these so called crisis are just made up by the White House. Take the Health Care crisis for example. It hasn't been that long ago we were told that if the White House didn't get a bill to sign very soon the economy would not recover because the cost of health care and insurance premiums would skyrocket and force more people and companies into bankruptcy. The White House says the economic crisis has been partly solved and the economy is in recovery and its all due to the stimulus package they signed into law earlier in the year. Wall Street is booming on another artificial bubble but unemployment, oil prices and bankruptcies continue to rise.

With the News fixated on the Obamacare Health Plan being formulated behind closed doors, they are not watching as the oil market continues to climb toward the $100 a barrel price. This will be the next major blow to our economy. It is reminiscent of the 2008 housing and oil crisis that created havoc on Wall Street. The White House is not concerned about the steadily increasing price of oil because in the words of Rahm Emanuel " [You] Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before." In the mindset of this Administration when the price of oil reaches the $100-$150 a barrel price and as a result gasoline and diesel hit $3.50-$4.00 a gallon, it will be easier to pass his next big reform package. That package will be Cap and Trade or as the White House likes to call it the Energy Reform Act.

It is clear this White House is more concerned about transforming America into their ideological sense of what America is really all about than they are with how much suffering the American people will have to undergo during this "fundamental transformation." At the rate we are going with the steady decline in the dollar its only a matter of time before we see the price at the pump back at the 3 and 4 dollar prices that helped to destroy the market in 2008.

People try to separate the decline in the 2008 market and high gas prices as if the cost of fuel had nothing to do with increased foreclosures, increased job losses, or decreases in retail sales. It is all intertwined and cannot be separated. Transportation cost is a major factor to small business in the United States. The cost of transporting goods to and from small business must be factored in and passed on to the consumer or the small business owner will have no choice but to cut his labor cost to pay for the additional cost of transportation.

A perfect example is a small business with 300 employees that have contracts with Ford, General Motors, Honda and Chrysler making mirrors for certain models of vehicles. The small business cannot increase the price of their mirrors onto the vendors. Depending on the length of the contract the price the small business can charge for their mirrors must decrease each year by an agreed percentage point. If anything happens during the life of the contract that will add to the actual cost of manufacturing the mirror, that cost must be born by the small business not the auto company. This includes transportation cost of all the materials needed to build the mirror and the final transportation cost of delivering the mirrors to the individual vendor. How can the small business cut cost, by reducing labor cost. How do you reduce labor cost, by streamlining production and laying off some employees.

In their effort to streamline their production a small business will look toward automation of their assembly lines. They will try to combine individual parts of the assembly process into a simpler more cost efficient process. They will attempt to cut the operation down from a ten man assembly line to a five man assembly line. This means the five remaining employees will have to do twice the normal work at no additional cost to the company. The cost of any additional automation of the line cannot be more than the savings from laying off the five former employees. As the transportation cost continues to increase eventually the business will run out of ways to save cost and the contract will no longer be lucrative for the business to continue. At the end of the contract this business will have to compete with other small business around the country for this particular contract. If a start up company has lower labor cost and lower transportation cost they will undercut the previous business and win the contract. In the end if the small business continues to lose contracts they will continue to lay off employees until they have to close their doors completely.

This was part of what happened in 2008. As the price steadily increased across the country unemployment began to rise and wages remained stagnant. For years small business had to reduce cost but could not increase their prices. As they continued to reduce their cost by automating their lines and laying off employees consumers had to cut back on spending. The consumers were the same employees that were losing their jobs. When it came to the point of paying their ever increasing state property taxes, home mortgages, or putting food on the table they chose putting food on the table. Home foreclosures increased due to the variable rate adjustments coming due and more consumers who were unemployed or under payed. As the foreclosures increased the banks began to fail and government stepped into the market. They have done nothing for the small business but everything for the banks. Now they are sitting back and watching as 2008 repeats itself.

Remember back when there was the cry around the country to "Drill Here, Drill Now." Other than the price dropping after the election nothing much has changed. The unemployment rate has skyrocketed and less people are spending but no more oil is being produced and the government is spending worse than any drunken sailor could ever dream. The government continues to allow the dollar to decline against other world currency and the price for oil is steadily increasing. With America being the world's largest consumer you would think this administration would understand that Americans cannot spend if they are unemployed. Banks and credit card companies will not loan money to the unemployed and given the choice of putting food on the table or paying your creditors most Americans will choose putting food on the table. If the price of oil continues to rise we will be right back to where we were in 2008. This time the White House will gain nothing from the crisis and this one will go to waste, unfortunately it will again be at the expense of the American taxpayer.

People around the world should demand this President get off the campaign trail, stop making meaningless promises and giving false hope. It is time to stop the drunken spending frenzy and get back to basic economics 101. Cut the corporate tax to be competitive around the world. Increase the interest to bolster and stabilize the value of the dollar. Demand Congress open up America to drilling offshore and cut the restrictions on oil shale extraction. Use the remaining tarp money to help small business expand and put people back to work. Mostly stop creating crisis to gain political points and not letting the crisis go to waste. People around the world should understand that as goes America, so goes the rest of the world.


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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pay Per Post

Just joined PayPerPost. Advertisers are welcome. Will review products accept comments and give an honest opinion.

The interior defense dines under the sabotage.

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Friday, October 9, 2009

CBO Health Care Numbers Will Change





by Ron Spangler

Message to the Democrats and President Obama. Before you count on a victory for the Senate Bill to come under the trillion dollar mark and be deficit neutral you should remember this preliminary cost analysis by CBO will be sure to change.

The cost analysis was done on the summary of the Bill without the true legislative language and is therefore only a preliminary guess at the true cost. A more realistic expectation of the true cost cannot be done until the CBO has the actual language and numbers in the final Bill.

It will be too late by the time the language is given to the CBO for the full Senate to react and vote in accordance with the real numbers. The Democrats have scheduled the vote to take place before the CBO has a chance to crunch the final numbers.

After the bill passes the Senate along party lines then it will go to the House where it will join the other Bills in conference. Behind closed doors the House and Senate Leaders will consolidate the Bills into something that no Congressman or Senator will recognize and it will pass and be signed into law by President Obama. Well after the fact the CBO will analyze the Bill and it will be somewhere between 1 and 2 Trillion Dollars.

By the time President Obama signs this Bill into law we will be facing another crisis bigger than the Health Care issue and our minds will be directed from the signing and ramifications of this new law.

The Health Care issue is coming to an end and we will have this government option fiasco forced down our throats. The results will not be immediately felt by the taxpayer and the Democrats will use it as a win during the next election cycle in 2010. They are betting the economy and job numbers will be better by the summer of 2010 and that will save them from feeling the voters wrath by Nov 2010. They are really betting on a lot of good things happening between now and then. Personally I can't see any of this happening. The unemployment rate in the spring will in all likelihood be over 10 percent but the real number of unemployed will be more like 30 percent.

The second part of President Obama's stimulus package will be released but it will probably be too late to have a real effect. By the summer the government will probably be reporting the unemployment numbers are starting to drop and the economy is rebounding. I doubt that people will buy it but the media will promote it. Will it be enough to divert the attention away from the Health Care Reform Bill that the Congress passed back in 2009, only time will tell. Will the Democrats win on their bet that the voters will forget, again only time will tell.

There are a few things we know for sure, the numbers will change, it will cost over a trillion dollars, it will add to the deficit and illegals will be covered.

Pundits like Bill O'Reilly have a bad habit of saying we have to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt and we have to assume the President is doing this or that and it will in the end benefit America. I don't know if Mr. O'Reilly really believes this or is just trying to get President Obama to come on his show and stop boycotting Fox News. I learned a long time ago what happens when you assume anything in life. Maybe Mr. Reilly should look up the common man's definition of assume.

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United States Bracing For Bankruptcy 2010


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by Ron Spangler

As President Obama accepts the prestigious Nobel Peace Award, Americans are left wondering how they will survive as our economy continues to collapse around us. Congress and the President seem to be more concerned with spending than they are with putting American workers back to work. They are so focused on reforming health care in the United States they cannot see what is going on around the world. Regardless of what America wants this Congress and President will pass a government option health care reform bill and the deficit will be increased. Illegal immigrants in accordance with our Constitution will be covered under this new government plan and the President knows it.

Nancy Pelosi has already stated there will be a Value Added Tax (National Sales Tax) passed by this Congress and signed into law before or shortly after the 2010 elections. Along with this tax there will be a hidden Windfall Profits Tax slipped into the Health Care Reform Bill that will be passed onto the consumers by the insurance companies. At a time when Canada, Australia and others are seeing an increase in new jobs and a drop in their unemployment rates our job market continues to decline. Gold prices have reached record levels and will continue to rise. This indicates the rest of the world is worried the US economy and the dollar will soon collapse under the pressure of its huge trillion dollar deficits.

Where does this leave us in 2010 and 2011, in economic bankruptcy and another Depression. The only shoes left to fall that will drive us into National Bankruptcy is China refusing to loan us more money and the dollar being replaced as the World Monetary reserve. The first step will be replacing the dollar as the currency used for trading in oil and unfortunately our treasury and our President cannot see the danger in this action.

After the President signs into law the Health Care Reform Bill, Congress will pass the Cap and Trade Bill (they like to call it the energy bill). Like the Value Added Tax and the Windfall Profit Tax this will be another tax not only on business but every consumer in America. All of this will come to a head in 2010 and the nation will be devastated.

As the rest of the world is recovering from the recession they are scared America is not going to recover and be the prosperous leaders that we once were. Instead they see America as a country that is fast approaching Socialism and worry that there will be internal conflict that could drag the rest of the world into another economic downturn. They see American leaders as weak and economically ignorant. In an effort to save their own countries from following America into another Depression they will cut all economic ties to America, especially the dollar. As a result of continued over spending, high taxes, unemployment increasing, continued printing of US dollars and the eventual increase in inflation our economy will be bankrupt before the end of 2010.

Because of the current bubble and artificial stimulus the American market has been experiencing for the past few months, Congress doesn't see a problem with our economy. The President and Congressional leaders still believe we have time and if we are patient the American job market will once again rebound. Once Americans return to work they believe we will be able to afford all of the new taxes they are going to impose on the consumer. They are living in a world of fantasy and the rest of the world knows it.

High rolling gamblers that lose are the best thing that can happen to places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City. High rolling Presidents and Congressional inexperienced leaders are the worst thing that can happen to a nation. In times of war and recessions the last thing we need is to have the inexperienced gambler treating the war or our economy like a game of chance.

There may still be a glimmer of hope for our economy but only if the President and Congress abandons the course they have chosen. They will have to immediately cut spending including reverse the proposed wholesale health care reform. They can reform health care by taking small steps to cut the cost of heath care.

They can drop any notions of any type of tax increase in the foreseeable future.

They can reduce corporate taxes and encourage business to return to the US.

They can raise interest rates to strengthen the dollar.

They can ban all pork barrel spending and prohibit any add on amendments to bills during conference committee hearings. They can rule that all spending amendments must be directly related to the bill or the amendment must be sent as a bill and stand on its own merits.

They can open up the oil fields for offshore drilling.

They can eliminate some of the government bureaucracy and red tape surround drilling within the United States. They can not only pass Tort Reform they can restrict the frivolous lawsuits by environmentalist that is nothing more than a stalling tactic to stop oil exploration in the United States.

They can use the previous stimulus money to help small business stay afloat during this recession.

They can drop the Cap and Trade idea and instead encourage small business to produce more goods at home.

The government can reduce the amount of goods they buy from foreign countries and start buying more from US businesses that produce the products in the US. By buying American goods the government can create a market here at home.

They can restore consumer confidence by showing consumers they are aware of just how serious the situation really is.

They can show the world they are leaders by dealing with illegal immigration and simply enforce the laws against hiring illegal immigrants. During this time of high unemployment there are plenty of Americans willing to do the work that illegals are currently doing.

All of these are common sense things the government can do to turn this recession around and restore our position as world leaders. Americans are hard working people that are willing to sacrifice today for a brighter tomorrow. Right now we are sacrificing without the work and the future looks very dim.


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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Politics War and Obama

by Ronnie Spangler

When politicians tie the hands of our fighting men and women fighting the politicians war, the only result can be they will lose the war at a devastating price in the number of casualties and American prestige around the world.

With the debate still continuing in the White House time is running out for our men and women fighting the war in Afghanistan. President Obama, whether he believes it or not, is looking weak in the eyes of the world. Over the weekend former Prime Minister Brown of Australia said America is not in this war alone. He predicted if America listens to Generals Petraeus and McChrystal he is confident our allies will contribute more troops to counter and fight back Taliban forces. Other allied leaders have also quietly stepped up to the plate. They understand they cannot lose Afghanistan to the Taliban. They also understand it is not Al Qaeda that poses the biggest threat of defeat in Afghanistan but it is the Taliban.

In some of my articles I pointed out that no country has ever been successful in invading and conquering Afghanistan and this is true. However I have also pointed out that we can win in Afghanistan much the same as we have won in Iraq. We are not invading Afghanistan with the intentions of conquering the country trying to install our own form of culture, religion and set of values on the people of Afghanistan. The goal is to deny a repressive and tyrannical form of government from returning to power, thereby giving Al Qaeda another safe haven to attack America and our allies. Al Qaeda has been severely wounded and once the Taliban has been defeated we can finish off Al Qaeda in Pakistan once and for all. If the Taliban is successful in forcing us out and returning to power, this goal will not be obtained.

One of the biggest condemnations on the way President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld handled the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was they were trying to fight a war on the cheap. The critics were right and the majority of the critics were Democrats. Now we seem to be hearing these same critics saying the war in Afghanistan is too expensive and maybe we can do it cheaper. The surge in Iraq and the consequences of the surge have not been that long ago. We need to look at the lessons learned and apply them to Afghanistan. President Obama cannot let politics interfere with his decision, either he is going to support our Commanders on the ground or he is not. There cannot be only half measures taken when fighting a war. Either you go all in or you get out and face the consequences for retreating.

Vice President Biden and General Jones are wrong in their belief they can win in Afghanistan by using a small counter insurgency, special forces and air power tactics alone. The type of terrain our men and women face in Afghanistan will not support this type of campaign. We may be able to deny the Taliban from controlling the capital of Afghanistan but we could not stop them from attacking our forces whenever and wherever they please. The number of Taliban is too large and is constantly growing in numbers. A perfect example is the latest attack on our outpost along the border. The number of Taliban attacking the small number of US forces resulted in not only US casualties but closing the outpost and giving the Taliban better access to a border crossing. Our military
defeated the attackers and drove them back but it came at a high price to the small US forces that were defending this outpost. If President Obama follows the Biden Jones plan we can see more and more of this type of combat happening on a daily basis.

Another problem with this type of plan is our allies will not climb on board with this type of strategy. They will begin to withdraw as the Taliban gains more control of Afghan territory. Our allies have always looked to America for leadership in the world. When it comes to military matters and fighting wars they have always looked to America to take a leading role. NATO has never won a war that has not had America out front leading the fight. A large portion of NATO forces are non combatants and see their role as peace keepers restricted by their individual countries from taking a offensive combat role in NATO actions. We enter a conflict under the NATO flag but in the end the fighting is done by the US and a handful of true dedicated allies. The French proved their worth in Rwanda when they stood around and watched as genocide was committed but they were restricted from taking any combat action to counter the mass killings.

If President Obama decides he is smarter than his commanders and decides to give them only a portion of what they request to win this war then he will be guilty of the same criticism the Democrats threw at President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld. Time is running out and we cannot afford indecision by the Commander In Chief. Either we are in this war to win it or throw up the flag of retreat and get out. We owe our military that much.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Dealing with and Treating Migraine Headaches

by Ronnie Spangler

Sometimes dealing with migraines is as simple as keeping a diary.

This may not be the answer for every situation but it may help some people that are suffering from repeated migraine headaches. I am not a doctor so I would advise everyone suffering from chronic migraines to seek advice from your doctor and ask if this might be an alternative to some expensive testing and treatment like prescription drugs.

For ten years my wife suffered from extensive pain caused by migraine headaches. She went from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital. We could never find the answer. At one hospital she spent a week undergoing tests for nerve damage, high blood pressure, cat scans, sleep deprivation disorder, if you can think of it it was tried. Luckily it was a time when my insurance paid without question, a long time ago.

Like I said nothing was ever found that could be related to the cause of the headaches. This all took place in the 80s and 90s. After I retired we sold our home and moved to a small southern community a good distance from any large cities. The hospital and most medical facilities were small thereby requiring a fair amount of traveling for most major illnesses or treatment. All life threatening situations required airlifts with Medcare to larger hospitals. The headaches continued and my wife continued to endure them with over the counter medication and prescriptions from our family doctor in our old town.

It wasn’t until we found a doctor in our community that we found some hope in relieving her of some of the pain. The doctor was a older gentleman that was only taking on new patients with kids that were participating in some school sponsored sport, i.e. football,basketball,wrestling,etc. Since my son was in high school wrestling, we needed a doctor for his physical. While we were talking to the doctor the subject came up about my wife’s problems with her headaches. The doctor was sympathetic and concerned. Although he was close to retiring and wasn’t taking on new patients as a rule, he agreed to become our family physician.

Our new doctor got in touch with our old family physician and after receiving all of my wife’s records including the past test results and treatments, he told us he had an idea. He told my wife he wanted her to start keeping a diary. I thought to myself maybe we needed another doctor, maybe a little younger. He told her it wasn’t going to be a daily dairy but one that related directly to the time she experienced the migraines. He explained whenever she felt a migraine starting, she should think back to the week before and write down everything she did and most important everything she ate and drank. He wanted her to go into details about the type of food she ate and the drinks she drank. He told her to continue the diary from the week before to the week after she experienced the headaches.

Finally we had some good news. It was only about a month after she started keeping the dairy that we had a breakthrough. The doctor read over the dairy and after he explained the connection it made sense. He said he thought her problem was the combination of chocolate candy and caffeine. He explained there is a natural ingredient in chocolate that if combined with too much caffeine could be an overload to her system and set off the headaches. He considered pain to be nothing more than a warning that something was wrong and maybe we should do something about it. He wanted my wife to first cut out the chocolate altogether but continue with the caffeine and keep the diary. After three weeks my wife called him and told him she had only had one headache since her last visit and it was minor compared to what she was used to. The doctor told her to stop the caffeine and she could have an occasional piece of chocolate or chocolate candy bar.

After another three weeks the doctor called and asked my wife how she was doing. She told him again she had only one minor headache and a couple of aspirins took care of it. He set up an appointment and we discussed his findings. He believed the problem had always been the combination of too much chocolate and caffeine. He informed us it wasn’t necessary to stop either one altogether. He believed the natural ingredient phenylethylamine combined with large amounts of caffeine were the culprits causing the migraines. He suggested she try going a month without any caffeine or chocolate and then start back with limited amounts but never mixing the two.

It has been about 9 years since the good doctor has passed away and my wife has for the most part been migraine free. She continues to have the occasional headache, but now attributes those to me. To this day she drinks caffeine free drinks and only eats chocolate occasionally. Whether this will work for anyone else is not for me to say but we are grateful for the help we got from that small country doctor that was ready to retire.


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Monday, October 5, 2009

As GM and Ford Cars Go Green the Economy May Collapse

by Ronnie Spangler

With the rush to go green the government must decide if they will allow the gas prices to reach the $4 to $5 magic mark that will encourage more interest in the green cars the government is endorsing.

With more and more auto companies jumping into the green car industry are we looking at gas prices being artificially increased to force people out of their gas and diesel powered vehicles? After Tesla Motors Incorporated, makers of all electric vehicles received a $465 million dollar government loan they partnered with Fisker Automotive and received another $529 million dollars. They are being backed by former Vice President Al Gore. They will not be selling their cars in the US but offering their high end expensive autos to Finland.

Henrik Fisker says they will produce about 15,000 lithium ion battery powered cars to be released in the US by June 2010. Fisker calls them Karma. This is only a portion of the $25 Billion program designed to help the auto industry go green that has currently been given out by the Department of Energy. According to the Wall Street Journal $8 Billion has been loaned to Ford, Nissan, and Tesla. There was no mention of General Motors in the Wall Street Article, but it is widely suspected they will receive a large influx of taxpayer dollars for their green cars.

Remember the words of GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz,”And US fuel prices will have to rise to world levels, meaning $5 or $6 per gallon.” He was referring to the cost increase Americans would have to be subjected to before there would be a market large enough to be profitable in the US. Would the automotive industry and all of the new green car companies be so willing to invest their own money without some guarantee that something will happen that will create a huge market in the very near future?

All the hype surrounding Electric vehicles and the new green industry reminds me of the same hype that surrounded the Vectrix Maxi Scooter in 2008. It turned out to be a failure but at the time cable TV news organizations were falling all over each other to show it off. Nothing has really changed in the technology but the Lithium Ion battery. All the variables that were the downfall of the Maxi Scooter
apply to the Electric Cars of the future.

So how would $4 to $6 gas prices collapse our economy? Like it happened in 2008 everything we touch would increase in cost. This time with the economy already in recession and more important the unemployment expected to exceed 10% nobody will be able to afford this new green environment. Will going green have a positive effect on our job situation, not likely.

In the wind turbine industry 9 out of 10 manufacturers are outside of the US. Most of the solar panel manufacturers
are out side of the US with China now number 1 in the industry. Why is this green technology springing up in foreign countries instead of the US? Because of all of the restrictions and high wages placed on American companies. Solar panels are only one example of green products that are not environmentally friendly to build. Since China does not concern themselves with restrictions that could hurt their economy they mass produce solar panels cheaply. They also accomplish it through cheap wages and government subsidies.

GM has backed away from all of the Volt marketing and high production numbers they were pushing in 2008. Ford is going slow on their Electric vehicles. GM has cut the production of the Volt scheduled to be released in 2010 to around 10,000 in the US. Ford is looking more to 2011 for their stepping into the world of electric cars. Both are waiting to see who is left standing after 2010.

With the government so heavily invested in the auto industry would it be a surprise to see the oil prices and gas prices return to 2008 levels, sadly the answer is no.

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Sunday, October 4, 2009

Raising Children, Some Things Never Change

by Ronnie Spangler

No matter what the experts say raising our children is strictly a matter for the parents and there are a few simple basic rules that have applied throughout history.

We can learn more from our parents and grandparents than we can ever learn from books on parenting and the so called parenting experts. Somehow young parents in our society have come to depend on books and the internet for advice instead of asking their parents for their advice. Some of it is the natural belief that everything changes from one generation to another. While there may be more technology and more avenues for information some things in human nature never change.

Children of all ages need love, discipline, security and know they will always have someone they can rely on. Younger children prior to teenage years need the security only a close knit family, including the grandparents, can give them. The memories and lessons they learn at this age will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Having good memories of our childhood leads to a more positive and optimistic outlook on the future throughout our lives. If children learn early in life to remember only the bad times then as teens and adults they will be pessimistic and only expect the least out of life. We have to remember that children from the time they take their first step and speak their first word are always looking for more knowledge. They want to be just like the big people that are hovering above them. They want to someday be able to do the same things these people are doing. What we do or say in front of children will be the things they do and say as teens and adults. Deep inside of us is the natural instinct to emulate our parents or an adult that we remember from our childhood. It may not be a conscious memory, one that we dwell on everyday, but it is there influencing us in everything we do.

Have you ever had someone say to you, “You sound (or act) just like ____.” We may not realize it but what they are saying is we are emulating someone from our past that had a profound effect on the way we think. The person may have disappeared from our life and we probably don’t even think of them very often but the memories are still there. For this reason this is the time parents must teach their children what’s right and what’s wrong. This is the time to teach their children to have respect for their elders because these are the people that have experienced life, both the good and the bad. This is the time to teach them that nothing is free, if they do good things then life will reward
them but if they do bad they will be punished. This is also the time to teach them to believe there is always something more to life than just living day to day. Now is the time for them to understand the meaning of life and death. If you believe in god then it is your responsibility to teach them that there is something better waiting for them in the afterlife. This is the time to let them know the world does not have to be a scary place and life can be a wonderful and rewarding thing.

As our children turn into teenagers we tend to think it is time to treat them more like friends than our kids. For too many kids this is a mistake. Teenagers like adults are individuals and we all have our own way of thinking and we all want to show our individualism. Teens are striving to show they are grown up and able to think for themselves and we have to respect them for it. Part of growing up is having your own friends and getting out from under the tight control of the parents. We as parents have to understand and accept their growing up even if they stumble and fall along the way. We have to understand that their friends belong to them and most teens resent sharing friends, especially with parents. We have to understand that teens do not want to be our friends. While they are going through a period of challenging our authority over them, they know and deep down in their heart they expect us to remain the authority figure in the family. Even teens understand we must all have certain rules to follow or the world would end up in total chaos.

Think back to the first time you as a young boy or girl challenged your dad or mom. Did you do it because deep down in you thought what you were about to do was a mistake or was it because you thought mom or dad was just an old foggy that wasn’t hip with today’s generation? More likely than not you were about to do something that you thought may be a mistake and you wanted someone to say stop.

As parents we must be vigilant during every phase of our children’s lives. We must always be the adult, the one they turn to when they need an answer or a helping hand. After they are adults and have made much of the same mistakes in life that we made, then and only then will they accept us as friends. Until this time what teens and young adults expect most from their parents is act like parents. Show the discipline when discipline is needed. Show the love, respect, encouragement and understanding when it is needed. Above all else do not be afraid to act like an adult and say no when it is appropriate.

The last basic rule in life is simple, as teenagers boys interact better with fathers and girls interact better with girls. It is a right of passage for boys to challenge their fathers and girls to challenge their mothers. It is how we as parents handle the challenge that will determine the rest of the relationship for years to come. If we understand the challenge for what it is and remind ourselves we went through the same thing, then we can act like adults and withstand the challenge. If we do not fall short in the eyes of our kids than I can guarantee that later on you will find that you are not only parents but you have gained new friends.

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Mr Obama Its Taliban Not Al Qaeda


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by Ron Spangler

As a Senator and Presidential Candidate Mr Obama along with Senator John Kerry and other Democrats repeatedly accused President Bush of taking his eye off the ball in Afghanistan. They constantly reminded America how important it was to defeat the Taliban and deny Al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan. Now everything has changed for President Obama.

He announced in March 2009 that he had a new strategy for Afghanistan and this was a war that we could not afford to lose. He appointed General Stanley McChrystal as the new Commander on the ground in Afghanistan and assured him of his full support. After Gen McChrystal gave his report and assessment of the situation on the ground President Obama back peddled and is now seeking advice from others like Vice President Biden. Meanwhile we are losing more troops in combat than we have since we went into Iraq.

President Obama will not acknowledge that it is the Taliban we are fighting in Afghanistan, not Al Qaeda. He and Vice President Biden seem to think it is only Al Qaeda that is a direct threat to America. I would like to remind them and the rest of the Democrats that without the Taliban running Afghanistan, Al Qaeda will have very few places to hide. Most of the Muslim world is tired of Al Qaeda and will not let them hide and attack America from within their countries. They have seen how Al Qaeda lost in Iraq and what happened when a determined America refuses to give up.

In speech after speech President Obama and his spokesmen will not say anything about the Taliban in Afghanistan. When they are asked about Afghanistan and the fighting that is going on, they always refer back to beating Al Qaeda. Its the Taliban that have been attacking our troops. Its the Taliban that is trying to overthrow the Afghan government and force all of NATO out. It will be the Taliban that gives Al Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan if we capitulate and leave with our tail between our legs.

I have made comparisons between Afghanistan and Vietnam. There are also differences. The military today has better equipment and technology and it is a all volunteer military that believe in the mission. If they are allowed to fight and they receive the support from both the politicians and the public they can defeat the Taliban and destroy the remnants of Al Qaeda in Pakistan. It will not be a short casualty free war in Afghanistan, no war is ever casualty free. It will take time and determination the same as it took to defeat Germany and Japan in WWII. President Obama must come clean with the American people and get them behind the war.

He was right when he said this is a war we cannot afford to lose and most Americans understand this. If he thinks he can win public support by saying it is all about Al Qaeda and dismissing the Taliban he will lose the public, Americans are not stupid. Its time President Obama, Vice President Biden and the rest of the Democrats came to grips as to the real enemy in Afghanistan. Like happened in Vietnam it will be the politicians that will lose this war not our military.

As a veteran myself I hate sending our young men and women to fight and die in foreign countries. However unless we are prepared to accept another 9/11 we must finish what we started. It was the Taliban government that allowed Al Qaeda to train and plan the attacks on America. If they regain control they will feel emboldened to help Al Qaeda attack us again. The Taliban and Al Qaeda will seek revenge on our allies and Pakistan for actions they have taken against them during our time in Afghanistan. President Obama must stop the misguided thinking that we only have to defeat Al Qaeda to call Afghanistan a success.

There is a reason why Vice President Biden did not win in his run for President. Just like his idea of separating the different factions in Iraq by partitioning off the country was stupid, so is his idea that you can win in Afghanistan with a small special forces and airpower strategy. This is a police action attitude and similar to the attitude prior to 9/11. The world is watching what happens in Afghanistan the same as they were watching in Iraq. The situation in Iraq is winding down and unless President Obama does something stupid like an immediate withdrawal, Iraq will go down in history as a success. If he does not listen to his commander on the ground but decides to listen to civilians with no combat or military experience Afghanistan will go down as a failure. If this happens it will not only be President Obama that looks weak and timid it will be America. If we as a country look weak in the eyes of our enemies and our allies then our enemies will attack and our allies will be reluctant to help us in our next hour of need.

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Friday, October 2, 2009

Letterman and Other American Celebrities


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by Ron Spangler

What has happened to entertainment in America when a audience does not understand when a comedian is being funny, serious, or just plain stupid? David Letterman's revelation of having sex with female CBS employees was serious, stupid and was not funny at all. Somehow his audience could not tell the difference and laughed as if it was just another monologue being delivered by the late night comedian. At the end, they even applauded when he announced he would never speak about it again.

On the set of The View Whoopi Goldberg tried to defend and justify convicted rapist Roman Polanski's action by saying it wasn't "rape-rape". What does that even mean?

At the same time 100 of the most famous Hollywood celebrities signed a petition in support of Roman Polanski. These are some of the same individuals that support Venezuela's Chavez. They also support Iran's right to nuclear power and justify their quest for a nuclear weapon by pointing out that America has nuclear weapons.

It seems in America celebrities live in their own world of what is right and what is wrong. In the case of Letterman one has to wonder how many of these women were married? Did this go on while Letterman was engaged to be married and continue after his March 2009 marriage? Were these women fellow employees of CBS or were they subordinates of David Letterman? If they were subordinates, did his then fiancee and later his wife know or approve of his affairs with his subordinates? What is the difference between Letterman and the politicians he lampoons for cheating on their spouses especially when they have children? Did all of these women willingly consent or was pressure applied relating to their positions at CBS? Is David Letterman really so charming that career employees at CBS are falling all over the place to jump in the sack with David Letterman? How many employees are involved and was any of their jobs in jeopardy if they did not consent to Letterman's request? And the biggest question, will the public continue to support Letterman by laughing and watching his shows?

I don't even know where to begin with Whoopi Goldberg's comment on Roman Polanski not committing "rape-rape." It has to be one if not most stupid things she has ever said. If a 43 year old man supplies alcohol and drugs to a 13 year old girl then has sex with her while she is saying no/stop, it is rape. The act of sodomy against the young girl just shows how depraved the man really is. Whoopi and the other celebrities living in their own little idea of America just don't get it. They rant and rave about how all people are equal and everyone is entitled to the same social justice. Except when one of their own is found to have committed a crime that most Americans feel is extremely heinous. Then they somehow think justice means leniency and understanding should be shown toward the criminal. In their America they believe even the most atrocious sex offender or rapist should receive counseling and allowed to redeem themselves in the public eye. In their fantasy America sex offenders are suffering from a sickness that can be cured with adequate treatment and understanding. It is sad that some in America are supporting their fantasy by supporting them every time we tune in or pay to watch their movies.

What does it say about a society that supports celebrities like Letterman, Goldberg, Michael Moore, Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Oliver Stone, Naomi Campbell, and the 100 artist/directors supporting Roman Polanski. All of these people living in their fantasy America have either shown support for our enemies or shown public support for rapists and pedophiles. Because they are celebrities we look the other way and continue to support their world by paying our hard earned dollars watching them on TV or at the movies.

Maybe it is time as a society we take a long hard look at our true America and family values.

Maybe its time we tell our children this is not the values we as Americans and decent people prescribe to.

Maybe its time we show our children there cannot a double standard in America, we must all suffer the consequences of our actions regardless of whether we are rich, poor, celebrities, or common folk.

Maybe its time we tell the world as a free society with American values we will not support people that do not share our common values.

Maybe its time we sent a message to the fantasy world in Hollywood that supporting America does not mean belittling our country while you are traveling abroad. Maybe we should show these people they cannot continue to meet with our enemies and show support for their tyranny and oppression of their own people without the celebrities paying a price at home.

Maybe it is time we look deep into our society and our culture to find that common ground that bound are founding fathers so tightly together. Maybe, just maybe it is time.


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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Saving The Family Saving America


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by Ron Spangler

With everything that is going wrong in the world today it is no wonder families are breaking apart. We have become a society more dependent on government than at any time in history. Starting in the 60's with welfare, people began raising entire generations on the backs of working taxpayers. It was better off for some families to draw government checks than it was to work for a living. It didn't take long for people to figure out that if there was no father or husband in the house a family could receive a check from the government. In fact, the way the system was set up it encouraged women to raise their children without the father being present in the home.

Children living under these conditions saw no incentive in working for a living if they could raise a family that was supported by the government. It was much easier to stay home receive a monthly check, food stamps, WIC, and live in subsidized housing than work eight to ten hours a day and maybe receive less in the end. The father didn't have to be completely out of the picture, he just couldn't work or if he did the parents should not be married or better still the father didn't live in the same house. Children growing up saw this as a way of life. The only drawback, there was s stigma placed on families living off welfare from the very same people that cried out the loudest for government to give a helping hand to the less fortunate.

It was and is a noble cause, helping the less fortunate in America. When the helping hand helps so much that it destroys families or encourages families to rely on a government system instead of the family, it has gone too far and is no longer a noble act. Churches, charities, and other private organizations in America have always been far better at providing assistance for people in need better than the government. It is easy for some to scam the welfare system and receive money, food stamps, housing and a education if this is how you want to live your life. All you have to do is be willing to live a life according to the rules of the welfare department. Never mind that these rules and the criteria that decided who should receive welfare was designed to discourage a normal family environment. It was better to stay single and raise four kids than it was to be married and both parents work to raise those kids.

Most of the time families that grew up under these conditions did not join in normal family or community activities. Kids grew up without a father in the home and had little discipline in their lives. The stigma of being on welfare meant you stayed within the community that fit into the life you were living. This helped to create more and more slum areas in every city in America. The hypocrisy of the rich and middle class that said the government must provide welfare to the poor but looked down on the poor as less important did more harm than good. They sent the message to some that if you stay in your own little part of the world the government will always take care of you. They also sent the message because you are poor the rest of the world owes you a better life. These messages resonated and the young started to look for better ways to fit in within their own communities and to make money without working for the man.

Without the family discipline and the normal community activities to help guide the younger generation, kids started looking for the things the rich kids were flaunting on TV, movies, and colleges. Growing up with the idea that society owes them some kids developed the attitude they could take what they wanted or if they replaced their family with a gang, then they could have everything they wanted.

Gangs have been around forever in some form or another. Some are a joke while others are dangerous and must be dealt with by authorities. If kids do not have the family, community, or some form of religion to teach them right from wrong and to be self reliant, then the kid will be easy pray for the more dangerous gang in their community. Families that have some form of faith in god country and family and believes they can succeed in life if they work hard will be the families that saves America from destruction.

During the 90's there was a call for welfare reform. A lot of people were taken off welfare and put to work. Families started to stay together and even church attendance around the country increased. The economy picked up and more and more people were buying homes. Unfortunately the gangs had taken a firm hold in most of the major cities around the country. Making money from drugs, extortion, prostitution and weapons was easier than working for a living and for some it felt like they had power or had more control of their lives. Living in the gang they saw nothing wrong with taking what they wanted or if need be killing to get what they wanted. When it comes to gang attitude nothing has changed.

Today the economy is faltering and people are out of work. Families are falling apart and kids are turning to the gangs for support. America is facing one of the most dangerous periods to face her since WWII. We are not only under the threat of another Great Depression, we are at war and also worried about terrorist attacking our cities. Americans are divided on the direction the government is headed and feel we are not being listened to. As a society we have only one option if we want to save America.

We as a people must unite as a family and as Americans. We must work on keeping our families together. We must teach our children the basics of life and right from wrong. We must teach them to be self reliant and explain that nothing in life comes free. We must teach them to have faith in god, faith in family and the how important it is to support their country. We must unite with other families and authorities to stop the gang violence in our cities.And we must unite as Americans to let the government know the direction we want them to take America.

If we believe the government is getting too big, if we don't want government health care, if we believe Iran must be stopped at all cost from getting a nuclear bomb, if we believe stopping the Taliban and Al Qaeda from returning to Afghanistan, if we believe it is time for the government to stop the spending frenzy, then together we must write, call and email our Senators and Congress. We must tell them we are American families united to save America.


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