GOP or Democrat. Regardless of what you call them, they still stink.

~ republi – crat? ~

The primary is over in Delaware. So….I put the question to you, what have we learned from this charade? Well, I don’t know about you, but this is what I got out of it; politicians (more specifically; incumbent politicians) are about as trustworthy as an Arab Jihadist wearing a suicide vest bomb in a crowded market full of elderly Jewish people and little children. He will almost certainly push the button and KABOOM! Off to his virgins in the land of paradise and it’s business as usual for the Holy War! So it goes for politics, business as usual.

What I have been trying to figure out though, is just exactly where do all of the players in this game of shenanigans actually stand? I was naively under the assumption that the Republicans would back the winner of a primary, for that matter they would back potential candidates as well. Not so, it seems. Watching this election in Delaware, it makes one wonder just who is backing whom and what agenda do they all really represent?

There was a time not long ago, when the Democrats were not really the bad guy. My parents being from the south were Democrats forever it seems, but the roles have changed drastically. For what ever reason, the Dems are now aligned with a radical bunch from the far left and the Republicans, who used to be a Conservative party are now in the same position that the Dems used to occupy. They have forgotten their Conservative base. This then is the crux of the problem. Their Conservative base is still a Conservative base. We haven’t changed our values, they have changed theirs.

In my opinion, there is not one iota of difference between Republicans and Democrats. They all spew out the most vile rhetoric that I have ever had the displeasure of listening to. They do not represent me or my views and PBO is lost somewhere in Karl Marx land. Scary stuff.

~enter “THE TEA PARTY” ~

Average American citizens, who are now fed up to the top of their necks with the lies and spending frenzies by our duly elected public servants and for the first time in most of their lives, they are actually standing up to this and saying NO! They are now the most misunderstood and often misquoted, most maligned, chastised and cursed at bunch of violent renegade activist’s that ever walked the face of the political arena. How dare they even be allowed to participate in the election process. What gives this bunch of hooligans the right to interfere with the age-old process of electing an official into office? They are clearly all too dumb to understand what is at stake here. Right?

Mike Castle a ninth term incumbent in the US House. One of the ruling class elites, has been dethroned by a commoner; Christine O’Donnell! Backed by those repulsive “TEA PARTIERS” and that indignant Sarah Palin and criticized by politicians and pundits from both sides of the fence, she now faces an election that will ultimately prove the average American’s disdain for POLITICS AS USUAL.

~ we are fed up! ~

When the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) announced that the GOP’s fundraisers, would not support the Tea Party’s favorite candidate in the upcoming November 2^nd election, I just about popped my cork. Although they backed off of their original statement, it was too late for me. They let the cat out of the bag, they showed us their hand. Just where is their allegiance? The same old tired policies and the same old worn out bureaucrats.

It looks like they would get the message. America is in the middle of an up-rising of sorts. We are fed up with failed policies and politicians that believe they know better than us. Passing sweeping legislation against the will of mainstream America, is a precedent that not long ago would have been unheard of in our Government.

In their zeal for total control of the American way of life, they left one tiny detail out of their agenda. US!

In November, all of the incumbents, Republican or Democrat will be reminded just who signs their checks once again. Apparently they need a reminder. Do your civic and patriotic duty, VOTE! Show them that defy the peoples will, the door. Show them just who the “TEA PARTY” really is!

~ Reagan was right ~

“Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: ‘We the people.’ ‘We the people’ tell the government what to do, it doesn’t tell us. ‘We the people’ are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which ‘We the people’ tell the government what it is allowed to do. ‘We the people’ are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I’ve tried to do these past eight years.

But back in the 1960s, when I began, it seemed to me that we’d begun reversing the order of things—that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, ‘Stop.’ I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.

I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”

~ Ronald Reagan, 1989

~ a tribute to a great American ~

9-11 AND PEARL HARBOR. REFLECTIONS OF THE PAST

~ Then and now ~

I was having a discussion with my wife today about attitudes in this country, circa 1941 VS 2010. Today being the 9^th anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Centers in New York and the attack on the Pentagon. Our world was turned upside down on that fateful day, life would never be the same as we knew it. I remember where I was then, at first just another insignificant day, but the end result was a different outlook on life and my country, at least for me personally.

Not knowing what had happened before my very eyes, showed me how little I was paying attention to the world around me. I had been tuning out the news and focusing mostly on my little world. What a safe little place I used to live in, or so I thought. I suppose many of us had the same out look and it took an event like that to wake us up. Regretfully, I believe that many have gone back to that very mindset. Life goes on around you and as long as nothing directly confronts you, then all is well. How easily we forget the past.

~ Sunday December 7, 1941 ~

World War II, began officially on September 1, 1939, when Germany attacked Poland. Germany then crushed six countries in three months; Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and France. Afterward, it conquered Greece and Yugoslavia. America remained neutral.

The Empire of Japan’s plans for expansion in the Far East led it to attack the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. Which formally brought the United States into the war. By 1942, all of the major countries of the world were involved in one the most terrible wars in history.

I remember the conversation that I had with my mothers best friend Melba, shortly before she passed away two years ago. “Your mother and I were together when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. We made a promise to each other that day. No matter where we were, we would contact each other every year on that day, from then on.” I never knew that. They too felt the same emotions that we did on 9-11, the day that “Pearl Harbor” became a day of “infamy”.

America’s men and women rallied around the flag and launched a nation wide call to arms to bring about retribution from those that attacked us without provocation. A monumental effort was made with the full consent of Congress, to do what ever was necessary to bring those responsible either to justice or to their knees. The offending countries were in essence, reduced to rubble. The will to ever want to wage war on humanity again was taken out of them. They were forced to pay the ultimate price for their transgressions and the world was now a much safer place.

2388 Americans both military and civilians, were killed early that morning in 1941 and the final tally of those who lost their lives as a result of that war may never be known, but it is estimated at about 55 million world-wide.

~The aftermath ~

After the end of WWII, America saw a time of prosperity. The troops came back home, business was booming again, the economy was gaining ground and people were back to work again. There was a sense of pride and accomplishment that permeated the nation. America’s wounds were beginning to heal. Manufacturing had developed into a well oiled machine, there was nothing that we as a united nation could not do and we proved that during the war. The world watched as we became the most prosperous country on the planet. The standard of living here, jumped by leaps and bounds. The American dream was now a reality.

American ingenuity and a cannot fail attitude, led the way during the war and rebuilt a nation on the brink of financial decay only a few years past. It was attitude that ultimately made the difference. Not defeatism or apathy, but rather the willingness to work hard and sacrifice, that made the difference. An American trait that was characteristic of our people. It took a tragedy to unite and bring us back from the precipice.

~ Tuesday September 11, 2001 ~

At 8:45 that morning, 19 Islamic terrorists, hijacked 4 commercial airliners with 247 passengers on board. Two of the planes were crashed into the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon, The other; flight 93, never made it to its target, which was presumed to be the US Capitol in Washington DC and crashed near Shanksville Pennsylvania, after the passengers in a valiant effort tried to retake the plane.

There were 3372 people killed in the attacks on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center including those on Flight 93. 125 military personnel and civilians were killed at the Pentagon. A total of 3,497 Americans were killed that day.

Do you remember the shock that you felt first, then the sadness for the loss of life with those images of people jumping from the top of the towers rather than being burned alive? I shall never forget it. I was numb. What if that was one of my family members there or what if I was in that building that day? What about the responders who gave up their lives so that others may have survived? What about their families? The pain. The anguish. The tears.

Eight months in, what a way to start off your Presidency. George W. Bush, then President of this nation did, exactly what every American was thinking on that tragic day. He went after the criminals behind this. The economy of America started to crumble then, just as surely as the Towers did. I am not sure that it ever recovered. The War on Terror began that day. We went into Afghanistan after the Taliban who claimed responsibility and later into Iraq. The rest will be left up to the history books.

~ The aftermath ~

Americans for the first time in a very long time banded together, put away their differences and became united with a common cause of patriotism and retribution. This was the best that I have ever personally witnessed us as a nation of mixed ethnicity. It was amazing.

Our economy was finally starting to come back together and life was getting back to normal somewhat. But things were different. We had faced an enemy on our own land for the first time in many years. Was this the last of it? Our Military had been asked to move into harms way once again, but all of the rules were changed. Our troops found themselves immersed in a quagmire, that was being micro-managed by non-military people. The Congress. The full-scale effort that was behind the defeat handed to our enemies in WWII, was once again not present in this war. Like Korea and Vietnam, if you are not ready to commit to the war 100 percent, then you are bound to fail.

The attitude of American people has changed over the years. No longer a cannot fail attitude, but rather one of apathy and tolerance. Make no mistake, we were attacked on that day by a cowardly enemy as we were on that day in 1941, but things are different now.

The willingness to pull together and sacrifice for the good of the nation is not as prevalent as it was then. We watched on the inter-net, the caskets of our fallen draped in US Flags being delivered home by Military Planes and we were outraged that our sons and daughters were dying as a result of this war. Incidents that are common in wartime conditions were taken apart by every liberal do-gooder in the country and used as fuel for the fire against this war and the Bush administration.

~ Nine years later ~

The Obama administration came on the scene promising to end all of the frustration that our countrymen were expressing over this war. A war that we did not start. A war that began with a cowardly attack in New York by an un-seen enemy. An enemy with the stated purpose of killing Americans and raising the Islamic flag over the White House in our generation. An enemy that seeks world-wide conquest, as much as Germany, Japan and Italy did. An enemy that does not distinguish between civilians and military as targets, who will willingly kill women and children to further their cause. An enemy with no regard for human life what so ever.

Because of an attitude of tolerance, this administration is willing to back a proposed Islamic Mosque on the every site that all of this began. The very enemy of our people want to build a Mosque on the most hallowed ground on American soil other than the site of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Given the differences in attitude between then and now. What do you suppose would have happened, had there have been a proposal by the Japanese, to erect a memorial to Japanese forces at the site that they attacked in 1941? There would have been a resounding cry from every house in America all the way to the Capitol and the President screaming at the top of their lungs: not just no, but HELL NO!

~ Hope and change ~

The very things that are destroying this nation are welcomed with open arms by a generation that knows nothing of sacrifice and hard work. They laugh at the previous generations that bled for this country and think that tolerance is a promise of safety and prosperity. They have no idea what is at stake. The freedoms and liberty paid for in blood by their ancestors are all but forgotten. They do not know of hardship or of honor.

Obama’s ideology, that big business and banks are the enemy and that the wealth of this nation should be re-distributed to those who do not contribute is a course that can only lead to disaster and ruin. His willingness to engage the very enemies of this nation with appeasement instead of strength are a danger to national security. His willingness to strip the military and our defenses down to nothing are insane in this world of tyrants. Hope and change, a fatalistic approach to the destruction of this great country at the hands of a tolerant generation who are willing to allow this to happen.

EPA Defeats 2nd Amendment With A Backdoor Deal.

I bumped into a man the other day, who’s profession is house painting. This is what he has done for many years and has made a decent living at it. He is a contractor who takes on the sometimes difficult and challenging task of painting homes. I know from personal experience that painting is something that I am not very good at and will almost always get more paint on myself, than the target area. It is just plain and simple, physics to me. Paint and a paint brush require a lot of clean up after I have finished. It will inevitably wind up in places that never needed painting in the first place and I would have to scrape it off. Basically, I suck at painting. I imagine that there are a lot of people that have the same skill levels as I do and painting, would be out of the question for them also.

So what do we do when a paint job, becomes a necessity? Well, you call in the Pro’s from Dover. (That is one of my favorite lines, from the original movie; MASH. I stole it and am very fond of it and I use it a lot, thank you very much!) Or for a better choice of words; you call in a paint contractor. Now I know what you are thinking. This is a conservative, political forum. What could house painting and paint contractors, possibly have to do with politics? Simple. The Ubiquitous EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency. These guys have been very busy as of late, passing a multitude of rules and regulations that you may not even be aware of.

Well…anyways, back to the painting contractor that I bumped into. He was very involved with a job, painting the interior of a friends home. It is a large house with very high ceilings and the homeowners were just not capable of doing the work themselves and hired it out. This guy has been doing this type of work for many years. He is a small business man. He had a couple of helpers and things were going okay for him in-spite of this recession, or depression, depending on your version of the definition. Enter the EPA.

“There is a new EPA Rule. Beginning in April 2010, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects for compensation that disturb lead based paint in homes, child care facilities and schools built prior to 1978 MUST have a lead paint certification from the EPA. They must also follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination. Those affected by this new rule will be contractors, sub-contractors, maintenance workers, painters and other specialty tradesmen who disturb painted surfaces during work.

The rule states that all contractors and firms who perform painting work or are labeled as painters and who disturb lead based paint as part of their work in pre-1978 built homes, schools and other buildings must be EPA Certified.

Of course this is an EPA regulation. It does NOT matter what state or United States territory you perform this work in, you will still need this EPA Certification.

The rule is written and enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency, a branch of the Federal Government.”

This is the good part: “There are a lot of EPA regulations and fines for non-compliance. We are specifically targeting the new rule that was passed as of April 22, 2010. It carries fines of $32,500 for non compliance.“

Cool hunh? So he weathered the recession only to come up against new regulations for a small business in an already tight market. What the heck, it’s only money right? So now, by federal law he has to acquire a lead paint certification for himself and his crew, at his own expense.

Who will have to comply?

“Not only does the rule affect general contractors, but it also applies to any specialty contractor that in the course of their work may disturb a surface that could have lead-based paint. This would include plumbing, painting, HVAC, electrical, finish carpentry, drywall, insulation, siding, tile, glass and glazing, as well as others. (It would be advisable for general contractors to verify compliance by their subcontractors by obtaining a copy of their certification.)”

What is the contractor required to do?

“The rule requires that anyone doing renovation on targeted facilities obtain certification that evidences they are trained in the use of lead safe work practices and that they will follow specific work practices when performing the renovation. What this means to you is: (a) your company must receive certification, (b) a certified renovator must be assigned to each renovation of a covered facility; (c) all persons performing work on the project must receive on-the-job training by a certified renovator; (d) all renovations must be performed in accordance with the EPA work practice standards related to lead-based paint; (e) you must provide the owner and occupants of the property with an EPA pamphlet advising them of the lead hazards associated with renovation and obtain a signed certificate of receipt; and (f) you must keep records of compliance on all projects.”

The rules and regulations for this boondoggle are something akin to the new Obama-Care legislation that was just shoved down, I mean dutifully passed by our very wise legislators. Several thousand pages of incoherent dribble that only, the federal government could conceive. Try reading it. Here is the link if you dare! http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-TOX/2008/April/Day-22/t8141.htm

Just when PBO called off the recession and said that it was safe to go back into the water, here comes another stifling new regulation, that will not only kill more jobs but will probably lead to an increase in really ugly homes without any “curb-appeal!” And this is nation wide! Once again at the mercy of our federal government. As told to me by the paint contractor, the money received by the EPA in fines and fees will go into a special fund for the specific purpose of…guess! Go ahead just guess, I bet you will never figure this one out. Give up? To hire more EPA agents to enforce the law! Is that not incredible? Maybe not, maybe you already saw that one coming, it was kind of a no-brainer.

Now the scary part.

Imagine this scenario, in the not too distant future, the EPA under duress from extreme environmentalists, decides that for everyone’s best interests, That lead ammunition should be banned along with lead based paint. Lead is lead…right? It has been proven that lead contamination is the very reason for retardation in children, by clinical analysts and this is just one more link in the deadly chain. It must be eradicated or abated, as they have stated. We would have to accept it, because it is for the good of the country. Right? Why there would be absolutely no objection to the banning of ammunition containing lead by any rational person. Only thing is, there is that silly little little “loop-hole” in the US Constitution called; The 2^nd Amendment. We know that one. The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but; technically they would not be banning firearms, just the ammo. Well heck, that’s okay! I’m good with that. If it means saving the planet from destruction as a result of lead contamination, I would agree. Wouldn’t you? That’s probably what they are counting on.

They passed rules similar to this many years ago, only it was lead bird shot found in shot gun shells. The environmentalists were afraid that it would be used to hunt ducks and of course the shot would inevitably land in ponds and lakes and you guessed it; contamination and we all know what side those crazy environmentalists are on. Right?

Call me crazy, paranoid or whatever, but do you not think that the EPA has gained a little more power than necessary? I know that their job is to protect us, but really.

One cannot help but wonder why the Department Of Homeland Security, recently signed a contract with Winchester Firearms Corporation, for the procurement of 200 million rounds of .40 caliber ammunition and on another note; Heckler and Koch recently inked a deal with the DHS for 65,000 new sidearms to be delivered to agencies under the DHS, representing the single largest procurement of firearms in history for a US Law Enforcement Agency at a cost of $26.2 million dollars. Amazing isn’t it? So what do they know, that we do not know? Hurry…go stick your head back in the sand and pretend you did not read this! It is all a dream.

~ How’s that “Hopey-Changy” thing working out for you? ~