winnowing news & views

Things are happening so quickly that it is hard to keep up. Extremely important issues that not only affect the financial burden that we will pass on to generations but the very structure and definition of our government. The speed at which these changes occur are causing them to be brushed away as the latest news becomes the hot topic.
Campaign slogans are forgotten with new promises. And this was a specific campaign promise from Obama; There would be transparency and the time needed to discuss the issues. This just isn’t happening.

Remember how you felt when that salesman was trying to get you to close the deal, now… We may not be able to get more in stock, the price will never be this low again, etc.” A good salesman understands urgency. “And if you call right now, ’cause you know we couldn’t do this all day”…

Apparently, congress understands this closing technique and not only creates it but demands it. It’s easy when you own the Presidency, the House and the Senate and have always wanted more than you knew you could get. Well, the gate has been opened.
Transparency, hell, these folks aren’t even transparent to one-another. Major bills are being passed with no time to read them let alone discuss and debate them. The whole AIG bonus debacle never would have happened if the bill had just been read. The CEO had every right to honor those bonuses according to what Congress passed and he was contractually obligated to do so. This was the same CEO that Obama fired. You know, the man who came out of retirement to help and was running GM for $1.00 (one dollar) a year. I came close to pulling an Elvis on my TV watching congress grill him.
What else will come out of this bill that wasn’t read… stay tuned.

The forthcoming tea parties are a direct result of the unbelievable spending by an administration in a recession and the manner in which it’s occurring but there is so, so much more at stake.
Bills and budgets are being passed quickly (it’s good to be the king) and because the cost is so outrageous that is where most of our attention is focused. As alarming as this is, my concern is the programs and the bureaucracy these represent and fund.
The Democrats were constantly berating Bush as a power-hungry President and within three months they have created and are setting the wheels in place for the most powerful, largest government we have ever seen in America.
They scorned the previous administration for it’s abuse of privacy in the Patriot Act yet we are seeing the government not only regulate but manage private enterprise.

OK, finally, it took awhile, but the regulations and the AUW have driven GM out of business. Now the government can build the kind of cars it wants for it’s citizens. You know the kind of cars that Americans really don’t want, the kind that cause thousands of deaths each year due to their light weight for gas consumption. You know the ones that get better gas mileage so we can drive more… Oh, wait, are we trying to save gas or the planet, I get confused.

The point I’m making is all this is culminating in a much larger government. Exactly what our founders wanted to avoid. There is a reason America has come so far so fast. Freedom – free enterprise. A small federal government with states that have the right to decide their governance.

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than state owned and controlled.

It is now more important than ever to really understand what this country is all about. So many people don’t have a clue. Most slept through American history or have forgotten or were never really taught.
I think most of you will agree that America has been a phenomenon in it’s rise to prosperity, innovation and strength… it didn’t just happen by chance.
So, as much as possible, I will be relating how policies being made today contrast with what our founders envisioned and wrote.  
The better we understand the path the founders set forth for us the better we will understand how we veer off that path,

It takes a village to raise a child.
        … No, it takes good parents.

“We should raise taxes on what we don’t want people to do…”
–Nancy Pelosi

“We as a people…”
          not “as a nation”

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste…it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.” — Rom Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff

Residents of small-town America “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them out of bitterness…” 
– Barack Obama on the campaign trail.

Quotes like those above should be giant red flags that betray the true feelings and mindset of the person making the statement.

If you haven’t seen the HBO Miniseries “John Adams” then I highly recommend you do. A great movie to watch with your family. I’ve seen it several times and it always brings tears to my eyes. The great courage, wisdom, blood and tears that went into the making of this country is well documented in a very easy to watch entertaining way. It also reminds you why and what America is as our founders fight for their independence and craft a constitution that will result in the greatest country on planet earth.
I think this should be mandatory viewing in high-school.

The Dems (Liberals) don’t have a clue about the Tax Day Tea Parties and if they did they would not admit it. But I sincerely believe they don’t get it.
What is freaking thinking Americans out is the path we are on. The basic structure of our government and it’s involvement in our lives.

So as John Adams said: “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.” I think it’s time we revisited our founding documents so we have the knowledge to know what path America is on.

History is our guide. Knowing the principles that founded this country as well as the many lessons history has taught us.
I don’t see much new in the Obama/Pelosi/Clinton/Reid/etc.  “vision”… I do see many ideas that have been tried in this country and others that have failed and an ever more liberal, progressive (Progressivism) agenda being set in motion.
I use the word progressive because that is how democrats are defining themselves. So what does that mean… progressive?