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BONNIE'S BLOGS |
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May 12th, 2012
“I know no safe depository of
the ultimate powers of the society but the
people themselves; and if we think them not
enlightened enough to exercise their control
with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is
not to take it from them, but to inform
their discretion by education. This is the
true corrective of abuses of constitutional
power.”
Thomas Jefferson - letter to William Charles
Jarvis
September 28,1820
I’ve been trying to find an
intelligent excuse for my obsession with the
world of.politics, and
I think I just found it in the above quote.
I’ve been educating
.myself “as the
true corrective of abuses of constitutional
power.” Gathering information
and sending it along to you has also given
me a good .excuse
to exercise my obsession.
Getting to the news of
the week: the campaign for the presidency
has really .heated
up. In fact, President Obama has already
been tagged for over-the-top
.campaigning.
This article in Deseret
News gives
more than a few details. If
.you want
to learn more, check the links in this
article. The ad that Dana
.Milibank
refers to in the Deseret article
can be seen here in Townhall, along
with .Mitt
Romney’s response. Even the Navy Seals are
unhappy with the use of the
.bin Laden raid
for political purposes. This article in The
Daily Mail tells
the Navy .Seals’
story. Here’s a little more of
the story from Investors
Business Daily.
Continuing with the
campaign, President Obama’s new ad features
a cartoon .character
named “Julia.” Obama will take care of her
from cradle to .grave. Here’s
his grand plan. The Obama administration
gets things wrong again.
.What’s wrong
with the picture in panel 6 when Julia is
25? The Heritage
.Foundation comes
to the rescue and sets the record straight
with their plan.
.And then
there’s Zachary, Julia’s son. How does he
fare in a post-Obama world? Read about him
in this article in City
Journal.
.Has
the silly season begun? I think so.
Michele Malkin, in her Townhall article,
.gives us a
good chuckle. Maybe Scott Brown can breathe
a sigh of relief in his
.campaign to
keep control of his seat in the Senate.
.President
Obama continues to say that the economy is
making a rebound. But
.according to the numbers on job
creation that came out this week, things
don’t .look so
promising. The Wall
Street Journal has
the story.
I have a few more .charts
for you to look at in this Morning
Bell article discussing
the budget mess .we’re
in. For the charts, click on the links.
.I
have a few tidbits from our EPA to share
with you. The EPA regional
.administrator
resigned over his “crucify them” remark.
Read about .it here in Townhall’s Tipsheet.
Here are two more articles on the same
subject. .This one in The
Morning Bell,
and this article from Big
Government.
Did you get a .little
chill after reading these? Maybe we should
turn up the heat and get
.angry!
The Utah 2nd
Congressional District investigation is
still ongoing at this date.
There were a couple of
stories this week in the Salt
Lake Tribune.
.This one sheds
a little more light on the controversy. But
this one is
just plain
.scary.
We don’t want to be represented by another
Democrat.
I’d like to end with a
moving, personal interest story I came
across this week.
.George Will
has been on my reading list for many years.
His columns are always
.a challenge because of his rich
vocabulary. There are always a few words I
.have to look
up. However, in this article he
reveals a personal family situation,
.that many
other families have faced, but we see his
for the first time.
“If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation”.
Samuel Adams
letter to Elbridge Gerry
November 27,
1780
The campaign
season has started. President Obama was out on the
campaign trail this week visiting three college
campuses touting his student loan program. This article in
the Des
Moines Register gives
a picture and the flavor to what the President is up
to. Rates on student loans will go up on July 1.
Romney’s position is the same as the President’s
which is to extend the low interest rates. The House
got on board this week and voted to extend the low
rates, but the President promised a veto of the
bill, because it pays for the low interest rate
extension with money from Obamacare. In its Morning
Bell article,
the Heritage Foundation gives the rationale for not
messing with student loans. As usual, I think
they’re right.
There were three
articles I wanted to bring to your attention last
week, but I was running out of space, so I’ll
squeeze them in this week. One is about a new
federal agency, the Office of Financial Research or
OFR, which has slipped in under the radar. Fox
News describes
it as stirring ‘Orwellian’ fears. Read about it here.
The second
article is
from American
Thinker about
Senate Bill 1831 which deals with transportation and
much, much more. The third article is
in Human
Events and
tells about an executive order President Obama
signed back in 2010 to protect the aquatic
environment. This one is really far-reaching, and
there’s been little or no coverage in the press. A
must read.
Last Sunday was
Earth Day. I bet you didn’t even know it was Earth
Day. I sure forgot. But somebody didn’t forget and
made this video to
challenge the environmentalists on Earth Day. This
one is sobering.
Continuing with
the campaign, Mitt Romney gave an excellent speech
after winning the 5 state primaries this week. This article in Commentary gives
an excellent review of that speech.
The President
seems to be a bit worried with Mitt Romney’s
fundraising, because as Kim Strassel reveals in herWSJ article,
the President’s made a little list. Remember Richard
Nixon’s “enemies list”? Strassel notes that since
then Presidents have carefully avoided such
practices -- until now.
American
Crossroads is on the other side of the net serving
one back to the President with their video on
Obama’s “cool” factor. This campaign season is
going to be an interesting one.
The Utah State
Convention had, it seems, its own little drama
playing out last Saturday. It was in our own 2nd
Congressional District. I was able to come up with
three articles which shed some light on what took
place. Thisone from Utah
Policy was
the first, The Salt
Lake Tribune had this to
say, and The
Deseret News posted this one.
I hope we learn more.
One last thing.
Dee Osborn brought Utah Grassroots to the attention
of the Legislative Committee. It’s a super
resource. Link to it here.
April 21, 2012 “If, from the more wretched part of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.
Thomas Paine, Rights
of Man
Date: 1791
Taxmageddon
January 1, 2013
This past week
all of us taxpayers settled up with the government.
This year this annual task was filled with more
rules and regulations. But this is nothing compared
to what’s facing us next year. If our members of
congress can’t stop this tax locomotive steaming
down the tracks, look out! This
article gives
a good overview of what will happen if nothing is
done. There
are two links in the article for further reading.
Can you take a
little more bad news on taxes? Because, hang on,
there’s more to come. This blog on
the Heritage Foundation’s The
Foundry lists
the new taxes we’ll face when Obamacare kicks in.
Hopefully, we won’t have to worry about Obamacare
after the Supreme Court Rules in June.
President Obama
has been distracting us with his “Buffett Rule” to
raise taxes on wealthy Americans and job creators in
order to supposedly bring “fairness” to the tax code
and pay down the debt. This Heritage Foundation
Morning Bell article and
Dana Millbank’s piece in
the The
Washington Post point
out what a foolish gimmick this really is and that
Obama knows it. Both articles have links to more on
this topic.
The “Buffett
Rule” had its test in Congress this week and
“surprise surprise” it was seen for the gimmick it
is. The House voted 234 to 179 against the bill,
with 5 Democrats opposing it. It was defeated in
the Senate 51 to 45, with Republican Susan Collins
voting for it (you can’t fix stupid) and Democrat
Mark Pryor voting with the majority against it.
We all know that
raising taxes isn’t the answer to our economic
future. It’s the spending that’s the problem. One
of the “adults” is Washington is Senator Tom
Coburn. He’s written a new book, The
Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from
Bankrupting America.
In this op-ed piece in Real
Clear Politics,
Senator Coburn gives us a preview of what he feels
we need to be talking about to save our nation.
This is a must read!
There is a
glimmer of good news. Obama may face defeat on his
blocking of the Keystone Pipeline. On Wednesday of
this past week, the House voted with a veto-proof
majority, 293 to 127, with 69 Democrats joining the
majority, to move the pipeline forward. And it
looks like they’re just a couple of votes away from
breaking Harry Reid’s filibuster in the Senate.
Byron York’s article in The
Washington Examiner fills
in the details.
President Obama
has had a rather bad week. One I’m sure he’d like
to have skipped. There was the GSA scandal, then
the Secret Service scandal in Cartegena, and the
then silliness about him eating dog meat as a
child. Well, laugh-a-minute Mark Steyn really had
fun with the Secret Service scandal in this article in National
Review on Line.
Have a good laugh!
April 14, 2012
“We can either adjust to the climate as it changes,
as we have always done, or we can adjust
after wasting billions -- no, trillions -- of dollars in
a hopeless attempt to control the temperature of
the Earth.”
Apollo
VII astronaut, Walter Cunningham I’m going to go in a different direction this week. I know there’s plenty of politics in the news: Rick Santorum has left the race for president, Hillary Rosen’s insulting remark about Ann Romney never working a day in her life, President Obama wanting to pass his Buffett Rule, etc. But there are other things affecting our lives, like gas prices. My husband and I have been planning a little road trip up to Glacier National Park, over to the panhandle of Idaho, up into Canada and back down the west of Idaho seeing as much of that scenic territory as possible. You can see that gas prices are going to have an effect on how many miles we’re able to travel. What’s driving these prices up? Nobody seems to have the answer. Is it turmoil in the Middle East? Is Big Oil taking too much profit? We’re running out of oil? Well, according to this article in News OK the petroleum age is just beginning. By the year 2020, it is anticipated that the U.S will be the world’s top oil producer. This is going to drive the environmentalists crazy. But that’s not all, what about natural gas? This piece in The American Thinker outlines the future of energy in the U.S., and even the world, with the development of natural gas production. This of course depends on a court decision expected in June 2012 and on the outcome of the November elections. Hydraulic fracturing known as “Fracking” is the means to accessing this treasure trove of natural gas. The EPA has been doing its best “regulatory persecution” against fracking practitioners. But this article in Townhall Magazine says they’re letting up a little bit on this regulatory assault on fracking. Maybe there is some hope for a good energy future. We all see those little stickers on the gas pumps telling us the percentage of ethanol in each gallon of gas we pump into our vehicles. It does cut down on pollution, but what has that done to corn prices? They’ve tripled! There’s a guy in Texas that has a better way of producing ethanol, but you guessed it, there’s a Renewable Fuel Standard law (RFS) standing in the way. This article in Forbes explains the problem. The Canadian pipeline, except for its southern portion, seems to be on hold for the foreseeable future. However, Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill to re-launch a review of the pipeline route. But Canada isn’t waiting around for the U.S. to make a decision. They are proceeding to build a “Northern Gateway” pipeline to where the oil could be shipped directly to East Asia. Apparently the Canadian government knows how to deal with environmental groups, because the government has eliminated environmental impact studies for 90 percent of projects, and has sped up their approval process. I wish Washington would learn a lesson from what Canada is doing. I have a ton of stuff still on my list, but it’s getting near dinner time, so I think I’ll call it quits for now. But I will leave you with a little lesson in how government should be doing things from President Ronald Reagan. ENJOY! April 7th, 2012 “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” James Madison
The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 47
January 30,1788
On Monday of
this past week, at a Rose Garden press conference with Prime
Minister Harper of Canada and President Calderon of Mexico,
President Obama announced: “We are confident that this will be
over – that this will be upheld.” “I’m confident this will be
upheld because it should be upheld. Again, that’s not just my
opinion. That’s the opinion of a whole lot of constitutional law
professors, academics and judges.”
Obama also said it would be “unprecedented” if the court took the “extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.” The President was referring to the pending Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare. You can read what else the President had to say in this CNSNews article. This really caused a firestorm, with many, that the President would go against the Constitution in such a manner. Hasn’t he ever heard of Marbury v. Madison? This article in Commentary Magazine calls it real chutzpah and goes on to say why the President was wrong in saying a ruling against Obamacare would be “unprecedented” and why it would be. Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell got a little heated in his speech to the Lexington Rotary Club this week too, telling the President to “back off.” This article in Politico gives the full text of his speech. The President was really in attack mode this week. On Tuesday, at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Washington, DC, the President took on Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget which had passed in the House. The President called it “thinly veiled Social Darwinism” that is “antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility”—a budget that sharply reduces federal spending on education, research, energy, and infrastructure. This article in the Washington Free Beacon is quite critical of the President’s truthfulness on this subject. What about the President’s budget? We found out last week that it didn’t get a single vote in the House. The National Review Online had this to say about the President’s budget. To sum up this week, theNewsOK says “the nations scolder in chief had been true to form this week.” You can read the article here. And now a couple of articles from the “funny papers.” Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, is at it again. First we had to fear “death panels”, but Kathleen is taking care of our fears with a new panel, a “happiness panel.” I know you think I must be kidding, but you can read about it here in the Heritage Foundation article. There are several more links in the article that you might want to take a look at. And here’s another one from Kathleen in CNSNews that you would never guess was a “chronic health issue.” Kathleen Sebelius and Obamacare have to GO!!! I think I’ve given you enough to read for now. Have a good week. March 31st
“But with respect to future debt;
would it not be wise and just for that nation to
declare in the constitution they are forming
that neither the legislature, nor the nation
itself can validly contract more debt, than they
may pay within their own age, or within the term
of 19 years.”
Thomas Jefferson - letter to James Madison
Date: September 6, 1789
The winning numbers were
02-04-23-38-46, and the Mega Ball 23. Three
people chose the winning numbers, and no, I
wasn’t one of them. They will split the $640+million lotto
winnings. Before you think I’m concentrating on
the wrong topic today, here’s a little factoid:
the federal government spends this amount in 96
minutes. You can check it out here.
We know we’re headed for a “train
wreck” if something is not done about government
spending soon. There were five attempts to pass
a budget in the House of Representatives this
week.
And the winner is:
0-------Votes
in the House for President
Obama’s budget
38-----Votes
for the Cooper-LaTourette budget,
which follows the
recommendations of the
Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction panel
78-----Votes
received by the Congressional
Progressive Caucus “Budget
for All”,
which anticipates
raising taxes to an all-time high
163---Votes
for the House
Democratic Leadership’s alternative
budget
228---Votes
for Budget
Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget - enough
to pass the
House
This article in The
Washington Free Beacon explains
how the House GOP budget overcomes hurdles on
its way to passage. The Ryan budget was voted
on the next day and this article in The
Hill gives
us the outcome.
Paul Ryan’s budget still faces
many uphill battles. It has both Republican and
Democratic critics. Two articles discuss some
specifics of those battles. This one from
Michael Gerson in Real
Clear Politics and
the other from
Michael Barone in Townhall.
This past week turned out to be a
pretty eventful one and maybe President Obama is
wishing he could have skipped it. Was it the
worst week of his presidency? This article in
the Washington
Times says
it was. One of the events was that ‘open mic’
slip up the President had with Russian President
Medvedev. This Telegraph article says
that was an embarrassment to have the President
groveling before the Russians. Then there was
the Supreme Court hearing arguments on Obamacare. Here’s
a nice little wrap up on those proceedings. This article in
the Washington
Examiner rubs
a little more salt into the wound. The Supreme
Court met again after hearing the arguments and ABCNews gives
us an idea of what comes next.
I had an article about the First
Lady’s and the Obama girls’ trip to Las Vegas,
but I think I’ll skip that one. See you next
week.
March 24th
“It will
be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men
of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they
cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood;
if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or
undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the
law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow.”
The Federalist Papers
Federalist No. 62
Date: 1788
Two years ago
this past week the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
also known as Obamacare, was signed into law. We were told by
then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, that the bill had to be
passed so we could find out what was in it. Well, two years
later we’re still finding out what was in it. I wonder just how
many of our lawmakers have read all 2400 pages plus of it even
now? Wouldn’t it be interesting if someone took a survey and
found out what the number really was?
Many
provisions in Obamacare have been studied and found very
troubling. This Morning
Bell article from
the Heritage Foundation states that Obamacare threatens not only
our healthcare and our economy but also our most fundamental
liberties and constitutional self-government. This article
points out many other provisions in the law that must be
repealed.
The US
Supreme Court will hear arguments on Obamacare’s
constitutionality beginning Monday of this week. There are
several articles discussing just what the Supreme Court will be
examining in the law. According to this article in
the Wall
Street Journal,
the High Court has scheduled the longest oral arguments in
nearly a half-century: five and a half hours, spread over three
days. This article goes into the legal issues and historical
precedents involved.
Here’s
another article,
also from the Wall
Street Journal,
with a slightly different, but reassuring perspective on the
case.
George Will
had an article in
the Washington
Post that
caught my attention. He sites an amicus brief filed by the
Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm,
which has focused on the fact that the individual mandate
is
incompatible with centuries of contract law. This is an
excellent article and well worth the read. You “legal eagles”
who’d like to read the full amicus brief can find a link to it
at the begging of paragraph 3 in the article.
I hope your
can hang with me a bit longer because I have one more article
for you to read on one of the issues in Obamacare taken up in
the House of Representatives this past week. The House voted
223 to 181 to abolish the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
(Sarah Palin got in hot water for calling this the Death Panel,
remember?) This panel consists of 15 unelected, unaccountable
bureaucrats empowered to have the final say over Medicare
payments. Sounds like Sarah was right. Unfortunately, this
bill will likely die in the Senate, but at least it calls some
attention to this IPAB.
You can read
the post here.
The Supreme
Court should rule on Obamacare before the end of their term in
June. It they don’t rule to strike it down, or portions of it,
then we only have one option. In November we must take the
Presidency, the Senate, and maintain control of the House, and
repeal Obamacare!
March 17th
“But
with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just
for that nation to declare in the constitution they are
forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself
can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within
their own age, or within the term of 19 years.”
Thomas
Jefferson - letter to James Madison - September 6, 1789
We
learned this week that Obamacare is going to cost nearly
double or triple what we were told it would, according to
CBO projections. This article in
the Washington Examiner gives us the details. There’s
an update at the end of the article with even more from the
CBO report. Just click on the link. The cost of Obamacare
is not the only thing worrying citizens. There are numerous
other things that we’ll be facing. This Forbes article was
a good one in laying out the facts.
As we
know, Obamacare is just one of the latest additions to the
national debt. Our leaders in Congress have raised the debt
limit time after time. We do have a few, a precious few,
who are trying to stop this madness.
This website will
tell you what one brave soul in the House is proposing.
Notice that this is only a preview from Budget Committee
Chair, Paul Ryan.
There’s
more to come from him. I’ll try to keep you posted.
Another
issue that keeps my angst level elevated these days is our
President’s pandering to the Unions and their bosses. He
certainly knows where the money is and he’s not going to
turn down a penny. Thisarticle was
the one that got my attention this week. As the writer
states: “It takes a special loyalty to protect union
officers who want to hide how they spend members’ money.”
Obama has given unions that and much more. The AFL-CIO can
expect a solid return on the $500 million it plans to spend
to
re-elect
him.”
How about
this one to get your “dander” up? Another favored group of
donors, to the President, are the Trial Lawyers. Boy did
they get a gift this week from Obama’s Department of
Justice! The DOJ has been issuing “guidelines” that
businesses must follow to comply with a multitude of the
nation’s civil rights laws. One of these guidelines is for
“recreational facilities,” including a new rule that all
public access swimming pools must provide a lift capable of
moving disabled patrons from their wheelchairs into the
water. The Washington Examiner gives the full story here.
I understand that since the deadline for compliance was
March 15, but deadline has been extended a few months. Read
about the deadline extension here.
I just
can’t resist touching on just one more subject this week,
Environmentalism. I don’t think that John Muir, when he
founded the Sierra Club in 1892, had in mind what that group
and the other environmentalist would be today. These three
articles in the Washington Examiner written by Marita Noon,
will give you a good picture of environmentalism today. The
links are here, here,
and here.
The Utah
Republican Party should be patting itself on the back for
its effort to get us to our neighborhood caucuses this
week. What a strong turnout it was! Our precinct here in
Ivins more than quadrupled its attendance. It appears that
that was the case all over the state. Good job Utah GOP!!!
Now let’s all help to keep the ball rolling into November
for the big one.
March 10th
“Let each
citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he
is not making a present or compliment to please and individual -
or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing
one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is
accountable to God and his country."
Samuel Adams in the Boston Gazette
As we
attend our Caucus Meetings this week to elect our delegates,
let’s keep in mind the above quote by Samuel Adams. We are
executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for
which we are accountable to God and to our country. Our
votes this year may turn out to be the most important and
consequential of our lifetime.
Some of
the items I gleaned from this last week’s political news
really support the notion of how important our votes are
this year. Take this one from conservative historian, David
Barton. He labels President Obama, “America’s most
Biblically - Hostile U.S. President.” In this article,
he presents 4 lists of actions by this administration to
back up his point. List 4 is particularly chilling.
At a
Senate Hearing this week, the Department of Defense
Secretary, Leon Panetta, testified that the U.S. must seek
international permission for military action. Senator Jeff
Sessions is dumbfounded at what he is hearing. This video of
the exchange is 7 minutes long, but well worth the time to
hear this shocking statement. It’s as if the Constitution
doesn’t matter anymore.
But,
there’s more. Our Biblically-Hostile President is calling on
religious groups to hold prayer vigils outside the Supreme
Court as our Justices hear arguments against Obamacare for 3
days starting March 26. I know, you think I’m making this
up, but you can read about it here.
There are 3 more links within the article that you might
want to read also.
“Prior to
his passing, Andrew Breitbart said that the mission of the
Breitbart empire was to exemplify the free and fearless
press that our Constitution protects--but which,
increasingly, the mainstream media denies us.” This is from
his, The
Vetting, Part 1: Barak’s Love Song to Alinsky, which
was posted on the website, Big Government, this week. This
is a long article, but it does give us a view into the
background of our President. Read it here.
I think
it’s time for a little fun after all this gloom and doom,
except, the fun may have a little truth about our government
in it too. This precocious seven-year-old has put together
a “Rube Goldberg” device to catch a monster. He even
creates a hypothesis that it might take 14 tries before the
device works. Much to his surprise, it works after 3 tries.
Here’s where the analogy to our government comes in. It
seems to try and try, but it never catches the monster!
Enjoy this article and
the video.
March 3rd
"Where is it written that, all of
a sudden, if you want something and don't have
the money for it, somebody else has to pay for
it? I think the whole notion of being insulted
here is misplaced. There are a lot of us
insulted by this whole idea that is growing
throughout the Obama administration, that the
people who make this country work are somehow
not doing their fair share. Not paying their
fair share. We've gotta be punished even more.
And here's the latest example of it."
Rush Limbaugh
March 2, 2012
Most of us know by now that Rush
is referring to the government mandate that all
Women’s Healthcare Insurance Policies must
include coverage of contraception supplies.
However, Religious Institutions whose beliefs
run counter to contraception for all women, find
this mandate an attack on their religious
liberty. Rush may have been a little
intemperate in his description of the testimony
by the Georgetown law student before Nancy
Pelosi’s mock legislative committee, but he got
the point across.
We received a Newsletter this
week from our NFRW president, Rae Lynn
Chornensky, on this subject. She states in the
newsletter: “The central question is, does the
federal government have the Constitutional
authority to require employers to provide free
contraception to employees”? Here’s the link to
the Newsletter.
Behind all of these mandates
there always is, as Paul Harvey used to say,
“The rest of the story.” (I’m really dating
myself here. Does anyone remember Paul Harvey?)
Well, the rest of the story is that we just have
to follow the money. Seems as though some big
drug companies are going to prophet from this
mandate. Surprise, surprise! You can read all
about it here.
Have you noticed those gas prices
lately? Dumb question, I know. We’ve been HAD
again. This is precisely what the President’s
plan has been all along. In case you want to
read more about “the plan” you can find it here.
There are a couple of videos at
the bottom of the page you might want to check
out too. Another excellent study on energy
policies is from the Manhattan Institute which
you can read here.
We lost a great voice for our
conservative cause this week. We will miss you
Andrew Breitbart. It’s going to be up to us to
keep your courageous voice alive. We will try
our best. Rest in peace.
I promised a review of Act
of Valor.
We were among the many viewers who made it No.1
at the box office last weekend. It will be
interesting to see if it’s No.1 this weekend as
well. The movie is action packed with real Navy
Seals playing the live action roles. Its plot
may be a bit contrived, but there are scenes
that will take your breath away. There aren’t
many movies that receive applause from the
audience at the end, but this one certainly did.
February 25th James Madison The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 58 Date: February 20, 1788
“An elective despotism was not the government we
fought for.” It sure wasn’t, but it is sure what we
got in the last presidential election. Every day
there seems to be another power grab from this White
House. The latest comes from a meeting with
Democrat Governors at a gathering in Washington D.C.
The discussion was about “bypassing Congress” to get
things done. Remember his campaign label is “We
Can’t Wait.” These are unilateral directives and
programs, coming from the White House, which the
President says is the only way he can push ahead on
his the agenda with that “do nothing Congress.”
Read about it here.
Then there’s political favoritism that’s been going
on since he took office. Remember the Union payoffs
he made with the Stimulus Package which created all
those “shovel ready” jobs? Well, there’s been a few
more things he’s been up to that will push our blood
pressure a little higher. Two articles, one from The
Washington Examiner: read here and
the other from the Heritage
Foundation: read here, tell
us all we need to know about how Democrats in
Congress have been receiving payoffs too.
Ready for a little more to get your blood boiling?
Why is the President apologizing to Afghanistan?
Andrew McCarthy’s article in National
Review: readhere,
explains the outrage very well. It wasn’t just the
President apologizing, a Pentagon Official
apologizes at a Virginia
Mosque. The Weekly
Standard has
that story.
As if that wasn’t enough, Secretary of State,
Clinton, had to get into the act too while speaking
to some students in Tunisia. The
Blaze has
this story.
Are we going to receive an apology for the two US
Soldiers killed by the protesters or the two US
Military Officers killed in the Interior Ministry,
which should have been the safest building in
Afghanistan? I think we know the answer to that
one. Borrowing from Rush again. “We need Regime
Change.”
Act of Valor opened
this weekend at Stadium 10 and Stadium 8. Both Rush
and Michael Medved had nothing but good things to
say about it. We plan to see it this week. Give you
a report next week.
Ronald Reagan,
This is President’s Day
weekend. Gee, President’s Day, what president’s day? Remember
when we knew what president’s day it was? President Lincoln had
his own day on February 12 and President Washington had his day
on February 22, and they were celebrated as separate Federal
holidays. Well, we know that this is not the only thing that
has changed for us and our country, we’re facing a multitude of
changes to our rights and liberties.
The more I gathered material for my blog this week, the more down and despondent I got and then I ran across something that took my mind off of the doom and gloom. It was in the National Review Online Newsletter, Morning Jolt, by Jim Geraghty. Its title was, “Do We Need a Pep Talk?” Perfect, just what I needed. He started out by saying, “Politically, culturally, socially . . . you name it, I feel like we’re under attack. The weapons being used are mockery, scorn, and condescension. It’s almost everywhere you turn: television, movies, music, newspapers, magazines, politics, the Internet.” He’s so right. But he went on to say that there were still signs of American culture still thriving. We just need to look for them. One of those signs is a new movie about to hit the screens this month. It is called Act of Valor in which US Navy Seals are played by actual active-duty Navy Seals. You can watch a behind-the-scenes clip here. As Jim says, “this looks like the big-screen celebration of American military heroism we’ve been hoping to see for a long time.” Another sign that all of our values are not lost is Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin, who are two vocally Christian athletes not afraid to tell the world about their beliefs. And how many more of these fine role models are there that we just don’t know about? I was so happy to have Jim point out a film that my husband and I saw just last week which we found delightful. It looks like it’s an Oscar favorite too. The film is The Artist. It’s a tribute to silent film, shot in black and white with subtitles. Its appeal seems questionable.
But, recalling Ronald
Reagan’s quote above, this was a movie “built by people with
great dreams and the courage to take great risks.” The risk
was well worth it for the viewer. It showed a part of the
American dream fulfilled. You can read the Weekly Standard’s
review of the movie here.
You’re going to think that
I’ve really “lost it” here, but I’m going to risk it. I found
that we have some people in the Nascar racing world who are
joining our fight for a new Morning in America. They’re going
to have a Conservative racing team. Their website tells
you all about it. The racing season starts in Las Vegas soon.
I think I’d like to see our Conservative car, #81, do a little
racing.
The last item for this week
is a real pep talk with a bit of warning for us as a country.
This is a speech Daniel Hannan, a member of the European
Parliament, gave at CPAC last week. You may have heard Rush play
some of it on his show. It’s electrifying!!! It’s about 30
minutes, but well worth the time. You can see and hear it here.
We do still have a lot to find that’s good in our world. We just have to look for it.
February 11th
Alexander Hamilton
The Federalist Papers Federalist No.1
October 27, 1787
I never
cease to be amazed at the foresight of our Founders. How
could Alexander Hamilton have known that over 200 years into
the future that America would be seeing the tyranny of our
present day leader. We have certainly gotten Change but
where’s the Hope?
Every
Monday morning I hope and pray that, as the week unfolds,
I’ll find some glimmer of hope that the destruction of our
great country has ended. But, my hopes were dashed again
this week. I found my email and websites full of doom and
gloom. I wish we could just hide our heads in the sand and
hope things will get better. Unfortunately, we know that
won’t work because that’s what too many people in our
country have been doing for too long. Some of the things I
found this week may not have been mentioned in the Main
Stream Media, but they deserve our attention nonetheless.
What’s
happening with our foreign policy under President Obama is
frightening to say the least. How could we let the Middle
East fall into such disarray? We’re looking at another
hostage situation in Egypt. We’ve been though that scenario
before. Remember? I found this account on this very topic
in the Heritage
Foundation’s Morning Bell. This
is such a good resource.
Within
the article you’ll find many more links for further reading.
Plus, at the end of the article, there are five more topics
you can link to.
This
article in The
Hill by Dick
Morris points out five treaties that President Obama and
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are entering negotiations
over or are seeking ratification that could radically limit
our national sovereignty and the reach of our democratic
institutions. The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) has already
been signed and will be brought up for ratification.
We all
have heard of or read about the insurance mandate that
President Obama had to walk back this week, or did he. It
looks like another of his sleight of hand tricks. An
article in the Daily
Caller explains
the trick pretty well. Guess who ends up paying for this in
the end? You guessed it, us!!!
To sum
this all up, I found this CBS,
Las Vegas news
story about a controversial Provo, Utah artist, Jon
McNaughton, who painted a picture of President Obama
trampling on the Constitution. Make sure you watch Jon’s
YOU TUBE video link within the article. Impressive!
And as a
follow to this story after it went viral, Jon McNaughton has
gotten so many requests for copies of his painting that he
can’t keep up with the requests.
Well, I
did manage to end this blog with a feel good story after
all.
Click here to see Jon McNaughton video.. February 4th "I arise in the morning torn
between a desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day." One of the items of news
this week was Indiana passing and Governor Daniels signing the state's
Right to Work law. Indiana now joins 22 other states which
have a Right to Work law. And Utah is one of the Right
to Work states! The Heritage foundation's "Morning Bell"
featured Indiana's new law: This Washington Examiner
article Well, I'm really on a roll
here now. Here is another article on why we as Republicans should
really be up in arms with these public employee unions:
Christopher Columbus
discovered the New
World in 70 days. The Empire State Building The Heritage Foundation Here’s an article from PJMedia on the same topic. http://pjmedia.com/blog/a-thousand-days-of-failure/ . What a disgrace! I think we need a change in the Senate leadership. Let’s hope andpray we can take the Senate back in 2012. Among other things, President Obama gave us his SOTU speech this past week. And according to this article: http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/state-of-the-union-registers-at-th-grade-reading-level-112236.html, we’ve all been dumbed down to an 8th grade reading level. We sure didn’t learn much from the speech either. In fact, we’ve heard a lot of it before according to this article: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/havent-we-heard_618462.html. Here’s the Mitch Daniels response: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mitch-danielss-response-state-nion_618456.html. This is the real State of the Union. We had
two Presidential Candidate Debates
this week. I dutifully watched them both. Tuesday, January 31, is the Florida primary. The outcome should be interesting.
There’s another topic that always catches my
interest and that’s Global Warming as being a Well, enough of the political world for now. My husband, Emmett, and I have been waiting for the movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to open in St. George, and today’s the day. We’re off to see the movie. I’ll give you a report next week. January 21st Ronald Reagan, Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, Republican National Convention, Dallas, Texas August 23, 1984 How pleasant it was waking up to the sound of rain on the roof this morning. Looking back on the political events of the past week even became less disturbing. Actually, there were some positive events. The 49ers won their playoff game and I’ll be rooting for them to win the NFL division tomorrow. Joe Biden told a San Francisco crowd this week that he thought the Giants were sure to win. He got a little confused between football and baseball. Poor Joe. We saw two more Republican Presidential debates this week. The fight is on! This article pretty well sums up where we are in the process: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-20/debate-exposes-tensions-as-republican-primary-race-reshaped-by-surprises.html After the South Carolina Primary today, it’s on to Florida. The next debate is Monday and you can link to all the next debates and those you missed here. http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-debate-schedule/2011-2012-primary-debate-schedule/ Now for the bad news. President Obama
rejected the Keystone Pipeline plan
this week. He seemed to be afraid he
won’t get his reelection campaign money
from his “green” pals if he approved it.
Read all about it here:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/obamas For a little good news, at least for now, it seems that SOPA and PIPA have been tabled. Read about it here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71720.html The Utah Legislative Session begins Monday, January 24. You can follow the session at this site: http://le.utah.gov/ An issue we should really keep our eyes on is the proposed Toll Road through the Gorge on highway 15. You can read about it here: http://www.lvrj.com/news/arizona-has-big-backer-for-i-15-toll-road-plan-137371848.html I guess I’ll keep an eye on the results of the South Carolina primary tonight until Doc Martin comes on. It should be interesting. More to come next week. ------------------------------------------------ January 13, 2012In the words of Thomas
Paine: “These are times that try men’s souls.” We need more than summer soldiers
and sunshine patriots. If we believe in principles of free enterprise
that made our country great, we must stand up for them again today. Election time is here too.
Our caucuses will be coming up soon. Do you know your neighborhood
caucus place and time? We all need to get involved. Rush mentioned this
website this week. Needing
a break from the really heavy stuff this week, I gave it a try. For a
little fun, you might want to try it too.
http://dirtyspendingsecrets.com/ January 7, 2012 James Madison - Father of
our Constitution -
famously said, " A well-instructed people alone And the candidate tracker
website of Utah candidates can be found here: I discussed
Imprimis, a publication of
Hillsdale College, at our last meeting. As I |
| Thanks for sharing your information, Bonnie! |
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