New year in congress

The GOP has the majority in the House of Representatives.  They have cut down the majority of the Democrats in the Senate.  However this does not guarantee nothing.  The GOP faces great challenges that can doom them in 2012.  The party is basically divided in to conservatives and moderates.  Both sides are important to the survival of the party.  Who every is elected as the Republican candidate for president needs a partner who is on the other side of the party.  Conservatives might not like to hear that but Conservatives really do not have the numbers to guarantee sucess all the way to the White House.

Things must get accomplished in the house.  Bills must get passed and sent to the Senate and hopefully to the President.  The House of Representative must produce.  Bills must get passed.  The growth of government must be slowed.  We must return to pay as you go, so their is responsible fiscal government.  This includes DOD.  Reform must be introduced to all aspects of government purchasing and procurement.  Out dated agencies must be shut down.  Duplicated agencies must be merged.  Good stewardship must be shown with the taxpayers money.

It can not be smoke and mirrors.  it will hurt the party and the country.  We need bold thinking and leadership.  Unfortunately I do not see it in the Republican Party.

D. McNabb benching

While I believe that the trading of D. McNabb to the Redskins was a signal that they felt they could not win with him.  I was never a big fan of McNabbs.  While I believe was a great quarterback, I felt something was missing.  He reminded me of Jim kelly of the Buffalo Bills.  He could not wing the big one.  I do not understand the choice of the Redskin's picking him now.  That said, Shannon totally mis-handled the situation.

Are conservatives being conservatives

I have been evaluating my political beliefs recently and am wondering as a conservative should I be for extending the current tax cuts.  Would not it be more responsible as conservative to support their termination so the debt and deficit can be decreased.  We have not started to cut back the federal budget and we are taking more income away from the goverment.

Would not a more responsible thing to do is to work on cutting back federal spending.  To give all programs a serious review.  To insure good stewartship of the tax payers money.   for a example; maybe certain programs can be change to a grant program and run at the state level instead of the federal goverment.

I though that was a major reason for the Tea Party protest?

A true conservative idea would be to end tax cuts.

If ending the tax cuts would bring in more money to the government and we follow a pay as you go method as we did in the 1990s with funding programs; would that not be beneficial in ending helping to solve our budget issues.  I wonder if this whole change thing we went through this last election was a hoax.  We need to make hard choice and it is appearing obvious that maybe no one is willing to do this.  The same thing goes with the deficit commission.  It appears there will not be enough votes to send it to congress to give them a tool to start working on solving our fiscal crisis. 

WikiLeaks

I personally do not see any major damage from these leaks.  It validates many things we already know.  Russia is corrupt, Pakistan is in a fragile state, Arab leaders want us or Israel to attack Iran and China has been hacking our computers.

The founder of Wikileaks did this for transparency in government.  If you noticed the highest level of security status was secret.  So what do you think that diplomats are now going to do.  Change the level and means of communicating.  So it will be harder for this thing to happen again.  This will have the opposite effect of transparency.

Korea

The current situation worries me.  While North Korea has used military aggression  since the end of the Korean War to antagonize South Korea, South Korea has shown great restraint.  North Korea has tried to assassinate the South Korean President numerous times.  It has blown up a South Korean Airline.  In the 1960s both sides and the US were basically at a low intensity conflict.

While it is not in the best interest of South Korea to allow this to blow up to a full blown conflict.  It also can not allow this aggression to continue or grown and it must strike back in a calculated military manner.  The US must seriously consider taking prudent military steps to be ready for the unthinkable and support the south Koreans in what ever means necessary.

Also the causalty rate with be similar to the first Korean war.  The same goes for the rate we lose equipment to combat.  I hope we are ready.

MD-11 & KC-X

I never understood why the Air Force has not expanded and modernize it fleet of KC-10.  Especially in the last 15 years or so.  The MD-11F is the newer and modernize version of the DC/KC-10.  It is a little longer and bigger.  They could have started slowly getting rid of the KC-135 sooner.  http://www.Boeing.com/commercial/md-11family/

Even now they can bring MD-11F on board to replace the older KC-135. There is a need for interm tanker before KC-X comes on board .  The rumblings now are that the KC-X will be awarded to EADS with the KC-45.  This is due to the change in congress and foreign countries are taking deliveries with less problems then Boeing.

I think the MD-11F is a good stopgap measures that can expedite the replacing of KC-135 and modernize the the refueling fleet.  There are many great things with the KC-135 as a refueler and had a chance to witness numerous refueling in it.  I can not understand why the Air Force just did not come out with a request for a new aircraft based on the KC-135 airframe.  However it is time to replace it, to include the E-3, joint star and other intelligence platforms using that air frame.

Now that it look like change will be happening

"Be careful what you ask for"  That old saying speaks volumes right now.  The Republicans, the Tea Party and all Americans who voted for change now must make sure it happens and be willing to keep the energy moving forward.  All the different factions must be willing to be critical and innovating in their thinking.  To be willing to think outside the box for solutions to the issues we face.  Be willing to say what issues are the constitutionally responsibility of the US government or the state governments.

Not be afraid to make incremental changes when necessary and bold ones when necessary.  To work together and support each other when necessary.  Be willing to discuss, argue and disagree when necessary.  But always move forward and make and pass the necessary legislation  to present to the president on a regular basis.

Juan William's comments.

Juan William's comments were not racist.  He was stating a fear that many people have.  The terrorist were of the islamic faith.  He was not stating all people of the faith were taerrorist.  Bill O'Reilly was stating the same thing in his recent comments.

While most people need to understand the difference between Islamic and Islamist.  Islamism—an extremist and at times violent ideology, which is different with the more normal versions of Islam.

All Muslims are not terrorist, just as all Christians are not terrorist.  However a higher degree of various versions of Islam have been high jacked by extremes and are exposing their extreme faiths here and abroad.  That is why there is a greater fear of home grown terrorist.  More so then your racist/militia type extremist.  Christianity and Islam are not religions, they are faiths.  Religion is man made.  the constitutions bars this country to have a specific religion.  That is why the Pilgrims fled England in the first place.  Yes it would be beneficial for people to understand Islam better, just as it would for Muslims to understand Christianity better.

Mr. Williams and Mr. O'Reilly did not say nothing inaccurate or mean spirited.  Mr. Williams and the NPR might have had their differences before his comments.  However Mr. Williams is a progressive and maybe the biggest mistake was he did not sound like one to the NPR.

Immigration and border security

The immigration issue is that politics will not let be solved.  I will go as far as saying that there are politicians of all nationalities that do not want it to be solved.  Big business does not want no reform that increases the cost of their migrant worker.  Meet packing plants are the same way.  The average american workers do not want to see the cost of the things they buy go up. 

we talk about the illegal Mexican workers but the we have issues with immigration when there was even no actual laws covering it. 

In the last few years when Border patrol got increases in their manpower and start various new programs and procedural changes; there were major drops in crossings.  If you initiated these programs across the southern border you would decrease crossings substantially.  However there is no political will in Washington DC to do so. 

Mexicans and other South & Central American illegals already in this country are now in a sense trapped.  So why not start a amnesty programs to identify them and provide them with proper documentation.  In a sense make them post a bond of several thousand dollars.  Do a criminal history check and give them a visa for several years to allow them to start a process of citizenship.  Speed up the process for immigrants who are already doing things the legal way.  When identifying anyone who has committed a crime then send them back to their country or origin.  This includes the use of fraudulent identification.

I know this view mainly deals with the issue of immigration on our southern border.  I will post more about other nationalities in the future.

2012

This will be a short post.  Conservatives and the tea party may influence the 2010 elections and republicans politics.  But there is no way that they will guarantee the Republicans the 2012 presidential elections.  Conservatives have never delivered a presidential elections. 

Conservatives and moderates need to work together to delivered 2012 presidential election for the republicans.  They better start doing it now.  They also need to come up new presidential hopefuls.  The re-treads from 2008 will not cut.  Republicans need to do better.

British defense cuts

The below link is to a article about upcoming defense cuts with the british defense budget.  This should be a major concern to all Americans for two reasons.  A major Allied military forces will be gutted.  Losing a military allied with forces with their own unique capabilities.  Also a highly professional force too.  This will also put a major burden on future military operation by this country because we lost such a strong partner.

Also this could also be a forcast of things to come if we do not get our budget under control.  Remember social and domestic growth in our budget is what putting a burden on us.  You can cut our defense budget the same way and it will not give us any major relief on our debt or deficit. 

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/18/britain-ponders-deep-military-spending-cuts.html

After the mid-terms

If the republicans make major gains or wins both the house and senate they need take it as a mandate.  What has happen is a repeat of 2008, but in a compressed time frame and different reasons.  Things turned on Obama because the people who got him elected, did not know how to run a administration.  Obama was inexperienced in government and the politics in government.  Obama is also more egotistic then over confident. 

Obama though he had a mandate and he did not.  Obama asked too much of a congress that was mostly made up of moderate democrats who were in majority.  He did not give them political coverage when he pushed his budget busting agenda.

So the republicans do not really have a mandate.  The republicans or the Tea party movement has not presented a coherent comprehensive to deal with the deficit or debt.  The democrats has not done so either.  I do not see the republicans presenting one now or 2012.  That is what scares me. 

9/11 and tolerance

‎9/11 changed my life. Like Pearl Harbor, 9/11 was an attack on this country. We know who the threat is and where they come from. We know where they get their beliefs and inspiration. We do not need to be understanding to their cause, but we need to be aware. It is others in their cause who need to prove they are not a threat to this country and christians worldwide.

Muslims are not tolerant.  So call moderate muslims need to do more to show me that islam is not a threat to other religions and faiths.  But mainly are not a threat to countries that are not islamic republics.

Be careful for what you ask for

As of right now the GOP appears to make major gains in the house and senate.  Possibly winning the majority in both.  I hope they are ready to hit the floor running.  They better have a plan of action to work with the President to get things done.  Reform government, cut spending,  reform our tax cut, keep big business accountable for their actions, reform medicare and medicaid and finish our involvement in Afghanistan.

They cannot try to stay in power by blaming Obama, they must take action, they must work with Obama and force him to sign laws they pass.  They must present a strong presidential candidate  who is not just a media figure.  Winning in 2010, is no guarantee for 2012.

Glen Beck's Rally

Today is the day of the big Rally honoring our troops in Washington DC.  I applaud all my friends that are going to it from the Lafayette Indiana area.  These are good people, as is everyone else going.  They are showing their love and support for the member of our armed forces and this country.  While the main person sponsoring this is a Radio commentator, who has, as other have connected with a large segment of this country who feel that the government does not liston to them and respond to their concerns.  When they got extremely vocal about it, then they are called extremist, racist and homophobic.  Any African-Americans who participate in this are then called uncle toms.  While I personally am not involved in this event, I applaud and support the efforts of Americans who are standing up to what they feel is the wrong direction of this country.  I however would warned them when there is change in leadership are you still going to be there to insure change is done and everyone takes their medicine not matter how bad it taste.

Question

With the recent revealation by the former GOP Director that he was Gay has added to a question that has been brewing in my mind.   The question is broken down to several points.  In a consitutional way define Homosexuality?  What is the consitutional metric for Homosexuality to be define as to be protected under the consitution?  Who makes the determination if  person is homoxexual and how and when he is covered consitutionally. 

This leads to the second part of my question.  When there is a violation, how can you prove that the person who did the violation know the person is gay if there is not outward physical sign unless the person self admits and how do you prove that the gay person is telling a truth or not.

Please let me know if you know the answer please?

Fox news

The web link below is to a news article that disturbs me.  While certain things can not be controlled and I have really no major issue with foreign ownership of american companys and all that.  It does make me uncomfortable that part of the ownership of a major media source is linked to financial support of terrorist activities.  While I do not think Fox news is no better then the ABC, NBC CBS or CNN in their political leanings and they do offer a counter balance.  It would show a major dose of fresh air and honesty if conservatives would out this and voice their opinoin on this.  If not well then it is politics as usaul.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/26321/must-see-video-fox-news-hypocrisy-on-ground-zero-mosque-financier-fox-news-owner-prince-alwaleed/

Political Observation

While I am not a fan of our current president due to his policy and I think republicans will will seats in the mid-term elections.  I do not think republicans ware and will be served by the current public relations failures.  The republican party has not taken time to re-work the way it does business.  The current financial situation of this country and this government has resulted in our government in the near future is going to have to make drastic decisions to repair our current bloated government and debt.  However I do not see how the republican party has prepared for this or have the leadership for this.

The Democrats are worse off.  In the rush to get fresh blood and make a major change from President Bush, they have elected a individual who was not personally prepared for the position.  Even though his ego saids otherwise.

The different tea party movements needs to insure that the republicans who win in november tackle these issues and reperesent their people.

I am tired.

I copied this e-mail I got and checked it out on snoopes.com.  This author views reflects the opinoin of alot of americans.  I thought this would be a good start on how I feel about things.

Mark

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/imtired.asp

The guy put a lot of thought in this and captured what many Americans feel. Unfortunately, most of our elected leaders don't get it. Time to vote them all out and start anew.
"I'm 63 and I'm Tired"

by Robert A. Hall
I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce

and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day,

I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still

put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I

make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked

to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and

I'm tired. Very tired.
I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to

people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government

will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people

too lazy to earn it.
I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep

people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm

willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of

our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the

left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community

Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.


I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing

millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who

live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years,

if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe,

the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the

tolerance for Christian people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of

Venezuela.
I'm tiredof being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace,"

when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their

sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting

over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because

they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims

stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating

the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an

and Shari'a law tells them to.

I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the

post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action

jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities

(harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the

ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities

more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.
I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a

black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the

Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice,

or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less

arrogantly of an all-knowing government.
I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and

inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost,

were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of

presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to

control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military

records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with

two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama

with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder

why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a

clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to

his camp in 2004.
I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other

cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and

madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group

is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia

to teach love and tolerance.
I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight

global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a

two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also

own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our

carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore,

you're green enough.
I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I

must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a

giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up

their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people

choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And

I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I

tell them I never tried marijuana.

I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers,"

especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime.

What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm

not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few

hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing

to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English,

doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on

welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those

are the citizens we need.

I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never

wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their

entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our

military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make

split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth

better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our

troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that

were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not

even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the

humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo,

and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims,

who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who

tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the

Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found

in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia,

because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and

American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for

help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on

virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums

are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I

live in Illinois, where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to

loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet.





I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and

politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes

or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was

getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or

poor.

Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with

air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of

Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The

poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the

dollars flowing.


I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their

lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or

discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because,

mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm
just sorry for my granddaughter.



Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms

in the Massachusetts State Senate.

Starting to blog my viewsand observations.

I have decided to give blogging a shot.  I know I have been late to the game.  However I have been encourage to do so.  I have decided to give it a try.  I will talk about many different things from family to world events and everything in between.