Yes Socialism is Fascism

Wonder why some people think that on end of the spectrum, you have fascism(supposedly on the right) and on the other end you have Communism. They are after all, just different types of fascism. The history is that Stalin did not like his movement being lumped in with everybody else such as National Socialist Party(NAZIS).
So to distinguish communism from Nazism, they started talking as if they were on opposite ends of the political spectrum. It worked, we still look at it today in Stalin's way all these many years later. When in fact, communism, socialism, fascism are all brothers. On the other end is capitalism. Unfortunately nowadays we are drifting away from capitalism toward socialism, little by little. It happened during World War I, when large business colluded with President Wilson to try to drive out the small businessman from competing with them. It happened again during WW II under FDR. Now however it is happening in peacetime between companies like GE and President Obama and Pelosi and her House. I do not know about you but I would rather stay capitalist and not have big business colluding with government to take more of our money and more of our liberty away. Is anyone else concerned about what is happening. We are sliding toward a Jacobin revolution, or toward a Mussolini state or a Nazi type state. Yes I did say Nazi state, as it is was one of the fascist movements, but only one. Socialists wave the spectre of Nazism, whenever they are criticized to say look over on the right, we are the opposite of them, we are as far different as you can get. Well it is time to stop buying that lie because that is exactly what it is, they have been using Nazism as a straw man for decades now. They are like the Wizard of Oz, saying "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". Well the man behind the curtain are all the socialists who have President Obama's attention that are driving his agenda(homosexuals, abortionists, environmental extremists, etc.) These have all been depicted as on the left. Nope they want as much control in your lives as Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin ever wanted, except they will take it slowly. The pace of the erosion of your liberties is the only difference between them and Obama and company. One the right are libertarians and capitalism, on the left is every dictatorial type of government you can imagine, we are now headed down the road to fascism, the only question is will we get off the road before it is too late? What lies ahead is not good, not nice, but is dressed up to be nice. Free healthcare, smarter energy, a civilian corps of commited citizens. My question is commited to what, and they are being called volunteers, since when do volunteers get paid.
And of course the secular humanists who in their anti-clerical movement from the French Revolution have simply morphed into today's environmental extremists. Fraternity is their motto, individual rights must succumb to the will of the people. They promote class warfare, you the people must bring down the bourgeoise and the rich. Populism is not bad, Williams Jennings Bryan was a populist, unfortunately all those who wish to impose fascism, present themselves as being someone who will "carry out the will of the people". Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini all rose to power this way, by pretending that they really cared about the people, by pretending to be empathetic. As if they "feel your pain".
The truth is they do not feel your pain and will not feel your pain when they start inflicting it, if you stand in their way you are an enemy of the state(homophobe, climate change denier, red meat eater, energy waster, anti abortion right winger, etc.) . I could go on and on, but how many words does it take for my fellow Americans to understand the dangers that lie ahead if we continue to go down this "yellow brick road" paved by fascists to the Kingdom of Oz. The Kingdom of Oz is supposedly a utopia on earth that these fascists will create. But the truth is the emperor has no clothes, will we notice before we have given away our freedoms to the state in pursuit of material gain(healthcare, etc.). Or will we help our fellow man not by creating new energy and healthcare systems but by reforming the systems we have not radically but change nonetheless. Let's give poor people health insurance on a sliding scale, unless a person is paying part of the cost, they will resent who is helping them. It is basic psychology that this will happen, the underclass will resent and eventually hate those that pay for their benefits. And the populists are there to encourage that hatred and channel it to get themselves elected and re-elected.
Does a glimmer of the future now enter your eye. And does that future look less rosy, I certainly hope so. Our revolution was about freedom. The French revolution was abour turning the existing order(ancien regime) upside down. That is why their motto also included fraternity and equality. Equality and fraternity sound grand. But as Patrick Henry once said "Give me liberty or give me death". That is because without liberty you will lose your life eventually anyway. Where liberty is not, neither is your control over your own life, let alone the pursuit of happiness.

The Height of Foolishness

We used to have a deliberative body representing the common man in the House of Representatives at one time. It was meant to be similar to the House of Commons. The Senate which is latin for old men, was also a deliberative body that were supposed to rise above mobocracy if it crept into the House of Representatives, that is why their terms are longer to give the people's passions awhile to cool off. However, they never imagined that there would be first a 787 billion spending bill followed today by a 600 billion hidden carbon tax passed within months of each other and neither one, even though they total over a trillion dollars were read. The 300 pages of amendments on the 1200 page bill passed today were only finished at 3 am today. Obviously no one read the bill before they debated and voted on it. As a matter of fact when one congressman asked for a copy, he was told we haven't had time to make copies. Haven't had time to make copies, my answer would have been, then I don 't have time to vote on it, until you do, I am not going to vote on anything I have not had a chance to read. But then again I beleive in logic and wisdom. I am not a party shill.
Rise up peo0ple let Congress know now if this continues any longer, you will not let them have their job back, you will not re-elect them. You want representative democracy and this is not it. We are a republic that has great responsibilities in the world and our Congress needs to stop acting like fools, they need to get their heads on straight, or it is time to march to Washington DC if necessary to get their attention. Right now they think they have the people on their side, oh how wrong they are, they are paying too much attention to their own press releases and the media. They need to talk to their constituents the next time they take a break. There ae fiscal conservatives everywhere in America, independent, republican and democrat. The percentage of people who don't care whether or when the budget is balanced are lesss than half. Why? Because we care about our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and what this spending will do to them. Debt is a terrible legacy. Debt causes stress, it ruins marriages, if it is manageable it is ok, but it can ruin your life and it can ruin our nation if we allow it.

Men need not apply

Most of the jobs 5.7 million between December 2007 and May 2009 lost in this country have been in manufacturing and construction. These jobs are dominated by men, so most of the job losses have been jobs that men do. On the other hand in the industries like healthcare, etc there has been a net job creation of an additional half million jobs. So one would suppose in order to help men who are unemployed you would want lots of shovel ready jobs to employ the men who have lost their jobs. And that is how the stimulus was originally envisioned, but a funny thing happened on the way to enactment of the stimulus bill.
The Obama administration was bombsarded by NOW, the Feminist majority, the Institue for Women's Policy Researchand the National Women's Law Center formed into a coalition called WEAVE(Women's Equality Adds Value to the Economy). So instead of shovel ready money was channeled into well "apron-ready" jobs in teaching, nursing, librarians, healthcare, social services, areas where there are a much larger share of women. No matter that many more men than women lost jobs. President Obama responded by sending his soon-to-be deputy direction at the National Economic Council along with his aides to a meeting organized by Kim Garndy and Feminist Majority president Eleanor Smeal. Our president did what many men do when confrnted by a chorus of female complaint: He changed his plan. He added health, education and other human infrastructurecomponents to the proposal.,
Despite 80% of the jobs werer lost by men, it is estimated that women will get 42% of the new jobs in he stimulus proposal. Six AP reporters have discovered that the $300 billion sent ot the states is mainly being used for health care, education, food stamps, and othe social services. Since September there was talk about shoevel ready and that is not turning out to be the reality of the jobs created.The Obama administration said it was going to insulate itself from lobbyists. Yet its first major policy initiative ws transformed by an orchestrated barrage, of letters, phone calls, scripted handshakes and meetings with women's special interest groups.

As Christina Hoff Sommers has said "Unless the Obama administration and Congresss find the tmerity to distance themselves frm the new feminist lobby, the "man-cession" will deepen."

The Future is truly at stake

Obama wants to get reelected, he figures his best chance it to creat a permanent 53% bloc of voters which is the percentage that voted to elect him. He has nearly 40% of which 37% will drink the purple Koolaid no matter what he does. It is the 13% in the middle that he wants to hold onto. He figures his best chance is to set up class warfare which is what the Communists have been doing since Karl Marx. All he has to do is tell you that you, the proletariat, are being held down by the bourgoise(middle class) and nobility(rich), then you will re-elect him. So the wedge issue he has defined is healthcare if he can get 13% disenchanted with the current healthcare system, then he has his 53%, although I am sure he would prefer 55% that is safer.
Now what was the biggest difference between 2000, 2004 and 2008. Answer: in 2000 and 2004, the conservative candidate received two thirds of the Hispanic vote. He also got over 50% of the Catholic vote. Now whoever was running Obama's campaign was very shrewd, they had Hillary gather together her support among Hispanic leaders and in exchange for Secretary of State, she would talk the Hispanic leaders into going along as long as the next nominee for the Sureme Court was Hispanic. To add the icing on the cake, he chose Biden, a Catholic to help with the Catholic vote. Now in addition to fulfilling his promise to nominate a Hispanic, he has also chosen a woman, to cement his edge among women in general. I would say that Obama's political advisor is as good as Dick Morris ever was and he was darn good.
So how to get elected as a Republican. Have a woman on the ticket either prez or vp, but make sure that one of the two is a Catholic Hispanic. Jokingly during the election, I suggested on the Dennis Miller show that McCain pick a Hispanic woman, Dennis laughed at me, however McCain picked the next best thing, a woman, although it would have been better if she was a Catholic. We simply must sincerely reach out to Hispanics we cannot ignore possibly the largest swing vote in the country, they vote one way in 2000 and 2004 and not in 2008. What is the issue, the issue is that John McCain would have got their vote if he had not backed down from an immigration stance that was the same as that which got George Bush elected and re-elected and that is that we are the party of traditional values. Instead of banging on your parents who may have been illegals like Tom Tancredo did, we welcome you, we represent your values better than the liberals, and we will set up a practical immigration system, where you can come into this country legally easier and once here start on the path to citizenship. You are productive you do many jobs that would not be done otherwise, you are less a burden than an asset. This is the truth, it is time to stop the xenophobia that too severly limits the quota for those coming from Central America. We have the jobs, they want to work the jobs, let's find a way for that to be done legally, the current system as John McCain and George Bush said is flawed and simply not working, let's fix it. Biden was Catholic in name only, anyone who is in favor of abortion is a catholic with a small c.

All together now--------Focus

I find that it is harder to get many people to focus on the task at hand whether it is ringing me up at the cashier, taking my order, listening long enough to get their phone fixed, etc. Now granted the world is full of many distractions, but you must focus to get things done efficiently, if people have to keep repeating themselves because you are only half listening then whatever you are doing takes twice as long. Add to that, there is an umbilical cord attachment for many nowadays to their phone to text and/or twitter. They feel naked without their phone, they feel they must immediately respond if they receive a text, therefore they even text during business meetings ala Crackberries, or their children twitter and/or text away during class.
Some people say oh i'm just multitasking, oh you mean like that train engineer in Southern California who killed people because he was also texting. Hmmm that ddid not work out very well. For years now we have medicated our children because they have a short attention span, perhaps we should focus on the problem instead of trying to prescribe it away. How well is a child going to learn if he does not train to focus. Focusing is an acquired skill, acquired by many in childhood, although apparently more in short supply nowadays. Now this lack of focusis showing up in adults in their 30's who have become what used to be called scatter brained, it is even hard to carry on a conversation because they skip around like a scratched record.
These people are by no means in the majority, but do comprise unfortunately a growing percentage of people. It seems to be getting worse, I even notice more and more young people talk as if they have a slack jaw, no emotion in their voice, almost like a lack of passion, is that the Ritalin? We need to be careful about overprescribing medicines. Sure it is easy to deal with a problem by just giving a pill, that is what happened all too often in nursing homes, until it became a scandal. Well it is scandalous what is happening to our young people, they are now controllable with medication, but they are flat, still unfocused and not learning well. Time to stop the madness, think about it.

North Korea now what?

Does anyone find it ironic that the "Star wars" missile defense system that came out of research in the Reagan years make stop Hawaii from being hit with a North Korean missile? Yes when Reagan proposed a defensive system to guard against missiles, he was ridiculed by the media, and the Democrats. Now it is our only defense against missiles from rogue nations like North Korea. We need to put one up in Poland, regardless what Putin thinks to protect Europe and Israel. We need to be able to put up anti-missiles to knock missiles out of the sky.

How not to build an energy policy

We need an energy policy in which no form of energy production is offlimits. Nuclear, hydropower, solar wind, biomass(other than food crops), natural gas. If we promote all of these we will have more than enough energy. It is when we have lots of energy, that prices fall. When we start restricing where we can drill, or fail to issue permits to build nuclear plants, that we end up with four dollar gas, it is getting close to three dollars, do we need another price crisis to rethink our existing energy policy? Or do we need to put some pressure on Congress and the White House to stop spending so much money and get out of the way on energy production. Obama has proposed removing all tax incentives 13% to produce or or gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico. Wind and solar could be doubled and would still produce less than 2% of our energy supplies. Environmentalists are the problem they have banned drilling in many areas, are against any new dams, any nuclear power plants, any coal plants. Apparently they are only in favor of wind, solar and maybe natural gas as long as the liquified plant is not in their area.
Let's face it I am a conservationist in the grand tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, but these Luddites go far beyond that, they are basically dictating to our president, how to conduct energy policy, because he is their man. He is no less their man, than Bush may have bent over backwards to accomodate the oil industry. What we need are not energy policies defined by special interests, but designed to benefit all Americans. To reduce our dependence on oil which we import so much, we must start building more natural gas and nuclear power generating plants, so that we can use oil for transportation. We should only expand coal if the pollution can be reduced, however we need to abandon this fallacy that we can save the world by reducing our carbon footprint, keep in mind these are the same scientists and environmentalist that told us 30 years ago, we had global cooling coming our way. Notice they are abandoning the term global warming for climate change, that is because as about 11 years ago, the temperature which has been going up since about 1980 is now starting to drop. These so called statistical models have way too many variables to be accurate, truth is they do not know what will happen. The fine art of weather forecasting is such that they cannot predict what the weather will be like 6 days from now, and I am supposed to beleive them when they make predictions about a century from now!
Let's face it, weather forecaster is the only job I know of that you can be wrong half the time and still not get fired, no wonder Al Gore would like it. Now they have a term climate denier, my Lord they have degenerated to ad hominem attacks whenever they start losing the argument. Read Lomborg's book, COOL IT, he outlines that even if we are having global warming that less people will die, more people die of cold than heat every year. The people most affected by global warming and rise in ocean levels will be those in the blue states living on the ocean. They have predicted anywhere from 4 inches to 3 feet rise in sea level. What utter ludicrous hubris to think we can mange the climate. That would be like trying to hold back the ocean by putting your finger in the dike. As Ghandi said truth is not a democracy, sometimes it is a minority of one. In other words, concensus does not establish truth!! Read Lomborg's book and smell the coffee, I'm already drinking my first cup.

How to lower healthcare costs without rationing

Currently in the United States Senate they are crafting a government run healthcare system to "compete" with the current healthcare system. We already have one of the finest healthcare system in the world, the problem is not everyone has access. Let's not put governemnt in charge, let's give the uninsured help in paying premiums on a sliding scale such as the Basic Health system in Washington state, unlike Washington state however let's fully fund it.
To keep healthcare costs down let's follow Safeway's example. Safeway discovered that 74% of all healthcare costs are due to obesity, smoking, heart disease and cancer. So they developed a system where employees can reduce their premium by taking tests in these four areas, if they pass the tests, they get the discounts on their premiums up to $780 per individual or $1560 per family. As a result of these incentives, Safeway has been able to hold down healthcare costs, no increase in cost in the last four years. Can you imagine how much money this would save in Medicare, Medicaid? Well the latest estimate is 550 billion dollars, more than enough to pay for adding previously uninsured to our current system. No need for making patients wait too long for care which is rationing because in many cases in Canada and Great Britain, patients die first or suffer months or years of great pain. A government run healthcare system in Canada, Great Britain or US is a failure, not because good care is not provided, but it takes too long to get care, while waiting for heart procedure or cancer treatment, patients die first. Also in Great Britain they have a quality of life judgement to keep down costs, basically it means if you are young you get the resources and as you get older, you are denied treatments, because it would not extend your life long enough, in other words you are a useless eater, who does not have enough years left. It is abominable but it amounts to involuntary euthanasia like in the movie, Solyent Green.

Do away with the angst

Why is it nowadays that young people are not more hopeful about the future. When I was graduating the Vietnam War was going on and I could not wait to go over there and do my part to bring the war to an end. Little did I know that it would be micromanaged, such that even though we won most battles, we lost because we handed the country over to the North during the Paris Peace talks so Nixon could say look I got us out just like I promised. When he promised he had no plan and that was quite obvious by how we ended the war, with the enemy nipping at our heels all the way to Saigon. There is so much to be hopeful for nowadays, other than the national debt which needs to be taken care of. We stand at horizons in science, medicine, going back to the Moon, so many things to explore and invent. We have a better standard of living than most of the world. Our young people take ipods, smartphones, 200 channels, supermarkets loaded with food from around the world, clean water, a long life expectancy.
What we must get our young college graduates(millenials) to understand is that it was not always this way, there was a scourge of polio, there were many households without electricity, people actually starved in Appalachia, the Yazoo delta, African Americans could not eat at a Woolworth's lunch counter, or ride where they wanted on the bus. Heart disease was an early killer, there weren't double bypasses and triple bypasses. How long ago was this, it was the early 60's when I was young. We had not landed on the Moon, stamps were a nickel, a box of candy at the movies was a nickel, a pop was a dime. Wages did not buy all the extras they do nowadays. A lot of families may have only just stayed ahead of inflation in the last 40 years, but during that time, many things went down in price. In 1971, you could buy a Ford Maverick for 1,999 which was about 1,000 hrs of wages. Average wage in the U.S. is 18.00 and you can still buy a decent small car for $18,000. It takes one fortieth of an hour to buy a stamp, it took about the same then. Bread was fifteen cents, that took about six minutes to earn then about the same as now. Hamburger was about 55 cents, about 20 minutes of work for one pound, now it is about two dollars or 7 minutes work. In most categories other than housing, it takes about the same amount of labor to earn the money to pay for the same items. As a matter of fact in 1971 we paid 53% of our income for housing, food, energy and healthcare. Now we pay 55%. What has that extra 2% for housing got us, larger houses. The money spent on healthcare gets us the finest healthcare in the world, cures for cancer, stents, double bypasses. We live longer on average not because if we live to 60, we live longer because we live about the same age if we make it to 60.
The biggest difference in life expectancy is because more of us actually live to 60 due to nutritional advances, advances against childhood killers such as polio, pneumonia, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, etc.
So young people why the angst, have a lighter heart, this is not The Great Recession, the recession that ended in 1984 was far worse, at least you will not pay 18% for a mortgagte anytime soon, while unemployment is high at the same time like the late 70% and early 80's. That was the Great Recession that started under President Carter. So roll up your sleeves and help the next greatest generation, yes the Baby Boomers, solve the world's problems, do not shrink away in fear from the stock market, the workplace, etc. but step up to the plate and attempt to hit it out of the park, if you do, you can become the next greatest generation, surpassing your parents in achievements perhaps, even if you do not, you will have tried.

Yes the Economy and Healthcare are connected

President Obama is right about one thing, the economy and healthcare are intricately linked because it is the largest business in the US, we spend about 1.2 trillion per year which is about 9% of the annual Gross Domestic Product. Medicare and Medicaid are paid for both by the Federal Government and by state governments, so you are paying at two levels for them. The problem is that the money for the federal portion is rapidly falling behind.
Recently consumers went on a spending binge, of course Congress has been on a binge since about 1996. By the end of 2008, consumers owed about 130% of their annual disposable income, 13.8 trillion dollars in debt. At the very same time, Uncle Sam on the books had a public debt of 10 trillion, plus 4 trillion borrowed from the "trust" fund and total unfunded obligations to Social Security of 14 trillion and Medicare of 57 trillion. 13.8 trillion and 81 trillion in federal obligations. 94 trillion total and that was at the beginning of 2009 before the inaugaration.
Now everybody agreed that a stimulus package would be necessary but a 400 billion supplemental and a 787 billion plus 1 trillion in additional liquidity pumped in by the Federal Reserve by buying Treasuries with manufactured money. This is what is known as monetization of the debt, unfortunately it will lead very soon to bad inflation. The American public suspects this, so much so that in the latest poll 45% of the public beleives the rest of the stimulus package should not be spent. 44 percent said trying to speed up the spending of the stimulus package is a bad idea. Only 31% said speeding up spending would be a good idea. Also apparently the same 31 percent beleive the stimulus has helped. 33 percent of the public now identify themselves as Democrat, 22% Republican, and 39% Independent, 6 percent not sure. 55 percent do not believe that we should go deeper in debt even if it might mean helping some more needy people.
Many hae contributed to the consumer spending binge which created both the housing bubble and the overvaluation of other assets such as stocks. How do prices rise too quickly, simply the Federal Reserve pumps up the money supply. In 1995 the money supply was equal to a year's output of goods and services by all the workers in the U.S. By 2002 it was 120 per cent, by 2005 it was 140 percent, and now it is 150 percent. Now yes we had some productivity gains in that time, but simply put more dollars chasing only a few more goods and services, that is what created inflation in housing prices and stocks. That is false wealth because you are only getting ahead if you can hold on to your gains. If your gains are caused by a bubble, then unless you sell to a greater fool before the bubble bursts, the potato explodes in your face, and unfortunatley that is what happened to many. Now the very same Federal Reserve that made credit a little too easy, which inflated prices convinced both the Bush and Obama administrations to pump money in to reinflate our economy, we will soon have the same result again, except probably this time the commodites will be food, oil, metals. You can delay purchasing a house or stocks, you cannot delay eating or putting gasoline in your car to get to work. The public has woken up and is starting to smell the coffee. We cannot let Congress, the Federal Reserve and the White House to keep creating inflation. It is time to stop the insane spending, it is time to cut spending, not increase it, otherwise we will be on this hamster ride for a decade like Japan experienced.

Where did all the Borrowing get us?

We cannot borrow our way to prosperity, a short time ago it seems as if many American consumers forgot that, in 2008, the savings rate was a negative one percent. Now for the first 4 months of this year it is up to 4.5%. That is quite a change, however it is time for Congress to get frugal concerning the federal budget. American consumers have tightened their belts and are waiting for Congress to do the same. So far 44 billion dollars of stimulus money has hit the street, the number of job losses is getting smaller, that is too quick, it cannot all be due to the stimulus. Plain and simple truth is the market reached bottom in March. Generally the economy follows by about six months, that means that the bottom will be about end of September. That is with or without the stimulus. You ask why? Well we have a 14 trillion dollar economy, 70% is consumer spending, that means consumers spend over a trillion per month, the stimulus is pumping about 10 billion per month into consumer's hands. Therefore that $10 a week you are getting as a temporary tax decrease and some 44 billion in stimulus funds is adding about 1-2% to the economy. However behind the scenes so much money has been dumped into the banking system by the Federal Reserve using fake money to buy Treasury bills, that inflation will soon take away that $10 a week and then some.\
You can artifically inflate the money supply to pump up the economy, but it has consequences. We saw that in the late 70's and early 80's. The excess of liquidity drove home and stock prices above their real values, when the bubbles finally popped, the values came down to earth, when they did Am ericans lost $12.9 trillion from July 2007 to March 2009. That is value that was not really there it was only due to excess liquidity. American's household consumer debt finally reached 100% of annual income during the 2001 recession, which was brought on by artificially inflated values of tech stocks. The last two Chairmans of the Federal Reserve have failed us miserably, Greenspan talked in 1999 months before the tech bubble burst of irrational exuberance, well that is exactly what a bubble is, however he did nothing to tighten the mo ney supply, he just let the good times roll. Almost everyone is guilty for this past bubble, not Republicans, but also Democrats, Congressmen, the White House, banks, consumers, mortgage lenders, mortgage loan officers, Barney Frank, everyone was enjoying living high off the hog and not thinking that hey this party is expensive, maybe it won't last forever.
Unfortunately we ended up with a hangover. Now President Obama and Congress are trying to reinflate the bubble with stimulus spending, because the natural contraction that we now as a recession slowed down the economy more than they like. The steeper the climb in housing, commodities, stock market, etc. the steeper the fall, we cannot avoid recessions entirely but trying to shorten them, may actually make this one longer. We are trying what Japan tried so far without much success, and because of government intervention their last recession lasted 10 years, they call it "the lost decade".

Cairo speech

Iran is funding Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to take over Lebanese government, so they can fire missiles into Israel, they fund Hamas in Gaza to fire missiles into Israel, they are developing fissile material, North Korea is sharing how to build a bomb. Iran will ship enriched uranium to North Korea, part of it will be turned into bombs for Iran, North Korea will keep some, Iran has been sharing missile technology from Pakistan with North Korea. And now we decide is the time in a speech in Cairo to lecture Israel? Israel has been our faithful ally for many years. Now their very survival may be at stake soon, and instead of supporting them, we have decided to reach out to the Arab world instead? Fatah and Hamas have had many years to take what has been offered by Israel and have their own state, the two state approach, but they have slapped away the olive branch when Yassir Arafat was alive, and Mahmoud Abbas has had so much trouble with his people that he has not accepted any olive branches either. Abbas seems more afraid of Hamas and Hezbollah than interested in peace and land for his people. Most Arab countries and their leaders do not want a nuclear Shiite Iran, they would like to have a nuclear bomb of their own, however, many Arabs and other Muslims, do not recognize Israel and therefore support Hamas and Hezbollah. Will the Cairo speech change that, or will it give the impression that the United States is weakening its support for Israel. You decide.

Gay Lesbian and Transgender Month

Does it bother you that President Obama just declared June as Gay and Lesbian Month, just because he can. Let's see 6 states voters have rejected gay marriage including California. Now the homosexual movement wants gay marriage to be considered a civil right and they are claiming the 14th Amendment which outlawed slavery applies to the. Ok, let's hear it, who does not agree with this and why. It is time for open and hones t debate about this subject without personal attacks on the merits of each side. No labeling people homophobic, that is a tired trick when you are losing an argument is to label people. Look this is a democracy, we expect people to disagree, that is why we have a procedure for passing laws, elections, constitutional amendments, etc. What was not envisioned by the founding patriots, was activism by the judiciary, they created a legislative branch to make law, an executive to carry it out, and a judiciary to interpret when the Constitution applies. When the federal government has jurisdiction and what areas left are all the jurisdiction of the states. By the way, marriage has always been considered the purview of the states. The 10th Amendment specifically says that all areas not reserved to the federal governement remain to the states and the people.

Why so much Outrage over Dr Tiller's killing?

Dr Tiller performed late term including partial birth abortions. He was one of only three doctors in the country willing to do late term abortions right up until the due date. It was wrong to take his life, all human life is sacred. As repugnant as what he was doing, it was not right for anyone to kill him, two wrongs will never make a right. Most Americans as recent polls show support abortion for only 3 reasons, rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. They do not support Roe vs Wade which says that abortions can be performed for any reason. The majority of Americans do not support abortion on demand(for birth control, etc.). The proabortion movement knows this. that is why they lose most ballot issues and fight their battles in the courts, hoping judges will be on their side.
Where does empathy come in? Is is empathy for the mother to help her kill her baby. No, abortion is the ultimate child abuse. Whether an abortion is performed by Dr Tiller or in some "back alley", it is killing . Killing except in self defense is not justified. For all who beleive in the 5th Commandment, it is a command, not a request, it is a mortal sin to commit, it is a sin of omission to allow or tolerate it. So why are the media and some in the press so outraged over the death of one man, when they have no problem with the modern Holocaust, 4000 babies aborted every day in the US? Why, because they are guided by their feelings of empathy rather than a conscience. Let your conscience be your guide, feelings will lead to Hell. Seventy percent of women who initiated a divorce, two years later regretted it. Feelings will lead you to do anything that feels right at the time. You must have a higher guide, to do the right thing, because many times the right thing is not the easy thing, it is easy to have an abortion, harder to give the baby up for adoption or raise it. Charity usually requires both courage and sacrifice.