To all those marching in three cornered hats, here is Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Powers of Congress- The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States:***It continues with things like borrowing money for credit and regulating trade with foreign nations. So lets cut all the crap about how taxes are unconstitutional. We may not like them but we need them. A bit like cough medicine, sometimes.

Are you fed up with Taxes? No, really?

A message to all those who have taken to the streets recently, in protest of big government and too many taxes. First of all, I am curious to know whom amongst you is really paying more taxes than your were 5 years ago? That aside, you want to protest something? Try this. A guy who flips burgers in the green zone of Iraq for one of the government's (no-bid) contracted companies earns around $84,000 a year. A guy fixing refrigerators about $130,000. And do you know who is paying for that work. You! Because our last administration saw fit to hand out these contracts to non-government, (aka private) contractors to do the work of an over stretched military in a region of the world the US military should not even be in. You want to protest that? I am right behind you.

The missing story.

This is an interesting story. The Dems praise him for stepping across party lines to vote for the health care bill. What is lost in this story though, is that he was still ready to allow his constituents, and those in his district are probably in most need of health care reform, to be denied this reform all for his ideological stance against women's reproductive rights. An ideology based, naturally, on his religious convictions. So, I guess he believes Jesus would prefer thousands of people to continue to suffer and die all for the sake of possible and yet unknown unborn children. I forgot, which biblical passage says to do this?.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091108/pl_politico/29299

Scarey, but somehow, not surprising!

From an Op-Ed by Charles Blow, NYT

A Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll released last Friday found that 28 percent of Republicans don’t believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States and another 30 percent are still “not sure.” That’s nearly 6 out of 10 Republicans refusing to accept a basic truth. Then again, this shouldn’t surprise me. According to a Gallup poll released last summer, 6 in 10 Republicans also said they thought that humans were created, in their present form, 10,000 years ago. A Pew poll last month found that only 6 percent of scientists said that they were Republicans.

About the heath care debate he says that;

Democrats should be leading this discussion. Instead, they’re losing control of it. That’s unfortunate because the debate is too important to be hijacked by hooligans.

How true

America is Sick!

Time for a little tough love. All this nonsense with health care is making me sick. We need the lawmakers who are appearing at these town halls to stand up to those who are shouting them down. I believe in free speech. What I don't believe is to let someone shout lies in front of TV cameras without standing your ground and correcting those misguided, and sometimes, planted words.

Interestingly, lots of those who are shouting appear to be elderly, who while decrying a nationalized health care system, are comfortably enjoying one themselves by taking advantage of Medicare.

I believe in the power of debate as well. However, there is nothing advantageous to a debate that goes:

Interior: Congress. Men and women take their seats. As the mummer fades, a woman from Party A, stands up to speak.

Woman: "I believe we should have X and here is a detailed plan on how it will work."

As she is finishing, a man from party B stands to speak. Behind him stands a huge poster of a dragon and a Knight.

Man: "No, that sucks."

The end.

If there is an opposition to this health care plan, then lets hear alternative suggestion to fixing it, not just why it won't work.

Maybe I am being a pessimist, but when the small minority of leaders of a ideology so detests the ideas of another (an idea that's suppose to help every American) and offers no solutions, perhaps it is because they are protecting themselves from being irrelevant or, they really don't have the good of the people at heart.

A Light Goes On

Nice to see a rational mind among the masses.

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander said he was voting for President Barack Obama's nominee despite his differences with her, particularly on gun rights.

"Even though Judge Sotomayor's political and judicial philosophy may be different than mine, especially regarding Second Amendments rights, I will vote to confirm her because she is well qualified by experience, temperament, character and intellect to serve," Alexander said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Birthers- Take a Hike

Please! This whole wasted effort of those who continue, in the face of all contrary evidence, with the pursuit of identifying Barak Obama as a non-US born citizen must end. But how will it end if we continue to have "leaders" who are too afraid to face the future and continue to live in the past?

Notice that the names of the Senators who continue to appease these groups appear on the same list of Senators who believe in creationism and its right to be taught alongside evolution as an equal science. It is time for this country to moved into tomorrow and not repeatedly step into the past. If these Senators continue to entertain these people instead of telling them, "Grow up. The documents are irrefutable. Get on with your lives. And oh, by the way, the earth is over 4 billion years old and dinosaurs and humans never lived at the same time", then the US will never be the "Great country" they all think it is now.

The factors involved in the belief these groups have seem obvious. Change is hard. We all know that. And as the world changes around them, these desperate people try desperate measures to hold on to what they know. There also seems to be a racist overtone here as well. So what better time for these Senators to show their true leadership then when faced with threats from people like Orly Taitz, a "Birther" organizer who has been getting more press then she should, who said about lawmakers, prepare to “resign or be removed” if you “do not have the guts to stand for the Constitution and this country.”

The true show of guts would be to tell this woman and others like her to shut up and sit down. This country is moving forward, and has lots of real important issues to tackle. You want to come along? Be our guest. If not, stay where you are, stop your self-aggrandizing, stop wasting everybody's time and keep your conspiracy theories to yourself.

And one more thing, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC and all the other so called news networks. This is not a story, so stop covering it.