Catholics and Jews Beware

The Obama administration has been chock full of all sorts of hidden nuggets which are aimed at sowing seeds contrary to understood American principles, but none is more egregious than his treatment of Catholics and Jews. It is disgraceful, and those few voices in the wilderness that are attempting to call him out on what he is doing are either ignored or scoffed. The media seems blind to the obvious which leads me to believe they either approve or are driving an agenda based on success of the first black President rather than good government.

Americans still don’t understand how Obamacare works. Its dictates are stringent, and will cause substantial pain to employees, employers and those in groups who enjoy good health care benefits. Included in those folks are groups that are Obama supporters. In order to placate these groups who will be unhappy with Obamacare once implemented, Obama has reserved the power to exempt these groups, particularly his friends, from compliance with Obamacare. When it was being shoved through Congress, he garnered support from the Catholic Church by promising it would receive exemptions for heatlh care policies offered by its outreach organizations such as Catholic schools, hospitals, and charities as relates to insurance paid abortions and contraception, both sins in the eyes of the church.

This past year, he reneged on his promise. His HHS Secretary redefined religion by saying that unless a religious organization is run by members, for members, primarily employing only members of that religion, then that part of the religious organization does not get religious rights freedoms and must comply with Obamacare dictates. Then he refused to give the Catholic Church the promised exemption. He stuck it to them. The Catholic Church is now required to provide health care insurance that includes abortions and contraception to employees of its hospitals, schools, and charities. He lied to them to get what he wanted. Anyone who minces words or attempts to justify what the President and his minions did is a fool.

If this definition of religion is allowed to stand, you will see other problems not only in terms of health care, but right into the very core of religious operations outside of regular worship. This applies not only to Catholics, but to any religious based organization if it employs or services folks outside of that religion. This is dangerous. Catholics who believe in the operation of Catholic schools and hospitals and nursing home and charities and universities should beware.  The very essence of their operations is at stake. 

The Jews have another issue. Notwithstanding whatever religion President Obama happens to be, he has a different world view than we are used to. As in all things Obama, don’t look at what he says, look at what he does. His actions show that he is downgrading the relationship between Israel and the United States. He has made the fundamental determination that there are infinitely more Muslims in the world than Jews, and America hitched its wagon to the wrong Mideast country over the past fifty-sixty years. No matter what he says about the strong relationship between the United States and Israel, his actions indicate something else is going on, and it has yet to be determined what that is.

This is not a new concept in American foreign relations. There have always been a small number of foreign policy experts who have said that the American relationship with the Islamic world is much more important than with Israel. The benefit to the United States was small from the Israeli alliance. During the cold war, however, it gave the United States a strong military base of operation in the Mediterranean against the Soviets. That need is now gone.

The problem is that Obama’s policy of appeasement and apology to the Islamic nations is falling on deaf ears as the radicals in these countries used the United States to ascend to power, and now are doing to Obama what he did to the Catholics. Sorry Charlie. Talk to you later. This is dangerous stuff. Apologizing and indicating weakness to dictators is the path to stumbling into war. A misinterpreted signal of weakness from the United States government can spark consequences. Just ask Kuwait.

Iran says it wants to blow Israel off the face of the earth. It is rapidly developing nuclear weapons. Pakistan already has them. It is a tinder box. One misstep, Israel is gone. If they think even for one second that the United States would not react with equal force in retaliation, the radicals will act and deal with “sanctions” later. After Obama’s appearance at the United Nations and his brushing off the Israeli Prime Minister…the signals are mixed and dangerous.

This election, Catholics…be aware of your principles of faith and conscience. Jews…just be careful.  President Obama has an engaging smile and easy manner. This election look behind it.  There are obviously other issues that also influence your vote.  Maybe priorities need to be rearranged this time.

A Nation of Takers

So now the battle lines are drawn. Mitt Romney either by design or faux pas stumbled onto the truth. This election is about one thing…do we stand for our own well being as individuals, or are we dependents wrapped in the arms of a government nanny state.

When I was small, that was a theoretical question. Of course we believe in American individualism and exceptionalism. People were ashamed to take government assistance. Not anymore. These are government statistics. In the late 1980’s, 37% of American households had one member dependent on government largesse. In 2004 that figure had been bumped up to 44%. In 2011 it is at 47%, and climbing.  When Bill Clinton was president, 17 million Americans were on food stamps.  Today it is 47 million.

What is interesting is that not one of the Obama slobbering media outlets said Romney was wrong. They said it was a political gaffe to say it. Really? Romney was right. Those folks who become more and more dependent on the government will not move away from it or vote for someone who says they should. It becomes too comfortable. That doesn’t mean the government should abandon these folks. It means the role of the government is to get those folks a pay check rather than a government check.

The facts are stunning. More people went on Social Security Disability last month than found jobs. The work force participation rate, those looking for jobs, is at an all time low.  Unemployment among America’s young is 35%. Cradle to grave government largesse is not compassion.  That is the new slavery.

It is government do-gooders that have killed the middle class in this country. It is government do-gooders that have stopped construction projects for spiders. It is government do-gooders that have shut down the coal industry because of academic theories of global warming. It is government do-gooders that have given America the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world. It is government do-gooders that are preventing America’s energy independence. It is government do-gooders that have encouraged the destruction of the nuclear family. It is government do-gooders that have moved American jobs off shore because of bad fiscal, monetary, regulatory, and social policies…and that is a non-partisan statement.

And what is more disturbing is the number of Americans that pay NO federal income tax. You think it’s funny? It’s not. 47% of the American work force pays no federal income tax, and actually gets money back if the government goes into “tax rebate” mode. 90% of all taxes are paid by the top 1/3 of wage earners, and most of that is paid by the members of the notorious 1%, and Obama gets up there and says they aren’t paying their fair share? Bull!! YOU CANNOT TAX AND REGULATE YOUR WAY INTO PROPSERITY.

Everybody should pay something, from General Electric which paid no taxes last year, down to those who are making minimum wage…that way everybody has some skin in the game, and when tax policy is discussed in our political discourse, everybody will pay attention. And no…payroll taxes are NOT taxes. That is Social Security. If you don’t want to pay the “payroll tax”…get rid of Social Security.

The cold hard fact is the party is over. Barack Obama has decided that rather than create wealth through work and free enterprise, the solution is to print money. There is no free money. That approach has never worked anywhere in the world or anytime in history. He is a thief with a stolen credit card. When the proverbial you know what hits the fan…and it will…this country will learn some very hard lessons. The country will learn we can’t be a nation of takers. We have to be a nation of makers. But then it might be too late.

Mideast Boiling

The breach of the American Embassy in Cairo and the US Consulate in Libya on 9/11 highlights the problem our nation faces with radical Islam. President Obama has turned a blind eye to the problems in the Middle East. These are serious problems. War with Iran is coming, and it will spill over into other countries. It will be brutal, and will set the world economy on its ear as the oil from the Mideast will drain to a trickle.

Barack Obama thought he could “apologize” his way out of America’s and Israel’s Mideast problems. These are radicals whose hate for Israel is only surpassed by their hate for the United States. These are religious zealots. Rationality plays no role in how these folks think. Obama’s Arab Spring has disintegrated into America’s nightmare. Strong-arm dictators who violently suppressed these radical nut cases are now gone. The current governments are weak. No amount of money can keep these governments in power. The radicals are being bankrolled by Iran…and we have big problems as they rise to positions of power in their countries.

Egypt and Libya are the sideshow. The real problems are Iran and Pakistan. The current Pakistani government is holding on by a thread. They have nukes…and $8 Billion/year in Pakistani aid is not going to cut it. If the current government falls, the Islamists will have nuclear weapons at their disposal. Same for Iran! No nukes yet, but they have radioactive material that can be used to build dirty bombs. Who knows who has what from Iran right now?

While all of this is going on, Obama is proposing that we unilaterally give up our nuclear weapons. Is this guy serious? His reference to the “peace dividend” in his convention speech is almost laughable. Actually, it isn't laughable.  It is scary.

These folks in the Mideast play for keeps. They are patient, and have been building up their strength and resolve for fifty years. Iran is taking the lead in developing weaponry. They are testing long range ballistic missiles and right now can probably hit, albeit without much accuracy, any city in Israel and Europe. Give some of these weapons to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and those living around the Gulf Coast should be concerned too. Obama thinks he can change this by bowing to the Saudi Prince and saying Pah-kee-stahn instead of Pakistan. 

And while giving a wink and a nod to the Islamic radicals…he is refusing to meet with the Prime Minister of Israel claiming scheduling conflicts which include an appearance on the Letterman Show and interviews with hip hop disc jockeys in Florida.

Someone in the current administration needs to wake up and smell the coffee.  Maybe America needs to wake up this November.  

DNC: We Belong to the Government

In a stunning piece of political…I don’t know…gambling, the left wing of the Democratic Party has finally shown its true beliefs. It is stunning and almost unbelievable. In a video released by the Democrat National Committee, the message is clear. The only thing we all belong to is the government. Couple this with the removal of references to God in the Democratic Platform, one now sees a secular party worshiping an omnipotent government.

This is a complete reversal from the traditional view that our rights flow from God, not the sovereign. It portrays government as a benevolent being embracing all of America. The video goes on to say that government is the only thing we have in common, because we all come from different faiths and backgrounds. Really?

Barack Obama is the epitome of this type of thinking. He uses the word “I” and “my” more than any president in my lifetime. Come to your father and mother….the United States government.

Is this really what you want? The fact that they would finally commit to publishing what the rest of us have been saying about these people for these past four years is almost scary. Do you really think the government is there “for” you? It has provided a poverty existence to those it has made dependant on it. If you want to find a complete void of hope, go to the projects. Go and watch the folks at family services. We have done that to these people. Maybe Republicans don’t know what the answer is, but we sure know what it isn’t. Government!

Maybe government has replaced God as the Democratic Party has so aptly told us. It is everywhere. It is where we eat, where we sleep, where we use the toilet facilities, where we do our banking, were we drive and where we walk. The government is there watching our every move, ready to tell us what we are doing wrong. Ready to show us a better way. Ready to control our lives from cradle to grave. And don't make too much money or be successful in your business.  You didn't build that, the government did.  Is that what we want?

This President has called the Constitution a flawed document, and he is doing his damndest to circumvent it. His background is based in a “world” view of life as opposed to an “American” view of life. He believes government is the answer to all of our problems, one where he is calling the shots on what we do.

Before you vote this election, replay the video which is posted on the home page. Do you think that government is the only thing we have in common? When you say your prayers at night, will you say them to the government? Then go vote in November.