Sunday, September 2, 2012
Happy Labor Day
Here is a shout out and thank you to those Americans who still work for a living and are not dependent on the federal government. God Bless You!
Founding Father Quote
"Remember, democracy never lasts long… There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy."
John Adams
John Adams
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Mitt Takes Charge: NY Daily News
Mitt Romney makes his case for real change in the country’s direction.
Newly anointed as the Republican standard-bearer, Mitt Romney ably used the GOP convention to present the fresh start he envisions for America.
He heads into the final phase of his contest against President Obama on the momentum of well-delivered messages about who he is and what he proposes to do. The overarching takeaway: Romney is a serious man with serious ideas for serious problems — and a fit aspirant for the White House.
After a summer of attacks by Obama and partisans that tried to define Romney as a tax-cheating job killer, he used the convention to frame the contest as one between a candidate pitching new ideas and an incumbent fresh out of solutions.
Recalling Obama’s slogan of four years ago, he said most effectively: “Hope and change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I’d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as President when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”
Winningly for this reserved man, he spoke also about family, church, community and pride in the substantial business accomplishments that are the source of his wealth. And, competing for the votes of women, who trend toward Obama, there was mention of his record of appointing women when he was Massachusetts’ governor.
Romney’s success in setting the terms of the debate is a testament to a campaign smartly executed and catalyzed by the selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate. Pending Obama’s Democratic convention rejoinder, the GOP’s man has charge of a conversation that is enormously critical because the U.S. has fallen badly and needs to get up.
The unemployment rate has topped 8% for 42 months, the longest such stretch since the Great Depression. Thirteen million people are jobless and looking for work, including 5 million without paychecks for more than six months. Millions more have stopped searching or are stuck in part-time or low-wage positions.
Just as bad, the middle class is being hollowed out. Over the last decade, family incomes fell by 5% and wealth, meaning savings and investments minus debt, plummeted by 28%.
The struggles represented by the statistics are part of the Obama record and the Romney opportunity. “ What America needs is jobs. Lots of jobs,” he said, with a promise to create 12 million.
The President’s take is that he inherited an epic collapse and has led the country slowly upward. The challenger sees a presidency whose policies not only failed to promote growth but hindered it while adding $5 trillion to the national debt.
Hammering the point, Romney and Ryan have taken full, accurate measure of the country’s ills. On this, it is to their advantage to be explicit.
They were equally out front in proposing large solutions, notably to Medicare’s looming unaffordability.
Conventional wisdom held that it would be political suicide to trumpet a plan to give seniors a choice of health insurance plans, including traditional Medicare, with the government supporting the premiums. Yet that’s what Romney has done, and voters are hearing him out.
Similarly, where Obama is calling for ending the Bush-era tax cuts for Americans with incomes over $250,000, Romney has more dramatically called for cutting income taxes by 20% and making up lost revenue by closing loopholes that have made the tax code a lobbyist’s paradise.
Obama says it can’t be done. Romney and some experts say it can, giving him one more important issue on which to engage the President.
Hidden in the big picture are inconsistencies and impracticalities that will come to the fore in the jousting. They will be duly considered as this nation, closely divided and desperate for renewal, follows a campaign that appears likely to hinge on the large ideas Romney has placed on the table.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/mitt-romney-opens-fall-presidential-campaign-a-bang-article-1.1148579#ixzz25G8Fp2NN
Newly anointed as the Republican standard-bearer, Mitt Romney ably used the GOP convention to present the fresh start he envisions for America.
He heads into the final phase of his contest against President Obama on the momentum of well-delivered messages about who he is and what he proposes to do. The overarching takeaway: Romney is a serious man with serious ideas for serious problems — and a fit aspirant for the White House.
After a summer of attacks by Obama and partisans that tried to define Romney as a tax-cheating job killer, he used the convention to frame the contest as one between a candidate pitching new ideas and an incumbent fresh out of solutions.
Recalling Obama’s slogan of four years ago, he said most effectively: “Hope and change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I’d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as President when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”
Winningly for this reserved man, he spoke also about family, church, community and pride in the substantial business accomplishments that are the source of his wealth. And, competing for the votes of women, who trend toward Obama, there was mention of his record of appointing women when he was Massachusetts’ governor.
Romney’s success in setting the terms of the debate is a testament to a campaign smartly executed and catalyzed by the selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate. Pending Obama’s Democratic convention rejoinder, the GOP’s man has charge of a conversation that is enormously critical because the U.S. has fallen badly and needs to get up.
The unemployment rate has topped 8% for 42 months, the longest such stretch since the Great Depression. Thirteen million people are jobless and looking for work, including 5 million without paychecks for more than six months. Millions more have stopped searching or are stuck in part-time or low-wage positions.
Just as bad, the middle class is being hollowed out. Over the last decade, family incomes fell by 5% and wealth, meaning savings and investments minus debt, plummeted by 28%.
The struggles represented by the statistics are part of the Obama record and the Romney opportunity. “ What America needs is jobs. Lots of jobs,” he said, with a promise to create 12 million.
The President’s take is that he inherited an epic collapse and has led the country slowly upward. The challenger sees a presidency whose policies not only failed to promote growth but hindered it while adding $5 trillion to the national debt.
Hammering the point, Romney and Ryan have taken full, accurate measure of the country’s ills. On this, it is to their advantage to be explicit.
They were equally out front in proposing large solutions, notably to Medicare’s looming unaffordability.
Conventional wisdom held that it would be political suicide to trumpet a plan to give seniors a choice of health insurance plans, including traditional Medicare, with the government supporting the premiums. Yet that’s what Romney has done, and voters are hearing him out.
Similarly, where Obama is calling for ending the Bush-era tax cuts for Americans with incomes over $250,000, Romney has more dramatically called for cutting income taxes by 20% and making up lost revenue by closing loopholes that have made the tax code a lobbyist’s paradise.
Obama says it can’t be done. Romney and some experts say it can, giving him one more important issue on which to engage the President.
Hidden in the big picture are inconsistencies and impracticalities that will come to the fore in the jousting. They will be duly considered as this nation, closely divided and desperate for renewal, follows a campaign that appears likely to hinge on the large ideas Romney has placed on the table.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/mitt-romney-opens-fall-presidential-campaign-a-bang-article-1.1148579#ixzz25G8Fp2NN
Reactionary Democrats Can't Stop Talking About Abortion
Reactionary Democrats
For Democrats, the issue of abortion is a hardy perennial. They turn to it in hope of persuading voters that Republicans, in their opposition to abortion, are extremists and antiwoman.
NEWSCOM
At this week’s Democratic National Convention, this effort is a centerpiece of the strategy to discredit Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his running mate Paul Ryan, and GOP candidates in general. But there’s a problem: This line of attack has never worked. And the likelihood it might in 2012 is more remote than ever.
Democrats call themselves progressives. But on abortion, they are reactionaries. They hark back to a moment two decades ago when it seemed they might defeat their pro-life, antiabortion antagonists once and for all. Republicans were on the defensive, but only briefly. The pro-abortion moment was fleeting, a false spring.
Since the early 1990s, the trend has been against an unrestricted right to abortion—better known as abortion on demand—which is the goal of leading Democrats, including President Obama, and pro-abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America that have become pampered interest groups of the Democratic party.
For Democrats, the issue of abortion is a hardy perennial. They turn to it in hope of persuading voters that Republicans, in their opposition to abortion, are extremists and antiwoman.
NEWSCOM
At this week’s Democratic National Convention, this effort is a centerpiece of the strategy to discredit Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his running mate Paul Ryan, and GOP candidates in general. But there’s a problem: This line of attack has never worked. And the likelihood it might in 2012 is more remote than ever.
Democrats call themselves progressives. But on abortion, they are reactionaries. They hark back to a moment two decades ago when it seemed they might defeat their pro-life, antiabortion antagonists once and for all. Republicans were on the defensive, but only briefly. The pro-abortion moment was fleeting, a false spring.
Since the early 1990s, the trend has been against an unrestricted right to abortion—better known as abortion on demand—which is the goal of leading Democrats, including President Obama, and pro-abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America that have become pampered interest groups of the Democratic party.
TOMMY THOMPSON: Putting Americans back to work - Washington Times
THOMPSON: Putting Americans back to work - Washington Times
The U.S. Department of Labor stated in the late 1800s that Labor Day was established to celebrate the “strength and spirit of the trade and labor organizations.” Unfortunately, true Labor Day celebrations have taken a back seat to the mere enjoyment of a three-day weekend.
Perhaps this year it’s a little different. With the unemployment rate at nearly double what it was four short years ago, the reality is that fewer people will be taking a break from rewarding work and more will be trying simply to take their minds off another fruitless week searching for jobs that don’t exist.
Is the dream of the American worker alive today? It is a fair question both this weekend and this year as our country considers the solutions to the challenges putting our country in crisis.
Stimulus, bailouts, TARP and Obamacare are just a few of the commonly used terms of economic promise repeated by our country’s current political leadership. All these efforts have failed to spark our economy and have resulted in the same outcome: more money taken from family budgets to fuel expanding government.
Read more: THOMPSON: Putting Americans back to work - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/31/putting-americans-back-to-work/#ixzz25G4kcbLS
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
The U.S. Department of Labor stated in the late 1800s that Labor Day was established to celebrate the “strength and spirit of the trade and labor organizations.” Unfortunately, true Labor Day celebrations have taken a back seat to the mere enjoyment of a three-day weekend.
Perhaps this year it’s a little different. With the unemployment rate at nearly double what it was four short years ago, the reality is that fewer people will be taking a break from rewarding work and more will be trying simply to take their minds off another fruitless week searching for jobs that don’t exist.
Is the dream of the American worker alive today? It is a fair question both this weekend and this year as our country considers the solutions to the challenges putting our country in crisis.
Stimulus, bailouts, TARP and Obamacare are just a few of the commonly used terms of economic promise repeated by our country’s current political leadership. All these efforts have failed to spark our economy and have resulted in the same outcome: more money taken from family budgets to fuel expanding government.
Read more: THOMPSON: Putting Americans back to work - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/31/putting-americans-back-to-work/#ixzz25G4kcbLS
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Conservative Fact
By 2040, the Federal Government will dedicate 400% more to service the debt (pay the interest) than it will spend on (1) education, (2) R&D, and (3) Ifrastructure combinded! (Peter G. Peterson Foundation)
Desperate Democrats
Desperate Democrats
A sea of signs proclaiming “We Built It” revealed the battle cry of last week’s Republican National Convention. We don’t need to wait for Los Angeles mayor and convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa to bring his gavel down in Charlotte on Tuesday to know the Democratic theme. It’s been clear for months: Republicans are waging a “war on women” and only Democrats can end it.
JASON SEILER
Three days after Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin elaborated on his bizarre belief that women’s bodies block conception from “legitimate rape,” Democrats sent out a press release listing 10 additional convention speakers—all of them women, a number of them focusing solely on contraception and abortion. The list included NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Cecile Richards, and “Georgetown University Student” Sandra Fluke. Added to names already announced, pundits guess it will mark a record number of women speaking at a national convention.
Democrats have taken one Republican’s (unanimously repudiated) remark and run with it. They quickly organized robocalls to tie other Republicans, including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, to Akin. The day after Akin’s interview, the Associated Press quoted NARAL’s Keenan: “Make no mistake about it: Ryan is 100 percent behind the war on women agenda.” Media allies helped spread the message. On the eve of the Tampa convention, Jay Leno took a break from being funny and talked about the Republicans’ “war on women” and their lack of “compassion.” Fluke, the law student who became famous complaining she couldn’t afford her birth control co-payments, hinted at the theme of her speech in an email to supporters, writing, “There is a clear choice for women in this election.”
A sea of signs proclaiming “We Built It” revealed the battle cry of last week’s Republican National Convention. We don’t need to wait for Los Angeles mayor and convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa to bring his gavel down in Charlotte on Tuesday to know the Democratic theme. It’s been clear for months: Republicans are waging a “war on women” and only Democrats can end it.
JASON SEILER
Three days after Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin elaborated on his bizarre belief that women’s bodies block conception from “legitimate rape,” Democrats sent out a press release listing 10 additional convention speakers—all of them women, a number of them focusing solely on contraception and abortion. The list included NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Cecile Richards, and “Georgetown University Student” Sandra Fluke. Added to names already announced, pundits guess it will mark a record number of women speaking at a national convention.
Democrats have taken one Republican’s (unanimously repudiated) remark and run with it. They quickly organized robocalls to tie other Republicans, including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, to Akin. The day after Akin’s interview, the Associated Press quoted NARAL’s Keenan: “Make no mistake about it: Ryan is 100 percent behind the war on women agenda.” Media allies helped spread the message. On the eve of the Tampa convention, Jay Leno took a break from being funny and talked about the Republicans’ “war on women” and their lack of “compassion.” Fluke, the law student who became famous complaining she couldn’t afford her birth control co-payments, hinted at the theme of her speech in an email to supporters, writing, “There is a clear choice for women in this election.”
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