What is a Republican anyway?

Over the past few weeks a number of letters to the editor and several articles have appeared in my local papers about the ongoing disarray within the GOP ranks. Some writers have called for the firing of the state party chair and others continue to nibble away at the makeup of the rank and file like flesh-eating bacteria…but to compare those people to bacteria is to insult the germ.

While recovering in the hospital last week, I was visited by Ellen and Bill Spiegel. She is the new State Assemblywoman for my district, taking my place. She and her husband also happen to be Democrats, he more than she. I am still registered Republican, but I have often wondered aloud in conversation with Bill as to whether or not I should change my registration. The party has changed and not at all for the better.

Bill told me in no uncertain terms that I should not register Democrat. He is a consistent reader of this blog and in his opinion I am a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. It is his feeling that I would feel even more out of place in the Democrat ranks than in the GOP. Why is that? What is a Republican?

It used to be that to be a member of the party; one had to share certain common beliefs with the other members. Some of those beliefs were in the reality and rock solid foundation of our constitution. The constitution and not the casual interpretation of it by activist judges was the law of the land. To be a Republican you had to stand for freedom and civil rights, and for those rights to be available for all…equally. One group could not have additional rights or freedoms above another, period and regardless of politics.

You had to be in favor of allowing the market to do its job without governmental encumbrance. A business failed or succeeded on its merits, not because it was a better thief than the others. Understanding that the free exercise of religion was a paramount item in the formation of this country was also very important. How that religion was practiced was not so important, just the freedom to do so…and it did not matter where you did so, regardless of who became upset over your praying.

For myself, I believe that being a Republican means being honest, forthright, compassionate and pragmatic. Simply because someone has more than someone else does not mean they are a better person or have more rights and privileges within our society than anyone else. We are supposed to be a nation of law, not of lawyers. As for the free market, it is meant to be survival of the fittest, not survival of the fattest. The government has no place in commerce outside of general regulation to keep everyone honest. Anything beyond that is a direct violation of our constitution.

Tammy Bruce opined the other day that a lot of people in Washington deserve to be behind bars. I tend to agree with her. She only mentioned Democrats, but I say that the crimes are bipartisan and we have more than enough villains in both parties to go around. Money has become the chief arbiter of power and legislation these days and today’s Republican Party cannot abide an honest man. I may not fit in the Democrat niche, but it is certainly no picnic here in the GOP closet either.

Magic Negro funny...if you’re not a Democrat

Paul Shanklin wrote a song parody to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon” about the March 2007 opinion piece by LA Times writer David Ehrenstein. The title of Ehrenstein’s piece was “Obama the Magic Negro”, about how voting for Obama would alleviate the collective white guilt built up about all the wrongs the white race has committed in the past.

What is not written in the variety of liberal columns decrying this latest example of conservative hate is the list of parodies and outright vicious slanders written about Republican candidates and Presidents. Where is it stated that Democrats get a pass in their behavior? Who decreed that the 98% of the media who slavishly follow liberal dictates get to not only anoint our leadership, but also are given the power to destroy the reputation of anyone who disagrees with their political opinion.

Barrack Obama is not God; he isn’t even god with the little “g”. He is a fallible human animal, just like all the rest of us. A number of people reading this reading may consider that last statement as blasphemy of the highest order. I’ll go along with them if Obama can pass one little test. All he has to do is be born of a virgin, follow God’s law implicitly while performing several verifiable miracles, be crucified unjustly, killed and then rise again after three days in the presence of witnesses and then rise into heaven. If he can do that, he’s got my vote for deity status.

Another example of liberal heavy-handedness is the uproar over Obama’s invitation of Pastor Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life”. That book wasn’t the unforgivable sin for the liberals, though it wasn’t taken as an example of proper teaching. No, Warren’s sin was to say he agreed with California’s Prop 8. He didn’t campaign for the proposition’s passage. He didn’t spend much time discussing it, not even from the pulpit. All he did was exercise his constitutional right to state an opinion, but as far as the liberals are concerned, only they have that right.

If Pastor Warren is allowed to be involved in the inauguration of America’s first President of color, according to the liberal, a crime against the constitution will be committed. To be accurate, Obama is not black, he is not Negro, he is of mixed parentage; black and white. In spite of this glaring inconsistency, the liberal media considers Barrack Obama to be the leader on their short list of historic black American political figures. Figures such as Justice Thomas and Secretary of State Rice need not apply. According to liberal dogma, they surrendered their black identity when they “gasp” joined the conservative ranks.

Liberals have somehow gotten the idea that Black American can only go one way, to the left. This flies in the face of statistical demography. In my own Assembly district in Nevada, more black voters than not voted for candidates the liberals would have said not to. A number of these candidates were not Republican, and to be completely honest, they were not Democrat, even though they ran under the label; they were representatives, not politicians.

America’s voting public comes in every skin tone imaginable, not just the pale peach we call white, or the sienna brown we call black. In all colors, including the ruddy American tones and the ocher oriental, they operate under a constitution that was written by men well aware of what an oppressive governmental system can and will do. If the voters allow the media to make their decisions for them, they deserve every loss of freedom that will occur. It is obvious to any observer with half a brain that the ownership of today’s media considers the First Amendment their sole property and that all others, especially those few in the media who do not share their socialistic dictatorship agenda, have no such right. Paul Shanklin and Rick Warren, and yes even President-elect Obama have placed themselves directly into the crosshairs of this conflict by standing up for their beliefs.

I wish more Americans would do the same.

This Christmas

Christmas is a time when nearly every person in the western world wants to be home with friends and family gathered around. The mental picture of the first Christmas brings a warm scene of Mary holding her newborn to her breast while Joseph looks on. Peering over Mary and Joseph’s shoulders are the animals lodged within the stable. Since that first Christmas, that feeling is what we all strive for. Friendship, the communal sense of family and of belonging, these are what make Christmas, Christmas. The presents, the food and the never-ending carols are all simply additional window dressing.

This Christmas is the first where I am the oldest living member of my family. It is a strange and rather lonely feeling being the “older generation”. Let’s face it, people of my age were the generation that brought along tie dye, long hair, patchouli oil masquerading as hippie perfume, and the free-form twitching we called dancing. We are the generation that vowed to never grow old and to never trust anyone over thirty. Now, I have socks older than thirty and underwear that qualifies for AARP. But I have never lost my love of Christmas.

Some folks consider only the gifts where Christmas is concerned; the larger, the more elaborate and expensive the gift, the better the Christmas. All right, let’s consider that criteria: The first Christmas present wasn’t gold, frankincense, or myrrh, it was far more valuable. The creator of the universe, the one who stands outside of time and space and envisioned the utter incomprehensible complexity of the web of life, stepped out of heaven and entered base humanity as a helpless baby, and not just a baby, but one born to a family on the poor side of the tracks. The reason for that gift comes along every Easter.

This Christmas is especially poignant for me, and not just because of the reason I mentioned earlier. For the past few months I’ve been dealing with a progressive numbness that began with my toes and now extends upwards to my hips. Because of a family history, I was worried about the possibility of MS or even cancer, but that turned out to be a needless fear. It seems my body doesn’t metabolize all those B12 vitamins I’ve been taking all these years. The result is the formation of an inflammation within the cervical spinal cord similar to that caused by Transverse myelitis. The difference being that this form doesn’t come along with the agonizing pain of the other. Treatment is a course of steroids over a period of three days and several B12 shots.

So, I get to spend the three days after Christmas in the hospital. If any one wants to visit, I’ll be in the St. Rose facility off 125 and Eastern just outside of Anthem. Just be forewarned, I’ll be a highlands Celt on steroids.

There is no First Amendment Right to Lie

The news about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his retailing of Obama’s Senate seat has spread across the news media at light speed. What is most surprising about this is the number of people shocked at this revelation. Apparently quite a few people in this country are still under the impression that most politicians are honest, decent people. We are still, obviously, a nation of Pollyanna’s. Of course, the election of Obama proves that contention.

In the past a few courageous representatives had the cahonies to offer up bills that would have mandated honesty in political speech. The reaction of their peers was, to say the least, telling. In strident tones akin to how Obama’s pastor delivers a sermon, these men and women were dressed down as fools at best and traitors to the American way of life at worst. Illinois is not the only bastion of corruption in the country. Washington DC has been offering graduate courses in the discipline for nearly two centuries. Here in my home state of Nevada we have a sign dedicating a government building. On the sign are the names of the County Commissioners that were sitting in office at that time. Of the seven on that list, four are now serving prison terms.

When I served in the Nevada Legislature, I worked up the number of legislators I felt could be counted on to keep their word, regards of the financial or political cost. The list was considerably longer at the beginning of my term than at the end.

Expediency now rules that day. I have been told more often than not buy sitting politicians that unless I am willing to compromise my integrity, I have no hope of ever gaining another political office. The big campaign donors will not support someone who has standards. Sadly, I have come to believe them.

The First Amendment to the Constitution reads thusly: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

You will notice that speech is the third clause in this contract with the American People. The Founding Fathers felt that dealing with religion was more important. (That revelation alone would cause a riot in some universities.) You will also notice that “false speech” is not mentioned. Simply because lying is not listed does not mean it is included in the freedom of speech. Some lawyers are paid per day what most if us consider a nice quarterly wage to research contextual intentions in our country’s founding documents. A very brief read-through will show that lying was condemned by every member of the constitutional convention. In fact, “dealing falsely” was one of the reasons for the seceding of the Americas from the British Empire. So why do our governments, State and Federal, bend over so far to protect liars? Why do they react so violently when honesty is suggested as a mandated item in political performance?

The reason is that dishonesty has become an ingrained part of the American way of life. We begin with the “little white lie” to protect someone’s feelings, and when enough of those have numbed our conscience, we move on to larger and larger lies, including the ones we tell our spouses and the IRS. Perhaps this is why Sarah Palin was so viciously attacked by women’s groups and continues to be so, including in the funny pages.

Some say a politician who is “too honest” is a danger because of the diplomatic repercussions. People are forgetting the legacy of Ronald Reagan. He refrained from telling even the little white lies, managing rather to place the uncomfortable truth into true diplomatic terms, adding a touch of humor and thus adding to his respect.

Today our broadcast media is filed with lies…most of them commercials for items that we not only don’t need but could be potentially fatal if used. The purveyors of these products hide behind their perverted view of the First Amendment as protection and those whose duty it is to police the airwaves sit back and let the crooks get away with their crimes. It was once said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to believe it. That day has indeed come and I don’t see it getting any better until the American Voter wakes up.

We do not need Ideologues, we need Idealists.

I have found that it is an understanding of the subtleties of the English language that is the last item on the learning list, especially if that learner is a member of the media; doubly so if that learner is a political pundit who believes their own hype.

This lesson is no more apparent than in the ramblings of the right wing fringe that piloted the ship of the GOP onto this last election’s iceberg. The general topic of conversation from these ideologues has been about how the so-called moderate republicans were the ones who caused the current situation. For the life of me, I cannot see how those who thought the Bush agenda of talking conservative while spending and acting like Harry Reid’s evil twin was the wrong way to go, could be the source of the GOP’s current lack of power.

It must be pointed out that these same ideologues were the one’s who saw no dichotomy in proclaiming John McCain their perfect candidate, even though the good senator’s voting record and bills suggest he is far from what any intelligent observer of history would call conservative. These same pundits saw no hypocrisy in supporting McCain while in the background they worked overtime to trash the reputation of his running mate, Sarah Palin. In my opinion, it was the Alaskan Governor’s unfailing and effective opposition to corruption, even when it arose within her own party, which set these so-called bastions of conservatism against her.

In my own state of Nevada, I experienced a similar reaction. As a freshman State Assemblyman, I was attacked by my own party leadership because I wrote a bill that would have forced a business leader to obey an existing law protecting employees from theft by those employing them. For those reporters reading this, I will restate it in simpler language. My bill would have stopped the boss stealing from his workers. Because of this bill, every leading member of the Republican Party in Nevada began working to remove me from my Assembly seat. I was even warned by a sitting State Senator, a State Senator who attends nearly ever bible study held during session, to remove my opposition to this businessman’s theft. My Canadian readers will notice the obvious hypocrisy.

An ideologue will follow the party line regardless where it leads. Corrupt, illegal, even immoral actions are of no consequence. Only party loyalty matters. Those who step out of line, especially those who effectively clean up corruption within the party, are considered traitors to the cause. An idealist is an anathema. An idealist cannot be corrupted and is therefore untrustworthy to the corrupt. Even worse, an idealist cannot be bought. The phrase, “He’s too honest, we can’t trust him,” was spoken by the Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman concerning my own political future after I proved I wasn’t for sale at any price. This was the same chairwoman who violated both state and federal law by ordering the state convention closed before the final vote could be counted. This order came after Ron Paul won the majority of delegates. His wasn’t the prevailing ideology the leadership could afford to support.

To be fair, both major parties are rife with corruption. In fact, corruption has become the common state of affairs; the recent Senate Seat for Sale affair in Illinois is an example of Democrat corruption. Ted Stevens’ 30 year reign of selling his vote in Alaska is a prime example of GOP corruption. Between these two towering infernos of graft stands the thinning herd of idealists. To the idealist, the constitution should be the final arbiter of any concern within and without this country. The Founding Fathers set up hard and fast rules as to how this country should treat its citizens and how the citizens should act out their citizenship. Party ideologues find the constitution an inconvenience at best, and an enemy to be thwarted at worst. They will place the welfare of governments openly hostile to America before that of Americans if there is money to be had in the deal. The ongoing negotiation with Mexico in regard to the US/Mexico super highway is an example. The arrest and conviction of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean because they had the audacity to stop a Mexican drug runner from completing his mission, is another. The Bush Administration’s firing of every federal prosecutor who appeared to be competently honest, is a glaring third. For an ideologue, honesty is not a virtue.

We need Idealists in this country, not Ideologues…whether they be right wing or left wing makes not difference. The past eight years has shown us the result of ideologue leadership. Ronald Reagan asked a very pertinent question of America when he was debating Jimmy Carter, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” I can ask the same now, but let’s change the number from four to eight. Carter’s ideology evaporated the last vestiges of a robust economy like the summer sun on a snowflake. Bush’s ideology has produced an even more devastating result simply because he was granted twice the amount of time.

An idealist functions within the framework of what should be, not what is. The Founding Fathers gave us a template of what should be. Within that framework is the principle of fairness regardless of you circumstances. Everyone, regardless of sex, race, age, or position should be given the same consideration and the same opportunity. Position, power, wealth…none of these should matter in the eyes of the law. That is the world of the idealist and it is adamantly opposed to that of the ideologue.

At least, that’s how it should be.

Right Wing Insanity

The Nevada Legislature held a special session this last Monday, December 8th. The minimum cost of this special session was $100,000 per day. The reason for this lavish waste of the taxpayers money? To cut costs. A brief skim of the Nevada Constitution will show that the power to do this rests in the Governor’s hands, but our Governor, “Thumbs” Gibbons (over 800 text messages to his girlfriend while he was cheating on his wife), didn’t want to do the hard job of deciding where to cut cost and to raise revenue. So he called in the legislature to do the dirty work for him.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. During the 2007 session of the legislature, the Mayors of Reno, Sparks and Carson City wanted to have the Legislature ok the formation of a Northern Nevada Water Authority, even though they had full authority to do so on their own. They didn’t want to do so because it was more expedient for the voters to be mad at us than them. It is interesting to note that honesty in politics, real honesty, is as rare as hen’s teeth. The media, the pundits, the politicians and yes, even the voters, will attack honesty whenever it rears its offensive head.

Yesterday an article was printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal entitled “We Need More Right Wing Ideologues”. The author of that article is know for strident criticism of anyone he considers to be less than his idea of pure Republican, even though he is not a member of the party. During the last election, the GOP received a total shellacking and lost any semblance of power they may have had during the last session. RWI’s (right wing ideologues) like as this writer (I will not name him because he has done nothing to deserve such acknowledgement) have done more to hurt the Republican Party than corrupt governors have hurt the Illinois Democrats.

Cheap shot though it is, the statement is true. If the radicals are allowed to take over any organization, logic and civil discourse leave. I have tried to speak intelligently to the writer. Doing so is impossible. An ideologue cannot carry on a conversation, much less a debate without emotion taking over. Compromise and consensus are concepts totally alien to them, and if forced to participate, only result in frustration for all involved.

During the last eight years the Republican Party experienced a nearly fatal combination of Ideologue fanaticism and Democrat-style spending. The mix of the two have given us Democrat supermajorities in both Washington and several states. One would think that an intelligent person would see history in action and learn from it. Apparently that is too much to expect from the writer. A basic definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time. What does it say about a person when they insist on not only repeating the disastrous action, but doing more of it?

Right Wing Insanity

The Nevada Legislature held a special session this last Monday, December 8th. The minimum cost of this special session was $100,000 per day. The reason for this lavish waste of the taxpayers money? To cut costs. A brief skim of the Nevada Constitution will show that the power to do this rests in the Governor’s hands, but our Governor, “Thumbs” Gibbons (over 800 text messages to his girlfriend while he was cheating on his wife), didn’t want to do the hard job of deciding where to cut cost and to raise revenue. So he called in the legislature to do the dirty work for him.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. During the 2007 session of the legislature, the Mayors of Reno, Sparks and Carson City wanted to have the Legislature ok the formation of a Northern Nevada Water Authority, even though they had full authority to do so on their own. They didn’t want to do so because it was more expedient for the voters to be mad at us than them. It is interesting to note that honesty in politics, real honesty, is as rare as hen’s teeth. The media, the pundits, the politicians and yes, even the voters, will attack honesty whenever it rears its offensive head.

Yesterday an article was printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal entitled “We Need More Right Wing Ideologues”. The author of that article is know for strident criticism of anyone he considers to be less than his idea of pure Republican, even though he is not a member of the party. During the last election, the GOP received a total shellacking and lost any semblance of power they may have had during the last session. RWI’s (right wing ideologues) like as this writer (I will not name him because he has done nothing to deserve such acknowledgement) have done more to hurt the Republican Party than corrupt governors have hurt the Illinois Democrats.

Cheap shot though it is, the statement is true. If the radicals are allowed to take over any organization, logic and civil discourse leave. I have tried to speak intelligently to the writer. Doing so is impossible. An ideologue cannot carry on a conversation, much less a debate without emotion taking over. Compromise and consensus are concepts totally alien to them, and if forced to participate, only result in frustration for all involved.

During the last eight years the Republican Party experienced a nearly fatal combination of Ideologue fanaticism and Democrat-style spending. The mix of the two have given us Democrat supermajorities in both Washington and several states. One would think that an intelligent person would see history in action and learn from it. Apparently that is too much to expect from the writer. A basic definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time. What does it say about a person when they insist on not only repeating the disastrous action, but doing more of it?

Right Wing Insanity

The Nevada Legislature held a special session this last Monday, December 8th. The minimum cost of this special session was $100,000 per day. The reason for this lavish waste of the taxpayers money? To cut costs. A brief skim of the Nevada Constitution will show that the power to do this rests in the Governor’s hands, but our Governor, “Thumbs” Gibbons (over 800 text messages to his girlfriend while he was cheating on his wife), didn’t want to do the hard job of deciding where to cut cost and to raise revenue. So he called in the legislature to do the dirty work for him.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. During the 2007 session of the legislature, the Mayors of Reno, Sparks and Carson City wanted to have the Legislature ok the formation of a Northern Nevada Water Authority, even though they had full authority to do so on their own. They didn’t want to do so because it was more expedient for the voters to be mad at us than them. It is interesting to note that honesty in politics, real honesty, is as rare as hen’s teeth. The media, the pundits, the politicians and yes, even the voters, will attack honesty whenever it rears its offensive head.

Yesterday an article was printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal entitled “We Need More Right Wing Ideologues”. The author of that article is know for strident criticism of anyone he considers to be less than his idea of pure Republican, even though he is not a member of the party. During the last election, the GOP received a total shellacking and lost any semblance of power they may have had during the last session. RWI’s (right wing ideologues) like as this writer (I will not name him because he has done nothing to deserve such acknowledgement) have done more to hurt the Republican Party than corrupt governors have hurt the Illinois Democrats.

Cheap shot though it is, the statement is true. If the radicals are allowed to take over any organization, logic and civil discourse leave. I have tried to speak intelligently to the writer. Doing so is impossible. An ideologue cannot carry on a conversation, much less a debate without emotion taking over. Compromise and consensus are concepts totally alien to them, and if forced to participate, only result in frustration for all involved.

During the last eight years the Republican Party experienced a nearly fatal combination of Ideologue fanaticism and Democrat-style spending. The mix of the two have given us Democrat supermajorities in both Washington and several states. One would think that an intelligent person would see history in action and learn from it. Apparently that is too much to expect from the writer. A basic definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time. What does it say about a person when they insist on not only repeating the disastrous action, but doing more of it?

The Death of Common Sense

A Memorial to Common Sense:
Common Sense died this year in a tragic mishap. Common’s best friends, Responsibility, Morality, Ethics and Virtue seemed to have also been victim’s of the tragedy. Civil Rights, a close associate of Common Sense is currently in the ICU; the prognosis is not good.

An obituary such as this may seem cynically comical, but in actuality, it is not. Consider the current climate in Washington. Many think the election of Barrack Obama to the Presidency signifies a new era in American government. They see the elimination of poverty, sickness and corporate greed. Somehow, simply putting a black man into the seat of power solves all our problems. The Arabs will no longer hate the Jews. Slavery and oppression will cease to exist and every child will have what they desire waiting for them under the tree on Christmas morning. To many, Obama is not merely the President-elect, he is the Messiah.

The Democrat landslide that swept through this year’s electoral cycle removed even the pretense of bipartisanship that existed last year. Current stories in the press about Nancy Pelosi’s recent moves as Speaker give a good indication of what will be coming our way after the 2009 inauguration.

As a junior Senator, Barrack Obama had the most consistently liberal voting record in American history. Even Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi could not bring themselves to support some of the radical causes championed by their soon to be new boss. Partial birth abortion, friendship with terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, and the elimination of the Second Amendment, all have a place at Obama’s table. His proposed tax policies will not create the universal wealth he claims, but drive the current recession we are now experiencing into a full blown depression.

There was a time in recent history where the state of New Jersey was one of the least taxed states in the nation. At that same time it was one of the few states where the Governor had the unique pleasure of dealing with an ongoing budget surplus. The New Jersey legislature, in an attempt to assuage certain special interests, decided to raise taxes on business. Surprisingly, to some, revenues went down, not up. The legislature was unable to learn from history, no surprise there, and raised taxes. Revenues fell a bit more and now New Jersey, rather than being one of the most prosperous states, is one of the least. They function in a state of continuous deficit.

There are some who think all our problems would be solved if the situation were reversed and the GOP held the reins of power. The problem with that sort of thinking is that we have already experienced that scenario and the end result was, after a brief economic expansion, a long steady slide into laissez-faire greed and corruption that culminated in the great depression of the early 1900’s. Now it appears that we are repeating history.

Common Sense would dictate that if doing things one way results in failure, then it would be wise to try something else…possibly in the opposite direction. Two problems with that sort of thinking are, one; it means admitting you were wrong, and two; being able to work outside of your own self interest.

So Obama may not be a native-born U.S. citizen, so what?

Over the past few months a quiet controversy has been brewing about the possibility that the President-elect, Barrack Obama may not be entitled to hold the office. The reason is not that enough people did not vote for him or that he is guilty of any exclusionary crime. No, the reason is that the circumstances of his birth may exclude him from being able to take office.

The Constitution requires presidents to be natural-born citizens of the United States who are at least 35 years of age and have resided in the United States for 14 years. Though earlier versions had restrictions for race and sex, those have long since been removed. The birth thing, however, is still in force.

World Net Daily has a story up with a very disturbing embedded video. It can be found at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=82503 The item I find most disturbing in watching it is I know how to produce counterfeit documents like that. In the days before digital technology, such fakes were far more difficult to make and detection of professional quality counterfeits even more so. Now, anyone with a good quality scanner and a decent graphics-ready computer can get in on the action.

Every scanned image is made up of “pixels”. A pixel is a tiny square that can either be in grayscale or color. The size of the pixel depends on how fine the scan, or how high the camera definition is set. It is not inconceivable that President Obama’s birth “proof” was faked, if what World Net Daily reports is accurate. An image that is pasted into Photoshop will show a border, even if done in the highest of definition. Only an expert in such techniques could mask that pasting with any surety of no detection. It must be noted that the liberal left tried, convicted and hung Sarah Palin on far more flimsy evidence than that, and they were not gentlemanly about it at all.

So what happens if this is true? Nothing. Obama has a legislative branch that is overwhelmingly on his side. Congress will not overturn the election and the Attorney General will go right along with them. Even if they have knowledge of the fact, they will continue on with business as usual. Is this surprising? Not at all. Our constitution has been shredded by our politicians so often that it more closely resembles a collection of knitters' mistakes. Would Obama have done this? Would he have run for our highest office with the full knowledge that he was not qualified to legally do so? Of course he would. As a Nevada Assemblyman I saw far worse done for far less power. The only thing more attractive to both sexes than money is power.

Now I know that there are those out there who will consider this column to be a direct attack on Barrack Obama and nothing more than hate-filled sour grapes rantings from a sore loser. All that will be said even though a search of the text will show only a reporting of the controversy. The liberal left does not want equality, they want domination. President-elect Obama can silence the controversy by simply producing an original hard copy of his birth certificate, college transcripts and the other assorted documents he has steadfastly refused to show. If McCain had won and had committed the same refusal, we would still be watching every single evening news program with a lead off story concerning what the Republican President-elect is hiding. Assumptions would be presented as facts. Sarah Palin had accusations made about her that were far more egregiously unfounded and she produced the demanded proof. The left has refused to believe it and the attacks continue on a daily basis, even though the election is over.

As of now, Obama has done nothing. He has presented no specific solution for one single problem this country currently faces. His message of change, based on his cabinet choices, seems to mean change back to the Clinton Administration. This may or may not be a good thing; we have yet to find out. I did not vote for him, but that means nothing. He now hold the elective office. If he succeeds in improving our lot as a country, well and good, if he fails, those attacking Sarah Palin will blame the GOP.

But the real question still remains, is he qualified?

Make English our official language and build that wall.

This morning on the BBC World News I heard a cholera patient from Zimbabwe describing what he went through to reach the hospital where he was being treated. This man spoke perfect English. His syntax, grammar and use of vocabulary were impeccable. This is because in countries like Zimbabwe, English is used as the connecting language, bringing some sense of unity to the various tribes that make up that country’s population.

Over here, in the United States, we have gone the other way. Some might used the term “degraded”, and in some way they could be correct. There was once a time when immigrants to this country had to learn to use the common tongue in order to achieve citizenship. Now there are those in power who want to see an unencumbered flow of immigrants, regardless of situation or intent, pour across the border. One problem with this is that a significant percentage of these “immigrants” is not only unable to understand the English language; they do not even know how to read or write in their own.

Several decades ago, when this country had an actual immigration policy, those who were allowed access to this country brought something with them the United States could use; marketable skills, talent, and education. They may have colored the English language with their own unique accent, but they knew how to use it, in both speech and writing, to communicate ideas and to share wisdom. Now they bring cheap labor, drugs and disease. In addition, another cost few people consider is added to the bill; printing.

Here in Nevada, it cost $10,000 each time a bill or an amendment to a bill is printed. That is because of the number of copies mandated. Now multiply that $10,000 by every single form, pamphlet, booklet, etc the government has to print and then double it because they all have to be printed in both Spanish and English. Now we are talking serious money.

The United States is one of the very few countries who spend a good sized portion of their budget accommodating foreign speakers. Mexico does not. France has not and just added a law requiring fluency in their official tongue for consideration of residency. In Turkey you can be jailed for being “Turkish”. While we do not want to emulate Turkey in any way, it is foolish to allow our country to dissolve under a wave of influence and illiteracy.

Of course many will call such a statement as being bigoted, shortsighted and unfair. No, being practical has no relation to bigotry. There is a way to have our cake and eat it to; it is called thinking outside of the box. Even though the government is not the best organization to do anything, sometimes we need bigger, not better. The southern border wall is one example. We should finish that wall sooner, not later, and make it deep enough so that it cannot be tunneled under and tall enough so that it cannot be climbed; then, about every fifty miles or so, construct and staff an Ellis Island style complex to filter those wanting entrance into the country. Those with communicable diseases can be stopped and treated. Those with drugs, weapons, etc. can be jailed, and so on. People who make it through the filtering process can be treated for noncommunicable problem and also taught a rudimentary knowledge of the English Language. Those who do not want to become citizens, but only find a job can be issued a traceable temporary work visa. Work visas and a way of tracking and taxing temporary workers is a far better method than what we have now.

Of course, a plan such as this will be opposed, and not surprisingly by the GOP leadership. They have created a vested interest in the corruption that currently abounds. How many companies friendly to the Bush Administration currently have illegal immigrants doing jobs citizens won’t do (at that price)? The CEO attitude we saw at the recent Congressional inquiry about the Detroit bailout is far more common than people want to believe. To them, this plan is a nightmare that would force them to pay a legal wage. Too bad.

We have a budget crisis that has become a certified recession. Some think it will grow into depression. We need to begin saving costs now, not when it no longer inconveniences politically sensitive groups. Printing costs is one way. Bringing a massive underground economy into the light and taxing it is another way. Causing pain to those whose greed helped bring this recession upon us...just icing on the cake.

Sarah Palin's faith

One of the chief complaints the detractors of Christianity have against Christians is that they apparently, actually believe the content of the Bible. This was one of the big knocks against Sarah Palin. Leaving all the manufactured attacks against her intelligence aside (the liberal elite cannot fathom that anyone disagreeing with them could possibly be intelligent), let’s examine those beliefs.

The one constant jibe concerns the creation of the earth. “How could anyone possibly believe that this world took only six days to make!” I could question the equally incomprehensible belief that man is descended from monkeys. The same amount of evidence exists for either, which is none. It takes the same amount of faith to accept a theory as fact as it does to believe in a religious text. But what about the text; the passage from the Old Testament book of Genesis reads. “On the first day…” Is the passage really describing a 24 hour period of time or an epoch? For the liberal elite, an epoch is a period of time that denotes the beginning and ending of an event, often geologic in nature. By description, each of the six days of creation could be construed as six individual epochs, each possibly lasting a billion years. For an eternal being, that length of time is nothing. Therefore, it is quite reasonable for a believing Christian, even by liberal standards, to take the Genesis passages on faith.

Another bone of contention is the divinity of Jesus. All right, let’s do a comparative study. The same people who sniff at that fundamental plank in the Christian faith spend an inordinate amount of time making sure the furniture in their room is aligned just so. To my mind it takes more faith to believe that the placement of a Lazy Boy will affect your future than to believe in God’s ability to father a son. What about the Islamo-Fascist belief that blowing up innocent women and children will send a terrorist to a paradise staffed with 72 virgins? And they call Sarah Palin dangerous.

Search any of the myriad religions throughout the earth and you will find something to ridicule, but a search through basic Christianity will show nothing that is a danger to anyone but the corrupt or the immoral. Is it corruption and immorality the liberal elite are desperate to protect? The horrors credited to the Christian Church are done so through errors in understanding and were actually predicted in the New Testament. Just as the defenders of Islam attempt to point out that the 911 terrorists were not representative of the Islamic Faith, the bureaucracy that carried out the Spanish Inquisition and ordered the crusades was in no way representative of Christianity. The main difference is that Christians will condemn the inquisition and all other so-called “Christian atrocities”, a Muslim will never condemn the acts of Hammas, Al Quaida, et al.

To many detractors it is more basic than a collection of beliefs. It is that even believing in a Christian style creator is a danger. In a perfect world, to them, all those who hold such a belief would be stripped of all rights and placed into reeducation centers until they came to their senses. To many, such a statement is extreme hyperbole. Unfortunately, it is not. When all the arguments, snide commentary, derogatory sniffs and other assorted expressions of disgust over a woman of faith having the temerity to even think of seeking high office are cast aside, that is what the atheistic liberal elite truly believe. They are not interested in accommodation. They do not want to live side-by-side. There is no desire for honest discussion or discourse. They have bedrock, fundamental belief that their faith is the true faith and everything else is a lie.

Interesting, isn’t it?