ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20100225

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable

Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!



"My Comments"

Remember The Values In Life!

To realize the value of a SISTER, ask someone who doesnt have one.
To realize the value of a TEN Years, ask newly Divorced couple.
To realize the value of a FOUR years, ask a graduate.
To realize the value of a One year, ask a student who has failed a final exam.
To realize the value of a NINE months, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of a Week, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of One hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of One minute, ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane.
To realize the value of One second, ask a person who survived an accident.
To realize the value of milli second, ask the person who has won a silver medal in olympics time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have you will treasure it even more when you can share it with someone special.
To realize the value of a friend, Lose one.



"Daily Motivations"

Do what experts since the dawn of recorded history have told you you must do: pay the price by becoming the person you want to become. It's not nearly as difficult as living unsuccessfully. -- Earl Nightingale

"If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime,educate people." -- Chinese proverb

"Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which thers do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves." -- Helen Keller



The Strangest Secret

http://wtt091608.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8f89bce0be7e1813d8ad34042&id=125c2e0b77&e=526ea7d0cc



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on Him the guilt and sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

The fact is that when we sin, we will never be excused from the penalty. Because of God's holiness, sin must always be punished. Any claims that we were tricked into sin or that we did not know our action was sin gets us nowhere with God.

If that sounds cruel and unfair, here is the good news! Jesus provided a dramatic reprieve from our sentence and punishment. Jesus was beaten, tortured, and hung on a cross to die in our place to satisfy God's demand for justice. The unbending holy Judge became our gracious Savior!

Peter explains, "[Jesus] personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds" (1 Peter 2:24). When Jesus came, His blood was spilled so we could experience God's mercy. Jesus' sacrifice is the ultimate expression of God's mercy.

Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross satisfied God's just nature. God, the divine judge, showed mercy for us guilty sinners. It is the mercy of God that sees man weighed down by sin and therefore in a sorry and pitiful condition, needing divine help.

At the cross, God's attributes of both justice and mercy found complete fulfillment---simultaneously! Is that not amazing?

Your View of God Really Matters …

Try to think of one other religion that unites perfect justice and perfect mercy without compromising either one even slightly. Can you think of any other way to perfectly balance them without compromising either one? Today, thank God for His perfection.



"The Patriot Post"

"No compact among men ... can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other." --George Washington, draft of first Inaugural Address, 1789

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." --Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, 1781



From the Left: Nice Work, if You Can Get It

Ah, the joys of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's life: air travel and junkets paid for by those peons, the taxpayers. While her status as second in line to presidential succession mandates that her travel be more secure than simply flying coach next to some guy with exploding underwear, documents obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch reveal that San Fran Nan wasn't exactly frugal in her manner of flying. In just two years, she has led 103 congressional delegations to far-flung corners of the nation and world -- about one per week -- racking up a bill of $2.1 million. Members of her family tagged along on 31 of these trips.

It wasn't just the air travel, either. We the People paid for luxury hotel rooms, bar tabs and fine dining at numerous stops on Pelosi's world tour. It wouldn't do for members of Congress and their staff to eat at Denny's and stay at the Holiday Inn, would it? One three-day trip to the Gulf Coast, supposedly to check out Katrina damage, included 22 Democrat members of Congress and associated staffers and cost more than $65,000.. The tab at Galatoire's five-star restaurant in New Orleans alone was more than $10,000.

The Pelosi revelations are neither as shocking nor surprising as they may have been a few years ago when she was disingenuously decrying the Republican "culture of corruption," but given the $3.8 trillion Barack Obama wants to blow in the coming fiscal year, our spendthrift "representatives" are at least leading by example.



O'Keefe Case Update

A couple of interesting allegations have surfaced in the federal case against ACORN-buster James O'Keefe and the incident in which he and three other men were accused of unlawful interference with the telephone system at Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. Read more here.



National Security - Department of Military Readiness: The Definition of Insanity

Responding to The One's latest budget proposal, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) commented from the House floor, "[W]hen I look at the president's budget for fiscal year 2011 [FY11], I think about what Albert Einstein said one time. He said that 'doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result' is the very definition of insanity." Congressman Pence went on to note how Obama's budget fits squarely within that definition, including the defense portion of that budget.

While Department of Defense (DoD) and administration staff juggle numbers at the fringes -- witness the ongoing discussions over canceling the C17 Globemaster III production line and killing an alternative engine for the F-35 Lightning II -- the reality is that both DoD and the administration are happy to continue the status quo.

The evidence? Despite the rhetoric-du-jour, the rubber meets the road with dollars, and notwithstanding pervasive hope 'n' change speechifying, virtually nothing has changed with respect to the U.S. defense budget. In this budget submission, for example, military outlays remain virtually unchanged, save a slight increase (less than two percent) over inflation.

Also, the president apparently has included supplemental budget items as an integral part of his FY11 proposal. Translation: The commercial sector's interfacing with DoD might actually be able to depend on the budget for once rather than having to wait for end-of-year fallout money or congressional plus-ups to end the year in the black. That predictability should mean lower overall costs, rendering savings for national defense..

On the down side, however, we note that neither a new National Security Strategy (NSS) nor National Military Strategy (NMS) -- the key "vision" pieces to national security -- has been published since 2006. This demonstrates that despite all the hype about "change," at least with respect to defense, not much is different -- save, perhaps, a burning (dare we say, "flaming") desire to appease the far left by eliminating DoD's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Therein lies the rub: We have no real vision for tomorrow's defense, but we face very real military budget tradeoffs today.

Budgets involve choices. What should we buy? What programs should we kill? What should we merely sustain? But these types of questions can't be answered cogently without an overarching set of objectives. For national defense, those objectives should be articulated in both the NSS and the NMS.

The real issue for the president is determining our focus with respect to national security. Is it fighting a peer/near-peer nation? Is it conducting so-called "overseas contingency operations"? Is it some combination of both? Or is it something else? Unfortunately, the vehicle that should have answered these questions -- the Quadrennial Defense Review -- has become little more than a political football and/or shill for the service-of-the-hour. What is needed is an objective, disinterested look at the nation's true national security requirements from an outsider's perspective. Ultimately, this will lead to rational decision-making when it comes time to draft a viable national defense budget.

Fortunately, the president isn't cutting the military to the bone, but this fact stands in contrast to the Left's objectives, so expect considerable push-back on this portion when the budget arrives on House and Senate floors for review.



Obama Cuts NASA Funding

Barack Obama's 2011 NASA budget will effectively terminate America's manned space flight program, leaving space exploration leadership to the Chinese and the Russians. Read more here.



Obama Calls Navy Corpsman a 'Corpse-man'

At the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, the commander in chief not only got a sailor's name wrong, but couldn't figure out how to pronounce "corpsman." Yes, he said "corpse-man."

Watch the video.



From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File

Last Friday in London, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton really ratcheted up the tough talk. "Iran has provided a continuous stream of threats to intensify its violation of international nuclear norms," Clinton said. "Iran's approach leaves us with little choice than to work with our partners to apply greater pressure in the hope that it will cause Iran to reconsider its rejection of diplomatic efforts."

Translation: We're going to use diplomats to force Iran to listen to our diplomats.

This nonsense was not lost on the Iranians. Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki replied -- and we're not making this up -- "We advise Mrs. Clinton not to use repetitive and fruitless rhetoric in her tone." Good luck with that, Manuchehr. We've been telling her that for years.



Profiles of Valor: U.S. Army Major Brent Clemmer

On Jan. 28, 2007, while commanding the Charger Company of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, United States Army Major Brent Clemmer received notice that a helicopter had been shot down near Najaf, Iraq. Responding coalition forces were under heavy gun and mortar fire. Clemmer moved his company approximately 60 miles to connect with a Special Forces team to establish a perimeter between the downed chopper and the enemy. From there, he directed the recovery of the wreckage and the bodies of the two pilots killed in the crash. Clemmer's unit fought off numerous enemy attacks and prepared for a full assault on the town where the insurgents were entrenched.

At dawn the following morning, however, wounded women and children began coming from the town, signaling the jihadis' surrender and turning the would-be assault into a humanitarian mission. All told, Clemmer and his soldiers killed about 250 insurgents and captured more than 400. In addition, they recovered stockpiles of ammunition and weapons. Upon receiving the Silver Star for his actions, Clemmer said the award was a reflection on the performance of the nearly 170 soldiers in his company.



Business & Economy - Liars Figure and Figures Lie

Last week, the Obama administration trumpeted a 5.7 percent growth in the fourth quarter gross domestic product as evidence that its economic plan has resuscitated the economy, all thanks to the massive government stimulus program. But as Mark Twain famously quipped, "There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics." When the bigger the lie is the more believable it is, why stop short of using statistics?

Due to the inventory reductions brought on by corporate bloodletting, fully 3.5 percent of that 5.7 percent is only a one-shot depletion of inventory that won't be replaced until demand resumes. Alarmingly, the remaining 2.2 percent growth rate is 0.8 percent below the neutral minimum job creation threshold. This continuing negative growth condition explains why businesses shed 735,000 jobs over the last six months of 2009. Other indicators reveal a 0.1 percent year-to-year growth rate, a 14.6 percent drop in businesses future output investments, and stagnant or shrinking wages from a year ago.

Most revealing is the fact that since Democrats seized control of Congress in 2006, the private sector has lost almost eight million jobs while the unemployment rate soared past 10 percent. Democrat policies have helped created some jobs, though -- those in the federal government, which will hit 2.15 million employees this year, the highest since Bill Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over."



"The Web"

PTC hopes to keep Stern off 'Idol'

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=909476

The Parents Television Council (PTC) is asking the Fox Television Network to publicly state that shock-jock Howard Stern is not going to have a role on American Idol.

Major media outlets have recently reported that Stern is being considered for a judging spot on the popular television show, American Idol. The PTC was quick to ask Fox executives to squelch the rumor, but so far, network brass has not commented, so now the PTC is spearheading a petition titled, "Keep Stern Off American Idol."

Melissa Henson with the PTC believes the network would be making a colossal mistake to feature Stern on the show.

"I've heard a lot of people say, 'Well, he couldn't do the same thing he does on his radio show if he's on TV. He's bound by FCC and so forth.' But let's not forget that before Howard Stern went to Sirius, he was on broadcast airwaves for 20-something years -- and during that time, he was constantly waging war with the FCC, trying to see what he could get away with," Henson recalls. "I wouldn't put it past him to continue to test the limits of what he could get away with, even on broadcast TV."

Since its first episode in 2002, American Idol has become one of the most popular shows in the history of American television. Current judges include Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Ellen DeGeneres; singer Paula Abdul recently left her spot among the judges over a contract dispute.



SCHOOLS: Prayer is constitutional at IR board meetings, judge says

Sean O'Sullivan • The News Journal

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100223/DW01/100223012/1002/rss

DOVER — A federal judge in Delaware ruled Monday that it is constitutional for the Indian River School Board to open its meetings with Christian prayers, a ruling that could broaden what's allowed at school board meetings throughout the state.

In a 57-page opinion dated Sunday but not made public until late Monday, District Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. threw out a lawsuit brought by "Jane and John Doe" against the Sussex County school district that charged the board's practice violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
Farnan found that the elected school board is closer to a legislative body than a school, and therefore a prayer is permissible.

"Although reasonable people can differ as to whether the board's policy is wise, could be more inclusive or is actually necessary to solemnize board meetings, 'too much judicial fine-tuning of legislative prayer policies risks unwarranted interference in [a legislative body],' " Farnan wrote.

The judge concluded that the Indian River School Board did not use its prayer policy "to proselytize or advance religion," so he believed that the court "may not demand anything further" of the board.

Attorney Thomas J. Allingham II, who represents the Doe plaintiffs, said his clients were disappointed by this long-awaited ruling. "But we fully expect to appeal the decision to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, and we continue to believe in the merits of our challenges to the board's prayer practices."

Indian River School Board member Reginald Helms and the district's attorney see the ruling as vindication.

"It was a long time coming. I guess in these types of cases, they take their time," Helms said. "It is good news for the district and, I guess, for public bodies everywhere."



House Republicans Gave Obama Their Health Care Proposals Weeks Ahead of Thursday’s Summit

By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=61812

President Barack Obama shakes hands with House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio as House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Va., looks on at right, after Obama took questions from Republican lawmakers at the GOP House Issues Conference in Baltimore, Friday, Jan. 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(CNSNews.com) – Weeks ahead of Thursday's “bipartisan” meeting on health care reform, House Republicans offered their ideas to President Barack Obama in a booklet presented to the president during his visit to the Republican Party retreat in Baltimore on Jan. 29.

The 27-page booklet includes proposals on health care as well as six other issues Republicans consider vital to America’s continued prosperity: jobs, fiscal responsibility, open government and transparency, energy, savings, national security and fiscal reform.

The booklet, entitled “Better Solutions, a Compilation of GOP Alternatives,” was prepared by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). It includes legislation proposed by the House over the last year and several letters written to the president on these issues over the same time period.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said as much when the president called on her at the retreat.

“Thank you, Mr. President,” Blackburn said. “And thank you for acknowledging that we have ideas on health care. Because, indeed, we do have ideas. We have plans. We have over 50 bills. We have lots of amendments that would bring health care ideas to the forefront.

“We've got plans to lower cost, to change purchasing models, address medical liability, insurance accountability, chronic and preexisting conditions, and access to affordable care for those with those conditions, insurance portability, expanded access, but not doing it with creating more government, more bureaucracy and more cost for the American taxpayer,” Blackburn said.

“And we look forward to sharing those ideas with you,” she said. “We want to work with you on health reform and making certain that we do it in an affordable, cost-effective way that is going to reduce bureaucracy, reduce government interference and reduce costs to individuals and to taxpayers.

“And if those good ideas aren't making it to you, maybe it's the House Democrat leadership that is an impediment instead of a conduit,” Blackburn said.

Like the health care proposal posted by the Obama administration on Monday, the GOP compilation was posted online and in a Web video on Boehner’s congressional Web site on Feb. 3, where the Republican House leader encouraged people to download the PDF to review the GOP’s ideas.

House Republicans sent letters to the White House detailing their plans for job creation and helping small businesses on Oct. 7, 2009 and Dec. 9, 2009. An alternative to the Democrats’ stimulus plan also is included in the Boehner report.

The compilation details the House GOP plan for health care it put forth in HR 4038, which was introduced in the House on Nov. 6, 2009.

It includes tort reform, access to affordable health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions and limiting insurance companies from cancelling policies, allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines and dependents to remain on their parents’ policies until age 25. The health care bill is accompanied by a letter sent to the president on May 13, 2009.

In a detailed table, a plan for reducing the federal deficit and increasing personal savings is presented, including the consolidation and “refocus” of numerous federal programs that would save hundreds of millions of dollars over five years.

The table also includes a long list of programs that should be terminated, including the funding for “unnecessary international organizations” ($417.5 million), eliminating federal transportation funding for landscaping museums and other transportation “enhancements” ($4.1 billion), and terminating ineffective federal education programs ($2.8 billion).

The signatures of 222 economists are included in the booklet following a statement on the way to create jobs and rein in federal spending.

“The country’s economic future depends on Congress’ ability to rein in the growth of federal spending,” the statement says. “Failing to restrict spending growth will further balloon the national debt, impede economic growth, and threaten the long-term economic health of our Nation. Controlling spending growth to reverse our dangerous debt accumulation can be done without endangering the near-term economic recovery, and will prove beneficial over the longer horizon.

“The 2009 near-term “stimulus” has proven to be an inefficient spur to job creation and does not merit repeating,” reads the statement. “Any further policy efforts should be focused on opening borders to free trade, cutting burdensome regulations, and providing necessary tax relief to employers and employees.”

The portion of the report that addresses “open government and transparency” notes HR 554, which would require bills to be posted online for 72 hours before they come to a vote. Other legislation on transparency would require that all health care negotiations be made publicly, and cameras would be allowed to cover the Rules Committee, which now meets behind closed doors to decide when a bill will come to a vote.

At the Republican retreat in January, Obama said he has listened to ideas from the other side of the aisle and will continue to do so, as long as both sides are willing to get something done for the American people.

“I was not elected by Democrats or Republicans, but by the American people,” Obama said. “That's especially true because the fastest-growing group of Americans are independents. That should tell us both something.

“I'm ready and eager to work with anyone who is willing to proceed in the spirit of goodwill,” Obama said. “But understand, if we can't break free from partisan gridlock, if we can't move past the politics of ‘no,’ if resistance supplants constructive debate, I still have to meet my responsibilities as president.

“I've got to act for the greater good, because that, too, is a commitment that I have made,” Obama said. “And that, too, is what the American people sent me to Washington to do.”

The health care summit is set to being at 10 a.m. on Thursday.



White House Urges Repeal of Insurers’ Antitrust Exemption

By PETER BAKER

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/white-house-urges-repeal-of-insurers-antitrust-exemption/?src=twt&twt=nytimes

President Obama called on Tuesday for repealing the health insurance industry’s exemption from federal antitrust laws, escalating his attack on insurers as he tries to revive his stalled effort to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

The White House sent Congress a statement throwing its weight behind a House bill to overturn parts of the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945, which granted insurance companies broad protection from federal monopoly oversight and left regulation of the industry largely to state governments.
The president’s move came a day after he proposed a new effort to crack down on insurers that are raising premium rates dramatically, part of a comprehensive health care plan that he posted on the White House Web site before a bipartisan summit meeting on Thursday. But the antitrust repeal was not included in Mr. Obama’s overall plan on Monday; it was instead left to the separate House legislation.

“Removing this exemption will allow appropriate enforcement and examination of potential policies that might prove uncompetitive, might stifle competition,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. “And we think this better promotes affordability and innovation through greater choice and less market concentration.”

The proposed repeal has strong support among House Democrats, who included a version of it in the broader health care bill passed by the House last year. But the fate of the repeal remains uncertain in the Senate, where Democrats did not incorporate it into their health care legislation. Critics noted that mergers and some business practices were already subject to federal oversight and said that repealing McCarran-Ferguson provisions would do nothing to lower health care costs.

“The rhetoric surrounding repeal of McCarran-Ferguson does not match the reality of the situation,” said Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group. “Health insurance is one of the most regulated industries in America at both the federal and the state levels.”

Mr. Obama signaled last October that he was interested in the issue when he said in a weekend radio and Internet address that Congress was right to study a possible repeal. At the time, he complained that insurers were gouging customers and executives were “earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exemption from our antitrust laws.”

His statement on Tuesday represented the first time he had taken a formal position. Mr. Gibbs said the idea was not put into the overall health care plan posted on Monday because strategists believed there could be a bipartisan majority for repealing the exemption, separate from the main legislation.

The standalone repeal bill was devised as the first salvo in a dual-track strategy by Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat and House speaker, to advance elements of a health care overhaul one by one in case the comprehensive effort ultimately does not go forward.

Ms. Pelosi and Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York, pressed Mr. Obama for support during a private meeting last month, according to Congressional aides. “This industry has enjoyed a big giveaway for far too long,” Ms. Slaughter said in a statement after the president’s announcement Tuesday, “and it’s about time that it plays by the same rules as everyone else.”

The Democratic leadership allowed the latest version of the bill to be introduced on Monday by Representatives Tom Perriello of Virginia and Betsy Markey of Colorado, two freshman Democrats who voted on opposite sides on the larger health care legislation last year. Under the bill, health insurers would no longer be protected from liability for price-fixing, bid-rigging or dividing up market territories, according to the sponsors.

But after industry lobbying, the new version would not affect medical malpractice insurers.

About 95 percent of health insurance markets in the nation are “highly concentrated,” meaning that customers have only one or a few insurers to pick from. Proponents of repealing the antitrust exemption argue that such concentration has created an anticompetitive situation permitting huge premium increases.

But the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, reported in October that repealing the antitrust exemption for health insurers would not make a huge difference in premiums, in part because state laws generally already barred the activities prohibited by the federal bill. In terms of premiums, the report said, “the magnitude of the effects is likely to be quite small.”

Moreover, a Congressional Research Service report last month said that repealing the exemption could open the door to a flood of lawsuits challenging various insurer practices and could harm smaller insurers that share data because they do not have large pools of information of their own. If the result is that small insurers can no longer share information, the report said, “further consolidation in the insurance industry” would be “a likely, albeit ironic, possibility.”



Morning Bell: President Obama’s “Pro-Business” Policies Are Killing the Free Market

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/24/morning-bell-president-obamas-pro-business-policies-are-killing-the-free-market/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Last night President Barack Obama held a behind-closed-door dinner with 17 chief executive officers from major U.S. corporations including Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, Verizon Communications’ Ivan Seidenberg, and General Electric’s Jeffrey Immelt. According to Bloomberg, the President made the case to his select guests that his administration is “fundamentally business-friendly.” This comes almost two weeks after the President told BusinessWeek: “[T]he irony is, is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of Big Business. And then on the business side, we are perceived as being anti-business.”

What the President fails to understand is that there is no irony here. It is entirely consistent for big government policies that favor select and politically connected big corporations to hurt the economy as a whole. In fact, almost all well-intentioned government interventions in the market place do exactly that. In a July 2009 interview with BusinessWeek, President Obama spoke of an earlier behind-closed-door meeting he had with top corporate executives:

The last lunch that I had, I guess we had the CEOs of Xerox (XRX), AT&T (T), Honeywell (HON), and Coke (KO). We talked about the fact that, in the 1980s, when everybody was afraid Japan was going to eat our lunch, a lot of companies did a 180 in terms of quality improvement, efficiency, increasing productivity. There was a change in corporate culture that significantly boosted corporate productivity for a long time and helped create the boom of the ’90s. What they pointed out was, there were a couple of sectors that were resistant to that: health care, education, energy, and government.
…
[What we're saying] matches up almost perfectly with what those CEOs were saying: Can we introduce the same sort of productivity in the health-care industry, which we know is going to be a growing sector because of the aging population? Can we use the need to transition our energy economy in such a way that it ends up being a huge engine for economic growth? Can we revamp our education system so that it’s producing the kind of workers we need? … we need to get beyond this notion that somehow government is always just the problem.

But as others have pointed out, the reason the health care, education, and energy sectors all failed to improve quality, efficiency, and productivity in the 80s is because those sectors were, and continue to be, the sectors most dominated by government intervention: our education system is a near total government monopoly; the federal government controls the majority of health care spending in this country, and our environmental laws make new energy development in this country virtually impossible. But President Obama seems completely oblivious to these facts. He is supremely confident that his government “pro-business” interventions will be ahistorically successful. And so he confidently tells BusinessWeek: “You would be hard-pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses.”

Never mind that President Obama’s cap and trade proposal would be worth billions to select power companies but cost the U.S. economy as a whole trillions of dollars. Never mind that his health care plan would turn health insurance companies into public-utility like monopolies at tremendous cost to small businesses. Never mind that the President’s big labor-friendly tax hikes would cripple American competitiveness. President Obama’s “pro-business” TARP related actions helped lower the United States rank in the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, from “free” to “mostly free.” The President must stop having behind-closed-door meetings with his favorite CEOs and start pursuing an economic agenda that helps everyone.



Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=271575

Don't know if anyone has seen this so I apologize if this has already been posted, but my Aunt, who lives in the DC area sent me these pics.

Not all of DC was shut down during the heavy snowstorms...These are the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Old Guard keeping watch regardless of the conditions!

The media had reported the honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier never left their posts during any of the snow storms DC had. It makes you proud to be an American!



"The e-mail Bag"

'It's just too hot to wear clothes today,' Jack says as he stepped out of the shower, 'honey, what do you think the neighbors would think if I mowed the lawn like this?' *

'Probably that I married you for your money,' she replied.



Q: What do you call an intelligent, good looking, sensitive man?

A: A rumor