When You Lack Intelligence All You Can Do Is Name Calling!

One of the people that is one my face book has once again resorted to her only way of communication. She calls our President an ass clown. This remark speaks volumes for her level of intelligence. When people lack the ability to have a discussion about the facts and issues, they do the only thing they can do and that is call people names. I remember, as a child, the really mean and not so smart kids were the ones that would run around and call others names. This is what happens when they grow up. In today's proliferation of social media, everyone has an option of stating opinions. I support this quite strongly. What I do not support is the use of lies and  resorting to the type of attacks that this particular person does frequently. She calls everyone that supports our President, stupid. She has stated that our President, as dumber then a giraffe. I am not quite sure what that last one means, but I do know that it was an attack on our President. This is personal, not policy.

Some people have asked me, why do you keep her on your face book page. The answer is simple. I want to know what, even the unintelligent people are saying. This is the same person that has on numerous occasions used racially insensitive remarks. This is the same person that will attack others, with mean spirited and totally inappropriate statements. So I follow her because I have a need to know what this type of individual has to say and then respond back to her. Some may say it is not worth the time to respond to the ugliness that individuals like her spew. To this I say, I will not be silent to hatred. I want to respond, not to elevate her, but to drive home the point to others, that people like this, have a right to their voice, but we have a right and even an obligation to speak against them. We have an obligation to let the truth be told and say it loud enough to drown out the rantings of the unintelligent.

Her latest comment comes in regard to the controversy created over the administrations effort to help provide birth control to women all across the country. I spoke of the issue and my concern with the separation of church and state. The HHS ruling is going to be watered down and a compromise will be reached that will satisfy the church and the right that, all of a sudden, are screaming about the first amendment rights. You see I can make a point without calling someone names. Have I done so in the past. Yes, I am human. However I am also aware that the quickest way to have people not hear me is to resort to something that amounts to only a personal attack.

President Obama is our President. The President of The United States. He was elected by the majority of people and that is how our system works. People want to delegitimize him because they disagree, that is not how it works. They have for over three years used, the idiotic voice, of the birther movement to say he is not our President. They attack him not with facts, but with mean and ugly remarks, that in my opinion, smacks heavily of racism.

When the Supreme Court ruled that the votes in Florida would not be recounted in their entirety, and President Bush was declared the winner, my first comment was, he is our President and now we have to see what he does. Remember, he inherited a surplus and we where looking at the prospect of paying down our national debt. During his first State of the Union Address, President Bush , stated that he would give the surplus back to the American people. Mistake number one. Later he and the people around him, such as Dick Cheney, would push us into two wars and neither one of them had anything to do with the attacks on our country. Mistakes number two and three. Mr. Bush then had tax cuts that are still in place today and costing us trillions of dollars. Mistake number four. He then gave the largest banks a bail out with tax payer dollars, without any restrictions or directions as to how those funds were to be used. Mistake number five.

The top five mistakes President Bush and his administration did has cost us trillions of dollars. Dollars that could have been used to rebuild our decaying infrastructure. Dollars that could have been used  to bolster our failing education system. Dollars that could have gone to shoring up the broken health care programs in our country. Dollars that could have made us more independent on foreign oil, by developing alternative energy sources. The list that we have addressed instead of ignoring could grow more, but I believe my point is made. We have arrived at this point, because the previous administration put us here. Has Mr Obama and his group made some missteps also. Absolutely. However as you can see above nowhere did I call Mr. Bush any names. I spoke of policies. Policies that I could say were stupid, without calling our President stupid. So to Darlene and all of the people like her, I know what ever I say you will still take the low road. You will still seek personal attacks over substance. You will continue to rip at the fabric that holds our great country together. You will still act like the small children in the schoolyards, but I will continue to lift the national discussion to a higher level. I will continue to fight for America, not tear it down. I will continue to talk about the issues and will try and avoid the name calling. I will watch what people like you say and call you out on it and on those occasions where I can stand it no more, I may just say things like, the ass clowns like you will never rise to be the leaders, you will always be in the background where you belong. Drowned out by the smart intelligent people of our country.

When Will We Stand And Protect Our First Responders?

Each and every day in cities and towns across our great country a group of under appreciated and underpaid, men and women don their uniforms of civic responsibility and protect us. These are the fine people that are police and firefighters. We asked all of them to take on the incredible task of providing support and help, whenever we call.

What do we give them in return? A police offer pulls someone over for reckless driving and receives a profane laced triad for their work. It does not matter that they might be saving you or someone you care about from a disastrous accident, all people think, is how much it is costing them in dollars. They do not take the responsibility for their reckless actions. This is the same officer that will place themselves between you and any harm that is approaching.

Firefighters are viewed somewhat differently, but also fall under the wrath of the public. At times they are ridiculed for spending too much time at the local grocery store, when they load up supplies for the station. We impede their progress, as they respond to an emergency, because we do not want to arrive at our destination two minutes later.

In the history of America, first responders have placed the interest of the public first and never hesitated because of concern for themselves. They were there during the great fire in Chicago. They fought against the devastation in the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake. More recently we heard and observed their bravery and heroism as they ran toward the burning towers on 9-11. On that one day we lost thousands of remarkable people and, yes we mourned, but we did so briefly. Since that remarkable day many more have lost their lives, due to the fact that they breathed the very air that surrounded them. The lives that were devastated that day, a decade ago,  belonged to true American heroes. Thousands of responders report to work every day and some of them never get the chance to return home. They loose the opportunity to say good-bye to their families and their families have to bury them without a single change to say, "I love you," once more. I ask again, what do we do for them?

We question their decisions, that are made in a fraction of a second, if something goes wrong. We want to drag them into court for criminal and civil actions because the outcome of their choices is not perfect. Now we want to demonize them, as the root of our financial problems in America. All across the country, Republican, governors and Republican legislatures are attempting to take away even the small amount we pay them. They are attacking the unions that help them perform their jobs, and the idea of collective bargaining, that will cut how they are compensated. How much is your family's life worth? How much would you be willing to spend to save someone you love? How hard is it to show them the respect and admiration they deserve? How hard would it be to say, "thank you", to each and every first responder that you encounter? Lastly how hard would it be to contact your local, state and federal politicians and tell them that these brave and wonderful leaders in our society are so important, and they should be protected by all of us in return?

The next time you pass a police officer or a firefighter, think about the fact that they are always there. Whether it is during the day while most of us are out working they serve us. During the night, while we all lay down to sleep, they are ready to respond to all of us at a seconds notice. Think about those brave men and women, that rushed toward their deaths in New York and remember they are rushing toward their deaths each time they put that special uniform on and protect. Do we not owe them the same? I believe we do. Tonight when you hit your knees, remind God to place each of these special people in the palm of his hand and protect them, while they protect us.

To All Of My Conservative Friends, Including Brandon, Doug, Darlene and Danny.

A little over a year ago I started America's Voice and have met with an increasing number of readers. Most people read it, but then do not comment. When I get comments I will answer them in a posting and then we can debate. Over the year two friends, Marines, who is more liberal leaning and Danny, who is a Libertarian and Ron Paul supporter, have joined me many times with comments. I occasionally have sprinkled among them some other comments, mostly from anonymous sources. I have my blog set up so anyone can comment and they do not have to leave a name. I encourage people to let me know who they are, but I do not want to silence any voice. I also write a sports blog, "Old School Sports" and a humor blog, "Father Thinks He Knows Best, " and allow the same freedom for people to comment. The reason I bring this up, is over the last year I have been engaged with people on face book and we had some very lengthy discussion, mostly involving politics. I enjoy this, but I am also not being a very good businessman, by following this path. I write my blogs for the fun of it, but I also would like to increase my readership to the point that it would supplement our income, instead of me going out to work and have to follow a schedule. On my blog are ads. They will become more controlled by me and more diversified in the near future. The way I make income from blogs is by total readership and by anyone going to any of the advertisers. I make additional money if someone buys while they are looking. Back to my change. When I engage in long discussions directly on face book I make nothing and if that conversation was on one of my blogs, I will increase the amount of money I make. It costs you, my readers nothing, unless there is a product you buy and then you only pay for the merchandise, not for my blog. This is the way they work. This is not a pitch for you to buy anything, but to inform you that in the future I will post my responses to my blogs and then post it to face book. This is business and my business is writing.

To my conservative friends, and yes I do consider you friends, even though in some cases I only know you through face book, I invite you to join us in this venue. It is not some liberal machine that is trying to trap you, if anything I tend to be more middle of the road on the blog, which is really where I aim to be. I do not tolerate vulgar, profanities and can delete comments that I feel is offensive. Just because you disagree with me, that does not offend me. I tend to argue facts, but I am also human and politics is emotional to me and everyone that I know.

My goal is to create an open and honest environment where people, with different views can come and have serious discussions. Come armed with facts, opinions, but most importantly solutions. We get too caught up in the emotional part, I know I sometimes do, and when this happens call me on it. Let me know that I am taking it too personal in your opinion. This can lead to a better discourse about the issues that face America today. I will answer you and issues that are brought up on face book, but now I will go into my blog and post the responses. Please join me. This is really what America is about. Someone starting a business. People wanting to join them because they like the concept. Lastly and most importantly finding and sharing solutions to the myriad of problems that face us today. I will in the near future start to share my blog posts to other national blogs, such as Morning Joe or Rachel Madow and even the Conservative Girl blog. Join me and together we will share points of views and ideas. Thanks. 

Contraception And The Catholic Church.

This week a lot of noise was coming from the right wing and Republicans, blasting the Obama administration for it's stance on women that work for the Catholic Church and it's universities. One of the issues that is related to the Affordable Health Care Act is the idea that companies would provide, through their employee health insurance, free contraceptives. On the surface this does not appear to be very controversial, until the right wing gets a chance to sink it's teeth into anything that opposes the President. The church contends that it's long held stance against birth control of any type, is violating the separation of church and state. They want to continue and allow a small group of mostly old men, the Catholic hierarchy, to have the power over the private discussion that women should have over their own bodies when it comes to having a child.

One would think that the church and the crazies on the right would welcome the opportunity to decrease the rate of abortions in this country. However the right cannot pass up the chance to attack our President and blame him for all of our social ills. When you look at the idea that the more women, choose birth control, they would then not choose abortions. This makes perfect sense unless your only job is to make President Obama a one term president. It is not about what is right or most beneficial to the country it is about attacking our President. I can at least understand the idea that the Catholic church has had a long standing tradition of opposing birth control, and guess what. Contrary to the non factual spin machine there will be exceptions for religious organizations to not participate and the female workers at the church would then have to pay for their own contraception. Again the Republicans have it wrong.

This then brings me to another point as we look at the current controversy. Isn't it time to end our employer based health care system in America. Then employers such as the catholic church would not have to object to paying for something, that 98% of it's church members use. Yes, that last fact is correct. According to the latest survey, 98% of  Catholic women say they either used or are using birth control. Once we get smarter in America we would eliminate the whole issue of any company denying any health services based upon some reasoning by the executives.

The Republican argue that we have to have a better environment for businesses to survive and grow. What better way to reduce costs and thus makes us more competitive against foreign markets then reducing the cost for companies, by eliminating their health care costs. The Republicans argue that we should be more responsible and yet they balk at the idea of everyone contributing their own health care. Oh, no we can't have mandated health care. Where are our liberties? I hate to tell everyone but if we do not compel people to pay their share, they will continue to live off of the rest of us that have, health care insurance. Would it not be personal responsibility to pay a premium to help cover the cost of medical care? Is it not hypocritical to shout about responsibility and then say except for health care.

The Republicans scream about the fact that health care is burying us and our children and grandchildren under a mountain of debt and yet when an alternative presents itself they run away from their responsibility. They want to push it further down the road for political reasons and we are all left with the mounting bills.

This is my challenge to any Republican or Libertarian or Independent or even any Democrat. tell me how this is not about a way to reduce costs for the very companies, you claim to protect. Tell me how this is not the responsible approach to cutting our deficit. Tell me how this cannot work, and tell me without the false excuse of personal liberties. The forefathers did not live to be very old and the medical care in the 1700's was not very advanced so they could not have foreseen the need for everyone to join and pay.

Lastly if you cannot meet the challenge and show some better alternative, then I can only come to the conclusion that Alan Greyson was correct when he said on the floor of Congress. "The Republican plan is, do not get sick and if you do get sick, die quickly."