John McCain Still Can't Believe He Lost!

    What is up with John McCain these days? I feel that he is still bitter that President Obama beat him and now he had to watch as the President got re-elected. It must have brought back the stinging feelings and it has become too much for McCain.
He has been drumming up a conspiracy theory over the past couple of weeks and yet all he is doing, is looking pathetic. On Wednesday he complained about us needing more information on Benghazi and then he turns around on Thursday and skips a meeting where information was given to members of Congress. When a reporter asked him about missing the meeting he snapped back, "That he was a Senator and did not have to answer questions."
    McCain has called the terrorist attack on the consulate in Benghazi the worst intelligence failure in America's history. Maybe he forgot about the 9-11 attacks and the failures by America's intelligence community then. What about the various attacks on U.S. consulates and embassies starting with Karachi, Pakistan in 2002, when 12 people where killed and 51 injured. More attacks happened in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Where was John McCain and his outrage. After 9-11 the Intel from various agencies around the world suggested there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There were as many other agencies that said there was no evidence of WMD. Many people from the Bush administration were out convincing everyone that the weapons were there. So far none have been found. Ten years trillions of dollars and thousands of lives later still no weapons. Maybe John needs to rethink some of his rhetoric.
    John has called into question Susan Rice and her intelligence and ability to be Secretary of State. Where was he when Condi Rice and Colin Powell were using intelligence information to push us into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Silence is all he has on that subject. We need to find out what happened in Benghazi. Not to find a scape goat. Not to hang someone out to dry. Not to punish people. We need to find out what happened so we can prevent it from happening again. We need to find out so we can protect our people around the globe, as best we can.
    John McCain wants to find a way to attack our President. That is all this is. The bitter vitriol of an old man that failed to accomplish what he felt was his right, the Presidency of the United States. John, YOU LOST. Get over it. You served America proudly in uniform and as a Senator. It is time to move on. All you are destroying, is your legacy. I feel pity for you, but your time has come, to retire. Go sit on your porch in Arizona and dream what could have been and allow the rest of us to fix problems in America.

Freedom Is In The Eye Of The Beholder!

According to the dictionary, freedom is liberation from slavery or restraint from the power of another.

According to the far right, freedom is what they believe it should be. We each have certain freedoms that we hold more dear then others, but the Republicans are trampling on freedoms and we are just allowing it to happen.

Voting is being restricted in many states, by Republican controlled legislatures. They are using the ruse of voter fraud as the reason when the truth is they are trying to rig the election. They have restricted or put in place new ID laws that are for the purpose of electing more Republicans. The result is they are taking away the rights of millions of legal voters. Imagine if someone introduced a bill, at either state or federal level, that would restrict or take away the rights of millions of gun owners. The level of defiance would be astounding. The screams of, "Only from my cold, dead hands," would be deafening. Yet the right is sheepishly following the directive to take away Constitutional rights, for which there is no problem.

Women's freedom to control their own bodies has been under attack for years and is now reaching a crescendo of attacks. The Republicans, again, are looking to bypass the freedoms of the women and the advise of doctors to achieve their religious driven goals. They scream, religious freedom when the government states, that universities that have women working for them, should have insurance companies pay for birth control. However they conveniently are silent when a women is told that even though she does not want a procedure and her doctors states it is unnecessary, she has to give up her freedom and allow a medical devise to be inserted into her body. All of this is done because the fervent right wants their religious believe of, no abortions, to be implemented.

It has gone so far that we have an idiot, Congressman from Missouri,whos name I will not mention, that wants to have a fight about the degree of rape. The President stated it quite clearly and simple, yesterday, for all to understand. "Rape is Rape." Women's freedoms are really taking hits from Republicans and the far right. We all need to stand against the ideas put forth by the right and not allow women's rights go backwards.

This is just two examples of the freedoms that the right want to take from us. One is guaranteed by the Constitution and the other is guaranteed by the laws including the Supreme Court. The next time some moron from the right screams about gun rights, just ask them where they stand on voter's rights and women's rights. I am quite certain they will try to either change the subject or only talk about the rights they care about. The right to kill someone with a gun.

When Will We All Become Americans Again

One of the things that scares me is the total lack of togetherness displayed in our country now. It is all about me, has become our national phrase. The Republicans are doing nothing and then blaming the President for the economy's sluggish recovery. The last I looked it is the Congress that votes on spending money and taxes. The President tries to set the agenda, but when the opposing party decides it's top priority is to make the President a one term leader, you can be sure that nothing will be accomplished

I don't want to hear the rhetoric from the right about principles. They have thrown theirs out the window. They are allowing Americans to suffer because they what to win politically. When Obama took office he was slammed for trying too hard at giving to the right. His own party took him to task and wanted him to stand his ground. Each time the President gave to the right, the left screamed he was giving away too much and the right moved the line further away from compromise.

Do you honestly believe the country can afford to wait for the election to be over to start solving problems? Do you believe that if Mitt Romney is elected, Congress on the left side of the aisle will miraculously decide to forget the do nothing politics from the right, and start working with him? They will continue the same destructive politics that the Republicans have been practicing for the last three years.

The right keeps saying the left wants to keep blaming President Bush. We are not continuing to blame him we are trying to remind everyone of those eight years. The Romney presidency will look just like the Bush presidency. Cut taxes. Deepen the recession. Cut regulations so we can have more companies to bail out.

Look at the facts. Bill Clinton, left office and the country had the largest surplus in history. We could have looked at ways to fix Social Security, not privatize. We could have looked at reforms for Medicare and Medicaid. We could have built off of the successes, by Congress and Clinton, instead Bush decided to cut taxes. Got us involved in two wars, without paying for them. Then, he was in office for the start of one of the worst recessions in history.

It took Bush eight years to destroy the economy and yet the right expects Obama to solve the problem and right the ship in three years, all while giving him no support from Congress. Any economist will tell you that an economic downturn this severe will take more then three years to recover from and we all have to work together to do so. It will take a combination of increased revenue and spending cuts to get us moving forward. It will take the effort of American companies and the government working to get people back to work and grow the economy. It will take time as much as we wish it didn't. The right wants to have us believe that the same things they did to get us here in the first place will some how turn the American economy back around. If you believe this, then you must also believe Peter Pan was a real boy.

It is time to quit waiting for the next election. It is time to quit waiting for the ideal situation to come along for businesses. It is time to become an American and stand up for the country as a whole and not just for yourself. Decide now!

Reply To Doug.

I am not surprised by your response. Truthfully I could have predicted it. You want to ignore one glaring fact. There is almost NO voter fraud, but a great deal of voter suppression. I want my vote protected as much as you do and we could certainly look to put in place procedures to ensure voters rights without disenfranchising groups or individual voters. My return question is why now. Why were we not doing this ten, twenty or even one hundred years ago? There is less fraud now then ever and yet it has become such a rush to institute these laws. I would be willing to bet, that if new voter suppression laws were being enacted that affected white, middle to upper middle income men, you would be screaming your head off. Remember Doug we have a responsibility as Americans to ensure every ones rights. I would even fight and have fought for you to speak and vote and carry a weapon, even though I disagree with you. That is what makes America different. That is what makes America great. Protecting every ones rights, not just your own.

Voters Rights Versus Gun Owners Rights!

Yesterday Speaker of the House John Boehner announced that their will be no new bills introduced on gun controls. To the surprise of many who read and know me, I agree with Mr. Boehner. Now, is NOT the time to look at ways to reduce the number of deaths by firearms. The atmosphere is too emotional.

My question to the Speaker and all of the Republicans around the country, at both the state and federal level is why is it a good time to restrict voters rights? Why now? Why after the 2010 election and not before?

Let's look at some facts. To my Swedish friends, that demand facts here they are.

The following are from the firearms industry. There are approximately 235 million guns owned in the United States. That equates to almost one gun per person. From the Center for Disease Control, there are approximately 14 thousand murders by firearms in the United States each year.

So with facts, there are a great deal of firearms and deaths caused by firearms in the United States each year. Tragedy, yes, but to make it clear I do not support bans on firearms. I support ways to weed out the irresponsible people that kill needlessly with firearms each year.

What is my point. Exactly this, over the last couple of years we have seen 19 new laws in 14 states that target voter ID and fraud. This push is being lead by Republican and conservative lawmakers and is trying to impede and keep over 5 million ELIGIBLE voters from casting their votes. The right to bear arms is mentioned in one amendment, the second. Voters rights are so important that they had to be addressed in the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th and 26th Amendments. Yes each one of these were changes to address the inequities that we failed to cover previously.

Some more facts for everyone to think about. Over the years 2002 to 2007, and this is according to the Justice Departments Records. there were 86 cases of voter fraud investigated and their were no, zero, nada people prosecuted for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti fraud laws are supposed to stop. Think about this over 300 million votes cast only 86 investigations and ZERO prosecutions, and the frauds that were investigated were due to the registering process not ID at the polls. During this same time there were over 33 thousand UFO sightings reported. There were 353 deaths in the country due to being struck by lightning. There were approximately 70 thousand deaths by firearms and yet what are we worried about. VOTER FRAUD.

Where are the same people that are concerned about gun ownership laws? If they believe in the Constitution so much why are they ignoring the restrictions on voting rights. Does not the same concerns apply here. If we loose our right to vote, a small, select group of people will gain more control. They will come after your gun rights. Make no mistake about it.

 We have a problem that kills and affects people everyday and we do nothing. We do not look at ways to retain the right to bear arms and yet reduce the number of deaths by firearms. On the other hand we have a problem that is not a problem. We spend money to investigate voter fraud and yet we get no prosecutions. We waste time, energy and resources to find a solution that has no problem and yet the conservatives are perfectly fine with that.

One last point. The voters fraud laws being passed were done to restrict early voting and absentee voting, No fraud here, lets just restrict it. They were done to limit voters registration. This is where the 86 cases occurred. Still not much to find here. No prosecutions. Bottom line is they are being enacted after President Obama was elected to affect minorities, poor, disabled and students. All people that tend to vote Democrat or liberal. That is the intent. To suppress voters rights. This pisses me off, sorry to my Swedish friends for having an emotion, and should do the same to you. If you really care about our country and believe what is written in the Constitution, then you should be involved and speaking out against anyone that is taking away our rights. Whether they are gun rights or voting rights.

There Are Ways To Help Curb Violence!

Here we go in the discussion, in the aftermath of the mass killings in Colorado. I am sure the extremists on both side will attack my ideas, but so far I have not heard anything that would help to, at least, reduce the killing sprees here and around the world.

In response to the left, that will scream severe gun controls, no way. I will always defend the right of law abiding and stable Americans to purchase and own guns.

In response to the extremes on the right, I say we need some common sense restrictions on types of weapons and the amount of ammunition that is available.

Will either of these end the gun violence? No, but could it help? Very likely!

I feel that limiting the amount of ammunition people can buy and track any extremely large purchases, can reduce the ability of mass killings. Limit the size of clips, so that the crazies have to stop and reload, giving an opening to someone to stop the massacres.

Stop the sale of assault weapons until a complete and comprehensive background check can be performed.

Stop the ability of people to buy multiple weapons without the same background check.

Does this make it harder for the regular gun owner to buy for their collection, hunting or pleasure shooting. It does, but we are at the moment making it harder for people to vote all across the country and I have not heard anyone from the right scream about the rights of people voting being violated.

To the "Dirty Harry" wannabes, the idea that arming so many people, will stop, nut jobs, from killing is extremely naive and actually incredibly stupid. Think of the scenario, that just happened. A dark theatre. Some mad man opens fire. Chaos ensues. Ten people, with concealed weapons jump up and start to return fire. Who do they shoot? Will they think that there is more then one person involved? Remember it is dark and smokey and panic has set in. Now everyone is firing in the direction of muzzle flashes. Other people are trying to get out of danger. There is crossfire and people are trapped by it. Bullets fly everywhere. They go through the side walls. More "heroes" with weapons start to run into the theatre, firing as they enter. The police start to arrive. Who do they fire at? Nobody knows who the actual killer is. The end result is the number of dead is multiplied. This is not the way to handle the situation. We need to stop the killer from getting the ammunition and weapons in the first place. That is the closest we can come. Will it stop the killings completely? Again I have already stated it will not, but if it keeps one idiot with a gun from killing innocent people, we need to look at it.

I stated in the beginning I am not now and have never supported the idea of taking gun ownership from Americans, who are responsible and law abiding. The right will argue they want no restrictions and the left will argue they want severe restrictions. The answer lies in the middle. I will address additional comments I have heard over the past few days in future post. Some of them just made me shake my head in disbelief at how uncaring and uneducated human beings can be. As for my readers, state your opinions. Let me hear some thoughtful and educated ways to help end the violence.

When Will Our Leaders Grow Up?

I don't know about you, but I am already sick of the political rhetoric flying about. This is not about one party or ideology it covers every so called leader. It reached a zenith yesterday when I listened to Republicans attack the President of the United States, relentlessly as being Un-American. They kept using the phrase, "This President". Hold on everybody, "This President" is our President. Whether you voted for him or not, he received the majority of votes and under, "our" Constitution he is our President. I did not vote for George Bush either time. I disagreed with his policies many times. The bottom line is that never, not once, ever, did I say he was Un-American. I never questioned his legitimacy to hold office. From the beginning of Barrack Obama's term, people on the right have questioned him being American. Enough!!!

Yesterday the President made a speech in which he stated, correctly, that every person who has reached a high level of success owes part of that achievement to other people. He spoke of teachers, parents, co-workers and many others that contribute to each one of us having a better life. He spoke of government creating, through research, avenues for others to come in and gain success. He used the example of government getting the Internet moving and thus opening a way for people to build companies, create jobs and become wealthy. Every factory, store, movie theatre, hospital and all other businesses, owe part of their growth to the government. The roads that lead to their business was built with other peoples money, through the government. The water, electrical and all other infrastructure is due to collective funds and work. This was his point. It is factual and valid. The right now distorts the words and states that Obama hates business. He hates it so much and has created such a hostile environment for companies, that their profits are the highest in history. I wish he hated me so much.

In fairness, the left, has done the same to Romney. When he stated, "He enjoyed firing people", it was in reference to the point, if he does not get the proper service for his money, he will fire that company and go to a competitor to get a fair return on his money. Simple, we all do this. I have changed cable companies, phone companies, insurance companies and others. This is a form of firing people. The dog carrier on the roof was as ridiculous of an attack as I have seen. This should be fodder for the late night comedy shows, but an issue in a national campaign. Hardly!!

There is fairness in debating issues, but lets do that and not attacks on a person. Let's stop taking statements out of context, to distort the facts. I would like to see the election about one thing and one thing only. Vision. Where do the leaders see America going and how would you help us get their. I have in the past and will continue to do so in the future, to push our leaders for solutions. I have pushed individuals for solutions. We have become great at bemoaning what is wrong. We all know what the problems are. What we lack is leaders who are willing and able to deal with the problems and offer solutions. It is time for Congress, the President and business leaders to come together and put solutions into actions. It is time to grow up and lead!!