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Today, many of us will celebrate Memorial Day with barbeques and picnic in the park with our families, others will remember Memorial Day reflecting on a loved one who sacrificed to give us the freedom that we enjoy.
As we take the time this Memorial Day let’s not forget those brave men and women who are serving the cause of freedom in far flung outpost’s across the globe enabling us to live in freedom. The armed forces of this nation are currently sweltering in the heat in Iraq and Afghanistan not for glory but to bring democracy to people who have never known it.
The question then becomes what have we done for this country? Too often we hear in recent years of the “Greatest Generation” who served freedoms cause during World War II and now are fading into the annals’ of history.
Another generation of Americans is again rolling back the scourge of tyranny preventing that evil from reaching our shores. The methods may be different, the threat is different than what we have ever faced but the sacrifice is the same.
Let’s remember them, let’s remember the sacrifice of their families, let’s not forget what they are doing! If we do then as a nation we will regret that we didn’t do more or didn’t care. If the cause of freedom is not worth defending then the American ideal of freedom for all will perish.
With this current generation of Americans on freedoms wall we will never be defeated. This is the next Greatest Generation!
Both political parties have jumped and been exacerbated by the futile attempt by the Obama Administration to get a handle on the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The conflicting information by Administration officials have left the public confused and bewildered on who is in charge and what the federal government is doing to mitigate the environmental damage to include how it plans to plug the ruptured oil leak.
No one expects the President to plug the leak himself or that the federal government has the equipment or expertise to stop this massive disaster. The president could have taken the crisis more seriously; it wasn’t until nine days after the explosion on the oil platform that killed eleven workers did the president even begin to take notice.
More effort by the administration to contain the leak from causing enormous environmental damage could have taken place. Currently who is in charge of this effort? Right now you have the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Secretary of the Interior and various other individuals speaking on this disaster, but there is not one person that you can say is leading the efforts in a coordinated manner.
The criticism of British Petroleum is justified and they should pay for all the cleanup efforts but some of the other comments made by various officials are unwarranted. Some have stated that BP is dragging its feet or not doing enough is way off base. It’s in BP interest to get this fixed now and clean up the oil spill to avoid expensive litigation later. The longer this persists the effects on BP continue to exacerbate its future as a company.
Rhetoric on both sides needs to be toned tone and the administration needs to start taking a more proactive role in the largest oil spill in U.S. history or face the wrath as an inept administration that makes the Bush Administration look like competent in its response to Hurricane Katrina.
The president’s decision to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the border is more of reactive political move then one based in sound policy. This action is more in response to the passage of Arizona’s immigration reform legislation that was recently past.
The real issue here, one that is rarely mentioned is what is Mexico doing about the flight of its own citizens heading north for a better life. Mexican President Felipe Caldron on a state visit to the United States this month chastised the U.S. regarding passage of the Arizona law and his perceived treatment of Mexican citizens heading to the United States.
President Obama stood silent as the Mexican president lambasted the U.S. over its handling of immigration. The president just stood there and said nothing about the failure of the Mexican government to create opportunities for his own people in Mexico.
Missing was the treatment of anyone who tries to enter Mexico without identification is far more sever then would be received if one enters the United States.
Currently there is no impetus for Mexico to stop the flow of immigrants to the United States, for them it’s a steady source of revenue. After oil, money that flows back from immigrants in the United States is the second largest revenue source for the Mexican government. Why would they want to stop this revenue stream?
There is a need for immigration reform, but before any comprehensive immigration reform measure is debated, their needs to be a structured policy on what Mexico will do to stem the flow of immigrants north. Without this we will only revisit this again, just like the last Immigration Reform measure passed in 1986. The 1986 reform measure was supposed to fix the problem; well we see how that worked!
Saturday, President Obama gave a commencement speech at West Point Military Academy which outlined his new national security strategy that repudiates the unilateralist approach of the Bush Administration.
The president pledged to shape a new course one that is based on diplomacy and engagement. "The international order we seek is one that can resolve the challenges of our times," he said in prepared remarks. "Countering violent extremism and insurgency; stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing nuclear materials; combating a changing climate and sustaining global growth; helping countries feed themselves and care for their sick; preventing conflict and healing its wounds."
Many of the men and women he was speaking to are will be part of increased troop increase in Afghanistan. The troubling part of this new strategy is how it will play out with countries such as Russia and China who refuse to go along with the U.S. led sanctions against Iran.
The current situation in North Korea will be a challenge for this president as China will pose serious roadblocks for the administration in any efforts to punish North Korea over its sinking of a South Korean patrol boat.
The president may believe in this course, but he must realize the world is a dangerous place and the threats are vastly different then what we faced during the Cold War. Nations today are looking at what is in its best interests and may not want to go along with the United States, no matter how much we try diplomacy.
This president at some point will find out that his options will be limited and that he has to face reality not what he wants to believe the world to be. The best intentions have hampered leaders in the past and led them into disastrous situations.
At times the U.S. will have to go it alone or face a more dangerous world.
You can see why voters are disgusted with both political parties and the Washington establishment after last night’s election results. It doesn’t matter if the results went your way or not but the telling part of it was when both parties state that this was good for the Democratic Party or Republican Party. What about what’s good for the American people!
The problem with America is both political parties have bankrupted this country and both political parties are whats wrong with this country! America needs to stop listening to snake oil salesman and start asking tough questions on how they plan on fixing the country.
Both parties are controlled by special interests groups! Organized labor has a vice grip on the Democratic establishment and corporate America has their clutches on the Republican establishment.
It’s time for ordinary Americans to take back their country and start understanding what the issues are. Too often we let pundits tell us how we should think and vote without reading for ourselves what is really going on.
If we want to take back our country we need to be informed, if not then we have ourselves to blame!
The recent passage of Arizona’s immigration law has stirred passion on both sides, but the real failure in the debate on this recent immigration law is members of the Obama Administration having never read the bill.
In the past weeks Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and the State Department spokesman have been before Congress or interviewed by media affiliates, each time they were asked have you read Arizona immigration law? Each time they stated no! Even the president spoke at a campaign rally and gave a false statement of what is in the bill that proved to be untrue.
If our elected officials don’t take the time to read the bill but make statements against it you wonder why there is so much misleading information and downright hostility on immigration. It’s appalling that the top law enforcement officer in the nation hasn’t read it or the one who protects the border hasn’t read it, even after it passed weeks ago.
It doesn’t matter where you stand on immigration reform, but before you condemn something take the time to read what it states. The credibility of this administration has been diminished by the incompetent actions of his officials.
Washington better get its act together!
Little attention has been paid to the transformation now going on at the Department of Defense. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is on a mission to control the spiraling cost of defense spending which has been out of control.
The Defense Secretary wisely realizes that with spiraling federal deficits and federal debt which is out of control will have a detrimental impact on future defense budgets if not reign in. He commented last week the spigot of increased spending at the Department of Defense has ended and the time has come to get spending under control.
The biggest culprit to reigning in the cost of defense spending is Congress! Too often billions of dollars are wasted on cost overruns or weapons systems that are not need, but unfortunately the Pentagon is forced to receive equipment it doesn’t need or want. Any weapon system you look at eliminating you first must find out what state or district that system in manufactured in and you will find a representative or senator fighting to retain it.
The C-17 cargo aircraft is a prime example of this abuse. The Air Force didn’t want this aircraft but because it was built in Long Beach both California Senators and others fought to keep it alive. The Air Force was then forced to pay an additional cost of 2.7 billion dollars for a system it didn’t want or need. The list goes on and on of Congress looking after themselves instead of what’s best for the nation.
No wonder that nation has a ballooning federal debt; Congress just cannot stop spending the taxpayers money. As the secretary reiterated this can’t go on forever! Even the Joint Forces Command issued a study back in February and listed the national debt as a threat to the security of the nation, but Congress just places its head in the sand and continues outrageous spending.
If this continues the nation is headed for a financial meltdown just like what has been going on Europe. Who will then bail us out?
Yesterday the president spoke at a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and reaffirmed U.S. commitment toward Afghanistan or at least until July 2011 troop withdrawal date.
In the press conference president Obama stated, “ When I came into office, I made it absolutely clear that I intended to resource an effective strategy in Afghanistan and work with the Afghan government so that we have a strong, stable, prosperous Afghanistan. And I've used whatever political capital I have to make the case to the American people that this is in our national security interest that it's absolutely critical that we succeed on this mission.”
In the same press conference he also stated,” having put in more troops in Afghanistan over the last several months in order to break the momentum of the Taliban, that beginning in 2011, July, we will start bringing those troops down and turning over more and more responsibility to Afghan security forces that we are building up.”
What strategy is President Obama perusing? His wavering support for the mission by giving an arbitrary date has only emboldened the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban continue to intimidate local Afghan’s not to support the Americans because if you do we will kill you and your family! Everyone knows no matter what happens the Americans will leave just like they did after the Russians pulled out in 1989.
Taliban threats are real they know after we leave what will happen to them? Why would any Afghan risk his life or the lives their family by providing any support to the U.S.? This president has no clue or is just appeasing to his political base as liberal Democrats criticized President Bush for diverting attention to Iraq instead of fighting in Afghanistan. Now they speak a different tune when they control the power strings.
This policy of wanting to have it both ways will produce disastrous results and will only create instability and not bring any resolution to the conflict. This is now President Obama’s war and no one else!
For the past couple of weeks riots have spread too many Greek cities in its financial debt crisis, but if the U.S. is not careful it will spread to the shores of America. The main culprit is living beyond ones means and massive public spending that couldn’t be sustained over time.
Does this sound familiar! The United States has continued spending beyond what is unsustainable and continues to enlarge the public sector to astronomical heights and now payment is due.
Five of the largest states in the union are teetering on bankruptcy to include many of the major cities in the U.S. Los Angeles, the second largest city in America is virtually bankrupt after years of enlarging the public sector with lucrative pension and health benefits that the private sector doesn’t enjoy.
Over generous benefits, pensions that can’t be sustained is affecting the economic situation in America and if we don’t start doing something now we will be facing the same fate as Greece.
California is entering a gubernatorial election and little or no attention has been raised how the candidates would solve the $500 billion unfunded pension system or how to balance the skyrocketing budget shortfall?
All we get is standard campaign rhetoric and little real world solutions to solving this mess that both political parties created and now have no clue in how to solve it. Americans better start waking up to the fact that both political parties created this mess and no one is immune from placing America in this precarious situation.
Everyone blames each other, even President Obama blames the Republicans for this mess but his administration will soon spend more than all previous presidents combined, and that includes President Bush!
We face enormous fiscal problems with Social Security and Medicare basically broke! Now we have another entitlement program, health care which passed this year using “Enron” accounting numbers which will give us one more unfunded entitlement program.
This election we better not listen to snake oil salesman and start asking those running for public office to start answering how they would solve these issues? Let’s stop listening to what we want to hear and start holding government at all levels accountable!
After the disaster on Wall Street yesterday April’s unemployment numbers are out with employers adding 290,000 -- but the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.
Both political parties took what they wanted from this report. Democrats cheered for the past four months jobs have been created, while Republicans looked at the rise in unemployment to 9.7% from the previous 9.7%.
This was good news for the beleaguered U.S. economy, but we have a long way to go with many troubling signs on the horizon. The debt crisis that has infected Greece and the potential to spread to the economies of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland will be of concern to the U.S. economy and U.S. banks.
The spiraling national debt that both political parties inflicted on the country needs to be addressed but the Obama Administration is waiting until December when his debt commission releases its report.
The finance of many of the states is in doubt with at least four of them virtually bankrupt with the largest state California at the top of the list.
No one can celebrate anything, or blame each other! Both parties sent America to the economic brink and it will take time to alleviate the excesses of the past. That's if both Republicans and Democrats don’t mess it up any more!
After posting a huge loss Freddie Mac is asking for an additional $10.6 billion from the federal government. This is a strong indicator that the housing sector keeps continuing to be a problem and has not stabilized.
The mortgage base financed company had been taken over by the federal government in September 2008, when an infusion of billions of dollars helped rescue the trouble mortgage lender. With the new request it would bring the total federal bailout funding to $61.3 billion and $136.5 billion to both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
The problem with this request is why wasn’t this part of the financial reform measure now before Congress? How can you reform only parts of it but the one element untouched when the housing sector was the lead impetus that caused the financial meltdown?
It’s time Congress start getting serious about financial reform and stop demonizing sectors that you don’t like but leaving other sectors that you support untouched.
This is why the public has such low opinion of Washington. We get rid of one corrupt party and now we have another corrupt party take its place. One only has to follow the flow of money to both mortgage lenders and you will see why nothing gets done.
No matter what Washington states the bailouts continue! Should we be surprised!
The Dow tumbled 225 points today from concerns Greece debt crisis was too late and not enough to fix the nations trouble economy. Fear engulfed the market that this has the potential to spread across Europe and to the United States upsetting the fragile U.S. economy.
The United States should be worried as like Greece, America has accumulated too much debt and continues its reckless spending with no end in sight.
All across the nation the reckless spending of the past is finally catching up and politicians from both parties have no idea how to solve it. Too often we only here partisan spin with regard to controlling spending, Democrats and Republicans blame each other but both are responsible for the fiscal mess the nation finds itself.
The whole debate is misguided on financial reform. Congress blames Wall Street for the economic crisis which there is merit but what about holding Congress responsible as well! Follow the money on the millions given to Congress from the financial sector, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae the mortgage lenders; to include almost a million dollars given to then Senator Obama.
The financial crisis should have been awake up call for the U.S. but sadly nothing has been done just more spending. One only has to look at the fiscal policy of many of the states and you see why the nation’s economic future is in jeopardy.
Too often rewarding special interests groups was the order of the day, instead of sound economic policy. Public employee’s benefited at the expense of ordinary Americans. One only has to look how pensions and benefits were doled out without any thought how this was to be sustained over time.
California is facing a $500 billion unfunded pension system that has to be paid but what individuals don’t know that it will come from the taxpayers to make up the shortfall. Follow the government corruption scandals in New Jersey, New York, Illinois and the major metropolitan cities of the country such as Chicago and Detroit. In each instant the abuse of the public funds is done right criminal.
Government has been conduct “Enron” style accounting and virtually had ponzi style economic policy that only the financial meltdown exposed. It’s time we hold politicians accountable for their actions and only then will we have our country back.
It takes us to be informed and not influenced by snake oil salesman.
The immigration law that passed in Arizona set off a firestorm in the United States and focused the need for comprehensive immigration reform. The only problem with the entire argument on immigration that has been left out of the debate is what role does Mexico play in this?
If one studies the history of immigration you will find it was predicated on internal factors in ones country of origin. Persecutions or a desire for a better life led many to the U.S., my own father is a case in point as he immigrated here after the devastation of Europe inflicted by World War II.
Current immigrants continue to stream into America, with many coming from regions or areas of the world that have been different in the past. Few are coming from Western Europe, but we still see those hailing from Eastern European countries.
The vast amount of immigrants now come to America from Latin America because of the same reasons that drove millions before ; political oppression, economic opportunities, and finally stagnation of corruption in one’s own country.
If we are truly going to have immigration reform Mexico has to be part of the equation. Mexico complains how we treat those heading north, but what has Mexico done to improve the life’s of the ordinary Mexican people.
Mexico doesn’t care all they want is more people fleeing north as the second largest revenue source for Mexico after oil is immigrant money flowing back from the United States. Why would Mexico want to stop this trend?
If Mexico ends the massive corruption that permeates throughout the country, ends the abuse of its own citizens, ends the culture of economic enslavement in poverty, ends the violence which engulfs various regions then people will feel secure in their own country.
It’s easy to blame America for one’s own failure the real fault is what Mexico doing to its own people!
