Furlough- The Political Look Good vs The Truth

The Governer of Oregon decided that one way to save money was to have mandatory furlough days for state employees, 14 days for the biennium, which would be approximately 5% savings in wages.
This may be practical in some areas of government but is nothing more than a smoke & mirrors, feel good, look good ploy when it comes to running a facility that requires a certain number of staff per shift, such as a prison, state hospital or juvenile detention facility. A greater amount of money is being spent because overtime staff must be hired, at time and a half, to fill the position of staff that are being forced to take furlough days. So, the savings are really not a great as projected.
I really can't say that I mind a furlough day, because it does give me an extra day off, which I easily make up by working an overtime shift later in the week to cover other staff furloughs. More than anything I simply want to point out how much politicos are into doing things that look good to the public rather than doing that which is truly expedient.
This is merely a reflection of what is going on with government on a much larger scale. Stop the lies!

The Ant and the Grasshopper: Old and Modern Version

This is reposted from an e-mail I received from a friend:


THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

This one is a little different....Two Different Versions! ................. Two Different Morals!

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself

MODERN VERSION:The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant 's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar.The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.The ant has disappeared in the snow.The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

ACORN wants people to complain about the 287g Program but I feel different

ACORN wants people to complain about the 287g Program but I feel different:

Secretary Napolitano,

I appreciate the 287g program. It has raised effective enforcement of Federal immigration laws by allowing federal officials, law enforcement, and community groups to work together to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.
Please continue to give law enforcement the tools needed to enforce laws currently on the books which is the first step in ending the street crimes committed by persons in the US illegally. It has been statistically proven that crimes by persons in the country illegally occurs at a much higher rate than that of the citizenry.
Sincerely,

The Left's Double standard is seen in how they adore Rapo-Polanski

Roman Polanski is finally arrested for the rape of a 13 year old girl some 32 years after the fact and the mainstream media comes running to his defense with the argument of it being so long ago. Is this not the same group of people that continue to rehash all the terrible things the Bush administration did to terrorists..........not victims, TERRORISTS, some 6 years ago.
I hear Whoopi Goldberg making light of it "this wasn't rape rape", alluding to it being statutory only. She should read the facts. This girl was drugged and raped......RAPED....vaginally, orally, anally. She was forced and then Polanski was lucky enough to get a plea bargain because the family did not want to put the girl through a trial. He used that opportunity to abscond from justice.......well, justice is due. He should get new charges for fleeing as well.
I am so tired of these people, Whoopi, Debra Winger and the left leaning loons coming out with their fake morality against attrocities, like waterboarding terrorists, while giving a pass to one of the worst, and one of their own. Check your morals before pointing the finger you loons.

Blessings,
Mike

Can the Government really give affordable healthcare?

As many readers know...... I work in the mental health field at a State Hospital and try to come from that perspective when writing about an issue. Today's issue addresses cost of care in the past and currently, and whether the government can really lower the cost of medical care by becoming more involved. let's look at reality:


One of my new patients received a piece of mail a few days ago that made him instantly angry and caused him to throw it on the floor, say a few obscenities, and become rude with the staff. What was this terrible piece of paper? What evil things did it have to say?..... It was a statement of "cost of care" while he was a patient at the State Hospital. It stated that his cost of care would be approximately $18,000 per month. Yes, that is per month!

I started working at this particular institution in 1986 and remember the cost of care being at approximately $2700 for each individual patient per month. This year I saw a patient's statement and it showed cost of care at approximately $18,000. Can somebody run the numbers for me? What is the percentage of increase in 23 years?

It appears to me, with my basic math, that the increase in the cost of care is approximately 700% over the past 23 years. Gold was between $300 and $400 in 1986 and is currently at About $950....... that is approximatelya 350% increase. To me that means that basic cost of medical care is increasing at a rate that is twice that of currency. Why is cost of care rising at such a fast rate and what can we do to bring the cost down?

I believe that increased government intervention is and will lead to an increase in cost of care with a reduction in care given. All one has to do is look at how other businesses have faired after the federal government took control. I, for one, am not ready to shuttle mother and other 'elderly' loved ones around me off to Hopice when they have a great deal of life to live. All we need to do to see how this will work is to look at other sytems and how they are fairing......My understanding is that Canada, after trying the social experiment, is looking at going back to private health care....... systems in Europe are doing the same thing. Why are we experimenting with a losing proposition when it has already been tried elsewhere and found to be lacking?

We don't have the perfect system.....but, it is the best system. America stands on the cutting edge and the lefties seek to equalize the field by reducing care for most so a small percentage of society will have the same coverage.......

Mr Obama, Senate and House leaders, come to this care you offer America and tell me it will suffice for you as well. I know it won't because you expect more. So do I! Keep your hands off my health care. I trust the free market over you any day!!

Keep your mouth shut, stay in line

Last week I posted a link, in Facebook, to Sara Palin's Op-Ed that was in the Washington post. I thought it was a straight forward look at the Energy Crisis that will be upon us if we continue to move in the "Cap n Tax" direction this country is currently going and pointed out how we can move toward energy independence, rather clearly. When I woke up the next morning and checked my e-mail I found a response to my post that stated "I don't think this needs to turn into a political Facebook". My response was... "Actually, everything we do in life is political. If a person does not like what I have to share they do not need to follow my status or read my wall. I will not be a sheeple".

This person had the audacity to tell me what I could put on my own Facebook wall! Please understand, this was not something I had posted to her on her wall or sent to her as a direct message, this was an article I had placed on my own wall. This person who spent the last 8 years trashing the Republicans and the Bush policy (I'm not big on either myself.... they are not conservative enough) was now telling me that I am supposed to keep my mouth shut, stay in line and not make my Facebook wall political. All this while she gloats about how the libs got Obama in office......not because he was great, but because there is a lack of conservative leadership. We know it's bad........ Can anyone say "Al Frankin'?



I have heard it said over the years...... "I don't talk about politics or religion". Well, my 2 favorite subjects are Politics and Religion. Both of these topics affect peoples lives and are, in my mind, as important as air.

I WILL talk about my political and religious beliefs. I will share with people what God means to me and what needs to be done in this country to best serve it's citizens.

People........WAKE UP! Some, have no problem telling you not to think or feel or say......."Keep your mouth shut, stay in line!!"...... while they continue to espouse their socialistic, anti-God agenda. If we continue to move peacefully down the road, and if we continue to live our own lives, and if we continue to raise our families and believe all is well........... we will, in our lifetime, watch the unraveling destruction of the greatest nation that ever existed, right before our very eyes.

I will not shut up. I will not act like all is well. I will not forget that there are people that seek for a utopia that requires not their own sacrifice, but the sacrifice of others.

conservative what?

I Started looking at conservative political definitions recently to remove some confusion and decided that, even though I definitely know what I believe, I'm not sure what my political view would be defined as. Don't get me wrong... I know that I am a Conservative though I am confused by some of the definitions of politics on the right. So, I thought I would look up some definitions from a few different sources to see what I came up with. The following words have been bantered about by conservative political wonks when talking politics on the right.

New Right - In the United States, the New Right refers to a Conservative political movement that coalesced through grassroots organizing in the years preceding the 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater. The Goldwater campaign, though failing to unseat incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, galvanized the formation of a new political movement. In elite think-tanks and local community organizations alike, new policies, marketing strategies, and electoral strategies were crafted over the succeeding decades to promote strongly conservative policies. The New Right got a policy approach and electoral apparatus that brought Ronald Reagan into the White House in the 1980 presidential election. The American New Right is distinct from and opposed to the more moderate tradition of the so-called Rockefeller Republicans. The New Right also differs from the Old Right on issues concerning foreign policy with the New Right being opposed to the non-interventionism of the Old Right. Though mostly ignored by scholars until the late 1980s, the formation of the New Right is now one of the fastest-growing areas of historical research. from wikipedia.com

Old Right - was a faction of American conservatism that opposed both New Deal domestic programs and also the entry of the U.S. into World War II. Many members of this faction were associated with the Republicans of the interwar years led by Robert Taft, but some were Democrats. They were called the "Old Right" to distinguish them from their anti-communist New Right successors. from wikipedia.com

Neoconservatism - a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which supports using American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries. Unlike traditional conservatives, neoconservatives are generally comfortable with a minimally-bureaucratic welfare state; and, while generally supportive of free markets, they are willing to interfere for overriding social purposes. from wikipedia

Paleoconservatism - (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) is a term for an anti-communist and anti-imperialist right-wing political philosophy in the United States stressing tradition, civil society and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton Williamson, Jr. describes paleoconservatism as "the expression of rootedness: a sense of place and of history, a sense of self derived from forebears, kin, and culture—an identity that is both collective and personal." from wikipedia.com

Traditionalist conservatism - is a political philosophy that developed in the United States. It tends to emphasize cultural renewal and is characterized by an adherence to the principles of prescription (law), custom (law), social order, hierarchy, faith, the natural family, ordered liberty, and tradition. It may be said to have affinities with reactionary thought, and some adherents of this movement perhaps embrace that label, defying the stigma that has attached to it in Western culture since the Enlightenment.Traditionalist conservatism as an organized intellectual force emerged after World War II in the writings of a group of university professors (labeled the "New Conservatives" by the popular press of the time) who rejected the notions of individualism, liberalism, modernity, and social progress[1] and revived interest in what T. S. Eliot referred to as "the permanent things" (those perennial institutions that ground society: the church, the family, the state, community life, etc.). from wikipedia.com

Conservative Libertarianism -A form of libertarianism that is not as statist as pure conservatism, but not as socially liberal as "pure" libertarianism. Like libertarians, conservative libertarians believe in a very small government, with only those services needed to protect the citzens from unjust force. They usually also believe in there being more power given to the states (so it can be loosely related to Confederatism). However, they also share many attributes of conservatives; most are pro-life, and against unchecked immigration. The gray area for conservative libertarianism is victimless crimes, such as drug possession and prostitution.
Conservative libertarians usually were either Republicans who thought the party was too statist, or Libertarians (note the capital L) who thought that the party consisted of pimps and potheads who only cared about legalizing drugs and prostitution. from everything2.com

Fiscal conservatism- A political phrase term used in North America to describe a fiscal policy that advocates a reduction in overall government spending. Fiscal conservatives often consider deficit and national debt reduction as well as balancing the federal budget of paramount importance. Free trade, deregulation of the economy, lower taxes, and other economically conservative or neoliberal policies are also often affiliated with fiscal conservatism. From wikipedia.com

Social conservatism - A political or moral ideology that believes government and/or society have a role in encouraging or enforcing traditional values or behaviors based on the belief that these are what keep people civilized and decent. Social conservatives in many countries generally: favor the pro-life position in the abortion controversy and oppose embryonic stem cell research; support the death penalty, oppose same-sex marriage and other marriages social conservatives consider the establishment of to be contrary to traditional marriage, and the nuclear family model as society's foundational unit; oppose expansion of civil marriage and child adoption rights to couples in homosexual relationships; promote public morality and traditional family values; oppose secularism and privatization of religious belief; support the prohibition of drugs, prostitution and euthanasia; and support the censorship of pornography and what they consider to be obscenity or indecency. From wikipedia.com

Reagan Conservative - someone with strong values on fiscal conservatism, strong national defense, strong social values but who understands that those three things fit together and that people may (not) agree with you 100% on all of them. Reagan was able to use what people had in common in order to bring them together rather than using what their disagreements to divide them. from Reagan Society Board Member Merrie Spaeth at reagansociety.org

I found it hard, or apparently did'nt know where to look, to find any single source that had all of the above definitions. wikipedia.com seemed to be the source that contained most but I do have reservations about some of it's definitions because it allows for updates from numerous sources and appears to be left leaning, in my opinion, from looking up items in the past. Please feel free to send me a note with any advice on where to look for a better or different definitions, or for additions to the list.