Come up with a candidate GOP

As the title indicates, the GOP needs to come up with a candidate; one who
can beat Obama. This country can't afford another four years of Obama and
Stewart Barney from Fox Business News said tonight on, I believe, the Hanidy
Show that if Obama gets another four years, this country will be bankrupt.
Is that a future the GOP wants to see for our country? I know it's not a
future this Republican wants to see. We don't need to be more like Europe
in that regard.

Several candidates have come and gone. Herman Cain was once the flavor of
the day and has thankfully exited the scene. Rick Perry has taken a dive
after showing that he is not ready for prime time. Bockman and Paul both
need to exit as they're too extreme. What we're left with is Romni,
Gingrich, Santorum and Huntsman. For these last four, Gingrich has what I
believe are insurmountable problems and would do the party and the country a
favor by exiting the race now.

As for the other three, I have problems with Romni on health care. I need
to find out more about the other two but Santorum is a conservative who I
wish would catch fire. Huntsman is one who Obama will have trouble
attacking as Obama appointed him Ambassador to China. That says something
for how they get along. It also gives Huntsman some credible foreign policy
experience.

It comes down to electability and Romni is probably the most electable but
stranger things have happened. I urge all who read this to do as I plan to
do and explore the issues and look at the candidates you are interested in.
become an educated voter. The future of the country is at stake.

9/11 ten years later`

As I write this, many things are going through my head. It's the tenth
anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. It happened ten
years ago in three different locations; New York City, Washington D.C. and
Shanksville PA. A total of 4 aircraft were used as weapons and somewhere
around 3,000 people lost their lives just doing what they usually did on any
given day. The World Trade Center towers collapsed, the Pentagon was hit
and passengers on United flight 93 became the first soldiers in the war on
terror.

I'll never forget that day and what I was doing. My husband and I had a
habit of talking early in the morning after he left for work and I got up as
he went in earlier than I did. We had our conversation on the morning of
Tuesday September 11, 2001 as we always did. We hung up and I turned on the
radio only to find out that something awful was happening in New York city.
I immediately called my husband and told him to turn on the radio as WBBM
was taking feed from New York City for reasons I did not fully understand
when I called him. It would not be long before we understood what was going
on. It was also not long before we realized that this great nation was
under attack.

It was a cool clear morning that day. I went to the YMCA that morning and
it was quiet in the exercise room. Needless to say the T.V was on with the
coverage from New York City and other locations. It was there I think that
I found out about the Pentagon. It was definitely there that the towers
fell. It was there or later that I found out about the brave passengers on
United flight 93.

There was a national unity that had not been seen before in my lifetime and
sadly won't likely be seen again. People were thought of as Americans, not
Democrats and republicans. How I wish we had that today rather than the
hyper partisanship we have today.

We have not one but two wars as a result of that day. One I supported and
one I did not. Afghanistan was clearly related to 9/11 while Iraq was not.
We have many casualties as a result of both of these wars.

Earlier this year president Obama achieved something that eluded President
George W. Bush and that something was the killing of Osama Bin laden. That
was a wonderful thing and something that offers some closure for the
families of 9/11.

We have tighter security in airports, although not as tight as it could be.
Just look at Israel for that. There is so much we could learn from them on
the subject of airport security.

We've had some attempts at blowing up aircraft since 9/11 but fortunately
those were not successful due to vigilance and luck on our part. There was
the underwear bomber on a flight headed to Detroit on Christmas Eve 2009.
There was the shoe bomber as well.

There've been other plots that were foiled such as the one involving ink
cartridges and UPS shipments internationally. The Brits helped foil that
one.

This country has changed but I hope we never ever forget those who gave the
ultimate sacrifice that day to help those in need, our first responders. We
lost too many of them on that horrible day. You will never be forgotten.

I close with the words of Darryl Whirly from his song "Have You Forgotten?"
"Have You forgotten when those towers fell, we had neighbors still inside
going through a living hell and we vowed to get the ones behind Bin Laden.
Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten? Some went down like heroes in that
Pennsylvania field. Have you forgotten about our Pentagon, all the love
ones that we lost and those left to carry on. ...."

No and I never will.

No big surprise

Well the U.s. government finally got downgraded by Standard and Poor's
today. That should be no surprise since such a move was hinted and expected
by some earlier this week. You'd think it was a big surprise to the Obama
administration though as the Treasurery Dept. reacted with indignation about
it. Should that be a big surprise either? No it shouldn't considering this
administration has no plan to deal with the matter.

They have no plan because they don't know what they're doing. They're in
over their heads. The stimulus plan, a lot of borrowing in a hurry
according to Sen. Mark Kirk of IL, failed miserably as it did not create any
jobs at all. The unemployment rate still hovers around 9% and the
administration has no clue why either. They have no clue that all their
regulations on things like energy and health care are what is driving
business not to do anything even though they have money. There is so much
uncertainty out there and uncertainty is the enemy of business.

It has been said that if domestic energy production were opened up, several
thousand jobs would be created. How about start by lifting the moratorium
on off-shore drilling. One accident, horrific as it was, should not shut
everything down and bring the domestic energy production to a grinding
hault. This is not the way to increase our energy independence either. Oh
wait, Obama is beholden to the environmental zealots on this one as well.
Remember that he said that electric bills would necessarily go up under cap
and trade. That's another reason not to create jobs as business doesn't
know what their energy costs will be.

The biggest driver of costs for a business is personnel and there are
reasons that business wont' hire. Just look at Boeing V. the NLRB. The
administration is using the NLRB to try and tell business where they must
locate jobs. This will put a damper on any business trying to create jobs,
especially in a right to work state such as South Carolina. There's
legislation in the House to address this matter. Hopefully it will pass but
I wouldn't hold my breath on that getting through the Senate. Reid has
shown his willingness to play politics with jobs. Just look at the recent
squabble over the FAA reauthorization. Much of that hinged on a change that
the GOP wanted but the Dems didn't because it would hurt their union
buddies.

Then there's the issue of the job-crushing Obama Care legislation. They can
say all they want but it's a back door way to get a single payer system and
business doesn't know what their costs will be under this monster
legislation so they're not hiring. Costs will go up under Obama Care not
down. If this legislation were so good, why has the administration granted
over 1,000 waivers? Why don't they just give the entire country a waiver
and repeal the damn thing. By the way, when will Reid bring up repeal in
the Senate under the FY 11 budget deal? The GOP needs to hold him to this
one. If they don't then Reid will make any deal he has to and then break it
when it's convenient for him.

Given all this, is it any surprise that S&P has downgraded the U.S.
government? It's not to me and it shouldn't be to anyone else either. This
situation won't change either until Obama is kicked out of office in 2012.
Vote as if your life depends on it because it does. Maybe then we'll get
some certainty and thus job creation. Time will tell which course the
country chooses.

Can we move on

Now that there's been a compromise on the debt ceiling issue can we move on
? I sure would like to.

Did everyone get what they wanted out of the deal? Absolutely not.
Republicans didn't get the full amount of cuts they wanted. The Democrats
didn't get what they wanted on the tax hike issue either. As Speaker
Boehner said, it's not a perfect bill. It's not either. Now we'll see if
things move forward.

There will be a committee created to work on finding $1.50 trillion worth of
cuts. This will necessarily include some of the biggest drivers of the
deficit, that being entitlement programs and health care. Health care needs
to be dealt with by repealing Obama Care as this will contribute mightily to
the deficit if not repealed. It adds new mandates on insurance companies
which will increase costs to the taxpayers. Remember that much of this
kicks in after the 2012 election. How convenient for Obama.

Entitlements such as Medicare are on the table but the Democrats won't even
look at Rep. Ryan's plan for it. If we don't do anything, then there won't
be a Medicare program for future generations. It won't be there for my
nieces and nephews and certainly won't be there for my great niece. If we
do something, then there's a chance the program could still be viable.
Let's move on to deal with this problem.

Looking for villains on both sides won't help us move on either. Sometime
you have to compromise which means neither side gets everything they want.
That's just the nature of compromise. I only wish we would see more of it
in Washington.

So I say let's move on and do the business of the people.

The budget and the future

We hear a lot about the debt, the budget and deficit spending as these are
topics of major concern. They impact all of us and affect the economy,
something liberals don't seem to understand. Just look at the fact that the
Senate hasn't passed a budget and is trying to maneuver its way out of cut,
cap and balance.

What do you expect from a body that is controlled by the Democrats? More of
the same I'm afraid. They don't want to address the real issues which are
the rising cost of health care which does include Obama Care. Entitlements
are another issue they won't' address because some poor person might get cut
off and they won't be able to control that person anymore.

Make no mistake about it. This fight is about control of the people and
liberals want to control people. They will do things that will get you to
do what they want you to do. Just look at environmental and energy
regulations for all the proof you need in that area.

Then there's the overreach of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB),
telling a private business where it must locate jobs. Hopefully the House
can stop this government excess before more jobs are lost. There might
even be a budget cut there.

As for entitlements, we have to look at reform of this as the current path
is unsustainable. We can't keep throwing money at the problem. There
needs to be reform so that people are encouraged to get off programs as
these were never meant to be permanent.

Obama Care is another place to look for budget cuts. This legislation will
only raise health care costs not lower them. It does this in many ways,
including government mandates which have the added harmful effect of choking
off jobs. Decisions should be made between the doctor and the patient
without interference from the government. This would not be the case under
Obama Care. Just look at the bureaucracies created under this law. Budget
busters to be sure, not to mention getting in the way of the doctor-patient
relationship. I won't even get into the dirty deals that were hatched to
pass that law.

To say that it's time to cut the budget is an understatement. This is one
frustrated voter's view.

Day three at AADB

Well I can't believe day 3 is in the books already. I came back to the room
early as I was tired after not sleeping well for reasons I won't go into
here.

It was a jam-packed ay as I knew it would be though. Where do I start?

How about from the beginning. I got up and had breakfast , followed by my
first workshop on board roles and responsibilities. Some key points that
were stressed:
1. The importance of getting your paperwork done correctly and timely.
2. The fact that personnel information is confidential.
3. If board member has conflict on an issue, they cannot vote on it and
cannot participate in discussion.
4. Related to that is if session is closed on this issue, conflicted board
member needs to leave as he is considered member of the public in this
instance.
5. Fundraising is one of the functions of a nonprofit board.
6. ED handles day to day operations while board sets mission, budget and
other matters.
7. President is liaison between ED and Board.

Another important point that Howard Rosenblum mentioned was that the board
must follow the law in an ethical way.

After the two session on this subject, it was time for lunch and some work
at the AADB table taking sign-ups or pledges for the walk-a-thon to be held
on Thursday here in Ft. Mitchell. Please pray that the weather cooperates
for this event as it was stormy today and there is concern about the
weather for Thursday.

I managed to end up at the last hour of the business meeting where the board
and the ED were taking questions from the membership. Financial issues
topped the list of questions. S it's getting a little late here and I want
to get to bed, I won't go into great and glorious detail here.

This evening there was a Special Interest group for those who primarily
communicate using speech. It was interesting but turned into a political
discussion. I went upstairs after this to pick up a couple of small silent
auction items I had successfully bid on.

After that, I came to my room and went on-line. Now it will be time to go
to bed shortly. Let's hope we don't get any more rain here as we got some
noisy storms this morning.

Stay tuned for another jam-packed report tomorrow.

Day two at AADB

Well today was a much busier day here at AADB. There were things to do and
people to meet.

I helped out with the raffle whose drawing will be held tomorrow. I looked
at some silent auction items and put in some bids. I came back to the room
and rested for a while before the opening ceremony.

We had the opening ceremony tonight where several things happened. It
started with the singing of the National Anthem and "Oh Beautiful", both of
which were done very well. One of the teens from that program did the
signing for the National Anthem. That had to be a thrill for her.

We next had Lynn give some announcements about the symposium. The
communications coordinating team was introduced and all of the team leaders
were introduced. That goes up to letter P as they're doing it by letter
this year. The team leaders are the ones delegates go to if there are
problems with SSP matches and the like.

There was next a plaque given in memory of Tom Sprinkle, a former Board
member, who recently passed away. After this was completed, we had the
introduction of the board. After that was completed, there was the call of
the states and then questions from members. These questions ranged from
issues with the symposium to issues outside of it.

All in all it was a jam-packed day with more to come tomorrow.

One more thing about the restaurant. The food is good and there is plenty
of it. I had a chicken Cesar salad for lunch today. When it arrived, I
could not believe how big it was. It had to be one of the larger salads
I've seen. Last night I had a grilled cheese BLT. Before you think, yuck
or whatever, just know that I wasn't sure how I would like it either.
Actually it wasn't bad at all. It was certainly different.

Now off to catch some zzs as things start early tomorrow.

First night at AADB

This report won't be long as not much is happening and this netbook wil die
if I don't get off of it.

I had a safe trip down. As the title implies, there's not much going on
tonight. Have seen a few people I know and met some too.

Things really get started tomorrow.

Concealed carry: A Bad Idea

Just last Friday an 11-year-old girl in Cleveland was shot for getting too
close to a man's car while playing. More info at
www.crimecrawlers.com/?p-6338.

That is likely not the only situation to come to light either. What about
other populations, such as senior citezens and people with disabilities?
They would be vulnerable if there were concealed carry. Are there numbers
available for states that currently have concealed carry? If so, I've never
seen them and the vulnerability issue is something that is not talked about
by advocates for concealed carry either. Why is that? Might it be because
there are no reliable statistics to back up their view that it makes
everyone safer. Might it be because these statistics would punch a gaping
hole in their arguments? Whatever the anser is, it is never mentioned and
you'd better have good statistics if you're going to argue with some of
these people who want this so bad they wont' listen to the other side.

The other problem with concealed carry is that the arguements for it are
based on the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution. What the
proponents forget is that this amendment refers to a militia which means the
military or national guard. It does not mean civilians outside of law
enforcemetn or the military. When will these people understand that?

The guy who shot the 11-year-old was a vigilante, nothing more and nothing
less. Hopefully he will pay the price for it. How many more like that will
there be if there is concealed carry? Safety is at stake.

As the title of this blog states: Concealed Carry: A Bad Idea. Let's get rid
of it once and for all.

Congress the economy and related items

The title says it all. This one's about the economy, Congress and related
items. It's an outgrowth of a discussion on social media. The upshot is
that the person who started this one agrees with OBAMA AND THE DEMS ON
POLICY. As regular readers of this blog know, I don't.

Bush was brought up in this discussion and to some extent, that's fair game
as he did some things I don't agree with. Chief among these were TARP and
the auto industry, aka UAW, bailout.

Before you talk about the GOP remember that the Democrats in Congress never
bothered to pass a budget last year. How shameful is that? It's plenty
shameful as it shows that the Dems aren't doing their job as responsible
leadership demands that they pass a budget. The Dems also don't want to
enact any spending cuts. They just want to spend like drunken sailors ,
something that cannot be sustained. Obama wants to re-distribute wealth by
taking it from the rich and giving it to others. That's called socialism as
he wants everyone to be equal.

Don't even get me started when it comes to the unions. They couldn't even
get card check, aka forced membership, passed in a democratically-controlled
Congress. That tells me that this is real bad, stink out loud legislation.
Membership is down and unions are desperate. Thankfully Congress didn't
reward them on that one. People see unions as Irrelevant and only
protecting the leadership of the union, not the workers.

The UAW didn't want to change things and wanted to write all the rules when
it comes to the auto companies. The bailout kept their way of doing things
in place, something that is not good. It kept a bad business model in
place. The auto companies should have been forced to go through bankruptcy
which would have been a much more orderly process than the bailouts. Keep
in mind that this was the second bailout for Chrysler. What does that tell
you about the company? It tells me that the company isn't viable. Keep in
mind that Ford didn't take the bailout. Good for them.

Unions wonder why they're irrelevant. They're irrelevant because much of
what they were created to do has already been done. Things like the
40-hour week, minimum wage and worker safety to name a few. They demand
what could be characterized as extortion wages, lavish benefits and control
over the work rules, the latter of which should be the prevue of management.
The wages and benefits cause companies to take jobs where it's cheaper to do
business, even if that means sending those jobs overseas.

Regulations are another can of worms I won't go into right now. Suffice it
to say, there are a number of reasons the situation is not good right now.
Only time and the right leadership will bring about a change.

Thoughts on victory in war on terror

Sunday night May 1 turned out to be a great night for the U.s and the
families of about 3,000 people who were visciously murdered on 9-11. Why do
I say that? Because we finally caught and killed Osama Bin Laden.

I am proud of the SEALS who carried out this mission and thank them for what
they did. It was obvious we were never going to take the slime ball alive.

While President Obama takes the credit for this, he certainly can't take all
of the credit. I say this because president George W.Bush and his policies
laid the ground work for this wonderful victory. Some of that ground work
unfortunately is too inconvenient for President Obama and his liberal
buddies. This is particulary true of the enhanced interrogation methods
that were used on various detainees which yielded valuable information.
KSM was one who gave valuable information through use of enhanced
interrogation methods. If the slime ball were taken alive,there would be
the necessity to use some of these methods on him and this would be highly
inconvenient to president Obama and his liberal buddies.

Leave it to president Obama and others in the White House to screw up what
should be a proud moment in our history. They didn't plan for the aftermath
of the mission and thus don't have their story straight from what I have
heard in some places. There is also a raging dispute about release of the
pictures and president Obama has already answered that one by saying no to
release of any pictures. Failure to release them will only further fuel the
conspiracy theorists, something which is not a good idea. Yes, the hard
core ones in that crowd will never believe it even if the pictures were
released. However, these need to be released as we had to endure the
carnage of 9-11 and we should see justice done. The pictures would allow us
to see justice done and can be done without compromise of military
oeprations. That's why you do the release in consultation with military and
intelligence officials.

This was a great day in our history. Too bad president Obama had to screw
it up like he does almost everything he touches.

Why we don't need nuclear power

I can give 50 reasons and more why we don't need nuclear power, especially
given the looming crisis and catastrophe in Japan. We're now looking at a
likely meltdown and egregious problems with the spent fuel ponds. This is a
massively dangerous situation and will eclipse Chernobol as the worst
nuclear disaster rather soon. The Fukushima 50, as they are known, will
ultimately give their lives trying to bring this catastrophe under control.
It's not the way anyone should have to die.

There are those who say nuclear power is safe. I beg to differ with them.
When something goes wrong, it really goes terribly wrong. That's not a risk
we can tolerate nor is it an acceptable risk. Building these thigns at all
is an unacceptable risk and I don't care where they're located. The risk of
problems from either a natural or man-made disaster are too great and
Fukushima just makes that abundantly clear.

We don't need to take that risk. The U.S. is now evacuating U.S. nationals
from Japan. What does that tell you about the situation? It tells me that
the situation is deteriorating and rather fast too. We need to get control
of this and fast. It's a scary situation that doesn't need to be repeated
by building more of these things anywhere in the world.

I've heard recently on Fox News that China will likely build about 60 of
these things over the next decade. To that I say no way as their safety
record in other industries is not good and give me no confidence that they
can safely handle nuclear power. Besides, there are some active seismic
zones in that country and we don't need another Fukushima in China.

We've got two plants in active seismic zones here in the U.S. I hope there
are plans in place for evacuation in the event of a disaster. I wonder
about that though. Decommissioning those plants would probably be a real
good idea. That's an option that needs to be looked at.

Yes folks, this is one issue I don't agree with the republicans on. They
advocate for nuclear power and I don't want to see it. It's not necessary
and not economical, especially given the cost of natural gas right now.
Hopefully the economics will continue to work against the building of
nuclear power plants. That would be safer for everyone.

Remember that at least 50 people will likely die as a result of the
Fukushima crisis and catastrophe. Is that a sacrifice we want to make
again? I don't and hope no one else does either.

Chernobol all over aain

They said it couldn't happen again but it has. What am I referring to? I'm
referring to Chernobol,the world's worst nuclear disaster up to this point.
Now we have another disaster looming in Japan that may rival Chernobol.
That disaster is the nuclear plant at fukoshima which is in the earthquake
zone in Japan.

I pray that those who are working on this one can get it under control and
quickly but to say I'm scared would be putting it mildly. There's the
chance for another Chernobol and they're actually using that description
from what I understand. How many days is this crisis going to last? No
one knows just as we didn't know with Chernobol. Radiaiton and lots of it
is something to be scared about.

I will comment on the larger issues later. Right now I hope and pray for a
successful end to the current crisis.

Times they are a changin'

Last November, republicans won in many states. This means more fiscal
responsibility and more sanity for state budgets. However, it is clear that
the Democrats didn't get the message from last fall's elections. Wisconsin,
Indiana and Ohio seem to be ground zero for this fight with Wisconsin being
the worst of it.

In Wisconsin, Gov.Scott Walker introduced a budget repair bill that seeks to
reign in costs by reigning in union power among other things. It asks that
public employees pay 12.6% toward their health care costs, well below the
national average of 29% for combined public/private match. It also seeks
5.8% toward their pension where they now contribute nothing. This bill also
removes collective bargaining for everything except wages and strips unions
in the public sector of the right to force payment of union dues. The
collective bargaining changes would allow managers to set the rules rather
than the unions. Right now reporting times are set in the contracts so that
if there is an event outside of those hours, time and a half must be paid
for setup whereas hours could be adjusted for this if this were not part of
the contract. That's just one example.

The disconnect that you see between the union leadership and the rank and
file is huge. The leaders are the ones who are all worried about these
changes because they know they will lose power. The leaders are the ones
who are scared of losing the compulsory dues payments because they know
union membership is down. Instead of fighting over compulsory dues payment,
union leaders ought to be working on ways to make sure they are representing
their members and remaining relevant to their members rather than protecting
their precious six-figure salaries. If leaders are doing such a good job,
why is union membership down? It's down because the rank and file workers
don't see the leaders or the unions as looking out for their interest. The
leaders are seen as looking out for their own interests and protecting
themselves.

Unions are also seen as arms of the Democratic party. Money gained from
compulsory dues is then funneled to the Democratic party and the result is
what you are seeing in Madison right now. You now have Democrats who are
hiding out in a location outside of Wisconsin in order to stall the passage
of the bill. They are acting like children rather than attending the
session an dbeing a part of the process. If they disagree with parts of the
budget repair bill,then they should be in the Capitol doing their job and
debating the bill. They should be voicing their disagreements and offering
solutions of their own. They should be answerable to their constituents
which they now are not. There are now recall efforts under way on 8 of the
14 AWOL Wisconsin Democrats. These AWOL senators now must go to Madison
directly to the Senate floor while the Senate is in session in order to pick
up their checks as a rule change allows for this requirement of anyone who
has missed two days in a row of session. The Democrats in the senate
qualify under this requirement.

In short, the Democrats and their union paymasters need to grow up, do their
jobs and be part of the process. The people spoke in the November elections
and they're saying that the out-of-controll spending is unsustainable. Get
back to work and do your job whether you are from Wisconsin or Indiana. I'm
tired of Illinois being the hub of this activity but when you have a Chicago
politician in the White House, this is what you're going to get.

It's time for civilized political debate where views are exchanged and
serious conversations are held. It's time to dispense with the child's
play and the temper tantrums. Last time I checked, these Democrats were
adults; but they sure arent' behaving like adults. I've got one message for
them, grow up and do your job.

2011 A time for Sanity

We're now in 2011 and I thought I would reflect on what I think needs to
happen this year. As the title imlies I hope it is a time for sanity rather
than insanity. The last two years have really been a time of insanity, what
with the passage of the health care legislation, the administration's
failure to charge wiki leaks with anything and more.

The way the Republicans are talking, this year will be different. Well, I
certainly hope so. Rep. Darrell Isa is going after the administration,
particularly Atty Gen. Eric Holder for failure to prosecute a number of
organizations. Two of these I would venture to say have likely ties to
Obama and the third one there is no excuse for. The President has a past
history with ACORN so that one is understandable but not justified. The one
involving the New Black Panterhs party is not justified. Voter intimidation
is voter intimidation no matter who is committing it.

As for the third one, Wiki Leaks, that one is a travesty. We have espionage
laws and Atty. Gen. Holder needs to use them to prosecute Wiki Leaks founder
Assange or resign from office. This is about what Isa is saying and I
agree. Otherwise we look like a paper tiger and will only be laughed at and
that's not what I want from this country. Also those who enable Wiki Leaks
need to be gone after under the espionage laws. Holder had a chance last
spring but failed to take action after the leak of the papers involving
Afghanistan and Iraq. It should never have gotten as far as the diplomatic
cables. While the Army has one person under investigation,there are clearly
more people involved. They also need to be investigated an dprosecuted.

As for health care reform, there is a constitutional challenge on this one
and I hope it succeeds as Obama care is bad legislation. Short of the
constitutional battle, I hope there is success in outright repeal or
defunding. I8t is my opinion that there will be a battle royale over the
budget with health care right in the thick of it. If we can at leat get
this thing defunded, that would lower the deficit. Then let's get it
repealed. It's interesting to me that many of the major provisions don't
take affect until 2014. Why is that? IMO it's because this is bad
legislation and its authors know that and don't want to take the political
hit for it. The adage that the more the people see about this legislation
the more they don't like it holds true on this one. Let's hope ewe can get
some sensible health care reform, starting with tort reform which would
limit malpractice suits and stop judge shopping in these cases. This type
of sensible reform would bring down costs as there would be less of a need
for defensive medicine.

I also hope there's sanity on the foreign policy front as well but that will
be difficult given that two rogue nations, North Korea and Iran, appear to
be working together. This is dangerous and needs to be dealt with. I'm not
even going to go into what needs to be done here as I'm not sure of that
one. Looking weak though is not an option in my opinion.

These are just a few things that I hope will happen in order to bring real
sanity in 2011. Let's see how much gets accomplished prior to the
Presidential campaign starting in the fall.