2013 in review

Well, like everyone else I will look back at 2013 for the good and the bad;
both personally and in general.

Personally there were some good things. I have decided to lose some
significant weight and have started on that journey. I have lost about
15-20 lbs already and plan to lose more in the coming year. I have already
noticed better energy and just a better feeling about myself.

How have I done this? I have changed my diet, gotten more exercise and have
been drinking more water. I've also learned that weight loss is a life-long
journey, not just something you do to get to a certain goal and then
abandon. I belong to a health club and sought out resources there and found
their Healthy People class. The instructor is willing to work with me which
makes this a pleasurable experience. I also have a support network through
other members of the group. Tracking calories and macro-nutrients such as
carbs, fat, and protein also give me a picture of how I am eating and where
I need to make changes.

Another achievement is being elected as secretary of the Illinois Council of
the Blind (ICB), something I had not considered in the past due to
challenges I did not think I could overcome. One challenge was removed
which made this a more interesting option for me.

I continue to work on controlling my emotions in leadership and other
situations. This is definitely a work in progress and something that will
take time to build upon.

As for general good things, I still have a job which is something a lot of
people cannot say. My family is also healthy, something which is also a
blessing.

Are there bad things? You bet. One of these for me personally is seeing
the effort to form a statewide organization for Illinois' Deaf-Blind
community go down due to lack of involvement and other factors. The
handwriting was on the wall and I finally saw it and made the tough decision
to end the effort. It was not a decision I wanted to make; but it was a
necessary decision. This was a lesson in leadership that not all decisions
are easy to make nor are they always the ones you as a leader want to make.

Some of the bad things in general include the acquittal in the Zimmerman
case which aroused the gun nuts and said to young black men that you had
better stay in your own neighborhood because if you are caught in a place
where you "don't belong", bad things are going to happen to you.

Other bad things include ObamaCare which should be called the Unaffordable
Care Act rather than the Affordable Care Act. The website was the first
disaster for this law but was not the only disaster; and there are more
disasters coming for 2014. If a private company did even half of the things
that have been done in the name of ObamaCare, they would be out of business
at the very least. When will people learn that government cannot be trusted
to take over 1/6 of the economy?

We also had the Navy Yard shooting where once again signals were missed by
the military. When will they learn to weed out mental misfits who have
potential for violence?

We also had the stonewalling on Benghazi; The IRS intimidation of
conservative groups; The Syria debacle where Pudin of Russia played Obama
like a drum and more. It was not a good year in Washington for sure.

Springfield was not much better as there were no initiatives to grown the
state economy and any attempt to fix the pension problem will be tied up in
court for years due to the state Constitution. When will we elect
politicians who have a basic knowledge of economics and how business works?

My look at 2014 will follow in a couple of days. Happy New Year to all.

Washington idiots and idiocy

My head is about to explode over the government shut down. Do these
politicians think about the impact their decisions will have on the
workforce and others? Likely, that answer is no.

Yes, liberals, both parties own this one. The House Republicans started with
a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government that contained defunding
of ObamaCare, then went to delay of the mandate for a year and we will see
what they do next. Keep in mind that Obama has already delayed the mandate
for business. What has the response been from President Obama and the
Democrats? Nothing short of craptacular. They won't do anything at all.
For Harry the fossil Reid, it's all or nothing as far as government funding
is concerned even though separate appropriations have been taken up in the
past. Also fossil Reid forgets how appropriations are to be handled
according to the Constitution. A reminder that appropriations must
originate in the House of Representatives.

Obama has said he won't negotiate until the government is reopened and the
debt limit is raised. This is no way to negotiate. Negotiation involves
compromise on the part of both parties to it. Obama and Reid are showing a
huge unwillingness to compromise on anything. Are TEA party conservatives
being unreasonable here too? You bet they are. They need to see the
reality of the situation and not singularly focus on one thing such as
defunding of ObamaCare. Idiots like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texs need to have an
end game if they're going to play with the big boys. Cruz doesn't have an
end game and doesn't know what he is doing.

Also fossil Reid cannot be trusted to carry out the terms of any compromise.
Just remember this. In 2011, he said that the senate would take a vote on
repeal of ObamaCare. This was part of the 2011 budget negotiations. This
has yet to happen. One thing the GOP ought to ask for is a vote by a date
certain on this topic. Is Reid afraid this will pass? I'll bet he is.

Is this having an impact on real people? Yes it is. I am attending the
Illinois Council of the Blind convention this weekend and several of our
members who are loyal to ICB and would be here if they could are not here
for all or part of the event due to the shutdown. They likely have to stay
close to home in the event this gets solved and also I understand that leave
is not being paid during the furlough. This has real impact on real people.

Politicians of both parties must be held accountable for their actions; and
this means tossing them out of office if they won't do the people's
business. It's time to get reasonable people elected and that means
reasonable people on both sides of the isle.

Benghazi proves cost of Obama is too high

I'm still boiling over the attack on our consulate in Benghazi on 9/11/12
that killed 4 people, including our Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. The
others were Sean Smith chief Information officer I believe and Tyrone Woods
a former Navy seal who had something to do with security. There was a
fourth person whose name I have forgotten at the moment but his sacrifice
shall never be forgotten.

For two weeks after this horrible attack, the Obama administration kept
insisting the cause was a spontaneous mob outraged over an old Youtube video
even as there is now mounting evidence that they knew at least two hours
after the attack that this was a terrorist act and that an El-chieta (not
sure of spelling) sympathizer was responsible for it. There is also the
outrageous decision not to send in a military rescue and this is just coming
out now.
What the hell did Penetta and the rest of the military need before they
would consider themselves to have enough information to send in a rescue
unit? Did the whole damn thing need to be laid out in front of their noses?

Charles Woods, Tyrone Woods' father, spoke of the insincere apology from
both Obama and Clinton. The fact that Obama could not look Mr. Woods in the
eye says it all. How despicable on the part of both of them. Have they no
fucking regard for life? No they don't because they have blood on their
hands and will never, ever be able to get rid of it. And then there's the
latest Biden gaff about cue balls which is fucking outrageous. You don't
question someone's bravery unless you're Joe Biden and he's an outrage to
this country IMO.

There were E-mails that suggest that Obama knew two hours after that this
was a terrorist attack and we as voters need to be outraged about the
administration's handling of this matter. Does Obama's world view have
something to do with this? I don't know but his action makes me wonder.

For the sake of this country, this affair had better cost Obama the
election. We can't have a commander-in-chief with blood on his hands from
what I would consider an impeachable offense.

Requests for increased security were repeatedly ignored by this
administration and this was exposed by Brett Bayer on Fox News. How the
hell could they ignore these requests when even Ambassador Stevens had
warned about increased terrorist activity in Libya.
The more that comes out, the more this fucking administration is exposed
for the decisions it did or did not make. They need to come clean before
the election, not after. Please seek out alternate media because the lapdog
media won't expose everything on this one.

Obama wanted to stick to a narrative and they would do anything to do it
even at the cost of American lives. Remember these four lives were bumps in
the road to Obama and the damn lapdog media doesn't even question him on
that one..

Woods and the rest of the families demand answers and so do the American
people.

Benghazi had better prove that the cost of keeping Obama in office is way
too high. How many lives will be lost if Obama is re-elected? I shudder to
think about the answer to that one.

The bottom line is Obama lied and people have died.

Obama administration has blood on its hands

The title means exactly what it says and below I will outline why I make
such a statement.

First of all, there's Fast & Furious, the ill-conceived, incompetently run
gun walking operation responsible for the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian
Terry. Attorney General Eric Holder is involved in this one and also has
blood on his hands.

Keep in mind that Obama is protecting Holder by claiming executive privledge
over many documents that Congress is seeking in this investigation; and this
has earned Holder a contempt of Congress citation. There are also
discrepencies regarding dates so there is a question of what the
administration knew and when it knew it.

Univision has recently come up with more information which may well show
that Obama and Holder rhave more blood on their hands. There may have been
other operations across the Texas border as well.

Then we have the more shocking situation in Libya that claimed the life of
Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 others. Oama kept insisting that the
incident in Benghazi was the result of a video that had been on Youtube
since July. This is not true, especially in light of the fact that the
State Department withdrew security from the consulate in Benghazi. This
means that Secretary of stte Hillary Clinton has blood on her hands as well.
She may try to escape it but the GOP cannot and must not allow her to do so.
Her political future is tied up with Obama's demise; and I sure hope it's
Obama's demise for the sake of this great country.

How much more blood will be on the hands of this administration before they
are stopped? It is at least 5 people and counting. In my opinion, Obamas
handling of Benghazi is impeachable and I wish that process could move
forward. However, we as voters have a responsibility to this great
country; and that responsibility is to remove this incompetent thug from
office before more lives are lost as a result of his tenure in office.

Lives depend on it and so does the future of this country. Please vote on
November 6 and send a message that Obama's actions will not and must not be
tolerated.

NFL needs to replace replacement officials immediately

Well the NFL got what it didn't want last night; a blown call that costs a
team the game. It happened to the Packers, a team I support.

It was bound to happen given the fact that the replacement officials are way
in over their heads. They can't manage a game if their lives depended on it
and it showed last night.

What does the NFL need to do? They need to get the real refs back and soon
or the integrity of the NFL will be questioned as it should be. If the NFL
wants to salvage the season,then they'll get a deal done with officials, for
the sake of the game.

The time is now and Goodell needs to get off his ass and get it done. The
refs need to be reasonable too but somehow this has got to get done.

No more Division III officials in NFL games!

Taking back our country

Tonight I listened to the speeches from the GOP convention. I liked what I
heard there too. No I didn't listen to the talking heads as I can figure
out for myself what it means to me.

Everyone talked about the problems of the day with the economy and the like.
The message for entrepreneurs is that you did build that. Obama thinks you
didn't and claims that line was taken out of context but it wasn't and is
much worse when heard in full context.

Ann Romney was gracious and classy yet firm in her convictions. She talked
of what it was like when they were young and what realities families face
today. She spoke to the women of the country while speaking to the whole
country. She spoke about rising prices, women struggling to keep their
families together and thriving and what it's been like in these economic
times. She spoke simple truths and spoke about Mitt as a man who has been
there for her and will be there to lead the country

Chris Christie followed that with the keynote address and spoke of wanting
respect rather than love. He spoke about the ballooning debt, the
ballooning size of government and an education system that is in need of
reform. We need to deal with our problems now so that our children and
grandchildren will have a future. He spoke of supporting teachers,not
teachers' unions. He cid things in New Jerseyt hat people said couldn't
be done and said now that the country needs this to happen at the national
level..

What does this mean in practical terms for the disability community? It
means that as the GOP looks to cut spending, rehabilitation needs to be
looked at. We will have to accept some reforms and some outcomes that are
expected of this program. We need to think in terms of equality of
opportunity, not equality of outcomes. We need to think in terms of working
hard for what we want or need and not expecting that the government will
hand us everything. Is there a role for government? Yes there is and that
role is to provide opportunities for us to better ourselves. If that's done
through a public-private partnership then so be it as long as we have the
opportunity to succeed. Do standards need to be set for those who provide
service? Yes they do and that is a role for government. Is it proper for
government to deal with someone who provides bad service? Yes as this might
be a result of violations of the law.

I could go on but won't as I think you get the idea.

All I can say is this truth-loving American is waiting to hear more from the
GOP about how they will take back our country.

It makes no sense

I came home from a great weekend only to find out about yet another mass
shooting, this one in Oak Creek WI at a Sikh Temple in that community.
Right now we know that there are 7 dead including the gunman and 3 or 4
injured including an Oak Creek Police officer. More will be known tomorrow
but this one is especially nasty because a local incident meets the world
stage; and for that reason is being investigated as a possible domestic
terrorism incident. We'll know more on that tomorrow.
All I have to say is that it makes no sense at all. Why must people express
their anger or hatred at the point of a gun? Why can't people just live
together in peace? That's a difficult one and I surely don't have all the
answers. But it's getting to the point of unreal to hear these stories all
the time.

There were warning signs in the Aurora CO incident that likely were ignored.
More will come out on that for sure. Was the same true here? Only time
will tell. People may not like to confront the fact that there is evil out
there but it is there and needs to be confronted when it rears its ugly
face. Is today such an incident? It looks like it to me but only time and
a thorough investigation will tell.

Meanwhile my prayers to the families and the community. May you have peace
and healing from God above. May all religious and civilian leaders speak as
one in condemning this outrageous violence against a peaceful community.