Terrorism – Obama will put the terrorists responsible for 9/11 on trial in New York City in a civilian court. That is right, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 other 9/11 conspirators will be given every right afforded to you and I. They will have more rights than our American soldiers, who must be tried in military courts. The Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, will have fewer rights than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. This is all part of the dangerous Obama plan to close Guantanamo and to give terrorists more rights. To bad the victims on 9/11 did not get the same rights. This soft and naïve strategy on terror is not keeping America safer.

Economy – Obama will hold a “job summit” with politicians and business leaders to try to figure out how to create more jobs. A wise and astute leader would have held this summit when he got in office instead of blindly passing an 800 billion dollar recovery act that was suppose to create jobs, but failed miserably. Right now it is too late, because we cannot afford another stimulus. 

Afghanistan – Recent Reports indicate that troop morale is sharply declining. As a record number of troops are killed each month, Obama continues to procrastinate on making a strategy decision. Obama’s lack of vision and leadership is literally killing troops.

William Jefferson – Former Louisiana Democratic Representative William Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years for bribery and other racketeering offenses.

Regulation – Obama and the White House are moving to place the entire U.S. rail and subway system under government control. This is another power grab because they do not understand the rail system. Heck, no one in the White House has ever run anything in their lives.

GM – Everyone seems excited that GM only lost 1.2 Billion dollars in the last quarter. They have received 25 billion in bailout money and cut nearly half of their employee base this year and we are suppose to be happy that they only lost 1.2 billion.

The Bowing Machine – Obama is at it again: bowing to Asian leaders. I do not think this is a big deal, but it is strange to say the least. Without his teleprompter giving him instructions, he does not know how to act when greeting other national leaders.

Travel – Obama is easily on pace to travel more than any other president in U.S. history. What’s worse is that most of his travel is for campaign fund raisers and to campaign for Democrats. I wonder why environmentalists have not condemned this behavior. After all, he is a carbon emitting machine.

Copenhagen Conference – There will be no global warming deal out of this conference next month, much to the chagrin of the left. 

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I have been preaching personal responsibility which obviously includes finances. I have the theory if Americans are responsible with their finances, health, education, and so forth the United States will be the beneficiary. Even if the federal government continues to spend and act irresponsibly then Americans will be strong enough to overcome their malicious policies and legislation. Another key point is that if Americans become more responsible, maybe this would be a huge wakeup call that they need to vote out irresponsible politicians. I have been preaching that fiscal responsibility should be the number on issue for the GOP. Even liberals would be attracted by this platform after seeing the ill effects of the current spending spree of both Obama and Bush. Remember, nearly one quarter of all Democrats in the House of Representatives consider themselves “Blue Dog” Democrats. Blue Dog Democrats consider themselves fiscally responsible politicians. Fiscal responsibility is finding it ways into our local and federal governments slowly but surely. Blue Dogs will not sign the present ObamaCare bill and state governments are making tough decisions and are cutting budgets to eliminate their deficit. California cut 24 billion out of their budget and did not increase taxes to switch the onus onto the taxpayers. These are all positive signs and steps in the right direction.  

There is a fairly simple litmus test that everyone can use when it comes to their politicians. Ask yourself the question “Do you trust this person managing your families finances based on their voting record?” If the answer is no, vote them out. I have found it not only very difficult to find a politician I trust with my hard earned money they confiscated with taxes, also I did not have too many managers in my corporate days that I trusted with their financial decisions. It is shame, but our country is loaded with financially incompetent leaders at all levels and this has got to stop. 

Thus, I am remotely optimistic that Americans are becoming more efficient and therefore more responsible. If this is true, parents will pass these vital lessons onto their children. The end result of this changed behavior will be a better America and would directly lead to us electing better politicians to run our great country. This will only work, if and only if Americans continue their responsible ways once the recession is over.

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What is even more troubling about these numbers is that the 10 states with the worst economies constitutes over one-third of our gross domestic product (GDP). This means until these states turn around their state economies, our national economy will also suffer. These states also received huge chunks of stimulus money from the Recovery Act. However, most of the money, about 87 billion dollars, was spent on paying for Medicaid and extending unemployment benefits, which is ready to dry up. Thus, many of these states are requesting more federal funding to pay for their spiraling out of control social programs. This is bad news because money going to fund social programs, like Medicaid, does not stimulate the economy because it does not create jobs.

To solve these states huge budget gaps they only have two choices: budget cuts or increase taxes. Increasing taxes during a recession will not help the economy to recover. Hence, their only real option is to have across the board budget cuts. This too will obviously lead to a cut in government jobs and also hurt the economy.

The problem that these states are having is not much different from the situation that the federal government is going through. The federal government is going bankrupt as a result of spiraling out of control social programs. Social Security, Medicare, and welfare account for nearly 50% of the federal budget and is growing each year. Now, the federal government wants to add a massive health care entitlement program to its list of failing social programs. This will cripple the American economy. Sure, liberal policies may have good intentions, but they create too much bureaucracy and are run too inefficiently leading to massive levels of waste. Besides, throwing money at a problem does not solve the root cause of the issue. Until government run social programs at the state and federal level are reworked, these liberal policies will undoubtedly wreck havoc on our local and national economies.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0

Video’s like this one rightfully mock the dangerous direction the Obama administration is taking this country. The honeymoon is over and Americans are finally starting to wake up and see Obama for the man he really is. His shrinking poll numbers are a testament to this fact. In fact, he has become unpopular faster than any President in history. His approval ratings have dropped over 20 percentage points in his first year. Yes, the far left loves him because he too, is far left with a majority of his policies. In just a few short months Obama and his liberal policies are growing government to unprecedented levels. For instance, he has interfered in the private sector by dictating pay scales and taking over banks and the auto industry. Domestically, he is also pushing cap and trade, a huge stimulus that has not created jobs, and universal health care. These policies are crippling our economy as our national debt grows to astronomical levels. Internationally, he has made America less safe by closing Guantanamo, giving terrorists Miranda Rights, and diminished the effectiveness of the CIA. On top of this, he has done little to stop the nuclear threat from Iran and North Korea. And when given the opportunity to side with democracy in Honduras and Iran, he instead sided with socialism and evil. Now, moderate Democrats and independents are starting to distance themselves from Obama and the Democrats.

Many say the citizens of the United States are on average, center right, philosophically speaking. Meanwhile, Obama and his liberal policies are type casting Democrats as being far left. In fact, Obama is making the Democratic Party look further left than any Washington politician in United States history. This should not be surprising to anyone that actually looked at Obama’s voting record while he was in the Senate. His voting record earned him the honor of being the most liberal Senator. However, during the campaign Obama was able to deceive many by convincing them he was a moderate. Obama used his gifted orator skills and masterfully used rhetoric to trick Americans. As Obama really shows who he is by trying to force America to the left, it will drastically hurt the Democratic Party. Remember, Obama ran as a person that can bridge our growing divide and unite Americans. In just a few short months in the Oval Office, Obama may be the most polarizing and divisive President ever. Thus, by 2010, voters when given the choice between a far right Republican or moderate Democrat, they will choose the Republican. The reason is simple, just as the Democrats successfully tied every Republican to George Bush in 2008, the Republicans will return the favor in 2010 and 2012 by tying Democrats to Obama. Yes, Obama and his far left agenda will weaken the Democratic Party, while at the same time it will strengthen the Republican Party.

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I have been baffled and mystified by this and similar behavior in women. My mother was routinely beaten by my stepfather, but she took the abuse for years before finally moving out. The clinical name given to women who are abused, but do not try to get away is called battered women’s syndrome. Women who suffer from this syndrome generally have a low self-esteem. Women that stand by their man after he commits adultery must suffer from low self-esteem to some degree. This is true because it does not make sense for these women to stand beside their husband a matter days after the news surfaces. That is why many of these women probably have been aware of their husband’s shenanigans for quite some time, but tolerated it. Thus, they have been mentally abused by their husband’s infidelity for years.

I want to know what makes Jenny Sanford strong enough to push her loser husband aside. Jenny, like many other victims of political husband’s infidelity, they are generally well educated and have had successful careers. But Mark Sanford would have never made it as a politician if it were not for Jenny. That may not have been the case for Silda Spitzer, Hillary Clinton, Darlene Ensign, Elizabeth Edwards, and Suzanne Craig. Jenny graduated from Georgetown and was a very successful investment banker. She financed and managed her husband’s successful campaigns and has been his chief advisor. No, without Jenny, there would have been no Congressman or Governor Sanford. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton needed her husband’s fame to launch her political ambitions of Senator and eventually the White House. Thus, Jenny is an attractive lady that does not need take her husband’s abuse. Kudos to Jenny Sanford and hopefully others will follow in her footsteps. If feminism is about standing by your man, it is not teaching young girls how to correctly deal with lying and cheating spouses.  

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In fact, the word terrorism is no longer allowed to be said by federal agencies. Instead, we are to refer to Hasan and Mohammed as committing acts of “man made disasters”. God forbid if we hurt the feelings of these cowards. Any decent Muslim would not be offended or require more politically correct nomenclature than the word terrorist. This would be equivalent of me being offended by the media calling the Irish Republic Army (IRA) terrorists because I am Irish. It easy to surmise that political correctness and the fear of being offensive is the reason Hasan was not stopped. Hasan did not hide his feelings and displeasure with U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. His emails, statements, and business card were all warning signs that were ignored because authorities did not want to offend this man and his religion. After all, he could claim that he was being profiled because of his ethnicity if federal agents tried to stop him.

There are many reasons that bringing Mohammed to justice in civilian court is a bad idea and even dangerous:

First, Mohammed will be held in U.S. prisons where he will be free to recruit disgruntled American inmates. Prisoners converting to radical Islam is becoming a wide spread epidemic. We have already seen home grown extremist commit acts of terror after being released from prison.

Second, any evidence against Mohammed that was obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques will most likely not be allowed in a civilian court. Thus, it may be harder to convict both Mohammed and his conspirators.

Third, Mohammed will be allowed access to view any evidence against him, even if it classified information. This is information that Mohammed will be able to share with our enemies. This could potentially put both our troops and citizens in harms way.

Fourth, Mohammed will more than likely obtain a lawyer that could be sympathetic to his situation (like the ACLU). They too can help leak classified information to terrorists and enemies.

Fifth, New York will have to relive this horror all over again. This may not be a problem for Obama who seems to have forgotten the events of 9/11. This is true because if he had any recollection of these events he would not be bending over backwards to help protect Mohammed and his conspirators. But to millions of New Yorkers and American citizens, the events of 9/11 are entrenched in our memories and will never be forgotten. This trial will also place New York City as a target for a terrorist attack.

Obama’s soft stance on terrorism and his obviously biased feelings towards Muslims and Islam is putting Americans at risk. Think about it, Obama jumped to conclusions and called officer Crowley stupid after the Gates arrest, but has yet to make any harsh statement about Hasan, a man that killed 13 Americans. Let’s face facts, the real reason that Obama is doing this is to put the Bush administration on trial for their interrogation methods. Obama is proving he is nothing more than a divisive, vindictive, vengeful, and polarizing figure.  

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Fort Hood – The more we learn about the attacker, the more it seems this situation could have been avoided. It is unfortunate, but the warning signs were there and the FBI could have prevented this tragedy. Major Nidal Malik Hasan seems to have been a disgruntled man that was boisterous about ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The problem is that the military is afraid of being labeled as racist against Muslims. Political correctness and sensitivity are becoming a danger and liability in many facets of our American culture. It is quite possible that Obama’s lenient stance on terrorism is to blame for this event. It is no secret that Obama has been pushing for better Muslim relations while reducing the power of our intelligence agencies with his policies of more rights for suspected terrorists.

Veterans Day – Obama honors veterans at Arlington Cemetery as he continues to waffle on making a decision in Afghanistan. As we continue to have a record number of veterans die each month in Afghanistan, Obama indecisiveness is putting our troops in harms way. This is beyond ridiculous that he cannot make a decision in 3 months, but expects congressional members to pass legislation without reading it. According to the White House visitor list, apparently Obama is too busy meeting with union leaders and past radical associations than meeting with McCrystal or Petreus. Apparently, Obama does like the options he has and is asking his advisors to change them. This is bad leadership.

Anita Dunn – The Marxist Mao Tse Tung admirer will be leaving the White House, just a few weeks after declaring war on Fox News. Another radical bites the dust.

Chris Dodd – He has come out with a bill that proposes sweeping reforms over the financial institutions, basically giving the federal government more oversight and regulation over the private sector. This bill is extremely unpopular on both sides of the isle. This is a desperate measure by Dodd to increase his dwindling popularity because of his participation in some very questionable business transactions.

Media – Lou Dobbs has apparently been force out of his anchor job on CNN for pushing for illegal immigration reform and questioning Obama’s citizenship. It seems as if Obama’s war with the media has earned him his first victory.

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However, all of that said, there is no question that a declining dollar coupled with the increasing value of gold and gas, is usually an economic indicator pointing to the possibility that the current recession may continue to drag on for several more months or even a year. Many economists argue that the declining dollar is due to the massive debt our government has accumulated. Others claim the declining dollar is a testament that foreign investors have lost confidence in the U.S. economy and they feel the federal government is too inept to end or diminish the impact of the recession. The declining value of the dollar may also force other nations that buy U.S. treasury bonds, to fund our debt, to look elsewhere. This may not be a bad thing because we really do not need to have our debt owned by China, Japan, or any other nation. Thus, it may force our federal government to be more fiscally responsible.

The dollar has always been the global currency. If the dollar continues to do a nose dive, the rest of the world may use the Euro or some other currency as the recognized global currency. When this happens, it will be a sure sign that the United States is no longer a world power leading the globe in manufacturing, ingenuity, or innovation. This may sound bad, but it would be a welcome sign to Obama and his administration, which has apologized for U.S. foreign policy and obviously has a problem with big business. We, as a nation, cannot continue to see the American dream being vaporized by liberal political cronies that pass legislation that is decimating the value of the dollar.    

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Ironically, my former employer would turn bad engineers into program managers. The reason was the task to be a program manager is perceived as simple and non-technical. Hence, the company felt that person could excel at this. However, a good and efficient program manager should have some basic concept of what it takes for others to do their job. In essence, bad engineers made for poor program managers. If they did not understand how to do their job correctly, then it is highly unlikely they could manage and schedule other engineers’ tasks to perform their jobs. It is simply commonsense: the effect of bad program managers resulted in poorly run projects. These poor program managers needed to schedule extra meetings to determine realistic schedules since they could not do it on their own. They had to set up pre-meetings before regular reviews with upper management to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Therefore, they ran projects and teams very inefficiently.

Efficient people understand their job and know exactly what needs to be accomplished. Efficient people have their office and computer organized so they can find things fast and easily. Efficient people can multi-task to accomplish more. Efficiency is nothing more than being organized. Efficient people do not procrastinate; they are proactive and stay on top of problems and issues. Efficient people generally tend to produce higher quality work because they do not procrastinate or waste time. Hence, they have more time to work on the problem. I’ve tried to preach to people that if they are efficient, then they can probably be very successful at whatever they decide to do. The bottom line with efficiency is that the extra time needed to keep things organized is made up for two or three fold by completing a task correctly the first time. 

Once again, all of this should sound eerily familiar. Think of all the unqualified people that Obama has put in charge to run the auto industry, and the czars that run critically important aspects of our nation. This does not lead to efficiency, but chaos and waste.

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During my career, employees who were afraid to make a mistake were tentative and generally would not become good engineers because they would not learn from making mistakes. A boss who ridicules employees over modest mistakes is out of line. If a boss creates an environment where mistakes are not acceptable at any cost, the result will be a worker force who will not admit to making a mistake. This is an unhealthy work environment to create. It should be acceptable for employees to make mistakes as long as they admit it and learn from them to prevent future errors. Since most supervisors or managers discourage making errors and some did not even want to hear about them, it generally created a poor work environment for both learning and teamwork. In this environment, engineers tend to not only become tentative; but are not proactive in their work tasks. The only time a supervisor should become angry is if an employee continues to make the same mistake. This is why Americans should be outraged by Obama’s policies of making similar mistakes. Most politicians seem to suffer from amnesia and not only fail to recall errors in our history, but fail to recall errors they have made. For example, Barney Frank is proposing to loosen the requirements for individuals to obtain a loan to buy a condo. Just last year, lax lending guidelines bankrupt Fannie and Freddie. This is incompetence and bad problem solving skills.

Another common error our government continues to make is to try to resolve problems and issues by throwing money at them and not solving the root cause of the problem. Examples include welfare, social security, and other social programs. And Obama has already thrown more money at problems than any president in our history if he gets his way with a socialized health system. Obama has spent trillions on stimulus and SCHIP health care spending. Money is only one variable in solving a problem. For example, we throw more money at education than any other country in the world. However, throwing more money at failing school districts does not correct a bad curriculum, bad teachers, bad administrators, and a plethora of other variables. Thus, more money will not necessarily solve the problem. That is why throwing money at a problem is about the worst way to solve a problem. As another example, throwing money at a socialized health care system will not do anything to lower the rising costs of health care. Also, it will not make Americans healthier and so forth. Hence, a new socialized health system will not stop the rising costs of the medical industry and it will bankrupt the government. Thus, throwing money at the problem is nothing more than being irresponsible with taxpayer money. Throwing money at entitlement programs will not improve the education or the environment that the poor endure. In order to solve a problem, the government should learn from past mistakes of throwing money at the problem. Instead, they should resolve problems by first reforming the situation and only throw money at the problem as a last resort after the problem as been thoroughly investigated.  

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Here is an analogy from my engineering background to distinguish the difference between precision and accuracy. I spent a lot of time working on analog to digital converters (ADC). The precision of an ADC can be measured by the number of bits it has. For example, a 10 bit converter is more precise than an 8 bit converter. In fact, a 10 bit converter is four times more precise than an 8 bit converter. On the other hand, accuracy measures the error of the converter, and most ADC’s have an accuracy of +/- ½ bit. Thus, the 10 bit converter and the 8 bit converter have the same level of accuracy, or error. Another way to look at accuracy is how repeatable a result is. If an ADC yields the same exact result to a specific input when temperature, humidity, test fixtures, and other variables are changed, the ADC is indeed accurate.

The same analogy applies to the federal government projecting budgets. For instance, a few months back the Obama administration announced the federal deficit will increase from 7 trillion to 9 trillion over the next 10 years. The increase in 2 trillion did not happen because our government just spent 2 trillion more dollars. It happened because the variables they used to calculate the 7 trillion dollar deficit have changed and the budget is now 2 trillion dollars higher. More recently, the CBO projected what the health care proposals from congress would precisely cost the American public. For example, the bill by Max Baucus came in at precisely 829 billion dollars. To come up this calculation, the CBO had to make some assumptions as to what values to use for all variables in the equation. For example, the cost of health care reform would vary depending on the rate of inflation, the value of the dollar, the unemployment rate, the obesity rate, the poverty rate, population growth, and a plethora of other variables. If the CBO obtained a precise budget of 829 billion using a rate of inflation of 3.5%, the accuracy of this result will vary if the inflation rate is higher or lower. Considering the government has recently flooded the economy with nearly a trillion dollars, one could expect the rate of inflation to be 5 or 10% in the coming years. If this did occur, the 829 billion dollar projection over 10 years would actually be 1 trillion or more dollars. Hence, the CBO projection would be off by over 20%, meaning the accuracy of the 829 billion dollar projection would have an accuracy of +20%.

Another important thing to note, very rarely do government budgets go under their cost projections, they are generally much higher. Thus, the CBO usually makes it projections using best case numbers. This is why it is imperative for the CBO to also put together a worse case scenario for their budget projections. For instance, the CBO numbers for the Baucus health care bill may cost anywhere from 829 billion to 1.2 trillion using best case and worst case numbers. Using these number extremes we could therefore conclude the cost of the bill would be around 1 trillion dollars with an accuracy of +/- 20%. This would be a much better way to project budgets instead of trying to cover them up with rosy and unrealistic targets. Until the CBO, and the government, implement accuracy into their projections for budgets, they cannot be trusted. And we will therefore continue to run up our national debt.   

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Nancy Pelosi, grinning ear to ear, compared the passing of this bill to the landmark passing of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965. First, let’s not forget that Social Security and Medicare are on the verge of going bankrupt in the next decade. Congress grossly underestimated the costs of these programs and they have most likely done the same on this version of ObamaCare. Secondly, Social Security passed in the House by a 372 to 33 margin and in the Senate by a 77 to 6 margin. Medicare passed the House by a 307 to 116 margin and in the Senate by a 70 to 24 margin. Thus, Medicare and Social Security passed both houses of congress by large margins because the vote was bipartisan. Nancy Pelosi certainly needs a history lesson to think this bill is in the same category as Medicare and Social Security. Pelosi is only trying to inflate the significance of this bill to be her defining moment in history.  

This partisan ObamaCare bill will more than likely be killed in the Senate since many moderate Independents and Democrats do not like the public option (to pass it they will need 60 votes in the Senate). The only way this bill passes the Senate is if the Democrats use the nuclear or reconciliation option, meaning only 51 votes will be needed. However, if the Democrats use this strategy, it would be political suicide.

This bill is arguably the worst bill to ever pass the House of Representatives. The bill is 2000 pages long and it will cost 1.2 trillion dollars over the next decade, which is most likely grossly underestimated. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts the bill will cost more like 3 trillion over a decade. The bill will be paid for by cutting over 400 billion in Medicare over the next decade as well as taxing individuals that make over 500 thousand dollars at 5.4%. If the Medicare cuts eliminate waste and bureaucracy it would make sense, but the cuts will most likely come at the expense of treating seniors and rationing care. The 5.4% tax increase on the wealthy will hurt the economy because they will have less money to pump into the economy. Besides, many of the targeted wealthy are small business owners and therefore, the tax increase could cost people jobs. The bill also places a tax of 2.5% on all medical devices such as pace makers. These costs will obviously be passed onto the consumers that need these products to survive. This simply makes little sense and certainly does not make healthcare more affordable.

The bill still falls short of covering all Americans, leaving 4% of all Americans uninsured even though the legislation will offer a federally run public option. The bill also creates more than one hundred new offices, committees, and bureaucracies to run the program. This truly shows that this bill will be wasteful and inefficient. Most Americans and corporations will be mandated to have or provide insurance or pay an expensive fine and receive a possible prison sentence. It will penalize states that try to limit punitive damages on lawsuits, which will enable malpractice insurance rates to continue to soar out of control. We can only hope a bill this convoluted, partisan, complex, inefficient, wasteful, costly, and economically challenged will not be passed by the Senate into law.

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The Ethics Committee – It was leaked that there are as many as 12 House members currently being investigated, most of which are Democrats, and most notably including Maxine Waters from California.

The Stimulus – A few weeks back Biden was bragging that the stimulus created and saved 1 million jobs. This week the White House is claiming the stimulus created and saved 650 thousand jobs. The frequency at which the government changes these numbers is further evidence that a saved job is not really a measurable metric. Even if these numbers were accurate, it is nothing to celebrate since unemployment is at 10% and it would have cost the taxpayers nearly 250K for each saved and created job. This only shows the inefficiencies when government interference in the economy.

Iran – They continue to play cat and mouse with the UN as they have done with the rest of world the past decade. Iran continues to buy time for their weapons program and everyone seems content with them doing so.

Fox News – The ratings at Fox News have gone up by 8 percent since the Obama administration has declared war on them. That means for every 12 viewers Fox News had, they added another viewer in just two weeks. That is huge, especially if they keep this new viewership!  

ObamaCare – The House version put out by Nancy Pelosi is a 2000 page nightmare full of bureaucracy and creep from the initial bill. The bill will introduce over 100 new government run boards and commissions to oversee her proposal.

Election Results – The GOP took back the Virginia governorship with a convincing win by McDonnell over Deeds by 18 points! They also won the New Jersey Governorship when Christie defeated Corzine by 4 points despite there being a third party candidate. This is big news for conservatives and the GOP because Obama won Virginia last year by a solid margin of 6 points and New Jersey by 15 points. This is a huge turn around, although turnout was very low, about 55-60% of what it was last year. Hopefully the conservatives and GOP learned their lesson as to what happens when there is infighting as there was in NY 23: Democrats win. 

Native Americans – Obama met with Native Americans and said he would reverse U.S. policy of marginalizing them. Obama must be too naïve to notice that liberal social policies that are presently destroying African-Americans have already ravaged the Native American culture into submission.

Fort Hood – A soldier attacked and killed 13 people while wounding 38 others at Fort Hood. Obama’s response was lackluster at best.

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Rivalries or competition can certainly be a good thing. It helps push individuals and teams to excel and be the best they can be. However, if winning at any cost becomes the motto, then rivalries can be bad and lead to detrimental behavior.

In 1968, as a four year old living in New Jersey, I became a New York Yankees fan. Most may remember the Yankees were fairly inept during this period to the mid 70s. In fact, in 1969, their cross town rivals, the NY Mets, won the World Series. My father told me that a true fan sticks with their team regardless of how poorly they perform. He also taught me to respect rivals and to not only see their weaknesses, but their strengths. Thus, my favorite baseball player of all time was not Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, or Lou Gehrig, but Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams. This to me was the best way to respect a rival by recognizing they too have great players.

My sister in law and her family spent a few years living in Boston. During that time they became Red Sox fans, which coincidently was just in time to see them win their first of two championships in nearly a century. Every time I see them they make remarks and ask how I can be a fan of such an “evil” team. I try to explain that Boston is just as evil as New York, dishing out high salaries, and making it almost impossible for small markets to succeed. But they are too naïve to think Boston is just as evil as New York. When my teams win, I do not gloat or throw it back in other’s faces. I know what comes around, goes around and next year things can very easily flip flop. One thing that is very noticeable in rivalries is that people are both sore winners and losers.

The scary thing to me about my sister in law (She is not a bad mother, but on this topic her parenting skills can be questioned) is that she is teaching her kids the wrong message. She is teaching her kids that rivals and adversaries are evil and bad. This may help explain what I witnessed in the corporate world. People would lie, cheat, steal, and do anything to get an upper hand on peers. People became bad team members because they would withhold information and sabotage the work of others. This type of behavior was very common. Now, it is all starting to make sense. Children are taught to disrespect rivalries and competition by ignorant and misguided parents. My nephew is a good kid and I really worry that his parent’s bad behavior is going to teach him the wrong lessons about dealing with rivalries or competition. Worse yet, disrespecting a rival and underestimating their potential, is a sure way to lose out on opportunities that individuals may receive. Everyone needs to respect their rivals and be gracious winners and losers, it is that simple. To despise and hate rivals is simply wrong. This may also help explain our political polarization in this country. Conservatives do not respect liberals and vice versa. The fundamental issue is that people take rivalries personally instead of seeing them for what they really are: games, work, and education. This may go a long way to help explain why people are so sensitive these days and are offended very easily. It may explain why the “race card” is continually used to defend or prosecute behavior. This detrimental behavior has got to stop and people need to start being respectful to their rivals.

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Actually, government run Medicare rations and denies coverage more readily than the insurance companies. So one may only assume that coverage under ObamaCare will be worse than coverage from private insurance companies. However, the real fallacy about private insurance companies is there profit margins. According to the Census Bureau’s second quarter 2009 profit margins by industry, private insurance companies ranked 87^th out of 215 sectors analyzed. They had a profit margin of 3.5% compared to the average of 2.2%. United Health Group ranked as the number one profit business in the private insurance sector at 4.1%. This is nothing compared to the profit margins of conglomerates such as Google at 20.6% and Microsoft at 24.9%. Many other health care industries had much higher profit margins than private insurance companies. Health Care information had a profit margin of 9.4%, Home Health Care was at 8.5%, Medical Labs at 8.2%, and Generic Drug Makers was at 6.5%. All of this said, most of the burden in health care reform legislation is on the insurance industries while other health care sectors are given a pass.

One sector in health care reform getting a pass by the Democrats are the big pharmaceutical companies who ranked number 7 in profit margins at 16.5%. This sector was led by Johnson and Johnson that had a profit margin of a whopping 20.8%. It simply makes no sense to try to cut profits of an industry sector that is already struggling, while giving a pass to an industry that is extremely profitable. Even big oil and gas companies, whose profits are constantly being scrutinized by liberals, had profit margins nearly half of that of big pharmaceutical companies at 9.7%. This is nothing considering the Brewer’s sector profit margin was 26% and the Cigarette sector was at 17.4%. Apparently, liberal attacks against big business profits are random and illogical.

Thus, one may conclude, creating a government run private option to provide more competition against private insurance companies, may indeed force many insurance companies out of business since their profit margins are already slim. Also, by forcing private insurance companies to accept people with preexisting conditions and improve coverage will also eat into their slim profit margins. This proves that the goal of the White House and liberal legislators is to force private insurance companies out of business. This will pave the way to a one payer government controlled system using the dreaded public option.   

So what makes insurance companies evil in liberal eyes? Since the real reason cannot be profit or shoddy coverage since government run Medicare is worse, the only logical explanation is that they are in the way of government run socialized medicine.  

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)