Well, it's been waaaay too long since I posted anything here, but honestly, it seems like some new horror is birthed almost every day around here. I just can't keep up with it! There is a new one that I particularly like, though. Now that the government has the power to take over (and then do anything it pleases with) any corporation in the country, I find it interesting that the SEC now wants to be exempt from FOIA requests. Now, why would that be?

Let's see, they can send whatever e-mails and memos back and forth they want about closing Company X because their politics are wrong, and then they can hide those memos forever because we can't FOIA them. And if some employee with a conscience leaks them, he'll get Vince Fostered.

Nice. Anyone see even a teeny tiny potential for a problem here?

Never did I believe that I would see the day, when Americans could be put in jail for not buying health insurance. Never did I think I would see the day that we would be fined and taxed for not having it, but also fined and taxed for having too much of it.

Tonight, the House passed Pelosi's bloated ballsack of a bill on healthcare. If the Senate passes it as well, then I believe we are truly no longer free. While our freedoms have been eroded steadily for decades, the pace has now been stepped up so much that we may barely recognize this country in a few years. This is simply too large a step. To be imprisoned for not buying insurance, or for not paying the tax because you have too much insurance...I don't have sufficient words to describe the stupidity, moral corruption, hubris, and sheer totalitarianism of this.

Witness, then, the death of our country.

http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=153583

To What End...?

I have wanted to write so much over the last few months, but I just haven't had the time or the mental energy. Little by little, I have begun to feel that speaking out will no longer serve any purpose. I am usually at a loss for words these days, and I'm afraid that it may be too late to stop what is happening to this country.

Where do I begin?

• Government takeover of…everything…is well underway.
• Political opponents are being silenced (through non-violent means, so far).
• News agencies are under attack and are being threatened with losing their FCC licenses if they don’t tow the line.
• More and more radical FREAKS are being appointed to high-level positions: communists (all of Obama’s advisors, I think), anti-capitalists (new manufacturing czar), those who believe sex between a man and a boy is OK (new education czar), and on and on and on.
• Health care reform (takeover) is in the works, where we will actually be fined by the govt (in other words, taxed) for not buying health insurance. Can someone tell me how in the hell the govt has the authority to do that??? Nancy Pelosi sure can’t.
• Children in our schools are taught to sing the praise of a certain person, a savior for the new millennia, who will make everything OK. Which sounds eerily like North Korean children singing the praises of their “Dear Leader.” Because we all know how much he’s done for his flock.
• The dollar continues to tumble, while the govt prints more money and blames Bush for the deficit. Of course, under Bush the deficit was only one fourth what it is now, but it only had to grow because Bush was so evil that Obama had no choice but to make it bigger to combat all the evilness Bush brought to the country. Right? Let’s hear it for accountability.
• I’m sorry, I just have to come back to this one...you're going to FINE ME for not buying health insurance? And if I have it, you're going to TAX ME BECAUSE ITS TOO GOOD?? LIKE HELL!!! When the tax man comes to your door and demands payment of several thousand dollars for the “right” to keep your “Cadillac” health care, what will YOU do?
• The chief economic advisor at the White House says that all the benefit of the stimulus plan has already passed. Really. So let’s give them more money!

I’m forgetting volumes of other transgressions, power grabs and constitutional atrocities, I know. But my brain is simply fried at this point.

The latest blow to the senses comes in the form of Barney Frank and the Treasury working on a bill that will give govt the authority to seize private companies and dissolve them OUTSIDE of bankruptcy proceedings. So, essentially the govt can take over any company and do with it as it pleases.

But wait a minute, they would never do that, you say. People would cry out, you say.

But they already have. And no one said a word (except Fox News).

What do you think happened to Chrysler and GM? They were essentially taken over, the bankruptcy court was frozen out of the deal, the bondholders were screwed, and union cronies reaped the benefits. And no one said a word.

Now, Barney Frank wants the govt to have the authority to take over any company it deems too big to fail. Oh, they may start with financial companies. But will they really stop there?

No.

And it makes me sick. I am watching the death of my country, and I don’t know what to do about it. How long before the dollar, and the economy, collapse entirely? How long before the UN comes in to “stabilize” things? How long before we wake up one morning to find a blue flag flying over the Capitol?

How long until the greatest nation of the modern age passes into the history books?

How long before net neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine prevent me from saying what I believe anyway?

(…and the school kids sing, “Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama…”)

Health care reform??

My view on health care is simple. While it could be better, it is still better than anyone else's. We have friends in Canada who wait 2 YEARS to get a family doctor. A major medical procedure that we could get in a couple weeks, takes them 6-12 MONTHS. That is UNACCEPTABLE here in the US.

And the government expects us to believe our system is broken??? Our system is the best there is in the world at the moment.

We must NOT have a govt health insurance option. To think that it could be run properly is lunacy. There is so much corruption and favoritism in the current administration that a new healthcare program would simply be a tax on most of us to provide benefits to the president's friends and supporters.

We must NOT have rationed care. It is outright cruelty, and the first time you tell someone they have to die because someone "more worthy" will get the treatment instead, you will have rioting and civil unrest on your hands.

I will NOT pay for health care for 20 million illegal aliens with my tax dollars. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

If there is a way to reduce health care costs, great. I agree that costs for both insurance and procedures have gone up too much. But lets focus on why, instead of trying to give every humnan on the planet free health insurance.

Maybe tort reform? I know that many doctors simply cannot afford their liability insurance. Why? Too many lawsuits.

There are things that could be done better in our health care system, but honestly I do not see the big emergency. No one knew there was a health care emergency until the govt and the news media started screaming about it. We don't have an emergency just because some talking head says so.

So...SLOW DOWN! READ THE BILL!

How dare Rep. John Conyers say that he doesn't have time to read the bill? That's his job!!!
We may need some tweaking, but we do NOT need a wholesale restructuring of our system.

Let Me Help You (by stabbing you in the back)

OK, so I went to my bank to see about changing some things with my home equity line of credit (HELOC). The bank froze it last year when the value of the house dropped like a stone. While I was there, I asked why we were not allowed to refinance the mortgage. I had been told on numerous occassions that we could not because we were over 100% loan-to-value (LTV). Of course, this made no sense to me because the bank already had our business and would not be assuming any new risk by doing the refi.

Well, I learned today that the federal govt has regulations limiting a bank's ability to do a refi if the borrower is over 100% LTV.

Really...can someone tell me why in the HELL that would be?

Does allowing me to refi not reduce the risk? It lowers my payment, making it easier to afford, thereby making me less likely to default. Why would the govt want to make it MORE likely for me to default? Maybe because that would make it more likely that I would need a govt program to help me out later. And if I need the govt's help, I am beholden to them.

So, here's some change we can believe in: our govt will create new bailout programs to help me with my mortgage, but it WON'T allow me to bail myself out thru refinancing on my own. Oh, did I mention that I don't qualify for the govt mortgage help anyway? Yeah, hold out your hand to rescue me, then stab me in the back with the other.

Besides, if I'm allowed to do something on my own, it might make me think I'm free to do other things on my own. And we can't have that, now can we?

"Charging" Our Way to Socialism!

Hmmm...Congress is close to passing a bill (thru one house already) that will restrict credit card companies from charging higher interest rates to those who carry balances. This will reduce credit card company revenue (boo hoo, I know). Here's the problem: where do you think the CC companies are going to go to make that revenue up? How about charging more to the people who pay their balance off every month?

Remember when we all had to pay annual fees on CC's? The companies then started rewarding responsible customers by waiving this fee and charging lower rates. That's how Cap One got to be so big. Then we started getting offers for 0% for so many months etc. Now, all that will probably go away because the CC companies will start charging the responsible people more to make up for what the irresponsible are no longer paying.

So, they will take from the "successful" and give to the "less fortunate."

My, where have we seen this concept before?

So, to recap, the federal govt now controls:

• banking
• manufacturing (auto industry and its suppliers)
• credit cards
• education (thru the "blackmail" of federal funding)
• higher education (coming soon)
• healthcare (coming soon)
• firearms (coming soon thanks to CIFTA, if it passes)
• firearms (even if CIFTA fails, there are still the other 20,000 gun laws on the books)
• freedom of speech (just kidding...sort of)
• your thoughts (refer back to education)
• and anything else they might think of

Did I leave anything out?

Welkome to United Socialist States of Amerika. Please check your freedoms and any notions of liberty at the door, comrade. And have a nice day.

Remove Nancy Pelosi now!!!

I am almost speechless at the gall and sheer arrogance that Nancy Pelosi has displayed over the last couple weeks. She claims to have known nothing about water boarding, but…oops, she wrote a memo about it back in December ’07 detailing how it had been used and how there was video footage of it. She also said in the memo that she knew about it in February of ’03.

But she didn’t really know about it. Because this is all a vast right-wing conspiracy by Bush (who is no longer president) to discredit her and Osam…er, Obama. Really? Yeah, right. Because releasing the interrogation memos somehow wasn’t an attempt by Osam…er, Obama to discredit Bush???

Please!

I am beginning to think that there is nothing that makes me sicker than partisan politics. If their guy screws up, its because there is a vast ___-wing conspiracy out to get them and its not their fault. If the other party’s guy screws up, its because he really is the antichrist and will lead us to eternal damnation and all that. But their guy would never do that. No. Not ever. Because they love puppies and kittens and are infallible and will lead us all to utopia.

Why do we not demand better from our politicians? Why has Pelosi not been run out of town already? Why do we not fire these bastards (and bastardettes?) when they lie, cheat and steal from the American people?

How much more brazen bullcrap, lies and monarchy-worthy arrogance are we going to stand before we demand a change? Is this really the best that America has to offer? Lie to me and I’ll keep voting for you because I like your lies better than the other guy’s?

What possible future can we have as a society if this is all we ask for? Hmmm, just ask the Romans. They were once in a similar spot. Oh wait, you can’t. The Roman empire fell. The greatest civilization in the history of the world, dead and gone because of its own apathy, arrogance and avarice.

What’s that they say about history repeating itself?