You stay up for 16 hours
He stays up for days on end.

You take a warm shower to help you wake up.
He goes days or weeks without running water.

You complain of a ‘headache’, and call in sick.
He gets shot at as others are hit, and keeps moving forward.

You put on your anti war/don’t support the troops shirt, and go meet up with your friends.
He still fights for your right to wear that shirt.

You make sure your cell phone is in your pocket.
He clutches the cross hanging on his chain next to his dog tags.

You talk trash about your ‘buddies’ that aren’t with you.
He knows he may not see some of his buddies again.

You walk down the beach, staring at all the pretty girls.
He patrols the streets, searching for insurgents and terrorists.

You complain about how hot it is.
He wears his heavy gear, not daring to take off his helmet to wipe his brow.

You go out to lunch, and complain because the restaurant got your order wrong.
He doesn’t get to eat today.

Your maid makes your bed and washes your clothes.
He wears the same things for weeks, but makes sure his weapons are clean.

You go to the mall and get your hair redone.
He doesn’t have time to brush his teeth today.

You’re angry because your class ran 5 minutes over.
He’s told he will be held over an extra 2 months.

You call your girlfriend and set a date for tonight.
He waits for the mail to see if there is a letter from home.

You hug and kiss your girlfriend, like you do everyday.
He holds his letter close and smells his love’s perfume.

You roll your eyes as a baby cries.
He gets a letter with pictures of his new child, and wonders if they’ll ever meet.

You criticize your government, and say that war never solves anything.
He sees the innocent tortured and killed by their own people and remembers why he is fighting.

You hear the jokes about the war, and make fun of men like him.
He hears the gunfire, bombs and screams of the wounded.

You see only what the media wants you to see.
He sees the broken bodies lying around him.

You are asked to go to the store by your parents. You don’t.
He does exactly what he is told even if it puts his life in danger.

You stay at home and watch TV.
He takes whatever time he is given to call, write home, sleep, and eat.

You crawl into your soft bed, with down pillows, and get comfortable.
He tries to sleep but gets woken by mortars and helicopters all night long.

If you support your troops, send this to 7 people. If you don’t support your troops well, then don’t send this out. You won’t die in 7 days, your love life won’t be affected, and you won’t have the worst day ever.You don’t have to email this. It’s not like you know the men and women that are dying to preserve your rights.

Hello all,  sorry it has been a while since my last post.  I have had the mother-in-law visiting and my wife on vacation for a couple of weeks, not a good scenario for blogging.  I should be starting up again on Monday Oct, 13th.  Until then, here are some thoughts I have had in regards to the election.

I fail to see how jobs will be created by taking money out of the hands of the people that sign your paycheck.

The social engineering program that forced banks to lend to people not qualified to have home loans failed miserably, but that isn’t good enough for Sen. Obama.  He now wants to expand this same type of program to all areas of the economy by forcing the wealthiest to now support lower income households.

I don’t see how Sen. Obama can say he has faith in the hard working people that make up the middle class when he would force them to go on a federally sponsored welfare program thinly veiled as a tax program.

Our government has become a reactionary government.  It waits until an issue has reached crisis mode before it acts and then it acts with crisis mode regulations.  The crisis eventually recedes but the regulations stay in place.  It shouldn’t be a matter of more or less regulations, it should be the right regulations that don’t respond to situations but stop these situations from happening in the first place.  Remember, it was regulations that forced banks to lend to people that couldn’t afford the loans in the first place, this is the base that caused the crisis in the banking industry.

Freedom isn’t just the right to make your own decisions; it is the right to make your own decisions and to allow those decisions to have meaning in your life.  Every time the government steps in and moderates those decisions for you it takes away from that freedom.

Our country is much younger that other economic powers of the world, yet in just 222 years we have become the only economic superpower in the world.  How did this happen?  By allowing the hardworking, innovative and creative citizens of this country the freedom to succeed and reap the benefits of that success.  These liberal, socialistic, government sponsored programs that Sen. Obama has proposed are the antithesis to everything that has made America great…they are a step backwards.

Sen. Obama has dressed up his policies in bright and shiny colors to dazzle your eyes.  The problem is that when you put them all together they just don’t fit quite right.

The government has no power except that which you the people give it, the government has no money except that which you the people pay it.  As such, any mistakes made by the government is born directly on the shoulders of the American people.  We know that freedom works, we know that capitalism works, we know that personal responsibility works.  What we don’t know is if Sen. Obama’s extreme left policies will work, and if they don’t work then once again the American people will pay the price.

The SNL skit:

For the first time Obama is out side of a controlled atmosphere and see how he fairs.

I have said often that Obama is continually seen only in controlled atmospheres such as set stage speeches or interviews with reporters known to be sympathetic.  He doesn’t field unknown questions and he won’t do town hall meetings or debates.  It seems that even Obama understands that his only option to win is to do his best to keep the glitter on his golden shield, because on policy he knows he comes up short.

See what happens when Jon Ralston actually dares to question is policy.  Obama stutters (oh the indignity) and becomes defensive and argumentative.  The interesting thing about this interview is the only time Obama does look comfortable when he is able to steer the conversation back to well practiced monologues.  Oh wouldn’t it be nice if the office of POTUS offered the opportunity to be well prepared for all of the decisions that that position requires.  I’m sure terrorist, national disasters, or any kind of emergency requiring quick resolution will be more that happy to wait until Obama can prepare himself properly.

Let’s be real, Obama needs to be, can only be, in situations that are safe because he just doesn’t know the right answers himself.  His experience is lacking.  He can’t field unknown questions because with just 143 days of real, full time job experience all of these issues he is claiming to be an expert on he has never actually been involved in.   The truth is he is a polished celebrity front, the democratic poster boy, nothing more.

Regarding trade, Democrats have become unabashedly protectionist to the point where they are willing to thumb their noses at American friends and allies like South Korea, Colombia, Canada, and Mexico. In May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shelved a painstakingly negotiated trade pact with Colombia that would have primarily benefited American exports. If the US is wary of trading with tiny Colombia – a democratizing neighbor confronting terrorism and drug trafficking – what does that say about America’s capacity for global economic leadership?

Ms. Pelosi also recently killed “fast-track” procedures intended to ease congressional votes on trade agreements, meaning new pacts with South Korea and Panama are also likely to remain in limbo. And just last month, Democrats in the House and Senate proposed a bill (containing many of Senator Obama’s campaign promises) that would require the president to submit plans to renegotiate all current trade agreements – including the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico – before Congress would consider any new agreements.

The message Democrats are sending to the world is clear: You cannot trust America to honor its trade agreements, even with developing nations struggling to enter the global middle class. This is a far cry from Obama’s Lincolnesque promise in his Democratic nomination victory speech June 3rd to restore “our image as the last, best hope on earth.”

Protectionism at its best. It amazes me that the Democratic run congress believes that the answer to improving domestic economy and foreign relations is to restrict trade with other countries. Nancy Pelosi seems to be doing everything in her power to make the “defenders of freedom” the outcasts of the world and for the life of me I can’t understand her reasoning. Is she truly so shortsighted as to think this will bring the jobs back to America? Well according to the yearly unemployment rates there seems to be no loss of jobs, in fact if you look at the average since the inception of NAFTA in 1994 the average unemployment rate for the last 14 years is lower than the 14 years previous. How can this be? Because the jobs didn’t leave, they just simply moved to the areas of the economy that needed them. Don’t think that bringing back the auto workers job isn’t going to have an effect somewhere else. Will you then feel sorry for the farmers that will have a harder time selling there goods, or will you just support farm subsidies, i.e. our taxes, being given to them.