Voter ID is NOT Suppression

I was disappointed to learn that the PA Judge struck down the voter photo ID law yesterday.

I can already hear the shouts accusing me of advocating "Voter Suppression!"

Hogwash!

If the requirement for ID at the polls is indeed voter suppression, then equally so is the requirement for voter registration. The plain truth is that anyone who feels an obligation to vote, will do what it takes to ensure that they get there. The requirement to obtain an ID is not the onerous task that so many people make it out to be.

Claims that a person would have to actually put themselves out to get to the DMV to get their FREE ID, or wouldn't be able to get there at all are overstated. The ID is provided at no cost upon request at any DMV office in PA. There are even several avenues for help with transportation. Also, everyone seems to disregard the fact that if these people can't get out to get ID, how do they get out to vote? A trip for ID would only be one more trip out for those who need it.

Copies of birth certificates for ID are readily available at the Vital statistics offices. These copies are certified, and sufficient for any purpose that requires a birth certificate.

If a person is truly unable to get out, they would be voting by absentee ballot, and there is NO ID requirement to do so.

May claim that the law only gave residents a month to get their ID before voting began. The law was actually passed in March, giving voters 7 months to obtain ID. DMV records show a surge in ID applications in April and May, from which the logical presumption would be that those who were serious about voting made the effort. Those who chose to await the outcome of the court were taking their own chances, because if the judge had made a different ruling they would have been caught unprepared, by their own choice.

The real truth is this: Most of the people in the groups commonly discussed as those for whom the "Voter Suppression" proponents are claiming disenfranchisement, already possess the requisite ID. The elderly, on fixed incomes had to produce a government ID to get Social Security or welfare, or any other form of government-provided assistance. They either get checks, which will require government ID to cash, or have direct deposit. Banks require (by law) government ID to open accounts and to manage the accounts. All the same for people who receive government assistance.

On the flip side of the coin, there have been sufficient documented cases of voter fraud to warrant some corrective action on a broad scale. And my answer to the people who say they have never actually experienced voter fraud first-hand is this: Have you ever personally witnessed a murder, or a bank robbery? Does that mean that they don't happen? Does that mean that we should not enact laws designed to prevent these crimes? Be serious!

Voter fraud exists, and exists on a chronic scale. It is NOT a partisan thing, as the last publicized case of fraud on a large scale was perpetrated by Republicans and an agency directly tied to the Republican Party.

If you get off your various party bandwagons, and recognize this for the problem that it truly is, you should be CLAMORING for some sort of reform, whether you be Republican or Democrat. This is a bi-partisan problem, and needs a swift, effective solution. And, get ready, because now that we are actually reporting the cases of voter fraud, ID at the polls will be inevitable. Don't wait until the last minute!

QE3 Pigs At The Trough!

First, I apologize for the length of this post, but we are moving into a real crisis here! The pigs are back at the trough (apologies to pigs, everywhere). Something must be done, VERY quickly.

Nothing in the financial world can be simplified too far. However, Quantitative Easing (QE), the latest in the "Let's-try-to-spend-our-way-out-of-debt" schemes brought to you by the US Government, is fairly simple. The govt will float a bond issue, and then print more money to buy its own bonds. They create more debt (aren't we drowning already?) and then pay it off by printing new dollars (even MORE debt!). They are borrowing to pay debt they just created. If you and I did this, it would be FRAUD!

This is like getting new credit cards just to pay the interest on your overwhelming credit card debt.

A few facts. Every dollar printed DECREASES the value of every other dollar in circulation. This weakens the spending power of dollars at home and abroad. As the value of the dollar decreases, the spending power of every dollar decreases. When this happens, prices for goods appear to rise. What is really happening is not that the value of the goods increase, but that more must be charged to actually pay for the cost of goods and make a profit.

The price of gold and gasoline has not dramatically increased because these goods are more valuable, or more scarce, but because the value of the dollar you are using to buy them has decreased, dramatically! 

Consumer Reports Online placed the average gas price on January 19, 2009 at $1.85 per gallon for Regular gas. Now, in September 2012, we are looking at an average price of $3.94—almost $4.00, an increase of 113% over a three-year period. There have been no oil shortages, and no production slow-downs, only the decrease in the value of the dollar. Since the price of oil is pegged to the dollar, every time the dollar decreases, gas increases, groceries increase, everything paid in dollars increases!

The US has done two of these QE’s in the last 3 years. They did not stimulate the economy as planned, and look at what is happening to the value of the dollar and to the price of everything! Look at what is happening to the National Debt—nearly $6 TRILLION more over three years—a 51% increase! So, in the wake of the first two FAILURES, we are going to do QE3. “We CAN’T be overdrawn, we still have checks left!!”

The government will issue up to $40 BILLION per MONTH in real-estate-backed bonds, and print a corresponding amount of money to purchase them back, with no end date planned! All this to shore up a real estate market already hyper-inflated by government mismanagement! This means that the National Debt will increase by that same amount EVERY MONTH. This will add up to a half-trillion dollars every year it is allowed to continue, and that is over and above the spending already slopped in the trough! 

It didn’t work the last two times. So, governmental logic states that we must keep trying it until it does work because the theory is sound! Einstein’s definition of Insanity is, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The first time was an experiment. The second time was self-destructive folly. This third attempt, with everything that is fiscally at stake, is sheer, unadulterated, unmitigated madness. If this fails on the scale of the last two failures, there will not be enough of America left to attempt a QE4.

Wake UP!!! You are sitting back and allowing this to happen to YOU! Speak up and tell your friends. Write your “Representatives” (we still call them Representatives, because they still represent their OWN best interests!).

Break the "Party" Stranglehold!

I have a friend who recently defined me as a Republican, and described Republican ideaology as hypocritical, dishonest, irrational, and just plain mean-spirited. there is only one republican fiscal policy. The rich get richer at the expense of everyone else.


He is right on the money about the Republicans.  No arguments.  However, since we are clarifying Party stances, the Democrat Party's ideology is that of big government control over the lives of its citizens, empirical, hypocritical, controlling, lying, more interested in achieving control than in upholding the Constitution.  In fact, it is the Democrats who openly state that the Constitution is "outdated" and "irrelevant", and this is a stance that we have fought wars to defeat.


We have always been able to maintain a respectful relationship, and I intend to do so because our friendship runs deeper to me than political ideology.  However, the government wants us to maintain this in-fighting, because as long as we are fighting among ourselves, we will be ill-equipped to reverse this alarming trend towards evolving our government into a ruling class.  To be melodramatic, but accurate, BOTH parties represent that evil that will choke the liberty and freedom from us.


I'm NOT a Republican. I'm not a Romney supporter, although he would be my choice between the two presumed candidates.  I am in support of self-reliance and self-responsibility.  I am against a society of entitlement.  I am, at the mildest, a Jeffersonian Constitutionalist, because it is adherence to that document and those principles that made this country as great as it ONCE was.


In truth, I can be called a Rational Anarchist.  You and yours may pass whatever laws you feel necessary to form the ideals of your society.  I, alone, am responsible for which laws I will obey and which laws I will ignore, which is actually true of every citizen.  It is up to me to either accept or fight the consequences.  This government lost its way a long time ago, when it put government above the rights of citizens, and bound them in the chains of entitlement.


Until we break those chains, and move away from the entitlements, and move back to assuming personal responsibility, we will continue on the path to tyranny.  "When the government fears the people, we have a republic.  When the people fear the government, we have tyranny." There is some question of who actually said it, but it was never as true as right now.

Pandering--To Tack Into The Political Wind...

The President has come out formally in favor of gay marriage, and claims to have evolved to that position. 

First, I do not believe government has any place in legislating any religious function.  If an administering official is willing to marry two people, will not God judge that?  Didn’t God have something to say about what happens when we judge?  (Look it up!) Government has no place in religion.  My grandmother would have said, "The government needs to tend to it's own knitting."

Second, the President has changed his mind several times, first supporting, then opposing.  This is not evolving, it is flip-flopping.  This means that he has no belief system of his own, and tacks into the political wind.  He says whatever he needs to get elected, and has done so all along.  This is lying—LYING!  What else would you call it?  Why do so many accept the lies?  

Someone once said that a person who stands for nothing will fall for anything.

Many of you will write or comment, condemning my criticism of the President, but you should do the research for yourself.  There are legitimate sources, using his own words, in context, that demonstrate his changing stances depending on what audience and for which office.

It is time to stand up to the lies, no matter the candidate, no matter the party or ideology.  It is time to ask the hard questions and check out the answers.  I have done some extensive research before writing.  You should do some extensive research before criticizing.

America Needs A Hand-Up, Not A Handout!

A society has a moral obligation to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Our present welfare system provides care for those who can't, and for many who simply won't. 

Our system needs to be revised to care for those who can't, and prevent those who won't from making a career of welfare. We need to eliminate "welfare as a way of life" except for those who do not have the ability to live any other way.

It is not an indignity for the able-bodied person to have to work for welfare, no matter how menial the task. A handout is not dignified. America needs a hand-up, not a handout.

Any person who is capable of performing a task, and is already being paid, should have work.  Counting paper clips, or delivering mail, or emptying trash are all better than accepting a handout.  Even the Bible says. "...for the laborer is worthy of his wages."

My father taught me that a job was something for which to be proud.  I say that a job is worth working for!  Our country was made great by the people who took pride in their best work, not by anyone who sat back and asked, "What can I get from the government?"

We don't have to formally create a job to provide someone with work, and if we do,  that should change!  Work is change we all can believe in.  Work is the recipe for recovery, even when we are in this deep!  Let's stop counting new job creations and get to work. 

Work as a way of life... What a concept!

Why Politics Belongs In Polite Conversation.

It is politicians who gave politics a bad name.  It was intentional.

If politics is a sore subject, we wont talk about it.

If we don’t talk about it, we won’t pay attention to it.

If we don’t pay attention to it, politicians may do whatever they want.

Look where we are now, because politicians can do whatever they want.

Sex, Politics & Religion are the three taboo subjects in polite, casual conversation.  Wait! The Administration is trying to regulate all three!  If we continue to remain silent, we will lose all three.  Where do we go from here?

It is time to take a stand.  It is just this simple:  If we give in to the Administration on the contraception fight, we will sacrifice a large chunk of our freedom of religious expression.  If we give up religious expression, next will be freedom of the press.  When that is gone, they will come after freedom of speech.

That will nullify the First Amendment, and if we give up freedom of speech, we will have sacrificed our ability to speak out against anything else they want to do.

Look up the definition of tyranny.  Really. Look it up.