How did we get to this point??

I had planned to post a commentary on the silliness of Black Friday rituals; particularly, one in which my sister annually takes part in. However, the trampling death of a WalMart employee casts a heavy shadow over the Post-Thanksgiving shopping traditions.

For those that have not heard yet, a WalMart employee in New York was trampled to death when a crowd broke down the door to gain first shot at the super deals offered for the official start of the holiday season. They broke the door frame, pushed their way into the store, took the door off the hinges and trampled Jdimytai Damour of Queens to death. Other employees were also trampled and injured trying to save their co-worker. When the store announced they would be closing due to the tragedy - the tramplers complained about the length of time they waited for the store to open and continued to shop - knowing and not really giving a crap that they had just trampled a man to death.

Earlier this year in Hartford, Connecticut a surveillance camera caught a pedestrian being hit by a car, the driver and a second car tailing the first both driving away while bystanders walked by, drivers continued to drive around the man's body and others took pictures with a cell phone. The police arrived shortly afterwards indicating someone called police - but the video shows they did little else. No one even attempted to stop traffic.

GREED and SELFISHNESS killed this man. Greed of the iniquitous shoppers, desperate for bragging rights of the best deal on a TV; the GREED of the retailers that created this escalating ritual of insane shopping behavior - if they did not see this coming as they watched year after year the fights and escalating violence and insanity that accompanied their super sales, they deliberately turned a blind eye. The insanity began in the early
80's with the fights breaking out over Cabbage Patch Kids - this was inevitable and preventable, but no one intervened.

The sanctity of life holds an obviously low priority these days and extends beyond political pro-life/pro-choice positions. When people trample other people - human beings - to death in an effort to save a few dollars in a so-called civilized country, well.... I am so incredibly appalled that I really do not know what can be said about this kind of depravity. I do know that this is not what Christmas is supposed to be about.

Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of a Savior; a response to God who sent his son to save the world from their own sins. In light of this, it is clear that we are DESPERATELY in need of that Savior. I thank God that he has come and is coming again. My heartfelt prayers go out the family and friends of Jdimytai Damour; may God comfort them in this time of tragedy.

BAILOUTS again

Are ya'll as sick of hearing about bailouts as I am? I know you guys have been watching with awe as the Big Business Execs troop to DC like ants on a mission with their hands out for BAILOUT money. I have to hand it to them... they have no shame and no concept of how this looks to the taxpayers flying coach to watch these corporate elites show up in private jets asking for our money. They just march on into Congress with heads held high.

Ya know, my family did not take a vacation this year due to the high cost of gasoline. Yet Congress thinks that Citicorp, Wachovia, the auto industry and (my personal favorite) AIG needs the money more than we do. These execs have no intention of doing anything different than what they have always done - live high on the hog and spend, spend, spend.

I heard a Democrat this week on Fox and Friends defending the AIG spa/golf trips. He claimed that they were kissing up to clients and this is part of business. I say BS! If your business is failing, you cannot afford to spend $400K to schmooze clients. Additionally, AIG has never claimed this was a client kiss-ass event. AIG said that these pampering events were for divisions of the company that were doing well - not the failing part.

I applaud Congress' decision to not hand over a truckload of money to the auto industry until they comeback with a plan; However, does anybody think they will actually have a plan that they cannot manipulate after they get the money??

Personally, I want them to force them to have a PLAN for the money, have some public accountablity and have to payback taxpayers with interest. The reality is that Congress is hellbent on giving away billions and billions of taxpayer money in bailouts - okay, but let's see some bang for our buck!

I EXPECT TO SEE EXECUTIVES OF FAILING COMPANIES PASS ON THE BONUSES AND TAKE PAY CUTS - THEY ARE LUCKY TO STILL HAVE JOBS. If they are unwilling to do so, I want to apply for the CEO position of GM - heck, I could run it intot the ground as well as the current CEO and I'd do it cheaper than he is. I would be willing to work for one million a year and I can go to Congress with a better plan than the one he did!

According to Executive Pay Watch Database, the GM CEO G. Richard Wagoner raked in $19,761,874 in total 2007 compensation. Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford earned a whopping $22,750,385 in 2007. Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli is not obligated to disclose his salary because Chrysler is privately owned; however, his severence package from Home Depot after running it into the ground was an unbelievable $210 million.

Nardelli is willing to accept a salary of $1 in 2009 to secure the federal bailout. Wagoner and Mulally were not so willing to take one for the team. More insulting was that Mulally stated that he already took a 50% decrease in pay a few years ago and he is afraid that cutting executive pay would run off the "top talent". HEY, Mulally!! Your "top talent" is bleeding the company dry!! Wake up and smell what you guys are shoveling!!

I could go in there and work for a fraction of what these guy are paid and get the company within a budget. No bonuses unless the company is in the black and then they are a percentage of profits - not flat outrageous figures! Contracts - what contracts?? I'd just file for bankruptcy and get some realistic employees. Since when did a bonus become automatic in a failing company??!!

On that note, the bailout allows the company to avoid bankruptcy. This means that the company is obligated to honor all those union contracts that have the Detroit auto workers making twice what people in the South are making for doing the very same work.

Guess what Detroit - the ride is over because the money is running out. Somebody better be ready to take a paycut or be prepared for the job cut!!

JUST SAY NO!!!

I say to the so-called "big three", NO!

Just say no to the endless BAILOUTS, say no the the enablement of big business' mismanagement, say no to the Government getting into the business of business,
JUST SAY NO!

I do not want to put a band aid on a gushing artery - you might slow the bleeding, but the person will still eventually bleed to death. It is pointless to throw money at an already seriously mismanaged business and the idea that bailing them out will fix it is RIDICULOUS. Giving them money will only delay the inevitable - the company will just go right back to its self-destructive practices and will eventually be in the same mess again.

I was raised that you are not doing a child any favors by excusing his/her bad behavior or getting them out of trouble. They must learn about consequences, learn from mistakes and learn to deal with problems and obstacles as they arise. Otherwise, they will always depend on someone else to fix things and will never stand on his/her own.

JUST SAY NO!
How is this any different?

WHEN ARE THE BAILOUTS GOING TO RESCUE US?

I have been wondering when these BAILOUTS are going to achieve the goal of RESCUING the economy. Everytime I hear anything about AIG I pop a few blood vessels and now we are getting a line of failing businesses holding their hands out asking to be rescued too. The auto industry seems to be the latest group of victims of their own mismanagement. What I want to know is when we will see the the so-called rescue begin to work???

The whole premise to the BAILOUT was that it would stimulate and rejuvenate our economy. WELL.....

STILL WAITING...

Now they want to BAILOUT GM and the other Detroit auto makers...

HHMMM... STILL WAITING...

I want to know if Nancy Pelosi has any intention of putting any restrictions on any future recipients of BAILOUT money. I do not want to see any company asking for a taxpayer BAILOUT going off on some damn cruise, trip to Hawaii or to some hoyty-toyty spa on the taxpayer dime again. AIG is a sorry excuse for any business and should be required to submit to a full scale criminal investigation of fraud and misappropriation of funds. They were clearly not in dire need or they could not be spending so lavishly on pampering the corporate executives - the same morons that were at the helm while the company spiraled into bankruptcy.

STILL WAITING...

Threats against the President-Elect

According to an AP article posted about an hour ago, threats against newly elected Presidents are par for the course; however, law enforcement has stated that they are seeing an unprecedented number of threats against the President Elect, Barack Obama.
Let me say something to this type of behavior - THIS MUST NOT CONTINUE.

One thing about this, we must keep in mind that there has been an explosion of medium for this type of behavior. When in history have we had the ability to have our views so widely expressed? This is a great gift and an awsome time to be an American. It is also a time for people to very publicly share their low IQ with the world.

Freedom is a beautiful thing but should be tempered with responsibility!

I was not happy with the election, but should we not behave better than the radical left? We (Conservatives) opposed Obama because his views are so radically different from the conservative. Most of us that hold conservative views are influenced by our faith in Jesus Christ. The Good Book gives us guidance on how we should behave as his followers - and making threats against a man put into power is NOT the way to handle disappointment.

If this spike in threats are due to this man's race, well I do not think I can change the heart of someone so shameful. If anything happens to the President Elect, it would set this country back a hundred years. This country was build on free speech and free exchange of ideas - feel free to disagree with him all day long - I do, but do hate him so much that you would risk your life and freedom to violate the law and the Ten Commandments to hurt this man because of the color of his skin - then you have problems that I am simply not qualified to help you with.

You don't have to like Obama. You don't have to agree with him.

Hate is tearing out country apart. Mostly I have noticed the radical left getting completely crazy and out of control, but threats against an incoming President is unacceptable. Do not become like the radical extremist left - full of uncontrollable hate, rage and completely free of any rational thought. The only way that we can regain the ability to put Conservatives back in to power is by keeping a cool head and regrouping - not by acting like a bunch of immature children.

We need to remember to respect the Office of the President. Obama won - He will be the 44TH President of the United States. We need to pray for and support our President. Support does not mean blindly agree with everything he says or does. It means that we express our concerns to our President in appropriate ways, we vote for the candidates that we believe in, we hope that in spite of our concerns, that he will be putting the Unites States of America and its citizens first and we remember that at most he can only serve 8 years. This is temporary.

WATCH OUT FOR THE FUTURE OF THE GOP

ALASKAN GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN: Of course, we have all been watching her through out the election cycle. She is smart, straight forward and unafraid, unintimidated by the press and the Washington Insiders. She is the epitome of what Conservative Women have been waiting for in a pollitical leader.

Former MD LT Gov MICHAEL STEELE: VERY ACOMPLISHED AND IMPRESSIVE.He obtained his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins and his JD at Georgetown University. Steele considered the priesthood and spent three years in seminary, but decided on a career in law before taking the vows.

LA Gov BOBBY JINDAL: EXTREMELY INTELLIGENT Jindal attended Brown University, graduating with honors in biology and public policy. Although he had thought of a career in medicine or law and was accepted by Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, he chose to pursue a political career. He received a master's degree in political science from New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.

I heard Michael Steele this morning on FOX NEWS, I like what I am hearing from him. He said that Republicans do not have to become more like the Democrats to regain the trust of the Conservatives - they have to "get their act together and get back to the values, roots and principals of the Republican Party." He said that those that think they should move to the left are welcome to join the Democratic Party.

http://senate.ontheissues.org/Senate/Michael_Steele.htm

http://senate.ontheissues.org/House/Bobby_Jindal.htm

http://senate.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm

Political websites are helpful; www.ontheissues.org has been rather good; they do lean slightly to the left, but it is very slight and not really noticable unless you really scrutinize the site. According to ontheissues.org Palin and Jindal are historically more conservative than Steele. Steele is rated more moderate, right leaning. All three up and comings are pro-life and have a track record that supports their verbiage.

Really - only time will tell if they are as great as they seem. Let's hope they live up to the hype.

THE FUTURE OF THE GOP

Where do Conservatives go for leadership? The GOP has done what it has always done; they tell us what we want to hear, then once they get into office they abandon the principals they claimed to hold.



The GOP is right now trying to decide how they want to prepare for the mid-term elections and 2012. But do Conservatives really want to give power back to the same old same old? I am tired of so-called conservative Republicans getting into office and not fighting for conservative values and issues. When W was elected, they had full control of the House and Senate and did NOTHING. In his second term, he wanted to appoint Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court- a candidate that few Conservatives were happy with, and give illegal immigrants amnesty. What the he77?



The future of the GOP is currently being planned!! (By the way - Attention all Republican Party leaders: DO NOT LET RICK PERRY, TEXAS GOVORNER HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE GOP FUTURE!!! As a Texan, I hope that when he leaves office that he also leaves Texas!) I would like to see TRUE conservatives take back this party. I was never happy with John McCain as the nominee and have made no secret of that fact. I was never comfortable with any Republican that was willing/able to work that closely with Ted Kennedy - among the leftist of the left.



According to the RNC website the party platform regarding Illegal Immigration is as follows:



Immigration, National Security, and the Rule of Law


Immigration policy is a national security issue, for which we have one test: Does it serve the national interest? By that standard, Republicans know America can have a strong immigration system without sacrificing the rule of law.


Enforcing the Rule of Law at the Border and Throughout the Nation
Border security is essential to national security. In an age of terrorism, drug cartels, and criminal gangs, allowing millions of unidentified persons to enter and remain in this country poses grave risks to the sovereignty of the United States and the security of its people. We simply must be able to track who is entering and leaving our country.


Our determination to uphold the rule of law begins with more effective enforcement, giving our agents the tools and resources they need to protect our sovereignty, completing the border fence quickly and securing the borders, and employing complementary strategies to secure our ports of entry. Experience shows that enforcement of existing laws is effective in reducing and reversing illegal immigration.


Our commitment to the rule of law means smarter enforcement at the workplace, against illegal workers and lawbreaking employers alike, along with those who practice identity theft and traffic in fraudulent documents. As long as jobs are available in the United States, economic incentives to enter illegally will persist. But we must empower employers so they can know with confidence that those they hire are permitted to work. That means that the E-Verify system—which is an internet-based system that verifies the employment authorization and identity of employees—must be reauthorized. A phased-in requirement that employers use the E-Verify system must be enacted.


The rule of law means guaranteeing to law enforcement the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay – and correcting court decisions that have made deportation so difficult. It means enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas, rather than letting millions flout the generosity that gave them temporary entry. It means imposing maximum penalties on those who smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S., both for their lawbreaking and for their cruel exploitation. It means requiring cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement and real consequences, including the denial of federal funds, for self-described sanctuary cities, which stand in open defiance of the federal and state statutes that expressly prohibit such sanctuary policies, and which endanger the lives of U.S. citizens. It does not mean driver's licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring them from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, nor does it mean that illegal aliens should receive social security benefits, or other public benefits, except as provided by federal law.


We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity. The American people's rejection of en masse legalizations is especially appropriate given the federal government's past failures to enforce the law. http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/NationalSecurity.htm



Ya know, while this sounds precisley on point with my personal view, this is not what the actions of the GOP reflected when President Bush was pushing the McCain/Kennedy and who-the-hell-ever amnesty bill. Thank God that the people of this country stood up and shouted loud enough in one voice to stop it - those politicains would have passed it and hope that no one noticed.



I want party leaders to follow through with Conservative agendas. I want the Republican Party to GROW a pair!! I want the Republican Party to stop allowing the liberal far left to hijack this country for God's sake!!



I am tired of electing people that claim to share my values, then suddenly - poof! They become spineless whimps and allow Pelosi and the gang to take over!



I want Republicans that believe in the Constitution, remember that ya'll?? This is not a communist country and I am tired of hearing about RESCUES and BAILOUTS and NATIONAL HEALTH CARE. I want leaders that will return this country to what it was intended to be!

THANK A VETERAN TODAY

Every November 11, we take a moment to remember the veterans that have so honorably served this country and fight for the freedom we enjoy. I am the daughter of a United States Marine, three of my uncles all served in the US Army and throughout my family history, members of my family have served the United States in every war and conflict until the Gulf War, including the Revolutionary War and the Texas Revolution - most of this generation in my family consists of girls. Because of the long family history of military service to this country, I have a great respect and appreciation for all those serving this great nation.

In more recent years, when Veteran's Day comes around, I think of another - Sgt. Michael Luke Boatright died in service to his country in Iraq on December 4, 2004. He left behind his wife and childhood sweetheart, Desty and their three children Colton, Tanna and Zoie. Luke was only a few weeks away from discharge and was making plans for when he returned home to Texas when a roadside bomb blew up in his face.

I will never forget the morning the Army showed up at his father's home - across the street from mine. It was only a matter of minutes before the tragic news was all over the neighborhood. This is a small neighborhood and everybody knows everybody - everybody knew Luke. My family and the entire neighborhood mourned for his family. This was particularly tragic because it was so soon after the death of Luke's sister, Candy.

We lowered our flag to half staff until after his funeral. My heart broke for his wife - she was inconsolable. They had been together since they were kids and she was now left with three children to raise alone. I cried for his parents that had buried not just one, but two children, in a short period of time. No parent should have to go through that even one time and to have to deal with that kind of loss twice - I cannot even begin to imagine the pain they suffered.

Four years later and the saddness still looms. So today, remember those that serve this great nation and sacrifice so much. There are a lot of Luke Boatrights out there. This sad account is close to my heart, but there are thousands more. Remember that the soldiers are not the only ones sacrificing - their families are sacrificing too. Some are giving everything.

TO THOSE THAT SERVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
WITH ALL MY HEART!

Post election bloviating

I have been gone from the blog for a while due to some personal stuff going on, but America needs us to keep going. Obama may have won this one, but I will be shocked if he can follow through with his promises of saving the poor and spreading the wealth. I am very saddened to think about the future of the Supreme Court.



Additionally, I want to know what the govenment intends to do about the ACORN FACTOR. I do not know if Acorn was able to steal this election or not and will not allege that they did; however, I do want to know what the feds are going to do to prevent any future voter fraud. We will probably never know the true impact of voter fraud in this election, but I am not willing to sit by and allow this to continue.



I propose that everyone write, call or somehow contact his/her senators and congressmen and women and demand that they address voter fraud.



Another thing bothering me post election is the continued attack on Sarah Palin. I am absolutely certain that the childish backstabbing coming from within the McCain camp is fear that she will return to the national stage and will not be a party puppet or just go along with the status quo. Her approval ratings in her home state are probably among the best held by any politician in the country and are certainly better than ANYONE in DC. Alaskans love her and I have no doubt it is because of her work cleaning house of corruption, cutting spending and honestly looking out for the people of Alaska.



The good ol boys of the Republican Party recognize that she is as big a threat to them as any Democrat because she is cabable of bringing new life to politics and was actually better received than John McCain. While I very much respect John McCain, I was not happy with him as the Republican nominee. She - like Obama - is truely about change, except she does not want to change the country into a Socialist nation. Her brand of change is returning power to the people, less spending, lower taxes and less cooruption. The good ol boys know that she will upset the party as they know it.



Here's what I see. I am tired of putting Republicans in office, only to have them stab the voters in the back. I have not forgotten George Bush trying to put Harriet Miers on the court. I felt completely betrayed and then his attempt to give illegal immigrants another amnesty was the end for me. I was very angry that the Republicans allowed the Democrats to hold up the Supreme Court nominations. They refused to take a stand and fight when they should have and allowed minority Democrats to hijack the hill. I sent emails to the Republican Headquarters begging them to grow a backbone. It has not happened yet.

I pray that Sarah Palin will return to the capitol and rise to a position in the Rebublican Party where she can make a difference for America as she has for Alaska! Perhaps the speculation of her being on the ticket for the White House in 2012 is not unattainable.