This opinion expresses the way I feel about the current state of affairs in the United States. In my view things are very bad and may be getting worse. For the first time in 75 years, I am afraid of what the Washington government might do to physically harm me and my family. There is no longer anyone I trust up there; according to recent polls, most Americans feel as I do. Col. Smart describes the situation accurately, and, yes, I’m mad as Hell! So should you be.

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 The current attempt of the President and congressional leadership to portray critics of the recently passed “Healthcare reform bill” as racists, hate mongers and radical kooks prompted me to write the opinion piece below.

 It is All Right to be Mad

Whether you think the new so called “health care reform” bill is a good thing or if you are like me and think the new legislation is bad for America, either way you should be mad and it is all right to mad.

Set aside for the moment the bill itself, the process that got it passed, and the fact that no matter whether the bill is good or bad, we can’t afford it, let ‘s look at what President Obama and the Democratic leadership in the congress with the help of the main stream media are trying to do to quell criticism of the legislation.

One thing you have to hand to the current administration and congressional leadership is that they understand that a large segment of the American population is gullible and prone to political correctness.  They have launched a full scale campaign to label anyone who criticizes the legislation as a hate monger, racist, or a vicious right wing radical knowing full well that the politically correct crowd would rather die than to be labeled as any of these.  They know what they are saying is not true, but the truth has not been a characteristic of these people or this administration.  They think they can scare the image obsessed moderates and minorities who might question or criticize the legislation into withdrawing into their day to day lives and forget about what they have done.  This is the last thing you should do.  How many of these people have already forgotten 9/11?

On top of this, the President is on the trail making fun of critics because in less than 7 days after passage the negative aspects have not already kicked in.  It is immature and disingenuous because he knows that except for some of the taxes many of the main provisions of the bill don’t become effective until after the next Presidential election.  It is also an insult to any American with an average degree of intelligence.

The Democrats in congress are making a big deal out of supposed threats and poor conduct on the part of a hand full of critics as if this is the first time they have ever experienced such behavior.  The behavior of “Tea Party” people has been exceptionally good compared to the behavior of Democratic activists during the Bush Administration.  The “Obamacare” critics don’t even come close to the behavior of the “Bush Haters”.  For the most part they are ordinary American citizens who are simply fed up with the government jamming policies they don’t like down our throats.

As an American, if this behavior doesn’t make you mad, then you are brain dead.  If you are mad, you have every right to be mad and you shouldn’t let the political leadership in Washington make you feel guilty about being mad.  It is a normal human instinct to be mad when you are being lied to and abused and made fun of by your government.

If you are not mad about the post passage behavior of the president and the Democratic leadership then you should be angry about the process that led to passage of the bill. Anyone with even a moderate knowledge of history knows that politics has always been a dirty game and that there have always been backroom deals made in the process that usually never see the light of day.  In the case of the “healthcare reform bill” I have never seen so much arrogance and total disregard for the will of the American people as that displayed by the Democrats and the Obama Administration.  They had absolutely no shame in their claims and no limit to how low they would stoop to get this legislation passed.  The President himself stated publically that he didn’t care about the process as long as the bill passed.  In other words “The end justifies the means”.  Where have you heard that before?

They were not even honorable with their own party members.  They bought the votes of some members by loading the bill with goodies for specific States or groups, but after the vote was taken to move the bill along their devious route, they then turned around and stripped many of those benefits from the bill.  So the poor fools who were willing to sell their vote in the first place were stabbed in the back by their own party.

I will bet that even the people who would be considered well informed in the political process didn’t know that all the dirty sneaky procedures that were used to pass this bill existed.  I certainly didn’t.  I had never heard of deeming a bill passed.  It was almost as if they were making up the rules as they went along and at times were doing things that could land the ordinary citizen in jail.

This legislation was supposed to be about healthcare.  But what it is really about is control.  Just in the last week a Democratic congressman even publically said so.  He said that this bill will help us control the people.

It is all right to be mad.  You should be mad, their process and conduct were revolting.

If all this doesn’t make you mad then what about the cost of this monstrosity?  Anyone who really believes that this bill is going to reduce healthcare costs or reduce the Government deficit is an idiot.  The cost of Medicare is over nine times what congress estimated when it was passed.  Similar cost overruns are normal in just about all government programs.  In the early days of computers there was a phrase used to evaluate computer output.  That is “garbage in, garbage out”.  If the data you input is garbage then the results you get from the computer is going to be garbage.  This pretty much describes the congressional budget office (CBO) process.  When the sponsors of a bill send a bunch of idiotic conditions which everyone knows will never happen to the CBO then whatever evaluation the CBO comes up with means absolutely nothing.  To anyone with common sense the CBO process is a farce.

If you consider that in 2009, 43 cents of every dollar the federal government spent was borrowed, then it is insane for the government to launch any new spending program and particularly one with so much potential for runaway costs in the future.  The congress and administration don’t seem to understand that our country is very close to, if not already, bankrupt.  What is it that they don’t understand about “we don’t have any money?”

It is all right to be mad.  Their total disregard for fiscal responsibility should make you furious.

I will not even attempt to address the bill itself.  There are more than enough issues surrounding this legislation to make any intelligent person almost blow their stack.  You should be mad, it is all right to be mad, and don’t let these people scare and label you as a racist, bigot, or radical kook.

It is all right to be mad.     

Eric E. Smart, Atlanta, GA

Tags: 9/11, american, bankrupt, congress, control, democratic, government, healthcare, obama, obamacare, tea party, washington

This is a letter to Senator Saxby Chambliss by a close friend who has many views similar to a least half of all Americans. If you have these same feelings, communicate them to your representatives NOW.

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Dear Senator Chambliss,

 My opinion is that this meeting is probably a great big mistake. 

 One, we are supposed to have a separation of powers in our government.  It is not the job of the President to preside over a meeting of the U. S. Congress.

 Second, those who disagree with the President’s position can only do so mildly without being accused of being disrespectful to the President.  For your information, Mr. Obama is not the king nor is he God, but the Republicans can only lose if they call him out when he lies through his teeth as he often does.

 Third, surely you don’t think he really gives a hoot what the Republicans think or want to do.  His primary objective is to make you look bad and if healthcare doesn’t pass he will blame the Republicans while he couldn’t even get full support for the healthcare bills from his own party.  The only bipartisan issue he is looking for is bipartisan blame when the public comes down on you guys for allowing this monstrosity to get passed.  Do you not yet understand that the people want no part of the Democrat proposals?

 Fourth, I am really mad at the Republican Party because you became Democrat light when you were in power.  I don’t expect the Democrats to do very many things that I like; but, I did expect the Republicans to govern in a fairly conservative manner.  You didn’t do that.  I currently don’t think the proper approach is to form a third party.  The best solution in my opinion would be for the Republican Party to wake up and get back to its small government roots.  But if you guys go to this meeting and let Obama make you look like a bunch of fools, then it could well be the end of the Republican Party and many conservative citizens like me will write you off as a bunch of losers and start looking for a viable alternative to the Democratic/Republican parties.

 Fifth, you Republicans need to have a good talk with the new Senator from Mass. and explain the facts of life to him.  In the first real action since he took office he is siding with the Democrats on their new so called jobs bill.  First we don’t have the money, second it will not create any permanent jobs, the tax credits for small businesses that hire people is a typical government solution that is ready made for abuse by businesses that were already going to hire new employees, and it is going to be just another slush fund for the Democrats to buy votes using our tax dollars.  Didn’t you guys learn anything from the first “stimulus” bill and TARP bill.  Why do you think so little of the “stimulus” money has been spent in 2009?  It was not an election year! Duh! 

 The Obama administration is taking the TARP payback from the banks and using it as a slush fund to hand out money to their friends in a form that will never be paid back.  Get off your duffs and put a stop to this madness. 

 The American people, and I am not talking about some kind of kook fringe, but solid patriotic citizens, are completely fed up with the way you people are running things in Washington and the arrogance you portray to us.  But you guys don’t seem to be getting the message.  “Don’t tread on me” is a fair warning that you should take seriously because we have had enough of the horse manure.

 Eric E. Smart, LTC(Ret) U. S. Army

Atlanta, GA

Tags: american people, bipartisan, conservative, democrat, god, healthcare, jobs bill, king, obama, patriotic, republicans, stimulus, tarp, third party

A lot of bad things have come out of Chicago. “Bad Jimmy” Connorton, the acquitted killer of “Doc” Haggerty died here in 1893. Then came the mobs, led by Al Capone, along with the likes of  Sam Giancana whose friendship with Joe Kennedy saved him from arrest.

 Republican Governor George Ryan and friends created schemes for granting contracts and licenses in return for bribes. A terrible accident in another state resulted in his conviction on charges of racketeering, bribery, and extortion. The Governor is now serving a six and one-half year sentence. Guess who replaced him? ROD BLAGOJEVICH! The Daley regime, father and son, has spanned many years as mayors of Chicago. Bob Crawford, retired political editor for a Chicago radio station, says the city has prospered under the Daleys, but the price is corruption. How could it be otherwise during such long autocratic reigns?

 There are other, perhaps much worse, influences surrounding the Chicago political scene. In addition to the mob, there are more extreme elements including Bill Ayers. Ayers founded the violent radical left organization, Weather Underground. This activist group opposed the Vietnam War by bombing public buildings in the ‘60s and ‘70s. He avoided prison on several legal technicalities. He is now Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Isn’t our educational system wonderful? We allow criminals to influence our leaders of tomorrow to bomb buildings and kill people who disagree with their ideas. What a future we can look forward to under their leadership.

 Next, consider the religious training our President and his family have had for the past 20 years or so. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is certainly among the most violent, inflammatory, and disgusting “preachers” there ever has been. His often quoted anti-American speech which included “God damn America” numerous times and blames all of us citizens for the events of 9/11 is beyond belief. But the Obamas and the state controlled media passed it off as inconsequential. Perhaps you think it means nothing, as well. I hope you are correct, but years of that kind of inflammatory rhetoric must have made some impression on our leaders, many of whom call Chicago home.

 Finally, there is the influence of the Chicago School of Economics, based at the University of Chicago, which has as the backbone of its philosophy the teachings of Milton Friedman. I vigorously subscribe to his ideas of keeping government intervention out of business. Apparently his protégés now in power did not get that part of his thinking. What they did get was the idea first promulgated by Niccolo Machiavelli around the 15^th Century, “never waste the opportunities offered by a good crisis.” Dr. Friedman used some form of it and Rahm Emmanuel, White House Chief of Staff, and many other liberal Democrats are currently using it as a reason to quickly use a perceived catastrophe to force monumental change on the public before they have time to realize what is happening. The Chicago School has used this strategy for many years to force colossal change on troubled economies around the world. If you want to see how this has played out on the global platform, read Naomi Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine. They also used the ideas that the first 100 days after an event were when the original actions should be made and then completed within six to nine months. Otherwise people affected will see what the government is doing and revert back to their original thinking. Does any of this seem familiar? Is this not exactly what is happening on so many different fronts at once? The economy, so-called global warming, healthcare, closing Gitmo and freeing terrorists, and all the other ideas being quickly pushed through Congress? We all wanted some kind of change, but do we really want the corrupting ideas from a small group of Chicago fanatics?

 Not much anyone can do until the Congressional races next year. It may be some of us can benefit by figuring how to grab some of that cash that is flowing in trillions from Washington daily. Good luck; the tax man has to be close behind.

Tags: al capone, bill ayers, catastrophe, change, chicago, chicago school, corruption, crisis, gitmo, global warming, gov blagojevitch, gov george ryan, healthcare, jeremiah wright, joe kennedy, milton friedman, mob, opportunity, rahm emmanuel, university illinois, vietnam, weather underground