Donspoliticalblog's Blog

I would like to propose a Nation wide State by State stimulus to get our economy back on track. I think that each State should offer a tax free day. A day where everyone could shop till their hearts content and not pay a pennies worth of sales tax. Just think of the savings on big purchases like a washer and dryer or a refrigerator or even a car or truck. Wouldn’t that get people back out shopping? I know it’s only for one day but I don’t think any of the states could afford any more than that. I’ll bet you that it would be a bigger shopping day than the day after Thanksgiving and it would give business’s a booster shot to carry them over the hump. The states that have no sales tax could make it a tax deductible day for state income tax.

Every year we all work well into May and June just to pay our taxes. If you total up all the taxes we pay it amounts to an unbelievable figure. Gas tax, sales tax, property tax, income tax, various permits and don’t forget excise and license taxes. Yes I consider the amount paid for your automobile license a tax too. What else would you call it? If you total all the various taxes we pay I’m sure it comes close to 50% of our income. Even if they could come up with a ½ tax week, just think about it a whole week and only pay ½ the sales tax due. One thing I’ll bet would happen is that the state governments would find out that by making things more affordable even at the ½ sales tax rate they would collect more actual dollars due to the increase in spending. The thing that government officials fail to take into consideration is that when business is good more money gets put back into the community. More people are hired to take care of the increase in customers which translates into less unemployment rates and less people on welfare. I would say that sounds like a win-win situation.

Our little community here in Nevada is no different than anywhere else in the country, the only difference is our economy is stimulated by the price of beef, the tonnage price on alfalfa and the market price on onions. When you look at all these commodities you have to take into consideration the cost of production. Water is no longer an unlimited free resource, grains are getting higher and higher due to the alternative fuel use which makes finishing out cattle twice as expensive as it has been in past years. The cost of running trucks and equipment has doubled due to the over inflated price of fuel. Nothing comes easy during times like these, least of all making a living or just getting by on a fixed income. The worse part of all this is the fact that this is a derived recession brought on by over eager politicians and a press that is less than friendly to the present administration. The high cost of fuel is the result of the lack of attention by an administration who has been pre occupied trying to sell it’s policies and a congress that is more interested in the placing of blame than helping the people they represent to get through this crisis. Out of the hundreds of millions of people here in the United States there are 545 people who could change everything if they had the desire and that is the House and Senate members in Washington. They are responsible for everything that happens in this country. If the congress really wanted us out of Iraq, we would be out of Iraq. If the congress wanted to bring down the price of oil they could do so in an instant by working together and opening up the strategic reserves. If the congress wanted to stimulate the economy they could do so by decreasing the tax burden on the very people who spend money. They are so busy trying to buy the votes of the poor with good old standby rhetoric that they are stifling the income producers and suffocating the very people they claim to be trying to help. More free services and socialized medicine are not going to bring the economy back. Moderation in government is the real answer, not a greater tax burden. This administration and this congress have allowed spending to soar out of control each trying to buy the special interest votes necessary to stay in office. I say we get rid of all of them and start over.

And that’s my opinion,

Don

Ahhh, April 15th, what a wonderful date it is. It is probably the most hated date in all of the United States. Who are these people who hate April 15th? Could it be the achievers of the work force? Every year we work at least half of the year for everyone else and the last half for ourselves. Just think, if Obama or Hillary have their way we will be working ¾ of the year for everyone else and ¼ for ourselves. I don’t mind being charitable but enough is enough. I’ve had to work for everything I’ve gotten in life and it galls me to at the age of 66 to be paying for some druggie that never worked a day in his or her life. Just like nature there comes a time to push even the laziest bird out of the nest. I have never batted an eye when it comes to helping the handicapped or giving a healthy person a stake to get back on their feet but it ends there. Some of these welfare nesters have been sucking on the Federal teat way too long and someone has to come up with a solution to get them off. More welfare and free medical and food programs is not the answer. I have never read where it is a persons right to be lazy and expect others to feed and clothe them. I have seen time after time where welfare families breed more welfare families. Mother to daughter, Father to son and on and on. Show me a politician that breaks this cycle of reliance on the government and I’ll personally build him or her a statue and bow down to it. We have farmers who cry for laborers and end up importing their help from south of the border at the same time we have millions of people on the welfare roles taking the free food that these farmers are growing. It doesn’t take a masters in economics to see that we have a problem here. Why not issue work credits to be used for assistance at a later date. Make the law read that a healthy person can not draw welfare for over a one year period they must have at least a five year work period before they can draw it again. Rather than sitting on their butts in the cities waiting for the next handout the head of these welfare households could follow the lead of their friends in Mexico. Go where the work is and earn their way into the working mans society. It’s easy to sit back in their easy chair and talk about how the imported Mexican workers are taking their jobs but few if any would be willing to do the work required. It is so ridiculous that we have known gang bangers sitting on their duffs while their ladies draw welfare and support them. If you think I’m kidding go to some of these agencies and look around. Some of these people are no more than breeders, the more kids they have the more money it brings in. It’s time for the merry go round to stop, even the wooden horses are tired of this fools parade. Having a child is sacred and a parents responsibility not that of the State. If they continue to follow this lifestyle there is always such a thing as foster homes. At least then the children would learn a work ethic and break the cycle of reliance.

And that's my opinion,

Don

Compean and Ramos are names that should be constantly in front of us. These are the two Border Agents who while attempting to do their job of securing our border from illegal immigration and drug smuggling shot a know smuggler carrying over 200 pounds of illegal drugs. Instead of being treated like the Hero’s they were they have been charged with attempted murder and incarcerated in solitary confinement. The Federal Prosecutor Johnny Sutton has taken the law to new lows in his depiction of the event that involved the attempted apprehension of a known smuggler. Osvaldo Aldrete DaVila a known drug smuggler who was shot in the buttocks while attempting to escape capture. The Agents Compean and Ramos were accused of using excess force and covering up evidence , which they have denied. Osvaldo was given immunity by Sutton to testify against the Agents. He has sense committed addition crimes on the border and is under indictment. The continued roadblocks from the Bush administration towards the closing of our border has put many of our agents in danger. In the past several years we have had many serious crimes committed by illegal aliens here in the United States. One in particular was the shooting of a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff David March. He was murdered by a twice convicted felon in the country illegally named Armondo Garcia. He had been deported three times prior to the death of Deputy March. After the killing of March he eluded law enforcement by slipping back into Mexico. It took five years of tireless work by John and Barbara March, David’s parents to finally get an extradition order in effect on January 9th of this year to bring Garcia back to Los Angeles for trial. Over 1/3 of the 170 plus thousand inmates in California prisons are in there because they were captured committing crimes while in this country illegally. California Congressman and former presidential candidate Duncan Hunter has championed the Compean-Ramos cause and has introduced a Congressional Pardon for these two heroes’. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the constitutionality of the subject there-by stalling the efforts of Hunters staff. The silence from the Bush administration has been a cold hearted slap against the families of slain officers who were killed in the fight against Mexican Gangs here in the United States. I feel that until the Mexican government shows an ability and desire to fight these gangs from their side of the border it should be closed altogether. I ask that anyone planning to travel to Mexico, to cancel their reservations until the Mexican government acts to stifle these out of control gang’s attacking our border daily. How many more brave and dedicated Border Agents and Policemen have to be injured or killed before our government does something? If our government won’t act to defend us we can do it by taking away their income from tourism.

And that’s my opinion,

Don

As we progress through this century we are going to be faced with many obstacles. First is the threat of the cultural conflict with what many call the Radical Muslims of the world. I have heard so little from the so-called moderate Muslims that I’m beginning to wonder if there is any such thing. We as Americans have a problem defining anything violent and murderous as a religion. In our vocabulary God is a beautiful thing and a caring being. His own words, "vengeance is mine" tells the story better than anything I can say. In the Koran vengeance is place upon the individual and left to his interpretation. I was raised believing that all religions were similar and we were taught not to fear the differences in them. I guess the Pastors that taught me hadn’t read the Koran. The one thing we have always had going for us is our pride in our country. Since the aftermath of the Korean War I have felt that pride diminish in so many of our youth. Don’t get me wrong, most of the young people today are patriots in the first degree, it’s just that the few who make the most noise seem to get all the headlines. With the fiasco of Viet Nam fresh in our minds and the anti war movement that gained so much ground during that era we can’t help but have doubts about war. It especially makes it worse when our media shoves nothing but death and destruction at us daily. Am I the only one that remembers why we are in this war? It seems to me that we were attacked by mad men who very purposely killed and maimed our people who were just going about their business as usual on a beautiful morning. It was a planned attack by a ruthless group of Muslims who think the world belongs to them alone. They are not interested in talking with us or any other type of negotiation, they just believe they have the right to destroy us and our way of life. We went into Afghanistan and cleared out their training camps and killed many of their recruits. We were still left with the fact that their leaders and many followers had escaped into the mountains. I believe that our government had no choice but to choose a place and a time to fight this war. Had we stopped with Afghanistan we would be fighting them here in the United States by now. By going into Iraq we created a war to draw them out and keep them from further attacks here in the USA. We made many mistakes in this war because we had never trained for this type of campaign before. We have always been prepared for a war with another country not a army of religious zealots who are willing to throw women and children into the crossfire. Our Hero’s who are winning this fight for all of us deserve to have our complete backing. They understand where the finish line is and are risking their lives daily to get there for us. They above all are not ready to leave this battle before it’s finished. They and they alone are keeping our streets safe from terrorists by facing them bravely and keeping this war away from our shores.

And that’s my opinion,

Don

As I sit down to write you this evening I am reminded of the little boy who cried Wolf. I hear the pundits on the television and on the radio telling us how to vote. They tell us what terrible things will happen if we vote for this one or that one. Just like the little boy in the story they keep yelling wolf. I don’t know about you but my vote is sacred. A whole lot of good men died to give me my right to vote and I myself wore a uniform for 6 years to insure that right. I will not be pretentious enough to try to tell you how to use your precious right to vote either. I just ask that you think clearly and evaluate each candidate before you vote. Not just those in your party but all candidates. The reason I am so adamant about thinking things through is that your vote also effects me and my families life tremendously. Our next election is not until November so there is no excuse not to read up on each candidate’s records to make a sound decision on Election Day. Do they share your true values? Do they have the ability to manage our affairs safely and with determination? Have they the experience necessary to face our adversaries and not blink? Lastly do they have the ability to bring all parties together republican and democrat to actually accomplish something? We cannot afford another 4 years with the likes of the last congress and executive branch. We are Americans first and foremost our first allegiance should always be to our country not our political party. I am just old enough to remember the sacrifices we suffered during World War II. The ration stamps and the shortages experienced by everyone at home was nothing compared to the sacrifices made by our military in Europe and the South Pacific. During that tragic time in history we had very few who thought they knew more than our President and our military leaders. We suffered along with our troops in every battle. Ladies got together and made bandages to ship over seas. We purchased War Bonds to finance our efforts. Above all we banded together as one. There were no Democrats or Republicans, we were all just Americans fighting for our countries honor. Today we are faced with a different America, one whose people are fractured by political separatism and a true shortage of patriotism. Many of our schools and universities have been a breeding ground for this attitude of anti American rhetoric. We are fighting for our very lives this time. The reason we have been forced into this battle is because we have shown weakness in the last two wars we fought. Just like the school grounds everyone likes to pick on the big kid who has no stomach for a fight. Our troops have always been the bravest and the strongest it’s our politicians who have shown our enemies our weakness. This isn’t the same America I grew up in, it’s not even close. My America was proud and stood for something special, its people were in it together what ever it was, from helping a neighbor to fighting for what was right and just, we were Americans first and foremost and everyone wanted to be just like us.

And that’s my opinion,

Don

What would be the benefit if the House of Representatives and the Senate decided to work toward understanding what Americans really wanted? Do you think the general population here in the United States are polarized to the far left or the far right? I heard the figure that the majority of Americans feel their views are 5% to the left of center. I beg to differ with that synopses, The bulk of the people that I talk to are basically what the world for years has called the Silent Majority and they sure as heck aren’t leaning to the left. Most are true blue Americans who still salute the flag and have respect for God and country. I must be really out of touch with reality because the crowd I associate with still get a shiver of delight at the sound of the National Anthem. We still take off our hats and hold our hands over our heart as the flag is presented and the pledge of allegiance is spoken. Most still have respect for the Constitution but dismay at some of the interpretation that have been made by liberal courts. Most in my crowd of misfits still believe that the Death Penalty is as good of deterrent as there is against capital crime. We also think our borders are to porous and too many illegal aliens are using up our assets. We are also worried about the direction of this countries moral compass and what it will be for our next generation. We understand that no matter who is in power in an election year the economy will suffer and be used as a gauge for change. Guys my age will usually be the first to tell you that if you lower taxes the economy will improve and if you raise taxes it will tank. We have seen the results of high taxes in the Carter years and the outstanding results of the Reagan tax cuts. We have lived through the years of 18 to 20% interest rates in inflationary periods and survived the high house payments that accompanied them. What most of our crowd will tell you about the situation now is that if they lowered taxes by 10% across the board the governments revenue would increase by a minimum of 20%. This is a proven fact and is because of the amount of money available for people to spend. More money spent the greater the tax revenue. When the people spend companies grow and hire more employees. Less unemployment less welfare and unemployment insurance costs. So when a politician tells you that they have to raise taxes it’s not to make things better it’s so they can get more people under the influence government services there-by trapping them into the cycle of servitude. Very few people who dwell under this influence ever escape the grasp of welfare. The more that is offered the less incentive to work their way out.

And that’s my opinion,

Don