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From the Publisher

2013-02-01 08:25:41

What's new now? - series

A-For the past several years I have shared with you my opinions and those of others on a myriad of domestic topics…including but not limited to the declining strength of the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency, the presidential campaign, the economy, critically-needed tax and entitlement reform. They all share a common denominator…the fiscal soundness of our country. Although it may sound terribly materialistic, I will promise you…the fiscal soundness of our country must be in place before we can ever lead the world diplomatically, politically or militarily. I just don’t see many countries paying attention to what countries like Nigeria, Finland, Greece, Italy, Venezuela, Argentina and others, that are in as deep as trouble as they are, have to say about anything. Maybe you do. Last month I shared with you the things that can happen under Martial Law, as the result of the National Defense Resource Preparedness Executive Order issued by President Obama in March of 2011. This month, I was going to pick up where I left off, bringing in how this “fiscal cliff” deal and “debt ceiling” negotiations to kick the can down the road might play in this Executive Order…but I can’t. Over the past few days I have reached the “tipping point” of how much I can take. I have been close for a long time, but with the President’s recent inaugural address, I had to do something. I have to let it out or it will consume me. Lucky for me I have this column as an outlet. It may not be perceived the same by all or some of you…but at least you won’t be offended. You won’t be reading it (smile). So in regards to what I was going to write about, I will do as Ol’ Mike Oatman (my mentor at Great Empire Broadcasting and KFDI) used to say, “We’re gonna’ let that dog hunt for a lil’ bit.” This month I want to talk about two people who have changed our country for the worse…in ways that will seemingly…at this writing…forever rule…and how they have led so many to do likewise. If it was just me not liking someone or not liking what someone said or did, I wouldn’t waste my time. I would say to myself as I say to others, “Get over it.” But when it comes to changing our country decidedly for the worse…I will take all of the time it takes and load my “inkwell” to the full mark. These two people are President Obama and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. I didn’t realize until just recently why I get the same feeling when I hear either of them speak. I finally understand…they’re both cut from the same “block of cheese” insofar as their characteristics and mannerisms. Thank God O’Reilly does not share Obama’s ideologies. I would imagine by the time I am through you will ask rhetorically and sarcastically…“Why don’t you tell ‘em what you really think, Charlie?” If you would allow me to respond then…I would say, “I did.” One more thing…before you fire off your “hate” emails and phone calls, read it all. I haven’t stated anything here that is untrue. First…President Obama…because of him and the manner in which he has operated and does today…it is now acceptable to outright lie about anything and everything in our society. It doesn’t matter what you have said previously, you can now say whatever it is you want to say for any and every purpose; then you act like you never said what you said before; and if you are asked why your position or statement has changed, you bring up something that happened in the past, that has nothing to do with anything being discussed, thereby deflecting the question, diverting the questioner, and demonizing him or her for having an opposing view to yours. Never…under any circumstance…answer the question. I can’t believe that this is going on…that the press is not holding him accountable to what he said before…and that we Americans are standing by letting it happen. It is as disgusting as anything I have ever witnessed in politics. His entire campaign for President lasted a full 8 years…the four years he was supposed to be a Senator from Illinois, and the four years he was supposed to President. That’s all he did was campaign…for eight years! He didn’t like being President the first four years…and he doesn’t like being President now. He only likes the chase and demonizing anyone who doesn’t share his view on any topic. When he taught and lectured at the University of Chicago, he never experienced any dissent. If he received it, he just threatened to fail those who held it, or he did fail them. His statements and experiments didn’t have to be well-thought-out. He would say or do something, and regardless of the foundation of the same…regardless of the chances of it being correct or successful…he would lecture and teach with absolute authority. No one dared to take an opposing view, or challenge him. It is during this time when he developed his cocky, prideful, stubborn and arrogant persona, which he uses more now and stronger than any other tool in his arsenal. I do not want to think about getting through the next four years having to listen to him…and I know I won’t get through eight years if the rumblings of a third term are true. I literally get a feeling as though I am going to throw up when I hear him talk on any subject. I am not alone…and it’s not just from Republicans. I have heard half as many on the left as the right say the same thing. He has almost no experience in anything. Everything he does is a lab experiment…war…peace…our military…the economy…health care…jobs…business…the world. He is the biggest pretender and con artist there has ever been…in my opinion…in any political office. To top it all off…he doesn’t know “beans from apple butter” about leadership. He doesn’t lead. He doesn’t unite. He divides. In a time when our country needs more unifying than ever...more leadership...he just announced his “legacy tour” where his senior campaign staff (Gibbs, Cutter, Axelrod and Messina) will go around the country, in full campaign mode, demonizing the House Republicans for not adopting his stance on all of the issues at hand (i.e. taxes, spending cuts, gun control, immigration, entitlement reform, etc.). To have listened to all that went down during the campaign, then what he said in his inaugural address, and then to have to listen to more lies, distortions, deflections, rhetoric and demonizing from him and this team is going to be more than many can take. As this continues, our country will become more divided than it ever has been. This is the only thing he knows how to lead…an effort to divide the country. And all of his followers are following like never before. I could give you two dozen examples of his lying and distortions, but you will get my point with four of the most recent. 1. How does a man take the oath of office for President and swear to God, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and then says what he said in his inaugural speech? He said the Founding Fathers did not mean what they wrote. The Constitution needs to be a living and breathing instrument, and it needs to be continually interpreted as to its meaning. One of his first statements in his speech was, “Today we continue a never ending journey to bridge the meaning of the words (in the Constitution) with the realities of our time.” Whose realities? His? He made it clear, that if you agree with him and his interpretation of things, you are good. If you disagree...you are evil. You’re not just wrong. You are morally wrong. Do you have any doubt what the next four years will be like for us and our country with this man and his team? The Judicial Branch is supposed to interpret the Constitution…not him. With his executive orders and actions, he bypasses the Legislative Branch. He really believes he can do it all and demonizes anyone who takes an opposing view. We just had four years of the biggest “I” President in our history. It will be even more so…if you can believe that…over the next four years. 2. Throughout the last 8 years, he campaigned to support the middle class by taxing the wealthiest 1%. Now, the end of the year tax rates are in and the ”bean counters” have discovered, that not just 7/10ths of one per cent of taxpayers are going to see their taxes go up, but 78% of all Americans will see their taxes go up! What does the mainstream media do? They kick the story to page 44 in print and don’t even show it on the TV news. Americans have no idea what is coming. This is one of the things I hear from the left. “He said our taxes wouldn’t go up. At the minimum it’s going to cost us $1,600 (or some other amount) in less money we have to spend.” The number is on top of $3,000 from households that have both people working full time. When confronted on the issue, he and Jay Carney, his press secretary say, “All of us are going to have to buckle down and pay more.” “But Mr. President, that wasn’t what you said.” 3. Obamacare will be fully enacted in less than one year. There are more than 2,700 pages in this law, with more than 2.8 Million words (four times that of the Bible) and more taxes, fines and penalties coming for Americans and businesses than anyone could ever imagine. In fact, to accompany this law, there are now more than 13,000 pages of new rules and regulations, with more being added almost daily. It is absolutely ridiculous. What businessperson in his or her right mind is going to invest in hiring more people or expansion not knowing what these are and how they will affect their business? Nothing in regards to this law is turning out like he said it would, or as he promised. Health insurance premiums haven’t gone down. In fact, since the first of the year they’ve gone up across the board by 28%. For those in their 20s they’ve gone up as much as 42%. For those in their 30s they’ve gone up as much as 36%. The word is that the younger ages in “droves” have said they will drop their health insurance, instead preferring to pay the fine. Few of them get sick anyway, and if they do, they can buy it at the time they need it. Have you ever heard anything so crazy? That is like not having homeowner’s insurance, but as you’re standing on the street watching your home burn down, you can buy a policy covering it. That is not insurance. That’s a gift…paid for by you and other “homeowners” (taxpayers). In order for the law of insurance to prevail, the loss must be uncertain to occur. Obamacare must have the youth in the mix to keep the overall costs down. If they leave, the costs for everyone else goes up. This is a spiral that will spin out of control to a level no one can imagine. But you don’t have to worry if you contributed to President and his campaign, you got a waiver. Labor unions…representing 543,812 workers…received waivers. Private employers…who donated to the Obama campaign…representing 69,813 employees…were granted waivers. They don’t have to comply with Obamacare. Have we all been lulled to sleep on what President Obama said on so many occasions, how Obamacare will control health care costs and keep insurance premiums down for all of us? Is there anyone that cares anymore? 4. It was the President’s own commission…Simpson Bowles…who recommended $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in revenue increases (taxes). Even though he didn’t accept their findings, this was the “balanced approach” he talked about for the last three years of his campaign. Then somehow…late in the campaign…it went to $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in revenue increases. Then, in December, it went to $1 in spending cuts for every $1 in revenue increases. Guess what he threw at America on New Year’s Eve? It was revenue increases only and no spending cuts. He said we would talk about spending cuts later. Now is later. He isn’t talking spending cuts at all. He is talking more revenue increases…more taxes. He hasn’t even begun to bring up spending cuts to get us balanced fiscally. Instead, he is saying he’s not going to have any more spending cuts because he has already made more than $1 Trillion of them over the next 10 years. Are you ready for a little math? That’s only $100 Billion per year in savings. He is planning to spend more than 13 times that amount over what we take in. Isn’t this something? How stupid does he think we are? Maybe a better question is…”How stupid are we?” A big part of his $1 Trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years includes us not fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We decided more than two years ago we weren’t going to continue these wars, yet he is still counting what we would have spent over the next 10 years if we were fighting them! It’s like deciding not to build a cheese factory on the moon and counting the cost of what it would have taken to do the project as cuts in spending. The most recent polls (1/21/13) overwhelmingly show (83%) that Americans believe spending is out of control. Yet his entire inaugural speech was full of social issues…not the debt and the deficit. I stated in my November 1st column prior to the election, that the most dangerous things we will have if he is re-elected, is the appointment of the Supreme Court Justices and his Executive Orders. On the latter, at press time, “Uncle Joe Biden” announced, that if the debt limit increase gets stalled in Congress…now or after the “can” is kicked down the road a couple of months, President Obama will issue another Executive Order to raise it on his own, under the guise of the 14th Amendment. On the same day, President Obama announced 23 new Executive “Actions” on gun control. When making the announcement, he surrounded himself with children. Isn’t that wonderful? Nothing is sacred to him. He exploits the murder of children with children. If this isn’t bad enough, afterwards, the NRA put out a commercial stating that he has his own children in schools that have armed guards, but he doesn’t support having armed guards for other schools. The White House went all out attacking them, saying the President’s children have no business being included in an advertisement for anything. What hypocrisy! Other people’s children are okay to exploit but his are not? Some say there is a limit as to what he can do with all of these Executive “Actions” or Orders in these areas. One would think so, but if no one stops him, can he not do anything he wants to do? An analogy of what is happening to our freedoms is like a blast of air from the nozzle of an air hose…the kind you use to put air in your tire. It is initially so forceful that you cannot put your hand or finger over the end of it. But then you add a baffle and bend the air just a bit. You then baffle that air flow just a bit, then again, then again, then again. By the time you baffle that initial blast of forceful air several times, you have nothing left. To heck with the other two branches of government of the United States. President Obama is so intelligent, so all-knowing, so much in control of things…he can run it all. And he is now more arrogant, more aggressive, more stubborn and less fearful of anyone and anything than he ever was in his first term. We will remember these days. It is all happening under our noses. Few if any are saying anything. The press, for all intents and purposes…is silent. Americans have grown apathetic. People say, “It’s just the way he is,” or “That’s the way it’s going to be.” No folks. It’s not. It doesn’t have to be this way. We are Americans. This is our country. Stand up and fight for it now…or lose it! While you may doubt this statement, I have never been more sincere in this column…the only true words I have heard from him in the last 8 years and 10 days is that he would fundamentally transform America. He most surely has…and I believe the biggest transformations are yet to come. Then, there’s Bill O’Reilly…he is the most prideful, ill-prepared, ill-tempered, unqualified, con artist and ego-maniac, in the position he is…than anyone who has ever occupied a position like his before. Does this sound familiar? He and President Obama are alike in so many ways insofar as characteristics and mannerisms. Bill O’Reilly loves to hear himself speak. He is the only one who knows anything. He interrupts. He yells. He pouts. He chastises. He is ill-prepared in many of the subjects he discusses. The only area you can usually be sure that he has prepared is his Talking Points, but it is always laced with the con of it being fair and balanced. He gets three times worse when he is in front of women. It is a joke. But that’s not all. He has turned our country, those on the left AND the right, into doing the same thing. The national scene is full of lies, distortions, deflections, deferrals and demonizing from all sides. Look at how people talk when being interviewed today on MSNBC, CNN, Headline News, CBS, NBC and ABC. They all talk fast and hurriedly, as if they’re going to be pulled off the stage by a hook whether there is an interviewer, questioner, or not. There is not a bucket of civility among all of them. Why? Because they think who whoever it is who is interviewing them or asking them a question is going to interrupt them and demonize them. Why? Because Bill O’Reilly has made it “the thing” to do. Society has changed because of what these two men have done. No one did these things 10 years ago, or if they did…it was miniscule when compared to what it is today. No one did them 5 years ago to the extent they are done today. Now it is everywhere…and it’s getting worse. Lies, distortions, deflections, demonizing…everyone interrupts each other and there is no respect shown for anyone. It’s not only on TV, but radio too…and not just in news and politics, but also in sports and everyday life. This country has been “Obama-ed” and “O’Reilly-ed” and we will be much worse off in the future because of it. Why don’t you tell ‘em what you really think, Charlie? I did.