Cleaning out the Rats in Government

This week my husband smelled a foul odor in the area around his vintage sports car which he keeps under raps in our garage. He removed the cover and lifted the hood to discover a big fat rat with a nest full of babies. There is no telling how much damage could have been done if he had not made that discovery and quickly dealt with the problem.

However, this was nothing like the rat we discovered in the California state legislature when it was revealed that Republican Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres provided the margin of victory needed by Democrats to pass a $5.2 billion dollar tax increase, ostensibly to repair the states road and bridges. This included a gasoline tax hike of 12 cents a gallon which hurts poor and middle class working commuters. It will give California the 2nd highest gas tax in the nation and likely the highest price at the pump due to California’s distance from the major refineries and a requirement by state air regulators that further increases the cost of gasoline for our state.

For his vote, Cannella, the rat, received a half billion payoff for projects in his district that have nothing to do with fixing potholes. They were designed to give him something to crow about to voters when he seeks higher office in a state heavily dominated by Democrats. Continue reading “Cleaning out the Rats in Government” →

A Victory for the Great Unwashed (Now GOP Leaders must Put Up or Shut Up)

I was born in what was then a deep blue state, into a Democratic family. Among my kin you were either a Democrat or un-American. As a youngster I asked my parents, “Why are we Democrats?” They answered, “Because Democrats are for the working people.”

My parents both worked very hard and so I just accepted that. When I turned 18, I registered to vote and proudly voted in every election. I didn’t know anything about the issues, but I voted. When I became a parent, I began to study the issues and realized that Democrats were not what they seemed. They supported principles that undermined the working class, small business owners and immigrants who wanted their shot at the American dream. As the years rolled by, these Democrats took positions that were, well, un-American.

Much to my chagrin, I discovered, that Republicans weren’t much better. Although, they talked a good ballgame about law and order, the free enterprise system and protecting the rights of the minority by defending the Constitution, they were afraid to make the case for these beliefs. They were gradually taken over by political correctness and were unwilling to fight for anything for fear of losing their precious seats in Congress and their small grip on what power they had left. Continue reading “A Victory for the Great Unwashed (Now GOP Leaders must Put Up or Shut Up)” →

Mike Pence: The Left’s New Bogeyman

To say that the left is adamantly against Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate, is to state the obvious. However, in the days since the Indiana governor was chosen, liberals have been having conniptions for fear that this unassuming, soft-spoken, likable Hoosier, might be able to sway some to, horrors, vote Republican.

Pence is their new bogeyman, one to be feared more than ISIS, more than corporate greed, even more than the greatest threat to mankind — global warming.

Eric Schmeltzer, writing for the Huffington Post called him “Sarah Palin (a popular left-wing target) without the charisma.” Whooo!

Schmeltzer again on his blog: “It isn’t so much that Mike Pence is a lightweight in the brains department. It’s that Mike Pence is a lightweight in the brains department and also ridiculously incompetent.” Double whooo! Continue reading “Mike Pence: The Left’s New Bogeyman” →

Abolish the Department of Education (No Excuse for Allowing the DOEd to Continue)

Oh, how I long for someone with the wisdom and clarity of Ronald Reagan. One of his campaign promises was to abolish the federal Department of Education. He failed, but not for lack of trying. The Department of Education survived only because Democrats had a lock on the House of Representatives.

Nevertheless, Reagan cut the budget significantly and scaled back its functions. On one trip to the DOEd during the Reagan years, I asked an employee about her job. She said, matter-of-factly, “I am going through every regulation issued by the Department and cutting out anything that is not ‘family friendly.’” Needless to say, it was a full-time endeavor.

If “The Gipper” were alive today one can only imagine the reaction he would have to the DOEd’s letter issued to schools last month telling them that federal law requires them to allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms “consistent with their gender identity.” The letter, issued in the form of a guideline, does not carry the force of law, but it carries this implied threat: Do this or risk losing federal funds.

Isn’t it past time we freed public schools and colleges from the tyranny of the federal government? Why send a dollar to Washington and have it funneled through several layers of this behemoth bureaucracy, only to get back a few cents, along with a boatload of regulations? Continue reading “Abolish the Department of Education (No Excuse for Allowing the DOEd to Continue)” →

That Telemarketer on the Phone may be Your Congressman

There is a reason most people screen their telephone calls. Telemarketers. Would it surprise you to know that the most aggressive bunch of telemarketers are the very people we have elected and sent to Washington, D.C., our very own representative and senators.

If you have made the mistake of donating to a political party or one of its offshoots like a congressional or senatorial committee, you know what I mean. At first it may be flattering to get a call from one of these people inviting you to a “special event” or thanking you for your past support. However, you can be sure that the primary reason for that call is to separate you from your money.

The phone calls never stop, even during working hours. Continue reading “That Telemarketer on the Phone may be Your Congressman” →

The Best News out of Iowa

The best news out of Iowa is not that Ted Cruz won or that Donald Trump’s political gamble of skipping the last debate, like a sulking child, likely cost him a win there.

It’s not that the long predicted surge of Marco Rubio finally happened.

No, the best news out of Iowa is that a candidate who had the courage to boldly proclaim his opposition to federal mandates and subsidies for ethanol — which comes from corn — the top crop in the state, actually won there.

Be it Ted Cruz or Joe Blow, it turned the conventional political wisdom on its head. It proves that you don’t have to pander to get elected. If you are willing to make the case that these government handouts keep you under the thumb of Washington and wind up hurting everyone, eventually enough reasonable people will listen. Continue reading “The Best News out of Iowa” →

The Syrian Refugee Grinch in the White House

Cold, heartless, cruel, callous, merciless, hard-hearted! Those are just a few of the words that have been used to describe Republicans and others who want to put the brakes on President Obama’s plan to resettle thousands of Syrians fleeing their war-torn country here in the United States.

Resettling those people constitutes a grave threat to our country given the fact that it is impossible to adequately vet them. Nevertheless, our hearts go out to these people and quite naturally we want to help.

So here is the question for bleeding-heart liberals who want to throw caution to the wind and bring plane loads of these people here to the United States: Would you like to help 10,000, which is Obama’s plan for the current year, or 610,000 of them? Continue reading “The Syrian Refugee Grinch in the White House” →

GOP Establishment Kentucky Fried

Let’s get real: There is a lot of angst among the GOP establishment over the outcome of the Kentucky governor’s race.

You would think that they would be celebrating the fact that a Republican, Matt Bevin, will control the executive branch in Frankfort for only the second time in four decades. You would think that those who have been pulling the strings of power behind the scenes would be doubly happy that Jenean Hampton, his female running mate, is the first African-American from either party to hold a state-wide office, but no.

There is no joy among GOP power brokers who are accustomed to handpicking the candidates who are allowed to seek these lofty positions. Secretly, they were pulling for Jack Conway the Democrat. Continue reading “GOP Establishment Kentucky Fried” →

Boehner’s Gone: Who’s Crying Now?

“It stinks!” That was how incoming Speaker of the House Paul Ryan explained the back room deal hatched by outgoing Speaker John Boehner and Democrat leaders that raised the debt ceiling and put us on automatic pilot to the spending stratosphere through the rest of Obama’s term.

Boehner claimed he was “cleaning the barn” before Ryan took control of the House of Representatives but where is that smell coming from? The entrance to the place is spotless, but the bad odor will linger well after Boehner is gone because of all the brown stuff he piled up in the stalls.

Thanks to Boehner and the Senate’s worthless Mitch McConnell, it’s Obama who will come out smelling like a rose. The nation is on a collision course with the grim reaper over unrestrained spending and all the hard decisions have been put off until the next president takes office.

Does anyone seriously think that Paul Ryan’s hands are clean? Boehner spent weeks begging Ryan to take the reins of the House. If Ryan had put his foot down and said “No” to this deal it never would have happened? Instead, Ryan blessed the deal by voting for it, along with all Democrats and a mere 78 of his Republican colleagues. Continue reading “Boehner’s Gone: Who’s Crying Now?” →

USA on Slavery’s Slippery Sloap

The average life of a democracy is 200 years. Our country has outlived its expiration date largely because it is a democratic republic with a constitution that guarantees our citizens certain inalienable rights and a government with three co-equal branches, each with checks on the other two.

We are now seeing those basic rights eroded by an aggressive Supreme Court. We also are seeing those checks and balances upset by an equally aggressive president and a Congress that is reluctant to use the power at its disposal.

Furthermore, the financial stability of this nation has been undermined by our elected representatives who have learned that the best way to stay in office is by spending our money and doing favors for their supporters.

As a result, our economy is at a near standstill and we are mired in debt. China is bullying us, but we owe so much to that communist country there is really nothing we can do about it. This has to stop before it is too late because, as the Bible says, “The borrower is the slave to the lender.”

Just how far have we fallen down slavery’s slippery slope? Continue reading “USA on Slavery’s Slippery Sloap” →