In October of 2006 the Office of Management and Budget reported that No Child Left Behind increased state and local governments' annual paperwork burden by 6,680,334 hours, at an estimated cost of $141 million dollars. For some reason Washington didn’t seem upset about that.

A number of states have published reports estimating the cost of complying with No Child Left Behind. For example, the state of Connecticut found that the state government would spend more than $17 million in 2007 to comply with NCLB. Virginia estimated that state implementation costs totaled approximately 20 million per year. If we exclude those states with the courage to tell Washington to keep their money, the average cost per state of $15 million per year comes out to a whopping $675 million. So why was the report from OMB a miniscule $141 million? Was it because someone gave Bush Jr. the calculator? Or is the answer something far more Machiavellian? 

You’re right, it is.

In the summer of 2007 I attended a legislative conference in Philadelphia attended b y hundreds of state representatives from across the US. One of the speakers was President Bush. His speech contained mostly fluff, but buried within the rhetoric was an absolute conviction that NCLB was going to continue to be forced upon the unwilling states, regardless of the cost. Unfortunately it seems Obama agrees with that sentiment.

No Child Left Behind has created a culture of insipidness within our public school system. This culture stems from the school boards and filters on down through the administration. Even though the majority of teachers hate the program, they are forced to either go along or lose their job.

School Administrators only look at the dollars. I know, I’ve spoken with those in my state. Many claim that they do care what happens to the children, but when push comes to shove every decision comes out with dollar signs on it. I have yet to read about a single superintendent or principle willingly sacrificing a portion of their paycheck to improve the quality of education in their school. To be fair, most of them are not given a choice. They too are trapped within a system that has been carefully crafted by the left for the past sixty-plus years. Why else would programs that have proven themselves every time they’ve been used be scrapped in favor of what essentially boils down to babysitting?

Washington claims that every child not only deserves to go on to higher education, but that they all have a burning desire to do so. Yes, I’m sure if you ask the average 4^th grader what they want to be when they grow up the vast majority are going to list a profession that requires an advanced degree. Fireman, cowboy, soldier or movie star won’t even be in the mix. The real truth, backed by NEA’s own statistics, is that less than a third of high school graduates will apply and be accepted to a four-year college. Of those accepted, less than a third will finish that education, even if given an extra year. So, based on numbers they themselves are aware of, why is the federal bureaucracy so dead set on promoting a program that fails miserably? And why do they continuously buck against a program that excels every time it is tried? I’m talking about vocational education. Yes, I mean shop classes.

The cost of implementing NCLB has all but eliminated vocational education. In the Clark County School District, one of the largest in the US, you can still find classrooms fully equipped to teach auto shop, wood shop and home economics in the districts middle schools. Not one of them is being used for that purpose. Some are not even being used as classrooms, even though the schools are overcrowded. In many of the high schools, vocational education has been cut back drastically because of budget concerns. It seems the district, just like Washington, won’t pay attention to its own data.

Not too far from my home stands one of the first Career and Technical Academies in the nation. It used to be called VoTech High School. Now its called SECTA. Even with the name change, SECTA remains one of the highest performing schools in the nation with an average 98% functional graduation rate. The naysayers on the school board claim the numbers are because the school gets to pick and choose its pupils. But in reality it is because the staff and administration at that school work together as a team to make sure the education is made relevant to the students. They learn the core subjects such as science, english, history and math as they apply to a profession, not just boring, overworked theory. There is a young man who attended VoTech with an emphasis on plumbing. In middle school his teachers labeled him as unable to grasp concepts beyond addition and subtraction. After high school he went into the navy as a plumbers mate. When he revisited his alma mater he explained what he was doing in the navy to his old teachers using advanced calculus to illustrate concepts. Not bad for a labeled failure.

Using some more NEA stats; one of the most successful groups in college is that made up of mature returning students. Believe it or not, that group makes up a good percentage of teachers, especially those in the Career and Technical Academies. So why the push of NCLB?

Many of my fellow conservatives don’t like my derision of G.W. Bush. Too bad. Bush was a lousy President who did everything he could to destroy our country’s sovereignty. Consider the attempt to remove the border between the US and Mexico, the attempt to sell sovereign base authority to a terrorist nation, and the support of an educational bureaucracy that no one likes outside of the feds? There is more than enough evidence that NCLB is yet another avenue the left is using to reduce the strength of the United States as a country. If they can get us to graduate more illiterates than not, the socialist revolution will succeed without a shot being fired. So what can we do?

One plan would be to allow states to opt out of the NCLB program. These states would be able to work out an alternate agreement with the federal government. Under this agreement, the states’ representatives would have broader authority to consolidate existing federal programs with state programs to work out their education funding. Of course, this assumes the states CAN work out school funding. That’s another column.

Another plan is to use what has already been proven to work, vocational education. Make the core classes relevant to the students. Allow them to use both their minds and their hands. Bring back real detention. Don’t allow those students who want to disrupt the classroom to do so. Put them somewhere away from the other students where they only get the three R’s, no sports, no recess, until they prove they are able to rejoin civilized society. Get rid of the diversity nonsense and teach real citizenship. Allow teachers to teach what they know. Don’t force them to pull double duty as secretaries for the administration. The average teacher day, believe it or not is about 10-12 hours, not 6. And there is no such thing as a 3-month vacation. Just because there are no bottoms in the classroom chairs doesn’t mean the job stops. It takes a minimum of 2 ½ months to set up lesson plans for the next year.

Of course, pulling off such a plan would also require dumping NCLB. How about that?

“Now, they're using the same cowardly strategy and scare tactics to stop health care reform.

Worst of all, it's starting to work -- and it's turning ugly fast. Congressional townhall meetings have erupted into shouting matches thanks to right-wing disrupters. Some have even turned violent. At least one opponent of health care reform posted a message on the popular website Twitter urging the public to use firearms if they encounter ACORN members at a community health care discussion. He wrote, "If ACORN/SEIU attends these meetings for disruptive purposes, and you have a license to carry....carry."

So it's no wonder that opponents are actively spreading lies through email and talk radio in an effort to juice up the angry mobs and derail reform.”

It is interesting that not one member of the media seems to remember the tactics used by the left against people like Rush Limbaugh when he tried to host a television special, or against judicial candidate Robert Bork when neither man was allowed to speak even one word without a deafening cascade of shrill whistles and boos. These tactics have been used against conservative causes long before the Democrats had a supermajority. So why are organizations like Acorn and MoveOn.org so worried? Could it be that even those polling organizations the most supportive of Obama should his numbers well below 50%?

MoveOn’s website is posting a list of what it calls “right wing lies” and how to combat them. What most of it boils down to is that they are counting on the massive size of the bill to prevent people from reading it and finding out that those lies are disturbingly rooted in the truth. One of the so-called “right wing extremist groups” consists of doctors who have become familiar with the bill’s provisions, and boy are they upset. "This is war," Dr. George Watson, a Kansas physician and president-elect of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, told FOXNews.com Thursday. "This is a bureaucratic boondoggle to grab control of health care. Everything that has been proposed in the 1,018 page bill will contribute to the ruination of medicine."

What proves my earlier point on the absolute control the Democrat Party exercises over its members, even at the cost of their own integrity is what those house members who are Democrats say, “"These people are practicing fear without a license and they should be subject to a malpractice suit.” Jim McDermott, D-Washington. This link will lead you to the full Fox article on the issue, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/22/doctors-wage-war-obamas-health-care-overhaul/

The AARP, a usual stronghold for the Democrat left is now showing a deep division on the issue. A lot of members express real concern over the use of Medicare funding to pay for Obamacare. AARP’s leadership still maintains that the organization is 100% behind Obama’s plan, but those assertions are sounding weaker and weaker. Hence the ever-growing desperation of neocommunist groups such as Acorn and MoveOn. A number of their members are beginning to take the opposition personally.

Jim Holt writes about what he witnessed at one town hall meeting in Mehlville Missouri. His full report can be found at Pajamas Media.

“Barrack Obama told a crowd of supporters in Philadelphia back in 2008, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” He added, “That’s the Chicago way.”

Last night in St. Louis, Missouri, a local conservative found out firsthand about the “Chicago way.” Kenneth Gladney, a black conservative from the city, was handing out “Don’t Tread On Me” flags after a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting on health care in Mehlville. This didn’t go over well with the Obama supporters and union thugs who attended the meeting. They punched him in the face, kicked him in the head, and stomped on him on the pavement. So much for hope and change.”

I urge you all to read Jim’s report and remember where our current President came from. Consider the people he has surrounded himself with, felons, thugs, radicals and worse. I mean, he has Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State for God’s sake! One other lovely example is Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. When Rahm, the less radical of the two Emanuel brothers, was an advisor to President Clinton, he used to slam a steak knife into a tabletop and shout the word “Die!” while calling out the names of Clinton’s political rivals. Emanuel is also the instigator of the “rat on your neighbors” policy currently in process at the White House. Nothing more would buck up the hopes of Acorn, MoveOn, The Apollo Alliance and every other radical group within the Obama umbrella than to see America become a fractured country with every neighbor suspicious of the other.

Our history shows why the United States of America became the world’s first and greatest superpower. The reason was us, its people and its culture. A brief lesson in metallurgy is instructive. Metals such as copper, iron and gold are too soft to be of much use under stress. Copper and gold bend and iron breaks, but if you alloy then with another type you get products such as steel and bronze whose discovery altered civilization. America was once known as “the melting pot” and those divergent cultures coming here became a part of the whole, making us stronger and stronger. Now we have enemies within, including the one sitting in the White House, who have worked tirelessly to break up that melting pot into a tepid buffet with all the strength of an overcooked pot noodle.

Helen Thomas, the oldest, longest running White House reporter recently published a column extolling the virtues of Obamacare and how sad it was that mobs of orchestrated right wing radicals were ruining it for all of us. She may be a nice old lady, but she is, as usual, clueless. Just like every other leftist tool, Helen hasn’t read the bill. That wouldn’t show any trust.

Attorney General Eric Holder- Obama’s legal advisor in the Senate. A confirmed leftist absolutely opposed to the death penalty.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton- Nothing more need be said here except that having Mrs. Clinton out of the country for most of the time is an inspired move by Obama. Hillary is far too interested in power herself.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Maria Sotomayor- Her most famous quote of “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” exposes her personal bigotry. She is also an active member of La Raza.

Green Jobs czar Van Jones- Jones, a black radical, was arrested and jailed for violence during the Rodney King riots. In prison he adopted the Karl Marx philosophy and remains committed to turning the US into a communist nation. He has refined his agenda, using the environmentalist movement and the so-called “green” push in legislation to further his goals.

Many express surprise, even amazement that Obama would not only appoint an admitted communist, but one with a felony on their record to a cabinet level position. I don’t find it surprising at all. Beginning with his early association with the Weather Underground and moving on to over two decades of tutelage at the feet of Jeremiah Wright, a man who screamed “God damn America” from the pulpit, it isn’t a surprise at all that when put into the ultimate position of power Barrack Hussein Obama would begin implementing the plans his communist brethren had for this country since the fifties.

Glen Beck gave a white board demonstration about an organization called The Apollo Alliance. He finished by asking his audience to talk him out of the “crazy Tree”. Sorry Glen, can’t do it. The more you explore the associations, especially with a backroom understanding of how politics works in America, you aren’t crazy. I wish you were.

The Democrat Party, along with all of its assorted splinter groups has functioned as one vast communal organism for at least the last fifty to sixty years. There are hints of this organization going back to the days of Stalin’s reign in the Soviet Union.

In order to go anywhere within the Democrat Party, you have to be willing to toe the party line, especially when it comes to social issues. There is a tiny bit of leeway on fiscal policy, hence the Blue Dogs in the party, but there is no room whatsoever on the social side. Witness Lieberman’s expulsion for his traitorous vote on the war. I saw this control in person during my tenure in the Nevada Legislature. Rosemary Womack, a fellow freshman in the Assembly, ran afoul of her party because she felt certain bills would harm her constituents’ quality of life. She voted against her party’s line and for that sin was expelled. Take that circumstance and multiply it exponentially and you have what goes on in Washington on a daily basis. Absolute control over the party members is the aim of the Democrat leadership. Is it impossible to extrapolate that aim to include the American people?

Obama has appointed literally dozens of “Czars” to coordinate the various boards involved in the Apollo Alliance. What is alarming is that these Czars are “outside of the Constitution and the authority of Congress.” (Congressman Jack Kingston-R-GA). Unlike cabinet secretaries, these Czars have no congressional confirmation process to go through. They report directly to the President. Obama has full authority to set their salaries and job descriptions. Which one of these people was involved in the posting of a death threat on the door of the father who confronted John Dingle about the healthcare bill. I watched the confrontation. Dingle tried to push the questions aside and later accused this man of being part of a conspiracy. Pot calling the kettle…because there is no public forum or even a mild examination of their records, the Czars face no public opposition to their placement into power. If we examine those judges and secretaries GOP administrations attempted to appoint and the fanatical opposition they received, we begin to wonder if the left even knows what a true radical is.

Is it any wonder that a true grassroots uprising by a broad spectrum of American citizens over Obama’s dismantling of their rights is called a conspiracy by the left? They live in conspiracy. Obama’s Czars are simply yet another means to an end. The real danger to America is that it is becoming an ever-accelerating end. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Dingle and many others in the Democrat leadership have expressed, not a desire, but a need to establish this takeover of the American way of life.

The Apollo Alliance, on its surface is simply an envelop overseeing the development of “green” technologies. An examination of how Obama is dealing with this legislatively is another thing altogether. The Cap and Trade legislation, if passed, would make it impossible for any current petroleum-based business to continue. Those who could not afford the enormous expense to change over to approved “green” technologies would be forced into bankruptcy, shut down, or…this is the sneaky bit…purchased by the government as part of the Van Jones stimulus Package. Remember, The Obama Administration has gone as far as issuing open threats against any and all who oppose one of his policies. There are even white House operated site where neighbors can report neighbors for sedition. Right now a concerted effort (yes, a left-wing conspiracy) is being undertaken to financially destroy the upstart Fox Network. When it goes, there will be no media opposition to the communist cause.

The Financial Sector, Healthcare, Transportation, food production and now Power. Can anyone say “King” Obama?

 "A lie told often enough becomes truth" Vladimir Lenin.

 I first noticed this back in the 60’s when I was in high school. This was during the Vietnam War when a number of my classmates were carrying around copies of Mao’s little red book. They were the true believers of the liberal message coming from the communes and the leftist professors at the local college. Very little of what was put forth by these self appointed gurus had any bearing in either truth or reality, but boy, did they like to pass it along. Businessmen, especially prosperous ones were pigs. Anyone in authority was the man and you couldn’t trust anyone over 30. They forgot that at that time most of the people over 30 had saved their ungrateful butts in World War 2.

Today the big lie is that raising taxes will increase prosperity. Along with that lie is another one that says if we cap the amount a business can earn we will also increase prosperity. Obama has convinced the true believers, many of them running the news corporations, that his policies have increased the number of jobs. Isn’t it interesting that the unemployment rate has continued to rise? Where are all these jobs?

Remember the Weathermen and Bill Ayers? Apparently the media doesn’t. Obama refuses to repudiate a single stand taken by Mr. Ayers and his terrorist organization while at the same time he calls citizens of the US who oppose his takeover of the health industry “Right Wing Domestic Terrorists”. Well, I guess you can add me into that group. Some of the stands the Weathermen took included a long-range plan to control the populace which included access to healthcare, control of business practices and elimination of portions of the population considered inconvenient to the new administration. Isn’t it interesting that the new Obamacare bill includes an “end of life” provision?

As I pointed out in my last column, the Obama Administration is actively taking over every possible aspect of American life. We have placed a true follower of Lenin onto the American throne and removed any real opposition to his policies. All you have to do is read the new arrogant tones in online rags such as the Huffington post. They know they are in complete control and are not bothered at all by any poll numbers.

A while ago I wrote that raising the Nevada Room Tax was not a bad idea. Well, even I can be wrong. Further study has shown that raising any tax outside of those necessary to maintain constitutionally mandated services becomes oppressive and eventually leads to a worsening of the problem, not a solution. Human nature is too large of a factor. The best solution is to increase revenue by increasing prosperity. Wal Mart proved this a long time ago by selling more goods at cheaper prices and getting rich on the volume. Is it any wonder the liars on the left hate that company?

The problem the Republicans have is getting past merely protesting Obama’s policies. We have to be able to say more than just no. It isn’t enough to just be opposed to something, you also have to stand for something. I am not talking about compromise here. Ronald Reagan learned that lesson. It’s a pity his Vice President wasn’t as intelligent. No, I am talking about fighting bad ideas with good ones. We have to be able to answer questions about our opposition with logical, common sense solutions to today’s problems, and they do exist. I have expressed many over the past several months. Does any one else have an idea or two?

The Ayatollahs of Iran consider any individual critical of the way they appointed Adiminawhackjob to a second term an enemy of the state. In Turkey, anyone critical of the ways things are done is jailed for offending “Turkishness”. Here in the US, we now have an administration that is acting more and more like its Middle Eastern friends than what our founding fathers envisioned.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has gone as far as comparing critics of the healthcare plan to Nazis. Other members of the Democrat leadership have called those who don’t trust the plan “shrill”, and “fringe group fanatics”. News organizations, supposedly nonpartisan, have affixed the labels of “small mobs” and “rabid right-wingers” to those with the temerity to ask their representatives if they even bothered to read the bill.

Are these people merely members of shrill fringe groups and other bits of minority flotsam the administration should ignore for the good of the country? George Pucine of Las Vegas was able to get this bit of statistical evidence to the contrary past the usually left-leaning guardians at the Las Vegas Review Journal:

-- Quinnipiac poll: Three out of four Americans don't believe government-run health care will be deficit-neutral and 59 percent of Americans are against health care reform if the measure is supported by only the Democrats.

-- Gallup poll: Sixty-three percent say the president's plan will worsen their personal medical care.

-- National Public Radio poll: Forty-seven percent oppose Obama's plan and 42 percent support it.

-- New York Times/CBS poll: Seven-seven percent of Americans fear costs will increase under government-run health care.

-- Time poll: Fifty-six percent fear losing freedom to choose their own doctor/plan under government-run health care.

Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll: Forty-two percent say Barack Obama's plan is a "bad idea" vs. 36 percent saying it's a "good idea."

I don’t know about you, but the above numbers say majority, not minority. The problem is Pelosi and her Democrat fellows do not believe in representing the majority. They have an agenda and it is being followed to the letter and any who swerve from the orthodoxy will be punished. Remember Joe Lieberman and his one tiny slip?

Can any one remember who was President before Jimmy Carter? Not many do. Most think it was Nixon, but the answer is Gerald Ford, a man most remembered for being a bit clumsy. This is because Ford did almost nothing where the economy was concerned. It was ok, not good, just ok. The problem with that is that a mayonnaise economy allowed the election of a Jimmy Carter. You would think that the American people would learn from history. Unfortunately, we never do. Carter’s policies, eerily similar to Obama’s, produced the worst economy since the great depression. Taxes were raised to the point that an affordable mortgage was nearly impossible to obtain. Small businesses went out of business faster than they opened. Interest rates skyrocketed to over 20% and the price of gold hovered around $1000 per ounce. Sound familiar?

Brian Greenspun, the publisher of the Las Vegas Sun recently lamented in an editorial that it was terrible that Nevada did not adopt the tax policies of more
progressive” states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, California and others. Let’s see…checking on the economies of those “progressive” states, they appear to be progressing right into the toilet. California, our neighbor to the west has progressed into bankruptcy and a recent ad campaign luring small business from California to tax-backwards Nevada appears to be working better than anyone thought it would.

Socialism never generates public wealth. It never has and it never will. After Jimmy Carter came a true progressive, not the lie that Democrats push, Ronald Regan. Reagan systematically dismantled Carter’s metastasized bureaucracy and began using policies that were time-tested. Ignoring the shrill screams from the left that he would be throwing the elderly and the sick onto the street, he cut taxes and encouraged business to expand. The elderly got a better deal and the sick got cheaper healthcare. Ignoring the rabid left-wingers, he went after the Soviet Union and won, despite the claims that such aggressiveness would trigger World War 3. Reagan’s policies generated an economy that set a record that still holds. It was the most robust economy we have experienced in the last seven administrations. This is based on US statistical data, so why is the Obama Administration hell bent on duplicating Carter’s mistakes? The answer is not economics, it is power.

Just as our major news outlets have risen to the defense of Obama’s policies and have attacked the concerns of the American people, so has the administration grown in its arrogance. Why would Obama feel so comfortable issuing the threat that his administration would “hit back twice as hard” at anyone broadcasting a criticism of his health plan? Does he really believe that the news is his to control? Perhaps it is.

A little known story surfaced a while ago and was quickly pulled. ABC turned the control of its reporting of White House news over to the Obama Administration. The last time something like this happened it was in Iran. Remember, if you can control the news that is one domino tipped over, if you can control the peoples’ access to healthcare…that is another. Several states already consider the second amendment more of an inconvenience than a mandate. The appointment of Sottomeyer to the Supreme Court adds another nail in that coffin. The last domino to fall will be the food supply, and based on several reports, Obama is already working on that one.

Think back during the last couple months of the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama stated that he felt that “marriage should be between a man and a woman.” The record is very clear on this, he did say exactly that. Does anyone remember even a whisper of controversy from the media or even one homosexual rights group? No, of course not. Obama can say anything whether it be pure or profane and his supporters will swallow it as if it came from on high. But let a woman who seems to be a Christian say such a thing and she is spewing hatred from the very depths of hell.

Sarah Palin has to be conflicted right now. Carrie Prejean, Miss California 2009 has become the new ground central for every last drop of far left hate speech, and do not mistake it, what is being said qualifies as hate speech. If the same were being said about Rosie O’Donnell or even Ellen DeGeneres, calls would be issued for an in-depth investigation at the Congressional level. I doubt even the most strident opponent of Prejean can dispute this...honestly. They will dispute it, but a close examination of all their arguments will reveal the lie behind the words.

Both of these women have committed a gross sin in the eyes of the press, they spoke their minds without asking whether or not what they were about to say was politically acceptable to the media at large. The press lives each day sheltered behind the first amendment. I doubt many are capable of even quoting that passage accurately much less describing the conditions under which it was written. According to those who are currently heading our political system, Carrie Prejean and Sarah Palin do not have the same rights as an O’Donnell or a DeGeneres because they choose to live outside of what has become the mainstream. They choose to honor their spouses and choose to bring their children up to respect virtues such as personal responsibility...and that flies in the face of what is acceptable, and is the lifestyle lived by most who deliver our news today.

The recent news of the Obama Administration actually telling a private business who they can have as a boss is an example of just how far to the left this country has swerved. If this had happened during the fifties, an impeachment trial would now be an ongoing event. What is the most dismaying part of this drama is the sanguine attitude of the GOP regarding the President’s illegal action. Perhaps none of them have read the constitution lately.

That brings me to my core point. Would you be shocked to find that many who call themselves conservative are actually more liberal than most Democrats? No, I am not writing hyperbole to prove a point. Sadly, I am writing actual fact.

The country of Columbia was at one time the murder capital of the world. A few years ago they elected a non-politician/non-soldier to be their president. This new leader came from an education background and immediately moved to change the way things were done in his country. Educational spending went from a tiny percentage of the gross to 40%. The few elite private schools now had real competition and that competition had all the tools the private schools used to consider theirs alone. Columbia went from murder capital to one of the safest countries per capita in the world. What about the social services, the military? They found that an educated populace becomes more self-reliant and more willing to be a part of the country’s production rather than a drain. What a concept!

Here in the U.S., we spend about 1% of that 40%…and we complain about doing that. Many in the GOP consider the teaching profession an enemy, placing them ahead of Islamic Terrorism in the list. Some have even gone so far as to try to logically prove the necessity of a dependant class as an important portion of America’s labor force. In that, they are marching lock step with the extreme left in this country. They want, in essence, to have their cake and eat it too. When I was in State Government, I had a fellow Assemblyman tell me that my bill to curtail illegal immigration would bankrupt the state. This same Assemblyman had, a few days before, lauded Oklahoma and Arizona for passing similar legislation.

The hypocrisy taps are running wide open. George Bush trumpeted his “doing the jobs American’s won’t do” tripe. Newspaper publishers in my state, on one hand, decry the cost of illegals, while using them in their own printing facilities as a cost-saver. Our black messiah, Barrack Obama, chides the same industry he forced, as a member of ACORN, to issue unsafe loans, for issuing those loans. Here in Nevada we have a governor who called for more emphasis on vocational education, and then tries to cut the education budget in his state, in some cases by nearly 50%.

Can America afford to do what Columbia did? Of course we can. Will we? Not with our current leaders. We don’t have a single political leader with even a microbial amount of courage. We do have some politicians with courage to spare, but in Washington, they are the ones issued the basement offices.

Have you ever wondered why Barrack Obama never brings up Martin Luthor King's speech where Doctor King speaks of racial equality? The reason is that that speech calls for all races to treat each other with respect. Doctor King would have refused to pass any program such as Affirmative Action because he would have considered that program racist based on its discrimination for skin color.

Rush Limbaugh's sin is his admission that he wants to see Obama fail. Apparently all those Democrats and reporters who expressed the same desire in relation to George Bush had a get out of jail free card. It is ever that way with the left and their sycophantic media supporters; free speech isn’t quite as free as politically correct speech. Who cares about that inconvenient First Amendment? Besides, how dare he insult America’s Black Messiah?

Try as I may, I cannot find any hint of deity in Mr. Obama. As far as I can see he is, frankly, more fallible than most humans. He just has a more prominent job. It doesn’t place him on any higher of a plain than the rest of homo sapiens. He has none of the traits one would expect of a messiah. He hasn’t healed a single disease or injury. He hasn’t fed a multitude with a few loaves and fishes. He certainly has not walked on water or even turned water into wine. What about parting the Red Sea? Well, he is drowning us in a sea of red ink. Does that count?

The test begins with the filling out of several forms detailing the assorted dangers of radioactivity. This is because prior to laying down in the scanner, the nurse will approach you with a needle the size of a Desert Eagle handgun. The vial holds, I'm not kidding, a glowing green fluid that belongs on the set of The Incredible Hulk. You see this green fluid through a small window in the vial. The rest of the structure is a lead container nearly identical to a radioactive waste container.

The stuff they inject is radioactive enough that you become the power that runs the scanner. Anything suspicious will show up as a dark spot in the printed scan. Precautions after the test include sitting down when you wee and avoiding standing near children and pregnant women.

The small spot in my lower right lung barely lit up. The area in my cervical spinal cord did not show any activity at all, so whatever is going on there, it isn't cancer. What lit up a lot was the collection of lymph nodes near my bronchial tubes. So, yesterday they went in and took out a few. The surgeon immediately pronounced them to be granulomas. A granulnoma is one of a number of forms of localized nodular inflammation found in tissues. The fact that a granuloma is localized is important. So is its nodularity. Granulomas have a typical pattern when examined under a microscope. The really important bit is that they are not cancer.

On another front, it appears that socialism has metastasized in Washington D.C..

The US House and Senate are about to vote on bill that will outlaw organic farming(bill HR 875).

The main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto. Monsanto makes chemical fertilizers, go figure. The husband of the Congresswoman who dropped the bill just happens to be a Monsanto official. Hmmm.

This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and insecticides dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply". This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales. Can anyone remember the text of George Orwell's 1984?

Henry Kissinger put it this way: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people." The Obama Administration is an amalgamation of the Clinton Administration and all the assorted far left radicals that made the 60's and 70's worth forgetting. Obama has never rejected his Weatherman connections nor those who called for the execution of millions of US citizens when they achieved power. He is systematically dismantling our economic system, and it appears that the big news networks are going right along with his plan.

Have you ever wondered what would happen to our lives if all of a sudden people decided to stop being dishonest? The cynic would claim that such an event could be the beginning of mass violence, murder, suicide and economic collapse. They would claim that our society, nay, the entire world is deeply rooted in a culture of deception. People have been conditioned to not only accept the little lies we consistently tell each other, but have come to expect them to the point that, when confronted with actual truth, they cannot process it.

When Bill Clinton faced the news camera and shook his finger at America while lying about his affair with Monica Lewinski, it was apparent, even to his most fervent followers that he was not being honest. Later, it was revealed that very few of his published honors and accomplishments were based in actual fact. That revelation has done little, if any to harm his ongoing career after the White House.

George Bush the elder also lied to America in much the same way. The only difference was that his lie was economic rather than lurid, but being a Republican in a country controlled by liberal media and thought police, his punishment was swift and politically devastating…for about four years and then the previous-mentioned liar came in.

Al Gore has to be the champ when it comes to spinning falsehoods, though John Kerry and his imagined heroism comes in a close second. Global Warming is simply the greatest hoax pushed upon the world stage…period. Nothing else even comes close. The most recent guffaw is how Gore and his fellow Warmingites explain that the current cooling trend is nothing more than a prime example as how “warming” is affecting the earth. Yes and, Glen Beck said it best, “Exxon’s massive profits are simply an example of how little money they are making.” Try telling the people in Fargo they are in danger of dying from global warming. The last temp there was several degrees below zero.

I remember the Spotted Owl brouhaha. One of the last jobs I did as a sign shop owner involved a Circle K store with an occupied owl nest in its sign. Seems Spotted Owls can only survive in old growth Circle K forests.

Here in Nevada, I tried proposing an immigration reform bill. It wasn’t the Democrats who opposed it, it was the Republicans. They claimed I was trying to bankrupt the state. These legislators are also people who claim to love the constitution. They claim to be moral and to love the law. They lie. They are not concerned about business being able to make ends meet as much as they are concerned about the next campaign contribution and their ability to spend it in nonpolitical goodies.

The truth is expensive and it can be inconvenient, but it will never disappoint and it will never cheat. So we kick out all the liars. Will that ruin our country? What do you think would be the economic picture if every politician upheld the truth and went after those who cheated, lied and stole? So we wouldn’t have Bush, Cheney, Reid and Pelosi. So what? Is any one so naive to believe they are the best we can get?

In the past a few courageous representatives had the cahonies to offer up bills that would have mandated honesty in political speech. The reaction of their peers was, to say the least, telling. In strident tones akin to how Obama’s pastor delivers a sermon, these men and women were dressed down as fools at best and traitors to the American way of life at worst. Illinois is not the only bastion of corruption in the country. WashingtonDC has been offering graduate courses in the discipline for nearly two centuries. Here in my home state of Nevada we have a sign dedicating a government building. On the sign are the names of the CountyCommissioners that were sitting in office at that time. Of the seven on that list, four are now serving prison terms.

When I served in the Nevada Legislature, I worked up the number of legislators I felt could be counted on to keep their word, regards of the financial or political cost. The list was considerably longer at the beginning of my term than at the end.

Expediency now rules that day. I have been told more often than not buy sitting politicians that unless I am willing to compromise my integrity, I have no hope of ever gaining another political office. The big campaign donors will not support someone who has standards. Sadly, I have come to believe them.

The First Amendment to the Constitution reads thusly: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

You will notice that speech is the third clause in this contract with the American People. The Founding Fathers felt that dealing with religion was more important. (That revelation alone would cause a riot in some universities.) You will also notice that “false speech” is not mentioned. Simply because lying is not listed does not mean it is included in the freedom of speech. Some lawyers are paid per day what most if us consider a nice quarterly wage to research contextual intentions in our country’s founding documents. A  very brief read-through will show that lying was condemned by every member of the constitutional convention. In fact, “dealing falsely” was one of the reasons for the seceding of the Americas from the British Empire. So why do our governments, State and Federal, bend over so far to protect liars? Why do they react so violently when honesty is suggested as a mandated item in political performance?

The reason is that dishonesty has become an ingrained part of the American way of life. We begin with the “little white lie” to protect someone’s feelings, and when enough of those have numbed our conscience, we move on to larger and larger lies, including the ones we tell our spouses and the IRS. Perhaps this is why Sarah Palin was so viciously attacked by women’s groups and continues to be so, including in the funny pages.

Some say a politician who is “too honest” is a danger because of the diplomatic repercussions. People are forgetting the legacy of Ronald Reagan. He refrained from telling even the little white lies, managing rather to place the uncomfortable truth into true diplomatic terms, adding a touch of humor and thus adding to his respect.

Today our broadcast media is filed with lies…most of them commercials for items that we not only don’t need but could be potentially fatal if used. The purveyors of these products hide behind their perverted view of the First Amendment as protection and those whose duty it is to police the airwaves sit back and let the crooks get away with their crimes. It was once said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to believe it. That day has indeed come and I don’t see it getting any better until the American Voter wakes up.

Common Sense died this year in a tragic mishap. Common’s best friends, Responsibility, Morality, Ethics and Virtue seemed to have also been victim’s of the tragedy. Civil Rights, a close associate of Common Sense is currently in the ICU; the prognosis is not good.

An obituary such as this may seem cynically comical, but in actuality, it is not. Consider the current climate in Washington. Many think the election of Barrack Obama to the Presidency signifies a new era in American government. They see the elimination of poverty, sickness and corporate greed. Somehow, simply putting a black man into the seat of power solves all our problems. The Arabs will no longer hate the Jews. Slavery and oppression will cease to exist and every child will have what they desire waiting for them under the tree on Christmas morning. To many, Obama is not merely the President-elect, he is the Messiah.

The Democrat landslide that swept through this year’s electoral cycle removed even the pretense of bipartisanship that existed last year. Current stories in the press about Nancy Pelosi’s recent moves as Speaker give a good indication of what will be coming our way after the 2009 inauguration.

As a junior Senator, Barrack Obama had the most consistently liberal voting record in American history. Even Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi could not bring themselves to support some of the radical causes championed by their soon to be new boss. Partial birth abortion, friendship with terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, and the elimination of the Second Amendment, all have a place at Obama’s table. His proposed tax policies will not create the universal wealth he claims, but drive the current recession we are now experiencing into a full blown depression.

There was a time in recent history where the state of New Jersey was one of the least taxed states in the nation. At that same time it was one of the few states where the Governor had the unique pleasure of dealing with an ongoing budget surplus. The New Jersey legislature, in an attempt to assuage certain special interests, decided to raise taxes on business. Surprisingly, to some, revenues went down, not up. The legislature was unable to learn from history, no surprise there, and raised taxes. Revenues fell a bit more and now New Jersey, rather than being one of the most prosperous states, is one of the least. They function in a state of continuous deficit.

There are some who think all our problems would be solved if the situation were reversed and the GOP held the reins of power. The problem with that sort of thinking is that we have already experienced that scenario and the end result was, after a brief economic expansion, a long steady slide into laissez-faire greed and corruption that culminated in the great depression of the early 1900’s. Now it appears that we are repeating history.

Common Sense would dictate that if doing things one way results in failure, then it would be wise to try something else…possibly in the opposite direction. Two problems with that sort of thinking are, one; it means admitting you were wrong, and two; being able to work outside of your own self interest.

Obama’s campaign team hit a nerve when they continuously attacked McCain’s ties to the Bush administration. The recent developments in this ridiculous bailout scam are only yet another symptom of the disease that riddles the beltway. The ones making these decisions are so out of touch with everyday America that when an issue is brought forward with a common sense solution, they cannot understand what is being said. In many cases the one offering the solution is ridiculed as being naive. This happened to me while solutions were being discussed with regard to my state’s fiscal problems. Now, those who did the ridiculing are being forced to implement what I suggested two years ago. Will any credit be given where it belongs? Not on your life. This is the world of politics after all.

Infighting within the Republican ranks has been escalating since the first ad hit the airwaves for the Presidential elections. This tells us that change is not something the Republican party wants to consider, at least not the change it truly needs. Consider Mike Huckabee’s attacks on Sarah Palin. What they boil down to is what the GOP says about every party member who stands up against the corruption within the party, “She isn’t Republican enough.” Apparently Governor Palin, in order to be a real republican, should have gone along with outgoing Senator Ted Stevens’ corruption, and not stood against him. To many in the party, it is better to have a politician who breaks the law on a daily basis than to have them replaced with a Democrat. To the Republican Party leadership, change means not having to say you’re sorry.

Governor Huckabee needs to learn the lesson of the electorate. American is not so interested in moving to left as it is interested in cleaning house. Average America wants honorable leadership. They want “Read my lips” to be a statement of truth, not a lead-in to a broken promise. When they are watching their bank accounts dwindle, they do not want to see those who oversaw the demolition of the economy get a golden parachute. They want honesty, even if it inconveniences the wealthy and the powerful. Sarah Palin gets that and so does Mitt Romney.

It is already obvious that Obama’s promise of change only went as far as the occupancy of the White House. He is busily building his staff out of insiders from the Clinton and Carter Administrations. Governor Huckabee apparently believes Sarah Palin’s climb into the spotlight is more dangerous to our nation than what President-elect Obama is preparing to do. Here is why; Governor Palin struck a chord with the American people, and if she had been coupled with Romney rather than McCain, the result of the election may have been quite different. GOP insiders are almost as afraid of what Palin portends as are the liberals.

Sarah Palin, in spite of what my Democrat acquaintances say, would make a great President. What many of them forget is that much the same arguments against a Palin Presidency were also made about Ronald Reagan before he trounced a totally incompetent Jimmy Carter.

Yes, the GOP needs to change. It needs to embrace Middle America and it needs to embrace the truth, even if the truth costs them money. Rather than driving out those members who stand against corruption, the GOP leadership needs to grit their teeth, wave goodbye to the bribe money, and stand with them. America wants representation, not politics as usual. And remember, the news networks have no relation with real America.