The Further Criminalization of Parenting

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv were recently investigated by the police and child welfare for allowing their two children, aged 10 and 6, to walk home from the park without them.  The walk is approximately one mile in length.  A person, who very likely thought they were doing a good deed, saw the children and called the police.

The Meitiv’s live in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC.  The law in Maryland states that a child under the age of 8 cannot be home alone without someone who is at least 13-years-old.  It says nothing about being outside of your home.  But that didn’t stop the police.  Now, I want to be clear, the police aren’t really to blame here.  They were called.  They had to respond.  They followed the law, as is their job.  With children they are also most likely obligated to contact Child Protective Services.

Child Protective Services were contacted and came to check out the parents and the safety of the children.  When CPS arrived at their home, they were interrogated and told not to allow the children out alone unsupervised.  They were told that they were being investigated for neglect.  They were basically told do as your told, or your children will be taken away.

CPS has finished their investigation and the outcome is “unsubstantiated child neglect”.  Whatever the heck that really means I’m not sure, but for these parents they are now in the cross hairs of CPS for the next five years.  That is not a typo.  For the next five years, they will be continually monitored for child abuse.  Insert primal scream here.  

It matters none if you agree with their parenting style, known as Free Range Parenting.  It matters none if you would feel safe letting your children walk a mile on their own.  What matters is do you want the state to have this type of power over your choices as a parent?  

Now, when I was kid I was not driven to my middle school on a daily basis. Unless the weather was bad, we walked.  I can’t tell you how long of a walk that was, but I figure it had to be at least a mile, if not a little more.  I also walked through a wooded area when I did it.  I did this twice a day for three years.  I grew up in one of the few states that allows you to have your late in the year birthday kids start school when they are four, if you choose.  My mother did make that choice because I already knew how to read and she felt I was ready.  That means I was ten when I started middle school.  So was my mother guilty of neglect when I was walking to school?  I guess I might have thought so at the time if it was snowing or raining out.   

Here are the facts, the rates of children being abducted by strangers is down by more than 35%.  A child is in much more danger of being in accident while you are driving them to school instead of letting them walk.  Do we start telling parents who drive their kids to school are guilty of neglect because the odds are far greater of being hurt than they are if they walked instead?  

Parents need to let children grow, mature, and learn responsibility.  How each parent chooses to do that is going to vary.  But it is part and parcel of the parenting experience.  Today, we are seeing more and more parents who are constantly on top of their children.  The so-called helicopter parents.  The parents who are so engaged with their children and their activities that we hear stories about them involving themselves in the job interview process.  

Government is getting larger and larger.  It is getting more and more intrusive.  A government that can swoop in and decide that a parent isn’t allowed to make a choice about a short walk home from the park is a government that is way too large.  A government that now has the right to investigate these parents for the next five years is a government that I don’t want.  

I am not sure I would let a ten and six-year-old walk a mile on their own.  I lived outside of Washington, DC for many years.  I know the Silver Spring area fairly well.  The children were walking on Georgia Avenue, it is a major roadway that normally has a great deal of traffic.  But what I don’t know is the maturity levels of these children.  There will be ten-year-olds that are very likely ready for that walk.  

But I do know that I don’t think that act alone is a good enough reason for this family to be investigated continuously for the next five years.  Has anyone thought that these children are going to become distrustful of police now?  How is that a good thing?  

These children have learned a valuable lesson.  A government that is large can do almost anything.  I hope they carry this with them into adulthood.  

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Snowden: Hero or Traitor?

The short answer is that Snowden is both a traitor and a hero.  There is no question that Snowden broke the law, releasing classified information to those who are not authorized is a felony.  The U.S. Government has every right and the responsibility to go after him and prosecute to him to the fullest extent of the law.

That said I am glad that Snowden did what he did.  One of the things that must be remembered in all of this everything this government does is done in the name of average Americans.  We all have a vested interest in what this government does.  This is true about both domestic and foreign policy.  We have a Bill of Rights and a Constitution.  Both of those of documents intent was to give the power to the people and to reign in the power of a centralized government.  We are losing those rights more and more every single day.  Snowden has only confirmed what many around the country already knew.  This government is taking more and more control over our daily lives.

We have been hearing for days now that this is a “legal” program.  A program that has been authorized by congress and is put in front of a court.  That is supposed to make me feel better?  We have plenty of evidence that congress passes laws all the time that they have no constitutional authority all the time.  One very simple example is the Violence Against Women act.  I am in no way in favor of violence against women, but is there any state that doesn’t have laws against this already?  Why in heaven’s name would spousal abuse a federal issue?  Every state has the right to request a fugitive from another state.  If the laws are not strong enough in one state then people should be working on the state level to strengthen those laws.  Not forcing every police department across the country to deal with cumbersome federal regulations and completely ignoring the fact that Tribal Courts have more power over non Native Americans, even though these courts do not have to give constitutional rights to anyone that is in that court.

The opposition’s first concern is that the power given to tribal courts would strip non-reservation residing offenders of their constitutional rights. Tribal courts are not bound by the laws of federal and state governments, and do not offer to defendants legal protections such as the First and Fifth Amendments or due process. Additionally, offering tribal courts jurisdiction over sex crimes would set a precedent for their jurisdiction when other crimes are involved.

So, it is of no comfort that congress has authorized this.  It is of no comfort that President Obama is basically saying “Trust Me”.  I don’t trust that man as far as I can throw him.  He certainly hasn’t proven that he has my best interests at heart.

One of the things that I find so infuriating about this whole thing is that it was just a few weeks ago that President Obama gave a speech on terrorism where he said this:

Today, the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on a path to defeat. Their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us. They did not direct the attacks in Benghazi or Boston. They have not carried out a successful attack on our homeland since 9/11

If that is true why exactly are we expanding the programs?  I have been against The Patriot Act from day one.  I agree with the founders who warned us that giving up security in the name of liberty would give us neither.  I don’t dismiss the dangers of terrorism and Islamic extremism.  What I question is how effective are these programs?  I say not so much.

The path to his capture, according to the public records, began in April 2009, when British authorities arrested several suspected terrorists. According to a 2010 rulingfrom Britain’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission, one of the suspects’ computers included email correspondence with an address in Pakistan.

The open case is founded upon a series of emails exchanged between a Pakistani registered email account sana_pakhtana@yahoo.com and an email account admittedly used by Naseer humaonion@yahoo.com between 30 November 2008 and 3 April 2009. The Security Service’s assessment is that the user of the sana_pakhtana account was an Al Qaeda associate…”

“For reasons which are wholly set out in the closed judgment, we are sure satisfied to the criminal standard that the user of the sana_pakhtana account was an Al Qaeda associate,” the British court wrote.

Later that year, according to a transcript of Zazi’s July, 2011 trial, Zazi emailed his al Qaeda handler in Pakistan for help with the recipe for his bombs. He sent his inquiry to the same email address: sana_pakhtana@yahoo.com.

An FBI agent, Eric Jurgenson, testified, “I was notified, I should say. My office was in receipt of several e-mail messages, e-mail communications.” Those emails — from Zazi to the same sana_pakhtana@yahoo.com — “led to the investigation,” he testified.

Here are some sad truths, the Fort Hood Shooter was a terrorist.  A terrorist that we should have been able to stop before his killing spree.  The reason we did not was due to political correctness.  To this day this is not even called an act of terrorism but work place violence.  The Russians turned over information on one of the Boston Bombers, yet we did nothing.  Are these programs worth the loss of our liberties when it is obvious that when given the information on a silver platter they are still able to go ahead with their dastardly deeds.

One of the biggest problems is that we are still not willing to follow a simple tried and true criminal investigation tool; profiling.  We have seen recently a Muslim turn over a fellow Muslim

Both the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition took a moment in the House of Commons on Tuesday to thank the Muslim community for its role in thwarting an alleged terror plot against a Via Rail train.

“I’d like to begin by thanking law enforcement officials, as well as a brave religious leader from the Toronto Muslim community who, as we learned yesterday, helped to prevent a potentially devastating attack on Canadian soil,” NDP leader Tom Mulcair said as he opened question period.

If we start working with these communities maybe they will start communicating more and realize we are only interesting in rooting out terrorism and want to leave law-abiding citizens alone to live their lives.

I, for one, am not willing to give away my liberties for a false sense of security.  I want my civil liberties to left alone.  There are plenty of ways to thwart terrorism without our government gathering information on virtually every American and have a huge database that can be used and abused in ways that we really don’t fully understand.

The government has shown us over and over again that they can’t be trusted and have abused their power.  The IRS ring a bell for the naysayers?

Snowden is both a hero and criminal.  Snowden has raised an issue that needed to be raised.  How much of your privacy are you willing to turn over to clandestine government agencies?  Where does it end?  This isn’t a left or right issue.  This is an issue that should matter to all Americans.  To those that are willing to do this in the name of security, just remember your chance of being killed by terrorist is even less likely than being struck by lightning.  Yes we have dangers to deal with, but those dangers are relatively remote.  The powers of big government are not.

Paul Ryan Responds to Charge from Democrat Congressman That Tea Party Party Groups Brought Intimatidation On Themselves – Video

I guess the days of outrage are over.

Now?

If you don’t know by now, the HHS has mandated free birthcontrol for everyone. It used to be a chicken in every pot, now it’s a pillbox for every uterus. We will occupy Wallstreet but by golly, those squatters in the womb have to go!

And if you object, well, you have a year to get used to it.

365 days to pray for an alternative. To lobby the deaf ears of Congress. To file law suits and spend time, talent, treasure and passion railing against a Leviathan government that has decided everyone must get with the times and those practices while personally are just fine, shouldn’t be applied to one’s livelyhood or way of life. Finance abortion on demand. Don’t want abortion. Don’t get one. But pay for the next person who does. Don’t want birth control? Don’t use it. But pay for it anyway. Moral objections? Pshaw. That’s so 19th century of you troglodite!

With all due respect, it’s been a good run. America with it’s experiment with liberty and limited government is now over. We shall be taxed for everything and anything. We shall be made to pay for anything. The government shall tell us how we may practice our religion, with any tenets we hold dear being checked as soon as we leave the chapel door. You can believe what you want still, as long as you don’t actually practice it or state it publically.

We shall pay for things we do not want, for things for other people to engage in that we do not approve of, and for all things Congress deems necessary, which is to say everything. There is no limit. No budget. No plans of debt reduction. There is no brake on the wants, wishes/desires for more of our government, no activity they won’t regulate, no area of life on which they do not have the final say. They are the authority, the experts, the ones with the power. We should be gracious for the time, money, indeed the jobs we have. We should be grateful our betters have been willing to spend such time educating us, making laws to get us in line, to make our lives into the utopian visions they hold for us. Everything will be so much better if we just agree to go along. Can’t we all just get along? If you can’t get along with us, it must be because you are evil, ignorant and like making things unfair. Now…you aren’t like that are you? Because if you are, you need to be educated, changed or silenced. Cue Sopa.

It’s clear with the complicity of the media, that we have no say. We cannot make enough noise. Any protest we muster shall be deemed dangerous, treasonous, evil. Is it time to take our toys and go home and remember that we had a beautiful country once, with beautiful laws and people committed to the rule of law and the Constitution? Whatever we are, it is not what it was. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it. I didn’t vote for it. I don’t want to finance it. I disagree with it. Is it time to consider whether in the course of human events, the tree of freedom needs watering? I’m not sure…but I am fearful…this does not feel like the home of the free.

Maybe the mayans were right…about endings anyway.

Quote of the Day – Justice Alito Edition

“You think maybe there is a little drainage problem in part of your lot, so you start to build the house and then you get an order from the EPA which says: ‘You have filled in wetlands, so you can’t build your house; remove the fill, put in all kinds of plants; and now you have to let us on your premises whenever we want to, you have to turn over to us all sorts of documents, and for every day that you don’t do all this you are accumulating a potential fine of $75,000. And by the way, there is no way you can go to court to challenge our determination that this is a wetlands until such time as we choose to sue you.”

Justice Alito questioning the federal government on EPA regulations.

Yet another reason to Homeschool, Go off the Grid, Vote Them Out, Pray…

Because we didn’t read the bill before we passed it, the Stimulus bill of 2009 Surprize! has an easter egg that stinks to high heaven.  Kudos to the Missouried Education Watchdog for doing the leg work, and it deserves more press than it’s getting. 

Living just outside the beltway, I don’t recall a firestorm of criticism about creating a national database, defacto or otherwise of student information, and I listen to conservative sources of information that are local.  So I’m thinking, this needs more noise, more pressure, more concern.  We’re going to be told in soothing tones, nothing to see here, move along.  But information is power.  Having access to information without our consent or knowledge, is dangerous power. 

Go read it. 

Then start brainstorming, how do we deconstruct the Leviathan that has become our government, where rules are written and rewritten silently to eliminate privacy, to eliminate our liberty, to allow others who do not love us, to know more than in some cases, those who do love us, know.

http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2011/12/emmett-mcgroarty-executive-director-of.html

When Principles and Party Collide

Ron Suskind’s new book describes the White House as a hostile place for women to work.  One such charge came from Anita Dunn, Mao enthusiast.  Dunn made a comment to The Washington Post denying that she had ever said anything of the kind and told Mr. Suskind the polar opposite by telling him “point-blank” that it not true.  Apparently the interview was taped and that tape has been played in part to the some reporters over at The Washington Post. 

While it is sort of understandable that you would want to protect the president and leader of the party from embarrassment, how far do you compromise your principles to do so?  The democratic party in general, and progressives in particular, spend a great deal of time about talking about “fairness”. 

It isn’t fair that woman get paid less, it isn’t fair that someone may be “punished” with a baby that they had not planned on, the billionaires don’t pay enough taxes, and on the list goes.  For some reason that they are unable to explain to me they seem to believe that government can actually make the world fair, a feat that God himself is unable to pull off. 

What does it say when Ms. Dunn puts Obama’s presidency ahead of the principle of fair treatment for women in the workplace?  I have never personally believed that Obama is truly a principled man.  He worships at the altar of big government.  By worshipping at said alter the very last thing it represents is freedom for women.  Because it then gives government more control over the choices in your life.  In many school systems you cannot decide for yourself what it is that your child eats for lunch.  You see you are too stupid to feed your children healthy food.  While I am sure that there are some people who don’t understand nutritional values of food, I would venture to say that most do.  But it doesn’t matter, you can’t make that decision yourself.  They know your child better than you do. 

It is very disappointing although not all surprising to learn that the people who surround President Obama are more concerned for the party than they are for the principles that they espouse on a daily basis, but have yet to shown that they themselves are willing to live by.

Another ObamaCare Ruling from on High at HHS

There’s a form of opt out for religious entities, but it’s not enough. Insurers must cover birth control with no copays:

Generic versions of the pill are available for as little as $9 a month. Still, about half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Many are among women using some form of contraception, and forgetting to take the pill is a major reason.

Not even having to pay for it will presumably enable even more forgetfulness. And more systemic abuse.

This is not really healthcare either, it’s a lifestyle choice, though widely prevalent, but it’s not limited to what we most commonly think of as birth control:

The requirement applies to all forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That includes the pill, intrauterine devices, the so-called morning-after pill, and newer forms of long-acting implantable hormonal contraceptives that are becoming widely used in the rest of the industrialized world.

Coverage with no copays for the morning-after pill is likely to become the most controversial part of the change. The FDA classifies Plan B and Ella as birth control, but some religious conservatives see the morning-after drugs as abortion drugs. The rules HHS issued Monday do not require coverage of RU-486 and other drugs to chemically induce an abortion.

And what this ruling does as well is increase costs–eventually leading to rationing health care to less politically correct people and real diseases.

More. Catholic Vote: This Tryst Paid For By Taxpayers Like You

Infantilizing Kids

Happy Meals are already buckling, taking away consumer choice for fear of Big Gov. Now this:

New recommendations from government agencies would require that foods marketed directly to children between the ages of two and 17 contribute to healthy diets.

“We believe that food and beverage companies should market responsibly to kids,” said Susan Davison, director of corporate affairs for Kraft Foods Inc. “But we think the Interagency Working Group proposal is too restrictive. In fact, it’s so restrictive that foods like reduced fat peanut butter or two percent milk string cheese could not be advertised to children.”

Children are now defined as up to age 17, rather than the historic ad industry standard which considered teens differently.

Of course, if this goes through, it will cost jobs.

And undermine parents once again.

The takeaway for me on food is moderation. Children need to develop some of that on their own, or they never will. A treat from time to time is fine.

As was the story with playgrounds, meals can probably be too safe for common sense.

Can we have school choice already?

My kids are out, thank God, but every time I see a story like this I get so steamed.

Most parents are too cowed by the possibility there will be reprisals by teachers against their child so they stay silent–unless they can afford private school.

I thought W’s No Child Left Behind might be the best we could do to break the unions at the national level, but states circumvented it.

We are at the point now I think where the only thing is to follow the Walker lead, stop the collective bargaining, push for school choice, and vote REPUBLICAN whenever you can.

We can’t afford our kids to be so ill-served as to think Big Gov is the way the truth and the life, especially when it won’t be there for them. They’ll be there for it.

 

 

Michelle O meets with Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, one of President Jacob Zuma’s three wives

…at his official residence. Zuma was scheduled to be out of the country. That’s South Africa. Three wives. According to Wiki he’s been married quite a lot, including a “fiancee” by another name he was supposedly to marry last December.

Charges of 3 rapes

A sex scandal:

South Africa has an unemployment rate upwards of 30 percent. In some communities the percentage is even higher. The idea that a president would spend more time dealing with sex scandals instead of fixing the country’s economic woes does not sit well with many people, says Spio-Garbrah.

“Zuma has always presented himself as the common man. The problem for many South Africans is ‘if half of us are unemployed and the rest are barely surviving, how come you can afford to have 19 children, three wives and one girlfriend?'” he says. “For someone who doesn’t have job, who can’t even afford to feed his family, for Zuma to be going around and fathering children left, right and center would irk such a person.”

Former member of the communist party. Living large.

Then there are the corruption charges, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary in most countries, not to mention Chicago.

No wonder he’s out of the country, the State Dept. probably insisted on it.

But why go there in the first place and give recognition in any way to this disgusting president? Before they had apartheid, now polygamy is honored in their leading family. (I guess cuz it’s “anti-colonial” it’s OK) The official line:

“She’s coming on this trip to talk about women’s development and youth development, and South Africa’s a leader in that, not only on the continent but globally,” said Elizabeth Trudeau, spokesman for the US embassy in Pretoria.

Quite the role model.

  –crossposted at BackyardConservative

Wreckovery Summer in the City TWO. Michelle

Buy one get one free. Not so much.

Yessiree, Michelle O is going to be the president’s secret weapon this year. One of his best assets. Will she hold another beer summit in the White House?

More Chicago flash mob reaction. It wasn’t just a suburban biker–two doctors in town for a convention were attacked–on or near what we call here the Magnificent Mile. You know, near the lake. Near the Gold Coast where Oprah has her perch. A comment from the Tribune story:

  Sick-of-the-Chicago-Way at 8:02 AM June 07, 2011 We have a president and Congress that wants to redistribute wealth.  These kids simply chose to remove the middle man from the deal.  Perhaps the solution is a government program that directly gives “disadvantaged” youth Ipads and Iphones

Yes we can. Let’s Move.

P.S. Why does Chicago have one of the highest crime rates in the country? Why is Chicago’s population back to 1920’s levels? In other news, Dems overturn the 2010 midterms in Illinois. …Maybe these women will wise up this time and be immune to Michelle’s message. Especially if they can’t move.

Related post: Women take the long view, drop O in droves

  –crossposted at BackyardConservative

Michelle O. My Plate!

The further adventures of Michelle O.

Can’t you just wait ’til she campaigns in a neighborhood near you?

Let’s Move!

 

 

Is a 7th grader a threat to the president?

At what point does this become ridiculous and scary intrusive? I know the Secret Service has to check out just about every threat but really?

Maybe the mom was the real concern.

What do we think about this. Obviously anything the kid said wasn’t admissible in court, as I understand it, since she wasn’t present and he’s a minor.

What Kills A Skunk, Part Two

We heard the president’s speech. One of the most dismaying things about it, that makes most people recoil–aside from the pure demagoguery on the debt and spending tsunami we face–was that he invited Paul Ryan to come hear it. Paul Ryan, the GOP Budget Committee Chairman, and author of a brave and substantive plan to tackle our fiscal nightmare and wrestle it to the ground.

Why would President Obama do this? Is he clueless of civil behavior?

I think this comment has hit on it, in part:

Why on earth would The One invite him to attend a speech that was designed to demagogue Ryan for electoral purposes?

Because he’s a petty, thin-skinned girlie man who thinks he’s tough. He was trying to intimidate Ryan into backing off. Epic FAIL.

Was that some sort of “if I’m going to kneecap this guy, I ought to at least look him in the eye” concession on Obama’s part?

It’s what kills a skunk:

Part Two.

More to come.

P.S. Schock statement on president’s debt reduction plan. Illinois Review.

And I encourage Paul Ryan to run for president.

More. Jim Geraghty, NRO, Obama’s Habit of Trashing His Invited Guests. HT Legal Insurrection.

–crossposted at BackyardConservative

Nearing $5 gas in Chicago. Obama Approval Plunges. Hold your Horses

Chicago Breaking News, with mitigating greenie and mass transit plugs for The One. Of course much of the country can’t get to work using mass transit and greenie cars are expensive, impractical in the cold and over distance, not to mention having to charge up with electricity probably powered by coal plants.

What’s the approval around the country look like, hmm?

…For most of us a horse is not an option. And even in Chicago where some view them romantically other picky urbanites protest.

More here.

Those Multiple Dads

Actual MSNBC header: 1 in 5 US moms have kids with multiple dads, study says

Comment via Lucianne: I am not aware of any kid that has a multiple dad

April foolery aside, this kind of news keeps getting worse and worse.

Growing up in a big, Catholic family I remember my mom commenting on some sneering in a Beatrix Potter book about large and improvident families. Ah yes, we were the irresponsible ones, breeding like bunnies.

So in these days of popping birth control pills and hopping in and out of bed who is having the large “families”? Who is really being irresponsible? Isn’t the government aiding and abetting child abuse?

And will the left ever admit this? Some glimmer of understanding:

An important message that doesn’t appear to be getting through is just how hard it is to raise a child as a single parent.

Well, duh, you know maybe Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown. Maybe if the Left hadn’t spent the last generation or two glorifying single motherhood and bashing family values we wouldn’t be seeing destructive stats like these.

Mad City judge returns from vacation, inserts self again

Oh yeah, she had said she needed more time to consider whether the passage of the bill violated the open meetings act, then went on vacation. Now she’s baaaack, and still hasn’t ruled on the merits (such as they are NOT) The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

This Secretary of State business reminds me of the Illinois posturing about seating seedy Dem Sen. Roland Burris, using process to evade common sense. This is how the leftie-leaning legal profession strikes many of us these days. I thank God that after my acceptance at UW law school years ago, when I was still a wavering liberal, I got a private sector job offer and never looked back.

Another reason to eliminate Secretaries of State. (Isn’t that how corrupt IL GOP Gov. Ryan ascended?) And eliminate process, if it means you have to publish laws in the MSM for them to take effect. Why should they have so much power vested in them?

An interesting split among law profs at Marquette. One agrees with Judge SEIU Sumi. The other:

Richard Esenberg said he was not surprised by the ruling but criticized the judge.

“There is applicable Supreme Court precedent that a court has no authority to enjoin the publication of a law,” he said. “The state has repeatedly cited that law to her and as far as I know she has not only failed to explain herself about why she feels she has the authority, she hasn’t even acknowledged there is an issue. That just leaves me speechless.”

Esenberg was referring to a 1943 state Supreme Court opinion that said courts could not interfere with legislation until it is published and becomes law.

According to the JS the Assistant Attorney General says the law is absolutely still in effect.

As for the public sector unions and their ally Dem WI Secretary of State LaFollette, struck inarticulate by the TEA party, I will quote his famous relative, Fighting Bob:

“Free men of every generation must combat renewed efforts of organized force and greed to destroy liberty.”

More over by me at BackyardConservative.

These two telling reads reveal the depth of our current problem. 

Iowahawk’s http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/03/feed-your-family-on-10-billion-a-day.html 

and Powerline’s http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/03/028631.php

The articles make it clear that far greater of a threat to our long term well being as a country than healthcare, childhood obesity and bullying in school, is the overwhelming debt we are amassing and continuing to pretend doesn’t really need fixing. 

Now is the time to act, when the CBO has just come out explaining that Whoops, we misunderestimated the deficits by 2.3 Trillion. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/CBO-Obama-understates-apf-1323525507.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

Making that kind of error in math is rather  like claiming the weight posted on one’s driver’s license is legit.  Everyone KNOWS it’s bogus.  It’s just a question of degrees.  In this case, the White House is counting on everyone being exhausted by the numbers and the amount that has been so out of whack with reality as to make any attempts at less seem almost meaningless.

That lack of hope is what is in part has derailed the Non Tea Party elected members of congress from being as pumped up about cutting the deficit.  They will get credit for a negative victory if they hold fast.  It’s a lot harder to run on being fiscally prudent in election years when opponents will be able to carp on the legislators giving the state less, cutting programs and being obstructionists to government passing laws and providing services. 

Republicans are now allowing themselves to be sucked into the quagmire of spend, pay now and more later but  don’t read the fine print with their weak-kneed responses to the Democrats and promises that THERE WILL BE CUTS…but later. 

MEMO to Republicans: You asked for the opportunity to do the right thing….this is like life, you don’t get points for wanting to do the right thing if you do the wrong thing, and you don’t get points for doing the right thing later if you are doing the wrong thing now and you don’t get points for promising to do the right thing some day.   You do the right thing today and tomorrow and the next and the next and the next and the next.  Cut the federal spending.  Cut it across the board, in the discretionary and mandatory areas.  Roll it back to 2008 or even better, 2006.  Pin it back to the time the Democrats came into power.   You can do this, you just have to muster the steel.  My suggestion, adopt the language from Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program. 

Learn the Fiscal Facts: What is Obesity?  In a person, it is excess body fat, and the normal range is 18.5 to 24.9, while a BMI of over 30 is considered Obese.  So Let’s take the GNP and declare that the Federal Deficit Index should be considered obese if it is over 30%.  

Now, does anyone see the government opting to make healthier choices for its  habits or taking time out to exercise rather than sit around all day eating our tax dollars?  No.  We see the Democrats howling about the draconian nature of not being able to supersize their fries.   We see the Republicans congratulating themselves on getting a diet coke with their Big Mac and Extra Large Fries.  We see the President talking to the kids about healthy eating choices while pulling into the drive thru and ordering all of them their happy meals of choice with a few pies for dessert.  They may make a cut but it will be dumb luck if it reduces any of our debt or deficit by a scintilla of an iota.  

Losing one pound when you need to shed 80 doesn’t feel very encouraging and with the current congress, we’re more talking about losing 1/1000th of a pound.   Rah. 

 I think I’ll wait to break out the skinny jeans.

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Walker Calls Out The One in the WaPo

Doesn’t this hugely amuse you too?

Our reform plan calls for a 5.8 percent pension contribution from government workers, including myself, and a 12.6 percent health insurance premium payment. Both are well below what middle-class, private-sector workers pay. Federal workers, however, pay an average of 28 percent of health insurance costs.

It’s enough to make you wonder why there are no protesters circling the White House.

Meanwhile, back in Obama’s home stomping grounds of Cook County, IL, there are actual calls for the public unions to back off.

Other states are exercising long latent citizen muscle to confront the public union excess driving us to the poorhouse.

Come on America, let’s move! Our way:)