Retro Post: How About More Hate Control Before More Gun Control: In Light Of The San Bernardino Shootings

The post listed below was originally posted back in January, 2013 in response to the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. I reprint it here today two days after the mass shootings in San Bernardino, California because the message back in 2013 is just as relevant today.

Yes, guns were used to kill a lot of Innocent people. Both cases were terrible incidents of violent human behavior that should not happen in a civilized society. 

But going off hysterically about the need for undefined, nebulous, and likely ineffective gun control measures, like many Democrats and liberals did before the body count was even finalized in both situations, does nothing to address the underlying root causes of this violence. 

What those root causes are needs to be investigated and addressed in a logical, rational, and effective means. Going off half cocked without knowing those root causes and just shrieking "gun control" is nonsense. The San Bernardino shooters would not have obeyed any new gun laws. The Sandy Hook shooter would not have obeyed any new gun laws. They had other motives driving their insane behavior and following the law was not likely a big motivator for them.

IF the San Bernardino shootings were terrorist driven, then no new gun law is going to stop those kinds of attacks. The two shooters, husband and wife, from two days ago had body armor on, assault rifles, pipe bombs, were Muslim and at least the husband had recently visited Saudi Arabia, a hot bed of Sunni terrorism. 

If Hillary Clinton and Bernie and Sanders and others think that passing a new gun control law or two is going to stop people like this, they certainly should not be elected President. All their actions will do is further disarm law abiding American citizens and deny them the right  to defend themselves. Keep in mind that California has some of the toughest gun laws in the country and those laws did nothing to prevent the latest mass shootings.

 But the post below does not touch on terrorism. It hypothesizes that maybe hate, as it emanates from the American political class, is a root cause of the mass shootings in this country. When politicians call their political opponents Neanderthals, racists, ass-holes, and say many of them deserve to die and go to hell, well, that degradation of human life, even though they are just political opponents, could be interpreted as a wink and nod to the less stable in this country to do the acts of violence that are incited by politicians' words and slander. 

Something to think about, maybe we need more hate control vs. more gun control in this country.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2013

How About More Hate Control Before More Gun Control, Part 1 - Maybe Hatred Is The Real Root Cause Of Mass Shootings

Be forewarned: there is some bad language and implied bad language in the following so please pass if this might offend you. These are not my words but actually the words of our politiciains and their supporters.

Today is the first of a four part series regarding the Newtown, Connecticut shooting where innocent kids and teachers were needlessly slaughtered be a deranged young man. Let me state a few facts up front:

• I was tremendously saddened by this senseless act of violence.
• I do not know how a young man can become so separated from compassion and reality and have so little respect for life that he would kill innocent children and teachers.
• I am not a psychologist and have no understanding from a psychology/scientific perspective of the root causes which trigger a young man to execute this type of terror, and neither do 99.9% of the people with an opinion on this matter and 100% of those in the Washington political class.
• I am not a member of the NRA and have never fired a gun, never mind owning one.
• I am a fervent defender of the U.S. Constitution including the Second Amendment.

Today I want to consider a concept that I have not seen discussed in the media and certainly not by those in politics that want to strip law abiding, common sense citizens of their right to bear arms. The concept involves the idea that maybe we should do a little hate control BEFORE we recklessly and senselessly go off on a gun control tangent, a tangent that will likely increase crime and gun play, not reduce it (more on this latter concept tomorrow).

Let’s be honest, there is a lot of hate and venom circulating in the country today. Much of it is fomented by the political class as they foolishly try to incite their supporters and degrade their opponents in the most dehumanizing and disrespective ways possible.

The more you dehumanize others, the easier it is to see them as less worthy of their opinion and their life. Maybe if we started respecting each other a little more, taking some of the hate and venom out of our politics, thought processes, and speech, incidents like the shootings in Newtown, in south Chicago, in the ghettos of Detroit, etc. might be become a little less frequent if we respected each other a little more.

This increase in respect and humanizing of other human beings should start with our so-called leaders, However, as we have pointed out many times in this blog, these so-called leaders are a big cause of the problem, not the solution. They have had a busy, and disgraceful past couple of years degrading and abusing the opinions, lives, rights, and very existence of the citizens they are supposed to be serving:

• Democrat Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi called citizen opponents to Obama Care unpatriotic for simply having a difference of opinion with many politicians in Washington.
• Democrat Charles Rangel slandered millions of Americans who opposed Obama Care by calling them racists for simply having an honest difference of opinion with many politicians in Washington.
• Democrat Shelia Jordan Lee slandered millions of Americans who opposed Obama Care by associating them with the Ku Klux Klan.
• Union boss and Democratic supporter Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. stated that his union was at war with the Republicans and Tea Party citizens and that these people "need to be taken out."
• Democratic Congressmen Mike Doyle and Henry Waxman and Vice President Joe Biden slandered American citizens opposed to unfettered and destructive government spending and debt by calling them terrorists (those people that bomb and kill innocent civilians).
• When ordinary Americans objected to the building of a Islamic mosque near the World Trade Center property because of the sad memories of 9-11, Democrat Nancy Pelosi said THEY should be investigated for simply having a passionate opinion on the mosque.
• Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Walters said all Tea Party American citizens can go to hell simply for having a difference of opinion with her.

When you viciously and unfoundedly associate ordinary citizens with racism, call them terrorists, question their patriotism, when you wish they would go to hell, and then threaten to take them out/exterminate them, you have dehumanized them in the eyes of your political supporters, making it easy to imagine them actually going away permanently.

Maybe, this type of hate and venom and dehumanizing goes through the head of a young man when he decides to go off and actually follows the advice that those people “need to be taken out.” When your so-called leaders call for this type of behavior and language, it can’t be wrong, can it?

But our political class, and their direct supporters, also direct their hate and venomous words towards other politicians:

• The campaign manager of Democrat’s Gerry Brown’s gubernatorial campaign called his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman, a whore.
• White House czar Van Jones publicly called all Republicans a**h****s.
• Democrat Alan Grayson called all Republicans knuckle dragging Neanderthals.
• TV host Montel Williams publicly hoped that Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachman would commit suicide by decapitating herself.
• Ed Schultz, an on air commentator for the Democratic leaning MSNBC news channel, called Laura Ingraham of Fox News a slut.
• HBO TV host Bill Maher, a major donor to Obama’s 2012 Presidential Super PAC (a $1 million donor), said on air that Republican Sarah Palin “would f*** Rick Perry if he was black.”
• Bill Maher called Republican Sarah Palin a disgusting and derogatory name that I will not repeat here.
• Playboy magazine’s online website offered a detailed analysis on why and how each of ten Republican women in politics should be hate raped.
• Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen likened Republican critics of Obamacare to the Nazis and their propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
• A rap artist gave a Minnesota concert that was billed as the “F*** Michelle Bachman” concert (spelling out the entire f-word), a Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota.
• A Democratic operative insulted Ann Romney, and millions of other American women, by slandering and demeaning her as a stay at home mother.
• Martin Bashier of MSNBC News showed a video of Mitt Romney’s campaign bus that was interspersed with video clips of buses blowing up in balls of fire, explicitly wishing that the Romney bus also blow up and those inside die a fiery death.

When you label others as sluts and whores and suggest they should be raped or be killed, either by themselves or a fiery bus explosion, you set another stage for dehumanization. If your political opponents are just sluts and whores, no big deal if they go away, right?

I maintain that this type of disgusting, hateful behavior is an influence in our society and not an influence for good. It infects the undertone of how we view others. It reduces the amount of respect we have for others, making it easier to abuse others, possibly violently.

It usually does not cause someone to go off and actually start killing others but it certainly cannot help. It also cuts short the ability to listen to each other and appreciate the diversity of opinion each brings to a potential solution of a problem.

If I have allowed the political class and their ardent supporters to frame you as a racist or a slut or a terrorist, I am unlikely to consider any good you can bring to my life or to a solution of a problem. If I think it is a good thing that you self decapitate or die in a bus explosion, you will probably not get my attention when it comes to working towards a better society.

As a result of this hateful divisiveness the political class has driven into our society, we despise others that have a different opinion from ours. Major issues, such a failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, skyrocketing national debt, high health care costs, illegal immigration, etc., never get resolved. The hate prevents us from listening to each other, from calibrating our view of the world with others’ views of the world.

And possibly in the case of Newtown, we go beyond not listening and we start shooting. Not because guns are legal but because we have allowed the political class to desensitize us to each other as human beings.

But it is not only politicians that spew the hate and venom, hate and venom that others take to heart, hate and venom that their children take and internalize. Consider just some recent examples that have appeared in the news:

- Consider the hateful speech and intentions of Professor Richard Parncutt of the University of Graz regarding other human beings that are global warming deniers, those daring to have a different opinion than his: “In this article I am going to suggest that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for influential GW [global warming] deniers... They [global warming deniers] are already causing the deaths of hundreds of millions of future people. We could be speaking of billions, but I am making a conservative estimate… With high probability it will cause hundreds of millions of deaths. For this reason I propose that the death penalty is appropriate for influential GW deniers.”

Different opinion, therefore you should die. I wonder what he would do to people like me, given our opinions on global warming; should we die also or just suffer some horrible disease since we are not influential enough:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/11/wishing-al-gore-would-shut-up-why-i-am.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/11/wishing-al-gore-would-shut-up-why-i-am_10.html

As an aside, in 2009, the CIA opened up a new division, The Center on Climate Change and National Security. The purpose of this group was to examine the impact of global warming from a national security perspective. A few months ago, with little fanfare, they disbanded the organization. Is the CIA also worthy of Professor Parncutt’s death penalty or was it just common sense that this global warming organization was not longer viable or needed?

- Pulitzer nominated newspaper columnist Donald Kaul recently wrote an article for the Des Moines Register where he called for the killing of gun owners and “dragging legislators who disagree with gun control behind pickup trucks until they get the message.” Don’t agree with my opinion? Thus, we should have more killing and more torture for those that dare to have a difference of opinion. How does this stop the cycle of hate that starts with the political class?

- Erik Loomis, PhD, assistant professor of history at the University of Rhode Island decided he needed to get into the hate and venom game also when he recently stated on Twitter that he wanted the death of National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre, branding the gun rights group he heads as a terrorist organization:"[I] want Wayne LaPierre's head on a stick." A little hateful, a little violent?

- Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers’ Union recently had some violent rhetoric of her own to share: “Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them. Please understand that. However, we are in a moment where the wealth disparity in this country is very reminiscent of the robber baron ages. The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just – off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.”

And this person is associated with educating young minds and kids. Don’t like someone or are jealous of their wealth, that in all probability was garnered via honest hard work and sweat, than just off with their heads.

I maintain that you cannot have such hate and disrespect and venomous speech floating around and it not have a negative impact on how we treat each other, how it dehumanizes others. I am not saying the Newtown shooting was directly caused because of this poisonous environment but it certainly did not help. Was the shooter seated around his dinner table through the years when slurs and demeaning things were said about others, how others that were different from him were worthy of being “taken out.“

And it certainly does not allow us to sit down and go face-to-face with others to leverage everyone’s knowledge and skills to confront all of our problems from school shootings to high debt, high illiteracy levels, failing public education, a failing health care system etc.

But if we solved all of our problems, on what issues would our politicians run on? And that, my friends, is the root cause of most of our problems, from school shootings to the lack of a national energy problem, our shameless politicians need the hate and venom to frame and finance their continual reelection effort.

So tonight, when you are sitting around the table with your family, how about a little more hate control and a lot more respect for others in front of our kids. Again, it couldn’t hurt.

And tomorrow if you should come across someone who thinks other human beings need to be taken out, killed, dragged behind a truck or hate raped simply for having a difference of opinion, may I suggest you walk away? Engaging in such a discussion with these types of people just spreads and intensifies the hate and gets yourself muddy, as the old saying goes: “Never mud wrestle with a pig because you both get dirty and the pig likes it.”Walk away, stay clean, and let the hate spewer stew in his own mud. Help break the cycle of hate.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Janaury, 2015, Part 2,The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: More Gruber and Presidential LIes, A 2017 Price Tsunami, And Taxing/Stifling Innovation

We spent the week or so reviewing the latest insanity from the Washington political class. Wasteful spending by many different government entities but especially the Defense Department,  fraud riddled government programs, government programs that seem to always be over budget and under delivering, and a whole array of other insanity and idiocy.

We stayed away from the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care since that piece of legislation deserves its own, dedicated set of insanity posts. For many years, but especially over the past two years, we have written extensively on the myriad of disasters that this law keeps spawning. To review these past disasters, enter the search term  "the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care" in the search box above.

Today is the second in the two part update to the Obama Care disasters that began yesterday:

1) Most people who follow the Obama Care legacy of disaster and deceit know who Jonathan Gruber is. He was a highly paid, MIT economist that is now generally viewed as one of the architects behind the Obama Care legislation. His economic models helped pave the way for the fiasco of Obama Care.

He was also the one who has been caught on video tape discussing how stupid Americans were and how the whole process of developing the legislation was done in the most non-transparent manner possible in order to hoodwink the public and get the legislation passed. His arrogance and condescension landed him in the front of Congressional committees where he was forced to eat a tremendous amount of humble pie and crow.

But apparently his history of talking too much is still catching up with him. In recently discovered videos and documents of his words, it turns out that most people working on the Obama Care legislation knew up front that Obama Care would be tremendously expensive and that the so-called cost control components of the legislation were merely mirages to hoodwink the country into getting the law passed.

In a 2009 interview, Gruber flatly states: “Why should we hold 48 million uninsured people hostage to the fact that we don’t yet know how to control costs in a politically acceptable way? Let’s get the people covered and then let’s do cost control.” In other words, lets lie now to get the legislation enacted and worry about the costs later, if at all, since we do not know how to control costs today.

But that was not the public message that Obama went forth with. He stated flatly that his legislation would “bend the cost curve” and not add “one dime to the national debt.” In other words, they all lied since we now know that Gruber knew and as did everyone else pushing this disaster that the cost control aspect was pure fiction, courtesy of Gruber’s inability to keep his mouth shut and his ego under control.

But the lies go on, still courtesy of Gruber’s big mouth: “The real substance of cost control is all about a single thing: telling patients they can’t have something they want. It’s about telling patients, ‘That surgery doesn’t do any good, so if you want it you have to pay the full cost.’” In other words, we are talking about a version of what Palin got crucified for, ”death panels.” Here is a primary architect of Obama Care basically admitting that at some point in time, the government and the politicians that operate it will determine whether you and I are entitled to health care treatment.

That my friend is a definition of a death panel. Bureaucrats making life and death decisions for you despite the fact you were told that death panels were not a reality within the Obama Care realm. It is cost control via health care denial,  death panel and government edict. Thus, Obama on down lied about this also. They knew years ago that they had no clue how to control costs but said they did and never admitted that care denial was their only answer to cost control.

2) Speaking of cost control, Stephen Parente recently wrote about what is going to happen to Obama Care insurance costs in 2017 in his article, “Lull Before The Obama Care Rate Storm.” He points out that the rate increases on Obama Care policies were higher this year but not outrageously higher: “Americans visiting Healthcare.gov to purchase 2015 health-insurance plans are finding a nice surprise: Average premiums for the cheap “bronze” plans have increased only by 3.4% and premiums for the middle-of-the-road “silver” plans are rising by 5.8%, according to the American Action Forum. Where are the double-digit premium increases that so many predicted?”

Now this is still bad news in a sense since the President stated, in what is likely another of his many lies and deceptions, that the average American family would see a $2,500 annual decrease in their insurance policy costs once Obama Care was in effect. Obviously, the undelivered promise of a $2,500 decrease is a far cry from single digit increases.

But this disconnect gets far worse in a year or two. The legislation established two, temporary programs that make Obama Care policies far cheaper than the reality of the market: risk corridors and reinsurance. Without going into the gory details, the Obama administration is using taxpayer dollars to subsidize Obama Care insurance policy costs, administered through these two programs, until the end of the year 2016.

Beginning in 2017, these two programs are scheduled to disappear and the insurance companies will set their Obama Care policy costs based strictly on market conditions without the crutch of taxpayer support. According to Mr. Parente,  “This is why premiums on Healthcare.gov are cheaper than many predicted. The taxpayer’s generosity allows insurance companies to hide the true cost this time in 2016. That’s when you’ll see the real spikes.”

What happens when the taxpayer subsidies go away, which they will likely do since it is unlikely that the Republican controlled Congress is going to allow Obama to extend those subsidies beyond their current termination dates? Well a recent study from the University of Minnesota’s Medical Industry Leadership Institute took a shot at estimating the impacts of the subsidy withdrawal to insurance companies. Their forecasts are chilling from a family budget perspective:

• Bronze plans could increase 45% for families, to about $13,000 from $9,000.
• Individual plans could see a 96% spike, to nearly $4,000 from $2,000.
• Other plan types, silver, gold and platinum, will see smaller, but still significant, increases but they are already very, very expensive.
• Premiums for cheaper plans will increase at a faster rate because their deductibles will likely decrease to meet ACA regulations starting in 2016.
• The study’s authors and analysts estimate that premiums will continue to rise after 2017 at higher rates than they did BEFORE Obama Care was enacted. In other words, the legislation made a bad situation worse in  the long run.
• They go on to estimate that as costs go up, fewer and fewer people will pay for the now higher priced policies and will either move to cheaper, less comprehensive policies or terminate their insurance coverage altogether, the exact opposite of what Obama Care intended.

Now, whose number and forecasts should one believe, these from the University of Minnesota or Gruber’s MIT based forecasts? Given that Gruber’s models and lies have not worked out well or accurately, I would place my bet on the University of MInnesota’s models and forecasts since 1) many of them are already coming true and 2) their assumptions in 2017 are based on the reality of the legislation as it is written, i.e. those subsidies to insurance companies are going to go away.

So, higher costs and less people insured, the exact opposite of what the legislation set out to do. But so typical of Washington laws, they never attain their objective and usually make a problem situation worse. And in 2017, when premiums are skyrocketing and people are dropping their coverage, the root causes of our high health care costs, causes that we have listed numerous times in this blog, will still be present and still driving up health care costs.

Mr. Parent closes his article with a good description of the rock and hard place the legislation is in: “This leaves the Affordable Care Act in a precarious position. It was sold on the promises of affordability and universal coverage, yet neither promise can be kept after 2017. America’s debate over health-care reform is only getting started.”

3) One of the most negative aspects of Obama Care is that it has placed a tax on so-called medical devices to help pay for the legislation’s staggering costs. As a result, with less money to invest, medical device companies have been reducing their research and development expense, have restricted hiring or have already laid people off (with one comprehensive study estimating that 33,000 jobs have already been lost due to the tax), and have sought cheaper manufacturing options overseas, all because the taxes from Obama Care have impacted their operating profits.

This will have long term impacts across the board.The economy will grow less since more manufacturing would have left our shores. Unemployment will go up since hiring is constricted or reduced to keep expenses under control. And more importantly, with a reduction in research, life saving or life improving technologies in the medical device world may go undiscovered or delayed, making life more miserable for those the need help.

How real are these concerns? Quite real, if you believe the article recently written by Sean Hackbarth for the Heritage Foundation, “Medical Device Pioneer: If Medical Device Tax Existed When I Started I Wouldn’t Have Been As Successful.”

The pioneer is named Dr. Tom Fogarty and he is the inventor of the balloon catheter that is used to open blockages in blood vessels. His invention has probably been used millions of times to help get the blood flowing again in people's clogged blood vessels, saving lives, reducing health care costs, and making life more enjoyable for those with this  type of problem. Last year he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in a ceremony at the White House.

But he recently penned an article in USA Today where he made the common sense argument against the medical device tax of Obama Care: “There is no way I could have had the same impact if the tax on medical devices was in place when I started over 50 years ago.”

In another interview, this one with last fall with the Silicon Valley Business Journal, he explained how and why investment in American device startups has dried up along with the innovation  that these start ups might have brought to market: “It has had an absolutely huge impact. Nothing will start in the United States because of that tax. It will all go offshore. You can't start a business and pay taxes when you're not making any money. It's a non-starter. [The 2.3% tax applies to revenue not income.]”

That will do it for this update on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. We found more lies from Gruber and this President regarding cost containment and death panels, we can expect gigantic health insurance rate increases in less than two years, and Americans are losing out on what science and technology can bring to our lives and to reducing health care costs as a medical device tax is stifling innovation, inventions, and better lives besides hurting economic growth. Three big disasters from the biggest disaster of a law ever passed by Washington. 

Stay healthy my friends, you cannot afford not to an Obama Care world.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 3, The Obama Presidency: Many Promises Made, Many Promises Unfulfilled

The first ten broken promises of the Obama administration that we have covered over the past two posts were originally compiled by the Independent Journal Review with my additional comments and observations added in. However, I am not sure they got all of the broken promises since they failed to discuss the following:


Cronyism and Failed Alternative Energy Investments

11) “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.” Both of these aspects of our lives from the President’s 2009 inauguration speech never came to fruition.

His wind and solar dreams were derailed when his administration handed out billions of dollars of taxpayer wealth without due diligence and without being independent of how that money was disbursed, with most of it going to political cronies and fund raisers of the President. Billions and billions of dollars wasted on bogus alternative energy endeavors with absolutely no societal or environmental benefit.

Recent financial analyses, analyses that we will cover in more detail in future posts, estimates that over $11 million was needed to create ONE green job. Hardly an efficient use of taxpayer wealth and just another angle on how this promise went unfulfilled.


End Ugly Partianship In Washington

12) The President promised to "turn the page on the ugly partisanship in Washington, so we can bring Democrats and Republicans together to pass an agenda that works for the American people." Nice words, bad follow up:

• When Congressional members of his party equated those American citizens that disagreed with the tenets of Obama Care to the vicious racists of the Civil Rights era, the President was silent.
• When a Congressional member of his party openly stated that those American citizens with a different political viewpoint of her should go to hell, the President was silent.
• When a Congressional member of his party openly stated that Republicans were “knuckle dragging Neanderthals,” the President was silent;
• When a White House czar openly stated that Republicans were “a__h___s,” the President was silent.
• When multiple Congressional members of his party and his Vice President called those opposed to some of his policies barbarians and terrorists, the President was silent.
• When political supporters in the media said that a Republican Congresswoman should commit suicide by self decapitation, that ten Republican political woman needed to be hate raped, that Sarah Palin was a [insert numerous, unmentionable slurs here], that a Fox female commentator was a slut, and any number of other numerous affronts, the President was silent.
• When a major media news source produced and aired a video clip showing the Romney tour bus being consumed in a ball of flame during the 2012 Presidential campaign, killing all of those on board, the President was silent.

You cannot claim you want to “turn the page on the ugly partisanship in Washington” and then standby meekly and silently when your political allies slander, slam, and rant at citizens who might be exercising their right to have a different opinion or viewpoint.

A Transparent Administration

13) One of the President’s main promises was his call for “the most sweeping ethics reform in history.” He also promised that there was no place in his administration for lobbyists. However, according to a recent Washington Post article:

• More than half of Obama’s 47 biggest fundraisers, those who collected at least $500,000 for his campaign, have been given administration jobs.
• Nine more of these fundraisers have been appointed to Presidential boards and committees.
• At least 24 Obama campaign fundraiser bundlers were given posts as foreign ambassadors, including posts in Finland, Australia, Portugal and Luxembourg.
• Obama has appointed 59 ambassadors who were not career Foreign Service officers, and of those, 40% were campign fund raising bundlers.
• Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was a bundler, raising at least $500,000.
• Julius Genachowski, the recent chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, raised at least half a million dollars.
• Bundler Steve Spinner was hired as a liaison in the Energy Department. According to internal e-mails turned over in a Congressional investigation, Spinner pressed for the Energy Department to finalize a government loan for Solyndra, the now bankrupt solar panel company in which yet another campaign bundler was a major investor.

An October 16, 2013 article from the Washington Examiner identified 56 lobbyists that were working in high level positions in the Obama administration:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/oh-no-we-cant-let-romney-win-hell-let-lobbyists-in-the-white-house/article/2510879

A small sample of these lobbyists include the following:

• Fannie Mae, Cigna, and Credit Suisse lobbyist Laricke Blanchard was named deputy director of policy for the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
• Former teachers union lobbyist Gabriella Gomez is an assistant secretary of Education.
• Former crop-industry lobbyist Krysta Harden is assistant secretary of Agriculture.
• White House staff members include Patton Boggs lobbyist Emmett Beliveau, O’Melveny & Myers lobbyist Derek Douglas, and Pfizer’s and AT&T’s lobbyist at Akin Gump Dana Singiser.

Lord knows how many lobbyists would be working at the White House and in the Obama administration if the President had not vowed to keep lobbyists out of government during his reign.

Protect Social Security

14) "Now is the time to protect Social Security for future generations." Promise broken since the President has devoted virtually no effort to finding and implementing a fix to the Social Security System, a system that effects every retired and current American worker. The inaction of the President and Congress on this topic is certainly distressing since the system is now in a negative cash flow situation that will only get worse in a business as usual environment.

Protect The Constitution

15) "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." I am assuming that that this oath that was taken by this President and all previous implicitly includes the requirement that the President enforce and aide by not only the tenets of the Constitution but all current Federal laws that were passed under the tenets of the Constitution.

Given that assumption, the polices and positions of this President have violated this oath many times over:

• The botched Fast and Furious gun running operation which sent guns to violent Mexican drug cartels under Federal government guidance broke numerous internal laws and international treaties.
• The NDAA legislation, which allows the Federal government to hold a person in detention indefinitely, violates our nation’s due process of law, the right to a speedy trial, and the right to confront one’s accuser.
• The President’s unilateral decision to not enforce DOMA is a violation of his oath to enforce the laws of the land (even though DOMA is a lousy law which allows the Federal government to define personal relationships). If it was such a lousy law in his mind, he should have Constitutionally repealed it when his approval rating was sky high and his party controlled both houses of Congress. He did nothing and now does not have the right to ignore an existing law.
• The President’s decision to ignore the ruling of a Federal judge in Louisiana relative to the administration’s Gulf oil drilling ban is a gross violation of the Constitution’s checks and balances.
• The dangerous and growing power and reach that the government has relative to reading our emails, texts, instant messages, and other correspondences without legal standing and without our knowledge violates an American’s right to privacy as laid out many times by the Supreme Court.

Adequate Pending Legislation Review

16) During his first Presidential campaign, President Obama pledged not "to sign any nonemergency bills without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days."

This promise has been broken too many times to list but the most blatant violation of this vow came with the House of Representatives voting on the Obama Care legislation. In this case, a bill that was over 2,000 pages long was distributed and voted on within 48 hours. Many members of Congress complained about this insane turnaround from receiving the bill to voting on it, never mind anyone in the American public getting it, reading it, and commenting on it before passage.

Slash Earmarks

17) In a 2008 speech, President Obama promised to "slash earmarks by more than half" and to reduce them to "less than $7.8 billion a year, the level they were at before 1994 when the Republicans took over control of Congress."

During every year of his adminsitraton, earmarks have continued to hover around the annual $15 billion level, not coming close to being slashed by more than half, allowing the politicians in Washington to conitnue to use the earmark process to support their continual relection campaigns.

Balance The Federal Budget

18) Early in his Presidency, President Obama proclaimed that "what my budget does is...by the middle of this decade, our annual spending willmatch our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to our national debt."

This is one of the President's bigger "lair, liar pants on fire" statements. For the first five years of his term, the Federal govenrment has run up over a trillion dolalrs worth of deficits and debt every year. His long term, ten year budget, that is currently under consideration, never comes close to matching spending with annual revenues. Not even close on this promise. Guess he never got around to going through the Federal budget "line by line" as he promised since trillion dollar annual deficits are the rule not the exception with this President.

Violating Constitutional rights even though he promised to abide by the Constitution. Not proposing any fixes to an ailing Social Security system even though he promised to fix it. Allowing Washington to remain a crony infested, earmark addicted, ethically challenged environment even though he promised to clean it up. Standing by silently as the divisive language and attitudes from his political allies reached all time lows even though he promised to end the hatred. Using taxpayer money to reward his political allies and fund raisers who happened to own bogus or shaky alternative energy endeavors, resulting in billions of dollars wasted and no long term alternative energy progress made. Annual deficits that are record setting and economically destructive.

Again, remember how we opened this series of posts two days ago. In January, 2009, this President had sky high approval ratings and his party had solid control of both parts of Congress.

He could have done anything he wanted, fulfilled any promise he made. However, he spent much of his time traveling the world, meeting with athletic teams, playing golf, taking vacations, raising campaign money for himself and his party, and reveling in his fame and popularity.

Thus, blaming any one or any opposition for his lack of success is a groundless argument. He had a historic two year window of opportunity to make his mark in history, fulfill his promises, and go down in the history books for implementing epic changes in this country (for better or worse).

Instead he will likely go down as a President who missed a historical moment, who saddled the country with national debt that will span generations, who left a country more divided than when he came into office, implemented economic policies that left the country in a low growth economic rut, and who fulfilled a minimal amount of his most grand and impactful promises.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

How About More Hate Control Before More Gun Control, Part 1 - Maybe Hatred Is The Real Root Cause Of Mass Shootings

Be forewarned: there is some bad language and implied bad language in the following so please pass if this might offend you. These are not my words but actually the words of our politiciains and their supporters.

Today is the first of a four part series regarding the Newtown, Connecticut shooting where innocent kids and teachers were needlessly slaughtered be a deranged young man. Let me state a few facts up front:

• I was tremendously saddened by this senseless act of violence.
• I do not know how a young man can become so separated from compassion and reality and have so little respect for life that he would kill innocent children and teachers.
• I am not a psychologist and have no understanding from a psychology/scientific perspective of the root causes which trigger a young man to execute this type of terror, and neither do 99.9% of the people with an opinion on this matter and 100% of those in the Washington political class.
• I am not a member of the NRA and have never fired a gun, never mind owning one.
• I am a fervent defender of the U.S. Constitution including the Second Amendment.

Today I want to consider a concept that I have not seen discussed in the media and certainly not by those in politics that want to strip law abiding, common sense citizens of their right to bear arms. The concept involves the idea that maybe we should do a little hate control BEFORE we recklessly and senselessly go off on a gun control tangent, a tangent that will likely increase crime and gun play, not reduce it (more on this latter concept tomorrow).

Let’s be honest, there is a lot of hate and venom circulating in the country today. Much of it is fomented by the political class as they foolishly try to incite their supporters and degrade their opponents in the most dehumanizing and disrespective ways possible.

The more you dehumanize others, the easier it is to see them as less worthy of their opinion and their life. Maybe if we started respecting each other a little more, taking some of the hate and venom out of our politics, thought processes, and speech, incidents like the shootings in Newtown, in south Chicago, in the ghettos of Detroit, etc. might be become a little less frequent if we respected each other a little more.

This increase in respect and humanizing of other human beings should start with our so-called leaders, However, as we have pointed out many times in this blog, these so-called leaders are a big cause of the problem, not the solution. They have had a busy, and disgraceful past couple of years degrading and abusing the opinions, lives, rights, and very existence of the citizens they are supposed to be serving:

• Democrat Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi called citizen opponents to Obama Care unpatriotic for simply having a difference of opinion with many politicians in Washington.
• Democrat Charles Rangel slandered millions of Americans who opposed Obama Care by calling them racists for simply having an honest difference of opinion with many politicians in Washington.
• Democrat Shelia Jordan Lee slandered millions of Americans who opposed Obama Care by associating them with the Ku Klux Klan.
• Union boss and Democratic supporter Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. stated that his union was at war with the Republicans and Tea Party citizens and that these people "need to be taken out."
• Democratic Congressmen Mike Doyle and Henry Waxman and Vice President Joe Biden slandered American citizens opposed to unfettered and destructive government spending and debt by calling them terrorists (those people that bomb and kill innocent civilians).
• When ordinary Americans objected to the building of a Islamic mosque near the World Trade Center property because of the sad memories of 9-11, Democrat Nancy Pelosi said THEY should be investigated for simply having a passionate opinion on the mosque.
• Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Walters said all Tea Party American citizens can go to hell simply for having a difference of opinion with her.

When you viciously and unfoundedly associate ordinary citizens with racism, call them terrorists, question their patriotism, when you wish they would go to hell, and then threaten to take them out/exterminate them, you have dehumanized them in the eyes of your political supporters, making it easy to imagine them actually going away permanently.

Maybe, this type of hate and venom and dehumanizing goes through the head of a young man when he decides to go off and actually follows the advice that those people “need to be taken out.” When your so-called leaders call for this type of behavior and language, it can’t be wrong, can it?

But our political class, and their direct supporters, also direct their hate and venomous words towards other politicians:

• The campaign manager of Democrat’s Gerry Brown’s gubernatorial campaign called his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman, a whore.
• White House czar Van Jones publicly called all Republicans a**h****s.
• Democrat Alan Grayson called all Republicans knuckle dragging Neanderthals.
• TV host Montel Williams publicly hoped that Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachman shcommit suicide by decapitating herself.
• Ed Schultz, an on air commentator for the Democratic leaning MSNBC news channel, called Laura Ingraham of Fox News a slut.
• HBO TV host Bill Maher, a major donor to Obama’s 2012 Presidential Super PAC (a $1 million donor), said on air that Republican Sarah Palin “would f*** Rick Perry if he was black.”
• Bill Maher called Republican Sarah Palin a disgusting and derogatory name that I will not repeat here.
• Playboy magazine’s online website offered a detailed analysis on why and how each of ten Republican women in politics should be hate raped.
• Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen likened Republican critics of Obamacare to the Nazis and their propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
• A rap artist gave a Minnesota concert that was billed as the “F*** Michelle Bachman” concert (spelling out the entire f-word), a Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota.
• A Democratic operative insulted Ann Romney, and millions of other American women, by slandering and demeaning her as a stay at home mother.
• Martin Bashier of MSNBC News showed a video of Mitt Romney’s campaign bus that was interspersed with video clips of buses blowing up in balls of fire, explicitly wishing that the Romney bus also blow up and those inside die a fiery death.

When you label others as sluts and whores and suggest they should be raped or be killed, either by themselves or a fiery bus explosion, you set another stage for dehumanization. If you political opponents are just sluts and whores, no big deal if they go away, right?

I maintain that this type of disgusting, hateful behavior is an influence in our society and not an influence for good. It infects the undertone of how we view others. It reduces the amount of respect we have for others, making it easier to abuse others, possibly violently.

It usually does not cause someone to go off and actually start killing others but it certainly cannot help. It also cuts short the ability to listen to each other and appreciate the diversity of opinion each brings to a potential solution of a problem.

If I have allowed the political class and their ardent supporters to frame you as a racist or a slut or a terrorist, I am unlikely to consider any good you can bring to my life or to a solution of a problem. If I think it is a good thing that you self decapitate or die in a bus explosion, you will probably not get my attention when it comes to working towards a better society.

As a result of this hateful divisiveness the political class has driven into our society, we despise others that have a different opinion from ours. Major issues, such a failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, skyrocketing national debt, high health care costs, illegal immigration, etc., never get resolved. The hate prevents us from listening to each other, from calibrating our view of the world with others’ views of the world.

And possibly in the case of Newtown, we go beyond not listening and we start shooting. Not because guns are legal but because we have allowed the political class to desensitize us to each other as human beings.

But it is not only politicians that spew the hate and venom, hate and venom that others take to heart, hate and venom that their children take and internalize. Consider just some recent examples that have appeared in the news:

- Consider the hateful speech and intentions of Professor Richard Parncutt of the University of Graz regarding other human beings that are global warming deniers, those daring to have a different opinion than his: “In this article I am going to suggest that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for influential GW [global warming] deniers... They [global warming deniers] are already causing the deaths of hundreds of millions of future people. We could be speaking of billions, but I am making a conservative estimate… With high probability it will cause hundreds of millions of deaths. For this reason I propose that the death penalty is appropriate for influential GW deniers.”

Different opinion, therefore you should die. I wonder what he would do to people like me, given our opinions on global warming; should we die also or just suffer some horrible disease since we are not influential enough:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/11/wishing-al-gore-would-shut-up-why-i-am.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/11/wishing-al-gore-would-shut-up-why-i-am_10.html

As an aside, in 2009, the CIA opened up a new division, The Center on Climate Change and National Security. The purpose of this group was to examine the impact of global warming from a national security perspective. A few months ago, with little fanfare, they disbanded the organization. Is the CIA also worthy of Professor Parncutt’s death penalty or was it just common sense that this global warming organization was not longer viable or needed?

- Pulitzer nominated newspaper columnist Donald Kaul recently wrote an article for the Des Moines Register where he called for the killing of gun owners and “dragging legislators who disagree with gun control behind pickup trucks until they get the message.” Don’t agree with my opinion? Thus, we should have more killing and more torture for those that dare to have a difference of opinion. How does this stop the cycle of hate that starts with the political class?

- Erik Loomis, PhD, assistant professor of history at the University of Rhode Island decided he needed to get into the hate and venom game also when he recently stated on Twitter that he wanted the death of National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre, branding the gun rights group he heads as a terrorist organization:"[I] want Wayne LaPierre's head on a stick." A little hateful, a little violent?

- Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers’ Union recently had some violent rhetoric of her own to share: “Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them. Please understand that. However, we are in a moment where the wealth disparity in this country is very reminiscent of the robber baron ages. The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just – off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.”

And this person is associated with educating young minds and kids. Don’t like someone or are jealous of their wealth, that in all probability was garnered via honest hard work and sweat, than just off with their heads.

I maintain that you cannot have such hate and disrespect and venomous speech floating around and it not have a negative impact on how we treat each other, how it dehumanizes others. I am not saying the Newtown shooting was directly caused because of this poisonous environment but it certainly did not help. Was the shooter seated around his dinner table through the years when slurs and demeaning things were said about others, how others that were different from him were worthy of being “taken out.“

And it certainly does not allow us to sit down and go face-to-face with others to leverage everyone’s knowledge and skills to confront all of our problems from school shootings to high debt, high illiteracy levels, failing public education, a failing health care system etc.

But if we solved all of our problems, on what issues would our politicians run on? And that, my friends, is the root cause of most of our problems, from school shootings to the lack of a national energy problem, our shameless politicians need the hate and venom to frame and finance their continual reelection effort.

So tonight, when you are sitting around the table with your family, how about a little more hate control and a lot more respect for others in front of our kids. Again, it couldn’t hurt.

And tomorrow if you should come across someone who thinks other human beings need to be taken out, killed, dragged behind a truck or hate raped simply for having a difference of opinion, may I suggest you walk away? Engaging in such a discussion with these types of people just spreads and intensifies the hate and gets yourself muddy, as the old saying goes: “Never mud wrestle with a pig because you both get dirty and the pig likes it.” Walk away, stay clean, and let the hate spewer stew in his own mud. Help break the cycle of hate.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and
others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

61 Reasons Why Jimmy Carter Is Off The Hook, Part 2 - The Legacy Of Failure Of The Obama Administration

This is the second of a two part discussion that lays out my belief that the Obama administration is likely the worst Presidential administration of the past century or so, clearly replacing the Presidential administration of Jimmy Carter. Before we review the final 31 reasons for my conclusion and summarize all of the findings, let me set the stage:

• Until the midterm elections in November, 2010 I had never voted for a Republican for national office, President or Congress, in my life.
• I have voted for very few Republicans for local, county, and state elections in my life.
• Thus, I am not a long term Republican voter or conservative.
• The reason I wrote and published my book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” was because of the insanity I witnessed during the Republican Bush administration. The waste, stupidity, and corruption of that era was something I found unacceptable in a democracy and wanted to do my part to fix our ailing democracy. It had nothing to do with the Obama administration and its failures.
• Thus, I am not out to do a hatchet job on the President, I would do a similar assessment on any other person with the same dismal track record.
• I am not saying that John McCain would have been more effective than Obama has been. We will never know, given McCain did not get elected.
• I am not enthusiastic about Romney by any stretch of the imagination and I am not saying that Romney would be more effective than Obama has been.
• My information sources for my conclusions almost never include Fox News and never conservative/Republican blogs or forums. Most of the time my sources are unbiased or liberal leaning organizations that tend to portray the Obama administration in a more favorable light than it deserves.
• I believe that in sports, politics, and life, the old saying that “you are only as good as your record” should be the only guide to reality. Saying you tried hard or claiming the failure was not your fault are easy to do. But results are the only things that count in the final assessment. Excuses are a sign of weakness and immaturity when it comes to leadership in life. However, they are an ongoing trait of this administration.
• Some of the points of failure listed below might be viewed as petty and unimportant in the big picture. However, this assessment is meant as a comprehensive view of the Obama Presidency and one person’s view of pettiness and unimportance might be viewed as a failed opportunity at leadership by someone else. That is why everything was included.
• Harry Truman once eloquently stated: “The buck stops here.” He realized he was the overall boss so that anything that went wrong on his watch ultimately was his responsibility, a responsibility he was willing to accept. The Obama administration should not be held to any lower standard of excellence.
• For the first two years of his Presidency, Obama’s Democratic party held a majority in the House of Representatives and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. His approval ratings were sky high. He could have done anything he wanted. He wasted that historic opportunity and as a result, he does not now get to blame Bush, the Arab Spring, the Iranians, the Japanese tsunami, ATM machines, Congress, the Republicans, or anything else for his failures. The buck stops at his desk, he accepted the job and both the glory and the blame that goes with it.

The following 31 reasons complete the list of why Jimmy Carter is now off the hook, replaced by the failed legacy of the Obama administration:

31) Failure to provide a national energy strategy, a void that has seen the price for a gallon of gas rise about 100% since his inauguration.

32) Failure to run a tight operation when it comes to national security leaks from the highest levels of his administration, leaks that appeared in the New York Times and elsewhere that have endangered our national security and the lives of our fighting forces around the world.

33) Failure to represent the rights, integrity, and humanity of about half the women in this country when he remained silent in the face of demeaning, sexist, and disgusting comments about Republican women:

• When the campaign manager of Democrat’s Gerry Brown’s gubernatorial campaign called his female Republican opponent a whore, Obama was silent.
• When TV host Montel Williams had publicly hoped that Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachman would commit suicide by decapitating herself, Obama was silent.
• When Ed Schultz, an on air commentator for the Democratic leaning MSNBC news channel, called Laura Ingraham of Fox News a slut, Obama was silent.
• When HBO TV host Bill Maher, a major/million dollar donor to Obama’s 2012 Presidential Super PAC, said on air that Republican Sarah Palin “would f*** Rick Perry if he was black,” Obama was silent.
• When Bill Maher called Republican Sarah Palin a disgusting and derogatory name that I will not repeat here, Obama was silent.
• When Playboy magazine’s online website offered a detailed analysis on why and how each of ten Republican women in politics should be hate raped, Obama was silent.
• When a rap artist gave a Minnesota concert that was billed as the “F*** Michelle Bachman” concert (spelling out the entire f word), a Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota, Obama was silent.
• When a Democratic operative insulted Ann Romney, and millions of other American women, by slandering and demeaning her as a stay at home mother, Obama was silent.

I am not saying that Obama should have responded to all of these degradations of Republican women. However, he cannot claim he is working hard for all of the women in the country when he allows half of them, those with a differing political view, to be called sluts, whores, worthy of hate rapes, and other terms to graphic too repeat here. He should be a leader, he should be setting the tone of civil political dialog, not remaining silent.

34) Failure to represent the rights, integrity, and freedoms of millions of citizens when he remained silent when his Democratic Party allies demeaned, slandered and slammed Americans for simply expressing their freedom of speech and having a difference of opinion:

• When Democrat Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi called opponents to Obama Care unpatriotic for simply having a difference of opinion with many politicians in Washington, Obama was silent.
• When Democrat Charles Rangel slandered millions of Americans who opposed Obama Care by calling them racists for simply having an honest difference of opinion with many politicians in Washington, Obama was silent.
• When Democrat Shelia Jordan Lee slandered of Americans who opposed Obama Care by associating them with the Ku Klux Klan, Obama was silent.
• When White House czar Van Jones called all Republicans a**h****s, Obama was silent.
• When Democrat Alan Grayson called all Republicans knuckle dragging Neanderthals, Obama was silent.
• When union boss and Democratic supporter Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. stated that his union was at war with the Republicans and Tea Party and that those people "need to be taken out," Obama was silent.
• When Democratic Congressmen Mike Doyle and Henry Waxman and Vice President Joe Biden slandered Americans opposed to unfettered and destructive government spending and debt by calling them terrorists (those people that bomb and kill and innocent civilians), Obama was silent.
• When ordinary Americans objected to the building of a Islamic mosque near the World Trade Center property because of the memories of 9-11 and Democrat Nancy Pelosi said they should be investigated for simply having an opinion on the mosque, Obama was silent.
• When Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen likened Republican critics of Obamacare to the Nazis and their propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Obama was silent.
• When Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Walters said all Tea Party American citizens can go to hell simply for having a difference of opinion with her, Obama was silent.

You cannot say you are the leader of the entire country when political allies attack citizens for simply having an opinion or political opponents are called terrorists, a**h****s, racists, Nazis, or Neanderthals and you remain silent. That does not celebrate our freedom and celebrate diversity.

35) Failure to respect the tenets of religious freedom in this country by forcing certain organizations to conform to government mandates that are at odds with these organizations’ religious tenets, not realizing that in many parts of the world when government dictates religious terms and conditions it is called the Taliban.

36) Failure to respect the Constitution and rule of law on many occasions including, but not limited to:

• Violating the Constitution and War Powers Act by unilaterally involving U.S. armed forces in the Libyan conflict in order to protect the flow of oil to Europe.
• Violating the rule of law by ignoring a judge’s explicit order to lift the moratorium on Gulf oil drilling.
• Violating the rule of law by unilaterally refusing to enforce DOMA requirements (a law that needs to be repealed in the name of freedom but cannot be ignored by a President until that Constitutional process is completed).
• Violating the rule of law by making high ranking government appointments while Congress was still in session, bypassing the checks and balances inherent in the Constitution.
• Violating the rule of law by unilaterally trying to change welfare requirements as established the welfare reform legislation signed by the Clinton administration.
• Violating the rule of law by allowing his Cabinet department heads to actively and openly campaign for his reelection, a gross, unlawful violation of the Hatch Act.
• Violating the rule of law by selectively deciding to enforce or not enforce parts of current Federal immigration law relative to his dissatisfaction with the state of Arizona.
• Violating the rule of law by allowing thousands of guns to illegally walk across the border into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels under the Fast and Furious program.
• Violating the rule of law by selectively deciding to enforce or not enforce parts of the current Federal welfare law.
• Establishing a shadow government of czars, bypassing Constitutionally mandated reviews, vetting, and debate of all high ranking government officials.
Bypassing Constitutional checks and balances by implementing a long string of executive orders, the latest of which, gives the executive branch control over all forms of communications whnever it desires for whatever reason it wants, hardly a behaviorf conducive to liberty.

37) Failure to reduce the repugnant practice of cronyism in Washington by continuing to hand out taxpayer wealth to political cronies and campaign donors with little regard for what value the American taxpayer may get in return, with the most egregious examples including the alternative energy companies (e.g. Solyndra) and alternative auto companies (e.g. Fisker, Telsa, GM), wasting billions and billions of dollars in the process.

38) Failure to respect the right of American citizens to have a fair trial by their peers by authorizing the first official assassination of an American citizen in the history of our country and establishing a formal process to determine what other American citizens deserve to be assassinated by the Federal government in the future.

39) Failure to adopt more stringent safeguards to freedom when he automatically renewed the Patriot Act as is along with failing to appoint members to a panel, as prescribed by the Patriot Act, which is supposed to ensure that freedom and liberty are not destroyed by Patriot Act usage and abuses.

40) Failure to veto the NDAA legislation which could lead government officials to legally hold American citizens in custody without trial and without cause for as long as desired by the same government officials as long as those officials claim it is in the name of national security.

41) Failure to respect freedom of the press, trying many times to directly or indirectly shut down news outlets that hold and broadcast a contrary view of reality to their users and viewers.

42) Failure to approve the construction of the Keystone pipeline solely for political reasons, ignoring the fact that thousands of jobs would be created, without taxpayer support, and that the “dirty” crude oil from Canada will be burned somewhere in the world. If not in North America than likely in China so that environmental impacts will not be affected with or without the Keystone pipeline.

43) Failure to understand basic business mentality in that uncertainty is the greatest inhibitor to business, employment, and economic expansion and his approach to the economy has created tremendous uncertainty due to the following:

• His insistence that tax policy be changed on a short term, ad hoc basis has added uncertainty to the marketplace and the economy.
• His 2,500 page health care reform legislation and its dozens of new taxes and thousands of new rules and regulations has added uncertainty to the marketplace and the economy.
• His 2,000 page financial industry reform legislation and its hundreds of new rules and regulations has added uncertainty to the marketplace and the economy.
• Thousands of other regulations from all Federal departments during his administration have added uncertainty to the marketplace and the economy.
• His continued class warfare rhetoric has added uncertainty to the marketplace and the economy.

No wonder we have suffered through the worst post recession period in a very long time, the uncertainty this administration has introduced into our lives has led businesses and entrepreneurs to be cautious and conservative and the resultant economic growth to be anemic.

44) Failure to recognize that small business owners are hardworking, risk taking heroes when he unbelievably asserted at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia that business owners are not responsible for the success of their businesses, slamming the very people who provide benefits to society and jobs and benefits to fellow citizens.

45) Failure to understand that great leaders (FDR, Churchill, Lincoln, Washington) unite their people during times of stress and challenges with this President constantly trying to divide, and conquer Americans with his class warfare rhetoric that pits rich against poor, liberal against conservative, pro life against pro choice, unemployed against employed, etc.

46) Failure to speak out when Daniel Adkins, Elizabeth Hutchenson, and Ladarious Phillips were killed, electing to speak out only in the Trayvon Martin killing because it was politically advantageous for him to do so for the Martin case but not the other cases.

47) Failure to give individual Americans recognition and White House photo opportunities for great teaching, heroic police and fire fighting acts, outstanding job creation, compassionate acts of charity, etc., instead, saving photo opportunities for untold numbers of college and professional athletic teams.

48) Failure to stop Iran from being three and a half years closer to having nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them.

49) Failure to stop North Korea from being three and a half years closer to having nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them.

50) Failure to establish a peaceful process to resolve the long standing Palestinian/Israeli problem.

51) Failure to foresee the Arab spring, resulting in an unpreparedness that has considerably weakened the American influence in the entire Middle East region.

52) Failure to establish the necessary civilian and military platforms in Afghanistan, wasting American lives and wealth in the process, a failure that will lead to the reestablishment of a Taliban and terrorist state once NATO combat troops leave in two years.

53) Failure to understand what just about every other country in world understands: that airport security should be trusted to trained private sector companies, with appropriate government oversight, rather than another gigantic, ineffective, bumbling, and groping set of government employees in a bumbling, crime infested bureaucracy.

54) Failure to understand that a Presidential political “enemies list” is a bad, anti-freedom idea when Nixon put the first one together and the concept has not gotten any better with this President’s issuing of his own enemies list and the ensuing harassment of innocent Americans.

55) Failure to lead on these previous topics relates to his inability to build consensus, to seek diversity of opinions, to consider other approaches, to be inclusive. When he does not get what he wants in the way he wants it, he gives up and blames the Republicans or someone else, That is not leadership, that is ego. Great leaders are inclusive and unifying, non-leaders are selfish, divisive, and inwardly focused.

56) Failure to understand that “Great leaders give the credit and take the blame.” This President gets it backward, taking credit when things go right, always inserting himself and his ego into the center of positive attention while backing away from the spotlight when things go wrong.

57) Failure to protect our embassies and sovereign soil in other countries when our embassies were attacked and their security sometimes breached.

58) Failure to protect our consulate in Libya despite warnings from Libyan and American security experts that a terrorist attack was highly likely, resulting in the needless deaths of our Libyan ambassador and three other Americans, a security failing so atrocious that it was native Libyan citizens that took the dying ambassador to the hospital, not U.S. security personnel.

59) Failure to be truthful with America immediately after the terrorist attack in Libya, claiming that a poor quality anti-Islam YouTube video caused an ad hoc attack when the administration knew it was a coordinated terror organization siege.

60) Failure to attend more than half of his daily security briefings, including the security briefing the day after the fatal attack on the our consulate in Libya even though he had enough time to fly to Las Vegas for a campaign fund raising event.

61) Failure to clear his calendar to honor a meeting requested from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu to discuss the rising nuclear weapon crisis with Iran but who had enough time to hold dozens of fund raisers over the past few months.

I may be wrong but I do not remember Carter coming anywhere close to this number of failures during his entire four years as President. I do not think he set anywhere near the number of records that the Obama administration has set as far as the weakest economic recovery ever, the most failed economic programs, the most consecutive months of unemployment above 8%, the most Americans ever on food stamps, etc.

I do not remember Carter having nearly as many negative firsts as Obama such as the first government sanctioned American citizen assassination, the first ever U.S. credit downgrade, the first ever TRILLION dollar annual government deficit, etc.

I do not remember Carter having nearly as much disdain for individual Constitutional rights, Constitutional tenets, or the rule of law.

I do not remember Carter having so many excuses for the dire economic conditions that his administration put the country through, unlike the Obama administration which has an excuse for everything.

I do not remember Carter having so much disdain for freedom of the press, political opponents, American women, individual freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and small businesses.

So, in summary, why does this President deserve a second term, based on the list of failures from above:

• His understanding of micro economics, how businesses think, work, and succeed, is non-existent, resulting in a high degree of business uncertainty and anemic economic growth.
• His understanding for macro economics, how the overall economy works, has been abysmal, resulting in failed, short-sighted economic programs.
• His lack of respect for the Constitution and the rule of law has been disgraceful, endangering personal freedom and liberty.
• His inability to lead has been disappointing.
• His foreign policy successes are minimal.
• His ability to divide the country with class warfare actions and rhetoric has been surprising, based on the promise of his 2008 campaign: “The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.”

I truly believe that the President does not “get” America:

• He does not get that American families are losing their homes at record rates to foreclosure.
• Even though the unemployment rate is still around a morale crushing 8%, he does not get it and is so out of touch with America he thinks that the private sector is “doing fine.”
• He does not get it or understand of how American small businesses owners struggle, scrimp and save, make sacrifices of time, energy, and family but in his mind do not deserve the credit for building successful businesses, creating value for society, expanding  the economy, and providing jobs for others.
• He does not get or understand Americans who live outside of major cities, considering them “bitter” as they “cling to their religion and guns.”

But most of all, Obama’s inability to take personal responsibility for his actions and the ineptness of his administration is most distressing. When a so-called leader keeps looking backward and blaming Bush, ATM machines, the Euro crisis, the Arab spring, the Japanese tsunami, the Republicans in the House, wealthy Americans who do not pay enough in taxes, and other aspects of life, he ceases to be a leader and becomes a dead weight on the future.

Leaders look forward, leaders care about more than their self image, leaders unite, leaders give credit and take the blame, leaders understand and obey the rule of law agreed to by all within the democracy. This President and this administration have none of these leadership traits. And that is why Carter, in my opinion, is now off the hook for the most inept, ineffective, and destructive Presidency of my lifetime, being replaced by the Obama administration.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/