Restoring Common Sense

Is there not a Democrat in the Senate that has the moral fortitude to stand up and put a halt to the corrupt process going on in this Health Bill legislation?

The deal with the unions this week, the Nebraska and Louisiana deals, the lack of promised “transparency” in the legislative process, etc, etc, is nothing short of “malpractice” by our elected officials.

Now, should the republican  win the Senate seat in Massachusetts, they are scheming on how to delay his certification until after they can ram through the bill!

We really need to clean out Washington and establish term limits!  Quickly!

Steve Booth

Circumstances have recently landed me in what turns out to be a remarkable rehabilitation facility, Manor Care in McMurry, PA   A surgical wound from a medical procedure which was performed last summer has provided more difficult that originally anticipated and will result in a 6-8 week stay in this facility.

Today I experienced one on one contact with an amazing lady we will call Carol who boarded the same lift van that I was returning to Manor Care on.  As we pulled into the Iceplex, (home and training facility for the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL Hockey team), Carol, a most pleasant faced lady with personality to match boarded the bus.  As she squeezed past my power chair she was half a head taller than me and smiled very pleasantly said “I don’t believe we have ridden together before” as she slid into the seat behind me and I heard the seat belt click.

My usual line of questions when I meet a person for the first time is to put them at ease as soon as possible while at the same time, gleaning as much or more from them as they might commonly share.  The next 25-30 minutes demonstrated to me that this young ladies life story could easily be the basis for another epic similar to Tom Cruise/Dustin Hoffman’s “Rain Man”!

During the following 20 minutes it became patently obvious to me that Carol possessed more “Common Sense” in her little finger than nearly all of the current members of our government from the local level through the White House!  As the lift van pulled up in front of Manor Care the driver went out to lower the lift and Carol immediately unbuckled her seat belt, picked up three bags of things I had collected at my apartment and several heavy bags of merchandise I had purchased at the pharmacy.   As I maneuvered my chair onto the lift, she stopped directly behind me and inquired whether I needed guidance because of my limited vision.  I thanked and said that I had the drill down pretty good as I had been doing it for over 6 years.  I believe that that simple act was another in a  series of  examples of common sense displayed during our conversation.

In the short ride to the entrance she briskly walked ahead to hit the automatic door opener button and politely ushered me into the lobby of Manor Care.  Never having been there before she approached the secretary and inquired as to whether or not they might have a cart to use to transport my belongings to my room.  The secretary made a call and soon one of the aides appeared with a cart to complete the mission.  All the merchandise was placed in the cart Carol turned to me and said “we should probably let the aide take this from here since I am probably not supposed to be inside Manor Care”, another clear example of spur of the moment common sense.

I told her what an honor and pleasure it was to meet her and learn from her.  She replied she hoped we had a chance to ride together again.  Then she reached out and shook my hand and disappeared through the door back to the lift van. 

Over the next hour I had a chance to reflect on what had just taken place  There have been few if any situations in my life where such clear examples of individual common sense as what this young lady with “Special Needs” have appeared.  A most inspirational afternoon….

Onward and Upward Common Sense Warriors!

Ken Campbell

is there another political dynamic involved?

Let’s see, we have a terrorist bomber from Yemen who was prepped partially by former Gitmo detainees and we are going to continue to send the other Yemeni detainee’s we have in custody back to Yemen to help try and blow up stuff?  I would put a famous statement about insanity here but this isn’t insane it is just STUPID!

Or, is this administration so desparate to accomplish one campaign promise that they are willing to risk the lives of others to meet this goal?

More later.

Steve Booth

….within the memory of nearly all citizens of voting age there remained at least vestiges of that once desirable characteristic known as integrity.  Winston Churchill once said in Britain’s House of Parliament ” with integrity there is nothing else – without integrity there is nothing else”.  Could he have been predicting  the Congress of the United States in 2009 regarding Obama Care?

We have all realized that common sense is rarely seen in the Halls of Congress in these times.  Now we must place integrity equally as rare!  The exhibition of the “sale” of  a Senators vote for benefits to his individual state versus the “professed objection  to segments of this legislation”  that the Senator stated repeatedly demonstrates the complete lack of ANY integrity that may have existed.

To realistically expect common sense or integrity from the present cast of characters is, we believe, hopeless.  Only the polling places in the next 2 national elections may yield an opportunity for those 2 precious commodities to reappear!

Ken Campbell

Steve Booth

There is a name for what just went on in the Senate this weekend.  First it was the Louisiana Purchase and now the Nebraska Windfall.  When is the prostitiution of our political process going to end?  No senator should vote for this bill out of sheer embarrassment for the process!

Steve Booth

As this health care debate continues it becomes more and more apparent that the goal is not “What is good for Americans” but “Let’s make history whether it works or not”.

The legislative process has been compared to sausage making and the American people are sure getting “stuffed” in this particular legislation!

Steve Booth

For you city folk that have never been to  sale barn you probably won’t get the similarity to what is going  on in the Senate right now to a cattle auction in a sale barn.  We, the people, are having the future of our health care auctioned off like we were a bunch of catle or sheep.  The arm twisting and bartering of special deals by the majority leader to get this bill passed, regardless of whether it is good for America or not, is criminal.

If there is waste and fraud in Medicare, find it and fix it!  If it is in fact there, then why in the hell haven’t they caught the people doing it and reduced the cost of Medicare?  The answer to that question is that they cannot prove that the waste and fraud exists (I’m sure it does) and to what extent and dollar amount it really represents.  All this retoric is a smoke screen to get an unrealistic campaign promise passed.

And if you think the process of getting health care passed smells like a stockyard, wait until Cap and Trade comes up in light of todays EPA ruling!

Steve Booth

In the very early days of our nation the British Sterling, the Spanish Real, French Franc and various other lesser currencies were used to trade and purchase goods and services in our fledgling country.  Alexander Hamilton is generally credited with bringing everything under one roof as the US Dollar.

When Alexander Hamilton established the US Dollar as our currency it was based  a gold standard.  Paper money soon came into use as gold was difficult to transport and carry in your pocket.  Paper money was a pledge against an equal value of physical gold being held by the government.   And that was true until the 1860’s when silver coins came into being,  i.e the silver dollar and other coins.  Any person could go to a national bank and exchange silver coins or paper money for a like amount of gold coins or bullion.

FDR in 1932 called in all gold coins which were melted down into bullion and it became illegal to use gold coins as currency.  Effectively it made silver coinage and silver certificates the currency of the time.  That carried through until the late 1960’s when we went to Federal Reserve Notes (Notes issued by a private bank) which is where we are today.  Until going to the Federal Reserve Note all currency was back by either gold or silver and could be exchanged for same on demand.   Federal Reserve Notes are essentially backed by the strength of the American Economy; in other words, by good faith. (Hot Air!)  Many financial experts  of that time expressed that common sense was surely lacking in the decision to go to a Federal Reserve Note system.

With the national debt continuing to rise we are entering a very dangerous situation.  For example, recently the country of Iceland experienced a total collapse of their monetary and financial base.  It happened when their National Debt accelerated to 6 times the GDP.  We are currently at a ratio of 7 to 1 and rising!

The question becomes how much longer can these greenbacks, backed by hot air, continue to hold their value?  Will we face a point where the dollar is worthless?  Going to a store with a pocket full of greenbacks will result in zero purchases.  So you think it can’t happen here?  Only the future can tell us for sure.

A large dose of common sense and careful planning will be required to prevent a fate such as Iceland experienced within the last decade.

Ken Campbell

We now know what a vote costs in the Senate! $100 million in additional funds for your state.  At this rate, the CBO  will have to recalculate the cost of this Health Care Bill.

In my humble opinion, this nation and western civilization in total is involved in a titanic struggle between 2 extremely diverse cultures. The bottom line is that one side (Islam) has declared a war to exterminate the other side, that other side is western civilization. The United States, because it is viewed as the Great Satan by Islam, is their leading target.

There have been so many examples both large and small of an Islamic Jihad aimed at western civilization that they are too numerous to count when viewed in a world wide scope.  Nobody in positions of authority in the US is willing to state these facts. The best example recently is the Jihadist attack by Maj. Hasan at Ft. Hood.  It is nearly inconceivable that almost no one in our government, our media or even our military is willing to state the obvious facts.  This seems to be driven by simple political correctness.

This is just another example of the total lack of common sense being applied to the details of this attack.  Once again this is a war not between nations but a war between cultures.  Too many people look at the Muslims as a religion.  It is not a religion like the Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, etc.  It is indeed a culture.  This war started hundreds of years ago and will likely continue until one side is successful in their goal. 

Until or unless Americans understand just exactly what we are facing the picture is increasingly dark for our country.  It must start with common sense with our government in allowing the military to do the same. In the example cited previously (Ft Hood), it appears that far more information was known about Maj. Hasan but driven by PC the Army failed to act on the knowledge it had.

Ken Campbell