I guess Iran needs printers too.....

Let me get this straight, HP has been selling printers to Iran (in violation of US trade laws) since approximately 1997 using a distribution company based in Dubai.

No...really...they have been....check it out!

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2008-12-29-hp-iran_N.htm

I am officially boycotting all HP products.

I have an HP printer at home. It's going in the trash this weekend in lieu of the Kodak I am going to buy. (Their ink is cheaper anyhow)

I would suggest and implore each of you to follow suit.


There is no way in hell we should support any company that is violating US law by engaging in trade with country's as dangerours and anti-American as Iran.

Are you kidding me? Iran wants the United States to suffer the same fate they want Israel to suffer. They would just as soon see us "Wiped off the face of the earth".


Boycott HP and anyone else we can find that is engaging in such acts. I am beginning my search today. I will post on this blog each time I find another Company that is doing business with Country's which would love to see us die.

I am probably wrong......you decide.

Time to give thanks.

As I sit on my back porch in sweats and a T-shirt (now I remember why we tolerate the unbearable heat and humidity of SE Texas in the summer) I take pause to remember how great it is to live in a country where we are free to do as we please.

I'm sitting here smoking a turkey. 11 or 12 hours from now, we're going to have some tasty goodness coming off the smoker and we'll have friends and family over for Thanksgiving dinner and it will be a wonderful time.


But I have to remember that there are places in the world, MOST other places as a matter of fact, where people are either not free to do what I am doing, or they don't have the resources to do what I am doing right now.

Cooking a meal for extended family and friends.

A lot of the rest of the world has people just trying to figure out what their next meal will be, or even more important, when their next meal will be.


We live in a country where we the people have the freedoms and ambition to do what is needed to make this Country, this United States of America, the greatest place to live on earth.

We do not live in a 3rd world nation.

The United States of America is not a third world nation.


Unfortunately, a lot of other folks out there in the world, want us to be.


I just hope that our "Leaders" don't mess things up so bad that we become one.


I am thankful today for my family. Their health. Their prosperity. Even those in the family who aren't doing so well, really are still fortunate in that we all have roofs over our heads, and food on the table, whether it be at our own house, or Grandma's house.

Let's just take pause today, for a minute, and remember those less fortunate than we.

Let's take pause today, and for a minute think about the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who are in various hell holes around the world fighting for our right to sit on the back porch and relax while smoking a turkey.

God Bless us all. Especially those less fortunate that I.

Hug your family and tell them you love them!

The Audacity of Faith

I am watching the excellent Investigative Journalism of Al Roker who is doing an expose' on firearms in America and how terrible they are. (Al Roker needs to stick to BBQ)

A commercial comes on. Some mint is selling the "Barack Obama Gold coin".

Freshly minted to commemorate his historic rise to be the 44th President of the United States.

In their commercial, this "mint" says:

"Barack Obama has inspired millions of people and has restored faith that we live in a Great Country"


Excuse me?

I never LOST faith that I live in a great Country! The United States of America is THE GREATEST Country in the world!

Are you serious? Really? Did I just see that on TV?

So let me get this straight: Obama has now formed the "Office of the President Elect" and is giving us weekly addresses. (His approval rating last I heard was over 65% without even doing a thing!) And now he has his own coin to help me remember how he restored my faith in America?


How dare anyone question my faith in The USA?

We aren't even in to the first day of the Obama Presidency and I already want to puke.

You know what?

I challenge anyone who'd like to try to convince me that the United States of America was a bad place until Barack Obama was elected.


I'll whip your ass!

I know I'm not wrong on this one.

You don't need to decide!

When will it end?

When is the pity party going to end?

We have The Big 3 Automakers asking for bail out money.
We have California asking for bail out money.
We have banks asking for bail out money.
We have mortgage companies asking for bail out money.

What about me?

I think I need some bail out money.

You too?

Here's the link so you too, can apply for your piece of the pie:
http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/Bailout/capital_purchase_application.pdf

Hell, that application is shorter than the one I had to fill out to get in to my Mortgage I can no longer afford!

Sweet!

Has it occurred to anyone that maybe we need to just let the economy be? Let the economy correct itself?

Our Politicians have been trying so hard for 10 years to stave off any kind of a recession, that when we run out of options to prop up the economy, we're all going to be in a far worse place than we would have been if we'd just let things work themselves out.

Instead of going through a moderate (in the early 2000's) to a now severe recession, we're going to cook the books to keep it from happening.

Then, when this latest round of "stimulus" doesn't work, instead of a severe recession, we'll just go in to another Great Depression.

Will our elected officials ever learn that sometimes, the best thing to do is just leave things well enough alone?

I am probably wrong.

You decide.

You think your money is really yours? Think again!

So, the latest "Plan" by the Dem's designed to push us ever so much closer to Socialism is to take away the 401(k) savings plan as we know it.

The Dem's want to do away with the 401(k) tax break. The reason is, they say, that the Government is "investing" $80Million per year in to this program (in tax breaks to those using a 401(k) plan) and it isn't doing what it is designed to do, which is foster an environment in which people will actually take the incentive to save for their own retirement. So, since it isn't working to their expectation, they want to change it.

Instead, the Socialists would like to take away your right to invest in to a 401(k) and then make it mandatory that everyone invest in to their "401(k) like" savings plan.

So, basically they are going to force those that are too STOOPID to save for themselves in to doing what the rest of us are already doing, at our cost!

AT OUR COST! Are ya payin' attention?


You save your butt off and you make sacrifices to put money away in your own 401(k).

Your neighbor pisses all of his money away on beer and hookers.

The Dem's feel sorry for your neighbor for being so irresponsible, so they are going to punish you, in order to force him to save for his own retirement.

They don't want it to be thought of as "punishment" though. It's just "being more fair". You can't really expect your irresponsible neighbor to take care of his own retirement can you?

It isn't his fault he he's a complete jackass when it comes to saving for his retirement.

How about those of you already retired on a Government Pension? How about the 15% they want to take away from you to help pay for these new plans? Do you want to take it in the shorts to the tune of 15% each month so that your neighbor can be forced to do something he should already be doing?


I've said in the past that we need to vote out all incumbents.

Scratch that idea folks. At least for this election cycle. We can't afford to vote ANY Republican incumbents out of office.

The Dem's need 9 more seats and they'll be able to literally do anything they want if BHO is elected in to office.

I guess once we get a more balanced Congress and Senate, we can then entertain the idea of voting out incumbents.

For the time being, vote straight Republican ticket and try to preserve what's left of our system of checks and balances.

If we vote in BHO and keep the Democratic majority, we do away with all forms of checks and balances.

If we do this....we will reap what we sow.

I am probably wrong.

You decide.

Does McCain even know where the jugular is?

I watched the "Town Hall" style debate this evening. I'm not sure how a debate in which Tom Brokaw chooses the questions can be labeled as such, but maybe that will be a future blog post.

I saw at least two instances this evening where McCain could have gone for the jugular and really taken it to Barrack Hussein Obama. (BHO)

When asked about the roll of the United States in foreign affairs where our national security is not threatened, BHO said (I am paraphrasing) "...we would obviously have to step in where genocide or something terrible like that is happening..."

This, only moments after saying that we really had no reason to go in to Iraq.


Really? Saddam Hussein (no relation to Barrack Hussein I am sure) didn't throw 300,000 or more people in to mass graves? Saddam Hussein didn't gas his own people to squash their civil liberties?

McCain? John McCain? Are you in the house?


Second instance was in response to the question involving Russia and how to deal with them. I think the question was basically "How do we support small countries like Georgia without reigniting the Cold War?"


BHO said....he SAID that we "...need to send them financial aide to help rebuild their economy and make sure they are stable..."


McCain? John McCain? Are you in the house?


If I was McCain I would have said something to the effect...."How about if we rebuild our OWN economy before we rebuild Georgia's"


McCain is pissing away this election by not going for the jugular when he needs to.

Folks, I honestly can tell you that voting in this election is going to amount to voting for the lessor of two evils.

At least Sarah Palin is in the mix. She gives me hope.

I wanted to hug her when I saw her on TV today saying "....you mean Barrack Obama doesn't remember that he started his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist?..."


Again, that will be another blog entry on another day.


I'm probably wrong.

You decide.

Is that what Jesus would do?

And I'm not talking about our Savior, but about our friend from "South of the Border".

If you or I decided to emigrate to the great country of Mexico, do you think we could go in to their welfare office and get food stamps?

I don't. I think that what Jesus would do is he would tell me he can't help me and he'd send me on my way.

Why is it then, that Jesus (or Boris or Shmirnoff....this isn't about Mexican immigrants only) can come in to the US and without ever paying a cent in taxes, receive food stamps and welfare? How does he do this without a social security number?

Maybe it's time for a compromise.

Let's just entertain this thought in the spirit of "Bipartisan Cooperation"

Maybe we SHOULD grant amnesty to those already here illegally and give them Citizenship. We would require them to get VALID social security numbers and pay their taxes. Their benefits would be cut off between the date it is announced that amnesty has been granted and the day they receive their VALID social security number.

Once we do this and we are realizing the revenue generated from these new "Tax payers" we can then take some of that money, or even ALL of that money initially and fund the largest full-scale audit of our welfare and social security systems in history.

We need to audit each case and each case worker. When we find a case worker that filed fraudulent papers to get Jesus (or Boris or Shmirnoff) and his family benefits illegally, we prosecute that case worker for welfare fraud.

Our new "Citizens" can flip the bill for the major house cleaning we need.

It's either that, or we need to immediately cut off all benefits to those who do not pay taxes or money in to the coffers which fund these benefits and use the money 'saved' to fund the audit. (This is what I REALLY think the answer is.)

You no pay in.....you no take out!

Either way, we need to take on the problem of welfare fraud where it begins. In the welfare office.


California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are GREAT places to start.

Do you pay for your neighbors health insurance?

Think about your answer because you probably do!

You will probably end up paying for their defaulted mortgage too.

Oh....wait....you already did!


I'm probably wrong. You decide.

Who the heck am I going to vote for?

I was flipping channels tonight on DISH NETWORK and I came across channel 73.

OBAMA TV. A whole channel dedicated to Barack Hussein Obama's (from here on out, to be known as BHO) "Plan for America".

My first question is: "Where is McCain TV? What channel is that on?" But, alas, no McCain TV.

The only thing I can figure is that McCain's campaign fund hasn't received enough money from Fannie Mac and Freddy Mae to pay for his TV Channel.

Anyhow, I decided to tune in to BTV for a minute or two.

There he was. BHO lecturing me on how "Washington is broken and we need CHANGE....REAL change"


Really? We need CHANGE?

Does Obama really think I am so ignorant that I don't know that HE is part of the problem?

There isn't a Senator or Representative, Republican or Democrat that has done anything....I mean really done anything for "We the People" since I can remember!

But BHO wants me to believe that it's the "rest" of the "Folks in Washington" who are to blame?

Give me a break!

Let's put together a hypothetical situation here. You go to work, and you don't do your job. How long will it be before you get fired?

A week?

A month maybe, if your HR department decides to intervene to make sure you aren't being picked on?

So, your Boss would fire you if you didn't do your job, right?

Now let's look at the "Folks in Washington". And believe me, this IS a bi-partisan criticism.

These "Folks" haven't done their job for as long as I can remember. And, the last I checked these "Folks" work for US.

You and me!

When are we going to fire them?

Edward Kennedy has been a Senator for 46 years. 46 years!

Really?

Massachusetts?

Is this the best you have to offer?

I think that Massachusetts should have their voting privileges revoked due to repetitious stupidity.

Now to those of you who live in Massachusetts, don't get all hot and bothered. I'm just picking on you.

There are other states where people should be required to wear a helmet when they step in to the voting booth too. You aren't alone.


Our Nation is facing imminent economic doom. (Or is it?) Our lawmakers can't get out of their own way to pass legislation to save the U.S. er..... WORLD Economy?

Really?

Is this the best we have to offer?

The "Folks in Washington" want you and I to believe that the economic problems we are facing are due to "Greed on Wall street" and the housing market going soft.

You know what? I guess they are right. The housing market did go soft and there isn't a shortage of greed on Wall street.

But let's take a look at the last 36 years.

I think it was 1972 and again in 1995 that the "folks" passed legislation that in effect told home lenders that they are required to give loans to high risk borrowers.

So, the home lenders made these loans and charged a premium interest rate. (You would expect a higher interest rate for a higher risk borrower wouldn't you? Isn't that how loan companies help cover the risk they are taking on by giving this high risk loan in the first place?)

But then all of a sudden that was "Predatory Lending". The loan companies were taking advantage of the high risk borrower.

The home loan companies were price gouging John Q Homeowner because he wanted to buy a $150,000 home on $25,000 per year in welfare money that was documented on his loan application as "verified income".

Thus began the practice of making "Sub-prime" loans.

Now, these loans are coming due. And John Q's $700 per month interest only house payment is all of a sudden $1500 a month and he can't afford it.

And the banks are left holding the bag.

Or should I say....the taxpayer is left holding the bag.

It looks to me, that the people in Washington are the same people who caused this problem.


The chickens are coming home to roost people.


Vote out every Incumbent and do it every election until we FIRE ALL OF THEM.

As we vote in someone new, we need to watch them closely and if they don't do what is right...

FIRE THEM TOO!


Don't forget. Our "Leaders" work for US.

It's time we start sending a message saying that we expect them to do what we pay them for!