Sorry Mitt... you just don't get it!

Barack Obama and his constituency, the environmentalist, Labor Unions, and the 47% who pay no taxes and long for more handouts, are destroying our country. For that reason, if, next November, the choice is between Romney and Obama, I will support Mitt for president. But I hope, in my heart of hearts, that Mitt will not be the Republican nominee.

I don't know if any of the other candidates can beat Obama, but I am afraid that Mitt Romney would just give us more of the same.... big government, getting bigger: another nail in the coffin of this great nation.

This morning, on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked Mitt about other candidate's proposals to drastically cut spending by instantly eliminating several cabinet level government departments. Mitt answered that we would have to study the activities of each department to see what could and could not be wisely cut.

Having observed the policies of ten administrations, that position means just one thing: the formation of yet another cabinet-level department, The Department To Study Which Departments Can Be Cut and By How Much; another $30 to $50 billion load on the budget; and no conclusions.

A persistent belief that the government can solve the problem if we just go about it correctly, is exactly what gave us the useless departments that are now destroying America. Sadly, my friends, regulations that require opposite and mutually exclusive actions are the rule... not the exception!

We now know that while the Department of Justice is suing states because their police are inquiring about  citizenship; the Department of State is demanding that each state's police do inquire about citizenship (so aliens may be advised about help available from their home country's consul.)

In my state, the Executive VP of the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau reminds us (http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-opinion/ci_19571153) that the average age of American farmers is advancing - meaning young people are rejecting a career in agriculture. Thus, his bureau is urgently trying to develop programs to encourage farm youth to stay on the farm. He believes that it is work on the family farm that trains kids to "grow into teenagers with a strong work ethic; a sense of responsibility and a heart full of compassion". After college, these kids often return home to follow a career on the farm. Toward that end, the USDA is now spending well over $50 million annually to train beginning farmers and ranchers.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor is striving to eliminate the coming generation of farmers and ranchers by proposing regulations to prevent farm "children from working with farm animals, storing or transporting raw agricultural products, climbing on or into anything higher than six feet tall including ladders and haylofts or even being on the premises of grain elevators, livestock auctions or feedlots."

As a kid who grew up on a farm, I find this so preposterous it is unbelievable.

No, Mitt... you are wrong. Ronald Reagan understood: government cannot fix the problem - government IS the problem. No more study... no more investigations - it is past time to nibble. We now must cut, cut, cut! 

Why I will Never Again Vote For A Democrat

The Democrat Party in the United States has become the party of fools - or liars. They have justly earned either or both descriptions on several fronts. One is enough to convince me.

That one is the determination to look facts in the eye and declare them untrue. Barack Obama repeatedly asserts that Republican policies have been tried and did not work. It is politically incorrect to call the POTUS a liar, but it is incredulous to believe he does not have access to the facts about the Reagan policies.

For example, Reagan cut the top tax rate from 70% to 28%. In 1979, before Reagan, the top 1% of income earners paid 18.3% of the total tax bill. In 2006, the last year for which we have numbers, the top 1% paid 39.1% of the total tax bill. Likewise, in 1979, the bottom 40% of earners paid 4.1% of all taxes. By 2006, they were receiving 3.3% in direct payments from the U.S. Treasury. Today, Democrats insist that increasing taxes on "the rich" will benefit the middle class. In light of historical facts, are they fools or liars?

Under Reagan's policies, economic growth grew. Per capita GDP grew. Per capita income grew. Can you believe Obama does not have access to these and many other figures proving the success of  Republican policies? Or, like me, can you believe he is denying those fact to create class warfare and garner votes?

But... will this class warfare work? In 2000, Al Gore ran on a platform of  "People vs. The Powerful". He lost the election. In 2008, John Edwards touted his theory of "Two Americas"... the 99% against the 1%. He lost in the primaries.

Today, the Democrats see more and more Americans distracted from following and understanding the news. More and more Americans misled by a dishonest news media. They now believe they can try the class warfare tactic one more time... this time, perhaps, with success. 

That's a Direct (mis)Quote...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is accused of advocating we abolish child labor laws. Well, that is true, in a sense. Newt suggested a program in our schools where poor kids may take some sort of menial job, such as a janitor's assistant, to learn about responsibility on the job and be rewarded with cash. In other words, a program to teach kids how to work and earn. To make that endeavor legal, may require some easing of child labor laws.

Almost immediately, Newt's excellent proposition was morphed into an effort to subject children to long, hard hours in sweatshops.

Some fifty years ago, in Kansas, I was privileged to become friends with an elderly back minister who was president of the local N.A.A.C.P. chapter. The good pastor spoke of employing kids from poor families. These kids, he said, have no concept of dependability in the work place, because they have had no family role model to teach dependability. He urged employers to understand this fact and mentor poor kids on dependability.

For a small company, that may be a tall order. Existing employees, who need extra help on the job, would now  have to teach newcomers how to show up for the job!

Now comes Newt Gingrich with a solution! Teach them in school, the proper place for teaching!

No, can't do that! It serves others to accuse Gingrich with wanting to see kids suffer in sweatshops.

So long, candidate Cain!

My lifetime experience has taught me that liberal Democrats will cheat, lie, say anything to destroy their opponents and advance their cause.

If those tactics do not work for them, they will resort to violence. As a union representative once told me, "two broken legs" would change the mind of our employer. 

The events leading to Herman Cain's having suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, reinforces that belief.

I would guess that Mr Cain, while an intelligent, accomplished and experienced man, simply could not believe that the Democrats would go so low. And, perhaps, he did believe that our news media would, in the end, stand for truth and honesty.

Best wishes, Herman Cain. I hope we hear from you again in the future.

Camp Victory

One of the big news stories today was the closing of Camp Victory, by the U.S. Army in Iraq. That event provoked some old memories for me. When Japan surrendered in World War II, millions of U.S. men and women were in uniform, scattered around the world. They wanted to come home. America wanted to bring them home. But America had vast war resources in every corner of the world. These resources had to be disposed of in some proper fashion.

Among those resources was a large Army presence on the Island of Leyte, in the Philippines. Headquarters and command was at Base "K" at Tacloban, where I was stationed. Elsewhere on the island was a large Ordinance unit; an Engineers unit; the Port Authority; There was a vehicle park, where tanks, trucks, Jeeps, even motorcycles originally intended for the invasion of Japan, had been unloaded when Japan surrendered. At Base "K", there was a Fire Department; A Military Police Department. There were warehouses; PX facilities; even the Prisoner Of War Camp where 10,000 Japanese prisoners had been held.

Throughout 1946, individual units were closed and their facilities turned over to the Philippine Army. All U.S. combat veterans were home; all Japanese POWs were repatriated. By the spring of 1947, it was time for Base "K" to be closed. All the work was done. It was time - it was proper - for the Philippine Army to take possession of the Port Authority, the barracks, the motor pool... everything we had so meticulously maintained. We sent the last message: "From C.O. Base K to CG AFWESPAC" from my message center.

We also were going home, but... it was bittersweet. We were losing our "home" of so many months... even though it never really belonged to we individual soldiers. We watched the usual cloud of smoke from evening cooking fires rise over Tacloban  as we boarded a motor launch for the ride to Manila There we would catch a troopship (the Gen. A.W. Greeley) bound for Okinawa, Yokohama and San Francisco.

Au revoir, Base "K", you served us well. As had Camp Victory.