Welcom To The Minority

Doesn't get President Obama
Published by The Reporter
Posted: 06/26/2009 01:01:01 AM PDT

As a retired U.S. Air Force member, I have a familiarity with the oath of office and defending the Constitution of the United States. The current president and commander of the U.S. Armed Forces took the same oath (once in public and once in private). I am currently at a loss as to what country I belong. It is still called the United States of America, but I now answer to czars (21, as of my last count) who are appointed by the president and answer only to the president. Where is the congressional oversight? Is this "kinda like" a dictatorship? What happened to the Republican form of a democracy? Who owns our banks, automobile industry and insurance companies, while czars control private industry more and more each day? Do we have czarinas, dukes, princes/princesses ad nauseum in our future? Is Obama now king, or is he really the "anointed one"? What happened to our "free press"?

We originated from Judeo-Christian values and our President Barack Hussein Obama, born from an African-Arab and U.S. citizen who was later married to an Indonesian Muslim, says we are not a Christian country. Was Obama adopted by his Indonesian stepfather while they lived in Indonesia and Obama attended a Muslim school? Why did Obama not use the name Hussein during the campaign? Why did he claim to be a Christian while being a member of an Afro-centric church? I have not quite figured my president out, have you?

Do I dare use my constitutional right of political dissent and desire to see my country as a democratic republic, which is sliding very fast into socialism and maybe Marxism?

Yes, I do have the guts to honor my many-times-uttered oath of allegiance to my country and sign my name to this letter.

Robert Hind

Vacaville

First off, I would like to say to the writer of “Don’t get Obama,” I have the highest admiration for your sacrifice and duty to this country. Our military men and women are a great example to be proud of and should be real heroes to us all. But, I must say with all due respect, that this article points to a common theme among many secular and Christian conservatives today, who have found themselves (democratically mind you) voted out of the executive branch and both houses of congress, in a statement by the American people to see things in a more pragmatic and with a less one way or no way world view.

I would like to address your points one by one. There is congressional oversight; the fact of the matter is that congress largely agrees with the President on a majority of his policies. They were democratically elected by the people for the people. That is very American. Because they don’t share your political ideology does not mean they don’t represent a majority of Americans. Maybe America wants something different and through democratic means they spoke. What’s more American than that? Now you know what it feels like to be in the minority, a rare life experience in this country for white, conservative men over the last forty years. But in a democracy there has always been a minority. Welcome to the minority, it sucks doesn’t it?

The idea that we are becoming a socialist nation is an overstatement of fact and mere paranoia. Less 1% of American businesses are under the direct control and leadership of the American government. And if this is one of those give’em an inch and they’ll take a mile arguments than less than one percent is not an inch it is a merely a centimeter. America has a long history of nationalizing troubled economic assets, this is nothing new. If you think so than you are simply defining America’s history by what we have largely seen over the last 30 years.

Obama is not king, he was elected in a landslide (by Presidential standards) and the press is free. It is so free that they are allowed to disagree with you all they want. The old conservative guard is not in control for the first time in a long time and they don’t know what to do, so they are reverting to the elementary tactic of name calling; socialist, Muslim, anointed one, leftist. How about Mr. President elected by the American people, like it or not.

And your last argument is just an example of good old fashioned racism or at the very least ethnocentrism (a polite way of calling someone a racist.) I am a first generation American born of a Chinese immigrant. Does that make me a communist or a Buddhist, or maybe I’m a kung fu master. My father served this country in Vietnam and my Grandfather in World War II. Am I more or less of an American than you? Do you really know? Are we really a Christian nation or a nation of Christians? I say the latter. Scripturally speaking if we call ourselves a Christian nation than we have really missed the mark, the New Testament is about sacrifice and loving those that might not deserve it. It is not about capitalism or exclusion. As a matter of fact it is about accepting people who are different. It is our job to love one another, not to decide who gets what base on our ignorant and finite world view. We love, let God judge. If you disagree with that I suggest you go back and read the New Testament, again and again, until you completely understand what Jesus meant to mankind.

To Tax or Not to Tax?

Once again we Californians find our selves in a conundrum. Republican and Democratic representatives in our state government have come to a standstill and continue to bang their heads against a brick wall, while complaining about a headache. To bad, it’s such a shame, that after all this time all we get is more of the same. With a $24,000,000,000 budget short fall (I had to write that out to see all the zeros for myself) the argument is back to spending cuts or tax increases. In 2008 and 2009 92% of our state revenue was spent on education, social services, and corrections and rehabilitation that represent about $95.2 billion. Our other expenditures totaled $8.2 billion. Our budget deficit is now $24 billion.

The Democratic solution is to raise taxes while cutting $11 billion in services. These benefits are going to be taken away from California’s most vulnerable population. Seniors will lose benefits, our poorest children will lose medical insurance, and the right to an education, and our poorest citizens will be forced to fend for themselves. Not to mention the thousands of criminal furloughs for nonviolent criminals (that’s good at least they are only releasing blue collar criminals, after all who have they really hurt). This plan will hit us all in the pocketbook. The richest Californians will only be able to own 2 or 3 cars because the Democrats are proposing a $15 increase in DMV registration fees. You must realize that’s nearly 3, count ‘em 3 vanilla soy, nonfat, no whip mochas per year. The insanity doesn’t stop there; they are proposing to close tax loopholes for business that profited off of the once strong California econonomy. Suggesting that they should be part of the solution is just silly talk. Also, the nerve of anyone to ask me to pay more in income tax is obnoxious and completely out of the question. After all I wasn’t responsible for any of this mess. I was always in the minority of all of those ridiculous propositions that we put on the ballot every year. Oh yeah, except for that one that said you couldn’t raise my property tax, or my income tax, or my sales tax. And I almost forgot about that one that said that we needed more cops on the streets, cleaner and safer roadways, and air conditioning in my child’s class room, but that didn’t cost much. It’s those environmentalist that are really costing us all this money, $81 million for environmental protection is just ridiculous, that a whopping 5.6% of our state revenue. If we just got rid of those wackos the deficit would only be $23.2 billion. Raising taxes is un-American, Fascist, Socialist and worst of all European!

The Republican solution is simple. CUT SPENDING! Don’t do anything but cut spending. Schools, who needs ‘em? Food stamps, who needs ‘em? Prisons, who needs ‘em? After all who can expect to get elected if they raise taxes on 38 million Californians? They have a better solution; decrease the salaries of 250,000 state workers. That’s better; they only represent 0.6% of the population. After all how bad could a 5% pay cut for a DMV or Medi-Cal worker be. I’m sure they make bank. Have you been in one of those places? Look how they dress decked out in cardigans and new balance sneakers. The state GOP says that we can’t close tax loopholes for businesses or raise taxes or fees on our state citizenry, because that would be devastating for our already fragile economy. I absolutely agree that raising taxes would slow down California’s economic recovery. However, bankruptcy of the worlds eighth largest economy and the economic insolvency that would follow it might be a little worse.

We (and yes I mean you too) created this mess. You don’t agree? That fine, but you are more responsible than your children or your children’s children. Don’t have any kids, that’s okay, your still more responsible than the 10 million children that currently live in this state. After all they are the ones that are taking the largest cuts in funding and also the ones who will pay off this debt after we are long gone. Too bad when the economy gets better they won’t have the education necessary to succeed. To me lower taxes stopped being the American dream sometime after the Revolutionary War and before the New Deal. I thought the American dream was about our children having more opportunities than we did. Take away from the children and you take away from us all. They are easy victims because they are small bodies with little voices. Who will stand up and fight for them?

Why Pay Now, What We Can Pay For Later?

As the current budget crisis in California deepens ($24.3 billion in the red) we are at a crossroad. We have a choice. Revenues have shrunk due to the recession (less jobs means less tax money). A decrees in money means a decrees in spending or an increase in taxes. I HATE TAXES! Taxes suck, it's my money and I want to spend it on me. After all I earned it. Those 1 million low income children don't need health care. Welfare to work programs, come on. Really? I mean really? Those people just need to go get jobs and leave us responsible people alone. Oh yeah how about primary school education? Those teachers are under worked and over paid as it is. I mean they only work 9 months a year. Besides we suck at educating our youngest generation anyway. In that category the third world might have an edge on us. And by us I mean U.S. Where do we really go from here. Someone has to pay, but nobody want to. So as is our history for the last 30 or so years we will heap problems on the next generation of Americans. Too bad they'll be sickly, uneducated, and without the social security that we'll get to enjoy. That's okay though, at least we won't have to pay 2% more in taxes.

To God's faithful servants, I didn't forget about you. I know you love to hang on to your money and abide to the capitalist philosophy of what's mine is mine. Here's what God had to say: "For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:7-10. How about this: "Do not love the world (money?) or anything in the world (money?). If anyone loves the world (money?), the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world (like money?) - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has (money or things?) and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires (money and things?) pass away, but the man who does the will of God (help the poor and those in need?) lives forever." 1 John 2:15-17.

Poker and Politics

This week the United States Government reached into my home and my wallet by seizing $35 million dollars of Internet poker money. Where is the liberty in that? I've been a Republican my whole life and this year I voted for Barack and nobody can believe it. Why? Because ex-Senator William Harrison Frist and his boys reached into my house and proposed to tell me what to do with my own money. When liberals tell us what to spend our money on, i.e. higher taxes and health care we are quick to point our fingers at that evil of all evils "socialism" (by the way anyone who is accepting social security or plans on accepting social security can't hate socialism that much.) When conservatives tell us what we can't spend our money on, i.e. Internet poker or marijuana, I call that hypocrisy. Either way the government is in our pocket books. Why is that okay? At least social programs are helping the needy. Sounds Christ like to me. After all God told us "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" James 2:15-16. But the idea that Republicans in the Senate, a Federal Prosecutor and Judge in New York feel the need to save me from myself is pretty arrogant. I understand some people feel that gambling is immoral and that we are a "Christian Nation" and if you feel that way, that's okay, but God has a couple things to say, "Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters." Romans 14:1 and "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other you are condemning yourself..."