Silver State Libertarian Leanings

I’m not into dragging out my home life on my blog, but between dad’s surgeries discussed below and some other things, I’ve been a busy little bee lately. Looks like things have slowed down some and I have time to blog again.

My dad has had 2 operations in the last 2 months, both supposedly covered under disability because he was forced into retirement due to his injuries. I’m not gonna go into the long drawn out story of his injuries, but I will give you the quick and dirty.

He has dealt with insurance companies for many years now on different injuries that ultimately lead up to a shoulder surgery and a knee replacement surgery.

The shoulder and the knee combination lead to his forced retirement from auto mechanics. After the knee, he was first told his pain meds weren’t covered by disability (brought to you by the government). After fighting that, he got a small dose of pain meds. Within days of leaving the hospital, the original prescription had run out, and once again, disability was refusing to pay. He was without pain meds for 3 days before it was resolved. Imagine that, just over a week out from having a significant amount of bone removed and replaced by titanium, he was without pain medication.

In all the years he has had knee trouble (15 or so) he never had as much trouble with insurance as he has with disability.

And these are the same people Michael Moore and Hilary Clinton want to take charge of our health care? Insurance may not be great, but they are, by far, the lesser of two evils. I’d like to see Moore do a documentary on all the people that have had bad encounters with government run health care agencies in the United States. Of course, it wouldn’t serve his socialist political motivations, so I won’t hold my breath waiting for that one.

I was traveling for business, so I didn’t get to see the Republican debate. I did, however, hear after the fact Ron Paul’s insane assertion that 9/11 was our fault. Dr. Paul was starting to win some points with me up until then. That’s not what has me upset right now though.

I found this on Drudge:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party said Wednesday that he will try to bar Ron Paul from future GOP presidential debates because of remarks the Texas congressman made that suggested the Sept. 11 attacks were the fault of U.S. foreign policy.

Wow. Instead of letting Ron Paul spew his idiocy and lose miserably in the primary, we should censor him. Anyway, isn’t that exactly what debates are for? To find who the wackjobs are? Crazy.

Back on the topic of Ron Paul’s moronic statement, does he think Muslims slaughter Buddhists and Hindus because of their foreign policies? Those vicious, imperialist, war mongering Buddhists.

I don’t do much linking to other blogs, but this story deserves all of our attention. Ilario Pantano knows what it’s like to have the people he so honorably defended turn on him. We put Ilario on trial for actions considered “exessive” by people who sat safely in their homes while he risked his life to defend that safety. Now the media and the military have turned on Ilario’s friends, and once again, he doesn’t plan on taking it lying down.

Three years ago, I was leading Marines in Fallujah. Two years ago, with lawyers that many of you helped pay for, I walked into a courtroom at Camp Lejeune to face off against prosecutors in a fight for my life.  

Today, I am back in the fight, and ask for your help in defending a team of true American heroes. Drawn from the elite ranks of “Force Recon,” the hand-picked men of Marine Special Operations (MARSOC) are literally the best of the best, and instead of being honored they are being investigated for simply doing their job. Our commandos became the latest victims of rushed judgment and political posturing when they were accused of using “excessive force” to defend themselves during a suicide car-bomb triggered ambush targeting the Americans because some purportedly innocent Afghanis got caught in the cross-fire.

There is much, much more. I urge you to stop whatever you are doing and go read this, right now.

We, as a nation, have asked these young men and women to go do the things we are not willing to do. They wake up every day, from barely a nights sleep, on the ground, and go do things that would leave most of a traumatized for life. And they volunteer to do it. Many of them volunteer multiple times. Our payback for their years of selfless service is to arm chair quarterback every decision they make.

Many of these young men and women are barely out of highschool. We have deemed them not responsible enough to drink alcohol based on their age. Yet we expect them to be responsible enough to make split second life or death decision correctly every time.

I got in a car accident yesterday. It was a very minor one. Just a fender bender with a little bumper damage. I made a bad decision. I was backing up and did not act properly and did not make the correct split second decision. It happens to all of us from time to time. The difference is, no one died. Nobody but myself and the other driver even know about our bad decisions. So, if we make bad split second decision every day, how do we ruin the lives of others just because their decision carries more weight?

I’m not even saying the Marines in this situation made a bad decision. It looks to me like they did as they were trained. But I’m sure Soldiers and Marines make bad decisions in combat from time to time. When they do, innocent people die. It is part of combat. It is a part of combat that these men and women will have to live with the rest of their lives.

How do you, in a split second, decide who to shoot? These terrorists don’t wear uniforms and they use women and children to blow up our soldiers. How do you, in a split second, decide which un-uniformed men, women, and children are trying to kill you, and which ones aren’t? And we expect 100% accuracy. Anything less could wipe your entire service record clean of every honorable thing you have done and replace it with a life sentence in the brig.

Until those of us with sound mind make our voices heard, this is not going to stop. The newspapers, television stations, and the public are in no position to decide what was excesive at the time. These are highly trained men and women who are forced in make tough decision in a split second. It’s time we started trusting the decisions they are making, rathing then second guessing. They deserve every ounce of support we can give them.

I heard today a story about a friend of a friend who refinanced her house and pulled cash out to prepare for the recession that’s coming. She was convinced that because Walmart and Target had reported drops in profits for April that a recession was the only place left for this “bad economy” to go.

So how bad is the economy? Well, let’s look at the indicators. At the time of this writing, the Dow is above 13,000. That points to a pretty darn good economy. As of about a week ago unemployment is down around 4.5%. Since 6% is considered static for unemployment, that indicates a pretty strong economy. As of just a few weeks ago, CNN was reporting skyrocketing business profits. So, explain to me again how the economy is bad?

The truth is, it isn’t. So if the economy is so good, why does it look so bad? This question has perplexed me for quite some time. I used to chalk it up to good old liberal bias in the media. That could be a part of it, but it goes much deeper than that.

We have a serious lack of personal accountability in this country. The majority of people can not come to terms with the fact that they are where they are for a reason. Good or bad, you live where you live, and you make what you make because of the decisions you have made in life up to this point. Let that statement marinate for a minute. It is a very simple, very basic truth that most people don’t accept.

They all have stories to back it up too. How they got screwed out of a promotion or they can’t find a good job because of this or that. So the majority of the population is hurting for money and won’t accept that it’s their fault. Have you ever tried to tell them that? I have. And let me tell you, most of the time, it doesn’t go well.

Enter the main stream media. Their job is to report the news, but, as they say, it’s all about the Benjamins baby. If the msm told people that the economy is great and average Joe is broke due to his own vices, average Joe would tune out. So the msm looks for any shred of bad economic news and blows it way out of proportion so average Joe can sleep well at night knowing that it’s not his fault he’s broke, it’s the economy.

For the lowdown on all of the Republican candidates for president, head on over to the NICPAC blog. I am running a series over there that will profile all of the ‘08 candidates over the next week and a half or so. Ron Paul is already up! On deck, Rudy Giuliani.

There has been plenty of talk about the President missing. That’s all fine and dandy, but there are plenty more people missing from the list.

1. The Soldier

2. The Sailor

3. The Marine

4. The Airmen

5. The Guardsmen

So let’s talk about influence. Being able to march straight to a country’s capitol and over throw it’s brutal dicatator in a number of days, that’s influence. Let’s see Leonardo DiCapprio pull that one off. Inspiring teenage girls to drive hybrid cars is not real influence.

Having over one hundred thousand people in Iraq, most of whom don’t even know you, ready to kill or die for you; that’s influence. How many people are ready to take a life or give their own to save Tina Fey? The answer is hundreds of thousands. And, with the exception of a few freaky stalker types, they are all on the list above.

Pack that in your pipe and smoke it Kate Moss. I’m sure the world is a much better place for having you. Without out her constant drinking a drug binges all over the news I would have no one to point to and tell my kid “don’t be like that when you grow up”.

Let me start by saying I do not defend or condone what Don Imus said on his radio show. His comments were ignorant and offensive. With that being said, I think this lawsuit is the exact right thing for him to do. Imus is over the top and offensive. That’s why CBS hired him. They also made millions over the years on Imus being over the top and offensive.

I don’t blame sponsors for pulling out of his show and I don’t blame those who called for Imus to be fired. CBS is a different story though.

The fact is, you know darn well if you handle a snake you might get bit. CBS got bit then acted like they had no idea they were handling a snake. Imus deserves every penny he for which he is asking.

There has been no shortage of discontent with the Republican party lately, but it seems to be reaching a boiling point over the last week or so. It started for me with the Washoe County GOP central committee election. I received several emails and phone calls in the days following from die-hard volunteers ready to hang it up.

Then, to my surprise, I find out Chuck Muth, a lifelong Republican volunteer, has jumped ship. That announcement was quickly followed by more emails from Republicans who have said next week, they will follow suit.

I wish I could say that the party should be worried, but I know they are not. The people they are losing are the limited government lower taxes types that have been a thorn in the side of big government Republicans for some time now.

Republican voters should be worried, very worried. Activists like Muth and some of the others are few and far between. Those of us that eat, sleep, and breath politics are mentally ill according to the average voter, who swallows small doses of politics because they have to.  The people that are being lost are the door knockers, the phone callers, and the constant volunteers. Without those folks, what does a party have?

The most fascinating question to me is, what now? These are not isolated incidents; limited government conservatives are leaving or considering leaving the Republican party left and right. So, does the party make an attempt to woo these folks back in? If not, where do they go? Is a viable third party on its way?

…Also posted at the NICPAC blog 

Once again, the leader of the limited government party in Nevada has voted for a tax increase. Luckily, despite Raggio’s and Townsend’s best efforts to raise our taxes, this one was killed by more clear minded folks in the senate.

The Nevada Senate killed a tax proposal late Tuesday that would have helped the Washoe County School District by providing funds to build new schools and refurbish current ones…..

…..Voting for the bill were Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno; state Sens. Bernice Mathews, D-Reno; and Randolph Townsend, R-Reno.

read the whole thing…

Just a reminder, according to Ty Cobb, we should support this kind of behavior, because they are Republicans. Never mind how un-Republican they act, it’s the letter by their name that really matters.