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Who is serving whom?

Our Founding Fathers were very careful when they came to establish this great nation. Through the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and through the correspondence among the Founders, the words to describe their vision were chosen carefully. The words of personal letters, public addresses, and our founding documents were carefully crafted as they were expected to live for the ages. In this, our Founders succeeded, as these documents are as relevant today as when they were written. Initially, from the First Continental Congress, through the early 1800’s, following the War of 1812, being a member of Congress was basically a part-time job. Then, as now, Congress sat in regular session for about six months per year. Pay for Congressmen at the time was $6 per day they were in session. It is difficult to give a direct comparison in today’s dollars since most colonial Americans still used barter as a primary means to acquire goods. However, an ill
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Recent posts

And they say mainstream media isn't biased!

Anyone who thinks the Right Wing is "crying wolf" about media bias and the mainstream media's lack of any semblance of balance, check this out. First, search CNN or MSNBC , and probably others (I haven't gotten that far yet), and see if you can find anything on Bill Maher's vulgar reference to Sarah Palin during his HBO special. I have tried since this morning, and haven't come up with anything yet. This is what he said, along with a link if you have the stomach to watch : This is NOW's response. The link will probably be down by the time you check...NOW membership seems to be pretty upset too! I've got a few things to say on the latest "controversy" getting everyone all fired up: 1. Listen, supposedly progressive men (ok, and women, too): Cut the crap! Stop degrading women with whom you disagree and/or don't like by using female body terms or other gender-associated slurs. OK? Can you do that, please? If you th
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Shared sacrifice

In light of current news, I realized today that many in my family, including myself, are employed in controversial jobs. I have two family members that are teachers, two that are air traffic controllers, one that is a city employee and a son that is a Soldier. I am a military retiree. Excepting myself, since I always wanted to be a career military man, most of my family didn't start out to be a public employee. My brother, an Air Force veteran, became an air traffic controller when President Reagan fired so many, creating an opportunity. My son followed in my footsteps and my niece followed in my brother's. Regardless, as it stands, several of us make a living off of the public dole. My nephew, a teacher and I have been having a back-and-forth about the protests in Wisconsin. I just wrote a paper for college on the dated nature of tenure in our public schools. His input has been invaluable, and while I understand his passion for the subject, I feel both of us have missed
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Putting my money where my mouth is

I am tired of words. I am tired of the talk shows and talking heads. It is time that action is taken. Not just by those that are always involved, but those that aren't. To put my money where my mouth is, I went to http://www.nccs.net , the National Center for Constitutional Studies, and purchased 100 Pocket Constitutions for $30. They arrived yesterday and I gave out 27. My wife thinks I'm nuts, on my way to becoming a whackado. But really, why not? What is wrong with proselytizing the meaningful words that founded this country and have allowed it to reach its greatness? We, the United States, did not reach this point by accident. We have achieved our place in the world, our place in history, through the blood of the average men and women who have done above average things. I handed out most of them to fellow students at IPFW in Warsaw. All of my classmates know that I am a staunch Conservative. I believe in less government, personal accountability and the potential
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Please, think before you post.

Just yesterday, a family member of mine posted on Facebook how the GOP needed someone better than Trump or Palin. Of course she was referring to their appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. In my comment to her post, I asked what specific issue she had with Palin. One of her other FB friends and I started a back-and-forth about politics in general. One of her friends agreed with my post that too many people dislike Sarah Palin, but when pushed, cannot give a reason why. My family member finally deleted her initial comment, and thus all of the posts saying that she was just trying to be funny. How funny is it to throw something derogatory out there, without even a generalization as to why you don't like a potential candidate, and then delete it when challenged? Have we become such a non-thinking society that we cannot have a civil discourse about issues? "Being funny" has become, it appears to me, the news source of choice for a lot of A
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Seattle's jaywalking: Cop strikes jaywalker

First, if you're not familiar with what happened recently in Seattle,watch the video: http://www.bittenandbound.com/2010/06/16/cop-punches-woman-video/ . Let's break it down. Is jaywalking something that should be enforced? Quite simply, yes. If it is a law on the books, then it is enforceable, and should be enforced. If the citizens of Seattle do not want it enforced, then get involved and have it repealed. Did the officer over react? No. First, although I am not, nor have never been a police officer, I do know that it is standard procedure in most jurisdictions...and common sense to boot that when citing, or simply questioning someone and others insert themselves into the situation, the officer, most especially when alone, must contain the situation. This will often result in at least one individual being handcuffed. The fact that the jaywalker's friend assaulted the officer (pushing is assaulting), thus inserting herself and escalating the situation, the officer was full
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Oil vs. Immigration

Which direction does our President want to go? He is adamant that he wants comprehensive immigration reform, then secure our borders. Yet he wants to stop the oil flow, and then focus on clean-up. Do you see the parallel? It appears that there is a lack of consistency within our President's management philosophy. The cliche, first, stop the bleeding has been used often to describe the situation with our southern border. Yet our leadership refuses to devote anything other than a token amount of National Guard Soldiers to the problem, insisting that we need immigration reform first. Yet sensibly, he is focusing on stopping the oil flow before we begin the clean up. A lot of effort is being placed on mitigating the impact on the oil that has escaped thus far, which again is sensible. Why not take the same tact with our border issues? I have no idea how to stop the oil. I feel for the people along our coastlines that will be so terribly impacted by this tragedy...however, have no dou
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