Is the Republican Party Broken?

In my opinion, if it’s not broken, it’s well on its way. It just doesn’t stand for what it once did. The recent and present party officials in power have slowly been moving the party away from its once proud tradition of standing for smaller government and more personal freedom for all Americans.

John McCain has captured the nomination but he certainly isn’t the most conservative candidate of the field. Indeed, he would be considered the least conservative. I can’t help but think that this may lead to a Democrat in the white house. I think he would stand a better chance of winning against Hillary, but the momentum has shifted toward Obama and if it’s a choice between Obama and McCain, Obama will win simply because the American public is sick of the war in Iraq and the Bush (Republican) administration in general. They will see Obama as the candidate of change and McCain as simply more of the same.

So why are the so-called conservative power brokers and the Republican Party backing him? Why are they backing the least conservative candidate in the field? I think they have strayed from the Republican Party’s platform. It appears to me that they have moved the party more toward the left so it’s not going to be as clear of a choice for the voters come November.

The Republican Party is the party of freedom, “…the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.” Our personal freedoms are constantly being eroded away by the ever increasing intrusion into our lives by the federal government. The premise to limit the power and scope of the federal government and put more power in the hands of the states has always been a Republican ideal. But now they seem to be following the Democrats down the road of bigger and more government, higher spending and more involvement in the affairs of other countries.

Thomas Jefferson once said that we should have “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none…” He knew that it was essential to have good relationships and free trade with other countries but wrong to get involved and try to influence or control their affairs. He was right then and it’s right now but the Party has moved away from this simple premise.

In some ways, John McCain will appeal to the more moderate Republicans. A lot of people are conservative in some ways but lean more toward what is traditionally considered a liberal point of view on issues such as the environment, global warming and alternative fuels. John McCain will appeal to these more moderate Republicans but on one key issue, he will not.

I believe we are at a point in our history when a lot of Americans are starting to believe we should get our troops and influence out of most other countries in the world. The Republican Party is not offering any indication that this is their goal. McCain comes off as just the opposite, a person that easily commits our troops at the drop of a hat and believes that we should continue or even increase our influence around the world. This may be his downfall in the end. Anyone that believes we should get out of the Middle East and other places around the world will have a hard time getting behind him.

The only thing the GOP has going for it at the moment that will appeal to voters is the ideal of lower taxes. It’s clear that either Clinton or Obama in office will result in much higher taxes to pay for all the programs and even more government control that they are touting.

Voters are faced with the choice of lower taxes but a continuing war or a promised withdrawal from Iraq but paying much higher taxes. In the minds of many voters, there is no clear best choice here. It’s either one bad thing or the other bad thing.

We need someone that will bring our troops home from Iraq and around the world but also lower taxes and revamp the federal government by downsizing and making it more efficient. That’s what the Republicans should be offering but they’re not and I think it’s a big, big mistake.

One thing seems clear. America has gone down the wrong road and I’m afraid that none of the present candidates, Republican or Democrat are offering the solution.

Tensions are high down south...

The saga continues in S. America. The Organization of American States passed a resolution condemning the Colombian military raid and calling it a violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty.

I somehow get the feeling that they weren’t entirely behind this resolution though. It seems as if they are only doing it to placate Chavez who is pushing all the other countries to be against Colombia. I get the feeling that without the influence of Chavez, they would applaud the action as a victory against world terror and crime. Unfortunately, they don’t have the guts to stand up to Chavez and take the side of right. They would rather mollify him and ignore the fact that his government and that of Ecuador are in alliance with the terrorists.

Chavez and Correa are now trying to divert attention away from that fact by screaming about the violation of Ecuador’s border. What I would like to know is, why wasn’t Mr. Correa upset about the FARC members violating his border? That violation didn’t bother him at all. As a matter of fact, it was just fine with him that they were taking refuge from justice in his country. He didn’t get upset until the Colombian military came across in pursuit of these criminals. Doesn’t that make you wonder just a bit?

Something else that didn’t seem to bother him is the fact that the FARC rebels would shoot across the border at the Colombian police and military. This happened on numerous occasions and it didn’t seem to upset him a bit. If he thinks that a strike against these people was an attack against his country, then these comrades of his shooting across the border could be considered an attack on Colombia by his country. Why didn’t he take any action to stop them?

Then we have Mr. Chavez. He just looks at it as a great opportunity for him to do some “saber rattling” against the United States. That’s why he hates Colombia so much. They are working with the U.S. to ferret out these drug trafficking terrorists to try and stem the flow of illegal drugs, not to mention all the kidnapping and murders that they commit in their country. Chavez looks at any alliance with the U.S. for any reason as a traitorous act against him and his Marxist, Socialist cause and even a personal betrayal. Again, it was none of his business at all. It was between Ecuador and Colombia and not remotely in the vicinity of his country.

Well, today they seemed to reach some sort of an accord at the meeting in the Dominican Republic. All the left-leaning countries stood together against Colombia. President Uribe accused Correa and Chavez of aiding the FARC rebels. Correa called Uribe a liar. Chavez got in some more ranting, name calling and personal insults. Uribe again apologized for Colombia’s actions and promised not to do it again. In the end they all shook hands and it seems as if war has been averted for the time being.

You can bet that won’t be the last we hear about it from Mr. Chavez though…

Shallow thinking

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the campaign trail.

The Republicans were having a campaign rally in Cincinnati and they had a Conservative talk radio host by the name of Bill Cunningham speaking to the crowd, to “warm them up” before Senator McCain came out to speak.

Well, it seems that over the course of his “warm up”, he made some disparaging remarks about the Democratic nominees Clinton and Obama. He called Obama a “hack” politician and repeatedly referred to him using his middle name, which is Hussein. He referred to the name as being a “fine Muslim name” perpetuating misinformation that Obama is a Muslim.

Well, Senator McCain, known for being a gentleman who insists on running a clean campaign focused on the issues, apologized for the remarks made by Cunningham promising that “it will never happen again.” This was the right thing for him to do in keeping with the type of campaign he is trying to run.

Now, the story said that this Mr. Cunningham is a rather flamboyant, “in your face” type of radio talk show host, I can’t say personally since I’d never heard of him before reading the story, but I would guess that his remarks wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

I would also think that he would be a McCain supporter. Why else would he accept an invitation to speak, right? If you are backing a candidate enough to come out and speak at their campaign event, you must believe it what they believe it right? That’s what I would think anyway.

However, and this is the part that really baffles me, after McCain said he disapproved of Cunningham’s remarks, Mr. Cunningham reacted as if it was a personal attack against him. He said he’d had it with John McCain and he was now going to support Hillary Clinton.

How could someone be so shallow that they would abandon their beliefs at the drop of a hat? McCain says he doesn’t approve of his remarks so he immediately goes over to the other side? Is this how people decide which candidate to back? Whatever happened to backing someone that you agree with on the issues and that you think will guide the country in the direction you believe it should go? What is he thinking? Or is he just being petty? I guess that would explain it… no thinking involved here…

I sure hope the majority of the voters in this country have more intelligence and responsibility than this guy or we ARE in trouble…

On the Brink of War

Well, with all the conflicts that are going on all over the world, now we have another one and it’s in our neighbor’s back yard no less. The governments of Ecuador and Venezuela have sent troops to their borders with Colombia and are threatening to go to war. Is this just posturing or are they really intending to start shooting? Who knows with these guys…

Since the government of Colombia has started really fighting back against the drug lords in their country, Hugo Chavez has been railing against them saying they are being controlled by the United States. The most recent incident to set him off is the strike by Colombian police and military against the FARC leadership just over the border in Ecuador. After the strike, President Uribe of Colombia called President Correa of Ecuador to formally inform him of the situation and apologize for the incursion.

I don’t think there was a problem until Venezuelan President Chavez decided to impose his influence that it became blown out of proportion and escalated to the brink of war. His influence over President Correa and his hatred for anything and anyone friendly to the United States is what is inciting this conflict.

Now, one might say that Correa is acting on his own but I highly doubt it. Nobody in their right mind would go to the extreme of massing troops at the border and threatening war just because a neighboring country took out some terrorist criminals that routinely commit their criminal acts and then flea back across the border for protection, criminals that routinely take hostages and frequently torture and murder them.

By the way, these terrorist drug traffickers are not Ecuadorian citizens. They are Colombians that seek refuge across the border into Ecuador so the Colombian military forces were going after their own and were NOT taking action against Ecuador.

Any sane government leader would be helping to bring these criminals to justice and wouldn’t allow them sanctuary. There would be cooperation between the governments to prevent these terrorists and criminals from operating at all.

That’s clearly not the case here. Chavez and Correa are showing that they support terrorism. They support and defend drug dealers and murders. They aide and abet them to carry out their hideous crimes. They give them safe haven and afford them protection and then honestly expect the rest of the world to respect them for this? Please…

You know, Chavez wants to criticize the U.S. for getting involved in the affairs of other countries but what is he doing? He’s sent 10 battalions of Venezuelan troops to his border with Colombia and is threatening war with that country. Colombia did absolutely NOTHING to him or his country. The Colombians struck across the border of Ecuador. It has nothing to do with Venezuela or Chavez so why is he sticking his nose into it?

I think we as U.S. citizens should start fighting back against this crackpot. It’s about time we start a complete boycott of Citgo Gas. And for those of you that don’t know it, Citgo is wholly owned by the government of Venezuela and the dollars we spend to buy Citgo gas go right into his pocket. Let's fight back people!

BOYCOTT CITGO GAS!!!!

I've Had It With Politics As Usual

I’m frustrated. I’m fed up with politics as usual in this country. I used to be a registered Republican but I just can’t identify with them anymore. They have strayed too far from the basics that drew me to the party to begin with and it doesn’t look like they are going to come to their senses anytime soon. That certainly doesn’t mean I’m leaning toward becoming a Democrat though. Not by any stretch of the imagination…

I used to think that the Republican party was for less government and more personal freedom, but now I think they are only for less government regulation as it applies to big business and not to benefit the average person.

When Bush went into the present war in Iraq, I supported the decision and even now I think the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein, but now that this war is dragging out with no end in sight, I am becoming more and more convinced that this war was engineered and not for the reasons we think. It was planned more from a standpoint of business and making money than it was a security issue. Even if it was a national security concern at the beginning, the opportunity to make truckloads of money from the war took over and I believe that is the main reason we are still over there.

There is no doubt in my mind that the connection between the administration and Halliburton and the fact that they got all the contracts they did is not random. It was part of the original plan when they first went in. The ties between the administration and this company are so close, they could be considered one and the same. If you want to find out about it, just rent the DVD “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” and prepare to be disgusted. Young men are losing their lives over there and it’s so these people can line their pockets.

Then there is the Bush – Big Oil connection. I don’t think anyone realizes the power that the oil companies have over our government. Anybody that doesn’t realize that one of the main reasons we are there is to insure the flow of oil is just deluding themselves. The oil companies aren’t going to back any candidate who says will get us out of the Middle East. They want us there as the police force for the region and the Republican Party is doing exactly what they desire.

What really scares me is that when you listen to all the presidential candidates, who among them is advocating that we get out of there? The only one that will stand up and say he’ll get the U.S. out of there immediately is Ron Paul and his message is being quashed by our biased media, who are also controlled by political interests and big business. He doesn’t stand a chance of getting the Republican nomination because he doesn’t fit into their mold. He doesn’t want to continue the partnership with big business and running the country from that standpoint, he actually wants to change things. Take a look at his website and actually read what he really wants to do and then see if it doesn’t make sense. Take a look at this video and see if you don't agree that we should head in this direction.

Ron Paul is really a Libertarian running as a Republican. He doesn’t think he could get elected as a Libertarian, and he’s probably right. Third parties in our political system never do well. Maybe it’s time for one though. I don’t agree with everything the Libertarian Party advocates either but maybe it’s time for a strong third party to emerge to give voters another choice other than business as usual. We could call it the Common Sense Party or the No Bullshit Party and the platform could be common sense, logical, intelligent solutions to the problems we have with the main goal being to make America the great country she once was. Maybe we could actually have a government that made policy that benefited the people of this country instead of themselves.

Wouldn’t that be a nice change?

A Clue as to Character.

As I've been following the political scene, I found it interesting that Hillary again showed no class or courtesy when she gave her speech the evening of the Wisconsin primary. She didn’t bother to mention her losses or congratulate her opponent at all, a repeat of her behavior after her losses on Super Tuesday. Not that it’s required or anything. It’s just something that most people with an ounce of class would do.

What is she thinking? Maybe if she ignores bad things, they will just go away? If she doesn’t acknowledge it, maybe it won’t be real? Or maybe if she concedes defeat, people will think she is losing. Maybe it’s just Hillary showing her true character. Maybe it would help if she cried again…

In reality, she is losing ground and Obama is gaining momentum with every primary. I think the reason is that people are starting to see her true character. Small clues are starting to show through that show the ruthless, “win no matter what it takes attitude.” She will do anything to get elected. She tried shedding a tear and now she is trying to smear her opponent with anything she can use. Plagiarism? Give me a break… As if she has never uttered words that were a quote from someone else. As if either of them actually write their own words anyway.

Give it up Hillary. If it’s a question of character, you’ve already lost.

Life and Death

The slow transition in life from young to old manifests itself in many ways. Your energy level slowly starts to taper off. You find that you need reading glasses when once you could see the smallest detail, no problem. You put on a few pounds and you notice a few more aches and pains than you ever had before. All of these aspects are inevitable and fairly easy to deal with.

One of the more hideous aspects of getting toward the second half of a lifespan though is that people close to you start dying. Yes, it’s a part of life but it’s not easy to face, nonetheless.

My Uncle, my Dad’s brother, and I were fairly close. I was named after him as a matter of fact and we shared a lot of the same traits and outlook on life. He lived in Tennessee and I drove up from Florida to visit him as often as I could. Especially after he got cancer. He fought it, which is the kind of guy he was. He went through chemo and radiation and it went into remission. I was really glad he would have a few more years and I planned on moving to Tennessee after my son graduated high school so I was hoping to have a couple of years with him. As it turned out, the cancer returned after about a year and it came back with a vengeance. He only lasted a few months after they found it. So much for my plan to spend a couple good years with him… I was with him when he died at least. He was wracked with pain that even morphine couldn’t touch. Cancer is a horrible thing. I only hope I never experience it. We buried him in February, 2006.

My Father still lived in Michigan, where I am from. He and Mom had gotten divorced a few years back and he lived by himself. We kept in touch by phone and I got back as often as I could swing it to see him and everyone else. He wasn’t much for traveling, especially by air, so he only came to Florida once to visit me. It was a very gradual thing but I started to notice he was slowing down a little when I would talk to him on the phone. He would forget things that we had talked about or other things that I thought he shouldn’t forget. I chalked it up to just getting old. Then I started to notice that his memory was getting worse. Even though my Brother and Mom still live in the area and looked in on him occasionally, I flew up to check on him. After getting up there and taking him to his doctor, the diagnosis turned out to be the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

I discussed everything with Mom, who is doing fairly well health wise, and she said she and my Brother would check on him every couple of days and make sure he was doing ok. He was still functioning well enough to not be a danger to himself but we both knew that it was only a matter of time until the disease got worse and he would need some type of full time care. I’m old school I guess when it comes to responsibility to family and I made the decision that since I was moving anyway, I would just postpone Tennessee a bit and I would move up to Michigan and live with Dad until he got so bad that I wasn’t capable of taking care of him anymore. His retirement income was enough for both of us to live on so I would be able to provide him with full time care. I would also be able to spend as much time with him as I could before he didn’t know who I was anymore… That was the plan anyway…

After some time, Mom called me and told me he had gotten sick with a bad cold or the flu and she was taking him to the doctor. Well, he ended up admitted to the hospital with a touch of pneumonia. The prognosis was good though. They caught it early and were treating him with the expectation that he would be released in a couple of days. Well, my Dad’s smoking habit that he was never able to break caught up with him. He collapsed after returning to bed from the bathroom and they weren’t able to revive him. They said it was either a massive coronary or a blood clot. He died suddenly and at least he didn’t have to go through the agony my Uncle did. We buried him in April of 2007.

Sometimes I regret having moved so far away from home. The distance from Michigan to Florida is far enough to make it a major trip to visit home very often to be with family and friends. When you do get a chance to go back, you tend to visit everyone you can around home before you have to leave again. Those that have moved out of the immediate area, you can’t always get to see before you have to head back to the grind.

That was the way it was with one of my closest friends, Rob. His brother Dave and I go way back to the 9^th grade and we’ve been best friends ever since. Rob hung out with us riding dirt bikes and the three of us basically grew up together. I think I spent more time at their house than I did my own. They are my brothers.

We grew up and went into our separate lives though and I moved to Florida and Rob ended up in northern Michigan. We kept in touch by email and I got back to Michigan a few times but didn’t manage to get up to Manistee to see him. I think it was a year ago last September that it got to bugging me. It had just been too long since I had seen my buddy Rob. I hadn’t seen his boys since they were just little tykes. I was going to make a trip up to Michigan and I got in touch with Dave and told him we HAVE to drive up and see Rob while I’m there. I made the trip and we made the drive and it was like we had never been apart. We sat outside that evening by a campfire in his backyard and swapped stories and laughed like I hadn’t laughed since the last time the three of us were together. It was great.

Since that time, I have been more and more anxious to make the move to Tennessee. Other than the fact that I hate Florida, living in Tennessee will put me a short day’s drive from home and I will get back much more often to see my family and old friends a lot more. I was looking forward to getting together with Dave and Rob and going on some motorcycle rides again. That was the plan anyway…

Then on February 1^st, I got a call from Dave. He told me Rob had been killed in a car crash earlier that day. I felt like I had just been hit by a truck. The emotions wash over you… first the shock, then sadness, helplessness, frustration, anger, depression… It just doesn’t sink in at first. You think it can’t be true. Then slowly reality takes over and you realize that it’s forever. Death is final. You wish you could turn back the hands of time and do it over but it’s too late. Gone forever…

A death like this is just hard to take. You’re not ready. You never dream it could happen that suddenly. It’s so easy to take life for granted but then you realize that it can be over in the blink of an eye and happen when you least expect it.

When my Uncle died, he had just passed his 79^th birthday and had lived a pretty full life. He was being eaten up by cancer and death was a relief from the pain. I hated to lose him but at least he wasn’t hurting anymore. When Dad died, it was sudden and unexpected to a certain extent but he was 78 years old and he was facing Alzheimer’s disease. Being the kind of independent guy he was, it would have been living hell for him to have to go through the indignity of it. Death spared him from going through that.

With Rob’s death though, it’s not the same. He was plucked from life while he was still living it to its fullest. He should have had another half a lifetime to live. His boys should have had their Father for most of their lives. His wife should have been able to grow old with him. There is absolutely no good in his death. There is no justification. Just an empty hole in the ones whose lives he touched.

The odd thing is that it makes me feel like I want to live my life more. I hear the clock ticking. I want to do the things I’ve always wanted to do before I die because now I know how fleeting life really is. It can be taken away at any moment. I guess I should work on my own “bucket list”… I also want to spend as much time as I can with the family and friends that I have left. I want to cherish every moment. I want to go on adventures. I want to hop on a motorcycle and tour the country and go to the places I’ve always wanted to go. Then park the bike and fly to everywhere I couldn’t get to with the bike… Then the next moment I feel a little lost and I don’t really know what I want to do. There’s only one thing I know for sure.

I’ll miss my friend.