So this is how...

For the Undecided

For those who are undecided, who need a little nudge in the right direction, or even for those who somehow believe that Obama has been good for our nation:

From Townhall.com

Election Prediction

Popular Vote:  Romney wins by at least 2%, despite massive voter fraud and intimidation by the Democrats.*

Electoral College:  Romney receives 300+ electoral college votes.

Senate:  Republicans have 50 seats, with VP Ryan as the tie-breaking vote.

The real questions then will be how conservative Congress will actually be, whether they can hold moderate Romney's feet to the fire, and whether they repeal Obamacare as promised, or whether Romney decides to play nice (and foolish) and "replace" Obamacare by simply modifying it.  I'm praying for a one page bill introduced on day one that simply says, "the Affordable Care Act is hereby repealed."

In any case, I only expect that the Republicans in the next two years will put economic band-aids on the arterial bleed that is deficit spending, slowing the inevitable, but not  ultimately avoiding it.

Pray for our nation!  Pray for Romney to turn from Mormonism to faith in the real, Biblical Jesus.  Pray that Obama doesn't do too much more damage on his way out.  Pray!

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*  Yes, some Republicans also engage in voter fraud, but with the Democrats it's endemic and blatant in urban areas.

Obamanation

Click on the picture to go to McNaughton's for the interactive version.  There are over 60 links to news articles with facts about Obama's record as president.  The YouTube video, below, describes the artwork and the link.

Obama is beyond a failure as a president.  He has not earned re-election.  Vote Ryan-Romney.

Our Budget Ideas

Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) sent out an email today asking for "Your Budget Ideas." This is what I sent him, not that I am expecting him to listen.
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Senator Bennet,

Thank you for soliciting our comments on the budget. If you listen to them, we can stop the looming economic disaster. As you know, we are rapidly approaching the point where we will no longer even be able to pay the interest on the national debt. The President has submitted a budget, which, like most politicians seeking re-election, postpones the necessary pain of extreme cost-cutting until after the next election. Worse, rather than cutting the budget and reducing the deficit, he is continuing his runaway deficit spending. Yes, he inherited a budget deficit from his over-spending predecessor, but rather than bandage the wound and stop the bleeding, President Obama has cut even deeper and opened up an artery. In just his first two years, he took us farther in debt than all previous administrations combined! It took George Bush a full 8 years to accomplish the same task!

Government spending is out of control. It is time for courageous politicians to admit to the people that we are in serious trouble and make deep, painful cuts. Cut up the government credit card. No more debt! Eliminate unconstitutional programs and agencies. Seek and destroy government waste. End wasteful earmarks. The Republican promise of $100 billion in cuts is not even enough, when the President is planning another $1.38 TRILLION in deficit spending (and adding $7.2 TRILLION over 10 years). Please stop putting bandaids on arterial bleeding. Have the courage to make real, significant cuts, balance the budget, and start paying of the national debt.

If you don't, the next step is for the rest of the world to end the dollar's status as the world reserve currency, resulting in the collapse of the dollar and massive inflation. What was once whispered in dark corners of the Internet is now being reported on CNN and Fox News. We can't ignore the debt any longer. DO SOMETHING AND DO IT NOW! Please!

2010 Colorado GOP Primaries

The Colorado GOP primaries will be held August 10th, and I have decided to post my political decision making and generate some discussion. My goal is to post every few days with my thoughts on the individual races, then on or about August 8th, post my list for the election.

Some of the primary races are really turning nasty. The attack ads, political missteps, and tongue slips are getting pretty tiresome, and the GOP is fighting amongst themselves while squandering the best chance we have at stopping an out of control Federal Government. Some races are easy to decide, but others have been really hard, with me having to reconsider my early leanings due to the political nastiness and the diarrhea-of-the-mouth from some candidates.

My preference is for candidates who are small-government, tax cutting, fiscally conservative, morally conservative, liberty-minded people. I, like so many others, am tired of being hoodwinked by big-government Republicans (RINOs*) or candidates whose first priorities are lining their own pockets and doing whatever it takes to get re-elected. I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. I'm an old school conservative who leans Libertarian (but not all the way)**, and a Constitutionalist that believes in a limited Federal government, limited to providing a strong national defense, maintaining some semblance of order between the states and generally leaving me and my local government alone. I love the Lord Jesus, I love my family and I love my country, in that order. Government exists to serve the people and protect their lives, liberty and prosperity, not the other way around. I will not give up essential liberty to gain temporary security.

My main issues this year are:

Reversing Reckless Government Spending: The Federal Government is spending out of control, and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, on the verge of bankrupting the country. Colorado is doing a little better, but is addicted to handouts from the federal government. Locally, the Colorado Springs government still thinks it's their money, not that of the taxpayers.

Reversing Government Corporate Takeovers and Bailouts: They bought Fannie, Freddie, AIG, and Government Motors, and now passed a bill allowing the Fed to takeover any business they deem "too big to fail." We need free markets and competition, not government control of industry. That is Socialism. Capitalism works, Socialism fails. Read your history books (the unrevised ones...).

Government Accountability to the Voters: I don't want to silence special interest groups (I support some of them!), but I want my elected officials to answer primarily to the voters. I don't know how to do this, but I'm very tired of patronizing form letters from my Senators when I have serious, well-reasoned arguments against their positions. Term limits across the board!

Securing Our Borders: How many years has it been since 9/11/2001 and we still haven't built a fence on our southern border? Democrats think illegal immigration is a massive voter registration drive, while drug smugglers, human traffickers and terrorists come and go at will, and all the Federal Government can do is sue Arizona for taking steps to help enforce FEDERAL Law?

The Protection of Essential Liberties: Read the Bill of Rights. Freedom of religion, the right to keep and BEAR arms, protection from unreasonable search and seizure, government only has the powers given to it by the Constitution. Understand that those Amendments place limits on the Federal, local and state governments, and protect us from tyranny.

Repealing Obamacare: It is unconstitutional to force me to buy a product. I don't want the government or insurance companies in the room when I talk to my doctor. It's none of their freakin' business, and the health care free market will work much better without government interference.

There are no perfect candidates, but some are clearly better than others. I don't want to vote for one just because it's perceived that the other doesn't have a chance against the Democrats. It's time for conservatives to stand on principle and let the GOP know that we've had it with moderate, wishy-washy, politically correct candidates. I never want to have to hold my nose and vote for a John McCain again!

Stay tuned!

* RINOs - Republicans in Name Only, or Democrats in elephant's clothing. (So what do you call all the all-out Socialists running as Democrats?)

**Two issues keep me from becoming a full-fledged Libertarian. First, their isolationist foreign policies are horribly misguided in our global economy and dangerously naive about threats like Islamic extremism, drug cartels and organized crime, and old-style communist states. Second, as a Christian, I cannot adopt their Utopian "live and let live" philosophy on moral issues like abortion and legalizing dangerous drugs.

Happy Anniversary, Mr. President!

Just a quick post to wish our President a happy 1st anniversary of his inauguration. Mr. President, you came into power on promises of transparency, hope, change and a new vision for America. A year later, we are celebrating another victory - the victory of the people of Massachusetts. A Republican will sit in the unassailable Democratic Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy. Scott Brown has shown that We the People are angry. We are tired of your backroom deals (when you promised transparency), your divisive politics (when you promised bipartisanship), your wholesale destruction of the American economy (when you promised hope), and your gaggle of socialists and communists that you hoped would change this country.

Some of us saw through you from the beginning. Personally, I'm ecstatic that the rest of the country, who you fooled with smooth rhetoric and empty promises, is now seeing you for the charlatan you really are.

I fully expect you and your cronies in the House and Senate, (Pelosi and Reid) to continue to play dirty, one-party politics. I'm sure you're going to try to cram a socialist health care bill (that We the People, oppose, by the way) down our collective throats. I'm sure you're going to downplay this, but we are so looking forward to next November's mid term elections. Don't think our anger is going away. Right now your super-majority is down by one. By late next fall, it will no longer exist. In two more years, you just will be a footnote in history, recorded as a bigger failure than Jimmy Carter.

Happy anniversary, Mr. President. Election 2012 is coming!

Guilty

Guilty on all nine charges.

Mr. Senator, Are You Paying Attention?

Senators Udall and Bennett,

What part of "no public option" are you senators having trouble understanding? Have you forgotten the message you received loud and clear during your recess town hall meetings?

The "public option" on the current Senate version of the health care bill that Senator Reid is pushing is the first step to a socialized medicine nightmare in this country. There are many areas where we can compromise on health care legislation, but the public option is completely unacceptable. No. No! NO! NO PUBLIC OPTION!

Sincerely,

Jeff Odegard
Colorado Springs, CO

Sigh...

Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize, for ??? Not that the Nobel Prize has been worth anything since Yasir Arafat and Al Gore won it. What was once a prestigious award is now meaningless. It would be like giving me a Silver Star just for coming on active duty during the last month of the first gulf war.

On another note, Michael Blomberg, NYC Mayor opposed to the 2nd Amendment, released an investigative report about the so-called "gun show loophole," where several of his investigators broke the law themselves by purchasing guns after claiming that they could not pass a background check. Blomberg thinks we need a federal law to prevent this. However, it's already against the law to sell (even a private sale) a gun to someone who you believe could not pass a background check. How about enforcing the laws we already have?



At least we got some snow this weekend. The frost on the trees was absolutely beautiful this morning!

Please Vote NO on Cass Sunstein

Senators Udall & Bennett,

As you know, Cass Sunstein has been nominated by President Obama to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. I vehemently oppose his nomination and hope that you will agree with me that he holds radical views that are out of step with common Colorado values.

In a 2007 speech at Harvard University, Professor Sunstein said that he wants to ban hunting, and he intends to do it by regulating it out of existence. He is also strongly supports increased gun control, and downplays the 2nd Amendment. Colorado citizens view the rights to bear arms and to hunt as sacred, and modern wildlife management (including hunting) has given us some of the healthiest wildlife populations in history. We need to enforce current gun regulations and remote those that clearly have no effect on violent crime, not create more.

In a 2007 speech at Harvard, he put animal suffering on the same moral scale as human genocide and slavery. On page 11 of "Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions" (2004), he made the bizarre statement that animals could bring lawsuits against people. This could have devastating effects on farming and ranching in Colorado. Grocery prices are high enough without new, insane government regulations giving Bessie the Milk Cow human rights.

In his 2008 book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” he says that he wants to change organ donation from opt-in to opt-out, which would make the very personal, private choice about organ donation almost no choice at all. Colorado values freedom and personal liberty.

Sincerely,

Jeff Odegard
Colorado Springs

Meaningful Independence Day

Hope you had a meaningful Independence Day. May God bless the USA according to His grace and not as we deserve.

I wore a teabag on my hat at the parade and street fair in Monument, CO today. Guess that means I'm officially a "bitter clinger," Taxed Enough Already, gone public.

An American Tragedy

While many celebrate tonight in Chicago's Hyde Park and around the country, some of us mourn. We mourn the coming loss of liberty. We mourn the coming loss of morality. We mourn the coming loss of prosperity.

Bitterly clinging to my guns and religion for four more years, until change for the better.

Obama Doesn't Tolerate Dissent

Once again, Obama punishes reporters who dare to disagree with him. It's really too bad the mainstream media is so infatuated with him, or he probably wouldn't have made it out of the primaries.

Hey Obama Supporters - Economics 101

Obama the Socialist

This was a headline on FoxNews.com a couple days ago, with a quote from Barack Hussein Obama's memoir Dreams from my Father. First we have his "spread the wealth" quote with Joe the Plumber. Next we have him in saying in a 2001 interview that he was disappointed that the Supreme Court did not do more to overcome the limitations the US Constitution placed on the state and federal governments. Listen to the actual radio interview in its full context in the YouTube clip below. (Of course, the Obama campaign's response is that this is a "manufactured issue.")



I've said it before, I'll say it again: Barack Hussein Obama is a socialist, a Marxist of the first order. He doesn't like the fact that the Constitution places limits on the State and Federal Governments.

To give you an idea of some of the issues that top his legislative agenda for his presidency, here are some of the bigger laws that he wants to see pass (and with a Democratic super-majority in the House and Senate, the rest of us won't have a choice):

Freedom of Choice Act: FOCA will repeal most of the pro-life laws, including parental notification and the ban on partial birth abortion. Apparently 46 million children slaughtered in the name of choice is not enough. (Obama voted 4 times against the Infant Born Alive Protection Act in the Illinois Senate.)

Hate Crimes Legislation: So much for freedom of speech. Under Obama it will become illegal to voice the opinion that homosexuality is an unhealthy, unbiblical lifestyle. Preaching the seven passages in the Bible that condemn homosexuality could be construed as "inciting violence against a minority."

Fairness Doctrine: Liberals cannot compete in the marketplace of ideas, and with the now openly liberal mainstream networks, the Democrats are planning on bringing back the "fairness doctrine" which will require stations to run "balanced" coverage of the issues. Unfortunately, their definition of balanced and ours are incredibly different. They think Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann are centrist... This would require our favorite radio stations to put a liberal on the air with equal time with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the like. So much for freedom of speech, again.

Comprehensive Sex Education: Want your 5 year old Kindergartener learning about the birds and the bees? Forget about any balanced discussions of abstinence versus "safe" sex - this will turn sex education from K-12 over to Planned Parenthood, who by the way, makes money when a pregnant teenager comes to them for an abortion. What a marketing tool for them! What a disaster for our children!

Gun Control Legislation: As a State Senator, Obama voted 4 times to reduce the rights of law-abiding citizens to use guns to defend themselves. He opposed semi-automatic shotguns and pistols, and wanted to ban rifle hunting ammunition because it is "armor piercing." Biden says Obama won't take our guns away, but looking at his record, it's really hard to believe otherwise. He even suggested that the police should be allowed to go door to door to search for and confiscate "illegal" weapons. So much for the 4th amendment.

So much for the 1st, 2nd, and 4th amendments. Since he has so little regard for the rest of the Constitution, I won't be surprised when he starts trashing the rest of it too.